2022 is the Year of Free

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.

          - 2 Corinthians 3:17

Last year's word was birth and God delivered on that word but not in the way I expected. I thoguht there was to be a new business or revenue stream, a new home, or some other tangible things birthed in this season. However God was saying, Damaris I'm going to birth a new you.

In the last quarter of this year I have seen God do an amazing work in my life. It wasn't physical, material things. I haven't moved, still living in my parents house. I don't have a new business, in fact I haven't been able to dedicate the time I wanted to the business I have. I don't have a new revenue stream either but God has kept me and my family which has been a blessing.

Instead, He birthed a new mindset, a new outlook, peace and trust in Him. He birthed a new and deeper relationship with Him. He birthed forgiveness and healing in my soul that I have never had. 

So did He birth in me? Yes! Just not in the way I expected.

As always, my church, Elevation Church has its giving weekend and asks us to think about and pray on what our anchor word is for the year. Almost immediately God gave me the word Free.

What I know without a doubt is that if He had not met me the way He did in the last 4 months I would not have been able to receive Free as my word for 2022.

He needed me learn that freedom is where the Spirit of the Lord is and the Spirit of the Lord is in me so I am Free and Freedom resides in me.

So the question is why haven't I felt free?

But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

          - Jeremiah 1:7-8

Fear. 

God over the years has placed things in my heart that I knew was for me to do and I allowed fear to hold me back and in essence, I was disobedient. I have allowed fear (because what I knew was safer) my entire life to dictate the moves I made and I wouldn't move unless I was approved. But God has approved me and He's telling me that freedom comes from obedience.

In my fear I sold myself short. Not believing I was enough to do all that God was calling me to do. But I am learning that God always equips those He calls with everything they need to complete the work. I'm feeling God say to me, like He said to Jeremiah, "You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,”.

God did not give us a spirit of fear. And while obedience without knowing the end is difficult for me, because I like to be in control, what I have been doing has not been working. I look back at old journals and see when I was walking in obedience to God when I was early in my calling. The words God gave me would just flow out of me, I was so free. I want and need that again.

In 2022, I will be doing and saying what God commands me to do and say. So many blog posts that didn't get posted to The Unlikely Missionary out of fear; All the shots I didn't take because I didn't think I was good enough; All the music I didn't record; All the podcast messages I didn't make; Fear is a thief and it no longer reigns here.

I am ready to be free and God promised He'd complete this work in me so I'm ready for this ride knowing that when I need Him, He will rescue me.

Happy New Year!

The Unlikely Missionary

Damaris

Expectation in God

 So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us, knowing that God always keeps his promises! 

 

-Hebrews 10:23, Passion Translation

 

I was taught that expecting God to give me things or do things for me was bad. We’re told to ask God for things but, in the same breath, not expect Him to give them to us. It was in the name of piety but how backward is that? Especially because it contradicts God’s Word.

Then on the flip side, now we tell people to "Name it and claim it" but that leads to disillusioned Christians disappointed that God hasn't granted their wishes. God isn't a genie. That contradicts God's Word too.

How many of us know the scripture, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you? (Matthew 7:7-8) If this is true, which it is, doesn’t that create expectancy? Doesn’t that mean I should expect to receive something? Of course! We should ask with expectancy but what we ask, seek and open are equally as important.

There is this disconnect between the Word of God and the pulpit because there is a crucial element missing here from pulpit teaching. We should expect God to fulfill His promises to us. Hebrews 10:23 says, God keeps His promises. I put His promises in bold because it is a subtle but incredibly important distinction and an incredibly important thing for us to understand.

He doesn’t fulfill our wants and we should not expect God to just give us things. Name it and claim it is a nice slogan, but it is not biblical. That would mean that you say I want $1M and claim it in the Name of Jesus. But is that God’s desire for your life? What if He wanted to give you more? Or better still wanted to give you something you couldn’t even fathom like influence, peace, contentment, happiness, joy unspeakable? Intangibles that mean more than the physical.

We also shouldn't come to God with weak prayers either. We serve an Almighty God who create this whole galaxy with words! He can do the glorious impossible. When you come and make a request you better come with expectancy that He will do it, otherwise what are you praying for?

What we should be taught really is to ask God to make His plan’s our plans, to make His desires our desires, to make his dreams for our lives our dreams. When we do that, we can then then ask God with expectancy that those plans, desires and dreams are brought to fruition in our lives.

A person may have many ideas concerning God’s plan for his life, but only the designs of God’s purpose will succeed in the end.  

 

-Proverbs 19:21, Passion Translation

 

When we ask God to complete the work that he has started in us, the purpose He has called us to, we should expect that He will do it because the scripture says that God’s purpose will succeed in the end and He who began a good work in you (His good work) He will be faithful to complete it in you (Phillipians 1:6). His Word is true, and as such expect that He will do what He said.

However, when you ask God for a Maybach you should have no expectation that He will grant that request. What happens if getting the Maybach doesn’t happen? Does that mean God isn’t good? That He isn’t God? Absolutely not. God doesn’t have to provide anything that is not from Him. His plan will always prevail. He doesn’t deal in earthly things but kingdom things. You didn’t pray a prayer that was guaranteed.

That doesn’t mean He doesn’t provide you with earthly things. When God went to Solomon and told Solomon he could ask for anything and it would be granted, Solomon asked for wisdom (2 Chronicles 1:7-12). Solomon was on a kingdom level of thinking. And the way He asked for it, “for who on his own is capable of leading these, your glorious people? (MSG)”. Do we come before God understanding that we are not capable of fulfilling the purpose for our lives on our own? Do we even comprehend that what God has set us out to do, God is the one who gave you authority over it? (That’s another post for another day.) Solomon recognized that and asked God to help him complete his assignment. God is committed to seeing his work completed, so with that request God gave Solomon the wisdom he asked for and more riches than he could have even thought to ask for, more than any King before him or after him. Jeff Besos and Elon Musk had nothing on Solomon.

God determines what’s good. We may think something is good, but our good never even touches God’s good. God’s plans are bigger, better more spectacular than ANYTHING I could ever think or imagine for myself. Solomon asked for wisdom and God said here’s all the rest that you didn’t even ask for.

So, I pray, (and I invite you to do so also) God, make your plans my plans, your ways my ways, and fulfill it in me. God is committed to seeing his work completed in me and you. All we have to do is obey.

When you are praying that God’s will be done in your life you can NEVER be disappointed, only amazed that God thought so much of you that He sought to do great work, not good but great work, in and through your life. 

The Unlikely Missionary

Damaris

 

God’s Economy - You are Blessed

You are blessed. That is a fact. Whether you believe that or not.

While doing the 100 days of Believing Bigger pillars of Stillness and Blessing + Obedience, my whole outlook on blessing was changed.

We are taught that we need to ask God to bless us. As if our life is not blessed unless we ask and even then God still has to do the blessing. In this context, even as a believer, you question whether you even deserve to be blessed. And if you feel like you aren’t blessed you can develop a woe is me or even hardened heart.

However, when you take God view that you are already blessed, that blessing is internal and not external; that it is not something God gives to you but it is already in you; it creates a whole new paradigm. Instead of thinking you are not worthy of being blessed because you know you are you begin to look for the blessings in your life. You walk with a different posture because blessing is happening, your not waiting for it. And because you are blessed, you can pour out that blessing to others.

 As we were going through the pillars and we were talking about blessing and the Holy Spirit, God said to me the blessing resides in you because the holy Spirit is in you. He is the blesser and when you activate the Holy Spirit that is when you see the blessing.

What if the reason you don’t see blessing in you life because you haven’t activated the Holy Spirit? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ then you know that God sent the Holy Spirit to reside in us as we go through this journey called life. He never goes anywhere (He promises to never leave nor forsake) but there are times that the Holy Spirit seems less present. That’s not because of the Holy Spirit, that’s because of us.

So how do you activate the Holy Spirit? Obedience.

And what proceeds Obedience? Belief.

Belief precedes, invites and unleashes the blessing. (I wish I had thought that up but I didn’t. Lol.) I have to believe that I am blessed and that God is, has and will continue to bless me. I am, as I am, a blessing. My very existence is a blessing. I won’t be a blessing once I get money, or a big house, or fancy clothes. With or without that I am still blessed and a blessing.

When I believe that God is working everything together for my good and that He has given me everything that I need to accomplish his purpose in me, and that I am already blessed I will walk in obedience.

Obedience in this context is just me doing what God has asked of me. What I don’t believe or doubt I will delay doing thus blocking my blessing. However, in my belief and obedience, the Holy Spirit in me is activated and blessing is released in me and through me. In this state of belief and obedience you eyes are opened to the blessings you didn’t realize were happening and you will be the blessing that God created you to be.

Blessed is she who believes that what the Lord has promised will be fulfilled. Luke 1:45

The Unlikely Missionary

Damaris