Spirit-Led Living x Sarah Jakes Roberts

Having headphones in your ear is a universal sign that you’re unavailable for conversation. For a few years now I’ve learned the importance of being present and intentional in the now. Life can easily be shaped by our perceptions and circumstances if we don’t view them through God’s lens. Let me share a lesson I learned a few years back: you gain the most control when you let go and let God. This doesn’t mean you should approach every opportunity as though it’s divinely sent, but rather, when you seek God for direction, you’re more aligned with His will rather than your own. I hope this insight helps you, because a life surrendered is truly powerful.

I think sometimes we can get so stuck in our own little worlds and our own little bubble that we forget that we are connected to everything and I don’t know about you but as I have begun to do that I have found myself to be more patient and gracious with people usually I put my headphones in in the grocery store and I just like mind your business Ministries child okay but I have been intentional about looking my cashier in the eye and saying how are you uh Happy New Year happy happy holidays uh what’s

going on in your world and it has um I have noticed that in doing that that the person on theing in feels like more than just a person on a job but someone whose life matters and has whose life matters and whose being has um a purpose I’ve been doing it around the house instead of just like getting into my mom routine or my wife routine but to recognize that there is a spirit connected to everything that I am um in responsibility of taking care of in my life and so it makes me a more intentional listener a more

compassionate listener and so I hope that you’ve done your homework and that you’ve been working on your meditations because you want to be a source in your life right I want to be a source that other people can tap from but the reality is sometimes I feel like a limited resource and because I feel like a limited resource I don’t have a lot of generosity in patience I don’t have a lot of generosity in my connection and love and so as we continue to Center ourselves each and every morning and say

to ourselves you know God awaken me to why I’m in this season in my life awaken me to why I am in this relationship and allow me to be a servant and I have been seeing a lot of growth for me personally and so I kind of want to build off of that subject and I want to talk about controlling our lives in a way that um I know we have a lot of let go and let God and that is certainly necessary but even letting go requires a level of control uh where you decide I am no longer going to hold on to this notion that I have to

have things a certain way but instead I am going to let God be in control and when we decide to let God be in control then we have have to make sure that our life is being controlled by the notion that God is in control right so um there will be opportunities that come into your life I’ll give you an example okay so my daughter starts school we’ve been out for winter break she’s about to start school and there’s a part of me that feels myself getting into this Rhythm right but letting go and letting

God is taking the opportunity to step back and say to yourself wait a minute I don’t want to start doing doing things in my own control and with my own Rhythm because when I get into this Rhythm sometimes Life Starts picking up and life is moving faster than I can dance so I am choosing to make every decision every moment every meeting every date night be a result of me choosing to to to be a result of me choosing to allow God to control what I I generally have to put in my own hands y’all know me if you’ve seen me preach you know I

have to say this thing the way I see it okay so ultimately we are in control of Our Lives when we have chosen to allow God to control our life and when we take the situations that we encounter from day today and bring it into submission with what we have decided to make our life a reflection of so instead of allowing you know letting go and letting letting go and letting God doesn’t mean that if a conversation comes to me that I can engage into it because that conversation just came to me and that must mean that it’s meant

for me to engage into the conversation but instead it means that if this conversation is not a reflection of the direction that I know God is taking me to then I am controlling that situation and making it submit to the New Freedom that I’m hoping to walk in I hope that that’s making sense cuz you know I’m going to keep saying it until I get it out the way I feel like God is giving it to me because I feel for me and if you’re watching and it’s resonating with you Perhaps it is for you as well I feel

a responsibility to not allow my life to control me I’ve got children I’ve got a husband I have businesses I’m blessed to connect with people all over the world and sometimes if I am not careful my life will begin to dictate to me what I need to become come and instead I want to dictate to my life what it needs to become and I cannot do that one unless I have a vision and our vision comes from our time of meditation with God so when I connect with God in the morning I create a vision for my life that Vision

looks like peace that Vision looks like humility that Vision looks like strength that Vision looks like perseverance that Vision looks like righteousness that Vision looks like respecting one another that Vision looks like forgiveness like all of the fruits of the spirit that’s what that Vision looks like and so when something comes in my direction I have a responsibility to make sure that whatever it is aligns with that Vision maybe it’s an argument that could be Brewing between a friend maybe it’s a

disagreement between my husband and I maybe it’s some business opportunity that I’m not sure whether or not I can take the first thing I have to do is compare it to that vision and when I compare it to that vision I have to knowingly decide that I am in control of this outcome wow I think that that’s that’s what I’ve been trying to say you have the opportunity day after day after day to be in control of outcomes that we often shrink away from making a decision about because we’re afraid of the impact that it may have on

the other person or we have not yet discovered The Voice required to attach our vision with our present but when life presents you with an opportunity to be in control of the outcome you have to make sure that the outcome is a reflection of where you’re headed when you have a disagreement with your husband you have the ability to control that outcome I know it’s two people involved but you know child child you know that you can say something that escalates the argument but because I have control of the outcome I’m not just

going to let this flow into what it usually flows into I’m going to control the outcome I don’t want to talk to you like that I don’t want to get so angry that we can’t even engage in respectful discourse I don’t want to feel like my money is in control of me I’m not going to buy the shoes I’m saving for the house I’m not going to go off on the kids because they have no idea what the weight was before I walked into the house I have control over this outcome and to refuse to take take control of an

outcome when you have the ability to is a disservice to God growing on the inside of you God has given you wisdom God has given you Insight God has given you experiences and you are the only one who knows the fullness of what he has been speaking to you and when you choose to disobey that Vision by allowing your frustrations or your fear or your insecurities to not allow you to speak up when you should then no one is robbed more than you in that moment