Tag: faith (Page 4 of 4)

TPC DAY TWO – THE PRESERVER & THE REVEALER

March 2, 2021 / Oluwatosin

In the year 2010, I unwittingly stepped into the house of destruction.

Fresh out of the university, I was serving with an NGO in Lagos as an NYSC member. I had recently broken off a two-year relationship with a man I had been deeply in love with. We were certain we would get married until we made a discovery that shattered our hopes and dreams of being together forever.

You can find out more on this story in my book, Unchained.

I was mad at God for a long time. I didn’t think He had done me well. I had been faithful to God. I had been seeking Him my whole life. I had been careful to keep His instruction of not awakening love early – I hadn’t dated anyone until I was in my final year in the university. This guy was a godly man – a really wonderful person. That relationship was supposed to be my first and last.

I felt like God scammed me. For all the effort I put into being a godly girl, I should have been better rewarded by Him.

In my foolishness, I believed that everything God would ever do for me would be in response to how good and well-behaved I had been. So if I was living holy, praying, studying my Bible, and serving in church, God owed me a truckload of blessings. My relationship with God was underscored by an entitlement mentality that conditioned me to believe I could earn His goodness by my works.

You see, in that season of my life, when it came to understanding God’s grace and how it works, I was what the book of Proverbs refers to as a simpleton. It’s not that I was hardened against God. I simply didn’t know better. I lacked kingdom revelation and spiritual understanding.

My anger with God which occurred as a result of my #simpletonproblems, eventually led me to make the poor choice of getting engaged to someone who should have never made it past “hello.” From the moment I stepped into that relationship, I stepped into the den of the wicked one – the very house of destruction.

I made so many poor decisions. I was utterly lost and hopelessly bound – but for the redeeming love of God.

Verse 11 of Proverbs 2 lets us know that wisdom protects us from making poor choices. It rescues us from evil in disguise and from those whose words are twisted.

Dear one, the first thing I want to assert today is this:

Wisdom is a preserver of life and destiny. A lack of it is fatal!

King Solomon knew this too well so he admonished us to “cry out for comprehension and intercede for insight.” (Verse 3, TPT). He said to seek it as a man would seek for sterling silver, searching in hidden places for cherished treasure.

The god of this world is restless. He is tirelessly roaming around, seeking whose destiny he can destroy. This is not the time to live as a simpleton. We simply cannot afford to! We must be steeped in wisdom and armed with it. We must grow daily in it so that we can precisely discern between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and lies – that we may be preserved.

The second thing is, wisdom is a revealer of God.

As you seek wisdom with all your heart, you will find the very One who Himself is wisdom.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1:30 that Jesus has been made unto us wisdom from God.

Wisdom is Jesus. Jesus is the Word. The Word is Wisdom.

You cannot seek true wisdom without truly seeking the Word. When you find true wisdom, you will find God, His ways, His modus-operandi, His instructions at the very centre of it.

If you find yourself scorning some of God’s instructions and thinking they’re not applicable to certain areas of your life; if you think people who follow God’s ways radically are too “spirikoko” (overly spiritual), you haven’t found wisdom.

There is no true wisdom apart from God.

The level of wisdom you daily operate in is directly connected to the depth of your relationship with God and His word.

My relationship with God had sunk to its lowest just before I stepped into the relationship that would see me spiral into a dark pit. It was inevitable that folly would become my close companion. Once your relationship with God starts to suffer, folly will come knocking at your door.

If you truly search for wisdom as one would silver, what you will stumble upon is the fear of the Lord and what you will find is the true knowledge of God. (Verses 4 & 5).

If your wisdom search isn’t leading you into God-discovery and unraveling of Kingdom-mysteries, your search is faulty.

Wisdom is kingdom revelation.

Wisdom is a revealer of God.

To search for it is to search for Him.

Seek Him with all your heart!

Question of the day: What really struck you personally as you studied Proverbs 2?

Please share your insights with us!

TPC DAY ONE – A LESSON IN TOOTH DECAY

February 28, 2021 / Oluwatosin

When I was growing up, I always had cavities in my teeth. For whatever reason, I was just so susceptible to tooth decay. I was often in so much pain. If you’ve ever had a tooth ache, you know what I’m talking about. That pain is unbearable!

I’ve heard people say a tooth ache is worse than labour pain. Seeing as I have experienced both, I would have to agree with that statement.

When I fell into labour while pregnant with my son, I was still cheerily eating cereal in between contractions on my way to the hospital. I was balling (at least up until a point. Hehehe)!

When I experienced tooth ache though, I couldn’t even think – couldn’t dare eat or drink water. The pain was excruciating. I could feel it in my brain. And I experienced this multiple times as a child, teenager and even a young adult.

I experienced severally, the pure terror that comes from just seeing the dentist lay out his equipments – tools that look like they’re meant for the carpenter or mechanic’s workshop – and knowing that those are going into your mouth.

I experienced the forceful pressure of the tooth extraction process. I would grip the arms of the patient chair as if holding on to dear life. I experienced the consequent bleeding and swelling of the mouth, the numb feeling and inability to speak well for several hours.

Way too often, I sat in the dentists’ chair for several minutes, mouth wide open as they filled the holes in my teeth with metal-like substance, leaving the affected teeth permanently discoloured.

You would think that with all the experiences I shared above, I would totally hate and be automatic enemies with sweets and chocolates. Not me! Growing up, I would often sneak several wraps of sweets into my room and hide them under my pillow far away from my mother’s wandering eyes.

Late in the night when everyone was asleep, I would delightfully feast on my sweets, crunching and savouring them with pure joy.

On a few occasions when my mum found me eating sweets (in broad daylight), she would shout at me. “Tosin! You want them to keep hitting your teeth with hammer and chisel abi? You won’t learn? You of all people are eating sweets?!”

You see, I knew very well, and by experience, the effect that eating sweets was having on my teeth.

I didn’t have a knowledge problem. Wisdom wasn’t far from me either. I simply had an ailing relationship with it.

As I read from Proverbs 1 today, the Holy Spirit reminded me of my past tooth decay problems and used it as an analogy for the wisdom problem that exists and persists in the lives of many of His beloved children.

Many of us may be experiencing decay in certain areas of our lives, not because we don’t know the truth – but because we have an ailing, estranged relationship with wisdom.

Proverbs 1:20 (NLT) says “Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square.”

Wisdom is not even scarce. She’s right before our eyes. She’s everywhere we go – in our relationships, on social media, on the internet, in our places of worship, on our bookshelves and podcast apps.

She’s always calling. We hear her voice, but are we listening to her?

Do you have a working relationship with wisdom? Is there growth, maturity, transformation and elevation in your life to show that you do?

I’ll tell you something that really upsets me. It’s seeing a believer blatantly refuse to apply wisdom that’s available to them to surmount a challenge they’re facing or to generally elevate the quality of their lives and relationships.

They’re no different from the teenage me who refused to stop eating sweets (and brush at night) even when it was destroying my teeth and keeping me in perpetual pain.

They’re suffering – and it’s mostly because they’ve refused to listen to the voice of wisdom.

I see pride play out all too often – in the way we handle marital affairs, friendships, work relationships and even with our domestic staff! Yes – domestic staff (some people have employed over 20 caregivers in two years – and it’s not always the caregivers that have problems. It’s our own wisdom problem – but this is gist for another day!)

Verse 24-31 outlines how Lady Wisdom laughs at the calamity, decay and disaster that befall those who refuse to listen to her.

You can save yourself from time wasters and step into the best relationship of your life that will lead to a blissful marriage.

You can have the most beautiful love relationship with your husband.

You can begin to see, enjoy and maximize the value in your friendships without letting jealousy and envy get in the way.

You can be more financially independent.

You can step into the kind of life you’ve always envisioned.

But you will have to listen to the voice of wisdom calling out to be heard and applied in each area of your life.

We’re only just scratching the surface!

What exactly is wisdom? What does it look like for each area of our lives?

I’m certain that we’ll figure it out as we travel further in the book of Proverbs.

Question of the Day: What stuck out to you personally as you studied Proverbs 1? Please share with us!

Walking on the Waves

May 5, 2020 / Oluwatosin

I laid fearfully awake in the middle of the night. It was very strange, the way I was feeling. It felt like a mix of extreme fear, anxiety and a heavy bout of sadness. I could swear that I was having difficulty breathing and I was going to have a panic attack. Surely, the thing I was worried about wasn’t enough to produce such a heavy feeling of helplessness. What was going on with me?

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been trusting God to help resolve a challenge. When I first realised the challenge, I was worried as anyone would be. I however sought wise counsel from a friend and prayed about it. As I took my eyes off the challenge and focused on Jesus, everything else began to fade away. I hardly thought of it anymore. I just knew that God, as always would come through for me. Even though the thoughts of the challenge would come lurking once in a while, I was in perfect peace because my gaze and attention were fully upon God and His word. My joy was intact because it was based on what I knew about God and His character. God and I have come a long way and I’ve proven Him too many times.

Like Peter, even though the storm was raging, I had been walking on the waves because I kept my eyes on Jesus and His word.

On this day though, I decided find out what my friend, Google had to say about my challenge. As you can probably imagine, it had nothing good to say to me. I was instantly filled with fear, doubt and discouragement. Rather than immediately put down my phone and speak The Word, I continued to scroll in search of more information from Google.

It was when Peter perceived and felt how strong the wind was that he became terrified. He had engaged his senses whilst acting in faith – the perfect recipe for a fear take-over. That was exactly what I was doing. Google had helped me see how strong the wind (my challenge) was and I became terrified.

What is remarkable in this account of Peter walking on water is that this storm had been raging vey strongly all along. He was only just realising it because He had shifted his focus away from The One who had the power to calm the stormy seas. In the same way, because I shifted my focus from God and His word, I suddenly became very aware of what I was going through and my heart was opened up to attack.

So as I laid awake in bed, I began to see that my mind was being heavily attacked by fear, anxiety and sadness not because of what I was going through – but because I shifted my focus away from the Giver of life and peace.

The Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 that God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him – not he who has no challenges. The peace I had been previously experiencing right in the midst of my challenge was based on the fact that my mind had been stayed on God. I lost my peace (and joy) when my mind and focus shifted away from Him.

God’s word is eternally true. If you are utterly destitute of peace and joy, it’s not because things aren’t going well for you. It’s not because you have the biggest problems in the world or because your situation is the worst. It’s because your focus is wrongly placed. There’s no way that your mind will be stayed on God and you’ll lack peace and joy. The only reason your challenges are weighing you down so much is that you’ve forgotten that I AM is with you.

The moment I realised that my shift of focus was what opened my mind up to attack, I began to repent before God. I could feel Him saying “Tosin, we go way back. We have history. You’ve seen me do incredible things in your life. How can you toss me aside and let Google have the final say?”. I immediately asked God to have mercy on me and save me, because like Peter, I felt like I was sinking and about to be drowned.

Immediately I admitted my wrong and asked for His help, my peace was restored! I prayed and committed everything into His hands again and I’m determined with His help to forever leave it in His care.

You know what I love the most about this story of Peter and Jesus? It’s the fact that after Jesus saved Peter from sinking, they got back into the boat (it means Peter must have walked on water again!) and when the got into the boat, the wind ceased! This wind that had mercilessly beaten and tossed the disciples, caused Peter to doubt, sink and almost lose his life – this same wind was now gone.

What that tells me is that it won’t be long. God wants me to tell someone reading this, that “it won’t be long”. That raging storm will cease. That wind will end. It won’t last. God is saying “take courage. Stop being afraid. I AM here”

I’m so greatly encouraged and I hope you are too! This is a call for us to keep our eyes fixed on The One whose very presence calms the seas. That’s the only way that we can truly be in perfect peace and continue to experience incomprehensible joy.

Ditch Google. Stop feeding your fears and doubts. Stop listening to what society says about not being married at a certain age. Your energy flows where your attention goes. You’re all fagged out because your energy has been flowing in the wrong direction. Give God all of your focus and let Him infuse you with His strength!

Your best days are here!

My Return Trip (Return Series – II)

August 30, 2019 / Oluwatosin

This post is second in a series that I’ve titled “Return”. You can read the first part HERE.

The devil thought he had cleverly handed me a one way ticket to destruction – a life fated to misery, regret, doom, gloom and failure. He made it look all too rosy and dreamy. At some point in my life, all form of common sense had left my brain.

What the enemy did not know was that God, my First Love had long before I was born, made provision for my return ticket to Himself – a ticket that He purchased with the very precious blood of His Son, Jesus.

So, while I took my bath that gloomy morning, crying because I wanted to be free but didn’t know how to be, wondering if there was still redemption for me, wondering if God was going to leave me to myself and abandon me to the imminent dangers of the situation I had walked into with my own legs, He was there whispering “You can come back daughter. I already purchased your return ticket. Look more closely. You’re not stranded. It’s not a one-way ticket. It’s a return ticket.” Only, I couldn’t hear Him. I was too confused, scared and ashamed to make a decision to return. I really wanted to. I just didn’t know how.

Let me share a background story with you to bring you up to speed. You’re probably a little lost right now. Stay with me for a moment. You can grab some pop corn and a drink if you’d like!

I’m a pastor’s kid (actually a bishop’s kid) and I grew up knowing the Lord. I was indeed taught of the Lord. To a very reasonable extent, my parents, my father especially is quite known in our little world. Of course, in the church where he serves, he is well known and respected – so, common sense tells me that I should never have dreamt of writing this post, let alone actually sit here and write this. But you see, the grace, love and redemption of my Jesus compels me to do this. I’m like the ecstatic woman at the well shouting on top of her lungs “Come and see a man…!” When you’re forgiven much, you can’t keep quiet. When you have truly experienced grace, you cannot be silent. Your little reputation cannot stand in the way of your proclaiming His mighty power that has saved, delivered and set you free! You don’t care about the praise neither do you care about the blame. You just want to tell of His love!

So, to come back to what I was saying, I had a sound spiritual background with a loving, nurturing, wholesome, and balanced family life. I did have some negative experiences in my childhood, but those are stories for another post. Because of how beautiful life was for me growing up, I was shielded and somewhat blinded to certain realities of life. For instance, I never saw my parents have a disagreement so I assumed this was the normal way of life with all couples and families. All I knew was the love of my family, church, school and a few other activities. I was a really good girl, well brought up, morals on point and all that good stuff. When my friends in secondary school were having boyfriends, I judged them and made it clear that I had values and would not join them to do those things.

Because my relationship with God was based on my morality and performance, I was very judgmental and critical of others. I just couldn’t get why people did certain things. I was very quick to put them down even as I sat on my very exalted, high horse. I smile now as I remember how critical of others I was because the very things I judged others over are some of the things I walked into and willingly did – and even worse. So, even though I knew the Lord, loved Him with all my heart and served Him with my all, I had very limited understanding of His grace which really is the basis of our walk with Him.

When your relationship and walk with God is based on your own performance, behavior, morality and actions, watch it! You’re about to bump your head real bad (I have this image of five little monkeys jumping on the bed and bumping their heads. If you live with a toddler, you’ve seen this rhyme too many times on YouTube. Only, this is way more serious than that!). God will eventually humble you so that you can receive His grace, because He only gives grace to the humble. (See 1Peter 5: 5-6 and James 4: 6-7) But when God does the humbling, it often comes at a cost.

A relationship with God that is based on how you perform or behave and not on Christ’s finished work is a weak relationship. It will not hold up under pressure. You will realize soon enough that even on your best day, in your greatest strength and most perfect behavior, you still do not come close to measuring up to God’s standard of perfection. Each time you don’t meet up, you’re left feeling, drained, worthless, not enough and burned out and rather than crawl back into His arms, you sink deeper into the mire that threatens to swallow and cover you up.

This was my reality. Perfectionism and control were my mantra. I prided myself in my little saintly reputation. What I did not know was that perfectionism, control, and the need to put on a perfect front tend to only produce shame and fear. I was set up to fall big time.

When I met a guy that I thought was really gorgeous, well spoken, and had some charm, I wasn’t even sure how I fell. I just knew I did. I had the check in my heart, I knew from the get go that that relationship should never have made it past hello, but not only did it make it past hello, I let it stay and I entertained it with some pizza and a coke.

It must have been somewhere around this time that the devil thought he had purchased my one-way, never-to-return ticket. Everyone around me knew about this relationship. There was no Instagram then so my most active social media platform for broadcasting this relationship was BBM of blessed memory. Some people that were close to me didn’t feel comfortable about this relationship. My sister was forthright about her dislike for him. Friends and family that cared about me tried to ask me questions and caution me, but I was just beginning to have the time of my life and I wasn’t about to let anyone ruin it with their negative energy. Negative energy, stay very farrrr from me! Haha!

I was that girl who thought that somehow, I could balance this relationship with loving and serving the Lord. He didn’t really share my faith, but I convinced him a few times to come to church. I thought I could help his spiritual life. This was going to be evangelism by dating. It never works people, it never does. Rather than win him over, I saw myself slip away helplessly as I began to live a double lifestyle. I wanted to cry for help at some point, but the pride, shame and fear that had been created by the perfect-girl front I’d put on all my life wouldn’t let me. I didn’t want to tamper with the perfect image of our relationship that our pictures depicted. Everyone on the outside thought we looked so good together. So I stayed put.

By this time, I wasn’t spending time with God anymore. My mess, shame and the voice of accusation constantly ringing in my head were the reasons why. You see, I had become the original “good girl gone bad”. I’d gone from the saintly church girl to having sex right after a Sunday service (not that it makes any difference if you have sex on Monday or Sunday – but you get my point!). I was even more quickly losing the fruit of the Spirit, proof that I had tuned out the Holy Spirit. I was restless. I became defensive and rude. These were things that had never been a part of me in the past. See, when we say a transfer of spirits happens when you sleep with someone, you better believe it! I started to behave in so many ways that were not at all consistent with who I really was and had been all my life.

I remember once, when my mum who is incredibly spiritually gifted called me. I sat before her and though she had seen nothing in the physical to validate her fears, she laid them out all the same. She told me of a dream she had where she saw this boyfriend of mine with his eyes very red, smoke coming out of his mouth and nose. Guys, she painted the exact picture that I saw in real life quite often – when he was smoking pot and/or cigarettes. I was afraid! I knew God had shown her so that she could warn me. It must have registered in the far back of my mind that God really did care about me. I dismissed her dream and lied that what she had seen wasn’t true. I was really afraid that God had told on me!

The very next opportunity I had, I went over to him and tried to break up with him. My mother had seen a vision – a true one at that and I needed to take to my heels. Somehow, he convinced me that he would change. He would never pick up a stick of cigarettes or weed again in his life. And with that, we carried on with the relationship. As you can guess, the change never happened. If anything, I got introduced to smoking weed and using alcohol. You have to understand that I was a perfect little church girl. Here was I, doing things that I could never have imagined myself doing. I was wild!

I made lots of other mistakes that would take so long to read. I had gone from “this” to “that”. I could barely recognize myself. There were nights that I cried for the girl that I once was, the girl who would be disappointed by this new girl and who she had allowed herself to become. I never intended to go that far, never dreamed of doing those things – but there I was, in the thick of iniquity, yet keeping up appearances. A few close people may have noticed the change, but to most people, I was still the perfect Christian girl.

Over time, I began to experience an abusive pattern – emotional and verbal, with threats and intimidation occasionally thrown in the mix. It was around then that I started to think like the prodigal son. What if I go back to my Father, my First Love? Can I even go back? How do I leave this situation? I’m scared, confused and ashamed. What will people think? What will they say? By this time, we were already engaged to be married. Yup! I took the ring.

“Lord, you can’t watch me ruin my life” I’d cry. “You can’t watch me go to hell” I’d say. “How do I come out of this?” I was too timid, too scared of many things to take that step. I knew though, that I couldn’t afford to marry him and be trapped for the rest of my life.

But oh the overwhelming, never ending reckless love of God! Oh it chases me down fights till I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine! My First Love came searching for me even when I was breaking His heart. He set me up big time. He brought someone into my life – a friend. I thought he would be more, but God didn’t send him into my life for that purpose. As this friendship developed, God was speaking to my heart, showing me that I didn’t have to settle for this mess I was in.

I began to find myself in God again. He began to woo me and court me again. He began to show me all the things He had been longing to show me. He began to tell me how much He loved me and how much He had missed my fellowship with Him. He began to show me that He never left even though His heart broke. He began to tell me that His love for me was unchanged and still as intact as it had ever been. He showed me that my mistakes meant nothing to Him because He had since made provision for them – way before I was born. He just wanted His girl back. And I wanted so badly to go back too.

So, before I went and broke off that relationship, the first thing I did was to strengthen my relationship with the Holy Spirit. I needed to get to a place so strong in my walk with the Lord that I knew that once I ended things, it really would be the end. Remember, we were engaged so the stakes were very high – or so I thought. As my relationship with the Lord grew again, so did my strength, resolve and determination. I no longer had space in my heart to entertain my First Love and this strange love.

I also confided in a mentor and let him know about everything. There was no hiding. I knew he would be disappointed but I was now too concerned about breaking free and securing my future than in his momentary disappointment. Thankfully, he didn’t judge me, but prayed for me and helped me to take steps towards ending that relationship.

One especially bright and beautiful day, I dressed up and decided that that was the day the Lord had made! We agreed to meet up at a restaurant, and ladies and gentlemen, after two unsuccessful attempts, I placed the tiny ring into his palm. With all of God’s grace and the strength He made available to me, I ended that relationship, not minding the tears and the pleas. The Lord helped me marvelously and delivered me from myself! From then on, there was no turning back!

That relationship was a heavy yoke, something I didn’t have the strength to break free from on my own. I had given too much of myself to it. It was easier to stay than to leave.

I have no doubt that this is someone’s struggle right now. It may look like it’s easier to stay than to leave, but I’m proof that God can help you do this. I’m not asking you to try, to strive, or to make efforts on your own – but if you would place your hand in His hands (and in mine if you need to), you’ll see that God makes the most powerful chain breaker and deliverer. You are free! Even if you’re still in it right now, even if you’re reading this from under the sheets in his bed, or with a bottle in your hands, say this out loud “I am free!” There you go! It starts with right believing and right confessing and before you know it, you’re empowered to break free!

There’s still so much to talk about. The after-math, dealing with well-meaning family and friends trying to intervene, the blackmail, the roller coaster ride of emotions, the effect of social media and all of that. We’ll look into those in the next and hopefully final post in these series. I’ll share practical lessons I learnt on how to really break free, tips for navigating the next season, because you will be tested and tried! There will be tearful nights, words spoken and hurtful ones too but I can tell you for sure that when you take the lessons you learnt in this season, and begin to receive the love that God has been lavishing on you, plus a glimpse of much better that He has in store for you, it will be more than worth it! You will be glad that God brought you out. God brought me out even when I walked into the mess myself and I stand faultless before Him because Jesus stands tall in me! He wants to do the same for you and I remain committed to holding your hands on this journey!

If you haven’t already, please, be sure to click subscribe so you can join my mailing list and get notified once I upload the next posts. I am praying for you with all my heart. I believe that you are free indeed and that you win on this journey! I love you but God is crazy in love with you!

Fight!

January 25, 2019 / Oluwatosin

Do you ever wake up sometimes and just feel heavy, tired and weighed down? Nothing has happened in the day. Your eyes simply flutter open to the consciousness of the tightness in your chest. A rush of thoughts flow through your mind and in that moment, you’re reminded of all the things that are wrong or not working in your life?

Have you ever received a word or promise from God with so much excitement, joy and hope only for time to roll by painfully as you await the fulfilment of the promise?

One of the biggest battles we will fight as wait on the fulfilment of God’s promises is the battle of the mind. It’s something many of us are familiar with – at least I am.

The goal of the enemy is to flood and fill your mind with fear, doubt, anxiety, discouragement, hopelessness, confusion, feelings of worthlessness, inadequacy and insecurity. As soon you decide to stand on God’s word and trust His promises, the devil goes into attack mode. It’s even more intense when you’ve been waiting for God to come through in an area of your life for a while. The enemy will try to invade your mind. He will make you see how you’re far behind in life and how the world has moved past you. He will tell you that God’s promises to you are only a figment of your imagination. He will try to make you question if you ever even heard from God. He will tempt you to doubt God’s love and His goodness. He will tell you that you’re stuck and that this is all there is to your life. He will tell you that you’re not good enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not talented enough, too old or too young. He will try to get you to throw in the towel and give in to despair, discouragement and depression. He will deploy all the weapons in his arsenal and he will attack your mind.

Dear one, this is the time to FIGHT. Fight for your mind. Fight to guard your heart. Fight for your faith. Fight through your tears. Fight through your frustrations. Fight through your questions. Fight, not for victory but FROM victory because you’ve long ago been declared “more than a conqueror”. Say it out loud to the defeated foe and let it be clear that you will not give up, you will not lose hope and you will not stop trusting God.

Some days you won’t feel like it but fill your heart with the word of God. There are hundreds of plans/devotionals on YouVersion you can read from. There’s a plan for whatever situation you’re in. Just type whatever you’re feeling and something will come up. Be deliberate about feeding your mind with the word. The word of God is the sword of the spirit (Eph 6:17)

Pray in the Holy Ghost! Your build up your faith when you do so (Jude 1:20), your strength is renewed, you connect with the Spirit of God on a level that is higher than the enemy can ever reach and you pray the will of God.

Worship! And sometimes, do nothing but listen to worship music and let the lyrics refresh your soul. When you worship, speak of His greatness, His character, His mighty power, His wonders, splendour and majesty. He is the Great I am. He is your bridge over troubled waters. He is your peace. He is your anchor. He is your unfailing rock. He is all sufficient. He is the covenant keeping God. He is the mighty deliverer. Worship will dethrone every lie as you see how big your God is in comparison to whatever you may be facing. (Job 26:7-14, Ps. 119:90, Deut 7:9)

Finally, talk to someone! If you’re not sure who, ask God to send you a friend indeed; someone who has the wisdom of God and can speak life and hope into your life. I have been a beneficiary of relationships like this and I tell you, it’s great to be able to lay down those burdens and have someone speak strength into your life! (Prov. 27:17, Ecc. 4:9-10)

Right now, I speak peace to every heart that is raging with fear, confusion, discouragement and doubt. I declare that God has not given you the spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind. I curse the spirit of depression. I release the spirit of joy and peace, strength and hope in the name of Jesus! We overcome for we are more than conquerors!

Lessons From Google Maps

January 11, 2019 / Oluwatosin

A few months ago, I was headed to a meeting in Victoria Island. I didn’t know my way to the destination so I decided to use Google Maps. It was a smooth, traffic and hitch free ride and I was enjoying the direction of the map till I got to this road. The thing is, the journey had been smooth all along; tarred roads, traffic lights, good scenery…all up until this point. The map was leading me through this untarred, muddy and dirty market. I was very certain the map was confused. “This road cannot possibly lead me to my destination”, I thought. So I turned around, went back to the beginning of the road and tried to navigate again from there.

Still, the map was leading me to go through the road I had thought was unlikely to take me to my destination. Frustrated with my map, I thought about calling someone or even going back to the beginning of the road to start navigating again. In that moment though, I thought “well, let me just go through the road. Let me even see where it leads”. As I got on the road, Google Maps literally went silent on me. A few metres before getting on that road, it had already told me to go straight and then make a right after a while but as soon as I got on the “unlikely” road, the map fell silent. I was waiting for some affirmation from the map that I was on the right track…but nothing. Surprisingly (or not), the dirty, untarred road was only for a little stretch of the journey. It wasn’t long before I was back on good roads and could see beautiful scenery again; it wasn’t long till I heard Google map’s voice say “turn right” and it wasn’t long till I arrived my destination.

I arrived at my meeting about 5 minutes late because I didn’t listen to the map the first time. I thought the map must have been mistaken. I would have arrived just in time if I’d gone through the unlikely road the first time.

God spoke to me through that experience. As you can imagine, the map represents God. Sometimes, He will lead us through familiar, beautiful and smooth roads, but many times, He will take us through “unlikely” paths. He will lead us through roads that don’t look like they’ll take us to our destinations. The path may look dirty. It may not look glamorous. It may not look like the destination. It may not look like the dream. It may not look like the vision. I’m here to encourage you to stay the course. Stay with God. Trust the path that He has placed you on. He may not take you through your preferred route, but rest assured that He will get you to your destination. The distraction and frustration often peak when you’re very close to your destination. Keep moving forward.

Sometimes, like the map, when we get on those unfamiliar, difficult and bumpy roads of life, God can seem distant and silent even though He’s right there. Truth is, the map had already told me what to do and I just needed to obey. God has already equipped you with all you need to make it to your destination safely. No, He hasn’t abandoned you. He’s right there with you. He just needs you to stay the course and follow the path that He has set before you. It won’t be long till all the pieces come together and you’ll see that He was right there all along, leading you and holding your hand even in the silence. Know that God is not really silent, He’s only working in silence. Not for a moment are you ever forsaken!

Someone’s word for the year is “Move Forward”. You may not be able to shorten your journey but you can definitely prolong it by refusing to follow the path that God has set before you. Obedience will get you to your destination quicker than trying to outsmart God will. You don’t need to keep going around in circles. Move forward in faith.

I know you’re called to be a business mogul but God could be asking you in this season to work for someone else’s establishment; or maybe you’ve launched out at God’s command and things aren’t going as you imagined. I know you’re called to the nations, but God is asking you in this season to touch one individual. I know the man you’re hoping to marry is supposed to be tall, dark, handsome and rich but God is placing a love in your heart from this man who is just your height, not a super model and not earning 6 digits just yet. Don’t resist. There’s more than you can see with your eyes. There are lessons to be learnt on the path He has placed you on. Don’t despise the path. Don’t despise your journey and don’t for a moment think that you’re lost. God is right there, leading you. He’s your ever reliable map and compass!

Think on the verses below and be refreshed in your spirit!

The steps of a [good] man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way [and He busies Himself with his every step].
Psalm 37:23 AMPC

I [the Lord] will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
Psalm 32:8 AMPC

Overcoming Negativity: Deal With The Source

February 27, 2018 / Oluwatosin

With me, you couldn’t easily tell. You see, I always appeared unruffled and put together. I had long ago mastered the art of masking the roller coaster ride of emotions going on inside me. For many reasons that would take me years to identify, I was enslaved to fear. I would just be worried that I would either never get married or I that I would be so delayed that I would settle for less than I should. Little did I know that this fear had begun to characterize my life and inform the decisions I made. The negative thoughts that I constantly entertained were crippling me and leading me to make poor decisions.

If you’re constantly struggling with negative thoughts, emotions or fear, the first question you want to ask yourself is “what is the source of this fear?”. You were not created to be fearful. You are not just a paranoid person by nature. You are not just a pessimist by nature. These things have a source, a root cause that must be identified and then dealt with.

For me, I would later realize that because of how sensitive I naturally am, I had allowed the negative comments of certain people in my circle eat deep into me. Someone once laughed in my face and told me “your relationship with this person will not work out”. This was an older person, someone who had some major influence in my life and whom I had to accord some respect so I couldn’t respond in defense. I simply let that comment take hold of me and beyond that one relationship she was referring to, I began to develop a fear that my relationships would not work out! I wasn’t born paranoid – there was a root cause!

It took many years of going round in circles for me to be able to identify that my constant negative thoughts were sparked by negative comments. I hadn’t learnt to guard my heart so I easily fell victim. As I became stronger in my relationship with God and began to look into the perfect law of liberty (the Word of God), I began to renew my mind and exchange those thoughts for God’s thoughts. I also began to let go of my hurt against that person who just seemed so mean for no reason. I realized that she must have been dealing with self esteem issues and must have been hurting so much to be able to spew out such comments. I began to forgive, open up before God and let the Lord heal me.

Loved one, what is it for you? You were not born to be afraid. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the source; be truthful with yourself no matter how silly it seems. Open up your heart before God and let Him begin to heal you. Were you heartbroken? Abandoned by a parent? Abused? Misused? Admit things before the One who loves you and let Him begin to heal you. You cannot place a band aid over a foundation such as this. You have to look it in the face and deal with it once and for all. You need to loose its grip over you and your life. It’s time to move on from negativity! There’s so much out there that God wants you to experience! It’s time to let go so you can move forward!

I pray this moment that the Lord deals with every foundation of negativity in your life. I pray in the name of Jesus that you receive freedom and that the broken places of your life find healing. Amen!

Join me soon as we take on a second part to overcoming negativity! Till then, keep enjoying life in Jesus. I love you as always!

My Well Experience

February 11, 2018 / Oluwatosin

That God would place this dream in my heart and entrust me with a vision such as this seems rather ironic to my natural senses; but I love how gracious God is in that He often reaches out for the seemingly unqualified and the most unlikely candidate when He has an important task to execute.

You see, for the most part of my single life, I wasn’t waiting with grace. I actually detested the wait for the longest time. I wasn’t really trusting God with this area of my life and I constantly wanted to speed up the process. And so began my never ending cycle of emotional entanglements, relationships, and as some would call it, “situationships”. I was always entangled; always in some sort of relationship (whether or not I wanted to admit that it was indeed a relationship). I was like the Samaritan woman that met Jesus at the well, only I hadn’t had five husbands – but five relationships/situationships? That’s an easy yes from the top of my head. I kept going around in circles, each time hoping I had met the one. Like the woman at the well, I was drained, worn out and thirsty. I believe the well that the Samaritan woman met Jesus at was both literal and figurative. That woman wasn’t only thirsty for water – she was thirsty in her emotions, in her soul and in her spirit, as was I. Like me, she kept going to this well to drink – but it would only take a while before she would get drained and thirsty again. When Jesus spoke to her about the Living Water that would forever satisfy her, He certainly wasn’t talking about quenching her physical thirst. He was talking about satisfying the thirst of her soul – this thirst that had caused her to continually drink from the well of failed relationships and marriages. One encounter with the Giver of Living Water, and her life was forever changed! This is my story. One encounter with Jesus at the well changed me and re-wrote the entire script of my life.

Dear reader, I’d love you to know that God specializes in taking messy people and situations, and remodeling them into beautiful masterpieces. It really doesn’t matter how badly things have worked out for you in the past. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve tried and hit a brick wall. It doesn’t matter who is counting how many failed relationships they think you’ve had. God is able to totally re-write your story and give you something so beautiful that only He can give – only, you need to be ready to truly surrender to Him and let Him work it all out in and for you.

As we embark on this journey together, I pray that you find courage, strength, a new resolve, healing, renewed hope and all that you need to truly be all God wants you to be and to experience all the amazing things He wants you to. I pray that you learn to wait with grace and get thrilled by how beautifully God writes your story!

Welcome!

January 20, 2018 / Oluwatosin

Welcome to Waiting With Grace. If you’re single, this is for you.