Welcome to OBSCURITY

Have you ever felt unknown, overlooked, or undervalued? Have you found yourself wondering if God or people notice the: effort, passion, drive, hours, serving, or investment you’ve made? Do you feel called to greater levels of influence but feel like you’re the only one who sees it? Have you felt your big dreams shrink to a more manageable size? Has it ever felt like your dream is being delayed? Have you been tempted to second guess the call of God on your life? Do you feel like you’ve been stuck in this current season for too long? Have you ever thought about quitting?

I know I have.

I know what it’s like to grapple simultaneously with a sense of greatness and insecurity. I understand the tension of knowing that you know that God has given you passions and dreams to make a difference, yet the reality of your life and circumstances couldn’t be further from what you saw in your heart. I know what it’s like to feel like God has forgotten his promises towards you. I’ve experienced what it feels like when you think you should be getting the opportunity, but for some reason, you seem to be unnoticed and passed by. I know what it’s like to achieve a new level of results and still feel unsatisfied and unknown.

I’m not the first to deal with this, and I won’t be the last. But the tragedy is that many men and women over the years have settled short of the purposes of God for their lives because they began this beautiful, painful, defining, and ultimately rewarding process that we call OBSCURITY… but they quit.

There’s a process of obscurity you have to go through to enjoy the promotion and purpose that God has for you!

WHAT IS OBSCURITY?

The preparation process rarely resembles the dream you initially received from God. Many of the feelings in the opening paragraph quickly follow that initial call from God. Often, our biggest challenge is being unaware of what a season of Obscurity looks like and why God uses it to prepare us. Webster’s dictionary definition says that Obscurity is the state of being in darkness, being unknown, overlooked, unimportant, hidden, covered, etc. Obscure seasons are when God applies the unique attributes of Obscurity to our lives for the purpose of preparation. God uses Obscurity to prepare us to carry the calling He put in us.

“Obscurity is a tool in the hand of God to shape the heart of a leader.”

Around age thirteen I began to encounter the excitement of God speaking to me; over the next few years, the Holy Spirit would begin to clarify the call to ministry leadership he had for my life. But, from the time God originally called me into the ministry, it was a full ten years before I saw any of that realized. It’s been almost another twenty since then, and I’ve been blessed to be able to see some incredible dreams become a reality. I feel extremely fortunate to have traveled locally and around the world doing things I sensed in my heart at age thirteen.

Along the way, I found that once God calls us into influence, he simultaneously initiates the process of Obscurity. God has been using Obscurity to shape me for the past twenty-five-plus years. The more aware we are of this process and why this process is happening, the more likely we are to emerge successfully from it.

The truth is that God has called you to do something great; to have a great impact on your generation. I’m passionate about seeing you step up and into that full purpose. But the pathway towards that calling is most often the road less traveled.

“Stay faithful during the gap between your anointing and appointing.”
Matthew Barnett

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF OBSCURITY?

Obscurity takes you beyond yourself so that you’ll fully rely on God. Obscurity takes you from leaning on your own strength to leaning on God and his strength.

“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure… this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”
2 Corinthians 1:8, 9 NIV

“The yoke of censure is an irksome one, but it prepares a man for future honor. He is not fit to be a leader who has not run the gauntlet of contempt. Praise intoxicates if it be not preceded by abuse. Men who rise to eminence without struggle usually fall into dishonor. The yoke of affliction, disappointment, and excessive labor is by no means to be sought for; but when the Lord lays it on us in our youth, it frequently develops a character which glorifies God and blesses the church.”
Charles Spurgeon