Is Your Story Hurting Your Progress?

hi mark DeJesus here and I want to talk to you about story and specifically your story see every single one of us has a story that we live by it's an inner narrative that flows throughout our life consider it like the background music that sets the tone and the atmosphere for everything that you go through in life everybody carries a story within them it's involved in your self-talk the inner voices that kind of give you the dialogue throughout your day it's the interpretation of events so when you see something your inner story interprets what you're seeing you see as we walk through life we carry our own internal story and that story meets up with our experiences and that story can either help us or it can really disempower us and for many of you watching this you may come to the realization that the story you carry is actually a disempowering one it's not helping you it's actually keeping you in dysfunctional ways of bondage so I had to take a sober look at my own story I had to look at areas of my thinking and my self-talk that we're working against the work of God in your life so take a moment and kind of look what's the story that I carry within my own heart now to take a biblical narrative and a biblical understanding of this story is really the word testimony a testimony in a nutshell is basically the story of the work of God in your past what God has done in your past what he's currently doing in your present and where you sense he is leading you into your future you see all of us have a continual testimony that is evolving and changing and shifting hopefully in a good direction and that's why I am so keen on helping people to experience healing of the heart and to allow God to work in the deep areas of their heart because it has a lot to do where you are has a lot to do with where you've been where you are now and where you're going that's your story that's your interpretation that's your sense of like this is what I sense God is doing and God is constantly looking to in a good way invade our story and transform it so our thinking our focus and our movement is headed in more effective directions that our faith is strengthened and we start manifesting fruit in our lives God did it in the beginning he came to Adam in the garden when Adam and Eve had sinned and he said Adam where are you and Adam had said well I'm afraid and I'm naked and so we hid that's my story and so God said who told you this and ever since the beginning of time God has been looking at what we consider to be our story every single one of you watching this video you carry a story that when you enter into relationship that story comes out right the interpretation of your past where you are and where you're headed now for many of you your story needs an adjustment and you might say well how do I identify my story well I'll tell you where your story comes up the most whenever you face hardships in life trials are difficult circumstances this really reveals the dominant story that you carry some people carry a very victimized I always get the short end of the stick story any time a trial comes up it triggers that yup this always happens to me other people it hits a denial story where they shove it suppress it that's not there they super spiritualize it they're just always strong everything is always great never acknowledging brokenness or you may have a story that's interpreted through a lot of self-hate and a lot of being hard on yourself and a lot of self pressure and perfectionism and performance-driven weights that's on your that are on your shoulders well you can identify your story by asking a couple of questions because it reveals the deep beliefs and agreements you can quote scriptures all you want but does it really infiltrate your narrative your story your true testimony of what you see the role of God being in your life in your past your present and the future you're headed to so the couple statements like this this always seems to happen to me it always seems that blank blank blank blank I never hmm I always some statements like that bring up the story that you carry and here's something that I've learned about story if anyone wants to experience the power of dynamic heart transformation they're going to have to invite God into their story to get his heart his mindset his interpretation into what they've been through God doesn't deny the things that you've been through he doesn't wash it over he doesn't pretend it's not there he's actually very capable of entering into the story of your history and helping to redeem to buy back to bring back into power so that you can look at your past with fruitful eyes so that in your present you are empowered with confidence to move forward into your future God's Way and that's something that's been missing from our Christian perspective is we don't know how to deal with our past there's people that are stuck in it there's many people that say we don't have to even talk about it right you don't even want to touch it and when they talk about the past it says I don't want to talk about it and really they're uncomfortable because they haven't allowed God to really process through those things in their life God's not accusing you and blaming you and condemning you he is a gentle father that wants to work with you because our past does affect our present lens and our effectiveness and being able to move forward in healthy ways so there are a couple lenses about your story that you can adjust one is the victims story now I didn't realize that for most of my life I carried a lens of a victim of a self-pity kind of posture which led me into self-loathing which led me into self-hatred and a lot of irritability and just not being able to be productive with getting over some of the speed bumps of my life and the brokenness and discouragement and things that I faced and adjustments to my story things I didn't realize that we're gonna happen that did happen and then adjusting for what was next and I remember one day when I really just discovered how much I carried a victims story I was journaling on a regular basis and I said you know what I'm stuck I feel like God is not moving at this time in my life and I need to understand this and begin to move forward so I started journaling and after about a month of it I stopped and said you know what let me look back and just read over what I've written and I looked back and I realized how much of my posture towards God was that of a victim god please rescue me god please take this away from me God would you do something and I realized I wasn't operating out of sonship I was operating out of slavery I was saying God rescue me rather than allowing God to work alongside of me he's in me and me make the decisions I need to make for a more empowered future so I had to make that transition from slavery from a prisoner that's begging for freedom and learn to move into sonship that says know I have the ability to decide I have the ability to decide and choose I have the ability to look at my history here's what happened here's what God can do and here's where I can go with that because for many of you what you've been through is actually going to be an asset to your ministry and the work that you help others in the most powerful ministry you can have is sharing with others the work that God has done in your life reproducing that and passing that along it's so powerful many people are missing it but as I saw in this journaling I realized wow I'm thinking like a victim a victim thinks this that I have no options I have no choices that my life is terrible woe is me I never get favored I never get blessing and so it becomes the dominant narrative because whatever story you carry it looks for it it looks for it to be validated so if you're a victim you're gonna look for ways for the victim thinking to be validated so that you don't have to make an decisions that stretch you this is honest stuff right and so many of us have been victimized in certain ways we carry a spirit of victimization will we keep engaging the cycle of abuse we stay under it and we say see God dust doesn't work in my life and it keeps you from the power of decision so I had to make a choice what's gonna be my new story am I gonna stay as a victim or am I gonna look for how to stretch because the victim posture keeps us from stretching out of our comfort zone and making the tough choices and the tough decisions for our future the second one that you may need to address in your story is the story of denial many people live in a land called denial everything's plastic everything's fake they don't deal with the issues of their life and the way you can pick up on denial the most is whenever you want to talk about history whenever you want to just talk about story talk about where you came from talk about and there's all these don't go there areas that they just never ever want to process through and so they stay stuck in denial they say things like the past is the past or why don't we got to talk about this anymore and and or they may throw scriptures over it that just say you know it's all under the blood or things like that and and I would always say fine if it's under the blood then you should be able to talk about it because anything that's under the blood I'm exchanging the beauty of his cleansing work in my life really it was just a cliche to throw out to just not deal with stuff because we don't want to deal with stuff because we feel ashame over our lives that if we talk about bad decisions or mistakes and we just admit to them that we think that's making us look bad when in reality it's an opportunity for freedom it's an opportunity to really express humility and invite others into our story here's my weaknesses here are some of the things that happen in my life but here's where I'm headed and this is what God is doing now isn't that a safe place for other people to be drawn to so if you adjust your story it welcomes others into that to feel safe to process their own story a third one that may be a is the first one's a victim story the second one's a denial story the third one is the inner critic oh my goodness so many of us I know I have have had the inner Pharisee that just keeps rising up condemning guilting beating down and the goal of the inner critic is to extract love from being able to be present in your story you will never be able to process your history or where you're at unless love is present because love carries an acceptance of its okay that you're not okay it's okay that you're weak broken it's okay that you're tired weary fatigued love is here to empower you love is also patient and kind kindness comes in to speak in a way that's empowering speak in a way that puts a salv on the wound patience comes in to handle everything you've been through that it'll take as long as it takes for you to heal to grow to recover God is here love is here and the kindness of God's love speaks in such a way to say I understand your brokenness but to heal us raise us up so that we can move in a more empowered future that what happened to you doesn't need to be your permanent story but I realized I can never engage God's story over my life if I keep beating myself up I'm convinced that Satan wants to make me an enemy to myself he wants to make you an enemy to yourself so that you can't love yourself the way that God loves you so therefore if you don't love yourself then your inner narrative your story is gonna be filled with frustration tension this angst a lot of anger and you're gonna let it out on other people right because you're gonna be so irritable when they even ask you about your story in your history because really you're you're expressing the self-hatred that's inside of you why can't I just catch a break why can't I just move forward with some progress and it doesn't allow you to see the jewels in your life doesn't allow you to see the progress you've made it doesn't let you celebrate the good that has happened to see your life with perspective or to engage gratitude say la look at where I've come so far and to then engage the story of what God is saying over your life now to tap into what God is saying over your life there's two things I want to share number one is that you have the opportunity to choose your story you have the opportunity to make a decision to look at your past and say what's the decision I'm going to make in my present and in my future because if you are able to choose then it shows you have the power of decision and God always brings to his people choose this day you get to choose you get to make the choice you cannot change your life if you lose the power of decision what do you get to choose you get to choose what your story's gonna be you get to choose what you're gonna focus on you're gonna get to choose what voice is going to have the dominant narrative so that's the first thing is you get to chew - you get to have a choice you get to choose the decision is yours so whatever story is coming out of you that's a decision that you have made secondly we say well how do i form this story I find the best way to form an empowering story is to build it around faith hope and love the Bible says in first Corinthians that these three things remain faith hope and love they will always be there they will always empower us to the end of the age and I believe that faith hope and love actually work in conjunction with each other they're tied with each other I find that love since the atmosphere it sets the tone by which relationship is cultivated you can't change your story unless you learn what love is like then you begin to understand how God sees you how he sees others and how your life can be transformed in relationship hope sets into the context of love right because hope is divine perspective it's how you see it's now what does my story look like where have I come from where am i and where am I headed right and we love empowers that love now becomes an anchor the bible says hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts right well through it all there's a thread called faith faith is the substance of things hoped for it takes the hope that you have anchored in love and said let's act on it it's believing it and it's acting on it and so in order for you to make a change it really starts with I want to start cultivating a news story maybe it's something you need to write down maybe it's something you need to have someone pray with you about but today's the day to invite God into your story say God give me a perspective of my past and present and where I'm headed that empowers me for my future it's your testimony folks and that testimony becomes the miraculous prophetic power of Jesus Christ the work of the father as a work of the Holy Spirit over your life that you get to pass out as an asset to the brothers and sisters that you get to interact with it becomes your ministry my story and what God has set me free from and what he'll continue to set me free from has been the story I carry so that by that God uses it to change other people's lives I never need to come up with something or try to think of something to talk about because all I'm doing is sharing with you the things that God has done in my own life you change your story and everything gets changed in your life it's the testimony of Jesus that's creating a replication in the world around you so is your story hurting you maybe you need to have an honest assessment not in guilt and shame but just true sobriety to go you know what I've got to choose a new story that I'm listening to listen to how you talk listen to how you interpret events in your life and say God where does that need to shift and change so I can now go to the next level a praise of blessing to your life keep overcoming I love you beloved and let that love flow through every area of your life god bless you

Channel: Mark DeJesus

Views: 3,164

Rating: 4.90099 out of 5

Keywords: Story, Testimony

Id: L5uHmGPtfws

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2019