“Pastor, I can’t really say I’ve achieved anything worthwhile since January, even though I’ve kept the faith. Now it’s October, what do I do?”

I totally understand how this must feel for you, but perhaps the scriptures I’m about to share will encourage you to keep pushing in faith:

SCRIPTURE 1:

Galatians 6:
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

So clearly there’s a dew season for all our spiritual investments. In God’s law, whatsoever a man sows, he shall reap. Sometimes this dew season may be almost immediate, and some other times you may need to travel for 40 years on a journey that should only last 40 days. Your dew season borders on the journey of faith and trust that God is taking you through.

I often hear believers say things like, “I was believing God for… But…”. That’s a clear indication that they don’t understand what it means to believe God for something. Hebrews 10:35-36 says, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise”. This means that under no circumstance should you stop having faith in God regarding that which you are asking from him, and although it may not come exactly as you requested at first, but your faith will be compensated with something that will initiate the manifestation of that which you requested.

Lets assume you asked God to give you a good wife, and the very next thing that happens is that they sacked you from your place of employment. Someone else may start complaining, unknowing to him that it was the prayer he prayed that initiated that process. Perhaps God has checked you and realized that as long as you have your job, you’re never going to consider the poor young lady that lives in the next street. Meanwhile, that lady is capable of making a good wife.

You’re probably wondering why God couldn’t just tell you to marry the lady instead of taking your job, right? Well, sometimes, God doesn’t tell us what to do, He trains and restrains us so that we can know what to do. Human beings are naturally stubborn, that’s why one of the most effective ways to transmit knowledge to man is by experience. A man hardly forgets the things he learnt by experience. Now you understand why the journey to Canaan took 40 years instead of 40 days.

It couldn’t have been a coincidence that you lost your job just after you prayed for a good wife. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that your boss suddenly hates you after you prayed to God to give you your own business. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that your child is sick after you prayed for the healing anointing.

There are some requests we make to God that comes with a curriculum that needs to be completed. Verse 36 of that scripture says, “we have need of patience, after we have done the will of God, we might receive the promise”. You may have prayed to God to give you a house of your own, and even though He’d love to give you a house immediately, you probably don’t have enough experience to be a landlord. So, He may suddenly harden the heart of your landlord such that every day would become a living hell for you. The purpose of that isn’t so that you can hate your landlord, but to learn how tenants will feel when you maltreat them.

I once worked with a pastor who suddenly became very mean to me after two years of working with him. I couldn’t make sense of the sudden change until this revelation came. As a matter of fact, forgiving him would have been a difficult task if it wasn’t for this revelation. God can harden the heart of anybody, including a pastor, just so that His will for you can be completed. My time was up in that organization, but I didn’t know. Now that I think about it, there was no way I was going to know because that pastor was like a father to me. Believe me, some people are too comfortable to receive the answers they seek, God would first cause some level of discomfort before He delivers their answer.

I stopped working with that pastor in September 2016 and stayed jobless till January 2017. I needed a business or a job desperately, so I engaged in a 21-day fast that January just so I could gain direction on the exact thing to do. Among my prayers was that God should establish me so that I could emerge a blessing to my world. In May 2017, a company I never applied to for a job offered me a job with a salary of forty five thousand Naira. As an IT Expert, that offer was way below my pay grade, and it clearly didn’t look like the prosperity I asked God for. I got another offer the same day and they were going to pay close to 150 thousand Naira. Since I had prayed to God to prosper me, I didn’t want to lean on my own understanding, so I asked Him which of the jobs I should take. To my amazement, He told me to stay in the 45 thousand Naira job.

Again, it didn’t look like the prosperity I asked for, but what I didn’t know was that the job was a compensation for having faith in God for my prosperity. He couldn’t release the prosperity I asked for immediately, probably because it would affect my relationship with Him at that time, so He sent me to a place where He’d prepare me for the blessing I asked for. The organization isn’t even a Christian organization, but it was a platform for me to express the gifts He had put in me. It’s been about seven years now, and I’m amazed how that God has answered every single prayer I prayed in January 2017.

Beware of complaining, it complicates things for you. The journey to Canaan from Egypt was supposed to be 40 days, but complain and lack of trust in God escalated it to 40 years. Always remember that as long as you love God, all things will work together for your good, not for your peril. Jacob had just been blessed by his father, but he had to go endure hardness in Laban’s house. Think of Joseph, Daniel, Moses, Abraham, and many others. There’d often be a season of preparation before you can receive that which you desired. You just need to be sensitive enough to discern what the Lord is doing. If He decides to start with a seed, then rejoice, because it’s only a matter of time before the full harvest comes.

SCRIPTURE 2:

Gen 8:
5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

We all remember the story of Noah and how he was in the ark with his people for so long. Though he was not lacking so much, but he could not accomplish great things either. The water that covered the land also covered the mountains, such that nothing much could be achieved for nine months. But then, that scripture tells us that “the top of the mountains were seen on the first day of the tenth month”.

Perhaps there are certain things you should have achieved within the last nine months, but God covered them so that the devil will not steal them from you. The good news is, God has now removed the cover, and you’d begin to see greater results from this month.

If you’re about to ask me how I’m so sure that this scripture applies to you, then you probably haven’t read 2 Peter 1:19, it says, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts”. That’s right! God’s word is prophetic, and everything you find in it can be applicable to you if you believe it.

Obviously, the reason why God put them in a ark for a long time was to keep them safe and prepare them for the glory ahead. He could have easily dried up the water in one minute, but He did not. God did not want them to be corrupted by the corruption of others.

So it might truly appear like you suffered for the last nine months, but I would not call that suffering, but covering; God kept you safely for nine months so that you can do exploits in this tenth month. That’s a good news!

Rejoice therefore, because things would no longer be the same for you.

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

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