October 10, 2008

Posted by Paula White - Fri, October 10, 2008 at 03:06 AM

My schedule’s been so busy that I’ve been behind in posting. So let’s catch up with what’s been going on. I was so privileged to minister last month at Bishop T.D. Jakes’ Pastors & Leadership conference. It felt good to be among other pastors and feel their support and love. It was an amazing conference and God’s love was present in so many tangible ways.

With four Life by Design sessions in Tampa, as well, September was a whirlwind month, and October looks like it will be no different. Yet, I needed some quiet time this week because in just a few days I’ll be ministering at Mega Fest – we’re out to win souls and do some great outreach both on the cruise and in the Bahamas. The highlight will be a huge crusade—we expect 20,000 people and, like last year, we hope many will be saved. What an opportunity to spread God’s word! This past week I have been in preparation & consecration - spending my days in the presence of God, studying and praying - in my “cave.”

I managed some family time with my son last week – making popcorn, watching movies, cooking for each other - laughing so much! Brad fills my heart with joy. He is truly my most treasured accomplishment.

Along with the happy smell of popcorn, there’s a chill in the air—I can’t believe fall is here already—how time flies! My new book, Move On, Move Up: Turn Yesterday’s Trials into Today’s Triumphs is already out—and none too soon. It looks like 2009 may be an uncertain year for so many of us. It’s more important than ever before to know how God can shed light on your situation and help you through life’s trials and tribulations. Always remember, He is faithful no matter what the circumstances may be.

Scroll down for the introduction to the book.

I hope you have a wonderful week—and please pray that our outreach and soul-winning efforts in the Bahamas bear wonderful fruit for the Kingdom.

Love,
Paula,

MOVE ON, MOVE UP INTRODUCTION

Shaken, but Still Standing

Several years ago a word was spoken to me by a godly man—a statement I knew was from God. He declared very specifically things the Lord had shown me when I was a young believer. He then said, “Paula, everything around you that can be shaken is going to be shaken. Things you have counted on as being sure will crumble. But you, Paula, will remain standing and you will emerge with strength.”

His bold, direct words with the love of God branded my soul. I had absolutely no doubt that he was speaking truth to me. His message, on the one hand, was not at all what I wanted to hear. On the other hand, his message was not without hope.

In the next few years, his words came to pass. Everything around me that could be shaken was shaken. Things I had counted on as being sure crumbled. But I am still standing, and deep within, I know I am stronger than I have ever been in my faith, my purpose, and my position. I have known the depths of heartache.

I have also known the even greater depths of God’s love and sustaining power. And I have come to understand the processes of God in a way I have never understood them before. This is not at all to say that I wanted things around me to be shaken. Far from it! It is not to say that I have not cried hundreds of buckets of tears. I have. I often say, “I didn’t write the script, but I am learning to walk it out with dignity and honor by the grace of God.”

As things around me were shaken, and some things around me crumbled in what seemed more like a crash, I spent long hours alone with God—praying, writing in my personal journals, reading the Word of God, and struggling to gain a perspective on what God’s purposes might be for the pain I was experiencing.

Some things remain a mystery to me. As long as we are on this earthly side of eternity, we will never have a full answer to all “why” questions. Other things have become crystal clear. One of the things I have come to see clearly and with certainty is that God creates out of chaos. We often think that creativity happens when all things are in perfect order; however, the opposite is true. The entire cosmos was produced out of a watery, smothering, dark, chaotic nothingness. An empty wasteland. No matter how chaotic your life may be, you are precisely in the right position for God to do a creative work!

God speaks His Word to you.
He sheds His light on your situation.
He gives you freedom to breathe in His inspiration and He sets your feet on the solid footing of His truth.
He secures you during instability.
He establishes order and rhythm in your life.
He gives you opportunity to become fruitful and to fully embrace and become involved with all things that are for your benefit and fulfillment.

What a Creator!

And what joy that He calls us to participate fully in His creative processes. All of God’s plans and purposes for your life are good. They were good at the moment of your creation. They are good today. They will always be good and cannot be anything other than good because they are the work of a totally good and holy God.

The bad things you have experienced may have dented or tarnished or sullied the outer person that you are. Your flesh may have been hit and scars may remain. God hasn’t changed His mind about you. He still longs to be in relationship with you. He still has a good plan and purpose for you. The key to not only moving on but moving up is this: God has a process for your perfection.

God’s process is directed toward your having, doing, and being everything God says you can have, do, and be.
God’s process is presented to us in God’s Word, and it is a process available to every person who will seek to discover it, embrace it, and persevere in it.

For most people, the recognition of God’s process begins at a point of pain or difficulty. In anguish and devastation a person wants to move on, but she doesn’t know how. And she wants to move up—she senses there is more, but she doesn’t know where to find it. She wants out of the current circumstances—and especially out of the current pain—but she is unsure which direction to move or where to turn. She knows that she did not intend her life story to contain certain chapters that life has been writing. She does not know how to place the chapter or life event that she struggles to accept—much less understand the whys of—in context with the overall story. I understand; I have been there.

That’s what this book is all about.
It’s about aligning your life with God’s processes so you can experience God’s perfection, and in experiencing the fullness of God’s plan, experience all that will give you meaning and purpose. I am not saying, “I have arrived”; it is a continual journey. However, I do know something about being processed and learning to stay in position for the purpose of God.

I invite you to the process . . . and to the fulfillment of your life. As you find this fulfillment, you may be shaken—but you will always stand in victory. You will move on, and you will move up!

October 10, 2008

MOVE ON, MOVE UP INTRODUCTION

Comments

Blog Categories

Monthly Archives

Recent Entries

RSS Feed