The Village with B. DeShae: Daily Devotional & Prayer | Matthew 16:24-28, Romans 12: 1-2✨🤎

Foundational Texts‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭CSB‬‬“Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭24‬-‭28‬ ‭CSB‬‬“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.””Key Takeaways* Present your body as a living sacrifice to God. This requires death to self in order to gain Eternal Life in Christ. Surrender. The process, the fall, the letting go, it can seem scary and like you are literally falling to your death — that’s because in many ways you are. The old version of you has to die so that the version of you who God has always known can take precedence and you can exist in the fullness of your truth. . When you let go of the life, dreams, and goals that you’ve spent majority of your existence planning for, praying for, and cultivating, this too can feel like death — once again, it is. It is death to your flesh so that the Spirit of God in you can reign supreme and lead you to life more abundantly. You have to trust in God your Father enough to know that He is waiting for you at the other end of your release, ready to breathe new life into you. So yes, the letting go is scary, but what’s even more terrifying is building a life that is not rooted with God at the foundation and Jesus as your cornerstone. * Conviction vs. Condemnation. When The Holy Spirit convicts you, He doesn’t just identify the problem and leave you to wallow in guilt and shame with no course of correction or road to redemption. God’s conviction is always rooted in love and it is framed by His desire to see all of His children transformed into Christlikeness. To call you guilty would be to contradict His word, and our God is not contradictory. To condemn you would mean that the sacrifice of Jesus is incomplete, and that’s not true. So when God convicts, He also provides you with the way to righteousness. He lovingly shows you the correct way to do things or to handle that situation so that you don’t make the same mistake again. Furthermore, He shines His light on the dark corners of your heart and mind where the root of the trauma, pain, or whatever is causing that response in you resides so that you can be healed, freed, and released from the stronghold that was keeping you in that cycle of sin. Condemnation is Satan’s attempt to keep you from receiving God’s loving grace, mercy, forgiveness, and healing. If he can get you to persecute yourself and feel so guilty about your actions that you’re afraid to turn to God for help, then He can keep you from growing closer in relationship with God and learning to wield the powers inside of you that he can never defeat. Condemnation is just an onslaught attack of every wrong you’ve ever done. He’ll take this one mistake and use it to make you feel as though you’re the worse kind of person and that God is angry with you. There’s no path for redemption, just repetitive memories of your mistakes, low moments, regret, shame, etc. That is not God. Your Father does not speak to you that way and He does not keep a record of your wrong doings. 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV)“It [love] does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”Psalm 103:12“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”Hebrews 8:12“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”Isaiah 43:25“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions… and remembers your sins no more.”* With that being said, be sure to always seek God’s help to get to the root of an action or problem. God helped me to see that root cause of my frenzy/frantic actions was control. When God reveals something to you, don’t just take that and move on, ask Him more probing questions so that He can help you work it out. By getting a handle on the issue of control and the past experiences that made it feel like the best option, I was able to heal another part of me and surrender even more to God. This is not a one-time process. As soon as I think I’ve surrendered everything there is to surrender, God reveals to me that there are still some parts of me that I’m holding hostage from Him. Together we work on my release so that I can bask in the freedom and peace that residing in Him provides. You will learn from experience that the free fall that looks scary is really surrender into Gods peace and protection. He will not let you fail. Perfectionism can also be at the root of control. * Failure vs. The Process of Refinement. It’s always important to ask God for His perspective of the season or circumstance you’re in. One of the first times I did this, God revealed to me that what I kept calling failure was His process of refinement. My pathway to ministry is a perfect example of this. There were several periods of starting and stopping over the course of the last 3 years in which I would post consistently in obedience to God, and then obediently stop when He told me to as well. The long pauses in between made me feel as though I was failing — God’s perspective showed me that with each new start, my process became more refined based on what I’d experienced previously. I was becoming more aware of who He created me to be and getting more comfortable unleashing my voice. Experience allowed me to discern what works for me, what doesn’t work for me, what the resources/provisions are that I need, how to build a system that helps me sustain my calling, etc. God’s ways are not our ways, and His process is not always linear. So as you walk with Him, ask Him to show you things through His eyes so that you are not calling a season something completely different than what He is. This will help stave off frustration and disappointment, while keeping you aligned with God’s will instead of your own. * Do not mistake God’s instruction to let go as spiritual warfare from the enemy. By no means am I implying that spiritual warfare is not real — in fact, my point is quite the opposite. BECAUSE spiritual warfare is something that we as Christians will encounter time and time again, it is easy to mistake every instance of friction, delay, and/or resistance as warfare. Sometimes, the answer is much more simple — God is telling you no. If not no, He is redirecting you or slowing you down. If you do not make it a practice to constantly seek God’s counsel and wisdom, then you will find yourself rebuking Satan for something God has sent to protect you. Don’t just pray about the issue and walk away, be still and wait to hear God’s response so that you can move in alignment with Him and not in opposition to Him. Thank you for watching and reading. I look forward to growing with you on this journey of doing life with God in every moment of everyday. I love you, I pray that you love you, & just know that God loves you right up to the moon and back ✨🤎To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I do not put any of my writings or videos behind a paywall, so becoming a paid subscriber is simply a means of supporting my ministry that is always accessible to all. Previous Video Your Next Watch Get full access to The Village with B. DeShae at thevillagebdeshae.substack.com/subscribe