MARCH AND APRIL ROUNDUP POST: What's Your PHD?

Helloooo Sisters!

Shalom, Shalom!!! (in Sis. Blessing Umeh’s unique voice, hehe).

Welcome to The WILD’s broadcast session where we give you a blow by blow account of all that went down in The WILD these past months. So, grab a chilled homemade smoothie (yeahhh, you can ask for the recipe) and baked plantain chips as you follow me on this roundup commentary.

The month of March kicked off with our 3-day monthly fast themed UN-SHAKE-ABLE, and the anchor scripture was Psalm 16:8, KJV.

I have set the LORD always before me: Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Psalm 16:8 KJV

In our February roundup article on the blog right here, a few key learnings were highlighted about the fast:

God needs us to be firmly rooted in Him for us to be unshakeable.
Being unshakeable does not mean that the winds won’t come and perhaps blow out our hair or clothes, but we remain rooted on the ground, triumphing over it.
We do business with the WORD of GOD by making time for, reading, studying, meditating, and applying it.
Honour your curiosity about the WORD.

March is largely a time when mothers and women all over the world are celebrated. On this note, I wish all WILD Heroes (and yes! You count as a hero, too) a Happy International Women’s Day and Happy Mother’s Day! (which were celebrated on the 8th and 19th of March, respectively).

Moving right along, we delved into the conclusion of Practically Healthy Habits (PHH) where we’ve taken apart the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. It was indeed an enlightening period of learning good habits and unlearning bad ones which make for a truly enjoyable and less chaotic life.

Here are a few quotes from the book:

Getting one percent better every day counts for a lot in the long run. Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become.
Practically Healthy Habits drives home that actions we take everyday have the potential to shape our future. Therefore, look at your actions, not your best intentions.

Sisters, this book is a gamechanger, and The WILD has graciously put together the summary review for you to go through, over and over again. The document can be accessed here.

Please avail yourself and be constantly conscious of living your best life by putting in the 1%. Remember, the secret to getting results that last is to never stop making improvements. It’s remarkable what you can build if you just don’t stop.

Up next, we dived right into owning PHDs (noooo, not the academia type, lol). This was all about Practically Healthy Diets as we reviewed the book Good Health, Good Life by Joyce Meyer.

Gmama Joyce, as we fondly call her in The WILD, is a living example of a PHD life. Practically Healthy Diets enumerates a 12-key step towards owning our health.

Key one is so resoundingly firm because it forms the bedrock of everything, not just for our health but everything pertaining to our lives. It states, ” Get God’s Help.” Isn’t this the foundation on which our lives are built and sustained? Gmama Joyce explains succinctly how willpower packs up, but God’s power remains unshaken and sees us through. Yes, I’ve got the summary review right here, but ladies, the book itself is a must-read, and I truly implore you to read this short and amazing book!

Without letting up , March was literally a power-packed month, and yes, we had our second POW WOW session, and it was WOW! The session for married sisters was all about one thing: appreciating our husbands; while the singles talked about what they appreciate about singlehood. Trust Captain WILD to make it further exciting: the wives had to write a love letter to their husbands, and the singles had to write a letter to hype themselves. It was truly exciting, refreshing, love-assuring, and self-awakening, and we had lots of healthy “awwwns” when we discussed it in our different subgroups…

“See ehn, in a lil expo, we seriously learned that you should marry your friend, e get why!”

Best of it all was knowing we have solid WILD Husbands. Shout out to The WILD Hubbys! Our WILD single sisters expressed the joy of freedom, peace and contentment that comes with this stage of their lives.

Up next, our very own eloquent, Abba’s scribe, Sis Olutemi, put together an article on one of our amazing WILD Wednesday fast sessions. Oh my my! It was a loaded session on ‘The Fear of God’. Here’s an excerpt of the article.

“Who we are in private is also who we are in public. The fear of God produces integrity. You are truthful in your ways, and you don’t need supervision to do what you’ve committed to do. There is no room for hypocrisy!”

Here’s the link to the full article. It’s such a wholesome read! Please, don’t skip on reading it as we remind ourselves about the only fear permitted to dwell in our heart – The Fear of God!

Just as we resumed the year with a fast, Q1 in The WILD went out with a bang with a 3-day fruit fast/Daniel fast themed EDEN with our anchor scripture taken from Genesis 2:8. Eden was all about:

Enjoying the blessings of Eden, it’s Eden or Eden; we are not having it any other way and we also know the truth that if we don’t enjoy Eden, it’s our fault. Never again, though, because we have a knowing.
Delighting ourselves in the Lord, knowing that God is always and ever ready to lead us in Eden.
Working diligently in Eden because we work for the audience of One and we enjoy our labor as a boss, an employee, a business woman, a stay-at-home mum, a wife, etc.
Having Shabbat-Rest while we do the work because rest is a spiritual discipline. Our Daddy God also rested, and He sets the example we follow.
Being an Eden queen, aka Ezer. God has made us a perfectly suited partner for our spouses, and He has given us the grace and strength needed.

Right after our April fast, we went on our Q1 break to rest securely in the EDEN that our Abba Father has provided for us. As you all know, we are big on Shabbat-Rest. During the hiatus, we celebrated Easter with our adopted family – Precious Pearls Orphanage. We sure put smiles on their faces, and this was achievable because of YOU, yes, because of YOU. Thank you, thank you, sisters, for being so generous! Y’all are the real deal! Special shout-out to Vcaps for the market runs.

To my best moment always in The WILD – Resumption! We resumed WILD activities on 19th of April, 2023; and trust our WILD leaders. The resumption was with a bang! Our first Wednesday fast after the break was at the subgroup level (I hope you enjoyed the fellowship, conversations and bonding in your subgroup); and our first WILD Friday after the break (21st April, 2023) was a WILD Immersive, a 5-hour meeting.

Our fast focus for Wednesday (19 April) was centered on consecrating our desires, and our anchor Scripture was from Psalms 37:4.

Delight yourself in the Lord, And He will give you the desires and petitions of your heart.
Psalms 37:4 AMP

The focus for our first watch (5am WAT) was on aligning our desires with God’s desire for us. We ought to make our heart posture the love for God and allow His desires to become our sole desire. We know we cannot do anything on our own because our fleshy desires are dangerous; so, we cannot want what we want, we only want what Jesus wants because we are Jesus’ baby girl, enjoying the soft life in Eden.

The second watch (12 noon WAT) was centered on distractions and corruption of our desires. Our anchor scripture was Mathew 13:22.

And the one on whom seed was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the worries and distractions of the world and the deceitfulness [the superficial pleasures and delight] of riches choke the word, and it yields no fruit.
Matthew 13:22 AMP

It was a time of prayer as we asked the Lord to highlight every thorn (distractions) in our lives that is not allowing us to bear fruits. We also prayed for grace to help us do away with our distractions and live in full obedience to God.

Some prayer points from the 5am and 12 noon watches include:

Lord, you are the standard; forgive me for every time I’ve rejected you and your plans for me in favor of temporary enjoyment and indulgence. Let your mercy speak for me and show me how to rightly qualify my desires to delight in you, in Jesus’ name.
Lord, align my desires with yours so that my dreams align with your purposes. Let your will be done through me and let my heart be yielded to You and ultimately thrive in Christ.
Lord, help me to trust your “Yes” and your “No” in every season of my life. Let my conviction in the truth that you are good, be unshakeable in Jesus name.
Holy Spirit, increase my desire for the things of the spirit and set my soul on fire with a longing for more of your presence (prayer, word, fasting).
Father, I pray that you highlight every thorn (distractions) in my life that are choking me up and not making me bear fruits; and I receive the grace and wisdom to let go and no longer be drawn to the distractions.
Create in me a pure heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Purify my desires, Lord. Let your consuming fire consume anything I crave that is repulsive to you in Jesus name.
Lord, bring my heart into full alignment with your will and desires for my life. Help me to intentionally walk in rhythm with your spirit every day.
Lord, I pray for a new spirit, a discerning mind, eyes that see and ears that hear.

Our last watch for the fast was at 5pm WAT, and it was a conversation evening that was centered on how to grow our desires/consecrations and cut out distractions. We started with declaring Psalms 1:2-3 in the MSG and TPT versions. You know the drill sisters. We continue to make these declarations over ourselves.

Here are some highlights from our conversations:

1) We are influenced by divine desires and not carnally influenced or given to social media influences. The desire may look good, but is the desire from God or from what we see other people do?

2) We learn to schedule our distractions because some distractions are not necessarily bad in itself and can be good for our soul, but if they are not properly managed, they can be major distractions e.g., talking to a friend or reading a christian fiction.

3) We recognize our primary teachers and leaders for every season of our lives, and at the same time, we let go of some groups and activities when Abba highlights that to us.

4) We intentionally and consciously carry the presence of God every day.

5) We intentionally saturate our environment with the presence of the Holy Spirit. We achieve this by playing worship songs and listening to sermons; we let bible passages to keep playing in the background as we go about our daily activities, at home, on the road, etc.

6) We intentionally take steps to hear from God daily. We study and meditate on the word. We give ourselves to praying. Even as we read Bible stories to our children, God can speak to us so we don’t casually do our activities, but we keep in step with the Holy Spirit always.

7) The Holy Spirit is our helper, so we should learn to be gracious to ourselves and ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, always.

8) 3s – Selective living – we don’t have to always be seen. Sacred living – what would Jesus do? Does my living and doing glorify God. Simple living – embrace the Joy of Missing Out (J.O.M.O).

9) Don’t glorify your challenges by speaking about them always. Rather, speak to them by declaring the word of God and taking them to the throne of our Father.

10) Brutal elimination of distractions – we have schedules, and we aren’t spontaneous sisters. We draw up a timetable, uninstall some applications, stop the subscription to those programs that are major distractions, set multiple alarms for prayers, confessions and Bible study, make use of pocket times to pray and worship, set time limit on the distracting apps and be disciplined with the time. In a subgroup, distractions were likened to dirty plates that could not be used except they were washed first. If we don’t eliminate them, our desires can not be aligned to the Father’s desire for us.

I was blessed and supercharged with the conversations we had in my subgroup, and I know we were all blessed in our different subgroups. At this point, it is safe to say, ensure not to miss any of our WILD meetings – they are always power-packed, wisdom-packed, knowledge-packed, authority-packed, insightful, enriching and any other positive word you want to qualify it with.

Sisters, it’s so beautiful to know that our Eden experience is only found in Christ!

Finally, on this round up post that has become longer than we’d planned, we welcomed new sisters into The WILD family #DrumRoll. The WILD leaders had an onboarding session with our new sisters on Monday, 17th April, 2023; and we all had a welcome party for them during the WILD Immersive on 21st April, 2023.

Yeah, talking about The WILD immersive, stay tuned to our next blogpost to get all the juicy details of what went down at the meeting.

Truly and with heartfelt gratitude, it’s been a pleasure and absolute honor to ‘gist’ with you, my WILD sisters. As always, we leave you with God’s Shalom.

Shalom, Shalom.

Ethel and Tolu.
For the WILD Editorial Team
PS: We have new faces in the WILD Editorial Team, and you will meet them very soon.