The Transformative Power Of Creativity And Invention
When we become better in tune with the Source of knowledge, strength and inspiration, we will begin to channel our creativity to solve the problems around us and deliver value to our community. There is a transformative effect that applications of creativity and inventiveness can have on a society, such effects can be mind-blowing and difficult to grasp initially.
Having a career as an Inventor; someone that creates useful things of economic value can be very rewarding. However, most inventors I know are never motivated merely because of the huge fortune they could potentially make, but are rather fired up because of the difference their work could make in the lives of people. They genuinely want to make life better, inventions comes from the place of love and not from the place of greed.
For many years, I was trying to monetise my talents, but I could not. I was not able to make money or gain any form of meaningful traction with my numerous projects, even though they were considered to be innovative. It took me a lot of time to figure out the problem was me. I was building for myself, seeking fame and relevance as opposed to trying to add value to a well-defined set of people.
I was not trying to apply my creativity towards problem solving, I was just been greedy and self- centred. I did not begin to make good progress in my career until I fell in love with people and tried to see how their problems could be solved as opposed to simply trying to feel cool. When you genuinely fall in love with people and take a look at the problems they face daily, you will be better empowered to solve them. This is the key to maximising your gift as an inventor.
This message of creativity and invention is timely, because it is empowering, very practical and actionable. There is a transformative effect this message can have on individuals, communities and even the nations of the world.
When you unleash your inventions, you will not only make money from it, but you would also be positively impacting the society and boosting the local economy of your country. I hope I can get you to start seriously thinking about how your inventions can have an effect on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of your country.
The only way so-called third world countries like Nigeria and the continent of Africa can re-negotiate their lot is through a radical embrace of creativity and invention. Indeed, if one studies the history of the people and nations of the world, you observe a trend. The countries with the most advanced technological solutions are always the leaders in their days.
Developing science and technology is not merely a function of government allocating more resources towards research and development. We have already established earlier on that investing money, time and acquisition of data and information is no guarantee that we are getting closer to new insights that are really needed for inventions.
You might have billions of US Dollars to invest into building a state-of-the-art research facility, but without that spirit of invention present in the building, I think such efforts are more or less futile.
The secret origin of all creativity and invention is spiritual. People that are spiritual, better position themselves for it. A nation is not ready for advancement until it accumulates a critical mass of spiritual people. I am talking about spiritual people, not people that are merely religious. Let us now consider what it means to be spiritual.
What does it mean to be spiritual?
We must be able to distinguish between the concept of “spirituality” and been religious for example. These two concepts are frequently lumped together, yet they are completely different.
In my home country – Nigeria, a lot of people think they are been spiritual, while they are just been religious and actually operating in ignorance. The average “church going” Nigerian is very superstitious and religious, but not spiritual. If indeed the root of all creativity and inventions are spiritual—and it is, to get that spark of an idea that becomes the foundation for some ground breaking invention, we have to be spiritual—then we need to turn our religiosity to spirituality.
I do not think that there exists a single definition of spirituality that everybody can agree on, but I will define spirituality as rising above the petty, the material, the tangible and becoming part of something more. Spirituality is about acknowledging and patiently cultivating a relationship with God. It is all about becoming better in tune with God.
What is the difference between playing religion and been spiritual?
The easiest way I have found to distinguish between both is captured in the following sentence. The religious mind-set says “God will do it for me”. The spiritual mind-set says “God will empower me; make tools available for me to get it done”.
Religion says there is something out there, incomprehensible and completely beyond us. Let us try to be on their good side, appease them with gifts and sacrifices, stay in line and all will be well. The mind-set being “How do I please God and stay in his good books?”
Spirituality says there is something out there. I am one with that force, I am in union with that force. Spirituality leads you to critical thinking and excellence. The mind-set being “How do I channel more of God? How do I improve my performance today than I did yesterday?”
A religious mind-set eventually leads to blindness and mediocrity. A religious man sees no need to improve, the mind-set is “God is working on my behalf, I am one breakthrough away.”
Breakthrough in this context means some sudden event delivering instantaneous results, especially through seemingly mysterious circumstances. The religious folks are never ready to submit for learning, training, discipline and the long hours of study that are necessary for any serious advancement.
The word “religion” literally means been bound to something; a return to bondage. Spirituality on the other hand is empowering. A religious man can neither be creative nor inventive, their mind is dull and simply unreceptive to such thoughts.
A religious man prays to his god or deity to send him a loaf of bread every single day. A spiritual man communes with God to empower him to build a bakery and then devotes a part of the bakery’s daily output towards feeding the poor.
The hallmark of a person of the spirit is incredible productivity. Proper spiritual development breeds productivity, excellence and critical thinking.
How do we go from religiosity to spirituality?
The first step towards transforming our religious inclinations into a true spiritual experience is acceptance of the fact that we have been playing religion all along.
Religion seems to operate like a performance reward system, the stick-and-carrot approach. You do this specified thing in order to get this other thing in return. So, if you have been following rules blindly, merely because of promised rewards and NOT because you really care enough to understand the real purposes and intentions behind same laws: you are being religious.
True spirituality on the other hand emphasises a relationship, one that goes beyond the letter. A spiritual person is trying to cultivate a closer relationship with God, knowing fully well that once they can attain a closer relationship with God, all requirements of the written law would have been fulfilled.
You might have heard a common debate amongst Christians that insist Christianity is not a religion, but a “way of life”. It is very easy to follow religious doctrines and dogmas but could be quite challenging to get into that place of understanding their true nature so that it can lead to empowerment of the individual and not merely blind compliance.
Jesus stated in the scriptures that he did not come to abolish the law, but rather, he came to unearth their true purposes and ensure that those purposes are fulfilled. He ended up declaring that the real meaning of Moses’ Law and the Prophets, can be distilled into a single sentence: “do to others whatever you would wish them to do to you”.
This is the principle we popularly refer to as the golden rule. Indeed, an understanding of these simple, but profound principle would decimate the cloak of religion and usher us into the deep.
Spirituality is not attending church, reading your “holy books” and praying fervently every day. I erroneously used to think that Holy Ghost baptism and the ability to “speak in tongues” was what made people spiritual, I have come to realise that this is not entirely correct. One of the most spiritual Christians I have ever met doesn’t pray in tongues, but he is immensely spiritual.
We do NOT consider Jesus to be spiritual because he read the holy books, attended religious gatherings consistently and prayed “in tongues” a lot. He is considered to be a man sent from God because he had this intimate relationship with God and he was so loving that he agreed to lay down his life in exchange for others.
On a certain day, I was updating one of my mentors about some things happening in my life at that time and when I mentioned a certain person within a particular context, she objected that I cannot claim someone is selfish and spiritual at the same time. She insisted that selfishness and true spirituality are mutually exclusive.
Truly, one sees that the height of spiritual maturity is love, selflessness and taking up responsibility for others. The person that is strong in the spirit does not despise the weak, but rather bears them up on their strong shoulders. A non-spiritual strong man stands up for himself only, a spiritual man stands up for others.
It is the coming together of love, selflessness and responsibility that culminates in a distinct feature of spiritual people: VISION. Spiritual people are characterised by having a collective vision for people, and when you are driven by a purpose higher than you, you always win in the long run.
Religion seems to be about relying on God to help with your own needs and ambition. Ambition often does nothing more than serve the needs of its often greedy owner while a vision serves the needs of the people. (By the way, I am sick and tired of ambitious people pretending to be visionaries).
The key difference between a vision and merely pursing an ambition is that when a vision drives us, everybody wins! It is time to look inward, identify our true standing and see how we can fully mature into spirituality.
The Hallmarks Of A Spiritual People
Spiritual people are the bedrock of any great nation. A great nation is not made from natural resources, even though possessing natural resources might help. A great nation can only be developed by people that are lit up by an inner fire to operate strategically and with great precision.
A spiritual people; a spiritual nation is truly unstoppable.
Blessed is the nation that has an abundance of spiritual people. People that are not merely religious, but have matured enough into spirituality. They will leverage their innate creative energy and be empowered to shake things up, causing disruption of the old and significantly improving efficiency and productivity.
We need you to unleash your inventions because that is one sure way to rewrite our gloomy future. Our optimism for the future is not misplaced, but we have to go beyond wishing and praying for a brighter future. Feats of creativity and invention are the vehicles that can get us there.
There are three fundamental truths I want to share with you, I am sharing them with you because I am sincerely hoping it will help you put this message of creativity and invention in some perspective.
A spiritual nation should be technologically advanced.
With the right strategy, a spiritual nation soon becomes the super world power in its day.
I will state my case, as clearly as I possibly can.
I believe that wisdom is the most valuable commodity in the world. The most valuable commodity in the world is neither gold nor crude oil or diamonds; it is wisdom. Revelational knowledge is what we need, once we have that, anything is possible.
The many merits of wisdom have been duly documented and taught over the years. Wisdom is the principal thing and once you have wisdom, you can create as much wealth as you require.
The story of Joseph in ancient Egypt shows us how the wisdom of one man can take a nation into greater heights. The wisdom of Joseph brought wealth and great productivity to ancient Egypt. The wisdom of Solomon brought great wealth, international acclaim, fresh knowledge and so much more to his home country of Israel during his days.
We need to realise that the internationally acclaimed Forbes’s list of the richest people alive is actually a list of people who have been able to leverage wisdom in order to generate wealth.
The wisdom of men like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and others like them attracts immense wealth to their home country – The United States Of America. The international e- commerce juggernaut – Alibaba, founded by Jack Ma created at least ten billionaires and many millionaires (all in US Dollars) out of China.
The people mentioned above might not necessarily be Christians. That is not the point, my point is that I see clearly a pathway in my spirit through which we can achieve the exact same thing through our Christian model.
We just need to ensure that we are not simply a religious nation trying to merely please God, but we transition into a spiritual nation that tries to understand what God is doing, possess a sense of divine timing, while accepting responsibility and getting empowered for serious things.
There is a clear relationship between wisdom and wealth. A spiritual nation should be a wealthy nation because wealth can be generated when you have wisdom. Spiritual people operate with wisdom because they possess “light” which manifests as wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge is the REAL FOUNDATION of any form of wealth you might seek to build.
This begs the question: where is the wisdom that is supposed to attract wealth to my nation – Nigeria? Whose wisdom is going to transform the Dark Continent and make it the most advanced civilisation in the world?
When people walk in wisdom, wealth is a natural by- product of such wisdom. Wisdom is a spirit that optimises and maximises, regardless of the circumstances, wisdom is always in the business of generating value and making a profit in return. The word “profit” used in this context goes beyond paper money or some obvious benefits easily discernable by the untrained mind.
Any wealth that is not built around an application of wisdom and knowledge is a mirage, it cannot stand the test of time. The modern economy is a knowledge economy, the companies and organisations getting ahead are knowledge-based companies. One of the secrets to business success in our days is knowing something nobody else knows (or maybe to become the first to figure out something and maximise your returns from that before others catch up with you).
This is a very different ball-game from the industrial era, when succeeding in business simply required you to induce a large workforce to co-operate with you to do things at scale. In today’s global economy, it no longer about the strength of your workforce alone, it also about the quality of the ideas and the continuous iteration of those ideas.
The current trend of increased automation means that we are likely facing a future devoid of menial tasks. Any job that entails a boss telling someone exactly what to do, would simply be automated and programmed into a robot. We can expect that going forward, people would prefer to automate daily, routine tasks in a business to a capable robot, rather than delegate to a human. I see a future where a single entrepreneur can commandeer their global operations using robots and digital assistants to co- ordinate some vast empire.
Today’s world is ever increasing in complexities and uncertainty. Wisdom is the key to life and business success unlike ever before, one cannot just wing it and hope for a fair turn out. The future definitely belongs to people who are able to leverage wisdom, and use their uncommon insights to forge ahead.
If spiritual people really have wisdom, a proof of their wisdom should be the kind of wealth they are able to generate. A spiritual nation should be a wealthy nation if the spiritual people really know the value of the wisdom they should have access to. A spiritual nation has no business with any form of poverty or lack.
Moving Beyond Spirituality For The Sake Of Spirituality
A spiritual nation should be a technologically advanced nation, self-reliant and extremely wealthy. That is the ideal scenario, however it seems it will take some orientation before we can achieve anything even remotely close to that.
We need to understand that the pinnacle of civilisation is not spirituality for the sake of spirituality. We should not only bask in the euphoria of a spiritual atmosphere, the calmness, peace and immense joy we experience in that moment. We need to learn how to translate the visions we receive in our hearts into a physical reality and that will only happen when we learn to mine knowledge from our spiritual experiences and apply same to the physical sphere of existence.
I think the issue here is that when people start having spiritual experiences, they grow so attached to it that they can become quite withdrawn from the physical world around them. There is also a concern for what is termed materialism; the belief that attachment to physical things will cause a detachment from spiritual things. Some spiritual people might also have an “escapist mentality”, the general belief that the ultimate goal of spiritually minded people is to go to heaven.
A careful scrutinising of these issues would reveal to anybody that such concerns do not carry any weight.
You are not materialistic because of the things you have, you become materialistic when your money and possessions become more important to you than “spiritual values”. A materialistic person cannot even attain true spirituality in the first place. This is the true deduction to be made of the encounter between Jesus and the rich, religious ruler in the Holy Bible.
The rich ruler was materialistic, and even though he wanted to attain real spirituality, he was bugged down by all the stuff that he had acquired. The Holy Bible recorded that he went away in sorrow because he was very rich (he had much possessions). Real spiritual people would never bat an eyelid at giving up all their possessions at an instant, because they have something they value more.
Heaven is a very important concept to Christians, however, we cannot conclude that the only reason we are saved, redeemed and re-generated in God’s image is to make heaven. If the ONLY reason we are seeking God is in order to escape the problems on earth and jump off to heaven, I think we may have been scammed.
Sound Christian teaching makes it clear that God expects us to be productive, to fill the earth and have dominion over it. A careful study of the twenty- eighth verse of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis reveals these things. This verse precedes the fall of man, it is as close to God’s original blueprint as possible and yet it does not invite us to escape into heaven. It does not promise heaven as a reward for us either. This verse rather empowers us to take charge of the earth, make it as productive as possible and govern it.
“The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men”
Psalms 115:16 (KJV)
The earth; the physical realm we can see, feel and touch is our domain and developing an escape-to- heaven mind-set will not do us any favours. If spiritual people do not embrace the first task clearly appointed to us by God: to take charge, develop productivity and govern the physical universe, we have automatically abdicated our duties and allow lesser men; unspiritual people free reign to make decisions and take actions that directly and indirectly impair our own lives and our collective future.
When spiritual people; a people supposedly in tune with God and can channel that higher wisdom and creativity decide to do nothing, decide not to embrace a divine vision for their nation and are rather longing for heaven, they do not get to condemn or criticise any contrary vision that is imposed on them. If your vision and sole purpose is to escape to heaven, then you would have no need for long-term planning or critical thinking. That would be a futile exercise.
The sole purpose of life is not so that we can die and go to heaven, where is the purpose in that? This is a time of creativity, new ideas and novel ways of thinking. There are great things we can accomplish here on earth, if only we are willing to take up responsibility.
We must evolve beyond spirituality for spirituality sake. Spiritual enlightenment is a noble goal every man should aspire towards, however, it is not an end in itself. The end goal cannot be “spirituality in itself”, a Christian that has truly gone beyond the veils of religion realises that spirituality actually empowers us for the purpose of bringing about perfection to people, places, events and things around us.
Did Jesus not say that “you are the light of the world”? One does not need an angel to explain the implication of this statement. It means that spiritual people are meant to reflect heaven’s light upon the dark world around them. The world of culture, governance, arts, trade, sciences; the entire human sociological realm should be illuminated by spiritual people on earth. You are not the light of heaven, you channel the light—WISDOM—from heaven upon the dark world around you.
The innate creative and healing power possessed by spiritual people is virtually useless in heaven, it is only relevant and useful here on earth. These powers are for the salvation, deliverance, redemption and empowerment of mankind.