There are at least three repetitive themes which seem to be emerging in Christendom as of late which are pioneering, standing firm, and wisdom. As I’ve continued to wait on the Lord regarding both of these and pray into them, the following was impressed upon my spirit by The Holy Spirit, “Tweak Your Wheelhouses.” It’s time to evaluate, el pronto!
The verbiage tweak seems to be one of modern-day- vernacular whereas wheelhouse stems from decades ago. What’s a wheelhouse anyway?
1. A part of a boat or ship serving as a shelter for the person at the wheel.
2. One’s area of interest or expertise.
Unless you’re in the military or a shipmaster, and for the purposes of this week’s blog post, I’ll be referencing the second definition listed above.
While we’re on the subject of word meanings, what’s listed for the verb aspect of tweak?
1.Twist or pull (something) sharply. “He tweaked the boy’s ear.”
2. Informal (usage): To improve (a mechanism or system) by making fine adjustments to it. “Engineers tweak the car’s operating systems during the race.”
What’s interesting regarding the prophetic word I heard was the term “tweak.” Again, regarding the definitions listed above, my emphasis is upon the second one which is improving or fine tuning.
Since the physical or natural realms mirror the spiritual one, we can have spiritual wheelhouses or areas of interest and expertise.
With the current monthly directive given, it’s important to evaluate each of them as it applies to our lives.
In order to improve or fine tune something, one must have a general sense and working knowledge of it in the first place. In other words, how could I tweak a wheelhouse in road construction or designing guitars if I had no experience or frame of reference of these to begin with?
The necessity for tweaking our wheelhouses is not just as a result of the worldwide pandemic, but the drastically changing landscape on several fronts. Perhaps this is why there’s a concert of voices singing the same tunes recently which are:
“Stand firm, and don’t be shaken as a reed in the wind.”
https://sheilaeismann.com/unshakeable/
“Revisit the pioneer days of the past.”
“Though it cost all you have, get wisdom.”
For the sake of discussion and to evaluate, let’s just choose a fictional character named Lizbea. Her physical wheelhouse is an interior decorator and the gift of helps or serving is her spiritual one. (1 Corinthians 12:28; Romans 12:7)
Many folks have flown the coop, so to speak, in Lizbea’s geographic region due to high taxes and pandemic fallout. The demand for her services has all but dwindled. In addition, the state in which she resides has beyond strict pandemic restrictions. She doesn’t want to put her Interior Design college degree on the shelf, so she must don her thinking cap.
If you were advising Lizbea as to how she could still stay afloat financially and improve or make fine adjustments to her business, what would you tell her?
One possibility would be for her to design an online course and proceed accordingly. Granted, she’d have to do some background work and research to get this launched, but it would be a major “tweak,” so to speak. I’m just waxing a little poetic on that one!
Navigating the pandemic, Lizbea could contact some of the existing business owners in her locale who’ve not exited and ask for the opportunity to design some window displays, online or in-store ones.
A third suggestion might be for Lizbea to reconnect with some of her college buddies through a zoom call for a brainstorming session since they might all be in the same boat. Maybe not the same wheelhouse, but the same boat, figuratively speaking.
While the above suggestions might be ultra-elementary, you get the idea.
Having read this far through my blog post, you might be saying to yourself, “Well, I know what my physical wheelhouse is, but I have no clue what my spiritual one could be.”
I have fantastic news for you! That’s where God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and The Bible enter the situation. God designed each of us with unique gifts, talents, abilities, and desires. No two of us on the planet are 100% alike.
Back to Lizbea for a moment. Her spiritual gift is primarily that of helps or serving. These types of gifts are also known as “The Motivational Gifts” as they are what motivate each one of us. Romans 12:6-8 lists the gifts, and 1 Peter 4:10 is a companion verse.
You can examine your own life and probably readily discern what your giftings are just by observing or listing what you do on a regular basis or the types of things you instinctively respond to. Someone with the gift of helps or services renders practical service in most every situation. It’s usually their first response in any given circumstance, especially a crisis.
On a personal note, a family member recently passed. Our friends and family members who have the motivational/spiritual gift of helps contacted us right away to offer their assistance of whatever was needed.
A great resource which I highly recommend if you’d like further information regarding your giftings is the book titled Discover Your God-Given Gifts by Don and Katie Fortune. My husband and I have both used this book in prior Bible Study classes which we’ve taught over the years.
Exercising our physical and spiritual giftings makes us feel much better as a person as we are contributing to mankind and the kingdom of God simultaneously along with fulfilling our God-given destiny.
After the passing of our family member, one of our dear Christian sisters rang the doorbell one day. I just happened to be passing from our office into the living room and saw her from inside our entryway window. She’d baked a yummy apple strudel loaf and decorated it with aluminum foil tied with red yarn, so it looked like a cross!
This particular sister knows how I love birds, so she’d carefully hand-selected a beautiful card and penned such caring, comforting words. These items were lovingly placed inside a box lined with tissue paper and left on the table on our front steps. With Meredith’s gift of serving and helps, she’d put a lot of tender, loving care into her “special delivery.” I just sat down and cried as I thought of Jesus expressing His care and comfort for us through a friend exercising her gifting.
Continuing with Lizbea, she’s really sort of in a bind now, isn’t she? Servers and helpers are used to being on the go as they render practical help. In the midst of the pandemic, how can Lizbea fine tune this gifting? One of the easiest things for her to do is when the situation arises, pray and ask God what He would have her to do. He’s the One Who sees the whole big picture. God may direct her to prepare some meals which could be easily frozen, so when the pandemic wanes, she can be “at the ready” to help families in need.
The word of the Lord does not come forth unless it’s important and instructional. Obviously, we’re going to need to tweak our wheelhouses to navigate the days ahead. The landscape is changing like quicksand under our feet with each passing day.
Perhaps you’re way ahead of the curve and have been doing this already to which I say, “Hallelujah, keep tweaking!”
One of the many things I love about God is that He does not ask us to do something if He doesn’t already have the answers in His pipeline. (Isaiah 65:24) Since He uniquely fashioned each one of us (Psalm 139:16), His answers are going to be different. It’s not a one size fits all deal.
Godly wisdom is supreme and should be implemented ahead of man’s wisdom. If He’s instructing us regarding our wheelhouses which He gave us in the first place, it’s important that we consult Him. In last week’s blog post, I wrote about the difference between heavenly and earthly wisdom. The proof is in the fruit.
To keep our wheelhouses humming along smoothly, fresh winds and words from the throne room of God are released in a timely fashion. What are the inherent benefits for us?
a. Lessens frustration.
b. Retains balance in our bodies, souls, minds and spirits.
c. Maintains hope and joy.
d. Renders assistance to fulfill our books of destiny.
e. Gives us a reason for living.
f. Assures our satisfaction in God and His design for our lives.
g. Helps to keep us organized and more productive. Who couldn’t use some help in those areas of life?
Prophetic Insights For Daily Living:
- First, define your physical and spiritual wheelhouse(s). If you are unsure of them, pray and ask God for He will surely reveal them to you through The Holy Spirit. Both Jesus and The Holy Spirit continue to pray for us even when we don’t think They are. (Romans 8:26-27; and 34)
- Consult with Christian believers, family members, and trusted friends or co-workers for confirmations. All of them may be able to help you evaluate.
- We may have spread ourselves too thin over the past year without realizing it. Tweaking will solve that problem on several fronts.
- There’s a special, heavenly window of grace and opportunity during the month of February to do this necessary tweaking. The manner in which this will be confirmed to you is that you will not have thought of the necessary adjustments in your own natural thinking process. God has many ways to speak to us. Press in and listen.
- You’re the only one in your wheelhouse, so it’s incumbent upon you to do this. The assignment is yours, not someone else’s.
- God-given connections may suddenly arise to help you complete your assignment. Please be on the lookout for them.
- This is an exciting opportunity and fun exercise if we can look at it in that regard.
- I’m starting my assignment this week. To that end, I’ve drawn a wheelhouse for each of the physical and spiritual ones that The Holy Spirit has quickened unto me. I’m filling those in as He leads and directs. I plan to follow His lead for the necessary tweaks as He helps me to evaluate my life.
- How must your wheelhouses be tweaked to prepare for 2021 and beyond?
God is our Jehovah-Jireh (Genesis 22:14), and He will provide what we need in our wheelhouses.
I’d love to hear from some of you in blogger-reader land as to how you tweaked your wheelhouses. I’m sure other readers would benefit as well. The rising tide benefits all ships. Happy sailing and tweaking!
Sheila Eismann, Prophetic Seer, Blogger, Author & Teacher, publishes her weekly blog posts endeavoring to encourage others through God’s word. Her writings include teaching and instructions on how to apply prophetic insights for daily living. You can subscribe to receive new blog posts on her website at www.sheilaeismann.com.
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What a helpful post and great timing. The one on the list that jumped out at me was “We may have spread ourselves too thin over the past year without realizing it.” I’m feeling this way and I think I need to re-evaluate my wheelhouses. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Cathie. I’m glad to hear that my blog post for this week was timely and beneficial for you. I think a lot of people would agree with you regarding the “spreading ourselves too thin over the past year.” Personally, I can already tell the difference in just the past couple of days since I’ve started “tweaking” my wheelhouses. My focus has sharpened and my concentration has improved. Happy February, and thanks for your encouragement!
What an excellent way to show us life as we drive our wheelhouse through the river of life. And we know that our Lord is really the River of Life, which you so emphasized when you stated that “Godly wisdom is supreme!” That really hit me. It’s when we abide in Him and His word abides in us, that we stay safe and don’t crash our boat on the rocks. When we keep Him supremely first, we seek Him for everything, live in His presence, and tweaking is the common denominator in our boat ride of life. Thank you, Sheila, for giving me such a clear picture!
Marilyn, thank you for your keen, spiritual insight which you’ve added to the blog post. Your sage advice of abiding in Christ, so we don’t “crash our boat on the rocks” is so timely and encouraging. Sometimes, the tsunamis can really rock our boats of life which necessitates and mandates that Jesus Christ is the captian of our boat! Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your family.