Don’t Look at Difficulties, Look for Opportunities – Pastor Bolaji Idowu 

The Senior Pastor of Harvesters International Bible Church, Lagos, Pastor Bolaji Idowu, has made a passionate appeal to Nigerians, and admonished that, at this point in our nation, Nigeria, all we need is a lot of patience, to stay hopeful and believe that things will turn out better. We need to find new ways to solve our challenges.

Pastor Idowu made this appeal in a brief chat with our correspondent in Lagos during the Kingdom Celebration 2024 of Vineyard Christian Ministries, Ajao Estate, where he was a guest speaker. He said, “Most people talk about faith but cannot live about faith, and if you are not taking bigger risks, if you are not trying new things, your faith cannot grow. If your faith is to grow, you will be trying new things.”

He called for capacity expansion, saying, “To attain our desired greatness, we need to expand our capacity and remind ourselves that our capacity limits the work of the spirit in our lives.

Sometimes, people confuse delay with process. We think we are delayed, but God only expanded our capacity through a process. Just like, when a woman is nine months pregnant, it’s a process, and not delayed. A task that allows the fetus, the sperm, and the eggs to fertilize and turn into a child. 

Pastor Idowu encouraged us that, whatever the challenges are on our way now, not delay, but God is taking us through a process, and expanding our capacity for what He has prepared for us. It is not the time for us to prepare our scheme, it is to prepare us for what He has prepared for us.

Sharing Joseph’s life in the Bible, he explained that, before Joseph got to the palace with his gift, as a good dreamer, he had a problem, he did not know how to dream and keep quiet. Any small dream he would talk about, and God found that he needed to learn, and He made him become a slave, as a slave, one of the fundamental things you master is that you are not free to speak anyhow. God trained him, he went to prison, learned leadership, and passed the test, before coming to the palace. 

“The problem with many people is that they are running away from the lessons of God. When God is trying to teach us, we are running away from the lessons of God”, he said.

Pastor Idowu advised the Nigerian youth to always look for good opportunities in every difficult situation. “Every difficulty presents special opportunities. Don’t look at the difficulty, look at the opportunities it provides, not the difficulties you see.”