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204. Grow with His Flow

 

I had a dream last night that I was seated on a high top chair at what appeared to be one of those old wooden water troughs that you can pan for gold in. As the muddy water ran past my lap, I began to see pieces of gold jewelry getting caught in the metal screen in front of me. I recognized one of the pieces as an old ring that I had parted ways with a few years back. I was excited to see it. I picked it out of the murky water, polished it off, and tried it on to see if it would fit. It was so tight on my finger, which in the natural didn't make sense because my hands are the same size they have always been. I took the ring back off and set it down feeling bewildered. I looked again and another ring was caught in the screen. It was beautiful, it was new, I had never seen it before, but again, it did not fit my finger. Once again, as I tried it on, it was way too small. I felt a feeling of disappointment and discouragement attempt to overshadow me, but quickly the Lord spoke.  

The Lord showed me that many of us are stuck trying on the old, feeling like we are missing out on something; when really the Lord is transitioning us into a new season. Many others are looking at the new, at the future, trying to force something that doesn't fit quite right. We get discouraged, not realizing the Lord has something bigger. Something that fits us better. Many of us are even holding on to prophetic words from the past and feeling a disappointment or discouragement that they haven't come to fruition. Many are doubting that they even heard from God, saying if this hasn't come to pass by now, will it ever?  May I encourage you to stop looking back, to stop fantasizing about the future, and to start MOVING forward.

The Lord put on my heart that many refuse to grow with His flow in our lives. We get stuck on a family member that isn't saved, a prayer we believe is unanswered, or a prophecy that hasn't been fulfilled and we blame God and back away from Him. We "try" this Christianity thing and the minute it stops blessing us or favoring us, or the minute someone at church says or does the wrong thing in our eyes, we say it's not working for us and we go back to the world. We get stuck in fantasizing about the future, ignoring the present and wondering why we are never satisfied with reality. 

Stop looking for excuses to be bitter and start being the hands and feet of Jesus that this world needs to see. Stop banking on a prophetic word from 5 years ago, complaining that it hasn't come to pass; if you refuse to take the steps necessary to move your relationship with the Lord forward today. The Lord can prophecy a great and powerful word over your life, but it's your responsibility to partner with that word. To pray into that word, to listen. It's your responsibility to hear from the Lord, to be obedient, taking the actual steps He is leading you to take, in order to bring the prophetic word to pass.  

Stop asking the Lord why the old doesn't fit and start asking the Lord to reveal what fits you today. Stop trying to force new growth or new relationships just because you want them to fit for the future. They may not be for you. We need to lay down our selfish ambitions and focus on what He is calling us to do.

He is doing something NEW! Grow with His Flow in your life. 

Colossians 1:9-14 9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

2 Peter 3:18 - But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Matthew 7:21 - Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

John 14:15 - If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Luke 6:46 - And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Romans 8:28 - And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

James 2:24 - Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Matthew 7:14 - Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

2 Corinthians 2:9 - For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.

Ephesians 4:11-16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Hebrews 5:7-14 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Warning Against Apostasy

11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

James 1:19-26 Hearing and Doing the Word                                                                                             19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

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