Saved...But Stuck

By Rodney Daniel

Saved but Stuck is an inspirational book using scriptures and biblical lessons to help people of GOD both embrace this dichotomy of loving GOD as committed Christians but finding themselves still being stuck in some area of their lives and unable to get past certain points of their individual struggles. Sometimes this bondage that they're experiencing is connected to internal struggles, such as depression, loneliness, fear, or complacency. At other times, we may find ourselves stuck in external situations--such as relationships, jobs, financial barrenness--or even stuck with issues within ministry. This book utilizes the Word of GOD to identify how we may have become stuck and then pinpoint the ways to gain and maintain our liberty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798885401104

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Preface

Introduction

Stuck on the Bottom

Are You Sure You're Stuck?

But What About This Other Thing?

This Is About You

Delivered but Still Stuck

Show Me Where You Became Stuck

I Think This Relationship Has Me Stuck

Stuck and Don't Even Know It

Gifted But Still Stuck

I Love God, but I'm Still Stuck

These Church Folk Got Me Stuck

How Can I Be Stuck When I Have All This Power?

Stuck with a Powerful Anointing

Stuck in an Old Season

Stuck in My Now

Are You Ready to be Delivered?

Sometimes Being Stuck Is a Choice

How Bad Do You Want It?

Castor Oil

Deliberate Pursuit

Let It Go

Resisting the Fire

We Think It's a Toy

What about me?

Stuck Again

Conclusion

About the Author

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Saved...But Stuck

Rodney Daniel

ISBN 979-8-88540-109-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-110-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Rodney Daniel

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

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Preface

So many others—including preachers, theologians, and other writers—attempt to paint an untrue and unrealistic picture to convince Christians and would-be Christians that once we make a decision for Christ, this decision will automatically and immediately result in complete and total life-changing freedom and rewards. However, as Christians make this commitment and still find themselves in any type of inescapable hole, then it often frustrates and overwhelms them. Christians too often don't want others (that they have no idea that are struggling also) to look at their everyday struggles and then question their salvation or make a negative determination about their godliness. Therefore, they hide or disguise their issues or pretend that all is harmonious and satisfying, thus pushing them further and further into that same hole. This book removes the Band-Aid and addresses the below the surface issues to ensure that we are aware of the precipitating events, the underlying causes, as well as the consistent steps needed in order to increase the opportunities for them to have an ongoing and bondage-free walk with GOD.

Introduction

Have you ever been stuck? Are you stuck right now? If your answer is no, then allow me a few moments to paint a picture or perhaps further clarify what this concept fully consists of. Afterwards, just maybe, you'll identify this concept as one that you have indeed been the victim of.

Have you ever just felt paralyzed and unable to move from where you were? Ever been held captive by any type of situation or predicament? Maybe there's been an issue that has caused you to become ensnared or trapped to a point that, regardless of what you tried, you were unable to free yourself. Have you ever realized that where you were or what you were doing was in no way helpful or beneficial to your life or well-being yet something still kept you there, unable to leave, stop, or move on for one reason or another? Perhaps what controlled you was something small and simple; or maybe it was something enormous, overpowering, or too complex to even explain or understand. Have you ever been unable to leave a situation or been unable to stop doing something and you couldn't understand why you were still in it or still involved with it? At times, you may have even questioned how you could've ever started this and how you're now still stuck there. Have you ever been stuck? Maybe you've found yourself attempting to help someone or you were trying to do what was right at that moment, but somewhere along the way, your good intentions went south and you found yourself caught up in something that you, even to this day, can't get yourself out of.

Have you ever wanted to straighten up and stop doing whatever you were doing or discontinue the lifestyle that you were actively involved in? Or have you ever wanted to free yourself from that lifestyle because, although you weren't engaged in it at that moment, you knew that sooner or later you would be right back at it again? Even though you had no immediate desire to, you knew that when that desire kicked in, you would be caught right back up in it because you were stuck. Have you ever been stuck in a relationship that you no longer desired to be in but at that particular time you didn't want to be without someone that you could at least pretend loved or cared for you? Although you knew they really didn't care for you as you cared for them, yet you couldn't stand the thought of being lonely, so you stayed because your tendencies and fears had you stuck. Have you ever been stuck in a job that wasn't meaningful, provided you with no chance of advancement, never fully utilized the skills and abilities that you possessed, and it failed to enhance your passion or potential? This job wasn't one that you could call a career, and it barely paid you enough to live on, yet you couldn't quit because you had nothing else. Perhaps it did pay well, but it still left you unsatisfied or possibly forced you to compromise your beliefs or ethical standards, and therefore you remained miserable, unhappy, and completely unfulfilled. In essence, you were stuck.

Are you still answering No that you've never been stuck? Is the answer No because your salvation is secure and your relationship with Christ is at a level that you currently feel good about? Perhaps you stand on the belief that since you are secure in your salvation, then being stuck is impossible for you. I know that where the Spirit of GOD is there is liberty, but even while resting in the liberating sweetness of His Spirit, have you ever found yourself fixated in a season of your life that should've been over? GOD operates in periods, phases, and seasons, but has your season seemed to last entirely too long? Has your season of trials, troubles, struggles, and mediocrity gone longer than it should have? Do you, even now, find yourself stuck at a season of barely getting by? Are you at a period where there's a constant revolving door of poor relationships, shattered dreams, unfulfilling jobs, or financial lack? Have you ever wondered, When is it my turn, when will this storm end, when will I ever escape this, or why am I still frozen in this cycle of sadness or inadequacy? Have you ever been immovable in an unyielding state of just wanting or needing something more? Have you ever found yourself wedged in a certain point in your life that you couldn't seem to move past? Are you, right now, glued or hung up in a situation that began positive but now has become cumbersome? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then you, my dear friend, like the rest of us, have been stuck. I know we're saved, but we're still stuck.

Can I explain something to you for a moment? At times, we all get caught up in the religious aspects of our salvation. This can be extremely dangerous. Please allow me to explain why. Religion often carries with it an intoxicating sense of entitlement, along with a false sense of potential and self-confidence. Please understand this: Christianity has always been about relationship and never about religion. In biblical times, the leaders of that day hated and plotted to kill Jesus because of this very fact; He came to destroy religion and replace it with relationship. The essence of Christianity is vastly different from the effects of religion that we often carry along with our salvation. However, true Christianity has a sobering effect on us. There is no exaggerated sense of power. We fully realize that the grace of GOD was the only thing that saved us and that we possess no strength outside of Him. We also know that with our salvation comes no supernatural power and that we're just as susceptible to some levels of bondage as the next person. We mustn't allow the religious aspects of our life to fool us into thinking that we won't ever get stuck. Likewise, we must never allow the religious aspects of our salvation to beguile us into thinking that we won't ever get stuck AGAIN. I know we're saved, but we're stuck. Sure, we love GOD with all our heart, mind, soul, and spirit, but still we're stuck. Some of the religious baggage that we carry causes us to think that we shouldn't currently be, nor should we EVER become stuck. This is far from the truth. There is and there has always been a liberating quality to the Spirit of GOD, yet that doesn't mean that some portions of our life, at some point, won't jam us up.

Can I explain another thing? There were certain weaknesses and vulnerabilities within us before we gave our heart to Christ that always allowed us and caused us to get caught up in something during our previous life. Whether it was immoral lifestyles, unethical actions, or illogical thinking, there was something within us that got us caught up in one thing after another. It led us to playing a game of Russian roulette with our life. There was something deep within us that always pushed us to that point. That thing within relentlessly brought with it the capacity for us to be held captive to, first, one thing and then another. But can I share a secret with you? Although our outward actions have changed since we gave our life to Christ, yet many of the internal factors have not. Whatever vulnerabilities we had before…we still have them. Whatever enticed us before, whether we realize it or not, still entices us. Whatever we were weak for back then; we're still weak for now. How we process it, and the manner in which we respond to it has changed, but on so many levels, the actual weakness never has. We still like what we liked; and what turned us on then, to some degree, turns us on now. It's still somewhere within. So the enemy will very often use that thing (that's still there) to ensnare us again. He doesn't care what we're held captive to, as long as we're captive. He would rather that we live a promiscuous lifestyle that we can't free ourselves from. However, if that's not the case, he'll take us being stuck in a relationship that has us weighed down with emotional bondage that we're unable to free ourselves from. It matters not to him. All he's concerned with is that we're stuck and can't effectively administer the ministry to others that GOD needs us to at this stage of our life. He wants us to be stuck, and he wants to use our salvation against us. He wants us to believe that being saved keeps us off limits from ever being stuck so that he can get us stuck again and again. He wants us so stuck that we're unaware that we're even stuck. However, this is the season to first recognize that we can get stuck, then realize that we've been stuck, and lastly to understand that we will get stuck again. Likewise, this is also to help us be able to recognize that we may very well be stuck at this precise moment. The worse type of stuckage (a new word I created for this book) is one that we have no clue that we're in. There's no way that we'll ever attempt to get out if we don't even realize that we're trapped. So again, I ask you: Have you ever been stuck or, better yet, are you stuck right now? If so, there's a definite possibility that before it's all said and done, we'll eventually become stuck again. So knowing this then, now we can embark on the process of Operation Liberation.

The entire purpose of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection was to ensure that we could live and walk in a state of liberty. Likewise, this was the purpose of the majority of the words, stories, commandments, and proverbs of the Bible; to promote freedom and liberty. Therefore, I know of no better source of being instructed about the ways to avoid, escape, and consistently walk in our freedom than the Holy Scriptures. So we'll allow GOD's Word to teach us GOD's emancipation concept. In this book, we shall do an in-depth examination of the lives of those in the Bible to learn how they actually became stuck. Then we'll look at how we can equate the issues and concepts in their lives to embrace our own bondage. Lastly but most importantly, we'll evaluate the steps that will be required to help us regain and maintain our spiritual independence. Proclaim it with me aloud; I'm Saved but Stuck.

Do you want to be free? I mean really free? We'll describe, within this book, various types of Stuckage (the process of being stuck) in detail and discuss how we possibly became stuck. The reason for this is as follows; if we don't know how we originally became stuck then it will benefit us very little to merely plan our escape route because, chances are, we'll again end up in the same spot. We must know the exact factors that allow us to become paralyzed, entrapped, or ensnared so that we can avoid repeating these pitfalls. The wisdom of my father (Bishop James Daniel) shared this modern-day proverb with me many years ago: Only a fool does the exact same thing the exact same way and expects different results. In applying that philosophy to being stuck, if we have no clue what got us where we are, then we're bound to do it again because we had no idea that those specific actions, ideas, or mindsets led us into our current state of being stuck. We see no danger or negative consequences in what we did nor how we did it, and consequently, we continue that same course of action, which will inevitably lead to the same results. Therefore, in this book, we'll fully examine what causes us to become stuck in each varying state and level of being stuck so that we'll have a working knowledge of both what to do and what not to do. Then we'll ultimately learn how to free ourselves from each level so that we don't continue in a constant state of paralysis, idleness, or bondage. Please understand that the less that we're stuck, then the more we have liberty to walk in our calling, exercise our spiritual gifts, work on our kingdom/godly mandate, and ultimately step into our divine purpose and destiny.

I admonish you, people of GOD; please do not allow yourself to stay stuck! It's one thing to be stuck and be totally oblivious to the fact that we are stuck; but it's another thing altogether to be stuck, know it, and do nothing about it. There's too much that we miss when we're stuck. There are too many people depending on our freedom and our liberation. People are counting on us, and we cannot perform as they need us to or to the extent that they need us when we're stuck. Our children need us free. Our churches, our families, and those that we minister to need us free. Being stuck is NOT an option. GOD's people are dying while we are enslaved. Their help is dependent on us helping ourselves. People are starving, giving up hope, and throwing up their hands while we're comfortably resting in bondage. People are hurting, worried, and tired of life. Teenagers are swallowing pills, and even pastors are swallowing guns, yet, we're tied and entangled and are okay with it. NO!!!! No, ma'am; no, sir. Absolutely not! So what, we're saved; we're still stuck, and that fact is too often keeping others from their salvation. While we're stuck, who's introducing our next generation to Christ? Who's ushering the backslidden back to the fold? Who's fighting for GOD's lost soldiers, who's rescuing the wounded, and who's helping the hurting? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! You've been stuck too long, and it's not okay. Where you currently are is not good enough. There's more to Christianity than our own salvation. It's time for us to get free so that we can free those that are incapable of freeing themselves. Someone that you help could very well save the life of someone that you desperately love. Someone that you fail to help merely because you're tired of trying could contribute to severely hurting the person that means the most to you. Why? Because hurt people hurt others, and stuck people very often contribute to the enslavement of others. Our society can't tolerate you being in your current state of stuckage for one more minute or one more moment. Every instant counts, and time is of the essence. This season is crucial, and it's essential that we act NOW. Without question, our salvation and our relationship with GOD is the most important thing in our life. But do we think He's pleased that we're stuck where we are? Do we think that He's okay that we're satisfied being in our present state of bondage? Being stuck is one problem, but being relaxed and at ease in that captivity further compounds that same problem. Christ died so that we could be free. So why then are we again entangled in this present state of bondage? "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1).

This is the time, and this is the season to walk in the mandate of GOD, to work out the purpose, the will, and the calling that GOD has placed on our lives. There is a demand for your call and a need for your anointing. Salvation is personal, but the effects of it expand outwardly. We have a responsibility to GOD through others to help our brothers and sisters that are in desperate need of all that GOD had implanted and impregnated us with. This is the season to push it out so that hurting humanity can enjoy the fruits of our liberation. Someone is begging you to get free so that they no longer have to stay stuck in their bondage because when we're stuck then often, so is our gift. When we're stuck, then to some degree, so is our anointing. Sure, we can still be effective in ministry and our calling, but can we imagine how much more we would be able to effectively assist others and how creative our mind would be to help others in their personal and ministry issues if we ourselves were free? When we're stuck, we're stalling the progress and perhaps even damming up the destiny of those who need us. Someone needing our push could be the next great thing, and yet they can't put that final necessary piece of the puzzle in place in their life because they're unknowingly stuck, waiting on us to get free just enough to use our gift to push them into their place of destiny. Therefore, the world is waiting on us to secure our liberty.

Likewise, we need to get free so that we can move into the next phase of our life. We cannot enjoy the fullness of all that GOD has in store for us until we get off this Merry-Go-Round that we're currently on. Are you ready? Let's look at our various bondages together. Let's learn about what we're currently stuck in as well as what others before us have themselves been stuck in. Let's use the Word of GOD and the situations in the Bible to help us also learn the methods that others used to free themselves. This way, we may be able to either avoid their personal pitfalls or perhaps use them to get out of something that we may be currently stuck in or, quite possibly, something that we may become stuck in within the next season of our lives. Let's begin this journey together, shall we? Today we begin "Saved… But Stuck.

Stuck on the Bottom

And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And He laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified GOD. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.

—Luke 13:10–17

The woman in the above biblical story had been stuck, bent over for eighteen years. She only knew "down . In all this time, she never saw the sunrise nor the beauty of the moon on a clear summer night; she only saw the ground. She never saw the stars nor the sky. She saw no birds, no rainbows, and no beauty within the world. She could only see the dirt, filth, rocks, and mud in her life. She never saw anyone's face, their eyes, or their smile—only their feet. She was acquainted with only that which was dirty and disgusting. After eighteen years, her vision was crippled by her position. I'm sure that she stopped even wondering or trying to imagine what beauty looked like. I'm also sure that she stopped even trying to look up. She had gotten acclimated, comfortable, and adjusted to her own limitations because she only knew down." Does this have any ring of familiarity to it?

Whenever we find ourselves stuck, our mind begins to play tricks on us. It toys with our senses and has a field day with our emotions and our inability for positive thinking. Time appears as if it's standing still. Minutes seem like hours, days feel like weeks, and we could almost swear that mere weeks are years that have passed us by. Whenever we're in a place or a predicament from which we're unable to free ourselves, life ceases to move, and this even more makes us feel as if this is the complete and total essence of our life. It feels to us that this is all that there will ever be because it feels as if it's all that it has ever been. Our mind stays on a constant roller-coaster ride with twists and turns, flips, and sudden jerks; keeping us dazed, confused, and completely off balance. When you're stuck and all you know is stuck, it's a saddening situation. When we're on the bottom and all we know is the bottom, it can have a debilitating effect on our mind. Whenever we're down, and down is all we've ever known since as long as we can remember, it creates within us a stuck mentality that further enslaves, not only our life but also our mind. After a while there's no looking up, there's no straightening up, and no getting up, because we've mentally adapted and adjusted to our stuck on the bottom way of life. At this point, our mind often causes us to fight, attack, and rebel against anyone that even, so much as hints that there are other options available. When all we know is down words of encouragement that are meant to lift us only seem to further depress us. After we've been stuck for an extended period of time, hearing Trouble don't last always only makes things worse. Trying to listen to, Tomorrow will be better hurts even more because today was the same as yesterday and we have no reason to think that our next tomorrow will be different from any other yesterday. When all our life knows is stuck, trying to process the words, You'll be all right makes us angry. If you're stuck on the bottom and your life is down nobody can tell you to keep looking up and no one can say for you to rise to the challenge. No one had better mention to you to keep your head up, stand straight, or don't bend under the pressure of life. No one should form their lips to tell you to stand tall, to look to the hills, or keep your eyes to the sky.

Can we examine the story of this woman a little closer and see how much this parallels our own life and our own situations? The details of this story include that this woman was bent over and could in no way lift herself up. This implies that she had tried, but she couldn't free herself from being stuck in this position. She couldn't rise above her condition. She tried, but she just couldn't.

Can you relate to this? Have you tried to straighten up? When your life was in a mess and you knew that you'd sunk to a level, or were in a position, doing what you had no business doing, didn't you want out? When you became stuck in your state of sadness and depression or loneliness and anger, didn't you try to fix what was causing these conditions? You wanted to get it together, and you desperately wanted to quit; you really wanted to do better and to be better, but you were stuck. Like this woman, you tried and tried, but you just could in no way straighten yourself up, get yourself free, pick yourself up, or pull yourself out. I know that you've tried, you've prayed, you've gotten people to try to help you, and you've gotten the saints to pray for you and to pray with you. I know that they've tried to pull you out, tried to force you to get out, threatened you with what would happen if you didn't get out, and tried to push you out. Yet no matter what you or anyone else did, you couldn't get yourself away from, or out of what you were in. You tried going cold turkey, you tried staying away from it, you tried to faze yourself out, and still you gravitated back to it because you were just stuck. You tried moving into a new lifestyle, tried abstaining, tried focusing on the potential negative consequences if you continued, as well as the positive rewards if you stopped. You've tried to do it suddenly, then gradually, in phases and stages, and still you found yourself stuck. You promised yourself that you would start over fresh tomorrow, that you would try again the next week, the next month, and even made it your New Year's resolution, but yet nothing helped; you were still stuck.

However, this is the huge point in this phase of our journey that I need you to hear. When you continued to try and yet continued to stay stuck, please understand this. Nothing worked, not because you're weak, and not because you're evil or a bad person. But nothing seemed to work because there's something connected to you, attached to you, and inside of you that has crushed you down. It literally crushed you to the bottom and you, my dear friend CANNOT DO IT YOURSELF!!!

In this story, it states that this woman "could in no way lift herself up." Often the reason that we stay stuck is because we figure that since we got ourselves in this position, then we're obligated to get ourselves out. This is far from the truth. May I share a secret with you. That thing that keeps you from waking right; that thing that prevents you from picking yourself up; that thing that has you bowed, bent, and stuck; that thing that has you crooked and pressed downward, and has you out of godly alignment; that thing that has you slumped; sad, crying, broken, feeling empty and humiliated… You cannot do it by yourself. You are now too deep in it. It is embedded too far down in your spirit and has become part of your nature. Remember, we said that after a certain period of time, we have grown accustomed and comfortable with it. It has infiltrated itself into the fabric of our spirit. We've gotten to the place that we even identify with it and identify it as a part of our life. We plan our day, our money, and our time around it. We factor it into our days off, our lunch breaks, and our vacation plans. Alone, we can't rid ourselves of it because it has become too powerful. It's been a part of our life and our life's routine so long that we're now at its mercy. Trying to get out on our own is how we end up drowning in our own mess because alone, it will take us further and further down. The more we pull back layers and go deeper all alone, then the more we get sucked in and pushed downward in those same layers that we uncover. The deeper we go, the deeper we stay because we don't have the personal power within to pull ourselves out of the hole that we ourselves have dug.

Please hear this again; You can't do it all alone. Before we receive any further information, advice, or instruction, please allow this to resonate in your spirit. Alone, you are powerless because this thing is in your spirit; it's in your DNA, and it's in your nature. It's too much a part of who you are and who you've become. It is not the total essence of you, but it has now become an official part of you. Stop trying to come out alone. Stop self-diagnosing; stop self-medicating; stop self-prescribing; and stop operating on yourself by dissecting yourself, trying to see what's wrong with you. You can't do it with merely the power that exists within you.

How are we going to fix this stuckage on our own when, very often we, ourselves are the reason that we're in the position that we're stuck in? Also, if we recall this fact that was afore mentioned, the same thing that got us where we are, we still have a weakness for it, and we still have a connection to it. We still are attracted to it and attracted by it, so how are we going to get out of it ourselves? Whatever drove you to that job, still abides within you; whether it's a love for money, prestige, or merely your survival instincts that force you to realize that the bills have to be paid. Whatever drove you to that relationship still holds a place within you, and that button can be pushed whenever the enemy sees that you've decided to do better or pull yourself out. It's the same with whatever or wherever we now find ourselves stuck. That which caused us to become entangled is neither dead nor gone. So whenever we make a decision, we merely awaken a sleeping giant and it ensnares us again and again and again. Now, I'm not saying that we're powerless or that we're destined to stay stuck forever. I'm in no way suggesting that we cannot emerge from where we are. You and I definitely