#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry by ME

I am so grateful to God and the participants of this challenge. I started it thinking only my friends would participate as per moral support but I got 37 entries and I didn't know quite a number of them personally. I cried and I asked God why this challenge and through the weeks I realised God wants to make himself known through us. I heard a saying that goes "it's easier to live holy than speak boldly". The devil doesn't want us to talk on here. We can be reading our bibles, speaking to God in our rooms as long as we don't speak about our relationships with God to others. It's just fine 👌🏾 BUT NAAAAHH! I'm gonna speak. God has been working on me since day 1 and I'm still learning under his feet but if I don't share then I'm wicked because I know where the cure is at and I'm not telling my friends, my family or others. God has been my sustainer, my inhaler, my speed, my heart, my lover and best friend.

So the HOLY SPIRIT, speaks to me in different ways and he confirms his direction.
I'll share two stories so that you can understand.
I try as much as possible to read my bible but it's not just only  reading and studying, you have to let that word SPEAK LIFE into your spirit. You can read the bible front to back and still have NO UNDERSTANDING. So I prayed last year at the beginning of the academic session and asked God to help me be attentive to what he has to say. I started a new pattern for studying the word. I didn't just do it in the morning or night. Any where I was I will read it, speak it and all. One day I was at church and I had an argument with a lady older than me by 4-5 years. It escalated that we exchanged a few words. I don't know what happened but I wasn't in control of my emotions that day. Not to sound childish but she started the quarrel. You know the way some church aunties can behave😭😭 so I go back to my flat and Told God I CANT apologies to her because if we lay facts on the table, I was right to an extent until I started to reply her. So God said okay. That night, I read my bible and prayed "Lord I live to serve you" 🙌🏾
JOKESSSSSS 😩
The next day I went to Church for bible study and the memory verse for the day was 2 Timothy 2: 24. 'A SERVANT of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all'. I cried 😭😭😭I started confessing to the people in bible study😭😭 all my Pride had gone and I ran to the Aunty and apologised. Little did I know that God was also working with her over night as well so she apologised to me. When I got back home, I was laughing. I was telling God, pride can kill and I laughed. God has been putting me in positions where I have to show what I have learnt from reading the word.

He also speaks to me through people. I can be impatient at times. There was a burden in my heart and I didn't know who to tell. I prayed but I was scared they will judge me. That time I used to lead a bible study group and my girls will come to me and tell me their issues, I would pray with and for them and next week, Testimonies. I'll go back to my room and CRY😭😭😭😭 Abba why?? What of me??
No one knew. One day after maybe a week or two of my season. After leading bible study, one of the guys that disciple me just came and said Jesus loves you. Another one called me on FaceTime, Jesus is deeply in love with you. I got three texts Jesus loves you so much. I started to cry. And one of them explained that it was a season, by that time in my walk, I couldn't really discern seasons and times. Awon Baby drinking Milk 👶🏾🍼
He speaks to me through dreams, well the dreams are more, you have been slacking that why you are feeling this way, so I wake up and pray. I put my mind under the subjection of God. My body is very sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is telling me meaning sometimes I feel a physical pain, in my chest. When my eyes and ears Have been dwelling on things they ought not to be dwelling on, I would dream. It became scary so I started to watch what I listened to because "faith comes by hearing"

God is my best friend and I tell him when I'm pissed and when I'm happy and all. I report people that annoy me to him and he uses that opportunity to teach me love and humility. However during those times we have banter time. We just laugh but the one message I get no matter what I read, hear, do. I love you and I'm going to use you but you have to be COMMITTED. You might fall but you will NEVER fall out of me, you will fall in me (in grace)

So here's mine and I'm out

#TheHolySpiritChallenge ✌🏾️💜

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 36 by Yemi Smart

I felt led to share how i believe the Holy Spirit speaks to me or dwells in me. I know it took me a while to figure out how the Holy Spirit speaks because I was always waiting for a clear voice. 

I believe the Holy Spirit speaks to me through people going through similar stuff I’m going through, through music and through doing the bible challenges. 

As people talk to me about their challenges or a challenge i think the Holy Spirit speaks to me through these people and this has helped me a lot going through different things. The funny thing is these people didn’t know I needed that or they were helping me. Like i could be finding it difficult to handle a situation and then someone who is going through something similar decides to tell me about their own issue. As i try to help the person and pray with the person even though i don’t know what to do about my own issue, things come to my head which i share to the person and these things can also apply to me. I’m like wow, how didn’t i think of this and i tell the person. Through peoples situations the Holy Spirit can speak to you so when someone tells me something, i always check if i can relate to it in a way and if not now i may use it later. So Amazing!!

Through the bible challenges on bible app, the Holy Spirit has convicted me of things as well as explained things that i don’t understand. For example i remember long ago i read something about people causing others to sin. I immediately got convicted about parties lol. Whether you don’t do anything bad but creating an avenue for people to do things was on your head. I won’t say i stopped instantly but the Holy Spirit had a way of making me get tired of these events that i didn’t have interest doing them again. I got interested in other things.

One thing i have learnt is, the Holy Spirit is always there to help you. Also do not kill your Spirit. Like when you are convicted about something, pause and rethink. Do not just carry on because you can kill your Spirit convicting you about that thing and you will get comfortable in it and make it a part of you. I have learnt to listen!

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 35 by Abimbola Balogun

I gave my life to Christ for the first time when I was 6 and since then the Holy Spirit speaks to me. When I was younger, it used to be this quiet voice. An example was a day in school, I was walking and I saw some guys on a ladder trying to put somethings on the top of a building. I was about to walk under it and I heard a voice say 'don't go over there, move back' so I literally did what I was instructed to do. In a minute, the ladder fell down with the guys on it and they were badly injured. If I went an inch closer, it would have fallen on me. This is just one example of how the Holy Spirit speaks.

There was a point in my life where I didn't have a relationship with God. I knew Him but I was so distant from Him. He still spoke to me though but I never really knew. I only realized looking back that the holy spirit was speaking to me but the things of this world were so loud that I couldn't hear it. That's the thing about God, he is quiet and subtle. The devil on the other hand is very loud, everything about the world is loud and in your face. So when you are serving the world and your focus is on worldly things, you might find it hard to hear the Holy Spirit speak. But the holy spirits speaks and one day it would hit you, like it hit me (That moment when God checks your life lol)

As I drew closer to God, the Holy Spirit started speaking to me through the different methods but most especially through the word. The holy spirit would convict me when I was doing something wrong, encourage me when I was down and direct me when I was confused.

I love this challenge because I think it is important to know how the holy spirits speaks, especially when you want to live a God driven life. It's also important to know that everyone has a different experience. God knows you and knows how He wants to communicate with you. It's very important to know that God isn't a loud God, so if you're not still it would be very hard to hear from him.

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 34 by Becky Larry-Izamoje

I can totally relate to a couple of write ups I've seen out there. The Holy Spirit indeed speaks to me when I Read the bible with a deep yearn for a revelation from Him. Indeed he revealed to me that when I want to cry 'God speak to me', I should just read The Bible. That has changed my life a great deal. He has spoken to me through many different ways ,through people, in dreams, while praying & fasting, and not only that , but even just unexpectedly sometimes. For instance , one day from the balcony of the backyard in the house I was in, I saw a rat scattering things on the ground outside in its attempt to hide beneath them, but no matter how hard it tried to hide, it still remained visible to me as I was watching its every move. This spoke me that no matter where I choose to hide, I'm forever visible to God and can never hide from his sight. Also, like the bible says in Romans 3:23, all have sinned and have fall short of the glory of God. 

When in weak in my spirit I find it hard to pray but it is the Holy Spirit that helps me.

Romans 8:26 'And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words'. I remember very vividly this particular day I was in my room at uni and I really wanted to pray but I just couldn't find the words. I just began to say Holy Spirit help me pray. That evening is unforgettable .

I cried, I sang,i spoke , I prayed, in what I thought was unimaginable .

So the Holy Spirit is real and He's at work. All we need to do is just open up , receive Him and allow Him. I wholeheartedly desire all of Him.  May God help us all to be more like Him in Jesus name, amen

The most important part to me is the weak in spirit one and How he helped me to pray

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 33 by Marie Axelle

 I'm 17 now and I think that my real struggle in this life is living chastely and motivate others because the most of my friends don't do it.

 I went to church on Friday night for my birthday and the predicator was preaching about how to inspire your entourage to follow our Lord. I was telling God "yes, I'll make the nations your disciples but how can I do this if I can't do it with my own friends" and sincerely by saying this I directly thought about a good friend to me. I know her since 2012 and we're like sisters now. She knows right how I love and fear God but she never really understood me or even tried to do as me. I wanted her to live a real chaste life but I didn't know how to convince her.

But my God shows me once again that he's always listening to my prayers! Even the smallest one! Yesterday I went her home and we began to talk about motivation for living in chastely, differently from guys of our ages, etc.
She told me she would like to live like that but she loves sex so much and it'll be really difficult to stop. I asked her "Is your love for sex bigger than your love for Jesus?"
She got silent... And began to cry. She was disappointed of herself cause she finally understood that she was running away from God and His holy word.
I said her to not condemn herself cause the Lord is patient, faithful and has mercy. Also she finally understood the peace, the joy and the great love that come from God and she's ready to enjoy it!!!
When I was speaking to her it was like someone was saying to me "tell her that, tell her this, tell her bla bla bla".
And I'm really happy, grateful and soooo glad because I know the Holy Spirit spoke to her trough me!! And I know this is just the beginning!

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 32 by Yemisi Ajeojo

I have learnt to see my emotions as indicators and not dictators mostly because I see it as one of the ways the Holy Spirit speaks to me.

Whenever I start feeling really strong emotions about something or someone, I have to sit down and articulate what God is trying to say to me. For instant , if I feel I start feeling discontent, it might be  God telling me reach for me or a sign that I have allowed myself to feed on things that has made me covetous or greedy.

Recently, I started feeling very uncomfortable around a close friend of mine. I didn’t understand why. This girl was like a Sister to me, and so I didn’t understand why I felt so much negative emotions towards her. It continued for days and weeks and negatively affected my relationship with her (We are no longer as close as we used to be, but babe if you are reading this, know that I still love you loads and
I wish things could go back to the way it used to be. xx). So one day, I casually asked God during my quiet time why I was feeling this way, and I couldn’t believe what God told me.

God told me that I was living in unforgiveness. Now listen, I have had to deal with a lot of things, but unforgiveness was something I never thought that I dealt with.
I couldn’t think of any major way my friend had hurt me. I had to ask the Holy Spirit to help me understand. As days went by, He began to show me that I liked to run away from issues and situations unconsciously without dealing with it. So if someone hurt me, I would rather pretend like I wasn’t hurt just for peace sake rather than deal with the issue. This secret hurt and grudge unconsciously builds up to unforgiveness and leads to negative actions towards them. In the case of my friend, because we really close, there had definitely been time when she said something hurtful to me or did something to hurt me and instead of dealing with this hurt, I act like I let it slide
while I secretly hold a grudge. Because I refused to deal with these little things, they pile up and lead to unforgiveness. Wow!

If anyone had told me that I was struggling with unforgiveness, I would have called that person a liar. But now since it was the Holy Spirit, I knew I had to address this issue.

This is one of many situations where if the Holy spirit hadn’t spoken to me, I wouldn’t have known otherwise.

This particular situation thought me a lot of lessons. It thought me to not be passive about any situations. If someone does something that hurt me, depending on how big it is, I like to address it. IF it is not such a big deal, I just talk to the Holy Spirit about it. I say something like ‘see, what this person did hurt me. They probably did not do it intentionally and I feel like it is not worth bringing it up with them, but please can you just heal me of every hurt no matter how small and help me love them like you continue to love me regardless’

 It has also thought me to always talk to the Holy spirit about everything especially as he is always with me. Even the small seemingly insignificant things.

In have also learnt that the way God speaks to me, is not the same for other people. For instance, I am sure it is not everybody he speaks to through their emotions.

It has also thought me the importance of guarding my heart. If I want to constantly hear from God, then I need to be in the position to
constantly hear him by guarding what I allow my mind to feed on both consciously and unconsciously. I need to be in the position to be 100% confident that it is God speaking to me and I am not just being moved by emotions or my fleshly desires

I have also learnt to not just be moved by my emotions, but to submit it to God and allow the holy spirit to let me know what he is indicating to me.

When you are in a relationship with God, he will not just tell you the sweet jubbly things. 

He will also convict, correct and instruct through the Holy Spirit.

‘And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment.’ John 16:8

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of the living God dwelling on the inside of me. The king of kings dwelling on the inside of you. He is there to instruct you, correct you and reveal God to you.

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 31 by Ebun Segun

From the day I rededicated my life to Christ, the Holy Spirit has been a very important part of my daily life. I grew up listening to my mother say things like "I don't do anything without asking the Holy Spirit". I didn't fully understand it until I took my walk with God seriously. The Holy Spirit literally holds my hand every day and guides me.

For the past 3 weeks, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me on fear and what it does. Being the person I am, I get scared about EVERYTHING easily.  He taught me that confessions of faith should be what I turn to at the sight of any problem or fear. He made me realize that He should be my first option, not an alternative when it comes to seeking solutions to problems.

In my life, the Holy Spirit usually reveals important things to me through dreams and interprets them to me later on. During my morning devotion, I prayed to God to give me a dream (since I didn't get one in a while) that would show me something. I woke up then next day completely disregarding everything I had dreamt about but somehow, the scenes kept flashing in my head. While I was at church, the scenes of my dream came to my mind again and it was there that the Holy Spirit told me: "when you allow the enemy to sense the fear in you, you make him think he is stronger " . This was the icing on the cake for me!
From this day, there is no fear in me. The enemy may come and try to shake me, but I know what I know!
(The picture attached is from a play I took part in, but it perfectly illustrates how fear holds one hostage)