The Truth

Matthew 11:15 "He who has ears let him hear"

I stumbled upon this video from a friends blog and decided to watch it properly. Her words reveal life and truth.  It's funny because this is how I have always perceived many churches particularly Nigerian churches (I say Nigeria) because that is where I grew up. We fail to focus and understand who our Creator really is, but rather fall in love with the preachers who are merely messengers from God, because most of the time they tell us what we want to hear. Eg: you will acquire wealth, you will pass your exams, you will get a promotion, you will get married etc etc. Yes I must admit all that sounds  yummy but we are so blind and lost in what we want God to do for us that we forget what we must do for him which is simply complete submission to him and loving Him fully.

 Bear in mind I confidently write about this because I am a victim of this situation just like everyone else. I always want waant want want, but fail to give myself fully to God. Now how can a relationship work that way? looks pretty one-sided doesn't it. You and I need need to stop praying only when it benefits us but rather start praying just to give thanks for even our existence and the mercy he shows us each day. The fact that we dwell in sin and temptation but yet he has gone ahead of us to redeem us. It is Crazy, because I cant even begin to say how much sin I indulge myself in knowing or unknowingly and then I'll run back praying "OH I want want want" *BEEP*Wrong attitude to have*! If this is you too join me in this assignment for a week

Lesson for the week: Lets try and stop the self-exaltation and focus on KNOWING who God really is. Step 1-Praying to Know and Understand him. Let's also pray for others rather than ourselves, let's be encouraging to others in need rather than self-absorbed and see where it take us


Happy New Month-Happy Independence my Country Nigeria!
In his love,
Zephia.
xx

Dreams faith can buy

I took this picture at Camps Bay-S.A. The most amazing view

Lately the phrase “closer to your dreams” has been in my head probably because this is how I’ve been feeling all summer and the feeling is just amazing.
Now what does this to have to do with your dreams? Everyone was purposefully created to achieve something on earth; this is why we set goals in life, because innately we know we were created to do something. The challenge isn't getting the idea but rather how you are going to execute this idea. I feel I should emphasise on the power of doubt and fear, how these two concepts can literally hinder our abilities and potential in life because we let these factors control us. Many of us have creative ideas but we never push to make that idea a reality, because we are scared, lazy, doubtful and nonchalant until someone else happens to be living vicariously through our ideas and we have nobody else to blame but ourselves. They say the smallest ideas can grow into the biggest realities (actually I just made that up, but I know there's a saying that goes something like that) actually here’s a perfect quote “Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes” #NapoleonHill

When we decide that doubt and fear can no longer have a strong hold over our ideas and potential we begin to excel beyond what we even imagined. The number one secret and door to success is Gods way. I can't even emphasise this enough! We are not self-made beings, therefore our human capacity to achieve all we want in life is limited but when we put God in the equation it literally transforms from:

Your power + Your Intelligence + Your connections= short term success---> built on Individual strength 

ALTERNATIVE ROUTE TO FOLLOW = 

Your power + Prayer+ Gods Power (which contains 'Mercy'- He will give you mercy when it feels like you can't make it. 'Favour'- when you just need that luck at a point in time. 'Glory'- His glory working through you so that the earth itself and everyone in it may glorify what you stand for. 'Motivation'- His power drives you to the zenith, you never feel like giving up because He is by your side. 'Peace' - inner peace from within reflects on your work on the outside. 'Endurance'. 'Patience'- sometimes God slows us down because He is creating a BETTER plan but we must learn to wait on His voice.  'Leadership'- when you lead, your peers shall follow willingly and see you as an example because His 'Light' shines through you) = LIFE TIME SUCCESS--->built on seeking God step by step to reach that level.

A common problem we face once we achieve something we always wanted, for a short period of time we thank God and then sort of go back into neglecting him. It's like getting exam results; the day before, we pray and beg for mercy and when we are successful we glorify Him but right after the climax has died down, we forget. It's okay; I am very like this, which is why I am comfortable, talking about it. What I am trying to challenge here is we think at that point in time yes we have made it, this is all I ever wanted so thank you God, okay bye God I'll holla when next I need you again, you've been a stand up guy. Safe. Lol. It sounds funny but that's how we literally treat situations. Have you ever stopped to think why should my success end here? If I can achieve this much and God forever wants me to succeed-Exodus 33:17 "I will indeed do what you have asked for, I look favourably on you, and I know you by name" then why should my goals be limited? When we achieve something, we need to be less like cool task done but rather our mindset needs to be okay God thank you for helping me overcome this and be successful with this, so what next can I do to Glorify you, where shall I aim for to shine and lead the way you expect me to. 

If we strive to think this way all the time, there will be no limit to our success in life. I am going to be honest, I don't think this way at all, but I just got a rush to write this for some reason, so now I'm going to put my words into practice because this summer I feel closer to my dreams and this is only the beginning. I want you to feel closer to your dreams and when you get there, the amusing thing is you realise it is only the beginning and not the ultimate achievement. At the right time, God makes our biggest dreams come easily so we can DREAM BIGGER and Aim higher. 
But remember this only happens through the "Alternative Route to follow" which I explained above (Your power + Gods power) Philippians 4:13 "For I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" :)

Stay Blessed&Inspired
Zephia

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Perseverance

Perseverance: "Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success"
I was thinking on what to write on next, and when I just said God help me, I felt the word "Perseverance" come to my heart so I decided to look it up and get the full meaning. It's crazy because this is how I see myself, to always pick myself up in spite of certain circumstances that may deter the goals I am trying to achieve. I never stop going because it feels like a race, to get to that level of achievement that I know I have the potential for because God is on my side.

Now don't get me wrong in my human nature there are times I have doubts and days of procrastination, swimming in a pool of laziness because I feel disappointed that I may not be achieving certain things yet. I know there are so many people who feel this way every day and literally have no motivation or inspiration to pick themselves up because they have failed so many times at the things they aspire to achieve. If this is you or someone you know of then I feel this post is for you..

I'll tell you what keeps me going when I feel like I'm losing it. It's not a pep talk from friends or parents. It's my faith in Gods word spoken over my life. Before I started getting comfortable with reading the Bible (still trying to get comfortable trust me) my mom would always pick out Bible scriptures for me to read when I was younger, we called them "promises" and she would fold each scripture in a piece of paper and every month it was a new message. This was what actually led me to start opening my bible out of my own will, not because I was at church and had to or because I was doing it to put up an angelic front but I actually started to get interested in these "promises" that are scriptures in the bible because I felt this was how God spoke to me, and now in my bible I have tons of little paper notes with dates (earliest date I see is 2003) pointing out a message for me. (Shout out to my mom for picking out these messages for me without realising the impact it will have on me now and on others as I share them. You are truly a blessing-Love you!) *Okay back to my point*

I want to share a promise with you all that applies to everyone- Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken or failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?"

This verse literally moves mountains, just read it again. God never changes his mind! So what does this have to do with you? In life we are created for a purpose and we set goals to achieve certain things but sometimes it doesn't look like our efforts are going anywhere. This is where this verse comes in with my topic of Perseverance. God sees it all, the trials, the hurt, the pain our efforts. Don't give up! Once you have asked for something in His name, just remember He can never fail you. Another verse to back this up is 2:Samuel 22:30 "In your strength I can crush an army, with my God I can scale a wall" metaphorically speaking it means with God you can achieve whatever you dream of!

Be "persevering" and see where it takes you
Stay Inspired& Blessed
xx Zephia xx

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Trivial Matters

It’s funny how praying/talking to God could easily solve most of our problems. I know easier said than done, talking to someone that we physically cannot see but through faith believe He exists! Talk about crazy, but hey it would be less of an experience and trial if we actually saw God on a daily basis, I think we would actually just take advantage of HIM more because we KNOW through empirical evidence that he exists as opposed to us having faith that he does.

Anyway enough of the philosophy. I decided to call this post “trivial matters” because in life we go through phases where we find ourselves complaining or worrying over the smallest issues that could easily be solved. It could be issues like what to wear the next day, what hairstyle to have on for summer, what summer jobs are we getting, worrying over exams that have already passed, wondering if a relationship would last, etc. All these issues we go through are trivial in comparison to life or death problems that people in the world actually face.

One of the things I am learning in life is to always be appreciative of everything and stop making petty issues like what to do to my hair;centre or middle part(believe it or not such decisions actually stress me out. Dont judge me, cause I know some girls think that way too lol ) dictate me. Instead of worrying and complaining I just started taking the issues to God, whether he hears me or not.

I’ll give you an example, I could be standing in front of my closet for a good half an hour, deciding what to wear, and the minute I cant decide I get stressed. Anyway I just started imaging God was beside me and I would talk to thin air pretending one of my best friends were there and go okay God what shall I wear today. Within time I started to feel my conscience getting stronger over these petty issues, like something was pointing me in the direction of, anything can be solved, stop fussing over these things.

Basically what I’m trying to say is when we start asking God to help us make decisions, regardless of how small the issue is, we get used to it and this gives us the incentive to start asking Him to help us when we face serious issues and believe it or not when you cultivate the habit of praying wisely, for some reason a solution just pops up and the problem that seemed BIG at the time becomes nothing.

James1:5-5 “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you, He will not rebuke you for asking” This scripture really touched me when I read it because it’s basically saying no matter what you ask from God he can never turn away from you. In other words even if the issue is little he hears and would bring a solution forward as long as it’s in accordance to His will for your life.

||*woosh as I’m typing this right now, I’m getting such a thrill, I regret it took me so long to start blogging again, I really need to get my act together and stop being so divided between God and my worldly desires*||

To cut the story short, He really does answer our problems even the smallest ones.

Ephessians3:20 “Now all glory to God who is able through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think”

He can solve our problems beyond what we can imagine, we just have to have trust.

Love,

Zephia

xx

Patience

*p.s..the different colours in each paragraph represent traffic light colours. Signifying how we need to be patient in life, just as we are when at the traffic lights*


"Time" and "Patience" are two concepts that are interdependent. For one to get to a certain level of achievement it takes time and of course the patience to wait for the right time to come.
2 months ago I wrote about the concept of time, explaining that when we operate on Gods time everything eventually falls into place . This is where "patience" comes in as it is an imperative term applied in our everyday life because we always have to "WAIT" for one thing or the other...be it exam results, job applications, summer, sales, etc etc .


As humans we tend to be so impatient with life and just constantly frustrated at a lot of things and tend to put the blame on God, therefore we become so impatient with HIM because we fail to see the hidden blessings He has planted in our lives. Sometimes it's literally right infront of us, but we are so fixated on the wrong things and what we THINK is good for us, that we completely loose sight of where we should be heading in the first place.But the truth that we fail to come to terms with is that being patient helps us to achieve what we want to achieve to our full potential. We dont always have to rush because we think life is short, sometimes maybe we just need to take a step back and be patient to think ahead because when things do not turn out the way we want them too, the main reason is because we were impatient with Gods plans that we end up indulging in what I call "short term satisfaction"; in other words for a short period of time everything seems gravy and bubbly but then it just comes to an end eventually. Then we try to justify the ending by saying "it was fun while it lasted" PSHT!rubbish zulu chats there if i may add!
I believe if we are headed on the right path in life predetermined by God then surely it shouldn't be  temporary enjoyment. The whole idea behind His plan for us is to experience long lasting joy-->Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you...they are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope"

You are YOU! we need to understand that our destiny can never be the same as anyone else, so whenever we find ourselves in a situation where we are rushing into something because our friends or  colleagues are doing it and we feel left behind, we need to think carefully is this the right path for me? The truth is whatever God has planned for us is always 1000000000000000000000(u get the point) times better than what we have planned for ourselves. Even though it is hard to see especially when nothing seems to be going the way we want it too. 


Be patient, because I believe God is forever making plans to give us eternal joy, so any temporary enjoyment we might have experienced in the past and wanted it to last much longer...MAYBE that wasn't God's plan for you.
Seek for the long-lasting Joy! :)


Be renwed inside&out!
God loves you
love,
Zephia. xox

So powerful

"Loneliness is not the absence of people, it is the absence of purpose and when you find purpose, the right people come"

W.H

R.I.P Whitney Houston- Aug 9th 1963-Feb 11 2012

I don't even know where to begin.....When I saw the tweets that whitney Houston passed away, first thing that came to my mind was this is just another silly rumour. It's funny how death takes us by surprise, we can never understand it or know when it's going to come, and to me that is the scariest thing.
She was definitely a legend. May her soul rest in perfect peace and her music live FOREVER. Most importantly, may God give her family and friends the strength to endure what has happened and find peace.Amen

1Thessalonians 4:13 
"For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him"


This is a verse I read a while back when I was trying to understand the whole idea of death and how to deal with it by faith. Really powerful and if anyone has lost anyone close to their heart I hope this verse helps.


with love,
Zephia

Time

So this is my first post since the start of the New year 2012, and the reason I haven't written in a while is because I needed the time to figure out some things for myself. Sometimes you just need a time out to learn from certain mistakes so you can pick yourself back up in order to move forward on the right path.


Now we have all heard the saying "now is not the right time" I can imagine how annoying it is to hear that, especially when you believe the exact opposite. The concept of time can be perceived in different ways however, the main idea behind it includes the past, present and future. I find the whole time concept so intriguing, because time is simply a reflection of our life.  Within time we see how our life pattern changes, things that were once important to us in the past no longer mean anything, because our life pattern is not consistent.  Situations seem to keep changing because it is inevitable, you cant avoid it even if you wanted too.


You start to notice a lot of changes, like the old you is simply changing into this new creation. Achieving the things you have always dreamed of and perhaps never thought you would accomplish. For some people it's the opposite, they find themselves doing things their past self would have had no interest in doing, while others just find themselves stuck in the same place. I'll tell you what I think the secret behind all this is.....
I don't think it is just NATURE taking its toll on us. I believe the way things turn out in our life has to do with a greater being beyond time and space to make those things happen. If you didn't quite catch that i'll rephrase. That greater being beyond time and space is God, because he is Omnipresent. He makes things happen in our lives when we least expect because He is outside of our natural time zone. 


Have you ever considered that sometimes when things are not going the way you want them to, maybe it just isn't the right time and that is sort of Gods way of telling you not now just be patient. But because we have our mind so wrapped up on getting what we want we loose sight of the bigger picture; the possibilities of a better plan out there for us. I know it sounds ridiculous because when we convince ourselves that this is the right time to go ahead and pursue something, we go for it. However when it doesn't go our way we start feeling like we have failed. In my opinion, that is the biggest lie. You HAVEN'T failed. The truth is, we are so blind to see that maybe that path was just not for us. We may not understand it but what better way to get an answer than from what God actually says. 
Isaiah55:8 "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts"  This verse is basically saying that the Big guy (God) operates differently from you. It's self explanatory, His ways our not our ways and in His time He makes all things beautiful.


You need to be confident and have faith that at the right time (Gods time) what you want would come, but you just cant afford to operate under your own will because it wont take you anywhere. If you find yourself in this situation where nothing seems to be going right, be it in a relationship,  university, internship/job applications,  family/friend issues or financial matters. Rest assured that in His time everything would fall into place, but it has to be it has to be right for you. It goes beyond you wanting something, literally the plans you make need to fall in line with the goal He is trying to manifest in your life, because if it doesn't add up then you would constantly see that your plan isn't going anywhere. I'm sorry but you are going to have to let the plan go and aim at what God wants, which I'm sure is ten times better than the plan you wanted. Oh and some of you might agree but think "how am i supposed to know what he wants?"  Simple... PRAY on it, and an answer would definitely come some way or the other. You would actually be surprised at the amazing changes in your life once you start praying and putting God ahead of you. It actually works. I'm speaking from experience and I want to share this gift with you so everything can fall into place. It may not happen right away, but trust me you would begin to see positive changes. 


Proverrbs3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do and He will show you which path to take"


Dwell on it, Believe it and Work with Him......trust me you cannot go wrong!
Happy new month btw! :)
With Love,
Zephia