My Testimony

I have a story to tell. Within is a testimony long-awaited. The depths of which only a handful truly appreciate; A mother who stayed up late praying earnestly, and friends who supported with advice, directives, and comfort. A few may have the faintest of ideas of my passing through such lows, but do not know the depth to which I had to dive in order to rise above waters so rough.

Seeing many progress as you seem to stand still like a pole in the side of the road where many cars with many people are moving on to different towns or cities or countries to have better lives while you just remain there planted and the same is by far one of the most disturbing things to happen to a person. It destroys you from the inside out - the thoughts, like curveballs, never cease to hit... each, with more pain than the previous.

The pain and stress of continuously waking up to the worried look of a mother who loves you is one you never get used to. Each day, the weight on your shoulders increase ever slightly but just enough to destabilise your whole being. The compounding thoughts are only light as the wind when you sleep, but even that, it is only if they do not follow you there to haunt you further. For a man, it is an even heavier burden especially because you are supposed to be the "responsible" one taking care of things. Oh, and dare you fall in love and land in a relationship headed for marriage and there you will know what the "weight of the world" feels like. It is quite the experience.

Praying to God each morning, noon and night endlessly, upon reaching and going past the point of desperation, where you start to hope and looking toward whatever horizon lies before you in earnest for an answer or answers to your countless and endless problems becomes the norm of your living - you know nothing else. God becomes your best friend, and your pillow, your tear-towel and burden-carrier. At these points in life God feels further than far past a distance of infinity miles away. Funny thing... He's always right there beside you. Clouded by thoughts and emotions, we fail to sense His ever remaining presence seeing as our focus is anywhere but in His direction. We're blinded!

The worst is yet to come. Opportunities start to rise and with these very positive ripe-fruit-looking opportunities comes a skyrocketing rise in hope that peace and rest is nigh. It's like you could almost literally touch it. Then the fall! Everything fails and nothing works out leaving us worse than before. Broken and left sulking in a dark and shadowy place, it is all we can do but to lie there powerless and emptied of all possible tears for then and the next thousand years. The situation, seemingly so hopeless, results in you not even trying to grab and hold on to any further opportunities that present themselves - no matter how attractively presentable they may be.

It takes just that single God-wowing-orchestrated moment in life to bring a drastic change. A change so unforeseen, though dreamt of earnestly, that it is almost unbelievable. It becomes more of a dream than a reality though a full-fledged reality it is. This becomes that point in life where you stare on with your jaw dropped to ground and your hands flailing in all possible and impossible directions. I recommend a hearty slap from a dear friend (not a stranger you're unlikely to meet again, so you can return the favor when it's that friend's turn) as the way to return your senses to you. It helps! ...trust me.

At this point, it is all you can do but to give thanks and praise to the right place-right time God who never leaves neither forsakes all who trust in Him. The flood gates open wider with each "Thank You" directed up to the maker ward. A bit of the heaven experience runs through your entire being, filling you with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding to the point of an overflow! This overflow contains a mix of joy, laughter, smiles, peace, strength, progress, excellence, resource provision and on and on - everything you need (including those you do not even know you do).

This has been my personal experience, one I know many of you reading this can relate to rather easily. A tale to tell the kids as they grow - to teach them of life, its difficulties, and about the ONLY solution-provider -- God! Halfway through the experience narrated above I spoke to God and made Him a promise that if He, like the many He has done it for, would give me the opportunity to stand before men to share my testimony, I gladly would. Thus, here is me, humbled by His very timely kindness and provision that has brought deepening smiles to all who know my sorrows turned joys, sharing my tale of victory with you.

Heading out to attend countless interviews with my head held real high and full promise each time, but returning with my head hang down low became the norm for a period of 1 year and 9 months. The encouragement from mum, friends and old colleagues was a big help in pushing me to get up and go get beaten up in an attempt to try again. Throwing in the towel was such a tempting temptation, one to which I honestly almost completely gave in to. The words of the poem "Sleight of Heart" I penned quite a long while back came to me:

  

"-manual dexterity of heart

great skill and finesse in part

When you feel weakest

and at your very limit

that is in fact

when you are strongest!

                          So get up, and push on harder." [yoyo: 01-10-2014]

These words, the advice of the earlier mentioned souls, and most importantly - My Faith In God - enabled me to get up each day to fight each battle to its finish no matter how broken and bloody I was left. The result being that I won the war! God's calming Grace, His endless Mercies and His amazing Favor brought me Victory with a smile. My employment brought, not just me, but the many-few who checked on me constantly such immense joy - mum became a 2-year old again with a sheepish grin!

The lines have fallen in pleasant places! ...all because I trusted God till the very end. I almost gave up but I did not - I held on! Trust me... there is NOTHING impossible for God, and this is my testimony. 

~ yoyo

~ inspiredw0rds

~ May 23, 2016 ; 12 : 23 pm

Answered Faith

I know many times you've prayed for a particular thing or group of things, and I know that it seems like God is not listening. I know you've cried and been low at heart in your thoughts seeing as things seem not to be working out no matter how hard you try. I also know that there are times you just want to throw in that very white towel, but something holds you back each time you want to. I know your hope is not dwindling; if anything, it is increasing in earnest. I know the feeling of living in desert lands for a season, looking for a source of water but finding none. I know your dilemma ...

Life, as I've said many times, throws the meanest of curve balls at every and anyone. It is up to you to do the impossible and not miss batting such 'impossible' throws. The good news is that, if you're a child of God you have His resources at your disposal to help you out - you're not alone. The full force of heaven backs you in all you do (as long as it conforms to God's Word), and trust me, having just one Angel on your team is more than enough to solve any problem, how much more having the backing of the full heavenly force?

When there is a need unmet, or rather, yet to be met, the owner of said need is naturally restless till it is met. On the other hand The God who created all things said in His Word;

"Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth

what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." - Matthew

6:8 (KJV)

"30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which

to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not

much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or,

What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your

heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these

things.

33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his

righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow

shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the

day is the evil thereof." - Matthew 6:30-34 (KJV)

You see, thing is, He knows everything, and before you even think of asking for some need He knows what's coming. Now, that to me is the most comforting thing. Well... after salvation, that is. He also says in Matthew 7:7 that when you ask you will be given. As if to let it sink deep into our hearts (where faith, hope, and belief originate) He also says; "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." - Isaiah 55:11 (KJV). So, The One True God says He knows all your needs even before you ask for them, that you should go ahead and ask for them, that He will answer, and that His word doesn't fail ever! What else do you need in order to believe that He can solve any problem... the only catch being He answering in His own time according to His will? Well, that and you switching focus to seeking first The Kingdom of God? Or are you simply a doubting Thomas kind of person, where seeing and feeling leads to believing? Well... this is what I have to say to that; "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HAVE NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE BELIEVED." - John 20:29 (KJV)

To have a testimony, and a really beautiful one at that, to bring glory to God, you must need endure some hardships. Even ones that make it seem like God have abandoned you because those in particular are the ones that bring Him the most glory. Without a test, how would a student know whether he understood what was taught? Without a test, how would anything be proven to be true? Without unwelcome situations that allow God to show Himself mighty, how would men believe on Him, let alone bring Him glory? The faith a person holds in God alone is enough of a testimony to the public that's constantly observing for a make-or-break outcome in the one's life. This is because when that faith is answered (and, trust me... it will be), men are made to marvel and then all glory is aptly directed to God ward.

Jesus, The Head of The Church, said in that anyone who has faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains! Now, I don't know if you who's reading this knows the size of a mustard seed, but it is EXTREMELY tiny! I did a little research to help us have an idea about the mustard seed. I found that it is usually about 1 to 2 millimetres in diameter, and not the smallest seed though one of the smallest. In Israel, there are different kinds of mustard trees, and it was the smallest of all the seeds known and used by those there. Also, notice that Jesus said that when it is full-grown it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds nest in it. This is significant to understand because if such a tiny thing can grow into something that big, it definitely parallels with the fact that Jesus made that having that size of faith can move mountains.

Faith is ALWAYS rewarded with answers. Doubt is the hindrance. God does not work with doubt. A person that holds on to the very end will smile at that end.

~ yoyo

~ inspiredw0rdz

~ May 23, 2016 ; 12 : 31 pm