Genieus

I have started with a made-up word intentionally as I always do to communicate.

I know someone is screaming to correct me but I want to advise them to keep a rein of their desire to correct until they get to know why I have cooked a word like that.

Who is a genius? What is a genie?

That is where I want us to start.

A genius is an exceptionally endowed person with way above normal acumen for this or the other skill, sometimes many such skills.

A genie is a mythical spiritual being with an unlimited power that is only subject to his master who is limited to a few choices.

We hear of people with genies in their employ in witchcraft and some religions. The genies are kept for the purposes of making the said people wealthy or dealing with their enemies.

Why then am I connecting innocent people with the demonic? I know someone is wondering.

Exodus 31 talks of God’s call to Bezalel son of Uri.

Incidentally that is the first time the Bible talks about someone being filled with the Holy Spirit and not Acts 2:4 as charismatics and Pentecostals believe and teach.

It is that filling that enabled him to be the exceptional artisan and instructor towards satisfying God’s demand for the items to be involved in His worship.

We can comfortably call him a genius and we won’t be wrong because that is what he was.

Yet it is clear from the Bible that it was the Holy Spirit that gave him that enablement.

That is what I want to demonstrate today.

I will start by giving my definition of genius.

A genius is a person who has been endowed with an exceptional gift or many such gifts for the purpose of serving God and helping others connect with God better.

A genius is therefore someone who, from his mother’s womb, possesses such attributes (allow me to call them gifts) that will stand out when compared to the average person.

It therefore means that this person’s path has already been drawn and his assignment arranged.

He arrives on the scene to actualize what he had already been prepared for.

Genius according to me is a spiritual release with a particular purpose in mind.

That is why you find many inventors are not normal people as normal goes.

Their acumen for whatever they do is not attributable to their education or training because what they do is beyond any training they might receive. It is beyond any exposure they may have had.

Another thing you will notice is that they do not do anything for recognition or even reward. They are content to just solve a problem.

I am sure you know that many people we call inventors actually invented nothing. They just connected with the genius doing the invention and, because the genius was content with solving a problem, were able to make those inventions theirs because they were the assistants the genius was using.  They had all the documentation and witnessed all the processes and so can comfortably own those inventions.

But the geniuses are content with the solution they helped solve. The inventor of the rubber tyre (or tire as per your English) died penniless even as other people were being made millionaires by his invention. Yet he didn’t die bitter since he was content to have sacrificed his wealth and health to provide a solution. And we know of many medical pioneers who died from their experimentational hazards to provide what we now take for granted. Many freedom fighters sacrificed everything for the freedoms we enjoy and eventually died in poverty since others hijacked their struggle and made a different narrative to bury them in oblivion. Again, we do not see them bitter. It is others who were never near the action who have become the champions fighting for compensation.

That is why I am connecting the genius with the genie since they are intrinsically connected.

Let me get us to the Bible before you lose track of what I am saying.

Moses had something that his mother saw. The Bible says he was no ordinary baby even at infancy.

It simply means that the spiritual release in his life was evident to all.

In fact, it was that spiritual spark in him that caused Egypt to order all the boys to be killed since their spiritual gurus could see it when he was released from the heavens.

We get to clearly see it through his leadership.

How can a single man lead over three million people singlehandedly for forty years without the gimmicks leaders employ? How could he be so connected to people and God at the same time? How could he be so focused on his role to the point that he made a single error in forty years? And how could that error be so grave to God that he disqualified him from entering Canaan yet Aaron was forgiven for among other sins, fashioning the golden calf?

Then us get to David. Again, we can clearly see it through his life and leadership.

How could he be so gentle on lambs yet so tough on Goliath? How could he play so softly on the harp yet leap over a wall? How could he act (feign madness) so effectively in Gath yet be so real to Israel? How could he spare Saul’s life two times yet curse Joab? How could he invite Maphibosheth yet condemn Shimei and Joab to death by the sword? And how could he turn very desperate and hopeless characters into the kind of army he raised?

The lives of these, as you will see with many others, was consistent with a spiritual release to accomplish a task God had in store for them. Accomplishing that task was enough for them

Probably it would help us some if I included another person in this list before we go to the New Testament. And that is Jonathan, Saul’s crown prince.

Do you realise he surrendered everything that represented his position when David came into the picture? That for me is baffling, beyond reason except for this one reason.

We know that he was not a coward since we even see him confronting the Philistine army singlehandedly. We know that he had enough spiritual stature because he was able to clearly see David’s spiritual release. And we know there was no threat to his inheriting his father’s kingdom since he was the only son Israel identified with leadership like we see when Saul seeks to kill him.

And the kingdom was all his since even David had no desire to fight for it. In any case David was a child when he came to the scene and Jonathan was already a family man.

But Jonathan was able to see what even David had not seen and was willing to submit to it

That is the genius I am talking about. Jonathan handed his kingdom to David without reservations and offered to serve under him.

Probably Jonathan ought to be the focus of any leadership training.

Just imagine a manager seeing a tea boy (I wonder why they are always called boy when they are grown men) possessing the leadership higher than his doing what Jonathan did to David!

Yet that is what Jonathan did.

But even as you digest that I want to include another genius we might not all agree about his genius. And that is Caleb ben Jephunneh. How could a single person stand against three million against all odds, even plain evidence the other spies had seen?

That genius was in his faith. His faith was such that nothing could stand against God’s promise. That is why I include him in my list of geniuses.

Let me get to the thrust of my post by repeating that the genius is a person whose assignment is accompanied by an exceptional gift or set of gifts.

And I do this because removing the spiritual from it makes the genius just like the next person apart from their exceptional enablement. It is also the whole purpose of this post because the misunderstanding of the same is the reason many geniuses waste their lives doing irrelevant things, things that will put their assignment in jeopardy. That is where I want us to go.

Remember Samson?

His assignment was crystal clear even before his conception.

But what do we see with him? He takes his gift for granted, even plays games with it.

Incidentally that is what the enemy, who knows about that release even before we know it, takes advantage of.

Due to his assignment, however, God still uses him, albeit in a much-limited way due to his entitlement or assumption that it will still work.

You see, as a nazarite, it was against the rules for him to interact with the Philistines. But he did. He was not allowed to touch any unclean thing. But he took honey from a carcass of an unclean animal. He couldn’t interact with a whore, even an Israelite one. But he visited a Philistine one.

But since his assignment was still intact, he continued to perform the roles God had set up for him.

But that dabbling with the forbidden was his undoing since it eventually took him to a point that God removed him from his assignment. The Bible says that God left him.

Yet even after that, God is able to use him even in his death wish so that he could accomplish his assignment, even in death.

The enemy targets the gifted from all fronts, but there is one place he deploys his best arsenal in. and that is where most gifted men fall as we see with Samson.

Or do you not remember that it was at the same point Joseph was tempted? But he escaped, though he went to prison for it.

It was the same that led David to the only blot to his leadership.

And it was the same point Solomon was felled.

Yet in the whole confusion of all that sex he still performed what God had released him for. But it led to great regret as we read in Ecclesiastes. That whole mix up also almost aborted God’s complete assignment for him since it caused the bulk of his kingdom to be snatched from David.

But it is hard to imagine satisfying a thousand women sexually and still perform all the other roles his assignment brought about as king and sage. But that is what his gifting included; enough energy for accomplishing his assignment.

Yet we know that all that dabbling with women, especially forbidden women, eventually brought him down as well as tainted his assignment.

Women are the first attack the devil releases on the genius since you even see David and many others falling for them.

The other attack is focused on his ego.

The devil tries to make the genius to focus his gifts on himself.

Think about pride because it is unmistakable to everybody that the person is gifted way beyond normal. It therefore does not take much effort to make him clap for himself since everybody is doing it anyway.

We even see that with Jesus’ temptations.

Aren’t you the Son of God …

If he is able to shift the focus from the assignment to self, he will have completely obliterated that assignment and transformed it into his assignment.

If he can make the genius focus on the remuneration from his assignment, he will have, as he did with Samson, watered down the whole purpose of the giftedness.

If he can make the genius echo all the horns being blown in his honor by blowing his own horn, he stops being the weapon God had created and actually becomes His enemy.

You see, the success of the genius lies within his focus on his assignment and nothing else.

That is why many die poor even as their inventions make others stinking rich as they see since that is what they were created for.

Whether it is music or herbs, his focus must always be on the assignment. That is his prize and his all-consuming desire.

And I repeat; this is the reason many of them die from the dangers pursuit of their goal exposed them to. And they will gladly die since their assignment more or less defines them.

I will say something that makes them succumb to all the praise they get.

Just like with women, the pursuit for the genius will be relentless. The praise will be unwavering.

That enablement draws women and applause like a flower does to bees.

Sadly for them, even the defilement that may be caused by them does not diminish the gift.

I have mentioned Solomon sexually satisfying a thousand wives when God had indicated that a man should not approach his wife before a worship session.

Though it killed his spiritual stature, it in no way reduced his acumen for his assignment.

Do we not also see Samson carrying a whole city gate (uphill for some distance) after a session with a harlot?

Geniuses will drink themselves silly and still function better than the sober. They could ingest drugs yet seem unaffected by them. It is simply because of the assignment God has for them.

But it will dilute their spiritual stature and cloud their spiritual awareness for the assignment as happened with Samson and Solomon.

They could go for days without sleep yet not even sense any sleep deprivation.

I am sure someone is wondering the geniuses I am talking about. Allow me to give a few examples.

There is this person whose hands can make music out of any instrument without any training or exposure. There is this singer whose voice simply elevates the listeners to another level. There is this preacher whose sermons can convict the hardest heart. There is this handyman who appears like he started handling tools in his mother’s womb. There is this herbalist who will smell a leaf and tell you what it can treat. There is this businessman who can see opportunities that do not exist and make handsome profits thereon. There is this seer who can see the future with a clarity that is simply insane.

Simply speaking, we are looking at someone whose spiritual release for whatever task he has been entrusted with is beyond question, someone people will run to solve their problem without any reservations, even someone without an idea whether he can solve their problem.

That is why I am calling it a spiritual release. And it is visible beyond the narrow confines of his environment.

Anybody coming across him must look for any opportunity to take advantage of his presence because he must flourish in whatever he attempts.

Remember Jacob and Laban? And Solomon and his neighbors, far and wide?

Sadly, most of those alliances are not driven by mutual interest but by someone who seeks to take advantage of the spiritual connections the genius can access by his giftedness. Yet others are driven by his enemy to bring him down as happened with Samson and Solomon.

But I also need to add that even the other spiritual side has its geniuses released for the purposes of enlarging their kingdom as we see in Genesis 6.

But I am writing about God’s release in this post, though I need to state the fact that the devil seeks to divert God’s release to serve his purpose. That is where I want us to focus for now.

Solomon knew the purpose of his gift since he is the one who prayed for it.

Simply said he needed wisdom to lead his people to God, or in other words as God would have him lead.

That leadership drew many nations to him as had happened to David his father.

But, unlike David, he drifted from his purpose when all those partnerships overshadowed his assignment.

I will give you another verse to help you realise that even David became overwhelmed at one time.

And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. (2Samuel 15:3)

Yet David was not swept over. But it was what his son rode on to overthrow him.

Why he wasn’t is the only solution to the genius. That is the only solution to that extremely gifted person.

Look at these verses.

And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel. (Deuteronomy 17: 18 – 20)

It is evident that David took that order from God seriously, especially when we read his psalms. He loved God’s word. He read God’s word. He meditated on God’s word. He lived according to God’s word. He sang God’s word.

That is why fame and wealth was unable to shake his faith. That is why women could not distract him from his assignment (and we know he also had many wives). That is why acclaim could not swing his character. That is why those partnerships could not sway his love for God. And that is why busyness could not affect his sense of justice.

But it was not so with his son.

Those seven hundred princesses came on their kingdom’s terms, terms that even Solomon’s wisdom was unable to bend towards God and His revelation. They therefore did not submit to the God who had assigned Solomon his kingdom because he was unable to control them. The only way to control them being submitting to God’s word by constantly interacting with it as God had commanded.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1:8)

It is the same instruction to another genius.

It was the same with Jesus. His assignment and connection to His Father was the reason the devil could not get to Him.

What am I saying?

It is of prime importance that the genius literally drowns in God’s word.

It is as important for the normal believer also. But for the genius it becomes a life and death situation because the obstacles stacked against him by the enemy are way more than those for the normal believer. And this because the normal believer leans on the genius for support.

Using an illustration I use, when a small tree falls in a forest, very little happens. In fact, nobody may even notice that fall. Yet when a huge tree falls, not only is there a huge thud, but many other small trees and plants collapse under it. In short everything around it is affected.

That is why Moses was judged for a slip when Aaron was forgiven for making the calf. That is why David was judged for adultery and murder while others seemed to walk Scot free for worse sins.

It is like Christ said, he who has been entrusted with much carried more weight than the one entrusted with little.

Some common flaws that are easily overlooked in others stick like a sore thumb with the genius.

Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. (2Samuel 12:14)

The genius is that towering mammoth of a tree that many, probably all, other trees lean on and look up to. Their fall is therefore a fall of a huge portion of the forest.

Is it any wonder that a philandering pastor never lacks a partner? Is it any wonder that many choirmasters can sleep with almost any member of the choir they teach? Is it any wonder that we are always hearing about sexual abuse in Hollywood and other film making institutions? Does it surprise you that many people associate media with immorality?

But for the genius they are not the villains, at least most times. They are the victims of that entrapment to bring down their spiritual stature. And effectively curtail or abort his assignment.

I will close this by challenging you to look at the exceptionally gifted and endowed persons around you.

Do they know their assignment? Are they content in the pursuit of the same?

Are you a genius, even in a very small way like Caleb?

Lead them and yourself to the scriptures.

With our generation it has become much easier as we have unlimited ways of accessing the Bible.

I for one goes to sleep with an Audio Bible playing. And I have done it for years.

Then I have consistently read the Bible through for almost forty years, some times going through it two or even three times in a year.

That is the only way it can shape your worldview as well as sharpen your discernment. That is the best way to be clear on what God wants you to be and do. And I am addressing all of us, geniuses or not, since God has an assignment for each of us, the only difference being that the genius has an assignment off the ordinary like the ones we have seen in the Bible.

In fact many received that genius assignment because they were found ready for it as they swam in God’s revelation.