Total Man (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of Total Man. Please read Part 1 here.
 
The law of visualisation says you must see it before you see it. That’s because you can edit yourself. You have the capacity to become what you see. You can write your history in advance. And so to maximise your potential as a man you must learn to use your imagination, you must be creative. And you must learn to reason analytically. You can’t do Twitter reasoning.

Let me give you a personal illustration on how to use the tool of visualisation. When I was a young man I wanted to live in a particular neighbourhood. The fences in that neighbourhood are low rise. They’re are unlike the fence at Kirikiri Maximum Prison. A certain class of people lived in that neighbourhood. Buses don’t even ply that neighbourhood. You have to own a car. Here’s what I did. I would drive to that neighbourhood at least once every week. I’ll just keep driving round, soaking in the atmosphere. Sometimes I’ll park and just drink in the environment. Within two years I had moved into that neighbourhood. I didn’t even say, I’m exercising faith, or I’m believing God like we usually say. It just happened. My desire was so strong and I had visual aid. Faith has to have a picture. It’s why Jesus asked the blind man what he wanted him to do. What do you want me to do for you, Jesus had asked. Mark 10:51. The man said he wanted to see. He needed to have a picture of his eyes restored in his head before his faith could function. That’s why Jesus asked him the question.
 
Don’t confuse the Abrahamic visualisation exercise in Genesis 15:5 with New Age application. New Age borrowed the principle but would not acknowledge the author. Satan has no respect for intellectual property. The problem with New Age is the non recognition of God, the substitution of God for man. Thus man becomes an end in himself and that is a negation of Genesis. In New Age there’s an idolatrous appeal to mother nature, the crediting of the universe with outcomes. New Age has a form of godliness but denies the power thereof. 2 Timothy 3:5. But the principle of visualisation is nonetheless valid.
 
You can increase your creative and reasoning capacity. If you want to expand your analytical and creative capabilities you need to read, and you have to read wide. Apostle Paul was a well-read individual. He was familiar with Plato’s philosophy. You’ll find a refutation of Platonic philosophy in some of Paul’s writings. His concept of Christ being equal to God for example challenges Plato’s concept of a demiurge. In Platonic philosophy a demiurge is a subordinate god who fashions and arranges the physical world. Some Gnostics will later adopt the idea. They saw the demiurge as one of the forces of evil. Apostle John was well read too. He seemed familiar with the work of an eccentric philosopher called Heraclitus. It was Heraclitus who originally propounded the concept of the Logos. John took the concept further, declaring the Logos is not just a principle but actually a personage. John 1:1 is more or less a doctoral thesis. Apostle John would also confront Gnosticism. If you’ve ever watched the Da Vinci Code or read Dan Brown’s book of the same title, you’ll be familiar with gnostic philosophy. All that stuff about Jesus having a wife and fathering a child is gnostic teaching.
 
Don’t just read the Bible. And don’t just read motivational books either. After you’ve been motivated then what? If you want to be a total man study philosophy, economics, sociology, theology, art history, etc. Study the humanities. Be a renaissance man. You’ve got to travel. When you travel visit museums, especially museums of modern art. They make you think in abstract form. Soak in environments where there’s design thinking. If you can’t afford to travel read magazines, whether online or offline. It’s one of the cheapest ways to travel. Read magazines that contain pictures to aid your visualisation. Window shop. It’s free. It will expose you to material excellence and culture. Reprogram yourself. You were made on Android platform. You’ve got to regulate your intake. It’s not compulsory you read newspapers first thing in the morning. That’s a lot of bad news to consume first thing in the morning. Run away from negative people. Don’t let them program you for failure. If it does not align with your strategic vision avoid intake. Visualisation is so powerful Nigerians began to paint their houses the colours of NTA logo! They watch NTA every day. It’s de rigueur TV. Have you noticed how many Nigerian houses are painted deep brown and yellow ochre? The excuse is that brown absorbs dirt but how does that explanation work for yellow ochre? It can’t hide dirt. Up NTA!
 
Let’s look at the third dimension of manhood. In Genesis we’re told the man God created stood in representative capacity. He represented both male and female. “So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26-28. The man stood in a representative capacity for a wife he did not yet have. Eve had not been created. There’s thus something called premarital responsibility in manhood. If the man in Genesis stood in the place of responsibility as a bachelor it follows marriage is not what makes you responsible, marriage only creates a field for the exercise of responsibility. You must already be responsible before marriage. A man is responsible. Marriage is for men, not for boys. A fine boy on campus is different from a fine boy outside campus. One is defined by genetics, the other by economic strength. Following up on the concept of responsibility a marriage must have an economic model. Boys don’t think of this of course. They only think about sex and romance. But romance can’t survive lack of income. If you don’t have an income don’t go into marriage. You will lose respect as a man. If she tells you she’ll sleep on the floor with you be very aware that promise has an expiry date. Rent your own accommodation. Don’t take your bride to your parents’ house. Women are geographically proprietary. A woman wants her space. She needs her own space. The difficulties generated from subjecting your wife to another local government authority can create a permanent fissure in your marriage. A man must have his own home. But a sense of responsibility also demands you control your libido. Which is why you should not expose yourself to stimulants like porn materials. Porn is sexual coffee and it’s not decaffeinated. You can’t be on a porn diet. It’s not healthy. You risk impotence. And you’re going to set yourself up. You will be in love with the IDEA of the woman you want to sleep with, it won’t matter who is in front of you. You’re in a mode. And that’s how you end up marrying a simulation and not the woman in front of you. Disappointment beckons.
 
Whether before or after marriage you need discipline as a man. The more successful you are the more discipline you need. When you’re rich enough to finance sin you become your own temptation. You have to control your power. Never forget that Pirelli tyre advert: Power is nothing without control.
 
The fourth dimension of man is government. “God blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion.” There are thus two coordinates: there’s a multiplication protocol and there’s a dominion mandate. The multiplication protocol is multi applicative. It covers multiplication in general – be it multiplication through child birth, or multiplication of resources, or of endeavour. Manhood is not a stagnant concept, it is a dynamic concept. It envisages upward progression and numeric expansion. Which means you can’t have the mentality of the road side Battery Charger, Vulcaniser or Rewire if you’re in business. Those businesses never grow, they never expand. And the reason they stay the same is not far-fetched. The entrepreneurs lack vision. The idea of franchising never occurs to them for example, despite pupiling many apprentices. The Rewire mentality won’t get you far in business. If you’re in business and you want to multiply you have to build structure. Without structure you can’t take advantage of certain opportunities. If the intellectual gap between you and the next layer of staff is too wide you will pay a horrendous price at some point. If you find yourself constantly yelling, chances are the next layer of staff is too junior to you. Structure is expensive but it is needful if you want to grow in business.
 
The second part of the charge is the dominion mandate. It envisages government, direct or indirect. We shouldn’t even be discussing whether Christians can participate in politics. Those were issues from the 1980s. Satan recycles materials. If you want to do good in society on an industrial scale you need the leverage of government. There are some problems that can only be solved through policy. No amount of doing good for example can eradicate poverty in a nation. For that you need levers of power. You’ll need to craft economic and social policies. The other reason you can’t be aloof from government is that you need political protection at a certain level in business. In Africa power is elemental.
 
To apply the principle of dominion to your professional field you must be good at what you do, be very good! You must subscribe to excellence. Good enough is not good enough. You must set high standards for yourself. Where environmental standards are abysmal you break the metric system. The principle of dominion can be applied to commerce as well. You do this through branding. Branding makes people pay habitual obedience to a set of stimuli. Study the science of branding. But you must also dominate yourself. The principle of dominion applies to self. You must have self governance. Control your temperament for example. Exercise self-control. A man without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out. Proverbs 25:28. He’s unprotected.
 
And so there are four dimensions to man: vision, reasoning capacity, responsibility and government. The total man is therefore a visionary, responsible, governmental entity with a keen sense of responsibility. Are you a total man?
 
1. Do you have a vision?
2. Is your reasoning capacity developed?
3. Are you responsible?
4. Can you leverage power and influence?
 
If your answer to all these questions is yes, kudos to you. But if you’re not satisfied with your answer you have your work cut out for you.
 
If you’ll like to receive Jesus into your life please pray this prayer: “Father I acknowledge that I am a sinner, that Jesus died for me, that you raised him from the dead. Father please forgive me. I accept Jesus today as my Lord and my Saviour. Amen.”
 
To read Total Man (Part 2) go to www.myilluminare.com/total-man-part-2/
 
Theology Trivia: Can you name the four dimensions of man?
© Leke Alder | talk2me@lekealder.com.