Hello Greatness

Happy new month to you! I can’t believe 2022 is almost over. Feels like yesterday when we excitedly screamed happy new year. I hope this year has been fulfilling for you. Don’t give up on those plans you have for this year, you never know how much of it you can still achieve.

Have you ever had to struggle with understanding the will of God for your life? I’ve had to struggle with it quite often. It seems like Jonathan McReynolds has a song for everything. I feel like the perfect song for this post is No Gray. In short, I started praying recently after reading about King Hezekiah. On a very different note, I like how God confirms what I’m studying by making a point out of it.. I recently started reading about Hezekiah and was running my mouth to anyone that would even entertain me for a bit. The lessons from his life has taught me quite a few things, only for me to get to church on Sunday and Hezekiah was one of the scriptural examples used in teaching for the month’s series. I just started smiling… like God you’ve done it again. By the way, this is not the first time it’s happened to me where I’ve started reading about someone in the Bible or meditating on a scripture and boom it’s like a huge topic. It’s taught me to stop limiting my exposure to the word of God. Like, I used to think what the Holy Spirit reveals when I am studying is what He has for me at that moment, and then my eyes become open again. If you can’t already tell, I looooooove God and studying the Bible, gives me goosebumps.

Okay okay, I’m back to my original thought. As I was saying, sometimes we struggle with ourselves about what to do. You would think the decision will be easy because it feels like one is clearly bad and the other is not. In that case, the decision has been made for you, do away with the bad choice. But what happens when the choices you have are both good choices? How then do you decide which is right and which is not? This is the place where trusting in God comes in. I guess this is even coming off of my previous post. When God is persistent on a topic, it means I’ve been stubborn about it and He keeps trying to get my attention just to make sure I hear Him. Recently, He kept trying to get me to open up myself to Him…. I remember the one where He showed me that I am doing two things at a time— trusting Him and trying to have a backup plan. Now before you go judging me or feeling like I don’t trust God quite as much with my decisions, weigh out all the decisions you’ve made about your life. Where was God in those decisions? Did you make the decisions without consulting Him and then took it to Him to bless them? Of course, God will give you the desires of your heart, He’s a good Father after all. But, is that really His will for you? #justsaying

My sister opened my eyes to this scripture and I’ve adopted it also, even though I know I haven’t always followed it. Romans 12:2 talks about the good, acceptable, and the perfect will of God for our lives. I don’t want the good nor the acceptable, I want the perfect will of God. Then I wanted to understand how I could do that, it seems like something that might be difficult to attain. My simple question was, how then do I get this perfect will of God. Thankfully, that same verse explains it, this time I’d use TPT translation because I think it breaks it down perfectly,

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you,[a but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.“

That scripture is very complete. We are used to the last part of that scripture, wanting the perfect will of God without asking how we can get it. When I saw it, I realized it is then easy to attain. All I have to do is measure my decisions by my inward convictions. And the Bible says in Romans 8:16 (MSG) that,

Gods's spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children." So that conviction is not coming from nowhere. It's definitely coming from the Holy Spirit. 

One final thing I want to leave you with, because I found it quite fascinating is what God instructs kings to do in the old testaments. So apparently there were duties that kings had to follow in the Old Testament just so that they don’t go out of God’s plans for their nations. They had things like–they shouldn’t take up many wives, they shouldn’t have too much silver and gold laid up for themselves, and this one was significant because of their history, but they weren’t supposed to go back to Egypt to purchase chariots for themselves (I think this was simple because I mean they were enslaved there for years so why go back. You would think this was easy until King Hezekiah did it). However, the most striking of these guidelines was the one about copying the laws (which includes the commandments) for himself. So this means that they have to handwrite it for themselves. This way, as they are writing it, it’s real to them and then it sticks in their hearts (Read these guidelines in Deuteronomy 17:14-20). What if we did this too? We don’t necessarily have to handwrite the words in the Bible, but we should try to commit it to our hearts. Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit who would help us remember those scriptures when we need them the most. This year, my knowledge of the Word has been put to test at various times, and I can’t help but thank God for always coming through for me.

Oh, lastly, and I mean it this time. As God was walking me through the process of trusting His will over mine, I started to say a prayer about Him helping me through. Because you see this my coconut head, it has to become soft. I say this because, sometimes, it helps to ask God for signs to trust that we are not misinterpreting His directions. Yes, this has scriptural backings to it. Gideon did it when he laid out a fleece, in short he did his twice. Judges 6:36-40:

36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

How can I continue without adding my person that I’ve been obsessed with these past weeks, yes you guessed right, King Hezekiah also asked God for a sign. I mean, bet uncle Hezekiah, you were the one that prayed now. God now answered your prayer and added years to your life and you’re still asking for sign? Nawa. 2 Kings 20: 1-11:

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”

7 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.

8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?”

9 Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”

10 “It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”

11 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

Asking for a sign from God does not mean you lack faith, rather it reinforces what you know. When God gives you that sign, even if the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, you will run with that strong conviction that you have. My advice to you, never outrun the will of God for you. Life without God is no fun.

With all my love,

Mz_Ola

SN: I read something fascinating in 2 Kings 17. Let me know if you’d like me to share by commenting. Don’t comment until you’ve read that chapter ooo, I want to know if you can spot what fascinated me.