GOD, I NEED YOUR STRENGTH TO HELP ME _______

That’s the prayer I want us all saying today, asking Him to help us tackle any area of our life that is off track. Let me tell ya, He is excellent at that! As you get Him involved, He astonishingly shows up with His wisdom, direction, guidance, strength, and even the people we need to help us conquer any set of INTIMIDATING situations. GOD DEY!!! So, whatever that blank space represents to you, GET GOD INVOLVED!!!

After reading about depending on God in our weaknesses with my husband for an alone time with Him, fast forward less than an hour later, God confirmed this message through a beautiful soul, Rani, on Whatsapp:

“Let us not allow difficulties to make us think that God is absent or not interested in us. But rather they are themselves the perfect opportunity to recognize our dependence on God, and allow His strength to manifest in our weakness. Do not let problems get you down. Do not let moments of difficulty make you doubt all that God can do in your life. Not every day will be smooth sailing. Do not stop believing, God has great things for you. Your answer is on the way. Everything will work out in your favor. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy. (Psalm 33:18)”

With everything I have going on at the moment, this was a special wink from God letting me know that I can depend on His strength to help me in my weaknesses, and to relax, that everything will work out in my favor. Wink! Wink! This gives me the peace and confidence to tackle anything that shows up, knowing I have God as my faithful Back-up!

That’s why I loved my exercise time with God yesterday listening to Justin Bieber. I was reminded to go on strike from disappointments. To IMMEDIATELY shake them off and keep my eyes on God, who gives me so much more than I can ever ask or imagine. The people who hurt and disappoint me, I hand them over to God, practicing endless forgiveness. I loved something I read this week that said something like if you see someone commit a sin today, you can’t call him a sinner tomorrow because you don’t know if he repented overnight. Nobody’s perfect! Who are we to hold unforgiveness towards anyone, anyway?!? May God be the judge of us all.

Justin Bieber also reminded me that I’m to submit to God’s love, meaning every decision I look at from the perspective of, ‘God, what would you have me to do?’ I may want to say or do something crazy, and with one glance at God, I can submit myself to His will, not to the crazy lady who may want to make an appearance, being my most loving, forgiving, and excellent self, all for God’s glory.

I loved a chat with my sister-in-law, Aima, yesterday. It was a conversation with her that God used to change the trajectory of my daughters’ lives. God is too much!!! She said one little thing, and your girl here ran with it, and I’m forever grateful to her. Not only has Ember qualified for close to $120,000 in scholarship monies over 4 years, but the hard-working, focused, responsible, discipline, and confident young ladies they have become is priceless. Now the boys are following their lead, and I’m thrilled!!! That’s why I preach so much that everything is between God and us, He blesses in ways unimaginable. He multiplies our little into HUGE blessings when we stick with Him!!!

GOD, I NEED YOUR STRENGTH TO HELP ME _______

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IN THIS LIFE YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE!!!

Let me tell ya! But that’s where a strong relationship with God comes sweetly in (HUGE SMILE). The other morning, I woke up with highly anxious thoughts about my sons, my crazy mind was coming up with all sorts of madness. It’s a good thing that whenever these negative thoughts start to get the best of me, it’s my cue to stop and have an appointment with God. I looked at the time, and I took the number of minutes past the hour to go to that specific page on our family’s website, werollwithgod.com. Can you believe there was a picture of the boys and me together with the caption, “My Fight is God’s Fight.” It was just a special wink from God saying, ‘Nik, what’s the problem here? You know I’m your Partner in this parenting thing!” I smiled with Him, and the crazy thoughts went away!

Not only is God my Partner in parenting, He is my Partner in EVERYTHING! Oh my goodness! No matter the troubles, He shows up for me. I wrote a long post recently about how He is helping us to get our business back on track. He gives us the guidance in buying inventory, the wisdom as to what staff to hire, he sends us good customers, the solutions to problems that come up, the strategies on how to close sales, but most importantly the peace, courage, bravery, and boldness to take on a tough business KNOWING He is always with us. We do our best in the physical realm, trusting that God is at work in the spiritual realm on our behalf!

“’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.” – Zechariah 4:6

In my marriage, I’m more committed to my husband than ever before. God keeps telling me in my appointments with Him to focus on the good. It has finally sunk in! LOL! I told hubby this week that, next to God, nobody will treat us better than he treats us. His new name is “BEST HUSBAND.” All my falls last year were about God teaching me some valuable lessons about loving people the way He loves us: UNCONDITIONALLY. God was helping me to PRACTICE being more patient, faithful, loving, kind, gentler, and forgiving. Practice makes perfect, y’all! I see a softer Nikki emerging in all my relationships. And I’m so much happier for it!!!

And when the stresses and challenges come, God sweetly reminds me that He is my dependable back-up in this very troublesome world. I confiscated Joshie’s phone last night so that he could go and brush his teeth. I decided to open it up to see what God had to say to me in The Purpose Driven Life Devotional for Kids, and I opened directly to this after a

trouble-filled day:

“Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote,

God is there, ready to help;

 I’m fearless no matter what.

 Who or what can get to me?” – Hebrews 13:5-6

I’m Godfident, baby!

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13 

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“I PREFER READING YOUR BOOK”

That was surprisingly my son, Emmie, last night when I asked him what we should read for an appointment with God. To hear him say he preferred reading, ‘Keep Calm, You’re Rolling With God,’ made this mama super happy. He said because it’s real stories about my life TODAY with God that he relates to.

That’s the plan! That I share up to the very moment, current information about God that, hopefully, you can tap into and use to make your life INFINITELY BETTER (Wink! Wink!) KNOWING that God is our loving Partner who is always with us.

Like today, in my WhatsApp message to some groups in Africa, I shared a very small portion of my meditation book, Yes, Father:

“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? (Acts 9:6) Let us be prepared for hints, the calls, the whisperings of the Lord, with a spiritual clairvoyance, keenness of hearing and delicacy of feelings. Let us see in every moment and in what it brings the will of God and strive to accomplish it to the best of our knowledge and power. This is the greatest and most perfect thing we can do at any moment.”

I used my getting our business back on track as a way to explain how this little, yet deep and profound paragraph has helped transformed our operations:

It was a day we debated in the office whether to refresh some of the exterior signs to include the words, “In God we trust.” I’m this God maniac here, but I thought I might be going a little bit overboard by including it. But a new person, I had just hired said, “Let’s do it to honor God.” And we did! So all over that business, you will see those words, “In God we trust!”

But the real impact of those words came when that same person made a decision I didn’t so much agree with, and I said to him, “You were the one who said that we should put those words “in God we trust” on our signs. That means before every decision we have to ask, “Is this honoring God? Are we reflecting God in a positive way?”

I believe that honoring God has been the turnaround! I’m happy to report that that business that has been such a burden is on a profitable track again (Praise God!) because we’ve decided that we want to run it according to a standard where we aim to make Papa God proud. In every decision (not that we get it right all the time), we seek His will, ‘God, what would you have us to do here?’ and astonishingly, things are going better than expected. Yesterday, I had to give some reporting to my husband, and honestly, I was so proud, thanking God, who has been giving us the guidance needed to even run a successful business. God is too much!

But like the book said, “Let us be prepared for hints, the calls, the whisperings of the Lord, with a spiritual clairvoyance, keenness of hearing and delicacy of feelings.” For us, that means following our instincts and gut feelings.

Like yesterday, in purchasing new inventory, the selections that my husband picked out, I asked our manager for his input on them before buying. We have a thing where we go by our excitement level. Between a 0 and a 5, with 5 meaning extremely excited. Because I’ve learned that those feelings are God’s way of communicating with us (a delicacy of feelings). When we looked at a particular one, we felt feelings of doubt. I said, “Doubt means don’t!” But another vehicle we gave a 5 because we were excited about it and felt it was God’s way of saying, ‘Yes, this is a good one!’ Let me tell ya, God is an expert in everything, and He knows what we don’t know, so taking the time to pause and go to Him before buying has been extremely beneficial.

Another crucial aspect of this business has been problem-solving. Boy oh boy, a used car business has its challenges! Again, that has been where we wisely get God involved! I’ll never forget a time when a customer, paid us $20,000 for a vehicle. Can you believe two times, they sent someone to pick it up, and it refused to move? Oh my goodness, what do we do here? I was able to calm the customer down and asked them to be patient with us. The very next morning, God gave me specific instructions – the whisperings of the Lord – to take it to a nearby Mercedes Benz dealership. Just very strongly in my spirit, I felt him say it. Unbelievably, the technician detected that it was only a small little part costing $13 that was blocking the communication between the engine and the computer. We were able to fix it, and the vehicle was driven like 5 hours to the customers, no problem. Again, God is an expert in everything! He knew the problem was that $13 part, and even though we had some other places to take it for repairs, God said no, take it specifically here.

“Let us see in every moment and what it brings the will of God and strive to accomplish it to the best of our knowledge and power.” We have this motto that we do our best, and then we leave the rest with God. Our manager made me so happy when he said that a customer that purchased on Saturday was a deal sent by God. He just saw God’s hand in the entire transaction. From him and the customer having the same name. To them being from the same city and knew some people in common. To the customer saying he had to leave but ended up getting a phone and ended up staying. To them getting a first approval from the bank but the payment was too high to suddenly them getting an approval from another bank that was a much cheaper payment that the customer was happy with. He saw God’s hand all over the deal the way everything worked out.

Our call from God has just been to show up every day, give our best (dancing lightheartedly with God), and He will do the rest, including bringing us the best customers. Even the customers who owe us money, we see them faithfully coming in to pay us, no problem. The customers come in prepared with everything we need to get the deals funded by the banks. Like on a completely different level, we see customers show up, and it’s just been amazing watching God in action. DO YOUR BEST AND LEAVE THE REST WITH GOD!

There was a day I was feeling overwhelmed by everything, and I opened my meditation book, with this verse showing up:

“We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.” – Romans 8:28

I knew this was a wink from Him reminding me that He was indeed MY PARTNER in this business, and I should just BE STILL, RELAX and KNOW that He was taking control of the situations. Everything I was worried about that day ended up working out better than I had expected!

God is our Partner in every aspect of our lives! Is just for us to start learning His voice and what He would have us to do on a moment-by-moment basis, paying attention to those feelings and those whisperings from Him. Then putting into practice these words from Jesus, ‘Yet not my will, but Yours be done.’ Have your appointments with Him every day and make walking with God your priority! I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!

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THIS IS EMBARRASSING!!!

The amount of dust we cleaned out of our house today! But I love my relationship with God, who makes me feel so loved despite my faults and failings:

“Those who look to him are radiant, their faces are never covered with shame.” – Psalm 34:5

“I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” – Philippians 3:13

“He has taken our sins away from us as far as the east is from the west.” – Psalm 103:12

“I, I am the One who forgives all your sins, for my sake; I will not remember your sins.” Isaiah 43:25

And no matter our sins and failings, we can confidently keep our eyes fixed on God, knowing His love for us is unconditional and unfailing. Whatever the problem area, God can help us get everything back on track, little by little, and one step at a time, once we keep looking to Him for His guidance and direction. Even if we start at nothing, we can give Him our nothing, knowing He created the entire world from nothing. Our hope is in Him!

But these humiliating situations are great if we use them to reflect on where we are going wrong and ask how we can improve and work on being better. We’re not running from our weaknesses! I love that illustration about what happens if a child is running across the street and falls. Does the child stay there crying, or does the child pick themselves up and keep going? That’s our challenge that we keep picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, and keep moving confidently forward, HOLDING ON TO GOD’S HAND super tight, knowing He can give us more than we can ever ask or imagine (Wink! Wink!). Fall a million times, get up a million and one!

Make sure you have your appointments/alone times with Him asking Him to be your Guide and Helper to take on anything that comes your way and tackle any struggles you’re having. Pray and cry out to God! He loves getting involved!

I called to thank my brother, Kevin, for some great advice he gave me two years ago, and he asked, “Was it me, or God’s voice through me?” God is deeply involved in our lives; it is just for us to start seeking Him and paying attention to what He is saying to us. The more you practice listening to Him, the better you learn His voice through having experiences going the direction you feel He would have you to go. Then looking back to see how those decisions worked out. Like God’s direction through Kevin worked out extremely well! It has given me even more faith and confidence in God, knowing I’m not going through life alone, and He is directing my footsteps. Get God involved with every aspect of your life! Don’t make a move without seeking God first!

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GOD, THIS IS HARD!!! (REPOST)

That’s me lately with Him. This morning, I even had to fight back the tears. I went to have a little chat with my daughter, Julie, and said, “God is taking us out on a limb with Him.” Then, I got closer and whispered in her ears, “But that’s where the fruit is, out on the limb.” Less than a minute later, I look outside our kitchen window. Can you believe a bird was eating a guava (the fruit) on the limb of the tree, like three feet away from me?

And that right there was no coincident, it was another one of my God winks, when out of the blue everything lines up strangely too perfectly. For me to say those words to Julie and then come to see this bird eating this fruit on a limb less than a minute later, was all orchestrated perfectly and sweetly by God. His way of saying, ‘Nik, I don’t want you sad. Cheer up. I’m with you.’ And another reminder that His sweet Presence is always with me, and that He will also be with me, even as I climb out on this shaky, risky, and unsecured limb on a new adventure with Him. Phew!

How incredible is that? The Creator of the entire universe is thinking of me, and He doesn’t want me unhappy. That’s why when I wrote that He asked me to not to turn into the crazy lady, I said, “I’ll do anything for You.” “Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

So, I totally get it. This life with God is super challenging to follow through with at times, but we’re doing it for God. As we say an obedient, ‘Yes, Father,” He holds our hands as we bravely go out on the limb with Him to collect our fruit – success, victory happiness, joy, peace, triumph, accomplishment and every other good thing God has in store for us there. Wink! Wink!

So, as I wrote yesterday, no turning into the crazy lady this time, but being the calm, wise, loving, kind, loyal, gentle, disciplined, mature, and obedient to God Nik He would have me to be. Amen! This goes for you too! Let’s seek to please God in every moment as we live in His Presence, allowing the God standard of excellence be the ruling basis for all our decisions. Collect that fruit of victory, baby!

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YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY

I’M LIVING MY BEST LIFE WITH GOD

https://youtu.be/yPWRsDG2omQ

LIVE IN GOD, LIVE IN LOVE

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HEALTH MATTERS

DAY 71 OF 365 DAYS OF DISCIPLINE!

DISCIPLINE IN OUR THOUGHTS, TOO! We can choose what we think about! I’m taking all my negative ones to God to look at everything from His perspective. So even the negatives in my life, including those annoying thoughts, I’m allowing to pull me even closer to him! Sweet!

“LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE AND MEDICINE THY FOOD”

“NIK, I DON’T HAVE MONEY FOR YOU RIGHT NOW TO FINISH YOUR EDUCATION”

That was my single parent, super momma when I had high hopes of traveling from the Bahamas to the US to finish college. “You’re going to have to work and save up some money,” she continued. And your girl here did exactly that! Following in my mother’s footsteps, giving my best on my first real job, with her words constantly ringing in my head, “Even if you’re a street cleaner, be the best street cleaner!”

Fast forward a year later, my boss comes to my desk and says, “I want you to finish your education, but not at just any university. I want you to go to the same university my son went to in New York.” By the grace of God, I ended up going, and it was life-changing. I even worked at a top bank on Wall Street.

Some months ago, my daughter, Ember, calls me and says, “Mom, you know how you always talk about the university you went to in New York, and all the experience you got working there. Well, I want to go there, too.” Can you guys believe that not only did they accept my daughter yesterday, but they also gave her the President’s scholarship and some other ones totaling almost $30,000 per year?

“How great are his signs,_

how mighty his wonders!_

His kingdom is an eternal kingdom;_

his dominion endures from generation to generation.” – Daniel 4:3_

As I type this, I’m in Ember’s bedroom in Nigeria. Let me tell ya, my daughter spent many hours here staying up late studying, doing homework, and earning her respect, not only from us, her parents but, more importantly, from God. I instilled in her my belief that everything you do is between you and God, not between you and anyone else. When you give God your best, He gives you His best! My daughter ran with that, and she has been rewarded. All her hard work was not in vain.

She did 50 days of discipline challenge with me right before she and her sister left to finish high school in the US. She went as far as putting up a poster here with her number 3 objective: HAVE DAILY APPOINTMENTS WITH GOD.

Not a moment spent with God has been wasted! I am so proud of her! I say to her that God knew why He sent her to us first! She has been an excellent role model for the other kids to follow.

Moral:  Don’t play around with your relationship with God. Do everything as if you are working for God, not humans! Ember told me that she is on a streak with God reading the Purpose Driven Life Devotional for Kids by Rick Warren. I’m thrilled because even the God maniac here learns a lot from that book! Seek God and make Him your priority! He doesn’t disappoint!!! Do your best and leave the rest with Him! What time are your appointments with Him? Then, start seeking Him in the 1,000 decisions you make every day to help you make the best decisions for your life!

“Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!” – Psalm 34:8

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“NIK, LET’S HAVE THAT FISH FOR DINNER THAT EMMIE LIKES”

That was my hubby this morning, making me so happy! Such love he shows us! I’m honestly enjoying the Emmanuels (husband and sons) here in Nigeria, despite feeling sick for the past few days. It’s like God knew I needed this little downtime to wake me up to all the beauty in my life. He has guided me on a very gorgeous path thanks to me continually asking this one question: ‘GOD, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME TO DO HERE?’

It wasn’t always easy, especially when the crazy lady wanted to come out, but with one glance at Him, I knew what He would have for me to say, where to go, what to think, and what to do. And because of the great love I receive from Him, I respond, ‘Anything for You!’ Staying on the high road with Him, going the extra mile in love and forgiveness has paid off. God’s ways are nothing like our human ways, they’re so much better!

I want us all continually going to Him in the 1,000 decisions we make every day, asking God to be our Partner. No area is off-limits for Him, He is an expert in everything! And He loves getting involved in our lives!

Last year, I wrote how I would always call my brother, Kevin, for advice, but this year, I feel God saying, ‘I want you coming to Me, Nik.’ Kevin has been my crutch to lean on, and in my spirit, AGAIN I feel God saying I should lean on Him. He’s my strength!

I know that it sounds hard to believe that the Creator of the entire universe wants to be a part of our lives, but He does. This love I’m experiencing from Him is nothing like you will ever get in this world. He has to be our first love and priority, and we should make our decisions from there, going through life resting on His heart (this life is rough!) and seeking to please Him.

This is the way He guides us on the best paths for our lives. He knows the future, and He knows the ultimate best direction we should take for every aspect of our lives. It’s just up to us to invite Him in and start seeking His help. ‘GOD, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME TO DO HERE’ Then start listening to Him in your thoughts. You’ll begin to know His thoughts and impressions versus your own. Also, through our feelings, He communicates with us. Like if you think about going in a certain direction and you don’t feel peace, excited or happy and instead feel doubtful, nervous or paranoid, that’s God saying to rethink that decision. You’ll begin following that KNOWING that isn’t explainable, you just know this is the way to go. Call it gut or instincts, but you’ll just KNOW this is what God would have you to do.

That KNOWING has helped me to make some pretty major decisions, and I don’t regret any of them. Like marrying this husband after knowing him for only 5 months. That was 19 years ago! Even when I didn’t know it was God, I can now look back and connect all the dots and know it was His loving hands guiding me all along. Don’t miss out! Make God your life Partner!!!

“LORD your love reaches to the heavens, your loyalty to the skies” – Psalm 36:5

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