“Pastor, alot is happening these days, inflation has led to bad reports on every side. It’s really putting fear in my heart. What do I do to deal with this?”

While you may not be able to control what people say to you, you can actually do something about how you hear what people say to you.

Just last week Friday, I wanted to talk to a few colleagues about faith without exactly having something to say😂. Have you ever been in a situation where although you want to talk to a person, but you don’t have any premeditated speech. I’m not talking about evangelism, this is just you having a nudging to charge someone but not knowing exactly what to say.

For me, it’s a normal practice, I’m not sure if it feels the same for every teacher, but I always want to charge people by the Word of God, whether I have a premeditated message or not. Once I see you, and I sense you need a word, I’d start talking to you until I make sense😂. At the end of the conversation, the feedbacks would be like, “God just spoke to me through you”, “You’re truly a man of God”, “I was just asking God about what you just shared with me”, “How did you know what has been on my mind?”, some of them just get sober as though they’ve been whipped. It’s always a beautiful experience

So, as I approached them to charge them without a premeditated message, I suddenly said “Faith comes by hearing and hearing…”, then they responded “the word of God”. That’s were the charge began. It suddenly occurred to me for the first time that we’ve been missing the revelation in that scripture because we’ve been missing a very vital word, which is “by”. Let’s read that scripture:

Romans 10:
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Did you see that? Faith comes by “hearing by the word of God”. Immediately they said the word of God, I told them they missed a word, as though I have known it for a while, then I told them to open the bible to read exactly what was written. As soon as they read it, I began to blast in new tongues. The revelation was so thick that I began to hit them physically😂.

So back to where I started from; while you may not be able to control what people say to you, you can actually do something about how you hear what people say to you. People say all kinds of things to us, and even if you’re only surrounded with people who have faith, you can’t control the news, your clients and even business partners. Someone would definitely say something that will influence your faith meter.

Yes, faith meter! You already know that the just shall live by his faith. If what you hear all day are good news, then chances are that your faith meter will remain full. But if you keep hearing bad or negative news, then your faith meter will reduce little by little. The more the negative report, the more your faith reduces, until there’s no more faith to live on. This is why you’d find a man who left his house full of faith in the morning only to return home at night completely drained. While you may think it’s the work that got him tired, it’s actually the lack of faith, a man who is full of faith doesn’t get drained by work. One of the attributes of faith is joy unspeakable, and a man that has joy has unmatcheable strenght for any task ahead.

Let me talk to leaders and bosses for a moment, give your employees and subordinates joy. If you want them to give you their best each day, give them joy daily. Or better yet, let there be something joyful they’re looking forward to. It’s not a coincidence that Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame because of the joy that was set before him. Do your employees see joy ahead? Do you share the vision of the organization with them? Even down to the domestic staffs?

When I say give your employees joy, I don’t mean increasing their salaries. Ofcourse, that’s good, but that would only bring momentary joy. What I mean is that you should help them see a future with you and the company. If they can’t see a future with you, they’d definitely have their eyes somewhere else. And as long as their eyes is not single, they can’t give you the energy your company needs to thrive.

How did I even get there? Ehn ehn, I was talking about how to hear the negative reports people say, whether they’re saying it directly to you or it’s coming as a general news. That scripture says, “Faith comes by hearing… By the Word of God”. In other words, hear the negative reports by the word of God.

So the next time someone says “Everybody will suffer because of the inflation of food prices”, what you should hear is “Although there’s inflation in the land, but the effect of the inflation shall not come near me. Because a thousand shall fall at my side and ten thousand by my right side, but none shall come near me”. That would instantly land faith in your heart instead of the fear that was spoken. Don’t allow negative reports settle in your ear, always say what you want to settle in it. If you don’t actively intercept words, fear will land in your heart after those words successfully passes through your ear.

People can say how they feel, but if how they feel will put fear in your heart, then ensure you intercept what they said to what God’s Word says. Just incase you don’t want to appear rude to the person, you can intercept it in such a way that also covers the person. Who wouldn’t want to agree with positivity?

So when you hear that your business might experience downtime, intercept it quickly. “No, my gates shall be opened continually, and my light will never go out because God will be my everlasting light”. You’d definitely feel faith when you hear this type of words. The challenge many times is that we allow the wrong word to settle in our heart, instead of intercepting it before it lands in our hearing.

So this week, if what people say would put fear in your heart, please don’t hesitate to intercept it so that you can maintain your faith meter.

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

Bishop David Oyedepo’s 70th birthday is less than two weeks to go. September 27 will be loaded. Who’s ready to celebrate?

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