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Nudged out of the nest
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Have you ever felt like you've been nudged out of your nest?
With your nest I mean that place that has become your retreat, refuge and resting place. We all need a resting place for refuelling to go back to and recharge. But we need more than that. We need risky faith and gutsy courage in order to grow our known zones and comfort zones and be about the purposes of God.
To step out of our comfort zone is necessary to mature in God and to start adulting! Childlikeness is awesome in the kingdom but our childish ways should be abandoned in order that we might be trustworthy and able to carry others to the throne of grace.
"My righteous ones will live from my faith. But if fear holds them back, my soul is not content with them!
But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!" Hebrews 10:8 TPT.
The scripture above tells me that my God is not content with me when fear holds me back. He is pleased with my faith. Therefore, I've experienced His gentle nudge out of the nest, my comfort zone, to trust the freefall.
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The definition of nudging is to gently push someone or something into a place or position. I experienced being gently nudged into a new place when I stepped into developing a new outreach department within my church.
Even though I was anxious as I can be about change in life, both God and myself knew I needed this transition to grow. So I gave Him my hesitant consent to take me where I had not been before, and trust He wold develop my wings on the way down; that His grace would carry me and give me wind in my sails.
Moses' freefall
Moses knew this gentle nudging of God as well. Moses' excuses to stay nesting were great (I'm not good enough, I don't have all the answers, people won't believe me, I'm a terrible public speaker and I'm not qualified - see Exodus 3 and 4) but he overcame his excuses and stepped out in obedience.
So can we.
Moses' obedience and courage even helped the next generation do the same. Through a song Moses wrote on his deathbed, the people of Israel, and their new leader, Joshua, were taught about God's faithfulness in the past. The testimony and wisdom from Moses gave them hope to step into the unknown freefall future without Moses by their side, and eventually they got to experience their promised land.
Moses' song has the potential to launch you into your promised land as well. It can help you put words to a season you are going through and courage to let God do and be the same for you as He was for Moses.
I have inserted 'me' in Moses' song below where it originally says 'him', referring to Moses and the people of Israel, for you to personalise and receive it for yourself:
"He (God) found me out in the wilderness, in an empty, windswept wasteland. He threw his arms around me, lavished attention on me, guarding me as the apple of his eye. He was like an eagle hovering over its nest, overshadowing its young, Then spreading its wings, lifting me into the air, teaching me to fly. God alone led me; there was not a foreign god in sight.
God lifted me onto the hilltops, so I could feast on the crops in the fields. He fed me honey from the rock, oil from granite crags, Curds of cattle and the milk of sheep, the choice cuts of lambs and goats, Fine Bashan rams, high-quality wheat, and the blood of grapes: I drank good wine!" Deuteronomy 32:10 MSG
This is who God was for Moses. He can be the same for you. He wants to lavish His attention on you. He can find you in your wilderness. He wants to protect you and discipline you; treat you like his beloved child. He is interested in your character more than your comfort. Therefore, He will teach you how to fly, even though it might be scary and there might be a long way down. If people do not or cannot stick with you to the next level you are going, you will be trained by God alone and learn that He is enough. God might allow you to let you fail temporarily but He will lift you up again and take care of your needs. He will give His finest to you because you are His beloved.
Name your nest
I do not know what your nest is called, but your nest can look noble and courageous in others' eyes and still be a nest for you.
My work as a team leader in a interdenominational café for sex trafficked women at night became a nest with time. There at night on my shifts, I was in my sweet spot, hidden away in a basement doing what I loved doing. But the grace also lifted from the work and I saw a mental picture of Jesus standing with a big watch on His wrist, pointing to it and saying to me: "Time is up, I am shifting the season."
As I transitioned into a new beginning ministry-wise and tried to navigate pouring new wine into new wineskins, I got this timely prophetic word that is strikingly alike to Moses' song in Deuteronomy 32:
"I feel like you need a little nudge. Yes a little nudge to push you over. It reminds me of the eagle pushing the baby out of the nest so the baby can learn to fly on its own. But the eagle as the Father lets the baby fall but the eagle/Father swoops the baby up before it lands. This process is done over and over until the baby learns to fly on its own."
This word might be for someone else too in your season if you feel God's gentle nudge to rise to what He is asking of you. And with rise, I simply mean to lean over the edge, and do the freefall, trusting that your Father will swoop you up before you land on the ground. He is developing deep trust in you. Trust in Him. Trust in your relationship; that you do hear Him rightly as He is calling you out.
Your perspective and trust might be tested when it feels like you are just about to land hard on the ground in the freefall, and your faith will probably soar as you experience the Deuteronomy 32-experience of God lifting you to the hill tops for perspective and provision. All the in-between feelings will probably arise too of doubt and insecurity when the roots developed back in the nest are tested.
His heart is not to shame you, humiliate you or push you away. Rather, He wants to teach you to face giants when it seems like you are on your own in the freefall; to trust His Holy Spirit is with you even when you cannot see Him. Your own prophecies over your life can be used as weapons as you wage spiritual warfare by faith and with a clean conscience (1 Timothy 1:18 TPT).
When you find it hard in the freefall, remember those days right after you saw the light - those were the hard times where you stood your ground for your new-found faith! Do not throw away your confidence. It has great reward and God delights in your faith, even when it is feeble.
As God is developing well-formed maturity in you, a confidence will arise that the roots developed in the secret place with Him, will carry you wherever He is leading you.
The future is so exciting. We've got this. Fall, we welcome you!
Love,
Sandra.
Your turn
- What is God asking of you that's pushing you out of your comfort zone?
- Where are you nesting when you are supposed to be flying?
- What is the first step you can take to jump and let God grow your wings on the way down?
- How can you trust the process and provision in the freefall?
- What can you do to actively remember the faithfulness of God? (Moses wrote a song that helped give him the confidence to leave the nest and develop wings on the way down.)
Spread your wings - soar & serve
Have you ever seen a beautiful bird spread its wings? It looks so natural, elegant and confident. Birds are generally thought of as a symbol of freedom. Birds can walk on the earth and swim in the sea as humans do but they also have the ability to soar into the sky. Birds are free to roam to earth and the sky, kind of like the link between heaven & earth.
For Easter, I went with my whole family to Scandinavias biggest bird park that is located in Nordsjælland, and there we watched one exotic bird after another spread their wings majestically as they are made to do!
One bird stood out though. As it had spent its first year as a pet inside a cage in captivity, it had never been stimulated by its owners or other birds to fly! It was cute and beautiful but not flying as it was created to and it was a bit sad to see the bird just sitting there on a fence watching the other birds fly around in freedom.
The interesting fact for me was that the ability to fly was inside of the bird from birth but flying still needed to be stimulated, nurtured and cultivated to actually happen. The bird needed encouragement and allowance to spread its wings. When we heard all this explained from the bird expert in this bird park, my husband exclaimed, something along the lines of:
"It's kinda like people who haven't met Jesus yet, and don't know the freedom and power they have access to through the Holy Spirit!"
Just wow, and yes and amen. We all continously need the Holy Spirit to be able to soar, fly and rise to live an overcoming life, and to not stay caged to our fears!
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That comment from my husband made me think about all the freedom I have access to through the gift of the Holy Spirit, and how I do not want to take that for granted. It made me think how I want to use that freedom to serve others in love, as Paul speaks about in Galatians 5,1. And I want to experience it also in areas where I can currently relate to that sweet bird who still lives with a cage mentality even though it has the freedom to step into the fullness of flying.
The good news is that even if we have had a bad start like this bird, we are not doomed to stay in that misery forever. Even if we are still waiting and praying for support from people around us to cultivate us to fly in life, we don't have to wait in despair. Even if no-one can do the cheerleading for us right at this moment, the Holy Spirit is our comforter and friend that can guide us into all truth that sets us free to soar & serve!
So, how are you using your freedom? Where are you trapped? Are you continuously inviting the Holy Spirit into your life to do what only He can do - set you free by the truth who is Jesus?
I know I need to lovingly ask myself these questions, because what we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:10–12 NIV)
When we know what we have access to, the freedom that has been given to us, we can spread our wings to soar and serve and encourage others to do the same! 🕊
If you have never invited Jesus into your life and experienced this freedom I'm talking about, you can pray this prayer whoever and wherever you are. He will welcome you with open arms:
Dear Jesus, I’m praying this prayer because I know that I have done wrong by living without you. I am sorry and I trust that you will forgive me. I accept your love and grace for me and ask that you would be my Lord all the days of my life. Help me believe in you and love you every day, and help me to show the world what you are like and how great your love is.
In Jesus Name. Amen.
Congratulations! To pray these words with a surrendered heart to Jesus is the beginning of the most important adventure you will ever embark on: the journey to follow Jesus. If you've prayed this prayer, the best thing you can do is to share it with someone and find a local church to be planted in. I would love to hear from you!
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A Bold Faith
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” 1 John 5,14
In beautiful but humid Malaysia, I did my first successful fast. I had three days of fasting that changed everything about my previous failed attempts with fasting for all the wrong reasons, and it changed my life itself too!
During those three days I had the honor of leading a homeless man to Jesus, and saw another man healed from a disease in his arm. The healing did that the man could return to his job as a cook and provide for his family again after 4 years of being unable to. After God healed his arm, he and his family could move into a house and away from the streets.
I do not believe that the timing of these breakthroughs and my time of fasting and prayer was a coincidence. I had asked God to specifically use me to lead someone to Him, and use me to heal someone through me. Both was something I hadn’t experienced before, and God was delighted to answer my requests. We need to be bold and to step out in faith. A fast truly fertilises your life for fruit, feeds your faith and puts familiarity to flame!
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The most life changing part about my experience in Malaysia was not the salvation or the healing itself but the intimacy with Jesus during the fast; the way my prayers flowed freely- this was a new level for me. It was like the heavens opened and every little sound from my lips was paid attention to. And actually, they always are paid attention to. The difference was my sharpened awareness of it and of God’s love for me. It made me bold.
Where do you want to see God break through for you? Personally? In your family? in your church/your job/your studies?
Ask boldly! Pray in the Spirit & expect great things!
Prayer:
Father, I thank you that I can come to your throne of grace with confidence, and receive mercy and find grace to help me in a time of need. (Heb.4,16) Thank you that you are for me and you are jealous for me to be only Yours. I ask for a breakthrough in _____________________
You are beautiful Jesus. Have your way in me.
Amen.
(Published on www.hillsong.dk - fasting blog - at Vision Sunday 12th ofFebruary 2017)
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Dip your toe in the water
Me. Myself. I. Words that normally would equal selfish to me! But I think there is actually more than one side to these words! They might have gotten too bad of a rap.
This post is some thoughts on how it can be easy to neglect ourselves in the name of selflessness! Thus avoid all that has to do with self so we can be selfless people, living for others. I know at least this lie has lived inside of me!
But I want to learn from Jesus who is the perfect example of being truly connected to His true identity as the Son of God. In order for me to walk in His footsteps and look like Him more and more, I realise how okay it is to know myself - strengths and weaknesses - so that I can be loved and embraced, with flaws and all.
It is also great to be self-aware (without being consumed by self-consciousness) so I can see parts of me I have orphaned, parts that still need the healing touch of Christ, and also to the rejoice over the parts of my self that Jesus' love has transformed.
Me, myself and I are therefore not to be shameful words which need to be avoided in the pursuit of being selfless! I think Augustine had a good point when he wrote in Confessions:
“How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self?”
My own self is what needs to be honestly engaged in my relationship with God and others. Otherwise the relationship is just hypocrisy. Without engaging my own - at times - selfish, fleshly self, I live without wholeheartedness, not fully alive and just numb. A way I have lived but refuse to live anymore.
Instead I am waking up and rising up to the challenge of becoming aware of where numbness creeps into my life.
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'Cause to live from the inside out, wholeheartedly, I need to be curious about the movements of my heart. My heart from where life flows. It is all about emotionally healthy spirituality. It's about truth and understanding. Of myself and others.
As I have begun dipping my toe in the water - into the depths of my own soul - I have found help in different tools.
First of all, community with fellow believers and seeing myself reflected in the pages of the bible, that's a no-brainer!
But tools like the Enneagram and Meyers Briggs (Use whatever tool you trust and unlock something in your heart) have also had impact on my ability to get aware of my own blind spots.
Used wisely, tools like these are not to put myself in a box but rather to help me break out of them. They can truly help turn blind spots into sweet spots. In cooperation with the Holy Spirit, they can serve as ways to get curious...
They can reveal how I go about a problem and why I go about a problem like I do.
What's my go-to defense mechanism?
What makes me tick?
What am I hiding behind?
We need to be willing to observe our resistance to reality and our attachment to our old self. It is all about taking off the old to lay hold of the new life Jesus has for us.
"We have to be whole to be wholehearted, and reclaim and reconnect with the parts of ourselves we have orphaned." (Brene Brown)
It is so sad to think about how we orphan parts of ourselves!
I have orphaned myself at times because I have been terrified of being a separate self, an individual who must assert myself against others. I would often rather melt and merge into someone else or quietly follow my idyllic daydreams. This default to hide is not awesome. Also, I can easily feel over responsible for others and under responsible for myself.
Therefore I have to be aware of this pattern that when orphaned turn into numbing out and people pleasing where I unconsciously communicate, "Sorry for taking up space! Sorry for breathing!"
Thankfully, I do not have to stay this way!
When I begin to have a grace culture for my own heart, everything has permission to rise to the surface! Also all the nasty stuff! When light invades in to the dark corners of my soul, I can then - and first then - fruitfully light up the darkness around me. Therefore we should not fear digging deep!
We do not look inside to be introspective or to overanalyse ourselves to pieces. That will just turn out to be super overwhelming! We cannot fix or heal ourselves. Instead, we engage the Spirit to do His work in us.
Step by step, little by little, I trust our love will overflow more and more, and that we will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. (Phil 1,9 NLT)
Getting to know ourselves that we might know God is the discipleship work of a lifetime!
So - dive in.
Explore.
Go ahead and dip a toe in the water! YOU are important.
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Come out of hiding
It can be scary to open up and to be seen. The thought of hiding and not experience being fully known and being fully loved has become a scarier thought to me lately though! I have realised how self-protection has been a sin in my life because it is rooted in fear. Everything that is not rooted in faith is sin. I have trusted in my own false protection instead of God's protection for me. For too long I believed the lie that the heart is protected by not closing anyone in on what I feel, think and dream about.
Surely, we need to guard our hearts with all diligence because all life flows from it! But how do we guard our hearts? By guarding our thought life! God is watching over His Word, not my worries. So I wanna have His word in my thoughts, <3 and mouth.
"The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host." (Psalm 68,11 ESV)
We need to be confident about who we are in Jesus and share what He puts on our <3 and in our spirits and get out of hiding. I'm preaching gospel to myself by writing this now, haha!
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We can easily become prisoners to our own personality or the boxes we have been put in through our lives. We have to dare to rise above! Some of us may like being in the background....but we are called to lay down our lives and it means we are called to stand up for someone's else's. Jesus is the ultimate example of laying down his life by standing up for ours! We cannot stand up for someone if we are hiding! It's tragic when we withhold something good that could help & bless another human being.
We have to let the Lord pen our stories as a skilful writer and not try to take matters into our own hands. We all has something significant to contribute, release & usher into the world - and it looks different for all of us. It could be words that needs to be said or written, art that needs to be painted or hugs to be delivered...
God is so diverse and colourful, and we get to express it when He builds His Kingdom with us, His Church - living stones - brick by brick.
"Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home." (Ephesians 2,19-22 The Message)
We need to come out of our shells because we have a story to tell. It's time to break free from our shells in Jesus name! We are not doing it in our own might and by our own power but by His Spirit. God wants to scoop all insecurity out of us so we can become alive to the talents we have graciously been given and shine with the personalities He created us with.
“No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a washtub or shoves it under the bed. No, you set it up on a lamp stand so those who enter the room can see their way. We’re not keeping secrets; we’re telling them. We’re not hiding things; we’re bringing everything out into the open." (Luke 8:16-18 The Message Bible)
We need to enlarge our comfort zones and illuminate fear from stopping the potential God has stored inside each one of us.
Sweet Jesus loves us too much to let us go stagnant through life. Instead He is the great Adventurer who daily woes us and leads us onward and upward in LIFE that's only found in the person of Himself.
Let's dare to take the next step of obedience, whatever that might look like! Disobedience to God's ways and workings in our lives, is the result of thinking that God's way is not the best way. How sad! Let our hearts cry be to never live in such deception of our Lord and King.
But let's never forget that victories are won in private. Therefore, God has us in hidden seasons too. If He puts us out there immaturely, we can cause people or ourselves harm when we minister from unhealthy places of insecurity and bitterness. There in the hidden we are not forgotten but carefully sanctified and purified from the inside out. It's in His mercy that He gently and patiently molds us - His clay - in His Potter hands.
When He sees fit, He will release us to go express something in the earth that can prophesy life into people - where He gets the honour and glory - because it's His work in us that shines through.
God will whisper things to us so that we can shout of His goodness from the rooftops.
"What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops." (Matthew 10:27 ESV)
It is scary to step out though but I like this quote by Thumper: "If you're scared, just be scarier than whatever is scaring you."
We need to be strong and courageous. Lisa Bevere, a prophetic voice in our generation, spoke this strong word lately: "I dare you, I dare you to stop being scared of your strengths in Jesus name."
It's ridiculous how satan tries to make us feel insecure - if not of our weaknesses, then of our strengths. When we step into something new, we need to remind ourselves that God is not looking for perfection. He already saw that in Christ. He is looking for our affection!
We are safe with God because we are His priority. Are we never allowed to be hidden anymore then? Absolutely! We are hidden in Him.
"You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word." (Psalm 119:114 ESV)
In God's story, He is the seeker and we are the hider. I like this song and these lyrics. It's golden!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFkDqQtfs0w
God can truly use weak vessels for His glory. Our lives are not our own. We have been bought with a price. Our only qualification is really our disqualification. That's the gospel.
I pray that we joyfully will lay our self focus on the altar, get out from our hiding places, and seek His glory! Our hiding places look different for all of us and where we need to step up and out really depends on where our journeys are at.
Where is the gentle Holy Spirit inviting you to step out and come out of hiding?
I do pray that you'll cooperate with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to prepare you for greater things than you've seen yet. I pray you'll experience a renewed boldness wherever you go. I pray that God will be your hiding place and by hiding in Him, you will awake a fearless approach to your next step in life.
God knows you and you are doing better than you think. He's enjoying watching you step out.
Have fun!
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