Touré Roberts - After This

I want to teach a little bit today. After this, I really sense that now, as the shock of this pandemic has prayerfully settled in, I truly believe that now is a time for us to begin to rise up and seek what God knew before this pandemic even began. There’s a shift that’s taking place in my life, and I believe that God wants it to take place in your life, where I am moving away from the subconscious instability of uncertainty and into a place where I am beginning to intently imagine what life post-pandemic is supposed to look like for me. I am starting to stare at our current situation and release my imagination about the future with acute curiosity about the new world that is emerging and what my place in this new world is going to be. I am thinking about life after this, and my imagination has moved past the notion of whether or not I will survive. I am over that survival phase because the Lord has sustained me, and if you’re watching, He has sustained you too. This doesn’t mean that I will disregard safety or wisdom; that’s not what I’m talking about—it’s simply wisdom. I am outside of the subconscious instability created by uncertainty, and I believe that God is moving us into a time where we need to begin to ponder life after this. I am moving into this space, family, where I am wandering, seeking, and imagining what the reinvention of me is going to look like in this new world. I feel the Holy Spirit. God did not ordain for you and me to remain the same; He literally sent a global shaking. The only reason why God would allow such a global shaking is that He wants to reintroduce you to the world in which He has placed you. Are you tracking with me? If you’re taking notes, write this down because these are some questions I want you to ponder: What does the reinvention of me look like? I want you to ask God that. What does it mean? I want you to ponder it. Who am I now? I know who I was before, but God, who am I now? I urge you to be very slow to fall back into familiar rhythms and disciplines of the Holy Spirit. It is easy now, as we start moving into a time—we’re not there yet, but we will be soon—where there will be a rolling out of normalcy. It is easy for you and me to lock back into familiar rhythms and disciplines; however, that would be a grave mistake. Keep me from frivolous rhythms; keep me from any rhythm I haven’t thought and prayed through. It is a time for us to really seek God’s face and to understand, watch this, what God’s interpretation of me is post-pandemic. God saw a different version of you before He even allowed the pandemic to come, and there is an expectation—not only does God have an expectation, but all of creation and everything in this universe has an expectation on who you and I will emerge as post-pandemic. Don’t be too quick to fall back into rhythms; don’t be so hasty to jump into familiar disciplines under the pretext of getting busy. Let me clarify: I am not talking about stagnation. I am talking about activation; there is a difference. Stagnation, watch this, is doing nothing; activation is about posturing myself for God’s elevation. I’ll say it again: stagnation is about doing nothing, but activation pertains to how I position myself for God’s elevation. Because, watch this, I understand that I cannot activate myself, but I can prostrate myself. I can lay my heart out; I can submit to God. I can come to this place where I completely surrender to the Almighty God who has the whole world in His hands. And that brings us to the text. I love this passage of Scripture, and I must be honest with you—there are things in this passage that I had never seen before, and they are jumping out at me. In the text, it says, «Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.» How does this relate to the moment we are in? Here is the truth: our entire world has had to humble itself under God’s mighty hand. This pandemic has been bigger than us. It has baffled scientists to a certain degree, and it has shaken the faith community in ways that the community arguably has never experienced in modern times. The reality is that many of us have prayed and said, «God, will You stop this?» and, guess what? It did not stop. So, what we had to do was ultimately come to a place where we submitted ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Look at this invitation; there’s such an interesting balance between God’s character and His nature here. It says, «Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.» This is a crazy couple of verses because here we see power and tenderness in the same context. It talks about, and speaks to, the sovereignty of God. It speaks to…