Pursue your Desire

Hey family, how are you? hope you are well, welcome back, its always nice to have you here and if you are a newbie, I want to welcome you to the family. Thank you so much for your continued support and for showing up to read the posts. My prayer for you is that you don’t just read the posts but that change occurs every time you interact with the content, experience a transformation, an awakening and clarity! I also hope that you are applying some of the things you are learning here because applied knowledge is what makes the difference.  I have been well, thank you for asking lol. I celebrated my first-born last weekend, he just turned five and I am like wow I have a five-year-old haha, time really does fly by really quick, it doesn’t seem too long when I had him.  I want to thank God for His grace and faithfulness; He is indeed a good Father.   

Were you guys able to listen to the first Revive podcast episode? I share a little about me and the birthing of Revive so if you weren’t able to have a listen, you can do so HERE. Don’t forget to rate it, share with your loved ones and be part of the Revive Family.

Desire is not enough

Seek

When you read scripture, you will find the word seek a lot, especially when it comes to you and God. In Jeremiah 29:13 the scripture reads “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”. For us to really get the gist of things I think it is best to actually know what seek means, I love definitions and I am sure you guys have noticed lol! I believe when you really understand the meaning of a word you are able to get context. According to the dictionary seek means an attempt to find something, or to look for something, other similar words say to hunt for and to pursue. When you look at the words here you will realise that seek is an action word, it requires action.  When you lose your phone, for example, you are most likely to stop all that you are doing and search extensively until you find it. So, my sisters and brothers God wants us to search for Him, to look for Him, to hunt for him even. “…seek, and you will find…” (Matthew 7:7-8). It is an act of intentionality! To seek for something will require your time and attention! All your senses are involved in the process. Again, if we go back to the lost mobile you will probably be calling the phone and really pressing in to hear where the ringing is coming from, all your senses at this point will be engaged in looking for this phone! You wouldn’t say ah! I desire to find my phone and then boom the phone appears no! you started with the desire to find your phone, but you didn’t stop at just desire, you took action. 

We make room for the things we want

No matter how busy a person you are, you will always make room for the things that are important to you! and this is a fact! You will make room for what you want! I love the song by Jonathan Mcreynolds- Make Room, it is so profound and so true check out the first few lines of the first verse: 

I find space for what I treasure
I make time for what I want
I choose my priorities….

And this is true beloved, no matter how busy we are, we find space for what we treasure, we make time for what we want, and we choose our priorities! The question is not necessary whether you desire something, it is really about your priorities and what is really taking your time? The devil doesn’t really come for your desire, he comes for your time. I love how King David was always after Gods’ heart …” I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water…” (Psalms 63:1). Imagine if you were looking for water in a desert, you will search for it! not just desire it. The Holy Spirit puts the desire in our hearts, but it is up to us to pursue our desire to know God and have a deeper relationship with him.  We are to seek His presence continually (Psalm 105:4).  We start with desire, but we don’t stop there. 

Reflection 

1. What is really taking your time? Do a 3-day time log exercise where you record everything you do in the 24 hours. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you spot time wastages you are unable to see. 
2. Check your desire, desire is not enough but it starts from there, sometimes we don’t pursue because our desire tank is low. Rate your desire tank from 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest. If it’s low ask the Holy Spirit to set your heart on fire for God again, if it is high, it’s time to seek Him with all your heart.  
3. Take action! Start seeking, searching and hunting, how? Start with the word, be intentional about it, look for God in everything, even in the seemingly mundane things. 

Remember Jesus loves you! 

Stay blessed and be a blessing 

With love always, Lisa Maxwell

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DON’T PACK YOUR BAGS YET

Hey family, how are you? we officially entered into the next half of the year! Happy new month (though it was yesterday). I woke up this morning and I was just reflecting on the six months that have just gone, and gratitude is what consumed my soul; God has been so good He has kept us, protected us and provided for us! He has been indeed a good Father. You might be looking back and not feel there is much to be grateful for, maybe you lost your job, a family member, or anything really but, I want you to look at all those circumstances and challenges and see that God was right there with you! He brought you this far, you didn’t do that on your own, God covered you, He has been there with you regardless of how you feel! Just think about it. The bible says in:

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

No matter our circumstances, we need to give thanks! Today is a new day! Which means, new hope, new opportunities, new chances. There is something about mornings, the Bible says Gods mercies are new every morning and His Joy comes in the morning.  I thank God for a new day because it means I have a fresh start and new opportunities to BE BETTER, DO BETTER and make BETTER CHOICES. Just take a moment to thank God for the gift of life, for protecting you, for being with you and for allowing you to see another day! Our God is a GOOD GOD and a GOOD FATHER! Expressing your gratitude is always a good way to start your day! 

Exciting News!!!

Drum roll!! Lol, I have some exciting news for you guys, so if you follow me on social media you might have already heard, however, if you don’t, I got you! now your girl has been busy and I am so pleased to let you all know that the PODCAST IS BACK!!!! Whoop whoop! It is new, fresh and filled with so much goodness, I cannot wait for you guys to dive in.  I want to officially announce to you that REVIVE with Lisa Maxwell is launching on Monday 6th July 2020! It has been a journey and I am so grateful to God for walking with me through it all and He still is, I am excited about what He has in store for us. Go ahead and mark the date in your diaries for the first Revive episode. Meantime you can check out the trailer, so you have an idea of what is brewing for you. 

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Don’t pack your bags yet!

As we are now entering into the next half of the year some of us might feel like we haven’t really achieved what we set out to do and might end up feeling discouraged and so on. With the pandemic, a lot changed and still is, life is not as it used to be and might not be as it used to be. There has been a shift in the world and a lot of us are probably thinking what next? I just want to encourage you today to not pack your bags just yet! Yes, your plans might have gone out the window, yes this and that happened and right now you don’t know what to do, hang in there, hold on, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I would like to help you look at things in a different perspective, I want you to look at the DISRUPTION rather than the DISTRACTION! When there is distraction you lose focus on what is important and you can get frustrated with everything going on, however when you shift your gaze to the DISRUPTION you start to look at what needs your attention! This is the time you step back and ask God, what is He saying in the midst of the noise, ask Him to align you with His Agenda and what He is doing in the now! Your plans didn’t work, maybe it is time to submit your plans to His plans and carry His assignment for your life. You don’t have to wait for the 31^st of December 2020 to start afresh and surrender your will to Gods will for your life, you can start today! it’s time to move to the passenger’s seat and allow God to take the wheel.  

God is doing something new and you don’t want to miss it, I surely want to be part of what God is doing, I want to be carried by Him, I want to go where He is going! If He is not going, I am not going! The best thing I did beside giving my life to Christ is giving my will to Him also, I remember Just going to God and was like Father invade my life, I give you access to everything! not my will but yours. Jesus said take my yoke for it is easy and my burden is light! So, brothers and sisters, it is not too late, your 2020 has not gone to waste! Just go to the Father and present yourself, say yes to His will and allow Him to guide you. 

Lastly, I just want to give an opportunity to anyone who is reading this and has not yet received Christ Jesus as his or her Lord and Saviour to have a chance to do so, see God loves you and He wants to be your Father, He wants the best for you, He created you for a purpose and He wants you to fulfil that purpose! The only way you can walk in purpose and real fulfilment is when you know Christ and receive His sacrifice, saying Yes to Him and what He did for you on the cross. Jesus is calling!  If you would like to say yes to Jesus today it is actually very easy, just say out loud the prayer below, the Bible says in Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That is all it takes, say it with your mouth and believe it in your heart! Praise God. 

Prayer of salvation

O Lord God, I believe with all my heart in Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. I believe He died for me and God raised Him from the dead. I believe He is alive today. I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life from this day. Through Him and in His name, I have eternal life; I am born again. I ask you, God, to fill me with your Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul! I am now a child of God.

Wow, congratulations! Welcome to the family. You are now a child of God. Your journey has just begun. If you said that prayer please send an email to lisa@writersesence.com so that I can gift you with materials to start your faith journey and advice on your next steps. Once again congratulations

With love always, Lisa Maxwell 

The Journey to Purpose Part Six

Success Stories

Hey, my lovelies, how are you all doing? It is good to have you back here! I am always grateful for each and every one of you. How was last week’s post? Were you blessed? I, on the other hand, was tremendously blessed. I like hearing people’s stories; they are encouraging, and they can add fire to your own journey.  I really thank Praise for sharing with us last week. Now if you are reading this for the first time, I welcome you to the family, we have been on a purpose journey for five weeks, this week making it the sixth whoosh! it has been amazing! These last weeks of the series we have guests who will be sharing their story with us and Praise shared her story on the wilderness season. You can check it out HERE! and while you are at it, why not catch up on the other articles in this series. 

The Journey to Purpose Part Three Growth

Hey, my lovelies how are you all? I trust you are keeping well and safe and just thanking God in all seasons! Remember we spoke about it in part two of this series. Now can we just take time to appreciate God, I don’t know about you, but I have been blessed! Wow, it has been an amazing two weeks of light and revelation. Now if you have been following the series, I would really like to hear from you, how has it been for you? leave your comments or send me an email and if you are just joining us I welcome you to the party. Please feel free and make yourself at home, I would suggest you go through part one and part two of this series before you proceed to this one; so that you get the context. 

The Journey to Purpose Part Two

Hey, my lovelies, how are you doing? Hope you had a great week and are looking forward to the weekend. Even though it might not feel like a weekend, take time out to rest, recharge and treat yourself! You deserve it. I want to welcome you to part two of the Journey to purpose whoop! Part one was really heavy, I learnt a lot from it myself and I got so much feedback from you guys, thank you for the support. Now we are going to dive right in. Just a recap from part one; we looked at why we found ourselves in the ploughing (wilderness or silent) season and there were three points that we focused on:

1. God is calling you to himself
2. God wants to nourish you 
3. God wants to plant a divine vision in you 

Amazing! Now that we know why we are in this season; we can then look at how to respond to it. Now if you are reading this for the first time and you have not read part one, I will encourage you to head over to part one and feast on that before you start with this one -that way you are fully equipped. 

In this post, I will be sharing on how you can respond to the ploughing season. It is very important to respond rightly, and I will show you why shortly. I want us to draw some lessons from the Israelites journey to the promised land.  When God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, the journey to the promised land was only supposed to take 40 days. However, the journey took a good 40 years! Because of their attitude and how they responded to that process. I will encourage you to go and read the book of Exodus in the bible for further studying. We will look at a few things that they did that prolonged their days in the wilderness.  Even though the children of Israel where happy that God finally delivered them from Egypt, they constantly walked in disobedience; they grumbled, complained, sinned, and were ungrateful, that is why it took them years! 

Ways to respond to the ploughing season

1. Obedience

What does God want you to do in this season? What is that thing He has placed in your heart? Is He asking you to just spend uninterrupted time with Him to fellowship and study His word? Whatever it is He has told you to do or there is a prompting in your heart; just do it! Just OBEY! It could be as simple as coming off social media for a while because he wants to work on your heart, maybe you compare yourself to others and He wants to heal that insecurity. Praise God! So, whatever it is, whatever instruction the Lord gives to you just obey. When you are faithful in the little things through obedience God trusts you with much more. Don’t be like the Israelite’s, when God gave them an instruction most times most of them did the opposite of what God said not to do.  God instructed Moses that the people shouldn’t keep manner for the next day, they should just gather what they need. However, the people didn’t listen.

Exodus 16:19

‘Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” ²⁰ But they did not listen to Moses…’

2. Gratitude

When you obey God and are faithful in what he wants you to do per time, you will see that clarity starts to come to you and He starts to reveal the next steps to you. you will begin to see clearly and hear clearly. So beloved just obey!

One thing that was consistent with the children of Israel was being ungrateful. Even though God did mighty things in their midst, miracle upon miracle yet they still complained and quickly forgot what God did for them. Gratitude is important, always be grateful for what God has done for you. There is always something to be grateful for. Take time to remember the miracles God did for you, the victories He won for you! Amen. Count your blessings and name them one by one. The bible always tells us to give thanks in everything:

1^st Thessalonians 5:18

‘give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’

Don’t complain, every time you find yourself in a place of complaining or grumbling just meditate on the goodness of God! Even if at that present moment you can’t see His hand. He is calling you to see His heart, He is calling you to see His person, to build a relationship that is not based on what He can do for you but who He is to you. Hallelujah! 

3. Comparison

This is a major one for me because I have been there! avoid comparison, don’t compare yourself to others! your life is not their life. You are unique, you are an individual, God created you to be different, embrace that difference! When you start comparing yourself to others you will start getting distracted, you might lose focus on what God is trying to do in your life. You might have to take some deliberate actions towards this, for example, you might have to cut down on social media or come off it for a while; until you come to a place where you no longer compare yourself with others.  Comparison can lead you to start an expression in the flesh that God didn’t plant! So be healed of comparison! You don’t want to lose focus. Instead of comparing yourself to others, why don’t you study them? especially if you see yourself in them or they resemble the vision and call on your life. Read about their journey, draw lessons from it, etc. Most times we are comparing our ploughing season to someone’s harvest season.  I have an entire post on this topic, if you are struggling with comparison, I encourage you to check it out HERE

4. Don’t look back

When you are going through this journey there is always a tendency to look back, we have this famous phrase we like to use “the good old days”. In the good old days when I was still working as this and that when I was still single when I didn’t have kids etc. Yet, some of these things are things you prayed to God for. Don’t be like the children of Israel who kept saying it was better in Egypt, meanwhile, they forgot that they prayed for deliverance and waited for years to be taken to their promised land. This is a tool of distraction! don’t entertain it, fix your eyes on where God is taking you. If you keep looking back, you will miss out on what God is doing.  I just love the scripture in: 

Isaiah 43:19

‘See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.’

This scripture makes me leap for joy each time I read it! It is so assuring especially in this season.  Don’t lose sight of what God is doing, He is doing a new thing! Praise God! So be encouraged and don’t give in! embrace this season with all your heart. Ask God what he is trying to show you or teach you? Open your heart to Him and let the Master do His work. 

Love always Lisa Maxwell 

The Journey to Purpose Part One

Hey, my lovelies, how is everyone keeping? Thank you for your support I really appreciate it, it encourages me to continue to write.  Last post we spoke about time management and creating effective life systems. I hope you transferred that knowledge into action and went ahead to create your own life system. If you did, how has it been working for you so far? Has it made a difference? How do you feel?  And if you are reading this for the first time and you are wondering what a life system is, I encourage you to read the previous post on HOW TO MAXIMISE YOUR TIME.  I assure you; you will thank me later.  Right let’s dive right in. 

The Validation Trap

Are you always feeling the need to seek validation from others for you to know that you are walking in purpose? A lot of times, even if we do not know we are seeking validation from people around us or from others in general, I feel like subconsciously we find ourselves doing it.  The problem with that is you will end up being stressed out, burnt out, frustrated and soon you will end up packing up and giving up on your goals and visions and everything that you have set out to do.