You Almost Get There – by Apostle Paul Oduneye

You Almost Got There!
Hallelujah! Blessed be the name of Jesus. Greetings to you.
I believe that God will do a miracle in your life.
Let us go to the Bible in the book of 1Corinthians 9:24, it says, “Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain”.
Life in this world is like a journey. It is race to succeed. Everyone that God created, He as well created a certain end to be able to enter his higher dream. There are great plans of God for you. There are good things that God has planned for you which you haven’t seen yet. The people around you may not know yet how great the Lord is taking you to.
But, let me tell you, as you journey in this world as a Christian, you are being led into the fulfillment of every good thing He has destined for you. (You will never miss it, in the name of Jesus).
For the end of every journey in life and in the ministry, there is always a corresponding possession of fulfillment blessings which you don’t see yet. Probably, the Almighty God has revealed to you visions, in prophesies or in dreams but, you can imagine that there is something that belongs to you that it’s not yet there. You have an inkling that there is a certain level God has promised, God has destined you to be. Yes, every promise of God is true. The vision of God in your life is not a lie. The Bible says, “The vision of God at the end shall speak,”. So there is an end. You may have wasted years, but in the end you will experience the flow of milk and honey in your life. In the end, you will be experiencing the good things of God. In the end, you will be enjoying His presence in this world and in heaven where we are going. This message is telling you, that God is moving you toward a certain level. No matter where you are now, or where you have been, you are in a journey. You will never miss the success of it in the name of Jesus.
According to the Bible, the Israelites suffered affliction as slaves of Egypt for four hundred and thirty years, no one was going to rescue them. Most of the time, they worked, the Egyptians hit. But one day, God remembered them and sent the man Moses to rescue them. And Moses told the Israelites that there’s a place that God has prepared for them, the land flowing with milk and honey. They obeyed the Word of God at last and followed Moses. And they started moving on their journey. They have encountered different kinds of things along the way but blessed be the Lord, the faithful Jesus, they were able to arrive to their destination. Upon their arrival, God fulfilled His word. Today, we thank God for the Nation of Israel. Hallelujah!
The same thing in your life. There is something God has planned for you, things that God has put into your heart as a desire, as a great future, picture, a projection of where God is taking you. You haven’t arrived there yet but, surely you will get there soon, in the precious name of Jesus. One of the things we have observed in the lives of the Israelites is they passed through a lot of challenges, reached a certain stage the Red Sea in front of them, and at the back, they saw Pharaoh and the horses. It seems that they (Israelites) are all going to perish. But, God is faithful, Who promised them, gave them deliverance, rescued them and fulfilled His word for them.
I’m not sure what you’re passing through as well in your journey to success in life; in your search to having a happy home and successful living. You may be encountering obstacles along the way. Remember, it’s not the end. The Bible says that in the end, your expectations shall not be cut off. God is taking you there, demons cannot stop you. It’s a race, it’s a journey. You will never miss it in the name of Jesus!
There are few ways we need to understand in this journey of life. Nobody becomes a winner in this journey unless you become conscious of what you are doing, until you know that this is a life journey, until you become aware that it is a race. You just didn’t get into this world to squander your time here. You need to know that you are also a participant in the race. God sent you for that purpose.
He has a plan for you. You may be going through the motions even since birth. Until this very moment, God is monitoring you, He’s by your side, He’s taking you to a place beyond your imagination. You are going to arrive there someday and see how glorious what the Lord has planned. (You wont miss that place, you won’t miss that portion in the precious name of Jesus).
Some people miss their chance in their journey. Some of them are not aware (en route to their journey or race in life), that the devil took advantage of them, leading to failure in fulfilling God’s plan. This message is to alert your mind about your status as not just an ordinary person. You are here for a defined assignment, with a certain purpose. You’re on a journey to the land of fulfillment in life. (It is your portion, you are going there. You will not miss it. I see God taking you to the palace. I see God changing you from glory to glory. Very soon, you’re gonna find yourself somewhere glorious beyond where you are now. You will remember this message and say glory be to God.)
How to be successful in this race? Our goal is to confuse the enemy, to arrive with flying colors and not to miss on what God has planned.
1.Run with focus. Philippians 3:13 says, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” Apostle Paul was talking, stating that, he is running the race to be able to fulfill his task and his high calling. Nobody knows where he’s going if he is out of focus. And that is the mission or target of the enemy. It is his role to distract you and lose your focus in the race of life. If you lose focus, you will miss your direction.
You may have observed, athletes are running in the stadium and the people are clapping, shouting and hailing them. And suddenly the athletes wondered if they were the ones being applauded or mocked and they got disturbed by such gestures. These are nuisances that distract.
If you want to reach your place of fulfillment in life, do not listen to these noises. They are agents of the devil with the mission to bring different kinds of signals, to make you hear different things about you. Many badmouth you and if you pay attention to them, God’s plan may be distracted. Have focus in your journey. You can run your own race, never somebody else’s, it is impossible. It is your own race you can run, meaning to each his own.
One of the biggest mistakes in this life’s journey is pleasing everybody or trying to please everybody. You will surely fail in this department. Never try to please nor satisfy everybody. Instead, please your God, obey His word, do what you know is right according to the Word. Then you will never be distracted. Many people attempt to distract you in your journey. Many will give you pieces of advice, they will try to monitor or guide your movements. Watch out, if they want to lead your life for you. The funniest thing here is if they themselves have problems more than you. They cannot monitor their own house, or family, yet they interfere with yours. They prefer to do that by distracting you. Run your faith, your journey with focus on Jesus. According to the Bible, “He is the Author and Finisher of your faith.” Set your eyes on Him. Imagine, while you are going on a journey, you come across dogs barking at you. What do you do when they start barking? You will attempt to throw stones at the dogs but, before you know it, another one barks, and then you pick up another stone. If you keep doing that, you will never reach where you’re supposed to go. That’s the trick of the devil. Satan will try to send you barking dogs, representing challenges and distractions. You need to grow, get to the level where you are already able to ignore such cares. Set your eyes focused on the journey. As long as you are aligned with God’s will, you will get there and you will never miss your race in life. The barking dogs are the Pharisees in Jesus’ time. Wherever Jesus is, everyday, the Pharisees are attacking Him. Everyday, they take issues with Jesus. Healing or not healing people, Jesus gets criticized. They blame Him everytime.
If you are destined for great things, people of mockery, people who blame and who hate, they play their role to distract you. Watch out, focus! Be around people who will greatly contribute to your growth, people who have good minds for you. Instead of people who weary and discourage you with their bad words. You get into a scene where people throw stones at you, and you pick the stone and throw it back to them. Stay at it and get yourself nowhere near your destination. Bear this in mind, people will not throw stones at you if you are not a good tree. A good tree is a productive fruit-bearing tree attractive to the eyes. People would be tempted to throw stones to get fruit for themselves from that tree. Consider yourself that tree, people want to get a piece of you. On the other hand, you get tired of people throwing stones of embarrassment, and discouragement, do not give room for the devil. It goes to show that there is something valuable about you-the fruit of life which becomes a blessing to other people’s lives. Do not allow the devil to take advantage of you by not “turning the other cheek” or by not “throwing them bread instead”. Gather the stones, keep them, do not throw them back. The more you gather the stones, the higher you gain your ground. The more they’re throwing to you, they are losing their ground. One day, their stones will become plenty in your life, YOU CAN BUILD AN EMPIRE.
Moral of the story: Do not allow any attack to defocus you.
The worst thing can happen would be when Satan uses people as weapon for attack. Daniel 7:25 says, “The devil will speak great words against the saints of the Lord, the children of God, the people of God in order to weary them.” The mission of the devil is to make you sick and tired, to annoy you, to discourage you. That’s how the enemy makes you lose focus. Never lose focus. Where God is taking you, you will get there whether the devil likes it or doesn’t. Every force standing against you throwing evil stones – stones of sickness, stones of affliction, stones of problem, the stones of sin- I declare them perished in name of Jesus.
(You will get there. I say you’re almost there and nothing will hinder you.)
Satan is out there to throw the atones. He is off to distract and destruct. Watch out, focus, look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith.

2. Understanding the timing of your journey. Ecclesiastes 9:11 says, “I returned and saw under the sun that-the race is not of the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.” Let’s emphasize “time happeneth to them all”. Therefore, the race of time into your line of success and glory, into the place where you enjoy the presence of God day by day (where you will never struggle again) has a schedule , it has a time table. There’s a place where you have to be NOW, and a place where you have to be TOMORROW. It’s a pity that people fall prey to the devil, wasting their time, year and their destiny. Procrastination is a dangerous delaying trick of the devil. Start taking a step towards what you believe, what God has planned for you, do not put it off. Once the devil sees how great you will become, and how bright your future is, he may see to it that you will never see the silver lining, he will move “heaven and earth” to postpone your destiny. Many destinies have been wasted because of the delays caused by this trick of the enemy. Understand that life is short. The Bible tells us that, human life expectancy is just seventy years and the other remaining years, a bonus. Whatever success you want to achieve in life, and what God has destined you to have, He has set a timetable to fulfill between now and until the 70th year.
There is time for your own season, take advantage of it once it’s there. Again, the Bible says, “There is time for everything.” The saying that goes, A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, holds true. You have to take one step at a time. You have to start somewhere on a daily basis towards the fulfillment of your destiny. This life is very precious. God has given you a task in this world. Imagine you have a two-year-old baby, it’s still crawling. When it turned three, you can still see it crawling. And once the baby reached five years old, it doesn’t walk, couldn’t stand up to walk. And maybe your friends noticed and heard you proudly say “That’s my baby!”. Do you think that’s a happy sight? They are seeing a crippled child. Like the child, many people have been crippled in their destiny journey. (By the authority in the name of Jesus, power to rise and do great, receive it in the name of Jesus.) Never allow the devil to waste the time of your journey. It doesn’t matter how long you have been engaged in a wrong relationship, there is still time to make amends and to male up for it. Most of the time, in the life of journey, there are missing roads. It is possible that along the way in a race, you will lose direction. Most successful and great people have also taken the detour before, they missed the road. But, the ability to rectify themselves and go back on line is just what they need to sort of be back on the road again. Time is of the essence! Do not allow the devil to take preciois time away from you. In the race, the faster you run, the sooner you’ll get to where you’re going.
Another illustration. Imagine a man of 70, trying to get into the field of boxing. He was bold and confident to show off and get to a match with a professional boxer. The 70-year-old man will be rendered disqualified because his time is past the boxing age. Here, you must understand time.. One punch may knock you down if you don’t understand it.
Don’t let your peers overtake you. You have to do something about it for yourself. Life is a race. Some people are left behind. Listen. Even Christianity is a race. A story is told of a Christian who started attending church in 1981. Until then, he was still a member, not even working for the church, not even using his gift for the Lord. A baby Christian since he was born again. Christians like him are not running the race. You need to contemplate on this, Christian life is a race, it’s a journey, you need to grow no matter who overtook you or left you behind. Its time for you to make a decision, to make a change, you have to move forward, everything will change for the better.

3. Run with discipline. Athletes usually do exercise. Athletes wake up 3 am no matter how sleepy they are. Many of them are running, jumping, sweating, jogging to far places. This is in preparation for the manifestation of their glory. And eventually you see them competing in the Olympics when you used to be with them in the community or in the village. Something like that doesn’t happen like magic. There’s no magic trick for success. You brace yourself. 1Corinthians 9:20-26 says, “Therefore, I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.” v25 “And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.” For Christians like you and me, there’s a crown both here on earth and in heaven if you will discipline yourself, if you will exercise your faith, to be able to fulfill God’s plan (v.26). But I disciplined my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified (v.27). This is telling of “I control my body. I tell my body what to do.” Champions in the race of life practice tact: eating the right food and knowing when to eat. Many people want to be great, but spend hours for useless talks, whiling time to waste, fulfilling nothing. Discipline yourself, do not joke about your tomorrow. Be serious about it.
Like I am. I wake up in the midnight hour to study the Word until wee hours in the morning, so I can minister to you. There is no instant celebrity in preaching and there’s no substitute for discipline. Like a preacher, you need to exercise, discipline, and prepare to qualify for the race God has sent you.
Many Pacquiao epitomizes this sports success story. There was a Pacquiao fight in America. Before the fight, in the Philippines, he was making an exercise preparing himself for the fight. People see him during the fight but behind the scene, the didn’t know what Pacquiao went through before that day. He disciplined himself. When I saw him, it was evident that he was enjoying the riches and glory that God has done in his life. He was running from Gensan to Maasim in Sarangani. It’s a fight journey, he was running, he was a Congressman, a bigwig in the world of boxing, yet he never neglected exercise and discipline. He was stretching himself.
To become what God wants you to be in life, He will surely stretch your faith. You need to be ready to discipline yourself. Disregard discipline in your journey then you have allowed Satan to bring junks of things to destroy your journey. (You will never miss your way. You will never be a failure in the precious name of Jesus.)

4. Run with patience. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed with so great, a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth be easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” There are many angels in heaven monitoring, looking at you the way you are doing it. When you misbehave in the journey, they will feel sad. When you run very well, they will cheer. We don’t see them, but they are rejoicing. Whenever you do the will of God and you walk according to His purpose, the angels celebrate. As the Bible said, run the race with patience. Many people who are given grace to run the race, quit too early before their time and miss the purpose of God. The quitter will never be crowned as a winner. If you are quick to quit, the devil is given a chance to rejoice. Those who have endurance and perseverance in the race will surely be successful. Once you are almost there in the finish line, the challenge gets tougher, the race gets harder. They are signals you are almost there. This message is telling you, never be quick to quit because you are almost near. God loves you, He’s by your side, He’s going to help you and guide you into the fulfillment of His purpose for you. Never quit, never surrender. You live in this world and enjoy the best of both heaven and earth. Very interestingly, Jesus said this in prayer, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” So, we can be living in this world and enjoy the goodness in heaven if you endure and wait for your time, and you keep on running the race, taking step today, another one tomorrow until the Lord takes you there.

5. Always remember, the finish line is heaven, our heavenly home. You must have reached a stage today, enjoying the grace of God this very moment, you have everything you need. No matter what glory God has done in your life, that is not the ultimate. Your final complete fulfillment is when you receive the crown in heaven, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. We, Christians, notwithstanding our positions, our highest goal is our heavenly home. As we are running the journey to the heavenly home, we should nevee let the things of this world take away the glorious one from us. Always remember, the finish line is heaven. 2Timothy 4:7-9 says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my cause, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there laid for me, a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day. And to all who hope for His appearance.” In the coming of our Lord, Jesus, there’s a crown waiting for us in heaven. Never stop walking with the Lord until you appear in His throne, even when life is hard, continue. You almost get there. When you are enjoying your life, continue to serve Him and follow Him. Never be trapped by the success of this world. For greater are the things where we are going than anywhere on earth.

There is a glorious hope waiting for you, there’s a crown waiting for you and me in heaven.(you won’t miss your own in the precious name of Jesus). I see you joyfully celebrating with us in heaven.(You will get there).
The beginning of fulfillment of the journey of life starts with Jesus – He being the only Way, the Truth and the Life. So, when you begin to give your life to Jesus, that’s where your journey begins.
Prayer: Jesus, Thank You for Your word. I believe You. I surrender my life to You. Come into my life. Forgive me all my sins. Jesus, You are my Lord and my Savior. In our journey of life, every plan of the enemy is cancelled in the mighty name of Jesus.