“Heaven is Open”: Letting God Speak for Himself
I threw away my idols, I’m unsubscribing, and I’m letting go.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for this day.
Since my last blog, I have retreated, deeply, into the presence of God. I’ve been more diligent in my spiritual practice in the last 6 days than I have been for the last 6 months, maybe even more.
I’m not saying that to boast, I’m saying it because I need to convey just how serious this is. These are the last days, and time truly is running out.
I would usually fear saying that because it makes me sound like the 2012’ers we all had a good time laughing at in 2011, and even louder in 2013. However, be it unto me. God is saying this, and I believe God.
Truly, even the world knows this. Heightened racial injustice and disparity, political anarchy ( we’re literally being subjected to the will of an individual with no moral authority), climate change with increasing natural disasters.
My anxiety heightens just thinking about it. That’s why I must give thanks to a God who provides relief and peace in such a tiring existence that will only get more tiring as we continue to do the work that has to be done.
Thank You, God!
My six days of practice built on the very fact that started all this: God is calling for my obedience. During the time I’ve spent with Him, He’s opened my eyes to what is going on. He also opened my eyes to my shortcomings.
This is not the time to take things in the Spirit lightly. I was making so many plans, using my tongue to spin so many things that just were not in the Will of God. Treacherous.
Treacherous: characterized by faithlessness.
I have nothing to lose but salvation itself, which is not an option. I rebuke it.
I watched a video today where a woman of God talked about clarity (another blog coming soon). I’ve been struggling so much with clarity, and I’ve made myself miserable these past few days with the opposite of clarity, which is double-mindedness and doubt.
The typical definition of doubt: a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction.
The definition of doubt you never thought of: violence, feeling attacked by your thoughts.
Whew.
The woman of God is talking about doubt and connects it back to a lack of knowledge.
Ever since I decided to go on this journey to find conviction in God’s purpose over my life, I’ve just been in the Bible. That’s how we’re supposed to learn God’s everything: His voice, His character, allat.
Heart drop. Stomach drop, allat. Because this perfectly describes where I’ve been with my faith for a long time: in a rut. Going through the motions of being complacent and not being fully activated in my relationship with God.
But you can’t do lukewarm with God. He knows you better than you know yourself. If your heart isn’t in it, you can’t bolster over that.
Here is another opportunity to praise God for His faithfulness. Despite my sins, He’s still blessed me immensely and I am so thankful. He never gave up on me, and He continued to issue out chance after chance for me to get back right with Him. That is Grace.
He really loves us, despite it all. Despite all the pollution in us, the inherent darkness in us, He still wants to give us an opportunity to make it right. Hallelujah!
God is in control, and the heavens are open. These last few days have been a revelation: I threw away my idols, I’m unsubscribing, and I’m letting go.
What am I letting go of?
Astrology/ Zodiacs. This is a hard one to call out because it’s so ingrained in our world. I know a lot of believers who use it, and I know a lot of people will continue to invest in it. Not every word is for every person. As with everything, test the spirit. This could very well be something that I abused and lost God’s patience with, and He’s instructing me uniquely.
It seems so harmless to just say “virgo tingz”, but, by God’s grace, I’ve seen how the “harmless” things in my life were sending me to Sheol.
Truly, I am the last one to judge. On my birthday, not even a month ago, everything was virgo this, virgo that. While I’m writing this, I can think of posts I have up right now. I won’t delete them because they would serve better as a reminder of my humanity.
I’m dedicated to transparency, and I pray people don’t take such offense that they miss the honesty in what I’m sharing; what God showed me when I sat in His presence. I didn’t even ask about it, but He still answered. He said, “get rid of these things you turn to before you will sit down and just listen to Me,” and Zodiacs was implicated in that. I would more readily identify myself as a virgo before I did as a Christian. Wow. Experiencing conflict or differences with people? I would attribute it to our signs not being compatible versus just asking God for a spirit of the agreement. I would use it to normalize and define who I was, instead of letting God normalize and define who I was. My priorities were so misaligned around it.
Tarot Cards. Another hard one, because it’s so normalized within my generation. Again, I actually know many proclaimed Christians who engage with this practice. I have no leeway with this anymore, I had to throw mine away.
I would shuffle them and call on God to show me the truth. Treacherous. God, forgive me for such faithlessness. Every time I shuffled that deck it was just me telling God: “I don’t trust You enough to wait on You. I need to be able to see now, right now. I want to know and then change my path if it doesn’t fit what I want.”
Armored with the truth of what God requires of us, this could never be in alignment with faith.
Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
There I was, converting my faith, God’s faithfulness, into earthly senses. I could see and touch the cards, google them, look at sites and hear what other people were saying about what the cards were saying about me. Watch a Youtube video and hear the latest reading to find out what was in store for me.
The only being that reserves the right to tell me about me, is God. I was outsourcing His right to earthly constructs, paper.
I cringe when I think about how I would do readings for friends, tainting God’s other creations with that energy and dressing it up, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. O’God, thank you for deliverance and forgiveness.
Relationships. This is the hardest one.
You have to ask yourself, “What takes precedence over Truth?”, with truth being God’s Will and plan for your life.
I’m not blaming my relationships for my disobedience to God. I’m not blaming my participation in faithless acts on other people, because that is cowardly.
God requires courage.
We all have to present ourselves, for ourselves, on judgment day. There won’t be a finger you can point that will stop God from looking straight at you and asking, “ so what was it?”
With that being said, I’m an addict. I’m a proven people pleaser. God has shown me that, time and time again. My relationships with people are my triggers; earthly things to run after, mold myself for, change for.
I was building so many versions of myself, so many covenants with people that fell outside of God’s plan for me. Submitting myself to earthly visions of me that sounded so good, felt even better, but were not from God.
Love covers a multitude of sins, but it will tear and break before it covers disobedience to God. If your love for people and their affection exceeds your obedience to God and His expectations, you are in trouble.
Letting go of a relationship sounds so harsh, but please understand that this letting go is very internal (which can be harsher).
Letting go is freeing yourself from influence.
Letting go is setting boundaries.
Letting go is simply choosing God without reservation or hesitation.
What letting go is not, is treating someone without grace. Only God is capable of deciding who deserves or does not deserve grace. Imagine, if God took His favor away from you and gave you what you truly deserved? I would be dead.
Well then, that means letting go is also not judging another person (which would be just another sin). It is not cutting people off from the love and instruction that God is trying to pour out through you.
Letting go is standing for God and telling His truth, no matter what or who you might lose.
Please, God still calls us to love the other people on this Earth. We are all sinners. All of us. Which is just another reason to let go if God is calling you to do so, because how is the lost going to lead the lost? Hallelujah!
The heavens are open, and God is requiring us to come to Him and no one else. I’m telling you, it’s the little things you start placing your faith in, your trust in, your council in. Then, little by little, they carry you out of His Will. His heart.
I don’t want to live outside of God’s heart. That is true hell.
“Come back.” God wants us back in a BIG way. He wants to love on us, bless us, protect us, keep us, instruct us, lift us.
All Good things. All Righteous things. All Holy things.
Thank you, Lord, for Your goodness!
The Servant’s Mission
Isaiah 49 — Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.”
5 And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength —
6 he says,
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
7 Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
“Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
I wrote and shared this because I’m a servant of the Lord. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
I love you, God loves us, and He wants us. Wow! Hallelujah ^2
Until next time.
-MJ
