TELL THE RETIREES.....Alex Oguh

Tell the Retirees

The Government Is Not Their Biggest Problem

-  Why Are You Poor?

Alex Oguh

Introduction

I was praying for retirees meeting which comes up on Monday, 10th July 2023. We hold that meeting every second Monday each month here in Lokoja, Kogi State, Nigeria. I had tabled the need for prayers yesterday as the brethren in Abuja and other places were praying for the same group online.

I had told them that our attendance to Christian Retiree Meeting in Lokoja was reducing because of the higher cost of transport that has resulted from the recent removal of the fuel subsidy in Nigeria.

Many of the retirees are no longer as buoyant as when working in government. This is because, though most of them are still taking what they used to take while in government, the value of our currency, the Naira, has reduced greatly, and there is no commensurate increase of their monthly incomes.

There are also some of the retirees who enjoyed the terrible corruption in government in our country. Even those ones who did not wisely invest the monies they embezzled then are now poor.

Yes, inheritance (monies) quickly gotten quickly dwindles. 

Proverbs 20:21 (KJV) An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.

This is one of the wisdom dropped down for us by King Solomon, a man whose wisdom is only second to that of Jesus.

Matthew 12:42

The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

We prayed online yesterday that the people, retirees, have the means to come to the meeting. By means, I am talking about transport money, vehicles, and drivers for those who have no drivers but have vehicles. Some things came to my mind as I began to pray for that meeting this Sunday morning. Some of them are:

1. Do human development among them. Help them to improve themselves.

2. This meeting is to be a recruiting time.

3. Therefore send text messages to every Pastor in your denomination in Lokoja Zone to help announce this meeting during the Sunday service today.

4. Stand at the altar and announce it in your Church. Tell them that those who attend the meeting have opportunities to bear fruits in their old age (Ps 92:14). Announce from the altar of your own Church that things are different the moment we cross over to the other side in death.

Everyone is created for a purpose. Not attaining your purpose before death is a terrible crime on the day of Judgment. Then call them to attend the meeting.

I was praying along these lines when I fell asleep and had the following dream.

THE DREAM

In my dream, I walked to the back of our estate, to a woman selling recharge cards, and I wanted to buy recharge card.

She was selling only the small units of the hundred Naira type. She was the one that reminded me that she was owed me six hundred naira change. I then asked her to give me the equivalent amount of money in recharge card.

She gave me what seemed to be like two pieces (peelings) off the raw yam she was peeling. The slices were wet but thin enough like paper. I checked and I told her that she had only given me equivalent of two hundred naira instead of the expected six hundred Naira in recharge cards. 

Then she gave me two more pieces, making it four hundred naira. I then reminded her that I needed to get my change first. I was planning to buy more.

I was not sure of what happened again, she went out. I also left the place and was returning and trekking to another place along and un-tarred road. While going that way, I saw a mad person that a vehicle had run over. As I came closer, I discovered that the person had died and the leg bones were broken.

I also saw somebody, maybe her sister, who was not looking much better dressed than her, sitting over the dead one and crying, as if to wake her up. She was crying in pain.

Many persons had already stopped and we were looking on as the living woman was shaking and jacking up the dead one, as if to wake her up from the dead.

After a while, it was like some people carried the dead body and began to go down towards the suburb of the town I was familiar with. It was as if we were going towards Oganaji in Anyigba in Kogi State. I think the dead body was carried on an open stretcher. We followed in the direction the body was being carried to. 

Along the way, I was discussing with Bro. Dan (another disciple of Jesus I know very well) and as we walked along, he told me of all kinds of children who are born with some advantage and those born with silver spoons in their mouths. Truly some have advantage even from birth. I was agreeing with him. Meanwhile this discussion occupied our attention and we gave very little attention to the dead being carried ahead of us.

Bro. Dan also began to talk of blue children. 

I asked him, "Who are blue children?"

His explanation was not clear to me. So I ask him the same question over and over. "Which group do you refer to as blue children?"

His answer was still not satisfactory. He even added that he was born blue. Again I pressed more for the peculiarities of the group of children. He only added that they are normally lean. 

While we were talking like that, and walking along, we came to a place called Oganaji (it means down the stream), Anyigba and the dead body was put down.  

A few persons, about three in number, came out of the village or rural houses and they talked to one another and concluded that they will move the body further down towards the lower part of the settlement for burial.

One of the men offered the table the wife uses for her small business as a platform on which to carry the body of the dead mad woman for burial. Even then he was complaining that his wife will not like it. His wife had been sick in recent times and unable to do business. That is why the table on which she places her wares for sale was free.

As they conveyed the body further down for burial, we (Bro. Dan, Bro. Clement and I) stopped at the next compound. they used grass to roof it 

As they conveyed the body further down for burial, we (Bro. Dan, Bro. Clement and I) stopped at the next compound. I was aware that the compound belongs to Bro. Dan's father. It was a compound overgrown with weeds. . The length is about twelve metres (about forty feet) by about seven metres (twenty-one feet) wide. 

We were now standing under this big thatch roof. No walls and even the top most part of the roof was not covered completely with thatch. You can see the sky from inside where we were standing.

The weeds are growing everywhere in the compound. Bro. clement was asking many questions about the compound. Bro. Dan was reluctant to tell him that it is their family house.

I was even thinking that the father was in the other smaller house to the back of the plot. That house too was surrounded by weeds. Everywhere was and un-kept.

When I asked if the father was lying in that room, Bro. Dan said, “No, he is always in the Church. He should be in the Church now.”

It was at this point that I woke up. I quickly picked up my phone and recorded the dream and began to beg God for interpretation. I normally say what the bible says. The secret of Joseph can be found in the following verses:

        

Gen 40:8

8 And they said to him, "We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it."

So Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please." NKJV

    

Gen 41:15-16

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it." 

16 So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, "It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace." NKJV

I normally confess my inability like Joseph did. 

Then Daniel added his own voice by telling Nebuchadnezzar that no astrologer, wizard or any of his officers had the ability to interpret dreams by themselves. Those named by Daniel were the experts and specialists in those days. Daniel added that there is a God in heaven who gives interpretation of dreams.

After saying that, I waited in eager expectation for His answer. Finally it came. Below are the words I heard in my spirit.

“This is wisdom. Remember that it was the woman selling recharge cards that reminded you that she owed you six hundred naira. You didn't even know. How can you even know whether your money with her is more?

2.0 See her reluctance to give you back the money in recharge cards. See her deceptions. Therefore keep records. Keep accurate records. Many of My children are poor because things given to them flow into other hands. And they do not know.

3.0 You were trekking along an un-tarred sandy road. You shouldn't be trekking. You should have been riding a car.

4.0 “What of this accident victim?”, I asked.

He said, “Some end up like that. There are many accidents on the way. Some become mad. Some are knocked down.”

The lesson I want you to learn from that scene is as follows: 

4.1 People don't really care about the Poor. It was only that her sister that was concerned. Many people were just looking at them from afar. The poor has no friends. The rich has many friends.

    

Prov 19:4-7

Wealth makes many friends,

But the poor is separated from his friend. 

5 A false witness will not go unpunished,

And he who speaks lies will not escape. 

6 Many entreat the favor of the nobility,

And every man is a friend to one who gives gifts. 

7 All the brothers of the poor hate him;

How much more do his friends go far from him!

He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him. NKJV

4.2 See the attitude towards her burial. See the way her body was carried on a flat wood or something like it.

6.3 See the way the body was carried along the way. Nobody was mourning and nobody in tears. It was a matter of duty to bury her body. The police or some other government agencies sometimes do that job.

6.4 Again see the way the body was received at her place of birth. No mourners in her place of birth. No weeping. Nobody was hitting his or her chest in sorrow. Burying her was a task that must be done.

6.5 You too and some others lost interest in following the body to the final resting place.

What of the compound full of weeds? I asked,

“It is laziness”, He said. 

 The following verses came to my heart.

    

Prov 24:30-34

I went by the field of the lazy man,

And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;

31 And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;

Its surface was covered with nettles;

Its stone wall was broken down.

32 When I saw it, I considered it well;

I looked on it and received instruction:

33 A little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to rest;

34 So shall your poverty come like a prowler,

And your need like an armed man. NKJV

“Most people become poor because of laziness. Poor people are hated by their relatives. Bro. Dan in the dream was a son to that man, the owner of the compound. Yet he was reluctant to introduce his father's house. He was reluctant to introduce his father. No effort was made by him to check whether he was in that small poor room. He was reluctant to introduce you and Clement to his father.”

“That is what laziness can do. Tell the retirees that the government is not their biggest problem. Some who have seen less money than them had made managed to become rich.”

“Many of them let riches pass through their fingers. Many of them earned like slaves. They kept nothing. They only worked as slaves of others in the society.

“Tell them that even now, proper management of resources can better their lives.”

“Show them what I showed you from Prov. 8:5 this morning, during your devotion.”

I will quote the Amplified Bible. It was the version I read that morning.

    

Prov 8:1-5

DOES NOT skillful and godly Wisdom cry out, and understanding raise her voice [in contrast to the loose woman]? 

2 On the top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, stands Wisdom [skillful and godly]; 

3 At the gates at the entrance of the town, at the coming in at the doors, she cries out: 

4 To you, O men, I call, and my voice is directed to the sons of men. 

5 O you simple and thoughtless ones, understand prudence; you [self-confident] fools, be of an understanding heart. [Isa 32:6.] AMP

I saw that wisdom is not hidden. I saw, like they sing, that the answer is in the air. I saw when I came to verse 5 that we only need to think deeply in order to see wisdom.

I also remember a verse the Lord showed me much earlier. 

    

Gen 2:5

before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; NKJV

The Lord continued interpretation of the dream.

“Why be thoughtless? Tell them that proper thinking will enrich their lives. Let them look around, not look at where they are. That is being thoughtless. Like I told Abram, let each look from where they are. Look far and wide. 

    

Gen 13:14-15

And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: "Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are — northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants* forever. NKJV

See as far as your eyes of faith can see. See all that is in the hills and valleys of life. See the people they work with and where they are right now. See all the opportunities in government. See what Land Speculators are seeing - how they can get land from government layout with a few thousands and sell the same land in millions later.

“Let them see like Solomon whose eyes saw gold in Ophir and sent ships there.”

    

1 Kings 9:27-28

Then Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they went to Ophir, and acquired four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon. NKJV

“It took three years for the ships to go and come back. Imagine the waiting!”

“Solomon was somebody I had blessed. Yet he had to invest. He had to look far from where he was when he first became King. He saw beyond the borders of Israel.”

“Far away from where you are now is Ophir, a place of gold. Sending vehicles there to bring them will enrich every Solomon”

“Every child of mine is Solomon. I renamed Solomon for that reason.” 

    

2 Sam 12:24-25

Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in to her and lay with her. So she bore a son, and he* called his name Solomon. Now the Lord loved him, 25 and He sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet: So he* called his name Jedidiah,* because of the Lord. NKJV

Jedidiah means loved of the Lord. I want all who choose right to have the blessing of Solomon?”

What is choosing right? I asked

He said, “Don't you know? Imagine many watching Solomon as I asked him to ask me for anything in that dream.

What do you think that people will expect him to request?

Long life is one

Riches for himself is another

Death of his enemies is another (that is protection)

There can be more that men may rate as their top priority needs.

Solomon was wise. You need to be wise to get more wisdom. Only the wise seek wisdom. It is wisdom to choose God, the source of all things instead of the things He can give. Didn't the Bible say so?

Prov 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

But fools despise wisdom and instruction. NKJV

    

Prov 20:11

  Even a child is known by his deeds,

   Whether what he does is pure and right. NKJV

Solomon was wise. He chose wisely. He chose Me, the Source of all wisdom and all things. 

See His Choice

So I gave him the other good things of life. 

I gave him riches. 

I gave him victory over his enemies. I made all of them his friends (Prov. 16:7) So he had peace all his days (1 Kgs 4:24).

That is what I mean by:

        

Matt 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. NKJV

    

    

Prov 1:23

Turn at my rebuke;

Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;

I will make my words known to you. NKJV

 Let these retirees be wise. Even their health will be helped. Even their governments will be helped.

THE END