New Creations Project

I've been working on setting up this project for a while now...after months of procrastination and doubt  here it is!
The New creations project is about young adults sharing their personal struggles and how they balance their lifestyle while being in a relationship with God. This round table discusses what it means to have a Christian lifestyle, is there even such a thing?
Questions on relationships, dealing with social settings and growing as individual in Christ without over-whelming people are focused on in depth.

I hope this inspires you all as I learnt so much from my panellist .
On board we have: Myself, Jake, Silvia, and Sam

2 Corinthians 5: 17 'Therefore if anyone is new in Christ the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here'

Enjoy!
Stay blessed and inspired
Zephia
xx

NB: If you are interested in more roundtable discussions where you get to listen to topical issues on young peoples lives check out my friends blog at http://roundtablediscussionblog.com

The good work within you...

Today, a friend of mine asked me what the tattoo on my wrist meant.
It reads:
"Phil 1:6" which means "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day Christ Jesus returns."




I got this tattoo with the fulfilling thought and most importantly faith that before I was born, God started 'a good work' within me and now I am of this world, the good work He does in me shall be impacted into the world through what I do. To me this verse meant, I am a good person no matter what because God is working within me, so every time I backslide or do something that doesn't necessarily reaffirm my stance on being a good person, this verse is there to comfort me.

However, today when I went to church, the service blew me away. The preacher spoke on Grace and "requirements" we set ourselves as human beings to please God. Through this service did I fully grasp the idea of "Gods Grace" and saw a different vision to what my tattoo actually meant.
What I realised today was truth in all forms, so I can't help myself but to share it with you :)

I learnt that as human beings on this earth we tend to set certain standards for ourselves to be that perfect person. Christians especially do it the most when trying to be "PERFECT" for God. We have to realise that trying to be perfect for God in order for Him to love us is impossible. For instance, we tend to tell ourselves things like If I read my bible more, go to church every Sunday, be more forgiving etc then automatically God will love me and forgive me for every sinful thing.
But you know the craziest thing about God? He doesn't think like us (Isaiah 55:8- For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways"). God doesn't accept us because of what we DO or NOT do. His acceptance is based on this thing we hear so much about called "GRACE"

"GRACE" from what I understand is God loving us unconditionally, not because of us being good, it is love coming from a place where we qualify as unmerited beings, but God still accepts us. I read a scripture today which blew me away. It reads "We are all infected and impure with sin when we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags..." Isaiah 64:6 Did you get that?
This means that even when we DO good, because we are naturally sinful human beings the good that we do is nothing but as filthy as a rag to God.
Therefore, to me this means if my good is not as good as I think because of the sinful nature within, then Gods love and acceptance for each of us cannot be based on who does the most good, or who goes to church more or who reads the bible scriptures more etc. Gods love and acceptance is not by us being perfect for Him and setting all these "be good tasks" that we end up failing anyway, but He simply ACCEPTS and LOVES you and I because of this GRACE that the bible talks about.

Today I understood Grace as unmerited and unearned love that God has for us. It is not what I do or what you do, that makes God love us. He just does and accepts us. Mind blowing I tell you..
So my revelation with my tattoo is that it indicates Gods GRACE. "The good work God began within me will go on till Christ returns" I have already admitted you and I cannot be perfect and constantly be good people till Christ comes, it is not in our nature. (Jeremiah 17:9- The human heart is the most decietful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is). 
Therefore this good work within me till Christ returns is what I call GRACE.

We find favour with God by HIM sending us Grace not by what we do to PROVE that we are good. It is impossible to be good all the time, we just have to ACCEPT that GOD ALREADY ACCEPTS us and live by that. From there all will follow and we find ourselves living life NATURALLY according to Gods will, NOT by our " be good to do list to get to heaven" that doesn't work

Ephesians 2: 9- "Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it"

Happy Sunday!
Be renewed in your mind&Stay Blessed,

Zephia

Sinking deep

"Sinking deep" - Hillsong

This song has been on my mind since last week Sunday. They played it at church and it moved me beyond words. I found myself crying to every word.
I wanted to share this song because of what it means and hopefully it reaches out to you one way or the other. You see for me, the reason why I cried is because I felt like such a sinner and unworthy of Gods love at the time, but when I heard the song I automatically felt this comfort that God WILL ALWAYS love me no matter what I do, and the same applies to you! So I wanted to share this truth with you all.

One verse I really love:
Romans 8: 38 " ..and I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from Gods love. Neither death nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither our fears of today nor our worries of tomorrow..."

Listen to the words...

"when I'm lost you pursue me, lift my head to see your glory
Lord of all, so beautiful. Here in you I find shelter..captivated by the splendour of your face, my secret place...."

Stay blessed and Inspired,

Love Zephia

The Price of Faith

A while back, I had done a post on faith and I want to readdress the topic because it is something that is vital in my life. I want to write about faith because of how far it has taken me in my life and hope that you can tap into your faith more and see where it takes you.
In my previous post on faith I had started off defining what exactly faith means, and I used the standard dictionary definition, which explains it best. It says: 
“Faith is complete trust or confidence in something or someone”
 ALTERNATIVE DEFINITION.
Book of Hebrews 11:1 version: “ Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Clearly faith is that which we cannot see but hope for. I'll tell you a story. I had been dreaming of getting into one of the top educational institutions in the world since I was 16. I had planned out so much of my life, from where I wanted to go and what I wanted to study. I planned and planned to the point that I never considered option B, if things didn't go my way.
The bitter reality is that sometimes life sets us on a different path, far from what we planned for and it sucks because it isn’t what we hoped for, especially when we are certain that we always have it all figured out. But the truth is, we are on that different path simply because the time we seek probably isn’t the right time.

Anyway I ended up on a completely different path from what I wanted, (simply I didn’t end up at the University I wanted at first) but instead of letting what I didn’t get consume me, I just embraced the reality of everything and let that unexpected path show me something new. I found myself growing into this new person and my perspective on a lot of things changed. The things I had tolerated started to appear so trivial to me. Obviously it took a while, but I eventually found myself. Most importantly, I was surrounded by an amazing group of people and my relationship with God grew from my experiences and the people I encountered. The different path I found myself in, (which I initially resented because it wasn’t what I wanted), actually prepared me for bigger opportunities ahead and pushed me to work harder for what I’ve always wanted.  

One thing I always had was faith. Even when the odds were against me. So how did I do it? I'll tell you the truth, yes I may have worked hard but at the end of the day, there is a limit to what you can achieve solely on human capacity. I put all my faith in God and never doubted what I wanted was impossible. I told myself that if God could bring me this far, then God helping me solve bigger challenges surely must be like playing scrabble to Him. In other words, all the things we see as a challenge are in actual fact always solvable to God.

My faith brought me to a place where I didn't base my chances of success simply on what was said on paper, but by what I felt in my spirit. If the paper said I couldn’t achieve “A” for instance, I didn’t let that determine my outcome. I know it sounds crazy but I just did my part, worked like a mad woman and put all my faith and strength in God, while never doubting Him and in the end it paid off. I finally got what I wanted, (acceptance into my dream University at a Masters level). I got the dream, but at a different time, which I appreciate and now see that it is the perfect time; Gods timing and not mine.

I am not just writing about faith to tell you how it has been a great influence in my life. But I'm writing to encourage you to always have faith. I've realised it is the key to giving you strength when everything seems impossible. It is the only thing that gives you that incentive to push harder even when people say you will never get there. It is the key to connecting with God because the whole idea of Jesus/God/Holy Spirit is simply by having faith. At the end of the day, our understanding of God is not by empirical evidence, but it is based on faith, which is what builds that connection. 

A great example of faith to me is the story of the bleeding woman in the bible. It was by faith that the bleeding woman touched the robe of Jesus and she was healed. She heard all about Jesus and the miracles and said to herself “If I can touch his robe I’ll be made well.” This woman’s faith was on a whole different level as she believed that simply touching His robe will cure her illness, and voila she was cured. Jesus realised and said to her “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be free from your affliction.” The story is actually much deeper than what I’ve explained. If you get the chance, read it to get the whole idea. (Mark 5:25-34)

So today I dare you to challenge yourself, say no to discouraging people and negative facts. I am not saying there is anything wrong with being "realistic" but sometimes jump out of that comfort zone and take a leap of faith! Remember the whole idea of faith is spiritual not just a mental process. You get the faith not by hoping alone but by praying and having utter reliance on God. I know it can be really difficult to get that connection, trust me I am always there in and out. But when you get to that point where faith is just a dominant factor in all aspects of your life...Nobody can take that away from you because it is priceless.

“ Let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.” (Colossians 3: 15-17)


p.s Apologies I have not blogged in soo long. I promise I'll try to be more consistent!
Stay Inspired,


Love Zephia

I am Your Sheep and You are my Shepherd

Trust and listening to the Voice of God

Sometimes we cannot recognise the voice of God because our thoughts are clouded by our own judgements. I recently read somewhere that it takes a Sheep a while to get accustomed to the voice of its Shepherd. Similarly, as human beings this is what our relationship is usually like with God. When I read that, I thought it was such an amazing comparison, because now I understand the dynamics of the Lord is "our Shepherd"

Yes He is our Shepherd in the sense that He will not forsake us. This is clear in Psalm 121:7 "The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever"


However we need to take into the account the initial relationship, between the Sheep (us) and the Shepherd (God). The Shepherd is constantly training the sheep into its follower. I don't know how the sheep herding process works, but I'm assuming it's almost like training a dog at first, if not worse. In the  beginning stages of training, the animal will be unresponsive to the Shepherds commands, and give in to its own nature and demands. Just like the Sheep, we tend to act in the same manner with our relationship with God. We fail to listen to His voice, not because we don't want to but because our hearts haven't been able to recognise what that voice is yet. It is difficult to hear/feel that voice, because it conflicts with our worldly thoughts and this is why it is so hard to place.

I am writing this because I feel this has been me for some time now. I'll be honest, I find it so hard to recognise when God is speaking to me or sometimes I make up crazy ideas in my head and forcefully will it to be God if you know what I mean. I guess what I'm trying to say is we need to just get accustomed to what that voice is, so we can differentiate between our worldly desires and what He wants best for us. It's been said that we usually hear Gods voice when we are still in his presence, in other words just having alone time, praying or even just listening to gospel music, basically anything that will put you in check.

This is something I've been meaning to practice consistently, but I find myself getting distracted over things that should not be a priority over my relationship with God. The beautiful thing about practicing to hear the voice of God, are the life changing experiences you encounter. For starters, I start to see myself differently, my perception of things begin to change, from what/who I attract to what/who I entertain.
You start to see certain things clearly, because your heart and mind is focused on Him and what He wants for your life. It could start from a simple revelation on how to go about writing that essay you found difficult, adding little pointers to your job applications or God may point you in a certain direction and open your eyes towards something new that you may never have considered or previously brushed aside.

It's an overwhelming experience, and you have nothing to lose trying it out. Make the decision to take a few minutes out of your day, by setting alone time and just pour out all your worries to Him and ask Him to take control of every situation that seems difficult to overcome.
When you do this I pray God will direct you in all areas of your life. Be it school, relationships, friendships, etc. Worst scenario, you might not feel you heard/were moved by anything, but trust me you will definitely gain something in the long run. At the end of the day that is why we are like Sheep. It takes TIME to recognise that voice. So it doesn't mean He isn't speaking to us, we just need to want that relationship out of our free will and our hearts just need to be fully focused on Him to get results.

Remember hearing the voice of God, is not going to come as an audible voice. It's what you feel in your spirit and heart, that's where He engages with us.

Psalm 23 "The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows, He leads me beside peaceful streams, He renews my strength, He guides me along the right paths, bringing honour to His name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me..."

Stay Blessed and Inspired,
Zephia xx

Brief notes on Faith-Thanks Devon Franklin

Husband to Megan Good, Devon Franklin speaks on his celibacy and being two different people. "I would preach one thing, but then live another life" I watched this brief interview on him and felt like I could relate so much to what he was saying. Author of the book "Produced by Faith" where he speaks on the power of faith and how we can find success without compromising who we are and what we believe in. Now that is power in the mouth right there.
I am definitely going to buy the book and I recommend you do too, it might give you the insight you've been looking for, with regards to sorting your life out. I have always believed Faith can take you anywhere and I actually blogged about this 2years ago. (LINK below TO READ:)-->

http://www.mademoisellezee.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/power-of-faith.html

When I look back on what I wrote it just reminded me of the greatness ahead and how we can achieve anything we want in this world, once we live by faith, prayer and of course working hard to meeting our goals. Just stumbling on Devons 4minute interview, really set me back into perspective on a lot of things, so I just thought to share it with you all.
Hope you enjoy his brief interview!!

You are wonderfully made,
Psalm 139 :)
Love Zephia!
x

Transitioning

"Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The Old life is gone; a new life has begun" 2Corinthinas vs17

I like to think that people transition into something new every year, we transform into this entirely different person and begin to adopt certain traits or portray ourselves differently from what others may be used to. I'm not saying you aren't who you are anymore, I'm saying over the years there are challenges we face, which mature us into something different.

There are certain mannerisms you could have had at the start of 2012, and towards the end of the year you may have experienced something positive or negative which helped you grow into the person you are right this very moment. The truth is we are all still growing and when I say growing I don't mean physically but mentally and spiritually. For instance there are certain things that may have bothered me two years ago and now I am so nonchalant towards those things. This isn't because I changed overnight but because life always takes you through challenges that help you transition into who you are now and your perception of the world and people around you begin to change

Don't get me wrong there are times I fall back into old habits, doing the things I'm not supposed to or acting out and not representing myself the way I know I should. I guess sometimes our body just seems to have so much power over us, but the beautiful thing is we always have this conscience telling us we are wrong and for me that little voice is The Holy Spirit. Some people can't recognize what is wrong anymore because they have ignored this voice for such a long time it's almost impossible to feel bad when you have done something wrong. But He says:
"I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stubborn stony heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations" Ezekiel 36:26

You see, God has made it clear that he is in each and everyone of us, so regardless of how many times we make the same mistake, we have no business feeling like a lost cause. We need to accept the Holy Spirit is in us, therefore by FAITH we are a NEW creation spiritually. You are the better version of yourself if you believe it, you are not a waste regardless of what people say, you are not a slut, a gossip, mean, cheater, thief, liar etc and all the horrible things that life throws at you. You are a NEW creation because God has said so and you have a new heart to change, so whenever you hear that little voice in your head or you feel it in your heart to not do something maybe you need to pay close attention to that voice. This is how I literally get myself out of situations when I find myself loosing track and doing things I know I shouldn't do. I force myself to listen to that voice and I believe once we start listening, this is when we transition into the people we are supposed to be. Change isn't going to come overnight like I've said. It's a learning curve, baby steps one at a time.
We need to accept that we are fallible, we will be tested, tempted, tried, and a whole lot of negative influences to take you in the opposite direction of what you're trying to achieve or who you are trying to become, but it is alright for those things to happen because in life we need to make mistakes to realise we are wrong and then head in the right direction.

My prayer is that this New Year we transition into who we are called to be, so whatever New Year resolution you've made remember it's going to be a gradual process not just sudden change but don't give up!
I didn't really have a resolution this year but I'm aiming to to take this blog to a different level and be more consistent with my posts! I have so much I want to share with you all and I pray it only inspires you and transforms you. Trust me as I write, I am no where near perfect I make the same mistakes so for me writing keeps me in check and pushes me towards God.

Happy New Year everyone!
Thank you to all my readers who have been sources of encouragement for the past two years!
Live and Love your life because you are wonderfully made! :)


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you can also ask me anything as anon in the comment section and I'll reply
This blog is all about interaction not just reading!


Zephia. xx