See it Rising

‘Up from the grave, He arose! With a mighty da da da da da….’

So, obviously I don’t know the words to this song off the top of my head, but it’s the song that was playing on and on in my spirit as I slept, and which I woke up to this morning. It’s also a lazy morning for me, so pardon my not taking time to research the words. What I do know with certainty is that the chorus goes ‘He arose! He arose! Halleluyah, Christ arose!’ and sis, that’s all that counts – not just in this Easter season, but every day of our lives.

That said, allow me wish you a Happy Easter or closer still, a Happy Resurrection. There’s been more of a hue and cry this year about the Word ‘Easter’ originating from some pagan traditions, and I will be one of the first to admit that I found it more spiritually uplifting to say ‘Happy Resurrection Sunday’ to people all of yesterday. I don’t know what position you adopted, but as my older son said last night ‘Mamz, as long as people know this has nothing to do with cute bunny rabbits and egg-shaped chocolates, then it’s all good, no matter what they choose to call it’. I had a good laugh, but that was some serious Word. As long as you and I understand that our faith is hinged on the reality of Jesus going to die for us on the Cross, and coming back 3 days later having conquered sin and death for your sake and mine…. As long as we know that, then it’s all good sis. It really is, call it what you may!

Seriously speaking though, there is something about Easter that gives serious food for thought. Irrespective of denomination, or of how mature our level of faith and relationship with God is or isn’t, a good number of Christians go through the motions of the Easter festivities in our various churches with either with a fervor that is over and beyond our normal day to day engagement with God; or with nothing more than a sense of religious responsibility to the expectations of the church ….and perhaps an ingrained expectation of self, a knowing that in specific seasons there is a need to ‘step it up somewhat’. Of course there are many who have a deep and mature relationship with God and a daily walk with Him that is strong and secure by the power of the Holy Spirit, and methinks that for those who have attained this level, Easter and Resurrection are a daily reality for which they continually top up their gratitude tanks. Which category do you see yourself in, sis? It’s important to face that reality so you can continue to go and grow in Christ.

More than anything else, I believe that if we had a clearer sense of the reality of what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did for us, we would actually see that the Resurrection Principle is continually at work in our lives, and this would give us peace in the midst of many of the difficulties that we face in different seasons of our lives. This is the Word the Lord would have me share with you today, and I pray by the power of the Holy Spirit that I will be able to put it across to you with clarity.

I’m not Catholic, but my mum was. On the back of that therefore I had attended the Catholic Church off and on for a few years during my secondary school years. I recall being quite intrigued by the ceremonial marking of the ‘Stations of the Cross’ every Easter period. Even without having a deep understanding at that time of just what Jesus did for me on the Cross of Calvary, I knew nonetheless that the Stations were a critical part of the faith of the body. Fast forward several years later, I gave my life to Christ and as I grew spiritually, the things that looked like ‘ceremonies’ took on a deeper meaning for me. And don’t get me wrong… I actually feel that many a time, we still go through mere ‘ceremonies’ in our various churches wittingly or otherwise. But when you really and truly begin to grow in Christ, a different set of dynamics begin to play out in your heart and spirit.

Sis, do you know that in life you go through the ‘Stations’ in seasons, sometimes daily? You do sis, as do I. Jesus however has given us a template for this, and in the end an assurance that helps us to go through. Please walk with me as I try to minister this to you as the Lord ministered the Resurrection Principle to me.

Think about it… Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane. It was a beautiful place, cool and breezy. It was calm and quiet, save for the birds chirping wonderful songs of nature. Think about it sis… many times it seems like all is going oh-so-smoothly in our lives, when before you can blink, it looks like someone pulled the rug out from under our feet. Unlike Jesus however, we don’t have the gift of foresight. Many of us are not clear what our purpose is life is. We are God’s but we are not God, so we don’t know the end from the beginning...if we did, it would be easier to deal with the storms of life wouldn’t it? But can we remember that Jesus was flesh and blood in His time here on earth? So yeah, He had the edge of knowing there was a specific grand purpose, but He still went through didn’t He?

The one person that approached Him in the garden was a trusted friend, one of His inner circle. Sis, how many times have the hurts in your life come from your inner circle? A husband deals you an emotional blow; a close friend speaks out against you; a sister takes from you; a co-worker stabs you in the back; a business partner steals from you; a child breaks your trust… how many times? Jesus didn’t allow the peace and beauty of the garden to camouflage the storms He knew were ahead. He understood clearly His assignment and knew that betrayal was part of the process. He kept His eyes on the big picture – the salvation of the world, and He chose to love Judas through the deception. He understood that Judas was actually condemning himself, and Jesus was pained enough to love him through this. Sis, do you remember the prayer on the cross? It was, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’. Methinks Jesus probably prayed that prayer in His heart at the garden. ‘Lord, forgive Judas for he knows not what he is doing’. 

Sis, can you be bold enough in the midst of some betrayal to love that person enough with an agape love, so much so as to ask God to forgive them? Can you understand that when people do wrong and hurtful things to you, they are priming themselves for the wrong side of eternity? Can you love them enough to pray God’s mercies over them that they may not be lost? Can you see also that in praying for those who hurt you, you are actually praying God’s mercies on yourself …because surely, you are sometimes the one hurting others? Can you see the template sis?   

Fast forward a bit and Jesus is condemned by the Sanhendrin. Condemnation is such a weighty thing isn’t it? Many times we have people set up as judge and juror in our lives, based on the strength of accusations that many times they don’t take the time to substantiate. Many times, it is those we think would have stood up for us that betray us with their silence or denial. Remember Peter denying Jesus? Many times, it is those we though should know better that judge us the most harshly. But again, think about Jesus and Peter….Jesus knew Peter would deny him, but He loved him in advance of and through the betrayal. It was a heart of compassion that He held towards Peter.

Sis, how can you know someone would deny you and you keep walking with that person? That is not the way of men is it? That would be foolishness wouldn’t it? Well, the principle is this. If you walk in the Spirit, your spirit must hold sway. You will have to actively choose love and forgiveness, mercy and the extension of grace… for your own sakes, and then for the sake of those who wrong you. Our God says we should not come before Him is we have any unforgiveness or grudge in our hearts. So when you struggle in these situations sis, please remember your choices are more about your soul first, than about who is right and wrong in the flesh.

Think about the scourging of Jesus and the crown of thorns placed on His head. Synonyms for scourging include afflicting, tormenting, devastating, terrorizing. Sound familiar? I know there have been times past when I curled up in a ball of fear and uncertainty because of the challenges that presented themselves. Times when it looked like I would be swallowed up, and when I could see no way through. There were times when it felt like the issues were compounded by a heavy crown of thorns – by that one new thing that was weighty enough as to cause my head to literally hurt, to cause me to struggle to think through the pain, or to see through the tears that beclouded my vision. I have never cried blood, but I have known what it means to literally see ‘red’ – not in anger however, but in imaginable emotional pain.

Jesus response in this situation is classic. Through the hurt and the pain, He carries His cross. It’s heavy, it’s unmerited, it’s bigger than him, it’s symbolic of things for which He had no hand, and it’s unfair. But, He carries it nonetheless. It was in His power as the Son of God to kill all those who were scourging Him simply by a spoken word. But it is also in the same power of His understanding – as God, the end from the beginning; that He rather chose to go through the process.

We have to go through, sis. This is life! Whether we like it or not, our reality is that there is good and evil in this world, and many times we will be affected by it. Indeed, a harsher reality is that many times we ourselves are players in either the good or the evil that others will go through, but we may not readily see this. But that’s not the topic today. Let’s focus today on where we are the hurt, the betrayed, the judged, the condemned, the abandoned, the rejected, and the dejected! We have to go through sis! This is why Jesus assured us that in life we will have troubles, but that He would be with us. He said we would go through fire and flood, but He would see us through.

If we accept in advance that we will ‘go though’; if we accept in advance that sometimes what we will go through will be unbelievably weighty…. and if we will accept and trust that as Jesus made it, we will make it; then we come to the battlefield primed for a different kind of victory, sis. We do! It is just that much easier to bear because our eyes are set on things above. We come to where we have an inner peace in the midst of our storms that make no sense in the flesh’s scheme of things. We are at rest in war because we are sure that in the end, we win!

A couple of things strike me deeply as I meditate on the ‘Stations’, or let’s just call it Jesus journey to the cross, shall we? First is the fact that Jesus fell. The Son of God made manifest in the flesh, fell. The weight of that physical cross was too much for His physical body to bear alone. What is the principle behind this, sis? Quite simply, Jesus is telling us that the fact that we fall doesn’t mean it’s over, it doesn’t mean we’ve failed. He is saying that it is okay to be weak. Sometimes, it’s all just too much and there is nothing wrong with being in that position. However, He does want us to know that there is always help available at our times of weakness. It wasn’t a coincidence that Simon of Cyrene was there and came to help Jesus carry the cross. No sis! Hundreds of others were there, thousands maybe. They watched and did nothing. Many empathized with Jesus, their hearts broke on His behalf, but they did nothing. Many jeered at Him. Many sneered at Him … how dare He call Himself the Son of God? Save yourself then, let us see! Many were unmoved – just one more crucifixion of another ‘nobody’, another ‘thief’, another ‘wannabe’.

But, there is always help available in our crises, sis! Simon of Cyrene was strategically placed, positioned and primed to be a source of strength and support when Jesus needed it. Have you noticed how when you are going through, support comes from the strangest and most unexpected of places? A stranger speaks a word that is such an encouragement to you. Something someone is preaching about is a direct word from God to you for your current situation. Out of the blues, someone draws close to you with a support that you cannot fathom the source, and sometimes as soon as the challenge is over the relationship reverts to status quo. Someone you thought couldn’t care less speaks out in defense of you, gives you inside information and advice to help you overcome a hurdle. And can I assure you that even if you never know, someone somewhere will actually lift you up in prayer?

Can I assure you even more so that even if none of those happen, Jesus Christ Himself is your Help and Advocate, and daily makes intercession for you before the throne of God? Sis, falling is part of the resurrection process, okay. It is only when something dies that we can speak of it resurrecting. Don’t be afraid of the things that God will cause to die as you go through your storms and seasons. Trust Him even in that process and know He will lift you from your prostrate state, and as He lifts you, He will bring to life those things that you need for the next phase, and He will also birth new things that you need for seasons ahead. Amen! Don’t be afraid of the fall sis. Trust God that help is and always will be available. Just know though that the help won’t always look like what you expect it to, and so pray in advance that you will always recognize those who are on a God-assignment to you in every season, particularly in your night seasons.

The other thing is that you must recognize that you can’t afford to be proud in your night seasons especially. God resists the proud remember? If Jesus the Son of God accepted help from a mere man, then who are you and I to hold ourselves above? Sis, receiving help is not a sign of weakness. It is rather a sign of emotional maturity. Many times we don’t realize that when we allow ourselves be helped it is a growth process also for he or she who has reached out to help us. Sometimes we fail to see that by our example, they are also being built up. Stop making like you have it all going on, sis. Be bold enough to be openly weak, afraid, uncertain! That in itself is a living epistle to someone else who has wondered all along how they can make it through when they are not as strong, as together, as competent and as capable as you.

Another thing that struck me about the Stations was how in the process of going through, Jesus chose to give hope to another. Here was a thief, the one who actually did deserve to be crucified, and he asked for mercy. Jesus said to him, ‘I assure you today, you will be with Me in Heaven’. Truthfully sis, when we are unjustly persecuted, how often are we readily able to extend grace and mercy? Easier said than done isn’t it? But this is the template Jesus gave us, sis. Indeed, the Holy Spirit ministered to me that many of the things we will go through are not for our sake. but that Jesus may be lifted high in the lives of others. Sis, the Lord is asking that no matter what you are going through, in that season, be sure to be a source of encouragement to someone else. Use your travails as an instrument of worship. How? Sis, use your going through to encourage someone else.

Think about how desperate and dire your situation would be if you didn’t have Christ as an anchor and a hope, sis. Do you know that one too many are without hope? Do you know that one too many are only clinging on for dear life? Do you know that in making a bold and open declaration that ‘I am going through, but I know Jesus has got my back and I will come out of this too’ you are more of a living Gospel to someone somewhere than you realize? Don’t waste your pain, sis. Find it in yourself to use the lessons learnt to bless someone else. This is a Resurrection principle. God is asking you today to purpose your pain for a greater weight of glory. Nothing helps us deal with the things we struggle with as much as helping someone else through their own struggles.  Help someone resurrect their trust, hope and faith in God and His ability to bring them through their condemnation and crucifixion experiences, sis….and then see how God moves mightily for you time and time again.

Can you try to imagine what Jesus was going through on the cross, sis? There was unbelievable pain from open gaping wounds. There was incredible shame from being ridiculed, mocked, exposed - hung near naked for all to see. He was openly laughed at, spoken to disrespectfully by those who were otherwise so much less than He; He was disdained, spat on. It was a combination of physical torture, psychological distress and emotional anguish on that cross. But ….Jesus was on a spiritually higher battlefield.  He understood that in the end, God purpose would stand. He understood that the trials of the present day were working a far greater weight of glory. He understood that end which had been declared from the beginning was at hand. And so He was fully yielded spiritually, even though everything else about Him was under immense pressure and pain.

Sis, when we trust God with our all… we have a spiritual rest that defies logic. I have said this before and I can’t emphasize it enough. You have to ask the Holy Spirit help you enter this secret place for yourself, sis. That is the only way we can successfully navigate this life. Do you see? There is always a bigger picture and you have to come to where you always have the assurance that the Greater One is on your side and He is working it all out for your good, no matter how heavy it seems in this season. There is purpose behind the cross you carry, sis. It’s hard when you are hung out and on display. It’s hard when men choose to make an open show of you, of your failings, of your shame, of your disgrace. It’s hard when it is merited and a thousand times more so when it is not. But sis, lift it up to Jesus and let His resurrection power flow. Don’t deviate from the principle of the Cross, and I assure you that in the end you will be victorious.

Jesus elected to die, that God may be glorified. He elected to endure all that you and I might have eternal life. He is asking that in your life as well as in mine, we follow His example - that we might not make His sacrifice to be of no effect, that we might not be lost, and that we also draw others to Him. Sis, when He died, it looked like it was all over. Some cried, yes. But the majority laughed and used Him as the butt of their jokes at dinner that night. He died, sis! He died! I know that many a time, the results of our going through is that things will die. Marriages die! Treasured relationships die! Businesses die! Financial stability dies, etc. Can we be real about the fact that some things will necessarily need to die for some other things to have new life by God’s design?

And death is painful sis. Any separation process is painful, even if we ourselves adjudge it necessary. Just as Jesus was placed in the tomb and it was sealed with a heavy rock, we will have those times when it looks like not only did something die, but a major obstacle has been placed before us such that it is even hard to get to the ‘’corpse’ and begin to examine what we might have done wrong and how to address it better next time. Sometimes, there is no room for ‘lessons learnt’, it’s just ‘finished, final, over and done, dead and buried!’

But He arose, sis!

‘Halleluyah! Jesus is alive! Death has lost its victory and the grave has been denied. Jesus is forever! He’s alive! He’s alive! Halleluyah! Jesus is alive!’

That is the new song, sis. The one that I know all the words to! And it’s an awesome complement to the one I started out this piece with.  Sis, Jesus resurrection on the third day is still part of the principle that the Holy Spirit would have us walk in today and always. Indeed, it’s the greatest part. It’s the assurance from God that when He is in a matter, it only dies permanently if He has judged it as not good for you. Otherwise, He it is Who has the power of life and death. He is the One Who can kill and make alive. He is resurrection power Himself! By a single breath He gives life. Today, God is asking us to remember that the only permanence is in Him. He has assured us that He works all things out together for our good. He is asking us to come back to the place of seeing everything we are struggling with, everything that has tried to hold us down, everything we are going through… to see it rising. He is challenging us to go through knowing that Jesus arises for us always, no matter what we contend with. He is asking us to see what looks like dead dreams, dead hopes and aspirations, dead relationships… to see them rising. He is asking us to place our processes and our pains on His alter today, and time and again so that He can continually breathe life and health into them.

Sis, in His rising, Jesus is asking that we see ourselves rising. He is as much in us as we are in Him and His life is a template for ours. And we are victorious in Him always, sis. In Christ, even when it looks like you have lost an earthly battle… if you played it by this principle, you would have won a great heavenly war. Think through the Cross sis, and then think through your life. Think through whatever you are going through now, and then let the Holy Spirit minister grace and peace to you. As He does, allow Him infill you with the confidence and assurance that all is well and all will end well, the way that God has purposed it. Ask Him to help you understand where you don’t; ask Him to help you accept; ask Him to order your thinking; ask Him to help you gather your emotions; ask Him to shape your countenance; ask Him to grant you wise counsel; ask Him for discernment. Sis, ask Him to help you stay above and walk/decide/act/speak only in accordance to His will and express purpose in every situation. Ask Him to help you stay in alignment sis, that truly you may experience the flow of resurrection through every ‘station’ you might have to go through in any day and in every season. Ask Him sis, and watch Him roll away every stone and restore life in all its fullness.

The Lord will help you sis. I know this without a shadow of a doubt, because daily I see Him help me.

Be blessed sis… for you surely are!

  

Take those shoes off

It’s March already? Yyyyaaayyyy!!! Why the celebration? It’s my birth month, that why. March comes as a reminder to me of God’s faithfulness and love for me. It’s a month of reflection, a month of reconciliation, of re-determination, of re-dedication. Simply put, March is a month of deliberate ‘Going back to Zero’ for me. It’s a time to more intentionally than ever before, revisit my original design and see how much further I have progressed in alignment with God’s mandate and purpose for my life.

True, many years ago I couldn’t have said this… but I have grown and I am growing. And as I mature as a person and as a son of God, intentionality of purpose is my passionate pursuit. That simply means I can’t sit back and let life happen. No sis, I have to happen to life the way God would have it be. No better time than the period counting down to the completion of one more earthly year to do this, as I see it.

I hope I didn’t lose you at the ‘Going back to Zero’ phrase. Those who have followed me over the years will be familiar with this, but if you are a new enough reader, let me explain. The Zero principle was taught me by my Coach, sister and friend Anna McCoy – entrepreneur extraordinaire, author of the amazing book Woman Act Now, minister of the gospel, life coach and all-round wonderful sista-pillar! Clearly I love this woman, lol. You would too sis, I assure you. If she’s got your back, she’s GOT your back. An amazing template for womanhood, Anna McCoy is for sure!

Coach taught us that anything that has a zero added to it increases. When you add a zero to 1, you get 10 and when you add another zero to that, you get 100…etc, ad infinitum. The Scripture in John 3 v 30 - 31 says ‘He must increase, but I must decrease. He (the Holy Spirit) that comes from above is above all’. The Holy Spirit is infinite and boundless in His wisdom, power, and might...you know this right sis? Going back to Zero is therefore you and I saying ‘Lord, I choose to decrease, that Your Holy Spirit might increase in me’. Going back to Zero is recognizing that our power comes from the God in us, and that each time we allow more of Him to hold sway in us, we are more powerful, more knowledgeable, more ‘more’ of any and everything than we can be and do in Christ!

So yes, March is that month for me when I re-calibrate and allow myself zero-out again fully. Nothing like a birthday to remind you how blessed you are to be alive, how graced you are to still have the opportunity to be used of God and for His glory. But…. this actually isn’t my subject today. As the Lord has led though, I trust that what I have said so far has been a word for someone, but let me get to what I originally planned to share shall I? Lol

I was listening to a sermon by Steven Furtick and he said ‘The shoe should never tell the foot how big it can become’. I thought this was pretty profound and I wrote it on a Post-it slip on my son’s reading desk where I’d been working on something while listening in. I didn’t give it much more thought until a couple of days later when my son came to me and said ‘Mum, what does that quote you penned down mean really? And we then had a conversation about it.

I started by reminding him how when he was much younger he had loved to put his feet into his father’s shoes, and oversized as they were, he devised a technology with which he could not only walk, but also run around in them – albeit providing us with quite an amusing spectacle in the process. His same father’s shoes stuffed with tissues up-front would be his saving grace at a school event years later where he needed to wear a suit, but didn’t have formal shoes to go with them. As long as there was room enough, the size 44 shoes worked well for him. I reminded him that he was exactly 11 years old when his own feet became size 44, the shoes fit just right and he entered direct competition with his father for who could get to which shoes faster.  By the time he was 13 though, he was a size 45 and today he is a size 46…. two clear sizes larger than the very shoes that once were ‘room enough’ and ‘just right’. And this dear sis is what I believe the Lord wants me to speak to you today – the twin challenges of ‘room enough’ and ‘just right’.

The challenge with ‘room enough’:

As I explained to my son, once we are in shoes that seem to have room enough, if we are not careful, those very shoes tell us just how far we can grow and we might not stop to think that there are sizes beyond that. I mean, when you are a size 20, then size 44 shoes seem to you like a great leap right? More than double where you are right? If you could grow into them, that would be remarkable right? The world would and should clap for you if you were able to double your business, the reach of your ministry, your wealth, etc right? And hey, let’s face it…. Given the odds you would definitely have to overcome to get to double, you should also applaud yourself right? And you should bless God for establishing you right? Yes sis, you well should. Certainly, you should and the world should! But…. there is so much ‘more’ out there, sis. There is!

The problem with ‘room enough’ is that it can limit your ability to see your truest potential in its grandest form according to God’s purpose and design. Room enough is comfortable; it has ample space; it allows you revel in movement no matter how small, to celebrate victories that are actually below your best. Room enough limits your vision. It frames acceptable borders for you …acceptable particularly because you haven’t yet begun to realize that those borders exist to confine and constrain you. The biggest problem with room enough is that you have an end-point in view at which you can define that you have ‘arrived’ at your maximum best, and that is one of the most dangerous places to be as far as God’s purpose is concerned. Does this make sense, sis? I pray so.

The challenge with ‘Just right’:

So, eventually, my son grew into a 44-size shoe. The same shoe size his father had been long before my son was born. 44 was the shoe size he had aspired to fill even as a young boy running around in his father’s oversized shoes...it was his subconscious self-limiting border.  As his own feet hit size 44, ‘just right’ happened! And don’t get me wrong sis…‘just right’ is great. It really is! But therein lays the problem in itself! Just right is an affirmation that all your efforts, all the growing and stretching have been worth it in the end. Just right is ‘arriving’... it’s a place of victory.  ‘Just right’ works sis. It does! Think about it. My son suddenly had access to several dozen pairs of shoes. And what a variety of shoes he then had access to – formal, casual, sports, slip-on’s, etc. He had access to red shoes, black shoes, grey shoes, blue shoes, shoes with a combination of colors. He could choose between pure leather shoes, patent leather, suede shoes, etc. I mean, he literally had it going on at the point of size 44… at his ‘just right’. So yeah, just right works! But, it’s only meant to work for a season sis...that is God’s way! So why do so many of us tend to settle at ‘just right’?

Sis, translate this to your life. Do a quick self-assessment and ask yourself where you have hit ‘just right’….and where you may have settled.  If my son had settled at just right, his shoes would have continued to pinch as his feet grew larger. But you know what? If he didn’t realize there was a ‘more’, he could simply have taken the pinch on his toes as the pain that goes with the territory of ‘I’ve arrived at the max shoe size…  which I can also restate as ‘I’ve attained the self-imposed limit of my growth and success’. He could have made excuses for the ‘cut’ of the shoes being the cause of the pain. He could have started to rationalize that pure leather shoes didn’t hurt as much as the others, and he could then have constrained himself to wearing painful pure leather size 44 shoes for the rest of his life. He could have found many ways to justify the discomfort of settling with size 44 shoes, whereas in truth the discomfort was God calling him to stretch to the size 46 God had ahead of him.

Sis, what are the pains in your life that you are making adjustments and accommodations for because you feel you have arrived at your ‘just right’? What excuses are you making for not stretching? What are the ‘perks’ of your arrival at ‘just right’ that are blinding you to seeing the ‘more’ that is up ahead, the more that you were designed for in the first place? Sis, from as simple a belief that you are not even qualified to have arrived at size 44 in the first place… from as simple a mindset of ‘let me just be grateful that I made it this far’, you can settle at way below your potential and God’s purpose for your life. Sis, what do you know that you know that you know, that God is calling you to come up higher in?

I have used the analogy of a simple phrase about shoes translated in near literal form, to also try to speak God’s heart to you, sis. Today, the Lord is asking you to take a good look at your life, at what you have done, at what you are doing… and He is asking you to compare it with what you have the potential to do, to be and to achieve. But here is the thing, sis… God is not asking you to make this comparison based on your own strengths. No! Rather, He is asking you to look at your potential from the point of view of the breath that He breathed into you, the gifts and abilities that He imputed into you at creation, the ‘more’ that He has for you if you would go back to Zero and allow His power in you truly avail for you.

I just saw a tweet that said ‘Your life is too small to be the purpose of your life’, to which I had responded ‘Absolutely’, for really that is just it, sis. Our lives are way beyond us! And if this is true (which I assure you it is), then we must reach for that ‘more’ that God has for us. We must reach for more because there are more lives that God has purposed to be blessed because we fulfill the fullness of our potential. Do you get this, sis? God is calling you today to revisit what size you think you are, sis. He is telling you and I expressly that we are at least two sizes larger than where we have settled. He is asking us to stretch, sis…. to take the limiting shoes off and allow our feet grow into ‘more’. He is assuring us that we can do it because of the greater One that is in us. He is asking us to put away that ultimately false ‘humility’ that keeps us from wanting to be more, and He is saying ‘more  is who I called you to be. Don’t settle!’.

Our God is limitless, sis. And we who are created in His very image and likeness, we in whom He lives, we shouldn’t be the ones placing limits on the purpose of creation, and of the Creator. God is asking you and I to take some time today to seek His face, in the quietness of worship to seek to hear His voice as He speaks to us what He needs us to deliver on. It in one of such quiet encounters, seeking His face, that God said to me that He has ‘graced me to deliver specifics in my latter years’. For me that clearly means that I need to be attentive and always listening out for what He would have me do next… for instructions concerning my ‘more’, especially as He also said to me that this year He would speak to me more ‘on the go’.

Sis, you need your own word from God so you can push through to the next phase of growth He has for you. He is here and He hears. He loves you and He is willing to help you. Please take off whatever comfy-sized shoes you have on today and allow God stretch you, sis. And can I tell you something? Stretching never ends! You never arrive as far as God is concerned. When you do, then that is the day of your calling to the other side of eternity. And you and I know our hearts cry is to hear ‘Well done’ right, sis? By the grace and power of God, we will die empty of all the Lord has purposed for us to deliver on this earth. The Holy Spirit will help you sis. He is certainly helping me!

Be blessed sis… for you surely are!