Out of the Box

Have you ever felt that things that were once a comfort are now constricting? Maybe a friendship you have had for years is now agitating to you instead of bringing you contentment.

Welcome to a shift in the Spirit of God! What do I mean by a shift? If we are walking with God, then there will always be growth. Growth means new levels that required decisions to move up or stay where we are. A new level spiritually means a dissatisfaction with the status quo. What once provided comfort now feels like a box you have outgrown. Think of it this way. When you were in first grade, it was good your mother walked you to your school. Now as a senior, if your mother was still walking you to school that wouldn’t fit where you are in this stage of your life.

Avoiding the Landmines!

New levels in God require looking at where you are and where you want to be. It is a landmine of dissatisfaction. If you are not careful you blame the people around you, your circumstances, or feel guilty that you are unhappy. Walking in this time of shifting in God means you have changed. Others around you are not the problem, although they usually have problems they need to overcome.

How can you tell you are in a spiritual shift? Fruits of a shift are: dissatisfaction with the status quo; you wonder why people are fighting the same problems they had ten years ago; you have a strong desire to judge others for things that never bothered you before; things that were a comfort now feel like they are limiting you; or you feel like you would like to slap some sense into people more than usual. It is kind of like being hungry and going to the refrigerator and finding nothing you want to eat.

Navigating Shifting Seasons

Here are some tips on how to navigate new levels with God. First, don’t get mad at others or judge them. You are the one that has changed. God has been working on you. Spend time with God and find out what is so dissatisfying to you. This will cause you to focus on what God is doing and not on yourself or others. Taking time with God will be like fine tuning a radio to remove the static to hear a clear voice of direction. Ask for God’s kingdom to come on earth. This means you. You are made of earth. This gives God permission to come in and mess with your life and align it with His purposes.

When we shift with God, we come out of boxes of confinement. We see things from a kingdom of God view. This means we by-pass our thinking and past experiences and see how God is seeing what is going on. We are learning new ways of doing things which creates changes around us. It disrupts the ruts that have kept us from God’s best.

In this season of change, we need to be able to find and stay on God’s path. It is not a straight path season. Ask Jesus to lead you. Then just follow Jesus’s footsteps because he knows where the land mines are located.

Prayer

Father God,

May we make these new spiritual shifts to navigate pass the landmines in this world. Jesus, we ask for you to lead us. Holy Spirit, we ask for the grace, strength, and peace to follow Jesus’s lead. We choose not to judge others or walk in unforgiveness. If there are other things that are keeping us from God’s best, we ask that you remove them from our lives. We choose God’s path and put our trust in You. Shift us to the next level.

In Jesus’s name and by His Blood! Amen.

Scriptural References

Matthew 6:9-14; Hebrews 5:12-14; Matthew 17 Jesus took three disciples who were ready to higher place; Ephesians 4:13; James 1:4; Isaiah 43:19