Let God write Your Story

At some point, it felt like I was swimming against the tide.

Why did everybody else seem to be doing well while I was stuck in a rut? Had my luck run out? Was I trying too hard? Trying too little? Trying the wrong things?

I have the qualifications and experience for my ‘dream job’. Why do these rejection emails keep filling my inbox?

They said,’The biggest risk in life is taking none.’ I have taken several risks, and they have all cost me so dearly – why isn’t it working for me?

They said,’Good things come to those who wait.’ Why does it feel like my good things have gotten missing along their way to me?

I remember praying one prayer – ‘God, organise my life. Please organise my life. I give you free reign – do as you wish, when you wish and how you wish. Wherever you lead, I will follow.’

I stayed on that prayer for some time. I stayed until I felt a release in my spirit. In that time, God reminded me of an instruction He gave me a long time ago that I needed to go back to.

I will tell you that the first thing I felt was peace. This peace didn’t come because my situation changed, because it actually hadn’t. It came because I changed. It felt like the gloom just lifted. I began to see possibilities where I formerly saw difficulty. I no longer felt ‘stuck’, I knew that I was in a season. I started believing that a greater power was constantly looking after me and taking care of me. I stopped leaning on my own strength, and I started committing more things to God, much quicker than I used to. This way, I didn’t tire myself out. I began to notice small acts of God’s providence, several times, every day.

I started narrowing my gaze and adjusted it till it focused solely on God. I gave God my full attention. I gave him first place. I put Him before my comfort, before my pride, and before the acceptance of others. I blocked out all the noise and truly lived for an audience of one. I still do this now and will do so all the days of my life.

Suddenly, the rejection emails didn’t hit so hard anymore. I just knew that the job God had for me, which would glorify Him, would come, and nothing could stop it. I started to use my imagination for good – I imagined good things happening to me! I entered what Yonggi cho called ‘REST’.

I didn’t have to be or do anything that wasn’t true to my personality or my calling (both of which were given to me by God) to nurture or preserve associations. Why would I, when a greater force is navigating my life and organising it for me.

You know, God desires to give us the BEST.
God once told me, “Let me do nice things for you.”

Your father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. The Bible says the silver and gold are His, and He is your father, so they are yours too! He says He will show you HIDDEN treasures stored in SECRET places because they are hidden to you and I, but are in PLAIN sight to Him.

The way it worked for someone else isn’t necessarily the way it has to work out for you. Your friend got a job right after school, and it doesn’t invalidate your experience of job hunting. Your story is different. The same way God is writing your story, He’s writing theirs too. God’s glory isn’t in our stories all being the same. It’s in the fact that despite our different stories, He is able to make our lives living testimonies.

In John 9 : 1-12, Jesus and his disciples encounter a boy born blind. They ask Jesus if the boy or his parents were responsible for his sightlessness. Jesus says it has nothing to do with the boy or his parents. He said there’s no need to point fingers, no need to compare, no need for a pity party. It’s happening so that a healing miracle will occur, which will be recorded, and referred to throughout history. His story will bring glory to God.

You have encompassed this mountain long enough. Allow God to organise your life. Spend time fellowshipping. Exercise your faith. Listen to His promptings because He will respond. He wants to help you. He already has the pen, let Him write your story.

Our Advantage

Imagine having a friend who just gets you.

Who knows your actions, inactions, and your motives, as complex as they may be.

Who helps you at no cost, lends to you without asking for anything in return, and loves you without holding back.

Imagine a friend who helps you overcome your weaknesses and will never take advantage of your vulnerability.

Imagine a friend who is available for a quick chat or a long convo 24/7, every day, every week, every year. A friend who will show up anytime you need them.

Someone whose advice you can rely on because they’re bold enough to tell you when you’re in the wrong, and honest enough, commend you when you’re right.

Imagine a friend who has the ability and willingness to help you with everything, all of the time.

Imagine a friend who wants to make your life easier and has the power to do so.

A friend like this exists. He is the person of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was about to leave the earth, and the lives of 12 men he had shepherded so closely for 3 years. He told them He would be leaving, and they would not be able to go where He was going.

Traumatic News.

I imagine the confusion, devastation, and fear. They had practically lived under His covering and depended on his presence for the last 3 years of their lives. Jesus knew their hearts were troubled and said to them:

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Saviour, the Holy Spirit of Truth, who will be to you a friend just like me—and he will never leave you. The world won’t receive him because they can’t see him or know him. But you know him intimately because he remains with you and will live inside you… I will not leave you orphans” – John 14:16‭-‬18 TPT.

The disciples had developed a close relationship with Jesus, but there was someone else He was introducing to them – The Holy Spirit.

In chapter 16, Jesus tells them, of a “Divine Encourager” He is sending who will lead them into the truth and help them identify what is really sinful and what is really righteous.

Friend, the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ gift to you and me. He is that neighbour who will lend you a cup of sugar at 2am in the morning – He’ll never turn you away. He is that friend who ‘can’ and who ‘will’.

He is our advantage; ever-present, ever-ready.

Impostor Syndrome and The Believer

I began feeling it long before I knew what it was.

It was prize giving day in high school, and I’d made it to top 3 in my class. We had Math prodigees on the stag who had won inter-school and state championships. I’d never done anything like that, and in my silently growing panic, I wondered if they’d miscalculated my scores.

It was the feeling of not being sure I belonged. More specifically, the feeling of wondering if I was awarded by mistake.

Over the years, I’ve found this feeling to be quite common with a lot of people. I mean people worry that their school admitted them by mistake, or they won a scholarship by some stroke of luck or their boss overestimated their abilities, or their church thinks they’re a better Christian than they actually are, and sooner or later someone is going to figure it out. In a lot of cases, this feeling moves from worry to fear and then anxiety, timidity, self-sabotage, and outright quitting.

Other times, it creates a deep uncertainty about being loved or accepted by our friends, family, or even God. It births a need to do more, to be more, constantly measuring ourselves against standards that exist only in our heads.

“It was the feeling of not being sure I belonged. More specifically, the feeling of wondering if I was awarded by mistake.”

As you may be able to tell, impostor syndrome is quite powerful. It’s the reason a lot of people self- sabotage, or quit even before they begin. Sometimes, it looks like our insecurities or our limitations. Shaming us with lies of not being good enough and fear that everything could crumble if anyone were to probe deeply.

For believers, it’s one reason many of us don’t step into our calling because we feel like a fraud. An extra layer for the believer is the weight of guilt from sin, mistakes, and choices from our pasts. Some of us have chapters in our life stories that stand in stark contrast to where we now are and what God is calling us to do. Impostor syndrome plays on these experiences and slowly and silently kills the believer’s call.

“An extra layer for the believer is the weight of guilt from sin, mistakes, and choices from our pasts. Some of us have chapters in our life stories that stand in stark contrast to where we now are and what God is calling us to do”.

If this is you, I’d like to let you know that impostor syndrome is built on lies. That’s the key reason we have to resist it. Its aim is to paint a picture of unworthiness and make us believe that we do not deserve what we have because of something we have or don’t have or who we are or are not. The truth is that Jesus has made us joint heirs with Him, entitled to every good and perfect gift. It was never about us – He did it long before we ever came to know Him and become saved. He loved us in advance and with plenty more to spare!

The idea that “I’ve got to prove myself in order to get myself loved” is in total variance with the gospel of redemption. By grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of the work of Christ alone, we stand on the glorious rock of the forgiveness of our sins, our acceptance with God, the removal of our guilt, the canceling of our debts — all of it rooted in the love of God, who chose us for himself before the foundation of the world.

“The truth is that Jesus has made us joint heirs with Him, entitled to every good and perfect gift. It was never about us – He did it long before we ever came to know Him and become saved”.

In Luke 5, Jesus reveals himself to a fisherman called Peter who had toiled all night but caught nothing. Suddenly, this man makes an appearance, and his nets are overflowing with fish. Peter, realising who Jesus was and what He’d just done for him gave the a classic impostor Syndrome response – ‘Please leave me, I’m a lowly sinner, not worthy to be in your presence’. Peter felt unworthy and inadequate. He wanted to hide.

Jesus’ response is significant. He does not coddle Peter or skirt around his fears, He shifts Peter’s focus to a higher calling – ‘Don’t be afraid, from now on you’ll be fishing for people’.

Jesus ripped at the self-depriciating nature of Peter’s response. He knew that apart from feeling bad about himself, his feelings would distract him from what God had called him to do.

Impostor syndorme disables you through fear and feelings of inadequacy. It’s like having weights shackled to your ankles, keeping you from running full speed. The devil knows that as long as he can do this – keep your eyes on your inability instead of God’s ability. You’ll live a life of fearful restraint and miniscule goals.

But know that you have been engraced for every call of God over your life. Know that when God called you, He qualified you irrespective of your age, gender, experiences, background, mistakes, and any other variable.

As believers, there’s another layer of guilt and shame that comes from sin, but know that there is no pit so deep that His love is not deeper still. He loves you so much that he makes provisions for your shortcomings. Circling back to Peter who Jesus tells ‘I know you are going to deny me, but I have put something in place to help you out of that. And when you are helped, dont forget your call – help others too!

So what do we do when impostor syndrome begins to rear its ugly head? We do what 2 Corinthians 10:5 says.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

We declare that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and we are entitled to every good and perfect gift. Guilt and shame have no power over us.

And for the times when it wears the deceptive cloak of ‘luck’, remind yourself that there is no such thing as luck — period. There is no such thing as luck. What the world calls luck is God’s providence. So, what you’re dealing with is not several thousand professional instances of luck, in which you lucked out and proved competent and responsible and helpful by accident. That’s not what’s happening; there’s no such thing as an accident or luck. God, not luck, brought about those thousands of moments of competency and responsibility and helpfulness. This is a pattern of divine sustaining, divine support, divine help, divine guidance, which bears all the marks of a calling, a vocation from God.

“And for the times when it wears the deceptive cloak of ‘luck’, remind yourself that there is no such thing as luck — period. There is no such thing as luck. What the world calls luck is God’s providence. “

Therefore, when you wake up in the morning and you feel anxiety that your luck might run out today, one of the answers is to preach to yourself, “There’s no such thing as luck. Stop thinking that way. It doesn’t exist. God has sustained me in all these thousands of moments of competency that I’ve been calling ‘luck.’ God has sustained me even if I am truly incompetent.”

When impostor syndrome takes hold of you, you take hold of it. Speak God’s word and refuse its lies and deception.

You were made worthy when Christ died and shed His blood for you. You DO belong in that church, that job, that programme, and anywhere else on this planet God has called you. So don’t look at the people around you. Don’t look at your limitations. Don’t even  look at yourself. Just look at Jesus and move.

The Convenience of the Flesh, the Glory of the Spirit

The Holy Spirit taught me a lesson from Genesis 1: 11-12, which tells us that everything produces after its own kind. He showed me that spiritual growth and maturity comes as a result of exercising your spirit to the point where it becomes your default mode of operation.

The human response to pressure and discomfort is usually fleshly. We choose the most convenient / accessible option; we choose the thing that makes us feel good (even when it truly does not resolve the issue).

When we operate out of the flesh, we remain spiritual babies, easily swayed, never truly understanding who we are and what we have been placed on earth to accomplish. The flesh is extremely convenient, but it yields no desirable thing.

It’s easy to respond to malice with malice. To receive insults with a quick clapback, to respond to fear with impulsiveness or even anger, and so on. It is under circumstances like this that you find believers exhibiting what I term as ‘contradictory christianity’, where they are Christians until they come under pressure. Sanctified until stressed! Oh dear.

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. - (Galatians 6:8 NLT)

When we give into the flesh in this manner, we give no room for the growth Christ desires for us (Galatians 6 : 8). Each time we do this, we refuse the Holy Spirit from working in us and through us.

But we won’t give into carnality because the Holy Spirit has a higher calling for you and I. Paul says since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives- (Galatians 5:25). One reason it’s so important to remain tuned into your spirit at all times is because life’s situations are your spirit’s physical gym; it is where you test ability and grow capacity.

It is where you gain mastery of your flesh. When you continually put your spirit to work, you learn that physical things are fleeting, but things of the spirit are permanent. That anger is a response best suited to the unwise and that a gentle answer turns away wrath. That it is more blessed to give than to receive and that truly, increase comes from God. I could go on and on, but you get my drift.

What Christ desires is for us to be so confidently persuaded of His love, that we only speak and act in a manner that pleases Him because we know it is for our growth, and edification- no matter the situation.

This won’t always be easy, but it will be worth it.

How do you do this? Fellowship. Fellowship. Fellowship.

I find that frequent fellowship with the Holy Spirit is the oil the wheel of life requires to remain switched on and tuned in. Our time with the Holy Spirit shouldn’t be reserved for bedtime and wake time only. Talk to Him during the course of your entire day. Never stay too far from your secret place. For you will hear a voice behind you saying “This is the way, walk ye in it”- Isaiah 30:21. Because “there is a way that seemed right unto a Man but the end thereof is destruction”- Proverbs 14:12

I remember telling the Holy Spirit I didn’t have time to talk with Him as much as I used to because I took on some responsibilities that required more of my physical attention. He told me, ‘my altar is in your heart, we can fellowship anywhere, anytime’.

Friends, you can never go wrong when you choose to stay with The Word and in tune with your spirit. For the Spirit will always bring with it goodness and God’s glory.

The With Us God

The babe of Bethlehem. Immanuel. Remember the promise of the angel? “‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).

Immanuel. The name appears in the same Hebrew form as it did two thousand years ago. “Immanu” means “with us.” “El” refers to Elohim, or God. Not an “above us God” or a “somewhere in the neighborhood God.” He came as the “with us God.” God with us. Not “God with the rich” or “with the religious.” But God with us. All of us. Russians, Germans, Buddhists, Mormons, truck drivers and taxi drivers, librarians. God with us. Prophets weren’t enough. Apostles wouldn’t do. Angels won’t suffice. God sent more than miracles and messages. He sent himself; he sent his Son.

He Knows

According to Philippians 2:7, Jesus took “the very nature of a servant.” He became like us so he could serve us. He entered the world not to demand our allegiance but to display his affection.

He knew you’d be sleepy, he knew you’d be grief stricken, and hungry. He knew you’d face pain. If not the pain of the body, the pain of the soul. He knew you’d face thirst. If not a thirst for water, at least a thirst for truth. And the truth we glean from the image of a thirsty Christ on the cross is: Jesus understands.

When we feel lonely, knowing someone understands can make all the difference. You can be surrounded by people but still feel lonely if you don’t feel known. And you can be alone but not feel lonely if you are known. God became flesh, so we would always feel known by him.

Grand Reversals

If you need a synonym for plot twist, try peripety. It’s a literary device that describes a redirected story line. It’s that moment in a book that causes you to stay up past your bedtime because you can’t believe what just happened. The Red Sea was uncrossable one minute and a pathway the next. Goliath defied Israel for forty days, but then David loaded a peripety in his sling and let it fly.

In God’s hands no script is predictable, no story line is inevitable, no outcome is certain. He is ever a turn of the page from a turn-on-a-dime turnaround. Look in the Bethlehem manger. Who saw this coming? Or better asked, who saw him coming? He held the universe in one moment and squeezed Mary’s pinkie the next. 

Don’t give up on anyone who still bends their knees in prayer. He is the God of grand reversals.

Stay With The Word

💞💌💌💫

One thing about the Christian life? It’s going to get tough.

When it does, please stay with The Word.

You will walk through fire and wade through water. When you do, please stay with The Word.

You will be hurt and offended. When you are, please stay with The Word

You will be judged and misunderstood. When this happens, please stay with The Word.

You will see things that do not match what you confess. When they happen, please stay with The Word.

Paul was referring to these hazards of Christianity when he said “yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors” Romans 8:37.

It seems hopeless now, but remember it’s always darkest before dawn.

It won’t always be this way
You won’t always be sick
You won’t always be depressed
You won’t always be broke
You won’t always go through delays and disappointments.

The tide will turn, and it will be in your favour.

Nothing is too complex to be unravelled by The Word.

Please stay with it. It works.

In the Storm

When Peter and a few other disciples found themselves in the middle of the Sea of Galilee one stormy night, they knew they were in trouble. “But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary” (Matthew 14:24). The disciples fought the storm for nine cold, skin-drenching hours, and about 4:00 a.m. they spotted someone coming on the water.

They didn’t expect Jesus to come to them this way. Neither do we. We expect him to come in the form of peaceful hymns or Easter Sundays or quiet retreats. We never expect to see him in an economic decline, sack letter, or periods of unrest. We never expect to see him in a storm. But it is in storms that he does his finest work, for it is in storms that he has our keenest attention.

What Seest Thou?

𝑆𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢?

Our eyes aren’t for seeing the present alone.

They’re for looking into our future too. I don’t mean a future coloured by present circumstances.

I mean a future where your life is a reflection of God’s glory

Don’t worry about what it looks like right now- the Word of God superimposes upon the natural

Your current state is temporal, fleeting, passing. Those Egyptians you see today will soon be a thing of the past, but you must see well.

See through the eyes of scripture. What does the Bible say about your life? How does God see you?

Call yourself blessed even when you don’t feel blessed, call yourself highly favoured in the face of fierce opposition. Speak peace and safety into your atmosphere.

All things are working together for your good. All things. Including the bad experiences.

Your reality is a self-written script. Your destiny is at the mercy of your eyes.

𝑆𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢?

And the word of the LORD came to me, asking, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see a branch of an almond tree,” I replied. “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it. – Jeremiah 1:11