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:
We have been looking at the story of the Virgin Mary, and how she got pregnant, for a few days now. There is so much to learn here about faith. Mary believed what God believed about her. She said, “Be it unto me according to Your Word.”
She was saying, “I align my heart and my lips with what You are revealing to me about me. I may not understand it. I may not know how it will happen. It may not make any sense. It may even be impossible. But if You are revealing it to me, then my job is to say YES to what You are saying about me. My job is to believe what You believe about me. So Father, BE IT UNTO ME ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD!” At that very moment, she became pregnant and the angel left.
Let’s see what happened next.
(Luke 1:39-45 ERV)
39 Mary got up and went quickly to a town in the hill country of Judea.
40 She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.
41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the unborn baby inside her jumped, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42 In a loud voice she said to Mary, “God has blessed you more than any other woman. And God has blessed the baby you will have.
43 You are the mother of my Lord, and you have come to me! Why has something so good happened to me?
44 When I heard your voice, the baby inside me jumped with joy.
45 Great blessings are yours because you believed what the Lord said to you! You believed this would happen.”
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. When you are around people of faith, your faith will be strengthened.
— When you’re around people of faith, you will have Faith field experiences. When Mary walked through the threshold of Elizabeth’s home, her cousin said, “As soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
— When you are around people of faith, you will cause their faith to increase and they will do the same for you!
— When you are around people of faith, you will hear the right things. You will hear what you need to reinforce what you believe.
— The devil is constantly attempting to sew seeds of fear, doubt, and unbelief into your heart. He will do that through others. When you are around people who are not people of faith, and people who are influenced by satan, these are people that satan will use to sow negative seeds into your heart; seeds designed to erode and ultimately destroy your faith.
— When you are surrounded by people of God, who are people of faith, who are people being led of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will lead them to say things and do things in your presence that will cause your faith to increase.
— The point is that God is always seeking to reinforce your faith and satan is always seeking to erode your faith. There is a battle going on for your heart and the people that are around you can influence you significantly. So choose these people wisely.
2. When you are around people of faith, you will get words of confirmation.
— As soon as the angel left, Mary knew she was pregnant, but she also knew that almost no one would understand her pregnancy outside of marriage. She was young, not married, and she was pregnant. So she decided to go surround herself with the ONE person who could understand what she was going through.
— While you are believing God, and especially when you’re at the stage where you have no sense realm evidence to support what you believe, it is understandable that you were going to fight thoughts of doubt. Mary did not have a baby bump yet. She was not showing. She could feel anything in her tummy yet. So while she believed she was pregnant, you can rest assured that satan was trying to do everything he could to get her to doubt it. When Mary got around Elizabeth, another person of faith, and another person who had experienced something similar with God, Mary was able to receive a word of confirmation. Elizabeth confirmed, out loud, what God was doing in Mary’s life.
— When you get another human, who knows nothing about what is going on in your life, to confirm what God is doing, in a way that is clearly the revelation of the Holy Spirit, it does something for your confidence/faith that nothing else can.
— While you are believing God for this big thing, and you have this thing in your heart, and you are meditating on a day and night, it is amazing when God uses someone around you to speak a word of confirmation. You know you did not talk to them about it, and you know they have no other way of knowing about it. So when you know God clearly spoke to them, to speak to you, that external confirming word helps to solidify your faith in a way that almost nothing else can.
— You want to surround yourself with people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and who are sensitive to Him. When you do, these people can provide you a word of confirmation, and it could happen at any time.
— When you surround yourself with the right people, God can use them to either confirm that you were going down the right path or confirm the fact that you are going astray. Either way, that external confirmation, coming from a person of faith, who you know is being led by the Holy Spirit, is a powerful thing.
— An external word of confirmation should never replace your personal ability to hear from God. But what I can and should do is reinforce what God is saying to you.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, You are doing great things IN me and THROUGH me. My heart is open to believe and receive. While I am waiting on You to do what You said, I know satan will attempt to sow seeds of fear, doubt, and unbelief. I know I am in a faith fight. So I surround myself with people of like precious faith. I connect with people who are filled with Your Spirit, who are full of Your Word, and who can provide words of confirmation when I need it. I reinforce their faith and they do the same for me. I LEVEL UP my relationships 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!
