Hi my blog fam!
I believe I have had this post on my heart to write since December 2019.
You ask me how one can carry a post in her heart for months and never write it? Isn’t that also how some of us carry books in our hearts for years; one that we have written in our minds over and over again but they are not really a reality? God forgive all of us in Jesus name, amen.
But the deal is that I have been stuck; stuck here in December 2019 because no matter that the year 2020 is moving on, I still have this niggling at my back of my mind to write and I also haven’t been able to do my visions for the year 2020 because I knew I had to start from here – LAYING THE YEAR 2019 TO REST first of all.
So I apologize that I am just writing this now when the world has seemingly moved on but please let me start from the back of my life so I can move on too.
The year 2019 for me was a year such as I had never lived before. It was exciting and depressing at the same time. It was heart breaking and heart lifting. It was fulfilled promises and delayed prophecies all at the same time. I lost a lot of things but also at the same time gained a lot of things also.
Let’s see my recap:
January 2019: I entered the year on a high, writing my 2in1 books to be released in the same January 2020 at a men’s mentorship meeting in Lagos Nigeria. I was also meant to shelve out 480,000naira in payments to print 1000 copies of my book which ended up becoming 510,000naira and till now I don’t even know how I paid that money but it is good to look back and see how God helped me, seeing that I am in the midst of another book project SURVIVING SINGLEHOOD book launch meant to be held in different places of the world starting with Warri, Nigeria this March 29th 2020.
We were able to pay the funds needed to make the men’s mentorship hangout work and I also experienced such a blessing of helpers and testimonies of grace…
BUT both my phone and my sister’s phone were stolen at the end of the mentorship hangout which was very painful because come on! I had just been doing God’s work!
February 2019: I experienced a harvest of finances as I went to God and cried about my phone issues. He sent me money to get both myself and my sister a phone, to fix my laptop that had gone back before then, gave me an iphone and also paid off the remaining debts for the books that were released in January. It was an overflow of financial abundance and I was very grateful to God for OPEN HEAVENS!
March 2019: This was the month that TURNED MY LIFE UPSIDE DOWN! I joined the JESUS FAST led by Lou Engle, went away on a retreat for 40 days and God just began to CHANGE MY LIFE! I lost friendships, lost team members, ministry was turned upside down. There were many days of pain as JESUS THE REFINER’S FIRE WALKED INTO MY LIFE.
April 2019: I ended my retreat this month after a time of the Holy Spirit just breaking me within. It was the beginning of a heart and consecration journey with God and it was really hard for me because God was demanding more in Holiness and righteousness from me. He was demanding TRUTH from me and He was demanding me to CHOSE HIM over and beyond men, friendships and even family. It was very HARD for me BUT by God’s grace I CHOSE HIM.
Some of the dynamics of my relationships were shaken here and ONLY the things that could not be shaken stood. IT WAS CRAZY.
May 2019: THIS MONTH WAS THE MONTH THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE!
I went away on my fast with the exchange of the promise from God to be endued with power from on high; to be empowered with the power of the Holy Spirit to do what the Lord Jesus Christ did upon the earth. This month the Lord visited me in THE MOST POWERFUL ENCOUNTER I have ever had with me. I was anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit and ministry as I knew it changed!
I was able to obey God to do the WAR ON THE DEMON OF LUST programme where before I had been scared to touch that demon, the anointing of the Holy Spirit GAVE ME BOLDNESS!
End of May 2019 the Lord also opened a door for me to be at Ghana for SUCH A FRUITFUL TIME of ministry. He also linked me with some special covenant sisters – Jeremie, Ruth and some Ghanian sisters I met up with.
June 2019: Was another HARVEST season in my life. I was interviewed on radio on air with Jeremie, had an author’s chat in Accra Ghana at a store that allowed me stock my books there (still received from payments from this this year and I am soo grateful to God!).
Went to Damongo Ghana and had such a FRUITFUL TIME of ministry with Pastor David who God linked me with. He arranged time with ministering in school, ministering to the youths at his church, ministering in their women’s conference and I also experienced one of the most POWERFUL SURGES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED TILL DATE IN MY MINISTRY (This year we are going to the Nations so if God has called you to be a Pastor David to us reaching to your nation, please reach out to us).
I preached with an interpreter!
WOW!
End of June 2019 I was back to Nigeria and we had ministry at Owerri and Enugu Nigeria (expansion as my first time in the Eastern part of Nigeria) but I made one mistake in disobedience on obeying an instruction for my marriage. I asked for mercy and God granted me mercy.
JULY 2019: I came back to Lagos Nigeria. This month was a blur except that I also experienced one of the strongest spiritual warfare I have ever experienced till date in ministry BUT GOD SAW ME THROUGH.
AUGUST 2019: This month is also a blur. Typing right now I couldn’t remember anything BUT NOW I REMEMBER! This was the month I started obeying God on a NEW MINISTRY for the end time – THE DEBORAH GENERATION. God made it so clear to me to do this in August 2019 when I got back to Nigeria and I was still so slow in obeying till I knew my TIMES AND SEASON was going to pass me by if I didn’t obey! It seemed almost like something was tied to MY OBEDIENCE AND BY GOD’S GRACE WE HAD THE FIRST MEETING. In the Spirit Jesus walked into the room and told me I was going to take this same meeting and take it all over the world. He called four cities too. He told me to do this again in Lagos Mainland, Ogbomosho, Abuja and The U.S.A. We have so far had THE DEBORAH GENERATION CONFERENCE in all cities BY THE GRACE OF GOD and we have the U.S.A left for this year. I am looking forward to seeing how God springs this whole putting the deal together because I have no links or connect. NONE! But you see I believed Jesus when He said this to me because I was also on the floor worshiping God when He spoke about going to Ghana to me so I know He is FAITHFUL and able to fulfill His promises IN ONE DAY!
September 2019: THIS WAS MY BIRTH MONTH! I celebrated my birthday on September 6th 2019 at a Girls correctional centre facility in Lagos with my book ENIOLA and got impregnated with a vision to take this same work to prisons.
Same September we began the PRAYERS FOR YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND CHALLENGE and rounded up at a vigil on September 28th 2020.
October 2019: We had the DEBORAH GENERATION CONFERENCE Lagos mainland, and this began a NEW THING in my life. Had deliverance on crossing over into a NEW THING and birthing FRUIT from my life in prayers and then also God led me to go away on a two week retreat to Jos Nigeria which I took in November 2020.
This same October 2019 I HAD A HUGE DELIVERANCE from the Lord delivering me from an over 10 years bondage. I will talk about this soon in my book FREE INDEED!
November 2019: I went away to Jos Nigeria for a retreat, the object of the retreat was breaking out into A NEW THING and God also wanted me to give Him thanks in a programme after the deliverance He had wrought for me in October 2019. While at Jos, I received two prophecies from a man who didn’t even know me and one of them confirmed what God had been speaking to me.
Same November 2019 when I came out from my retreat, we had an 8 hours tongues session at Abuja Nigeria (sowing seeds of prayer) and also THE DEBORAH GENERATION CONFERENCE finally held at Ogbomosho Nigeria. God gave us all the help and support we needed and the conference was a MIGHTY SUCCESS TO THE GLORY OF GOD.
After that I had a massive meltdown discouragement deal when I came back to Lagos on November 30th 2019… it took God to drag me out of. You could say I was experiencing an Elijah mountain high and low situation.
December 2019: would see me in a state where I was thanking the Lord for all He said He would do for me this year. I was in some denial also. As much as He said this year, I was hoping for this year but also at the same time wondering: God would this year really pass on by without you doing what you said you would do for me? I was also on a fast as well, was experiencing encounters with God but strangely was also in a state of Lord what’s happening? Why are the promises not coming to pass? But God also ended the year on a high note with our ministry with us, with seeing two successful end of year events.
He had told me before that THE ONLY REASON why I am able to have events is because He helps me and I saw Him do this over and over again in the year 2019 that everything He gave me and I set out to do, NOT ONLY HELD but was a success! EBENEZER WAS HELPING ME!
I admit that some of my lows from the year 2019 came from dealings between me and God. Some of the friendships I lost and misunderstandings from situations came from me just being introspective at times with what I was going through and then it was misunderstood and read to be something else.
I would say that if there was anything I felt a lot in the year 2019, it was feeling alone. It didn’t feel like I had friends who I could share with that this is what is going on with me. It seemed like I was trying to give so much into the lives of others but receiving absolutely nothing in return. It felt like I was carrying my cross alone and it has really made me resolve that those who I call friends should be people who check on me, who know what is going on with and in my life. How can I pray for you Frances?
I realized what a terrible burden being someone who is seen to be ‘strong’ is. While I was at the retreat at Jos Nigeria, a sister called to check on me saying she hadn’t seen my posts on social media for a while, she was asking how I was doing and at the same time saying ‘I trust you, you are strong’… well that may be true but what if I had told her that just before she called, I had cried in tears in prayer to God over something that was so hard for me to deal with?
I think something I took from the year 2019 was the fact that “Lord, I want real friends”. Even for some of the friendships I lost, looking back, I realize how much of them weren’t really ‘friendships’ in the first place, and that was something I think God really spent time differentiating in my life in the year 2019. He spent time drawing a dividing line between my relationships. Between the relationships where it was that I was ministering to them as a pastor in ministry as against me thinking that they are my friends. This breaking and shredding was hard I won’t lie as all of a sudden, Frances was alone. My year 2019 was strange. Jesus walked into my life as a refiner’s fire and cut through EVERY AREA OF MY LIFE, even my relationships were not spared. EVERY AREA was touched.
I really and truly look forward to having great friendships this year 2020 or even just one friend who I know is a friend and is not in my life because I am giving out to them as the ‘strong one’.
YEAR 2019 WINS:
If I would count the things I won at in the year 2019 I would say MY RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. All of a sudden I was in this place where I had never been before. I was seeing God take an interest IN ME; in who I was on the inside of me. He was wrecking my heart, removing sins I did not even know were there and working on my heart so deeply. All of a sudden Jesus was coming to me to separate the wheat from the chaff. It was unreal. And then I began to experience deep encounters with God, the seer’s anointing was released upon me, ministry anointing in the Holy Ghost skyrocketed and for the first time in my life I SAW JESUS, and had an encounter with an angel. I want MORE of these in this year 2020 as I realize Jesus simply gave me a foretaste of what He wanted to do in my life in my prophetic walk with Him and it started with the JESUS FAST.
Was the whole rearrangement of my life worth the depth of what God began to show and release to me? I would say it was worth it MANY MANY TIMES OVER and I would do it all over again, taking the same decisions I had taken, releasing and letting go of the things I let go of for receiving MORE of Jesus.
I want more of this in the year 2020 and ask for grace to PAY THE PRICE. I will tell you more about this when I write about my vision for the year 2020.
YEAR 2019 LOSSES:
Definitely the loss of friendships and the whole upturning of my life and ministry. EVERYTHING THAT COULD BE SHAKEN WAS SHAKEN. It was a BIG one. God wanted to teach me wisdom and love and grace and holiness and righteousness and take me back to my beginnings of having a right heart in Him ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
If I could do some things over I guess I would have used MORE WISDOM and some of the shaking I experienced would have had a softer landing.
The second loss would be my finances. Oh, I believe this was something slothfulness cost me a lot. Some books I was meant to write, courses I was meant to do, etc. I wasn’t as productive with being fruitful as I could have been. I would have done more if I had been more diligent and finally get off living from hand to mouth in the thousands, to millions.
Tomorrow as God gives me grace to write, I will be sharing just a little bit of my vision for year 2020 with you. Now that I have gotten this blog out of the way and finally laying the year 2020 to rest, I can move on to better things and more glorious things in year 2020.
Look out for my post on the plans for the year 2020 soon on here and prayerfully when I get backlogs out of the way, then I can also tell you about plans for regular blogging this year and my schedule etc. etc.
I plan to use the blog as an accountability set up for my goals and visions this year too because I feel I want to document my year 2020 and really really just walk through everything God is doing and will do for each month for future reference.
I am also grateful to you for being on the blog since the year 2013. I believe this would be my 7th year of blogging and I pray for God to tell me what to do with the blog and how to take it further.
I love you but Jesus loves you more.
God bless you my blog fam!
See you next time soon.
A FEW THINGS:
Guys, I shared on the blog about my NEW BOOK RELEASE (thank you sooo much for the love). I’d love to now share that the very first BOOK LAUNCH for my new book SURVIVING SINGLEHOOD is holding In Warri, Delta State Nigeria on Sunday March 29th 2020 by 3pm-6pm.
I truly look forward to connecting with you if you are in the city of Warri. Please register for FREE here.
Also the hard copies of SURVIVING SINGLEHOOD are now available for purchase and you can order for 2000 naira only throughout this month of March 2020 as prices go up to 2500Naira after the month of March 2020 ends.
You can order for copies using this link.
Please say a prayer for me, if you have been receiving my newsletter then you know God has been speaking to me on FRUITFULNESS and this book is the first of many fruits to come. We still have an Asaba Delta State book launch to plan, University of Nsukka, and Dubai.
If you are in any of these places and you want to help plan with me please do reach out to me at okorofrances@gmail.com
May our God-given dreams thrive, grow, established and be established by the Lord upon the earth in Jesus name amen.
P.S: Please share my book launch flyer on your social media channels.
Hey guys and girls in Warri!Come attend this SINGLES HANGOUT FOR FREE! And grrove in these times of gloom oh! YOLO!CLICK TO TWEET
It’s open to BOTH MEN AND WOMEN.
Thank youuuu and God bless you!
Till my next blog post here (which will be sooner than you think),
Lots of love,
Hephzibah Frances
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