FAITH AND I

FAITH AND I

One thing about writing these articles is that I’m really describing my heart’s convictions as I stride in the garden of life, it is like a walk in a park. One observes and mentally notes some things, some are noted as irrelevant and others subjects of great interest, I commit them to paper with the hope that someone might benefit from the thoughts of a young man. Below are my fresh thoughts on the subject of Faith.

1.       Faith is not Christian, neither is it Hebrew

2.       It comes by hearing the word of God and God speaks to heathens too

3.       Faith is a visible posture, attitude or action brought about by one’s belief in God’s word in his or her heart (the invisible).

Rahab the Harlot, the widow of Zeraphath, The centurion of Great faith and the woman from Canaan who asked for the crumbs from the master’s table were all recorded to have been people of immense faith. They all were however not partakers of the commonwealth of Israel.

The Bill Gates of this world and the Zuckerbergs of our time did what many of us in Africa have refused to do; they believed the testimony of their hearts (most of us will never hear the thunder of God’s voice but every day we hear His inward witness). Another misfortune is that we are quick to limit these witnesses to “spiritual” realities. I’ve found God’s directions to be amply variegated, especially in enterprise development and innovation; He is the source of immense innovation. (He is the eternal novelty).

The word Of God is not limited to the written scriptures, it includes the voice that told Paul that a certain man was ready to be healed (Acts 14:9); He saw the man’s faith! Really the Word of God often comes as pictures in our hearts, like knowings in the spirit (see my last note on “The Conscience, the Mind and the Arena”. There are 4 postures to this word:

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER: SEASON 8 OF LUKE THE PHYSICIANS TALE

1.       Lack of understanding (ep¹ 12): wayside word, because it wasn’t mixed with Faith²

2.       Lack of depth (ep¹ 13): it takes a strong conviction to go with the word and a major source of low-level conviction is low level personal mental dedication to the truths/value of God’s word. it takes independence of will to follow God’s word (break ties).

3.       Cares of these word/deceitfulness of riches (ep¹ 14): “what shall I eat?”, “I don’t have the means”, Inability to defer gratifications. Note that the thorns were there before the word came.

4.       A noble, good and patient heart (ep¹ 15): The good soil. The Word has a way of requiring patience and a kingly mannerism. Strife will not achieve it.

THE TREASURE AND THE GATE

In His letter, Mr. Peter Simon the ex small scale fishing entrepreneur called the Word; “exceedingly great and precious promises”³ . Bill Gates thought them precious enough to leave Harvard. If it is a treasure then the Heart needs a lock! Guarding the heart is our greatest challenge as our world is pretty noisy. It is easy to fill it up with irrelevant issues and miss the treasure. In the Kingdom the ministry of internal affairs is the greatest ministry. Learn to study silence (of the heart and mind).

PROCESSING THE WORD

The seed is not fast food! Its speed is very variable, it is a function of the nature of the seed and the condition of the soil. However it will change you, it certainly changed me and a lot of other folks.

1.       It will make you a stranger⁴, please stay that way.

2.       It makes God’s people priests and Kings⁵

In everything I do, I’m beginning to learn not to believe the system and I urge you not to do the same. Don’t be quick to line up with general consensus on any issue and please don’t believe the lie about Africa and Nigeria (Madiba didn’t), don’t believe the business models (it is failing and W.Buffet didn’t either). You can even be skeptical about our educational system (R. Kiyosaki has changed that forever), judge everything by the Word and the judge the Word in your spirit by the written one for they must cohere.

“Now, the parable is this, The seed is the Word of God.” Luke 8:11

Thanks

Okwonna Nelson

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com

¹ episode, ²Hebrew 4:2, ³2^nd Peter 1:4, ⁴ Hebrews 11:13, ⁵ Rev 1:6, 1Peter 2:9.

THE CONSCIENCE, THE MIND AND THE INNOVATION ARENA

“We hold these truths to be self-evident……………………….” Thomas Jefferson in the United States declaration of Independence

When Thomas Jefferson made the above statement, America and indeed the greater part of the world were ushered into a dimension of living based on the mental awareness and agreement with an unwritten code of ethics based solely on a man’s conscience.

“………….we hold these “truths” to be self-evident,” Many years down the line, some new generation of Americans have unwittingly disagreed on the existence of “truths” (the concept of “no absolute truth” which has given birth to the pleasure-without-limits scenes and lyrics we get in the media) not to mention that they are self-evident.

I would like to explore a little on the distance between “truth” and “The Mind”, Obviously by Thomas Jefferson thinking some things are just the right thing to do (conscience) and his mind agreed with it (self-evident). When we talk of evidence, we imply reason (the mind). The declaration of Independence and the self-evidencing truths proclaimed therein for centuries created a moral framework for life in America as it brought God to the equation (“…………….endowed by the creator to certain inalienable rights”). Thus with regard to morals, individuals can mentally assent to and appreciate certain virtues simply because they are right (a qualitative term qualified by the conscience).

Note that “we” hold it to be self-evident, truths are not self evident by themselves till we hold it!

NOT LIMITED BUT INEXTRICABLY LINKED

However it is not only morals that are self-evident, to appreciate this I would like to emphasize that there is an interval between a man’s awareness of truth (conscience) and the period it becomes self evident. Today it is a self-evident truth that metals can fly in the air faster than the speed of sound, but at a certain time it existed as“awareness” in the mind of the Wright brothers and some other folks. Microsoft is an evidenced truth which initially was just an “awareness” till someone evidenced it. I know that innovations comes first as an “awareness” akin to moral awareness of truth without rational or scientific backing, the individual interacts with this “awareness” of which he is inept at explaining but convinced none the less. That interval is the arena of faith.

To mentally conceptualize and bring about a practical demonstration of a man’s awareness, his mind must be involved. For centuries America demonstrated that the moral values embedded in the “self-evidencing truths” can make a nation great. Businesses were built based on those truths and before our very eyes we are seeing the destruction that has arisen because those truths have begun to appear “non-evident”.

I must say then that the conscience is not limited to morals alone but also includes innovation and both can be brought to practical demonstration in a mind that has retained the knowledge of God without which the truths would be hard to evidence!

AFRICA

In Africa, as the Agent of Change intercedes for a Nation’s plight in prayers. He or She invariably would become exposed to certain “awareness of truth”, by this I mean of certain things which have to be and are right. My responsibility and our leader’s failings are to evidence these truths, a failing largely due to the inability to retain God in a man’s knowledge.

The reason why we are yet to eradicate HIV/AIDS and Malaria is simply because we are expecting folks who have lost the essential ingredient to produce the results. Note that one can exercise faith without knowing God (this has been the domain of science) but then the ones that has a claim on God ought to bring about more practical demonstration of his faith.

In conclusion, as we become “aware” (conscience not limited to morals) of certain things that ought to be, let us not separate the mind from it. The question “How shall these things be” in my own opinion is one of the most scientific questions and it was made by Mary the mother of Jesus, she got an answer that a mind could relate to and you and I today provide evidence to her awareness and response.

“…………..now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith”

Nigeria, Africa is waiting for you to make certain truths self-evident.

Thanks

Okwonna Nelson

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com