What comes to mind when you think about following God’s will for your life? Do you envision God forcefully making you do what He wants? Or do you see yourself seeking God with a heart yielded to His leading?
When I went for NYSC in 2019, I did not merely obey my nation’s clarion call. I also obeyed my Father’s clarion call. Let’s start from the very beginning, shall we?
By the way, Youth Service or NYSC stands for National Youth Service Corps. It is a mandatory one-year service that every graduate of a tertiary institution is required to undergo in my country. You get to ‘serve’ the nation in various capacities (sometimes related to your course of study) and in a state usually different from places you are familiar with.
Throughout my five years of university study, I only got sick thrice: right before my matriculation and towards the end of the first and second semesters of my final year.
At first, I thought they were spiritual attacks. But about a year after my graduation, I realized what it was.
Fear.
Not the fear of what was ahead of me. No.
I was so bent on following God’s will for my life that I became terrified of missing it, especially as I entered those new phases of becoming an undergraduate and becoming a graduate.
When I say I was terrified of missing God’s will, I’m not talking about missing God’s will in marriage. Marriage wasn’t topmost on my mind. I didn’t want my life to be anything different from what God would like me to be.
However, instead of staying calm and backing up my prayers with absolute trust in God and how He had been leading me up until my final year, I subconsciously began to panic. And that panic manifested as a physical ailment.
You’d think things couldn’t get worse at this point.
As I battled the illness, I panicked more. Why? I was again afraid that I would get too sick to write my final exams and end up with carryovers and not graduate that year. lol.
I had started praying for where to settle after school, including where to serve, months before graduation. Gosh! I prayed, fasted, and disturbed my pastor so much because I did not want to miss being where God wanted me to be. I was bent on following God’s will for my life and wanted to hear it from Him. I did not want to assume I knew what it was.
Guess what?
I wrote my final exams, finished my project, completed clearance, and heard nothing.
When it was time to go for service, the panic intensified. I stalled and stalled my registration just so I could buy more time to know where God wanted me to serve (and start my life). Nothing came.
When I could no longer delay my NYSC registration, I gave in and went to register. To my relief, I saw that the BAY (Borno, Adamawa, and Yola) states were highlighted in red, and prospective Corps members who opted for or were posted to either of the three would be entitled to automatic redeployment to their preferred state after the three-week orientation camp.
I chose Borno State. To be honest, I had only heard of the state when I heard or recited the ‘states and capital’ and when the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ movement took place. And then, there was the insurgency that brought it to a negative limelight.
But I had no intention of serving in Borno State, nor did I have any preferred place. I only hoped to use that three-week orientation period to pray more and see if God would eventually speak.
So, I did not enjoy camp as much as I wanted to because I carried a heavy burden throughout my stay. I did not want to miss God’s will.
I got to camp, and the window for the automatic redeployment started to close. After much hesitation, I chose Ogun State, believing God had eventually placed His will on my heart since the state had several factories operating in the branch of Chemical Engineering I wanted to practice. When I submitted the form, I finally had peace – or so I thought.
About a day or two later, I lost that peace, and the burden returned. It was then that God finally began to speak. He gave me scriptures and dreams and spoke almost audibly to me about where He wanted me to serve. I also got confirmation from people around me.
I couldn’t believe it. But I wasn’t perturbed. I was bent on following God’s will, right? I dared not fight it.
So, with tears in my eyes, I returned to the Administrative Office in camp and asked for my form. After I left the office, I tore the form into pieces and put it in a trash can. I was going to serve in Borno State. If God wanted me there, I had to go. When I returned to my room that day, I had peace again; this time, it stayed. It was on the 9th of April, 2019.
On the 10th of April, 2019, the very next day, news reached us that the insurgents had attacked and kidnapped an already-serving Corps member in Borno State. My camp roommates leveraged this news and tried to talk me out of going to the state. How could I have canceled my relocation? Why would I want to go to a state where terrible things were happening, even to Corps members?
My family members thought I had lost it. My mom even started asking people to pray with her so that I would change my mind. Everything sounded like a suicide mission.
But I was not moved—not one bit. One thing was settled in my heart:’ If this is where God wants me to be, then that’s where I am going. It’s now up to Him to preserve me.’
The Outcome of Obeying?
Thinking back now, deciding to serve in Borno State is among the best decisions I’ve made in life. Answering God’s clarion call to serve in a location nobody wanted to live in turned out to be the door to my prosperity (please don’t think about money alone, even though that came as well).
By serving in that state, I have come to know God in ways I fear I may never have known Him had I not obeyed.
By this act of obedience, I have experienced laser-sharp alignment with God’s purpose for my life. I’ve never felt this fulfilled!
By throwing caution and reasoning to the wind and following God’s will for my life, I met and got hitched to the man God specially prepared for me. Some other time, I’ll share how my husband and I met (trust me, you’ll never doubt God’s leading again).
I may not yet have attained all that God wants me to attain. But looking back at where I was in the different areas of my life before I stepped foot on that dry, dusty land, I can hit my chest and say I am a lot closer to God’s design for my life than I had ever been.
Is Following God’s Will Important to You?
Or are you merely hoping that God accepts whatever you choose for yourself?
Now, tell me, why don’t you yet trust and rely solely on God’s will for your life? Why aren’t you seeking and following God’s will for your life? He knows the end from the beginning and knows what’s best for you.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
Do you also know that this scripture is for those who are called according to God’s purpose and willing to follow His will?
The sad thing is that most people only think about following God’s will when it comes to marriage. But God is no magician. He is a God of process, and He wants every part of you, every aspect of your life.
If you want God’s leading in one aspect of your life, you must surrender other aspects to Him. It’s a flow, a sequence. You cannot simply start following God’s will for your life in marriage (or any single area) when every other aspect of your life is in rebellion to His will.
Now, I’m not asking you to become so terrified of missing God’s will to the point of sickness. I was that way because I did not realize that God wanted me to live in His will much more than I wanted to.
I want you to decide to deliberately work on seeking and following God’s will in every area of your life. He cares about every part of you and wants you to get it right.
