GENTLE WHISPERS

Hey sis, I suspect you thought I was done with blogging, right? Well, can I confess that I had struggled so much with it that I occasionally wondered if it was a season of my life that was now over? I did, sis! Oh, but I did! That is until a recent conversation brought to the fore the fact that I was allowing my commitments to so many external things take priority over a sense of responsibility to myself. I ended that engagement with a keen sense of awareness that I needed to re-compartmentalize things in my life into two boxes, my negotiable's and non-negotiable's. I had to agree with myself afresh that anything that had to do with building ‘ME’ for me so that I can give full expression to God’s call upon my life MUST come first. Everything else would have to fit around this principle. I had clearly allowed the flurry of life overtake me somewhere along the line, but as of now I am determinedly finding my way right back to me. Can you relate, sis?

One of my fresh realizations was that the platform of UniquelyWoman is one of my non-negotiable's and a clear assignment from God upon my life which I cannot walk away from.  That said sis, I honestly struggled with putting action behind this realization. I mean, it's a busy time of year and there’s so much going on with most of us in this season, so I will admit I didn’t act immediately on this. But…. when the Lord is on your case? Boy, is He on your case, sis! It was barely a couple of days later that I had a meeting with a young lady who has allowed me be a combination of boss, mentor and a mother-figure in her life. We’d spent most of the afternoon talking about how she was doing in her life and business. Suddenly, she asked, ‘So how are you ma'am?’ I responded to say that I’ve been busy, dealing with my many responsibilities as best I know how, yada yada yada. She’d been smiling her sweet smile all through as I spoke, but once I was done she put on a serious face and asked, ‘And what about your blogging ma’am?’ Ah ha! I told you God knows how to get on your case right? I could almost hear the Holy Spirit chuckle, could almost see Him wag a finger and say to me ‘Girl, get back to your assignment NOW!’

Sis, this has been quite an intense year for me in so many ways. I almost can't quite wrap my head around the fact that we are in December already. The rapidity with which things have been happening has oftentimes left me breathless. I’ve seen new dimensions of life as I know it unfold. I came to the realization a few months ago that this is a year of transitions for me, and transitions are not seamless. Transitions come with their own stretching, difficulties, uncertainties, and their own elements of fear. Transitions come with their own new learning's, unlearning and relearning’s. They come with the need for streamlining, for expanded thinking, for new perspectives. Transitions come with new sets of dependencies and relational realignments, some of which can be painful. Transitions come with change, and change comes with trials… not to mention sometimes painful and costly errors.  

Sis, through all the transitions however, this year more than ever I have seen my relationship with God take on a different depth, meaning and intensity. All in all, this is what I am most grateful for in this year. This year I have been more grateful than ever for the gift of the Holy Spirit, for being able to walk with Him in heightened intimacy, for an increased sensitivity to His voice and to His leading,  for being increasingly able to trust His ordering of my steps; and for the conviction from Him that as long as I stay in alignment with what I believe He would have me do, then all things will continually work out for my good. Sis, this year more than ever before has made me realize that if you don't have a personal relationship with God, if you don't have Jesus Christ, if you don't have that intimacy with the Holy Spirit and if you are not in intense fellowship with Him, you really just can't have peace or live life as your best you.

This post is for me a walk in obedience, coming back fully to what God would have me do despite the storms, the transitions, the intensity. It is an expression of capacity, the word which God had given me as my anchor for 2018…and I have seen and experienced exactly why. Oh boy, what a year 2018 has been! Psalm 107:29 is one verse of scripture I came across early this year which has so helped me stay strong through the vagaries and vicissitudes of my 2018, sis.  It reads, ‘He hushes the storm to a calm and into a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still’. It is on my heart to speak to you about this. I believe God wants me to say to you that no matter the turbulence you have experienced in your life this year, He will hush every storm into a gentle whisper for you. If your year has been anything as turbulent and intense as mine has, God says ‘Peace’

Receive His peace in the middle of everything going on. There is truly nothing as beautiful, calming, reassuring as knowing that God is in the boat with you. There is nothing greater than the understanding and conviction that no matter how loud the waters get in the midst of the storm, the voice of the Lord is louder than the voice of many waters. Sis, all He needs to do is to speak a word… ‘Peace, be still’ and everything stills into a gentle whisper. Indeed, if like me you take time to do some reflecting about the year, you will be able to recall the many times He clearly took charge of the raging storms in your life!

I love the expression ‘Gentle Whisper’… even the sound of this is so reassuring to me. It is for me a statement that God’s got my back, that He’s mindful of me, that He upholds me with His everlasting arms of righteousness, that He maintains my lot. It speaks to me about the fact that He has me covered, that He causes lines to fall unto me in pleasant places, that He is my God Who is able to bring water out of a rock, my God Who is able to part the Red sea, my God Who is able to fill valleys and bring mountains low, my God Who makes a way when there seems to be no way, my God Who can kill and make alive, my God Who can build-up and who can tear down, my God Whose arms are not waxed short, my God for Whom nothing is impossible.

Sis, there are so many gentle whispers in my 2018 which are my markers for the many testimonies that I have seen God work in and through my life from January to date. Ah yes, this God has been so faithful sis. He has! Sis, can I remind you today that no matter how loud the storms have been, you need to be listening out in your spirit for the gentle whispers of heaven.  

Sis, as the year begins to wrap up can I encourage you to use the last few days of the year to do a spiritual reset? This is that period when everyone is goal setting and planning resolutions for the New Year. But sis, the Lord impresses it on my heart to say that those that will thrive in 2019 are those that choose to just transact by the leading of the Spirit. Can I tell you sis, that what will carry you through in 2019 is your sensitivity to the gentle whispers of the Lord? 2019 is going to be an excellent year for those who are walking closely with the Holy Spirit.

Sis, let me assure you that wherever you are in your relationship with God, this is as good a time as any to come back and ask Him to take you deeper. Press in and ask God to bring you to a renewed place of intimacy and fellowship with Him. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you a new dimension of Who He is. Ask Him to help you increase the sensitivity of your ears to His voice, to help you attune your spirit more finely with His Spirit. Pray to the Lord to draw you closer still in this last week of the year such that you don't go into a New Year 2019 the same old you. As you press in, ask the Holy Spirit to tweak your spiritual reflexes, infuse strength into your spiritual muscles, and show you how He would want to walk with you in 2019. Let this spiritual reset be one of your primary non-negotiable's, sis.

As you take this step, listen out for the Holy Spirit as He unfolds to you the things He would have you deliver on in 2019, and then ask Him to breathe over every storm the enemy plans to lift against you, hoping to derail your journey to fulfilling those assignments. Ask the Lord for the boldness to press forward, and for the grace to complete. Pray and ask God to give you the capacity to remain steadfast, trusting fully that by His help and your obedience you will deliver new levels of glory to Him. You and I are going to do great things for the Lord in 2019, sis. I speak over you and I declare that the Holy Spirit helps you, even as surely as He daily helps me.

Be blessed sis …….for you surely are!

EPIC

It would seem the Holy Spirit is on my case in this season about pending assignments, about things He had ministered to me over the past year that I didn’t quite do anything with. This is honestly the only explanation I have for why He keeps sending me back to certain spaces. Its almost freaky how He sometimes ministers to me to go to where I have my old study notes stored, asks me to pick up a specific one, and then to open it to a specific page or sets of pages where He has me read something He spoke to me a while back. I almost laughed out loud in church the week before, when my sista and pastor shared how the Lord had done the same thing with her and instructed her to preach a specific message she had shared almost ten years ago. And it was such a word in season sis, it sure was!

Anyhow, today the Lord also had me flipping through some very unlikely files and places where I found different notes I had written as they’d ministered to me at those times. In every case I was reminded about the when and why I wrote those notes, as well as seeing them from fresher perspectives based on the going’s on in my life in this season. Can you relate, sis? It is such a comfort to see God’s mindfulness of me being expressed daily through both the big, small, as well as ‘seemingly’ insignificant things, sis.

As I riffled through this one file, I saw somewhat crumpled scrap of paper which was clearly ripped from off a full-sized sheet. I wondered why I had that in a file but as I turned it over, I remembered clearly. It was from last year. I was scheduled to hold a particular program I run every other month, but in that instance everything in me so didn’t want to. My mind was such a blank. I couldn’t conceive a theme, couldn’t visualize the flow, had no inspiration to try to conceptualize it properly, and honestly just wasn’t even in a place where I wanted to press in and allow myself hear God regarding the event. I was just tired, sis. Simply put, I was tired!

My personal assistant kept asking me what the theme was, so she could build the pre-event communication around it, but I had no answer for her so she went on with other elements of her planning. I found myself an odd combination of amused and annoyed, somewhat wishing she would also give up on everything else so I would have more of an excuse to lay back and rest. I should have known better though as she was relentless in making sure she held up her part. We were less than two weeks to the event, she had all arrangements in place and she’d gotten several people signed up to attend…… I just wasn’t clear exactly what they had signed up for. Each time I asked her what she was up to, she’d just smile her brilliant smile and move on.

I guess I finally realized that I needed help from above on this one, and so I prayed a small prayer. Truth be told, my desire was for the Lord to cause some loud thunder and huge bolt of lightning to come from the sky, with a deep voice saying, ‘Rest child, it is not my will for the event to hold this month’. Oh, how I longed for that! But, you know how it actually went down don’t you, sis? First there was an element of chastisement from the Lord for my taking His assignment lightly because I was ‘tired’ (like it was about my ‘strength’ in the first place); then there was a reminder from Him about the purpose behind the assignment in the first place; and finally, He gave me the theme …..and boy was it heavy! It was so heavy that I couldn’t think how I would put it together in the little time I had. He also told me who He would have minister with me, and I honestly doubted he would be available given the short notice. I knew would have to at least try anyway, as clearly the Lord was not having any of my attempted slacking.

Well guess what, sis? My PA contacted the speaker and he was so available that he committed right away. She came in to relay the info to me and that sent me on another tailspin. He was free, he had even expressed clarity to her regarding why he believed the Lord would have chosen him as the second speaker and what he felt God would have him say…. whereas yours truly was still clueless. I said as much to my PA and without missing a beat she smiled again and said, “You’ll do great ma’am. I just know this month’s session is going to be EPIC!”. Can I tell you that it was indeed EPIC, sis? It was phenomenally epic, maybe our best session ever as at that time. This God? Indeed, He is too good!

I was on my knees in utmost thanksgiving in the evening post-event, when the word ‘EPIC’ dropped in my spirit again. It was in that place of gratitude that the Lord said to me: 

‘Daughter, you are EPIC. 

You are:

-        Exceptionally Positioned in Christ

-        Exceptionally Purposeful in Christ

-        Exceptionally Powerful in Christ’

Wow, sis! Wow! This made absolute sense then and it still does now. This was God Himself reminding me that it was and is not about me, but about Him. This was Him reminding me that because I am in Him, I am seated with Christ in heavenly places. This was Him reminding me that He is the One Who has steadily guided my destiny up to where I am today; Who has made sure the enemy did not devour me in my wilderness days; the One Who has redirected my errors and turned my life around for His glory; the One Who chose to love me enough to look past my failings and call me by a new name; the One Who saved me by His grace, Who is working out His will and good purpose for my life and His glory. This was God telling me that I am EPIC because I am exceptionally positioned in Christ Jesus, by His grace, mercy and power. Halleluyah, sis! As epic as I am, is as epic as you are so please praise this God of ours with me. Halleluyah!

Sis, this was the Lord reminding me that because I am in Christ, He has put me in position as a Son of God, an Ambassador of Heaven, a divine diplomat useful for Kingdom assignments on the earth. I am exceptionally purposeful for Christ, sis. For the life I live now is the life in Christ Jesus Who loved me and Who gave His life for me. This was God reminding me that any assignment He gives me is not for me to feel good about myself, but to bring glory to Him. This was Him reminding me that I cannot give Him that which costs me nothing, so if pressing forward despite my tiredness was the cost, then so be it. This is as much a reminder for you, sis as it was and is for me. God’s purpose must be fulfilled through you and I sis, and as long as our focus is to give Him the glory that is His due, then we have to keep pressing forward in the assignments He has for us per season and time.

Lastly sis, this was the Lord reminding me again, as He is today reminding you, that we are exceptionally powerful in Christ Jesus, for where we are weak He is strong. He is reminding us that all we can ever do/be/achieve will be about His power and might that are ever-working in and availing for us. I got help when I finally looked past my flesh and looked up, sis. I did, and honestly it was such a huge lesson for me once again. I don’t doubt that every once in a while, I might find myself in that place of tiredness or lack of clarity, but I hold the acronym EPIC up as my divine signpost to remind me that I am able because He Who is in me….my Greater, is more than able. I hold the acronym EPIC up as a marker that as long as I am looking up to Him and seeking to deliver more glory to Him, He will infill me with everything I need to carry through.

Sis, can you please allow this same conviction to come into your heart and spirit? You are EPIC, sis. You are! Exceptionally Positioned in Christ…Exceptionally Purposeful in Christ…..Exceptionally Powerful in Christ! As you allow this truth indwell you sis, let me assure you that in every situation and for whenever and wherever you need it, the Lord will help you…as surely as He has and continues to help me.

Be blessed sis ….for you surely are!

Grace …the perfect fit

I smiled this morning as I saw the edge of the label sticking out from under a book on my coffee table. I pulled it out, already knowing what it said: ‘Grace, a perfect fit’. This was a label on lovely black blouse I’d bought in some store or the other, can’t recall where cos I’m not into stores, labels or brands. I remember though that God used this label to minister to me early in the year, and that why I didn’t throw it in the trash. It was on the 2^nd of January. I hadn’t come into the New Year in a ‘good place’ as we say, and I had taken some time out that morning to again press in and allow God to infill me afresh as my Encourager, Comforter and Helper. The year prior had ended rather heavily, and this one was again starting out with its own new sets of weights. Truth be told, my outward appearance of calm belied many an emotion that I was dealing with based on several business and family-related challenges. I don’t know about you sis, but I prefer to fight new battles. It can be tough to see old demons you thought you’d slain resurrect, and to have to again fight battles you thought you’d had victories in previously. To have to deal with those in addition to new battles? It was an intense period for me, sis. Intense!

But what do you do? You put on a bold face, mindful that the family is counting on you to set the tone for the holidays and festivities, right? You know that saying, ‘ain’t nobody happy if mama ain’t happy?’  The thing with having older children though is that they can see through your charade, lol. They might not know the specifics of whatever is going on with you, but they see and they know …..and thankfully in my case, they didn’t ask too many questions but rather chose to seriously love on me in that period, which made it oh so much easier to deal with.

This morning of the 2^nd though, I was just drained and as I went into my prayer closet, I had no specific words. I simply bawled before the Lord. Yes, it was a real ‘groanings that can’t be uttered’ situation, sis. I cried, prayed in tongues, cried some more, and then managed an odd almost-comical-if-it-weren’t-so-serious combination of both. When I was done (and I could literally sense God asking me, ‘You done?’), I sat quietly and waited to hear what the Lord would say. I had no plan to move unless He spoke. He was silent for a quite a while, or so I thought initially. I finally realized though that while my mouth had stopped moving, He was waiting on me to be truly quiet in my spirit. Eventually, I heard Him. The first thing He said was “1^st Corinthians 16 verse 9”. I looked it up: “For a wide door of opportunity for effectual [service] has opened to me [there, a great and promising one], and [there are] many adversaries”. It so made sense, sis!

Honestly, it made so much sense that I literally burst into laughter. Adversaries? Many adversaries? Oh yes, I had certainly seen that. I had seen them in the physical and clearly, they were also working in the spiritual realm. I laughed because I realized that all the noise was because of the ‘wide door of opportunity’ …the ‘opportunity for effectual service’ that has been opened up to me. The Amplified version of the Bible qualifies this door of opportunity as being ‘great and promising’ meaning that there is a mountain of glory that God will get by my walking in through that door and faithfully deploying on the assignments of service that He would have me do for Him. No wonder the forces of darkness had been battling against me! I could see it clearly, sis. I could! I mean, to be fair…it’s not that I didn’t know, but sometimes there is a clarity with which the Lord uses His word to redefine certain things for you that leads to a greater ‘aha’ than your general ‘knowing’ of a thing.

I laughed, sis. I laughed from my core, and then I burst into songs of praise. Nothing had fundamentally changed in the physical, but I knew without a doubt that many things had shifted in the heavenly realm. My focus shifted from the attacks and the adversaries, to the victory and the opportunity ahead. And again the Lord spoke a word to me, another simple word. He said: ‘CAPACITY’…Halleluyah! That is another message, sis. I will deal with that in my next post, sharing with you the things He then began to speak to me regarding that word. I sang songs of praise and prayed prayers of thanksgiving with an assurance that no matter how the storms may rage, the voice of my God is louder than the noise of many waters. I felt the release, sis. I did!

I then prayed for grace, sis. I asked for grace not to forget the reason for the challenges. I prayed for grace to see the door of opportunity, not to miss it, not to allow anything becloud my vision. I prayed for courage to walk through it, and I prayed for the strength to obey promptly in the course of the assignment waiting for me at the other side of the door. As I stood to leave my prayer closet, the blouse I spoke about earlier caught my eye for some reason. I really am not one to ‘save’ new things to wear them at some future time so quite frankly, I took it that it caught my eye because that was exactly what I should wear that day. I immediately yanked off the label (one of my ways of ensuring I don’t change my mind) and  as I made to throw it away, the words on it caught my eye in greater detail. And yes sis, the label was “GRACE...the perfect fit”. Very odd for a clothing label don’t you think? Or perhaps not odd at all! As I stood there, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me about grace and this is what I want to leave you with.

Sis, no matter how the storms of life buffet you, and we will all face storms at various times and seasons….there is grace available for you, sis. There is grace available for me. The Holy Spirit said to me that as long as we remain connected to God, as long as we recognize and go to battle in His strength and not our own, as long as we remember to lift Him above our struggles, as long as we don’t try to find the solutions for Him, as long as we look and spend time in His word, as long as we remain committed to give Him glory for the victory… grace will be and is available sis. And this grace is available in the EXACT measure which we require in every instance! I don’t know about you, but that is such a comforting and uplifting reality, sis.

Maybe you are in a seamless season at this point in your life. Let me assure you that this is only because there is a perfect-fit-grace that is carrying you and constraining every difficulty that could otherwise arise. Give God the praise, sis. If you have no significant worries currently, it is not of your own making. It is grace and mercy saying ‘No’. But if like me you are in a ‘going though’ season, let me assure you again also, the you are still standing because of the same perfect-fit-grace. I pray that you and I never lose our confidence in this reality, sis. By the power of God, I pray we will allow His Word, His sufficiency, His perfect-fit-grace to wash over us now and every day of our lives…that we might truly live and walk the overcoming life that He desires us to live. The Lord will help you sis. He will help me.

Be blessed…..for you surely are!