You pray. God answers you 100%

Then everything goes weird

So naturally we wonder...

WHY?

“Why LORD? I was certain you promised me (XYZ) when I prayed... yet now it’s all gone wrong. It's not happened. In fact things are worse! Why?

It can be confusing eh?

However...

Let’s strike off one reason why some of God's answers don’t come to fruition—The answer He gives you is conditional.

i.e. You do A, then... the LORD will fulfil B etc.

For example…

The LORD promised me decades ago, that He wanted to use my gifts in worship. Somehow I wrongly thought His promise to me would come to pass all on it's own... with no real effort from me.

As a result…

I botched things up by not doing my part,

And by dismissing joining our church worship team for years.

Silly eh?

Because when I eventually did join in (the fun the LORD had already stored up in advance for me)...

I went on to enjoy wonderful years using the gifts GOD gave me in a super worship team. Thing is, I could have enjoyed DECADES of worship and rewarding music… instead of only years.

Too late did I realise that faith meant I had to move. The LORD expected me to get going and walk out His promise to me... by faith.

The point is,

GOD gives answers to our prayers as seeds of OUR FUTURE LIFE.

Yet as seeds,

We must plant them.

Plus...

We must grow them up. And also guard and tend them carefully too…

"We do not want you to become lazy... but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."

Hebrews 6:12 NIV

Anyway,

Here's a second big reason why what God promised you occasionally does not come to pass in your life.

Sometimes...

You just plain get robbed.

And this dear saint, upsets me.

Times when suddenly...

The 'breakthrough' that GOD, promised you... gets snatched away. Aborted at the point of birth.

And sad to report,

This recently happened to me too—In business, a TV business of all things I'd believed GOD had given me a solid green 'GO!' to get involved in.

This still hurts because it's so recent.

No matter...

I hope my botch up helps you keep what GOD gives you.

Okay, back in 2018...

I noted with interest the massive impact Smart (Connected) TV was making everywhere. Suddenly in tech CTV* was hot news… a new world of TV was being birthed before our eyes,

And I knew this was just the start.

I also quickly realised this new kind of TV could be valuable for decent Christian ministries on three counts...

1. Now anyone could launch a TV Station (No experience or tech required. As easy to manage as email. Zero or very low start up costs).

2. These new Christian TV channels could operate 100% independently. (No getting kicked off for saying the wrong thing. No fear of being de-platformed etc).

3. No fear of defunding by YouTube et al—Instead, reliable recurring monthly income would flow to each channel. Autonomy. Solid revenues to help drive the expansion of desperately needed Christian ministries.

Anyway,

I'm waffling,

Here's the 60 second video we made…

Simple eh?

The plan was simple too.

I'd just...

Ask established Christian ministries on You Tube if they'd like one of these new Smart TV type of Channels...

For free* :)

While at the same time approach other (non Christian) video channels too.

Non Christian niches tend to have bigger audiences. So our percentage of ad revenue would be larger. Thus as our ad revenue was passive...

More time would allow me to set up lots of Christian channels.

So went the theory anyway.

Here's the thing...

Early tests by our new Israeli TV software provider* showed that trial channels they'd set up were yielding profits of between...

$5,000.00—$7000.00 monthly for each channel.

(Yet this was after their beta period had only been going for eight months. They said their target for these clients was $30K-50K monthly within a further year).

And so,

My business partner and I dived in.

We secured interest from a number of YouTube Channels who loved the idea of having a channel. Non Christian and Christian alike.

After all why not?

It was an amazing deal...

• Free TV channel set up.

• 60% cut of Ad revenue profits.

• Launched within 2-3 months.

• No work on clients part.

• Passive income.

And did it work?

Yup!

Sure did.

Brilliantly actually.

Until...

I made one disastrous move.

After having launched a superb channel in France,

My business partner said...

"This is it Dave. Nothing can stop us now, we're on our way!"

Anyway,

Clearly the enemy was waiting in the wings, yet (don’t ask me how) I missed the blindingly obvious thing he dropped in my lap as you'll see.

My disastrous move was this...

One of the YouTube channels I had sent to the guys in Israel to get approval to set up a Smart TV channel for was based,

In…

IRAN.

What!

Alston…

Are you just nuts?

Okay, ok!

In my defence…

The Iranians never told me they were… er… Iranians… or in Iran, until it was too late.

You see...

On YouTube they'd put their address as over the border in Azerbaijan (who have good relations with the West and Israel too, because I did wonder at first etc),

Only when we had a video call to agree contracts etc...

Did they tell me they were in Iran proper.

Total nightmare.

Because,

As soon as Tel Aviv realised these guys were Iran based, they cut all communications with our company here in UK.

Eek!

Long story short.

We lost it all.

I don't blame them either.

No company in Israel can risk being connected in business with Iran in any way, shape or form.

So what happened?

Well firstly,

The LORD is not at fault here.

After all He opened a door with a great software provider.

Yet sadly for some crazy reason,

I didn't do my due diligence properly.

So just at the moment of celebrating our win after the launch of our French clients channel... I sleepwalked into a stupid move.

And the enemy got his shot in.

(War is war after all)…

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, Against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Ephesians 6:12 NKJV

After this,

Despite struggling on with a new provider* we withered on the vine.

And had to shut everything down.

So saint, to finish up.

As GOD grants requests to your prayers...

Your enemy will seek to kill your breakthroughs at birth so they do not even get born. (You'll see a glimpse of it... then puff... it's gone, just as happened to me).

I pray Jesus’s advice will prevent it ever happening to you…

"... Know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into." Luke 12:39 ESV

Sadly, this time I missed it.

You won't. I'm sure.

Bless you,

Dave.

PS These scriptures illustrate what’s at stake…

"But this is a people robbed and plundered,

They are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; 

They have become a prey with none to rescue, a spoil with none to say, “Restore!”

Isaiah 42:22 RSV

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

John 10:10 ESV

*CTV = Connected TV

*Smart TV Channel set up was ‘free’ because the Israeli company took a cut of the ad revenues run on the channels they launched. Great advertisers like Toyota, NFL, Coke etc meant decent revenues were pretty much assured beforehand.

*Over three years we actually went through three CTV vendors;

The Israeli company was the second company we acted as distributors for. The first was a US based one whose channels kept collapsing when folks tried to play them!

And the last one was a great company…

Yet they asked $30K-$50K per channel per year.

A much tougher sell.