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What I learned in 2023

I turned 50 in 2023! That brought a mixed bag of goodies and booby prizes.

Emotionally and mentally 2023 felt like my healthiest year ever! No exaggeration. A decade of steady self-work coupled with 4 years of work that my wife and I put into our marriage began to bear massive fruit last year. Covid was an accelerator in that it afforded me unforeseen levels of quality time with God that boosted my relationship with Him 10fold. It also accelerated (forced) the bonding between me, wifey, and our children as we spent months together working and learning from home. While I am saying that Covid helped and we put in the work, I cannot overstate the fact that God was the heavy-lifter here. Only He could do the amazing things in the hearts of our family members that caused us to knit together and only He could use a pandemic for our good! Mind you, it did not feel so rosy when these two families from St. Joseph and Paramin first moved in together! It was pressure but in 2023 the diamonds began to emerge.

Added to that, after being in one department for the past 18 years, a switch to a new area in late 2022, brought a breath of fresh air into my career as well. So with my wife and I being in a good place, the children excelling, the career taking on renewed life, and being involved in the fulfilling work with my wife of creating communities of love and belonging for Christians to grow, 2023 just felt like I was thriving.

While it’s nice to share celebratory reports, that’s not the main purpose of today’s blog. There were two key lessons that I learned in 2023 that I felt led to share with you.

Physical Health

2023 was my worst year ever for my physical health! Here the pandemic was not helpful at all! In 2023 I felt feeble (there I said it). Weight gained during the lockdown seemed to refuse to come off. In fact, I gained more! Injuries seemed to be taking forever to heal and for the first time, I considered that I may never be able to play football (soccer) or surf again. I had a fatty liver, high cholesterol, some kind of mystery dizziness, and shortness of breath. Things just seemed to be going from bad to worse. “Is this 50?” I asked myself.

BUT I discovered something coming down to the end…. I will never lose weight or stay fit doing activities that I do not like to do. I tried for the whole of 2023 to stay fit by walking and home workouts. I can get more out of group workouts but inevitably people workout to music that I don’t want in my head. So that’s a no-go. But last month I played football for the second time since before Covid and while I almost died, by the next day I literally felt my whole body become stronger. Overnight! Then I played again twice last week and the dizziness and shortness of breath are gone. So what I realized is that I need to do intense cardio activities and that’s only going to happen by doing things I love to do.

So in 2024, I will be making time for football and mountain biking. I realize that it is imperative that I have intense cardio workouts. Walking and home workouts are not enough for me to stay fit. I will be prioritizing this over work and ministry.

Folks, I know we always talk about prioritizing our health but I’m encouraging you again, especially my fellow pastors and professionals, the work is not more important… the seminar, church service, or feeding the poor programme is not more important. Also, take the time to know your own body and what works for you. Do what you love, it’s far more sustainable!

Relationships

God had me focusing on relationship-building for all of 2023. Mainly with my close and extended family and I learned something invaluable: God’s grace flows through our connections with people. The word that was the icon of what God was after in my life was CONNECTION.

It involved me having discussions with my mother about things that happened in the family when I was a child and not dismissing her perspectives so quickly. It involved me apologizing to my boss about the way I gave him some feedback, taking the time to explain my heart’s motive, and assuring him that I was for him not against him. It involved me building bridges with coworkers by genuinely finding and celebrating their strengths and offering tangible assistance in achieving their goals. It involved trying to understand my sister better and building bridges instead of taking offense. It involved being quicker to remove any distance between my wife and me. It involved taking a softer tone with my ex-wife. It involved walking in my children’s shoes a little more.

The result was that I saw God’s grace at work in my family and workplace more than ever. It crystallized something very clearly for me. God is not doing something over here and we are doing relationships over there. The vehicle for God’s grace to flow is the love connections between each other. The stronger the connection, the more of God’s grace can flow in our lives. If I want to see revival in my family, I have to build stronger bonds with my family members. If I want to see revival in my workplace, I have to build deeper relationships with my coworkers.

There is a depth of relationship with each other, a purity of love and affection, that God has intended for us that I do not think we fully grasp as Christians. I don’t think we have any grid for just how amazing and glorious it will look to live in unity. Nor do we understand just how much work it will take to get there. I am fully convinced that God is not interested in our programmes, seminars, conferences, and meetings apart from a foundation of building deeper relationships. So this year less is more. I’m cutting back even further on the ‘conversations’ that are just empty intellectual foreplay without any heart communion. I’m ditching even more of the online groups and social media where people share a whole lot of opinions and so little of themselves. I’m going deeper with fewer.

Here’s an added epiphany that I had: God does not need my help to fix people. I saw two people in my life begin to change and address things that I saw they needed to address for years. I dropped hints, I gave gentle advice, I shared relevant information and I obsessed about whether I was doing enough. But in His own timing, God showed them what they needed to see. Neither said that I had any role in their epiphanies. God was doing something in their lives. I laughed at myself. God doesn’t need my help. Well, I’m sure He uses my love and my prayers but beyond that…

So my second encouragement to you is to prioritize a few significant relationships this year and really work on them. Don’t try to be a better person in a general sense. Try to be a better mother to a specific child, a better friend to X, a better husband to your wife… But most importantly, do it from the point of view of just trying to build a stronger connection between you and them. Seek to understand them better and help them to understand you. Seek to provide any support you can to their growth and success (as they define it, not you) without expecting anything in return. Petition God for blessings on their life in your private prayer time. Love them.

Happy New Year!

Copyright 2024, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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How Jesus Changed Israel

As the worldwide celebration of Christmas overlaps with the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, my thoughts have been increasingly on the question, “Did Christ’s coming change anything about how we as Christians should think about Israel?”

Before Jesus, the Old Testament tells us that the Jewish nation of Israel was God’s chosen people.

For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. ~ Deuteronomy 7:6 (NLT)

Not only were the Jews God’s chosen people but Jerusalem was a special place where God chose to dwell.

Of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem He said: For I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be holy—a place where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart. ~ 2 Chronicles 7:16 (NLT)

For the Lord has chosen Jerusalem; he has desired it for his home. “This is my resting place forever,” he said. “I will live here, for this is the home I desired… ~ Psalm 132:13-14 (NLT)

It is verses like these that have caused the Christian world to have a special love affair with Israel and the Jewish people. Countless Christian tourists flock to Israel, calling it the Holy Land. And many unapologetically side with Israel in any conflict because of this perception that they are special to God.

So my aim today is to interrogate this concept of a special people and a special land in light of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection.

But first I must go back a little further in history to a man called Abraham. God chose him out of all the people on the earth at that time and gave the land of Canaan (modern day Israel) to him and his descendants.

“I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.” ~ Genesis 17:7-8 (NLT)

Abraham had a son named Isaac, who had a son named Jacob. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel and it is his descendants that were referred to as the Israelites (later called Jews). Years later when the Israelites numbered over a million people, a leader named Joshua was appointed by God to lead the first military campaign to occupy the land of Canaan, birthing the first nation of Israel. The land was already occupied and the Israelites took the land by force.

However, they were never able to fully drive out the occupants. So, began the violent history of that region of the world. It changed hands many times and if we fast forward to Jesus’ birth. Jerusalem is under Roman rule and the Jews are still holding onto God’s promises. In fact, the prevailing Jewish mindset is that a savior will come in the likeness of a great military commander and overthrow the Romans, restoring Jewish rule.

BUT Jesus has a very different and up-to-that-point unprecedented agenda. His agenda has nothing to do with continuing the old paradigm. This is why to this day most Jews reject Him as the saviour that God promised. And this is the scandal, the game changer, the rock that we must either break our preferred narrative against or be broken.

Let me begin to break down this new Christ-paradigm with this verse where Paul describes some aspects of what is different because of Jesus:

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. ~ Galatians 3:26-29 (NLT)

This is MONUMENTOUS! There is no longer Jew or Gentile (read Jew or Palestinian). Who are God’s children? Who are Abraham’s descendants? Who have inherited Abraham’s promise? Answer: All who have put their faith in Christ Jesus. So are the Jews God’s special people due to their lineage? No, anyone who has faith in Jesus are His people. Jesus destroyed all national and racial barriers! Therefore all thinking, prayer, action based on the ideology that the Jewish people have some special favour in God’s eyes in comparison to non-Jewish people is fatally flawed. Note I said, in comparison to. I am not saying that they are not special. It’s just that God has adopted us all in Christ and we are all special to Him; He has no favourites.

To further cement the point:

Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! 7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. ~ Romans 9:6-7a (NLT)

What about the land is the land still special? Remember the verse above from Psalm 132 that speaks about the Temple? Listen to Jesus;

“All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said. ~ John 2:19-22 (NLT)

Jesus effectively says here that after the temple was destroyed it was replaced by His body. Again, Christ redefines what is holy. The Holy people have become those in Christ, the holy place has become His body! Paul echoes this truth:

You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.” No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. Hebrews 12:18-22 (NLT).

Hallelujah! We no longer worship on this mountain or that mountain but the time has come when those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth! God is no longer interested in a special land for a special people. In fact, He never was. From the moment He called Abraham, His end game was that all nations would be blessed (Genesis 22:18). All was a physical shadow and foretaste of a deeper spiritual reality that has been made fully manifest in Christ! And thank God!

For me, this year, this is the Christmas story. While so many remain stuck in the old quagmire of violence, domination and control of a small piece of land by a select few. We, the people of Christ, should,… must have a different heartbeat.. a larger view of a God that desires peace for ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. We must be obsessed not with physical control of physical land but with heaven’s reality being made manifest on earth! We must be obsessed with heaven’s reality being made manifest in this realm.

Christmas is about the Prince of Peace and of the increase of His government and of peace
there will be no end! (Isaiah 9). So let us pray for this peace. Not a limited peace that favours a particular people. Let us pray for the peace of Christ for Israel, for Palestine, for the Gaza, for our nations. Let us herald peace on earth and goodwill to ALL men!.

Finally, when Christ’s work has reached its culmination this is how Revelations describes the reality:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” ~ Revelations 21:1-4 (NLT)

Amen.

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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ONLINE WORKSHOP: BUILDING KINGDOM LEADERSHIP CAPACITY PART I

DATE:

Wednesdays from 10th January to 20th March 2024

TIME:

7:30 pm – 9:30 pm AST

VENUE:

Online Zoom Event (Cameras On)

DESCRIPTION:

As a participant you will be taken on an 11-week journey that begins with deeper discernment of your unique identity and calling in Christ, moves through building self-awareness of mindsets that may be hindering your leadership, and ends with exploring practices of deeper partnership with God. We will explore a kingdom model of leadership and partner with Holy Spirit to discover hidden barriers that may be keeping us from reaching our full leadership potential. Participants will realize a marked improvement in their ability to partner with God to lead with authenticity and authority in their spheres of influence.

FORMAT:

The focus of this workshop is developing your tangible leadership capability, not just theoretical insights about leadership. Therefore, this workshop has been carefully designed to take participants on an interactive journey that facilitates a growth process that results in a tangible shift in their effectiveness as leaders. Expect to be challenged and stretched. You will come away with tangible work products and tools that will allow you to continue growing as a leader long after you have completed the workshop. We have deliberately designed this as a series of sessions over a long period (compared to a seminar or conference for a couple of days) to allow for ample group discussion, personal reflection, and putting what you have learned into practice. This methodology has been proven to deliver superior results for our clients.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Our understanding of leadership does not limit it to only those who hold formal organizational positions, hence this workshop is for anyone who wants to increase their capacity to influence the sphere of life that they have been called to. Business professionals, pastors, and ministry leaders will all richly benefit from this course. All faith traditions are warmly welcomed.

FACILITATORS:

Matik Nicholls and Tricia Celestin-Nicholls share a burning passion for Jesus and for empowering people. They live in the beautiful Caribbean twin islands of Trinidad & Tobago with their five children and one granddaughter. Together they lead a small non-denominational faith community.

Matik has held leadership positions at various levels in the business sector for over two decades and is currently employed as the Vice President Innovation & Corporate Agility at a local natural gas processing company. Over the same period, Matik has also held various leadership positions in the church sphere such as worship leader, children’s ministry teacher, and youth leader. He is also a Covey 7 Habits practitioner and trained John Maxwell facilitator. In both the secular and religious spaces, Matik has been avidly learning and putting kingdom leadership principles into practice since he was twenty-one. He loves to read, hike, surf, and mountain bike. Matik also brings to the workshop a high-functioning teaching gift.

Tricia started leading in her local church at the age of fourteen as Vice-President of the Youth Group and went on to serve in various capacities such as Common Sense Parenting Facilitator, Hospitality Ministry Leader, and Parish Coordinator. She is a certified coach with the International Coaching Association and is trained in Story Informed Trauma Therapy and Trauma Counselling. She loves running, hiking, and coordinating events in her community. She is passionate about supporting leaders. Tricia also brings to the workshop a high-functioning prophetic gift that sharpens her deeply insightful coaching and facilitating ability.

COST:

$85 USD or $580 TT

Note: If you feel that God is leading you to take this course but you cannot afford this price, please reach out to us.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

TESTIMONIALS:

This has to be the greatest leadership course I have ever taken because of the emphasis on allowing the Lord to reveal the specific issue that has hindered the emergence of our authentic, powerful self and the only way we will ever be the leaders we have been created to be is by co-partnering with Jesus.

Patricia Fletcher – Canada

Thank you Matik and Tricia for leading this life-changing course on personal leadership. As we’re moving into a season of knowing God in new and intimate ways, this course was timely. You have created a community grounded on love, allowing us to be Open, Vulnerable, and Humble.
The weekly sessions and discussions helped me better understand my identity in Christ. Our conversations revealed deeply rooted issues that have prevented me from experiencing God in Glorious ways.
I recommend this course to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of self, community, and how to live life abundantly that points to the heart of God.
Again, thank you!!! Our time together is always appreciated, I look forward to more courses in the future.

Jacqueline Edwards – United States

Are you like me? Knowing that you are called to be a leader, but not feeling it? Not yet believing it?
So, when I heard about this “Building Personal Kingdom Leadership Capacity” course I was determined to be there and committed to stay throughout. Matik and Tricia Nicholls offered a fresh caring environment for new and not so new leaders, to explore and accept God’s unique call for them as a leader in His Kingdom. It was a journey of discovery and connection. The 11 weeks went by quickly, but the knowledge gained and habits learnt to further seek, find and centre in God’s eternal purpose were well worth it.
Now, trusting God, I’ll be impacting and influencing those He has placed around me. Thank God for the Nicholls, may He continue to guide and give them His wisdom in providing this well needed course and the many others to come.

Gillian Ellis – Jamaica

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS:

To do a direct bank transfer use the following information:

Name: Matik Nicholls

Bank Name: Republic Bank Limited

Account No.: 260086069031

Account Type: Savings

Swift Code (international transfers): RBNKTTPX

For more info on international direct transfers click here. When the transfer is completed, please email the receipt or a screenshot to matik.nicholls@authenticjoy.org together with your name.

To pay via credit card click Buy now below:

ONLINE WORKSHOP: BUILDING KINGDOM LEADERSHIP CAPACITY PART I

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

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The Spiral of Growth

I liken the pathway of our walk with Christ to a spiral because we often revisit places we have been but from a higher perspective. If we do not recognize our upward growth we may feel like we are going around in circles but we usually aren’t (unless we are not growing of course).

An easy illustration from my life is secular music. I love music. In my teen years, I had a collection of over 100 cassettes. (I know some of you may not know what this is and even fewer have ever seen one but it was how we stored music back in the day. A cassette held 60-90min of music.) I had a song for every mood and listened to everything from heavy metal to reggae. Music comforted me through romantic breakups. Music helped me study in college. Music formed the soundtrack of my life to such a degree that to this day particular songs bring back the emotions of particular seasons like it was yesterday. Then, at 21, I got saved and one day God showed me that my music was an idol in my life and I packed up all my cassettes and threw them out.

Fast-forward a decade and I am struggling in my faith. It has become clear that I may have thrown the cassettes out of my room but not out of my heart. Internally, I still crave secular songs especially since (at this time) gospel music SUCKS in variety and quality. Eventually, I left the church and re-united with many of my old secular habits including music.

Fast-forward another decade more or less, and I’m making my way back to God but this time it’s from a place of heartfelt repentance. I’m falling in love with a God so merciful that He would still accept me, forgive me, and welcome me into His arms. Now I realize that the genre of music is not important, it’s about my heart. I love Jesus and I don’t care about all that religious external stuff. Once it’s good clean lyrics, it’s all good.

Here I am today and what’s my position on music? You guessed it, I only listen to worship music. Not just Christian music but only music that leads me to worship God more. But this time, it’s what I delight to do. I can listen to anything but I only want to worship God.

This is what the upward spiral of growth looks like (at least in my experience). This will happen in many areas of our lives. Take past traumas for example. We may at one point be in a season where God is healing us from childhood trauma. Then we may think we are all good only to revisit the same trauma again years later and receive a deeper healing. Then we may revisit again but this time God may call us to become a facilitator of healing for others. And so the spiral goes. In fact, don’t be surprised if while helping others to heal you are again faced with open wounds that are still festering in your soul and have to lay on God’s doctor’s table again, all the while battling feelings of being unqualified to help others.

Paul dealt with this in 1 Co 8 when addressing the issue of foods sacrificed to idols. He recognized that some people lower on the spiral would be convinced that it would be a sin against God if they ate foods sacrificed to idols. while others higher on the spiral would understand that the idol is nothing and they can eat freely. This clash of Christians at different levels of growth with different perspectives on the same issue is very common in our social media landscape today. In fact, I would say if you ever look at one of the many videos ‘calling out’ leaders on blasphemous or heretic behaviour, 9 out of 10 times it’s just a matter of people being on different levels of the spiral.

Paul gives us the way to handle it. The person higher on the spiral actually has the responsibility to meet the other person where they are at. It’s the only possible way. Those looking at their brothers and sisters up above cannot possibly understand their perspective but those above can understand and accommodate those below. When I was in my ‘listening to secular music’ phase I remember a brother suggesting that I only listen to worship music and I was like, “This guy is religious.” Yet, look at me now! lol I’ve learned not to be so fully convinced that I have THE true perspective. If I am growing my perspective will change over time, and the more open I am to seeing things differently, the faster I will grow. I’ve also learned that my perspectives will sound like heresy to some and that argument as a means to influence is usually futile. Some things you have to experience for yourself.

So my exhortation to you my beloved sisters and brothers is to keep this concept of the spiral in mind as you grow in your faith. Do not be dismayed when old issues come back around, instead see it as an opportunity to face it from a higher perspective and learn something new. And let’s not be so quick to call our brothers and sisters heretics and blasphemers ok? We all see the world differently based on where we are on our journey. Let’s support and encourage each other and leave the Holy Spirit to do his work in each other’s lives as only he can.

Love and blessings,

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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We Only Have One Heart

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?

1 John 4:20 (NLT)

I want to draw your attention to one little word in this verse. The word can. Can is not about the will or the choice to do something. Can is about the ability to do something. The word in Greek means to be able to or to have the power or capability to. And if this is the case then what this verse is saying is that if we do not practice loving our fellow believers then we will not have the capability to love God and that is profound!

Often we think, and I have thought at one point, that we can live in isolation in a ‘just me and God’ sort of reality. And by isolation, I don’t mean that we necessarily become a hermit but just that we withhold our hearts from everyone or at least most people. We think we can hold everyone at a distance but be intimate with God. This verse is saying that that is a delusion. The same relational muscles that we must build to be vulnerable with others and to connect across the things that divide us (race, theology, personality, class, education) are the same muscles needed to connect to an invisible God.

I did not come about this understanding by studying 1 John. That is rarely how God teaches me. It was revealed to me in my daily struggles as I processed life with God. Since I married the one and only Tricia Celestin-Nicholls I have been working on trying to remain relational and connected with her through life’s ups and downs. As with all of us, I have suffered my fair share of trauma and I have learned coping mechanisms to keep myself safe. My go-to is shutting down, meaning that I become emotionally numb and withdraw into my own inner world. There are any number of triggers that can cause me to shut down but any form of criticism or vexation pointed in my direction is top of the list. I can also shut down if I am under a lot of emotional stress. And when I shut down it’s with everybody not just the person who may have triggered it. So you see how my poor wife may suffer the brunt of my disconnection even if she didn’t cause it.

So, I’ve been working on remaining open and relational even when I am stressed or feel hurt or threatened. To tell you the truth, it seems like every time I heal one layer there’s a deeper layer that God reveals that needs a deeper healing. The word trauma means soul-wound according to Gabor Mate. In order for me to love my wife better, Jesus needs to heal my soul. This doesn’t just affect my wife of course. It means that I can love everyone better. My kids. My parents. My sister. My friends. My co-workers. My church group. My neighbours. Everyone.

But back to the opening verse, do you see that it also means that I can love God better? What I discovered that led me to this verse is that as I healed, I was able to stay connected to Holy Spirit better. I hid less when I sinned. I was able to hear Holy Spirit better even when I was stressed. I was better able to leave my heart open to receive the love that I so desperately needed and God so desperately wanted to pour on me.

God showed me that I only have one heart. The same heart that loves my wife is the same heart that loves Him. Wholeheartedness is not an option. Healing is not an option. If we are to obey the greatest commandment to love God with all our hearts then we must work on our relationships. It is in that pursuit that traumas are unearthed, wounds healed and hearts made whole.

Working on loving others is working on loving God because you’ve only got one heart!

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Heavenly Jam

Papa Beats sits with a grin.

Drumsticks in hand,

He’s ready to jam.

Messiah plugs into the amp,

Secret name tattooed on His arm,

He’s ready to jam.

The Eternal Breath floats to the mike.

Anticipation palpable in her calm.

She’s ready to jam.

With eyes like quiet fire,

The first chord is strummed by Messiah.

Gently breaking the silence,

The sounds of dawn commence.

Breath breathes out an ethereal sigh,

As first-light brightens the sky.

Papa taps the high-hat rhythmically,

As the sun’s rays touch every tree.

Flowers open and birds sing and coo,

As Messiah plays His delicate interlude.

Now the melody is picking up speed.

Bees, squirrels, ants, and butterflies feed,

The bass drum pounds out the rhythm of life.

Papa’s still grinning… the joy of life!

Now Breath’s song erupts spontaneously from her core,

Head flung back, arms wide – ready to soar!

Messiah too has a joyous demeanor,

While chord after chord streams from His guitar.

As the sun rises high, and the air gets hazy,

The wind is quiet and the animals lazy.

Breath is humming a silly sleepy song,

And Messiah too, is playing along.

Papa Beats has gone silent…taking a rest,

But there’s a twinkle in His eye – wonder what’s next?

Suddenly, He starts up a beat – a marching band.

The storm clouds gather, at His command.

His tom toms roll, and talk, and rumble.

Dark thunderclouds amass over the horizon.

Messiah joins in with a brooding lilt.

The melody gets thicker and kilters and tilts.

Then the sky breaks as Breath opens her lungs.

Rain! Storm! Flood! What a song She has sung!

Papa Beats’ hands and feet are all a flurry.

Crashes and bass drums of thunder and fury!

Messiah’s eyes have become completely ablaze.

Fingers working the fretboard in a mesmerizing craze.

One last rip roars from Messiah’s guitar.

And all three stop silent amidst the downpour.

The rain instantly ceases and clouds start to break.

The forest is silent. It’s still on the lake.

It is done, It is finished. A jam session of God.

Three smiles of satisfaction, knowing… It. Is. GOOD.

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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The Inner Work of Leadership

Often, when we talk about developing leaders in the workplace and in the church, we focus on developing a set of skills and competencies. However, most of the time what hampers our leadership capability is not those external skills and competencies that are readily observable. Sure we can improve our administrative competence, or our speaking ability, or learn to use our talents and strengths more effectively. All of that is good. It will make us better managers but leadership requires something more.

Ruth Haley Barton says it this way, “…people rise to leadership in our society based on extroversion, which means they have a tendency to ignore what is going on inside themselves. These leaders rise to power by operating very competently and effectively in the external world, sometimes at the cost of internal awareness…In the preparation and selection of leaders, we need to look for those who are growing in self-awareness, who are willing to take responsibility for themselves and what drives their behaviours, and who have the courage to bring that self-knowledge into the leadership setting.”

Parker Palmer teaches, “A leader is a person who must take responsibility for what’s going on inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good.”

Finally, listen to Jesus, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First, wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.” (Matthew 23:25-26 NLT)

We manifest around us, the reality that lives inside of us. All of us are walking around with internal worlds tainted by insecurities, unhealed traumas, distorted identities, impure motives, and the like. In other words, we are broken. All of us. To varying degrees and in diverse ways but we all carry the scars of this common fallen humanity. Unless we heal this internal landscape, even with the noblest of intentions and most fervent of faiths, we will do more harm than good. We must first wash the inside.

If you look closely around you, you can observe this neglect of internal work everywhere. Parents burden their children with expectations too heavy for them to bear in a vain attempt to live their unrealized dreams through their offspring, or crush their children’s dreams to “spare them” the disappointment that still haunts them. Managers still try to make daddy proud by piling up accomplishments while their staff suffer in service of their ruthless ambitions. Preachers scrape for significance by bullying their congregation and sucking up to those who could elevate them while quoting scriptures to back up their soul-disease.

True leaders are actively engaged in inner work. If we want to build a community filled with love, peace and joy, it first has to live inside of us. We can teach what we know and people will become more informed but we can only transform lives by imparting what lives on the inside of us. Leadership development is an upward spiral of Calling, Crucifixion and Co-Creation. First, we are called up higher in an encounter with God where He reveals our identity to us. Like King David when he was anointed king by Samuel. Then we must be refined and tested (also like David whose character was shaped for many many years before he ever sat on the throne). Finally, we learn to exercise authority in partnership with God. Again, David was a good example of this, constantly guided by God as he led the people. As long as we remain humble and teachable the cycle never stops. We are constantly being called to a truer version of ourselves, to engage in a process of transformation that enables us to be trusted with greater kingdom responsibilities and to partner more closely with God to expand His kingdom. God only entrusts His authority to those who carry His character.

The moment we stop growing is the moment we begin to lose real influence in the realm of the spirit. How many times have we met men of God who talk about the power and presence of God that used to characterize their ministry? What happened? I believe they stopped the inner work. They thought they had arrived and forfeited their leadership position. They may still have big ministries and many followers but in the spirit, they have lost their position.

I pray that that would never be said of you beloved. I declare that your life will go from glory to glory! I pray that we will be diligent in pursuing our inner work together! Let us encourage each other in this most holy work that when Christ returns He may find a Bride without spot or wrinkle ready to meet her Bridegroom!

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Death By Comparison


Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it

Habakkuk 2:2b (ESV)

In this well-known verse, the word vision has more to it than meets the eye. It means a divine revelation or a prophetic vision. The verse that follows (verse 3) also makes it clear that this is a vision of the future. I believe that this concept of prophetic vision holds some insight that is very relevant to our personal growth as well as our maturation as the Body of Christ.

I have observed several instances in various situations in family, work, or church where it seemed that people just refused to grow past their current state. There seemed to be no lack of reasons why they saw no need to journey any further in their personal growth. It always pains me when it happens. I can’t understand why someone would refuse to even explore the possibility that there is room for growth. As I talked to God about this recently, He showed me that the issue is perception.

God showed me the Israelites leaving Egypt and heading to the promised land as an example. As the Israelites journeyed with God in the wilderness, He began the process of maturing them from slaves in Egypt to people who would become a mighty nation and rule Canaan. It was sometimes a painful process as all growth involves change and change is painful. At one point in the journey, the Israelites began to complain, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” The Israelites fell into the deception of comparison. When we cannot envision the future that God has for us, we cannot ‘run’ to attain it. As the popular saying goes, the body cannot go, where the mind has not gone.

Hosea 4:6 says that the people perish for a lack of knowledge. Where there is no vision of God’s dream for our lives, then progress can only be measured by comparison with our past selves or with the people around us. Therefore, we settle for much less than God’s will for our lives, we stop growing and we will ultimately die. This death by comparison manifests itself in mindsets like, “I have achieved enough. I’m comfortable. Why rock the boat?” or, “That’s just how God made me.” Sometimes the mindset that keeps us in stagnation can sound very biblical, “I am a new creature in Christ by faith. There is nothing more that I have to do Christ has done it all.” or, “When Christ is ready, He is well able to change me.” There is always some truth to a deception, it is just not the full truth. Our spirit is completely new (we have been saved) but our soul (will, mind, and emotions) is being transformed (being saved) and our body will be made new when Christ returns. The process of transformation of our souls is not without our willing effort although the power to change does indeed come from Christ by the Spirit.

I wish to propose that there is much work to be done and it will continue until we attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Jesus is the only measure. Our leaders are not the measure, how far we have come is not the measure, and our friends are not the measure. We are yet to see the Bride come into her fullness of love, peace, righteousness, joy, authority, and dazzling beauty. I am fully convinced that there is a deep wholeness, unity, abundance of life, and hosting of the Spirit that we are yet to even scratch the surface of as a church, but unless each of us is individually consumed by a personal vision of who God created us to be, we will not attain this corporate reality. To be gripped by a vision it must be personal. Even the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is too general; we must receive a personal revelation from the Spirit of God of our unique identity and calling. As I heard Dano McCollam say recently, “The bible gives us our last name – what everyone in the family is like. We are all more than conquerors, for example. But the prophetic gives us our first name – our unique identity as a daughter or son in the family.”

So my prayer today for myself, my wife, my children, my family, my friends, and all my brothers and sisters is that our hearts and minds would be open to receive God’s personal vision for our lives. And that the sight of that vision would birth in us a hunger for more and determination to pursue God’s perfect will for our lives like never before. I declare that every limit to our growth will be broken! Be it our physical comfort zones, our theological comfort zones, our social comfort zones, our denominational comfort zones, or the limits we have accepted due to our gender, our age, our past, our education, or our genetic makeup; we will break out of every construct and narrative that limits God’s vision for us!

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Launching The EQuip App – An Essential Tool For Your Emotional Wellness!

One of the things that my wife and I have in common is that we are both committed to continuous improvement. We have been consistently investing in our personal growth for decades. A few years ago, we realized that we needed to make an investment in our emotional intelligence if we wanted to move forward in our spiritual and relational growth. This was the first time we came across the feelings wheel.

Shortly after this discovery, we came to a point in our marriage where we realized that we needed professional help to get unstuck. Lo and behold the feelings wheel turned up again in one of our sessions. As part of my homework, I had to record my emotions every morning. I quickly realized that I was not very smart emotionally. I needed the wheel to help me to name my emotions.

Next, we were reading a book about building strong relational connections and there it was again. This time as a tool that we could use as a couple to share with each other the different emotions that we had experienced throughout the day. The same book (and many others that we read) also talked about practicing intentional gratitude as a way to improve emotional well-being and connection with the divine.

Soon enough we were looking for an easier way to facilitate and share with others these new habits that were adding so much value to our lives. So we decided to create an app. Thus was born EQuip!

Here is the link to the iOS App store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/equip-authentic-joy/id6447282695
Here is the link to the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.matik.equip

EQuip does a few things:

  1. It helps you to name and record your feelings.
  2. It allows you to record how you are feeling on a particular date and at a particular time together with the activity that may have caused the emotion and a short note.
  3. It allows you to see your emotional trends and will even send you notifications if it picks up a trend for you. For example, if you are sad every Monday afternoon, EQuip will alert you 12 hours before that time to allow you the opportunity to make changes to your habits.
  4. It allows you to record moments of gratitude with an easy-to-remember title, a short note, and photos. Intentionally reviewing these gratitude memories is a proven way to improve mental health and emotional well-being.
  5. It allows you to record a list of life-giving activities which you can reference to pick you up when you are feeling down or lacking inspiration.

We hope that this tool will be of value to you on your journey.

One request: Please share!

Thanks!

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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ONLINE WORKSHOP: BUILDING KINGDOM LEADERSHIP CAPACITY PART I

DATE:

Tuesdays from 8th August to 17th October 2023

TIME:

7:30 pm – 9:30 pm AST

VENUE:

Online Zoom Event (Cameras On)

DESCRIPTION:

Participants will be taken on an 11-week journey of growing in self-awareness and discernment of their calling in Christ. We will explore the kingdom model of leadership and discover hidden barriers that may be keeping us from reaching our full leadership potential. Participants will learn how to partner with God to lead with authenticity, passion, and generational impact.

The focus of this workshop is on how to develop leadership capability in practice. The focus is practical not theoretical or theological. Topics covered include:

  • What is kingdom leadership?
  • How do we build kingdom leadership capacity?
  • What limits our leadership?
  • Discovering our unique identity & calling
    • Leading with authenticity
    • Leading with passion
  • Crucifixion – losing our life to follow our calling
    • Leading with selflessness
    • Leading from wholeness
  • Co-creating with Christ
    • Partnering with God’s presence
    • Partnering with God’s voice
    • Letting our light shine
    • Serving others
    • Empowering others

FORMAT:

This workshop has been carefully designed to take leaders on a journey that facilitates a growth process that results in a tangible shift in their effectiveness as leaders. Expect to be challenged and stretched. You will come away with tangible work products and tools that will allow you to continue growing as a leader long after you have completed the workshop. We have deliberately designed this as a series of sessions over a long period (compared to a seminar or conference for a couple of days) to allow for group discussion, personal reflection, and putting what you have learned into practice. This methodology has been proven to deliver superior results for our clients.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

We do not limit leadership to only those who hold formal organizational positions, hence this workshop is for anyone who wants to grow their leadership capacity to influence the sphere of life that they have been called to. Please note that all faith traditions are warmly welcomed.

FACILITATORS:

Matik Nicholls and Tricia Celestin-Nicholls share a burning passion for Jesus and for empowering people. They live in the beautiful Caribbean twin island of Trinidad & Tobago with their five children and one granddaughter. Together they lead a small non-denominational faith community.

Matik has held leadership positions at various levels in the business sector for over two decades and is currently employed as the Vice President Innovation & Corporate Agility at a local natural gas processing company. Over the same period, Matik has also held various leadership positions in the church sphere such as worship leader, children’s ministry teacher, and youth leader. He is also a Covey 7 Habits practitioner and trained John Maxwell facilitator. In both the secular and religious spaces, Matik has been avidly learning and putting into practice the best kingdom leadership practices since he was twenty-one. He loves to read, hike, surf, and mountain bike. Matik also brings to the workshop a high-functioning teaching gift.

Tricia started leading in her local church at the age of fourteen as Vice-President of the Youth Group and went on to serve in various capacities such as Common Sense Parenting Facilitator, Hospitality Ministry Leader, and Parish Coordinator. She is a certified coach with the International Coaching Association and is trained in Story Informed Trauma Therapy and Trauma Counselling. She loves running, hiking, and coordinating events in her community. She is passionate about supporting leaders. Tricia also brings to the workshop a high-functioning prophetic gift that sharpens her deeply insightful coaching and facilitating ability.

COST:

$200 TT or $30 USD

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS:

To do a direct bank transfer use the following information:

Name: Matik Nicholls

Bank Name: Republic Bank Limited

Branch: Grand Bazaar, Trinidad & Tobago

Account No.: 260086069031

Account Type: Savings

Swift Code (international transfers): RBNKTTPX

For more info on international direct transfers click here. When the transfer is completed, please email the receipt or a screenshot to matik.nicholls@authenticjoy.org together with your name.

To pay via credit card click the link below:

Make A Donation

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER