Positioned to Bring Forth ....1

I have known since I had the experience of the 2016 edition of the Return of The Helper (ROTH) conference that I needed to share some of my key takeaway’s with you. However, I have had to spend quite some time chewing on them myself. It’s strong meat… I assure you! I honestly wish I could have had every woman (and man, quite frankly) that I know in the conference arena that oh-so-significant 16^th day of July 2016. Heaven came down and touched each of us in that space, it surely did! God had already made clear to ROTH convener – my sista, friend and accountability partner Bidemi Mark-Mordi (www.bidemimarkmordi.com) that He was going to do an awesome work at ROTH this year. My own spirit was agitated for weeks in an expectancy that belied any form of logic or reasoning. I have been a part of ROTH for several years now, but somehow I just felt this one would be explosive, and it sure was. From the depth of my heart, I urge you to reach out to Bidemi (email bidemi@bidemimarkmordi.com) and get a copy of the CD’s or DVD’s from ROTH. It would be very hard to describe just how much of a blessing that conference was, but I know that Heaven pushed back on my account at ROTH. I know that the atmosphere of my life shifted. I know that something was birthed anew and afresh in me, and I am walking in excitement at the manifestation that is certainly already unfolding.

This year’s ROTH was themed, ‘The Birthing Stool’. The Spirit of God descended so heavily in word and deed that you could see people in what looked like physical labor. Some of the testimonies that have since abounded would almost be scary, if I wasn’t in the room and if I wasn’t witness to what was an epic move of God. We had four ministers whom only God Himself could have picked, and through whom He released His word mightily. Ah yes, but my Father did an amazing work through Coach Anna McCoy, Pst. Mayokun Oreofe, Dr. Linda Wallace and our very own Sister B (Bidemi Mark-Mordi). I am only able to share a few of the several notes I , otherwise this post will be over ten thousand words long. Plus, no matter how I tried, I wouldn’t be able to do justice to the messages the Lord released through these great ministers anyway. I will be sharing the nuggets as a series, just so you can meditate on each post and allow the Lord unfold and minister it to you in His own way. Stay with me okay. Today, I start with the session with my coach, sister and friend, an amazing daughter of the Most High God, Coach Anna McCoy.

Coach asked a question which I believe is or should be on the heart of every one of us. She asked, ‘What will make the world a better place because you are in it?’ Have you ever taken time out to think about this, sis? I have! And it is this question that brought me in to a space where I purposed to die empty. I’m sure you know by now that my personal mission is ‘To add value to the lives of everyone I meet in a tangible and sustainable manner’. Dying empty is for me an aspiration to deploy every gift/talent/ability the Lord has put in me towards making the lives of His children richer and more fulfilling. It’s a mandate for me not to go back to my Maker with anything He has seeded in me and which He requires me to birth and nurture into maturity on this side of eternity. I have understood that the entire world may never know me, but there will and must be generations that will be blessed because I exist, and that will call themselves blessed because they came across me physically or otherwise. This is a tough call, sis. It’s tough because it makes no room for complacency. The world the Lord has given you MUST be better because you are in it. And yo know what the Holy Spirit just ministered to me? He said, ‘Better is not a destination. It is a continuous journey of growth.’ Wow! That is so incredibly spot on, sis …for if we ever assume we have arrived at ‘best’, we will settle ….and you can never die empty if you settle, sis. You simply can’t!

Coach Anna ministered through three phases of the birthing process – Labor, Active Labor, and Birthing. She reminded us that we each carry something, that we are all pregnant with purpose and potential. She reminded us that as we get closer to labor, the more the pressure increases. And she admonished us, ‘Don't ignore the pressure’. The pressure is part of the process, sis. We need to stare it in the face and embrace it as part of building the muscles we need to bring forth. Jesus told us that we would go through trials and troubles, but He assured us that He would be with us in the process. Look at the pressures in your life right now with a fresh set of spiritual eyes, sis. Embrace them and then ask God to show you that which He purposes to bring forth through whatever season of difficulty you are in.

Coach Anna said, ‘God wants you to stop pretending with Him!’  He is not looking for the super spiritual, I’ve-got-it-all-covered Christian. No! He is looking for those who will be real about their weaknesses, and in the place of that weakness, submit to His strength. God cannot work with who you pretend to be, sis. He can’t! You know, even for someone who does her best to be authentic, someone who is not afraid to show her weaknesses, this was still a challenging charge for me and I found myself on my knees asking God to show me any areas where I have been a pretender with Him or with those whom He has put around me, and to give me the grace and strength to come back to the place of authentic me by His design. Can I encourage you to pray this same prayer, sis? You can only bring forth in authenticity with God!

Coach Anna reminded us that while you are in labor, it is important for you to hydrate. And from a spiritual perspective, when the word of God speaks of Water, it is a reference to the Holy Spirit. Sis, you and I need more of the Holy Spirit! Indeed, we will need more of Him continually and in increasing measure if we are to bring forth. I don’t know where your relationship with the Person of the Holy Spirit is right now, but I can assure you that when you ask for more of Him, He will come and He will fill you. If you would push back on logic and reasoning, and allow Him full access, your spiritual life will never again be the same and your physical life will manifest in greater measure, downloads from Heaven that He will continue to flow in, through and out of you. Make room for Him, sis! Position yourself to host the Holy Spirit. And don’t worry, I can assure you from personal experience that even when we sometimes fail and grieve Him, He is forever and always willing to forgive and continue to indwell in us as long as we repent and turn back to Him. We are the ones who push away from Him you know. He never moves! He is forever stoic and stable, ever-loving, forgiving, freely dispensing of the goodness that is His innate nature. Hydrate, sis! Hydrate!

As Coach progressed into the phase of active labor, she reminded us the invisible is at work at this stage. As you get closer to birthing, internal changes begin to happen with intensity. There is stretching, and there are things that need to move out of their original alignment in order to make room for you to bring forth. She said that the active labor phase is a time to surrender. It is a time when you come face to face with the reality that the birthing process is a breaking process; a time when you yield to every pain and discomfort with an understanding that ‘greater’ is going to come forth at the end of it all. She reminded us that God – in the grandness of His design, has made our bodies with the capacity to return YET AGAIN. Therefore, we must stay calm during active labor and go with the ebbs and flows, recognizing that many things must necessarily shift if we are to bring forth.

Coach Anna reminded us that delivery requires discipline; that even in your worst pain you cannot afford to lose sight of the essence of the pain, and of the anticipated end which is to hold your ‘baby, your purpose, the fruits of your life’s assignments, in your hands. She said to us that on the journey of purpose, we must remind ourselves through the pain that ‘It can only come through ME! No one else can take my place on the delivery bed’. I thought that was pretty profound. You see sis, in the journey of delivering on all God has put in you to bless the world, there are no surrogates, and there are no adoptions. You must go through because just as He created you ‘uniquely you’, so also is your purpose and process uniquely yours. You will have midwives and destiny helper’s yes, but you must go through… so embrace active labor. I speak over your life and declare that as you do, you will surely bring forth in Jesus name.

Lastly, Coach spoke about the birthing process. This she said was a transition phase, a time when things are opening and collapsing at the same time. And that can be very confusing, sis. It can! It is a time when the pain is most intense, and yet it is the time that calls for the most focus in the process of bringing forth. It is the time when that which is within you begins to propel itself forward, to twist and turn in order to come fully into alignment with its manifestation to the world. And this is a time when you must be attentive to instructions more than ever before. This is a time when you must realize that obedience is key in order not to truncate or damage your purpose.  She said, the birthing process involves a crowning moment, and you must be attentive and fully yielded to the instructions of those that God will have positioned to help you bring forth safely.

Remember that when a baby’s head can be seen pushing against the opening of the birth canal, the baby is said to have ‘crowned’. Well, Coach Anna reminded us that each of us was crowned when we came into the world. She said that at the transitional moment of bringing forth on the gifts/talents/abilities God put in us, what is actually playing out is our crowning victory – which is to give back to God what He already gave to us… GLORY! I burst into tears when I heard this, sis. Don’t ask me why, but I just did. You see, my hearts cry is for my life to bring glory to God always. More than anything else, the idea that He is pleased with my every day is what keeps me going from day to day. My last conscious thought at night, and one of my first thoughts every morning is that I do not know if the day past/yet ahead will be my last. And so, my constant prayer is that my life might be daily pleasing to Him. Maybe that’s why I cried, sis… my silent prayer that my life might be a testimonial of many crowning moments that deliver glory to a God I adore so much. Can you relate? Hmm!

Coach Anna  then reminded us that a time will come when you are fully dilated, and that this is a time of complete surrender; a time to drop your head, pull your chin into your chest, and bear down. She said the dropping of the head, is a process of allowing your head collapse in all your ‘knowing’, in all your ‘intelligence’. It is a time to surrender and allow God to crown you, a time to listen to what the Spirit says. It is a time when everything in you will tell you to push, but sis…. you cannot push unless God tells you to push. It is a time that you understand that ‘PUSH’ is in your DNA, but your DNA is under the authority of God and He alone knows your best “when’. And when He gives you the word ‘NOW’, you will know to bear down with all of your might, sis. You will know to ignore everything else around you, and push with everything in you.

You are pregnant with purpose, sis. You are pregnant with destiny. You are pregnant with blessings that are crying to break forth and manifest on the earth. But you know this right? Yes, of course you do! That is why you are always looking for that something else to fill that void you can’t pretend doesn’t exist. That is why despite your busyness, your position, your resources, your family, etc….your heart pines quietly for fulfillment, for completion. The ‘more’ in you is desperately trying to break forth, sis. So yes, pregnant you certainly are!

My questions to you today however are, ‘Are you in labor, active labor, or in the birthing transition? Can you allow the Holy Spirit interpret the things He ministered through Coach Anna McCoy, which I barely scratched the surface of in this post, directly to you in a way that is just right for your season?’ I don’t know at what pace you have read through up to this point, but I implore you to stop, take a deep breath, exhale slowly and then send up a word to our Father to explain this to you again Himself and make this word flesh in your unique situation. Can you ask Him to show you and teach you Himself? And when you are done praying, read again slowly – pausing as you are led to allow the Holy Spirit speak to you directly.

I will leave you with this today sis, and I will be back shortly with other nuggets from ROTH 2016. One thing I know, God is moving in the lives of His daughters. However, only those who connect and remain attentive to His word in this season will partake of that move. Please don’t be left out, sis. Position yourself to bring forth, and trust the Lord with the process. I know that more than anything else, He longs to be good to you continually and in greater measure, as surely as He is always good to me. You will deliver glory to our Father, sis… in Jesus mighty name, amen.

Be blessed sis…. For you surely are!


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You will surely get it!

Brexit!

That’s the word on the lips of the world now. And rightly so! Its ramifications for the global economy are yet to begin to play out fully, but they are bad enough already. Indeed, I was saying to a friend yesterday that it’s all a bit much – by which I meant that if you are paying attention to what is going on in the world, too many things of quantum significance are happening at the same time. From natural disasters, to terrorism, to the crash in oil prices, to this… to that, and now to Brexit! The question on everyone’s minds now ought to be ‘what next?’ …for surely, many ‘what next’ situations are yet up ahead. These are the end time’s people! And it is irrelevant if the end times last ten years or a hundred. In the scheme of things and from the eternity perspective, it’s irrelevant. All that matters is that we are prepared for the end.

I am not about to launch into an economic expose about the Brexit debacle, but it provides the Launchpad from which I will be sharing with you today. Actually, what got me thinking about Brexit was the fact that I find myself at the airport, all checked in, a whole two hours too early for a local flight. Thankfully my children whom I am travelling with both came with their laptops and so beyond the initial ‘So why did you make us leave so early, mum?’ I have not heard a peep out of them so far, lol.  What has my arriving early got to do with Brexit? I will explain. Just give me a couple of minutes to laugh at myself again, lol.

Any way…. I was supposed to have been on the 7am flight this morning but somehow or the other, by the time I gave my secretary the go-ahead to confirm the tickets, that flight was fully booked so we had to reschedule. I was very intent on not finding myself spending three hours in the proverbial Friday rush hour traffic however, so I made up my mind to leave really early. What I didn’t think through was what would happen if my traffic projections didn’t hold. So I harassed my children into packing and left home this morning with very stern warnings about their making sure they were ready to leave the minute the driver arrived to pick them up. Darling children that they are, they complied (like they had a choice, lol).

They were in my office at 1pm prompt, but it turned out that the lady making the dress my daughter would wear at the wedding we were travelling for arrived at the house after they had departed. We therefore still had to wait for her to get to my office. I remember the strange look she gave me when I repeated emphatically that she must arrive before noon. That was probably the Holy Spirit asking me what I was thinking, lol. Well, much as I had told her the children would leave home at noon, I’m guessing she had it figured that this was too early for people trying to catch a local 5pm flight and so rather arrived at 1pm.  Well, we finally left for the airport at about 1.40pm.  And what do you know? The road was so free that it might as well have been a very early Saturday morning. We arrived at the airport at 2.40pm and despite my best efforts to drag my feet, the check in counter was free and we were all done and settled in the waiting room at 3pm. Sigh! Where am I going with all this? Please be patient with me, my friend.

As I sat for the first few minutes trying to figure how best to make use of time which I knew would NOT pass very quickly if all I did was count the minutes, the British Prime Minister David Cameron came to mind. I burst out laughing as the popular cliché, ‘Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it’ also then came to my mind. Are you familiar with this expression, sis?

We all know, as he readily admitted, that PM Cameron didn’t wish for or conceive that Brexit would go through. Indeed he was so sure it wouldn’t that he clearly didn’t make room for what the implications of an ‘exit’ vote would be. If he did, he might quietly have gone on with the business of the day for yet a while longer, or perhaps he would have adopted a different engagement level and strategy that would have shifted the vote in favor of a ‘stay’. But like I said, this is not about global politicking and economics. It’s just that we have to sometimes question the things we press forward towards, because when we do get them, there are oftentimes many other unforeseen implications and/or complications that we then have to deal with or live with. The British PM finds himself having to resign his position…which was not part of the plan; and yours truly… for all my unwarranted hustle and bustle, now find myself with seemingly unending time to kill in an airport waiting lounge. And you know what? As VIP as the lounge I am currently sitting in is or may get, an airport lounge is exactly ultimately just a lounge and not the most comfortable place to be. Thankfully though, the Lord has helped me redeem this time, and rather used is to give me a message for you and I, sis. Praise the Lord!

Ask yourself a few questions, sis. What are you asking for that is consuming your time, thoughts, prayer life - without a corresponding question to God as to whether that is His will for you? What are you desperately pressing forward with, despite signs and counsels for you to ease up a bit? What are you seriously trying to orchestrate because it seems to fit into some picture of an outcome that you desire for yourself? What are you putting everyone around you under pressure for because you have already framed what the outcome you think you need or desire is?

Do you know what happened in my case? Well, apparently there are some major church conventions happening this weekend all along the same axes on the major expressway into and out of Lagos. As a result, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) had been proactively sending out bulletins, emails, tweets, jingles, etc advising people to take the alternative routes which they also very graciously proposed in order to minimize the anticipated traffic gridlocks. And apparently, everyone - save for myself, had seen those announcements. So as I was busy moving my earth to make sure I didn’t get stuck in traffic, they had gone ahead to prime the people who would have constituted my traffic, to have them take alternative routes.

Methinks if I had paid more attention to the prompting’s of the Holy Spirit, I might not have been in such a hurry. And how like God the actions of the FRSC were. I mean, think about it sis… isn’t this how God goes ahead to make a way for us where there seems to be no way? Isn’t this how, when we are busy doing our best to help Him get the results we desire, He is busy working behind the scenes and around us, trying to resolve the things we think are in our way. Isn’t this like Him to have thought out the things that are for our good well ahead of us?...to have caused people to change their plans to accommodate what His ultimate purpose for us is? Isn’t it like our amazing father to go ahead of us and make crooked path straights? But when, as I was, we are so focused on smoothening those paths ourselves, we miss the signs that He has already finished what we are trying to start, don’t we sis?

Hmm!

I can almost see the wheels turning in your head sis. And I can so relate. You see, among the best of us, we do this every so often – my very self included (Just so this doesn’t sound like a first for me. Far from it, lol). The best part however - and this is what I want to leave you with, is that the very self-same loving and gracious Father God that we serve does not condemn us when we run ahead of Him. He just smiles and shakes His head and immediately instigates a course-redirect. Yes sis, He knows how to extract the treasure in the muck. Ever before we come to the place of acknowledging that we miscalculated, He begins to orchestrate things such as to still bring glory to Him – if we would hear, and if we would yield. And I can say this comfortably and confidently because even in my over-extended airport wait, He dropped an expression in my spirit that then had me pull out my laptop and begin this post, right?  

So sis, this is God using what was my miscalculation to redirect me to one of my assignments that I have otherwise allowed busyness to make me neglect. And I believe I haven’t just written an article for writing sake. No! What has happened is that I have yielded myself to allow the Holy Spirit minister through me to me, and to you. But as you read, there is a next step sis. What God now needs you and I to do is to introspect, sis. God needs you and I to reflect on our lives and the things which we currently are allowing to constitute pressure points in our lives. He is asking that we reconsider the things we are asking, praying, believing, and over-extending for; and He is reminding us that He is in control and will work things out in His own time and way. He is demanding that we reexamine where we are unduly exerting pressure on ourselves, for we might just get what we are asking for…but if those things don’t fit into His own picture, we will end up in regret.

Sis, He is however also asking that we be at peace concerning any mistakes we may have made as a result of our anxieties, and He is assuring us that He is more than able to bring beauty out of the ashes of our mistakes. But He wants us to grow sis, so He is asking for an increased measure of intentionality about letting Him captain the ship that is our daily lives, and steer us aright continually. He is reminding us to get up each time we fall sis, for His everlasting arms are ever around us, ready to catch, to help, and to uphold us.

More than anything else, He is saying that the only thing we need to press into is Him. He is saying that as long as we are pressing towards His presence, seeking His face, His will, His way and His glory… then it means our hearts are asking for the right things. And once we are asking for the right things, we will get them sis. As long as our every effort is diligently directed towards entering His rest and giving Him glory, we may just….no, scratch that… we will surely get these. That is His word isn’t it, ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and every other things will be added unto you’? It sure is sis. It sure is.

Personally, I am grateful to God for loving me enough to constantly be my Help and Guide. His same help and loving guidance is always and ever yours too sis. It is with this confidence that I assure you that God will never give up on you, even as He never gives up on me. There is no need to be careful what you pray for when you pray for more of God – more of His presence, more of His will, more of His way, more of His glory. In the end, we will get it sis… that heavenly crown of glory for all eternity? We will get it in Jesus name, amen.

Be blessed sis…. For you surely are!