SITE NAVIGATION

MEDIA COVERAGE

image: Charisma Magazine Cover
Featured Article on VOC's Ministry

image: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Featured Article in
Print & Online

image: WAEC Love86
Featured Guests


image: WRFG Radio
Featured Guests

image: The Praise House
Featured Guest

image: saWorship.com
Featured Online Article

MEET OUR FOUNDER

image: The Scribal Anointing
The Scribal Anointing
Training & Demonstration Manual

Theresa H. Johnson

image: The Scribal Companion
The Scribal Companion
Student Workbook & Study Guide

Theresa H. Johnson

image: Spiritually Critiquing
Spiritually Critiquing
Literary Works

Theresa H. Johnson

OVERCOMING WRITER'S BLOCK GOD'S WAY

©  Copyright 2005 Theresa Harvard Johnson
For Permission to Redistribute Contact Us

Do not get discouraged if somewhere along your path as a scribe you find yourself unable to write or unable to tap into a flow where the prophetic word can pour from you creatively. In the world, this inability to write is often referred to as "writer's block," but I like to refer to it as "reaching the lid or tapping out on the anointing" that rests on your life and on your spiritual gift. It is a miserable place to be if you are a passionate writer whose mind is always on glorifying God through your gift.

We've all been there, and if you haven't you will be. Reaching the Lid is a place or a point in your spiritual walk with God in which you have achieved or maximized your potential in a specific area, and you can't move any further until some things in your life change.

When you come to this place – which should be often as you grow in God, know that he is challenging you in your spiritual walk with him and pulling you to higher places of understanding and a greater level of anointing. When we walk with God, we stand in a place of constant change and renewal and nothing about can remain the same.

Reaching the Lid: An Example

 I've had many, many periods in my life like this. When I first gave my life to the Lord, I was happy, excited and believed everyone loved God as much as I did. I wanted to tell everyone about Jesus! I trusted every believer I ran in contact with … and the poetry flowed from me like butter. The poetry was themed around renewal, refreshing and exaltation to God. I spent a great deal of time praising, worshipping and enjoying God – as babes do.

Then, as I matured, I found myself thinking differently. I began to realize that everyone didn't love God or his people. I began to see that just because some folks called his name it didn't mean that they had a heart to live a sanctified and holy life.  In that growth process, I took on some things that began to change my personality. My writing changed and the Holy Spirit quickened my spirit to write the things I saw happening around me. As I grew in frustration, I found myself trying to write … based on the pattern I learned as a babe. I became angry, discouraged and pretty much laid down the pen for a while … and focused more on memorizing the pieces and traveling with the writing ministry.

Then one day, my spiritual father said to me, "You're not writing like you used to. Where's the notebook that God told you to carry around. Where's that zeal for the Lord that I'm used to seeing." I cried. I told him I didn't know what had happened, and that I couldn't hear from God like I used to. Then he said to me, "Theresa, you have to get on the meat of the word. As you grow in God, you can't pray the way you've always prayed, write the way you've always written or remain in a box … or an area of comfort. You, he said, must go deeper."

I didn't understand what he meant at first. Then one day, I presented myself before God and cried out to him through my pen and notebook. The Holy Spirit wrote through me and said, "Where you are now daughter, it's going to take an increased prayer life, an increased hunger for the word … and a spirit that constantly seeks my face."

I moved from a babe in Christ who sought the guidance of a father based on infancy, to a woman who sought the face of God for maturity and answers. God wanted to purge me of the NEGATIVE things I had taken on during my early walk with him. He wanted to rip away the old wine skins, tear down the religious walls I had resurrected and walk me – literally – into maturity. I couldn't stay where I was. I had TAPPED OUT OF THE ANOINTING that was released for that season! God was calling me to go deeper.

Taking the Lid Off, Breaking the Block

II Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified."

A purging had to take place in me! Only then, could God begin to pour fresh word into my heart and I was able to process it correctly. Only then, could the prophetic floodgates open and the secrets of the kingdom be revealed through my pen. It was at this point, that I understood that there was no such thing as "writer's block" for believers. Instead, there comes a time when we need a "spiritual enema" due to "constipation" in the spirit realm. I know this is descriptive – but it's the one thing I know we can all identify with.

Consider this. How do we get constipated in the natural? There's an easy answer folks: "We fill our spirits with things that DO NOT concern God? Those things can include worry, frustration, un-forgiveness, anger, jealousy, slothfulness and the list goes on. All of these things are not of God." The problem is, we fail to go before God daily and purge these things from our spirit and seek repentance.

Reasons Why a Believer Can't Write or Faces A Stall

Forget what the world has taught you concerning writer's block. Nine times out of ten, the lack of prophetic flow and the feeling of "not moving" is a result of God forcing us to move to the next level of maturity. This is a CONSTANT and ONGOING process.

"Writer's Block" has no relevance in the Kingdom of God because GOD DOES NOT "block" gifts – we do! A worldly solution can never solve a spiritual problem. We can block the prophetic flow or stump our ability to hear clearly from God by:

1. Becoming too busy to spend quality time in prayer, praise and worship.

2. Filling our spirit with things of the world instead of the things of God.

3. Becoming a know-it-all, un-teachable and unwilling to receive guidance and counsel because we feel as if we have arrived in a certain area.

4. Allowing our education and credentials to determine our qualifications instead of God. This is a "BIGGY" and it's a pharasitic spirit.

5. Getting comfortable where we are and wanting to stay there.

6. Failing to do the basic things God has instructed every scribe to do like write in your journal daily, memorize a scripture verse, or find a mentor who is INSTRUCTED IN THE KINGDOM of heaven.

We are not greater than God, and our walk with Him is constantly filled with change. Our minds must be renewed daily. If not, we'll end up on a path that seems right … but in reality, it is leading to failure and destruction. If you find you find yourself in this place, please remember that God is with you. Remember that he is "PUSHING" you to reach higher and go deeper.

When you emerge, your writing style may change COMPLETELY! You may no longer write spoken word or prayers. You may end up writing short stories or prose. He may even push you into writing sermons, plays, instructional materials or a combination of things. It's not about us, it's all about God.

If you are in this area now, my prayer is that God illuminates your spirit and that he fills you with a hunger and thirst for his word. I pray that he takes away all the old and pours in the new. I pray that your joy may be full in your quest for him, and that you are able to endure all things in the hope of your calling. I pray that you let go of the ways of this world and hang all your hope an expectation on him -- losing every ungodly spirit that binds you. In Jesus' Name, Amen