This article is partly inspired by the below episode from Coach Joyce’s series Faith in Action. I encourage you to check it out using this link. I’ve also embedded a copy of her episode at the end of this article, so that you can watch it directly from the Substack app.
This article is intended for the following;
The soul that seeks to know Jesus better
The one who knocks
The curious one
The one who seeks His living peace
The one who yearns to understand his purpose in this life
The one that has recently began to hear the whispers of God and thirsts for more
The one that feels all out of options
Good morning brothers and sisters in Christ.
In this article I am taking a small step of obedience towards the identity that I feel the holy spirit wants me to step into.
For the new readers, a little about me
The Lord revealed himself to me a little over a year on the eve of 10/3/2024.
Since that night and for the past year, the Lord has been taking me through a “spiritual bootcamp” of sorts.
As part of that process, I have been documenting the journey on my Substack site “Shashue Monrauch” and my newsletter “Faith in the Fast Lane”.
In this article the goal is simple and short; Overcome my fears, take an obedient step of faith towards God’s calling for me.
While it may not seem like much at the moment and in this article, in time, it will, so I hope you’ll stick around.
For the past year God has been working on me and through me. Through me sometimes for the benefit of those around me, other times to benefit me and sometimes both for me and for others as best I can tell.
During this season I’ve watched all the usual Christian clichés come to life in real practical ways around me.
Listed below are some of the most commonly cited clichés while there are many more which I have witnessed in the last year, these are a few of the more frequently recurring ones.
“Let go and let God.”
“God works in mysterious ways.”
“God never gives you more than you can handle.”
“Everything happens for a reason.”
“God is in control.”
“Pray without ceasing.”
“God is love.”
Regarding item number one on our list today which is (Let go and let God) is surrendering to God.
Control is a pain in but that will stress you, create elevated amounts of needless anxiety, stress and result in bad decision making most of the time. Instead, surrender to God, let him take care of things, let him guide me, learn the sound of his voice and obey him. In doing so, I will benefit from what Christians sometimes refer to as the living peace. Living peace is not the peace you find on the sunny beach of Antigua or Saint Maarten with a beautiful girlfriend on one side and margarita drink on the other side.
It is a peace you can tap into while standing amidst a chaos of tornadoes as cars and rooftops are flung about in the air like leaves in the wind all around you.
Philippians 4:6-7 ESV
«do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.»
Regarding item number two (God works in mysterious ways), in addition to mysterious ways for sure, I’d also add that he also works in ironic and humorous ways.
To this I’ll say, God is a creator and an artist of sorts.
He’s not most glorified by doing usual things in usual ways. But rather is most glorified by doing both usual and unusual things in unusual ways. These unusual ways are sometimes referred to by Christians as miracles. But to a nonbeliever you might recognize these “unusual ways” as odd coincidences or outliers.
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
«For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.»
Regarding items number three (God never gives you more than you can handle), God is omniscience, omnipotent and all-knowing. Basically what that means is that he is never surprised or caught off guard. He plants us in situations be they perceived as good or bad by us for one of two reasons.
First is to help us transform into the identities he has in mind for us.
Second is because he loves us and is course correcting us in some fashion so that we may take steps that will bring our will more into alignment with his will.
Given this understanding He will never give us more than we can handle, provided we keep him at the center of our focus.
Psalm 139:1-6,13-14 ESV
«O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.»
Regarding item number four (Everything happens for a reason), as a Christian, God is not an extra in the narrative of our story or testimony, he is not only the main character, but he is the author. The alpha and the omega. Item number four also ties back to that bit in items number three about being “omniscience, omnipotent and all-knowing”.
Romans 8:28 ESV
«And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.»
Regarding item number five (God is in control), is primarily about surrendering to God, the one that created us. Trusting him and having faith in him. If we are truly following his lead and allowing the holy spirit within us to act, speak and move through us, we are in harmony with God’s will. It’s in these instances God is in control because the Holy Spirit is God. We become the glove to his hand, the lips to his words. We become mere vessels through which his work will be carried out.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 ESV
«Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.»
Regarding item number six (Pray without ceasing), is primarily about establishing and growing our relationship with God. It is in this process we learn about him, learn to recognize his voice, learn his attributes, develop some level of discernment so that we can distinguish when it is he, when it is our pride or when it is the voice of the enemy.
The best description for this cliche is to imagine a visual of that little red devil on our left shoulder whispering into the left ear while that little angel is on that right shoulder is whispering into the right ear.
This cliche is about developing the relationship we need that will allow us to lower the volume of that little red demon on that left shoulder while increasing the volume of that angel on the right shoulder that’s whispering into our right ear.
The more often throughout the day and our life that we follow the guidance of that little angel over the voice of that demon, the more sanctified we become and the closer we become to our Lord and Savior.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV
«Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.»
Regarding item number seven (God is love), as best as I can understand at this point of my journey, this is what it’s all about. God is love. Everything about him leads back to love. What Christians call his perfect love, the only unconditional love.
Not the love that we hear in song lyrics or see play out in movies, but the original and true meaning of the word love. When you get a glimpse of it, you’ll instantly know it even though it’s not one that you’ve ever experienced with anyone in your life. For the love of God, is like no other love that we can experience as a soul or in the flesh.
1 John 3:1-2 ESV
«See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.»
So, at a very high level, my spiritual bootcamp experience these last 12 months has been a high density, deep focus, fast-tracked understanding by the Glory of God of these sorts of Christian cliches and other things.
God has the power to enable a lifetime’s worth of understanding in mere second-like moments, like the bat of an eye.
2 Peter 3:8 ESV
«But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.»
He can likewise dull our understanding so that a thing that can be easily understood in seconds or a single sentence, can take a person a lifetime to understand.
God has shown me both in different seasons of my life and with a variety of things and situations.
And on that note, my friends, this concludes a first episode of sorts of what I expect will be many to come.
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Shashue Monrauch