Have you ever felt disadvantaged by location? As if you are where you are because of where you are. This is one reason for the global influx into urban centres. As at 2007, the Population Reference Bureau said ‘the world is on the verge of a shift: from predominantly rural to mainly urban… By 2030, urban dwellers will make up roughly 60 percent of the world's population’. Presently, Singapore is 100% urban. Of course, the cities offer more facilities and opportunities, so that shift is easily understood. And this is particularly so in developing countries. So, if those facilities will not come to the villages, we should go for them where they are. Am I teaching Urban and Regional Planning today (by the way, that is what I studied in school)? Not really. I will not dwell on Population Shift as much as I will on Paradigm Shift. What you need first is not a change of where you are, but where your mind is set.
One man that the major religions of the world lay claim to as a progenitor is Abraham. Oh, I am talking religion now. I am talking people and the people’s opium has not changed much since Karl Marx discovered. Abraham from the Biblical records was called by God to father the nations. God told Abraham in Genesis 12:1 ‘Get out of your country …’ and in verse 4 Abraham departed as the LORD has spoken. In verses 5 and 6, he and his family got to the land of the Canaanites. Now nothing in that story suggested Abraham left a rural area for an urban one. In fact, Abraham was called from an urban centre to ‘a land I will show you’ (as God Himself had put it in Genesis 12: 1). That looks like the land of Nowhere. Nowhere is either No Where or Now Here, it is a question of your mindset. So Abraham found himself in Canaan, and God appeared to him saying ‘To your descendants, I will give this land’. Today, we refer to Canaan as the ‘Promised Land’, is it not? Okay. If you have read your Bible from the beginning and you got to verse 25 of Genesis 9, won’t you be shocked to read ‘Cursed be Canaan’? So how did a Blessed man find himself in a cursed land? How could God so lead his man there?
Let me attempt an answer to the questions raised in the last paragraph. It is probably to show the efficacy of the Blessing. If you are so blessed, does it matter if the land is cursed? Isaac had an experience. There was famine in the land, and God told Isaac to avoid a generational mistake- Do not go to Egypt. Abraham did. So where should Isaac go? God told him to stay. Where? Gerar; the land in which there was famine! Genesis 26. So Isaac settled down. The man of blessing began to sow in the land of famine. And he began to prosper and became very prosperous. The Philistine envied him, resisted him, until they feared him. Ain’t no stopping the blessed man. The first emphasis is you before the place. You see, if you are so blessed of God, He will put you in the most difficult of places to prove the point. Elisha got to a place and was informed of the barrenness of the land and the water. The man of God put salt in a bowl of water and went right to the source of the bad water to pour the solution. And the land and water was healed. 2 Kings 2:19-22. I think the worst point of a bad river should be its source; that is where to put the salt. Jesus said ‘Ye are the salt of the earth’ Matthew 5: 13. Which places do you think would need the most salt? And you say you are blessed.
The point of this piece is to deemphasize your worry about where you are not and focus on where you are. You can hit the earth from where you are! See, all of us humans have the same contact with the earth. You touch the ground, I do too. It is not a matter of location; it is a matter of impact! A tsunami is a tsunami anywhere. Where it hits the earth, from there the impact is felt. A click on your keyboard can hit the worldwideweb. It does not matter where you are. You can hit the earth. That idea in your mind-right where you are-can rock the world. We can hit the earth right where we are!
Let me tell you about some people. John the Baptist, Myles Munroe and Gbile Akanni.
John was a rare man. Early in his life, he took to a lifestyle that must have disturbed hi relatives. He wore camel’s skin, ate locust and wild honey. And he lived in the wilderness. Yet people of all works of life flocked to the deserts to listen to him. If his message was so important why did he not come into the city? Your message had better be powerful first before importance. Oh yes, Jesus went into the cities with His own message, but long after Jesus left the earth the power of His message is still spreading it. So one day, Jesus asked a multitude of people ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see?’ Matthew 11: 7. He was referring to John- the camel-wearing, locust-eating prophet. And Jesus informed them that John was more than a prophet. He was the greatest man before the days of Jesus. (See Matthew 11:5-15). Yet that man made his impact from the wilderness. That is not a place you would want to go, is it? So you can hit the earth right where you are.
Myles Munroe. The day someone compared some of my writings to that of Myles, my joy blew the rooftop. I have some of his books and have read many of his writings. I have also listened to him severally. A man of rare insights. He is a consultant to governments and many Fortune 500 companies. He is well sought after for his motivational speeches on leadership. He has been to Nigeria a number of times at the instances of churches and even the government. He is a black man, and not so impressive in stature. But if you ever listened to him and remain the same, your case is very serious. Now where is he based? In Bahamas. The Bahamas is an age long settlement of liberated slaves of mainly African origin, and that remains the bulk of the populated till date. Why Myles never thought of relocating to the US beats me. If only to feel among and get off the ‘slavery stigma’, shouldn’t he have planted his church in New York? No he did not. Today he has contributed immensely not only globally, but to his country (he is the youngest recipient of the British Empire OBE Award for his social and spiritual contributions. Today Bahamas is the third richest country in the Americas after US and Canada, terms of GDP per capita and the richest country of African people. You can hit the earth from where you are.
Gbile Akanni is in a class of his own among men of the pulpit. He does not have a church of his own but holds an interdenominational fellowship that attracts Christians of all denomination. He is man of the word who is in very high demand locally and internationally as he preaches from churches to churches on invitation. I have sat before him in Ife and at Maiduguri (these are two ends of Nigeria). That man presents a standard of life from the Scriptures that put you on your toes, no matter who you think you are. No wonder, though they call him Bro Gbile, he is the ‘pastor of pastors’. He holds conferences where ministers of God go to prune themselves and sharpen their heavenly focus. This man is based in Gboko. Gboko is not even known to most Nigerians, so don’t bother. It is a remote town in Benue state, Nigeria. My mum did her one year compulsory national youth service in that town far back in the early 70s, and she said not much has changed when she visited years after. This is the place where this rare man of God chose to stay. Yet he has been making lasting global impact. Common, you can hit the earth from where you are.
So here am I. At the moment, I am in Lokoja. And it is the location of the confluence of two major rivers in Africa- Rivers Niger and Benue. If you love tourism, you may not enjoy your visit to Lokoja. But if you love history, you will. Lokoja was the capital of British Northern Nigeria Protectorate and was the first capital of the British government in 1914 when the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria was amalgamated. Lord Fredrick Lugard, the first Governor General ruled Nigeria from Lokoja. In fact, the name Nigeria is believed to mean ‘Niger-area’, that is ‘places around the Niger River’. The name was given by Flora Shaw, wife of Lord Lugard.The Confluence at Lokoja gives you an easy understanding of the geopolitical structure of the world’s largest black nation. Samuel Ajayi Crowther founded the first primary school in Northern Nigeria in Lokoja. History. History. And history. Is there any future here? The largest cement factory south of the Sahara and owned by the current richest black man on earth, Aliko Dangote (Now, why do I have him as the wallpaper of my phone?) is situated few kilometres away from Lokoja. Abuja the FCT is less than three hours’ drive away. Talk of potentials. I can go on and on and you feel like coming to see. And then you are not impressed. This is where I live and work. This is the place where I am hitting the earth- one blow at a time. I am being inspired daily and empowered of God to hit the earth right here. It won’t be long, the world will rock.
So where are you now? What should you begin to do? You may not need a migration; you need first of all a ‘mind’-gration. I will close with what God told Abraham when Lot left him for the city, he told Abraham ‘Lift up your eyes NOW and look FROM WHERE YOU ARE… for all the land which you see, I give to you…’. And then God told him ‘Arise and WALK IN THE LAND…for I give it to you.’ Genesis 13:14-17. When you can shift your mind to your vision- I dare you to make it a global one-, then you can start doing something about it. You can begin to hit the earth.
This is my word to you ‘ARISE AND HIT THE EARTH FROM WHERE YOU ARE!’
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