By  Bishop David Oyedepo
Man is basically a creature of choice. In other words, what you choose is what your lot becomes. You have no one to blame for whatever becomes of your life. God won’t tamper with your choice, neither can satan; so choose to succeed. It is your choice that matters.

Speaking to the children of Israel in the wilderness, Moses said to them: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

There was a time that Joshua addressed all the tribes of Israel saying: “…If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15). Choice is very important in man’s quest for survival, progress and success.

That is why God created man as a free moral agent. You have the right to the choices you make, whether they are right or wrong. But you must choose to either fail or succeed in life. It depends on you! The choice is entirely yours!

What you choose determines what you become. Success is not a gift, but a choice you make. The will to succeed is one of the gateways to success. That explains why a man’s will to live enables him to do things he never thought possible, when faced with danger.

The story is told of a heavily pregnant woman, who scaled a seven-foot high fence, when she was being pursued by a mad dog! Her will to live infused strange strength into her.

Man’s will is a very potent force. It is not enough to desire success; you must will to succeed. The will to succeed is what drives you to go in search of the things that bring about success, and to apply yourself to them. It makes you to enjoy paying the price for success. When the choice to succeed is made, the grace and strength for accomplishment are imparted.

When men decided to build a tower that would get to heaven in Genesis 11, even God agreed that nothing could stop them.

The will, unlike mere wishes, is a potent force that not only desires a thing, but also backs it up with a commitment that generates the force or ability to make it a reality. You say to yourself, “This is what I want, and I’m ready to give it whatever it takes.”

On October 4, 1981, I made a choice against borrowing and backed it up with a commitment, after reading in Deuteronomy 15:6, that I shall lend to nations and not borrow. I said to myself, “If it will mean going without food for days, I will never beg or borrow.” This commitment infused a drive to prosper in me, so that I would never borrow or beg. As a result, I’ve never owed anyone since I joined the ministry.

The will to succeed also destroys the obstacles on the way to success, as they are dimmed by the drive to succeed. For instance, Isaac chose to succeed, so even though there was famine in the land, he went ahead to sow his seed, and reaped a hundred-fold return in the same year.

Genesis 26:12-14 says: “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and possessions of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.”