#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 18 by Seun Allen Taylor

So I saw this challenge and I was like, this would be such a fun and encouraging thing to do. " I am totally going to do this...........later ". 

I am not equipped enough to inspire someone else. I haven't gotten to that point yet, I still need people to invest In me. These are the thoughts that came barreling through my head almost immediately. And for a long time this has been my struggle. 

I always pray for The Lord to use me but whenever opportunities come especially when they come in the form of mentoring someone else spiritually or helping them grow, I run away. No I am not a bad person and I do want with all my heart to be able to pour into someone else but the devil always tries to lie to me that I am not capable. 

This week I decided to say no. This is where the Holy Spirit really took charge.  Sunday morning on my way to church, a friend who is one of the youth leaders at my church and I were talking. He told me that he would like to see me being more actively involved in running our bible study. My first reaction was excitement but just as quickly as it came, it left. Almost instantly I started worrying, I'm not there yet, I'm really busy right now, I'm not qualified and all these other thoughts. He encouraged me to pray about it and I told him I would, but I had already made a decision to not do it.

We got to church and when it was time for the word I prayed as I always do on Sundays. "Lord let me be blessed by your word today and let it speak to me." And then the guest minister started preaching on worship and fruitfulness. Halfway through the sermon, I was crying because I felt like God was talking directly to me. She preached about what it means to be fruitful in Gods house. The holy spirit kept telling me, if you do not start now, you are never going to ever feel qualified enough. A friend told me, if you don't realize you can impact people now, because you will constantly keep having higher goals that you haven't accomplished yet, you will never feel capable of impacting others. 

I left feeling convicted by the Holy Spirit to step completely out of my comfort zone (Introvert alert) and do more this year for God. Also, in line with my taking bigger steps for God, I decided to take a little sister in my sorority (Sigma Phi Lambda incase you were wondering) this semester which I was previously not going to do. If you are reading this please pray along with me that God uses me to bless her and help her grow in him this year, and that also I would be a light for those in my bible study and in school in general.

Lastly for anyone who has been struggling with this, you are not alone, keep praying and let the spirit lead you, not the other way around, and hold on to this verse with me keeping in mind our God is an amazing God, and he will use only those who are willing to be used.

Zechariah 4:10 New Living Translation (NLT) 

Do not despise these small beginnings,

for the Lord rejoices to see the work

begin, to see the plumb line in

Zerubbabel’s hand.  

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 5 by Angel Okwuosa

The Holy Spirit and I have gone through a lot. I doubted His presence in my life for various reasons. But over the years He has relentlessly shown me how much He cares for me, and most of the answers you seek in life can be found within.

 There was a particular guy that I had a hopeless crush on. He was my muse, my preoccupation... I dreamt about him man... It was so sad! I had such lofty hopes that he felt the same way about me, but looking back I figure that it just wasn't meant to be.
Anyway, my friend had been telling me to confess my feelings to him; let him know how I feel and see what happened. Although it wasn't usually my style, I considered it because I was frustrated. Others had dropped hints but he 'didn't believe it'.
Gosh I should've known from that alone.
So we were at the dining hall and I was sitting across from him. My well meaning but oblivious friend was nudging me, but try as I might I couldn't. My mouth was sealed. By then I had noticed that anytime my tongue was tied, it was not out of shyness but divine intervention. So I didn't force out the words that had been struggling to get out for such a long time.
To cut a long story short, he didn't reciprocate. Not. At. All. In fact he liked my friend; but that's another story for another day.
It hurt like hell; but at least I had my dignity.
Somewhat.

The point is that the Spirit has had my back for all sorts; boy troubles, family issues, exams (like during objective exams I would ask God to send me signs- eg if the answer is A, let someone sneeze). He reveals so much to me about myself; my issues, weaknesses, strengths, that I am beautifully and wonderfully made.

"He reveals so much to me about

myself; my issues, weaknesses,

strengths, that I am 

beautifully and wonderfully made"

“Forget what hurt you, but never forget what it taught you”

I was in the front of the line during assembly talking to my friends waiting for assembly to officially start. Mind you my friends were short and I was tall hence I was definitely not where I was supposed to be. I was ‘gisting’ with my friends about the weekend and reminiscing over the fun day we had in Silverbird Galleria, Victoria Island. Yeah that was once a hot spot for teenagers. Suddenly some girl taps my shoulder and shouts “MOVE! MOVE!”. I turned around to see who was shouting that early Monday morning.

*It’s not every day shout and show yourself. Sometimes act civilised* (How I wish I knew this phrase before now) lol

Yeah where was I? I was still turning my long neck to find out whom the mammal shouting was. I completely turn around and realise it’s my set mate (She wasn’t in my class but we were in the same year). You could see steam coming out of her face just because of I was occupying her space in the line. (But but it’s never that deep. *sigh*)

Anyway, as irritated as I was, I replied, “you don’t speak to people like that”. (Why did she have to shout at me like that though?) I turned back to my friends and continued talking. This babe continued shouting o! She was like “Would you move this Black girl” (lol we are getting somewhere). Feeling myself I replied back, “it’s black beauty” *Flips the front of my all back and base*. She now said the worst, “Yeah sure BLACK BEAUTY THE HORSE”

Dead

Dead

DEAD!!!!

Brief: I just entered secondary school. This was in year 7 or JS1. This famous secondary school was an all-girls secondary school in Nigeria. Coming into secondary school, I was skinny, tall, Black with thick long black natural hair. I was really dark. I am still dark but my colour then was like darkness chai. I was so quiet because I was avoiding intense arguments with some girls before they will start referring to my flaws. I was so self-cautious. That’s what girls do to other girls to be honest. This girl in question was light skinned; not the prettiest but you could see her in the dark, at least. She was tall, skinny with short hair. I can remember this day so vividly as if it was yesterday. I even think our school uniform made it clear whether you are skinny or on the plus side. Nothing could hide under that uniform. Lol. 

Okay back to my story. She called me “Black beauty the horse”. Now I don’t know if you know the story book called black beauty the horse. If you haven’t heard about it. Here’s a picture 

It was about a black horse that lived… bla bla bla.(read the book) I just turned around, went to the front and started crying. I did not stay at the back that day. If not everyone will know I was crying. The back was where gist used to fly. The front had ‘some’ quite girls. I tried to reduce my height. I don’t know how I did it but I was there throughout the assembly. Now, the main issue was that she called me A HORSE. OMG! I hated myself for being black because it made me a target for such insults and the girl? I hated her more for just being her. Lol. I did not tell anyone about this until 7 years ago Lol (yes 6-7 years and I still remembered) I saw her on social media making videos to empower the youth of this generation. I was like “so she is still alive and healthy and she is doing good *shocked face*”. I was so upset at her because she made me feel like dirt for so many years but as I was vexing in my little bubble. My brother pointed out something to me. “UGO it has been 7 years o, what happens to forgiveness? All you need to remember is what you learnt from that encounter with her not the pain she caused you”. He said something that made me feel stupid “Are you ugly?” I said, “NO” without thinking twice about it. Like I knew myself. I knew I was spice. Lol.

Now lessons learnt

1.     How dare you let someone dictate how you feel about yourself? Remember 

2.     Do not listen to anything they say. Turn deaf ears because if you hear just a tiny bit, of what they have to say, you will begin to reassess yourself in a way you should not. In reference to my story, at a point I was classifying people my skin colour, Ugly.

3.     Walk away or if you want to make the person feel stupid, start laughing. It gets to them.

4.     Say a quick prayer for them. Why? Because their hearts are so hard, mallet can’t break it. So God needs to soften their hearts.

5.     Lastly, forgive!!! Don’t fall into the trap of being rude to other people. I think I fell into that trap because when i was in senior secondary school, I became very insulting but in a joking manner. Still not an excuse but don’t be like them. That is the worst thing you can do to yourself, making another person feel the way you did. It’s never that deep.

I am glad to say I forgave the girl. I supported her youth development movement. I remember I told my brother not to like her page but after a while, I realised it wasn’t worth my stress. She is doing so well now and in my eyes she’s become so beautiful. It’s so nice when you see everything like roses, butterflies, basically the things you like. Maybe it’s because I forgot about what she did to me and picked the lesson Everyone is beautiful. That is the most important lesson today guys.

Bless

xx

-UgoTheGogo

Hey guys!! thanks for reading my posts. I would be vlogging guys so be prepared. Trust my tales by moonlight skills to be portrayed. I have a lot to talk to you guys about and ways to motivate you to follow your dreams. Let me leave you in suspense

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