#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 13 by Yewande Mohammed

Most recently whenever something is within my grasp...literally when I'm about to move from one level to another...things are being taken away from me. It has happened 3x in a row and I'm beginning to worry.

I won't lie I am discouraged and I want to give up so badly but a few days ago I called my dad and he spoke some real words to me. God (holy spirit) speaks to me through my dad, especially. He told me this "God told him these things are happening to me now because he doesn't want me to face such issues later in my life...and that everything that's happening will eventually work in my favor".

It's hard to hear these words and believe especially when you feel like your world is crumbling. Like life is playing the sickest joke on you. I have been hearing these exact words for a while now and it's easier to believe until you're actually going through the trials and you're low on faith and resolve.

However, today I'll choose God again, over and over again. The flesh says otherwise but I'll choose him again. I'll choose God even when the situation seems stacked against me. I'll choose my trusted helper in time of need over and over again.

Ultimately, I want to look back on his post and remember how this challenge triggered me. How I felt an urge to encourage someone or anyone, even in my time of need. I'll end this with the bible quote I saw the day I received my not so good news this week:

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall

stablish you, and keep you from evil. (2

Thessalonians 3:3 KJV)

This passage highlights 3 things: 1. God's faithfulness (A promise), 2. God's active hand upon our lives (Establishing me, you, us, etc) 3. Keeping us from evil (His protection). Meaning, while his promise are made available he will keep me and keep me from evil so it all stays permanent. I am beyond blessed even if my situation doesn't dictate that!

Thank you Lord!!

#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 12 by Funmi Peters

As I was wondering how to answer the question ' how the Holy Spirit speaks to me 'this is an extract of the devotion of today and it best answers the question in my life

'The Holy Spirit is the divine author of all Scripture. If this doctrine is true — and it is — then the implications are so profound and far-reaching that every part of our lives should be affected.

Because the Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture,

- It is true (Psalm 119:142) and altogether reliable (Hebrews 6:18).

-It is powerful, working its purpose in our hearts (1 Thessalonians 2:13) and not returning empty to the One who sent it (Isaiah 55:10–11).

-It is pure, like silver refined in a furnace seven times (Psalm 12:6).

-It is sanctifying (John 17:17).

-It gives life (Psalm 119:37, 50, 93, 107; John 6:63; Matthew 4:4).

-It makes wise (Psalm 19:7; 119:99–100).

-It gives joy (Psalm 19:8; 119:16, 92, 111, 143, 174) and promises great reward (Psalm 19:11).

-It gives strength to the weak (Psalm 119:28) and comfort to the distraught (Psalm 119:76) and guidance to the perplexed (Psalm 119:105) and salvation to the lost (Psalm 119:155; 2 Timothy 3:15).

-The wisdom of God in Scripture is inexhaustible.'

To make it clear the Holy Spirit speaks to me through scripture! When I'm down, confused, sad, hurt, lost my way or whatever a word comes to encourage and strengthen! I'll give two examples;

1) When I was been delivered from a terrible way of life aka sin I felt the love of God like never before and I wondered why! After everything why still reach out to me and then the scripture of the day was Ezekiel 36:22-27. It was His grace.

2) I was praying for the salvation of someone I love very dearly! I had been for some time and then I heard he was ill and I was scared!! I was at the point where I said God I don't care if he dies but save him from eternal damnation and the scriptures during the course of the week were ; Luke 11:8-13 , 18:1-8 , Matthew 19:23! By His grace the person was healed and and through that same grace will be saved in Jesus name

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than sand 

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry by 11 Pamela Duke

Of late, I have slacked in doing the things of God and I have noticed how much He has longed for me again but being the mortal that I am I haven't done much to change the situation. 

This is the second night I have woken up by 3am. (Let's go back a bit shall we. On the 28th of August I woke up by 3am as well from a dream. In the dream I was in the midst of a prayer session going on. The preacher kept praying hard and then some strange noises became audible. Now I wasn't praying before, I was just listening and taking it all in as soon as I heard the strange noises, I began to speak in tongues (my Spirit knew that the strangeness was not of God). As I kept on praying along, it seemed as if it became more; like they were trying to be more powerful than my God because they felt threatened and that's how I woke up. What did I do when I woke up? I just said thank you Lord and that was it! If He could legit punch me and drive home the message, He would have)

Back to today, I just had this sudden urge to go on Twitter first. I did and I came across Kunmi Oni's profile. I came across her blog in the process and yes I opened the link (I normally do not read blogs but this one was different the Holy Spirit was up to something). From Her blog I got to find David Adeleke's and I read different stories about how people had improved in life and how the Holy Spirit was leading His. 

Now the urge to read my Bible grew stronger. I opened an app called Bible +1 and the word for today is together. I clicked on it and it brought out many bible verses but that which I opened was Song of Solomon 5 v 1-16. Normally, I don't read "songs" because I have always felt it referred to Solomon professing his love for his woman but today I saw it in a whole different light. This is God professing His love for me, longing for me to be with Him, He has been knocking on my door patiently waiting for me to open but I've put so many other things ahead of Him, He has cried out for me in so many ways but I haven't answered

 "I slept but my heart was awake when I

heard my lover knocking and calling; open to

me my treasure, my darling, my dove, my

perfect one....but I responded I've taken off

my robe, should I get dressed again? I've

washed my feet, should I get them soiled? My

lover tried to unlatch the door and my heart

thrilled within me ( v 2-4 NLT)

Let me tell you now if you don't know, my God is amazing. As soon as I was done reading the bible, I opened a friend's message I had aired earlier (I was tired and I needed to sleep and I probably wouldn't have opened it till much later in the day) and he had sent me a song with the lyrics even;

I know a God, who’s merciful and kind

Faithful and gracious

I’m the apple of his eyes

And the thought that fills his heart

Every Morning, noon and night

He loved me when I didn’t care

And was patient till I came

Running back into his arms

Look how he turned my life around

Making me a shining light

His glory to reveal

I'm so grateful to the Holy Spirit for this insight. He makes me love Him more everyday. To know He has longed for me and still longs for me is the best ever. By His grace, I'm going to continually work on myself to get to know Him more and work for Him. I can't imagine my life without Him. Thank you Lord for wanting me. 

#TheHolySpiritChallenge Entry 10 by Chukwudi Ukonne

So, I've been thinking for a couple of days now "what am I going to send in for the #TheHolySpiritChallenge''. It's been an awkward time for me because I know He has definitely been speaking to me daily from scriptures. At the same time it’s been somewhat an up and down period for me spiritually, and here I am thinking 'I have issues, I can't be on here sharing deep issues with facebook or Instagram people (lol). Then it hits me that I never am worthy; of His love, of His mercies that are new every morning (and afternoon and evening), Not even on my 'best days’. A verse pops into my head randomly; “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23). I find it striking that the verse doesn’t say 'but the wages of righteousness is Eternal life'. Why not? We can never earn it. It’s a gift. We never work to get gifts. If we did, then on our birthdays our parents would get presents not us. You see, if a man perishes in sin, he gets paid, he gets his just deserts, Death (Spiritual). He can have no complaints. But the reason why we Christians are so crazy about Jesus is because we realize He took our wages (death) and we get what we could never earn by our works (Eternal life). I think this is a very important truth to remember; that on our good days we’re still pretty messed up and we need grace just as bad, and on our bad days God doesn’t love us any less. It keeps us humble, and ironically the knowledge that I can’t lose God’s love drives me away from and not toward sin. All these things happened in like 4 minutes while I was in the bath. He may speak through the magnificent or the mundane, but ALWAYS through His word. Read it, Love it, Live it. God bless.

“on our good days we’re still pretty messed up and we need grace just as bad, and on our bad days God doesn’t love us any less” 

-Chukwudi Ukonne

#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