Month: October 2018

IMAGINATION: Escaping The System…

30.10.2018

Author katiem

We are only limited as far as we can dream. But can only dream as far as we can imagine. And can only imagine as far as we can escape reality. For what the eye sees, the brain can imagine. But what the brain imagines, conjures what the eye sees. What if there is more than what the eye can see? And what if the eye can only see as far as our surroundings?

When ruled by the eye, we live controlled by a system – one designed to keep us in the system, in a state of dependency. One where the thought of expanding never crosses our mind, and the thought of living a life that is more than paycheck to paycheck, an alien concept. A system where we are only fed enough to sustain us and keep us coming back and building empires for others, while our foundations remain impoverished.

In the system, our palates are watered down to accept what is before us. But what if there is more? What if the size of our imagination determines the size of our palate and the size of our palate, the extent of our hunger for more? When we lack imagination, even when there is more, we remain chained in the shackles of our mind and continue to create only what has been rationalised in the past. Take for instance the Israelites, they were used to depending on the Egyptian system and rationalised food. So, when God provided manna for them and told them to take as much as they needed, we are told that some gathered much, but there were those that still gathered only a little (Exodus 16:16–17).

How can we hunger for more when all our lives we have been told that what is before us is all there is to gather? How can we imagine when we have never truly seen? But what if there is one in whose image we are made? One in whom all creative power lies and is the intelligent design and creative source that can cause us to dream and create far beyond our wildest imagination? Of Him who says our eyes have not seen, our ears not heard, nor any human mind conceived, the things which He has in store for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).

If we remove God from the box which we have encased Him in, we will find that there is more to be had. The creative source can do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to His power that is a work within us (Ephesians 3:20–21). At the heart of the creative source’s plans for our lives, is such that we would become lenders, not borrowers, the head, not the tail; always the top dog and never the bottom dog (Deuteronomy 28:1 –13). What if there is more to be had, and the amount to be had simply dependant on the size of our imagination and our creative source? We all want more, but are we hungry enough, motivated enough, to dare to dream, imagine and hunt like a starving lion?

God’s desire for our lives is that we would increase our imagination and stretch wide without holding back (Isaiah 54:2–3). There is more to be had than that which we have seen and that which has already been done. When the Israelites saw the manna for the first time, they said: “What is it?” For they did not know what it was [they had not seen it before]” (Exodus 16:15). The Israelites might have thought that manna was the best that God had for them, but after the crossing of the Jordan river and the Passover, God had them eat something which they had not eaten before (Exodus 5:11– 2).

There is more to be had for those that are hungry for more and desperate for a change. There is more to be had for those who dare to dream bigger and wider than their eyes have seen or their minds have yet imagined. There is more to be had for those who believe in the bounty of God’s promises.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

HUNTER: The Curse of …

12.10.2018

Author katiem

The pidgin idiom says, “monkey see, monkey do.” And yet there are times when the monkey does not see, but it finds itself doing, without reason or understanding; following some apparition which compels it to act. Why are there times when it feels as though there is a force pushing us towards the direction and actions of the very things that we do not want to do?

In times gone by, when you were younger; you may have hated that dad never paid attention to you, or maybe how he abandoned you, was an alcoholic, a womaniser, or sometimes an abuser. Maybe you hated how your mum was always depressed, or never worked, or never helped you when you needed her, or never stayed with dad or any man. Or maybe you hated that dad and mum gave up before you had the ability to hatch and form your own shell. They were supposed to nurture and protect you until you developed your own shell, becoming your own person. But they gave up and left you raw without an identity.

But despite how much you hated them, here you are, an older version and shell-less soul of the person you aspired to be when you were younger. In your grown state, because you were not given the opportunity to form fully, you find yourself in dad and mum’s image, despite telling yourself that you would never be like them. The worst part is, that maybe you don’t even realise that you are wearing their image. Or if you do realise it, you don’t know how you ended up here; in their shoes. These very shoes that you vouched never to wear, and now in the light of the shoes, you look just like what you so hated.

The apostle Paul put it eloquently when he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do. …I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. …I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing… Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. …but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me” (Romans 7:15-24).

 

The answer may seem complicated, but we only complicate those things which we do not wish to understand. Sometimes ignorance may seem better than knowledge and lies prettier than the truth, but in the end, they all lead to destruction. The apostle Paul’s affliction is one bore by all humanity, for we were all born sinners. In Romans 5:12 it is said, “Therefore, just as through one man’s sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned …”. This shared human affliction is explained in Psalm 51:5, the odds appear to be against us because we were brought forth in iniquity.

Because of one man’s sin, Adam and Eve, a curse was born. A curse whose strength for destruction, for the generations, is as strong as death. And whose jealousy for our likeness in God, is as cruel as the grave. This curse is never satisfied. It hungers as the grave, the barren womb, and land which is never satisfied with water, and as fire which never says, ‘Enough’(Proverbs 30:15-16). Since the inception of this curse, it hunts and chases down generation after generation, for a father’s sins, to the third, and even, the fourth generation (Exodus 34:7).

But the answer to the why remains simple: because in our fallen state, the curse remains hereditary, triggering the known and unknown. Monkey see, monkey do, and sometimes, monkey don’t see, but monkey still does. In the biblical world, this is known as a generational curse – the passed down ties to imperfections and spiritual wrongdoings from parents, placed upon ancestors unwillingly. The discussion to this is lengthy, but the solution is simple: one man!

The One who died a gruesome death to take up our sins and those of our fathers and ancestors, including all the generational curses. This man is Jesus. To this man, Galatians 3:1–14 says, “But Christ [Jesus] has rescued us from the curse … When He was hung on the cross, He took upon Himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’” When we enter into relationship with Jesus, His blood washes and purifies us from all sins and curses. 1 John 4:15–16 says, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so, we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in them.”

Generational curses cannot be overcome by mere willpower or luck, but only by the blood of Jesus and Him abiding within us. When Jesus lives in us, anything that tries to harm us must first go through Him. But because Jesus has already conquered sin, the grave, the forces and curses that may be; nothing can harm us; “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). If you are sick and tired of doing the same thing repeatedly and want it to stop with you, then it is time to give it to Jesus. It is time to not only see, but do. As it has been said, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and yet expecting different results.” Let us make a new choice in Him.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

ROAD EMPIRES: The Story Behind …

06.10.2018

Author katiem

The dream – building empires, and bequeathing legacies, did not become a reality through the wide road of shortcuts. It is one founded on the long trail of perseverance, hard work, consistency, and patience. Without this trail, the trajectory of the journey remains undeveloped, and when the journey is without form, the value of the spoils are diminished and wasted.

To know what we have, and truly appreciate it, we must go through the full odyssey. When God wanted the Israelites to know and appreciate His rescue of them, He did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter and easier (Exodus 13:17). But rather, He led them on a longer and more arduous route, around by the desert road toward the Red Sea (Exodus 13:18). To fully recognise where we are and how we got here, we must first understand the trajectory of the journey. We only settle for the bondage of the past when we fail to comprehend the cost of our freedom today. The shortest road is often permeated with traps designed to make our past experiences more attractive than the journey ahead. All the while, notwithstanding, the journey behind us is marked with graves, including one bearing our name upon it.

When the battle is long, and the road back short, the temptation to retreat and settle in the illusions of yesterday is great. If God had not caused the Israelites to travel the long road, the Israelites would have retreated to their comfort zone at the first sign of trouble. Some theologians estimate that the Israelites had only been travelling for about thirty-eight days, covering a distance of approximately 160km, when they were confronted with adversity and cried for their illusions of the past saying, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Exodus 14:11–12). Additionally, in Exodus 16:3 they grumbled, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

Isn’t it remarkable, when faced with temporary setbacks, how the narrative is often idealised to a time that never existed? Such as the Israelites did when recalling a delusional time when they “sat around pots of meat and ate all the food they wanted!” The true narrative was one of a people that were worked ruthlessly, under harsh and bitter labour, to the point that they groaned in their slavery and cried out for help! (Exodus 1:13–14 and 2:23). Just as with the Israelites, God does not want us to retreat into a fabricated narrative, residing in the bondage of the past. It is for this reason that God took the Israelites through the long road, knowing that they would want to change their minds and seek to return to Egypt to die as slaves (Exodus 13:18). With God, there is always a reason for the road He sets us to journey upon.

Sometimes we are taken on the long road to purge bad habits and discard our unnecessary and excess luggage. We see this with the Israelites, who could not move forward until they were “circumcised, purified and without the cynics” (Joshua 5:2–6). The long road is designed to cleanse us of that which will hinder our success in the future. The apothegm says that the best things in life are worth fighting for. And so it is that the longest road will always be worth the journey, for it will uncover wonders and mysteries which those on the short road will never encounter. In times when the follower looks for shortcuts from the discomforts of growth, and which promise a quick exit, the leader will always look for the long road; to explore treasures, find new mysteries, and collect spoils on the peregrination to the mountaintop.

The shortcut will always be wide and glutted with underachievers, nondreamers and limited mentality thinkers. But the narrow and long road, with an imperceptible number of people, will always command the audacious and atomic; those ready for battle, armed with a defiance to be different, and scented with greatness. The Book of Matthew 7:13 warns against looking for shortcuts in life and says, “Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad the way leading to destruction, and many are those entering through it.”

The true secret to success is this: faith in God combined with a brew of perseverance, hard work, consistency, patience, the ability to be different and to travel the distance, even when almost everyone else around quits or condems the road we have chosen.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

MEMORIES: When The Suitcase explodes …

01.10.2018

Author katiem

When the suitcase is exploding with memories, it is easy to hoard, obsess and become haunted by the memories of an idealised past that was almost perfect. But for the suitcase that remains in the hallway; in the misty cloud of almost. Engulfed in the effulgent light of the wormhole passage, our memories become short-circuited, into a foggy distortion as to their true nature. It is within the distortion of the wormhole, that a memory gap and error is created, anent to the narrative for the suitcase in the hallway. In the fog and distortion of yesterday, a wormhole of dependency to travel back into our memories is constructed. In this wormhole, moving backward in time, we lose sight of the miracles arriving within our today.

Reversing through time within our thoughts, we move against the gravity of life and the clock, not realising that we are only stealing from our future. The events that led to the suitcase in the hallway occurred because they were not supposed to be in our story of today. As paraphrased, in 1 John 2:19, if they went from you, then they did not really belong to you. For if they had belonged to you, then they would have remained with you; but their going showed that they did not belong to you. Hoarding our past memories puts an injunction on the greater things that God has in store for us. The closing of the door leads us to that which we could never dream for ourselves. Isaiah 22:22 says “…When God opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when He closes doors, no one will be able to open them.” Simply put, if the door closes, God has a better door that He plans to open, one which we cannot even begin to fathom.

The paradigm of Sodom and Gomorrah, a city anchored in sin, whose inhabitants were bent on harming Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and his family, illustrates this idea of our distortion of the memories we hold within our suitcases. The city said to Lot, “Get out of our way … This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” And, bringing pressure upon Lot, “moved forward to break down his door” (Genesis 19:9). Yet, because of the clouded past recollections Lot had of a perfect town, he and his family remained loyal to it, even in the face of such a septic environment.

 

Our memories are not always as accurate as they seem in the misty cloud of the wormhole. Lot’s relationship with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah was harmful and needed to be destroyed. God went as far as to send His angels to save Lot and his family from this toxic environment and relationship with the town, but despite being warned of the dangers of remaining within this poisonous environment, Lot and family did not want to leave. They were comfortable in this environment.

Genesis 19:16–17 says that they hesitated leaving to the point that the angels had to grab their hands and lead them safely out of the city saying, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” However, even being dragged from Sodom and Gomorrah by angels, Lot and his family remained so blinded by their past memories that they could not even imagine living far from them. Thus Lot said to the angels, “Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it…” (Genesis 19:20). Lot held on so tight to his clouded memories of the past that he left the suitcase in the hallway, doing himself, his family and his future, no favours.

The commandment was simple, “Don’t look back!” Your future is not in your past. Your future is in your tomorrow. And your tomorrow is where God has promised that He has great plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11). When we cling to the past and look back, we lose sight of the great future God has for us and risk turning into a pillar of salt just as Lot’s wife did when she looked back (Genesis 19:26).

The problem is not about letting go of the memories in the suitcase, but rather, moving forward and creating new memories; moving the suitcase out of the hallway and in line with our future path. Don’t be held captive to your past. We must trust that God always has better in store for us, for His plans cannot be thwarted by anyone’s departure from our story.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.