#356 - Get Out Of Your Grave

It's time for you to get out of your grave, my friend. It's time for you to wake up, shake it off, get back in the game. Because here's what has happened. Things in life can disappoint us. They can get us down. They can throw us off our game, you know, get us misaligned. And all of a sudden, we start thinking that's normal. We start receiving anxiety and stress. We start thinking, well, I guess it's supposed to be hard. All of a sudden, we diminish our dreams so that we become more like the world than like God. And now we have found ourselves in a grave. And I'm telling you that a grave is just a rut that keeps you stuck. And if you have found yourself in that rut, if you found yourself in that grave, it is time today to get out of that grave. And that's what I'm talking about today. Because here's the deal. You have got purpose over your life. You have got dreams. And you know what those dreams are? They're the ones that stirred you to begin this journey anyway. Right? Now, as soon as you hit a wall, as soon as you hit a dead end, as soon as you hit a rough patch, you're like, oh, wow, I didn't expect this. I didn't anticipate it. Now I'm disappointed. Things aren't working out. Maybe I got it wrong. Maybe I read God wrong. Maybe I shouldn't have started this anyway. And all of a sudden, you find yourself holding back, pulling away, and that's that grave. And if you're not careful, that grave will be the end of you. And it will be the end of that dream. And it will be the end of that goal which will now extinguish the purpose that God put in you to change this world, to expand his kingdom, to make an impact. So today, I need to wake you up. We're going to shake off all of that disappointment. We're going to shake off the negativity, the stress, anxiety. Take a deep breath, and we're going to move forward. We're going to get out of that grave. Because I believe your setback, whatever that was, your setback, and we all have to go through it, was just a setup for your comeback. And today is when you're coming back, back. Because here's the deal. When you are, when you're a believer and you're pursuing your dreams and you're operating that. In that higher purpose that God called you to, and you are operating in obedience and you're moving forward. Everything works out for you until it doesn't, right? Because there are some times when things don't work out. I'll never forget the time I was sharing with one of my business mentors. And, like, I'm just being honest, going through a hard, hard patch in my business. And I was just, you know, I. I was so frustrated. I was so overwhelmed. I wanted to give up. And I was talking with him, and I was like, I don't. I don't know what to do. Like, I don't even know how I'm gonna make payroll. And he looked at me and I'll never forget this, guys. He looked at me, he said, hannah, like, I have talked with so many business leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs. Every single one of them has gone through a period where they don't know if they can make payroll. And I was like, wait, what? Like, that shocked me, honestly. Like, I was surprised because in my mind, there's all those super successful people, you know, who never have any problems, and they started on a path, and it always works out for them, and it works out so fast and so easy. And here I am struggling and. And bumping and along and making, you know, mistakes all along the way. And I thought, wait, really? Like, why don't you hear more of those stories? Because it was so refreshing to me. Not that I took joy in someone else's demise, but it was so refreshing to me to know that maybe this is just part of the process. Maybe it just means I'm actually on the right path when I feel like it's so bumpy and it's so hard and I must be doing it wrong. Maybe that's actually a sign, I don't know, that I could be doing it right. Because According to Philippians 4:13, we know that all things work together for good. All things. Now we have to know if all things work together. We got to get a really good grasp on what all things are. It means the things we desire and the things we don't desire. It means the things that are. That make us feel happy and the things that make us feel bad. It means the things that are working for us and the things that look like they're not working for us, but may actually be working for us. Now, here's what. Here's what gets us excited. You want to hear what gets us excited about achieving our dreams and going forward and reaching success in all areas of our life? Things like Philippians 14, that. That I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Think about that. All things. I can do all things. Wow. That. That feels so good. Knowing that no matter what is in front of me, I can do that. I can. I can achieve it. I can accomplish it. I can overcome it. Whatever's in front of me, I can do all things through Christ, whose strength is in me, who abides in me. Now, here's another thing that gets us excited. Not not only can we but check this out. It says in Romans 8:32, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him, freely give us all things? Now, what does this tell us? That God, who loves us so much, he wouldn't even deny his own son from us. Won't he, out of that love, give us all other things? So now let's combine that. I can do all things, and I can have all things. Whoa. That is exciting. That gets me excited to know that nothing's off the menu and he paid for it all. Like, here's the menu of all your. All your financial. Blessing. Here's the menu of all your physical, your health blessing. Here's the menu of all your relationship blessing, your marriage blessing, you're blessing your family, your. Your home. And all of that is included in the bill, and he paid for it. I can have all of it. I can do all things. I can have all things. Wow. That's pretty powerful. Now, check this out. All of that. We. We forget one very important thing is that if we're going to be able to do all things, and if we're going to be able to have all things, then first we have to persevere through all things. And that's what Romans 8:28 tells us. We are assured and know that God, being a partner in their labor, all things work together and are fitting into a plan. Someone needs to say fitting into a plan. It is all as. As bad or as good, as horrific or as beautiful is all fitting into a plan for good, to, and for those who love God and are called according to his design and purpose. Now, that's the kicker. All these things. Yes, I can do all things. Yes, I can have all things, but only if I'm willing to receive all things as a process that is leading me to it. We don't just. It doesn't just fall into our laps. We. It's all a combination of everything. God is working in places in your life where you cannot see. He is. He is working in a web of his design that is so intricate, you couldn't understand it. So he is working in and through all things in your life. The brutal and the beautiful, the messy and the pretty. Like, he's working through it all. But if we are willing to take all the good parts of it and we don't want to feel the bad, then we are not allowing the entire recipe. And like, you gotta have the full recipe. Like, my mama makes the best banana pudding in the world. Like, best banana pudding. And it is the best the day after. It rarely makes it that far, but it's best the day after. Some of you guys know what I'm talking about. Like that Good, good Southern banana pudding. Now here's the deal. It takes eggs, it takes butter, it takes cream, it takes bananas. You wouldn't necessarily say, oh, I love the bananas, but I don't want to eat the eggs or, oh, that, that cream, love it. Great. In my coffee, I can make ice cream. Oh, but, but I don't want just to eat a stick of butter. Like, no, but we have such short sighted views of our life that we think it has to be banana pudding every single day. It's not banana pudding every single day. Some days are eggs, some days are butter, some days are the cream, some days are bananas. I'm telling you, most days of my life feel like bananas. But all of it is working in the big picture, in the big recipe. And if we're going to do all things and have all things, then we have to allow all things in our life. So sometimes it looks like things are failing. Sometimes it looks like your obedience is backfiring on you. Like, wait a minute. If God is like all sufficient, then why am I in debt right now? If God is my healer, then why am I? Why did the doctor say that I have this condition? Like, that doesn't make any sense. It doesn't line up with his covenant. However, his covenant is all inclusive. So we have to know that even though my current circumstances don't look like they're lining up with a blessing, I know I'm blessed. I know I'm included in that covenant of blessing. And as bad as this is, it's working for me. I'll never forget the time that I broke out in hives all over my body. Like they were on my arms, my chest, my abdomen, my legs, everywhere. It was so horrible. And no doctor could figure out what was going wrong. And I was like praying over this. It wasn't changing. I was believing for healing over this. It wasn't changing. I was doing every kind of diet, like, you know, all the elimination diets and nothing was changing. And I was like, what is going wrong? Why is my covenant of healing failing right now? And then my daughter, of all people, she is a chiropractor. And she saw, like, one time I was visiting her and I changed into my pajamas. She's like, what is wrong with your skin? I'm like, I told you, I got these hives all over my body. And then she was looking on her computer and we. We kind of were like, binge watching some Netflix series and just hanging out as she. And I'll never forget, she shuts her computer and she says, I know what's wrong with you. I said, what is it? She said, you entered into menopause, which deactivated the enzyme that processes the histamine in your food. And now every time you eat a food that's high in histamine, like spinach or avocados or like things that I love, right? She said, you have an allergic reaction, which is hives. I was like, what? I didn't even heard. I didn't even know food had histamine in it. Now here's the deal. As soon as she shared that with me, I found out the foods that caused that had high amounts of histamine eliminated those from my diet. And then all of a sudden, everything's cleared up. Now, did God's covenant of healing ever change for me? No. However, now I had to go through that experience so I would have new knowledge about my body, post menop. Menopause, so that I can know how to fuel it the correct way, how to care for it the correct way to extend my life and make it healthy and vibrant and full. Like, this is the beauty of it. Maybe that thing that looks like it's coming against you is actually working for you because it's building something in you that you wouldn't have otherwise to achieve the dream and the purpose that God has over your life. Maybe what you're resisting right now is 100% critical for your success. And your resistance to it is not helping you learn. Gain the wisdom from it so you can move through it. Maybe what is happening to you is happening for you. If you could just look at it as necessary, as critical, like this current situation. If this. If this could be working for my good now, what do I believe from it now? What could this be teaching me? Your setback is just your setup. And I'm serious. God, like when things look hopeless, when things look like they're just not going to turn around, when you can't come up with A way to fix this thing, whatever that looks like, know that God does. God can't leave dead things alone. Like, he just can't. He calls. He calls the dead to life. He calls. Those things are not as if they already are. He brings resurrection power. So know that this thing that looks like a dead end in your life is just now a detour to get you on the right path and the path that now you have proven you can manage. God doesn't put anything in front of you that is not going to help you and bring you to the next place in your life. So if you looked at this thing, it's like, I don't, I don't want it. Then, then you're not going to learn from it. If you look at that thing, it's like, okay, I can embrace you. I can walk through you. I can learn from you. Now you're going to just accelerate the process to reach that finish line, to reach that manifestation, to reach the goal. I'm telling you that to be a Christian, you have to be a little crazy, because the whole Christian faith is based upon the fact that the dead can live again, right? You must believe that the dead can be raised to life in order to just like, make the cut of Christianity. Because that's what the whole Christian faith is built on. What it rests on is that Jesus rose from the dead. So in order to. If you're saying you're a Christian, you're also saying that you believe life can come out of the dead. You believe. You have to say, I believe that no matter how hopeless the situation looks, the. That there is hope here. That's what Abraham, you know, when they're talking about Abraham in the Bible, he had hope against hope. That hope that, like when nothing makes sense and there's no earthly explanation and there's zero solution, that's when hope really counts. Everyone can have hope when it looks easy. Everyone can have hope when it makes sense, or you have a formula or you have a plan. But when no plan works and when you're out of solutions and when as much as you lie awake at night and, and, and search your computer and keep on writing in your books and all that and making your list, and you still can't figure it out, that's when our hope needs to be in God and not our own strategy. So we have to praise our way to victory. And that praise means God. I put more faith in you than in these circumstances that I currently find myself in. He quickens the dead. Check this out. Psalm 143. Okay, first of all, Romans 4:17. Let me, let me go there for a second. As it is written, I have made you the Father of many nations. He was appointed our Father in the sight of God, in whom he believed. Abraham, who gives life to the dead and speaks of the non existent things that he has foretold and promised as if they already existed. So God is in the business of bringing the dead to life because he speaks of those things that, that are not as if they already are. So he gives life to the dead. So if your forecast looks pretty bleak, and if you're thinking, well, this, this dream has died, I, I lost my opportunity, it's not going to work out for me. I just didn't make the cut. That is BS Belief system. Come on, give me a little credit here. It is just your belief system and your belief system is not lining up with God's belief system, which is based upon his covenant of grace. Grace will take you where flesh cannot. He has got some place he's bringing you. And this pain, this current disappointment, this grave is part of it. So now are you gonna speak life or are you gonna speak death? Are you gonna speak hope? Are you gonna speak hopelessness? Like which one? You get to choose this. When you find yourself in that grave, you get to choose whether you're going to stay in or get out. And that choice to get out merely is putting more faith in God's ability than yours. It is putting more, more faith in the, the fruit of the spirit that comes by growing and leaning into that covenant of God than by your works of the flesh. Like, you probably know that sometimes the works of the flesh don't always yield a great result. It can lead to a lot of stress, a lot of frustration. But sometimes it doesn't always yield to a big result. If I want to be here for the big game, for the big result, for the big dream in my life, then I've got to believe in something that challenges every single logical part of my brain. And that means I'm putting belief in God. It's so funny. When we, when we fail, when we lose, we always want to hide that. Like, like I shared with you when I was talking with this guy and I, and I shared with him a confidentiality, I was like, I, I'm. I don't know how I'm going to make payroll. I was so embarrassed. I was so ashamed. He's like, everyone goes through that. It's like all of a sudden, like when you shine light on that and you don't hold shame and embarrassment around it. There's freedom there. The enemy wants to tell you, you failed. The enemy wants to tell you, you know what? If you had been smarter, it wouldn't have happened this way. If you had been wiser, it wouldn't happen. If you had just taken advantage of those opportunities, you wouldn't be where you are right now that, like, come on, we can camp out there and go nowhere fast, or we can believe there's no shame, there's no embarrassment, there's no humiliation. It's just part of the journey. And if I can't be honest and truthful with the ugly, how then I don't deserve to be honest and truthful with the pretty. Here's the deal. So many people want to show, like, here's the beauty. Look at this. Look at what I've accomplished. But they don't want to share the backstory when the backstory is what most people need. The backstory is what I need. Like, don't tell me about your. About your accolades and don't show me your awards without also telling me the journey when you didn't think it was going to work out, when you failed, when you found yourself in that grave and you had to claw your way out because something in you was bigger than whatever was around you. And that is God. He who is in you is greater than anything that is in this world. So that force that is in you, that God force, almighty God in you, that is the force that can look at the circumstances and say, okay, it may look bad, but I know God is still good. He's still good. So can you believe even in this place, in this grave, in this dark place, in this disappointing era of your life, right now is just a chapter. Can you believe it's just a chapter? We all read books, right? Or you go or you watch a movie and there's a part of it that looks hopeless. A lot of times, especially the superhero movies, right? There's always a part of it that looks hopeless. I guess, I guess he died. I guess the bad guys won. I guess it, the game's over. But you know, wait a minute, It's a two hour long movie and we're only at an hour and 45. You know, something's about to turn around. Now we have that knowledge around books, around movies, but we forget to have that wisdom and that scope around our own life. And maybe when things look hopeless, maybe it's just an hour and 45, maybe it's setting you up for the biggest comeback of your Life. I'll read this to you. This is Colossians 3, starting in verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ to a new life, thus sharing his resurrection from the dead, aim at and seek the rich eternal treasures that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set. Even in the dark times. It's easy to set your mind on all the hopes and the promises when. When it's a sunny day and. And you have little, little unicorns frolicking on your lawn, pooping rainbows everywhere. Like, that's easy, right? That's easy to set your mind there. Can you also keep it set? When it's dark and it's storming, you can't see where you're going and the unicorns ran into hiding, can you still keep it set then? So set your minds and keep them set on what is above the higher things, not on the things that are on the earth. So it's keeping your eyes and your mind set on God and not on your current circumstances. For as far as this world is concerned, this is verse three. You have died. And your new real life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in the splendor of his glory. How cool is that? You're going to make your appearance and it's going to be amazing. It's going to be glorious. But not if you refuse to set your mind. If you lose hope, game over. It's gone. Leave the theater at an hour and 45 and say, wow, that was the worst movie ever. The ending was so bad. So it's like, no, you. That wasn't the ending. That was when you left the theater. So think about this. This hopeless feeling, this chapter in your life that feels like a grave. It's not the end. So don't leave the theater. Set your mind. Keep it set on the things above. Not on what you're seeing, but on what you know to be true. And with the covenant of blessing that is over your life right now. That's where you set your mind. The grave can only hold you if you settle there. You got to wake up, you got to shake off that dirt, and you've got to get out. Because you've got a dream to fulfill. You've got a goal to accomplish. You've got purpose to live out in this world. And it's not going to happen in that grave of you, like moaning and groaning about the things that aren't working out in Your life. Yeah, we all go through it. Now get up. Move out. It's time for your comeback. The. Get out of that grave. The grave isn't there to hold you. Check this out. Romans 4:18. In hope, he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. As he had been told, so shall your offspring be. I'm telling you guys, the hope that you had for yesterday is not the hope that's going to bring you to tomorrow. Faith builds. That's why it says faith upon faith, grace upon faith. That's why it's a journey. Because the grace and the faith that took you here, man, listen, that faith that brought you here, that brought you this far, is not the same level of faith that's going to take you where God is positioning you. You need this ch. You need this pain so that you can now push through it and become that person who can handle a bigger blessing. This wasn't here to take you out. This was here to move you forward. Because all things work together for good. If you know I love God and I know I'm called and I know this purpose, and it's not going to die here. Time to get out of your grave, friend. It's time to wake up, shake it off, move out. Because you have got big dreams to accomplish, and I'm here with you. I love you, friend. Thanks for joining me. And remember, be blessed like crazy.