In a book by one of my mentors, I recently read a quote from a man by the name of Albert E.N. Gray. Immediately inspired, I went to Google to learn more about Mr. Gray, a former official of the Prudential Insurance Company of America. The quote came from a speech he delivered to the National Association of Life Underwriters at their annual convention in 1940. I found the speech to be chalk full of candid, authoritative, not-messin’-around, how-to-get-er-done, no-excuses energy. 

I love that kind of energy. Especially when entering a new year. Check it out and email me at christy@christynarsi.com to let me know what you think!!! I highlighted my fave take-aways in case you want to get straight to the meat.

Transcript: The Common Denominator of Success by Albert E.N. Gray

Several years ago I was brought face to face with the very disturbing realization that I was trying to supervise and direct the efforts of a large number of men and women who were trying to achieve success, without knowing myself what the secret of success really was. And that, naturally, brought me face to face with the further realization that regardless of what other knowledge I might have brought to my job, I was definitely lacking in the most important knowledge of all.

Of course, like most of us. I have been brought up on the popular belief that the secret of success is hard work, but I had seen so many people work hard without succeeding and so many people succeed without working hard that I had become convinced that hard work was not the real secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements.

And so I set out on a voyage of discovery which carried me through biographies and autobiographies and all sorts of dissertations on success and the lives of successful individuals until I finally reached the point at which I realized that the secret I was trying to discover lay not only in what individuals did, but also in what made them do it.

I realized further that the secret for which I was searching must not only apply to every definition of success, but since it must apply to everyone to whom it was offered it must also apply to everyone who had ever been successful. In short, I was looking for the common denominator of success.

And because that is exactly what I was looking for, that is exactly what I found.

But this common denominator of success is so big, so powerful, and so vitally important to your future and mine that I’m not going to make a speech about it. I’m just going to “lay it on the line” in words of one syllable, so simple that everyone can understand them.

The common denominator of success – secret of success of every individual who has ever been successful – lies in the fact that he or she formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.

It’s just as true as it sounds and it’s just as simple as it seems. You can hold it up to the light, you can put it to the acid test, and you can kick it around until it’s worn out, but when you are all through with it, it will still be the common denominator of success, whether we like it or not.

It will still explain why some individuals have come into this business of ours with every apparent qualification for success and given us our most disappointing failures, while others have come in and achieved outstanding success in spite of many obvious handicaps. And since it will also explain your future, it would seem to be a mighty good idea for you to use it in determining just what sort of a future you are going to have. In other words, let’s take this big, all-embracing secret and boil it down to fit the individual you.

If the secret of success lies in forming the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do, let’s start the boiling-down process by determining what are the things that failures don’t like to do. The things that failures don’t like to do are the very things that you and I and other human beings, including successful people, naturally don’t like to do. In other words, we’ve got to realize right from the start that success is something which is achieved by the minority of people, and is therefore unnatural and not to be achieved by following our natural likes and dislikes nor by being guided by our natural preferences and prejudices.

The things that failures don’t like to do, in general, are too many and too obvious for us to discuss them here, and so, since our success is to be achieved in the sale of life insurance, let us move on to a discussion of the things that we as life insurance agents don’t like to do. Here, too, the things we don’t like to do are too many to permit of specific discussion, but I think they can all be disposed of by saying that they all emanate from one basic dislike peculiar to our type of selling. We don’t like to call on people who don’t want to see us and talk to them about something they don’t want to talk about. Any reluctance to follow a prospecting program, to use prepared sales talks, to organize time and to organize effort are all caused by this one basic dislike.

Perhaps you have wondered what is behind this peculiar lack of welcome on the pan of our prospective buyers. Isn’t it due to the fact that our prospects are human too? And isn’t it true that average human beings are not big enough to buy life insurance of their own accord and are therefore prone to escape our efforts to make them bigger or persuade them to do something they don’t want to do by striking at the most important weakness we possess; namely, our desire to be appreciated?

Perhaps you have been discouraged by a feeling that you were born subject to certain dislikes peculiar to you, with which the successful agents in our business are not afflicted. Perhaps you have wondered why it is that our biggest producers seem to like to do the things that you don’t like to do.

They don’t! And I think this is the most encouraging statement I have ever offered to a group of life insurance agents.

But if they don’t like to do these things, then why do they do them? Because by doing the things they don’t like to do, they can accomplish the things they want to accomplish.

Successful people are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they like to do.

Why are successful people able to do things they don’t like to do while failures are not? Because successful people
have a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don’t like to do in order to accomplish the purpose they want to accomplish.

Sometimes even our best producers get into a slump. When people go into a slump, it simply means that they have reached a point at which, for the time being, the things they don’t like to do have become more important than their reasons for doing them. And may I pause to suggest to you managers and agents that when one of your good producers goes into a slump, the less you talk about production and the more you talk about purpose, the sooner you will pull that agent out of that slump?

Many people with whom I have discussed this common denominator of success have said at this point, “But I have a family to support and I have to make a living for my family and myself. Isn’t that enough of a purpose?”

No, it isn’t. It isn’t a sufficiently strong purpose to make you form the habit of doing the things you don’t like to do for the very simple reason that…

…it is easier to adjust ourselves to the hardships of a poor living than it is to adjust ourselves to the hardships of
making a better one.

If you doubt me, just think of all the things you are willing to go without in order to avoid doing the things you don’t like to do. All of which seems to prove that…

…the strength which holds you to your purpose is not your own strength but the strength of the purpose itself.

Now, let’s see why habit belongs so importantly in this common denominator of success.

People are creatures of habit just as machines are creatures of momentum, for habit is nothing more or less than momentum translated from the concrete into the abstract. Can you picture the problem that would face our mechanical engineers if there were no such things as momentum? Speed would be impossible because the highest speed at which any vehicle could be moved would be the first speed at which it could be broken away from a standstill. Elevators could not be made to rise, airplanes could not be made to fly, and the entire world of mechanics would find itself in a total state of helplessness. Then who are you and I to think that we can do with our own human nature, what the finest engineers in the world could not do with the finest machinery that was ever built?

Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. People form habits and habits form futures.

If you do not deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones.You are the kind of person you are because you have formed the habit of being that kind of person, and the only way you can change is through habit.

The success habits in life insurance selling are divided into four main groups:

1. Prospecting habits
2. Calling habits
3. Selling habits
4. Working habits

Let’s discuss these habit groups in their order.

Any successful life insurance agent will tell you that it is easier to sell life insurance to people who don’t want it than it is to find people who do want it, but if you have not deliberately formed the habit of prospecting for needs, regardless of wants, then unconsciously you have formed the habit of limiting your prospecting to people who want life insurance, and therein lies the one and only real reason for lack of prospects.

As to calling habits, unless you have deliberately formed the habit of calling on people who are able to buy but unwilling to listen, then unconsciously you have formed the habit of calling on people who are willing to listen but unable to buy.

As to selling habits, unless you have deliberately formed the habit of calling on prospects determined to make them see their reasons for buying life insurance, then unconsciously you have formed the habit of calling on prospects in a state of mind in which you are willing to let them make you see their reasons for not buying it.

As to working habits, if you will take care of the other three groups, the working habits will generally take care of themselves because under working habits are included study and preparation, organization of time and efforts, records, analyses, etc. Certainly you’re not going to take the trouble to learn interest arousing approaches and sales talks unless you’re going to use them. You’re not going to plan your day’s work when you know in your heart that you’re not going to carry out your plans. And you’re certainly not going to keep an honest record of things you haven’t done or of results you haven’t achieved. So let’s not worry so much about the fourth group of success habits, for if you are taking care of the first three groups, most of the working habits will take care of themselves and you’ll be able to afford a secretary to take care of the rest of them for you.

But before you decide to adopt these success habits, let me warn you of the importance of habit to your decision. I have attended many sales meetings and sales congresses during the past ten years and have often wondered why, in spite of the fact that there is so much good in them, so many people seem to get so little lasting good out of them. Perhaps you have attended sales meetings in the past and have left these meetings determined to do the things that would make you successful or more successful only to find your decision or determination waning at just the time when it should be put into effect or practice.

Here’s the answer. Any resolution of decision you make is simply a promise to yourself which isn’t worth a tinker’s damn until you have formed the habit of making it and keeping it. And you won’t form the habit of making it and keeping it unless right at the start you link it with a definite purpose that can be accomplished by keeping it, in other words, any resolution or decision you make today has to be made again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next, and so on. And it not only has to be made each day, but it has to be kept each day for if you miss one day in the making or keeping of it, you’ve got to go back and begin all over again. But if you continue the process of making it each morning and keeping it each day, you will finally wake up some morning, a different person in a different world, and you will wonder what has happened to you and the world you used to live in.

Here’s what has happened. Your resolution or decision has become a habit and you won’t have to make it on this particular morning. And the reason for your seeming like a different person living in a different world lies in the fact that for the first time in your life, you have control of yourself and control of your likes and dislikes by surrendering to your purpose in life. That is why behind every success there must be a purpose and that is what makes purpose so important to your future. For in the last analysis, your future is not going to depend on economic conditions or outside influences of circumstances over which you have no control. Your future is going to depend on your purpose in life. So let’s talk about purpose.

First of all, your purpose must be practical and not visionary. Some time ago, I talked with a woman who thought she had a purpose which was more important to her than income. She was interested in people’s suffering and she wanted to be placed in a position to alleviate that suffering. But when we analyzed her real feelings, we discovered, and she admitted it, that what she really wanted was a real nice job dispensing charity with other people’s money and being well paid for it, along with the appreciation and feeling of importance that would naturally go with such a job.

But in making your purpose practical, be careful not to make it logical. Make it a purpose of the sentimental or emotional type. Remember needs are logical while wants and desires are sentimental and emotional. Your needs will push you just so far, but when your needs are satisfied, they will stop pushing you. If, however, your purpose is in terms of wants or desires, then your wants and desires are fulfilled.

Recently I was talking with a young man who long ago discovered the common denominator of success without identifying his discovery. He had a definite purpose in life and it was definitely a sentimental or emotional purpose.

He wanted his children to go through college without having to work their way through as he had done. And he wanted his wife, and mother of his children, to enjoy the luxuries and comforts and even necessities, which had been denied his own mother. And he was willing to form the habit of doing things he didn‘t like to do in order to accomplish this purpose.

Not to discourage him, but rather to have him encourage me, I said to him, “Aren’t you going a little too far with this thing? There’s no logical reason why your children shouldn’t be willing and able to work their way through college just as their father did. Of course they’ll miss many of the things that you missed in your college life and they’ll probably have heartaches and disappointments. But if they’re any good, they’ll come through in the end just as you did. And there’s no logical reason why you should slave in order that your wife can enjoy comforts and luxuries that your mother never had.”

He looked at me with a rather pitying look and said,

“But Mr. Gray, there’s no inspiration in logic. There’s no courage in logic. There’s not even happiness in logic. There’s only satisfaction. The only place logic has in my life is in the realization that the more I am willing to do for my family, the more
I shall be able to do for myself.”

I imagine, after hearing that story, you won’t have to be told how to find your purpose or how to identify it or how to surrender to it. If it’s a big purpose, you will be big in its accomplishment. If it’s an unselfish purpose, you will be unselfish in accomplishing it. And if it’s an honest purpose, you will be honest and honorable in the accomplishment of it.

But as long as you live, don’t ever forget that while you may succeed beyond your fondest hopes and your greatest expectations…

…you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender.

Furthermore, your surrender will not be complete until you have formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.

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WATCH MY LATEST EPISODE!

Here’s something we don’t talk about enough: what it means to have a broken heart. And it's a huge disservice to not talk about it because it is one of the primary reasons Jesus came to us.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…” (Isaiah 61:1)

The fifth reason you’re not getting what you want in life could be this:

5. You have a fractured sense of identity (a broken heart).

We talked about reasons number one, two, three and four. Today we look at number five.

I didn’t understand the inner workings of the heart until I read my theology professor’s book, Moving Your Invisible Boundaries. It was the first time anyone explained the function of the heart and how the heart forms the limiting beliefs that control our lives. 

In my last post I talked about the information the heart holds and disseminates from us in the form of energy. The heart is the seat of our identity. It is where we hold our beliefs about who we are, about who God is and about the world around us. When we experience a fractured sense of identity we have a broken heart. 

In its most basic form, a fractured sense of identity is created when there is tension or incongruency in one’s sense of self that creates inner stress. It is from inner stress that depression and anxiety, addictive behaviors, and cognitive dissonance originate. More intense experiences of chronic inner tension can become more severe mental disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

Our spirituality is impacted by mental distress and our mental distress impacts our spirituality. 

But what comes first–the chicken or the egg? 

Belief. Our beliefs come first. All of the beliefs about who we are, the sense of self we experience and the abiding emotions that ensue are formulated by what we believe about God, ourselves, and the Kingdom of Heaven. Even a hairline fracture in the heart can keep us from seeing and experiencing the reality of heaven on earth. 

Limiting beliefs trigger our Reticular Activating System (RAS) to do what it was made to do. Your RAS takes your belief and creates a filter for you that sifts through all of the data you take in and presents only the pieces that validate your beliefs. Whatever you believe about God, your RAS will find evidence to make it real to you. Whatever you believe about yourself, your RAS will find evidence to make it real to you. And the same thing is true about the Kingdom of Heaven.

In other words, you are never getting what you don’t believe to be true out of life. 

Said another way, you are always getting what you believe to be true out of life. 

The key to overcoming is to change what you believe about God, which will change what you believe about yourself, which will change how you use your keys to the kingdom to bring heaven to earth. 

There is so much to unpack here! Check out my best resources for changing the way you see God so you can get life to work and live a life that is worthy of being called life!

No Pain, No PAIN!

Profile(d): See Him As He Really Is

Getting Life to Work: The Names of God

And be sure to check out this week’s new episode on the podcast where I give you a quick process to discover your calling, purpose, vision…all the things!!

Love y’all so much!

Hindsight can be 2020, but only when we take the time to reflect on what we’ve been through and tell ourselves the right stories about it. 

Here’s what I know: there are at least five BIG reasons the best of the best get stuck, have a nervous breakdown, a mid-life crisis, a dark night of the soul–whatever you want to call the big, ugly breakdown in your life. 

We talked about reason number one, two, and three. Today we look at number four:

#4 You decided you hate where you’re at and to be miserable and negative until something better comes along.

PSA: nothing better is coming along until you stop being miserable and negative. ;)

This really should be fairly self-evident. But alas, the general population just doesn’t get it–life has a funny way of always giving us what we ask of it. 

It’s been said that when it comes to success, attitude is everything. I don’t agree. Attitude isn’t everything. You still need competence and skill to sustain success. 

But attitude is the main thing. 

There is a principle in sowing and reaping when it comes to your attitude and it's this: you cannot sow a negative outcome and reap a positive one. If you do happen to reap a positive outcome with a negative attitude consider yourself lucky because it probably means someone around you had a positive attitude for you.

The way to get a less toxic environment to work in is to sow a less toxic environment where you work now. You don’t get to say it’s not up to you. 

Yes, it is. 

Sow joy and peace and watch things shift in your direction instead of being repelled by you. Do whatever it takes to make your little corner of your little toxic world as pleasant and inspiring and creative as possible. Attitude is the main thing because, good or bad, creation responds to your attitude. And your attitude is determined by your belief.

What do you believe about the world you are surrounded by? Do you believe it is toxic and hopeless? If so, then it is. Do you believe that you can make a positive difference in a toxic situation? If so, then you can.

And you will. It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. But eventually life has to respond to the belief you exercise over it. 

This is the stuff you tell a Christian and they call you a conspiracy freak or lunatic (or heretic). So be it for them but not for you. Let them bask in their fatalism. How’s it workin’ for ‘em anyway? 

The word life carries with it capacity, growth, reproduction, function, activity, and continuous change. 

Life is always growing, reproducing, activating and changing based on the belief your dominion exercises over it. 

There is an incredible amount of research about the energy from our hearts and the impact it has on our environment and the people around us. Your heart isn’t just an organ that moves blood around and keeps you alive. In fact, your heart has more neurons than your brain! It holds information and that information is your belief.

The Heartmath Institute was founded by Doc Childre in 1991. An article from The Behavioral Medicine Report (BMED Report) said this about Heartmath’s research:

“Heartmath researchers report that humans continuously emit energy fields into their environment that can have positive or negative psychophysiological consequences for persons who enter them. The heart is a major source of these electrical fields, but thoughts, attitudes, and emotions also make an important contribution. Amazing too is that these electrical fields can be detected by others up to 5 feet away. This gives new meaning to “I feel your vibe” or sensing “negative energy” from those near you. 

Attitudes of coherent genuine love, appreciation, care and compassion change a field environment – both locally – say in a meeting you are in – and throughout the world. Coherence is a highly efficient state in which all of the body’s systems work together in harmony. Increasing personal coherence creates an alignment of mind, body, emotions and spirit through the power of the heart. Heart coherence serves as a facilitator, adding strength and effectiveness to your care, compassion, intentions and actions to help the world.” -Christopher Fischer, PhD

It’s not just Bible, it’s science y’all. What is science anyway but the study of God’s existence?

What I’m saying to you is this: trust the science. 😜

Attitude isn’t everything, but it is the main thing, because your bad attitude is creating a forcefield around you keeping you locked out of a positive solution. 

Be sure to check out the latest podcast where I start breaking down Your Purpose, Your Vision, Your Why…And All Of That Other Confusing Stuff!

Here’s what I know: there are at least five BIG reasons the best-of-the-best get stuck. I introduced number one here and number two here. The third reason is this…

Reason #3: You rose higher than your sense of self would allow you to stay.

Let’s talk about your ego. ;) Your sense of self is your ego. We tend to think when someone has an ego they think too much of themselves but by definition the ego is your sense of self. Your sense of self can be under-inflated, over-inflated, or just right. 

Having an over-inflated ego is dangerous. But having an under-inflated ego isn’t healthy either. 

If your ego is too low you will experience a fractured sense of identity that will cause you to automatically opt out of getting what you want. 

Here’s how:

Your ego is driven by the belief in your heart. Whatever you believe on a heart level your ego will seek to make real to you, whatever the cost. It is like the thermostat of your life, making sure you don’t get hotter or colder than what you believe about yourself. Your ego is constantly working to make sure you do not rise higher or sink lower than your sense of self.

Let’s say that the promotion you worked for finally comes. We will give it a temperature of 70 degrees. Let’s also say your self-image is set at an internal 65 degrees. When you step up to lead in your new role, your ego will automatically turn the AC on to cool your life back down to 65 degrees.

It’s called self-sabotage. 

Jesus said something in Matthew 13:12 that on the surface makes God out to be a tyrant. Check this out:

“Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

For years I read this scripture wondering why if God is sovereign, why would He take away what I have if I already have so little? Seems harsh.

If we are not careful we will attribute scriptures in the Bible to God that were never about Him. This verse is one of those. Jesus never said it was God doing the giving and taking here. He was talking about the Law of Sowing and Reaping. When we sow any belief, good or bad, it will multiply. If we sow the belief that we are in lack of resources, finances, time or opportunities, we will find a way to destroy even the little resources, finances, time or opportunities we do have.

This is the ego doing its job–making sure we experience equilibrium in life. 

When we have a low sense of self and rise to positions and opportunities that threaten to raise our sense of self higher, we will tear it all down and then some. 

Have you noticed a pattern in your life where, just when the door is finally wide open for you to walk straight into your dream, some sort of disaster or distraction keeps you from going in? If that is your pattern, it's very likely you are self-sabotaging. 

It is tough to admit we are the problem.

Our ego tells us it must be God closing the door on us so we take the next
shiny off-ramp that conveniently lowers the barrier of entry so we don’t have to face our low sense of self. 

This is a very destructive off-ramp to take. It is the Blaming God off-ramp, Blaming Him for closing doors when in reality, He put the ball on the tee and all we had to do was swing and knock it out of the park. 

When we are on the Blaming God off-ramp we don’t see the ball is teed up in our favor because our thermostat won’t allow us to see anything beyond our limiting belief about ourselves.

Whenever we blame God He is forced to leave us to our own devices. When left to our own devices, The Law of Sowing and Reaping will work in lock step with our self-sabotage causing us to lose everything, including what we had before we started the journey!

Getting what we want out of life requires that our internal thermostat is set to believe we are up for the challenge, made for it, that it's our time and we already have everything we need for success! If you’re struggling with your sense of self, it's time to review exactly what Jesus died to give you and what is true about your new nature, not your old nature. It’s time to get real about your limitations and ask yourself some questions:

“What do I need to believe about myself in order to recognize my opportunity and take my land?”

“What do I need to believe about God in order to recognize my opportunity and take my land?”

Do some soul-searching and be sure to shoot me an email at christy@christynarsi.com and let me know how it’s going!!

Love y’all so much!

Here’s what I know: there are at least five BIG reasons the best-of-the-best get stuck. I introduced the first one here. This second reason is closely related and it’s this:

#2. You are blaming other people and circumstances, refusing to take responsibility.

The hardest part about taking responsibility is that the places we get stuck are not always due to our own action or inaction. It is often others who make poor decisions, won’t make up their minds, change their minds, or fail to follow through on commitments that puts us in the place of stuck.

But taking responsibility means owning the fact that we are always “able to make a response". Staying the place of blame and waiting for others to act will get you nowhere. Deciding to make the response of moving forward can take you anywhere!

Jesus told a story called The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares: 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 

He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 

But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ” Matthew 13:24-30

While the Bible is consistent and never contradicts itself, there are a number of paradoxes in the Bible and this is one of them. A paradox is defined as, “a statement that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth”. On the surface, two Bible verses or stories may seem to contradict each other but when you take a deeper look they reveal a profound truth. 

We know that it is challenging to move forward in life without reflecting on how people in our past have sown bad seed in our lives. But here’s the paradox: if all you do is worry about the bad seed and never stop trying to pull it up, you can’t move forward. 

We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is the realm opposite the world’s system. It is the realm where God is King and everything He has is available to us. This is why the Bible says we are in the world but not of it (John 17:14). We are not subject to the laws of the world’s system if we use our freewill to be subject to the laws of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

This is why Jesus starts so many of His parables with, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”. He isn’t necessarily talking about the afterlife. In fact, He was rarely talking about the afterlife. He was trying to teach us what living in the Kingdom realm could look like for us. 

When it comes to healing the tares in our lives (bad seed sown by others) we would do better to tend to the good seed in our lives. We should put more focus and emphasis on watering the truth about the Kingdom we live in rather than the truth the world lives in.

The man in the parable sowed good seed in his heart by planting the truth of the Word of God. He watered it with his faith and trusted that the seed he planted would produce after its own kind. He probably planted the truth that God gives seed to the sower and rain in due season, and so God did. 

But when days and days of scorching hot sun tried to plant doubt and fear in his mind, the tares, he kept watering the truth. He kept thinking about rain, seeing rain in his mind, checking for signs of rain knowing that it was coming because God had promised it. He knew that regardless of what the world’s system was telling him, the Word of the Lord still stands!

And so it did. 

The rain came and the wheat grew. And the tares grew too. But eventually the bad seed did what bad seed always does–it revealed itself for what it was. The man didn’t keep fussing over the fact that someone had intentionally planted evil in his garden and tried to set him up for failure. He knew that if all he did was keep pulling up the past, his harvest would be uprooted as well and never have the chance to come to fruition. 

So what is the point? The point is that we need to discern when it's time to acknowledge that, yes someone tried to infiltrate our progress for the purpose of destroying our vision. But instead of watering that anger and frustration, we must put our sights back on the vision. If we let the vision grow and stop fussing about the past (or present) attacks, we will come to a dead-end. Stuck. Never getting what we wanted.

Love y’all so much!

I have always been a driver, renovator, and high-achiever. Until I wasn’t. In 2013 I experienced a nervous breakdown. This was after over a decade of being a disciple of Jesus, reading my Bible and journaling my prayers daily, giving over and above my tithe … all the things.

Until one day I could not function. I couldn't move. It was like I was trying to walk through mud up to my waste. It did not matter what I did, what book I read, what seminar I went to, or how much I sought deliverance. Nothing was moving. 

It’s been over 12 years since that awful time in my life. Hindsight can be 2020, but only if we take the time to reflect on what we’ve been through and tell ourselves the right stories about it.

Here’s what I know: there are five reasons the best of the best get stuck, have a nervous breakdown, a mid-life crisis, a dark night of the soul–whatever you want to call the big, ugly breakdown in your life. I thought we might take a few weeks to walk through each one.

One of five reasons you are not getting what you want is if you are blaming your pain on God.

#1 You are blaming God, refusing to take ownership of where you are at.

Most of us don’t realize we blame God for, well, everything. We call it God’s sovereignty; meaning God can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. 

But here’s the truth: God can’t do whatever He wants whenever He wants.

God set a boundary for Himself. That boundary is man’s dominion over the earth. Take a look at all the pain and suffering around you. If God was in control of everything, would the world look anything like this?

It wouldn’t. God didn’t do this. We did this.

Am I saying all of our pain is our own fault? No. Some of it is. Some of it is the result of others making evil (or just plain stupid) decisions that had a direct impact on our well-being. 

Regardless of where we are at in life, we have to take responsibility and quit putting the blame on God. Responsibility means “able to respond”.

Job blamed God in order to justify himself. It wasn’t until Job repented of blaming God for allowing all the pain in his life that God was able to restore Job to double the incredible life he had before.

When we say God is allowing pain in our lives we are accusing
Him of sinning against us. 

How do I know this? It’s the system of justice God designed:

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17

“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.” Ezekiel 33:6

According to God’s own system of justice, if He were to see pain coming in our lives’ and not warn us, or refuse to help when it is in His capacity and ability to do so, He would be sinning*.

Religion tells us God allows bad things to happen to good people (Job’s bad theology) because it’s God's way of making us better people. 

I would challenge you to say that to a victim of human trafficking. I would challenge you to say that to the family who lost 11 family members to a mudslide as a result of Hurricane Helene.

And yet this is the narrative of God we give the world in hopes they will believe dedicating their lives’ to Him as a worthwhile endeavor. We don’t present Him as the Good Shepherd who is always trying to prevent danger and problems in our lives.

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Psalm 91:11-12

Where is this God when we are suffering? He is waiting for us to stop blaming Him for the evil in the world so He can lift us out of the pain we are in and restore to us to a greater life than we’ve ever dreamed possible. 

“Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

Your rescue plan hasn’t come because you haven't even let it enter your mind yet that quite possibly God is not the one allowing this to happen to you. He won’t violate your belief so as long as you belief He’s left you to suffer for some grand purpose, He can’t rescue you.

I know this can be a hard pill to swallow. But I also know there are many of you reading this now who don’t understand it all just yet but something in your spirit is starting to shift.

The disciples, after questioning whether or not the resurrected Jesus had just walked along the road with Him asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

Pay attention to your inner landscape. Pay attention to the movements in your heart right now. If something is being stirred up inside of you, the breakthrough you are desperate for might be just one belief about God away.

Let me assure you that the minute I understood God didn’t send my shipwreck or let me shipwreck myself just so He could rescue me, He immediately began to move like I’d never seen before.  The pain started rolling back; the years began to be restored. Physical, financial and emotional healing came quickly.

Life began to flourish and abundance came. I no longer had to live just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I no longer had to convince myself to surrender to someone who was always out to get me. 

I know without a doubt, if you will lean into this, have a teachable spirit and an open heart, you are going to get back on the racetrack you were born for.

Check out these podcasts that will walk you through what the Bible says about this so you can stop the struggle and start healing:

Episode 17 | Profile(d): See Him As He Really Is

Episode 18 | Profile(d): Jonah, A Whale of a Tale and the Real Reason We Run

Love y’all so much!

I just wrapped up two podcast episodes called Resolved. The word resolve is one of my favorites. The Apostle Paul said, “I resolved to speak of nothing but Christ and Him crucified.” 

I love that. 

Have you ever rebranded anything? A business? A non-profit? YOU?

I spent the last six months rebranding. A few helpful resources were my guide. Laura Brand’s book, From Individual to Empire, was the driving force behind finding my brand. Bull is an expert at pulling out the authentic. So you’re not really creating a brand so much as you are stripping away everything until you uncover what was there all along.

But I struggled with my new logo. I must have gone through at least ten versions until I landed on something that made my heart pound. 

Check it out: 

Do you love it?!! If you don’t love it, don’t tell me. It took too long to get here and my hubby and daughters have given me ultimatums if I change it again. 😝

Here’s why it took so long to find my logo: at the risk of sounding overly spiritual, the truth is I hadn’t received inspiration from God yet. Until just last week. For the life of me I don’t recall what brought my inner child to mind but I remembered my favorite cartoon as a kid. It was Jem and the Holograms. 

#TrueStory

I wanted to be a rockstar long before I wanted to be an interior designer or a writer and speaker. My parents fanned the flame of my musical abilities and Jem brought out my inner rocker. I remember my dad’s first electric guitar. Jet black. Shiny. Red pinstripe.  

I actually lived my rocker dream but it wasn’t until I was in my early-thirties. And it was in a church. I was part of our music team and one of our worship leaders saw my inner rockstar. He gave me a Benjamin Gate song and asked me to sing it at a youth service. Our youth group ran at about 600 students.  

I had a chunk of hot pink in my hair, just underneath, not too obvious but still fun. They called it peek-a-boo highlights.

And we had the most ridiculous (as in amazing) base player. His name was Joe T. During the set, Joe T. went missing. Turned out he had climbed a stack of speakers. I didn’t see him until he jumped off and flipped mid-air. Totally nailed the landing. I will never understand how he did that without wrapping himself up in the cable to his amp.

Meanwhile, I shredded the microphone. 

What made the moment so epic for me was that, even though I grew up on stage, competed with traveling jazz ensembles and choirs, played the piano and could read music, took private voice lessons…all the things, my confidence a few months prior to my rockstar moment was completely destroyed. 

There were several contributing factors that would hurt others if I spilled the tea but suffice it to say, when your nerves are off the charts it can be a big challenge to control your pitch. I found myself in a season where I couldn't hit the high notes even though I was a soprano. So I stuck to alto. 

I was a mess. Internally.  And it showed externally. 

So I put myself in voice lessons again. I got my inner rocker back; which is to say my breath support so I could do the scream-o stuff.

I made my comeback. And for whatever reason, I literally dropped the mic. I don’t recall ever doing a rock song again. Somehow that part of my life was just done. But at least I went out like a gangster. 

A few weeks later it was our 10th wedding anniversary. Rimmel surprised me and said, “Get ready. We have an appointment to get tattoos.” I had about 45 minutes to decide how I would permanently brand myself.

So I got a hot pink star outlined in black. I wanted to remember forever what comebacks feel like. I wanted to never forget that failure is miserable, but failing forward by getting back up is worth the reward. 

People are often pretty shocked to hear I have a tattoo. And maybe even more shocked to hear I had a budding rockstar career. They are even further shocked when they hear I can even rap! Yep. 

I may have been raising babies in my thirties but I was keeping it real. 

The real me. 

There is a point to this story and it’s this: I thought about Jem, I thought about the star on top of Jem’s name in the cartoon’s logo, I thought about my star tattoo, I thought about my rockstar comeback, and then I thought about Abraham. 

God took Abraham outside his tent and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Genesis 15:5

Abraham is often called the Father of Faith but he could just as easily be called the Father of Failing Forward. God knew Abraham was going to get off track time and time again, so He gave Abraham an exercise to keep his faith alive.

Count the stars.

Hence, the new logo. 🤩

If you’re way off track today, if you’ve lost your momentum and your confidence because you fell on your face … look up and count the stars, Abraham.

I’ve lived in Arizona for over 20 years now but I grew up in Seattle. Arizona is great for sunsets; not so much for a real starry night experience. But if you’ve seen a clear (and rare!) Seattle night, you’ve seen stars. 

Each star represents just one part of the whole God promised you. Count them. Because in doing so, you are using your faith to meditate on the promise that is coming. You are using your keys to the Kingdom to unleash your comeback. You are agreeing with God that it’s not over. You are rebranding. Rediscovering.

You are remembering you’ve been redeemed–taken back to the place of beginning. 

You are remembering who you really are and Whose you really are. 

So count the stars, Abraham.

“If I could choose just one super power, I would choose calming down.” @Eden_Eats

It was just a few months after my best friend passed away and I became guardian of her one-year-old daughter. I’m pretty sure I was still in total shock. Shock is a fairly normal response when you’ve been married for 25 years, you’ve already raised your kids when suddenly you are parents of a toddler again.

It’s like whiplash. 

My youngest biological daughter, 20 years old at the time, told my husband and I we needed to watch Life As We Know It with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. It’s where two single adults become caregivers to an orphaned girl when their mutual best friends die in an accident.

Watching the movie was a beyond-ridiculous experience. Almost every scene had us staring at the TV with an “I can’t believe this is our life” look on our faces while we went from laughing to crying and back to laughing again.

We chose to be there for babygirl and we would do it all over again.* But I had no idea what was about to happen to my heart. After about three months of shock, navigating the trauma like a zombie, anxiety like I’ve never experienced before set in. Anxiety attacks that would last up to 18 hours. A dysphoric disorder. Post-adoption depression (akin to postpartum depression) and chronic fatigue syndrome to boot. 

I immediately sought counseling, therapy and my medical doctor. Through genetic testing we discovered I have a genetic mutation called MTHFR (seriously…could they find a better acronym?). This mutation, turns out, was the explanation behind my struggle with depression that spanned my then 44 years of life. 

Not that I didn’t experience actual traumatic events during my lifetime. The amount of negative high-emotional-impact life events I’ve experienced is (ironically) too depressing to list. Nonetheless, it was surreal to learn that when life got hard for me it was exponentially more difficult to come out of depression, fear and anxiety than it is for many people. 

All of this to say, when it comes to depression and anxiety, I know this one. I have had to do all the work of digging up the past, processing grief, fear and loss, figuring out how to not live my life waiting for the other shoe to drop.

During the best of times I maintained a low-level detachment that kept me from enjoying the good moments without reaching for a dopamine hit of some kind. But the worst times were nothing short of a living nightmare. 

Therapy, doctors, counselors, friends, worship and medication all help while we’re trying to sort everything out. Despite what religion has tried to sell us, the cure to a mental health crisis isn’t doing more for God. More prayer, more Bible study, upping your financial giving and volunteer hours are not going to help when the underlying issue hasn’t been dealt with. When we do these things in a desperate attempt to get God to move on our behalf it’s called striving. It’s not thriving. 

Here’s what I’ve found to be key to moving through powerful negative emotions: reducing the pressure of having to do all the things and entering into God’s rest. 

As I studied one of the most quoted scriptures about not worrying but praying about everything, I saw a step-by-step process to help calm the fight-or-flight response. These eight steps may not work the first time you try them. Maybe not even the second time. But if you will make this your first response to moments of anxiety, you will eventually loosen the grip it has on you as you exchange fear for peace and rest.

Sign up below to receive two on-demand video teachings and a printable card of the 8-Steps to Calm Anxiety and Get Your Spark Back. This is going to help you!!

*After 14-months of being her parents, and having to navigate the legal system and court-appointed attorneys, we were forced into a position to find her a forever-home. While we are heartbroken, she is THRIVING and that is what matters the most.

“Here, O disciple of Jesus, behold an emblem of thy present labour, and thy future reward. Thou sowest, perhaps, in tears; thou dost thy duty amid persecution and affliction, sickness, pain, and sorrow; thou labourest in the church, and no account is made of thy labours; no profit seems likely to arise from them. Yet the day is coming when thou shalt reap in joy; and plentiful shall be thy harvest.” -Horne, by Benson Commentary

“Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing precious seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.”

We sow in tears when we sow precious seed. What is the precious seed? It’s what you plant by obedience during times of persecution.

We all need the promise of reaping in joy. It doesn’t matter how we ended up where we are. We can still reap a harvest of joy.

In Psalm 126:1 the psalmist references the captivity of God’s chosen people and their long road from Babylon (captivity) to Judah (home). But how did they end up in captivity in the first place? The same way they always did. By fear and unbelief.

You might be in great pain right now, due to persecution for doing the right thing which is usually the hard thing, or you are experiencing great pain because you did something you shouldn’t have. The key to God pouring out His Spirit on your soil so you can reap a God-sized harvest is not letting yourself come under condemnation. Don’t believe the lie that God won’t rescue you because you got yourself into a mess. Every one of us can leave the place of wilderness wondering whenever we want to. God’s not holding us there. Unbelief in the character and nature of God leads to fear that He won’t come through for us, so we panic and freeze.

This week on the podcast I talk about prayer that changes things. We start a conversation, using the prayer model Jesus gave us. We discover the difference between prayer which enforces our fear and lack and prayer that moves mountains out of our way. And you can start that journey today.

It’s time to stop waiting for God to the move mountain that He told you to move!

WATCH

LISTEN

Jesus had two very simple instructions when He sent the disciples on the mission—preach the Kingdom and heal the sick. I wonder if you consider that to be your life’s work as well?

When I began a serious pursuit of discipleship over twenty-three years ago, the first scripture God seared into my heart was Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” In context, Jesus was teaching His disciples how and how not to walk out the life of a disciple.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-34

In a nutshell, Jesus was saying that sparrows don’t have to farm to be fed and lilies don’t give a thought to what they look like. Yet the sparrow is always fed and the lily more beautifully adorned than the richest man that ever lived. Sparrows and lilies don’t give a single thought to how they will provide for themselves.

The only way to live as a disciple is to spend no unnecessary time giving thought to how we will feed or clothe ourselves. Can you even imagine living like that? How is that even possible?

It gets even harder to imagine when we read Luke 9:1-6:

“When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.” Luke 9:1-6

There is no way around it: when God gives you an assignment, don’t start panicking about how you’re going to get there, what you will need to make the journey, and what will be available to you when you get there. The only way to achieve this is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I used to think that seeking first the kingdom meant seeking to get people saved.

Turns out that spreading the gospel, healing the sick, and getting people saved is the byproduct of seeking the kingdom first and walking in righteousness.

The what was to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal the sick.

The how was to seek the kingdom of God for provision versus the world’s system for provision and to function in His righteousness instead of their own righteousness.

To seek the kingdom of God and walk in His righteousness to preach the gospel and heal the sick, it stands to reason the disciples had to have a clear understanding of what the kingdom of God is and how to walk in righteousness.

Not to totally switch gears but I have some news. I re-upped the podcast! Finally! I love podcasting because, not only is it a creative outlet for me, but it is part of how I fulfill the requirements of discipleship. It is how I spread the Gospel of Peace and heal the sick.

This week’s podcast is pretty strong. And by strong I mean no holds barred. It will make super religious people mad and some church-going people really mad. I hope you will listen in as I talk about the massive pain I’ve experienced in the last eighteen months, how I walked through it, and what God did before the pain so I could have victory.

And keep tuning in! Because we are starting a series breaking down exactly what the kingdom of God is and how to walk in righteousness, peace, and joy!

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Warning: the cheesy girl analogy post 😜, but there is a concept essential to your walk with God I can’t think of a better way to explain. So here goes…

It’s like when you love that new top on the rack but when you get home it’s just another shirt in a closet full of stuff you hate.

This is the spiritual exercise of put on, put off.

You put on the shirt in the dressing room. You’re rockin’ it. The dressing room mirror takes ten pounds off. You’re feelin’ it. You bring it home.

It’s in the closet. You try it on the next morning. You try every pair of pants you have, then skirts, then shorts, then skorts and you hate skorts. The ten pounds are back, and who made this ugly shirt anyway? You’re taking it back. Except you ripped the tags off and lost the receipt.

The you with the amazing new top and the disappearing pounds is your new man. The you with the ugly shirt and the extra pounds is the old man.

The you with the new top is the full armor of God. The you with the old top is the unguarded, insecure, codependent that doesn’t know who she is and what is available to her.

What changed? The new top didn’t change. You didn’t gain ten pounds from the store to home. What changed was the mirror through which you saw yourself.

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” Colossians 3:9-10 NIV

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes…Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:11, 13-17 NIV

You can literally take these two verses as the mental exercises that they are intended to be. You have a new nature. Your new nature is righteous. What does righteous mean? Righteousness is when you are functioning as you should be. Righteousness is when your new nature, with its Christ-like attributes, comes forward in you because you have accepted it as who you really are.

Stop lying to yourself and put on the truth. Stop seeing yourself through the lens of fear and see yourself walking in the spirit of power, love, and self-discipline that is in you now. Today. In this reality, on this side of heaven!

Renew your mind in the knowledge that you now have a new self. See yourself taking off the belt of the lie that you can’t be healed and victorious. Literally, visualize yourself putting on the belt of truth that has been tested against what Jesus died to give you. Did He die to heal you? What does being healed look like? How does it feel? Try it on!

Which new shoes would match your belt? How about the shoes of the Gospel of Peace? The Gospel of Peace says there is peace between you and God. He doesn’t have to let you remain sick to flesh out your old man. He only sees Jesus’ righteousness when He examines you. You need to start seeing it too! Start walking through life with shoes that can trek through any storm because you KNOW God has no need to test you. He has already approved you!

That new top? Don’t lie to yourself. It fits just right. It’s the breastplate of righteousness. It’s how you take any arrow. You can take any arrow because you know it’s not your righteousness you walk in. It’s HIS. A breastplate guards your heart against lying arrows that seek to penetrate your identity. That new top is INPENATRABLE because Jesus gave it to you.

I could go on and on with the cheesy analogy but you get the point. Whatever you’re facing today, put on your new man and get rid of that old man with its lies and false images. When you use this visual exercise to write the truth on your heart, your new nature will come forward and you can start functioning in it.

It is the real you now.

You’ve probably heard me mention Prosperity to Providence if you’ve been following along for some time now. It is my first book so that’s kind of a big deal! I heard an accomplished author once say, “If you say you’re going to write a book someday, you’re not doing to write a book someday.” He was addressing the fact that those who say they will, don’t.

I started writing by blogging forever ago. I wasn’t consistent but it got my feet wet. It turns out that my obsession with reading since I was a kid helped my brain understand that writing is a conversation and that if you write at a comprehension level above fifth grade you won’t last long in the book sales space.

And that’s good for me because I may speak well addressing a crowd or in a board meeting full of angry teachers trying to “rush the border”* to get what they want, but writing seems to just flow from everyday conversations I’m already having with you in my head. (Rest assured this hasn’t happened recently, but believe me, you can’t work in education for long without it happening at some point. Sadly, the education a teacher receives to become a teacher is more like entitlement indoctrination 😤. Add that to the twenty-somethings that become teachers and, well, you know. 🤦)

So I LOVE writing to you. I feel like Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail (my favorite movie by the way). She loved books first, and after losing her bookstore she learned she loved writing too. Writing is a passion for me. And especially the research before the writing.

You may have thought it strange I would include a Christian trigger word like prosperity in my title. When God put Prosperity to Providence on my heart, the title came before I even understood what the message was about. I initially thought I was writing about how the Prosperity Gospel spun so far out of control that the church threw the baby out with the bathwater. And it’s understandable! The way infamous prosperity preachers present the message today is nothing more than greed combined with offering people false hope.

So I started diving into research on the history of the Prosperity Gospel. I read Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel by Kate Bowler. (Kate Bowler is best known for her book Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved.) Blessed is Kate’s in-depth look at how the Prosperity Gospel became popular. She evaluates the ministries of positive thinkers like Norman Vincent Peale, and revivalists like Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin, along with today’s hugely successful prosperity preachers, namely Kenneth Copeland. And she looks at other contemporary religious leaders such as Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, T. D. Jakes, and Joyce Meyer.

And speaking of Kenneth Copeland, I read his foundation book, The Laws of Prosperity. While Kenneth Hagin was really one of the founders of the Faith Movement in America (now known as Word of Faith), Copeland is known for spreading the Prosperity Gospel in America. What started with Hagin as an effective approach to living the abundant Christian life was twisted and distorted by Copeland. Regardless of the distortion, it took off like wildfire because of Copeland’s charismatic ability to mesmerize and convince a crowd—common attributes of those we now call “Prosperity Preachers”.

Interestingly enough, I had already done my own research on successful healing ministries from times past as well. I read Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Four-Square Church, and her biography, The Story of My Life.

And then there was John G. Lake, E.W. Kenyon, Smith Wigglesworth, Kathryn Kulman, T.L. Osborn, and F.F. Bosworth. I studied them all.

Y’all. I did my homework. And I didn’t stop there!

I studied science and miracles. I delved into books based on scientific research such as The Biology of Belief by Bruce Tipton and Healing Body and Soul: The Meaning of Illness in the New Testament and Psychotherapy by John A. Sanford. and The Anatomy of a Miracle: Cutting-Edge Science Has Finally Advanced to a State That Puts the Miraculous Within the Grasp of Modern Man by Dr. James B. Richards.

Dr. Richard’s book is most notable because he led crusades all over the world in the 70s and saw every healing miracle in the New Testament. He has a doctorate in Theology, a doctorate in Ancient Chinese Medicine, and a doctorate in Human Behavior. He not only teaches, but he proved what he teaches in his own life, long before writing and building his Bible schools that are now worldwide. Dr. Richards has used faith and wisdom from the Bible to not only heal others by the millions but to heal himself of a terminal illness. He shouldn’t be alive today.

Yeah.

Dr. Richard shows how the study of quantum physics proves that miracles are not really as miraculous as one might think.

Pretty crazy stuff.

One day I pray we can see healing by the masses here in America. But there is a very real reason we don’t see it here.

The reason is we live by one of two gospels. The Prosperity Gospel and the Providential God Gospel. Just like the Prosperity Gospel, there is some truth to it, but much is extrapolated from scripture to fit our human experience.

I didn’t know anything of the Providential God Gospel when God put the phrase Prosperity to Providence in my heart through a dream. In fact, I thought I was supposed to take you on a journey from prosperity teaching to discovering the all-providential God of the Bible!

Turns out, I was wrong. In my research, I stumbled on John Piper’s 700-page dissertation on a “providential” God called Providence, his book on Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, and his widely popular website Desiring God. John Piper is known as an American theologian and a New Testament scholar.

And as it turns out, Providence is the most widely-accepted theory in America about God’s activity in creation and His intentions toward us. For the Assemblies of God and most non-denominational Spirit-filled churches to the Southern Baptist Convention, Lutherans, Catholicism, and Mormonism, the Providential God Gospel is irrefutable.

All I can say is, wow.

If I can summarize the Providential God Gospel it would be this: God is the firefighter who starts the fires in our lives so He can put them out.

Or this: Stop blaming Satan for anything because God created him, don’t take any responsibility for anything because God controls everything, and blame God for whatever happens in life. (It’s mostly Calvinism without all the predestination stuff if you want to know the truth.)

Or maybe like this: Don’t think about it all too hard, you’ll hurt yourself. God can’t be understood anyway. Just trust that if you find yourself starving or homeless or sold into the sex trade, it’s so God gets the glory so don’t hate on God. Just ignore scriptures like, “I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or His seed out begging for bread.” (Psalm 25:35). Or Psalms 23. Or Romans 1:18-20 which says, “…For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been CLEARLY SEEN, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Emphasis mine).

Yikes.

Apparently, according to the Bible, God isn’t a mystery after all. Who knew? Apparently, He doesn’t work in mysterious ways. And Paul says it’s wicked to keep this information from people. 😲

You can know for sure when a “gospel” isn’t true. I’m told there is an old saying among seminaries and it’s this: “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” For what John Piper can’t explain he blames the mystery of God’s character and His “complex emotions”.

Lord Jesus, help us.

I have studied the Bible in its original languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic) for over twenty years. And I mean really studied. I have never been a “read the Bible in a year” Christian. If you truly meditate on scripture and study the language, context, and history behind the stories, you can’t read the Bible in a year unless you live full-time in a monastery. I was raising kids. But the study of scripture has been the passionate pursuit and motivator of my life for decades.

As a student of the Bible and a disciple of Jesus (not simply a convert), to simply read other authors, theologians, and healers is not enough for me to land on a position and try to convince you to believe something else about God than what tradition handed down to you. So I took the bottom-line opinions from each authority I studied and held them up to the full council of scripture. I took nothing out of context. If there was a contradiction in the English translations (as there often is) I researched it out until a cohesive message consistent with the life, teachings, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus could be found.

So, I GET THIS. You might even call me an expert on the subject of the Prosperity Gospel, the Providential God Gospel, and healing ministries by now.

But wait, there’s more! 😉 Not only do have intellectual knowledge, but I’ve put these principles into practice in my own life as well. This is what the Bible calls having experiential knowledge of scripture. I’ve experienced firsthand the limitations and devastation each gospel has on the Christian experience. When it comes to healing ministry, I have been healed multiple times and have prayed for others and they have received healing.

I don’t say this to impress you but to impress upon you that I take rightly diving the Word of God seriously.

The truth behind the cover-up is that the Providential God Gospel leaves you on your own to solve your most life-controlling issues. It’s sold by making you think you are making peace with suffering as something from the hand of God when in reality, it’s forcing you to make peace with the devil.

The truth behind the cover-up in the Prosperity Gospel is that it makes it all about what you gain from God. It puts destiny and calling before the relationship. And it convinces those who can’t get a miracle they don’t have enough faith, despite the fact that even non-believers operate faith every single day, and it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move a mountain of a problem! (When it comes to miracles, by the way, the answer is never to get more faith.)

You can understand how damaging both gospels are. I call them “gospels” because that is our culture’s way of describing the two but in reality, they are not gospels at all.

It cannot be gospel if isn’t one hundred percent true and one hundred percent Good News.

Neither of the two fit the bill.

Okay, so what is my point here? My point here is that I want to really open up this conversation with you—the why behind writing Prosperity to Providence and why it is so essential, IMPERATIVE in fact, that you read it. As the days get darker you’re going to need to know how to operate in the miraculous and why Jesus said you could and would do greater things than He did.

If you can’t do those greater things you’re gonna be in big trouble. When the markets permanently collapse, housing is overtaken by the government, and America falls, it won’t matter a lick what you scrimped and saved for all your life.

What will matter is how you see God and how the full expression of Christ in you works in real life.

Every theologian and Bible commentator uses a lens through which they interpret scripture, whether they would admit it or not. They either see God as the prosperity God or the providential God. And the lens they use determines the God they get.

Here is the bottom line: we become like the god we believe in.

What is the solution? The Gospel of Peace and the Gospel of the Kingdom. You must know what it truly means to have “your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15) and to be discipled in the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 24:14).

I don’t want you to be in fear. Miracles and provision happen for those who believe, even during the end times.

But just know this: neither the Prosperity Gospel nor the Providential God Gospel will prepare you for it. Both will leave you impotent.  

Okay! That was heavy! But as future blog posts roll out, I will dive into each gospel to help you put it all into perspective. Stay tuned! Because what you read (and what you hear on the podcast) will give you the tools to overcome ANYTHING!

I spent years in music ministry. I grew up on stage, both leading worship bands and in secular choirs that toured and competed. I took private voice (and piano) lessons. I know music. And as I’ve watched the Christian music scene over the last decade I’ve been saddened. While the world is more broken, discouraged, hated-filled, and fearful than it’s ever been, the people we present ourselves to be through our worship lyrics aren’t much different. The overwhelming majority of worship music in the last decade, with its message of defeat and begging God to do what He has already done through Jesus, has lulled the church to sleep. We have favored slow songs in minor keys that depict us as a sorry bunch of suffering sinners still in need of salvation instead of celebrating our new nature and authority, the finished work of Jesus, and the reality that we will never be more saved than we are today.

But we keep trying to get more saved.

I do my best not to constantly come off like I hate the church, as though I’ve turned away from the church, or that I’m bitter after years of service to the church. I assure you that is not the case at all. I love the church. I’ve given and will continue to give, my life in service to the body of Christ.

But I am not afraid to speak up when the church isn’t acting like the church. And I do feel part of my mission and message is to shine a huge light on how we as a collective body have missed our mark. Even after all these centuries we still don’t see Him as He is.

If the church does not get up and discover for the first time the true meaning of the Gospel of Peace as presented in the original language of the Bible, she will not experience a revival or a great awakening. What you see taking place today in the church is not a revival. The church is too corrupt and compromised to bring about revival. The American church looks “like communism” more than revivalism, an observation by a woman from the underground church of China who moved to the United States. She was shocked to see how American churches look the same, sound the same, and move in lockstep as if they are still “sinners at the hand of an angry God” who wants to hurt them to grow them. We have successfully confined church to our buildings and programs. We haven’t made the body of Christ come alive the way Jesus said we could.

Revival is when we are revived to the message of the Kingdom and the Gospel of Peace, not the gospel of “maybe God will help me or maybe He wants to hurt me” gospel we have passed down from generation to generation. Revival comes when more than just the church is revived. When the church starts doing the greater things Jesus said she would, the world will catch the revival too! Revival isn’t about just us getting set free. It’s about setting the world free too! Revival should spill over airways and social media outlets, highways, and byways. The lame should be walking and the blind should be seeing. Oppression, mental illness, and fear should be driven out as our love for God finally advances toward maturity.

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because
fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made
perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

God’s love has no need to be made perfect. Our love for Him must mature (move towards perfection, grow) and as a result, fear cannot reside. The world will come in droves as they finally see the full benefits of the finished work of Jesus manifest in us. They will see both the literally dead and the spiritually and emotionally dead be raised to life.

Revival is when the church can no longer contain what is inside of her.

We are never waiting on God to revive us. We are not waiting for the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is here, in the now, with all its resources, benefits, and promises.

And we can use our keys to unleash it any time we want.

But pointing the finger at our failures is of no value if we do not also evaluate the good we have done, what has worked to spread the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Since the massive shutdowns and manic pandemic response, many Christians have reevaluated what they have chosen to believe. Many have begun to see there is more to intimacy with God than what is coming from the pulpit. Many are beginning to ask hard questions and they want real answers.

So here are some thoughts on where to go from here:

• Don’t believe it just because it was handed down to you.

• Learn to hear the voice of God in your own heart.

• Be teachable. Be willing to listen to those you don’t initally agree with.

• Find a path to doing the greater things Jesus said you would do and don’t stop looking until you find it and get it working in your life.

As the world gets darker, we get brighter! Be among those who know how to activate faith that moves mountains. Practice it now. Build this in your life now. Don’t wait until the banks crash, housing is confiscated by the government, and communism sets itself up as god. Lean in. Move into a place where fear cannot abide regardless of how difficult the circumstances get because you have experienced abiding in Christ.

To abide in Him is to wrap yourself up in Him.

Abiding in Christ begins with seeing Him as He really is. My new series on the podcast (and a subsequent eBook) is called Profile(d). Profile(d) is a look into how God has been unjustly profiled and a Biblical look at His true profile. We take this journey by looking at the profiles of key Bible characters who have also been mis-profiled. You are going to see through the lives of Abraham, Jonah, Elijah, Deborah, and King Solomon how God is always trying to lead us in paths of righteousness and preventing destruction in our lives.

We have all been unfairly profiled at one time or another. We are generalized and misrepresented then censored, canceled, and oppressed. But at the end of the day, here is the declaration God wants to make to the church:

No one in all of history has been more unjustly profiled than God Himself.

And we cannot do the greater things Jesus said we would until we see God as He really is.

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Will the REAL God please stand up???!! I saw the word "profile" in a dream while having a conversation with God. He said the word "profile" but I read it back to him "profiled" with a D on the end. I was then given understanding that God wanted a convey a message to the church that He has been mis-profiled for centuries. We don't see Him as He really is. He wants to set the record straight, to introduce you to His real purpose and intentions toward you.

He wants you to see Him as He really is, probably for the first time ever.

He then gave me a list of several Bible characters. He wanted to speak through the profiles of those characters to reveal how they too, have been mis-profiled and to provide an accurate perspective on their character and actions, and God's interactions with them.

We have created a god we are comfortable with because the God of the Bible doesn't fit our preferences. We have accused Him of being the cause and even the source of our pain (which is accusing Him of the same thing) instead of reconciling the pain in our lives through the lens of the life, teachings, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

We think we have God all figured out. But all we really have is tradition that makes our faith of no effect.

In this new series, you are going to see how God has been unjustly profiled and discover the profile of a God as you've never seen Him before. When you see Him as He really is, you will see a path toward fulfillment and healing in every area of your life!

If you’re not on this bandwagon yet, it’s time to jump on it. It’s the bandwagon of ditching mainstream theology and finally getting down to what YOU believe about God.

In my “dark night of the soul”, I had to figure out what or who was the source of my torment. Growing up in church I was told it was God allowing pain so I could be a person He could actually do something with. The problem with that messed up ideology is it makes God the abuser, defying His own laws of justice.

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“But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’” Ezekiel 33:6

By God’s own decree, if you see the predator coming and don’t warn the prey, you are guilty of their blood.

Would God not hold Himself accountable to what He deems just? Would God make Himself guilty by not warning you of danger before it happens? God “will not let you stumble” (Psalm 121:3). But you might let you stumble.

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“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due [its rightful recipients], When it is in your power to do it.” Proverbs 3:27

It is always within God’s power to do good for you. He cannot withhold it or He becomes a liar.

He is a good Father. And because of Jesus, you are the rightful recipient of good (Strong’s 2896: pleasant, agreeable to the senses). Pain isn’t good for you. It isn’t pleasant or agreeable to your senses. It is PAIN. Pain comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). It takes life from you. It has no power to give life.

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“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;” James 1:13

When we are in pain, we are never to draw a conclusion that God is testing us.

Tempt: peirazó, Strong’s #3985 - to make proof of, to attempt, test, to try, make trial of, to solicit to sin, scrutinize.

What is testing if not soliciting to sin? God never tests you. He just doesn’t do it. Period. He can’t. It’s not in His nature. Somehow the church totally missed that Jesus was tested for us. God has no need to scrutinize us or put us on trial. He did that to Jesus. You were raised up into life and righteousness. What is there to test?

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I had been a woman of prayer, studying the scriptures daily, for over 20 years when my life fell apart. I didn’t know how to dig myself out of depression from grief and loss, PTSD, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and anxiety/panic attacks. I didn’t leave God but I left the ministry. I couldn’t take another sermon that was giving me answers but no solutions.

Don’t get me wrong here. I love the church even when she’s not acting like the church. I will serve the church for the rest of my life. But the church has lost more than just the proper translation of scripture. It’s lost its ability to solve people’s real-life problems.

To say God is allowing pain to train you is an answer (also, it’s a lie). But it isn’t a solution to your pain. It won’t help you walk out of pain. It won’t help you break free from destructive cycles. All it will do is cause you to accept an untruth about God so you can cope with your most life-dominating issues. Coping is managing and it certainly isn’t healing.

And that is all Christians around the world are doing…coping. They say they are helping others in their pain because they can relate. But all they can relate to are coping mechanisms that perpetuate the lie that God is the abuser and you should make peace with your pain.

I have no need in my life to make peace with pain. Not after all Jesus died to give me. Jesus didn’t make peace with pain. He defeated it. He put it in the pit of hell where it belongs.

And we can too. But the only way to do this is to put every ideology handed down to us on trial. We do this by testing them against the full council of scripture, not scripture taken out of context like pulpits across America do daily. And we stop reading the Bible in English for cryin’ out loud! Pull out a concordance and study keywords, if not every word in every scripture. This is part of the Biblical process of meditating day and night on the Word of God. We were never just supposed to read the Bible in a year just to check it off our good-Christian to-do list.

And definitely get a mentor. For the next two weeks, I feature an interview with my Hebrew/Aramaic teacher, Chaim Bentorah. I have studied under Chaim for years. Chaim received his B.A. in Jewish Studies from Moody Bible Institute, his M.A. in Old Testament and Hebrew from Denver Seminary, and his Ph.D. in Biblical Archeology.  His Doctoral Dissertation was on the “Esoteric Structure of the Hebrew Alphabet.” But most impressive, I think, is that Chaim has spent 4-5 hours a day for the last forty years studying the Bible in its original languages. Chaim was studying under those who translated the NIV in the 70s and witnessed firsthand how truth in translating was kicked to the curb in favor of money.

Yep. It’s that bad.

But the good news is that Chaim’s thousands of hours of teaching are available on his blog, daily word study emails, Full Access membership, and in his books. His studies will take you deeper into the heart of God than you’ve ever been before.

Photo: https://unsplash.com/@priscilladupreez

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It’s Christmas time and I’ve been thinking about the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus, born as a human, came to establish a new kind of kingdom. But what is fascinating is that after all these centuries since Jesus was laid in a manger, the overwhelming majority of Believers have no idea what the Kingdom of Heaven is. It isn’t taught from pulpits. It is completely ignored. And yet it was the thing Jesus talked about the most. Every parable and every miracle was supposed to teach us the laws of this new kingdom and how to establish it on earth. If we are living by priority, Kingdom Living should be our first pursuit.

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“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:25-33

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The thing about lilies and birds is they don’t bother asking for what they already know they have.

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God wrote Matthew 6:33 on my heart twenty-three years ago and I’m saddened to say that for more than half that time I had no idea what it meant. I thought to seek the kingdom first meant putting the spreading of the gospel above anything else. And while that is certainly part of our mandate as Believers, it is the byproduct of Kingdom Living. In our pursuit of the kingdom, people won’t help but notice we live by a different set of rules.

The Kingdom of Heaven is a realm. It is the realm in which God is king (ruler) and all of His resources are available to us. Because God already knows we need food, shelter, and clothing we don’t have to ask for it. In God’s reality, in His kingdom realm, these needs have already been met. God is already looking out for our provision.

When Jesus taught us to pray, He taught us to confess what was already true. It was already true that God’s name was holy (hallowed) above every other name. It was already true that His kingdom had come and His will could now be done on earth as it is in heaven. He already gives us our daily bread, just as He does the lilies and the birds. He has already forgiven our trespasses and debts. He never leads us into temptation (James 1:13). He is always trying to deliver us from evil. And His IS the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever!

So why ask God to do what He has already done? First, Jesus didn’t say to pray. Nope. “He said to them, “When you pray, SAY…”. Jesus didn’t say to ask God to do these things. He said to say (confess, say the same thing God says) He has already done these things. In fact, the word say is a pretty powerful word. It means to put an argument to rest, bring a message to closure, or move to a conclusion. There isn’t any asking in saying.

There is good reason for that. The problem with asking God to do something He has already done is you are telling yourself two things. One, that He hasn’t done it yet, and two, you don’t have it. The only thing you accomplish by asking God to do things He has already done is to confess your sense of lack and unbelief.

In Aramaic, Jesus’ native tongue, the word prayer is tselutha. It comes from the root word tesla. A tesla is a dry leather skin used for covering the body, a table, or a bed. The word tesla also carries the idea of sinking into the depths and being totally covered, as the leather skin totally covers you like clothing, bedding, or a tablecloth.* It kind of reminds me of the beloved weighted blanket I sleep with every night. I feel completely covered, enveloped, and engrossed in its warmth and weight.

Prayer should always and ONLY be about reminding ourselves of what God has already accomplished for us. Focusing on the daily cares of this world will make us forget what is already done in heaven and strive for it on earth. But confessing daily that we already have everything we need for life and Godliness (2 Peter 1:3) moves our hearts into the realities of the kingdom realm and out of the realities of the world’s system.

Jesus knew we would want to spy out the land even though God said to go straight in (Deuteronomy 1:21-22). He knew we would look at the waves (Matthew 14:30) and number our army (2 Samuel 24). He instructed us to confess the kingdom reality with our mouths daily in order to write in on our hearts. He told us to look at kingdom resources and not natural resources until only the kingdom reality is real to us. We can only fulfill our mission to share the gospel by word and deed (Col. 3:17) when the kingdom reality is our only reality. Only then will be living by priority.

*https://www.chaimbentorah.com/2021/06/aramaic-word-study-pray-tselutha-%D7%A6%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%90/

Did you know that the most pervasive gospel taught in America is anti-Christ doctrine? True story. According to 2 John 1:7, any doctrine that denies Jesus came in the flesh is anti-Christ doctrine. This doesn’t mean it is pro the anti-christ that is to come. It means it denies Christ as a man.

"For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
This is a deceiver and an antichrist."
2 John 1:7

Most of us have read this and assumed it means those who deny Jesus ever came at all are anti-Christ deceivers. But that’s not what this verse is saying. It is a lie to say Jesus never came to Earth at all, but it’s not enough to say Jesus simply came to earth in human form. The key to avoiding anti-Christ doctrine is acknowledging that Jesus left His God-form in Heaven.

“He who, while he was in the form of God, did not esteem this as a prize, that he was the equal of God, But he stripped
himself and took the form of a Servant and was in the form of the children of men, and was found in fashion as a man.”
Philippians 2:6-7

Jesus didn't consider it necessary to be equal to God while on earth. What does that mean? Let’s look at some Greek definitions:

• The word stripped means to make empty, to abase, neutralize, he laid aside equality with and the form of God and took the form of man (Strong’s 2758).

• Form doesn’t simply mean a human body. It means a form (outward expression) that embodies essential (inner) substance so that the form is in complete harmony with the inner essence (Strong’s 3444).

• Prize means to claim for oneself eagerly (726).

In order for Jesus to have emptied Himself and taken on human form, His inner human form had to be in harmony with His outer human form. Said this way—Jesus was God, but He didn’t have God’s essential inner substance while on earth. He made no effort to take it with Him to earth; He didn’t consider it necessary to accomplish His miracles and mission on Earth.

Jesus came to earth as a human and was filled with the Holy Spirit to show us what a human filled with the Holy Spirit is capable of. Jesus was trying to show us how a human could experience Kingdom living right here on earth.

THIS. IS. HUGE.

Why? Because if you believe Jesus was able to do everything He did because He still had His inner God essence on earth, you have NO BASIS for believing you can do the things Jesus did, or even greater things than He did (John 14:12). You are not God. I am not God. If it takes being God to perform the miracles Jesus performed then we have no hope of ever doing them ourselves.

Jesus didn’t tell us to ask Him to heal people. He said, “You heal them.” Jesus didn’t say, “Ask Me to move your mountain.” He said, “Tell your mountain to move.” Over and over again Jesus said He did what He did as the Son of Man and that is why we can do the same.

We were given dominion over what happens on earth (Genesis 1:26). This is why Jesus had to come as a man—only man had dominion on earth. This is also why Jesus said, after His resurrection, “All power in Heaven and Earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Jesus defeated death and the curse, taking back the power that man had given up. He was the only human in history who held power in BOTH Heaven and Earth.

And then He gave us the authority to use His authority. We have the keys of the Kingdom realm. Whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18). The decision we have to make is whether or not we will loose God’s will on earth or our own will. God’s will isn’t automatic on earth and He won’t violate our free will. The world would look nothing like it does today if God had all the control. God gave us the same autonomy He has. He only has control to the degree we give it to Him.

So where does this leave us? It leaves us with the responsibility of doing the greater things Jesus said we would do. We have authority (dominion) just because we are here and we are human. But what keeps us using our dominion to loose on Earth what God has already approved in Heaven? The Providential God doctrine has convinced us that Jesus didn’t come in human flesh and that God is in ultimate control of every outcome. It has caused us to stop seeking the miraculous and live by fatalism. If God is in ultimate control and pulling all the strings, you wouldn’t need faith and your authority would be meaningless. This is why healing crusades and miracles are prevalent throughout other countries but we don’t see them in America. We are convinced God is the ultimate decision-maker and in doing so we have abdicated our dominion.

On the podcast this week we begin a new series that will help you get over that thing you haven’t been able to overcome yet. Whatever habit, addiction, fear, or limiting belief is keeping you stuck can be unstuck when we understand how Jesus was able to accomplish so much and how to use His authority to do the same!

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So many Believers are asking: "Why can't I get free??? I'm saved, I'm a Believer, but this habit, addiction, depression, etc. keeps haunting me!" We come to Jesus and receive salvation and yet, most Believers don't look any different than non-Believers when it comes to cycles of self-destruction.

In this new series, we will break it down and find the path to freedom. And we will start by taking a look at common behaviors and beliefs that drive our inability to find freedom.

Ref: "Grace: The Power to Change" by Dr. Jim Richards, Dr. James B. Richards, Chaim Bentorah, Hebrew Word Study

It’s Advent time. And with the addition of our now 22-month-old, we are thinking about new traditions. If we’re to be honest, we are those parents who let the church teach our oldest two about Christmas while we overworked ourselves. I was always busy planning massive Christmas events for mega-churches. So while the girls did have some fun times, we could have used a lot more family time surrounding the holidays. And we could have done a much better job talking about and preparing for the birth of Christ at home.

I also didn’t take very good care of myself in those days. I remember visiting with a pastor I worked with a few months after resigning from full-time ministry. He asked how I was doing and I said, “I went to the nail salon for the first time in three years!” He looked at me with a mix of shock but I could also detect some sorrow. He knew how hard I worked but I never showed how little I did for myself. Probably the worst part is that my self-neglect wasn’t out of necessity either. I chose it. Whatever it was in me that needed to be needed so badly (call it what it is: my codependency) and was driving my performance-based identity just didn’t want me time.

Talk about messed-up priorities.

I’ll never forget asking Rimmel how we should spend one particular afternoon together a few years after leaving vocational ministry. He said, “Taking a nap by the pool.” and I thought, “People actually do that?”

I am older and wiser now. So no excuses.

I’ve been thinking about the various things I would do this December to remember the birth of Jesus and somehow the privilege (and necessity) of rest comes to mind. So while we will develop an Advent tradition for our second-time-around family, I’ll develop an Advent of my own.

One of these days we will break down the scene of the first communion, but for the purposes of this blog post, I will just tell you this: I’ve never been in a church that has taken communion according to scripture. Communion is to be a time of gratitude and celebration for the reality of our new man in Christ. It was never supposed to be an accounting of our sins since the last time we took communion. The church created a ceremony of condemnation rather than the celebration of gratitude for new life it should be.

My Advent will be something like communion. As I am slowing down to rest, I will reflect on the One who is my ultimate rest. I will fan the flame of gratitude in my heart that because He lives, I can face not only tomorrow but anything and I will overcome. I will call to mind that all of my tomorrow’s are in His hand and He is able to guard and protect whatever I entrust to Him (1 Tim. 1:12).

The first thing I will entrust to Him is me. He is my oxygen and I have to have my own oxygen mask on before I can help anyone else.

Here are some ideas for a self-care Advent:

• Spend my quiet time on the front porch with candles, a blanket, and a cup of coffee.

• Read my magazines when they come in (also to be done on the porch) instead of tossing them in a pile.

• Actually use my giant soaking tub and bath tray with its book and wine holder that one of my besties gave me because she knew I needed it.

• Decorate for Christmas (because design is not only my trade but my hobby too!) but slow it down with Christmas hymns playing and Rimmel’s homemade eggnog. We always seem to rush through it like it’s some big chore.

• Swap out the wine at bath time with the eggnog (spiked of course) and swap the book for the magazines.

• Take a brisk jog through the neighborhood at night when the Christmas lights are on.

• Find a new cookie recipe, bake them with my favorite organic flour and maple sugar (no refined sugars) in the afternoon, and enjoy them hot out of the oven while Charlie naps, Hallmark Channel on, with my Jim’s Organic, decaf dark roast coffee. (I don’t get paid to promote these items. These are my favorite, feel-good baking/coffee companies.)

• Take the therapist’s advice and set the boundaries around Rimmel, myself, and Charlie so the trauma and grief of the last year can start melting away and becoming a faint memory.

• Refuse to feel guilty about setting those boundaries. Maybe even have a little celebration after doing it! I have a FANTASTIC roast chicken recipe for that!

• And a girl’s night out. At the wine bar. In Scottsdale. Cuz we can.

I’m sure more ideas will come. I hope you’ll start your own December Self-Care Advent with Jesus. If there’s one thing I know about Him, He loves it when you rest in Him.

And be sure to check out part two of my two-part series, Women Can Do All The Things on the Podcast! I break down the purpose of a woman from the greatest Hebrew teacher I know!! Trust me… you didn’t learn this in church!

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Can women do everything men can do? Of course they can. It's an age-old debate amongst theologians and it's popping up again as a trending topic. Let's put the debate to rest. The truth is, it's a moot point and this podcast episode will show you why. We will break down the most controversial scriptures in the Bible's original language so you can see for yourself how God planned for women to have a greater impact than the church has ever given us. You are going to LOVE this conversation that includes in-depth word studies from THE authority on Biblical language, Chaim Benotorah!

Photo By: https://unsplash.com/@janromero

Are you sick of debating whether a woman can be a senior pastor, teach a man in church, or has to give her husband authority over her? I am too. But it’s trending so we gotta talk about it. Maybe I can set the record straight once and for all.

Here’s what I know: the organized church, denominations, and Christian leaders are under attack. But this particular attack is not by Satan. It’s by Believers who are finally waking up and testing everything they’ve been taught. Institutions are falling because they are being put to the test by the people they are supposed to serve.

After the pandemic, George Floyd’s death, riots in the street, and election fraud Believers want to know why the church didn’t stand up for them. They want to know what made their churches so afraid to take a collective stance. And as a result, they have lost faith in leadership and are beginning to question everything.

And the inevitable will happen—pastors will refuse to answer for their missteps in order to save their reputations, finances, and egos, especially in the area of women’s roles in the church.

The debate over what women are allowed to do in church is centuries old. It’s been hashed out a hundred ways to Sunday. And it’s a question I had to grapple with myself. I felt the call to preach when I was sixteen years old. But for years I hid behind operational roles in the church. And because we are drawn to only what we are willing to perceive, I was drawn to churches that didn’t open the path to preaching for me or recognize the potential gift in me. They gave me the perfect place to hide the calling I was so afraid of.

Because I was hiding from my calling I didn’t bother looking intently into whether or not I even believed a woman could preach in a senior role or teach men at all. Once God got a hold of me and started steering me into accepting who He made me to be I had to answer these questions for myself. In fact, I had to answer a lot of questions for myself. It was time to stop believing whatever I heard from the pulpit and put it to the test. We test what we hear by taking the whole council of scripture and by testing scripture against scripture.

I had no idea how quickly my foundational beliefs would totally unravel.

Ninety percent of what you hear in a sermon is commentary.

Yep. Many pastors that serve have never had theological training or, perhaps, more importantly, they’ve had zero training in the original language of scripture and Semitic culture. And on top of that, you never see them do the things Jesus did that He said we would do like heal the sick or raise the dead. A disciple cannot live on what the preacher says alone. A disciple proves in scripture what he/she hears and then puts it into practice to bear good fruit.

A disciple is a doer, not only a hearer. And as the world continues to spiral out of control it will be harder and harder to find disciples who know how to use their faith to move mountains, make the blind see, the lame walk, or survive any famine or evil regime.

I don’t say this to cause fear but to encourage you that a new day in the walk of a Believer has dawned! Resources are more available now than ever before. You don’t have to accept traditions handed down by those who refuse to challenge (and often practice) what they preach.

And ladies… you can stop being unsure of God’s divine destiny for you, whether or not you have to stay in a controlling marriage, or if God wants you to run a Fortune 500 company or plant 500 churches. I’ve put every argument to the test. I’ve studied it from every angle.

I’ve got you.

Check out the podcast this week for part one of a two-part message on women’s role in marriage and the church. You are going to learn WHY God made us and I am confident it’s not the reason you think it is!!!

And don’t forget to subscribe, give a thumbs up and/or a 5-star rating, and SHARE, SHARE, SHARE! We need to get this message to as many women as possible so they can be set free to fulfill their hopes and dreams!

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We don’t listen to our hearts enough. As soon as you tell Christians to listen to their hearts they melt down. It’s the result of a lot of bad teaching on the heart.“I don’t listen to my heart! The heart is wicked!” Well, maybe. But not the new heart that Jesus gave you.

The number one way God relates to us is through the heart. When you received salvation, God put a new heart in you. He didn’t leave you with the old one because it was wicked. But your new heart can be trusted… as long as you write the truth on it and don’t let it become like the old one.

Jesus came to “heal the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1). A broken heart is a heart that has been crushed and trampled on. To be broken-hearted quite literally means that someone or some circumstance has walked all over your heart, leaving you with a fractured sense of identity. A trampled heart will believe lies and make judgments that become so real it will no longer recognize the truth. When we see our lives through the lens of a broken heart, we will find evidence to prove the lies and judgments we’ve accepted.

Said another way, the heart will do whatever it takes to make our limiting beliefs real—more real than the Kingdom of Heaven to us. The Kingdom of Heaven is the realm we access through the heart in which all of God’s resources are available to us to solve any problem. We can’t enter into the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven—into Kingdom living, through a heart that has been diseased by lies.

Complicated? Maybe at first. But join me on the podcast this week as we journey to learn about the heart. You’ll learn how it has brought you to the place you are now and how to change course with a healed heart.

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Photo cred: https://unsplash.com/@ryanoniel

What we believe about God determines how well we function under pressure. And really, the root of all emotional stability starts from this same place. Who we believe God is and what we believe He is willing to do for us will determine our next move when we feel backed into a corner.

There is a very interesting exchange between Jesus and a blind man in the book of Mark:

“And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.

And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.

And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” Mark 10:46-52

We can be assured Jesus knew the man was blind. And yet Jesus still asks him, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” In other words, what are you willing for me to do for you? Belief in God’s ability is rarely a problem for the Believer. The problem is we are not sure what He is willing to do for us.

And that begs the question: if it is impossible to please God without faith, but we don’t know what God is willing to do for us in our given situation, then how can we pray a prayer of faith for the outcome?

The answer is, we can’t.

The only way to pray a prayer of faith is to be absolutely certain what God’s preferred outcome is.

Which begs the next question: how can you always know God’s preferred outcome for your situation? Join me for this podcast episode where we learn how to become certain of God’s character, intentions, and will toward us. Once you know His desired outcome for your problem you will have to decide if you are willing for God to do it for you. If you know His will, and you are willing to agree with Heaven, you can pray the prayer of faith and experience miraculous results!

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