Are you serious about becoming more like Jesus?

Do you actually want to grow in God or are you happy staying as you are? Are you willing to pay any price to learn more about God? Are you willing to travel anywhere just to get one step closer to being more like Jesus? Are you serious about becoming more like Jesus?

If the answer is yes and you are willing to do anything to become more like Jesus and grow in your relationship with him then look at the points below. I promise that if you take your relationship with God seriously your life will never be the same again.

Be truly honest and open with someone: To move forward in your faith you need to realise where you are starting from. I strongly recommend being honest and open with someone and not just anyone, pick someone who you respect because of their faith and relationship with God. When you have found someone answer the questions above with them and do your best to be as open and honest as possible. Remember the more open you are the faster you grow.

Memorise your Bible: This is simple but so effective! Getting the word of God inside of you is essential to growth. This is the primary way that God speaks to his church, so if you want to know God's opinion on something or if you want to know what he thinks about you, then read your Bible. Don't just read your Bible, memorise it! Memorising your Bible helps it to become easily accessible for you to use. If the devil is attacking you then you can go to your memory and say aloud 2 Thess 2:7, if you are doubting whether God is there you can remember Hebrews 13:5. Simple but effective.

Show God you mean business: Sometimes I think it is helpful to do something a little bit crazy just to show God that you mean business about changing the world, this happens all over the Bible just read 2 Samuel 6 - David dances around in his underwear just to praise God! I think it is healthy if we do something that is sacrificially crazy because it helps us take big steps in our faith. Why not try fasting, or staying awake a whole night just to pray or join the 6am prayer meeting, why not give all the money you have away, talk to a stranger about Jesus or outrageously bless someone with like an Ipad or something! If you want to show God you are serious about growing put yourself in sacrificial places in which you need to fully rely on him.

These are just three ways that can help you grow and to be honest there are loads of ways to help you grow in God. I listed these three because these have helped me the most in my life. Being open and honest with someone is so refreshing for me and I always leave those kind of meetings feeling so clean and refreshed. Memorising scripture has helped me so much in many areas of my life, it helps me evangelise, prophecy and to know who I am called to be. I have also had the most amazing God moments while doing something crazy like praying the for the whole night or trying to raise dead people.

We must continue to be proactive about growing in God, this world needs Jesus and we need to be serious about making him known.

3 reasons why you should celebrate when you get rebuked, corrected or disciplined

1) It shows that you have some level of humility.
We must not forget that although it is hard to receive RCD's, it is also very hard to give them out. It takes a lot of courage and boldness to RCD someone because you never know how they are going to react - someone could take all there anger out on you and turn against you for your honesty. Because of this danger most people will withdraw from RCD type conversations if they feel the person on the receiving end will not except the RCD with grace and humility. Therefore, if someone does want a RCD conversation with you, you should celebrate because at least you seem humble enough to take it!



2)We can become (insert name here) 2.0
Remember that we are just like everything else that has been created - we need updating! Just like the creator of the IPhone looked at the first ever IPhone and saw all the minor imperfections and thought to himself "we must update and fix these issues so that the IPhone can become all that it was created to be", I believe that God can look at us and see the imperfections in us and with absolute furious love God wants us to update so we can become all that we were created to be. I don't know about you but I get pretty excited to get the new IPhone updates. I am always excited to see what improvements they have made and how much easier they will have made my life! In the same way we should be excited and celebrate when someone wants an RCD chat with us because basically they are saying that there is an updated verison of yourself ready to go and all you need to do is download it.



3) It's a great oppotunity to give thanks!
RCD's are a great chance to remember that we have been let off so much as mankind. We must desperately try to keep in our minds and hearts that we have been let off an eternity in hell and someone else has paid that price for us. We should be celebrating, dancing on the rooftops and partying all the time when we have an RCD conversation because it will remind us of the fact that Jesus has paid the price for all our sin and because of his sacrifice so we can now go to heaven, forever! An eternity in torture, loneliness and pain swap with and eternity of happiness, partying and life in an instant. We should see it as a privilege to be able to work on ourselves because now there is something to work for. If we were all destined to hell what would be the point of trying to improve ourselves? but now that we can go to heaven I feel a drive to be better because I know I have a future.



"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking and training in righteousness"

20 things I learnt while in California

Over the past 8 days I have had the privilege of traveling to Chicago and California on a missions trip with Sola Osinoiki. Over the 8 days we visited 6 churches. We ministered to the pretty much anyone we met by praying, prophesying and encouraging them we sat down with leaders helping them with some strategic planning but also spent time out on the streets chatting to strangers and trying our best to show them the love of Jesus. I decided to write down a few things I learnt while on this 8 day adventure so that you can get a flavour of how this trip has impacted me.

1) When Sola says he is going to prophesy, you want to shut up and listen.

2) Reflectiveness has just as much importance as work.

3) American pancakes are better then English ones.

4) Having a loving Family is so important, so complicated and so amazing all at the same time.

5) Relationships are key.

6) God has bigger plans for my life then I do.

7) American chocolate sucks.

8) I have a lot to learn about being humble

9) Sola is a remarkable person and has a world wide impact for Jesus.

10) I can stand up on a surf board.

11) That spiritual dancing can actually add to a worship set.

12) This generation needs to be way more submissive and respectful to the generation above, especially in England.

13) I really do love our youth group.

14) That having a good team is vital to anything you do.

15) All Americans have great teeth.

16) I am a lot more materialistic then I thought.

17) Effectiveness is more important then fame.

18) Where the Beach Boys used to hang out.

19) Kiera Reitzin is the coolest/cutest girl in California and possibly the world.

20) That God and I have a great relationship.

LIFE on the streets.

On Friday, during the hours of 11-3, LIFE will be taking its passion and love for Jesus onto the streets and into peoples homes! Buzzin. We are doing this to fulfil a commandment that Jesus gave to his followers.

Matthew 7:12
"So whatever you wish others to do to you, do also to them."

The truth is we are all familiar with this verse but if we are honest it is a constant battle to make sure we are living it out. We often forget this simple truth or we become selfish, looking only to our own interests and sometimes we want to live out this commandment but we just don't know when or how!

Well Friday is providing an opportunity for us to get one up in the battle to live out this truth. Teams are going to be organised to go into different peoples houses and show them the love of Christ in whatever way we can! whether that means hoovering the floor, clearing out the garden or praying for people. Other teams will be sent down to town with one mission. Spread the love of Jesus.

This is gonna be an incredible day and a great opportunity to impact the lives of so many. if you want to be involved please let Amy Mehta know, you can turn up on the day but it would be great for Amy to know how many people will be there.

Galatians 6:9
"Let us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time will reap a harvest if we do not give up"

Psalm 37:4

Psalm 37:4

Fix your eyes on the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

This statement is a promise from God, a promise that God will give you the desires of your heart.

I am so thankful to God that he keeps his promises. I have always had a desire to preach and have talked to God about this desire many times. I realised this morning that God has been so faithful with this desire he has provided me with so many opportunities to preach to so many different people. I would like to list some opportunities God has given me to fulfil this desire so that you can see how faithful he is.

The entire of Garth school over 1000 students - told them how a God has supernaturally provided for me and can do the same for them.

Life group - 6 passionate young people - talked about light always conquers darkness

Kerith Academy - 9 people who have given up a year to serve the church.

LIFE - An army of young people who want to change the world for God's glory.

Oakwood - 50 young people who are seriously searching

Next Steps - Unpacking the word of God with 40 young people

Kerith Community Church - got to speak at the baptism service, this is exciting because there were people there who have never heard or thought about Jesus before

Kerith Melle (In France) - a new but passionate church.

California - Get to travel with an outstanding man of God and have the chance to speak to some american young people

I tell you all these thing not to show how much I get to preach but to show that God is faithful in his promises! He is! There is no question, no dispute. It's a promise. It happens.

However at this point we need to realise the first part of the verse, fix your eyes on the lord. This is so key if we want to God to provide the desires of our hearts, we can't expect God to just give us what we desire if we aren't going to listen to him or follow him or ultimately love him. We need to keep ourselves fixed on the lord! Most of time we want to do this but we just don't know what fixing our eyes on him means, do we just look into the sky all day?! Something I found that helps me is by looking at the rest of Psalm 37 because there are key words in the psalm which give us a clue about what fixing your eyes on the Lord could entail. Take a look.

trusting, delighting, committing, being still, waiting patiently, not being jealous, doing good, hoping in God, enjoying peace, being humble, being content, taking risks, being generous, doing good again, speaking and living justice, not being afraid, refraining from anger, seeking God's wisdom and following his law.

If you don't know whether you are fixing your eyes on the lord then look at these words and phrases and then look at your life and see if you feel you are living these out.

We can't expect Biblical promises if we don't live out Biblical principals!

Time

Will you spend your time:

Facing your fears or simply being afraid

Face your insecurities or letting them ruin your life

Raising money for project 125 or just spending all of yours

Arguing with teachers or actually listen to them

Respecting life leaders or just ignoring them

Texting on your phone during a preach or using your phone to take notes.

Saying thank you or moaning

Chasing romantic relationships or chasing a relationship with God

With God or without him

Changing the bad things in your life or just moaning about the bad things in your life

Serving this church or demanding that this church serves you

On facebook or actually having proper conversations

Listening to your parents or arguing with them

Thinking only about the benefits for you or thinking about the benefit for others

Being influenced by the world or influencing the world to be better and greater.

Focusing on school work or focusing on avoiding work

Taking opportunities that are given to you or just shy away and hope no one notices you

Demonstrating love to all people or demanding that people just demonstrate their love to you

Bullying people over form spring, facebook or actually encourage people

Trying to live the lifestyle God asks of you or trying to convince God that you lifestyle is best

Doing life your way or doing life Gods way

Listening to how much God loves you or striving for the love of people around you

Trying exciting new things that challenge you or just staying safe an comfortable where you are

By actually stopping smoking or just pretend that you will do it the future

Becoming bitter about your past or becoming better by learning from your past

Wearing a mask and just pretending that everything is great or are you gonna find people you trust and get real

Expecting everyone around you to organise you or getting yourself organised

Praying for the impossible to be made possible or just not trying because your afraid of the outcome

Trying to eat a balanced diet or just eating McDonald everyday and then acting surprised when you get fat.

Believing that you can do everything on your own or realising that you need as much help as you can get

Thinking that your God and you know best or trusting in the one true God and humbly asking for his wisdom

Checking your actions and motives or just saying live a little!

Working hard to achieve your dreams or just expecting usher to see you on YouTube

Learning from mistakes or just repeating them and hoping for a different outcome ( definition of insanity)

Getting angry at everything or learning how to control your anger

Getting drunk or learning to enjoy life without the need of anything (we knew this as children but we lose it as we grow)

Stressed out or chilled out

Hating or loving

Because of the Cross.

I can never to truly express my respect, love and thankfulness towards Jesus on Good Friday using just words, it needs action. In Romans 12:1; Paul tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God and this is our true act of worship, our true act which helps me express my real feelings towards Jesus on this day....... but that doesn't help me write a blog, which needs words!...... or does it!

What I have decided to do for this blog is to write out as many amazing, crazy and mind-blowing things I have seen Jesus do in past five years. All the things I write are 100% true, they are not invented or exaggerated and I have seen it with my very own eyes. They have all happened because of the power Jesus and because we have been faithful in prayer. Enjoy.

Just before we start I want to make sure that Jesus gets all the glory! Thank you Jesus.

Because of the cross over the past five years I have seen:
A boys eye pop back into place (my favourite), A gangsters broken finger healed, a random stranger crying on the streets of Wimbledon because God gave us a word about the loss of a family member, people who shouldn't be giving birth falling pregnant, a women stepping out of her wheel chair, money randomly being posted through my door, prophesied the name of a women's son, symptoms of a allergic reaction fade away after prayer, money appear in my bank account without a traceable source, young girl testify to Jesus healing her grandma of cancer, a girl cart-wheel on her arm which was broken before we prayed, Holy-Spirit Sat-Nav direct me when I am lost, more doughnuts appearing when we ran out at Jesus and Doughnuts, 15 year-old boy healed of the injuries afflicted on him by his father, the number 2 gangster of Southampton weeping during worship at his first visit to church.

Lets just stop there and give glory to Jesus. Thank you for the cross Jesus because of your sacrifice all of these amazing stories have been made possible.

An old man who was gonna commit suicide decide to give his life to Jesus instead, 6 brave men pray for a dead friend and believe 100% that he can be raised (we will see this happen in our lives), many, many knee problems healed immediately, person with bad back who can barely stand run around the room after prayer, a young person who tried to commit suicide get baptised, a family serving in church because of the testimony of the daughter, headaches gone immediately, Satanist's deciding to worship Jesus, had people tell me exactly what I am thinking and feeling, I have told people exactly what they are thinking and feeling, many aches and pains all over the body healed, demons driven out of people, peoples legs grow, swelling on a ladies nose disappear, asthma suffers completely healed, depressed people finding everlasting Joy in an instance and finally God has given me many prophecies to say to people but they are to detailed to write out on here.

All Glory to Jesus, none of this is possible without his sacrifice. Its because he suffered, bled and died to repair our relationship with the father, to take away our sin and give us the honour to stand in victory with him. Only a fool says there is no God.