Today we continue our series, “Progress On Purpose.” I told you that God wants us to walk in “NEW LEVELS IN 2021!” But if we are going to do so, we must be intentional about our progress. With that in mind, as we lay the foundation for the year, I told you that I would discuss “Leveling Up” in five areas:
1. Spiritually
2. Financially
3. Physically
4. Internally
5. Externally
In the last area, I am addressing leveling up your external relationships. I will cover the following topics in this section:
1. The three people you need in your life (the roles you need filled)
2. Discerning when to let people go
3. The importance of choosing the right friends
4. Surrounding yourself with people of like-precious-faith
Setting the stage:
Yesterday I introduced you to the story of the Virgin Mary and how we got pregnant by faith. Today we will flow in that same vein. We will use her story as somewhat of a case study. We can learn a great deal from this situation, especially about faith. If there is one area where you want to LEVEL UP your life in 2021, it should be in your faith. Everything God does for us, He does by grace (unearned, unmerited, and undeserved). Everything we are supposed to do in response to God’s grace must be done by faith!
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God made plans for you that you are unaware of.
Mary did not know it, but she was destined to be the Mother of our Lord from the foundations of the world. All her life, she was being prepared for her destiny, and she did not even know it.
What is true for Mary is true for you. God made plans for you before the world began. You were born predisposed to certain things that align with your divine purpose (things you are naturally good at), and those things won’t truly make sense until God reveals His purpose to you. Once He does, you will look back over your life and realize that God had been preparing you all along, and you did not even know it.
Once God reveals His purpose to you, and you believe/receive it, your life takes on new meaning. It is then that you realize you are on this planet because God placed you here for such a time as this.
2. When God reveals something to you, your first requirement is to believe it.
Mary received a life-changing word. What God said was a human impossibility. Since it was clearly beyond the limits of our humanity, Mary had to open her heart to believe. At first, she asked for clarification. She did not fully understand what God was saying. She could not wrap her mind around it. But when the angel told Mary about her cousin, and she had a point of reference she could relate to, Mary was able to believe God.
— God loves you enough to work with you to get you to the point where you believe what He destined for you.
— You are only limited by your capacity to believe God. All things are possible for him who believes (Mark 9:23). This means that if you see something God says is impossible, it is then NOT possible for YOU! It’s not that it is not possible, because if God said it, He can do it, but it is just not possible for YOU, because you fail to believe God.
— One of the greatest things we can do is feed our heart with the Word of God and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. If we do, God will help us to EXPAND our capacity to believe Him. We want to get to the point where we see NOTHING AS IMPOSSIBLE!
— Our God is a God of no limits. There is nothing He can’t do. However, many believers see limits. As a result, they have placed artificial limits on our limitless God. Until they remove those limits, they are literally hindering God from moving in their lives.
— If God can make a virgin pregnant, He can surely do what He is saying to you! Stop putting limits on God. He can do all things! He lives IN you. Therefore, you can do all things through Him!
* This is an area where we should all LEVEL UP!
3. Faith receives what Grace has provided.
God made it clear to Mary that she had been CHOSEN to become the Mother of our Lord. She did nothing to earn or deserve this assignment. This was all the grace of God. Mary did not earn her assignment and you did not earn yours. God gives us all He gives us by grace–free, unearned, and undeserved. Our job is to believe and receive it by faith.
— Mary believed the word in her heart. She received it by faith.
— Faith believes what God is saying, even in the absence of any sense-realm evidence.
— What God was saying did not make sense at all. And Mary did not have anything, in the earth realm, that could validate what God was saying. But she had the audacity to believe God anyway.
— Faith believes that a God you cannot see will show up in your life in ways you can see!
— Faith sees the invisible and believes the impossible.
— Faith agrees with heaven, even when it is clear that the earth has not caught up with heaven yet.
— Mary believe what the angel was announcing, even though she had no way of validating it, and as a result, she got pregnant!
— You will get pregnant with your purpose, the day you believe what God believes about you.
— As soon as she opened her heart to what God was saying, she released faith to receive it, even though what heaven was saying was humanly impossible. As a result, the impossible became possible for her!
— As soon as she accepted what God was saying about her, and she agreed with heaven, her faith trapped into God’s grace and there was a manifestation in the earth realm. The Word became flesh in her womb.
— Since heaven was announcing it, that means that there was GRACE made available for it. This is a key point. Whenever God reveals something to you about you, He is showing you what He planned for you before the world began. Your job is to receive by faith what God wants to do in your life by grace. When your faith taps into God’s grace, your life becomes about God, about His plans, His will, and His ways. If you ever get to this point, your life will be All About Him and God will be free to do in/with/through your life what He planned. This is the goal. This is the life of faith. Faith is not about what you want. Faith is about what God already planned for you before the world began.
If you want to LEVEL UP in 2021, LEVEL UP in this area!
Tomorrow I will deal with why Mary went to see Elizabeth.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, You made plans for me before the world began. I accepted Your Son Jesus as Lord. I am now Born-Again. Your Spirit lives in me. Your Spirit reveals TO me the plans You made FOR me before I was born. As He does, my job is to believe what You have spoken over me. By Your grace, I am able to see the invisible and believe the impossible. Nothing is impossible for You. You live in me. Therefore, nothing is impossible for me! I LEVEL UP my faith in 2021. GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
