YOU’RE GONNA HEAR ME ROAR…

When God’s whisper becomes a SHOUT…

Will the real you stand up? At Soul Church last Sunday I was asked and therefore shared some of God’s life lessons on being myself over coffee and, walking into the main service heard Pastor Jon Norman saying the same words from the platform I’d been saying outside “Will the real you stand up”! God’s whisper to me just became a shout….and I believe more people need to hear the roar…

Life throws so many arena’s at us, all with differing positions and varying expectations. In some arena’s I am expected to be professional, others a goo’ing and gaa’ing Momma, others to be cool and young, whereas other arena’s require sophistication and maturity. It can become just a little confusing and draining to say the least. Is there a solution…?

I have found exhilarating freedom in God’s acceptance of who He has made me and His licence to be exactly who He has called me to be. He wants you to know “you are free to be… yourself”! There is no one else quite like you. Out of the 7 billion people on the planet you are unique – no-one else shares your finger prints or precise DNA that makes you, you!

God made us different for a purpose. He is an exciting, exhilarating, and colourful Creator! In the same way I celebrate each one of my 5 children’s individuality and know how dull our home would be if they were all exactly the same, our Heavenly Father celebrates our uniqueness. Why then do we strive to be the same? To be a carbon copy of someone you admire is dull when you compare it with being an original version of your true self. Don’t rob the world of the real you! There is a work only you can do and lives only you can reach. God has given you permission to be yourself, stop seeking approval from everyone else!

Kissing every little inch of my baby boy’s lips and face today, (and yes he was kissing me back too), I found myself saying “I love you, I love everything about you. When you smell of sick I love you. When you explode with poop I love you. You are God’s perfect gift to me and my responsibility”. In that moment, as I said the word ‘responsibility’, I sensed God holds and loves everyone of us in the same way – responsibly. He wants us, just like children to trust and rest in Him. We cannot change ourselves. We cannot clean ourselves of the sin, shame and regrets that contaminate us. God says “Return to me – I intended your life to be my responsibility”. God loves us as we are – mess and all, but like any loving parent He loves us too much to leave us that way!

I am so glad I discovered this truth many years ago. My most life transforming reality is to be able to look in the mirror and say “I am a child of God, uniquely made in my Heavenly Father’s image, continually cleaned and made pure because of His love, free to be….me”! Receive your Father’s permission today. One of the most basic human rights is freedom. Receiving His acceptance, approval and love over your life will free you to be all you were born to be. You were born with purpose and power – you are a force to be reckoned with, there is nothing you cannot do when you know who you are and whose you are!

Genesis 1:26-28 (NLT)
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them..…

Did you read that! The first thing God did when he made us was bless us! Don’t allow wrong, distorted thinking about your Heavenly Father to steal that truth and blessing from you. You are blessed for success. You are free to be who God made you to be. Many people believe the lie that God is out to get them, punish them and so they run from Him instead of to Him and the great life of ease and blessing He has planned for them as His children. Reverse the curse by getting on God’s train of thought and ending up at God’s destination of a blessed, empowered and “fun-full, faith filled, not fear’full'” life! Stop living like the first thing God spoke over you was a curse – I will say it again because you need to hear it, “reverse the curse today”. You were born with the authority to do just that!

Three simple truths we can learn from the Bible quote above:

1) Live free – you are made in God’s likeness so love yourself. Be like Him and win! Don’t strive to be like others.

2) What negative, stinking thinking is pulling you down? What habit is ruling over you? Put the shoe back on the right foot – you are the one called by God to rule and reign over your circumstances. Nothing other than God’s freedom and love should be ruling and reigning over you. As I raise my children I have taught them from the earliest age that nothing  should ever have  control over them, from sweets to computer games to alcohol as they get older, they are the ones in control -they have a God given mandate to rule and reign in life!

3) Rise up today in your God given authority! The world is waiting for your uniqueness to be revealed. Walk in your authority and live free of what others think of you. You cannot be the change if your desire is to be the same as others.  I don’t call my own children ‘Prince’ and ‘Princess’ for nothing – I know God wants me to place His value on them as His sons and daughters and all power and authority, Jesus says, has been given to them, and us too! God knows our world needs it right now! What we permit and don’t permit in our lives matters – God has given us authority. The keys to destiny are in our hands!

“And I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” Matthew 16:19

Worshipping with my eyes closed to a ‘Veggie Tales’ children’s version of the Worship song “I can only imagine” last Saturday (it’s the baby lullaby season I find myself in again), I could see in my mind’s eye me reaching for Jesus on that day when I stand before Him! In the midst of the multitudes reaching to touch him, to be seen, to be heard of Him, to have His attention… I was there leaning in. So often we are striving for the attention and recognition of others (what a waste of time and negative energy) whilst we are here on earth. Look beyond man’s approval, recognition and the crowd in all things to see and touch only Jesus. To have His approval and recognition has become more than enough for me. It is key to living life free! Those same people we can idolise, on that final day will just be part of the crowd reaching for Jesus. Instead of straining ourselves to please others on earth, may our lives lean in to Him.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10 (NIV)

You can choose to be a people pleaser or a God pleaser but you can’t be both.  One conflicts with the other. If you please people as a consequence of pleasing God – bonus!  Man can be a hard task master – one minute they will love you the next hate you. Man’s approval is fickle and dependent on what you do, God’s approval is dependent on what Jesus has already done for you! To worry about what others think of you is a burden too heavy to bear. When you live life from a position of God’s acceptance and approval, others rejection of you will not move you like it used to, and you will be free to live your life not “needily” but effectively!

Will the real you stand up. It’s time to roar…

OPTIONAL PRAYER

“Lord may I look beyond man’s approval, recognition and the crowd to see and touch only you Jesus! To have your approval and recognition in all things, that will be more than enough for me! I will live free. I will be all you have called me to be. Thank you that I am made in the beautiful image of my Heavenly Father, I will strive no longer to be like any other. My heart, mind, body, soul and spirit is at rest! In Jesus name, Amen.”