My Territory

My Territory
By: Stephanie Josiah (c) 2014

I'm not renting space
This time and place was given
My territory, my responsibility
To develop and protect

I'm stretching my fingers and toes
To the four corners...
I will know the soil - capture the grit under my nails
Cultivate the grounds

Put down deep roots, dig wells
The generations after
Will dance among my olives and oaks
Swing on thick branches

Lace their shoes in swaying shade
And drink in the freckled sunlight
Their place in time made easier
because when fear would have made me move

I reached my hands up in the air
Planted my feet
Deep into the ground and
Made like a tree
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*you see, I can't afford to make believe when I say I am a child of God. I can't raise my hands and cry out and put in zero work... Build zero relationship. I will not teach my children the tame, man-made religion of religion for religious sake... Weighed down by rules He'd never stand for. Naivety as peace... Country clubbing as kingdom building... Fear as submission to confusion and chaos. I will not teach my children to silence the outcast or afflicted... To shame them or accuse them of bitterness when they have been abused or held captive.

I will teach my children about abundant life, spiritual borders... With no physical limitations. They will not sit because dancing is being too odd for God. They will not follow blindly. I'm claiming for them the lives they were meant to have here. They will be free indeed or I'll die trying. They will love harder than me, stand up for truth and justice stronger than me, speak more words straight from God's heart than I could even fathom... Because I won't make it difficult for them to believe in who they were made to be. I will not doubt their giftings, control how the Holy Spirit leads them or uses them... I will cherish their differences... Lift up their weaknesses and press behind them to step forward when shame or fear would make them retreat.

I will build them up because kingdom building is not about a building. It is about the people... It is about calling out people to freedom in Christ and holding those who dare claim leadership accountable for the sake of their own skin. To look in the mirror every day and say, "what can I do?" Before I send another person to the front lines?.. To look in my own backyard and feed the unfed before I brag of feeding nations I've never visited...

What am I doing as a mother of God's beloved children and a daughter of the King if love and liberty are not first falling words from my lips?

And I'm by no means bragging. I'll have to shake off my own dark thoughts, shame, and physical afflictions every day before I can even step into the first few hours of the day. I'll have to ask God to keep me in check because I am so passionate that words can cut without self-healing. I'll have to ignore every untrue word others will say of me because I make them uncomfortable and find satisfaction in God for friendship and light in dark and lonely seasons... But I will still stand. I will still instruct. I will still encourage you to live free. Because God is in me and "Greater is He that is in me..."

step up and claim your inheritance!