3R's and 3P's
Hallo Hallo My dear reader! Thank you for stopping by and may the Lord of abundance richly bless you. Its a new week, and the last day of August and I am trusting and believing in the Lord that He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it and for His glory!
Today, I felt prompted to share about the importance of being with the right people, at the right place and with a right plan!
This is very critical to all of us because we are humans and we're social beings, we meet and interact with people everyday in our day to day activities but that doesn't mean that everyone is allowed in your circle, at any particular place and in any plan.
The first P, we'll look at is PLACE.
Our right place will often come after a season of discomfort, they often say, until your misery factor exceeds your fear factor, you won't change. God's way of making us move out and start something new is by discomfort. Any discomfort on the way to the right place is always worth it because the right place prevents the exposure to sinful situations and temptations. Thus, its critical to listen to God's voice always.
The first words that God spoke to Adam after he sinned referred to Adam's location. "Then the Lord called to Adam and said to him, ''Where are are you?''' (Gen 3:9). But Adam's sin drove him out of the place that was specifically prepared for him. We also see the example of Lot. Lot was Abraham's nephew and he chose for himself Sodom because he saw an opportunity to get rich. The problem is that Lot ended up losing his wife because he wasn't where he was supposed to be. You could go to a particular location and the forces of that region fight you and you end up in loss.
Another example is in the book of Ruth. When Naomi and her husband Elimelech left Jerusalem and went to settle in Moab, we see so much loss! Oh! For real this was too much! She lost her husband and then her two sons. There's something about the history of the land of Moab and its spiritual environment. Let me give you a brief recap over what I heard sometime back. When you look at Lot's life, after he lost his wife (She looked back at Sodom and became a pillar of salt), his daughters one day decided to make their dad drank with wine and they wanted a seed to continue their lineage. In essence, this type of sexual intercourse was forbidden and it was a curse. But off they went, the first daughter went in first, and got pregnant with the dad, and got a son whom she called Moab and who would be the father of the Moabites. The second daughter did the same thing and got a son as well and named him Ben-Ammi and he became the father of the Ammonites.
So here is the thing, the Moabites were the main inhabitants of the land of Moab, where Naomi and her family settled. That land was cursed for the boychild, that's why it had to swallow the men in Naomi's family. PLACE is a very critical aspect for everyone of us. You could go and settle somewhere and hell breaks loose! Who knows? So its very important to be led by God in every step and including the location aspect.
Second P is PEOPLE!
Okay, life is better together and honestly we're all social beings and God wants us to enjoy healthy relationships that also glorify Him. Who you chose to spend time with is one of the most important decisions you can make. Its also one of the most practical areas to begin discerning the voice of God and His will for our lives. Your relationships impact so much in your life, your destiny and how you'll achieve your purpose!
The people you surround yourself with determine the person you will become. When you start bringing the right voices into your life, you'll begin to make the right choices as well. And once you start making the right choices you get the right connections. Every time God does something significant in our lives, He introduces us to new people- the ones who are connected to our destinies and our purpose here on earth! Therefore, learning to discern God's voice and follow His leading will remove you from bad relationships and bring you into contact with the right people! Read that again!
Character discernment will help you avoid toxic entanglements! Character discernment is the ability to recognize and embrace relationships that are good for you and to recognize and avoid those that are not. You may need to develop this skill if you have a trail of bad relationships!
When people come into your life, they don't just bring their bodies, but they also bring their spirits!
There are two categories of people, the flesh people and the faith people.
Flesh People:
- They will tear you down and make you feel low and discouraged about yourself and your life.
- They will feed your fears and shake off your confidence
- They will ensure that they waste your time and drain away your energy
Faith People:
- They will build you up and move you closer to being the person God created you to be.
- They will feed your faith and encourage you to pursue your God given dreams
- They will be honest with you and be strong for you when you are weak.
God would want us to love everyone that we come into contact with, but we have to make sure that we surround ourselves with more people who fill our lives rather than drain us! Don't just fall thoughtlessly into relationships, ensure you make deliberate and discerning choices always.
Prov 13:20 "Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.''
Third P is PLAN.
God's plan for your life will often come through the unexpected events that push you in a direction that you would never have gone on your own.
A wonderful example of a character who experienced this wonderful push in the Word of God was Esther!
The book of Esther opens with a wild seven day party in the King's palace. The custom was always to bring the Queen of the palace out to dance in front of the audience. However, on this particular occasion, the queen refused! haha!
Greatly embarrassed the King decided to get rid of her and find a new one though a national beauty contest. And in that contest, over 100 women selected but Esther, the orphan girl was chosen as one of them.
Sometimes, when things happen in our lives that we cannot explain it lets us know that someone else is in charge. That God's hand is the invisible hand orchestrating events and actions in our lives. And overnight, God placed Esther in the palace!
Maybe Esther didn't envision herself being a queen. Maybe she had her own goals like every other girl. But God was orchestrating an extraordinary life and supernatural opportunities for her.
Often times, when we are busy grabbing the ordinary things, God is planning extraordinary things for our future. God always sees the potential we possess and when we follow His plan, we end up going places that we could never have dreamed of and accomplishing more than we could have ever imagined.
Romans 8:28, ''And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to His purpose." (One of my favorite verses in the Bible).
God's plan for your destiny is not just for you, its multigenerational. Most of the times we settle for less than God's plan for our lives. Many of us have gone far and know there's more out there but something in us keeps saying, ''Well, why go that far? Just relax. Why trust God for more when its so comfortable here?''
But the Lord is saying today, ''I have new plans for you. I have new opportunities and new places and new plans that I want to release into this season of your life."
Ephesians 2:10 reminds us, ''For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.'' When you were created, God encoded you for an assignment, and He gave you the power to get it done.
God has the inside information about your life and your purpose, and He doesn't mind sharing this with you. Ask the Holy Spirit and let Him lead you, guide you and help you encode what was written in your book in Heaven, so that you may live a fulfilling life and accomplish your God given purpose.
Ask God to help you see your future through His eyes. Open your heart to experience the depths of His great love for you and the plans that He created for you.
Therefore, dear friends, as we wind up. Let me encourage you some more.
God will always place people in our lives. Anytime you're about to go to a new level, God will bring new people into your life. And this people become the relationships that God uses to release you from the old and move you into the new.
Somebody out there is already at the next level where you need to be. Somebody else has already made it through the mess that you're struggling to get through. When you connect with that person, the power of God will begin to flow into a new way into your life and you'll also find yourself moving from where you are to where you need to be.
You see, there’s a “real you” trying to break out. God sees the real you. He sees your potential. He sees what is inside of you that can take you into your destiny. If you don’t have a mentor, ask God to bring one into your life. A mentor is a person who speaks to that element of potential inside of you and leads you to become the person God has created you to be. They expose you to new orbits of ministry, new habits, and new levels of expectation. A Godly mentor will keep raising the bar for you, asking for a little more effort and for better results, and teaching you to expect more from yourself.
Joshua was always hanging around Moses. Elisha’s success was found in his relationship with Elijah. Timothy sat at the feet of Paul and caught his spirit.
Be open and willing to learn as God uses relationships and connections with other people to move you to a new level.
Do you have people in your life who lift you up, encourage you, or help you on your journey? Is there someone who has successfully made it through the struggles you are facing? Do you have a Godly mentor in your life? Ask God to reveal to you the people and relationships that will help you overcome and reach the next level. When He does, don’t hang back and wait for the person to approach you; you may need to reach out and ask him or her to mentor you.
I hope and believe you have been richly blessed as I have.
This extract has been picked from Jentenzen Franklin, Right People, Right Place and Right Plan.
God bless you!
Winnie💜
Blessed!!
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