An Excellent Spirit.
This past week has been one of those weeks in which my spirit was craving for everything great! Greatness was so much in the air I could breathe it everywhere around me. Talk about the confirmation of the first black woman to become a Supreme Court Justice. Wow! I know the history books are currently back in the printing press for an urgent update. I had a chance to speak with so many people in my immigrant community and circle this week and at the front and center of my conversations was the fact that there seems to be a glass ceiling that immigrants need to break through. I have seen most of us do well, academically, socially and in entrepreneurial facets but there is a level of excellence that is still not common to us. Before you jump at me for this comment, just take an inventory of the African immigrants around you and ask yourself, how many of us are sitting and walking in our high places?
We are very hardworking people, committed and dedicated. Some of us have the best ideas in the world that should have catapulted us into global phenomena but yet, only a handful have been able to strike that mark. Yet, this mark is available and attainable for us all. Did I tell you how God deals with me? Anytime there is a wallowing in my thoughts, He will bring it into a visual effect and make it tangible for me. So I was perusing my Linkedin professional page and responding to some messages when I saw a post from Forbes about Tope Awotana, the Founder and CEO of Calendly, a Tech startup. I graciously use that software for scheduling my appointments but I had no idea it was my ‘homie’, a Nigerian immigrant based in Atlanta that started it. This company is now worth billions in just 10 years. I was reading about how he put all his savings (home and abroad) of about $200,000 into starting this business and now seeing what it has manifested into in just 10 years. It was humbling and I am so happy for him. His vision, his ideologies and goals and how he even runs this business is just remarkable. Check out his story on Forbes: Tope Awotana.
There are so many Tope Awotanas out there including myself and I cannot begin to tell you how important it is to ‘give it your all’ when you embark on any journey. A mediocre mindset will not make it across the global line. Small-mindedness is an evil spirit. It deprives you of your destiny and I can assure you that most of us African immigrants especially suffer from it. We like to play it safe or live in our hermitvilles. We desire greatness yet we shy away from the process. We start a business by halves and somehow still expect it to flourish. One of the things that was so profound about Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson was that everyone talked about how excellent and stellar her career has been. No one can contend with excellence or reject you based on that. If they do, then you know they are not excellent people.
I become very restless around mediocres. I set out at a very early age in life that wherever I find myself, even if it’s in the Amazonian forest, I will live it with an excellent mind and spirit. The older I get, the worse it becomes for me. I cannot engage with small-minded people and people who just want to do enough to get by. I will not sign my name to anything that is not ‘done right’. The bible did not leave us in darkness when it says that, “Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is, put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men”. Colossians 3:23 AMP. The God we serve and are emulating is a God of excellence. He is perfect so we need to strive for perfection in everything we do. When Apostle John tries to describe his vision of heaven in the book of revelations, I couldn’t even fathom in my human mind how perfect and glorious God is and so is His dwelling place.
There’s one person in the bible that I am so fixated on. I pray for his spirit into my spirit. DANIEL. “Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm”, Daniel 6:3 KJV. Daniel served under at least Four (4) Kings; Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus. Daniel, even though he lived, served and worked in an ungodly culture, surrounded by unbelievers and idol worshippers, still maintained an unflinching faith in God in spite of where he was. To be needed by Four (4) kings, you have to be extraordinary and the bible says he was so exceptional. He had wisdom and knowledge like none and he did everything with excellence. Only God can give you that spirit of excellence and I contend for it daily.
I am giving you the same charge I have given myself, my friends and my loved ones - do EVERYTHING in excellence. If you cannot give it your ALL, don’t even start it until you are able to. We have to impart this into our children and descendants. Watch how the heavens will respond to your pursuit for excellence. AMEN!
XOXO,
Lady Abena.
Declarations For April 2022!
Exactly One (1) year ago, I embarked on this journey of blogging out my thoughts on a weekly basis and I cannot believe that after Fifty-Two (52) blogs I still have a lot unsaid. Honestly, I don’t even look at the stats to see who’s reading or not but it was a blessing to hear from those who personally reached out to me to let me know how my weekly blogs have blessed them. I cannot thank you all enough for taking the time to read. Most importantly, I bless God that my quest for knowing Him more is also blessing someone who is desiring to encounter Him.
April 01 was my birthday and this past weekend I definitely felt a shift in my spirit. I can discern it’s a new season and while I don’t have all the details, I know God is moving in a way that I am not very familiar with. He is catapulting us into a new season of our lives and God being God, I do not know how He’s going to do it but I have learned in my walk with Him to try to not figure Him out. I just follow where He leads. He is definitely up to something. In His infinite grace, He confirmed it at least Two (2) times on Sunday for me. It was incredible! I selected some scriptures that have been resounding in my spirit all year. Not just that, so many trusted people in the faith have received these scriptures as well for me and on several occasions relayed it to me as a message God is laying on their hearts to share with me especially. In my day to day prayer encounters, I will come across these scriptures so yesterday, Sunday, I selected the same scriptures to use as a birthday offering at church. When I gave the envelope with the scriptures on it to the announcer, he smiled and said “that’s our first bible reading for today”, it’s the same scriptures. I said “well, we don’t need to repeat it” so I picked another one for him to read instead. Then in the evening I was driving back from dinner with my sister-friends. I turned on the radio and there was a song by CAIN called “Yes He Can”. Right at that moment, the voice-over to the song came on and it was the same scripture that was repeated twice already in the day. God truly has spoken once and I’ve heard it more than twice in the same day - that He is doing new things in our lives this season so declare ISAIAH 43:1-7, 18,19 AMP with me:
But now, this is what the Lord, your Creator says, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you [from captivity];
I have called you by name; you are Mine!
2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.
When you walk through fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
3 “For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I have given Egypt [to the Babylonians] as your ransom,
Cush (ancient Ethiopia) and Seba [its province] in exchange for you.
4 “Because you are precious in My sight,
You are honored and I love you,
I will give other men in return for you and other peoples in exchange for your life.
5 “Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east [where they are scattered],
And gather you from the west.
6 “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring My sons from far way
And My daughters from the ends of the earth,
7 Everyone who is called by My Name,
Whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”
18-19 “Do not remember the former things,
Or ponder the things of the past.“Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing,
Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it?
I will even put a road in the wilderness,Rivers in the desert.
I declare it is so and so it is in Jesus’ name. Enter your NEW this season. AMEN!
XOXO,
Lady Abena.
Old Wineskin
In Matthew 9:14-17 AMP, the disciples of John the Baptist had noticed that Jesus’ disciples were not doing the religious fasts and Jesus took the time to educate them on why His disciples didn’t fast. The 17th verse reads, “Nor is new wine put into old [b]wineskins [that have lost their elasticity]; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the [fermenting] wine spills and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, so both are preserved.” Jesus was alluding to the fact that He (Jesus Christ) was here to do something totally different and new so if they were trying to make sense of the NEW things that were happening, through a lens of old expectations and processes, then they were going to miss the wondrous things that were happening.
I’ve been ruminating over this scripture for the past week and making some personal analogies. If God is doing a NEW THING in our lives, then we cannot enter the NEW with our old self, mindsets and processes. The old has a way of corrupting the new. It dwindles your expectations and causes you to miss out on what God is doing. Imagine if you have experienced failure in an area of your life for a long time and suddenly the power of God comes in and the situation changes. With glee you jump into the new found success but if the old mindset that is used to failure is not renewed and transformed, you will be operating in a successful atmosphere with a failed mindset. It won’t be long before you fail again.
Are you stepping into your NEW with your old self or a transformed man?
XOXO
Lady Abena.