Too Good, yet so True!: Part 2

Copyright © 2015 Abi Solebo.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Impacted by this book: you can write to the Author at: info@toogoodyetsotrue.com or info@abbybliss.com visit: www.toogoodyetsotrue.com or www.abbybliss.com.

WestBow Press

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-7417-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7418-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7416-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015904608

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/27/2015

Contents

Acknowledgement

Foreword

Appreciation

Dedication

Preface The Pregnancy

Chapter 1 Transition Period

Chapter 2 The Waiting Time

Chapter 3 Unfolding Purpose

Chapter 4 The Forerunner

Chapter 5 World Of Compromise

Chapter 6 God’s Plan Or The Flesh?

Chapter 7 Paying Attention

Chapter 8 Did The Lord Say Yes?

Chapter 9 Things Of God Is Foolishness To Men

Chapter 10 Distraction

Chapter 11 Heavenly Camera

Chapter 12 Duty Post

Chapter 13 Sound The Bell

Chapter 14 Motives

Chapter 15 Godly Counsel

Chapter 16 Focus

Chapter 17 God For Me

Chapter 18 Needed

Chapter 19 Strife And Jealousy

Chapter 20 Spiritual Armour

Chapter 21 Disregard The Lies

Chapter 22 Fear Of Failure

Chapter 23 God Is Constantly Speaking

Acknowledgement

I acknowledge the Lordship of my Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of my faith. I am so grateful for the Christian foundation and Biblical teaching that I received from the Redeemed Christian Church of God, right from Nigeria to the Shores of the United Kingdom. The Sunday school, believers’ class, House fellowship groups and Workers-in-training, were great tools in equipping me for the journey of my faith in the Lord Jesus, considering my background from Islam to Christianity. The Biblical teachings prepared me for what was ahead and helped me during my time of persecution, through trials and tribulations, in applying the word of God appropriately to my situations. Daddy Adeboye, you are a gift to this generation, may the Lord continue to use you mightily for His glory. At the appointed time to meet your Maker, the Lord who gave a divine revelation to Pa Akindayomi, to hand over the baton of this great mission (Redeemed Christian Church of God) to you, will also give you a divine revelation to pass the baton to the one Christ has chosen.

I am intrigued and have been tremendously blessed through the lives and teaching of so many mighty vessels of God, too numerous to mention.

Looking at the life of Billy Graham who is 95years old and still impacting the world, gives me great joy and makes me to understand that age is irrelevant when God’s calling is upon a man’s life.

What gives me the greatest joy are people who are still waxing strong for Jesus despite persecution; it makes me to value what a great privilege it is to serve the Lord, with less restriction, as well as the importance of holding this beloved close to my heart.

I mentioned a lot of people who have played key roles in my life in Part 1 of Too Good, Yet So True! My friends, my family in Christ, spiritual parents, all those who the Lord has used to be hand lifters in prayer while the Lord was writing this book through me. The parts you all played are recorded in Heaven. May the Lord reward your labour of love and may you all be mightily blessed in Jesus name. Amen!

Foreword

It came as quite a surprise to be asked to write a foreword for this book, simply because it’s something I have never done before. So, I certainly wasn’t expecting it and I wasn’t even sure what sort of things to write.

But having already read and enjoyed part 1 of Abi’s book, ‘Too Good, Yet So True’, I began to read Part 2 with anticipation and I wasn’t disappointed. I am always interested in reading about real people and about how they cope with life and Abi’s personal story is a classic one of overcoming mountainous difficulties and challenges, yet coming out with a wonderful servant heart.

So here are three good reasons why I would like to recommend this book and why I think it should be widely read by others;

First of all, it’s a great read. It’s one of those types of book that is so easy to read and that draws you in, so that you want to find out what comes next.

Secondly, readers will be able to identify with the everyday experiences shared by Abi in it. They will be taken on a journey of faith and inspired by the spiritual insights and nuggets of truth that are scattered throughout the book.

And thirdly, I’m convinced that any thoughtful reader will discover more of what it means to walk by faith in Jesus, rooted and built up in Him, from someone who has paid the price to experience that sort of a life. I believe they will finish the book a more thankful and a more humble person than when they began it.

Pastor Philip Dyson

Sunbridge Road Mission

Bradford, West Yorkshire

Appreciation

Sincere thanks to my darling husband, Dr Suraj Oluwayemisi Solebo (S.O.).

I would not have been able to achieve this without your support.

I appreciate the entire godly heritage the Lord gave to me, may you all fulfil destiny.

When the Lord shall return, none of us will be found wanting.

Love you all loads!

Dedication

This book is all about you, Lord.

Jesus, You are indeed Too Good and Yet Lord, You are So True.

You made this vision, Too Good, Yet So True, Part 1& 2, to become a reality.

This is Your doing and it is marvellous in our sight.

Receive all the glory, the praise and adoration. Amen

This book is dedicated to persecuted Christians all over the world.

May the Lord keep you strong till He returns.

I salute you all, beloved!

PREFACE

The Pregnancy

"Be in pain, and labor to bring forth,

O daughter of Zion,

like a woman in birth pangs.

For now you shall go forth from the city,

You shall dwell in the field,

And to Babylon you shall go.

There you shall be delivered;

There the LORD will redeem you

From the hand of your enemies."

Micah 4:10-11

The passage in Micah, spoke of a woman in labour, who went away from the city which can be classified as a comfort zone. She went into the field, which can be referred to as a place of toil; tiling the soil, tending the cattle. There might be a possibility of draught, or whirlwind, and it doesn’t stop there. The one bearing the pregnancy will go further to Babylon, which Bible scholars referred to as a place of tribulations, trials and great abominations. Finally, the pregnant one will be redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

In summary, it is important to know that when there is a spiritual pregnancy, we go through a lot of tests and the enemy will try all he can to abort the pregnancy. At the initial stages, the situation in the physical sense, might go from good to bad, bad to worse and worse to worst. How do we handle these seemingly difficult transitions? I referred a lot to Joseph in Part1 of this book, he is one biblical character that I so much love and can relate with. He was given dreams and there was every attempt made by the enemy to abort his dreams. Prior to being sold to slavery, there was a lot of hatred in his brothers’ hearts towards him, for being so much loved by their father and for Joseph’s dreams. The whole idea and plan of the brothers was that when they get rid of him, his (Joseph’s) dream would come to naught, for they said we shall see what will become of his dreams. Joseph did not lose sight of God in all the calamities he went through, and the good news was that he eventually got to the palace. Unknown to his brothers, their foolishness was the plan of God to take Joseph to a place where his dreams will be birth, and he will be a blessing to his generation, including those who sold him into slavery.

Sometime ago, I had a dream, and in this dream, there was so much turbulence- that seemed like a volcanic eruption and whirlwind that was destroying trees, houses, and people and eventually, this swirl of whirlwind entered into the house I was in. Unsure how, I realised that I was pregnant in this dream, and while this catastrophe was on-going, I gave birth to a set of identical twins. The whirlwind was so strong that it wanted to sweep the babies away. I couldn’t help myself, talk less of the babies, even as the situation went from bad to worse and even the worst. The amazing thing was that as shaken and frightened as I was by the earthquake and eruption, the babies were not frightened and it seemed they were oblivious of what was going on around them. Suddenly, I saw an identical necklace around the necks of the children and the pendant was a cross (an empty crucifix of Christ). The crosses were radiating so much light that I got captivated by this glorious mystery and I looked on at the twins who were radiating so much light and glory of God. This took my focus away from the whirlwind for what seemed like a moment and to my greatest amazement, by the time my mind switched to the environment, I realised that the turbulence had stopped. I had no idea of how and when the turbulence stopped.

I woke up from the dream exhausted, and mesmerised at the same time. I was also thankful that the twins and everyone else survived. As at the time, I had stopped child bearing, so I wondered what this dream meant. Was the Lord God planning to give me twins in addition to my other children?

One day after my conversion, I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray and the Holy Spirit brought to my mind a sermon I listened to that emphasised on the importance of thanksgiving, and I felt what the Lord wanted from me that day was to give thanks. With an attitude of gratitude, I took my time to take stock of where God has brought me from to where I was and worshipped him. While in the mode of worship, this word came to my mind that people of the world usually have a saying that something is too good to be true, but having taken stock of my life, I said to the Lord, I can testify Lord that you are Too Good, Yet So True. I felt a sudden jump in my spirit as I uttered these words in thanksgiving to God, a surge of emotions, with tears of joy. Almost immediately, I felt the Lord speak to my heart that He prompted that word in my spirit and He wants me to write a book with this title Too Good, Yet So True!. After all, a testimony declaring the goodness of God is not what you speak about only in the corner of your room, but what you share to encourage others. Then suddenly after this, human reasoning set in. How can I write a book? I asked myself. My command of English is not great? Composition and grammar were my weak or call it my weakest points when I was in secondary school; I got a pass in English and had to re-sit because I needed a credit in English to be admitted into the University. I was busy counting reasons why I, writing a book couldn’t be a reality. The more I thought of all the buts, the more I lost my peace. But once I focused on God, saying to Him, not my will but yours be done, I experienced an indescribable joy. I felt the Lord said to me that irrespective of all my rationales, it has got nothing to do with me, but all about Him. Since then, I knew without a doubt that Too Good, Yet So True!" is not about me, but all about the goodness and faithfulness of God in all situations. I knew it is the Lord’s desire to birth this book, and all I could do was to yield to Him.

I forgot all about the dream of the set of twins at the initial stage of writing this book. Writing it took me so long and when I got to chapter 15 of the book, I felt the Lord prompting that I should get the book published and refer to it as Part 1 despite the fact that there was still more. In obedience to Him, I published the Part 1.

Recently, the Lord reminded me about the dream and I felt a strong conviction that the revelation of the pregnancy and birth of the twins was about the birth of Part 1 & 2 of Too Good, Yet So True! These books represented the set of twins in the dream, and suddenly after this, the whole idea of the twin books seemed to make sense. I started writing this book in 2002, abandoned it and restarted it in 2011. Coming to Christ from a Muslim background was not a piece of cake. There indeed have been lots of turbulences that wanted to sweep me away from the faith, abort this vision and the pregnancy, but God remains true to His word.

A very good friend of mine, and so many others were curious and asked why the events were not completed in the first part of this book. This good friend in good faith also suggested that I should put the story together. Bearing in mind the revelation that the Lord gave me, I knew without any iota of doubt that it was the Lord’s idea and way of birthing Too Good, Yet So True! in two parts! Doing it any other way will be self-effort; nothings pays more than to yield to His will, after all, this book (Too, Good, Yet So True!) is about no one but the goodness of the Lord in all circumstances.

God is an amazing God. Beloved, sometimes we have dreams of being pregnant, this doesn’t rule out physical pregnancy, but often times, your pregnancy can be divine ideas, in the form of a ministry that the Lord wants you to birth, your calling within your church, business ideas and so many others. No matter what point we are at, so long as we remain focused, the Lord will cause you to birth all that He has deposited in you to His glory. There shall be a divine delivery of your pregnancy. Don’t write yourself off, there is a gift in you. You are pregnant and you will bring forth safely. Your pregnancy will not end in a miscarriage or be aborted by the enemy. Nurture your dream, fan the flames, the surrounding situations might speak contrary to the dream God gave you. Per-adventure the baby has been born prematurely, this could be as a result of situations beyond your control or when you jump the gun and go ahead of God. Howbeit, repent, hand the baby over to God because that situation is not beyond God’s control. He will put your baby in the heavenly incubator, and your baby will be nurtured back to life. Don’t give up!

I pray the events in the second part of this book will show you more about the goodness of the Lord, and draw you closer to Him. The Lord uses the foolish things to confound the wise. His way is beyond human comprehension and Yahweh is indeed Too Good, Yet So True!

Remain rapturable!

Abiodun Abolaji Solebo

CHAPTER 1

Transition Period