Regain Hope

Author: Rev. Prof. Ivy Drafor-Amenyah

  • At the Appointed Time

    At the Appointed Time

    Are you tired of waiting?  Waiting for things that do not seem to be coming and feeling tired?  Here are some things to ponder for such situations.  Do not give up. 

    Consider how long it took for the dreams of Joseph to come to pass!  Besides, it did not take the hand of a man but the divine hand of God, the One who gave him the visions.  Your desires will be accomplished, not by your strength, but by the mercies and grace of God.  Wait for the Lord and He will bring them to pass.  He will deliver you at the right time.  He will not delay.  “Faithful is He who has promised who also will do it” (1 Thes. 5:24).  As you wait, occupy yourself with seeking to know God and His ways.  That is your greatest secret.

    “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5b).  Rejoicing surely comes in the morning.  The night will be over but wait for it to be over.  When your day dawns, your breakthrough cannot be resisted.  Night times do come.  Nonetheless, there is no night so long that the day will not dawn.  Your day will dawn; for “God shall help her, just at the break of dawn” (Psalm 46:5b).  It shall be over and relief shall come to your heart.

    Who has ever been able to resist a day from dawning?  In the same way, no one can stop your vision from materializing.  The appointed time is in the loving hands of our heavenly Father.  God rules in the affairs of men.  A demon cannot resist the blessing of God from coming to you.  As long as you remain faithful to the Lord and live a life of obedience, He will not allow even you yourself to be an obstacle to His move in your life. 

    Wait for the Appointed Time

    “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end, it will speak, and it will not lie.  Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Habakkuk 2:3).  This is a powerful promise but the waiting is what poses the main challenge.  However, the victory lies in the ability to wait.  The appointed time cannot be forced or manipulated into being; it must be waited for.  Waiting for it requires waiting on the Lord, seeking the face of God in order to know what the mind of God is.  If this principle is well understood, there shall be no frustrations in life.  In manipulating is great frustration and agony.  Agony, not for yourself alone, but also for those around you. 

    See how much agony came about when Abraham was becoming tired of waiting and planned with his wife to introduce a child into the family through his maidservant. God had plans to give Abraham a child in His own time.  But that was taking too long for them.  In Genesis 18:14, the Lord asked him: “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son”.  Waiting for the Lord to act was the challenge.

    Joseph wanted a man to help him get out of prison but it did not work.  It did not work because every heart is in the hands of God and He allows it to go one way or the other.  Besides, God loved Joseph too much to allow a man to take the glory for what He had planned to do in Joseph’s life.  If a man had mentioned him to Pharaoh to secure his release from prison, Joseph would not have occupied the position God had for him.  Joseph might have been stranded or enslaved further by another Egyptian and his dreams would not have come to pass; at least, not at that time.  Please endure and wait for God. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).  The victory lies in the ability to endure the time of tribulation for awhile.

    When the appointed time comes, God Himself will hasten it into existence.  “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.  I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time” (Isaiah 60:22).  Again in Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 11, it is said “To everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”  There might be a set time for the work of the Lord in certain areas of your life to manifest.  “You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favor her, yes, the set time, has come” (Psalm 102:13).

    As you wait for your vision and dreams to mature, do all that your hand finds to do as though unto the Lord.  Waiting does not mean doing nothing with hands folded.  Joseph was busy serving in the prison. 

    No Time for Waiting…

    There is one vision God has for you and it has to do with your relationship with Him.  “So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert” (Hebrews 3:7-8).  The day of seeking a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ is today.  On this issue, there is no time for waiting.  All it takes is to acknowledge your sins before God and ask Him to wash you in the blood of His Son which was shed on Calvary.  Acknowledge your need for God in your life and in your circumstances.  Open your heart and ask Jesus to come in and be your Lord and Saviour.  It is not safe to only seek the help of God without seeking a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ.  Your motives are known before Him and no one can deceive the Lord.  Ask Jesus to come into your life today.

    If you already have a personal relationship with God, this is the time to renew your commitment to the Lord and commit your life into His Hands fully.  Confess all acts of manipulation to bring the purposes of God to pass in your life.  Repent also of every way you have ignored spending time to wait on the Lord.  It is those who wait on Him who find His mercy (Psalm 33:18; 123:2).  Maybe you are very frustrated in your efforts to do that which only God can do and the results are almost making you to crush under a load of anxiety.  Give up your efforts and trust God.  He will act on your behalf.  The results will lead to the healing and restoration of your soul and total man.  God bless you richly.

    If you have found strength and encouragement, or a new relationship with Jesus through this tract, or need any further information or assistance, please let us hear from you. Our team is ready to pray with you if you have prayer needs.

  • Diverse Teams Perform Better

    Diverse Teams Perform Better

    Institutions in the 21st century need to master skills for managing diversity if they will survive the changing dynamics of our times.  Teams are made up of persons from diverse backgrounds, systems of education, nationalities, ideologies, and so on. Skills for managing such teams effectively can open up opportunities to institutions.  Though Horwitz and Horwitz in an article in 2007 observed mixed outcomes from team diversity, in this era, having people from only one particular background in a team can limit team effectiveness and productivity.  Remaining objective leads to higher returns and diversity promotes objectivity in organisations.

    It is healthy to have people who think differently, use different methodologies, and who tend to have different points of view on your team.  Extensive research in leadership excellence show that you need people with different personalities to build your organisation.  Despite the challenges in managing diverse teams, today’s leaders need to learn how to be comfortable with managing different forms of diversity like differences in gender, tribe, race, status, and education.  David Rock and Heidi Grant, in an article published in the Harvard Business Review in 2016, affirmed that it is good business decision to strive to increase workplace diversity. According to them, non-homogenous teams are simply smarter. Collective creativity is stronger as it incorporates divergent views.

    At national levels, diversity increases the achievement of inclusive agenda in development.  In developing countries where large numbers of the population are not well educated, strategies that engage and integrate the local people into the development agenda has many benefits. It leads to reduction of poverty, increase in peaceful co-existence, and overall well-being of the people of the land.  Development efforts must benefit majority of the poor and vulnerable.    

    In an organization, when a leader fails to develop the right skills in managing diversity, it affects productivity, reduces competitiveness, lowers profit levels, and reduces the ability of the institution to attract and retain highly competent staff.  When a particular group of people feel marginalized in a team, they do not put in their best performance and the institution loses in many ways.  Diversity is a key requirement for growth and profitability.

    In Africa, several tribes come together to form one country.  This rich diversity needs to be reflected in our policies, recruitment processes, and school enrollment, to promote equal opportunity for all.  Institutions with the right culture will survive in our fast-moving world. Institutions with only a certain group of people in top management positions can lose sight of diverse perspectives, which enrich decision-making processes.  Whenever you are at a high-level meeting, look around the room to see who is there. The people you see will give you an idea whether all the people groups you serve are well represented. Otherwise, your decisions, policies, and programmes may be missing certain perspectives.

    The people we lead are different in their make-up and in the way they look at things.  They have different preferences, belief systems, and values.  When we manage diverse teams well, we can arrive at shared values which strengthen our interactions and mutual support and increase our mutual benefit.