Go Forward!
The human spirit is not designed to stay in one place for so long or live with a particular kind of experience for a long time. We get bored. We get tired. We want new experiences. We want progress.
There is this toy that our twin boys have at home. When we first get it, they will fight over it. One will not want to leave it for the other. We often have to intervene for peace to reign.
But I noticed with time that the toy that was once the reason for contention no longer holds their attention. They got bored with it. Children need to be constantly supplied with a new set of toys to keep them excited.
From that experience, I learnt something profound;
The human spirit is not designed to stay in one place for so long or live with a particular kind of experience for a long time. We get bored. We get tired. We want new experiences. We want progress.
Don't blame the Israelites for murmuring or desiring to eat meat or longing for the goodies of Egypt until you have to eat the same kind of food, morning and evening, for 40 years. You cannot even eat rice, morning and evening, for one week not to talk of 40 years.
This is why you want a new house, a new car, and a new phone even though the current one is not that bad. You want a new professional experience; you are bored with the current routines of your current job.
It doesn't matter the level of success we have attained, there is always that desire for more. Your current level was once a dream. You probably thought you will be satisfied once you got to this level but I bet that you are currently not satisfied. You have seen another horizon; another goal that you want to achieve.
God wants you to keep going forward. You should never reach that point when your heart is not desiring to do more irrespective of age. You should be like Caleb who, at 80, was taking up the challenge of possessing another mountain (Joshua 14:6-13).
But here is what I have discovered, God's people can find themselves in situations and conditions that look like stagnation. One can feel confined and stranded. In Exodus 14:15, the Bible says,
And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:
My concern here is that the people to which this word was directed were the children of Israel, God's own people. They were trapped between the impassable red sea and the merciless army of Egypt. It was at that time that the word of the Lord came that they should go forward. So I inferred that it is possible to be God’s favourite like the Israelites and still find yourself in a difficult situation like them. Things can come to a standstill despite all you are doing to keep them moving and this is why God is sending this word to you that it is time to move forward.
The following are some of the signs and signals that show that you need to go/move forward;
● You Have a Sense of Arrival.
It is time to go forward when you reach a comfort zone. There is no longing, no desire for something more. You are settled down. You are satisfied with what you have achieved or where you have arrived. Look at what the Bible says about Moab in Jeremiah 48:11;
"Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed."
By verse 12, look at what God said he would do to Moab: "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles."
God hates it when you feel comfortable with where you are. And He will often challenge you or send challenges to you so that you can move forward. You either take up the challenge or expect challenges if He loves you.
This is why God in Amos 6:1 says,
"Woe (judgment is coming) to those who are at ease and carefree in Zion (Judah) And to those on the mountain of Samaria who feel secure…"
There is nothing bad in feeling safe and secure in a place but what are you using the safety and security to do? This is why God told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 1:6, "You have stayed long enough on this mountain." God was trying to get them out of their comfort zone. While they were on that mountain, verse 7 tells us that there were mountains ahead of them.
"Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates".
When you settle in your comfort zone, you are denying yourself the divine possibilities; you shut the door to all the things that God has in store for you.
Imagine that the Israelites settled on “this mountain” when there were “mountains” and “places” ahead of them.
What’s this mountain that you have settled in? Why have you lost your hunger and the desire for making an impact, a difference and change your world since you got married, got the multinational job or travelled out to a new country? God is saying it is time for you to get out of your comfort zone and go forward.
● You Feel Stuck, Stationed, Stranded or Stagnated
Feeling like you are still at a spot despite all you are doing is another sign that you need to go forward. When it seems like no matter what you do, you cannot go beyond the level that you currently are, then you are being called to go forward.
You have desired to break through into a new experience in your walk with God but all you have is this boring religious routine that has lost its life and vitality. Your income just cannot get beyond a particular level. Your business, ministry, or profession is just at a point with a particular kind of result. There is activity but no productivity. There is motion but no progress.
What God said about the Israelites is true of you, "You have dwelt long enough at this mountain" (Deuteronomy 1:6).
● You Feel Denied of the Things That You Deserve
You can see the things that you deserve in your heart, but you are too helpless to bring them into reality. Life is denying you what belongs to you.
Hebrews 5:11 says, "of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing." The author had so much that he wanted to say/write to them but he couldn't because these people were stagnant in their spiritual experience.
Perhaps, we would have had more chapters of Hebrews had it been that these people were not stagnant. See, it takes another version of you to enter the things that God has planned and prepared for you. If you remain the same person, you will not be able to access the things that God has in store for you.
● Your Manifestation is Not Commensurate to Your Age or Experience
Hebrews 5:12 says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food."
The critical statement here is, "by this time." Is this who you are supposed to be by this time? There was a significant disparity between who the audience of this letter was and who they were supposed to be.
If you feel that what is happening in your life right now is far less than what you ought to be experiencing then it only points to the fact that you need to go forward.
● You Keep Stopping and Starting
You are always going back to the foundation, starting something new. You really do not have a considerable progression about a particular thing. You'll start, give up and then come back later to start again.
The writer to the Hebrews said, "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation…" (Hebrews 6:1).
God doesn't want you to always go back to lay again the foundation; always going back to start again. No! He wants you to go forward.
If any of the signals or signs that I have listed above reflect in your life, the next question that should be in your mind is, “How then can I go forward?” The following are some of the things you need to work on to experience the kind of shift that you desire;
● Renew Your Mind
God was planning a promised land for the Israelites but their mind was still fixed on Egypt. They told Moses,
"Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness” (Exodus 14:11-12).
It doesn't matter where God is planning to take you, if your mind doesn't align with it, it will be difficult for God to take you there. Your first responsibility in going forward is to get yourself to start thinking at the level of what God is thinking about you.
You don't want God to say concerning you that "...My thoughts are not your thoughts…" (Isaiah 55:8).
Romans 12:2 says we are transformed as we renew our minds. In other words, when your mind changes, your situation will change.
Renew your mind through reading and meditation in the Word. Renew your mind by reading good and godly books. Renew your mind by visiting new environments that look like where you are going. Renew your mind through new and better associations.
● Connect and Provoke the Prophetic
One consistent way God has used to bring people out of stagnation and get them to go forward is the prophetic. See, you can feel so tied down that it will take the hand of God by the instrumentality of an anointed prophet to help you out.
Hosea 12:13 says, "By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved." And that was Moses. The widow of Zarephath was preserved in famine by a prophet - Elijah. The children of the widow of the prophet were delivered from the creditor by a prophet - Elisha. Hannah's delay in conception came to an end through a prophet.
The fact that there are a lot of fake prophets today does not invalidate the authenticity of the prophetic. May the Lord connect you with the anointed edge that will get you ahead in Jesus’ name.
● Pray Through.
I know you have been praying but have you prayed through? The reason most of us are not reaping the fruit of prayer is that we are unwilling to pay the price of praying through.
Praying through is praying until you get to either a tangible or intangible answer. By tangible, I am talking about answers that you can see. The intangible are the ones you cannot see but which have already been settled.
For example, the answer Hannah got from Shiloh was intangible. At the time when she received God's word through Eli, there was no Samuel but God's word said, "So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad" (1 Samuel 1:18).
One way you will know that you have prayed through is that you will no longer feel sad. It is what Philippians 4:7 describes as "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding".
If you don't have peace about it then you have not prayed through. If you still get anxious, worried, sad and depressed about it, you have not prayed through. And you must continue to pray like Hannah until you pray through. You must become persistent like the woman in Luke 18 until you get justice.
● Take Action.
Act on God's word. Do what you need to do. Break free from indolence and the spirit of procrastination. Taking action is the only way to set in motion the things God has promised to you.
It seems to me that God is incapacitated to help you until you act. I was surprised at what God told the Israelites in Exodus 14:15 in the Living Bible translation. It says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Quit praying and get the people moving! Forward, march!.”
The critical word here is, Get moving irrespective of the fear, challenges and obstacles that you might have on your way. It was when the lepers at the gate of Samaria moved that God had a chance to turn the sound of their little feet into the mighty noise the Syrian heard that made them leave their tents.
As you trust God for forward movement, find out actions that you need to take now to create the divine momentum that will birth your breakthrough.
● Speak.
The command the Lord gave Moses was to "speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward" (Exodus 14:15 KJV). You can also speak to your spiritual life, your business, your ministry, your finance, your health and anything or any area where you experiencing stagnation.
By the words of your mouth, you can change the course of your life for "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21). Speak and push that situation out of the mud into which it is stuck. It is time for you to go forward.
Hebrews 6:1 says;
“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.”
I want you to take note of two things in this verse;
The first is the word, “Leaving”. To go forward, there must be a leaving. The only way to know you have moved forward is that you can look back and see what you have left behind.
And that is what I see you doing after reading through this. I see you leaving where you currently are to where you are supposed to be. I see you leaving that bad habit, lifestyle, lukewarmness, fruitlessness, etc. I see you leaving your current status.
This brings us to the second thing in that verse. It says, “Let us go on to perfection”. In other words, you are not just leaving where you are, you are going on to something better.
And it is a “going on”. In other words, you will not stop again. Your ministry will go on, your business will go on. You are receiving the power and grace to be steady and consistent.
I also took note of the word “us”.
The writer understood that when one is going forward without the other, it will eventually impede the progress of the one going forward. It has to be collective and holistic progress. Your finances should not be stagnant while your spiritual life is moving forward. Your siblings should experience progress as you move forward too.
I want you to look at all those aspects of your life that have remained in a spot. Hold your business, ministry, spouse, sibling, etc. in the spirit and speak to them. Tell them, "Let us go on…" Let no aspect of your life stay behind.
And look at where God said you are going to - PERFECTION. I know you have heard people say it cannot be perfect but here is God's word telling you that perfection is a possibility. Romans 12:2 says you can prove God's good, acceptable and PERFECT will. Your health, family, spiritual life, and business can be perfect. Your life can be crisis-free. You don’t have to have something wrong that you are dealing with. God’s word says we can go to perfection.
Finally, Genesis 26:13 says,
“And the man waxed great, and WENT FORWARD, and grew until he became very great.”
This is what people will begin to say about you. This is what will become your testimony after today.
Your life, your spirit, your business, your ministry, and your finance will wax great and go forward. It will grow until it becomes very significant in Jesus’ mighty name. Do you believe in God’s word? It works when other things fail.
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Have a great August!
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I am moved forward!
Move into perfection!
I am unstoppable! In Jesus Name Amen 🙏.
Thank you very much sir, unction to function and may you receive grace upon grace to be relevant In Jesus Name Amen 🙏