Healing Nexus

Category: Audio Messages

  • Becoming An Author 3 : Pst. Ife ADETONA

    Becoming An Author 3 : Pst. Ife ADETONA

    In part 1 & 2, I have told you how to kick start writing and get your book edited.

    Publishing simply means “SERVING YOUR MEAL TO PEOPLE”. Serving meal is not first about the taste but the OUTLOOK. So, how do you want your book to look like when it is opened? You can either publish in hardcopy or e-copy or both. Where e-copy stops is where hardcopy printing begins. You will need a professional to handle the hardcopy printing but I can give you a glance into it. For now, let’s do e-copy.

    Determine your font name, size and spacing. Normally, I use OLD BOOKMAN font, size 13 and 1.5 line spacing. There are many options in terms of font type to pick from. If you don’t know much about it, just grab a book you which you like the way it appears. Give it to whoever is helping you and say “GIVE ME THIS”. While you can use any other font name, 1.5 line spacing and size 13 is good enough. Anything below it could be small and anything above that could just be to make your book appear much. I am not judging. Feel free to use what suits you. You may have other reasons.

    You may want to add colour to your TITLE, draw out quotes and so on. Just grab a book or books that look like what you want and do it or give it to the person assisting you. I know you like aesthetic but as for me and as of now, I keep my books simple.

    Ensure your book includes the preliminary pages. There are core preliminary pages and there are supplimentary ones. Cover page (the book cover), title page, about the book, about the author and table of contents are core pages. Introduction and Foreword are optional.

    ISBN number- just meet a printer, they know how to get you the number. I’m aware you can also buy yourself online. Meanwhile, you can publish your e-book without ISBN number. Don’t get stuck. Publish today, put ISBN later. Copyright still protects your work.

    PAGES- first time authors want a lot of pages. Old time authors avoid too much pages. If your book is up to 40 pages, I believe it is good for minimum. After all, people don’t like reading.

    HARDCOPY
    Let’s talk about printing.
    When you are done typing your book and formatting it. All the processes I explained earlier is called formatting. When you say the book is out, that is what they call publishing. You can either format your work the way you want it to look like or hand the manuscript over to the professional printer and tell him how you want it to appear. You must also describe the size to him or give him a sample.

    First, he is going to do PAGINATION for your book. He would use Corel draw to do what they call “Book work”. Book work is a profession on its own and most graphics designers know little or nothing about it. He will set your book into pages and arrange it in the way acceptable by the printing machine. After that, you are expected to go over your book to check the outlook and if they format it the way you wanted. Some do editing at this point but that’s old school. You should have done that before handling over the script. But you can proof read.

    It is with the number of actual pages according to the machine that will be used to determine the amount of papers and other materials you would need in order to calculate your cost. This type of printing is recommended for large printing. Like 500 copies and above. Though you can do much less. The lesser the copies, the less profitable.

    For those that may want to print fewer copies, some people (though very few) will get it done for you.

    My biggest advice for you is: GO AHEAD WITH THAT BOOK. Write and release it as PDF (e-copy) today. Hardcopy can follow tomorrow. If you do not release what is in you, how will a fresh inspiration come?That was the advice Holy Spirit gave me in 2018

    In the next edition, let’s talk about WRITING MANY BOOKS. Drop questions for me please in the comment section.

  • CRITICAL THINKING – Pst. Ife ADETONA

    CRITICAL THINKING – Pst. Ife ADETONA

    Eternal LORD, we receive your glory tonight! We receive your word. We receive a change of life in JESUS NAME.

    CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

    If you are a leader, it doesn’t show in the amount of money you have or in your volume of muscle. It tells in your mental capacity. A fundamental mental strength of a leader is his CRITICAL THINKING SKILL. A leader possesses critical reasoning ability. They can reason wide, fast, and very deep. Call it 3D – 3 dimensional. A leader builds his critical thinking skills by pondering on every matter around him. An incident other people would see and ignore could form a great deliberation for a leader. When the current president removed subsidy and the price of PMS went up but Gas and Diesel went down….did you ask why? A leader questions everything. A leader will not allow events to pass by but would seat to examine, study, and understand it. Isaac Newton was walking on a certain day when an apple fell on him from a tree. That was not the first time apples will fall all around but that day Isaac was compelled to ask a question: why did it fall? Why didn’t it stay up?

    I think all of us are born with critical thinking skills but we lost it somehow between our growth. That’s because a child will normally ask these critical questions. Why did it have to come down? That was how he propounded the law of gravity which has also helped in many inventions today.

    Leaders don’t allow issues pass on without asking probing questions and getting answers to them. At a time, I realized that most questions people asked me from the Scriptures as a minister were questions which I had asked myself and provided answers to long ago. Let me tell this, CRITICAL THINKING is the route to becoming wise! You may say that the Wisdom of Solomon was divinely inspired by God but there were things Solomon did that aided the manifestation of his wisdom. One important of those things was that he intentionally applied his hearts to critical thinking. Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, you will see Solomon saying: “I considered,” “I observed,” “I thought,” “I studied,” etc.

    Ecclesiastes chapter 4:1 KJV: So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. Ecclesiastes 8:16 KJV says, “When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth.” Verse 17 says that then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

    In Chapter 9, Solomon said, “I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all before them.” After observing and considering lots of issues in his heart, Solomon would say, “I concluded.” That is critical thinking. He ensured that he got answers to all the questions in his heart. It was after Solomon got answers to many issues that people came to asked him questions about those things, and he gave good answers to them all. I have seen the same thing play out in my life at different times. I would have contemplated an issue and gotten the answer before questions would be raised from people. When I give them answers, they often wonder how I was able to solve such a complex matter in a little time.

    Solomon, at a point, pondered on the causes of poverty and he concluded that one of the greatest causes of poverty is laziness. The Bible explained that the queen of Sheba got answers to all the questions of her heart and many other issues. It was easy for Solomon to give answers to her because those questions were what he had contemplated severally before that day. After that visit, the queen of Sheba gave her remarks on Solomon. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, “It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen [it:] and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.” (1 Kings 10:4-7)

    HOW TO DEVELOP CRITICAL THINKING SKILL

    A. Think about Everything

    Behind every human invention, there is a critical thinker. When you are a critical leader, you will think about several things. You will ask why a thing is the way it is and why it is not otherwise. Critical thinkers will even think about issues that are actually not their business. When they see movies, they don’t just watch; they put their minds on more important things in the movie. A critical thinker will ask how the eyes work and how the nose works the way it does. They will ask how electricity is generated and how airplanes fly. Because Solar has become rampant these days, I see solar panels everywhere. I have been asking, how does the solar system work? I found out that there is a battery in every solar system, unlike regular electricity. It is this battery that the solar would charge. Then the battery would power the appliances. Remember our forefathers used to PUT BAD BATTERY IN SUNLIGHT? Someone thought further than that, collects the sunlight through a panel, and converts it into electricity. The electricity travels via a wire. This wire charges a battery you place in the room. That’s my personal thought and outcome. Now, I am asking, does a solar panel come in the form of a pattern and usually in white lines and black pattern? I may need Google to get the answer, and I would! That is CRITICAL THINKING! Behind every human invention, there is a critical thinker. A thinker asked why should we settle with a fan and went further to invent the air conditioner. It was a critical thinker that felt the radio is not enough and invented the television. Thinkers do not allow situations to bypass them without being examined critically in their minds.

    Value of Critical Thinking

    1. Every successful leader thinks, and they think critically. They analyze situations and determine the possible consequences ahead of time. They aren’t surprised by certain events because they were expecting them. As KOINONIA LEADERS, you are to apply critical thinking to your work. It is a platform to build that part of you. If I were you, I would ask, WHY THOSE WHO ARE HAVING HIGH ATTENDANCE ARE HAVING HIGH ATTENDANCE AND WHY THOSE WHO ARE HAVING LOW ATTENDANCE ARE HAVING A LOW ATTENDANCE. And for JULY, some are having 100+ people; they face the same challenge you are facing. Members don’t respond. They promised to come and didn’t show up. They are mostly students. They are working class. In spite of that, they have great attendance. What are they doing differently? That’s critical thinking. You can ask them, I have tagged them.

    2. Another effect of critical thinking is that it enlarges the heart. Your heart would be able to convey several logical thoughts on different situations, including seemingly contradictory ones. Your heart will always be able to process information within split seconds. I said earlier that critical thinkers would have pondered over an issue before they are asked about it. It is not all questions that they are familiar with, but immediately they are asked, their minds would process it and infer from other related matters to give a meaningful conclusion within a short period of time. I am sure you want to be like that, like that man that has an answer to almost everything! Should I stop here? Critical thinking improves one’s sense of judgment. Thinkers don’t look at things the way other people see it, and so they are able to diagnose situations rightly. They look for the motive behind issues and not just the situation. The Bible talking about Jesus said the Spirit of God will make Him a man of quick understanding, and He will not judge after the sight of His eyes or reprove after the hearing of his ears (Isaiah 11:3). He would see beyond what others see. When the Jews brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, Jesus saw beyond the act and judged the situation from their motives. That is what critical thinking does. Critical thinkers are both realistic and idealistic.

    3. Critical thinkers are both realistic and idealistic. To be idealistic means to know and understand the status quo but would refuse to settle for it. They want to bring out new things. That is why all inventors are critical thinkers. A critical thinker will ask how he can move from where he is to another point. A critical thinker does not just wail about the situation; he invents solutions. A critical thinking leader prepares for the future far ahead. Many roads that we ply today in major cities across Nigeria were constructed at a period where all the cars in those cities were not even up to 100. Today, those roads serve hundreds of thousands of commuters daily. It takes a critical leader to assess the situation and plan a road for the future. The political leaders we have today construct roads that don’t last beyond their tenure. The book of Proverbs 22:3 says that a prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. It is said that the highest paid skill in the world is thinking.

    4. I want to stop here. I only mentioned one way to develop CRITICAL THINKING SKILL. Let me state two more:

    B. Read books.

    C. Get answers to your critical questions.

    I release the BAPTISM OF CRITICAL THINKING UPON YOU IN JESUS’ NAME.

  • BECOMING AN AUTHOR II

    BECOMING AN AUTHOR II

    We should talk about REVISING & EDITING in this edition but first, I want to address some points raised by one of the readers of the first edition.

    “I want to write books but I’m like: ‘Who will buy the books?’
    ‘I am not well known
    ‘Can my knowledge be trusted and consumed?’
    ‘If I want it to be free, I will need sponsors.’

    You should be your number one first cheerleader. If you inform someone that you have authored a book, the first thing that comes to the mind of that person is NOT HOW MANY PEOPLE BOUGHT OR READ THE BOOK. The first thought is “Oh, so, you are an author?” An author is an author. That alone is a big win. Also, WRITE FOR POSTERITY. If no one reads today, someone would read tomorrow. If you withdraw or procrastinate till tomorrow, you won’t have as much time and passion as you have today.

    Personally, I don’t care how many people buy my books. I remember working on 4 books at a time. My wife saw the zeal and demands the team and I were putting in order to meet the release date. She said, “Have you found out how many people that have booked these books so that you can know if to take it easy or continue with the push?”. Up till that time, I wasn’t interested in how many people have booked for it. When I asked, GUESS HOW MANY? Just GUESS first. Like how many people do you think must have made a booking for the books? ONE PERSON! I am not trying to sound ridiculous. Just one. When I heard that, I told myself: “We must not disappoint that one person”. I went on to add ONE more to that series to make it 5 at once! Today, that series is our MOST SOLD SERIES.

    Asking if your knowledge can be trusted or consumed. Do your best. Write in your area of interest, and visit more resources as I explained in the last edition. The worst that can happen is for you to write a book today and do a revised edition five or ten years later. A revised edition is allowed.

    Concerning making it free and needing sponsors. You don’t need sponsors to make a book free. Publish as PDF today and print tomorrow. I will talk about publishing later on.

    EDITING AND REVISING

    When you are done with the manuscript of the book. The next is to REVISE. Revising is reading your manuscripts with the aim of adding to it. As you read, you may feel like dwelling on some points, expounding some, adding to some passages and so on. You may end up with a book x2 of the manuscript. Do your best, and don’t be too concerned about the pages else you water down the content. I will talk about pages under publishing.

    FIRST EDITING. I am usually the first to edit my books. Read it line by line after you have revised it. Be careful not to start adding and adding at this stage. Except it is highly germane, don’t add more at this point, just correct. Else, you will never finish the book. Correct and move on. Leave the addition for another book.

    SECOND EDITING. The best choice is a professional editor. They usually charge per word or line. The next choice is your friend who is good at English. Tell your editors to INDICATE the correction and NOT TO EFFECT it. You should effect the highlighted corrections yourself if you can work on the computer. If you can’t then be with them before they effect it.

    Two things: if they highlight the corrections for you to see, you will be able to improve your writing skills. Second, some editors didn’t get what you are trying to say and that was why they may flag it as an error. If you explain to them, they can reword correctly. Some corrections may even be the opposite of what you mean. This is most important if you are a first-time author.

    PROOF READING. Proofread after accepting the corrections they make. At this stage, if more ideas are coming to your mind, keep them for your next book except they are extremely important. Because ideas and inspiration no dey finish.

    You may get another person or persons to proofread and go through your work. They are not meant to make grammatical corrections even though they may do that as well but their main work is to VET or CRITICIZE your work.

    BIBLE PASSAGE PROOFREAD. Look for one person, his job is just to confirm the Bible passages.

    These stages are not cumbersome or unessential. The truth is, after you have done all of these, somebody will still pick your book and point out OBVIOUS errors. Just do your best and improve on it in the future. I believe in continuous improvement against delayed perfection. No perfect book including books written by the whites.

    You want to write many books, that should form the third series.

    If you have any questions yet uncovered, drop them.

    My biggest advice for you today is WRITING & REVISING ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT. THE EDITING & PROOFREADING WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF. JUST WRITE.

  • BECOMING AN AUTHOR – Pst.Ife ADETONA

    BECOMING AN AUTHOR – Pst.Ife ADETONA

    Let’s start with WHY you want to write a book. Don’t bother. Any reason is good enough.

    What KIND of book do you want to write? Spiritual, moral, novel, play etc. I am largely a spiritual book author and so, permit me to talk more from the angle of a spiritual book. Don’t worry, all the things I will say will be of help.

    Are you a READER? If you hate reading and if you are not a reader, I can’t say you should not write but you may be far from being a good writer.

    TO COMMENCE WRITING. Decide the kind of book you want to write and the TITLE or theme of the book. If you are a vast reader, I suggest you get at least three books on the same subject to refresh you. If you are not a vast reader, get more than three. You are not the first to write on that area and you won’t be the last. Your contribution is to that body of knowledge. It’s just right you get to see what others have said about it and how they said it. Paul travelled to Peter for 15 days to compare notes.

    START. Once you start writing, close all books and sermons you have consulted to avoid pirating their works as much as possible. What you will learn from reading other books is not just what they write but also their style, language, formatting etc. Which you may adopt. I remember meeting a pastor in Winners after my second book. He said I should look at the formatting of Bishop Oyedepo’s books and adopt that formatting. Formatting comprises the font, line spacing, paragraphing etc.

    ARE YOU WRITING YOUR BOOK on paper or typing with your phone or with a laptop? Anyone is good. I wrote my first three books on paper. If you are using paper, you will still need to type with your phone and eventually put it on a 💻 laptop.

    WRITE OUT THE OUTLINE. Write out the topic of the book first and the areas you want to cover. Divide it into chapters. Even if it’s two or three chapters for starters. Do that. Even if it is one. As you develop the chapters, you will be able to expand them into more sub-topics and even chapters.

    IF YOU ARE WRITING ON A PAPER, get two pens: red and black or blue. I will tell you what it is meant for. The complex issue with spiritual books is BIBLE PASSAGES. If you are conversant with your Bible, as you write, Bible passages would be running into your fingertips. Some, you may not know where it is in the Bible or even remember the full text. You can quickly write it down with the other pen- colour red as in this case. The reason is, you can easily trace it later on and fix it.

    This will allow you to sustain the flow of inspiration. Even if you want to write out the full text, or you want to develop or expound that passage, you should still write the passage in red or a different colour. If you are typing on a phone or laptop, you can simply highlight it.

    In the next series, let’s talk about REVISING, EDITING and probably WRITING MANY BOOKS.

    Have any questions, drop them.

    My biggest advice to a writer is to set a time-bound. Decide to put all things aside within a period of days or weeks to focus just on writing both day and night. Once that period is over, it is settled.

  • DOWNLOAD MP3: Saving the Unsaved by Pastor Ife Adetona

    DOWNLOAD MP3: Saving the Unsaved by Pastor Ife Adetona

    It’s generally believed that there is always someone who is the prayer point of the family, they are either not saved or wayward in the way they behave. But you who have been saved have the right to get their salvation.

    Pastor Ife-Adetona explained practical ways to save the unsaved in this teaching, watch and be blessed!

    👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

    Click hERE to download