By Bishop David Oyedepo
If you get to a seashore, every shell you don’t pick as it arrives goes back to the sea. So, you can be at
the shore and return home without a shell, just because you are not smart and sensitive enough to know how to grasp them.

Making timely moves is the only way to maximize opportunity. I want you to know that every great destiny is traceable to great opportunities.

The Webster’s Dictionary defines opportunity as, “A set of circumstances providing a chance or possibility.” The Chamber’s Dictionary says it is, “An occasion offering a possibility, advantageous condition, a chance, opening or prospect.” The Oxford Dictionary defines it as, “A good chance, a favourable occasion,” while Roget’s says, “It is a favourable, advantageous combination of circumstances.”

Opportunity, therefore, is a chance for great possibilities in a man’s life. It is a gateway to great success. I define it as life-blocks with which great destinies are built. I don’t believe that people lack opportunities; they are only blind to them. Many people miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and it looks like work.

Many don’t like the word “work.” They think opportunity is a chance to enjoy what they don’t earn. But that’s not true.

Also, opportunity is taking advantage of situations by the gifts of God in your life. You look at a situation at hand, and by the abilities loaded inside you, you are able to determine where a particular good would sell and you go a step further by taking it there. Sometime ago, there was scarcity of kerosene and gas in the city, and a brother seized that opportunity to make fortunes for himself.

He went to nearby villages and got firewood, brought them to town for sale and made great gains in six weeks! That is opportunity! What prompted the moves he made? He was smart enough to grab a productive idea and put it to work. He was smart enough to know what would work and how to make it work! There was a situation on hand and by reasoning, he was able to profit by it.

For instance, in Luke 19:41-44, the Bible makes us to understand that Jesus wept, because the people could not see the opportunity at their disposal. They did not know the time of their visitation. When you miss your time of visitation or opportunity, you become a victim of stagnation, devastation and frustration. Let me show you one way of locating opportunity. It is by a search. What you don’t seek, you will never find.

Matthew 7:7 says: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” It is your responsibility to seek and conduct a search on where the gifts of God in you can yield results. Ask yourself, “What can I put into the system where I am working? What contributions can I make to living?”

You want to locate yourself within the system; you want to find where you can make an input for something to happen.

Do you know why you have to do this? Opportunity is a man that is ever in great demand. If he doesn’t come to you, then go to him. Conduct a search for opportunities! Look for where what you know or can do can be traded. If no one hires you, then hire yourself! A young man from our church is now in America. He is an American citizen, who found himself back home in Nigeria.

Somehow, things didn’t quite work out well for his parents. When our church sanctuary was being built, he saw in it an opportunity to make money, with which to buy himself a ticket back to America. He was at the construction site daily, wearing rags and carrying concrete. I was drawn closer to him by the way he spoke.