“Well, our ancestor Abraham pleased God by putting his son Isaac on the altar to sacrifice him.  Now you see how Abraham’s faith and deeds worked together.  He proved that his faith was real by what he did.”  James 2:21,22 The Message Bible

In December of last year, God dropped in my spirit the endless possibilities that He had for my business.  He showed me where He wanted to take it this year 2011.  I was so excited and was in a place – spiritually and emotionally – where I believed what He was showing me.   So I started to confess it and thank Him for what is to come.  I shared it with key people, people that I know pray for me.  Over a month later, I woke up one morning, and the spirit shared something profound that I want to share with you.

My faith talk was expressing my belief in what God had shown me but my actions were not.  My actions were reflecting my old way of thinking.  In order to get what God was showing me in my spirit, my actions had to change in the natural.  I was not going to go to the level God showed me, if my actions didn’t change to produce the results I needed.  I needed to do something different and more than what was done last year.  You may have believed God for something last year that never occurred and you may have been wondering why you believed God for it.

But lets put last year where it belongs—in the past.  Today is a new day.  Do the following to exercise your faith and make your faith visible to yourself and others:

1. Write down what your faith is telling you in your situation
2. Now write down the actions that match the belief
3. Don’t allow your fears to cloud your actions
4. Now be courageous and do what you have written down.

This is faith in action. Today choose to turn your faith into action. Let me know how you do with this! J

Are You Listening to Your Life?

It’s a funny thing about God, He gives us all the bells and whistles that we need to make it through. Are you so busy that you are not paying attention to your own life? Let’s take a closer look at this…

The Nudge When was the last time you felt that inner nudge? When we don’t listen to that inner nudge we tend to regret the decisions that were made. Here’s an example. A woman got up to go for a drink in the middle of the night and she felt that inner nudge. She felt a great need to take her baby out of the crib. She took a baby out of the crib and seconds later there was an earthquake. Where the baby’s crib once stood was now a pile of debris from the roof. She felt and paid attention to the inner nudge. The Holy Spirit often nudges me to do things or not to do things. When I listen I am grateful. When I don’t, I often regret it now or later.

Repeating Circumstances Are you experiencing patterns in your relationships or career? We often inadvertently get ourselves into patterns that we may or may not want to be in. Choosing the same type of people, experiencing the same situations in our career, are things that should trigger us to stop and take a look. If patterns have been reoccurring in your life or over the last few months, is it possible that you are creating or attracting these situations. Is it possible that you need to learn something from these situations to help you get out of your comfort zone?

The Heart Prick Have you ever been in a conversation when somebody says something that pricks your heart or makes your heart jump? Or some people say it’s as if a light bulb went off. I call that the prick of your heart. When this happens it probably means that you have to pay attention to what is being said and find out what it means to you.

All three of these life signals are just ways set up by God to help guide us or to provide us with the help or information that we need to make a decision in a certain area of our life. These signals could come close together or months apart. Or some people only get one signal and get the message.

Whether you are a corporate executive, a house wife, an entrepreneur or a student, learning to listen to your life can help guide you to make better decisions in life.

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I put my hope.” Psalm 130:5 NIV

How many times have you dialed a business only to hear, “Please hold, your estimated time to wait is…?” I wonder how many times you have waited, then decided you can’t wait any longer and prematurely hung up the phone just before the operator or attendant is coming on the line. Probably more times than you know.

Waiting is something that is almost a curse word to many of us. We’ve made it offensive to our soul. We are surrounded by things, systems and people telling us to do it quickly or else you will miss out. Everything seems to be moving at light speed. Fast food. The internet. The microwave. Instant food. Because everything else is getting faster, we expect God to lower His standards and rush through everything as well. Not so. He does things perfectly and He has His timing. The truth is, if we don’t wait on God, we may end up with a business, church or ministry that is thriving because of our persistence and God –given gifts, but not because of the perfect plan and timing that God has for us. And I might add, they won’t last. There is a time to do and a time to wait.

Many of us intellectually understand that there is often a waiting period between a dream and the fulfillment of the dream.  Between receiving God’s promise or command and walking in the fulfillment of that promise, but it is not emotionally received or spiritually understood. Thus, our actions begin to display what we really believe. We tell ourselves, ‘God can’t possibly want me to be out of work right now, while the bills are piling up’, or “He couldn’t possibly want me to wait and keep silent while they are speaking untruths about me and my business.” Abraham, David and Joseph provide us great yet different examples of waiting. God speaks His purpose then it appears as if He forgets about the promise He made. Their examples show us the molding that we have to go through during this time and that though waiting may appear too long (see II Peter 3:9) , the rewards are exponential.

Do things appear to be going south?  Bills piling up? Clients diminishing? Problems with colleagues? Congregation dwindling? Family issues? I could go on about what our challenges look like and what you could experience, but I want to share three (3) ways to walk through your waiting period. Notice I said, walk not run.

Stop! (See Psalm 46:10) Stop “doing”. Stop trying to figure things out. Stop trying to do something to get out of this situation. Stop listening to everyone else. Stop worrying (See Jeremiah 17:8) Know what season you are in. Just stop. There is a time when God wants us to act or “do”. He’s quite capable of telling you when it’s time to act. Right now it’s time to wait.

Trust God (See Romans 10:11) . He created this universe. He created you. He allowed your situation. He designed your destiny. Trust Him. This may take every fiber of your being, but develop a new habit, by saying each moment, “Lord, I’m going to trust you even though this doesn’t make sense and even though my flesh does not want to. I’m going to trust you. Help me Lord” If you don’t know what it means to trust God that’s good, because now you can spend time getting to know Him, so you know what it means to trust Him. Your waiting period is a time to get to know Him on a different level.

Prepare (See Psalm 1 & Luke 2:52). This is your preparation period. This is where God purges you and curtails your character so that you don’t embarrass Him or the body of Christ in the next level. Learn all that you can during this time. Write, study, listen and observe during your waiting period. Glean as much wisdom as you can. Just don’t start “doing” because clearly God doesn’t think you are ready yet!

Many of us get STUCK in our habits or thinking thus making it harder to wait. In my book, Knuggets of Knowledge to Get Unstuck, I share 16 nuggets to help one GET UNSTUCK in their thinking and beliefs, so you can walk into what God has for you with the right attitude and habits. Our waiting period is designed to RENEW OUR MINDS and develop the Godly habits [wisdom, peace, power, love, patient, joy, etc.] we need for our next level. I encourage you to wait patiently and with expectation so that He can fashion you for the perfect destiny that He has designed for you. Whether it is starting a business, creating a new ministry, or taking your church to the next level be patient during this time. He is doing necessary work in you. Don’t abort the wonderful experiences that He has for you. Be patient and just wait a minute!