Chapter 1.

Making problems your friend

'The greatest friends in life are the oppositions of life'

I have discovered in my about a three decade life that there are no real problems meant to destroy a man, but what looks like the enemy or problem is actually a sign post to the most desired switch in life. What may look like the end may just be a bend. What seems like a break-down may just be a breakthrough in disguise. What look like a barrier may just be a springboard for advancement. So what you need is wis-dom in discovering the disguised promotions in the seemingly prob-lems you face in life. This book will let this wisdom enter your life, the wisdom to put problems in the right perspective. Jesus, in one of his teachings asserted that a man's enemies are those of his household (Mathew 10:36), by this he meant that, your enemies are not strange but familiar. In other words, real friends are strange, enemies are fa-miliar. That is, familiarity is the greatest enemy that ever exists. I re-member I had a neighbor some years ago that never greeted me once since we had been living in the same neighborhood for years. He never smiled to me once when we where in the same community where we hail from. But, much to my amazement, some time later, I met him in another country different from where we traveled from; he rushed to me and greeted me with much excitement and enthusi-asm. That made me learnt a great wisdom that day. When we where too familiar in the same community, he overlooked my importance until we met in an unfamiliar environment, then the friendliness be-comes real. You see, the best way to look for friends is to search for them in what look like opposition. Mostly, the greatest opposition will be your most cherished palley.true friendship is not found among friends but true and beneficial friendship is drawn from hostility. What will benefit your life will never be found in the familiar zone but in the seemingly unfamiliar circumstances. There is an adage in my community that says, 'a man's true brother is in the bush'. When the halve brothers of Joseph, moved with envy sold Joseph into a strange land, they did not realize that they were actually moving him towards the direction of the fulfillment of his dreams. When God is about to lift a man, he moves him out of the comfort zone. And this happen through adversities. True friendship in not found among friends but among antagonistic situation. What people tag as prob-lems is simply their promotion examination. It is opportunity in mask. Problems really, are not meant to destroy a man but they de-stroy us through our ignorant. They are instrument of help. They are sent to serve as mechanism to improve people's lives. The earlier you catch this reality the better for you. Make problem your best friend. Welcome a lot of them because they are the tonic for advancement in life. I read a story some years ago of one of the American most popu-lar presidents, Abraham Lincoln, how that when he was elected into office as US president, he appointed his greatest oppositionist as his new government secretary of war. That did not sound well to his al-lies, but he knew how to draw out the living juice that is content in opposition. He understood that every treasure in life is at the thresh-old of opposition. It is in the hottest opposition that you can locate your position in life. God demonstrated this wisdom to the children of Israel when he told them to inherit the land of Canaan that flow with milk and honey, but they needed to contend for it in battle.

Your Attitude Is Vital

Attitude is very crucial to life. Your outlook to life enhances its out-come to you. You cannot see life as black and get white. It is to you as you see. God said to Abraham;

For the land, which thou seest, to thee will I give it
(Genesis 13:14)

You cannot see poverty and get prosperity. It is impossible to see sickness and live in health. It is your viewpoint to life that opens door for your turning point in life. Attitude is very necessary to life. It is the bedrock of every success. Attitude is the foundation for progress. An attitude entails:

Your approach to life

Your perspective about life

Your reaction to life

Your attitude to life can define how you will handle life. It can go a long way to foster your potential to benefit from problems, or be marred by them. Attitudes are everything. There are negative attitude and there are positive attitudes. Negative attitude is when you allow problems to decide your fate in life. It is when you allow the atmos-phere to shape your state of life. But positive attitude is a point in your life whereby you do not allow what grows around you to ham-per what grows within you. Positive attitude will never allow what you are born into, to affect what you are born for. That is the reason I always say, if you are born in poverty, never let poverty be born in you. Jesus was born to a poor carpenter, to a village of about twelve houses in total, and most humiliatingly, born in where cattle are kept because his parent never afforded a hotel or hospital bill. Though he was born into that poverty-stricken situation, his posture to life never allowed that circumstance to hinder what he was born for. His low family level in the society, never obstruct his destiny. He was born to be a priest, but was not born to a high priest. He was born to be a prophet but his entire family never had a prophet. His parent were just ordinary people in the community who by human standard has nothing to do with giving birth to such a great and fulfilled personal-ity. You see, a positive posture to life will help you to hold unto your status irrespective of the experiences. That is, though you are born a handicap, you never allow a handicap mentality to be born in you. Though you may be born without hands and legs, but a positive atti-tude will help you never to allow your mind to go without hands and legs, because at a long run, it is your mind you need mostly to suc-ceed and the least your hands. The hands in your mind can make way for the lack of hands in your body. But if your mind is handicapped, though you're physically fit, that will be the worse form of handicap.

When Problems Look Like Enemies

The late president elect of the June 12 1993 election of the federal re-public of Nigeria, chief MKO Abiola made a profound statement that I want to use to illustrate a point here. He said, 'a woman does not say yes, if a woman say no, it means may be, if a woman say may be, it means yes, a woman does not say yes'. What I want you to learn from the wise words above is that no problem will come to you with a yes signal. Problem will never come to presenting itself as opportunity. They will only come as enemies. But the truth is this; the problem you see today is a road map to the promotion you will enjoy tomorrow. The adversary you encounter today is a hint to the advantages you will derive in the future. Jesus dying on the cross was like the greatest problem to his disciples, but that was a way for our salvation today. When Joseph was throne into the pit, sold to strangers, became a slave and throne into prison, all these circumstances where the roadmap to his throne in Egypt to save a posterity for God's people. But, it never appeared so, until the throne of Egypt was handed over to him. Op-portunities do not always appear like one. Every future greatness al-ways hid itself in the shameful pitiable, and despiteful small begin-ning. Greatness is always in smallness. Power is always hidden in weakness. Apostle Paul learnt this when he received an admonition from God of noting that; 'my strength is made perfect in weakness' (2 corinthian11: 9)

You need to understand that the thing that pains contain gains. Prob-lems can serve as the channel through which good and benefits in life are issued. The situation that is full of adversities is a breeding ground for the upshot of advantages. In other words, to draw honey, you must be ready for some stings of the bees. So gains and advan-tages in life are reproduced in the porter's house of challenges. There is no progress without pressure.

How To Benefit From Problems

How then can you benefit from problem though the do not appear as benefits. How can you deploy problems to your benefits and not for your disadvantage though the come to you as the greatest enemies. The point below will help you to drill benefits from problems and not harm;

#1 Decode the symbols

The main reason behind the many problems people face in life is their ignorance of the symbols of life. The greatest limitation to a man's destiny is his inability to decipher the secret code of life. Just as a driver who is ignorant of road signs will never avoid accidents, that is the same way a man who is not armed with the power to interpret the puzzles of life. Life is full of mysteries. Life is full of signs. It's only those that build themselves up to the point where they are able to break the symbols of life that will benefits from problems. This is be-cause problems are actually the secret code to promotion. Problems are the cipher of progress. It is only when you learn to interpret them that you will move your life forward through the many challenges you have. I discovered in the bible a profound profile I will use as an instance to project this truth to you. Daniel, in the book of Daniel, was profiled by the queen of the Babylonian empire as a man that has the ability to draw benefits from problem with his knowledge to decode the symbols of life. Look at what she said; 'there is a man in thy king-dom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.for as much as an excel-lent spirit and knowledge and understanding, Interpretation of dreams, and showing hard sentences and dissolving doubt was found in the same Daniel (Dan 5:11-12) what a profile! Daniel had that abil-ity because he demonstrated it in earlier situations where things seems difficult but he turn it by his symbol decoding ability into what become solutions.

Basically, if you study the background story very well, you will dis-cover that there was a symbol given to a king in Babylon that no one could interpret. That made the king to decree a death sentence to all the wise men in Babylon in whom Daniel was one of them. That prob-lem would have send Daniel to his early grave except that he could decode the symbols of life. But he interpreted the dreams and saved the whole astrologers from imminent death. That was a problem, but a man who understood how to see opportunity in problems, turned the problems to his advantage and promotion. Because through that he was appointed as one of the three presidents in the entire Babylo-nian empire. You can easily observed that Daniel, in the mist of sev-eral difficulties, challenges, hatred, and problems rose to become the most preferred among all the presidents in the Persian kingdom, be-cause he was able, according to the profile in Daniel 5:11-12 to decode the symbols of problems. He had the prowess to decipher hard mat-ters and made it simple for all to benefit. He had the technical know how of breaking had sentences in simple and beneficial ways. Inside the symbols that look like a threat to king Darius was one of the president's seats for Daniel. But it was only after he decoded the sym-bols that he got to that throne. Daniel took occasion by his ability and owned one of the seats. Later on he went on to the lion's den and came out to turn the whole kingdom to the worship of his true God.

I want you to understand that, problems are success code numbers. They are the symbols of progress and the road signs to the bend of success. Only when you know how to break the signs that you will take them to your advantage. The truth is this, every phases of life itself is as a result of the function of decoded secrets. The quality of life a man enjoys is traceable to the degree of the discoveries in his disposal. The beauty of every generation is anchored on the number of the symbols of life that generation is able to break. Brian Tracy noted this when he wrote; 'this is a wonderful time to live. There have never been more opportunities for more people to accomplish more of their goals, both personally and professionally, than exist today. And if anything, our situation is getting better and better with each passing year. Why is this happening? The simplest reason is that we know more today about how to achieve better results in more areas of busi-ness than we have ever known. And this information, these ideas and insights, are like water, flowing everywhere and to everyone who is open to them and willing to use them'. That is what I was trying to inject into your sub conscious mind. The accumulation of knowledge is also the accumulation of a better life. The more information that is discovered, the more quality of life we get into. Another important factor to note is that knowledge has links; it has the ability to connect to other fields of life when it is received. Knowledge, when revealed will continue to remain in existence for as much people as are open to it uses. Every access to new knowledge creates new opportunities that abound as the knowledge is being utilized. There is a car in very steel you see. But the man who can decode it will bring it out to the benefit of all. You see God the creator of life always releases his benefit to life in symbols. God always speak in similitude. It's when you do not un-derstand how to decode those signs that it becomes a problem to you. Whereas it was meant for your advantage. Problems become enemies where there is no solution to the issue of understanding. People suffer from problem, not because it was meant for suffering, but because the goods in the problems are not tapped due to lack of knowledge. In the book of revelation chapter five verse one to ten, the whole creation were in doom, and tears prevailed because there was non found to break the seal and open the book of success. In that book was success, prosperity, breakthrough, advancement, that was meant for all but as there was no one found to decode it, there was only tears in return. But, fortunately, someone special, and able was found, His name is Jesus the lion of the tribe of Judah in verse five, there was an an-nouncement made to all creation; 'WEAP NOT'. You see, tears and sorrows will always prevail when problems are allowed to continue unrefined. You can stop weeping when the symbols attached to the challenges you face are dissolved.

Similarly, the prime minister's position in Egypt was presented as a symbol of problem of seven years of famine in Egypt. But no one was able to decode except a prisoner alien, Joseph came to the scene. He decoded the symbols and proffers the solution. That brought to bare the throne to which he mounted an become the prime minister of the most populous nation as at that time. These examples are enough to send your mind to work. You cannot make problem your friend until you know how to break the symbols of life. David said through the inspiration of God in psalm 82:5; 'they know not neither do they un-derstand, so they walk on in darkness, all the foundations of the earth are out of course'

Emphases are again and again added to the fact that when revelation is not added to life, elevation will be far fetch. All the blessings of life are coded. And one of those codes is problems. If you develop the at-titude of welcoming troubles and decode them, you will benefits from life mostly.

In our contemporary world, the first presidency of the South African republic was coded as twenty-seven years prison. By understanding, Nelson Mandela, decoded the symbols and located the president's seat inside the problem. He came to be the first black South African and best president. The good you expect in life in coded in the bad you experience in life. So decode and enjoy.

#2 Keep the right formula

Mathematicians will more easily understand the subject of formulas. Because, they deal with formulas in order to solve even the most diffi-cult problems in mathematics. To them, no matter how difficult an equation is, when once you are armed with the right formula, you will break the problems in stages and arrive at a preferable and desir-able answer. So to say, there are no solutions to mathematical prob-lems without the right formulas. When you solve the problems with the right formula, you get rewarded with high marks. So, in making problems your friend and benefiting from them, you must learn to always be armed with the right formulas. After you decode the sym-bols, you need to proffer accurate formula that will turn the problems to progress, obstacles to up standers, barriers to springboard, and hindrances to stepping-stones. It is the right formula that will convert zero to zenith, shame to fame, story to glory, and toiling to enjoying. You cannot truly benefit from problems until you get the right recipe in place. Earlier we saw how slave, alien, prisoner called Joseph, de-coded the symbol of the problem that was imminent in the land of Egypt. He did not just stop there; he went on to create a formula that will avert the ordeal of seven years of famine into plentiful years of abundance to the Egyptian empire. He made sure the formula was such that only he alone can use. And that took him to the throne. You know the story more. Yet, you have suffered and lamented enough from that small adversity. It is time to rise to the occasion and create a new formula that will solve the problem once and for all. This book is in your hand to encourage you to look at the problems and smile. I always say that every profession in this world is people's discovered secret for solving the problems of life. You need the right formula to make problems your friend.

#3 Share the answers

The next bus stop of making problem your friend is to realize that you are not the only one facing problems. That is, if you have been able to decode the symbols and keep the right formula, you need to share the answers you have gotten with others. Bryan Tracy noted clearly that 'if you have an idea that can help me to be more effective in some part of my business and you share it with me, we both are enriched. If I then share this idea with someone else, and that person shares it with someone else again, everyone who receives the new idea is better off'. Service to others should be the sole reason you exist in this world. Un-til you break free from selfishness and egoism, you have not yet truly begun to live. Living is giving, and life without giving is a minus. The world is the field of investment. It is what to give to live that should be your greatest burden, and not what to get out of life. That is the reason you should be in search for the solution to contribute and not to own. My greatest burden is to see people of all races and color gain back their value consciousness. I love to contribute to people's lives. I am satisfied to go unfed to see others being fed. I rather go undress to see others dress well. Problem will never benefit you if you are ego-centric. Problems open their treasure to you, when people matter to you. Any position you occupy in life is not the fulfillment of your des-tiny, but it is the services your position renders to people that consti-tute fulfillment in life for you. Fulfillment is derived through discov-ery and offering of required services to the benefit or promote the quality of life to others. That is the reason life only opens up its treas-ure to those who are concern about serving others. Selfishness is self-murder, but selflessness is self-builder. Remember, when job prayed for his friends, God turn his problems to double honor. (Job 42:10)

#4 Put a question tag

In life, most people draw conclusion on issues without a think back perspective. Basically, there is no bus stop to your life if you will not put a full stop to your life. There are no failures, there are only quit-ters. Because those who quit should have succeeded if they stay on longer enough. In benefiting from problems, you must learn never to say ' I cannot handle this problem again' rather you learn to say it by questioning the situation thus ' how can I handle this problem?' the reason is this, when you say ' I cannot handle this problem again', you draw conclusion and take your life to a close, but when you ques-tion the situation by saying 'how can I handle this problem', you send your mind, subconsciously and consciously to go to work to gather data that will proffer solution to your situation. 'I can't is a signal for mental laziness but 'how can I is a license for mental productivity. You see, the more questionable to situation you are, the more your chances for solution increases. When Isaac Newton saw a mango fruit fell down, instead of just saying 'it falls down' then pick it and eat, he rather question the situation by saying 'why did it fall down, why did it not go up'? That question went on to task his mind to discover the law of gravity. Some of the conclusion you draw on issues are the rea-son you suffer. Because may be through the circumstance was your most desired breakthrough had you question it. When the angel Gabriel brought a surprising news to Mary of how she will be con-ceived of a baby in her womb, she never concluded by saying 'this is not possible seeing I do not know a man' but rather, she question the issue by asking ' how shall this be seeing I know not a man'? (Luke 1:34). Learn to question the situation not to conclude on the situation for most secret in the bible were discovered when men dared to ask.

#5 Program yourself

You are the master of your destiny. You can decide what comes in and goes out of your life. My pastor, Rotini Adetayo always says, 'you have the right to have, the right to choose, and the right to live'. He also adds ' you are who God says you are, you can have what God says you can have, and you can do what God says you can do'. Don't be a scapegoat. Don't be a dummy. You can plan yourself for what you want you to do. You can organize your life to operate according to specification. Take for instance, a traffic light. It can order the movement of cars not because it has the intelligence to decide when each car should go, but it has been preset to do so. It is the way the traffic light is automated that it will function. No traffic light will ad-just it function out side the preset functions. Your life can some time function that way in certain areas. You can build yourself to do cer-tain key things that can make your life count. You see, what ever happen unconsciously and produce result should be taken and do consciously for repeated result. What ever you do more than once master you.

Look at this!

Do you know that those who came to the world with the true answers to people perplexing problems are the once that encounter problems the more? Think about Moses, it was just a bit; pharaoh would have murdered him. Think about Gideon, his greatest problems were the midianites who he was sent to deliver the Israelite from. Think about David, Saul would have killed him. Think about Joseph, the brothers almost killed him. He was in slavery and in prison. Think about Tho-mas Edison, he failed 999 times. Think about Abraham Lincoln, he fail except the president's seat. Think about Nelson Mandela, he would have died in twenty-seven years prison sentence. A child that was born the same day he was throne into prison was now a man of twenty-seven years old. Think about Jesus, the greatest of all men ever to live on earth, problem still never feared him. Herod almost murdered him, his peers rejected him. Think about Paul, he faced many trials in his entire life. All who are on a mission to others in this world are the once that faced the most problem. That let us under-stand that the solutions to life's problems are manufactured in the threshold of problems. Therefore your service spirit is the screw that let loose the knot of blessing from problems.

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