I Think I Found What I Have been Searching For: 4 Places I Felt God at MegaFest
MegaFest is home to Manpower, Girl Talk, The International Film Festival and the world-famous Woman Though Art Loosed. There were people at MegaFest that represented over 26 countries across the world. Prior to attending MegaFest I was walking through ending a never-ending relationship. I was looking for value in invaluable places. I was looking for God under my bed. I was searching for clarity of life through social media memes. But when I left MegaFest it was confirmed I found was I had been searching for.
Love and Dating Rebecca Lynn Pope
Image RebeccaLynnPope via Instagram
While searching the MegaFest empowerment schedule I came across a session entitled: Love and Dating by Rebecca Lynn Pope. Perfect. What single women in her thirties does not want to hear someone speak at MegaFest about Love and Dating. While waiting for the session to begin I thought to myself “God, please don’t let this beautiful MARRIED woman tell me to wait on my Boaz”. To my surprise Rebecca Lynn Pope blew my mind. Mrs. Pope was the first speaker I have ever heard that acknowledged the struggle between wanting to live as a Godly woman while dating in the 21th century. Mrs. Pope walked the audience through the 4 stages of dating:
Dating, Courting Exclusively, Engagement and Marriage.
Rebecca reminded us that if you are looking for healing in a man it is in relationships where God will reveal what is wrong with us. “We do not get what we want in life, we get what we are ready to receive”. In this session, we were dared to surrender our desires (blessing blockers) which were typically rooted in fear and to DITCH THE LIST. We were invited to make ourselves available to love through four steps:
Surrendering to God. Healing our heart and Mind. Being Authentic. Opening our hearts to receive. Remember 9 out of 10 men are not ready but you only need 1.
Believe it or not I felt God in the conversations about love and dating. Rebecca made a statement that will stay with me forever: “God uses your desire for love to draw you into a closer relationship with him”. I felt God telling me that he has not forgotten my desire to become a wife. I felt God telling me I needed to trust him with my relationships moving forward. Honestly, why wouldn’t I, I have tried it on my own and have failed miserably. I will dare to say many of you reading this have failed as well so why not give our relationship desires to the true match maker, God. Every success requires a sacrifice!
“Surrendering is the only shortcut to the life of your dreams. ”
Rebecca Lynn Pope is the founder of the Godly Girls Club and the author of Love and Dating in the 21th century.
John Gray (Press) Interview
Image TheRealJohnGray via Instagram
MegaFest allowed the opportunity for journalist to attend interview sessions with the various speakers through the conference. John Gray was the speaker that I was most intrigued to hear. If you are unfamiliar with John Gray you are missing out on a blessing. John Gray is the associate pastor at Lakewood Church in Houston, he has a reality show along with his amazing and beautiful wife, Aventer Gray, on OWN The Book of John Gray, he is the author of a book entitled I am number 8. Through television I knew all the things I previously listed about Pastor John Gray but after the interview session I knew for myself he was a life giver who believed in people. When John entered the interview room there was a line of journalist waiting for the opportunity to interview him.
Through my time in the interview session two moments stuck out to me, the first was when a new journalist was having technology issues and the moderator asked her to move to the side so that the next person could begin and how John was adamant about assisting her to rectify her issue so that she would be able to document her interview. I believe in that moment John silently (through his actions) spoke life into that young journalist life, he reaffirmed the value in the work that she did that day and in the future. The second moment with John was when he was asked about his book: I am number 8. John talked about how he is overlooked as a child in school, with friends, with women and most importantly by the lack of relationship with his father. Through his venerability John showed me and continues to show the world that God keeps his promises. John is now a voice for the unseen, an advocate for the lonely and a product of God’s promise coming to pass.
I felt God when John stopped his interview to help this new journalist fix the glitches in her technology. I felt God saying come to me with what you have and I will fill the gaps, come to me and I am never too busy to help you, to hear, and to support you. I felt God when John Gray gave life instead of taking it from that journalist.
“What I learned was that the more you commit to the process and the more you trust God for increase in every area of your life, the more God allows the scales to tip in your favor until one day the momentum is so tremendous that there is no going back to the life you knew. ”
The Perfect You Dr. Caroline Leaf
Image DrCarolineLeaf via Instagram
Dr. Caroline Leaf is a cognitive neuroscientist with a PhD in Communication Pathology and a BSc in Logopedics and Audiology, specializing in metacognitive and cognitive neuropsychology. I know, what that means is Dr. Leaf researches and observes the various encounters with the brain. Prior to this session I was semi-familiar with the concept of mindfulness but was not sure how it applied to my life. I was too busy using my mind to remember how hurt and broken I was to be mindful. My mind as a reminder of all the ways my life was invaluable. But, Dr. Leaf challenged me to rethink how I used my brain. Through her session I learned that I am my thoughts and luckily, I was in control of what I think. Through several pictorial diagrams Dr. Leaf showed us how every single one of the 75-100 trillion cells of your brain and body are responding to your thoughts instantaneously. If that was not enough grab our attention she created several connections between what we eat and how it affects our brain—you can find out more about impact of the foods you eat in her book: Think and Eat Yourself Smart. In conclusion, she reminded us that “You cannot control the events and circumstances of your life but you can control your reactions to those events and circumstances.”
In this session, I felt God telling me it is time to unlearn so many things about myself and relearn who I am in God’s eyes. I felt God telling me to surrender my thoughts, desires and ways of thinking and get in his word to hear the truth about his love. I will be honest this session's application has been the most difficult for my life because I am having to retrain my brain though my thoughts. I would invite you to join me on this 21-day detox of the mind through Dr. Leaf’s book Switch your Brain. I would also challenge you to ponder on these questions: Who is in control of your thoughts? What are you telling yourself every day? Are you willing to take the power of your mind back? What will you change today? Remember, If the brain gets worse by constantly focusing on the problem. Then the brain can get better by constantly focusing on the solution.
“Don’t react. Learn to respond.”
Before it’s All Over TD Jakes
image BishopJakes via Instagram
As MegaFest was drawing to a close it was time for Woman Through Art Loosed! This particular morning drew thousands of women (and hundreds of men as well). Bishop Jakes used the biblical point of reference of Lazarus. Jakes reminded us of how Mary and Marta came to Jesus to let him know that their brother Lazarus was dying and they wanted him to save him. As the story continues Lazarus ended up dying, Mary and Marta were so angry with Jesus for “letting” their brother die. As Bishop Jakes begins his sermon he tells us that Lazarus’s life purpose was to DIE. Lazarus needed to die for a bigger purpose than himself; but what Mary and Marta needed to trust was that with God death does not mean the end. Jesus said to Lazarus I am going to get you out of it and when is over, we’re going to switch places. I just need you to SET IT OFF. If we are going to follow Christ, we must take up our cross and die to ourselves. God is not going to come into a situation until we are willing to let it DIE. God will pick up where we give up (control). You can fast, pray, get hands laid on you but until it is dead nothing will happen.
I felt God reminding me this is just the beginning. What you lost needed to die. I heard him so clearly say that God has been using all my broken moments to be a gap filler. God needed me to be so low that he was my only option for up. I felt God freeing me from the embarrassment of my past, pain from my plans, and promises me that he created me for this moment. Remember until you drop off, God will not pick up. What won’t you let die so that God can handle it? Bishop Jakes reminded us that every relationship that we go through is a test. Are you passing your test? Leaving out of the Kay Baylee Hutchinson auditorium I was a woman that was LOOSED.
“You want it but don’t ask how much it cost”
The thing about MegaFest, like many other conferences is that there are so many opportunities for knowledge and growth that you may not feel the value of the information you have received until the experience is over. I did not know while walking through these 4 very different experiences that I would see God in so many different forms and fashions. MegaFest taught me that I can read as many books as my heart desires, I can tell as many people as will listen about how I have received the short end of the love and life stick and I can fast for 100 hundred days but, to receive the love my heart craves, the peace my soul longs for, and the purpose my mind desires I must find the God in me. The God that is strong when I am weak, the God that forgives no matter how many times I fall short, the God that calms my worries, the God who waits patiently for me. Ester 4:14 says “Perhaps this is the moment in which you were created for” MegaFest was the place where I came alive to the call God has put on my life, the place where I promised God I was starting over for the last time.
Where will you come alive? Join me and FitXBrit next year at MegaFest 2018 and dare to come alive.