Unzipping Life: Choice and Change

We store our entire life and all our details ‘out there’ in cyberspace. For the most part, we’ve nothing tangible showing what we keep ‘out there.’ Take, for example, zipped files. When you download one, it has all the information compressed in it. But if you don’t know how to open it, you’ll see a locked file and won’t be able to access or use its contents. You know it’s in there, but can’t get at it to use it.

We’re very much like that, aren’t we? We know inside of us there’s all the information we need to have every benefit and blessing of being who the Creator made us to be. We have to unzip the life God has placed in us to get to use and live that life fully. Knowing what we have potentially and releasing it are two different things. We must understand and use the two keys together. So, what are they? How do we use them?

Let’s study the two keys and how to unlock all the compressed blessings for our lives.

Key One:

“Freedom to choose is the essential likeness of God. It is the outstanding trait of God, of love. For love is only love when freely given. And the sovereign greatness of God is this, that He is absolutely sovereign in His power to choose. This stands out as man’s essential likeness to God, his full freedom to choose as he chooses to choose… Man will always remain in the likeness of God in this, even when he is wholly unlike God in every other way, through his use of this freedom.” 

So, the first thing is this - we must choose because we’re like God. Choosing not to choose is a choice. Choice is the first and continuing thing we do to unzip our life. We make choices every day. 

We’re made by Him in His image, and we choose to choose to live life as He intended.

OR

We live life in ‘quiet desperation’ and never unzip that file inside of us, and never see what God intended fulfilled. Why? Because we must choose to change to move forward.

Being made in God’s image, we actively choose to live life as He intended. Deuteronomy 30:19 All of our choices, moment-by-moment, are as important for us as they were for Israel. “…I have set before you life and death… choose life.”

Key Two:

The second thing we must see is that choice leads to change. Our perspective determines our reality. So, when we change what we believe, we change what we do and how we do it. Elijah was most definitely chosen by God as His prophet, but he’d have died if he stayed at the brook after it dried up! 1 Kings 17.

In God, choice and change are inevitable – it’s how we unzip life and live it to the full as God intended.

What would’ve happened if…

• Moses chose not to go back to Egypt after his burning bush encounter and chose to keep hiding in fear and remain unchanged as a shepherd.

• Paul chose to reject Jesus’ call on the Road to Damascus, choosing to keep persecuting believers.

• If you chose not to answer God’s call to you and hadn’t chosen to conform to Christ? Think of all the choices and changes you’ve had to make. What great results have you achieved by choosing to overcome fear of the unknown and pressing on?

Once we’ve made the choice to live God’s way, we find change must happen too. But changing isn’t comfortable. It can be fearful. That’s why it helps to recall all the great results you’ve achieved by choosing to overcome fear, like Haw…

“Haw realised again, as he had once before, that what you are afraid of is never as bad as what you imagine. The fear you let build up in your mind is worse than the situation that actually exists.” In the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” Dr Spencer Johnson teaches on change and how to handle it using four characters: Sniff, who sniffs out change; Scurry, who goes into action in change; Haw, who learns to laugh at himself and change; Hem, who stays hemmed in and afraid. Which character do you want to be?

Be encouraged, while God expects you to change, He’ll be with you in that change! Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”  With every new circumstance or event in our lives, we have to make a choice and change, whether minute or huge. “He knew it was safer to be aware of his real choices than to isolate himself in his comfort zone… Haw had to let go of the past and was adapting to the future.” We prepare to act boldly and adapt.

Unzipping the Inside

Your choices and changes are the two keys you turn to unzip your life. Changes will be happening inside you. They will help you to live your life to the full.

Here’s how to make changes in you easier:

• Keep things simple, be flexible and move quickly. Don’t overcomplicate matters or confuse yourself with fearful beliefs”

• Let go of your past and be willing to adapt to your future.

• Keep in close touch with your Eternal Source. The Spirit will help you to understand subtle changes happening, how to interpret them, what to respond to, what choices to make and what to change.

• Stay in the Bible as it’s the foundation from which the Spirit will lead and guide you.

• Respond quickly and trust God. Just as the captain at the helm of a ship is ready to make course corrections to stay true to the course, be ready to choose and change to stay the God-given course of your life.

The Spirit & Word in Unzipping Life

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth – John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13. He leads in all truth. How? Through Scripture and direct revelation that aligns with the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God for… doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction… so (you) may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Unzipped for an Exciting Life

An unzipped life is a life of adventure. Your choices and changes unzip your life. So, now, what does that look like?

What was life like for Elijah, Moses and Paul before their Choose - Change call?

· A fugitive who whiled away time at a wilderness brook

· A herder counting someone else’s sheep in mind-numbing monotony

· A persecutor harming godly people

Unzipped, each one had a God-given purpose and a fulfilling life that still impacts us today.

And you made the Choose - Change decision to give your life to God. As you continue that Choose - Change work expect amazing things!

Whatever plans God has for you in your unzipped life, be assured it will be a full life. You will make a difference in this world. Use the resources below to help you on your way!

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