Why Isolation Leads To Transformation

What if being “the only one” for a while was the key ingredient to your progression? Pastor Sarah preaches “Not For Long” at the Woman Evolve 2023 conference.

Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First……. #boomchallenge

Part of my defensive defensiveness really comes from my desire to be understood, right?
I think at the end of the day, I am defending the idea that you don’t understand me.
It’s not about whether or not what I did was right or wrong. It could have been wrong.
But I wanna feel like you understand why I made the choice that I made because I feel like if you understood, then maybe you wouldn’t be so angry or maybe you would be more compassionate.
I wanna be understood. The only issue with wanting to be understood is that it often keeps you from having connection because it’s difficult to connect with someone who was so guarded and so defensive.
And I am beginning to believe that defensiveness is one of the symptoms of feeling like you are the only one, the only one who understands exactly what you’re up against.
The only one who could possibly be in your family who has any idea that this generational curse exists but also needs to be broken.
I heard my sister man talking about how do I go back home to my family when I know I have to break this generational curse.
And what I hear her saying is, how do I prepare my defense against the world that I’m going back in?
If we’re honest, some of us are thinking to ourselves already, how do I prepare my defense?
I’m going back into a situation defensive because I don’t want anything to be stolen from me.
And that’s how you know that you aren’t really sure that it’s stuck because if you were really sure what you experienced stuck, then you would know that no one could take it from you.
When we hear in scripture, things like this joy that I have, the world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away.
It’s because the joy that I have doesn’t have anything to do with the world around me.
So they can’t even access it.
I wanna talk to somebody who wants to do more than just have a conference where I go back and have to protect it.
But quite literally, I experience transformation. If you experience transformation that nobody can take. What?
Oh I feel like that is for somebody. I don’t want you to go back assuming a posture of defense.
When God has called you to move into a position of offense, you got some points to make baby, you’ve got some goals to make baby and you can’t do that.
If you feel like you’re defending.
I hear God saying that it is OK for you to be on the front line that I will be your shield, that I will be your collector.
When we say no weapon formed against you will prosper.
It also says in any tongue that rises up against you, I will condemn.
I don’t have to be defensive when I know that my God is defending me.
I don’t have to look out for myself when I know that God has my back.
What happened in this room was real? No one can take it away from me.
And so when I step into my identity, I’m not gonna go it like a little girl who can be robbed or a little girl who can have something taken away from her.
I’m going into it as a grown woman, a grown woman who had an encounter that will never change me again.
And yes, I may be the only one who had it, but this only one has layers and dimensions down on the inside of me.

This only one got a tap of the holy ghost and I’m staying close to the river.
I love this text because Lazarus at this point in the text is the only one in his circle who has experienced death and resurrection would have made sense to me if Jesus resurrected him to then just say stick with me.
Stay close to the power that resurrected you because no one in your family is gonna get you now.
But Jesus resurrects Lazarus and then leaves him back in the family where he is the only one.
Somebody in this room, you’ve been resurrected, you felt connection, you felt friendship, you felt sisterhood.
But we all know that at the end of the day, we’re going back into our worlds where we can often feel like I’m the only one raising this child.
I’m the only one that’s gonna be in this apartment by myself.
I’m the only one who’s gonna have to figure out what confidence looks like for me.
I am the only one and I wanted to study this because it shows me that when you experience transformation, that it does not automatically mean that you have company that God doesn’t mind transforming you and sending you back into an environment where you are.
The only one. Why is that? Because God trusts what happened down on the inside of you.
God trust the power that is down on the inside of you.
And I hear God saying I don’t know who you are, but I feel my help coming.
I don’t know who you are.
But I hear God say that if you stayed in an environment of power, it would give you an excuse to not unleash what I put down on the inside of you.
But I’m sending you back into a city.
I’m sending you back into a family that needs the power that you have been exposed to that.
This was not just so you could have play time, it’s so that you could get ready for game time.
And I want a woman in this room to understand that the games have just begun. Baby.
It’s time for you to check into your flight.
It’s time for you to close your laptop because it’s time for you to start being the hands and feet of Jesus.
I wish I had some women in this room who recognize that when the power gets in me And so that the power can position me.
I hear God saying the power, the power, the power that you experience, the power that you soaked up is meant to position you, position you and you’re gonna be the only one for a minute.
You came here with a group of women, but you’re still gonna be the only one because what God has called you to do no one else can do it.
But you and you’re gonna have to be comfortable being the only one.
This is not a recess, this is not the playground, this is the kingdom of Heaven.
And if you want friends, you better go back to school.
But if you wanna build something that matters, if you wanna break a generational curse, you gotta do it from the place of it’s OK that I’m the only one.
I don’t need anyone else to validate me. Jesus says I need not for man to validate me.
You’re gonna be the only one raising that child.
You may be the only one building that family. You may be the only one writing a book.
You may be the only one in your apartment because when you choose transformation, you have to withstand isolation.
Transformation cannot happen with company. Transformation takes place in isolation. And we’re gonna find out what stuck.
When you’re the only one, we’re gonna see how good this praise was when you were the only one.
But somebody received from the well And they don’t mind being the only one because they access worship that will allow them to pull from what God gave me.
That’s why we gotta give you tools, not inspiration.
Because when Sarah Jake Roberts is not here, you gotta know that that well is down on the inside of me too.
And if I create an environment where I don’t mind getting down on my knees where I don’t mind opening up my mouth, then that same glory will fill my house.
That same glory will fill my bathroom and suddenly suddenly I won’t be the only one anymore.
Suddenly, it won’t just be me.
You gotta to withstand this period of being the only one.
Jesus resurrects Lazarus then leave some.
He leaves Lazarus after he’s been resurrected and he just happens to be in Bethany and decides to visit them.
And while he’s sitting at the table, Lazarus is there too and while Lazarus is there at the table too, I imagine that being Lazarus in that moment must have been very comforting because I’m finally close to someone who understands what it’s like to have the kind of power work through you that brings you back to life.
Part of the reason why I wanted to name our chat together.
Not for long is because when Lazarus passes the test of being the only one, Jesus comes back.
Oh God, I feel you on this, Jesus comes back.
But this time Jesus doesn’t have to resurrect Lazarus again. This time, he can break bread with Lazarus.
Oh Because Lazarus doesn’t need Jesus in the same way. He needed him before this breakthrough.
The true experience in this place, you’re never gonna need that power in the same way.
Again, I wish somebody would get this revelation down on the inside of them.
This is not just a conference for somebody. This was a graduation to the next dimension.
I’m not saying you don’t need the Lord. I’m just never gonna need you in that way again.
Does anybody want Jesus to break something off of them that you never have to experience? Again? Spirit of fear.
I rebuke you. I rebuke every lie in this room that would make you believe that it’s just temporary.
All while you’re raising your hands, the enemy is whispering, you know, that’s not real.
You know, you’re going to backslide and I rebuke you in the name of Jesus and I call you out as the liar.
You are the same anointing that raised Lazarus from the dead and kept him from needing that power in that way.
Again, has touched my sisters in a fresh new way.
And when Lazarus is sitting there with Jesus, he is reminded that he’s no longer alone because God’s never gonna let you be alone for long.
God’s gonna make sure that he sends someone who may not have gone through exactly what you went through, but they understand the power that’s working down on the inside of you.
The women in this room are not just ordinary women.
The women in this room are reminders that you are not going to be alone for long because God is raising up women everywhere to take their places at his table.
And Lazarus and Jesus now because they have shared in this moment and they’ve shared in this power, they both have targets on their back.
Lazarus wasn’t even someone who was being hunted down until he experienced the power of God.
Who would I be if I did not prepare you for the fact that transformation puts a target on your back, it makes you stand out and it makes you an enemy to the enemy.
But I am reminded of Genesis three and 15 when God put enmity between the woman and the serpent.
And he told that woman in that moment that I’m gonna put enmity between you and the serpent.
And that at the end of the day, the serpent is going to bruise your heel.
But when it’s all said and done, if you would dare to produce, even with a target on your back, if you would dare to produce, even though you are the only woman.
If you would dare to produce that wholeness, if you would dare to produce that book, if you would dare to produce that ministry, then when you get finished producing, it’s gonna look so much like Jesus that it’s gonna bruise the head of the serpent.
I wish somebody understood the power of bruised heels, still crushing the serpent’s heads.
I wish someone understood the power of what happens.
When we recognize that at the end of the day, I may be a target but no weapon formed against me will prosper.
I may be a target. But because I saw my sister survive, I’m gonna survive too.
I may be a target, but you better watch out because there’s about 10,000 women who had the same experience that I had and we are making a commitment that she will not be the only one for long since I’m coming for you.
Since I’m gonna write my book, since I’m gonna start my in the street. Since I’m gonna heal my family.
You’re not gonna be the only one for long. You’re not gonna be the only one for long.
Not for long, not for long, not for long. God says, I’m gonna bring you your tribe.
God says I’m gonna bring you your people.
God says, I’m gonna put you at the table where somebody understands the power that you’re trying to get out of you.
God, you put power in me. But I need to be around someone who understands the power.
I’m trying to pull out of me. I need an environment where somebody speaks to my power.
I need a friend of someone who speaks to my power.
You’re in this room because I speak to your power. I don’t put power in you.
Only God can do that. But I know how to call it out of you because I got power working down on the inside of me.
And when I say come forth, what I mean is come forth power.
What I mean is come forth holy ghost?