By Deidre Montague
The very first thing that I thought about when asked to write about manifestation was the song, “Manifest,” by Gospel artist Jonathan Nelson.
From this song, he sings the following verse:
“Pregnant possibilities
Now birth anew
Travailing to obtain it
For it must come to pass
I decree it, declare it
And call it in the Spirit
To become what God’s designed me to be.”
To me, this verse encapsulates what manifestation means to me. It is believing what God will bring to pass the dreams that He places in our hearts. There is so much power in aligning ourselves with our Higher Power, and speaking those things into the atmosphere. I certainly have seen this principle in my life. In 2018, I began the journey with God of changing careers from social work to journalism, after He placed the desire in my heart.
I aligned myself with Him and His dream and began the process of manifestation. Along with prayer for guidance, I created a vision board to remind myself of my goals and dreams of becoming a professional journalist. I had done a couple in the past without any clear vision, but this time, I created this board with intention. Some of the things that I put on my vision board included scriptures, quotes, prominent journalists of color that I look up to, graduate schools of journalism I would want to apply / attend, and a personalized life mission.
Along with the vision board, I began to walk by faith and went back to my local community college to take Journalism courses, attended conferences, and began writing for my campus paper. When COVID-19 upended our lives, after prayer and working to manage my anxiety, I had taken advantage of the virtual/remote world by taking on multiple internships, which has allowed me to network with seasoned journalists and take advantage of other opportunities. Some of these have included becoming a staff writer for the Town of Manchester for Better Manchester Magazine, moderating two community forums on domestic violence and the intersection of race and gender, and participating in the National Association of Black Journalists Summer institute program – where I was able to write articles and be a reporter for one of the online segments.
While this all sounds so exciting and I am super grateful to God for these blessings, I still had moments where I had intrusive negative thoughts, I doubted if God’s plan will really manifest. My anxiety worked to choke the hope out of me, my depression worked to entrap me in its cloak of deep despair – especially when I applied for opportunities I really wanted, and was rejected for. My insecurity tries to remind me that I am in over my head and floods my mind with overwhelm. It is part of the process of manifesting the dreams and walking in the purpose that God has for you. Although it will feel like you are lost in the dark by yourself, the still small voice that encourages you and comforts you to keep going, that is His Spirit strengthening you to stay on the course.
I also want to tell you that manifesting your dreams will not happen overnight. To get to this place I am at now, it took a lot of prayer, tears, and therapy. It took trusting God when people would ask me why am I going back to school, will you make money in this field, and enduring the loneliness of being the first one on this path to manifesting God’s plan for me to become a professional journalist. It took humbly asking God to give me His strength during the times where I felt like I was a failure and when it seemed as if I was just going in circles. It took realizing that I am not a failure for leaving the social work profession and not using my degree, but all of that experience helps me in writing my articles today. It took understanding that God’s dreams and purpose will cause us to stand out and set apart for His Glory and use, and becoming okay with being the “unicorn” in my social circle.
By persevering through these things on a daily basis, I now am seeing the rewards of my labor.
All of these things are beginning to manifest in my life and are molding me into the woman God is designing me to be. So I encourage you, especially as we are weeks away from ushering in a brand new year, align yourself with your Higher Power, believe the dreams, plan, and purpose that He has placed inside of you, and speak them into the atmosphere and manifest into the person God has called you to be.
