WHAT IT TAKES TO WALK AWAY: Leaving your comfort zone to fulfill God's purpose for your life.

By Darren McClerren

We live in a society today where many born-again believers are overwhelmed with debt, tormented with sickness and disease, discouraged with marital and other relationship troubles, and exhausted at the things that fight for their time. Amidst all this confusion and frustration, some of those believers have lost sight that God has an awesome purpose for their life, while others have lost the desire to seek out that purpose, live it out each day, and embrace the amazing opportunities and blessings that it will bring to them. What It Takes to Walk Away is a book that offers encouragement to those who are tired of feeling trapped in the normalcies of their life; confirmation, to those who feel that they were meant for more; and direction, to those who desire to find and fulfill the purpose that God has for them. In this book, we will review the steps required to see manifestation of God's promises and provision as you journey to reach your full potential in Christ while revealing the lies that the enemy will try to use to discourage you, navigate you off course, and convince you to stay in your comfort zone because you don't have the time, money, or abilities to see your purpose come to pass. God has a purpose for you that is greater than anything you could ever imagine. But you must get determined to walk away from your comfort zone and trust God to help you fulfill the purpose that He has for you so that you live with the confidence, joy, and contentment that the search is over and the best is yet to come!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643495996

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WHAT IT TAKES TO WALK AWAY

Leaving your comfort zone to fulfill God's purpose for your life.

Darren McClerren

Copyright © 2019 by Darren McClerren

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Foreword

Walking away from anything can be one of the most pivotal moments in a person’s life. Most men are too cowardly to walk away from anything, much less their comfort zone to follow a calling they and others don’t completely understand. God prepares us with the tools we need to do His work. Several months before I met Evangelist Darren McClerren, the Holy Spirit began a work in me, personally, and I was not prepared to meet the challenges I was going to be faced with. I was, without knowledge, facing a What It Takes to Walk Away moment in my own life. I fought with God for months over a decision to walk away from a job that I felt like I was living out His will in my life by doing. My greatest opposition to follow His new will in my life was actually me. Satan, the deceiver, took a back seat to my own inner struggles, distractions, and as Darren so rightly explains in this book, discouragements from His will in my life. I struggled with God, and in the end, I found the peace that surpasses all understanding in the moment I turned my future over to Him completely. My wife and family took part in the difficult struggle to finally get to a point to where I was willing to allow the Holy Spirit to manifest in my reality and lead me to a new and improved situation.

Up until the point I met Evangelist Darren McClerren, I did not completely understand how easy it was to live the way you pretend to be, place your faith completely in Jesus Christ, and trust the Holy Spirit to guide every step you take. Much of my life, I was a skeptic and a logical nightmare to any pastor, teacher, or spiritual authority. Once I met Darren, I began to see modeled before me, the commitment to God’s calling in his life through his actions, claims, and obedience. Since the day I met Darren, I have personally observed a man of God that has a special Holy Spirit connection with our Father in heaven. I have witnessed the call placed on Darren’s life firsthand. Part of the calling on Darren’s life was to write this book. I have been impacted by knowing Darren McClerren personally, and I believe you will be blessed by every page of truth and insight into the word of God through a methodical documentary and literary approach of explaining how to walk away to a place where God wants you to be.

I am proud to call Darren my friend and brother in Christ. I stand with Him in His calling, and as he so clearly explained in this book, strive to be a friend to Him that he can count on and know that God placed in his life.

I am so thankful for my What It Takes to Walk Away experience in my own life and for my friendship with Darren. I believe your faith will be strengthened in God’s word and His promises after reading Darren’s perspective on how to walk away with confidence, just like Darren and I did.

Dr. Lin Wheeler, Ed. D.

Superintendent

Riverside Christian Academy

Fayetteville, NC

Introduction

One of the very first bursts of excitement that most new believers feel after having given their heart to Christ is a desire to serve God with all that they are. We immediately began to ponder the ways that we will make a big impact for the kingdom of heaven. For those first moments, we are focused and driven to serve, serve, serve, in any area that we can because of the overwhelming emotion of being set free and the overflowing joy that we are suddenly experiencing. But for many, that explosive desire begins to slowly dwindle as we return to reality of our lives.

While there remain fragments of that desire within us, the drive to pursue this most blessed calling has become virtually nonexistent. Jesus said in the Gospels that the harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few (Luke 10:2). In this book, we are going to explore how to rekindle your desire, find God’s purpose for you, and discover strength for His service that you never knew you possessed.

God bless you all and welcome to the journey.

Chapter 1

The Desire to Serve

June 16, 1987, is a day I will never forget. I remember rising up from the alter in that little country church at the age of nine years old and feeling like I had a strength and power that would allow me to knock giants to the ground by merely breathing on them. I just knew what I was feeling was radiating out of me so strong that I was probably glowing like a 100-watt lightbulb. I certainly felt free and delivered ready to face anything. I was now equipped with something that had power greater than anything I had experienced as a young boy: salvation in Christ Jesus.

I wish I could tell you from that day forward, I was a hard charger to fulfill the purpose God had for me and that I was allowing God to do things in this young man that had everyone around me in utter amazement, but I can’t. Rather, I had to do what everyone who enters salvation, no matter the age, must do, I had to grow. I had to not only grow physically, but I had to grow spiritually. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 3:1–2, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able.

One of the greatest feelings I remember after my conversion, as I am sure many of you experienced as well, was desire, desire to know who God really was and what His purpose was for me. Now desire is defined as: a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. This certainly described me. This strong feeling, this wishing for something to happen was burning inside me. I know now this desire was something I did not create, but it was God beginning His preparation process. One often quoted passage of scripture is Psalm 37:4 which reads: Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Many new believers interpret this to mean that when we attend a few church services, read our Bible occasionally, or tell a friend or two about Christ, that our wants for this life will come to us in ways we never imagined. But what the fullness of the verse actually means is that when we are fully committed to God and His purpose for our life, He will place within us desires that will glorify Him, fulfill His passion for us, and pave the way to a very successful journey here on earth. Therefore, may we all with eagerness, hold on to our desire to serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Our desire to serve God in any capacity is so strong at conversion because at that point we have went from being outside of God’s will to being right directly in the center of it. Psalm 40:8 says; I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart. If we have truly given our heart to Christ through faith, we will begin to immediately feel the joy, strength, and peace He promised that would come by having a relationship with Him. The receipt of His salvation and all the many gifts it brings is the ignition source for our desire to serve Him. So if we are then sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30), how can this strong desire to serve go away so quickly and not be sealed as well, thereby motivating us to serve to the best of our abilities? Let’s review four reasons why this happens.

Reason 1: Discouragement

Already you may be thinking, well, it’s because of the enemy, right? Well, before we start giving Satan more credit than he deserves, let’s first take a closer look at ourselves. The reality of a relationship with Christ is that it offers fresh hope and opens the door to be changed for the better. When you surrender to Christ, that is exactly what you have done, you have surrendered all that you are. God then begins to help you make the necessary changes needed to help you fulfill the purpose that He has for you. Notice I said He begins to help you make the necessary changes needed, not He has changed everything about us right then and we are fully equipped and know all that we need to know. If this were true, the Apostle Paul would not have said we were babes in Christ.

Just as we learn by growing physically in this life, we must learn as we continue to grow in the knowledge of God’s word, thereby enabling us to grow in Christ. Just think about how you feel when you start a new job in your career. Though there is some nervousness about meeting new people, learning new ropes, pleasing a new boss, there is also a great deal of excitement in meeting new people, learning new ropes, and showing the new boss what your capable of. After being on the job a couple of weeks and getting settled in, the roller coaster of emotions begins to level off, thereby giving way to purpose and contentment in our new position. Serving Christ is the same way. We are so excited yet nervous about our new relationship with Christ. Excited because we know that we are free from sin’s hold on us, heaven is ours, we now have the Holy Spirit and His peace fills us, yet nervous as we begin to imagine God’s vastness and how our lives will be changed to fully capture all the things that God has for us. But if we are not careful, this roller coaster of emotions that accompanies our newfound faith in Christ can pave the way to discouragement before we ever get to enjoy our new position in the family of God.

Discouragement in our walk with Christ often presents itself during the process required to grow in Christ and to know who He is and who He wants us to be. Successful growth comes from spending adequate time with God both in prayer and reading His Word. His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps. 119:105). But when we enter back into the reality that is our life that comes with a maxed-out schedule, finding time to grow in Christ becomes a burdensome obligation rather than the privilege that it is. Remember this, the more time you avoid with God, the more you will lose sight of who you were created to be! Peter concluded in his second epistle that we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18). Let me ask you a couple of questions.

Can you excel in your day job without learning new concepts and applying them for those in authority to see? Can you be a major asset to your company if you don’t take the time to understand their mission and their plan to achieve it? Of course not! Then how do you expect to excel in your walk with God, which can help you to use the mountain moving faith God gave you (Rom 12:3), and how can you consistently be blessed to be a blessing, if you do not take the time to understand the mission and learn the needed concepts to accomplish that mission and to please Him who is in