This thread is for the popular/widely read book called "Battle for the Young" authored by Brother Gbile Akanni from Gboko.

I will be posting this book chapter by chapter on this thread.



Psalms 68:11
The Lord gave the word: great was
the company of those that published it.
Stay tuned

Chapter 1:

While You Are Young

I was invited to preach at a Professor's daughter's wedding, in 1985.
You can imagine the cream of the society seated; Professors, Doctors, Businessmen and women, high ranking Government officials etc. - men and women who seemed to have made their mark in the world.

As I brought the word of life to the young couple, who were just starting their journey into marriage, I set forth principle after principle of how God designed the home to work. God enabled me to bring out the message with clear instructions and illustrations.

He also permitted me to share living testimonies of how the principles have worked both in my personal experience and
in several homes I have been privileged to watch over.

After the service, two people came to me, one after the other. The first man, quite elderly, looked at me, adjusted his spectacles and said . . . "Young man I wish I met you in 1943. If I had met you forty-two years ago and heard what you are preaching now, I would not have been what I am today. What can I do now? I have spoilt my life, I have wasted my marriage, and I don’t even know where to begin again. I wish I had met you then."
"Where were you, when I just married?" he added rhetorically.
I did not answer, I could not. I knew he was not expecting an answer from me. As I stood there looking at an old man shedding tears, I also wished I had met him then!

The second person was the wife of one of the University Professors. She walked up to me, looked at me with eyes full of regret and said . . .
"Well, I thank you for all you have said. For
me it is too late but I am going to buy the tapes for my daughter so that she will not go the way I went."

All through the day, I could not get their words out of my mind. So, a man can hear the word of God too late! So, wrong choices made early in life may never be correctable again later on in life!

I suddenly realized the great privilege of being young. I realized the prime value of being a youth. It became clear that there are things that must happen to me as a youth if I will not live my adult years in regret.

To be continued in Chapter 2.

Battle for the young

Chapter 2

The Prime Time


The time of youth is the prime time in anyone’s life. It is a great privilege to be young. Many old people do envy the youth.
They wish they could return to being young again; and that is why they try to do whatever they can, to look young.
Unfortunately, being young comes only once in a
lifetime. No one can be young more than once. As a lady, you cannot be 'sweet sixteen' more than once.

Once you pass the age of sixteen, it is clear that you can never be sixteen again.
However, the time of youth is also the period of making choices. And the choices at this prime time of life are such that make indelible marks on one’s life and destiny.

There is a battle going on in this world concerning young people and it is all about influencing their choices. Choices that will mark your life out for greatness and glory are made when you are young.

If you meet an accomplished old man, prosperous and celebrated, enjoying the care of his equally successful children, it did not just happen somewhere in his old age. It is the product of a series of wise choices that he made while in his teens and twenties.

On the other hand, choices that will predispose you to perpetual defeat and failure are also made when you are young.

Whatever wrong things we see in an old man today, most likely happened because of the choices he made when he was young.

If you see an old woman whose marriage has scattered and she is being pushed between one man and another, it is not likely to be due to choices she made when she has become that old. She laid the foundation to be that kind of woman when she was young!

The unfortunate thing about these choices is that whether they were made consciously or unconsciously, they are often irreversible.
The time of youth is not only one of making choices it is also
the time for laying the foundation for every aspect of future life It is at this time that you lay the foundation for your career in life, your marriage and your destiny. In fact, everything that you will become in life is being founded now in the time of your youth.

It is a time of tremendous strength and energy, time of freshness. It is the time all your nerves and instincts are seeking the strongest expression. The direction you 'plough' them, now that you are young, determines the destination you will 'reap' in the years ahead. This time of your youth is very crucial time that determines what happens for the
rest of your life.

The time of one’s youth is also the time of warfare.
This is when you pitch your tent on whichever side you choose in the battle of life

And you either choose God or Satan.

It is in this period of your life when you are calle 'the youth' that you make that choice.
God is out, mercifully looking for you, so that you will make Him your choice; but the devil is also fighting hard, to make sure he has you on his side.

That is why the counsel of the word of God to anyone who is a youth is; So remember your Creator in the days of
your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you will say,

“I have no pleasure in them”
Eccl. 12:1 (NET)

If you overcome in this battle now that you are young and make the Lord your choice, you will always overcome in every sphere of your life.


To be continued in Chapter 3

chapter Three will be out on Sunday.

oh Gracious lord, you have sent your word out. Bless this word and make it fruitful in the life of whomsoever come across it in Jesus name.

Amen

Chapter 3:

The Raging Battle

There is a raging battle! . . . between God and the devil; and it is all about you!Both God and the devil equally believe in the young man and in the young woman. If you get into the heart of the devil today, the greatest mobilization he is making is for the young person to become his own.

And if you are able to get to heaven to look into the very heart of God, it will surprise you that God is tremendously yearning for the young person. The Bible says, As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Psalms 127:4-5 (KJV).

That scripture even says ‘happy is the man’, and not ‘happy is
the God’. This is to tell you that apart from God and the devil,
even a man is happy if his quiver is full of young people.

The real battles of this world are about capturing the young people. When you understand this battle, then you will understand why you are facing all the conflicts that you do as a young person. You will understand why you are confronted with all the challenges that are coming your way.

You are at a serious junction of choice in life and you
dare not throw your life into this boxing ring or make any decision without definite divine guidance.

As a matter of priority, you need to come into a fresh
encounter with God right away, so that you can hear him speak clearly to you on what you must do with your youth, in preparation for the years ahead of you.

What makes it urgent is that there is a fierce combat for your
life and it will either make or mar you for life. You cannot sit
on the fence.You cannot be passive. A 'Yes' to God is a 'No' to
the devil and an 'indecision' for God is equally a 'welcome' to
the enemy who is seeking whom to devour.

As a person, where I have reached in life today, including the
wife I married, is the result of the choices I made long before
today. Whatsoever your destiny will unveil tomorrow cannot in any way be different from the choices you are making now
that you are young.

I urge you to read this with eagerness and serious
determination to break forth into the supernatural with God
and pitch your tent henceforth, where your destiny will be
helped.

To be continued in Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

PECULIAR CHALLENGES

"I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is
from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye
have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him
that is from the beginning.
I have written unto you, young men, because
ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one."
(1 John 2:12-14 (KJV)

In times past, when I read this passage, I was always left
baffled, wondering at the repetition.
But I have been brought to see something which is one reason my heart has turned again to the young people.

I discovered that God recognizes three segments in every
man’s life and each of them is quite peculiar, definite and
different from the other. And because people do not
understand the peculiarities and differences of these three segments, they are often overwhelmed by the challenges that come to them with each segment.

God Himself recognizes the first segment where He
knows people to be 'little children'. At that time, you were a
baby, a toddler and just a little child.

That was a time when you were carried everywhere you went
You were taken to Church; you were taken to fellowship; and
as they sang, you were taught the songs and you sang with
them. That is what characterizes the life of little children. It is
the time of indoctrination. You do what you are told asking no questions and your father or mother is ready to bear the
responsibility of anything that happens as a result. All the child needs to do is just to obey. He does not worry how to get his provision.
He only needs to cry and the parents would run around to meet the needs.

It is the time of utmost dependence Victory at that segment of life is purely in being under the cloak of the parents.
But if we will only be little children throughout our lives, the
Bible would have stopped at the point of saying, ‘because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.’ When you were a little child, there were not so many conflicts in your heart. Whatever you were told, you
believed. There were no questions in your mind. When ‘Daddy’
said, ‘This thing is like this,’ you believed it and went about
telling everybody you met that, ‘This thing is like this.’ When
they asked why, you simply said, 'Dad said so.' Oftentimes,
even parents do not understand that this is only the first segment. So they enjoy it because it looks
so easy to bring up a child.

After this there is another segment.After writing to people in that first segment of life, I thought the next persons that God should have written to, should have been the young men. But He skipped doing so!

And that challenged me. He went on to say, ‘I write to you
fathers because you have known Him who is from the beginning.’
My question then is, ‘but why did He skip the young
man?’ I discovered again that it does not take much
effort to do the correct things when you have
become a father.

Whether you repent or not, when you become a father, there are certain behaviors that will leave you. You no longer have interest in them. And even when you do not want to
leave them, they will leave you.

For example, it is only when you are a young person that you can wear high heeled shoes and cat-walk around. Look at any of your parents and grandparents; do you see them wearing such again?

No. Even their legs cannot carry them in such shoes. Their excitement over such things has evaporated.

There are many fathers today who used to drink alcohol when they were young; and they did until they damaged their liver. Now when you bring an alcoholic drink to such a father, he would easily say 'No!' not because he has repented of drunkenness, but when he takes just a cup, his stomach gets distended.

So he sighs and says, ‘I will not drink again.’

This is because the enemy who won the battle over
such a life when he was young, has collected what
he wanted and has left him empty and emptied.

To be continued in Chapter 5