Living the Happy Life - Making Your Journey Within

By Bishop Ben Ugbine

This book is about how you can find true happiness in life. Many times we are pursuing happiness in all the wrong places, like in people, places and things, but that has left us frustrated and disappointed. We are also looking for it in sex, alcohol and food but that has also left us unfulfilled. This book will direct you to where you can find true happiness in life and that is within yourself. When you become still, and journey within yourself to that spiritual environment where your creator is, you will meet with happiness. Happiness can only be found within yourself and not without. Every effort outside yourself to seek for happiness will only leave you empty and disappointed. Material possessions are good, but they can't fulfil you. When you can make contact with your creator, He will cause His Spirit to enlighten you and you will find your purpose in life and become a blessing to the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9780244199784

Bishop Ben Ugbine

Bishop Ben Ugbine is the General overseer of The House of Faith Mission Int and also the President of Faith Minister’s Network Int, a leadership organization that trains and equip ministers to be highly effective. Bishop Ben Ugbine is a prolific writer who has written several books that has been of tremendous inspiration to many and he is also widely travelled. He is a gifted speaker, teacher, preacher and motivator who inspires people with his wide range of knowledge of life and great wisdom. Bishop Ben Ugbine holds a degree in Religious Studies and Philosophy from the Middlesex University, England and also a diploma in Journalism which he obtained from the London School of Journalism. He is a sort after speaker in conferences, seminars, crusades and other church events. Bishop Ben Ugbine is married with children and currently resides in the United Kingdom.

Book preview

Living the Happy Life - Making Your Journey Within

LIVING THE HAPPY LIFE

Making Your Journey Within

BISHOP BEN UGBINE

Copyrights © 2019 Bishop Ben Ugbine.

ISBN 978-0-244-19978-4

DEDICATION

I’d like to dedicate this book to our Lord Jesus Christ for the grace and wisdom He gave me to write this book and am eternally grateful for it. Also, I dedicate it to all those who are seeking true fulfilment and wants to be happy in their lives. My prayer is that you will discover that true happiness you are seeking for and your life will be fulfilled and tremendously enriched.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to acknowledge the continuous prayers of the ministers of the House of Faith Mission Int for me as I carry out this great mandate and assignment for my life. Also, let me acknowledge the support of my wife and children for standing with me in this great commission given to us by the Almighty God. May the good Lord continue to bless you all, Amen.

PREFACE

Many people in the world today are really searching for that which will make them happy in life, but regrettably, they haven’t found it despite all their search. It is true that we all want to be happy, but we have been looking for it in all the wrong places. What will make you happy in life can only be found within yourself and not outside you. It is sad that we have tried to seek for this happiness in people, places and things, but that has only left us with disillusionment and confusion of mind.

The journey to happiness must be sort for within oneself and making that contact with the creator of the universe who will invest one with it. Happiness has nothing to do with material acquisitions or money, although to have these things are good, but it will not give one that inner joy and happiness we want in life. Materials things can give one some sort of comfort in life, but it cannot give that true happiness that would make one to be fulfilled within oneself. What will make one happy must come from within. It must come from journeying within to that spiritual environment where the kingdom of God can be opened to one’s reality.

Once we can foster a closer relationship with the Father, then we will begin experience that inner joy that the world cannot give to one. Indeed, we are wont to think that our fulfilment will come from the world but that has not been the case. No matter the physical experience we have in this world, if we don’t connect with the creator, we will still be unfulfilled inside. There is no way we can experience that true happiness and fulfilment if we don’t establish a cordial relationship with the Father of all creation. Your sustenance comes from uniting with the Father who will cover you with His divine love. The love of God is the source of your strength and if we can connect with Him, His Spirit will overwhelm us.

This book will take you through a deep spiritual journey that will empower your life and show you how to make that journey within to unveil the kingdom of heaven to you. You will be able to see the futility in life and your eyes will be opened to the spiritual environment that will cause you to experience true inner fulfilment and happiness.

When we are exposed to the spiritual realm, our whole view about the world and people will completely change for the better. We will begin to see differently and hear from the spiritual dimension in a perceptive way. No doubt your life is going to change and be transformed by the true light of God and you will journey to your place of happiness with great enthusiasm.

Transformation will only take place in person’s life when they have an encounter with spirit because spirit will cause your eyes to be opened to see things clearly and intuitively. Many in the world today are so spiritually blind that they don’t even know that they are blind. The worst blindness one can ever have in life is to be spiritually blind. When you cannot understand what is happening around you, you will be walking blindly and become an open ground for the intervention of the enemy. God wants you to be happy, but you must find that happiness within yourself if you are going to be fulfilled in your life.

When one can discover this true happiness within, one will begin to experience a profound sense of purpose in life and do things with inspiration and enthusiasm. Your life turns around when you discover the true meaning of life and know what your life’s mission and assignment is to the world.

CHAPTER ONE: THE LOVE OF GOD

The love of God is the most transforming kind of love.  It has the power to cleanse and reshape our whole lifestyle and bring peace to us and those we encounter daily.  Indeed, we can’t find true happiness in this life until we discover that redemptive love of God that is power in and of itself.

The world is in turmoil today because of the absence of the true love of God.  People are miserable and sick with all manner of sicknesses and diseases as a result of their hate towards one another.    The pathway to tranquillity and joy can only be achieved when we have a closer relationship with our creator – God.  There is no way we can truly discover ourselves and blossom in this world until God takes absolute control of our whole existence.  

God is love, and those who are in true relationship with Him must possess this supernatural love that regenerates the human soul.  Everything in existence today was fashioned out of the love of God.  God made them for His own delight also for man to enjoy as well.  When God created man in the beginning of creation, He made him out of love, and He gave him dominion over other creatures.  And if man continues to love God, he would not only find that perfect state of blessedness, but he would also evolve out of that same love.

God desires a closer fellowship with man but man’s love for sin had severed him from experiencing the whole magnitude of God and realising his own incredible human potential.  Man, without love, will degenerate into spiritual poverty and die a miserable death.  The force behind love is so strong that it can neutralize any form of evil and bring salvation and deliverance to those involved.

When Jesus walked the face of this world many years ago, He displayed that Agape kind of love that eventually brought salvation to humanity.  He was persecuted and derided but through all His harrowing experiences with the Pharisees and Sadducees of His time, He overcame them with the supreme love of God.   He walked the face of this Earth with love and compassion and those whom He encountered were overwhelmed by this redemptive kind of love that He showed to people which they’ve never experienced before.  As a matter of fact, he made many disciples and brought many to God because of the love that radiated out of Him.

Walking with God is walking in love.  A man that possesses this true love of God judges no one and condemns no one.  He’s ever patient with people and endures suffering.  The love of God eliminates every form of prejudice and makes one to accept every human being as a child of God irrespective of race, class or gender.  God is not a respecter of persons and we are all equal before Him.  It’s so pathetic that in this world of ours, we tend to put labels on people because of their wealth, positions and class – and as such, we look down on those who don’t fit into those labels.  Because of this categorization and aberrant behaviour in humanity, it has degenerated into hate and resentment – which in fact has brought about war and misery prevalent in the world today.  When God created man and the world, He never created one with more importance and the other with less importance.  He made every human being equal.  God loves every human being equally and if we also possess that same love of God, we would love everyone equally too.

Man’s Birth into the World

When we were born into this world, we came in naked and innocent of any form of sin or egocentricities.  We had no knowledge of good and evil and God was our source of existence.  But as we begin to grow in our new environment, we then forgot our God-self and became instead worldly people. The possession of knowledge corrupted our innocence and we devolved from being the children of God into the children of the enemy – the ruler of this world.

Indeed, the degeneration brought misery and death to the human soul.  Happiness which would have become a way of life for humanity, was traded for sin and the allurement of this world.  

From the beginning of creation when God created man, He endowed him with His characteristics, and He infused His Spirit within man.  But what happened to man?  He was deceived by the enemy - Satan, who promised him the knowledge of good and evil – in other words he promised man the privilege of becoming God.  What a folly you might say!  Yes, that’s exactly what it is.  Man was fooled forever.  Man lost the peace and fellowship of God and the ever presence of His maker.

The egocentric nature of man has made him to lose that inherent nature of God he was born with – and has now attached himself to labels, titles and material acquisitions.  In fact, this world itself is an illusion and has no tangible permanence.  It can’t offer true peace and happiness that people long for.  But many people are still striving after the world’s goods to make themselves happy.  And their efforts seem to me a fruitless one indeed.  It’s like going on a wild goose chase.

The wealth and riches of this world cannot offer happiness and true security.  The wealthiest people in the world are not necessarily the happiest people.  True happiness and success come from knowing God as a true friend who will endow one with that blessed state of mind.  The world itself has nothing real to offer you that can make you a better person.  In fact, to achieve that true spiritual state of mind which will engender joy, peace and happiness, we need to detach ourselves from all the entanglements of this ephemeral world.  Happiness comes from loving God and loving Him from within ourselves.  Discovering the love of God within our souls should be the greatest goal of every human being alive.  We need to come back to God in our original child-like self, devoid of any worldly knowledge or connotation and embrace the love of God.  Stop pursuing shadows in this world and realise that you don’t need to be anything or possess material things to be happy and successful.  Jesus made a statement in Matthew 6:33, He said, But seek first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  It’s a categorical promise that your true existence must first evolve from discovering God within yourself and living the God way of life.  When this is achieved, then God would add to you everything else you need automatically.  It is the prerogative of God to take care of His own children, and if our earthly parents can cater for our needs, how much more will our heavenly Father who made us and has everything under His control.

To make this fact clearer, let me use this analogy.  When a child is born into this world, his whole existence is dependent on his parents.  He has no thought of what he’s going to eat or put on and neither has he any ambition to be a great so and so.  His parents see to it that the child is fed, clothed and catered for.  The child on his part has no worries, nor fears as to his future, but his support comes out of that subtle love that operates between him and his parents.  In like manner, when we have love for God in our hearts, He sees to it that we are cared for.  We need not fear about the future or become too ambitious in life.  When we are too ambitious, we lose God’s timing and we operate from a different timing that engenders impatience, misery, suffering and ultimately death.

Man’s Ambitions

The reason why too many people are suffering today is simply because they’ve skimmed themselves out of the original plan of God for them.  Everyone seems to be fighting to become a great so and so and in attempt of achieving their set goals, they resort to nefarious acts and demean themselves all in the name of wealth and fame.  When we are empty inside, we begin to solicit for external re-enforcement to further validate ourselves for worldly acceptance.  And when we eventually get this acceptance we’ve fought relentlessly for we then discover the futility of our miserable struggles – which in turn makes us set bigger goals for ourselves to achieve.  In fact, these goal setting are nothing but misery and futility, and it’s the result of man’s spiritual failure and unhappiness today.

In the eyes of the world when a man possesses more wealth, we tend to revere him irrespective of the source of his wealth – whether he acquired it honestly or not.  But in the eyes of God, our worldly status and wealth are of no importance to Him at all.  It does not even matter whether one is a king, queen, the candlestick maker or baker.  God is not a respecter of persons.  God only shows His love to those who truly loves Him and keeps His commandments.  You can be a pauper and still be happy in this world.  Happiness has nothing to do with how much education one has acquired.  It is simply a state of mind.  And that state of mind can be achieved by being still and know that God is God, and that He’s also the creator of the Universe.

Discovering the happiness that comes from loving God can be compared to a parable Jesus gave in the book of Matthew.  He said that the kingdom of God can be compared to a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it (Matt 13:45).  The pearl in the parable signifies discovering happiness in God which is more important to the merchant than anything else.  He sold all his possessions to acquire that