There's a purpose in a holding pattern and it won't make sense in the least....but my friend hold on to the promises from the Lord because he cannot lie and he will not fail you! So while you're waiting praise him and keep on pushing in the spirit - Gods making a way for your breakthrough!
Roadblocks, Obstacles and Hindrances
I was praying the other day and
the Lord showed me that there was a reason for roadblocks, obstacles and
hindrances in my life and for everyone’s life. There is a reason why people and
things go in and out of our lives. The purpose is simple if a person, place or
thing is not removed out of our life we will not reach the potential that the
Lord has for us.
Imagine your life on a time line:
/Friends /Family
_/______\_________/________\______>Ultimate
Goal Heaven
\ \
\Job \Ministry Etc.
Every person place or thing that
is moved out of your life is for a reason. The pain teaches us to turn to the
Lord. It might not seem so at the time but the people who hurt us, reject us
and turn their backs on us actually cause us to get better. We have the choice
to get bitter or get better! For example the person who turns their back on you
may be your best friend, your loved ones, or even ministry. But the good news
is that it is all in God’s plan to get you where you need to go in him. The
person or job may have had a long term affect that may have inhibited you from
stepping outside the norm into the supernatural where God would be able to use
your life to its fullest capacity.
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Roadblocks: What is a roadblock?
Unfortunately I have spent an awful lot of time in the State of Mississippi (Sorry
friends from there). It seems that this state thrives on stopping people in the
middle of the road for no apparent reason. So you’re driving along minding your
own business and then poof there’s the police. They ask you for: Driver’s
license, registration, and car insurance. They ask questions: Where are you
going? Have you been drinking? Who are the people in your car?
This is the same with a road
block in the Lord. Sometimes he stops us in the middle of what we are doing. We
are driving along and everything seems fine. And then the Lord checks us in the
spirit. He stops us sometimes for a short while and sometimes he searches the
trunk of our car/ our heart. He stops us and makes us check our attitude, our spirit,
and our state of mind. Why does he stop us? He is making sure we have
everything we need for battle. He is not trying to give us a ticket or get us
arrested but if we don’t have what we need then he may spiritually give us a
ticket or even arrest us. His intentions are not to keep us in the road block
but to get us back on the road as soon as possible. He uses prayer, the word,
the preached word, and daily circumstances to make us stop and make sure we
have what we need in him.
Obstacles: three examples are where
we work, where we live, and sometimes where we go to church. These three things
are just a few examples of obstacles there can of course be many more.
Sometimes we lose our job and we
think it’s the end of the world. God moved me out of my job this year so this
analogy makes sense to me. I thought to myself what am I going to do? Then I
realized that God had a plan for this past year of my life. He allowed me to
follow a dream I had had for many years by traveling the country and it was on
this journey that I found my love for the Lord in a way I had never imagined.
So you see losing the job was an obstacle that God moved out of my life for a
purpose. He wanted me to draw unto him in a mighty way.
Where we go to church I think is
the hardest obstacle of all for those walking by faith. This part is by in no
means referring to any church or any minister in particular. I am only using
this analogy because I know of so many people who don’t understand why God
would want to move them out of a church situation. How in the world can church
be an obstacle? Are we not all brothers and sisters in the Lord? The answer is
yes and yes. This is the part where I really feel the Lord was talking to me
about and He showed me why things sometimes happen the way they do.
We are going to church, we are
faithful, we are doing the Lords work and we are happy. Then the unthinkable
happens, we cry out to God, and we lament the change. We are creatures of habit
and we hate change. But God uses circumstances and people to move us out of our
current location. Again it makes no sense and it hurts. The reason we must move
on may be for a variety of reasons but the main reason is that we can no longer
grow where we are located. There is a greater purpose on the time line of your
life. So He painfully uproots our lives and makes us move on to the next phase
of our life and ministry often kicking and screaming. Here is the part that we
need to know; if we know that it is God’s plan even in the pain we can accept
the change and let the obstacle mold us. Too often this happens and we think
that the person or obstacle is either our fault or the other person’s fault.
Ultimately God is in control no matter what! He is the author and finisher of
our lives. He is pushing us, moving us, and prodding us to be great! When we
realize that even in our pain that God has a plan, then we move forward with
God instead of going against the flow and accepting the obstacle as defeat. When
we see God’s plan for our lives then we can move forward with the Lord.
Hindrances: I will liken my examples to that of people. Sometimes hindrances in
our lives are our very own family. The bible says following Christ is more
important than family. If any man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear
his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26-27
Jesus is saying that we must do His work above our family. If God calls us to
do something oftentimes our family may turn our back on us. Or it may be that
God shifts the relationship between members because maybe they are a hindrance
to them now or possibly the future.
We cannot see our own future. We don’t
know if someone will in fact affect us in such a way that we will be hindered
in the work of the Lord. So when people move in and out of our lives. Love them
but don’t hold a grudge or allow bitterness to seep into your life. People will
hurt you! They will hurt you so bad to the core of your being but we are
commanded to forgive them. I will give you an example of someone hurting me in
my life. When I was young there were many who hurt me but there was one in
particular. I chose to forgive them and move on because I was taught to pray
against hatred and bitterness from moving into my heart as a young girl. Years
later someone asked the person if they knew how much they hurt me? The person actually
had no recollection of hurting me at all. How sad if I had carried that hurt
and bitterness all those years.
The key to people as hindrances
in our lives is to forgive and release them back to the Lord when they walk out
of our lives.This will be very hard to do at
first because we as humans tend to rarely forget the wrongs done to us in our
lives. We tend to like to hold on to them and let them fester. Jesus said we
are to forgive someone 70 X 7. I think this means in our daily lives. We must pray
and forgive them daily. I heard a minister this summer preach at Louisiana Camp:
Pray to forgive and release them back to God every day until He takes the pain
from our lives. Then we are to pray that God doesn't punish them for hurting
us. This is true forgiveness! It will take time to get to this place in our
lives. It will not happen overnight but it is a process. But the more we learn
to forgive then the more readily we will be able to forgive in the future.
The important thing to realize is
that God uses all these roadblocks, obstacles, and hindrances for our good. He
does not make the choices for people but since He knows our choices He chooses
to turn it around for our good. He has the timeline for our lives all mapped
out! We can choose to accept the hurts and let them be used for our betterment
or we can stop and stand in a holding pattern. We can wander around in the
wilderness for forty years getting bitter and never fulfilling our purpose or
we can accept that God is the author of our time line!
I am so thankful that God showed
me the purpose of these hurts in my own life. They have all happened to me and
they will surely happen more in the future. But now that I know there is a
purpose and that God is using it to shape my life it helps me be prepared for
battle! When God takes away something from our lives and we are faithful to his
word and living by faith in Him, He will always return more than what He took!
He uses these challenges to gird us up in the faith with the battle armor of
faithfulness! He will never leave us or forsake us! He formed us in His own
image! He wants to see us succeed! Let Him take your pain by allowing Him to
unfold the rose petals in your life! Embrace roadblocks, obstacles, and
hindrances because in our adversity we are changed. We live by faith and in our
faith our Lord and savior receives all the glory in our lives! Be thankful
every time something falls apart because that just means He is getting ready
for something better in your life!
Embracing roadblocks... such a needed lesson. So Biblical. And so challenging when in the thick of things... Thank-you for this timely reminder. Blessings.
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