Purposed to Profit

Merry Christmas, sis!

You know, there’s something about Christmas, beyond the bright lights, presents, parties, food and lots more food! For one, Christmas brings with it the undeniable reality of the countdown to the end of the year. Sis, 2017 is as good as gone! As I took some time out this morning to reflect on this reality, one big question - followed by several others in rapid succession, came to mind. I’d like to pose those same sets of questions to you today because I think they are pertinent to entering 2018 with the right perspectives. 

Sis, what were your markers for 2017?

Markers? Yes! What were the things that marked 2017 for you? What were your major gains? What were your major pains? What were your take-away lessons from both your gains and pains? What events – global/local/economic/social/emotional/physical etc. impacted upon or shaped your 2017 one way or the other? What goals did you set for yourself in 2017 that you achieved or surpassed? Which goals did you not attempt, or attempted and failed at partially or even completely? What things did you achieve in 2017 that were nowhere near your goal radar at the start of the year?

What relationships did you forge or forgo in 2017? Who added to or took away from you in 2017? 

Did you ‘grow’ in 2017? How exactly? Are you the same person you were at 12.01am on the 31^st of December 2016; or are you different and if yes, how? What has evolved around your thinking, perspectives, actions and inactions? Which bad habits and demons were you able to conquer in 2017, and which did you continue to ‘fellowship’ with? Did you wallow in comfort zones in 2017, or were you able to take baby steps/quantum leaps away from the things that once kept you in the cycle of sameness? Who is grateful for having had you in their life/lives in 2017? Who are you grateful to have had in yours? What was your spiritual life like in 2017? Did you grow, stagnate or regress spiritually?

Many questions sis….so many! That said, can I ask you to please not just breeze past them? Honestly, nothing beats a no-holds-barred one-on-one with yourself ever so often, and methinks today is as good as any to find some quiet space and think through your life in the past 12months. You can’t just roll on into 2018, sis. Honestly, you just can’t!

It would take at least three million words for me to share with you what some of my responses to self were, but suffice it to say that 2017 has been and still is an INTENSE year for me. 2016 had ended on a highly traumatic note for me, and so also did 2017 open with trauma. I had to contend with challenges and deep-seated pain that I never thought I could feel. It almost broke me, sis. No scratch that… I was broken! I was! But herein lies the gift of a strong relationship with God and an understanding that He alone is your firm confidence, trust and dependency. I had to learn new dimensions to the word grace and believe me….it’s one thing to ask for grace from God, and its another entirely to then extend the same grace to those who have wronged and hurt you deeply. I had to relearn how to release my heart to God and allow Him do a healing work. I had to release my mind to Him afresh to allow Him deal with painful memories each time they resurfaced. I had to relearn how to allow God carry me daily from a higher dimension, and if only for that reason then I’m actually grateful for the pain.

In business, wow! Talk about intense! This year stretched my business acumen in a way it hasn’t been stretched over the past 23 years. I had to run three major projects, major both in terms of the quantum and the depth of deliverables to get each project to a successful close-out. In the face of how badly our industry was hit by global events, I am grateful that the stretching was about growth and not a decline. In ministry, in other industry and social responsibilities that I carry…. Hmm! Did I already say ‘intense’? Well, pardon me for saying it once more. It really was intense for me, sis – emotionally, spiritually, in my family, business-wise, and in every area.

I saw God do the most amazing things in my life and through my life. I saw Him heal me and cancel a negative report. I saw Him deliver me from what would have been a major accident. I saw Him hug me through my tears. I saw Him provide in my difficulties. I saw Him speak to me and through me, things which came to pass. I saw Him as light in my darkest of places. I saw Him raise helpers and the right voices to encourage and grow me. I saw Him grant me access into places I thought I was unqualified for in my own eyes. I saw Him create and consolidate opportunities for me to grow and grow others. I saw Him through so many facets of my life, sis. If there is one thing that I can take out of 2017, it is that God walked every day of this year with me! I wish I could boast as unequivocally that I walked with Him as faithfully…but I can’t, and I won’t. That wouldn’t be true. I had my struggles in 2017, sis. I did! Without a doubt however, I know He was with me, ahead of me and all around me every single step of my way! I know this, and boy am I grateful.

As this realization washed over me, something dropped in my spirit. It was a statement and then a question: ‘So, you are clear that you profited from God this year…. But, what did you profit heaven in 2017?’

What did you profit heaven in 2017, sis? What did heaven gain from your life and existence? What did you do with the impartation of God’s divine breath that gave you life? How well did you walk in your assignment? How did you transact in 2017 such as to enlarge God’s Kingdom and deliver glory to Him? Did you take territory for yourself, or did you take territory for Christ? What are your spiritual markers for 2017…particularly the ones that are not about you alone? To whom were you Christ? To whom did you represent Christ? To whom did you minister Christ? What did you profit heaven from your marketplace transactions? Did you attend church efficiently in 2017, or were you actually ‘the church’ on a daily basis to a world very much in need? Whose spiritual life was impacted and enhanced by your spiritual life in 2017? How did your obedience walk go in 2017? Did you follow through on God’s instructions and assignments for you? What would heaven score you on your 2017 spiritual assessment? 

Hmm!

So, this post would be too long if I tried to share my answers with you. I will sum it up to say that I had quite a few things I could honestly and humbly declare that heaven profited from me, sis……things for which I was and am grateful to have had the privilege to be used to deliver on for the Kingdom. But, I also had quite a few things I knew I didn’t deliver on, instructions which I didn’t follow through on at all, or which I followed through only partially. I was also brave enough to be honest to myself about why. Sometimes, it was out of fear and uncertainty, and sometimes out of sheer laziness to make the effort required to push through. Other times, it was because I was clueless, and I didn’t take time to go back and ask for clarity and direction. So yes, heaven profited from me in 2017, but it was less than could have been.  

Why is this important, sis? Because a New Year is around the corner and I want to be sure that it is a more profitable year from me to the Lord! I know He will do His bit. I enter 2018 with a confidence and trust around the things that God will do for me and mine because He loves us like that. But I want to be sure that as He up’s His spiritual play in my life, I also up my giving back to Him. I know that with each passing year, I am on a countdown to standing before my Maker, and I know I am too old to be planning towards the day when I can begin to get it right. The time is NOW, sis! I was brought forth for this time and this season, not to occupy space on earth; but rather, to be productive for God and to fulfill the various assignments which He purposed I should deliver on during my time here on this earth.

I am purposed to profit heaven, sis. You are purposed to profit heaven! Entering each New Year and season of our lives with this understanding brings us to the place of intentionality and determination. It brings us back to the place of asking God to begin again with us, and walk again with us, so that at the end we may indeed deliver the glory that is His due, in the quantum that is His due, for that season and beyond. Ah sis, that we would better understand as time slowly but surely rolls by, that this life is ultimately only about how we profited He Who sent us. It would change the way we do life day to day. It would change the decisions and resolutions we make. It would change the actions we take. It changes the perspectives we adopt. It changes the impact we make. And I so want my impact to be about His glory. Don’t you?

The Lord will help me, sis. He will help you. Find quiet time to think this through, sis. Speak to God and let Him speak to you about 2018. Allow Him to show you through His eyes, and then commit to the instructions and assignments He would have you deliver on. By the grace and power of God, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, our lives will profit heaven in greater measure in the year ahead. In Jesus name, amen.

Be blessed sis…..for you surely are!

Make the Time

Yes, I’m still here. Thought to get that out of the way first. It has been a while, but such are the seasons of our lives, right? Over the past three months and counting, my life has involved a crescendo of activities at work, family, and ministry. I have sometimes thrived in the flurry of activities and responsibilities, and at other times honestly struggled to get through the weight of my many tangible deliverable's. Also thought to put that out there because one too many people have said to me recently that they don’t know how I ‘do it all so seamlessly’. It isn’t seamless, sis. It’s a lot of hard work and dedication. It’s a lot of pressure points and pain points. But, it’s also a lot of reward when the results speak so evidently on their own, and when God gets the glory. The apparent seamless-ness also means a lot of things take a bit of a back burner for a season, but therein lies the beauty of the passion-purpose intersection…..you always come back to the things you have acknowledged and are passionate about as part of your life’s assignments. You have to! I have to! I know for certain that the Lord will hold me accountable to how well I have deployed this platform for His glory. So yeah, I’m back sis. I’m oh so ‘back’…if that is grammatically correct, lol.

As I write this, I am waiting on a flight from New York back home. I should have been home today, but a decision to change my route a few days ago, coupled by weather challenges (I mean, who could have foreseen tornadoes while planning a trip?) collaborated to ensure all my connecting flights were delayed for hours on end and I eventually missed my international connection. Sigh! Sigh! Sigh! If that wasn’t bad enough, while I will spare you the details, it took me another near two hours to get my luggage and then make it to the hotel I had to book last minute when it became clear I would not make the connection. And again Sigh!

But you know sis, as I have travailed (for that is exactly what these two days have been for me) on this journey that I am literally still on, I adopted a certain spiritual stance about it and have continued to say, ‘Lord, please show me the lesson(s) You need for me to learn through this all’. I mean, this all couldn’t be for nothing. There are no wasted experiences with God. None whatsoever! And certainly, no wasted seasons either. Sis, can I assure you of a truth that all the challenges you have been dealing with in this season are not hidden from Him? And while it may not seem to make sense now, can I promise you that He has treasure He will bring out of your dark spaces?

I realized at some point before I went to bed yesterday that the Lord needed some major ‘alone time’ with me. And yeah, I will admit my first thought was why He needed to literally isolate me and through such a harrowing process, but He showed me, sis so please stay with me. You see, God has some really interesting ways of getting things done, and unless we keep the right spiritual perspectives and frame of heart in place, we will miss divine movements in our lives. I spent some time saturating the atmosphere around me with worship and a session of praying in the spirit, then sat at my desk preparatory to my study time. But sis, the Lord simply asked me to lay my Bible aside as He needed to have an intense one-on-one with me.

Sis, it was INTENSE!

I found myself siting and talking with God in a way that I do not recall having done in years. It was a no-holds-barred, come up higher, evolve or die conversation. He spoke, I listened! Many times, I cried, I contemplated, I deflected and then capitulated. But I listened with my heart, soul and spirit...and I understood. The Lord was transparently honest with me on another level, and in return I had to be brutally honest with myself to the fullest extent. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! But in the end, boy was there a release or what, sis? I had clarity more than ever before about my current season and my next season as God would have it unfold. I had clarity about where I was getting it wrong and why; where I was getting it right and how; where I was not even at the ‘getting’ stage yet but needed to be; and so on and so forth. I came to myself afresh in God, sis. I did! And can I tell you it was ultimately such a refreshing experience. I got past the ‘me’ that I was allowing myself to be, and got to the ‘ME that He needed me to be for the next phase of my assignment. I am sitting here with a clear head and fresh insight for how God will have me transact in various areas of my life in the season immediately ahead. I am also sitting here confident that He heard and will answer my petition for help from Him in the places where I know of a truth that I cannot do what He would have me do in my own strength.

I am lighter for this experience, sis. And yes, I still have this long flight ahead of me but I am completely at ease concerning that. I am grateful that the Lord had to take me through such an intense exercise in separation for my spirit to be open enough to know that I am not at all in control, and that unless I am doing life on His terms, I can never have peace and fulfillment. I honestly wish I could share details with you, sis. I really do. It would make it so much clearer wouldn’t it? But that’s not what this is about. This is about the fact that the Lord would have me tell you that you need to create time for a one-on-one with Him. He so desperately wants to speak with you, sis. He so desperately wants to show you ‘you’ through His eyes as He needs you to be in this season of your life. He said to tell you that you are trying to transact as an outdated version of you, but there are elements of your nature and things that He already has built into you that He needs you to cooperate with Him to bring into manifestation in this season. He so wants to walk with you and work in you to thrive in this season in ways that heaven applauds. He says you cannot continue to live on the echoes of the past applause sis. There is newness that He would birth in you in this season of your life if you would come closer and allow Him redefine you for His glory. He says He is allowing certain things in your life because He wants you to come to the place of emptying yourself afresh in Him so that He can fill you with ‘You’ afresh.

Will you yield sis? Will you? I know you are busy. I know there are many demands on your time. I know you might already be fruitful in His vineyard and think this does not apply to you…but remember the echoes sis. He does not want you to transact by echoes. Can you force the time? Will His instructions to you for this season carry enough weight for you to intentionally separate yourself enough to have the intense one-on-one with He who wants to birth a higher level of glory in and through your life? I pray you will sis. And I pray that as you do, you will hear His voice with clarity and that you will also receive divine instructions for your next seasons, as the Lord molds you into a more excellent ‘You’ for the glory of His name. Make the time, sis! I promise you it will be so well worth it.

Be blessed sis, for you surely are!  

Creation..... not reaction!

My daughter turned 17 today. Well, if we were to be exact, she will be turning 17 in another thirty minutes. I’m so grateful to God for the precious gift of this one girl child that I have. She is such an amazing blessing. She’s not however the subject of my post today, even though she inspired it. I just couldn’t imagine that my first post in so long would fall on her birthday and I wouldn’t take a few minutes to hail the One Who saw fit to bless me with her in the first place. All the glory is your alone, Lord!

So I had called her this morning, sang a birthday song and then prayed for her from my heart as the Lord led. She smiled her usual quiet smile and said her thanks. Then she said, ‘So I am born on this day 17years ago’. I corrected her and said, not ‘I am born’ but ‘I was born’, to which she smiled and said something to the effect that she knew exactly what she was saying. And you know what, it didn’t take but a minute for the Lord to begin to unpack that simple sentence for me.

Sis, do you remember that when Moses asked the Lord in Exodus 3 v 14 what he should say if Pharaoh asked who sent him, God said to Moses ‘Tell them that I AM has sent me to you’. The Lord reminded me that He is the ‘I AM’. He reminded me that He is the God Who calls forth the end from the beginning; that He is the God Who knew us every before we were fashioned in our mothers’ wombs; the God Who has orchestrated the times and seasons of our lives before the foundations of the earth; the God Who has numbered our days, Who knows us so intimately as to be familiar with every single hair on our heads.

And as the Lord ministered these to me, He told me that my daughter was right because her ‘I AM’ was purposed to be brought forth into manifestation on the 17^th of May 2000, and this had been established from the foundations of the earth. He reminded me that she didn’t come into existence because I labored and pushed her out of my womb on that day. No sis, she came into being in human form on that day because it was the set time that God had appointed for her spirit man, her I AM, to manifest in a mortal body in accordance with His purpose and for His glory.

As the Lord spoke this to me, He also reminded me about something I had read in Mark Batterson’s book ‘In a pit with a lion on a snowy day’. I honestly can’t remember the exact context in which he was speaking, and neither do I have the book close by right now for reference purposes; but I do recall that he was saying something about creation and people’s reactions, and it suddenly hit me that ‘Creation’ and ‘Reaction’ have exactly the same letters in them, though in different order. What has this got to do with anything? Hear me out sis, just hear me out.

Sis, if you and I truly believe in this God that we serve…. If we truly believe…. Then we need to settle in our spirits that there are certain things in our lives that carry creation’s mandate, things for which you and I have no hand in or control over. Do you remember that the Word in Colossians 1 v 17 tells us that He is before all things, and in Him and through Him do all things consist? That all things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being (John 1 v 3)? Sis, if we truly believe the Word, we should settle in our spirits that our lives and times are in His hands, and as such we should check our reactions to the situations and circumstances which we find ourselves in the course of our sojourn on this earth.

The Lord never promised us an easy ride, sis. He didn’t! He was very upfront t about the fact that ‘in the world you will have tribulation’ wasn’t He? But do you remember what followed? It was ‘But be at peace, for I have overcome the world’. Sis, the message to you and I is that in our good times, our quiet times, as well as in the times of our seasons and storms; we should set our focus on Creation’s mandate and allow our reactions be those of submission to a God Who has promised to uphold us with His mighty right hand of righteousness. I was listening to someone minister yesterday who said that if we would consider carefully, none of us can remember at all or in sufficient details, the things that were troubling us on this specific day and time last year and much less the year before. I believe what God was reminding me this morning was to again cast my cares and fears on Him, because He has cared enough for me to have sorted it all out from the foundations of the earth.

Sis, God is saying to you today that He does not need you to try to help Him by your worrying. It’s hard, I know. Oh boy, do I know! But this is why He takes the time to come back to us with reminders and words of encouragement time and again, sis. He knows we are but human, and He knows we can’t do this on our own so He is mindful to speak peace to our spirits over and again. The challenge with God’s peace is that while it is available, we must take it! I love that scripture that says that God’s voice is louder than the sound of many waters (Psalm 93 v 4). It just reminds me that when the many storms of life are raging, I only need to reconnect with the voice of the I AM that is within me, and His small still voice will speak louder than the sounds of the waves buffeting the shores of my life. It is that small still voice that speaks a ‘Peace, be still’ to my spirit and allows me to stay above even when all seems to be falling apart at the seams.

Sis, God is saying that the good things that happen to you are not strange to Him, and the challenges you have and will face are and will not be strange to Him either. He is asking you to gauge your reactions to the things that come at you for good or bad and ask if you are truly walking in faith. I know I have shared with you before something I heard from Pastor Stephen Furtick who said that ‘Faith and Fear have their root in the same thing …in Focus!’. Sis, can you and I come back to focusing on Creation’s word concerning us and take our focus off the fear that causes us to react as though we are not already helped?

A couple of days ago, I was speaking on Facetime with my husband who was away in Houston. I couldn’t see Him clearly and I said as much to him. He had responded to say that the lighting was bad in his room. I remember I had laughed and I said to him that I was going to blog about what ministered to me in that instance. You see sis, he could see me with absolutely clarity because I was enshrouded by light, being in a very bright well lit room. I on the other hand couldn’t see him clearly because the light in the room was above his head. I asked him to lie down, looking up to the light, such that the camera was illuminated by the light flooding from the ceiling. He changed position, and I could see him as clear as day.

Here is what the Lord said I should leave you with, sis. His light is available to illuminate the dark places of your life, to give clarity where you cannot see clearly, to bring you into prominence where situations are preventing your gifts from manifesting visibly. But He needs us to look up, sis. He needs us to change position. He needs us to move into the place of submission to the light of He Who is Creation Himself, so that He can make our pathways of life shine brighter and brighter. He wants us to react less and trust more, sis. That is His word today. He asks that I again leave you with this, ‘My peace is available to you. Take it’

Sis, it is in the place of creation that purpose manifests, that our gifts make room for us to the fullest extent. And in this season, God is looking for us to manifest our ‘I AM’ to the max. There are things God spoke from the foundation of the earth sis, but He needs you and I to be in the position to pull down the spiritual word, the Creation mandate, into a physical manifestation.

I don’t know about you, but I honestly look forward to a daily spiritual growth and maturation that has me reacting less to the ebbs and flows of life, and trusting more in my Creator to work all things out for His glory. The Lord will help you sis, as assuredly as He will help me.

Be blessed sis…. For you surely are! 

Needed

‘I need you as much as you need Me!’

These were words the Lord spoke to me recently as I fellowshipped with Him, but as I sat down this morning to think through what I wanted to share with you today, it ministered to me that this is a word for you too, sis. Let me back track a bit.

I’d said in my first post this year that I came into 2017 in trauma. Pressing in to hear God’s voice, He had then said to me that ‘surrendered’ is the state of heart that would keep me in His victory in 2017; that this is not a year where I should try to do battle by myself and that I would not win if I do. Somehow, this word seemed to speak to the fact that I needed God more than anything else in this year, and I was fine with that. God knows (literally), that I am tired of trying to do life by myself anyway.

A few days later though, I was meditating… okay, I confess… I was worrying over someone in a particular situation and praying for the Lord to intervene when He said the next few words to me:

“Focus on your own growth, My child! Do not worry about anyone else. Pray and encourage others, yes; but focus on your own growth. My word for you today is ‘Higher’. There are too many mountains ahead and you need spiritual strength to climb them. Be prepared! Plug in and persevere so you can grow. You need to be fed, and the only way you can do this is to spend more time in My presence and allow My Spirit minister to your spirit!

It is in My presence that is your victory and growth! Do not neglect dedicated time in My presence, My child! I need you as much as You need Me! My purposes must be fulfilled though you.”

I bolted upright after I wrote this down, and in the place of a pause I’d asked God. ‘You need me as much, Lord? I’m not sure I can handle that. And He spoke again clearly saying: ‘I need you as much as You need Me! My purposes must be fulfilled though you. It is weighty, yes. But, you are chosen and you must walk in the fullness of this privilege’.

Sis, I wish I could somehow make you feel exactly what I was going through at that time as I sat and mulled over these words. You and I know that those of us who have a relationship with God kind of always find ourselves in the place of knowing that we need God to walk through this life successfully on His terms. And many of us know that God brought us to the earth to fulfill some purpose, whether or not we are clear what that purpose or those purposes might be. Indeed, for those of us who are in one form of active ministry (‘active’ being the qualifier, for I believe all of us are called to be every day ministers), we understand that we are on God’s assignment to build His Kingdom. We know God needs us to do the work, given that He is not coming down from heaven to get things done, but has empowered us to do. However….. I am not sure that I personally have ever seen the assignment as being weighty enough for God to declare to me that He ‘needs me as much as I need Him’.

Wow! Me?…..tiny, little, insignificant-in-the-global-scheme-of-things me? How can this be?

Hmm! I just had Luke 1 v 34 drop in my spirit. Mary was asking the Angel the same question when he passed the message from God to her about her bringing forth Jesus. Remember? I believe the Holy Spirit is reminding me that God specializes in asking for the seemingly impossible from us because as He also spoke in Luke 1 v 35: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” It’s ultimately always about God’s power and purpose, sis. It is! 

On the day I had this experience however, Luke 1 v 34-35 was nowhere on my mind. What immediately came to my mind were all my past failings, my current struggles. I thought about how readily I could accept if my fellow man said to me that they needed me as much as I needed them. That would make sense because I know within my family and my small close circle of friends, we all play supporting roles in each other’s lives. Because I am not afraid to be openly weak, afraid, uncertain and vulnerable with them, they can (mostly) handle this as much as they can handle my many strengths, competencies and capabilities.  

But sis, how do you begin to conceive that the Lord God strong and mighty, the Creator of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, the One from Whom all things consist, the Mighty Man in Battle, the King of Glory, the I Am that I Am, the Double-Breasted One, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the One Who is God all by Himself, the One for Whom the heaven is His throne and the earth His footstool, the One to Whom all power belongs, the One who knows the end of a thing before its beginning, the One that simply speaks a Word and it comes to pass… Pray tell me, how do you begin to conceive that this mighty GOD could need simple insignificant little me… as much as I need Him? Me who is as small as a tiny speck of sand (or even smaller still) compared to the grandness of this God? Hmm!

Only now do I see it, sis. I pray you see it too. I have been trying to figure what this could mean to me in real terms. And clearly therein lay the problem….that I was trying to figure it out in ‘real terms’, this simply meaning that I was trying to reason it out in my mind…with my fleshly senses. 

Only now did Jeremiah 1 v 5–10 drop in my spirit and this is the answer. Sis, the Lord needs me and the Lord needs you because we were specifically brought forth as His chosen instruments, set apart as prophets to whatever ‘nations’ He called us to. Before we were born, He gave us oversight of nations and kingdoms of the earth. And before you decide you have no influence over nation’s sis, let me remind you as the Lord again ministered to me just now, that each of us carries within us the seed for nations. We are ourselves seeds from generations of a single individual from centuries ago. Therefore, even if your circle of life consists of only one person, you are in relationship with a nation…. a ‘nation’ that must experience God through you!

And this is the period when God is reconciling His kingdom back to Himself, sis. We are clearly in the last days, seeing gross darkness rapidly covering the earth as hell continues to enlarge its mouth. God has need of me and He has need of you because His desire is that as many of His children as possible would come back to Him and make it to heaven at the end of the age. And we are His instruments, sis. We are! You don’t have to have a pulpit to preach Kingdom sis, and neither do I! The time of the end is nearer now than ever before so if God says He needs us as much as we need Him, sis it speaks to the urgency of the assignment. It speaks to the fact that indeed we need to come up higher; that we need to be fed spiritual meat so that we can feed those who are running on empty, or who are on spiritual milk levels, so they can also grow and not miss that glorious eternal reward that awaits those whose are Christ’s!  

Go read 1^st Corinthians 1 v 25–28 sis, and realize as I just have, that as long as God is our Source, the One in Whom we live, move and have our being; then it makes sense that He would take you and I who might look small and insignificant in the eyes of the world (and indeed also in our own eyes) and use us to do His will …which is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and lead people back to Him. The assignment is clear in Colossians 1 v 28-29 sis… that we labor to present every person mature, complete and perfect in Christ. And He did call us co-laborers in His vineyard didn’t He, sis? If you own a vineyard and your laborers go on strike, can you be productive and profitable? No sis, NO!

God has need of me sis, and He has great need of you!  And His need of us is as much as our need of Him. His desire is that our lives be profitable to Him by His own measures, sis. He needs us to do the work He called us forth to do, so we can touch the lives, the nations He intends us to touch. I so get it!  And He is right…it is a weighty realization that I am needed of the Father as much as I have need of Him. I desperately need Him sis, don’t you? Imagine then walking around with the weight of the knowledge that He also desperately needs me? Of course He can do without me and He can do without you, being that He is GOD after all. But He has loved and considered you and I worthy of such honor and esteem as to grant us the privilege of being chosen to fulfill purpose for Him! Wow, sis! Wow! I don’t know about you, but I am grateful to be used by God, and useful to God. I am grateful that in spite of the many shortcomings of my everything and my all, God would consider me worthy to be needed by Him. What a privilege indeed sis, what a privilege!  

Please take time out to seek the Lord’s face today, sis. Let Him know as I am doing now, that you understand and that you make an intentional choice to meet His needs for and from your life. Yes sis, let Him know again today that your life is available for Him to use as He chooses. Commit again to Him that you submit to the assignments He will send to you. Let Him know you accept your call to any nation(s) He would have you touch with His love and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Let your Father know that you are humbled by the privilege to be needed by Him, sis. And as you do, watch Him do exponential things in your life and in the lives of those He will have you touch, all for His glory and the enlargement of His kingdom. The Lord will help you, sis. I can tell you with every certainty, that daily He is daily helping me.

Be blessed sis…. For you surely are!

Take it!

I had an amazing time at church today! Truth be told, it has just been an awesome move of the Spirit of God in the life of my family as the Lord ordered our steps to a different place of worship, one that is clearly part of His call on our lives for this season. It has been one Holy Spirit encounter after the other on another level since then, and the Lord has been unfolding Himself in new dimensions to each and all of us ever since. Err…no don’t ask me the name of the church sis. This is not a call for you to move from where the Lord may have you planted at this time. If He needs you to move, He will move you Himself and it will not be out of any orchestrated effort on your part. I’m simply sharing because I consider that I am doing life with you on some level through this platform, and because of the things God spoke to me at the turn of this year which I am beginning to see glimpses of; and I am honestly both excited at the bit He has shown me, as well as excito-scared (my new word combo) of the magnitude of what He has said is yet to come.

So in church today, the pastor in the course of his message made reference to Esther 8 verse 8 and sis, it was such a powerful alignment to every other thing he preached on prior to and after he made the reference. Honesty, today was another one of those ‘this-message-is-precisely-for-me’ days; but something about this particular verse of Scripture, among the many he shared, spoke deep to my core. It resonated even more profoundly with me as my spirit made immediate connections with two other statements he made in the course of his ministration…. statements that would otherwise have seemed somewhat unrelated were the Holy Spirit not helping me see them through a different knowing. He had quoted Matthew 11 verse 12 further along in his message, and in elaborating on the relevance of that portion of Scripture to the point he was trying to pass across, he’d said, “Not everything is given. Some things must be taken!”  My spirit immediately jumped back to Esther 8 verse 8. 

Again at the end of the service, he had mentioned that there would be a special ministration next week and everyone should come with their 2017 goals. He however reminded us that our faith is not supposed to be in the goals, but in He who enables us to do; that the injunction from God is to seek first after His Kingdom and righteousness and all other things would follow, including the attainment of our goals. Sis, maybe it’s because I have set my own goals for the year which I am trusting God to help me deliver on, or maybe it’s because everywhere around me all I see are conversations about goal-setting; but suffice it to say that as he made that announcement at the end of the service, my spirit immediately went again to Esther 8 verse 8 and somehow I knew that this was the word I needed to share with you today.

^{Esther 8 v 8} You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke.”

·        ‘You yourself write a decree’: Sis, have you framed your 2017? The Lord is reminding you again that He has given you power and authority and that you need to use it to reign and rule in your corner of the earth, to fulfill godly purpose and deliver glory to Him. The word of God is that we should write the vision and make it plain (Habakkuk 2 verse 2). You can only run with it when it is written, sis. Anything else is just glorious imagination. The word of God tells us that the world was framed by the Word of God (Hebrews 11 verse 3), and we carry the divine nature and power of God in us. We are Kings and Priests. He has given us rulership and dominion over the earth and He has asked us to decree a thing and it shall be established. We need to make tangible decrees, sis! Write down your decrees for your 2017 and trust that you are framing the world that the power of God will then unfold for you. Write your vision for this year and run with it. Write it, speak it, set your eyes continuously on it and you will surely see it come to pass… indeed, you will see greater things come to pass in this year in Jesus name. Please don’t be casual about this, sis. In 2017, the Lord is looking for uncommon believers, for radical faith! He is looking for those who will choose to believe Him over what man will call foolish; those who will walk in naive faith, trusting the word of God that NOTHING is impossible to Him. I sense that God wants to show off in your life and in my life in a radical way in 2017, sis. Don’t let ‘normal’ stand in the way of extraordinary this year. Please sis!

·       ‘…as you please’..:  Hey sis, are you as excited as I am at this? As I please? What does this mean? I tell you what ministered to me, sis. The Lord is saying to you and I that there are no limitations this year. As long as our ultimate objective is to deliver a higher level of glory to Him in 2017, we can ask as we please. We can ask for the big things, we can ask for the small things. We can ask for the spiritual things, and we can ask for the material things. We can ask for spiritual enlargement, and we can ask for promotion in our places of planting and in the works of our hands. We can ask for influence and we can ask for impact. As we please, sis. It’s all as we please. However…..

·         ‘…in the King’s name…’:  Here is the catch sis. As we ask, we must ask in the name of the King. Jesus said to us that whatever we ask in His name, God is able to grant to us according to His riches in glory. So there is an alignment called for sis and that is why in my view, while I will ask as I please, I will color it myself by asking in Jesus name, and asking for Him to show me any request I make that does not fit into delivering glory to Him.

·       ‘…and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke’: Sis, be sure you don’t move with any project/goal/endeavor that the Lord does not sanction. Not in this year! These are not the day’s, sis! As we ask as we please, and as we ask in the name of the Lord, let us also be patient to wait and hear from Him so we have clarity as to the things He has sanctioned. God clarifies the what, the how, the when, the where, the with whom, etc. Many times He unfolds these one step at a time, but be sure you have a specific ‘Yes’ for your ‘what’, sis. It is only then that you can be sure He seals it with His seal of approval, with that signet ring no one can revoke. Once the Lord establishes your assignments for 2017, no force from the camp of the enemy can override you. They may try, but it will be a vain thing and in the end the enemy will never prevail.  

Sis, God has an awesome plan for you and I in this year. But, we will only walk in it if we take what He has made available to us. We must pull that which He has spoken into manifestation in this realm, and that involves a ‘taking by force’. This is not a time to be casual about your Christianity! This is not a season to be apathetic about your pursuit of purpose! This is not the time to maintain status quo in your relationship with the Holy Spirit! I can’t tell you enough that this year, the Lord is calling us to a new level of intimacy with Him.

The world is going through fundamental changes, sis. Those who will live in elevation over all the trials and tribulations of the day are those who will intentionally live in an elevated spiritual position. Sis, let’s be intentional and focused about seeking God at a higher level this year. Let’s cast aside every success or achievement of the prior year and years, and let’s consign every failure to history. God has turned a new page for you and I, sis. But there is a demand placed on us if we are to walk in it, if we are to achieve goals that are fully in alignment with His will and which will deliver the glory He desires our lives to bring to Him in 2017. Let’s take it, sis! Let’s PRESS IN and TAKE IT! As always the Lord will help you, sis…as assuredly as He continues to help me!

Be blessed sis…..for you surely are!

Press in

Happy New Year, sis!

Please join me to give all glory to God for keeping us through 2016. Bumps and all, we made it and we’re still standing simply by His grace, mercies and favor. So many passed on just as the year turned sis, so I hope your ‘Halleluyah’ is as loud as mine as we bless the Lord for 2017. God is faithful, sis. In His infinite mercies, He has seen fit to keep you and I in health and strength; and He has held true to His promise to fulfill the number of our days. Our being here is not for lack of the devil having tried otherwise sis, I can assure you. It is simply of the Lord’s mercies that we were not consumed. Thank You Jesus!   

I had said to my son earlier today that it’s amazing just how quickly January is already well on its way. His response was, ‘Actually the entire year is already over, mum’. I listened with a half-smile on my face as he spoke to the fact that 2016 had quite simply raced by and he could see this year progressing along with the same velocity. I smiled because I understood that the discussion about 2017 and how fast it is moving along also holds an underlying significance for my son. He turns 21 in a few months you see, officially then coming into his own as a full legal adult. What I didn’t say to him, but which I thought to myself as he spoke, is that of a truth, 2017 is a year when many of us will have to ‘come into our own’ - spiritually speaking, if we are to experience the full measure of the things God has purposed for us in this season of our lives. Spiritually speaking, the Lord has laid it on my heart that 2017 will indeed be a significant year for those who will seek Him in spirit and in truth on a higher level. It is a year when only the spiritual adults will thrive, while those who still insist on operating on the level of ‘milk’ will struggle.

Speaking of significance, it is on my heart to ask you to do two things today, sis. First, can you take a look at your 2016 and ask yourself what the most significant things, situations, relationships, etc that marked the year for you were?  What were your key learning’s and take-away’s sis? And more than anything else, as you reflect, can you reflect on how God presented Himself through each of those significant markers? Even if you didn’t see or feel Him when you were going ‘through’ any of the things you count as your 2016 markers, are you now able to see and acknowledge that He was with you in every situation? Even if you still can’t figure why you had to go through some of the challenges you faced in 2016, can you trust that He is still doing something in you and that He will also help you to discern, at the appropriate times, what He needed you to learn or birth through every one of those experiences?

The second thing I would like you to do is to take some time to ask yourself how you want to walk with God in 2017. Will it be same old, same old? Or would you rather come up higher in Him? Methinks the world we are in is breaking down at an alarming pace, sis. Those who will thrive in the truest sense of the word as God defines it, will be those who press in…those who understand that it is only from Him that we can receive the downloads for how best to transact, thrive and abide in this season. Determine for yourself what needs to change about your spiritual walk in 2017 sis, and as you do, determine also the specific things you want the Lord to help you do in order to see the fullness of the manifestation of the changes you desire.  

I ended 2016 on a very devastating note, and came into 2017 numbed by the enormity of challenges I found myself facing. And I can tell you sis, that for the first few days of this year, it took everything in me to keep my head up. But this is then also the beauty of having a deep personal relationship with God, and of knowing who you are in Christ. I did and have been doing the one thing I know of a certainty to do, sis. I pressed in, and as I did the Lord spoke to me and calmed my spirit. This is why I am pressing on, and why I know I will make it.

Among other things, He cautioned me not to take my eyes of Him for a minute this year. The Lord said to me that ‘surrendered’ is the state of heart that will keep me in His victory in 2017; that this is not a year where I should try to do battle by myself and that I would not win if I do. He admonished me not to forget that He is my ability always, and especially in this season. He reminded me that His Holy Spirit is more than available to me, and that I must not do anything without consulting with Him first. And He said that I must walk in a spiritual high – in a place of spiritual elevation in 2017. He is still committed to speaking to me on the go, but it is only if my spirit is attuned to His voice that I will constantly hear Him with clarity.

It is on the strength of the understanding that my current struggles all count for something greater for His glory, that I can stare at my storms and still declare that 2017 will be a phenomenal year for me, no matter what. His word is that all things work together for my good, and this I know well. But I also know I have work to do. I have more spiritual meat to eat. I have more spiritual ‘coming into my own’ to do, so that I will see the manifestation of my confession.

Sis, I don’t know how your year has kicked off, but whether it started on a high or a low note is irrelevant. Can you please allow your spirit receive the same counsel the Lord laid on my heart and purpose to do life with Him at a deeper level in 2017? Sis, your spirit needs to be surrendered so you can attain the spiritual elevation God desires for us to ensure we thrive in this year. Can you please take some time to press in? As you press in, can you take your focus off your wants, and rather ask God to show you what He wants from you? Can you ask Him to give you spiritual eyes to see His express purpose for your life in this season, and ask Him to show you how best you can deliver new levels of glory to Him in 2017? Press in sis! Press in and don’t stop. The Lord gave a word in December that He is looking for mobile worshippers – those who will continuously carry His presence and deliver glory to Him on the go. This is my heart’s cry for this year, and indeed the rest of my life. Can you make it yours too?

The Lord will help us sis. He is daily helping me and He will daily help you. As we seek His face and commit to doing His will, we will indeed see His Kingdom come in our lives, and we will experience the fullness of the rich lives He has called us to live on this earth. And so shall it be, in Jesus name, amen.

Be blessed sis….. for you surely are!