The Journey to Purpose Part Five

Success Stories

Hey, my lovelies, how are you all doing? How has your week been so far? Have you been able to take out time to rest and recharge? It is very important that one should take some time to just rest and draw strength from our Father. I love what Jesus says in:

Matthew 11:28

²⁸ “Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Then come to me.^[a] I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis.^(TPT)

This is from the passion translation! It is really encouraging and refreshing, Jesus is always calling us unto his rest, let us take advantage of it; drop your burdens and worries at his feet because He cares for you! Jesus said in Matthew 6:27 that worrying doesn’t add anything to your life, so beloved let us drop it all at His feet and go to Him.

Wow, I can’t believe we are coming to an end of our Purpose Series and indeed it has been a journey! I did promise you that I have amazing articles coming to you this week! I had the privilege to speak to wonderful ladies that are also on this journey and they agreed to share their stories with you isn’t that just amazing! I cannot wait to learn from them, and I am sure you will too. I love hearing success stories and just people sharing their journey because there is always a blessing in there, lessons, inspiration and just knowing that you are not alone, and you too can triumph! Everyone has a story no matter how small or big it is. 

Today we will be visited by Praise Adebayo:

Praise will be sharing with us on her own journey to purpose, where she is, how she is posturing herself and how she is dealing with the challenges that she is facing in her current season. I believe you will be blessed and be encouraged to continue on your own journey to purpose as you read. Enjoy! 

My wilderness journey experience

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My name is Praise Adebayo, I am currently in the wilderness season, in this season God has been pruning me and drawing me closer to himself. He is helping me to understand that it is not about the gift but rather the giver. It is a season where it looks like all my prayers for material things are not being answered and this can sometimes make one lose faith or be discouraged. In the midst of this I believe God is doing a deeper work in me, He is calling me to come up hither and build stature so that I will be able to stand in my growth and harvest seasons. Most times when God gives us a vision or assignment, we are sometimes too quick to implement and then we realise that we are running on our own strength and wisdom forgetting that it was not our vision in the same place. 

The principle of seed, time and harvest applies to everything in life, most times, we try to jump from seed to harvest and remove time from the equation. We don’t know that the majority of the work is done during time.

The best posture to take in the wilderness season is to spend time praying and labouring in the word and also obeying promptly every instruction God gives. For me, as an intercessor and a watchman, I am extremely sensitive to any burden He places on my heart, praying for anybody He asks me to pray for. I have learnt not to release every word of prophecy God gives me except He tells me to. I am taking a position of stillness and rest in Him because that is what He will have me do.

Your instruction in your wilderness season will be different and tailor made based on where God is sending you to, so as much as it is good to learn from others, always go to God for your own instructions. Don’t make a doctrine out of other people’s experience so that you don’t step out of your own unique path. 

One of the major challenges I have faced in this season, is deconstructing certain religious mindsets I was raised with, which I have been able to overcome by coming with a teachable heart to the Holy Spirit. One of the prayers I pray when studying my Bible is that I have an encounter with the Spirit and not the letter. The Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible, not man, so as great as it is to have spiritual parents and pastors that you listen to, the Holy Spirit should be your number one teacher. Another thing that has helped me is praying the Ephesians 1:17-21 prayer.

I have also come to the understanding that you don’t have to explain everything to people, it is between you and God. My advice would be that you enjoy your journey, don’t be in a hurry, stay through the process and enjoy each and every step.

Love Praise Adebayo 

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The Journey to Purpose Part Four Understanding Opposition

Hey, my lovelies how has your week been? I hope you are enjoying the journey to purpose so far, and the series has been beneficial to you! I believe you have gained a different perspective on your ploughing and growth seasons and you are able to apply the knowledge you are learning. For those that are just reading this post welcome to the family and please do make yourself at home. We have been on the journey to purpose and this is part 4 which means you have some catching up to do! So, before you proceed ensure you read parts one, two and three.  I have been tremendously blessed doing this with you guys and I thank God for the opportunity! Meanwhile, can you guys see what I have done on the home page? Nice right? I have added more categories to help you navigate topics that are most relevant to you. 

The Journey to Purpose Part Three Growth

Hey, my lovelies how are you all? I trust you are keeping well and safe and just thanking God in all seasons! Remember we spoke about it in part two of this series. Now can we just take time to appreciate God, I don’t know about you, but I have been blessed! Wow, it has been an amazing two weeks of light and revelation. Now if you have been following the series, I would really like to hear from you, how has it been for you? leave your comments or send me an email and if you are just joining us I welcome you to the party. Please feel free and make yourself at home, I would suggest you go through part one and part two of this series before you proceed to this one; so that you get the context. 

The Journey to Purpose Part Two

Hey, my lovelies, how are you doing? Hope you had a great week and are looking forward to the weekend. Even though it might not feel like a weekend, take time out to rest, recharge and treat yourself! You deserve it. I want to welcome you to part two of the Journey to purpose whoop! Part one was really heavy, I learnt a lot from it myself and I got so much feedback from you guys, thank you for the support. Now we are going to dive right in. Just a recap from part one; we looked at why we found ourselves in the ploughing (wilderness or silent) season and there were three points that we focused on:

1. God is calling you to himself
2. God wants to nourish you 
3. God wants to plant a divine vision in you 

Amazing! Now that we know why we are in this season; we can then look at how to respond to it. Now if you are reading this for the first time and you have not read part one, I will encourage you to head over to part one and feast on that before you start with this one -that way you are fully equipped. 

In this post, I will be sharing on how you can respond to the ploughing season. It is very important to respond rightly, and I will show you why shortly. I want us to draw some lessons from the Israelites journey to the promised land.  When God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, the journey to the promised land was only supposed to take 40 days. However, the journey took a good 40 years! Because of their attitude and how they responded to that process. I will encourage you to go and read the book of Exodus in the bible for further studying. We will look at a few things that they did that prolonged their days in the wilderness.  Even though the children of Israel where happy that God finally delivered them from Egypt, they constantly walked in disobedience; they grumbled, complained, sinned, and were ungrateful, that is why it took them years! 

Ways to respond to the ploughing season

1. Obedience

What does God want you to do in this season? What is that thing He has placed in your heart? Is He asking you to just spend uninterrupted time with Him to fellowship and study His word? Whatever it is He has told you to do or there is a prompting in your heart; just do it! Just OBEY! It could be as simple as coming off social media for a while because he wants to work on your heart, maybe you compare yourself to others and He wants to heal that insecurity. Praise God! So, whatever it is, whatever instruction the Lord gives to you just obey. When you are faithful in the little things through obedience God trusts you with much more. Don’t be like the Israelite’s, when God gave them an instruction most times most of them did the opposite of what God said not to do.  God instructed Moses that the people shouldn’t keep manner for the next day, they should just gather what they need. However, the people didn’t listen.

Exodus 16:19

‘Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” ²⁰ But they did not listen to Moses…’

2. Gratitude

When you obey God and are faithful in what he wants you to do per time, you will see that clarity starts to come to you and He starts to reveal the next steps to you. you will begin to see clearly and hear clearly. So beloved just obey!

One thing that was consistent with the children of Israel was being ungrateful. Even though God did mighty things in their midst, miracle upon miracle yet they still complained and quickly forgot what God did for them. Gratitude is important, always be grateful for what God has done for you. There is always something to be grateful for. Take time to remember the miracles God did for you, the victories He won for you! Amen. Count your blessings and name them one by one. The bible always tells us to give thanks in everything:

1^st Thessalonians 5:18

‘give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’

Don’t complain, every time you find yourself in a place of complaining or grumbling just meditate on the goodness of God! Even if at that present moment you can’t see His hand. He is calling you to see His heart, He is calling you to see His person, to build a relationship that is not based on what He can do for you but who He is to you. Hallelujah! 

3. Comparison

This is a major one for me because I have been there! avoid comparison, don’t compare yourself to others! your life is not their life. You are unique, you are an individual, God created you to be different, embrace that difference! When you start comparing yourself to others you will start getting distracted, you might lose focus on what God is trying to do in your life. You might have to take some deliberate actions towards this, for example, you might have to cut down on social media or come off it for a while; until you come to a place where you no longer compare yourself with others.  Comparison can lead you to start an expression in the flesh that God didn’t plant! So be healed of comparison! You don’t want to lose focus. Instead of comparing yourself to others, why don’t you study them? especially if you see yourself in them or they resemble the vision and call on your life. Read about their journey, draw lessons from it, etc. Most times we are comparing our ploughing season to someone’s harvest season.  I have an entire post on this topic, if you are struggling with comparison, I encourage you to check it out HERE

4. Don’t look back

When you are going through this journey there is always a tendency to look back, we have this famous phrase we like to use “the good old days”. In the good old days when I was still working as this and that when I was still single when I didn’t have kids etc. Yet, some of these things are things you prayed to God for. Don’t be like the children of Israel who kept saying it was better in Egypt, meanwhile, they forgot that they prayed for deliverance and waited for years to be taken to their promised land. This is a tool of distraction! don’t entertain it, fix your eyes on where God is taking you. If you keep looking back, you will miss out on what God is doing.  I just love the scripture in: 

Isaiah 43:19

‘See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.’

This scripture makes me leap for joy each time I read it! It is so assuring especially in this season.  Don’t lose sight of what God is doing, He is doing a new thing! Praise God! So be encouraged and don’t give in! embrace this season with all your heart. Ask God what he is trying to show you or teach you? Open your heart to Him and let the Master do His work. 

Love always Lisa Maxwell 

The Journey to Purpose Part One

Hey, my lovelies, how is everyone keeping? Thank you for your support I really appreciate it, it encourages me to continue to write.  Last post we spoke about time management and creating effective life systems. I hope you transferred that knowledge into action and went ahead to create your own life system. If you did, how has it been working for you so far? Has it made a difference? How do you feel?  And if you are reading this for the first time and you are wondering what a life system is, I encourage you to read the previous post on HOW TO MAXIMISE YOUR TIME.  I assure you; you will thank me later.  Right let’s dive right in. 

HOW TO MAXIMISE YOUR TIME IN THIS SEASON

Hey friends, how are you keeping? I know we have all been hit with the crisis that is going on in the world and a lot has happened. As we stay safe and heed to the governments plead to stay in our homes, how has it been for you? depressing, boring, energetic, creative, relaxing? I don’t know what category you fall into, but I am sure we are not feeling the same about this lockdown and we are definitely all tired! I just want to share a few things that have been helping me go through this lockdown with my two sons all under six and my husband. 

There Is Hope

There is Hope!

Hello everyone, so glad to see you here! I love the support, thank you so much.  Today I just want to share what has been going on in my mind lately. With everything happening on the news and in society as a whole, it can get to you; you start to ask questions and if you are a parent you start worrying about your children’s future and so on.  While it seems like all we are hearing is gloom and doom, my dear readers there is hope! And what is this hope you say?  See while all this was going on in my mind, the Holy Spirit reminded me who I was and to whom I belong to.  And that brought peace to my heart because I know who I belong to and I know who I am in Christ.  Therefore, I refuse to fear or entertain fearful thoughts. The word of God tells me to renew my mind (Romans 12:2) with his word! So instead of feeding myself with the negativity and fear that the media is pouring out, I chose to feed myself with the TRUTH! Which is the word of God. And I just want to encourage you my dear readers today that there is hope!

Never take things too personal

Greetings to you beloved we meet again, yes, I agree it has been a while, but I am here just taking life one step at a time and literally depending on the Holy Spirit for each step I take. Meanwhile I would like to believe that you my dear reader are also doing fine and taking life a step at a time and embracing each step with gratitude. Now let us get into todays topic. 

The Validation Trap

Are you always feeling the need to seek validation from others for you to know that you are walking in purpose? A lot of times, even if we do not know we are seeking validation from people around us or from others in general, I feel like subconsciously we find ourselves doing it.  The problem with that is you will end up being stressed out, burnt out, frustrated and soon you will end up packing up and giving up on your goals and visions and everything that you have set out to do.

Prayer & Fasting Episode 2

 1st Corinthians 13:4-8 says “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

I was inspired to name this episode Love, because love is the greatest thing.

Prayer&Fasting EP02

I hope you were blessed by it, please share this with your loved ones and friends!