#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 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 6 by Fikayo Iluyomade

When I ask for stuff I open up to God like I’m in a conversation with God. Like when we have financial difficulties, I’m like God “look at this, we don’t have X we need Y I just want us to have ABC”. Even while standing on the word Psalm 23:1 “…I shall not want” I acknowledge the fact that I’m not deserving so I plead. Then I ask for a sign. “God if you don’t want me to do X, let Y happen. E.g. my University education: “God if you don’t want me to study law at University of Birmingham or Leicester, don’t let me make the grades in my A levels”. I didn’t make the grades, I got B, B, C. C two marks off a B. I tried to get a remark and my mark went to a lower C. Now I’m studying Criminology at Leicester. I keep praying that God will shut bad doors in my face till I reach the good door. every time after I stumble, God reveals the lesson to me. I really wanted to do Law, but this made me realise that I didn’t actually want to do law. Criminology might be what is best for me. I don’t know. God knows best.

"I open up to God like I’m in a conversation with God"

Fikayo 

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 9 by Fiona Isiavwe

To be very honest, I've been a Christian for as long as I can remember but I had serious doubts because I was never one of those to "catch" the spirit during service and all of that. You know, those people that'll roll on the floor, scream and start crying and give testimonies about how Jesus appeared to them and all of that. But as I grew in the faith (I am actually still growing) I came to the realization that God speaks to us and operates within our hearts in different ways and I noticed that as I began to desire more to hear from him, he began to speak more to me but in the flashy ways I wanted like him appearing to me in my dreams and all of that.

He actually comes into my corner and speaks to me in the most casual ways, even through my twitter TL. For instance I was just having a bad day and everything seemed to be falling apart mainly because I had not gotten the leadership position in school that I wanted but I stumbled upon one of Joel Osteen's tweets as I was scrolling through my tl and he was talking about how true leadership comes from service and it was like a flash light in my head because at that time this was all I needed to hear.

Also, when the bible talks about the holy spirit having a still small voice.. it’s not kidding. I had always assumed that his voice was loud and all but 

it only becomes loud when you choose to hear it.

I finally came to the realization that he speaks to my heart every day and I usually heard his voice but ignored it until I finally realized it was his. How? well he'd say something as simple as 'Fiona, go and dress your bed" and I'd ignore him and then something would coincidentally occur because I didn't dress the bed when I was meant to and I lived like this for years. Until I asked for the grace to recognize his voice and heed to it and he answered my prayers.

He also talks to me through family members, friends, etc. especially during service.. it’s like the topic treated every Sunday reflects what happened during my week and I'm truly grateful for that.

"Hearing from the holy spirit is actually very simple.. just ask for the grace to recognize his voice and ask as well that your heart be made receptive to heed to what he says, that's all"

Fiona

#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

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 3 by Adimchinobi Oji

So I prayed with my friend today (28th of August) about something that's really important to her. After the prayer I was a bit worried that I had not prayed well enough; that I should have said more things to ensure that what we prayed for will come to pass. The Holy Spirit reminded me very gently that God answers prayers because He is faithful.  He is dependable and true to His word. He reminded me of Hebrews 11:11 which says that Sarah was enabled to bear children because she considered God who has made the promise faithful.
So whenever I pray to God I should be assured that embellishing my words and actions will not achieve anything. I only need to come as I am, lay my worries at the feet of God and be rest assured that God is faithful to work on my behalf.

 "He is faithful. He is dependable and true to His word"

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 1 by Laolu Osinbajo

ENTRY 1 by Laolu Osinbajo @kidluucomedian 
#TheHolySpiritChallenge 

IT'S NOT YOUR BODY. IT'S A HOLY TEMPLE AND A GIFT FROM GOD. 

I was praying the other day, asking God for wisdom when I suddenly feel and bumped my head on the side of my bed. I immediately asked the Holy Spirit why would you let that happen to me? And His response was in 1 Corinthians 6:19, which explained that my body is the temple of God and I don't belong to myself.

The Holy Spirit then revealed this to me: At times we wonder as children of God why do we fall sick or get in accidents. Were the angels off duty that day? God uses certain sorrows to actually push us away from sin and towards salvation ( 2 Corinthians 7:10). Sometimes we let sin prevail in our lives for so long that God gives us that bump on the head to bring us back to Him, before it's too late.

Psalms 76:10 explains that God uses human defiance as weapon for His glory. So if you are His children and you choose to live in sin (strong head children), He will continue sending sorrows your way till you get the memo and repent. Thus saving you from the clutches of the devil.

Remember He said he causes everything to work for the good of those who love Him. So in times of trouble, you should actually rejoice, for your faith and endurance are being tested and God is working to bring you closer to Him. Isn't it amazing how much He loves us?

#iLiterallyBumpedMyHeadToLearnAndShareThisMessage#HeWorksInMysteriousWays #ShareThisWithAFriend