Created to thrive, not survive

Sometimes, if not most often, we as believers live miracle to miracle. Here’s an example. The Israelites have endured 400 years of horrific slavery, asking over and over for a deliverer. But even after God sends them Charlton Heston, they’re free of physical slavery but they still think and behave like slaves. They were still learning how to graduate into powerful people who were not products of their environment. God understood where they were mentally, and continued to send them manna from heaven, but after a season of wilderness living something shifted. “The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.” Joshua 5:11

They (God’s people) lived from miracle to miracle. Take note: the manna stopped and they were eating from the produce from the land. This is significant. Why? They lived miracle to miracle for years, but the day they graduated into the Promised Land their “wilderness living” shifted to “harvest living.”

I am thankful for miracles—but listen, miracle living is wilderness living – bail out living. Father wanted them to pass through the wilderness, not stay there. He wants YOU to pass through the wilderness, and not stay there. He is not just a God of crisis and holidays. He is a God of everyday life who desires to see you and I grow from faith to faith, and glory to glory.

Wilderness living is survival living. We were never created to live a life of survival.

But what does thriving look like? I think thriving looks like walking in the will of God, no matter the circumstance.

Typically, we define thriving by our circumstances, but the Father defines it by our response.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16 it says to “rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

You know people are thriving when they’re rejoicing, giving thanks, and constantly praying in all circumstances. You and I were not made to survive; we were created to thrive. The Father is waiting to graduate us into a harvest living (a sowing position) from a wilderness living.

As we enter into a new season (winter), He is leading us into the Promised Land. We cannot get stuck in a rut and think that God is only doing something good when it is something unexplainable, there are many times that good comes from reaping what we’ve sown in a harvest season.

There are many times that I have found myself determined to produce delicious fruit in the winter seasons of my life not realizing it is a season of deep rootedness. Winter is the time for the garden of our hearts to strengthen and protect what it’s already growing. Winter can be a season your heart can thrive in, and be blessed in. Recognize the season you are in. Just because you don’t see the fruit doesn’t mean that nothing is growing. When you plant a seed, first roots begin, not fruit.

I declare that unseen growth, unseen roots and unseen depth is happening in your lives… “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (YOU HAVE TO BEGIN IMAGINING A DIFFERENT ENDING), according to His power that is at work within us…” Ephesians 3:20.

Challenge: Read Isaiah 55:10-12 and ask Father what seeds of truth can you nurture so that you are able to thrive during the winter seasons.

Love you Church,

Pastor Adam & Brooke