May 26, 2025 • 31 mins
Have you ever felt the unsettling disruption of leaving everything familiar behind? That heart-pounding moment when security dissolves and the unknown stretches before you like an unmarked wilderness?
Major transitions have become our collective reality. Global economic shifts cascade into our personal lives, forcing career changes, relocations, and relationship recalibrations. Doors slam shut while new passages appear, requiring us to venture into unfamiliar territory without a map. During these critical pivot points, Abraham's ancient journey offers timeless wisdom for modern transitions.
When God commanded Abraham to leave his country, family, and father's house for an unspecified destination, He was testing Abraham's trust and obedience. This biblical patriarch faced the same fears we experience: failure, isolation, and uncertainty. Yet through Abraham's story, we discover powerful strategies for navigating our own transitions with confidence and purpose.
Fear tries to anchor us to our past, even when that past wasn't truly secure. The antidote? Massive action in the direction of your fear. As one leadership expert notes, "The greatest remedy to fear is action." Like Queen Esther who risked everything by approaching the king's throne uninvited, your boldest steps often unlock your greatest breakthroughs.
The most profound transition lesson: God reveals our path progressively. Abraham wasn't given GPS coordinates—simply a promise that God would "show him" the land. Similarly, your transition may not come with complete clarity, but with the assurance that the Holy Spirit walks alongside you, revealing each step as you need it. Remember, your current disruption likely connects directly to your destiny and purpose.
Ready to transform your transition from terrifying to transformative? Join our Daily Bread community as we continue exploring biblical wisdom for life's adjustments. Subscribe now, and discover how your journey from the familiar to the unknown might be the very pathway to your greatest purpose.
Please sponsor the Daily Bread Podcast by clicking the link above. You can also connect with Dr. Jerrell & Angela Stokely at www.JerrellStokley.com or www.CovenantGraceChurch.org. Visit our online apparel store at www.OfficialGloryGear.com for all of your faith-based outdoor, casual, and athletic gear with a message of faith and belief in Jesus Christ.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome, everybody, welcome.
Welcome.
Welcome to Daily Bread.
This is Dr Jarrell Stokely Jrand I'm excited to have you
tuned in to Daily Bread, thepodcast that gives you biblical
bread to apply to your everydaylife.
So thank you once again.
(00:22):
My lovely and eloquent host Maytune in with us on today, but if
not, I am so glad to be withyou in the podcast room and we
are dealing with a veryimportant topic on today.
Today we are still in a seriestalking about adjustments.
(00:43):
I think we have about two orthree more installments in the
topic adjustments, and today Iwant to talk to you about
leaving the familiar for theunknown.
Let me pray real quick beforewe get started, but I want you
to get your mind set and yourheart ready, because there is so
much wisdom in learning how toleave the familiar for the
(01:07):
unknown Father, we thank you somuch in the mighty name of Jesus
for this time as we cometogether.
I pray, god, that you bring myheart and mind together in your
word, by your spirit, that I mayimpart something of importance,
some strategy, some principle,some skillset that would help
your people and my listeners ontoday transition from the
(01:29):
familiar to the unknown in ahealthy way, with power and
success.
I thank you for it in Jesusname, amen.
Once again, listen.
I want to thank you for tuningin to Daily Bread and do know
that we appreciate your prayers.
We do appreciate yoursponsorship and your partnership
.
So, of course, you can go tocovenantgracechurchorg and you
(01:52):
can give into our podcastingservices.
You can go to jarellstokelycomand you can give there as well.
So thank you so much for thatin advance.
Let's jump right in and talkabout the climate of transition
that we are living in right now.
At this very moment, at thisvery time, whatever time zone
(02:17):
you're in and whatevergeographical location you exist,
you are most definitelyexperiencing transition.
When you look at the plethora,the whole bag of issues and
(02:37):
challenges and transition that'shappening on the global
economical scale, the globalpolitical scale, that is
trickling its way, all the waydown to everybody's house.
It has made its way down toeverybody's job, everybody's
community, everybody'sconversation, the way we live.
And the reality is doors areshutting, opportunities are
(03:02):
being removed are shutting,opportunities are being removed,
access is dissipating anddisappearing and we are having
to make adjustments in order tosurvive and thrive.
We're moving from one city tothe next, we're dealing with
layoffs, so we have to find anew job.
Some people are dealing with somuch stress and behind
(03:24):
everything that's going on intheir lives that their marriage
is being challenged, theirrelationship is being challenged
and they're leaving somethingso familiar, a job they've been
on for 20 years, a relationshipthey've been in for 10.
Oh my God, processes and a wayof life that they've probably
been living in for 20, 30, 40years, 10, 15, 5, 3 years, and
(03:47):
now they have to go into theunknown.
Well, you know what You're, notby yourself.
God didn't forget about you.
I want to look in the Bible at apatriarch, a man of God named
Abraham.
We all know him, but if anybodycan give us some nuggets from
his life to help us understandhow to leave the familiar and
(04:07):
get to the unknown, it has to beAbraham, because he had to put
everything on the line more thanonce.
He was in such a big family,culture, community, lifestyle,
you know, kind of like what hedid for work you for work on the
land that he had before he hadto leave it.
(04:29):
He had to take his cattle andhis stock and his whole family.
Abram went through it, but itall was a test and it all was
still interconnected for hisdestiny.
Let's jump in this real quickand talk about leaving the
familiar for the unknown.
(04:50):
I want to lay out this sentenceand let you really grasp this so
that you may possibly some waysee yourself in Abraham's
picture.
God called Abraham to leave hishome.
Look at how big this is.
Imagine having to leave yourhome.
I've done it three times, andI'm not talking about an
apartment or a house that I wasrenting.
(05:11):
I'm talking about beautifulhomes that my wife and I bought
as an investment that we wereliving in.
Two of them were 3,000 squarefoot homes, very beautiful homes
in nice, plush neighborhoodsthat we had to give up because
God called us out of that cityand took us out of that state
(05:32):
and took us to another location,because it was a part of our
destiny and it was somethingthat he was doing in our lives
for his glory.
Three times we've done it Twotimes.
Beautiful, beautiful, oh my God.
We thought we were set, evenwhat we thought was our
retirement home.
Imagine all that you'veaccumulated in that house, your
(05:54):
special places that you sit oreat, all the memories that you
created with family and friends.
And God challenges you with atest of trust and obedience.
Let me stop right there andjust say a little bit about
trust and obedience.
You have to understand when youare leaving the familiar and
(06:18):
going to the unknown, andwhether you know it's God or not
.
If you love God and in arelationship with him, you have
to put yourself in his hands.
Whether you know it's God doingit as an act of destiny or that
is happening because Godallowed it, because the enemy is
attacking or the world ischanging, you still have.
(06:39):
We cannot get around trustingGod.
Abram had to trust God, leavinghis home, but he also told him
leave his family.
When you talk about leavingfamily, you're talking about
isolation, and when you're goingfrom the unknown, from the
familiar, to the unknown, youare going to face so much
(07:00):
isolation.
Sometimes you can have a lot ofpeople around you but no one is
intimately connected with you.
Where they speak to your mostprivate place of difficulty or
lack of surety.
Do you understand what I'msaying?
(07:21):
You can change jobs, go fromone city to the next and that
job can bring you into that city.
They can pay for thetransitional fees and the
relocation fees and they couldgive you the money for the down
payment on the house and theycan give you a six-figure income
and you can be going to acompany where you know a few
people there and you can gothere and be there that first 30
(07:44):
days and have a couple ofsocial outings and you sit there
and you laugh and you look atall those people and it's like,
but none of these people reallyknow what I'm going through
inside of what I had to leavebehind, especially leaving my
family.
College students, you know goingoff to college for the first
time.
They know about this.
You know, when you leavecollege and you move to another
(08:05):
state for your job, you knowabout this.
When you get a divorce and youleave that community that you
raised your children in and youmove all the way across town,
there's a sense of lonelinesswhen you have to leave family.
I'm not going to harp on that.
He had to leave everythingfamiliar to journey not to a
place where he knew he was going.
Familiar to journey not to aplace where he knew he was going
(08:26):
, but to an unknown location.
It's almost like losing a joband not knowing and not having
one already lined up.
It's like you know selling ahouse, but you weren't sure that
you were going to buy anotherone or that you were going to
live in a condo.
So you rented an apartment forsix months while you made your
mind up.
You know, it's like he had toleave everything to go to that
(08:48):
unknown land and he had topractice a great measure of
trust and obedience.
And I can kind of sense thisright now that you know God has
called you to make some majorchanges in your life.
You to make some major changesin your life.
You're going through some majortransitions with career, with
(09:11):
family, in your personaldevelopment, in your personal
development in you moving fromworking to starting your own
business or shutting down abusiness and going back to
corporate America.
And it is important that yougrasp on that.
These type of unfamiliar,unknown places are still places
(09:33):
where you can thrive.
Let's go.
So let's look at this.
In Genesis, chapter one Now,the Lord said to Abram get out
of your country.
Abram, get out of your countryNow.
I don't know if this sentence isstructured like this because of
the translators, but when youhear the words get out, it don't
(09:56):
necessarily have a friendlytone, but what I hear is a sense
of urgency and in learning andhaving toolkits for dealing with
life adjustments, we have tohonor that.
Sometimes we have to move withurgency.
Did you get that?
I feel like I'm talking to somefolks who may be dealing with
(10:19):
this whole idea ofprocrastination and the reality
is you must urgently obey Godand urgently trust God to move
into what God has in store foryour life.
I'm sorry, hold on just onesecond.
I got to do this.
I got to do this.
I'm losing my battery life here.
(10:42):
Hold on, let me get this goingright.
Losing my battery life here.
Hold on, let me get this goingright.
Stay with me there.
We go, okay, all right.
So there's this sense of urgencyand if we wait too long, we
move that we miss that window ofprovision that God provides for
us when we are transitioning,that protection, that covering
that we're going to walk inalong the way.
So it's important that weunderstand this sense of urgency
(11:05):
.
If God is urgent, we have to beurgent.
It's important to keep up withthe pace of God.
Can I say that?
Listen, this is daily bread.
I want to teach you how to keepup with the pace of God.
This is why an intimaterelationship built on prayer is
important.
You have to have your prayerlife I'm going to say it, for
(11:27):
lack of a better term on 10.
Because when your prayer lifeis on 10, meaning you are
leaning into prayer you have adaily prayer life with God and
you walk in this spiritualposture where you're praying to
God all day long, y'all aretalking about stuff and your
lips are not moving because it'sin your spirit and your soul is
(11:47):
crying out.
The Bible says my soul thirstafter the Lord like the deer
panted after the water brook.
So does my, my soul long forthe old God soul longing for God
so that you are in connectionwith him and intimacy with him,
(12:08):
where you are praying and God isanswering and you are in this
reciprocal place, knowing whenit's time to be urgent.
Oh my God, this is so good.
He told him.
The Lord said to Abram get outof your country.
It is one thing to tell me tomove from out of my city, my
state, my community, but whenyou tell me to leave the United
(12:31):
States and move to come on wherey'all want to go Africa, where
y'all want to go Russia, whereyou want to go China, what this
is massive.
What this is massive, and wemust understand that.
(12:54):
There are times when God willspeak a massive transition into
your ear gates.
There are times when God ismoving us in destiny and purpose
.
Sometimes he wants us to layeverything on the line.
Here it is.
Take big leaps of faith.
(13:16):
This is a big leap of faith forAbram, and here it is.
The fact that you're hearingthis tells me that there are big
leaps of faith either now orahead for you.
You must take the big leap offaith Going from one country to
another country.
You need a passport.
You're going to need to havesome shots and do some things
(13:41):
medically to get you prepared togo to that country so that
you're healthy.
You're going to need to havesome financial resources with
you.
You are going to need to doyour.
In this case, he couldn't evendo his homework on the geography
.
Abram couldn't even.
He didn't know where he wasgoing.
(14:02):
Oh, my God.
God told him leave your country, leave from your family and
from your father's house to aland that I will show you.
I will make you a great nationand I will bless you.
(14:24):
Oh, this is so heavy.
Okay, so let's look at a fewthings that I want you to
understand.
God, tell Abram leave yourfather's house, leave your
country, okay, and go to a landthat I will show you.
And when we are leaving thefamiliar to the unknown, we
(14:45):
don't have all the answers.
That's why it's called theunknown.
It's okay here's my firstpremise point for you, it's okay
not to have all the answers.
You, you, there will beoccasions when God will give you
part of the instructions, partof the plan, and not the whole
(15:06):
plan.
As a matter of fact, it'scommon for God to show us the
beginning of a thing, but notthe end of it.
It's common for God to show usone step and then, once we
complete that first step, showus the next.
So what do we do when we areheaded into the unknown without
(15:32):
clear vision, without the restof the instructions and without
the confidence Let me take thisback, and with a sense of fear
of the unknown, I want to startwith the latter and move back to
the former.
The first thing that isimportant for you to do is to oh
(15:56):
, how do I say this, lord, Iwant to make sure you really get
this.
God did not give us the spiritof fear, but of love, power and
a sound mind.
I forget what author said this.
I read in the book and he saidI think it was Brian Tracy and
he said in his book the greatestremedy to fear is action.
(16:21):
He said when you have fear,move in the direction of the
thing that you're afraid of.
So, in your toolkit, fromleaving the familiar to the
unknown, it is important thatyou have massive action.
That is so good.
Oh my God, hallelujah,hallelujah, hallelujah.
(16:46):
Thank you, holy Ghost, for that.
It is important that youunderstand God has not given you
a spirit of fear.
Fear is an emotion.
We are filled with emotions inus.
We have fear, we have happiness, we have joy, we have sadness,
we have laughter.
We have all these differentemotions.
We have anxiety, we go throughstress, sometimes we have
(17:09):
depression, sometimes we haveexhilaration.
We have these emotions, butit's important that the emotions
don't have you.
This is why Paul said whateverstate that I get in, I have
learned to be content, becausethe ideal posture in transition
is contentment.
But it's impossible to getthere when you have fear in your
(17:31):
heart.
Oh, I feel the spirit of theLord moving right now.
In the mighty name of Jesus, ohGod, hallelujah, strengthen
your people, oh God, I thank youfor power, love and a sound
mind.
Hallelujah, I cast down thespirit of fear.
Hallelujah, I thank you, god,that we have no fear.
(17:52):
Listen, if you're listening tome, I want you to tap yourself
gently on the chest and say Ihave no fear.
Oh my God, this is so good.
Thank you, lord, thank you Lord, thank you, lord.
I have no fear, I am not afraid.
Oh my God, the Bible tells usfret not thyself of evildoers,
(18:14):
neither be envious of theworkers of iniquity.
The Bible says the Lord is mylight and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of mylife.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
God's going to make you strongerin this transition from the
familiar to the unknown.
We're looking at the life ofAbraham and we're talking about
(18:37):
those times, moments and seasonswhen God will call you out of
your familiar place and requireyou to journey and venture into
the unknown.
And require you to journey andventure into the unknown.
And I have already laid outthat it is important that you
(18:58):
have trust and obedience.
Trust God with the unknown andobey him, and in your obedience.
We talked about how it appearsthat God is talking to Abram
with urgency Get out of yourfather's country, get out of
your father's country, get outof your father's house, get out
(19:20):
away from your family.
And there's a sense of urgencyhere.
And anytime we're leaving thefamiliar, going into the unknown
, the enemy throws fear at us.
He wants us to be afraid thatwe're going to get hurt, afraid
that we're going to fail, afraidthat we're going to become a
laughingstock, and just simplyafraid of the unknown that is in
front of us.
And in doing so, he tries toanchor us to the past or to the
(19:48):
thing that we've left behind.
He tries to anchor us to thepast or to the thing that we've
left behind.
Now you see this happening withthe children of Israel.
When God delivered them andbrought them out of the slavery
and the brutality and theinjustice and the inequality of
Egypt under the Pharaoh that didnot know Joseph, so he didn't
(20:10):
know the favor that the childrenof Israel had with God, and he
punished them and enslaved themand made life brutal for them.
And when God set them free andthey got out into the unknown,
they got out into the wilderness.
And because they were nottrusting and obedient about the
unknown, they became anchored tothe past and they wanted to go
back and listen.
(20:33):
Listen to this.
It's a normal emotional rollercoaster to be in a place where
you don't have that sense ofstability, you don't have that
sense of security and it'sdriving you to want the former
(20:56):
measure of security, even thoughit wasn't healthy security at
all.
Okay, so we're talking aboutcombating fear with faith.
I have to have faith to move inthe direction of the thing that
I'm afraid of.
And we're talking about massiveaction.
We're talking about big leaps.
If you take the first big leapof faith in the direction of the
(21:19):
thing that the unknown, theunknown God, is going to give
you the next steps, god is goingto be with you and he's going
to strengthen you for everyother step that you have to take
.
Think about that other stepthat you have to take.
Think about that who else hadto take a major, massive action
(21:45):
step of faith in a critical timewhere everything was on the
line?
I am reminded of that greatwoman of God, esther, and if you
don't remember her story, shewas the queen that replaced
Vashti in the Old Testament, andwhen she became the queen,
mordecai was her uncle and theking needed someone to replace
Vashti and he chose Esther.
(22:07):
Hallelujah, esther, when shegot into the palace and was
married to the king, haman, whowas a part of the king's court,
set up a diabolical plot to killall the Jews Do you remember
that?
And then Haman found out aboutit and sent a word to Esther
(22:27):
saying you got to go to the kingand tell him what is going on
and you got to let him know thatyou're a Jew and you got to let
him know that your people isgoing to be destroyed because
the king has made a decree tokill all the Jews.
You've got to go and dosomething.
But the king has said nobody isto come before me for certain.
At the time I think it was like30 days or something.
Nobody is to come before theking's throne for 30 days unless
(22:50):
he extend the sepulcher.
In other words, you would loseyour life.
In other words, you would loseyour life.
Esther put it all on the lineher life, her legacy, her dreams
and she burst into the king'scourt and she marched down
(23:18):
toward his throne during thattime frame when no one was
supposed to be there.
Confidence and boldness andhumility.
She headed towards the king'sthrone and he saw her and he
looked upon her and he saidEsther, and he stretched out the
sepulcher because he loved her.
She laid it all on the line andshe moved with massive action
in the direction of the thingthat she was afraid of because
at first she wasn't going to doit.
Oh, my God.
And I want to talk to somepeople who've been hesitant
(23:39):
about what you need to do.
This is daily breath.
I want to give you this whatyou've been hesitant about, what
you need to do, that you'vebeen afraid of, it's time for
your massive action.
Listen, I got to move because Italked about a couple of things
.
So we dealt with the fear, butI talked about when you don't
have clarity of vision.
When you're moving in thefamiliar, you have visions, you
(24:03):
have imagination, you have ideas, you have perspective.
Your perspective is good.
Hopefully, if you're not beingdrowned out or tested let me see
if you're not being tested withvarious fiery trials, like the
book of James says then you'reprobably in a position where
you're optimistic, it's goingokay and you have a great
(24:25):
perspective.
You are looking through thelens of victory.
But when you are leaving out ofthe lens of victory because
you're familiar and you'vegotten a pattern and you've
gotten security and you've gotstability and you're going into
the unknown.
The unknown doesn't havestability because it's unknown.
(24:50):
The unknown doesn't havesecurity because it's unknown.
But in the unknown is God.
So when you're leaving a placewhere you have clarity of vision
to a place where you do nothave vision of the end or what's
going to happen, you don't havea vision of how this is going
(25:14):
to pan out for you.
I was crossed between pan outand play out.
How is it going to pan out foryou, how it's going to pan out
for you, how it's going to playout for you, how it's going to
end for you or anything inbetween.
You have to know that God willshow you.
Where did I get that from?
Look at what God said toAbraham go to a land that I will
(25:37):
show you.
That is so good.
Jesus told his disciples I willnever leave you nor forsake you
.
We have to adapt to thatpromise.
We have to receive that promise.
We have to believe that promisefor ourselves that God will
(25:58):
never leave us or forsake us,even in the unknown.
So we're talking about trustingGod for vision.
If you wanted something towrite down about this second
thing, about clarity of vision,trust, god.
(26:19):
Oh, that is so good that hewill show you the way, oh my God
.
The Bible says Job having gonethrough all the tragedies that
he went through.
I believe it was in Job,chapter 42.
He said Lord, you know the waythat I take, oh my God.
(26:42):
And I hear the Psalms sayingthe steps.
Here's what you have to know.
The steps of a child of God arealready planned out, the steps
of a good man, and we're nottalking about gender, ie man.
We're not talking about gender,ie man.
We're not talking about gender,we're talking about humanity.
The steps of the righteous, thesteps of the man or woman or
(27:06):
child of God already havesecurity.
That is so good.
They already have stability,because God doesn't exist in
time, he exists in eternity.
What am I saying?
He's in my past, my present andmy future all at the same time.
And since he is omnipresent,he's everywhere at the same time
(27:29):
.
He is where I'm headed, he'salready there, his presence is
there, his blessings are therefor me, his guidance is there
for me.
And because I have the HolySpirit on the inside of me, who
is the Holy Spirit?
In the Greek word parakletetranslation one who walks
(27:50):
alongside of us, the comforter.
Come on.
Jesus said the Holy Spiritwould come and he would be the
revealer of truth who would leadand guide us into all truth.
So God will show you.
Oh, I feel it.
That is so good.
You're getting ready to haveclarity of vision when you get
(28:11):
there.
When you get there, god's goingto give you clarity of vision
that you need.
Okay, I got to hurry up and itsays this I will make you a
great nation.
You have to understand thatoftentimes, when God move you
from the familiar to the unknown, it's a destiny move.
God wasn't just doing thismajor move for nothing.
(28:34):
With Abraham life, it was adestiny move and I want to give
this to you as a gift.
I want to speak this into yourlife.
What you're going through is adestiny transition.
It's a destiny move and, likewith Abraham, I'm going to speak
this over you.
There's greatness tied to it.
And then he says that I willbless you.
I want you to know somethingGod won't lead you to anywhere
(28:57):
where his blessings are notalready there for you.
God loves you and nothing cantake you out of his hand, and
his blessings go with hispromises.
The Bible says the promises ofthe Lord make it rich and addeth
no sorrow.
So I want you to know as I cometo a close this 30 minutes.
(29:18):
I want you to know somethingwhen you're transitioning from
the familiar to the unknowntrust God, act in obedience,
oppose your faith with massiveaction and know that God will
show you, he will give youclarity of vision along the way.
(29:38):
This is a destiny move and Godhas you on his mind.
I'm Dr Jarrell Stokely Jr.
This has been Daily Bread.
Thank you for tuning in.
Listen.
I'll be right back here withyou on Daily Bread, biblical
bread that you can apply to yourdaily life.
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(30:02):
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(30:47):
spend some time with you here onDaily Bread.
God bless you.
I love you.
I'll see you next time.
I'll talk with you next time.
Welcome, everybody, welcome.
Welcome.
Welcome to Daily Bread.
This is Dr Jarrell Stokely Jrand I'm excited to have you
tuned in to Daily Bread, thepodcast that gives you biblical
bread to apply to your everydaylife.
So thank you once again.
(00:22):
My lovely and eloquent host Maytune in with us on today, but if
not, I am so glad to be withyou in the podcast room and we
are dealing with a veryimportant topic on today.
Today we are still in a seriestalking about adjustments.
(00:43):
I think we have about two orthree more installments in the
topic adjustments, and today Iwant to talk to you about
leaving the familiar for theunknown.
Let me pray real quick beforewe get started, but I want you
to get your mind set and yourheart ready, because there is so
much wisdom in learning how toleave the familiar for the
(01:07):
unknown Father, we thank you somuch in the mighty name of Jesus
for this time as we cometogether.
I pray, god, that you bring myheart and mind together in your
word, by your spirit, that I mayimpart something of importance,
some strategy, some principle,some skillset that would help
your people and my listeners ontoday transition from the
(01:29):
familiar to the unknown in ahealthy way, with power and
success.
I thank you for it in Jesusname, amen.
Once again, listen.
I want to thank you for tuningin to Daily Bread and do know
that we appreciate your prayers.
We do appreciate yoursponsorship and your partnership
.
So, of course, you can go tocovenantgracechurchorg and you
(01:52):
can give into our podcastingservices.
You can go to jarellstokelycomand you can give there as well.
So thank you so much for thatin advance.
Let's jump right in and talkabout the climate of transition
that we are living in right now.
At this very moment, at thisvery time, whatever time zone
(02:17):
you're in and whatevergeographical location you exist,
you are most definitelyexperiencing transition.
When you look at the plethora,the whole bag of issues and
(02:37):
challenges and transition that'shappening on the global
economical scale, the globalpolitical scale, that is
trickling its way, all the waydown to everybody's house.
It has made its way down toeverybody's job, everybody's
community, everybody'sconversation, the way we live.
And the reality is doors areshutting, opportunities are
(03:02):
being removed are shutting,opportunities are being removed,
access is dissipating anddisappearing and we are having
to make adjustments in order tosurvive and thrive.
We're moving from one city tothe next, we're dealing with
layoffs, so we have to find anew job.
Some people are dealing with somuch stress and behind
(03:24):
everything that's going on intheir lives that their marriage
is being challenged, theirrelationship is being challenged
and they're leaving somethingso familiar, a job they've been
on for 20 years, a relationshipthey've been in for 10.
Oh my God, processes and a wayof life that they've probably
been living in for 20, 30, 40years, 10, 15, 5, 3 years, and
(03:47):
now they have to go into theunknown.
Well, you know what You're, notby yourself.
God didn't forget about you.
I want to look in the Bible at apatriarch, a man of God named
Abraham.
We all know him, but if anybodycan give us some nuggets from
his life to help us understandhow to leave the familiar and
(04:07):
get to the unknown, it has to beAbraham, because he had to put
everything on the line more thanonce.
He was in such a big family,culture, community, lifestyle,
you know, kind of like what hedid for work you for work on the
land that he had before he hadto leave it.
(04:29):
He had to take his cattle andhis stock and his whole family.
Abram went through it, but itall was a test and it all was
still interconnected for hisdestiny.
Let's jump in this real quickand talk about leaving the
familiar for the unknown.
(04:50):
I want to lay out this sentenceand let you really grasp this so
that you may possibly some waysee yourself in Abraham's
picture.
God called Abraham to leave hishome.
Look at how big this is.
Imagine having to leave yourhome.
I've done it three times, andI'm not talking about an
apartment or a house that I wasrenting.
(05:11):
I'm talking about beautifulhomes that my wife and I bought
as an investment that we wereliving in.
Two of them were 3,000 squarefoot homes, very beautiful homes
in nice, plush neighborhoodsthat we had to give up because
God called us out of that cityand took us out of that state
(05:32):
and took us to another location,because it was a part of our
destiny and it was somethingthat he was doing in our lives
for his glory.
Three times we've done it Twotimes.
Beautiful, beautiful, oh my God.
We thought we were set, evenwhat we thought was our
retirement home.
Imagine all that you'veaccumulated in that house, your
(05:54):
special places that you sit oreat, all the memories that you
created with family and friends.
And God challenges you with atest of trust and obedience.
Let me stop right there andjust say a little bit about
trust and obedience.
You have to understand when youare leaving the familiar and
(06:18):
going to the unknown, andwhether you know it's God or not
.
If you love God and in arelationship with him, you have
to put yourself in his hands.
Whether you know it's God doingit as an act of destiny or that
is happening because Godallowed it, because the enemy is
attacking or the world ischanging, you still have.
(06:39):
We cannot get around trustingGod.
Abram had to trust God, leavinghis home, but he also told him
leave his family.
When you talk about leavingfamily, you're talking about
isolation, and when you're goingfrom the unknown, from the
familiar, to the unknown, youare going to face so much
(07:00):
isolation.
Sometimes you can have a lot ofpeople around you but no one is
intimately connected with you.
Where they speak to your mostprivate place of difficulty or
lack of surety.
Do you understand what I'msaying?
(07:21):
You can change jobs, go fromone city to the next and that
job can bring you into that city.
They can pay for thetransitional fees and the
relocation fees and they couldgive you the money for the down
payment on the house and theycan give you a six-figure income
and you can be going to acompany where you know a few
people there and you can gothere and be there that first 30
(07:44):
days and have a couple ofsocial outings and you sit there
and you laugh and you look atall those people and it's like,
but none of these people reallyknow what I'm going through
inside of what I had to leavebehind, especially leaving my
family.
College students, you know goingoff to college for the first
time.
They know about this.
You know, when you leavecollege and you move to another
(08:05):
state for your job, you knowabout this.
When you get a divorce and youleave that community that you
raised your children in and youmove all the way across town,
there's a sense of lonelinesswhen you have to leave family.
I'm not going to harp on that.
He had to leave everythingfamiliar to journey not to a
place where he knew he was going.
Familiar to journey not to aplace where he knew he was going
(08:26):
, but to an unknown location.
It's almost like losing a joband not knowing and not having
one already lined up.
It's like you know selling ahouse, but you weren't sure that
you were going to buy anotherone or that you were going to
live in a condo.
So you rented an apartment forsix months while you made your
mind up.
You know, it's like he had toleave everything to go to that
(08:48):
unknown land and he had topractice a great measure of
trust and obedience.
And I can kind of sense thisright now that you know God has
called you to make some majorchanges in your life.
You to make some major changesin your life.
You're going through some majortransitions with career, with
(09:11):
family, in your personaldevelopment, in your personal
development in you moving fromworking to starting your own
business or shutting down abusiness and going back to
corporate America.
And it is important that yougrasp on that.
These type of unfamiliar,unknown places are still places
(09:33):
where you can thrive.
Let's go.
So let's look at this.
In Genesis, chapter one Now,the Lord said to Abram get out
of your country.
Abram, get out of your countryNow.
I don't know if this sentence isstructured like this because of
the translators, but when youhear the words get out, it don't
(09:56):
necessarily have a friendlytone, but what I hear is a sense
of urgency and in learning andhaving toolkits for dealing with
life adjustments, we have tohonor that.
Sometimes we have to move withurgency.
Did you get that?
I feel like I'm talking to somefolks who may be dealing with
(10:19):
this whole idea ofprocrastination and the reality
is you must urgently obey Godand urgently trust God to move
into what God has in store foryour life.
I'm sorry, hold on just onesecond.
I got to do this.
I got to do this.
I'm losing my battery life here.
(10:42):
Hold on, let me get this goingright.
Losing my battery life here.
Hold on, let me get this goingright.
Stay with me there.
We go, okay, all right.
So there's this sense of urgencyand if we wait too long, we
move that we miss that window ofprovision that God provides for
us when we are transitioning,that protection, that covering
that we're going to walk inalong the way.
So it's important that weunderstand this sense of urgency
(11:05):
.
If God is urgent, we have to beurgent.
It's important to keep up withthe pace of God.
Can I say that?
Listen, this is daily bread.
I want to teach you how to keepup with the pace of God.
This is why an intimaterelationship built on prayer is
important.
You have to have your prayerlife I'm going to say it, for
(11:27):
lack of a better term on 10.
Because when your prayer lifeis on 10, meaning you are
leaning into prayer you have adaily prayer life with God and
you walk in this spiritualposture where you're praying to
God all day long, y'all aretalking about stuff and your
lips are not moving because it'sin your spirit and your soul is
(11:47):
crying out.
The Bible says my soul thirstafter the Lord like the deer
panted after the water brook.
So does my, my soul long forthe old God soul longing for God
so that you are in connectionwith him and intimacy with him,
(12:08):
where you are praying and God isanswering and you are in this
reciprocal place, knowing whenit's time to be urgent.
Oh my God, this is so good.
He told him.
The Lord said to Abram get outof your country.
It is one thing to tell me tomove from out of my city, my
state, my community, but whenyou tell me to leave the United
(12:31):
States and move to come on wherey'all want to go Africa, where
y'all want to go Russia, whereyou want to go China, what this
is massive.
What this is massive, and wemust understand that.
(12:54):
There are times when God willspeak a massive transition into
your ear gates.
There are times when God ismoving us in destiny and purpose
.
Sometimes he wants us to layeverything on the line.
Here it is.
Take big leaps of faith.
(13:16):
This is a big leap of faith forAbram, and here it is.
The fact that you're hearingthis tells me that there are big
leaps of faith either now orahead for you.
You must take the big leap offaith Going from one country to
another country.
You need a passport.
You're going to need to havesome shots and do some things
(13:41):
medically to get you prepared togo to that country so that
you're healthy.
You're going to need to havesome financial resources with
you.
You are going to need to doyour.
In this case, he couldn't evendo his homework on the geography
.
Abram couldn't even.
He didn't know where he wasgoing.
(14:02):
Oh, my God.
God told him leave your country, leave from your family and
from your father's house to aland that I will show you.
I will make you a great nationand I will bless you.
(14:24):
Oh, this is so heavy.
Okay, so let's look at a fewthings that I want you to
understand.
God, tell Abram leave yourfather's house, leave your
country, okay, and go to a landthat I will show you.
And when we are leaving thefamiliar to the unknown, we
(14:45):
don't have all the answers.
That's why it's called theunknown.
It's okay here's my firstpremise point for you, it's okay
not to have all the answers.
You, you, there will beoccasions when God will give you
part of the instructions, partof the plan, and not the whole
(15:06):
plan.
As a matter of fact, it'scommon for God to show us the
beginning of a thing, but notthe end of it.
It's common for God to show usone step and then, once we
complete that first step, showus the next.
So what do we do when we areheaded into the unknown without
(15:32):
clear vision, without the restof the instructions and without
the confidence Let me take thisback, and with a sense of fear
of the unknown, I want to startwith the latter and move back to
the former.
The first thing that isimportant for you to do is to oh
(15:56):
, how do I say this, lord, Iwant to make sure you really get
this.
God did not give us the spiritof fear, but of love, power and
a sound mind.
I forget what author said this.
I read in the book and he saidI think it was Brian Tracy and
he said in his book the greatestremedy to fear is action.
(16:21):
He said when you have fear,move in the direction of the
thing that you're afraid of.
So, in your toolkit, fromleaving the familiar to the
unknown, it is important thatyou have massive action.
That is so good.
Oh my God, hallelujah,hallelujah, hallelujah.
(16:46):
Thank you, holy Ghost, for that.
It is important that youunderstand God has not given you
a spirit of fear.
Fear is an emotion.
We are filled with emotions inus.
We have fear, we have happiness, we have joy, we have sadness,
we have laughter.
We have all these differentemotions.
We have anxiety, we go throughstress, sometimes we have
(17:09):
depression, sometimes we haveexhilaration.
We have these emotions, butit's important that the emotions
don't have you.
This is why Paul said whateverstate that I get in, I have
learned to be content, becausethe ideal posture in transition
is contentment.
But it's impossible to getthere when you have fear in your
(17:31):
heart.
Oh, I feel the spirit of theLord moving right now.
In the mighty name of Jesus, ohGod, hallelujah, strengthen
your people, oh God, I thank youfor power, love and a sound
mind.
Hallelujah, I cast down thespirit of fear.
Hallelujah, I thank you, god,that we have no fear.
(17:52):
Listen, if you're listening tome, I want you to tap yourself
gently on the chest and say Ihave no fear.
Oh my God, this is so good.
Thank you, lord, thank you Lord, thank you, lord.
I have no fear, I am not afraid.
Oh my God, the Bible tells usfret not thyself of evildoers,
(18:14):
neither be envious of theworkers of iniquity.
The Bible says the Lord is mylight and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of mylife.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
God's going to make you strongerin this transition from the
familiar to the unknown.
We're looking at the life ofAbraham and we're talking about
(18:37):
those times, moments and seasonswhen God will call you out of
your familiar place and requireyou to journey and venture into
the unknown.
And require you to journey andventure into the unknown.
And I have already laid outthat it is important that you
(18:58):
have trust and obedience.
Trust God with the unknown andobey him, and in your obedience.
We talked about how it appearsthat God is talking to Abram
with urgency Get out of yourfather's country, get out of
your father's country, get outof your father's house, get out
(19:20):
away from your family.
And there's a sense of urgencyhere.
And anytime we're leaving thefamiliar, going into the unknown
, the enemy throws fear at us.
He wants us to be afraid thatwe're going to get hurt, afraid
that we're going to fail, afraidthat we're going to become a
laughingstock, and just simplyafraid of the unknown that is in
front of us.
And in doing so, he tries toanchor us to the past or to the
(19:48):
thing that we've left behind.
He tries to anchor us to thepast or to the thing that we've
left behind.
Now you see this happening withthe children of Israel.
When God delivered them andbrought them out of the slavery
and the brutality and theinjustice and the inequality of
Egypt under the Pharaoh that didnot know Joseph, so he didn't
(20:10):
know the favor that the childrenof Israel had with God, and he
punished them and enslaved themand made life brutal for them.
And when God set them free andthey got out into the unknown,
they got out into the wilderness.
And because they were nottrusting and obedient about the
unknown, they became anchored tothe past and they wanted to go
back and listen.
(20:33):
Listen to this.
It's a normal emotional rollercoaster to be in a place where
you don't have that sense ofstability, you don't have that
sense of security and it'sdriving you to want the former
(20:56):
measure of security, even thoughit wasn't healthy security at
all.
Okay, so we're talking aboutcombating fear with faith.
I have to have faith to move inthe direction of the thing that
I'm afraid of.
And we're talking about massiveaction.
We're talking about big leaps.
If you take the first big leapof faith in the direction of the
(21:19):
thing that the unknown, theunknown God, is going to give
you the next steps, god is goingto be with you and he's going
to strengthen you for everyother step that you have to take
.
Think about that other stepthat you have to take.
Think about that who else hadto take a major, massive action
(21:45):
step of faith in a critical timewhere everything was on the
line?
I am reminded of that greatwoman of God, esther, and if you
don't remember her story, shewas the queen that replaced
Vashti in the Old Testament, andwhen she became the queen,
mordecai was her uncle and theking needed someone to replace
Vashti and he chose Esther.
(22:07):
Hallelujah, esther, when shegot into the palace and was
married to the king, haman, whowas a part of the king's court,
set up a diabolical plot to killall the Jews Do you remember
that?
And then Haman found out aboutit and sent a word to Esther
(22:27):
saying you got to go to the kingand tell him what is going on
and you got to let him know thatyou're a Jew and you got to let
him know that your people isgoing to be destroyed because
the king has made a decree tokill all the Jews.
You've got to go and dosomething.
But the king has said nobody isto come before me for certain.
At the time I think it was like30 days or something.
Nobody is to come before theking's throne for 30 days unless
(22:50):
he extend the sepulcher.
In other words, you would loseyour life.
In other words, you would loseyour life.
Esther put it all on the lineher life, her legacy, her dreams
and she burst into the king'scourt and she marched down
(23:18):
toward his throne during thattime frame when no one was
supposed to be there.
Confidence and boldness andhumility.
She headed towards the king'sthrone and he saw her and he
looked upon her and he saidEsther, and he stretched out the
sepulcher because he loved her.
She laid it all on the line andshe moved with massive action
in the direction of the thingthat she was afraid of because
at first she wasn't going to doit.
Oh, my God.
And I want to talk to somepeople who've been hesitant
(23:39):
about what you need to do.
This is daily breath.
I want to give you this whatyou've been hesitant about, what
you need to do, that you'vebeen afraid of, it's time for
your massive action.
Listen, I got to move because Italked about a couple of things
.
So we dealt with the fear, butI talked about when you don't
have clarity of vision.
When you're moving in thefamiliar, you have visions, you
(24:03):
have imagination, you have ideas, you have perspective.
Your perspective is good.
Hopefully, if you're not beingdrowned out or tested let me see
if you're not being tested withvarious fiery trials, like the
book of James says then you'reprobably in a position where
you're optimistic, it's goingokay and you have a great
(24:25):
perspective.
You are looking through thelens of victory.
But when you are leaving out ofthe lens of victory because
you're familiar and you'vegotten a pattern and you've
gotten security and you've gotstability and you're going into
the unknown.
The unknown doesn't havestability because it's unknown.
(24:50):
The unknown doesn't havesecurity because it's unknown.
But in the unknown is God.
So when you're leaving a placewhere you have clarity of vision
to a place where you do nothave vision of the end or what's
going to happen, you don't havea vision of how this is going
(25:14):
to pan out for you.
I was crossed between pan outand play out.
How is it going to pan out foryou, how it's going to pan out
for you, how it's going to playout for you, how it's going to
end for you or anything inbetween.
You have to know that God willshow you.
Where did I get that from?
Look at what God said toAbraham go to a land that I will
(25:37):
show you.
That is so good.
Jesus told his disciples I willnever leave you nor forsake you
.
We have to adapt to thatpromise.
We have to receive that promise.
We have to believe that promisefor ourselves that God will
(25:58):
never leave us or forsake us,even in the unknown.
So we're talking about trustingGod for vision.
If you wanted something towrite down about this second
thing, about clarity of vision,trust, god.
(26:19):
Oh, that is so good that hewill show you the way, oh my God
.
The Bible says Job having gonethrough all the tragedies that
he went through.
I believe it was in Job,chapter 42.
He said Lord, you know the waythat I take, oh my God.
(26:42):
And I hear the Psalms sayingthe steps.
Here's what you have to know.
The steps of a child of God arealready planned out, the steps
of a good man, and we're nottalking about gender, ie man.
We're not talking about gender,ie man.
We're not talking about gender,we're talking about humanity.
The steps of the righteous, thesteps of the man or woman or
(27:06):
child of God already havesecurity.
That is so good.
They already have stability,because God doesn't exist in
time, he exists in eternity.
What am I saying?
He's in my past, my present andmy future all at the same time.
And since he is omnipresent,he's everywhere at the same time
(27:29):
.
He is where I'm headed, he'salready there, his presence is
there, his blessings are therefor me, his guidance is there
for me.
And because I have the HolySpirit on the inside of me, who
is the Holy Spirit?
In the Greek word parakletetranslation one who walks
(27:50):
alongside of us, the comforter.
Come on.
Jesus said the Holy Spiritwould come and he would be the
revealer of truth who would leadand guide us into all truth.
So God will show you.
Oh, I feel it.
That is so good.
You're getting ready to haveclarity of vision when you get
(28:11):
there.
When you get there, god's goingto give you clarity of vision
that you need.
Okay, I got to hurry up and itsays this I will make you a
great nation.
You have to understand thatoftentimes, when God move you
from the familiar to the unknown, it's a destiny move.
God wasn't just doing thismajor move for nothing.
(28:34):
With Abraham life, it was adestiny move and I want to give
this to you as a gift.
I want to speak this into yourlife.
What you're going through is adestiny transition.
It's a destiny move and, likewith Abraham, I'm going to speak
this over you.
There's greatness tied to it.
And then he says that I willbless you.
I want you to know somethingGod won't lead you to anywhere
(28:57):
where his blessings are notalready there for you.
God loves you and nothing cantake you out of his hand, and
his blessings go with hispromises.
The Bible says the promises ofthe Lord make it rich and addeth
no sorrow.
So I want you to know as I cometo a close this 30 minutes.
(29:18):
I want you to know somethingwhen you're transitioning from
the familiar to the unknowntrust God, act in obedience,
oppose your faith with massiveaction and know that God will
show you, he will give youclarity of vision along the way.
(29:38):
This is a destiny move and Godhas you on his mind.
I'm Dr Jarrell Stokely Jr.
This has been Daily Bread.
Thank you for tuning in.
Listen.
I'll be right back here withyou on Daily Bread, biblical
bread that you can apply to yourdaily life.
Don't forget to partner, tosponsor with us and go to
(30:02):
covenantgracechurchorg.
You can give there.
Or you can go tojerellstokelycom you can give
there as well.
And if you're not just thegiving type, why don't you go
over to officialglorygearcom?
That's officialglorygearcom.
That's where we sell all typeof Christian attire and
sweatshirts and hoodies and hatsand T-shirts and all kind of
(30:26):
great Christian material,biblical material, faith-based
material that you can wear andexpress your message of love and
belief in Jesus Christ.
And that way, from buying fromour sponsor website,
officialglorygearcom, you stillhelp us out.
Thank you so much for givingpartnering and allowing me to
(30:47):
spend some time with you here onDaily Bread.
God bless you.
I love you.
I'll see you next time.
I'll talk with you next time.
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