If there were no darkness in the beginning of God's creation there would be no need for Light to shine into God's creation. There was night so we could have what is called a morning. Hence, if there were no challenges how we will enjoy the miracle of God? We must see challenges as a disguise for God's miracle. As we saw in the first and second parts of this topic, God is not responsible for all challenges and in the second article, we saw that Jesus also faced diverse challenges and he didn’t for once throw the towel because of the challenges. If you have a reasonable life to live, then expect challenges.
This year I have been faced with diverse challenges and adverse circumstances, just as last year. But one thing I know for certain is that the challenge that will come next will not be tougher than the first that came because you would have grown a tougher skin to face any other one coming. Also, after facing a challenge, you should learn the lessons and you will become wiser and built up by the experience. Lastly, you will have what to say to lift others in that situation out of predicament.
I just finished preaching in church on a Wednesday evening with a smile on my cheeks and while walking back home, I started thinking about diverse things and I became very overwhelmed and broke down in tears. There are things I am trusting God for but I'm yet to see it happen. When I got to the house, while I was in tears and pain, I sat up speaking all of my heart out as though God was physically sitting right beside me. I truly wanted to hear God speak to me at that moment. Even when God was speaking to me I couldn't hear him speak because I'd been taken by the pain. So, I cried all my tears out till I couldn't sleep. I began to desire to sleep and not wake up. Just in twenty-four hours, I had slept over seven times (unlike me who hardly sleeps once a day). I was forcing sleep so I won't remember I was going through anything at all. The following day, I decided not to talk to God in prayer again and I planned to watch at least over 10 movies while away time without talking to God. The very first movie I saw was "Answer" which changed my view about God (God is an African is the movie's title). I watched that movie with tears and nagging. Angry at the authors for such a well-scripted movie of Faith. I started feeding on almost all of Reverend Kenneth E Hagins's E-Books on Faith. I devoured 4 books at a go! The longing for God came! Just like Moses, I wanted to see something that would change my entire life. That longing is still right here as I type.
In the middle of my longing for God and feeding on Faith, my mobile phone got spoilt, it was quite expensive for me to get it fixed at that time and that was what I used mainly for work. I had read Faith, so I had to put to work what I had read. I laid my hand on my phone and declared on it for it to start working very well. For over four hours my phone was not charging but Faith said, "It's working when I prayed". I had a way in my mind I wanted the phone to get restored but God had a plan which I wanted my way to overrule (and that's where we miss it most times and it leads to frustration). We can't control God, he created us. On the next day, I got to meet with a friend and while talking we both fixed it with no experience in phone repair. It was during my devotion three days later that I heard God say, "Do you know I answered your prayer through a man?" I was just laughing vehemently hearing that. In this same year, diverse pains and sicknesses came but I could trust in God's power because I had seen him work before, so I knew he wouldn't stop working now. I have chosen not to doubt God because He's ever faithful.
Below are what you need during those hard challenges:
- Keep your Devotion: Ensure you are consistent with the study of God’s word and pray with the scriptures like you used to do before the circumstance came. Keep your devotion because you will hear God while observing it. What the devil seeks is to stop you from being consistent with that devotion and once he succeeds you will find yourself not interested in God or staying around God's people.
- Keep your supernatural relationship: This is so vital because we were not born into isolation. We came through a family, and it was a family that watched us grow. Even our Lord Jesus who is God on earth came through a family. There are godly relationships that we have found ourselves in supernaturally, for times like this ensure you keep yourself around them. They might be a member of your local Church or friends of like minds. They will help you to be in check and also encourage you in situations like this and the best way to sustain such a relationship is by being open and sincere to them.
- Accountability: What sustains a godly relationship is accountability. Everyone must be open enough to be transparent with such a circle of friends so that they can serve as a watch and also lift you in prayer at all times. What the devil does is shut your mouth so you won't speak to such friends and when you are not speaking up, your words will be filled with complaints and pains which will keep you drowning. So don't keep shut but rather be accountable to your spiritual leaders and the godly friends the Lord has placed around you.
- Learn to Speak: Your mouth was not given to you primarily to eat but to make confessions, and to speak to God. Don't let the devil win by shutting your mouth. Romans 10:9-10 made us know that through confessing the Lord Jesus with our mouths and believing God raised Jesus from death, we got our salvation. Every time you hear words that judge and condemn you in your mind, or that keep making you doubt, fearful and anxious, it's time to scream SATAN GET LOST! Once you shout and believe this, Faith will arouse in You.
- Stay Faith-filled: How to know whether you are in faith or not is by listening to what you are saying. Check your words if they are still the same as those words you were speaking when there weren't challenges. Don't forget to be faith-filled knowing that God didn't step out of your boat when the storm came, he is waiting for you to bid him to step into the storm and say, "Peace be still". As I first mentioned, fill your heart with God's word and pray those words. Surround yourself with songs that will stir you to long for God. To be faith-filled is for you to stand, facing the challenges and never breaking down. The devil is not a factor, he can't break you down if you don't permit it.
ACTION STEPS
- There are many people in the same situation that you are faced with, and they scaled through and never attacked their commitment to God. So, ensure your commitment to God in all situations is never attacked.
- A generation is tied to your neck, if you scale through it, many will sit at your feet to draw out the wealth of wisdom that you have birthed from the challenges.
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