JUST MOVE!

Hey sis, June already? Not a single post from me in two months? And only two posts this year? Oh dear! Not good, Audrey! Not good at all!  Here I am again starting off with an apology about how long I have been away from this platform and how there's been a lot going on with me work-wise and in so many engagements that I find myself enmeshed in. But you know what, sis? We are all busy and so that is NOT a tenable excuse anymore, certainly the last time I will be making it. Truth is that I could have applied myself more intentionally to this platform, regardless of how crazy things have been around me. Thinking about it though, part of it has also been that that it is sometimes overwhelming how many lessons every one of my days bring. I was sharing with my sista Bidemi recently, that I see a message from God in almost everything. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though. He did say He would be speaking with me on-the-go, didn’t He?

I literally see God in my details, sis. I see Him speak through the most simple and otherwise insignificant looking things…..and they're deep messages…so deep that it’s been hard to know which specific one the word of the moment would be. The problem with not settling on any one message and running with it however, is that this has over time built itself into some kind of a ‘writer's block’. My truth therefore is that this is what has largely kept me this far away from this platform. It hasn't just been that I'm busy…no, it’s more because I haven't been able to just make myself sit down and write. And can I confess sis, that it is because I have gotten comfortable with being stuck?...not in the sense that it never troubles me or makes me feel bad… but in the sense that I have clearly not wanted the change enough so as to force the shift! Ouch! Hard truth, but my truth nonetheless! Hmm! Can you relate sis? Ouch! This really hurts!

This is then exactly what I want to share with you today, sis. What happens when it looks like you're stuck? What happens when you know to ‘do’ but can't find the energy or motivation?   What happens when you are faced daily with things that are the burning desires of your heart to deliver on, yet you just can't seem to make yourself move even though you know you need to? What happens when ‘stuck’ becomes your default, sis? When stuck becomes a comfort zone…a painful zone yes, but a comfortable and familiar one nonetheless?

I just came home from our bi-annual three-day Sista Power Gathering retreat. Now the details of the retreat are not mine to share, we keep that as quiet safe space. But I can share this element because it is my story. During our Vision Board review exercise, I‘d shared how as regards my spiritual goals, that I hadn’t been able to move forward with my writings which I know without equivocation, are an integral part of the ministry assignments on my life. I admitted that I was seriously struggling with being able to move forward, despite a deep hunger to do so. Thank God for God though. He had a sure word for me in the course of one of the ministrations. You see sis, I heard clearly that if anything was going to shift…..it was in my hands and in my power to do! I realized again that I needed to want something enough to do something about it…. because I am the only one who can! More than anything else though, I had found myself in the session I was facilitating, reminding others not to forget that whatever their assignment might be, it was about more than themselves…it was about the destinies of generations that are waiting on them to give full expression to their gifts.  

As I spoke, the Holy Spirit nudged me not too gently, reminding me that in choosing to stay stuck, I was forgetting that this platform is for a purpose that is well beyond me. This platform is not about my love for writing or gift of writing. No, it is about those whose lives and generations will be touched because I chose to deploy the gift as the Lord would have me do! And, in that understanding, I knew I had no choice but to move, sis. I knew I could not stay in stuck even for one more day!

So, the question the Lord has for us today is how do you get to from stuck to shifting, to moving? You know what sis? You just do! You just move! You take your eyes off the imperfections and limitations of your current situations or potential results, and just take a first step! For instance, today I decided that even if I didn’t have a specific message, I was just going to write an article. Literally, I said to myself "Girl, just write something!!! If you are stuck, then that is exactly what you will write about. Leave it to God to make sense of it in the end!” I said to myself that even if this particular post does not make sense, I would do it anyway. I would do the voice note. I would transcribe it, edit it….and I would to post it regardless. In a sense therefore sis, this post is less about you and more about me intentionally choosing to shift from stuck and get moving again. There is a fire in me that has desperately wanted for so long to come back to where I'm blogging regularly as I used to, and because I’ve been reminded by the Lord Himself that it's up to me, I am choosing to shift ground and move on to delivering on this assignment.

Sis, this post is about me coming to the realization that whether what I write would make sense or not in any instance is no longer the case. It has never been about ‘my’ message anyway. Me writing this today is about me going back to the place of trusting God to speak that which He desires. One of the many deep insights I received over the course of our retreat was that it is pride and arrogance not to move because you are afraid to find out that God didn’t send you, because you are afraid to fail or to be wrong. Sis, I have clearly been more focused on being sure that you are pleased with my output when you read my post, than I have been with simply showing up in obedience to God and allowing Him process His message to you for wherever you need it in your life. I deeply apologize…first to God, and then to you sis. Henceforth, I'm going to be focused on making sure that I deliver with much more regularity on this platform. I can do all things through Christ! That is God's Word concerning me. Christ is in me and He is the hope of glory. He is the One Who has given me my gifts, my talents, my abilities. I have the mind of Christ, therefore I cannot be confused. I cannot stagnate. I cannot be frustrated. I cannot be stuck! It is His glory that is at stake! His glory in me must shine forth, sis! It must!

God is the One that put the desire to start this blog in my heart since I started it almost 9 years ago. It was and is for His will and His good pleasure. This has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my ability, nothing to do with a gift that I obviously didn’t give myself. This is strictly God and for His glory! Therefore, while this might not have been the deepest most spiritual of my posts, it is me saying “I'm arising, I'm shifting ground, I'm refusing to stay in stuck!” Sis, I choose to stretch, and I choose to deliver. And I'm doing this because I am intentional about fulfilling God's call on my life and living a life that is fulfilling to Him first, and then to myself.

How about you, sis? What are the things or where are the areas that you haven't been able to move forward in in your life? Where are you stuck, sis? Where do you need to make a shift? Where do you need to move? Sis, the only person that can make this happen is you! God has already done His bit in resourcing you. This is not about perfection, sis. Like I said, this post is about me choosing to SHOW UP! This is really just me saying no, I don't want to be comfortable in a broken place….. because sis, as far as you and I are not delivering on our assignments for God, we are in a broken place. Sis, can I ask you take a moment look your ‘stuck’ in the face? Look it in the face and take a determined step forward, sis. As you do, don't worry if the outcome looks as great as the ones you used to see in the past. Focus only on the shift, sis! Celebrate the fact that you moved!  Sis, take that one step as I have done now. Just make a move, sis! As you do, I promise you that the Lord will steadily take you back into the place of a seamless flow.

The Lord had said to me that this is my year to ‘Thrive’ but I was seeing too many dropped balls in the areas that mattered to me the most and that has saddened me all these months. But it ends today, sis. I have such joy and fullness in my heart this morning.  This post is me saying,

“Lord, I come back and put my hands in Your hands. I take this one first step knowing that You can and will amplify the results by Yourself. Lord, I'm taking this one step as a commitment and a coming back to that which You would have me do. I'm committing that I will keep coming back with regularity Lord, and that whatever it is You will show me, I will speak. Lord, I will show up and write even if in my own eyes it appears that my articles may not be as concise, may not be as great, may not be as well read as some others have been. Lord, those will not be my metrics or markers of fulfilling Your call. My marker will be that I show up, Lord.  Father, I will show up knowing that only I (because of Your power that is already at work within me) can move me out of the place of stagnation and into a place of progress and productivity. I choose to show up, Lord! I chose to shift! I chose to MOVE!”

This is what I want to encourage you to do today, sis. Just rise up! Just shift! Don't stay in stuck in stuck sis, make that one tiny step. My sista and pastor @BidemiMark-Mordi always reminds us that the Holy Spirit is more than able to bridge the gap between our ability and what is required in any situation or season. Sis, let's leave it to God to help us to do greater things as we come in the fullness of obedience to His instructions. Make a move, sis! Make a move and allow the Lord unfold the greater that He has already put in you, even as He's surely unfolding the greater that He put in me. I speak over you and declare that the Holy Spirit helps you move past your stuck places, sis…. even as surely and as certainly as He's helping me.

Be blessed sis…. for you surely are!