Psalm 12:6-7 says; “The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.” This gives an idea of the integrity of the word of God. They are true, they are infallible, they don’t fall to the ground, it represent the character, the nature and the essense of God. It cannot be broken or rendered ineffective. The Bible says heaven and earth may pass away, but not one jot nor title of my word will go unfulfilled.

So, Mary asked a question after the glad tidings were brought to her, the Bible says “And haven come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.” The reason for the glad tidings was because she had found favor with God, another word for finding favor with God is finding grace or being endued with grace. Genesis 6:8 says; “But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord.” Look at the profound request Moses made before the Lord, he said; “If therefore I have found favour in thy sight, show me thy face, that I may know thee, and may find grace before thy eyes.” Did we see that? So for Moses to see the face of God and know His ways, it was because he had found favor and grace in the sight of God.

 In the same vain, the word of the Lord came to Mary because she found grace, she found favor. See what the angel said; “Rejoice highly favored one; the Lord is with you.”  This means that when you find grace in His sight, when you are favored by the Lord, you also carry his presence. The angel said the Lord is with you. If the Lord is not with you, favor and grace will be far from you.

Remember when Moses prayed this prayer, “If therefore I have found favour in thy sight, show me thy face, that I may know thee, and may find grace before thy eyes.” When God was to answer him, He said I am  the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Did we see that?

What does it mean to find grace? To find grace firstly, can be seen as God's willingness to forgive and cleanse individuals of their sins when they repent and turn to Him. This is what we call unmerited favor of God towards sinners or the least qualified. To find grace means free, spontaneous and absolute favor. It means loving-kindness, graciousness, compassionate or favorable disposition of God's heart towards a man. This is one aspect of grace and favor; it draws God's attention towards you.

Secondly, another aspect of grace is the divine ability to live above sin and to get a task or an assignment done without ease. It is God at work in us. It is the ability to do. I came to discover is something I found very interesting from the question she asked the angel. She said; “How shall these things be, seeing that I do not know a man.” It is because you have found grace that the glad tidings have come to you, and it will be by the Spirit of grace for that to be possible.  Jesus said with men it may be impossible, but with God nothing is impossible. She said seeing that I do not know a man. Jesus said I can of myself do nothing. There are things that are possible because you know men, but there are things that are possible because you know God.

I found this question very interesting because anybody could be found in such a situation. The message brought by the angel was too good to be true such that you require faith to receive and process such a message. And the thought would be that out of all the numerous women in the world, why did God choose to be gracious to her? This is a mystery. I may be tempted to say it was because of love. But of course, the Bible says that for God so loved the world that he gave. But it is one thing to love the world but it is another to become the womb, the channel through which such a possibility will be birthed. This is where grace and favor come in. What is man that You are mindful of him? How shall these things be possible considering my background, status, or qualifications or even in the order of priesthood? It was grace that found you.

The angel replied and said; and this is the secret to every greatness, to every experience of lifting in a man’s life. The Bible says by flesh shall no man prevail. It is by the Spirit of grace. So, what was spoken to her was not going to be accomplished by the flesh, but by the help of the Holy Spirit. So, the manifestation of your dream, the manifestation of greatness, the secret of the word becoming flesh was spoken by the angel in his reply to Mary, he said; “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you.” So, for whatever you will accomplish on the earth, all you require is for the Spirit to come upon you. The Bible says Jesus found where it was written, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and He has anointed me to….” Nothing significant is done for the kingdom except the Spirit of the Lord is upon that vessel, same principle applies to greatness.

As far as God-ordained destiny or greatness is concerned, it is only God who can make it happen for any man. It is not by connection but by divine connection. How are men who are nothing become great? How do men who are nothing made to become somebody? It is by the word of God, a man who dares to dream, a man who has received the word of God just like Mary believes that dream, that word; and to give it what it takes. What did Mary do in this scenario? She said; “Let it be unto me according to your word.” The Bible says blessed is she that believes for there shall be a performance of what has been said to her by my Lord. Just as she believed the word, If you can dream of greatness, you will be great, every great man began at some point a dreamer, a believer of the word.

To understand how to become a man of your dreams, it is important to know what a dream is and who a dreamer is. Dream in the context of my discussion is a cherished desire, a mental picture of the future, a vivid depiction of what God’s word is, stating what He desires you to be, to do or become according to divine scripting.  Who is a dreamer? A dreamer believes that though his beginning may be small, his latter end shall be greatly increased. He is not just one who sees or receives the word or sees certain pictures while he sleeps or in his mind, a dreamer believes that it is one thing to have a dream, it is another thing to walk in the realization of that dream. He believes it is one thing to desire greatness, it is another thing to become great.

So, it is one thing to know that God’s plans for you are good, but it's another thing to come to the point where you have come into the reality of that greatness that God had promised or showed you. See Jeremiah 29 verse 11, the Bible says;  "For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome."

The difference between where you are and where you ought to be is the function of your resolve and tenacity to chase that dream, to walk in the path or principles that will make that dream become a reality. Joseph called his brothers together and said to them, “Listen now and hear, I pray you, this dream that I have dreamed” (Genesis 37:6) his brothers replied him in verse 8, Shall you indeed reign over us? Or are you going to have us as your subjects and dominate us? And they hated him all the more for his dreams and for what he said. Verse 9 says – “But Joseph dreamed yet another dream” Did you see that? The Bible says He dreamt yet another dream. The ill-treatment he got from his brothers didn’t stop him from dreaming again. “Again” here talks about repetition and consistency, he kept dreaming and the Bible says “and told it to his brothers [also].” He said, See here, I have dreamed again, and behold, [this time not only] eleven stars [but also] the sun and the moon bowed down and did reverence to me! Verse 11 says Joseph's brothers envied him and were jealous of him, but his father observed the saying and pondered over it.

Christopher Reeve once said, “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

Every genuine greatness begins with you having a dream, not just having a dream but pursuing that dream, believing in it, talking about it, and giving it what it takes for it to come to pass. Your dream could be a word God spoke to you about your future; who you will become, and what the nations will see about who you will become. God spoke to Abraham about His plans for him, and Bible says Abraham waited patiently on God to build him a city that the foundation was God.  Remember what He said to Abraham? I will make you great. And I will make your name great. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. In another place He said to him, I am your shield and exceedingly great reward. These are not ordinary words. For these two great patriarchs of faith amongst many others, God began with them from their lowly state, with a word, with a dream when they were nothing; their moments of smallness, and brought them to greatness.

See what Isaiah 51 verse 2 says; "Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him when he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many."  These few words captured the totality of Gods walk with Abraham. But it began somewhere, it began with a word, a dream. Bible says Solomon was rich and powerful so much so that his fame went abroad to as far as kingdoms in Africa. He made gold as common as dust in Isreal. But do you know that the request and reception of his wisdom was in a dream?

Your dream is tied to your greatness in life. No one has ever become great without dreaming about it.  Egypt became a safe house for other nations in the time of hunger because Pharoah their king had a dream and he positioned a wise man to oversee the project.

So, don’t be tired of dreaming, don’t say the dreams I have had is enough. Bible says Joseph dreamt again. The reason is because the size of your dream is directly proportional to the degree of your greatness. Who would have thought Joseph a slave boy brought from Canaan into Egypt could become a prime minister? Who would have thought Jesus the King of Glory would have come from Nazareth a town written off? Who would have thought that a baby born in a manger to a father who is a carpenter would attain such greatness? The Bible says He had no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. ³ - He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him. (Isaiah 53:2-3)

The Bible says He made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant. But inherent in His DNA was a massive dream to accomplish on the face of the earth. He became one who was qualified to take the scroll and loosen the seven seals.

So, what then is greatness? Greatness is that point in destiny where you don’t only realize your dream, but you believe you are destined for greatness irrespective of your present state or location. It is the point where the promises of God have become evident, the point where the spoken word becomes a reality. Although you can’t touch it, it is as real and as vivid as anything you have ever felt nor touched. Greatness talks about unusual largeness in size, extent, or number due to Gods blessings by the virtue of grace.

See what God told prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1 verse 10, it says; “See, I have this day appointed you to the oversight of the nations and of the kingdoms to root out and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant”. When this word came to the prophet, he saw himself as a youth, as a nobody; but in the process of time the word came true concerning his destiny. Until the word of God came to Gideon, he never saw himself as a mighty man of valor, as a matter of fact he was fearful.

How amazing God can be, He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and the base things of this world to confound the mighty, He lifts men from the ash heaps, the dunghill, and makes them to inherit the throne of glory. Look how He took David from the backside of the wilderness to become a king whose dynasty will endure forever. These examples are a testament that your greatness is also in view if you do not waver at His promises, and the dreams which God had showed you.

Greatness talks about characteristics possessed by something or someone of outstanding importance or eminence. Greatness is not defined by society. It is not defined by how much money you have, the car you drive, or how much better you are than someone else. Of course the life of a man does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. So, greatness is defined by meeting God’s standard and the extent to which you empty yourself into the world, into people of the divine deposit or virtues stored up in you. And this is not possible outside of grace. So, you can be great by being distinctively unique and special by the virtue of grace.

We all desire to be great, not just being great but doing great things for God. I would like to show you a secret I discovered about attaining greatness. Please read along patiently, I believe you will be greatly blessed.

I discovered the journey of greatness begins from the understanding of this Scripture and other similar Scripture the Holy Spirit may reveal to you. But let's examine this very carefully. John chapter 1 verse 18, it says; "No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known]". Amp.

How does this Scripture relate to dream and greatness? Please read patiently. I like to show you what I saw from the beginning of this verse, but emphasis on the last statement will do us good, bringing a proper understanding and basis for the thought line I have been inspired to share.

It says “He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known”. This is talking about Jesus. What baffles me here was that one of the primary assignment of the Son and the Holy Spirit is to interpret the Father and to make Him known. But on a second thought how comes Jesus said to Peter flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father in heaven. In this case it was the Father that revealed and interpreted the Son and made Him known. This means that just as the Father reveals the Son, the Son also reveals the Father, and the Holy Spirit also does the same. The Father glorifies the Son so that the Son can glorify the Father. Same applies here, the Son reveals the Father and the Father reveals the Son. Bible says there are three that bears witness in heaven and there are three that bears witness on the earth. This is uniformity, agreement and unity of purpose.

This is why when you come to Jesus you will be revealed to yourself and then ultimately being revealed to the world; talking about who you are and who you would become in Christ. So, revealing Jesus to the world first begins from Jesus being revealed to you. Bible says the earnest expectations of creation eagerly await the manifestation of the sons of God. It has not yet appeared what we shall be like, but when He is revealed we shall be like Him. Jesus embodies revelation. You can’t be with Him, you can’t come to Him and you will not be revealed. This is the beginning of the journey of greatness.

Thanks for the gift of your time, Apeh Francis Abah!
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