The Shift Is Here!

Although the past couple of years have been challenging, I’m still hearing testimony after testimony from women who are experiencing the shift of God! They have shared how God is turning things around in their lives from their marriage, to finances, to vocation, and every area of their lives – the shift is taking place!

When we are driving (particularly automatic cars) there is a part inside the car called a ‘gear selector’. It allows you to shift the gear in Park, Reverse, Neutral, or Drive. If you have a SUV you may have some additional choices. Shifting this gear selector lets the car know what you want it to do! If you want to go forward, you shift your gear into drive, conversely, if you want to go backward, you shift your gear into reverse. If you want to get going and move to another destination, the car will not achieve this goal sitting in Park - it won’t move. 

Many of us are disrupting progress because we are trying to control the gear selector in our lives instead of letting God take total control. When our hands are on the gear selector things look like this: 

-We are ready to go, go, go! We have moved the gear selector to Drive and we’re off! God is saying, no, in this season I need you to be in Park, I need you to be still and hear from Me. But because we are not heeding the voice of God and controlling the gear selector on our own, we just keep driving and driving, never getting to our destination! Some of us are crashing and burning because we should be in Park right now, letting the Lord minister to us in this season. 

-Some of us are in chilling in Park! God has given us the vision, the instructions, the marching orders and we won’t take our hands off the gear selector so God can move it into Drive. We sittin’ in Park on our gifts, sittin’ in Park on our abilities and sittin’ in Park on our vision. We won’t move. Why? Doubt, fear, people-pleasing, discouragement and more are all clogging up our engines! The engine light is on but we won’t go get it checked! So, we just sittin’ in Park, chillin’, not moving and not doing what God has told us to do. 

-Some of us are in Neutral, not really moving but just coasting along. Procrastination is the thorn in your side causing you to stay in this gear. You won’t take your hands off because of fear so you stay in your comfort zone, just coasting. 

-Some of us are in Park but looking in the rear view! You can’t move forward because you are constantly looking back. You are pining over what you thought you lost but you didn’t’ lose, God shielded you! Looking in the rear-view mirror causes us to be stagnant and immobile. God is looking to do new things in our lives, but we won’t let go of what was! In fact, the ‘what was’ becomes more dominant than the ‘what is’ or the ‘what shall be’ (we will jump more into this one at the next Girrrl Get Empowered Virtual Event)

Register today: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtcOCspzIiGtVtWlEk2a7LBmTLvSIlEXb_

What gear are you in right now? Is your hand still on the gear selector? I want to encourage you today to take your hand off the gear selector and let God take total control. Life is better when God is in the driver’s seat. Let Him shift your life today!  

 

Check Yo’self Boo - Consider Your Ways!

In one of the earlier seasons of Housewives of Atlanta (yes my guilty pleasure), Sheree was working with a vendor who didn’t follow through on his commitments. They got into a heated discussion where the vendor says to Sheree “you need to watch yourself before you get checked” and she infamously responded with the coined phrase, “Who Gon’ Check Me Boo?”

Continuing with gained insights from the two-chapter book of Haggai, I believe God is ‘checking us’ in his challenge for us to check ourselves! 

Just like the remnant of people, who returned from Babylon, sat idle on their assignment to rebuild God’s temple, many of you are sitting idle on the assignment you have been given. You go on living day to day, ignoring what God has said but now, God is saying it’s time to check yourself! 

Check your priorities

The children of Israel sat idle on rebuilding the temple for 14 years. They said it wasn’t time yet to rebuild the temple. God sent the prophet Haggai and ‘checked them’, saying,  “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in paneled houses, and this temple lie in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4). Then He goes on to say, “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5). God checked them on their excuses and misaligned priorities. 

How do your priorities stack up? 

You say you don’t have enough time to work on the business - how is your time spent throughout each day? How much time are you wasting? 

You say you don’t have time to write, or study, or whatever you’ve been commissioned to do but how is your time appropriated? Is it spent watching hours of television? Or are you spending hours scrolling through Facebook? 

You say, I don’t have enough money to give. Where is your money going? What are you spending money on? Are you overspending? OUCH, sorry I stepped on my toes. If you go through your online bank statement and look at where your money is going, I know you will discover the leak. 

Sometimes our lives can feel like tires. We run and run, staying busy but not focusing on activities within our assignments. Then life pokes us and we begin to deflate. The air is coming out but we can’t locate the puncture. God is calling us right now to ‘check ourselves’ and ‘consider our ways’. When we really take an honest look at where we are and get real with God on our punctured places, God won’t just plug the puncture and give us a temporal fix but He will completely make us new and whole again - He will restore us better than ever before! 

God wants you to walk in victory, be productive, and wants you to not just understand the assignment, but carry out the assignment! Let there be no ‘Sheree’s’ here, you don’t have to ask who gon’ check you, as daughters of the Most High - God Gon’ Check You Boo by Challenging You to Check Yourself! 

The Time is Now!

I’ve been drawn to the two-chapter book of Haggai recently and I have discovered some jewels! Not to go into much Sunday school lesson detail, but, out of the 12 minor prophets (they are only “minor” because of the length of their books), the first 9 spoke to Judah before they were taken captive and exiled to Babylon and the last 3 (Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) spoke to those who returned from the 70-year exile. 

Upon returning from exile the people began to rebuild God’s temple. They started this project with such excitement and vigor. Two years into the project, the foundation for the temple had been laid and the altar was built. Then discouragement set in and the project came to a halt for about 14 years! Project Rebuild for God’s temple laid idle for 14 years and the people were still saying, it’s not time yet to rebuild. 

Their hesitation to rebuild was caused by discouragement and rooted in fear and comparison. When they reflected on the old temple, the temple that King Solomon had built, they thought the temple they would build would not compare to the luxury and grand nature of the old one. They let comparison immobilize them. Discouragement set in and they became complacent. 

Haggai came and spoke a Word to them from the Lord saying how can you say it’s not time to rebuild My house when you all are in your own paneled houses? God says for this reason, I withhold things from you because you’ve neglected to put me first. God says ‘you eat but do not have enough, you drink but you are not filled with drink, you earn wages but they are put into a bag with holes’ (Haggai 1:6)! 

God is saying to us that the time is now to rebuild. Many of you have started projects, businesses, ministries, and so forth but for some reason you let discouragement set in and you’ve stop building. You tell yourself: 

-this just isn’t the right time

-I will wait until the pandemic is over

-I will wait until my money is right again

-I will wait until my children are out of the house

-I will wait until I get married

-I will wait until I get another degree 

And the list goes on…

Sometimes when we know we are supposed to do something and we know God has given it to us, we can’t speak against the assignment itself so we revert to speaking against the ‘timing’ of it. If resources don’t flow the way we expect them to then we say it’s not God’s timing. If the task at hand is hard and difficult, we say it must not be God’s timing. Sometimes the believers can get so ‘spiritual’ and don’t get anything done because it’s not “God’s timing”. 

What I do know is that if God gives it to you, He will give you the provision for it. He might not place it neatly in your lap wrapped in a bow but he might make you work for it. God may seek to develop some things in you that you gain while working for it like: 

-Diligence

-Perseverance 

-Resourcefulness

-Trust in Him

-Full dependence on Him

-Integrity 

-Character 

And the list goes on…

I believe God is saying to us today to put Him first and He will enable and empower us to do the rest! 

The time is NOW to rebuild and move forward in the assignment God has given you! No more excuses.