Month: May 2018

BUT: The Season Between …

29.05.2018

Author katiem

We all have seasons when nothing we touch flourishes, when everything we touch dries up. In those seasons, the fruit of our talent and labour appears to be barren. In those seasons, we are like Manoah’s wife “…barren and childless, ‘but’” (Judges 13:2–3). But, God would have us know that a “but” is soon following our barren winters.

Until God speaks, the waves and the wind in an attempt to intimidate, can beat their chest, huff and puff and threaten to sink our boats in order to burglarise (Jeremiah 29:11) the dream that God placed in our hearts. But at God’s voice, the very wind and object that tried to drown us and kidnap our dream will run out of breath and not only fade, but ex post facto to the fury of the tempest, we will find that the tempest in its huffing and puffing, served only to propel us into our destiny.

The season between the sentence and before the “coma” and “but” is a very important season. It is in that season that we may believe the enemy is winning, but when we arrive to the finish line, we will conceive that our win was planned all along. Just as Samson’s mother was told not to drink or eat anything unclean in her season (Judges 13:4), we will find our season of barrenness was but training and consecration for our next level blessing.


Soon there will be a ridiculous contrast in our disposition. The very thing that we thought was destroying us, will bring us into a laughing spell over the goodness and faithfulness of God. Out of our barrenness will be the birth of joy and laughter, that we will not be able to contain to ourselves, but as with Sarah, everyone who hears of our miracle and triumph will laugh uncontrollably with us; in great joy over God’s power (Genesis 21:6). God is about to appear in our situation, and when He appears, the “coma” and the “but” will appear too.

Take heart and know that there is a “but” at the end of your troubles. Our dreams will be fulfilled because no good thing will God withhold from us and His word will not fall to the ground. He swears this by Himself for there is no one higher to swear to, but to Him (Isaiah 55:1; Hebrews 6:13).

Get ready! For the one who shut up the seas behind doors (Job 38:8) is about to speak to our situation and when He speaks, the tempest that dared to beat its chest at us, will run out of breath and fade away. Get ready! For just as the Lord did for Samson’s parents, God is about to blow our minds and do amazing things while we watch in awe (Judges 13:19).

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

EXPOSED: Who You Expose Your …

24.05.2018

Author katiem

Not everyone with whom we expose our hearts to is worthy. There is a throne on our hearts and for that reason, it is for our own good to be selective with whom we open up and bare our hearts. Because our warring is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12), Some people are nefariously placed on our paths with the desideratum of luring and distracting us from pursuing our dreams and thereby derailing us from our destinies.

These people, colloquially, are analogous to spiritual prostitutes. Spiritual prostitutes whose only motive is to seduce, steal and destroy. Just like Delilah and the prostitute in Gaza, whose primary role was to seduce Samson in an attempt to destroy his destiny (Judges 16), these people appear in our lives to seduce us away from our dreams and sabotage our destinies. “The one who unites his soul with a prostitute becomes one with her…” (1 Corinthians 6:16). While this scripture refers to sexual encounters, metaphorically, it can be used to describe the union of souls in the baring of their souls to one other.

In order to seduce Samson from his destiny, Delilah played on his heart, nagging and taunting him saying, “how can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me?” (Judges 16:15). Eventually, Samson let his guard down and exposed his heart and soul to her. And as he gave it all over to her, she lead him like a lamb to slaughter. Even the wise Book of Proverbs advises us to be weary of certain people with persuasive words who seek to seduce with their smooth talk in order to lead us astray. It says those who fall prey to the seduction will be “…like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life” (Proverbs 7:21–23). And so was the fate of the mighty Samson before God intervened one last time.

When there is greatness in our lives, the enemy will use any means necessary to distract and derail us from our destinies. With the exploitation of the spiritual prostitute, though we may not see it with the naked eye, once placed before the magnifying glass, their assignment to distract and derail manifests as broken hearts, depression, anxiety, or disorders. Once this manifests, our character and personality is altered such that we lose sight of who we are and do things that are far from who we know ourselves to be. When this happens, the enemy’s spell of distraction and derailment has command over us and our souls are in union with the enemy.

The enemy knows the power of the heart and if he can make the heart suffocate, he knows that it will be difficult for us to focus on God’s plans for us today and for our futures. Because in the throes of pain, it often feels as though the world is ending and the pain will never cease. It is for this reason that God saw it fit to emphasise that “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23).

Through the use of pain, the spiritual prostitute designs the plan to have us vacate Jesus from the throne of our hearts, thereby leaving it vacant and exposed to worry, despair and everything else that is not of God’s plan for our futures. Make no mistake, there is a throne on our hearts, but as to who seats on it, is entirely up to us, for Ephesians 3:17 says, “…Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him.”

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

COMPARISON: And The Unfair Advantage…

14.05.2018

Author katiem

When we compare ourselves to others, we make the mistake of believing that we are just like everyone else. When we compare our situation to the next person’s, we do ourselves a disservice in believing that our journeys’ are the same. In the same way that Jesus never performed two miracles the same, no two people are the same and we are not all on the same journey.

The worst thing we can do, is compare our situation to the next person’s. Just because we believe something to be fact, does not qualify our fears. And therefore, just because someone we know got dismissed, does not mean we will be next. And just because someone we know did not receive their miracle, does not mean the same will happen to us. We must have the mindset to know and believe that we are different, because we are different. God created us uniquely, each with our own set of fingerprints and DNA that cannot match that of anyone else’s.

While we may exhibit similar features and traits, even as twins, God created us to be different. Your nexus with God, within the parameters of your relinquished power to Him, dictates your future. You are different because God calls to you, and promises if you return that call, to give you wealth that you never dreamed of. “I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name” (Isaiah 45:3).

He also said that He will give you unfair and unmerited favour because of your relationship with Him, and by that, He will take from your enemies to give to you. “…I will extend peace to you like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream…” (Isaiah 66:12; Isaiah 60:5).

So when others are being struck down and dismissed, the blood covenant between Jesus and your heart (made by you surrendering your heart to Him), just as God’s blood covenant with the Israelites that protected and left them unharmed on account of the blood on their doorframes (Exodus 12:23 and 36), will ensure that you remain unharmed. When it is not coming to pass, not working out, and drying up for others, it will come to pass and overflow in your territory, “the blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it” (Proverbs 10:22). And when chaos hunts them down, peace will be summoned to shield you, “for a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you” (Psalms 91:7).

But should it happen that a door that you thought ought to have remained opened, closes, remember that when God is Lord over your life, only He allows the doors to close. And in the event that a door should close, then He allowed it because He has better in store for you, “… I have opened a door for you that no one can close” (Revelations 3:8; Isaiah 22:22).

If you believe this, then no harm will come to you. But if you believe you are like everyone else, then the same fate that befalls them, will befall you. Put another way, if you believe that your blessings come from man, then man has the power to take them away. But if you believe that your blessings come from God, then no man can take them away unless God wills it, “For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” (Isaiah 14:27).

It is all about a shift in perspective. Do not give power to the wrong energy. Grant power to God, and in turn, He will ensure that your destiny is one that will be favourably disposed. A destiny that will transition from ordinary to superordinary, from mediocre to unmerited favour.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

FEELINGS: What Is In a Feeling…

07.05.2018

Author katiem

We all have days in which we are confident in ourselves and our abilities. Days in which we toot our own horn and feel invincible. And then come the other days. The days when we cannot even scrape together a positive attribute to express of ourselves.

On some days, confident like Elijah, we sit on our mountain top and summon our enemies in great numbers in order to witness the strength that is within us (1 Kings 18:19). On these days, we compete not against the weak, but like Elijah, call only for competition with the very best (1 Kings 18:19).

Elijah not only provoked his opponents when he was one against eight hundred and fifty, but in the end, he had all eight hundred and fifty killed (1 Kings 18:27-28; 40). And Elijah’s strength did not stop there! He also prayed and caused fire to burn and consume wood that was immersed in water (1 Kings 18:38). However, of the 850 killed, 400 were the prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table and resulted in Jezebel’s vengeance (1 Kings 19: 1-2). The very next day, after facing but a mere threat from one woman, Jezebel, for the killing her prophets, Elijah took her threat to heart, let it consume him, and ran. Even going so far as to ask God to take his life (1 Kings 19:4).

So what is it that caused the mighty man Elijah to waiver from roaring and boasting in the Lord’s confidence, to whimpering away like a mighty lion running from away from its prey?

Elijah let his feelings of the fear of the threat define his standing and cloud his judgement as to what power he truly possessed. Like Elijah, just because we think, feel or fear something, does not make it true. The enemy’s ploy, like Jezebel, is to instil fear in us to the point that we drown out God’s voice and allow the voice of the enemy and his lies to increase. The enemy’s ploy is to have us forget who we are and what we have achieved, and instead focus on the negative, allowing it to eat at us until we can no longer remember the identity and power we possess within.

By the time the enemy was done with Elijah, Elijah remembered not who he had been, nor the power he had in his corner, and the great miracle of yesterday had been all but erased from his thoughts.

Like Elijah, we cannot let our thoughts, our fears, nor our feelings dictate the ending of our setbacks of today. Those perceived setbacks are but in fact our set up for our future come up of tomorrow. Just because we feel or think a certain way does not mean that we should run with those thoughts and feelings. Negative thoughts and feelings which do not line up with what God says of us should be drowned out immediately with the Word of God. When negative thoughts and feelings creep in, we must remember that the opposite is true and speak out that truth to muzzle the lies of the enemy:

• I feel like a failure – I am not a failure. I am more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35 –39). Though I may have fallen seven times, yet will I rise again (Proverbs 24:16). I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).
• I feel so stupid – I am not stupid. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and made in the very image of God with His likeness and intelligence (Psalms 139:14; Genesis 1:27).
• I feel so lost – Jesus take the wheel, I cast all burdens to You (Psalms 55:22).
• I feel so broken – God put me together and make me strong (Psalm 147:3; Joel 3:10).

The Word of God will tell you who you are. And who you are is a warrior! You are not the prey and therefore your thoughts and feelings should not dictate your identity. Just because you feel or think a certain way does not make it true. In the same way that you might feel like a Ferrari but that feeling will not make you a car, we are more than the sum of our feelings. We possess within us the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. This is the truth we must hold to in our times of doubt and fear.

We can feel and think a lot of things, but the only thing that matters and holds true are the feelings and thoughts that line up with what God says about us as his children and friends.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.