Transition

Ever feel like you finally get a hang of life and its course, only to be hit with a surprise crossroad that shifts you into a world of decisions and the very thing you thought you finally had control of you no longer could handle? Sounds familiar?

This is Transition. When you think you have mastered Transition on one level, there is always another level that awaits your discovery. God is amazing and He is full of surprises. There is absolutely nothing that takes Him by surprise concerning you but there are times when He allows unexpected shifts which are a surprise to you. I have learnt to welcome every shift as an indication that my journey is speeding up and it means that I am getting closer to my destination called There. Everytime a car has to change gears it allows the car to move at a faster speed. Your ability to shift accelerates your journey.

Transition is your vehicle that ushers you to your place called There. Everytime there is a shift, and a sudden change it means that you are arriving closer to your destination. Everytime life throws a curveball it just means you need to shift. If you experience sudden betrayal or sudden separation of a longstanding relationship that is just destiny disguised as a heartbreak. Trust what the Holy Spirit is doing in this season.

Romans 8v28 states that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His design and purpose (Amplified Version). The good the bad and the ugly are all working out for your purpose. I was listening to an interview with Pastor Keion Henderson and Dr Matthew Stevenson and Dr Stevenson stated that “Change either happens to you or through you”.

I truly believe the difference is in those who allow themselves to go through the many processes and shifts that life has to throw at oneself, to those who allow themselves to go through this process, are the ones that are used as vessels of change but to the one who refuses change ends up being on the dark side of Change.

The darkside of change is where you end up dealing with the harsh consequences of change. In a crisis, you can tell the difference between those who are prepared and those who were ill prepared. Crisis is only seen as crisis by those who fail to discern the times and prepare. Crisis is seen as an opportunity by those who choose to prepare ahead of the crisis. Look around the world and look at the response to our present crisis. I truly believe that our response is determined by our ability to prepare. Preparation precedes response.

In transition, your preparation will precede your response. Your preparation to be flexible with the curveball of change will determine your ability to navigate through the many stages of transition.

Once you learn the simple principle of ebb and flow (that is knowing when to respond and when to be still), then the many shifts that accompanies Transition will be welcomed as an opportunity rather than a crisis.

God bless you and thank you for reading.

No More Tight Shoes

As I was reflecting two weeks ago on the year 2016. I started talking to the Lord about relationships both business and personal that left me either confused or hurt. As I was speaking about the lessons I had learnt from those relationships, I heard His still small voice. “When you wear tight shoes, you will get corns on your toes” (gruesome but true). I asked the Lord to expand and He took me on a journey to discover what He meant.

The tight shoes represents relationships and environments- stop trying to fit into relationships and environments that do not have the capacity to accommodate you. The consequences of wearing tight shoes is that you get corns. When you get corns, you have to go through the painful process of getting that special blade to cut it down. I had it in 2009 it was awfully painful and I had to use that special blade. Before I got the blade I was using those cushions to make the pain less intense. That is what we sometimes do when we have tight shoes, we wear plasters and cushions to “ease the pain” that comes with tight shoes. This is what we do in “tight” relationships- we make excuses for them, we have hope that the day the shoe (relationship) will loosen to fit you. In this case you are more focused on the potential rather than the reality of the fact that it is too tight. Another fact about having corns- when you have them you cannot even wear the shoes that fit you without feeling excruciating pain.

Feet- represents your Destiny. Your destiny is the path you choose to take in order to fulfil your purpose. The choices you make in terms of your relationship has the ability to propel you to or delay you from your place of purpose.

Every time you allow the wrong people in your life- you run the risk of getting corns in your destiny. When the right people or opportunities show up, it hurts too much to enjoy what God has prepared for you. So a word of advice for 2017, stay away from relationships, opportunities and environments that have shown themselves to be too “small” to accommodate you. This is your year to soar like an eagle.
God bless you all and thank you for reading.

Activate Your Internal SatNav

Every individual has an internal SatNav system. Bishop TD Jakes calls this instinct. As a Christian and woman of faith I call this the Holy Spirit who teaches, guides and instructs me to take the best path according to the plans that God has for me. In the secular world, they call it a gut feeling. Whatever you want to call it, everyone is built with that gravitational pull. It is this knowing that there is more to life than what they are currently experiencing. With every dream comes a unique satellite navigation system (SatNav). There is a unique journey that you have to take in order to see the manifestation of your dream. Sometimes great delay is experienced when you are trying to change the journey to your dream rather than embrace the unique circumstances that comes with the birthing of your dream.

I experienced this internal SatNav a few weeks ago. I dreamt about this particular place- I kept telling close acquaintances about this particular place. I stepped out by faith after reaching out to a new friend who led me to this place in real life. I realised that my internal SatNav coupled with the Holy Spirit led me to this place that I kept seeing in my dreams. For some of you, you might think that you are going crazy, but I promise you, that pull that you are feeling- that tug that is pulling you towards your destiny, stop fighting it; just go towards the direction of that destiny pull- this pull only requires your Yes and when you go in the direction of the pull, that is when things will stop feeling like a struggle. Surrender to the call of your destiny. Surrender to God because He knows the plans that He has for you. (Jeremiah 29:11). In surrendering, you may not like what is behind that open door at first but know that it will work together for your good.

God bless you and thank you for reading….

Open That Door

Something happened to me yesterday. It involves the restroom but I got a major revelation from the experience. I was at a cafe doing some work and I needed to go to the restroom. I was standing outside the door thinking that it was occupied- at one point the barista looked at me strange and I just smiled and continued waiting. I was out there for about 2-3 minutes before I realised it was vacant. I assumed the room was occupied because the door was closed.

After going into the restroom, the Lord said to me this is what is happening in the realms of the spirit, there are people (including me- I am not exempt from this message) standing before an open door, because it is closed they think they cannot get access but all they have to do is open the door. They are waiting for Me to open the door. When you look at doors, there are some doors that you need a key to open, there are some doors where as soon as you go in front of it, it opens for you. There are some doors that you haveto push and there are some doors that you have to pull open.

In in this season, it is important that you discern the door that you are standing in front of. We are in the season of the open door, so whatever door you are standing in front of it is time to walk through it. So I challenge you today, what doors are you waiting for to open in order to fulfil your dreams? You have been waiting on God- what if all along God has been waiting for you? I dare you today launch out and walk through the door that God has already opened for you. I dare you it’s time to dream again. Your opportunity awaits you.
Thank you for reading

Dealing With Rejection In The Church (Part 2)

Rejection Poster 2

“A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success”- Bo Bennett

Below are a few points on dealing with rejection in the church;

1.Understand that rejection is redirection and relocation to your new place of purpose and destiny- Joseph’s brothers rejected him and that rejection led him to the pit which ushered him to Pharaoh’s palace.

2. Sometimes God will allow rejection to happen to redirect your focus to God as your only source.

3. When rejection happens in the church (the people), it is an indication that what you are carrying is far too big for the reject-er to handle. Healing from rejection starts when you realise that the same people who have rejected you may have also been rejected.

4. Healing begins when you start to experience the unconditional love of God through His word and worship.

5. Healing begins when you accept the rejection- accepting that the rejection has taken starts the healing process and you will start to see that the issue does not lie with you but the issue lies with the reject-er. Please note that acceptance of the rejection is different to reacting to the rejection.

6. Healing from rejection within the church starts when you stop reacting to it- my mentor said to me a few years ago that rejection is not valid if you are chasing the person who has and is rejecting you- it is when you keep reacting to their rejection- that is when the pain of rejection is birthed .

7. Accept that the person does not have the capacity to love you- they cannot give you what they do not have and that is when you will get the power to love again.

8. Understand that the church (the people) is not perfect. Everyone is wounded and hurt in some type of way. The Church is like a hospital, everyone who visits the hospital has an ailment and it is the same with the church, everyone who attends has an ailment in their spirit, soul and body and have come to see the chief physician which is Jesus Christ for their healing.

9. Disappointment in the form of rejection happens when you place unrealistic expectations on others and when you are looking for approval from people instead of God; no one can love you or accept you like God can.

10. Remember that you have been rejected for a purpose and that Jesus loves you.

God bless you and thank you for reading.

Dealing With Rejection In The Church (Part 1)

For the past few weeks I have been writing on rejection, what it is, the characteristics of rejection, fear of rejection and self rejection. I wrote on the fact that when rejection happens, it is because the environment that you are looking to for acceptance is incapable of handling the greatness that is on the inside of you.

I would like to focus on rejection in the church. There are so many wounded souls within the church and there are so many who have left the church because they have been rejected by leaders and others who have been set to watch over and protect them. I am writing this blog to all those who have suffered rejection in the one place that you expected to be accepted- The Church.

So who and what is The Church?

The Church is commonly defined as a building used for public worship; many people refer to the church as an organisation- but the word church in the bible comes from the Greek word Ecclesia which means a called out company or assembly- whenever the word church is used in the bible, it is referring to people- 1 Corinthians 1v2. So when I am talking about being rejected in the church, I am talking about being rejected by the people who are the church not God- you see Jesus’ love for you is unconditional and nothing that you do could ever make God reject you or stop loving you. One thing that helped my healing process from rejection was that;

The Rejecter has also been rejected

I see a cycle within the body of Christ, there are so many leaders who have been rejected by their spiritual fathers, that has created this vicious cycle of rejection. What we have are rejected spiritual sons and daughters turning into spiritual mothers and fathers who are now rejecting their spiritual sons and daughters. It takes a level of maturity and getting into a place of revelation to see the spirit behind rejection within the church. The result of this type of rejection is that there are spiritual sons and daughters who have and are still walking around not understanding their identity and looking to other spiritual fathers/mothers for the spiritual validation that should have been given to them by their spiritual fathers.

Solution

The solution to this is seeking God and discovering what God is saying about you- your identity and purpose is found in God and oftentimes, I believe that God will purposely hide your call and assignment from the man of God. I am not saying this is always the case because the man of God is set to guide, guard and protect you. However, God does not always reveal everything to the man of God concerning you. I experienced this is in my personal life, I could not understand why my spiritual father at the time could not see what God was telling me about my purpose and destiny- my purpose got so intense that I could barely sleep or eat. I had to step outside of the boat and with that decision came rejection.

Was I upset? yes, I was on the verge of bitterness especially when I had dealt with my natural father not being in my life throughout my teenage years but in my metamorphosis process, God began to show me that rejection meant redirection and where I was positioned at the time, my environment could no longer accommodate the greatness that I was carrying on the inside of me. I started to love and appreciate my leaders from my past as, if they had accepted me and approved of me, I would have remained in the same place; I recognised that my leaders may have also experienced rejection at some point in their lives and may not have noticed that they were passing on the same treatment. I started seeing God’s hand in the rejection. The rejection was just a vehicle that was transporting me to my place of purpose and destiny.

God bless you and thank you for reading

Pregnant With A Dream (Part 2)- The Birth

In my last blog, I dealt with being pregnant with a dream and I compared it to a woman being pregnant with a child. When it comes to bringing forth your dream, it can be compared to childbirth. There needs to be conception (a prophetic word or vision), an incubation period (waiting) and the birth process (bringing forth the dream). During the time of waiting is where preparation takes place for the arrival of the baby and the maintenance of the expecting mother (the carrier of the dream). The process of labour and birth can be divided into three stages. When I say mother I am metaphorically speaking to both men and women as there are men carrying dreams too. The birthing process is a metaphor for bringing forth your dream.
Stage One

Stage one begins when you start having contractions that cause progressive changes in a woman’s cervix and ends when the woman’s cervix is fully dilated. This stage is divided into two phases:

1) Early labour- the woman’s cervix gradually effaces (thins out) and dilates (opens)

2) Active Labour- the woman’s cervix begins to dilate more rapidly and contractions are larger, stronger and closer together. The last part of active labour is often referred to as transition. This is where the womb starts to reject the child. Have you been rejected in an environment that can no longer contain or maintain your dream? In transition, there is a lot of pain that is present, but the purpose of the pain is to usher you into your destiny. Have you been in pain lately? Has your situation intensified? Do you feel overwhelmed, flustered? Do you feel like what you have been carrying on the inside of you is about to explode? It is like something wants to come out. I am here to declare to you that you are about to give birth to your dream.

Do you feel like when you are finished with one circumstance, another one comes? Do you feel like you are in a whirlwind of chaos and you don’t know how you are coming out? If your answers are yes to these questions, then this blog is for you. The purpose of this blog is to shift your perspective from your pain to your promise and to let you know that in actuality what you are experiencing are contractions. Every crisis is a contraction; the contraction is there for the things holding you back. It positions the mother’s body and prepares her to give birth. Transition ends labour- the suffering stops finally and this is the only time to do nothing but wait- it seems like nothing is happening. In this stage, you must not try to confess or pray or do anything.

Stage Two

The second stage of labour, begins when you are fully dilated and ends with the birth of your baby (dream). This is referred to as the “pushing stage”. Perseverance and consistency is needed – you cannot give up hope, you have to see yourself in possession of it. This is the most difficult part of childbirth- things get worse before they get better. It cannot be avoided- you will always go through this stage before your provision comes in relation to your dream. It is at this stage where it seems like your dream will never arrive- but you cannot give up hope or let go off your faith. Your dream will come to past suddenly when you least expect it- this usually happens when you finally give up trying to make it happen. When you let go off of yourself, then God will take the rest. It is important to understand that when you are pregnant with a dream, you cannot push too early and the baby cannot stay in the womb past the due date as premature and over due delivery of the baby can be detrimental to mother and baby so timing is key when it comes to the delivery of your dream.

When it comes to the birthing of your baby (dream), your environment and the people you are surrounded by are important for the birthing of your dream. Not everyone can be with you when you are in the delivery room. You have to be in a sterile environment and you have to be surrounded by qualified midwives and doctors and the ones you love, whether it’s your mother or your spouse or your best friend; when it comes to giving birth to your dream, haters are not welcomed in this miraculous moment, it is important to discern who your spiritual midwives are. The next thing to consider is the ability to listen. The expecting woman cannot just push the baby out, you have to listen to the instructions of your midwife- your inability to listen to your midwife will result in harm to you as the the mother and the baby especially the mother.

The Birth Experience

This is the most pleasant part- things get better finally. It requires no effort and it happens naturally. The process of cutting the umbilical cord is vital to keeping the baby alive- you could lose your provision at this point. This process involves cutting the baby loose- you have to release your dream into the earth. This requires you letting go off the baby. This is when you rest in the Lord’s provision and stopping all efforts.

Stage Three

The third stage begins right after the birth of the baby and ends with the delivery of the placenta. I call this the after birth. Oftentimes when we give birth to our dreams we forget the after birth and that there is postpartum care that must take place. Here you experience after pains during the first few days after delivery. I call this warfare. So literally hiding in the presence of God is what needs to happen here. I pray that whatever stage you are in carrying your dream, I pray that you will carry it full term in Jesus Name Amen. God bless you and thank you for reading.

Reference

The Birthing Process by Andrea Dillon

The Stages Of Labour- http://www.babycentre.com

Overcoming Barriers To Stepping Out Into The Unknown- Part 2

In my last blog, I said that there are many barriers to stepping out into the unknown. But I decided to deal with three and those are;

Fear of the Unknown
Fear of other people’s opinions
Fear of failure

I dealt with the first barrier to stepping out into the unknown and that was fear of the unknown. So the next barrier I would like to deal with is the fear of other people’s opinions.

Fear Of Other People’s Opinions

This was one of my biggest fears. Stepping out into the unknown was scary but exciting at the same time. When I took my first step to leaving my familiar surroundings, there was one thing that slowed down my progress. I was constantly concerned about what other people were thinking about me. It was so bad that my mentors at the time confronted me about it and I had to admit it that I was actually concerned about what others thought of me and my journey. It was so bad that it almost cost me my destiny. That changed when God asked me the question’ Who Are You?’. When He told me who I was in His eyes, the desire to please others just disappeared. I now developed a Godfidence that is what I call it, it is a God kind of confidence. The root of people pleasing stems from insecurities and rejection, the constant need to be approved by others. I recognised this in myself that throughout my childhood nothing was ever good enough in my home and where I attended church for a period of time. There was a constant pressure to be perfect and it was in November when God started to reveal these flaws to me. That season was a ‘river Jordan experience’, this was where all of the not so nice things started coming to the surface. I overcame this barrier by spending more time with the Lord and reading His word concerning my life. I spent more time in worship, I worked out which had an effect on my mental and emotional health. I posted affirmations around my apartment and on my bathroom mirror. So everyday I was empowering myself in God’s word to be who He had called me to be. The result of this was I stopped worrying about what others thought of me. It is a beautiful feeling when you no longer focus on the negative opinions of others.

Fear of Failure

The third barrier is the fear of failure. I believe everyone at some point in their life will experienced this. Everyone at some point including me have failed in one way or the other. I read this a while ago and it said, “failure is success turned inside out”. Failure is just an opportunity to learn something that you never knew before. I had so many moments in my journey when I said to God, please don’t let me fail but I now look at failure in a different way. Failure is my opportunity to learn something new. Some of my greatest lessons came from my experiences of failures and mistakes. I relied and still rely on 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. God’s grace is sufficient for me. The Lord took me to Matthew chapter 25:14-30, this is about the servants who received the five, two and one talents. When you read from verse 24-30, you see that the servant with the one talent did not multiply his talents because he was afraid. Verse 30 shows us the end result for this servant. God is not asking you to be perfect, He just wants you to say yes. God likes risk takers, just like Peter in Matthew 14:24-31, he stepped out of the boat and even though he started sinking, God was there to catch him. Do not be afraid of failing, even if you feel like you are going to fail, know that God will turn it for your good, Romans 8:28.

God bless you and thank you for reading

Overcoming The Barriers To Stepping Out Into The Unknown

There are many barriers to stepping out into the unknown. The last time I blogged, I dealt with stepping out into the unknown and I used the example of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 verse 1, where God told Him to leave His country and kindred (his relatives) and go to a place where He will show him. This was a word of direction as it was vague and not very clear.

Like Abraham, I received a word of direction. In fact God gave me this scripture to confirm His word for me to step out into the unknown. I said yes to the Lord and I thought that because of my obedience , everything was going to be easy for me. But just a few months later after taking my first step, I noticed that I had a few barriers that I had to overcome before stepping into my place of destiny for this season. There were many barriers but the main barrier was fear. I experienced fear in three different areas and these were:

Fear of the unknown
Fear of the opinions of man
Fear of failure

Everyone who goes through transition will face fear in these three different areas. The Israelites struggled with these barriers in the wilderness when they were getting ready to possess their promised land.

Fear Of The Unknown

Fear of the unknown is the fear of stepping out of your comfort zone. It is the fear of stepping out into unfamiliar territory. However there is a danger to this when transition presents itself in your life, it is the opportunity to step into a new dimension, a new level. Transition does not wait for no man. When an individual miss their call to transition, the next step after this is falling into a rut and a season of stagnancy and unproductivity. The Lord has had me working on a project so here is a little snippet into what He revealed to me. In Mark chapter 11, we read about the fig tree; Jesus saw a fig tree in verse 13, as He was hungry, He proceeded to take a fruit from the tree, but there was no fruit yet the tree had leaves. The scripture clearly states that the time of figs was not yet but Jesus cursed the tree. I said to the Lord that was harsh until I looked deeper I understand why. God showed me that though it was not time (chronus- chronological time) for the tree to bring forth, Jesus had showed up (Kairos moment- opportunity, a moment where God changes everything). This was a kairos moment for the tree to bring forth but it still did not. According to agriculture, when fig trees had leaves, this was a sign that there were going to be fruits. When there were leaves, there should have been little knobs on the tree that people could pick and eat.

So the fact that there were leaves and no knobs meant that the tree had potential but was not bringing forth. It is the same for us as believers. The opportunity to step out into the unknown is never convenient but it is necessary. God will not show up with this instruction when you expect Him to. He will require you to step out in inconvenient seasons of your life. But your entire future depends on it. When God told me to step out I was unemployed with no money. God has planted a seed of greatness on the inside of you and He will show up expecting fruit. Do not be like this tree who because it did not bare fruit it was cursed, and cursed in this context is stagnancy, barrenness and unproductivity and if you are in this place of stagnancy, all you have to do is repent for your disobedience and say yes. That is all it takes for you to get back on track. Isn’t God great!!! So I challenge you today, step out into the unknown. Fear and faith cannot operate at the same time so make an exchange with God and use His faith to step out into the unknown and God will move in a mighty way not just in your life but in your family and generations . It is my prayer that God will increase your faith and give you courage to step out into the unknown in Jesus Name I pray amen. I will deal with the other barriers in part two of this blog.

God bless you and thank you for reading.

Stepping Out Into the Unknown (Part 1)

Stepping Into The Unknown

It was in the month of May 2013, that the Lord gave me the scripture Genesis chapter 12v1. Months later, I started hearing different people preaching on the same scripture and I knew that God was trying to get my attention. I remembered the first time the Lord led me to this scripture, I immediately sensed that the Lord was calling me out of where I was in order to go to another dimension in Him. God started telling me to resign from different departments I was involved with in my church at the time. I did not understand why. The final ministry He had told me to resign from was the youth department. One year later He told me to hand in my resignation and leave the ministry where I was a minister. The Lord had showed me the city, but He did not tell where I was going to live or how I was going to survive. He told me to go.

In Genesis 12v1, God told Abram to leave his country, his relatives and his father’s house and go to a land that God will show him. It is important to understand that destiny has a place. We are all called to purpose. And if you truly grasp that, then you will experience at some point in your lifetime when God will call you out into the unknown. When this occurs God will either give you a word of instruction or a word of direction. You see, a word of direction is often vague and not very clear whereas a word of instruction is very clear and detailed. Abram was given a word of direction.

Whenever you receive a word of direction, your faith in God is what will be the driving force. It takes courage to step out without clear information. I have found that when God calls you out, He will show you the end of the journey and the blessings that are waiting for you on the other side. He will always show you the promise that is waiting at the end of your obedience. You see this in verses 2-3 of chapter 12. Your miracle is hidden in your obedience to the instruction that God gives you. In verse 4, Abram takes the brave journey and leaves with his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot.

One of the first principles the Lord had taught me in stepping out is that in order to go to the next level, there are some relationships that you have to let go of. It is easier said than done but it is absolutely necessary. The Lord had told Abram to leave his country and his kindred but he still took Lot with him. Partial obedience is still disobedience. Genesis 13v5-6 highlights this point that where you are going, some of your relationships cannot contain or even fathom what God is about to do for you. They cannot handle it. It does not mean they are bad people, t just means that right now in your journey, you have come to a place where you have to go alone. Do not allow guilt to weigh you down. Abraham probably felt the responsibility to bring Lot along with him because Lot’s father had died. But God’s instructions were very clear. When we refuse to let go off of relationships that God has instructed us to, the next thing that will come is strife. In Genesis 13:7, strife came between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. Sometimes strife is a blessing because it puts you back on track and onto God’s original plan so that you can accomplish His will for your life.

Abram and Lot separated and Abram stayed in Canaan and Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. The next thing that happened blew my mind, in verse 14 of chapter 13, the Lord tells Abram to “lift up his eyes and look…..” In verse 15, God makes another promise to Abram. Lot had to leave before God could give him a word of instruction. Whilst he was with Lot, God still spoke with Abram, He still protected Abram when they entered Egypt, but Lot had to go before the plan was unveiled. So my question is, how many of you as a result of disobedience are delaying the word of instruction that the Lord has for you? How many of you are refusing to let go off of dead relationships or relationships that love you so much that they are stifling the very purpose that God has for your life? I am here to declare to you that it is time to arise, step out and step into the destiny that God has for you.

The first requirement of stepping out into the unknown is , letting go of relationships that is preventing you from moving forward. You have to forsake the old and embrace the new. What you are willing to let go of determines what God will bless you with. I discovered this for myself; the relationships that I have formed since I have moved are priceless. I say this in humility, if I had stayed in the same place holding onto the same people and relationships, I would have missed out on the wealth of relationships and connections that I have now and I know God is only just beginning.

When I transitioned to my new city, the first instruction the Lord gave me was to shut down every communication I had with people and mentors from my previous city. This was hard for me because these relationships meant a lot to me. But God said let go and I did. And can I be honest? It was the best decision of my life, what I know now cannot be compared to what I knew then and I believe that is what had happened to Abram, when he said good bye to the unnecessary weight, that was when he was able to lift up his eyes and look; he was able to handle the instruction of the Lord concerning his life and his household. It is my prayer that God will give you the courage to step out into the unknown and experience His abundance in Jesus Name Amen. This will be done in a series, because God is pouring a lot into me concerning this topic so stay tuned.

May God bless you and thank you for reading.