You Were Born For This

If you have been trying to make sense of the current climate and how to find your footing on solid ground rather than shifting sands, hopefully I can bring a little clarification and a sigh of relief that all is well.

You may still be asking yourself "what even is 'this'?" in this season. You can feel the shifts and tensions of being unsettled, but maybe you just can't quite see what's up ahead. And that is perfectly okay, and completely deliberate of the Lord in this season. You are not missing it, there is purpose unfolding beyond any one individual, and the mystery requires renewed trust. There is so much alignment that the Lord is invested in individually and globally right now that carries tremendous significance, power and hope for the new era we as people, not just Christian's, have stepped into. It is strategic, and every person has a place and part in His design.

It's time to cross over and 'go a way you have not been before'. And as a pioneer or forerunner, you will be required to go that way before others can to make a way for them. It is that breaker anointing on your life that carves out the highways and byways for others to journey with greater ease. This is not the time try and accomplish things the way we have before, to duplicate someone else vision (though God may give very similar or interconnecting vision to many) just so we have something to run with, and we cannot look to how the body has done things previously and resurrect that which expired with it's season. We don't disregard the former, we honour it and value it's foundations. Yes recover that which has been lost, re-dig the wells, restore that which has been broken, re-build the ruins! We just shouldn't be trying to resurrect the dead fish from last decades meals unless we want to stink up the place. There is so much creative and strategic revelation I believe, that Holy Spirit has for us all, for something fresh, that will breathe new life into dry and empty places, even those areas in our world that simply need a refresh and injection of joy again. Life that will flip the current narrative in amazement and wonder.

So how do we go a way we have not been before when we don't know what that is? What if God seems silent? I have learnt that Holy Spirit is never truly silent, He is always speaking, just maybe not always how or to what we expect. Here are a few tips:

• A good way to encourage yourself in the Lord in your relationship with Him in this is to hear His heart for someone else. Knowing you are in step with His voice can be a great encouragement in the unknown.

• Also ask different questions, about lots of different things, it may surprise you what He reveals.

• What was the last thing the Lord spoke to you about stepping out into? Have you taken a step yet? If not take just one, then another and see where it leads you. Take a risk.

• Be you! Don't try to be someone you are not. What's unique about you? What are you passionate about right now? Feel like you have lost your passion? Where did you leave it?

• In your spirit is there restraint or release? Not always will the right thing give you feels you long for, sometimes it's just plain uncomfortable and this season is no exception to that. But you can often feel the inner restraint or release - whether to wait or to walk or to run - even within the process it's just as important. Is there circumstances at work giving you the most resistance right now in a particular area? Maybe that is an indicator as to the very thing you are gaining authority in.

• Sometimes God trusts you with what He has put inside of you and is waiting for you to step into it. Some of the most fruitful exploits in my life I never had an external prophetic word of confirmation. Encouragement yes, but I simply trusted what I knew He had put inside of me and took a risk.

• Look back at the prophetic promises over your life. How do they connect to and could express themselves in this season?

• Stay in the most intimate place with the Lord, be at rest, cultivate joy - these will sustain you in the future but it's amazing what is revealed to us when we are at ease.

• Look to and listen to what God is doing in the lives of other pioneers, not to replicate but to understand. Where you can see how others flow and fit, even in relation to you, you can begin to see your personal fit and flow. Look for clues within the body of what He is saying and doing, while multifaceted, diverse and dynamic, the body is still designed to move as one. Movement in unity is not the same as doing what everyone else is doing, in the same way parts of our physical body don't move and function in identical manner. If they did we would be tripping over ourselves and going around in circles.

• It's obvious but possibly we can overlook the value of prayerful friends covering us in these times. Stepping out again and again is no small feat, and we can make life easier on ourselves and feel supported by surrounding ourselves with trusted intercession.

• Having down all else stand. Need to just make some faith move? Look for His presence and those who follow after and carry it, and go where His presence goes. (Joshua 3:1-4)

• If you are stepping into the place of another gone before you to lead, you are building on their legacy. Don't throw it away, develop it and those entrusted to you that they have loved.

Pioneers, it's time for our enlargement and expansion, both inwardly and outwardly. We are not building an empire, we are becoming family that knows how to love, how to be healthy, powerful, yielded, generous humans together.

We are occupying new territory, and with that some spiritual giants will need to be sent packing, and they won't all go without a fight. It requires unrelenting confidence in the Lord and what He has said to keep standing, and we will need each other. Keep stepping little by little if you are still in the tensions of battle, ask for help from your brothers and sisters here no great or small the trouble. What you are contending for right now is so much greater than you can imagine, love led you here - love will lead you through it. Even if you are currently a bit banged up and bruised and gun shy like myself, you are not broken as you may think, quite the opposite. Don't yield your victory to the lie of defeat, there are others that get to win because of your resolve. The shift is coming, and it will come quicker as we go together.

Just know you were born for this, you were born to win, born to pioneer, born for the new breakthrough, and born for greatness - just by being you.

May the Lord go before us and be our rear guard, may His whisper in our ears soothe our souls, strengthen our hopes and set our courses.

Arohanui whanau

Treasure in Clay Jars "We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that the extraordinary overflow of power will be seen as God’s, not ours. Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option. We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.  We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity." 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 TPT