Oh death.... Life in it's truest form!

Hey sis,

I buried a friend a couple of days ago. I'd known her since we were very young children. Ultimately, we ended up in the same secondary school and fast forward many years later, we ended up living right beside each other, literally sharing a fence. She was the first of my inner circle when I got into secondary school. We shaped and sharpened each other that early on. Our lives took different paths, but the bond of sisterhood was always there, and we did well to stay in touch over the years, ever aware that our stories were forever connected. Then she died…

I have been at my most sober since I first learnt of her demise. I’ve cried and I’ve questioned. I stood and watched as they lowered the casket, as they put her body in the ground. It hits hard to bury a friend sis… it hit’s really hard! Through it all I've done my best to remind myself that God is supreme, that His will has been done, that His plans and His purposes are always for good, that His ways are not our ways, that His thoughts are not our thoughts, that He understands it all, that He sees the big picture. But it hurts, sis. I promise you it hurts.

She was a first child. She was an only daughter… both her parents still very much alive. My heart ached as I watched them try to hold it together in the face of what is surely a very deep hurt. I watched them trying their best to brave an incredibly devastating loss. As I listened to the eulogies at her night of memories, having had the privilege of delivering one myself, I realized she had lived a fuller life than most of us individually knew about. Time and again I asked the Lord to help her parents take solace in the wonderful things that were said about their daughter… it was clear they were also hearing new things about certain aspects of her life and how she impacted so many people in so many ways. There was such genuine love for their daughter…I pray they will find comfort in that. 

So much played on my mind that day and into today, sis. I had watched her little daughter throughout the funeral, so clearly oblivious of the gravity of what had happened in her own life. I thought how true it is that the Lord especially loves little children, so much so as to keep them from understanding the weight of some of life’s deepest tragedies. I watched her son too. Young as he is, he clearly knew something fundamental had shifted in his life… and I could see him trying to process the reality. My heart ached for him, sis. I remember looking at the beautiful casket her body was laid in, looking into the clean white grave as the coffin was lowered…. I knew she wasn’t in it… her spirit had long since moved on… but I found myself reflecting on how for her, it was all over on this side of eternity. All we were looking at and experiencing did not matter to her in any way. She had lived… and she left memories, her own unique story, her legacy… but she was quite simply, gone!

At her funeral service, the Pastor had shared about some young man who was speaking to his wife on the phone and suddenly went silent. He had slumped and died…in the middle of a call! Yesterday, I found out that two of my friends had lost their mothers the day before. This morning, I was told about a lady who while dancing away at her alumni event, suddenly slumped on the dance floor and died. So much death all over the place, sis. So much! But ….this is the irony isn’t it sis? There is always death around us. I heard some statistic recently that said that about 151,600 people die every day. Maybe the number isn’t exact, but we know there are people dying literally every minute of every day. When it hits close to home though? Ah, now that is another thing entirely!

I say all the time that death is about the living. How so? You see sis…once we die…once there is that separation of the spirit man from the body…. this world and all that concerns it ceases to be relevant to the person that is dead. Absolutely so!  It is the living that cry. It is the living that discuss the ‘how’ of a person’s death. It is the living that worry about what happens to those left behind…. in my friend’s case, young children, aged parents, a husband, a multitude of friends and family members. None of that matters once we are gone, all that matters is where we are in our relationship with the Lord.

Truth is that while we all talk about legacy…the legacy a person leaves behind is irrelevant to them. Even legacy is about the living! No, I am not advocating for living a life that is not mindful of the impact on the lives of others, on your generation. What I am saying however, is that in truth….no matter how much effort you put into creating a legacy for those you will one day leave behind, it is absolutely more imperative that you ensure you are positioned to walk into an eternal spiritual living legacy… in heaven with our Father God! That will be the only legacy that matters to he or she who is dead, sis. The only one!

Sis, death is not a bad thing. Not for a believer! No, it is rather a sure thing! What would make death good or bad to the one who is dead…the dead being the only one that truly matters in the equation, is whether they find themselves translated into the bosom of the Lord, to dwell with Him in joy everlasting unto eternity…. or whether they translate to the kingdom of darkness where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth forever. Death is a bad thing to the living because of the pain of separation, emotions that need to be processed, inconveniences that may be faced, adjustments that may need to be made, etc etc…. Again, these are  conversations and considerations of the living!  To the dead, death is simply a translation to life in its truest form…. expressed in an eternity in heaven…. or in hell.

Sis, we know not the year, month, day, hour or second! We have buried aged parents. We have buried young children. We have buried our mates! Some gave us notice…maybe through a terminal illness. Others? A slump in the middle of a phone call, a going to bed and never waking up! You and I have no clue how we go, sis…but go we must and certainly will! If there is one thing I am sure of, it is that the Lord is asking me to step back today and take fresh stock of my life in Him. He is asking me to be quiet before Him and allow Him speak to me about areas of my life where alignment or realignment is required. He is asking me to quietly reflect and where necessary reorder my priorities. He is asking that I am intentional and committed to walking out my salvation in fear and trembling, so that whenever my last second may be, regardless of the discussions that may be taking place on this side of the divide…. My spirit, my essence, the real me would have translated to my eternal life in its truest form… in the ever-loving arms of my Father.

Sis, the Lord is speaking these same injunctions to you too. Death should not come with fear, sis. It is a worthy expectation when we have the assurance of where we are going. God takes care of the rest for those we leave behind. He is their Father too. His power is not invalidated by our death. Hard truth, but life goes on for the living. He is asking you and I today to be sure that the life we go on to is a life where death has absolutely no sting, a life where hell and the grave cannot hold us down, a life totally secure in Him for eternity… the truest life ever!

I pray that the Lord will help us seek and hold unto Him at a much more intimate level, sis. I pray the Holy Spirit helps you on your journey to life in its truest form….even as surely as I know He is surely helping me.

Be blessed sis….for your surely are!

Stay rooted

Hey Sis,

It's been an intense season of joy for me over the past 2 weeks. I barely paid mind to the intensity of the traveling across three different countries in the space of 10 days, because every moment and purpose for each trip was so beautiful in itself. Thank You Jesus! I give the glory to God alone, sis…. for the graduation of my first son from University, for the gift of time out with my sisters to commemorate my sister’s 50th birthday, for being able to spend time with my nephew Eli… my little warrior-man who has been in hospital for over a year from the day he was born, for the graduation of my youngest son from secondary school, and for having all my children home together at the same time and for the first time in over two years. It’s FULL HOUSE, babes and I am simply loving it! My joy is full, sis. Oh yes, it sure is!

The events of the past few days have had me on a reflective trajectory about graduation, about the stages and phases of our lives. While graduation is a marker for finishing, it is also is statement of the fact that you came in, that you went through (process)…and that you made it to the end, and in the end.  Process…this is the bedrock of life isn’t it, sis? That everything is a process. Graduation means that you went made it through the rigor of process. Process speaks to times of intensity, of up’s and downs. Process speaks to the forging of new relationships, the remaking/shifting/reshaping and sometimes breakdown of old ones. Process speaks to growing, maturing, learning/unlearning/relearning. Process speaks to breaking or being broken, to mending and being mended. It speaks to right steps as much as it speaks to mistakes and missteps. It speaks to stretching and being stretched.

At any point in time sis, we are either about to enter process, are right in the process, or just coming out of it. But you know what sis? Process is a continuum! It never ends. You just move from one phase or thing into the next…and sometimes many at the same time, for good or otherwise. As much as my sons have made it through university and secondary school respectively, each of them is now in the immediate process of their ‘next’. Sure, they will have some time to ‘exhale’ for a bit…but they must move into their next seasons. Life doesn’t give you those endless breathers sis, it sure doesn’t.

If you recall, I’ve shared with you the fact that the Lord spoke to me early this year about “the process of the journey” …about the need to maintain the right perspective and embrace my processes so that I am able to emerge stronger and better at the other end, regardless of how difficult the journey might have been. Perspective is everything in the process of the journey, sis. Once you have the right perspective, it helps you stay rooted, grounded, to stand firm in the process knowing that ultimately you win.

And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season; Its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity]  - Psalm 1:3 (Amp)

“For he will be [nourished] like a tree planted by the waters, That spreads out its roots by the river; And will not fear the heat when it comes; But its leaves will be green amidst  And it will not be anxious and concerned in a year of drought nor stop bearing fruit - Jeremiah 17:8 (Amp)

I love these scripture verses. They remind me that I must stay rooted to my Source, my God and Father. They remind me that my roots must go down deep in an absolute conviction that He is working all things out for my good in accordance with His infallible Word…. that in this position, I will never lack nourishment, that every one of my processes will bring me to a place of prosperity and maturity. These scriptures remind me that regardless of the vagaries of life, the intensity of my seasons, that I may bend but I will never break… that I will always win, by the power of God! 

Getting to where every single one of my children has finished secondary school at one end and are already beginning to leave university at the other, has not been a walk in the park, sis. There were oh so many times of prayer and fasting, times when I lived on my knees in prayer, times when I stared fees in the face and wondered how on earth we’d pull this one off, heart-rending moments in hospital… so much, sis. But it has all come to maturity, sis. Fruit has come forth in its season! We have all prospered, and the Lord Himself takes all the glory. Going through…the process of the journey wasn’t easy, sis but we’ve made it and so will you!

Today the Lord is asking me to remind you that He waters us Himself, that He holds our hands through it all. He asks me to remind you that you need to allow your roots go deep enough to always drink of Him, no matter how dry the season. He is asking you to look past your difficulties and stand firm in Him. He is asking me to remind you that if you stand firm, you will we see the markers His faithfulness through the journey. He is asking me to remind you that in Him, all things ultimately prosper and come to maturity. He is asking me to assure you that as you stay rooted, you graduate sis…in every instance, you win in the end!

Sis, life can be hard, I know. But He Who holds all power carries us. He is our Source and our Strength…and He asks that we lean totally and completely on Him. All He asks in return is intimacy with us, sis. Our roots going deeper is about increased intimacy. This has been His clarion call to us for quite a while now. Come to the Water! Get planted! Stay planted! Dig deeper! Press in! Give Him time! Give Him more of you! Stand firm in Him! Stay rooted! Once this is our heart stance, our spiritual commitment, we graduate with honors sis, no matter what!

Sis, I pray that you allow this world to sink deep in your spirit, that you allow the Holy Spirit clarify it for you Himself, that you open yourself to Him showing you where you need deeper roots and how best you can stay grounded through your trials. Yes sis, my daily prayer is that you allow the Lord to guide you into all things, into all truth, into every victory….. even as surely as He is daily leading and guiding me.

Be blessed sis… for you surely are!

JUST MOVE!

Hey sis, June already? Not a single post from me in two months? And only two posts this year? Oh dear! Not good, Audrey! Not good at all!  Here I am again starting off with an apology about how long I have been away from this platform and how there's been a lot going on with me work-wise and in so many engagements that I find myself enmeshed in. But you know what, sis? We are all busy and so that is NOT a tenable excuse anymore, certainly the last time I will be making it. Truth is that I could have applied myself more intentionally to this platform, regardless of how crazy things have been around me. Thinking about it though, part of it has also been that that it is sometimes overwhelming how many lessons every one of my days bring. I was sharing with my sista Bidemi recently, that I see a message from God in almost everything. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though. He did say He would be speaking with me on-the-go, didn’t He?

I literally see God in my details, sis. I see Him speak through the most simple and otherwise insignificant looking things…..and they're deep messages…so deep that it’s been hard to know which specific one the word of the moment would be. The problem with not settling on any one message and running with it however, is that this has over time built itself into some kind of a ‘writer's block’. My truth therefore is that this is what has largely kept me this far away from this platform. It hasn't just been that I'm busy…no, it’s more because I haven't been able to just make myself sit down and write. And can I confess sis, that it is because I have gotten comfortable with being stuck?...not in the sense that it never troubles me or makes me feel bad… but in the sense that I have clearly not wanted the change enough so as to force the shift! Ouch! Hard truth, but my truth nonetheless! Hmm! Can you relate sis? Ouch! This really hurts!

This is then exactly what I want to share with you today, sis. What happens when it looks like you're stuck? What happens when you know to ‘do’ but can't find the energy or motivation?   What happens when you are faced daily with things that are the burning desires of your heart to deliver on, yet you just can't seem to make yourself move even though you know you need to? What happens when ‘stuck’ becomes your default, sis? When stuck becomes a comfort zone…a painful zone yes, but a comfortable and familiar one nonetheless?

I just came home from our bi-annual three-day Sista Power Gathering retreat. Now the details of the retreat are not mine to share, we keep that as quiet safe space. But I can share this element because it is my story. During our Vision Board review exercise, I‘d shared how as regards my spiritual goals, that I hadn’t been able to move forward with my writings which I know without equivocation, are an integral part of the ministry assignments on my life. I admitted that I was seriously struggling with being able to move forward, despite a deep hunger to do so. Thank God for God though. He had a sure word for me in the course of one of the ministrations. You see sis, I heard clearly that if anything was going to shift…..it was in my hands and in my power to do! I realized again that I needed to want something enough to do something about it…. because I am the only one who can! More than anything else though, I had found myself in the session I was facilitating, reminding others not to forget that whatever their assignment might be, it was about more than themselves…it was about the destinies of generations that are waiting on them to give full expression to their gifts.  

As I spoke, the Holy Spirit nudged me not too gently, reminding me that in choosing to stay stuck, I was forgetting that this platform is for a purpose that is well beyond me. This platform is not about my love for writing or gift of writing. No, it is about those whose lives and generations will be touched because I chose to deploy the gift as the Lord would have me do! And, in that understanding, I knew I had no choice but to move, sis. I knew I could not stay in stuck even for one more day!

So, the question the Lord has for us today is how do you get to from stuck to shifting, to moving? You know what sis? You just do! You just move! You take your eyes off the imperfections and limitations of your current situations or potential results, and just take a first step! For instance, today I decided that even if I didn’t have a specific message, I was just going to write an article. Literally, I said to myself "Girl, just write something!!! If you are stuck, then that is exactly what you will write about. Leave it to God to make sense of it in the end!” I said to myself that even if this particular post does not make sense, I would do it anyway. I would do the voice note. I would transcribe it, edit it….and I would to post it regardless. In a sense therefore sis, this post is less about you and more about me intentionally choosing to shift from stuck and get moving again. There is a fire in me that has desperately wanted for so long to come back to where I'm blogging regularly as I used to, and because I’ve been reminded by the Lord Himself that it's up to me, I am choosing to shift ground and move on to delivering on this assignment.

Sis, this post is about me coming to the realization that whether what I write would make sense or not in any instance is no longer the case. It has never been about ‘my’ message anyway. Me writing this today is about me going back to the place of trusting God to speak that which He desires. One of the many deep insights I received over the course of our retreat was that it is pride and arrogance not to move because you are afraid to find out that God didn’t send you, because you are afraid to fail or to be wrong. Sis, I have clearly been more focused on being sure that you are pleased with my output when you read my post, than I have been with simply showing up in obedience to God and allowing Him process His message to you for wherever you need it in your life. I deeply apologize…first to God, and then to you sis. Henceforth, I'm going to be focused on making sure that I deliver with much more regularity on this platform. I can do all things through Christ! That is God's Word concerning me. Christ is in me and He is the hope of glory. He is the One Who has given me my gifts, my talents, my abilities. I have the mind of Christ, therefore I cannot be confused. I cannot stagnate. I cannot be frustrated. I cannot be stuck! It is His glory that is at stake! His glory in me must shine forth, sis! It must!

God is the One that put the desire to start this blog in my heart since I started it almost 9 years ago. It was and is for His will and His good pleasure. This has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my ability, nothing to do with a gift that I obviously didn’t give myself. This is strictly God and for His glory! Therefore, while this might not have been the deepest most spiritual of my posts, it is me saying “I'm arising, I'm shifting ground, I'm refusing to stay in stuck!” Sis, I choose to stretch, and I choose to deliver. And I'm doing this because I am intentional about fulfilling God's call on my life and living a life that is fulfilling to Him first, and then to myself.

How about you, sis? What are the things or where are the areas that you haven't been able to move forward in in your life? Where are you stuck, sis? Where do you need to make a shift? Where do you need to move? Sis, the only person that can make this happen is you! God has already done His bit in resourcing you. This is not about perfection, sis. Like I said, this post is about me choosing to SHOW UP! This is really just me saying no, I don't want to be comfortable in a broken place….. because sis, as far as you and I are not delivering on our assignments for God, we are in a broken place. Sis, can I ask you take a moment look your ‘stuck’ in the face? Look it in the face and take a determined step forward, sis. As you do, don't worry if the outcome looks as great as the ones you used to see in the past. Focus only on the shift, sis! Celebrate the fact that you moved!  Sis, take that one step as I have done now. Just make a move, sis! As you do, I promise you that the Lord will steadily take you back into the place of a seamless flow.

The Lord had said to me that this is my year to ‘Thrive’ but I was seeing too many dropped balls in the areas that mattered to me the most and that has saddened me all these months. But it ends today, sis. I have such joy and fullness in my heart this morning.  This post is me saying,

“Lord, I come back and put my hands in Your hands. I take this one first step knowing that You can and will amplify the results by Yourself. Lord, I'm taking this one step as a commitment and a coming back to that which You would have me do. I'm committing that I will keep coming back with regularity Lord, and that whatever it is You will show me, I will speak. Lord, I will show up and write even if in my own eyes it appears that my articles may not be as concise, may not be as great, may not be as well read as some others have been. Lord, those will not be my metrics or markers of fulfilling Your call. My marker will be that I show up, Lord.  Father, I will show up knowing that only I (because of Your power that is already at work within me) can move me out of the place of stagnation and into a place of progress and productivity. I choose to show up, Lord! I chose to shift! I chose to MOVE!”

This is what I want to encourage you to do today, sis. Just rise up! Just shift! Don't stay in stuck in stuck sis, make that one tiny step. My sista and pastor @BidemiMark-Mordi always reminds us that the Holy Spirit is more than able to bridge the gap between our ability and what is required in any situation or season. Sis, let's leave it to God to help us to do greater things as we come in the fullness of obedience to His instructions. Make a move, sis! Make a move and allow the Lord unfold the greater that He has already put in you, even as He's surely unfolding the greater that He put in me. I speak over you and declare that the Holy Spirit helps you move past your stuck places, sis…. even as surely and as certainly as He's helping me.

Be blessed sis…. for you surely are!

HOME

Hey sis, it was my birthday yesterday. I had an absolutely fabulous time, my children made sure of that….gifts, a spa session, dinner, icecream cake (chocolate flavored with brownie toppings and chocolate crunch inside… slurp!). Added icing on the cake was having another equally fabulous chocolate cake delivered to me, with love from my husband who is back home in Nigeria. We had kinda made peace with the fact that we would celebrate when I got back so I was not expecting that. I simply burst into tears! Love that guy, I truly do!

Err… did I hear you say something about chocolate, cake, chocolate cake, and hip-size? When I am regaling you about my husby’s romantic gesture? Wwhhaaattt? You didn’t go there did you sis? I know you didn’t, lol. Focus on the gestures of love and not on the calories, sis. Understood? Good girl! Now, where was I?

Ah! Yes. As I sat down to my morning coffee, I looked over my apartment and thought, ‘Wow, I’ve truly become one of those people with two-homes’. Literally! What am I on about? Well, time was in my life when I couldn’t at all relate with anyone living in one country and then maintaining a home in another. It didn’t make sense. That’s what hotels were for, I thought. Over time I came to understand it from an investment point of view, but I neither knew how to go about making such investments nor had the money to. Ultimately, this just kind of lost relevance in the scheme of things, in the day-to-day of doing life and certainly in the place of my maturing over time to where I had no mental real estate allocated to the more-than-one-home conversation. It was not part of my reality and that was that! Where am I going with this? Patience, sis. You’ll see.

The journey to how I have ended up with two homes is a topic for another day but suffice to say it made and still makes economic sense. Can I confess that I had to repent for some of the silly things I’d said anywhere between fifteen to twenty years ago regarding having a second home? Oh, I did, sis. I sure did! I finally got it, you see. Yeah, I don’t doubt that there are those who have homes overseas simply because of the impression it makes on the joneses, but I know now that there are more who simply put on a practical cap and got on with their new reality. With my children schooling overseas, the attendant costs for residency and meal plans, coupled with the foreign exchange rates, it simply makes economic sense. This morning though, I wasn’t sitting and marveling at the economics of my second home, but more so at the journey. I was reflecting on how my husband and I started out practically squatting with a friend of ours in her one bedroom, and how the Lord has brought us to where among other, we own the home we live in back in Nigeria, as well as this one. God has been beyond faithful sis, He certainly has! He is so good like that.

It was in the place of an intense surge of gratitude that the Lord dropped it in my spirit, ‘You’ve always had another home’. It was quiet, it was deep, and as I reflected on this, I saw that it was and is also quite true. Sis, I have always had another home, as have you. Even when we had a borrowed roof over our head, we had a home! We are in this world but not of it. This is God’s word to us, right? Praise God for Jesus, sis. Praise God for loving us so much as to send Jesus to die for us. This is our access card! This is the unbreakable heavenly tenancy agreement sealed in His Blood! This is our stamp of ownership, our title deed….Heaven’s consent to our piece of eternity! Halleluyah!

What a good time to be reminded about this, sis. I was speaking with my sister who turns 50 in another couple of days and she’d shared that someone close to her kept telling her to stop letting people know her true age. She’d refused and told him to go check how many of their age mates had already died. She has life, breath and so much to be thankful to God for, so she certainly wasn’t going to color His goodness over her life by hiding her age. I so got it, sis. I am as grateful for every single one of my 48years as I am for every single gray hair on my head. It’s simply a testimonial of God’s abundance in my life and I am honored to make boast in Him for the life He has given me. Thank You Lord!

My life, sis. My LIFE! My birthday was a celebration of life here on earth, but the whisper in my spirit about my other home was God saying to me that He celebrates me also by reminding me who I truly am. It was God telling me He is pleased with my journey in this realm but asking me not to forget my true home. Sis, this reflection this morning was the Holy Spirit calling me back to the place of spiritual focus. It was Him reminding me that whether I have one home, two or even more in this world, the only home that matters is my true eternal home….a home I have had since the day I gave my life fully to Christ. Halleluyah!

I’ve always had two homes, sis. The physical ones I have lived in here on earth…and my heavenly home, so have you. This is such a comfort to my soul. I am reminded as I reflect on the love and joy from yesterday, that there is an immeasurable love and unfathomable joy that awaits me when I finally transition from this realm back to the arms of the Father. I am again grateful this morning for my hope and future, for my sure expectation of an eternity with God. I am reminded of mercy that triumphs over judgement. I am reminded of love that does not deal with me according to my sin and failings. I bask afresh in a love, grace and mercy that transcends all my errors. I am expectant again that one day I will be called back into my eternal home where the fullness of who my spirit man is will truly find full expression, will find rest, will find joy.

Sis, the Lord would have me ask you today to look past that which is your physical earthly home…no matter how beautiful or drab, big or small it might be. He is asking that you take a few minutes today to be grateful that you have another home… an eternal home, a more excellent home, a more beautiful home…the only home that truly counts in the scheme of things. He is asking that you reflect on the completeness that awaits you there. He is asking that whatever your earthly achievements and struggles, you never lose sight of the fact that He has a prepared place for you…that you are one of the privileged few that will make it home in the end… that He has loved you and will always love you on and through  your journey back home.

Keep your eyes steadfastly on the eternal, sis. That is His message for us today. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Stay in alignment with God’s word, His will and His way. Let Him come first in your thoughts, your words, your decisions and your actions. Let His glory be your highest desire. Let your focus be on your true home, sis. We are literally just walking through this world, it is not our home. I pray the Holy Spirit will help you constantly keep this reality in the forefront of your daily life and walk, even as surely as He is helping me. We will make it home, sis. By the grace, power, mercy and love of God we will!

Be blessed sis….for you surely are!

CHOOSE TO SERVE

It's February already! I can't believe 2019 is moving so fast. Late last year the Lord spoke so much to me about wisdom and understanding, that I honestly started to wonder at some point whether He was trying to tell me that I wasn’t being particularly wise in my walk and conduct in that season. However, early this year, the Lord clarified to me that wisdom was one of the things that I would need to excel in my 2019, which He’d said to me was my THRIVE year – a year in which proper articulation of my thoughts, words, actions and assignments was critical; a year in which modulation of my emotions was key; a year in which I needed to be careful to respond and not to react. I can I tell you sis, that since the beginning of this year I have seen quite clearly why in a 2019, wisdom and understanding must be the things that under-gird my every action, my every thought process, every perspective I allow into my spirit.

I've been doing a study of the book of 1^st Kings and one of the things that saddened my heart afresh was to see how a mighty King Solomon, the one that we hold up and who the Bible tells us was the bastion of wisdom, got to the point because of his love for foreign (strange) women, that he allowed his heart to be turned away from God. 1^st Kings 11 v 3 tells us he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines, and we see that because they served other gods and his own heart was not perfect and complete with God, he began to go after gods of his wives, set up temples for those gods, worship and make sacrifices at those strange altars. You know the story, sis. God was angry with him and decided to take the kingdom away from Solomon. Faithful as our God is, He purposed not to take it away in Solomon's time because of His earlier commitment to David, Solomon's father - who the Bible also tells us was a man after God's own heart.

Sis, as I read this, I was reminded the actions we take have the potential to entrench or to negate the foundations that have been laid before us. When we move away from well established, laid down godly principles, while we might not feel the direct impact…. we're actually setting up our generations to struggle through challenges that God would not otherwise have them contend with. In 2019, we must choose right intentionally, sis! Irrespective of the choices we have made in the past, every day is a new opportunity to choose the path of alignment with God’s will and way!

Ultimately, Solomon died and his son Rehobaom reigned in his stead. Israel assembled together to declare him king (1^st Kings 12). They pleaded with him to be kinder to them than his father Solomon had been, in return they would be faithful to him. Rehobaom asked them to give him three days to think it through, to take counsel, which was a good thing. Truth is that when we transact from the place of wisdom and understanding, we are required to respond and not to react; to not be in a hurry to speak; to not allow our flesh and physical senses lead. Sis, in the place of wisdom and understanding, we must never be in a hurry to assume that what we see with the outward eyes, or what we hear audibly, is the true representation of any situation.

Sis, as you do life this 2019 let me encourage you not to be quick to react. Let this be the year that you more often than not respond; a year where you always step back, seek godly counsel, think through, press into the Holy Spirit and let God enable you discern what really ‘is’…. over and above what looks or sounds obvious in the physical. This is that year to transact from the place of the spirit, sis. I promise you it is!

Wisdom! Understanding! This is the key for us this year, sis. Rehoboam started off well, seeking counsel from others. The challenge became which counsel he allowed to drive his decisions. He consulted the older men who had served as advisers to Solomon, and he consulted the young men who grew up with him. Both came back to him with diametrically opposed counsel. The old men asked him to serve the people, that they be faithful to him forever in return. The young men insisted he impose a harsher call to service on the people, such that they would be unequivocal about who was the boss of them! The result? Israel was torn apart! 

This is the interesting thing about leadership and it’s what the Lord would have me share with you today.  Sis, when the Lord begins to lift us into places of leadership, influence and authority, we will always have a choice as to whether we want to serve, or we want to be served. We will always have to choose whether flesh will rule, or we will allow spirit hold sway. Why did Rehoboam resist the counsel of the elders? Very simple, in my view! You see, they were asking him to serve …but he had been the son of a king, no ordinary young man, a Prince no less; and now he was king, the big gun, exalted above his people positionally. In his mind, by the pull of his flesh, leadership was about position; authority; power…expressly so! He didn't see leadership through the lens of God, the God Who so loved us that He gave and gave… and gave; serving us in love so ultimately through the gift of His son Jesus Christ Who came not to be served, but to serve.

Rehoboam didn't take the elders counsel because it sounded like he would have to put himself under and allow his subjects to be above him. He didn't count the cost and consider that the undiluted lifelong loyalty of his people is the greatest gift a king could ever have. He went with the counsel of the young men who in effect said to him, ‘You are a king. Kings don’t serve. You deserve to be served’. They spoke to him words that fed his flesh, words that puffed him up. What he didn't think through was the fact that these young men lacked the benefit of experiential wisdom; that these elders were men who saw Solomon rise and saw him fall. They had counselled from the viewpoint of helping him avoid the same leadership pitfalls.  The younger men? All they had were ulterior motives. Because they grew up with him, they were themselves now in a position of privilege as the king's inner circle. They were the most likely candidates to be appointed into special positions if they moved him in a direction that pleased his flesh. If he was a harsher, more powerful ruler, then they themselves would also have higher levels of power and would also be greatly feared in the land. If he served, then they would – in their minds, be reduced to servants themselves.

Sis, as the Lord places us in leadership positions at various levels, and if we're not attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, we will very easily be counseled into the wrong places. The Bible tells us clearly that there is wisdom in the multitude of counselors, but it is wisdom factor that we must be on the lookout for. Wisdom is literally the principal thing, sis. As we reach out to others, it is imperative that we test the spirits behind any counsel we receive. Sis, you and I have the Holy Spirit in us, we each have the capacity to hear His voice. There is a depth of knowledge and understanding that comes only from the place of transacting in a close personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. If we are to thrive this year, if we are to have a year where our emotions will not hold sway, if we are to operate this year from a place where we're not fighting the same sorts of battles that we fought last year; we must allow the counsel of the Lord and the spirit of service come rule our hearts and minds.   

Can I ask you sis, that as you think about the rest of your year, you approach it with a heart of service? If the Son of God came in service to you and I, then none of us is greater than the opportunities that the Lord gives us to serve.  In leadership, there is an imperative for us to stretch in the giving of ourselves, in the building up of and adding of value to others. The benefits of a life of service transcend our lifetime and flow over unto our generations to come. I promise you that many of us are today living in the overflow of the goodness of those who have gone before us. I want to ask us today to be very mindful and intentional about the true legacies we leave for our children. My greatest prayer is that my generations find themselves walking in the abundance of blessings that my life invests ahead for them. My hearts cry is to live and leave a legacy of true leadership, authenticity and humility…exemplified by a genuine heart of love, a willingness to serve, and a commitment to deliver glory to God as I follow through on the example of Jesus….as the Holy Spirit helps and empowers me to do!

This is my heart's cry, sis. I pray it is yours too. Please choose to serve! Don’t let the world counsel you to expect or demand service. Of what use is man’s acknowledgement of your leadership, authority, influence or power, if the Lord is not pleased with your life? Sis, please allow the Holy Spirit show you how best to serve, even and especially at those times when it is uncomfortable, when it looks like you're being put under, when you so desperately want to speak but you know He would have you be quiet, when everything in you would rather push back. There is a form of service that is not of or unto men, it is that service that is of and for God Himself. Choose to serve as the Lord leads, sis. Choose to serve from a Christ-like example of true leadership and allow God reward you and your generations to come with the loyalty of heaven itself. The Holy Spirit will help you sis, even as surely as He's everyday helping me.

Be blessed sis….. for you surely are!