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Tag: #hearingfromgod

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What’s The Formula For Breakthrough?

We love formulas. Give us five prayers that unleash the power of heaven or three steps to walking in victory and we are all over it like a hog in mud! We approach the bible with this same mindset. We read about Daniel and all of a sudden we have a new formula called the Daniel fast! We read about the worshippers who circled Jericho and we have another formula: leading spiritual warfare with praise! However, as I study the scriptures I’m becoming more and more convinced that the only formula is that there is no formula! I mean, if we made a list of all the different strategies the people of Israel employed to win their battles, it would be quite a long and diverse list. No two strategies seemed the same. It seems that God emphasized not a formula-based faith but a God-dependent faith. The formula is to hear from God all the time, every time.

This was brought home to me in a fresh way as I studied Matthew chapter 2 yesterday. It is a really interesting chapter in that it contains the fulfillment of three Messianic prophesies. It starts with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Israel. Then Joseph has a dream by which the Lord warns that Herod will seek to kill the child and directs Joseph to take his family to Egypt. Finally, after Herod dies, Joseph takes his family back to Israel (but to the town of Nazareth this time), again prompted by divine direction. The author of Matthew is careful to point out that there is a prophecy about the Messiah coming from each of these three cities; Bethlehem, Egypt and Nazareth.

So I tried to put myself in Joseph’s shoes but with a 21st century mindset… I know, quite a mind-twister lol. Ok so here I am, I got the Saviour of Israel in my care… (no pressure). I’m also a Jew so I know the scriptures pretty well (like by heart) and I know that there are three prophesies about where this child comes from. So what’s the formula for successfully raising God’s promised Messiah? Which city should the child be born in? Do I plan a visit to each city? When? In what order? To figure it out, I naturally pull out my Strong’s Concordance and study all the Hebrew words in the prophecies and Google all the articles and YouTube videos on Messianic prophecies. (By the way, this exercise kinda reminded me of the eschatological gurus who keep getting the end of the world wrong… hmm.. whatever happened to all the blood moon fanfare last year?… anyhoo, I digress…)

The thing is, that was not how Joseph approached life…not at all. He simply did what God told him when God told him. An angel of the Lord appeared in a dream and told him to go to Egypt, so he went. Another angel appeared in another dream and sent him back to Israel when Herod died and he went to Nazareth. Simple. No formula. Just a simple faith that totally trusted God to direct his path.

As I begin to think about my 2020 goals, I’m thinking in 2020 I want to get back to a simple yet powerful faith. I want to grow in obedience to the Holy Spirit, step by step, day by day… there are no formulas, only a life fully surrendered to Christ and completely led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

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The Fire Series: Social Media Christian

 

Greetings my joy-filled readers. First, I must apologize for being MIA for a couple of weeks. My unplanned hiatus is in fact the subject of today’s blog. The story begins with me heading to work one day feeling distracted, disconnected from God and just a little bit anxious. I had stumbled into a vicious cycle of experimenting with social media ads as a way to market my new book –Authentic Joy – (how’s that for a shameless plug lol) and then constantly checking to see how my posts were performing and how my sales were going (or not going). Add to that ongoing WhatsApp messaging (aka my WhatsAddiction) which more and more I have begun to use to for business purposes as well. And add to that a slew of deadlines and crises at work and you begin to get the picture.

My dilemma is a common one I assume. I would like nothing better than to just write blogs and books and leave the nitty gritty like marketing to somebody else but unfortunately there is no ‘somebody else’. That’s just par for the self-publishing course. Every article and book that I’ve read on the topic says the same thing, “Books don’t sell themselves.” However, this is not a full-time job for me, so I have to do this on my personal time which has resulted lately in me being ‘that guy’; the guy who always has his head in his phone.

In the end I just had to take a break. I just stopped everything. I stopped blogging. I stopped checking my book sales and book ranking. I stopped checking Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. I stopped checking how many people were viewing, liking or commenting. I stopped it all. What I really needed to check was myself. Reassess things. Ask myself some probing questions…. “Was this what I really wanted for my life when I started all this?” “What was God saying to me?” “How could I walk in faith in this situation, as opposed to trying to make everything happen myself without God or, doing nothing in vain hope?”

The first thing that was loud and clear was that I needed to stop the obsessive checking. Emails, messages, likes and whatever else do not need to be checked every 5 minutes Matik! The more I obsessed the more I could literally feel myself drifting from the peace of God. It was like a growing jittery unease in my soul. You cannot walk with God and be incessantly distracted. You just can’t. If you are satisfied with being with God on a Sunday and a few minutes each day during your bedtime prayers and daily scripture reading, then you can tweet and post and forward memes to your heart’s content. But if like me you are striving to walk in the Presence 24/7 then you have to cultivate a habit of being present to what God is saying and doing in you and around you.

Secondly, God spoke through my girlfriend. I’m blessed to have a partner who has the gift of keen spiritual ears. She said that I need to give thanks. I had not stopped to acknowledge what an accomplishment being published really was, especially in the light of the obstacles I faced to get here. Most importantly, I had not tangibly acknowledged that I owed this achievement all to my Heavenly Father. He had seen me through a tortuous road and brought me out with a testimony of His goodness!

Next, my mother relayed some advice that two people had given her for me; feed the poor. This is something I have been trying to cultivate as a habit for years, but I could never find a way as every food provision programme I checked operated during the week when I was at work or on the way to work. But, I recently heard about a place where I can reach the homeless on a Saturday. So, no more excuses! I don’t think you can really claim an authentic faith unless you take care of the most vulnerable in society.

Finally, God told me to take my focus off this book and get cracking on my next book. I smiled at this one. I believe that God sometimes releases our blessings slowly because we need a little discomfort to get off our butt and do what He has called us to do. Imagine if my first book became a bestseller overnight… How many creative works might remain unfulfilled while I bask in the spoils of past labours… God’s plans for us are always bigger than our plans for ourselves!

Funny how while I was focused on marketing my book, God was focused on other things. So, I’m back from my hiatus but my priorities have been shifted. I’m excited to see what happens next!

Joyfully,

Copyright Matik Nicholls, 2018. All rights reserved.