Start By Reading (Trust Your Wings Part I)
You have a false sense of what is in the world if you always stay in your own camp and are unwilling to fetch new ideas and face challenges. When somebody challenges your ideas, you feel like they are challenging you because you have not been separated from your ideas. That is why your ideas do not grow because ideas grow in conflict.
That is why you have been in the same place for ten years because you have a conflict avoidance that was probably pre-wired in you either by your history or your DNA, and you think that your job is just to keep the peace.
1) Learn to get along only with God
We like to talk about Jesus being the Prince of Peace. But when Jesus talks about it, He says, “I came not to bring peace but a sword. I came to stir things up. I came to set it off in here.”
To reach your destiny, you had better be willing to disrupt some things. Be ready to get on everybody’s nerves. Your church is not going to like it, and the priest may disapprove of it as well
Where in this world are you ever going to get along with everybody? You will never go along get along with everyone. You just see all kinds of ugly stuff done to you, and you say nothing because you do not want to make waves. Conflict is inevitable.
Why do you have to explain yourself always? Some people spend their lifetime trying to bring everybody together. They spend their whole life explaining their mother to their father and their father to their siblings. Some Christians’ idea about heaven is quiet, and because of this notion, society has molested them and pushed them to the wall such that they barely have bread to eat. And anything that draws attention to them and puts them at risk of conflict they dodge. But David dealt with the conflict head-on.
Create an environment where people feel safe enough to challenge your ideas without losing your relationships. Relationships do not last for years because you are always right. Relationships last for years because you know how to accommodate somebody else’s ideas.
Businesses explode when you surround yourself with bright people, and bright people do not always agree. If you watch podcasts, you notice that they do not always agree. One of them is telling you not to eat meat, and the other is telling of a protein deficiency in your body. One of them is telling you not to drink water, while the other is telling you that coffee is good for you.
Rather than being in conflict, you step away and say, ‘I am not going to do anything.’ But how long can you do that? David had a conflict because his soldiers were in flames and were ready to stone him.
Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, and David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”
2) Bring God into your daily stories
David went to inquire if God was with him. As long as God is with you, you do not mind the branch breaking because God is your wings. But if you lose your wings, you lose everything. If you lose your wings, you lose your peace. If I lose your wings, you cannot make a great decision.
In accordance with David’s words, “Lord, take anything from me, but do not take away your spirit.” The significance of God’s spirit is such that one is considered devoid and vulnerable without it.
I need your spirit because I do not want to be in a battle that I brought on myself. I do not want to be in a battle that God does not intend for me to be in. I don’t want to waste time arguing with Sanballat and Tobiah why the walls of Jerusalem lay in ruin. I do not want to mistake what victory looks like in my life.
Victory does not look like your neighbor. You might be extremely imitating people or pretending to be somebody else. You need to find out what victory looks like on you. It has to be tailored to fit your gifts.
If you have to lay on your face on the altar and call on God, do it. You have to know what victory looks like for you. You need God’s victory everywhere–before you get on the plane or in the car or to school, you need his victory.
You are still in need of additional grace from God. It is important to ensure that even if the branch breaks, I will continue to grow and thrive.
When branches break, trust your wings. When trials come, trust your wings. When you can not tell light from pain, and when you can not tell a friend from foes, trust your wings, and when you can not tell whether it is spring or winter, trust your wings. If the whole city sets a camp against you, your heart will not fail if you just trust your wings.
It was not by mistake that you found yourself reading this book. The anointing will fall upon you. God will get you out of your bad situation into a brand new dimension, into a brand new stage, if you just trust him.
3) Allow yourself to be flexible with God
I have learned how to abase and to abound. Know how to experience abundance, and I know how to survive lack. Know how to abound everywhere and in all things. You have been instructed both to be full and to be hungry.
God does not want you to think that the branch is your sustenance. Your power is not in your branch.
The only thing that remains stable is God. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I know how to deal with anything and any situation because as long as I have my wings, I can survive anything
I am instructed to fight the Philistines or hide amongst the Philistines. I am instructed how to win the battle, and I am instructed how to lose the battle. How can I be content and hungry? I have meat to eat that you know not of. While my outward man is perishing, my inward man is being renewed.
I am trying to tell you if you encourage yourself and start seeking God, He will get you ready for what he is about to do in your life.
4) With God, your wings cannot fail
David found out that God said if you pursue the Amalekites, not only will you overtake them, you will recover all—not most of it, not half of it, but all of it.
Everything you lost, everything you cried about, everything you wept about, everything you had been in a season of depression about. God said, “If you listen to what I am saying, you are going to get it all back.”
You are going to get it all back for every night you cried, for every night you suffered, and for every moment you did without.
When he got instructions from the Lord, he took his 600 men to pursue the Amalekites. God hated Amalekites because the Amalekites had a system of warfare in that they made prey out of the weak. The Amalekites waited till all the men were gone, and they came and abducted all the women and children. That was their style.
When David was about to pursue the Amalekites, he took the 600 men with him who were about to stone him. In other words, he did not get in his feelings. At the expense of the word God, you may have to release somebody who hurts you in one chapter. God may turn around and use them again in another Chapter.
The Bible said that God will make your enemies your footstools. Sometimes, you get rid of people prematurely, whereas God wants to use them to take you to the next level. But you have to get over your grief, anger, and hostility. Just because you are through with them does not mean God is through with them.
5) Trust just the proven wings
Why did David use these 600 men? Are they not the ones who wanted to stone him? There were his trained men. David influenced them. There is no better weapon at war than a proven weapon.
You remember when he was about to fight Goliath, and Saul offered him his armor: Saul’s armor was bright, shiny, and sharp, but David rejected it and said, “I know my slingshot is raggedy. I know it does not look like much, but I have proven it. I used it against the lion, and I used it against the bear.” Do not go to battle with stuff that is not proven.
It would have been tough for me to go into the battle with somebody who tried to stone me. But when you get a word from God, the word becomes more important than your feelings.
You are about to pursue everything you lost. You are going to reclaim everything the enemy tried to take away from you. You are about to step into a dominion that requires that you go outside of your camp, arena, and outside of your circle–do not worry about people’s disapproval.
You have got to be willing to step into your destiny and your purpose, and you have got to be willing to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. You have got to be able to deal with challenging ideas and be able to talk.
Everything you lost is coming back. Everything that the enemy stole is coming back. Everything that they meant for evil, God is going to make it good. For every night you cried, God is going to restore unto you the joy of your salvation. You have got your salvation, but it is coming back with joy.
Lift your hands, open your mouth, and let the sound of joy break out. Let it break out in your home and vicinity. You have got the power in your mouth.
6) Live in proclamation of all the good things
I would love you to go into covenant with God, ‘ I’m going to trust my wings when I can’t trust my feelings. I am going to trust my wings when I can not trust my friends. I am going to trust my wings when I can not trust my finances.’
You are making preparations to embark on a journey into a new realm where all obstacles and limitations will be removed, and you will receive everything that has been withheld. Get ready for the forthcoming divine intervention in your life–only if you trust your wings.
You’ve shown great creativity so far, but it’s important to remember that things will work out for the best. We should acknowledge that we can trust each other to find a solution, even if we have different ideas. By working together, we can come up with the best solution, which might combine your idea and mine.
I’ve got a feeling that everything, every broken thing, every fallen thing, and every hurting thing, is going to be all right.
7) Create atmosphere of trust
David was not yet king, but he was practicing, evolving, and getting ready to be king. He had to be able to lead in conflict, or he could not be king. You can not be king in a quiet room. You can not be king and stay disconnected. You can not be king and not be strong enough to accommodate other people’s gifts.
If you are going to lead a great nation, you have to surround yourself with great people and be comfortable in the conflict. How do you become comfortable in the conflict? It is by creating an environment of trust that says, ‘We may disagree, but our relationship is stronger than our disagreement.’
And if it comes down to a choice, I choose to pursue a relationship over a disagreement. Perhaps it is the combination of ideas that defines innovation. There can be no innovation without disruption.
You have to create atmospheres of trust. You have to create atmospheres where people can approach you, disagree with you, challenge you, and say, ‘Have you thought about it this way or that way?’ And you can not keep running from other people’s brilliance just so you can be important in your own little camp.
David’s values were on what had been proven to be true in his life. And he always turned down what looked like the obvious answer to use or something that looked substandard because he valued longevity and history over grits and glitter and glam.
Have you been proven? I can accommodate your ideas if you have been proven. If I am going into this next dimension, I am not going without you because you are a piece of my destiny.
He led a force of 600 disgruntled men into battle, initially facing resistance due to his decision to pursue a proven course of action. When I refer to “proven,” I mean something that has been rigorously tested and demonstrated its effectiveness. What works for me may not align with your perspective, but it has proven successful for me.
Trust your wings!
Peace be unto you
