Hi, my name is Rob Mallan, from Reliant Family Church in Tampa, FL, and welcome to God Today. You know, shift happens in life. Everyone goes through shift. If you are a believer, when you got born-again, your life shifted. Your life transitioned. The Bible says that we were shifted, transitioned from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.
Every time you get into the Word of God, a shift can take place. Every time you encounter the Holy Spirit, a shift can take place. And really it should. Every time we encounter God or we encounter His word, something should happen fresh in our lives. Something should happen new in our lives. I am so thankful that we serve a God that doesn’t leave us the way we are. He loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us the way we are.
When I first read the scripture about the discipline of the Lord, I thought God would beat us up, or He was mad when He was correcting us, but that’s not true. The Bible says, “Do not despise the correction of the Lord. The Lord actually corrects the ones He loves.” Do you know that love is correction? And in God’s economy, correction equals love. The very fact that God would correct us shows that He loves us. Again, He loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us the way we are.
So what does He do? He gives us help, He helps us transition out of our way of doing things and to His best practices. When I first got born-again, there were certain things in my life I just didn’t want to give up. I know maybe you can relate to this. Maybe when you got born-again, or maybe still now, there are some areas of your life you just don’t want to give up, you have not been able to make the shift just yet. Watch this…how do you stop liking something you like? How do you stop enjoying something you enjoy? How do you let go of something you have been hanging on to for a long time? You can’t do it on your own. Watch this: God is going to help you. Thank God He does!
Philippians 2:13, from the New Living Translation, says this, “For God is working in you.” Thank God He is working in us, right? “Giving you the desire…giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Do you know God doesn’t leave us on our own? Aren’t you thankful that you have the Holy Spirit that can help you transition? You’ve got the Holy Spirit that can help you make this shift? God is working in you, giving you….think about this: He is working in you giving you the desire…the desire for change and the power for change. Your God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think, according to His power that is working in you. So when you want to change, God has given you the power. When you want to transition, God can give you the power. When you want to shift out of the old ways of doing things, into a new practice, God can give you the power.
I don’t know what you are walking through right now. You might say, “My heart is hard, I am backsliding.” just feel that maybe you have been hurt, you have been hurt in the church by a past, you have been offended. Listen. It is not time to get bitter, it is time to get better. When your heart gets hard and you don’t know what to do and you don’t know how to break hold, you have to ask God to help you.
In 1 Samuel 10:9, it says, “Then it happened when He turned His back to leave Samuel. God changed His heart and all the signs came about on that day.” God has the ability to change hearts. God changed David’s heart in an instantaneous moment. God changed Samuel’s heart in a moment. So often, we see in the Word of God, where God would change the heart of man, God changed the heart of Saul and the Bible says He left that place and He was never the same.
See, most of us have heart issues, we have heart conditions that we need help with. We have wounds that need healing. Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them a heart to know me.” God is going to give you a heart to know Him. “For, I am the Lord’ He says, ‘I will bless my people, I will be there for God. They will return to me with their whole heart.’” Watch this. We can’t make the shift God has for us. We can’t make the transition, going in the wrong direction.
I don’t know if you have ever been on the back of a motorcycle, but I have. I much prefer being on the front of the motorcycle because you are in control. When you are on the back of a motorcycle you feel like you are out of control, especially when the person is speeding. All you have to do is hang on to the person, but I found when you are riding on a bike when you are going around a curve, you have to turn the same way the driver is. You have to lean in with the bike. That’s what happens with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit makes a shift and we have to turn with Him. If we don’t turn with Him what happens? We fall off the bike, we fly off the back and we can wreck ourselves. Instead of wrecking ourselves, family, why don’t we check ourselves and let God help us move into this new season of life. Shift and transition to this new season of life and ask God to help you with your heart condition.
Father, I want to thank you for whoever is watching right now, that they are now sensing that you have a heart to change their hearts, that you are going to do an operation on the inside of them that they are going to think differently, they are going to feel differently, and they are not helpless or hopeless, but they are empowered by you to succeed because you not only ask us to shift and change, but you empower us and give us the ability to shift and change. So, I thank God that He is working in me, I thank God that He is working in you and we will see exactly what He said about our lives and we will flourish in the land of the living.