I felt the Lord want to speak to the depths of you today.
There is a summoning inside of you. Maybe it’s a longing, a deep knowing. I know that you are acquainted with exactly what I'm talking about. You already know that 2023 is not going to be like other years. You are aware that He is calling you to more. You know, on the inside, that the Lord is calling you higher, and asking you to die to compromise of any kind. You know that there is a cost to be counted and the Spirit inside of you is not resting until you count that cost. You fear that it will be hard. You know that things will change drastically. You sense the call to culling and changing and moving your life around for Him...maybe even a change of location. You know it and you have known it for a while, but it is becoming louder in your spirit than in previous years. You can't ignore it any longer. You are starting to see that this is more than just New Year's resolutions. It is His voice calling you up. You know that you were made for it. Where you once felt satisfied you now feel restless. You haven't even told anyone, but you cannot escape this feeling that you are maybe settling for less than what life is meant to be. That, perhaps, there is more to following Jesus than this. It's not necessarily about ‘outright sin’ as much as it is about compromise. The Spirit in you hates compromise, which is why a strange response is invoked when you think about it.
But Jesus is asking us to FIND LIFE in Him and nothing else.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25 (NASB) You want 2023 to be different but you fear what that means.... What it truly means to count the cost. I hear the Spirit of the Lord say, "Do not deny my voice. Do not silence the call that you feel within! Times are changing rapidly, and you were created for more than settling into a comfort that is actually driven by fear. I am not the one who is giving you a spirit of fear... My spirit is power and love and a Sound mind," says the Lord.
There is a new HERALDING CALL to Lordship...this is what you are sensing. Placing Jesus as supreme authority over every aspect of life overrides culture, family dynamics and worldly philosophy. The wisdom of the world, after all, is counterfeit. Lordship is superior in every way. Being fully yielded to Him is imperative and the ability to do so is part of your inheritance.
Yieldedness comes when we allow Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to be our everything (Psalm 23). To trust in His goodness, kindness and mercy that chases us down. Jesus is worth dropping everything to follow. And you can trust Him. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Mark 10:21-22 (ESV) Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. Mark 10:29-30 (ESV) After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
1 Peter 5:10 (NASB) Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. Romans 8:18 (NLT) IT'S TIME TO COUNT THE COST. IT'S TIME TO DO HARD THINGS. What you sense is from the Lord. Accept His call, and begin to truly LIVE! Let 2023 be the year of complete surrender. The year of letting go of the old to embrace complete fulfilment in Him. The year compromise is smashed, and truth - in every area - is all you live for. Go back to Lordship, and find that even in “suffering,” you are perfected, confirmed, strengthened and established in Him. Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; Also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. I beg of you to answer His call. The time for utter holiness and surrender is NOW.
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB)
With Him, you can do hard things.... xoxo Mandy
P h o t o b y L a n c e G r a n d a h l o n U n s p l a s h
