Moneywise 13: Doing Business for God till thy Kingdom Come

Celebrity Blogger Gbenga Dan Asabe of Asabeafrika with Mudiaga Enajemo, Founder MUDI Africa 
One of the
secrets my Mentor snared with me is that every day, I should set aside between
30 minutes and an hour to relax and meditate. This is different from the “separation
session”
he had recommended earlier. During this short period, he
advised that I may choose to do nothing but just relax or use it for short
meditation to sort out any difficult challenge I face. I started practicing
this about late last year and I can confirm that it works. I have found a
recreation spot around the Lagos State House of Assembly,
suitable for this exercise. I try to observe this period of short relaxation as
regularly as possible.

That particular
Friday, I was at this location to meditate on my financial discipleship with my
Mentor. I was overwhelmed by the thoughts that came to my mind. I couldn’t
believe I had accumulated so much financial wisdom within such a short period
of time. I was thrilled by some of the things I could now do almost
automatically, that is, being able to track every kobo that flows in and out of
my pocket (this used to be a nightmare), being able to save on a consistent
basis, being able to plan my finances within a very long time horizon, being
able to prepare a sound personal financial statement, being able to internalize
the spiritual dimensions of wealth and a host of other skills. Since I started
the financial wisdom lessons with my Mentor about a year ago, I have developed
an incredible appetite for reading. I have also been able to bury many bad
money habits. The effects of all these lessons on my finances have been
dramatic.
I was really
happy with the assessment of my stewardship with my Mentor so far. I was about
winding up my meditation when my phone rang. It was my Mentor. I was very
excited. My next lesson with him was still two Saturdays away, so what could he
be calling me for? He later explained that he was calling to invite me to a
small party in his house the following day. I tried to find out the details
about the party, but he did not oblige me.


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I was at his
house at exactly 10.00 a.m. on Saturday. There were eleven different brands of
cars parked outside his compound. I was directed by his executive maid to the
open platform on top of his building. The moment he sighted me, he smiled and
beckoned to me that I should come to sit very close to him. I exchanged
pleasantries with all the people I met, eleven in all, as I negotiated my way
to my Mentor’s side.
“As you must have observed, the level of financial
illiteracy in the country today is alarming. Many individuals who ought to be
savoring banquets of prosperity today have found themselves in the financial
red-alert zones. I shudder anytime I see full-time employees driving around in
expensive automobiles, living in houses they would never be in were they to pay
from their pockets and piling up liabilities upon liabilities thinking rather
ignorantly that they are amassing assets. It is sad”
The atmosphere
was very soothing with sentimental music playing in the background. Everybody
was having a good time. Suddenly, the music stopped and my Mentor stood up and
asked us to introduce ourselves. We did that in a few minutes. At that moment,
his wife and one of his children joined us and we all greeted them.
I learnt at that
point that the eleven gentlemen had previously gone through his mentoring
programme. After that he handed over to me, the NIV Quiet Time
Bible
which he was holding in his hand and asked me to read from Luke
9, verses 1 to 6.
It was an account of Jesus sending out His disciples
to the field as a test of how well they had mastered what He had taught them
since His ministry started.
Honestly, I was
at a loss as to what message he was trying to convey. Surprisingly, I did not
notice the same expression of surprise on the faces of the other individuals.
They were just smiling. Just then, my Mentor started to address us.
“Good morning, everybody.  Let me start by saying that I am highly honored
to have you all present here this morning. And let me say openly that I am very
proud of all of you. I am very grateful to God Almighty who has given me the
opportunity to be a part of your lives and to be able to share my experience
with you on how to build lasting wealth. We give Him all the glory.
Only my new friend (referring to me) is probably not in the picture on why we are here this morning. As is the tradition, I go on an extended vacation abroad
with my family every year to unwind and think of new things to do. Tonight, I
will be travelling out of the country with my wife and one of our children. Our
first port of call will be the Bahamas. We will touch several places depending
on what our travel consultant is able to arrange. And we are likely to stay for
quite some time”.
“May I state for the umpteenth time that the major
reason I accepted to be your coach on financial matters is to enable you to
spread the gospel, too. That was what Jesus was trying to demonstrate to His
disciples in the Bible. Knowledge that is not shared, in my opinion, is wasted”.
“As you must have observed, the level of financial
illiteracy in the country today is alarming. Many individuals who ought to be savoring
banquets of prosperity today have found themselves in the financial red-alert
zones. I shudder anytime I see full-time employees driving around in expensive
automobiles, living in houses they would never be in were they to pay from
their pockets and piling up liabilities upon liabilities thinking rather
ignorantly that they are amassing assets. It is sad … very sad indeed. Only
sound financial education can tear off these layers of financial illiteracy.
And that is why I am asking you to go out then and teach them what I have
taught you”.
“Use all the means, any means, at your disposal to
spread the message that the life of abundance is cheaply available to anybody
who is willing to endure the discipline that it required. Move from house to
house to spread the message. Accept public invitations to talk on financial
intelligence. You should see this
assignment as a sort of evangelism and call by God on you to teach people how
to take a firm hold of their financial destinies. God wants us to be rich, but
He cannot bless us beyond the level of our financial intelligence”.
“Gentlemen, let me stop here. I thank you all for
coming.  And remember; use all the means
at your disposal to spread the message. I will leave all my contact details in
each of your e-mail boxes once I have got hold of them”,
he concluded,
as he shook hands with all of us and saw us off to where  we parked our cars.
I must confess
it was an emotional situation for me. I had become so used to meeting with him
that I could not bear the thought of not seeing him for a while. It seemed that
he was going away forever.
(Excerpts from
the book: “THE MILLIONAIRES CAPSULES” by AYO AROWOLO. Read “How to Predict Success and
Failure”
tomorrow on this blog)

Ayo Arowolo, Publisher The Millionaires’ Capsules