I have learned overtime that money is a force, which every man or woman born into this planet earth has to content with and overcome its power. Money obeys and serves you as king the moment you overcome its power, and you are in-charge.

The issue of money is very sensitive and complicated. It can bring about misunderstanding, confusion, distrust and hatred among colleagues, brothers, business associates, friends, family members, even among Church folks. People are excited to hear you talk anything about successful living, business progress, wealth creation, breakthroughs, etc., but would not like to hear you touching their money.

The Holy Bible says that money answers all things, and so, without money no single project can be carried out, but with it you can establish and grow your business into an empire, get good education, train up your children, care for your needs, build mansions, marry the woman of your choice, build Churches or Mosques and live a very wealthy life. Why should the subject of money illicit negative responses from people, as if you have stepped on a major nerve?

I used to believe before that it is only in Church or other religious gatherings that people have taken it to be a taboo, talking about money, because they never wanted to part with a dime, but I have come to understand that it is offensive, almost irrelevant today to tell people that they need money, no matter how little, to make more money.

I should not forget that certain excesses on the part of some so-called businessmen and women in the past have been responsible for this trouble. Indeed, people have been abused, cheated, duped and extorted in the name of doing business, but this is not the only reason why people are hostile when money is mentioned, even when it is for their own good. At the head and tail of all these problems is power. Money has power, influence and it is possessive in all fronts. When you are a captive of money power, you become anything but irresponsible. Your money tells on you and so a lot of people are either afraid or reluctant to talk about or address the issue of money.

As a person, money has a way of revealing your true nature. A close look at your relationship with money will quickly and easily reveal your past, present and future life. The Holy Bible has warned, and is continuously warning us that the love of money is the root of all evil. You have love for money and that has robbed you of your sense of good reasoning. There are many ways to find out if you are drawn away by the possessive power of money.

1. Your Family - Whenever you re in-charge or in control of your life, it quickly tells directly on your family. The activities that go on in your family testify in favour or against your present lifestyle. For most people their wives are the worst hit. They show no regard, but pay almost every attention to their money. Raising up the children quickly becomes the responsibility of the mother. When the power of money is in control, it does not matter whether you are rich or poor; the aim is to bend you to serve money instead of it serving you as it should be.

2. Your General Conduct - Your general life-style changes abruptly the very moment monthly takes charge of you. You can hardly think straight rather behaving strangely towards colleagues or workers or relatives, creating the impression that their presence is not important because it is a distraction to you. You waste all your time destroying every genuine human relationship to build a new one based on money and what money can buy.

3. Your Communal Life - The community begins to have fear and accords you a baseless respect, honouring you and praising your name to the high heavens, simply to squeeze out some money from your stingy hand. You seem to be an authority yet everybody knows where you belong.

4. Your Personal Business - You just find out that when the power of money is at work, and you have been possessed by it, your attitude at work changes. Your staff welfare which you never joked with before now becomes a problem to you. Paying salary to your workers becomes a real bargain - because you must initiate a quarrel before something is done. Before now, you took your customers as kings, but this time they are objects of money-making, who must sneeze out the last coin before they could leave your presence.

5. The Government - The government suffers a huge loss, because someone like you is breathing and eating. You desire good business environment, yet payment of your taxes and rates to the purse of the government must be evaded. Your interest lies in keeping all monies for selfish use.

Though we cannot do without money, but being controlled by the power of money is not right. Money is very important, but not the most important thing that you need on earth. Money does not buy life, neither does it buy wisdom. Wisdom tells us that our life is much bigger than money, even though both of them are interwoven. Your life is your money because it is the most tangible, physical, quantifiable measure of your life which you put into work.

As an entrepreneur, you are trading your life for a certain amount of money. The time you spend, your talent, ability, energy and creativity, are all telling who you are, and you trade them for a certain amount of money. Without putting the best of your time in your job, you can never get to your peak performance. You only get to that level when your creativity is at its optimum. That is why you cannot be separated easily from money, because it is the very answer to all life's problems.

Then, so what? Should we be slaves to money in order to conquer inertia? No way. You are in-charge and can control money, cage its power and rule your world. For the simple fact that we live in a world that pays attention only to those who control money, we give out our time, talent, ability, energy and creativity, which are a portion of our life in exchange for money. The money we are holding in our hands is just a tangible expression of our life - who we are in reality and what we have put to work.

Understanding this fact clearly will help us see money as our slave, not the other way round. If I can work to earn you, then you belong to me and must be my servant. Ignorant of this simple fact is responsible for the unnecessary enslavement of people by the object called money. The devil knows that the moment he enslaves you with the power of money, whether in wealth or penury, you hardly become useful in life. So, it is time to rise up and tear down this satanic bastion of resistance against your progress in life, and take up the mantle of leadership, dominion and power that belongs to you.