Amazing You,

How’s the year panning out for you?

How are your 2021 resolutions (If you made any) going thus far ?

And if you didn’t, that’s fine, I totally understand.  

Because sometimes your new year resolution could be to not make any resolution. 

Your new year resolution could be to just BE!

Live and breathe.

And it’s very much okay to make your new year resolution much later in the year or even in the middle of the year!
 A popular proverb says and I quote:- ‘when you wake up, is your morning’.

In other words, when your light dawns, your day begins (figuratively). 

Just ensure though that you are not spending your time lounging in bed, sipping cocktail and watching life. Be sure you’re in bed because you’re resting or healing.

This year is going to be really fast!  It was just about 2 minutes ago when we just said Happy New Year and boom! it’s the end of May already.

Honestly, time is running. But hey! You don’t have to run with it. Or feel pressured that you haven’t started anything yet. 

It’s okay to make some movement and by all means do, but if you’re not at a place where you can make meaningful movement, commit to your healing and focus on that so you can spring back and get back on track because, we need to move.

And if you’re already hitting the goals, keep at it. Just ensure you move at your pace and take some rest when you need to and after you’re rested, pick up again.

In January I had a burnout. I talked about it in an earlier post but i want to share another perspective to it today.

So, I had already hit some of my goals for the year but I was exhausted. And in the middle of the exhaustion,  I was still trying to act strong till I had to sit down and acknowledge the truth.

I was exhausted. And burnt out.

I had been on a 4 week marathon building about 4 websites, a magazine, massive contents and writing books, in addition to being a wife, mama, daughter and sister. 

I was tired, and angry! I was wondering if it was all worth it.

You see, exhaustion has a way of making you disillusioned. Suddenly,  you start to think that everything you believed for, the life you longed for and worked towards, isn’t possible. 

Exhaustion makes you want to creep back into your hole and focus on surviving instead of thriving. 

I was tired and I knew it. 

We’re a generation that gets some kicks from getting things done but sometimes we forget that there is the skill to getting things done and there is the spirit of getting things done.

What I mean is this: There is no need ticking off a ‘to-do’ list of something that ordinarily should be done in a more meaningful way, but you rushed through it because you’re trying to do so much and you just need to tick it off as done!

An example is rushing through our devoted communion time with God just to tick our mental or physical register that we’ve prayed long and satisfy our religious conscience. Trouble is, when we really need the strength that the prayer should provide, we won’t find it because we didn’t dig deep, we only went shallow.

God would rather we spend a meaningful 15 minutes with Him than a rushed 30 minutes.

Another is reading. We all want to say we’ve read 100 books by December 2021.

Amazing!

But our lives stay the same because we hardly remember what we read and/or not implementing because we didn’t take the time to draw a parallel between what we read and our lives.

How about doing a job or an assignment and rushing through it only to have to do it again because we didn’t do it well or putting up with a shabby work because we don’t have time to redo it.

Then those moments when we’re working on something or catching up on the phone and we make our kids repeat themselves 5 times because they are talking to us but we can’t hear them; we’re distracted.

We fill up our to-do list with 1000 items because well, maybe we’ll get some robotic powers during the day to execute them :)

I wish there were no effects to living like this but alas, there is! Because as we water down our concentration, our brain starts to get used to the idea of us living a life that is not focused. 

So the brain knows that you typically don’t give your full attention to a thing and you do more than one thing at a time, ALL the time. So when you’re doing just one thing, your brain starts to look for a second and maybe third thing to add to what you’re doing cos hey! ‘Here, we do more than one thing at a time even if our attention isn’t focused on it’.

There are some times you NEED to do more than one thing to get things done but there are times you need to focus on just one thing and do it well.

But your brain doesn’t know the difference because you’re doing a whole lot EVERY time.

So you’re reading a book and at the foot of the page, you realise you can’t remember what you read on that page because your mind was everywhere but on what you’re reading.

And you maybe have to read the page again..but you’ve lost time.

There’s power in focus and this is a WHOLE message. 

But I’ll paraphrase the message by saying that doing a few things very well is better than doing a lot with mediocrity. 

Take this truth from an ambitious and multi-tasking human like me, I love to load my lists and tick off stuff but I’m learning that it’s not in the amount of things I do, it’s in the quality of the things I do; the 20% that makes the difference and you know what, alot of times, those relevant things that make the difference aren’t much.

They might not fill your to-do lists but they’ll help you become what is in your to-be list:- the list that describes the life you want to live and the person you want to become.

My charge to you today is to disconnect from the chatter and noise of what social media and influencers say you life should look like. They did not create you and even though they have a great sense and an idea of how a successful life should be, God has your own ultimate blueprint, especially if you’ve been stressed out and running battery low.

Disconnect and find your way back to God’s throne room, take a long hard look at your life and lay it before Him and ask Him to help you eliminate the clutter, even the ones you thought you couldn’t do without.  And ask Him to help you live your days more meaningful.

When you do that, your life will truly start to make sense.  That doesn’t mean it will be a merry-go-round because God will stretch you by calling you out of your comfort zone so you can build your capacity, do more and become more. Abundant fruitfulness happens on the stretch.

But you won’t be stressed because He will not give you more that you can bear. Stress happens when you try to do more than your capacity can carry.

Skills in a task are important. The act of doing a thing is important but it’s the spirit with which you do the task that makes the difference, making your work stand out.  That’s why two people can do same thing but get different results. One is an act(skill), the other is an art(spirit). One is usually done to cross it off a list and move on, the other is done with purpose and intention. 

Make your life an art; operate from a place of peace and focus, purpose and intention. 

I pray for you today that God will fill you with the wisdom you need to know what is relevant and what is extraneous, in every season of life that you are in, so you can focus on what truly matters per season and live your days more bright, more energized and more meaningful. 

I leave you with this
Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
Galatians 6:4-5 (The Message Version)

Have an amazing God-defined week ahead 

Love, light and laughter. 
Aijay

Sometime early this year, I had a deadline to meet that ended up taking much more of my time than I had planned so I literally worked on the task for three days straight.

By the time I had gone past the second day, I realised I wasn’t studying at midnight like I usually do and of course I told myself God would understand, it’s the season but by the third day, I was in a place of dire starvation but not from physical food. 

I wasn’t feeding my Spirit.

You see, I was reading my Bible a little here and there but my day to day demands require that I not only feed on God’s Word very well for myself, I feed to the overflowing because someone or something might draw on me. But here I was, just scratching by and managing, and I could feel that weakness inside that had nothing to do with my physical body. 

At that point, I knew something had to give so I don’t give.

Haha

It’s amazing all the parts of ourselves we have to take care of, to be in one piece; body, soul and spirit.

Before we go on, let’s look at an analogy.

Imagine that your life is a house and your dreams are the appliances in the house. And imagine that you live in my country Nigeria where power isn’t too stable and you have to get a standby generator and depending on the capacity you want, there is 1KVA, 2KVA , 3.5KVA and up to 100KVA generator and more, so you can keep your life moving when power goes off.

Now Imagine that you have this big deep freezer you bought to keep your foods fresh and when you went to buy a generator, you got a 2kva generator hoping it will sufficiently ‘carry the load’ of your deep freezer.

I know you’re prolly smiling now. You know the answer.

We all do.

Kolé werk

It’s not possible.

How can it even be? Even if the generator comes on by any miracle, it will have this really low sound like it’s rumbling, more like complaining – ‘Aunty madam or uncle Oga why you put his Kain load for my head’. Plus the deep freezer won’t come on. (If you can think of other things that will happen when the freezer is switched on, please hit reply and let me know. But please finish the post first )

Haha

Ok. Enough of the joke.

But hey, I’m serious.

Wait. how did we get here?

Oh I remember. I was talking about how I got hungry..in my spirit.

So while keeping this analogy in mind, let’s head back to my story.

Having identified my challenge, I promptly worked on my schedule and created time for what matters – The Word of God, all the while wondering why my spirit couldn’t bear with me for a few days.‍  

As I sat down to study and feed my spirit, I heard the words – ‘Do not stop feeding what fuels you’

And like a rushing wind, it all came to me.

‘I’m a spirit being. I operate from my inside. My spirit is what keeps me and enables me function, live and thrive. But my spirit itself needs to be fed to do it’s work and what my spirit feeds on is not amala, it’s the word of God. ‘

And it is same for you, believing you’re born again. (If you’re not, write to me please and we can talk about it)

Do not stop feeding what fuels you.

I have dreams. Big ones. But if my spirit isn’t fit enough to sustain me, I can’t do much and I can’t go far. And as much as physical and emotional fitness is key, spiritual fitness is actually more important. 

And that is where the generator analogy comes in.

Some of us are carrying around ‘2KVA generator powered spirit’ and we have 100KVA dreams and we’re wondering why we aren’t making progress

Sis & Bro. Tiz not the village pipo o. They are innocent this time.

It is your spirit that you haven’t pumped with the kind of food it eats.

You need to be fuelled but only a well-fed spirit can fuel you.

Only a well fed Spirit can sufficiently carry you from season to season.

By all means you still need a healthy body and energetic mind and we will come to that in a bit. But life begins from your inside and till you get it clear there, you will be dragging yourself around on the outside.

Now you might ask, ‘Aijay I know people who are doing amazingly well but they aren’t born again. Let’s leave this church matter abeg.’

I agree. For the first part of the comment not the second.

But you see, these people you’re talking about are not born again (like we just agreed) so they definitely don’t have kingdom-minded dreams like you.

They aren’t Christians so the enemy isn’t so scared that they will partner with God through their dreams to draw someone to Christ. The devil knows that whatever good they do ends there. No one will be invited to church or be told that Jesus did this and He can do it for them too

In other words, they aren’t a threat to the enemy.

BUT. YOU. ARE.

Copy that?

You are. A threat. 

You are a risk to hell because when you become successful, God can use your success to draw men to Himself. 

When you partner with God and do well, you become a light and people will want to know Who helped you..and of course they’ll know God in the process.

You’re going to take more people upward with you than someone out here who ain’t born again and is so successful.

You’re a risk factor to hell

And that’s why the enemy won’t fold his hands and watch you do well. 

That is why if you aren’t paying attention to what you should be paying attention to, the enemy is taking you more seriously than you take yourself.

But what is the connection between this and that?

The connection is this: The only effective weapon we have against the enemy is God’s Word and for that Word to get into our life, we need to pass it through our spirit.

Do you get it now?

Infact, can we have a heart to heart roundtable discussion here? Cos I feel like we are all on this table, me inclusive.

Like we’re busy. So busy our spirits are getting bushy..with weeds.

We’re trying to make a life and in the process, we forget to live. Truly live.

This is 2021 and we’ll make a difference guys. We will.

But we will need to start focusing on what truly matters

Yea? Yes.

I’m going to also say that feeding what feeds you isn’t for your spirit alone. It’s definitely for your spirit first but there are other parts. Like taking care of relationships that light your inner fire.

Consuming relevant information that helps you grow.

Eating healthy foods that keeps you strong.

Handling your money a little better so it can multiply and be available for extra deeds

Fill in the gaps for yourself. You know what fuels you in other ways.

But first, pay attention to your spirit

I wish I could go on but I just realised I’ve passed my word count for my posts and I’m trying to get better at writing shorter mails. I’m not sure how that is panning out though 

But do you see the picture now?

It is some serious business.

And I’m not talking reading 10 chapters a day. That is not sustainable if you’re a busy professional. 

I’m talking sitting down with your Bible and an open heart and asking God to teach you, and if a verse of a Scripture is all you can do in thirty minutes, meditating and getting it into your heart on a daily basis, it’s enough.

I’m talking a real and practical approach to studying God’s Word that will stretch you but will still be sustainable for you. 

I’m talking about writing some verses on a sticky note to meditate on throughout the day or setting phone alarm reminders at intervals, to excuse yourself from the busyness of the day and go somewhere private to declare God’s Word for even 3 minutes.

Sometimes it is not really in the length of time, it’s in the heart you put into it. And sometimes, it’s both.

Truth is, the more effective you want to become, the more you have to make time for God’s Word. 

Get all the knowledge you can for your field or area of expertise because you need that edge to excel. But never rely on that knowledge alone. There is a God Factor.

And maybe if you can’t do much during the week, you can have a weekly word retreat during the weekend. Fight if you have to, but make sure you make it happen

There are different ways to do this but your heart has to be in it first. 

Do you understand?

So my charge to you this week is to get into the middle of your own life and make your life work. What you need to move your life forward isn’t outside of you, it’s on the inside of you and you need to pay attention to it.

I pray for you today that the light of God’s Word illuminating your heart will always exceed the light of men shining on you, and that you will not only show people the way to a great life, you will also live a great life.

As usual, I leave this with you

Let the Word of Christ —the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. 
Colossians 3:16a MSG

And this

“Now I’m turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends.
Acts 20:32 MSG

You go on and have a fruitful and amazing God-defined week ahead.

Lots of love, light and laughter!

Aijay.

The year has been panning out nicely and it’s been a mix of excitement and exhaustion. I’m a little behind on my goals but I have decided that I am a human and not a robot so it’s okay. And even though the Holy Ghost empowers me, even God rested so I have to rest to.

Yes? Yes  

You see, I’m a very ambitious child of God and I get kicks from plenty to-do lists and goals achieved but I have also learnt to take the breaks i need when I do, like i did pretty recently.

I decided long ago that I might want to act all smiling before everyone and pretend everything is fine but I would never lie to myself. Not even in naming it and claiming it, I won’t. 

If something was twisted in a way it shouldn’t be, I’ll tell myself the truth and focus on fixing it.

That doesn’t mean I will confess negative. No. But I’d like to identify what is wrong so I can seek specific solutions for it.

So if I need help, I won’t wait till I’m on the floor, I’ll ask. 

If I feel uncomfortable with something,  maybe a relationship or with a person, I won’t sweep it under the carpet, I’d like to identify what could be wrong and discuss with the person if possible.  But I won’t ignore it hoping it will go away.

For me, the exhaustion wasn’t welcome because I had some goals to crush, I still do. But I had to tell myself the truth so I don’t break down. And this decision to be true to my self and not take on more than I’ve built capacity for at the moment, got me thinking on something I have discovered in our generation: It seems to me that we are a generation that generally don’t like to say the truth to ourselves. We often lie to ourselves.

Sometimes it’s because of fear. Other times it’s the desire to impress.

Sometimes it’s because we’re living life very fast and crushing goals that we don’t stop to listen to our deepest feelings.

And at other times it’s the misguided religious conception that you have to fake it till you make it.

Or maybe you want to ‘blindfold’ your heart to the truth so you can indulge in your desires and not feel guilty.

Whichever it is, we’d rather put up a false appearance than acknowledge what we’re going through. We’d rather keep a plastic smile than admit something hurts or is wrong. We’d rather paint a situation to suit our desire than see it for the colour it really is. 

We’d rather live a lie

And I get it. You can’t trust everyone with your heart. I get it. Even Jesus didn’t take the praises of men to heart because He knew what a man’s heart was like. 

That’s why I’m not asking that you tell the world. I’m only asking that you tell yourself – the truth.

Learn to come home to yourself and accept the truth for what it really is

Even if you can’t let anyone in, let yourself into your own heart, tell yourself the truth and attend to yourself.

Pay attention to you.

Let me give you a few examples:

You have noticed your salary always finishes before the end of the month and you tell yourself it’s because you’re underpaid.

Honey, that’s not the reason.

Truth is, how you spend 1000 is how you’ll spend 1000000, prudently or carelessly. If you can’t handle what you have now well, you can’t handle what you’re looking to earn either. You need to tell yourself the truth – my money game is not good- and work on it.

You have exams you’re scheduled for and you’re giving priority to other things and then the time for the exam draws closer and you feel pressured and blame everyone but you. Honey,  wake up and smell the coffee.

You know you shouldn’t eat junk. You know it gets you tired. But you splurge on it and expect to wake up strong and active the next day.  Plus you’re not expecting to add weight. 

You know weightloss is 70% what we eat right?

You are close to a colleague at work and the platonic lines are getting tinier. You’re crossing the lines but you’re still telling yourself – he’s just a friend. And you’re married. Ahh!

You are an ambitious visionary going somewhere to happen. And you have a strong picture of your future but you haven’t sat down to draw up a strategy. 

You’re a Christian and you’re hoping to be a multi-influential personality and you want to do so without engaging God’s Word. You want to be successful as a Christian without playing your part.  That’s a strong spirit of deceit at work because as long as you’re a Christian,  the devil will fight you.  You need to stay awake!

You have some funny dreams at night and it’s  beginning to bother you. If you’re grounded enough in God’s Word, stand your ground and run the devil off. If you don’t have that confidence yet, that’s okay.  Reach out. Or start building confidence in God’s Word aggressively because the yoke will be broken when you’ve fed fat on the Word  of God.

Life is really simple. Let’s not get it complicated.

Year 2021 has just started and I believe you’ve made a decision to protect your peace like we talked about last week. 

To that decision I ask that you please add another- a decision to be true to thyself.

Like a famous person once wrote: “To thy own self be true.”

This mantra has helped me and kept me from getting into things I had no business being in.

It has helped me keep touch with my core so I can live from inside out. 

I can live an increasingly authentic life because I’ve learnt to stop and take count,  introspect, ask questions and really look at situations. 

It will help you know your strengths and grow them. And it will help you know your weaknesses so you don’t tempt yourself.

You will know what you can handle and what you can’t,  and acknowledge the gap so you can fill it up.

You won’t have to try to be what you’re not. Or live in false rhythms because you’re trying to be perceived in a certain way.

It doesn’t mean you won’t be disciplined.  It means you’ll be intentional. 

And it means you’ll start to operate from a place that is truly yours, as you grow to become all God has called you to be.

Authenticity is beautiful

Making a decision to be among the few who own up to tell themselves the truth will probably be one of the best decisions you’ll make this year because it will help you build a life that is truly authentic, something that is rare these days.

I pray for you today that the strength and grace to look inwards and grow your life from the inside out, will rest on you. And that you will from this time to thyself, be true.

I leave you with this: 

Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.
Proverbs 4:23‭-‬27 MSG

You have an amazing God-defined week.

God bless you
Aijay

Ps: If this blog blessed you, please forward it to someone you love. Better still, you can get them to sign up on www.aijayufomadu.com . Let’s share the love

Pss: Forgive me for any typo errors you might see.
 
Psss: Have you checked out this website www.styledbyabba.com? You should if you haven’t 

Pssss: Sending you love, light and laughter

There was this movie I watched back then in the 90’s. It was a foreign movie and the movie was about how some set of foreign beings, better known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) were released from supposedly another planet, into planet earth to possess the earth. Their mission was to make the earth thiers and their strategy was simple – they come in looking like normal human beings, act friendly and nice and then at night, when they have succeeded in establishing some form of friendship or comradeship with their intended victim, they’ll turn into who they truly are, ugly monsters. At that time when it’s too late to turn or run, they corner their victims and bite them, injecting some form of substance into them that transformed the victim into a fellow UFO. That wasn’t the end, the person who was previously full human becomes half human, half UFO, and starts his or her witch-hunt to add more people to the UFO populace. I think at some point, they got discovered and then active steps were initiated to not only stop them but eliminate them completely.

I probably watched this movie about 20 years ago but somehow, the theme of the movie never left me because it always reminded me of a scripture in the Bible that was issued as a command to Christians- Matt 28:19(NLT) which says

‘Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.’

You see, that movie wasn’t just about biting people and making them victims, it was about domination through the discipleship. Just that this time, the discipleship wasn’t pure. But the fact that a set of beings who couldn’t even be identified as real human beings had a strong desire to possess the earth for themselves got me thinking of the battle for the lives of men on earth. Truth is, you might just think it’s a movie but it’s beyond that. These things are happening. Just that this time, it might not be UFOs but something similar to them seeking to possess the souls of men and ensure they walk the path opposite to what their creator intended.

When we first got saved as Christians, we were told we are saved to save others and that’s the truth. If you were just saved to be saved, you’ll probably just appear in heaven the moment you gave your life to Jesus but you’re still on earth today because God gave all Christians a mandate to raise disciples for the Kingdom and today, I want to highlight a part of our lives we can adequately use to raise disciples for Christ but we often don’t take advantage of it, maybe because it doesn’t look like the four corners of the church. I’m talking about your workplace.

You see, wherever you do your work, be it as an entrepreneur or corporate personnel, is a platform you can take as a pulpit for the gospel of Christ. The pulpit isn’t found in the church alone, your platform- where you do your work, is your OWN pulpit and you ought to honour God with it. I’m not talking about doing morning cries or holding crusades in your office, I’m talking about a more subtle but yet effective approach to discipleship and that’s being the light.

Lemme back up a little bit. This movie I talked about sheds light on what is truly happening in the world – how the enemy of our souls will stop at nothing to possess men and set them up for hell and that is worrisome. That is worrisome because the devil will stop at nothing to drag people to hell with him. I don’t know why the stupid devil won’t just face his punishment alone, I mean no one challenged God with him, he did it all by himself but now, he wants innocent people to pay the price with him. That is worrisome. But even more worrisome is the fact that we Christians have decided to turn a blind eye to this by our actions, not because we can’t do anything but because we feel we can’t be bothered. I don’t get it. How can you sit, relax and be sipping champagne when your neighbor is on his way to hell. Let me even say that I feel like there is punishment for that negligence sef but that’s story for another day.

See, we are Christians first before we became anything else. Are you an entrepreneur, corporate personnel, politician, business personnel or applicant, you’re a CHRISTIAN FIRST before you are anything else and you must never forget that wherever you are. We must not allow the pursuit of success, fame, comfort and money distract us so much we lose focus of the major reason we are here in the first place.

Let me ask you some questions-
When was the last time someone took a good decision because of you?
When was the last time someone gave their life to Christ just by watching the way you live yours?
When was the last time someone followed you to church convinced of God’s love for them?

Alot is happening and people are making alot of bad decisions. Worse still, many of those people are around us but we aren’t helping them or influencing their lives positively because our transactions with them end with just money, business, referral or some other business stuff.

Let me ask you this- what is your true purpose for going into business or working? I think that will help us understand things better. Did you start that business or get that job so you could put food on the table, enjoy life and travel twice a year or did you get it with an understanding that you are a child of God on assignment? Why did you get that job? What is your true focus for that job? Do you intend to serve yourself through that job/business or do you intend to serve God through it?

Please permit me to remind you that if you are a Christian, you don’t have a life. My brother, my sister, you no get life! What you think you have, you gave to Christ when you repented. Remember? You gave your life to Christ and you received His. A life far better than what you ever had. Newsflash! You are living a borrowed life. A life loaned you with the understanding that you will use it to honour God. And no matter how long you live, that debt is a debt you keep paying till your last breathe so it’s better you get to the true business of your life cos God will ask you what you did with what He gave you.

I’m not here to scare you and I’m sorry if I sound rude. I’m just speaking out of passion because if we do nothing, nothing will happen. We need to step up and step out and all I’m asking is for you to be the light and brighten your corner.

See, being in the corporate world doesn’t afford you the opportunity do morning cries or hold crusades in the office but there are some strategies that don’t lie. They always yield results and one of those is by being the light that inspires men to come to the LIGHT.

How do you do this? By the way you live your life. By being a person of integrity and truth. By giving your best to your job. By not fighting the powers that be such that they see you’re not fighting but you’re excelling so it’s clear someone greater is fighting for you. By brightening your corner with God’s love. I think for me, that’s the greatest of it all. Everyone responds to love and at the core of every human being is that desire to be acknowledged, recognised and appreciated; that desire to be loved. When you reflect God’s love to people, it’s not hard to convince them to listen to you if you have something to say. Like my aunt says, “while you sell on your job, sell Jesus to men too.”

It’s about time we opened our eyes and stepped up our game on raising disciples. If UFOs who have nothing good in stock can pretend to be nice to get a person, how much more we who are actually loving and caring by the nature of God in us. People are going through alot and need answers and the way you live your life might be the start of the light they need to come to Jesus.

Your platform is your pulpit.
Your workshop is part of your worship
Your workspace can be used for Jesus
Use these to influence the lives of men…for Jesus

Let’s not lose FOCUS of the very reason we’re here in the first place.

If your heart is ignited and burning with fresh purpose to honour God with your life, especially through your work, join us at this year’s FOCUS Conference holding on December 15, 2018, where we’ll be learning practical ways we can bring God into our work. The terrain is tough but God’s Grace is tougher and by God’s strength, we can scale over any wall and bring in trophies for Christ.

We also know that the workplace terrain can be tough so we’ll be having a panel session addressing issues we face as Christians in the marketplace. Come with your questions and with a heart ready to learn because we anticipate God pouring fresh fire, strength and focus into our spirits as we rise to become the LIGHT He has called us to be.

FOCUS Conference is an exclusive Holy Ghost meeting for Marketplace Apostles and Christian Influencers and the whole focus is just to point us back to Jesus. So we don’t get it mixed up or twisted pursuing money, success or fame. These have thier place but there’s a greater purpose.

For more information on the FOCUS Conference, please visit www.focusconferencenigeria.org

You can also register on bit.ly/focusnigeria2018

Be the Light. Remain the Light!

Love you loads

Aijay Ufomadu

….Live Awake

Recently, on my way back from work, I decided to do a quick stop at the supermarket and pick a couple of things. I had just closed from work and I was looking forward to getting home, most especially because I was hungry; really hungry. But if I didn’t buy what I needed, Saturday would be the next time and Saturday was looking too far from Wednesday so I decided to make it a quick one.

Wrong decision because I did not only buy what was on my list, I bought some other things that were not on the list and I ended up overshooting my budget.

But you know the craziest thing, somehow I just could not put down any of the extra stuff I bought because they all looked appealing, more like life-saving. I didn’t understand why, I was just so convinced I needed them and so I bought them. As I drove home, I looked forward to eating many of the things I bought as all of them were edibles.

Fast forward to when I got home, I ate my dinner and sat down to do some dream work and totally forgot about the things i bought that i had planned to munch on. Minutes later, my help brought the bag to me and as I went through the things I bought, I suddenly realised that all the things I bought with much enthusiasm weren’t attractive to me anymore. I was looking at the biscuits and chocolates and wondering why on earth I got them and how I was going to eat them because I was seeing them for what they truly were – unhealthy junk.

It was then I realized that I bought all of them because they looked appealing and the reason they looked appealing was that at that point of purchase, I was hungry and anything that was edible looked like the next best thing, after salvation and a good marriage.

That made me overshoot my budget, on something I did not need, something I could now see clearly for what it actually is – junk! At the point I bought it, it didn’t matter what it was, what mattered was my perception of it – an object of great satisfaction for my crying stomach. I was thinking of my stomach- No! I was thinking through my hungry stomach and I made stupid decisions. At that point in time, my sense of judgement was warped. Hunger, warped my sense of Judgement.

Hunger is so serious that the adjective used to describe it is ravenous. You know what ravenous means? It means voracious; something close to wolfish.

The idea of it sounds scary. But that’s what hunger does to you. Especially if it’s been left unattended to for so long. Hunger warps your sense of Judgement and makes what would otherwise have been forbidden, appear accepted. Hunger can make you see yellow as gold and black as grey.

Hunger is so strong it has the power to channel your thinking mechanism from your mind through the organ where the hunger is resident; just like it channeled mine from my head through my stomach.

So, have you been thinking of.., sorry, have you been thinking through any of your organs lately?? Could it be that the decisions you’re currently making that aren’t helping you is because you’re thinking through your love-hungry heart, wondering how you will survive without a relationship or without that person and because of that, you’re eating junk?

Are you thinking through your sex organ so much that the scriptures in red about fornication and adultery are beginning to look pinkish white and the lines are blurring..

Are you thinking through your desire for fame so much that you’re ready to do anything or step on anyone to become that image of yourself you’ve conceived

Or could it be that you’re so power hungry that innocent people around you pay for stuff they know nothing about, just because you want to show

What are you hungry for? What is driving your decisions? What is the reason you’re doing what you’re doing? If you had a full stomach of your desire, would you still do what you’re doing now? What are you filling up yourself with? Junk or real food?

Never go shopping when you’re empty. Everything will appear as the solution you need and this is not even about shopping at a supermarket, it’s about living life everyday. That day I learnt that you’ll never make the best decisions when you’re hungry. That day, I understood why a lot of people make the wrong choices when they desperately need something.

The worst time to shop is when you’re hungry. That’s what happens when someone is desperate to get married. You’re hungry for marriage and in that instant, any guy will look appealing enough because your standards are lowered. When you’re hungry for attention, you’ll crave just anyone’s time. You’ll lower your standards for what you want.

What have you been craving lately? How desperately do you want it? I want you to take a break and critically look at what is driving you? Don’t allow your desires make you settle for less than God’s best for you. A whole life is ahead of you, don’t short-circuit yourself with short term gratifications. Decide for yourself what you want based on the life God has called you to live and stay on that, no matter how intense the pressure gets. The truth is that pressure will rise. People will talk. Time will be on the move but it’s what you have agreed with God on, based on His word, that will be your reality. Life answers to what is inside of you

Don’t go shopping on empty. You’ll make wrong decisions based on the cravings you feel

How did your week / day go?

PS: my book is out and the rave about it is so phenomenal. You can find out more about it here and you can order for a copy here or on Okadabooks

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Loving you still

Aijay Ufomadu

….Live Awake

Sometime ago, I experienced struggles, real struggles in trying to put my life together and bring something fruitful out of it. It wasn’t that I didn’t have dreams, I did and for some of those dreams, I had clarity but I was struggling, struggling to go through each day working on my dreams and that affected me on some very deep level because I didn’t want to get to 80 and discover I still had a lot to do with little or no time. So I knew I had to wake up. I had to find a way to make my life and dreams work.

I listened to inspirational tapes and attended motivational seminars and the likes and i came back more frustrated and confused than I cared to admit. Everyone is gingering for us to fulfill our dreams, very few are teaching you how to do that practically. I mean, I know I must fulfill my dream and ‘get to the grind’ and work it all out and all the works but what happens when I have this crazy unexplainable tiredness that won’t let me do anything past my jobtime?

What happens when I have huge financial responsibilities and my dreams still need money but I can’t save much because my money is needed everywhere?

What happens when I need an MBA but the last time I checked, LBS was charging millions that I don’t have to pay?

What about the other day when I prayed and prayed for something but I didn’t get results, results I needed for breakthrough on my dreams?

Ok. I’m in ministry but this turf is much tougher than I thought and all these ‘get in the grind’ talks ain’t helping me.

Me, I’m a wife and mum, and you could even be a husband and dad, we are also professionals or entrepreneurs, schedules are tight and it’s either we pursue our dreams at the expense of family or we focus on family and forget our dreams.

There are endless questions, real problems, life issues and challenges that people are facing on the journey to fulfilling their dreams and these challenges require answers, not just anwsers, answers one can tailor to the specific life season they are in and produce results.

This is by no means talking down on ‘getting in the grind.’ – No. But a whole lot goes into making that grind work, a whole lot than what we just see on the internet. We want to get results but it’s looking like a ‘long thing’

I mean, who is tired of getting tired

Who is tired of being at one place, circling a mountain over and over again? Raise your hands

Who is frustrated and confused because they’ve tried to ‘get in the grind’ but the grind is grinding them to pieces, they don’t even want anymore?

Who has plain given up?

Judging by the vast information and resources we have on pursuing our dreams, we ought to have more successes today than we actually have when compared to the world’s population. The question is, what is happening?

I’ll tell you. There is a mix behind the ‘the grind’ that people aren’t getting. It isn’t that they aren’t motivated or fueled to pursue their passion, it is that somewhere along the line, the mix is getting twisted and hindering their works if not stopping them all together. They are putting in so much but getting so little in return, compared to their input.

SO!!

Enter !!

Optimize Your Life – The Book.

Life issues most times require practical solutions and this book was written to provide practical answers to all the questions and challenges expressed above; those and many more.

I know they say that if you’re truly willing, you’ll find a way, if you’re not, you’ll find an excuse. But for you, you have not have found a way, not because you’re not willing but because you’re overwhelmed. You don’t even know where to start from. You’re not giving yourself an excuse, you’re just plain tired.

Don’t worry, I get. I know what it feels like to be at that point when you literally just want to give up but for me, the fear of getting to 80 and still having dreams unfulfilled kept me searching for answers I wasn’t getting from most of the talks and books I’ve come in contact with.

And that’s why I wrote this book. I don’t want you to get to the near-end of your life and experience an even greater frustration because you didn’t fulfill all God sent you to do. See, on that glorious day, far ahead in the future, when you’re ready to go back to your father in heaven, there is a joy you’ll feel knowing that you’re leaving empty! And that God will tell you ‘well done,’ not ‘well?’

Based on sound biblical principles which most self-help books these days omit, this book will start you on a journey to building a tailor-made structure that is specific to any life season you’ll get into, a structure from which you can launch out and fulfil your dreams.

I can’t promise that this book will answer all your questions or heal all your wounds because it’s not the Bible. But I can promise you that this is that book you’ve been looking for a long time now to give you more clarity; that information you’ve been seeking to understand some concepts; that insight you need to connect the dots.

Available on November 1, 2018, first as an Ebook on Okadabooks. Pray. Prepare your heart. Anticipate the release. A force sent by God is about to hit your heart and it’s coming from the pages of a book designed by God to wake you up to Him and make you ALIVE to the World!!

You’re here for impact.

You’re here as a solution.

Please do not give the devil another day of your life because you feel clueless, overwhelmed or for whatever reason!

You have a part to play in making the world beautiful, get on stage and make that happen!

See you November 1, 2018.

Pre-Order options are available for the hard copy and this comes with some bonuses which include but are not limited to; early bird discount and free pass to optimize-your-life workshops which will hold across major cities in Nigeria, and who knows, maybe outside Nigeria too.

To pre-order, please click here or pre-order on bit.ly/optimizeyourlifebook.  Kindly note that the ebook will be available on Okadabooks for now, the next site is kobo books and a couple of others, which I’ll definitely let you know.

Looking forward to hearing from you

I Celebrate You!!

AijayUfomadu

……Live Awake

Currency has been defined as the instituted medium of exchange for goods and/or services within an economy. In other words, it is the legal form of tender without which you can’t access the basic necessities and luxuries with which you need to live life. It’s something you PAY to get something you WANT.

Now, currency is so important that your opinion is generally not sought when instituting it. Most of us were born into the current currency our nation uses so it’s likely we didn’t have a say in choosing it. We just met it and continued with it. Whether or not we accept it, like it or agree with it, if we want to be able to engage in financial exchange of any sort, we had better accept it.

Now, looking at it closely, currency is quite broad because it’s not just about money. Currency is a medium through which you acquire what you need and some needs are simply not bought with money. There are some things you will need in life and the currency with which you get it won’t be money, at least not initially. It’s very much like the ancient barter exchange system, just that this exchange system is still very much in force today, albeit unconsciously, most of this time.

Our focus today therefore, though on currency, is on a different kind of currency. A currency that has been in operation from days of creation. A currency that has come to stay till Jesus comes. A currency that determines every other thing we pretty much access, in life. A currency that even determines how much of the physical currency itself, that is money, that we get. It’s been in existence and operating, whether we are aware of it or not. It’s a currency that, when we understand how it works, we can take advantage of it to get our lives moving in the right direction. It’s the currency of Life itself. It’s the currency called ATTENTION!

There is a price you have to pay to get whatever you want to get. Like the saying goes, there is no free thing anywhere, anything that appears free has been paid for, by someone somewhere. So for you to live life at a certain level or quality, you have a price to pay. That price is attention, also known as Focus.

Ever noticed that we don’t give attention, we pay attention. That’s because attention, or focus, is the first currency you pay to get something you really want..or don’t want. It works based on the principle of attraction and it’s priceless because it determines EVERYTHING about your life.

Attention or focus is as good a currency as money because you PAY both. You PAY money and you PAY attention. When you enter a supermarket, you have alot of things that you can buy. You can even get a big trolley and fill it up with groceries and all but when you get to the counter, it’s only what you pay for that you’ll go home with. It’s what you pay for, that you’ll partake of.

We are all at different points and stages in our life and what we have access to is determined by something we are paying attention to, consciously or unconsciously. The Bible says as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov 23:7). When you give thought to a thing, you are paying attention to that thing, giving focus to that thing and soon enough, you’ll start to see or experience more of that in your life. In essence, what you pay attention to, comes to fruition in your life.

Lemme give you an example. There’s this car I love. It’s the white range rover sport. Lol. I know you know the car. But let me tell you why I love it. You see, for me, that car represents a blend of masculinity and femininity. It’s strong, solid and aesthetically beautiful with its carefully crafted metal alloy wheels. But that’s not even all of it. I love cars I can manoeuvre with ease. I love to play safe stunts on the road and when I see that car, I see a car that can bring out that stunt-driving part of me, albeit in a classy way. The interior of the car is breathtaking. The sound system is awesome. I love good vibes when I’m driving, be it playing worship early in the morning or praise jams in the evening. I love the sound of well mixed melodies accurately reproduced by the sound system of the car I’m driving and range rover sport does that. And because I don’t see much sense in letting a driver enjoy the experience of that car, I will drive myself most times.

So imagine me, in the driver’s seat of this SUV, dressed in a blue power suit with my glasses on, well-manicured fingers on the steering, looking ahead as I swiftly navigate the traffic to get to my destination. I will be a sight to behold.

The crown of it all might just be a dream I’ve held in my heart for so long. A dream that refuses to go away. A dream that pushes me when my hands start to get weary. Maybe that’s why I’m emotionally attached to this car because it is tied to a part of my life that is purpose-driven. It’s a picture I see of myself constantly. More like a mind capture that has come to stay. It’s the picture of me driving into my office complex, more like the towers exclusively owned by my organisation. I drive in, park in front of building and step down in my white designer tailored suit complete with royal blue accessories. I hand the keys over to a driver who’s already waiting for me, he gets in to go park the car at the car space specifically alloted to me while I take the elevator to the 10th floor, where I have the board of directors waiting for me to start a meeting. Beside me is my first son. Young but already knows alot about the business world because he’s stayed so close to mum. The second as at this time is either into IT like daddy or fully facing ministry or being groomed for whatever God has called him to, even though he’s still very young.

Wow. That was a long one. But I need you to read it and come on that mind journey with me, vividly envisioning what I just described. Then after a week, come back to the comments section and tell me how many white range rovers you saw in the week following your read. Most importantly, take note of the number of white range rovers you see women driving.

When you do this, it will most likely shock you to realise that you are suddenly seeing a whole lot of range rovers. Not just any colour, white. And most of them appear driven by women. You’ll see them almost everywhere. On the road. On TV. On the internet as you browse, in the magazine, on the advert stations while waiting to be served in a queue. Almost everywhere. And something is going to ask you. How come you didn’t notice this car all these while? Because suddenly you’ll start to see and most likely admire the alloy wheels. You might even have one drive so close to you that you hear the sweet wafts of music coming to your ears. What’s happening here? Why are you suddenly seeing all this? It’s almost as if it’s calling you.

Let me tell you what happened. I described something to you so tangibly it formed a clear and precise picture in your mind. Your mind captured that image and the next time you saw the physical expression of the image, your mind instantly recognised and isolated it. The range rovers didn’t suddenly appear. They have always been there. In the adverts, on the road, TV, internet etc. They’ve always been there. Hard to believe but true. They’ve always been there. The only thing that changed was that your attention, your focus, became heightened to it. So your inner antenna immediately picks it up anytime it’s within your radar because your mind has identified it as something you are currently paying attention to.

That’s what happens when you get pregnant and suddenly everyone around you seems to be getting pregnant too. And same thing happens when you earnestly desire to be married but you aren’t yet, then it seems as if everyone around you is getting married and you are the only one left. That is because that is what has captured your mind.

It’s what also happens when you buy a thing and suddenly it seems more people have it than you thought initially.

Same thing happens when you notice that somehow, you are being maltreated or victimised and the more you think of it, the more incidences of it you actually see and experience. It’s possible you’ve been treated that way all the while but you didn’t take it to heart, till some passer by made a comment about how much better you should be treated and suddenly, you start to feel funny. It sounds surreal but it’s true.

You see, the rich and successful will always tell you something, focus and attention played a great role in getting them to where they are now. There is nothing you can get in life and sustain it without paying attention to it. If you by chance stumbled into it, without paying attention to it, you will most likely lose it because you are not giving it the care it requires. What you pay attention to, you’ll begin to see in your life.

Those overwhelming circumstances could just be so because of the focus, the attention you’re paying it. Whatever you don’t want in your life, do not focus on it. No matter how enticing it looks. No wonder the Bible says we should concentrate on whatever is good pure lovely etc (Phil 4:8). God knows we attract what we behold so He starts to educate us before time to intentionally choose what we focus on.

We are changed from glory to glory as we behold God’s Word (2 Corinthians 3:18). The answer to transforming your life and moving forward starts with changing what you are essentially focussing on. That’s why the enemy fights to keep us looking in the wrong direction. Because if he can hold our gaze negatively, he can access our life. As we think, so we become.

It’s same reason God asked the children of Israel to look UP when they were stung by serpents(Numbers 21:8). The change in focus brought their healing.

Same reason also, God tells us in Hebrews 12:2 to look up to Jesus ,the initiator and finisher of our faith, because if we want to run the race well and finish well, we need an accurate image of that success stamped on our mind and Jesus provides that for us. It’s all in the focus.

So if you want a shift in your life, start by assessing your focus and make appropriate adjustments. Prayerfully determine where you want to be, seeking God for guidance and adjust your focus to capture that image and stick it on your mind. That’s the principle behind vision boards and this lady, Terri savelle foy, speaks so well about it.

I acknowledge that changing your focus can be a difficult one. Especially when you’re so used to thinking a particular way. But you have to decide ahead of time what it is, you really want out of life and give yourself no excuse for failure or failing short. It’s a journey that requires consistency and discipline but it’s totally doable.

You will fail a couple of times. That is sure. But when you do, don’t stay down. Stand up, dust yourself and keep moving forward. It can be a hard long journey but you don’t want to get to the end of your life and realise you could have had much more if only you assiduously went for it. Those who are doing it don’t have two heads. You can too. But you have to be willing.

The most important factor you need to create this focus change, without which you probably won’t be able to do it at all or go far, is The Word of God. Romans 12:2 talks about our mind being transformed and 2 Corinthians 3:18 talks about us being changed from glory to glory, in both instances, as we behold, focus,pay attention, to The Word. The Word works . And no matter where you’re coming from or how deep the hole or mess is, The Word can pull you out and set you on top. Just stay consistent.

Also, remember that what births a thing also sustains it, so don’t abandon the Word of God once you start to see more clearly and your focus changes. Stay with The Word. Thats the only way your results will last because we have a real enemy constantly fighting for our focus.

Change your focus. Change your life.

It’s all in the focus baby. It’s all in the focus.

So what are you currently paying attention to?

What is your focus on now?

Is it helping you or harming you?

Lemme know in your comments.

And now, a little somethin’ for you before I end..

Stay encouraged!!

Loving you and praying for you as always

All the very best and do live a God-Defined life

AijayUfomadu

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