HOMECOMING, AND SOMETHING ABOUT FOOTPRINTS AND A GAME.

SPOILER ALERT: This will be longer than usual. Not my fault. Thought about breaking it up, but the message is not mine to break. So. Here we go.

…..Aaaaaand welcome back.

Or am I to tell myself welcome back?

Sorry, my dear friends for being away for far too long. I assure you it was not my fault, but I had a difficult choice to make. You know, one of those rock and a hard place kind of deal, so I had to let this go, but only for a little while, because in the end, you never really let go of what makes you who you are. So I apologize.

So. How have y’all been? I hope you all have been good. I know times may be hard right now, but I have great news for you.

God is on the throne.

How is that good news? Well, your Daddy is the King. He is waiting for you, His child, to come see Him. It’s been too long. He misses you. He wants to help you actualize your purpose.

Alright.

So on Wednesday last week, I was in church. Midweek service. I went straight from work, as usual. Well, I had to literally drag myself there. See, I was having one of those long days at work, and I was so tired all I could think about was getting home and falling into bed, maybe after managing to remove my clothes. So, imagine my consternation when I realized it was Wednesday.

Oh boy.

And then, trust the devil to make an entrance at this point. Now, I was still at work, so I didn’t really get what the deal was with him trying to convince me to go home. I mean, I was halfway there mentally anyway. All it would have taken was just to leave me alone. Maybe I would have made his job easier, save him the hassle of hustling me out of a service. Who knows? Meh.

The internal battle intensified the moment I closed and was out the door, so much so that I had to ask myself (aloud, I think) “What’s so important about this service that you want me to miss? Why do you want me to go home?”

No answer.

Typical.

Did I tell you the devil is scared of a confrontation? He knows he’s lost, which is why he is quite adept at manipulation.

Anyway, while I waited for an answer that was not going to come, I remembered something. The Devil is a creature of habit. He is not creative in anyway. He sticks to patterns. One such pattern I was taught to notice by my Pastor is that the devil attacks JUST BEFORE or JUST AFTER an encounter. He comes before the encounter so that you miss it. If he cannot get you to miss it, then he comes after the encounter to make you lose what you just got.

Don’t believe me? Read the Bible. In fact, start with Jesus Christ. The Devil was present throughout the childhood of Jesus Christ. I’m pretty sure he saw Him when He went for that feast in Jerusalem where He ended up teaching the teachers. He did nothing, UNTIL Christ went to the wilderness to fast. Then he knew something was up, and even if he didn’t know what it was, he sure as hell (hehe) was going to stop it.

We all know how that turned out.

So, with my legs weighing a ton, my throat almost parched, and a sense of…something, not foreboding but something, I ignored the turn to my home and continued forward to church (Onward Christian Soldiers, marching on to war etc). I checked the time. A little after 6pm. I was beyond early. I got to the building that housed the church and trudged up the stairs, only to make a shocking discovery!

The generator had developed a problem.

Ha!

I walked in. Not up to 10 people, and the prayer was just starting. I took a seat (well I was given one) and I began to pray. By this time all that was left of the devil’s argument in my head was a sense of…unease? No, not unease. More like an ‘I told you so’ kind of feeling, you know, what with the generator being off and all. Then, few minutes into the prayer, I developed a hiccup, which meant that I had to go get some water.

Great. The stairs. Again.

By the time I got back, I was almost furious. Almost. I began to wonder if we were going to conduct the service in darkness, with no fans or AC, and then I told myself “Even if we use candles to conduct this service, there is no way I am leaving here.”

And that did it ladies and gentlemen. Ha! Boy did that do it. Suddenly, I felt…peace. It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The light had still not come on, but hey, in for a kobo, in for a dollar, in for a naira…or should I say in for the Holy Spirit…

Anyway, prayers. Then, praise. Midway through, I got a shock. Well, the lights were on by this time (thankfully), but that wasn’t the shock. No. Try as hard as I could, I could not shake an image from my head. An image of…wait for it…wait for it…CANDY CRUSH SODA!

Now, this is where you say “That’s what you get for playing that silly game way too much. LAY OFF IT!” You would be right. And wrong. You would be right in that it is a silly game. But you would be wrong in thinking that I play it a lot. Sometimes, I hardly even remember it’s on my tablet. The thing tires me out, as most games are wont to do. I tried chasing the image away, as it didn’t seem appropriate at the time. I kicked. I railed. I screamed. I waved my hands and jumped at the same time.

All in my head, of course.

When none of these worked I decided to let it be and focus on praising God as best as I could. Maybe the praise songs would overwhelm the image and chase it away.

Fortunately for me, it didn’t. Instead, the image became clearer. It was like a screenshot of my tablet, with the pieces well-arranged so that all I had to do was move a piece and all the candy would form one of those super, multi-coloured candy balls. I saw the piece move, and the multi-coloured candy appeared, ready to be utilized further. And the Holy Spirit spoke.

I actually laughed as I took up my tab to record what He said, my smile getting wider as I typed while He interpreted for me.

This is what He explained.

Basically, sometimes with God it’s like a puzzle. He’s got a picture for you in mind, but what he gives you are the pieces. Try as you might, if you have no idea about the picture, you will waste valuable time trying to create the picture. So you must look to Him for guidance in doing this. However, in the end, the picture is still not complete, because there is a piece missing. And the funny part is, the missing piece my friends, is YOU.

Yes, you. Until you step into the picture God has planned for you, all you will be like is an outsider looking in, even if you helped build the picture. So whenever there is a future/picture you are hoping for, see yourself in it.

Okay. That’s one.

Yes, I said one. Because you see, the Holy Spirit wasn’t done with me yet.

After the praise and an AMAZING worship experience, the sermon started, and then as the Pastor preached, I heard a word in my spirit.

Overflow.

Okay, let’s rewind this.

The Pastor was preaching about how we are to be yielded to the Holy Spirit so He can fill us to overflow. Well, this is part of what I took from the service anyway, because experience has taught me that the Word comes, and we it fits us according the need in our lives.

Remember, we are vessels.

SO, I heard the word ‘OVERFLOW’. And then the scripture LUKE 6:38 popped into my head. You know, the popular one we even sing. “Give, and it shall be given unto you good measure, pressed down and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom…” While I wondered, it came. I picked up my tablet and typed.

In my head, I saw a glass (a goblet actually) being filled with the clear, sparkling water. So clear even I became thirsty. And I had an almost-full bottle in my bag. Whoever was filling the glass poured until it was full, and then spilled a little down the sides. I saw the glass being moved to another point, while its previous point was marked with the spilled water. The glass was set down, and still some water spilled down the side, leaving a wet mark.

I asked what it meant, unconsciously, and as the sermon progressed, it became clearer.

We are to make a mark for the Kingdom wherever we are. That is one of the reasons the Holy Spirit is given to us, and why we are called vessels. We ask God to give us things to overflowing: the Holy Spirit, blessings, money, miracles etc. When He does, we are not to hoard the overflow. That is for our environment and those around us. When we have enough to fill our vessels, we are to overflow into the world around us.

Remember this when next you pray for an overflow of the Spirit, and any other thing.

PHEW!

Okay, this is where we end this post. And yes I know, music.

I have been discovering some new and amazing bands and songs, one of which I will share with you here.

This is XXI with Wasn't Enough. Enjoy.

Rock for Christ.