You don't have to be a Prophet to see the greatness and influence some individuals will command in the future. Sometimes, you just have to look at their values, attitude, and priorities to know where they are heading to with their lives.
I don't usually share my personal experiences and encounters with people on Facebook, but I felt I should share this one. Peradventure, someone may learn from it. Yesterday, one of my youth followers on Facebook, who lives in Abidjan the capital city of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) ordered for ten of my books and paid for them. Well, you may think it is that easy for a young person in Sub-Sahara Africa to ignore other things to invest in books, but it isn't the culture in most parts of the world.
There is an adage that goes thus, "If you want to hide something from some individuals, put it in a book." Why? They won't open it even after a year or more. Some years back, I thought it was an African cultural problem until I traveled to the United States.
You can have affluence without influence, but you can't have influence without attracting affluence. What's the difference? When it comes to affluence, all you need is money, but when it comes to influence, you need something upstairs. Influential people defer from one another in different ways, but there is one thing common about them, they invest in building themselves via personal studies and research from various sources.
Leave a person in the desert with books and come back after some few years, he will transform the desert into a destination for many people.
PONDER!
-You can't eat death and give life.
-You can't eat your future and have one.
- An empty head is a heavy load to the neck.
-An empty spirit can't sustain a person in the days of adversity.
-Where a person's treasure is that is where his or her heart will be.
Knowledge is not transferred genetically or by anointing someone with oil or bathing with so-called blessed soap or staying all night with a lighted prayer candle, etc. Knowledge is acquired through the art of learning and learners are readers. They invest in books!
Some years ago, my school mates were looking at me funny for investing the little pocket allowance given to me for food and other things for books and correspondence programs. Today, they don't look at me funny anymore. I'm inspiring, mentoring, preparing, activating, challenging and transforming lives in more than 50 countries of the world. Some of the people I am impacting, we have never met, but they are taking their inferences from me. That is the 21st-century definition of being influential.
The scripture says, " Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." 2 Peter 1:2. Grace answers to the knowledge of Christ. Not by carrying the earth in the premise of a church building for superficial religious practices at home.
I have read more than 1000 books and followed more than 500 distinguished personalities in the world to learn from them. And, I have not started, the journey is ongoing.
It is time to reevaluate your priorities, attitude, and values. If you refuse to learn, you can't escape the victimization prayers collectors are facing these days in the hands of false prophets the world over. It is time to wake-up.
In conclusion, interestingly, this young man who ordered for these books is not a citizen of Ivory Coast, but a Nigerian living in Abidjan. Can someone celebrate Nigerians for me! I would have been surprised if he was an Ivorian citizen. Why? There is something about the cultural values of French Africans that only God can cure. Greatness is not a function of size, but sight. And, sight is a product of quality knowledge. Read! Learn! DrBenard Etta
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