Shut down, Reboot, and Upgrade

I attended Total Deliverance Worship Center Sunday and the Pastor Dr. William Benson shared a conversation he has with the Lord when his ipad went down. He shared with us how when something electronic shuts down, in order to restart it you must reboot it. He further shared that there are also times when reboot will only work if you upload the upgrades. He stated at that moment he said to God, “Lord sometimes we shut down because of life issues and need to reboot to be recharged and then instead coming back the way we were when we shut down we need an upgrade so we can be better and more equipped than last time.”

The moment he spoke the word I knew that he had spoken a sound word. Let me expound on that if I may. Sometimes we are so caught up in self. Sometimes we are so lost in our own lives and distraught over our own issues or worse we are so full of ourselves and have forgotten about God that sometimes He has to shut us down to get our attention and because we are so far from Him we are clueless as to what just happened.

In our cluelessness we try to fix whatever has just happened in our own strength and it doesn’t work and the situation gets worse. Then finally when we can’t fix our situation ourselves we run to the church (the building where Christians gather) – notice I didn’t say to God. Because if we had run to God we would realize that we could get to Him right where we are at that very moment. You see there is a part of us that is trying to reconnect to the source, we just simply forgot how to so for good measure we ensure we get to Sunday or mid-week service, all tore up busted and disgusted. Then the gracious God that we serve uses that moment to deposit a word into your spirit reminding you that He is the answer to all your issues and furthermore He reminds you that you are to remain connected to Him regardless of the occasion, meaning whether good or bad He is to be your first place of acknowledgment. You can think you’ve arrived and leave God out and God will definitely shut you down in order to get your attention.

Now that He has your attention and you have asked His forgiveness for neglecting Him He is ready to reboot you – recharge you. He is ready to provide you with resources, opportunities, peace and provisions. This rebooting stage is an awesome time to reassess yourself in the Lord.

• A time to reflect on God’s role in your life.

• A time to reflect on how much time you spend with Him.

• A time to reflect on your prayer life – that phenomenal time where you and He converse.

• A time to reflect on your praise and worship time with Him.

• A time to reflect on the light that you are emitting to the world. A time to reflect on the flavor – the salt – that you are depositing in the lives of those you encounter. Meaning are you speaking life into those you encounter of death? Are you truly an individual who is accurately representing the image of Christ?

Then comes the upgrade stage. Once you’ve reassessed your connection to God you honestly assess areas that you can and need to improve upon and you seek God for the upgrades.

Upgrades include:

• a better prayer life

• a better praise and worship life

• a better committed time in His word

• a better internal commitment to living your life according to His word.

• A commitment that you will no longer be a hearer of the word only but also a doer.

So having decided to use today’s verbiage I am in awe as to what a phenomenal picture of just how we can use this terminology and apply it to our lives and embrace God in the process.

As I began I close – it’s time for all of us to shut down, upgrade and reboot and let God do what He do!!