After my first degree in engineering in 2011, I began to aim to go for a Master’s degree in the United States, because I believed that was what God would have me do. I started working in that direction by preparing for the required tests, submitting my applications, praying and sowing seeds in that regard, believing God for a favourable outcome. I sent the first set of my applications in 2012, but they were all rejected. I tried again in 2013 and felt a bit discouraged when it turned out the same way, but I encouraged myself to try again. Equipped with hindsight this time, I rewrote the tests and came out with very good grades; one of which was placed at the top 10 of thousands of students that wrote the test worldwide. While waiting for the application to come through, I began a relationship, but I later had to let it go; and so I ended it in September.
By the following month, I was emotionally drained because the response to my admission request was stalled and I began to panic. I could see things were literally falling out of place. Particularly, my guarantors couldn’t send in their recommendations on my behalf, due to circumstances beyond their control, and without such my application could not be reviewed. From all indications, something had gone wrong and my joy was at the verge of being stolen. Immediately, I stood my grounds in prayer and held on to Hebrews 13:14-15. This set me on the right course and my confession became, “I have no continuing city here but I seek one to come. I have stepped into the one to come through the sacrifice of praise.” Whenever the fear of failure came, I told myself, “I have experienced the reality of these things.” I kept myself in the Word, listening to messages, writing down notes in my journal of all God said through His Word and kept on with my confessions.
After some time I began to notice that my spirit became calm. Whenever someone asked, “How far?” I’d reply and say, “I’m expectant.” Inside me I would smile and tell myself that God is not man. The impossible is His opportunity to work a miracle. It is not a miracle if it is humanly possible. On the first day of the Halal week, the only thing I wrote in my journal was, “Praise.” So I started praising God for my testimony. I had to express the fact that I had gotten the assurance of my requests. While I was dancing alone in my apartment on Tuesday of the Halal Week, I got my admission notification mail to study in the University of Texas, after many applications, rejections and two years of waiting. Besides this, I knew something bigger had been deposited in me, because I can now stretch my faith for bigger things. I started seeing the Word in a new way because of my paradigm shift. Glory to God!