P U R G E

P U R G E

Hello Friends! Happy New Month…trust you are staying prayed up (if you follow me on IG, you should have picked up that word), staying safe and just being good in general. One thing I want you to be rest assured is that “THIS TOO SHALL PASS” and I also want to encourage us not to let the data popping up on the news consume us.

For a lot of us this abrupt change is overwhelming and for others it has put us, our families, our finances in a just trying to survive mode but I believe and I know for sure that God will take care of us…I have been living my life based on that promise and I have seen God keep showing up and taking care of me. Asides blogging and sharing the word of God online, I run a product based business (clothing brand) and for a business that was closed for the major part of 2019 because I was on a journey with God to realign and align my life in furtherance of fulfilling his PURPOSE & living life just the way I have been predestined to.

I can tell that this season is a difficult one, I had just onboarded new staffs in February and by mid-march, we are on a lockdown and while this lockdown is on, bills are pilling up, things have to be taken care of but the truth is “I AM AT PEACE” in every area (ONE WITH GOD IS MAJORITY), I know whose I am. To be honest, some days I want to take thoughts of my tomorrow but I am daily reminded of his instruction in Philippians 4:6-7 which says be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication make your request known to God; I love the way the Passion Translation renders it “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding will make answers known to you through Jesus Christ

So, believe me when I say “He would take care of you” “His design is not an everlasting suffer or pain, remember the promise in Jeremiah 29:10-11 This is God’s word on the subject: as soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home, I know what I am doing. I have it all planned out-plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

 All you must do is maintain the right POSTURE of someone whose total reliance is on God, someone who knows and understands who has promised and who is expectant of the fulfillment of his promises over their lives and WATCH HIM show up.

Diving into our main subject for today titled PURGE, this word has been a reoccurring word for me since last week, I shared two different posts on Instagram talking about it, firstly it stemmed from a prayer “Lord Search my heart & know my way, if there is any wicked way, cleanse, sanctify, rid & purge it all away”. Then a few days back on Thursday to be precise, my computer went through a purging process because I was trying to download some drive files, I got a pop-up that I needed to free some space and when I clicked on the option that would take me to the contents of what I have on my drive, I picked out some files to be deleted & when the action started, the system interpreted it as a PURGING PROCESS so purging popped on the screen. This led me to furthermore meditate and study the word, the interesting thing about that process was that it helped me discover documents, files  on my computer that no longer served me but out of ignorance I had let them sit on that space.

Sometimes is not always about the craving for an external  new thing that matters, is about clearing up our inside to accommodate that new thing when it comes, sometimes it doesn’t also have to be a new thing, it could be clearing beliefs, old files in our minds that no longer serve us to make room for the useful ones being suppressed by these weeds to manifest.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO PURGE OUT OF YOUR LIFE?

For my first category of search me Lord and know my heart and see if there be any wicked way in me, we have:

Resentment, Unforgiveness, Pride, Envy/Unhealthy Competition, deceit, anger, malice

1peter 2:1-2 Therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that you may grow in respect to salvation

Then the second category inspired by the purging process of my computer we have:

Purging from unwanted files that no longer serve us and causing us not to be in the place of LIGHT /MANIFESTATION, lies of the enemy about us, limiting beliefs from past programming that have kept us from truly living and manifesting (I have a video teaching on limiting beliefs coming up soon on my social media pages) so watch out for a detailed teaching on that. The focus of this blog today is for the former category mentioned.

For the purging process to be effect, there must be actions to follow it and that is a AN INSTALLATION of the right files…you can’t afford to live your mind fallow. After you have installed these files, you go ahead to LAUNCH that is living out in line with those newly installed files and beliefs.

What are these files you may ask?

God’s words which contains God’s promises, God’s definition of you, God’s design for you to live a peaceful, joyful and an abundant life…with these you have a default response to any plot of the enemy over your life.

You know why this purging process is very important is that often we don’t take note of the effects of these things in our lives, they look unnoticed but has great harmful effects. They are stunting our spiritual growth and blocking us from truly getting blessed. They go unnoticed because as spirit filled, tongue speaking brethren’s, these things don’t just manifest until we are faced with the triggers. We do not manifest these traits because we have chosen to be bad people or want to be bad, but the enemy has laid it in our subconscious mind, he keeps reminding you why you don’t need to forgive that fellow who has wronged you so badly and he paints a picture to justify that you are just demanding a fair judgement so what you feel is okay.

We don’t want to be like this so for each time these thoughts come and we react we feel disappointed at ourselves, personally I found myself struggling with unforgiveness not because I want to get even but in my ideal world, I want people owning up for their mistakes and rendering apologies when and where due. That spirit of not letting go fully and releasing is the plan of the enemy to keep you locked up in unforgiveness.  In my case,  I tell myself that I have totally moved on from that situation but for each time I am around the scene or the individual, I am stunned as to how they feel okay with what they have done in the past without rendering any form of apology whatsoever and I realize that when I dwell much on that incident, I am triggered…it starts feeling like I never truly moved on or forgave the person.

You know what can be holding back your blessing is that thought that wailed up in your heart in the form of envy which you treated just as a mere thought; hear what proverbs 14:30 says  a tender tranquil heart will make you healthy, but jealousy can make you sick”

Also, Job 5: 2 says Surely resentment destroys the fool, and jealousy kills the temple.

You truly do not want to keep living this way….

Now while I do not want to create a distinction of different areas of sin, notice that I didn’t mention stealing, alcoholism, sexual sin etc. that is because as believer’s most times we have gone through life changing encounter that has rid all of this out of our lives and we are encouraged to flee from every appearance of evil and because these are action bound, by the grace of God we are able to control it but the ones on the list above are tiny creepy things that we often neglect because it’s lived and carried out in our minds, those are the ones that limit and hold us back without us even knowing the source of our limitation.

How can we rid our lives of these things?

First by accepting that these vices exist and are not in sync with the word of God over our lives, so we got to let them go “all of them” Hebrews 12:1.

Secondly, make a list of the weak areas you are struggling with e.g. resentment, envy and find out the triggers, you must be vulnerable & at the same truthful to yourself.

Why do you feel this way? Why do you feel envy against your friend that just got a new job…Is it that you feel she doesn’t deserve it or she took an opportunity that belongs to you or you feel you would rather be the person excelling? Just find your own reason.

In your notepad, write out the things you have achieved by being envious, jealous and resentful and on the left side, write out what these habits/sins have cost you.

Put down the feelings that come when we live out these habits e.g. fear, insecurity, worthless, miserable.

How would you rather feel? Joyful, peaceful, blessed.

Then looking at those your list, ask yourself who is my source? Who is he that has promised to fulfil all my desires?

If it is not your friend, your friend’s employer or anywhere tied to those people or things that trigger you to feel that way then Sis is time to cry out for a SPIRITUAL PURGE and be rest assured that the Holy Spirit is with you and he would bring you the cleansing you desire but you have got to be ready to let the Holy Spirit do the transformative work while you fully yield to him.

The process of purging is so good because it would detach from one level of limitation, fear, insecurity to another level: a level of excellence. He wants to see us set free from and purged and purged from the impurities in our lives and “let’s face it, how can you live a higher life or go higher in him and advance if we still allow these things in our lives?….truly we can’t.

I encourage us all to take this spiritual exercise serious, truly try practicing the exercise above and join me to say this prayer below.

Lord thank you for the gift of life and for your love and faithfulness upon my life even when I was less deserving, thank you Lord for the knowledge of you through your word…cleanse me Lord from every gunk that is holding me back from advancing spiritually and in my everyday life. God give me a Christ like heart that truly forgives, sometimes I am hurt, broken and taken for granted and in return I want to vent, have resentments and hold onto unforgiveness, but you Lord has the ability to transform my heart not to react that way. By your mercy Lord transform my heart, let my reactions not feed from my emotions but rather from your own standpoint. Thank you Lord because I operate from a place of a renewed mind, I operate from a place of love, forgiveness, peace, joy and a better understanding of who you are to me in Jesus Name, Amen.

Do you need someone to hold your hand, encourage you while you a take step to your complete restoration & fulfilling your purpose?

Want to prayerfully seek him for alignment & realignment of your purpose?

Then the Lord has just led you to the right place, let me hold your hand & you hold mine as we prayerfully go on this journey.

Let’s do this together friends “FOR HIS GLORY “and to the shame of the Enemy.

STAY PRAYED UP!!! STAY WINNING!!! STAY BLESSED!!! STAY ENCOURAGED!!! AND ABOVE ALL ARISE & SHINE!!!

Make The Best Out of Those Past Experiences & Bloom Again.

Make The Best Out of Those Past Experiences & Bloom Again.

Happy New Week & Happy Wednesday Friends!!! It feels good to be connecting with you on this platform today, it’s been a minute #smiles. I am currently working out plans to be consistent here & give the timing of the post a rhythm. Hopefully, it won’t be long, communicating with you here brings me fulfillment & I pray each time you visit; you leave inspired. God’s plan for the blog is RESTORATION for his children.

A few days ago, I made a post on my Instagram about not letting a single mistake, bad experience, failure, rejection define your entire being, if you are yet to read it, visit @ujuhumphreyeke on IG to read (not sure when but soon, I would update the blog to the paid version so I can directly share links to my other social media platforms here, that way you just tap on the link to read the post on IG without leaving the blog page entirely).

If you are visiting the blog for the first, welcome & thank you for stopping by, you can take out some time to visit the previous posts on the blog & I pray that it inspires you & encourages you on your faith walk.

For the purpose of this post, PAST is not only tied to sin but generally every past low moment that has made us see ourselves differently or given us a false definition of ourselves; that includes past sins, past failure, past rejection, past disappointment, past financial challenge (even your present financial challenge doesn’t define you, it doesn’t mean that you are never going to get wealth) God has given us the power to get wealth according to Deuteronomy 8:18 but he also didn’t promise that the road to getting that wealth wouldn’t be bumpy, he didn’t promise that you are never going to get broke. Truthfully, being broke is part of the process to getting wealth because in that state, our trust & faith in him is tried & when we scale through that, we get a badge for unwavering faith & trust in the Father.

So, after putting out that post, I felt a leading to do a more detailed post on it giving helpful insights on how we can live past it. First thing I would like you to know is that no one I mean “NO ONE” escapes life’s cold treatments, mistakes & shocks. At one point or the other, we have been faced with situations we are not proud of, we have been faced with disappointments that make us feel there is something wrong with us, we have been faced with rejection that have had us thinking we are not good enough after all. We wear this weight round our being refusing to let go and forgive ourselves & work towards being better, I have been there multiple times…sometimes I feel worthless but I know in reality that I am not worthless and God doesn’t see me as worthless despite all of my wrongdoings, It is just a feeling that is capable of sabotaging our lives if we let it. It’s the enemy who paints that picture of worthlessness as to make us feel ashamed and run from the presence of God to where he can totally have us body, spirit & soul to perform his wicked enterprise.Thank God for his grace and the understanding of his word, my eyes have been opened to greater truth, I am learning daily to see myself the way God sees me and nothing less.

In this post I would like to share helpful insights on how to view & live past our mistakes, disappointments, rejections, failures& walk in confidence of who Christ has called us to be.

But first, let’s look at what Ecclesiastes 3: 6 says A time to get and a time to lose: a time to keep & a time to cast away… My addition “A time to mourn over your mistakes & past and a time to let them go” Your mistakes should teach you how to live better going forward & after you have learnt that lesson, you throw it away…we throw away things that have past their usefulness, we throw away old things that no longer serve us, you have learnt that lesson from your mistake let it go.

Some reminders of God’s promises towards handling your past mistakes (The points below deal with past sins/mistakes but we can also channel same promises to deal with failures, rejections & disappointments)

  • Your past of shame is forgiven in Christ & now Christ wants to use you to show off to the world. We all have sinful pasts but none of them is out of reach of God’s mercy. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful & just to forgive us our sins & cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Think of men & women that God used in the bible despite their sinful past, look at Paul persecuting early Christians, Rahab the prostitute that protected the Hebrew spies etc. God wants your name recorded in his book.
  • Your past no longer defines you; 2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. So, in the case of a past mistake or sin, when you fully repent and rededicate your life to Christ, he says all things would become new. He didn’t say somethings would become new while you still walk around with that baggage of guilt & shame. All things becoming new includes your heart, your attitude, the way you see yourself etc. Yes, I get how difficult it is to forget what has happened to us, truthfully it can’t be wiped away from our memory but allow it to remain where it belongs -the past. The flashes would pop up occasionally but when your mind is renewed in Christ, you view it differently, you don’t start reliving and internalizing it. Allowing guilt from the past will only cripple you spiritually and otherwise, conviction by God’s spirit is okay because it leads to repentance and freedom.

Insights to Making the Best Out of Your Past & Walking in Confidence

  • Allow your past to shape you but do not dwell there: For a long time, I down played myself because a particular circumstance made me feel I wasn’t that special anyways so instead of aiming for the front row, I was okay being average because I felt I wasn’t qualified to stand in front. That single incident made me doubt everything I believed about myself. The Lord doesn’t want you wallowing in past failures instead he wants you to move forward & make wise decisions to become much better. He wants your mind renewed. Your past unquestionably shapes your character & reputation, but you are not to dwell there. We are not even supposed to dwell on good past achievements resting on our laurels instead of considering fresh opportunities.
  • Create a liberation channel with those past experiences; The consequences of that past failure can be used to transform lives positively; your past may suggest opportunities to help others. I have always wanted to run a blog as a channel to inspire & reassure people of the promises of God upon their lives, my blog as at 2013 when I created the very first one was supposed to be a channel to share God’s word. It didn’t quite go as planned coupled with my long period of complacency &distractions, but God got my attention back & I began blogging, my experience from that period of distraction framed a unique direction for the blog. Now is not just about sharing God’s word but to targeted souls who have fallen by the way side in their walk & have lost sight of the restoration power of God, the blog teaches on the assurance of Gods complete restoration tabled with life experiences, I didn’t choose that direction for the blog but the grace of God transformed that story for his glory. For that not so beautiful experience that hunts you, how about you surrender it to God & prayerfully ask him to use it for his glory.
  • Your past circumstances can’t be changed but you can be changed: the future is yet to be determined and can be influenced when you become a changed person.

Practical Test: Recall that one time you performed badly in an exam be it a job test or school test, instead of dwelling on that failure, how about you start ruling out the poor reading habits or maybe you read /prepared well, how about seeking help & looking out for people that have travelled that road to give you a guide. You could move from failure to excellent, do not choose to play small & settle for average.

In conclusion, your past has as much power as you give to it, drop the baggage, seek fresh meaning, seek restoration, seek help, seek to be better, embrace God & watch him transform your life.

Prayer

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of life, thank you for protection, preservation & provision. Your grace has kept me thus far & that is a proof you still want me here, it’s a proof that you are not done with me yet. I know I have sabotaged my life by allowing my pasts to define & shape my life. Dear Lord, I repent from taking away & for giving a false identity to ME your beloved creation.

I have gotten my share of life’s troubles, challenges, and mistakes, most times I want to live & move past it, but the flashes keep popping up & has overtime framed the way I see myself. Dear Lord, I believe in your restoration power, restore me Lord & give me the grace to see me the way you see me. I do not want to keep reliving & revisiting that past failure, sin, rejection & disappointments. Open my eyes Lord & show me ways to channel those hurtful pasts to useful tools to help others and to your Glory. I am laying all baggage at your feet & I move on restored, forgiven, renewed & blessed. I reclaim my identity in Jesus Name, Amen.

Do you need someone to hold your hand, encourage you while you a take step to your complete restoration & fulfilling your purpose?

Want to prayerfully seek him for alignment & realignment of your purpose?

Then the Lord has just led you to the right place, let me hold your hand & you hold mine as we prayerfully go on this journey.

Let’s do this together friends “FOR HIS GLORY “and to the shame of the Enemy.

STAY WINNING!!! STAY BLESSED!!! STAY ENCOURAGED!!! AND ABOVE ALL ARISE & SHINE!!!