Stay

I battled finding a title for this one, I wanted to call it ‘The Mystery of Abiding,’ but I figured ‘Stay’ would do just fine. Here goes;

J.K. Rowling is the author of the famous Harry Potter books. The synopsis of her book was rejected the first time, the second, the third, the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh through the twelfth. The thirteenth house allowed to publish her book, but what if she had given up on the third… or the sixth, or the twelfth time, she’d have missed her eureka moment! Because of that book, her net worth is estimated to range from USD 650 million to USD 1.2 billion, making her the second highest paid author in the world.

In the Tyler Perry movie Acrimony, a lady supported her husband with all she’d earn. Suddenly, she realized she’d spent all the money her mother had left her as inheritance. Among others, she files for divorce. Soon after, the dream that the husband had been chasing came to pass. He signs a multi-million deal. He gives her now ex-wife USD 10 million, 10 or 9 more times what she had sacrificed. She’s so excited and tries to remake love to him, but he’d moved on and had married another woman!

Imagine Rowling gave up! What if that lady didn’t file for divorce!

What if Simeon doubted the words the Holy Spirit had told him; that he’d not die unless he saw the Christ! His age wasn’t mentioned, but what if he passed the 120 years limit, and people started mocking him telling him he’d have heard wrongly!

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In 2010, I began writing my own books, having previously rewritten fairy tales. Some classmates told me I was so childish, some of my family members called me crazy, but I held onto my crazy books tightly and sailed with them through life’s storms. Finally, I’m publishing this year!

Ever since high school, I made cash from writing well and adding art to it. From plain thin sheets, I have seen evolvement over the years as I searched for both better canvas and higher quality backgrounds to have art by me upon. Once I felt like asking for 10,000/- was too much, now that nudge haunts me only when I ask for a million instead. I stayed. I continued with my passion!

What the Lord has taught me about the mystery of abiding (staying, remaining, continuing in the same direction) is this;

Anything that undergoes this continuity overcomes the law and illusion of time but cannot do it without patience or persistence. It is the hope for the faith we have.

Let me put it this way, as I have already given you quite a number of my personal experiences;

God is waiting for you to do something; Maybe you are still a sinner, or you are dodging Him. He’ll stay loving you unconditionally as His act of hope in order to have His expected end (which is His faith) to have you aligned to what He has for you; plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster!

In conclusion, I have one final example of how impactful your deciding to stay can be. John Katto (JK) is a generational industrious man. He has pioneered the importation of the first of many things in Uganda, such as instant colored printers.

In the first decade of this 21st century, he visited a church called Worship Harvest. They used to meet on a verandah back then and his children loved each moment of the service (yours will too) … He decided to STAY with this band of just-out-of-university-students just to see where this goes and for your own information, he and his family were literally almost 80/90% of the congregation excluding the ‘band’ for those first months. His not showing up meant the choir was going to sing to 2 or 3 people and several empty seats, but he never skipped service…HE STAYED!

Later, he introduced the Discipleship Evangelism course by Andrew Wommack, and this opened the eyes of the then members of Worship Harvest to GRACE. This grace thing wasn’t anything like the members had ever heard of.

It changed their lives around. This grace of God saved marriages, reconciled relationships and became the mantra of this church. Many sinners joined it and converted because of this message. Daily they were added unto in number, and today as I speak, that small church has grown to 14 locations across Uganda, having large properties, a school, an institute, a bank and hospital soon.

It has more than 4800 registered members and more than 200 missional communities that go into the world spreading the same message of God’s grace and winning more souls to Christ.

Testimonies are a common place in this church and more catalyzing of spiritual, social and economic renewal continues to happen by these rich souls through a motto that states; Church Begins on Monday, Sunday is Garage time.

Being able to witness the daily growth of this church leaves no spirit within you, but I pause and ponder; what if JK never stayed!

I got to hear most of his story through this particular Business Garage episode, find it embedded within this link; https://youtu.be/dwTz0FJ0wrg

Speaking of Business Garage, it is a space where Christian entrepreneurs get to share the stories of their businesses in order to inspire many others, whether employees or employers. It’s a service that happens every Sunday’s 7:30am by Worship Harvest, but I vividly remember its beginning…

Many didn’t like the idea of always talking ‘business’ in church, and so followed the low turn ups (of about approx. 60 people) for this early morning service late last year. It really looked discouraging to me, but Pastor Moses, the vision bearer, carried it on.

He continued with the heavenly instruction to execute this, staying the course, and today, a year & months later, I checked and realized that most of the previous episodes have an average of 3.3K views having lowest views at 2.8K and highest close to 5K views!

Word has it that many people, even non-Christians, all over the world, tune in, and mind you that is only for Facebook! Add YouTubers and the average will go to 5K people watching live per Sunday. From 60 to 5000; ain’t God good!

But what if Pastor Moses hadn’t stayed the course…

Enough with the numbers! I can’t stress the matter no more. I’m here to encourage you to stay! Stay with that business, it’ll bring you billions soon. Stay in prayer for your unsaved loved one, Jesus’d enter his/her heart tomorrow…Stay with your local church, it’s where God wants you now…

Abide there, for trees only flourish when they stay rooted! No tree can grow if it keeps getting uprooted and moving!

Your next miracle is just around the corner. Don’t be that miner who gave up and walked away, and yet the diamonds were just the next pick axe hit away!

Whether it’s in business, or marriage, or anything… The best is yet to come! Only remember that patience is the hope for your faith and that time is an illusion…

Stay for a little longer, it might not be for your own, but for the good of a million others…

Wait for a little longer…Tarry therein, for if the followers of Jesus hadn’t tarried in Jerusalem, and had left, if the Holy Spirit had come in that same exact place, will He have found them?

As you selah on that, this blog was inspired by JK; a spiritual father and grandfather and great grandfather to many. Thank you for staying. And I know your staying was worthwhile. Happy 61st Birthday…

Or belated birthday, depending on when you’ll see this.

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Ecclesiastes 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning of it, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Romans 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it].