Are you Ready for the Shaking?

I was at the gym tonight, and Jesus really met me through this song. I was lowkey crying in the club. 🥹

And I was reminded how much God can do when we make room for Him. But this isn’t something we do out of our strength.

Rather, it’s an act of total & complete surrender.

I love the bridge of this song

Shake up the ground of all my tradition
Break down the walls of all my religion
Your way is better
Your way is better

WOWZA

Sometimes we sing these songs and pray these prayers without truly realizing what God is asking of us & what we are inviting Him to do in our lives. We read the Bible, quote scripture and sing songs without realizing the seeds we are sowing in the spiritual realm.

When we sing this song like we mean it, we are literally asking God to come into our lives, break down our walls and shake up everything we believe to be true about our lives.

Have you ever had your traditions shaken up?

Have you ever had to face the fact that you’ve been hiding in the comfort of Christian Culture or religion?

If you invite God into this space to shake up, refine, sanctify, reveal himself, purify your heart, HE WILL. . .so don’t be shocked when you pray this over your life and things start to SHAKE. 🤯

And if it sounds like I’m coming at you tonight, I am. Because I love you. And it pains me that so many people walk way from God when the shaking starts to happen instead of recognizing that it may be the very way in which God wants to work in our lives. It pains me in my own life when I’ve failed to see the shaking up and breaking down for what it was. When I tried to white knuckle to prevent the shaking, it led to dark places of losing control to gain it.

James tells us that WHEN we endure trials of many kinds we should actually rejoice because this is how our faith is matured. The Christian life, then is not one of ease & breeze. Rather it’s one faced with new trials and in the words of my small group leader, “New Levels, New Devils”. When we welcome the shaking and sifting, not only is it uncomfortable, it’s impossible without God. (Go read James 1)

I vividly remember the day I had the thought pop into my head “Hmm is Jesus really enough for me?” I was driving on the freeway to work past my church actually. I was in the second lane from the right shoulder and it was a warm, sunny Norther California summer day. “Is Jesus really enough for me?” etched itself into my mind. And my honest answer. . .I didn’t know. I didn’t even know how to go about quantifying or claiming that He was.

And full transparency, I had no idea what it even meant for Jesus to be enough. What would that even look like to be able to say about myself? What would it look like to feel no lack because I was wholly secure in Jesus? I had no idea. I just knew it’s something I wanted to be able to say of myself with my whole heart. I was hungry to KNOW Jesus deeply.

Since that day He has given me a testimony to say now, I KNOW Jesus is enough. I was stripped of absolutely everything I had once put my identity, my hope and my trust in. Any ability of my own was compromised in some way shape or form. At one point, I was unable to go to school, work or be involved in church. That time was to study and learn about Jesus all over again. And even more prominently, to develop rich relationship with Him all over again. The only constant in my life was Jesus. The only hope I had became Jesus. And it was enough. In fact, in my most broken moments. I learned to not even crave anything besides Jesus. Layer by layer He placed himself at the core and top of every aspect of my life.

While I haven’t done a perfect job of living this out, while there’s times I return to places he’s called me out of, I know that He’s enough for me. I don’t need the approval of others. I don’t need to be liked or cheered on by everyone. I don’t need to follow society’s idea of success in order to be filled up. I just need Him.

And friends even the fact that I can write this now is such a miracle in and of itself. To be able to confidently say I have reached a place where I feel confident & secure in my identity in Christ is freeing and triumphant.

In the book of Romans, Paul talks about being content in any situation. This was such a prayer of mine for so long. And one that I still ask for a deeper revelation of in my day to day life. I desire to be content no matter what. When any conflict or obstacle shows itself present in my life, I can look at the situation & know no matter how I am feeling, The finished work of Jesus is enough for me.

This heart posture has changed everything about how I see my day to day life. It’s made me realize how much I’ve worried about insignificant things in the past. Where I’ve tripped out and tripped up over things that really did not matter at the end of the day.

And this has only come by a radical renewing of my mind. It’s only been made possible by a touch of Jesus over and over and over again. In each holy moment. In each moment of repentance, He has renewed my mind. He has radically transformed the way I think, process & interact with others.

And this kind of freedom is available to you as well. And it’s usually just on the other side of the shaking.

Are you ready?

All My Love,

Hailey