BY REV. DORAL PULLEY | Today’s Church Tampa Bay
Many people quote the scripture: I know the plan that I have for you says of the Lord. I know the thoughts that I think concerning you say the Lord, thoughts of good and not of evil to bless you and prosper and to bring you to an expected end, but what’s the plan.
Jeremiah said this to the children of Israel when they were being carried off into captivity in Babylon. They would be there for 70 years, but God still had a plan for them. No decision that you have made in your life or ever will make will cancel God’s plan.
You can’t cancel Christmas; God’s plan will happen; the abortion and the miscarriage have not canceled God’s plan. The divorce and the separation have not canceled God’s plan.
Yes, the loss of your job, the loss of your house — none of those things has canceled God’s plan. You haven’t always dotted every “I,” crossed every “T,” highlighted everything that needs to be highlighted, underlined, and italicized everything that needs to be done, but God still has a plan. What’s the plan?
The plan is repentance; repentance is a change of mind or a change of heart that results in a change of action. The plan is for you to repent, for you to change, for you to do a 180, for you to learn the lesson from the consequence of your action, for you to get the blessings, to repent to change.
But what’s the plan once you repent? There’s reconciliation, the bible says. God was in Christ reconciling the world back unto himself. God is in your experience, bringing you back. God never left you; you got out of place, and so the plan is that after you repent, reconciliation will bring you back to a right relationship with God.
God had a plan to bring the Jews out of captivity, and He will bring you back to optimal health, harmonious relationships and overflowing wealth.
My, My, My
Read – Matthew 27:46
Scripture: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, my sister, my mother, my family (Matthew 12:50).”
Denial: “I do not attach “my” to anything negative.”
Affirmation: “I only attach “my” to the good that I AM and the good that I desire and deserve.”
When Jesus, our Wayshower, said my Father, he was claiming his personal relationship with God. Not only did Jesus say, my father but he also said my brother, my sister, my mother, my family. It is important that we pay attention to how we use the word, “my.”
Whenever we say “my,” we are claiming someone or something as our own. When we say my family, we are accepting roles, responsibilities, rights, and rewards among a specific group of people. In Kingdom, we understand when we say my sickness or my disease, we are keeping ourselves in discomfort and dysfunction.
Instead of saying my headaches, say the headache. When you say the headache, that means that you can see yourself without it. Your state of being is no longer defined by the diagnosis or the prognosis. The headache also gives the notion that it is temporary, and it is just passing through your body. When you can see yourself separate from the headache, you heal your head from the ache.
It is God’s desire that you live a happy, healthy, prosperous, and successful life (Luke 12:36). Following Jesus’ example gives you the right to claim perfection as your birthright and wholeness as your inheritance. This begins with you seeing yourself separate from sickness, pain, and disease and one with healing, health, and wholeness.
It continues with you seeing yourself separate from chaos, confusion, and contention and one with harmony in all of your relationships and interactions. Imagine yourself separate from lack, limitations, and scarcity and one with increase, abundance, overflow, and more than enough. You are an heir of God and joint heir with Christ Jesus (Romans 8:17).
There is no part of God that is cut off from you. You have access to all that God is, and all that God has is yours.
Reflection Question: How can you be more conscious of how you use the word “my?”
Rev. Doral Pulley is the senior pastor of Today’s Church Tampa Bay, 2114 54th Ave N, St. Petersburg and 5107 North Central Ave., Tampa.
