A
litt'l something for the Sistas When:
The Blues gotcha' down
Sometimes it can seem as though nothing is working the way
we want it to. Problems in our relationships, our jobs, and
the pressures of everyday living make us wonder just how
much more we can take. We have prayed and prayed, seeking
answers for what ails us, and yet there doesn’t seem to be
any resolution. Rather than awakening with renewed
enthusiasm for the endless possibilities of each new day, we
drag ourselves out of bed, summoning from a well almost dry
for the mental and physical energy to make it through. The
busyness of our daily routine gives us little time to dig
deep enough to discover, ponder, analyze, and catalog what’s
really going on inside. We pack a million things into 20
minutes without even realizing that we’ve lost our joy.
For
whatever reason we've convinced ourselves that God can't
relate to our blues—that He doesn't understand our yearning
to feel the warmth of someone’s love and the comfort of a
sweet anchor. God created us! He created the yearning of
our hearts. He knows our condition at every second of the
day, and He is consistently whispering powerful and healing
messages to our spirit. But it's virtually impossible to
recognize the voice of God when it's muddled beneath all the
baggage that accompanies a lack of faith.
We're
so exhausted and disgusted with our life situations that we
can't hear what God desires us to hear and can't see what He
desires us to see. We completely loose sight of what Jesus
Christ accomplished for us and in us, and we suffer
needlessly, lost in the tedium of our everyday routines.
The truth of the matter is that we're starving from a lack
of spiritual nurturing. That's the problem; the blues is
merely a symptom.
What are the Blues?
The blues is a calling
card for change. It’s a wake-up call to understand the root
cause of our problems and to get busy honing the tools to
solve it. At our weakest point the blues trick us into
thinking that we're powerless to change our situation—that
we lack the resources or ability to satisfy that emptiness
within us. It simply isn't true! God has packed us to
overflowing capacity with incredible supernatural
abilities. If you're willing to stay focused and committed
to even the smallest change in your mental perception,
you'll be absolutely amazed at the light He shines in your
life. We can't afford to give in to that overwhelming urge
to surrender to the circumstance, because doing so makes it
nearly impossible to connect with our inner self—impossible
to tap into our reservoir of power.
When we
awaken each morning most of us have a routine that propels
us through a reasonably decent work day. When an unusual
event occurs within the workplace, we are required to take
the time and energy to thoroughly examine why. Well we must
be equally willing and even more dedicated to invest the
same resources to discover the hiccups of our own souls. We
must understand that it took time to get into a state of
spiritual deprivation, and it will take time to get out of
it. Patience is a characteristic of mature spirituality, and
it is the one thing you must allow yourself if you desire
enlightenment and growth in this area. In the world of
quick fixes and instant gratification that’s hard to hear,
but God’s way has not changed. Even so, He is a very
present help!
The
very present help is realized in the great truth of the Holy
Spirit. The modus operandi of the indwelling Holy Spirit is
to take us higher and higher in the things of God. It
simply can’t do that within the context of business as
usual.
Power,
in any form or fashion, seeks to express itself, and there
is no greater power than that of the Holy Spirit. It will
cause us to gravitate towards those situations and
circumstances that foster our greatest potential. The mind
is often at cross purposes with this process. Why? Because
the spirit seeks to breach comforts zones and the mind seeks
to protect them. The Blues is the emotional upheaval that
occurs when our minds resist the process of spiritual
growth.
What’s
really at stake here is that you’ve given over your power.
You have a God-given right, privilege, and responsibility to
exercise dominion, and to take authority over your life.
The blues will cast a hazy film over the challenges of life
and camouflage them as defeat, when they are really
opportunities to see God bigger and to experience His love
greater.
Sistas,
as Christians there are some truths that we must grasp with
every believing fiber of our being. Two of those truths are
1.) God is omnipotent, and 2.) Everything He does is
omnipotent. God doesn’t make mistakes. He does it perfectly
from the beginning. When He gave us the gift of the Holy
Spirit and declared that it would fill us with power, it was
a done deal! Therefore everything needed to find answers for
whatever it is we’re facing can be found in us if we've made
Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. When we allow this truth
to marinate in our spirits a while, we'll realize that the
shortcoming must be within us, because one thing is
resoundingly clear, the problem is never God or His lack of
ability or willingness to bless us. So if the problem is in
us, then by the indwelling power of His spirit, the solution
is as well.
Authentic Assurance
Authentic Assurance is
belief and unwavering trust in God's ability and willingness
to bless us. God has sealed your success. He will partner
with you to create an existence unequaled by anything you
could create on your own. If you can make the tiniest of
space in your thinking to accommodate that truth, you will
send a signal of faith that the heavens can’t ignore.
When is our faith and belief authentic?
The act of choosing love will prohibit a
lackluster existence. Love is the
active power that creates and motivates. God is love,
and He has given to us what He is so that we can re-create
it over and over again through our deeds and actions.
If your emotional state prevents
you from decisively moving with the authentic assurance of
God’s love, you cease to demonstrate love, and thus miss an
opportunity to position yourself to receive.
Our believing is authenticated when our faith weaves
creative energy, thoughts, and motives into positive
action. Believing in operation gives God the
authority to act on our behalf. That belief is
authenticated when we reach beyond our emotions by not
allowing them to prohibit us from acting in love.
Emotions are designed to be helpful, to steer us away
danger, not to bring us to a screeching halt. When we’re
moving into action we find a way to move beyond our
circumstances to elevate our thinking, giving, and
behavior. Doing this lets the whole universe know "Yeah,
I'm a King's kid and I know He's got ma' back." Then the
devil has no choice but to say "whooa, I can't bust her
groove, her faith makes it illegal for me to go there."
When we do not fuel our believing by studying His Word and
prioritizing our relationship with Him, we're giving the
devil a foot hole into our lives. He knows the laws that God
has ordained and he can’t break them, if he could the world
would have long been destroyed. But he also knows full well
when he has a legal right to mess with us, and we are the
very ones who give him those rights.
How do we know when to move?
A vital part of authentic assurance is surrendering to the
will of God. Making Jesus Christ Lord means that we are no
longer in the driver’s seat. He knows where we need to be
and when we need to be there. Each morning our prayer ought
to be “Lord, I relinquish myself to Your perfect will today
and everyday. I utterly and completely surrender to You.
Help me to sharpen my spiritual acumen so that I may see,
hear, and act upon the many opportunities You present to me
every day to give, act, and behave in love.”
The
answer to most of life's questions rests in our willingness
to live by the Word. Living by the principles of God's Word
yields confidence. Pleasing God naturally builds your own
confidence and faith that He will also hold up His end of
the bargain. Knowing when to move comes from this place of
confidence. Many of us seasoned Christians claim to have a
great deal of trust in this area, yet far too many of us
stay in situations that harm our spirituality and devalue
our personhood, and when we're forced to let them go we
allow our emotions to spiral out of control. When we truly
have the faith that causes us to recognize and trust the
voice of God we'll hear His directives loud and clear.
He'll instruct us how to move in and out of all of life's
toils, twists, and turns; and He'll do so in a way that
causes us to triumph over and over again.
We
simply must trust in the lordship that we've relinquished to
Jesus Christ. There is no time in which he isn't concerned
with every detail of our lives. There is no time in which
he takes his eyes off our situations. There is no time in
which he leaves us to fen for ourselves. He sees the big
picture and is willing to help us reach the highest pinnacle
of success in every area of our lives. So it all boils down
to one important question, are YOU really making the things
of God a priority? Are you using your life to make a
statement about your spiritual identity or are you making
your flesh and your emotions the governing force of your
reality?
When we
believe God rightly, we don’t have to be overly concerned
with the details of our lack, desires, or tribulations. The
Word tells us that He has given us everything we need
through Christ Jesus to live a life of abundance.(John
10:10) So why then, would we look to some thing or some
person to give us more than God will? When we truly trust
God, we'll give Him our whole lives. We'll recognize that
He can take much better care of us than we could ourselves.
Sistas, God expects our walk with Him to be so tight that
when we need something it's there even before we have
knowledge of the need. That's faith in operation! Yes,
He'll do that for you, and if you feel that He's not meeting
your need at this very moment, open your eyes! Turn up the
volume on your spiritual hearing, and incline your inner
being towards the Father. He's calling you to attention!
To live
life victoriously or to change it profoundly we must have
tremendous courage. We must have confidence that as we gird
ourselves with all the strength we can muster, God’s got our
back. He will not leave us defenseless. As we take a step,
He will clear the path so that we can continue walking with
boldness and experience, building ourselves in spiritual and
believing power. As you seek Him, He will show you where you
need to be and what you need to be doing to rid yourself of
spiritual ineffectiveness, and to clothe yourself in light
and love.
What
you are experiencing right now is an awesome opportunity to
see God in operation; to see His love for you; to see His
power in action on your behalf. But your action,
perseverance, and courage are required, and you need
tenacious Holy Spirit power to build these elements within
your inner-woman. The situation you are facing is a wake-up
call. It is life beckoning you to make a change—a change in
your attitude, your demeanor, and to tighten your spiritual
fortitude through studying and living God’s Word. Don’t be
afraid to do what’s necessary to elevate yourself to a place
of wholeness. He loves you ferociously. His purpose for your
life is fulfilled when you are operating from a place of
completeness, when you have all you need at all times to
live a life of wonderment and joy so that you will be poised
to do the work of the kingdom. So put yourself in check that
you are understanding God’s divine purpose for your life,
and move out boldly. Have a Great Day, Sistas!
