Season 2 (Episode 7) Five Reasons Why You May Feel OVERLOOKED?

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Hey you guys, welcome back to a new episode. So as you can see by today's title, it is called 5 Reasons Why You May Be Overlooked. Listen, this particular topic has been in my spirit since last year, okay? Last year in the fall, the Lord had gave me a specific word about this. I did a very intense study on it, and what happened was I was going to release it in the fall, but I ended up getting sick, my family got sick, so many different things came up. But it has been brewing in my spirit for quite some time now, and so even over the past month, it's been in my my heart so heavily because I come across so many clients over the past, you know, years who feels overlooked. And today I want to help set you free. Also, I had a hard time finding my notes. I had taken so many notes in a notebook by hand, and I could not find my notebook anywhere. And I kept saying, God, how am I supposed to release this message if I don't have my notes? And the Lord simply said, if you go back and start studying for it again, I will give you what I gave you before. And so I did. And so actually, um, this morning I sat down— oh, I woke up about 4 o'clock this morning, to be honest. My husband had to go to work, and I went to bed early last night because this morning I did want to get up early to be able to, you know, work on some things, spend time with God, spend time in worship, attend service, and all that good stuff. But today, listen, the Lord truly downloaded a lot of nuggets for me to share with you all today. And so my prayer is that this will bless you. Before I begin and go into the message today, I want to go over the definition of overlooked and then also look at some synonyms to describe this word as well. So overlooked means not seen, unnoticed, or not considered. How many of you guys have felt that way during your life. I know I have. So here are some other words to describe overlooked: ignore or disregard, neglect, ignore, pay no attention, heed to, turn a blind eye, turn a deaf ear to, pass over, omit, skip, gloss over, leave out, leave undone, forget, deliberately ignore someone, take no notice of, take no account of, make allowances for, let pass, wink at, blink at, excuse, pardon, condone, let someone off the hook, and the list goes on. So this is a very powerful word that holds a lot of weight, especially in the body of Christ. And so I'm going to go over the first reason why we feel overlooked. And the number one thing that came to me was family dynamics. Most of the time, our family members, whether it's a parent, a sibling, a cousin, or whoever, can make us feel overlooked. And the very first person that came to mind was Sarah and Abraham's slave and servant Hagar. So if you go to Genesis chapter 16, verses 1 through 13, it shares a story about how Abraham and Sarah was waiting on God's promise, but they had become, become impatient with having a baby. And so Sarah had Abraham to impregnate Hagar. Well, whenever she got pregnant, she became envious of Hagar. And Hagar was being mistreated. Hagar was so sad, she was so depressed that she wanted to run away. Actually, she did run away. So if you read down in Genesis chapter 16, verse 9, it says, then the angel of the Lord told her, go back to your mistress and submit to her. The angel added, I will increase your descendants so much so that they will be too numerous to count. So God sent an angel of the Lord to encourage her to stay and to stand on his promise. So initially, Sarah— not Sarah, but Hagar— she stayed. But if you go down to verse 13, it says she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her 'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the one who sees me.' This is why she called the Lord El Roi, which means 'the God who sees me.' So that encouraged her. I can only imagine how Hagar felt. Like, she didn't ask to be there. She didn't ask to, you know, become pregnant by Abraham. They pushed that on her because she was a slave, because she belonged to them. But then if you go, um, over to Genesis chapter 21, verse, um, 21 verse 8, it talks about how, uh, Hagar had became, you know, distressed again because at this time she had already given birth to Ishmael. Oftentimes I know in the body of Christ we hear about the Ishmael and how it's a bad thing, and of course God does not want you to create the Ishmael. But in this situation here, you know, Ishmael is a human being. He is an innocent child who again did not, you know, ask to be here and also dealt with rejection and was being overlooked because Sarah wanted everything to go to their baby, everything. She did not want Hagar and Ishmael to get anything. She wanted to give everything to Isaac. And so Hagar was crying out to God again. So if you go to Genesis chapter 21 and verse 17, it says God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation. My God. Verse 19, then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, so she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and he became an archer. In verse 21, while he was living in the desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt. And so this description right here, it tells you how, you know, God changed things around for Ishmael. He didn't ask to be here. And oftentimes, I know for a fact that our family can make us feel as though we are burdened, um, try to minimize who we are, minimize our gifts, minimize our existence. You know, that's not everyone's story, but this right here is a clear picture and an indicator that God has not forgotten about you. No matter what your family says, no matter where you were, where you were born, what you were born into, you are not a failure. God can redeem you. So your prayer should be, if this is you, Father, please redeem me. Father, I didn't ask to be here, just like Ishmael. Father, Father, please restore me. Please, God, give me an inheritance. The next one is disobedience. Oh my gosh, oftentimes we can be disobedient intentionally or unintentionally. Oftentimes, you know, God would give us an instruction to do something very small in our eyes. But what we don't understand is that that very small thing God's asking us to do is leading up to your promise, is leading up to what he is calling you to do. And so he has to work out obedience in you so as you grow and as you elevate and as God position you for what he has for you, that you'll be obedient. Okay, so this is why it's important to be obedient in the small things. And be obedient in, you know, every single season. And sometimes we can be disobedient unintentionally, meaning that, you know, God might have asked you to do something before, but you, you know, forgot. Maybe you have forgotten. So go back and ask God, God, can you please like share with me or show me the last thing you told me to do that I was disobedient in? And Acts 5:29, it says But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. So maybe God is telling you to do something, but you're dependent on those around you or your leaders or whoever, whoever it is to validate you, to confirm what God is saying to you. But you know what God has asked you to do, so just do it. Isaiah 1:19. 'If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.' Exodus 23:22. 'But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, an adversary to your adversaries.' Listen, hopefully I said that correctly, but whatever. What the scripture is saying here is, if you're being obedient to what God has called you to do and asked you to do, those who contend with you, those who come up against you, God will deal with them. So don't worry about what people are saying about what God has asked you to do. This is one of the reasons why I try my best not to criticize or, you know, minimize what someone is doing, especially if I don't understand, because I don't know what God has shown them. I know how it feels. I myself have had to be obedient in a lot of things. That sometimes my family and my friends do not understand, but I know that God himself told me to do a specific thing, so I have to be obedient. Listen, I've been there. I've been there before where I have been fearful of rejection, fearful of being judged, fearful of getting it wrong, not sounding right, and all of the above. But it prevented me from getting to the next level and where God wanted me to be. And the word of God said that we go from glory to glory, you know, and faith to faith. But with that comes an act of obedience. We have to be obedient to get there. You don't just get there overnight or get, or get there just because. God loves obedience. I definitely had a word given to me earlier this year and last year. I had two people tell me that God was pleased with me because I operated in radical obedience. But you guys, I end up being that way because I had went through a season in my life where I was disobedient because I was fearful. But as time went on, I could see what that cost me. It had cost me time. It had cost me a lot of different things that I didn't see at that particular time. But as time went on, oh my God, now I see why you told me to do XYZ. And so even when I'm— whenever I'm afraid or I'm nervous, I do it anyway. Do it scared. Do it scared. The next one is God's timing. God will hide us for a season, but it's for our good. Think about David. Think about David. He was in the fields tending to the sheep. He was overlooked by his family and his friends, and they did not see or understand the value of what he carried or who he was in God. So if you go to 1 Samuel chapter 16, verses 10 to 12, it says that Jesse made 7 of his sons pass before Samuel. Samuel was the king at that time. But Samuel told him, the Lord has not chosen any of these men. And Samuel asked him, Are these all the sons you have? There is still the youngest, Jesse replied, but he is tending the sheep. Samuel said, send for him, for we will not sit down to eat until he arrives. So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, rise and anoint him, for he is the one. He is the one. And so maybe God has you in a season where he is hiding you so he can refine you. You can read in scripture, David was a flawed man, but he was also a man after God's own heart. So while you out working and while you're waiting and doing what you're called to do right now and faithful in that right now, God will raise you up into where he wants you to be. Hey, hey, hey!

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Let's get back into part 2 of this episode.

Hey you guys, welcome back! And so the fourth reason why we may feel overlooked is because of comparison. Maybe you are trying to fit into a mold and act like someone else. It's okay to admire people and be inspired by people. To me, that's a big difference between comparison, but trust that God has a unique blueprint just for your life. Just like you have a unique footprint, you have a unique fingerprint, you have a unique everything about you, God has a unique plan for your life. So seek him on that. Ask God, ask God to give you, you know, a dream or a vision or speak to you, inspire you, to show you what his plan is for your life. And then ask him to walk you through it. If you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 12, it says, not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. To me, that particular statement— scripture— is so powerful because whenever we're so busy trying to compare ourselves to others, we do miss out on important information that God wants to give us about us, and then we lack understanding, and then we become confused and frustrated and wonder why their plan is not working for us. So go back and read that. So comparison kills. Comparison is truly the thief of joy. There's a song that I love by Jonathan McReynolds called Comparison Kills. I also did a blog about that, um, last year, and I'm actually going to go back and refine that blog and add some more stuff to it. So it's not on my website right now, so I have so many blogs that I'm actually going through and like updating them. So pretty soon I'll have a new library of content for you guys to, you know, to read and study. And so the next one is preparation. Preparation. God is trying to prepare you for the promise, and preparation looks different for everyone. But the biggest thing is God wants to prune out things in your heart. He wants to prepare you. He wants to give you life experience. He wants to, you know, increase your anointing. He wants to help you to understand your gifts and to really be secure in your identity and be mature. Okay, and so the very first thing that came to me when, you know, I heard the word preparation from Holy Spirit was Joseph, the story about Joseph. So if you look at Genesis chapter 37, 18 through 36, you know, Joseph had previously told his family about a dream that he had, that they were bowing down to him. And so they had became envious of him, they had became jealous of him. So they pretty much captured him, threw him into a pit. Then they felt bad, then they went, got him out the pit, and they sold him for 20 silver coins. And so during that time of slavery, Joseph went through so much. He went through so many trials and tribulation. Rejection, pain, accusations, and all these different things. Honestly, that matured him because when he was, you know, with his brothers and them, he was— he's the baby, you know, he was probably a little immature because he went and told them his dream pretty quickly, right? I know for me, in my mature state, I would not go and tell my brothers about my dream. Now, my younger state, in my immature state, yes, I would have. So that lets me know that he had to mature in some areas in order to handle what God had for him. So if you fast forward and you go to, um, the book of Genesis chapter 41, it talks about Pharaoh's dream. So Pharaoh had this elaborate dream that he could not interpret. He went and he sought out, you know, uh, clarification, interpretation from psychics and mediums and things like that. And they could not fully give him the full meaning of the dream. And so Joseph interpreted the dream for him and pretty much told him, we will have 7 years of harvest and then 7 years of drought or famine, so we need to prepare for that. And so they did. So they— so Pharaoh was just so happy, and he just favored Joseph, and he was just like, oh my God, like, you're the best thing since sliced bread, pretty much. And so he made him ruler of Egypt. He made him ruler of Egypt. And then the time of the famine, his brothers and them were having a hard time in their town, having a hard time where they were from. And so they were seeking out food, so they went to Egypt and they was asking pretty much for help. And initially Joseph kind of, you know, told them, you know, we can't help you, and A lot of different things happen. Go back and read it, you guys. It's a very powerful story. But then in the end, he ended up telling them, hey, I'm your brother, it's me, Joseph. To me, it was so beautiful to see that his heart softened towards them, because in his mature state, he understood that these people, his, his family, could not understand or see his value. And that's okay, because God hid him. God hid him during that time because God needed to do a work in him. If he would have became king or been worshiped then in his immature state, he would have mishandled his kingship. He would have mishandled his brothers. He would have mishandled so much because he was immature. So God wants to prepare us into maturity, into full maturity. Not saying that you're going to be perfect or not make mistakes. But God desires for you to be whole. He desires for you to be healed from the things you've been through. And you got this. Uh, this blessed me so, so much. Like, my study time for this was actually hours, okay, over a period of time. And today I gave it to you guys in a very, um, concise way where you can understand it and really take hold on to the nuggets. So I wanted to concise it for you to be able to take these nuggets, take hold of it and apply it to your life, and then go back to God and ask him for more revelation. Ask him, okay God, why am I feeling overlooked? What are some areas in my life that you want to prune? And so speaking of pruning, you know, if you struggle with rejection or feeling overlooked, your girl is here, okay? So visit www.shakeetatorres.com to learn more about my services. I love working with Christian leaders Christian leaders to me is not just someone who is in the pulpit or preaching, but if you have influence, if God is calling you into leadership, if you are whatever capacity you serve in a marketplace, that's who I'm called to. You a celebrity Christian, that's who I'm called to. The body of Christ is to help them to heal on purpose for their purpose. And so when you look at scripture, you can see that so many people in the Bible, they feel overlooked. Look at Savior Christ Jesus, he felt overlooked. His own family didn't want to even receive him. Look at Jabez, his, his family felt overlooked and rejected. He cried out to God, God, enlarge my territory and give me the capacity to be able to, to really handle it. Then you had the woman at the well where she was, you know, drawing water from the well, and she was the Samaritan woman. And Christ came to her and ministered to her, and she was like, oh my God, like, this prophet came to me to give me a word, encourage me. She felt overlooked, she felt rejected. And so when you look at scripture, you can see all throughout the Bible how people feel overlooked and rejected. But know that God has a purpose and plan for your life, and he has not forgotten about you. He has not forgotten about you. And so this week I'm actually going to do some prayers about feeling overlooked because I feel like it's an area that so many of us have struggled with, and I know that it's the area that God want us to truly be aware of and take to him for more clarity. So if you can follow me on Instagram and follow me on TikTok, I pray that today's episode blessed you, and I pray that you were able to pull some nuggets from it. So I'll talk to you guys next time.

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