Prophetic Push: Stop Trying to Force What No Longer Fits
- Liv Arnold
- Nov 3
- 8 min read
You know, something I heard recently was this: stop trying to force what doesn’t fit. That hit me so deeply because when you really think about it, we do that all the time. Imagine God bringing you into a new season, a whole new space, new territory, a new level, yet you’re still carrying the old stuff from the old season. You’re bringing the old habits, the old flow, the old mindset, the old conversations, and the old patterns into a brand-new thing that God is trying to do. And you’re wondering why it feels off, why it’s not working. It’s because it doesn’t fit anymore. You are out of alignment.
I remember once I had a dream that I was getting ready to walk through a door. As I was trying to walk through the door, there was this bag on my back, and that bag was literally holding me back. God began to speak to me about the duality of what I was seeing. The bag represented wineskins. If you’ve ever seen a wineskin, it looks like a leather bag, and in this dream, I had a brown leather bag on my back. The Lord started showing me that I was trying to carry old wineskins through a new door. But He also showed me that what I was carrying in that moment could not go through certain doors.
There was a double message in it: don’t try to take old wineskins through the new door, and also recognize that certain doors can’t hold what you’re carrying. The color brown even represented a call, and the Lord began to tell me, “Make sure you don’t take certain things through particular doors because of the call that’s on your life.” There are some doors that are not compatible with what you carry. Jesus said in Luke 5:37, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled.” The old wineskins can’t handle the expansion of the new.
Now imagine being promoted into something new but still trying to operate like you did before the promotion. Still trying to hang out with the same people who represented your old season. Still trying to wear the same clothes of comfort in a place that now requires courage. What happens when God calls you out of safe? What happens when God says, “Come up higher”? Because here’s what happens: when you start to ascend, things start to shake.
Think about a missile. As it elevates, it begins to shake because the warhead starts to detach. There’s a necessary detachment that happens in the shaking, because certain parts must fall off so it can go higher. And that’s where many of us get scared, because we feel the shaking and think something’s wrong. But Hebrews 12:27 says that God is “removing those things that can be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken may remain.” The shaking is not punishment; it’s purification. As you go higher, the shaking is revealing what can’t stay attached.
And when what was once comfortable now starts to feel constricting, that’s when He starts whispering, “Why are you trying to bring the old thing into the new thing?” Because if you stay where you are when God’s calling you higher, you’ll start to feel choked by the very space that once held you. Isaiah 54:2 says, “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your curtains wide; do not hold back.” The stretch is necessary for the next season.
Hebrews 10:38 says, “But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” That phrase “shrinks back” in the Greek is hupostellō (ὑποστέλλω).
It means to draw back, to withhold, to conceal oneself, or to retreat under pressure. It comes from two root parts: hupo meaning “under,” and stellō meaning “to set or stand firm.” So literally, it means to pull yourself under what God already set in motion. It’s like taking up less space than Heaven expanded you for. It’s choosing safety over a resounding YES. When God says “don’t shrink back,” He’s saying, “Don’t hide under what I’ve already revealed in you. Don’t retreat from what I called you to rise into.”
If you’re shrinking, it’s because you were already stretched, and the enemy would love nothing more than to make you believe that your stretch was a mistake. But the stretch was your setup for the new. Philippians 3:13–14 reminds us, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal.” The press means leaving behind what no longer fits.
Sometimes the new thing makes us feel unqualified. Or we start feeling that imposter syndrome creeping in. We start thinking, “Who am I to be here?” But the truth is, you’re supposed to be here. The only reason it feels unfamiliar is because it’s new ground. Sometimes we wrestle with false humility or fear of man. We ask, “What are they going to think about me moving into this new thing?” But those voices didn’t sit in the meeting with God. They weren’t there when He laid out the new blueprint for your life. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for your obedience. Your “yes” doesn’t require public approval. Galatians 1:10 says, “If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” When you stop performing for understanding, you make space for authenticity.
David didn’t try to wear Saul’s armor because he knew it didn’t fit. He didn’t need to force himself into someone else’s mantle just to look qualified. He knew who he was and what God had placed in him. 1 Samuel 17:39 says, “David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, but he had not tested them. And David said, ‘I cannot walk with these.’ So he took them off.” Don’t force what no longer fits. Don’t wear what was never measured for you. You might carry pieces of someone’s teaching or their training, but you are not them. You are your own sound, your own oil, your own expression of God’s movement in the earth.
One thing I think we’ve missed in the body of Christ is fluidity. We get stuck trying to master a niche, trying to box in the flow of the Spirit into something we can control or market. But the Kingdom of God is fluid. It moves how He moves. It shifts when He shifts. John 3:8 says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” So yes, master your craft, but more than that, master obedience. Master following the Holy Spirit. Let Him teach you how to move, how to flow, how to speak, and how to pivot when He says so. The foundation of who you are is not a brand or a title. It’s not an image. It’s Christ. And Christ moved wherever the Father sent Him. He spoke to whoever the Father led Him to, and He did whatever the Father said to do.
God’s grace is always there, but that doesn’t mean we can’t miss a moment. Sometimes the opportunity is tied to the obedience. If you ignore the small “go” moment, you might miss what was connected to it. It doesn’t mean you’ve missed God; it just means you’ve delayed your now. Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that “to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” Delay is still disobedience in disguise.
When He says move, move. When He says let it go, let it go. Don’t force what doesn’t fit. Don’t drag yesterday into today.
This is the season to walk in identity, to stop walking in Ishmael assignments or counterfeit spaces. Because if you want to be solid in your assignment, you have to be solid in who you are. Stop trying to be them. Be who God said you are.
Here are five ways to recognize when you’re forcing what no longer fits, and what to do about it.
1. Things are drying up, and you’re still trying to make them flow. You see that something is no longer producing fruit, but you keep trying to revive it. Maybe it’s a relationship, a ministry, or a business strategy. When God dries up a brook, it’s because He’s redirecting your supply. 1 Kings 17:7 says, “After a while the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.” God told Elijah to move on because the place that once sustained him could no longer do so. When something dries up, ask God where the fresh flow is.
2. What used to sustain you no longer sustains you. Maybe your prayer life, study rhythm, or business plan once worked, but now it doesn’t fulfill you or feed you. That’s a sign of elevation. God is calling you deeper. Psalm 42:7 says, “Deep calls unto deep.” Go deeper in prayer, deeper in the Word, and deeper in obedience.
3. You’ve stopped growing where you are. You keep doing the same things, releasing the same sounds, following the same patterns, but your spirit is restless. That restlessness is the Holy Spirit saying, “It’s time for more.” Isaiah 43:18–19 says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” You can’t keep expecting new outcomes from old levels of obedience.
4. You feel like the smartest person in the room. That might sound harsh, but it’s an indicator that your environment has reached its limit for where you’re going next. It doesn’t mean you abandon people, but it means your appetite has changed. You need new environments that challenge you, stretch your faith, and expand your dialogue. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” God is inviting you into rooms that match your next capacity.
5. Your ideology hasn’t caught up with your new identity. Your thought process, your language, and your perception are still shaped by where you’ve been, not where God is taking you. That means your mind, your heart, and your soul haven’t fully caught up to what God already said about you. Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Start thinking from the place God is calling you into, even if nothing around you looks different yet.
When you recognize these signs, don’t panic adjust. Don’t resist the evolution embrace it. The goal isn’t to force the old to work; it’s to align with what God is doing now.
So we declare: We are not forcing what no longer fits. We are aligning with the right people, the right spaces, and the right assignments. We are saying yes to the new, even if it scares us, even if it stretches us, because God is doing a new thing, and we will not miss it.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
What's next:
If you’ve been realizing that you’ve been trying to force what no longer fits, maybe it’s time to pause and let the Holy Spirit help you map out the new thing. Sometimes God gives the vision, but we need help identifying the structure, the strategy, or even the language to carry it forward.
If you need help mapping out the new plan, the new idea, or the God-said, or if you need support amplifying your voice and showing up as the creative Heaven has called you to be, I’m here to help. As a Kingdom Midwife and Creative Catalyst, I walk alongside Kingdom creatives, visionaries, and leaders to help you birth what God has placed in your spirit.
Whether you’re stepping into a new season, building something from the ground up, or seeking clarity on what God is saying now, I’d love to walk with you through that process.
You can schedule a one-on-one consultation or session with me to begin mapping out your next step, refining your vision, and positioning yourself for what’s next.
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