Chidi Jacob - Whose Life Are You Living?: Discovering the Wisdom to Walk in Freedom

Whose

Life

are you

Living?

Discovering the Wisdom to Walk in Freedom

Chidi Jacob

This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Whose Life Are You Living?

Copyright 2013 by Chidi Jacob

Paperback ISBN 978-0-9893873-5-4

Published by

GodKulture Publishing

Chicago, Illinois

Phone: 773-696-0008

Email: publishing@GodKulture.org

www.GodKulturepublishing.com

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible:

New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica.

Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Other translations used are King James Version (KJV), the Amplified Bible (AMP), the New King James Version (NKJV), and the English Standard Version (ESV). Emphasis is added in some verses by the author.

Printed in the United States of America

I dedicate this book,

first, to the grace of God that has been made available to

everyone to live the God-ordained life;

and also to you, the reader, within whom this life of

greatness is being awakened.

Acknowledgments

My Lovely Wife: Like a gentle force, you inspire and provide the energy from within. Thanks for loving me.

My Mother: The very first love I experienced, you saw strength in me when everyone else saw weakness. Thank you.

Pastor Sam Ore: If all men were like you, everyone will realize their purpose and live to the fullness of their potentials. Thanks for pushing me.

Godkulture Publishing: Thank you so much for your dedication.

Contents

Whats wrong with Mamas Ideals?

Born to Greatness, Tied to Struggles

Living in the State of Incompleteness

First State of Incompleteness: Slave to Self and Fear

Second State of Incompleteness: Slave to Desire

Part Two / Rethinking Phase

The Indispensable Revolution

Necessary Paradigm Shift in Education

Reversing Human Capacity Development

The Road to Recovery

Locating Your Place of Relevance

Part Three / Awakened to Your Creator

In Pursuit of God

The Truth You Must Know

Core Foundation I: Conquering Self

Core Foundation II: Obeying the Great Commandment

Core Foundation III: Reversing the Order

Every journey has four primary components; the purpose, the beginning, the process, and the desired end. The most crucial of the four is the purpose. A purposeless journey has no visible end because it lacks focus and a clear sense of direction. Thus, it is characterized by many wandering turns. A purposeful one is not without trouble either but it is worth the challenges if one focuses on the expected end. The journey of life can be cruel and incredibly difficult. This is the reality of existence whether your birth was planned or accidental, whether you were born with a golden spoon or no spoon at all.

The worlds system of suppression, lifes challenges and our environment of nurture can cause a diversion from the path God has set before us. This can be in form of emotional struggles, financial instability, developmental and academic difficulties, dashed hopes or failed dreams. Thus, the totality of human effort has been channeled towards overcoming these challenges. In fact, it appears today that the need to prevail over these issues has redefined the reason for existence of many.

The unfortunate tragedy is that millions have started to live according to the dictates of external pressures, dancing to the tunes programmed by superficial customs and living a life completely foreign to them. Chances are that your originality and uniqueness for relevance has been muffled to conform to these systems of expectations and traditions, killing the very purpose for which life was given to you.

This book will help you begin a journey of recovery, launching you into freedom and empowering you with the knowledge that will aid you to be in tune with your true identity so that you can live a life of relevance. It guides you to rethink and refocus your educational and career goals, exposing the truth about your quiescent potentials. It also helps you to remember your Creator, presenting you with His truths and the core foundation of your faith.

Remember, one of the greatest gifts God has given to man is the liberty of the mind; and to reclaim that freedom is equally the greatest accomplishment. Devouring the contents of this life-transforming material will invigorate you to regain your freedom so that you can live the life God predetermined for you. The life where genuine success is attainable. Yes! It is attainable.

Chidi Jacob

Abuja, Nigeria

Unfortunately, in an effort to raise children who were not lazy, our parents taught us that hard work equal to better living. Could it be possible that our parents prepared us for a world that passed with them? Could our twenty-first century techno age require us to reposition ourselves for a new way of thinking? Yet subconsciously we often stay with the inherited framework and never make advancement into contemporary progressive thinking that will increase our effectiveness [T.D. Jakes].

While working on this book, I visited a friend whose wife had just put to bed a beautiful baby girl. As this lovely two day old baby was placed into my arms, I looked deeply into her smallish face full of expectations, and I wondered what she knew about her surroundings. When I inquired about her name, her exuberated and joyful mother told me that shortly after or even before she was conceived, they had named her Peculiar.

Hmmm, this got me thinking as I wrote this page the following morning. I began to contemplate how nature often puts us under the control of nurture. When we are born, we are named according to the feelings, experiences, and state of mind of our parents, whether its good or bad. In the past, painful experiences gave birth to very unsociable names. For example, I have a distant relative whose name literally translates to, the child of a bitter heart.

Though such names might be changed later on in life, just like my relative did, but in reality our mindset remains unchanged. We simply change our label but not our content. But beyond the brand we carry in our names, our parents, in their duty to raise us, do expose us to whatever they consider good and needful towards a better upbringing.

BATTLE OF IDENTITY

Take for instance, we are sent to the best schools within their physical and economic reach; and they taught us acceptable customs and traditions that must be known and therefore practiced in order to be acceptable both to the family and the larger society. Therefore, like Peculiar, we all are cultured according to the dictates of our parents as the closest representatives of the larger society. Even though, progressively, some approach might have been modified, but the underlying philosophy to this process continues when we have our own children.

Unfortunately, in most cases, this supposedly acceptable custom rarely leads us to the discovery of our true and unique identity and the path of Gods purpose for our existence because they are mostly based on human expectations and calculations. In the place of