The Purpose Myth

God never asked us to chase after Purpose, He asked us to chase after HIM.

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Almost everywhere the Bible alludes to Purpose, it speaks of God’s Purpose, not OUR purpose. The purpose for each season will be different, and if we stay stuck on the fact that we’re meant to be “following purpose”, we’ll find it difficult to be flexible when the seasons change.
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What if your purpose is to study Medicine... then you end up in film and media?
What if your purpose is to work in media... then you end up as a politician?
Why are you the measure for God’s abilities?
Why can’t God’s Purpose be more complex than we can ever understand?
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Constantly second-guessing ourselves and constantly striving to follow purpose makes us focus on “works”, believing that it is what we do or how well we do it that determines where we are in God; but where we are in God has already been determined by Him.
He has “... seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...”
(Ephesians 2:6 ESV)

So we’re not living our lives, we’re living His Life, by His Rules, in His Way, according to His Purpose.
Not.
Ours.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20 ESV)

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The idea of finding our purpose is weighing so many of us down with religious pressure and killing our intimacy with God.
Listen: you can’t do anything to deserve God’s love, and you can’t do anything to lose God’s love, either. Follow Him day by day — that’s your only purpose, and that purpose is more than enough.

“... tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
(Matthew 6:34 ESV)

The Traffic of Life

So, you get off work, get into the car, excited to get home, and then you get stuck in traffic.😓 Just another day in Lagos.

But no matter how frustrating traffic is, you never find yourself doubting the destination. You never find yourself saying, “Am I really sure I’m going home? This traffic is too much. What if I’m not going to find any house when I get there? What’s the point?! Oh, let me just park here and not bother trying anymore.” 😅
We understand that the promise of home isn’t where the problem is, but that there are challenges on the way:
Perhaps a car broke down.
Perhaps the roads are bad.
Perhaps it’s just normal rush-hour traffic.
And if we’re on the wrong route, we know that all we have to do is check our maps and take a different route.
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It’s exactly the same with God.
The problem isn’t whether or not God has promised; it’s what perspective we’re looking at the process from.
There’s no point complaining through the seasons of our lives, kicking and screaming through every challenge and questioning God’s faithfulness. The simple answer is to get a different perspective — God’s Perspective — and understand what’s happening. And if you find that you’re stuck because you took the wrong road, just turn around at the nearest opening.
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Selah.

"Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."
Revelation 4:1 ESV

“Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”
Proverbs 4:7 NKJV

Agree with God.

1) “Agree” — not “Argue”, not “Angry”.
Don’t argue with God, and don’t stay angry with Him, either.
2) Agree with GOD — not with fear, and worry. Not with your friends who may not understand. Not with your thoughts and imaginations.

You may feel stuck. You may be asking a million questions and analysing a million details. You may be wondering what the point of the journey is. You may be afraid because the next step looks SO hard and you can’t imagine how you’ll make it through. Is it really God’s will? Did God really say? Can God really want me to do this?
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The answer to all your concerns is God.
Agree with Him and literally watch all the other thoughts shut up and run away.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7 ESV

Religion vs. the World

I was thinking through the life of Jesus at the times when He was “persecuted”; as in, abused, rejected, scorned, lied against, cast out, killed. It wasn’t by the worldly, sinning, smoking, fornicating, stealing, politicking individuals — it was by the leaders of the organised-body-of-religion-of-His-time. The “sinners” embraced Him, the self-righteous persecuted Him.

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As believers, we talk a lot about how the world is persecuting us for doing right. We also have this fear/avoidance of “sinners” because we say they reject the truth. But when the Truth walked on earth, it was the actual sinnerest sinners who embraced Him. It certainly doesn’t seem like it was the “world” that persecuted Jesus and the disciples 🤔
Unless the definition of “world” has now been taken out of context?
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When the religious bodies operate with the standards of the powers of the world and not the standards of Love in Christ, they become the “world”.
And when Christians condemn rather than love, they become the world as well.
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The question is, if sinners loved Jesus, and the self-righteous were the ones who hated Him, how can we apply that to our experience of “persecution” as Christians today?🤔
When you think about times that you felt persecuted, where did it come from? Who is persecuting who?

Please share your (non-legalistic) thoughts!😅

The Chase vs. The Choice

Chasing is cultural and based on perception. Choosing is natural and based on desire —

— and there is nothing more powerful than a person’s freely made choice.
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That’s why you can tell me a story of how your best friend was the one who toasted her husband and he married her and loves her with allll his might, and on the other side you can show me a man who toasted the life out of a babe and walked away from the relationship. OR married her and is now cheating.
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PS: Making the wrong choice is still a choice.
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PS2: God does not force any single human being to do any single thing. That’s why you can also show me someone who agreed because “God said” but they’re struggling and miserable in their relationship.
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PS3: if you’re looking for God to punish the person who broke your heart 😓 you’ll be there a looong while. Take the remnants of your broken heart to God who heals the broken-hearted.
It’s a promise, it’s what He came for:

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has [...] sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives...”
(Isaiah 61:1 ESV)

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Your broken heart is as important to Him as your healing and your salvation. He will fix it for you — but God does not choose sides; He chooses Love ALL THE TIME.
For example:

“One day, Joshua was near Jericho when he saw a man standing some distance in front of him. The man was holding a sword, so Joshua walked up to him and asked, "Are you on our side or on our enemies' side?"
"Neither," he answered. "I am here because I am the commander of the LORD's army." Joshua fell to his knees and bowed down to the ground. "I am your servant," he said. "Tell me what to do."
(Joshua 5:13-14 CEV)

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And that’s the response we should have whenever we get confused: drop our arguments and defenses and fears and anger before the Lord and say, “Okay, Lord, please tell me what to do, now.”
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NB: How you choose to apply this will make the difference between being free and being confused. But God is not a God of confusion so don’t be an agent of confusion, either 😂

The (crooked) Way 😕

Look at these beautiful buildings ahead.

To get to them, it looks like all I’ll have to do is drive straight, get to the next street, then turn in and park. Right?
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Wrong.
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This picture was taken in Parkview estate and those buildings are in Banana Island. As close as they appear, the way there is not straight ahead. In fact, the first step toward these buildings from where this picture was taken, is in the opposite direction.
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But how can that be?
How can it be that God gave you a promise and showed it to you SO CLEARLY, and now the directions to the promise are taking you in the opposite direction from it??
I mean, you can see it right in front of you. IT’S RIGHT THERE. You can almost touch it. And now, they’re saying you have to turn away from it in order to get to it?
That you have to be willing to •not• see it in order to get there...
that you have to turn your back away from it and head away from it, to get there...
That you have to let go in order to get close to it?
...
it doesn’t make sense.
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When we use google maps, we understand that the route will lead to the destination even when it leads us away from it. Because we trust the satellite navigation system.
But when it comes to God, we fret. We worry. We ask if He’s lying to us. Did He trick us? Was it the devil? Maybe we didn’t really hear clearly...
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but Jesus said, “I Am the Way...”
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He leads us. He knows the expected end. He goes before us to make every crooked path straight.
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He shows us the promise to give us HOPE, knowing that the journey may lead us far away from the promise. But even when we’re stuck in the traffic of life and we can’t see anything about the promise manifesting in any way, we must hold on to our Hope - that picture He showed us at the start of the journey. Knowing that He can NOT lie, and that He can see obstacles we cannot see.
He knows the end and He is the Way. As long as we remain in Him, it is impossible to get lost or to miss our turn. He is our direction and our destination and we will get there.
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#AWomansWealth

Vain Imaginations

>Disclaimer: I’m on this table so I’m talking to myself. But if you happen to have a similar-looking table at home, examine it closely 😅<

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So, this has happened to me in this single season: I meet someone, he’s nice but he’s fighting with the whole idea of God. So I say to myself, “Maybe when we talk, he’ll see my faith, then he’ll give his life- it’ll be such a wonderful story!”
God can do all things o, but that is a vain imagination😂
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Or I’m praying for breakthrough & someone important follows me, so I think: maybe they’ll like my profile, then offer me a job, & through it I’ll meet the head of the company, who’ll then pay for me to go on an all-expense-paid trip, then I’ll start my business & his wife will tell her friends & even my ministry will grow... yes, that must be why God has kept me broke, so that He could align me with this person in the place of purpose at the right time...”
Erm.
At this point we have entered into Spi-Fi — Spiritual Fiction 😂
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God works in mysterious ways. He said the things He has planned have not entered into our minds.
Which means that, unless He Himself •tells• you that’s what He’s doing, this house you’re building in your mind is a figment of your personal imagination.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1 ESV)

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The thing with these imaginations is that we start to hold on to them as if God gave them to us as prophesies.
We build our hopes on them and are completely shattered + disappointed when they don’t work out— then we turn to God in anger.
Ephesians 3:20 says He’ll do more than we can imagine — He didn’t say He will do •exactly what• we have imagined!
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One way to tell our imaginations from “God said” is that •we• build the imagination from our desires and hope God will align.
Yes, God can honour our requests, but that’s called prayer: and prayer involves asking God & LISTENING for His response. Vain imaginations are expectations we hold on to as prophesy and throw tantrums over when they don’t work out.
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Las las,

“... do not fuel your sinful imagination by indulging your self-seeking desire for the pleasures of the flesh.” (Rom 13:14 Voice)

Selah.

I luh' God

When this song came out I judged ittttttt 😂😂😂 I had just started taking God really seriously - you know, just had my heart broken, promised to stop quaving the boys 🤭 and stop listening to the music that facilitates the desire which meant switching off my radio, throwing out my old CD’s, binge-listening to sermons, going to church on Sunday, fellowship on Monday, Masterlife on Wednesday, Ignite on Saturday — and switching to gospel.

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So when I heard this I was like, NO! ❌🚫🚯 ENOUGH OF THE CHURCH TRYING TO IMITATE THE WORLD! The world should be imitating the Church!
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You know when you just start learning you think you know it all. Judgmentalism (lol) is a sign of immaturity, really. You know how, when children first start learning and they LOVE to correct everyone around them? It’s cute because they’re excited to learn. But have you also felt that feeling like, the more you learn, the more you realise how little you know and how MUCH MORE you have to learn? Yeah, •that• brings humility.
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I realise now how MUCH the world needs art - music, literature, books, blogs, films, art, content - that includes them and draws them in, rather than preaching that shuts them out.
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Anyway I bumped into @imericacampbell on @kevonstage’s page today and couldn’t stop listening to this on repeat.
I guess... 🎵 I luh God! You ‘on luh God? What’s wrong witchu?! 😄
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“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!””
(Romans 10:14-15 NIV)

The "S" Word

This is my life’s lesson. Understanding that: letting go is the evidence that I truly trust. Allowing myself to come under someone else’s word/plan/way because I am not too proud to think I know it all — allowing myself to rest, because that’s what submission allows you to do:

To rest from control, which helps you rest from the fear of the repercussions of your actions.
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Eg: If you come under your boss’s instructions, even while you work hard, the burden of failure is not on your head. If there’s gbese, it’s your boss’s gbese to fix 😂
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Commitment is what allows you to submit — it’s what allows me to submit. It means, even when there really is trouble, I don’t gloat: I take it as my decision & my problem to fix as well, because we’re in it together.

I’ve lived my entire life as a control freak. I didn’t trust authorities because they always hurt me - or made the wrong decisions. So I lived my entire life afraid to make decisions because, what if I mess up as well?
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That’s why the Bible says,

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged...” Matt 7:1-2 ESV

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The parents who hurt you didn’t know better. They should have, but they didn’t. The boss who shattered your confidence didn’t know better, either. But when you act like you know better and can do better — and then you mess up? It can cripple your faith, your confidence, your progress.

Here’s how I’m going to practice putting Submission into practice: when I don’t know what to do, beyond praying about it, I’ll look for an authority on that issue around me and yield to their counsel. It doesn’t remove the responsibility from me but it makes me accountable to someone who knows better, so I don’t have to suffer the agony of indecision.
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And it keeps me humble😂
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Above all, I’ll run again & again to God: because when He says something, I don’t have to share the burden of failure with Him. It’s His instruction, mine is to commit and obey. And when it looks like it’s turnioniown lol, God is the One who is in control.
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And when I come under Him, I come into His rest.🙏🏽

Love is the Answer

When it comes to God’s Love, Punishment for sin, & Consequences, here’s what I’m learning:

1) God doesn’t pull away when we do wrong; He pulls us closer.

“Where can I run to get away from you? If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there.” (Ps 139:7-8 GW)

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2) God doesn’t punish us when we sin. Jesus already took all that punishment away.

“He was wounded for our rebellious acts. He was crushed for our sins. He was punished so that we could have peace...” (Isaiah 53:5 GW)

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🤔: So how do consequences work?
😇: Glad you asked:
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3) Growth+maturity:
A child gets driven to school—an adult gets to drive to work. Children can get away with rudeness—adults must use their words carefully. The more we grow in our faith & the more we become like Christ, the more responsible we become. That’s how maturity works.

“... We are being changed into His image with ever-increasing glory.” (2 Cor 3:18 GW)
“Ever-increasing” means, it takes time😓

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4) Sin:
Between receiving Salvation & maturing in God’s image, we often fall short. It’s like learning to walk—we trip & fall sometimes.
And we sin.
BUT
Since sin doesn’t separate us from God, (see: 1), & since it doesn’t result in Punishment (see: 2), it means, sin has lost its power.

“The sting of death is sin; & the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15:56-57 KJV)

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Therefore, sin shows lack of maturity in our walk with God. We missed the mark. A saint falls 7x but gets back up, etc.
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5) So, if there’s no punishment, how does God respond to sin?

Well, if you fail your exam, will a good Father send you out of school? He’s more likely to give you •more• school (extra lessons) & show you •more• kindness by teaching you the topics again! (“...the Spirit helps our weaknesses...” Rom 8:26)

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📣He will not leave you stranded to teach you a lesson.
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Conclusion:
Sin slows us down, just like failing a class. But Love covers and RESTORES us.
And that’s what this really means:

“…Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness…” Rom 5:20-21

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🙏🏽