It's Only the Beginning
In the month of November, God is inviting us to re-cultivate spiritual hunger afresh and come back to our first love, Jesus. He is filling up those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He is rewriting our mistakes and turning every situation for good. He is showing us that He is outside of time, and He is redeeming time. And He is exposing every area where we have placed something above Him.
If you feel like you've missed it, are too late, or have already messed up too much, then you need to know that God isn't finished with you yet. In fact, He's only beginning.
Spiritual Hunger Is a Position of the Heart
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." (Matthew 5:6)
If you've been walking with God for any length of time, you might have noticed that you don't feel the same passion and fire you once did in your spiritual life. You might feel a sense of dullness, boredom, or indifference towards the Lord. Just as friendships and marriages require consistent cultivation and intentionality in order to maintain intimacy, so does our relationship with the Lord.
Right now, God is breathing life into the dull and dead places within us. He is reviving spiritual hunger in His people and stirring hearts afresh to seek Him. However, spiritual hunger is both a choice and a gift from God. It's not a feeling, but something that must be cultivated.
I (Katelyn) used to never eat breakfast because I wasn't hungry. But when I learned that I could boost my metabolism and lower my stress hormones (yes please!) by eating breakfast, I started eating breakfast before I drank my coffee. I kept this up even when I didn't "feel" hungry, and soon my appetite changed. I now crave a nourishing breakfast first thing in the morning because I chose to do something I didn't feel like doing.
In the same way, when we pursue intimacy with God even when we don't feel like it, we will soon crave His presence. We will develop an appetite for the things of God. (Photo via PickPik)
I (Anne) have spent many years praying for and teaching people how to be filled with spiritual hunger. In order to cultivate spiritual hunger in your life, surround yourself with people who are pursuing God, pray and ask for renewed passion, and make space to seek the Lord intentionally. What you cultivate will grow, and when you cultivate God's presence, your desire for His presence will increase.
God Can Rewrite Our History
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)
Months ago, my husband and I (Anne) were going on an afternoon date to the movies. We got all ready to go, had our tickets, and showed up at the theater only to realize our tickets were for the following week. We laughed when we realized, but they let us use our tickets for that same day. Even though this example is small, I thought of how often God covers my mistakes—even my big ones. He's not limited by my mistakes or imperfections.
Years ago, I (Katelyn) quit an unhealthy job when I lived in LA. This decision caused almost everything in my life to fall apart. Because of this, I moved out of LA and felt like I had failed and was abandoning what God had called me to do. After all, God was the one who brought me to LA. I lived with a lot of shame for about a year. However, God used this decision to profoundly shift the course of my life in a good way!
He isn't limited by what I call "failure." He used this decision to get me to acting school—a dream that I'd had for over ten years and probably wouldn't have considered while still living in LA. God turned my mistakes into good because that's the kind of God He is.
Of course, the choices you make are important. And your choices have consequences, both good and bad. However, we often put undue pressure on ourselves to make perfect choices. You're not too important to mess up your destiny and call on your life when you have said "yes" to Jesus. God is so good at turning situations for good. He is sometimes blamed for bad things happening; however, He's actually just really good at redeeming mistakes and turning them for good.
Right now, God is redeeming the broken, messy, shameful parts of your story and turning them for good. He is redeeming even the most painful situations and experiences. He is turning situations into gold in your life. If you feel like you've made irreparable mistakes, ask God to come redeem your story. It's not too late. He is turning even the most painful situations for good, if you'll let Him. Allow Him to transform your story. (Photo via Pixabay)
Smash the Clock
"...I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten..." (Joel 2:25)
Years ago, I (Anne) felt like I was running out of time, and I wasn't sure if God was going to bring certain things to pass in my life. I received a prophetic word where someone told me to "smash the clock." The clock no longer got to dictate what God could or couldn't do in my life, and I no longer had to hold Him to my timeline, but I could trust His. This word gave me so much permission to let go of the pressure and timeline I had created and allowed me to trust Him.
In a similar vein, I (Katelyn) wanted to go back to school at 21 and 24 and 26. And I ended up at acting school at 31, after I'd officially told God, "I'm done trying." But God's time isn't our time. And every time I told the Lord, "I'm too old to pursue this now," God reminded me that His timing was better than mine. Time and time again, I heard this phrase in my spirit: "I'm not in a hurry." I even bought a lemon tree as a prophetic act, because fruit trees take multiple years before they start producing fruit. It's okay if I'm growing and cultivating something that takes years to produce as well.
God's timeline isn't our timeline, so discard what everyone else's expectations are for where you need to be, what you need to have accomplished, or what milestone you need to have met. If you're not where you want to be yet, let go of the pressure and expectations and pick up God's expectations for you.
The more and more I connect to the heart of God, the more peace I feel at not rushing. God is not in a hurry. Rush and anxiety are not from Him.
Sometimes He communicates with urgency, but it's different from stress and anxiety and fear. So come back to His heart for you, and allow Him to replace your timeline with His. His timing is good and for the best. Repent for the ways you've partnered with anxiety and ask Him for His timing and how best to steward the moment you're in. He will release His strategies to you. Pray for the divine timing of the Lord to manifest in your life today.
False Idols
"You shall have no other gods before Me." (Exodus 20:3)
The word "idol" conjures up images from another time or an adventure movie. Idols, in our modern-day context, feel silly or ancient, like something that simply isn't real. In a culture where we don't have physical gods we worship and bow down to, it can be easy to think that we obviously don't have any idols. But an idol is anything we put before God, anyone whose voice we value more than the Lord's, or anything we expect to save us. In fact, an idol is anything in which we put our hope for the future. An idol can be a pastor, a career, a presidential candidate, an academic or creative pursuit, or any area where your hope and security lie. Our hope and security lie in the Lord above all. It's incredibly easy to position many things above the voice of the Lord. (Photo via Picryl)
In this season, God is inviting us to lay aside anything that has had dominion over our hearts and minds. Is it people's opinions? Is it a 401K? Is it the dream that you have to have? If your hope is dependent on certain external outcomes, it's possible there's an idol in your life.
Now please understand, God gives us dreams and visions for our lives. God wants to provide for us abundantly. God cares about how we steward our lives. However, our hope never lies in our dreams coming to pass. Rather, our hope is in the Lord.
In this season, God is inviting us, His people, to examine our hearts and determine if we've placed anything above Him. He is revealing areas where we have put our hope in something besides Him.
There is grace for fresh surrender, to lay our idols on the altar, and once again set God on the throne of our hearts. Pursue His heart above all and let go of what you think you "need" in order to be satisfied or okay. Allow Him to show you that He is the one who fulfills the desires of your heart, and He takes care of you. And ultimately, He is the one in whom our hope, our trust, and our futures lie. So come back to trust and surrender, for He alone is our God and He alone is our Savior.
Declarations:
• God is satisfying the desires of my heart.
• God is rewriting my history.
• I am smashing the clock; God is redeeming time!
• I seek God above all else.
• The Lord is turning all things for good in my life.
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Anne Jackson
The Crowning Jewels
Website:Â www.thecrowningjewels.com
Email:Â hello@thecrowningjewels.com
Texas-born Anne Jackson worked as a nurse for seventeen years before fully embracing her creative nature. Having grown up believing that God only spoke through the Bible, her life was transformed with the personal knowledge that He still speaks today. As she experienced a revelation of God's love for her and the power of words to transform and heal, she began designing jewelry, partnering with the Holy Spirit to create a tangible way to bring Heaven to Earth. This is where her prophetic jewelry company, The Crowning Jewels, was birthed. Many people recognize her company as a business-ministry hybrid. She is known as a prophetic visionary with the drive to accomplish her dreams. Her mandate is to champion others as they discover their God given identity and fulfill their divine purpose. After living in Redding, CA for ten years, she recently moved back home and currently resides in Texas.
Katelyn Alexander
The Crowning Jewels
Website:Â www.thecrowningjewels.com
Email:Â hello@thecrowningjewels.com
Katelyn Alexander is a masterful teacher and coach with a passion for seeing people walk in the wholeness of who God created them to be. An actor, writer, and storyteller, Katelyn blends creativity and charisma with a solid foundation on the Word of God. Katelyn first worked with Anne and The Crowning Jewels in 2015 and now blogs, writes, and teaches for TCJ.
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