stagnation is, from God’s point of view.
ISSUE NO 1
TURNING YOUR STAGNATION
INTO MOTION (part 1)
The will of God for you as a Christian, is
for you to experience growth and motion
in everything that you do in life. God is a
God of processes. Everything He ever
made, He made through a process.
Growth and motion are both products of
the “processes of life”. Webster dictionary
defines, “Growth” as, “progressive devel-
opment”. While “Motion” is defined as,
“an act, process, or instance of changing
place”.
God’s destiny for your life is “Greatness”.
And greatness does not come to pass in a
day, but it is designed to unfold to you in
“phases”. Life is made to manifest itself in
phases and God expects you to move from
one phase to another unto the full picture
of your destiny is unfolded. When you
look at your life as a Christian and you
cannot seem to see any kind of progress in
whatever you are doing, then you are ex-
periencing what is known as
“STAGNATION.
Proverbs 4:18 says, “But the path of the
just is as the shining light, that shineth
more and more unto the perfect day.” The
path to God’s destination for your life is a
Published by Word Of The Spirit JULY 2008
forward movement. It involves you going
from one level of achievement to another,
be it in your finances, career, family, spiri-
tual life, relationships, academics, etc. God
does not take people backwards, He takes
them forward [Exodus 14:15]. God has
loaded you with enough potential to move
from the bottom of the ladder to the top,
from the back of the pack to the being a
pacesetter in life. But if this is not happen-
ing in your life - could be in just one area -
then you are going through a period of
stagnation, and you need to do something
about it.
This material has been inspired by God, to
help you understand your present situa-
tion and to deliver to you some of the key
ingredients, that can help stimulate or pro-
voke motion in your life. I cannot claim
that it will provide you with all the an-
swers. But the principles shared here will
help you get moving again towards your
God-given destination for your life.
What Is Stagnation?
I know that many people will have differ-
ent views on what they believe that stag-
nation really is. So what I will try to do n
this book is to help you understand what
in this newsletter is to help you under-
stand what stagnation is, from God’s
point of view.
Webster dictionary defines, “Stagnation”
as “a state of not advancing or develop-
ing”. This definition is in line with what
God said, in Deuteronomy 2 verse 3:
“Ye have compassed [roamed around]
this mountain long enough: turn you
northward”.
When you find yourself stuck on the
same spot for a long period of time, or the
faces that you are seeing around you are
still the same ones you having been see-
ing for the past three or five years, or the
challenges you are facing today are the
same ones you have been facing for
months or years, then God is saying to
you that you have become stagnated, and
He wants you to move along to a another
level - a level higher than where you are
right now! Your life is due for new chal-
lenges so get a move on. It time for you
wake up from your slumber.
Stagnation does not necessarily mean
that you are poor or lack any success
story.
When some people hear the term
“Stagnation”, some of the words that first
come to their mind are “poverty, failure,
trials, and joblessness”. They are not nec-
essary the fruits or cause(s) of stagnation,
though any of them could result from it.
Stagnation is an enemy that can destroy;
we will come to that later. Stagnation
relates much more to a lack of movement
or lack of development.
God’s View on Stagnation
It can be clearly seen from what God said
in Deut 2:3,that when you camp around
yesterday’s success, then you are living in
the stagnation zone. It does not matter
how big yesterday’s success was, as long
as it happened yesterday, then God wants
you to forget about it and move on to
something bigger.
“Tomorrow’s success is bigger than yes-
terday’s success”
God does not want you to camp around
“the mountain of yesterday’s success”. A
wise man once said that “success without
a successor is failure”. You will end up a
failure when you don’t improve on yester-
day’s success. When people become satis-
fied with what they have achieved in life,
they tend to become comfortable and stay
where they are. John Mason said, “The
first step towards going somewhere is to
decide that you are not going to stay
where you are”.
Again, In Micah 2:10, God says:
“Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your
rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy
you, even with a sore destruction”.
It is not to your advantage to rest on your
laurels. You are running the risk of pollut-
ing your tomorrow if you do so. Yester-
day’s success is only good enough for yes-
terday. You need new goals and new
dreams. The people who were singing your
praise yesterday, will be the same people
crying, “Crucify him, crucify him” , tomor-
row, if you don’t do something new today.
Your past achievements will do all they can
to keep you where you are, but it is your
responsibility to let go of the past and em-
brace the future. Apostle Paul gave us the
secret of his fulfilled destiny in Philippians
3:13-14: “Brethren, I count not myself to
have apprehended: but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus”.
This was a man who wrote two third of

new testaments, and did mind-blowing ex-
ploits for the kingdom of God, yet he tells
us , that the secret of his success, was his
ability to let go off the things he had done in
the past, in order to reach out for the greater
things he could yet do. Your tomorrow is far
greater than anything you have ever ac-
complished in your past.
However, I think there is a need to strike a
balance here. Although, in order to explain
what stagnation really is, I have been talk-
ing about you not improving on yester-
day’s success. But the truth is that your
situation may have nothing or little to do
with your past success. There are so many
reasons why stagnation can occur in one’s
life. Your problem could have been caused
by some other factors such as; negative at-
titude, unbelief, lack of commitment, and
disobedience to God etc. The purpose of
this book is to help you take a closer look
at your life so that you can get to the root
of the problem and deal with it. This book
is about you and not your next door
neighbour.
Self Examination: The Key to Personal
Freedom
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the
faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not
your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is
in you, except ye be reprobates?
2 Cor 13:5
The key to personal recovery is self exami-
nation. If you are going to succeed in find-
ing a lasting solution to your situation,
then you will first have to look inwards
before you look outwards. It is more easier
to blame other people for your problems,
but the truth is that you are responsible for
whatever happens in your life. Nothing
can happen in your life without your per-
mission, whether good or bad. It is true
that God has planned or designed your
destiny, but it is also true that He has
placed it in your hand.
This is what God said in Deuteronomy 30
verse 19: “I call heaven and earth to record
this day against you, that I have set be-
fore you life and death, blessing and curs-
ing: THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE , that
both thou and thy seed may live:
A large number of the events that take
place in our lives are a product of the
choices we make in life. Your choice will
either make or break you. Neither God or
the devil can do anything in your life
without you directly or indirectly allowing
it. The choices you make will always give
permission to something or someone to
happen in your life. So examine the qual-
ity of the choices that you have made in
the past, because there lies the key to your
personal freedom. People fail or succeed in
life by choice and not by design. Every
man and woman that was created by God,
was loaded with enough potential for
“Greatness”. God is not a partial God and
He does not favour one person over the
other.
God expects you to take full responsibly
for the happenings in your life. It is easy to
point an accusing finger at people or
things. If anything goes wrong in your life,
you are the first culprit, you may not
know it, but it is true. Remember the story
of Adam and Eve in the Genesis chapter
three:
And they heard the voice of the LORD
God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day: and Adam and his wife hid them-
selves from the presence of the LORD God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the
LORD God called unto Adam, and said
unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the gar-
den, and I was afraid, because I was na-
ked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who
told thee that thou wast naked? Hast
thou eaten of the tree, whereof I com-
manded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, THE WOMAN WHOM
THOU GAVEST TO BE WITH ME, she
gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the

LORD God said unto the woman, What is
this that thou hast done? And the woman
said, THE SERPENT BEGUILED ME, and
I did eat. And the LORD God said unto
the serpent, Because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle, and
above every beast of the field; upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat all the days of thy life: Gen 3:8-14
God had commanded Adam and His wife
Eve, not to eat of the tree of knowledge and
good which was in the middle of the gar-
den, But they disobeyed Him when the
devil came into the picture. As a result of
that they lost their spiritual covering and
became alienated from the nature of God,
thereby dying spiritually. When God came
to the garden looking for the couple He
could not find them, so he called out to
Adam, but he was nowhere to be found,
because they had hid themselves away
from God. The question I would like to ask
is this. Why did God go to Adam first and
not Eve or the serpent that had deceived
Eve.
The answer to that is, when God first gave
the commandment to Adam in Gen 2:17,
Eve was not yet created [v 18]. Eventually
when Eve was created from the rib of
Adam, Adam was made the head of that
home. So when God had realised what
happened, He came straight to Adam. Yes
it is true that it was Eve, who by the decep-
tion of the serpent ate the fruit and gave to
her husband. But God had put Adam in
charge of that union, therefore he was to be
held accountable for anything that happens
in that home. Have you not noticed that
the bible did not say, “And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked; and they sewed fig leaves to-
gether, and made themselves apron”, until
Adam also ate of the fruit. I believe that
things would have been different had
Adam refused to eat the fruit. A husband is
the covering of his wife.
“Blaming others for your own mistake
will only prolong the life span of the
problem”
When God got to Adam, He asked, “Hast
thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat? Adam re-
plied, “the woman whom thou gavest to be
with me”. Instead of him to take the blame
he passed it on. He first of all blamed God
and then blamed the woman.
What he was saying indirectly to God is
this, "if you had not given me a wife, this
would not have happened” and “don’t ask me,
ask the woman, she was the one who gave me
the fruit”. Does this sound like someone
you know? So God left Adam alone for a
while, and went over to Eve, to hear her
side of the story. She also passed the blame
on. She said, “the serpent [devil] deceived me?
None of them owned up or took responsi-
bility for what had happened. And that is
the evil nature of men. I believe you know
what happened after that. Their excuses or
blames did not spare them from God’s
judgement.
This should therefore tell you that blaming
others or giving excuses for your situation
will not solve the problem but worsen it al-
together. The danger of always finding ex-
cuses for everything that happens to you, is
that, it will never let you see the true cause
of your problems. Be a man and take re-
sponsibly for your mistakes or problems.
Have you not noticed that when you point
an accusing finger at something, one finger
is pointing at the thing you are accusing,
one is pointing towards heaven and the
other three are pointing at you? This means
that at least two-third of the problem is
your fault. It is time to take a look at your-
self, and try to see when you have gone
wrong, you may not be able to see all there
is to see, but God through His spirit is
ready to help you if you will let Him. In our
next newsletter we will be focusing on
some of the areas you will need to examine.
Just be honest to yourself and make
amends where necessary.
To be continued....