I’m currently in Ilorin, for my younger sister’s wedding, and ultimately for an NNC Launch in Ilorin. It’s been a busy week as always, a little bit busier, but there have been plenty to give God thanks for.
One of the greatest lesssons I have been learning in the last few months is about gratitude. I thought I knew enough about gratitude, just as many of you also think you do, but in the last few months, I have discovered that I know only a little sketch of the power, purpose and priviledge in being able to show gratitude. I don’t know what kind of life you are living today, are you happy? Are you complaining? Are you getting frustrated about something? Are you afraid or scared? Are you confused? Are you losing patience? Are you in trouble? If you are any of these things, you might have gotten into them for many reasons, but there is one sure way out, and understanding the power of gratitude and unleashing that power is one sure way out.
I’ll like to lay a fundamental premise first. That there are two reals of existence, there is one realm that is seen, and there is another realm that is unseen. The Christian or Muslim will tell you that there is a spiritual world and a physical world. The scientist also alludes to this a bit, by acknowledging the possibility of a 4th dimension. The scientist knows by experimentation and research however, that the basic building block of every organism, dead or alive is energy, and this energy is unseen. In other words, either we go via the channels of religion or via the channels of scientific thinking, one thing is sure, there is a seen world (frame of existence) and there is an unseen world.
Secondly, I’ll also like to establish what happens when we desire something and decide to pray about it. The desire is birthed in the thought realm, which is an unseen realm. Your thoughts(unseen) aggregate together to form a desire(unseen), that you offer in prayer to God (unseen). The moment when what you send to God (unseen) is recieved, God immediately credits you with that desire (unseen). This is the reason why in so many instances in the bible, it is stated clearly that whoever asks is given, whoever seeks finds and whoever knocks gets openned doors. In other words, God answers in kind immediately. Interestingly, the bible also alludes that at times, God answers before we ask. In which case the desire is a manifestation or legal tender to secure the existence of what already has been given. In the same way, looking at it scientifically, all physical substance is made of the same raw material called energy. Each atom, element or molecule is made up of energy levels. The birthing place of all that is seen and physical, is unseen and spiritual.
Haven laid this foundations, let us then try to go as quickly as we can into the subject of gratitude. Since we have agreed that there are two worlds, and we have agreed that the all mighty God has not storage space for prayers, but answers them as soon as he hears them (the bible says the confidence we have in approaching God is that he hears when our prayers are in line with his will, and once we are assured that he hears, we are assured that he answers. The bible also says it is He that works in us to “will” and to “do” according to his good pleasure). It means then, that the only challenge we have as humans is not in recieving from God, but it’s is a challenge of bringing that which exists in the spiritual to the physical. What we really need to learn, is how do we make manifest (root word means to bring out with the hand from unseen), how do we convert energy to substance. How do we cause communication between the two worlds. This is where the challenge is!
There is only one way however to convert spiritual reality into physical reality. This one way is called different things by different people who discovered it by practice. It’s the ability to take position in reality as if what you know you have that is unseen is already yours. This is called “make believe” by some and called “faith” by others. It is living as though what we asked for is already ours. In order to live like this, there two key behaviours that are crucial. One is gratitude, and the other is giving.
In order to live like you already have what you have desired, asked for and believe that you have, you need to live a life of gratitude and generosity. You literally need to sing praises, wear a positive demeanor, speak positively, be thankful, share what you have with others, give to worthy causes and sow into the lives of others. Behaving like this, will bring you to a state of mind where you will gravitate naturally to the last activity, meeting or idea that will make it happen. See, everything you desire and have secured currently exists in an unseen form, and is waiting to become reality in a process that will involve a unique meeting, a new idea or an acitivity. This process is refered to also as harvest. It is the process in which that thing you desired comes to you.
What I have tried to do is lay the foundation for the basis for gratitude and giving, I’ll expantiate more on this in future articles as I am graced.