Hello, From The Other Side.

Hello, From the Other side.

The other side of your healing is a marvelous and joyful space to be in. This space is the result of: miracles and answered prayers, no more crying about your situation, the spirit of depression being lifted from you, God showing up right when you were about to give up; the removal of your guilt and shame, and the space to just revel in His goodness. Being on the other side, I feel we, (mostly I), don’t take the time to celebrate or rest in often. So today, I am here to celebrate the fruition of y(our) faith! Even if you are not there yet, I am still celebrating on what’s to come. How did I get to this space in my life?

Enforce what God has told you to do.

We always tell people to wait to hear from God, but that was not my challenge. God has always been very clear with me on what He wanted me to do through journaling or prayer, a re-occurring experience or conviction, or even through a conversation with a friend or significant other. The real challenge was enforcing what God wanted me to do. Why? Because it forced me to be honest with myself and become accountable for the mess I created. I had no more fingers to point at and blame on why I could not get out of my cycle of hurt, all roads led to my disobedience in some shape or form. Applying God’s directives was painful. It can make you fast from the very thing you love to do or watch, it may ask of you to have more self-control or discipline, it may even ask of you to remove friendships or switch job positions. God requested for me to:

Totally Surrender to Him.

Luke 9:24 says, For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it 

When I think of the word surrender, I immediately think of the symbolism to give up or lose something. This is where the reluctance to enforce what God has told me to do comes in, because who wants to lose something they have? But as Christians, our perspective should always trust that: to lose is to gain something much more than we could ever imagine. To hold on to something God has told you to let go of gives you direct insight into your fears and your disobedience. My re-occurring fear has always been the outcome of the unknown. I had to get to the point where I realized the concepts of the unknown versus having faith was equivalent to staying in my cycle of hurt versus reaching the other side of my healing. I needed to have faith that I WILL become who God was calling me to be as well as who He was calling me to be with, within my next relationship. Will I be alone? Will I be able to remain who I am on the other side? Will I recognize myself on the other side? Will I be able to… (fill in the blank)? Those questions can hover over your head, but the Bible tells us to relinquish our fear, to cast our cares on God and that everything will work out for our good. But in order to do this, we have to have not only have a willing heart, but we must:

Baptize our outcomes.

Colossians 2:12 states : For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

Water baptism is an outward expression of an inward change. Being able to baptize my outcome means I was willing to bury MY ideas of what was best for me. I was ready for God to raise up in me not only a new way of living or an outlook on life, but to revive my heart in a way that was open to receive all the desires of my heart. This readiness for a new life led me to deny myself of myself, friends and any environment that was not conducive to the direction God was calling me to go. This level of sacrifice and obedience I had to believe that God would honor my efforts in a way He saw fit. “Will I recognize myself on the other side?” My immediate response? I HOPE NOT! I WAS READY FOR WHATEVER LIFE WOULD BRING!

Live out Your Prayers.

“We should prioritize the seasons of our life so that we are not overly engage in one area of our life and under engage in another.” Pastor Keith Battle of Zion Church called this notion Intentional Balance.  I took this to heart as I noticed over the years, I had been overly working so hard on self correction that I was negating living out each blog I wrote. So, I took time off from blogging because I did not want to over analyze anything. I no longer wanted to just watch God, I wanted to feel His love. As a result, in one area of my life I was able to feel His love through my new relationship that has blossomed into my engagement with a wonderful man who I cannot wait to marry in a couple of months! Living out your prayers tells God that you trust Him fully with every area of your life, even within the unknown.

Live out your prayers and watch God create a new life for you!