In some aspects, social media does bring us closer together by allowing us to keep up with our high school and college friends that we would not have otherwise been able to keep up with, and connecting us with new people through groups and mutual friends. However, in some ways, social media can also cause us to take each other for granted.

So, recently I’ve been on this 21-day social media fast where I have not gotten on social media except through Hootsuite to post to my blog. Thus, I’ve missed all of my real friends’ and families’ highlights online. Not seeing the highlights of my friends and family on a regular makes me legitimately miss them.

I’ve found myself texting and calling my friends and siblings more since I was no longer keeping up with them on social media. It’s as if seeing the highlights regularly create the illusion that I’ve kept in contact with that friend because I know what’s going on via social media, but social media is so limited and only shows the highlights.

It doesn’t necessarily show the deep things of the heart such as how a person is really feeling or doing. That could be why extremely genuine appearing posts normally garner the most likes because genuineness is not something we’re used to getting from social media. Did we really participate in checking up on and supporting our friends and relatives by simply giving them a like?

I actually have a brief blog series coming up about how our generation longs for and faces the challenge of vulnerability—meaning a safe place to let our hair down and just simply be us. Stay tuned for the upcoming series with some pointers on how to get that vulnerability and genuine intimacy that we need in the weeks to come.

Other things I’ve noticed since being off social media: There is no pull to compete with anyone or to get something done on a particular timeline such as being married or reaching a height within a career. Not focusing so much on others allows us to appropriately focus on ourselves and focus on others in a more intimate and easy to connect fashion.

When building a relationship in real life as opposed to social media; it isn’t just to connect around similar interests, but to connect with the actual person for who he or she is. Social media has gotten really big with business networking and sometimes you cannot tell whether a person is really with you or just networking around business purposes.

I’ve enjoyed my social media fast so much so that it is almost tempting to continue until the end of the year, but if I did that I’d miss out on some of the really good things social media has to offer such as various local events that I otherwise would not have heard of. You know a girl has to go out and have some fun every now and then.

The goal isn’t to get off of social media, but to utilize it in such a way to build stronger valuable connections. This may simply require more boundaries when signing back on such as un-following distracting accounts, and limiting scrolling time to a particular specified time. This will allow for more specificity in how social media is used.

It may also allow us to miss some of the highlights of friends and family causing us to want to check in with them more in person rather than following the illusion that their good because we’ve seen them on social media.

Have you ever done a social media fast? How did it make you feel? Did you feel more connected to people in real life? Share your thoughts below in the comments:

Michelle Williams Has a New Bible Plan on YouVersion

So, this weekend an alert popped up on my Google stories showing that Michelle Williams has a new Bible plan, “Anxiety & Depression: Finding Hope with Michelle Williams.” I was anxious to check it out noting how Michelle Williams has been an advocate for mental and emotional health. I did the day one devotion and here is what I found:

The plan is packed with short and powerful nuggets to shift our mindsets from anxiety to freedom, trust, and rest in the Lord. Day one rehearsed the below scripture:

​Blessed be God–
he heard me praying.
He proved he’s on my side;
I’ve thrown my lot in with him.
Now I’m jumping for joy,
and shouting and singing my thanks to him. – Psalms 28:6-7 (MSG)

Her focus on day 1 was looking to the Lord for our joy and strength. I love the part in scripture that says, “I’ve thrown my lot in with him.” This means I’ve signed up to take the risk of following and walking with God. Risk infers that we do not necessarily know the outcome. Hence, this is how anxiety arises by not knowing and worrying about what we do not know, but because we are taking the risk of trusting in the Lord; we know that the outcome will be good because God is good and God is faithful.
Another scripture she mentions on day 1 is the below scripture:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

The above scripture spoke to the Israelites just as they were about to go into bondage to the kingdom of Babylon for 70 years. God did not want his people to worry that things would be the same forever. He wanted them to have a sure hope and future in what he said, planned, and promised to them. 

Sometimes, when we’ve been in the same situation for so long; it can seem as if things will never change or never get better. That’s when we are challenged to either believe our circumstances or to believe what God has said. Joshua 1:8 says to meditate on God’s word day and night and not allow it to depart from our mouths this is how we will make our way prosperous and have good success. This is the time to apply that scripture.
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I encourage you to begin and complete Michelle’s Bible plan on the YouVersion Bible App. It has so many nuggets that will cause you to think on more and more nuggets from God’s word until you are finally free of any and all oppression from the anxiety and fear that seeks to rob us of God’s blessing of peace and promise for our lives.

Let’s start by embracing the two principles from day one:

1.) Let’s take the risk of putting all of our trust in the Lord believing God for a good outcome.
2.) Let’s choose to continue to believe God no matter what it looks like realizing that things will not always be the same as they appear today. Things will get better.

A Barrier to Hearing God is a Hardened Heart

When we think of a hardened heart, we think hard, impliable, and impossible to get through to. We think of someone who is mean and stubborn, but someone with a hardened heart may not always manifest it in a big way. Someone with a hardened heart could show it in what one of my former pastors used to call silent rebellion.

Silent rebellion is simply following our own way without making a big fuss. Jonah was one who had a hardened heart. He was one who sought his own way despite knowing the instruction of the Lord. Clearly, he had his own agenda that he wanted to see done instead of God’s will. Some say that the Ninevites were arch enemies to Israel who were very violent to the point of skinning Israelites alive. Nahum 3:1-4 warns of the utter violence and lawlessness of Nineveh.

Nineveh was the land that Jonah was told by God to preach to when Jonah intentionally went in the opposite direction. He did this because he allowed his heart to become hard, stuck, and set on his way in spite of what God said.

I think we can all allow our hearts to become hardened at times when it comes to making life decisions. We all can exalt our opinion above others including God’s voice. This is why God warns in his Word not to harden our hearts when God speaks.

As it has been said: “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.” – Hebrews 3:15

It’s sort of embarrassing to admit that we at times can have hardened hearts that cause us to rebel against God’s voice, but it’s reality. It’s a part of man’s proneness to stray away from God. However, being aware of this proneness to stray; urges us to humble ourselves and ask God for grace in this area. His grace will cause us to trust him more and to respond in faith and obedience toward his voice instead of hardness and rebellion. 

Even I’ve been guilty of this. When I renewed my car insurance for liability only, instead of full coverage, when the Lord told me to add full coverage. Part of the reason, I did not add the full coverage was because I was comfortable with doing it my way instead of allowing myself to be pliable to do it God’s way. I thought my way was more cost-effective, but in the end, God’s way was.

In what ways could God be speaking to you that you are ignoring in hardness or stubbornness of heart?

Introduction to The Wholeness Action Plan – Video

The video is a brief introduction to “The Wholeness Action Plan.” I begin discussing how we as believers often walk around carrying things that make us broken. We fail to access the transparency needed to begin healing and trust in God by ignoring there is a problem in the first place.

Further, I discuss how there are many benefits to someone who is broken, and how God uses brokenness to our benefit as believers.

​For the High and Exalted One, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this: “I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed. – Isaiah 57:5 (CSB)

The above scripture points to one of the most beneficial uses of brokenness by God and that is to cause dependence on him. God doesn’t necessarily cause brokenness, but when brokenness comes, God shows up. There is a special intimacy with God that is attained in broken places. This is when we begin to see God and we begin to recognize our need for him. We tend to appreciate him more in this place than when things are going well.

I dismantle the lie that we have to do something wrong to end up in a broken place. Often, it is the case that many have not done anything wrong, but God has allowed them to suffer for his own glory.

If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. – 1 Peter 4:14

Many believers are persecuted and spoken of in a demeaning manner as if they have been in sin and that is why they are going through brokenness. That is not always true. Many of our great leaders have experienced brokenness without doing anything wrong. Take Martin Luther King Jr., who was jailed as an innocent man among many other things, Nelson Mandela, who was also jailed as an innocent man who fought apartheid, and of course, the greatest, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, but became sin for us.
Many have suffered brokenness to bring God glory and effect unusual change. Don’t underestimate those who are broken and who suffer.

Further points covered in the video include brokenness as an indicator of promotion when nothing is done wrong to induce it. I discuss the fight to maintain the right mindset during this type of a circumstance. Please, view the video below and leave your comments or order the book at www.holyneckswirl.com

Sometimes, we will not know that God is speaking for sure until the confirmation comes such as in the cases mentioned last week on part one of the blog. I mentioned the accident, the person stealing the mail, and confirmation that an address was wrong, but if the voice sounds like wisdom that isn’t contrary to the Word of God and could help us in some way; then taking that step of faith will not hurt us, but only help us. Sometimes, what God is trying to say clearly unfolds later as we walk by faith. Each time we see the result; we will grow a little more in hearing and following the voice of God. Take the example of Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples below.
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Peter hesitated to obey God’s voice because God spoke to him in an unexpected way. You see, God was causing a shift in the culture of the Jews and Gentiles, and He wanted the message to be clear to his disciple Peter who he would use to communicate the message. Peter, even though learned in Jewish tradition was to allow himself to be pliable through faith in what God was saying in that moment in order to carry out God’s plan. Likewise, when God is causing a shift in our lives, we have to remain pliable in our faith and response to the Lord as well.

God showed Peter a vision of unclean meat telling him to kill and eat it. At first, Peter said no, rejecting what the Lord was saying because Peter was used to doing things in a particular way. Maybe, Peter in that moment questioned if that was really God sharing with him to kill and eat unclean meat because in the old testament God told them not to eat the meat. He was used to not eating certain meet considered unclean. Peter did not get a confirmation of what God was saying until he met with Cornelius. It was at that time that the meaning of the vision became clear to Peter. The vision Peter received had been metaphorical of the relationship between the Jews and Gentiles. The Jews were used to not associating with the Gentiles, but God was causing a shift in thinking for his purpose.

He wanted the Jews and Gentiles to both receive salvation, and to be on one accord. If Peter had of gotten stuck in his understanding and his way of doing things; he would have missed out on the move of God that was going on during that time. Peter, later in scripture, still struggled with this idea, but he submitted to it because he knew it was God. God is not asking us to be perfect in always knowing everything or doing everything perfectly, but he is asking us to have faith and obey him when he speaks. This is what Peter did in this instant, and Cornelius’ whole family along with many others experienced salvation and the infilling of the Holy Ghost because of the proper revelation taught by the early Apostles including Peter.

Sometimes, in order to get to the next place in life we have to let go of how we hear and obey God and stepping out on our faith to apply just what he is saying, while waiting for the confirmation later. If we are wrong, at least we stepped out in faith, but if we are acquainted with the Word of God we will not be grossly wrong, so stepping out in faith while hearing God’s voice in an unfamiliar way will not hurt us.

Recently, I was blessed to attend the Killing Kryptonite tour with John Bevere in Peoria, IL. We had an intimate Question & Answer Session with him where I asked him the question, “What was your preparation process like for the various platforms that God had for you because I’ve noticed that it seems as if God will hide those he has called for a season?”
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John began to share that it was through remaining under authority and serving in the house of the Lord even through suffering, and being done wrong. He shared that it was his endurance through those things that God used to build his character.

“God cares more about your character than what you do for him.” – John Bevere

“God is more interested in people who will finish well. Allowing ourselves to be refined in the place God puts us in causes us to finish well.”- John Bevere

John mentioned some things that he had gone through at his church. He prayed–asking the Lord if he should leave, and the Lord’s answer was to stay and so he stayed and was refined in the process. John shared saying, “Relationships and organizations are messy, and God knows it. Don’t run from the circumstances that grow you.”

He further elaborated on how he found himself in a season where he woke up in pain, went throughout the day in pain, and went to bed in pain (See Jeremiah 15:18). He asked the Lord what was going on. God shared with him that he was in the process of dying. Not physically dying of course, but dying to himself and to his will and such. He continued stating that God wants us to live in such a position that we live almost as if we are dead but alive.

For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. – 2 Corinthians 4:11

The above scripture provides some brief insight into what John was sharing. When God calls us to die to ourselves meaning our will, wants and way of doing things; it isn’t, at that point, about us, but God’s glory.
He went on stating that a person knows when they are dead because they no longer feel the pain of dying. We love perfectly when we aren’t operating out of seeking our own wills. We aren’t easily offended and do not operate out of fear when we are dead. We live in a place of trust in the Lord.

Suffering under authority brings authority. John shared how a minister came to him and shared that he must have suffered through a lot of things to teach in such authority. Enduring through suffering for Christ brings authority. He added that we should not look for our own wilderness as to search for suffering, but that the Holy Spirit would lead us to the wilderness designed for us. Similar to how the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. During the wilderness experience, character and greater authority are birthed.

Another gentleman asked John a question about writing, and John shared how he did not want to be a writer, but two prophets came to him giving him a word warning that if he did not write what God gave him to write, he would have to give an account to God.

John began writing out of fear for God and obedience to God. I think these truths are so important to share and operate by especially for those coming up in my generation and the next generation afterward. Sometimes, we can do things out of obedience to God and fear for God, yet we don’t see a whole lot of fruit from it in the form of likes, comments, or a great following online. It could be that like John shared, we are in a refining process, and that is a part of the process. God could be grooming our character for his purpose, and we just need to stay where God has placed us and to remain faithful

Listen to the portion of the Q&A session that I was able to record on my phone below:

​I am in awe and wonder at what the Lord is doing in my life right now. Of course, I know this is only the beginning. There are more great things to come. Prior to this season, I was in a season where I was going through one trial and tribulation one right after the other and sometimes more than one running together. I was almost suffocated by pain, and now it’s almost the opposite. I am almost suffocated by excitement, but my expectation tells me there is more.

I learned the need for a greater level of discipline during each season. God allowed me to go through to prepare me to keep my eyes on him during the season of tests and trials, but also during the season of favor, I have to practice just as much discipline to keep my eyes on Jesus.

Things are going so well in my life that I have to be careful not to worship sort of speak or get my joy for life simply out of the season, but from my relationship with Jesus Christ. The truth is we need discipline in every season to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ. Pain competes for our attention, and discipline helps us not to focus solely on the pain, but on the God who sustains us through the pain.

When we are undisciplined in dealing with pain, we begin to make self-destructive choices. When we are undisciplined in dealing with the joy of a season, we become lazy with making right choices and seeking God, and we likewise begin to make poor choices.

Again, discipline is necessary for both seasons. It’s like when you are riding a bike uphill, you have to exert more dedication, energy, and zeal in order to make it up the hill. This is the season of trials and tribulations. We are more careful to seek the Lord, fast and pray, uphold God’s commands, and speak the Word of God over our circumstance because we are desperate.

When we are riding a bike downhill, we don’t have to exert very much energy. Things fall into place. All is well. We can easily fall into seeking the Lord or not, reading God’s word or not, meditating on God’s commands or not. It can be more of a ‘Que Sera, Sera, which means whatever happens happens. We focus more on enjoying the moment than investing in the future. It is important to focus on enjoying the moment, but not to the neglect of our future.

During the good times, it is still needful to fast and pray and keep the flesh under submission to the discipline of God’s word. The investment in this area may not be the same as it was during the trial and tribulation season, but it should not go away. Understanding the need for discipline and the things the Lord allows in our lives to produce that discipline and character within us such as trials and tribulations; is a glorious thing to see. It produces a glory within us that points to God that is unmatched by anything else.

The type of glory produced in this lifestyle causes people to question who we are and what we’ve done. Others will want to know what the formula is, and it can be summed up in one word Jesus. Abiding in Christ, and learning to be disciplined in both seasons of life produces a person beautiful, refined, and full of the character of God. Thus, I encourage you not to lose yourself in either season rather trials and tribulations or seeing the goodness of God on display. Continue to offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable in both seasons of life.

Presumptuous​
Because of the pride that naturally comes from not seeking the Lord as we should; it’s easy to become presumptuous based on how things appear. This is what Israel did. Those who came back with the negative report in Numbers 14 were killed by a plague. After those remaining saw this; they took it upon themselves to go up to Canaan themselves to attempt to inherit the land. This they did without seeking the Lord. They were used to being presumptuous and making choices off of what appeared to make sense instead of seeking the Lord. This is also a result of the broken. Sometimes, we can get so busy, even as believers, and fail from seeking the Lord, and in our presumption make poor choices. A little humility to stop, be still, listen to wise counsel, and seek the Lord will prevent unnecessary mistakes made in presumption.

After ignoring the warning of Moses not to go up to Canaan because God was not with them in their decision; the children of Israel went up anyway and they simply got a beat down.

Nevertheless, in their presumption, they went up toward the highest point in the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah. – Numbers 14:44-45

Destroyed or Preserved
Ultimately, we all have a choice in how we will navigate uncomfortable circumstances that come to stretch us and build our faith so that we can handle promise.  Moses, Caleb, and Aaron were in the same boat. They all were in a foreign land making passage to a land of promise by faith. Even though they were in the same boat facing the same circumstances, not all of them had the same outcome.

Some were destroyed due to lack of faith, unbelief, competition, control, contempt toward the Lord, and all-out rebellion. All of the negative things mentioned were a choice. Just like Caleb, Moses, and Aaron chose to have faith–so can we. Now Moses, Caleb, and Aaron were not perfect by any means, but they trusted in the Lord. That is the lesson that has to come out of this whole series. We have to be able to recognize when we are exhibiting characteristics of one who is broken, and address those characteristics with the things that make us whole such as humility, seeking the Lord, faith, the Word of God, and having the right perspectives. We do not have to be destroyed while we are in transition from one place of faith to the next. We do not have to allow ourselves to remain broken when we do face challenges that break us, but we can by God’s grace and our choice be preserved to enjoy life in the next season of our personal promised land.

Broken people often speak negatively because they have just about given up hope. They tend to forget what the Word says about how a man will be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth (Proverbs 12:14). 

This is what the children of Israel did. They spoke negatively saying their wives and children would be taken, and they would die in the wilderness. God responded to them by giving them over to the evil that they had spoken upon themselves, but he said he would spare Caleb and the children of those who did not believe.

So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: In this wilderness, your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. – Numbers 14:28-30

This negative speaking shows that there is unbelief somewhere in our hearts regarding what we are speaking about negatively. This can easily be uprooted through building up our faith in the particular area. If you are experiencing brokenness in an area causing you to lose hope and speak negatively; you have a responsibility to build your own faith. Moses and Caleb attempted to build the faith of Israel, but many of them just would not get it because faith is something that has to be grasped by a person. You have to get it for yourself.

But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. – Matthew 15:18

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, – Jude 1:20

Next week we will discuss presumption and summarize this as next week will be the finale’ of this series. For more on wholeness visit the link: Click here