BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

When Jesus walked this Earth, he was God in human form. He was still all-knowing and all-powerful. He had the power of Heaven and an army of angels at his fingertips. He was lacking nothing, yet he chose not to walk his path alone. He gathered friends and shared the journey with them. Have you ever thought about that? If Jesus needed friends on his journey, don’t you think you’re going to need some on yours? We were designed to need one another. Designed to walk together. Your life works best when shared with others. Jesus chose 12 people and those people became his disciples. They went everywhere together. He wasn’t a one man show trying to do everything on his own. He understood his impact was greater, and his journey was better, when shared closely with others. Who are you sharing your life with? Who have you let inside the walls and shown your true self? Or are you still keeping people at a distance and pretending you don’t need anyone? Is it possible that perhaps your load is too heavy to bare because you’re trying to carry it on your own? You’re exhausted trying to pretend like everything is okay when the truth is you’re barely hanging on. How about you let someone else help you carry that for a bit? Jesus, on his way to Golgotha to give his life, could no longer carry his own cross. A bystander named Simon then carried the cross, literally, for Jesus. We don’t see Jesus fighting him on it. So, why are you refusing help with your cross, your burden, your heavy load to carry? Galatians 6:2 “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” I’m not to go through hardships alone, and neither are you. We’re here to carry the weight of each other’s burdens. Who’s burden are you helping carry right now? Really, let God check your heart on this. Is there anyone you’re helping with their hardship or struggle? Or has your world become small and self-focused, making you oblivious to the call to carry other’s burdens? Christ has called us to make things easier for each other instead of harder. But dang if we aren’t in a time where we just make it harder for each other. We come in with our opinions and views and we post crap our fingers have no business typing. We have become cynical and self-righteous, adding onto the weight of someone else’s burden instead of helping them carry it. Every time you add to the burden instead of help carry it, you are failing to fulfill the law of Christ. You are breaking his law. What is that law? Back up to chapter 5 of Galatians and it’s clear. Galatians 5:14 “The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Love each other. Love each other the way Jesus taught us to love. Jesus shared his life fully. He washed the feet of others. He cared for a crowd of people who would be missing dinner. He was concerned for those who had a concern. Jesus MADE time. He stopped, he looked, he connected, he shared. He had friends, a close circle. Then he tells us to do the same. Now maybe this hasn’t worked out so good for you in the past. Maybe you’ve tried to have a close circle of friends and it ended in bickering, then you decided you were better off doing this thing on your own. I’ve been there too. I’ve shut it all down after being hurt and pushed others out. THAT IS THE WORK OF THE ENEMY. Don’t let him win this. Don’t let him convince you that everyone is bad and eventually you will just be hurt again.

Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2025

Have you ever gone through something so unimaginably hard, yet somehow you had ability to walk through it? Did you look back and see what you needed was indeed provided and it came just when you needed it? That was God. That is God doing what only God can do in your life. Don’t miss that. And don’t forget he will do it again and again for you. For what is happening today, and what is coming tomorrow that you have not yet seen, he will provide exactly what you need. 1 Peter 1: 3 “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Easter is this weekend. It’s probably my favorite holiday. It’s when we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection which changed everything. As this scripture tells us, this resurrection of Jesus gives us LIVING HOPE. You have LIVING hope. Not stagnant hope. Not limited hope. Not measured hope. Not a ‘has been’ hope. Living hope. The Greek term for hope in this passage means “an eager, confident expectation.” And “living” means it is alive, it is active and growing. This is the hope Jesus has given you through his resurrection. This is the hope dwelling within you now. Hope that is alive. Not hope that is like a wish, but hope that grows to fill the space it is invited into. LIVING HOPE. Hope that seeps through the tiniest cracks of disappointment, and hope that fills gaping holes of loss. This living hope is not measured or limited in any way. It is here for you today and it will not run out tomorrow. And when you encounter a tomorrow that is more than you can handle, then it will grow to meet the need and carry you through in ways you cannot imagine. This living hope originates from a living, resurrected Savior. Now his Spirit lives within us and we have hope. That hope is ALIVE. It is moving. It is growing. It is here today in the exact shape and form required to fill your spaces of need. This is why I’m here today filled with the exact hope for what I’m going through, while you’re here today filled with the exact hope you need for what you’re going through, and those are two totally different things, yet your need does not threaten my supply, nor does my need take from you. That hope is ALIVE. We don’t get this from a jar. We don’t get this from a book. We don’t get this from a class or seminar. This hope that is alive and growing, moving and filling is Jesus dwelling within us, strengthening us to live today with confident expectation. Peter wrote these words in a letter to Christians who were suffering persecution. His words were to encourage them in their troubles. Imagine reading these words as you’re afraid for your life. Imagine reading these words as chaos surrounds you and everything you once had has been taken away. “In his great mercy he has given you new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This living hope allowed them to continue living without despair. And these words are here to do the same for you today. Whatever you’re facing, whatever you’re going through, whatever your reality is today, you can live today without despair. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you have a living hope inside of you. That hope will grow to fill this exact space and meet your exact need. And whatever comes tomorrow, that living hope will be there once again in perfect proportion. Life is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Some days my needs are overwhelming,

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

Think about the way you wake up. Besides feeling sleepy maybe, what are your other thoughts? Are you dreading the day? Are you anxious about the day? Or do you feel grateful for the gift, ready to step into all God has for you today? Why do you feel the way you do? What can you do with it? A little scientific reasoning behind your feelings reveals it’s a chemical reaction. Melatonin is a hormone produced by your brain in response to darkness, making you naturally sleepy. As you near the end of your night’s sleep, your body starts producing the hormone Cortisol instead. You likely know about Cortisol, it is the stress hormone. Think of it as your body’s built in alarm-system. It’s there to wake you up and make you move. Cortisol is naturally at it’s highest in the morning when you wake up. Yip, stress is naturally highest in the morning. This can make you a moody beast! It can make for a bad start. And you could claim it’s not your fault. Oh but girl, it’s your choice. That boost of Cortisol in the morning is God’s great design to get your body going for the day. However, when you don’t respond to this rush of hormones correctly, instead you can feel immediately overwhelmed. Yes, that’s sometimes why you wake up overwhelmed. Wake up anxious. Wake up with dread. That’s just Cortisol being misused. Misused Cortisol, like anything and everything else in life, becomes a burden. Honey, are you burdened? Are you weighed down? Are you dragging a load that’s too much for you to carry? Are you frustrated with your slow progress and overwhelmed by the never-ending struggle? Jesus said in Matthew 11: 28-30 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” The MSG translation says “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace” with Jesus. Ahhhhhhh … isn’t that the opposite of what you feel? You feel a forced rhythm. You feel a daily grind of “have to”. I have to get up. I have to go to work. I have to do this and I have to do that. It’s all forced, and it’s become a burden. But my sister, recognize it’s simply because you’re using a good thing in the wrong way. Just like waking up, Cortisol is God’s gift to help you get up and going, but when used wrong, it is the source of anxiety and overwhelm from the moment your eyes open. Get out of this forced rhythm, and girl get into the flow Jesus is offering you. He is offering to carry your heavy burdens. He is offering you rest and peace. He is offering you a life lived freely and lightly. You can’t live freely and lightly when you’re burdened. A burden is defined as a heavy load. What does a heavy load do to you? It makes it hard to move forward. It exhausts you. It makes you want to give up. Your burden is a target for the enemy. He dwells in your exhaustion, because when you become weary, his whispers become loud. When you’re struggling to take the next step under the weight of it all, his lousy petitions of settling short of how far you could go, are a welcomed offer. And if you’re waking up burdened, my guess is he’s right in your ear when the alarm rings. Are you laying there and listening to him? Oh the burden grows heavier, doesn’t it? But, what can Jesus do with your burden? He can make it lighter.

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025

The enemy has counted you out. He’s sure you’re giving up this time. You won’t get up again. You won’t push through. The darkness will close in. But girl, get yourself on up today and disappoint the devil! Oh he had crappy plans for this day, but you’re not buying them. He had intended harm coming your way, but you’ve gone and called on the power of God that takes all that harm and uses it for good. BaBam! That’s what you just did! Your feet hit the floor and you’re responding to God’s call instead of the devil’s attack. Today, GOD IS CALLING YOU TO BE GREATER. To be greater than the things happening to you. To be greater than your circumstances. To be a greater vessel for his power, and to be a greater disappointment to the enemy. God has been preparing you for a bigger purpose and next level of living, and my sister it’s time to step into it. You can’t stay where you are when God has called you to be greater. What will you need to be greater? Everything you already have.What will you need to do to be greater? Everything you can do. How many times do we miss the answer to our prayers because the answers seem too ordinary? We’re looking for the magical and mysterious answer when God is saying, “here’s 5 rocks … throw them!” What if it’s really that simple? Seriously, what if you don’t need to buy a single thing off the Amazon to make this work, it’s a matter of throwing the rocks you have. Using what’s here. Doing what you can do. Seeing the power in what God has already provided. Time and time again, we already have what we need to break through whatever is holding us back, but we miss it because we believe big problems require big solutions. Understand this, big problems require a big God. And look what you already have! “Hey Johnny, tell her what’s behind that curtain.” “Well Bob, there’s one great, big, all knowing, all powerful God here for her! But wait, there’s more. This great big powerful God is also on her side! He is for her, not against her! All she has to do is show up!” JACKPOT BABY!!!!! You just received the answer to your problems. Deuteronomy 20:4 says “For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” Let me tell you, if you didn’t wake up this morning preparing for battle, you darn well should have. You are in a war. Every day of your life there’s a battle over your potential and your purpose. Every day obstacles are put in your way to detour you from the plan for your life. 1 Peter 5:8 “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Yes, he’s looking for a life to ruin, a purpose to crush, a heart to trouble, a mind to worry, a dream to spoil, a home to wreck, a family to destroy. He’s looking for a fight to pick, confidence to poke at, doubt to raise, and fear to stir. That is how the enemy attacks. This is how he stops you in your tracks. This is how he steals your God-given potential and causes you to settle for less than you were created for. Look around, Sis. The roaring lion has been stalking you. He is on the prowl. He is your enemy. Your potential to rise above your problems and become a light bearer of hope and promise is his target. The last thing the devil wants is for you to get through this and come out stronger! Go ahead and disappoint the devil today!

Transcribed - Published: 11 April 2025

Why does God allow you to struggle? Why the continual battle, when he could end every conflict with one word? Boom. It could all be over. It could literally disappear just like that. But it doesn’t because he doesn’t. Why is that? Imagine for one moment the story of Joseph. Imagine it reads like this: Joseph had 11 brothers. Oh how they all loved each other, worked together so well, and never once had a bad day. Their father, Jacob, equally loved all of his sons and there was never conflict in their family. Every day was like a holiday with all of them together. Borrrrr-innnnnggggg. Nobody would know that story. It would have never been written, it would have never been read, and it would have never had an impact on a single one of us. Yet, isn’t that the story we want? We want the perfect marriage with our forever best friend, a cute little house that’s always tidy and somehow much bigger on the inside with all it’s big, bright, open rooms, and our 2.5 kids playing in a yard with a white picket fence and grass that’s always green and never needs to be mowed, oh and a lovely dog that never barks, sheds, or digs in the yard. And some tulips … put tulips in the yard. Wait, rocking chairs on the porch … and ferns. Hang ferns too. Yip, that’s the story. That’s what life is supposed to be. When we get there, we know we have arrived. Says who? Some 1950’s commercial trying to sell you a cake mix? Some Dick and Jane book you read in Elementary? Well, I read a different book where life seems to go a little different. In the book I read, there’s a boy named Joseph with 11 brothers who absolutely hated him because his father favored him. There was continual conflict within this family, to the point the brothers took Joseph out one day to kill him, and ended up selling him for 20 pieces of silver. Then Joseph spent 13 years in prison. That’s the story that made it into the book. So tell me again why you expected your story to be delightfully pleasant 100% of the time? We have a real enemy in this life, and that enemy looks to stir up trouble, ruin good plans, and bring harm to every single one of us. He does a pretty darn good job with all of that, but even more, we’ve unknowingly partnered with him and stir up trouble ourselves. We step in and completely ruin good plans. We show up and we bring the harm. Every single one of us do it. We do it with our greed, our jealousy, our competitive nature, and our sinful desire to be on top. For us to be on top, others have to be on bottom, so we start knocking people down and justifying why we should be chosen, why we should be favored, why we should get more. Oh you don’t do that? Why did she get that new car when you’re still having to drive your hunk of junk? How come they get to live over there while you’re stuck living here? Why can’t your butt look like that in those leggings off the TikTok? You bought them too and it’s unfair you don’t look the same. Now what’s up with that? You’re on the same dang diet, he loses 20 pounds and you gain 3? You work at the same company doing the same job, and they make more money than you? Whatttttttt? Maybe you’re not competitive, but does it make you shrink back a little? You look around at all they are and all they do with all they have, and it makes you feel less. It makes you feel a little less whole, a little less chosen, a little less called. You start telling yourself a story of being not good enough, always over-looked, weak, stuck and overwhelmed. Recognize that story? Have you been telling yourself that one?

Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2025

Sometimes the goodness in our lives is partnered with guilt. Guilt that I have what you don’t. Guilt that my circumstances are better than yours. Have your blessings made you feel bad? Is there guilt attached to your gift? What do you do when your prayers are answered with a yes, and someone else’s prayers are answered with a no? What do you do when you get the long end of the stick and someone else continually gets the short end? Oh we never talk about that, do we? We only speak up when we are shorted, so it’s almost uncharted territory to confess when we are actually the lucky ones. Have you ever struggled because everything is so right in your world, while things in someone else’s world are so wrong? Have you ever been embarrassed to admit your blessings and chosen to hide the goodness of your reality because it doesn’t seem fair in comparison? ME TOO! All the time. And I believe God has something to say about this. I travel for a living. I legit have the dream job. This month I’m in Hawaii, next month I’m in Bali, and the month after that is Italy. I chase warmth and sunshine while so many of my friends are stuck in the freezing cold lingering winter. That doesn’t seem fair now does it? And let me tell you what happens sometimes. My joy gets replaced by guilt. Why am I so blessed when others aren’t? Isn’t it wrong of me to enjoy all of this when you have received the bitter cold? Would it make you feel better if I didn’t enjoy it? But what do you have that I don’t? Do you have small children at home? Did you get to wake those babies up this morning? Maybe you even found one of them in your bed this morning. Did you get to hear their footsteps run through the kitchen? Do you know what I would do to rewind time and have that again for today? Or how about the woman longing to have children, what would she give to have your ordinary Wednesday morning? Your mundane is her dream. You have it every single day and she’s never had it for one day. What will your response be? Guilt because you are blessed? Shame because you have an abundance of what others have none of? Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” I know I am no longer guilty of my past sin. I have been forgiven. I can easily accept that as truth. But what about my current blessings? Am I condemned by what I DO have in comparison to what other’s do not? NO. THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION. Honey, stop feeling guilty for what you have been given. It is a work of the enemy to bring guilt to your blessings. You have been set free from your sins, but now held captive by your blessings? Are you playing little, not enjoying all you have been given because you feel guilty over it? I know that sounds insane, but it’s a game we play. And if we play that game, we will forever be in a tailspin of what we have that others don’t and the guilt we feel over it. I pray daily for a dear friend of mine going through a horrible divorce. It makes me for guilty sitting on a beach with my husband where everything is good and right. How can I be happy when she is hurting so terribly? I decided to tone down my happy. I have a friend battling cancer. This disease has turned her world upside down and she’s fighting to do the simplest things her healthy body once did without a thought. How is it fair that I woke up feeling so good? How can I joyfully carry on with my day doing a workout with a strong,

Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2025

How do you get from where you are to where you want to be, when the journey there is so dang hard? How do you overcome everything that has happened? How do you get through what you’re going through right now? The answer is simple, and the answer is the same for each of us regardless of what it is we are going through. JESUS. You get through this with Jesus. You overcome this with Jesus. You move forward with Jesus. Without him, you will always struggle to find the strength, the wisdom, and the grace for your next step. If you’re struggling, wouldn’t it be good to pause and ask if maybe you’ve been trying to do some of this without Jesus? Anytime things aren’t working in my life, I check to see if I’ve been trying to do it without Jesus. The key is, if I’m doing this thing without him, I have no peace and everything feels scary, overwhelming and potentially disastrous. But when I’m doing this with Jesus, even when it’s not working the way I want it to, I feel peace. Peace that doesn’t make sense. Peace that seems totally out of place given the circumstances. That’s what Jesus does for his people … he makes things work, and when it’s not yet time for things to work, then he gives us ridiculous peace knowing somehow, someway, it will work. This is how Jesus gets us through things we never imaged we could go through. He is the gate. The gate, the entry into the impossible. Without the gate, you don’t get through. With the gate, a way has been made to the other side. Jesus said in John 10:9 “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.” When you’re standing in front of a large fence enclosure, you must look for the gate to gain entry. The gate allows access to that which is otherwise closed off to you. And we know Jesus is the gate to our eternal entrance into Heaven. He is the opening making it possible to gain access to paradise after this life. It was impossible for us to live a life worthy of God’s presence, so Jesus came as a sacrifice to make it possible for each of us. This gate makes the impossible possible for us. He is how we get through. But not only how we get through to heaven. Of course that’s the ultimate access he gives us, but there’s so much more. This gate is here for today on this side of eternity too. He is the gate to the life we were created to live here on Earth. He is the impossible made possible for this lifetime, for this year, this month, this week, this day. You have access available to you today to step into what only Jesus could do for you. Life is freaking hard. Just in my small circle of people I’m connected with, I know of a woman who just lost her husband, a family with a 5 year old little boy just diagnosed with Leukemia, a young woman struggling with serious health issues and now unable to work, a mother who watched her 16 year old daughter die, a father who has lost his job, a wife who discovered her husband has been unfaithful, a beautiful little family who has lost their baby girl, families facing impossible situations with little hope being offered. It’s real y’all. This is life, and if life hasn’t come knocking on your door yet, one day it will. One day you will face impossible situations that make you feel like you can’t get out of bed and face reality. But there is a gate. This gate is what allows you to get through. My sister, for this, you have Jesus. He is here to guide you through this.

Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025

Sometimes it feels like we don’t have enough. There’s not enough time. Not enough money. Not enough help. Sometimes we feel like we’re not enough. We’re not good enough. Not smart enough. Not pretty enough. Not anything enough. So, we walk around looking at our life as if nothing is enough. We’re always lacking. Always in need. Always coming up short. Always feeling if we had more of this or more of that we would be better and do better, but we don’t. So we don’t. God designed your entire life around a relationship with him. If you have an abundance of everything, guess what … you no longer need the Almighty. Your daily need actually creates a daily relationship with your Creator. Your need and his faithful provision forms a level of trust you wouldn’t know otherwise. Remember when the Israelites were in the desert, starving because they had run out of food? Do you remember how God provided for them? A miraculous dewy substance covered the ground each morning. When they worked it, it was like a dough for bread to bake. They called it manna from Heaven. That’s how God provided. The key was, it was just for that day. Exodus 16: 4-5 “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” Yes, God gave them enough for the day only. Enough. Just for one day. Why? To build their trust and test their faith. Maybe that’s where you are today. You have enough, but it’s only enough for today. You have no idea how you’re going to make it through tomorrow. You don’t see tomorrow’s provisions here today. And what are you going to do next month? How the heck is this going to work next year? What you have certainly doesn’t look like enough and the truth is you’re freaking out a little. But maybe, just maybe, in this season God is building your trust and testing your faith. Will you trust his provision is here for today and see that it is enough? Will you have faith he will do the same for you tomorrow too? What happened when the Israelites didn’t trust for God’s provision the next day and gathered extra manna just in case? Verse 19, “Moses told them, ‘Do not keep any of it until morning.’ But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them.” This break in trust and lack of faith created a rot in their provision. It went bad. And sister, the same exact thing happens to us now. When we start thinking God is not trustworthy for our tomorrow, we create a rot in what we do have. Things go rotten for us. What has grown rotten in your life? What has gone bad? Could it be because you tried to do this thing on your own? Could it be because deep down, you really didn’t trust God was going to show up and do anything for you? Could it be because you needed to know exactly what you would have tomorrow, and this need for security and certainty just turned everything bad? God wants us to depend on him daily. Honey if you have this whole thing figured out with your fool proof 10 year plan, why would you need God? Eventually you would stop seeking his hand because your hands are already full. So, he fills your hands, but he fills them with only enough for today. And that is enough. Yes, this is enough.

Transcribed - Published: 7 April 2025

If you’re willing to be uncomfortable, you get to see what you’re capable of. If you’re willing to be faithful, you get to see what God is capable of. Everything you think you can’t do, everything you think it’s too late for, everything you’ve assumed is out of your reach, everything you’ve written off as too hard, is within the realm of possibility when you and God are partners. Jesus said in Matthew 19:26 “With God all things are possible.” What have you dismissed as impossible? What have you given up on? Who have you given up on? God wants you to know it’s still possible because he’s still working. Two things are needed here in your partnership with God: Your willingness to be uncomfortable and your continued faith. If all you’re seeking is ease and comfort, you will miss what God has given you the power to do. Just how much of God’s awesome plans for your life are you willing to miss while you seek immediate gratification? What if the plan is for you to have and be, and go and do all those things you dream of, but you won’t be healthy enough because you can’t give up the freaking potato chips and Dr. Pepper? You won’t hear the promptings of God to guide you in the next step to get there because you won’t give him 5 minutes of your day to just be still and listen. \You will miss the connection with the person God has aligned to open those doors for you because you were too afraid they might reject you. What are you missing in your comfort? Sure you’re avoiding rejection, but could you also be avoiding your breakthrough? Sure you’re always entertained with the noise and the scrolling, but could it be so loud you’re missing that still small voice of the Almighty? Sure you’re satisfied in the moment eating according to your cravings, but could the cravings of your soul be starved in the process? You are dismissing yourself from the very life available to you. Girl, you have no idea what you’re truly capable of because you’ve never pushed yourself to get there. Comfortable living builds tall walls for comfort zones. Yes, those walls keep out everything that may be uncomfortable, isolating you from immediate threats, but they also keep you from ever experiencing anything greater, isolating you from all God has available for you. You were created for a BIG Life, but have you settled for a little life? Comfort is not your friend, it is a tremendous threat to your potential. Here’s a truth bomb: God created you for more than you’re comfortable with. Are you seeking his plan, or are you seeking what comes easy today? If you could only see what is within the realm of possibility for you, I couldn’t hold you back from taking the next step. If you only understood the Almighty has made a way and he just needs 5 minutes of your day to show you the way, your phone wouldn’t stand a chance in the competition for your attention. Today, an invitation into a life changing partnership is being offered. Will you partner with God? Because WITH God, ALL things are possible. Without him, not so much. Right here, if you’re willing to be faithful, you get to see what God is capable of. You’ve been giving up on him. You’ve been turning away before he’s done. You’ve been quitting before he’s done. You’ve backed out when it got tough.

Transcribed - Published: 4 April 2025

Some people are detail oriented, and some people are like me. I jump out of the plane and then consider if the parachute was buckled tight. I start driving, then think about which direction I should go … It’s often the other way. Just this past weekend while on a snorkel boat here in Hawaii, the captain spotted a school of Hammerhead sharks. The snorkel guide quickly jumped in the water to swim with them … and so did I! After jumping in, and seeing 12 sharks swimming in those deep blue waters right by us, I remembered I had cut my knee on coral earlier and I was bleeding. (True story – check my Facebook for the video today!) The details make a difference. A minute turn in the direction of an airplane is the difference between landing in New York versus Florida. It’s said the devil is in the details, meaning a small glitch can cause huge problems. The tiniest of overlooked steps can create a colossal mess. Have you ever tried to put together a piece of furniture from IKEA? One bookshelf includes a 17 page instructional guide for assembly. Ask me if step 32 was important when the dang screw holes won’t match up on the final piece. Yes, yes it was. Details. The devil is in the details. But let me assure you, GOD IS IN THE DETAILS. Every single detail of your life has been considered by God. Nothing has been overlooked or passed over. Nothing has slipped through the cracks or squeezed on by God. Every thing concerning you has been on the mind of God. Every thing that has touched your life has first passed through the hands of God. Now that may leave you saying, hold up a hot minute there sister, are you saying God brought this disaster? Are you saying he is responsible for this catastrophe? He orchestrated this mess? No, although he is not the originator of everything that crosses your path and touches your life, he allows it so he can use it. Maybe sometimes God says “Huh, well I didn’t set that up, but I can use it so I’m going to allow it.” Can you imagine how absolutely frustrated the evil one must be? He conspires his evil plans and plots his destruction. Satan shows up with his most wicked works, attacks us where we are weak, then God steps in and uses it all for something good instead. Dang he must be frustrated. He meant to take you out a long time ago. His intentions were to sideline you, but then God stepped in and used that personal attack on you for goodness. Devil, you should give up already … you are outmatched! Some things happening in your life right now are still in the messy stages of progress, and God is allowing the mess because he knows how he’s going to work it all together for something so much better in your future. Are you willing to let God work those details? Are you willing to lean into him in the middle of the unknowing, trusting he actually DOES know what he’s doing? Listen to this amazing story of God’s details. One summer day, friends of mine were floating on a river. They ended up at an unintended stop along the river where they didn’t want to be. But God was in the details of having them exactly where he wanted them to be for a divine purpose. A 15 year old girl was hung under a branch, stuck underwater. And there was this family at this random spot at that exact moment to save her. And it couldn’t have just been anyone, it had to be one beastly young man who was the only one big and strong enough to break the entire tree that had her pinned. It had to be another young man who was trained as a paramedic to revive her lifeless body. Against all odds, 3 days later, this beautiful blonde hair 15 year old girl woke up in the hospital fully functioning with one heck of a story ...

Transcribed - Published: 3 April 2025

God created this great big beautiful world, then he plopped you right in the middle of it with the intentions of you enjoying all he has made. The colors of the sky tell you of his love. The majesty of the mountains speak of his power. And here we are, his prized creation, his greatest masterpiece, with an invitation to have the adventure of a lifetime. I assure you our God is not boring. He is not some gray haired wizard sitting on a throne with a stern face and clinched fist. He is daring and he is adventurous. He is creative and he is passionate. And today he says ‘my girl, get out there and enjoy all I have made for you.’ In some of my Daddy’s final moments of life, the veil between heaven and earth grew so very thin and he was able to see what awaited him in eternity. At one point he began laughing deep belly laughs and he said ‘Jesus is so funny! Everyone is so happy here.’ Have we forgotten that Jesus is funny and full of joy? Have we forgotten to follow him means to be full of joy as well? Have we forgotten that our totally NOT boring God has set us in the middle of all his beauty and told us to NOT BE BORING either. Hmmmm, where’s that scripture? In Matthew 5 Jesus tells us we are the salt of the earth. Salt brings out the best in food. We are to bring out the best in everything and everyone. And honey, you can’t do that by being boring! No one finds themselves inspired by boring dullness. Are you living your life in such a way that says ‘hey, I’ve got something special … you might want to know what it is!’ Really, that’s what we’re here to do. We’re here to show Jesus in such a way that attracts others. Will you forever be that girl who gets ridiculously excited over a bright colored sky? Will you forever be that girl who says yes to life’s offerings and tastes it at it’s fullest? Will you forever be that girl who is so grateful for the gift of a new day of life you actually welcome the alarm so you can wake up and live it? You can be. At our BIG Life Retreats, I get to watch women step out of their comfort zones and do things they never imagined they could do. They overcome fears. They tap into their faith. Then they stand on the other side of that fear and see how God perfectly provided everything they needed to overcome it. Just this past weekend, a woman terrified of swimming in deep waters not only swam in the depths of the ocean, but she did it at NIGHT with manatee and a very unexpected surprise vistor, the white tip shark which just happens to be the most aggressive shark in the ocean. She told me she would do it again! She went home with more confidence. Another woman stood on top of a tall platform on top of a crazy tall cliff and she jumped. Then she flew! She we went home with new strength. I bet there’s something you’re terrified of but really want to experience. Honey, do it afraid. You have been given this one life to live in this amazing world your creator designed, what a shame it would be if you spend your precious days afraid of what’s out there. When Jesus said in John 10:10 “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full.”, he meant for both eternity and here and now. He is extending an invitation to live BIG. Will you accept? Have you resigned to a boring life of predictability and pattern? That’s not what you were created for! That’s not what you were given this day of life for. You have been given this day in this lifetime to LIVE. Why not go for it?

Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2025

Before God made you, he imagined all you could become. He had a clear imagine of you at your fullest potential, then he went about forming you individually, equipping you with every strength, gift, talent, attribute, trait, and passion to one day become all he imagined. Genesis 1:27 “So God created human beings in his own image.” God created us with his imagination. He had an IMAGE of all we could be and then he formed us. Here’s the kicker, he didn’t use your image of you, he used HIS image of you. Maybe those two images are a world apart. I wonder what’s different about God’s image of you? What does God see in you that you don’t see in you? Think about it. Before an artist creates, they have an image of what they want to form. An architect first has an image of what he wants to build. It is the image that first begins the creation. And before God made you, he had an image of the woman you could become. Scripture says he knew you before he knit you in your mother’s womb. Before you even existed he knew you. How’s that possible? HE KNEW YOUR POTENTIAL. And it is your potential he saw when he began forming you. Every detail of you was first imagined by God. God had an image of you, the BEST you, then he went about creating you in his own image. Not your image of you. You see, you likely view yourself as a watered down version of who God sees. Isn’t it a good thing God didn’t create us based on our image of ourselves. No, he created us based on his own image. What is God’s image of you? What does he see when he looks at you? Contrary to the voice in your head which tells you you’re not good enough, God looks at you and sees his creation in progress. He sees his masterpiece forming. He’s using every circumstance and situation to form you into the person he had in mind all along. He’s knocking off the lumps here and there to reveal the real you, the true you, the image of you he had from the beginning. He’s shaping and forming you from the inside out and we all know the process of being shaped and formed doesn’t always feel good. It feels more like being squeezed into tight spaces, forced into uncomfortable positions, chunks of you breaking off, pieces of you crushed. But if we could only see for a moment what God sees. If we could only see how every single thing, I mean EVERY THING works together for good. God uses it all. Even the very things orchestrated in the pits of Hell sent to harm us, intended to set us back, God uses those things for a set up. And when God uses a set back as a set up, there’s only one thing we need to do … we need to step up. Step up and be who God created you to be. Begin living up to your potential. I’m here to remind you this morning that there’s a whole lot more in you. There’s power in you that you’ve never tapped into yet. There’s strength within you that you didn’t know existed. There’s potential in you that only God knows about and if you were to get a full picture of that potential right now it would scare the crap out of you. And this is why life is only revealed one day at a time. You can’t handle the truth of all that remains in you currently untapped. God creates with his imagination. Look at his creation. Sometimes I watch those Planet Earth shows and I’m mesmerized by the sheer beauty and creativity of our God. Over the past 5 days I’ve been hosting the BIG Life Retreat on the Big Island of Hawaii. Here, we’ve been living in a real life Planet Earth episode.

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025

Today we’re going way back to the best days … the days of the 80’s. The days of big hair, and neon leg warmers. And no doubt, the days of the best music ever. I’ll start the song, and I know you can sing it. * The big hair band Poison. Every rose has its thorn.Just like every night has it’s dawn.Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song.Every rose has its thorn.Yeah it does. But why? Why does every rose have its thorn? Have you ever thought about that? Why did God create beautiful, delicious smelling roses to have pesky thorns? Thorns are there to protect the rose! This is the rose’s God-given protection from being eaten by all the predators attracted to its sweet fragrance. Because it is so sweet and so beautiful, it must be protected from danger, thus the thorns. So yes indeed, every rose really does have its thorn. And these thorns are a good thing. What is your thorn? What purpose does it serve? Paul was God’s chosen messenger who wrote the majority of the New Testament Bible. He was anointed and gifted. He was created for a divine purpose and set apart to walk in his purpose as God had designed. Yet, all the while, Paul had a problem. A problem that just wouldn’t go away. Do you know what this problem was called? A thorn. 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, “I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” Paul struggled with a problem. We don’t know exactly what this problem was, perhaps a physical ailment, a mental challenge, or an internal battle, but whatever it was we know it tormented him. It was his torn. Nearly every translation of the bible refers to Paul’s problem as a thorn. Que the music, Poison, “every rose has its thorn …” Why? Why does every rose have its thorn? Not to punish it, to protect it! Paul’s thorn wasn’t a punishment, it was his protection! Verse 7 “So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.” The danger to Paul was in becoming proud. He has great revelations from God. What he heard and what he had to share was magnificent. Countless people gathered to listen to him. He was a mega influencer! And that was dangerous. Pauls gifting and calling made him vulnerable to becoming conceited and self-empowered. God, in all of his wisdom, knew Paul was capable of great and mighty things, but he also knew the dangers of him becoming all puffed up in his own greatness. God knew Paul being conceited would hurt the purpose for which he was created. So, to protect him and all the goodness he had within, he was given a problem that continually humbled him.And although Paul genuinely wanted to be made well, and asked God 3 times, God said no. Not as a punishment, but as a protection. This torn protected Paul from the greater danger of being conceited. So, he was humbled. Could the problem you’re dealing with right now be for the same purposes? Purposes of protection? This isn’t a punishment, this is to protect the potential God has placed within you. What you have is precious. What you can do is powerful. But understand it is constantly under attack. Why wouldn’t God just let you be wildly successful and m...

Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025

What has been taken from you? What have you lost? Where are you hurting? This space in your life is an invitation for God’s presence as you have never known before. Now, you will be restored. Joel 2:25 “The LORD says, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.” Locusts are insects much like a grasshopper which bring great destruction. They show up in masses and consume all that is living. In this scripture God is speaking to his people who had just endured years of hardship. Years of loss. Years of destruction. Now he is saying, I’m here to give back to you what you lost. Four kinds of locusts are mentioned. The swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts and the cutting locusts. I wonder, what has swarmed and overwhelmed you? What has hopped in and walked all over you? What has stripped you of your confidence and your peace? What has cut you deep and left you wounded? This is your locust. Whatever loss it has caused will now be repaid. Whatever hard times you have endured, good times will be multiplied. If you will remain faithful, if you will continue to trust in God, he will right every wrong in your life. He will bring it full circle. You may not know how and you will not know when, but he will work on your behalf and make it so. Do you believe that? What have you lost? How many years have you spent hurting or stressing over that which has happened to you? I assure you, it has not slipped by God without his notice. He has not been amiss in your pain. He has not been absent in your suffering. He knows it all. He has seen it all. He has heard you. And through it all he has had a plan to restore you. A plan to rebuild you. A plan to take all that isn’t right, and make it right. More than right. Will you let God do that in your life? That’s a genuine question, because often after a season of destruction, we lose our trust. We become jaded and cynical. We’re just waiting for the next thing to fall apart, the next thing to go wrong, the next delivery of bad news. Expecting it. Accepting it. Believing that life is against us and God has forsaken us. But a new season is here. A season of the tables turning and wrongs being made right. A season of restoring that which was lost. A season of repayment. Oh yes, repayment! But understand, you’re not the one getting anyone back. God’s not calling you to get back at those who hurt you. It’s not ‘get even’ time. It’s restoration time. For restoration to fully take place we have to stop replaying the story in our head of how bad it was. How wrong they were. How innocent you were. Will you release that story for an opportunity to live a new story? A story of wholeness? A story of purpose? Will you let God do the repaying and you do the releasing? You must quit tearing down that which God is now ready to restore. You are being restored. Various translations of this scripture say “I will repay you, I will restore you, I will give you back, I will make up to you what you have lost, what has been devoured, that which has consumed you.” Oh there it is … that which has consumed you. Have you ever been consumed with something? Something that has taken your peace, filled your thoughts, plagued your happiness, and seeped it’s way into every corner of your heart and mind? I certainly have been. I’ve been consumed. I’ve been hurt to the point of believing it would never be okay again. And I was wrong.

Transcribed - Published: 28 March 2025

What uncertainties do you face? It is NOT uncertain to God. He knows it all. From beginning to end he knows every detail concerning you and he is taking all things in consideration for your best future. What things about your future are still up in the air? Up here in the unknown where you don’t have control and can’t quite see what’s coming? Yes, that’s “up in the air”. Well, that’s God’s air and it is as it should be! You don’t see it all. What you see is the tiniest sliver of the whole. There’s still so much hidden from you, but not from God. Hebrews 4:13 says “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.” You don’t know what’s around the corner, but God does. He will not be surprised by anything and he is preparing you for everything. You can trust that. Never once in all of history has God been shocked. Never has he said, “well, I didn’t see that coming.” Girl, you may be shocked, but he isn’t. He knew it was coming before it was even created … and he’s made a way through that which has shocked the crap out of you. He’s even using this shocking thing to work as part of a good thing. It’s like baking soda in a cake. Baking soda alone is unfavorable. However used in a cake, it brings the rise. Without it, you have flat cake. And without some seemingly unfavorable ingredients in your life, you have a flat life. You want to rise … well there are special ingredients for that and they don’t seem so awesome when singled out. There may be a lot of things about your future that are up in the air … but remember that’s God’s air. That’s God’s domain. It all falls under God’s power. You can rest assured in that today. You can find peace in that shelter. Everything is all coming together for your ultimate good. Every detail is aligning to bring you closer to who God intended you to be. All that you can see, and all that you cannot see, is under the authority and direction of your creator, guided with great precision into your life. Just like in a movie, every character is for a specific role. If there’s an interruption in the scene of a movie, it’s part of the bigger scene. If there’s a plot twist it’s for the purpose of a bigger story in the movie. Even that which seems random isn’t random at all. And so it is with your life. None of this is random. Everything is by great design. Every thing in your life has the fingerprints of God on it because he’s in the middle of it. If we only knew the behind the scenes action happening on our behalf. All the opportunities being aligned. All the details being fit together. All the goodness in store. All the divine connections, infinite moments, and heavenly assignments being aligned specifically for us. But we don’t. All we know is we woke up to a Thursday, and for the majority of us, it’s just a day we’re trying to get through until the weekend. We don’t see how today is hand crafted and specially designed as part of our bigger picture. We don’t see how God has orchestrated the events of today to bring us to a better tomorrow. We just have to trust it. We must show up today with a deep faith knowing that all we think we know is nothing. That there is greater. That there is bigger. That there is so, so, so much more. And it’s all working together. It’s all be whipped up for us. Mixed together so we don’t have a flat life. Psalm 46: 1, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.”

Transcribed - Published: 27 March 2025

My mentor’s name was Mr. Winton. He was my mentor for the last 20 years of his life and his wisdom helped change mine. One of his greatest lessons was a lesson on envy. He told me “Pamela, you’re truly successful when you can celebrate the success of others as much as you celebrate your own.” It’s taken almost all of those 20 years for me to understand and live that lesson. My second mentor was Jim Rohn. I listened to his teachings called “The Art of Exceptional Living” on repeat for 2 solid years. Jim taught me, “If you help enough other people get what they want, you can have everything you want.” My third mentor was Zig Ziglar. Zig taught me, “To get what you want, help others get what they want.” And you know what … all 3 of my mentors were right. My focus on self would only hold me back. My jealousy of others would limit my own potential. I’m created to love, celebrate and champion others, and so are you! But that’s not easy. There’s a whole lot of our flesh that gets in the way and makes us feel threatened by the success and happiness of others. But I’ve come to fully understand that my God is not limited on blessings. What he gives me does not take from you. My success does not have to come at the cost of yours. Your happiness doesn’t have to suck from mine. This competition we’re secretly in only hurts all of us. Proverbs 14:30 “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”We may be rotting from the inside out and not even realize it. The source of the destruction … envy. A feeling of discontentment because of what someone else has or does. And I don’t care how sweet and kind you are my darling, seeds of envy and jealousy have been planted in your heart somewhere along the way. And it may sound like this: Her husband is so loving and attentive … I sure wish mine was like that. Her children behave, they don’t draw penis’ on the wall or eat their buggers in public – that must be nice. She’s on the same diet and somehow she lost 15 pounds this month – what the what … I’m still stuck on the first 3 pounds. That’s so frustrating. Her life just seems magical … and mine just seems miserable. You don’t wish her harm, but hey let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if she had a really bad hair day when you were looking top notch for once. This is all completely normal. We all battle these fleeting thoughts and feelings. AND IT’S ROTTING OUR BONES. From the inside out, it ruins the fullness of who we were created to be. It’s crippling us. Let me ask a few questions:• Could envy and jealousy be the root of your anxiety?• Could that tinge of jealousy be responsible for your unhappiness?• Could those fleeting thoughts of “gosh if she posts one more positive thing on facebook today I’m gonna barf” be a thief of your own joy? Answer: YES YES and YES. We all battle it – some more graciously than others. And here’s the big kicker – thoughts of jealousy and envy aren’t always targeted towards “her”. They’re often targeted towards him. Yes, him. All you married ladies listening, you may be jealous of your husband. This jealousy is eating away at you and your marriage from within. Why does he get to get dressed every day and just walk out the door and leave this mess behind?Why does he get to have a fulfilling job?Why does he get to go out to lunch?Then he comes home and does nothing.How dare he complain when I ask him to take out the trash.

Transcribed - Published: 26 March 2025

Do you want to live well today? Of course you do. No one woke up this morning and said “ya know, I want to royally jack up this day of living.” No one intentionally woke up, realized it was Tuesday and said “I think I’ll just waste today.” No, none of us. However, many of us have unintentionally jacked up days in the past. We’ve wasted precious days before. How do we make sure that doesn’t happen again today? We all have a desire within to live well. The question is, how do we do that in the middle of real life unfolding here and now? Today we’re whipping out the New King James version of the Bible and reading 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Within this scripture are 3 keys to living well today. Let’s break it down sister! * Be steadfast. Steadfast comes from the root word sit. To be steadfast, we must be seated and be settled in the truth. We live very unsettled lives in an unsettled world. We are tense and uptight and anxious, always stirred up about something. God says sit down, settle down, be relaxed. Did you know you can be working and still be relaxed? God never intended for us to go through the days of our lives so unsettled. Don’t you know you are way too blessed to be stressed? Stress is the plan of the enemy. Have you fallen into his trap? As long as you are stressed and anxious, you can never be seated in truth. You can never be steadfast in knowing who you are and whose you are. Today, take a seat in what you know to be true. Resist the temptation to be constantly stirred up and upset. You are chosen.You are forgiven.You are blessed.God is good.God is for you.He’s working all things together for good.Settle into that. Sit down into that truth today. * Be immovable. Like a solid rock. James 1:6 says “The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, being blown and tossed by the wind.” That’s what our doubt does, it causes us to be seasick. We’re constantly tossed around and stirred up on the inside. We stress over making the right decision, then we stress over the decisions we made, then we go back and forth, tossed around like a little boat on a big stormy ocean. And God says STOP IT. Be immovable. Stop doubting God.Stop doubting his plan for you.Stop doubting your ability to walk in his plan for you. Girl, your doubt is making you sick. Be immovable. Let your yes be yes, let your no be no. Have boundaries. I will do this, I won’t do that, and I will be immovable in my commitments. So, we are steadfast meaning we are seated in truth. We are immovable and no longer tossed around by doubt. And finally our scripture today gives us the third key to living well. * Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Abounding means plentiful and abundant. So this is saying to be abundant in your work. For you today this means GO THE EXTRA MILE. Stop doing the minimum. I bet there’s some areas in your life, like there are some areas in my life, that have started to pile up because I’ve been doing the minimum. That’s what creates a mess! We’re just doing the minimum. Then we’re so overwhelmed because we’re so behind. We’ve just been getting by when God says be abounding in your work. Stop doing the minimum, go the extra mile. Colossians 3:23 says “Whatever you do,

Transcribed - Published: 25 March 2025

Wouldn’t you just love to know precisely what to do next? A clear yes or a clear no from a God who’s plans are specific and promised to be good. How exactly do you get that? Can you get that? Do you remember the Magic 8 Ball back in the 80’s? You could ask it a question and it would appear with an answer. There were 10 positive answers such as, “It is certain. Yes, definitely. Without a doubt.” There were 7 negative answers such as, “Don’t count on it. My sources say no. Very doubtful.” Then there were 5 very non-committal answers everyone hated such as, “Cannot predict now. Ask again later.” How many of us could confess to standing in the mall with a rhinestoned denim jacket with shoulder pads and consulting the Magic 8 Ball for love advice. “Should I date Tim? Will I marry Danny?” And how many of us would also confess to shaking that thing and asking again until we got the answer we wanted?!!!! Now here we are, all grown up, still insisting on only the answers we want. Question: “Should I leave this job I hate?”Answer: “You should be faithful with the job you have while you actively pursue a different job.” But, I don’t like that answer! I want to be a miserable hag at this job and let everyone know how much I hate it until the day I up and quit! To which God says, “My sources say NO!” Did you know God actually directed the Priests of the Old Testament to use a material object to determine his will? Yes, for real. They were much like holy dice or the divine version of the Magic 8 Ball. But stay tuned, because we’re also going to see a very clear command that we are NOT to use these things for ourselves now. In Exodus 28, God speaks with Moses and gives him detailed instructions on making the clothing for his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons who would be God’s priests. Verse 15, “With great skill and care, make a chestpiece to be worn for seeking a decision from God.” The chestpiece was made of fine linen and folded to make a pouch that was 9 inches square. Verse 30, “Insert the Urim and Thummim into the sacred chestpiece so they will be carried over Aaron’s heart when he goes into the Lord’s presence. In this way, Aaron will always carry over his heart the objects used to determine the Lord’s will for his people whenever he goes in before the Lord.” The Bible is not clear on specifically what the Urim and Thummim are, but several times in scripture, we read of the Priests consulting them for God’s divine guidance in exactly what to do. The best guess is they were stones or jewels which would light up within the chestpiece and cause a glowing of some sort to indicate God’s answers to the questions presented by the Priests in his holy presence. “Where should we go next? What should we do now? Who do we choose?” These were all questions asked of God through the Urim and Thummim. When God answered, his answer was to be obeyed without hesitation. This was God’s chosen way for seeking his guidance in the decision making process. So, where is our Urim and Thummim today? Is this what astrology, numerology, crystal balls, horoscopes and tarot cards are? How about fortune-tellers, palm readers, and mediums? Can we seek God’s answers in material objects or humans with seemingly mystical powers? God’s word is actually unmistakably clear about this. Deuteronomy 18: 10-11, “Do not let your people practice fortune telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells,

Transcribed - Published: 24 March 2025

Do your prayers actually make a difference? Really, do circumstances actually change because of your requests made to God? God knows everything, right? He has seen the end from the beginning and everything he plans will come to pass without a single thing able to stop him. What he wills to happen will happen. So, why should we even pray? What good is it? I’ve wrestled with this question a lot. Why would Philippians 4:6 tell us to “pray about everything”, yet God says in Isaiah 46:10, “I can tell you the future before it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.” I struggle to understand the balance of this partnership between my prayers and God’s unshakable plans. Does me praying about it really change anything? I turn to God’s word, and while I don’t understand it, I find my answers. Answers that have always been there for me to find if I would seek them. Answers that don’t make it all make sense in my human mind, but answers that prove my prayers matter, and so do yours. God’s answers to my questions came in 2 Old Testament true stories. Proof that your prayers matter #1: Numbers 14 God’s people have been ungrateful and disobedient in the wilderness. They’re blaming God for the things they don’t like. They’re complaining about miraculous provision they’ve grown tired of. They’re seeking a God they can see by building a golden calf idol and worshiping it. And finally, God has had enough and he says to Moses in verse 12, “I will disown them and destroy them.” God’s plan was revealed. Destroy them all. But Moses pleads with God for the people. He asks God to spare them instead of destroy them. And he does 2 very important things in his prayer. 1. Moses acknowledges the truth of who God is. He speaks God's own words in prayer. Verse 17, "Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed. For you said, 'The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion.'" 2. Moses intercedes and prays for their forgiveness. Verse 19, "In keeping with your magnificent, unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this people." Notice, Moses isn't making excuses for the people. They have been wrong, really wrong. But Moses is pleading to God based on who GOD IS. And here’s what happens as a result of Moses’ prayer: Verse 20, “Then the Lord said, ‘I will pardon them as you have requested.'” God did not destroy them as he had planned. He did not disown them. He sustained them for the rest of their lives in the wilderness. They forfeited his promise of their Promised Land, but God’s plan to destroy them changed when Moses prayed. Moses’ prayer mattered, and it mattered on a large scale. There were over 600,000 men in the wilderness who were 20 years old or older. Doing the math, that means with women and children, there were somewhere between 2 and 3 million people that were forgiven, saved and sustained because of one man’s prayer. I know you’re only one person, but you are one person that matters on a grand scale. Within you are prayers that can change the lives of more people than you can possibly imagine. Will you pray for them? Will you pray for them, not because of who you are or who they are, but because of who God is. Because God is gracious, he is kind, he is patient. Because God doesn’t want anyone to perish, but he wants everyone to come to a place of being made right again ...

Transcribed - Published: 21 March 2025

God’s desire is to speak to you and guide you. He has beautiful plans for your life, and his desire is in no way for you to miss those plans because you’re stuck in confusion. The example of the Israelites shows us God does speak and God does guide, but when we reject what God is saying and where he is leading, our ears become closed to what God has to say and our feet grow stuck. Will you listen? Will you go? How about when it scares you? How about when it doesn’t make sense? How about when you don’t want to? Your willingness to listen and follow in obedience determines exactly how many of God’s good plans get forfeited here. Our Bible tells us that God had spoken to his people in clear and powerful ways as he lead them out of slavery Egypt. They were daily recipients of a miraculous show of provision and protection. But just when they were on the threshold of God’s promise, they stopped. They stopped moving forward. They stopped trusting. They stopped being grateful. And when they stopped, God stopped. Opportunities were cancelled. Destiny was forfeited. Promises were left unfulfilled. And NONE of that was God’s will, it was his peoples’ choice. Now you and I have a choice. Will we stop trusting God when it gets hard? Will we stop moving forward when we can’t see where it leads? Will we stop being grateful when it’s not exactly as we wished? God still has opportunities aligned for you. He still has a destiny that is beyond your wildest dreams. He has promises spoken over your life from the day he first imagined you. And all of that is on the line with your choices. What you do here matters. In Numbers 14, we read of God’s people making the choice to listen to the voice of fear over the voice of faith. The enemy they faced on their journey seemed impossible to conquer, and in their fear, they forgot the God who had already proven his ability to do the impossible. The Lord says the Israelites’ leader, Moses, in verse 11, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?” They just couldn’t see how God would fulfill his promises. They couldn’t imagine they could ever be made strong enough. They couldn’t believe the battle could be won, the victory could be theirs, and their journey through the wilderness would end with their promised land of prosperity. So they stopped. And when they stopped, God stopped. There, on the threshold of everything they had ever wanted, and everything God had promised, they stopped and they remained. Against God’s desired blessings for them, against his best plans, against his preferred future, he addresses their complaining and their refusal to move forward in verses 30-31. The Lord says to the people of Israel, “You will not enter and occupy the land I swore to give you. I will bring your children safely into the land and they will enjoy what you have despised. But as for you, you will drop dead in this wilderness.” And guess what … that’s exactly what happened. The opportunities were cancelled. The destiny was forfeited. The promises were dismissed. God’s people stopped, so God stopped. For the rest of their lives, they wandered in the wilderness falling so short of the overflowing abundant life that had been available to them. Could that happen to you? Absolutely it could, my sister. God is serious about listening to him and walking in obedience with him. When you stop, he stops.

Transcribed - Published: 20 March 2025

Numbers 6: 24-26, “May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.” This is a very specific blessing given by God himself. The Lord told Moses to tell his brother, Aaron, and his sons, to speak these words over God’s people on the journey to their destiny. Words of encouragement, words of hope, words of goodness, words that would give strength to keep going. And maybe that’s precisely what you need today. Maybe you’re here today exhausted. Maybe you are frustrated. Maybe you feel uncertain or anxious. Or maybe you’re questioning if this is as far as you can go and this is as good as it will get. Well, let me tell you what happened last night. My husband and I left our little island in the Florida Keys on Saturday morning to begin our travels. Where are we going? Around the world … literally. And yes, we’re taking you with us. The next several months will take us to Hawaii and Bali and Italy, but first, we’re driving to Illinois to take our dog to the family that absolutely spoils him rotten for us. We’ve been driving for 2 days, so we roll into the Nashville, Tennessee area late yesterday evening. Our accommodations for the night are a horse barn. No, legit, a horse barn. But don’t feel sorry for us, it’s one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen where I can sit in my King size bed and look through a massive glass wall onto the horses in their stalls below. (And before you get all huffy thinking we’re somehow miraculously wealthy hosting this free podcast with no advertisements, I can assure you I got it for the price of your local Holiday Inn – you just gotta know how to travel right!) So, back to the part of the evening that was 100% targeted towards you. I’m sitting in this barn bed overlooking the horse stalls, and I’m studying my Bible. This week I’m studying the Old Testament book of Numbers where the journey of the Israelites is being led by Moses. I get to chapter 6 and I read the specific blessing God gives to Moses for Aaron and his sons to speak. As I’m reading it, the Holy Spirit told me, “This is what my girls need to hear tomorrow morning. Speak these blessings over them. Tell them this is for them.” So, my fellow daughter of the Most High, this is for me and you specifically today. Receive every word of this blessing. May the Lord bless you and protect you.May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. How many times is the word “you” said in this blessing given by God? Count them. 6 times. Bless YOU, protect YOU, smile on YOU, be gracious to YOU, show YOU his favor, give YOU his peace. The Lord is being very clear this is about YOU. Yes, YOU. He says, “Stop dismissing yourself from my blessing. Stop thinking you’re not good enough for me. Stop shrinking back as if you don’t matter. This is for YOU.” Will you receive his blessing today? A blessing is like a gift. It can be given, but it does nothing if it’s not opened. You’ve been living your days without opening the gift, my sister. This is FOR YOU. God himself has this for YOU. Right now, would you humbly say, “Yes, Lord, I receive your blessing intended for me.” I believe the enemy of your soul would love to make you all prideful and arrogant, thinking you don’t need God’s blessing. But, if he can’t do that,

Transcribed - Published: 17 March 2025

Grab your Bible, open up to the tiny book of Haggai, and join Pamela forthis unscripted Bible Study as part 2 of ‘Rebuild This Temple’. Now,GOD WILL HELP! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Transcribed - Published: 14 March 2025

(Hint – This isn’t just about a building, this becomes about your BODY!) This is an unscripted episode with only teaching points below Temple: God’s dwelling place (Moses build God’s tabernacle as the portable temporary dwelling place for God during the Israelites journey. Now they have settled in their Promised Land and it’s time for the permanent temple.) Instructions for building the temple were given to King David by God, and his son Solomon was chosen to build the temple precisely as God had instructed. 1 Chronicles 28: 19, “Every part of this plan,” David told Solomon, “was given to me in writing from the hand of the Lord.” GOD IS VERY SPECIFIC ABOUT THE BUILDING OF HIS TEMPLE! 300 tons of gold + 637 tons of silver + precious stone and jewels $94 Million for 1 ton of gold today = $28 billion, 200 million The temple stood for 400 years before being destroyed in 2 Kings 25. 70 years later, the Israelites begin to rebuild the temple (Ezra 3). The alter is built so they could make sacrifices for the atonement of their sins. (Much like our cross today.) Then, the foundation is laid where the old temple was destroyed. AND THEN AFTER 2 YEARS ALL BUILDING STOPS. As the building stops, hardship hits. Haggai 1: 2-11 • EXCUSES SOUNDING SPIRITUAL • MISPLACED PRIORITIES • Don’t wait for a crisis to reorder your priorities. WHEN GOD IS NEGLECTED, NOTHING WORKS RIGHT. GOD IS SERIOUS ABOUT THE BUILDING AND CARE OF HIS HOUSE. NOW, THROUGH THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, HE DWELLS IN HIS PEOPLE. 1 Corinthians 6: 19, “Your body is the temple that houses the Holy Spirit.” IT’S TIME TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT THE CARE OF THIS TEMPLE! WARNING: IF GOD IS NEGLECTED IN THE PROCESS, NOTHING WILL WORK!!!! GOD SAYS, REBUILD THIS TEMPLE! It’s time for temple training, my sisters! HAGGAI 1:14, “So the Lord sparked the enthusiasm and they began to work on the house of their God.” – Lord, spark our enthusiasm to work on our temple to honor you again. Start with the cross.Build the foundation.Continue consistent, faithful work. You are of tremendous value!!!!!! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Transcribed - Published: 13 March 2025

Sometimes hearing about God’s provision isn’t enough, you need to experience it for yourself. Sometimes reading about God’s movement, his power, and his presence isn’t enough, you need to feel it for yourself. And unfortunately, experiencing and feeling these things for yourself isn’t the sweet blessed moments you imagined. You find God’s movement in the hardest times of your life. You experience God’s power in the space between a rock and a hard place. God’s provision is in the week beyond the stretch of your last paycheck. His presence is in the dark times where you don’t see how it’s ever going to be okay again. It’s the storm, it’s the battle, it’s the odds stacked against you, it’s the outnumbered, outmatched, unprepared and unable moments. This is where you see, feel, and experience God. And maybe that’s exactly where you are today. You’re staring down the impossible and wondering how in the world you’re ever going to get through this. Well, this is where you get a front row seat to the movement of God! This is where you see things that change you forever. This is where you walk away never being the same again. You would rather avoid the hardship, but Jesus loves you so much he will lead you right into it, then show you who he really is while you’re going through it. The disciples of Jesus had a moment like this. A moment where they felt the pressure. They faced the impossible, and they were called upon to act in faith. The moment comes when they had a crowd of hungry people all around them, and nothing of significance to offer. But Jesus has the ability to take what is not enough and make it more than enough. He has the ability to use anything offered in availability to him, and work his divine multiplication to create an abundance. Most of us are familiar with the story of the “Feeding of the Multitude.” We fast forward to the miracle so fast in this story, but let’s sit for a bit in the disciples’ reality before the unfolding of the miracle. The reality was they were pressured to do something they could never do. A crowd of 5,000 men, plus women and children, had gathered to hear Jesus. They had been there all day and now they were getting hungry. Knowing they could never feed them, the disciples remind Jesus of the time and tell him to wrap this shindig up and send them away to get food for themselves. But Jesus wasn’t done here. Sometimes we’re asking God to wrap things up in our own lives. Lord, let this be over. Let this be the end of this struggle. Fix this, and fix it right now please. I’m over it, I’m ready to move on already, but God won’t seem to allow me step out of this. Things aren’t just getting better. Nothing is being fixed right now. Well, why is that? Could it be because he has more work planned here? Could it be because he’s been intentionally setting the stage for something bigger than you have planned and moving on now would cause you to miss this miracle? As the disciples are hurrying Jesus along, telling him they can’t feed all these hungry people, Jesus isn’t budging. The disciples are stressing, but Jesus is calm. The disciples feel pressured, but Jesus sits in perfect peace as if to say “you’re not going to believe what I’m about to do next!” God’s timing is perfect. It’s perfect the people have been here all day to hear Jesus. It’s perfect it’s now dinner time and the crowd has no food to eat. It’s perfect the disciples are right where they are and they get to see how little there r...

Transcribed - Published: 12 March 2025

Wouldn’t it be nice to know what God wants you to do today? Like specifically, Lord, if you would be clear and tell me, I would do it. But, would you really? Today, we’re going to study a tiny scripture tucked away in a tiny book of the Old Testament which you may have never heard, but when you do, it will be so undeniably clear what God is asking of you. And when it’s this clear, then you’re left with only 2 choices: Yes, Lord, I will … or no, Lord, I won’t. I absolutely love that we can trust God so much to give him a blind all-in yes. If it’s what God is asking of us, we know it is best. If it’s an invitation from God, we know it will be for the ultimate good. Not all yeses are this easy. Just yesterday I called my red-headed Mama and I said to her, “Mama, I need you to clear your schedule for a weekend in September.” She said, “Oh really, why?” I said, “I’m not telling you, don’t you trust me?” She hesitated, remembered all the crazy adventures I’ve drug her into and said with great hesitation, “Sometimes …..” Sometimes she trusts me. But sometimes she doesn’t. Sometimes she doesn’t want to go where I’m inviting her. Sometimes she thinks my ideas are crazy and she would rather sit them out. All while I know what I’m inviting her into is something she will love … but she hesitates. Okay, I know you want to know what I invited her to, because actually, I’ll be inviting you too. I’m working on our September Retreat for this year and I’m thinking of going old-school with it. Yes, taking it back to where our retreats began so many years ago. A big ranch adventure retreat in Oklahoma! Think summer camp style with bunk houses, high ropes courses, canoes, horse back riding, camp fires, teaching sessions, and over 100 of the funnest and happiest Jesus girls you’ve ever met. Think cabin colors, paint fights, Thrift Store Formal night and hilarious games. I invited my Mama because she’s the funnest and happiest person you will ever meet, and I’m inviting you too because girl, I really want to meet you! (If you want to receive texts with retreat opportunities, text the keyword RETREAT2025 to 205-709-2582.) Now, back to God’s invitation. Do you trust him enough to offer an all-in yes before you know the details? He has a plan of action for you today, will you follow it? Here it is – Micah 6:8, “The Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: To do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Three things: * Do what is right* Love mercy* Walk humbly with God This is not some great mystery. God has made his requirements for you undeniably clear. And guess what, you CAN do this today! Wherever you are, whatever and whoever you’re dealing with, you can do this. * Start with doing what is right. How in the world do you know what is right? Well, you don’t have to figure that out on your own. Jesus promised each believer a helper, an advocate. This helper will always be with you. This advocate will always come along side you to guide you. My friends, that’s the Holy Spirit. That’s the gift you have been given. You already have the right way inside of you. The next right step is already known and already aligned, and to go even further, you have a holy guide for your lifted foot. You are literally being supernaturally guided to do what is right. Listen to that guide.

Transcribed - Published: 11 March 2025

Maybe you’re facing this new week and you already feel overwhelmed and unequipped. Maybe you feel like you never have enough of everything you need and you’re always struggling to just keep going. Is that you? Are you wondering how you’re ever going to do all you need to do? Where will you get the energy? When will you have the time? You’ve counted and it just doesn’t seem to be enough. There’s not enough money, not enough people, not enough strength. But, here’s your truth today as you face a week you feel not enough for: When God is your direct source, you will not run out! God, you are my source. In you I find strength. In you I find resources. In you I find help. In you I find my next steps. And you never run out. Ever. Your supply is unlimited, overflowing and eternal – I’m tapping into you! When God so clearly spoke to me in January 2013 and said, “Start hosting a daily devotional,” I was only willing to make a 1 week commitment. Lord, I’ll do this, but only for 1 week. Why? Because #1, I was sure after 5 mornings of me trying my best at this thing, God would surely see I wasn’t the best pick for this and he would move on to someone else. And #2, I was certain I would quickly run out of new ideas and devotionals. So, God, I’ll commit to hosting this devotional thing for 1 week, then I’m off the hook. Y’all, over 3,000 live devotionals later and I’m still not off the hook! And here’s the crazy thing … the 2 fears that have been holding me back are my 2 greatest blessings in moving forward. #1, I’m still not the best pick for this, but every morning I’m humbled to know he still chose me. He doesn’t need me to be perfect, he just needs me to show up. My friend, I’m telling you if you will be consistently available for God, he will do things in and through you that you could never imagine in your wildest dreams. Consistently available. But #2, because I absolutely knew I had maybe 5 total devotional ideas in me, I know with over 3,000 now that is FAR BEYOND ME. I’m not the source of this. And once I realized I’m not the source, the pressure was relieved! It’s not up to me to produce on my own. It’s up to me to tap into the source and let it flow. I don’t know what you’ve been trying to do on your own and perhaps failing miserably at, but I’m pretty sure God is telling you you’re not the source. I don’t know what you’re doing that you think it’s all on you so the burden has become overwhelming heavy, but I feel a stirring in my spirit to tell you God’s got you, just tap into him. Yesterday I studied the final 3 tiny chapters of the Old Testament. Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Each are visions and messages given by God to specific prophets. And while these visions are over 2,500 years old, they are given by an eternal God who saw you in this very day of life on the day the vision was given. There’s something here for you. Are you ready to receive it? Maybe you’ve been waiting your whole life to receive this, and here it comes. I’ll read the scripture which may seem a little confusing, then we’ll dig deeper to understand the vision and apply it in precisely the way God has planned for you today. Zechariah is a prophet of God and the Lord is speaking to him through an angel who is showing him visions. Zechariah 4: 2-7, “‘What do you see now?’ the angel asked. I answered, ‘I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl of oil on top of it. Around the bowl are seven lamps, each having seven spouts with wicks. And I see two olive trees,

Transcribed - Published: 10 March 2025

Grab your Bible and let’s dive deeper into the story of Jonah to see howGod works through the things we want to avoid to change our heart!Enjoy today’s unscripted Bible study time from Jonah 2. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

Transcribed - Published: 7 March 2025

We all likely have heard the story in the Bible about Jonah and the whale. First, let me ask, do you actually believe it? Sometimes it’s hard to be a person of deep intelligence and faith at the same time because some things just don’t make sense. How did this real man end up in the belly of a real whale, and survive for 3 days? There are stories in the Bible that are known as parables and those are nothing more than teaching points made practical by made up stories. But let’s be clear, this isn’t one of them. Jonah lived 700 years before Jesus. He was a prophet of God. The book of Jonah in the Old Testament tells his story. Then Jesus reminds everyone of his story in Matthew 12:40 and says, “For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” Jesus is saying, “Yes, as unbelievable as that was, it really happened … and now, something totally unbelievable is going to happen with me too.” Jesus would be crucified on the cross and he would hang there for all to see he was dead, his body would be put in a secure tomb, and three days later women would come to the tomb and find the stone had been rolled away and Jesus was no longer there, for he had risen. It really happened. These are not made up stories. However, because they seem nearly unbelievable, faith is required here. Did you know there was recently a lobster diver off the coast of Cape Cod who was swallowed by a humpback whale? For real. It happened. He was on the news being interviewed from the hospital. Now that man has a testimony! How absolutely incredible! But, my guess would be it didn’t feel incredible while it was happening. Here this guy is swimming around on the bottom of the ocean catching lobsters and all of a sudden things just go dark. He never saw it coming. He initially thought he had been eaten by a shark, but in the darkness he realized he wasn’t injured. If it were a shark, he would have been shredded. So where was he? He could feel movement of his surroundings so he knew whatever he was in was moving in the water. He starts moving around as violently as he can. Hitting, kicking, desperately doing everything he can to get out of whatever he’s stuck in. And then, the whale surfaces, shakes his head and spits him out! INCREDIBLE! None of that felt incredible while it was happening. And really, that’s the thing about a testimony … going through it is not incredible. It’s dark. It’s scary. It’s likely the opposite of what you were hoping for or had planned for your day. But girl, when you make it out …. hallelujah! That’s your testimony. This man’s recent testimony reminds us Jonah and the whale is a real story. Yes, it happened … but have you ever asked WHY it happened? Why was this prophet of God swallowed by a whale? Do you know? We don’t have to guess because scripture tells us plain and clear. Jonah 1: 1-3, “The Lord gave this message to Jonah, ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I see how wicked the people are.’ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.” Well, there’s the problem right there. Jonah was running from God. Running from God ended him up in the belly of a whale for a couple days where he could get his head and his heart right and try again in obedience to God. Girl, have you been running from God? Maybe you don’t really think so because you have valid reasons for doing the things you’re doing and not doing what you’re not doing.

Transcribed - Published: 6 March 2025

Forty. It’s a significant number in the Bible, often representing new life, growth and transformation. That’s exciting and fantastic, but dig deeper. That goodness always came AFTER a time of trial, hardship and sacrifice. The fear-filled and disobedient Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, then God led a new obedient generation into their Promised Land. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days by the devil. After that temptation, Jesus began his ministry on Earth and changed eternity. It rained for 40 days, flooding the entire earth. All life outside of Noah’s ark was eliminated. Then the waters receded and life began again from only that which had been saved. The giant Goliath taunted God’s people for 40 days. Then, the little shepherd boy David slays the giant with his slingshot and a rock and wins them victory and freedom. Forty. 40 days, sometimes 40 years. But then, completion, then renewal, then victory. The next 40 days is known as Lent. It’s the time between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, leading up to Easter Sunday. This is our time of sacrifice and hardship, leading to new life, growth and transformation. Oh yes, God wants to do a work in YOU! We love the promise of transformation, but resist the refining work of the trial. But, God says this work he wants to do in you is entirely too valuable to be cutting corners! The transformation is coming, and it’s coming THROUGH the trial. The hallelujah is on it’s way, right behind this hardship. The strengthening happens because of the sacrifice. Now, Sis, face your 40! Don’t let the next 40 be like your last 40. It’s time to go deeper. It’s time for full heart surrender. It’s time for sacrifice. It’s time for repentance. On the other side of this 40 is that new life, that growth, that transformation only God has seen. God wants to do a work in you! Will you submit to the process? I didn’t grow up in Church. I only knew Easter as the special weekend where Mama made me a pretty dress and I sat quietly with old people for 1 hour while some man in a suit talked about things I didn’t understand … then we ate a feast at Grandma’s house. I most certainly didn’t know about Lent. I’ve had to do some studying to understand what all of this means. So, just in case you come from a background like me, let me give a quick rundown on what this season of 40 days means. In the early days of Christianity, before someone could be baptized as a Christian, they were to spend 40 days and 40 nights preparing. During this time, they were to sacrifice comforts and really consider if they wanted to commit their life to Jesus. This time of preparation was modeling the preparation of Jesus for 40 days in the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4) Now, many Christian churches baptize as infants, so the 40 days of Lent is used as a time of renewal and re-commitment to Christ and the life he has called us to. So, to put it simply, that’s what this time is … This is your renewal and re-commitment to Jesus. A time specifically dedicated to focusing on Jesus. How many of you would confess you struggle with focus? Your mind is busy, your days are over-filled, and you are scattered. To focus, the excess must be eliminated, and only the source of our intention can remain. BUT HOW? How exactly do you put all of life on hold so you can focus on Jesus? I mean it would be really great if we could each go to our own private retreat where we have absolutely no worries and no obligations so 100% of our time can be spiritual. The truth is,

Transcribed - Published: 5 March 2025

Recently God has lovingly asked me to adjust my conversations with him. Out of neglect, my prayers have become mostly a list of ways I want God to move and act. God, do that, then do this. I’m continually suggesting his next move. I push my preferred destiny on the one who holds the ultimate preferred destination for my life, as if I know better and he needs my help. Is that what you do too? Something I’ve noticed on my journey with God is he allows me to be wrong. He allows me to do it wrong. Then, with time as my trust in him grows, he begins to show me a better way. Now, he’s showing me Luke 6:45, “What you say flows from what is in your heart.” This heart was really full of supreme ideas and suggested ways. This heart was full of a need for control and everyone under my control to play nice, just the way I wanted them to. And from my heart, everything I said to God just flowed. “God, fix this. God, change them. God, stop her.” But, in a surrender of my heart, God is changing the words that flow from it. He’s simply asked me to give him more praise. Recognize his extraordinary power and my complete dependence on him. See his hand in everything, and trust him wholeheartedly. Give him credit and stop assuming my goodness was the force behind any of this. He is the force, I am not. He is the Creator, I am not. He is the healer, redeemer, provider, restorer, I AM NOT. And when my heart knows that, then what I say flows from that. I’m in a season where God has asked me to practice words of awe, wonder and praise over requests, pleas and demands. As God has been dealing with me on this change of my heart, he leads me to a tiny book of the Bible I’ve never studied, Hosea. I must admit, it’s a bit confusing because it starts out like this, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go and marry a prostitute.” Immediately my brain flips a switch that says, “Skim over this, it’s not applicable.” Some of the Bible is a hard read. I can’t pretend to understand it all, and if it were my book, I would have left a whole lot of that out. But it’s not my book. It’s above me. My guess is, it’s above you too. Good, it keeps us humble and it keeps us seeking. I think that was God’s plan. As I leaned into God’s word in the book of Hosea, there were things that started leaping off the page at me. Warnings and promises revealed, and to my surprise, they do apply to me. I bet they apply to you too. The Lord is speaking to his people. He refers to them as his bride. Don’t let that trip you up and don’t let the enemy twist that. Know that it means you are chosen, you are cherished, and you are adored. But as the Lord is speaking to his bride, he shows us there is a problem … she fails to recognize all God has done for her. Hosea 2:8, “She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has.” She has become ungrateful. She has become so busy with her blessings that she fails to honor the bless-or. She treats her provisions as if she earned them. She receives without acknowledgment or gratitude and only expects more. She takes it for granted. SHE IS ME. Is she you too? When we fail to realize it was God who gave us everything we have, we face an awakening that comes only through hardship. God says in verse 13, “I will punish her for all those times she forgot about me.” The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Honey, if you can’t be trusted with your blessings,

Transcribed - Published: 4 March 2025

Have you ever questioned if God hears your prayers? Oh honey, he hears you. But if he hears you, why isn’t he answering you? That’s a tough question. We often misunderstand the answers. There’s more than just yes, there’s also not yet, and no because I have something better for you. Now, today, we’re going to read about an experience Daniel had with an angel. Maybe this is a story you’ve never even heard, I know I certainly hadn’t. God wants us to hear this now so we can understand there’s more happening than what we can see, and we play a role in the outcome! To set the stage, remember Daniel was a man of God who had visions and could interrupt dreams. With faith, he had survived the lion’s den as angels had shown up and sealed the lion’s mouths to protect him. Now, in Daniel chapter 10, he has had a vision that he could not understand and it was disturbing to him, so he he’s prayed to God for 3 weeks for understanding. Now, after 3 weeks, this is what happens, verse 4-14: On April 23, as I was standing on the bank of the great Tigris River, I looked up and saw a man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist. His body looked like a precious gem. His face flashed like lightning, and his eyes flamed like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people. Only I, Daniel, saw this vision. The men with me saw nothing, but they were suddenly terrified and ran away to hide. So I was left there all alone to see this amazing vision. My strength left me, my face grew deathly pale, and I felt very weak. Then I heard the man speak, and when I heard the sound of his voice, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground. Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees. And the man said to me, “Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you.” When he said this to me, I stood up, still trembling. Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.” Here’s what we need to know … what is happening behind the scenes in the spiritual realm is a full on battle! Behind every scene, the angels and demons are fighting. The demons are fighting to delay you, distract you, discourage you, overwhelm you, depress you, and destroy you. All the time. Every time. But God’s angels are battling them to protect you, deliver you, encourage you, strengthen you and move you forward. It. Is. Real. You can’t see it, but it is constantly happening. Paul knew that for sure and he wrote in Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” This angel, who looks like a man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist and a body that looked like a precious gem with eyes that flamed like torches and a voice that roared has been in battle for Daniel. The battle was over the answer to his prayer.

Transcribed - Published: 3 March 2025

As a little girl, I knew absolutely nothing about God. I wasn’t raised in church. Sadly when I was a toddler, my parents were hurt by church and simply never went back for 15 years. The only thing I knew about God were the pictures in our family Bible. Did anyone else have a massive Bible with foil edges and full colored pictures somewhere in their home as a centerpiece decoration? It really wasn’t to be touched, but to look pretty on the table in the foyer. But I loved to sneak in and look at the pictures. One of those pictures was of a man in a robe, surrounded by lions. The lions appeared to be tame and the man appeared to be quite calm and in complete control. I had no way of knowing why this man was surrounded by lions, perhaps he was some sort of circus performer. It literally took me over 40 years to actually study the story in my own Bible to understand the scene … and understand maybe that’s not what the scene really looked like at all. Maybe the lions weren’t tame, maybe they were ferocious and pacing the floor for attack. And maybe the man in a robe wasn’t in charge at all. Maybe there was something unseen in the room achieving the impossible. And what if, in the middle of your hardest times, there’s something unseen in the room with you too. Something holding back the threat, something shielding you with divine protection, something doing the absolute impossible for you … but you just can’t see it. Today, consider maybe that’s precisely what is happening. God has sent his angels to stand guard over you during this. No, he didn’t magically eliminate the problem, but in the middle of the problem, he is protecting you from the dangers. This is a story of Daniel. If you remember from an episode earlier this week, Daniel is a man of God with the gift of interpreting dreams and messages from God. He’s faithful in every way and earned a high position in the King’s house. A few Kings had come and gone during Daniel’s time, and now there was a new King, King Darius. This King loved and respected Daniel above everyone else and planed to place him over the entire empire. That of course makes others very jealous. What do jealous people do? They cause problems. Now Daniel didn’t have a single skeleton in his closet. He was faithful and good in every single thing he did, so his enemies could find absolutely no fault in him. So what did they do? They made something up! Let’s pause right there … My sister, it doesn’t matter how much good you do, your enemy will find something or create something against you. Always. Don’t be shocked by it. And don’t play pitiful over it. Have you ever heard Mother Theresa’s poem called ‘Anyway’? These were the words inscribed on the walls of her children’s home in Calcutta: People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;Give the world the best you’...

Transcribed - Published: 28 February 2025

I recently heard adulthood is a never ending perpetual cycle of waiting for life to calm down, then you die. Is that you? Right now life is busy and hectic, it’s uncertain and stressed, it’s not what you envisioned it being at this stage … but when it calms down, whew doggies look out, you’re gonna live! You’re going to start really living one day. You’ll sit and sip your coffee in pure delight. You’ll have time and energy. You will be proud of yourself and walk with confidence. Oh yes, that day is coming, that day when life calms down and gets better and you can be truly happy, and when it does, you’re going to live! No. You’re. Not! The very heartbeat of life is a rhythm of ups and downs, when it calms down your ride is over sister. We’re saving up our happy for an imaginary destination in this life that doesn’t exist. Right here, right now, this is where you can live. Yes, this season of life, this one with it’s chaos and messes, disappointments and circumstances far short of perfection, this is where living happens. In the absence of calm is where you find the living. It’s a nasty ploy of the enemy to convince you that sometime in the future you will have the time, energy and resources to do the things you want to do with your life. When life calms down and things get better … then. The truth is, we’re living perfectly good days of life in survival mode, in the absence of a crisis. Hey listen to me, that crisis may come and you may need to just get through it, but if your life is free of an absolute undeniable crisis today, then you better be living! The enemy’s plan is to kill, steal and destroy. Never lose sight of that. Has he been killing your happiness, stealing your joy, destroying your TODAY with a focus on another day? Oh how he tricks us into missing today because of the worries of tomorrow, or missing today because of the hopes that somehow a future tomorrow will be better than the one we ended up with today. Ephesians 5: 15-16 NKJV, “See then that you walk circumspectly (carefully and intentionally), not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Redeeming the time … what an interesting phrase. The specific Greek word used here for time didn’t just mean day after day, it meant a specific portion of time where something should happen. THE TIME is a season of opportunity we must redeem. My sister, today is part of your season of opportunity and you’re supposed to be redeeming this. THE TIME is now. Do something with it. Don’t let this just pass. How are you using this specific time for the glory of God? How are you using this time for things of eternal impact? You can’t wait for better days. Here’s how we know for sure this is THE time we’re called to live intentionally – because indeed, the days are evil. There’s a whole lot of crazy, scary crap going on out there. That’s absolutely no surprise. This is THE TIME for you to live intentionally and redeem the time. How are you going to show Jesus in this? The NLT puts it like this, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” How do fools live? They miss opportunities. They don’t show up for life. Be careful how you live and make the most of every opportunity. Today is full of opportunities … what will you do with them? What if your response to today’s opportunities determine tomorrow’s offering? Yes,

Transcribed - Published: 27 February 2025

Have you ever been humbled by life? You know, knocked down off your high horse and left to sit in your failure feeling incredibly human. It’s a deep seeded fear within most of us, and that fear often holds us hostage. We’re so fearful of failure that we fail to even show up and try. We would rather sit on the sidelines watching others than dare step on the fields ourselves and risk failure. But deep down, I’ve discovered there’s something I’m even more fearful of than failure. I’m honestly afraid of success. If I succeed, then what will I have to do to manage that success? What would be expected of me? Failing doesn’t come with a whole lot of pressures, but success comes with overwhelming pressure. The higher you climb, the harder that fall is. But God doesn’t want us to be failures, nor does he want us to be afraid of success. What he desires of his girls is to walk in the success he offers while remaining humble. If you can’t be humble in this, then honey, you can’t keep it. Do you have something you’ve worked hard for today and now you’re taking credit for it? Did you build that? Did you create that? Did you save that? Did you make that happen? Really, did you? Because if it was all you, I can tell you what’s coming next. Pie. Your pie is coming next. Humble pie. This week we’ve been reading in the book of Daniel about King Nebuchadnezzar. He didn’t believe in the one true God. He had his own gods, himself being one of them. He was incredibly proud of himself. So proud, he built that massive golden statue of himself and demanded everyone bow down and worship it when music played. And remember, there were 3 young men who refused to worship his statue, and as a result, they faced the punishment of death in a fiery furnace. Because of their faith while facing the furnace, then because of the King’s own sight of the fourth man in the fire with them, King Nebuchadnezzar became a believer of the true God. Well hallelujah, this man changed! Daniel 4:2-3, the King sends a message to all the people and says, “I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me. How great are his signs, how powerful his wonders! His kingdom will last forever, his rule through all generations.” Isn’t that just fantastic! But, here’s what happens next. Verse 4, “I, Nebuchadnezzar, was living in my palace in comfort and prosperity.” Que the music … dom, dom, dommmmmm. That’s a problem. We humans simply do not do well will comfort and prosperity. Have you ever noticed that? Our priorities get all jacked up. We start doing stupid stuff. And God gets put on the back burner. Is that what has happened to you? God got you through that crisis, and now that life is easier you’ve gotten comfortable. In your comfort you’ve gotten soft. You’ve grown just luke warm. You’re not cold, but you’re certainly not on fire for God anymore. Why? Because honestly, it’s just not required. That’s what comfort and prosperity often do. We become self-sufficient and self-centered. Dom, dom, dommmmmm. My sister, can’t you hear the music? Sitting in his comfort and prosperity, the King has a disturbing dream. Daniel was specially gifted by God to interpret dreams. The King calls Daniel in and says, “Now tell me what my dream means.” And well, it wasn’t good news. It was a warning. A warning that the King was going to lose his kingdom, lose his mind, and live in the field with wild animals for 7 years.

Transcribed - Published: 26 February 2025

Sometimes God doesn’t prevent the fires in our lives that threaten us. Oh how we wish he would just put them out, and sometimes he does … but sometimes he doesn’t. We’re talking about the times he doesn’t. The times when bad things happen. The times when it’s unfair. The times when God doesn’t deliver us from it, but he sustains us in it. The truth is, God can prevent the fire or he can provide for us in the fire. I prefer the times he prevents, but we come out better when he doesn’t. In yesterday’s devotional, we began the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These were the 3 young men in Babylon who refused to bow down and worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue. The punishment for refusing the King’s command was to be thrown into a blazing furnace, but they would not compromise. They said to the King in Daniel 3: 16-18, “We do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is ABLE to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. BUT EVEN IF HE DOESN’T we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” We are to never doubt God’s ability, but also don’t assume to know God’s will. I know what I hope God will do with this fire, but faith requires me to trust him even if he doesn’t do what I want. Even if my desires don’t align with his plans, I will trust in him. Does that mean we know for sure the fire won’t touch us or our family, that we won’t be burned, that we won’t lose everything … no, we have absolutely no promises of that. Our promises are eternal promises. Our fires in life must be judged by an everlasting God and an eternal life that awaits. Trouble was promised in this life and our Jesus has already overcome every trouble. Eternally, trouble will be no more. Here in this temporary life, trouble will come. If troubling fires surround you, I want you to know the rest of the story. I want you to hear what God can do even when he doesn’t stop the fire. Even when you feel the heat. Even when you fall into the flames, understand THIS IS WHERE GOD IS! Daniel 3: 19-28 – Nebuchadnezzar was so furious with Sharach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face became distorted with rage. He commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual. Then he ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So they tied them up and threw them into the furnace, fully dressed in their pants, turbans, robes and other garments. And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. So Shardach, Meshach and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames. But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?” “Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied. “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!” Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, official, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire h...

Transcribed - Published: 25 February 2025

What if God doesn’t do what you want him to do here? What if he doesn’t make this all work out the way you think it should work out? Really, what if he doesn’t … where does you faith stand then? Where will your joy be found if your idea of good isn’t how this unfolds? God never called you and I to a life of certainty. He hasn’t empowered a single one of us to know or control what unfolds next. Here’s what we do know: We know Jesus said in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world!” Your trouble will be overcome by Jesus. Now we don’t know when and we don’t know how, but we know somehow and someway Jesus is overcoming this trouble. But it won’t always look like it and it certainly won’t always feel like it. Faith requires you to accept that this may not go the way you want it to go. Faith requires a trust that reaches deeper than the circumstances and remembers there’s an eternity we have not seen. Will Jesus heal the cancer? I know he can and I know he will … but what we don’t know is if it’s healed in this temporary earthly body or if it’s healed in the future eternal state of perfection. Both are healing, we just don’t know which one it will be. Will Jesus save that marriage? Well, there’s a whole lot of human free will and choices involved in a thing like marriage. So honestly, I don’t know. Will Jesus save your job? Will he clear the rain on your beach vacation? Will he give you that baby? Will he open the doors to your dreams? Will he bless you with wild success? Answer: I have no idea! I know he can, but I can’t pretend to know his ways or his timing. In my earthly state, I can’t imagine the heavenly workings of all these details. And this is where we must quote Daniel 3: 18, “But even if he doesn’t …” I know what God CAN do … he can do absolutely anything. Nothing is impossible with God. I know some of the things God has done, and those things are miraculous, indescribable, and unpredictable. And I know the end game, Jesus has already overcome every problem in the world … literally! Today’s problem will not be a problem forever. However, I have no way of knowing exactly what God is going to do with today’s problems and uncertainties. How arrogant of us to assume we know the things only Heaven knows. God’s plans may be different than our desires. Faith requires us to live with open hands of surrender and find peace in the not knowing. The truth is, I don’t know if I wake up tomorrow … neither do you. The truth is, we don’t know what could come falling out of the sky today. We don’t know what news the next phone call may bring. But not a single one of us have to be disturbed in the not knowing. We are called to live in a state of balance where we never doubt God’s ability, but also don’t assume to know God’s will. Where is the trouble in your life? Really, think about the trouble you’re dealing with right now. It’s a trouble of uncertainty isn’t it? You don’t know if, you don’t know how and you don’t know when. Now, do you believe God really has the ability to change this trouble you’re facing? Can he heal this? Can he restore this? Can he stop this? Can he make it happen? YES. Absolutely! He can do it. This is not beyond his reach or outside of his power. Nor is it hidden from his eye. He sees and he knows. Now, WHAT will he do? That we do not know. My sister, can you make peace with simply not knowing.

Transcribed - Published: 24 February 2025

Join us for an unscripted Bible study time together.God, if you’re in it, I want it … if you’re not, I don’t. Now, the even harder prayer: God if you want me to change in this, I’m willing to change. If you want me to change how I do it, I’ll change it. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” How do we become this new person? WE CHANGE! How does the old life become a new life? WE CHANGE! What if the change you are seeking for your child will begin first in that child’s mama? What if the change you’re seeking in your marriage first begins with your husband’s wife? Powerful Prayer – Father, help me to be the wife/mom they need right now. Give me a holy conviction for anything that needs to change, and special strength to change my attitude and my actions. God wants to do a supernatural work in you. His work is in CHANGING you. He doesn’t want to change you because he hates you, he wants to change you because he loves you too much to let you live this life in any way short of the fullness for which you were created. There’s untapped potential within you, change is required here. The MSG translations of 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Anyone united with Jesus gets a fresh start.” What a GIFT! You are being offered the gift of change in you today … not in anyone one else, and not in anything else … the change starts in YOU. This is a gift. The act of receiving the gift is up to you. Embrace any changes God is orchestrating. God, if you want to change me, I am pliable. Pliable: Ready to change, easy to work with. Receptive to correction and responsive to your lead. YOU ARE NOT THE POTTER. YOU ARE THE CLAY. God spoke to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 18: 1-6 and said, “God down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” When Jeremiah gets to the potter’s show he watches him work at the wheel with a lump of clay. As he watches, he gets an image of how God works in our lives. The jar the potter was making didn’t turn out the way he had hoped, so he crushed it and started over again. And God said, “As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” God isn’t asking you to form and perfect yourself. That’s not your job. He’s asking you to remain pliable in his hands. Be ready to change. Be easy to work with. Be receptive to correction. Be responsive to the molding of his hands. Ephesians 2:10 says “You are God’s masterpiece.” And maybe you’re not there yet, but in his hands, it’s who you are becoming. He’s not done with you. He’s molding you, making you and changing you … LET HIM! We see the miraculous change in the caterpillar who becomes a butterfly. Ohhhhh, what is happening in that cocoon is internal work that cannot be see, but it’s happening. Isn’t that what God is doing to you too? He’s doing deep, internal work. He’s changing your heart. He’s changing your thoughts. He’s changing your priorities. He’s changing your habits. He’s changing your dreams. The process feels restrictive. It feels like he’s only taking things away from you. But this is your cocoon. This is your molding in his hands on the wheel. Change is required for you to become his masterpiece. Don’t go jumping out of his hands.

Transcribed - Published: 21 February 2025

The enemy uses very specific weapons against you. Weapons meant to detour you. Weapons meant to defeat you. Weapons meant to destroy you. Depress you, deceive you, dismiss you, and disease you. Maybe you’ve felt the sting of his weapons. Maybe you’re living in fear of his weapons. And maybe you’re like the majority of us and you’re wondering where is God in this and why has he allowed it? We must remember that not everything comes from God, some things are formed in the pits of Hell. Some things are schemes of evil from the enemy. We can’t blame God for that. However, the hard thing is understanding absolutely NOTHING can touch our lives without God’s permission. We see in scripture the devil asking God for permission to attack, permission to sift, permission to harm, then it’s up to God to approve of disapprove. Anyone else honestly just want to say, “God, why did you approve of this attack? Why did you allow this weapon against me to touch me? Why didn’t you stop this?” That’s a fair question. I’ve learned on this journey that God can handle my questions. I assure you, he can handle yours too. Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” This does not say a weapon will never be formed. It does not promise you’ll never feel the pain of a weapon used against you. But it does say any weapon against you will not PROSPER. That weapon won’t be forever successful. It will not dominate over you always. The next part of that scripture in the MSG translation says, “God’s servants can expect that I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” If you are surrendered to and serving God with your life, then you can EXPECT that somehow, someway, God will use the weapons formed against you for something good. But how? How can this ever be good? Well I stumbled across a very specific example while studying the book of Ezekiel. Now, first let me be honest and tell you if you’re new to studying your Bible, you really shouldn’t start with Ezekiel. It’s a tough read. It’s brutal battles and ignorant people not learning the lessons there for them. The majority of the time I’m reading and just saying, “Thank you Jesus for covering me and paying the price I couldn’t pay.” But in between the battles and the slaughters, you find little details that are like shimmering diamonds. Sweet reassurances of God’s goodness even when life has been hard and you’ve been under attack. Check this out in Ezekiel 39. God is angry with a prince named Gog. Gog had evil thoughts come to his mind and he began devising a wicked scheme against the people of Israel. Although Gog and his armies would attack Israel, their weapons would not prosper. In fact, look at what would happen to their weapons. Verse 3, God says, “I will knock the bow from your left hand and the arrows from your right hand, and I will leave you helpless.” But then he goes even further, speaking against the evil prince Gog who had formed an attack against God’s people. He says in verse 9-10, “Then the people in the towns of Israel will go out and pick up your small and large shields, bows and arrows, javelins and spears, and they will use them for fuel. There will be enough to last them seven years! They won’t need to cut wood from the fields or forests, for these weapons will give them all the fuel they need.” And that, my friends, is what you call LITERALLY USING EVERYTHING INTENDED TO HARM YOU FOR SOMETHING GOOD. What if the weapons that have been threatening you ...

Transcribed - Published: 20 February 2025

The enemy uses very specific weapons against you. Weapons meant to detour you. Weapons meant to defeat you. Weapons meant to destroy you. Depress you, deceive you, dismiss you, and disease you. Maybe you’ve felt the sting of his weapons. Maybe you’re living in fear of his weapons. And maybe you’re like the majority of us and you’re wondering where is God in this and why has he allowed it? We must remember that not everything comes from God, some things are formed in the pits of Hell. Some things are schemes of evil from the enemy. We can’t blame God for that. However, the hard thing is understanding absolutely NOTHING can touch our lives without God’s permission. We see in scripture the devil asking God for permission to attack, permission to sift, permission to harm, then it’s up to God to approve of disapprove. Anyone else honestly just want to say, “God, why did you approve of this attack? Why did you allow this weapon against me to touch me? Why didn’t you stop this?” That’s a fair question. I’ve learned on this journey that God can handle my questions. I assure you, he can handle yours too. Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” This does not say a weapon will never be formed. It does not promise you’ll never feel the pain of a weapon used against you. But it does say any weapon against you will not PROSPER. That weapon won’t be forever successful. It will not dominate over you always. The next part of that scripture in the MSG translation says, “God’s servants can expect that I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” If you are surrendered to and serving God with your life, then you can EXPECT that somehow, someway, God will use the weapons formed against you for something good. But how? How can this ever be good? Well I stumbled across a very specific example while studying the book of Ezekiel. Now, first let me be honest and tell you if you’re new to studying your Bible, you really shouldn’t start with Ezekiel. It’s a tough read. It’s brutal battles and ignorant people not learning the lessons there for them. The majority of the time I’m reading and just saying, “Thank you Jesus for covering me and paying the price I couldn’t pay.” But in between the battles and the slaughters, you find little details that are like shimmering diamonds. Sweet reassurances of God’s goodness even when life has been hard and you’ve been under attack. Check this out in Ezekiel 39. God is angry with a prince named Gog. Gog had evil thoughts come to his mind and he began devising a wicked scheme against the people of Israel. Although Gog and his armies would attack Israel, their weapons would not prosper. In fact, look at what would happen to their weapons. Verse 3, God says, “I will knock the bow from your left hand and the arrows from your right hand, and I will leave you helpless.” But then he goes even further, speaking against the evil prince Gog who had formed an attack against God’s people. He says in verse 9-10, “Then the people in the towns of Israel will go out and pick up your small and large shields, bows and arrows, javelins and spears, and they will use them for fuel. There will be enough to last them seven years! They won’t need to cut wood from the fields or forests, for these weapons will give them all the fuel they need.” And that, my friends, is what you call LITERALLY USING EVERYTHING INTENDED TO HARM YOU FOR SOMETHING GOOD. What if the weapons that have been threatening you ...

Transcribed - Published: 20 February 2025

Are you faced with something that is simply too far gone? Something that has no hope left for the future. Something so broken there’s no chance of repair. Impossible. May I remind you of Luke 1:37, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” No thing … no, not even your thing. With God, it IS POSSIBLE. Without God, there’s no way. So, we’re left with a choice … are you going to give this to God? Are you going to bring it to the throne and surrender it to him? Are you going to seek his will, his way, and his timing? Are you going to trust him with the details? Are you going to be obedient? And by obedient I mean are you going to forgive? Are you going to let it go? Are you going to love? Are you going to trust? If you’re not willing to be obedient, then you’re not really giving it to God, so your impossible will remain impossible. My sister, has your hardened heart and wounded spirit gotten in the way of your obedience? Really, have you become bitter, vengeful, hateful, resentful and stubborn in your hurt and now you’re a road block for what God says is still possible? Let me ask you, is that what you really want? Do you really want to block the miraculous work of God in your life, in your family, in your future? I don’t think that’s what you really want. It’s what you’ve settled for in your hurt, but it’s not what you really want because it’s not God’s best for you. So, God wants to show us something today. “Us” as in those who are faced with something that seems simply too far gone. Us who have lost hope for the future of something. Us who are facing reality, and reality says this is far beyond repair now. Us who have been hurt by what has been damaged or lost. Let God show you something. Stay open to the power of his word. Ezekiel 37: 1-14 – the story of the dry bones. There’s a song by Elevation Worship titled “Rattle” about this story. Now as we read this, understand this is a vision given to Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet who lived hundreds of years before Jesus. He was a spiritual watchman, which meant he was in charge of hearing from God then warning the people. This is one of Ezekiel’s visions from God that he was told to share. The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies.

Transcribed - Published: 19 February 2025

Have you ever questioned how exactly you’re supposed to hear from God? If he is your guide, then how do you receive his guidance? Maybe you’ve heard people say things like, “The Lord told me this…” or “God asked me to do that …”, and you’re like, “REALLY … how does he do that?!!!” If you feel like you’ve never heard God tell you much of anything, you’re certainly not alone. If you’re unsure of how to receive his guidance, you’re in the right place to hear exactly what you most need to hear today. By the end of this devotional, you will finally understand the precise steps to hearing from God. To learn, we’re going to go to someone far more qualified than myself. Someone who has a track record of divine guidance from God that lead to one impossible victory after another. David. Yes, we talked about David yesterday. The youngest of Jesse’s 8 sons who was left out in the fields to tend to the sheep when Samuel showed up at the house and said the Lord had sent him there to anoint the next King. But even when he was in the wrong place, even when he was left out, even when he was overlooked, God specifically chose him. Then, after he was chosen, his life went back to much the same. He kept tending those sheep. He kept fighting off lions and bear in those fields. And all of this was his understated and unannounced training. Training for a destined battle and predetermined victory. Now I don’t know about you, but I have an in depth skill of avoiding battles. I don’t like confrontation. I would prefer to let you have your way and think you’re right than fight you over it. I want nothing to do with a battle. But some battles are destined. What if the battle you find yourself in today has a predetermined victory. And what if that victory will be a result of the years of training you went through in fields where no one recognized your work? GOD HAS YOU IN TRAINING NOW FOR A DESTINED BATTLE AND PREDETERMINED VICTORY. Be faithful in your field, my friend. In 1 Samuel 18, after David defeats Goliath, King Saul takes note of this young teenager, and finally, so did everyone else. The women start singing David’s praises over King Saul’s praises. So what do you think happens next … King Saul becomes enraged with jealousy. For the next several chapters we see the King constantly planning a sneak attack to kill David. David is always on the run, hiding, fearful for his life, all while King Saul is in relentless pursuit of the one he is so jealous of. And suddenly we start noticing a theme in scripture. Time after time, David asks the Lord very specific questions for his next steps and he receives very specific and clear answers. 1 Samuel 23: 2-5 “David asked the Lord, ‘Should I go …’ ‘Yes, go …’ the Lord told him. So David and his men went.” 2 Samuel 2: 1 “David asked the Lord, “‘Should I move …’ ‘Yes,’ the Lord replied. Then David asked, ‘Which town should I go to?’ ‘To Hebron,’ the Lord answered.” How was David able to ask God such specific questions and get such specific answers? Isn’t this what you want in your life? It’s most certainly what I want. I want to know that I know that I know God is directing me. I want to know for sure that prompting, that thought, that open door is from God … but I often don’t. The truth is, sometimes I question if that’s God speaking to me or just my vivid imagination making up things. I wonder if sometimes I want to hear from God so badly th...

Transcribed - Published: 18 February 2025

You don’t need luck, not when you have God. You don’t have to be in the right place at the right time. Nobody else needs to know your name when God knows your name. Everyone else can totally count you out, but when God has singled you out nothing can keep you hidden from his purposes. GOD HAS SINGLED YOU OUT. I don’t know what he had to do to ensure you’re listening at this moment, but here you are, and it’s not by accident. You will not remain stuck here living below your potential. There’s MORE for you. There’s MORE in you. David was nothing more than a little shepherd boy, overlooked and dismissed by everyone. When the Lord sent Samuel to Jesse’s house to find the one to be anointed as the next King, Jesse lined his sons up for the choosing. One by one, Samuel looked at the sons thinking surely this was the one the Lord was choosing. This strong one, Samuel thought – No, the Lord said. This tall handsome one, Samuel thought – No, the Lord said. Seven of Jesse’s sons were presented, while the youngest son stayed in the field watching the sheep. Jesse didn’t even think to bring in David, his youngest son, to be considered. He wasn’t the strongest, the wisest or who he considered to be the best. He was just the youngest of his 8 sons and considered the least. 1 Samuel 16: 11-13, “‘Send for him at once,’ Samuel said. ‘We will not sit down to eat until he arrives.’ So Jesse sent for him (David, his youngest son who was left out). He was dark and handsome, with beautiful eyes. And the Lord said, ‘This is the one; anoint him.’ So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on.” David wasn’t in the right place at the right time … he wasn’t even invited to the right place. You know what else this shows us … You don’t have to be impressive to a single other soul. You don’t have to stand out. You don’t have to be the best. And really, you don’t have to be doing anything special to be chosen. What was David doing when he was chosen? His ordinary, every day work. He was out in the fields faithfully taking care of his father’s sheep. And the same is true for you and I. We just need to do our ordinary, every day work faithfully. Stop trying to be noticed. Stop trying to compete with everyone else. God sees you. And guess what … GOD WANTS YOU! When it’s your time, he will find you, align you, equip you, and send you. You can be overlooked by everyone else, and still be chosen by God. You can be left out by your family and your friends, but singled out by God. You can be passed over at work, forgotten by those who should remember you, and left waiting, and God will pluck you right out as the one he wants. Your job here is to be faithful where you are with what you have. You’re growing impatient in the wait. You’re getting anxious and jealous. My sister, God’s eye has never left you. He knows where to find you … let him find you faithfully working in the field he has given you until it’s time to step into more. Now here’s the thing, when God says, “YOU”, don’t dismiss yourself. Let your faith in God’s mighty power be so courageous that you actually believe he could use someone like you. He could use your story. He could use your skills. He could use every ordinary thing about you in extraordinary ways.

Transcribed - Published: 17 February 2025

Do you know why you sometimes get overwhelmed? You’re focusing on things you can’t do a darn thing about right now. You’re allowing those things to come pouring into your mind and sink your spirit. Honey, the boat is taking on water and life is getting turned upside down. But how do you stop the flow of worries and the flood of negative thoughts? Some time ago I found myself overwhelmed. I had so much I needed to do and I didn’t even know where to start. My husband walked in the kitchen and found me in a moment of overwhelm and asked me what was wrong. I told him “I’m just really stressed.” Then he said 2 powerful words that changed the trajectory of my day. He said “Don’t be.” He’s a man of few words, but his words are powerful. Just don’t be. Ahhhhhhh, yes. The invitation for stress and overwhelm was knocking on my door, I can always choose whether or not I let it in. This is my house and not everything gets to come in. I just needed to be reminded of the power of my choice and declare it. That day I said no to overwhelm. I decided I wouldn’t be stressed. I decided I would make a list of everything I needed to do that day, then I asked God to help me get to work. One thing at a time, I made my way through a potential overwhelming day without sinking. God will give you what you need for today, TODAY. Jesus taught us exactly how to pray in Matthew 6. He said, “When you pray, pray like this. Part of that sample prayer is verse 11 “Give us this day our daily bread.” Why pray this way? It’s a focus on what is needed for just THIS DAY. This is an intentional turn away from the invitation of overwhelm, and instead a returned focus on today. Sure there are uncertain things in your future. There are things you will need to do that you don’t yet know how to do. Waters you will need to go through and a boat you don’t have yet. Work you can’t possibly do today. Needs larger than your current provision. But honey you’re running way ahead to places God hasn’t even called you to yet. You’re not there today and that’s why you’re not yet equipped for it. But where you are today, you have been equipped for this. YOU CAN DO THIS. Why? Because if you’ve asked God, he has given you exactly what you need for THIS DAY. Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Help me keep my thoughts right here on the work I’m to do today, the steps I’m to take today, the living I’m to do today, as you have provided exactly what I need to do it well today. Lord, help me do this right today. That’s my version of daily bread. Strengthen me for today. Guide me today. Provide for today. I trust you and I move forward, but I won’t run ahead. Isn’t that the great balance? Trusting God enough to move forward today, without running ahead. Yes, that’s what we need. Keep us here, but help us do “here” well. Have you ever moved houses? The packing process can be overwhelming. Where do you begin? How do you even start on a job that seems so overwhelming? If you sit and think about every single thing that has to be done for the move, you become overwhelmed. That’s running ahead. That’s totally unnecessary. Wouldn’t your time be better spent grabbing a box and starting in the kitchen? You know what you could do today … you could pack the kitchen. You can’t pack the whole house, but you could pack that one room.

Transcribed - Published: 14 February 2025

One day you will tell your story of how you overcame the exact thing you’re going through right now. The day will come when you look back on this season of your life and say “With God, I made it through that.” You will survive. You will overcome. You will make it through this. And guess what honey, your story will become someone else’s survival guide. This isn’t just about you … this is about the lives that need your example. This is about the people you don’t even know yet who will need to know you made it through so they can have the hope of making it through too. 1 Corinthians 1:9, “God will do this for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” God is the one who will do it, but the story you’ll come out of this with is how you’ll work in partnership with Jesus. Your story will become a survival guide … and it will point straight to Jesus because he’s the only way you’re getting through! Remember that scripture in Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” What was intended for harm in your life will not harm you forever. You will survive and you will thrive again on the other side. Then everything you went through will be used to save others. They will not be hopeless because your story will be a beacon of hope. Don’t you understand you have been trusted with this hardship to reveal God’s glory in the details and His faithfulness in the darkness. If you’re on the other side of the darkness now, look back. Someone is standing in that darkness today who needs the example of your light. A light that points to the only true help there is … Jesus! If you battled infertility, there’s a desperate woman yearning for a baby who needs to know you too battled and you made it through. She needs to know how God worked everything together for good. If you survived an ugly divorce, there’s a family today being torn apart by the fighting and words that cut like a knife. They need to know it doesn’t have to be this way. God is the source of peace in that storm. If you were once pacing the floors wondering how on earth you were going to make it through those hard years with your wayward son or daughter, and now that child is an adult making their way in the world successfully despite their wreckless path to get there, let me tell you there’s a mama who needs to know she’s not the screw up of all screw ups and she’s not alone in this. They need to know how God can use everything that was so totally wrong and use it for something right. What you went through cannot be wasted. Use it for good now. If you’re on the other side, use your story to help someone else. You have a story of God doing things only he could do … a story of pieces eventually coming together … a story of healing and redemption … a story of survival and now thriving … who is your story helping now? And if you’re not yet there, let me share some light with you because I know what it’s like to feel like God isn’t doing a darn thing in response to your prayers. I know what it feels like to see everything keep getting worse. I know what it feels like to have to pick yourself up to try and live another day when everything in you just wants to give up. And here’s what I can tell you on the semi-sorta other side of that … God is doing things you cannot see right now. He is working behind the scenes and in unknown places.

Transcribed - Published: 13 February 2025

In scripture we see a pattern for God’s people. They face trouble, they seek God, then with time they go astray and return to their old ways. In their old ways, they seek things other than God. This continues until their replacement for God doesn’t save them, then they’re back on their knees crying out to God again. Over and over again, it happens. And really, it’s still happening. It’s happening with us. We’ve allowed something to take God’s place in our lives, something else or someone else has been put in the elevated position reserved for God. And when the elevated position in our lives is wrongly filled, everything becomes a mess. The truth is, we have IDOLS. An idol is anything I place above God. An idol is anything I find my fulfillment in above God. An idol is ultimately the reason I sin. Something is out of place in my life and it’s time to get serious about fixing it. Where are you looking for your answers? What do you turn to for guidance? Is it tarot cards, a horoscope, the TikTok, or your circle of friends? Anything you’re turning to before God is your idol, and let’s be clear, it’s a real problem. GOD SAYS THIS MUST ABSOLUTELY CEASE IN YOUR LIFE. 1 John 5:21, “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” God’s place is your provider. God’s place is your guide. God’s place is your protector. God’s place is your healer. Now, what have you put in God’s place? Exodus 34:14 says, “The Lord is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.” So what is it that gets your first thoughts every day? What is it that gets your moments of worry? What is it that gets your attention, your time, your energy? Honestly, is it really God, or does it look a whole lot more like a screen where you scroll, a screen where you call, or a screen where you text, post or search? Is God jealous of your phone? Oh I know he’s jealous of mine. How do I know? Because it sometimes takes his reserved and elevated space. That’s just the truth. It’s my golden calf. Do you know the story about the golden calf? The Israelites had followed Moses out of slavery in Egypt and God was showing up for them in miraculous and astounding ways. He was guiding them and providing for them. Finally, they were being set free by God, and they knew it! God called Moses up to the mountain with him and this is where he gave him the 10 Commandments. But while the Israelites were waiting at the bottom of the mountain, they got restless. They grew bored, and they began to question. Soon, they had given up on God working through Moses, and they decided to make their own God to turn to. They gathered all their gold jewelry, melted it, and formed a golden calf and began worshiping it. This would be their new god. This would guide them. This would protect them. This would give them their answers. And how do you think God felt about this? HE WAS FURIOUS! God said in Exodus 32:9, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them and I will destroy them.” They just couldn’t wait on God. They couldn’t trust him in the moments of silence. They couldn’t just be still. And we are exactly the same. The truth is, we’re having a really hard time waiting on God. We fill the silence with noise. Our eyes are constantly searching for something we can watch next. We crave entertainment and distraction. And we know better.

Transcribed - Published: 12 February 2025

What victories do you have in your life? What battles have already been won? Now of course I know you’re still in some battles, but recognize the victories you currently stand in. Ways that were made. Breakthroughs that happened. Changes you were about to give up on, then it all changed. Impossibilities that were made possible. Miracles that unfolded. I sometimes lose sight of all these victories because of my current battles, but this morning, God told me, “My girl, remember the victories.” I was once the 15 year old girl who prayed her first prayer and asked God to bring new boys to my little country school, AND HE DID, so I married that new boy 6 days after I graduated high school. We’ve been married 30 years now. That’s victory. I was once laying in a hospital bed unable to walk or talk after a stroke. God not only spared my life, but he radically healed me. I made a deal with God one day in that hospital bed. I told him if he would allow me to walk, then I would run marathons. To this day, that’s why I’ve laced up my running shoes. It’s not because I’m good at it or fast by any means. My body doesn’t look like it used to look and I don’t move like I used to move. But you know what … I’m not laying in a bed like I used to lay in a bed either! In that hospital bed, I also told God if he would allow me to talk, I would speak on any stage he gave me. And my friends, that is why you hear my voice today. Because God gave me my voice back (literally) and I have a commitment to fulfill. I actually did something for the first time ever this morning, I asked my husband for the numbers. I intentionally do not track numbers for the podcast. I never want to get lost in those numbers and forget I’m just speaking to YOU. You with your real life seeking a real word from God. But this morning I found out we have over 13 million plays from around the world. And here’s what that means to me – It means YOU are one of them. I’ve been trusted with YOU. That’s a victory. God says, “My girl, remember your victories.” We adopted our daughters from an orphanage in Mexico. After a few years of having them in our home as our daughters, our file fell into corrupt hands and we entered a battle that took not only years, but it took every penny we had to protect and keep our girls. But eventually, the victory came. And those are just a few of the victories I’m aware of. How many more battles were fought in spiritual realms over my life, my family and my future all while I thought it was just a normal day. Countless times I’ve walked in victory from battles I never knew existed. And that’s your story too. How many victories brought you here today? What battles have been fought and won for your life? Start with the ones you know. What did you get through? What did you survive to tell about? What did you make it out of? Remember the victories! Our scripture today is Joshua 24: 8-15. I hope you have a Bible so you can read along and highlight a few key verses. This is what the Lord said, “I brought you into the land of the Amorites on the east side of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I destroyed them before you. I gave you victory over them, and you took possession of their land.” (Pause right there, in verse 8 highlight “I gave you victory” and “you took possession.” How did you get what you have? That came from God! Where did every single victory come from? GOD!) Now, continuing in verse 11 (this one will include some hard words...

Transcribed - Published: 10 February 2025

Deuteronomy 20:4 – “For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” Whatever it is you are battling, may I remind you God is right there battling with you, fighting for you. You question if you will ever win, all while WITH GOD the victory has already been guaranteed. But goodness gracious, sometimes it doesn’t feel like it, does it? This week I’ve spoken to several women who feel totally and completely defeated. They are exhausted from the battle. Do you relate? Are you growing weary of the struggle? You probably thought at this stage of life you wouldn’t be going through THIS (whatever this is). There are some things in my own life that have just shocked the crap right out of me too. But this morning I want to give you a few truths. These truths will not get you out of the battle, but perhaps they will give you hope in the battle. Truth #1: YOU ARE OF TREMENDOUS VALUE.Is self worth a struggle for you? Do you often question your own value? Well, let’s set this straight once and for all. GOD DEFINED YOUR SELF WORTH WHEN HE SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR YOU. God says you’re worth enough to give his perfect son for and that pretty much settles it. You have no right to be thinking you’re worthless. It’s absolutely ludicrous to think your life has no value. Look at the price that has been paid for you. That’s where you get your value! I may not always get this thing right, but I know the price that’s been paid for me. And guess what, God has never once asked for a refund. He’s never regretted his choice. He confirms his choice again and again with new mercies each morning. I have no struggle with self worth because that truth has gotten down into my soul. Is this truth in your soul? Would you let it be? Would you dare to believe your self worth is defined by the God who gave his perfect son for you? My friend, when that truth gets in you, your questions of value are eliminated and you begin to see your true potential in God. The enemy knows your potential much better than you do. He knows you have the potential to be the one to rise up and impact your entire family. He knows you are THE one who could create and influence and lead. And because you are so darn valuable with all this potential, honey you have a big target on your back. It is said the birthmark of a believer is a bullseye. Ever feel like you’re targeted? You are.Ever feel like there’s a battle inside of you and all around you? There is. All good things come under attack. That’s just the name of the game. So you know what your struggle means my sister … it means you are a GOOD THING. Oh yes you are – you are a good, good thing. It’s time you get on board and see the good in you too. You are of tremendous value. You are overflowing with potential. You are ripe for progress. You are primed for a breakthrough. YOU ARE A GOOD THING, now stop tearing yourself down. Truth #2: GOD IS ON YOUR SIDE.He is for you, not against you. Whatever you are battling right now, please understand this … GOD WANTS TO GIVE YOU VICTORY IN THIS. Not temporary victory – not kindof almost victory – FULL and complete victory. Victory that leaves you shocked and in awe. Victory that has you dancing because you are completely free. Victory that leaves no doubt God did something miraculous in your life. This is the victory God wants to give you. But, can you be trusted with victory? What would you do with victory? Where would you go with victory? Would victory make you become more like the girl God created you to be, or a lot less like her?

Transcribed - Published: 7 February 2025

God has something for you, something divinely designed as your calling, your place, your territory … but you will still have to fight for it. Have you forgotten your fight? Have you decided this is far enough so you’ve stopped moving forward? Have you settled for where you are and therefore sacrificed the fullness of what God has called you to? I have a scripture for you today that will absolutely leave your jaw on the floor. It’s so personal, so direct and so perfectly timed. Are you ready? Joshua 18:3, “How long are you going to wait before taking possession of what God has given you?” Now using other translations, let me put it this way: How long are you going to put this off? How long will you neglect to go? How long are you going to waste time? How long will you delay? How long will you be slack about going and taking possession of what God has already given you? If he’s told you to go, why aren’t you going? If he’s told you to make a change, why are you still waiting? If he’s told you to move forward, why are you just sitting there? If he’s told you there’s so much more, then honey, why in the world are you settling for less? Oh, I know why … it’s the exact same reason I too hold back and settle. Because I don’t want to really work for it. I’ve gotten lazy and easy has become more appealing to me than destiny. I don’t need the full promise, just this little bit of promise has become good enough for me. That’s just the truth. That’s where I am, and I bet that’s where you are too. BUT, MY SISTER, THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT YOU. This is bigger than you. This is about future generations. They won’t be where they’re supposed to be if you don’t go where you’re supposed to go and do what you’re supposed to do. You’re creating the gap. You’re digging the ditch where others will get stuck. In your selfish feelings of just wanting to coast and take it easy, you’re not only delaying what God has called you to, but you’re denying those behind you. MOVE GIRL, GET OUT THE WAY! (There’s a song for that … we won’t sing it today.) Okay, now context. Remember how God’s people were the Israelites who had been stuck in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. God raised up a chosen leader for them named Moses. Moses went to the King of Egypt, Pharaoh, and demanded he let God’s people go. Pharaoh didn’t want to lose his slaves, so he didn’t let go easily. God had to bring 10 different plagues on the Egyptians until they were so desperate and miserable that they finally set the Israelites free. But where would these people who had spent generations being slaves go and how would they get there? Where they would go would be the land God had promised them. A land about 250 miles away from their former captivity in Egypt. How they would get there would be nothing short of miraculous. God would part seas for them to walk across on dry land. He would guide them by day with a cloud and by night with a pillar of fire, showing them precisely where to go. He would make quail to rain down on their camp each evening for meat, and in the morning they would wake to manna (a stick bread substance) on the ground. Their journey was nothing short of absolutely miraculous. All leading them to a land God promised to be theirs. But of course, there were problems on the way. Doubt and fear crept in because of the battles they would have to face in claiming their promised land. They complained to their leader Moses and refused to move forward to step into their God promised destiny. Out of fear,

Transcribed - Published: 6 February 2025

What would it look like to let God’s Holy Spirit truly guide your life? Where would you go? What would you do? And dang, what would he have you give up? That’s scary, isn’t it? Total release of control and full commitment to following a guide you can’t even see? I think that’s why we hold back. We’re afraid of where God’s spirit may lead us. We’re afraid of what highly uncomfortable thing God’s spirit may ask us to do. And we’re really afraid of what God’s spirit might ask us to give up. But, remember, God is an EXPERT GUIDE! He has complete control. He will not and cannot fail. He knows precisely what he is doing and what he is asking you to do, and it’s all for a greater purpose. Would you trust him? I’ve put my life into the hands of so many random people. Why? Because I’ve trusted them as my guide. In Southern California I strapped myself to a complete stranger and jumped out of an airplane with him. My life was in his hands. I didn’t ask to see his certification. I didn’t inquire to see how many jumps he had made. I simply trusted because he was wearing a jump suit that he knew what he was doing. I trusted his lead. We jumped. In Bali, I sat on a wooden swing with a itty bitty rope tied around my waist and let this tiny, very excited man, push me. But this wasn’t just any swing, it was a swing hanging off a cliff 20 stories high. Again, it was the equivalent of a child’s homemade swing tied on a tree, just slightly more dangerous and exhilarating. The tiny, excited man yelled, “let go, lean back”, and what do you think I did? I let go and leaned back with only a flimsy rope tied around my waist. Why did I trust him? Because he worked there. It may have been his first day, I didn’t ask. On the coast of Texas, I paid a man in a leather bomber jacket $300 and I climbed in his open air, WW2 bi-plane. We’re flying and he says, “are you ready for me to cut the engine”, I said yeahhhhh! Suddenly, the old airplane goes silent, it glides, then it goes into a nose dive and barrel roll. After a few seconds, I hear the cranking of the old engine trying to restart. Put, put, put … nothing. Try again. Engine cranking and it stops. After a few tries, it fires back up and we shoot back up in the air. I’ve done a lot of adventurous things, this was my favorite. After we land, my husband begins inquiring about the airplane and says, “How long have you had this.” The leather bomber jacket Tom Cruise look alike pilot says, “I just bought it last week. In fact, you’re my first people to take up. How in the world did you even find me?” Ohhhhhhh …… We simply trust who we believe to be the expert guide. This morning I learned about an adventure at Africa’s Victoria Falls, which is two times higher than Niagra Falls. At the very top of the waterfall, you swim out across the river, then an expert guide holds your feet as your allow the water to take you to the very edge of the waterfall and hang out over it. You have to trust the guide. Why would you trust them? Because it’s what they do. Would I do it? ABSOLUTELY! I don’t know, maybe you have trust issues. But maybe those trust issues are keeping you from some of life’s most beautiful adventures and opportunities. My sister, God is an EXPERT GUIDE, and he can be trusted. It’s not his first day on the job. He’s not reckless or careless. No one handed him the uniform and asked him to fill in for the day. If God says “let go”, you can really let go. If he says swim to the edge,

Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2025

You have tremendous power in your life. Power is simply defined as the ABILITY to DO SOMETHING. You have the ability to do something. The ability to change, the ability to begin, the ability to keep going. I believe within you is the power to do things that would simply blow your mind. A work of the enemy is to make you feel incapable of doing something, but you are so powerful. Understand this, God has given you the gift of his Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide you. While the Holy Spirit often sounds mysterious and honestly a little bit hookey, it is simply God’s power at work within you. In John chapter 14 verses15-31, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, preparing them for his own death and he explains that while he is going away and they will no longer see him, the Holy Spirit is coming to them to live in them. God is literally living IN them. Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you and later will be in you. When the Father sends the Advocate as my representative – that is the Holy Spirit – he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” You and I don’t have to wander around like lost puppies in this world. Troubled and afraid is not your place. Perpetually confused is not your assignment. We have a guide who is always with us. He promises to teach us everything and lead us into all truth. Lies cannot stand against his Spirit of truth. Fear cannot remain in the presence of his gifted peace. We have within us power. Power working within us. Our God, the one who created us, the one who knew us before he knit us together in our mother’s womb, the one who has a good plan for our lives has placed his power within you and he is working. Ephesians 3:20 “to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” You are a power house. Like literally! Oh yes you are. I’m not just saying that to be cute. You are literally housing the power of God. That power is inside of you. The power that creates, the power that heals, the power that tears down walls and moves mountains. The power that parts seas. The power that supernaturally provides. The power that changes absolutely everything. That power is in you. You are a power house because God dwells within you. What stronghold have you battled? Is there an addiction or bad habit that has held you back? Is there something in your life you truly want to change, but feel it would be so darn hard to change? Well I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it will be easy. It likely won’t be. However, you were specifically designed to be able to handle tough things. You are not weak. No matter what the enemy tries to tell you, you are NOT WEAK. You have God himself living inside of you and NOTHING is impossible for God. Nothing. So you bring your impossible. You bring it right to the foot of the cross and you lay it down and tell God you don’t want to pick it up again. Are you really ready to change? Are you really ready to make it happen this time? Are you really ready to step up to the next level of living and start living up to your God given potential. AWESOME – within you is the power to do all that and more.

Transcribed - Published: 4 February 2025