IF YOU ARE FEELING RAW THIS MONTH, THIS IS WHY…
If your heart is feeling raw this month, this is why…
You are in a crossover.
Your heart being raw is the very sign that you've surrendered to what the Lord is wanting to do in and through your life, this month and beyond.
It is the sign that you have surrendered to the Lord doing the deep work that He needs to do to break you free from Egypt and set your feet back on track with Him in the new way that He is leading you.
Your heart feeling raw is a sign that you have come in alignment with the heart of God, and out of alignment with everything else.
But rawness can be many forms… it can feel like DEPRESSION to some, or even a heaviness… But that’s only because the enemy is trying to make you feel suddenly purposeless and aimless.
It can feel like a sudden LACK OF MOTIVATION, DESIRE, or INSPIRATION.
It can feel like an anxiety or FEAR to do what you have been doing, or the pressure to keep being pulled on how you have been when SOMETHING IN YOU HAS SHIFTED.
Simply put... YOUR HEART IS UNDER OPERATION and can’t be overloaded while it is.
You don’t want what you wanted before and what others want. You don’t want to spread yourself thin or RUN how you once did… and yet, you don’t understand WHY…
So if you're feeling that right now, don't diagnose this wrong. Don't fall into the trap of despondency, despair, and discouragement when God is leading you into a new way that is everlasting.
It is a sign that you are about to move into a place of overflow.
It is a sign of FREEDOM…
It’s a sign that the OVERLORDS of your past are losing influence and CONTACT.
It’s a sign that the spiritual assignments that had access to you are LOSING THEIR CONTROL.
It is a sign that you're breaking the drought that's been over your life, that religion has imposed over you, that the mantles of Saul have placed on you for many years and even decades.
It is not a sign of loss. It's not a sign of emptiness. It's a sign that God is bringing you into a place for your family, for your legacy, and for your destiny, where things begin to connect, things begin to open up, where things begin to shift from seed form into fruit.
I feel like so many people right now are looking and they're searching, asking "Where is the next step? Where is the clarity? Where are my steps forward?"
They can feel their hands empty. They can feel that they're treading water, and they're trying to figure out, "Where is the next thing for me to step into?"
BE WARY OF THIS TRAP…
Don't allow the enemy in this moment to try to give you something that looks solid but it’s sand in a moment that God's trying to bring you into a firm foundation.
Don't let the enemy settle you in the place of bitterness and despair when God is trying to bring you into the promised land.
Don't let the enemy rob you of this moment by lying to you and telling you that it's all over, when God is establishing you. He's setting your feet on a solid rock for the days to come, and He's putting a fresh burning in your heart where you've been in survival mode and depletion for a long time.
It is in the crossover that things look the emptiest. It's in the crossover that it's easy to fall into that place of despair and agree with the false prophetic words/lies of the enemy over your life.
Think of Naomi in Ruth chapter 1, where she comes home emptied out, and she said, "Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me!" (Ruth 1:20). In that moment, she named the rawness that was in her heart.
You see, in this rawness, we sometimes feel a wrestle with God, saying "God, I want to go where You want me to go. I want to follow You. I want to serve You, but at the same time, I'm dealing with this tension that I feel, the deep bitterness in my heart."
If you're feeling that right now, you're not alone, and that is a part of the process you're in.
Part of the grief and the tension of this crossover month is that your heart is raw for a reason, because as God is emptying out, and He is filling it.
It's not one process or the other, it is both at the same time. He's emptying out and He's filling.
So give Him those moments of rawness. Let it pour out before Him at His feet as worship.
I'm reminded of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 who poured herself out at the temple and said, "I've poured out my soul before the Lord" (1 Samuel 1:15). It was a place of rawness that came before the breakthrough, and that's exactly what this moment is for you. It's the rawness before the breakthrough.
Think of the disciples between the cross and Pentecost in Luke 24:17. Everything they built their lives around died and they were grieving, disorientated, and didn't know what was next. It didn't make sense. Yet, in that emptiness God was getting them ready for the next phase where He was about to pour out His spirit upon their life in Acts 2.
Think of Joseph, walking through so many years of slavery, false accusation, all the years in prison, and then suddenly in a moment, God called him into the palace (Genesis 37-41).
I want to say the unpopular thing… These raw moments are holy. These raw moments are sacred.
It's where your appetites and desires are redefined by God in the throne room and no longer by the flesh. It's where you step out of years of dysfunction and legacies of compromise for so many years or generations before you that have been hanging over your head - the addictions, the escapisms of your life in your past and the sins that the enemy has been trying to hang over you and pin to you… in a moment, LIFTED.
I want to say this to those who are feeling the travail of the hour. Don't give in or be lied to by the enemy.
The raw heart moment you're in right now is a sign of something deep that God is doing.
He's increasing your capacity, and He's bringing you into a fresh communion with Him.
This is the season I feel like it’s easy for us to feel LOST in the rawness but what if instead it’s an invitation like the people on the road to Emmaus in the crossover who said "Did our hearts not burn" (Luke 24:32)?
If your heart is feeling raw, do you know what you need to say before the Lord? Lord, my heart is feeling raw and I’m taking that as a sign of increased closeness with You, so I’m praying – Did my heart not burn? MAKE MY HEART BURN!
Begin to lean into the burning, begin to lean into your worship this month, begin to lean into that space and ask, Lord, what are you doing in me? Let your closeness come, Holy Spirit. Let this be a season of visitation, and let me not allow the enemy to rob me of this sacred moment.
Let me prophesy this over you: This heart raw moment is not you collapsing. It is a season that God is readying your heart for the fresh burning of the Spirit of God upon your life, where God sets you on fire and unleashes you into the nations of the earth. I prophesy that burning over you now, in Jesus' name!