We say, “If the shoe fits, OUTGROW IT!” Change is the goal of every maturing Christian. In order to change we have do two things:

Identify, where we are

Move, to where we should be

The “change agent” is the Holy Spirit. He is ready, willing and able to assist us in every change that we need to make in our lives.

Zechariah 4:6 NKJV -… ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.’

The truth is that we can NOT make the necessary changes in our lives with out the express help of the Holy Spirit. We must totally depend on Him to show us what to change and when.

Your weaknesses are no excuse to stay weak. As long as you follow the Holy Spirit you are able to destroy every crutch that you have leaned on in the past.

God has not called you to stay where you are but to come up higher, go farther and do more today than you did yesterday. You CAN outgrow the shoe!

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” – Luke 2:49 NKJV

God is constantly looking for people to “employ”. He has a plan and needs people to fulfill His plan. He created us to be co-workers with Him for His Kingdom. His plan is to reach all of mankind with His Gospel! He needs us to preach His good news.

Jesus at the age of 12 recognized that He had a distinct calling. Understanding this is monumental for us as “Jesus followers”. We can know (at any age) what we are called to do and that we must be “about Our Fathers business”. The higher calling on your life is the only thing that will fulfill you. God’s plan for you is the best thing that you can do with your life.

The key to knowing what God wants you to do specifically is found in the verses before Luke 2:49.

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. – Luke 2:40 NKJV

We must become 1. strong in spirit, 2. filled with the wisdom of God, and 3. have the grace of God upon us and then we will know what He wants us to do.

Let’s get with it!

“For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.” Luke 1:37 AMP

The key is WITH GOD! Don’t ever do anything without God because that is when we run into the wall of impossibility. Walking with God and doing only what He tells us to do will permit us to do things that are impossible with man. Jesus did these type of things during His ministry on the earth and we can do them because He said that the things that He did we should and would do.

He wants us to walk in the realm of the supernatural. He has empowered us with His Spirit to walk in His power to do His will! We can declare as Mary did – let it be with me Lord, according to Your Word!

Get up from your seemingly impossible situation and begin to do what God has told you to do and He will turn the impossibilities into possibilities! He will make a way where it doesn’t seem like there is one. He is on your side and if He is for you, who can stop you?

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. – Matthew 14:28-29 NKJV

Peter saw Jesus walking on the water and wanted to walk with Him. Somehow he knew that he was created to do the supernatural as Jesus did the supernatural. The desire was there. But he didn’t just stop at the desire he wanted to get in on the ACTION! He could have sat in the boat with the rest of the disciples and been awed at the supernatural power of Jesus to walk on the water and take control over the natural elements.

Before he acted he asked (in a round about way) if he could come and walk on the water with Jesus. He made sure that he was acting on Jesus’ will or His Word. (Many times good meaning Christians begin to act prematurely) Make sure that your actions are in line with the will and the Word of God. Faith begins where the will of God is known. Don’t get out of the boat based on someone else getting out of the boat.

Once you are sure that the Lord has told you to do something, DO IT! Jesus walked on the water. Peter walked on the water. We can do all that the Lord has told us to do. Will you do it?

Matt. 11:28  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]

Being stressed may be “fad-ish” but it is far from honorable and not the way that God designed us to live. We cannot live long and live strong carrying the weight and the stress of the world! Jesus worked hard doing the will of His Father but never once declared, “I am on the edge of burnout so I must take a vacation and vegetate for a few weeks”.

Jesus wants us to work hard to get the will of God done on the earth but be yoked up with Him so that we don’t become overburdened and stressed out.

If we have allowed ourselves to get stressed out it is because we have failed to get (and stay) yoked up with Jesus! We should be invigorated and energized by our fellowship with Him, drawing our strength from Him to press on and finish our course strong. Learn to wait in His presence until you be endued with power from on high! Take His easy yoke.

Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When JESUS SAW THEIR FAITH, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”  – Matthew 9:2 NKJV

Faith sees what cannot be seen with the human eye in order to bring it into the realm of the seen! We walk by faith and not by sight.

Faith is a whole lot more than just positive confession of God’s Word although it involves a positive confession of God’s Word. When we believe something it affects our actions!

Hebrews 11 is full of people of faith that did mighty exploits by faith. They believed something but because they believed something it caused them to do something. We have a lot of “faith talkers” around but far few “faith doers”. It is time that we transfer what we believe into action. Pray in faith and then get up and do something about it.

I am sure glad that the friends of the paralytic were as filled with faith as their bedridden friend. They must have believed that Jesus was healing and that Jesus would heal their friend to go to the lengths they did to get him into the place where Jesus was ministering that day. They showed their faith by their works for sure! Determine to show your faith, do what you can do and God will do what He has promised you that He would do. Why wait?!

My son, forget not my law or teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; For length of days and years of a life [worth living] and tranquility [inward and outward and continuing through old age till death], these shall they add to you. – Proverbs 3:1-2 AMP

This verse draws a distinction between “length of days” and “years of a life”. You can experience both longer days and more years in life by being a doer of the Word of God!

Time is something that becomes more valuable as we become older in this life because the time we have left compared to the the time that we have spent (or invested) becomes less the older that we get. Make sense? Hopefully as we get older we learn more about the value of time and how to be better stewards of time. We invest it rather than waste it. I like what the New Living translation says in Psalms 9:12 “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.” Our time on this earth is like a vapor. It appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:14)

We add to each day by being a doer of the Word of God. We become wiser and more efficient the more that we hear the Word and put it into practice. Doing the Word causes a supernatural multiplication of your time each day! Believe it and confess it because it is the Word! Begin to say, I am more efficient and more effective because I am a doer of the Word of God therefore I experience an increase in the amount of time I have in each day! (and never allow yourself to say, “I just don’t have enough time”)

Here’s one: “I’ve got to go make a living.” What does that mean? Can you find such thinking and talking from the Word of God? Quite the contrary.

Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it… Psalms 127:1 NKJV

We are guilty of repeating what other people say just because we have not studied the Word enough to discover the will of God on a subject.

Looking at the subject of “WORK”…Here’s what Ephesians 4:28 says…”working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.”

Our working should not be something that we do in order to bring home just enough to pay the monthly bills. We have sold ourselves short and the Lord as well. Our every effort should be “as unto the Lord” in order that we can GIVE. This is how the Lord Himself works!  Can you imagine Jesus saying, “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.” No way!

We are to let the Lord direct our steps to the degree that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are doing what He wants us to do with each minute of our lives. If this is the case, then the result will be NEVER be…”I’ve got to go make a living…*sigh*”. We can be filled with joy and expectation knowing that we are working in the right place, at the right time and for the right reason!

The purpose for living is GIVING!

So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble. – Matthew 6:34 AMP

There is a campaign that has been unleashed on the earth through the media. It is a worry and fear campaign designed to steal, kill and destroy. The enemy has been using the media to spread fear and worry for years. They have declared, “Bad news sales!”. So they turn up the volume (so to speak) on the bad news.

It is time that the Body of Christ realize that we are commanded to “seek first the Kingdom of God” in order to be constantly full of faith. The answer to worry and fear is always FAITH IN GOD! Our lives are in Him. He is our source of peace, joy, hope, comfort, strength and all that we need. We need to spend less time listening to the world and more time listening to the WORD. The reason that so many Christians are filled with worry and fear (just like those without God) is that their time and attention  have been on all that is going on in the world. Let’s take a check up on what we are thinking…and bring our minds back over to Romans 12:1 – renewing it with the Word! Renewed minds are guarded with the peace that passes all understanding.

Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing? – Matthew 6:25 AMP

The words of Jesus about worry were powerful! STOP WORRYING! This was not just a suggestion, this was a “order” from our Commander in Chief.

If you are in the Army, do you have an option to obey orders? NO. Failure to obey a general order or command in the military will result in punishment by courts-martial according to Section 892 article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). There is no excuse to disobey orders, period.

For far too long we have approached worry as a “character flaw” to be proud of. It is not a “character flaw” and nothing to be proud of. It is sin! …and has to be dealt with as such. A Christian is to run from sin. Identify it and run the other way.

The answer for worry is to get so full of the Word of God that there is no room at all for worry. Trust God, fill your heart with the Word, watch your words, say what the Word says and worry will be a thing of the past!…at last!