Out with the OLD, In with the NEW.
“God wants to bless us more than we know, but He loves us too much to bless our dysfunctions, because our dysfunctions will not only ruin us, they’ll ruin other people and also put a dent in His image and personality.” — Mrs. Tosin Yemi-Sanni (Shining Light Show)
I’ve always thought of myself as balanced in every sense — the cool, smart girl who gets complimented and admired. It turned out that God wasn’t satisfied with that illusion and lie of a bio, and He needed to restructure me. Months of isolation were required for my eyes to truly open and see how, in many ways, I was unbalanced while posing as balanced. On the journey of unraveling me to me, I realized that God is more interested in who I become in Him than in what I accomplish through Him. Intentionally, He held me on the path of reculturing and restructuring to rid me of dysfunctions I never thought existed. To this, I am grateful.
The cool me was seated in an enclosed space, getting swamped from the previous day’s tasks, when I heard the whisper: ‘Out with the old, In with the New.' Hurriedly, I scribbled on the paperwork that held some important details. To be frank, where I wrote it didn’t matter; all I knew was that it would make a great title for my next article — it correlated with the phase I was in. I was only a few weeks away from turning in the last three chapters of my research work to close up my first degree when my life took a new shape altogether. I landed a role as a virtual assistant, had my name published in an organization’s magazine as part of their contributors for a major work, received a congratulatory email stating my selection for a week of intensive training that’ll move me from Uyo to Abuja by Air, and was also contacted to anchor a stakeholders’ meeting that would be aired on TV. My life was screaming ‘too good,’ and I thought the word was actively working in me. I never knew God had other plans for me.
Months into the ‘What Next?’ phase, my application as a graduate trainee to one of Nigeria’s leading real estate and property development organization was acknowledged. Indeed, my life was becoming new. Notwithstanding that it would require a quick change of location, I didn’t blink at the cost; all I cared about was that my life was springing with everything new and I wouldn’t dare put it on a pause. To further knock out my doubt and cement my belief that God was in it, I was financially blessed with the exact amount I needed for the move.
“My thoughts,” says the Lord, “are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours.” — Isaiah 55:8–9 (GNT)
That things were happening so fast and right for me wasn’t a justification that this was God’s definition of the word I received. Or maybe it was, but God had something different from what I had mapped out. It took a ‘sorry, you can’t get this’ to bring me to my lowest. Devastated, I felt betrayed by God and was almost fazed by it to the point where I didn’t see how much of a mess I had become — always on the lookout for the next bigger and better opportunity to add to my ‘What Have You’ list and ever ready to splash pictures to serve as proof and stamp for my socials that I was doing great. All of this I did to feed my already swollen ego I never knew existed.
Through the help of the Holy Spirit, after my incessant cries for help and clarity, He revealed how I was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. Even though I genuinely prayed to be used by Him and to become transcendent in time, my motives were self-centered. Just like when God told Ezekiel the Prophet in the book of Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV), ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh,’ the word I heard wasn’t only bound to my external environment; it was largely for what flowed in me. I needed to be reworked.
The Hebrew word for "new" is "חדש" (pronounced ‘chadash’). It describes something that is fresh, recent, or newly created. Anything new cannot function at it’s optimal level in an old body. The old has to be discarded for the full experience and functionality of the new. Just like when you wouldn’t save up to purchase a new BMW only to remove the body parts and engine to rework on your beat-up car, God cannot entrust us with the lives of others, bigger visions, and newer territories when our old selves haven’t been dealt with. We’ll only put Him and His Kingdom at a full-blown risk.
A reworking of the ‘WHO’ factor in us by God redefines and heals what has been amassed over time, such as childhood hurts, traumas, unbending perspectives, acceptable patterns, emotional wirings, identity distortions, toxic traits, etc. It sprouts the needed fruit — godly attitudes and character needed to face daily challenges head-on, arming us with an unequivocal understanding of Him, a revelation of His purpose, and a deeper uncovering of our identity in Him. The reworking of the ‘WHAT’ factor in us by God kills our fleshly desire and pursuit to be seen, acknowledged and honored as the world’s best. It awakens us to the consciousness of the abilities, positions, and blessings we can access through Him, not for our appraisal, but so that His light in us will be seen and His name will be glorified.
It is a total reculturing and reworking of our inner selves to create a sparkling clean human being, inside-out.
All of these I have written, and many more I haven’t, are not experiences that can be compressed into a few lines. To be remade by God involves total surrender and brokenness that comes with pain. It says so much about how the best of us, most times do not realize how self-absorbed and self-destructive we can become in our pursuit to live right, forgetting that the possibility of that isn’t solely on the right activities or actions we immerse ourselves in. We cannot live or do right by God, make the best decisions, or be aligned with His will and plans without the ever-present help and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
God wants to give me, you and us the best. In fact, He wants to give us all that pertains to life, but accessing all that pertains to life cannot be isolated from all that pertains to godliness.
It first has to be a reculturing of our inside—repairing the dysfunctionalities, rebuilding and reshaping our perspectives, thoroughly cleaning our lens, shattering the supposed lies that were sold off as truths that we shoved down our throats, reworking the character or personality trait we’ve assumed can’t be shed, and healing from the demeaning experiences that have distorted our identity. Only then can it become the bursting forth of that newness that has no weight, no reminder of the past, no patterns, and no sad tale, for the revelation and glorification of God.
This is how much work God is willing to put in to let us access the best.
Remember, God is set to do new things not just for you, but also in and through your life, if you allow Him.
My salutation to you remains unchanged.
Happy Aligned New Year!
Your friend, Goodie.
