Tag: Bold

L E A D

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You will  L E A D  your own (God-directed) way to your destiny this year.

Meaning, you aren’t going to get there by following.

In 2018, God is commanding you to step forth, step out and possess your possession (Deuteronomy 10:11).

He wants you to
Take charge.
Stand up.
and Be Bold.

When God gave me this word – L E A D – He was speaking to me about conviction.
As I engaged in a reflection of my actions and various decisions made in the past year, I remembered times when I had been swayed, or had ‘gone with a flow’, though it hadn’t  really been designed for me.  
Thus, God began to speak to me about sticking to my guns, sticking to my beliefs in the word of God, and sticking to what I know would make Jesus proud.
He also spoke to me about being forward, having self-belief, and fearlessly pursuing whatever I truly desire to do – regardless of if I have people’s approval/agreement or not.
Through this meditation with Him, He therefore made it clear that this year I would need to LEAD my way to where He has purposed for me – not piggy-back on other people’s journeys.
I would need to be bold in my convictions and not compromise; and shake off fear and self-doubt, and stop standing in the background.

So here we go friends, I’ve got to tell you;

The word ‘LEAD’ will push us out of our comfort zones this year.

It will set us apart from the crowd, and single us out from the midst of those doing what isn’t pleasing to God.
It will force us OUT from wherever/whomever we’ve been hiding behind all this time, and it will require us to finally start having some faith in what God has placed in us –  the He that is within us (1 John 4:4).

So Two Aspects to our Leadership this year;

1 – Leading our lives away from sin.

2 – Taking the Lead on the journey to our place of glory and purpose.

And here’s the scripture we are going to focus on;

““You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.  
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
[Matthew 5:13-16]

 

1 – Leading our lives away from sin…

You see, what the word of God tells us in the scripture above, is that we must not blend in any longer. (We’ve touched on this before, have a look at ‘Dare to be Different‘ to refresh your memory).
As the salt of the earth, we have an essential role to play in transforming the world. We are a key factor in the successful process of affecting change in our societies, and the way God has called us to do this is through the renewed minds and lives we have in Jesus Christ.
For this very reason, we must live boldly in our convictions in 2018, and remove ourselves from situations that will denounce Christ.

So errrm, be prepared to feel uncomfortable. Be prepared to stand alone sometimes. And be prepared to break some ungodly bonds (with things and people)…
Simply put, some of the Leading steps you will take, out of the crowd, out of the muck and out of the darkness, into the light, will not be easy.
Many times they won’t be the popular choice or decision that everyone else is going with, therefore you’ll often find yourself feeling lonely even though you are doing the right thing.

But it’s okay – because you are starting something here…
The stand you take as an Example and Ambassador of Christ, will speak to the lives of those around you and that’s what God wants from you this year and always.
He wants you to be unashamed of the gospel, and rather than be timid and silent about the things of God, He wants you to rise up to fulfil them, and not conform to the things of the flesh such as sexual immorality, lying, cheating and deceit.

The more you LEAD your life out of the pleasures of this world, and into the kingdom of God, you’ll notice a difference in the dynamic of your journey towards your goals, as you will hear and feel the directions of God much more distinctively.
A life more aligned with the kingdom, will allow you to be undistracted and unclouded, and will permit a clearer mind to operate with.

Let us remember that whilst our Leadership and Boldness to flee from sin this year will benefit our personal walk with Christ, actually, as little seeds are sown in the lives of others, we will also inspire a change within them too!

2 – Taking the Lead on the journey to our place of glory and purpose…

Now let’s address this shyness, or laid-back attitude, which has been keeping many of us in the back for all these years…
God Himself has called us OUT!

(1) Some of us are very polite; we like to step back and give others a chance, or we’re so sure of ourselves (in an accurately humble way) that we don’t we feel the need to battle with others to take up roles when it comes to certain tasks, jobs, or assignments.
(2) Some of us are gripped with fear however, and we are overtaken by worry, doubt, and anxiety, and a lack of self-belief. Even though we know we are good in our own right, we always believe someone else is better and therefore is more deserving of the opportunity/limelight than we are.
(3) Then there are those of us who are simply too lazy to care. We can’t be bothered to use too much of our energy, or apply too much effort to do things, therefore we just chill at the back and allow others to do the work.

Whichever category you fall into, and even if your description isn’t here – we all have to change this year.

You see, as much as our spiritual uprightness and cleanliness is important, so is our excellence on this earth!
Our reference scripture above says;
“A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” 
This is God’s call for us to stop hiding, and instead, step out as the beacon of light that He has called us to be.
He hasn’t created us to be second best, or a follower of any man, rather we are meant to LEAD and take charge, in every area of our lives, so that this Light can shine, and people will acknowledge the goodness of God and give Him glory.

Now look, I’m not telling you to be arrogant and shove everyone else aside. I’m not telling you hog the spotlight and become self-obsessed, in fact in your Leadership, you must still carry others along, and serve others in many ways (Luke 22:24-27).
But what I am saying here, is that you must live as though you truly know and believe that you are a Chosen Generation. (1 Peter 2:9)
You must grab opportunities firmly (when God tells you to) when they are presented before you, and run with them and never look back.
You must strive to achieve excellence in all things concerning you, and never settle for anything less.

The bible tells us that Daniel was described as having an extraordinary spirit, (Daniel 6:3). Prior to this impressive description, he had displayed confidence by standing out for his God.
Daniel Led.
He Led by not conforming, and he also led by showing forth the gift of God within him, and in fact he turned the heart of an idol-worshipping king, to come to know our true God of heaven and earth. (For more insight, read Daniel chapters 1–4, and ‘Can They See You?‘).

Just like Daniel, Leading your way to your destiny this year will manifest through you being the ‘shot-caller’. (But notice the wisdom with which this was executed in his case).
You’ve done enough observation and listening over the years, and it’s now time for you to put the learnt theory into play and let some fruits begin to yield forth from it all.

I’ll leave you with this;
When God gave me this message, He wanted me to emphasise the fact that You are so Capable.
And friend, you must remind yourself of this fact every single day.
You are Capable, and endowed with so much greatness, therefore with your humility intact, this year is about you fully becoming YOU – Stepping into your full glory and manifesting forth the very gift, talent, skill-set, qualities and qualifications that God Himself has given you in order to prosper throughout this land.

That Bold, Fearless and Forthcoming spirit to LEAD, is what I prophesy that we each possess from today onwards, and with it, we will encounter every great thing designed for us in this year, and beyond, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Return in a few days for our third keyword for this year;
A C H I E V E.

Keep the Faith, Don’t Stop Believing
God Bless you

 

#LEAD
#NewYear
#2018
#FocusLeadAchieve!

 

I Am What I Am!

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I shared a shorter version of this message earlier this year, before the website was up and running, but I was recently watching a sermon online by a Pastor Touré Roberts (link at the bottom) and it reminded me of the importance of pushing this word out there again, and expanding on it a bit further.
This message is a mixture of addressing what true humility is, and being bold enough to say I am capable, I am qualified, I can do this…

So I’ll start by asking, What is Humility?
Some definitions say it is the quality of having a modest view of one’s importance; the quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people. 

The bible says;

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
[Luke 14:11]

This verse shows us the importance of humility and the fact therefore that it is a trait we ought to pursue and desire to have, but let us understand something –
Humbling yourself doesn’t mean to rubbish yourself, or speak/think ill things towards yourself.
Humility is having an accurate understanding of who you are, and what you are capable of – that is, an opinion/belief of you, neither higher or lower than what it truly should be. 

Humility doesn’t encourage you to exhibit low self-esteem, or put yourself down, but rather, true humility is being able to embrace your abilities, achievements and successes whilst understanding that there is no need to flaunt it in everyone’s face, nor brag and boast about it.

The difference between the humble and the proud is that pride will cause an individual to deem themselves as more important than their neighbour because of their wealth/achievements/status etc. Whilst humility causes one to express equal respect and love to every and any person, regardless of these things.
Again, because a man is aware that it is ‘by God’s grace’, he doesn’t walk around as though he amasses all the goodness by his own power, but rather, embraces it, and uses it to bless and uplift others! 

Do you believe me when I say you can be humble, yet confident in who you are, what you are, what you can do, and how well you can do it?!
And trust me when I say that all this can exist without the arrogance that many of us are very cautiously running away from.
How? Because you understand that your abilities and your identity comes not from yourself, but from a greater source – the Grace of God. 

In the bible Paul writes this perfectly, he says; 

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
[1 Corinthians 15:10]

Paul recognises that he is who he is, and what he is, and how he is, simply by the grace of God.
He knows that his form; his past and his present, have worked together by the grace of God to produce his character in the now…
Not only does he know where his identity and ability comes from, but he knows better than to downplay his work, ability or efforts. No, Paul boldly says “I worked harder than everyone else, but again, I’m not saying that I did this by myself, I’m saying that I was enabled by the grace that God bestowed upon me”.

Today I’m encouraging you to follow from Paul’s example – you have no business in downplaying the light of God in you – no business at all I tell you. In fact it’s insulting to God!

Many times, we fail to step forward and share the fact that we can do something, or we sit silently in the background when there’s a service required, that we could very well provide.
Why? Because we fear that people will say we think too much of ourselves by stepping up to the challenge and taking on the well-suited role for ourselves.
But there couldn’t be anything more wrong!

Before you take that step back because of man, have you thought about what you’re telling God by doing so?

‘God I know You equipped me to do this, but what people think of me is more important than Your will and purpose for me, so let’s leave that on the back burner for now…’

Oh you didn’t think of it that way, right?
Oh it’s not that serious, right?

Friend it is that serious!

Not only do we deprive our environment of the fruit which they are meant to enjoy from the seed that is within us, but we also deprive the Almighty God from receiving glory from the work He wants to do through us!

It is in our knowing who we are and what we can do, that God will present us with opportunities for us to progress and excel.
We cannot (for the sake of ‘humility’) keep withdrawing ourselves from things that God has called us to do!
Therefore let us realise the importance of being able to declare that ‘I am what I am, by the grace of God’, and so be able to confidently say;

“I most definitely am skilled, and gifted, and qualified to do A, B and C, because God enables me.
In fact I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13), so please feel free, sir/madam, to send that task or responsibility my way, because I know I won’t mess it up!
God has equipped me to do it, and do it well!”

You are not being arrogant, you are not being cocky, but you are simply walking in your destiny; declaring and displaying the glory of God within you.
You will see that actually, your courage and confidence will speak out and inspire someone who is battling with insecurities. Because your energy will draw them onto you, and then open up the opportunity for you to share where your strength comes from!

Let us be confident in the grace God has given us, no we are not better than the next man, but we also are not worse!
His grace makes us able, and makes us excellent in our lane, excellent in our field, excellent in whatever He has called us to do, and we should never be ashamed to boldly embrace that!

Keep the Faith, Don’t Stop Believing
God bless you. 

*Click here for the sermon by Pastor Touré Roberts of One Church LA*

Another Shot?

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No, not that kind of shot!
I mean do you want to have another go/try/chance/opportunity at the thing you said you’d do in 2017?

Yes? Great!

Well firstly, let’s evaluate – how did January go for you?
Before we take steps to fix something, we have to know what’s wrong with it, so I want us to honestly assess the month of January in terms of the goals we set for ourselves.
Let us look at:

  • What went well?
  • What could have been better?
  • Ways to improve.

We all walked into the New Year with dreams, goals, good intentions and aspirations, but we’re on day 32, and without a doubt, a lot has happened.

Some things you won’t have bargained for may have popped up and distracted you or thrown you off your tracks.
People (sometimes the closest ones to you) may have discouraged you and made you feel like ‘you will never change’.
Circumstances may have simply not permitted it.

Does this mean, we should just give up?
No way!
Let us be courageous, ignore what people have said, shake off our emotions, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and Try Again.

Let’s read Romans 6. This isn’t to say that we’re all trying to change from a particular sin, but let us take context from it.

It tells us that in becoming aware of something that isn’t right, we shouldn’t just continue in that way, hoping that we can enjoy God’s grace, despite doing what we know is wrong and requires a change. Rather, we must rid ourselves of it. We should desire to become a new creation, because Christ has enabled this by dying for us. He allows us to be saved from our old ways and no longer be a slave to sin, addiction or any bad habit that we may have had!

Equally for those of us who decided that this year we wanted to take up a positive task, the bible tells us not to get tired of doing good;

“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
[Galatians 6:9]

So we’re all on the same page about trying again, whether we’re trying to move away from something, or take on a new task/service – it doesn’t matter if January didn’t go to plan, we have the chance to start afresh. Right now!

Let’s head back to our evaluation questions.

What went well? When we’re looking at this question, let us look properly, because some of us are really hard on ourselves.
I want you to identify times when you achieved aspects of your goal or in fact succeeded in doing what you said you would do or not do (e.g. be on time to church, or not argue with a friend/parent/spouse). Acknowledge that you did well here, and expand on it… Look at the details of what happened in that instance to allow the occurrence of your desired outcome, make a note of it and then replicate it each time you get the chance. This way, you’re moving closer to consistently reaching your goals.

What could have been better? Pay attention to the fact that this doesn’t ask you for what was bad, because asking for what was bad simply points it out and leaves it in the air (#unhelpful).
However, when you’re looking at what could have been better, done better, said better etc, the idea is that you identify areas where you may have tried less, or fallen back into the old habit and again, you should explore why it could have happened. Then create practical steps that will help ensure that you avoid it happening again.

Example: I barged a woman on my way to university because I was in a rush, but my goal was to be more polite and calm when using public transport.

Going back, I’ll evaluate that I woke up late, and that was because I slept late the night before, so I was in a rush in the morning, which made me grumpy already, and meant that I was charging through the station and not in the mood to even apologise to someone I pushed.

Yes, this will take a good amount of thought-processing, but the idea is to eliminate things that will cause us to do what we don’t want to do. Or even prevent us from doing good.

Now, in expanding on what went well and what could have been better, we have already looked at some ways that we could improve on working towards our goals,
But let’s look at a few more key Ways to improve…

The first thing I want us to do is be serious about trying again.
In fact that may have been your issue from the start – that you didn’t really believe in what you were doing.

Well look, first step – take it seriously.

That means;

  • Don’t premeditate failure
  • Don’t create sub-standards for ‘just in case’
  • And don’t make fun of it! – (Some of us make a joke of our goals, probably as a defence mechanism in case they don’t work out – that’s not good enough).

We must truly believe in what we want to do and in fact the best thing is to put God right at the centre of it, because the bible tells us that in whatever we plan, it is God that directs/establishes our footsteps;

“The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”
[Proverbs 16:9].

In addition to this, we can ask for help and accountability from those around us (the right people), but above all, ask God for direction and guidance.

Ask Him to first clarify the vision/goal/dream/desire. Tell Him that you want to see it clearly, so you’re able to know exactly what you’re going to do with it.

When you get the answer, Write It Down… Write out your goal as you’ve been inspired to fulfil it.

In Habakkuk 2:2-3, God describes the power that there is in scribing a vision, He says two things that we can take and apply to writing our goals – when we write them clearly, we will know exactly what we want to do, and also though it may not happen immediately, we should have faith that it will certainly take place.
Therefore write it down clearly, put it somewhere you can see it.
Put it somewhere accessible so you can always refer back to it.

Also when resetting these goals, I want us to aspire to achieve the best version of it. So as I mentioned, no sub-standards, and no short-lived goals (e.g. I’ll see if I can give up smoking for a month first) – No, I want us to run with the biggest version of the vision, then intricately plan towards how we will get there step by step.

Rather than think small to start off with and then settle if things don’t work out, saying ‘It was only meant to be for a month anyway’,
Think big, then plan towards it, and with God as your guide, you will surely get there.

I mustn’t end this message without saying congratulations and well done to the people who have stuck to their New Year plans – I pray for a continued strength for you month after month, year after year, and I pray that whatever you have given up or taken up, will remain as it ought to be in order to always please the Most High God, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

One thing we should all remember is that even if today doesn’t go to plan, let us not wait until next month, or next year to give it another shot.
Each new day provides a new grace and a fresh opportunity for us to get it right.
So friend, please keep going with your dreams and visions, and no matter how long it takes, keep working hard to become the best version of you there is!

I’m rooting for you, and praying for you.

Keep the Faith, Don’t Stop Believing
God Bless you.