12. And the younger of them said to his father; Father, give me he portion f goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
13. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with rioutous living
14. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
The prodigal son fell for the deception of the pseudo-wealth he had gathered from his father. Real wealth is not what you have in the bank or the buildings you have built, real wealth is what is in your heart. pseudo wealth has the tendency of deceiving people. It’s one of the warnings God gave us in the church, don’t let pseudo wealth make you fail the test of pride because the more things are increasing in your heart, the sfer for God to do more and give you more in your hand. If there’s nothing substantial in your heart and the things in your hands are increasing, it will destroy you. People like this permit success to separate them from God. The premature departure of the prodigal son from his father’s covering is one of the symptoms of pseudo-wealth. The elder brother had as much property as the prodigal but he stayed with the father, never disconnect. Absalom departed from David’s counsel, Gehazi departed from Elisha’s counsel and their end was nothing to be desired in the next generation.
The prodigal son had no plans for the future, no savings, no investments and he went to a far country; this is false autonomy when you’ve not learnt to do things well under authority and you claim autonomy. Such an individual will say “I can stand on my own”. Ask yourself if it is God’s direction for you to start something of your own now, or is it the season for somebody ahead of you to cushion your mistakes so that you can learn under him and you would have learnt something that money cannot buy. This is paying for your mistakes. When you eventually become autonomous, remember him. He may be your elder brother who brought you under his wings in his shop and he’s training you how to do business, when you lost N150,000 he didn’t cut off your head because you’re of the same father and mother, he cushioned the pain and he paid for your mistakes. There are some lessons in life hat you will learn at great cost, don’t repeat them again.
I remember a young man whose wife made his life miserable and tough because she refused to work under anybody; her classmate who went to work at the bank ended up as a bank manager. She was very cocky and her husband was struggling as a pastor. Beware of pride; it always goes before a fall. Some people move into false autonomy not because they are trained but because they are proud and don’t want to serve under anybody! Here are some people who can teach you the critical lessons of your calling, career and trade. Some people got their wealth and success in an ungodly manner, such people will teach you how to die in sin but there are some other men who can teach you the legal way of succeeding in your business and you can learn from them. Stay under them, stay under somebody. Let somebody show you how to do something, learn it and learn it well.
Be sincere to ask yourself why am i moving into autonomy? Some pastors have started their own ministries based on the evil of false autonomy without learning the critical details of their calling. God ma have anointed you to start something later in your life but you need to learn the critical lessons somewhere. I regularly ask people, “What are you learning?” My wife and I go to some places and when we leave she asks, “Why didn’t you talk there, since you know more on the same subject than the people there?” I would answer saying, “I wanted to know what they know”. Most people are only interested in what they want to say, not what others want to say. I decided years ago to do more listening than talking. I’ve never seen anybody being arrested for keeping quiet.
Over the years, media people have asked me to grant interviews but I have said, “I’ve never done it and I don’t want to do it”. Television stations ask, “Do you have anything to say sir?” I say “I don’t have anything to say, if I do, I will say it on Sunday. Don’t build your life on the comment of people who don’t know you. In the far country, no one knew the prodigal son and they assumed he was a success, but he had disconnected from the voice of reason and wisdom in his life. The people in the far country though he was a success because he came with material thing but had nothing substantial in his heart. Remember: It’s what is in your heart that will keep what is in your hand. If your heart is empty, your purse will soon follow suit. Money flowed away from this boy because there was nothing in his heart that could preserve what was in his hand. He had no father, no counsel, no caution, no control, he had no positive company and he espoused a wrong lifestyle.
Luke 15:13
13. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together; and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
Let your heart be filled with value, kingdom insights, concepts, instructions and solutions to problems. Just keep stocking your heart and the material things for your hand will come. Take time to assess yourself on how rich you are in your heart. Don’t marry a man because he has a car, marry him because he knows where he is going. There are things that should be in your heart, that is different from the things in your hand.
ELIMINATE WASTAGE FROM YOUR LIFE
Look at the following words in the life of the prodigal son: “Waste”, “Spent all”, “Famine” and “Want”. Eliminate all forms of wastage from your life. Eschew riotous living, flee from the wrong company because the company you keep will either bring rot or discipline into your life. Which company are you keeping? What effect does your company have on your life and your finances? The prodigal son spent all! You should prepare against the days of famine. I taught in our church on how to develop a savings habit and that your target should be to at least save up to six months of your current salary. If anything happens in the present salary, you can at least have the same lifestyle for six months before you find something else to do.
Most times when young men come to see my wife to share their intentions to get married, they see my wife with the details of how they arrived at their decisions, either by leading or revelations, for example a young man may say i saw a vision, i saw a tree that stood over there and one stood here and fell down, the other one fell down and became tow rivers and they met together and i saw myself standing at one end of the river and the lady stood at the other end. I often ask, “Where is your passbook?” And he begins to stutter. A man who does not have a saving habit does not have discipline, spending everything shows you are a prodigal son in the making. You can’t be spending everything and think you are going to succeed in marriage. I don’t have much respect for a man who doesn’t have a savings account. He says, I’ve not opened one”, even though he has been working for two years. It’s not too late to open a savings account. Encourage your children to start and develop it. There are things that the prodigal son should have seen and learned in his father.
Some brothers came to report a colleague of their who was living a life that was larger than his real level. Anytime his colleague wanted to but sachet water, he would buy bottled water. He assumed his colleagues were envious of him, but the reality was that he didn’t have caution in his life and one of the brothers who reported him had is upbringing with elderly people and he was able to move into his personal house before his wedding so the matter of envy was out of the questions. You should be doing major things with your life and not frivolous things; why should you be comfortable to rug another man’s house when you colleagues are laying blocks on their building site? Although i speak like this, i am not a youth minister but i am sent to talk to destinies of people. Calling people back to their God-given destiny and speak to the destiny of people until it breaks forth. I am committed to raising serious people who will be chief men in their generation.
You must know who not to marry and who not to work for. If you work for a prodigal boss, like this man, the company will go bankrupt and they will owe you so many months’ salary. If you do business with a prodigal person as your partner, he will spend your money carelessly along with his own. This is not the type of person you want to trust with your investments. Surround yourself with wisdom; you cannot find any unserious man of God as my friend, my friends create an atmosphere of soberness in me. There are things we cannot think of doing because of the opinions of one another.
The prodigal son had bad habits; you must understand that habits determine your destination and not your vision. Good vision or revelation of your future must be backed up by good habits if you will end up in a good destination in life.
