8 | STAND UP AND STAY UP

There’s a Christian artist called Sondae. If you haven’t heard of him, please go and search for His name and listen to his songs. His music fuels the Spirit and your hunger for the Lord. Honourable mentions are Lover, Don’t Give Up On Me, Bring All Your Scars, In the Name of Jesus, Air I Breathe, Only What God Can Give, Holding On Too, Just You, Jesus, sometimes I… and Tonight. Mind you these aren’t even my top 10 but they deserve a mention because these songs got me through some times.

For example, with his song In the Name of Jesus. I will never forget this day in my life. I had previously been praying and fasting for 28 days from the 3^rd-31^st October 2024. This was for the results of my dissertation for my recent Masters. It’s a part of the testimony I said from the third episode that I will one day share.

To give a bit of a background story I had undertaken a master’s previous to the one I had been fasting for but due to failed assessments from a different section of the degree I wasn’t able to be awarded the master’s section of the degree. It hurt because I achieved a 90% on the dissertation and the failure from that degree was tough to go through as a whole. I had taken a gap year from the previous course, and after some time I went back to get just my master’s degree. So, skip forward back to the 3^rd-31^st October 2024. It is now the 31^st October 2024. We had got the email notification that the dissertation results would be released at 5pm and I was at work from 9am-5pm. My last work appointment was booked in for 4pm and we finished around 4:45pm. I had written up the notes and left the office at 4:55pm. Between 4:55pm and 5pm I had the song, In the Name of Jesus, playing in my earphones on repeat and I was walking the street back to the train station and singing the song out loud. Looking back, I must have looked wild to anyone who would have been near me at the time but look when you’re deep in prayer and fasting it’s literally just you and God that matters at that point. Anyways, I had got halfway to the train station, I looked at my phone- it was 5pm and the results were out.

In that point in time, I understood the emphasis of the hand shaking when reading news that you see in a film/tv show. My hands were trembling, not out of fear because I know my God, my Father didn’t let me fail but just the momentum building up to 5pm. Lo and behold, not only did I get a distinction for my dissertation, I got the 90% back as the grade awarded for the dissertation.

In the Bible, Jesus says ‘So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,’ (Joel 2:25) and He did just that. When I saw my results, I fell to the ground crying, again now I understand how that feels from seeing it in tv shows/films. I was on the phone to my sister crying my eyes out, these weren’t the silent tears I cried through 2021-2024 no these were cries of me literally understanding how powerful life can be when you let go and let God. I am currently still waiting for another testimony from God; this is the testimony I have been speaking about since the third episode and in time I will share the glory of that testimony with you all.

Sondae said ‘In the Name of Jesus I’m victorious, In the Name of Jesus I’m victorious, you wash my feet, and call me yours, there’s nothing else I could ask from you Lord, In the Name of Jesus I’m victorious.’

In the Name of Jesus, I was victorious and I thank you God for making it to be so.

Now going back to the episode, I wanted to discuss about Sondae’s song called ‘Stand Up.’ The lyrics for the whole song because it must all be said, is: Lately, I feel like I’m crossing the desert, Jesus is the Bar, I don’t need a measure, The enemy is offering me bread, I’d rather crucify my flesh instead, Holy Spirit, you’ve seen all my lows, the things I have been through only God knows, I know Jesus is the Way to You, so I pick my cross and follow the Truth, This is the God I serve, man, I don’t care, from eternal damnation I spared, I belong to the King I’m not for sale, sealed by the Spirit if you couldn’t tell, If I’m dying for Him, it is what it is I will never be ashamed of my King, No one is worthy of breaking the seals, except for the Lamb who took all of my sins, Stand up.

Stand up and stay up. Don’t ever feel belittled in your faith in God. Don’t ever feel like you have to dim or limit how outspoken you are in your faith in God. Sondae says ‘if I’m dying for Him, it is what it is I will never be ashamed of my King.’ To be a child of God requires for us to deny our flesh daily. So yes, it is what it is that I am dying for Christ, dying for a relationship with our Lord because a life in the flesh is incomparable to a life in Christ. It doesn’t even need to be bothered in weighing it’s value- it’s worthless. A life in Christ is the most important path one will ever journey in this life. It’s the only one to do as once you embark on this journey, everything that you have been yearning, needing and wanting, God will perfect it for you. At His appointed time, it shall speak. You don’t ever have to worry when you live a life in God. There’s literally no need because with God, we have the ability to cast our worries unto Him, lean on Him and watch how He will work to turn the situation around.

Life is not easy. Being a child of God is not easy. We will have to go through the desert, we will have obstacles, stumbling blocks and challenges crossing our path, we will have to fight against spiritual warfare, we will have low days. These are all certain but at the same time, it is certain that the Lord will be with us in these times, the Lord will provide us with the tools to overcome these situations, the Lord will give us the peace, strength and grace to pull through, the Lord will forgive and redeem us for the times we had fallen to sin to be made renewed and get back on track. The Lord will. It is in His will to be there for us, to be our shield, our protection, our guide and our guard. It is guaranteed. It is all about perspectives. We may see the former half of what has been said and want to opt out of it because we don’t think we have the humane strength to get through it, forgetting the latter where we don’t need to rely on our strength alone, we have God’s strength to see us through. When we know and believe this, we can remain standing up in our faith in the Lord because the enemy thought he had me, but Jesus said you are mine, oh the enemy thought he had us, but Jesus said we are His.

Our relationship in God can never be for sale. It can never be tokened, exchanged, undervalued or taken for granted. It is a covenant, a foundation of who we are and whose we are. It is the source of where we belong- we belong with God, Yahweh. After all, we are Adonai’s child. No one and nothing are worthy of breaking us away from God. Don’t let nothing or no one break you away from God. Stand up boldly in His truth, stand up in courage of His word and stand up in confidence for the One who crucified His only Son so that we could be saved and freed from our sins.

Stand up and stay up.

Remember, Trust in the Lord, Love like the Lord, Walk with the Lord.TLW

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