2017: LESSONS LEARNT

LESSONS THE HOLY SPIRIT TAUGHT ME ON PATIENCE

2017 has been a wonderful year for me quite frankly, I did things I’d never have thought myself capable of doing and accomplished some wonderful feats. All these beautiful reports didn’t happen overnight mind you, there was always a constant effort to push and keep pushing, there were lots of frustrating moments, depressing moments, and even sad ones. There was a lot of trial and error involved in my learning process and also times I hated myself for not being good enough and for not being up to standard.

Through it all however, God’s Holy Spirit was there with me to guard, to guide and to teach, and I want to share with you the lesson I learnt on patience this year.

If you ever ask me ‘what fruit of the Spirit do you exercise the least?’ I don’t think I’ll even give a thought before I mention patience. I always tell people that when God was creating me, and depositing in me attributes for my personality, he ran out of stock on patience and just had to send me down to earth without it.

I hate waiting; patience to me is more of a waste of time than a virtue. 

I hate waiting in line, I hate waiting for food, I hate waiting for people, I hate waiting for my phone to stop hanging, I hate waiting for anything and everything! Worse off, I hate waiting for myself. I love learning new things, however, if I don’t learn as quickly as I usually do, I start hating myself for not being good enough, I start hating myself for not being able to do whatever, all because I’m not patient enough to wait for myself to learn. If I’m wearing a fitted long skirt and I have to take short steps as I walk I can’t bear to be patient enough to wait for one foot to land on the ground as I walk. It’s that bad.

In my journey with God and relationship with Him, I hate that I’m at one level of my spiritual life and moving forward is such a long and slow process. God had to teach me this year, that there is a process to things, you don’t just emerge. A flower doesn’t just bloom; a caterpillar doesn’t just become a butterfly, in life there is a metamorphosis process that can never be ignored. 

I learnt that there is a process to everything and you don’t just emerge, you have to be patient and you have to trust the process.

I was listening to Travis Greene’s ‘You Waited’ last night and I realised just how patient God is. He also wants to see us bloom and emerge as beautiful butterflies, but He knows He has to take us through a making process and He does so patiently, even when we mess up, even when we fail. He patiently takes us back to the drawing board and teaches us everything we need to learn. I went back to all the times in my life that my parents, my teachers, my friends and loved ones, just weren’t patient enough with me, I recollected their disappointments, frustrations, anger and annoyance and I tried to imagine if God ever had any of those feelings towards me. I recalled all the times I’d given up on certain things, all the times I’d gone into depression and hated myself just because I couldn’t be patient enough to allow myself learn, and I realised that God was still there, patiently waiting to teach me. Even when I sinned He patiently waited for me to come back to him.

All the times I wasn’t patient enough for me, he was always there waiting patiently.

I learnt that God didn’t run out of stock on patience when creating me, I know that I am created in His likeness; if he can be patient, so can I.

I know that all his works are good, and I am assured that as He created me, he put in a good measure of patience, I just find it hard to exercise the patience he gave me that’s all. I’m going to have to dig deep and ask the Holy Spirit to help me find the patience that He deposited in me from creation and help me to use it maximally.

Where would I be, if you left me?

In all honesty, I really don’t want to know. I don’t want to know where I would be if God hadn’t waited, just so he could teach me patience.

What Amazing Grace, that you’ve shown so patiently,

And you waited for me, just for me

Oh oh oh.

Thank you Jesus, for Amazing Grace.

Advertisements

Àyànfé: The King’s Beloved

PRAYER II

If you’re looking to develop your prayer life, here are some tips. They worked for me and I hope they work for you too.

First off, you need to stop thinking of prayer as a straight-laced, military-regimented kind of exercise. Open your mind to God, see it instead as a conversation with your Maker, the One who owns the Universe, talk to God as you would a close friend and then, just flow. Tell him anything and everything.

Second, I believe it essential for you to know yourself and know your limit. A friend once told me of how she wanted to get serious with her prayer life and decided to go an hour a day. It didn’t work out eventually. You should know your limit, if you’re not a person who is used to prayer. Start small, maybe 15 minutes a day, then gradually increase your prayer time as you get better. I started with an hour a week, gradually I increased to 30 minutes a day, then 45 minutes a day and on and on. Prayer is a gradual process. Do not neglect the process.

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit is also key to enjoying prayer time. When the Spirit communes with you often (and this can take on several forms) you’ll find yourself looking forward to prayer time just to enjoy those blessed moments with Him.

Finally, I’ll suggest that you get a prayer partner. Someone who you’re comfortable with who can pray for you and you can also pray for, or you could even join a prayer group. 

Try these tips and if you notice an improvement in your prayer life don’t hesitate to share your testimony with me. 

Feel free to comment other healthy tips to growing your prayer life, I’d love to hear from you. 

Don’t hesitate to shar  if this post has blessed you, you never know who could be in need of it. 

Goodnight

👑 Àyànfé 

PRAYER

In case no one noticed, I’ve been putting efforts into finishing EXP #1. That story has dragged on for way too long, but I hate forcing myself to write, so… here we are.

___________

I think I’m making being a Christian Blogger a whole lot harder than it should be really, and I just hate leaving my blog without posting when I am when I am well within the means to post, so I asked the Holy Spirit and he was like why don’t you write about prayer?

So… anyone who knows me or at least the person I have/am becom(e/ing) in recent times probably knows I love to pray. I try not to joke with prayer time.

I wasn’t always like this though. In fact there was a time I used to dread going to church and prayer really. But after I realised that I couldn’t continue treating God like a backup plan, I became serious with my relationship with Him.

Becoming serious with prayer though… That was work. Real work. I don’t even know why, but at a point in my life stringing words together during prayer session was just too daunting a task. It was too stressful. Thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, because once I received the Holy Ghost baptism praying in known tongues became a thing of the past. So speaking in tongues helped me during prayer. Alot.

I’ve met a lot of people who would rather worship than pray, and nobody should get me wrong, worship is good, it’s also a form of prayer. However, prayer; real and actual Kabashing is still needed. Some things just have to be prayed. Some prayers just have to be made. Yes, worship unlocks God’s heart to us and all, but when his heart is open we need to make supplication for ourselves and others and this is done only through prayer.

Prayer simply is the key and we need to become serious with it.

Next post I’ll discuss some tips to developing your prayer life, so if you’re interested click the link tomorrow evening.

A.N.T.I.C.I.P.A.T.E

👑 Àyànfé

EXP #1.26

EXP #1 has been made easier to read. In all installments, along with the authors note, there are navigation pointers attached to guide you to either the previous post (which has << inserted before the attached links) or the next post (which has >> before the attached link). To get other installments of EXP #1 search for the category EXP #1 in the search box and this will bring out all EXP #1 posts in the order of newest to oldest.

<<EXP #1.25

Or click here to start over from EXP #1

_____________

Brino” Bruno said to me through the phone later that night.

“Stop disturbing me I want to sleep” I told him, hoping my tone was nasty enough to put him off. He’d been calling me non-stop since I hung up on him earlier today when he told me that he’d not been able to get anything tangible off the Slave Master’s computer, causing me to have an asthma attack in vain.

“Brino I’m sorry” he said.

“Is that all? Can I go to bed now?” I snapped.

“No” he said.

“What else?” I asked impatiently.

“Did you see Walter today?”

“What do you mean ‘Did I see Walter?’ How would I be able to see Walter, I’m locked up in this place all day” I was already annoyed.

“I saw him at the Slave Master’s house” Bruno said.

“What?” all my previous emotions were replaced by curiosity.

“Yeah, he came in as I was leaving, at first I wasn’t sure it was him, but one of the men greeted him and called his name, confirming my suspicion”

“What was Walter doing here?” I asked nonplussed.

“I don’t know. That’s why I called to ask if you saw him”

“No, I didn’t” I said to him as my head started spinning in different directions.

Walter was part of the den of thieves I used to move with before I met Bruno. He was Idris’ right-hand man; just like he’d found me and took me in, Idris had done same for Walter years before he met me and they were totally inseparable. You know how people say no smoke without fire? Well, Walter was the smoke to Idris’ fire.

I sat on my bed and sighed into the phone.

What business did Walter have with the Slave Master?

Did Idris know of Walter’s business with the Slave Master?

My head was a tangle of jumbled thoughts as I thought back to the last time I’d seen Walter, it was at a party nearly 2 months ago, a party Bruno had advised me not to go to. When I first saw him, I turned in the other direction hoping he hadn’t seen me, later events of the night had proven otherwise as Walter and a bunch of my other old friends had come up to me, we started talking and one thing led to another, he eventually dared me to steal a car; the car that landed me in my current situation if I might add.

“Brino, Brino, are you still there?” Bruno asked.

“Yeah” I replied slowly as I surfaced from the sea of my thoughts “Yeah, I’m here. I was just thinking of the last time I saw Walter”

“What happened?”

“He dared me to steal a car” I replied simply.

“Oh” Bruno said “… wait… you don’t mean…”

I could practically see the wheels spinning in his head so I kept quiet.

“You don’t mean that car. The Slave Master’s car? Right?”

I sighed into the phone giving him his answer.

“Coincidence much?” I finally said with a humourless laugh.

“Could it be a coincidence? Really?” Bruno voiced out my very thoughts.

The person who had dared me to a steal car, ended up in the house of the very person who owned the car I stole, while I was on house arrest there. What were the odds of that?

“It has to be a co-incidence” I said into the phone with doubt injected heavy into my words “it just has to be. Walter dared me to break into any car I wanted, it was a full parking lot and he wouldn’t have known the car I’d pick.”

My head was spinning wildly; I could feel my brain overheating already. I analysed everything from that night up to the present moment. Nothing was making sense.
I heard Bruno sigh into the phone moments later, as I recalled events that had taken place today and I was tempted to tell Bruno of the deal I made with the Slave Master just this evening, the only thing that stopped me was the statement the Slave Master made after I shook his hand.

“One more thing” he’d said through his devilish smile.

I blinked ‘what?’

“No one, no one at all must find out about this. Understood?”

I nodded yes.

“Alright, good night” at that he shifted his chair and left me alone in the dinning room.

“Bruno I’m tired” I said into the phone at last.

“Yeah, me too” he sighed “good night”

>>EXP #1.27

AUTHOR’S NOTE: RIGHT SIDE UP JONAH STORY

Lemme just drop this.

*closes eyes and takes a deep breath*

My blog has been inactive for 2 months now. I had to take an exam this past month and I feel that’s excuse enough for being offline.

But in all honesty I’ve been running. I’ve been playing Jonah with my writing. I was having a conversation with someone early this year and we got to my writing and the person told me something along the lines of ‘what is the point of writing if you’re not writing for God?’ After May, I felt the urge to make my blog a Christian blog and I started running. Writing became a huge challenge because it meant I won’t just close my eyes and whip something up from the depths of my imagination whenever I wanted to post; it meant I’d have to ask the Holy Spirit for help and wait for him to answer and give me the go-ahead. And sometimes it feels like I can do without God (I can’t BTW) Like why do I need his help when it comes to writing? This is like my thing; why should I ask for help? Why do I need monitoring? Why do I need to ask permission? And so on and so forth.

So it began. I started playing Jonah sometime in July, posting sporadically. A friend of mine told me that my posts were losing their buzz, what was happening to me? I was thoroughly discouraged and I kept on playing Jonah. I explained the whole situation to another friend and he told me ‘Best to write by the leading of the Spirit and touch one person’s life than for everyone to praise my posts and there’s no difference.’ His words were such an encouragement but I still kept playing Jonah.

I didn’t want to share my struggles on my blog and it’s like God wanted me to do the very thing I didn’t want to do. So as usual, when my will clashes with his, nothing works out till his will is done.

So here I am back from my hiatus (I love that word). I’m done playing Jonah. It’s time to let go. Jesus take the wheel, Im’ma be in the back seat from now on. Writing this, the heavy burden that has been on my chest–which prevented me from doing what I love for over 2 months– has been lifted.

Piece of advice: Don’t resist the will of God, it’s futile (I learnt from experience)

So… I’m back!!!

Who missed me?

👑 Àyànfé Oba (the King’s Beloved)

Happy New Month.

Happy Independence Day to all Nigerians.

God bless Nigeria.