By Zethu Zwane
Welcome to a new season, and if you’re still in a growth opportunity with your Lord God, keep believing, trusting and obeying the Lord! In a previous blog I shared how restorative it is to travel for your emotional, spiritual and mental wellbeing. And in that same blog I also said God became strict! Well here’s a deeper and hopefully more loving answer to what I meant at the time. During this past season, God’s love is not that He became more strict; instead I was learning more and more on how to be an obedient child of God, and that calls for you to be holy.
This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission. I only recommend products and services I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. Read the full privacy policy here.
At the point of your journey with Christ, you should have completely removed all false doctrines from your life. You should also be able to discern when a teacher is adding or subtracting from the Word of God.That’s why you’ll also find you can’t walk in the manner as other Christians do. This is clearly described fpr you in my blog comparing a Finance & Insurance officer stealing vs the receptionist.
Its worth the read because you’ll see that like the Finance & Insirance Officer, God takes you through many trainings to becoming holy, leaving you no room to compare yourself with a beginner/receptionist. When you’ve reached an understanding of Christ Jesus, you can’t look like others. This is the mission of the thriving woman; to evolve in obedience to be more like Christ and less like the world.
Honestly I didn’t expect this transition because, much like the Israelites who sat in the presence of Jesus for many years and watched Him do miracles, I was expecting an outward change. Sadly my expectations were also very superficial; very much focused on God taking me out of my mundane routine. Yet what I failed to see is the inward changes Jesus Christ was applying to my life; to becoming a servant of God.
Be an evolving woman who’s quick to repent & action God’s correction
Yet I’m also one obstinate woman who’ll repent when she’s wrong and ask God to guide me to learning why I was chastised. It’s good to be disciplined because it means God hasn’t left you to your sinful nature. Likewise, I strongly encourage you repent whenever you’re at fault, because your spiritual sanctification is right around the corner.
Your spiritual sanctification has nothing to do with what the world wants; it’s being prepared to sacrificing more of yourself and time time in your workplace and at home. Be prepared to wash more feet and feed your oppressors because this is the life that springs pure joy from God. Just read how the Holy Spirit burst into song after I volunteered at a funeral night vigil. Anyway at the time of repenting, God led me know; “Be Holy For I am Holy,” and my honest response was; when on earth did I reach this part of the journey! That’s because this season I’d allowed the oppressive peacocks in my life to distort my reality.
Now let me explain this further for you. When God calls you and qualifies you, there will be many people who’ll come to disqualify your calling. And on this blog, I call some of these people peacocks after an obnoxious peacock descended in my neighborhood. Attracted to this bird’s outerward appearance, some enthusiastic neighbor decided to buy a peacock.
The neighbor lives 5 blocks away, but every 17H30 you can still hear the sounds of a strangled cat coming out of the beak of that bird.. so yeah you’ve got to be enthusiastic to buy a peacock . And from day 1, this bird was up to no good. You’ll have to go read the whole blog to get the humour, slight sarcasm and annoyance , but this bird is nothing but just know this was an obnoxious experience.
Nonetheless, that’s one way of describing most of the people who’ll discounted you; beautifully dressed, successful and full of every earthly successful accolade, but empty. They were empty and lost spiritually. Yet sadly myself and these individuals were searching for outward changes from God as opposed to inward changes from Jesus. At the peak of trying to out-do God’s ways, my actions led to emotional turmoil, so I highly recommend you allow God to be God and fight all of your battles. And I thank the Lord your God that He didn’t replace what was stolen, or lost or eaten by locusts because it would have overshadowed the umbrella lessons I needed to gain.
Thriving women wash feet and submit to all situations; that’s true leadership
For 1, evolving as a thriving woman calls for you to serve more than to be served. This was my first challenge as you saw in my blog about peacocks. That’s because the supplier I worked with did everything to discredit my walk with God. They challenged me at every point, turning this notion of being a slave to; “You’re my slave,” and I know this because of what they did next. One morning, they came charging up to me, and exclaimed; “you’ll be my slave forever, I know it from prophesy,” which was the final shock I needed from this one individual.
Unfortunately as you’ll see it took another 6 months before my pastor bellowed; “You’re not a man’s slave, you’re God’s slave,” before instructing me to wake up and pick up my cross! So this is my first reminder or lesson to you; every obstacle, oppressor, peacock or theft you face builds you up to be holy. Does it make the oppressors right for crushing you? Absolutely not, but like my 6 love letter,God uses harsh people to sanctify you to become more like Jesus.
Who would have known that the devil held my blessings in that supplier? If I wasn’t obedient to God in going to live across that neighbor, I would have never been threatened with words like; “and this will never belong to you,” before realizing that the you word was actually me. Hearing that neighbor turned supplier speak those words to me every day led me to praying for 1.5 months. And you can imagine the shock and horror when I realized the enemy hid my blessings in them.
Why forgiveness is your spiritual weapon
Yet again this showed me the importance of forgiveness. At the point when my path and calling became more clear, I started to think of forgiveness as a spiritual weapon. Don’t just pick up your cross; forgive and pick up your cross. That’s because you don’t wage war against the peacocks in your life, but against your adversary, the devil who waits for a gap in your life like bitterness, unforgiveness or vengeance to lead you astray. When the enemy sees that you won’t give up on God, isn’t it better to steal your blessings and place them in that 1 place you refuse to go?
For you do not know the many schemes of the enemy, so do not let the most obvious 1 trio you up; forgive and keep fighting the good fight. This is the foundation of a thriving woman; a woman who clings to sound doctrine and applies it to her life. You can’t evolve without the foundational truths of God. And honestly for me, I needed those beliefs corrected because I resented the dreamer for some time. Yet I repented to God for comparison. That’s because some false believers tend to be more successful than you.
While you’re sitting down with God going through an inward sanctification, people have polluted the world with Facebook pastors who promises you that when you attend his church, you’ll become as rich as Solomon. So what do people do; they take out 30,000 ZAR loans just to tithe. They tithe with the strategic works of the bank and not faith in God’s provision. They do not wait for the promises of God to be fulfilled. So I was filled with comparison at how loud, boisterous and very much like a peacock these people were.
Relearning that all things belong to God will help you overcome your battles using His authority
It’s only when I read the Book of Daniel that God reminded me He is the interpreter of all dreams. Do not scorn prophecy, but turn to God. That is the only way you will rejoice at your inward changes as opposed to waiting for outward changes. I enjoyed the inward changes on 6 July Grand Expedition when I finally realized God is a strategic coach teaching you how to balance work and home. This lesson was especially evident when I completed an application while dashing across several stores in town.
For the first time, I got to experience what God does with church moms, and I was so excited and grateful. This is another valuable lesson for the evolving thriving woman; when you fully surrender your work to the Lord, you’ll gain more peace than the days you did it alone. And the enemy’s mind is always on a woman who’s surrendered to God because your old life will plague you. And those small doubts will always pop up.
Still this is a major lesson that even successful conglomerate female CEOs like Ursular Burns say you can’t escape. She says that every day you’ll wake up with those words of doubt. Now while I don’t know who she believe in, or whether they follow sound doctrine, your best answer to fight the war against your mind is the blood of Jesus. Knowing that the enemy will employ every pot hole in the road or roaring storm while you’re on a journey, you must counter this tactics from sound doctrine:
- Read your Bible,more especially when pervasive thoughts appear to loud
- Fast for a day or 3 when you realize your mind is being attacked
- Rest. Entering into God’s rest is so crucial to defeating the lies of the enemy.
Do no be an elected woman who’s easily duped!
The evolving thriving woman equips herself with sound doctrine, so she’s never counted as 1 of the elect who got duped. At my most difficult point of writing is watching a 25 year old Christian drop sound doctrine for bleach praying pastors. It’s evident that their financial crisis is a reality of this fallen world, but due to the fact they listen to false prophets who say Jesus is coming tomorrow; they easily fall away to advice of praying over bleach and sugar.
And you know I wrote extensively over this because the one lost person yelled at me for buying them the wrong praying sugar. God doesn’t need gimmicks to provide for you because that would mean His Word is a lie, and His Hand is too short to save you. Yet once a financial crisis besets for long, many fall into desperate wolves and slowly develop itching ears. Yet for the evolving thriving woman, becoming more like Christ is being strict even to yourself.
Okay this is my personal response. And this response comes from being afflicted 3 years after following affirmations. Sadly I’ve watched many people with the same symptoms I had when I suffered afflictions, but because they follow false teachers, they can’t tell when they’re being afflicted. Remember that time God tested me about marrying some guy called Jordan? I was really concerned and worried that God would test you, but don’t you get tested in school.
Enjoy having a Master who’s your permanent life Planner and Owner
Don’t you get tested in national sports. When I was a national swimmer, I trained countless times before taking 1 test, and now I understand why God will test your old sin. Christians who’ve been Christians for 25 years will leave sound doctrine for sugar prayers, so I see why God tests you. You need to be tested like in school, so you can discern between God’s voice and a false prophets voice. For those reasons,I won’t participate in something if I can’t find the answer in those pastors I listed in my series on sound doctrine.
Not only this, but many false teachers will say; “well life in Africa is different from the USA, so that is we pray using water in a glass under extreme circumstances.” I absolutely disagree with this false information because it’s bringing a division against God’s Word. When God scattered us across the world, didn’t He know some places would have more witches or witch doctors or false prophets? While your principalities and rulers may be different, a teaching that conforms to the patterns of rudimentary spirits is not God’s word.
What that teaching has done is taken God’s word, and just slapped it on a whole new delusion teaching. This is why people can no longer tell when they’re being afflicted,or confusion is being sowed into their lives. God’s Word is meant to have order, but many have lost this discernment because they’re rushing to the stores to buy toilet paper because the world is ending tomorrow. And you know government’s still haven’t submitted to God because such evil and wicked lies that kill many should be banned from the public. Yet you hear them on the radio, and their buildings pop up everywhere.
Rejoice for the journey ahead in evolving as a thriving woman
So what does that mean for the evolving thriving woman; she doesn’t conform to the pattern and lies of this world. By setting her gaze in sound doctrine,the thriving woman is able to discern false doctrine from God’s holy Word. And for such a season as this, it means your life will not look like the immediate success story the world is demanding you have. Countless people may be pressuring you to prove your God-calling by earthly possessions like finally upgrading your car; however sanctification is an inward change to become like Christ.
For those reasons, an evolving thriving woman is Spirit and God let. No matter what her hobbies are, she remains concerned with God’s mission on this earth. That’s an evolving woman; someone who doesn’t live according to the confinement of human ideals, but seeks to be all-rounded in God’s eyes. You’ve seen that waiting on approval is a waste of your time,and gains you little favor in God’s eyes. Yet when you follow God’s path for your life, the right people will praise you, and God’s provision always flows in your life.
Lastly all year right things will soon follow, and they’ll come once God sees you finally understand what’s important in your life. While having a grand car is fantastic for packing all you need for your next road trip, did you use this car to serve? That’s what I saw this past month. The husband walked home late at night, so we the women could be safe in a car. And I woke up the next morning like; “Wow Lord how few are these people,” because how often have you gotten in a person’s car only for them to drive recklessly because they don’t want you running the car seats.
Even though they invited you into their car, you’re now praying that you both arrive alive! Is it just me,or that moment of caring and serving others is core to a thriving woman’s personality? Let it close to your body and etch on your body and heart. The Thriving woman is a woman of service. She is a proud slave of God because she knows even in the middle of a difficult junction, God still has the final say! How will you glorify God this season by seeking to be more of a slave that washes feet and glorifies God.
Black Couture |Health & Wellness lifestyle blog 