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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