Building a relationship with God

The following day, I found out that he was going to propose to me and I was like...If you’re a young woman interested in getting closer to God then this video is for you. In this video, I share my real-life experiences... struggles

because you know they’re real and my triumphs.

For practical tips that will empower you as a young woman to live your best life in Christ and much more engaging lifestyle content then subscribe to this channel and don’t forget to hit the bell to be notified when we post a video every single Tuesday. The beautiful thing about sharing a story... a personal story is that it really just does encourage people and I’ve had hundreds of people share and testify that my story has helped them because its relatable so here I am to share my story with you today.

Okay as a young girl I had grown up in a Christian household but then the older I got I kind of just took  step back from going to Church. In 2011 I went to university and in 2013 I met my boyfriend and we started dating. In 2015 I graduated from Goldsmiths University with a degree in computer science. Whilst I was at university I can honestly count the amount of times I went to church. It just... it wasn’t a thing. Visits were just really infrequent and as for my prayer life...it was non-existent to be honest with you. In 2016, both my boyfriend and I had graduated from University and at that point I thought it’d be a good idea to start going to his church.

To be honest with you it would be a great opportunity for me to get to know his family and all of that good stuff you know...and obviously to prove that I’m wife material and that you know I’m saying?

And just in case you’re wondering at this point in our relationship, we had discussed marriage. And just the sort of pause on that for a second...when I tell you I was ready I was ready like, like honesty just...where’s the ring b?

So I started attending his church and things were going really well met all of his family members became really close with members of the church and building relationships and everything was just going really well. So I would sing songs in church on Sunday. You know, I would lift my hands and you know follow the lyrics of the song, but to be really honest with you I was doing that on a Sunday, but Monday to Saturday however, I was living life the way I wanted and what I mean by that is I wasn’t really going to church for the right reasons in a sense. I wasn’t going to church because I particularly wanted to get to know more about God. I wasn’t particularly going because I wanted to grow in my faith... I kind of was just going to go.

So in 2017 New Year’s Eve. About a week before New Year’s Eve in my family home, there were talks about going to church on New Year’s Eve. This was just a very normal thing that would happen every year in my home. So I remember when like my mom and my brother and my cousins were arranging how they were gonna get to go to church, which was the family church I had grown up in by the way but then stopped going for so many years. I remember having this sudden nudge to.. just this internal feeling saying Ayo, go to this church and I was kind of just like nah I’m going to my boyfriend’s church. To cut a very long story, short New Year’s Eve comes and where do I find myself?

Not at my boyfriend’s church. I find myself at my family church and on New Year’s Eve the pastor made an altar call and he basically said who would like to give their lives to Christ or if you would like to give your life to Christ then please come forward. So in church that day when the pastor made the altar call instinctively I just knew I had to go forward because there was just something saying to me Ayo listen...this lukewarm Christian life that you’re living... hmm yeah it’s not really gonna run. So, I decided to step forward and give my life to Christ.

In 2018, late January I became more serious in my pursuit of God. At this point there were now internal thoughts telling me that God had a much bigger plan for me. And when I say there were internal thoughts it was just literally this nagging voice in my mind saying Ayo, God has a bigger plan for you. God has a bigger plan for you. And I just couldn’t seem to nudge these thoughts away. In March 2018, I typed in on Google how to spend time with God and a blog post came up and it was a blog post from a woman called Heather Lindsey who by the way is absolutely incredible. So, because I really enjoyed reading her post I thought hmm let me...I then notice at the bottom of that blog post that she had a YouTube channel so I was like oh hey let me go on her YouTube channel and find out more and see if she does more of this kind of content. I went on her YouTube channel and for some strange reason I decided to scroll down all the way to the bottom of her page and I found this video.

Relationships: refusing to settle. I watched this video and as she began to speak about being in relationships that you know you shouldn’t be in and I was... triggered!

As I was watching the video, I knew that God was speaking to me through the video and it was a word for me specifically and God was saying to me that I needed to come out of my relationship. But to be honest with you, I watched the video and I said nope, I am way too invested in my relationship and I’m just not coming out Fast-forward to the 27th of July, I went on a youth retreat with some members of my church. During the youth retreat, there were thoughts that kept on coming up in my mind telling me Ayo, God loves you. God loves you. And I couldn’t shake this thought away, it just was like a continuous...it was so continuous.

To be honest with you, it was quite overwhelming as well. So at random points during the retreat, I would burst into tears because I just couldn’t understand where this was coming from. On the final day of the retreat, which was the 29th of July 2018, a friend of mine saw that I was in a bit of a mood and he asked me what was wrong and I was kind of like nothing and he says no Ayo, what’s wrong?

I said nothing. He said Ayo, what’s wrong? After hesitating I finally opened up to him and told him that I was confused because I felt like God was telling me to come out of the relationship, that God was nudging me to come out of the relationship but I just had no idea how to do it.

Now, as I began to share that with him he said something so simple to me...He just said Ayo, I’m not going to tell you what to do but what I will say is don’t ignore what God is telling you to do. I got back home from the youth retreat around 6 p.m. and at this point something happened...I received a Whatsapp message from a friend who I hadn’t actually spoken to for a while. God is waiting for you to make your move. He’s ready to follow you with His grace. He is not there to lead you. You have asked your questions and He has given you the answers, now make your move He is with you. God has spoken to me and this is for you. I respond saying wow you’re really in tune with me, like seriously. 

He responded saying: God wanted you to know He loves you and He’s waiting for you to make your move. He’s held you back and you felt him because you needed to realign yourself and your purpose and your destiny. You are ready. Take your step and He will follow you and is there when you need Him. Now let’s just pause there for a second... When I got this message the timing of this message made me realize that this was nothing.. this just wasn’t a coincidence. So immediately, I knew that I had to end the relationship that day I understood that it was a matter of urgency. So I prayed to God and I asked for God to give me wisdom for how I was going to do it because I had absolutely no idea and I just didn’t have the words. Later that evening, I had a conversation with my boyfriend and the words that came out of my mouth were...I just need to be single. Once the relationship was officially over, I cried my eyes out. I cried with everything in me and I literally heard a voice within me an internal voice... like a thought in my mind which said it’s time to lean on me now.

Oh and guess what? The story doesn’t actually end there. The following day I found out that he was going to propose to me and I was like...It then dawned on me that God had specifically sent me a messenger because it wasn’t his plan for me to get married at that season and to that person. That’s not to say he is a bad person in any way, shape or form. Actually, he’s a really amazing guy, but if it’s not Gods plan then it’s not Gods plan and to be honest, let’s just pause there for a second. Because God saw the bigger picture God knew that he was gonna propose to me and let’s keep it real okay, if I had seen that ring yeah... Knowing that God had given me the red flags everything... if I had seen that ring?

What? I would’ve been gassed. I would have just been excited so obviously God knew the bigger picture so he was just like my daughter that is not my plan for you. Because to be honest, I had set my mind and I had said me and this man were gonna marry... By force by fire... me and this man were gonna marry!

I then came to realize that it just wasn’t Gods plan and on that day that’s where my real relationship with God began–on the 29th of July 2018. That meant me learning how to be whole in God. That meant me not making a man my god and so much more. So I started carving out time to intentionally get to know more about God and who He is. And just for your information, I have so much more content coming out for you in the next couple of weeks and I’ll show you what that actually looks like practically.

Were now in the second quarter of 2020 and it’s been just over two years of being a follower of Christ, a Christian. And to be honest with you, it’s been an emotional roller coaster. It’s been a very adventurous. There have definitely been ups and downs. Highs and lows. But here’s the thing... it’s been so fulfilling and I just wouldn’t trade it for anything. So that’s a high-level overview of my testimony and how I built a relationship with God and to be honest it’s a journey, it still continues. But the real tea, the real message in this story is submission to God!  That was the first step. I had to choose to submit to him. So to round up there are three key takeaways that I would like you to take away from my testimony, from my story.

Number one. God offered me the gift of singleness and me choosing to accept it birthed much fruit. I.e. a refined character and fulfillment in God.

Number two. Obedience to Gods call is the true definition of success.

Number three. God has my best interest at heart.