Hello Costly Oil Family!
As I explained last month, God has inspired me to add two parts to our “How Words Work” blog series. This month we are talking about the challenges that come as a result of how we use our words, in obedience and endurance, to walk in to what God Himself has spoken. But first, let me refer further back to last month’s blog about transitions.
Transition: the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.
In examining how words work, we begin with a plan of God that we only learn about after we commune with Jesus. This plan is designed to take us from one state or condition to another. It is designed to get us out of our comfort zone. Based on this truth alone, even if we add no attacks by Satan, the process is going to come with some challenges. You have to: learn some new skills, develop some new habits, change some ways of thinking, lose some friendships and maybe even family, spend money in different ways, etc. And when you add your enemy’s tactics… Let’s be real, transition is never easy. We will have to obey AND endure if we want to successfully make the change. And a lot of that will depend on what we do AND what we speak.
Challenges: “And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, ‘You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you,’ thinking, ‘David cannot come in here.’ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David).”
(2 Samuel 5:6-7)
At this point in this chapter, David has been anointed king of all of Israel, but there were some folks occupying Jerusalem, the chosen capital of the nation. These people spoke some words to the new administration that were not in-line with God’s plan. They were pretty insulting, actually. They saw King David as so weak and his authority so invalid that they claimed that the weakest among them would be able to keep him from taking control of the city.
Have you ever been in a situation where you applied for the position or walked in the room and people just KNEW that you were unqualified for the job? Has God ever told you to do something and the folks around you just KNEW that you were being “unrealistic”? Has God ever shown you something about yourself and you yourself felt like Moses, “God, that’s too big, too hard”? I have. But for me, taking the step of faith is not always the hardest part. The difficulty comes when the challenges – to my faith, to my effort, to the work/money/time I’ve already invested – start. When the money runs out for what God told you to do and then folks start asking…“Did God REALLY tell you to do that?” “Are you SURE you heard clearly?” When the doors all of a sudden start closing in your face. And when the support from when things were going well starts drying up like a well. When delay after delay and distraction after distraction hits like arrows of fire to your spirit and your faith. What do we do then???
I’ll go first. My go-to response is complaining. And anger.
But recently, I did something different. Something that was completely contrary to all I had been writing about in our “How Words Work” series. I spoke something completely contrary to what I KNOW God told me. I agreed with what my enemy was suggesting. This is fairly unusual for me because I typically have a very strong sense of what God wants and a deep sense of unconditional obedience. But this time something…someone…was on the line that I love too dearly and could not possibly fail or disappoint. Even if it meant disobeying God. That’s pretty scary right?
Well, literally hours after asking for prayer from my sister group, God began to open my eyes to how I was cooperating with Satan (as opposed to cooperating with God, as discussed in our last “How Words Work” blog) simply by the words that I had spoken. My prayer partner and I got together and made confession over my heart and mind to bring alignment back to God’s plan. It was a week-long brutal battle in the Spirit and in the natural. And even after the victory was won, Satan came back with another attack. When my words challenged the challenges, my endurance increased. And in spite of how my enemy tried to stop what God had planned, we “took the stronghold of Zion!”
In scripture, Zion is often symbolically represented as an elevated fortress and place specifically appointed by God as a refuge and place of freedom from all enemies and distractions from being able to serve God fully. That is what our transitional challenges are trying to keep us from. The next time God is trying to take you to a new level in Him, think of Zion and a place where you get to walk more fully in the calling He ultimately has in store. He’s giving you victory over those lower-level demons and their attacks. He’s calling you higher because He’s up to something greater.
As I explained last month, God has inspired me to add two parts to our “How Words Work” blog series. This month we are talking about the challenges that come as a result of how we use our words, in obedience and endurance, to walk in to what God Himself has spoken. But first, let me refer further back to last month’s blog about transitions.
Transition: the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.
In examining how words work, we begin with a plan of God that we only learn about after we commune with Jesus. This plan is designed to take us from one state or condition to another. It is designed to get us out of our comfort zone. Based on this truth alone, even if we add no attacks by Satan, the process is going to come with some challenges. You have to: learn some new skills, develop some new habits, change some ways of thinking, lose some friendships and maybe even family, spend money in different ways, etc. And when you add your enemy’s tactics… Let’s be real, transition is never easy. We will have to obey AND endure if we want to successfully make the change. And a lot of that will depend on what we do AND what we speak.
Challenges: “And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, ‘You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you,’ thinking, ‘David cannot come in here.’ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David).”
(2 Samuel 5:6-7)
At this point in this chapter, David has been anointed king of all of Israel, but there were some folks occupying Jerusalem, the chosen capital of the nation. These people spoke some words to the new administration that were not in-line with God’s plan. They were pretty insulting, actually. They saw King David as so weak and his authority so invalid that they claimed that the weakest among them would be able to keep him from taking control of the city.
Have you ever been in a situation where you applied for the position or walked in the room and people just KNEW that you were unqualified for the job? Has God ever told you to do something and the folks around you just KNEW that you were being “unrealistic”? Has God ever shown you something about yourself and you yourself felt like Moses, “God, that’s too big, too hard”? I have. But for me, taking the step of faith is not always the hardest part. The difficulty comes when the challenges – to my faith, to my effort, to the work/money/time I’ve already invested – start. When the money runs out for what God told you to do and then folks start asking…“Did God REALLY tell you to do that?” “Are you SURE you heard clearly?” When the doors all of a sudden start closing in your face. And when the support from when things were going well starts drying up like a well. When delay after delay and distraction after distraction hits like arrows of fire to your spirit and your faith. What do we do then???
I’ll go first. My go-to response is complaining. And anger.
But recently, I did something different. Something that was completely contrary to all I had been writing about in our “How Words Work” series. I spoke something completely contrary to what I KNOW God told me. I agreed with what my enemy was suggesting. This is fairly unusual for me because I typically have a very strong sense of what God wants and a deep sense of unconditional obedience. But this time something…someone…was on the line that I love too dearly and could not possibly fail or disappoint. Even if it meant disobeying God. That’s pretty scary right?
Well, literally hours after asking for prayer from my sister group, God began to open my eyes to how I was cooperating with Satan (as opposed to cooperating with God, as discussed in our last “How Words Work” blog) simply by the words that I had spoken. My prayer partner and I got together and made confession over my heart and mind to bring alignment back to God’s plan. It was a week-long brutal battle in the Spirit and in the natural. And even after the victory was won, Satan came back with another attack. When my words challenged the challenges, my endurance increased. And in spite of how my enemy tried to stop what God had planned, we “took the stronghold of Zion!”
In scripture, Zion is often symbolically represented as an elevated fortress and place specifically appointed by God as a refuge and place of freedom from all enemies and distractions from being able to serve God fully. That is what our transitional challenges are trying to keep us from. The next time God is trying to take you to a new level in Him, think of Zion and a place where you get to walk more fully in the calling He ultimately has in store. He’s giving you victory over those lower-level demons and their attacks. He’s calling you higher because He’s up to something greater.
| Hear it. Speak it. Seek it! Living Always With Great Expectation, Dawn~ | |
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