Happy New You! Normally, I would say "Happy New Year," but man has changed the original calendar and holidays, so it's technically not the new year. However, I do not want to go down that rabbit hole. Even though according to the Hebrew calendar, the new year doesn't start until April, the season has, indeed, changed. God is doing a new thing in our lives, and He wants us to flow in the Spirit for us to perceive it. Isaiah 43:19 tells us, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." God wants us to perceive this new thing that He is doing in our lives, but we have to see with our spiritual eyes.
I am letting the Spirit flow with this blog post. I had my topic already planned out with notes. However, I feel the Spirit moving me in a different direction, so I am just going to flow with it and type it as I go.
In this new season, everything has to be upgraded. Our vision must be upgraded. Our speech must be upgraded. Our prayer life must be upgraded. Our fasting life must be upgraded. Our whole way of life must be upgraded. The old eyes we are used to seeing with won't get us through this new season. Our old prayer life won't get us through this new season. Not fasting or the way we used to fast won't get us through this new season. Doing business as usual won't get us through this new season. Perceive this move of God. God takes us from glory to glory, from faith to faith. That means there are levels to this walk. That means that as you experience new levels, everything must become new with it. Remember, Jesus said you can't put new wine in old wineskins. Every year we ask for newness. However, we don't want to change the wineskins. We don't want to change the way we've been doing things. We want to keep the same habits. We want to continue business as usual, but God is saying He needs to upgrade us so that we can even contain the "new wine." He needs to upgrade our temple. I know I've been praying and believing for greater, but God was like, "Baby girl, the greater is coming, but you have to be prepared to receive it." "Yes, your gifts will increase, but your prayer life must increase with it." That may mean waking up earlier to pray. Some of us are intercessors, who are called to pray during the second or third watch of the day. Why? Because our prayers can change and reverse the plots of the enemy. Also, witches and warlocks sacrificially get up and do witchcraft during these hours. God needs His people to sacrifice a little more because we wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places, and those wicked spirits sacrifice to their god--the devil--to destroy our lives. Therefore, we must rise up early and fight back. Sacrifice some sleep. Sacrifice some food. Sacrifice some things and replace it with prayer.
In order to upgrade, you have to make sacrifices. God told me at the beginning of this month to start waking up to pray at 3am. However, because I allowed my sleepiness to dictate my actions, I didn't do it--until this morning. With my son going back to school from Christmas break, starting a new job, balancing business, work, church, mom life, etc. I have been tired and have struggled to even wake up in time to take my son to school. So, I finally prayed yesterday about this. I said, "God, look. If you really want me to wake up at this time, you're going to have wake me up. I can't get up at this time on my own, despite setting my alarm. I know you hear my alarm going off every ten minutes. I can't. So, wake me up if it's your will that I get up at this time." Tell me why this morning, I randomly wake up with the urge to pee. I never wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but for some reason my bladder was extra full, so I get up and pee and look at the clock, it's 3:22am. I said, "OK God. I see you!" I went back to the room, sat up and prayed. Yes, I had to sit up because had I just laid back down to pray, I would have fallen back asleep. It was still somewhat of a struggle, but after about an hour of praying and reading my Bible and listening to the Lord speak to me, I was alert and ready to start my day.
It was during this 3 o'clock hour that God told me that He was upgrading my life. It was then that He shared that I had to make these sacrifices in order to see the upgrade. My prophetic anointing will be upgraded as I sacrifice time to pray early in the morning and fast. My intercessory anointing will also upgrade as I do the same. My whole lifestyle will upgrade because:
I will be starting my day off with prayer (setting the tone for my day)
I will have more time in the day to get more things done (like blogging, exercising, planning, meal prepping, working on my endeavors, etc.)
Understand that this instruction is not just for me. God is calling the whole Body of Christ to upgrade. Those of you who haven't been praying like you should, start making time for God. Those of you not reading your Bible, start setting aside time to read. Those of you who aren't fasting, start fasting. Those of you who love God but haven't been to church in years, start back going. Those of you sitting on your gifts or business ideas, ask God for wisdom and instruction on where to start. Those of you who haven't prioritized your health, start making your health a priority. Your health is important because if the enemy can't get you to sin, he will attack your health if you give him an open door. That open door can be eating fast food, too much caffeine, etc. If you give the enemy any crack, he will come all the way in and wreck havoc. That's why God wants us on our p's and q's in this new season. We are about to be unrecognizable. His true Body is about to shine with His glory!!! There will be a distinct difference between His true, chosen people and those who pretend to be godly. Do you not perceive this distinction already taking place? That's why so much exposure has been happening. That's not to say that everyone who is getting exposed is not chosen, but sometimes God has to expose certain people to bring them to repentance. Some will repent and some won't. God is making a clear distinction between those who are on His side and those who aren't--and just because you say you're on His side doesn't mean you're all the way on His side. If you're still trying to hold on to things He told you to let go of, you're choosing that thing over Him. If you're still trying to live like the world, you're choosing that side. If you're still trying to force life as usual and fighting against this new thing He's doing, you're choosing that side.
Earlier this week, I read in Exodus where Moses asked the Children of Israel, if you're for God, stand on this side, and if you're not, stand on this side (this was after Moses went to the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights to hear from the Lord and the rest of Israel were at the bottom of the mountain committing idolatry). Those who stood on God's side were forgiven and their lives were spared. Those who stood on the other side, Moses instructed the ones on God's side to kill them. Now, let me be clear, please do not go around killing folks who aren't on God's side. Please don't!!! But I believe that the extreme actions taken in the Bible are to metaphorically show us how God feels about things. God is very serious right now about idolatry! He is very serious about His chosen people. Those who still want to hold on to their own life and ways of doing things, God is cutting them off. The killing was symbolic of them getting cut off. God wants us all to choose this day who we are going to serve!!!!!!! And to serve wholeheartedly. If we choose God, serve Him wholeheartedly. Wholeheartedly means with your WHOLE heart, not part of your heart. God is tired of us just giving Him a small place in our lives. He wants our lives to be centered around Him. Yes-every area. It's not just about going to church. God wants your entire life to reflect Him. When you go to work, reflect Him. When you're with friends and family, reflect Him. When you're out and about, reflect Him. When you're on social media (that's a big one), reflect Him. Be willing to give up ANYTHING for Him. I think about how Abraham was willing to give up his promised son--Isaac--for God. He was getting ready to kill him, but the angel stopped him and said, "Now I know." God wants to be able to say that. "Now I know I can trust him/her." "Now I know that thing isn't an idol in his/her life." "Now I know he/she loves me more than he/she loves that thing." You know what that thing is in your life. It could be sleep. It could be a job. It could be a boyfriend. It could be a spouse. It could be weed. It could be wine. It could literally be anything. We can make anything into an idol--when we give it more power and obedience than we do God. Some of us are more obedient to an object or habit than we are to God. That's how you know that that thing is an idol--when it has a stronghold over you--when you are quick to say yes to it and no to God.
Get rid of your idols. Yes- it's sacrificial. No-it's not easy. But understand, you are not alone. You have a whole Body of believers doing the same thing. I have given up wine. I have given up a job. I sacrificially have to wake up early to pray and fast. You are not alone. We are all sacrificing, but it's so worth it. This is what we must go through to get that upgraded status. Don't pray for the upgrade without making the preparations and sacrifices to receive it. Don't just pray for new wine without asking God to give you a new wineskin to carry the new wine. And trust the process of Him making you new. The upgrade process is a process. It takes time. It takes consistency. That means you can't get up to pray once and think you did enough. It's in the daily sacrifices that we see the manifestation of the upgrade. Only what you do daily/consistently will last. Apostle Paul says in Romans 12 to present your body as a living sacrifice. And Jesus tells us to die to ourselves daily. It's a daily pursuit.
I'm going to leave you all with Romans 12:1-2 from the Message Bible (I like the Message Bible because it speaks in today's everyday language--plain and straight forward):
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
God Bless You and Happy New YOU!!! Now go and be great!!!!
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