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When my parents had me, they named me Ibukunoluwanimi which means “I am God’s blessing”, and “Deborah”, after the Prophetess who judged Israel in the time of old. They tell me that they weren’t names they picked randomly, but ones that they received from God. Ibukunnimi which means “I am a blessing” is a short form of my name.
You see, I am the first born in a family of three children. My parents are Ministers of God who conceived me after a slight delay of 10 months, so I was born just a few months shy of their second wedding anniversary. In a nutshell, I am a result of an answered prayer and of course, a miracle.
Since I can remember, I’ve found out that I’ve always lived up to both names even without trying. There’s nowhere I get to that my name doesn’t come to bear literally (I’ll share a few of those instances as time goes on). However, I’ve never given it any deep thought or tried to consciously walk in this path of divine purpose and destiny.
This is because like every human being living on this Earth, I’ve had my shares of challenges, failures, ups and downs, pains, disappointments, and on. Unfortunately, I allowed myself to be swept off by them and in the process, I forgot who I was really called to be; I forgot my name.
Thankfully, I am blessed with awesome friends and an amazing family. With their help, and the various promptings by the Holy Spirit, I’ve remembered my name! I know who I am and what I’ve been called to do. Now, I can confidently step out of the shadows of my challenges, struggles and pain to focus on fulfilling purpose. I would no longer wait till I have overcome (physically) before I shine as the light God has mandated me to be. I am stepping out in faith to live my name as “Ibukunoluwanimi” and as “Deborah” because:
“I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose–I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]” – PHILIPPIANS 4:13 AMP.
There is so much God has laid on my heart for over a decade that I’ve either done halfheartedly or not done at all. When I pick up my old and new diaries, and read through all the words of prophecy, promises and instructions God has told me, I become sad and overwhelmed because I can see that I’ve not even scratched the surface yet. Instead, I have so procrastinated with the excuse of now is not the best time that I’ve come to believe that their fulfillment would jump on me one day. Lies!!!
I had unconsciously allowed myself to be bugged down by how seemingly disjointed these things are. They cut across a very wide variety of fields that I’ve often wondered how on Earth I would achieve them all! My natural mind could not fathom how these things would be. But now that I have remembered my name, I know it is time to take the bull by the horns, trust God on this journey to be and do.
By God’s grace and sheer determination, I would be writing more often, by taking this more seriously and deliberately. I would be writing on a broad spectrum of things, ranging from fictional stories (long and short), family matters, relationships, health, my struggles, triumph’s, aspirations, testimonies, businesses, and so on. With this, I believe you would get to know me better while I obey God by fulfilling His purpose. It would be very exciting to see how God would bring all His words into fruition in my life, especially considering how unrelated most of them seem to be.
More importantly, the concluding chapters of “The Pain” would be posted! Yaaayyy!!! I want to apologize to everyone who had been following, “I am very sorry”. I hope you can forgive me. Like I’ve written, I got overwhelmed. It has taken me over four (4) years to finish this *covers face*, and I hope it would be worth it. I would start posting the concluding chapters from this Friday, 8th of June 2018. Please watch out! If you have no idea of what “The Pain” is about, please, go through previous posts. Just click on “The Pain” under categories, and get reading.
As you take this journey with me, I want you to know that I do not presume to be better than anybody. In fact, I am “work in progress”. As much as you can, feel free to drop your comments on my posts. I am sure there would be so much to learn from you as I work towards being “Ibukunoluwanimi”
The villagers ceased to be; they ceased in Israel Until I, Deborah, arose, Until I arose, a mother in Israel. – JUDGES 5:7 AMP