Living Life With A Purpose: From Faith to Faith: A New Thing

"Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert."

Isaiah 43:18-19

How often do we prevent The Lord from moving in our lives, because we are still holding onto the past. How often do we resist The Lord's loving instruction to let go of various people, places, and things, because we are afraid of the unknown? How often do we find ourselves in a state of discontentment when faced with a new season, because we are so focused on the familiarity of the season God moved us out of? Honestly, maybe I am the only one who deals with these issues. And if so, then you can stop reading right now. But if you have ever struggled with comparing your past to your present realities then this post is for you.

If this is your first time reading my blog let me catch you up on a few things. Last year The Lord revealed to me that my time in Atlanta, GA, was coming to an end and I would be moving to Texas. I had been led to move to Atlanta in 2013, by The Lord, and soon after got involved in ministry and serving in a new church there. To be honest, I had decided in my mind that I was going to live in Atlanta forever. I had amazing friends, a wonderful church family, and pretty great job opportunities. So when The Lord began to bring up me transitioning to Texas I was pretty devastated, at first. That wasn't part of the plan I had for my life, but it was His and He definitely made sure that I knew that it was time to go. So on January 2, 2016, I packed up everything that could fit in my car and drove to Texas. Fast forward almost 6 months later and now I've settled in Dallas and am still navigating through what I call "the wilderness." I'm not going to sugarcoat anything in this blog. This journey has tested my faith like none other. It's almost as if God brought me here to show me who He is and what He is capable of doing all over again. I've probably cried more throughout the past 6 months than I have in the past 6 years combined. Tears of both joy and sadness, because of the trials and test I have been put through. I've come to realize that I am not a good person, and I need God to constantly clean this deceitful heart and wicked mind of mine. Like the prophet Isaiah said:

"Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”
Isaiah 6:5

It's easy for us to sometimes compare ourselves to other people around us and feel like we are doing pretty well. But when you compare yourself to God's standard, you quickly realize how far you fall short and become even more thankful for His grace.

There have been moments of defeat and victory. I've received eviction notices, collection notices, and tons of phone calls from bill collectors. I've also had people I barely know walk up to me and hand me money, when I least expected it, but desperately needed it. Times when God waited until the midnight, midnight, midnight hour to come through (You can hear about one of those moments just Click here). Days when I was frustrated with myself for not trusting in God more along this journey. Moments when it honestly seemed and felt like God had abandoned me or didn't care. Weeks where I would pray and fast, but it just seemed like nothing was working.

Maybe you are in a similar season. If so, I want to encourage you that you are not alone. The work that is being done on the inside of you right now, is literally birthing something new. Its value is priceless and will last for all of eternity. The Lord had to move you to a new and temporary place of discomfort in order to accomplish this. Notice I said temporary. Whatever you are facing right now will not last forever, but there are some lessons that can only be learned in the midst of trouble and uncertainty. The pressure and process is refining you so that you will shine like a bright light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Philippians 2:15). Don't resist what God is trying to do right now. Did you know that there are good works that God has prepared in advance for you to do (Ephesians 2:10)? The Lord loves you and me so much that He actually created a blueprint of our lives before the world began (Psalm 139:16) and knows what we need to experience today, in order to face tomorrow. The Bible tells us:

"And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said,

'My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and don’t give up when he corrects you.

For the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes each one he accepts as his child'."

Hebrews 12:5-11

We must remain open to the work that God is trying to do, if we want to be who and accomplish all that God has called us to be. We must be willing to let go of our past, if we want to move forward. The Lord has to break us, before He can use us. We have to be humbled, before we can be elevated. We serve a good God, so everything that He does is good. Even the bad things, that He allows to happen in our lives, have been filtered through His loving hands of grace and He promises that those too will work out for our good (Romans 8:28).

Recently as I was attending a Bible study, The Lord began to reveal just how much my fear of the unknown was keeping me from experiencing all that He had for me in Texas. I was literally hindering Him from doing a new thing in my life, by holding onto my past experiences. Yes, I physically moved to Texas, but I was looking at everything around me through the lens of my life in Atlanta. What I mean by that is, I was comparing the experiences I had in Atlanta to what was currently happening here in Texas. I was trying to replicate, when God was trying to create. I was comparing my job here, to my job in Atlanta. I was comparing everyone I met, to my friends in Atlanta. I was comparing my apartment here, to my apartment in Atlanta. I've been comparing every church I've visited here, to the church I attended in Atlanta. I mean I could go on and on about this. I was constantly being let down and found myself complaining a lot, because nothing was like what I had hoped. You see that was the main problem, not what I had hoped, but what God desired. I was so focused on the old, that I couldn't enjoy the new. What I left behind in Atlanta was amazing, but this is a new season. If The Lord wanted me to remain where I was, then He would have never told me to leave. Plus it's not fair to all of the wonderful people and situations that He has blessed me with here. He has a purpose for me to be in this season of literally walking in the "unknown" and trusting Him for my daily bread. I was sent to Texas to experience a new season with new people in a new setting. What I experienced in Atlanta, was to prepare me for the types of people and situations I would face here! What God wants me to experience here in Texas, will prepare me for what He has in store after this!

Sidenote: Being the "new girl" is hard and even harder when you are an introvert. I'm the type of person that has to give myself a pep talk and have a come to Jesus moment before I approach any new situation or setting by myself (If you ever see me sitting in my car talking to myself now you know what's up).

The Lord was able to reveal to me that I need to change my mindset and approach life with more of an open mind and heart. Ultimately the same God that put me in Atlanta, put me in Texas. He has a great plan that I will never see come to past if I keep looking for it to come in the same package as before. There's nothing wrong with holding onto memories, unless they keep you from enjoying where you currently are. It's okay to have emotions and feelings, I mean we are still human, but we can't let our feelings keep us from obedience. We need to cherish the past, live in the moment with a heart of thanksgiving, and anticipate the great glorious future that God has called to us with Him. Not too long after God began to reveal this to me, He crossed my path with some other Christian woman, who have been a tremendous source of encouragement over the past few weeks. If I had not stepped outside of my comfort zone that day and went to the event as He instructed, I probably never would have met them.

I was reminded of a passage in Scripture which says,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into God's family, declared righteous because of the blood Jesus shed at the cross, and seen as justified in the eyes of God. What also begins is a life-long journey of sanctification (being continually conformed into the image of Christ). This process happens layer by layer and requires our active participation. We are new creatures, but we have to continually renew our minds. We have to continue to die to our self, pick up our cross, and follow Him. I wasn't fully dying to myself, which is where the frustration kicked in. God has given us the ability, through the power of The Holy Spirit, to do what pleases Him, instead of what pleases our flesh, but it is our choice. Either we walk in the Spirit or we fulfill the lusts of the flesh. As God is at work in us, He will place us in situations that will expose our wrongdoings, peel away a little bit of us, and unveil more of Him. We will begin to decrease and He will increase (John 3:30). I have to continually remind myself that God has a plan and that He will not ask me to do something that will cause me harm. If I want to accomplish the plans He has for me, then I have to relinquish control and trust the journey He has me on. I'm here to bring glory to God, even if that means that I must endure temporary hardships and uncertainty. What looks like a shaky future to me, is a future engraved on the foundation of Christ. He is God and able to give His people beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3).

I want to leave you with this Scripture that The Lord led me to earlier today:

“But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord.
    “You are my servant.
You have been chosen to know me, believe in me,
    and understand that I alone am God.
There is no other God—
    there never has been, and there never will be.

I, yes I, am the Lord,
and there is no other Savior."

Isaiah 43:10

In this season of our lives God is showing us that there is none other like Him. He has literally chosen us to be in a season of training. A season of knowing, believing, & understanding who He is in a much deeper way. We are The Lord's servants. No longer can we continue to rely on our intellect, our wisdom, or our plans to get us through this life. Where God wants to take us requires us to be totally abandoned to Him in every area. We are to be His witnesses to this dark and dying world and serve Him alone. The fruit and results of this season will provide us with a testimony of God's goodness, faithfulness, and love, for the world to see and know that He is God!!! It will cause those who are unsaved to marvel at the wondrous works of The Lord and ask what must I do to be saved (Acts 16:30)? My prayer for all of you reading this is that you would examine those areas of your life where you have been resistant to change and hand them over to the loving hands of your Heavenly Father.

It's time for a new thing...

Until next time,

Cierra