Single In God

By Michelle M

Single In God is a journey inspired by the ups and downs of life, looking to be loved and to feel whole. After being left broken-hearted and going through a series of bad relationships, the road has led to this question: "Who am I and why am I here?" 

Get ready to be taken on a journey of self-discovery, finding answers to one's identity and purpose. Who is God in our lives and what connects us to Him? Why do we go through what we go through? 

Learn to have good relationships and finally be able to have a well-balanced lifestyle. As a single woman and mother, the author believes in being the best version of yourself by being single and whole before you commit to others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michelle M
• Release date: Jan 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215230954

Book preview

THE WILDERNESS

Exodus 13:17

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.

The wilderness is usually defined as a large area of land that has never been developed or used for growing crops. This is often because it is difficult to live there. A wilderness area is one where it is not permitted to build houses or roads. It can also be defined as a place that people do not take care of or control. In politics, it is when a person is no longer in an important position.

From this definition we understand that although the wilderness may be a place of discomfort, it is definitely a place that you pass through. It is not meant for a person to settle there but a passage to a destination. You cannot be in the wilderness until you know where you are headed. Some people may mistake their Egypt for the wilderness and spend hundreds of years in the wrong place.

The wilderness is meant to pass, it is also meant to be a place where you grow, learn and improve but most importantly, it is a place where you build character. It is also important to understand that each person’s wilderness lasts as long as they are willing to be obedient. For you to go through the wilderness you have to be different, you have to be the kind of person that is not afraid to stand out or stand up. If we look at the biblical characters who went through the wilderness, we can see a common factor about them. They were peculiar – Joseph was a dreamer who was sold by his brothers because of jealousy. He never stopped dreaming and interpreting his dreams from the pit to the palace. Although the situation didn’t favour him, he knew who he was and he knew his purpose and that he would rise in position and his brothers would one day bow at his feet. He also resisted Potiphar’s wife and landed in jail, but that did not stop him from being who he was created to be. He served time in jail and interpreted dreams (talk about being bright in the corner where you are), and went on to become the prime minister of Egypt.

Moses killed an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew – one of his own people – he also tried to mediate between two Hebrews who were fighting. He knew in his heart that was what he was called for; as a mediator for his people. Even after he fled to Midian, afraid of being killed by Pharaoh, by the well he rescued the priests’ daughters from shepherds who were driving the flock away. It is no surprise that Moses would become the mediator of the Israelites in front of Pharaoh and God.

David, a shepherd boy anointed to be a king at a young age, was not his father’s favourite son. He did what any good shepherd does – protect the flock by killing anything that came before the flock. He went on to kill a lion, a bear and even Goliath who mocked the name of God. Like a true shepherd, he fought for Israel and went through a lot of trials. At one point, he had to run for his life because King Saul, who was ruler at the time, became jealous of David’s victories. King Saul wanted him dead, but David would run and hide from Saul because he refused to kill an anointed king of God. David became King of Israel.

The list goes on, but the point is that the wilderness is tied to a purpose. Without a purpose you cannot say just because you are going through hard times, you are in the wilderness. The wilderness is not meant to be a punishment to human kind; it is a way of bringing human kind to its fullness, your best self. It is a way to prepare you for the blessings of your destination, with the understanding that with every promotion comes work.

If you are a persistent person you know no matter how hard life gets, you will still remain the same and you won’t allow situations or conditions to change who you are. That is how you build character – with consistency! Whether you like it or not, whether you feel like it or not, you will still do what you are called to do. You give when you have nothing left to give, you kill the lion when you know that it could kill you, you help the priest’s daughters while you are on the run.

The wilderness is basically a school to learn how to live a purpose driven life, only when you pass you can actually walk into the Promised Land. Don’t be fooled, you cannot get the blessings if you don’t pass the test. Some people die in the wilderness if they aren’t careful or aware of the challenges that set them up for the blessings. Some die because they refuse to leave what is behind. They reminisce about a prison like Egypt and get stuck in the prison of their own minds. They also refuse to listen to what God has to say, even though He is the cloud by day and fire by night. They are too blind to see that although you may live in a tent, provision is always at hand to cater for every need.

Like the many Israelites who did not reach the Promised Land, there are many people today who still refuse to listen or hear the call. People don’t want to acquire knowledge; they make excuses and follow crowds instead of finding the truth for themselves. They would rather die in prison of poverty, impurity, blaspheming God and creating their own beliefs that they have no knowledge of its roots. People would rather respond to lusts, be in debt and slave away their whole lives working for someone who spends their lives on holiday; because according to the society we live in, that kind of slavery is called ‘having security’.

How secure is it to live a life where you will retire at the age of 65, with a lump sum that you will spend in less than two years? What about the legacy that you have to build for your children or your children’s children? Are you not aware that money is supposed to work for you and not you work for it? When will our people realise the only way to be free indeed is if you live a life of abundance? John 10:10 the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

The life Jesus was talking about was a life He died for! A life of peace, purpose and fulfilment, not a mediocre life where you wake up, go to a job you don’t even like only to come back angry, tired, depressed, have dinner and do it again the next day for the rest of your life. Let’s look at definitions of what the words life and abundance really mean.

Life – The ability to breathe, grow, reproduce. The state of being alive, an individual’s existence. So we understand that breathing is the ability to inhale and exhale. But do you know that the term ‘to breathe life into something’ means to introduce new ideas and making people more interested? To grow on the other hand is to increase in size, number or quality and to develop skills. To reproduce is to make a copy of a picture, a piece of text. It is also to make something happen the same way, therefore we have the ability to create more of us (human beings). Being alive is to be full of emotions, excitement and activity, to show interest. An individual is a separate entity, separate from a group. To exist is to be real, to be present in a place or situation.

Abundance- A large quantity that is more than enough. Large is something that is big in size, it can also mean something that is whole. It can also mean someone or an animal that is at large (they are free). Quantity is a number or an amount of, while more is defined as a lot of, continuing to be larger in number. Enough is used before plural or uncountable nouns to mean ‘as many or as much as needed or wanted’. It means sufficient, also means to the necessary degree.

Therefore Jesus says He has come to enable you to breathe life into new ideas, make people more interested, grow in size, number or quality and develop skills. He has come to reproduce either your work or people in the same way you were produced and be full of emotions or excitement. Showing interest to activities as a separate entity, you must be real and present in places or situations with large quantities, and be whole and free. You must continue to be larger in number as many or as much as needed, or as much as you want to the necessary degree.

After Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. Immediately after that Jesus was led into the wilderness where he was tempted for forty days by the devil (Luke 3 and 4).

Jesus’ wilderness lasted only forty days and forty nights while the Israelites spent forty years. The significance of this number is the number of sifting, to examine very carefully in order to decide what is important or useful, or to find important evidence. To remove what you do not want from a substance or to separate what you don’t want from a variety of things you need. So the wilderness is a time of sifting and such a time has a beginning and an end. It can never be more than a set time or less. Just like Noah, the flood kept coming for forty days. God was sifting what He needed from what He didn’t want.

The wilderness cannot be more than the time God has set for you. With this understanding we know that the problems or hardships we go through for years on end without any progress or results is not really the wilderness. In order to be in the wilderness you have to be led into it. It is involuntarily done so by God Himself.

When the time is right and God has made Himself known to you, gave you a vision/ showed you the Promised Land/ purpose, He leads you to it and you find yourself alone, confused, in doubt and most likely you want to give up. You start believing lies when the people say the God you speak of doesn’t exist or the words you heard were from the enemy. You get to a point where you doubt God’s voice and everything He ever taught you.

This is a point where depression kicks in, drugs, alcohol or any coping mechanism you develop. You feel like you are regressing only because the enemy tells you that you are not the one, you are not chosen and that you have been living a lie. The enemy convinces you or entices you to go back to how you lived before, only because he is trying to steal, kill and destroy your future. But God who is rich in mercy, gives you grace that is sufficient every day. Once you humble yourself and go before the throne of grace, and cry out to Abba father to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you of all these thoughts, He answers your prayers. This is because your sins of days before and sins of days to come are covered by the blood of Jesus in full repentance. So you go back not to use grace as a license to sin but use it as a license to get better and be better even if the situation or circumstances around you are not better.

The problems we face in this world and the burdens we carry are NOT the wilderness. It is important to know that we are a product of our own doing. The seeds we sow are direct results of the lives we live. We then ask why a loving God allows an eight-year-old little girl to be molested, or how He allows a brother to kill his own brother. Why does He allow people to fight, hate, or be corrupt or women to abort their own children?

The answer is that God doesn’t want people to hurt each other. Jesus said the greatest commandment out of all is ‘Love God and love people’ because if you love God you will know that the heart of God is His people. When we understand that, we will understand how hard it is for a father to watch his own kids kill each other and having to take sides. We will understand how hard it is for him to watch his baby girl being raped or molested without any help. It boggles the mind how we turn against each other and allow things like the shade of a skin determine who is better or bigger but we claim to be blood washed by the same person.

God created us in His image and breathed into us His Spirit, and formed us in a body to live here on earth. Before we were lost in Adam, we were found in Jesus. See, when the Earth was formless and darkness was over the surface, there would not have been hope for us if God did not say, Let there be light. John 1:4 reads, For in Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. It was Word that was called by God when He said in Genesis 1:3, Let there be light to outshine darkness.

For as long as we focus on the light, the shadows remain behind, the Word becoming flesh and made His dwelling among us. Darkness cannot comprehend the power He possesses, for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Yet we as mere mortals limit and reduce Him to less than the creator of the universe, the one who can send fire to consume you in a matter of seconds, or open up the Earth to swallow you. He is the very same God who breathed into mere mortals who were made a little lower than heavenly beings and crowned with glory and honour. We mock Him, we don’t believe in Him, we keep spitting at His image by continuously violating it. We steal from the temple and we make others thieves by leaving the door unlocked and unattended, making it easy for them to come and violate us and then we cry wolf.

Obedience is better than sacrifice. We live in a world where education is free in jail, and yet children who come from poor backgrounds don’t have the means of paying for an education, and stay home to suffer and scrape to get their next meal. While a prisoner who violates and kills people gets three meals a day, education, counselling and free hospital care.

Our world is so twisted we get excited when the leaders of our countries erect R20 million worth of statues and leave our people in shacks, then have the guts to come to these shacks to come and ask for votes while misusing the tax payer’s money. Surprisingly, we vote for them and keep them in power. We are our own worst enemies; we don’t care for what goes on around us or take interest in politics because as we say, it has nothing to do with us.

We have no interest in our economy; we watch it fluctuate, the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. There is no budget for small business owners or artists but there