It's time to get it together. Each of us has an inner voice that has said that at one time or another. You may be hearing it right now. Your position in life is irrelevant. The tuned-in, well-connected young professional can feel the tug just as surely as the lonely retiree. At some point each of us comes to that place where we know it’s time to change course.
Listen carefully, and you’ll recognize the call for what it is—an urging of the Spirit. It is sometimes gentle, sometimes in your face, but this is what it is saying: Now is the time to move. Start doing what God has called you to do.
Jonah heard it. Abram and Moses heard it, and so did many others whom we will meet in the course of reading this book. There is no higher calling than living out the destiny God has for us, and we are talking in this book about how to get on board with that call. This is about getting back to when we were new in the Lord, with that fresh-from-the-factory shine and a heart burning to learn about and serve God. It’s about clearing away the cobwebs, getting back to that place where we are untarnished and undefeated.
Start doing what God has called you to do.
Remember that place? It’s where you were when you were so passionate about God that there was nothing down-town or on television or online that could take the place of reading his Word late into the night, no one had to beg you to worship God, and no one had to prompt you to sing his praises. It was where you were before the pains of living and the temptations of the world came between you and God.
Maybe you’ve never really been to that place, but you can almost feel, deep down in your marrow, what it must be like to be there. You know that spiritual riches the likes of which you’ve never known can be yours if only you will get back inside the will of God. This book is your treasure map, with a practical plan for getting there, for experiencing a relationship with God that lights the fires of passion within you and lets you become precisely the person he wants you to be.
We are not talking minor tweaks. This is a period in history when there are so many distractions, so many ways to get off course that, for most of us, getting back to where we need to be involves drastic, profound change. What we need is a reset.
Life Outside God’s Will
Let’s look at the symptoms that show when we are outside God’s will. They’re the unmistakable signs that God’s riches have eluded us. They are the things that cry out for reset.
Emptiness. So many people feel there is something missing, that the things that occupy them day in and day out don’t add up to a life that is truly worthwhile and meaningful.
Lack of Direction. Many people are simply unsure of how to set their rudders. They are unable to choose sound priorities from life’s many possibilities.
Lack of Control. Sometimes life is moving too fast. Our schedules, families, and jobs feel like foreign entities that buffet us about. We begin to feel like spokes in someone else’s wheel.
Frustration. This is the feeling that fills us when who we are and what we’ve become don’t match who we’d like to be and what we should be.
Fear. This emotion can overwhelm us. It may be fear of the future, fear of entering into or losing a relationship, fear of taking that next big step, fear of failing—or even fear of succeeding.
The common thread here? Meaning. When we are living without a sense of meaning, when we don’t feel like part of a plan, negativity and disorientation follow. And it’s clear that we are unable to make life meaningful on our own. That takes God.
The good news is that for all its power, for all the hold it has on many of us, the world is no match for God, and there is something powerful taking place that each of us can be a part of. In its large form it is termed revival. On an individual basis it is the reset we are talking about.
You are not reading this book by accident. Maybe you have already sensed a shift in the spiritual atmosphere. Maybe you have begun to reflect on your life, on what disobedience and worldliness have cost you. Maybe you have already sensed the amazing things God has in store for you and have begun to look at how the devil has done his best to rob you of it. Maybe you’re at the point where you’re willing to say, “I will do whatever it takes. I am ready to enter the kingdom God has already prepared for me.”
The good news is that for all its power, for all the hold it has on many of us, the world is no match for God.
Has it been a while since you’ve shaken off the dust, put a shine on, and stepped out with God? Do you need a reset? Does your marriage? Your job? Your relationship with your family? Your ego? Your outlook on life? Then you are in the right place. Let’s walk together through the steps each of us can take to reset ourselves, to rejoin God in the journey toward our proper destiny.
We will now look at Mephibosheth and Jonah, two people whose stories explore two sides of the reset coin. Mephibosheth had nothing and was called to the king’s table. Jonah had everything, and nearly threw it all away en route to a new sense of purpose. Let’s look at what they can teach us.
Mephibosheth: Called Out of Barrenness
So David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually.” . . . But Mephibosheth your master’s son shall eat bread at my table always.
—2 SAMUEL 9:7, 10
Many of us are in situations that make us feel constricted. We feel like others are walling us in and trying to limit us. Sometimes the culprit is obvious—a boss, a company, an overbearing relative or friend. Sometimes, though, it’s someone who means us nothing but good. Many parents smother their children with dreams and goals that don’t take into account the child’s talents and interests. Misguided teachers and coaches sometimes box young people in as they try to mold them or push them. Unfortunately, even the church doesn’t always create enough space for people. There are rules, regulations, and restrictions that have more to do with the convenience of those who make them than the protection of those bound by them. In some cases, those restrictions can marginalize, stigmatize, and even ostracize people. They push them to the periphery, beyond the chance for reconciliation.
Every believer should realize that regardless of where you are, no matter what context or situation you find yourself in, God is ready to manifest his plan in your life. If you have a dream that is of God, he will always give you the space to reach for it. He will encourage you to give your best. Adversity is no stumbling block. Nothing can prevent the will of God from coming to fruition. No devil in hell can stop him.
If you have a dream that is of God, he will always give you the space to reach for it.
We will look here at the story of Mephibosheth, whose story is told in 2 Samuel. Whether or not you are already familiar with him, his plight should have a familiar ring. We meet him in a place called Lo Debar. It is a place of rejection and ambiguity, a place people put you when they don’t know quite what to do with you. It is a place where you are misunderstood and often mislabeled.
In Hebrew, Lo Debar means “no pasture” or “no word.” This is a place without green grass—something common enough in the Middle East. There is no vegetation, no life. This is fruitless land, a place of barrenness. To add insult to injury, this is a place where there is no word. There is no revelation to be had.
A lot of people today find themselves living or working in Lo Debar. It can inhabit your spirit and fill your mind. You may be in a relationship that places you in Lo Debar. Or perhaps you have moved on and you encounter Lo Debar when you revisit old friends or your old neighborhood. Sometimes people put you in Lo Debar by attaching names to you that permanently define you as the one who’s outside. They may exaggerate truths or spread falsehoods. They often do that without a real understanding of who you are or how you got to be where you are in life. They don’t know your story, but they make assumptions.
It is just as true that many of us place ourselves in Lo Debar. Our mistakes, our assumptions, our arrogance or, conversely, our self-doubt may place us there.
But I am here to tell you that no matter how you got there, and no matter how dismal things may appear, Lo Debar can be the setting for your greatest turnaround. You may experience your greatest breakthrough there, for God has the power to meet you in Lo Debar and turn your situation around. Others may mock or pity you once they decide you are in Lo Debar, but they will come to learn that God is going to have the last laugh.
My ministry is in part about pulling people out of this place of victimization. It is about turning victims into victors. As we look at the story of Mephibosheth, keep in mind that you don’t have to live in Lo Debar, and if you do, you don’t have to remain there. God has the power and capacity to assure you that Lo Debar will not be your final destination. He can bring you to a place of blessing unlike any you can imagine, so that your life coming out of Lo Debar looks nothing like your life when you went in.
Understanding Why We Are in Lo Debar
After years in hiding and years of battle, David came to the throne as the anointed king. In those days, a transition of power and authority in Israel meant the incoming king could do what he wanted with those from the old regime. In fact, it was customary simply to annihilate all those who were in allegiance with the deposed king.
David, though, had felt great love for Jonathan, the son of former King Saul. Both had died, Jonathan in combat, Saul of suicide. When David took power, he wondered, given all the bloodshed, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” (2 Samuel 9:1 ESV).
Notice he did not ask, “Is there anybody qualified for kindness?” or “Is there anyone worthy of kindness?” He simply wondered whether there was anyone left in the house of Saul to whom he could direct kindness.
Ziba, the king’s servant, came and said to David, “There is one.”
“Who is he?” said David.
Ziba told him of Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, and told him where he lived in Lo Debar. He added the detail that Mephibosheth was “lame in his feet” (v. 3). David told Ziba he wanted to see Mephibosheth, and Ziba went off to look for him.
If we understand why Mephibosheth was in Lo Debar, that place of barrenness, we might understand better how you and I come to be in places that are inconsistent with God’s will for our lives. Mephibosheth’s dilemma was rooted in his paralysis. The Bible says that Mephibosheth was a boy of five when news came to the palace that Jonathan and Saul, Mephibosheth’s father and grandfather, were dead. The nurse attending Mephibosheth wanted to save him from whatever calamity might come to the palace, and so she grabbed him and fled. As she was running, she fell, and Mephibosheth fell with her. Most likely he broke bones in his feet or ankles that never healed correctly, and he was rendered lame the rest of his life. He was never able to progress at the pace God had intended for his life because someone got distracted and dropped him.
At the point where we meet him, Mephibosheth was living in less-than-ideal circumstances. Then Ziba came to him saying, “The king wants to see you.”
A Place of Isolation
Like Mephibosheth, when you are in a place of loneliness or fear, God knows it. He is aware whenever you are in a position where you are categorized, where you are called “other.” It could be physical. It could be emotional or mental. He knows the cause as well.
In the case of Mephibosheth, this misfortune could not be attributed to his own actions. His paralysis and stagnation grew directly out of the actions of someone else. That may be the case for you as well. There are many conditions you can attest to that are the result of things you’ve done to yourself, but then there are things that have happened to you because of someone else’s carelessness in your life. Many of us have injuries, physical or psychological, that were caused by the actions of others, either intentionally or not. All of us know what it’s like to be dropped by someone else: Someone made you a promise but then dropped you. Someone abused you and then dropped you. Somebody did you wrong and then dropped you. Those injuries may have induced paralysis of one sort or another in you. You are unable to progress at the pace that God intends for your life.
When you are in a place of loneliness or fear, God knows it.
So many people struggle today with some kind of paralysis. It could be a marriage that is at a standstill. It could be the inability to handle money. It could be a dysfunctional relationship. Emotionally and spiritually, there are many ways to be lame, to be crippled by the past. There are many ways to enter Lo Debar.
Once you are in Lo Debar, the people who put you there may want to keep you there. They must create a place that reinforces and reaffirms what you have been called, to remind you that you are the different one because if they don’t, you might well wake up and realize your real name, your true identity. But until then, every day you wake up, you are reminded that you’re the one who will never get out of this situation.
Lo Debar is a dismal place. It is a place of isolation, a place where you can be around a lot of people but still feel isolated. It’s a place where nobody, not even those closest to you, understands the depth of your pain or what you’re going through. Once that isolation settles in, there is an interrogation, the point at which the enemy says, “What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you have this? Why don’t you have that? God must not love you. Look, you can’t move. You’re a paralytic. You have lameness in your legs. Everybody else is moving on. Why isn’t it happening for you? Everybody else is getting married. Why isn’t it happening for you? Everybody else is graduating. Why isn’t it happening for you? Everybody else is paying their bills. Why isn’t it happening for you?”
Once the enemy takes up residence in your head, that kind of negative introspection can cause you to spiral even further. If there’s anything I’ve learned, though, it’s that you have a choice. You can go through a breakdown, or you can declare, “I’m going to get a breakthrough.” You have to make up your mind. You have to say you’re not going to let these thoughts mess with your mind. You’re not going to let the enemy make you believe that God has given up on you.
You Are About To Be Discovered
In the midst of the greatest frustrations, during the most oppressive moments of your life, God can step in, as David did with Mephibosheth, and give you a promise—you are about to be discovered.
Ziba showed up looking for Mephibosheth at just the right time, in just the right place. When it’s your time, God will do whatever is necessary to bring it to pass. God knows exactly where you are. You don’t have to pass out your business card. You don’t have to say, “Here I am, God.” He knows your address. He knows the tears you’ve cried. He knows the times you’ve been up all night long. Your Ziba is the messenger who shows up and tells your spirit, “I have come with a word from the king.” Your Ziba may be the man or woman in church who gives you a word, the neighbor who reminds you of your worth, the news story that impresses upon you how deeply we all are connected, the passage in the Bible that spells out God’s promise.
In the midst of the greatest frustrations, during the most oppressive moments of your life, God can step in . . . and give you a promise.
But you can’t hear God’s call if you are too self-absorbed, if you hurry in and out of church and don’t speak to anybody, if you act as if you already know it all. The fact is that you don’t know where that word telling you something is about to happen in your life is going to come from. Somebody you haven’t met yet may well be coming to bless you. You have to be ready, as Mephibosheth was.
Lo Debar is by no means where you want to stay. It is not ideal. It is not conducive to fruitfulness. It is a place of aridity, depression, and despair. It is frustrating and irritating. And yet there may come a moment in your life when God won’t let you leave your bad situation quite yet because he says your next breakthrough will not come in a place of ease and comfort. It is going to come right there in that place you’ve been trying to get out of. That’s why you can’t let weariness overtake you.
The King Wants to See You
Often the kind of paralysis we face is one of attitude. We become lethargic. We act defeated. We stop believing in ourselves and our dreams. God promises that in due season, you’re going to reap, but if you faint now, you won’t see the breakthrough. You must stay there until it comes, until you can clearly hear the king’s voice. They may not like you on the job, but stay there. They may roll their eyes at you, but stay there. Hang in there until the breakthrough shows up. Mephibosheth waited, and Ziba showed up, coming into Lo Debar. In this place with no word, Ziba showed up with a word.
“The king wants to see you,” Zilba said. The king wants to see you. Are there any more powerful words? When Mephibosheth heard that invitation, he did not ask, “What do you think I should do? Do you think I should go with this man?” He knew this call came from the king. He knew Ziba represented release.
When you’ve been in barren, bitter Lo Debar long enough, and you finally get a word, you couldn’t care less what people think about it. You pack your bags and get your stuff together and you say, “I’m out of here. This is my last day in Lo Debar.” And by the way, if this was an earthly king, if this was the president and he summoned you, wouldn’t you be certain to go? Why should you be any less eager or compelled to go when the King of kings is calling you to reset?
Verse 5 says, “King David sent and brought him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar.”
We often forget verse 6, and it’s one we need to remember: when Mephibosheth reached David, “he fell on his face and prostrated himself.” Too many of us come before the king standing up. When we are called by the King, we should come before him in a spirit of humility that reflects that we know we need him. He offers something no human can offer. He brings healing no medicine can bring. He has power no official can match. And God wants us to acknowledge that we need what only the King can give.
And so, David said, “Mephibosheth?” And he answered, “Here is your servant!” (v. 6).
David said, “Do not fear.” He knew Mephibosheth was thinking there was a good chance he was simply going to be slaughtered, since he was part of the old regime. David had every right to do that. But, said David, “I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually” (2 Samuel 9:7).
[God] offers something no human can offer.
Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?” (v. 8). Nobody had ever told Mephibosheth of his worth. He had been awakened every morning for years and told he was the crippled one and treated as such. He was the one who had been dropped. Nobody reminded him of his legacy. Nobody told him of his bloodline. He was just five when his father died, and he probably had only vague memories, if any. It seems no one treated him like someone who had once been royalty, as he had been—and you are, if you have been redeemed.
Greatness in Your Blood
Cicero once said, “To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain a child forever.” There is a generation of us who know nothing of where we’ve come from, and you will never reach your destiny if you don’t know your history. Mephibosheth was in that position. He referred to himself as a “dead dog.” He was unable to embrace what God was about to do in this life. He had been poisoned by a culture that had spit venom into his life, speaking negativity to him and shattering his self-esteem.
Are you in that position today? Do you come to church week after week hearing the Word of God proclaim your awesome destiny yet see yourself as a dead dog? Do you live in a context where people are telling you you’re not going to have anything and you’re not going to be anything? Have you allowed your self-esteem to be so messed up that the picture you see of yourself is all wrong?
You have vision. You have dreams. What’s more, you have greatness in your blood. You have destiny in your lineage. It doesn’t matter who rejects you or who labels you. You are God’s child. God gave Abraham a promise, telling him, “Out of your seed, every nation is going to be blessed,” and Jesus Christ is of the bloodline of Abraham. When I got saved, when you got saved, by the blood of Jesus Christ, you and I became part of the family. Just as Mephibosheth is a part of the house of Jonathan and Saul, you are part of the house of Abraham and Jesus.
You should be able to say, “I’m sorry if you hate on me, but it’s in my blood to be blessed. I won’t walk with my head down.”
You have greatness in your blood. You have destiny in your lineage.
You can tell when people don’t know who they are. It’s easy to see when they don’t know their identity, their destiny. It’s in their posture. They are despondent, always walking with their heads down. Walk with your head up, with your shoulders square. Let people call you stuck up. Let them say, “You think you’re all that.” Say, “I am all that! I am what God says I am. Why do you want me walking around depressed and broken and pitiful? That’s not my testimony!”
God sent you here. God has a glorious plan for you. God wants to change your destiny.
Mephibosheth went from Lo Debar, the place of no pasture, no word, to Jerusalem and the king’s table, just like that.
I have no logical explanation for it. I have no theological thesis to argue. I have no philosophical rationale for how this happened and how it continues to happen. All I can tell you is that when God gets ready to bless you, he can do it—just like that.
Out of Lo Debar
Your destiny under God’s plan does not depend on your past. The person you were ten years or one year or six weeks or twenty-four hours ago does not define who you are in this moment. Tell yourself, “I don’t have to be this broke. I don’t have to be this depressed. God is about to lift me out of here, out of Lo Debar.” Maybe you’ve been rejected; maybe you’ve been dejected. Maybe you’ve been forgotten; maybe you’ve struggled. Or maybe you’ve been wounded. People have lied to you and about you. People have consigned you to a place where they thought they could define you. I come to declare what Psalm 75:6–7 says,
For not from the east or from the west
and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
but it is God who executes judgment,
putting down one and lifting up another. (ESV)
Those people judging you are not the ones who matter. They do not determine your destiny. God is going to bring you to the king’s table. It doesn’t matter what has happened in your life. Something awesome is about to happen. It may have been rough. You may have felt like giving up. But God is calling you out of Lo Debar. Get ready. God is saying, “Your time has come. The king wants to see you. I come to snatch you out of Lo Debar. I come to pull you out of that place of depression. I come to pull you out of that place the enemy wants to keep you. I come to help you reclaim the destiny the enemy has been trying to rob you of.”
Your destiny under God’s plan does not depend on your past.
Whether your own actions or the actions of others placed you in Lo Debar, I am here to tell you the king is pulling people out of this place of victimization and making them victors. You do not have to live in this place. Mephibosheth did not ask anyone for permission. When the king wants to see you, you have to go.
Come out of Lo Debar, however you can. I’m not sure how Mephibosheth made it to Jerusalem to reach the king. He couldn’t walk. But when you need a breakthrough, you’ll crawl; you’ll find someone to carry you; you’ll do whatever you have to do.
Drop your excuses. Come before the king. Accept that the Lord is about to turn your life around. Keep telling yourself, “I am not going to let Lo Debar break me.” Believe and come before him. You have an appointment with the king. Come out of that place of despair and accept your place at his table.
Jonah: Resisting the Call
How do we know we’ve been called to reset? Often the first credible evidence is that we face resistance. God doesn’t call us to easy. He calls us to hard. We are taking his light and his message into a world that often doesn’t want to hear what we have to say.
But the resistance generally starts before the world even knows—it begins in our own heads and hearts. Let’s look at the case of Jonah, whose story any of us can understand. He heard the call, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me” (Jonah 1:2).
Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Kingdom. It was in modern-day Iraq, five hundred miles east of Jonah’s hometown in present-day Israel. So what did Jonah do? He got on a ship headed for Tarshish, which was more than two thousand miles in the other direction, near Gibraltar. He wanted to be as far from Nineveh as he could get!
Why? The Assyrians were enemies of Israel and Jonah didn’t want to take the chance that they’d repent and be spared. He wanted to see them slaughtered, so he ran away.
His journey has lessons for us. First, you’ll notice that it isn’t hard to find people willing to carry you away from the will of God. Bad companions are everywhere. What’s more, running has a price. Buying passage from Joppa all the way across the Mediterranean wasn’t cheap. Then, being outside God’s will invites storms, and Jonah and his shipmates were soon in the midst of a big one.
Jonah teaches us a major lesson here. When you find yourself in a storm, whether it’s within a relationship, at work, or among your friends, look at yourself first. If you’re outside the will of God, you may well be the problem. Jonah figured out pretty quickly that the problem on this particular ship was him.
“Pick me up and hurl me into the sea,” he told his shipmates. “Then the sea will quiet down for you” (v. 12 ESV).
When you find yourself in a storm . . . look at yourself first. If you’re outside the will of God, you may well be the problem.
Little did Jonah realize that he was about to be reset. It turned out that the calamity he faced—being thrown from a warm ship (it was comfortable enough that he had been asleep when the storm began) into the cold waters of the sea—was actually a blessing. Being tossed overboard released Jonah to his destiny. God had, after all, prepared a great fish to swallow him and transport him. And God’s planning had been personalized and meticulous. The fish was the right size and, more importantly, it was in the right place.
Provision and Opportunity
God will send us opportunities to get back into his will, even when we are running from it. And he will send provision even when it doesn’t look that way.
Maybe you were fired. Maybe you’ve been dumped. Maybe your financial situation looks dire. But you are alive, and the fact that you’re reading this book means you’re searching, that you’re open to God’s voice. Your calamity may simply be God’s way of releasing you to your destiny. Rest assured, he has prepared a place to hold you and transport you back into his will.
Maybe, like Jonah’s place inside the fish, it will feel dark and cramped. You may be cut off from friends and family. You may be outside a church community. Like Jonah, you may have no one to turn to but God. No friend, no loved one, can offer you what you need. There’s no one at the other end of your cell phone or computer who can lift you out of the hole you’re in.
But if you have cried out to the Lord, as Jonah did, you can bet you are being ferried to the exact latitude and longitude where God wants you to be. God has prepared your great fish. The Lord kept Jonah safe until he regained his senses and cried out to the Lord. At that moment, he was reset.
Once Jonah said yes to the Lord, the fish “vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (2:10 KJV). His yes—the fact that he had gotten back into the Lord’s will—became an irritant to the fish. Certain places and things aren’t equipped to handle righteousness. When you say yes, when you start praying, you will get tossed back onto dry land by your good-time friends who are not interested in someone who is running toward God. A reset will place you on solid ground.
Now, that’s not to say you’ll be pretty when you get to the beach. Jonah certainly wasn’t. You may well be covered in the things that were in the fish’s belly. Jonah, after all, complained about the seaweed clinging to his head. But such things are, in reality, the vestiges of disobedience.
Still, God uses people who are covered in vomit. He uses people with scars and old wounds. Those are sometimes the very things that give your story credibility, that show people that you were not then what you are now.
And like Jonah, who finally led Nineveh to salvation, you will be more useful because of your past, because of those scars, because of the things God has called you out of, once you have been reset.
REFLECTIONS
• Do life’s distractions sometimes stand between you and God?
• What is your Lo Debar? How does living there affect you?
• Are you running toward or from God’s will?
• Describe a time in your life when an apparent calamity actually released you toward your destiny and allowed a greater good to take place.