frustration

Hello my friends! I know it has been quite a while and I have been M.I.A. I missed you! I haven’t forgotten about you all out there! So much has happened and I will give you all the updates. I have been also missing in action on my social media platforms as well. Thank you all for the messages, inboxes, and emails asking where I have been. I have read them all. I’m thankful for you and that you look forward to my blogs and posts. It means so much to me. I will be very transparent with you about what has been happening in my world. Everyone knows I am purpose driven. Well maybe some of you. It brings me great joy when I am fulfilling my purpose. I love helping, encouraging, motivating, uplifting, and inspiring. It is second nature to me and I start doing it without even realizing it. Some may get annoyed when I do especially if all they really wanted was to vent. You don’t always want to be encouraged. I get it! Therefore, I have had to learn how not to do that because I am not perfect. I’m still growing and developing. I even had to ask friends and loved ones to let me know before they start that all they want to do is to vent. I can’t always read minds. Lol!

I am the person who naturally wants to say yes to everyone who comes and need me. I will go out of my way to help even if it means changing my schedule or even pushing my body beyond what it needs to do. A friend often tells me I do that to a fault and gets annoyed at me for not making others aware of what I’m dealing or tending to with myself. Well a few months ago, God brought some of these things to the forefront. He told me to rest. I haven’t worked a 9 to 5 since I was diagnosed with brain cancer. I thought I had had too much time of rest, but He showed me that I wasn’t resting at all. I am often told that I am the busiest single person with no full time job they know. I was being pulled on emotionally, spiritually, physically, and other ways too. I was answering every phone call even when I knew that it was going to require more of me. I was carrying so much and I realized I pushed myself to the back burner. I wasn’t taking care of myself. It is important to have people in your circle that loves you enough to check in with you to see how you are doing in spite of the smile on your face and when the smile is gone.
I learned how to push myself and not give so much attention to the things I am going through. God wanted me to address these things. I had to tend to me. He reminded of my call, purpose, and assignment. If I didn’t start tending to me more, I wasn’t going to fulfill my destiny. That was all I had to hear. I want nothing more, but to fulfill my purpose and complete the assignment of my life. I don’t want God not to be able to use me because I am not taking care of myself.

You know when you get on the airplane and they start going through safety procedures. The steward or stewardess tells you in case of emergency, place the oxygen mask on before you help the next person. What good would you be to someone if you died in the middle of helping them? Well, that is the visual I was given. He told me loud and clear “Tara, put the oxygen mask on you first.” I had to take a break for God to pour into me. I had to tend to some matters of the heart and making sure I was really healed and healing. I had to learn how to really rest and how to be okay with saying NO. He told me “Saying YES to everyone is sometimes saying NO to you”. That is a SELAH! Just think about that statement. We often say yes to everyone except ourselves. People don’t always realize when they are pulling on you nor do they realize that they aren’t the only person doing so. I have learned to say yes to Tara more and how to allow God to take care of me in every area. I learned how to protect my peace more and stay in my “happy place”. I was also spending too much time on my phone and social media without even realizing I was scrolling. Some of us can’t even go a church service without accessing Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. I am not referring to sharing the message or broadcasting. We spend all day doing that and give God the crumbs of our time. Yet, we want Him to fulfill our every desire. That is another topic for another day. With all that being said, I’m ready now more than ever to fulfill the things that my hands has been assigned to accomplish! I’M BACK

♥ Tara S. Middleton

Are You Stuck?

Throughout my fight with my health challenges, I would experience paralysis that could sometimes last for weeks on end. I would be stuck in the bed and not be able to move. There would be times that I couldn’t even get up to go to the bathroom and had to get help to do the necessities of life. You can become paralyzed sometimes throughout different phases in your life. It will cause you not to even perform  basic functions.

Paralysis (according to dictionary.com):

1.To cause (a person or part of the body) to become partly or wholly incapable of movement

2.To render (someone) unable to think or act normally, especially through panic or fear:

3.To bring (a system, place, or organization) to a standstill by causing disruption or chaos:

There are things that you experience in life that will immobilize you from moving   fully into who you are in the process of becoming. Dreams, goals, and desires won’t be manifested. When paralysis sets in you can begin to operate in a way that is out of character. You can be driven by fear or panic and make decisions up you wouldn’t normally make. Instead of operating in faith, it can push you to make irrational decisions and not sound decisions.  It will literally disrupt life as you may know it. At times when I was paralyzed, I would be attempting to move my body. In my mind, I felt I was moving and making some kind of progress. Yet my physical therapist would tell me I was in the same position.  I would be so tired from trying to move. I tired myself out and went absolutely nowhere. Sometimes we think we are making progress and moving, but we are stuck. Some heart issues like unforgiveness, fear of rejection, and hurt can cause us to be stagnant. Healing is needed so you can experience life the way God intended.  There is nothing that you have done in your past that can cause you not to move forward in your future. Whom the Son has set free, is free indeed! There is freedom in Christ. You don’t have to bound by any sin or shame.

Mark 2; 1-12 refers to the paralytic who was carried by his four friends. They couldn’t help him so they wanted to carry him to the place where Jesus was located. They knew that his situation may have appeared hopeless or impossible, but they knew that nothing was impossible with Jesus. They could get him in the house with Jesus. It was too crowded, so they went up to the roof top. They tore a hole in the roof top to lower his bed into the house so he could be in His presence. They were determined to get their friend the help he needed. They had to think outside the box and the norm  ear one another’s burden, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:1). Surround yourselves with people who are willing and has the ability to carry you in the presence of God when you can’t get yourself there. Do not forget to be that friend or loved one for others in your life as well. Sometimes we have the people who are there to support, but do we offer them the same support?

This is a side note. To those of you who are still single (not married), make sure your mate can have the ability to catch you in the spirit and can carry you to His presence. Two believers can still be unequally yoked. The oxen were yoked together with those who could carry the same weight so they could reach the destined place or fulfill the assignment. Now back to the topic at hand.

 

The house was crowded with people. There were bystanders who watched in amazement to see the miracles that took place. People observed the friends carry the paralytic on the roof and watched the miracle took place. We all will experience times when we may be immobilized and seem like we may need support/help to get to the place where we can walk again. No one can function effectively by themselves.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-11

9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?

It is okay for us to let our loved ones know that we need help. Do not allow the enemy to make you feel bad for needing help at times. He tries to get us alone so he can prey on us. He doesn’t go after the pack of sheep, he singles the one that is alone. He looks for the ones who are weak to devour. Are you the paralytic who needs to be carried to Jesus for healing? Are you the faithful friends who will do what is required to get others to Jesus? Or are you are the bystander who is in awe as God and others work around us?  The awesome thing is no matter where we find ourselves, there is always an answer. There is always hope.  Don’t be dismayed or discouraged!!

 

Remember, leave no treasure undiscovered!

 

paralytic

June 3, 2016

2:38 AM

 

Tonight I jumped in the shower, well not actually, jump, these past few years I have had to use a shower chair. Doesn’t jump sound so much more interesting than shower chair? I think it does, but that is the author in me. My faith says I will be jumping in the shower any day now and we have to call those things that be not as though they were. Ok so now I’m preaching, but you don’t have to send me an honorarium for that nugget. LOL! So back to my story that was so rudely interrupted by someone who just loves to talk.  Tonight as I jumped (by faith) into the shower. I sensed that I needed to do something different. No I’m not talking about method of me washing this gorgeous hour glass 6 pack body of mine. (If I keep speaking it, it will happen) Usually when I get into the shower late night/early morning, I spend time conversing with My Father. He may be yours, but since this is my story He is mine. We can share though. I decided to do something different. I decided instead of the both of us talking, that He could just talk to me. All I had to do was listen. So I started to wash and just listened to what He Had to share with His beloved daughter. He showed me an image of something in which He wanted to expound. He begins speaking.

Then I said” Oh wow! That is why he said by the next time he sees me……

My Daddy says “You are talking. You weren’t supposed to be talking.

Really? You have a sense of humor tonight. Huh?

“And you still are talking.” he said.

I dared not speak again but wasn’t that some major shade? I just continued to wash and listened. Then my mind started racing to a plethora of different things. I was even thinking about a new shaving technique that I may want to try later today to go to the beach, as I was stepping out of the shower.

Then immediately God says “You are not focused”

I yelled almost at the top of my lungs “I am not focused!”

What is that I should be focused on right now?” I asked

Then immediately simultaneously he told me what it was and my vision board that was hanging nicely on my wall fell to the floor.  It shook me, not in a fearful way, but that I knew He meant business. This was a serious heartfelt matter to him.

The very thing that He had first given me to do wasn’t anywhere on my vision board. I thought I was already doing it. So I didn’t add it to my 2016 vision board, which is separate from my lifetime vision wall.

Then immediately it hit me after hearing God so clear. I had been praying about ideas that God had given me. He already told me that is was so I knew this is the season for those things to be birthed.  I was praying about hindrances, sowing seed, and praising for manifestation of those things.  I wasn’t given much attention to the thing he first assigned me to do. I had lost my focus. My focus had to be redirected. As I typed that last line I remembered God speaking to me about my focus in a nonverbal way.  I woke up in the middle of the night after having a seizure. My vision became very blurry than usual. Then it went black. I couldn’t see for a length of time.  I didn’t let it scare me because I had actually lost my vision previously when the oncologist and neurologist admitted me into the hospital for some testing. Then since then it has happened periodically. However, when my vision started to come back it was different than usual. It was really crazy for me to even describe. I remembered saying that it seemed like my vision was really off focus.

Then aloud I asked “God are you trying to tell me I’m off focused. What is it that I need to be focused on?”

He was speaking to me then, but I didn’t listen obviously. Until now, I debated whether I would tell what it was that I wasn’t focused on like I should be. For a moment, I didn’t want to be completely naked. I don’t mind being naked and unashamed in front of God, but wasn’t too sure if I wanted to be completely naked in front of the world. I wanted a few fig leaves to cover up like Adam and Eve did when they realized they were naked. LOL!!! However, I have to be obedient and that this will hep someone. I wasn’t completely focused on my first assignment as a minister, prophetess, or evangelist or whatever title in which you can identify.  I am not concerned about titles, but just the fruit.  If you walk in that office, the fruit should be evident. I had been focused on it because I was still walking in that part of my purpose. Yet, I wasn’t giving it a 100% like I used to do. I was having a hard time balancing with everything I had to do.  Then on top of that I am fighting the fight of faith for my healing and other areas that healing challenge try to effect and affect. I decree and declare that any areas of my life aren’t affected by it at all! You have to always make sure you are cultivating your gifts. Don’t ever get comfortable and you aren’t giving whatever that thing is that God has called you to do. We should always be improving ourselves.

God has called me to do a lot of things. He has given me many assignments and work to do. I used to ask God was he sure he had the right person and it was so much things that I knew I couldn’t do all of that. He quickly shut me down by telling me that I could do anything through Christ that give me strength. (Philippians 4:13) Besides, I am only the vessel that He chose to do this work through. Yet the first thing that He had assigned me to do, wasn’t anywhere on that vision board.I have to be real and tell you that I started to feel a little frustration the last few weeks. There are things that I have been believing God for years and some a decade and a half. Now the time by itself can cause frustration if I allowed it. However, I grew more frustrated because I knew it was coming from another place as well. The time wasn’t the biggest issue. Then the frustration began to grow because I knew that frustration could cause what you are birthing to stuck right in the birth canal. I knew the enemy can’t stop the plans and purposes God has for my life. However, the devil knows if he can cause me to be frustrated that I could delay my own manifestation. Faith is what is needed to birth what you are believing. Faith and Frustration can’t co-exist because the root of frustration is fear. Fear is the antithesis of faith.

Frustration can set in when you aren’t walking out your purpose.  It is like you have something on the inside of you that you know you should be doing. Sometimes you may not know exactly what it is and then there are times when you do know what it is you should be doing. I now know that was the source of my frustration. It came from me not giving enough focus on me sharing the gospel of Christ and teaching the unadulterated Word of God.  Sometimes you could even think that you should be further along. That is a trick of the enemy. That type of frustration sets in when you start to compare your life to other people. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! That is the trick of the enemy don’t look at someone else’s life and think you should be where they are now. Why should you be because you are the same age or you are older? Maybe you think you should be married now because you looked around and others are married? You could think that you should have a child by now or more children.  You have to know that you are where you are supposed to be.

Have you been frustrated? Do you feel like things haven’t been holding your attention? Do you feel like you should be further along in life? If you answered yes to any of those questions, it is an indicator that you aren’t focusing on the things in which God desires for you. Have some quiet time with Him and ask Him to show you the area in which you should be focusing. You don’t want to miss your season because your focus is off. Put on your spiritual glasses or contacts so that you can see through the eyes of faith!!

im so focused