My Journey from self-life to God life!
Coming like a little child to MiXchange
Coming into the MiXchange to me was such a big moment. I had known since August the previous year that I needed to be at the Mixchange. So by January 2022 I was as ready as can be. This was all so new to me and I did not really know what to expect. But the first day was great, there were many faces and many names but it was wonderful to see so many other young people who had also come to exchange. I remember we started out with staff prayer, after introducing ourselves and then we had some time where we got to know one another.
To be honest I thought that we were going to pray and have sessions all day long, which we sometimes do but it was so wonderful to step into an environment where we could start our day with speaking to God, and then giving our works for the rest of the day to Him.
During the first week here we didn’t really do as much, seeing as we were all settling in, we even played 30 Seconds the one day just to break the ice. After the first week the MiXchange was home.
At the time I joined the MiXchange I came here knowing that I will be confronted with many things in my soul and flesh that I would have to let go of because I had been influenced by the world system for 21 years. Yes, there were many things, some just fell off of me like dead skin and other things took some more time.
Just for context, going into the MiXchange I was dating Mathew, whom I had been dating for the last 6 years. So on the 1st of March we had a session with Pastor Sharon that changed my life. It’s difficult to put into words all that happened in me during that session but by the end of it God had done a redemptive work in me and I knew that my relationship was out of order. So by the leading of Holy Spirit I sent Mathew the recording of the session. After he listened to it Holy Spirit had done the same thing in his heart and we both knew that we had to put an end to our romantic relationship.
So we met with one another, talked about the exchange we were making – Giving God our relationship for the relationship He planned for us, with the person He intended for us, and then from then on we have known one another as friend and brother/sister in Christ. As unreal as it sounds not one of us experienced any heart-break, sadness or regret. God is a redemptive God, His grace was and is sufficient for us and I give Him all the glory. Not only did He save us from making a mistake for our future, He even protected us from the after-effects of it. All glory to God!
This all happened a few days before I was baptised and for me it was such a significant moment of dying to what I thought was right, to what I thought was good and to what I thought was the plan for my life, and I was raised up into the glorious splendor of God’s plan for my life. Praise the Lord!
A Big Exchange
At the time I joined the MiXchange I came here knowing that I will be confronted with many things in my soul and flesh that I would have to let go of because I had been influenced by the world system for 21 years. Yes, there were many things, some just fell off of me like dead skin and other things took some more time.
Just for context, going into the MiXchange I was dating Mathew, whom I had been dating for the last 6 years. So on the 1st of March we had a session with Pastor Sharon that changed my life. It’s difficult to put into words all that happened in me during that session but by the end of it God had done a redemptive work in me and I knew that my relationship was out of order. So by the leading of Holy Spirit I sent Mathew the recording of the session. After he listened to it Holy Spirit had done the same thing in his heart and we both knew that we had to put an end to our romantic relationship.
So we met with one another, talked about the exchange we were making – Giving God our relationship for the relationship He planned for us, with the person He intended for us, and then from then on we have known one another as friend and brother/sister in Christ. As unreal as it sounds not one of us experienced any heart-break, sadness or regret. God is a redemptive God, His grace was and is sufficient for us and I give Him all the glory. Not only did He save us from making a mistake for our future, He even protected us from the after-effects of it. All glory to God!
This all happened a few days before I was baptised and for me it was such a significant moment of dying to what I thought was right, to what I thought was good and to what I thought was the plan for my life, and I was raised up into the glorious splendor of God’s plan for my life. Praise the Lord!
A Daily Exchange
Other than that MiXchange is so much more that one can imagine. When you come to give God your all you don’t necessarily know what ‘all’ is until you start giving big chunks of yourself to God. Sometimes it’s easy to give, but other times it’s hard to give. Not because your spirit doesn’t want to but because your soul likes its comfort and your flesh wants to do what it wants to do, and that is exactly why we are here. To exchange a life of comfort zones and strong-willed life for one of yielding, following, growing, blessing, and spirituality.
I have learned here that giving your life to God is a one day at a time thing. It’s not like you say once: “God, I give you my life”, and now you just walk in everything He has for you. It’s the start, but we need to choose to give God our life, every day. We need to be praying out His plan for our life, and we need to be sensitive to Holy Spirit for His leading, daily. Living by faith is like flying a plane, lift off is quite hard and it requires more fuel, but once you are in the air you use the fuel in the tank, and that tank we fill daily with the Word of God, and with fellowship with Him. Not because of religion or out of obligation but because of relationship.
So, yeah if I had to write down the daily changes in my heart I could write a book. Not because they are as big but because the small things changed my life in a big scale. I have come up in my love walk drastically, I have learned principles of honour and submission which was huge for me, I have a new understanding of the importance of relationships, I have learned that my time is not my own, it is God’s and I need to spend it well, I have found new joy in looking after my body because it is my vessel to walk out God’s plan and purpose for my life, and I have discovered how wonderful it is to have a bold and honest relationship with God.
Sometimtes as I reflect on who I was before I came here and then I am astonished by the fact that I thought I was okay. I see more and more how God saved me from many things by planting me here at Heritage of Faith and by bringing me to the MiXchange. Still, God is showing me things daily and isn’t that wonderful? Because we are on a journey and we will never arrive because in God there is always growth. Without growth we would all just stop living, and stop functioning. I look forward to more change, more growth, more of God, more light, more confrontation, more discomfort, more love, more joy, more peace, more blessing, just more, because God is the God of more! Praise the Lord!
2 Corinthians 5:17 – ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!’
My Change
So, yeah if I had to write down the daily changes in my heart I could write a book. Not because they are as big but because the small things changed my life in a big scale. I have come up in my love walk drastically, I have learned principles of honour and submission which was huge for me, I have a new understanding of the importance of relationships, I have learned that my time is not my own, it is God’s and I need to spend it well, I have found new joy in looking after my body because it is my vessel to walk out God’s plan and purpose for my life, and I have discovered how wonderful it is to have a bold and honest relationship with God.
Sometimtes as I reflect on who I was before I came here and then I am astonished by the fact that I thought I was okay. I see more and more how God saved me from many things by planting me here at Heritage of Faith and by bringing me to the MiXchange. Still, God is showing me things daily and isn’t that wonderful? Because we are on a journey and we will never arrive because in God there is always growth. Without growth we would all just stop living, and stop functioning. I look forward to more change, more growth, more of God, more light, more confrontation, more discomfort, more love, more joy, more peace, more blessing, just more, because God is the God of more! Praise the Lord!
2 Corinthians 5:17 – ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!’