What Miracles Will Not Do For You

WHAT

MIRACLES

WILL NOT DO

FOR YOU

SUNDAY ADELAJA

Sunday Adelaja

What Miracles Will not Do for You

©2018 Sunday Adelaja

ISBN 978-1727597653

Copyright © Golden Truth Publishing

Kiev, Ukraine. All rights reserved

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise — without prior written permission of the author.

Cover design by Alexander Bondaruk

Interior design by Olena Kotelnykova

© Sunday Adelaja, 2018,

What Miracles Will not Do for You — Kiev, Ukraine:

Golden Truth Publishing, 2018

All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 7

chapter one: Miracles Will not Make you a Champion/King on Earth 13

Diligence Crowns Kings, not Miracles 15

Prayer without Work is Null 21

Champions Apply Knowledge through Work 26

If Miracles Crown Kings, Unbelievers will be

Hopeless 30

chapter two: Miracles Will not Sustain/Maintain your Prosperity 37

Miracles will not Maintain Your Lucky Wins 38

Continually Seeking Financial Miracles Turns

You into a Fraudster 42

You Should Be a Creator, not a Beggar 46

Stop Being at the Mercy of Others; Take Charge

of Your Life 51

Miracles are Exceptions not the Norm 54

chapter three: Miracles will not Develop a Nation 65

Prayers Alone Cannot Develop a Nation 66

The Role of the Church in National

Development 70

The Difference Between Process and Miracles 74

Why Process is Better than Miracles for

Development 77

chapter four: Miracles Can Give you Healing but not Good Health 87

God’s Plan for Us Doesn’t Include Sickness 89

Sickness is a thing of the Mind 92

You are Responsible for your Health 98

The Importance of Spiritual Growth

and Maturity 104

chapter five: Miracles will not Give You Blissful Marriage nor Train Your Children 115

No Miracle will prepare you for Marriage 117

Miracles will not Give You Marital Stability 125

Miracles will not Raise Your Children 131

chapter six: Miracles will not Give You Academic and Career Success 141

Absolute Faith in Truth Produces Success 143

God does not Reward Mediocrity 147

It is Value that Produces Success 152

chapter seven: Miracles will not Grow You Spiritually and Mentally 159

Are You Spiritually Grown? 162

Spiritual Growth Only Comes from a True

Relationship with God 164

When You Grow Mentally, You will not be a

Miracle Seeker 171

chapter eight: Miracles will not Establish Your Church 183

Miracles Will Only Attract Crowd to Your

Church 185

Only Kingdom Principles can Establish your

Church 188

A Church Based on Miracles Cannot

Raise Sons 196

FINAL THOUGHTS 203

INTRODUCTION

You can’t look at the problem and say, ‘I want them to do more, better, faster miracles - and not invest in research, not invest in development, and have those miracles delivered to me free.’ It’s unrealistic.

Dean Kamen

This quote by Engineer, Inventor, and Businessman Dean Kamen touches on a subject that saddens me greatly. Whenever I think about the millions of people investing their time, their money, and sometimes, their lives in the unrealistic pursuit of miracles, I can’t help but feel sorry for them. When I think of their ignorance, their naiveté, and how much they have been taken advantage of, I struggle not to cry out in anger.

You see, millions of people have been brainwashed into believing that miracles hold the answer to every question. When faced with any problem or challenge, the first thing they’ll think about as regards solution is miracles. When they fall sick, they hope on miracles to make them well; when they have marital problems, they pray for miracles to help get their home in order; when they need jobs; they pray for miracles to get them employment; they depend on miracles for financial prosperity; they depend on miracles to save their country from underdevelopment and corruption. They depend on miracles for everything.

Am I saying miracles are not real? Yes, miracles are real, but we are not supposed to depend on them as you will be learning the several reasons I said so all through this book. The quotation above makes it very clear that hoping for miracles without putting in the required work is unrealistic; it won’t work. Miracles will not help you get a job if you do not have the necessary qualifications. Even if you get the job, miracles will not sustain it for you or give you a promotion. Miracles will not save you from obesity (and all the health complications that come with it) if you don’t eat healthily and exercise regularly; miracles will not develop your nation if you don’t utilize the dignity of labor; miracles will not keep you in marriage or train your children. NO! Miracles will not do so many things for you. Then, why is it that people are making miracles the essential pursuit of their lives?

The idea of miracles has been so oversubscribed that in countries like my beloved Nigeria today, people hardly put in effort anymore. All they want to do is fast and pray for miracles. The propagation of the gospel of miracles has made people so lazy to the extent that they just sit around waiting for the miraculous divine interventions that will bring all their heart desires to them.

Rather than chastise their members and show them the folly of their ways, many leaders indulge their members and fill their places of worship with millions of miracle-hungry members. Because they want their membership numbers to swell (and in some cases, because of the inherent financial gain), they allow these people to go on believing that miracles hold the solution to all their problems. Some of them even go as far as using the promise of miracles to keep people in their churches. The concept of miracles has been grossly and extensively abused; this isn’t supposed to be so.

It is even more saddening when you consider the fact that in many countries of the world where the people are not so miracle-dependent, the quality of life is significantly better. All the things the people in Nigeria are hoping on miracles to provide, people in other countries have them in abundance. They didn’t get them by miracles, NO, they got them through tangible work (using time-tested principles).

While we pray for miracles that will give us security, they built security forces that keep their country safe; while we hope on miracles for development; they worked on themselves and came up with ways to develop their country technologically and economically; while we hope for miracles that will help curb corruption; they enforced laws that did so for them. The list of things for which we’re hoping for miracles, and for which others have gotten through their own effort is almost endless.

The question here now is; why is it that Africans see all these things, yet they are not provoked to put in work too? Why are we so dependent on miracles for things that can clearly be gotten through processes? It defies logic. Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying, Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. If repeating something that isn’t working is madness, and we have been hoping for miracles for so long, and things haven’t been improving, should we continue in the madness, or is it time for a new approach?

I’m not trying to say that miracles do not work, or that miracles are useless. No. Miracles happen, and they are from God, but God didn’t create miracles so that people will depend on them on 100% and stop working.

When we constantly ask for miracles, we’re unravelling the fabric of the world. A world of continuous miracles would not be a world; it would be a cartoon.

Douglas Coupland

Canadian Novelist and Artist, Douglas Coupland paints a picture of a world where all pleas for miracles are granted. It would render the need for hard work useless. Principles and processes will become obsolete, people will just ask for anything, and it would appear. The world would be like a movie, a cartoon. The purpose of this book is not to show that miracles do not have the power to change your life, because they do. However, you cannot depend on miracle for everything, especially things that you can get through work. God, in his infinite greatness, has given us all that we need to live a life that doesn’t require a perpetual dependence on miracles. It is now up to us to tap into the resources we have been endowed with, and make great exploits (like many people in the developed world are doing).

Men create real miracles when they use their God-given courage and intelligence.

Jean Anouilh

God created the ultimate miracle when he created men. He gave us the brains to come up with processes that will solve our problems, and the power to actualize them. Alexander Graham-Bell didn’t invent the telephone miraculously, and Thomas Edison didn’t stumble on the schematics for the electric bulb while sitting idle. The Wright brothers didn’t hope for miracles to help them fly, they invented airplanes. God has given us the ability to make our own miracles; He doesn’t expect us to come to him begging for more. He wants us to take the initiative and stop crying to him for every little need. It is high time Africans stop limiting and frustrating their lives because of superstitions. I doubt if there is any other preacher alive who has witnessed as many miracles as God has used me to do in my lifetime. Yet, I do not make anyone depend on miracles. I am a very firm and an unyielding advocate of principles. I have become who I am because of principles and not miracles. And this applies to you, my reader, as well. Whoever you will become in life will happen by principles that you have understood and applied.

Instead of spending hours on that mountaintop asking for the miracle that will get you a job, why not acquire qualifications that will make you a hot prospect for top companies? Instead of hoping for miracles to help you grow your business, why don’t you adopt smart business practices and principles? Instead of depending on prayer to develop your nation, why not replicate the principles other developed nations have successfully used?

I hope that this book will be the wake-up call that will rouse my people from their slumber. I have no doubt that we have the greatness of God inside us, and I am sure that with a little guidance, people will come to find that they actually don’t need to go around seeking miracles all their lives. All the time that has been spent waiting for prophecies and anointing services is enough; it is now time to use processes and procedures to get those things that we so desire.

In this book, I will discuss kingdom principles that will help you shed your over-dependence on miracles. You will understand why miracles should not be your first response to any situation. For nearly every situation you’re scampering about looking for a miraculous intervention for, there are real-life principles that you can apply to a great effect. As you go on, you will start to realize the folly of a miracle-hungry lifestyle; you will see why you didn’t need to spend days fasting and praying on that mountain.

Once you start to incorporate the principles you are about to learn; your life will be better for it. Once you start applying them to your way of life, your society will be better for it. If enough Nigerians take these principles to heart, our country will get better for it. Gone will be the days when you will be at the mercy of anointed men who seek to keep you dependent on them.

These principles are not speculative. They are tested and trusted. Abiding by these principles, my ministry has grown in leaps and bounds until we built what is today the largest church in Europe. God has empowered me to raise a lot of Kingdom sons and daughters who are doing great things for the King of kings. These people are not at the mercy of miracles. They are instead causing transformation of lives and the society. Get ready to embark on a journey of relevant discoveries, to see all the things miracles will not do.

chapter one

Miracles Will not Make you a

Champion/King

on Earth

Miracles by their very nature are events or happenings that are contrary to what is regarded as normal or usual. Because of its extraordinary nature, however, people have grown to become too dependent on it. These days, it is not uncommon to see people depend on miracles for things that they can do themselves. As a matter of fact, it has gotten so bad that time that should be spent sourcing for solutions to practical problems is spent praying that the problems miraculously cease to exist. Impractical, right?

Rather than prepare adequately for tests and exams, students prefer to pray for some sort of miracles that will help them pass. When a spot opens up at a firm, instead of spending time shoring up their CVs and getting the required qualifications, applicants would rather hope that by a stroke of fortune or luck, they get the job; as a matter of fact, some of them will actively seek measures that they assume will help improve their chances of landing the job.

Young men and women with dreams of starting companies and becoming the foremost brand in the world in one field or the other spend more time looking for miracles than they do thinking up ideas. This attitude is spreading wider by the day and as a result, institutes that promise miracles are the only ones flourishing in our country.

I implore you to take a step back from the folly. Let us look at it critically, is miracles really the way forward or is there something that you could be doing that guarantees success in the way miracles cannot? I proclaim to you with all confidence that, indeed, there is something that can assure your place as the champion of your field; hard work is the answer. Hard work and diligence have crowned more kings and made more champions than anything else. Right from Biblical accounts, to history, to the world we live in presently, examples abound of men/women who abandoned the idea of miraculously achieving greatness. These people adapted the concept of hard work, diligence, and perseverance instead, and in so doing, they were able to make something truly great out of their lives.

It is only wise that you follow the steps of these great people that chose to make their own luck than wait for it to appear miraculously. It is only by doing so that you can take your place at the top of your sphere of influence.

Diligence Crowns Kings, Not Miracles

After graduating top of his class at the university, Phillip was promptly snapped up by one of the biggest corporations in the country. He was a brilliant young man, and he strived to always give his best in everything he did. Two months after his employment, one of Phillip’s classmate, Eric was recruited to the same firm. Eric wasn’t even in the top 10 of their graduating class and Phillip was a little surprised at his recruitment; on paper, Phillip was miles ahead of Eric. In fact, nearly all the other new recruits at the firm were better than Eric qualification-wise, and how he was recruited at all was a thing of constant discussion around the office.

The firm they worked for had a policy: every 2 years,