Rip Up Some Roots

Moving forward, growing—it’s awesome. Sometimes it’s like you can see the world opening around you. You have a new perspective on things, you feel empowered, and you are loving life!

Other times it feels like you’re meeting resistance anytime you try to move. It’s not necessarily that the opening isn’t there to run into, it’s that something keeps you from completely arriving at the next destination. There is something that holds you back.

Maybe it’s time you rip up some up roots. Maybe the Lord is giving you a new level of anointing or authority in an area, but you are hindering the process. Maybe it’s a heart issue you’ve never worked out; maybe it’s an inability to honor those who’ve gone before you; maybe you have no respect for those who should be able to speak into your life.

It’s amazing how much blessing God pours out on us… more than I can even begin to comprehend. But I think that we prevent a lot of that blessing from overflowing like He intends for it to. We yearn and pray for the good stuff, but when it starts to flow down from Heaven, we seem to be too easily filled. Does that make sense?? It’s kind of hard to say this and not sound like I’m downplaying the significance or awesomeness of the blessings of God…..hmmm…..I’ll say it like this: I think sometimes God starts to pour out whatever it is He is giving us, and before the “full serving” has been consumed, we say, “Thanks. I’ve had enough.”

It could be that we’re scared of too much of God; I know that I’ve resisted giving up things before because I wasn’t ready—I knew that more of God would mean less of what I had decided I wanted to do. It could be that we only want so much of God’s blessings. It could be that we don’t feel worthy of something that would be considered an overflow of blessing. It could be a lot of things.

But then what about these other times when we want more, but it seems like we meet resistance and can’t seem to have that huge breakthrough we seek??

What I’m suggesting today is that maybe we need to rip up some roots. Maybe the thing keeping us from entering, and staying, at that next level is something we need fix before we can go forward. For example, let’s say you work in a suit-and-tie kind of office. Your boss raves about how much potential you have and how they’d like to promote you, but they can’t because you don’t carry yourself in a manner expected of management—you cuss like a sailor, won’t iron your clothes, and skip bathing for a few days at a time. Although you have promotion lying around the corner, you won’t change because maybe your family talked crudely when you were growing up, and you picked up bad bathing habits in college where nobody seemed to care. You gotta rip up some roots.

Example #2: you are a musician. Out of nowhere, you find your vocal range expanding to where you can hit notes that you never dreamed of, and opportunities are coming up that are obviously God-sent. You start to walk in your new level of anointing, but can never stay there because you don’t have the discipline to practice and hone your new God-given abilities. You assumed that since God blessed you with something that you wouldn’t have to work at it; you wouldn’t have to cut out your old habit of sliding around notes instead of hitting them. On top of that, you keep coming to rehearsals 15 minutes late because that’s been your habit all your life. Thus, resentment amongst those you work with starts to grow because they feel like you don’t respect their time. I am suggesting that you might need to rip up some roots.

It’s painful, yes, to start examining ourselves and seeing what needs to be improved/removed. At some point, we’ve all probably hindered what the Lord wants to do with us and through us because of our reluctance to change. If you are wanting to push through whatever it is that is holding you back, try praying to the Holy Spirit that He reveal things to you that you’ve never seen before or neglected to acknowledge. Then pray for the strength to do the Lord’s will in/with those things.

God knows we’re not perfect, but He also loves a willing and humble laid-down heart. Let’s rip up some roots today. Amen.