Worth Repeating.

Yesterday I heard an incredible sermon online. Check out Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. Under podcasts, I found one amazing woman named Christine Caine. The sermon is part of a series called 'Get Back'. Hers is titled "Embrace Your Place." I was puttering around in my kitchen while listening. Suddenly, I was so drawn to my computer. I could feel the power of the Holy Spirit and anointing of this woman, and I just wanted to soak up all that the Lord was saying through her. I sat at my desk with my eyes closed and ate it up! One quite I scribbled down was this: "If what you see in front of you (the challenge, the circumstance) is all you see, then you will never see all there is to see."

I'll say it again: "If what you see is all you see, then you will never see all there is to see."

Think about it.

In 1 Kings 19, Elijah has just had his great victory over the gods of Baal, and God meets Him in a cave. God says "I'm sending you to a place so you can anoint your successor." God sends him to a wilderness, and found Elisha plowing with 12 yolks of oxen before him. When God comes to anoint you, to catapult you to your destiny, He has you in a place where you think God has forsaken you, not a place of prominence. It tends to be a place of obscurity, a dry, arid place, where you think nothing is happening, where you are about to give up.

Elisha was in the back, the guy who felt forgotten. That's where Elijah found him. Elisha was in his place. How many of us have abdicated our place?

There is not a position for everyone in every church, but there is a PLACE for everybody. So many Christians have sacrificed their destiny on the altar of a position that they wanted because they haven't embraced their place that God had for them. And the place that God has for you is far greater.

We often become disconnected from the very place from wherein lies our destiny

We don't stick around enough to get asked because of many reasons. God is ready to say, "Ask Me what you want", but you're not in place, you've left your place. Imagine if all Elisha saw was the sand and the oxen and the desert, there was so much to see. Sometimes the greatest way to get back in momentum is to just keep turning up! It has a lot less to do with gift, talent and annointing than you think. It has a lot more to do with just keep turning up. Don't underestimate the power of just showing up and staying planted. There's always a whole lot more going on. Elisha became the successor to one of the greatest prophets that ever lived behind lots of oxen. God's way doesn't make sense. When you stay committed in your marriage, it's not just about you, it's about what you are building and providing God's blessing for future generations. When you keep yourself pure, it's always more than just that moment. God is preparing you for what He has already prepared for you. It's in that wilderness place of anonymity and challenge and obscurity where God is doing a work in you, preparing you for what He wants to do through you.

I've quickly summed up her sermon, but I encourage you to listen to this podcast for yourself. What a great challenge!