Principles That will Distinguish A Young Person In Life-Part 1

Few years ago, I discovered some things I wish I knew when I was much younger. I am going to share few of those things here. I have discovered that everyone of us has the seed of greatness but not everyone of us will manifest that greatness. Greatness is not a default setting. Greatness is not just about confessing it. Greatness is dormant in all of us but needs activation by engaging some principles. These principles are probably what you have heard countless times. But I pray you receive Understanding in the name of Jesus and begin to see these principles differently and engage them in your life. It is not my intention to make this blog lengthy so I will have to break into two parts. This is the first part of this post and I will only share two principles here.  The second part will come later where I will also share the other two remaining principles. Please note that these principles work for everyone. It works for the Old and the young, but I am particularly interested in young people. So, feel free to read along even if you are not a young person.

The first principle is what I call...WISDOM!

1. WISDOM: 

Wisdom is truly the Principal thing. It is the main thing. It is the prerequisite of every endeavor. Even God himself created and established the world by His wisdom. Any House (Person, family, school, church, business, investment.) will be built by wisdom. Wisdom is the foundation for anything you do in life. Wisdom makes your life sweet (Eccl 8:1). It adds flavor to your life. If you have an option to choose between wisdom and gold, choose wisdom.

What is wisdom? Some say it is the right application of knowledge. While that is true, wisdom is more than that.

Wisdom is knowing something others don’t know. It is access to deep truths, mysteries and secret. If you know something that others don’t know, you will not struggle like others struggle. Wisdom means seeing with discernment. It is knowing the interpretation of things (Eccl 8:1,5b,6a).

 The spirit of wisdom is the spirit of revelation. Wisdom is discerning the will of God for a situation and staying therein.

You see if you don’t listen and heed the wisdom of God, you are bound to struggle and suffer in life. Your life will be full of regrets. Some of the things you are suffering from today is as a result of an instruction you ignored or didn't heed to. It was the wisdom of God that instructed Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. Man disobeyed, and it became the beginning of man’s sorrow.

The mystery of favor in marriage is wisdom.  The bible says in Proverbs 18:22, He who finds a wife, finds a good thing and obtains favor from the lord. It is not just in finding a wife or getting married that activates favor. Haven't you seen those who got married and their life became worse? It is also the operation of wisdom in your marriage that activates favor. Proverbs 24:3-4 says, through wisdom, a house is built and by understanding it is established, by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. No matter how strong, how wealthy you are, it is the wisdom of a woman that will make your house a home. Proverbs 14: 1(Good news translation), Homes are made by the wisdom of women, but destroyed by foolishness. It was the wisdom of Abigail that saved king David from shedding innocent blood. Why do you think Pontius Pilate washed his hands off in Matt 27:24? Because of his wife’s suggestion in verse 29

Wisdom is an advantage for success. Go for wisdom. Pursue it, pray it, diligently seek for wisdom like you seek for treasure.  Do you want favor? Are you praying for favor? Go for wisdom. Favor is a product of wisdom. Increase in wisdom equals increase in favor (Luke 2:40, 52).

Prov 3:35a GNT says Wise people will gain an honorable reputation. It was wisdom that distinguished Daniel, Joseph, and Esther in their generation. If you want to be distinguished in this generation, you must possess WISDOM.  I don't have much space to begin to detail it out but hopefully I will write on Wisdom alone as a blogpost.

The second principle is what I call The principle of Diligence/Discipline.

2. DILIGENCE/DISCIPLINE: 

This is also the principle of hard work! I do not want to separate diligence and discipline because to be diligent is to be disciplined. Discipline in anything will lead you to diligence in that area. If you disciplined as a student, you go to class early, you study ahead of time, and take notes and do your assignments, then you can be described as a diligent student. As a young person you must learn how to interpret the times and the seasons of your life. Understanding the seasons/time of your life will help you behave appropriately. The bible said men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel ought to do (1chron 12:32). The youthful stage is a critical stage. It is the summer of your life or the morning of your life. If you are not serious right now as a young person, if you are too lazy to do your work in the morning of your life, you will be found doing it in the evening of your life. As a young person your greatest asset is your time. Maximize and use it appropriately. I learned this principle of living from Oyedepo David (Jnr). It is the principle of counting your days or living by deduction. How many years do you want to live on earth? Subtract your current age from it. For example, if you are 25 today, subtract 25 from 100 and it will give you 75. So, you have 75 years to go. Every day depletes that number. Counting your days gives you a sense of urgency. It helps you value your time. The bible says to go to the ant O sluggard and consider her ways and be wise in proverbs 6:6-11. As insignificant as an ant is, with none to direct her, she prepares her bread in the summer. She toils in the heat of summer, working night and day while the season lasts. So diligent is it in laying up its stores at the proper opportunity. You must understand that you will not remain a young person forever. So now is the time to lay hold of your life and take responsibility of your actions. You cannot dilly dally and expect to be great in life. You must work now while the day last, night is coming when you cannot work, you will no longer have the energy to work.

As a young person, first you must understand that work is good. A lot of people see work as suffering. Some say if only I have xyz amount of money, I will stop working and just retire. Even the richest man still works just that they work differently from the average person. Kenneth Hagin once said that hard work will not kill you, wrong work is what will kill you.

Secondly, you must love to work. You must understand that there is dignity in labor. You must be delighted to engage in meaningful work. Why? Because that is one of the first obligations given to man by God. When God made Adam, he placed him in the garden of Eden to tend it and work it (Genesis 2:15). In Luke 19:13, it says, Occupy till I come; engage in business, do something.

You must also love to work because Work is a blessing. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. Every work is honorable, as far as is not deceitful and illegal. Be proud of what you do. If you are a cleaner, clean very well. Take pride in it.

You see God calls laziness wickedness. In the parable of the talents, the one servant who was given the one talent and did nothing with it, what was he called in Matthew 25:26, it says, you wicked and slothful servant! Even Proverbs 18:19 says, a lazy person is as bad as someone who destroys things.

 You see the principle of diligence is a principle that enables you to soar. There are places only diligence will bring you to. God honors diligence.  Proverbs 22:29-Seeth thou a man diligent in his business, he will stand before kings and not mean men

There is no place for laziness in the kingdom of God. Every result has a level/measure of diligence or effort required to produce it.

Even for intimacy with God, there must be a diligent pursuit. Hebrews 11:6, says he rewards those who diligently seek him, not just those who seek him, but those who diligently seek him!

 You must be disciplined as young man/young woman. You must have values and standards that you stick to. Do you have a set time you wake up every day even on holidays? What is the first thing you do when you wake up every day? social media? No! That is part of discipline. Do you have a routine you follow every day? How do you spend your day? That is also part of discipline. The secret of great men is in their daily routine. I went to a boarding school and in those days, we had a prefect, or a position called disciplinarian. She made sure that students abide to every rules and regulation of the school, if not she will punish you. You don't need anyone to be your disciplinarian, become your own Disciplinarian. Don't wait for people or even situations to detect the direction of your life. Know what you ought to do and do it! Be disciplined and diligent and you will be distinguished early in life!

I will stop here. I hope you learned something. I hope you were blessed! If yes, please share and leave a comment!

Please watch out for part 2 where I will share the last two principles. Click on the link below to continue reading Part 2.
Principles that will distinguish a young man-Part 2

Thanks, and God bless!

Love