The label isn’t always the problem

Andrew Wommack once said, “Some Christians don’t allow the Bible get in the way of what they believe.” When I heard it, I really laughed so hard and loud…it sounded and still sounds so funny, yet so true. I know it’s true, because so many times I find myself not letting what the Bible says get in the way of what I want to believe. I don’t do it intentionally. I don’t want to defile the Bible. I honestly want to believe and obey the Bible because it’s God’s infallible Word, but then life has a way of putting us in places that make us want to do things our way and not the way the Bible wants us to.

For example, the Bible has so many stories that show us how life for a Christian won’t always follow the normal course, but what happens when we experience these anomalies? We get frustrated, afraid, depressed, or outrageously angry. The Bible tells us how God carved a way in the ocean, instead of taking His children through another route. We get to see how Jesus walked on water, when boats were already in existence. The Bible also says that God will make a way in the wilderness and that He’ll cause water to flow in the desert. But when I find myself in a desert God allowed me to be in, I ask God to take me from the desert, and not make water flow in the desert. Do you understand the difference? Do you see where I’m coming from? These are the tiny differences that have the power to make a very big difference in our walk with God.

As we journey through life, we have an idea of what we think life should be and look like. Our idea may be very godly in our own eyes, yet may not meet the reality of the life God has called us to live. God hasn’t called us to live a life that is void challenges; God has called us to live a life that will be confronted by challenges. Challenges that we’ll have to face and then affirm the victory we already have in Christ. We’ll face persecutions. We’ll have things that will scare the hell out of us, and God will not take them away. He’ll allow us go through them, but He won’t leave us alone. He’ll be with us, through it all.

We’re certain that the challenges will come. So, what’s the right move to make?

Have the right attitude. The right attitude is one that believes that no matter what you go through or where you find yourself; you have what it takes to handle it. We can handle it, because we have Christ on our inside, and He has already given us the victory. We aren’t normal humans; we are super humans. We have God’s supernatural power at work in us and for us. It doesn’t matter what comes our way or where we get into…we’ll shine. We have it in us to defile natural occurrences, when they’re not walking in line with God’s plan for our lives.

When it’s a challenge we need to rebuke and cast away…we’ll rebuke and cast it away. When it’s a challenge we have to go through, we’ll go through it and let the devil watch us walk miraculously through it. So, we might not get the kind of job we so desire, but the devil will have to watch us take a job that’s almost meaningless, and transform it into something that will draw the attention of our world to us. This way, our world will know that we have God’s supernatural power so mightily at work in us. You get it?

We need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We need to understand what the Holy Spirit will have us go through and things He’ll have us put a stop to, immediately. Whatsoever happened to king Darius that made him rush to the lions’ den the next morning to see if Daniel was still alive, would have also made him not allow Daniel get into the den in the first place, but God wanted Daniel in that den. God wanted to show forth His power through that event and nothing was going to stop that. It’s the same thing with the three Hebrew boys and the fiery furnace.

There are some things we want God to change that God doesn’t want to change. God wants to change us instead. He wants us to see that He is not limited to our own visions and reasoning. If you carefully read the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, you’ll see that Mary and Martha believed Jesus had the power to heal Lazarus from his sickness. At different times, they said the exact same thing to Jesus, “If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died.” They believed in Jesus, but God wanted them to grow their faith. God wanted them to know that even a “four days dead situation” can’t be dead before God. This might sound so simple, but if we can get it in…it will make a whole lot of difference. A slight shift in our perspective can change the entire game for our own good.

God is everywhere

We all know God is everywhere, right? So, why do we allow our senses make us believe that we can only have Him in some exclusive places? Everywhere means everywhere (I like the way Psalms 139 explains it, you should read that Psalm). He is the God of the mountain and His fullness also occupies the entire valley. He doesn’t have to have a particular place and space for Him to be effective. Your environment can’t stop His transformational power. It is you that is limiting God, because God needs your permission to invade your life.

Have you met Joseph in the Bible?

In the past few days, Joseph pops up everywhere around me. He was in my pastor’s messages. He showed up in my daily online devotion. He also happens to be the Bible character that I’m currently learning from, in my personal Bible study. If you’re not familiar with him, you should read about him in Genesis chapter 37, 39-50. His life will inspire you so greatly.

He was loved by his father and hated by his brothers. He was sold into slavery, by his own brothers, after a plot to kill him failed. As a slave, he was accused by his boss’s wife and went to prison for it. Through it all, Joseph prospered in every stage and time…until God finally made him a ruler in Egypt. The Bible says concerning him, “For the Lord was with him and made whatever he did to prosper.”

No matter the label that was on Joseph, he prospered. The different labels that Joseph had didn’t change who he was or the power of God that was in his life. As a loved child living in the safety and love of his father, he was exceptional. When he became a slave, he was the best slave there was. And then he became a prisoner, and was a prisoner the prison warden was very proud of. Finally he was asked to rule Egypt…and what a great ruler he was!

The label isn’t always the problem

All my life I’ve heard that we shouldn’t accept some labels. I believe and I understand that thought. But now I know that there are some labels that are not supposed to change. Stop trying to change or hide a label God doesn’t want you to change or hide. Some of the labels we want to get rid of are labels God wants to use for His own good. With that label, God wants to make you so productive and successful that ALL will know that He lives in you, and that nothing can limit His power in your life.

The tag on what Jesus used to feed thousands was “five loaves of bread and two fishes.” The tag showed what was available. Jesus didn’t change the tag; He used what was available to do what He wanted to do. “Virgin” isn’t the right tag for a woman that is supposed to be with child, but that was God’s perfect tag, for the woman that birthed Jesus. Daniel went to Babylon as a slave. He got into the palace as a slave, yet he became a person that the Babylonian empire couldn’t do without for a very long time. Esther was also a slave in Persia, and she became a queen. Isaac sowed and reaped in a land that was in famine. And then Isaac’s mother, Sarah, became pregnant when her age tag didn’t qualify her to conceive.  It is not always about what the label says. Nothing is impossible with God. God can work with us, no matter where we are and what we’re doing. He did speak through a Donkey.

He might not want you to change that occupation just yet. Being single isn’t a limitation. The business you’re disregarding might just be where your supernatural breakthrough is. We are loved by the God who sits in the heavens and makes the earth His footstool. He wants to change us, more than we want Him to change our circumstances.

What label do you have on yourself or your situation? Let’s try creating a short list:

Too young/ too old

Not enough

Not exactly the right place

Inexperience

Not ready

Afraid… etc.

Well, the label isn’t always the problem. Can we decide to allow God be God in our life?

“This is what the God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves. The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles: “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’—the coyotes and buzzards—because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth. Drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.”  Isaiah 43:19-21 (MSG)

My prayer for you and me:

I pray we see and hear beyond these words. I pray the eyes of our understanding will be flooded with light. I pray we’ll know what God will have us know and we’ll do what He’ll have us do. In Jesus’ name…Amen.

Do get in the gym and

Stay Spiritually Fit