#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 8 by Sandra Adeyemi

Let me tell you how the Holy Spirit chastened me the other day! 

I posted this a while ago on my personal Instagram page about how I was harboring unforgiveness and I did not even know it.

 My friend and I had several misunderstandings and each time I would plan my reaction ahead of time. I had basically made up my mind about what it is I wanted to do. From how I was going to react and roll my eyes and what I was going to say to her if she had crossed me but I could never bring myself to execute my plans. I basically felt like everything she did or say was to come for me. I would be laughing with her one day then all of a sudden get irritated around her. It was a constant battle between my mood swings. So during my quiet time one night, THREE devotionals spoke to me the same way and TWO gave me this SAME verse:

Mark 11:25 [AMP]: "And whenever you stand praying, if 

you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop [leave it, let it go], in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let it drop" {the holy spirit gave me in the NKJV version but I like this better haha}. 

After reading that TWICE, I began to smile and then all of a sudden started crying. I did not even understand how my tears came about but I was crying and I knew that the Holy Spirit was checking me like never before. It was evident, no matter how I tried to hide it or lie to myself, God knew the truth and then I remembered the bible verse "As many are led by the SPIRIT they shall be called the sons of God [Romans 8:14] . I had two options: to either led the Holy spirit correct me or let my emotions and thoughts lead me instead, I was happy I chose the former ! I asked God that night to give me a heart to forgive her and that if I had done anything to hurt her too, that he should please give her a heart to forgive me also. ! Now, our friendship could not have been any better! Thank you Jesus! 

Another Holy Spirit scenario I had was quite a funny one lol but essential to me. I was in the bathroom the other day pretending to be on the Oprah show or some talk show [yes I am crazy and I talk to myself all the time], and I started to ask myself questions [pretending to be Oprah] and then answering it [being me]. Then I proceeded to ask myself "So do you like l long walks and stuff" and then answered "No, I would rather just drive and get to my destination on time, I honestly hate walking". All of a sudden a voice out of nowhere spoke and said "And that's show you take life". I paused. Evaluated. I know that was not me talking and I was the only one in the bathroom, I was sure that it was the Holy spirit speaking to me. Unlike my other Holy Spirit encounters, this was not a still voice but a clear audible one!!

The Holy spirit was telling me to take everyday one step at a time and Trust God WHOLEHEARTEDLY.  

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths" [Proverbs 3:5].  

If I am too busy trying to be in a hurry I will go ahead of God's plan and miss out on all the blessings he has for me in between the journey. Not everything is a rush and God's timing is best. He created time and hence does not need to heed to it. When he commands, things come to pass and it is a learning process everyday!

The Holy Spirit is always here to help you and my prayer for you and i is that we grow attentive to its voice every single day.

God Bless you all

Love,

Sandssssa

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 7 by Adedolapo Esther Balogun

 The Holy Spirit speaks to me in different ways but most especially through reading. It’s weird, but that’s really how he speaks to me and not just through reading the bible but other things like my devotion, a book or a website. From when I surrendered my life to Christ till date that’s mainly how he speaks to me. The day I surrendered my life to Christ, it was because I read my devotion for that day randomly (as I hadn’t read it in like forever). It was talking about how children of God who had gone astray should return to God. It was such a timely message as I was very far from God around that time and I felt there was something missing in my life. Reading my devotion that day triggered something in me and I was convicted by the Holy Spirit to repent.

Also recently, for example, I was faced with a huge challenge that with human effort could not be solved. Before even voicing out my issue the Holy Spirit spoke to me once again through my devotion. The title of my devotion that day was ‘Breaking Limitations’ and the memory verse was 

Jeremiah 32:27 ‘Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all Flesh: is there anything to hard for me?

It spoke about man being limited but not God and I was like wow that is exactly what I needed to hear. Its like my devotions were orchestrated to be written in a particular order before time began because it literally always has a solution to every problem I face at the exact time.

The Holy Spirit also speaks to me through people. I remember once when I was going through a hard time and I was in so much doubt. I did not tell anyone what I was going through. One day as I was questioning my belief in God, my sister texted me and said She just felt led to tell God loves you and He is with you. I then went for a program the next day and randomly people that did not know me started coming to me to tell me God loves me. It later dawned on me how much God is truly with his children. Also if I am doing something that God doesn’t want me doing, the Holy Spirit will convict me of it. If I still don’t listen God will send people to speak to me concerning it. God truly speaks, especially when we call on him. When I ask God questions he always gives me an answer through some means.

 John 14:26 is truly right by saying the Holy Spirit is our helper. Not only does he speak to me on spiritual matters but he also speaks to me and helps me in my daily activities.  Once I forgot my key to my university accommodation at home. As I was entering the elevator, the Holy Spirit whispered to me ‘You forgot your key’ Thank God that he spoke to me because if I didn’t have my key, I would have been locked out when I got to university.  Also once I couldn’t find my student ID card after searching everywhere. Then I prayed and a few minutes later the Holy Spirit told me where it was and lo and behold when I checked there, I found it. Don’t let the enemy lie to you and tell you God does not speak to us for he is speaking to you right now as you read this! 

Dolapo

“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

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