Speaker 00: 0:05

Hey everyone, it's Authisa and welcome to Sapphire Daily Prayer and Meditation Podcast where I bring you a boost of encouragement using the power of prayer and the word of God. Let's get into it. Let's see what the Lord has for us today. Hey everyone, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome in the room. It is so glad to finally be back. It has been a long and yet extended sabbatical, one that wasn't planned. But nevertheless, when the word of God says that all things work together for the good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose, that's exactly what he means. So I am grateful. I am so glad to be back. I am so glad to be found doing what he's called me to do. I am excited to be back. Thank you for everyone that listened. Thank you for everyone that continues to listen. Thank you. just for still supporting what God calls his servants to do. So if you are working in the vineyard of the Lord, I pray strength to you and I pray encouragement even in tough times or what seems like tough times, but it's all working, not just together, but it's working a far more exceeding glory for God's purpose to be seen, for his, I don't want to say program, but for for what he has already predetermined for us to do in the earth. So I pray, I just pray strength to wherever it is God has called you to do.

Speaker 00: 1:39

So yes, I am, like I said, so glad to be back. I didn't plan on being gone. I didn't plan on being gone as long as I was, but because this was not my design to do, it was his design for me to get back in the chair. So I can say the one thing that, that I learned during this time away, that everything is a process. Everything that we go through, good, bad, or indifferent, that it is a process. Whether you're getting married, there's a process. Going back to school, starting school, your kids getting ready for school, that is a process. Deciding to have children, that is a process. Moving, that process. Definitely is a process, right? Unbecoming in the kingdom of God. There is a process even in that as well. Even though we come to God as we are, there is a process for those of us who are in the kingdom. Those of us who are desiring to look more and more like him. There is a process, right? We do come to God just as we are, flawed and all, hiccups, everything. And God understands that. And that's the one thing or I should say one tactic that the enemy uses for some people that they feel that they have to get it together to come to God. Truth be told, none of us. I don't care who you are. I don't care how sanctified you believe you are. None of us can get it together enough to come to God. Come to me. That's all he simply says is just simply come. So he accepts our flaws. He accepts our shortcomings. He accepts everything that we go through, whether it's insecurities, whether it's addictions, whether it's, I don't know, a host of things, right? God says, come. But during our walk with Him, that is when because it's not a sprint, it is a journey.

Speaker 00: 3:49

We're walking with Him. We begin to unbecome the very thing, or should I say everything, that doesn't benefit his plan for our lives. We begin to unbecome the things that will differentiate us from those that do not believe in the Lord, from culture standards and the likes, right? We begin to unbecome the very thing that doesn't edify us becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus. He will begin to pluck up and take out, extract the things that are in us from culture, from the things that we've learned in our family, even the things that we have experienced in life, good, bad, and different, right? He begins to shift us. He begins to change us. And it's during that time that we're entering into the process, right? We are in the process. But even in that, God doesn't want us to stay there. He wants to beautify us so that when He sees us, he sees more of himself. He sees more of his son.

Speaker 00: 5:01

So as we're going through, whether it's... process or whether it feels like it's a process where you are isolated alone or like you are in a dry wilderness. Understand this, that it is not the final destination. It is not the place where God desires for us to stay. It is just a A place of transition, right? Because he says that he has for us a land flowing with milk and honey. Therefore, there is nourishment in that place. So even if we're going through what it seems like a wilderness place, a dry place, that is not our final destination. It's just a place of passing through, a place of pruning, a place of revealing, right? It's a place of dying to oneself. It's a place of dying to please It's a place of dying so that God can live in us, right? It's a place of exposure. It's a place of modification. When we're in the place of process or in some places, the wilderness, it is a place of reset, of re-establishment. But it's also, this is what I learned during my sabbatical away, that it is a place of God's big reveal. It is the place where God will begin to reveal what is in our heart. And it's amazing when he begins to expose it. A lot of times we are taken aback by it because we cannot believe that that is in us, right? I think it is in Deuteronomy 8: 2. I'm not 100% sure, but that's what I think it is. Or it might be 2 and 8. But He says, I've brought you this way. So that I can prove to you or expose to you or show you what is in your heart. So what does that mean? That it is a place of the big reveal. That God is showing us what is in our heart.

Speaker 00: 7:05

Isn't that something? That it's what's in our heart that's bringing us to a place of the big reveal or to a place of transition. How many times have you heard or even said to yourself, God knows what's in my heart or he knows my heart. And the truth is that is correct. That is a hundred percent correct. And with that, he is truly the only one who accurately knows what's in our heart. We have no idea what's in our heart. We may think we know what's like, I saw God expose my heart, right? So when I say this, it's so very personal. It's very practical. But what I also discover is the more people that I talk to, that I wasn't alone. So it's a place where God begins to expose what we thought we know, but we have no idea. And to that very day when he exposes it, when he puts his finger on it, that what has been hidden is now exposed. That thing that, or that place that we have been operating from out of our heart, whether it's a place of rejection, abandonment, insecurity, pride, envy, ambition, right? There's so many different things. And the one that seems very sneaky that most of us don't know that we're operating from is that place called pride. So when we say, yes, well, God knows our heart. Sometimes we say it flippantly, but the truth is he does. We are absolutely right. He knows what's in our heart. He knows everything. He knows truly our heart so much that he understands the place from where we are operating out of. And I say that because sometimes we don't know that we have put a mask or a bandaid or buried something so far, so deep. that we don't understand that that's a place we're operating from. If our heart has been hurt or traumatized, what if our heart is operating out of a place of trauma and we didn't realize or out of a place of doubt, you might say, oh no, I have faith. No, I have faith. Yes, I have faith. And that is true. We have a measure of faith for what we have already encountered. We can say that we have faith with our lips until God comes for our words, not knowing that sometimes behind what we're saying we have faith for is really a place of disappointment or discouragement or even fear that had been speaking louder than our faith.

Speaker 00: 9:50

So when God takes us through the wilderness or he takes us through a place of transition and transformation, a place of exposure, understand this, and this is the beautiful part. When God says that all things work together for the good, right? We understand that a new version of us is coming forth. A new version, the better version, a more healed version, a more aware version of us is coming forth. The old version, it worked for what it needed to work for. It worked for the previous season. But more is now required. A better version is now required. A more humbled version is now required. A more faith-filled person is required.

Speaker 00: 10:41

So with that, some things had to come to the light. Some things had to fall off. Some things had to die. And some things had to literally be walked to the altar. so that God could kill it, so that God could get it up and out of us, right? We had to allow God permission to consume those things, to modify us, to change us. He will illuminate it, but we have to be willing to want to lay it down. Because remember, God is a gentleman. He doesn't force himself on anyone. He is a loving father. He is a gentleman. He's not going to force himself on us, right?

Speaker 00: 11:26

Even with that being said, we also have to remember some places of transition or some places of wilderness or some things that we go through that we experience, though God may have allowed them, they didn't come from him. Some places can come out of a form of disobedience. Right? Remember when the children of Israel were only supposed to pass through the wilderness when they left Egypt, but they were going to go to the promised land. They were supposed to pass through there and not set up lodging, not build there. They were only supposed to pass through what was only supposed to take, I think it's either 11 or 14 days to get what God had already prepared for them. But as they left from one season, From what they were familiar with, from what was very familiar and comfortable to them, to the new of what God had. It was a place of process and transition. And it's funny how they were crying out while they were in bondage, when they were in their old season for deliverance, for God to hear them, for God to see them, to take them, to deliver them out of what they were experiencing and the hardships. And God gave them what they asked for, what they petitioned for, what they prayed for. But he also gave them a process. So what was in them, what they were accustomed to. did not go into the best of what he had for them but they were so attached to the familiar they were so attached to the old version that while they were going through their mind and their mouths could not see the new of what God was doing when he says behold I will do a new thing do you not perceive it are you not aware of it sometimes we have to take a moment to just stop and think stop and look, stop and pray, but also to listen while we ask, God, are you doing a new thing? What is this thing? Though it's uncomfortable, though we may want to get out of the fire, though we may not like the environment, the situation or the process, we have to understand that God would never take us to a place that he did not expect to bring us up and out. We will not exit the same way we entered. It's always a better version of us that will come out because God's word says that we go from glory to glory and faith to faith. But they could not see what God was doing for them, in them, through them, and even around them. It wasn't so cut and dry. Like if you do this, you'll do this. If you'll do this, it's that. It wasn't. It's just the process of trusting God, have faith. We're in God, not in what we see, not in what we feel. Because our emotions can tell us a number of things and they are so inaccurate, right? But we are to have faith in God because when he answers, right?

Speaker 00: 14:39

The answer might not come packaged the way that we think it's going to come. It may not even come in the comfort in which we would desire for it to come. But nevertheless, God answers. God hears our petition. He sees what we go through. When it says in Psalm 21, I have not withheld the request of your lips. I have given you your heart's desire. When we commit our thoughts unto the Lord, commit our works, our plans, God will establish us. He never said how. He just said that he would do it, right? It's just a matter of as we're going through the process, can we get our mind fixed on the bigger picture?

Speaker 00: 15:23

Can we get our mind to come into agreement with what God has said so that we too can say what he says so that in the place of transition, we can come out better, but we can come out faster. So let me ask you, if you find yourself in a place of transition, are you bucking against the progress? Are you bucking up against the process of the season of transition and transformation? Have you now noticed that you've stayed in this place a little bit longer and began to act or live Or conform as if it's the final destination? Or are you steady trusting God, leaning not to your own understanding, but in every way acknowledging him, even when it doesn't feel good? Are you leaning? to your not understanding, but leaning to the one that knows the thought that he thinks towards you. The one says, call to me and I will answer and I will show you great and mighty. I believe Amplified Version says, even fenced in things. So are you calling out to him instead of cursing what you see? Because remember, he who began a good work is faithful and just to complete it. That which he began in each and every one of us, right? He's going to complete it and he's going to perfect it. It's just up to us to allow him the time and the space and the sovereignty to do what is needed to perfect that thing when it concerns us.

Speaker 00: 17:09

Father God, we just thank you. We bless you. We honor you. We look to you, the God who knows all things, the God who was all sufficient, the omnipresent God, the omniscient God, the God who knows all things. So God, we simply say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you that you know the thoughts that you think towards each and every one of us. Thank you that as high as the heavens are from the earth, so are your thoughts concerning us. So Father God, We thank you that you are perfecting that thing which concerns each and every one of us. God, we repent if our mouth was cursing, grumbling, or complaining against the process that was really for our good so that your kingdom can be established in us so that we can look more and more like you and less and less like culture and environment and what we know. God, we just simply say thank you that even in the process of repenting that God, that you're putting us back in our rightful seat and position. We thank you that as things are working together for our good, that you will, Father God, get the glory out of our story. You will get the glory out of what we go through because, God, you are very mindful of each and everything that we go through. So, Father, we just simply say, have your way. Do what only you can do because when we come out, we will give you all the glory. As we are going through, we will be mindful to give you all the honor, the glory, and the praise. say thank you for today. God, we bless you and we honor you because God, you said that you know the way in which we must go. Thank you for purifying even our hearts, oh God. that you are creating in us a clean heart, renewing a right spirit on the inside of us, O God. You're taking out everything that is callous, that is old, that's traumatic, that is painful, so that, God, that it can become a place where you can mold it, a place that is one of flesh, because we desire for our heart to be in your hands, because, God, you, Father, God, know the thoughts, not just that you think, but you know the things that are hidden in our heart that won't benefit us, that even in the long run, God, I thank you that God, that your heart, that you will perfect it, that you are purified, that you will cleanse it. So Abba Father, we simply say thank you for today. Thank you for doing what you know is best for us and that God, we will lead not to our own understanding, but in all our ways, oh God, we will acknowledge you and allow you, Heavenly Father, to direct our path. So for that, Father God, I simply say, thank you, thank you, thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Speaker 00: 19:52

Father God, if there is anyone under the sound of my voice who does not know you as Lord and Savior, my prayer is that the moment that, God, that you knock at the door of their heart, that they open up the door wide and allow you to come in to be Lord and Savior, that they repent of their sins, understanding that that you were merciful and that you were gracious to forgive them as they repent. And God, as they repent and they allow you to come in and be Lord of their life, that God, that you will show them how to live a life for purpose, on purpose, so that your kingdom can come and that your will would be done in and through their lives. So God, I thank you for each and every person that said, Lord, come into my heart and be Lord of my life. God, I thank you. Send laborers from your vineyard that would help strengthen them and equip them. God, we bless you God we honor you it's in your name we pray in Jesus name Amen, Amen .

Speaker 00: 20:49

And thank God well thank you friends thank you so much for listening thank you so much for being a part of Sapphire daily prayer and meditation I pray in the name of Jesus that you were blessed that you heard something that would equip you or strengthen you or opened up your eyes to see something different may the Lord bless you may the Lord keep you May the Lord make His face to shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious unto you. And may the Lord lift up His countenance unto you. May you have His perfect peace. Remember friend, if this blessed you, do me a favor, like, subscribe, and share. Be sure to follow, including on YouTube. Remember to share because you never know who could use a boost of encouragement.