On 4th July 2017, God spoke to my heart a prophetic word concerning the times we are living in, and what we, as His children can expect to be outworked in our lives, families, Church, businesses, careers, relationships, health and finances in this season:
“This is a season of acceleration” says the Lord. “From the giving of the Word, vision, revelation; there is an acceleration through to the implementation. You would not believe me if I told you, so I am going to show you”!
Amos 9:13 (Msg)“Yes indeed, it won’t be long now.” God’s Decree. “Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once–and everywhere you look, blessings!
I re-read this word in my journal a couple of weeks ago, and what God “showed me” as a sign of greater to come, I must share with you. I had hoped to hold this experience in my heart and entrust it only to a few close friends for fear of being misunderstood or someone calling for the white coats to take me away for assessment. I have fought to the point of writer’s block and being unable to post another blog until I released this experience… as God gently and lovingly reminded me, when He called me to be “His Living Word”, with one aspect of that being ‘blogging’, during my maternity at the beginning of this year, I promised to be transparent with you all, so here goes….
As you know I am a lover of God, a Mother of 5, a founder and Director of a successful property company, Hollinger Field Investments, and have just said yes to God’s call of going back “on the road” again, or often more appropriately “up in the air again” to speak His message of love at Conferences, Churches, in Governments and to the Nations – wherever He sends me I will follow the invitation and go. Feeling somewhat overwhelmed at Hillsong Conference this summer, my heart was crying out to God agonisingly in one of the sessions, as a new and humbling responsibility weighed heavily upon me. It felt beyond me and enough to break me, in all honesty my initial response was “God your having a laugh, choose someone else, anyone else, not me”!
When Judah was a month or so old, I was introduced to what I was told was natural, healthy skin care and makeup! A good friend had been over on a “new baby visit” and over coffee mentioned the venue she was due to launch her new business at the following week was limiting her on the numbers she could accommodate. In a moment of madness I offered our home and it was filled to the max with beautiful women. After the launch I bought a token lipstick and politely explained I was quite happy with the products I was using, and indeed had used for years. It wasn’t long, however, before doing some of my own research and due diligence behind the scenes, as well as seeing some outstanding results from friends, that I dived in and fell in love with all the Tropic Skincare and makeup range; hook, line and sinker. My skin never felt or looked so good and all that at a time when I was feeding a baby, not to mention running on 3 to 4 hours sleep a night! It was genuinely the best I had ever used and for the first time I was overwhelmed, not underwhelmed, with a skin care and makeup routine.
At a lunch with a very good friend about to commence chemotherapy for cancer, I was shocked when she told me she would be unable to use so many of the make up and products on her body she enjoyed whilst enduring treatment. I probed further and discovered that whilst her immunity was so low her beautiful body could not cope with the chemicals that these products contain. It led me to more research and the realisation that if our bodies cannot cope with these products when our immunity is low, why in the world does a cosmetic and skin care industry deem it acceptable to overload good immune systems with chemicals, parabens, and rubbish? Nothing has given me more pleasure than to gift this beautiful friend and kickstart a healthy skin care and make up programme for her, together with many other beautiful friends and women battling this evil cancer since then.
However, my love of using the products for 6 months or so was one thing, but God out of the blue placing the responsibility of sharing this goodness with others, was something else entirely. I was not impressed and cried on the inside, “Jesus I love you more than anything but this is crazy and embarrassing, ME SELLING TROPIC SKINCARE AND MAKE UP! – use one of my friends already in the beauty and make up industry – now there’s a way better idea God”. I was even kind enough to give God a couple of names!!! In that agonising moment God spoke tenderly to my heart, “I didn’t give them the responsibility, I gave the responsibility to you – what will YOU do?” I then had a vision of Lord Alan Sugar, a TV personality on a programme I have loved for years “The Apprentice”, a renowned business man and 50% shareholder in Tropic.
I was standing in an arena that I knew was filled with people and I was shaking his hand. God said “I have a message for you to bring to this Jewish man. I want you to bless him”. I couldn’t make this up if I tried. I had no idea he was even Jewish but on checking later with Wikipedia, you probably won’t be surprised if I told you He is proud (as he should be) of His Jewish roots and is an atheist! Oh my, God had well and truly set me up! The vision continued and I saw myself saying:
“God bless you” as I motioned with my arm to a massive expanse beyond me, saying, “As great as all this is, what God has for you is even greater, this is temporary, God’s purpose for you is eternal, that you might know Him, your creator and your God”!
That was it, end of message and as I sat in the box at Hillsong Leadership Conference, nursing baby Judah in the O2 Arena, with tears in my heart I simply responded “Yes” to God’s call with a prayer that “God’s hand would be on my hands”, as I had no idea how I would squeeze this additional project into my already seemingly overwhelming world. As for how this would be perceived in my world and business arena, from company owner and Director to Tropic Ambassador, with a heart full of tears (just being honest), I humbled myself and obeyed. I’ve simply learned to love, trust and follow God’s voice wherever He tells me to go. It’s enough for me to know He knows! I shared this with my husband and one trusted friend and soulmate, Chantel Norman, immediately after Hillsong Leadership Conference, saying maybe it would take 5 or 10 years, but that was my undercover mission and reason for becoming a Tropic Ambassador. I felt embarrassed as I knew how crazy this sounded as soon as the words came out of my mouth, especially as a backer in property projects myself, I am more than aware that just like Lord Sugar, you put the money in and enjoy the return, but it doesn’t mean the staff or people concerned ever get to meet the shareholder or one putting up the funds – more often than not they are the unseen entity in the background!
In order to be an Active Tropic Ambassador I had thought, wrongly, that you had to sell £250 worth of the product a year…. in my mind I could do this for myself and family as I love the chemical free, paraben free, healthy goodness of the skin care and makeup. As I insisted my friend sign me up you could’ve probably heard my scream from one side of our house to the other as she informed me it was actually £250 worth of sales a month! How would I do that? I never want to be a drain on anything I undertake and in addition I was out of the country extensively over the summer between Israel, France and Mexico! With God’s hands on my hands though I knew all things were possible. God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you!
Amazingly, in my first sales month with Tropic, God did what only He could do. I was on the ground in the UK for only one week of that time but the total sales took me by surprise amounting to a whopping great £3,500!!! All I can say is the angels in heaven must have been buying and using Tropic!!! I didn’t think I had the capability to sell £250 worth in a month, and quite frankly I didn’t! I know the One to whom all glory is due! As a result, I received an invitation to join Lord Alan Sugar on stage, together with other high achievers and the rest is history. My God is real. His love knows no boundaries. There are no lengths that He will not go to in order to deliver His message of purpose and salvation to men and women today. On 23rd September 2017 I shook Lord Alan Sugar’s hand and delivered God’s message in its entirety, and exactly as I saw it in the vision God gave me only a month or two before. Mission accomplished. As for the money earned from my new Tropic venture, nothing has given me more pleasure than to be able to benefit full-time Christian work and charity.
Speaking at CCF Women’s Conference in Carlisle recently, I shared this story and encouraged them to “go large or go home”! There is no time to waste in this hour. Don’t allow what others think or their opinions to hold you back. Don’t permit your feelings of pride, inadequacy, fear or inability to hold you back. Don’t allow the debilitating pain of being misunderstood to hold you back. There is a world that only you can reach with God’s love. You are not responsible for the response. I repeat, “YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHERS RESPONSE”, but you are responsible for your response to God! We are called to be Ambassadors for God, Messengers of His love, God’s hands, feet and heart to those around us! Have I been misunderstood on this mission? Hugely! Have people tried to pull me back and pull me down? Continually! Have there been those who have mocked me? For sure, but they mocked Jesus too! Heaven always has the last laugh! What they didn’t know was it wasn’t about me! What you need to know is God’s call and destiny for your life is not about you; it is bigger than you! You are not here to please or appease the crowd, the critics, people nursing their own insecurities or jealousies, but to get up and do what God has called you to do regardless! As I said to someone in Church today, little did they know the words rebounded out of my mouth back to me, “your best form of defense is not attack, but to go on strong and be successful anyway”!
What I thought would be an overload and such a sacrifice when I said “Yes” to God’s call to be a Tropic Ambassador, has turned into my “guilt free pleasure”, hobby and joy! When asked what I was talking to Lord Alan Sugar about at the Glambassadors Tropic Launch, I was caught off-guard initially, but the words in answer to the question that came out of my mouth made me smile, “Oh, just another business matter”! To the people who have remarked “Wow, you met Lord Alan Sugar, I would simply respond, “you could say that, or you could say, Lord Sugar just met Jesus”. As children of God we are always about our Father’s business, Kingdom business, and in this season God wants His children to know that things that would have at one time taken years to accomplish will happen speedily.
Expect the suddenlies of God! He showed me first hand, as I am now showing you, how a mission I expected to take 5/10 years, and even seemed impossible, would be accomplished in a matter of a couple of months! Always remember you are not responsible for the response but to be faithfilled, not fearful, to step up and step out in all that God has called you to do. Go Large or go home! Go large for God in this life, dream big, and when the time comes for each and every one of us to ‘go home’ we can stand before our beautiful Father and hear Him say “Well done, good and faithful child you have done all I called you to do”! Say yes, step up, step out and God will do the rest – releasing His miraculous power and Holy Spirit to work through you”!
“This is a season of acceleration” says the Lord. “From the giving of the Word, vision, revelation; there is an acceleration through to the implementation. You would not believe me if I told you, so I am going to show you”!
So, 3 months into my Tropic adventure, what next…. well, as I now have a gorgeous team of Tropic Ambassadors and I’m loving sharing God’s goodness for Spirit, Soul and now Body too (in that order), I am loving every minute of it. What a joy to empower women (and men) to be informed and make healthy choices. The products sell themselves and it has been such a blessing to benefit so many people with the best and healthiest of skin care and make up! What goes on the skin takes 26 seconds to go in. I also know that true beauty, though, comes from first knowing Him… His name is Jesus! Feel free to follow me on instagram and facebook @christinelovestropic and browse or shop here at Christine’s online Tropic Shop! Alternatively, contact me for more information on all things God, life and Tropic! I’d be delighted to advise you, get you started and as you love it as much as I do, maybe one day you’ll be joining my power-packed Team of Tropic Ambassadors too.
I lovingly call them the Tropic God Squad! In closing, a massive thank you to all my friends, customers and those who have supported me in this venture – I value every one of you. If this had been about me I would have failed miserably, but it has been about “we” together doing something extraordinary. I am deeply grateful for your support past, present and future. Whatever God says to you to do – do it… you’ll be amazed where He will take you! Sometimes it may mean humbling yourself, but as you lift Jesus up, He will always bring you out on top!
OPTIONAL PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I want to go large for you until the day that I go home to be with you. Forgive me for the things I have allowed to hold me back. Set me free from the fear of what people think and my own feelings of inadequacy. With you I cannot fail! Let it be enough to know that you are with me and may your love and power be shown and made known through me. Move quickly in my life, making all that is wrong, right, and let my life be a shining light in the dark arena of life leading multitudes to you. In Jesus name. Amen.