Shift that gear!

If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare and service I will wait, till my change and release shall come. (Job14:14 AMP) When I was in the secondary school, my Bible Knowledge teacher was such an interesting man. He then had a Peugeot 404; this man was an austere and queer type. Our observation while in school was that his car never exceeded a certain speed. As students then, we put it to text to overrun the car and we did. We also observed that the car was used to making a loud humming sound as it moves. Over time it was discovered that the noise of the car was not because it had fault, but because this man refused to change the gear. For whatever reason, as long as he used the car like that, the car will definitely wear out faster. What that means is that being economic with the gear of the car does not make it last, rather it destroys it. A car s gear is meant to be changed as the speed increases, failure to change it impacts negatively on the car. I read it somewhere that before you are qualified to own a private Jet, you must consistently cover a certain thousands of mile per year. That means the Jet can never be bought for fancy, it will wear out for lack of use. Same goes for some performance cars; they can actually give you more problems for want of use rather than over use. Whenever you drive a car with manual gear, and you are accelerating, once humming noise increases, the car is actually telling you, shift that gear else you will be consuming more fuel while at the same time, wear out its engine. For those of us who wish to own a performance car, parking and covering it up to be admired means you are killing it ignorantly. On this premise is our message this day. From our base scripture, we all know we only have a life to live. Death is the end of an era, so all of our expectations and plans are limited to the time we are alive. Since you don t have another life to live, you must endeavor to live life to its fullest in the here and now. What I am saying is that, even though hope is futuristic it still has a time frame. A man for example hoping to be healed remains only in hope as long as he is alive, but once he dies so does his hope. Hence the big question, if a man dies, shall he live again? What the scripture is saying is that we must keep our focus of expectation within the frame of life, it also shows that hope is much more than what we call siddon look! in the pidgin lingo. Ladies and gentlemen, we only have a life to live and it is in the midst of this one life that lies all of God s promises and intent for us. Everything that He wants to do for and in your life and mine is within this frame of life. That is why Job said, all the days of my appointed time . All the days of my existence, according to the Amplified version, all the days of my warfare and service . That mean within the time of my life; through the thick and the thin, through the high and the low, through the joy and the sorrow. As long as I am alive I expect the promises of

God to be manifest. As long as I am alive I believe for a better tomorrow, I believe things can and will improve, I believe it is possible for me to get the best of God, I believe I can be all that God said I will be. Hallelujah! What that means is that for you child of God, time is not your enemy, rather it is your friend, time works for you and not against you, time brightens you up, it does not let you down. You view yourself and your expectation within the framework of existence, so when you wake up every morning you are invigorated by the conviction that something good, something better, promotion, healing, open doors, increase and all great expectations are possible for you today because it is within the time of your existence. The sign of life is a sign of hope, hope of greater and better things, and hope of the manifestations of your expectations. Every new day is a day of hope for positive change. .till my change and release shall come. The picture I want you to build in your heart and mind child of God is that according to the Bible, there is nothing like delay in that sense, rather there is greater expectation. You are only encouraged to live through the not so good times when you have an outlook of a better tomorrow, and I am saying that is the way the scripture enjoins us to wait. As the scripture say, hope deferred (postponed) makes the heart sick . (Prov13:12 emphases added) In other words, as long as you live everyday feeling disappointed by the issues of life, or because things you expected are not manifested or you think it is taking too long, you will forever be a forlorn being living a despondent life. Your heart will be sick, which means your believe will wane, since it is with the same heart you are supposed to believe with. Your hope or hopelessness ultimately affects your faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for , do you remember? So for as long as your hope is prolonged, your faith is hinged on nothing, therefore, you have a sick heart. Your heart is sick because it is not doing what it is supposed to, believe! The later part of that scripture then said .but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. You may think this desire refers to just when your expectations manifest, but that is not what the scripture totally expressed. Your desire is your delight, that which you long for and it also means wish. Now, as believers, we only have faith for our wish (desire). Let me explain better. Mark11:24 say whatsoever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them. It means here that as long as your wish has been turned to prayer and you believed, it is a done deal. Now, back to Prov13:12b when desire cometh . Desire comes when you have turned it to prayer and you believed. That is, you wake up every morning assured that you have received that which you desired even when you have not seen. By so doing you receive the tree of life, because you wake up every day, with certainty not uncertainty, you wake up every day positively because you are sure of your change, you wake up every morning knowing full well that it is done. That s why the scripture say we are in the world and not of it; because our

outlook towards life is different therefore our expectation differs. While others (the unlearned) pity us over issues because they think time is not on our side, we live everyday rejoicing that with God still on our side and because we are still alive, change is still possible and inevitable. Amen! I have gone to this length to let you know that great things can still happen for you, that God have not forgotten nor forsaken you, that time is not against you, that you are still on course and that your change is still possible however hopeless things might look. But you must keep your hope in God alive, for it is your guarantee. While you remain in hope and faith, I want you to consider these important points: Keep feeding your dreams (hope) before they die: Every dream is a seed waiting to be planted. And all that a seed has is the potentiality to becoming a fruit, but until a seed is sown, it may die with its potentials. So in order to keep hope alive, you must do something about it. Keep giving voice to your dreams, rehearse it, plan it and see it. Refuse to allow time give you reason to falter or reduce your enthusiasm. Face the facts of life with faith: The truth of the matter is that everything may not always look good. The fact of life also is that because you have prayed does not mean everything will start gelling immediately, yet as a believer, you must realize that we do not live by what we see physically alone, but we live by faith in God and His promises, His word and what we believed Him for, so for you not to be discouraged even when it seems time is leaving you behind, you must be able to address the fact of the situation by your faith. Let your faith override the facts. For a fact if you don t have money in your pocket, you are broke, but by faith you can be bold to say the Lord supplies my need, I am abundantly provided for, and I am not in lack. I have been young now I am old, I have never seen the righteous that I am forsaken nor my seed beg bread. You can believe in the God that makes way when there is none despite the many obstacles of man knows man around you. Face the facts before you with your faith! Face the failures with hope for change: Another truth is that in the course of waiting for change, some things may just not work right the first time, but just because they did not work right today does not mean it is the end. Refuse to let down, let yourself know that you may be down, but you are not out. That it did not work today does not mean it is failed, that you failed in an endeavor today does not make you a failure. Believe that your change is still inevitable. Hold on to that rope of change and be undaunted by the temporary setback called Failure. Finally, face the future with determination: That is the meaning of hope; an expectation for positive change. Refuse to allow time, your environment, popular opinion, expert opinion, people s opinion and testimonies change what you believe. Be too resolved and determined that within this life, your change is inevitable. When you fall get up again, refuse to give up until

you get to the finish line. Braise yourself up, encourage yourself in the Lord your God, be full of praise and thanksgiving to Him, let your focus remain on the Lord who never fails be determined to be the living proof of God s goodness and mercy. Glory! In your waiting, you must realize that change takes time. There is always time between when you say amen and the manifestation of the promise. What God promised you is that you will receive when you believe, not that it will happen immediately. You must know also that change requires pressure, personal challenges and positive choice. Therefore, you must keep applying faith pressure on your expectations, you must challenge yourself to keep the flag of your hope flying and be ready to make the right choices, because you are what you decide and the choices you make will either make or mar your hopes. You must also be willing and responsive. In God s workings, you can never rule out timing. In the time of life, there is always a specific time of God s action, so you must not only be willing to make things work you must also respond to the demand of the times. Finally, you cannot afford to forget that the manifestation of the hope is accompanied by the Holy Spirit at work in your life. So be sensitive to His leading, open the ears of your heart to know what the spirit is saying, because in the long run it is He who will be able to tell you the next gear you should change your throttle to. So, rather than for you to be discouraged about the issues of life, realize that what time demand of you is a shift in gear of your expectation. No matter where you are right now, I want to challenge you to shift that gear to greater expectations for greater manifestation!