Stay in Your Lane!!!

How many of you out there have ever said or heard this phrase in life? "STAY IN YOUR LANE." I know I definitely have, both while driving but ALSO at work and a variety of other places.

What does it truly mean to "Stay in Your Lane?" What exactly delegates a "lane" per se?

In regards to when we're driving it's a very obvious reason. You're in traffic on a four-lane highway and it's rush hour. Suddenly you hit road construction and the sign says to "Stay in Your Lane". The obvious response is to keep your vehicle in that line of traffic until construction has ended. If not, and you are caught, there are serious fines to be paid. So, why do they make this a rule on the road? Safety. Both of the construction workers but also the traffic passing through.

I believe that the same happens when we're on the road of life! God created each of us differently and uniquely and with our own dreams and aspirations. Isn't that an awesome thought? Just as we were created with our own DNA and fingerprints that are different from every other person that ever was and ever will be, we also have specific blueprints, strategies, and "lanes" from Heaven that God wants to give us to see the dreams and desires He has for our lives fulfilled (read Jeremiah 29:11)!

I truly believe, because I've watched it happen in my own life, that the BIGGEST deterrent the enemy uses against the Body of Christ is DISTRACTION. We're just be-bopping along with Jesus doing our thing with him and BAM a detour pops up in front of us. Sometimes it seems like a "divine diversion" or an "off-ramp to new revelation" but the Author behind it is the key. It's SO important that we are listening and discerning what God is saying and doing on the road of life ALWAYS!!

Let's look at examples of what a man-made or enemy-devised detour (distraction) versus a God-ordained detour looks like from scripture. 

In the Old Testament Abraham was promised a line of inheritance that was more numerous than all the stars in the heavens (Genesis 15). So, obviously, he's waiting to see this dream that God DID give him come to pass. We're talking years and years of waiting until him and his wife, Sarah, are well past the normal age of child-bearing. At a point of complete desperation, we see Sarah try to use her maidservant, Hagar, to create this man-made "off-ramp" to make the vision come to pass by having her own husband get Hagar pregnant.  This attempt is successful and in turn creates an entire race of people who, to this day, are at war against God's chosen people (Genesis 16). Was Ishmael the dream fulfilled or a man-made detour? I'll let you think about that one for a second.

Okay so let's continue on in this particular part of Biblical history. Eventually, the dream of a son from Sarah and Abraham comes to fruition and Isaac is born. He is growing into a young man when one day God instructs Abraham to take Isaac to the top of a mountain and sacrifice him on an altar. Now, for those of us that know this story and have heard the ending, let's just put ourselves in Abraham's shoes momentarily and realize that he had NO IDEA that God was going to do something different than what it seemed. Still, Abraham was obedient and took Isaac up the mountain. He was STAYING IN HIS LANE of listening to the Lord and keeping his eyes on the word of the Lord above all else! Just as Abraham was raising his knife to slaughter the promise of God (wrap your head around that one for a moment) an angel appeared and told him to STOP! (This is another part of staying in your lane that we need to adhere to.....when God puts out a STOP sign before us it's best we listen!) After this God provides a ram in the thicket and that gets slaughtered instead of Isaac (Genesis 22).

Going back to what I mentioned at the beginning of this post, safety is the key for why we are asked to stay in our lane on the highway. Can you see how that plays out in this particular part of Biblical history as well? God wasn't trying to KEEP Abraham and Sarah FROM the promise by asking them to believe Him and "stay in their lane," but rather He was trying to protect them from the fall-out of a detour that took them from the divine destiny of protection for the generations to come. Also, what I didn't mention above, is that Sarah got so jealous of Hagar and Ishmael that she forced Abraham to kick them out of their family, basically. Thankfully God intervened and still blessed them BUT there was definitely un-warranted hurt and rejection that occurred because of the detour and agenda that Sarah ORIGINATED! 

So, what's the point of all of this?

We must remember, that if we do not STAY IN OUR LANE that more people than just us are effected by those decisions!!! There is SAFETY in God's ordained lane for our lives and I don't know about you, but I'm pretty okay with staying under His protection rather than my own!

What Are You Lookin' At

I was doing so well about posting at least once a week and then fell off the face of the planet for a minute there so sorry about that. I couldn't do anything but sit down and write about this crazy revelation that I received earlier today. Here we go....

Okay so most of us know the story of the woman at the well who meets and talks to Jesus. If you don't know the story, it is found in John 4:4-26.  In that story we see Jesus ask the woman for a drink from the well and in the process basically completely reads her mail about her very personal life. He tells her that she has had five husbands and the man she is with now is not her husband. I think most of the time what gets harped on about this story is the fact that the woman had been with so many men and was sleeping with one that she wasn't even married to. I totally get that that would need addressed or Jesus wouldn't have mentioned it to begin with but I think we need to glean something beyond that surface level idea.

I would like to propose that we change the label that has been given to this woman through that scripture reference: the adulterous woman and instead call her: the searching woman.  She was searching for something she still had not found.  How many of us can really, truly relate to her? I know I can! I may not have a long list of men trailing in my wake but I certainly have quite a bit to account for from my past and even some in my present (hopefully less of it in my future).  I think we like to pigeon-hole addictions to one thing or another that seem so over-the-top when really ANYTHING that we are using to fill a void in our life is exactly that: an addiction.

See, I think in looking at her story, the searching woman might have even been looking to hook up with another man at the well because she wasn't satisfied, yet again, with the one she was currently with.  The cycle in her life of using people until they no longer made her FEEL better was just that: a cycle.  There is no end in a cycle. It just continues and continues until something abruptly pulls you out of it.

Most of us have experienced this in different areas of our lives that don't involve people but rather "objects of obsession."  Those things could be drugs/alcohol, food, music, shopping, and many other activities. Really, honestly, an "object of obsession" is anything that keeps us coming back for more because we FEEL better when it's around but it never truly MAKES us better.  It's just a filler.

Sometimes I think our society gets so caught up in helping people feel there feelings and not suppressing them that it allows them to continue in this cyclical space where THAT'S what's being portrayed as healthy.  I do not disagree that allowing yourself to feel what you are feeling is amazing but then what? If you are still having those feelings years later and having to go back to the same songs, habits, and substances to get you on the other side of feeling better than what has truly been accomplished? I propose NOTHING. So.....what do you do to change that?

RENEW YOUR MIND DAILY! (Romans 12:2)

It's a proven fact that a new habit can be formed when performed every day for 31 days in a row. Pavlov's dog was trained to hear a bell and do a specific action. Our minds are more advanced than a dog's mind and are changing constantly! So what are you putting into yours that will change the framework that your thoughts are built around? The Word says that we should be guarding our hearts and minds all the time and that especially happens by guarding our gates: eyes and ears.  Out of the heart the mouth speaks so if what is in your heart (because it's what you have focused on) is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable that's what will flow from the place where life and death is brought forth from (Luke 6:45, Philippians 4:8, Proverbs 18:21)!

So what can you look at in your own life today that makes you FEEL better in the moment and even sometimes shortly afterwards but nothing changes and you HAVE TO keep coming back for more?

Don't ever stop your search for The One, JESUS, who satisfies AND keeps you coming back for more just because you can't get enough of Him! He is truly the well that never runs dry!

The New Normal

It's "normal" for parents to keep memories and keepsakes of their children to have down the road and pass on down the family line in our world today. Why? Why is it normal? And why is it considered normal? And should it be considered normal? Was it always normal? If not, when did things change?

The definition of normal is: "Conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected."

I don't know about you but that first word "conforming" should be slightly concerning to us.  There is even a scripture that talks about not being conformed to this world.  "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2a NASB)  So have we allowed ourselves to be conformed to the way that the world sees these earthly THINGS and POSSESSIONS?

I wanna pass something more than STUFF on to the next generation. I wanna pass on something eternal that they actually get to take with them because they're not stored in earthly vessels!!

I think we have to really sit down and ask if we have allowed ourselves to be conformed OR transformed.  I don't know about you but I'm just trying to actually live as ME not someone else's clone who should act or think or be a certain way because other people say so.  I'm trying to be my Papa's daughter above everything else and He sees and knows everything about me and who I was CREATED to be. I am NOT to be this Frankenstein of a person that's been pieced together by other people's opinions or my own past circumstances so when Papa tells me to change something about myself I KNOW it's for the better and I'm gonna do it no matter what. This includes how I live and what I leave behind.

Back in Biblical times, land, cattle, crops, etc were passed down as inheritance.  They were a way of life and livelihood that were given to the next generation.  These things were not worldly goods to keep on a shelf and look at while they gather dust and serve no purpose. No! PURPOSE was passed down from generation to generation, not pastimes and problems.

In the Bible, when people got ready to die they would call their children and grandchildren in and bless them.  They didn't sign off from their time here on earth with a WILL dividing their STUFF evenly amongst the family but rather gave them an inheritance of prayer and blessings in the heavenly Kingdom!  When did we being to conform to the ways of the world of keeping things that were from past seasons and taking them with us into our next season therefore keeping a part of ourselves in the past? We see this happen multiple times in scripture when God told His followers to either destroy everything or not take anything with them into the next season and their disobedience was completely frowned upon.

This makes me think about Elijah and Elisha.  Elisha was left with a cloak of Elijah's that was a symbol of the double portion anointing that Elijah walked in. THAT was his inheritance from his spiritual father!!

That's the kind of legacy that I want to leave! Not just a bunch of trinkets and doodads that have no Kingdom value!  The inheritance that I myself carry is not something that I can point at outside of myself and say, "Yep. That's my inheritance!", but rather I'm walking around with that inheritance INSIDE of me!  Papa never intended for us to have to carry around the baggage of our ancestors and have to make decisions amongst ourselves as to who got what.  He never intended for there to be strife that comes about because of the stress of one person being chosen over another to receive something.

I know some of us have found ourselves in situations where our inheritance looks nothing like legacy or heritage but rather like a mountain of credit card debt, a car lien only half paid down, and other family problems never fully dealt with.  These things come about because of all of the STUFF we think we need to show people they are loved by us or even what we think we NEED to show that we love ourselves.  In our society STUFF has become the currency for LOVE.  STUFF=LOVE. Whether that means how much you love yourself or the amount of love you have for someone else.

We have decided it is more important to sew into the NOW of our lives and the lives of others with STUFF instead of sewing into our Heavenly inheritance and storing up treasures above.  This mindset of the NOW being more important than what is to come and thinking that temporal happiness is more important that the JOY Jesus sets before us in the inheritance of souls He left behind for us to harvest has become so rampant in The Church. 

YOUR INHERITANCE, YOUR LEGACY, YOUR HERITAGE IS SOULS!

We are all co-heirs with Christ and WE were the joy set before Him on the cross. ALL OF US. Not just those of us that have found the truth. Therefore, I have been commissioned, you are commissioned, we all are commissioned (once we discover Him and in finding Him also finding ourselves) to inherit the Kingdom.  And the Kingdom of Heaven is meant to be manifested here in the earth so THAT is my inheritance. The Earth (souls still present here). But I'm not always choosing to take my inheritance when I'm not obedient to Papa to walk in the call on my life. Think about all of that again.  THAT IS YOUR INHERITANCE.

See, Jesus gave away HIMSELF as the ultimate gift on the cross, but even before that He gave away Himself with healing people and bringing them back to life after death and loving on them wherever they were at.  He gave to them at their point of need when they didn't even know what they actually needed.  He was offering them their inheritance NOW.

We see Him supernaturally provide for their natural needs by feeding the 5,000+, but it wasn't because He came prepared in the natural to feed that many people.  Rather, He fed them out of the overflowing of the supernatural abundance He walked in.

In thinking about this story I think about the Mom of the boy who had the natural meal that provided a supernatural feast.  She was just using her gift of being a good mother and walking in the obedience that that entailed by providing food for her child, but that obedience became a miracle that we are STILL talking about to this day.  She became part of the life of Jesus because she listened to her natural instinct of who she was created to be and it became a supernatural calling because of it.  In turn, this became part of the narrative that was Christ's naturally supernatural earthly life.  What if she had foregone giving her son a lunch that day and expected him to fend for himself?  I believe Jesus would have still done the miracle BUT she would not have been part of it.

We have to choose to partner with the natural giftings inside of us every day so that the supernatural abundance can flow from them once they are combined with the power that rests in Holy Spirit who dwells in us.  It's an every day choice to say Yes to that partnership.  Once we choose to live in and live out that YES every day we will begin to see our inheritance, our legacy, our heritage be manifested here on the earth and we won't have to worry about leaving anything more than that behind when we continue on to Glory!

No Mo FOMO

We tend to feel unworthy of things that Papa has promised us in our lives, including His unconditional love, and when we feel this way, instead of letting things happen the way they would naturally/supernaturally as we walk this journey with Jesus, we typically will self-sabotage.  When we self-sabotage we find ourselves “missing out” on the promises that were spoken over us or given to us in the Word which then leads us back to the conclusion that we ARE, in fact, unworthy.  There are SO MANY LIES within this entire process that we have allowed to take root inside of us and in turn change our entire perspective on who we are and who HE is!

First and foremost, YOU WERE WORTH HIS LIFE!!! Your life, and I don’t mean just a good run-of-the-mill, humdrum, 9-5 punch-in/punch-out everyday life, but your BEST life was worth Him laying down His.  Believing that you are meant to walk in anything less than God’s best for you is a straight up, bold face lie of the enemy of your soul and needs uprooted out of your heart if you truly believe that God’s best just isn’t for you.

Secondly, this whole “missing out” syndrome that has swept the nation (FOMO or fear of missing out) is just that….a fear.  And where does fear have its root? Not in love.  “There is no fear in love.” (1 John 4:18a NIV) And who is love? “God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV)  So therefore if we are rooted and grounded in Christ we no longer have to walk around with a “spirit of fear but rather power, love and a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)  Guess what? If you are walking hand in hand with the One who sees the beginning from the end, and think about this He saw YOUR end before you even knew your beginning, then do you really think He’s going to lead you down a path that’s going to make you “MISS OUT” on your very best life? Nuh-uh. *Game buzzer* Wrong answer.

Okay, so now let's deal with the beast in the room: self-sabotage.  Why do we do it? What is the purpose? And where does it have its root or beginning? I believe for each individual person these answers might look slightly different BUT at the root of all of everything is still that ever present jerk of an enemy: FEAR.  Ugh.  You again.  Why does it feel like this thing never goes away? I have a theory about that.

Have you ever sliced into an onion? Did you look at how the different size rings create the separate layers of an onion with one overlapping the other? Well I believe that we, as humans, are created very similarly.  We have many layers that, when we give Him access, Papa will peel back and reveal things about us that He wants to heal in His perfect timing and they all have a root in fear because fear is something that cannot be present in someone who is walking in complete and total perfect identity as a son or daughter of the King.

In this process of what I like to call spiritual surgery we experience the highs and lows of self-realization and sometimes that results in this fight or flight natural instinct we were born with and we have to decide whether or not to Be Still, Trust Him, and stay on the table or run away from the pain.  Fear of many things come up during these seasons as well and we have to continually choose to forfeit those irrational doubts that tell us our identity is anything other than who He says we are.  It is especially during these times that we need to ground ourselves in Truth (the Word) and not allow things like self-sabotage to make themselves at home in what may look like a wilderness or valley season that is never going to end.  Remember, your season doesn't define you and you ARE worthy of every good and perfect gift that Your Father wants to give you so have a seat at His feet and just receive with hands wide open!

Not My Will But Yours Be Done

Have you ever heard the phrase, “You just have to WILL yourself to do it?” I know I have. I feel like I have heard it for so many different situations that, as an adult, I didn’t realize how ingrained it was into my psyche as a person.  I kept trying to strive and DO all the things that I thought I needed to do to get me where I thought I needed to be in my walk with Papa God, in my personal life, and honestly every area in between.  Nothing ever worked and I found myself back at square one time and time again.

See, we are made up of three different parts: spirit, soul, and body.  Our soul is made up of our minds, wills, and emotions. If even one of those isn’t in complete alignment with the WILL of our Heavenly Papa than things are really out of whack in our natural lives.  But the thing is, I can’t WILL myself to be inside of Papa’s will.  I’m not strong enough to do something like that, especially since I’m a very strong-willed person (can I get a “whoop whoop” from all my fellow people who were labeled “rebellious children” while growing up out there? Lol.).  But I think we have a pretty good example to follow that shows us exactly what is required of us to truly thrive in this life that we’re living on the daily.

Jesus.

Do you remember, after the Last Supper, where Jesus took the disciples? To the Garden of Gethsemane. To pray. I think it’s kind of ironic in a way that the very place Jesus took the disciples so that He could lay down His will (a garden) is the place where humanity decided that their will was more important than Papa’s (Garden of Eden).  Do you remember what Jesus prayed as He was truly in agony over what was to come, the ultimate sacrifice of love? “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42 NIV). Whoa. Talk about laying it all on the line.

About a year or so ago I had pretty spectacular revelation about what laying down my will actually looked like when I did it, finally.  It is perfectly described in the scripture that talks about, "Obedience is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22 NLT).  See, Jesus, just like me, had the option of continuing to do things through my own strength and brute will, BUT walking in obedience, and I mean true obedience, means sacrificing my will each and every day.  Jesus, obviously, made the ultimate sacrifice by laying down His life for all of us but I still wanna choose MY will over THAT sacrifice somedays? Why? Do I really believe that MY will and MY ways are better than The One who sees all and created everything in the beginning? I think, without realizing it, most of us live our lives from that exact standpoint because we continue to do things our way (the hard way) versus laying our will down and picking up the cross which is much easier to bear because His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

So today, I challenge you, to truly seek out what it means for you to fall on your face in your "Garden of Gethsemane" and say, "Father, not my will but Yours be done."

Who Do You Believe In?

Do you ever just sit down at the computer and not know why but know there IS purpose in it? That there is something inside of you that needs to come out and the only way it’s going to happen is through your fingers on a keyboard?  Now is one of those moments.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how most of what I think about issues in life and faith and love have been influenced by the things, people, and places around me and that I have come in contact with throughout my short 34 years.  This is why the verse in scripture about renewing our minds daily is so important (Romans 12:2).  The influences in our lives, even if they are the best representation of who Christ was while on the earth, are still just a shadow of what Kingdom living can be if Holy Spirit is not invited in to bring clarity as well as our own personal revelations.  I think sometimes, we as Christians, settle for our forefather’s revelations and even revivals they have experienced.  We hear the stories about things that have happened to OTHER people but we don’t truly seek out Papa’s face on a daily basis to the point of seeing His will done in our own lives, our own realities, our own relationships.  We “phone it in” when it comes to even praying for ourselves or others as well as sitting down and taking a scripture and pouring over its revelation for us IN THAT MOMENT because we’ve “read or heard it 100 times.” 

Why have we become such a lazy generation who chooses to feed on yesterdays’ manna?  What is it about really digging into the Word that is off-putting to us and leads us to shy away from that one-on-one time with the best manual to life that there is out there?  Are we afraid of what we will find if we start to look deeper than our topsoil faith?  Are we scared of who we will see when we truly allow the mirror of scripture to be held up to our true selves, what’s really underneath the masks we wear?

I think Truth is something that we have been taught to fear at times because sometimes the truth hurts.  The thing is…..it’s supposed to.  There’s always purpose in the process and pain on the way to Papa’s Promises.  Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? I mean I feel like we know the Christianese answer to that question…..to be the sacrifice of sin for all mankind. But why the cross? Why allow Himself to be brutally beaten to a pulp so that He was unrecognizable?  Why 39 lashes before the actual act of the cross? We see Jesus literally walking out the process and pain and agony on the way to the ultimate sacrifice but do we see Him sway or even complain? 

No. And He definitely had ample opportunity to do so as the Son of God.

But He was showing us an example on His way to the Promise of Salvation. There was pain in that process, but, as He was enduring that pain, He was fulfilling every prophecy and promise ever given about Him.  He held onto what was to come because He KNEW His Father wouldn’t fail Him and believed that Papa was and is who He says He is.

So, back to my original thought, how many of us are leaning on our own understanding which has been influenced by so many things around us, instead of leaning into the One who gives us peace that passes that understanding through working out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12)? How many of you are ready for some of that peace today?

Functional Fearers No More!

First of all I need to apologize to all of you faithful blog readers for not being diligent to write as much as what I was when I first got started forever ago. I am committing to write more often in this moment! Okay so let's get to it.....

So, I don't know how many of you out there grew up hearing different things like, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" or "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched" or "Watch for the other shoe to drop" but I definitely did. Today I had a divine revelation about what the root of all of those little quips and many more actually is: FEAR. I mean, think about it. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket"-You can't put all your trust in one thing/one person because it won't work out. "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched"-You can't count on things to turn out well/like they're meant to. "Watch for the other shoe to drop"-Even if it looks like something good is happening you better prepare yourself for the worst to happen because it can't stay this way forever.

Because we have basically had these word curses instilled in us either through generational lines or speaking them over ourselves we need to take responsibility and repent for coming into agreement with a spirit of fear. We need to renounce them and then break off their power over our lives in Jesus' name!

See, we CAN put all of our "eggs" in one basket...IF we allow that basket to be held by the ONE who sees all, knows all, and is everywhere at all times.  The Word says, "Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths"(emphasis added) (Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV). These scriptures don't say some or just a little bit but ALL.  How about counting on our "chickens" to hatch after we've put the eggs in His basket but before they begin to crack and shake? How many times in scripture do we see God fulfill His promises over and over? The Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 3:8, Joshua 4:1-24), Joseph (Genesis 37:5-9, 42:6-9), David (1 Samuel 16:13, 2 Samuel 5:4), and of course Jesus (Isaiah 7:14, Luke 2:6-7) and many, many more. Certainly last but not least we CAN stop fearing what is to come. We don't have to wait for the other proverbial shoe to drop in life because, as Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (ESV).

It's time we stop coming into agreement with things that bring a death into our lives that doesn't come from being laid-down lovers who are living sacrifices! Stop speaking those things that don't bring life to your spirit man! It's time to rise up out of the ashes of being "functional fearers," come out of alignment with anxiety, and walk tall sons and daughters of the Most High King!