How do I trust God through the process?

Around 10:30 am a sudden thought popped into my mind. A young woman’s guide to seeking God– that’s the name of the book I want you to write.  Pardon me? He said what? Well yep just like that... that was how God gave me the vision for my first self-published book one year into becoming a Christian and being an active follower of Christ. Listen, if you are wondering how do I trust God through the process whatever that may look like for you; and trusting in God through the process is the very thing that you know that you need to do? 

Then please let my testimony of becoming a Christian faith author and trusting God through the process, even when I did not want to please let this encourage you. So before we dive in this channel exists to share practical tips that will empower you  a teen girl or young woman to live your best life in Christ.

I love doing that... and much more engaging lifestyle content. So please do subscribe and hit the bell to be notified whenever we post the video here on this channel, which is every single Tuesday. Okay so let me take you on a journey. On the 31st of December 2017, I gave my life to Christ. Being new in the faith, I finally decided that I was going to actually take my walk with God seriously and intentionally strive to no longer be a lukewarm Christian. I made this decision but I had no real or visible idea of what God was calling me to step into–that’s what I’d say. All I knew within me was he was calling me to immerse myself in this new relationship with Him and I knew that he was calling me what he was calling me into was challenging but I knew it was a far better way of living. Between November 2018 to December 2018 I got divine inspiration. I would get these analogies and stories relating to my walk with God come to my mind and there was an internal nudge telling me to document it and write it all down.

There were times where I wanted to ignore these thoughts in all honesty but each time I tried to ignore–because I simply just couldn’t be bothered to journal the thoughts that were coming to my mind and these ideas– a sense of urgency would take over prompting me to please document the headings and these topics or else Id forget. It was kind of like a matter of urgency. The 7th of January 2019, a day to remember. I woke up around 10 am somewhat disappointed at myself because I hadn’t woken up at 4am or 5am like I had anticipated in order to spend time with God So there I was somewhat beating myself up telling God how sorry I was for not sticking to my end of the bargain and I was just there lying flat on my back with my arms by my side lost in my thoughts. Around 10 30 am a sudden thought popped into my mind: A young woman’s guide to seeking God that’s the name of the book I want you to write and all those ideas and concepts and stories you’ve been writing down in that folder for the past two months yeah those are the chapters of the book.

Pardon me? He said what??  well yep just like that– that was how God gave me the vision for my first self-published book one year into becoming a Christian and being an active follower of Christ. Five minutes after I was given the vision, I got out of bed and I moved to the other side of my room which is what i call my home office which is right over there and I began fleshing out these ideas that I now knew to be chapter one of this book that I was about to write. An hour or so into writing, I paused to look at my calendar and I decided to check what day of the week that my birthday was going to fall on and I saw that it was a Sunday. Sunday the 18th of August. As I looked at my calendar, I said out of this book on Sunday the 18th of August 2019 and dedicate this book to you on stage at the very place I dedicated my life to you– at church. I then closed my eyes to say a prayer and essentially ask God for his desired will to be done.

I then proceeded to put a plan together for how I was actually going to take action and write this book Because faith without action is dead, right?

So to pause here and to provide some context, I gave myself five months to complete writing January to May 2019 and decided that I’d try not to worry about the editor, front cover design, promotion etc. I’d do that later on. Getting the content right and being led by God through you know throughout the writing process was my biggest priority and I really wanted to be intentional about not getting that wrong. I also briefly shared the vision with about three people to hold me accountable and um so yes it wasn’t public knowledge Let’s continue with the story.

Okay, so about two to three days um into embarking into this new journey a sudden wave of fear took over and I suddenly had this epiphany of the magnitude of what I was doing. A book? Me? Ayodele Omobolanle Awotona writing a whole book? I’m not even an avid reader like that so who am I to write a book? I thought... then I started to wonder and think: Nah maybe I didn’t hear God right you know and it’s fair to say at that point the battle in my mind began. I felt so unqualified. Some days the noise of self-doubt was really loud. Other days, I fought through those negative thoughts through journaling to God, reading the Bible and reading bible devotions, praying to God to give me strength and reminding myself why I was doing this. For me, I constantly had to remind myself that by being obedient and writing this book, I am leading people to the way of God and he will reward me for that.

I literally had a note to self-written down saying it’s not about you Ayo, but rather God. His glory, his plan his will. Whenever I was down and like you know demotivated, I had it written down in my journal that this book serves as a you know a relatable solution for this generation and generations to come to seek God. This book enables Gods will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. For us to enter into the kingdom of God you know. This book um serves almost like a pointer for them to start studying their own Bible. So that was how I was able to keep on going. I just held on like it wasn’t an accident. So May 2019, I needed to find an editor.

I was coming towards the end of the first draft of the book and realized it was time to find and reach out to an editor. That journey in and of itself was very interesting and I battled with whether or not we would actually be able to do things required in the short amount of time. Some of these things were things um like intensive editing, proofreading, typesetting, design and printing and as you may be able to imagine the attacks on my mind at this time were very intense. 

As the big day was fast approaching, it became more and more real to me that God had called me to do something that was way outside of my comfort zone and I broke down many times for different reasons and I was incapable of conquering through in all honesty with my human strength. Let me tell you, it was the supernatural juice of God that was the wisest strength for me to lean on. So in that moment, I just had to trust that God was the one in control and by god’s grace end of May/early June I found a Christian editor and things took off.

18th of August 2019, the big day. The big day that I had been anticipating came and I was set to dedicate this book at church. It was also my birthday and I mean, what a blessing? And by the way just the plug real quick the release date of this video is also my birthday. So back to the 18th of August 2019 um I’m not quite sure if I can articulate in words how special that day was, but it’s a day I can literally never by God’s grace forget and I was only able to see this day by going through the process. 

The big testimony in all of this is in my mind, I wasn’t particularly qualified to write a book specially one founded on leading people closer to God and through all of this the challenges the trials disappointments etc. a countless number of lives are being transformed all because of my obedience to take action in manifesting Gods desired will here on earth.

So if we go back to the title of this video which is, how do I trust God through the process, we have to hold on to the truth that Gods plans are the best plans despite the obstacles and this is the message for myself... and we have to remind ourselves of the why. I must also mention that we can’t have Gods will without God. So to round-up here, here are three key takeaways from this testimony and trusting God through the process of birthing a book. Oh before I share actually, your current process could be similar to mine or very different. For you, it could be the process of emerging into a new career maybe, developing a new relationship, healing from past hurt, recovering or going through an illness,

maybe developing your character, becoming a new mom, becoming a godly wife and so on.. So let these key takeaways encourage you by God’s grace. Number one: learning to trust Gods supernatural strength outweighs attempting to rely on our own inadequacies. Number two: the will of God will never take us where the grace of God cannot protect us.

Number three: growth comes from persevering through the process. God is there to guide us through the process even in the dark times. Next week by Gods special grace, will be somewhat of a continuation of this video here well touch on stormy seasons and trusting God in the midst of the storms of life. I’ll be taking you like more behind the scenes of the official book launch party that took place so please do stay plugged in for that.