DON'T LOOK BACK II

This blog post is a continuation of yesterday's sharing, taken from TD Jakes book 'When power meets potential'.

When you have been shifted into a new level, everything is different. I rather be the low man in my destiny than the lead man in my history. That moment comes when we are invited into a new level and then what happens? We sometimes look back at what was, because it has kept us in a high position. But I rather start at the bottom in my new season than stay in a high position in a worn out season that holds nothing for me. It doesn't matter that I am coming in on the bottom level of a new dimension.

In the new season you're going to start out knowing nothing and I rather know nothing in the new than keep on knowing everything in the old. Yet it is not exactly starting from scratch. You're carrying what you learnt in the old season into the new. God is not erasing your memory. The key is, you are stepping into the unfamiliar and unknown. Celebrate it. Every step you take toward where you don't know where you are going, be confident that you are progressing toward your purpose. You are taking significant steps towards fulfilling your destiny.

The key to breaking the old cycles associated with the old season is simply to start new ones. Too many of us get stuck in old cycles because we put limits on God. We limit what He can do. We think that the old life is as good as it gets. But you haven't dreamed of what God can do. You cannot comprehend what is up ahead. Your mind cannot imagine what God has on the other side of your new season. I believe the Lord is saying to you: The cycle has been broken over your life! It's completely broken. You're never going to be the same! How you used to do things will not define how you do them in your next dimension. Everything's different because it's a new dimension!

Even though we have been born, and we have become a new person at a new level, we can get distracted by old level stuff. Old level situations. Old level places. Old level people. Old level activities. We try to participate but they hurt. Why? It's like a two year old trying to go back to the mother's womb. It's just painful. It doesn't work. It doesn't look right, it makes no sense. The baby doesn't belong there. Are there things in your life squeezing you back into your former level? It won't work. It can't.

In the past, the Lord fed you manna falling down into your tent but now you are coming into your promised land. Prepare yourself, for in three days you will cross this Jordan. You are coming into another dimension. You have got to feed on another level. Learn on another level. Read on another level. Interact with people on another level. Parent on another level, run a household on another level. Everything is upgraded.

The last test to pass before moving forward is the test of discouragement. You cannot earn the right to lead until you pass the test of discouragement. If anyone can talk you out of it, you are not the one for the new level. Would you keep moving forward if things do not unfold the way you expect? Will you keep following even if you get misunderstood? Will you keep moving forward if you forget why you were doing this to start with? 

At some point you may be confused. What's got into me? Why am I going in this direction? I can't see clearly in this new level. It's all alien and unfamiliar. At least in the old level I knew where everything was. Everything made sense. Those thoughts are normal. They are the common assault upon everyone who is invited into a new dimension. 

The truth is these thoughts couldn't hold you back, it's what you do with them that determines where you go. The next level has to be real to you. It has got to be so real to you that you cannot live without it. When you want purpose badly enough to do whatever it takes to get there, to control your passions, that is when you are ready to step into it. Purpose awaits the ready. You have to be trained to operate in the next dimension, and after you have suffered for a while, after you have faced all kinds of discouragement, come through them and say 'I still want it.' Then God says 'I'm going to release another wave of glory in your life.' 

Because of the purpose you have been marked for, God didn't let the waters drown you. He is with you, He will never leave you. He has invested too much in you to give up on you. Anyone would have drowned, lost their sanity, gave up hoping but you kept fighting your way back up to the top. And now there is a glory that God is going to release on your life. It has to be released on the extraordinary. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can imagine what God is bringing you into. It will blow your mind.