A reader in his 50s writes with a quiet but piercing concern, sparked by the rise and fall of BlackBerry and the disruption of the iPhone. What begins as a reflection on a company becomes something more personal, a fear of having missed one’s moment, of falling behind, of quietly fading. In this week’s Dear Pastor, we confront that fear and the deeper truth about purpose, timing, and a life anchored in God.
Dear Pastor,
I recently watched a video about the rise and fall of BlackBerry, and I have not been able to shake the feeling it left behind.
At its peak, BlackBerry was everything. It dominated its space. It was ahead. It was trusted. And then, almost quietly, it faded. Not because it lacked brilliance, but because it failed to evolve when the world changed. When the iPhone arrived, everything shifted, and BlackBerry did not move with the times.
RELATED: 5 Lessons from the Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry
Now, in my 50s, I find myself asking difficult questions.
What if I am already behind?
What if my best years are behind me?
What if, like BlackBerry, I had my moment, but failed to recognise when it was time to evolve?
I look at my life and, if I am being honest, I do not see the level of achievement I once imagined for myself. I feel stuck between what could have been and what still might be. There is this quiet fear that I may never truly catch up, that I may simply drift into irrelevance.
I do not want to become a cautionary tale of potential that never fully became anything.
Is it too late to change? To grow? To become something more than what I am now?
Or is this simply what life looks like when your time has passed?
Yours sincerely,
A Worried Brother
——-
Dear Brother,
Thank you for your honesty. There is a clarity and courage in the way you have expressed your concern, and it deserves to be met with both truth and depth.
Let me begin by saying this plainly: your life is not designed to decline into irrelevance. Not if it is anchored in God.
But before we address the fear behind your question, we must first establish the foundation upon which any lasting answer must stand.
There are conditions to walking fully in God’s promises. Covenant is not passive. It is participatory.
We must first:
- Be saved. All His promises are for His children.
- Love God with all our hearts.
- Serve Him.
- Walk in obedience.
- Be led by the Holy Spirit.
- Be consecrated. Holiness is absolutely necessary, particularly for mature believers.
Each of these requires a whole body of teaching. Together, they form the architecture of a life that advances, not declines.
Now, to your concern. You referenced the story of BlackBerry, and the fear that one could peak, fail to evolve, and quietly fade.
Scripture offers a fundamentally different blueprint for a life aligned with God.
Proverbs 4:18
“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
This verse is my sure confidence. It tells us something fundamental about the architecture of a life anchored in God. It is not a life that circles endlessly in frustration, nor one that fades into obscurity, but one that advances. One that gathers light. One that becomes, with time and trust in God, unmistakably brighter.
The journey of the righteous is not accidental. It is intentional. It is shaped by a divine hand that does not abandon its work halfway. (Philippians 1:6)
What may begin in modesty, even in obscurity, is not destined to remain there. There is a forward motion built into your story. A steady unfolding. A quiet but undeniable rise. And Scripture, with its timeless clarity, reinforces it with conviction.
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
This is the language of intention. God is not improvising your future. He is guiding it, deliberately, towards peace, towards purpose, towards an end that justifies the journey.
Job 8:7
“Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.”
And here lies the quiet revolution. That your starting point does not define your destination. That small beginnings are not a verdict, but a prelude. That growth is not only possible, but it is also promised. So you move forward with assurance. Not because the road is always easy, but because it is always leading somewhere better.
The light is not behind you. It is ahead, growing stronger, calling you onward, until what once seemed distant becomes your lived reality.
And if there is any lingering doubt, Scripture answers it not with argument, but with accumulation. It builds the case patiently, line upon line, until the conclusion becomes unavoidable.
Proverbs 23:18
“For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”
There is, in that phrasing, a quiet defiance of despair. Not perhaps, not maybe, but surely. Your expectation, when anchored in God, is not fragile. It is preserved. Guarded. Carried forward, even when circumstances appear to contradict it.
Psalm 37:37
“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.”
The world often celebrates the spectacular beginning, the sudden rise, the dramatic entrance. Scripture, however, directs our attention to the ending. Watch closely, it says. Study the life that is aligned with God. Its conclusion is not chaos, not regret, but peace. A settled, enduring peace.
Ecclesiastes 7:8
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof…”
It is a reminder, both sobering and liberating, that beginnings, however promising, are not the full story. Time, patience, and alignment with God transform outcomes. The early chapters may be uncertain, even unimpressive, but the final chapter carries a different weight. A different authority.
Isaiah 60:22
“A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.”
Here, the promise expands. It is not merely that things will improve. It is that they will multiply. What is small will not simply grow, it will accelerate, at the appointed time. Not rushed, not delayed, but precisely aligned with divine timing. There is a scale to God’s intention that often exceeds our imagination.
1 Corinthians 2:9
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
And yet, life, as we know, is not without contradiction. There are seasons that seem to resist these promises.
Moments that feel more like an interruption than a progression. Scripture does not ignore this tension. It confronts it.
Romans 8:28
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Not some things. Not the convenient things. All things. Even the fragments that appear disjointed, even the chapters that seem miswritten, are being woven into a coherent narrative. There is a larger intelligence at work, one that redeems what we would discard.
Genesis 50:20
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
What was intended as harm becomes, in God’s hands, an instrument of purpose. It is not merely reversal. It is transformation. The very thing designed to diminish you becomes part of what defines your rise.
So the night, when it comes, is no longer final. It is transitional.
Psalm 30:5
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
There is permission here to acknowledge the night. To feel its weight. But not to mistake it for permanence. Morning is not negotiated. It arrives.
Micah 7:8
“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.”
Failure is reframed. Darkness is redefined. Neither has the authority to conclude your story.
John 16:33
“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
This is victory, already secured, inviting you to live from its reality, not merely hope for it.
And through it all, there remains one final, steady assurance. That you are not navigating this journey alone, nor are you responsible for its completion.
Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
God is not a starter who fails to finish. What He begins, He sustains. What He sustains, He completes. Remember who He is – He is the author and He is the finisher. (Hebrews 12:2)
2 Corinthians 4:17–18
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Even affliction is given context. It is momentary. It is purposeful. It is producing something weightier than itself.
And so, when you return to that opening promise, it no longer stands alone. It stands reinforced, validated, expanded. Glory to God.
The path of the just does not flicker uncertainly. It brightens. Persistently. Inevitably.
Not because every step is easy, but because every step is governed by God.
And in the end, what began as a quiet light becomes something undeniable. A life that does not merely endure, but one that shines, more and more, until it reaches its perfect day.
As a Christian, you should not have a better yesterday. By covenant, your future should, and must, keep shining brighter and brighter.
Recommendations for Moving Forward
Now, my dear brother, having established what God has promised, we must turn, with equal seriousness, to what is required of us. Because, as I mentioned at the beginning of this message, a covenant is not passive. It is participatory.
God’s promises are sure, but they are to be enforced, walked into, and lived out by those who understand their responsibility.
The first and perhaps most important shift is this: you must grow in your understanding of spiritual authority as a working reality.
There are dimensions of delay, resistance, and limitation in life that are not merely circumstantial. They are spiritual. And while they are illegal in the light of God’s Word and His covenant, they do not withdraw simply because they are illegal. They must be confronted. They must be resisted. They must be expelled.
This is where many sincere believers misunderstand the journey.
They assume that because they are saved, because they love God, because they serve faithfully, every resistance should automatically disappear. But Scripture and experience teach us otherwise. There is a responsibility to enforce the victory that Christ has already secured.
And that is where deliverance comes in.
Deliverance is often misunderstood, even among mature believers. It is quickly dismissed, sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes out of pride, and sometimes out of a narrow definition.
But deliverance is not, as many assume, only about demonic possession. No!
It is about removing every contrary influence that seeks to limit, distort, or delay the expression of God’s will in your life.
Deliverance is about freedom, fully realised.
A believer can be saved, Spirit-filled, committed, and yet be contending with patterns (foundational, generational, engineered by spiritual wickedness) that require spiritual confrontation. Patterns that require prayer, authority, and intentional spiritual discipline to dismantle.
This is why I strongly recommend that you invest time in understanding this dimension of your walk with God.
On this subject, I will point you, without hesitation, to the teachings of Dr Daniel K. Olukoya.
His work, particularly through the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, provides a structured, disciplined, and Scripture-grounded framework for dealing with spiritual wickedness, spiritual resistance, and enforcing your victory in Christ Jesus.
And let me be clear. This is not a call to abandon your church or your spiritual covering. Not at all. Even Dr Olukoya himself consistently emphasises the unity of the Body of Christ. God has provided multiple channels for growth, strengthening, and equipping His people.
MFM is the platform that addresses this matter with the full unction of Jesus Christ. MFM equips you to stand strong at this end time.
If you need further direction on where to start with MFM, I will guide you.
But beyond deliverance, there is a second pillar that cannot be ignored. Discipleship.
You must build your faith intentionally. Faith does not grow accidentally. It grows through exposure, through teaching, through disciplined study.
Romans 10:17
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
This means that in addition to deliberate Bible study, immersing yourself in the writings and teachings of anointed men and women who have walked deeply in the areas you are trusting God for.
If the issue is faith, study faith – Bishop David O. Oyedepo, Kenneth Hagin, David Ibiyeomie (Same for prosperity, add Kenneth Copeland here too)
If it is healing, study healing. – Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, Benny Hinn
If it is purpose, study purpose. – Dr Myles Monroe, Dr Mike Murdock
If it’s deliverance, reclaiming your destiny from the claws of the enemy, addressing works of darkness – Dr Daniel K. Olukoya
Light grows where light is received. (Psalm 36:9, John 8:12, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Isaiah 60:1)
And then, there are what I would call spiritual technologies. These are time-tested, Scripture-aligned practices that position you for breakthrough and alignment.
* Seasons of fasting, whether a focused 3-day dry fast or an extended 21-day, 30-day, 40-day fast, undertaken with understanding and spiritual sensitivity.
* Sacrificial giving, not as an obligation, but as an act of covenant alignment.
* Prompt obedience to divine instructions, especially those confirmed by the Holy Spirit.
* Consistent prayer, particularly in the Spirit, building inner capacity and spiritual awareness.
There are others. service to God, Kingdom advancement practices, walking in love and forgiveness, etc.
These are not optional extras for the serious believer. They are essential instruments of alignment.
Because at the end of the day, your destiny is not released by desire alone. It is released by alignment, by authority, and by purposeful action.
And so, as you step forward, my prayer for you is that you do so with clarity, and that our loving Heavenly Father answers your prayers.
God has spoken.
His promises are sure.
Your path is ordained to shine brighter and brighter.
But you must take your place in that process. You must grow. You must contend. You must align with His purpose and will for your life.
And when you do, what was written will no longer be considered Biblical theories. It will become your lived reality.
God bless you.
Pastor
