When I look at my life, there seems to be two components that stand out:
What people see from me and what people perceive of me.
Let me repeat that: What people see from me and what people perceive of me.
The unfortunate thing is the “what people see from me” and the “what people perceive of me” is only part of the story. “What people see from me” is only what I show, and “what people perceive of me” can be skewed based on their agenda.
The “what people see from me” can only be something they see from the way I behave, the things I tell, and the additional things I do. The “what people perceive of me” is solely their perception of what they see from me. Because they don’t know the whole story, they often get the message of who I am, wrong. Because they don’t know the whole story, the “who God called me to be” is often displaced. Because they don’t know the whole story, the battles I face are battles that are rooted in facades.
What facades are: they are “an outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or creditable reality.” What I am saying today is that many of the battles we face are battles based on the fake presentation we put up to hide what’s really in side.
But that doesn’t always have to be the case. When we make our way to Jesus, we find that the light in us begins to shine brighter. What we find is that with Jesus, we are able display a side of us, which is the true side of us, in a way that no one can dispute. What we find is that, when we allow “the Word to be a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path” (Psalms 119:105), this light not only lights our path, it does something within us, and this something within us is a transformation that we weren’t necessarily expecting.
As I look back on my life, I realize that God took me from birth to death to life and, now, to transformation. What I realize is that through my life there were transformations that occurred that brought me to where I am today. There were things that occurred, that had they not occurred, I wouldn’t have been the person I am today.
On January 18, 1982, I was born in Detroit, MI. At age 12, I nearly died, and was, ultimately, diagnosed with a mixed-connective tissue disease that caused me to deal with life differently. At age 16, I was truly saved by accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. At age 26, I was diagnosed with Lupus. At age 36, I am still dealing with the effects of Lupus. The difference now from then is: At age 12, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 13, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 14, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 25, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 29, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 34, I was still a victim of circumstances. But at age 36, I realized that, although I may have been a victim of circumstances at some point in my life, eventually I became a victim of myself. My relishing in my victim status became me victimizing myself. It wasn’t until Jesus walked passed me, and called me back to Him, that I realized that I had transitioned from being a victim to being victimized by me. I moved from being a victim to “playing victim.” What I mean is: There is a time in our life that life isn’t being bad to us. There is a time in our life where we stop being victims and begin “playing the victim.”
And God is calling on us today to: Stop playing victim because you are a survivor!
Today’s message is the concluding message of the “I Quit” series, and it is titled: “I choose to quit playing victim because I am a survivor! I will go where I was sent!”
John 9:1-7 NIV:
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
In this text, we find a blind man who was blind by birth. The disciples with Jesus wondered what caused this man’s blindness. We find that there were no generational curses that caused his blindness, there were no hereditary issues that caused his condition….he was just born this way. When Jesus passed by the man, he decided to anoint his eyes and commanded the man to goto the Pool of Siloam. The man went and came back with the ability to see.
What we find is that Jesus explained why the man was born this way. It was for the glory of God. It was so “God might be displayed in him.” That is a big deal. There are things in our lives that people see as afflictions caused by something else. There are things in our lives that, if we look at them in that light, we can’t see what God is truly doing. What you are going through isn’t anything other than something to be used so that “God might be displayed in [you].”
Ok, Pastor, I hear that but how does that connect to me?
We all have things that are rooted in us that, in the wrong light, we become victims to our circumstances, but God says that what you’ve been through is not something you have succumbed to. Despite being a victim of your circumstances, and of other people, you are a survivor. This surviving is rooted in him and will be used as a testimony to others.
But, let’s take a step back….
Once we change our perspective, our reality changes. To change our perspective, we have to build a foundation. That foundation must be filled with the right stuff and without it, it will crumble.
Concrete is made up of sand, water and a few other additives. If go to the ocean and grab sand off the beach, and then mix it with water, do we have concrete? No. The simple process of just mixing sand and water WILL NOT create concrete, and if we lay that INADEQUATE mixture as the foundation for a house, our house will fall. We cannot build a house on inadequacies and expect to have sustaining fruitfulness. Our house will fall. The walls will crack. The work we put into beautifying it will be just as if you did not add these aspects. On top of that, you may not be able to build on it at all.
In order to have anything fruitful, it must stand on solid ground. We must build it from a strong foundation. Our foundation must be able to support the weight of what you are building on it. God is declaring much in your life, and for what He wants to give you, your foundation must be built in a way that can withstand the pressures of the weight of everything that comes with that blessing. It is yours. Is your foundation built? Is your foundation sturdy? Can it withstand the pressure? Are you transforming your perception from one of victim to one of surviving?
I’m here to tell you that you have already been blessed with things that you haven’t even seen yet. But building your foundation, and changing your perspective, will allow you to withstand the the pressure. God is giving you time to build it so you can see the manifestation of what’s already yours, and that starts now.
Turn to your neighbor and ask them: How soon do you want your blessing to fully manifest?
In a house, it is decorated how we want it. In a basic house, you have a living room, bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. It has couches, beds, a dining room table, a stove, a refrigerator and a tv. What if you did not plan to have closets? Where would you put your clothes? Where would you put your shoes? What if you built a house on a foundation with all of those things, but you did not build the foundation to accommodate the space you needed to build cabinets? What do you do now?
There are things meant for other people that aren’t meant for us! We have to stop getting down on ourselves for the failures we’ve had. Many times, they failed because the foundation built wasn’t meant to hold who we are! Many times, they failed because the foundation was inadequate! Many times, they failed because that foundation was meant for someone else and we are more than that foundation can handle.
Turn to your neighbor and tell them: My foundation must be strong enough to handle who God says I am.
This is lesson one: No matter how you build your foundation. No matter how great or how small your foundation is, it must be built on solid ground. You must know whose you are and to whom you belong.
One of the hardest things we can do as people is to release ourselves from thinking that we belong to ourselves and accept that we don’t belong to ourself; that we are, even with free-will, God’s. And, in that releasing, we gain more authority, because God has given much to His.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Genesis 1:26 NIV
When an author writes a book, that book is still his, even if a million copies are made. This is the same thing with God. Just because He released us into the world, where there are millions of us, it does not mean that He stops being responsible for the contents within the book, which is you. We are His creation, and we are forever His. And, once we remove the worldly spirit of “I need no one type independence,” then we can begin to accept that because we are His, and if we plant everything on Him, He will be our unmoveable, undestroyable and unchanging solid ground.
Lesson two is: Your foundation must be built on Jesus, and Jesus must be interwoven into the fabric of every part of your every-day life.
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:24-27 NIV
In order for you to build your home, the foundation must be built on solid ground. You must build a relationship with God. Your prayer life must be solid. You must work to know God in a way that not only do you know God, but you allow God to know who you are. You must believe in Jesus and you must put what Jesus taught into practice in everything you do.
Lesson three is: You must know who you are and act.
To understanding our identity, we have to understand how we were created. We came out of His creation, the Earth. He made us from His works. His works were perfection. He created us from His perfection. It says:
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7 NIV
When you take perfect and you use perfect to create, you can only have perfect. You are perfect. It is up to you to choose to walk in that perfection or not. And, when I look out into this audience, I see perfection. I see a grandmother of perfection, a husband of perfection, a wife of perfection, a child of perfection. I see perfection.
God created us in His image (Genesis 1:27):
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 NIV
And, when a perfect being creates, He creates nothing less than perfection. When we are created in His image, it’s like looking in the mirror. The image is the same. We are perfection. We have to have perfect peace with our perfection before we can build a perfect foundation for a perfect manifestation.
Before Adam and Eve messed up, we were built perfect. We have to accept that we were built perfect to be able to get all that God has for us, and we can do it. It’s all about perception. Your perfect manifestation lies in how you view yourself and others.
Let’s go back one verse:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Genesis 1:26
Unless God is crazy, which I know He’s not, God would not give authority over anything to someone who is not worthy of that responsibility. So, stop beating yourself up over what the next man says to you...over what the next woman says to you. If someone wants to go, let them go. If someone doesn’t think you have the qualifications to complete a task, let them think that. You know who you are. You know whose you are. You know your are worthy of all manifestations. God has things in store for you and you have to stop letting other people dictate how you feel about you. Your confidence should reside in the Lord and not man. You are perfect, and no one has the authority to take that away from you. You are more than the next person can ever understand.
You are “fearfully and wonderfully made”--Psalms 139:14. And when I read that verse, I feel the confidence, knowing what that means.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. (Psalms 139:14)
My God does wonderful works. I am one of His works. I am who God made me to be. I accept that.
In the very beginning, God created us to be rulers. He gave us dominion. He gave us authority. And, with that authority, He gave us the ability to choose how we should rule them. The only restriction He made was that we were not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 2:16
So, if we follow God’s plans and live by His expectations, we will be afforded everything God has declared in our lives. What you did last week, yesterday or this morning may be an issue, but I am not here to condemn you. I’m here to help you see that knowing who you are in Christ can help you in your next steps towards your own, personal manifest destiny.
To not act within your identity, to not act within your purpose, to not act in your God-given authority is to have no identity at all. In the scheme of who were are called to be, if you do not use what you were given, if you do not act, if you do not bring forth fruit in your works, what does it matter if you have an identity or not!?! What good is good if good doesn’t happen!?!
I declare in this very moment: The devil is a liar. Get thee behind me, satan. Even you, satan, are who God says you are. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. We are drawing a line in the sand today. And, we are ready for your attacks. We declare victory now. We declare prosperity. We declare that our foundation is built on Jesus.
Lesson 4:
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
James 5:16b KJV
What does that mean? Let’s look at it in the NIV.
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
James 5:16b NIV
Above all, stay prayerful and build that relationship with our Lord and Savior. Your prayers and your praise can break chains.
Lesson 1: Build on Solid Ground
Lesson 2: Build your foundation on Jesus.
Lesson 3: Know who you are and act.
Lesson 4: Stay prayerful.
When you leave here today, I ask that you remember a few points:
Perspective matters. Change your perspective and your perception changes...creating a new reality.
There are times when we need to be selfish to be unselfish.
There are times, when we need inward healing to create a testimony that will help someone else. There are times when we need to find ways to forgive ourselves so we can be the effective servants God calls us to be and that requires us to turn inwardly to get grounded enough to reach out.
You cannot build a house on inadequacies and expect to have sustaining fruitfulness.
God is declaring much in your life, and for what He wants to give you, your foundation must be built in a way that can withstand the pressures of the weight of everything that comes with that blessing.
We have to have perfect peace with our perfection before we can build a perfect foundation for a perfect manifestation.
Before you go, however…..there is one more thing….
As we look at the original scripture, Jesus was passing by the blind man. The blind man didn’t choose God before God chose him. Jesus was walking by him. This is what Jesus does to us. We were already a choice of His. It doesn’t matter what your mother, father, sister, or brother did. It doesn’t matter how bad the people are that you are around. It doesn’t matter how down you are on yourself. Jesus sees something in you. He sees perfection. It’s our duty to say, “Yes,” to His will and move forward based on the command He gave.
In this scripture, Jesus said, “Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash.” It was in the blind man’s obedience that he was able to see. There is a transformation designed for our lives. Jesus has already anointed us, but it’s not until we are obedient to the command. It’s not until we go where Jesus sent us and wash that we can return to whence we came, seeing. That ability to see where we came from is the difference between being a victim, or playing victim, and being a survivor. You are a survivor….and more than that. You are one of Jesus’ chosen. He walked past you, and that urging to be here is evidence of Jesus walking past you. That urging to transform your life is evidence of Jesus walking past you.
Are you ready to transform? What you’ve been through didn’t kill you, and there’s a reason. It’s because you are a survivor and there is a purpose in the pain you went through.
Declare with me today:
Although I may have been a victim of something, no one can change my perspective but me and Jesus. Although I may have gone through something, it did not kill me. I have a purpose. I declare today that my purpose is being revealed. I believe that my testimony will be used so that God can be displayed in my. I will let my light shine because God chose me, and I am thankful for that. I am a survivor, and it is God’s will that I align my thinking to His.
