DESCRIPTION: Participants will be taken on a journey of reviewing 2022 with the Holy Spirit and looking forward to 2023. Expect to come away with a clear theme for 2023 and goals/next-steps for the various areas of your life (spiritual, vocation, family, health, relationships). All of this will take place in an environment of peace and a praying community that will leave you empowered and refreshed for the year ahead.
TARGET AUDIENCE: This workshop is open to anyone seeking to walk more intentionally in their God-ordained purpose in 2023. All are welcome. It is especially geared toward those who want to accelerate their growth in Christ.
COST: $100TT
CONTACT: Email celestintricia@gmail.com or WhatsApp/call 868-761-5342
I often ask myself, “Have I missed it? Did God’s ultimate purpose for my life pass me by while I was distracted with earthly pleasures or ‘normal life’?” I’m going to be 47 this year and you know… I have a good job and a great marriage and awesome kids but…. But have I really hit on a life spent in the glorification of Jesus? I don’t think so. It’s not that I’ve done nothing… I’ve written books, I’ve been involved in ministry, but such score-carding is so pathetic compared to that knowing deep down in my soul. It’s hard to describe. It’s like a smouldering fire in my gut that yearns to be turned loose. Like I’ve tasted a little bit of God, like a faint scent that comes and goes, but my heart longs to be completely subsumed in His Presence.
Sometimes,
especially when the weight of sin overwhelms me, I feel like giving up. I feel
like throwing in the towel on the fight for a life that Paul described this way
in Galatians 2:20 (ESV) “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I
who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Selah.
But… every time
I consider giving up, God whispers in my ear, “The best is yet to come.”
Recently, two people have given me great hope. The first is Francis Chan. I love this guy. I watched this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmKqD2FlFds) yesterday and I was filled with such a renewed desire for more. At 52 years old Francis, is packing up his family (including married children with their spouses) and heading to Burma to spread the good news. He talks about the decision to go and how it was birthed as he was preaching the gospel on a trip to Burma and he was so happy, so fulfilled, so thrilled as people believed and made the decision to serve this God that he knew, that he was like, “This is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing! What better thing could we do with our lives? This is why I’m alive!” So, he says to his wife, “What if we move?” and she says, “Let’s do it.” Wow. He also talks about experiencing miraculous healing first-hand on a massive scale for the first time! As he speaks, I’m tearing up and my heart is doing somersaults because he finally saw what he read in the bible come to pass in his life. Oh God, me too! If you did it for Francis you can do it for me!
Then He talks about the fear and the fight to follow his convictions… how he is discussing the move with his wife about how nice church people can talk us out of our convictions and somehow convince us to play it safe… things like, it’s our Christian duty to keep our kids safe and give them a good Christian education.. I felt the tension… I feel it in my soul every day. But if Francis, at 52, can break past the fear of losing his life, maybe it’s not too late for me?
The second reason for great hope is Jesus. It hit me earlier this year: The Son of God took 30 years to prepare for ministry… The Son of God! 30 years! Think about it. I get so discouraged when I see this preacher who started preaching at 18 and that one who started a ministry at 22 and, and, and…. I’m like what am I doing with my life?!?! Then God said, “Consider Jesus.” The fact that between Jesus’ birth and His entrance into ministry there is little recorded in the bible and nothing recorded in secular history until His rabble-rousing days means this: He did nothing remarkable during that time! The Son of God lived a life so ordinary that there was nothing of note worth mentioning. Now this may sound bad but that gives me hope! If Jesus took 30 years to mature and prepare before healing a single person, making a single public sermon or working a single miracle then who am I to complain about how long it’s taking me? (Secretly, I’m comforting myself with the thought that preparation time is correlated to greatness of impact… but don’t tell anybody.)
If you are like me and struggling with the smallness of your life compared to the great examples we have in scripture (Peter, Paul, Stephen et al) and even in church history (Smith Wigglesworth, John G. lake, William Seymour and the like)… don’t despair. If you are wondering if it’s too late for you… don’t give up on your dreams. It’s not too late! It’s never too late!
Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
I attended a retreat recently held by Dr. Theodore ‘Theo’ Ferguson, the founder of the revolutionary movement; Leading From Above The Line. The discussions in the main were about purpose. It was a powerful reminder of the driving force that purpose plays in our lives.
It especially resounded with me because I have been wondering lately about my attempts at blogging and if they are having any impact. The facts are that there are very few likes and almost no comments or shares. I suppose what is more discouraging is that only a few of my family and friends even seem interested. I’m not sure if my own sister even reads my blog! I mean, if your closest people don’t support you, who will?
But, this is all a perception because there are several other possible ‘truths’:
Many friends have liked and commented on various articles that I guess resonated with them, but everything is just not going to resonate with everybody no matter how close they are. To be fair, I’m not as excited about some of the things they get excited about either so what’s the big deal.
People don’t have time to read all this stuff. In fact, our feeds are so inundated with stuff that many things don’t even get our attention and if they do, who has time to read everything?
So I don’t want to present my perception as facts but simply as the thoughts that sometimes discourage me (and I assume many of us).
Before saying anything more, and given that backdrop, I must say how much I appreciate those of you who have liked, commented or shared my offerings and those who have shared with me in person how much you appreciate my writings. Thank you so much for taking the time to encourage me! You don’t know how much it means to me. I also cannot fail to send out my love to the constant cheerleaders in my life (you know who you are) 😊.
Ok, so how does this link with purpose? Well, you see, even though sometimes discouragement looms, I am never unsure about continuing this journey. And that is because I KNOW that this is what I was born to do. To help others (even if it is one person) through sharing my life stories in prose is an integral part of my purpose. I get enjoyment and fulfillment from writing and from helping people. Purpose fuels our passion like nothing else! It is what will keep us going in the face of repeated failure and constant naysayers.
s Theo encouraged us at the retreat, I encourage you… find your purpose and live it!
2017 is almost done. For me, that means it’s time to begin plotting how to make 2018 a joyful success! But first, I like to take time to reflect on the year gone. Did I achieve my goals? What were the major themes? What did I learn? How have I grown? What do I need to improve? Who helped make my year memorable?
First, I looked back at my 2017 goals and celebrated the wins and noted where I fell short. Then I went through my journal and walked through some of the major themes of the year, reliving the ebb and flow of the thoughts in my head during 2017.
Then I began to look at my life in pictures over the last year. If you are a photos/visual person like me I highly recommend this as a great way to celebrate the end of another year. You hardly ever take photos of your depressed times or worst moments, so it really focuses you on the positive things in your life, what’s important and what you have to be thankful for and most importantly who you have to be thankful for. Undoubtedly, who you spent 2017 with matters more than what you did. I actually took the best 150 photos or so and made a slideshow video with Google Photos. I’ve been watching it over and over and getting the warm fuzzies inside every time.
All considered, I would have to say that I made significant progress in 2017. I achieved some of my major goals, like taking my mummy on a trip 😊. I fell short in others (I definitely did not get enough rest in 2017 ☹). And then there were the things I did not plan to achieve but did, like starting this blog! God certainly had some surprises up His sleeve this year and I loved it! 2017 was definitely a year of growth and key to that was the people I connected with in 2017 and the relationships I invested in.
But a good year doesn’t just happen. I had a plan not only for what I wanted to achieve but also who I wanted to become. Every year I set goals for the following year and revisit them regularly. I use a planner called Action Daily which has a goal setting exercise in the front and then arranged with weekly goals and tasks for each week of the year. I completed my 2018 goal plan yesterday.
I have it arranged in four categories:
Spiritual
Physical
Relationships
Vocational (which is everything else – work, business, education, church ministry)
If you want your life to be significant, you must be intentional. Otherwise, you will have a default life, adrift on the river of time. You have to be intentional about everything; how you will develop yourself, how you will work on that weak spot in your character, which relationships you will invest in, how you will achieve that big dream that you have.
A joyful life does not just happen, it is designed. You must have a strong, passionate WHY for each of your goals. Why is this important to you? Why do you want to achieve it? Motivation to achieve anything comes from passion. If your goals are not aligned with your deepest desires, you will not achieve it. If you do not make a plan to follow your passions, you also will not achieve it. You need passion AND planning. I have one why for all my goals – to fulfil my purpose on this earth and glorify Jesus Christ.
What’s your passion? What’s your plan? Write it down and begin designing the life of your dreams! May 2018 be a year of unprecedented progress in the making of your authentically joyful life!
