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he fact is that he is abnormal who is not inherently seeking for success or greatness. God has structured us in such a way that we inherently seek or want to be identified with greatness or success. Speaking of God, very many people have a mightily great misconception about the concept of God and success. [ictt-tweet-inline]Many people wrongly think that the primary way in which God causes us to succeed is by way of performing miracles.[/ictt-tweet-inline]

Nothing can be further from the truth. You see people spending multiple hours in spiritual activity with the hope that God will be moved to “bless” them. Spiritual activities such as fasting, prayer, devotion and meditation are critical to our lives and they have their place. However, they are not the ordained ways in which God wanted man to succeed.

Work Not Pray!

Studying the way God operates; one easily realizes that God expects humans to be in charge and not Him. He expects humans to apply principles of success and not rely on woowoo and “spiritual stuff”. I know that is controversial. Of course there is time and place for spiritual things. As a matter of fact, Spirituality is not only central to success, but it also a great determinant as we shall see today. For those of us who subscribe to the Creation Story in the Bible, you notice that the Spiritual Gymnastics that we involve ourselves in as we quest for success were never ordained in the beginning. There were no altars, no prayer (would you believe it), no fasting, no sacraments, no Holy days and all.

The Place of Spirituality

Translation? That was not the key to success as God intended. [ictt-tweet-inline]God fully expected man to WORK, so much so that He created rest.[/ictt-tweet-inline] So this goes out to all my spiritual folks:

• Yes, we must pray, for we understand that to do great things, we need God. However, prayer without work is rebellion against God’s first principle of success—work.
• Yes, we must fast, but depending ONLY on fasting for success is being disillusioned. God says, “Faith without WORKS is dead”. In other words we can do all the spiritual gymnastics we want, but if we will not WORK, we are just flapping one wing.
• Yes, we must be highly spiritual and devoted, but depending ONLY on spirituality for success is the same as participating in the lottery. Your chances are always one in a billion. Here is how I know God is not signed on lottery: He wants everyone to succeed, because everyone can WORK.
• Yes, we must study scriptures but if we will NOT APPLY them, it makes no difference what we do. We shall still struggle.

That being said, and agreeing that true success is in obedience to laid down principles; there is one simple yet massively profound principle that is being neglected by very many people. Speaking of God, He had quite a bit to say about prosperity. There are more than 40 references in the Bible about Prosperity. However, only few of them directly quote God as He instructs people on prosperity.

The Concept Revealed

The most interesting thing is that all these few scriptures where God is directly quoted talking about prosperity point to one concept: meditation.

Is it any wonder that most “success teachers” of our modern times refer to this principle over and over again? One thing that I have found to be so interesting is that multiple people are so vehemently against the Bible…but if you talk about Eastern Mystical religion or “gurus”, everyone is all ears. Do you know what those gurus talk about? The same old concepts that God originally shared in the Bible…but I digress.

What Meditation Is

Meditation is an active way of engaging your mind and focusing it on something valuable. Do not be lied to that meditation involves “emptying your mind” and allowing some “spirit” to be “channeled” through you. The key word on meditation is thinking.

In fact, God is so particular about thinking that He says that the raw material for our success is thinking and imagining. Sample these words for example:

“God can do anything, you know–far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us”.–Ephesians 3:20 MSG

Did you see the key? His doing anything great is directly proportional to the degree that we

1. Imagine
2. Dream
3. Request

The Importance of Meditation

How many people in this world have been given the ability to “Imagine, Dream, and Request?” The answer is all of them. How many people engage these three things? Just a few. Now, notice that [ictt-tweet-inline]meditation is a highly spiritual exercise that even the most “Nonspiritual person” does it[/ictt-tweet-inline]. However, those who go a scale higher and succeed are those who merge their meditation with action. What I see mostly is people taking massive action without putting any kind of constructive thought into it.

The kind of meditation I am advocating for here involves pen and paper. It involves taking notes about our future dreams in terms of our health, our finances, our relationships, our businesses and careers and so on and so forth. Daily.

Success never happens arbitrarily, it begins to germinate in terms of concepts and ideas. These concepts and ideas are nurtured through meditation. Someone might be asking: How in the world can I meditate? The answer is that you do that all the time you worry. If you have the wrong concept of meditation, you will flop almost always with the practice. The following are what you need to do:

1. Dream/Visualize

We do this all the time. Only that we need to get more deliberate and focused about it. God says He is “able to do much more than we can think or imagine”. Which means that if we can’t think or imagine, then God has nothing to work with. Learn to close your eyes and envision the best possible outcome. If you are a musician, see yourself launching your album even before you write a song. If you are an author, see yourself as a best selling author even before you can write the first paragraph. And then as you take action, keep seeing and dreaming. This is powerful stuff.

2. Think

This is more mental than it is spiritual and heart oriented. Thinking means that you take some time and gauge the alternatives, the whys and wherefores. It means you take time and consider and “count the cost” just as Jesus said. He said that if you want to build a house (by reference if you want to pull off a massive project), take some time and calculate what it takes. This is what thinking does. [ictt-tweet-inline]The reason why very many would be mentors avoid meeting their protégés is that the protégés have not taken time to think[/ictt-tweet-inline]. Get a quite place where you can think from. Make thinking a major habit and serious business just as dreaming and visualizing is.

3. Brainstorm

This is where you employ the heads of other people. Brainstorming involves a short discussion on different possibilities of something. You tend to borrow people’s brains from this for free. I made up my mind that I will always be a learner, even when I attend an interview. It is very exciting to be in the midst of people who think. It is so rewarding to realize how deep they are, and it is extremely valuable. Unfortunately, people do little brainstorming. They come for a session all logged onto their social media channels…I tell you, these things are dulling the sharpness of our brains…but I digress again.

4. Mindstorm

Mindstorming involves forcing yourself to answer a question on a sheet of paper all at ago. You start with a simple question, say, “How can I be a best selling author?” In one sitting you force yourself to write a pre-determined number of answers, whether 20, 40, or 100. Here, you write anything that comes to your mind, the trick being to let things flow. Thereafter, as answers begin to get scarce, your mind gets deeply engaged and what you get out of this process is invaluable. How else do you think I am able to write articles of close to 1500 words each day? Mind storming.

6. Calculate

Numbers. Calculators. Budgets. Projections. Learn to work with numbers. God is so particular about numbers that he had a whole Book in the Bible called Numbers. He is so particular about numbers that Jesus quoted them and used them in more than half of his parables. Let us not think that numbers are for accountants and business consultants. Every single one of us need to have numbers. Things like net worth, dividends, revenue, profits, expenses, income, savings, et all involve numbers. When is the last time you really took a long hard look at your numbers? Other sets of numbers involve tracking. Things like how many kilometers I ran in 30 minutes, how many hours I spent with my children or spouse, how many minutes I spent reading a book or listening to something inspirational, etc. Be a human of numbers. In the end, life is a numbers game…and numbers are deeply spiritual stuff by the way.

7. Review/Track

Use the time you have to take stock of what progress you have been making. Reviews are absolutely critical in our meditation. They help us know where we are going in view of where we have come from and vice versa. Reviews keep us on track and keep us on the road to our vision, mission and goals. It is very easy to get derailed from our main pursuits because we do not review our lives. Tracking is part of serious meditation.

I believe that if we took meditation to these levels, success is guaranteed. Am off to jog now. Talk to you tomorrow.