Ordered By The Lord…

Soooo…

…I have been telling myself that I am too busy for this blog, which is probably accurate as a fact, but perhaps not as truth.

God asked me to start this blog and hasn’t told me to stop, so when, for the umpteenth time, someone asked me why I stopped blogging (shoutout to you, Michelle), my response as always was that I was “too busy at the moment.” Immediately, a thought crossed my mind: ” Wow! I am too busy?!”, ” too busy for what God asked me to do?” ” too busy doing what exactly?!” and that immediately got me here typing this blog post.

Friend, may we never take glory in nonsense. In the illusion that we can proudly say ‘I am too busy’ for an assignment God sent us on. We better know better than to allow ourselves to be too busy for God’s assignments; too busy to pray, too busy to study the word, too busy to go to church, too busy for that specific assignment we know we should have begun by now. Imagine if Jesus, the one who came on earth to die for our sins, had somehow gotten himself too busy here on earth and prolonged his life ‘too busy’ preaching, healing the sick, or casting out devils until he died a natural death? Would our sins have been forgiven? Exactly.

With that being said, let’s get into today’s blog post.

The last few days of finishing my varsity degree, like any other varsity student in a country with a ridiculous percentage of unemployment, I was a colorful mixture of optimism and pessimism. Judging by just how eventful it had been for me to secure a placement for an internship as part of my degree requirements, the probability of quickly getting a job left much room for great faith.

Unexpectedly, within those last few days of closing out the chapter of being a varsity student, one of my sisters asked me to visit her for the weekend before going back home. She had just had her first son, and wanted me to see and spend time with him. Because I had no other urgent thing to pursue back home, I agreed to travel to Harare to spend time with her family before going home to Bulawayo, where I would start my job-seeking ventures.

‘Coincidentally’, when I arrived that weekend, she was in the process of applying for an online job of teaching English to Japanese students, which she then got. She then asked me if I would be interested in also applying for the same job, and as a freshly graduated, unemployed human being, of course, I said yes, and thankfully, I too got it. The only challenge was that it needed a stable source of Wi-Fi, an uninterrupted electricity schedule, a quiet environment, and a laptop, all of which would not be available if I were to go back home, so we agreed that I probably needed to stay longer than a weekend now that I had a job with requirements that could only be fulfilled at my sister’s home at that time. So I called back home, told them that I had just gotten a job which required me to stay a little longer with my sister for said reasons, and it was agreed upon that it was okay for me to stay.

God’s matchless wisdom never ceases to amaze me because many of the occurrences in our lives that happen to be ‘coincidences’ are very much predestined by God. It seemed innocently coincidental to me that I would last-minute need to visit my sister supposedly for a weekend and end up staying for much longer than that. Before this point, I had never taught anyone English or any other subject, really, but I was keen to learn, and learn I did. I learned some of the nuances of the English language that I had never before had to bother about. But, outside of that, I learned how to be more confident, eloquent, and comfortable in front of the camera. I also learned how to be diligent, driven and have the grit to show up with a smile and get the job done even in moments where it wasn’t the most convenient. I also sharpened my ability to teach someone else concepts foreign to them until they understood them, all of which were valuable and needed lessons for my purpose and destiny that I was not even aware of at this point. In other words, I was in training for my destiny and I knew it not, but much on that later…

Romans 11:34-36 (VOICE) Who can fathom the mind of the Lord? Or who can claim to be His advisor? ³⁵ Or, who can give to God in advance so that God must pay him back? ³⁶ For all that exists originates in Him, comes through Him, and is moving toward Him; so give Him the glory forever. Amen.

I have learnt that many times God is silently present in the happenings of our lives but because of the limitation in our human capacity to see into the future, we frequently take things at face value that are not. Think of David; when he was going to bring food to his brothers, the last thing on his mind was meeting a giant to kill (1 Samuel 17), but he, in reality, was solely going on that errand to kill that giant. Similar to Joseph, when his jealous brothers sold him into slavery, the last thing on their minds was that they were sending him to his assignment as Prime Minister of Egypt, who would preserve millions of lives from a deadly famine. (Genesis 37) Yet, in reality, that is what they were doing.

Know this, for a child of God, things don’t just happen to us of their own accord and we certainly do not just relocate randomly from one place to the other like birds. Even birds don’t do that randomly, they seldom relocate unless there is a change in seasons and they are moving from winter to warmer regions. God’s mercy preserves our lives, and steers them in the right direction too but what a joy it would be to just be more discerning before making decisions that could change the course of our lives.

I look back at my time at my sister’s house and realize that I was not there to spend time with her son or to teach Japanese people English, I was there in training for my assignment. My life assignment desperately needed me to grow spiritually & during my time in her house, I did grow in my relationship with God in ways that are still anchoring me to this point in my walk with God. I am so glad I got that destiny helper in my sister who made that a possibility.

For context, when I moved in with my sister and her family, I knew of God but did not know Him for who He really is. Sure, I had seen Him come through for me in countless ways before so I knew He existed and that He was real and also believed all the good things to be believed about God but mine was probably more of a logical belief that did not fully grasp on a heart level who God really is. Fast forward to living with my sister, she attended (still does) a big church, one popularly dubbed the ‘rich people’s church’ because people genuinely do prosper there. Being around quite a number of such accomplished people who were not necessarily ‘needing anything‘ from God had me curious about this God that I claimed to believe in. Why would a person who can afford everything, be this passionate about God? What is it about this God that still makes this person desire Him so desperately and so passionately, what more do they need from Him?

Besides the point that money is not the only need one can have, of course, unbeknownst to me, I had, up to that point, actually subconsciously thought God was a poor man’s comfort. That one needed to be in lack to look to Jesus as some form of solution outside the poverty. This was perhaps birthed from just observing those I had seen loving God as I was growing up. None of them were significantly well off. In fact, most of them seemed to struggle financially. Hence, being around people who are not in lack seeming wholehearted in their devotion to God, had me curious to know this God more. It challenged me to think ‘if this person, who seems to have it all is loving God this passionately, woe to me who has nothing if I don’t seek Him as much and so my journey of seeking God whole-heartedly began…

Listen, it matters that your relationship with God shows results and devotion. To someone young in the Lord or even someone contemplating giving their lives to Christ, you could be that one template they use to gauge if God is worth it. May your life be a testament that He is worth it. I pray that you may be a letter of recommendation that Christ is worth it and being a Christian is worth it.

2 Corinthians 3: 2-3 (NKJV) ² You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; ³ clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

May it be your desire that when people observe you and your devotion to God, they are inspired to find out more about God. I pray that your christianity would have tangible results that can show the reality and benefit of being in God. We live in times where darkness is getting darker and gross darkness is covering the people; a time is almost here where mere words without tangible results won’t cut it anymore. In case you haven’t noticed, AI now can ‘interpret’ scripture and give ‘prophetic words’ and if we are to truly win people to Christ, we ought to have such tangible demonstrations of God’s presence, goodness and power that goes beyond words because why then should one have to come to church and be a Christian when they can just hear the same things from AI in the comfort of their homes right?

I pray for you that you do not take your walk with God lightly. I pray for you that your journey with God be a journey with tangible results, not just naturally but also spiritually. I pray for you that you examine your life and see areas of growth. I pray for you that you take moments to wait on the Lord before major life decisions. I pray for you that you seek God ever-so-desperately until He becomes very real to you. I pray for you that your christianity be not devoid of power and progress and results. I pray for you that you would be stirred up to arise and seek God ever-so-urgently and ever-so-desperately. Not tomorrow, but now. NOW, not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not next quarter, not on Monday, not next year, NOW. Because what are we postponing it for that is urgent enough to distract us from our King?

3 John 1:2-4 2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Ephesians 1:15-22 15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your [f]understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality[g] and [h]power and [i]might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Shalom & chat to you again soon 🙂