Called To Rise

    Jesus is Worthy of our recognition and our Worship. I don’t know any believers who would disagree. But have you ever considered He is also worthy of our sacrifice to shed every weight that hinders our pursuit of His righteousness? One Easter a few years ago, a revelation hit my spirit. It changed my perspective on the promises and blessings of God. If you are a believer, it is no secret Jesus Sacrificed Himself willingly to give us the gift of salvation. Contrary to some popular Ideas, Salvation is not the end goal. When we confess the prayer of invitation into the kingdom of God, it is only the beginning of a great and wonderful journey. Salvation opens the door to this wonderful walk of Christianity, which is an invitation into a beautiful relationship. The word Salvation in Greek is Soteria, meaning Savior saves; the roots of Soteria are the words  “Sozo and soter” Sozo Means saved, Made whole, restored, healed, delivered, and preserved. And Soter means Savior. 

The word salvation encompasses so much more than just deliverance from Hell. Accepting the free gift of Salvation holds promised deliverance from the power of sin over our lives. It is healing from disease, freedom from torment, and bondage; it is the power to overcome. That means we have been empowered to break every chain and shed every weight that hinders us. Within Salvation (sozo), there is everything that we will ever need to become true disciples of Jesus Christ and live a victorious and blessed life. However, many of us stop at the prayer of invitation, never going past a ticket to heaven. Many more stop at good enough. But, We are to receive Salvation, be water-baptized, and filled with the Holy Ghost, and that is still just the beginning. A glorious beginning, but you have just dipped your toe in; there are depths meant to be explored and discovered.

We can’t stop with living water lapping at our toes. We are meant to be fully immersed. 

What I mean by good enough is this. Once we receive Christ hopefully we go to church, turn our life around, and shed off our old way of life. At some point, we look back at all that God has done and all we have accomplished and think, “ Wow, I have come a long way.” If we are not careful,  that progression can become good enough. We stop short of shedding all the things that do not honor God or simply hinder us from going further. Not because we believe wrong is right but because we think we have sacrificed enough it may be subconsciously or consciously but somewhere that thought sneaks in and keeps us from moving forward.. We make little justifications that the sin isn’t as bad as what we were doing or what so and so is doing; it’s okay. God will forgive me. Don’t get me wrong, we can’t be perfect.  If you’re struggling to beat something, there is grace, but don’t let grace be your excuse to stop trying; we should never settle. As humans, we often have an arrival point in mind that says, “We made it, I have arrived!.’ There is satisfaction in reaching our goal or finally breaking a bad habit. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the victory, but The fact is once we reach it, new goals need to be set. We can’t stay idle.  Maybe what hinders you isn’t necessarily the sin you are making excuses for or accepting.  Maybe it’s that you are distracted, or you have stopped reaching for the promises of God. You have stopped climbing and pressing for greater heights in your walk of faith. We are made to continue progressing into the kingdom of God to the end of our lives. There is no cap to our spiritual growth that says I have arrived; I can quit pushing forward. 

 I have been on this journey long enough that I have faced many challenges trying to figure out the operation of faith. This is going to sound like a conflict for a moment, but hear me out. At the time of this revelation, I was facing an obstacle I couldn’t put my finger on regarding healing. Easter service was underway, and we were watching a compilation of the sacrifice of Jesus. At that moment, it came to me. Anyone willing to go through so much to give me access to healing would not then withhold it from me. It was so simple but life-changing. I hadn’t even realized until that moment that I was operating from a lie. That lie, which was twisted with truth had me believing that somehow I had to earn this healing from God. 

I was operating from the place that said  God was withholding it from me because I had not met all the requirements and checked all the boxes. Without recognizing what was driving me, I believed  I needed to be worthy of it by being good enough, faithful enough, and strong enough. Without knowing what was in my heart, I believed in error and deception that somehow I had to earn what Jesus had sacrificed His life for. The truth is The blood of Jesus is our righteousness; He is what makes us worthy and what makes us enough. Jesus has already done everything needed to give us access to the promises of God. I am telling you to shed every weight and run unhindered, to not settle for good enough. But Instead of doing it from a mindset of I must be good enough, we must do it with the heart that Jesus is enough and all that we do and all that we sacrifice is nothing compared to what he has given us through his spilled blood. He is worthy of it all, every battle, every sacrifice, every heartache, every question. There is nothing I will face or overcome that he is not worthy of me taking on faith Forward. What do I mean by faith Forward? When I can’t see the way I put my faith forward and it goes before me to lead the way through.

 I had been trapped held in place and unable to progress toward what I knew was God’s will for my life. So rather than settling for where I was I put my faith forward and God answered. When I met the obstacle that I couldn’t see I could have stopped there and made excuses for why His promises weren’t working for me, but I refused to settle or make myself comfortable in opposition to God’s word and Gods best. I brought it to God in faith. I prayed ” Lord something is keeping me from your promises, show me the problem and root it out of me.” The recognition that it was not God withholding anything from me, set me free. I was able to see from a new perspective for the first time. Jesus provided access to God’s Promises through his sacrifice. Those promises not being fully active in my life were a huge injustice, not just to myself but to Jesus. He laid His life down to give me those gifts, and I left them sitting on the shelf by, believing I had to earn them. I wasn’t living in sin and making excuses; that’s not what hindered me.  I was deceived, and that deception hindered me. We are called to run a good race by shedding every weight. We must realize that if our lives do not reflect the full promise of God, there is a weight that needs to be shed, and it is our job to press into God and seek the revelation of it, to exercise our authority and break its power over us.

My believing I needed to be good enough and earn the reward of Divine health and freedom kept me toiling for acceptance and meant I wasn’t passionately pursuing them or refusing to allow the enemy to keep them from me. Because I believed deep down, I didn’t deserve them. My desire for healing wasn’t wrong; it is a gift I can not earn. My desire to glorify God in all I do is not wrong, but if I do it from a place of needing to earn acceptance, I am deceived because I am already accepted through the blood of Christ. Do you see the conflict, The little twist of the devil?  I just had this hidden thought keeping me from understanding my role in this relationship of promise. I can reach for the stars and continually pursue growth in my spiritual walk to honor and Glorify God, and I should. But if the drive comes from a place of deception, that same act of Love and devotion is tainted and will hinder me. 

When God showed me the twisted lie in my heart,  I vowed right there to God to not leave anything on the table; I promised Jesus that I would not let His sacrifice be in vain. I would do all I needed to do to take hold of all the goodness that God had stored up for me. I committed then and there to shed every weight, conquer every enemy, and destroy every lie that kept me from the fullness of Jesus’ sacrifice. For the first time in my Christian life, I saw the lack of the fullness of God operating in my life as an injustice to all that Jesus had endured on my behalf. No longer would I allow myself to be cheated out of the goodness of God. No longer was my pursuit just about freedom from sickness; it was now about JESUS REAPING THE FULLNESS OF HIS REWARD IN AND THROUGH MY LIFE.   

    After this revelation, I could no longer be satisfied with my life being anything less than what Jesus Died for. He died not only for my ticket into heaven but for me to be free from bondage and for me to walk in divine health. His intent is for me to walk in the fullness of the blessing of Abraham, to Live in abundance, free from lack. His desire is for me to operate in the fullness of his authority, to heal the sick, cast out devils, cause the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and deliver his people from the bondage of satan. This is His will for every believer; it is not an optional lifestyle for the Christian. It is a mandate from heaven. It is not reserved for the select few chosen ones; it is intended to be the standard of Christian living.  In the book of Mark, Just before Christ ascends to heaven, His very last words mandate the life we are expected to live. If you are a believer, the statement “these signs shall follow those who believe” includes you. 

Being that my life did not reflect this, I determined I had work to do. If God was not the one holding back the blessing he had so freely given, I understood there were only two options that could hold the blame: Satan and myself. Here is the catch: I also understood Satan only has the power I give him. That means the buck stops with me. There is nothing like a slap in the face to wake you up. I could no longer look at the obstacles in my life and justify the lack of God’s promises being fully operational. I needed to make changes.

    Here is the wily trick of the devil. I live a clean life. I don’t cuss; I don’t watch or listen to anything ungodly. People may laugh and not understand but there are even some “G” rated movies I will not watch, not my children or myself. I don’t live a worldly life; I don’t drink or do drugs. If the bible says no, I say no. I work to keep strong boundaries against anything and anyone that does not align with the word of God. I am not perfect; I make mistakes like anyone else, but in all actuality, I can say I live a good Christian life, and not many would argue differently. But good isn’t good enough if I am not pursuing all God has for me. Not because I need to work to be accepted or because I fear the “threat” of Hell. God Isn’t threatening us with Hell he is warning us. He is doing all that he can to keep us from its gruesome grip. He gave His life to rescue us from the inevitability of Hell’s Torment. I live my life as I do not because I fear hell, but because Jesus is worthy of it. We must be intentional with our choices because If the devil can’t draw us into overt sin, he will work to deceive us into complacency. He wants us to believe that as long as we have our lives in order, we are doing all we need to do to satisfy our Christian duty, and that we are doing all that God requires. However, our life in order is not enough. It is good, but God didn’t send his son to die so I could set up a little safe space to live a good enough life. No, He died so that, like Him, I could live a radical life of faith that transforms the lives of all those around me. I can’t transform the lives of those around me if I am just living good enough and not sharing the goodness with others. My life needs to be transformed and reflect the fullness of God’s transformative power. My life needs to be the light in the darkness that draws people to the goodness of God. It is time that we, as the body of Christ, do all we can to shed every weight and run our race well. It is time to rise to new heights and become all we are intended to be in Christ. Do not settle for good enough! Reach for higher, and do not stop until you take your last breath. You have not arrived; you have not achieved all that you can achieve until you stand in the glory of the King of Kings in Heaven’s throne room. Do all that you can to run your race Unhindered!