Let Go & Survive!

Surviving often requires hanging on…but many times it depends on us letting go!  We have to know when to let go!  Sometimes holding on causes more damage than just letting go! Imagine hanging on to a rope that is wrapped around your hand tightly.  The harder you hang on and grip the rope, the more damage it can do to your hand.  Hanging on to the past, behaviors, and even people can do damage like that rope.  We hang on tighter and tighter all while simultaneously damaging our present and our future.

We sometimes don’t believe that we are worthy of moving on, of being a survivor, or of forgetting the past.  But there are some things, some people, and some behaviors that are holding us back from walking into the beauty of redemption and realizing the true freedom in being able to make it through the fire!

Let Go!

Growing up, we hear our parents tell us things like, “I went through it so that you wouldn’t have to”.  Isn’t that a lot like the demonstration of what Christ did at the cross?  He went through it so that we wouldn’t have to!  He took your place to conquer sin and shame, so that you would be more than a conqueror.  Remember this infamous line “It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under!”?  Well let me remind you today that you are a survival expert!  And you are fit for the fight!

You see, a lot of what you go through in life is not just about you!  We don’t just overcome to go into a hole and not tell anyone about our experiences.  We survive to help others survive!

We survive to become better.  We survive to become stronger.  We survive to become purposed.  We survive to fit better, to talk better, to walk better.  You are being forged into your destiny.

We’ve all had those “friends” and “loved ones” that are quick to point out what we have done wrong, but they have no insight on how to move past it and be better. These are they that critique without cultivation!  These are they that judge without justice!  These are they that gossip but offer no grace!

But God has designed you to handle survival differently!  To be the one that survives to rise!  You are destined to tell the world your story!  You only become an expert through doing…Are you a survival expert?!!

When the first man fell, it set up a chain reaction of generational falls.  But through the blood of Jesus we have been redeemed and told to rise again!  Even though we fall, WE GET UP!  It’s time to get up from your place of failure or place of fear or even your place of uncertainty!

You didn’t survive all those things to just sit there!

As we encounter our respective situations, these are designed to reveal, uncover, and remove some things in us!  They are also designed to equip us with even more knowledge and tools!  But how do we survive?  Why do we survive?

See, you didn’t just survive it, but you came out different, you came out better, and you came out prepared for your purpose!  There is something to be said about a fit survivor.  Some survive a thing and they need a recovery period.  But your survival left you ready for the next and better because of the beating!  You don’t look like what you have been through!

You will win with what you have!

I am here to remind you that whatever you have gone through or whatever has happened to you has no weight or bearing on the sacrifice that Jesus made you.  But you have to believe that He did for you!  We are in a time where people are seeking an example of how!  How do I survive this?

How do I survive depression?  How do I survive abuse?  How do I survive loneliness? How do I survive mental disease? How do I survive cancer? How do I survive having a stroke? How do I survive abandonment? How do I survive rejection? There are people that are seeking what you have to give.

There are people hungry for a blueprint. You didn’t just survive, you became an expert! You earned every stripe, every badge, every tear stained pillow!  So when people ask you what qualifies you to be in the position you’re in or to have the life that you have, you tell them that you SURVIVED IT!

The funny thing about living a life of a conqueror, is that the journey to the conquest looks like you’re losing!  It looks like all is lost, like defeat has drowned us, that we can never escape the past because the past is chasing us down…but perhaps saints our God has fixed the fight for us to win always!  It’s time to believe that you will survive, for you have been in this state too long!

The Bible says that we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the words of our testimony!  You survived because your testimony was at stake!  Others needed to witness the Spirit at work in your life!  You must know and believe that the victory belongs to Jesus and that your survival is for you to tell all your friends that He has won again!  You have withstood being lied on, talked about, near death, wanting to die, and all of the above!  But we don’t have to wait until the end to have God’s purpose and plan revealed to us.

For it is when we are on the way when these things happen!  When the lepers were on the way, they were healed and they were healed suddenly!  See it’s not about the destination it’s about the things that happen along the way, it’s about the journey!  God’s about to do that thing while you are on the way to what you think will heal you and validate you!  Your breakthroughs happen along the way!  Your purpose is found along the way during the journey not when the race is finished.

Whatever you need to release, it’s time to let it go!  YOU GOT THIS!

Ezekiel 14:22 (NIV) 22 Yet there will be some survivors–sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem–every disaster I have brought on it.  23 You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign LORD.

Be blessed y’all!