It’s easy to write. It’s living that’s the hard part….

Hey yawl…

HAPPY Sunday!!!

I was reading an old post from Pastor M’s blog www.justusgirlsnaija.com from like 3 years ago, but still so relevant. In fact, I have never forgotten it, cos this seems to be even more TODAY my reality. You should read that post for contextbut a line once again jumped out at me, which helps my post today so much that I have lifted it wholesale as my blog title today…

It’s easy to write. It’s living that’s the hard part….

Read the full post here then come back… I will wait!!!

Recently, a friend of mine came to see me, and among the many things we talked about, she wanted to understand when to post something off her Quiet time with Jesus, and when to just swallow if for herself. I am sure ALL OF US have been there…

You are reading your Bible, or engaging in some kind of spiritual activity and something hits you, and wham, you wanna tweet it, create an image/flier off it for INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK, put it up on your status, blog about it, etx.

Oh, my goodness, I HAVE SO BEEN THERE, I am even CRINGING AT MYSELF!!!
God is SO GRACIOUS yawl… Like, if HE chooses to judge us as we deserve, we would ALL BE IN HELL!!!

Let me tell you, this Scripture below? I GET IT!!!

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and, in your name, perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Matthew 7:21‭-‬23 NIV

This used to be ME, especially when I had a personal Instagram account. I still recall when I shut it down, and A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE were like…

Oh, but you were so INSPIRING…
You motivated us…
But you were using it for the Gospel now…
Ah, and you were just about to become a confirmed Instagram celeb…

Oh, I LOVED that page. I was popular on it, followed by the right people, had engagements, comments and likes, and generally got a lot of stuff off that platform… Speaking engagements, free products to promote, Financial gifts or seeds, free services, THE WORKS!!!

Oh, yes, I really DO LOVE GOD, and I believe I set out with the heart to just share my love for God, but along the line, as the fame came, so did the pride, and then the motive changed!!!

I started to post for the likes, the comments, the love, etx. You see, these things are subtle, as is the enemy, but still SO DANGEROUS. Ignorance is not an excuse in this battle.
People hailed me. But I am sure God was looking and thinking…

“I don’t KNOW this girl…”

Oh gosh!!! THAT IS SO SCARY!!!

See how The Message version puts it…

“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience— doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’
Matthew 7:21‭-‬23 MSG

Our God-sponsored projects got everyone talking. We PREACHED the message, bashed demons, held meetings, posted Scriptures, blogged, and all that IN YOUR NAME,
But God says men may be impressed, but HE IS NOT IMPRESSED!!!
All we did was USE HIM to make US important!!!

Oh gosh!!!

You see, it is SO EASY to WRITE, to BLOG, to VLOG, to SPEAK etx, but the LIVING? That’s the hard part.

I use Beth Moore’s Bible study BELIEVING GOD and one of the days, before she shared with us, she says that

‘’…before a Message God has given me STEPS ON YOUR TOES’, it has nearly BEATEN ME TO DEATH…’

Like, she didn’t just JUMP in to write a Bible study to TEACH US, she has LIVED IT FOR REAL!!!

When Heather says things like she told God that please she doesn’t wanna write a book again soon,

or even Pastor Steven, you may be thinking

“…Huh but you make money from these books na…”

But they are being WRECKED As they LIVE THE BOOK so it’s NO JOKE. Esp for Chris followers.

Oh Lord, I LOVE CHRIS CAINE!!! She is INSANELY my REAL HERO cos she shines SO MUCH LIGHT on a path I am taking. She CHECKS my life. She ADJUSTS and ALIGNS me to shape. She has taught me to LIVE the WORD and not just BLOG it or INSTAGRAM it.

It has to first be LIVED and REAL to me, before I qualify to share it.

Somewhere in our heads, we all wanna be STARS!!! We all wanna have a platform. There is a COOL Christian sub-culture in America as in Nigeria. There is some kinda COOL APPEAL to be a Christian, especially a popular one with large followings.

Soon, we forget that last last, we just POINT PEOPLE TO JESUS and not attempt to be the One they are following. We don’t try to keep the GLORY to ourselves cos the weight of glory is HEAVY!!!

Gosh, I heard my bessfren Brooke Ligertwood talk about the weight of the glory, especially for Music ministers who get the privilege of ‘handling’ glory directly.

She was IN TEARS and I could understand her.

Like following Christ is NOT ABOUT tweeting and Instagramming and BLOGGING and having a MINISTRY, and being a COOL CHRISTIAN!!! This thing is HEAVY!!! Teachers WILL be judged MORE HARSHLY!!!

NOT MANY [of you] should become teachers (self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus, we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation].
James 3:1 AMPC

That is also why I LOVE DDK!!! Such deep understanding of what it means to be in the forefront!!! When I see DDK, I see depth. She is not here for show. Gosh, I LOVE her. I am SO PROUD to call her Mentor.

That is also why I LOVE Music Ministers like Nathaniel Bassey, and then my favesssss at HillSong (Brooke and Taya), and Bethel (esp Jenn). This thing for them is REAL!!! It is NOT for show, which is why they can wear anything which you may not even consider fancy, I mean Jenn leads worship bare feet,

yet when they worship, you have goosebumps AND ARE CHANGED ON THE INSIDE even via YouTube. It is NOT just a gift, it is ANOINTING!!!

Such things used to shack me before… Like I would DESIRE to be A POPULAR CHRISTIAN XXXX, but today, I am wiser. Because I HEAR God, I am almost kinda scared of hearing Him, cos then, you can’t feign ignorance when you KNOW that He has called you to X or Y, especially if it puts you in the public eye. And it’s an internal thing you have to navigate with Him. Human applause or jabs don’t matter.

This ish is REAL guys. If you are NOT careful, POPULARITY, or like Chris will say, the SPOTLIGHT ON YOU will DESTROY you, especially if the light on you is not INFINITELY GREATER!!!!!

THE SPOTLIGHT IS CRAZY YAWL!!! You should PRAY HARD for anyone who you know and love in there. It is a REAL BATTLE!!! Like REAL!!!

Compared to Chris, I am like 0.001% and I have like 3 Therapists ready for me. When you hear Pastor Steven talk about seeing a THERAPIST for MANY YEARS, you know He didn’t come to play. Like a REAL man of God seeking psychological help. You see THE HUGE CHURCH that is ELEVATION and covet it, but if you DARE KNOW THE BEHIND THE SCENES? My goodness!!! You BETTER be LIVING THE WORD FOR REAL!!!!
If all you did was tweet about it, blog about it, Instagram it, PIN it, and my goodness, I am AMAZED at how many GROWING platforms we have to SHARE what we know, even before we have LIVED it!!!

I heard DDK say once that

sometimes God gives you a WORD for JUST YOU, and before you know it, it is ALL OVER YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA, yet there is no PERSONAL DEPTH to it, and soon WHAM, one day, We fizzle out.

LIVING IT is HARD WORK

And really, how good and well we live it is not for any one to judge, BUT GOD, and HE is such a FAITHFUL Judge.
Men may be applauding us, but God is like I KNOW YOU NOT!!!

So, back to the story of my friend…

I explained to her all that God has ‘nearly killed me with”, but stuff for which I am insanely GRATEFUL!!!

I recall when I ran the FRUITFUL AT HOME series on my blog, that thing CONVICTED me like crazy.

I don’t even KNOW how to explain it, but I PROMISE YOU, it is not something I chose to do!!!

For instance, I KNOW now that God means business with this Stay at home moms thing. I recalled when Pastor M told me and I laughed it off. Today, I have a clearer picture, and I am looking at GOD like REALLY???? ME!!!! Last night for instance, I had a Strategy session with my team from 1.30am to 4am. And I had to leave for church at 6am in the morning.

In fact, most times I sit and shake my head, and laugh, especially when any member of my team tries to keep me accountable based on stuff I have shared with them.

Do you even have an idea the personal DEMONS I HAVE TO FIGHT literally EVERY MINUTE!!! So, when I see people quick to START A ‘MINISTRY’, have their names and pictures on fliers, and hold events and just generally be excited about having their own Ministry, I am like Chilllleeeeee, are you EVEN READY???? Cos maybe what God told you requires you to go SERVE and SUBMIT to someone already doing it, not to go GRAB A MICROPHONE!!! Are you sure you are ready???

The call of God is heavy, and sadly, most times we see through filters and photoshops, something I am actively learning to discern. You may see a pulpit and a sold-out conference, with pretty pictures, but I see blood, tears and GIANTS, literally!!! I see BATTLE SCARS!!! You may read through Social media captions and think this person is just amazing, lucky and LIVING THE LIFE, but I see someone who behind the scenes is DYING to herself daily for the sake of JESUS and the CALL!!!

She didn’t just POST IT FOR THE LIKES, she’s posting stuff she has lived or is living, and NOTHING is pretty about it. Some comments be like THIS ONE IS FOR ME and I am like Chilllleeeeee, this one IS FOR HER and from that OVERFLOW, she is SHARING!!! Cos SHE is gonna be attacked REAL HARD so she better have some SUBSTANCE!!!

Chris said something in an interview recently, and I shared it with my friend…
She said that this faith walk is like a ladder we are all climbing. We start out at the bottom and keep going… She is walking with God, learning, living, teaching and preaching. If her teaching and preaching is on the 5th rung, but her LIVING the life is below on the 2nd rung, when attack comes, AND IT WILL, she will fall back, NOT TO THE LEVEL OF HER TEACHING, but to the LEVEL OF HER LIVING IT.

Which is why ATTACKS take a lot of people down. Our public lives are ON FIRE but our private? Phew!!! Like I heard Heather say recently, some of us have gotten used to living a life of PRAYERLESSNESS but we are PREACHERS AND BISHOPS on Social media.

We haven’t eaten yet what we wanna dish out, and what will sustain us is what is IN US not what we BLOGGED ABOUT!!!
God help us oooo!!! God help me. God help you. Amen!!!

Recently, I realised that I put up a picture of my hubby online literally every week.
Some almost 3years back, someone accused me that BEFORE and in the early months of my marriage, I spoke a lot about hubby publicly, but had stopped. And she had seen that trend with most married women. She thought we should always put up our spouses pix online.

At the time she told me that, I was in a LONG DISTANCE MARRIAGE and stuff was HARD. Like we started the marriage on A LONG DISTANCE note, separating to different cities only after a couple short months. We saw only a couple times a year, and we were trying to WORK ON and BUILD at the time, plus there was a new baby which we were trying to navigate even apart, and the LAST THING I could even do AUTHENTICALLY was splash pictures on social media just because…

I remember telling her that we barely had enough for ourselves so to now share online just to keep up was impossible. I share from an OVERFLOW literally. Something has to be working at least to some degree, before I start to share.

Today, we are in our 5th year of marriage and ALMOST ONE year since we THANK YOU JESUS kissed Long distance goodbye. Now I feel like I have an OVERFLOW And then when I post pictures online, they are AUTHENTIC!!!

I think the world needs more examples of Christian happy marriages, but I also think you should share AUTHENTICALLY and not just cos you wanna say post something on social media, or cos others are doing it. YOU REALLY are not obligated to share online your marriage.

And beyond marriage, this goes for all of life. Don’t just POST IT, LIVE IT FIRST !!!

Let me end with a Scripture. It was PAUL to Timothy, but He may as well be talking to me!!!

And don’t be intimidated by those who are older than you; simply be the example they need to see by being faithful and true in all that you do. Speak the truth and live a life of purity and authentic love as you remain strong in your faith. So, until I come, be diligent in devouring the Word of God, be faithful in prayer, and in teaching the believers.
1 Timothy 4:12‭-‬13 TPT

So Eziaha, you gotta DEVOUR the WORD FIRST, (before it gets on IG or your WhatsApp status), be FAITHFUL IN PRAYER before you blog about it, and then you can SHARE!!!

Hmm!!!
Help us JESUS!!!

On that note, cheers to the friggin’ new week…

Love,

E’