Is Your Faith Unemployed or Is It Actively Working?

“Once after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance of the Tabernacle.Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:9-10 NLT).

Have you ever been in a place where you were sick and tired of being sick and tired? Hannah has. That was the very place that she was in when she cried out to the Lord on one of her yearly visits with her family to the temple. Hannah got to a place where cute prayers were no longer getting it for her. The cute cries were not getting her what she longed for and the glare of people no longer affected her. Hannah needed the Lord and she needed Him immediately. Hannah had a purpose in her that no one could bring forth but the Lord and she understood that. Many of us have a longing, but we are either afraid of it, we ignore it, or we attempt to accomplish it on our own. We don’t consider the Lord or think about the fact that perhaps it is Him that is calling us to a greater purpose and a higher standard to accomplish the goals that He has set for us. Hannah had to put her faith in action. She had to pray as if her life depended on it. Hannah had to submit her mind, her will, her thoughts, her biological time clock, her desires, and her heart to God in that very moment; and because of her faith God answered her.

Hannah was under pressure. It was not the pressure to get bills paid or the pressure to be a better wife. Hannah was under pressure by her purpose. She had other people’s lives attached to her call and it was time for her to get moving. Weather Hannah knew it or not, she was called to be an intricate part of God’s plan for Israel. Hannah was at a place in her life where she was not only pressured to fulfill a desire. She was under pressure to fulfill her destiny.

The pressure that you feel is because of your purpose. It is time for you to birth something. Hannah felt the pressure of her purpose knocking at the door. She could no longer do things the way that she did them before. She could no longer sit around and mope. God was calling Hannah to action.

God is calling many of us to action. He wants us to do something with our faith and with the other things that we are believing Him for. We have to move! It is now uncomfortable to be content with mediocre and stagnation. We have to birth what we have been placed on the earth to birth for such a time as this.

I once heard Bishop Td Jakes say “It is not your turn. It’s your time”. It was Hannah’s time for God to release something mighty to her that would be pivotal to the time that she lived in, but she had to get aligned first. I believe that Hannah was saved. I know she prayed, but her motives and her heart were not in position to be blessed. God sees the inner workings of our heart. He knows what we think, how we feel, and why we do things. To be honest, He is not always pleased. We find comfort in saying that “God knows my heart”, but sometimes that is our problem. God knows our heart. He knows that we want more of Him, but we are not aligning everything in our lives to get it.

Lord deal with me. Deal with the inner workings of my life and sift through the private things. I pray for a cry that will reach your ears. Hannah had a cry that you heard. The silent sound that she made at the alter on that particular day was not like all the others. Something in her groaned for purpose. She understood that she needed you to be in the midst of her desires and she was willing to change her heart and her mindset in order to receive you. I believe Hannah’s life changed when she cried a cry of surrenderance. She surrendered her motives to you. Lord help me to be like Hannah. Help me to surrender my motives, my heart, my will, and my desires to you. I pray to do what you have called me to do, how you have called me to do it. I pray to go through whatever it takes to get to you. I pray for a made-up mind to surrender all. In Jesus name, amen.

Releasing everything to God is an open door for blessings to flow through. Hannah was blessed when she released her will and her son to God. She was blessed with other children when she didn’t try to hold the one child hostage. We can’t hold our will and our purpose hostage. We have to give it back to God. We can’t believe that we can fulfill the groanings of our hearts on our own. The groaning will birth a purpose that will achieve more than we ever imagined it would, but we must give it to God.

God raised Hannah’s purpose. He didn’t need her help to accomplish what He wanted to do with Samuel, He needed her surrenderance. Samuel was used mightily of the Lord. Moses was used mightily for the Lord. Moses’s mom had to trust God to take care of what He had given her even when she couldn’t see it.

Trust God with what you can’t see. He his faithful to perform a thing and cause it to come to pass.

Recommended Reading: 1 Samuel 1:9-18, James 2:14-25, Proverbs 3:5-6, Hebrews 11:1, Hebrews 11:6

Comments

Can You Praise the Lord in Prison?

“Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening” (Acts 16:25 NLT). Paul and Silas were some bad boys! Can you imagine doing the right thing and being locked up because of it? These men had a freedom that the people they encountered needed to see because they were not bound although others could visibly see the chains that had been placed on them. They did not misrepresent Christ because of their circumstances and they did not try to give up serving Him because of the predicament that they had found themselves in. ~~~~~ Stop being mad at God because things do not go the way that you expect them to. ~~~~~ “ 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” (Romans 8:28). Paul and Silas knew who their God was and they knew that He was going to come through for them no matter what their situation looked like. They knew enough about God...

Why Are You Here?

During an encounter that I had with a young person recently, I told them that things were difficult for them because there were some things that they would need to do that had never been done before. The analogy that I used to help this person understand what I was saying to them was that of a wilderness full of trees. I told this young person that they would be the first one to cut down the trees in that wilderness to create a smooth path for those coming behind them. The same is true for many of us. There are large trees that we must cut down so that those coming behind us won’t have to fight as hard as we are fighting, and they will not stumble because we are destroying everything at the root that is attempting to block us. The task of doing this may seem difficult but the testimony is worth it. You have to be able to identify the things that have hindered individuals in your lineage, know what the signs of those things are in your own life, and then eliminate it. ...

Preparation in Waiting

One thing that I have learned about God over the years is that his plan for my life is so much greater than my own. I have also learned that his vision can be more than I can bear at times because I have a tendency to try to make the parts that he has revealed to me come to pass on my own. I ask God why and when, but the truth is that I am not ready. My faith has to grow and I’m still being prepped. It’s easy to feel like a failure when you’re trying to meet the expectation of others. I come from a family of all stars. I was expected to go to college. I expected myself to have what they have and to live how they live, but God…… God is expecting something different from me. He is expecting me to do and to move how he tells me to. This is hard…I have people expecting success from me. God is expecting success from me to. He is expecting me to listen and to wait. Waiting is hard. Jesus waited. At 12 Jesus was wise, but he had to wait. People expected things from Him also. They expected...

You Are Not Alone: Wilderness Chronicles pt.2

“But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers” (1 Kings:19;4 KJV). The wilderness is a different place to different people. Some people consider the wilderness to be a dry place full of nothing. Other people may consider the wilderness to be a situation. Whatever you consider your wilderness to be, know that you are not alone. The devil uses the wilderness to isolate you, but God uses the wilderness to teach you, advance you, equip you, and then eventually release you out (or back) into your purpose. God can also use the wilderness to refresh you. Elijah was an awesome man of God. He literally prayed down fire and he went against kings in the name of the Lord. Elijah was bold, but he was also human. On one particular occasion, Elijah went into the wilderness after an encounter he had wi...

Pass The Test

People have a tendency of telling me that I am nice. Some people say that I am too nice and other people attempt to take advantage of my niceness and mistake it for weakness. The truth is that I am really not that that great, I just get convicted. I cannot treat people any way that I want to and receive the things that God has for me. I cannot kick your cat just because you kicked my dog. There are many instances where I have to apologize, work on my heart, and repent instead of blaming other people for how I feel they treat me. “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”. (1 Samuel 16:7) I cannot go before the Lord with a filthy heart and truly believe that he is going to bless me. You have to know who you are in Jesus regardless of how people treat you and you have to respond with wisdom and with the heart of Christ. “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I...

Those Are Fighting Words!!

If you would, imagine that words can be cloth in armor, have a helmet on, and can carry a sword. Now, imagine that the words are powerful and can be gathered into an army. The words are strong on their own, but in a large number, they can either propel you into your next step or stop you in your tracks. With a battle field full of words with helmets on in mind, do you see the seriousness of this powerful tool that pushes us through life? Words are spoken to us and around us in our mother’s womb. The words help to shape us and to influence our thinking patterns. Now let me ask you a question, what are you allowing the words that have been spoken to you to do? Are you using the words to fight for you or are you allowing the words to war against you?” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 KJV). In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God (truth). Everything that God had to say about you from the...

HOPE

I believe that God sends us prophecies to offer us hope. I received my first prophecies around the age of 16. I was pretty aware of how God used his people to speak into the lives of others, but I would always hide at church when God started talking. I used to be afraid of people who had that gift because I was scared that they would know what I was thinking. Many times, although our thoughts are uncomfortable, when God lets you know that HE SEES YOU, there is a comfort in that. Wow, God sees me. I don’t remember who or what the first words were that God used someone to speak to me, but there are still so many words that He has released to me that offer me hope. Hope can be hard to hang on to in the storms of life. There are many times that I feel alone and forgotten, but I have to remember that GOD SEES ME. God will send a word of hope to you to comfort you in the times that you feel hopeless and lost. The irony in this is that some words may come before you think you need the...

Waiting for the Promise vs. Moving in Impatience

“Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? ” And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him” ( Genesis 17: 17-19 NKJV). Isaac was desired, but Ismael was birthed out of impatience. If God told you that you were going to birth something beautiful, no matter what your season may look like, bank on the Lord’s promises. Your Ishmael does not have to be a man, your Ishmael can be an opportunity. Don’t walk into just any ole thing because you got tired of waiting on God. If God promised you something in 2016 and you didn’t see it in 2017, that does not mean that He forgot about what He promised you. Isaac had a set season and ...

YOU BETTER DANCE!

I started singing, I started dancing, I started clapping, People were laughing. They knew my problems, they knew my pain, But I knew that God would take them away! ~Marvin Sapp “Praise him in advance” The key thing to focus on in the course of this song, is that “I knew that God would take them away!” What do you know about God? I’ll tell you what I know; God is a redeemer, a father and my salvation. Don’t expect people to see what God sees in you because God sees you in the spirit where as people look at you through mortal eyes. Don’t you dare allow people to label you and tell you what you can and can’t do. My college advisor tried to tell me to basically stop going to college and try another field. She didn’t say change your major or even try to encourage me. This happened in a time when I didn’t know who God said I was. People’s lack of faith in me surprises me now, but I know that every accomplishment that I have made and will make,...

Welcome Back!!!!

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it ; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. ” (Luke 15:20-24 KJV) Would it be fair to take a look at the notion that perhaps the prodigal son’s mistakes made him a little wiser than the son that stayed with his father? The son who did what he was supposed to do seemed pretty perfect for the most part. He seemed like a guy who did what his dad said and learned all that he was supposed to learn in order to manage what his father ...

JaNina B.

Search This Blog