The grasshopper mentality: what to do when the vision god gave you intimidates you.

Grasshopper Mentality
 
What to do when the vision God gave you intimidates you.
 
© 2022 Dr. Samaria M Colbert
 
It is true that intimidation can come from many different places, internally is one of them. Remember according to the scripture in Ephesians 3:20 God is the one who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

What happens when God shows you your future and it is so beyond anything you could ever imagined so much so you become intimidated by it? Many years ago, I was a freshman at Bennett College. I had a feeling of emptiness even though I had gotten saved at the age of 8. I didn’t know why I was alive and what this quiet girl from a small town had to offer. I attended a youth led college Bible study where the man of God taught a message on fasting and prayer. The message was so powerful I decided to fast because I wanted to know my purpose. I fasted for a week.

Then I had an open vision. In the vision I was being used powerfully under the anointing. When the vision was at the end, I heard the audible voice of God say, “that’s it, that’s what I want you to do.”
I was so astonished by the vision; it was absolutely amazing. Astonished, means greatly surprised or impressed; amazed. After the astonishment wore off the immediate feeling after that was fear. I saw myself the way I had always been. A quiet girl, from a small town, that loved to read and study. I have always been a loner but have had a deep and personal relationship with God. I had never desired to be seen, to chase money, fame, or fortune, I just wanted to know why I was alive. I never wanted to be someone great I just wanted to be someone.
 
When God gave me this vision it was everything I never wanted or asked for, however the vision was so real it felt like it was who I really was. The contradiction in my mind between where I was and who God wanted me to be was overwhelming to my mind. I didn’t realize that it was God who chose me for it, therefore he was the one that would transform me into it. Back then I had a grasshopper mentality.
 
What is a grasshopper mentality?
 
When an individual has a grasshopper mentality you see yourself in light of your weakness not in light of how God sees you. It is the spirit of intimidation.
 
Remember to not believe what God says about you is still rebellion. To rebel means to resist, repel or dismiss authority. God is the ultimate authority and to deny His worth of you is rebellion.
 
You believe how you see yourself is how others see you. The context of our discussion today is found in Numbers 13 and 14. Moses sent out spies to spy out the land that God had already promised the people of Israel. He sent out twelve spies. Ten came back with a negative report. They said, “we were like grasshoppers in our own eyes; therefore we were like grasshoppers in their eyes.” The two that came back with a positive report Joshua and Caleb said, “let’s go out at once and conquer the land.” The difference is that Joshua and Caleb loved God and trusted him. They knew that their trust was not in their own strength but in God’s ability. By the way to assist others in reverting to fear as well is also rebellion. The negative spies caused the people of Israel to believe the lie of fear.
 
It also teaches us from an organizational leadership perspective, strength is not in numbers. Rather the strength of your organization is in the strength of leaders who understand the vision, trust, have faith in God and are willing to do the work.
 
I digress.
 
The point is you can be right at the door of the greatest breakthrough in your life and the grasshopper mentality will stop you from actualizing the promise. The people with the negative report didn’t make it to the promise. Imagine after all your hard work, preparation, blood, sweat and tears and you stop you from making it in. What a waste.
 
Those with a grasshopper mentality don’t trust God. Remember the vision that God gives you is always bigger than you. Just because you see yourself in a negative way doesn’t mean others see you that way and it doesn’t mean that is who you really are.
 
I encourage you don’t be intimidated by what God has promised you. Don’t be intimidated or insecure. Satan can’t stop the vision from coming to pass, if you allow him in your ear, you will stop the vision God has for you.
 
How to overcome the grasshopper mentality?
 
Identify why you feel this way. Do you feel as if you are not enough? What negative self-perception do you believe? Examples include, “I am not smart enough, I don’t believe in myself, I was always told I wouldn’t amount to anything etc.”
 
The next step is to identify where it came from? Was it rejection from your past, mother and father wounds, past failures etc.
 
Then confront the lie with the word of God. You must practice scriptural meditation.
 
Joshua 1:7-8 New Living Translation
7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 
8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
 
I pray you walk into all the success that God has preordained for you.
 
© 2022 Dr. Samaria M Colbert