Isaiah 43: 18-19 Eternal One: Don’t revel only in the past, or spend all your time recounting the victories of days gone by. Watch closely: I am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak, and you’re about to see it. I am preparing a way through the desert; Waters will flow where there had been none. The Voice
U-Turns Evoke Nostalgia
As God’s Servant Warriors, we hear God calling us to something He has divinely planned for us and we obey Him and pour our life out to Him for it because this is our reasonable service. We are all in with God. When we have given so much and been a Servant Warrior in this calling from God, it is hard to do a U-turn when God wants to move us on to something new. We have worked hard and things are flowing well and we want to stay in this place where it feels great to have sacrificed and succeeded in finding Kingdom purpose fulfilled and God being glorified.
Nostalgic Idolism Is Not Our Friend
God is calling us to something new and it is time to move on and this is where nostalgia is not our friend. Nostalgia is something that I feel Servant Warriors can get stuck in easily. We all have it and sometimes it is good to be nostalgic, because it reminds us of the trustworthiness and faithfulness of our God. It is good to celebrate when miraculous victories are won, but it is not good to get out of balance by staying in the nostalgia of the past. When we get stuck in nostalgia, making an idol out of it, longing for how things were, it becomes a stumbling block that keeps us from wholly-holy moving forward with the new things God has for us now. This makes for a very mournful spirit. Servant Warriors, let’s change it up. Let’s trust God for the life season we are in and know and experience the new things He has for us right now. Let’s make God our best friend and lay down our nostalgia of the past.
The Nostalgia Fight Is A Common One
I understand the nostalgia fight because I have been there and done that. Obviously when you fight and win a really hard, good fight of faith and have pressed through in prayer, giving of your time, talent and giftedness back to God, it is natural to want to camp there and experience the sweetness of the victory. As a Servant Warrior, it feels really nice to just camp in the conquest and success of ministry after all the self-sacrificing you have done to get to this place where the ministry is bearing really incredible fruit. Praising God in the victory is a good thing, yes, I will never diminish the necessity for that. But, we have to be careful of wanting to stay in the miraculous light of the victory, basking in it, because it could cause us not to want to move on and the longer we stay in this nostalgia, the easier it is to flip-flop the glory from God to us and that never ends well. Actually it is hard on our flesh to move forward after a long hard fought battle is won. We know that something new is on the horizon and sometimes our flesh will resist that. Well actually most of the time we in our human condition do struggle with change.
Exodus 16: 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days. So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.” VS 35 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.
The Idol Of Nostalgia Does Not Lead To The AWE Of God
God miraculously provided for the Israelites for 40 years and it did not lead them to AWE, because they wanted something different. They were so focused on what they wanted, their nostalgia of the past made them miss the miracle of the present that God was doing for them. Instead of awe, reverence and respect they had dissatisfaction, bitterness and disrespect towards and of God.
Stuck In Nostalgia Equals A Grumbling Spirit
Nostalgia caused them to completely miss the provision God was providing in a miraculous way, because they were so stuck in the past and what it looked like, they could not move on to what the present reality was and they definitely did not want to embrace the new that God was doing. They just wanted to grumble. Grumbling makes a grimy soul that covers over the joy of the victories God has accomplished. How could they even think of grumbling when God parted the Red Sea for them and wiped out their enemies before their eyes? Nostalgia ties us to our past. God is wanting to do something new in us, but we get pulled back into the old by those nostalgic ties. I pray that God will cut those ties of nostalgia in every Servant Warrior called by Him and we will see clearly what we are to do, and we will never lose our AWE of God and never step out of His flow of extended Mercy.
Hebrews 11:13-16 All these I have mentioned died in faith without receiving the full promises, although they saw the fulfillment as though from a distance. These people accepted and confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on this earth because people who speak like this make it plain that they are still seeking a homeland. If this was only a bit of nostalgia for a time and place they left behind, then certainly they might have turned around and returned. But such saints as these look forward to a far better place, a heavenly country. So God is not ashamed to be called their God because He has prepared a heavenly city for them. The Voice
Less Nostalgia, More Knowing God’s Miraculous Newness
I have chosen to focus less on the past, cling more to God. Daily I embrace the beauty of the newness of His Presence and the flow of His purposes in my current reality. I call this an “Omnipresent Reality Check”. Finding where God is and submissively following Him, wholly holy aligned with His heart. When I am nostalgia focused, it is kind of like realizing the dawn had already come, after the sun has been up for a while. Yet when I see the beginning of the sunrise, it is the most miraculous glimpse of the day ahead. We can so quickly miss that spectacular sunrise if we are not focused on the day at hand and are daydreaming about the past.
Nostalgia ~ Settle It With God
Being stuck in nostalgia of yesterday brings up some interesting soul dysfunction as we start a new day as Servant Warriors on mission with God. Needless to say we wake up with a “Grrrrrr grouchy” kind of attitude in our soul, you can easily label as dread. Another day to face, oh how we are dismay by it and feel overwhelmed by our God mission. We set ourselves up for this when we don’t finish out the day before, we don’t settle things with God and it causes us to hang on to a bad kind of nostalgia, the kind that yokes us to it. We need to settle things with God at the end of a day, putting everything in His hands that has not been resolved at the end of our day. We need to let go of all our expectations and trust God with our disconcerted life-stuff that is unanswered and still hanging in the balance between this side of earth and heavenly hindsight. If it is not finished, then we need to put it in God’s hands.
Aware Of The Miraculous
A friend shared with me to be aware of the miraculous at the beginning of any transformation, and be focused most and more on God’s now display of grace, mercy and hope, than what we are nostalgic for. She wrote this and it really woke up my desire to do everything I could do to not be distracted by what was past, but to be focused on the new thing, so I would experience the miraculous newness God has given us in every day. The enemy will steal this precious experience of newness if he can keep us bound to yesterday in his dark nostalgia. Our enemy does not have anything to look forward to, but we do, we have a future and a hope that is incredible, he has a dead end.
“This is the day the LORD has made, I rejoice and am glad to be alive to witness and participate in it. I sing praises to my God, Creator for the beauty of the sunrise, the symphony of the birds rejoicing at the beginning of the new day. My heart is still beating and my lungs still breathing, thank You for that miracle. I have eyes to see and ears to hear, O my God let me see and hear what you see and hear today that I may enter into what You are doing where ever I may be. I love You, I embrace this new day with You my Lord. God is Good!” Written By Dianna Harrison
Nostalgia’s Yucky Companion
Nostalgia travels with yucky companions, one is called restlessness. God showed me that my restlessness came from looking back with “nostalgia” and this nostalgia became a strong hold in my mind. The Holy Spirit instructed me to get my mind out of the past and move forward with Him in complete followship and trust of Him. So I am letting go of my unsettled past things, putting them in God’s capable hands and waiting on Him with an active faith that does not despise a small beginning and a hope that faces forward, expecting a miraculous suddenly.
The Infinite Value Of Followship
Bowing to an idol of nostalgia ignites anxiety in our soul. Impulsive anxiety runs us into the dead end of our human condition, it is exhausting. This is the endgame of our enemy who begins enticing us with nostalgia and very craftily maneuvers our nostalgia into the position of idolizing and this puts us in the devilish grip of anxiety. Soul anxiety very subtly begins stirring up our mind with assumptions, rationalizations and what if senselessness. We then begin exchanging God’s truth for his lies, therefore our joy is stolen, our hope crushed, our peace extinguished and our strength is no more. But God in His great goodness, faithfully delivers us from these enemy pits and teaches us the infinite value of followship. Followship positions us in the center of the flow of God’s purposes in play in our lives and brings us right into His current of courage. God’s courage is equal to none other and it puts anxiety under its feet, stomping it completely out.
“God is fathering us, meeting our needs. We have to see it and learn that God is providing. He is here right now with us. He is present as a provider. “Do what I tell you to do”, is God’s constant direction and our response should be to relax, submit wholly-holy, activate our faith, trust and do what God is telling us to do. God is here, He knows you, He knows your name and all you have to do is what God tells you to do. It will be okay. Whenever we reach an obstacle, do we grumble? We could choose to trust in God, Who has always purposefully and presently provided?” Quote By~ Brian Hardin Daily Audio Bible
What I Chase Determines My Destiny
As God’s Servant Warriors, chasing after nostalgia instead of moving forward with God, is the same as pursuing things of human value that flop and throw us in the mix with disappointment, discouragement, despondency and despair. (Notice they all start with “d” like the devil, must be cousins of the enemy) This pursuit of nostalgia will always lead us to a dead end into a pity-pit with all those nasty feelings, topped off by realizing our foolishness led us there. If we diligently pursue God, listening up for His directions that lead us in His way, we will fall into the flow of His Kingdom purposes and our soul will experience the newness of God adventure like no other joy. As Servant Warriors, the best place our awe of God is stirred up is the position of followship. We see the clearest Kingdom perspective when we are in followship of Jesus, our heart connected to His heart experiences the greatest awe of Him. Omnipresent Reality Check! Am I in followship of Jesus or am I following the path of my personal nostalgia? I will experience and learn the awe of God’s great goodness through daily interaction with His holiness and consistent relationship with the purity of His heart’s personality and Godly characteristics.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds, a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy, yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Amplified Bible
Surrender Leans Us Into God’s Providential Care
The revelation of having a Kingdom perspective instead of chasing a worldly viewpoint is an incredible revelation God is giving us today. If I chase things of human value, I end up in a pit dug by my enemy. No doubt about it. So I am wiser and have become a Servant Warrior who is full out for Jesus, my yes is on the table with Him at all times. Yes the nostalgia of the past will always be good, but don’t stop there, because the best is yet to come. Keep seeking God and His Kingdom first. The truth about a Servant Warrior having an idol of nostalgia in their lives is seen in how the enemy has craftily devised this to keep us from experiencing the providential care of God and the two purposes of God providence in play. God is mixing up two purposes in every one’s life situations as we serve Him. As Servant Warriors, God is purposefully bringing forth good for us as we serve people through the calling of His Kingdom and He is purposefully bringing glory to His Kingdom through us. We forget about the latter purpose and lean more into the first purpose. Submissive surrender leans us into the complete providential care of God where both purposes contained in this care are flowing together. God is working for our good in the now and for the forever Glory of His Kingdom.
Servant Warriors Deployed On Earth Belonging To Heaven
We have been called to be God’s Servant Warriors. God wants to be our everything, He wants us to be wholly-holy His. We can’t let the nostalgia for this earth, the ties to this world, stop us from yearning for the Kingdom of God, where we do belong. We live here now, yes, and it is here that we are servant leaders, but we do not belong here. We were not created for here. God has given us an incredible future in the Kingdom of God and this is where He wants us to be deeply rooted, because out of this rootedness to His Kingdom, we are deployed on earth as it is in heaven.
“We have to pull up our roots from this world and transplant them in God’s Kingdom. God wants us to give Him everything, He wants us to let go of the things of this world and cling to Him. We were not designed for this world, we were placed here to “grow through”, but never destined to stay here. Our time here is short and the best way to be His Servant Warrior is to give God the all of our everything here, investing it, implanting it back in His Kingdom, where it will grow and produce a forever fruit.” Author KimberlyMac Excerpt From “Have Everything”.
http://www.thebridegroomscafe.com/have-everything/
I hope you enjoyed this meal at the Servant Table in the Bridegroom’s Café
Servant Warriors, we need to take an “Omnipresent Reality Check” and make sure we have no idols of nostalgia. I highly encourage you to get a copy of The Bridegroom’s Voice and take this journey with Jesus, be fleshed out, prepared by His powerful truth so you may endure and bring God honor in times such as these. This is a God Adventure that will inspire you and change you forever. God bless you MUCH, KimberlyMac