I can literally feel that a major shift of exponential blessings is on the horizon. I can't put it into exact words, nor can I give specifics on details such as when or how, but I know that it is happening. Even as I type and as you read, God is lining things up so that the answers to the blessings you have been praying and waiting for will begin to manifest in your life. There's no doubt that God is going to do what He promised you. The things you have been imagining and the ideas that you are beginning to put faith on will happen are God-given and He placed them in your imagination so that you would know the direction in which to dream and move. If you put action to your prayers, these things will happen. The question is: are you ready what you have prayed for. Below is a post of chapter 9 from my book, The Counseling Catalog, on being prepared for God's blessings.
Chapter 9: Preparation
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” One thing I have learned about God is that He has a set time for everything. When God is ready to move, He is ready to move! There is no waiting; there is no rain check. There is no rescheduling. If God is driving a bus, you better be ready to hop on board immediately. He is not going to slow down and give you time to play catch up. I am reminded of Luke 19:12-13 that advises us to “Occupy until He comes.” These two references, Ecclesiastes and Luke, let us know two things. Luke lets us know that God is coming, and Ecclesiastes lets us know that the time in which He comes is specific. The instructions are for us to get busy occupying until the appointed time at which He will return. This is what we know as preparation.
God is a God of order and purpose. No way is He informing us to get busy doing nothing. He gave the sowers in the book of Matthew various talents. They were to make good use of their time and their talent. God wanted a return on His investment. He has given all of us gifts, talent, and time. He didn’t issue out these blessings randomly with no intentions, but rather is expecting productivity from what He has given us. God is expecting to see fruit from your life. He didn’t just give you a life for kicks! He gave you a life to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Your gift is to help someone else. He wants you to put those gifts to good use for the multiplication of His kingdom and to be fruitful in His earth. So, the gifts and talents that you have must be used. This is how He wants you to be occupied when He said in Luke 19:13 “Occupy till I come.” You must occupy your time by using your gifts. The scripture says occupy until I come. God is going to return for you. He is going to come back to see if you have been fruitful with His investment. Have you? Take a moment and ask yourself if you have used your time to cultivate your talents. Have you taken the time to perfect your craft? Have you been sharing your gift to bless others? Is His kingdom expanding or benefitting from your life? Not only is God returning just for His kingdom, but He is coming back to bless you! The question is, “Are you ready to move?”
The truth is this. God is coming back at a set time in search of fruit. He will be looking for a return. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 shows us what the reward was. He changed their status! All three of the men had an expected destiny. Only two were able to move. The Bible says God gave them more on top of what they had already doubled. The man who did nothing with his talent was not only left behind without being able to experience the progression as the other two, but the initial talent he was given was also taken away from him and distributed to the others. Wasting your time, talents, gifts, and money is the greatest road to regret. Nothing feels worse than realizing your life pales in comparison to people around you because you failed to use the gifts and maximize the time God gave you. It is important not only for you to cultivate your gifts for the sake of the kingdom, but it is also important for your own promotion as well. Why would God promote someone who has not prepared him or herself for the next level? Everybody wants to be promoted. Everybody wants to be elevated and moved to the next level. What are you going to do when you get there? If you haven’t been cultivating, working, preparing on the lower level, you will not be able to handle the next level.
Many times I have gone to pick up family members to ride with me somewhere. Oftentimes, it’s to church, an event, or a performance. All of them know I hate to be late. If I took the extra time to abort my normal route and come your way, you better be ready to go when I pull up. Many-a-kinfolks have gotten left at home or left running behind my car to catch up. I warn them upfront and give them ample time upfront. I urge them to use their time wisely, and my folks know that if I get there and you are not ready, I’m out! It’s quite similar with God. He has given us what we need, told us what to do with it, and promised to take us higher. Imagine how He feels when He calls for us and we are not ready! I’ve seen God move on and leave people behind. If you are not ready when God is ready, He will either drag you along, which will cause your transition to be more painful than necessary, or He will leave you behind altogether. I remember God clearly speaking to me about moving to another residence when my oldest daughter went off to college. I had mentioned to my husband earlier in the year that I felt it would soon be time to move as she would be returning home to visit during holiday breaks and would have more stuff of her own than we could house. The thought was always bugging me and permeating my mind. I knew a move would have to happen pretty soon, but I did nothing to prepare for a move. I hadn’t saved any money nor given any thought to the process. Part of the reason I didn’t prepare was because, deep down, I was actually doubting it would and could happen for us. At that time, our credit was not the greatest, and I couldn’t see how we would be able to get something bigger and better with our income. In other words, I did not trust God. He is the one who put the move in my spirit, but my doubt caused me to reject it. Sure enough, right after we got her settled into college, my husband began to make a push for a move into a bigger place. We looked at several nice places and found the one that was perfect for us. I knew when I first walked into the house that it was ours. I got excited. Could we actually get this place? It had everything I wanted. With questionable credit and modest income, we applied. Before we could even get back to the expressway heading towards our destination, we got the phone call telling us we were approved. However, there was a hefty deposit required. Then there were moving fees and fees for other things. It was crazy. Not to mention that we would have to be out of the old place by a certain time to avoid more fees. We had to quickly pack and move. Meanwhile, life was going on. Our oldest needed tuition money, and we had to continue to eat and live. Everything was becoming overwhelming as neither time nor money was on our side. The transition within the allotted time frame was almost impossible. Had I started doing some light packing and saving money when God first informed me to prepare for a move, the crunch would not have been so stressful. We simply were not in the best position to conquer everything that had to be done within the few days we had, but I knew the new place was ours. We rolled up our sleeves and engaged in a gruesome packing and moving process. The costs became astronomical, but we survived even though we had to send money to our daughter for books as well as continue on with the daily costs of living. This was an example of being dragged. God opened the door. He did His part. He blessed us exactly as He promised, but we were not ready. I had no intentions of moving nor moving so fast. From one month to the next, it was etched in stone, and we were transitioning to somewhere better. I could not enjoy it because I was unprepared. No way was I expecting it to happen when it did. I talked about it, but my subliminal doubt kept me from believing it would actually happen. For this reason, I didn’t make the preparations. When the time came, I was dragged into the blessing. Had I prepared, things would have gone much smoother. And so, it is with your life. God has promised you some things. He has whispered to you about your future and admonished your spirit to begin preparations. You think about them every day. It’s burning down in your mind and soul, but you don’t prepare because even though you believe God can do it, you just don’t believe that He will do it for you. One day you look up and sure enough, God came with the opportunity. However, He had to leave you behind or drag you because you were not prepared.
One of the most eye-opening scriptures in the Bible that deals with lack of preparation is in Matthew 25: 1-12. In these verses, all ten virgins took initial steps to go meet the bridegroom, but only five of them showed above-average thinking. I have often heard that success comes when preparation meets opportunity. This passage suggests that these women all figured the opportunity was coming. Yet, five of them went the extra mile in their belief. Faith without works is dead. Those five went fully prepared, not knowing one hundred percent that He would come through, but they were completely ready. They believed that their opportunity to meet Him would, indeed, come. It is not enough to just show up! You must show up prepared. The five virgins that came prepared were able to progress when the opportunity presented itself. The five virgins that were unprepared got left behind. Have you been preparing for your opportunities? If your golden opportunity came, would you be left behind?
This is what the prophets been saying!!!!!