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Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf
Motivational books, Christian or non-Christian, have recently been met with some criticism for being repetitious. The writers have been accused of ramming on the same subject over and over with old-fashioned theories. And how to become successful is the commonplace subject of this genre.

While this could be true, critics ought to hold on a moment and read the latest offering from Apostle John Shava titled “Dare to Dream: A Quest for Real Success” (Days of My Youth Press) which comes with a clear, fresh, pragmatically convincing message about what it takes for one to be successful.

This is Apostle Shava’s recent book imbued with ten chapters that follow the plot of a Biblical story. Captivating is the relaxed yet mature deliverance of the message relevant and uplifting to present-day Zimbabwe.

The voice in the book penetrates deep into the soul and awakens the sleeping energy needed for one to believe that with God, nothing is impossible!

The chapters are as follows: Why We Need To Dream At All, Catching and Developing our Dreams, Relating to God, People and Wealth, The Dream, Follow Your Dream, Joseph in the Pit, Joseph in Potiphar’s House, Joseph in Prison and Joseph Rules Egypt.

The book’s point of departure lies in Joseph’s struggles. The Biblical story of Joseph itself has had diverting interpretations from some Christian authors such as world-renowned evangelist Ernest Angley who in his book “The Deceit of Lucifer” sees Jacob, Joseph’s father, as the cause of all the misfortune that befell his son (Joseph).

Though Angley does not pursue Joseph’s life to formulate a success story out of it, he illustrates how deceiving spirits took advantage of Jacob’s erroneous parenthood — by showing favouritism to Joseph, he as a father stimulated jealousy (a deceiving spirit) in his son’s brothers. The deceiving spirit of jealous in the brothers then led to the suffering of Joseph.

It is this suffering of Joseph upon which Apostle Shava’s own illustration of success is based.

In his book, he seeks to confirm that Joseph’s suffering and some lighter moments in his life were a spiritually endorsed plan and that is why God did not leave Joseph.

God was with the boy — a dreamer — even when his brothers sold him to some travellers and he ended up a slave in Egypt where he again faced trials and tribulations but through God’s grace, he rose to become a ruler.

“Every success story starts with a dreamer. A life without dreams is empty,” these are opening lines of the first chapter of “Dare to Dream”. Joseph, the main model of success in the book, was a ‘dreamer’ in two ways. First, he usually had, in the literal sense of the word, “a series of mental images and emotions occurring during sleep” which he interpreted and also interpreted, with God’s wisdom, other people’s dreams. Secondly, taking the word as a figure of speech, he was a visionary.

Re-tracing all the events in Joseph’s life and stamping them as the standard route to divine success, Apostle Shava solves some of the puzzles we confront in our different daily pursuits of success or greatness.

It is undeniable we are living in the end-time hour, and the world is in a confused state as weird events happen at meteoric speed one after another.

As war and crime escalate so does suffering and the only comforting dream left for people is the will to overcome, to succeed. Yet when God helps us succeed, we forget His purpose. When Joseph succeeds, he does not become selfish.

Against the modern-day “millionaire preachers”, Apostle Shava writes, “Following prosperity forums being hosted by many preachers today, one can only see a gathering of people who just want to gather and have resources for their own sakes.

The same people, who are being taught scripture after scripture on how to gain wealth, are not being taught how to use those resources to advance the kingdom of God or how to sacrifice their very lives for the sake of the kingdom of God.”

“Dare to Dream” reads like a Christian classic close to home. In each chapter, the author unpacks the secrets of real success which many people have tried to short-circuit and yet failed.

“I wish all true believers in my country, Zimbabwe, would believe, understand, and put this to heart in their daily endeavours: The Lord has not forgotten or left you alone. We still have all the opportunities and privileges to prosper in our country despite whatever may be going wrong around us, as long as the Lord is still with us!” writes Apostle Shava in his Chapter “Joseph in Potiphar’s House”.

“Dare To Dream” is a book for those raring to go for their right destinations. The other books by Apostle Shava include “The Battle for Altars” which Bookshelf had a chance to review, “Why Wait”, and “Blow the Trumpet”. Apostle Shava is the founder and director of Calvary Christian Life Missions.