Thursday, July 23, 2015

DON'T LOOK BACK

This sharing is again taken from the book by TD Jakes on 'When power meets potential'. I read this book some time ago but I only felt impressed to share this portion now. There is a time for everything.

When power meets potential, it is a moment that is absolutely pregnant with purpose. The mere notion of going back to bondage is repulsive. There is nothing back there. The very thing that positioned you for promotion can actually rob you of the blessing of promotion if you look back. Maybe you thought you could enjoy the best of both worlds, the old and the new. But you are in bondage to your old life.

The prospect of stepping into something new might have been overwhelming. God is calling you out of what you have known and inviting you to cast your net into the deep waters. Are you able to leave the familiar, comfortable and safe and step out on a new dimension of living? Sadly, many never take this step because the familiar and comfortable kept them back.

Sometimes the comfort of an old season tries to keep us from embracing the new thing God wants to launch us into. There's comfort in being ordinary. Some people are even content to stay in painful discomfort or in the darkness rather than stepping into God's purpose. Purpose is only unknown because we have not stepped in yet. But God has already gone before us to prepare the way for us. He has been there before. Yet some people prefer to identify themselves with their pain.

On the other side of each power-filled moment is a release of unlocked potential that changes every life. In your moment of power, you probably won't see the entire plan. Every detail, every stop along the way, every blessing, every meeting, every breakthrough. Your mind wouldn't be able to handle it all right there in a single encounter of power. You don't need to know it all. All you need to understand is that the moment of power activates potential to do things you cannot even imagine.

In the stepping out process there is mystery. Elisha didn't have all the answers. Yet he just knew something was shifting. He was ready, willing and in turn he responded. Don't settle for the old and worn out season when God is calling you to new levels. The problem for some of us is that the old season is something we are familiar with and by continuing to live in that season, we prevent ourselves from entering into the new season of unfamiliar purpose. Somewhere along the line we identified ourselves with a season.

Good or bad, we cannot identify ourselves by a season, for when the season changes, we get nervous. We start shaking and get nervous. Why? Because who we were is changing. On the contrary, we don't have to be afraid. We need to celebrate. There is good news. God is moving you on. Embrace the shift. When power meets potential, God wants to break that false identity and build a fresh one. Promotion was a byproduct of faithfulness in the previous season but when the moment comes, you need to have a paradigm shift.

Everything that will keep you moving forward will endure the mantle. Everything from yesterday that will help you progress will continue into your new dimension. At the same time, the stuff that holds you back cannot endure. It cannot go through. It has no place. Your moment with power exposes you to what can continue and what cannot. Your glimpse of the next dimension gives you vision for what you can take with you and what you can't. Things aren't going to be like they used to be.

After your meeting with power, you will not be the same person because God has done a fresh thing in your life. You might try to go back but nothing fits. You will go back and look at what you used to call good and say: What in the world was I thinking about? Whenever God elevates you to the next level, you look at things that you used to call excellent and ask: Whatever happened to them? They didn't change. You did. You've been exposed to the next level of glory and it's time for you to step on it. 

When your potential has been awakened it will never rest again. Potential says: I know this is what I have been waiting for all of my life. This is my moment, and I cannot ignore the power to which I have been exposed. God is going to make firewood out of your former position! There are things you might be laying down but there are things being upgraded within you. There is stuff inside of you that is changing its very structure and makeup as you embrace transition.

God doesn't want to snatch your plough or rod away. He's not on some quest to make your life miserable and take all your stuff away. He wants to ignite what you have. The key is yielding it to Him. If He sets the plough on fire while you are holding it, it's going to hurt. God doesn't set it on fire while it's still being held by the plow man. If we are unwilling to submit these things to God we are unable to see what He wants to release through them. Sometimes potential is coming out in a way we didn't know it was there, it shocks us, we are scared and we want to run away. The whole thing is too glorious and a bit too much. But you can't go back.

I cannot stay in my position for the traditions of men will make the Word of God of no effect. If I continue to stay in the circle, making the acceptable motions, trying to live up to the status quo, I am going to miss my moment. It's not that it was bad. It was good for me at one time but a shift has occurred. In the same way Abraham received a divine name change, Elisha experienced a similar transformation. It was time for a new thing, a new name. Similarly it is your time to come into a shift, are you ready? 

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