Reorientation

Synopsis of Bible Study May 6, 2020

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, D.Min.

James 1:22-24 KJV “22but be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”- One of the most difficult things in life is getting our mind to match our new reality.

• The reality is to try and shift your mind around this new reality or new way of doing things.
• There is this idea, you have this mentality of what you should do vs what I will do.
• Whatever change you are bringing into your life is birth out of something. New beginnings are part of life.
• This change that God wants you to make is for the best.
• Question may be, “Well now I’m done, now what?” or “What do I value the most at this point?” or “What is my new measurable?”
  • This can be overwhelming, self-deflating, or even defeating to change all the facets of your life.
  • This is why you have to focus on one.
  • Then you have to find motivation to upgrade areas of your life. There will be ripple affects from this.

     I.            THREE AREAS OF REORIENTATION

1. Orientation of yourself. – Lets reflect over last few months of our life. I have to reassess. I meditate on where I’ve been vs where I going.
2. How I do I align with this new direction or new space.
3. We have to get to a point in our life where we can do this. I can reorientate myself.
4. You have the capacity to reorientate ourselves to this new normal.
   1. In the Bible, Jesus takes these men who were Fisherman and reorientates them to be Fishermen of Men. This is a new normal for them.
   2. God will help you reorientate yourself.
5. Orientation to others – Everyone can’t go with you.
6. You have to examine who needs to go vs who needs to stay.
   1. In the bible, David talks to God about who needed to go into war with. Some had to stay behind, because they were too tired. You have to discern who can stay and who go.
   2. You have to eliminate dead weight. You can’t consider people’s feelings about this either. Some people can only go so far with you.
7. Orientation of time – You’re going to have some ups and downs in your life.
8. Never feel like you are out of time. There is blessing in the in between spaces. You can see light at the end of the tunnel. Work towards the light, don’t stay in the tunnel.

II.            KEYS TO ORIENTATION

1. Know When To Let Go And When To Hang On
2. Either make moves or make room.
3. Change is not a straight forth path. You must learn to let go. To change, you have to do things different.
4. We have to learn to let go of certain things, so that we can do God things.
   1. Some of the things that we need to let go are things like, doubt and procrastination.
   2. When you decide to let these things go, you can achieve what God wants you to achieve.
   3. Scripture tells us to lay aside every weight that so easily besets us.
5. Develop A New Level Of Persistence
6. Persistence is key in this season. What is your metric for growth?
   1. It’s not enough to just hang on. We are not just trying to survive; we are trying to thrive.
7. Let go of self-doubt. Doubt will kill your dream.
8. You’ve got to learn to keep going when change is all around you or when things don’t look like its working out.
9. Persistence means I won’t let go. Remember the scripture says knock, and the door shall be opened.
   1. Remember, they were praying for Peter who was locked up and Peter shows up at the door? There is something about persistence.

Luke 18:1-8 NIV – 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”- This woman was do persistent, she made an unjust judge give her time. This is persistence.

1. You have to get to a point that your persistence is strong.

1. Find Congenial Spirits/Relationships
2. You need people around you that bring something to the relationship. Relationships in this season should be reciprocal.
3. We don’t know all the answers, so God puts people in our paths that no more than we do. These people bring value to our relationships.
4. Build relationships with people that matter. Meet new people. Invest in yourself.
5. Have you ever considered the relationship between Moses and Aaron?
   1. Exodus 6:26-30 (NKJV) ²⁶ These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.”^{[a] 27} These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt. These are the same Moses and Aaron. ²⁸ And it came to pass, on the day the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹ that the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I am the Lord. Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” ³⁰ But Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am ^[b]of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?”
6. Every time we study Moses, we read, “Moses said to Pharaoh”. Moses has a speech impediment and God gives him an assignment that involves talking.
7. Aaron is there because he can speak and articulate what Moses can’t. God will give you help.

• You don’t have to do this all by yourself. We are not intimidated with people that know much more than we do. We need people that can help us achieve what God wants us to achieve.

III.            HOW TO LIVE AS A NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST

A.     Face Your New Reality

1. Part of reorientation is your old stuff has got to go. In this season, the Old You has to go. We have to let go of all the beef we’ve had from the past, all the old way of thinking, has got to go.
2. Transition requires a clean break. We have to be led by our spirit and not our flesh.

James 1:2-4 NIV – “2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”- Lacking not.

Romans 8:29 NIV – “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”- When I reorientate, I learn how to encounter joy.

1. We give God glory in it, because we know it is producing something in our lives.
2. God has formed us to represent him in the earth.
   1. As a result, we are adopted into God’s family. Romans 8:15 NIV – “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”-
3. We are given a new kingdom citizenship. Philippians 3:20 NIV – “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,”- A lot of people say that they are saved, because they have been baptized. This is just the outward show of the life we have chosen to live.
   1. It’s only part of it. You can go down as a dry sinner and come up a wet sinner

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – This is the season that God wants us to claim our new identity.

B.     Claim Your New Identity

1. You have to own it. You are not going back. Claim your new identity!

John 1:12-13 NIV – “12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” – You have direct access now to the Father.

Galatians 5:16-26 NIV – “16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”- If you going to be in the flesh, then you got to understand what the flesh is. All the stuff your flesh desires, will keep you in a place where you can’t reorientate yourself and go to the place where God is taking you.

2. Even a snake sheds its skin for a new season. A believer has to be willing to shed his Old Self and walk in the Spirit of God in the Fruit of the Spirit.
3. Your flesh will keep you in a place where you can’t reorientate yourself to where God wants you to be.

C.     Pray Like A Child

1. Pray out of sincerity or purity.

Ephesians 5:1 NIV – “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children”

2. Example, son comes down the hallway. He wants to brush his teeth, because his Dad is. The point is, he imitates his dad
   1. We must become imitators of Christ. If we have bad behavior, so will our children and so with the generations that follow behind us.
3. Prayer is critical

Mark 1:35 NIV – “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”- Jesus thought it necessary for him to pray early in the morning and remove himself from everyone else.

4. We have to develop the good habit of prayer. Sometimes it may mean finding a moment to get away from everything.

Matthew 6:9 NIV – “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,”- We honor God in our prayers.

Hebrews 10:19-20 NIV – “19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,” – We don’t have to have anyone pray for us. God shed his blood and the veil was rent in two, now we can go to the throne of God for ourselves.

Romans 8:26 NIV – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”- Don’t just ask God for stuff. Ask God for control of your life so that we can walk in God’s will.

D.     Walk Humbly

1. When you reorientate to your new reality, when your new creature in Christ, then you get to a place where you realize humility is the key. You realize that in a moment, something can make equals of us all.
2. Humility is what God is looking for in this season.
3. God is calling us to a new life. He wants to reorientate us.
   1. We might lose our way, but God is still working in us.
   2. Philippians 2:13 NIV – “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”- God is still moving and working in you. This is the whole idea of reorientation.
4. Reorientate yourself to match God’s mission for your life. Begin with relationship with Jesus Christ. God loves you so much.