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I Am Redeemed!

Isaiah 44:22 “I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

“I am redeemed” is something I think we all need to hear. We tend to live in our mistakes. We tend to think about our transgressions a lot. We look at all we have done over our lifetimes, and we decide that God can’t possibly love us because we are a bad person. We judge ourselves so often. I have discovered this is not something that just a few of us do. It is something that all of us do. The more I pray with people, the more I see that we are all struggling with the same things. We struggle with thinking we are enough. We struggle with thinking people don’t like us. We struggle with thinking we are ugly. We struggle with self-hatred.

You might be surprised how many people hate themselves. I was at a personal development conference once, and the speaker, Rachel Hollis, said she asked the audience at her last conference to raise their hand if they hated their body. Not if they didn’t like one part or another, but if they hated their body. She said that over 90% of the people in the audience raised their hands. If you hate something about yourself, I hope you know that you are not alone.

The problem with hating our body or hating something about ourselves is that God created us. He made us in his likeness and image. He loves us just as we are. He wouldn’t change a thing about us. This is really hard for us to believe. Actually, what just came to my mind is our sin. He would change that, I am sure. I am sure God does not love when we sin. However, that doesn’t mean He doesn’t love us. Have you ever said that to your children? I love you; I just don’t love your behavior. I have said that lots to my kids. It is actually something they have repeated back to me. My sons have told me that they know I will love them no matter what they do.

If we, as humans, can say this to our children, why don’t we believe the same could be true for God? God loves us more than we can imagine. He loves us no matter what we do. It says in Matthew 18:12-14 “What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.”

God doesn’t love when we mess up, but he knows we are going to mess up. He knows everything about us. When we mess us up, God leaves the 99 to come and find us and bring us home. He doesn’t abandon us. He doesn’t give up on us. He just gently comes to find us and bring us home. The verse ends with, “It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” I have heard many describe God as an old man sitting in heaven just waiting for us to screw up. I can tell by this passage and so many others that this is not what God is like at all. He is rooting for us. He is rooting for me. He is rooting for you!

Today’s verse says, “I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” In today’s verse, the Lord is calling us back to Him. He is telling us not to worry about all we have done. He has swept away our transgressions like a cloud and our sins like mist. This is a great visual. We can imagine our transgressions, and then we can picture them sitting on top of a cloud and blowing away in the wind. Take a minute, close your eyes, and picture some situation, transgression, or interaction that you are not proud of. Most, if not all, of us have situations or interactions that we look back upon from time to time and wish we would have acted differently. Maybe we wouldn’t have said that thing or done that thing.

Think about those interactions that you have had that you wish you could change. Now, close your eyes and imagine you can put that situation, interaction, or transgression on a cloud and just watch the Lord sweep it away. That seems so peaceful. Do you feel any lighter? Were you able to let those things go? Let’s hand them over to God; they aren’t doing us any good.

Next, the Lord says that our sins turn to mist. This is another great vision. You can picture the sins you have committed. The ones you think could never be forgiven. Those that you confessed at confession and are still holding on to because it is so hard to believe the Lord can forgive you for them. Close your eyes and picture those sins. Then picture them exploding into a very fine mist. It doesn’t have to be a huge explosion. I picture the sin as bubble letters describing the sin, and then I picture the letter popping and turning into a mist. What are you picturing? Are you able to see your sins turn to mist? Why are you struggling to forgive yourself? The Lord has redeemed you. You are no longer your sins.

There is another verse, Galatians 3:13, which also reminds us that we are redeemed! It says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” The reason we know we are redeemed is because Christ took our sins with Him to the cross. When we refuse to accept the Lord’s forgiveness for our sins, we are telling the Lord a few things. First, we are telling Him that His son’s sacrifice was not enough. We are essentially saying, “We know Jesus died for our sins, but my sin is too great. His sacrifice is not enough to cover my sins.”

Is this something you believe? Do you believe Jesus’s sacrifice was not enough? If this is not something you believe, then why is it so hard for you to accept His forgiveness? Why do you hold onto your sins and your mistakes when God has already redeemed them? He has already redeemed you! God loves you! He created you. He knew all you would do before He even created you, and yet He still chose to create you. I heard Father Mike say something in a podcast one time that really struck me and it is something I think we all need to hear.

Father Mike is The Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries in the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota. He said that he often asks the students in his campus ministry if they know that God loves them. He said they can kind of blow him off or minimize it and say things like, “Yeah, yeah, I know God loves everyone.” Father Mike agrees and affirms that is true and then goes on to say, “But do you know that God loves you individually?” He explains to them that there was a time when God made the conscious decision to make you and to bring you into this world. He decided the world would be a better place with you in it. He didn’t have to create you; He didn’t have to create any of us. Yet He did. He created you just as you are, in his likeness and image. He not only created you, but he redeemed you long before you were even born. You are Redeemed!! No matter how checkered your past is. No matter what you have done, God has redeemed you. You are not your sins. You are not the same person you were. You do not have to live in hatred and shame. You are Redeemed! If you struggle to believe this, write it down on a sticky note somewhere that you will see it often. Then read it every single day, multiple times a day, because it is a truth and a promise that you can stand on. YOU ARE REDEEMED!!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this episode. I ask that you come into our hearts and help us believe that we are redeemed. Help us to forgive ourselves. Help us to accept your forgiveness. Help us to release anything that is keeping us stuck in our sin and shame. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with our will and with Jesus’s holy name. Amen!!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with a friend. Also, if you could leave a review, that would help more people find this podcast. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Trust in my word. Trust that what I say is true, and go about your way and make me known, my children. How many times must I tell you? You can because I send you and because I am your God. I provide the power. Be not afraid to move and do what I tell you.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Today’s witness is my brother-in-law Billy. On Thanksgiving, he did not show up at his mom’s house for dinner. His family was concerned. He lives right next door, so they went to check on him. He wasn’t there. When they still hadn’t heard from him after some time, they went to check if he was at a friend’s house down the street. This is where they found out that he had fallen down the stairs and hit his head.

They called an ambulance, and he was rushed to the hospital. At the hospital, they found out that he had a brain bleed. He had surgery, and they were able to repair the bleeding. However, they said he had been lying there for at least 12 hours before he was found. They were unsure how much damage the bleed had done to his brain. Billy needed to be on a ventilator, and he was in a medically induced coma while the swelling went down. We instantly sent out a request for prayers from everyone we knew. They tried to wake him a few times from the coma, but it didn’t go too well.

When I checked in with my sister on December 4th, she said Billy was not worse, but he wasn’t any better either. He was still on the vent. He was still heavily sedated. When the nurses would lighten up the sedation, Billy would respond to cues. They find out that he can move both of his legs and his arms. The next update I had was on December 10th. Billy was still in the coma and still not the vent. However, they were trying to wean him off the vent.

The doctors were predicting that he would be in the hospital for at least a week and then he would be in a nursing home, then after the nursing home, when he was strong enough medically, he would need to go to Rehab to relearn how to walk, talk, possibly even have to relearn how to swallow and eat. The doctors were predicting his road to recovery would take at least 2-3 years, and even they couldn’t promise he would ever be able to leave the nursing home. They did not know how severe the damage was and if he would ever be able to do anything for himself.

I went to the hospital with my sister on December 15th to pray over Billy for healing. When I was there he was awake, but had the breathing tube in, so he could not talk. He was definitely tracking you when you walked in the room. He seemed to be aware of what was going on. He seemed to react to things going on. For instance, the nurse was doing something, and you could tell he didn’t like it. He seemed to be doing better. However, he did look a bit like he was trapped in his body. His eyes seemed to be trying to communicate, but I am not sure what they were saying.

Billy did finally wake up out of the coma, but he was still on the ventilator. The doctors wanted to take the ventilator tube out and put in a trach. My sister knew from previous talks with Billy over the years that he would not want a trach. She remembered sitting with him and looking at photos of people who had to get a trach because of cancer due to chewing tobacco, and he had said he wouldn’t want that. The doctors were really pushing for it as they said that it is not good to have the breathing tube in that long.

As you can imagine, with any tragedy, the family did not all agree as to how they should proceed. My sister knew what Billy would want as they had been married for over 25 years at this point. However, others were worried that if he didn’t get the trach, he would die, and they, of course, were not ready for that. No one is ever ready for this. My sister was also worried that if they put the trach in, Billy would be alive but not be able to do anything. She did not want him stuck in his own body for the rest of his life; she knew Billy wouldn’t want this either, and the doctors couldn’t tell her the extent of the brain damage. At this point, they did not know if he would ever talk again, get out of bed again, or remember anything. They had no idea of the extent of the damage.

The doctors told my sister they wanted to have a family meeting on December 20th to know whether they could put the trach in or not. My sister knew she didn’t want it and that the rest of the family did. She knew it was going to be a hard meeting and that she was going to be the enemy, the one everyone was mad at. However, she really felt like that is what Billy would want. I called her, and we prayed for clarity and for God to help me make the decision. We prayed for peace in the meeting and for everyone to get along for Billy’s sake. Before the meeting, tensions were high, and people were already fighting and being unkind before even going into the meeting.

However, at the meeting, everyone was able to get along. Tensions were calmed, everyone apologized for the bad blood between them, and they all hugged and prayed at the end of the meeting. My sister agreed to taking the breathing tube out the next day and see if Billy could breathe on his own. If he couldn’t, she would allow him to put the trach in and then reevaluate how he was doing in three weeks. Everyone was on board with this plan.

She went to the hospital the next day, and they took the breathing tube out, and Billy was able to breathe on his own. Hallelujah! Praise God, He is so good! This was on December 20th. Once they took the breathing tube out, Billy was able to talk, and they were able to see how he was doing mentally. For the most part, he seemed to be doing pretty well. He knew who people were when they came to visit. He would be able to have conversations with people. Sometimes, he gets confused as to where he is or gets mixed up in conversations. However, he is returning more and more to his old self.

He is now able to walk. He is unsteady and needs some support, but he can do it! He is able to move around. He is able to eat by himself. He is able to do things for himself that they thought he might not ever be able to do. It is now February 12th, 11 weeks after he was found at the bottom of the stairs, and the doctors are sending him home. They said he does not need to go to a nursing home because he is medically ok. They said he didn’t need to go to rehab because he could do all the things by himself. (walk, talk, feed himself, etc).

Mentally, there are still prayers needed. Although he can do all those things himself, he still gets confused as to where he is and what he is doing. He will need someone to stay with him 24 hours a day to make sure he is safe. He can not drive. However, he has made amazing strides in his health, and I have no doubt that God is going to continue to heal him. I am sure God is not done healing his brain, his memories, and all of his cognitive functioning.

I want to praise God for all he has done so far in this situation. I want to praise God for healing Billy physically and for helping him to go home, as I know how much Billy hates hospitals and hates being away from his home. I am so grateful to God for bringing Billy home to his parents, his sister, and his children and grandchildren. I thank You, Lord, for giving them their son, brother, father, and grandfather back. I thank you for all the healing you have already done, and I pray for more. We pray that you continue to restore his cognitive functioning. We pray you heal him completely. We pray he is able to live on his own again, work again, drive again, and do all the things that he could do before. We love you so much, Lord, and we thank you for this miracle. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen.

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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 I Am Never Alone (Identity Series)

Genesis 2:18 “Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”

I wholeheartedly agree with this verse. We were not meant to be alone. This doesn’t mean that we all need to be married or have kids. It just means that we are all meant to have people we do life with. I often talk about how important community is to a fulfilling life. There are very few people who are meant to go through life alone. I know there are hermits out there who dedicate their whole lives to being secluded and spending all their time with God. Most of us are not called to this life. Actually, St. Catherine of Sienna wanted to live this life when she was just a little girl. She ran away from home to live alone in the caves outside her town. An angel appeared to her and told her she was meant to be a light in the world, not separate from it. The same is true for most of us.

However, living in the world can be hard because it is often filled with heartache. How we deal with heartache is the key to our success. We need to turn to the Lord for help when we are struggling. It also helps to turn to our friends for support. They can build us up and speak truth and light into the lies and the darkness. However, instead of turning to our friends for support, we tend to separate ourselves from others. We tend to pull away because we don’t want to talk about it or we know others won’t understand.

A while back, my heart was hurting for several struggling ladies I know. Actually, every time I look at Facebook, I see messages from people who are struggling. However, that week specifically, there were two ladies who did not know each other or live near each other who had 15-year-old children who had to go to court. There are two other women who are not able to spend the holidays with their children for one reason or another. Then, I saw a post about a friend who was really hurting because she could not see her oldest child graduate college. While thinking about all the people who are hurting right now, I wish everyone knew, like in the depths of their hearts, that they are never alone. So many of us think we shouldn’t talk about what is happening because no one will understand or no one else is going through the same thing. People think that they will be judged or deserve the bad thing happening to them. This is not true!

There are 7 ½ billion people in this world. Whatever it is that you are going through, someone else is going through the same thing right now at this same time. There are also people who have gone through it already and can shine a light into your darkness. They can show you one way to get through your situation. They can also give you hope because if they got through it, you can too! Talking about the difficult things you are going through with people you know and trust can be so therapeutic. Sometimes, we don’t want to talk about our problems because we don’t want to bother people, especially if they have their own troubles. Our friends and loved ones want to help us. It is not a bother for them to hear how you are suffering. Sometimes, it can even help them with their troubles as well. You will be amazed how much stronger your relationships can get when you are able to open up and let people in to help. Another reason talking about your struggles can be helpful is that you may be further along in your journey than someone else who has the same struggles. You may be talking with someone with the same issue but are afraid to talk about it. Hearing you talk about it can show them that it is ok to talk about what they are going through. I have seen this happen in numerous Facebook groups. Someone is vulnerable and shares their story; then, someone else reads it and feels the courage to share it. 

I truly feel that it is the work of the enemy to make us feel so alone. He is there whispering in our ears all the reasons we should not talk about what is bothering us. He wants us to keep our troubles to ourselves because when we feel alone, we feel hopeless. I am unsure if you have read or seen Harry Potter, but there was a scene where the main character, Harry, was struggling with feeling alone. Every time Harry was with his friends, he would push them away. Harry would tell them they just didn’t understand. They wanted desperately to be there for him, but he would not let them. Harry then went for a walk and ran into another friend. He explained that he felt like he was alone and no one believed him. She said, “I don’t think that is true. Although, I suppose that is how he wants you to feel.” When Harry asked what she meant, she said, “Well, if it's just you all alone, then you aren’t that much of a threat.” I believe it is the same with our enemy. If we are alone and not talking with our family and friends about how we are feeling, then the only voices that we have are the enemy’s whispers. However, if we reach out and tell our story to those who love us, they can speak truth into our darkness. The enemy is the father of lies, and he speaks half-truths and lies into our ears so that we believe there is no one that can help us. 

Be vulnerable, open up, and share your struggles with someone. You will feel better just saying it out loud. Don’t go through things alone when you don’t have to. Seek out people you can trust to talk to. You may not even know that someone else is experiencing the same thing until you have the courage to raise your hand and admit that you are going through it. If you find yourself in a situation where you honestly feel you don’t have anyone to talk to, you can always talk to God. Ask God to show you someone in your life you could talk to about your situation. Request that God bring someone into your life who can help you through this. Pray for the strength to navigate your current circumstances. Ask God for the courage to address what is bothering you. God hears our prayers; He listens when we ask Him for the things we need. He is always with us, providing strength when we feel we have none. 

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are truly amazing. Lord, help us to realize we are not alone. Help us to see that you made us to live in a community with others. Help us recognize the enemy's trick to isolate us and speak lies into our hearts and minds. Lord, please put people into our lives who will recognize when we are pulling away and call us back. Help us to open up and share our troubles with others. Help us to hear others when they are trying to speak truth into our darkness. Help us, Lord! We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Mentoring is tonight, I hope to see you there. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, all I tell you to do know that you can. My spirit empowers you. It puts my words into your mouth so that you can reach the hearts of others. It's not you. It is my spirit empowering you to say what I wish you to say.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Treasured (Identity Series)

Exodus 19:3-6 "As Moses went up to meet God, God called down to him from the mountain: “Speak to the House of Jacob, tell the People of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me. If you will listen obediently to what I say and keep my covenant, out of all peoples you’ll be my special treasure. The whole Earth is mine to choose from, but you’re special: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”

One of my friends sent this verse in a Facebook messenger chat.  Her mother just had heart surgery, and she is in the hospital with her, waiting for her to recover.  Her mom’s levels were all elevated, and she needed to go onto a breathing machine.  I am sure my friend was worried for her mom, and I am sure the mom was worried too.  I met this woman in my mentoring group.  We went on a retreat together.  Everyone in our mentoring group picks a word and mantra for the year.  This is just a way to help keep us focused on where we want the year to go and help us remember what is important to us throughout the year when things get busy.  Life can happen so quickly sometimes that we don’t live it intentionally; we just get swept up in it and almost go on autopilot.  There can be so many people or things calling our time, and it can get hard to prioritize if you don’t have a focus and/or you don’t prioritize.  

This is why we pick a word and mantra and try to say it every day.  I was going to say that we do say it every day, but I am sure we forget sometimes, or at least I know I do, especially on the weekends.  However, even if I don’t say it everyday, I know I have one, I have it memorized and so when I have to make a decision about something I can think about that word and mantra in my head and then the decision is easy because usually only one aligns with my focus for the year.  

My friend chose the words “Be Still” this year.  It’s funny how when we pick a word, God helps us grow into that word over the year.  It’s the same with you, even if you didn’t pick a word.  If you have a desire in your heart or have prayed for help to grow in a certain area, God will help you.  When we pick a word, it not only reminds us of how we want to grow over the year but is also the filter with which we look at the year.  Let me explain what I mean.  If my friend’s word is Be Still, then her focus is on being still and how she can learn to grow in that.  So, when she is reading her Bible in the hospital next to her mom, and she gets the Bible verse above, she then looks at this experience in the hospital as a reminder to be still.  

God is amazing!  If we are looking, if our eyes and ears are open, he will give us little signs, and sometimes big signs, that He is right there with us in all of our situations or circumstances.  This bible verse in the hospital was a little reminder from God to my friend just to Be Still and know that He was taking of it all for her.  If you are aware that God does this, if you are on the lookout for this, you will see that He is doing the same for you.  God is not just doing this for some of His children.  He is sending us all signs that He is there with them.  The problem is that if we don’t know that He is doing this, we don’t notice them when we see them.  Let’s start being on the lookout for these messages from God, letting us know He is in it, all of it, with us!

I love how today’s verse begins with God reminding us what He has done for us in the past.  It says, “As Moses went up to meet God, God called down to him from the mountain: “Speak to the House of Jacob, tell the People of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me.” This is a great reminder that God is a miracle worker.  He saved the Israelites from Egypt in a miraculous way.  Also, it wasn’t just one miracle. It was miracle after miracle.  He did all those signs to convince Pharaoh to let them go. He parted the Red Sea so they could pass, then He rolled it back to destroy their enemy.  He miraculously provided manna for food every single morning.  He rained down quail on them when they complained about not having meat to eat.  It was miracle after miracle.  

When we are struggling, we need to be reminded of all God can do.  There are many times when we are in a situation and can’t see a way out.  We have $500 worth of bills and $200 in our bank account.  That math does not add up, and we know we will be unable to pay our bills.  And yet the math also did not add up when Jesus only had five loaves of bread and two fish, and there were over 5,000 people to feed, and yet He fed them all with plenty to spare.  When our loved one is in the hospital or on hospice and the doctors tell us there is nothing to do, we need God to remind us of what He has done in the past, so that we can have hope that we don’t have to worry because even if there is nothing the doctors can do, there is ALWAYS something our God can do.  I love that God knows we need this reminder, even before we do.  He is so good!!

The second half of this verse is, “If you will listen obediently to what I say and keep my covenant, out of all peoples you’ll be my special treasure. The whole Earth is mine to choose from, but you’re special: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” This is also great because it reminds us that we are special and we are treasured.  God could choose any person on the entire Earth, and yet He is choosing you.  If we listen obediently to what He says and keep His commandments, then we will be set aside.  We will be His holy nation.  How great is that?  I love that this translation says we will be His special treasure.  What would you give to be God’s special treasure?  I feel as though I would give anything to be considered God’s special treasure.  God is giving us the instructions, and although they seem easy, they can be harder than they sound.  

The first thing it says is to listen obediently.  It can be hard to listen if we aren’t hearing Him.  This means we need to spend some time listening to what God is telling us.  Let’s all stop for a moment and see when we could do this?  When could we make time, even if it's just 5 minutes, in our day to sit quietly and listen to God? Could you spend 5 minutes sometime in your day sitting quietly with God if it meant you got to be His special treasure? God is asking us to keep His covenant, which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and love your neighbor.  Can we do that?  What is one thing we can do to love others more?  God doesn’t just mean your neighbor next door.  He means, how can you love everyone, even those you don’t like?  

That is something to spend some time pondering.  Is this dislike, this hatred I have in my heart for others, worth not being counted as God’s special treasure?  If you have a hard time loving others, take that to God.  Spend some time talking with God and asking Him to help you through it.  God wants us all to be His special treasure.  We don’t have to be perfect or follow Him perfectly; we just have to really want to be His special treasure with our whole heart, and then listen to Him, and He will guide us there.  He wants it for us more than we want it for ourselves.  We just have to give Him permission to work within us and then let Him gently guide us there!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, I ask you to show each one of us where in our day we can spend some time with you.  I ask you to show everyone that we all have the time, even if we are very busy.  Show us that you can talk to us anywhere, in the shower, in the car, while they are drinking coffee, while they are doing housework, anytime we are willing to listen, you are willing to talk.  Lord, we thank You for always reminding us of all You have done in the past at the perfect time.  Lord, we are sorry we always forget and are so grateful when we need to remember that You are there.  Lord, thank you for loving us. Thank you for treasuring us.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen. 

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  If you have not signed up for mentoring yet, you can click on the link below or head over to my website, Walkboldlywithjesus.com. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed week!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email, “My children, all I tell you to do know that you can. My spirit empowers you. It puts my words into your mouth so that you can reach the hearts of others. It's not you. It is my spirit empowering you to say what I wish you to say.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Loved (Identity Series)

John 13:23 “One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,* was reclining at Jesus’ side.”

This scripture verse was given at my prayer group, and the following words of prophecy were given:  “You are also the one whom Jesus loves.  So, your place is to be listening to his heartbeat when you pray. So, put your head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat.  Say I love you and be at peace.”  Is there anything more calming than putting your head on someone’s chest and listening to their heartbeat?  I pictured when I was little and if I was scared and I went to lie with my parents.  Just putting my head on their chest and listening to their heartbeat would make me feel better. It seemed so rhythmic and soothing.

“You are also the one whom Jesus loves.”  How many of you believe this?  Like truly in the depths of your heart believe this?  You are also the one whom Jesus loves.  Sometimes, it is easy to say that Jesus is love.  It is easy to say that Jesus loves everyone.  And yet, even as we are saying it, we are discounting ourselves from that love.  We know He loves everyone and yet we don’t believe that he loves us?  We don’t feel that love or even understand why He would love us.  Who are we to be loved by Jesus?

You are the son or daughter of the one true king. That is who you are.  You were made in the likeness and image of God.  You are deeply loved by Him.  Why do you discount yourself from that love?  Or maybe you put a lot of pressure on yourself to be worthy enough of God’s love.  Maybe you think if you just do things perfectly, then God will love you.  If you attend weekly mass and volunteer for every fundraiser, you will be worthy of God’s love.  Are you constantly feeling like you are not good enough for God’s love?

Guess what? None of us are.  None of us are worthy of God’s love, yet he lavishes it freely anyway.  You do not have to do anything to earn God’s love.  Well, as I wrote that, what came to mind was we do have to accept it.  God can tell us all day long that he loves us, but if we don’t accept it, then it doesn’t matter.  Yesterday, I talked about abiding in God’s love and how abiding means acceptance.  Can you accept God’s love?  Can you accept that he loves you just as you are, with no strings attached?

This is a new kind of love for so many.  Some people have never had someone in their lives who loved them completely, with no strings attached.  Unconditional love is not a thing they even new.  If you are struggling to believe that Jesus loves you, just as you are, think about your childhood and your past relationships.  What do you think of when you think about love?  Did you have to earn love growing up?  What did you feel you had to do to be loved?  For instance, did you have to get good grades,  be a certain weight, be quieter, etc?  Did you feel like your parents' love was conditional on your behavior?  If so, don’t worry. You are not alone.  

We live in a broken world and don’t know how to love each other unconditionally like our heavenly father does.  I think everyone is doing the best they can.  We can only love others to the extent that we are loved.  If your parents do not know unconditional love, they can’t pass it on to you.  The good news is, that you can learn to let Jesus’s love in.  The good news is that Jesus does love us unconditionally.  If we can learn to accept Jesus’s love, then we can learn to pass this love on to others, even if that is not the love we were raised with.

If you struggle with accepting God’s love, I would love to give you some practical tips for how to begin to accept God’s love.  I went online to see if others had already written about his subject.  I found an article written by Kara J. Lovett called “5 Keys to Accepting God’s Love.”  I would highly suggest you read this article.  I will put a link for it in the description of this episode, but you can easily find it by googling 5 Keys to Accepting God’s Love. CLICK HERE for the article.  In the article she goes into what God says about love and then a section on understanding God’s love.  

Her article mentions five was you can accept God’s love.  They are as follows: Accepting God’s love with scripture, prayer, grace, and quietness & in unexpected places. Kara says in her article that “by digging deep into Scripture and spending time with God in prayer, I realized that I need to stop striving for love and instead strive to accept God’s love, which He has already graciously bestowed on me.”  As I mentioned yesterday, reading the bible is a great way to get to know God’s love. You can see all sorts of examples of God’s love in the bible.  1 John 4:7-10 is a great example of love.  It says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The second way she mentions is prayer.  When we turn to God and ask for His help, he wants to help us and is just waiting for us to ask.  God knows what we are going through and what are struggles are, and yet he loves it when we talk to Him about them.  Just sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and talk to God like you are talking to your best friend at the kitchen table.  You will be surprised how much closer you get to God when you start having chats with Him regularly.  They can be informal chats about your day, your struggles, and your successes.  God wants to share in all of that with you.

The third way she mentions is Grace.  Learning about grace over these last few years has been huge for me.  Learning to be graceful with yourself is so important.  Kara says that grace is the free, unearned gift of salvation that God has bestowed upon us.  When I looked up the definition online, it said 1a: unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification. b: a virtue coming from God. c: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance.  We are saved and redeemed through God’s grace.  It is unmerited, meaning we don’t deserve it; we can’t do anything to earn it; it is just bestowed upon us.  How amazing is that?  The third definition is a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance.  We can’t forget this.  We are made holy through divine assistance.  God is always there to help us.  We can’t do any of this on our own.  It is always a partnership.  God has so much grace and mercy for us.  He doesn’t expect us to be perfect, so cut yourself some slack.

The fourth way to accept God’s love is through quietness.  Spend some quiet time with God.  There are so many ways that you can do this.  Maybe you are someone who likes to meditate every morning.  That is wonderful! Maybe you are like me, and every time you try to quiet your mind, all it wants to do is talk to you.  That’s fine, too.  Maybe your quiet time is spent in nature, going for a walk, or sitting outside listening to the sounds of nature.  Maybe your quiet time with God is spent journaling all your thoughts.  There is no right way to spend quiet time with God.  Your relationship with God is like any other relationship; the more time you spend together, the closer you will be.  

The fifth key to accepting God’s love for Kara was letting go of control.  Even though we know at some level that we don’t have to earn God’s love, we still try to prove to Him that we love Him.  We put all these rules and regulations on ourselves about how we have to do this, and we have to do that.  We tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves.  Once Kara was able to let go of control and remember that Jesus already secured our freedom on the cross, she decided to let go of all the pressure she put on herself and just tried to abide in Jesus’s love.  

God loves you!  He truly does.  I hope that if you are not currently able to accept God’s love, you will spend some time working on learning how to.  I can’t tell you how amazing it is to know that I am always loved.  To know that there is nothing I can do that would make my heavenly father stop loving me.  It gives me so much more confidence in life.  It brings me so much joy.  It breaks my heart when I talk with people who don’t know how much God loves them.  I know it is hard to let love in sometimes.  I have been there before.  It can be hard,  it can take a lot of work, and it is so worth it.  There is so much more waiting for you once you accept and really come to know God’s love for you.  It is there for the taking, free, with no strings attached.  All you have to do is say yes and accept it!

Dear Heavenly Father, I am so thankful that you love us unconditionally.  You love us so completely.  Lord, some of us are struggling to feel this love.  We ask you right now to come into our hearts and fill them with your love, perfect love.  We ask that you begin to break down any walls that we have put up to keep love out.  Lord, we want all the love that you have for us.  Lord, I ask that you bless everyone listening to this with a supernatural feeling of love today.  That the Holy Spirit descends on all of them and that they can physically feel you giving them a hug today.  Lord, you are so amazing.  We are in awe of all that you do each and every day.  We pray that you help our loved ones to open up and feel your love.  Lord, we pray that you shower your love on all the teenagers.  Being a teen is so difficult, and many do not feel any love.  Please show them how amazing your love is, Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with your holy will and in Jesus’s name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. The reason we can walk boldly with Jesus is because we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Join me for mentoring this month as we talk about this power and what we can do with it. Once we discover the power and the authority Jesus gave us when he left this world, we will be so much better equipped for all life has in store for us. I pray you will join me. I look forward to seeing her here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “The spirit will lead and guide you, teaching you in things that you do not know. You will not always have a complete vision or full understanding, but I will lead you step by step.”

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I realized after posting yesterday’s podcast episode that I missed Witness Wednesday. I was away for the weekend, and coming back on Monday must have thrown me off. However, I didn’t want you to miss out on Witness Wednesday, so I am just doing it a day late this week.  Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Salvation Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

My name is Cyndi. My broken story started before I was even born. I was the last of my bio mom’s seven kids.  Unfortunately, she was an alcoholic who drank during her pregnancy, so I have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

When I was born in 1971, I weighed about 3 lbs. I was adopted at age 1. Unfortunately, the family I was adopted into was dysfunctional. I suffered all manner of abuse, including sexual abuse. This hurt me so bad that I wanted to die for many years.

I was diagnosed at twenty with Bipolar Disorder. But I didn’t take the medication because I just didn’t want to. I got pregnant at twenty-one.  I literally had my son on my twenty second birthday.  I married his dad four months later.

But my husband was abusive, mentally, emotionally, and verbally.  And because I had never dealt with my previous abuse, I believed his abuse was my fault. Not only did I stay with him and raise my son, but I also had another child, a daughter, when my son was six years old.

Even though I thought our problems were my fault, I still knew how ridiculous that sounded because I knew I didn’t really want to live like that. I separated from him when my daughter was three and tried to take the kids.

He used lies and insinuation to get them back. I ended up being divorced and having visitation with my kids. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to survive. You may wonder about my faith throughout all of this. Don’t worry, I’m getting there!  I was raised Catholic but got into the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1996. I stayed that in that group until November of 2022, when I learned it wasn’t what I had been led to believe.

I was a lost soul for a little while but came back to Christianity the next November and have been loving it since. I’m quite happy these days. I do take meds. I have two spectacular kids and a wonderful granddaughter. I’ve been through more therapy than I care to admit and I’m still in it. But I’ve learned that it’s okay to not be okay sometimes.

Because I spent twenty-seven years not doing any holidays or birthdays, I take care to do them all and really celebrate them.  I really appreciate and enjoy my friends and family. So, I guess I have a pretty good ending to my broken story.

But it’s all because of Jesus. I do wish that my kids would love Jesus like I do, but they have to get to know him from a different perspective now. Just like I did.

Ben:  I grew up in a Christian home going to church every Sunday, being involved in AWANA and Youth Group, and going to Bible camps based on the Bible. The broken chapters of my life started before age 14. I was a Christian then. I believed hard on God, He was my Savior and He loved me. In 2017, when I was in the 6th grade, the garage of my house went up in flames. That was really tough for me and my whole family to go through. I hated God through that. It was about a year of moving around, and not being in my own neighborhood.
Further into my life starting around age fourteen is when I fell apart from God.  I got introduced into pornography. That was my biggest struggle. A lot of changes happened. I hated God and felt like I didn’t belong with Him. Satan took me over and I felt what he could do to me. Just to be living through that, though, is how I saw God. I became an addict to pornography and that was really harsh. Going though that, plus still going to church was a struggle. I believed that God didn’t want me and that He left me. I hated God for writing my life like this. And yet, I prayed almost every day for Him to bring me out of this hell, out of Satan’s world.

Skipping forward in my life, I am now two months from my 16th birthday. In late February 2021, I moved from my hometown of Naperville, IL to South Nashville, TN. This was the biggest move of my entire life. I was confused and scared of moving so far away, but during this time I was doing better with God. I felt Him closer to me and with me more often. As life moved on during February, I came to realize that God has made my life for a purpose and He has drawn my path. So I just had to trust God that He knew what He was doing in my life. In June 2021, me and my family took a trip back up to my hometown to see friends and family and the community. About halfway through the trip, I was fishing at one of my favorite lakes and started to talk to God. I fished there that day for about 2 1/2 hours and during that time I was having a conversation with God. I felt really close to Him and loved Him. I poured out my fears and thoughts.

During week three of the trip, I was in bed one night thinking of my strong fear of death. It scared me so bad, something happened between me and the Lord that I fell apart again. That time was one of the closest times I came to taking my own life, but I never did because of God. He came into my thoughts and blocked that idea. I was so scared of death, I couldn’t do it.

In week 4 of June, my family and I made our way to Gull Lake Ministries, in Hickory Corners, Michigan. The Friday of that week, I was out on the fishing dock at night about 10:30pm and was listening to my Christian music playlist and the song ‘Way Maker’ came on. I poured out my heart to The Lord Jesus Christ asking for forgiveness. After that night, I asked God to come back to my heart.  I prayed and I cried happy tears knowing I had been saved.

The week before school started, I joined my school’s marching band…lots of hard work balancing that with my studies and with God. A month later, I was greatly in line with God. A month after that I met this girl who was in my instrument section for marching band. She is a very strong believer and a true Christian. She is one of the main people that brought me back to Christ. We prayed together and we both shared music, verses and Bible plans to know Jesus more. Finding a church is one of the harder struggles along with finding a youth group that can be of fit for me to be more connected.
One week, she invited me to her youth group and I liked it. I was able to become closer to the Lord and know that community.

Two days later, the thought of killing myself and hurting myself came back. I fell apart from God again. I talked to my friend about this, and she seemed really worried. She tried to talk me out of it. She talked to her parents and gave me music and Bible verses about how God wants me, loves me, and knows me. This lasted about two weeks which is the longest I have had in my life yet. The struggle with the aftermath –going through that was the hardest. Reconnecting myself with God, I found this song by Matthew West called ‘The God Who Stays.’ I put this song on repeat and listened to it about 100+ times. The lyrics of the song are really powerful and meaningful. After about a week, I grew closer to Christ, and during worship in a church service, I poured my heart out to the Lord. I felt him right next to me and knew that He was with me. Over the last couple months, I have been in line with Jesus, asking for forgiveness, talking openly to friends about Him, and being involved with church leaders. Now I see and consider myself a Christian, after three years of on/off with God. I am back.

I got baptized on February 18, 2022. I love Jesus and I never want to lose Him again.  Amen!

Thank you so much to both of you for sharing your stories. You have both had such a hard journey. I appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing your story so that others know they are not alone. It also shows them that if God got you through it, he will get them through it too! Thank you so much for sharing!

 

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I Am Fearfully & Wonderfully Made (Identity Series)

Psalm 139:14 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

The I praise you part first stood out to me in this verse.  Praise is one of my favorite things to talk about.  I love praising the Lord.  Also, I have read a lot of books, and so many of them point out that praising the Lord is a great way to increase your faith, get more answers to your prayers, have more strength when in a difficult situation, and have more joy in your life. I was all set to begin with talking about praise when something, I think the Holy Spirit, told me to pause and read the whole sentence.  So I did.  “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  I did not see anything jump out at me.  So, I decided to see what exactly that means.

I was thinking maybe I wasn’t being moved by the sentence because I didn’t understand what was being said.  I was right!  That is a very powerful statement if you know what those two words mean.  Let’s take the first word, fearfully, first.  Fearfully, when translated from Hebrew, means with great reverence, heart-felt interest, and respect.  I understand why we would have great reverence for God.  He is our Father, and He created us.  It makes total sense that we would have great reverence for Him.  However, this is talking about us.  This sentence is praising God for making us with great reverence, heart-felt interest, and respect.  Did you know that’s how you were made?  Did you know God put all those things into making you?  Do you feel a little bit better about yourself now?

Let's take the next word wonderfully.  I bet we all think that we know what that word means.  We may also be thinking that although it is a pretty word, it is used so often that when we hear it, we don’t necessarily feel wonderful.  The word wonderful, when translated from Hebrew, means unique and set apart.  I am sure that it has occurred to everyone before that we are all different from each other.  But I wonder if it occurred to you that that means you are unique?  You are one of a kind.  So, the next time you are trying to judge or compare yourself to someone else, remember that you are unique. There is no one like you on this entire earth.  There are people who are going through the same things as you, and there are people who have similar struggles as you, but there is no one exactly like you.  You are not alone in your struggle, but you are one of a kind in how you were made.  You are also set apart.  I like the sound of that.  Instead of being lumped in with everyone else, we are set apart.  God set us apart from others.  

Does knowing this change the way you think about yourself?  Does it help you fight off that voice inside of you that tells you that you are not enough or that you are not loved?  Think about how amazing God must think you are to have made you with great reverence, heart-felt interest, and respect.  Did you know that God had reverence for you?  Did you know that He respected you?  Maybe this is not news to you; maybe you knew this all along.  This is the first time that I slowed down long enough with this passage to ask myself what that even means.  

This is one of the things that I love about doing this podcast.  I am not reading whole chunks of the Bible at a time.  I am reading a verse or two.    When you break it down into bite-size pieces like this, you get to examine those pieces more carefully.  I have also discovered that I am not the only person who does not know what those two words mean.  I think sometimes we don’t ask questions because we assume that we are the only ones who don’t know the answer.  Then we start to tell ourselves that if everyone else knows it, then there must be something wrong with us because we don’t, and then we don’t ask because we don’t want to feel stupid.  Come on, you know you have done this before.  I can’t be the only person this has happened to.  Anyway, it turns out that the Bible's language is confusing for many people.  In the course of writing the episodes for this podcast, I have searched for many answers, and I have always found them.  

If I were the only person who was confused, someone else wouldn’t have taken the time to research my question and put the answer on the internet.  The internet is also an amazing thing.  I am not sure how many of you use it to answer your questions, but I highly recommend it.  First, you can ask it anything.  You don’t have to remember where you can find something in the Bible because you can type it into the search bar, and the internet will find it for you.  You can type part of a verse into the search bar, and the internet tells you where you can find it in the Bible.  What I do is type my question exactly how I would ask a person, and I always come up with great answers.  I don’t just put a word or two. I put the whole sentence in the search bar.  Second, you don’t have to feel silly asking a question that you’re sure you are the only person who doesn’t know the answer to because no one knows you are asking the question.  You are asking for the computer, and it is not going to tell anyone.  It doesn’t talk, so it won’t make you feel silly.  

When reading through the Bible, asking questions is great.  It was written a very long time ago in a different language and to a people living in a different time and a different culture.  There are things in it that are not going to make sense to us.  However, if we ask questions when we have them, we realize that even though they were written so long ago to very different people, they are still just as relevant today.  It is still talking to us today; when we just read through it and gloss over the parts or pass over the parts we don’t understand, we miss an opportunity to know what God is trying to tell us.  This verse above is well written and has beautiful language, but if I hadn’t asked, “What does fearfully and wonderfully made mean?” I wouldn’t have learned that this verse is so much deeper than it seemed.  Ask your questions!  You deserve to know the answers.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray you bless everyone listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  You are so gracious, and we love you.  Lord, we ask that you help us to understand the Bible when we read it.  We ask that you give us the courage to ask questions when we don’t know what something means.  Lord, we ask that you help us take in the meaning of the words fearfully and wonderfully made.  We ask that you let those words sink into our hearts and help us to know how special we are.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen. 

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to invite you to another journey. The journey of mentoring. This month, I am teaching all about the Power of God Within Us! We all have power living inside of us, and the more we learn about the power and authority we have inside of us, the stronger we will be in this crazy world. I pray you will join me and learn about the power you have because Christ died for us and send us the Holy Spirit. Remember, Jesus loves you so much, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am your God. My light will shine brightly in you because you have been with me.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Blessed (Identity Series)

Ephesians 1:3-6  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

What beautiful scripture verses!  These definitely seem like good ones to write down and re-read any time we are having a bad day.  God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place.  I can’t even imagine how much blessing that is. God must really love us if he is blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place.  

Then, it goes on to say that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world and that we should be holy and blameless before him.  He chose us before the foundation of the world.  That seems so crazy to me.  It is crazy to me that God knew everything that was going to happen, and yet he still chose to create us.  He made us to be holy and blameless in His sight and yet we have failed at this over and over again.  

Oftentimes, we say hindsight is 20/20.  Meaning we can only see things perfectly when we are through them and looking back at them with he knowledge we gained through the experience.  For instance, when we are going through a difficult time, we don’t really understand it, and we make our decisions based on the info that we have at the time.  However, when we are through that difficult circumstance, and we know how things ended, then we realize we perhaps should have made a different decision.  

It is not the same for God.  He knows everything.  Nothing is a surprise to Him.  I find it remarkable that even though He knew how often we would turn our backs on Him or do the exact opposite of what He wanted us to do, He still went ahead and created us.  He not only decided to create us knowing all the times we would mess up, but He also kept forgiving us.  Time and time again, we do the things we know we are not supposed to do; God keeps forgiving us.  

I wonder if we would do the same?  Many people say that they learned a lot after going through something really difficult.  However, I wonder, even knowing all that we learned or gained from the difficult experience, how many of us would choose to go through it all over again.  Think about a really difficult time in your life.  Think about how hard or how painful it was. Then, think about what you learned from it or gained from it.

Everything that we go through teaches us something if we are open to seeing it.  We can find a lesson in every experience.  For instance, going through a really hard time in a relationship can teach you resilience, and/or how to be persistent and to work hard at something.  It can also teach you to be stronger.  If the relationship ends, it can be difficult, and you can learn something from that, too.  It can teach you what to look for and what to avoid in your next relationship.  Do you see how there is always something you can learn?  

However, even knowing all the benefits you have gained from this experience, I wonder how many of us would choose to do it again.  What about a friendship that ended badly?  Imagine you had a really good friend for several years, and then something happened, and that friendship ended.  You felt really hurt when it was over.  Do you wish that you had never met that person?  If you could go back in time to when you met that person, would you go meet them?  Would you spend all those years building up good memories if it meant that you had to go through the pain of losing that friendship again?

I think that many of us would choose not to go through difficult times if we could.  We would choose to stay in our comfort zone and not venture out of it.  Not try new things because we could get hurt or we could fail.  We would and often times we do tend to play it safe.  The thing is, we do not grow when we are in our comfort zone.  We do not grow without challenges.  Do those challenges often bring difficult times? Yes.  Do we grow immensely in those difficult times? Yes.  Well, if we allow ourselves to grow, then we do.  This is what God wants for us.  He wants us to grow and become stronger.  He wants us to lean into Him when things get hard and to be open to growth during these times.  

God chose to go through all the pain just for us.  He knew all the things we would do, He knew all the ways that we would hurt Him, and yet He still chose us.  He still chooses us every single day.  Is that not incredible to you?  I honestly find it difficult to believe some days with the way the world seems to be going.  It seems as though the world as a whole is trying to remove God from more and more things.  And yet, He keeps hanging in there.  He keeps performing miracles and blessing His children.  

The next part of the verses listed above says, “In love, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.”  He predestined, that just verifies that He knew all that was going to happen and yet had a backup plan.  He knew we would need saving and yet still predestined our adoption through His son, Jesus Christ.  He loved us so much that He sent his son to be crucified for our sins.  

One thing that we may not often think about is the fact that God not only knew all we were going to do, but He knows how our story ends.  He knows how all of this ends.  By sending His son to be crucified on the cross for our sins, He has already redeemed us and granted us salvation if we choose to accept it. It says in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  God has already won this fight for us.   We don’t have to worry about how things will turn out.  Romans 8:28  tells us, “ and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

God has predetermined that we would be his adopted children.  Because of this we know that He will work all things for our good.  He knows the mistakes we will make, and he loves us anyway.  Yes, you heard that correctly, and yes, I am talking to you.  God loves you and accepts you for who you are, flaws in all. God knew you were going to do that thing that you keep thinking about, and he made you in His likeness and image anyway.  Remember the beginning of this episode: God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  What an amazing Father we have!

Dear heavenly father, I ask that you bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I am sure we can't even imagine how many blessings that is. Lord, we love you so very much. It is crazy for us to think about how you knew all the ways we were going to mess up, and yet you decided to create us anyway. Lord, we can never thank you enough for sending down your son to die on the cross for our sins. Lord, we thank you for taking us in as your sons and daughters. We thank you for using all things for our good and for helping us be victorious in the end. Lord, we thank you for being patient with us while we make these mistakes and for always forgiving us when we ask. Lord, you are amazing.  We ask all of these things in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Today, we kick off our new February Series for Mentoring. This month’s series will be “The Power of God Within Us.” I hope you will join us to learn all about the power of God that you have living inside of you all the time. You are more powerful than you know, and once you learn about that power, you can begin to use that power to help you wherever you need help. I pray you will join us this evening. There is a link below with all the details. If you email me, I can also send you the link to see what it is like before you join. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I will shower you with blessings, with my love, my comfort, my strength, my peace. Then you will be able to go out in the world and share it with others."

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 I Am Holy (Identity Series)

Ephesians 1:3-4 “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts! And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with and unstained innocence.”

When I read these two verses this morning, I thought they were so beautiful. They begin with “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly father.” Isn’t that beautiful? Did you know that your heavenly Father is lavishing spiritual blessings on you? The word blessing in this verse is a translation of the Greek word eulogy, which means “to speak well of.” Since God is acting in this verse, we can say that God has spoken good things about us or pronounced good things for our benefit. The good things that God has decreed for us are probably beyond our ability to number.

Can you imagine your heavenly Father showering you with blessings? Did you know that is what He is doing? I know sometimes it doesn’t feel like you are getting any blessings, but this might be because you are in the middle of a hard time. You might not be able to see the blessings because you are so focused on the hard thing that is happening. You might think there is no way God could be blessing you because of all you are going through.

This isn’t true. God can bless us in the middle of a hard time. He can bless us whenever He wants to. You might be wondering what that may look like, what it would look like to have a blessing while in the middle of a hardship. That could look like someone you know checking on you to see if you need anything. It could look like your friends and family bringing you meals when they know you have no time to cook. It could look like you getting a job promotion right when you need it the most! Have any of these ever happened to you? What about when a stranger says something to you out of the blue and it is exactly what you needed to hear?

God is not just blessing us, He is lavishing spiritual blessings upon us. This can go against our picture of God. We all have a picture of God in our head and for some of us, probably a lot of us, it is not a picture of a wonderful heavenly Father. Many of us picture the heavenly Father similar to our dad growing up. So if you had a loving Father growing up the idea that our heavenly Father is loving is easier to grasp. However, if our earthly Father was not outwardly loving and was hard on you, maybe expected a lot out of you, then this is how you might see our heavenly Father too. But God's love is beyond our earthly understanding, and He cherishes each and every one of us.

I know a lot of people who picture the Lord as an old man with a white mustache and beard sitting up in heaven, looking down on us and judging us. They picture God as someone who is just waiting for them to screw up so He can punish them. They are sure they are disappointing Him all of the time. I think this is why I chose these verses and why I like these verses so much.

The second verse for today dispels this myth that God is up in heaven just waiting for us to mess up. It says, “And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with and unstained innocence.” First, it says that God chose us before He laid the foundation of the Universe. God chose you. Let that sink in for a moment. God chose you before He even created the universe. Does that sound like the act of a Father that is sitting up in heaven waiting for you to screw up so He can punish you?

Next it says, “Because of His great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with unstained innocence.” Listen to that last part again, “so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with unstained innocence.” God doesn’t look at us as if we are a wreck waiting to happen. In His eyes, we have an unstained innocence about us. God doesn’t want us to mess up. He doesn’t want us to sin or to fall away from Him. He loves us. He chose us. He wants us to be right there with Him for all eternity.

God loves us. He looks down upon us as a loving Father would. Once we realize this our relationship with the Heavenly Father will become so much closer. If we haven’t really experienced true love in this world, then it might be hard to understand how much our heavenly Father loves us. One thing I am finding that can help with this is to read the scriptures. Read the Psalms, read the New Testament. Last week I read Philippians and this week I am reading Ephesians and they are just beautiful. The Bible is a living document. It is not just a book of words that the Lord told His people back in the day. The Bible is speaking to each one of us right now. When you read the Bible you will realize it is just as relevant to what you are going through today than it was back then. God is so good, His Words are timeless.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask that you help us to understand your love for us. We ask you to help us understand how loved we are. We ask that you help us to change our hearts and are minds about who you are and what you want from us. We want to see you as you truly are not as we picture you in our minds. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! May the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email, “I use all things for good. Trust in me. I am directing your life. Every change, every movement in your life is set on me, and I pull you, pull you towards me.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Changed (Identity Series)

Romans 3:23-24 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins.”

We have all done things in the past that we are not proud of, and sometimes, we get stuck thinking about those things. We replay them over and over again in our minds and think about how different our lives would be if we had not done them. Some of us think that the things we did were so bad that there is no way God could ever forgive us or love us. Regret is a terrible thing. It sucks the life out of the present moment if you let it. Our minds are powerful, and we will believe what they tell us. We may know in our hearts that God will always forgive us if we truly repent. We know in our hearts that God will always love us no matter what we do and that we do not have to earn his love. However, sometimes, that little voice inside of us will listen to the enemy, and our brain will believe the lies that he tells us. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The evil one likes to take this phrase and use it to whisper things in our ears like, “See, no one is good enough,” or “No matter what you do, you will always fall short of God’s standards.” He tells us that we shouldn’t even bother because we are not enough. Do you ever feel that way, like you are not enough? What many of us may not know is what the very next verse, Romans 3:24, says, “Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins.” Yes, we all sin, but God’s grace “makes us right in his sight.” Another way the enemy likes to get to us is to tell us that we will never change. That we are still the same person who did that thing we regret. If we strive to change, he tells us that we can’t change. He reminds us of the things we have done in the past and whispers that we will do it again. There is a song I heard for the first time on the Big Life Devotional, and it is “Slave to Nothing” by Zach Williams. In this song he says:

You can tell me what I did
You can show me who I was before
Where I fell short
Hang it over my head
But I'm not the same anymore
One thing's for sure
The shackles have fallen
So I'm showing shame to the door
Make no mistake
I'm a slave, to nothing

If you get a chance to listen to this song, I highly recommend it. click here

Just because you have acted a certain way in the past does not mean that you have to act that way forever. You can decide to repent and change your ways at any point in time, and God will be there to forgive you and welcome you in with open arms. Think about the many saints that have had beginnings that were not so great. One of the most illustrious saints, I think, is St. Augustine of Hippo. He was a man who was known for having not one but two mistresses. He ran around for years before having a change of heart and settling down at 31. St. Augustine went on to become a Doctor of the Church. Then there is also Saint Mary of Egypt, who ran away from home at 12 and spent a dozen years living on the street as a seductress. According to Craughwell in an article in Live Science, “Nothing made her happier than corrupting innocent young Christian men.” Saint Mary went to Jerusalem looking for young Christian boys to seduce. At the doors to the church, she felt a strange force repulsing her, and she immediately changed her ways. There was also Saint Camillus de Lellis, a priest from Italy that founded one of the first healthcare organizations for the needy. He started out as a cardsharp, con man, and mercenary. 

There are also lots of modern-day examples of people who had a rough start. Jennifer Aniston, who is one of the most famous actors because of her role in the sitcom Friends, had 4 failed sitcoms in a row before she landed the role on Friends. Tim Allen, who starred in Home Improvement, is now starring in Last Man Standing and was also the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story Movies. In 1979, he was caught with many illegal substances and went to jail for over 2 years. Then he got his life together and became the actor we know and love today. Oprah Winfrey grew up in poverty and did not have the best childhood. She was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14; her son was born too early and died in infancy. Can you imagine the things the enemy was trying to tell her? What was he trying to tell all of these people? What if these people would have believed the lies that they could not become anything different? If they believed that the version of themselves that was not enough or prone to sinning was all they could ever be? What if they stopped reaching for more because they believed they could never achieve more? 

What lies do you believe? How much more could you accomplish or become if you stopped believing the lies? You may have made mistakes in the past. You may wish that you could change certain things. Do not let those things hold you back from being who you are today. Do not believe the lies that you are not enough, lazy, selfish, greedy, etc. Just because you may have been those things in the past does not mean that you have to be those things in the future. You can be whoever you want to be because God has redeemed you with his grace!

~ The blog this week was inspired by The Big Life Devotional by Pamela Crim. If you have time to listen to the original episode that inspired me, I highly recommend it. You can reach that episode by clicking here. The episode was called A Slave To Nothing.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we love you. We ask you to help us guard our minds and help us not to believe the enemy’s lies. We ask that you help us believe we can change and that we are not who we once were. Change is possible. We ask all this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Be not afraid to go out and share my love, my light, my hope, my joy. All that I share with you, I keep saying, share it with the world so that they may know me and get to love me.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Victorious (Identity Series)

Ephesians 6:13 “Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you're protected as you confront the slander, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.

I looked at several different scriptures for this morning's devotional. There are so many good ones in Ephesians. I don’t know why I never saw them before. Or maybe I did, and the Lord is just showing me them again in a different light. I am not sure, but I love it! I saw this verse first this morning, and then I went back and forth on a few others, but my eyes kept being drawn back to this one. I know a lot of you are going through some really hard things right now, and what I felt when I kept being drawn back to this verse was that God wants you to know that you will rise victorious!

He wants you to know that this thing you are going through, the situation you are in, will not take you down. This illness will not be the end. These financial matters won’t be the end. Your estranged loved ones, this is not the end. You will be victorious. You will be healed. Your loved one will be healed. The Lord will provide for you to pay your bills. You won’t be estranged from your loved one forever. Whatever it is you are struggling with this morning, I feel the Lord wants me to tell you you will rise victorious.

The last part of this verse made me think of a song I saw in a movie called Pitch Perfect 2. The song was sung by a group of Germans who were competing in an a cappella singing competition. This song came into my mind because their performance was so powerful. They projected such strength when they performed this song. This is what we must do when we are dealing with the enemy.

The verse says that we must put on the armor that God provides us so that we are protected when we confront the slander. Make no mistake, the slander is the devil. Of course, he won’t look like the devil. He will look like someone who cut you off in the traffic. He will look like the person spreading lies about you. He will look like your co-worker or your boss. He might look like your children or your siblings. Whoever is causing strife in your life, the enemy is working through them. I want to read you the words to the song that popped into my mind, as I know it is not a coincidence that when I read this verse, this song came to mind. If you want to see the video on YouTube, you can type in Das Sound Machine  Car Show, and it should come up.  Here are the lyrics:

They will not control us. We will be victorious

[Verse 1]

Paranoia is in bloom

The PR transmissions will resume

They try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down

And hope that we will never see the truths around

Come On!

[Verse 2]

Another promise, another seed

Another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed

And all the green belts wrapped around our minds

And endless red tape to keep the truth confined

Come On!

[Chorus]

They will not force us

They will stop degrading us

They will not control us

We will be victorious

At first, these lyrics might not seem to make much sense. However, if you think about them in terms of what the enemy is trying to do to us, they make much more sense. The first line goes perfectly with the verse. They will not control us; we will be victorious. The enemy and his evil henchmen will not control us. We are God’s children, and we are protected. However, we must put on our armor of protection. We must call on the Lord. We need to give Him permission to protect us. We need to read the scriptures so we know when the enemy is lying to us. We must stand in truth.

The next verse in the song says Paranoia is in bloom. The PR transmissions will resume. They try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down. And hope that we will never see the truth around. Come On! This may not fit perfectly, but when we really think about it, we can see that the enemy is trying to make us feel paranoid. All we have to do is listen to the news for a few minutes, and we can see all the craziness going on in the world today. Also, it says they try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down. And hope that we will never see the truth around us. How many of us know someone who has struggled with drug or alcohol abuse? We know it is all around us, yet do we know that the enemy is the one who is pushing it on us. Do we know he is trying to keep us on drugs so we don’t see the truth all around us? When we use drugs, when we drink, it alters our state, and we don’t see things as they really are.

The next verse of the song says, “Another promise, another seed, another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed. And all the green belts wrapped around our minds. And endless red tape to keep the truth confined. Come On!” How many people in our lives have promised us promise after promise and yet not kept them? How many times have people in the government, or in any authoritative power, promised something, and yet it never happened? I like how it says, “another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed.” This is so true in the world today. The enemy will tell us anything we want to hear to keep us trapped in greed. The world is all about how much we have and how much we can get. It is not about giving to others. It is about making sure we have what we need despite others.

Next, the song says, “And all the green belts wrapped around our minds. And endless red tape to keep the truth confined.” Do you ever feel like this? Do you feel like the information we get from the news, social media, and YouTube are all just feeding us what we want to hear? Sometimes, I feel like the truth is impossible to find. It is always hidden in someone else’s opinion about what happened. It is very hard to find the facts about the actual incident. The truth is harder and harder to find these days.

The chorus of this song is one that I recommend we use as a mantra anytime we are having a rough day or anytime the enemy seems to be overtaking our thoughts. It says, “They will not force us. They will stop degrading us. They will not control us. We will be victorious.” We know this is true because the Lord tells us this in Ephesians 6:13. We will be victorious. The enemy can not force you. This is one of those things that the enemy doesn’t want us to know. If God is willing to be bound by free will you better believe the enemy is also. He likes us to think he can do whatever he wants to us, and yet if we tell him to leave, he must leave. That is a fact he doesn’t want us to know.

You are so much more powerful than you know. The enemy is trying to keep this from us because He knows the game will be over if all of God’s children start living in the power that the Lord gave us. If we all stood up to the enemy and said, “No more! I am done with your games. I know you can’t hurt me because I am a child of the one true God. I know you have no power over me. I know you are a liar, and I refuse to believe your stupid lies anymore.” Can you imagine what type of world we would be living in if we were all able to do that? It would be glorious!

I don’t want to leave this verse today without addressing the beginning part of the verse. My eyes first went to the part that says, “You will be victorious,” and I think that message was what God wanted me to focus on today, yet I also want to make sure you all heard the first part, too, so I will end with that today. The verse above says it is important to wear the armor that God provides because “You are destined for all things.” You have a destiny and it is an amazing one. Do you know how I know it is an amazing one when I might not even know you? Because the enemy is attacking you. The enemy doesn’t care about those who are lukewarm or those whose souls he thinks he has already won. The enemy attacks those who he is worried will do great things for the kingdom of God. The enemy only attacks those who are powerful warriors for the Lord.

You, my friend, have an amazing destiny, and you will be victorious. I know things are hard right now. I know you can’t see a way out and you think all is about to come crashing down on you. You don’t see how your loved one will come back to you. You don’t see how the cancer will be defeated. You don’t see how you will pay your bills when your paycheck can’t possibly cover it all. I get it. We can’t always see how, and we don’t need to. All we need to do is believe the Lord when He says we will be victorious. We can just thank Him, praise Him and wait for Him to work all things for our good.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask you to protect our minds from the enemy. I ask you to help us to believe that we will be victorious. Show us how to put on the armor of God, Lord. Show us how to protect ourselves from the slanderer. Help us walk in our victory, Lord. Help us have hope that even though we don’t see how you will arrange all things for our victory. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I have enjoyed this month of Identity, and I pray you have learned a lot about who God says you are! I will be putting together a book of 31 different scripture verses about identity and making it a 31-day devotional. I hope you will look out for it in the coming months. My prayer is that it will help you grow in your identity as a child of God. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am love. I am joy. I am hope. You must go out to the world and share all that I share with you. You are my children, and I love you so dearly.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Healing Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

Karen:  In 2004 my mom suffered kidney failure and started dialysis at 75. It was very hard on her while my older sister tested to be a donor and was ruled out. Then my older brother tested and was unable to donate. It’s important to note that they are both biological children and I was adopted. I was also a single mom raising two kids at 37, so needless to say I was scared to donate, but I prayed and my growth group prayed with me. Come to find out, a man sitting beside me had donated his kidney to his daughter and was doing great 18 years later. I also kept seeing signs to remind me that “greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for another,” so I stepped up and was deemed acceptable but had to lose 40 pounds to do so.

Mom was getting more drained by the day. I lost the weight in 8 weeks and surgery was scheduled for October, but mom suffered a hematoma and surgery was put off till February for her healing. The waiting was tough. It made me second guess but I still did it.  In February 2005, she was able to stop dialysis after I donated my kidney to her and my prayer was that God would take care of us. It’s because of seeing the toll mom and my grandma went through on dialysis I knew I could never do that. Lesson learned. Never tell God what you can’t do!

Fast forward 14 years. I got kidney cancer and had a partial nephrectomy in September of 2019. Unfortunately surgery had complications and I had a collapsed lung, respiratory distress, and internal bleeding that resulted in a 34 day hospital stay including a medically induced coma for 2 weeks. My family was unsure if I would make it or not. I remember asking God to take me as I was on a ventilator and unconscious, but He said it wasn’t my time yet, He had great plans for me. My kids still needed me so I asked Him to heal me. Within 2 days I was awake, and the next day the ventilator came out. A few days after that I left ICU for a regular room. That only lasted 2 days before being discharged to rehab for 2 weeks where I learned how to walk again.

Unfortunately, my kidney never woke up after that surgery even though I still had 78% left, but they think the medications they gave me for the coma were too strong and could have damaged it further. Thus began my time on dialysis and boy was it miserable. Three times a week I would go in and be hooked up to a life-saving machine for 3 hours, then be exhausted after with muscle cramps, nausea, high blood pressure, headaches, and overall feeling miserable. I had numerous surgeries for peritoneal dialysis but it never worked. I had numerous hospital stays for high blood pressure, headaches, abdominal pain, and bowel obstructions. It was the roughest 33 months of my life.

I was finally approved for a transplant in April of 2022 and on Mother’s Day May 8, 2022 I got a new kidney! Praise God for only He could schedule that! After giving my mom a kidney in 2005, He gave me one on Mother’s Day- amazing! It’s now several months later and although it hasn’t been a picnic I am so thankful to be on the road to health and healing. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

We celebrated my parents 69th wedding anniversary this past Sunday and I’m so thankful for all that God has done and continues to do on a daily basis for me! To God be the glory!

Emily:  Hello, I’m Emily. I’m a 10 time Breast Cancer Survivor. Yes, you read that right, ….TEN.

It all began with a stomach ache in 2008. As I went to my doctor for a routine exam, she found the Cancer! Of course, I had to go through an ultrasound and mammogram first, but my doctor had saved my life by detecting this early, I thought.

I was 33, had 3 kids, (ages 6, 2, and 8 months) and a full-time job teaching 1st graders at a public school. Cancer? Who has time for Cancer? I was told it is an aggressive form and difficult to treat, because doctors don’t know much about it. I have Triple Negative Breast Cancer. I fought with everything I had through chemo, radiation and a lumpectomy.

God and I spent a lot of time talking about how I was going to win this battle and with His help, I did, for 4 1/2 years.

The Demon itself returned in March of 2012, just before my 5 year clear mark. I was devastated, scared, angry, frustrated and MAD at God. Why was this happening to me again? Why do I have to go through this again? This isn’t fair! God carried me through the second battle, just as He did the first with just as much grace and comfort.

Fast-forward to 2022. I’ve now had TWO double mastectomies, a lumpectomy, ten biopsies, a DIEP flap reconstruction surgery, 3 more rounds of chemo (78 total treatments), 3 different types of radiation (67 total treatments), and Proton therapy (35 treatments) to try and kill this cancer. It has reared its ugly head 10 times and this is going to be the last!!!

Just a month and a half ago, I learned about a new drug that people were having success rates with. It was a Godsend and true miracle. An email delivered to my inbox revealed something we’ve been waiting for for 15 years!!!! The product is working and I will have another scan in February to hear that there is NED (No evidence of disease)!!! I am positive after reading the success stories!

I tell my story to say this… God is the only reason I am still here!!!! Nobody survives Cancer 10 times without God. Period.  If you are battling Cancer of any kind, just know that God is on your side and He is the ultimate healer!!!! Without Him and our faith, we are nothing!! I’m still standing AND teaching for 15 years and 10 battles later!

God is so good and Matthew West, you’re my favorite!!! Your music inspires me and the children in my class from rough homes every single day!! Our favorite is “How Good Of God!”

Thank you both so much for sharing your stories. I know it can be hard to be vulnerable and share your story with other. When you are able to do so though it helps other people see they are not alone. It provides hope to those who hear it. Thank you!

 

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Anointed (Identity Series)

Psalm 23:5-6 “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”

There is a lot to like about this verse.  First, it starts out by saying that God will prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  I don’t have to be worried about my enemies as God has got me.  He is my shield and my refuge.  Now he is saying we will prepare a feast for me.  When someone is preparing a meal for us, they are not usually stressed out about it.  They don’t worry about all the things going on around them.  Picture this: there is chaos all around you, and yet in front of you is this beautifully set up dining room table.  You have a seat, and God is bringing you a feast, one course at a time.  He is not concerned with your enemies because He knows they can’t touch you.  You are not concerned either because you just feel so at home, so taken care of.  Isn’t that a beautifully relaxing image?  

Next, the verse says that God honors us by anointing our heads with oil.  Did you know that you have an anointing in your life?  We all do. Did you know through your baptism you were anointed to be priest, prophet, and king?   It’s true, just as Christ was all three of these, you are also anointed to be these three things to your community.  What does that mean for us?  

Let’s start with the priest.  Drawing on the priesthood of the Old Testament, a priest is one who offers sacrifices (see Genesis 14:18; Exodus 29:38- 42; Leviticus 23:6,8). Some sacrifices are personal, and some are on behalf of others. These sacrifices will look different for each one of us, depending on our circumstances.  However, sacrifice, to some degree, should be a part of our everyday life.  I have tried to embrace this a little more this year, so I am fasting from one thing each month.  I will switch it up each month, but there will always be something I am fasting from.  I think this will help me to appreciate things more and it will also show me that I am not a slave to that thing.  For instance, if I feel like I just can’t stop eating chocolate, then I will fast from that for a month.  By the end of the year, I will have shown God and myself that I do not need these things.  I will have also made a small sacrifice each month for 12 months.

Next, we have a prophet.  A prophet is a spokesperson for God or one who speaks on God’s behalf (see Exodus 4:30; Deuteronomy 18:18; Isaiah 42:19). In the Old and New Testaments, prophets called people to a different way of life.  Can we be a spokesperson for God by how we live our lives?  Can we live in a way that when people see us, they think to themselves, “I want what they have?”  Can we call others to a different way of life, not necessarily with our words, but with our love?  Can we love others as Jesus did? Can we speak love and light into the world, into people’s lives?  Can we be prophets?

Lastly, we are anointed as kings.  What are kings called to do? Usually rule over others.  We are called to rule over ourselves first and foremost. We are all responsible for making sure we are living our lives according to God’s laws.  Most kings are called to rule over others; however, as Christians, we are called to servant leadership.  A servant leader leads by serving others. In other words, servant leaders place the interests and needs of their followers ahead of their own self-interests and needs. Generally, they value the development of their followers, building their communities, acting authentically, and sharing power.

Now that we know what each one of these means, hopefully, we can apply this to our everyday life.  God has anointed us in our everyday tasks, too.  For instance, I was anointed to be a mother and a wife.  That was where God called me, and that is what He set me apart to do.  Maybe you are anointed to be a doctor, a lawyer, a pharmacy tech, a garbage collector, a grandmother, a teacher, whatever it is, God has anointed you to do it.  Your baptismal anointing is not meant to replace any of those other calls on your life.  You are anointed to be a priest, prophet, and king in the life you are already living.  Think about your day-to-day life; how can you incorporate sacrifice into your days?  How can you be more of a prophet spreading the Lord’s Word in your daily lives?  How can you be more of a servant leader right now, right where you are?

The verse then goes on to say my cup overflows with blessings.  This is also great imagery.  I love to picture a teacup as we grew up drinking tea in my family.  Although I don’t picture a regular tea cup, the image I am getting is an English fancy tea cup from a china set.  The tea is being poured into it with a steady stream, and the cup is overflowing and running all over the table and even onto the floor.  This is how many blessings God has for you. He wants to rain down blessings upon blessings on all of His children.  Sometimes, we get in the way of God’s blessings.  Sometimes, we don’t appreciate the blessings that we have, so why would God give us more?  Sometimes, we find ourselves complaining about all that is going on in our lives instead of praising God and giving thanksgiving.  God has ridiculous blessings for you.  All you have to do is believe that and then praise God for any blessings, even if they are small.  If you can be faithful to the small, He will increase your blessings.  He is a good, good Father!

The ending of this verse is beautiful.  “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  We had this word pursue the other day.  I love that word.  This verse is saying that God’s goodness and unfailing love will pursue us all the days of our lives.  Isn’t that wonderful?  We don’t have to chase after God because He is already chasing after us.  All we have to do is let ourselves be caught by God’s goodness and unfailing love.  Unfailing love is not like any love we can find here on earth.  It is an incredible love that knows no limits, that knows no boundaries.  God’s love never leaves us.  No matter how much we may try to run from it.  No matter how much we try to reject it or send it back.  No matter how much we might mess up.  God’s unfailing love will pursue you every single day of your life.  How incredible is that?  

And the very last part of the verse says, “I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  Yes, please!  I want to live in the house of the Lord forever. I think we all do.  It is so amazing to me that God has an open-door policy to heaven.  All are welcome.  Come as you are in your broken and wounded state.  You do not have to earn your way. You don’t have to do anything to get there.  Jesus has earned you your right to be there.  All you have to do is surrender to God and let Him help you. Let Him give you the strength to follow Him.  Following God is not always an easy road but it is a rewarding road and one that leads to spending eternity living in the house of the Lord.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today.  Lord, we thank you for loving us like you do.  We thank you for preparing us for a feast in the presence of our enemies.  We thank you for the ridiculous blessings you want to give us, and we are sorry if we get in your way of doing that.  We thank you for anointing us priests, prophets, and kings, and we ask for your help in discovering what that means for each one of us and how we can incorporate that anointing into our lives.  We love you, Lord, and we can’t wait to live in your house forever!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I hope to see you this evening on mentoring. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I call you by name. I know each and every one of you. Let your light shine so that you can help remove the darkness.”

 

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Not A Mistake

Psalm 139:13 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

God created everything about us.  I like this verse, though, because it reminds us that He created even our inmost being.  I like the visual of God knitting me together.  One stitch at a time.  I am not someone who knits, but I have family and friends that do.  When you are knitting something you can make it look however you want to.  If you are the person doing it, you get to pick the colors, you get to pick the pattern, and you even get to pick which stitch or combination of stitches you are going to use.  You are the creator of whatever you are knitting.  

Now, imagine that God is knitting you together.  He chose all the specifics about you.  He got to choose what color hair you have and what color eyes you have.  Do you ever take time to think about this, to think about the fact that God created everything about you?  I was at a personal development conference this week, so that may be why it is on my mind more than usual.  I love attending these conferences because it is so great to be gathered in a room with like-minded people.  I don’t mean that we all think the same way or even believe the same things, but in this instance, we were all there because we knew God had a bigger plan for our lives, and we wanted to figure out what that plan was.  

It was an amazing weekend, and I learned so much.  This happened to be a women’s conference, and there were so many women gathered together, all wanting to improve themselves in some way or another.  This is a beautiful thing.  One of the things that usually comes up when you have so many women gathered together is the idea of insecurities.  Insecurities are something that I believe everyone has.  We don’t all have them about the same things or to the same extent, but I do think we are all insecure about something.  We all have that one thing, or some of us have more than one thing that we wish we could change about ourselves.  That thing that we really don’t like about ourselves.  Some of these things affect our lives in a big way, and some do not.

When you look at yourself and your life, what are your insecurities?  What are the things about you that you don’t like that may be getting in your way of living your best life?  Maybe you are struggling because you are living the life that everyone around you wants you to live, but inside, you feel like it's not right for you.  For instance, you have a really good job, and you are making good money, but in your heart, you really want to be doing something else.  Maybe you have insecurities based on your appearance.  This is a big one with women.  We feel too tall, too short, too thin, too fat.  Or we feel our hair is too long, too short, too light, too dark.  It seems like no one is happy in their own skin these days.  

I wonder why this is.  I wonder if people throughout the ages have always felt like this or if this is new.  I don’t think it is new that people don’t like something about themselves.  I am sure that has always probably been a thing.  However, I wonder if it was as widespread and commonplace as it is today.  I am not sure if I know a single woman who is so happy with her appearance that she wouldn’t change anything if you asked.  I wonder if all this unhappiness has to do with social media and marketing.  Once upon a time, before TV, magazines, movies, etc., you didn’t have so much access to everything.  You could compare yourself to those who lived around you, and maybe those in paintings or in books.  However, you didn’t have the kind of access you have today.  

Today, you could spend five minutes online and you could scroll through hundreds of images of whatever you want to look at.  Also, if you have social media, you can just scroll down your feed, and you will see plenty of posts from people.  The internet can be a very dangerous place for those who have insecurities and are looking for proof that those insecurities are real.  If you think you are too heavy and then you search for proof of that online, you will find it.  That is how the internet works.  You ask a question and it searches all the data and gives you an answer to the question that you just asked it.  Your brain is the same.  If you have an insecurity and you ask your brain to find proof of it, your brain will.  The awesome thing about your brain is that the opposite is also true.  If you ask your brain to prove to you that your insecurity is not true, it will do that as well.  For instance, if you ask your brain why no one at work likes you, it will search all your memories and come up with reasons why your co-workers don’t like you.  However, if you ask your brain to prove to you that people at your work do like you, your brain will come up with an answer to that question as well.  If you do not like the answers you are coming up with then you need only ask better questions.  

The main speaker at the conference said something this weekend, and I think it would be great if everyone in the world heard it.  She said that when she was sitting in the audience at her first personal development conference, she had a realization wash over her.  She felt it was divine intervention.  The realization was, “What if I was on purpose?  What if God made me exactly like I am for a reason?”  I think this is so important because I think so many of us feel like there is some part of us that is wrong.  We feel like we would be better if that part of us didn’t exist.  I always wished that I wasn’t so emotional.  I have thought this more times than I can count.  I cry at happy things, I cry at sad things, I cry at spiritual things, I cry for someone else’s happy times and someone else’s pain.  I am just a mess sometimes.  I always thought this was a character flaw.  However, now I know that God gave me that ability.  I don’t know why He made me that way, but God doesn’t make mistakes.  So, there must be a reason.  

The same goes for you.  You are not a mistake. You were made on purpose.  God knew what he was doing.  He designed each part of you for a reason.  He pays attention to detail.  How would your life be different if you could hear this and really take it in?  How would you feel about yourself if the next time you started to feel insecure about something, you reminded yourself that God made you this way on purpose?  You are perfect, just as you are.  You are loved just as you are.  You are enough just as you are.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to see ourselves through your eyes. Help us to see everyone through your eyes. Lord, help remind us when we feel insecure that you made us on purpose.  Remind us, Lord, that you created our inmost being. You knit us together perfectly and completely. And if you made us on purpose, Lord, then that means we can't be a mistake. That means our hopes and desires aren't a mistake. That means our character isn't a mistake.  We love you, Lord Jesus, and we thank you for making us who we are, and we ask that you help us learn to love who we are. We thank you for making us in your likeness and image. You are amazing, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tomorrow is Week #4 for the Identity Series in Mentoring. If you have been enjoying the I Am series in the podcast, you will really enjoy mentoring, where we go deeper into who God says we are. When you join, you will have access to all previous weeks as well. Click on the link below to check out mentoring and see if it is right for you!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Stop, my children, and think. You've been set apart. You are separated from many because I have a plan for this body to be my honorable presence in the lives of others. Go forth and be the word.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am A Child of God (Identity Series)

1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

This verse is so powerful.  What great love the Father has lavished on us, isn’t that powerful?  Can’t you just picture the Father lavishing us with Love?  Or maybe you can’t.  Maybe you struggle to believe that you are a child of God.  Maybe you struggle to believe that the Lord loves you, and the thought that He lavishes love on you is something that you just can’t wrap your head around.  If this is you, you are not alone.  Love in this world is so complicated, and a lot of things can get in the way of us loving and feeling loved.  There is a song by Matthew West called “Hello, My Name Is.”  This song has the beginning line of the verse above in the lyrics, along with some reasons why we can’t feel this love.  I want to go over some of those lyrics with you.  Also, there is a link to the song in the show notes if you want to listen to it.

The song starts out by saying:

Hello, my name is Regret

I'm pretty sure we have met

Every single day of your life

I'm the whisper inside

That won't let you forget

This is true for so many of us.  We struggle to feel God’s love because we have so many regrets.  Regrets over things we have done or things we have said; regrets over things we didn’t do and didn’t say.  When we have regrets, the enemy takes those, and he whispers them to us over and over again so that we feel like we aren’t worthy of God’s love.  The enemy doesn’t let us forget about them.

Next, the song goes on to say:

Hello, my name is defeat

I know you recognize me

Just when you think you can win

I'll drag you right back down again

Till you've lost all belief

Does this sound familiar?  Things are going well and then we start to get a voice in our head telling us that things will go wrong.  Sure, it seems like all is going well, but things always get messed up in the end.  Things have gone wrong so many times in the past that you start to think you don’t deserve to win.  You don’t deserve the happiness or the love that God has planned for you.  When this happens, we can start to self-sabotage.  We don’t even know we are doing it.  The enemy just keeps telling us that we have failed in the past, so we will fail again.  He drags us back down over and over again until we have lost all belief in ourselves and sometimes in God.

Then the song goes on to say:

Oh, these are the voices; oh these are the lies

And I have believed them, for the very last time

Hello, my name is child of the One True King

I've been saved, I've been changed, I have been set free

Amazing Grace is the song I sing

Hello, my name is child of the One True King

This is a verse that we may want to write down and read often.  I know I say this about a lot of verses from scripture, and you may have a lot of Post-it notes or index cards.  I really think this one could help us all when we are feeling defeated or when the enemy is telling us lies.  As much as we want to believe that God loves us and that we are His children, sometimes, the things of this world get in our way.  Sometimes, we let the enemy's lies get to us and convince us that we are not worthy, that we are not loved, that we are unlovable, and so many other things that are not true.  For me, when I heard this song, I loved it.  I have listened to it a million times or so.  Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I have listened to it a lot. And guess what?  Now I hear this chorus run through my head when I need it to.  When I start to feel down on myself, I literally tell myself, “Catherine, you are a child of the one true king!”  When I hear this, I can’t help but smile.  When I start to doubt myself, when I start to have regret, or when I feel any of the enemy’s tactics, I tell him, sorry, but I am a child of the one true king.  You’ve got nothing on my God; He is my one true king.  I have even started saying this to my friends when they are struggling.  When they are feeling down and also when they are feeling attacked, I remind them who they are and who they are.  They are a child of God, the one true King, and He won’t let the enemy hurt them.  He won’t let the enemy win.

The song goes on to say:

I am no longer defined

By all the wreckage behind

The One who makes all things new

Has proven it's true

Just take a look at my life

We all have things in our past that we are not proud of.  We have all said and done things that weren’t great.  Whether we did them on purpose or not, none of us are perfect.  We live in a broken world, and this means that we hurt people sometimes.  Regardless of what you have done in your past, you do not have to be defined by it.  I think it is good to reflect on any areas that you are not proud of.  If there are things you regret in your past, then take stalk of them and hand them over to the Lord.  Ask Him to help you forgive yourself.  Ask Him to help you move past them.  We can not change the past, no matter how much we want to.  If we want to find peace with our past mistakes, we need to turn them over and ask God for help.  As these lyrics say, He is the one that makes all things new.  I also like how the lyrics say that he Has proven it true: just take a look at my life.  I think if we all took a look at our lives over the years, we would see plenty of examples of how God showed us His love, how He protected us from things, how He saved us from things.

The song ends with:

What love the Father Has lavished upon us

That we should be called His children

Hello, my name is child of the One True King

I've been saved, I've been changed, I have been set free

Amazing Grace is the song I sing

Hello, my name is a child of the One True King, yeah

These are the words from the scripture verse above.  Can you imagine how much the Lord loves us to call us His children?  Think about how much love you have for your children.  Now, multiply that by a bazillion, and that is how much our heavenly Father loves us.  My hope is that when you start to doubt this, you remember this song, you remember this scripture verse, and you remember that you are a child of the one true king.  You remember that you’ve been saved, you've been changed, you have been set free.  You are not who you were, and you don’t have to let your past mistakes define you.  God has saved you, changed you, and set you free from everything.  All you have to do is live in this freedom.  Don’t let the enemy drag you back to your old self.  Anytime he starts to whisper lies in your ear, just tell him, “I am a child of the one true king, I am not listening to you.”  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are so grateful for all the love that you lavish on us.  We are sorry if we find it hard to accept it sometimes.  Please help us with this.  We want to accept all that you have to offer us freely.  We want to live in the freedom you have given us.  We don’t want to live with any chains that the enemy tries to weigh us down with.  Please help us release anything that we need to release to live in your freedom.  You are so amazing and you give us so much, help us to accept it.  Help us to know that we are your children and that you love us.  Help us not to believe the lies of the enemy.  We are grateful for all you do for us, Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “The day is washed in Light, my children, washed and bathed through your hand, an extension of my hand. My hand is kind and full of compassion and love. You are all the extension of me. You are not separate from me. Never do you move alone. I am your guide.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Protected (Identity Series)

Psalm 18:32 “God gives me strength for the battle. He keeps my way secure.”
This verse came to me from a challenge that we received in Big Life mentoring this past week.  Pamela Crim gave us a list of 14 Bible verses that tell us who God says we are.  Our job was to read one verse each day and to pray with it.  Read it out loud and really think about what it says.  She encouraged us to go online to look up the verse in many different translations.  Have you done that before?  Have you taken a verse and then checked the other translations to see what words they use?  I do this often, and I am always surprised by the words the various translations use.  I know they are all saying the same thing, and yet some just hit me more than others.  If you haven’t tried this before, or you haven’t done it often, might I suggest you give it a try?  I think you will find you like reading the various translations.  The website I use to do this is Biblegateway.com.  However, there are several different ones you could use.

Today’s verse tells us that we are protected. It begins with the sentence, “God gives me strength for the battle.” This is important to know, as God does give us strength for our battles.  Sometimes, we look at the fight we have ahead of us, and we are sure that we don’t have the strength to fight it.  We might be looking at a really long custody battle, divorce proceedings, a long medical journey, whatever it may be, and we know we aren’t strong enough for it.  Have you ever felt like this, like the road ahead is too hard, too long, too steep, too painful, and that you just don’t have the strength for it?  I get it. Life is hard.  I know so many who are struggling right now.  So many who have way more to handle than any one person ever should.  

The important thing to keep in mind is that we are not in this alone.  You are probably right. Your situation is more than you can handle on your own, which is why you are lucky that you are not on your own.  You have your heavenly Father, who is providing you with the strength you need each day.  I know sometimes it doesn’t feel like He is giving you enough strength.  Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like you have enough to keep fighting, and yet with each new day comes a renewed strength.  He is constantly filling you up so that you can fight your battles.  You might not feel as if you are full of strength, and yet you do keep going; you do keep fighting so you can see He is giving you strength.

He keeps my way secure. I think this means that God always makes sure there is a way.  God is a way maker and so we don’t have to worry about coming to a point where we are stuck at a dead end where there is no way out.  I know it feels like we get to this point sometimes.  I know we can reach a point where we can’t see a way out.  The way out is not always one that we can see or that we can understand.  God can make a way where there isn’t one.  This can happen in several different ways.  

I read about a person who was getting sued because he did not read the contract carefully, and he was going to lose everything.  He knew he didn’t really have a leg to stand on as he did sign the contract and yet he prayed for God to intervene anyway.  The lawsuit just went away.  It was like it never happened and he never heard anything more about it.  There have been people who have been told they or their family members were going to die. They had some illness, like cancer, and there was nothing else the doctors could do for them.  Their family members prayed anyway, and God healed them.  He took away their illness completely.  That is a way forward that we didn’t see ahead of time and we might not have even believed it before seeing it.  

I have heard many stories of people who were stuck in a situation and couldn’t see any way out of it.  There have been numerous times when my parents were in situations where they couldn’t see a way out, and yet they trusted that God had one, and he never let them down.  One time I remember my dad telling me about when God protected him was when a neighbor wanted to fight him. My dad had invited a neighborhood friend to church with our family. She came to church with us, and she was touched by the Lord. She started going regularly and decided she wanted to change her whole life to be in alignment with God.

At the time, she was living with a guy that she was dating, and she no longer felt comfortable with the relationship as it was. She didn’t want to be living with someone she wasn’t married to. I am not sure if she broke up with him or just moved out until they were married or what the exact situation was. I do know that her boyfriend blamed my dad and was really upset with him. We lived in the projects at the time, and so everyone lived very close together, and everyone knew everything about everything. My mom called my dad at work to let him know she heard that this guy was going to fight my dad when he got home from work. My dad got home at the same time every day.

My dad wasn’t really sure what to do about this news, so he prayed the Lord would protect him. When he got home, he could see there was a group of people on our front lawn. The guy who wanted to beat my dad up was there, and then a bunch of kids who wanted to see the fight. My dad paused in his car before getting out and asked the Holy Spirit to come into this situation. He asked God to give him the words to say to these guys to defuse the situation. My dad certainly couldn’t see a way out of this situation. He had no idea what to say or what to do. He needed God’s protection and His wisdom.

My dad got out of the car. He walked up to the man who wanted to fight him, and words just came flowing out of his mouth. He didn’t even know what he was saying. This is what he said, “I know you are in a lot of pain. I know you are hurt, and you feel like punching me will make you feel better. If you think that will help you, then go ahead and punch me. I think what you really need is someone to listen to you. So, let's go inside, and we can talk, and I will listen.”  The guy started crying, and they went inside and talked for hours. My dad definitely couldn’t have seen that ending.

This is not something he could have seen coming.  The path was not neatly laid out in front of him.  He knew he was in trouble that only God could get him out of, and so He asked God to protect Him.  I think God likes it when we step out in faith, knowing that He keeps His promises.  I don’t know if my dad knew this specific verse or not, and yet I do know they trusted God to protect him and to show him the way out of this situation.  You can do the same.  You can trust that God is protecting you.  He is giving you strength for the battle and keeping your way secure. That is a promise you can stand on.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to know we are protected by you.  Help us to feel that protection.  Help us lean into you and not to worry about what might happen.  Lord, help us to trust that you have secured our way.  Help us to step out in faith, knowing you will provide a way, even if it is one we can’t see ahead of time.  Help us to trust you, Lord.  We love you. You are amazing!  You have always come through for us in the past, and we know you always will.  We are so grateful, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk Bodly With Jesus.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Just a reminder: if you want to receive my newsletter, you can sign up on my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com. I will also put a link in the show notes.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I.  Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am the God of love. I am the God of joy. I am the God of hope. Spread all that I tell you to the world. Be not afraid to proclaim that I am your God. Make me known, make me loved. Decide today that you will start now.”

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Today’s Witness is from a very dear friend of mine. It is her testimony of how she forgave someone who did the unthinkable to her. She is a wonderful woman who has such a strong love for Jesus. She is a mother of two kids and a wife. She is a photographer, a karate champion, and so much more! You can hear in her voice just how excited she is for this breakthrough. God is so good! We have all seen God working in our lives. However, we might not all be aware it is God working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience of how God has worked or is working in your life, please email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or click here.  It won’t take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them. Music:"Adding the Sun"fine us. It is not fun, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring  CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

I Am Made New (Identity Series)

2 Corinthians 5:16-18 “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh; even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

When I read this verse, I really liked it.  I love how it says we regard no one according to the flesh.  The verse acknowledges, “ok, we know, we did this with Jesus,” but we learned our lesson, and we don’t do that any longer.  I really like reading the message translation because it puts these verses in terms we would use today, and sometimes, I think it helps me understand the passage more or gives me a different understanding of the verse.  It helps me to think of it in a way I might not have thought of on my own.  It’s kind of like these podcasts.  It takes the Word of God and then it shows how it applies to us in our everyday life.  Sometimes, it is hard, with some of the language in the Bible, to understand what exactly they mean.  If I have a verse that I don’t quite understand, I will usually go to the message translation and see what that says.  That is usually enough to help me understand it.  I want to read today’s verse from the message translation.  

“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start and is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.”

First, I want to say I wish this first sentence were true.  I truly wish people didn’t judge others by what they have or how they look.  How great would it be to live in a world where we don’t have to worry about what we have or how we look?  How great would it be to know others weren’t judging us? Also, how great would it be to be able not to judge others or compare yourself to others?  I have heard the quote, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”  I know this to be true.  I know so many people who are feeling great, and then they hop on social media and see how well everyone else is doing, and they start to feel bad about themselves.  They are judging others based on the small snapshot of their life they post on social media.  When they compare their life to the lives of others, they decide they can’t measure up.  They decide their life isn’t nearly as good as everyone else.  

As much as I know this first sentence isn’t true for the majority of people in this world, what if we made it true for us?  What if we stopped judging people by what they have and how they look?  What if we started to be the change we want to see in the world?  What if we prayed and asked God to work on us from the inside out? What if we asked God to help us stop judging others?  When we read this verse, we see this is what God is calling us to.  He is calling us to no longer judge people according to the flesh.  It goes on to say, “Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. When Jesus was alive, he was judged by this world’s standards.  He was mocked for his claim to be a king because He didn’t look like a king.  However, He is no longer judged in this way.  We now look at Jesus for who He truly is.  

The verse goes on to say, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.”  I love the way the message translation says, “Anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges!”  How many of us have felt that at some time in our lives?  How many of us have felt we just needed a fresh start?  This is possible through Christ.  We don’t have to be the same people we always were.  We don’t have to do the same things we have always done.  We can start again.  We can recreate ourselves.  We might think this is a one-time thing.  We found Jesus and now we get to start fresh.  I don’t think this is true.  I think we can choose at any point to start new, to say goodbye to our old life, our old ways and say hello to the new life that is made possible through Christ.  What things in your life need to go so you can have a closer life in Christ?  What things from your past are you carrying around when God wants you to let them go and let your new life emerge?  Is it greed, anger, past hurts, jealousy, or judgment?  Whatever it is, you can let it go now.  God doesn’t want you to keep holding on to it.  

Next, the verse says, “All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.”  Adam and Eve corrupted the bond we had with God.  Humanity had to live with the fact for a very long time and its consequences.  However, God fixed this when He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  God made it so we could be close to Him again, so the veil between us could be dropped.  So why aren’t we closer to Him?  According to this verse, God gave us a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.  This is how we get that fresh start I was talking about earlier.  When we bring our sins to God, He forgives them, and we are made clean again.  The problem is we aren’t always bringing our sins to God.  There may be many reasons for this; we may be scared He won’t forgive them, or we may be embarrassed or have shame around those sins.  Shame is a huge weapon the enemy uses against us.  If we feel ashamed of something, we probably aren’t going to want to talk about it, even to a priest, in some cases, especially to a priest.  The enemy knows this keeps us stuck in our old life.  The enemy knows if you won’t confess it, even just to God, then that sin still holds power over you.  If you feel as though you could really use a fresh start right now, confess your sins and repent.  God wants you to have a fresh new life.  He wants to restore His relationship with you.  

One of the last things this verse says is, “God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.”  We are told this so often.  We are Christ’s representatives.  What we do matters.  People are watching us and judging Christ by what we do.  We are a reflection of Jesus.  What if we were more cognizant of this fact?  What if we examined our own behaviors and asked ourselves, “Am I doing a good job reflecting Christ to the world?”  The verse also says God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.  Are we doing this?  Are our words and actions helping to bring others together or drive them apart?  Do we get sucked into the gossip and join in instead of trying to stop the gossip?  Do we get swept up in talking about all our differences instead of finding ways we are similar?  Are we passing along the message of reconciliation, or are we condemning those that have sinned or are sinning?  

I think one area that is hard for a lot of people is when they see their children doing things they know God does not condone.  In this instance I think it is important to remember a fresh start is always available.  Although we don’t need to condone these behaviors, I also don’t think pointing them out over and over again is helpful.  We want to bring people together and not drive them away.  If we could look at people through a Godly lens instead of a worldly one, I am sure we would see the world differently.  God doesn’t love everything we do all the time, and yet He does love us all the time.  Even when we are acting in ways God doesn’t like, He still showers us with love.  We could learn a lot if we echoed this type of love.  The only way to do this is to pray and ask God to teach us how.  

I love the very last line of the message translations.  It says, “We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.”  How great is that?  How awesome is it to know God is friends with us?  Are we friends with Him?  Think of your relationship with God.  Is it like a friendship?  Is it give and take?  Do you listen as much as you talk?  Is your relationship with God one in which you could sit and talk for hours with Him?  Or, is it one where you feel He is the ever-judgmental Father and He is just looking for ways to punish you?  This is not what God is all about.  Does He believe in justice, absolutely and also, He believes in Mercy.  God’s mercy is much bigger than His judgment.  God wants to be your friend, will you let Him in?  Will you accept his forgiveness of sins and get a fresh start in your life?  Will you try to stop judging others for what they look like and what they have?  Let’s join together to be Christ’s representative and share the Good News with all those who will listen.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to be your friend, show us how.  Put on our hearts anything getting in the way of this, and then give us the strength and wisdom to change it.  Lord, help us to no longer regard others according to the flesh.  Please help us to accept your forgiveness of sins and start fresh again.  Help us to be your representatives to bring people together instead of encouraging this divisiveness.  We love you, Lord, you are so amazing!  You are the Messiah, You are the fountain of life, you are the Holy One of Israel.  We are so grateful for all you do, and we ask all of this in Jesus’ holy name and according to your will, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I call you all by name. I know each one of you. You are to move with confidence when times are hard. Always believe that I am there for you.”

 

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Known (Identity Series)

Psalm 139:1-4 "O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.”

I read a post on Facebook yesterday that pointed me to Psalm 139.  It was about different verse in the psalm, but when I read the whole thing I realized it was a really good one.  They all probably are great.  I have heard if you are going to start reading the Bible for the first time you should start with the Gospels, or with the Psalms.  That must mean they are pretty good.  These verses stood out to me in particular because they talk about how well God knows us.  Being Known is one of the six stages of Attachment developed by psychologist Gordon Neufeld.  His model presents six stages of attachment that create the foundations for virtually every relationship your children will ever have.  Since we are God’s children, This is important to us as well.  I will list the six stages and then will focus on Being Known.  The stages are Proximity, Sameness, Belonging or Loyalty, Significance, Love & Being Known.

Reading through those I think this verse may touch on more than one of them.  However, let’s begin with Being Known and go from there.  Every single one of us longs to be known.  This is why we get upset when our loved ones get us a gift we don’t like.  It is not necessarily the gift that upsets us, it is the fact that they didn’t know us well enough to know we wouldn’t like it.  God isn’t like that.  God is omniscient, which means he has infinite awareness, understanding, and insight.  Another definition is that He possesses universal or complete knowledge.  God knows everything about you.  He can read your thoughts, he knows your actions and He also knows your heart behind your actions.  God knows why you did all the things you did.  

This can be scary for some people because they feel they don’t want God to know everything about them.  They feel they are not worthy of being known.  Some people might worry that God knows all they have done because they have done some things they are not proud of.  This is all of us actually.  I am sure there is not a single person who has gone through their whole life without doing some things they are not proud of.  We all say the wrong thing sometimes.  We all do the wrong thing sometimes.  We all hurt people intentionally or unintentionally.  The thing to remember is that God is not surprised by our behavior.  He has searched us and He knows us.  This means He knows all of us.  He doesn’t just look at the things we did that we wish we hadn’t done.  He looks at everything we have done.  He knows our motives behind all we have done.  He looks straight into our heart.  

This is a good thing because He sees what we can’t see.  He knows that when we acted out and yelled that we hated our parents, we didn’t really hate them.  He knows that when we yelled at our spouse or our friend it was really because we were hurting inside, or because we had an awful day at work and needed a safe space to let off steam.  He knows that when we yelled at our children when we caught them doing drugs or something else dangerous it was because we were really scared.  He knows that when we were unkind to the person in line it was because of all the stress and pressure at work.  God Knows Everything!  He gets it.  He understands that our actions aren’t who we are.  
He knows that, but do we know that?  Do we give ourselves the grace of examining our behavior after the fact?  Do we allow ourselves forgiveness when we factor in our motives?  I am not saying the things I listed above are good reasons to do those things.  I don’t think we should take our frustrations out on our spouse, friends, or kids.  I am not excusing the behaviors, I am explaining them though.  If your friend was super stressed at work and then you called and asked a question and they yelled at you, would you be angry with them?  Would you want to stop being friends with that person?  Would you realize that was out of character and try to find out what was wrong with your friend?  We tend to have so much grace for other people and yet not very much for ourselves.  I would love it if we could change that.  I would love it if we could all start to see ourselves a little more through the Lord’s eyes.  

The next line says, “You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.”  God knows all your ways.  He knows that you are grumpy before coffee in the morning.  He knows you don’t like change.  He knows you don’t like to stay up late.  He knows you are irritable if you get hungry.  He also knows you are a great mom, dad, friend.  He knows you are a great employee,  He knows you are a great spouse or partner.  He knows the good, the bad and the ugly and you know what, He still loves you.  He loves you not despite all of it, but because of all of it.  

The verse says He knows our words even before we say them. I wish sometimes He would guard my mouth and prevent me from saying some of them.  How about you?  Have you ever wished you hadn’t say something?  Have you ever just blurted something out that felt right in the moment and yet you instantly regretted it?  I know I have.  God knows our thoughts and He knows our words.  Again, he knows the thoughts and feelings behind our words.  He knows the feelings that we might not even know.  Sometimes we may feel angry and yet we are just worried or anxious.  God knows this.  God knows our heart, even when we don’t.  

We are known and loved by God.  We are accepted and loved by God.  God knows us better than anyone we have ever known and He loves us.  I need everyone single one of you to hear that on an individual level today.  You are known by God.  God knows your inner most thoughts and desires.  God knows the why behind your actions.  God sees through all the BS that we put up to protect ourselves and He sees you, the real you.  God loves you!  He loves you right this very second, right as you are.  He isn’t waiting for you to become something else, He isn’t waiting until to you do this or that, He isn’t waiting for you to be perfect.  He knows you and loves you just as you are.  He loves all you imperfections, He loves all the ways you spread His love and His light.  Yes you do, you spread His love and His light just by being you!  God loves you, all of you!!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today!  Lord, I ask you to open everyone’s hearts and minds so they can really hear this message today.  Help each and every listener hear how much you know them and how much you love them.  Help them to feel it down to their core Lord.  We ask you to guard our thoughts and our words.  We pray that our thoughts conform to your thoughts.  Lord you are so amazing.  You know everything about us and you still love us.  Help us to do the same. Help us to know ourselves and still love ourselves.  Soften our hearts o Lord!  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with you will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! Remember tomorrow is week #3 of the Identity Series in Mentoring. I hope you join me on zoom. It’s not too late, Just head over to my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com or click on the link below. I look forward to seeing some of you tomorrow night on zoom and the rest of you you I look forward to meeting you here again again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I.  Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “You must trust me, and allow me to do my work in you and through you. My love is for everyone. You will be sanctified as you obey me.”

 

 

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I am Guided (Identity Series)

Isaiah 30:21 “And your ears shall hear a word behind you: “This is the way; walk in it,” when you would turn to the right or the left.”

This is a great verse because it explains that we are guided throughout our lives.  However, it can also be misleading. Unfortunately, we can’t really take this verse literally.  We do not have someone whispering into our ears each step of the way.  Although that would be pretty cool.  Imagine if you didn’t have to wonder if you were taking the right steps.  Imagine if you didn’t have to worry about making the wrong decision because you had the Lord whispering in your ear telling you whether you were to turn left or right.

Although we don’t have someone behind us whispering in our ear at each turn, the Lord will lead us in the right direction if we take the time to ask Him and then listen to what He has to say. This can be tricky because many times, we will be good about asking God what we should do but then not take the time to listen to His answer.  Other times, we are so excited about one of the choices that we jump in and choose that one without even pausing to ask God what He thinks. When we do either of these things, we are not giving the Lord a chance to guide us into the life He has planned for us.  

Hearing the word of God is something we can all do. We just have to know how to do it.  In my Encounter Ministries class last night they went over the various ways that you might “hear” God’s word.  There are four ways:

See it: Sometimes people see visions, and that is how they get their answers.  Sometimes, you might see a word above someone's head.  You might see something that is not actually there in the natural world.  I know when learning inner healing our teachers told us sometimes God may ask us to do a prophetic act.  You might be praying over someone for inner healing, and while praying, you see that they have a spear through their heart.  You might feel as though God is asking you to take it out.  You are likely the only person who sees this spear.  That doesn’t make it any less real.  When you are looking for an answer from the Lord, ask Him the question and then close your eyes and see if He wants to reveal anything to you through your sight.

Hear it: Usually, when we hear God, it is not God’s voice.  My teacher last night said she had heard the voice of God once, so that is pretty cool.  However, I think it is rare that you hear the actual voice of God.  In my experience, when I hear the voice of God, He sounds just like my voice.  It is that “still small voice” in your head or in your heart that helps you know what you should do.  I am sure you have heard this voice before. However, you might not have known that it was God talking to you.  When you are seeking answers from the Lord, ask your questions and then sit quietly and listen to see what He has to say.  If you ask, He will answer.  

Feel it: Sometimes, the Lord speaks to us with our feelings.  There is a woman in our prayer group who feels things from the Lord very frequently.  She will get a word of prophecy and then will go on to say that she is getting this strong feeling from the Lord that He is sad and wants us to turn to Him more or that He has this deep longing.  Last night, at the Encounter Summer Intensive, we were doing a guided meditation using the parable of the prodigal son, and she said she could just feel this overwhelming love that the Father has for us.  She said she had never felt a love like this before.  It was such a strong feeling.  When you are looking for answers from the Lord, they may come in the form of a feeling, so pay attention to how you are feeling when asking the Lord what He thinks.

Think it: This is when a thought just pops into your head.  Sometimes, it can be when you are sitting trying to listen to the Lord, and other times, it can just be out of the blue.  Have you ever been going about your day, and all of a sudden, you get this thought to reach out to an old friend?  Yep, me too!  This is the Lord prompting you.  A lot of times, we ignore these thoughts.  However, when we obey and reach out to the person we find out that was exactly what they needed.  I had been thinking about reaching out to someone I had met on retreat for several months and I just never did.  I am not sure why I didn’t, but eventually, she reached out to me, and she was having a rough time.  I bet she would have really appreciated it if I had reached out when the Lord first told me to.  Last night, this woman was walking out the door to come to the summer intensive, and she got the thought to bring this specific prayer card with her, so she threw it in her purse.  The prayer card was a prayer about entrusting your children to God and not worrying if they will come back to the church.  Then, at the Summer Intensive, one of the ladies shared that she was worried about her kids never coming back to the church, so the woman gave her this prayer card.  God has a plan, and sometimes, He will put thoughts in our heads to help Him with that plan.  

The teacher who was talking about these four ways to hear God’s voice last night was saying that she was sitting in church one day, and the Lord brought a thought out of nowhere about a funeral she was at where there was a teen suicide.  She did not understand why she would have this random thought in the middle of mass.  Then God revealed to her that the teenage boy behind her was contemplating suicide.  Sometimes, you never know the impact of what you did for someone else.  Sometimes, you might get a prompting to call someone, and you do.  You could have a very nice conversation and yet you don’t feel like there was any great purpose in the call. However, we don’t know the effects it might have had.  There was a purpose for God putting that thought in your head, that I am sure of!

I hope that you find these four ways of hearing the Lord’s voice helpful.  If we want to grow in our ability to hear the Lord’s voice, we need to practice, just like anything else in life.  If you want to be better at a sport, you need to play that sport.  If you want to be better at cooking, you need to cook.  If you want to become better at hearing the Lord’s voice, you need to sit down and listen often.  I promise you the Lord wants to talk to you.  God didn’t just pick a few of His children to talk to. He wants to talk to all of His children.  He wants to sit down with you as you drink your morning coffee or tea and have a chat with you.  A real back-and-forth chat.  Your heavenly Father loves you, and He longs to communicate with you.  Why not give it a try?  What do you have to lose?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to hear you communicating with us.  No matter the method, Lord, we just want to have a relationship with you.  We want you to whisper in our ear and lead us down the correct path.  Tell us whether we should turn right or turn left, Lord.  Help us to make time for you, to listen to you.  We want to hear your Word, Lord; please help us.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, my love follows you always to wherever you go. If you fall into darkness, I am there with you. If you rejoice with me, I delight with you. Nothing can break our union. For my love, the love of your good, good God is the bond.”

 

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I Am Strong (Identity Series)

Philippians 4:13 “ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”


This is truly one of my all-time favorite verses.  I keep a list of all the verses I used as the central point of each episode as there are 31,102 verses in the Bible and I want to make sure that I am not always speaking about the same few that we all already know.  I try not to repeat a verse I have used already as the main verse of the episode.  However, sometimes if I learn something new about a verse or something fascinating I will repeat a verse.  I am sure I have used this verse several times before within the episode, so I  was surprised to see I hadn’t used it as a main verse. We will finish the “I Am What God Says I Am” series this week.  If you haven’t listened in a while we have already done: I am protected, I am forgiven, I am courageous, and I am His.  This week we will cover I am strong, I am guided, I am healed, and I am whole.

I love this verse because I think if we all embraced it, life would get easier.  If we all accepted this, and let it settle into our hearts, we wouldn’t struggle so much.  It is also a great reminder that we can do anything if we are doing it with the strength we get from Christ.  This verse came from Paul in a letter to the Philippians.  Paul has an amazing story. He has lots of amazing stories.  The way He became a believer in Jesus was amazing.  God wanted Him and one encounter with Jesus changed his whole life. Paul did not have an easy life, especially after He started traveling around and preaching about Jesus.  

Sometimes we can think we are supposed to have an easy life.  We believe in God and God will protect us so we get to just sit back and relax on easy street.  That is not what God promised us.   God promised He would be with us.  He promised He would send an advocate to guide us, but He never promised our life would be easy.  Actually, He said the opposite.  In Matthew 16:24, “Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  He is calling us to take up our own cross.  Our crosses will look very different from Jesus’ cross, thank goodness.  Your cross will look different from my cross.  Just because our crosses look different, doesn’t mean we don’t have crosses.  

Paul was the Pope at one point.  We might think if He is that close to the Lord, then his life was easy.  Sometimes, oftentimes, the closer we get to the Lord the harder our life seems.  The enemy hates when we get close to the Lord, so he will try to block you every chance he gets.  The devil will make your life a living hell, and then try to convince you it is God’s fault, or if God loved you, why would He let this stuff happen to you?  The enemy can be really convincing too.  He can sound like He knows what he is talking about because He might through some scripture in there, or he will include just enough truth in his lies so that they seem credible.  This is a trick, don’t fall for it.  God is not the reason you are suffering and yet He can be the reason you make it through all that suffering.

Paul says right before the verse above in Philippians 4:10-13, “I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last, you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

The word that jumps out to me first is the word content.  Many of us struggle to be content.  If we are struggling financially, we wish we had more money.  If we are successful then we still strive for more, or we feel lonely at the top.  We live in a society that wants more and more.  I rarely talk with someone who is content with where they are in life.  Paul said he learned to be content in whatever the circumstances.  You might think this was easy for Paul because He was the Pope.  It was not, here are a few things Paul went through in his lifetime since turning his life over to God. Here is a list from 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 about all that Paul went through: 

“Are they ministers of Christ? (I am talking like an insane person.) I am still more, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, far worse beatings, and numerous brushes with death.  Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers;  in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure.  And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

Can you imagine?  I can’t imagine even going through a fraction of what Paul went through, and yet I have walked through some very difficult times and I am sure you have too.  I was not showing you all Paul went through so you could look at your life and compare it.  Comparison is the thief of joy.  I don’t believe we should look at our troubles and compare them to others because then we start to feel guilty for being upset about our problems when they seem so small compared to others.  You still have a right to be upset about your circumstances, even if someone else’s circumstances are worse.  

The thing to remember about Paul is that he was able to endure so much because he had the strength of Jesus, and so do you!  We all have the Spirit of Jesus living inside of us.  That was a gift the Father gave us when Jesus went to join Him in Heaven.  The verse today says, “ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” It says, all things.  It doesn’t just mean the easy stuff. I know you feel like what you are dealing with is too much.  I know you feel like you are alone and no one is there fighting with you.  I know you might not feel the strength of Jesus and yet He is right there with you.  When I look back I can see how the strength of Jesus got me through the hard times.  

When things were really bad in our house I never gave up hope.  I didn’t wake up each day feeling defeated or depressed, well, not on most days anyway.  I woke up feeling ready to try a new strategy.  Just the fact that I got out of bed was proof of Jesus’ strength.  There were long periods, years actually, where it was crisis after crisis in my house.  I would put out one fire and another one would be right there waiting to spring up.  It was a lot and I had times when I wanted to throw in the towel.  I definitely wondered what would happen if I ran away from it all.  And yet, I made it through.  I not only made it through but I changed the dynamics in our family.  It was super hard work and work I know I couldn’t have done on my own.  

You have the strength of Jesus inside of you and you are stronger than you think.  You can do this thing you are going through right now! You can beat cancer, you can raise your kids to be great adults, you can fix your marriage, you can help your loved one recover from injury/illness, and you can make it through this financial crisis.  Whatever it is, you can make it through because you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.  You are strong.  There is a Winnie the Pooh quote that I think we should all embrace as truth, "You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” You are stronger than you seem.  You can do this hard thing, even when it feels like you can’t!  You’ve got this, you have the power and strength of Jesus inside of you.  You can do all things with Him!

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for every person listening today.  I ask you to bless each of them.  Lord, help us to feel your strength.  Help us to see the times in our life when we have relied on the strength of Jesus to get us through.  Show us the times when you were there lifting us and we didn’t know it.  Help us to turn to you for strength Lord.  Help us not to rely on our own strength but to look to you and surrender our problems to you Lord.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I am so grateful to know that I am not on this journey alone. If you feel you are alone on this journey, I invite you to join the Walk Boldly With Jesus Facebook group, where you can be surrounded by other people who also love Jesus! If you want more than that, you can join mentoring as well. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My strength is sufficient for you. No matter what trial or tribulation you are walking through. I am with you. I will not abandon you. Remain in my love.”

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Here’s how you can contribute financially: Checks can be mailed to Pulpit Rock Church at: 301 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado Springs, CO 80918. Please make checks payable to Pulpit Rock Church and note in the memo: DR trip for Elizabeth Tempia. Online Donations can be made at www.pulpitrock.com/give/. Select “Missions” from the “Apply my gift to” field, and in the “Comments” field, write: DR trip for Elizabeth Tempia.

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I Am His (Identity Series)

Isaiah 43:1-2 “But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

When I was looking at the sheet of verses titled “I Am Who God Says I Am,” I saw that it said Isaiah 43:1 for today, which makes sense.  I am His is what God is saying when He Says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine.”  We are the Lord’s. There are several places in the Bible where it talks about how we are His people, He formed us in our mother’s womb, He knew us before we existed, and so on.  That might even make a great Bible study, just looking at all the places where God says that we are His.  However, when I was reading that verse this morning I decided to read the verses that come after this verse as well.

What I realized is that the very next verse tells us not to fear, which I found interesting since that is what we talked about yesterday.  I didn’t want to talk about verse 1 without also talking about verse 2 because I think they go hand and hand.  I think verse 2 explains what verse 1 means for us.  In verse one, God is telling us that we are His.  He is saying that he has redeemed us and summoned us by name and that we are His.  Let’s stay there for a moment.  First, God says that He has redeemed us.  Redeemed in the Bible means having been saved or delivered from sin or its consequences. I wonder if we understand what that means.  I wonder if we are even capable of grasping the vastness of that statement.  God has redeemed us.  This means that the mistake that you made, the one that you keep beating yourself up for, God has already redeemed it.  This means that those sins that you have committed, you have been delivered from them.  All those negative things the enemy keeps whispering in our ears about ourselves, the Lord has already redeemed them; he has redeemed us, all of us.  He has delivered us from ourselves, from our sinful nature.

The next part says He summoned us by name, in other words, He called us.  Do you know what this means?  It means that God knows our name.  He knows your name, and He knows my name.  He is calling us, not as a group, not as a whole, He is calling each one of us, by name, to Him.  Almost every week in Prayer Group, we get at least one word of prophecy that says, “Come closer my children, again I say, come closer my children.” God is calling us to be close to Him.  He is calling us to sit with Him daily and have a conversation, pray with Him, and tell Him what is going on in our lives.  He is calling us to Him because He wishes to have a relationship with us.  

Earlier I said I think verse 2 explains what verse 1 means to us.  What I meant by this is that verse 2 tells us all the ways God will protect us because we are His.  He gives us an idea of the lengths He will go to so that He can protect His children.  That is what you are, you are a child of God.  The second verse starts by saying, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” This tells us that God is with us always.  Even when we are passing through waters, He will be there.  He will not only be there but He will protect us from these waters.  He will make sure they do not sweep over us.  

I think this is important to remember because how many times in life have you felt like you were treading water?  How many times have you felt like you were going to drown?  This verse is meant to reassure us.  It is telling us no matter how high those waters get, we won’t drown.  We belong to God and He is here protecting us always.  We heard all those words of prophecy yesterday telling us not to fear anything because God is right there with us.  Now, today, we hear the same thing.  I get the feeling some of us are fearful about something now.  I am not sure what you are going through or what you might be afraid of, and yet I know that God is trying to reassure you that whatever it is, He is right there with you and that you don’t ever have to be afraid because He will never leave your side.

The last sentence in this verse is an even more dramatic statement of God’s love for us, His people.  The verse ends with, “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” This is a pretty vivid picture and yet I think we can all think of a time in our lives when we felt like we were walking through fire.  God is reassuring us that although we may feel like we are in a fire, we may feel the heat of the flames all around us, He will not let the flames set us ablaze.  I am sure we hear this, and we take it figuratively.  We think about the things going on in our lives and how it feels like we are walking through fire.  However, I want you to know that God saved three of His children from a literal fire.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were three of God’s children.  They loved God, and they wanted to serve Him and only Him.  Then King Nebuchadnezzar created a statue made of gold and said everyone needed to bow before it.  These three young men refused as they said they would only bow to the one true king, our Lord God.  King Nebuchadnezzar ordered these three young me to be thrown in the fiery furnace. God saved these men from being touched by the fire.

When King Nebuchadnezzar looked through the window to make sure they had died, he saw four people in the furnace instead of three.  God had sent one of His angels into the fiery furnace to protect them.  There is one line in the story of these three young men that I just love.  This story can be found in Daniel 3.  My favorite line, though, is found in verses 14-18, " King Nebuchadnezzar questioned them: “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up? Now, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I made, whenever you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, zither, dulcimer, harp, double-flute, and all the other musical instruments, then all will be well; if not, you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace; and who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us!  But even if he will not, you should know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up.”

Wow, can you imagine saying that?  Can you imagine the faith they must have had?  They knew God could save them from the flames of that furnace, and yet even if God didn’t save them, they would still be faithful to Him.  I wonder if we can say the same.  I wonder if we would be willing to stake our lives on our faith in God.  God is telling us with this story, as well as with the verses today, that He will be there for us, no matter what.  He will protect us from drowning in the waters in our lives and He will protect us from burning in the fires in our life.  We belong to God, and He will protect us from all that we encounter.  He is there with us each step of the way, even in those really hard times.  God wants us to come closer to Him and have a relationship with Him.  He wants us to share with Him all that is going on in our lives so He can help us with it all.  God loves you, and You are His!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you for protecting us from the water and the fire in our lives.  Thank you for calling us by name, thank you for redeeming us.  We love you, Lord.  Help us to draw closer to you.  Help us to learn how to have a relationship with you.  Help us not to fear anything because we have you in our lives protecting us.  We are so grateful for you and all the ways that you protect us.  You are so powerful, and we are so grateful we are Yours.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk body with Jesus.  Tonight is mentoring if you have night signed up yet, I encourage you to check it out and sign up today. If you want to see what it is all about before joining, send me an email, and I will send you the link. If you would like to join mentoring but don’t have the $30 a month, send me an email, and I will send you the link. I hope you will consider joining us.  I look forward to meeting you here again on tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My dear children, I love you. I will never stop loving you, no matter what you have done. My love is never-ending. My love is inexhaustible. Come and drink of the fountain of my love.”

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I Am Chosen (Identity Series)

John 15:16 “God has chosen you and has set you aside for a special purpose.”

God has chosen you, yes, you! Sometimes, it is hard to believe that statement. We can clearly see why God chose some people, but cannot see why he would choose us. We are broken, we’re not worthy, and we are not enough. We believe that the saints were extraordinary people, and so, of course, God chose them. We see movie stars, musicians and speakers and think that they have an incredible life because that is just how they were made. Something I am constantly hearing in the personal development world is that you should not compare your beginning to someone else’s ending. This means that you should not compare where you are at in your journey to someone else who is further along in his or her journey. If you look at the beginning of some of the saint’s lives I think you would be surprised where they started. 

I have been watching a series on YouTube lately that is called “The Chosen.” It is a portrayal of Jesus’s life during his three years of ministry. You get to see the apostles in their lives before they were called to follow Jesus. It is amazing to me to see the apostles as regular people, people like you and I. I believe we tend to put famous people up on a pedestal.  We think that we could never be like them. But the thing is, they were not always like they are now. They made a choice to say yes and to follow Jesus. Jesus is the one who transformed them into who they are now.

While watching the series, I saw Simon, who was a fisherman, argue with his wife, try to cheat his in-laws in a fight, and turn in fellow Jews who were fishing on Shabbat, and he was very behind on his taxes. He did not seem like the type of person that one would pick to be the leader of God’s Kingdom on earth. Jesus saw Simon and Andrew fishing and asked them to come and follow him. Matthew 4:19 “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” What I like best about watching this on screen is that you get to see how the apostles reacted. Both Andrew & Simon looked at each other and then followed Him. They did not think for more than a minute before they left all that they knew to follow this man they had just met. Later, they are retelling the story, and they admit that they have no idea what it even means to be fishers of men, yet they are all in. There are many different translations of this verse, but they all have the phrase “I will make you…” I think this is important to note because it reminds us that the apostles did not become changed men on their own. They made the choice to follow Jesus, and then, through him, they were changed. 

I know some of you may be thinking that whatever the apostles or saints did before they became saints could not be as bad as some of the things you have done. I mean, they are holy people, so how bad could they have been? Whenever I think like this, I am reminded of Paul. There are 13 books in the New Testament that are attributed to Paul. Not to mention, he was one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age. But do you know the story of Paul? I find it an amazing story of how God can choose anyone to do his work. Paul was originally named Saul. The story of his conversion is found in Acts 9:1-19. If you don’t know the story, you may want to read it.  Saul was not nice to Jews who were calling on Jesus. He was actually on his way to Damascus to bring back in chains any men or women he found that might belong to Christ. On his journey, he was struck by a light and a voice asking him, “Why are you persecuting me?” Jesus told Saul what he must do. When Saul got up, he could not see, and for three days, he remained this way. Then, the Lord sent Ananias to go and restore Saul’s sight.  “So Ananias went and entered the house; laying his hands on him, he said, ‘Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came, that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately, things like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized, and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.”  Saul was not looking for Jesus. Actually, he was actively persecuting him and everyone that believed in him. If God can take Saul and make him into a man who is known worldwide as one of the greatest Christian missionaries, then just think what he can do with you. 

Every single one of us has a past, and there is not a single thing you may have done or had done to you in your past that is too great for God to overcome. He chooses you! He gave you the same invitation that he gave to Andrew & Simon. Come and follow me. All you have to say is, “Yes, I will follow you,” and then hold on, and God will take you on an amazing ride.

Dear heavenly Father, I ask that you bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask that you help us to say yes to following you. We ask that you help us to see ourselves through your eyes. Lord, sometimes it is easy for us to see the good in others and for us to believe that others are good enough to follow you or to be used as your instrument. However, it is so much more difficult to see that in ourselves. Lord, fill us with love for ourselves.  Help us to say yes to you even when we don't understand what we're saying yes to.  Lord, you are amazing, and we trust that if you are choosing us, you have a reason. Give us the courage to say yes and to follow you.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of that in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I want to remind you that it is not too late to join our Identity series in mentoring. We will have week #2 for the series tomorrow night. I hope you will join us. It is at 8 PM EST on Zoom. There is a link below with details. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I. Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “As we give our hearts to the Lord, I just get a sense he's healing them.”

 

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I Am Healed (Identity Series)

Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole; by his wounds, we were healed.”  

I love talking about the Lord’s healing.  I love talking about it because it is so amazing and also because I am not sure people believe He is still healing today.  I was at the Encounter Ministries Boston Campus’ summer intensive Tuesday night.  That night, the topic was the Prophetic Word.  Wednesday night was going to be all about physical healing.  I was talking with a friend from the prayer group at this event and her neck was really bothering her.  She mentioned she would have to have the girls from the prayer group pray over her the next night at the healing service.  I told her we didn’t have to wait until tomorrow, let's do it now.  Just then, one of our teachers came up to us, so she joined in as well.  We prayed a few times with little change.  Then my teacher asked my friend if she believed Jesus could heal her right now.  My friend said absolutely!  My teacher said, “Pain be gone now!” We were praying quietly for a minute and my friend said, “Wait a minute,” and she tried to move her neck all around in circles and side to side.  She said the pain was all gone!  Praise God. 

God is still healing people today.  He is miraculously healing people quickly and He is also miraculously healing people over time.  For instance, someone Tony works with had a stroke and was not expected to recover.  Now, 2-3 months later, he is leaving rehab and going home.  Is he 100% healed yet? No, but I truly believe he will get there.  Not every healing God does is instantaneous and also He does not heal everyone that we ask Him to heal.  I am not sure why this is.  When I ask Him He always tells me, “His ways are higher than my ways, and His thoughts higher than my thoughts.”  We aren’t meant to understand everything He does in this world.  

Aside from physical healing, what I feel the Lord wants me to remind you of today is that he heals us from our sins and our brokenness.  Because of original sin, we had a brokenness about us. We live in a very broken world, and yet we don’t have to be broken.  God died for our sins so that we could be healed.  God wants us to live in that light. He wants us to realize our identity in Christ and not continue to live with this idea that we are broken.  Yes, the world is a broken place. There are many broken people, but we don't have to be one of those broken people.  We know Christ, and we can be in a relationship with Him. The verse above is very graphic. “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole; by his wounds, we were healed.”  He was pierced for our sins. Take a minute and think about that.  Picture the Roman soldiers hammering nails into his hands.  Think about how much that must have hurt.  Then it says He was crushed for our iniquity.  Take a moment to think about the scourging.  Think about how much that must have hurt.  How much He must have wanted to scream out in pain.  I wonder if he wanted to say, “But it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it?”  He was not being scourged because of anything He did.  He took on our sins and our broken relationship with the Father and died on that cross so we could be free.  

What just came to my mind was that there is no way to repay Jesus for what He did for us.  There is no way to repay the debt that He paid for our sins, and He doesn’t want us to.  Jesus has forgiven that debt to Him.  He saved us, knowing we would still sin.  He saved us, knowing we would turn away probably 100 times before we got it right.  I don’t think this bothers Him as much as it does when we don’t accept His forgiveness.  When we don’t live in the freedom that He sacrificed to gain for us.  Jesus died so you could be healed.  You, yes, You!  

You, who are going through an abusive relationship right now.  You, who are living with or dealing with an addict right now, You who are getting a divorce, You who can’t have children, You who are struggling to parent the children you do have.  Jesus died for each one of us, and He wants us to live in that freedom.  He is there to help us through our circumstances.  He is there to lift us up when we need Him too.  All we need to do is to lean into Him.

He died to heal us, but we are the ones that need to accept that healing.  It’s kinda like if we had an illness and there was a medicine that could cure our illness, and yet we refused to take the medicine.  The medicine is sitting right there on the counter, right next to the water, and yet we refuse to take it because we don’t believe it will help.  We believe that our illness is worse than the doctor said it was.  We know that medicine can’t possibly help us because our case is too severe.  Does that sound silly to you?  Are you rolling your eyes and wondering why I think I know more than the doctor does?  

The same is true for us and our forgiveness of sins.  Jesus died so our sins could be forgiven, so we could be healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Jesus was repairing the relationship with our heavenly Father that original sin had broken.  He died for you.  Yes, he died for all of us, but He also died for each of us individually.  If you were the only person on Earth, He still would have gone through all of that for you.  Jesus knows what we have done.  He knows what we will do.  He did not die on the cross for some of our sins. He died on the cross for all of our sins.  There is nothing you can do that He won’t forgive.  There is nothing that has happened to you that He can’t heal.

When we do something and then don’t accept forgiveness for it, we are offending the Lord.  We are telling Him that His sacrifice was not enough.  Is this what you believe?  Do you believe that Jesus dying on the cross was not a big enough sacrifice to cover whatever it was that you did or that was done to you?  It does not make you greedy to accept God’s sacrifice.  It does not make you greedy to accept the forgiveness that God offers.  His forgiveness is freely given.  You don’t have to do anything to deserve it or to earn it.  It is already yours through your baptism.  He had you and your sins, your troubles in mind when He was on that cross.  Accept the healing.  Accept the forgiveness of sins.

One thing that has helped me accept God’s Word into my heart is to personalize it to me.  I will put my name in or switch words from “our” to “my”.  Sometimes, we believe scripture is true.  We just don’t think it applies to us for some reason or another. Here is how I might read this scripture if I was struggling to believe it was for me personally.  “But he was pierced for my sins, crushed for my iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes me whole; by his wounds, I, Catherine, was healed.”  If you struggle to believe, you are healed.  If you struggle to believe all your sins, yes, even that one can be forgiven.  If you struggle to believe Jesus died for you personally and individually, I ask you to write this scripture down on a sticky note and place it on your computer, your bathroom mirror, your shower, or wherever you will see it daily.  Make it personal and put it in your own name.  Even just changing the “our” to “my” will really change the feel of it.  “But he was pierced for my sins, crushed for my iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes me whole, by his wounds I, Catherine, was healed.” You can add your name, or just take the name out.  Whichever feels best for you.  Jesus loves you, He died for you, don’t lessen that sacrifice by refusing to accept the healing that comes from it.  You are healed, all you need to do is live into that healing!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we accept your forgiveness.  We accept your healing.  Please help us.  Lord, we ask that you come into our hearts and minds and clear any blocks we might have in accepting your healing and forgiveness.  Lord, we give you permission to work on our hearts please soften them.  We love you Lord, we are so grateful you sent your son to heal us and we are sorry if we haven’t been accepting that healing.  Lord we can do nothing without you and yet all things with you.  Please help us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My beloved, I am yours and you are mine. Come away with me so I can speak to your heart. Come away with me into that intimate place where I can speak to your heart alone. Come with me, my beloved. I want to fill you with my joy, my love, and my mercy.”

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I Am Courageous (Identity Series)

Joshua 1:9 “I command you: be strong and steadfast! Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.”

Today is another verse that tells us who God created us to be.  God created us to be strong and steadfast.  Do you know what steadfast means?  Steadfast means resolutely firm and unwavering.  This verse is telling us that we can be courageous because God is with us wherever we go.  God is telling us in this verse that we don’t have to fear anything and we don’t have to be dismayed.  God tells us not to fear quite often in the Bible.  The phrase “fear not” is in the Bible 365 times.  That is one time for each day of the year.  I think this is something that God wants us to get and yet we still all struggle with it.  

I can’t think of a single person who is not afraid of something.  I think if we took the bravest person we know we would still discover they were afraid of something.  There are people who are afraid of everything, there are people who are afraid of almost nothing and then there are those in between.  Even if someone says they aren’t afraid of anything I bet if you asked them if they were afraid something might happen to their children, their pets, or any of their loved ones, I bet most would say yes.  If you asked them if they were afraid of not being able to provide for their family I bet most would say yes.  We are all afraid of something.  I think this is why the Lord has said “fear not” so many times in the Bible.  

He is still saying it to His people today.  He is saying it to you and me. We are constantly getting words of prophecy at prayer group that tell us not to be afraid and that God is with us.  Here are several words that we have received, and these all came within the same month.  I would love for you to listen to these words as if your heavenly Father was saying them to you personally.  Also, if any of them stand out to you or you feel like they are speaking to you pause the episode and write them down.  I pray that God speaks to each one of you through these words.  I pray that He highlights at least one of these for each individual person listening.  All of these either speak to us not being afraid or they explain how and why we know God is with us.  

I just got the feeling that we don't need to fear because He is the one that is in charge and He will make things happen in whatever way that He wants. He keeps telling us we're not God He is God.  He is saying He can use whoever He wants. Whoever is willing to be used he can use.

You are the anointing I send to the world my children. Smile that I send you. I send each of you. Be not afraid I am with you. My spirit will speak through you the words that I wish you to say. Just be the anointing I wish you to be. All can be. When I say you can, don't tell me you can't. Praise me, praise me, praise me, my children. Smile that today I send you.

I watch over you, my children. All of you are my children. I break the sword of the enemy who would come against you. You have nothing to fear for I am there for each and every one of you in each and every trial. I will never forsake my children or leave my children. I will defend you in battle. I have sent you the power of the Spirit and He will give you all that you need to do what you have been called to do.

My children take my hand. Realize that I am with you. Go into the world without fear. I am holding onto your hand. There is no need to fear I am your God. I will protect you, I will defend you. Smile that you are mine. Smile my children. I am with you till the end of time. Come closer my children, come closer so that I can reveal my mysteries to you so you in turn can share them with the world. I am your Lord, I am your God and I am all-powerful. I hold onto your hand. Move forward, move forward with joy for you are mine.

My children you are like little sheep. You wander off for that next patch of juicy grass and I call you back. You wander over the top of the hill and you get caught in the briars and I find you. I know where your traps are. I will always search for you. I will always find you and I will always bring you back. But I ask you frequently, many times, to look over your shoulder and check on me to make sure you are near me. Often during the day look at me, listen for me, watch me. Stay near me and you will grow strong and healthy and you'll be my cherished one and you will do my will.

This verse came to mind as we are praying and all I could see is the real fullness of God's glory. He doesn't give us dim glory, He gives us blazing glory.  He doesn't give us a weak Spirit, He gives us a courageous Spirit. He doesn't give us a dim light, He gives us a blazing light to bring to this world that God is so great and so full and he shares ALL of his fullness with us. With Him there's plenteous redemption so let's not just expect little let's expect a lot, more than our minds can possibly comprehend because He is big.

And my children, my darlings you think you are what your roles in life have made you be. You think you are what people have called you and told you you were. But please come to me in prayer and silence and listen to what I call you. I call you beloved, cherished, friend, child. You are my sheep, you are precious. You are my warriors, you are my disciples, you are my voice in the world right now, you are my hands, you are my feet. You have such a noble call and you don't realize it. You have so much power at your disposal and you don't use it. Don't be stuck in what the world has told you but be liberated in what I tell you.

Wow, those were all-powerful.  What I feel the Holy Spirit telling me right now is to leave you with those so you can read through them or re-listen to them again.  There is so much in there and yet I feel the Holy Spirit is saying that we don’t have to focus, understand or read through all of it.  Listen again and see what stands out to you.  There is plenty in there that speaks to the fact God made us courageous.  Which word speaks to you the most?  Which one did you really need to hear today?  I would love it if you would reach out to me through an email at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or through social media and let me know which of the words from our heavenly Father touched you the most today.  You are courageous because you have the Lord God almighty right there by your side every step of the way!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Wow, Lord, you are amazing.  After all these years, I still cannot get over the fact that you want to talk to your children.  When I think about all the ways we turn away from you and all the terrible ways we treat you, I would think you would want to ignore us.  You not only take care of us and protect us, but you also want to have a relationship with us.  Those were some pretty powerful words you gave to the prayer group and that you gave to me to share with everyone.  I pray everyone listening truly hears Your words and I pray they find a home in their hearts.  I pray they don’t just hear them with their ears, I pray they hear them with their heart, mind, and soul. I pray there is something for everyone in those words above.  I pray people listen and re-listen to them until they become a part of them.  I pray they copy them down from the show notes and re-read them anytime they feel they need to be courageous or they need the reminder that they are not alone and you are right there with them.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. We had our first session of the Identity Series in mentoring on Tuesday, and it was great. If you would like to join us for week two, there is a link for mentoring below. You can always check out my website, too, at walkboldlywithjesus.com.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I will carry you in your trials, and I will party with you in your celebrations. Lean on me. I am constant.”

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Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the God Stories Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

Brande: I have been dealing with back problems for a while and couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was overweight so I thought that maybe that was the problem. But the more weight I lost the worse my pain became.

In April of this year, I had an MRI done and found out I have Degenerative Disc Disease, Arthritis and Spinal Stenosis. I also have a tear in one of my discs and my L5 is pushing on my S1.

So, in July I had an injection, and it didn’t work. I went back to the doctor in August, and he had set up another injection for Sept 20th. But a week before, the doctor office called and said that my insurance would not approve another injection until I see the nurse practitioner. After I hung up the phone that day, I was upset. We were busy at work, and I was in a lot of pain. After work, I sat in my car and cried, feeling defeated. I wanted to give up.

Then, as I was driving home from work, “Don’t Stop Praying” come on and I started bawling. I knew that was God telling me not to stop praying.

I shared this at church, and someone there works for SSDI. She called me and helped me start the process of filling for that assistance.

I know this is all an answer to my prayers. That song means more to me than anyone could ever imagine not just for this situation but others as well.

My name is Suzie, and this is my testimony of God’s strength.

Three months ago, I was faced with a dark season. This is a season I never asked for and never thought in a million years I would ever have to go through. I was lied to, and almost broken. My heart was shattered, and I felt numb to everything. I had no clue how this could happen. How could someone who is supposed to be my life partner do something like this?

Being a recovering alcoholic, I could have easily fallen back to drinking to forget everything that was happening. But instead, I choose to turn to God, my Bible, and my pastor. You could say I choose the high road instead of the lonely, dead-end road. I thought I was doing well, and I was trying my hardest to keep my head up and be as strong as I could. Yet, it hurt, and I was emotionally tired. In reality, I was spiraling and not doing well at all. I felt like I was in tunnel vision and couldn’t get out. I then took the first step in healing by admitting to myself I needed help and reached out to talk with a counselor. Admitting out loud that I needed help emotionally and mentally and that I was not ok, was a huge step in getting through this. In all this

I was getting signs that I needed to let go of everything I was holding onto. Which I really thought I had done. But in truth I was not listening to what God was saying to me. Until one Saturday morning.  I got a message from a friend checking in on me to see how I was doing. After talking with her I felt God telling me I need to let go of everything I am holding on to so I could start to really heal. So, I said a simple prayer that morning before getting ready for the day. After saying the prayer, God started working in my heart. During different times throughout the day, I wanted to leave where I was. But God said “No, you need to stay put. You need to be with others around you.” I soon realized I was right where I need to be, and I am stronger than I realized.   I also realized that I was truly holding onto some parts, and I needed to let go and let God work through me to heal.

I am blessed beyond words that I have an awesome support system that knows when I am having a rough time or trying to fake it. I realize that I don’t have to be strong all the time. It’s ok for me to show my emotions and show that I am human. And it’s “ok” to not be “ok” and most importantly it’s “ok” to have bad days.

I am thankful to God and His guidance and the love He has shown me. He has put people in my path through all of this storm for one reason or another. I am grateful for the little reminders He is showing me to keep my head up. I know my path of healing is going to be a long journey and it is not going to be easy. There are going to be tough days and easy days. If it was meant to be easy, then it wouldn’t be called a storm. I am ready to see what God has in store for me no matter how long it takes.

Psalm 27:14 “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”

Thank you all for sharing your stories. I know it can be hard to be vulnerable and share what you have gone through. Yet, when we do, it helps others who are in a similar circumstance know there is hope that the same can happen for them. Please continue sharing your story.

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I Am Whole (Identity Series)

Colossians 2:9-10 “ For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily,  and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.”

This episode will conclude our “I am who God says I am” series. I am whole is a struggle for many to believe. We have all sinned before; we all sin frequently, probably. It can be easy for us to think that sin makes us less than especially if we have had a really difficult past. Maybe we have had a lot of relationships in the past, and we didn’t show up as our best selves in them. Maybe we haven’t had a lot of relationships, but we have slept with a lot of other people. I think many people in this society feel used. I think we feel used by the other sex, used by our bosses, and used by big companies to sell more products. There is just this brokenness instead of the feeling that we are whole.

What just popped into my mind was all the teenagers right now and how easy it is to feel broken when you are a teen. You don’t look the right way, your hair isn’t perfect, your clothes aren’t perfect. Life can be really hard when you are young. A therapist told me the other day that 15 was the most volatile age for emotions. At this age, you feel your emotions more intensely than you ever will again. Our minds are so easily persuaded by the enemy. Why is it so much easier to believe the negative than it is to believe the positive?

I read a great article about this called “Finding Spiritual Wholeness" by Leanne Payne. Click Here for the article.  I recommend you read the whole thing. What Leanne was talking about in this article is that God is perfectly whole, and we are made in his likeness and image. She said, “When “sin” (That which is against God’s character) entered the world, so did our brokenness, along with our broken ideas about how we view ourselves, God, and others.  There is an intuitive knowledge of our personal brokenness that we are constantly attempting to fix, deny, or protect.” Isn’t this so true? We are always trying to fix, deny, or protect our brokenness.

You might be wondering why anyone would want to protect their brokenness. I have talked with plenty of people who want to protect their brokenness because they have become comfortable with that brokenness. They have lived with that brokenness, so they have come to identify as a broken person. Changing that image would be hard and not something they believe they can do. One thing we don’t realize is that life is hard. Yes, it is hard to change, and yet, isn’t living a sinful life also hard? Eating healthy can be hard, yet isn’t being overweight and struggling to get around hard, too? Standing up to our loved ones and putting boundaries in place is hard, yet so is living without those boundaries in place. Quitting vaping is hard, yet so is living life addicted to nicotine and not being able to concentrate because you are thinking about the next time when you will get to hit your vape.

The article I read talked about how sin distorts how we look at things. Here are a few examples she gave: 

Sin perverts our perception of God: 

God is angry with me - “He hates my sin, he must hate me.”

God is disgusted with me - "I’m too dirty and damaged for Him to accept me” 

God is distant from me - “Why would he want to be with me when I’m like this?”

God is unfair - “This is just one big setup...I couldn’t stop if I tried.”

God is unhappy - “All the fun things are off limits!”

Sin warps our self-perception: 

We become foolishly great in our own eyes when we hide from the reality of our sin, like the emperor with no clothes.

We become worth - less in our own eyes when we become hyper-focused on our sins.

Sin degrades or elevates (to unhealthy levels) our perception of others: 

We tend to do the same thing with other people that we do with ourselves - We make them out to be greater or less than we are.  We serve them like gods or treat them like dogs.

Payne goes on to say, "Sin brings disintegration of self while righteousness (living congruently with the character of God) brings integration of self or spiritual wholeness.  This is one reason God hates sin so much - He doesn’t want our disintegration because He loves us!  It must be said that any and all “righteous living” apart from God doesn’t get us to wholeness; it gets us to self-righteousness - a horrible disease that many Christians live with and perpetrates on others.”

Now that we have talked about why we think we are not whole let's look at what makes us whole. Do our actions determine if we are whole? Nope! Payne says, “Spiritual wholeness is not dependent on our actions but on an acceptance of God’s acting on our part in the life/death/resurrection of Christ.  Because of our faith in Christ and what He’s done on our behalf, God can pronounce us whole and remain a just God even though we often go on acting broken.” Jesus died to make us whole again. He took our sins to the cross with Him. We are no longer broken. Yes, we still act like we are broken at times, yet God has redeemed us and made us whole.

So, if God has redeemed us and made us whole, why don’t we feel whole? I think we don’t feel whole because we struggle to believe that He can forgive us for what we have done. We don’t accept that forgiveness for ourselves. We will be the first ones to convince a friend or loved one that Jesus loves and forgives ALL their sins; we just struggle to believe He will do it for us. I talked with a woman recently who had been to confession about a time in her life when she wasn’t proud of how she was living. Even though she had been to confession, the enemy was still not letting her move past it. She kept thinking about it and believing that she was her past mistakes. She believed that she was stuck in her past. Things won’t change because she is still that person. She wasn’t believing in the healing that took place during confession.

So many of us do this same thing. We believe we are our past mistakes. We believe if we did it once we will do it again. We struggle to believe things will change, and we struggle to believe that God could forgive us. To reiterate what the author of the article said, “Spiritual wholeness is not dependent on our actions but on an acceptance of God’s acting on our part in the life/death/resurrection of Christ.” It is not our actions that make us whole; it is Jesus’ actions. Jesus knew when He decided to die on that cross for us that we would keep sinning. He didn’t die for us because we were blameless or because He knew we were going to stop sinning. He died for us to make us whole, and His sacrifice was complete.

The verse above says, “  For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.” We were made in the likeness and image of God.  We share in the fullness of Him.  However, when sin entered the world, so did our brokenness.  God sent His only son to repair that.  He died on the cross to make us whole, let’s live our lives in honor of that. Let’s live into this truth that we are whole. We are no longer broken. Christ made us whole!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you and we thank you for giving us your son to die on the cross so we could be made whole. Help us to live in that wholeness, Lord. Help us to accept your forgiveness and help us make it more about you than about us. Help us to stop listening to the enemy. Help us to be strong enough to reject his stupid lies. Open our eyes to his lies and give us the strength to renounce them and take away any authority they have. Lord, when we believe the lies, we empower the liar. We are done empowering the liar, Lord. We want you to be the only one that has any power in our lives. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tonight is our first night in the Identity series. I hope you will join us! Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Listen, all you need is to be quiet and hear me. My children, all your thoughts are not your own. Some come from the devil. Discard them. You know right from wrong. Remember, always remember me and what I've done for the love of all of you. I love you. Keep going, my Christian soldiers.”

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I am Forgiven

1 John 2:12 “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.”

I decided to stick with some of the verses from the “I Am Who God Says I Am” Challenge from my Big Life mentoring group.  I have talked about many of the verses; however, the next one that I had not talked about before is 2 John 2:12. I particularly liked this one because I am not sure this is one that most of us would agree with.  Do you believe you are forgiven?  I recently learned something that I thought was so interesting.  I was at a meeting, and we were talking about the difference between Redemption and Salvation.  

The way they explained it was to picture that you are in jail.  Redemption means someone has been paid for your freedom.  This means you have been redeemed.  You are now free to go, free to leave the jail in which you were held captive. However, the salvation doesn’t come until you leave the prison. You need to be the one to accept that redemption and walk out of the door.  That is the hard part, that is the part that we struggle with a lot.  We might understand on some level that Jesus died for the sins of the world, and yet we struggle to believe that he died for our sins in particular.  

Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?  Do you believe there is nothing you can do that won’t be forgiven if you repent?  Do you believe you don’t have to earn your forgiveness?  This is something else that we struggle with.  We think we have to be good enough to be forgiven.  We mess up, and then we think we need to fix everything before we turn to the Lord and ask for forgiveness.  This couldn’t be further from the truth. There is nothing you have to do to be forgiven other than to be sorry for what you have done.  You can’t earn your forgiveness, Jesus already paid the price for you.  He paid a high price, and when we try to earn our forgiveness, we are essentially saying what He paid wasn’t enough.

Father Mike was just talking about this idea of earning our forgiveness the other day on the Catechism in a Year podcast when he was talking about the sacrament of reconciliation.  When Catholics go to confession, we confess our sins, we say we are sorry to God for having sinned against Him, we receive absolution for our sins, and then the priest gives us penance.  Sometimes, when we get penance, we think that it is not severe enough.  For instance, we confess we committed a mortal sin, and the priest says that we should say 5 Hail Marys and 5 Our Fathers.  We don’t see how that could possibly atone for our sins.  That’s the thing: we are not atoning for our sins, our forgiveness is freely given to us because Jesus died on the cross.  He already atoned for our sins.  Penance is meant to help us turn our hearts back to God. Just as our sin was an active choice of turning away from God, penance is an active choice of turning back to God.

What penance is meant to do is to help us get back on track.  In an ideal world, your penance would have something to do with what you were struggling with at the time of confession. For instance, if you are struggling with being kind to your family, your penance might be to say three kind things to each one of them before going to bed that night.  If you are struggling with pride, your penance might be, to say, the Litany of Humility.  This would be in an ideal world. However, there are not enough priests, and the priest might not always be able to come up with a creative penance that has to do with your specific struggle or your specific sins.  If you are given a penance that doesn’t seem to “fit the crime,” so to speak, remember that you are not earning your forgiveness; you are not trying to buy it, it has already been purchased for you.  I read an article about doing penance after confession, and it said, “Just as sin wounds (or breaks) our relationship with God and makes our souls sick, penance is medicine that helps us turn our hearts back towards our Creator. Confession removes that sin from our shoulders. Penance helps us move towards a more holy future."

The verse above says that our sins are forgiven on account of his name.” I mentioned earlier that sometimes we think we need to fix things before we confess what we have done.  We think we need to be perfect before we approach God and tell Him what we have done.  Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  He didn’t wait till we stopped sinning.  He didn’t wait until we had all our ducks in a row, He didn’t wait until we had life all figured out.  He died for our sins while we were still sinners.  This shows us how much God loves us and also shows us that He doesn’t want us to wait until we are perfect because that day will never come.  God told Paul that His power is made perfect in our weakness.  

We think we need to be perfect for God, and yet God doesn’t require that of us.  He would rather we come to Him in our weakness and our brokenness.  If we are perfect, we don’t need God.  If we could do it all ourselves, we wouldn’t need God.  God is not there to watch us do all the work ourselves and then forgive us or love us after we have figured it all out.  He is there to help us figure it out.  He is there to guide us and to lead us in the right direction.  We can’t change the really hard stuff without God’s help.  We can’t forgive others without God helping us change our hearts.  We can want to forgive, and yet God is the one who is in charge of the conversion of hearts.  He is the one who forgives us and helps us forgive others.  We need him all along the process.  

The one thing I want to leave you with today is that your sins were forgiven when Jesus died on that cross.  You don’t have to earn your forgiveness; you just have to accept it.  You have to walk in that freedom that comes with forgiveness.  If God has forgiven your sins and yet you are still walking around in a prison of your past mistakes, then what do you think that says to the Lord?  It says that you don’t believe Jesus’ sacrifice was enough to cover your sins.  It says you think you know more than God does because He has said you are forgiven, and you aren’t accepting that forgiveness.  God has already paid your debt; He has already unlocked the door to your prison, all you have to do is walk out the door and live in that freedom.  Can you do that today?  Can you finally walk out of your prison and accept God’s forgiveness?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you, and we ask you to help us accept your forgiveness.  We are tired of living in our own prisons Lord, show us the way out.  Change our hearts and our minds so we can accept that you love us so much that you sent your only son to die for our sins, even while we were still sinning.  Help us to walk in that freedom you bought for us.  Help us to forgive others as well.  You are the best Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I want to remind everyone that mentoring starts back up tomorrow night. The theme for January is Identity, and it is one that we all need to hear. I hope you will prayerfully consider joining me. There is a link below with all the details.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I want my children to be still. Quiet yourselves so that you can hear me. I do put people situations and circumstances on your hearts and in your past. Don't discard my urgings. Do as I ask. I know that you hear me. I have made it so that you do.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Am Accepted by Christ

Romans 15:7 “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”

I thought this one was especially important for us to know because it is one that might be hard for us to believe. It is also something that we are all desperately searching for. We all want to be accepted. We all need to be accepted. Sometimes, we will go to extraordinary lengths to change who we are just to feel accepted. This is not the kind of acceptance that we want. I think we all wish, down deep in our hearts, that we could just be who we truly are. Yet, we feel if we are our true selves, then we won’t be accepted. We fear to be ourselves because we worry that if we are, people will think we are too much or not enough.

They might say we are not kind enough, silly enough, joyful enough, pretty enough, or anything else we might struggle with. They may also say that we are too loud, too excited, too peppy, too old, too young. Whatever our insecurities are, whatever the enemy is whispering in our ear, that is what we fear people will think of us. I know for me, I always think I don’t make an impression. I sit more on the outside of the circle and observe. I am always surprised when someone says that they remember me or that I did something that touched them in some way. If you know me, that may seem weird to hear. I think we all have these inner thoughts that our loved ones would be surprised to know we felt.

I just read my word and mantra to a friend the other day. My mantra is a statement about who I want to be at the end of 2025, and I say it every day, well, at least all three days so far this year, to remind me of who I want to become. When I read it to my friend, she said it was funny to her because I already seemed like I was that person in her eyes. I understand what she means, as when I am talking to people and listening to their struggles, I am often surprised to learn what they are struggling with. Beautiful people who have no idea how beautiful they are. Kind people who have no idea how loved they are by others. Faith-filled people who have no idea what a beacon of light they are to others.

This tells me that the enemy’s lies are working, and we need to change the game. We need to stop listening to him and listen to our Heavenly Father and listen to our friends and family. Why do we dismiss what our friends and family say as if they are just saying what we want to hear? Can’t both things be true? Can what they say be true and what we want to hear? We need to be able to believe the good things more than the bad things. Why are the bad things so much easier to believe?

I pray at the end of this month you will start to believe some of the good things more than the bad things. I pray by the end of this month, you will begin to see yourself through the eyes of the Lord instead of through the eyes of this world.

When we look at today’s verse, it is twofold. It tells us we are accepted by the Lord, and it also tells us to accept others as He accepts us. Listen again, “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” When I looked this verse up on the Enduring Word website, this is what the pastor had to say:

Therefore, receive one another: (In other translations, it says to accept one another)  Instead of letting these issues about disputable things divide Christians (especially making a division between Jew and Gentile), we should receive one another just as Christ received us – in terms of pure grace, knowing yet bearing with our faults.

It goes on to say: Spurgeon on just as Christ also received us: “Christ did not receive us (or accept us) because we were perfect, because he could see no fault in us, or because he hoped to gain somewhat at our hands. Ah, no! But, in loving condescension covering our faults, and seeking our good, he welcomed us to his heart; so, in the same way, and with the same purpose, let us receive one another.”

God doesn’t accept us because we are perfect. He doesn’t accept us because we are getting it all right, and we are doing all He asked us to do. None of us here on earth are getting it all right, or at least, not many of us. Most of us, even those who seem the more put together, are just doing the best we can. We all have things we struggle with and things we wish we could be better at. We all think everyone else is doing so much better than we are. They aren’t! We are all struggling. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it is not there. Do you let everyone see your struggles? No, most of us hide our struggles. Although, do you know what makes the struggle easier? Sharing it with others makes it easier to carry because we aren’t doing it by ourselves. It also makes it easier because sometimes others can see our situation with new eyes and may shed some light on it.

You are accepted by Christ. You are also accepted by God. Some may think that is something I wouldn’t have to say. Of course, if Jesus accepts me, then God accepts me as they are one. However, for many of us, it is much easier to believe that Jesus is loving and accepting and God is not. Kind of like how your dad can be a loving and forgiving friend but not always a loving and forgiving dad. It is important that we start to see God as a loving Father. It is important that we stop letting the enemy tell us who God is and we look for ourselves. God loves us. He always has. If you look back over the Bible, you will find more stories of God’s love than of his judgment. Are there harsh stories in the Bible? Absolutely. Has God done some things that we don’t understand? Definitely, yet if we look at all the things God has done in the Bible, there will be way more good than what we perceive as bad.

Many of us find it very easy to believe that God accepts others. We can look at someone struggling with so much more than we might be struggling with, and we might tell them they are loved and accepted by God, and we believe it with our whole hearts. It is so much easier to believe that He accepts others with all their faults, and yet we just know He can’t accept us. We have too many faults. We have done too many bad things. We aren’t worthy. We aren’t enough. We haven’t earned His acceptance yet. If this is where you are at, you are not alone. So many of us, even those you look at and think they are so religious. They are struggling with knowing God loves them and accepts them, too.

There is so much I want to say to everyone who doesn’t believe God loves them. Those who don’t believe God accepts them for who they are, faults in all. There is so much I want to say, and yet I am not sure if you will be able to hear it all at once. The only one who can change our hearts is God, and although He can do that in an instant, it usually takes time. It takes time for our hearts to soften. It takes time for the wounds in our hearts to begin to heal. It takes time for us to begin to be open to the idea that God may love us and even like us. I know it takes time, and that is why I will keep talking about this all month long, and I pray each day your heart softens a little more to the idea of who you are in God’s eyes. Feel free to go back and listen to these episodes as many times as you need to in order to start to really believe who God says you are in His eyes. Listen until you really believe it!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we pray that you help soften our hearts to all the things we hear this month about our identity. Lord, we invite you to come in and heal our wounds. Lord, we ask that you allow us to see ourselves through your eyes, even if just for a moment. Lord, we ask that each day this month, our minds and ears open up a little more to hear who you say we are.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I have decided that after this month is over, I will compile all these episodes about who God says we are, and I will put them in a devotional book that I will publish on Amazon. That way, if you want to read them over and over again until you believe them, you can. Also, I encourage you to re-listen to any of them that you have a particularly hard time believing. Also, I did an “I Am” series a while back on the podcast. So, if you have trouble believing you are whole, healed, guided, strong, his, courageous, or forgiven, you can go back and listen to episodes 540-548. And remember, if you want to join me in mentoring this month, I will go deeper into who God says we are. Knowing our identity is important. There is a link for more info on mentoring below. God loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am the flame of love that runs through you, and I purify all that is not of me. Seek me more, seek me more each day.”

 

 

 

 

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 I Am A Friend Of Jesus

John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

This month in mentoring, the theme is identity. I think it is so important that we know who God says we are because this world is so crazy, and it tries to tell us all sorts of lies about how we are. The devil also whispers in our ears who he thinks we are, or at least who he wants us to believe that we are. These are all lies. God is the one who created us, and He is the only one who can tell us who we truly are. This month, on the podcast, I will be going through different scriptures that show us who God says we are. The more we know, the easier it is to dismiss the enemy's lies.

In today’s scripture, Jesus calls us friends. Did you know God thinks you are His friend? I don’t know how many of us actually know that. Many people I have talked to think of God as more of a disciplinarian. They see Him as an old man looking down on us from heaven and judging us for all we are doing wrong. We picture Him just shaking His head at all that we are doing. We think He is up there waiting for us to screw up like we always do so that He can punish us. Is this how you think of God? If so, you are not alone, I have heard this from many people.

Maybe this isn’t the view you have of God. Maybe you know that He is kind and merciful. Yet, you still don’t think of yourself as His friend. I mean, He is God, and you are….well, you. You are just a human. What could you possibly have to offer to God or to this friendship?  In this verse, God is telling us that he no longer calls us slaves, for slaves don’t know what the master is doing. In the time when the Bible was written and in the language it was written, the word that was used is similar to servant. This is a term we tend to be more comfortable with. It is easier to think of ourselves as God’s servants. We owe Him everything and we want to serve Him. We are happy to serve Him.

However, Jesus tells us in this verse that we are not servants; we are His friends. In Jesus’s day, a slave or servant was somebody who repaid a debt to their master by serving them. Slaves didn’t necessarily make major decisions on important matters. They were workers who just did what their employer told them to do. They were not considered equal, and they were not told why they were doing what they were doing. They were just told what they needed to do. In today’s verse, Jesus tells us that he has called us friends because He has shared with us all things that He heard from His Father. Jesus is not calling us to do whatever He tells us blindly. He is telling us all the Father is telling Him, and then He is inviting us to help Him in His mission of spreading the Gospel to the world.

I was a bit confused with the beginning of this verse because it says, “You are no longer slaves.” I was wondering what this meant. When were we slaves? What I found when I researched it a bit is that we were slaves/servants because Jesus sacrificed His life so that we might be set free. He took our sins to the cross for Him. That is a debt that we will never be able to pay back. As I said earlier, a servant was someone who repaid their debt by serving them. Jesus didn’t want us serving Him out of a sense of obligation. Jesus did not want to leave us in this Master/Servant relationship. Jesus invited us to be His friend. He invited us to follow Him and to be a part of all that He was doing. Not because we have to but because we want to.

What does it mean to be a friend to Jesus? When I looked this up online, I found the following: To be a friend of Jesus means to love and obey Jesus and to love and be good to others. There, it listed four attributes of a friend of Jesus.

Loyalty and obedience - Jesus said, "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14). 

Love others - Jesus said, "But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you" (John 13:34-35). 

Live a holy life - This means living a life that glorifies God, worships Christ, and rejects Satan. 

Serve your community - You can serve your neighborhood or community together with your church or a local ministry.

I also an article (CLICK HERE for article) about a woman who was saying that she had forgotten how important friends are to a Christian. For a while, she forgot this, and she forgot who she was in a basic way. She was fully immersed in survival—moving four times in 5 years, having twins, homeschooling older children—she had no bandwidth to be concerned with anyone outside her immediate family. Then one day her daughter signed up to be in a production of the Wizard of Oz and this came with a mandatory 12 hours of volunteering from the parents. She resented this mandatory commitment, but soon realized how much she needed friendship and connection with other people.

She states in the article that she learned that friendship expresses principles of Christ’s own affection for me. Friendship is a form of communion, where we meet Christ's own love for us. This is why friendship is not extra for the Christian. She then listed the things she has learned from making friends as a grown-up.

Friendship reminds us that we are not alone, but that love is at the core of our identity.

Friendship is a mirror. Friendship reminds us of who we are. Her friends refuse to see her as the sum of her weaknesses and failures. They literally tell her, “I see that you are more than that.” 

Friendship reminds us that we are acceptable, that we are lovable. Acceptance liberates us to face the truth about ourselves, the full truth about who God has made us to be.

Friendship reminds us that love is gratuitous and surprising. God gives us to one another and He knows what will bless us. Some friends you wouldn’t have picked for yourself are given to you as gifts. 

The author invites you to ask the Lord, over the next few days, to show you why friendship matters so much to Him. Then, step forward in faith. Perhaps you can simply start by adding a friend event to your calendar. Perhaps you could shift your energy from social media friendships to one or two actual, embodied friendships. Dare to believe that Jesus desires the joy of friendship for you, that His “joy may be in you and your joy may be perfect” (John 15:11).

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask you to help us accept that you want to be our friend. I ask you to help move that knowledge from our heads to our hearts. Lord, we love you, and we are happy to serve you. However, we struggle to believe you want to be our friend. We struggle to believe we are worthy to be your friend. Please help us, Lord. Please help us to see that you are inviting us into a partnership with you. Please help us to accept that partnership, that friendship. We ask this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I want to wish you a Happy New Year! If you did not listen to the last episode, I want you to invite to give it a listen. It talks about how to live this upcoming year more intentionally. It is good to have a plan as to how we will grow closer to the Lord this year instead of just hoping it will happen. One opportunity to grow that is available to you is my mentoring group. It is a way to spend an hour each week intentionally learning and growing closer to the Lord. Maybe give it a try and see what you think. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “This longing I have given you, it is my gift to you. It is a longing I have promised from of old, from ancient times, and it is a longing that I promise into the future. It is a promise that I keep. You have nothing to fear, for the God who keeps this promise is your Lord and Savior.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Choose Carefully!

Romans 6:16 “Don't you realize that Grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully for you surrender yourself to become a servant – bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death. But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you into perfect righteousness.”

The bookmark in my Passion Translation Bible happened to be in Romans today. Although now that I see the verse, I can see it wasn’t an accident. This is a great verse to end 2024 and begin 2025. I love the end of a year and the beginning of a new year. I get so excited to think about what this year has in store for me. I go through a process with God to select a word and mantra for the year. I am part of Big Life Mentoring, and Pamela Crim has put together some great worksheets that guide you in a conversation with the Lord to figure out your word and mantra.

I believe my word for this year is going to be STEP. After praying with the Lord and asking what I want for next year and what is getting in my way, I feel as though the Lord is telling me this is the year to step out in faith more. This is the year to stop thinking about what I want to do and actually do it. Also, I would like to respond more when He asks me to do something instead of being too afraid of what others may think of me. This has been a problem in the past and I would like to overcome it this year.  

Here is my mantra for 2025:

STEP- Every day I STEP out in Total Trust that God is leading the way. When He calls me to do something, I do it BOLDLY, without hesitation. I am FOCUSED and INTENTIONAL with my time because I know it is a gift from God. I have so much potential, and this year, I will PARTNER with God in a NEW way to achieve all he has planned for me!

I mention my word and mantra for the year because I feel it is important to live intentionally. I think the beginning of the year is a great time to spend some time with the Lord and ask what He has planned for you this year. What would He like you to do? It is also a great time to let Him know what you would like to do and see if He is on board. Setting goals for the year is a great idea because it gives you focus and it gives you direction. If you set a goal and you don’t hit it, you will at least have gotten closer than you would have if you didn’t set a goal.

I love goals. However, you may not be a goal-setting person, and that is great. We are who we are. If you are not someone that likes to set goals can I invite you to at least sit with the Lord and ask Him where your focus should be this year? How are you going to grow in your faith this year? Are you going to work on your connection with others? Are you going to grow in your love of others? Are you going to pray more? Are you going to read more? Are you going to say the rosary daily? Are you going to try to be less judgmental? Are you going to try to love your enemies? Are you going to work on forgiveness? Do you see how many different ways you can grow this year?

However, a lot of times, we don’t focus on how we will grow. We aren’t intentional with our faith and how we live it out. Today’s verse is telling us to be careful about living without intention. It is telling us to choose carefully and not just go about our day without consciously making a choice. Did you know that you make about 35,000 decisions a day, and most experts say that the majority of them are made automatically or subconsciously? Some experts say up to 95% of our decisions can be made subconsciously. That means we aren’t actually even thinking about them. We just make them without thinking. Can you imagine that?

The decision in this verse is so important. The verse says,“Don't you realize that Grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully for you surrender yourself to become a servant – bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death. But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you into perfect righteousness.” Who doesn’t want perfect righteousness? If we are making 95% of our decisions subconsciously, then what are the odds we are going to choose to love and obey God instead of choosing sin? It seems like most of our day we aren’t even consciously making the choices.

This can actually be good or bad. This is where living intentionally comes in. If you are intentionally living your life as if you love God, then your brain is more likely to default to loving God. If you are staying close to God throughout the day, then your mind is likely to default to loving God. For instance, think about those who have given their lives for the Lord. I have often wondered how they did that. I wondered how they were strong enough to not waiver in their faith even when presented with death. And, it was not always a quick and easy death. Sometimes, it was a long, drawn-out, or very painful death. How could they willingly choose that?

I was talking with a priest about this one day, and he said for them, it wasn’t a choice. They had developed such a deep relationship with the Lord, and they loved Him so much. There wasn’t a way they could renounce the Lord or say anything bad against Him. They felt so strongly about what they believed that they couldn’t deny it. They couldn’t reject the Lord. For them, there was no other choice but to die for their love of the Lord. I don’t know if I am saying that right or if that makes sense, but when he told me that, it made a lot of sense to me.

What do you believe in so strongly that you would be willing to die for it? That is another great question for the new year. Let’s take some time this New Year’s Eve and think about how we lived in 2024 and how we want to live in 2025. I am not saying we need to come up with a hundred New Year’s Resolutions that we will forget all about next week. I am suggesting that we think about how we can set ourselves up for success. How can we ensure that our default decision will be loving the Lord instead of loving sin? What in our lives would need to change in order for us to love the Lord instead of sin intentionally?

The reason behind a word and mantra is that our brains believe what we tell them. I may not currently be stepping out boldly and without hesitation every time the Lord asks me to do something. However, after 365 days of telling myself that I am, I believe I will be, and I can’t wait for that day. I actually don’t think it will be one day. I think there will be a lot of little moments when sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t, and yet, over the year, I will begin to see more days when I do step out boldly and without hesitation than when I don’t. What are you going to be telling your brain this year?

I invite you to sit with the Lord and ask these questions today. How will I intentionally grow in my love for the Lord this year? What will my focus be for this year? What is one thing I would like to be able to say on December 31, 2025, about my relationship with the Lord and how it has grown over the last year? Then, if you are really brave, you can say, “Lord, I want to partner with you this year; what should we do together?” and really listen to what He wants to do with you!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today. Lord, I ask for a special blessing for everyone for the New Year. May you bless them and their family and friends. May you rain down your graces and mercy upon them this year. May each one of us grow closer and closer to you. Lord, please help us to choose to love you and not to love sin. Please help us to live intentionally and not just go through our days, letting our subconscious make all of our decisions. We love you, Lord, and we want to love you more and more each and every day of 2025. We need your help though, Lord. Let’s partner together. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me for another year of walking boldly with Jesus. Can you believe another year is over already? Time flies, and it is not unlimited, so let’s enter today intentionally. I would like to invite you to join me for mentoring in January. The topic will be identity, and it is something I think so many of us struggle with. The world tells us who they think we are, and we just believe them without stopping to ask God who He thinks we are. Come join me as we explore who the Lord says we are and our identity as children of God. My prayer is that after this month of mentoring, you will have a better understanding of how amazing you are. I pray you will join me. Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Think of me when you have problems. Come to me. I should be the first one that you come to, for I can help you in all things, my children. I love you, and I want what is best. So when you have any type of problems, come to me first and I will help you.”

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The Furnace Of Affliction

Isaiah 48:10 “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”

This is a verse that most of us probably don’t like. No one wants to be tested in the furnace of affliction. No one wants to face affliction at all, and yet this is where we grow the most. Do we need to have affliction and trouble in our lives to grow? No, God could just give us all that we need without affliction. God can do whatever He wants. However, He knows if He gives it to us, then we won’t appreciate it; we will take it for granted, and we will waste it.

This is true with most things. If we are handed everything we ever need and want from our parents, then we won’t appreciate what we have, and we probably won’t appreciate all they do for us. We will take it for granted because we don’t know anything else. How do I know that God knows this? First, He knows everything. Second, He has seen it in his people time and time again. Remember the Israelites that were saved from Egypt? God saved them in a miraculous way from the years of slavery that they had endured. He saved them, and then he provided food for them every single day. However, because it happened every single day, they started to take it for granted. They decided they would rather be in captivity and have more variety in food than continue to be free and eat this miraculous bread from heaven.

Can you think of a time in your life when you didn’t have to work for something, and you took it for granted? What about the opposite? You had to work really hard for something, and you appreciated it so much more.  Another example that just came to mind was water. In America, everyone I know has more water than they know what to do with. Some pay for water, and some have a well. Either way, they don’t work super hard for their water. Because of this, I have seen a lot of waste when it comes to water, especially in my family. We don’t understand the value of water because we have never gone without water. It has always been right at our fingertips. We currently don’t pay for water either because we have a well. I have seen my kids turn the water on to heat up and then not get in it for 10 minutes or more. Can you imagine how much water we are wasting, just letting it run down the drain?

I know we are not the only people to do this, either. What about all the water bottles we start to do but then don’t finish? I can just imagine what the people in Africa would say or think if they could see all the ways we waste water in America. Globally, more than 1 million people die each year from a lack of access to safe water and sanitation. Unsafe water is a leading risk factor for infectious diseases, including Cholera, Diarrhea, Hepatitis A, Typhoid, and Polio. I find it so hard to understand how there can still be this many people without safe water around the world. I think it can be so easy to think that everyone has the things that you have because you have always had them. You have never known anything different.

I think if we lost power in our houses for a week, or if we lost water for a week, we would have a new appreciation for these things. If we had to grow our own fruits and vegetables instead of just buying them at the store, then we might appreciate them a bit more and not waste them. How many of us buy fresh vegetables with every intention of eating them and then wind up throwing them away because they went bad before we could eat them? I think if we had to do without them for a while, or if they were harder to get, we might appreciate them more.

The same is true with the afflictions we encounter in our lives. Affliction means any pain or suffering we have had to endure. Today’s verse tells us that we are refined through the furnace of these afflictions. We all want to be refined. We want to grow closer to the Lord. We want to grow more into who the Lord is calling us to be, and yet we don’t want the afflictions. Who wants to endure pain and suffering? Who wants to be in a furnace? Can’t we just be refined without all that? Yes, but this is how God has chosen to refine us. This is for our own good.

I was just listening to a sermon by Steven Furtick from Elevation Church the other night while driving home. He said that there was a false article written about their church a few years ago saying that they fake Baptisms. He was not happy about the article, and it was a really stressful time for him and the church. However, now that they are through it, He said he is glad it was written. The reason he said this is because the church was refined through this adversity. When the article was written, they were doing Baptisms at their church once or twice a year. Since that article was written, they now do Baptisms every single week. Was the affliction they had to go through fun? No! But they did grow from it, and God brought a blessing from their church out of it.

Think back to some of the hardest times in your life. Are you different now because of them? Are you stronger in some way? Can you see how God used that affliction to refine you? God most likely didn’t cause the affliction, yet He allowed you to go through it because He knew He could use it to refine you. He knew He could use it to make you a better person, a better parent, spouse, partner, son, daughter, sibling or wherever else He wanted you to grow.

I know adversity and affliction is hard. I know it is not something we look forward to. However, I wonder how differently we would handle affliction if we were able to shift our mindset about it? I wonder how different of an experience it would be if we went into curious and even excited about how God was going to use this to help us grow. If we were able to keep our eyes on Jesus while in the middle of the pain and the suffering and try to find where He is using it to help refine us. Things tend to be easier if we can find meaning in them. Maybe that meaning isn’t coming from the situation, but how God is using the situation to refine us make us better?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today. Lord, help us see how you are using our painful situations to refine us. Help us to look at our situation with new eyes. Help us to be curious and excited, not for the pain and suffering but for the new growth in us that came because of this suffering. Lord, help us to remember we are never alone, and you are always right there with us as we go through any adversity. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Mentoring for the new year starts one week from tomorrow. The theme for January is Identity, and you won’t want to miss it. I pray it will change how you see yourself. I pray you will understand who you are as a child of God. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I am with you always. Come to me. Do not be afraid. I am always with you.”

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Unity

Romans 10:11-13 "The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

When I read this verse this morning, I knew it was the one I should talk about. It talks about something very important that I think we forget about a lot. This verse shows us that the Lord does not get caught up in race or religion. It says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It says everyone, not just some. This was a letter written to the Romans in the early church. Back in the day, Jews definitely thought that the Savior was coming to save them. Even those who were followers of Jesus were stunned when He was ministering to everyone and when He would talk to anyone.

Do you remember the woman at the well? Jesus made it a point to talk to her even though Jews and Samaritans were not allowed to talk, and men certainly weren’t supposed to talk to women they did not know. When Jesus came, it seemed like He turned everything upside down. He showed the apostles and the world that there was a new way of living. He wanted them to know they were no longer governed by a whole long list of rules. Now, they were governed by the Holy Spirit. If they weren’t sure what they should or should not do, they could consult the Holy Spirit, and He would lead them in the right direction. He would remind them of all that Jesus said and did while He walked on Earth.

The same is true for us. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, and He will guide us to doing what is right, and He will convict us when we are doing something wrong. The only problem with this is that we need to listen to Him, and sometimes we don’t want to. We all have that still small voice inside of us that tells us when we should do something or when something doesn’t feel right. Yet, we don’t always listen to it because sometimes we don’t want to do what we know we should do, and sometimes we want to do something we know we shouldn’t do.

Before the Holy Spirit came down to live in them, the Jewish people were bound by a large number of commandments. When I looked it up online, it said 613 commandments, but then it said there is no universally agreed-upon number. It doesn’t matter how many, you get the idea that it was a lot of commandments that they were responsible for upholding. However, when Christ came, He said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus was showing his apostles that things had changed. It seemed like He was showing them that it wasn’t as important to focus on all the little things but more on the big things. It seems like Jesus was making it easier for people to understand what is important.

For instance, in Matthew 15, the phrases and scribes came to Jesus and asked why the apostles broke the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before eating, and Jesus asked them why they broke the commandment of the Lord to honor thy mother and father. Here, Jesus is pointing out that the commandments were given to us by the Lord. None of our laws or our traditions should go against what the Lord has told us in those commandments.

Going back to today’s verse, "The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This reminds us that Jesus didn’t just come to save one group of people. He didn’t just come to save the Jews. I think in our day and age, we can also extend this to He didn’t just come to save the Catholics, the Jews, and the Protestants. I think we can get caught up in the differences of our religion and forget all that we have in common. God wants all of His children saved. That means, no matter your race, religion, age, sex, God wants you to know and believe about Him.

Do you believe in God? Do you call upon Him? It says right here in this verse that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I have had many discussions with many people about whether we know that we are going to heaven. This verse seems to say that if you believe in God and you call upon Him, then you will not be put to shame. There are more verses like this in the Bible. There are also verses that say you are not saved on faith alone, but faith with works. This does not imply that you have to earn your way into heaven. It is saying that you can’t just believe in the Lord and ignore all those around you, like the poor and needy. It is dangerous when we take verses on their own and don’t read them in the context of the whole Bible.

I truly believe that none of us knows who is and is not getting into heaven because we do not know what is inside anyone else’s heart. We also might not know what is in our own hearts. For instance, do we have unforgiveness hiding in our hearts and masquerading as something else? Only God knows our hearts, and that is why He is the only one who gets to judge us.

I remember I was talking about this with a friend of mine from Encounter one day, and she said she was having the same conversation with the Lord. I can’t remember if she was asking the Lord if she would get to go to heaven, or maybe she was asking about a loved one. I don’t remember what exactly she was asking, but the Lord told her she was asking the wrong question. The question shouldn’t be, will I get into heaven one day? The question should be, am I loving God? What a great question for each of us to ask ourselves today and every day. Am I loving God today? Are my actions and words showing me loving God today? Is the way I am treating others showing God that I am loving Him today? What can I do today to show God how much I love Him?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Lord, help us to take our focus off of the laws and put our focus on you. Help us keep our eyes on you this upcoming year. When we look away help us to turn back to you a lot quicker this year. Lord, help us to listen to the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit you have given us to us. He will guide us if we let Him. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Some of you have been with me since the beginning, and I am so grateful. No matter when you started listening, I am grateful that you have made me a part of your day, and I pray the Lord blesses you in this upcoming year.  I also want to invite each of you to join my mentoring group. We meet on Tuesday night on Zoom. You do not have to have your camera on if you do not want to, and you do not have to talk if you do not want to. Also, if you can’t be there Tuesday nights on Zoom, you can always watch the recording. January’s theme is Identity. It is going to be a great month, and you won’t want to miss it! I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed day.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My Holy Spirit is bringing you my peace. The peace of the Father, and the peace that only we can give you. Open your hearts to that peace, my children. It is a peace that you do not understand but a peace that your God gladly gives you and wishes to bring into your hearts right now.”

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Kind Mercy Wins Over Harsh Judgement Every Time!

James 2:12-13 “Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.”

That was the message translation. When I first read this verse this morning, it was in the passion translation. This is what it says, “so we must both speak and act in every respect like those who are destined to be tried by the perfect law of liberty and remember, that judgment is merciless, for the one who judges others without mercy. So, by showing mercy, you take dominion over judgment.“ I like both of these translations. The reason I thought it was so important to share this verse with you today is because it’s so easy for us to judge. It’s so easy for us to look at someone else and think they’re doing everything wrong.

It’s easy for us to judge. It’s easy for us to look from the outside and see you so clearly that they should be doing this or that. It is perhaps most easy to judge our family as we think we know them very well. The thing I’ve discovered over the years is that we only know what people want us to know. I think the Lord has been really showing me this a lot lately. I’ve met so many people over the last year or two, and they look perfectly happy on the outside. They seem so close to the Lord, and it is clear that he loves them. Then, when I talk to them, I find out they feel so far from the Lord. I find out that even though they are beautiful and kind and loving, they’re insecure and feel ugly, unwanted, and not enough.

I know it is cliché to say you can’t judge a book by its cover, and yet the Lord keeps showing me over and over again this year that you don’t know anything about someone just by looking at them or examining their life from the outside. I think this is true even with our family. We think we know what’s best for them because we think we know them. We grew up with them. We were around them all the time, and we knew who they were. The thing I am finding out is that people are not always their true selves around family or around anyone. Sometimes, we act like who our family thinks we are. We act in a way we know they will approve of or a way we think we want us to act. I have discovered this can start at a really early age. I wonder what would happen if we stopped assuming we know what someone else is thinking. We stopped assuming we knew what they liked or who they were, and we started asking questions.

I wonder if we made it a point to be less judgmental if others would feel free to be themselves around us. I wonder what would happen if we stopped assuming intentions or motivations and just asked people what we were thinking. What if we stopped thinking we knew what was best for everyone? What if we trusted there was a reason they were doing what they were doing? What if we trusted God knew what he was doing with them and in them? What if instead of telling them all the reasons we think what they’re doing is wrong, we talk to God about it instead? No matter how much we want to and no matter how much we think we can. We cannot change people. The only one who can do that is God. So why do we waste so much time trying to convince someone to change? Wouldn’t that time be better spent talking to God about it?

Take a minute and think about where all your advice (a.k.a. Nagging) has gotten you. Has it changed the other person? Has it improved your relationship with that person? Has it damaged your relationship with that person? There are very few relationships that improve as a result of nagging. Even if the person finally changes, they may feel resentful of you for making them change, or they may try to change, but it doesn’t last long because they didn’t want the change.

 

 

 

 

Most of the time we don’t know the reason people do what they do. They might do something that makes no sense to us. For instance, we know someone, and they always push others away. We judge them, and we don’t understand why it seems like they ruin every relationship they find. However, if we could see inside them we would understand they have been hurt over and over again by loved ones. We would see all the important people in their lives have left them, and so now they always push others because they figure they will leave anyway, and they don’t want to get attached.

We might look at someone who has a lot and doesn’t share well with others. We may think they are greedy and selfish. Yet when we look at their childhood, we see they grew up without anything, and we’re taught that there is never enough in this world. They worry if they share what they have there won’t be enough for them. We might look at someone and judge that they are mean and cruel. However, if we could see inside, we would know the truly terrible things they endured over their lifetime. We would see that the world has shown them over and over again that there is nothing to be happy about. The world has shown them nothing but cruel people and that if you are nice to someone, they will just take advantage of you.

I like something different in both versions of this verse this morning. In the message translation, I really liked that it said, “Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.” I wish we all knew this was true. Think about how much different this world would be if we just treated people with kind mercy instead of harsh judgment. Think about how much better people would feel if they were treated with mercy. It seems like the default these days is harsh judgment. At the Christmas dinner table yesterday, the kids were talking about. This guy named Luigi killed a billionaire healthcare executive. They said everyone is talking about this guy like he is Batman, or some kind of hero because he killed a billionaire. When did we decide that all billionaires are evil? When did it become OK to take judgment into our own hands?

In the Passion translation, I liked it when it said, “Remember, that judgment is merciless, for the one who judges others without mercy.” I really like this because it reminds us that we have a responsibility to show mercy if we expect God to show mercy on us. I think we can’t hear this enough. It is so easy for us to judge and not even think twice about it. This is a trick of the enemy. He knows exactly how God feels about judgment. He knows everything in the Bible. He knows that God will judge us as we judge others but the enemy doesn’t want us to know that. He wants us to think it’s no big deal. He helps us minimize the evil in our judgment because he doesn’t want us to go to heaven. He wants God to judge us harshly. Is that what you want? Think about how you judge others. Think about the things you say about them and the things you feel about them. Is that the way you want God to judge you? Are those the things you want God to feel and say about you?

I feel like this can’t be overstated because of the way the enemy is trying to hide it. We say it right in the Our Father Prayer, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The Lord will forgive us. As we forgive others. The Lord will judge us as we judge others. Maybe as we think about Jesus’s coming, which we just celebrated yesterday, and the upcoming year that we are about to enter, we can take a look at how we judge others and how we can offer mercy instead of judgment in this upcoming year.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this podcast. Lord, help us to be more merciful and less judgmental. Help us to see how important this is to our eternal salvation. Help us to see others as you see others. Help us to see with your eyes, Lord. Give us a new eye sight. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to invite you to join mentoring for the month of January. The topic is identity and it is such an important topic. I hope you will join us. Remember, Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Mark 10:16 “Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.”  “I could almost see him with the children and the look on his eyes when he was blessing them.”

 

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Jesus’ Birth Foretold

Isaiah 9:6 “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

We received this scripture verse on Thursday during prayer group. I was researching how many years, before the birth of Jesus, this prophecy was given to Isaiah. While researching, I found this article that explains this verse very well. So, I thought I would read the article to you for today's episode. The article can be found on The Master’s University Website. It does not say who wrote it. CLICK HERE for the article.

The Christmas story in the Bible begins several hundred years before that night in Bethlehem. One Old Testament prophecy after another promised a coming Savior—the Messiah, the Anointed One—who would redeem the people of God. The centerpiece of all the Christmas prophecies, Isaiah 9:6, was written nearly six hundred years before Jesus’ birth. Isaiah promised it would be a miraculous event unlike any the world had ever known, and the details Isaiah gave were fulfilled precisely by Jesus.

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 is the most familiar of all the Old Testament prophecies about the birth of Christ. Handel included it as one of the great choruses of his Messiah oratorio. Chances are you either sing it or hear it several times every Christmas season.

Consider the rich truths in this one short verse and the attributes given to this extraordinary child. To the Jewish nation, Isaiah’s prophecy was news of a coming King. To the unsuspecting world, the prophecy promised a Savior, God incarnate, whose coming would dramatically and forever alter human history.

Son of Man

“A child will be born to us” is a statement about His humanity. He began life like any other human—as an infant. Isaiah doesn’t say more about this here, but we know from the New Testament that Christ experienced every temptation common to humanity, but He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). As a man, He felt everything we feel, hurt like we hurt, wept like we weep, and in His death He even felt the weight of sin as He took ours upon Himself.

Son of God

“A son will be given to us” speaks of the Savior’s preexistent deity. By saying “given,” not “born,” Isaiah suggests that Jesus existed before His birth. He was already God, the second Person of the Trinity, before He was given to us to be our Savior (Philippians 2:6-7). He came as the Son of God—God in a human body—to conquer sin and death forever. He is the perfect Son of God, the promise of the ages, the Holy One of Israel, the desire of nations, the light in darkness, the only hope for our lost world.

King of Kings

“The government will rest on His shoulders” looks beyond that first Christmas to a time still in the prophetic future when Christ shall reign over a literal, earthly, geopolitical kingdom that encompasses all the kingdoms and governments of the world (Zechariah 14:9; Daniel 2:44). In that day, the government of the whole world will rest on His shoulders, and He will reign as sovereign over a worldwide kingdom of righteousness and peace. In the meantime, His government operates in secret. His kingdom and sovereign rule are manifest within those who trust Him as their Lord (Luke 17:20-21).

Wonderful Counselor

Messiah’s kingdom has the answer to the world’s confusion. During His incarnation, Christ demonstrated His wisdom as a counselor. When people came to Him, He always knew what to say, when to reach out to a seeking heart, and when to rebuke an impetuous soul. The testimony of those who heard Him was, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks” (John 7:46). Christ is the source of all truth (John 14:6), and it is to Him that we must turn to make sense of life’s confusion. Jesus is the Counselor who knows everything. He knows all about you; He knows the needs of your heart; He knows how to answer those needs. And He always gives wise counsel to those who will hear and obey Him.

Mighty God

The King is the Mighty God and His kingdom is free from all chaos. “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33), which means chaos is antithetical to who He is. Christ the King loves to step into a life of chaos and not only provide wonderful counsel, but also display His divine power by bringing order. He not only tells His subjects what to do as a wonderful Counselor, but He can energize them to do it—because He is the Mighty God. In Jesus we have a sovereign Master who can forgive sin, defeat Satan, liberate us from the power of evil, redeem us, answer our prayers, restore our broken souls, and reign over rebuilt lives, bringing order to chaos.

Eternal Father

We tend to cringe at the word “government,” picturing an administrative labyrinth. But our Messiah’s kingdom is not like that. He requires no bureaucracy; He shoulders His government by Himself. He can do it because He is the eternal Father, or as the phrase in Isaiah 9:6 is literally translated, “the Father of Eternity.” Christ is Creator of heaven and earth. According to God the Father’s own testimony, the Son—Jesus—was the Person of the Godhead who created time out of eternity and fashioned the universe from nothing (Hebrews 1:10-12). Nothing is too difficult for the Creator and Sustainer of everything. Infinity and all its intricacies are nothing to Him who is the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last, the Beginning and the End—the Father of Eternity. He declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). He is in complete and sovereign control, He sees the end of everything, and He guarantees that all things will work together for the ultimate good of all His kingdom’s subjects (Romans 8:28).

Prince of Peace

In Messiah’s kingdom there are no conflicts because He is the Prince of Peace. He offers “peace from God” (Romans 1:7) to all who receive His grace. He makes “peace with God” (Romans 5:1) for those who surrender to Him in faith. And He brings the “peace of God” (Philippians 4:7) to those who walk with Him. As we hear so often at Christmas, the beginning of His earthly life was heralded by angels who pronounced peace on earth (Luke 2:14). There never really has been peace on earth in the sense we think of it. Wars and rumors of wars have characterized the entire two millennia since that first Christmas, as well as all the time before it. The announcement of peace on earth was a two-pronged proclamation. First, it declared the arrival of the only One who ultimately can bring lasting peace on earth (which He will do when He returns to bring about the establishment of His earthly kingdom).

But more importantly, it was a proclamation that God’s peace was available to men and women. Read the words of Luke 2:14 carefully and note this emphasis: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” God is pleased with the people who yield their lives to Him. “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy” (Psalm 147:11 NKJV). When the angels proclaimed peace on earth, they were speaking primarily of a very personal, individual application of God’s peace that grows out of a firsthand knowledge of the Prince of Peace.

The prophetic message of Christmas is the good news of God’s answer to all the confusion, chaos, complexities, and conflicts of life. It is the gift of the newborn infant, who is also the Father of all eternity. He is an innocent child, yet He is a wise Counselor and mighty King. He is God with us. Immanuel.

This Christmas, consider the wonderful promise of Christ and how He has fulfilled these rich prophecies in your life through His saving, sanctifying, and sustaining work.

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for each and every person listening to this episode. Lord, I ask you to bless them and their families this holiday season. Lord, we thank you for sending Jesus to us and for saving us. We thank you for all the ways you are still saving us every day, not just from the world but from ourselves, too. Lord, we love you, and we are so grateful for you. You are amazing! We ask that you be with those who are all alone during this holiday season. We also pray in a special way for all those who are living on the streets during this holiday season. We pray all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I will not be posting a new episode tomorrow since it is Christmas. I will be back on Thursday though. I pray you have a blessed Christmas that is full of joy! I am so grateful I get to be part of your day. I love you all!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I've asked for the Spirit. We've all asked for the power of His Holy Spirit. We've all asked for His love. His love is there for us. He's not giving us false stones that look like bread to eat. He's going to give us the bread of life.”

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Do You Have Questions Too?

Romans 5:5 “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

Hope in the Lord does not disappoint has been a verse I have had to come back to over and over again. It is one that honestly I don’t really understand. I mean, I know plenty of people who have hoped in the Lord that their loved ones would be healed on this side of heaven, and they weren’t. They were surely disappointed. I have known people who were praying to get a certain job and they didn’t. I am sure they were disappointed. What about those who really want to be married and haven’t met their spouse yet, or those who want children and yet can’t conceive? I am sure they are hoping in the Lord to answer those prayers, and it hasn’t happened yet, I am sure they feel disappointed.

I have discovered that the Holy Spirit has been asking me to go deeper when I read something I don’t understand, which is a lot. I will be reading a scripture and then a question will pop into my head. At first I thought it was the enemy trying to get me to doubt my faith, or doubt what the scripture says. However, upon more prayer I have come to believe that the Holy Spirit doesn’t want me to just question something and then move on without an answer. I think He is calling me to work with people who have left the faith, and left the Lord. He is calling me to work with those who have been hurt by religion and want nothing to do with it and so they also have given up on the Lord. Or, maybe they have just grown apart from Him, or never really knew they could have a relationship with Him.

I think the Lord is trying to show me that if I am asking these questions, so are they. The answers that I have always been given don’t do it for me anymore. The Lord is asking me to go deeper. He is asking me to truly understand who He is and why He does what He does. I mean, we will never understand most of what He does until we join Him in heaven, as our brains are so limited as to what we can actually understand and comprehend. However, I do feel He is telling me to go deeper when a question comes up, like the ones today, and ask Him to help me understand. You can do the same with your questions. You can bring them to the Lord, and He will answer them. Do you struggle to believe that? I know I do sometimes. I am hesitant to ask the Lord a direct question because I always think I won’t get an answer, and then I will feel rejected. However, He always answers. Maybe not right away, and maybe not how you thought He would. I have one friend who said she always asks God questions, and she hears nothing. Then, later in the week, as someone is talking to her, she realizes that is the answer to the question she asked God. Sometimes, she will get an answer through the scriptures that are read at mass. I have another friend who said she doesn’t receive a lot of answers during her prayer time, but then when she is in the shower is when her questions are answered. If you are asking the Lord questions and feel He is not answering you, I want to assure you that He definitely is. It just might be in a way you are not recognizing. Be on the lookout for it, be expecting an answer in unexpected ways, and you will find them

Back to today’s verse, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” I went back to read the verse before this because this verse starts with “this hope,” so I thought, what hope?  What does “this hope” mean? The verse before today’s verse says, “But that’s not all! Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that our pressure will develop in us patient endurance. And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope. And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!” That was the passion translation, so today’s verse sounds a bit different in that translation.

The hope we are talking about in this verse is one that we have earned. It is one that was hard fought. It is one that was forged out of the fires of difficult situations. It is a hope that we gain after we have developed patience and character. God never told us we wouldn’t have disappointments in life. He never promised us that our lives would be easy. He actually told us it would be hard. Yet He does promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. He will be there with us in our disappointing moments. Ones where we cry out to the Lord and ask why He is not answering our prayers, why He took our loved one from us, why He put these desires into our hearts and now is not bringing them to fruition.

I think we have all asked the Lord at least one of these questions, and I think we were probably justified in doing so. I don’t think God minds when we ask questions. I think He minds when we ask questions and then don’t wait to hear the answers or go elsewhere to seek the answers. How many times have we done that? We cried out to the Lord and then tried to fix it ourselves or looked for some earthly solution to try to fix it. God wants us to go to Him and then sit with Him and listen to what He has to say. He has the most simple answers to the most complicated questions if we allow Him to answer. He can turn things around in a moment, but often, we are too busy trying to do it ourselves to let Him fix it. We tire ourselves out trying one thing after another, and I bet He is looking down at us the same way we look at any kids in our lives who are trying to do things themselves when you know if they just asked for help, you could do it so much quicker.

Sometimes, kids need to do something themselves so that they learn how to do it. Other times, they need to do something themselves so they can learn a lesson. We are the same. No matter how old we get, we are never too old to learn a lesson. God will allow us to learn the same lesson as many times as it takes for us to truly learn it. He will allow us to solve our problems on our own if that is what we want. I am sure it breaks His heart to see us wearing ourselves out doing everything ourselves when He knows if we just partnered with Him, it would be so much easier. Yet, He loves and respects us enough to let us decide when we invite Him in and when we want to partner with Him. The best news, it is never too late. You might be 20 years old, and you might be 80 years old. It is never too late to invite the Lord in and watch your life changee.

I don’t think I answered the questions from earlier or talked about the verse too much; I guess the Holy Spirit had a different idea this morning. However, I do want to look at the verse a bit more because I think that will help answer the questions. “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” The verse says that hope will not lead to disappointment because we know how much God loves us because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. The message translations said, “And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!”

Did you know the Holy Spirit lives inside of you? If you have been listening to this podcast for a while, you probably know that, as I say it often. However, if you didn’t know this, it is true! Maybe you did know that already, and yet you don’t really know what that means. It means that the spirit of Christ lives inside of you. It means that all of that power that Jesus had when He lived on earth, the power He used to do all His miracles, that lives inside of you. It means the Holy Spirit, the one that raised Jesus from the dead, lives inside of you! Did you know you had so much power living inside of you? Guess what else you have? According to the Passion Translation, you have the endless love of God cascading into your hearts through the Holy Spirit that lives in you! The other translation says that the Lord has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

We have power and love filling our hearts because of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us. Isn’t God remarkable? This is why hope in the Lord does not disappoint. It is because He is constantly filling our hearts with love. This verse does not mean that we will never be disappointed, we will, probably often. However, it means that if we hope in the Lord, He will come through for us. Maybe not in the way we wanted Him to, but whatever we are going through, He will use it for our good. I have heard this in many songs, and it has brought me comfort. I hope it will bring you comfort too. If you are struggling, if you are in a dark place right now, if all seems lost, then know God is not done with you yet. He allows us to go through trials, but He never leaves us there, and He never leaves our side while we are in them. If your life is not as you want it to be, if it is not as you had hoped it would be, then God is not done yet. Keep turning to Him, keep inviting Him in, and then watch as He transforms your life. Expect it; be on the lookout for amazing things, and you will find them!

Dear Heavenly Father, wow, I wasn’t expecting all that today. Please bless all those listening to this episode. Please help us to really hear what you said today and to allow it to take root in our lives and bear fruit. Help us to better understand what it means to have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Help us to gain a better understanding of what it means to believe that hope in you does not disappoint.  Help us to turn to you instead of the world when we need answers. Help us to invite you in today, instead of going through one more day on our own. Help us to surrender, Lord. Help us to accept your love. We love you, Lord, and we ask this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I pray something I said today touched your heart and helped you to see things in a new light. I want to invite you all to join me in January for mentoring. It is on Tuesday nights at 8 PM EST on Zoom. I know some of you are far away, and 8 PM EST is the middle of the night for you. If this is the case, you could still join mentoring and watch the recording. I promise you will still get a lot out of it. January’s theme is Identity, which we all seem to struggle with. I hope you will consider joining me. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I felt like the Lord was reassuring me that all I've asked for, especially because I was having a little struggle with ministry and ministering and stuff last night, all I've asked for, he's not going to give me a stone. His love is there.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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In Returning and Rest, You Will Be Saved

Isaiah 30:15 “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused.”

This verse was given at the prayer group yesterday. I really like this verse because it says, in returning and rest, you shall be saved. Have you heard this before? I don’t think that I have heard it at all. The world tells us that we will be saved when we save ourselves. It tells us that we will be saved if we do enough. If we figure out the right thing to do, then we will be saved. If we figure out how to be perfect, then we will be saved. If we figure out who God wants us to be and become that person, then we will be saved. This verse is a welcome change. It is telling us that if we return and rest we will be saved. How great would it be to just rest in the Lord and be saved? How great would it be to finally stop doing so much and yet still be saved?

I had my Message Translation Bible out to look up a verse for someone else, and so I thought I would share with you what this verse says in the message translation. “God, the Master, the Holy of Israel, had this solemn council: "Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me – the very thing you've been unwilling to do.” When I heard this, it rang true in my soul. How many of us are trying to save ourselves or our loved ones? How many of us are wearing ourselves out, trying so hard to do all we can do? We are so tired, we feel so weary, and yet we feel like we are just running in circles. Nothing is really changing.

This verse may be our answer. God Himself is telling us if we return to him and rest, we shall be saved. The question just came into my mind that I never really left the Lord, so why do I have to return to Him? If you were wondering the same, I think the returning is returning the issue to Him. We tend to pray about our problems, we hand them over to the Lord, and then we take them back. We get frustrated, we run out of ways we can help ourselves, and we turn back to God. Then we think of a new way we can help ourselves, so we take our problem back from God. Then we fail, and we give it back to God. Rinse and repeat over and over again. God is telling us to just rest in Him. He will save us.

I love how the message translation says, “Stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.” I know it doesn’t feel like our efforts are silly. We are just doing all we can to save ourselves or our loved ones. Who could blame us? However, if we really think about it, isn’t it kinda silly to think we could do a better job than God? Isn’t it kinda silly to think we might have a better plan than he does? He is the Lord of the whole universe. He not only knows everything about us, including our innermost thoughts, but He knows everything about everything. It stands to reason that He would be about to come up with a better plan because He has more information.

The verse also says, “In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” It seems as if we are trying to find our strength in our own ability to save the situation. However, in this verse, the Lord is telling us that when we rest in him, we can find strength in that quietness and trust. Have you ever found strength in quietness before? Have you ever been really worried about something and just sat in silence with the Lord? If you haven’t done this before, I invite you to give it a try. You would be surprised how much comfort and strength you can get when you sit in silence with the Lord. God has told our prayer group several times that it is in the silence that He is healing us. This is when He is ministering to us. This is when He is comforting us and building us up.

Matthew Kelly always talks about the “Classroom of Silence.” He talks about how much you can learn when you sit in the classroom of silence. It is a time when we don’t have to be thinking. We don’t have to be planning. We don’t have to know everything or do everything. We can just sit there and be with the Lord. I invite you to sit with the Lord today, even if it is only five or ten minutes, and see if you feel any different. Whenever I do it, which is not as often as I would like, I feel a lot more peace than I had before. It is as if the worry of the world melts away, and I am filled with peace. Sometimes, it is a lasting peace that I carry with me into the day. Sometimes, it is peace while I am with the Lord, and then I allow all the worries of the world to creep back in. Either way, I have peace for at least those few moments, and it is great!

We can also find our strength in trust. When we trust the Lord, we feel so much stronger because we understand that He is in control and that we know that He is looking out for our best interests. Think of someone in your life that you trust completely. Maybe it is your spouse, or your best friend, or a sibling, or your parents. Who is someone that you trust? Do you feel more confident when you talk to that person? Do you feel like they are giving you good advice or leading you in the right direction? Now, imagine you had that kind of trust in the Lord. What would that feel like? What would that look like? When we know without a doubt that the Lord is in control, then we can feel stronger in our decisions because we know that even if we mess up, God will use it for good. We know that every decision we make isn’t life or death. God is a good Father, and He allows us to make the wrong choice, but then He uses that wrong choice for our good.

Today’s verse ends with, “But you refused.” What if we stopped refusing? What if we decided we were going to turn back to the Lord and accept His help? What if we made the decision to stop trying to fix everything on our own and just rested in the Lord while He saved us? Wouldn’t that be so much better? Wouldn’t it feel so good to just finally rest and let someone else handle it all? Aren’t you tired of trying to do it on your own? I know I am! God is telling us to rest in Him, and He will save us. We know God is not a liar, so why is this so hard? He is telling us we will find our strength in quietness and trust. I think we could all use more strength. So, what if we just rested in the Lord and received all the strength He wants to give us in the quietness, trusting God is in control and He knows best?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we are sorry we always try to save ourselves. Please help us. Please show us how to sit with you in the silence. Please show us how to rest in you and trust in you. Lord, you are amazing. You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We want to trust that Your plan is better. Please help us. We love you, Lord, and ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I come with my joy. I come with my love. I come with everything that is good. So be not afraid to come. Be not afraid to share all that I share with you, with others, so you can enrich them in my way.”

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Why We Love Mary So Much!

Today I thought I would do something different. Instead of starting with a scripture. I decided to talk to you today about my mentoring topic for this month. It is Why We Love Mary So Much! “Why do Catholics love Mary so much?” This is a question that I have been asked a lot by Catholics as well as other Christians. I have also been often asked, “Why do Catholics Worship Mary.” Let’s address that one first; it is a much simpler answer. We do not worship Mary. We only worship the Lord. We have a deep love and devotion for **Mother Mary** because of her unique role in God's plan for salvation, virtues, and intercession. Today, I will review some key reasons Catholics love Mary so much. Here are some key reasons for this devotion to Mary:

1. **Her Role as the Mother of God**

Mary is honored as the **Theotokos**, or "God-bearer," because she gave birth to Jesus Christ, who is both fully God and fully man. This makes her central to the mystery of the Incarnation—the event through which God became human to save humanity. Catholics view her as the mother of not only Jesus but, in a spiritual sense, the entire Church.

2. **Her Yes to God’s Will**

Mary's willingness to say **"Yes" (Fiat)** to God at the Annunciation (Luke 1:38) is seen as a model of perfect faith and obedience. She trusted God's plan, even without fully understanding it, and her example inspires Catholics to follow her in surrendering to God's will.

3. **Her Role as a Spiritual Mother**

From the Cross, Jesus entrusted Mary to all humanity when He said to the Apostle John: **"Behold your mother"** (John 19:27). Catholics believe that Mary is a spiritual mother who cares for all believers, interceding for them and guiding them closer to Jesus.

4. **Her Sinlessness and Purity**

Mary’s Immaculate Conception (her being conceived without original sin) and her sinless life make her the perfect model of holiness. Catholics honor her purity and strive to imitate her virtues, especially humility, love, and faithfulness.

5. **Her Intercessory Power**

Catholics believe that Mary, being close to Jesus, has a unique role in interceding for humanity. Asking for Mary’s intercession is like asking a trusted and holy friend to pray on one's behalf. This belief is rooted in her role at the **Wedding at Cana** (John 2:1-12), where her intercession led to Jesus performing His first miracle.

6. **A Deeply Personal Connection**

For many Catholics, Mary is not only a figure of reverence but also a source of comfort, understanding, and maternal love. Devotions like the **Rosary** help foster this personal connection, allowing the faithful to meditate on Jesus' life through Mary's perspective.

7. **Her Title as Queen of Heaven**

Mary is honored as the **Queen of Heaven** because of her close association with Christ, the King. This title emphasizes her exalted place in heaven, where she continues interceding for the Church.

The title **"Queen of Heaven"** is one of the many honorary titles given to Mary, reflecting her unique role in salvation history and her exalted position in heaven. This title is deeply rooted in Scripture, tradition, and theology. Here's an explanation of why Mary is called the Queen of Heaven:

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1. **Mary as Mother of the King (Queen Mother)**

In biblical tradition, the mother of the king in the Davidic kingdom held the role of the **queen mother** (*Gebirah* in Hebrew), a position of honor and influence. For example:

- In the Old Testament, the queen mother often interceded on behalf of the people (e.g., Bathsheba in 1 Kings 2:19).

- Since Jesus is the eternal King of the universe (Luke 1:32-33), Mary, as His mother, is honored as the **Queen Mother** in His heavenly kingdom.

2. **Scriptural Foundations**

The title is not explicitly mentioned in Scripture but is supported by several biblical themes:

- **The Annunciation** (Luke 1:32-33): The angel Gabriel tells Mary that her son will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end. If Jesus is King, Mary is logically the Queen Mother.

- **The Woman Clothed with the Sun** (Revelation 12:1): In this passage, Mary is symbolically depicted as a woman crowned with twelve stars, representing her royal dignity and role as the Queen of Heaven.

3. **Tradition and Early Church Fathers**

- From the earliest centuries, Christians recognized Mary’s special status as the mother of the King. Titles like **“Queen of Heaven”** and **“Queen of Angels”** began to appear in Christian prayers and hymns.

- Saints like **St. Ephrem** and **St. Augustine** wrote of Mary’s royal dignity, associating her with Christ’s kingship and her role in the divine plan of salvation.

4. **Mary’s Coronation**

Catholic tradition holds that, after her Assumption into heaven, Mary was crowned as Queen by Christ. This is often depicted in Christian art and is the subject of the **Fifth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary**: *The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.*

5. **Her Role in Intercession**

As Queen of Heaven, Mary is believed to intercede for humanity before her Son, Jesus Christ. This is similar to the role of the queen mother in the Davidic kingdom, who acted as an advocate for the people.

6. **Papal Affirmations**

- Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical **Ad Caeli Reginam (To the Queen of Heaven)** in 1954, formally proclaimed Mary as **Queen of Heaven and Earth**, affirming this title as a reflection of her close relationship with Christ and her role in the Church.

- He declared that Mary’s queenship is rooted in her divine motherhood and her unique participation in Christ’s work of redemption.

7. **Symbolism of Her Queenship**

Mary’s title as Queen of Heaven underscores her:

- **Exalted dignity** as the Mother of God.

- **Role as intercessor** and advocate for the faithful.

- **Victory over sin and death**, as she shares in her Son’s triumph through her Assumption.

8. **Devotions to Mary as Queen**

- **The Litany of Loreto** includes the invocation “Queen of Heaven, pray for us.”

- Feasts like the **Queenship of Mary** (celebrated on August 22) honor her royal status.

Marian hymns, such as **"Hail, Holy Queen" (Salve Regina)**, reflect this devotion.

Ultimately, Catholics love Mary because she leads them closer to Jesus. Her life and example remind believers of the transformative power of grace and the importance of trusting in God's plan.

I hope you enjoyed this explanation about Mary and why we love her so much. I hope it cleared up any confusion about whether or not we worship Mary. We don’t. I hope listening to all this makes you a bit more curious to study Mary on your own. She is really a remarkable woman. Her yes to the Lord is so incredible. She always points us back to her son or to the Father.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode. Lord, thank you so much for sending your son to Earth to save us. Thank you for giving us Mary as our spiritual Mother. We couldn’t have asked for a better example. Lord, we ask that you help us be more like Mary. We ask that you help us to say yes, even when we don’t quite understand all you are calling us to do. Give us the strength to say Yes to all you ask us to do, Lord. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. You can see the whole mentoring session on my YouTube channel if you liked this teaching on why we love Mary so much. It talks about the Immaculate Conception and explains what it means to do a Marian Consecration. It also has some little-known facts about Mary. I think you will enjoy it. I would also like to invite you all to join mentoring for this upcoming year. The first month’s theme will be Identity, and it is so needed. If we stand firm in our identity as children of God, then the enemy won’t be able to attack us as much. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, open more fully to my grace. Open to my love. Open your ears to everything I tell you. The more you are open, the more you are likely to receive, my children.”

 

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Witness Wednesday #141 Healing of Fibromyalgia

Today’s witness is from the internet. This morning in a prayer group, the leader talked about how her sister-in-law struggled with Fibromyalgia and suffered from migraines and the treatment wasn’t working. I felt the Holy Spirit wanted me to do a witness on a healing of Fibromyalgia so that her sister in law could believe that if God did it for his person, He will do it for her too. Hope is such an important part of faith and it can also be so easy to lose it when you are in chronic pain for so long. Here is the miraculous story of Teresa’s healing of Fibromyalgia. Remember, God is the same yesterday, today and always. If He has done it before, He will do it again. We believe Lord, help our unbelief.

In the fall of 2002, my wife Teresa started experiencing some pain symptoms in her back that we could not find an explanation for. Over the next few years, it spread over her whole body.  After going to many different doctors, she was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.  The diagnosis was confirmed by more than one doctor.

Fibromyalgia has different levels of severity in different people.  My wife’s condition was particularly severe, and her health deteriorated to the point where she was only able to walk about 50 feet or so, and she could only be on her feet for about 90 seconds.  The pain was getting worse and worse.

Three years later, in December of 2005, she was struck with another condition in her arms that was eventually diagnosed as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (also known as RSD).  Because of the intense pain, she lost use of both arms and hands, and was no longer able to care for herself at all.  Her arms hurt so badly that it was painful even for air to blow on her skin sometimes.  Over time, not using her arms, and not being able to walk very well, she became weaker and weaker, and her hands actually started to close up into a fist.

It was a very bad situation, and that is putting it lightly.  And, it was getting worse day by day, month by month.

The next year, in August of 2006, I found out about a prayer email list at the company I work for.  I joined the list, and sent out this email:

—–Original Message—–

From: Neal

Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 11:07 AM

To: *****

Subject: Prayer Request

 Hi everyone.  I have a prayer request.

Over the past four years, my wife Teresa has developed some chronic pain conditions that have baffled many doctors.  The pain has become increasingly debilitating, and has left her very limited in what she is able to do physically.

God has faithfully brought us through it this far, and sent many people to help us along the way.  He has blessed us in many ways, and we are very thankful.  He has also led us to some good physicians, and we hope and pray that she is on the road to recovery.

I would like to ask you all to pray for her complete healing, and that God would use our testimony to bless others.

Thank you

Neal

—————————————————————

Someone replied to that email inviting me to a lunchtime study in one of the conference rooms at work.  It was a study on divine healing.  It was being led by a man named Bill Alsop.  I came to the study.  After it was over, I spoke to Bill briefly.  He didn’t know me, but I asked him about praying for my wife.  He invited me to his home that Friday night, August 25.

So, that Friday after work I picked up Teresa and we drove to his home.  On the way there I remember that I was somewhat excited, and I was expecting that we would receive encouragement and strength to go on.  There had been many people praying for us over the years.  We had a few times where people came by to pray with us, and there were other times when we had gone to different places for prayer.  I know there were lots more praying for us that we were not always aware of.  It always helped us to keep going, and that was pretty much what I was expecting.

When we arrived, we talked with Bill and his wife Cathy for a short while, and then we started praying.  Teresa was actually lying down on the floor at this point, and we were all praying in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Some of the time they were praying in tongues, some of the time they were praying in English.

After a few minutes, he told my wife to stand up.  He took her to the front door, and he told her to walk to the end of his street, turn the corner, walk up the hill to the mailboxes, touch one of them, then walk back.  He told her to talk to God while she walked.  (Bill later shared with us that the Holy Spirit had instructed him to do all of that in a vision he received while they were praying).

In my mind, I was thinking “What? She can’t even make it to the end of the driveway”…but before I could say anything, she took off walking out the door and down the street.  I knew that unless something supernatural happened, she would collapse within two minutes of walking out the door.

However, before I had time to object, Bill turned to me and said this: “You have been praying to receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues.”  That shocked me because I had not mentioned anything about that, even though it was absolutely true.  God was getting my attention…to help me believe.  He succeeded.  I stood up, Bill put his hand on my chest, and I began speaking in tongues for the first time…just like they did in the Bible.  I received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit right there in his living room, while at the same time my wife was walking down the street receiving a miraculous healing from God.

For a few minutes as I was speaking, I was somewhat overwhelmed in a flood of God’s presence, and I forgot that Teresa had gone out walking without me and without her wheelchair.  Before long, I looked towards the door and she was standing there talking to Bill.

She made it!  She walked all the way to the mailboxes and back.  That is about four blocks.  She was healed as she walked, and it was a miracle!

Bill told us to go buy her some walking shoes, and to go walking every day.  We talked a little while longer, and then drove home.  On the way home, I remember feeling like I just came out of a whirlwind, and wondering to myself “what just happened to us…”  The pain was gone from Teresa’s body.  She made the comment in the car that she was able to “feel her skin again.”

We got home and went for our first walk together in years.  We walked halfway to the end of our street and back, and she made it with no pain.  The next day we walked farther and still no pain.  No more need for the prescription pain medications for Fibromyalgia…and she has not taken one of those since then.

We continued walking farther and farther each day, and she was regaining her strength now that all of the terrible pain and fatigue were gone.  After about a week, she was able to walk for a mile.  Not long after that, it became two miles.  We donated her wheelchair to charity.  She was able to use her arms again, and feed herself and dress herself and everything else you do with your arms and hands.

She had a previously scheduled appointment coming up with the main Fibromyalgia doctor, and we decided to keep the appointment and tell him the good news.  After that appointment, I sent this message to the prayer email list:

—————————————————————

From: Neal

Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:06 PM

To: *******

Subject: Testimony Update

Hi everyone.

I am the person who sent out the testimony back in August about Christ healing my wife Teresa from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (FM/CFS).

I just wanted to send out a little story that I hope will build your faith. This is a story about what it is like to tell a doctor that Jesus healed you.

Last Wednesday, I took Teresa back the specialist she has been seeing for FM/CFS. His name is Dr. Charles Lapp, and he’s in Charlotte, NC. He is one of the top experts on for that condition in America, and he is absolutely the finest medical professional I have ever dealt with.

Teresa hasn’t been back to seen him since God healed her on August 25, so we were very excited to tell him what happened. The last time he saw her she was in constant severe pain. She was only able to stand up for about two minutes before feeling like she was going to collapse, and even sitting up was difficult.

This time was a completely different story, because now she walks about a mile or two for exercise every day, and all the pain and suffering is gone

Here’s how the appointment started:

Dr. Lapp: “You look great! How are you doing?”

Teresa: “Have you ever heard of someone getting healed from Fibromyalgia?”

Dr. Lapp: “No I haven’t. (he looked surprised and excited).”

Teresa: “Well, I have a story to tell you. On August 25, God healed me…”

Then she told him the story of what happened. He looked to be both amazed and excited at the same time.

He did all of his tests on her, and he just kept laughing because everything was negative. He said he had never seen anything like this before. We said “we haven’t either, but it sure is awesome!”

Then, he gave her a hug, told her how happy he was for her, and wrote up his report. Here’s what he wrote at the end of the report…and I quote:

“Assessment: CFS/FM – miraculously resolved!”

There’s nobody like Jesus.

I hope this will help you to believe that God is still doing miracles, and healing people.

—————————————————————

And now, years later, Teresa is an athlete.  She is at the gym every day doing some extreme workouts that would would put most men in the world to shame.  She is one of the most physically fit people that I know, and that is not an exaggeration.

The experience we had the night she was healed started us on a journey.  We began learning more about the Holy Spirit and how He wants to work through natural people to do supernatural things…and set people free from whatever conditions are holding them back.

The rest of the writings on this blog are mostly a collection of things that we have learned over the last few years as we began stepping out in faith and ministering to others.  I hope this blesses you and brings encouragement.  God loves you!

Neal

CLICK HERE for Neal & Teresa's Blog

I am so grateful to Neal & Teresa for sharing their story so that it can build the faith of so many others. God was so good to them and will be so good to you, too. Keep asking for healing, whether it is for you or a loved one. God hears your prayers. He doesn’t always heal when we want Him to or how we want him to, but He always answers our prayers. 

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Heal Our Lands

2 Chronicles 7:14 “ If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

I was at an Encounter Alumni event last night, and my friend Theresa was sharing with the group about her new book that she just published on Amazon. His book is called Weapons of Our Warfare. In this book, she identifies thirteen spiritual weapons and how to use them, as well as some amazing results she has seen when these spiritual weapons are employed in the present-day spiritual battle we face. I am excited to read her book and I hope you will get a copy and check it out as well.

When Theresa was giving a talk last night, she mentioned 2 Chronicles 7:14, and when she did, I felt the Spirit prompt me to write it down and check it out for today’s episode. She received this verse while she was driving around Boston after the Boston Marathon Bombing had taken place. She felt like the Lord told her that if we prayed for 1 hour a day in the Spirit, then the Lord would protect our land from attacks. I know that everyone listening to this podcast does not have the gift of tongues and some may not even want this gift.

First, let me just say that I was right there with you at one point. I wanted nothing to do with the gift of tongues. I had heard people in my dad’s prayer group who had that gift, and it just sounded weird, and I didn’t want to be weird. Then I heard a speaker, Anne Trufant, talking one time, and she said how she felt the same way. She would pray for the Lord to give her all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but not that one because that was weird. Then she said she was counseling troubled teens, and one of them backed her up against the wall one day with his hand on her throat. She said after he left the room, she prayed to the Lord to give her all He had for her, even the gift of tongues.

I would also like just to take a minute to talk about the gift of tongues. When you are speaking in tongues, you are just praying in another language, a language that only God can understand. So, God and God alone will hear and understand whatever you are saying. Unless you are speaking in tongues with a group and someone asks for God to interpret what was said. What I love about praying in tongues is that it is I don’t have to know what to pray for. When you are speaking in tongues, the Holy Spirit is praying straight from your heart to God the Father. How many times have you been in a situation where you didn’t even know what to pray for or what to say? When you speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit prays a perfect prayer for you.

In case you were wondering where this idea of tongues came from and if it is backed by scripture, it is. There are several references to speaking in tongues in the Bible. Romans 8:26-27 says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” This explains that we don’t know how to pray as we should. However, the Spirit can intercede on our behalf, and the Holy Spirit will intercede for us according to the will of God. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just know what we want, it knows what God wants as well and can intercede for us according to that will. How amazing is that?

Now that I have explained a bit about the gift of tongues let's get back to the verse. “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” this verse is saying that if we humble ourselves, pray, seek the Lord’s face and turn from our wicked ways, then He will hear us and will forgive our sin and heal our land. How badly do our sins and our lands need healing right now? When I think of our lands, I think of our houses, our cities, our states, and our country. Our country especially needs healing. It is so divided and so angry. That is the United States of America, at least. I know not everyone listening is from the United States. What about your country? Does it need healing? What about our cities and states, do they need healing?

What about our families, do they need healing? I know mine does. I think the whole world needs more Jesus. We need more love in the world. I am sure you can agree with that. The verse says, “If we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.” Can we do that? Can we turn from our wicked ways? Can we say sorry to the Lord for all we have done? What about humbling ourselves? Can we admit we don't know everything? Can we admit we can't do everything on our own? Only you can answer these questions. I am just pointing them out so that we can stop and answer them. I know a lot of us complain about how bad our country is right now and how we need someone to come in and change it. That is a good thought, and maybe the right president can make a lot of changes. However, whoever the president is, he is still human. This means we are putting a lot of our hope in the right person coming in to fix everything when we could be putting our hope in the Lord to fix everything. The Lord is not limited like humans are. He can do things that we can’t even imagine.

I often say, “I would do anything…” regarding things I have been praying about for a long time. For instance, I used to say I would do anything to have peace in my house. I would do anything to eliminate all the anger in my home. I would do anything for my kids to feel better. How about you? Have you ever said this? When we look around the United States, we see high grocery prices. College tuition is ridiculously high, along with the interest rates on homes. When we look around, we might be tempted to say, I would do anything to change all this in the U. S. We also had another school shooting yesterday. We probably think we must do all we can to prevent this. This is a normal response. Anyone would want to change this situation. We turn to legislation, we turn to the president, we turn to the states, and who we should be turning to is God.

God is telling us in this verse how we can heal our lands. We can pray for all that worries us and all that needs to be changed. We can seek Him. Is He the one we are seeking, or are we seeking answers from the world? It makes a difference. We can be humble and we can turn from our wicked ways. God will forgive not only our sins but he will heal our lands as well.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today. Lord, please help us to hear your words and abide by them. Help us to turn to you for answers instead of turning to the world. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Tuesday: Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Each of you needs a different measuring stick. I know what to do with each of you. I will dig deep into the parts of you that you cannot find. I know each of you intimately.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Still Waters (Psalm 23)

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in the right path for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”

I've been hearing this song called Still Waters (Psalm 23) by Leanna Crawford on KLOVE Radio a lot these past few days. Before leaving for Prayer Group, I saw that the leader was using the song Psalm 23, although it was a different version of it, as one of the songs for the meeting. Yesterday afternoon, I got this deep feeling that that's what I was supposed to talk to you about it because there's a lot of anxiety and worry going around these days. And I just talked to someone who lost her husband, and she said she's paranoid these days. She's worried about all the financial aspects of your husband dying. She's worried about her future. She is worried about a lot of things.

And I know she's not the only one. I know that we all have fear and worry over different kinds of things in our lives. I was really struck by the beginning part of the Still Waters song when it said, “Great Aunt Maurine said at a hundred and three, write scripture on your heart for when you need it.

And it also really struck me when she said, “Cause anxiety hates Psalm 23. So just say it to yourself 'til you believe it.” And I just thought, isn't God so good? Isn't it amazing how he gives us exactly what we need found right there in the scriptures? I have to be honest, I don't know a lot about the Psalms. I know Robert from our morning prayer group always asks people what their favorite Psalm is because he's memorized a bunch of them. And I think what a beautiful thing.

And also, I have no idea what my favorite Psalm is. And also, I didn't know that some of the Psalms have a specific purpose. I knew there were Psalms of praise and Psalms of lamentation. But I didn't know that there were Psalms that anxiety hated. And I didn't know that there were Psalms of protection like Psalm 91. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about Psalm 23 today because I think it's one that we've heard often. And yet, I don't know if we really know how powerful it is. I know I didn't know how powerful it was. And honestly, I didn't even really understand what it meant.

I never found it super powerful when I would read it, or even when I would hear it. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.” I didn't know what that meant. And I don't know if I still know completely what it means. But what the Lord pointed out to me when I was listening to the song today was he leads me to still waters. Even in the storm, there's still water. Even in the valleys, when you're at your lowest, he can lead you through that valley right next to still waters. To me, this verse is telling us that no matter what we're going through, if we let the Lord lead us, he'll lead us by still waters. He won't lead us into the eye of the storm.

He won't lead us by chaos and confusion. If our eyes are fixed on him, and if we follow his path through the storm, there will be still waters that we can follow. And don't we all need some still waters in the craziness of the storm? Also, what stuck out to me today was when it said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

I think we all want for things. I've heard from people in my prayer group, and from my parents, as we get older, we want for less. But I think there are all things we want, even if those things are peace, health, safe passage, or maybe it is material things. Whatever it is, we all want for things.

And yet this is saying, the Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want. We can rely on him to give us all that we need, and all that we want. The Lord knows the desires of our hearts. He knows what it is we want. And he not only cares about the things that we need, but he cares about the things that we want too. He cares about the little requests, just as much as he cares about the big requests.

I know sometimes we don't want to feel greedy, and we don't want to ask God for the little things, because we love him, and we know that he's already given us so much. So why should we ask for more? And yet the Lord tells us in our prayer group, in the words of prophecy, over and over again, “I have so much more for you, but you're not asking.” So ask the Lord, we shall not want, he will give us what it is we need, he will give us what it is we want.

I feel like the Lord is saying there is no “too much.” Just ask. It can't hurt to ask. And that he wants to give us so much more. And we're not asking. And so I just want to invite you all to invite the Lord in, to ask for the big things, to ask for the little things. And to trust that when you ask, the Lord answers. Trust that the Lord will lead you to still waters. If you're especially worried about something right now, hand it over to the Lord and ask him to show you the still waters in the situation.

Everything that's written in the Bible is true. And so when it says the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he leads me to still waters. That's not saying he led the Israelites to still waters, but you, well, you're on your own. He leads us all to still waters. So if you're struggling for still waters right now, if you're struggling to find the peace in the situation you're in, if you've been in this situation for a long time and you're thinking, there are no still waters. You can see to the horizon, and there are no still waters. Then, I just invite you to look beyond the horizon and to know that God isn't bound by the horizon. He could take a storm and calm it in a second to have still waters.

He doesn't have to find different waters that are still. He can still the storm just as Jesus did when he was in that boat. Someone said at prayer group today that the Lord was telling her that somebody had an anxious heart or an anxious spirit, and He wanted them to hand it over to Him.

And so I encourage you, if that's you, if you are anxious about something, if you're worried about something, if you're worried about money, if you're worried about family issues, if you're worried about family members who are sick, I invite you to hand that over to the Lord. I invite you to read Psalm 23 over and over again, or to listen to the song on repeat until you have it flowing through your mind and until it brings you peace. Because I believe what the songwriter said when she said, “Anxiety hates Psalm 23.”

I don't think it was just a rhyme. I think it was the truth. Anytime we can have scripture to rely on, it’s a good thing. Anytime anxiety comes up, and we can stop our thought pattern in our tracks and recite a Psalm, recite a song that reminds us that God is stronger than that thought, then I know that we'll see our anxiety lessen each time we do this.

I know when we invite God in, he comes in. He doesn't saunter in. He doesn't meander in. When we call on the Lord, he comes running. He sends his angels flying at the speed of light to be by our side. And the more we can learn his scripture, the more we can memorize it and recall it at a moment's notice. Man, that makes the devil worried. When we have a firm grasp on scripture, the devil knows he can't trick us. The devil knows he can't use that scripture against us like he tried to do with Jesus.

 

Another thing the song says is to say it to yourself until you believe it. And I think that can be one thing we often overlook. We read these scriptures, and we might believe them on a surface level, but do we believe them in the depths of our hearts? Do we truly believe them? And do we believe them to be true for us? Sometimes, it's easy to believe that something can be true for someone else, and yet we struggle to believe that it's true for us.

We believe that God forgives other people’s sins, but we hold on to ours. We believe that God loves all of his children, but we don't believe he loves us or we struggle to believe he loves us. So when I'm saying learn these scripture verses, I don't mean read them once and kind of know what they say.

I mean, live in the scripture verses. Pick a verse or two and say it, memorize it, believe it, believe it to be true with your whole being, and then move on to a different scripture verse. I don't think we have to have the whole Bible memorized, but if you're struggling in an area like love, anxiety, worry, or whatever it is you're struggling with, find scripture verses that address that area and read them. If one touches your heart, if one stands out to you, if you read a scripture verse and it gives you strength, write it down, memorize it, and then when you're feeling those feelings, recall that scripture verse. This is why I love Christian music so much, because I just feel it in my soul.

I'm not really one who feels the Holy Spirit in a physical way often. A lot of people will say, oh, I could feel the Holy Spirit so strong in this room right now. I can’t. I usually don't feel that. I don't feel what they're saying. But when I listen to Christian music, I feel it with my whole soul, and it speaks right to my heart.

If there are songs that speak to what you're going through, I say the same thing that I said about scripture. Listen to it on repeat over and over again. Memorize it so that when you're in a tough spot, you can recall it. These songs remind us how much Jesus loves us, and how much God's there for us. Oftentimes, they have scripture verses built right into the song, like Psalm 23, Still Waters. This is why I love the music so much.

If you're struggling right now, I invite you to listen to some Christian music. I invite you to Google some scripture verses that have to do with whatever it is you're going through.

 

I guarantee you if you put in scripture verses for anxiety, worry, financial issues, marital trouble, parenting, whatever it is, scripture verses will come up. And I invite you to read them, to go over them, and to find ones that speak to you, that strengthen and encourage you. And I invite you to recall these when you are struggling.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you. We thank you for always being there for us. We thank you for being our shepherd and leading us to green pastures. We thank you for all the time you have led us to still waters throughout our lives. You are the best Lord and we love you tons!!

Thank you all for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. The theme for mentoring in January is Identity. You can’t imagine how much more freedom you have when you are sure of your identity in Christ. It is going to be a great month of mentoring, and you will learn some really important things. I hope you will consider joining me either on Tuesday nights for the live Zoom call or to watch the replays. Even if you can’t be on the live mentoring calls, I guarantee you will get a lot out of watching the recordings. I look forward to seeing you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day, and may the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am always watching, interacting with each one of you, my precious children. Never fear, never. No matter the situation, the severity of anything, know that I know that I am handling it.”

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God Is For You, Not Against You!

Psalm 139:5 “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.”

I heard this verse at the prayer group yesterday, and I instantly liked it. It made me think of when I was little, and my dad would tuck me into bed at night. He would make the covers all tight around me so I felt safe and warm. It was such a cozy feeling, and all those feelings came flooding back when I heard this verse yesterday. God is our heavenly Father. He is always there for us in a way that our real fathers might not have been. I am lucky enough to have had a great father growing up. And I am lucky enough to have him still around to be a part of my life. However, even if you didn’t have a great father growing up or in your life right now, you have a heavenly Father who is amazing.

I know sometimes it can be hard to believe that our heavenly Father is amazing, especially if we didn’t have a great earthly father. It can be hard when we look at the Old Testament and see all the things God did to see God as a caring and loving Father. I know my kids always get stuck in the book of Noah with God flooding the whole world. There were times when God’s judgment required him to do some things that I am sure He didn’t want to do. It is hard, at least for me, to reconcile that God with the God of the New Testament. The God who sent His only Son to save the sinful world. The God who would have sent His son even if it was only to save one person.

When I talk with people about how they picture God, often it is not as a loving Father. They see Jesus as loving and kind and pretty easy to talk to. However, they see God as the disciplinarian. They see Him as an older man who is sitting up in heaven on his thrown, feeling pretty high and mighty and looking down on us and waiting for us to screw up, so He can say, I told you so! It breaks my heart to hear that because I know how much God loves us. I know how much He wants us to succeed. He is not waiting for us to mess up. He is routing for us to be wildly successful. He is up there cheering us on. When we do mess up, He is there to help us through it. His heart breaks when our heart breaks.

God is rooting for you. He wants you to win. He wants you to be successful. He wants you to be able to spend eternity with Him. I think this is something many of us have trouble believing because I have heard many songs lately that have the words, “He is for you, not against you.” I don’t think it would be in so many songs if people didn’t have a hard time believing it. Songs usually speak to common areas of struggle. I promise you God is rooting for you. He wouldn’t have sent his song to die a horrible, painful death just so He could sit up in heaven and judge you, waiting for you to mess up so He can say, “I told you so.”

There are many songs that I love that show us how much God loves us. One of my favorite’s is Cory Asbury’s Reckless Love. If you don’t know that song, I highly recommend you look it up. You can even google the version with his testimony in it. He explains the Bible verse for that song and why he wrote that song. It is so beautiful. However, the song I feel the Lord wants me to share with you today is another favorite called Drops in the Ocean by Hawk Nelson. It is the song that came to mind when I wrote that God is for you, not against you. Here are the words to that song.

I want you as you are, not as you ought to be. Won’t you lay down your guard and come to Me? The shame that grips you now is crippling. It breaks My heart to see you suffering.

God does not need us to wait until we are perfect to come to Him. He is not waiting for us to be someone else, some better version of ourselves. He wants us just as we are. I love how it is asking us to lay down our guard and come to Him. How many of us struggle with that? We have our guard up, and maybe it is for a really good reason. Maybe we have been hurt a lot in this world by people who should have loved and protected us. God knows why we have our guard up, and yet, with Him, we don’t need it. He is asking us to let down our guard and just come to Him as we are. He can see the shame that has a hold on us and it breaks His heart to see us suffering so much. It breaks His heart to see us holding onto shame when He could take it all away if we just let Him.

The song goes on to say: Cause I am for you. I’m not against you. Why do we think God is against us? Why do we think He is hoping we fail? Where did this idea come from? If we look at the Bible as a whole, there is far more in there about God being a loving God who saves his people than there is about God rooting for His people to fail. Even when it comes to Sodom and Gomorrah, He was willing to save them if even ten of them were righteous, and yet none were to be found. God does not want even one of His children to perish. He is not wanting us to fail. He is for us, not against us. He is for you, not against you! Don’t believe the lies of the enemy. God is for you!!

My very favorite part of this song is:

If you wanna know how far My love can go, just how deep, just how wide. If you wanna see how much you mean to Me. Look at My hands, look at My side. If you could count the times, I'd say you are forgiven; it’s more than the drops in the ocean.

This part took my breath away the first time I really heard it. If you want to know how far my love can go, just how deep, just how wide. If you want to see how much you mean to me, look at my hands, look at my side. Man, it really hit me. God sent Jesus to save me. If I was the only one on earth, He would have still sent Jesus. Look at his hands; He has the wounds of the cross. Looks at His side, where they pierced him with a spear. He did that for me. Does that not help you to see how much God loves you?

I also love that it says, If you could count the times I’d say you are forgiven, it’s more than the drops in the ocean. Could we even count the drops in the ocean? We think God is up in heaven waiting to catch us doing something wrong, and yet this song is saying that he is up there forgiving us every time we do something wrong. He has forgiven us more times than we can even count. How amazing is that?

The song also says, “Don't think you need to settle for a substitute. When I'm the only love that changes you.” Did you know that God’s love could change you if you let it? The love that we get from others here on earth does not change us. God’s love is the only love that changes us. When we realize how much we are loved by God. When we realize He is for us and not against us, our whole world can change. We will have a confidence that those around us can’t understand. It is a confidence in who we are because of who God created us to be. It is a confidence that no matter what we have done or will do, God will always love us. He is always rooting for us and wanting us to succeed.

God is always around us. If we look back to today’s verse, it says, “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” God goes before us and behind us. He lays His hand on us and guides us. We can count on Him to always be there. We can count on Him to show us the path he wants us to take.  He hems us in, behind, and in front. He is there, creating a barrier of protection around us. He is for us, not against us.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each of us listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you, and we thank you for always being there for us. We thank you for being for us and not against us. We thank you for forgiving us so often. We thank you for wanting us as we are, not as we ought to be. You are amazing. We ask you to help give us a renewal of the mind when it comes to how we see you. We ask that you help conform our minds to who you really are instead of who we might think you are. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I had a vision of Jesus, and we were following him, and we were just dancing along this road and rejoicing, following him. And he was dancing, and we were having a grand old time. The sense that I got was that no matter what we go through or the burden we have to carry, He does bring us through it. And he always gives us the joy back, and we know our joy is in him. So we'll dance our way into the kingdom someday.”

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Don’t Stop Praying

Jeremiah 29:12 “Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.”

I heard this song on KLOVE this morning called Don’t Stop Praying by Matthew West. I was wondering if I should use it for my podcast this morning, and then I saw on Facebook the verse above, and I figured it was the Holy Spirit telling me you should use it. A week ago today, I did an episode about how we don’t have to fear and we don’t have to despair because God is always there for us. He will bring us back from faraway places, and He will bring our children back, too. I know this brought people some comfort as they are really struggling right now and that episode was definitely words of encouragement for them.

This morning, when I heard this song, I thought that it goes well with the episode about not fearing as Jesus hears our cries and answers our prayers. He tells us this often: I think we just struggle to either hear Him or maybe we just struggle to believe Him. I am not sure which, but I think this song can help build us up especially if we are feeling down this holiday season. If this is your first holiday season without a loved one, then you are probably trying to figure out how to navigate feeling so many emotions at one time. Feeling happy for the holiday season with the family you do have but sad you can’t share it with the ones you have lost. Feeling angry that they are not still here with you and yet grateful they get to be with Jesus. There can be so many other emotions as well.

I thought this song seemed to touch on a lot of the things we may be feeling right now, so I wanted to share it with you. The song starts off by saying:

What's your impossible? Your "I need a miracle"

What's got you barely hanging by a single thread?

What looks so hopeless now? What weighs down your heart with doubt?

 

What is your impossible? What is that thing you are praying for that you just can’t see a way out? You can’t see a way through. You can’t see any solution, and yet you really need a solution. What is that thing that you are looking at and saying, “I need a miracle.” What has you barely hanging on by a single thread? What are you so upset about that you are ready to give up? You are trying not to; you are trying to hold on, but it is getting too heavy, and you are afraid you will have to let go. What looks so hopeless, and what is weighing your heart down? We all have things in our lives that we struggle with. I do believe some have it harder than others, but none of us have it easy. We all have something we struggle with. We all have heavy burdens; some are just heavier than others.

The song goes on to say:

You beg for a breakthrough, but no sign of breakthrough yet

When you've cried, and you've cried 'til your tears run dry

The answer won't come, and you don't know why

And you wonder if you can bow your head even one more time

If this is you, know you are not the only one. God’s timing can take a really long time sometimes. We beg for a breakthrough, and yet we don’t see any signs of any movement in the situation. God is working in your situation; you just haven’t seen it yet. It reminds me of the story of Bamboo. A Chinese bamboo tree is planted, watered, and fertilized daily, but there are no visible signs of growth for the first four years. In the fifth year, the bamboo tree grows rapidly, reaching heights of up to 90 feet in just six weeks. Sometimes, our breakthroughs are like that: there is no progress, and then all of a sudden, we have a huge breakthrough.

Have you been crying and crying so much that you feel you can’t cry another drop? Have you looked for answers, and yet they don’t seem to come? Do you feel like you can’t pray anymore? Like you can’t even bow your head just one more time? Do you try to pray, and yet no words come? You are not alone. If this is you, don’t give up. As the song says:

Don't stop praying

Don't stop calling on Jesus' name

Keep on pounding on Heaven's door

And let your knees wear out the floor

 

Even when all seems pointless, even when you feel like your prayers aren’t being heard, don’t stop praying. Don’t stop calling on Jesus’s name. Jesus promised us that whatever we ask for in His name will be given to us so that His Father in Heaven will be glorified. So, don’t stop asking. We are told over and over again in the Bible: ask, and you shall receive. We don’t know when, where, or how we will receive, but God promises us when we ask, we shall receive. I love how it says, “Keep pounding on Heaven’s door and let your knees wear out the floor.” This paints the picture of someone who is desperate for their prayers to be answered. How badly do you want your prayers answered? Are you asking the Lord every now and then, or are you pounding on Heaven’s door and letting your knees wear out the floor?

Don't stop believing

'Cause mountains move with just a little faith

And your Father's heard every single word you're saying

So, don't stop praying

 

Don’t stop believing, and He will come through for you. Don’t stop believing he can move the mountain in front of you. Don’t stop believing He can fix your situation or heal your pain, sorry, and grief. Don’t stop believing He will find you that spouse you are looking for or give you that baby you are wanting so badly. You don’t need a lot of faith, just a mustard seed size, so don’t stop believing. I promise you God has heard every word you are saying. He hears you and He is working all things for your good in His timing. I know that is the hardest part, waiting on his timing, and yet His timing is perfect.

The song goes on to say:

He's close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit

The Alpha and Omega knows how your story ends

When you've cried, and you've cried 'til your tears run dry

The answer won't come, and you don't know why

And you wonder if you can bow your head even one more time

Oh, do it one more time

And don't stop praying

God is close to the brokenhearted. I have learned recently that sometimes, when you feel the farthest from the Lord, it is actually when the Lord is closest to you. You may not be able to feel Him there for one reason or another, but He is right there with you. The Alpha and the Omega knows you, He knows how your story ends and not just in a general sense. The creator of the universe knows you so personally that He knows how your specific story ends. Sit with that for a minute and realize how amazing that is. God is close to you, even when you are brokenhearted. He is with you, don’t stop praying!

Don't stop praying for the prodigal

Don't stop praying for the miracle

Hallelujah, hallelujah, and amen

Don't stop praying that addictions end

Don't stop praying for deliverance

Hallelujah, hallelujah, and amen

Oh, don't stop praying for the sickness healed

Don't stop praying for His power revealed

Hallelujah, hallelujah, and amen

No, don't stop praying for the Kingdom come

Don't stop praying that His will be done

Hallelujah, hallelujah, and amen

Don't stop praying

Wow, how does Matthew West know exactly what you are praying for? I don’t know about you, but I am praying for almost every one of the things listed here. I love this encouragement to keep praying, don’t stop. No matter how pointless it may seem at times, you are making a difference with your prayers. Keep asking the Lord to intervene. He hears all your prayers and He loves persistence. He has at least two parables about persistence in the Bible.

The verse for today’s episode says, “Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.” God is promising us right here in this verse that when we call upon Him and pray to Him, He will hear us. God always keeps His promises. So, if we call upon Him and come to him and pray, then He will hear us. He will hear our prayers for our prodigal to come home. He will hear our prayers for the miracles we really need. He will hear our prayers for the addiction to end and our prayers for deliverance. He will hear our prayers for the sickness to be healed and for His power to be revealed. He will hear us praying for His kingdom to come, and His will be done. God hears your prayers; I promise you they are not falling on deaf ears, and He is not ignoring you. He is working in your situation in the perfect way and in His perfect timing. Don’t stop praying!!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to keep praying, and yet we get weary sometimes. Can you help lift us up and put us back on our feet when we fall down? Lord, can you give us the strength and perseverance we need to keep praying even when we feel like we can’t even bow our heads one more time? We love you; we know you can do the impossible, and yet, at times, the voices of the world drown out those thoughts and make us think our problems are too big. Help us to see you are bigger than any problem we might have.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I surround you with my comfort. All you go through, I will use to help others. I hold your hand. I will not abandon you. Move forward. I will empower you.”

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Today’s witnesses are from the Encounter Ministries website. Encounter Ministry has healing services as well as several conferences throughout the year. These testimonies are all from people who attended either a healing session or their conference. I love that Jesus is still healing today. I don’t think everyone knows this or believes this. This is why I think it is so important that we are constantly reminding people of that amazing fact. Nothing is too hard for Jesus to heal. It is also important that we remember it is not just physical healing but emotional and mental ones, too! If you have a loved one suffering right now, it is not too late, and it is not too severe. God is the God of the impossible. He can heal them, just ask.

Diana- In June 2017, I was diagnosed with Relapse Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. My symptoms started in December of 2016 when I got my first lesion in my neck. From that day until the healing session, I had not had a single moment without extreme discomfort from itching, burning, shocks, buzzing, twitching, weakness, etc. Since the healing, I have had none of those. I have been able to reduce my medications to the levels they were pre-MS. I am scheduled for MRIs and am looking forward to seeing if the lesions are still there or if they’ve been healed, as well as my symptoms.
I will admit I was highly skeptical going into the session, having been anointed by a priest and several other healers praying over and for me throughout the years. Praise God, I agreed to try. He has worked a miracle.
I am not 100%. You try laying in bed all day, every day for 6 years, and see how much stamina and strength you have. I had to relearn how to walk without my previous balance issues from MS. I still fall down occasionally, but I get back up with a laugh and a joke.

Joan- During the Healing Session with Father Mathias, he mentioned Autoimmune Disease. He also mentioned eyes. At that precise moment, my eyes were flooded with moisture. Previously, I have been treated for chronic eye dryness from Raynaud’s Disease. My eyes were so dry that I instilled drops 6-8 times a day. I was not asking for that, but that is what happened to me. I’m so grateful. God is good and faithful. It was an unforgettable conference!

Karen- Before attending the North West Encounter Conference in 2019, I had a vision while praying of Jesus on his knees, washing my feet, and looking up at me with a look of completeness (meaning total absolute or fully carried out, thorough). Jesus then stood up and placed a white heavenly cloak/mantle around my shoulders. I had this vision several times during the weekend conference. While this was going on, during the sessions on Saturday, I was suffering greatly from a migraine. I have suffered migraines since I was a little girl. (I am currently 58). Sometimes lasting 2 to 5 days and up to 7 days at a time. It had been a miserable experience. However, it was especially challenging at the Conference as I was trying to stay focused and open to the Lord. By the time Saturday night came, I was physically sick and in tremendous pain from my migraine. While being prayed over earlier by the Encounter Team, I saw Jesus declaring over me that I no longer need to carry two crosses. One of the crosses was that of my own, and the other was that of my daughter, who is in a wheelchair. The vision allowed me to see two crosses lying side by side. Immediately, I felt lighter by recognizing this! Also, I was taken back to a childhood memory of falling, and I thought, perhaps this is the root of my migraines. Having talked to one of the team members, I was encouraged to consider staying until Saturday night instead of going home because of the pain. I believed that Jesus had something more in store for me. I decided to stay and press through the pain. During a time of praise and worship, Fr. Mathias came through and placed hands on my head, and prayed for more of the Holy Spirit. I knew then I was to receive Grace upon Grace from Jesus. I began to experience chills while also experiencing an inner warmth. Even after I went home that night, I continued to experience the presence of God in my body for some time. And, then I noticed it – my migraines disappeared and have not returned since that day in June 2019. I am writing this Testimony of Healing nearly a year to the day later to testify and give all the Glory to God for my personal healing, both physically and for the special love that he has for me and you! Though I do get headaches occasionally, they are less frequent and short-lived as I continue to pray and claim Jesus’ healing over my life, and sure enough, they go away in his precious name. Praise God for the Grace of Jesus living in us! Many Blessings and Love to and for the Encounter Ministries.

Jeremiah 17:14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

Alexis- I had an incredible encounter with God! I was physically healed, internally healed and spiritually filled. Praise the Lord! I came to the Summer Intensive not really knowing what to expect. I was invited by some ladies at Church. I am a Pentecostal to Catholic convert, and I came from a very charismatic evangelical church. At this conference, I started raising my hands in worship again. I had done this before, but not since I became Catholic seven years prior.

On the third night, the physical healing night, the speaker asked if anyone was in physical discernible pain. There was a storm that had passed through earlier that day, and my body ached. I was in a car accident in 2005, and I injured the cervical vertebrae C5 in my neck from whiplash. I had been living with headaches and pain for years. I have been going to the chiropractor more than once a week for the last fifteen years. The second major injury to my spine occurred in the summer of 2019 while I was strawberry picking with my son. I had bulged a disk in my lower back L5. I had to go to physical therapy for six weeks after that to help strengthen my back. The physical therapist had told me to think every time that I bent down that I had about one hundred thousand more bends left for the rest of my life and to use them carefully. My middle back was also aching, most likely from picking up my forty-pound son. I have also had lung issues for years and had trouble taking deep breaths. Each of these physical ailments was healed one at a time. The women praying over me were amazing, and they began to pray fervently. My middle back was healed first. Then, it felt like something was removed or lifted off from my chest, and I could easily take a deep breath. Then, something was released in my lower back. I bent down, expecting the familiar twinge, but it was gone. I could move freely. Lastly, I felt something being removed from my neck, and I felt the release. Everything that I had asked to be healed was healed. I was no longer in physical discernible pain. The most amazing part for me was that I could sense the presence of my deceased husband, so I knew he was praying for me. This was confirmed when one of the women who was praying for me shared a vision of the heavens opening up and my husband’s hand touching me in all the places that I was healed.

The fourth and last night was the internal healing night. I have suffered a lot of loss in my life. When I was seven years old, my little sister died, and my parents divorced. I became very good at building an internal wall to protect myself. My husband died in 2016, three days before our only son was born. But the most recent loss that hit me like a ton of bricks was the loss of one of my students. I am a high school science teacher, and one of my Physics students died in a car crash in March 2019. The day after she got the highest grade on the Unit Test in my class, I was so excited to tell her that all of her hard work had paid off. Then I got the news that she had died that morning from complications from the accident, and it hit me harder than I expected. When the prayer team came around to pray, I sank to the floor and cried. Then I received a vision of a dam blocking the flow of water that was starting to crack, and it was preventing the source of the water from pouring out abundantly. They began praying for me, and I felt the dam burst out of me. The wall was gone, and the fountain of life and joy was free to pour out of me. I just kept saying AMEN in confirmation! I was really moved by the last speaker of the night, Sarah. Through praying with her, I had an image of myself as a child sitting on Jesus’ lap, loved and safe. Jesus spoke to me in this place and said, “Come here often, and I will give you rest.” I had found the source of healing, strength, joy, peace, comfort, and so much more. I came to the conference very defeated, empty, and angry as a Catholic. I did not want to be Catholic anymore. I left the conference healed, refreshed, renewed, and filled with the Holy Spirit!

Thank you all so much for sharing your stories, and thank you to Encounter Ministries for displaying them on your website so that all of our faiths can be built up by them. Thank you also for hearing the call to Teach, Equip, and activate the world with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You are changing the world.

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Do I Know Who I Am?

John 8:14 “Jesus responded, “Just because I am the one making these claims doesn’t mean they’re invalid. For I absolutely know who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I’m going. But you Pharisees have no idea about what I am saying.”

This was not the verse I thought I would be using this morning. I first went to look at John 8 for verse 12, which says, “Then Jesus said, “I am light to the world, and those who embrace me will experience life-giving lights, and they will never walk in darkness.” Is that a great verse, or what? I think we all know Jesus is the light of the world. We have probably even said that before. However, I am not sure we all know that means we will never walk in darkness. Some of us may feel like we are walking in darkness right now. However, this verse is telling us that if we embrace Jesus, we will experience life-giving lights and will never walk in darkness.

Why do we feel like we are walking in darkness, then? Is the enemy blocking out this life-giving light? Are we looking for this light in all the wrong places? Why isn’t this life-giving light shining through into our darkness? I know some people who are very close to the Lord, and yet this year has been really tough for them. They feel they are walking in darkness right now, and they feel like they can’t even pray. Maybe you are in this place too? If so, I want to assure you that the Lord is with you, even in this darkness.

I have studied something called the Dark Night of the Soul in depth this year as some of the women in my mentoring group really wanted to learn more about it. One big thing that I learned is that even though the Lord seems really far away from you when you are going through it, He has actually never been closer to you. I learned sometimes it is necessary for us to go through a dark period where we receive no consolation from the things that used to bring us consolation so that we can learn to rely only on the Lord and not on the feelings we get from Him. We need to continue to have faith in doing the things we are used to doing, even when they don’t bring us great joy, comfort, or even peace.

The people who have gone through a Dark Night of the Soul all have at least one thing that helped them: being faithful in their prayers and their spiritual habits, even when they received nothing back from them. People who are going through a Dark Night of the Soul feel extremely far from the Lord. They can’t feel His presence, they don’t hear His voice, they don’t feel any consolation. Yet, God is right there by their side, giving them the strength to persevere, and when they come out of it, they will be so much stronger and closer to the Lord.

I thought that was what this whole episode was going to be about. They I read on a bit further, and I saw the verse for today. When I read it, the words just pierced my heart immediately. Let me read it to you again. “Jesus responded, “Just because I am the one making these claims doesn’t mean they’re invalid. For I absolutely know who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I’m going. But you Pharisees have no idea about what I am saying.” the words that pierced my heart were, “For I absolutely know who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I’m going.” As soon as I read it, I heard that voice inside me say, do you? Do you absolutely know who you are, where you’ve come from, and where you are going?”

I knew those questions were ones that I needed to share with all of you because they are great questions. I was praying with some youth over the weekend, and identity seemed to be something they struggled with, too. There is so much confusion and chaos in the world today. That is from the enemy. God is not the author of confusion and chaos. He is the author of peace. The enemy wants us to question who we are. He wants us to question where we came from and where we are going. If we are looking to the world to help us define who we are, then, of course, we would be confused. Our identity doesn’t come from the world; it comes from God. He is our creator. He knows exactly who He created us to be.

We tend to associate our identity with our vocation or our jobs. For instance, I am a mom and a wife. I might think that is my identity. However, my most important identity is that I am a child of God.

There are so many songs out there that remind us of who we are in God’s eyes. They remind us of our identity. There is a Lauren Daigle Song called I Believe. The chorus of that song says, “ You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing. You say I am strong when I think I am weak. And you say I am held when I am falling short. And when I don't belong, oh You say I am Yours, And I believe (I). Oh, I believe (I). What You say of me (I). I believe. The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me. In You, I find my worth, in You, I find my identity.

As you can see in this song, God’s truth is contrary to most of what we hear from the world. God says we are loved. He says we are strong. He says we are held; we are never alone. The world tells us we are on our own. It tells us we aren’t good enough, and it tells us no one will love us unless we pretend to be someone that we aren’t. Those lies are not from the Lord. I bet it makes Him so sad when we believe those things about ourselves. Kind of like how we feel when we hear our kids say they don’t like things about themselves.

One of my sons used to say that he hates how he looks. He said he looks in the mirror and hates how the person looking back at him looks. He is now starting to love the way he looks. He has found a style of clothes that he likes. He has found out how to wear his hair. I am not sure if he likes it because others are starting to notice him more or if people are starting to notice him more because he is more confident in who he is. It makes my heart so happy that he likes who he is right now. I imagine that is how the Lord feels when we are loving on ourselves too. When we are secure in who He says we are.

One of my newest favorite songs is called The Truth by Megan Woods. The chorus of this song says: “The truth is I am my Father's child. I make Him proud, and I make Him smile. I was made in the image of a perfect King. He looks at me and wouldn't change a thing. The truth is I am truly loved by a God who's good when I'm not good enough. I don't belong to the lies; I belong to You. And that's the truth.” I love the song because it reminds us of the truth that we are children of God. He is our Father, and he is proud of us. He looks down at us and smiles. He made us in His image, and He loves us just as we are. He wouldn’t change a thing. God is good, even when we aren’t. He makes us good if we let Him.

We do not belong to the lies of this world. We belong to God. If we wonder who we are, we can look to the Bible to see who God says we are. You can search the internet with the key words who does God say I am in the Bible and you will find lots of scripture verses. I will put the link to one article I found in the show notes. (Click Here for the article) Here are a few to get you started.

I am a child of God. (John 1:12)

I am a friend of Jesus (John 15:15)

I have been justified and redeemed (Romans 3:24)

I will not be condemned by God (Romans 8:1)

I have been called to be a saint. (1 Corinthians 1:2; cf. Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2)

I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I have been set free in Christ (Galatians 5:1)

I am chosen, holy, and blameless before God. (Ephesians 1:7)

There are so many others, but I don’t want to keep you here all day. I invite you to click on the link below and read all the different parts of your identity in Christ. It really is amazing. We think we don’t know who we are, but then, when we read the Bible, it tells us very specifically who we are. Can you imagine how different your life would be if you absolutely knew who you were, where you’ve come from, and where you’re going? You can find those answers in the Lord. He will show you if you just spend some time with Him and ask Him. What have you got to lose? I promise you will find better answers than you have been getting from the world.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to learn who we are to you. Help us to learn our true identity.  Help us to know, like Jesus did, who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. Help us turn to you for those answers. We love you, Lord. We are tired of believing the lies of the enemy. Help us to believe the truth of who we truly are. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I felt convicted as I was doing today’s episode that next month’s theme for mentoring will be identity. Why not start the year off knowing who we truly are and who God created us to be? I hope you will join us as I think it will be amazing to finally be able to replace the lies of who the world says we are with the truth of who God says you are. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Leave all behind that is troublesome to you. I will heal it. I will fix it.”

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What is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception?

Today, I decided to do something a little different.  I usually begin by sharing a scripture verse with you.  However, today is a very special day, at least in the Catholic Church.  There is a lot of confusion about this day and so I wanted to explain what we are actually celebrating today and why we are celebrating it.  Today, in the Catholic Church, we celebrate the Immaculate Conception.  When I was growing up I never understood how Mary could have immaculately conceived Jesus on the 8th of December and then delivered him on December 25th.  It didn’t make sense to me and yet I didn’t really question it.  It was not until I was an adult, I am not sure how many years ago, that I learned what we were truly celebrating.  I found this great article that explains what we are celebrating and why.  It is called, “8 Things You Need to Know About the Immaculate Conception,” by Jimmy Akin.  I will put a link for the article in the show notes.  (Click Here) for the article. This is where I found the information for this episode.

The Immaculate Conceptions is not referring to Jesus’ conception, it is referring to Mary’s conception.  Mary has a human mother and father, her conception was not the same as Jesus’.  However, it was special in another way.  Here is how the Catholic Church explains it:

CCC490 To become the mother of the Saviour, Mary “was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.” The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as “full of grace”.  In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace.

CCC491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. 

This means that Mary was not only free from original sin, but she was also free from person sin as well.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:

CCC493 The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God “the All-Holy” (Panagia), and celebrate her as “free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature”.  By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long. “Let it be done to me according to your word. . .”

The next question Akin asks is, “If Mary was free from sin, does that mean she didn’t need Jesus to die on a cross for her?"

He answers, “No. What we've already quoted states that Mary was immaculately conceived as part of her being “full of grace” and thus "redeemed from the moment of her conception" by "a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race."

The Catechism goes on to state:

CCC492 The “splendour of an entirely unique holiness” by which Mary is “enriched from the first instant of her conception” comes wholly from Christ: she is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son”.  The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” and chose her “in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love”.

CCC508 From among the descendants of Eve, God chose the Virgin Mary to be the mother of his Son. “Full of grace”, Mary is “the most excellent fruit of redemption” (SC 103): from the first instant of her conception, she was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.

The next question Akin asked is, “How does this make Mary a parallel of Eve?”  His is answer is:  Adam and Eve were both created immaculate--without original sin or its stain. They fell from grace, and through them mankind was bound to sin.  Christ and Mary were also conceived immaculate. They remained faithful, and through them mankind was redeemed from sin. Christ is thus the New Adam, and Mary the New Eve.

The Catechism notes:

CCC494 . . . As St. Irenaeus says, “Being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert. . .: “The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith.”  Comparing her with Eve, they call Mary “the Mother of the living” and frequently claim: “Death through Eve, life through Mary.”

Another question Akin asked was, “Was it necessary for God to make Mary immaculate at her conception so that she could be Jesus' mother?”

Akin writes, “No. The Church only speaks of the Immaculate Conception as something that was "fitting," something that made Mary a "fit habitation" (i.e., suitable dwelling) for the Son of God, not something that was necessary. Thus in preparing to define the dogma, Pope Pius IX stated:

And hence they [the Church Fathers] affirmed that the Blessed Virgin was, through grace, entirely free from every stain of sin, and from all corruption of body, soul and mind; that she was always united with God and joined to him by an eternal covenant; that she was never in darkness but always in light; and that, therefore, she was entirely a fit habitation for Christ, not because of the state of her body, but because of her original grace. . . .

For it was certainly not fitting that this vessel of election should be wounded by the common injuries, since she, differing so much from the others, had only nature in common with them, not sin. In fact, it was quite fitting that, as the Only-Begotten has a Father in heaven, whom the Seraphim extol as thrice holy, so he should have a Mother on earth who would never be without the splendor of holiness [Ineffabilis Deus]."

Many of you listening may have already known all about this special day.  However, I felt it was important to explain as I remember when I first found out what we were celebrating I was confused.  I didn’t really understand at first and I would have loved to have had this article back then.  I know there are some people who don’t understand that we aren’t celebrating Jesus’ immaculate conception and so I wanted to clear up any misunderstandings about this day.  For those of you who are Catholic, just in case you don’t know, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conceptions is a holy day of obligation.  I hope you all enjoyed this little explanation and I hope you check out the article for more information.  

Dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful you gave us Mary so she could say yes to having your one and only son.  We are so grateful you came up with a plan to save us.  We are grateful for all you have done for us over the years.  We don’t deserve anything and yet you give us so much.  We thank you Lord.  We love you and we celebrate and honor your beautiful daughter Mary today.  We honor you and your plan for her life.  You are so amazing how you plan everything out in advance.  You are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  You are truly remarkable and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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Let’s Not Sleepwalk Through Life

1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 "But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.”

Just before these verses, St. Paul was talking about how no one knows when Jesus will come again. The time is not for us to know. However, he is saying that we are not in the dark because we know that He is coming, so how can we be taken off guard by any of this? We know the Lord will come again to judge the living and the dead. We say this each week in the Nicene Creed. This should not be a surprise to us. What Paul is saying in this first part of the verse is that we are at an advantage. There are people who do not believe; they do not go to church, and they do not follow God and all His ways. We are not those people. Even though we don’t know exactly when the Lord will return, we believe He will return at some point. This means we can always be ready for His return.

The when He is returning is not as important as the fact that He is returning. We know this to be true, and so we can be prepared. We can make sure whenever that day comes, we are ready to go. The verse goes on to say that we are sons of light and daughters of day. We live under wide, open skies and know where we stand. I am such a big fan of the light. I love thinking of God as the light. I like thinking about how we are children of light. We walk in light and not in darkness.

I know some of you feel like you are walking in darkness right now. You feel like you can’t see the light. If this is you, I want you to remember that you are a child of the light. The enemy can try and hide the light from you. He can try to cast shadows, so you think you are living in the darkness. However, He can’t take all the light away because the light lives inside of you. You have the Spirit of God living inside of you, and that is all the light that you need. When you feel like you are surrounded by so much darkness, call on the Holy Spirit to light your way.

I love the next line in these verses, “So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart.” This is such great advice. How many of us have been sleepwalking through life? I am part of Big Life mentoring with Pamela Crim, and this is a big reason many people join this group. They feel they are sleepwalking through life. We are meant to live life to the fullest. It says in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” God does not want us to waste this life that we have. He doesn’t want us to go about our days in a fog. If we are not careful, we can just fall into a routine and go through life on autopilot.

Did you know that 40-45% of your decisions are automatic based on your habits? That is almost half of all our decisions. That is a lot. What if we don’t have good habits? Does that mean we are not making good decisions? Frequently, yes. For instance, I used to be in the habit of eating pretty healthy. That meant when my husband took out the package of Oreos, I didn’t instinctively reach over and grab one. I knew that was not going to be good for me, so I didn’t take any. However, right now, I am not in the habit of eating healthy, and so when he takes out the Oreos, I grab one, ok, more than one.

St. Paul is warning us about doing this in our spiritual life. We need to be intentional in all of life, but especially in our spiritual life. It can be too easy to put things off and think we will just take care of them later. You know you need to spend time with the Lord, but he will always be there, and this movie you want to go see won’t be. You know you need to go to confession, but you could go to confession anytime, but your friends want to meet for lunch today. We know we need to love our neighbor, but that is hard, so we figure we love the next neighbor that comes along. Do you see how easy it is to “sleepwalk” through life, as St. Paul says?

We know God is coming. We need to be ready because He could come at any moment. The only thing the Bible assures us of in regard to His coming is that no one will know when He is coming and that we will be surprised and taken off guard. The verse says to let us keep our eyes open and be smart. This is great advice. Let’s not sleepwalk through life. Let’s live our lives intentionally with passion and purpose for the things we care about. The things we know are important.

The verses end with, “People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.” I love this last line of the verse. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. Imagine how different this would be if all of God’s faithful from all denominations walked around dressed in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. Imagine if you didn’t have to be afraid of offending someone when you mentioned the Lord because you knew just by looking at someone if they knew God or not.

Sometimes, when I hear people talk about their faith in God, they are not filled with faith, love, or hope. They are filled with hate, anger, disbelief, and dread. There are also so many people who are living in hopelessness and despair right now. I know people who know God; they have a personal and intimate relationship with Him, and yet they feel very much in despair and even hopeless at times. Hopeless that things are going to get better for them. But what about the rest of us? What about you? Could you be dressed with faith, hope, and love as you go out into this world? Could I be dressed with faith, hope, and love as I go into this world?

I remember I was listening to Father Mike Schmitz one time, and he was talking about how we act in the world. He said he had heard a question one time, and it stuck with him. It has stuck with me, too. If being Christian were illegal. If it were against the law to be Christian, and you were accused of being Christian and you were on trial, would they have enough evidence to convict you? In other words, can people tell, just by looking at you and talking with you, that you are Christian? We live in a world where we are afraid to offend anyone or get in trouble, as it is not popular to talk about God these days. However, who should we be more afraid of offending, God or those around us?

Jesus is coming back one day to judge the living and the dead. What if that day were today? Would you be ready? He is not going to wait for us to be ready. This verse in the Bible was written about 2,000 years ago, give or take. If we can’t be ready with 2,000 years of lead time, we will never be ready. Stop procrastinating. Stop saying you will spend time with the Lord tomorrow. Do it today! Even if it is just 2 minutes to say, “Hey God, it’s me. I just wanted to say hi and see how you are doing.” Or you can even say something like, “Hey God, I have no idea what I am doing, but I know, or I think I want more of you in my life. Please show me how.” It doesn’t matter what you say as much as it does that you say something. Don’t put it off. We are children of the light. We have the advantage of knowing Jesus is coming back. Do something with that knowledge; don’t just waste it!

Dear Heavenly Father, please bless all of those listening to this episode. Lord, we want to prepare for your coming, please help us. Please show us one thing we can do this Advent season to help us not only get ready for your coming as a baby on Christmas day but also as you're coming again at the end of time. Help us to live in a way that people know we are Christians just by knowing us. I want others to know just by looking at me or spending time with me that I am completely, madly, and deeply in love with you! Please help me, Lord. I ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, it is free to join mentoring this month. We will focus on Mary this month. I hope you will join us on Tuesday nights at 8 P. M. EST. Remember Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My precious ones know that I walk with you. That I am not even a breath away. I am part of you.”

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Have No Fear, Don't Despair

Jeremiah 30:10 “‘So fear no more, Jacob, dear servant. Don’t despair, Israel. Look up! I’ll save you out of faraway places, I’ll bring your children back from exile. Jacob will come back and find life good, safe, and secure.”

There are several things I like about this verse. Do you remember a while back when I talked about how you can personalize scripture? You can put your name in Scripture verses so you can see that God is talking to you, too! When I was first taught this, I was told whenever you see the word “Jacob” or “Israel,” you can replace it with your name. Today’s verse has both of these words right at the beginning.  I love this because it helps make it more personal when we substitute our name. Let’s try that with the first two lines of today’s verse.

“So fear no more, Catherine, dear servant. Don’t despair, Catherine.” Now you try it.

“So fear no more, Joanie, dear servant. Don’t despair, Peggy.”

“So fear no more, Jo, dear servant. Don’t despair, Nancy.”

“So fear no more, (insert your name), dear servant. Don’t despair (insert your name).”

Did that make it more personal for you when you put your own name in? I know it always does for me. How many of us really needed the Lord to give us that personal message today? How many of us needed the Lord to tell us not to fear anymore? How many of us needed the Lord to tell us not to despair?

The holidays are such a happy time for so many people. They are a time to celebrate and a time to be grateful for all that we have. It is a time to see our loved ones and hug them tight.  It is a time to eat too much food and share presents. It is a time for decorating Christmas trees and watching Hallmark movies. It is a time to celebrate the amazing miracle of God sending His only son down to earth to save us. The birth of Christ is something to celebrate for sure. There is so much good this time of year. People are generally filled with the giving spirit and you will see a lot more acts of kindness if you are on the lookout.

The holidays are also a really sad time for a lot of people. I have a friend whose daughter just died from cancer a week or two before Thanksgiving. She was in her 30’s with two small children. I can’t imagine the sadness these holidays will bring for her. My nephew’s dad is in the hospital and may have brain damage; they won’t know until he wakes up. I can’t imagine the sadness they will have this holiday season as they wait to find out if their dad will be home to celebrate with them. If their dad will ever be the same again. What about all those on the streets? All those who don’t have family or don’t see their families.

As happy of a time as it is for some of us, those lucky enough to have friends or family to celebrate with or a warm home to celebrate in. It will be just as sad for so many others. I am not sure why the Lord put that so strongly in my heart this morning. I guess because the verse was telling us to fear not and to not despair. If you are someone who is having a really difficult time this holiday season for whatever reason, I hope you know the Lord is talking to you, too! Fear not; do not despair. He is there with you. He knows this is a really difficult time for you. He is right there in the hard times with you.

I was looking through all the words of prophecy that my prayer group received in the month of August this morning, and this one just came to mind. I think the Lord wants me to share it with you. “I hear your cries, my children. Come to me, come to me in your brokenness. Do not be afraid to come. I will help you. But in my time. Wait patiently, and I will show you a way out. Know that all is possible when you trust and believe. I am here. Do not doubt it. I do hear your cries. I do feel your pain. Continue to trust, continue to believe, and I will help you.” God hears your cries, and he feels your pain. Don’t ever doubt that. There is always hope with the Lord. We just need to wait on His timing, which I know is really hard. You can do it, though, because you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

I also love the end of this verse, and I don’t want to leave you today without discussing it. The verse goes on to say, “Look up! I’ll save you out of faraway places; I’ll bring your children back from exile. Jacob will come back and find life good, safe, and secure.” The first two words are so important. “Look up!” Are we doing that? Are we looking up, or are we looking all around, trying to find the solution ourselves? Are we too busy looking at how big our problem is, or too busy looking down in shame to look up and see where our help comes from? God is our answer; He is our help. He always has been so stop looking around, stop looking down, and just look up!!

Next, it says, “I’ll save you from faraway places; I’ll bring your children back from exile.” Yes, please, to both of these. Sometimes, I feel so far away from the Lord. This promise to bring me back from those faraway places is such a source of comfort to me. I hope it is comforting to you, too! I hope you know that the Lord will bring you back, no matter how far away you go. All you have to do is ask, and He will come and get you. No matter how far you feel, no matter how deep a pit you think you are in, God will come and get you out of it. He will bring you home every single time you stray.

Probably my favorite part of this verse is one that I bet you really like, too. I’ll bring your children back from exile. How many hours, days, months, and years have you been praying for this exact thing? How many times have you been on your knees begging the Lord to bring your children back from exile? Back from the crazy things they have gotten themselves into. Back into the church. Back to the Lord. Back to your family. Back to your loving arms. Back to loving themselves. Right here in this scripture verse we have a promise from the Lord that He will bring our children back from exile. It doesn’t say that one day you will bring your children back from exile. It says that God will bring them back.

This is what we often forget. We forget that we are not the savior. It is not our job to bring our children home. It is our job to pray for them. God tells us in prayer groups all the time that we can pray our loved ones into heaven. So, yes, continue to pray for your children, always. However, you don’t have to fear, and you don’t have to despair that they are never coming home. God promises us that He will bring them home. However, He also told us in the word of prophecy from my prayer group that It will be in His time and that we need to wait patiently.

Yes, I know how hard it is to wait patiently. I was praying for God to work miracles in my family for over 15 years, and it was a long wait. It was heartbreaking for so long. As hard as I tried, I could not fix the problems in our family. It was a God job. He needed to work on all of our hearts. He needed to fix all the places we had been hurt so we could figure out how to love better. He needed to teach us so much before we were ready for all He had in store for us. He worked miracles I could never have imagined, never expected, and I am so grateful. He will do the same for you. He will bring your children home from exile. Have no fear; do not despair. Know all is possible when you believe and then wait patiently for God’s timing. I promise you, He hears your cries, He feels your pain. Continue to trust, continue to believe, and He will help you!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we are so grateful to you for bringing our children home whenever you decide to do so. Lord, we ask you to be with all those who are really struggling this holiday season. We ask you to fill them with the peace of Christ, which surpasses all our understanding. We ask you to comfort them at a time when they don’t even know what comfort they need. Lord, you know each of our needs, and you meet them perfectly. We thank you for that. We love you, Lord! You are amazing, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I’m sorry there was no episode on Tuesday. I was very sick and did not get out of bed unless I had to. I am better now. I also had to cancel mentoring that night, so if you were hoping to join in this month, you haven’t missed anything yet. I hope you will consider joining us this upcoming Tuesday night at 8 P. M EST. you can find the link on my social media page, Catherine Duggan, or you can email me at Catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com. I hope to see you there! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I hear the whisperings of your heart. I hear the moanings of your heart. They are precious to me. I hear them, and I attend to them.” Isn’t it amazing how the Lord works? I did not know this was the word for today and yet it is the Lord confirming the message above that He hears our cries and He answers them. God is so good!

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Witness Wednesday #139 More PopWe Stories (Healing)

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose three testimonies from the Healing Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear this testimony, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

Diane: I have been a Christian since the age of 16 when I accepted Jesus into my heart. I got breast cancer in 2009. I was having a lot of pain in my right breast, and I thought I was having a heart attack. My husband told me to make an appointment with my doctor he sent me for a mammogram. It came back that everything was okay, but I knew that it wasn’t. The pain continued and grew stronger than ever. I called my doctor and told him that there was something terribly wrong with me. I kept praying to God to please let the doctors find out what is wrong. The doctor sent me to a surgeon who did a biopsy. He called me the next day and told me to come in and see him and bring someone with me. I knew it was bad.

When my husband and daughter and I arrived, the surgeon told me that I had stage 4 breast cancer. We then went to an oncologist who told me I had 16 weeks to live and that I had to have surgery to remove my right breast. I also went through chemo radiation. I never stopped praying and believing in my God. I had a clinical trial and in 2011 I was told that my cancer was gone and I had reconstructive surgery.

Now it’s 2024 and Matthew West his songs helped me so much. I recently lost my husband and Matthew’s song, “Don’t stop praying” has brought me through.

Diane: On April 2, 2024, I awoke at 5am, on the floor in terrible pain. I could not get up.  It felt as if my hip was broken. I laid there for 12 hours until my family came home. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Tests showed that nothing was broken. However, the muscles in my leg were all torn. They also discovered that my kidneys had stopped functioning. Also, my potassium was dangerously high and causing an erratic heartbeat. The doctors asked me if I wanted CPR if my heart stopped. But I refused three times. Each time I refused, I closed my eyes and prayed God’s will over my life. I was filled with peace that truly is beyond understanding. The doctors have no explanation for me surviving that night. Six days after my fall, I returned home. My kidney function’s higher than it had been in the past three years. I know God spared me. I have work to do for His kingdom!

Honey: My husband was hospitalized in 2021 at the age of 40 for severe COVID. He nearly died. We have 3 children who were at the time 13, 11, and 4. He was in the hospital for 3 ½ months. Fortunately, I was the only one working at the time, so we didn’t lose income.  However, driving to see him 60 miles every other day used a lot of money.

And since I was basically a single parent, any time my kids had appointments or got sick I had to miss work. God in His infinite wisdom had blessed me with a job at a Christian school, so I didn’t have to worry about losing my job. But He didn’t just stop there. Throughout the almost 4 months of emotional struggle, God provided for our every need. God provided Christmas by having one of the members of our church take me to the store and told me to pick out 3 gifts per kid and stocking stuffers. God provided tires by having someone gift me a $300 Walmart gift card just before my tire went flat. But He didn’t just provide financially.

I live in rural Kansas where hitting deer at night is a very real issue. Neither of our cars would have survived if we had hit a deer. But God protected me the entire time by always allowing me to see the deer and stop in time with no damage to me or my vehicles. He protected me from speed traps and tickets by either slowing me down or having the cop busy with someone else when I passed speeding by to get back home to my children.

He strengthened me day after day and showed me almost every day that He was with me through the darkest time of my life. My husband’s miracle is his healing, but my miracle was an everyday occurrence. I never would’ve had the strength to go to work every day, go to the hospital and hear bad report after bad report, and be home present and active with my kids if it weren’t for God’s never-ending strength and peace. He showed me His presence in songs that played, friends at church, kids at work, strangers in my town, sunsets, and His perfect timing in all things.

While I was in it, it would at times feel overwhelming and I had to hold so tightly to each loving reminder no matter how small just to get up and get going. But after my husband came home, God allowed me to feel some of what He has protected me from. The weight of the ordeal would hit me in tiny bits here and there and I would praise God that He had protected me from that while I was in it. He has allowed me to process the grief and anxiety in snap pieces that I could handle. After seeing how He loves me, I know now that even if my husband had died, God would’ve taken care of me.

Thank you all for sharing your stories with us! It is not always easy to be vulnerable and share your story, and yet when you do, it helps so many other people. May God bless you and keep you healthy.

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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