I am redoing this video because the one I recorded yesterday did not complete, so I deleted it. video, I said experience is not the best teacher. Wisdom is the principal thing. The Holy Spirit is the best teacher. Experience can give you wisdom, but wisdom must be dynamic and applicable in different circumstances.
The experiences of trauma in the past can hinder you and make you suffer from what is called learned helplessness.
Researchers once conducted an experiment with dogs. They starved some dogs and placed food just across a barrier that they could easily jump over. Each time the dogs tried to jump over to eat, they were pricked with electrodes and shocked. They became traumatized.
Then they brought another set of dogs that had not been traumatized. They starved them and placed them behind the same barrier with food in front. Those dogs jumped across and ate the food immediately.
When the traumatized dogs were brought back and placed before the same barrier, with food just across it, they refused to move. They were afraid of being shocked again. They were trapped by past experience.
Trauma becomes negative if it does not give you insight — if you do not learn lessons you can apply in the future.
Depending on who is counselling you, the counsel you receive might become your limitation.
I was travelling to Port Harcourt to preach at St. Matthew’s Church in Rumu——. When I got to Kaiama along the East–West Road, there was traffic. A vehicle had broken down. There were two vehicles — one was already bad, and another broke down, leaving only a narrow space for cars to pass.
When I got there, I wanted to pass, but a drunken policeman told me, “Don’t go. Your vehicle cannot pass.” Remember the word drunken.
I parked by the side. But I was seeing vehicles even wider than mine driving past. I was driving a Ford Transit. Toyota buses of the same size, if not wider, were passing.
I stayed there for a long while. They were calling me from Port Harcourt: “Where are you?” I said, “Traffic.” People were already waiting in church.
After a long while, a young man with bloodshot eyes staggered to me and said, “Boss man, you have been here for a long time. Why are you still here? Don’t you want to go?”
I said, “A policeman told me to stop.”
He asked, “Where is the policeman?”
I said, “He has gone.”
He said, “The policeman who told you to stop has gone, and you are still here?”
Then he asked me in our Nigerian English, “You don’t try? Have you tried it? If you try and it doesn’t work, then you come back.”
It dawned on me that I was following the counsel of a drunken policeman whose sense of proportion was not accurate. Now another young man, probably under the influence of something, was giving me wiser counsel.
I attempted it — and passed easily. There was at least one foot of space on each side.
Whose counsel are you listening to?
Which experience is holding you down?
Is it that you lost a husband? Ruth lost a husband.
Is it that your father died? Many people have lost fathers.
You are not educated? Cosmos Maduka stopped at primary school and became a billionaire.
You are not handsome? There are people who are not handsome who have done well.
You have a deformity? There are people with deformities who have excelled.
You do not have money? You can start several businesses without money. I started a multi-million-naira real estate business about six years ago without having money. I worked with information.
Excuses. Africans blame ancestors, colonial masters, demons, and people in the village — as if Chinese and Indians do not have villages, as if there are no demons in India or China.
What prompted this video?
One of my managers in the real estate business came to see me. Usually, you have to pass through several locked doors before reaching me. That day, one of the doors was intentionally left unlocked.
He got there and did not even try to open it. He was trying to call me. I had seen him from afar before he even reached the door.
When I came to him, I said, “Open the door.” He had not tried. He was used to it being locked. He stood there helpless.
Learned helplessness.
Why don’t you try?
In Luke 18, there was a widow who kept going to a judge for justice. The man neither feared God nor man. Each time she went, he refused her. But she kept going until the judge said, “If I do not answer this woman, she will weary me.” So he granted her request.
The Bible says: Seek, and you shall find. Sometimes what you are seeking is not far away. Just a little pressure forward.
Ask, and you shall receive. If you ask once, ask again. Ask again. Ask again.
Knock, and it shall be opened. Some doors require heavy knocking for the people inside to hear you because there is noise around them.
Do not give up on your first attempt. Do not give up on your second attempt. Look for an alternative way.
Try. Try. Try it.
Have you tried it? If you fail, go back and try again. Failure is an opportunity to do it better. I do not know where you have failed, but say in the comment section: I will not stop where somebody told me to stop. I will push forward. I will try again.
Dr. Charles Apoki is my name.
We have properties for sale. Contract us.
The Holy Spirit is the best teacher.
God bless you.
