Releasing Control (Part 2)🦋🤍

True wholeness happens when our identity and security are rooted in God rather than outcomes.
If our peace depends on whether things work out the way we expect, we will constantly live in anxiety. But when our trust rests in God’s character, we gain freedom. We realize that even when we release control, God is still faithful. The same God who made the promise…is the God who sustains the promise. And the God who sustains the promise… is the God who fulfills it in His perfect timing.

#40DaysToWholeness
#BeautifulMe
#TrustGod
#FaithJourney
#HealingJourney
#LetGoAndTrust
#EmotionalHealing
#Wholeness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Heavenly Father, we thank you, we thank you for a new day, we thank you, God, for your grace, we thank you for your mercies, we thank you for your favor upon our lives, we thank you, God, for your loving kindness and your tender mercies towards us. We thank you, Father, for life, thank you for the breath that is in our lungs, your breath. Thank you, oh God, for who you are, and because of who you are, we worship you, we give you glory, we give you honor, we give you praise, mighty God. You are indeed an amazing God. You are an awesome Father, and we love on you this morning. Hallowed be your holy name. Father, this morning we join with the heavenly host and we say, Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy are you, O God. Hallelujah. Heaven and earth adore you, hallelujah. There is none like unto you, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, hallelujah. Our strength, our Redeemer, our friend, hallelujah. We exalt you this morning, mighty God, hallelujah, we praise you, God, because you are sovereign over our lives, you are Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus, hallelujah, God. You are worthy, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. Blessed be your holy name, mighty God, hallelujah. God, you are so good to us, and today, God, we just want to thank you. Thank you for your goodness. The song says, Your goodness is running after, it's running after me with my life laid down. We surrender this morning, oh God, to your awesome presence, Holy Spirit. Thou art welcome in this place, in this space. Hallelujah. God, we ask you this morning to turn on heaven's searchlight on us. Search us, oh God. Know our hearts, know our thoughts, mighty God. See if there be some wicked ways in us, Father. Cleanse us this morning from every sin, mighty God. Our righteousness is like filthy rags this morning. We ask you, oh God, that you will purify us, that you will wash us, that you will purge us, oh God, this morning with the hiss up of Jesus' blood. Father, we ask for forgiveness of our sins this morning. We ask you, oh God, to create in us clean hearts and renew a right spirit within us. Cast us not away from your presence, oh God, and take not your Holy Spirit from us, but God restore to us the joy of thy salvation and renew a right spirit within us, mighty God. Hallelujah. Father, we believe, oh God, that you sent your Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, oh God, we are healed today. Hallelujah. Healed in our mind, healed in our hearts, healed in our soul, healed in our spirits, mighty God. On the third day, oh God, he rose. Hallelujah. And because he lives, oh God, we can face tomorrow. Hallelujah. So God, we ask you to forgive us. We repent, oh God, of every sin this morning, mighty God. Hallelujah. God, I pray, oh God, for the person who is listening who has not yet surrendered their lives to you. I pray, Heavenly Father, that even in this moment, in this atmosphere, that they will cry out to you, mighty God, and they will surrender their life to you, Abba Father, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Hallelujah. Father, we pray this morning that you will go out, oh God, on a search and rescue mission this morning, Abba Father, for souls this morning, mighty God. The earth is groaning this morning, mighty God. And Father, we need you. There's a sinner girl, a sinner boy, a sinner man, a sinner woman, a grandmother, a grandfather, a mother, a father, a sister, a cousin, oh God, an uncle, an aunt. Who needs you this morning? And we thank you, oh God, for rescuing that one this morning. Hallelujah. And we rejoice even now with heaven, mighty God, because one soul has come home, oh God, to you. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, mighty God. You are indeed awesome. Holy Spirit, I invite you in this place and in this space, even now. Your word says, be still and know that I am God. So today, God, we're choosing stillness, we're choosing stillness in our minds, in our hearts. Stillness, oh God, in the places where we have been striving to manage everything ourselves. Father, thank you for reminding us that we were never meant to carry the weight of controlling every outcome in our lives. Thank you for being the God who sees the full picture when we can only see a small peace. God, your word said that you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds and hearts are steadfast because they trust you. And so today, God, we declare that we are releasing what we cannot control. We are trusting you, God, with what we cannot see. And Father, we surrender the pressure to manage everything because we believe, Daddy, that you are working even now. And we thank you. Thank you, oh God, that you are working everything out for our good. Thank you, oh God, this morning that you're turning the ashes of our lives into beauty. Thank you, oh God, that you are replacing our morning this morning, oh God, with dancing. Thank you this morning, oh God, that our feet, oh God, are filled with your praise, mighty God. Thank you, oh God, that you're giving us garments of praise, mighty God, this morning. Hallelujah. We adore you and we tell you thanks, mighty God, for the work that you have started in us and that you are seeing it until completion, until the day of Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen and amen. Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome back to the beautiful Me Empowerment Ministry Podcast, a space for healing and growth and wholeness. Hallelujah. I am your host, Monique Anderson, and it is indeed a pleasure for me to just allow the Holy Spirit to use me to pour into you, we're living in some very harsh times, not just the economy, but just the weight of everything that is happening in the world, the emotional weight, it is just so much. Hallelujah, this morning, and so I pray that you know, as you listen to the podcast, that you will be encouraged, hallelujah, by the word of God. Yesterday, you know, we talk about the desire to control outcomes, you know. We want certainty, and as I said, there's so much uncertainty in the world today, you know. We want answers, we want things to unfold according to our expectations, but the truth is, many things in life are beyond our control, and when we try to control everything, we often end up carrying pressure that was never ours to carry. Control may feel like protection, but often it becomes a burden. Um, in what it really means to release control and to surrender to God because the truth is, you know, sometimes we do pray and we say, Lord, we are laying down the burdens of our heart. You know, we read the scripture where he says that we should exchange our yoke for his because his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and we surrender all at his feet, but two minutes later we take it back up and we start worrying about it. So we're gonna talk a little bit more about what it means to release control, and I don't know. Um, the story of Abraham is that story that keeps pressing and resting in my heart, and one of the most powerful lessons about releasing control is indeed found in the life of Abraham because Abraham's story is not just about receiving a promise from God, it is about learning to trust God through the long, uncomfortable tension between what God said and what Abraham could see, and that tension is where many of us live every day, like God speaks something over our lives, you know, a promise, a calling, a vision, a healing, but what we see in our current reality does not reflect what God said, and that space between the promise and the manifestation is the waiting season and waiting test our faith, and Genesis 12. God said to Abraham, I will make you a great nation, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. But guess what? Here Abraham was already 75 years old, and his wife Sarah was barren, in other words, then the promise God spoke was humanly impossible, but isn't that how God is? Because at the end of the day, God wants to make sure that you don't take no credit for this, all credit goes to God from the very beginning. The promise required Abraham to trust God beyond his own understanding, and that, my friends, that is how God works. God does not always give promises that match our current circumstances, he gives promises that require our faith. After receiving the promise, Abraham obeys God and leaves everything familiar. This is another one of our problems. We love to stick to what we know, to stick to the familiar, and we're so afraid to step out into the unknown. But Abraham had to trust God, he had to obey God and leave everything that was familiar. He had to leave his home, he had to leave his comfort, and he followed God into the unknown. But then here's this promise. God, you promise me something, but years, years pass by, and nothing changed. No child, no evidence of the promise. All he could see was just waiting. So you can't only imagine the internal struggle that Abraham must have been experiencing during these years. Every year that passed probably made the promise feel less likely that it was going to happen. The longer the delay, the easier it is for doubt to grow. And I know this feeling all too well. And many of us know this feeling. We start with excitement and faith, but when time stretches on, we begin to ask questions like God, did I misunderstand you? Did I did I miss something? Why hasn't this happened yet? And waiting has a way of exposing what we truly believe about God. A lot of times we true, we we we see God or we put him in a little box, in a little corner. We we make him seem so small. So we pull him out, you know, like a genie for the small things, but we don't trust him for the big things. I want you to know this morning that he is a very big God. And I am not perfect because I am still waiting on some things that God promised me. And yes, I have moments when doubt creeps in, but you know, God is just so amazing, like even in the moments when doubt creeps in and I start questioning like what's going on, like, did I sabotage? Because you know, when you when you live in survival mode for so many years of your life, self-sabotage just comes natural. And so for me, you know, as I go through my healing journey and the promise delays and everything, then I'm asking myself the question, or I'm asking God, God, did I self-sabotage again? Did I do something, you know, that has delayed my promise? Oh boy, but God always has a way, let me tell you something where He just shows up, He sends a reminder, and I the butterfly has been that thing for me, and I tell you on a daily basis, it is just the way how a butterfly shows up on a picture, a screen, it's the it's the most unlikely places an image of a butterfly just shows up every single day, and I believe that that is God reassuring me that more you are seen, you are heard. I know you and the promises deals dance, and I am just so grateful. That is the very big, intentional, amazing God that we serve in Genesis 15. We see Abraham finally bring his concern to God. He says, Lord, you you promise me descendants, but I still have no child. And Abraham Abraham was honest, he he's confused. But something that we need to notice is that God does not rebuke Abraham for skin, instead, God responds by expanding Abraham's vision. Where last um last week we talked about it, he took Abraham out his eye and he said, Look up at this sky and coat, this is stars. If indeed you can count them, so shall your offspring be. And this was God reminding Abraham that the promise is bigger than what Abraham can currently see. And when waiting makes our faith small, I am telling you that God shows up and what he does is he reminds us of his larger perspective, sight beyond what we can see. Yolanda Adams, I believe it is, who sang the song, sight beyond what I see, you know what's best for me. Prepare my heart, prepare my mind for whatever comes. I want to be ready. And so God was was was um the waiting season, God was making sure that Abraham was ready for the promise, and that's what he does with us. So don't despise your waiting season. Yes, there is a struggle with control, right? Because even with Abraham, waiting becomes so long that Abraham and Sarah begin trying to solve the problem themselves, and we see this in Genesis 16 where Sarah suggests that Abraham have a child through her servant Hagar, and this decision came from frustration with the waiting. Hallelujah. They believe they needed to help God with the promise. But when waiting becomes difficult, that's what we do. We we're often tempted to take control. We try to force the outcome, we try to create solutions that were never part of God's plan, and those solutions can create consequences that extend far beyond the moment, but God still fulfilled the promise despite their mistakes. God does not abandon his promise because years later we see where Sarah finally gives birth to Isaac. The promise arrives, but it didn't stop there if we notice how long it took. From the moment God first spoke to Abraham until Isaac was born. Twive years pass, 25 years of waiting, 25 years of learning to trust God, 25 years of living between the promise and the Fulfillment. But there's a lesson in this story about releasing control. I want to remind you this morning that waiting is not punishment, waiting is preparation. During the waiting season, God was shaping Abraham's fate, God was teaching him dependence. God was forming a relationship built on trust rather than control. Because ultimately, the promise was not just about Isaac. The promise was about forming a man whose faith could carry generations. And many of us are in seasons right now where we are waiting for something God placed in our hearts. We're waiting for healing. We're waiting for direction. We're waiting for promises to unfold. But Abraham's story reminds us this morning that God is not in a hurry. He's not in a hurry. He's not only concerned with the outcome, he is also concerned with who we become in the process. So your waiting season is not wasted. It is holy ground where our trust goes deeper. And sometimes the greatest act of faith is really and truly not forcing the promise, but it is releasing control and trusting God with the timeline. My God. After all of the waiting, after believing, after finally receiving Isaac, the Son God promised, we see in Genesis 22 where God asked Abraham to offer Isaac on the altar. The very promise Abraham had waited for. Sometimes the promise becomes an idol. The promise can become the focus instead of the promiser. The outcome can become more important than obedience. And without realizing it, our hearts can attach themselves to the gift rather than the giver. And God knew Abraham's future would influence generations. He knows our future would influence generations. But before Abraham could carry that kind of legacy, before we can carry that kind of legacy, hallelujah, our heart has to be fully anchored in God alone. And so God allowed Abraham to face the ultimate question: Do you trust me more than the promise I gave you? My God. And we talk about radical obedience. Abraham does not argue, he does not delay, he prepares to go. My God. In other words, Abraham believed the promise was not dependent on circumstances, it was dependent on God. That kind of faith releases control completely. And uh thank you, Holy Spirit. Like I had a moment last year when the promise. Oh my god. I am waiting. I've been in a waiting season for my kingdom partner. And as hard as it has been for me to really and truly admit that yes, I would love to get married again. You know, I would love to meet somebody. I would love to have my kingdom partner. Yeah. You know, that person you can pray with, you can talk with. You know, we you know, if you're married, you know. And it has been so hard for me over the years to really and truly say it out loud. Like right now, it is hard for me, even as I am sharing, as the Holy Spirit is having me shared. It's hard for me to admit that yes, this is something that I desire. And I remember a woman of God when I had finished sharing at a conference, she called me a couple days and she said, she, as I shared, she saw a front row, she had a front row view of my marriage. And years pass, months pass, you know, that moment when she said that to me, I got excited, you know, just like Abraham. Like, yes, you know, this thing that I've been so scared to admit that I'm desiring. See, God send a word that is a promise, and I got excited, bigger than a mustard seed, and all and everything. But then the waiting season came. There was nobody. I go out, I dress up, I show up, I am praying, I am doing the things, I am taking care of myself, you know, preparing myself, you know, that it's the season of Esther bathing milk and honey and the whole works preparing for my kingdom partner. And so time passed and I got discouraged. And I met somebody out of the un like I wasn't expecting it any at all. None at all. And this person came, and this person was everything I prayed for. I always ask God for somebody who will treat me like the Holy Spirit because mina know what me want, but God knows who I need. So I asked God. I mean, the closest I can imagine is the Holy Spirit because I know how the Holy Spirit treats us. He's such a gentleman, my God. And so that has been my request. And so here comes this man, he is a public speaker just like I am, he's an author, just like I am. Loves the Lord, he used to preach, you know, teach the word of God, he quoted scriptures, and let me tell you something. The devil also knows what we want to hear, and he will send yeah, he will send to yeah, discernment is so very important, people of God, and so he came, everything, you know, but God had a better plan, anyway. So we talked about the future, you know, we talked about a life together and how we're going to build, and we're building on God's foundation, you know, God is the center. Talk the talk and everything, and I was like, Yes! Oh my god, you know, in Jamaican terms, they say me glad bug boss. Oh my god, whoo! I was on cloud nine because the promise was finally here. And let me tell you something, guys. The promise disappeared, and I asked God the question, how how could you, and I imagine Abraham must have asked this question how could you give me the promise like it was right there in my grasp, in my hands, and then you took it back, you took it back, but you know what? I never planned to write another book, and I was so deeply hurt by it, you know, brokenness after brokenness, disappointment after disappointment, relationships that just didn't last, and so I sat with God one Sunday, and the song Tell Your Heart to Beat Again was playing, and I started writing, and the Holy Spirit deposited in me, and I ended up writing a book soon to be released, by the way. Algorithms of the heart, tell your heart to beat again, and God used that book to heal places in me that I never thought needed healing, and that's what God does, because it is quite possible that if that relationship would have continued and I had gotten deeper and deeper with that person, I may have, I would have probably carried over those old wounds into the relationship, and it probably would have ended anyways, and the hurt would have been deeper. I don't know what would have happened. They say hurt people hurt people. I probably would have hurt him, wounded another person. I mean, hurt people do heal people as well, but it is when you've healed as well, and you surrender to the process. And so this morning I'm grateful that God pulled it from my grasp and his reassurance to me that the promise still stands, and we see here just as Abraham prepares to sacrifice Isaac, God stops him and God provides a ram as a substitute. The Lord will provide, man of God, woman of God, he is Jehovah Jirah, he will provide. Abraham only experienced God as provider after he demonstrated surrender. Don't let that miss you. Provision appeared on the other side of trust. God was not trying to destroy the promise, God was confirming that Abraham trusted him fully. And there are going to be moments in our lives where God may ask us to release something we deeply value, and it's not because he wants to take it away, it is because he wants our heart to remain anchored in him. It might be a relationship, a dream, a plan for the future, an outcome we desperately want to control. God sometimes asks us to place these things on the altar and trust him. So we place it on the altar of trust because he wants to remind us that. Promiser enough to surrender everything back to Him. Hallelujah. Father, we ask you this morning to teach us to surrender what we cannot control. Help us to trust you with our future, our relationships, and our journey, and give us peace where we once carried pressure and remind us that you are always working for our good in Jesus' name. Amen. Sometimes the greatest act of faith is letting go and trusting that God is already holding what you release. God bless you. Have an amazing day in the Lord. Thank you for listening. Share, like, follow, leave a comment. I appreciate you and I love you, but just remember that God loves you even more. Of course, this is the beautiful me empowerment ministry where healing, growth, restoration, and wholeness begins.