How to confront fears and step into your calling
Have you felt lately that you’re battling against yourself? Against something that God is telling you to do, or to stop doing?
But, though you know you should do it, you just don’t.
You tell God: ‘Look! I don’t have this talent. I’m not good at this. I’m going to fail. Or maybe you think that other people can do a much better job than you can. Other people have much more charisma, or presence. They’re more beautiful and more articulate, and this and this and that’.
I was struggling a couple of weeks ago with something the Lord has been asking me to start doing. Creating video content. I went to the Lord telling Him again, ‘Look, this is just too big for me. It just seems like an insurmountable challenge. I just don’t see a way that I can do this’. And His answer, as He has done soo many times before, came with truth, yes, and also with rebuke, but with so much grace and mercy.
I think that one of the tools God uses to help us grow, to bring us above and beyond the status quo of our lives, are challenges. Because, through the battles, the trials, and the challenges, we actually learn from Him and of Him so much, and we also learn about ourselves which allows us to grow into his likeness.
In first Chronicles 14 it talks about the Philistines going against Israel and the new appointed king David. It says that as soon they heard that David had been anointed, they just went after him. Two times David inquired of God. Should I go against him? Are you going to give me victory? And the answer of God was, a simple yes, I will do it.
David won the battle but after that, they came back again. David again inquired of God. Though God assured the victory, this time He gave David a specific instruction. He told Him, where to go, what He should expect, and how to attack the enemies.
As I was reading this, I just marveled at seeing the communication that David had with the Lord. And I was like: ‘Wow Lord, wouldn’t it be so nice that I can ask you things like David did. ‘Lord, Should I do this? Will you give me victory in that?’. And to hear from you the specific instructions I need.
In amazement I humbly told the Lord, ‘Wow, battle by battle, just to be able to go to You, to inquire of You, and to hear You back! That would be amazing.’ That’s what I was thinking, and right there and then, the Holy Spirit just whispered into my ear: ‘Joanna, I already did that for you. For this challenge that you’ve been battling with, I already told you exactly what to do’.
Just two days before the Lord said in my heart in two different occasions, just one phrase, ‘You just need to talk to the camera as you talk to your friend Inna, and you will be fine’. He gave me the exact instructions I needed. It was not the realization, ‘Oh yes, He told me what to do’, what astonished me. It was the realization of an All Powerful Creator, who in His mercy was talking to me, telling me just what I needed.
I was admiring David for what the Lord have been doing for years for me. And that was so encouraging. But I want to clarify something. When I say encouraging, I don’t mean like ‘Oh, I just got pumped up!’. No. There were fears that were preventing me from going forward into the path that the Lord had showed me to go. And, the courage that he gave me through His direction through His word through our conversation, was the thing that reminded me that, despite my fear I can still take action.
Because God empowers me to do so, He can do it for me. He can do the same for you. Just go close to him, just spend time with him, talk to him, ask him to talk to you in a way that you would understand. And realize that the Holy Scriptures are the way, the clearest way, in which the Lord can direct you and teach you, and allow you to overcome fears that you’ve been piling up for so long.
God is good, and he wants to empower you so that you can know His will, and you can do His will, because that’s what’s going to bring you closer to Him. That’s what’s going to grow you. That’s what’s going to fulfill you, because He has plans for you and those plans are good. They are meant for you to look up and see where your salvation comes from.
What is it that you’ve been battling with? What is the thing that God is telling you to do or not to do and it’s just being very very difficult.
Go to Him and talk to Him and ask Him to please talk back to you. Ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit in your mind, go to your Bible, and read His Word, not through your lenses, but through the lenses of the cross of Jesus, of surrender, and need.
God is merciful God is good. He’s listening to you he knows your need, and in Psalms 32:8 He promises that He will guide you and He will show you the way that you should go.
That is a promise like many other promises in his word that are worth taking to the bank and believing in them.