Child of God, Time to Grow Up! Here Are Some Tips on How

Child of God, Time to Grow Up! Here Are Some Tips on How

#coachtoyinsboomtip

Yup! Child of God I said it. It is time to grow up! 💥

I repeat! It is time to grow up and this week I want to share with you some critical tips on how you can stop experiencing life battered by sin, battered by brokenness, battered by powerlessness, battered by total or frequent disconnectedness from God. ❤️😇💪🏽

I have come to understand that the primary challenge that Christianity faces is that we think that being a Christian is about subscribing to what we think is a higher standard of morals. If this is what you think, let me announce it to you now- that is FALSE. That is not what being a Christian is about. 💥😭
Moral living is a product of being a child of God, but it is definitely not what Christianity is primarily about. 

This week I wanna share with you some crucial tips about what being a Child of God is really about, so that if you have been living a lesser version or wrong version of Christianity you can make some changes now. I’m gonna do this by sharing with you 4 videos titled👉🏼 It’s About Time To GROW in the Spirit. Today I’m going to share with you video 1 of 4 videos https://youtu.be/3oEmS2wqM80

Make sure you watch all 4. Today you can watch video 1, but make sure you come back on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday to watch Videos 2, 3 and 4 respectively or you can decide to binge watch all 4 now. They won’t take you more than 30mins in total. 💥🎬😀

But folks trust me for the times we live in, you CAN NO LONGER AFFORD to walk around clueless about what it really means to be a believer in Christ. In order for you to make any difference in this world🌎 as a child of God, you need to grow up. 💥

Hey folks! I hope you already watched video 1 in this series. If not, pls go to my YouTube channel (The Narrow Gateway With Coach Toyin) and search for “ITS ABOUT TIME TO GROW IN THE SPIRIT Part 1 of 4”. It gives such a good intro to this series.

I’ve had such great feedback from you all and today I want you to go ahead and watch Video 2https://youtu.be/o3uk6sd-KaA. Time to grow up fam! We as Christians are often so ineffective because we get saved and stay spiritual babies; no clue of what you are saved from, how you were saved and what you have been saved to become. 😭 If only we could get this right, we would be 🔥🔥🔥 the fire the world needs! 

So join me in this video series where I give you tips to GROW UP! And come back on Friday and Sunday for more tips ❤

Hey folks! I’m loving this week’s Boom Tips 💃🏽💃🏽and loving the feedback. Most importantly, I really pray that you’re being inspired to grow up as a christian. 

When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are a spiritual babe in Christ, and you must learn to grow in the things of God.

Child of God, you need to be hungry for God, so hungry that you stop being okay with just being spoonfed and seek Him with all their hearts. At some point, people need to grow up and once this happens, they are guaranteed to become better, growing Christians.

If you haven’t watched videos 1 and 2, find the links in the comments. Or just go to my YouTube Channel – search for “The Narrow Gateway With Coach Toyin”; you’ll find the videos there … and while you are there, subscribe will you? 😁

Today’s video is video 3 https://youtu.be/ev6vhbdfZZ4 ❤️

Come back on Sunday for video 4

This week’s #boomtip videos on ITS ABOUT TIME TO GROW IN THE SPIRIT has been epic! Confirm with a 🙋🏽‍♀️ if you have watched any of the 3 videos posted this week, and if you were blessed. ♥️♥️

So this afternoon, we are watching video 4 which is the final video 💃🏽- https://youtu.be/VUMfMbjc5kY

️If you missed videos 1 to 3, please please go watch them. I’ll post the links to those videos in the comments. Otherwise, you can just go to my YouTube Channel – search for “The Narrow Gateway With Coach Toyin”; you’ll find the videos there … and while you are there, subscribe will you?❤️💥

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is DSC_5505-199x300.jpg

Coach Toyin, Founder of The Narrow Gateway


As always, I end this by saying, I am Coach Toyin, fully convicted by my own words and very much still under construction in the hands of the Father.

If my soul must be captivated by rhythm…

If my soul must be captivated by rhythm…

I have songs that make my cheeks flush and my skin tingle. For as long as I can remember, I have sat at the feet of music, my hands beckoning, my heart raised within me, ripe ears tuned to receive lessons and counsel. Lessons on love, affection, commitment, passion, desire, romance…beauty.  For as long as I can remember, my soul would rise to heights of ecstasy and then dive to lows of woe, simply at the convergence  of certain melodies. “Music,” they say, “is an outburst of the soul.” How true.

However, when I renewed myself in my choice to be a Christ-follower, a bunch of years back, the Spirit stirred within me. He knew what music was to me. He also knew that the faces and paces of the music I had rended my heart to up until that time had warped my understanding of the very life He had now breathed into me.

“Your music has to come along for the journey, through the narrow gateway,” He said. But I wanted no such thing. I was convinced it would mean a life stripped of all tingling melodies. I couldn’t have that. I loved my music. I embraced the creative tones and the cleverly strung-out lyrics, even when the words and messages cringed at my newly reborn spirit. I loved to trail into dance spaces and have my feet respond to the soul-rustling sounds, my mood, rising, pulsating, lifting me, just because someone clicked ‘play’.  So I gripped tighter at my seat, at the feet of my old counsellors, my old teachers, my old music. “Take me through the narrow gateway Lord, if You must. But leave my music on the broad way!”

But there was a new Counsellor humming in my inner parts, and He was steppin’ like a boss, strutting from my eternal heart-space to His eternal heart-space, filling me with music, new lyrics and songs that strummed the chords of my spirit, like my old music never had. Life-giving melodies that drew me into a Presence that some have described as the purest euphony bursting forth. “You, oh Lord, are my symphony, perfect in harmony” – Fred Hammond.

So, if my soul must be captivated by rhythm, let it be glorious and heavenly. Let its harmonies fascinate my heart as it re-educates me about love, affection, commitment, passion, desire, romance…beauty, behind the narrow gateway. If my music is an outburst of my soul, and my love for its emotive eruptions compel me to remain seated at its feet, spellbound as it croons its counsel into my ears, then may compel it, my music, to sit, fixated, channeled, composed, at the feet of the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit. “My music, my counsellor, meet the Counsellor. Come along; He’s taking us on a journey, through the narrow gateway.”

Here’s the song that’s fascinating me tonight. It pulls on my heart strings because its lyrics (captured in the feature image) tell of what I have tasted and seen.

Holy Spirit‘ as performed by Kim Walker Smith.

There’s nothing worth more that will ever come close
No thing can compare You’re our living hope
Your Presence Lord

I’ve tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves
Where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone
Your Presence Lord

Holy Spirit You are welcome here
Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere
Your glory God is what our hearts long for
To be overcome by Your Presence Lord

Let us become more aware of Your Presence
Let us experience the glory of Your goodness

Critically, I end this by saying I am Toyin, quirky writer of this piece. I am very much convicted by my own words, and I remain under construction.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I’d love to hear from you!

Thank you for reading and engaging. I’d love to hear from you! What/who were your “counsellors” before your commitment to being a follower of Jesus Christ? Which of them still remain your counsellors and which have you allowed to accompany you on your transformation journey through the narrow gateway? Hey, maybe you have held back from making that commitment at all because you just are not up to bowing out your counsellors. Well, get in touch! Tell me your story.  Let’s see where it takes us.

Place your comments in the section below, or you could send me a private message on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. And don’t forget to like my page on Facebook (@coachtoyin) and follow me on Twitter (@thenarrowgate4) and on Instagram (@coach_toyin). Engage, share and re-share.

I look forward to getting to know you better. Keep truth-seeking.

Yours in truth-telling,

Toyin

Toyin is a writer, blogger, vlogger, speaker, chat-show host (WITNG Chats) and all round lover of encouraging life behind the narrow gateway. She is the founder of The Narrow Gateway, which is a platform that houses an ever-growing collection of creative resources and materials that are dipped in truth according to God’s Word, geared to trigger us to ask, WITNG? “What is the narrow gateway?” when we encounter life’s events and nuances. Because when we discover the narrow gateway in any given circumstance, we become kitted to be transformed, that is, to bring our thoughts, values and actions in line, so that as we increasingly resemble Christ, we can burst forth in expressing the gifts and callings that God embedded in us, which are designed to be the solutions to many quagmires in our world. (www.thenarrowgateway.com

Unrelenting! I’ve got to know, WITNG?

Unrelenting! I’ve got to know, WITNG?

My boss reeks of prejudice and bigotry. He eyeballs me, and sees a scape goat. What is the narrow gateway? A devastating divorce is tearing my family apart. I am bleeding shards of pain. What is the narrow gateway? I’m a skilled artist. I could make you shudder to your very core. What is the narrow gateway? My 10 year old kid is begging for tickets to see a famous hip-hop artist performing live. What is the narrow gateway? My son had scarcely gulped in his first few gusts of air at birth before I snuck out of the hospital, with my heart clutched in my hands, never to set eyes on my son again. What is the narrow gateway? My people eek out a living on $2 a day while my government fattens itself with their blood and toil. What is the narrow gateway? Another kid, another mall shooting, my town is ravaged, my kind is mourning. What is the narrow gateway?

Imagine this. Christians. Followers of the Way, triggered to respond to life and its nuances by instinctively exploring WITNG? What is the narrow gateway? The narrow gateway is the road less travelled. The non-conformist road. Mainstream rhetoric says, “this is the way, go this way. This is what is pleasing, this is what feels good. This is what is comfortable, this is what feels just. This is what you deserve, this is what everybody is doing.” And so the teeming crowds flock there, constructing their own truth as they push along. But followers of the narrow gateway stand still. Our feet are stuck in the ground. We don’t do mainstream. Mainstream just does not cut it. We know that truth is not what we create. It is who Jesus is. And we are in relentless pursuit of the God-life. We are walking behind the narrow gate. So all we want to know is:

“What’s the Lord saying?”

“What does His Word say about this thing tearing through my home, my city?”

“What is the Spirit in me breaking out to do?”

“Where are the fruits? Righteousness, patience, kindness, controlled strength, gentleness, love?”

“Will the Lord dance on my reaction? Will He cheer on my ensuing thoughts?”

“Is He all up in this, spurring me on, or is He calling my name, asking me where I am and what in the world I am doing?”

And when we get the answers, the pearls of truth, we turn, we align, we run with it, through the narrow gateway, even if it’s just me, you, and a trickle of other followers making our way through.

Jesus spoke about the narrow gateway in Matthew 7:13-14. This is the way that leads to THE GOD-life, but He said, few find it. Because there is another gateway, a broad way, an easy way, a mainstream way, which we are naturally inclined to take. And if we do not commit intensely and pursue God passionately, we will take the broad way. It’s just the way we are wired. But we want to be of those that track God behind the narrow gateway. Because the truth sanctifies, it sets us apart, it makes us free and sets us on course to boldly living out our God-given purpose here on earth, UNLOCKING SOLUTION SPACES and creating answers to the very quagmires that abound around us.

This is why the Narrow Gateway is BUILDING A PLATFORM OF CREATIVE RESOURCES at www.thenarrowgateway.com and through social media, to trigger us  to fill our spaces with the passionate pursuit of the God-life. No Calm. No Chill. We are loading this platform with materials that are bursting with truth. Books, blogs, vlogs, interviews, videos, audio broadcasts, bible studies, online and F2F trainings and other resources and materials that are easily accessible, so that the truth is always at your fingertips as you PURSUE THE GOD-LIFE UNRELENTINGLY. You name it, if we can pull it off creatively, we will, and God allowing, we will make it available for you. Tune out the static and tune in the truth when you are out jogging, or maybe waiting for an appointment, or driving, or in a taxi, train, airplane, come online and listen, read, engage and be filled with the mind-transforming truth behind the narrow gateway. And when you find the truth, rend your heart to it. Align. Run with it! Do outrageous things! Let the God-love and the God-life in you pour out and create solutions in our aching world.

“When because of your faith, your life too becomes perceptibly different; when your reactions are quite opposite to what the situation seems to call for and your activities can no longer be explained in terms of your personality; that is when your neighbourhood will sit up and take notice. In the eyes of the world, it is not our relationship with Jesus Christ that counts; it is our resemblance to Him.” – Ray Stedman

That, my friends, is THE NARROW GATEWAY.

Thank you for reading and engaging. I’d love to hear from you! Is the narrow gateway a thing for you? Is it believable? Is the God-life worth pursuing unrelentingly? What’s holding you back? What’s pushing you to grab hold of this message? Talk to me. Put your comments in the section below, or you could send me a private message on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. Don’t forget to like my page on Facebook (@coachtoyin) and follow me on Twitter (@thenarrowgate4). Engage, engage, engage. Listen to the interviews, read the blogs, share and re-share, tweet and retweet.

Critically, I end this by saying I am Toyin, quirky writer of this piece, and I am very much convicted by my own words, and under construction. I look forward to getting to know you better.

 

The Narrow Gateway was founded by Toyin Oladiran. She is a writer, blogger, vlogger, speaker, and pursuer of truth-seeking, truth-telling and truth-living. Toyin loves to describe herself as being under-construction and working towards living for the Audience of One. Toyin is married to Fiyin, and she is mother to two adorable toddlers a.k.a her Sunshinebabies. They live in Lagos, Nigeria. Toyin is a commercial lawyer.

Pushed, I tell you!

Pushed, I tell you!

A couple of days ago, I was pushed, I tell you! Here was I, minding my own business like any mama of two toddlers who has been gifted with a free evening would (hmmm? ☺). It was pretty late at night but I felt my writing juices sizzling, so I cracked open my laptop and got merrily stuck into a piece I had been writing. When I was done, I thought, hey, let me just faff around on Facebook a bit, mess around with a few concepts, maybe create a Facebook page, you know, invite one or two people to test it out. You know, normal, everyday stuff like that. Next thing I know, Facebook popped open, pages were created, words were written and voila! People were invited! I went to bed with my head in the clouds (it was about 5am) and a huge accomplished grin on my face, feeling like surely I must be the true author of the best-selling book, the Purpose Driven Life (in my dreams) because that right there was some purpose-driven livin’. Whoohoo! Only for me to wake up 2 hours later with a start! Freaking out! “Hey! Tooyyyiiiin, what did you do?! You went and opoooned Facebook page ehn?!” (original accent on point) “You invited peepuu?! Ahh! Who poooshed you?!” Complete with hands on my head and everything! I got pushed, I tell you. That’s my story (with some writer’s seasoning for ‘n bietjie flavour of course) and I’m sticking to it! ☺

Okay, dramatics aside, have you ever had an experience like this? Where you take a leap, or more like find yourself taking a leap, and mid-air, you look around, then up, then down, and you and realise, YOU ARE NO LONGER ON THE GROUND! And you are like, “Where in the world did that come from? Who pushed me? This is not the road I planned to be on! This route is not on the map!” But deep in your heart, you just know that though it might look like you are on some shot left, this apparent detour is actually linked to your highway to God-breathed purpose for that season of your life. I’m talking about purpose-driven living here. The Narrow Gateway is way beyond my comfort zone. I mean I like to chit-chat quite a bit on social media, as most of you know, and yes, I am big on observing events in the world and adding my N7.80k (2 cents converted to Naira at black market rate☺) to the discourse, from time to time. But trust me, it’s only a push from God that could get this girl right here to go a whole lot of steps beyond conveniently placed comments on Facebook, into what I am doing now. And I share a bit more about that right at the end of this piece, and more in later pieces. But guys, are any of you going through something similar? Can you feel the season? Are you continuously glancing behind you to see who is incessantly prodding at your back, and declaring, ”This is the way, walk in it”?

I have noticed something blistering over in the hearts of a number of people I have engaged with lately. Purpose! Purpose! Purpose! Be the solution! It’s like, the time for brewing and stewing has come and gone, and yes it will come back again, but right now, it’s time to serve up the main course, and let the people feast and be filled! The season of “the vision is for an appointed time” will come back around. But there is an urgency about the now. Move. Burst forth. Dust off those dreams and soul-erupting passions that God placed inside of you, you know, those ones that used to keep your eyes wide and burning at night, once upon a time, but are now like dying embers in the crowded spaces of your mind? Those ones that make your skin crawl when you contemplate translating them to real life because though you know that this is who you really are, you are scared because it feels way bigger than what you can dare to be? Most importantly, those dreams that are principally about cracking open the code to solution spaces in a world that is in dire need of real, tangible answers to pain and suffering and brokenness? I’m talking about allowing yourself to get pushed into stirring up and unlocking those gifts that God wrote into your DNA, trusting that the One who pushed you, will bear you up and accomplish the work that He Himself placed in your hands to do. I’m talking about purpose-driven living, not the kind that has ‘self’ as the focal highlight, or the kind that feeds off attention by creating a spectacle. I’m not talking about living for the red carpets of social media so that we can have people clicking virtual likes and hearts at us and inserting our names and our work into their cleverly crafted hashtags. I’m not talking about punting ourselves, our strengths, our skills and talents, our savvy, our glamour just for the fame; though fame in itself is all well and good, and can actually be a powerful tool, if that is part of God’s plan for your life. I am talking about the God-push that prompts us to respond to creation, which is waiting, eagerly anticipating the revealing of the children of God.

The world is in turmoil. We know that. Just a few days ago, a chemical attack struck the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, a province in Syria. At least 85 people, including 20 children, died. There were horrific images of children suffocating on the ground, victims writhing and gasping for air, bodies lined up in rows and heaps, all over. Yesterday, I saw a picture of a victim, a man clutching the lifeless bodies of his twin babies in his arms, wailing in despair at the carnage around him and the terror he had not been able to protect them from. He also lost his wife and at least 20 of his family members. My hands were shaking as I read about it. In the same time span, an orphanage that I follow on Facebook, posted a picture of their newest arrivals, two abandoned babies, they couldn’t have been more than a few days old. This orphanage is one of hundreds in South Africa, and it posts pictures like these at least once every couple of weeks. So this was not a once off occurrence. My heart…it splintered, knowing that these kids, even though they may have one up on hundreds and thousands of other abandoned babies, in that they have been taken in by an orphanage, they will still one day have to deal with having experienced such tragic loss at birth. Creation groans and pangs, as if in childbirth, waiting to be delivered from the rampant futility into the glorious liberty of the children of God, and for the believer, our role remains what it has been throughout the ages when we have had cycles of increasing corruption and decay in our world; we, pushing into our gifts and callings, are meant to be working the works which God prepared for us to walk in, unravelling the maze of brokenness in a world that is crying out for us to live the truth that we claim to believe. We are to plug into our gifts so as to unlock solution spaces and unravel answers to the spiritual, moral, economic, political and social crises that besiege our families, schools, churches, communities, nations.

What holds us back? For me, it’s looked something like this: I have my own problems, I am dealing with my own challenges, my resources have their own limitations, and most of all, I am faaar from squeaky clean, so how can I even think of helping my world when I myself need help? I cannot be anyone’s solution. Right? Wrong. Purpose-driven living may start off being about us and about how God is moulding us and bringing us into a new season, and equipping us, but the focus soon shifts to the work that God wants to do through us – we are but vessels, tools, conduits. As we ride the wave, it becomes less about us and more about the lives that have our names written on them, as a contributors to their deliverance. The more we spotlight that, our inadequacies and even our egos, diminish, and we become more fruitful in the hands of the Father, to show the world He loves who He really is and what He has already done to deliver us from darkness.

So I ask you again. Does this resonate with you? Do you feel the push? Has there been a fire burning inside you, stirring you up to do things that scare you and thrill you at the same time?  Do you find yourself seized by the events around you? Maybe in your family, or your community, in your school, place of work, in your nation? Has God placed in you a natural inclination, a gift, to be hospitable, or compassionate, or giving, or efficient, or administrative, or creative, or artistic, or resourceful (for example)? Do you have access to funds, or influence, or a network, or a platform, or time, or equipment, or premises, or knowledge, or skills? There’s grace (divine enablement) right now. Take a dip.

If this piece speaks to you, but you are saying, “How do I find out what my gift is, or what my purpose is?” or “I know what I am meant to be doing with my life but I just can’t bring myself to step out. I am scared no one will buy what I’m selling” or “This is all well and good but reality beckons. I have a family to feed, I have bills to pay. Purpose-driven living is a child’s dream, but I am all grown up, and awake.” If that is you, please feel free to contact me directly on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. No I do not have any magical answers to your questions but together, we can do some truth-seeking. I also have a network of coaches that I could link you up with who can work with you to explore, discover and manifest your God-given gifts to the glory of God.

Thank you for reading and engaging. I’d love to hear from you! Can you feel the push? Where is that voice taking you? Are you giving in to the push? What’s life like post-push (if I may use that term)? I would really love to hear your stories of a life lived by the push of God, being the solution to the world in whatever way God has enabled you. If you are not keen on talking about yourself, maybe you can share other peoples’ stories, people you admire, who have given in to the push – everyday people in your life. Who knows, we may be able to do some truth-telling together. So please do go ahead and put your comments in the section below, or you could send me a private message on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. And don’t forget to like my page on Facebook (@coachtoyin) and follow me on Twitter (@thenarrowgate4). Engage, engage, engage. Listen to the interviews, read the blogs, share and re-share, tweet and retweet.

Critically, I end this by saying I am Toyin, quirky writer of this piece, and I am very much convicted by my own words, and under construction.

I look forward to getting to know you better. Keep truth-seeking.

Yours in truth-telling,

Toyin

Toyin is a writer, blogger, vlogger, speaker and all round lover of truth-seeking and truth-telling. She is the founder of The Narrow Gateway, which is a platform that houses an ever-growing collection of creative resources and materials that are dipped in truth according to God’s Word, geared to trigger us to ask, WITNG? “What is the narrow gateway?” when we encounter life’s events and nuances. Because when we discover the narrow gateway in any given circumstance, we become well kitted to be transformed, that is, to bring our thoughts, values and actions in line, so that as we increasingly resemble Christ, we can burst forth in expressing the gifts and callings that God embedded in us, which are designed to be the solution to the world. (www.thenarrowgateway.com