As I wrote, I began to think to myself, “Anika, if you know you are going to get whatever you ask for, don’t you think you should ask REALLY big? Like ask for the biggest thing you want in your life.” I thought for a minute and then it dawned on me – I knew what I want more than anything. What I wrote next changed my life forever.
I wrote, “Lord, all I want is your presence to be with me and your glory to rest on me.” When I wrote the last word, a flame of fire flashed in my mind and a scripture verse I had no memory of knowing before began unfolding in my mind. I heard, “One thing have I desired of the Lord…” I wrote that down and then I quickly looked up the Bible reference. It was Psalm 27:4 and it fully states, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” This all happened in less than a minute. As I read that verse out loud, my heart felt like it was on fire. From that moment on I had such a FIRE for the Lord, that I can hardly explain it. It felt like my pursuit of the Lord was elevated to a level that was nuclear charged! I placed a bulls-eye on that one request and I crossed out all the other things I wrote down – not because they were bad things but because from that moment I had only one desire that I wanted God to answer above all else.
Not too long after that I started seeing a terminology that reflected what I felt like and the phrase is “carrier of His Glory.” The scriptures states in 1 Colossians 1:26-27, “…that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” We know that as believers, Christ lives in us from the moment of salvation; and even though we may not look or act like it we are in essence “carriers of His Glory.” My experience felt like the hope of Glory inside of me was ignited and became a flame of fire. I remember telling my husband that I felt like I have a flame of fire in my chest and it’s blazing and that I also felt that one day that flame of fire in my heart will spread to my entire being and I would become a walking flame of fire. I truly felt that way.
I would later discover a mentor who wrote his autobiography and titled it, Living a Life of Fire. When I first saw that book, I knew immediately I had to get it. I had never heard of the author Evangelist Reinhard Boonke and I had no idea of what the book would say and what it would lead to. I was about to be schooled on exactly what the fire in my heart meant. This would lead to me being trained on how to carry this fire and fulfill the calling that had been placed on my life.
Anika Janelle Pettiford, The Founder and CEO of Elani Enterprises is also an Author and Bible Teacher. Upon graduation from Seminary with a Master’s in Theological Studies, Anika launched what she calls “His ministry through her” – Grace, Gold and Glory. Taking the gospel to the Marketplace is Anika’s unique positioning in the Kingdom of God.
