8 Things That Deplete the Core of Your Being

by Olga Hermans

Have you been struggling at times with the feelings of frustration that come with trying to be like someone else? You struggle to find out what your gifts and talents are, but don’t seem to get your breakthrough. There are many things that keep us from being the person we really are; we have a tendency to sabotage ourselves in many areas and when we do that, we keep going around the same mountain time after time.

I know what I am talking about; I have the T-shirt so to speak. So I’d like to help you in this as much as I can. Here are eight things that when you stay away from them you will be able to discover the life you were born to live. These eight things deplete your spirit from spiritual power, which you so desperately need to get closer to being in the right place at the right time to fulfill your destiny.

1. Spiritual power on the inside of you can be lost by being too busy and not spending enough time with God.

The busier you become, the more you need spiritual refreshment and replenishing. We all know that this is true, but somehow our mind pulls us away from our spiritual need into the business of life. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and emails keep calling us that we HAVE to answer right now or else…. You know exactly what I am talking about, but the truth is that those things deplete the very core of our being that needs to be filled up daily!

2. Your spiritual power is exhausted by being involved in worldly things.

Being involved in non-spiritual affairs wears you out and makes you tired; why? Because the atmosphere in some places is not beneficial for your spiritual growth and may even be anti-spiritual. You need to be able to get your soul quiet before the Lord and be renewed in your fellowship with Him. Most people don’t like to discipline themselves to find time for God’s Word and prayer. Many times hard working people are more blessed because they know what it takes to schedule in some time for different things.

3. Lack of unity with other Christians depletes our spiritual power.

David says that unity, like the dew from heaven, brings spiritual refreshment and blessing. Psalm 133:3. Disunity does the opposite. It dries the soul, shrinks your spiritual life, and evaporates refreshment and keenness. When you are critical or have thoughts of resentment, or any unforgiveness or bitterness of heart; your spiritual power is dissipated.

4. Lack of Obedience.

This is a biggie that we all know, but when we fail to walk in God’s light we can lose power in the core of our being which is our spirit. When we fail to recognize and accept God-given opportunities we lose power. God never demands anything from us; He only shows us opportunities and it depends on how much we love Jesus and how much we desire to please Him in being obedient to Him.

5. Self-centeredness and self-indulgence.

The Lord takes pleasure in our prosperity; He wants us debt free and He wants to take of every need that we have. BUT!! If we only want to have everything for the sake of ourselves, we are in the wrong and it depletes us of power in the very core of our being. The Holy Spirit will always show us the needs of others. Being self-centered is the opposite of being Christ-centered and Kingdom-centered.

6. Pride and self-sufficiency.

Pride comes before the fall. We are absolutely nothing without God. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will promote us to higher levels and show us things beyond our own imagination. I always liked this statement from Billy Graham: “If God should take His hand from my life, these lips will turn to lips of clay.” 2Cor.4:7 tells us that we are only earthen vessels and that all the power we have on the inside of us belongs to God anyway.

7. Too much humor can be too much!

This one might shock a little bit, but too much is just too much. Humor in itself is a gift from God to us, but if we use it inappropriately and throw it all over the place it depletes us of spiritual power. We need to use humor modestly; even too much wholesome humor can waste God’s power in the core of our being.

8. Sin ALWAYS depletes and destroys the power of the Spirit.

Thank God that we can always come to Him for repentance of sin and we will always be forgiven and cleansed. God always shows a way out and back to His favor, presence and His power. 1John 2:1-2. Remorse, regret and humbling ourselves before the Lord (James 3:7-10) can open the gate to God’s full favor and the flood tide of His power upon us again!

You Need Some Attitude to Get Your New Beginning!

by Olga Hermans

 

How is your year going? What is happening; are there some new things going on in your life? This is the year of new beginnings and the year of full restoration.

Sometimes when new things are happening and we sense that we are going to a new place in life, we feel that everything and everyone around us is strange. We are lonely and do not feel comfortable or “at home.”

Sometimes it requires that we give up everything we own and start all over. For some people it requires an act of obedience. My husband and I left everything behind to move to Canada in 2004. It’s a long story, but that is what we did and we had those feelings of loneliness and feeling that everything and everyone around us was strange.

We have people in our church that left everything behind just to be in our church; really! They left everything behind, stepped in their car and drove from Toronto to Vancouver and they are blessed beyond their own imagination!

Those acts of obedience pay great dividend, not only in personal happiness and contentment that comes from knowing we are in the will of God, but also in the material blessings that God provides according to the promises of His Word.

If you want a year of new beginnings and full restoration in your life then you have to be somebody with attitude. You need a little oomph, because Matt.11:12 tells us that we need to take the kingdom by force. You have to come at the devil and let him know you got some attitude.

Look at blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:48, he had attitude. This man is blind and poor—plainly speaking he is a nobody. Nobody cares about him and he’s reduced to being a beggar.

He’s sitting by the highway begging when he hears that Jesus of Nazareth walking by. He began to cry out, “Jesus, thou son of David, I know your lineage; I know you’re a covenant man, have mercy on me.”

This man decided that if Jesus, the walking Word is here—then his need can be met, his condition can be healed, and his life can be changed.

So he cried out, “Jesus, son of David have mercy on me.” Then the crowd told him to hold his peace, a nice way of saying “shut up, Jesus doesn’t want to talk to you”. Well, they may be telling you, you’re a nobody, or you’re just a member of the congregation, or you’re black or you’re white; He doesn’t want to talk to you, so shut up.

But this man had some attitude. The more they told him to shut up, the louder he got, and the more he said it. This man refused to stay in his condition; he wanted a new beginning. He wanted to break out of his poverty, his blindness—his bleak situation. He was determined not to let anybody get in his way.

How about you? Are you going to start this year with some attitude?

To have a new beginning you can’t let anybody get in your way. The more they tell you”you can’t have it”, the more you should say, “it’s my new year; it’s my new year.”

Well, blind Bartimaeus’ faith caused Jesus to stand still and command him to be brought to Him. Then those around him started saying, “be of comfort, He is calling you.” Now, weren’t these the same people who told him to shut up?

Well, that’s the way it’s going to be with you. The same people who told you, you’re a nobody, are going to be the same people who will have to acknowledge that Jesus is calling for you. In order to get your miracle you are going to have to show some attitude.

Jesus loves to be merciful; I can just imagine that scene. Bartimaeus was determined. That is what you and I need to be if we want this year to be different from any other year. We need to step up to the plate and know that it is our destiny to make a home-run in our life.

We need to discover what is on the inside of us and break through that power of resistance and take off those grave clothes, come out of that cave and show ourselves to the world that needs us. Yeah, there are people on the other side of your destiny that need your testimony, so they will be encouraged again.

You can be the very hope for them that they will know that they were born for such a time as this and there is a place for them to shine and give God all the glory!

We do not cry out for God’s mercy enough. We spend too much time trying to deserve God’s goodness. In Luke 17:12-19, lepers cried out for mercy, and they all received their healing, but only one came back to give thanks to Jesus.

In Matthew 15:22-28, a woman from the Canaanite district said with a loud and urgent cry, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is miserably and distressingly and cruelly possessed by a demon!” Her daughter was delivered. In Matthew 17:15, we see a man whose son had epilepsy, and he came to Jesus and said, “Have mercy on my son, for he has epilepsy.” Jesus stopped again and cured the boy.

What do YOU need from Jesus? Do you need to be healed? Do you need your bills paid, or maybe you are believing that your family will come to the Lord this year. THIS is that year for you; this is the year of jubilee, the year of full restoration in your life.

It seems wherever Jesus traveled, somebody asked Him for mercy. In response to them, He stopped, talked to them, and met their needs. Acts 10:38

You are NOT a nobody; you are valuable and you were born for this time with a destiny inside of you. You have an assignment. Get some oomph and an attitude to do what God called you to do.

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You Have What It Takes

by Olga Hermans

Sometimes God leads us the hard way instead of the easy way because He is doing a special work in us. How would we ever learn to learn from Him if everything in our lives is easy enough for us to handle ourselves?

That’s why it so important not to lose heart and not to grow weary or faint. You can be sure that wherever God leads you, He is able to keep you. He never will allow more to come on you than you can bear.

God is interested in us yielding to His grace to do the extraordinary. We are nothing without Him, but with Him we can do things that we cannot even imagine. Look at Moses who was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

He could not see himself doing what God had called him to do; he thought he couldn’t speak well enough, he thought that he wasn’t strong enough. But something happened to him when he started thinking about the dream that God had given him; God supernaturally gave him the qualities he needed to fulfill this vision. The moment he started to realize that, he started to hold on to this dream with a tight grip and pursued it by force.

There are 7 qualities that you need, to discover the life you were born to live; we too have to take our land by force with a determination s never before. This is you’re your year that you have to know that you have what it takes to rise up and shine!

1. You have to know WHO YOU ARE; you are unique and you are valuable!

God’s plans for us contain a lot of surprises. God tells Moses in Exodus 3:10 that it was time for him to go back. God was sending him to Pharaoh to bring the People of Israel out of Egypt. He had to go and confront Pharaoh, but he didn’t know who he was.

We need to know who we are, what we can do, what we cannot do. God strengthens us in our weaknesses. As long as He is with us, we can do whatever we need to do. Be more concerned about who God is than you are about who you are.

2. You have AUTHORITY.

God explained to Moses that he would go in His name. He told him to say to Pharaoh that “I AM” had set him and that would be enough. God was saying that he didn’t have to worry about Pharaoh or anybody else. “I AM”  is able to take care of everything you encounter. Whatever you need “I AM“, so relax!!

The moment you know what you need to do, you will have authority. You have authority to walk in that vision and you have the authority to believe for it to come to pass. Some people may question your authority to do this, but your authority is in the “I AM”!

3. You need INTEGRITY!

When you know your assignment in life, you will have a desire for integrity in every situation because that is what gives the credibility for what you are doing. It established you in your vision. It really doesn’t matter what people say; it matters what God says about you.

You know that He is always backing you up when you do things His way; you have credibility with God!

4. You have to know that you are ABLE

The moment that you discover your assignment in life, you will find yourself capable of doing so much more than you were used to. Moses kept saying, that he was capable and this and that. Exodus 4:10, He wanted God to choose someone else!
But God highlighted his ability; his God-given ability, that divine ability to get the job done.

5. You need COURAGE

God ignored everything that Moses came up with about his “inability” to perform, to speak, and his age, and gave him courage.

Vision establishes courage. We have been reading in Exodus of all the obstacles Moses faced when God called him to fulfill this vision, but God ignored all that and gave him courage.

When you know your assignment, you also will have the courage to do exactly that what God told you to do and the courage to go after what God says is yours!

6. BOLDNESS will show up

It is really funny when you see the change in Moses. He always talked about God’s people, but the moment he discovered his assignment, he started talking about “My people!” He started to be bold because he had the courage and he took ownership (authority) of his own vision. That is what vision does.

He was changed, he didn’t say any longer “I am not…I can’t do…I can’t talk….”. No, he is bold now, because he is established in God. He knows now that God would back him up in everything that he was about to endeavour.

7. You need PERSEVERANCE

We all know the story in Exodus that Pharaoh didn’t want to let the people go, but he insisted and kept going back to him, but Pharaoh would not. He continually went back again and again. This was a different Moses. When you discover your assignment, you need perseverance, a “do not quit” attitude.

In the end Moses won; He knew what he needed to do, he knew the assignment that God gave him and by the perseverance that was established in his life he was able to conquer his weaknesses and finish his race.

We all have a purpose or a calling in life that God expects us to fulfill; we all need to discover the life we were born to live but we must have patience and perseverance in order to carry it out.

You have everything you need to be victorious just like Moses. Don’t settle for a life with no goals, no vision, and no purpose. You know that God has called you for a reason, so go for it! Don’t let Satan or anyone else talk you out of it!

Let me ask you a question; I would love for you to answer it in the comment section!

Q. If you are uncomfortably shy, how can you allow God to help you overcome this? Has shyness ever held you back from saying something God wanted you to say?

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