Moving Forward

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. Yo, what's up? This Tim Pratt Jr. I'm your host of the Student of Life Podcast, and we are in 2022. It's a new year. New Year, man. So I'm not the one that likes to get into a whole lot of New Year resolutions. I just— but I do think like, you know, starting a new year, like anything, starting a new quarter, whatever, I've always been kind of been like the quarterly goal person. But I think it's just refreshing, man. You just see a lot of people, uh, inspired, a lot of people just, you know, with the will to just start over and do things or whatever. And you— we know statistics out there that by the end of January everything starts to tail off. I hope that's not the case with you, uh, or you all, uh, but nevertheless, man, it's a new year. I just choose to embrace the energy, uh, because we are in a world as we're surrounded by so much busyness, overwork, and all this. So it's just awesome to always see just a refreshment and just people like, hey, listen, I'm about to get it, I'm about to change the trajectory of my life, you know, the trajectory of my health, uh, my career, and so on and so on. Uh, so nevertheless, like I said, I just embrace that. I just pray that people stay Consistent, uh, remembering consistency compounds, uh, and if you haven't, it's somewhere, it's episode somewhere on that, uh, a few seasons ago that I was actually able to talk on that. But nevertheless, this is the first episode of 2022, uh, and we're gonna call it Move Forward. Move Forward. And we're still in season 5. We're gonna call this one Move Forward. And so, uh, this one right here is just really just to encourage you. Like I said, I don't want it necessarily to be like equivalent to, man, you know, I really gotta like set up and do all these things at the new year. Because I'm a firm believer, if you see something needs to change, change that day. Don't wait a week, or don't wait 2 weeks, or next month, or so on and so on. Change it that day. Start today, because that'll help you in just so many ways, because it's just accountability. And then most importantly, tell somebody, give somebody permission to challenge you, to hold you accountable, and make sure that you're not defensive when they call you out on your stuff. And that goes for me too, because I used to be like that. Uh, so yeah, so nevertheless, uh, this one is called Move Forward. It'll be a solo episode, um, and I do have a passage of scripture that I do— actually two of them— that I do kind of want to read for the context of this episode. So last one, we know that we were using Abraham and Joshua, uh, to kind of talk about in the context of, uh, the Isaac and Moses in their lives. Uh, with this one, I kind of want to continue on it. I wouldn't say this is a series episode, but, uh, series segment or whatever, but I, I just kind of want to piggyback off that a little bit more to talk about it in the context of moving forward. Um, so a lot of times when we hear direction, okay, I have direction, I believe I know what to do, but what does it look like to to continue to move forward. So, uh, in Genesis, uh, we see, we know that one of the things that, uh, and I'll be reading from, uh, Hebrews 11, but in Genesis, and I was like basically, uh, talking about previous, you know, when the Lord said to Abram before he became Abraham, go forward, uh, remember in that context, uh, basically what was going on with Abram at the time, which we know to be Abraham, the Lord told him to go from your country, your people, and your father's household to a land I will show you. Now this right here, it's like, wow, because in that context, Abraham— Abram— now it's like, just okay, let me, let me bring this, make this more practical. Imagine working 15, 20 years, whatever, and you've been doing all this investing, saving. You work for somebody that really took you up on their wing, or you work for your father, mother, or whatever family member and you do so much investing, like you have this 401k or these investment vehicles, and they tell you, long as you stay connected to me, uh, this is yours. You will take this on one day. Uh, say if they're 55 and they plan on walking away at 58 or 59, so in 4 years, just, just bear with me and this is all yours. And then the Lord tells you to literally walk away from it. And better yet, say if it's like it's just a year away or 6 months away, 3 months away, and God said, I want you to walk away. And not only that, so now they tell you, you're gonna also forfeit. If you walk away from this, you're going to forfeit this inheritance, you're going to forfeit this lineage. Most of us, if we're honest, we aren't going to do it. We're going to pray for God's grace and mercy, most of us. Now, some of us probably will because we're that in tune with God, but speaking for me, I will probably really struggle with it. I will just, in all honesty, I will really struggle with that because it doesn't make logical sense in this world. But we know the way God works, and I pray that God, and through the power of Holy Spirit, I would end up doing it because I would be so convicted that I would do it. But that initial reaction, and even when past that initial reaction, I don't think I would want to because it doesn't make sense in this logical, uh, space that we're in, in this world. And that's essentially what Abraham did. Like, okay God, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna get a clean break and like go, go wherever you want me to go. And clarity came in degrees. And this is why, uh, going to Hebrews 11, uh, the passage scripture that I wanted to read, uh, Hebrews 11 starting with verse 8. And we're very familiar with, uh, Hebrews 11:1, but Hebrews 11:8 reads, by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance— so he ended up receiving an inheritance, but this inheritance was from God out of obedience— obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going. See, faith is not always knowing where we're going. It's not, not like we don't necessarily know the, the, the, uh, destination, to say. But verse 9, by faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. So this literally changed the trajectory, and it shows me a lot of times obedience can have a domino effect. Obedience can have a domino effect. Yes, God, grace, and we know this is the Old Testament, but truthfully, like, I can do some things that yes, God can still use my kids and my family, you know, and so on and so on. But I can do some things as their father that I can actually make it harder walking in disobedience. I can. Now, it's not saying that God can't still use them, and he can, you know, like, that grace and mercy covers them. But I can do some things that can make it harder, or I can do some things through obedience and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and wise decision-making that really sets them up to where God doesn't have to, you know, work through them in a way of like, now, like God is saying basically, I, you know, because of your father, because of your mother, I got to do some things now through you, um, to, to get you where I always wanted you. But, but your father didn't do it, your mother didn't do it, so I'm going to do it through you. I don't want that to be their story, although I know God is capable and he can do it. I just want to be obedient so God can do exactly what he intends to do through them. Not saying God is doing a new thing, and in the context of like new things coming up, but in, in just in the context of their life, I want God to look and say, because of your father and your mother, steward it well over your life, and they did what I called them to do, this is what I want to do through you this way. Because yes, I understand Romans 8:28-29, but at the same time, just as a father, I want my obedience to God to just excel them, to propel them. And that's what Abraham essentially did. And so verse, uh, 1— go back, going back up to verse 1 with Hebrews 11, it say, now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Like I say, it's not necessarily what I can see, it's what I can believe by faith, because I believe God told me this. So I'm going to move towards the thing that God put in my heart, the ambitions or whatever they are. Ambition is not a bad thing long as it stays submissive to God. I'm going to move towards the ambitions that God has put in my heart by making a series of imperfect steps or attempts or whatever you want to call it. And the reason why I say imperfect is because I'm saying that it might not always be complete. This step might not lead to the whole thing, like, wow, okay, I'm here, God, this is where you wanted me to be. These steps are imperfect in the context of like, man, to step here, step there, step here, where it's creating a perfect picture. It's creating just a perfect— it's leading me to the destination that God wants me and desires me because my steps are ordered by him, but they seem imperfect. So what does that mean? What does that mean from a practical application standpoint? Well, Hebrews 11:1 to me basically truly is the essence of now faith is the confidence what hope for. And, uh, I'm gonna back up. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for for an assurance about what we do not see. So what does that mean again? I believe it's an unshakable conviction that God has downloaded within us, or God has placed in us, I should say. It's an unshakable conviction to— I want you to move here. You don't see it, you, you don't really know what's going on, but if you truly trust in me and abide in me and have faith in me and be attentive to my voice, I will get you there. I will get you there because I can use everything that you're going through because your heart posture is dedicated towards me. That's what I believe God is essentially saying with that, with what faith really is. That's just what I believe. And so why are we afraid to move forward in life? Well, truthfully, start with myself. Like, I've met so many people, man, with great ideas, just great, uh, just, just great visions, great just practicality, just ways of— they know how to tell stories and just all of these type of things. Dreams and just ambitions, but they are afraid of moving forward because of the lack of clarity. We want to know everything in this world. It is almost impossible for us to move forward if we don't know how it's gonna end. So because of that lack of clarity, if it works or it don't work, we just— many of us choose not to do it. Now, this is not the case with all people, but many of us choose not to do it. I was there for so long in my life. I have stayed stagnant in certain roles and positions within the secular. I have stayed stagnant in areas that God has called me to because I'm like, well, what if it works, or what if it don't works? So instead, a lot of times I would do nothing or just stay complacent because I wasn't understanding the true meaning of clarity comes in degrees, meaning that I have to move forward. As I move forward, okay, things I'll just figure out through wisdom, things I figure out just through life, and then most importantly, things I'm going to figure out because, oh Remember when I said in the last episode, revelation follows obedience? So God is like, okay, because you did this and you're here now, I can reveal this to you. If I would have revealed this to you back then, you probably wouldn't have done it. That's— if I would have revealed this to you back then because you don't have this knowledge, then I— you probably wouldn't have done it. So God is essentially saying to you, you have to trust me. You have to understand that the clarity is in obedience. The clarity will come through degrees. And what I mean by degrees is just basically like levels to this. It's levels to this with God. He knows the beginning from the end, but we don't. So we have to trust him. He's already seen it play out. So he's just like, will you give me control and understand that in the capacity as I interrupt time, I will work through you We're not all-knowing. The Holy Spirit in us is. He is all-knowing, but not us, not us in our flesh. And so we just want to move forward. So in other words, many of us are just literally rather fail sitting on the sidelines versus playing the game. I don't want to be that person. I'll rather fail at things playing the game rather than just watching on the sidelines. In other words, what I always say is that, like, truthfully be told, many of us are more concerned with people seeing us fail than actually failing. Because especially with the social media age— so this was— this is what leads to us faking it. We have such a fake-out culture, like, oh, look at me, look at me, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Okay, not saying all people that do that are faking, but a lot of us are. It's all inclusive. A lot of us are. We're really not there, and social media really allows us to do that today. However, We all know that failure is a part of life. We all understand this. That's why a lot of people don't like sharing their journey through. They want to share it after they accomplish it, and then they come back and say, you know, well, I failed this many times. But why not talk about that in our journey? Because we all know that failure is a part of life because it creates an invitation to the preparation we need. It creates an invitation to the preparation we need. That Faking will always miss. In other words, Jerome says don't get faked out. Don't get faked out by being busy. That's another thing— busy, busy, busy— so we think we're moving, but we can also be faked out. So we can fail without being a failure. This is a lesson that I'm right now intentionally trying to teach my kids as well as myself. But through trying to teach my kids I'm learning it in a different capacity. Like, okay, I can let them fail at this, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're a failure. See what I'm saying? So in that context, like, we have to just understand that failure is important to our life. It creates an invitation for us to redirect and prepare in a way that we might not have prepared, uh, at always succeeding. And I believe that this is what shows Romans 8:28. Now, I'm not saying God promises success and all, like, health and wealth and all the spiritual. But what I'm saying is that I do believe that it's things that need to be accomplished on this earth that falls in line with the will of God, and he desires to do that through us. He desires us to— he desires to do that through us. And that's just scripture, man. I— so I don't— some people out there, like, they just get really theological deep, and, uh, I'm just like, okay, that's cool, man. But at the end of the day, God has always worked through people. I'm not taking the praise. I— listen, always put the glory to God. God, thank you, thank you. To God be the glory. But however, he desires to work through us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, because of what Jesus Christ did, our Lord and Savior. And so the thing that I would say to you is, you might be asking, okay, Tim, how do I overcome that fear? How do I overcome this, man? Because we live in a world, man, that's ruthless. Um, I'm always distracted. Well, one, you have to have an intimate relationship with God. Notice I didn't say just relationship, because I'm in relationship with certain people just because of who I'm connected to, what family I was born in, but I don't always have an intimate relationship with them. So you want to have an intimate relationship with God. This is your prayer life, your devotional life. As my father-in-law always say, dedication and consecration. As my father-in-law— as my father always says, my dad always says Um, so obedience, obedience to God. How do you be obedient? Knowing the word of God and knowing his voice, being attentive to his voice. And that comes through truly examining and studying the scriptures in prayer, continuous prayer, a heart posture of always communing with God. So essentially they're saying the same thing. Both of them always told me, Tim, your prayer life and study the scriptures, your prayer life and study the scriptures, and most importantly, live it. So that's number 1, an intimate relationship with God. Second, your team, your circle. What do they see? A very quick example of this is when, uh, I believe it was in Numbers, and, uh, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was in Numbers, um, when basically what happened was, uh, out of the 12 spies, you know, Caleb and Joshua, they had a different perspective than the others because Caleb and Joshua were connected to the vision, while the other 10 spies— out of 12 spies— while the other 10 spies were connected by what it looked like. They were connected to their current sight, in other words. So you want to make sure that you have people in your circle, in your team, in your camp, whatever terminology you want to use, that can see past the natural eye. They can hold to the vision. Anybody can declare vision, but it's harder to hold to vision. And so this is, this is carried out by being in agreement with it, because that's where the faithfulness— that's where faith comes from, and the ability to stand firm, not in your promise but God's promise. So this is why your team and circle is so essential to life. It's so essential to doing this thing the right way. You need help. We need God's people, and we need people to be connected to faith, not our current circumstances. And then lastly, do it especially if God has told you. Now, it's way more than 3 points, but just for the sake of the episode and context of the episode, do it especially if God told you. I heard Michael Todd a long time say, go, hey, what should I be doing, man? What should I be doing? I'm always looking for the next thing to do. Go back, what was the last thing God told you, and do that. And I've literally made that a way of my life. And I've literally— guys, before I even heard it from Michael Todd, uh, he just confirmed it. And, uh, but truthfully, God has actually shown me that in scripture. He's, he's told me that audible, like, do the last thing I told you to do and be faithful to it. But we're so smart today. We, you know, we listen to so many voices, so many experts. So it's just easy to do it this way, do it that way. No, back up. I'm not saying don't be teachable, don't be coachable, but those voices better never trump God. And don't tell me you can hear God if you never in his word and praying and communing. So that's why it's easier sometimes to also listen to those voices and be more submissive to those voices than God. Because God is never going to send you on a contradicting spree. So those voices should be challenging, they should be, uh, correcting, they should be loving you, they should be encouraging you. But a lot of times this conflict is because we don't truly know God's voice. That's just the truth. So that's how we— that's how we hear God. That's how we— that's how we hear God, and that's how we overcome the fear. Number 1, intimate relationship with God. Number 2, your circle and your team. Your camp, whatever you want to call it. And number 3, do it. Do the work, especially if God told you. So if you took anything from this, man, like I say, I just want to encourage you that whatever that unshakable conviction is in your heart, you have to see it through, through the power of God. You have to see it through, through the power of God, and move by faith, not by sight. Move by faith, not by sight. And when it truly comes to God, just know sometimes, you know, what he desires for us lines up with our desires, and a lot of times, man, truthfully, it's going to interrupt our desires. So sometimes they do align, but many times they don't. Like, God is like, no, that's what you want, not what I want. And then there are some cases that the desires of our heart, they do align with what he wanted, but truthfully the more and more to get into like, dang, okay, how do I get more into making sure that that alignment— his word and communing. The, the more we get into his word and communion, the more we'll see like, wow, man, it seems like God keeps giving me what I want. But it's like, no, no, no. God is like, no, I keep giving you what I want. You're just more in alignment with me because you're communing with me. You're joined at the hip with me. Uh, like kind of in the secular, if you really work close with your mentor, your coach, or more so, I mean, your leader and you're in alignment with them, truly in alignment with them, you will notice like, wow, man, okay, like I'm, I'm building that rapport, um, and I see that a lot of things that they desire, I desire. And if it's always a conflict with that leader, if it's always against what they said, maybe that might not be the right leader for you, or you might not be the right person for that leader. So with God, it's just like communing with him, reading the scriptures, examining the scriptures, and studying and meditating on And so, man, listen, I hope this blessed you. Uh, like I say, if, if you are struggling with moving forward, you know anybody struggling with moving forward in life, whether it's faith-based or secular or whatever, if it's a relationship, if it's marriage, if it's friendships, if it's just whatever it is, a dream, just, just anything, like especially at the start of this year, hey, send this episode to them. Send this episode to them because I truly believe that they will be blessed, challenged, and inspired through the power of God. Because, man, I'm telling you, life is more about discovering who Jesus is than discovering our dreams and purposes that we believe we should be carrying out. Because the more we discover Jesus, the more we will know what we truly were meant to do on this earth. Be blessed, man. I love you all, and take care and be safe. Be safe and enjoy this new year. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothypratt.org. Once again, thanks.