I was in Manchester once to visit a friend
The friend’s parents were with her
They came to visit her from Nigeria
As soon as I got there
Her father said, “Sir, I am a sleeping partner in a promising investment scheme. The company has paid a bit of the offered profit twice in the last year but suddenly they have gone silent.
I am losing my sleep
I have called several times, and also called my friends who also invested in the same business
They are saying they cannot get any news, and the company is not paying.
Can you please agree with me in prayer that my investment will not be lost?
I committed quite a lot of money to this venture.
It was not the first time I would find myself praying for a sleeping partner who could not sleep because of an investment
I prayed with him
He is an elderly man in his eighties
There was no counsel I could give, but I must support him in the place of prayer
It is a duty
Later that day, he got some payment out of the scheme
His daughter, who happened to be a friend, then asked me what I think of the investment and especially if God told me anything about it, so that she could use the information to also determine if she should also invest in the same business
I told her not to
I advised her to be the one to come up with a good business idea that would require investment from people
I would sleep soundly if I knew the person I kept my money with is a believer who has the anointing for prosperity, the knowledge of the ways of God, and the principles of the Holy Spirit
I don’t buy the idea of being a sleeping partner who cannot sleep because of constant fear regarding his or her investment
My friend laughed at my suggestion at the time because she was into the sale of sports kits and gym materials for women.
She didn’t see how anyone would want to invest in that
Two years later, a friend reached out to her from Japan
A state in Nigeria wanted some sports kits supplied, and someone had reached out to this friend in Japan to make inquiries
However, the friend knew nothing about sports kits
She remembered her friend in Manchester, who dealt in it, and reached out to her
The project was a government contract that would require a huge amount of money to execute
The friend in Japan and some others were interested in supporting the one in Manchester to execute the project, while they all made some profit off the contract
She reached out to me asking if I think it is a good idea for her to get mixed up in a government contract with investment from friends
I said, “I will rather invest in you than with a non-believer who is promising heaven and earth. The anointing to prosper is on you.”
She executed the contract and gave everyone their share of the profit as expected
All those who invested slept soundly because we know her character
Sleeping partners must be able to sleep peacefully knowing their investment is safe.
A believer must be the one whom people can confidently entrust their resources with
He or she has the power to make wealth.
I will give you two real-life examples, both of which happened in Lagos in the last five years
A young Christian came up with an idea to build an app that would link local merchants with farmers and transporters
They will be able to track their goods on their phones from the moment the farmers hand the goods over to the truck drivers until it gets to them in the local market
He built the first one, and it was very successful, as the popular Mile 12 merchants used it and invested in it
He wanted to enlarge the app to include all the markets in Lagos.
This would mean onboarding a lot of merchants from various markets, from Tejuosho to Alade Markets, and so on
He needed to hire marketers, make T-shirts, print fliers, arrange transportation, and ensure his product was well understood by the marketers so that they could easily convince merchants to buy into it
This required that he rent a hall for about two weeks and train his staff
All the items listed above required cash
He began to run helter-skelter, looking for investors
He started from his church
He did not go to those who understood investment and had a bit of experience in how things would pan out in real time
He went to young folks who were struggling like himself, but had some money saved towards their rents or children’s school fees
He gathered some money and launched, hoping to make quick cash and repay all his loans
Training and recruitment of staff took two weeks, salaries and marketing materials also took a bunch of his capital
By the end of the first month, he was broke and couldn’t sustain the marketing drive anymore
He was in debt to the tune of 75 million Naira already, and all the funds were from young people who needed the money repaid as soon as possible
He couldn’t go to church again because he didn’t know how to explain what had happened
He began to get phone calls from church members asking for a refund of their money
He left home one day without saying a word to his wife (His marriage was three years old, and he had a one-year-old son)
The wife reported everything to the pastor
The pastor began to call him, hoping to get him to come out of hiding so that the church could help negotiate with his debtors
He turned up dead two weeks later
He had committed suicide at a hotel in Ibadan.
Having a good idea is one thing
Having the wisdom to birth the idea with a sustainable strategy is another
He had the anointing to create wealth, but he lacked the wisdom to multiply wealth
He should have stayed with Mile 12 merchants for longer, established the app, and then scaled upward in bits and not all at once
If he was afraid someone else would develop an app similar to his and begin to capture other markets, he should consider that a risk worth taking
Having a chunk of the market is always better than being greedy and ending up having no chunk of the market
The second example is another church boy who had a simple idea centered on transportation
He discovered that most of the new estates springing up in Lagos didn’t have an organized transportation system
Those visiting the estates must either drive or walk to their destinations from the main gate
He wrote to one of the estate management organizations and pitched an idea to them
He wanted to supply tricycles and tricycle riders at the main gate of the hotels, maintain the tricycles, and pay the riders monthly salaries
In turn, he gets a license from the estate to operate and pay them a percentage of the profit
The estate management gave him the go-ahead, and it turned out to be a glorious business opportunity
He made huge profits after the first year, and some members of the estate management invited him for a meeting and asked him to invest in his business for a percentage of the profit
He also reached out to other investors, and money poured in from all over
After securing the investments, he decided to approach tricycle assembly plants to purchase the tricycles
He was told they didn’t have the volume of tricycles he needed to buy
They told him he would have to order the tricycles ahead and wait for three months ro get his order
He, however, had promised investors instant results and couldn’t afford to wait that long
A friend then suggested FOREX to him
Promising him that since he had so much money to spend, he could never lose if he went into trading with the funds at hand
This is a business in which he had no experience or expertise
Funds had been invested in his business, but he would have to move the funds to another person who would trade with the funds on his behalf
He decided to go with the idea, and he lost all the money
The one with the power to make wealth transferred the wealth to the one without the power to make wealth
He lost the money and had to also had to flee the country when those who invested in him got the police involved, and he got arrested several times
He also had to leave his wife and children behind
I cited these two examples so that we might learn from them
Creating wealth from nothing was God’s first action in Genesis 1
Multiplying wealth using that which God already created is the mandate we have in Christ
When we create wealth, we must be willing to move from creation to multiplication through the help of the Holy Spirit
We must not outsource the multiplication of wealth to an unbeliever who promises to have expertise
The anointing that helped you to create is sufficient to help you multiply wealth if you allow the wisdom of God to prevail
Always Remember this.
PS: The Pneuma School of the Supernatural and Bible College, School 26, is now open for admission.
The school has helped thousands of believers from all over the world to walk in the fullness of the truth of the gospel, fulfil their purpose in Christ, walk in the prophetic, the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit, and fulfil their ministry.
If you would like to join the next batch, please do so without any delay
The school fee is very little, as making it a free school would most likely attract unserious folks
If the Holy Spirit is nudging you to join, please do so today, as admission will close soon
Thank you