This series “Moving On” has taken a different turn. Lately, I’ve been sitting in my red raggedy old chair looking out of my window imagining things from my angle. (The house was quiet, dark, and almost dusk outside. I saw myself 3 years from now. My grandchildren all grown up. The beautiful dream home we’ll be buying soon). My vision and thoughts were limitless. Since, then, I’ve been hard press to move on from small thinking.
To that end, I grew up in a fairly small house with 4 other siblings. But uniquely, my mother and father worked fitly together to make sure our house was our home. Family time was special every day, but especially, in the winter. Many of our lessons were taught through television sitcoms about tools for living. My father loved “The Jeffersons.” The urban television tagline slogan was a song my father sung every time the show came on. “Well, we’re moving on up, to the east side. To a deluxe apartment in the sky. Movin on up to the east side. We finally got a piece of the pie.”
To my point, the sentiment of this song, I believe is a testament to where God wants us to be as a people. Yes! God wants us to progress spiritually. But He also wants us to dream big. And to believe we have a piece of the pie.
My mother was a devout believer and taught us to grow spiritually because in doing so everything else would go. She preached…”Growing spiritually wouldn’t fix everything. But it would improve everything.” And when that happened, we would be a better spouse, friend, parent, employee or, even, and employer.
Today, It’s the core of who I am.
My father preached… Our emotional upgrade will be determined by the people we’re connected to.
In my opinion, I believe God wants us to move up relationally. Who we are and what we are is determined by who we are in relationships with. Remember, God has PROVISION. Pro meaning before and Vision meaning seeing.
God is also a God of progression. Pro meaning before. Gress (comes from Latin), which means to step or move. At this point, I can barely stay in my seat. (I am hopeful you check out my other blogs). So, do you believe that God wants you to move on up to finally get a piece of the pie?
Correct! It’s tough. But you have to be willing to move on from small thinking.
While moving on up, we have to understand and master the art of EXIT. If we don’t master the art of EXIT, we’ll get stuck in life with people we’re afraid to exit from our lives. Or, we’ll hold people in seasons of our lives they clearly need to EXIT.
So to master the art of EXIT. We have to move on from small thinking.
In my opinion, the most consequential opinions of ourselves are developed by the opinions we have about ourselves.
For example, in Numbers 13:33, Moses sends 12 spies out to see the land that the children of Israel would possess upon leaving Egypt. The spies returned with small thinking. “We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them, we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
It doesn’t matter what people think about us if we don’t believe what God believes about us.
A good case in point. God said, “He has forgiven us.” But if we don’t believe it. We won’t experience it. God doesn’t condemned us. Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and scripture further corroborates in Proverbs 23:7: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
Could this mean that we go through the motion of doing all the necessary things “eating, drink, and having fun in our relationships” but our heart is not where God wants us to be? We do all the necessary things that make us feel good. And we’re lured into a life of fun and lose sight of where we should be.
Subsequently, a stuck heart is the fruit of a stuck mind. Where our mind is, our life will follow so the enemy attacks us with flawed identity.
A couple of years ago, during one of my Book Club sessions. I asked the question. What if Eve didn’t eat the fruit because she was hungry or because her stomach was growling? Could it be that Eve didn’t have an accurate understanding of who she was?
Eve engaged in a conversation with the serpent but all along she had a flawed identity of herself. The serpent showed up in a place where He belonged (The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made). But the problem is, the serpents in our lives show up looking like what we think we need.
Pause.
Have you had serpents that have shown up in your life with every intention supposedly to help you? But their mission was to abort the dreams and visions you have on the inside of you.
“Misery is almost always the result of thinking.” — Joseph Joubert
See, snakes don’t show up in your life looking of poor quality. If so, you would easily identify them. Eve was unable to identify the serpent’s mission because she didn’t know who he was. Therefore, he convinced Eve into believing that God was trying to hold her back from something.
Isn’t that like us? When we don’t see it God’s way, we believe that He is holding us back from something.
Furthermore, we allow people to come along to interpret what God is saying about our situation. Did not the serpent twist what God said about the tree of good and evil in the Garden?
Genesis 3:2-6: The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
When we forget God’s instructions, we put our hope in someone else to tell us our destiny and where we belong because we have a flawed identity of ourselves.
Here we go–From the beginning, God gave them instructions about image and dominion.
Eve didn’t believe who she was because of her flawed identity.
When we think we are missing out on something that appears to be pleasing, we do things to come into the wisdom we need to change the trajectory of our lives.
It fails every time. We fail every time.
In the same matter, who we come in contact with first is who we believe and become. As an educator, my heart was broken by the patterns and beliefs my students had during my career. It was tough teaching them some of the most simple things–Share! They weren’t born with certain thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. Their thoughts were developed through ride-alongs with their parents and unspoken actions of the adults they grew up around. My work was much harder some years because I didn’t get the opportunity to teach them first.
Likewise, we look at adults, pastors, and leaders and wonder how did they get in such a state of belief. It’s because someone got to them first.
So is it fair to say, they didn’t feel worthy, good enough, or significant in their calling so they ignored the instructions and continue the cycle.
Note to self: You are not what you’ve come from. And what you’ve done.
“Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.” — Edward de Bono
Why are you bitter?
People may have come along to hinder your progress and you’ve become bitter waiting in that place for years. And you are waiting on God to move. But this time God is waiting on you.
God is sending you a deliverer; Moses for your deliverance.
Just because God is not talking to you about your problem doesn’t mean that God is not working on your answer. Sometimes God is not talking to you because He is talking to your Moses.
Have you disregarded your Moses? (Snapping fingers!)
Step back!
Don’t judge your Moses and the flaws they have. They have been sent to navigate your destiny. If you’re hung up on small thinking, then you are holding your destiny hostage. Don’t worry about what your Moses looks like. People will always tell you what they should look like and even what you deserve.
Who’s waiting on you to get over you?
Who’s waiting on your YES?
Your YES is not about you. Don’t allow your insecurity to rob you of what others need from you. Because if you do, you’re holding them hostage–because you won’t say YES.
When we move out of the way of our YES, God will send someone along to help us fulfill our calling. Keep in mind. Your help doesn’t come before your YES.
Besides, you may be asking God to show you the way, then, you’ll say YES. I’m afraid that’s not how you’re going to get to your Canaan Land.
Canaan (that piece of the pie) is a life that God wants to lead us into. God is willing to take us there, but He doesn’t tell us how and how long it’s going to take. We just have to make adjustments and be willing to move on from small thinking.
Is the journey going to be different? Of course, it is. It should be. Who wants to go on a journey and the scenery never changes. God knows your path. Don’t go back to what’s familiar when the pressure is on.
Stay the course…
God is using the journey to move you from a victim mentality to a victor mentality. It takes time to regenerate our wilderness thinking.
In conclusion, our wilderness experiences represent transitional seasons. Its a season in life where we are leaving one thing as we’re on our way to another. Would you agree if I said it’s “transitional?” You’re not there yet.
If you’re in a wilderness, this is not the time to have a pity party. Your next season is just ahead.
Think about your wilderness season as a hub in an airport. You’re taking a flight from Little Rock to Atlanta. But your destination is Chicago. So of course, people will board the plane with you from Little Rock to Atlanta. But, during your transition to Chicago. The people that were on the other plane out of Little Rock is more than likely not going to be on the plane with you going on to Chicago.
Those people were dropped off at the hub on their way to their destination. It’s doesn’t mean that something is wrong with those people; they just got dropped off. They just have a different destination. In short, we’re just going in two different directions.
So in essence, we were only on the plane together for a certain season. Again, it’s nothing wrong with them, nor is there anything wrong with you. You both have two places and itineraries you must follow.
In the words of Ashley Ann, “Did you pick up what I just put down?”
The wilderness season (hub) you are facing is just an opportunity for people to transition out of your life. Not because they did something wrong against you. Your destiny requires that you both go in two separate destinations.
It’s equally important to note. Not only are people on the plane getting dropped off. But their bags have to get dropped off too.
Some baggage that traveled with you from Little Rock to Atlanta had to get dropped off because they couldn’t go to Chicago.
Is it okay for me to say–when God takes you through a wilderness season (hub), some of the baggage you’ve been carrying got to be dropped off too?
Questions? Have you decided that what you’re carrying now can’t go where God is getting ready to take you?
Pick your chin up!
God pauses our lives amid our transitions so when we can get to our next destination. We can step into it fully equipped say YES! You need this transitional season so you can WIN with you.
Finally, Moses made a colossal mistake when he sent 12 spies to witness something he needed to see for himself. Moses depended on the assessment of what he needed to see himself.
For those of you that as leaders in business, churches, as entrepreneurs, etc.) when you are on your way to your destination. You must assess what you need to see first. No one will ever see your destiny the way that you can see it because you know where God is taking you. You have to go and put your own eyes on it because nobody will ever see through your lens.
Moreover, we have to go back to the Bible to see what God is saying about us. He spoke to us first.
He has commanded us to move on from small thinking because we can finally have a piece of pie!
[Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may include affiliate links. This means that I get a commission if you purchase the product through my link at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.]
