1. Hey Blessing! Give the readers/viewers top three interesting facts about you.
a. I’ve been in the Army for eight years.
b. I went to Madird, Spain for a study abroad trip in undergrad.
c. My favorite meal is ogbono soup and pounded yam.
2. Did you grow up in church? If so, how did that affect your life?
I grew up in a Nigerian Pentecostal church and other denominations such as Catholic, Baptist, and other American Pentecostal churches. I also went to a catholic school growing up. Church affected me because I knew God was real and I knew he was someone I should go to in a time of need. I knew he was there but didn’t know who he was.
3. Did your faith change while in college?
I stopped liking church when I was in high school. I hated it. When I got to college I was interested in looking at other religions. I figured there might have been other cool things to discover in those religions. However, at the same time, I was disinterested and stopped believing there was a God. I felt like there was no point because I was going to live my life here on earth and do whatever I wanted. Transition into my adult life ( in college), I became totally disinterested and didn’t care about following God at all. I didn’t care to pursue a relationship with God.
4. When did you start pursuing a relationship with God?
I started pursuing my relationship with God after an interesting break up. I needed God more than anything. At that point, I went through certain situations in my life where the first thing I did to “bounce back” was to focus on myself and do better by “doing me.” I became better and I was good at focusing on myself, but I was still empty. The break up pushed me to the point to really search for God as a possible remedy. I wanted to know who God was and if following God would really help me. I ultimately wanted to know if God was real.
5. How did this process go? Did you encounter anything that didn’t align with your world view about God and church?
Baptism was a hard concept to grasp. The church I attended at the time had specific Bible studies tailored for an individual trying to learn the Bible and God’s will for their lives. I remember sitting in a study and the lady suggested I get baptized again. I disagreed because at that point I was baptized four different times. Then she asked, “how was your life after baptism the other times?” I realized there wasn’t a difference. She challenged me to go deeper in scripture to see what a life with Christ looks like after baptism and the true meaning of baptism. I accepted the challenge and ran into a scripture where Paul was talking to people about being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7).
Paul talked to men who were previously baptized, and he fully explained the good news and purpose to them. This was when I realized that baptism isn’t just identifying yourself with Christ, it’s about laying down your life to follow Him. The people also wanted to experience the miraculous things that occurred at that time as well. After that moment, I figured it was okay for me to get baptized again because I realized the other baptisms were synonymous to taking a shower. My life didn’t reflect a life living with Christ. Now, this isn’t going to be the same for everyone, but I want to encourage you to see what your life looked like after baptism. Check and see if you had a repentant heart and God will reveal the next steps of your journey.
6. You stated you’ve been baptized multiple times, did you consider yourself a Christian before this baptism?
At the time I did consider myself a Christian, however now that I understand baptism, I don’t think I was Christian at that time. A Christian is Christ like, exudes the qualities of Christ, and is trying to follow Him such as a disciple. Before baptism, I was a fan. I wore the crosses, went to church, listened to the music, but I was a bystander because I wasn’t fully living my life for Him. Therefore, I don’t consider myself a Christian before that baptism until I realized what it truly meant to follow Him.
7. When did you ultimately make that decision and what pushed you to make that decision?
One day I was having an extremely bad day and I was living with someone else at the time. When I got home, I started praying asking God, “Why are these things happening to me?” It’s too much explain just know I was in an emotional chaos. When I finished praying I left the room to get something to eat and went back into the room. I sat on the bed and started going through my phone and I randomly looked up because I noticed my fan was moving. I glanced over at the fan switch and it was in the down position. I walked over to the fan switch and flipped it on and the fan immediately moved the opposite direction. I freaked out and called the owner of the place and she was scared. She told me she never had anything happened like that and she may need to bless the house because she thinks someone may have did witchcraft in her house once (this was me à 0_o). Then I called my friend and she started laughing. She reminded me to call on the name Jesus and all spirits will bow.
She reminded me to trust God. I was kind of disappointed because I was praying to God before the incident and when faced with possible spiritual forces, my first reaction was to call someone. The fan moved on its own as if something was trying to get my attention. At this moment I was amazed and figured God was real. This is when I decided to really go further in my faith and my relationship with God because it was supernatural. I used to hear people tell stories like this, but I never believed them. That night I got under my covers and watched the fan until I went to sleep. I wanted to be prepared to show God I loved Him, and I wasn’t going to be scared lol
8. What was the day you finally got baptized?
The day was very impromptu. I did my last study and immediately wanted to get baptized. I wanted to get baptized that Saturday, but I ended up getting baptized on January 31, 2016 at 11 am, at The Path church in Atlanta. This is the reason why I’m sharing my testimony this month! I decided to make Jesus Lord on January 31st but I will say that my journey to Christ started a while ago. It developed traction around October 2015 and then I finally made Jesus Lord the following year.
9. Tell us three things that has changed after you made Jesus the Lord over your life.
a. My view on eternity
Before giving my life to Christ, I was solely focused on how I would live my life on earth. I was consumed with graduating, having a family, and kids. However, now I tend to think about the effect this life has on eternity. This effected my view on the “after life”. A lot of people may not feel like God isn’t real but I’m not going to take any chances. Also, God showed me he was real multiple times. I think about eternity and living with God here now (on earth) but living with Him in eternity. I look forward to eternity, but I also look forward to experiencing God here now
b. The conversations with my friends
My friends will attest to this because they used to always tell me how I constantly talked about the Bible. I didn’t realize how much I was talking about God. All I knew is, I started reading the Bible and the passages were coming alive and I just wanted someone to talk to about it. I used to tell my friends, “Omg, read this passage, we’ve had it wrong this entire time!” Lol but they didn’t really care much. However, at this point, I’m not focused on trying to share the specific scriptures with them. I’m more so trying to truly live my life for God (i.e. live out love, grace, and not talking about people) so that they may want to follow God one day.
c. The way I listen to worship music
I’m not sure if you follow this blog page on Instagram (@farfromacurse) but I post a worship song every Wednesday with scripture and insight. I love #WorshipWednesday because I post a song that has helped me get through the week. I used to listen to worship music all the time growing up, I would even listen to it going to sleep. However, I loved the beat but didn’t really connect with the songs. After giving my life to Christ, the words in the song came to life. The words have meaning now. While I sing these worship songs, I’m exalting God and speaking life into myself by resonating in the words and enjoying the melody and the beat.
10. Do you think you could have made it this far without God?
No, when I look back, I would’ve been more lost without God by my side today. God found me once I was saved, however, some days I still feel lost even though I have a relationship with Him due to uncertainties in life. The difference is, God is my anchor so even when I’m lost, I’m still found in Him. I have something I can hold unto. In the past I would hold unto people and feel like I needed friends and those were the people I clanged to during tough times. But now, I know God will never leave me or forsake me. I’m not arrogantly saying that I don’t need people. I’m saying, my life has become an independence from people but more dependent on God. When I look back, I believe I made the right decision.
11. Yes, I believe it’s the best decision of your life lol. Tell us if your life has been easier with God or harder with God.
I think my life has been both:
a) Life is Harder – I was living my life how I wanted for 23 years before I received salvation. Life became harder because I’m constantly trying to shift kingdom minded. Which is trying to shift and do things the way God desires for me to live. For example, the way I think about sexual immorality, cheating, or things I used to do to take the easy way out. Now, I’m trying to pick up my cross and follow Him. I’m faced with picking up these sins and giving it to God. Also putting my trust in God is hard sometimes but he’s came through for me in multiple ways. Sometimes it’s also hard to trust someone you can’t see but “fans move”…
b) Life is easier- I’m not as dependent on people. It’s easier because I can talk to God and I have a community of believers who are trying to live their lives for Him. I can go to them with an issue and they will pray for me at that moment. I’ve had people stop what their doing to pray to God because they knew I needed it. We understand this isn’t a flesh and blood fight. This is a fight between spiritual powers and beings. It’s spiritual warfare, so when you have people around you that believe and understand that, life is going to be easier.
12. What would you tell people that think you are brain washed and think Christianity is a white man’s religion? Or people that believe following God is a stupid thing to do?
I would encourage them to really read and study the Bible. For one, the names are very unique like the name “Melchizedek”. The names originate from the Middle East and Africa. On the other hand, I feel you 100% because around the time I was looking at other religions I used to think Christianity was fake but the more I started digging in history and the Bible, the more I realized that if the slave owners really understood the Bible, slavery wouldn’t have been that way. KKKs proclaiming they believe in Jesus is crazy. I read something one day that said, “Heaven will be a white supremacist hell.” Just imagine, a place of diversity and a place where Jesus called the weak to be strong. But they say they’re supreme over every race. They don’t serve Jesus! It’s like me saying I’m going to teach a medical school class based on the basic science knowledge I have. I don’t even care about medicine, but I’ll teach the parts that make sense to me and interpret it the way I want to teach it. That’s what they did. They didn’t understand the Bible. They used different sayings, trying to make sense of it, and then controlled people. People do that today. Look at your social media feed. So honestly, there’s no argument there. Read the Bible and watch the holy spirit change your life.
13. What advice would you give someone interested in building a relationship with Jesus?
My advice is to simply pray. Pray to God and you will find Him. He says to seek and you’ll find and to knock because the door will be opened. Not because you want stuff but because you want to experience Him and fans will move lol. Well not specifically fans. They may not move for you lol you may have another type of supernatural experience but I’m saying in general, God will move in your life. He will speak to you through other people on what’s going on in your heart, then you’ll be sitting there trying to figure out how do people know exactly what to say because you didn’t tell anyone or post anything about it. You’ll open the Bible and literally see something that’s going on with you at that moment. You’ll pray and things will happen.
Therefore, I want to place all of the power in God and the Holy Spirits hands to transform your life. Just pray, “Father Lord, I thank you for allowing m to be on this earth, I don't know who you are but please show me who you are. Show me because I need to know if you’re real right now.” I want to encourage you to read books as well. Also, a relationship with God is comprised with community as well. You need other believers around you. Pray, seek God, ask Him for clarity and understanding, and look for a local church. You don’t have to stay at the first church you go to either. Visit multiple churches. The Bible is filled with letters to churches. There wasn’t one church all the disciples went to. Also, the church’s doctrine must align with the word of God and you must be in the Bible and talk to Him to know what that looks like. I encourage you to go ahead and do that!
Thank you so much Deji for doing my interview! I hope you guys enjoyed this testimony and I hope it encouraged you to continue to build your relationship with God and draw closer to Him!
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Until next time…
***Peace and Blessings, XOXO***