You know the saying that the grass always looks greener on the other side? Well the reality is sometimes their grass is greener, but it may not be due to the traditional outcomes of sowing and reaping. It’s sometimes due to the fact that the person has paid to paint it green. They’ve chosen to spend lots of money on faux grass - a counterfeit. Surprisingly enough, they didn’t make that purchase simply because they were lazy. They did so out of a hunger for power and control to determine their season. They bought into the deception that they know best. That the fabric of their “lawns” and lives should be woven according to their own fickle vision and understanding. They have eaten the fruit of self-sufficiency and birthed the bondage of perfectionism. Unknowingly exchanging their sonship for pseudo dominion.
I believe God is speaking and saying this individual might be you, and that this scenario is indicative of the very place the United States finds itself in right now. The message I’m sharing with you today is a word that I believe the Lord wants to use to “fatten the calf,” or essentially prepare His children for a restoration of some sort. In the Bible, Fattened Calf is a metaphor or symbol of festive celebration and rejoicing for someone's long-awaited return. In this season of the Coronavirus, God has allowed us to experience a Global Selah-- Hebrew for a pause or break. Whether you believe we were subjected to this pause by the Lord or by the unfortunate circumstances of the fallen world, one thing has been clear: the Lord is awakening us for a timely reality check.
I believe he’s telling us that we’ve sold our lives, our sonship for a type of self-sufficiency that leads to barrenness. All out of our desire to make our pastures look the way we want it. Crafting mini golden calves of our own. Pursuing visions and plans co-signed by ourselves. It’s only now that we’re in the midst of a pandemic, that we’re faced with the reality of our capacity. We are not in control, and we need supernatural assistance.
This crisis of health and racial injustice has opened our eyes to the world’s spiritual needs and instilled a sense of urgency within us. When we exalted our own desires, and trusted our own strength, we drowned out God’s direction with self- help books, and grew a disdain for God’s process. Our pastures remained brown, but instead of going back to the giver of life when we noticed we weren’t bearing fruit in our lives we settled for a fruitless alternative. We strived to make things appear better by painting over our brittle roots so no one would notice. Over time we subtly normalized a standard where we don’t want Christ as our Lord but as our servant.
But the Lord wants to encourage us today to fear not. A time for a turnaround has come and it’s time to declare pastures, not paint. Purpose, not perception.
Heaven and Creation are lamenting and calling out for the Glory of God to be made manifest through His children. The scriptures say in Romans 8:18 -21 that there is an eager expectation of creation to see the children of God rise up and operate in the full capacity in which they were created. In other words, pain, outcries, dysfunction, and disruption will rip through our world until our destiny’s as children of God are fulfilled. God wants to complete a good work within us, but there has been a complacency that has fallen upon believers that has caused us to become less fervent and serious about the things of God. Therefore, it is clear that as much as there is a down casting in our countries there is also a brewing in the spirit. God is doing a new thing and it’s bursting out (Isaiah 43:19).
The Lord has been speaking to many very clearly in this season, and what He has revealed to me is that this is an urgent time for believers to run full force and dig deeper into the things that God has called them to do. It is time for us to grab on to our calling and purpose, and literally step into it. This is not the time to be shy or fixated on doing something with perfection. No, this is a time for boldness in faith. Enough of the procrastination, enough of the excuses, enough of the tolerance of the status quo. Some of us have forgotten the vision of our Father’s heart and have made our own desires the priority of our life.
1 Corinthians 12:4-7 says “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.”
There are people who have not yet seen the light, whose hearts have not been stroked enough by the glory and goodness of God that resides in the very essence of our testimony and purpose. It’s time to stop playing games. The world is falling a part all around us, and thousands of people are dying daily due to viruses, police brutality, and so much more. So when are you going to step up to your Divine plate? God wants us to be effective in unlocking the windows of Heaven in this season. The only way we can be effective as a body is if we all walk in our unique individual purposes, projects, and callings.
This is not a time where we can look to our left and look to our right because our missions are unique. Romans 12: 6-8 reads “In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.”
God has positioned us to be in such a time that the only way we can get clarity and understanding is if we face Him for direction. It’s imperative that we push into our purpose and creativity in this time because there are multitudes of people attached to our individual callings, waiting to be touched by our authority and power in Christ. God wants us to reach those people sooner than later and stand in the gap for them during this era of national crisis .
God wants to set things ablaze in our hearts and our life.
Could you just release your faith in this season to believe that He who began a good work in you is completing and perfecting that good thing right now even in the midst of chaos? He is literally moving you from Glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). And as the Holy Spirit works on the inside of you, He is also simultaneously strengthening you with supernatural power to transfigure this world. God wants you to know that you are the secret weapon, you are the straw that breaks the back of people’s bondage. Just seek Him for advice, for strength to surrender, for favor and effectiveness in fulfilling your purpose. I declare that breakthrough from this oppressive time will be our testimony! God’s desire is for His children to see things clearly, to wake up from the destructive fantasy of self-sufficiency and bring us back to dependency on the Father. It is in that position of sonship that we experience the abundance of life.
He is indeed coming back and we should not prolong paradise with Christ because we were too lazy or caught up in our own problems to be about God’s Daily Kingdom Agenda.
For every set of eyes that reads this, I hope this message encouraged you. I pray that as WE pursue purpose together, WE will not miss this moment that God is so clearly orchestrating. Let us be empowered and stirred to be everything God has ever called us to be; without pretense of what it looks like, but confident that we’ll reap a harvest.
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