PUSH: Don’t Just Ask God to Use You - Prepare to Be Used ~Tiphanie W. | October 2026
There is a season I find myself in right now that is new, a little scary, but honestly, incredibly exciting. I’ve been in church my whole life, but I’m realizing that you can be raised in church and still miss a lot. There are things I am seeing now that I guess I wasn't ready to see before. The more I lean into His presence and His Word, the softer I have become. The clearer things around me have become. But with that clarity has come something else: His voice, His instructions, along with His correction have each become significantly amplified. It feels like I’ve enrolled in a new training class, and God is the Instructor. He has given me a syllabus (the Word) to outline the course, but He hasn’t listed every detail. I’m seated in my chair somewhere between I wonder what’s next, I think this class is going to be tough, and I’m pretty sure the field placement is going to require some intense hours. And somehow, I’m more excited than afraid.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) That has become more than a familiar Scripture to me; it has become a way of living. God will often give me a singular word and then leave me to search the Scriptures for understanding. And yes, I am almost guaranteed to take at least one rabbit trail along the way.... but somehow, those rabbit trails have repeatedly led me to fresh revelation in passages I thought I already knew. I’m learning that sometimes God gives you the word before He gives you the explanation. The instruction comes, and then the understanding follows obedience.
And then came the word PUSH. Not simply “Pray Until Something Happens,” but something deeper: Pursue. Uncover. Surrender. Honor. Pursue the presence of God. Uncover the gifts, purpose, and calling He has placed within you. Surrender what is keeping you from fully walking in it. And Honor the assignment by actually moving when God says move. Don’t just PUSH for what God can do through you. PUSH into who God is calling you to become. Because sometimes the greatest breakthrough isn't what changes around you; it's what God is changing in you.
I’ve gone through these seasons before - times when life is calm for a while, or times when it feels like everything is hard. And then I either take His hand or simply go along for the ride while He is in the driver's seat. And when I do, life gets insanely wild, fast, and good. There is accelerated growth. There is stretching. There may even be elevation. But there is also opposition, and if I’m honest, I do not enjoy that part at all. Yet this time, something is different. My response is different. I’m not as desperate to understand everything before I obey. I’m not as shaken when things don't make sense. I’m learning to recognize that resistance doesn't mean I missed God. Sometimes it means I'm moving.
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.” (Psalm 37:23) Ordered steps don't always feel like comfortable steps. Sometimes they lead into places where our faith has to become more than something we say we have. Sometimes the lesson is correction. Sometimes it is restraint. Sometimes it is waiting. Sometimes it is letting go. And sometimes it is simply learning that God's way requires a version of me that yesterday's version was not prepared to be. “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction.” (Proverbs 3:11) I’m learning to receive His correction not as rejection, but as preparation. Not as punishment, but as proof that He loves me enough to develop me.
So here I am.... seated in this class, syllabus in hand, not knowing every assignment, but knowing the Instructor. And there is so much peace in that! Not just knowing where my help comes from, but walking like I know where my help comes from.(Psalm 121:1-2). I don't know exactly what this course will require of me. I don't know what the field placement will look like either. I don't know how much more stretching is ahead. But I know this: I want everything God is trying to teach me. I want to become everything He is calling me to be. And if He says PUSH, I'm going to pursue, uncover, surrender, and honor - one obedient step at a time.
