When Your Season Lacks Applause

Everyone wants to fulfill your purpose until they realize what it costs you to say yes to God. People judge struggles and trials that they have not had to survive in. They want what you have, but lack the understanding of the number of tears that you have shed in order to continue to bend when the applause of man says that you should stand- up and be honored when you do something great. Your greatness is attributed to God, but people who merely seek applause from others have no idea what that really means.

“I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images” (Isaiah 42:8).

Walking in your purpose is beautiful. Walking in your purpose with a holy anointing will cost you something. God is not looking for people who want to be seen. He is looking for people who want to submit. Seeking to be seen out of season will set you up for attacks that you may not be ready for. It will cause you to be identified by enemies when your job was just to spy out the land. Suppose the 2 spies that Joshua sent into Jericho bragged about who they were and what they had come to do. They would have lost their lives because they would have allowed their mission to make them targets when their purpose in that place was to be spies.

Know your season. Why does God have you where you are and are you revealing your divine position before it’s time to do so?

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT).

David was chosen long before he was publicly acknowledged as being a king. He didn’t go around bragging or telling everybody about the private encounters that he had with the Lord. He just submitted and withheld his true position because it was not time to reveal it yet.
Saul would have killed David on sight if he had known that the Shepard boy who was playing music for him would one day be in his position. People fall in love with positions and titles, but can’t fall under the submission of God.

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6 ESV).

King Saul never had the heart of God. He got so full of himself that being the people’s champ became more important to him than being God’s beloved. Saul could not stand tall without the interference of man’s opinion. He fell apart when the prophet Samuel died because he had no one to point him in the direction that he needed to go. He didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, so he sought out a medium instead.Saul had the tools to find God, but preferred to gratify himself in ways that the Lord was not pleased with.
David, on the other hand, submitted to God in all seasons. He was a child that knew how to listen and he was a man that knew how to stand -up against those that defied the one, true, and living God. David had a heart that remained in a bowed down posture to the will of God and he understood that prayer could get him further than popularity ever would.

When your season lacks applause, how do you handle it? Are you content with serving God in silence or do you need an audience to feel validated and fulfilled? There is a season set for you to be revealed as one chosen by God, but the preparation for that begins when you are alone with Him.

Powerful things happen when it’s just you and God. Don’t taint it by feeling the need to brag about it to anyone who will listen. Take this lesson from Joseph. He told his brothers about a dream that he had and they sold him into slavery. They couldn’t kill him because of His purpose, but they thought about it. There are some people who will not just think about taking you out; they will actually do it because the God in you intimidates them.

Submission can be intimidating to people when they see that it can elevate you in a way that pride never could. God opposes the proud. Although your gift may make your popular, your heart posture is what will sustain you. King Saul never learned this lesson. Money and popularity were not enough to bring Him peace. He needed God and instead of forming his own relationship with Him, he was always in a state of looking for other people who knew Him.

When people know who you are and when purpose makes you a target, no amount of applause can compare to or validate the hand of God that is protecting your life. God literally protected Joseph and David from people who hated them because they were hand picked by Him. People hate you for what they don’t understand and they want it without realizing the price that you have to pay to be anointed.

There are some people who feel as if they are in a valley, but they are really on a mountain. The mountain place is where God is. It may be lonely. You may miss the company of people, but God wants for you to know Him. David learned how to fight and be fearless when it was just Him and God. He was hidden, but ready when God finally revealed him to others. Lord help us to submit to you even when we long to fit in and be like everyone else. You say that we are a peculiar people and a royal priest hood. I am different and I am enough in your eye sight. Lord, help me to be content when you are protecting me from dangers seen and unseen. Help my heart to be content and settled until purpose says that it is time for the You in me to go center stage. My gifts are yours. Thank you for what You have entrusted to me and I give it back to You for You to use for your glory.I am submitted to You, Jesus. Lead me by Your Spirit, Lord. These things I pray in Your name, Amen.

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