I struggled to find the right title for this week's piece. My first instinct was "The Secrets of Daniel," but it didn't quite fit. I like titles that feel relatable, not like a sermon topic. Out came ‘Consistently Inconsistent’ instead, because that's exactly what I was for years in my walk with the Lord: unstable, blown about by my emotions and my circumstances. The Lord chastised me about it more than once, and I finally had to take it up in prayer.

God desires consistency and stability in His children because that's simply who He is. His steadfast love never ceases. He causes rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous alike; He doesn't let anyone's unrighteousness talk Him out of His character. He's the giver of every perfect gift, the Father of Lights, with no shadow of turning. Steadfast. Consistent. Unchanging.

When God called me to consistency, then, He wasn't asking me to reach a standard He Himself couldn't keep. He was inviting me into His own nature. Daniel is one of the Bible characters I admire most. As someone drawn to learning, I love that he had an excellent spirit and was sound in all knowledge and literature. Daniel's true secret, though, wasn't his intellect. It was his consistency.

He prayed three times a day, facing Jerusalem, without fail. God knew He could count on him. Even under threat of death, Daniel didn't break his rhythm. Now, you might ask: what's the big deal about praying three times a day? Muslims pray five times a day facing the east. True. What set Daniel apart, though, wasn't a religious routine. It was a personal relationship with God underneath it. When King Darius's decree came down, Daniel didn't even close the window. He simply knelt where he always knelt and prayed as he'd always prayed.

To build consistency into my own prayer life, I started with something practical: I set an alarm for my daily prayer time. It helped, until life got busy and I couldn't keep up. I started carrying guilt on the days I missed my schedule.

That's when God taught me something better than a schedule: to carry His presence everywhere. I learned to pray while cooking. I learned to pray at work, on airplanes, anywhere. It grew into a constant awareness of God that followed me through my whole day. The more time I spent with Him, the more His nature started rubbing off on me, not just in prayer, but in every area of my life.

I remember once being assigned a duty post at work, and no one else showed up for it. I could have followed everyone else's lead and skipped it too. I remembered, though, that I'm different. I show up at my post because that's what I'm supposed to do, regardless of what anyone else is doing.

One real test of my consistency was an intercessory ministry for nations that the Lord had commanded me to carry. I started it during Covid, then let it drop once life went back to normal. In October 2025, God told me to bring it back online.

I did, and more often than not, I was the only one in the session. No one else showed up. I was ready to quit a few months in, until the Lord stopped me with one question:

"Who are you praying to?"

That was all I needed to hear. I've kept going ever since.

Daniel's consistent relationship with God shaped everything he touched: his ability to interpret dreams, his administration, his knowledge, his balance as a person. So many of us, though, only remember to pray without ceasing when we're in trouble, and drift back into prayerlessness the moment the trouble lifts. Even mature believers can fall into only opening their Bibles to prepare a sermon. God doesn't just want to give you a word  for the people. He wants to give you a word for you.  He wants to spend time with you.

We're living in the last days, and half truths are everywhere: one true thing wrapped around a lie, offered so convincingly that we stop fact checking. The people who truly know their God, though, will recognize a lie even when it's dressed in the clothing of truth. Like Daniel, they will do exploits.

Here's the question worth sitting with, then:

Can God trust you to spend time with Him without a hidden agenda?

Extreme emotions are that adrenaline that shoots up within us and makes us a bit extra in our actions. In the last three years, the Father has been teaching me to weigh my decisions carefully in the time of extreme emotions. This can be sorrow, joy, or anxiety.

In this article, I will be drawing some lessons from Biblical characters.

King Herod

Herod was in a high party spirit where there was plenty to eat and drink. He was particularly elated to see his daughter dance before him and his guests. While there is nothing wrong with being excited, we must be careful about what decisions we are making, what promises we are making, during these moments. King Herod, in his excitement, asked his daughter to request anything from him and promised to give it to her. It was a public declaration, and the crowd heard it. The girl sought counsel from her mother, whose mind was already nursing a wicked plan to bring down John the Baptist. This was that moment; she must have thought, as her daughter sought her opinion on what she could ask the king. Then she told her to request the head of John the Baptist. Still in that same gathering, the daughter went back to King Herod and requested the head of John the Baptist, and it was brought to her on a platter. King Herod did not quite like this request, but his word was his bond; he could not take it back.

Let us backtrack a little bit: did King Herod need to have made an open promise to his daughter after she danced? Not necessarily, right? Well, he was extremely happy, and he spoke without thinking his decision through. Be careful with the decisions you make when you are happy or excited.

Jephthah

Jephthah's story is one of the saddest stories I have ever read in the Bible. He was a strong warrior who was the son of a prostitute, and he was sent away by his father's children because they did not think he was fit to share in their father's inheritance due to him being the son of a prostitute. Albeit, his story took a different twist when the same people who ostracized him invited him back to fight the Ammonites for them. He later became their king, and God gave him victory in all his battles. There was this one battle for which he sought God's help, and he promised the Lord that he was going to offer the first person he saw after his conquest as an offering to God. Did God tell him to do this? Absolutely not. It was a promise he rushed to make in his anxious moments. Guess who he saw after his conquest: his daughter. Yes, his only daughter was the first person to greet him as he walked home. She came out in excitement to welcome her beloved father, without knowing that he had made a vow to sacrifice the first person he met. It was a sad experience for Jephthah, but he kept his promise.

Did Jephthah need to have made that vow to God? No! God had given him previous victories without a sacrifice. Be careful with the decisions you make when you are anxious.

Elijah

This was the prophet who called down fire from heaven. The Lord used Prophet Elijah to do great things in his time. One day, after receiving a threat from Jezebel, Elijah was so sad and depressed that he fled into the wilderness and wished for death. He complained bitterly to God, and he ended his ministry there. After his complaints, the Lord told him about Elisha, his successor.

Elijah chose to end a powerful prophetic ministry in his depressed state. Sadness and depression can becloud our judgment. Do not make a decision when you are sad and depressed. It may cost you.

In Conclusion

Herod, Jephthah, and Elijah were each undone by the same quiet enemy: a decision made at the peak of a feeling rather than in the presence of wisdom. Joy cost Herod a prophet's head. Anxiety cost Jephthah his only daughter. Depression nearly cost Elijah his entire ministry. None of these men were destroyed by their emotions themselves, since joy, fear, and sorrow are not sins. They were undone by what they did with those emotions in the moment they felt them most intensely. Every extreme feeling will pass, but a vow spoken, a vow made, or a door closed in that feeling often does not pass with it. The lesson threaded through all three stories is the same one the Father has been teaching me these past three years: when emotion rises, let your decisions wait. Feel what you feel fully, but do not let what you feel choose for you. Wisdom is patient enough to let the wave settle before it decides anything.

Bible References

Matthew 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29 (King Herod)

Judges 11:29-40 (Jephthah)

1 Kings 19:1-16 (Elijah)

I went for my annual eyebrow touch up, and this time the anesthesia didn't work, so I felt the pain of every pierce. As we got to the last stage, the technician told me I needed to endure a little more because she was about to add the perfect touch. She drilled in a little harder, and I visualized coming out with the perfect eyebrows. My pain threshold is naturally high, yet I endured it even further because of the beautiful picture my mind's eye had painted.

Lying there, I started thinking about the process of purifying gold and silver. According to my research while writing this article, there are two main methods of purification, the Miller process and the Wohlwill process. The Miller process requires a temperature greater than the melting point of gold, which melts the impure gold while the impurities form chloride compounds that rise and separate into a layer on the surface of the molten metal.

The Miller process is quick and simple, yet it only produces gold that is 99.5 percent pure, while the Wohlwill process produces gold of about 99.99 percent purity. It requires the producer to hold a much larger inventory of gold, which is costly, but the result is gold of exceptional purity.

That is the cost of purity, not just purity, but high purity. The Bible describes the cost of this level of purity as the refiner's fire, whose work is to bring you to a melting point that might be greater than your pain threshold. The higher the purity required, the higher the heat applied. This may show up as the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, opposition, false accusations, illness, persecution, being undervalued, being overlooked, financial hardship, depression, loneliness, or isolation. For each of us the story may look different, yet the goal remains the same: high purity.

"For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord." Mal 2:2b-3

Another thing worth noting is that fire brings impurities to the surface, that pent up anger, that bitterness, that lust, that gluttonous spirit, that unforgiving spirit, that weakness, that complaining attitude, all of it surfaces in the fire. That is not happening because your prayers are going unanswered, nor because the devil is more powerful than God, nor because you are a failure. It is simply part of the process. Just as purifying gold brings impurities to the surface before they can be removed, God removes those things in you by first revealing them. This is not about you; it is about the beautiful version of you that God is creating through the fire.

When the pain became intolerable, I told my technician to rush through the process. She said I could take a break, but we could not rush through it if I truly wanted the perfect shape, so I hung in there again. This illustrates how there is no skipping classes with God, and we cannot rush through the matters of destiny. We must learn to stay the course if we truly want to become pure gold. What kind of gold are you hoping to become, high purity, or gold with impurities? The choice is yours.

The fire is hot, the impurities are being revealed, and your pain threshold feels like it's at the brink of collapse. It feels like you can't take it anymore, yet you must hang on a little longer, because gold of high purity is emerging. You are not stuck. You are becoming.

"But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe in His name." John 1:12

Ms. Anna is one of the unsung heroes of the Bible. Her story is tucked quietly into the account of Jesus's birth, easy to miss if you are not paying close attention. I didn't notice much about her until the Holy Spirit nudged me in her direction after I heard a message that opened my eyes to her quiet strength.

Ms. Anna likely married as a virgin, as was the custom of her time. She did everything right by the standards of her culture and her faith. Yet her marriage lasted only seven years before she became a widow. What is most remarkable about her is that she never remarried. Instead, she dedicated the rest of her life, decades of it, to prayer. She never left the temple. She lived out the first verse of Psalm 91: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Ms. Anna understood something many of us miss, that the Kingdom of God is for dwellers, not visitors. She devoted herself to fasting, praying, and giving thanks, day after day, year after year.

She could have chosen depression, anger, or bitterness because of her circumstances. No one would have blamed her for it. Instead, she chose to worship rather than wage a warship. She turned her pain into praise and her loss into devotion. That is likely why God gave her the honor of being one of the first to witness and testify about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, when He was still an infant in the temple.

Her life reminds us that faithfulness in obscurity does not go unnoticed by God. Sometimes the quietest devotion produces the loudest testimony.

When life throws you a blow, choose worship above warship.

Luke 2:36-38, GNT

This morning, I was suddenly jolted back to an unpleasant memory from a job recruitment years ago.

I had applied for a position through a job agency. Before they even reviewed my CV, I was rejected. Not because I was incompetent. Not because I lacked experience. Not because my qualifications fell short. None of that. I was rejected because of my passport. "We are sorry, we will not be moving forward with your application because the school will not be able to process your work visa." I could not understand how they had reached that conclusion when I hadn't even applied for a visa yet.

That email arrived on the same day my daughters and I were stopped from traveling to a country in Oceania because my nationality had just been added to the red list. I had sold almost everything I owned and donated the money for charitable causes in readiness for that move. All those plans were undone by a single rejection at the airport. We made two more attempts to travel after that, and each time, the same story played out. It was on the third attempt that the recruitment agent's rejection email arrived.

After my initial outburst, I started to doubt myself. I questioned my own identity. I found myself resenting my passport, and in some way, rejecting myself. By then I had spent thousands of dollars securing visas, tickets, paying for hotels, arranging housing in the new country, and making one interstate trip after another to an airport that was quite a distance from home. All of it lost, with no way to recover a cent; the job came with an attractive reimbursement and relocation package that I lost out on. I was broke, worn down, and desperate. I needed a job, or we would not have food to eat.

I wish I could say I prayed through it, but I was too devastated to find the words. I just needed a job. My older daughter was in the middle of her DP1 year, and I watched her cry herself to sleep, asking why her academic journey had come to a halt. I had already withdrawn her from the final year of her Cambridge program, believing the IB Diploma would serve her better. So there she was, holding two incomplete qualifications. And the hardest part was that I had no money to continue her education, since a full scholarship had come attached to the job I lost.

Watching my daughter's tears was what finally drove me to fast and pray. I knew I had done everything within my power, and still nothing had come of it. As I prayed, I came across that same position, the one the agency had told me I wasn't qualified for, advertised again on a teacher group on Facebook, this time with the school's email address listed directly. I applied straight to the school and heard back within a week. Two rounds of interviews later, I had an offer. My joy knew no bounds.

Then came the visa hurdle. The embassy wasn't refusing visas to people of my nationality, but the process was rigorous and required travel to another state. I paid for flights and a hotel out of what my aunt had sent to me, then waited two weeks for the visa to come through. I kept the school informed the entire time. To my dismay, I discovered they had started advertising my position again while I was still waiting for my visa. I reached out and asked if they could help expedite the process, since other applicants had said their organizations emailed the embassy on their behalf and received faster results. The school told me that wasn't something they could do, but God intervened.

The visa came through that same week, and I asked the school if they were still interested in hiring me. They said yes. I told them plainly how disappointed I was that they had readvertised my position while I held a valid offer, and I told them I had lost respect for their credibility. From that day on, I took everything HR told me with a healthy amount of skepticism. Had I received another offer in that window, I would not have chosen them. But I was thinking of my daughter, and so we went.

We eventually made it to the school, and God blessed me with favor throughout my first year. My children were happy, and things went well until my second and third year, when I began to hear what I can only describe as a battle cry. Real warfare set in, and I took that as my sign that it was time to go. I had been holding the management in resentment all through the time I worked there, but God told me to release everyone before I left. I gave parting gifts to every department, and as the thank-you emails flooded my inbox in that last week, I learned a lesson about the spiritual implications of exit and entry.

A lot of us carry an unnecessary baggage of bitterness, unforgiveness, and resentment from one job to another, one relationship to another, one marriage to another, and we wonder why we confront the same pattern of challenges, same cycle of defeat, same old cycle of rejection… Check your exit and entry points. Jesus said it succinctly when He said new wine cannot fit into old wineskins because old wine in new wineskins will result in spillage and spoilage. It's difficult for hurting hearts to retain something new because the heart continues to replay those hurtful events and those negative chain reactions in the past now become the default reaction. This may result in reading deeper meanings into an innocent comment, walking into a room and assuming everyone is talking about you, or carrying a feeling of ‘no one likes me’, because we are viewing life through the lenses of the past rather than being present. This is why God desires us to lay aside every weight and start on a clean slate. Each new day is a reminder to lay aside the weight of yesterday and start with a fresh and new mindset. Forgiveness and letting go isn't for the other party, but for you. There's an unseen work of preparation that happens in the realm of the spirit when we genuinely let go and let God during a transition.

Well, that's not the end of my story. Good things come to those who wait for God's timing. The Lord gave me an inspiration to set up my own business while I was still working with that school, and the global framework that my business is built on today was established through the things I learned on that job.

We often don't understand what the potter is doing in the moment, but we know the destination.

Jeremiah 18:4-6 GNT: [4] Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else. [5] Then the Lord said to me, [6] “Don't I have the right to do with you people of Israel what the potter did with the clay? You are in my hands just like clay in the potter's hands. 

And here is another thing about the potter: even when the clay becomes marred, He can rebuild it. Maybe you are in a rebuilding season right now. Maybe you feel frustrated, rejected, disappointed, on the brink of giving up. Go back to the Potter. Give Him the mess and the hopelessness, and watch Him make something beautiful out of your life.

There is a certain kind of peace that comes from having seen the end of a movie already. You sit through the scary parts relaxed. You do not fret. You do not scream. While everyone else around you is frantic, gripping the armrest, bracing for disaster, you simply smile, because you already know how it ends. That is the peace of knowing the ending. And when you belong to God, you have already seen the end of your story too for all things work together for good.

My daughter, now in college, sent me a voice note recently that brought me to tears. She told me how thankful she was for every delay in her journey, and that if she had gone to college earlier, she might not have had the maturity to handle it well. She was grateful for every bit of effort I had put in, and proud of the maturity she had gained before ever stepping onto campus.

For me, that was the missing piece of the puzzle.

Before I sign off, remember this: all things are working together for good; embrace the newness that God has for you.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 (KJV)

Sometime this week, I had one of my worst airport experiences. We were in high spirits, awaiting a smooth flight and a memorable departure from a place we had called home for the last three years. Our joy was cut short. We had weighed all our bags, excited that none was overweight, since it took a lot of creativity to make our belongings fit into four bags. We headed to the counter confidently, ready to check in.

Then the lady at the counter told us we were only eligible for one bag each.

One bag? I exclaimed. I protested vehemently and demanded to see a manager, convinced it had to be a mistake. Unfortunately, politeness and etiquette seem to be a thing of the past in today's customer service. Four out of five managers were rude and unhelpful. Eventually I found a level headed one who took the time to explain that our type of ticket was different from the others and only allowed one bag. She made me realize nothing could be done about it and advised me to pay for the extra bags. Apparently it was my fault for not reading the fine print at the point of purchase.

The surprising thing was that I had the exact amount they requested sitting in a bank account I was about to close. I was disappointed because I had other plans for that money, but it saved me from an embarrassing situation.

This morning, my baby girl led us in prayer and thanked God for bringing us home safely, even though we got a different outcome than what we expected. That prayer humbled me. As I reflected on the day's events, the Holy Spirit taught me the following lessons.

1. Cheap isn't always the provision.

2. When you notice something odd, follow it through. It might be the Holy Spirit prompting you. I did sense that there was something odd about the ticket before our departure date but I shrugged it off.

3. God provides the solution before the problem. The provision was already there. I just expected it to come another way.

4. When you are leaving a place, avoid leaving with offenses and baggage. I have to be honest here. On the way to the airport that day, I was harbouring a resentful, unforgiving thought toward a colleague who had hurt me badly. She had apologized for what she did, but I held onto the resentment anyway, all the way to the airport. Looking back, I cannot help but wonder if that baggage drama was a mirror of the baggage I was still carrying in my heart. Jesus said if they reject you, shake the dust off your feet and move on to the next place. There is no need to force yourself through a door that is already shut. An unforgiving thought shuts the door of mercy against you. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

5. Learn to laugh at your mistakes as you learn from them.

6. God answers our prayers in the most creative ways, beyond what we ask, think, or imagine.

7. Every experience God allows us to have is a teaching moment.

Isn't it beautiful that the Lord can use every experience as a teaching moment. Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. That scripture is a retrospective statement. In the middle of a challenging moment, it never makes sense that anything good could come out of it. Looking back, though, and viewing every circumstance through the lens of God, you find yourself thanking Him rather than complaining.

Joseph said what the enemy meant for evil, God turned around for good (Genesis 50:20). This is not a feel good post. It is a reminder of God's goodness, and a reminder to train our mouths and our thought patterns until gratitude comes easier than complaint. He makes all things beautiful in its time.

One of my sisters who had prayed with me the morning before we left kept checking on us throughout the journey. When she heard about the baggage ordeal, she was so touched that she offered to send me money to cover part of the unplanned expense.

Look at God!

Won't He do it?

That was such a warm fuzzy from my Father. He knows exactly how to delight the hearts of His children.

Okay, I have a confession to make.

I spent four hours doing my own nails. Four whole hours, and before you say anything, let me explain.

Nail salons around here tend to overwhelm me. The noise, the crowd, the sheer number of people all in one space. So to protect my peace, I invested in a little UV lamp and turned my coffee table into a personal nail studio. Probably the best decision I made all week, or so I thought.

Well, there was a lot of trial and error because I was trying out new designs for the first time. I was so focused on getting it right that I completely lost track of time, until my baby girl looked at me and said, "Mummy, this is taking you so long."

That was my wake-up call. Literally.

When I finally stood up, my feet were swollen and I had cramps setting in. Even my body was raising an eyebrow at me. Four hours at a table without moving is apparently not something my body endorses.

At some point during my nail art adventure, I considered joining an online prayer line to pray with other sisters. Then I felt a restraint, not a gentle nudge. More like a firm, loving rebuke.

The Holy Spirit said clearly: Prayer is not entertainment. You are either praying or you are not. You cannot listen to others pray and call that your prayer time. If you join that line and you are not connected to Me, you are only being entertained.

Ouch!

It landed like a punch below the belt, honestly, because I knew it was true. My mind was still half on the nail art, still chasing that design I had not quite perfected. I was not going to pray. I was going to be an audience member, and God, in His grace, would not let me dress that up as something it was not.

So I kept going with my nails, planning to settle into "proper prayer mode" once everything was done. Once the workspace was tidy. Once I could sit still and feel spiritual enough.

Then I heard it; “Bring Me into the mundane”.

I paused.

“Bring Me into the mundane”.

And this time, I did.

I brought God right into my nail art, my swollen feet, my little coffee table; and as I did, He began to speak. He told me that so many of His children treat prayer like a performance. Like there is a stage that needs to be set before we can show up. Like we need the right lighting, the right mood, the right level of spiritual readiness before we can approach Him.

But He says: take off the mask. Come as you are. You do not need to feel super spiritual. You do not need a perfectly cleared schedule or a mountain retreat. Just come. Come into the secret place exactly as you are.

The secret place is not a trophy. It is not a performance-based assessment. It is not another box waiting to be ticked on your to-do list. It is a heart posture. It is a relationship with a friend, with a Father who already knows everything you are carrying. It is a private meeting with the One who knows your secret thoughts, who wants to be with you, work alongside you, and fellowship with you, even in the mundane, ordinary, everyday things.

We tell ourselves the same stories, do we not? If only my schedule were lighter. If only the children were older. If only I could get away somewhere quiet, then my prayer life would finally look the way I imagine it should.

Guess what? You can bring God into your busyness. Right into the middle of it. All it takes is your heart posture and the willingness to have a conversation, and I believe you already know how to have a conversation.

Will you bring Him into your daily life this week? Into the cooking, the commute, the chaos, the quiet moments in between?

He is wonderful company.

Much love and blessings!

P.S. I finished my pedicure just as I typed that last paragraph. So God got to be part of that too.

Earlier this morning, a sister was sharing her devotional on lukewarmness, and my mind wandered just a little.

I found myself back in my social studies classroom, watching my students play a game of Agree or Disagree. The rules were simple, when a statement was read aloud, you moved to whichever side of the room matched your position. Agree on the left, disagree on the right.

But some students didn't move to either side.

They stood right in the middle. Neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Perfectly comfortable in the space between.

As I recalled this experience, I thought to myself, isn't that exactly where some of us are in our walk with the Lord? We might be right there in the middle.

Think about it for a moment.

When gossip is being passed around in our presence, we neither challenge it nor walk away. When colleagues are criticising the church, we neither defend our faith nor distance ourselves from the conversation. When we are pressed to take a stance on social issues like abortion, corruption, bad governance, or homosexuality, we go quiet. We shift uncomfortably. We find a way to say nothing at all.

We hide in the middle.

That no man's land where our lights are just dim enough that nobody can accuse us of taking our faith too far. That comfortable zone of invisibility where we belong to everyone and commit to no one.

It feels safe there, but it isn't.

The book of Revelation has a name for this posture; Lukewarmness.

Not hot. Not cold. Just tepid. Indifferent. Nonchalant. Apathetic. Somewhere in between, hoping nobody notices.

The Lord would rather you identify clearly as hot or cold than linger in the middle. There is no neutral zone with God. No fence sitting. No comfortable ambiguity. You are either on the Lord's side or you are not. You are either going all out for Him or it is time to call it a day.

So here we are: two options on the table.

God or Satan. Good or evil. Light or darkness.

There is no third option. The middle of the room is not actually a choice.

God cannot stand a fence sitter, and He said He would spew the lukewarm out.

I always think of a child being served broccoli they find bitter. That first bite, and out it comes. They don't deliberate about it. They just spit it out.

I cannot imagine being spat out by the One I lean on. I really cannot.

Here is the beautiful part.

God has not left us to figure this out on our own.

His grace is sufficient. Not just to convict us of where we have been standing, but to actually move us, to teach us, to enable us, to take us from fence sitter to trail blazer.

I think of Apostle Peter.

Here was a man who, at the most critical moment in history, denied even knowing Jesus three times. He didn't stand in the middle of the room, he quietly slipped out of it altogether, warming himself by the enemy's fire while his Lord was on trial. Timid. Hidden. A secret follower hoping nobody would look too closely.

Yet.

This same Peter became one of the most audacious apostles the church has ever known. The man who once cowered before a servant girl eventually stood before thousands and preached without apology, without hesitation, without shame.

What changed? The grace of God got hold of him, and that same grace is available to you and to me today.

You don't have to stay in the middle of the room. You don't have to keep living in that dim, comfortable, invisible place. Grace will teach you. Grace will move you. Grace will turn your timidity into testimony and your fence sitting into trailblazing.

The question is simply whether you are willing to step to one side.

What's the definition of a successful life? A successful ministry? How does God measure success or impact?

As a young Christian, I read the book God's Generals and I desired God to use me like He used Smith Wigglesworth, Kathryn Kuhlman, and the others. I wanted the miraculous healings, the packed crusades, the undeniable moments of power. I wanted to be used greatly.

However, the Lord chose a different path for my life, and I secretly wished I could do more.

A few years ago, I started a Bible Study group, and it didn't flourish as I expected. The only consistent members were family members. Week after week, I prepared lessons, I prayed, I showed up. And week after week, it was just us. A small circle. A little gathering. Nothing that would make headlines or fill stadiums. So, I got discouraged and ended the weekly meetings.

As I took my lamentations to God, here's what He taught me.

1. Who defines success in ministry?

Why are you judging your success and impact by the world's standards? Mega isn't necessarily God's standard for measuring a successful ministry. Thank God for those who have been called to pastor the mega churches and do mind-blowing things in the Kingdom, but God can use little things as well. He actually prefers them.

The question isn't "How many people are watching?" The question is "Am I faithful to what God has asked me to do?"

2. Don't despise the days of little beginnings.

"Who dares despise the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10)

God asked this question thousands of years ago, and He's still asking it today. We live in a culture obsessed with scale, with virality, with numbers that prove we matter. But God doesn't measure impact the way Instagram does. He sees the seeds you're planting in secret. He sees the two or three gathered in His name. He sees the faithful few.

Small beginnings aren't a consolation prize. They're often the starting point of something only God could build.

3. Jesus was born in a manger.

He came from Nazareth, a place so insignificant that people asked, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" (John 1:46)

The story of our Lord Jesus Christ is a pointer to the power of greatness in little things and small beginnings. God chose obscurity. He chose smallness. He chose the overlooked, the unimpressive, the uncelebrated. And He changed the world.

If Jesus Himself entered the world through a back door in a forgotten town, why do we think our ministries need to start with spotlights and stages?

4. A little one shall become a thousand.

"The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly." (Isaiah 60:22)

God recognizes small things. Small ministries. Small beginnings. Small acts of obedience. He doesn't despise them. He multiplies them.

Your little Bible study with your children? God sees it. Your quiet prayers in the secret place? He hears them. Your faithfulness when no one is applauding? He's taking notes.

5. Faith as small as a mustard seed.

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)

Thank God for big faith, but all God needs to move mountains is a little faith. The bigness of our God covers our little faith, and He reveals His majesty in our littleness.

You don't need to muster up giant confidence or unshakable certainty. You just need a seed. A small, vulnerable, trembling yes. God will do the rest.

6. The pressure to be seen.

There's a lot of pressure on ministers, pastors, and all of God's children to gain popularity, likes, and followers. Social media hasn't made this easy. In fact, it's made it worse. We scroll through highlights of other people's ministries and wonder why ours looks so small in comparison.

But who defines success in ministry by the number of followers, likes, and congregations? True success can only be measured by the ONE who gives the assignment: God.

He's not checking your analytics. He's checking your heart.

7. The impact of small actions.

Matthew 25:35 through 37 reminds us of the impact of small actions like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick in receiving heavenly rewards. These aren't the things that trend. They're not the ministry moments that get recorded and uploaded. But they're the ones Jesus said mattered most.

Sadly, the bigger we get in ministry and our careers, the less time we have for these little things. We get so focused on building platforms that we forget to build people. We get so concerned with being seen that we stop seeing them.

But Jesus is still asking: "Did you feed the hungry? Did you visit the sick? Did you notice the one everyone else overlooked?"

8. The secret service of intercession.

As intercessors, God has called us to a secret service. We have been called into the secret place and given the bedchamber anointing. There are no earthly accolades for intercessors. No glamour. No likes or followers for the true intercessor, because we minister to the audience of ONE.

Don't despise your mantle as an intercessor because no one sees you. Embrace your ministry and stand in your God-given assignment. The prayers you pray in secret are shaping nations. The tears you cry in the middle of the night are moving the heart of God. The worship you offer when no one is listening is filling the courts of heaven.

You are not invisible. You are strategically hidden.

Pause and think about this:

Success in God's kingdom isn't measured by size. It's measured by obedience. By faithfulness. By showing up when it feels small and insignificant and doing it anyway because He asked you to.

You may not have millions of followers or subscribers on your social media handle right now, but if God called you to it, then it matters. If He's using it to shape your heart, to teach you humility, to cultivate faithfulness in the hidden place, then it's not small at all.

It's powerful.

In God's economy, a little is never just a little. In His hands, it becomes everything.

There was once a king in the city of David called Asa. He was the son of Abijah. He wasn't a very popular king, but his story cannot be ignored or overlooked in the chronicles of the kings.

Unlike the reign of other kings, the city of David actually rested from battles for ten years. Ten whole years of no sword fights, no horse battles, no bloodshed. It was a time of bliss.

Asa had a desire to be a good person. He wanted to be honorable, not just because he was king, but because he wanted to please the King of Kings. Asa did what was good, right, and admirable in the eyes of the King of Kings. He took away the foreign altars and the high places. He broke down the pillars and cut down the idols. His desire to please the King of Kings was so strong that he made it mandatory for the tribe of Judah to seek the King of Kings and keep His laws.

Many kings would prioritize enforcing their own laws, but King Asa wasn't like other kings. His heartbeat was to honor the King of Kings. And the King of Kings, in return, gave him so much peace that there was no war. Back then, it was quite unusual for kings not to fight many wars. King Asa must have been the envy of other kings.

The Battle That Changed Everything

One day, the city of David, which had endured several years of peace, was suddenly threatened by Zerah the Ethiopian. He was strong, well-armed, and backed by a formidable army of one million men and three hundred chariots. King Asa, on the other hand, had only 580,000 soldiers. This was a far cry from victory. Can you imagine an army of 580,000 men beating an army of 1,300,000?

King Asa met Zerah the Ethiopian and they drew up the battle lines in the Valley of Zephathah. King Asa realized how weak and defenseless he and his men were, and he cried out to the King of Kings for help. He confessed his limitations and acknowledged the greatness of the King of Kings to deliver them.

And guess what? The King of Kings heard the cry of Asa, and they defeated the Ethiopians so decisively that the enemy fled. Asa and his team pursued them as far as Gerar, and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive. This happened because they were not just fighting against King Asa and his men, they were fighting against the King of Kings. Who can battle with the King of heaven's armies? Absolutely no one!

King Asa's men and the men of Judah carried away so much spoils of war after the battle. They returned home victorious, wealthy, and deeply aware of who had fought for them.

The Message That Shook the Kingdom

One day, Azariah the son of Oded was chosen as a messenger of the King of Kings, and he delivered a grave message to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Azariah boldly declared:

"Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The King of Kings is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you."

This message was delivered at a time when the city of David had started living the way they liked without recognizing the King of Kings as their sovereign. Azariah's message humbled King Asa, and he took courage. He put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the King of Kings. He didn't just demonstrate this level of courage in Judah and Benjamin. He also gathered those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, and they all entered into a covenant to seek the King of Kings with all their heart and with all their soul.

Then King Asa did the most surprising thing in the city of David. No one expected this from him, and everyone was in shock when they heard what he did.

He removed his own mother, Maacah, from being queen mother because she had made a detestable idol for Asherah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it at the brook Kidron. Asa didn't care about pleasing men. He only wanted to do what was right in the sight of the King of Kings.

The Turning Point

Unfortunately, a very sad turning point occurred in the life of King Asa that changed the entire music of his life.

We don't know what came upon Asa, but he made a terrible decision. He took silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the King of Kings and sent them to Ben-hadad, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying:

"There is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me."

Instead of crying out to the King of Kings like he did when Ethiopia came against him, Asa bribed a pagan king with sacred treasures. Instead of trusting the King of Kings, he trusted gold. Instead of seeking divine intervention, he sought political alliances.

This decision displeased the King of Kings deeply. So He sent a messenger named Hanani to deliver a stern message:

"Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the King of Kings, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the King of Kings, He gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the King of Kings run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him. You have done foolishly in this, and from now on you will have wars."

The King of Kings reminded Asa of how He had helped him defeat Ethiopia even though he had a very small army. He reminded him of how He fought for their team and they left the battle with spoils of war because Asa had relied on Him. The King of Kings explained how He was constantly searching the whole earth, looking for those whose heart is blameless toward Him so that He could provide them with strong support.

The Tragic Fall

One would have thought that this important message would have convicted Asa of his wrong choice and brought him to his knees in repentance, like he did in the past.

But surprisingly, Asa did something quite disturbing.

He got mad at Hanani the messenger and locked him up in prison. He didn't just do that. He started rage-baiting his own people and inflicting cruelties upon some of them at the same time.

The whole city of David was in chaos. They found it hard to process the reason for this sudden change. They wondered how their king could have gone from doing what was good and right in the sight of the King of Kings to now doing what was bad and wrong. How have the mighty fallen, they whispered amongst themselves.

King Asa was now a dread to the people he once led to honor the King of Kings. No one could talk to him or advise him. His heart was set in his ways, and it was both scary and disappointing for the people in the city of David.

Sadly, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became really severe. One would have thought that this disease would be a wake-up call for King Asa, a chance to return to the King of Kings who had once delivered him from impossible odds.

But he still refused to seek the help of the King of Kings. Instead, he sought help from physicians.

Asa never recovered from the infectious disease on his feet, and he died a sad death in the forty-first year of his reign.

The Lesson: Don't Toy with Your Crown

Asa toyed with his crown by refusing to acknowledge his source after he became successful. He let pride fill his heart. He thought he could take what was precious from the house of the King of Kings and offer it as a bribe for help he could have gotten freely from the King of Kings.

King Asa forgot.

He forgot how he started with a good and right heart.  

He forgot the ten years of rest he and his people enjoyed.  

He forgot how he defeated an army of 1,300,000 with a micro army of 580,000.  

He forgot the spoils of war he gathered from Ethiopia and Libya when the King of Kings took over his battle.  

He forgot how his prayers were answered when he cried out for help.  

He forgot the covenant he made to serve the King of Kings.  

He forgot his source.

Asa toyed with his crown, and he lost his place.

Can I talk to you for a second?

It is not just good to start well. We must strive to finish strong. Consistency is key in our walk with God. God is our source, and we must not replace Him with anything else. The world is changing, but God remains unchanged. Seek first the counsel of God before the counsel of people or AI. God is a jealous God, and He will never share His glory with anyone or anything. Do not let success overcloud your judgment, and do not let pride shift your crown from your head.

We must live with caution in the days we are in, as everything is designed to limit our dependency and reliance on the Lord. We often look outward when the Lord is calling us to reach out for His hands. God is only a prayer away, but the enemy wants us to believe that He is so far away.

Hold on tenaciously to your crown so that no one takes it away from you.

Do not toy with your crown like Asa did.

The Lord is frantically searching the whole earth, looking to give strong support to those whose heart 

is blameless before Him.

Will He find yours?

Photo credits:

Gemini

Meta AI

Scripture Reference:

2 Chronicles 14 through 16

The Story So Far:

In Parts 1 through 4, we followed the remarkable journey of Mr. Joe: from favored son to pit prisoner, from slave to prime minister. We watched him lose his coat of many colours but gain an invisible coat of many blessings. We saw him interpret dreams, survive false accusations, wait in prison for two years, and rise to become Egypt's economic savior. He stored grain during abundance, saved Egypt during famine, and fed the whole world.

But there's one piece of the story we haven't finished yet: the dream. Remember that dream from his youth? The one where his family bowed before him? The dream that started all his troubles?

That dream is about to come full circle.

Part 5

Meanwhile, far away in Canaan, Papa Jacob and Mr. Joe's family were also experiencing the famine that had hit the whole world.

The fields were barren. The wells were drying up. The livestock were dying. And the food stores in Jacob's household were running dangerously low.

One day, Papa Jacob couldn't take it anymore. He started making inquiries about where they could get grain. News of the availability of grain in Egypt had reached him through his findings, whispers from traveling merchants, reports from desperate neighbors who'd made the journey south.

So Papa Jacob gathered his sons and told them plainly: "Go to Egypt and get some grain, or we will all die of starvation."

As soon as Papa Jacob mentioned Egypt, the room went cold.

The brothers were struck by guilty conscience and they looked at one another. Egypt. That word hung in the air like an accusation. Egypt reminded them of someone they thought was forgotten. Someone they'd tried to erase from their memories for over twenty years. They never imagined they would have any dealings with Egypt after they sold Joe to the Ishmaelites. They never imagined there would be a famine that would require them to travel to the very place where they'd sent their brother to die.

They felt seen. Judged. Uncomfortable.

Papa Jacob sensed their discomfort. "Why do you look at one another?" he asked, confused by their hesitation. He reminded them of what he'd heard: there was abundance of grain in Egypt. People were surviving because of Egypt. This wasn't optional. This was life or death.

So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Papa Jacob did not send Benjamin, Mr. Joe's younger brother, with them. He feared that harm might happen to him. Benjamin was his consolation, the only remaining son of his beloved Rachel. He'd already lost Joseph. He couldn't lose Benjamin too.

So the ten brothers traveled down to Egypt to buy grain among the crowds of others who came, for the famine was severe in the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in Egypt, they were directed to the prime minister's office. The great man who controlled all the grain distribution. The one Pharaoh himself had appointed.

They entered the hall, and when their turn came, they bowed low to the ground before the governor.

Mr. Joe recognized them immediately.

But they didn't recognize him.

How could they? The last time they saw him, he was seventeen years old, wearing that hated coat, begging them not to sell him. Now he was thirty-nine, dressed in Egyptian royal garments, speaking through an interpreter, commanding a room like he'd been born to it.

As soon as he saw them bowing, he remembered his dream. The dream he'd told them about all those years ago. The one they mocked. The one they hated him for. Right before his own eyes, his dream of many years was finally coming to pass. His brothers were literally bowing down before him multiple times, seeking his mercy and favor.

Despite being thrown into the pit. Despite being sold into slavery. Despite the false accusations. Despite the imprisonment. Despite everything. Mr. Joe was literally watching his dream come to pass.

Can I talk to you for a second?

What is that dream of greatness in your heart? It might look forgotten now. It might look buried. It might look impossible after everything you've been through. But wait for it: it's going to come to pass. Right before your very eyes, your dreams are going to come true. Don't stop praying. Don't stop believing. God is working behind the scenes, setting the stage for your greatness.

Back to Mr. Joe.

Mr. Joe capitalized on the fact that his brothers didn't recognize him and he interrogated them closely. He gave them a stern look and spoke harshly to them through the interpreter. But inside? He was crying. His heart was breaking and leaping at the same time.

Meanwhile, Mr. Joe's brothers started arguing amongst themselves, guilt pouring out in frantic whispers. "This is happening because we sold our brother," one said. "We saw his anguish when he begged us, and we wouldn't listen," said another.

Big brother Reuben finally had a voice to challenge them. "Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen. Now his blood is being required of us."

Since there was an interpreter standing between them and the governor, they assumed Joe didn't understand Hebrew. They assumed he didn't hear them.

But he heard everything they said.

Joe turned away from them and wept. Then he composed himself, turned back, and continued the charade. He eventually sold grain to them under the condition that one of them would be detained until they brought their younger brother to Egypt to confirm their story. Big brother Simeon was bound and detained while the rest prepared to journey back home.

Before they left, Joe instructed his workers to return their money secretly, placing it back in their grain sacks. Despite all they did to him, Joe saw them as family and he wasn't going to earn money for giving food to his own blood.

When Joe's brothers arrived in Canaan, they narrated their ordeals to Papa Jacob. The harsh governor. The accusations of being spies. The demand to bring Benjamin. The detention of Simeon. And when they opened their sacks and found their money returned, fear gripped them even more.

Papa Jacob wouldn't even give a thought to releasing Benjamin, his child of consolation, to go to Egypt. In his mind, he had accepted that he had lost Joe and now Simeon. He didn't want to lose his baby. "My son shall not go down with you," he declared firmly.

So they put the experience behind them for a while and enjoyed the grain from Egypt.

But grain runs out. And famine doesn't take breaks.

When the food was gone and their stomachs began to ache again, they had no choice. Due to the harsh famine, Papa Jacob had to release his baby to go to Egypt with his brothers. Big brother Judah promised to bear the blame forever if anything happened to Benjamin.

When they arrived in Egypt and Joseph saw Benjamin, his baby brother, the son of his mother Rachel, he nearly lost it.

He had deep love for his baby brother. He couldn't control his emotions and he went into a private space to cry. He washed his face, composed himself, came back, and invited his brothers to dine with him in his home. He inquired about their welfare, but his heart was drawn to Benjamin. He kept looking at him, serving him extra portions, treating him with special favor.

But Joe wasn't ready to let him go.

So he devised one final test. He asked his servants to hide his silver cup in Benjamin's sack. The next morning, Joe's brothers set out to return to Canaan. They had barely traveled a short distance when Joe's servants caught up with them and accused them of stealing their master's silver cup.

They swore their innocence. "God forbid! Whoever has the cup, let him die, and we will be slaves!"

Joe's servants did a thorough search, starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And they found the cup in Benjamin's sack.

The brothers tore their clothes in despair. Big brother Judah was distressed beyond words. He'd promised their aged father that he would bring Benjamin back in one piece. How could he return home now?

They all returned to the palace amidst tears and pleas. Judah threw himself at the governor's feet and begged. He told the whole story: their father's grief, the lost brother, the years of mourning, the fear of losing Benjamin. "Let me stay as your slave instead," Judah pleaded. "Just let the boy go home."

At this moment, Mr. Joe could no longer hold his emotions.

He looked at these men (his brothers, his betrayers, his family) and he broke.

"Send everyone out!" he commanded his servants. The Egyptians left the room quickly, confused by the sudden shift.

And then, alone with his brothers, Joseph wept so loudly that the Egyptians outside could hear him.

"I am Joseph," he said in Hebrew. No interpreter. Just him. "Is my father still alive?"

His brothers were terrified. Speechless. Frozen.

He stretched out his hands and embraced them, tears streaming down his face. "I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But don't be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. It was not you who sent me here, but God. He sent me ahead of you to preserve life."

He told them not to feel bad for what they had done to him because it was all a setup for him to save their family. God had used their evil intentions to position him exactly where he needed to be, not just for Egypt, but for them. For his father. For the entire family line that would one day produce the Messiah.

His brothers were shocked. Speechless. Undone.

Joe told them to go home immediately and bring Papa Jacob to Egypt so that he could take care of them all, since the famine was going to last another five years. "Hurry," he said, "and tell my father, 'Your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay.'"

When they broke the news to Papa Jacob that Joe was alive and now the governor of Egypt, his heart went numb at first. He couldn't believe it. But when they told him everything Joseph had said, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him, his spirit revived.

"It is enough," Jacob said, weeping. "Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."

His heart knew real peace and joy after many years of mourning.

Jacob relocated his whole family to Egypt after inquiring of God. And God told him not to be afraid. "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again."

Papa Jacob's arrival in Egypt was a massive celebration for Joe and the Egyptian community. Pharaoh gave them the choicest land in Goshen to live and farm. Joseph provided for his entire family throughout the remaining years of famine. He gave them the best of everything.

But Mr. Joe still saw the guilt on his brothers' faces. Even after the reunion, even after the forgiveness, they were afraid. Especially after their father died years later. They thought, "Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him."

But Joe wept when he heard their fear. And he said to them one final time: "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children."

Mr. Joe truly forgave his brothers and he harbored no grudges. He knew that his destiny was too great and his relationship with God was too sacred to trade it for bitterness and unforgiveness.

The lessons from Mr. Joe remind us:

Steward your dreams carefully. Not every ear deserves to hear them.

Blessings come with battles. If you're anointed, expect opposition.

The abiding presence of God makes all the difference. It's the coat no one can strip from you.

Dreams can come true, even after detours through pits and prisons.

Forgiveness is golden. Bitterness is a cage you lock yourself in.

And ultimately, all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

Does it feel like you're in the pit or prison today? Keep your gaze upon the Lord and He will turn things around for your good. Your brothers may have meant it for evil, but God means it for good. Your moment is coming. Your dream is not dead.

The end.

Photo credits:

Gemini

Scripture References:

Genesis 37 (Joseph's dreams and betrayal)

Genesis 39 (Potiphar's house and prison)

Genesis 40 through 41 (Dreams and promotion)

Genesis 42 through 45 (Reunion with brothers)

Genesis 50:20 (God meant it for good)

Romans 8:28 (All things work together for good)

Quick Recap:

As we saw in Part 3, Mr Joe didn't just interpret Pharaoh's dream. He shared a master plan, an action plan that would save an entire generation. A strategy that's still implemented in the global economy today. Mr Joe wasn't just a dreamer, he was an interpreter of dreams. He wasn't just an interpreter of dreams, he was an economic advisor with prophetic insight.

Part 4

The Lord didn't just gift this golden child with problem-solving abilities for today. He was anointed to solve future economic issues. His master plan was simple, yet powerful.

Mr Joe revealed that Egypt was going to experience seven years of financial abundance that would be followed by seven years of devastating hardship. So he advised that Pharaoh needed to hire a discerning and wise man who would oversee the economic affairs of Egypt.

This overseer would be tasked with taking one-fifth of the produce of the land during the seven years of abundance and storing up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities. According to Mr Joe, the stored food would be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that were to occur in Egypt, so that the land would not perish.

It was brilliant. It was strategic. It was prophetic.

Then Pharaoh looked at Mr Joe and said, "Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are."

And just like that, Pharaoh placed his signet ring on Joe's finger, dressed him in fine linen, put a gold chain around his neck, and gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as his wife. This was how Mr Joe went from being a prisoner to being prime minister.

When the years of plenty began, Egypt exploded with prosperity. The Nile overflowed its banks right on schedule. The fields produced harvests like no one had ever seen. Grain grew so abundantly that farmers couldn't believe their eyes. The markets overflowed with produce. The economy boomed. People feasted. They celebrated. They built bigger houses and bought finer clothes.

It was the kind of season where you forget what struggle even looks like.

But Mr Joe didn't get carried away.

While everyone else was celebrating and spending, Mr Joe was working. In his new ministerial role, he didn't waste a single day. He traveled from city to city, overseeing the construction of massive storehouses. He hired managers. He organized collection systems. He made sure that one-fifth of every harvest, from every field, in every region, was gathered and stored.

Can you picture it? Storehouses so full that they stopped counting. Grain piled so high it looked like sand dunes. Mountains of wheat, barley, and produce preserved for a future crisis that no one else was thinking about.

Mr Joe was disciplined enough to understand that the years of abundance were an opportunity to store, to preserve, to save, to invest, to sustain and support the future. He didn't let the abundance fool him. He didn't get carried away by the overflow they were experiencing. While the nation partied, Mr Joe prepared.

This wasn't just good policy. This was economic wisdom that would echo through centuries. Today's concept of sustainability, strategic reserves, sovereign wealth funds, rainy day savings, all of it emanated from Mr Joe's gift. He had prophetic insight that would preserve generations to come.

Somewhere in the middle of those abundant years, something beautiful happened in Mr Joe's personal life. He became a father.

He was now about 30 years old, married to Asenath, and adjusting to life as both a national leader and a parent. And when his first son was born, Mr Joe was tasked with naming him.

He didn't choose a name that just sounded pleasant. He chose a name that told a story.

He named his firstborn Manasseh, which means "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house".

Think about what that name meant. Every time he called his son's name, he was making a declaration: I'm choosing to forget. The pit. The slavery. The false accusation. The prison cell. The brothers who sold him. The father who let him go. The cupbearer who forgot him for two years. All of it.

Mr Joe made a conscious choice to release the bitterness, the pain, the betrayal. His future was too great to be marred by the dark experiences of yesterday. He let it go.

Then his second son was born, and Mr Joe named him Ephraim, which means "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction".

Fruitful. In the land of his affliction.

This was the summary of the God factor in the life of Mr Joe. He didn't need to relocate to prosper. He didn't need to search for greener pastures somewhere else. He didn't need to compile visa documents for the countries of the south or chase after the world's most powerful nations. He didn't need to run helter-skelter.

Mr Joe prospered in the same land where he was enslaved and imprisoned. He prospered in the same land where he was falsely accused. He became a father, a husband, a leader, and the wealthiest man in Egypt, in the very place that was supposed to break him.

Can I talk to you for a while before we continue with Mr Joe's story?

What's your story? What's your journey?

Are you carried away by the years of abundance or are you saving for the future? Yes, you don't have to spend all you have or eat with all five fingers. Save some for tomorrow and tomorrow will thank you. The raise, the bonus, the windfall, the overflow, it's not all meant to be consumed today. Build reserves. Think long-term. Invest in your future self.

Are you embittered by the challenges you had to go through or are you choosing to forget the past and enjoy this moment? Mr Joe needed to forget his misery to experience fruitfulness. He became fruitful as he chose to forget his unpleasant journey of disappointments and challenges. You also need to stop rehearsing the past and start enjoying the new thing that God is doing in your life. Name it. Declare it. Let go of what tried to kill you and embrace what's making you fruitful.

Back to Mr Joe.

Then, just as he predicted, the seven years of abundance ended.

And the famine began.

It didn't happen all at once. First, the rains didn't come. Then the Nile didn't rise as high as it should. The fields that had exploded with grain the year before now produced half as much. Then a quarter. Then nothing.

The markets that had overflowed with produce grew quieter. Thinner. Emptier.

People who had been celebrating just months before now stood in breadlines, confused and afraid. Farmers stared at their cracked, dry fields in disbelief. Parents looked at their children and wondered where the next meal would come from.

Other nations were experiencing the same devastation. Supply chains collapsed. Hunger spread. Desperation grew. But Egypt? Egypt had bread. Because years earlier, when everyone else was spending, Mr Joe was storing.

When the people cried to Pharaoh for food, Pharaoh pointed them in one direction: "Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do".

Pharaoh handed the entire economy over to Joe. Complete authority. Total trust.

So Mr Joe opened the storehouses.

Picture the scene: massive doors swinging open to reveal mountains of grain that had been preserved for this exact moment. People weeping with relief. Families receiving enough food to survive another week, another month. The strategic master plan that Mr Joe had implemented was now delivering Egypt from famine.

But this was just the beginning.

As the famine spread across the region, something remarkable started happening. Caravans began arriving at Egypt's borders. Delegations from surrounding nations. Traders from distant lands. Families traveling for weeks, desperate for food.

All. The. Earth.

Nations from every direction came knocking on Egypt's door. They came from Canaan, from Arabia, from Mesopotamia, from lands whose names Joe had never heard. Rich and poor. Powerful and powerless. Kings and peasants. All of them came to one man: Mr Joe.

The once-forgotten prisoner was now feeding the world.

He wasn't just managing Egypt's economy anymore. He was sustaining the global economy. The boy who dreamed that his family would bow before him didn't know the dream was so much bigger. The whole world was coming to him, hat in hand, asking for what only he had the wisdom to preserve.

This was the size of his destiny. He was called to deliver the global economy from inflation, food shortages, and total collapse.

So here's my invitation to you:

Glean from this wisdom and be intentional about saving, preserving, and investing. Don't spend it all. Don't eat it all. Store. Keep. Lock it up until it's needed in the future.

The world economy still runs on the principle Mr Joe introduced thousands of years ago. Central banks hold reserves. Nations stockpile resources. Companies build cash cushions. Individuals save for emergencies. Wise people prepare for winters they haven't seen yet.

Mr Joe understood something that many of us are still learning: Abundance is not permission to be reckless. It's an opportunity to be responsible.

The dream isn't just about you prospering. It's about you being positioned to save others when their season gets hard.

To be continued…

Photo credits: Meta AI

Scriptural reference: Genesis 41

The Story So Far:

Part 1: Meet Mr. Joe, the golden child who had everything, hated by his brothers, lost everything, and is about to gain everything back.

In Part 2, those same brothers threw Mr Joe in a pit, sold him into slavery, and sent him to Egypt with nothing but the clothes on his back. But Joe carried something they couldn't sell…

Part 3

Mr. Joe had become an interpreter of dreams. But here's what set him apart: he was a man who didn't diminish or undervalue his source.

Two prisoners, Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and chief baker, had been thrown into the same dungeon where Joe lived. One morning, Joe noticed their faces were troubled. They'd both had dreams the night before, vivid and disturbing, and nobody in prison could tell them what they meant.

Mr Joe could have puffed himself up, made himself look impressive, taken credit for what God was doing through him. But he understood that his gift of interpretation came from God, and he made his boast in the Lord, saying: "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please."

They told him their dreams. And Joe's interpretations were so accurate that everything happened exactly as he said it would. The cupbearer was restored to his position in Pharaoh's court. The baker was executed.

Before the cupbearer walked out of that prison a free man, Joe made one request. Just one.

"Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit."

Sure, that request wasn't too much from a fellow prisoner who had given him a compass to life. It's absolutely not wrong to expect good from someone you have been kind to. It's certainly not insane to expect kindness from the people you have shown kindness.

The cupbearer walked out of the prison gates. Back to his old life. Back to his position. Back to serving wine in Pharaoh's court.

And he forgot.

Can you imagine?

Joe woke up the next day expecting news. Maybe a message. Maybe a summons. Surely Pharaoh would hear about him soon. Surely someone would come.

Nobody came.

Days became weeks. Weeks became months. The prison routines continued. The same walls. The same faces. The same crushing quiet where hope used to live.

Two years passed.

730 days of waking up wondering if today would be the day. 730 nights of lying down with the same ache. Did he forget? Did God forget?

Joe had interpreted Pharaoh's officer's dream with pinpoint accuracy and saved the man's life. And the man forgot him the moment he stepped back into the palace.

Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect and self-centered world. Most people only think about themselves and are quick to take the exit door once they have gotten what they want from you. Spiritual maturity helps us understand that the people who are throwing accolades today may say crucify him the next day. This is why the accolades or criticisms of men do not mean anything. What matters is that we are doing what God has sent us to do. The crowd shouting "Hosanna" on Sunday may yell "Crucify Him" by Friday.

But here's what Mr Joe didn't know: the cupbearer's forgetfulness was all part of the plan.

When the time was right and the stage was set, everything would change. The stage wasn't set yet. Joe wasn't ready yet. Egypt wasn't ready yet. God was working on a timeline that had nothing to do with Joe's comfort and everything to do with His purpose.

Then one night, Pharaoh had a dream.

He was standing by the Nile when seven fat, healthy cows came up out of the river. Then seven ugly, gaunt cows came up after them and ate the fat cows. Pharaoh woke up disturbed. He fell back asleep and dreamed again, this time seven plump heads of grain were devoured by seven thin, scorched heads.

He woke up shaken. These weren't normal dreams. There was weight to them. A message. A warning. He had this dream repeatedly and he became weary. He knew there was a message in it but he couldn't place his hands on it.

He called every magician in Egypt. Every wise man. Every dream specialist in the kingdom. He described the dreams in detail, desperate for someone to tell him what they meant.

Nobody could.

Not one.

Pharaoh was in such distress. And that's when something clicked in the cupbearer's mind. A memory buried under two years of palace life suddenly surfaced. The cupbearer, seeing that Pharaoh was troubled, suddenly remembered the promise he made to Mr Joe.

"Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, 'I remember my offenses today...'"

He told Pharaoh about the Hebrew slave in prison who had interpreted his dream with supernatural accuracy. Suddenly, there was a ray of hope in Pharaoh's heart and he immediately sent for Mr Joe.

Joe had been waiting for this opportunity for over two years. He was elated by this news that he had been invited to meet with the king. This was it. His shot. His one chance to stand before the most powerful man in the world.

And Mr Joe understood the place of preparedness.

Yes, he had been in prison but he wasn't going to ruin this golden moment by going into the palace with prison clothes and a rough face. He spent time trimming his beard and looking sharp. He needed to represent the heavenly King's court in royalty. He cleaned himself up and wore clean clothes not reflecting the prison or the pit but his future.

Listen, you don't have to look like where you have been. Yes, you have gone through hard times, yes, the sickness may have been hard on you. Yes, your marriage may have been broken, yes, you lost your job, yes, that application wasn't successful. Yes, you went through all that and more... But you have to be ready for your future. Don't dress like your struggle, dress like your victory. Don't dress like your pit experience, dress up for the palace. Don't dress like your sickness, dress up in preparation for your healing. 

Your appearance is a prophetic declaration. It speaks its own words. Scripture tells us in different passages to "put on your beautiful garments". This is repeated because there's a message in your appearance and you've got to be ready and fully prepared for the greatness that God has for you. I don't know who needs to hear this, but you've got to change your wardrobe in readiness for what God has in store for you.

Back to the story of Mr Joe.

So Mr Joe appeared before Pharaoh in clean clothes and great confidence.

When Pharaoh said, "I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it," Joe didn't take the bait. He didn't sell himself. He acknowledged before Pharaoh that the gift of interpretation comes from God.

"It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer."

Joe listened to Pharaoh's dream and he gave the interpretation based on the spirit of God within him.

"The dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.”

Seven years of abundance were coming. Then seven years of famine so severe it would wipe out the memory of the good years. But he didn't just interpret Pharaoh's dream, he gave insight on how a future calamity could be averted. He spoke with divine wisdom and authority.

At that point, Pharaoh didn't see a prisoner, he didn't see a slave, he didn't see a man that was thrown into the pit, he didn't see a man that was accused of assaulting his master's wife. He saw a solution, he saw a glimmer of hope, he saw wisdom, he saw an economist, he saw a strategist, he saw a leader.

Then he asked his servants if they could find such a one as this, "a man in whom the Spirit of God is?

There and then, Mr Joe became the most qualified in the room. He didn't need a resume, he didn't need a sales pitch, he didn't need a winning cover letter, he didn't need employee referrals. His gift made room for him. His God-given wisdom distinguished him. His coat of many blessings was again revealed, his years of preparation in dreams and interpretation qualified him. Grace spoke for him when preparation met with divine appointment.

Mr Joe talked the part and looked the part. He didn't know that his visit to Pharaoh's palace was a ticket to royalty, he didn't know he was going to be wining and dining with the la crème of Egypt but he dressed his part. He didn't ask to go change from his prison uniform, no, Mr Joe, this golden child came to the palace prepared.

How prepared are you for your destination? Do you look like your future or your past? You've got to be prepared for where you are heading to. Stop reliving the past and start prepping for your future.

Mr Joe was ready and he was instantly appointed as the prime minister of Egypt.

From prison to palace... That certainly has a nice ring to it.

The cupbearer forgot him for two years, but God remembered him the whole time. The brothers thought they buried his dream in a pit. But the dream was never in the coat. It was never in the title. It was never in the circumstances.

The dream was in the presence of God that Joe carried, and that presence just promoted him to

Prime Minister of Egypt.

Your moment is coming too. And when it does, you'd better be ready.

To be continued...

Photo credits: Meta AI

If you missed Part 1, here's the short version: Mr. Joe had a God-given dream and made the rookie mistake of sharing it with the wrong people. Today, we pick up where we left off, and things are about to get a lot worse before they get better.

Mr. Joe hadn't quite learned how to steward his dreams, and that made him a walking target. Hatred is a powerful and deadly thing, and his brothers had been marinating in it for years.

One day, Papa Jacob sent Joe on what seemed like a simple errand; go check on your brothers at the farm. Innocent enough. But Joe walked straight into a trap. His brothers had had enough. They seized him, stripped him of that coat, and threw him into a pit while they debated what to do next.

Big brother Reuben had quiet plans to rescue him, but before he could act; the others made a business decision. Why kill him and carry his blood? Better to sell him. So they flagged down some Ishmaelite traders and sold their own brother into slavery for twenty pieces of silver. They collected the coins, dipped that famous coat in goat's blood, and went home to break their father's heart.

And just like that, Mr. Joe's whole world collapsed.

But here's where the story gets remarkable.

Joe arrived in Egypt as a slave. No coat. No father. No status. No name that meant anything to anyone. He went from being the preferred son in a wealthy household to being a commodity bought and sold like livestock.

You would shrink. I would shrink. Most of us would have crumbled entirely.

Not Mr. Joe.

Because the one thing his brothers couldn't sell, the one thing the Ishmaelites couldn't trade, the one thing slavery couldn't strip from him was the abiding presence of God in his life.

Everything Mr Joe touched flourished. Potiphar's house was blessed because of him. The land, the livestock, the business, all of it prospered under Joe's hands. He moved from wearing the coat of many colours to wearing something far more valuable, the coat of many blessings. And unlike the first coat, nobody could take this one from him.

Can I whisper something to you for a second?

Do you know Jesus? Have you surrendered your life to Him? Because here's the good news, you are also wearing that invisible coat. The same Spirit that distinguished Mr Joe in a foreign land is available to you. Everything you touch is designed to prosper. If that's not your reality right now, don't give up, bring it to the Father. He's only a prayer away.

Back to Mr. Joe.

He was a distinguished slave, loved, respected, and trusted by his master. Potiphar eventually handed him the keys to everything. But the enemy had been watching. And the anointing that brings blessings always attracts battles. Write this down:

Blessings + Battles = Anointing.

The next time you wonder why your life feels like a battlefield, remember the formula.

The battle came through Potiphar's wife. She wanted Joe and she was not subtle about it. She lured him, pressured him, day after day after day. But Joe feared God. He respected his master. And he understood something that many of us are still learning, temporary pleasure is not worth permanent consequences.

Mr Joe knew what was at stake. His integrity. His anointing. His destiny. His relationship with God. His bloodline, generations yet unborn. So when she grabbed his coat, he made his decision.

Take the coat. I'm keeping my purity.

Take the coat. I'm keeping my anointing.

Take the coat. I'm keeping my integrity.

Take the coat. I will preserve a generation.

Joe ran. He left the coat behind. And he ran.

So let me ask you something.

What are you holding onto while still trying to walk in what God has called you to do? What coat are you gripping, a position you know you've outgrown, the applause of people who don't carry your assignment, a relationship that is costing you your oil, a comfort zone that is slowly becoming a cage?

Let it go. Leave the coat. Flee like Mr. Joe.

But the story wasn't over.

Mr Joe left his coat behind, and still ended up in prison. Potiphar's wife told her version of events, and no one was interested in the truth. Joe paid the price for something he didn't do. Innocent. Helpless. Unheard.

And yet…. the Lord never left him.

That which distinguished Mr Joe could not be imprisoned.

Joe became a leader in prison. And somewhere in those dark walls, something shifted in him. He had spent his early years as a dreamer. Now he became something more, an interpreter of dreams. He had sat with his own visions long enough, wrestled with God in the dark long enough, that he could now make sense of someone else's. He became a compass. A voice. A beacon of hope in a hopeless place.

He had dreamed of the glory. He hadn't seen the pit or the prison in his dream; just the finished product. Just the bowing. Just the harvest.

And God never left Mr Joe. Not once.

Your life may not look like your dream right now. The gap between where you are and what God showed you might feel unbearable. But the pit is not the end. The prison is not the end. The false accusation, the betrayal, the setback, none of it is the end.

Like Mr. Joe, what you carry on the inside, the abiding presence of Yeshua goes with you into every pit, every prison, every foreign land. It cannot be sold. It cannot be stripped.

It cannot be locked up.

It's all part of the plan.

To be continued...

Photo credits: Meta AI

Meet Master Joe, the original "golden child."

Born to aging parents after years of waiting and tears, Joe was everything to his father. Now, to be fair, his father had other children from his other wives and concubines. But Joe? Joe was the one. And Daddy made absolutely no effort to hide it.

He bought the boy a coat of many colours. Let that sink in, a coat that said, "This one is different. This one is mine." Papa Jacob thought he was blessing his son. What he didn't realize was that he was painting a target on the boy's back. His brothers couldn't stand Joe, and now they had something tangible to resent, something they could see every single day.

Then young Joe made it worse.

He had a dream. A vivid, God-given dream where his family bowed before him. And because he was young, innocent, and full of excitement, he did what excited people do, he told everybody.

"Listen to this dream I had..."(Genesis 37:6)

His brothers weren't impressed. They were furious. "Who do you think you are?" But Joe, undeterred, had a second dream, and told them that one too. This time even Daddy pumped the brakes. "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?" (Genesis 37:10)

His brothers' hatred deepened. His father rebuked him publicly.

But here's what the scripture quietly slips in, his father kept the matter in mind (Genesis 37:11).

Jacob said one thing out loud and did another thing in his heart. He pondered. He held the dream carefully, even while correcting the boy. That detail is everything.

So what do we learn from Mr. Joe?

Many of us are Joe; full of God-given vision, buzzing with excitement, and dangerously unaware of the room we're standing in. We share our dreams with people who would rather see us fail. We lay out our five-year plans before people who don't even believe we have a future worth planning for. We cast our pearls before those who will trample them, people who will remind us of our limitations, poke holes in our purpose, and treat the sacred thing God showed us like a joke at the dinner table.

Not every dream is meant for every ear.

Some visions are too holy, too fragile, too yours to be handed to people who lack the grace to carry them. There is wisdom in sitting with what God has shown you. Let it grow in the secret place. Let it be watered by prayer and confirmed by time, not validated by applause. "But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19) There's a reason the Scripture honours her silence.

Seal it. Protect it. Trust God, the author of dreams to bring it to pass in His own time and in His own way.

And what about Papa Jacob?

Oh, Daddy. You love the child of your old age, we understand. After all those years of waiting, this boy is your miracle, your proof, your reward. But love, when it is displayed without wisdom, becomes a weapon. Your favouritism didn't just hurt your other sons, it nearly got Joseph killed.

You cannot pour poison into a family and call it love. Overt favouritism creates wounds that last generations, fractures that don't heal easily, and rivalries that turn brothers into enemies. If you love one child deeply; lock it, hide it, steward it wisely, and ‘put it in your pocket’. Protect them by protecting the peace of the house they live in.

Back to Mr. Joe.

Seal it. Until the appointed time.

To be continued...

While walking down one of the narrow streets of Medina one day, my daughters trailed behind me while our cab driver navigated the pedestrian-only alleys toward our destination. As we approached a crossing, I glanced back to gather my girls.

That's when I saw the tears streaming down my 12-year-old's face.

Her older sister's explanation hit me like a physical blow: a stranger had locked eyes with my daughter, spat out a racial slur in Arabic, and vanished into the sea of people. My daughter recognized it immediately because she'd heard those words thrown around at school.

By the time I turned to search the crowd, the woman was gone. The cab driver gently urged us forward. Let it go, his expression seemed to say.

But my daughter couldn't let it go.

My usually chatty, bubbly girl retreated somewhere deep inside herself. The light had gone out of her eyes. Nothing in her innocent twelve years had prepared her for this brutal truth: that her mere existence could be an offense to a stranger. That someone could look at her, just walking down a street, and choose to wound her with a single word.

No amount of reassurance could reach her. It took hours before she found her way back to herself.

That moment haunted me. I kept thinking about the irreversible nature of spoken words. We say "I take that back" as if words are arrows we can snatch from the air mid-flight. But once released, they find their mark. They lodge themselves in memory, in heart, in the soft places where we're most vulnerable.

Words powerful enough to reshape a day. A life. A soul.

I thought of another moment, weeks earlier in my classroom. A student had shuffled in late from recess, shoulders slumped, eyes down. I could see it immediately, whatever had happened outside those walls was still happening inside her head. She wouldn't learn anything in that state.

I caught her attention and beckoned her to my desk, whispering that I had something to brighten her day. She dropped her backpack and approached tentatively. I handed her a candy.

The transformation was instant. Her face lit up with a smile that seemed to come from somewhere deep and genuine. She returned to her seat and got started on her work with focus I hadn't seen from her in days.

One piece of candy. One small gesture. A few kind words.

The Bible doesn't mince words about this: "The power of life and death are in the tongue." It's not metaphor or exaggeration. It's observable truth.

Which raises uncomfortable questions: Are my words breathing life or dealing death? Am I building people up or tearing them down? And what about the words I speak to myself, am I blessing my own future or sabotaging it before it arrives?

Words aren't just words. They're arrows shot into the present that keep flying into the future. When God spoke creation into being, He didn't just describe what was, He called forth what would be. Light. Land. Life. All summoned by words.

We carry that same creative power in our mouths. We can speak things into existence or speak destruction over what's trying to grow.

So here's what I'm learning: Choose carefully.... because you don't just say words, you release them into the world where they take on a life of their own. Where they become part of someone's story or your own story. Where they shape what comes next.

You SHALL have what you SAY.

Make it count!

Humanly speaking, I had done everything I could to quit, but my attempts fell through at the brink of finalizing. I laid this down at the feet of the Lord in the secret place, and I heard Him say I had a dual assignment: ministry and secular. Ministry??? How could I possibly be called to students who wouldn't even listen to me? Students who thought I was too strict because I wouldn't compromise my values, and parents who thought I was pushing their kids too far by holding them accountable to the school's behavioral standards. Ministry??? Lord, I can't possibly be called to these people. I protested, complained, and kicked against what God said. As a matter of fact, I thought it was the devil, but I know the voice of my Father. 🙂 I knew God was telling me to do something my flesh wasn't comfortable with.

The journey of faith isn't a rollercoaster. There will be times when divine instructions are uncomfortable, but when you surrender, you will feel peace. The Lord used that unpleasant job to forge my character. He taught me how to love the unlovable, how to teach the unteachable, and how to be patient. God taught me to experience stillness in the midst of chaos. I learned to pray on my feet and invite God into my classroom. I couldn't survive one day on that job without Him because I didn't want to be there.

And slowly but surely, I started seeing changes in my students. I will never forget an icebreaker activity I did in one of my classes. I asked students to pick a name of another student at random and write down one positive statement about them. This was my most challenging group, and some of the students confessed that they couldn't find anything positive to write. I had to help them brainstorm things like how well they played soccer or basketball. I needed to model the activity, so I also picked the name of a student.

Guess what? It was the name of one of the students with the most challenging behavior and who was also academically challenged. I admit that it was really difficult to find something positive to say about this student, but I heard the Lord say, "It is time to change the narrative. Call forth those things that be not." So I started to write what she was capable of becoming. I read out the positive comments and passed out the papers. When it came to this student, I saw a beautiful smile and peace that I had never seen in her. At the end of the class, she walked up to me and asked if I was the one who wrote those words, and I affirmed. I started to see some changes afterwards.

Listen, growth and transformation can happen in the most uncomfortable places. Your assignment may not be easy, but it's worth it!

In spite of these breakthroughs, there were still times when I tried to fast-track the process by looking for other jobs. Guess what? I got a lot of rejection emails stating, "Although you are a strong candidate, we will not be proceeding with your application." I knew it wasn't time and I was fighting against the will of God.

The Bible records a number of people who experienced the discomfort of the surrendered life. Moses was so frustrated that he asked why the Lord had sent him to lead the children of Israel because of their continuous complaints and disobedience to God. The prophet Elijah tried to flee at the threat of Jezebel and felt alone. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ wept before the Father and asked Him to take the cup of suffering from Him. But He didn't stop there... Jesus said, "Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done." Let this be your prayer today.

Child of God, this is the discomfort of the surrendered life. God is ever mindful of you, but He is more interested in your character than your comfort. You cannot fast-track the pain and discomfort; it's part of the process.

It's not a gloomy picture, though. Those uncomfortable times are the moments when you see God carrying you through. You learn to lean on God and trust Him absolutely during those seasons. Jesus said, "Learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." He is a burden lifter and He will walk with you.

Yes, the surrendered life is uncomfortable, but you will not be living it alone. God's grace, His grace is sufficient for you. Endure it now so that you can enjoy it later.

That morning, I decided to try that alternate route.

Here's what happened: every time I turned off the main road, my GPS rerouted me back. Every. Single. Time. Frustrated, I eventually gave up and returned to the congested main route. But something struck me as I sat there in traffic, watching that little screen recalculate: my destination never changed. The GPS just kept finding new ways to get me there.

That GPS moment came back to me when I was reading Jeremiah 18:1, about the potter and his clay. One detail jumped out: the clay didn't turn out the way the potter wanted. It was marred. Misshapen.

So what did he do? He started over. He remolded it.

Here's what I want you to hear today: You can start over.

Headed in a different direction from your calling? Start over.

Dissatisfied and unfulfilled in your career? Start over.

Marriage at the brink of collapse? Start over.

Relationship with your kids broken because of what you did, or didn't do? Start over.

The potter didn't throw away the clay when it didn't cooperate. He remolded it. And if God can work with what's broken and willing, imagine what He can do when you actually surrender to Him.

God is a God of second chances. Just like that GPS kept rerouting me until I reached my destination, God can reroute you back on track. It doesn't matter how broken you feel or how far you've derailed from His original plan. You can start over.

You can start over at 70.

You can start over after multiple failed attempts.

You can start over when everyone else has given up on you.

Don't give up on YOU. Don't give up on God.

Start Over.

A new year brings fresh hopes and new opportunities to dream again, to begin again.

God's arms are wide open, asking you to surrender the compass of your life to Him. Can you trust Him? He knows what's best for you. He created His best so you don't have to settle for less.

Do not settle for less. Start over.

Happy 2026!

As we approach 2026 and many of us are seeking the Lord's direction for the year ahead, I want to share this spiritual toolkit with you. Use it as you pray and meditate on God's purposes for your life. My prayer is that it blesses you as profoundly as it has blessed me.

Mountains That Block Divine Purpose

1. Delays – The oil of the five virgins wouldn't have run out if the bridegroom had not delayed (Matthew 25:1-13). Delays can test our preparedness and endurance. When God's promise seems slow in coming, we can become spiritually complacent, allowing our anointing and passion to diminish. The key is to remain vigilant and Spirit-filled regardless of how long the wait appears. Pray for wisdom to stay prepared in every season, continually refilling your lamp so that when your divine moment arrives, you're ready to step into it fully anointed and equipped.

2. Comparison – Stay in your lane (Galatians 6:4-6, 2 Corinthians 10:12). When we measure ourselves against others, we lose sight of the unique assignment God has given us. Comparison breeds either pride or discouragement, and both will derail you from your purpose. God hasn't called you to run someone else's race or fulfill someone else's calling. He's given you a specific lane with specific grace. Focus on your own work, test your own actions, and find satisfaction in knowing you're being obedient to what God has called you to do.

3. Running Ahead of God's Timing – Abraham birthed Ishmael because he and Sarah ran ahead of God's timing and purpose (Genesis 16:2). Impatience can cause us to manufacture our own solutions instead of waiting for God's promise. When we take matters into our own hands, we often create complications and consequences that weren't part of God's plan. The Ishmael in your life that thing you birthed in your own strength may survive, but it will compete with the Isaac that God intended. Divine purpose requires divine timing. Wait on the Lord, even when the promise seems impossible.

4. Divulging Information Before the Appointed Time – "When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Keep secret what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down'" (Revelation 10:4 NLT). There are times when God reveals something to you that isn't meant to be shared immediately. Premature disclosure can invite opposition, misunderstanding, or even abort what God is trying to birth in your life. Not everyone has the spiritual maturity to steward your vision or calling. Learn to treasure what God shows you in secret, and wait for His release before you make it public. Wisdom knows when to speak and when to remain silent.

5. Distractions – The enemy doesn't have to stop you; he just needs to divert you. Distractions come in many forms: good opportunities that aren't God's best, urgent matters that crowd out the important, relationships that consume your focus, or even legitimate needs that pull you away from your primary calling. Not everything that demands your attention deserves it. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern between divine assignments and mere distractions. Protect your focus, because where your attention goes, your energy flows.

6. Delusion/Deception – Some open traps are disguised as open doors. Just because a door opens doesn't mean God opened it. The enemy can create counterfeits that look appealing and even profitable, but they lead you away from God's authentic plan. Deception makes you believe lies about your identity, your calling, or God's character. It causes you to mistake shortcuts for God's path or to embrace false promises that ultimately leave you empty. Stay grounded in God's Word and close to the Holy Spirit. Test every open door through prayer and confirmation before walking through it.

7. Confusion – "I will wait until my change comes" (Job 14:14). Stop second-guessing what God has already told you. Confusion creates paralysis and prevents forward movement. When you constantly question what God has spoken, you waste time and energy going in circles instead of advancing toward your purpose. The enemy loves to sow confusion because it keeps you stuck. If God said it, believe it. Stand on the word He gave you and refuse to be swayed by changing circumstances, conflicting voices, or your own doubts. Clarity comes from confidence in what God has already revealed.

8. Offenses – Unresolved offenses create heavy baggage that slows your spiritual progress. When you hold onto hurt, bitterness, or unforgiveness, you give the enemy a foothold in your life. Offenses distort your perspective, drain your energy, and create walls between you and the people God may have assigned to help you reach your destiny. Jesus warned that offenses would come, but He also modeled radical forgiveness. Release those who have hurt you, not because they deserve it, but because you deserve to be free. Your purpose is too important to be held hostage by past pain.

9. The Weight of the Past – "Remember not the former things" (Isaiah 43:18-19). God is doing a new thing, but you can't embrace it fully while still carrying the weight of yesterday. Past failures, regrets, shame, and even past successes can become anchors that keep you from moving forward. God doesn't want you imprisoned by what was; He wants you positioned for what's coming. Let go of the former things; the mistakes you've made, the opportunities you missed, the version of yourself you used to be. God's mercies are new every morning, and His plans for you are forward-focused.

10. Unbelief – The life of a Christian is a life of faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Unbelief doesn't just doubt God's promises; it questions His character, His goodness, and His ability to do what He said He would do. It caused an entire generation of Israelites to die in the wilderness instead of entering the Promised Land. Your divine purpose will always require you to believe God for things you cannot yet see. Faith isn't the absence of questions; it's the decision to trust God despite them. Cultivate your faith through His Word, through prayer, and through remembering what God has already done. Your belief system will either propel you toward your purpose or keep you circling the same mountain.

May the Lord give you discernment to identify which mountains are standing between you and your divine purpose, and may He grant you the grace and wisdom to overcome them in Jesus' name. Speak to the mountains!🗣️🗣️🗣️

I found myself wrestling with a question that's haunted me for years: How do you stay in your lane when you don't even know what your lane is?

Growing up in a typical African setting (which I'm deeply grateful for), I learned early that my voice didn't really matter. Children were seen, not heard. Questions were met with "because I said so." Curiosity was often treated as disrespect.

But I was that curious child. The one who always asked "why." And my "why" questions? They got me into trouble. A lot of trouble.

So I learned to be quiet. I learned to shrink. I learned that speaking up meant being shut down, and asking questions meant being labeled as difficult. What I didn't realize then was how deeply this would affect me. When you're silenced from a young age, you don't just lose your voice, you lose your understanding of your "why."

I spent years looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. Because when you don't know who you are, you'll let anyone tell you. When you don't understand your worth, you'll accept whatever crumbs people offer and call it a feast.

From teenage years to adulthood, I tried on different identities like outfits.

Different roles.

Different personas.

Trying desperately to find where I fit. Attempting to discover my lane by trial and error, by watching what worked for others, by shape-shifting into whatever seemed to earn approval.

But here's the painful irony: how do you stay in your lane if you don't even know what your lane is?

You can't.

I couldn't.

Not until I found my lane in the Secret Place.

Everything changed when I started seeking Him. Not for what He could give me. Not for breakthrough or blessing or answers to my problems. Just Him. As I pursued His presence, something miraculous happened, He showed me ME.

The real me. The me He created. The me He designed with purpose and precision. The me that had been buried under years of silencing, suppressing, and shrinking.

I found my "why" on the pages of the Bible. Not in self-help books or motivational speeches or even well-meaning advice from people who loved me. I found it as I placed my ear close to the lips of the Father and let Him speak truth into the lies I'd believed about myself.

He made everything make sense.

There's a moment in Scripture that wrecked me. Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" They gave Him the popular opinions, the crowd's consensus. But then He asked the real question: "But who do YOU say that I am?"

Peter answered: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

And Jesus replied with something profound: "You are Peter, the rock."

Do you see it? The revelation of Jesus revealed Peter's identity.

When Peter understood who Jesus was, Jesus told him who HE was. Our identity is hidden in Christ. When you find Him, really find Him, not just know about Him; you find yourself.

The real you.

The authentic you. The you He always intended you to be.

This is why staying in your lane starts with knowing whose you are before you can know who you are.

As a teacher, I see this play out in my classroom all the time. Students do brilliant work, creative, thoughtful, impressive work. But it's not what the rubric asked for. They've added their own flair, followed their own ideas, done what they thought would earn them a high grade.

And I have to pull out the rubric and say, "Yes, this is brilliant. But it doesn't fit anywhere in the instructions. You did something amazing, but you left out what you were actually told to do. So you can't earn a high grade when you didn't follow the assignment."

Every time this happens, I think about us. About me.

Isn't that the way some of our lives are? In our bid to do MORE: to be more impressive, more successful, more visible, more validated; we miss out on what God actually called us to do. We're working hard, but we're not working on the right assignment.

And then we wonder why we still struggle. Why there are these silent battles in our inner man that no one sees. Why we have public victories but private failures. Why something feels off, even when everything looks right on the surface.

There's a missing link. A broken connection.

We're performing brilliantly for the wrong audience. We're following someone else's rubric instead of the one our Creator gave us. We're chasing applause and approval and accolades, not realizing that only the Examiner, not the student; gets to determine the pass or fail mark.

Only God, the One who wrote your script, can determine its success.

Not your followers. Not your critics. Not even your well-meaning loved ones who want the best for you but don't always know what God has whispered to you in secret.

So here's what I'm learning:

Staying in your lane isn't about limitation. It's about liberation. It's about finally being free to be exactly who God created you to be, without apologizing, without performing, without constantly comparing yourself to someone running a completely different race.

Your lane was carved out specifically for you, a unique intersection of your gifts, your story, your struggles, your passions, and your purpose. No one else can fill it quite like you can.

But you'll never discover it by copying what's trending or chasing what's popular or trying to be anyone other than who God made you.

You'll only find it in the Secret Place.

On your knees.

In His Word.

With your ear pressed close to the Father's lips, letting Him tell you who you are.

Because the truth is this: the world will tell you a thousand things about who you should be.

But only One voice matters.

Only One opinion counts.

Only One knows the rubric He designed specifically for your life.

So stop performing for the masses.

Stop grading yourself based on someone else's standard.

Stop running someone else's race and wondering why you're exhausted.

Come close. Listen. Let Him show you YOU.

Your voice matters. Your story matters. Your lane, the one He created just for you matters.

It's time to stop asking "why" you're struggling and start asking "Who" has the answers.

The revelation of Jesus will reveal your identity. And when you finally see yourself through His eyes, everything else will make sense.

Come find your lane in the Secret Place. He's been waiting to show you.

And when you find it, PLEASE; Stay in Your Lane!

Merry Christmas! 👑👑🎄🎄🎁🎁⛄⛄👑👑