This isn’t one of my usual stories.
This actually is an uplifting article. Something I feel I should share with you all personally.
I will try to be as simple as possible so here it goes.

Finding purpose through pain is something most people experience but few talk about openly. I think everyone has gone through a form of pain. It could be physical or emotional or both. My point is we have all gone through pain. It reminds us that we are human.
Purpose. Purpose is something everyone should have. Not everyone has realized it but everyone has it.
I recently went through an emotionally painful season in my life. It was a series of painful things that happened within a period of time and because there was no time to deal with each of them individually, I had to compartmentalize and then I went through something psychiatry calls “isolation of affect”. I detached the emotions from the situation and had to move on, to act.
When I first wrote this years ago, i remember the circumstances surrounding it vaguely but I know it wasn’t compared to what I have gone through over the years.

At the same time, my purpose wasn’t really revealed to me. I had an inkling of the things I would do and become but I wasn’t implementing anything and I felt waiting for a relationship would be my starting point. It was then in 2018, I made the decision to heal and accepted that everything else will fall into place as time goes on. I didn’t have much clarity but I just knew I had to grow and to keep going.
I am glad I made that choice because I am still single even now. Imagine I had waited to live😂

Back to the healing journey. I discovered I had layers of pain hidden, well tucked within me but I also discovered my purpose. You can say the pain gave me a probe to look within. It gave me a reason to turn inwards and find out what was missing.
Jesus came and began the process. I became more serious with my spiritual life and I opened myself to Jesus to take away the pain.
There was shame at first and regret, and at some point, there was a rock bottom that I thought couldn’t go much deeper, but it did. Oh it did.
Then light came on that road. I stopped looking within, and I looked up, and I saw light.
Light made me see.

Many times, we get consumed by our own burdens that we cannot see anything else and I get it. It feels like you are literally drowning.
But something happens when you let go and look up. Looking up here means looking to Jesus.
Looking up here means taking away the focus from that which plagues you so badly.
Look. Up.
It is when this happens that you finally see your pain in a different lens. There is a change that occurs.
>A change that forces belief. A change that forces faith. A change that makes people question your sanity because you start to smile genuinely even in the midst of hurt.
If you want to allow pain to change you, let it be that you become a better version of yourself.
Do not let it mould you into a model that is supposed to be outdated.
When light comes, you realize how closely tied that pain is with your purpose. With your destiny.

I wrote this originally in 2018 and looking back, I survived and even thrived. It seems so minuscule now and that’s what it will continue to look like.
Just imagine a space craft leaving earth, the farther it goes, the tinier earth becomes to it. Even an airplane in the sky, the higher it goes, the tinier things look on the surface.
Pain gives you perspective. It gave me perspective.
I still don’t know why some things happened to me, I may never know but I know a fact; that all things work together FOR GOOD to them that love God and are called according to his purpose(Rom 8:28).

You must also be brave. Deciding to rise higher means looking inwards and then looking up. The Ayo of 2018 wouldn’t have been able to handle what Ayo of 2025 passed through but it is by Gods grace I am who I am today and who I’ll be tomorrow.

To end this, I comfort you with the same comfort I have received. Like Samson’s riddle in Judges 14:14: “…Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet…”- Honey was found in the carcass of a lion.

Look up and be carried up.
Yours with so much love,

Ayokunle.

P.S: You can also read one of my posts here

The post Look Up by Ayokunle Adedipe appeared first on The Olive Branch.

Last Sunday, during service, my pastor preached about listening to God and allowing Him to direct our course in life.

As we bowed our heads in prayer, I suddenly remembered a song God gave me many years ago, and I found myself reflecting on it once again.

“Se bioitife ninu aye mi (Do as you please in my life)

Se bi wo loni mi (You own me)

To mo mi (you created me)

To mo mi (you know me)

Se bioitife o ninu aye mi (Do as you please in my life).”

I was 16 at the time, a new student in a beautiful secondary school. Mind you, I had already completed high school, but as a science student, I failed two major subjects. Even after attempting them again through GCE, I still did not pass. By then, I had completely given up on my dream of becoming a doctor. I had pivoted to something else. Perhaps I would have been a geographer today (a good one at that; I did so well in that subject).

Many of my friends know this story, and one day I will tell it fully (Just stick around)

A few people close to me know the many chapters of my life, but very few know that song. No one, except the Holy Spirit and myself, truly understood how I felt during that season.

I was deeply sad, yet still moving, living, breathing, and confused. The student who was once the best had suddenly become a failure. I lost my sense of identity and self-confidence, carrying shame and constantly second-guessing myself. The only place I could run to was God. That was where my journaling journey began. I poured my heart out on paper, and God used people around me to speak to me.

That morning, shortly after I turned 16, I was walking into the bathroom to start my day before leaving the hostel when God placed that song on my lips. I sang it with a heart full of uncertainty, fear, shame, and pain, but it became the song for my journey and for that season of my life.

It was a song of surrender. I allowed God to lead me and told Him to do as He pleased, because my life ultimately belonged to Him.

Gradually, I grew in my walk with God; I experienced him as a Father, and my faith grew strongly while I learned to rely on him alone. Aside from that, God gave me good friends during that season.

I remember songs from Donut Man’s club about Jeremiah at the potter’s house and also the potter and the clay song. God molds us into what He wants us to be and takes us through processes, and we come out beautiful and changed at the end. But that molding process can be tough.

“He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” Jeremiah 18:6 NIV

The years have passed, and now everything is a story we can laugh about and be happy about, but that season was a tough one. The ‘making’ process indeed. I passed my WAEC, gained admission into the university to study medicine, graduated, and became a doctor.

The journey through medical school was not all smooth, but God held me through it all. The noise came, but it was silenced. I learned to tune my ears to his voice alone, and whenever I felt overwhelmed, I remembered that song that carried me once before.

I am deeply grateful for Godly parents who allowed God to use them to direct our lives. They introduced us to God early, mentored us, and helped us grow spiritually, knowing they could not do it alone.

The ‘me’ you see now is a refined one who continues to be pruned by God into the vessel he wants me to be. When you walk with God, everything about you changes.

When you have a relationship with the God who made you, made the world, and made everything in it. Why do you fight to do things on your own? The arm of flesh will fail you. Allow Him to lead you and take you on a journey of total surrender to His will and purpose for your life.

As the psalmist says in Psalms 16:2, “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’” NIV

“I said to Yahweh, “You are my Maker and my Master. Any good thing you find in me has come from you.” TPT

Let your heart trust God; let Him have your ears.

Don’t forget to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Thank you for walking with me. You can catch up on my previous posts here

With Love

Estee

The post Let God Write Your Story appeared first on The Olive Branch.

On this particular day, my uncle was coming back from a gathering of some sort at night and was walking home, he got to this point and saw a tree which was weird because he could have sworn there was no tree at that spot beforehand. He wondered if it was a vision or if it was real, he observed it was a coconut tree and had a number of coconuts on it so to confirm it was real, he three stones at it and yes it was real. He was stunned but he left that scene as soon as he could. He rushed back home and went on as normal till his father, my grandfather sent for him on another day and scolded him for throwing stones at “some people” days ago and he was confused at first but he was warned that some women had reported him for throwing stones at them during their meeting and he had disturbed them but they were going to let it pass because of his prince privileges so he would get was a warning this time.

Let me say it again, they couldn’t and wouldn’t harm him because he was a prince and they were loyal to the king.

It then struck me at that moment. If the son of an earthly king had that privilege, how much more the son/daughter of “The heavenly king”.
I mean, God is the owner and creator of everything including that coconut tree and its members 😂
Luke 10:19 says that; “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”
‭
Have you ever wondered the kind of authority you have been given and the type of authority you carry?

‘A royal priesthood, a chosen generation’ ‘Joint-heirs with Christ’ That at the mention of his name, Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess. It’s not just about reading these words or even saying them. Do you understand it? Are you walking in that realization?

Know what you carry and walk in it.

As I write this to you, I’m filled with so much excitement because of what opened up to me at the point of remembering that story.
Imagine what we have been taking for granted for years.

Please take a moment today and just remind yourself of your identity in Christ, your place in God’s kingdom and your authority.
You are a king, a queen, an ambassador of his kingdom. You carry His presence everywhere and you have power over sin and even death. You are not bound by sin because Christ has overcome this world already. Don’t just stay at the gates of this kingdom, enter into it and enjoy all the privileges. Not some, ALL. But there is something important you must not forget. Every kingdom is governed by its own rules and that’s the same for the kingdom of God. You must obey the principles of his kingdom so that you may thrive in it.

This realization not only helps you to thrive, it also helps the people around you. They see your “new dispensation” and they want to be a part of it. Certain things will no longer affect you when you begin to walk in this light.
I hope you see it as I can. I hope you really feel what I’m feeling now and I hope you remember everyday that all you need has been given to you.

Please take a moment and bask in this.

“Eden is no more a place, I am the city of God, I bring heaven, heaven here and now”
– Dunsin Oyekan

Here’s a post for you if you are struggling with trusting God

With love
Estee

The post The Prince, The Coconut and The Women. appeared first on The Olive Branch.