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Answer the Question: Who Is Your God?

A major question everyone serving God must answer is: Who is your God?

Indeed Who is your God?

In September of 2012, I was at a ladies’ conference in Indianapolis, IN. And there was a break out session for pastor’s wives. It was so refreshing to be around women that are either in the similar situations with me or have been one time in the past and even some fresh ones. The fact that we were all from different backgrounds was really refreshing.

I remember we were asked to pick a partner at 2 different occasions and share with them. The first lady I shared with had been in ministry for a long time and so I was all ears while the other one was a newbie, she just married a pastor. Got married a month after the fiancé took the new pastoring position (and about 6 months prior then the conference) and now expecting their first child. As we talked, she was in tears. The pressure was so much on her already. Of course I could relate a bit with her. The pressure is much when different people come together and especially as the pastor’s wife.

Thinking about it now, I think I will write another post soon on the challenges and excitements of being a pastor’s wife- the good and the not so good 😉

Who Controls You?

Anyway, one thing for sure is that as a church member or let me say a christian, we are faced daily with decisions that make us wonder who our God is. I use this topic who is your God because many people come into your life and make demands on you, they many times dont even give you the room to either say no or explain what you think, they just want it and thats it.

Sometimes this comes in form of a custom believe or assumptions. In the case of the rookie pastor’s wife I met in 2012, one of her main challenge was that as she was welcomed to the church as a new pastor’s wife they asked her what she could do. They also stated to her that the previous pastor’s wife they had was the church pianist, was in kids church and was also baking the muffins for fellowship tea time after each Sunday service. You can see why she was in tears at the conference.

She like many of us then to compare ourselves with others and think we need to measure up in order to be respected. Then we start to put on ourselves burdens that God did not put on us. And this is why I ask you to really ask yourself that weird question: who is your God. As if I didn’t know you would say God/Jesus of course.

Well, its not that easy to answer. Who determines what the state of your heart is? Who tells you what to do or not do? Who’s influence takes the most part of your being? Who is the one on the throne (the highest throne) of your life? The list goes on. Who do you try to please with each action and decision? Is it your Mom, Dad, Hubby, Boss, Children, church member, Big Sister….

Or Are you the one on that throne?

In order to have a good and satisfying life, your God must be the Lord.

I have not found any other god like this God. One of the problems we have as Christians is that we compare God with other people in our lives and so we assume that he is also very demanding and fierce like so and so. We look at God with the same lens that people in our lives have and so we get stressed about this loving God.

Change of Mind Set

Let me invite you to clear out all your unproven thoughts and ideologies about God and begin to learn to know him for real. Put all your lenses down and look at Him for real.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30

²⁸Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.³⁰For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

He is not a task master, he is actually willing to take off your own load. So when others come to pile a load on you, learn to cast it all on Him.

After that take his yoke and burden, trust me that are not heavy at all. Try it out and you will see. And the good also is that he will also give you the grace to obey him. He wants to be your only God.

I found this free book on amazon that will show you 100 powerful reminders of who you truly are in Jesus. The more you know who you are the more you will find strength in your relationship with him. The more you begin to make decisions based on what God said and not what someone said or didn’t say, the more you will be at peace to live a rich and satisfying life. This Book is Free so buy for $0 on kindle, not sure how long it will be $0.

Also here is another book that may also help. This one is not free. It helps you to discover to character of God. Guiding you though scriptures.

Work hard to know your God, and then you will not need other gods in your life.

Who is Your God?

Joshua said to the people in Joshua 24:1

¹⁵And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (NKJV)

Children As Teachers

I hope you are doing very well. It’s been a while since I posted here and I will get a routine here after I am done with all my launches for the year. You can check my launchadream.com for more details.

Meanwhile, from the mission field we are enjoying each day.

This past Sunday we had a nice time at church especially at kids church.

Here is a scripture we studied here at kids church on Sunday:

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭2‬ NKJV)

Children As Teachers

The kids all figured out it doesn’t mean gazing into the sky

but learning from His life.

They realized that it means looking into the bible for the way Jesus lived here on earth.

Some of their examples were in the way He prayed, praised God, thanked God, had faith in God, forgave others… It’s always fun to see the way kids reason out the scriptures.

The boys and I miss all our friends in the Canadian church and we look forward to seeing them again. However, we are very excited to have expanded our family with some new members here in kuje.

When you meet some of the kids here you might think they couldn’t be smart due to lack of exposure. However, start a conversation with them and be relaxed about it. Let them know you appreciate them and then after a while they will open up to you. It’s so much fun.

Their is a little boy here of about 10-12, he doesn’t go to school. He can’t read. He used to be so hostile to others when he first started coming out. Now things have changed. We are teaching him gradually how to identify the letters of the alphabets. He is also not as hostile. He is starting to smile a bit. God is surely doing some amazing work here.

I really thank God for the opportunity for Demi and Dami to be involved with mission work as a life style. As a child I remember going through this in some ways.

My mom, a fervent believer and evangelist was involved in many Methodist church village plants. Many Sundays we would travel about an our and a half to be at a village church and my mom would preach to them and support the pastors their. We did this almost once a month because my mom was a lay preacher in the Methodist church of Nigeria.

She still does this same thing now but has since studied to become an evangelist.

It’s so blessed to give you life in service to God! Pls do as much as you have the grace to, it’s so rewarding!

Have a fantastic day!

Olu

Plan Your Year: Daily Activities

This is 2015. Happy New Year! This is going to be my best year yet. I want you to have the same as your goal. I have not written here is a long time. As many of you know that I recently moved to Nigeria with my family to plant a new branch of Overcomers’. I have had to deal with culture shock (good and otherwise). For the past 3 months, I have been re-learning how to operate in Nigeria. I am getting a hang of it now and I thank God for each day. This is an article that I started work on before the year ran out. But I apologize that its just out now, right in time though for you this January. I have put most of the points highlighted here in place in my personal life and the rest I am working hard on daily.

Plan Your Year: Daily Activities.

A wise person said it’s foolishness to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. To make this year a great one you you must plan to do some great things on a daily basis. Here are a few things I am resolving to do and I want to recommend to you as well.

Plan each day the night before. There are some seemingly little issues that have great potentials of ruining a day for you. Things like what you will wear, what’s for lunch, what the children will wear, their back pack content. Many of this stuff are not going to take so much time to plan but they will save you a great deal of time if planned ahead. You will avoid wasting the freshness of your brain to do minor chores like that. Take extra 10mins to set out clothes, plan lunches and break fast right before bed, clean up a bit or a lot.
Go to bed early. After you have planned the next day, you should do all you can to get to bed early enough. You need enough sleep in order to feel fresh in the morning. If you need to do laundry or dishes do fast and get to bed, Try not to waste time on social media like Facebook, Pinterest. Don’t spend time doing anything that is important. Sleep early and plan to do the important stuffs in the morning when your brain is freshest.
Set Your Alarm. Depending on what your schedule is like in the morning before you leave home, you should set your alarm for a time that you will be able to find time to pray, read and get breakfast ready, take your bath and get out. Imagine having to think about what to wear in the morning. You will notice that you have so much time in the morning if you don’t have all the little things in the way. If you have slept well, you will hardly need your snooze button.
First thing first, spend time with God. Its better that you don’t plan to do anything before spending time with the Father. He is waiting for you to renew your strength early in the morning. Take advantage of this. Jesus woke up early to meet with the father so do the same. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; Psalm 63:1. Remember to make provision for your family, if you have parents, spouses, children that will need you, plan some time for them. If possible wake up before they will need you. That way you will increase the chances of securing your time with God.
Read in the Morning. I try to give you lots of free books that have been a blessing to me here. If you don’t have books, please take time to create a kindle account and get all the books I have posted here and more. Your brain is freshest when you wake up, plan to read at least 10 minutes daily. As you learn from books, practice what you learn and you will see that people will begin to see you as an effective person. Read wide, at least now you know you don’t need to have a huge budget for books in order to be able to read. There are lots of free materials out there. Take advantage of them. You have access to God’s power from on high. He will help you build a good and productive life.
Speak your mind clearly. What you have in your head is very clear and loud but only to you. No one else can read your mind, so you need to tell people around you what you want or need. Don’t assume that people can read you. Even the closest person to you does not have that power to guess what you are thinking.
Clear your mind. As you get ready in the morning while you pray till you get a shower you must deal with every negative thought as they come. Very similar to the previous point, but here I want to recommend that you clear your mind of any hurts or excitements from yesterday. Each day is potentially a great one only if you don’t have extra baggages to carry. If someone hurts you or is making you feel bad, don’d dwell on it. I am sure you have heard the saying you are the architect of your life. If you allow people’s reactions to you or perception of you drive your day, it will not only determine your day it will determine your life as well. You are worth more than reducing yourself to focusing on the issue you have with people. Make up your mind to not be annoyed even if someone makes you angry. You will be wasting precious time. Forgive people seventy times seven times. Trust me if you spend good time with God you will find this easier than if you don’t. That’s another reason to start right.
Put Items on Your To Do List for the day. If you plan a night before you should have an idea of a few other things you would love to achieve in your day. By going through the process of writing your to dos you get to mentally prepare for such things. Things you need to do at work and personal things. This way if you have a free moment you will know if to check Facebook or take on a task. This will help you to have effecient days.
Use an electronic / Paper Calender. Most cell phones today have inbuilt agendas / calenders. If you dont have a cell phone you can use a paper one of course however you will have to carry it in your bag all the times. I love the phones better because your phone is with you mostly so you can enter all your meetings as they are being scheduled. The good thing about this is that they have in built reminders to alert you. I started using my phone agendas when I had a Nokia basic handset and now that I use an iPhone, I see my phone as my assistant. And yes if it stops working it will affect my day almost the same if my assistant refuses to show u at work. The paper agenda/calender is good as well. The only downside is that it will not alert you when to start a task.
Identify Your Distractions. Many things will fall into this category for most people. Facebook, Text messages or phone calls, emails…There is a lot of advantages to being able to receive instant messages but they will distract you and could hinder you from achieving your daily goals. Watch out for time waster and prioritize each task on your list. If you get a text message during the day, rate it in the area of importance and deal with it accordingly. Most text messages and calls can actually wait. You can always get to it later.
Work When you Need to Work. Put private and personal things till you have a break. Social media could be your biggest time waster. Some people use social media for work. As long as its not eating into time that you set for something else then you are fine. Follow my Papa’ s rule here (my late Grandpa Robert Arogun) : A Time For Everything and Everything in Its Time (modified by me).
Reward Yourself. Do you know that just a few people that you meet in the day actually care about what you need? Most people are too worried about themselves to be worried about other people. So take time to reward yourself for sticking to your plans. Many people plan to spend time with God and don’t, so be nice to yourself. Don’t think bad of yourself, if you are working hard to do what God wants for you daily then you should rejoice. Agree more with God that with other people about what and who you are. Even if you were able to achieve just one thing on your to do list, celebrate it. do something you like. Watch a movie, connect with friends on phone or Facebook, check out some nice designs on Pinterest. However don’t let this take over your evening. Remember tomorrow is another major part of your future, start planning for it today.
Enjoy the People In Your life. Your family members, your friends, your neighbours are there to add to your life. They might also be stressing you. Don’t worry, try to help them as much as you can. Many people are mean to others because they are not enjoying the love of God that you enjoy every morning. As you receive joy from him spread some to them.
Help Somebody Everyday. Make up your Mind to help someone every single day. Do something as big as buying someone lunch/coffee to something as small as smiling at the driver that cut you off on the highway. Just make up your mind to make someone feel good about themselves.

There are many other things that are peculiar to you but if you do this daily, be consistent at it and not fail, you will surely have a greater 2015. Come back here as often as you want to look through the list or signup to receive my updates directly in your mail box. I pray that you will look back in December and say ‘Thank you Lord for a Great year’!

Living From the Inside Out – 2 Days Giveaway

This weekend, I decided to do a giveaway of the kindle version of my new book: Living from the Inside Out. I want to experiment with giving it away only for 2 days to see how many more people I could reach.

My goal is to get Living from the inside out into as many people’s hands as possible, and I don’t want money to be an excuse for anyone to not have it. Therefore I sign up for Amazon’s KDP Select Program, which means that for the next 90 days, my eBook will be available only on Amazon. As part of the promotion, I get a select number of days to give the book away for free, two of which are this weekend: June 7 and 8.

Why I did it

Here are a few reasons why:

I really want the message in this book out to many
Because I want to be a bit generous at least for now.
Because giving away a copy might expand my audience
Because I thought it’d be fun.
Because the giving is just for this weekend
Because I could…

I hope those who haven’t been able to get a copy will take advantage of this promotion — and that it’ll reach a whole new audience of readers. Remember its just for 2 day so hurry!

What can you do?

If you want to participate in this experiment, here are a few things you can do:

Pick up a free copy. Download it here (if you don’t already have one).
Tell your friends. Here’s a message you can post to Twitter, Facebook, or wherever: Grab a FREE copy of @OluSobanjo’s new eBook #LivingFromTheInsideOut— just this weekend! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K5BKX06/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_c-2Ktb14EXDGR
Leave a review here Or you can email me with your thoughts. I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Don’t own a Kindle? No problem. You can download one of the free Kindle apps for your web browser, desktop computer, or any mobile device you have. I’ve read lots of books on my phone, so let me know if you have any questions.

My expectations

I have no idea what to expect from this. Part of me hopes this reaches a new audience and once the promo’s over that people won’t have a problem paying the usual price of $4.49 (for kindle version)

The bottom line: This is just plain fun. I’m excited at the possibility of thousands of new people having access to this important message that I believe in. Again I am very grateful to be a new author and would really love to get feedback from my audience.

God bless you!!!

Reviews:

Hal Holt, Kingston Ontario:

“As a Christian from a more conservative church, I found this book awesome: simple, meaningful and powerful. An easy-to-read book with a pragmatic and moving message for any Christian”

Rose Wangechi Sang, Ntone:

“In just twelve short chapters, living from the inside out is – inspiring knowledge, reflective in nature and self-seeking. One must schedule a meeting of ONE, by the sixth chapter… A meeting of ONE simply means that the reader must plan and attend a meeting with self( plus the Holy Spirit) to discuss thine heart, thine state of mind and thine motive behind those up-and-down errands of all things church… The revelation herein is God-inspired. Certainly.”

Beth Moore Books

Wow! What a cold winter day. Welcome to 2014 everyone! We got a glimpse of what normal weather is like in the North Pole today. With this kind of cold, I pray no one gets stranded outside on the roads. Good news- same forecast for tomorrow My advice to everyone; get your winter masks out! -22 degrees feel like -35 degrees.

As I wrap up the day I quickly scan through Facebook to see the headlines of the day when I found a post by Laurie Sweetman about Beth Moore’s books being free on Amazon today. Immediately I checked on amazon and was able to buy about 10-12 of her kindle books for free.

Of course I don’t plan to read them all soon, I am not a fast reader and I hardly find time for books now with the boys home and a bit more work at this time of year. However with a kindle device or a kindle account I can always find the book later to read.

Well, my dear reader, I hope its still free by the time you find this. Please follow my example and use the link asap to check if they are still free. I hear a lot of good reports about Beth Moore’s books.

Men Ought Always To Pray And Not Faint

My weekends are usually super busy and with Ade away, busy is an understatement. I seldom plan any major thing for the day time on Mondays except this week that I needed to speak with 2 of my dear sisters; my blood sister and an acquired one. It was a good time for the first meeting. I turned off my phone for a while to hang out with Damilola and get some rest. It was short but good.

We got Demi from school, its was really cold so we headed for the stores (I had postponed shopping for his winter jacket for a while). I found a nice one for the price I wanted at Target which was the 3rd store and second mall we visited! I was tired but happy with the quality. Did some chores and got the boys ready for bed and by this time I was not only physically tired, I was becoming spiritually drained.

Two more phone meetings scheduled for the night… I was worried, ‘how would I be able to cope?’ I began to stress about my schedule for today and wasn’t sure how I would be able to handle everything….this thoughts (though it started small and subtly) began to grow until it was time to pray with the boys. Suddenly I discovered that this was what Jesus was talking about when he said Men (and women) ought always to pray and not to faint.

I prayed with the boys but they wanted me to stay with them until they slept off so I told them Mommy is very tired and needs to spend some time to pray in order to gain some strength, they didn’t mind me praying out loud as I laid with them and so I did. I prayed in the Spirit. That was what I needed. It was a battle. I needed to do a warfare against the spirit of heaviness. And my boys prayed along until they fell asleep.

I was stronger in my spirit when I woke up about 30 minutes after. I was no longer discouraged, no longer fainting though I was still tired physically. We started the first phone meeting and the first thing the coordinator said was “what do you need prayer for?” Quickly, I asked that they prayed for my tiredness. I knew I had not got enough rest the last few days but I still needed prayers. Thank God for people that can lift you up in prayers.

I finished that meeting feeling really strong (though lying in bed to conserve strength) and went into the other meeting energized. Also I started today early with the Lord who gives me strength daily. My priority is to always make sure I have my strength renewed daily and to work hard to keep my connections to God vibrant but at a time like this, I needed extra support and I thank God for that.

Below are two books on prayer. I have read some of Andrew Murray’s books before and I am excited to read this one. I just downloaded it tonight. The other one is good too. I have had it for a while but I have not read more than a page from it. Its good too but I recommend the first one. Both are free today so act fast. Hopefully they will still be free for a while. Feel free to forward this to your book loving friends too.

Winter is Here!

Winter weather is here at last! Yeah!!!

This morning wasn’t as easy as yesterday. More stuffs to do and two boys to get ready for school and pre-school. We got to school late. How late, I wont say Also today is picture day at school, so Demi needed to look extra nice. He was very excited to pose for his shots.

It was -6 degrees and the cars were frosted, I didn’t have gloves on. My fingers froze as I scraped the frost….oh I miss my hubby. Well talking about that, Ade arrived alright, praise the Lord! He is enjoying some nice food and torturing me with the news thereof.

Canadian weather or should I say that of Kingston, Ontario has been really nice for a while now. I say that because my Sis-in-law, Bola is in a place now that I call the North Pole because they already have snow. And my friends in Calgary have been envying us since. Now its here! What can we do but give thanks and be prepared, We live in Canada

Well, Today I simply want to encourage you to read some of the books you have downloaded. I got lots of good reviews about the book I posted yesterday’s post . Hopefully its still free you can get yours too. Its a short Story book.

Aright here is another good one that I have posted before. This I think will be free for a while. Its for the prayer warriors out there. Life is a battle, you wont go to Afghanistan without your full armour right? Take time to read this book and put on the whole armour of God every day.

When God Whispers Loudly

Well, Ade is off to Nigeria for a great time of ministry and fun. And I had planned to turn on my alarm before bed last night but, the next thing I saw was 7:00am… Thankfully I was able to catch up with Ade before his second flight. And I suuure miss my hubby.

The morning routine was rather busy but Demi made it to school right on time. Damilola and I are hanging out today. Ok a little break and so I headed over to Amazon to find a good read and this is what I found: When God Whispers Loudly by Chris M. Hibbard.

I downloaded it and I am happy to announce to you that it has been added to the list of books that I have read from cover to cover 😉 well, its a very small book. You will read in less than 30 minutes.

I love the title and the writing style of the author. Again I don’t know how long this kindle book is going to be free for, so ACT FAST!

Become A Model

Last night I was at an event put together by some wonderful friends, Thandi & Chewe Nkole. They brought some of their friends together to enjoy some really nice African music, food and to network. I had planned to simply grace the occasion but leave early but I really loved it and stayed till the end. It was a good use of my time and money. And I made new friends too.

Are you a Model?

One of the ladies on the Marimba group was sure I will be a good model so she advised me to consider becoming one. My response was: well I am a Pastor and so I am a model, kind off. We all laughed and said our good byes.

Well, on a serious note, what does it take to be a model? Not on a fashion runway but on the runway of life? I have always loved being a good example since I was little. I have made some very bad moves and some amazingly good calls and in all I always think someone is watching to follow my foot steps.

What about you. Are you a model? To become one, you must be improving daily. You will need to analyze your thoughts, and find resources to improve your thoughts and actions. That’s why book have been my very good teachers. I believe that I must be improving on a daily basis. Sometimes I am on top speed and other times I drag along. What matters to me is that I keep moving. I don’t like reading but since I improve each time I read a good one, I have planned to read at least 1 book a week if not more.

I must say here that I hardly read books from cover to cover. I take what I need each time and come back again. The aim is to improve and that’s what I do. I also prefer to learn enough that I can practice and perfect instead of reading all at once, therefore, I take my time.

Its Ok To Be Different

I have heard someone say; its ok to be different.

Just as God made the Sun, Moon and Stars to differ in their function, brilliance and glory; He made you different from other people around you. There is no point in all of us trying to out do each other. By simply being yourself you will outshine me and everyone else around because there is only one you.

If we accept God’s plan for our lives we will be able to shine. Look around and you will see that the people that stand out are the ones that are not contending with their personality, they are grateful each day for their make up. They are secured in who they are. They trust God daily to match up to what God made them to be and not what another person is or have.

Today, I want you to confront every self degrading thought with this: I am fearfully and wonderfully made. As I continue to improve my gifts and strengths, my beauty shines like the lighthouse. Lord Help me to accept whom you made me ad become whom you see in me.