change
Return and Submit
This past Sunday, I got the opportunity to repent – not just to my pastors, but to the entire church for not being in my place.
I had some things in common with Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid (but not anymore). She was the one chosen to bear Sarai and Abram’s child. But after Hagar got pregnant, I think she started to smell herself. No, really. I think she either felt herself equal to Sarai (as she had become Abram’s wife to bear his child) or she thought she was better than Sarai because she was able to do something that Sarai wasn’t able to do, which was to carry Abram’s child.
She was blessed with such an honor to carry their child, but she forgot who she was. She forgot she was still Sarai’s handmaid. She became too familiar with her. Hagar’s problem was she no longer respected the anointing on Sarai’s life. She didn’t honor the woman of God.
Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine (1 Timothy 5:17).
Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you (Hebrews 13:17).
Sarai was not some mere woman. When God spoke concerning Sarai, He said, ‘I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her’ (Genesis 17:16). Hagar may have been the new wife, but Sarai was still the ‘first lady’.
Sarai didn’t like Hagar’s attitude and disrespect towards her so she told Abram about it. Abram, being the smart man he was, changed his name to Bennett. My name is Bennett and I ain’t in it. Just joking. But seriously, he told his wife that he was going to stay out of it, that she was her maid and this was between them.
When Sarai took matters into her own hands, Hagar ran away. I can only imagine what Hagar was thinking when she left. Who does she think she is? She can’t have no baby. I’m having his baby. They are going to need me before I need them.
But do you know what I loved most about this passage of scripture?
Abram didn’t run after Hagar to try to convince her to come back. Sarai didn’t run after her, crying and begging her to come back. I don’t know how long Hagar was in the wilderness, but I do know it was good for her to be there because there were some things in her that needed to die and where she was caused her to grow up. No one took her position or her place, but if she really wanted it – if she was really serious this time, she was going to have to return to the place she left and take it back.
One day, the angel of the Lord found Hagar in the wilderness and asked her two questions:
1) Where did you come from?
2) Where are you going?
She didn’t have a problem answering the first question, but she couldn’t answer the second question because she didn’t know what she was going to do. She didn’t have a plan because she ran from the plan that was created for her.
Now I know that Isaac was the plan and he was the promise of God, but when Sarai told her husband to marry her handmaid, Abram came in agreement with it and God honored it. (I didn’t say God liked her idea, but He honored it). At any time, God could have stopped this plan and He could have shut up Hagar’s womb, but He didn’t. He allowed it to be because that was what Sarai wanted.
By asking the above questions, the Lord wanted her to realize that she was going the wrong way – that she needed to change her direction. I don’t think Hagar wanted to remain in the wilderness, but she may have been too proud to go back. But God dealt with her. He spoke to her through an angel. Return to your mistress and submit yourself. What he was really saying was:
You were wrong, Hagar. Go back.
You were wrong, Hagar. Apologize.
You were wrong, Hagar. Make it right.
But maybe she was afraid. What was Sarai going to do to her once she returned? What were the people going to say? Would Abram and Sarai receive her back?
So, the angel gave her a word that gave her the confidence to go back. I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count (Genesis 16:10, AMP). That was God’s way of letting her know:
I see you (Genesis 16:13).
I haven’t forgotten you.
I didn’t leave you. You left Me.
You’re still a part of the plan.
I haven’t taken back what I gave you (Ishmael).
I will still use you.
I will bless you.
So, Hagar got back in her place and in her position and I’ve decided to do the same. Please know that repentance was just the first step. Even after Hagar returned to her mistress, there were things she had to do and there will be things that I will have to do because Hagar didn’t see what the angel said until she did what the angel said.
[Scripture reference: Genesis 16]
You Choose
To one, God may be like the man who left ninety-nine sheep to search for one sheep that had gone astray until he found it (Luke 15:4).
But to another, He is like the prodigal son’s father, who doesn’t go after his son and search for him, but instead He waits (Luke 15:20). He waits for him to grow up. He waits for him to humble himself. He waits for him to come to his senses.
The prodigal son knew what belonged to him and he went boldly to his father and asked for it. The problem was He left what he needed after he got what he wanted. Even after God gives you what you’ve been asking for, you are still going to need Him.
Just because the father didn’t search for his son doesn’t mean he didn’t love him, but it was time for his son to make a decision. What do you want? He had to make up his mind. Either he could stay where he was (apart from his father), toiling, but still hungry or he could go back to his father where there were hired servants and enough bread to spare (Luke 15:15-17).
God has better for you. You don’t have to stay where you are. You don’t have to struggle, but you’re struggling because you want to do things your way. The Holy Spirit will convict you. He will tell you what you need to do, but He is not going to do it for you and He’s not going to make you do it. This has to be your choice.
Elijah asked the question, How long will you halt between two opinions? (1 Kings 18:21). How long will you go back and forth? How long will you sit between who you were and who you are created to be?
There are some adult Christians who want God to treat them like babies. You want him to always pick you up and carry you, but it’s time to learn how to walk – by your own faith. You’re His child, but you’re not a baby anymore. God expects us to grow in our salvation (1 Peter 2:2). Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and He expects us to grow, too. At the age of 12, Jesus was being taught in the temple, but by the age of 30, He was teaching others.
Making choices is part of growing up and sometimes it will feel like making a decision is hard, but when you read the conversation between the serpent and Eve, we learn that God will tell you the type of ‘trees’ that are before you and He will tell you which tree to choose and which tree not to choose, but He is not going to choose for you (Genesis 3:2-3).
God gave you the power to choose, but choose rightly. Maybe you’ve made some poor choices in the past, but the days of being angry, blaming people, living in regret and feeling powerless or helpless are over. Maybe your parents didn’t always make the right choices concerning you, but you’re grown now. You can make your own choices. Choose to obey God and when you choose to do what God wants you to do first, then those things you’ve been worrying about and toiling for will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).
Whether you want God to use you or you want what He has for you or you want to become like a planted tree that brings forth fruit, it is going to require growth, time and change. Do you really want it?
You choose.
Honor God
honor: to grant someone respect and authority in your life; high esteem made public; to treat with submission
Eli had two sons, Phinehas and Hophni. They were sleeping with the women in the temple, lying and taking the sacrifices that belonged to God for themselves. When it was brought to Eli’s attention what his sons were doing, he rebuked them, but he allowed this wickedness to continue. One day, a man of God went to Eli and reminded him that out of all the tribes of Israel, God chose the tribe (Levi) that he was born into to be priests for Him, to sacrifice upon His altar, to burn incense and to wear priestly robes as they served Him. God made a promise to his ancestors that the tribe of Levi would always be HIS priests, but because Eli honored his sons more than he honored God, his family would die prematurely.
In the meantime, the Israelites went to battle and were defeated by the Philistines. The elders of Israel had this idea to take the ark of the covenant to the next battle in hopes that it would save them. The people carried the ark of the covenant and Eli’s sons stayed with the ark. Isn’t that something? Phinehas and Hophni wouldn’t honor or respect God with their bodies or with their substance, but now they wanted to honor Him – because they wanted something from Him.
But God doesn’t overlook sin. Eli was warned. The people described in Romans 1:18-24 reminded me of Eli’s sons. They exchanged the glory of God for an image that wasn’t of God. They did what they wanted to do. They thought they were wise without Him. They used their bodies for their pleasure, but not for God’s pleasure. Because God didn’t do what they wanted Him to do, they created in their minds ideas of what God was like and what He wanted them to do. They worshipped the god they made instead of the God who made them.
Because the sins continued, the glory of God departed. As a result, Israel lost to the Philistines, the sons died and the ark of the covenant was stolen by the Philistines. When Eli heard the news, he fell backwards off of the seat and broke his neck. When Eli’s daughter-in-law heard about it, she died during childbirth and the baby was named Ichabod, meaning the glory is departed from Israel.
Someone once told me, God is everywhere. He is at every church.
God is everywhere, but His glory isn’t.
Everyone likes to have ‘good church’, but God desires us to be a ‘changed church’. The glory of God is described as God’s greatness, presence, power, beauty and character, but in 2 Corinthians 3:18, we read that the purpose of God’s glory is to change us into His image. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Sometimes when people read that scripture, they read it as something that will happen after we leave this earth, but this is what God wants to do in us now.
When the glory of God appears, we see God as He is. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord (Isaiah 6:1). He also saw seraphims crying to one another, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. He not only saw the image of God, but he saw himself and the people he hung around. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5). Revelation just doesn’t come so you can have knowledge of something, but it comes to bring transformation. He saw who he was, but he also saw what he should become. This is why we need His glory.
After Isaiah confessed his sins, one of the seraphims took a live coal from the altar and laid it on Isaiah’s mouth and said, This has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged (Isaiah 6:7). If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that’s what He did for Isaiah upon his confession. After Isaiah spoke, God spoke. Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Because of the change that took place in Isaiah, God knew that when Isaiah spoke, he would be speaking for HIM and for all of heaven. God needs someone who will say what HE said and not what they want to say.
But I don’t want to confine God’s glory to a temple (the church building) because our bodies are also called the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (1 Corinthians 6:16).
It has always been God’s desire to live in us and to walk in us, but we must first do something. Come out from among them, and be ye separate (remember Isaiah was in the midst of a people with unclean lips), says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you (2 Corinthians 6:16-17). In other words, change. Change your ways. Change who/what you hang around. Change what you’ve been doing. Change what you’ve been listening to. Change what you’ve been speaking.
Have you ever lost something good and wished you could get it back? Can you imagine what it was like when the Spirit of God departed from Saul (1 Samuel 16:14)? I don’t want you and I to ever know what it feels like to not feel God’s presence or to not hear His voice. So, we must do what Eli didn’t do.
Honor God.
Paul urged children in Ephesians 6:2 to honor their parents. How do children honor their parents? By obeying them. And just like a parent, God is honored when His children do what He tells us to do. This people draw nigh to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me (Matthew 15:8). Honor is not just spoken. It is shown.
Prayer: Lord, help us to honor You in everything we do and not just what we say.
[References: 1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-36; 1 Samuel 4; Isaiah 6:1-8]
Don’t Miss It!
One day, Jesus told a parable of a certain man who had two sons (Matthew 21:28). The man went to his first son and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard’.
- Go (move, take a different course).
- Work (assignment).
- Today (now).
I’m not sure what these men were doing when their father called them, but he apparently had a different plan for them – to work in HIS vineyard. It reminded me of when Simon Peter and Andrew were casting their nets to catch fish and Jesus told them, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Prior to the invitation, they had been working for themselves and for their families, but this day Jesus called them to work for his Father.
The man didn’t ask his sons if they wanted to go. He told them to go. This wasn’t about what they wanted to do. This was about what he needed them to do. He sent both of them to his vineyard to plant and to water so that it would bring forth fruit. The first son’s response was, I will not. Initially, he didn’t want to change. He was stubborn and disobedient, but afterward he repented and went. The man went to his second son and said the exact same words. The son said, I go, sir, but he never went.
The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few (Matthew 9:37).
God just doesn’t want us to attend church every week. There is work to do. Just like Joseph, God has sent us ahead of the famine (Psalm 105:16-17). There are people who have a need and God needs us to be in our place to meet their need. God doesn’t want us to be like the second son who hears the word, but refuses to do the word.
The first son almost missed a great opportunity, but he believed and went to his father’s vineyard. The second son saw his brother go to work. He saw the change and the ‘fruit’ of his labor, but still refused to change. To be honest, I don’t think he wanted to work. I think he is like some of us who just expects our Father to do everything.
If faith does not have works [deeds and actions of obedience to back it up], it is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective] (James 2:17).
God told Abraham that a great nation would come out of him. He was going to make his name great. And not only was He was going to bless him, but He was going to make him a blessing. How do we know that Abraham believed God? Because He obeyed God. He moved toward the promise God made. He went to get what God had given him. Some of us have missed out on things that God has promised us because we refuse to do the first thing He told us to do.
Your blessing is in the obedience.
Maybe God is not telling you to leave a certain location or to walk away from some people, but maybe you need to leave the lies that the enemy has told you – what you can’t do and what you will never be. Sometimes there are things such as hurt and unforgiveness that are keeping us from moving forward. Joseph could have blamed a lot of people for what he was going through – his brothers, Potiphar’s wife and the butler who forgot about him. It seemed like the people who he was sent to help, only hurt him. My point is this: The longer he stayed angry and bitter, the longer he would have stayed in prison (mentally). And in Joseph’s case, he didn’t have a lot of time to waste. A famine was coming and his family as well as many others needed him to be free from prison.
In John 5:4, an angel would go into the pool at a certain season so it was important that one be ready at all times. Whoever stepped in the water first after the angel troubled the water would be made whole of any disease he had. I don’t know how long the impotent man had been lying at the pool, but he had an infirmity for 38 years. According to this man, he kept missing his healing because someone would always step down before him. One day, Jesus saw the man lying at the pool. He knew how long he had been in that condition and He gave him another opportunity to be healed, but the man had to want it. Do you want to be whole?
It’s not too late for you. God has not counted you out. A missed opportunity doesn’t have to be a lost opportunity. Another opportunity is coming to you. I believe God is going to do something even greater in this next season. And just like the impotent man, He doesn’t want any of us to miss it. He wants you to be a part of what He is doing. In fact, He wants to do it through you. He wants to use you greatly in this next season. He wants to make you whole. He wants to restore years to you.
If you believe it, then do the thing that you’ve said in your heart, I’m not going to do it or I’m afraid to do it or I don’t want to do it. Maybe some of you are thinking, I’ve done what the Lord told me to do and nothing has happened yet. The key word is yet. It may not have happened the last time, but it will happen – if you don’t faint. Try it again. Believe Him again. God wants you to see His goodness.
Don’t miss it!
Change Your Ways
change: to do things differently; to become something else; to transform
God had many prophets, but He sent Jonah to Nineveh. Their wickedness had come up before Him and He was sending Jonah to preach against it. I don’t know if Jonah disobeyed God because he was afraid of his enemies’ faces or because he didn’t think they deserved another chance. When you read Jonah 4:1-2, you can hear what was in Jonah’s heart – pride (thinking he was better than others), self-righteousness, and discrimination (unfairly treating a group of people differently from other people). It sounds like Jonah didn’t want his enemies to have what God had just given Him – grace, love and salvation. Yes, Jonah was called by God. Yes, he had the gift of prophecy, but he lacked one thing – love.
Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord. One version of Jonah 1:3 tells us that Jonah went to the dark hold of the ship to hide, but where could he go from His presence? When he was in the lowest part of the ship, God was there. When he was in the belly of the fish, God was there. Another version of Jonah 1:3 tells us that he made himself comfortable in the hold of the ship. That was the difference between Jonah and the people of Nineveh. When God sent His word to Jonah, he sought comfort, but when God sent His word to Nineveh, they sought change. When Jonah couldn’t find comfort – when there was no peace, he cried out to God. Not only did he thank God for sparing him and protecting him, but he told God that he was going to pay the vow that he made to Him. He was going to do what was required of him – and he did. Jonah obeyed God and preached in the city of Nineveh, but after God repented of what He was going to do to Nineveh, Jonah became angry.
What happened to the man that spoke all those beautiful words in the belly of the fish?
Here we see another distinction between Jonah and the people of Nineveh. Words versus works. God heard Jonah’s words, but He saw Nineveh’s works (Jonah 2:2; 3:10). When God said He was going to destroy the city in forty days, the people believed Him. They (from the king to the animals) immediately went on a fast and cried unto God. The moment they turned, God turned away from His fierce anger.
The people of Nineveh changed their ways, but Jonah held on to some of his ways. Sometimes we do enough just to get out of the ‘belly of the fish’, but we don’t do everything we need to do to stay out. I know what it’s like to run from what God said. I know what it’s like to cry and tell God why I can’t do what He told me to do only for Him to come back to me – the second time. The scary thing is I don’t know how many more times He’s going to keep telling me the same thing over and over.
When you disobey God, disobedience will take you places that you don’t want to go. A good example of this is found in John 6:66. The moment many of Jesus’ disciples decided to walk with Him no more, they went back.
I know a lot of times we tell people not to ‘go back’, but I can remember when God told me to go back. I was living in Charleston at the time. I had plans, but things weren’t coming together as I thought they would and I was too ashamed to return home. I felt like a failure and I was doing everything I could to make things work in Charleston. It seemed like doors were tightly shut. I couldn’t even find employment. I prayed less and less and when I did pray, I didn’t know what to say to God. But I could still hear his voice – and He told me to go back home. I acted just like the prodigal son. I fought it. I fought Him. Then one day, I got tired and I cried out to God. I surrendered. Immediately, doors (not one door) began to open for me. And you know what? The very thing I feared didn’t even happen. In fact, it was as if I had never left home. God took care of everything, but I had to trust Him. I had to leave my ways and try it His way. I had to change.
Remember when I told you earlier that Jonah was seeking comfort, but couldn’t find any? What you and I are seeking can only be found in doing the will of God. Until then, you will find yourself unhappy, unfulfilled and frustrated. Until you do what God tells you to do – until you change your ways – until you fulfill the will of God, fulfillment will not come to you or to those who are counting on you.
Someone is waiting on you to do what God has sent you to do. May God put His desires (especially the desire for change and to change) in our hearts.
Do You Want Change?
In 2005, there was a woman who received the world’s first partial face transplant. It was reported that she attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills. While unconscious, her dog ate part of her face. A team of surgeons decided to give her a new face. It had never been done before, they had to wait for a deceased donor and the procedure was very risky, but they took a chance. After 15 hours of surgery, the surgeons were very pleased with their work.
But there was a problem.
After surgery is performed, the surgeon always gives instructions. They did their part. Now the patient must do their part. Although something new took place in this woman’s life, she still had old ways. It was reported that she refused to stop smoking and the surgeons believed that if she continued to smoke, her old ways would reject the new work. She wanted the new, but she didn’t want to let go of the old.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
I believe this scripture. I believe the moment I received the gift of salvation that this change immediately happened in my life. All things – everything – became new. I immediately became a new creature. I wasn’t the same anymore. I became a different person. However, I believe that some of the reasons why we don’t enjoy the full benefits of salvation or come to the knowledge of what ‘life more abundantly’ is because we don’t follow God’s instructions. Like a dog who returns to its vomit, we return to foolishness. We return to old things and old ways. We don’t allow the finished work to work completely in our lives. I also think that some of us don’t like being different. We don’t like being hated. We don’t like the feeling of rejection. We would rather ‘fit in’.
Another version of the above scripture reads, “Let him be a new creature’. Christ made us free, but it is our responsibility to not entangle (to get caught in; to get distracted with cares; involved in complicated circumstances from which it is difficult to escape) ourselves with the yoke of bondage that He freed us from (Galatians 5:1). God doesn’t just want us to be free, but He wants us to be free – indeed (truly; certainly; undeniably; without question, without a doubt).
God did something great in Saul’s life. When Saul went to the hill of God, he met some prophets and they prophesied. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he prophesied with the prophets and he turned into another man (1 Samuel 10:6). God, by His Spirit, changed him, but Saul had to do something in order to maintain and guard what the Lord did in his life. Between chapter 10 and chapter 16, Saul repeatedly disobeyed God as well as God’s priest, Samuel. By 1 Samuel 16:14, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit now troubled him.
Salvation is a free gift. We don’t work for our salvation, but we must work out our own salvation. Continue to work out your salvation [that is, cultivate it, bring it to full effect, actively pursue spiritual maturity] with awe-inspired fear and trembling [using serious caution and critical self-evaluation to avoid anything that might offend God or discredit the name of Christ] (Philippians 2:12).
And that requires change.
One day, I shared with an individual that I wanted to do a certain thing, but it just seemed impossible. The person offered different suggestions to help me get started, but an excuse followed every suggestion he made. He finally got tired of me and said, Well, you don’t want it bad enough. I was mad with him for a long time. (Yes, I got mad at someone for telling me the truth). But I now understand what he was saying. I didn’t want to work hard for it. I didn’t want to sacrifice anything to get it. I wanted change, but I didn’t want to change.
Do you remember when Jesus asked the man who had an infirmity for 38 years, Will you be made whole? What He was really asking was:
Do you like your condition?
Do you want to remain in your condition?
Do you want change?
How bad do you want it?
We’re seeking change of our circumstances, but why not seek a change of our hearts and minds. Let the mind of Christ be in you. Let us be a new creature. Let God transform you into the image of His Son. Renew your mind daily with the word of God. Stop returning to old things and things that are familiar. Change for the change He did in your life. Guard and protect what God has done in your life…
He did a good work in you.
What Will You Be Found Doing?
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing (Luke 12:43).
Jesus told a parable about the expectant steward (Luke 12:35-40). When He was done, Peter asked Him if the parable was addressed to just the disciples or to everyone. He answered Peter’s question with a question. Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?
Jesus tells Peter about a lord who trusted one servant to feed his other servants – unsupervised. He puts him in charge of everything he has. The scriptures don’t tell us why he picked this servant out of all the other servants, but he trusted him with an assignment. I don’t know if he grew impatient or frustrated while waiting for his lord to return (Luke 12:45) or if he got the ‘big head’, but he started abusing those who he was supposed to feed, look after, manage, and protect. Instead of doing what his lord wanted him to do, he did what he was wanted to do.
In Luke 23:34, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”, but in this parable, the servant knew. He knew his lord’s will, but he didn’t prepare neither did he do according to what he knew (Luke 12:47). The consequences of disobedience is this: To him that knew, but didn’t do, he shall be beaten with many stripes, but to him that didn’t know, but committed things worthy of stripes, he shall be beaten with few stripes.
To answer Peter’s question, everyone is accountable for what he or she hears. This is not just for preachers. Every person who professes to be a Christian has a responsibility. We are responsible for what we know and ignorance is not an excuse. For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts…so they will have no excuse when they stand before God at Judgment Day (Romans 1:19-20, TLB). When a lot has been given to you, a lot is expected of you. The more knowledge you have, the more you are expected to apply it. When God has been generous with you, He expects you to serve him well and if He has been more than generous with you, he expects you to serve him even better (Luke 12:48, CEV).
When we think of possessions, we usually think of things, but not God’s people. The lord’s possessions included his other servants. The servant’s responsibility was to serve – faithfully, lovingly and patiently. To serve means to perform duties for someone else, to provide services that will benefit or help someone else. To serve also means to obey and to submit to someone else. This servant was all about getting, but not giving. He wanted to order people around, eat, drink and get drunk. He wanted to be a slave master and not a servant, but Jesus said whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant. We must become like the Son of man who didn’t come to be served, but He came to serve and to give life. We should be concerned about others and not just ourselves (1 Corinthians 10:24).
It wasn’t until the servant was given a position that his true character was revealed. We see what was in his heart. We see his issues. We see his habits. Pride was in him. But that was okay. Nothing is too hard for God. What is impossible with man is possible with God. All that servant needed was to be placed in a position or situation that would make him into the person that his lord wanted him to be, but the servant had to want change, too.
Another thing I realized about this servant is that he started doing well, but he didn’t continue to do what he was taught. Because he didn’t see or know when his lord was coming, he gave up before ‘the return’. And so it is with some of us. Sometimes we give up before the harvest, breakthrough, healing or deliverance. We plant, we water, but we don’t wait for the Lord to give the increase.
Now one last thing.
Prayer is good. Don’t stop praying, but when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, He never intended for them to use prayer as a substitute for work. You must do the work. Sometimes that means studying, seeking, asking questions, getting up early or staying up late. It also means you have to be willing to change. To eat the good of the land or to receive what God has promised, you have to be more than willing. You must also be obedient (Isaiah 1:19). Hearing God is not enough. You must do what you heard.
What will He find you doing?
There Is Nothing Stopping You
Yesterday morning, I put some of my daughter’s belongings on the floor. When she came into the room, she just stood there like she couldn’t get to the other side. From where I was standing, it looked simple and easy to me. She had a choice to either go around it or go over it, but maybe she couldn’t see this from where she was standing. (Sometimes you have to change your position). When I got tired of her standing there, I finally said, There is nothing stopping you.
Apostle Paul knew what he used to be. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man (1 Timothy 1:13). And he knew that people didn’t forget what he did. Lord, these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you (Acts 22:19). He even consented to Stephen’s death, but he didn’t allow what he used to be to stop him from becoming what he would be.
He was a Pharisee (Acts 26:5), very intelligent and didn’t lack knowledge, but God didn’t want him and He doesn’t want us to be people who study the word, but yet refuse to become what we read about. You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify of me yet you refuse to come to me to have life (John 5:39-40).
To many, Paul was a horrible person, but God knew that what he did was out of ignorance and unbelief (1 Timothy 1:13). Inside of Paul was the wheat and tares and God allowed them to grow together, but at the right time He showed mercy and separated them. People may have counted him out, but God counted him faithful, putting him in the ministry (1 Timothy 1:12). After all the awful things he had done to God’s people, Paul didn’t think he deserved to be called an apostle, but by the grace of God I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Are you still trying to figure out what kind of life you should live? Well, God wants you to live a life that pleases Him and that will reveal His Son to others. This is why it’s never good to compare your life with the lives of others or to wish to be someone other than who God created you to be. 2 Corinthians 10:12 tells us that whoever compares themselves to another are without understanding and are not wise. There is nothing wrong with desiring more in life, but those things that you are lusting after doesn’t make you great. You will never find greatness outside of you because it is already in you. Greater is He that is in you.
Comparing can make you feel bad about yourself. It steals your joy. It makes you feel like you’re losing while everyone else is winning. When you don’t know what you should be doing, it’s easy to become angry with those who are doing. Instead of trying to become what you think people want you to be, ask God the same question Paul asked Christ – What will you have me to do?
Comparing also reveals how ungrateful we are and that we really don’t like God’s plan for our lives, but despite how you feel, God still loves you and although you can’t see it right now, His plan for you is good. It’s all about how you see yourself and this is the area that the enemy attacks a lot of us in. He wants you to see yourself as a grasshopper even though there is a Giant in you. You may think that you are a mess or just like my daughter, all you can see is a mess before you, but God can turn your mess into a message. He will give you grace to get to the other side and He will even tell you in bits and pieces how to get there. When Paul asked Jesus what he wanted him to do, Jesus didn’t tell him everything at first. He told him to go to the city and once he obeyed that instruction, then He would tell him what to do next (Acts 9:6). Don’t think God isn’t doing anything. He is doing what He said, but He’s not doing it all at once. He is doing it in stages. Stages are steps of a process. Each step is maturing and developing you and proving you trustworthy and faithful to the call.
Just like Paul, God wants to make you a witness for Him. Do you remember the woman at the well? Many of the Samaritans believed because of her testimony. Yes, the enemy will send things to stop you from becoming what God separated and called you to be, but even what he sends can’t stop you. Sometimes it is what you think about yourself that stops you, but think yourself victorious. You may have failed in certain areas, but you are not a failure. Let your past (even the tares) be a testimony to many that God not only changed you, but He can change them, too. You have a bright future ahead of you because the blood of Jesus has separated you from your past. You know what that means? Not even your past can stop you! So let us thank God that He didn’t erase our future because of our past, but that He erased our past because of our future.
There is nothing stopping you.
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