You hear it all the time. "You're going to another level." You sing it. "Another level, another harvest, another day for you to manifest your promises…" I often hear people offer the same sentiment I have uttered from my own lips: I am tired of getting there. I want to be there.
"I want to be there!" While this may sound great, it does not truly reflect the design that God has for you. To be there means that at some point, you no longer need to grow. It means that you have arrived at your destination as a person. People often say,
"I don't want to wait forever for the blessing that is supposed to be my life." They forget that they have been raised in the "instant generation." Television media has brought America to a six second attention span. Microwave ovens have staged and upscale mugging of the family dinner table. We measure our success by what we achieve. We constantly rush to get where we are going. We forget that life is not about the destination. Life is about the journey.
We forget that when God built His church through the teaching of His Son, Jesus, that He was very careful to build it over time. I think that we could all agree that as Jesus was anointed enough to draw crowds of thousands, he could have chosen to launch His church in a much quicker fashion. Instead, he chose to impart to twelve men who would be given the responsibility to carry it forth -- without the benefit of telephones, computers, e-mail and satellites - or even a tour bus.
If you read the communication of the Apostles to the early church, you will recognize that the church did, in fact, begin to emerge quickly once the work was started. You will also discover that it was plagued with many problems - most of which could be chalked up to spiritual immaturity. Perhaps we should consider that God in His infinite wisdom knew that in order to have a glorious church, men and women of Christian maturity would have to be raised up
to develop and disciple it.
Discipleship is both one of the simplest and most complex attributes of life. In its simplest form, discipleship is training. Through a combination of teachers, mentors, parents, both physical and spiritual, and Holy Spirit, there is an education process that ultimately is supposed to lead you to spiritual maturity. However, the complex portion of discipleship is that all of this education is never truly embedded until it is tried. Life lessons then become one of the greatest tools of discipleship.
The problem for many is that once they have a dream, a vision, and some education, they develop this understanding that they are ready to take on the world. They are pretty much prepared for anything. And, if they encounter anything they are not prepared for, God will surely protect them. While it is true that God will protect you and guide you through such times, you usually create circumstances in those times which will be a permanent part of your life. Abraham got ahead of God and ended up with Ishmael.
You must remember that with the development of your Christian maturity, your ultimate teacher, mentor, and spiritual father, is God. His perspective is so unique because His ways are higher than yours. His thoughts are greater than your thoughts. He can truly see the alpha and omega of your life on earth. What's more, He understands how and why He created you. His motive for being a part of your life is to see you fulfill what He carefully created for you to fulfill. Since He is not bound to the limitations to which every natural teacher, mentor, and parent is bound, he has the added benefit of connecting your education to life lessons in a way no other can connect them. In other words, he may keep you from prematurely stepping into your destiny because he knows that there is something you need in your life that you do not yet have and cannot yet see.
Abraham was an old man before the promise of a generational seed, and a son came to fruition. Jesus was thirty before He was released into His three short years of ministry. Wanting it now may not always be the best course. Having it now can place you in the position of damaging your life or others. A fifteen year old girl can become pregnant and give birth to a child. She can probably raise that child and both of them survive. However, the opportunity for her to make irreparable mistakes in her life, the child's life, and in every other relationship she has, is greatly increased because she is not mature enough to handle to handle those situations.
This holds true for every area of life: ministry, business, family, etc. That is why you must recognize that for God, His focus for you is the journey. Your Amazing Life is about the journey. The destination is a motive to keep you moving on the journey. When you get there, I promise you there will be another destination in front of you because - LIFE'S A JOURNEY! Do not let impatience rob you of your true destiny. Do not allow yourself to sacrifice the process for the prize. If you do, when you arrive, you will be more "stuck" than you can possibly imagine. And, the only thing more frustrating than having to wait at the starting gate is waiting for the wrecker to drag you out of the ditch.
God is bringing you through each day, placing in you all that you need to fulfill His plan…in His time. He gave you an Amazing Life. Enjoy the journey.
