Don't Devalue Yourself E-Book

Caleb Ajagba

• Herausgeber: COMMUNE WRITERS INT'L
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

This book challenges and excites your inner resources and potentials as a Christian and brings out the treasures deposited inside of you by the Almighty God so that you can be profitable both in the Kingdom and on this earth. This book is the first in a series that will launch you deeper into the knowledge of who you are as a child of God that is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God and destined for greater heights in this world. Don’t devalue yourself through ignorance of who you truly are.

Leseprobe

DON’T DEVALUE YOURSELF

Dr. Caleb Ajagba

DON’T DEVALUE YOURSELF

Written by

Dr. Caleb Ajagba

[email protected]

COPYRIGHT (C) 2022

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author or publisher.

Published by:

Candidlife Books

(Candid Suite)

Saviour’s House, Plot 7, Block 18d,

Festac Link Road, Apple Junction, Amuwo Odofin Industrial Layout, Lagos, Nigeria.

[phone]; [phone]

TABLE OF CONTENT

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Introduction

1. Understanding Your Roots

2. What Does It Mean To Devalue Yourself?

3. Who Are You?

4. How Do You Increase Your Self-Worth?

5. Who You Are Is Superior To What You Do

6. Appearing Before Kings And Great Men And Women

7. You Have What It Takes To Rule Your World

8. Separation From The Crowd: A Key To Self Discovery

9. Locate Your Place In God’s Word

10. Do You Understand What God Is Saying Concerning You?

11. Position Yourself To Be Lightened Through Qualitative Meditation

12. Things To Meditate On

13. Grow Up!

14. Self Management

15. Rising To The Top

16. Become Active In The Game Of Shaping Your Destiny

17. Sustaining Your Self-Worth By Constantly Increasing Your Value

18. Becoming A Shoulder Others Can Lean On

19. Your Spiritual Bank Account

Prayer Of Salvation

About the Author

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all those who will by reading it, take divinely inspired steps to be the best God has ordained them to be in spite of the challenges of life.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I remain eternally grateful to God for the inspiration to write this book. Early in January 2009, God told me that “time has come for you to make public those things that I have been teaching and showing you in the secret to bless humanity, especially the body of Christ.” I therefore count myself divinely privileged to be used of the Most-High God to impact the lives and destinies of humanity especially those who will have access to this book.

I deeply appreciate my Father in the Lord and mentor, Dr David Oyedepo for being an instrument God has been using to impart and impact my life on a daily basis.

I deeply cherish your prayers and wise counsel each time I am opportune to meet you. I also must acknowledge the untiring inputs and mentorship of Bishops David Abioye and Thomas Aremu. I sincerely appreciate Pastor and Pastor Mrs. Dele Bamgboye, my revered mentors and coaches. Knowing you and being a part of your family has been one of the best things that has happened to me.

To Bishop Joseph Ebhohimen and his lovely wife, Pastor Mrs. Christiana Ebhohimen (my twin sister), I deeply appreciate you and your ministry. The opportunity to preach during the time you were the Bishop of Port Harcourt Diocese created in me the enabling motivation to write this book. To my Spiritual Father and Mentors: Rev Prof Mossy Madugba, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, Yinka Folorunsho, Peter Ogbondeminu, Joseph Ajibade and Sam Adeyemi, you have continued to inspire me in ways too great to mention. To Apostle Joshua Selman Nimmak and Mensa Otabil, you are simply inspirational! I must also acknowledge the inputs of Prof Abiodun H. Adebayo, the Vice-Chancellor of Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria and his team, Prof Daniel Gberevbie, Prof Sheriff Folarin, Prof Conrad Omonhinmin, Prof Rowland E. Worlu and Prof Obinna Nwinyi. I also appreciate Prof Osita Agbu for his painstaking contributions and mentorship.

To all my Pastoral colleagues, the Ordained Workers and entire membership of Winners’ Chapel, DLine Port Harcourt, thank you for your immense support. I cannot forget the unique support of the members of my home town, Umuezegu Development Association (UDA) Worldwide, Abia Freedom Alliance (AFA) Worldwide and my online friends and colleagues at Candidlife Group. You all rock! Nothing will stand between you and the fulfilment of God’s plans and purposes in your lives. I will be alive when you will all mount your thrones according to your righteous desires in Jesus name, Amen!

To Queen Oluomachi Anyiam who painstakingly read through the original manuscript and made very useful contributions that helped to improve the content of this book in its present form, I say thank you so much.

I also must commend the untiring efforts of Mrs Rhoda Erhabor Alao of Roseflower Editorial, thank you for the incredible work you did in further editing the book, and bringing it up to the desired editorial level it is today.

To my dearly beloved wife, Arinola, thank you for your patience, tolerance and love. You have endured with me and cared so much with immense sacrifices…you will never miss out of God’s best for our lives together. Your input and corrections to the content and style of this book are greatly appreciated.

To all our children and God’s eternal gifts to us: Prince, Precious, and the twin boys: Victor and Vincent, Daddy appreciates all of you. Several times I had to lock you out of my study to enable me concentrate in writing this and other books according to divine illumination, God will bless you all. You all have never ceased from being a source of joy and immense inspiration to me. In your lifetime, your children will also be supportive of you and be sources of enduring blessings to you.

Thank you all and God bless you.

INTRODUCTION

Self-discovery is a key component of our relevance in life. The journey of self-discovery is a lifelong journey and is inarguably one of the most important discoveries that anyone can make in life. Knowing who you are, where you are from, your purpose in life, or why you were born, the resources and potentials at your disposal; your capabilities, who to work with to accomplish your goals; and where you will return to at the end of life’s journey are some of the major discoveries anyone who dares to be a success can make about in life. If you can sit down and honestly ask yourself these questions as well as to unveil their answers; you will end up as a man or woman on a divine mission, who is ready to conquer the world and to leave behind a worthy legacy.

Many people are the direct opposite of who God has made them to be today because of lack of knowledge of who they are. Many who have tried to gain insight as to who they are, ended up seeking for the essence and meaning of their lives from the wrong sources.

Accordingly, instead of gaining quality knowledge about who they are based on God’s word, their frustration multiplied. There is no doubt that your success in life is tied to your discovery of who you are from the perspective of God- your Maker. When you discover who you are today, it creates the platform or foundation for you to actualise who God has made you to be.

Those who are excelling in every department of their lives are those who have paid the price to discover who God has made them to be and are armed with the keys of their discoveries in specific areas of their lives as well as being knowledgeable enough on how to use the keys to unlock the padlocks of their lives. When you lack an understanding of these keys, you become stranded in life’s journey.

This book in your hands is a trove of wealth on the treasures and joys of the knowledge of who you are. The Prophet Hosea in verse Six of the Fourth Chapter of his book, exclaimed that God’s people are destroyed due to lack of knowledge. Why? Is it that the people of God are scared of education and therefore don’t go to school or that they don’t read their books including the Bible? No! As a matter of fact, some Christians are very educated and faithful Bible readers, but the challenge comes with the application of knowledge acquired in the course of their studies. This implies that there is a world of difference between knowledge acquired and knowledge applied.

When knowledge is acquired in any field of endeavour, it is potential power, but when such knowledge is put to use; it leaves the realm of potential to the field of reality, and that is when the power you have is seen to have helped you and changed your life. There is no point in acquiring something that is eventually not useful to your life. The Bible says

“By knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.” - Prov. 3: 20

This means that when knowledge is acquired it becomes useful only when we become skilful in its application and consequently we stand to benefit and profit immensely from it.

In the book of Genesis, we see that when the king needed understanding of a certain body of knowledge after a disturbing dream, he went on a search and continued until he found Joseph the Prisoner, who could tell him or interpret his dream by telling the King what to do. This is the difference between acquisition of information, and the skill of converting the information to knowledge which can be applied to solve a problem. The one who can harness resources and employ the same to achieve needed results is the true man of power. In essence, what you know is not as important as what you can do with what you know.

Accordingly, this book comes handy to challenge and excite your inner resources and potentials as a Christian and to bring out the treasures deposited inside of you by the Almighty God so that you can be profitable both in the Kingdom and on this earth. This book is the first in a series that will launch you deeper into the knowledge of who you are as a child of God that is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God and destined for greater heights in this world. The knowledge of self is therefore a critical threshold in your journey to greater accomplishments in life.

Chapter 1

UNDERSTANDING YOUR ROOTS

From Bible times, lack of understanding of the ways of God has led a lot of seemingly honest people into wrong choices and decisions with attendant frustrations. An understanding of your roots, or lack of the same will either make you behave like God or conversely behave like a dog. As a god, you will grow with the consciousness of glory, honour and a positive self-esteem, but as a dog, you will grow with the awareness that dogs are supposed to be without – that is to operate as nobodies. So who are you? Or which one do you wish to be?

It is imperative therefore to underscore this sublime truth from the beginning that everything in God’s Kingdom produces for the believer at the level of their understanding. In the book of Matthew in the thirteenth chapter, Jesus gives an account of a sower who went out to sow:

Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Matthew 13: 18-23

From the above parable, we can see that Jesus underscored the fact that even though the seeds that produced were all good and fell on good ground, yet their productivity was a function of the level of understanding of those that received the seeds. According to Jesus, some produced 30-fold, others 60-fold and the best produced 100-fold return due to the level of the understanding of the recipients of the Word.

Truthfully, the depth of your understanding of the truth of who you are, is what determines the height of your triumph in life. Many people have destroyed their destinies due to negative self-esteem, because they have never grown to appreciate themselves, and this has resulted in their acceptance of a life of ‘anything goes.’ If you don’t have a clear understanding of who you are, the devil will make you believe in who you are not. When you understand God’s ways, you will be in command of His acts.

Lack of understanding of your root therefore can lead to immeasurable frustration. The Word of God admonishes that: “The man that wandered out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead” - Proverbs 21:16.

Lack of understanding of your roots can also make you place less value on yourself by unwittingly devaluing yourself.

Chapter 2

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DEVALUE YOURSELF?

Devaluing yourself is to make yourself look less than who you truly are, that is your real worth. Not placing value on yourself is not a sign of humility, but a demonstration of a lack of confidence and self-worth in who you are. Self-devaluation comes with very severe consequences. Many people have remained unemployed today because they have unknowingly devalued themselves during interview sessions, by appearing desperate, and projecting their personal interests above the interest of the company where they applied to work. This in itself is a wrong strategy.

In Genesis 41, we see a man called Joseph faced with a challenging situation that brought out the rare gem he was and earned him the deserved respect before Pharaoh, the revered King of his time. A look at the composure of Joseph as he stood before Pharaoh, showed that he spoke succinctly and focused on the problem confronting the nation of Egypt in the course of interpreting the dream, and thereafter told Pharaoh to go and look for someone that could handle the project. He neither appeared desperate, nor did he try to present his personal agenda; however, he presented an agenda that was bigger than his immediate personal problem of being released from prison. And of course, Pharaoh could not think of a better person to handle the project than Joseph. Joseph would have resorted to begging Pharaoh the moment he appeared before him so as to grant him state pardon as a prisoner. Moreover, he was confident of the fact that with the kind of solution he was bringing to the nation of Egypt as inspired by the Holy Spirit, there was no way that Pharaoh would think of someone better to undertake the supervision of the project he had initiated. This should be an eye-opener to those looking for jobs and appearing desperate, instead of focusing on the bigger picture of corporate success of the organisation.

As a job seeker or applicant, know how to package yourself and market yourself appropriately without appearing too desperate. If you ever appear too desperate, the tendency is that your bargaining power will be low and you will end up getting less than your real worth if at all you are considered for the job or position. One with a low self-esteem will be a disaster in any organisation. Such a person may make decisions that are not based on conviction, but in order to prove a point or impress others.

One thing many people don’t seem to understand is that no individual or organisation will prefer to engage someone who devalues himself or herself. Devaluing yourself makes you a second-class personality even though according to God’s plans and purposes for your life, you have been uniquely made (Psalm 139:14). Devaluing yourself is an indication of an inferiority complex. You cannot attract anything of value if you devalue yourself.