Method to My Madness

By Uche Ohalete Ogbonna

Method to My Madness captures in simple but powerful words the desire of God for all His children to reach full potential and achieve great things wherever they are found. Riding on the truth of Gods undiluted Word, Method to My Madness seeks to challenge all Christian youth to attempt great things and set the pace in every field, industry, and endeavor, chasing after their dreams and doing big things to the glory of God! The book seeks to stir every sincere heart and motivate every true seeker to another level, energizing the readers spirit to a point of action that will bring Gods desire to manifestation on the Earth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449792053

Uche Ohalete Ogbonna

Uche Ogbonna is an avid writer and dynamic speaker with a passion for young people. With over fifteen years’ experience in teaching children and youth, his passion to see them rise and excel against the odds of poverty and mediocrity is the driving force behind his writing. His blog, quietinthestorm.com, provides daily Christian meditation material for many young people all over the world. Uche has over ten years’ experience in the Nigerian banking industry, where he has served in various capacities ranging from branch operations management to marketing communications in two major banks. Uche is married to Funke, and together they both raise their lovely daughters, Zipporah and Beulah. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria. Method to My Madness is Uche’s first internationally published work.

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Copyright © 2013 Uche Ohalete Ogbonna.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-9204-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-9205-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013907105

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/11/2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Aknowledgement

Foreword

Chapter 1 They Were Thought Mad

Chapter 2 The Bible Had Mad Men Too

Chapter 3 The First Method—Experiential Faith

Chapter 4 The Second Method—The ‘Voice’ Of The Lord

Chapter 5 The Third Method—Tongues!

Chapter 6 The Fourth Method—Attitude Of Worship

Chapter 7 The Fifth Method—Practice The Presence!

Chapter 8 Testing All Spirits

Chapter 9 Treasure In Earthen Vessels

Chapter 10 Consecrated Madness

Conclusion

Aknowledgement

My father introduced me to spirituality. He taught me to always look beyond the ordinary, to be a seeker of truth. He taught me the meaning of intuition, meditation and contemplation of new ideas and thoughts. He stirred a thirst within me that has taken me on a seeming endless quest for spiritual knowledge. I am grateful to my first mentor, Mr Daniel Ohalete Ogbonna. Thank you dad.

I acknowledge the sincere support of my family and close friends, my supportive wife, Funke and my two beautiful daughters, Zipporah and Beulah.

In my Christian journey I must acknowledge a few people who have helped me through the years. My deepest regards to Uncle Kunle Odunayo—your grace and oil to teach and expound Scriptures is one I still feel strongly in my spirit even after all these years. You have been a huge influence in my life and I still covet the grace of God on you. Wherever you are, know that you still have a son in me.

To the fellowships that offered me spiritual guidance, the Young Christians Society (YCS) of St. Finbarr’s College, Lagos, the Methodist Evangelical Movement (MEM) Lagos, the Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students (NIFES) Enugu, I wish to say a big thank you.

To the Churches that provided Spiritual Haven to me over the years, and in my many travels across Nigeria, Living-Faith Church, Jos, Treasured-Life Ministries, Kano and The Capstone Church Lagos I wish to acknowledge and say thank you.

Finally to the Pillars of Faith that guided, mentored, prayed with me, nurtured, stood with and encouraged me to exercise my gifts and callings, especially Uncle Ebere Eze of NIFES, Deaconess Hannah Degge, Pst and Mrs Tunji Adeyinka, Bishop Bolu Martins, and my Pastor, Mentor, Leader and Friend, Pastor Tokunbo Johnson of The Capstone Church, Lagos; I say thank You. God bless you for all your help.

You encouraged me; now the journey has begun… expect more!

Foreword

Many are skeptical about Christians who do great things that the Lord wants them to do.

People who are not spiritual do not understand these people with great dreams, visions and zeal for God, and many times they call them mad. But it is not that they are mad, but the dreams and visions that they have received from God are great and go beyond human reasoning.

This was the case with Noah when God told him to build a big boat or Ark. The people around him thought that he was mad.

The disciples were also termed drunk with wine on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down and they began to speak in other tongues.

It is good to dream big, have a big vision and be zealous for God.

The goal of this book is to make you understand that you can dream big and you can accomplish your big dream and vision. There is so much that God has invested in you that can change the world!

This book also gives you insight into the resources available for you to help actualize your very big dream and vision and how to answer those who see your vision and dream as mad.

By the time you read through this book, you will be able to let those around you know the reason for what you are doing.

The method to my madness will empower you to understand that, like the great men in the Bible, who had big dreams and accomplished them, despite criticism, you also can dream big, pursue your vision, accomplish it, and have a good reason to give to anyone, the reason for what you are doing, though you may appear to behave strangely or be termed mad. You will have reasons to give for the method to your madness.

This book also helps you to reconnect yourself to the purpose, plan and design that God has for you through Jesus Christ. You will understand God’s mighty power working through you to accomplish great dreams in manners that those around you cannot understand, and therefore think that you are behaving strangely or mad.

You can do great things for God!

You can begin to follow your big dream to do great things for God, though people may laugh at you, oppose you and even resist you.

This book will help to prepare you to overcome oppositions to your great dreams, and encourage you to accomplish your big dreams!

Kunle Odunayo

Canada—2013

Chapter 1

They Were Thought Mad

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve; the fear of failure—Paulo Coelho

The age of man is defined by men and women who had huge imaginations and big dreams. These people believed they could make a difference in their world. They dared to look beyond what "was" and dared to look with believing eyes into "what could be".

They were constantly dissatisfied with what were the agreed "limits" of their time and over and again challenged the thinking of their age with something more. These brave men and women constantly asked the questions which others refused to ask.

They may not have been popular and most definitely there were considered "off their rockers" for even daring to push the envelope, but they all had one thing in common. They were men and women of conviction. It burned like fire in their bones. They gave up everything for their dreams and they chased after it till they got it… and if they died chasing their dreams, then so it was… no regrets.

In this chapter, our desire is to look at the lives of a few of these men and see what they were able to accomplish with their curious minds. These people were termed mad! They were castigated and mocked severally because they possessed an uncanny ability to see in clear and present reality what others could not imagine possible.

We celebrate many of these men today, but in the day and time that they walked and worked they were often in peril by those who felt that their craftsmanship would either upset the set norm of the day or that the source of their ingenuity was demonic and hence labeled them sorcerers of some sort.

Walk with me as we examine these heroes of times past.

Here we go…

THOMAS EDISON—

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio, USA. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel and Nancy Edison. He moved out of the family home at age 16 to pursue his own dreams. Though he had very little formal education, he was a very curious child and this curiosity helped him along his way, eventually leading him to learn how to read all by himself. He had a very strong belief in developing himself and this helped him all through his life.

At 13, he took up a job as a newsboy selling newspapers and sweets at the local railroad that ran through Port Huron to Detroit, however in his spare time, young Edison read scientific and technical books. He also made out time to learn how to operate the telegraph and at age 16 he was proficient enough to work as a full time telegrapher.

The fascination in technical objects led him later on to begin to think of a career change from telegrapher to inventor. His first patented invention was a commercial flop. He designed and built the first ever electric vote recorder which was to be used by elected bodies such as the Congress to speed up the voting process.

This seeming failure did not dissuade him. It further fuelled his passion to invent things that would be helpful to people and this became his life’s goal. He built the UNIVERSAL STOCK PRINTER and was paid $40, 000.00. At the time this was significant money and could have been squandered by the young inventor, however he channeled the entire funds to set up his first small scientific laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark New Jersey in 1871.

The next 5 years saw him pour in time and energy in this laboratory inventing and creating things that had never existed before. At the end of this period, Edison sold off the laboratory and moved his staff and family to an outskirt village of Menlo Park where he had more privacy to do better work. This new laboratory was the first of its kind anywhere and from here Thomas Edison began to change the world.

His invention of the Phonograph, the first machine ever that could record and reproduce sound created a sensation that brought him international recognition, so much so that he was invited to demonstrate his invention at the White House to President Rutherford B Hayes in April 1878

Edison invented so many things however his most amazing achievements were those relating to electricity. At that time there were many ongoing works in electricity however none were practical for home use and none were remotely moving in the general scale that Edison was thinking of. Edison was thinking of advancing electricity appliances to a point that it could be deployed in the homes of regular people all over the world. At the time this thinking was simply far out of this world. He was considered mad by some for thinking of this at this scale, yet it did not dissuade him.

Edison pressed on against all odds until one by one he began to see his dream come to pass, first by powering his own lab with electricity and then by setting up an electric commercial power station in September 1882.

Edison was also involved in various other projects. He was into mining, developing processes and equipment for mining iron ore to feed the Pennsylvania steel mills. He sold all his fortune in the General Electric Company he had helped form and ploughed the millions of Dollars from there into this project which never had commercial success.

Ordinarily this would have ruined him as he lost all his funds, but his investments in the phonograph and motion pictures kept him going.

WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT EDISON

What many people do not know about the young Edison was that at some point his teacher considered him addled. This conclusion was so discouraging that his mother pulled him out of school.

For those who may not understand, when a child was termed addled at that time, he was considered unable to think clearly, unable to make constructive use of his mind. This was the conclusion made by his teacher because the curios nature of his mind and the speed at which his interests moved from one topic to another was difficult for the teacher to understand.

Edison was also partially deaf. For a man of invention being partially deaf and very hard of hearing was not an exciting thing, yet Edison seemed to enjoy the fact that he was hard of hearing. In a certain way this challenge helped him block out the many dissenting voices that would have caused him to doubt himself or the work he was doing. He began to