Shift Your Life: Let Go of Survival Mode, Seize Your Moment, and Build the Future You Were Created for - Couverture rigide

Giles, Joshua

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 059360265X ISBN 13 : 9780593602652

Editeur : Bantam Dell Publishing Group, Div of Random House, Inc, 2026

Synopsis

An inspiring and practical catalyst to break out of survival mode and walk in the fullness of God’s plan for your life—from the New York Times bestselling author of When God Speaks.

“This book will stir your faith and push you—fearlessly—into the next chapter God has for you. What Heaven starts, hell can’t stop.”—Kimberly Jones-Pothier (Real Talk Kim), author and pastor of Limitless Church

With so much happening in the world, we are carrying more than we ever expected—pressure, responsibilities, unanswered questions, and the weight of discerning what matters most in uncertain times. But there is a revelation to be found right where you are.

Pastor, prophet, and bestselling author Joshua Giles weaves together spiritual and behavioral insights to help you move out of survival mode and into the life God is calling you to live. Discover how to

• identify and break free from survival mode’s gravitational pull
• let go of the past and begin dreaming again about your future
• understand the transitions between your night and day seasons—and receive the promises and blessings in both
• recognize spiritual resistance at pivotal moments and respond with wisdom, authority, and faith
• design your environment to better support your calling

This message is a catalyst to awaken you to the gifts and opportunities around you and build the future God has planned.

Your moment is here. It’s time to shift your life.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Joshua Giles is the lead pastor of Kingdom Embassy Worship Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a New York Times bestselling author and a sought-after conference speaker, preacher, teacher, and psalmist. Giles is the founder and visionary of the highly acclaimed Mantle Conference, which gathers up to thirty thousand people annually. He brings hope and spiritual insight to millions of viewers worldwide through his regular livestreams. A humanitarian and international speaker, he has traveled to more than thirty-five nations on prophetic missions.

Extrait. © Reproduit sur autorisation. Tous droits réservés.

1

Survival Mode

I can still hear the sound of my dad preaching over the muffled JBL speakers jimmy-­rigged to a corded Shure microphone. The sound mixer was a monster of a board from the seventies. Not one of us knew how to work it, but nobody could say we weren’t expert producers.

“Can I get a witness, somebody?” he shouted to our congregation of no more than twenty people. The crowd shouted back with amens and hallelujahs and an occasional preach the Word, pastor! It was 1999, and we were in a small church building with peeling white paint and a tiny steeple with a cross at the top. The building was positioned on five acres of land in the boonies of Durham, North Carolina. We had passionate Pentecostal church services—­shouting, jumping, running, singing, and dancing. I was a young kid but actively involved, by force and by choice.

Our church was so country that if you wanted to use the bathrooms you had to walk outside down a path on either side of the building to a room reminiscent of an outhouse. You never knew what you were going to find when you walked through the restroom door—­bugs, flies, mosquitoes, and the worst: long-­legged spiders and crickets.

My brothers and I served as the Everything Committee. There were four of us. I was the youngest. Whatever needed to be done, we were called on to do it. Because we could sing and play instruments, we were the music ministry. Two of us sang, and the other two played drums and keys. No one taught us; we weren’t musically trained. Our musical abilities came from God. And the sound drew people from around the state and put us in demand as requested musical guests in many churches.

From singing to cutting the grass at the church, we did it all. I remember having to use push lawn mowers for those five acres because we had no riding mowers. We’d walk over snakes and see all kinds of critters in that open field. I hated cutting the grass at the church. Nevertheless, it had to be done. As a young kid, serving on the Everything Committee taught me work ethic, dedication, commitment, and a love for serving. Cleaning those horrible outhouse-­like bathrooms at the church taught me how to pray. I laugh at it now, but it was prayer alone that got me through that.

Although we struggled as a family—­had conflict and ­hardship—­ we had community. We had each other, and that’s what was most important. All in all, for a short period, it was bliss . . . until it wasn’t. My parents preached passionately, we fed the homeless in the community, and we showed active love to our small congregation. But by the time I was a youth minister in the church, I had a personal crisis because while we were preaching about God’s provision, we were losing everything we had.

My mom worked so hard to see us move from renting our dumpy small apartment with no carpet to owning a townhome in a nice area. Our church could not afford to pay my parents a pastor’s salary, so they worked other jobs too. At times, my mom worked two jobs and managed her own personal business to make sure we had what we needed. Though he tried, my dad had a hard time keeping consistent employment. During one of those periods when he wasn’t working and we couldn’t afford the household expenses, our house went into foreclosure. We lost everything. For just over a year, we were homeless. We slept on floors, on couches, and at the houses of whoever would allow us to crash with them for the moment.

Our family vehicle was repossessed again. We had no home and no vehicle. Piling into other people’s cars with eight people (my two small cousins lived with us at the time) was no joke. We would make it to our destination sitting on top of one another. People were kind but pretty soon grew fed up with the disruption and we would have to find somewhere else to go.

A Crisis of Faith

We were going through one of the worst seasons of our lives, all the while singing about God’s provision, preaching about how God would restore a person’s life, and witnessing about how people’s lives would be so much better as Christians. I was devastated, was bewildered, and believed that what we were going through must be because God just wanted us to suffer. I would soon find out that I wasn’t in a financial crisis or going through some family predicament or housing situation; I was in a crisis of faith. How could God allow this? I knew Scripture, prayed, praised Him, and even begged Him to the point of tears to help our family. I was living in a personal tension because I wholeheartedly loved God but I didn’t understand why He wouldn’t intervene the way I wanted. I was going through a necessary trial that challenged my faith and taught me many lessons. I learned that every personal crisis has these three stages: tension, turbulence, and a turning point.

Tension

One of the first signs of a personal crisis is a feeling of tension. Tension shows up when what we believe doesn’t quite line up with what we see. For me, I knew that God was a provider—­ I absolutely believed with all my heart that He was taking care of us and had a plan to favor us, but I couldn’t see it. We were good people doing good things. I didn’t understand why all this was happening to us. Life presented itself as a contradiction, a paradox: If God was so good (and He totally is), then why would I have to go through such a horrible trial? If you reap what you sow, as the Bible teaches, then why after sowing good seed into people’s lives were we reaping such a bad harvest?

Through maturity and developing a close relationship with the Holy Spirit, I would soon learn that some trials can’t be avoided but will work out for good in the end. If it’s not good yet, then God’s not done yet (Romans 8:28). Still, when you’re in a tension-­filled crisis, it doesn’t feel like it will get better.

We feel tension when our beliefs don’t match our reality. The in-­between period from prophetic word (when you’ve received a vision or idea from God about your future) to promise (the manifestation of it) can feel like you’re living in the worst season of your life.

But tension doesn’t mean you’re stuck. Instead, it can be an invitation to look ahead and begin to prepare for the next season. Tension teaches you to shore up what you really believe, to hold on to the original promise, word, or idea that God gave you. Like exercise, tension is necessary for health and growth. It’s a part of the process and a necessary stage of a crisis.

Turbulence

Tension often gives way to emotional turbulence, like a plane ride when there is rough air, bumps, shaking, and, at times, distress. At this stage, you experience panic and fear, and your outlook fluctuates between positive and negative. This is the point of a crisis where things are most volatile and unsettled, when we experience extreme disappointment, frequent arguments, discord, or negative speech.

The downside of this stage is that it repeats itself several times until the plane lands and life settles. The best thing to do is stay seated and buckle up. This means to stay grounded in what you know. Hold on to the truth of who you are and who God is and don’t let go. The crises that happen to us can be so difficult that if we’re not careful, they can completely steal our dreams. They can take away our passion, vitality, and joy in life. But it’s essential to remember that turbulence is temporary. It’s there because you are traveling to a destination. It’s the challenge that comes when you start to fly. In other words, as difficult as it may be, it’s a sign that you’re going somewhere.

I was on a flight traveling from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Zimbabwe a number of years ago. It was a relatively short flight, but we were traveling through a storm. The turbulence was so bad that passengers were panicking. It was frightening. I just wanted to get off. The plane felt like it was going to be ripped apart. But it wasn’t! It felt like we were going to fall out of the sky, but we didn’t! Planes are built to handle high levels of turbulence, even though it doesn’t always feel like it. Just like that plane, you were designed to handle turbulence. God made you to endure the hardship. No matter how hard things get—­even if your life looks like it’s shattered into a million pieces right now—­through the grace of God, you will recover!

Turning point

The turning point is the climax of a story, when things begin to turn in favor of the main character. Usually, the protagonist has endured major challenges and problems and the antagonist seems unstoppable, then all of a sudden a decision is made and light breaks through. For personal crises, the turning point is when your belief in God kicks in. It’s the decision to believe God’s word despite what you see happening around you.

In my crisis of faith, the turning point came when I chose to trust God and see the hardship as a setup for a lesson that would make me stronger in the future. My turning point showed up not when the situation changed but when God changed me in the situation. Your turning point is coming too.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Bantam Dell Publishing Group, Div of Random House, Inc
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 059360265X
• ISBN 13: 9780593602652
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 192
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Allemagne