It was 8:30 p.m. and I was alone in my basement. I had just finished storing some things away and was walking around with my broom, sweeping up the bits of who-knows-what that a basement can somehow collect.  Ordinarily, I would not be sweeping the basement on a school night.  However, it was day four of working from home and since I didn’t need to get up at 5 am, a bit of tidying up in the basement spontaneously became the final task of the day.  It was quiet and it was the first time in a week that I wasn’t thinking about all that was going on in the world. I was thinking about sweeping.  But, that didn’t last long.  God invaded my thoughts.

As I made my way to the other side of the basement, I heard these words VERY CLEAR…“I’m doing a reset.”   I knew it was the Lord speaking to me.  So, out loud, as if he was visibly standing right there, I replied  “Oh, that’s it!”. For the next few seconds I just stood there, and rehearsed the words he spoke to me.  I thought to myself, “that was random.”  But, over the next hour I was reminded that God is not random, he is intentional.

I finished my task in the basement and headed upstairs to shower.  As I stood in the shower, I heard the Lord say VERY CLEARLY “recalibrate”.  I got out of the shower as fast as I could, grabbed a towel, fumbled for the dry-erase marker  in my top vanity drawer and wrote the words reset and recalibrate on the mirror so that I wouldn’t forget.  I knew God was up to something and I wanted to meditate on these words and ask him for a deeper revelation.

To my surprise, he wasn’t finished yet.  Just before bed, with a mouth full of toothpaste, I heard him again.  This time he said VERY CLEARLY “reorder”.  With my toothbrush sticking out of my mouth, I grabbed my dry-erase marker once again and wrote this third word on the mirror below the other two words.

As the days passed, I prayed and asked God to show me not just what the words meant, but his intended message.  Here is what I believe God is saying to everyone who has ears to hear.

1. Reset: to set anew, set to zero, adjust after an initial failure, to put back in position. 

Once in a while my iPhone or computer will glitch, causing it to freeze or making it impossible to function in its right capacity.   Usually, I can fix a problem like this by forcing a shutdown.  This causes a soft-reset or a reboot  of my cell phone or computer, allowing the technology to reset itself.  Once I turn my phone or computer back on, the glitches have been eliminated.  I can go back to doing what I was trying to accomplish.    God wants to do a reset to bring clarity to our lives.   What old, dead things are we trying to drag into our future that are no longer helping us to make progress in our lives? Are there areas of our lives that we’ve become too comfortable with that don’t promote growth?  What’s not working?  Are we too uncomfortable with change, and therefor avoid dealing with it?  What’s glitching in your life, causing delays and setbacks?  Ask God to show you what areas you need to reset in your life.

2. Recalibrate: to rectify an instrument that gives a quantitative measurement, to determine the correct range for artillery by observing where it hits, to plan or devise carefully to have precise use or application.

This word made me think of a bathroom scale.  You must physically turn the dial to zero or it will not be aligned and will weigh inaccurately.   God wants us to make some adjustments in our inner workings, which ultimately manifest outwardly in our daily lives.  He wants us to adjust our settings so we can be effective in all that we set out to do.  For example, do we need a heart adjustment?  What negative emotions, impure motives, bad habits, compromising patterns of behaviors,  ways that we live a double life, pride, jealousy, exist in o ur heart?  These things prohibit us from a disciplined lifestyle, setting and accomplishing goals, and growing in our spiritual life.  How can we adjust our schedules and routines to make time to read God’s word, pray and listen for him to speak to us.  God wants to invade our space, thoughts, time and priorities, with his Holy Spirit, empowering us to manifest his kingdom here on earth.   How can we adjust are relationships so that we are not negatively influenced, but instead a positive influencer.  If we want greater authority, we need to be recalibrated.  Ask God to show you the gray areas of your life, your hypocrisy, as these things inhibit your endurance as a threat to the enemy.  Ask God to show you what adjustments need to be made in your life.

3. Reorder: to arrange again, put things in a new order, prioritize

God wants us to rightly order our lives.  Put your house and life in order. Prioritize your schedule and activities.  Prayerfully determine what is most important and reorder some aspects of your life.  This could mean eliminating some habits and activities that drain you of energy and time.  Oftentimes, we fill our day with so many little things that we don’t spend time on the things that are most important.  We can spend so much time being a busy body, that other areas of our family and personal life can suffer.  Make a list of your weekly activities.  What things on your list are most important for your personal growth, growth as a family, and spiritual life?  Where do you see places in your daily routine that are vulnerable to distractions.  What can you eliminate?  What can you add to your routine that isn’t about you, but about serving others.  Ask God to show you how to organize your time more effectively.

For many of us , the phrase “It’s a new season” has become an old and worn out expression representing a time period of changes that we have yet to see.  A reminder of the hope deferred as we wait for a time of great things in our lives individually and corporately as the body of Christ. Well it’s here! God is extending a grace during this season, and wants us to draw near and co-labor with him.  Isaiah 43:19 says, See, I am doing a new thing!   Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness  and streams in the wasteland.

The pandemic happening in our world today has surely forced a shutdown, but he will allow all things to work together for our good and his glory.  If we allow the Holy Spirit to reset, recalibrate, and reorder our lives, God will use this time for our good.  He will give us grace for a new start that will bring us into a new and fresh place. Romans 8:28 AMP And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.

Life will not look the same in this new season.  God wants to bring closure to some old things so that we can make room for new things in our lives.  We need to understand that God is a merciful judge, gracious in discipline, lover of justice and overflows with  forgiveness.  Hebrews 12:1-2 AMP  says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, ² [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let’s pray together. 

Father God, we ask you to be with every person who is suffering from the coronavirus. Through the blood of Jesus, we take authority over every trace of the virus in the bodies of those who are sick.  We pray that all who are sick shall recover in Jesus name.  Comfort those who are mourning the loss of loved ones.  Bring them peace and rest in you. Remove all fear and replace it with faith.  Thank you for never leaving us.

We pray that your Holy Spirit would guide us in all things as we reset, recalibrate, and re-order our lives to manifest your kingdom here on earth.   Thank you for the new season and new things you are orchestrating in our lives.  Give us the power to deal with the dead and gray areas of our lives and the courage to break free from legalism and the fear of change.  Help us to hear your voice, and know your heart and will in this new season.  Thank you for your faithfulness toward us and for every blessing.   In Jesus name, Amen.

I hope this has stirred up an expectation and desire to advance.  Remember, God will meet you right where you are! Nothing about God is random.  He is intentional with his love toward us and His ways are higher than ours! God Bless you as you dare to reset, recalibrate and reorder your new season.

Now, go on…Be Fabulous somewhere else!

Laura

 

Thank God it’s Friday!

This year, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday mean so much more to me with everything that is happening in our nation.  Today, I spent some time meditating on John 3:16.  In the NLT  it reads “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”  I have read and recited this verse since I was a little girl in Sunday School.

However, today I was especially drawn to the verbs in this verse.  The first two verbs were actions taken by God our father toward us with no conditions attached; He LOVED and so he GAVE.  Christ gave everything and endured injustice, excruciating pain, humiliation, and death, all for sinful man, so that if we decided to choose him, we would have eternal life in heaven with no heartache, sickness, pain, indebtedness, rejection, loneliness, shame, etc. There was no guarantee that we would choose him, but for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. (Hebrews 12:2)   He did not deserve this punishment and we do not deserve him taking our punishment.  He chose us instead of choosing himself.  Before I was born, he chose me over himself.  Think about it.  Before you were born, he chose you over himself.  Romans 5:8  says “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”  I doubt most of us would do something like this for people whom we hardly know, have never met or who haven’t even been born yet.  His death represents the punishment he took for our sin.  But on the third day! Christ’s resurrection represents the fact that Christ did not remain in the grave.  He rose from the dead.  We too have the guarantee that we will be made alive if we belong to him.  (I Corinthians 15:21-23)

There is a God who loves us.  He is a good father.  He gave his son Jesus so that we could have eternal life with God forever in eternity.  We don’t need to be perfect to give our heart to Jesus.  Lord knows it is so easy to think selfishly, hold a grudge, tell a super-small teeny tiny white lie, gossip, hate those who hurt us, and the list goes on.  He already knows we are not perfect.  When we give our heart to Jesus, the holy spirit lives within us and gives us power to overcome sin.   As we develop a relationship with Jesus, we will grow a strong desire to please him and all the old patterns of sin will not be appealing to us anymore. Christians are not perfect, they are redeemed. When we make a mistake, we can ask God to forgive us and help us to change.  He knows our heart and will give us the power to live our best life, free from the bondage of sin.

When we give our heart to Jesus, life won’t be perfect, but we won’t struggle alone.  If you’ve lived on this earth long enough you have probably experienced one or more of the following; a heart break, loss of a loved one, abuse, or rejection, sickness.  Psalm 34:18 says “God is near to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  God can and will heal your brokenness, if you let him.  I love the Amplified  Bible translation of Isaiah 53:5.  It says “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]; The punishment [required] for our well-being fell on Him,  And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed.

You may be feeling hopeless, like life will never change or get better.  You may be telling yourself that your current situation is your lot in life so just deal with it.  He wants us to live life abundantly, and that means with fullness of joy.   He can take your hopelessness and give you an expectation for a good future. Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

If you don’t know Jesus as your personal savior, and would like to give Jesus your heart, say this simple prayer right where you are.

Dear God,   I need you. I am calling out to you today.  I am so tired of doing things my way.  I invite you to come into my life as my Lord and savior.  I repent and ask you to forgive me for my sins.  Help me to trust in you and to live my life for you alone.  Thank you Lord, Amen.

If you’ve said this sprayer, God will fill the emptiness in your heart with his Holy Spirit.  His grace and mercy will overflow in your life, bringing you peace and wholeness.  Don’t be surprised if you feel happiness that you’ve never felt before but don’t know why.  Read the above scriptures over to yourself so that you can let this gift of salvation settle in your soul.   Jesus is so good!  He is the Greatest Of All Time!  It truly is a Good Friday and a Happy Resurrection Day!

Go be Fabulous somewhere else!

Laura