Remember when you were in Jr High and you couldn't wait to grow up, to drive, to get a job, to move out, to go to college, to get married, or to have children ? Well, growing up isn't always easy. You have responsibilities that you didn't have before. You aren't protected from the things of this world. You are pressured to compromise your life for things. You have to learn to become independent. If you are planning to go to college you have to make sure paperwork is done, financial parts are taken care of, and prepare to leave home. If your moving out, you have to get a job and a whole new set of responsibilities are added because you will now have bills. All these things aren't mentioned or in the mindset when your young.
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One change you must learn is to be independent. To become independent you must not depend on someone. From the time your a baby until your a toddler you are dependent on your parents to take care of you. When you become a toddler/preschooler you suddenly learn to do things on your own, but you still depend on your parents for your basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, protection, love, and care. This usually lasts until you're 16 when you can start driving and get a job, even then you are still in someways dependent. Now some people may not have the fairytale lifestyle where they have two parents to depend on. Maybe they are the ones playing the role of parents in some ways, so they're forced by circumstance to grow up much sooner than other kids. The quality this posses can be quite hard to understand, but because that child is playing the role of parent they need emotional dependancy. They search for it, only sometimes to never find it.
Another thing you must learn is to overcome your fears. To overcome your fears you must face them. Fears are natural in every human being. Some fears can be severe and others not so much. Such as; fear of spiders, not so bad right ? Well what if someone has a fear of losing everything ? That fear can cause worry, anxiety, pain, hurt, anger, bitterness, and a whole list of other emotions. If you're scared of spiders you can always turn of the tv or kill the spider, but if you're scared to lose everything your constantly obsessing over having everything. There's a big difference in those small fears that you can do something about and the fears you feel like you can't do something about.
Another thing you must learn is you are going to fail. To become successful you must know what failure is. No one wants to fail because it hurts. In our world today, you can get whatever you want at the time usually instantly. Whether it be you're hungry so you go to fast food, you want to listen to a certain song so you go to iTunes or YouTube, you want to watch a certain show you can search for it or record it on DVR to have at all times. We live in a time where we want it now, we don't want to wait. Do you think Thomas Edison wanted to fail 1000 times before inventing the light bulb ? No, I'm sure he didn't. He took his failure and learned how not to do it the next time. It doesn't matter if he continued to fail because eventually after learning what not to do, he learned what to do and it's then that the lightbulb was invented. Everyone wants to be successful but you will fail so take what you've learned from your failure and let it create drive, hardwork, perserverance, and determination. Never stop learning from your failure, only then will you succeed.
I've learned that having a relationship with Jesus Christ is much like all three of these points. You must not be dependent on man but You must depend on God through Jesus Christ and the word. You must face your fears because God doesnt want us to be fearful of the wrong things but to be fearful of the right things. You must fail in your life to know that your failure is the reason why Jesus carried his own cross to die on Calvary so that his blood would cover your failure and forgive you of your sins.
I know what pain is, but because of that pain I know how it feels to have God do open heart surgery and heal the wounds of your heart.
I know what sorrow is, but because of sorrow I know how the joy of the Lord brings a smile to your face and that sweet laughter that is uncontrollable lightens your spirit.
I know what its like to feel weak, but because I've been weak I know that in my weakness God is made strong and he will uphold you and carry you when you can't walk.
I know what it's like to be broken, but because of brokeness I know what it feels like to be free from bondage. When your broken God can begin to form a foundation that is rooted in him and you will be molded to fit his will for your life.
I'm learning in my life that I can't put my sole faith in man. We were never intended to. We were always intended to solely rely on God. Sure, God places people in our life to trust, to encourage us, to build us up, to love and care for us but if you solely rely on that person and they let you down you're going to cause yourself alot of heartache. I'm not saying not to trust people, I'm saying to put your whole trust in God always and not on a person because they're human too.
I'm also learning God is bigger than my circumstances. Well some may say, duh, that's common sense. It may be, but when your human we tend to allow our circumstances and the pain of our lives dictate and determine our outcome. If God said it in his word, it is so. Nothing can change what he says. Everything in this world is his. No one, no thing, can determine what he has already said we were going to be or do in life.
Our "Amen" at the end of every prayer wasn't meant to be just an ending to a dialogue it was meant so that when we end "it is so, so be it". I want to start meaning "Amen" when I pray to God because when you ask you will receive and we live so low of what God has intended for us because we're not asking him for what we were intended to have. We compromise and settle for less. I don't want to settle, even if it doesn't come instantly, I don't want to settle for less than what God says I deserve. If God says that he's going to provide for me to go to school for ministry AMEN "it is so, so be it", if God says he's going to birth something in your ministry/church AMEN "it is so, so be it", if God says your going to be healed of the illness you've been battling and your wondering how much longer you have to battle it I say AMEN "it is so, so be it" you're healed. You see AMEN is a powerful word that can change your life, but we must have faith. What is faith, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It doesn't work the way we want, we cant say God heal me then I'll believe in your healing, we must believe and have faith to posses your healing.
I'm also learning not to care about what people think of my relationship with God. At Winterfest when I believe it was Clay from Hillsong New York who said "You weren't called to fit in, you were called to be set apart". I knew that so many times I have limited myself and Gods will because I was more concerned about fitting in with other Christians instead of wanting to be set apart to carry the fire of God to a generation that needs revival. I can only be accountable to God for my relationship, we can't worry about what others will think of our relationship with him. If you have to impress everyone else so they think your some super holy saint of God then you need to reevaluate your relationship with God, because so many times we are pretending to be something we weren't made to be, so we limit Gods power and love when it's limitless to begin with.
This isn't just post-winterfest hype for me and I'm not some super spiritual teenager who is living by a temporary moment of an event. This is what my heart craves and desires. This is what I was made for. I was created to serve God and to bring his word. To be part of a revival in this generation that will spark a revival in this nation. I have never wanted the favor of God in my life to fulfill the call on my life as much as I want it now. This is my life. This is what God has purposed me for.
I have alot of growing up and learning spiritually to do, but that should always be a continuous thing throughout ones life. I can't look back on my life and wonder what it would have been like if I didn't serve God to his full purpose, because that's a life wasted. It took "ONE MOMENT" for God to wreck me, to break my heart, to destroy all I've ever known so I could know his will, his purpose, his plan for my life.
Hope this post reaches someone.
Tiffany Elaine
Beautiful.
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