HOW DID YOU KNOW THIS STUFF, MAN?!?

That was me to my brother, Kevin, today. He sent me this voice note over two years ago concerning my runs every day to my God tree:

“I don’t know if it gives you strength. I think it gives you wisdom. It gives you time to think, to plan, to focus. You are in a war; you realize that right? Any problem that you have is a war. So, you need to strategize, and I think your runs give you clarity in everything. Keep running. Trust me when I tell you this, I think that is the key.”

Oh my goodness, these runs blow me away with how God Himself shows up to speak to me about every aspect of my life. A few Saturdays ago, under the tree, God brought to my attention how my son, Emmie was only a few points short of achieving all A’s last school year. That day he and his brother came to the office, and they sat in a car pretending to clean it, while on their phone I thought about their current grades compared to the ones they were getting last year, and momma bear went crazy! I took away their PS4 that very weekend saying they broke our agreement that they could play on weekends only if they kept their grades up. Grades going down, NO PS4!

The next day they both revolted on me, refusing to cooperate with my insisting that they work on their school assignments. Let me tell ya, I was in my little home office, and God showed up. I felt Him saying in my Spirit to get their dad involved, who is in Nigeria. I begged my hubby to please stick with me and have a talk with them with me. Honestly, as soon as both heard their father’s voice, they immediately started crying. Next thing I knew, about 30 minutes later, Emmie came to my office door saying, “Mommy, you are right, I’m going to start aiming back for all A’s.” Then, I started crying and hugging him! That was a few weeks ago, and I’m happy to report that both of my sons are back on the honor roll track! Praise God!

I was at Emmie’s school last night watching his Christmas concert, where he played in the orchestra, and I was so happy. Our plans were to be back in Nigeria with hubby and boys going to school there, but God’s plans were for us to be here. How do I know this? I always tell you guys how when I see 117 or 711 they are God’s reminders that He is with us. Can you believe Emmie’s student number includes 7117 and Joshies’ 711? I’m even fighting with my daughter, who wants to change universities. I told her no way because that’s where God wants her. Can you believe there are two huge 117 signs at the entrance of her university?

That’s the love I receive from God where I can have the peace that passes all understanding, knowing He is always with me AND MY FAMILY, y’all. The runs to the tree are just like Kevin said, I get God’s direction and clarity on my life. When I’m away from the tree, I pay attention to His voice which gets more evident every day, and what He would have me do every moment. See how that direction from Him to involve hubs got the boys back on track. I was on the phone today with Emmie crying happy tears, thanking him for being such an important influence on Joshie and me. Some mornings I don’t want to wake up, but I hear him getting up precisely on time to take his shower and get dressed, and then that’s my motivation to get up and fight with Joshie to get him up.

God even had the sweetest thing to say to be about those days when I struggle to get out of bed:

“So be glad on those days when you can barely get out of bed—when you feel sluggish and just not ready to face the world. Yes, be glad! Tell yourself that this is the perfect day to practice trusting and depending on Me. If you keep depending on me throughout your day, you will make a wonderful discovery as you crawl into bed at night. You will discover that My Joy and peace have become your companions. You may not know exactly when they joined you on your journey through the day. But you will feel the benefits of having been in their company.” – Jesus Calling Devotional For Kids

What time are your appointments with God? I take time under my God tree to reread old blogs and my meditation books, and he always figures out some way to let me know that His invisible Presence is with me. Come as you are to Him as He loves us all unconditionally and accepts us exactly where we are. He just helps us get better when we give Him time and space in our lives. Don’t miss out on His love and direction! He always knows best!

GOD SHOWS UP AGAIN ON MY DRIVE TO WORK

The love and attention God shows me truly blow me away! I told you guys how Ceri speaks clearly to me from God, but this week I teamed up with another messenger from Him who asked me if I would share the messages from him to you guys (we will call him Ricard!). I said it would be my honor and pleasure because he has genuinely helped me to be better – “He who walks with wise men will be wise.”

So, day before yesterday, Richard says to me (I paraphrase here), “Nikki, I want you to go to the beach and baptize yourself. WHEN YOU COME UP FROM THAT WATER, I WANT YOU BE A NEW PERSON.” I told him I would make time to do exactly that because I’m in need of a complete refresh and reboot of my life. I would take that opportunity to recommit my life even more to God, asking His help in me being the person He would have me to be, leaving my old self behind.

Fast forward to today, I’m back stalking Ceri in the app where he has all these recorded messages where he shares Bible messages and his take on how they relate to our lives now. Today I freaked out again when Ceri said this:

“Forget about your past. Don’t keep dwelling on it. Your past is your past and you can’t change but the one thing you can change is your future. And the way you change your future is by the steps you make today… When I got baptized last year, the words the Pastor told me always stuck and will stick with me for the rest of my life: “WHEN YOU GO UNDERNEATH THIS WATER AND COME BACK UP, YOU’RE A NEW PERSON (Wink! Wink!).” And I’ve been living like that, and everyone deserves that chance. Everyone deserves that opportunity because God gave it to me.”

Wow! This was another one of my famous God winks where everything lined up extremely too perfectly to be some ordinary coincidence. I kept scrolling all the way back to almost a year ago, passing over a good number of them, to hear Ceri repeat those very words from Richard spoken to me two days ago. Let me tell ya, our God is pretty talkative, and can’t get over how He knows everything about us, even every word spoken by Ceri in those recordings. It was God Himself saying, ‘Nik, I need you to hear those words from Ceri today!!! Wow!

Honestly, though, that conversation with Richard was on a day where I was extremely overwhelmed by things I needed to do, but I felt God saying to me in my spirit, ‘Nik, take this time and talk to him.” Only to confirm to both of these people that I definitely hear God’s voice through both of them. I’m not crazy, y’all!

The message from Ceri was 11 months ago, but such an important message for us all today:

So I want to read from the book of Isaiah 43:18-19, and it says,

“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

This verse are very impactful because God reminds us of a few things. Like forget the former things… basically forget about your past. He tells us to don’t dwell on it. Don’t keep reminding yourself of your past. Like your past is your past, and you can’t change but the one thing you can change in life is your future. And the way that you change your future is by the steps that you make today. The decisions that you make today is what can determine your tomorrow…

Everyone deserves a second chance but the reality is all of us have a past. There’s not one person sitting on the stage, there’s not one person walking this planet who has done everything in their life what’s right in God’s eyesight. None of us. Every single one of us falls short of the glory of God. So, who are we to go there and and comment on somebody for their past or things that they’ve done? Who are we to try to make a decision on how their futures is or what they will be in life? That decision don’t rest with us and don’t rest good with me when people try to do it.
Because imagine if I had sit back and allow people to tell me who I was going to be. Imagine if I had sat back and accepted that I couldn’t forgive myself for the things that I did. It took me a long time – it took me meeting all of y’all in here and tell me boy get over it – forgive yourself. Move on. God has renewed you and restored you. When I got baptized last year, the words the Pastor told me always stuck and will stick with me for the rest of my life: “WHEN YOU GO UNDERNEATH THIS WATER AND COME BACK UP, YOU’RE A NEW PERSON. And I’ve been living like that. Everyone deserves that chance. Everyone deserves that opportunity because God gave it to me.”

God, help us all forgive ourselves and others for the past and to keep moving forward with You as our Life Partner and Guide, forgetting the former things and being excited about the NEW lives you have planned for us. Amen!

GOD HIMSELF IS PERSONALLY INVOLVED IN OUR LIVES

That’s the great news I want to share with you guys! I tell you how He shows up for me so that, hopefully, you can feel His invisible Presence with you, too. Like, no shame, I have lots of pressure on me right now, and I go looking to hear messages from God through my God influencer, Ceri. Yesterday driving to work, I prayed, ‘God, I really need to hear from You right now!!!’ And He didnt disappoint!

An hour before this prayer, I read Joel Osteens emailed message for the day saying this:

““For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David, I will defend this city and protect it.” 2 Kings 19:34, NLT

This Can Be Your Legacy

Nikki, in 2 Kings 19, King Hezekiah, one of David’s descendants, was on the throne in Judah. The powerful Assyrian army was about to attack Jerusalem, and Hezekiah didn’t stand a chance. But when he prayed and asked God to help them, that very night an angel destroyed 185,000 in the Assyrian camp, and the Assyrian king went home.”

So, on that drive, I scrolled through the app where Ceri records almost daily his take on some scriptures and how they relate to our lives today. I was there scrolling, scrolling, scrolling asking God to pick the message he wanted me to listen to, and the very one I stopped on was Ceri speaking on this 2 Kings 19 about the time King Hezekiah prayed to God for help and God sent an angel to destroy 185,000 troops of the opposing army. Honestly, I freaked out listening to him speak because this was no coincidence that of all the messages I could scroll past, for me to land on that very story again, like an hour later, was again everything lining up too perfectly to be an ordinary coincidence. It’s a message to us all today: GOD HIMSELF WHO HEARD THE PRAYER OF HEZEKIAH, IS THE SAME GOD WHO HEARS OUR PRAYER TODAY.

Look at me praying in that car, feeling so overwhelmed what’s on me right now, and for God to show up and say, ‘Nik, I’m right here with you.’ And that’s the peace you cannot buy! Knowing that God Himself would go to such great lengths to make us aware of His invisible Presence with us. That message from Ceri was recorded 6 months ago, and God used it to reveal His Presence with me yesterday.

So, about all those pressures on your girl right now, I know I’m not handling them alone and they were ALL designed by God to make me stronger. I KNOW have God Himself with me, and by HIS STRENGTH, everything will be handled. It’s just for me to show up in every moment, seeking to do my utmost best by feeling in my Spirit what God would have me to do, and I leave the rest with Him to handle in the spiritual realm! We are not going by the ordinary rules!

Even down to coolant for a vehicle I was selling today, God had the customer’s friend bring out the particular coolant I needed from his car. What blew me away was that I was looking for it in our garage and praying to God for his help on what to do as the customer was just about to leave, and the friend said, “I have the very specific coolant for that car in my vehicle.” He brought out an opened bottle of it! It was again God saying, ‘Nik, Relax, I got you.’ Wink! Wink!

And He got all of us. BRING ALL YOUR CONCERNS TO HIM- THE BIG AND SMALL STUFF! Then, remember that we have His strength, favor, love, approval, support, personality, and wisdom in every moment. Are you learning His voice when you make decisions? With practice, you will learn that deep-down feeling where you know it’s God directing you. Also, I feel Ceri’s message about God resonates with me as to the person God would have me to be. That’s why I stalk him because His Godly influence about loving God and loving others is helping me make some crucial decisions on behalf of my family. I love how my beloved calendar (Mottos for Success) puts it:

“A team player thinks of his teammates whenever he makes a move, and he makes decisions according to what is better for the team, not just himself.”

“Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also the interests of others.” – Philippians 2:4

GOD SHOWS UP IN THE CAR WITH MY SONS TODAY

So, dropping them off at school is one job I can’t delegate to anyone. This morning, Joshie was upset that he needed a NEW BATTERY for his cell phone, and I was giving him a hard time about replacing it (tough-loving momma here!). This is our sacred time where we have our appointments with God reading from their kid’s devotionals, calling my husband in Nigeria, who prays with us, and we also listen to our God influencer, Ceri. Can you believe God used that situation to reveal His presence there with us, when of all things for Joshie to read out of 365 daily devotionals, this randomly showed up:

“But I (God) have much better gifts for you. Gifts of supernatural proportions! They are My Presence and My Peace. These gifts never get holes in them. They never need NEW BATTERIES (Wink! Wink!). And they never go out of style.” – Jesus Calling Devotional For Kids

That “NEW BATTERIES” showing up there within a minute of us discussing getting a new battery for Joshie’s phone was all lining up extremely too perfectly to be some random coincidence. IT WAS GOD HIMSELF MAKING US AWARE OF HIS INVISIBLE PRESENCE THAT IS ALWAYS WITH US.

Yesterday, I was again blown away by how God showed up in my little home office. I love listening to Rich Roll’s podcasts, and that morning I stayed in bed for the longest time enjoying his interview with Dan Buettner. So fast forward to that afternoon and sitting down and waiting for my laptop to boot up, I opened Rich Roll’s book called Voices of Change, and of all pages, I directly went to his essay about, of all his guests, Dan Buettner. God Himself was just there saying, “NIK, I AM WITH YOU! I AM WITH YOU! I AM WITH YOU!”

Out of a book of like 300 pages, THIS AGAIN WAS NO COINCIDENCE. God had me go directly there just to remind me of His Presence with me. I want us all focused on this awareness of His Presence so that we can have the peace the book Jesus Calling spoke about with the boys. THAT THERE IS NEVER ONE MOMENT WHEN GOD IS NOT WITH US. Not only is He with us, He is there to support and help us once we welcome Him to be a part of our lives. I loved this message from Ceri today:

“That is one of the most important things with your relationship with God to understand. That you are made perfectly. You are perfectly and wonderfully made. God has made you in his creation. He has made you. You are not flawed, you’re flawless. You don’t have disabilities you have God’s ability. He is in you. He’s around you (even in my little home office!) and everything that you do, when you don’t have the confidence to do it just remember what he told Moses: “I will instruct you what to say.” And meaning that if you were supposed to say it, and it was supposed to come out of your mouth, what you ain’t had nothing to do with the creation of, He is going to help you along with it.”

This reminds me of one of the toughest situations I ever had to handle. I held on to God’s hands super tight, spoke what I felt God would have me to say, and then I was silent when I felt it was time to stop speaking. Everything went way better than I had expected! God stood strong with me! My new challenge, however, is to take that moment into my entire life. Just walking step by step with the Holy Spirit (God’s voice) and asking continually what God would have me to say, where to go and what to do.

I want this rolling with God to become the lifestyle of the entire world where we are all focused on God’s leading and His direction. He knows everything, and He always knows best in every situation. Honestly, knowing that I don’t have to handle my life alone and that I have God with me in every circumstance, every relationship, and every decision, makes me extremely happy and at peace. Do yourself a favor, and tap into God’s strength, wisdom, and abilities! Tell Him you want to roll with Him in every moment! I say there is no more me, only WE – me and God, as I tackle every moment of my life BRAVELY with Him by my side!

THE PUNCHES GET HARDER AND HARDER TO TAKE

I tell God NOT to go easy on me because I want to learn the harsh lessons He would have me learn and pass them on to you guys. And let me tell ya, the most important one: DON’T PLAY AROUND WITH YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD; WE NEED HIM!!!

Today, I called my sweetie pie sister, Verona, to thank her for what she taught me one day: “You take your whippings, and you keep it skipping!” I now add in: “Joyously, peacefully, and courageously skipping knowing God Himself is with you all the way!”

God found a sweet way to reveal Himself to me today through Verona! She said, “Nik, I don’t hear you talk any more about working on your next book…I want you to SHINE BRIGHT.” I told her about a God wink this week where the song ‘Shine Bright Like a Diamond’ was playing on the radio one morning. I then went to a mechanic shop, and the alarm for my appointment with God went off at noon. I looked around for a number and went to that number’s page on our family’s website. There was a video of me from 2 years ago playing that exact song. I went as far as to tell her that I was even wearing a bracelet that says, ‘Shine Bright like a Diamond!’

A few minutes later, I go to my God tree and stop to see what He has to say. I picked a random page number, and look what incredibly showed up minutes after telling Verona about this bracelet:

‘Then, a week ago, I purchased a wristband from this store saying, “SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND.” Fast forward to today, I’m searching for a message from God through my YouTuber Stargirl, who always has special messages from God for me. I ended up listening to a prediction for my zodiac sign, and look what Stargirl says to me:

“Spirit (God) is showing me you are becoming your dream self. You are starting to look and act like the person you have always wanted to be. You are SHINING LIKE A DIAMOND (Wink! Wink!) more than ever…”

In this huge store, for me to pick this specific bracelet out of hundreds, there, was just the set-up from God to this beautiful wink from Him.”

THAT WAS NO COINCIDENCE!!! For me to tell Verona about this bracelet I wear every day and minutes later for the story to show up under my God tree was again everything lining up extremely too perfectly. That was AGAIN God revealing His invisible Presence with me (and you!) under that tree! So know with all your heart that God’s Presence is ALWAYS with us. I ended up having THE BEST DAY WITH MY SONS feeling so thrilled that God would reveal His Presence with me. We went to an open-air market, and I found a DJ playing music, and your girl had the best time dancing. I was happy that my sons got to see me happy. (HUGE SMILE)

Those punches I take may knock me down for a little bit, but by the grace of God, I keep getting back up and I KEEP MOVING FORWARD, closer to God. They’re good for me as I needed them to push me closer to God’s heart, where He is helping me to become wiser, bolder, and more confident in Him.

He also told me under that tree that I should let Him be the one to love me and to stop looking for love and approval from others. Yes, Boss! Verona, I’ll continue to take my whippings and keep it skipping, rising again whenever necessary, not by my own strength, though, by God’s grace and mercy on my life where I know that He is by my side through everything that comes my way:

“I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH”

But the crazy part is that the punches are not only making me stronger but also softer as I look to God in every moment, asking what He would have me do. If He says, ‘Nik, I need you to take the punches and keep silent, I do that, pretending I don’t see what I see or hear what I hear, going the extra mile in gentleness, patience, love, humility, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, all for the glory of God. Anything God asks of me, I reply, ‘Yes, Sir!” My prayer is that we all come to learn His voice as we make rolling with God a lifestyle where we are living our best lives with Him, following His leading in every decision.

And don’t think you have to be all perfect to roll with God, either. Kevin joked that he doesn’t know anyone who cusses more than me and will take me to church to wash my mouth with Holy Water. LOL! God loves us all UNCONDITIONALLY!!! Make your relationship with Him a priority! We need His wisdom, strength, guidance, help, love, favor, and support to live our best lives with Him as He lovingly guides us on the best paths.