God Moments

Publications

Mrs. Koranteng is the co-founder of Reaching Out Foundation- Uk, the Reaching Out Widows Ministry, and the Reaching Out Fashion school in Ghana.

She is the author of God Moments Testimonies and a three-pack series “Living the Dream” published in December 2020.

Living The Dream

Living the dream – Dare to dream

In this 1st part of this series of Living the Dream, I challenge the reader to dream. This means I am actively encouraging you to be intentional, purposeful and decisive about the act of dreaming. Rick Warren has put this beautifully in his “Time to dream: Trusting God to open doors”, when he said Our dreams define, identify and energize us. Great and good dreams determine who we are.

In life there are times when we find we are either gifted to do certain things or we may be drawn to, interested in or called to do, however, patterns or cycles keep stopping or delaying us from achieving these aims. In my life I have figured out that there have been several opportunities given me which I have not used as a result of these same things that keep happening. Anytime you notice these cycles present themselves, it is a sign that they are meant to either delay or prevent you from moving further in life. Firstly, identify them and then deal with them in order to rise above the factors that keep stopping you from progressing.  This is why in Dare to dream; I look at naming some of these obvious things that stop us from dreaming namely:

Procrastination, not using our gifts/ talents, fear of taking risks, lack of strategy, fear in commitment, doubts, unforgiveness, knowledge, bitterness, anxiety, adversity. Note that whether intrinsic or extrinsic factors they still impact on us.

Our dreams motivate us, therefore if your dream does not scare you it is simply too small. Make your plans so big you cannot achieve them without God. Dare to dream

Living the dream –Shake off the dream stoppers

In part I of Living the dream series – Dare to dream I looked at the various factors that often stand in our way of progressing in life namely: procrastination, fear,doubts, not willing to take risks, lack of strategy, bitterness, unforgiveness, Anxiety and  adversity.

In Part II of this same book, I will be looking at the dream stoppers. I am sure you will agree with me that there have been aspects and areas of your life that have not seen much change or progress, and no matter how hard you have tried you have not made much positive impact. In some instances, these are extrinsic or external factors that seem to be working against you.

Over the years I have come to realise that sometimes the best way is to stop the dream stoppers. How do we do this? We have an example in Paul, when he was faced with similar dream stoppers while on the Island of Malta, following his shipwreck on the way to Rome. What did Paul do?  He Shook of the vipers, schemes, behaviours or actions that represent dream stoppers. In this book I call them the vipers of cynicism, criticism and calamity. When Paul was faced with a Viper on his arm, he simply shook off the viper of cynicism into the fire and carried on.

 As you read on you will realise how the subsequent vipers presented themselves and what transpired. There are instances where you need to deal a death blow directly to the adversary who tries to stop your progress by shaking off the problem, and just like Paul did in this instance, ignore it (them) and continue to focus on what God is directing you to do. There are several instances in my life at very crucial times when the enemy reared its head as a viper in these three forms and all I had to do was to follow Paul`s example and shake it (them) off, pretend they are not there and keep my eyes on what God was directing me to do. This is achieved through prayer, fasting and having a closer and personal walk with God.

I also mentioned Jabez, who despite the negativity surrounding his birth – his mum named him Jabez as he caused her so much pain at birth. Just imagine all the stigma he may have carried growing up and the reactions in his community! Jabez prayed to God to turn this around and the Lord granted him all he prayed for. (Please read 1 Chronicles 4:9-10) This section of  Living the dream book is aimed at helping you shake off your dream stoppers to help you pursue your purpose in life. I am a living example of this, and it works.

Living the dream – Dream on

In part II of this book Living the dream series- Shake off the dream stoppers, I looked at the vipers of cynicism, criticism and calamity and used Paul and Jabez as examples in shaking off these dream stoppers to enable us to make progress. We have to be deliberate about ignoring these dream stoppers, whose main aim is to ensure we remain stagnant, hence reason for shaking them off.

 In this final part –Dream on, I help the reader to recognise some important things that characterise a good dreamer and used Joseph as our example. Here I discuss Joseph`s dream, encouraging you reader to dream yet another dream, upgrade your dream, focus on your dream and draw lessons from Joseph`s dream. I finally leave you with Seven great wisdoms of great dreamers, problem solver stages and what it means to be sold out.

To recapture what we read in part I of Dare to dream, we have looked at procrastination, fears, doubts, lack of strategy, unforgiveness, lack of taking risks, bitterness, lack of knowledge, anxiety and adversity among others. Having identified how these could either delay or even prevent us from pursuing our destinies, in part II we then looked at how to be intentional, decisive and purposeful in shaking off dream stoppers such as vipers of cynicism, criticism and calamity. We used Paul and Jabez as our examples and saw how they both succeeded in improving their lot by shaking off their dream stoppers and you could do the same when faced with cynical and critical and people always in crisis.

It is my hope that these nuggets have inspired you enough to dream on just like I have. Until I come your way with my next dream – dream on.

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God Moments

God Moments: Testimonies

The role of Christian testimony is often misunderstood. Testimony is often seen by others as merely the story of the person testifying. But it is really the telling of a part of that person’s life within the framework of the larger story of how what God made has been brought back together with its Creator, the greater story of the Good News and of the gathering of believers which that Good News created.

Each testimony is an open, face-to-face version of what is actually so, which, when added to the testifying of others, becomes an up-to-the-minute part of the Scriptures’ ‘cloud of witnesses’. Sometimes a testimony is done to support what someone else is doing or saying by giving some additional life-stuff to think about. Testimony shows that a person can be changed, and the Christian faith is not a fantasy and can be lived. Since anyone can testify and anyone’s testimony can have an effect, the practice of sharing testimony can break down the walls of race, age, gender, or socio-economic class.

Testimony can be an eye-opener for visitors who have no idea of how good the Good News can be. It can help people to be less afraid of God and more aware that God is near and at hand rather than at a far distance. Money, illness, conflict, fidelity, young love, addiction, attitude, work, daily encounters with evil -isms, new awareness, sadness, fear: all kinds of matters of who they are and what happens to them are all brought to the Body when testifying. But they’re not brought up as matters to discuss or as a laundry list of failings or successes. They’re brought up as a place in life where God is at work, where the struggle is bared, where the victories are celebrated and the Source of all true victory is given praise. When done in a worship service or a church meeting, testimony must fit in with Paul’s concern for good order, and not take over the place of the sacraments or Scripture.

There are places in the service that may be suitable for testimony in worship, depending on the format of the service, the minister, and the tradition of the congregation. For instance: •sharing your conversion story at your adult baptism. •sharing about an answered prayer or healing, before praying together. •telling a brief story of confession about a specific sin before a general absolution of the gathered. •in some traditions, sharing about life events that build on or draw from the meaning of a hymn, as an introduction for or in the midst of a praise song chain or medley. •in some traditions, an anecdote or short telling in a specified or pre-set place in someone else’s sermon, to illustrate or support the point of the sermon. •in some traditions, testifying during the praise time after the sermon or after the end of the service.

Testimony is usually more impactful in a small-group setting where it is more likely to be trusted and the testifier is more easily held accountable. In that context, testimony is part of the caring and sharing which is the net of support for which small fellowship groups exist. Testimonies can also be helpful as part of church non-worship events.

From Rev Lydia……