Deuteronomy 20:4 – “For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” Whatever it is you are battling, may I remind you God is right there battling with you, fighting for you. You question if you will ever win, all while WITH GOD the victory has already been guaranteed. But goodness gracious, sometimes it doesn’t feel like it, does it? This week I’ve spoken to several women who feel totally and completely defeated. They are exhausted from the battle. Do you relate? Are you growing weary of the struggle? You probably thought at this stage of life you wouldn’t be going through THIS (whatever this is). There are some things in my own life that have just shocked the crap right out of me too. But this morning I want to give you a few truths. These truths will not get you out of the battle, but perhaps they will give you hope in the battle. Truth #1: YOU ARE OF TREMENDOUS VALUE.Is self worth a struggle for you? Do you often question your own value? Well, let’s set this straight once and for all. GOD DEFINED YOUR SELF WORTH WHEN HE SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR YOU. God says you’re worth enough to give his perfect son for and that pretty much settles it. You have no right to be thinking you’re worthless. It’s absolutely ludicrous to think your life has no value. Look at the price that has been paid for you. That’s where you get your value! I may not always get this thing right, but I know the price that’s been paid for me. And guess what, God has never once asked for a refund. He’s never regretted his choice. He confirms his choice again and again with new mercies each morning. I have no struggle with self worth because that truth has gotten down into my soul. Is this truth in your soul? Would you let it be? Would you dare to believe your self worth is defined by the God who gave his perfect son for you? My friend, when that truth gets in you, your questions of value are eliminated and you begin to see your true potential in God. The enemy knows your potential much better than you do. He knows you have the potential to be the one to rise up and impact your entire family. He knows you are THE one who could create and influence and lead. And because you are so darn valuable with all this potential, honey you have a big target on your back. It is said the birthmark of a believer is a bullseye. Ever feel like you’re targeted? You are.Ever feel like there’s a battle inside of you and all around you? There is. All good things come under attack. That’s just the name of the game. So you know what your struggle means my sister … it means you are a GOOD THING. Oh yes you are – you are a good, good thing. It’s time you get on board and see the good in you too. You are of tremendous value. You are overflowing with potential. You are ripe for progress. You are primed for a breakthrough. YOU ARE A GOOD THING, now stop tearing yourself down. Truth #2: GOD IS ON YOUR SIDE.He is for you, not against you. Whatever you are battling right now, please understand this … GOD WANTS TO GIVE YOU VICTORY IN THIS. Not temporary victory – not kindof almost victory – FULL and complete victory. Victory that leaves you shocked and in awe. Victory that has you dancing because you are completely free. Victory that leaves no doubt God did something miraculous in your life. This is the victory God wants to give you. But, can you be trusted with victory? What would you do with victory? Where would you go with victory? Would victory make you become more like the girl God created you to be, or a lot less like her?
Transcribed - Published: 7 February 2025
God has something for you, something divinely designed as your calling, your place, your territory … but you will still have to fight for it. Have you forgotten your fight? Have you decided this is far enough so you’ve stopped moving forward? Have you settled for where you are and therefore sacrificed the fullness of what God has called you to? I have a scripture for you today that will absolutely leave your jaw on the floor. It’s so personal, so direct and so perfectly timed. Are you ready? Joshua 18:3, “How long are you going to wait before taking possession of what God has given you?” Now using other translations, let me put it this way: How long are you going to put this off? How long will you neglect to go? How long are you going to waste time? How long will you delay? How long will you be slack about going and taking possession of what God has already given you? If he’s told you to go, why aren’t you going? If he’s told you to make a change, why are you still waiting? If he’s told you to move forward, why are you just sitting there? If he’s told you there’s so much more, then honey, why in the world are you settling for less? Oh, I know why … it’s the exact same reason I too hold back and settle. Because I don’t want to really work for it. I’ve gotten lazy and easy has become more appealing to me than destiny. I don’t need the full promise, just this little bit of promise has become good enough for me. That’s just the truth. That’s where I am, and I bet that’s where you are too. BUT, MY SISTER, THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT YOU. This is bigger than you. This is about future generations. They won’t be where they’re supposed to be if you don’t go where you’re supposed to go and do what you’re supposed to do. You’re creating the gap. You’re digging the ditch where others will get stuck. In your selfish feelings of just wanting to coast and take it easy, you’re not only delaying what God has called you to, but you’re denying those behind you. MOVE GIRL, GET OUT THE WAY! (There’s a song for that … we won’t sing it today.) Okay, now context. Remember how God’s people were the Israelites who had been stuck in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. God raised up a chosen leader for them named Moses. Moses went to the King of Egypt, Pharaoh, and demanded he let God’s people go. Pharaoh didn’t want to lose his slaves, so he didn’t let go easily. God had to bring 10 different plagues on the Egyptians until they were so desperate and miserable that they finally set the Israelites free. But where would these people who had spent generations being slaves go and how would they get there? Where they would go would be the land God had promised them. A land about 250 miles away from their former captivity in Egypt. How they would get there would be nothing short of miraculous. God would part seas for them to walk across on dry land. He would guide them by day with a cloud and by night with a pillar of fire, showing them precisely where to go. He would make quail to rain down on their camp each evening for meat, and in the morning they would wake to manna (a stick bread substance) on the ground. Their journey was nothing short of absolutely miraculous. All leading them to a land God promised to be theirs. But of course, there were problems on the way. Doubt and fear crept in because of the battles they would have to face in claiming their promised land. They complained to their leader Moses and refused to move forward to step into their God promised destiny. Out of fear,
Transcribed - Published: 6 February 2025
What would it look like to let God’s Holy Spirit truly guide your life? Where would you go? What would you do? And dang, what would he have you give up? That’s scary, isn’t it? Total release of control and full commitment to following a guide you can’t even see? I think that’s why we hold back. We’re afraid of where God’s spirit may lead us. We’re afraid of what highly uncomfortable thing God’s spirit may ask us to do. And we’re really afraid of what God’s spirit might ask us to give up. But, remember, God is an EXPERT GUIDE! He has complete control. He will not and cannot fail. He knows precisely what he is doing and what he is asking you to do, and it’s all for a greater purpose. Would you trust him? I’ve put my life into the hands of so many random people. Why? Because I’ve trusted them as my guide. In Southern California I strapped myself to a complete stranger and jumped out of an airplane with him. My life was in his hands. I didn’t ask to see his certification. I didn’t inquire to see how many jumps he had made. I simply trusted because he was wearing a jump suit that he knew what he was doing. I trusted his lead. We jumped. In Bali, I sat on a wooden swing with a itty bitty rope tied around my waist and let this tiny, very excited man, push me. But this wasn’t just any swing, it was a swing hanging off a cliff 20 stories high. Again, it was the equivalent of a child’s homemade swing tied on a tree, just slightly more dangerous and exhilarating. The tiny, excited man yelled, “let go, lean back”, and what do you think I did? I let go and leaned back with only a flimsy rope tied around my waist. Why did I trust him? Because he worked there. It may have been his first day, I didn’t ask. On the coast of Texas, I paid a man in a leather bomber jacket $300 and I climbed in his open air, WW2 bi-plane. We’re flying and he says, “are you ready for me to cut the engine”, I said yeahhhhh! Suddenly, the old airplane goes silent, it glides, then it goes into a nose dive and barrel roll. After a few seconds, I hear the cranking of the old engine trying to restart. Put, put, put … nothing. Try again. Engine cranking and it stops. After a few tries, it fires back up and we shoot back up in the air. I’ve done a lot of adventurous things, this was my favorite. After we land, my husband begins inquiring about the airplane and says, “How long have you had this.” The leather bomber jacket Tom Cruise look alike pilot says, “I just bought it last week. In fact, you’re my first people to take up. How in the world did you even find me?” Ohhhhhhh …… We simply trust who we believe to be the expert guide. This morning I learned about an adventure at Africa’s Victoria Falls, which is two times higher than Niagra Falls. At the very top of the waterfall, you swim out across the river, then an expert guide holds your feet as your allow the water to take you to the very edge of the waterfall and hang out over it. You have to trust the guide. Why would you trust them? Because it’s what they do. Would I do it? ABSOLUTELY! I don’t know, maybe you have trust issues. But maybe those trust issues are keeping you from some of life’s most beautiful adventures and opportunities. My sister, God is an EXPERT GUIDE, and he can be trusted. It’s not his first day on the job. He’s not reckless or careless. No one handed him the uniform and asked him to fill in for the day. If God says “let go”, you can really let go. If he says swim to the edge,
Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2025
You have tremendous power in your life. Power is simply defined as the ABILITY to DO SOMETHING. You have the ability to do something. The ability to change, the ability to begin, the ability to keep going. I believe within you is the power to do things that would simply blow your mind. A work of the enemy is to make you feel incapable of doing something, but you are so powerful. Understand this, God has given you the gift of his Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide you. While the Holy Spirit often sounds mysterious and honestly a little bit hookey, it is simply God’s power at work within you. In John chapter 14 verses15-31, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, preparing them for his own death and he explains that while he is going away and they will no longer see him, the Holy Spirit is coming to them to live in them. God is literally living IN them. Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you and later will be in you. When the Father sends the Advocate as my representative – that is the Holy Spirit – he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” You and I don’t have to wander around like lost puppies in this world. Troubled and afraid is not your place. Perpetually confused is not your assignment. We have a guide who is always with us. He promises to teach us everything and lead us into all truth. Lies cannot stand against his Spirit of truth. Fear cannot remain in the presence of his gifted peace. We have within us power. Power working within us. Our God, the one who created us, the one who knew us before he knit us together in our mother’s womb, the one who has a good plan for our lives has placed his power within you and he is working. Ephesians 3:20 “to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” You are a power house. Like literally! Oh yes you are. I’m not just saying that to be cute. You are literally housing the power of God. That power is inside of you. The power that creates, the power that heals, the power that tears down walls and moves mountains. The power that parts seas. The power that supernaturally provides. The power that changes absolutely everything. That power is in you. You are a power house because God dwells within you. What stronghold have you battled? Is there an addiction or bad habit that has held you back? Is there something in your life you truly want to change, but feel it would be so darn hard to change? Well I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it will be easy. It likely won’t be. However, you were specifically designed to be able to handle tough things. You are not weak. No matter what the enemy tries to tell you, you are NOT WEAK. You have God himself living inside of you and NOTHING is impossible for God. Nothing. So you bring your impossible. You bring it right to the foot of the cross and you lay it down and tell God you don’t want to pick it up again. Are you really ready to change? Are you really ready to make it happen this time? Are you really ready to step up to the next level of living and start living up to your God given potential. AWESOME – within you is the power to do all that and more.
Transcribed - Published: 4 February 2025
Some things are a straight up mystery. It’s a mystery how this is all going to work out for you. It’s a mystery when it will happen. You may think you know, but my sister, it’s all a mystery. You’ve been trying to understand things you were never meant to understand. And really, you’ve been trying to control things you simply aren’t equipped to control. If you’ve been trying to will and force your way through this, my guess is you’re 2 things: Exhausted and disappointed. Am I right? I don’t know how this is going to work out. It’s a mystery. Mysteries are God’s to handle, not mine to try and control. Revelation 10: 7, “But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.” What in the world does that mean? Well my friends, that is what you call a MYSTERY. That’s the secret thoughts and plans of God, and you’re not God so you’re not in on the secret. His position is to KNOW, your position is to TRUST. But sometimes a girl just wants to know WHEN … God, when are you going to make it happen? I know you’re going to use all of this for good, but when, God? Have you heard my story of my timeline with God? I learned one of my greatest spiritual lessons so far in my life with this one. I have a family situation that I’ve been begging God to fix. I’ve offered him so many preferred plans of restoration. I mean really, I’ve even done the hard part of putting it all together step by step in a way that would be absolutely fantastic and I’ve turned it over to him to use my plan. I would say, “Lord, by Christmas, make it happen.” Christmas would come and go with absolutely no progress. So I would graciously extend my deadline with God and give him more time. God was continually on an extension with me until finally one day the Lord said to me, “Pamela, take me off your timeline.” Then he asked me for 30. “I’ll do it in 30, will you trust me for 30?” I mean y’all, that could be 30 minutes, that could be 30 days … I’ve been waiting for nearly 6 years, so okay, I’ll make that deal. Lord, I’ll give you 30. Then, he revealed to me he was asking me for 30 years. Will I trust God if I have to wait for 30 years? If this heartache and disappointment continues for 30 more years, will I still wake up and choose joy? Will I still show up and move forward without misery? That day, I gave the Lord 30 … 30 years. And I’ve felt tremendous peace since. Nothing has gotten better, in fact in my human eyes, things have doubled down to be far worse, but it was not a battle for me to choose joy today because I’ve already embraced the mystery of it all. If you’ve been asking God WHEN, here’s your answer, Sis. Jesus said in Acts 1:7, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” LEAVE SPACE FOR GOD’S MYSTERY. How? When? Why? That’s all a mystery. That’s God’s space. Trying to fill the mysterious space of God will only discourage you, disappoint you, and disillusion you. Yesterday I was listening to a teaching of Lysa Terkurst and she said, “Leave room for the mystery of God”, and in that instant it’s as if the world stood still for me. I have a 30 year committed space for the unfolding of God’s mystery, and in that space the devil has been denied. He doesn’t get to play in my thoughts an...
Transcribed - Published: 3 February 2025
God has a plan for your life, and we are told it is a good plan. Knowing God specifically created me for a plan that is radically good leaves me feeling both incredibly hopeful, and slightly panicked. What if I missed his plan? What if I screwed it up? What if I was supposed to go right and I went left? What if my past failures have disqualified me from future offerings? What if God’s plan will be too hard for me? Do you feel the same way? Slightly panicked trying to ensure you’re fulfilling these good plans for your life on the right path while continually feeling inadequate for something divine. Well, you haven’t missed it. Now, you may have been detouring and delaying, but you haven’t missed it. You may have wasted some major opportunities while you were sitting it out, but the Coach still wants you in the game to play this thing, so get yourself in there girl! Now that I’m in my late-40’s, I’m understanding what a mid-life crisis is. I once red a book that describes a man’s mid-life crisis as the red corvette in the driveway. Now I can’t see a man in a red corvette without having a giggle. Was this his scramble to get more out of life after realizing he may have been wasting his previous years? Is this his attempt to stay young and rewind time a bit? Or is it simply a man who worked hard his whole life and can finally afford the nice car he always wanted? That same book said a woman’s mid-life crisis could be starting a new career, running a marathon and going sky-diving. Check, check and check. It’s me … and it’s a whole lot of my friends too. Looking back, I see what I missed, and I don’t want to miss an ounce of it again. I’m not trying to be young again – No, at this age, I have eyes that continually search for where God is leading me. It’s the result of some wasted years with my head stuck in the sand. It’s the result of seeing exactly what God CAN do and being freaking hungry for more of that in my life. Mid-life crisis can be beyond red convertibles, new careers, marathons and thrill seeking adventures … it can be a spiritual awakening of wanting every single thing God is in, and absolutely nothing that he’s not in. It can be a deep hunger for God like you’ve never felt before. Is that where you are? Hungry for what God can do? Searching for where God is leading you? Have you lived long enough to know you can get caught in the rat race and miss the whole point of being alive? Really, why were we racing anyway? You do know the finish line is death, right? You’ve been rushing for this to all be over, and one day it will be, and guess what … you would give anything to go back to this season of life where you are now. You have things today that one day you will only wish for again. Don’t miss it while it’s here. What if where you are today is all part of that good plan you’re seeking? What if where you are is precisely what God can use best? What if being here fully in this phase of your life is the key to stepping into the next phase with more contentment and less regret? What if God’s good plans for you require you to surrender in partnership with him here and trust him fully with the future? What if you’re standing right in the middle of greatness but you’ve been choosing to rush through it? You don’t have to chase in desperation what God has for your destiny. If he has it for you, it’s there. Calm down girl. Look at the story of Joseph. I highly recommend you set aside 15 minutes today to read thi...
Transcribed - Published: 31 January 2025
Living with yourself is sometimes frustrating. You kinda screw this thing up a lot, don’t you? It’s as if the “do good” button in you is broken and you can’t get it fixed. You do good, until you aren’t doing good anymore … then you’re back on the struggle bus where you seem to have an assigned seat. Were you created to always struggle? Were you designed to fail? Are you destined for this continual up and down, in and out, doing good/then stuck again routine for all your days? No honey, you’re just created to need Jesus. You’re designed to follow him. You’re destined to a relationship with the one who can guide you exactly where you need to go. Have you seen the video of the sheep who keeps jumping in the ditch? I’m including the link in today’s transcript (https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Ef7i1DdxW/ ). I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched this video because it perfectly summarizes my walk with Jesus. It’s hilarious and it’s painfully true at the same time. Just in case you haven’t seen it let me explain. Along a dirt road, there’s a long, narrow ditch dug out. In the ditch is a sheep stuck head first. A young man comes and pulls on the sheep’s leg to free him from the ditch. The sheep stands up, shakes off the dirt, and joyfully jumps and runs with the expression, ‘yahoooo, I’ve been saved.’ Exactly 4 seconds later, with one valiant leap, it lands itself squarely back into the same ditch. Head first, feet up, stuck again. Yip, that’s me. Is that you? In need of continual rescue. Always getting ourselves stuck in something. Free until we’re not free. Like I said, it’s exhausting living with our own selves sometimes. Didn’t we just get out of the last mess? Didn’t God just rescue us from our last fiasco, now we’re in one again? Seems to me like at some point God’s gonna get tired of pulling us out every 4 seconds from our ditch diving. And how about our children who continually get themselves stuck in ditches. Is God going to just leave them there? Ahhhh, do you remember the episode from last week titled “Sheep Not Pigs.” Let’s revisit. Jesus said in John 10: 14-15, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.” We aren’t left alone to wander through our lives. We don’t have to figure this out on our own, which is really good news because if you’re like me, you still haven’t figured it all out. Guess what … you never will! You’re not supposed to know! Isn’t that reassuring! You’re not inherently broken with a messed up compass, you’re divinely designed to need a shepherd. Sheep don’t live without a guide, neither do you. Your guide is always with you. You are never alone. He knows the way and all you have to do is continually stay close to him. The Shepherd goes before the sheep to make a way for them. He ensures the path is safe, the way is clear, the enemies are removed. Just imagine a shepherd removing briars that would entangle the sheep. See him staring at the cliff knowing the sheep would surely stumble and fall, so he makes a path where it is safe instead. Envision him leading the sheep down that path, continually looking back to make sure all are staying close to him because he knows the dangers nearby. He knows how they could get stuck. He knows how they could fall. But he makes a way by going ahead of them, then calls them on behind him.
Transcribed - Published: 30 January 2025
Your problem is big. God is bigger. Your faults are great. God is greater. It seems impossible. God does the impossible. Have you forgotten the power which resides within you? You are HIS creation. His spirit lives within you. Through him you ARE capable and you will be MORE THAN a CONQUEROR. What problem are you facing on this Wednesday morning? What impossible is knocking on your door? May I remind you of of the words our great big God tucked away in Jeremiah 32:27 – “I am the Lord … is anything too hard for me?” Nothing is too hard for our God. Nothing is beyond his scope. Your impossible is 100% possible with God. Why? Because God sees it all. He sees your faults. He sees your struggles. He sees your problem. He sees your impossible. AND HE LOVES YOU TOO MUCH TO LEAVE YOU ALONE. Hear God speak your name and his power over your problems today. God says: Marisa, your anxiety is not too hard for me. Karla, your finances are not too hard for me. Ellen, your sister’s healing is not too hard for me. Gina, your future is not too hard for me. Mama, your child is not too hard for me. Daughter, your problem is not too hard for me. So what will your response be to this amazing, loving God of yours? What will you do with your problems today? Oh there are many options. You can pile up your problems and take inventory. You can talk about them. You can wallow in them. You can magnify them. Those are always popular options. Or maybe you’re more like me and you tend to do the opposite; you ignore your problems. You try your best to pretend they’re not there, as if your avoidance of the truth will somehow change it. And so the problem grows bigger as we bury our head in the sand and life spirals out of control. Life is not perfect … let us not live in la la land.Nor is it hopeless … let us not live in doom and gloom. Within you is creativity, wisdom and strength and it’s EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TODAY. You can do ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS YOU. Whatever it is you need to do today, you CAN do it because the spirit of God dwells within you and God has already made it clear, NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR HIM! Here’s what we’re going to bank on today. A promise from God in Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Do you have a problem you don’t know the answer for? Are you searching for the way, but you don’t know how to navigate this messy and unknown territory? God has promised if you will call to him, he will tell you great things you do not know. I find that promise to be so perfectly timed. I’m facing things I have no idea how to handle. Messes I don’t know how to clean up. Problems that are way bigger than me. I’ve know for a while now I can’t fix this, but now as the problem grows bigger, the worries threaten to overwhelm my mind. But God says to me, “Pamela, call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” The answers to my problems are unsearchable. They’re not found on the Google. But God has the answers and he promises to answer me when I call on him. Now I know exactly what I need to do. So here’s our action plan this morning girls: CALL TO HIM. Could it be that simple? Oh yes, it could be and it really is. The answers you seek are already in you. How do I know?
Transcribed - Published: 29 January 2025
If you knew without a doubt everything you needed to live out your wildest dreams was on it’s way, would you wake up a little different this morning? You bet you would! If you knew every detail was taken care of and you were getting ready to step into your destiny, there’s nothing that could keep you in that bed! Nothing could hold you back. There would be no struggle with your attitude, no battle with laziness, no delay in your action if you knew all you want is now barreling towards you. And I’m proposing it is! Right now, in this very moment, everything you need to fulfill the desires of your heart and step into your destiny is barreling towards you. It’s all in a beeline heading straight for you, you just don’t see it. You don’t see the connections God has aligned ahead of you. BUT THEY’RE THERE. You don’t see how every closed door is pushing you towards the right door. BUT IT IS. You don’t see how God has already gone before you and arranged to make it happen. BUT HE HAS. What if you’re already on the right path and you ARE doing the right thing? What if you’re not that far off at all? What if you’re one turn away from seeing the full, beautiful picture, and it’s bigger and better than you could have imagined? Ephesians 3:20 says that exactly what is possible, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think?” HE IS ABLE! And how does he do it? THROUGH HIS MIGHTY POWER AT WORK IN YOU!!!!!!! We’re so quick to give up at the slightest hint of delay or difficulty, when God is trying to instill within us perseverance and patience. KEEP SHOWING UP. God is reminding you this morning that you’re closer than you think! You only reap the harvest if you DO NOT GIVE UP. YOU ARE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK. All that feels like a delay has actually served the purpose of propelling you forward. Remember, an arrow can only be shot forward by first pulling it back. If you’re currently being dragged back with difficulties, perhaps you’re being prepared to launch into greatness! Now is not the time to give up on that which God has whispered to your soul. There’s a fire within you. That fire is a purpose for which you were created. A desire to do something with your life. You may not be able to put words to it and define exactly what that purpose is, but you feel it. That feeling of longing for more, that feeling of desperate restlessness, that’s a holy stirring of that which God has placed within you. Pay attention to it. Give it breath and fan that flame. God is guiding you at this very moment to position you exactly where you need to be. It’s not too late for you. The enemy tells you your opportunity has already come and gone, but it hasn’t. The enemy tells you you’re lacking, but you’re not. The enemy tells you you’ll never be good enough, but he’s a liar from hell and he only whispers his worthless lies out of fear because he knows exactly what is in you. He knows that which God has whispered to your soul, and he knows you’re just the girl to fulfill her purpose and step into her destiny. So of course he fights you. He makes you believe the struggles are too hard, the mountains are too high, and the wait is too long. But what he doesn’t want you to know is, this is your time. THIS IS YOUR TIME. Although you feel unsure, you are doing the right thing.
Transcribed - Published: 27 January 2025
There’s one animal you and I are most like. We are like sheep. There’s one thing we most need. We need a shepherd. If you study sheep, you see how helpless they often are. How they wander off and find themselves in danger. Yip, that’s us. We lose our way and we end up in a mess. Sweet little sheep we are. And this is why we have a shepherd. This is our Jesus. In John 10: 11-15 Jesus said “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus says the enemy will attack, but he will protect us. Jesus says others will come and go and not stay, but he will always remain with us. That’s Jesus, our good shepherd. To learn about a shepherd is to learn about our Jesus. I don’t suppose there are too many modern day shepherds around here out living with their sheep, so perhaps it would do us some good to have a little study to understand what Jesus is telling his sheep today. A shepherd lives with their sheep. He has 2 main jobs – Protect the sheep and guide the sheep. Sheep are rather helpless and without the shepherd guarding them, they will quickly fall prey to predator. I simply can’t imagine trying to go through this life without my shepherd. It is our personal relationship with Jesus that can give us peace in the middle of life’s greatest storms. Hey, if you’re trying to do this thing on your own, listen to me, you don’t have to. You were never made to do life on your own. You have a protector, and whether you acknowledge him or not, he has been watching out for you. Wow, if we only knew half the things God has protected us from that we never even saw coming. The enemy’s intended harm never even came into our awareness because our mighty shepherd was protecting us. I wonder how many disasters we were spared from just yesterday! Jesus is our protector, and he is our guide. A shepherd guides his sheep to pastures where they will find exactly what they need. Our shepherd guides us and it’s a good thing because much like sheep, we sure have a way of messing up directions, don’t we? Why don’t we just stick close to Jesus and follow him instead of running off and trying to make our own way? That just never ends up good, does it? But thankfully Jesus knows our tendencies and he has already prepared for our wandering nature. When we get ourselves in trouble, all we have to do is call out to him and he will find us. Isn’t it amazing to know he cares so much about us that he will come hunt us down and pull us out of whatever mess we’ve gotten into. He won’t stop until he finds us. There’s nothing he won’t do for us. I mean he’s already proven that – he died to save us. You’ve heard Jesus’ story about leaving the 99 to find the 1 lost sheep, right? Whether you realize it or not, you were once that 1 who got lost. You were straying. You were wandering. You’re only here listening and seeking today because he found you and brought you back. We are his sheep. Remember this. We are not his pigs. Here’s the difference between a sheep and a pig. A sheep and a pig can fall in the same mud,
Transcribed - Published: 24 January 2025
How comfortable is your life? Were you created for a comfortable life? Were you ever intended to seek such comfort? In today’s world we have an opportunity to be entirely too comfortable EVERY WHERE. Movie theaters now have reclining chairs and waiters, because my goodness, it just wasn’t comfortable enough to sit in the regular chairs and get yo own popcorn. Our cars have heated leather seats and engines that start with an app on our phone because dang it was hard going out the garage and starting that car yourself. Have our entire lives become about comfort? Seeking to make everything easier, cushier, fluffier? And what have we sacrificed in our lives of comfort? The Lord says in Deuteronomy 1:6 says – “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey.” Perhaps God has been saying, “Girl, you’ve stayed here long enough. It’s time to go now. Let’s go on a journey together.” But you’ve set up shop on this mountain and leaving would be so painful. You’ve bought all your pretties and made it ever so comfortable, permanently cementing yourself to a mountain that was only ever intended to be temporary. We’ve created a little bubble we live in filled with comfort … and it is trouble! The Lord told the Israelites to leave Mount Sinai and move toward the land he promised them, but where they were had become far more comfortable than the unknown they would have to travel through. In fear, they remained stuck. Is that you? Has fear caused you to stay where God has clearly told you to leave? Has fear caused you to delay your forward motion toward that which he has already promised you? Read the story for yourself, my sister, God is not pleased with our choices of settled comfort. The Israelites forfeited their promise and settled for far less than God’s preferred future for them. They were supposed to be in their blessed and bountiful Promised Land within days … but instead, they got stuck in a wilderness for 40 years because they left that mountain, but didn’t continue going. We create these little comfortable bubbles for ourselves, insulating us from the threat of failure and hardship. But, what are we forfeiting in our bubble? Let me be very clear … God didn’t create you for a comfortable, predictable life in that bubble. That was NEVER his design for his masterpiece. And remember, you are his masterpiece and you have been specifically designed to live fully. When we won’t move out of the bubble ourselves, sometimes God does the most gracious and loving thing possible, HE POPS THAT BUBBLE. If your bubble popped, it could be for your benefit. We lose that comfortable job and while it seems our world is falling apart we’re suddenly face to face with the opportunity to start the business we’ve always wanted to start, but were always too afraid to take that leap. The trouble was comfort kept us in that bubble, a bubble filled with boredom and little life living. And now the bubble is popped, we’re highly uncomfortable, AND TOTALLY FREE TO LIVE. Maybe it isn’t a job that has served as a comfortable bubble for you, maybe it is where you live or where you go to Church or your circle of friends. Maybe it’s your daily routine. While it is comfortable, let’s face it, it is BORING. It isn’t stretching you or growing you. In fact, you’re losing some of your talents and passions because you simply haven’t been using them. Don’t you want to break free of that? Don’t you want to wake up and be excited about living?
Transcribed - Published: 23 January 2025
Can you be trusted with FAVOR? Favor for things to go your way. Favor for the breakthrough you’ve been seeking. Favor for next level living. Favor to be chosen? I think of favor as God taking a personal liking to you. He chooses you, picks you out of the crowd and says “You, I like you. I pick you.” And when God blesses you with favor, nothing can stand in your way! Have you ever watched the game show “Let’s Make a Deal”? Members of the audience dress in crazy costumes hoping to catch the eye of the host and be picked for a chance to play and win. They wave their hands, they jump up and down, they show off their flashy costume knowing the host is about to pick someone and they just hope it’s them. Well, let me tell you, God is looking for someone to pick. He’s looking for someone to bless with his favor. Have you ever wondered how you get his attention? How do you prove yourself trustworthy of his favor? Here it is: 2 Chronicles 16:9, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” Your heart is your inner being. It’s your thoughts, feelings and decisions. He’s looking for the one whose thoughts are committed to him. Whose feelings are committed to him. Whose decisions are committed to him. These are the ones who are trusted with God’s supernatural strengthening. Favor comes here. The story of Joseph (found in Genesis 37-50) gives us the perfect example of HOW to be trusted with favor. God chose him, picked him and always showed him tremendous favor which caused others to like him. But that doesn’t mean life would be easy for Joseph. Joseph was favored by his dad, so his brothers got jealous and sold him into slavery. As a slave, Joseph found favor with his master and was put in charge. While in charge, he was falsely accused and put into prison. In prison he found favor with the warden and put him in charge once again. There he was noticed by Pharaoh the King, and was given rule over all of Egypt. Time and time again as things went bad, God showed his favor towards Joseph and caused bad things to become works for good. No doubt, he had God’s favor on his life and it came in the form of other people liking him. Other people continually chose Joseph and put him in charge. Genesis 39:21 says “The LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.” Yes, even with God’s favor, Joseph was in prison falsely accused. We assume God’s favor means smooth sailing and instant success. No, sometimes God’s favor means unfair, unjust and unseen things happening to you, and God using it all for good. Joseph was in prison and God’s favor didn’t miraculously break him out of prison. No, God’s favor simply made the prison warden like him. Maybe you’re stuck in a bad situation right now, maybe not prison, but a situation where you feel you can’t do what you want to do and everything is against you. Well I want to tell you God can give you favor right in the middle of it. He may not get you out of it tonight, but he can chan But first, you must be able to be trusted with favor. After all that happened to Joseph, HE NEVER GOT BITTER. He never set out to get even. In fact in Genesis 50:20 he looked at his brothers, the ones who started this whole domino effect of disaster by selling him into slavery because they were jealous, and he said “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done,
Transcribed - Published: 22 January 2025
You’re thinking from a human perspective, but God is working on something bigger than you can see here. Do you hear me? There’s more to this than you can see. You’re putting limitations on this situation, while God in his unlimited power is at work in something bigger than you can fathom. You’re ready to settle in, surrender to resistance and give up the fight, while God is ready to push you on towards bigger places than you are right now. You’re frustrated with what you see happening, but my sister, you simply cannot see ALL that is happening. Your sight and understanding is so incredibly limited so faith will be required here. God has been speaking 2 words to me: Nahhhhh, bigger. This is bigger than you think and I’m bigger than you’ve allowed me to be. Isaiah 55: 8-9 VOICE, “8 My intentions are not always yours, and I do not go about things as you do. My thoughts and My ways are above and beyond you, just as heaven is far from your reach here on earth.” Sitting in your smallness, this seems overwhelming, impossible and pointless. But, my friend, you have a great BIG God who’s eye is on you while he holds the entire world in his mighty and capable hands. You cannot see what he sees, and you’re not supposed to. Now, he’s asking you to trust that whatever you’re in the middle of right now, it’s actually so much bigger than you realize and his power is over it all. What you SEE God doing in your life is a row boat in comparison to the ark he is actually leading you to. A row boat is tiny with extreme limitations. You’re not going far in that and you’re not taking very much with you. An ark is massive boat with the capacity for so much more. That’s what God is doing here … MORE. Think about your current struggle, your current uncertainty. Now, imagine God working in it to do something big and beautiful. Can you imagine that? See it. Nahhhhh, bigger. It’s even bigger than that. Even more beautiful. Honey, his work is eternal. It’s beyond the limitations of this world. Ephesians 3:20 MSG, “God can do ANYTHING, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.” And while you can’t see it right now, that’s what he’s actually doing in your circumstances. He’s doing more. And that’s what he’s calling you to … MORE. What you have imagined as your purpose is a row boat in comparison to the ark you were created for. But the truth is, when you’re without a boat and you know you need to get upstream, a row boat sounds pretty darn good. And so, we start praying for a row boat. We start trying to negotiate our way into getting it right now. And dang do we ever get disappointed when it doesn’t work. Why isn’t this working? I’m talking about your specific situation. WHY ISN’T THIS WORKING FOR YOU? Why is it everything you try is met with resistance? Why is every door closed? Why is every answer no? Could it be because this is bigger than you think? Could it be because God is directing you to something bigger than you’re about to settle for? Could it be that you are being protected in this time of disappointment? We ask for God’s will in our life, but we sure don’t like it when that results in a series of no’s. Why can’t this just work? Why can’t I just get a break? Why can’t this little thing just come together?
Transcribed - Published: 20 January 2025
Sometimes life presents struggles and hardships that seem unfair, and certainly unwanted. Perhaps today as you listen, you’re in the middle of one of life’s struggles or you’re witnessing someone you love struggle, and more than anything you just want to find a way out. You want to break free. You want life to return to normal. You want the storms to cease and the calm to return. You want to fix this. Why can’t everyone just say sorry and fix this mess? I’ve been there too. Begging God to remove the struggle. And he didn’t. Why? In all his majesty and power, why wouldn’t he stop the raging storms in my life? I mean if I’m really his beloved and precious daughter, and if he’s the Daddy I thought he was, why wouldn’t he rescue us from this struggle? I’ve since learned the tremendous purpose in it all, the purpose today which was much bigger and greater than my struggles of yesterday. God wasn’t absent, he was omnipotent, and he was using his power in the greatest of ways in the middle of it all. Omnipotent means all-powerful. That’s our God! He alone holds the power to do absolutely anything.Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.”Isaiah 55:11, “It is the same with my word. I sent it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”Jeremiah 32:17, “O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!” Even when you can’t see him or understand him, God is being omnipotent. His power reigns perfectly. There’s a story of a man rescuing an emperor moth, perhaps you have heard it. As I share this story, I wish I could give credit to the author, but it’s a 20 year old printed piece of paper titled “Struggles In Our Lives” my dear friend found in her mother’s belongings after she died. A letter which perhaps comforted her mother during a struggle many years ago, perfectly preserved and placed for her daughter to find as she struggled after losing her mama. Isn’t that just the way our God works? So mysteriously random, yet so strategically specific. A man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the moth for several hours as the moth struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. It just seemed to be stuck. Then the man, in his kindness, decided to help the moth, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the moth, expecting that at any moment the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What this man in his kindness and haste did now understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. FREEDOM AND FLIGHT WOULD ONLY COME AFTER THE STRUGGLE. By depriving the moth of the struggle,
Transcribed - Published: 17 January 2025
Do you remember being in middle school gym class and waiting to be chosen for a team? The coach would select 2 team captains, then those captains would take turns one by one building their own teams. Now I’m not sure who came up with this system, but I’m here as a fully grown 49 year old woman to tell you, that is traumatizing! I still remember just hoping someone would call my name early. Hoping I would be chosen to be part of a team. But my value as an athlete was rarely recognized and I stood just waiting to be chosen because I was the really fun peppy one. For those of us who have ever struggled with an unhealthy need to be liked and chosen, I believe it could have started right there in 5th grade PE! What if today, you’re being chosen FIRST? What if the team captain sees your value and worth and undeniably wants YOU on their team? How would you feel? Ephesians 1: 4-7 “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.” Say what??? My sister, can you receive that as a personal message and confirmation from God Almighty? All the evil forces of Hell want to keep you from hearing this and believing it. Right now, you’re battling it. But the truth is clear. Hear it for yourself. Before this world was even created God was thinking of YOU. He was thinking of you, loving you, choosing you. Yes, the creator of the universe wanted you and he placed you in the middle of his creation because YOU bring him great pleasure. Girl, HE LOVES YOU! I’ve been studying the book of Leviticus. Whew, it’s a tough one. I can’t say I recommend it. Chapter after chapter are the offerings required to cover sin, guilt and shame. Rituals to be performed, sacrifices to be made, rules to be followed. It’s nearly impossible all that was required to redeem us before our Holy God. And that’s why he gave us Jesus! Jesus repays what we cannot. He redeems us wholly and completely. He is the offering, he is the sacrifice, he is our redemption. Because of Jesus, you are without fault in his eyes. Yes, that’s exactly what this scripture says. “He chose you in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” Daughter, he doesn’t look at you with disgust. Nor does he look at you with disappointment. He sees you as the daughter he paid the highest price for because you were worth it. And this is what he wanted to do. God wanted to save you because you are worth saving. Your life is worth the sacrifice. And THAT is how God sees you. Maybe that’s a far cry from how you see yourself, and if so, you need to take another look. Take another look, because you have failed to see your value.Take another look, because you have failed to see your true worth.Take another look, because you have failed to see your potential. If you’ve been shrinking back, believing there’s nothing special about you, nothing outstanding about you, nothing remarkable about you … oh sister, think again! YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN! God purchased your freedom with the blood of his Son and that blood covers ALL your sins. Not just a little. Not just some. Not a select few, but all. All your sins have been covered.
Transcribed - Published: 16 January 2025
Within you at this very moment is some serious potential. Potential to not only change your life, but change the lives of others. Talents, gifts and strengths given to you by your Creator on purpose, for a purpose. Sadly we can live our entire lives without ever tapping into that potential and miss what it is we’re here to do. The thing about potential is, in the beginning it typically looks nothing like what it will grow to become. Just like the seed of an oak tree looks nothing like a tiny little oak tree, and apple seeds don’t look like adorable little apples. God created the seed of potential to appear unimpressive, but oh the mysteries it holds within. As a little girl, I planted flowers with my Grandma. In her pantry she kept brown paper bags with seeds from last year’s harvest. The bags were labeled with the name of the flower and the specific color. If she didn’t label the bag, she would have no way of knowing what she was planting come Spring. Her flower garden wasn’t random, it was designed specifically with intention. Imagine God working in your life with a storehouse of brown paper bags containing seeds of potential. Seeds that look insignificant and unimpressive. Seeds only he sees the label for, knowing what they can become. He sprinkles these seeds of potential in your life. Potential for who you can become, where you can go, and what you can do. Here you were thinking there’s nothing really spectacular about you and all this time God has placed seeds of potential in your soul. My question to you today is will you be daring enough to hone in on these potential skills, master your talents and share your strengths, and just see what God imagined when he gave you your potential? Oh girl, if you could only see the label on the bags he pulled from when he made you. Seeds of leading. Seeds of teaching. Seeds of serving. Seeds of wisdom. Seeds of strength. Seeds of grace. Seeds of patience. Seeds of perseverance. Seeds of prophesy. Seeds of miracles. Who could you become? Where could you go? What could you do? Well, it probably looks nothing like where you came from or who you started as. Why would you ever let who you used to be determine who you can become now? You’re in the process of becoming. Shed that shell and let’s see what you’ve got in you girl! When God said in Isaiah 43:19 “See, I’m doing a new thing”, don’t you know he was talking about YOU too? He’s doing something new in you. He’s allowing those seeds of potential to grow within you, and as they do, your life begins to take on a new shape and form. The apple seed is planted deep in the dark soil where it appears nothing happens for quite some time. That’s the way of potential, you can miss what is happening inside. You can miss what is to come if you’re staring at the ground. Eventually that seed breaks above the ground in a tiny sprout. Over time, that sprout becomes a tree. But that’s not all. There’s more to come, more that has yet to be seen. For most of us, that’s exactly where we are in life. We’re finally breaking out of the ground and growing, but we feel like there’s really nothing special about us. We just haven’t produced fruit yet, but it’s coming. This is where God is going to do a new thing … yes, new to you because you’ve never see your fruit before, but not new to him. He always knew your potential because he specifically chose it for you. You likely know the story of Noah. He’s man who built the ark and saved not only his family,
Transcribed - Published: 15 January 2025
There’s a difference between a wish and a plan. A wish is a thought without action. A plan puts that wish into motion with a path to make it possible. God has more than just good wishes for you. He has good PLANS for you. This means he doesn’t just wish goodness for you, he has it in the works. He has it arranged. He has the way made. It’s in store. You know if you order something today on Amazon Prime and it shows in stock, it’s on it’s way. You expect delivery. God’s plans for you are in stock and on their way. You can expect delivery my sister. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” And whatever God plans, HE CAN MAKE HAPPEN. Who can stop the Lord? Who can out power him? Who could possibly get in his way, delay him, detour him, or defeat him? NO ONE. Isaiah 14:27 “The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has spoken— who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?” So imagine this, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the one who has angels following his command, the one who controls all of heaven and Earth, has good plans for YOU and his hand is raised over you. Tell me again why you’re stressed. Tell me again why you are worried. Tell me again why you are overwhelmed. You have a good future ahead of you. There are not plans to harm you honey, there are plans to prosper you. I have good wishes towards you. I truly wish nothing but the best for you. But honestly, my wishes don’t change your life, do they? I don’t have the power or influence to change your future. But imagine the president of your company calling you today and saying, “I’ve noticed your work, and I have good plans for you.” Wow, would you get excited? Immediately you would envision promotion and a window office. A total breakthrough in your career. All because the boss has good plans for you. Imagine Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and wealthiest man alive at a worth of 263 billion dollars sending you an email today and saying, “Your name came across my desk, and I have a ridiculously good future for you.” You would probably pee a little! Oh my goodness, what could this mean? The house on the hill without a single worry again. All because the rich man has good plans for you. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” So how is it you’ve heart these words of the creator of the Universe, the owner of all that ever existed, the one who holds the whole world in the palm of his hands, the one who makes the sun to rise and the earth to spin, the one who gives you the very breath in your lungs, and you’re not phased? HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? How has your entire world not been shaken with this word from God? He has good plans for you! God is the boss. He is the richest of all. Anything he wants to be done, can be done. If he tells a mountain to move, it moves. If he wants the ocean to stand on it’s end, those waters will part. If he wants water to turn to wine, you should get your cup ready. If he wants little to become more, it will be so. If he wants donkeys to talk, their lips start moving. If he wants dead bones to come alive again, they start rattling. If he wants babies to come when all hope is lost, then someone better buy a crib.
Transcribed - Published: 13 January 2025
Join me for a time of Bible study together today.We will be reading:Luke 22: 3-6Luke 22: 31-32Hebrews 7:25John 16:33 Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
Transcribed - Published: 10 January 2025
This week in BIG Life Mentoring, I’ve been teaching my girls about the gap. It’s the gap between the life you’re living and the life God designed you to live. Our goal is to lessen the gap. Many years ago, God gave me a vision of my future standing before him when the journey of this life is complete. There, he and I watched a movie of my life flash before our eyes. It was big, it was beautiful, it was thrilling and exciting, unexpected, wild, and overflowing with purpose and meaning. Oh, that life was soooo soooo soooo good. But there was one problem, if it was my life, why couldn’t I remember the best parts of it? In this vision, I could remember some of the movie of my life, but the best parts seemed to be missing. I saw them flash before me, but had no memory of them. That’s when God revealed this life-changing truth to me. He said, “My girl, all of this was available to you, aligned for you, destined as yours, but some of it you didn’t choose. You sat it out. You played little. You gave up. You dismissed yourself. So, the life you CHOSE to live fell short of the life I was prepared to give you. I’m showing you what could have been if you would have fully trusted me to work in you.” This vision allowed me to see the gap. The gap between the life I’m living and the life God says he designed for me to live. Now, my mission is to seek God every step of the way to lessen the gap. The gap is bad if left unfilled. However, the gap is glorious when filled by Jesus! That gap is the potential for Jesus to come in and fill your life with his power, his glory and his divine ways. Wherever you feel “not enough” in your life, God is working to show you HE IS. He is enough of anything and everything you’re lacking. The gap exists for his power to dwell. Jesus is our gap filler. Where is your gap? Where are you struggling? Have you asked Jesus to fill that gap with his power and make you more than enough? Paul had a conversation with God where he was assured his perfection was not needed. God told him his grace is all that was needed. He reminded Paul that actually his power works best in weakness. Remembering this, Paul then said “So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) My guess is on this 9th day of a brand new year of life, you haven’t been perfect. Your efforts and your follow through may have been lacking at times. Your attitude may have fallen short. Your faithfulness may have wavered. Your pace may have slowed when you needed to move forward, or you may have rushed when you needed to pause. In response to all of this Jesus says PERFECT, I CAN WORK WITH THIS! Your lack of perfection is an open invitation for God’s power to inhabit your life and do what only he can do. Your part is to recognize your weaknesses as Paul did and invite Jesus to work through you. Remember, this is where his power works best. There are times in my life where I clearly see the hand of God. Times I know without a doubt my eyes behold his power on display working in every detail. Those times are laden with hardship, struggle and uncertainty. Times when I am not enough and God shows up and says, “I am.” Because HE IS ENOUGH and his power works in me, he makes me more than enough. He turns whatever I’m lacking into an ample supply to overcome and rise up. If I am all self-sufficient thinking I’m perfect with no gaps, I leave no room for Jesus. Whew, how he has humbled me to show me the gaps!
Transcribed - Published: 9 January 2025
We are inherently afraid of not knowing what comes next. That fear drives us to a desire to make our lives predictable. We want to know what’s coming and what to expect. We want a sense of control. However, you were NOT created for a predictable life. Your design is not for settling into pattern and routine with guaranteed outcomes and known timelines.Why do you think God gave you the ability to create and change? So you would dare to believe you can be part of something bigger than just yourself.Why do you think he placed unattainable dreams within your soul? So you would have a pull towards something more.Why do you think he made scrapes and bruises to heal? So you would get up and keep going. At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry on Earth, he walked up to 2 brothers fishing at the Sea of Galilee and he simply said “Come, follow me.” An invitation into the unknown. An offering of adventures in uncharted territories. An opportunity to taste their destiny. Matthew 4:20 says “At once they left their nets and followed him.” Their nets represented the predictable pattern and routine of their life. They knew how to fish. Their identity was as fishermen. It was certain if they continued to throw out the nets, eventually they would bring in a catch. Their lives were predictable as fishermen. Leaving their nets to follow Jesus represented the unknown. It represented the unpredictable. It represented a sacrifice of the certain for a chance at destiny. They left their nets at once and followed Jesus. These 2 brothers were Peter and Andrew and their worlds radically changed in that moment. They walked with Jesus everywhere he went and took part in life changing miracles we still talk about today. 10 chapters after Peter left his nets and followed Jesus into the unknown, he is invited into the impossible with Jesus … he walks on water! It was likely only a matter of a few months, but the events and lessons of those few months filled 10 chapters. But think about this, my sister, you may be only a few months away from doing totally impossible things with Jesus. But it starts with the invitation today to loosen your grip on your control and step into the unknown where Jesus is leading you. Now, what about all the stories we don’t know? How many others received the invitation to “follow me”, but just couldn’t let go of a predictable life to accept the offer? Where in your life has Jesus said “follow me” and you totally missed the opportunity because of your busy calendar, your important job, your rigid routine, or the finely constructed walls of your comfort zone? You want predictable and Jesus doesn’t offer predictable, he offers purpose. We talk a lot about purpose, but here’s something you need to know … purpose is totally unpredictable. You may think you know the path of your purpose, but God may have some twists and turns you didn’t see coming. Purpose is always unfolding and revealing itself along the way. Purpose is a lifelong journey into the unknown, following the One who knows. The 2 fishermen had no idea where they were going, but Jesus did. They couldn’t take their nets with them, and you can’t take your security with you either. Whatever you’re clinging to is a total sense of false security. That job could end tomorrow. The house could be gone in an instant. That life is fragile, days are numbered, and you don’t know the count. You’ve been working to make your life predictable, but the truth is life is totally unpredictable and you’re right in the middle of it. Both faith and fear demand you believe in something you cannot see....
Transcribed - Published: 8 January 2025
There are voices that tell you not to show up. Voices that tell you that you can’t do this. Voices that tell you, you will never be good enough. Voices that tell you this is too overwhelming and too hard. But my sister, check the source of those voices. Where is this coming from? If it’s not from God, then why are you listening? Why are you entertaining voices that quite possibly originated in the pits of hell? You have an enemy, and let me tell you what that enemy does … He talks. He talks and talks and talks. Day and night he is accusing you in the courts of heaven, and day and night he sends his demons to torment your mind. However, understand this one thing about your enemy that he does NOT want you to know. He is not like God. He does not have the ability to be everywhere all the time. He and his demons must be selective with their efforts of evil. When they find a cracked door, they will bombard it, but when they find that door is locked and sealed shut, they move on. Girl, your door is cracked! You’ve been allowing their taunts and pokes to enter your thoughts, so they’ve decided to hang out and torment you. If you slam that door and shut this down, they will move on! Oh yes, the enemy talks … what’s he been saying to you? And more importantly, what are you going to do about it? The Bible tells us about a giant of an enemy in the Philistine army who talked a lot as well. That giant was named Goliath. Scripture says he was over 9 feet tall and one threatening dude to look at. For 40 days Goliath did nothing but stand up and shout taunts at the Israelites, and when he did, they would all shake in terror. Until David, the little shepherd boy shows up with lunch for his brothers who were part of the Isratelite army. David wasn’t old enough to be a soldier like his brothers, he was kept home to take care of his father’s sheep and run errands. But while he’s there delivering lunch, he hears the giant Goliath. 1 Samuel 17: 23-26, “Then David heard him shout his usual taunt to the army of Israel. As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright. David asked the soldiers standing nearby, ‘What will a man get for killing this Philistine and ending his defiance of Israel? Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?'” All Goliath did every day was step out and say ugly things. And day after day, everyone was terrified by Goliath. But David was different. David says to King Saul in verse 32, “Don’t worry about this Philistine, I’ll go fight him!” Yes, the most unlikely person there that day decided they wouldn’t back down and hide when the enemy talked. My friend, if you’ve been backing down because the enemy has been talking ugly to you, you’re missing the victories God has already aligned. You’re forfeiting because you’re envisioning losing the battles God will equip you to win. You’re listening to the taunts of the enemy and accepting them as your truth. Girl, SHUT HIM DOWN! You know how the story goes, right? Little David refuses the King’s armor and shows up to face Goliath exactly as he is with nothing more than a few rocks and a slingshot. Goliath yells his ugly threats again and David replies (verse 45-47), “You come to me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies – the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals,
Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2025
You have a need in your life right now. There’s something you can’t fix, something you can’t overcome, something can’t change. But it hasn’t been changing, has it? You’ve been waiting, but all that waiting has things left the same, and in some ways even worse. What do you do with that? Really, what do you do when there’s nothing more you can do? This is not where you pretend to be okay. This is not where you make peace with the problem and accept defeat. This is not where you settle, assuming this is all there is for you. My friend, this is NOT where you quit. This is where you get DESPERATE. Desperate for the one who can fix this. Desperate for the one who promised to already overcome this. Desperate for the one who can change the impossible. But you’ve been trying to avoid desperation thinking that is a broken weakness. Let me tell you something, desperation is a deep faith that moves Jesus. It’s time to get desperate! Let’s read a story in our bible about desperation. There are many to choose from because desperation is not a rare place to find yourself in. I’m there … aren’t you? Luke 18: 35-43: As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening. They told him that Jesus the Nazarene was going by. So he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”“Be quiet!” the people in front yelled at him.But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”When Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. As the man came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”“Lord,” he said, “I want to see!”And Jesus said, “All right, receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.”Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God too. This is a picture of desperation. This blind man knew if Jesus doesn’t do this for me, I will never change. He would not be silenced. He would not be shamed and hushed. Now, notice what he says. He says, “Jesus, have mercy on me!” Mercy is acknowledging you don’t deserve it. If you’ve been walking around entitled thinking Jesus owes you something, you’re missing the power of his mercy. We could never be good enough to deserve Jesus. There’s nothing we could ever do that would qualify us for forgiveness and redemption. There’s no possible way we could get ourselves into Heaven. Mercy is required here. Mercy, you don’t deserve. Mercy, you can’t earn. I heard the recording of an interview with a homeless man living on the streets. They asked him, “What do you think about God.” The man answered, “Why me?” But, not for the reasons I’ve ever asked “Why me?” I must admit, my ‘why me’ moments were pitiful and entitled. But this man says, “Why me, God? Why did you ever choose me? You’ve chosen ME for eternity? I get the mansion in heaven? I get to walk on those streets of gold? Me?!!!! For real? Wow!!!!!!! I’m the luckiest man in the world!” That is a child of God who understands mercy! Now think about it, you are chosen by God as well. He wants to give you a place in paradise for all eternity with him, and it’s not because of anything you have done or could ever do. It’s all because of his mercy. Stop for a moment and ask “Why me” with this perspective to...
Transcribed - Published: 6 January 2025
In this special unscripted devotional, we learn to imagine each moment as if it were a beautiful invitation to return to this one ordinary day and make it extraordinary. See every person through the perspective of a label that says, “Only here for a little while.” Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.” What you have today appears quite ordinary – it’s up to you to find, focus on, magnify, and create the extraordinary. And when you do, you start living your days as God says you should. Resources:Song – Counting My Blessings by Matt MaherDaysOld.com Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
Transcribed - Published: 3 January 2025
Where you are is not where you will always be … at least not in God’s plan. God’s design for your life is to be ever changing and evolving, moving toward greater purposes on a trajectory you could never design alone. You were not created to arrive to this place and just stay here. In this new year, you are being called forward. Not backward, and not stagnant. Forward. Onward. Next step. Understand that when you refuse to move and instead choose your familiar comfort zone, that is sin. When God is calling you to what is next but you cling to where you are now, that disobedience is sin. And when you wait and plan to do it “later”, that delayed obedience is also sin. Sometimes we cling to where we are now because it’s our happy place. But quite honestly, that’s rare. You’re not really happy, you’re just familiar with this scene. Typically, there’s a void of happiness in the places we refuse to leave. It’s a familiar misery. A familiar chaos. A familiar battle. But honey, familiar is not the calling for your future. Yesterday, we studied the story of the son who wanted his own way and ran off and ruined his life in Luke 15. There, in the pig pens, he finally came to his senses and decided to return to his father. Can you imagine how hard that first step must have been for him? Although he was miserable in his mess, it was his mess. He was independent. He wasn’t answering to anyone. He was free to just be. The problem is, our pursuit of freedom often lands us in some world class wrecks and it’s hard to face the truth that no one did that to us but us. We made the mess. We screwed this up. This was my choice and I can’t just undo it. So, the son had to make a choice: Respond to the pull to humbly return home and admit his failure, or stay right where he was and avoid the dreaded journey back. His decision made all the difference in the world. Just as yours does here. Let’s say you’ve wandered off and created a mess in your health. You’ve been doing all the wrong things for a while now and you don’t recognize or like the girl you see in the mirror. But even more, that girl you see in the mirror is suffering. She doesn’t feel good. So, what are you going to do here? Returning to health will require a discipline you haven’t seen in a while. In your head, that’s a whole lot of days of denying yourself and that feels quite overwhelming. So, you could just stay here. You could remain in your un-health. You could make friends with your pain and downplay the problems this really causes. Or, you could listen to that still small voice within that says, “Please do better for me.” Your body is the vessel that carries your soul, and honey, if you’re not taking care of the vessel, the soul suffers too. You could start the return to health with the very first step. You could go buy some healthy food (and throw away the junk). You could take yourself for a walk. You could trade your morning soda or sugary coffee for a better choice. Your decision makes all the difference in the world. Why am I talking about health in a devotional? Because honey, your health has been under attack for a long time. The enemy of your soul knows if he can keep you stuck in not feeling good and not loving yourself, then you aren’t much of a threat at all. But if you chose to leave this pig-pen living behind and started your journey back to what the Father has for you … ohhhhhh, the devil is shaking in his boots! So, where’s your mess? Maybe it’s not your health,
Transcribed - Published: 2 January 2025
Thoughts of change without action become your torment. My husband says it like this, “Girl, you don’t have a knowing problem, you have a doing problem.” You typically know better, you simply don’t do better. You know what to do, or atleast you know the first simple step in getting started, but the problem is you don’t take that first step, so you remain stuck in a life that is far less than you were created for. This morning, you miraculously woke up to the gift of a brand new year of life. Welcome to 2025. You have never seen anything like this before. Overflowing and limitless potential meets you here today and invites you into living bigger and better this year. With the new year, my guess is, you likely have thoughts of wanting to do better this year. There are a few changes you have been thinking about. Things you think you should really start doing, and things you should stop doing. We all have those thoughts. Those thoughts are an internal compass given to us by God to receive the promptings of his Holy Spirit. Now, we’re supposed to do something about those promptings! The thoughts of change are there, but my sister, if you once again fail to take the necessary steps of action prompted by those thoughts, your mind becomes a place a torment. Let me talk to you about the anxiousness you feel … Uh huh, yeah, we’re addressing that first thing this year because you absolutely cannot continue with the crippling affects of that anxiousness. You’re all torn up on the inside and tormented in your mind because you know better, but you’re not doing better. Your thoughts for change have been met with feet that won’t move in the direction necessary for change. That’s why you’re disappointed in life. That’s why you don’t like yourself. That’s why you’ve grown a little bitter and a little cynical. That’s why your energy is low and your butt’s been dragging. You can change, girl, you can turn around right now and start your journey in a radically different direction with one single step. You can, but the question is will you? Jesus tells us a story of a young man who knew better, but wasn’t doing better. He had thoughts of change, but without action, he remained in torment. He was overwhelmed with anxiousness because deep within his soul he always knew he was created for more than he had settled for. And whew, that is a nagging feeling, the feeling of knowing you’re created for more but you’ve settled for less. Maybe you’re familiar with that feeling. As Jesus tells us this story, he brings us to a monumental moment that can easily be overlooked. A monumental moment in this man’s life that looks a whole lot like a moment you are about to have right now. As we read the story, the monumental moment of change is easy to miss, but listen closely. Jesus says in Luke 15: 11-24: A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, “I want my share of your estate now before you die.” So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.A few days later this younger son packed all his belonging and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into this fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.When he finally came to his sense, he said to himself, “At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare,
Transcribed - Published: 1 January 2025
Special New Year’s Eve podcast with my husband, coach Lonnie on his 51st birthday.(This was Lonnie’s basic outline for the podcast – but he doesn’t really follow a script) * The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Prov 9:10-12 Wisdom begins here because it comes from a place of healthy respect for God and His way of life.Our Father who art in heaven…Hallowed by thy name… the son of God begins with acknowledging who He is and the nature of the relationship. We should be in awe of God and seek to live His Way…Vs 12Gal 6:7-8 Do not be fooled, God can not be mocked. For whatever a man soweth, that he shall also reap. God has a natural order to life. You can grow a nice crop by planting seeds, water seeds, tending the plants and when the time is right, reap a harvest. This scripture can apply in 3 different ways to different people. * The non-believer* The believer who is living foolishly. Immature* The believer who is stuck in fear. Fear of the Lord is the …. Beginning of wisdom – not the end. * 1 John 4:18-19 – There is no fear in love. As you mature in your relationship with God and His Way, you don’t do things out of obligation. You do them out of love, because you want to, because you Get To.It take time, patience and deeper understanding to get there – hence “The Perfecting”, making perfect process. (Heb 12:6) Love is not a license to live poorly. PERFECT love is about living our life WITH God and seeking His Way of living – because we want to. CONC –Matt 7:13-14 If you are looking for a good resource for the New Year – look at The Bible Project on Youtube. Very good short and longer studies available there. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
Transcribed - Published: 31 December 2024
What have you been complaining about this year? Really … what situation, what person, what problem has you complaining? Complaining means you are making it very clear what you’re not happy about. You give energy and words to the things you don’t like. Your complaining spirit ultimately reveals a lack of trust in God. Really, if you know God is working in this, why are you complaining about it? If you know God is bigger than this and has made a way through it, your complaints are nothing but a negative distraction from the positive power of God. Today, at the end of this year of life, God has made it very clear: If you continue to complain, you will remain. Oh, God has so much more for you beyond this. He has promises to fulfill and a destiny he’s aligning. He has every intended ounce of harm against you and your family being turned around and used for good. He has messages coming from the messes and testimonies rising up from the test. HOWEVER, you will dismiss yourself from everything divinely aligned for you on the other side of this if you continue to complain about it. Girl, you will get yourself stuck right here with your complaining. 2025 can be a year of absolute breakthrough for you, but you cannot breakthrough what you complain through. Your breakthrough requires you to BREAK THROUGH the habit of giving your energy and words to the things you don’t like. Your breakthrough depends on you BREAKING THROUGH this lack of trust that comes out of you as a complaining spirit. Girl, do you really believe God is in this with you?Do you really believe his promises of good plans for the future apply to you?Do you really believe nothing will be impossible with him? Yes? Then drop your complaining! Everybody goes through a wilderness season. You know, the wilderness, where everything is just plain ol’ hard. Where you can’t see anything beyond where you currently are. The wilderness is where you don’t want to be. You are not alone in your wilderness. If I could only study one story in the Bible for every life lesson I need, I would study the Israelites leaving Egypt, heading towards their promised land of overflowing blessings, but getting stuck in the wilderness on the way. Exodus 14 we read of the Israelites leaving Egypt after 400 years of slavery there, and God protects them from their enemies by miraculously making an escape through the Red Sea for them. The sea literally parts and stands on it’s ends for them to cross on dry land. Then the moment all 600,000 men, plus women and children, crossed, then the walls of water came crashing down on the Egyptians who were chasing them. Exodus 15, the Israelites begin to complain. They complain the water tastes bad and the Lord cleaned the water for them. Then he lead them to an oasis that had 12 springs and 70 palm trees where they could camp by the water. Exodus 16, the Israelites begin to complain about food. They literally moaned wanting to go back to where they were slaves. So, God graciously rains down food on them. Manna covered the ground each morning, and quail flooded their camp each evening. Exodus 17, at their new camp in the wilderness there were no springs, so again the Israelites begin to complain. So, God demonstrates his power in provision once again by causing water to gush from a rock. Later in Exodus 17, they face battles in the wilderness, and every battle they are equipped and given victory. But they have been delayed. The journey through the wilderness has taken much longer than necessary.
Transcribed - Published: 30 December 2024
Looong Suffering In Relationships Today’s open Bible Study together will be on LOOOONG SUFFERING IN RELATIONSHIPS.(Who needs this one?!!!)Grab your Bible! We’ll be reading the following scriptures:Luke 17: 1-61 John 2:10Ephesians 4: 2-3Galatians 5: 22-23Lord, we bring our tiny seed of faith and we seek your power in ripping out roots of bitterness and unforgiveness.Show us how to love.Strengthen us to be long suffering through your spirit.Let there be no root of bitterness or unforgiveness in our heart.Thank you for your plan of restoration in our relationships. Help us to get our heart right so we can be your instrument. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
Transcribed - Published: 27 December 2024
It’s the day after Christmas. What do you talk about on the day after celebrating Jesus’ birthday? I asked God that exact question this morning and his answer was so clear … talk about what happened next. And it was literally a light bulb moment because what happened after Jesus’ birth is most certainly applicable in my life, and probably applicable in yours as well. Do you know what happened after Jesus’ birth? The gospel of Luke doesn’t tell us, so we often miss it. We read our Christmas story in the book of Luke, but we have to go back a few chapters in our Bible to the account of Matthew to read what happened after Jesus’ miraculous birth. What happened after can be summed up in one word … TROUBLE. That’s what God has asked me to talk to you about today on the day after Christmas … trouble. Where does trouble come from? How do you handle trouble? How does God respond to trouble? We’re going to read several verses that seem very dark and harsh, but hang with me because if you’re facing trouble you need to know about the sweet promises of God in all of this. You need to know the truth so you can cling to it. Don’t check out because this could be the most important thing you’ve heard all week. Okay, so you know how the nativity scenes include 3 men bearing gifts? Those men are known as the 3 wise men. They had been awaiting the birth of the Messiah and had seen a star which led them Bethlehem. On their journey, they met with King Herod and told the King about this star which was guiding them to the Savior who was to be born. King Herod was furious and threatened and planned to use the 3 wise men to lead him to this Messiah child to kill him. The arrangement was made for the wise men to follow the star, find baby Jesus, then return to King Herod and reveal his location. But after they found Jesus in Bethlehem, they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (That, by the way, was the first Christmas gifts.) But, check this out … Matthew 2:12, “When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.” God already had plans to save his son, and God’s plans were greater than King Herod’s plans! While King Herod was being sneaky and evil, God was being GOD! God is above all. God sees all, knows all and controls all. Nothing gets by him! I don’t know about you, but I needed to be reminded of that. God knows exactly what is happening. He knows the harm being planned. He knows the attacks being schemed. He’s not surprised or caught off guard by any of it. He’s known it all along and has a plan through it. That truth applies to my trouble, and that truth applies to your trouble. God knows. God has a plan! Now we’re going to read the rest of the chapter. Again, there are some hard things to read, but don’t check out. Trouble is real. Trouble always comes after good because good is always attacked. And trouble is no match for God! As we read, watch how God was always one step ahead in the plan and had even foretold it hundreds of years before. Matthew 2: 13-23: After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay here until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother,
Transcribed - Published: 26 December 2024
God could have come to this earth guns a blazin’ with his angel armies. He could have magically appeared in his full force and power as a super giant. The truth is, God could have come in absolutely any way he wanted. And what he chose was to come as a baby. A human in flesh and blood, in it’s most vulnerable and helpless state. Okay, so God chose to come as a helpless baby of human birth, but he still could have chosen any family in any circumstances. He could have chosen a King and Queen in a palace. He could have chosen a wealthy family. But instead, he chose two teenagers, engaged to be married, who God intentionally orchestrated to be traveling when the birth is to happen. God could have chosen anything, and this is what he chose. So totally unlikely. And yet so totally what had been prophesied hundreds of years before. Isaiah 7:14, written 600 years before Jesus, “The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘god is with us’).” Micah 5:2, written 700 years before Jesus, “A ruler of Israel will come from Bethlehem.” There are more than 300 prophesies in the Old Testament perfectly foretelling the details of the coming Messiah’s birth. The probability of one person fulfilling just 48 of those Old Testament prophesies to the point that Jesus did is 1 out of 10 to the power of 157. That’s 157 zeros, there’s not even a number for how crazy that is. This is similar to the odds of winning 22 lotteries … in a row. And that’s for only 48 of the prophesies. There are over 300, and Jesus perfectly fulfilled every single one of them. I’m a person who comes by faith naturally. It’s in my nature to believe easily. But my husband is not. He’s a 5 on the ennegram. He’s extremely intelligent. He’s a researcher. He’s a ‘show me the proof’ kinda guy. I asked him how in the world he believes in Jesus without seeing and he said, “it’s harder to believe there’s nothing. Look around. You can’t tell me this all came from nothing. And the proof is there. It’s otherwise impossible. Every prophesy is fulfilled in Jesus.” And so it happened just as told hundreds of years before, God came to save us through his son Jesus, and he came in Bethlehem. Bu Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. Nazareth is 90 miles from Bethlehem. But in God’s great design, just as he said hundreds of years before, his son would be born in Bethlehem. Look at the details of what God did to get pregnant Mary to the chosen destination just in time for Jesus’ birth. The Roman emperor, Augustus ordered for a census to be taken throughout the Roman empire. For everyone to be counted properly, they had to return to the town where their family was from. Joseph was from Bethlehem, so although the timing was extremely inconvenient for Mary, they walked for days to Bethlehem for the ordered census. Let me tell you, God was in the census! God was in the timing that seemed so inconvenient! God was in every detail, aligning his divine purposes. That’s what God does. He works behind the scenes in ordinary ways you would never know, to align us for the unfolding of the absolutely extraordinary. He IS IN YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES. He may not have created your circumstances, but he can work in them. He IS IN THE UNFOLDING OF THIS DIVINE TIMING. God knew you would be right where you are at this exact moment and he wants to align your next steps to be in position for his extraordinary purposes. Even when it doesn’t make sense, you can trust him.
Transcribed - Published: 24 December 2024
Luke 2: 6-20:And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, 1“Glory to God in highest heaven,and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished,but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them. Notice what Mary did … “But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.” Scripture often uses the word heart to represent the center of our thoughts and emotions. As she saw her miraculous new born baby laying wrapped in a manger (after being unable to find a single hotel room or guest house available), kneeling next to Joseph (he man who had every reason to leave her yet he stayed and believed) and now these shepherds who have come revealing what the angel had said about her baby, she kept it in her heart. She’s sitting in the moment, noticing everything, recognizing this is a profound spiritual experience. She’s seeing how God had worked through everyone and everything to make this happen. She’s noticing the details and their divine alignment. And this is who we are called to be this Christmas. We’re called to be the daughter, the wife, the mother, the sister, the aunt, the grandma, the friend, the neighbor, the girl who will be fully there and actually NOTICE. Notice the details and their divine alignment. Notice how God worked through everyone and everything to make this happen. Notice it. Sit in your moments and recognize the miracles in those moments. This does not require the presence or participation of another living soul … just you. Intentionally noticing. Noticing the beauty. Noticing the moment. Noticing the miraculous. These days hold the potential for precious memories, but you miss those precious memories if you rush through them and focus on trying to make things perfect. Stop. Just be here. Be fully here. Notice. It’s okay if the house gets messy. It’s okay if the kids get wild. It’s okay if everyone is still in their pajamas. It’s okay if dinner is served late. It’s okay if you eat dessert first. It’s okay. You don’t have to control it or fix it, just notice all the good there is to notice. Notice the sounds. Notice the smells. Notice the flavor. Notice the sights. Notice the moments.
Transcribed - Published: 23 December 2024
It’s Christmas Bible Study time, my friends!!!Grab your Bible, as we study these scriptures today:Luke 1: 1-38Isaiah 7: 14Matthew 1: 20-21Ezekiel 36: 26-27 Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
Transcribed - Published: 20 December 2024
Today is just one day, what could possibly happen in one day? What difference could one day make? This isn’t Christmas Day, this isn’t New Years Day, today seems to be just an ordinary Thursday in a busy week where we’re all preparing for Christmas. One day that seems insignificant and ordinary, but what is this one day? In the hands of God, today could change everything. Today will certainly pass quickly. It will come and it will go, and you will either do the things you said you were going to do, or you won’t. You’ll either live it well or you will sit it out. The danger is in our assumption that today doesn’t really matter and that tomorrow will always come. But do you realized there are 1,000 years of heaven’s power wrapped up in this one single day of your life? 2 Peter 3:8 “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.” Who wrote this? The Aposotle Peter. Yes, the friend of Jesus who miraculously walked on water with him. I bet Peter woke up on that day thinking it was a totally normal day, and yet that day was the day he did the impossible with Jesus. Peter couldn’t have walked on that water if he would have practiced for a thousand years, and God just made it happen one day. Now Peter says, DON’T FORGET THAT’S WHAT GOD CAN DO. It’s not only what he can do, but it’s precisely what he DOES. God does in 1 day what you couldn’t do in a thousand years. If you’ve forgotten that, you’re feeling hopeless. If you’ve forgotten that you’re feeling stuck. If you’ve forgotten that, your future has grown dark. It’s time to REMEMBER it now. So here, in this single day of life you have been offered, God has the power to do what you couldn’t do in 1,000 years. 1,000 years of planning, work, divine timing and details have all gone into this one single day of life you woke up to today. And here you felt like it was all just ordinary. Have you ever noticed when scripture starts with “One day …”, a remarkable story is about to unfold. “One day” signifies importance and distinction. It was “One day” in Luke 5 that Jesus is standing by a lake teaching, and he asks to get in the boat with Peter (yes, the same Peter who told us to remember what can happen in one day with God.). On that one day, Jesus asks to get in his boat and what happened next would change the trajectory of Peters’s life and countless others. Peter became a disciple of Jesus that day and it happened on an ordinary day where he was out fishing. It was “one day”. Luke 8:22 “One day Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.” And this was the day they saw Jesus command the wind and the waves and they obeyed. This was the day they realized even the storms of life were under the command of Jesus. It happened “one day”. Acts 3:1-8 “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer. A man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand,
Transcribed - Published: 19 December 2024
It’s exactly one week until Christmas. Whew, how are you doing? Give yourself a point for each one that describes you today: * You still have to wrap gifts.* You still have to plan a big meal.* You still have to buy a crap-ton of groceries.* You still have to clean your messy house before company arrives.* You still have to buy a few last minutes gifts.* You still have to make Christmas cookies and treats.* You still have to take family photos.* You still have so many things on the Bucketlist you have to do: You have to drive around and look at Christmas lights, you have to take a photo with Santa, you have to drink hot chocolate, you have to sing Christmas carols, and oh crap you still have to do some sort of random act of kindness. How many points did you rack up? How behind are you on all the things on all the lists? I’m at a zero. None. And ya’ll it’s not because I’m super organized and ahead of schedule. It’s because I’ve screwed up enough Christmases with all the things, to now understand I actually don’t HAVE to do any of this, I GET TO. Really, think about it …. You still GET to go to a grocery store that has absolutely everything you need all at your fingertips without you having to kill it, pluck it, skin it, or harvest it? You just get to grab it off the shelves, buy it with money you’re walking around with, and take it home in your vehicle that runs?!! Oh my gosh, you’ve hit the jackpot sister! You still GET to make cookies? You GET to prepare your home for company? You GET to wrap presents? You GET to go see Christmas lights and drink hot chocolate? Oh my gosh, best day ever! Look at all the joy you have still ahead of you. Look at all you have been blessed to get to do. Why do we make this a chore? Why do we commit ourselves to doing things, then show up with dread to do them? Y’all it is 1 week until Christmas morning, and if you’re feeling stress and overwhelm over all you still have to do, you’re in desperate need of a perspective shift. I’m pretty dang sure Jesus doesn’t want you rushing around miserable and exhausted for the next week because of his birthday. That doesn’t honor him. Girl, you may be getting all the things done, but are you nasty about it? You’re rushed, you’re uptight, you’re just pushing through. Pushing through what? The season of joy? The most wonderful time of the year? The gathering of precious souls you get to share life with? The celebration of the one who came to save you? You’re pushing through that? How about we not? How about we remember why we’re doing what we’re doing and the sheer blessing behind it all. Let me tell you something, there’s not room for stress and overwhelm in a life of joy. Joy requires space. It expands and overflows the edges. It consumes hours and days. Joy takes over to-do lists and chores. Joy allows you to still get all the things done, but remain grounded in the blessing of why you do what you do. It is time to evict stress and overwhelm from this celebration. Stress has no space in all this joy. Overwhelm is not welcome in these special moments we get to create. We often trade what is so incredibly special for a sense of overwhelm. Why? Why would you allow that invasion of your most precious moments? Why would you let the enemy bring stress to your party? Why would you allow the sneaky exchange of all you are so ridiculously blessed to GET to do, for things you HAVE to do?
Transcribed - Published: 18 December 2024
One of my absolute favorite stories in the Bible proves the transformational power of Jesus. It shows there’s absolutely no one too far gone to be saved and redeemed. There’s no wrong Jesus can’t make right. There’s no life he can’t use for his good purposes. AND … you don’t even have to get yourself together before Jesus comes looking for you! That’s right, Jesus will choose you before you even consider choosing him! That’s my story. He wanted me and he came and swooped me up. Met me right where I was when I was trying my best to have success without him, and set my feet on solid ground before I even knew I wanted to be on solid ground. And this gives me the most unshakable hope for others who have wandered far and don’t even want to be found at this point. Ahhhh, Jesus knows where they are! He can intervene and change everything in an instant. Before we read this powerful story in our Bibles together, let’s understand the setting and the timeline. Jesus has already been born, he’s already walked the Earth, he’s already died on the cross, and he’s already been resurrected back to heaven. Jesus’ disciples are now fulfilling their calling and spreading the Good News. But there’s trouble. Some were adamantly against Jesus being the Messiah and people becoming his followers. That trouble is lead by those who truly believed their way was right, and Jesus was wrong. They defended their way by persecuting all followers of Jesus, seeking to capture them and imprison them to stop this radical movement of Christianity. One man leading the battle against Jesus followers was Saul. He devoted his life to ending this revolution for Jesus. Saul surely thought this Jesus was a good man who did good things while he was alive, but he couldn’t possibly be the Son of God as he claimed. So, he would put an end to this blasphemy. That’s where we are when we come upon the divine intervention of Jesus in a way that could not be denied. The story is known as The Road to Damascus. Now, let’s read this powerful story together. Acts 9: 1-19: Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your ...
Transcribed - Published: 17 December 2024
This past Friday, something incredibly simple and yet wildly dangerous happened to me. For two days, I’ve been licking my wounds and reliving it all in slow motion … but this morning, God gave me the revelation to share with you. The lesson: Be careful, you may fall here. And if you fall here, where will you slip next … that’s where the danger is. I currently live in the Florida Keys with my husband, Tank our 130 pound yellow lab, and our 2 year old grandson Maverick. Maverick has a deep passion for throwing rocks into the ocean. Tank has a deep passion for swimming in the ocean and I have a deep passion for just being by the water, so it all works out perfectly. This past Friday was the most gloriously sunny and warm day, so I was out at the water with Tank and Maverick. Our neighborhood has a small park and boat ramp where we often play in the sunshine. Maverick was standing at the very edge of the water on the ramp, as he always does, throwing rocks. I was only a few feet away watching. Maverick slipped and gracefully just plopped down in very shallow water. But within seconds, he began to slide. As he slid, he rolled, and soon, he was in danger. I stepped onto the ramp to grab him, but my feet hit solid moss and I went down … hard. There wasn’t an ounce of grace in the move I made. The more I tried to reach for Maverick, the deeper I slid on the mossy ramp. He was all the way under, I was up to my neck and time was moving in slow motion. Finally, I reached him and he had held his breath instead of sucking in salty sea water. He was fine. We were fine. Until we weren’t. I couldn’t get us back up the mossy ramp. I continued to slip in the wrong direction until we were floating under the wooden dock. Now I don’t know how long you’ve been listening to this podcast, so I don’t know if you’ve heard my other stories about the hidden dangers of the docks in our canals, but my neighborhood is home to several very large crocodiles. One of which I’ve named Gnarley because he likes to sunbathe on my neighbor’s dock with his mouth wide open as if to show me my hips can fit through his jaws. People play and swim in the water all the time … you just don’t dare go under the docks. And here Maverick and I were … under the dang dock where we never intended to be. It all ended well and I thanked Jesus as I limped all the way home that day. Maverick is still repeating, “Be careful by the water, Franny. Be careful by the water.” Now, I realize the tide was incredibly low that day, and although we have stood on that ramp dozens of times throwing rocks with no problems, that day was different. That day the low water had us standing in danger without knowing it. The moss that is typically under water was right at the edge and we were standing on it. And once we slipped, we ended up where the real danger is. So, where have you and I been playing around that isn’t safe? It’s not safe because if we slip here, it takes us to where the real danger is. Do you see what God is trying to show us? It’s easy to say, “There’s no harm in doing what I’m doing here”, and maybe that’s true. But my sister, if you slip here, where do you end up? THAT’S DANGEROUS. 1 Corinthians 10:12, “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.” How foolish it is to assume you could never fall, you could never screw this up, you could never slip. Oh you could … and it could be disastrous. Let us not be so arrogant to assume we couldn&#...
Transcribed - Published: 16 December 2024
In this special Friday Bible study time together, we are hitting 2 topics in 1 devotional! STOP MAKING THIS ABOUT YOU The more you lead a self-focused life, the more you’re prone to discouragement. Every time you forget that it’s not about you, you’re going to get prideful or fearful or bitter. Those feelings will always lead to discouragement because they keep you focused on yourself. (Rick Warren) Luke 14:33, Jesus said, “You cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.” You’re being selfish with your feelings. Much of your frustration is coming from trying to give God good ideas about how to fix this. Isaiah 55:9 “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Just release it and instead pray, “God, shift my heart about this.” GOD DIDN’T CAUSE IT, BUT HE CAN WORK IN IT John 7:17, “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God” – which means anyone can also choose NOT to do God’s will. Outside of God’s will, you are not covered. You are living in disobedience. You are vulnerable and you are in danger. Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:16, “Hold up your shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.” – Yes, the devil aims fiery arrows at YOU. Those are not from God. You don’t have to make friends with sin, evil and destruction. You don’t have to co-sign. THIS DOESN’T BELONG TO GOD. However, what does belong to God is YOUR FUTURE when you surrender it to him. Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Matthew 6:34 MSG “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamelaOr Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crimFind out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
Transcribed - Published: 13 December 2024
If you’ve already prayed about it, what do you do next? Really, what do you do when you’ve talked to God about this? Jesus is very clear. After he teaches his disciples how to pray, he tells them in Luke 11: 9-10, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” When you’ve already prayed about it, then you pray again. You keep talking to God about it. Over and over again. But why? The why is important because I must admit for a long time I had it wrong. I thought if I kept praying about it, maybe I would change God’s mind about it. But honey, God already has good plans for this situation. He already has a preferred future that is better than the future you’re imagining. You praying about it isn’t about changing God’s mind, it’s about changing yours. When you continually pray about something, your mind begins aligning with God’s. The more you release it to him, the more you can receive the fullness of what he wills. This is really a matter of passion. Will you be more passionate about your way and your timing, or God’s divine plan concerning this? Prayer develops passion. The more you pray, the more you recognize God in the details, and the more you recognize God in the details, the more passionate you become about watching him work. The Passion Translation of Luke 11: 10 refers to the person who keeps on praying as the “persistent seeker”. The persistent seeker of God’s way will discover every single thing they need. The persistent seeker of God’s timing will be filled with passionate patience in the wait. The persistent seeker of God’s plan will walk in supernaturally aligned details. Persistently seeking God changes you. That’s why Jesus says “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” It’s not the one big thing you do once that changes everything. It’s the little things you do daily that impacts your life. John C. Maxwell said, “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine”. You may not feel the immediate impact of daily prayer time, but you keep on doing that and I’m telling you there’s no possible way you will come out the same. You may open your Bible on most days and not understand what you’re reading and feel like it’s a waste of time, but you keep opening God’s word and eventually his word will get in you. It will change how you see things. It will change how you react to things. It will change how you think about things. Why? Because God’s word changes you on the inside and eventually that starts showing up on the outside. Jesus says, KEEP ON DOING THIS. A habit creates dependency. If you drink coffee every morning for a few weeks, soon you will have a dependency on the caffeine in that coffee. You will NEED it. Like get a massive headache without it kinda need it. If you have a habit of hitting the snooze button 7 times before you get up, you soon develop a dependency on all 7 of those alarms before you actually wake up. What used to wake you up the first time, you now sleep right through as you hit the snooze out of habit without realization the alarm even went off. You are now dependent upon every hit the snooze button before waking up. If you start drinking a glass of wine to unwind at the end of every day,
Transcribed - Published: 12 December 2024
There’s something you wish you were better at. There’s something you’re trying to do, but you’re struggling. What is it specifically for you? Are you trying to grow a business, but you’re struggling? Are you trying to date, but you’re struggling? Are you trying to fix your marriage, but you’re struggling? Are you trying to raise those kids, but you’re struggling? Are you trying to get better at communicating, but you’re struggling? Are you trying to start a ministry, but you’re struggling? Are you trying to overcome procrastination, break a bad habit, wake up earlier, or not be a grouchy hag, but girl, you are struggling? What if I told you Jesus gives specific instructions on how to get better at the exact thing you’re struggling with? What if within your Bible is the precise answer for your struggle and it will undoubtedly help you get better. Would you look for it? Would you try it? Would you trust it? I’m currently struggling with a few relationships that I simply don’t know how to fix. I don’t know how to heal what has been broken. I don’t know how to repair what the enemy has absolutely destroyed. At the same time, I’m also trying to raise my 2 year old grandson who has the funnest spunkiest spirit, and yet a prideful streak in him that would rather sit in time out for hours than say sorry. And ya’ll, I’m old! My back hurts. I don’t know how to balance being grandma and mom at the same time. I can’t find the instructions for this. And that same me is here this morning trying to speak to you, along with thousands upon thousands of others around the world who will be listening, and say something that answers your questions, guides your next steps, and points you to Jesus. But how can what you need to hear impact what thousands of others need to hear? You don’t live in the same country, you’re not in the same season of life, and your struggles look nothing alike. But I need one thing to speak to everyone that will mean something. I’m struggling. You’re struggling. Could there possibly be an answer in the Bible for all these struggles? Could there be a specific solution that helps me, helps you, and helps every soul listening, SPECIFICALLY, PERSONALLY, DIRECTLY? Yes. This will absolutely blow your mind. Let me show you. Jesus chose 12 people to become his disciples here on earth. Those 12 lived with Jesus for the 3 years of his active ministry here on Earth. Jesus was personally training them up to continue spreading God’s word after his death. He took several fishermen, a tax collector, a politician, a thief, and a poor hourly worker, and he taught them how to become preachers and teachers of his word. And he did all of this training in 3 years. I wish Jesus would train me how to do the work I need to do. Jesus, I could use your advice on these relationships. Show me what to say, show me how to handle this. Jesus, I don’t know how to do all I have to do here. I can’t do this on my own. I’m struggling. Okay, prepare yourself … this is going to blow your mind. In the 3 years Jesus spent with his disciples, he taught them 1 thing that guided them in everything. One thing that helped them with every single thing they would ever struggle with. One thing that equipped them to go from who they were and what they used to do, to become who they were called to be and do all God had planned for them to do. Jesus taught them ONE THING.
Transcribed - Published: 11 December 2024
Whatever impossible you are facing, God could overcome it all in an instant, but he often doesn’t. Why is that? Why doesn’t he call down the angel armies to fix this? Why doesn’t he display his extraordinary power and intervene in a way that not a single soul could deny him? If I were God, that’s what I would do. But God’s thoughts and God’s ways are infinitely higher and better than my own. Instead, God often invites you and I into partnership with him and gives us marching orders to be part of his miraculous victory. He empowers us to walk in faith, but it’s always our choice whether we walk or whether we cower in fear. Whether we show up for the battle, or whether we give up in the fight. God wants to know … are you going to be his partner in the impossible? While his power is not dependent on your participation, his invitation has included you and maybe he’s just been waiting for you to lock arms with him in this and not look back. Joshua 6 tells the story of the Battle of Jericho. It’s a nearly unbelievable story of impossible walls crumbling with the shout of God’s people. A shout that was both a battle cry and a praise to God, and everything that stood in their way fell to the ground and they walked right in. I don’t know about you, but I need some walls to fall! There are some things in the way that are causing problems and heartache I never saw coming. I fully recognize I don’t have the power to tear these walls down myself. I don’t have the ability to climb over them. (But boy do I want to!) My God holds the power to make them fall, and he’s invited me to a divine partnership in the battle. My role is to depend on God, march forward in faith, and prepare my praise. And my sister, I believe you’re listening today because that is your role in the impossible you’re facing too. You’re being called to depend on God, march forward in faith, and prepare your praise. Joshua is the leader of the Israelites after Moses died. The Israelites have spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness after their lack of faith and overwhelming fear that held them back from stepping into God’s good plans. And now, they’re ready. The next generation is ready to trust God in the impossible and move out of their wilderness. And God says, go to Jericho … I am giving you Jericho. Jericho is a 6 acre fortress. The entire city is protected by a massive wall, the walls of Jericho. These walls were first 13 feet of stones, then on top of the stone was over 20 feet of brick walls. You couldn’t climb these walls, and you certainly couldn’t break through these walls. Jericho was considered to be the best defended city of Canaan and no doubt the most difficult to conquer. Jericho knew the Israelites were camped nearby so they were on high alert. But our God is not detoured by the impossible! Defeating Jericho was impossible, but Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, “With God, all things are possible.” Joshua 6, beginning with verse 1. “Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. no one was allowed to go out or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, ‘I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a rams’ horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can.
Transcribed - Published: 10 December 2024
We make a massive mistake when we try to clean up our lives, but fail to fill our lives with Jesus. If all you ever do is remove the bad from your life and never refill it with the good, your empty spaces will eventually be refilled with even worse. Every single space of your life needs Jesus … without him, you are not only vulnerable, you are in danger. Luke 11: 24-26, Jesus says, “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from. So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.” I promise you this, I have NEVER touched this scripture before. I feel absolutely unqualified for this one. My flesh screams out, “Not it”. But there’s a calling within me that I cannot deny. A calling that I must obey. And that calling tells me to dig deep, seek wisdom, and teach this to God’s girls so we’re not blindly caught in a battle we don’t know how to fight. You can’t play pretend with nothing but positive thoughts and Pollyana prayers. We’re in a battle, every single one of us. Your family is in a battle, every single one of them. Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty power in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” That’s the truth. That’s the struggle. We’re all fighting against evil. There are literally evil spirits in heavenly places battling you. What are those evil spirits in heavenly places doing to battle you? Revelations 12:10 tells us about the evil one who accuses us day and night before God. Oh yes, my sister, it’s happening. And what does he have to accuse you about? Your sin. Your disobedience. Your guilt. Your sin is a legal issue. Imagine Heaven is a court and the evil powers of this world have a case against YOU. They have evidence of your failure, proof of your shortcoming, eye witnesses to your sin. And it’s all on display in the courts of Heaven because the enemy of your soul simply will not drop it. This sin in your life has created a dark place for evil to hide. And where evil hides, it creates absolute destruction. Maybe you’ve seen it in your own life or your own family. It spread like a wildfire and left areas that looked like war zones. Yeah, because it was a war zone, my friend. There was a war going on. A war between Heaven and Hell. A war between good and evil. What is the answer for this? The dark place created by sin must be brought to the light. Truth must be told. Help must be sought. All evil must be evicted. Ways must be changed. But that’s not enough. It’s not enough to just clean up your life. It’s not enough to come clean, end the affair, stop lying, get sober, and say you’re sorry. You can do all of this and still be in danger. In fact, even more danger than ever before. What more could you possibly do? You must fill that once dark space with Jesus. If you don’t, that evil will return and it will return worse than ever. That’s what Jesus was teaching in Luke 11. He says the evil spirit left this man, and then that spirit went to the desert searching for rest. Do you know what a desert is? A desert is a dry place without water. Jesus tells the sinful woman at the well in John 4: 14, “Those who dink the water I give will never be thirsty again.
Transcribed - Published: 9 December 2024
The fullness of life God has aligned for you cannot be received when you’re holding on to something else. If you’re clinging to your plans, God’s plans have no open hand to land in. If you’re focused on your idea of happiness, you miss the opportunities for true, deep, lasting happiness God has designed for you. So what do you want, Sis? Do you want your life your way, or do you want the life God has available for you that promises to be beyond anything you could imagine. Those are God’s words, not mine. Isaiah 55: 8-9, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve decided I DESPERATELY WANT higher thoughts and higher ways so I can live a life that is far beyond anything I could imagine. I don’t kinda want it. I don’t sorta want it. I’m not one foot in and one foot out with wanting it. No, I desperately want the life God has for me. Now it’s time for you to decide. Do you want your plans? Do you want your idea of happiness? Do you want your way? Do you want your timing? Or, are you trusting God is above all, sees all, knows all, and holds all, and therefore his way is always better than your way, his plans are immeasurably better than your plans, and his timing is infinitely better than your timing. That’s where I am on this journey of life. I’m absolutely certain at this point if God is in it, I want it. I want everything single thing he has for me. I want to do everything he has created me to do. I want to be available for my assignment. I want to be in position for partnership in purpose with Jesus. I want it, I want it all, and I want it bad. However, I’m even more certain if God is not in it, I don’t want it. I mean I don’t even want to touch it. I don’t want to entertain it in my thoughts. I don’t want to be talking about it. I don’t want to dance with it. If God’s not in it, I don’t want to even be in the same room with it. Looking back, I realize how many tables I’ve desperately wanted to be at that were never meant for me. How many times I wanted to sit with the wrong people, have the wrong conversations, and make the wrong plans. I prayed for a seat at the wrong tables. Whew, thank you Lord for denying my foolish requests! In my bible there’s a round pink sticky note on Matthew 21 where Jesus goes into his temple and knocks over the tables, and that note says, “Father, forgive me for the times I craved a place at a table you would have flipped.” So, how do we stay on the path God has for us? How do we sit at the appointed tables with the right people aligned by God? How do we make sense in the nonsense and see the right way when there are so many ways to choose from? How do we refuse the temptation to settle for what’s easy and what’s right now, and fight for the fullness of life we were created for? How do we ever get ourselves good enough to be used for divine purposes? Here it is … Jesus says in Luke 9: 23-24, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” Understand, Jesus isn’t talking about you DYING, he’s talking about YOU dying. The you that is naturally selfish, self-centered, self-focused, self-serving. You always think of you first. Of course you do,
Transcribed - Published: 6 December 2024
How does it make you feel to see someone else get what you have been praying for? The very thing you’ve been wanting, even needing, dreaming of for years, and it goes to someone else. But what about you? Has God overlooked you? Why are you left still waiting and wanting? Will it ever be your turn? It takes a darn big person to sit with empty hands and watch someone else’s hands be filled. It takes an even bigger person to be truly happy for them when they get it and you don’t. Our human nature screams, “Why them and not me? Where’s mine?” Is this what you’ve been saying? Maybe you haven’t been saying it, but have you been feeling it and thinking it? Oh girl, this one is for you today! In studying the book of Luke, I read the familiar story of Jesus feeding the crowd of thousands with only the lunch of a boy.I’ve read it from the perspective of the boy who offered his lunch and saw Jesus use his little for something so big.I’ve read it from the perspective of the disciples who were invited to be part of the miraculous by serving.I’ve read it and focused on the sheer impossibility of the numbers. I’ve done the math. 5,000 men in the crowd likely meant at least 15,000 total once you counted women and children. The 5 loaves of bread were not loaves of french bread, they were more like pita crackers. The 2 fish were not massive pieces of protein, they were more like small sardines. The numbers are impossible. But this time, God showed me something different. He showed me the crowd’s obedience in the wait while they watched others receive. Luke 9: 12-17:Late in the afternoon the 12 disciples came to Jesus and said, “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night. There is nothing to eat here in this remote place.”But Jesus said, “You feed them”“But we have only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?” For there were about 5,000 men there.Jesus replied, “Tell them to sit down in groups of about 50 each.” So the people all sat down. Jesus took the 5 loaves and 2 fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftovers. This crowd had been gathered all day seeking the words of wisdom and the healing touch of Jesus. They had no food and they were hungry. People get a little crazy when they’re hungry. They get really crazy when they’re hungry and they think there isn’t enough for them. Fights break out in situations like this. Pushing, shoving, yelling. Imagine being in the crowd with your small child who is hungry. What would you do to get them food? But every account of this story tells of order. Jesus is very specific, “sit them down in groups of about 50 each”. Then he has the 12 disciples distribute the food to the groups. But let’s do the math and consider the wait. If there were a total of 15,000 hungry people in the crowd, this would make 300 groups of 50. With 12 disciples serving, this would mean each one would be serving about 25 groups. The space required for 15,000 people is the size of a large arena. Think sporting event or concert … all those people. With the disciples serving each of their 25 groups of 50 people, it would take a considerable amount of time to walk from Jesus where the supply is, all the way around the arena to reach every group.
Transcribed - Published: 5 December 2024
When you’re facing a troubling situation, what do you do? Jesus is asking you to STOP YIELDING TO YOUR FEAR and instead TRUST HIM. Is God aware of what you’re going through? Absolutely. He knows every detail of your life. How do I know? His word tells me! Psalm 139: 1-5, “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me.” But he goes beyond just knowing about every detail of your life. My sister, your God CARES about every detail. Again, how do I know? His word tells me! Psalm 37:23, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” He literally DELIGHTS in the details of your journey. This means he’s not just involved because he has to be, he’s involved in the details of your life because he WANTS to be. And this God who knows every detail and cares about every detail, holds the divine and unmatched power to do the impossible in your life. Yes, God can make a way through this. God can heal this. God can use this for good. Bring him the worst, ugliest, messiest, most shameful parts of your life and he will do something beautiful with it. Beauty for ashes, Sis, that’s what he gives! When you understand God’s power matched with God’s awareness, care and involvement in your life, you can truly trust him. You can trust that he has gone before you and made a way for you. You can trust he will strengthen your every step forward with him. You can trust he will be with you and guide you. You can trust he will break chains, he will part seas, he will tear down walls. He’s simply asking you to partner with him! To partner with God, you must stop yielding to your fear and trust him. Maybe you’ve been stuck, yielding to your fear. Is that where you are? You’re sitting in the overwhelm of ‘what if’ and ‘what next’, but you’re not moving forward in faith. Let me tell you what happens when you yield to fear … life piles up. Little messes become big messes. Problems don’t just remain, they grow. Soon, you have horns honking at you, pressure is building and you are overwhelmed. What happened? YOU YIELDED TO FEAR. Imagine driving your car and you’re going from the access road to the interstate highway. What is there as your lane merges into another lane? A yield sign. So, what do you do, you slow down, you look at what is coming for your chance to proceed. But if you continue yielding, you never move forward. You sit and you look at the cars passing, passing, passing. Then the cars behind you begin building, building, building. What happens next? They start honking, honking, honking. Then you feel anxious. You feel pushed. You feel fearful. Understand, when you sit and look at your problems, you are yielding. The problems aren’t just going to stop for you. That’s not what problems do. Problems keep on barreling through on their lane whether you do anything or not. As you yield, watching your problems, more problems start building up behind you. The more you do nothing, the more it builds. Then the honking begins. Then the pressure. Then the fear. Is this where you are? Have you yielded to fear? You’ve been looking at the thing you’re afraid of without moving forward. You’ve been talking about your problem without taking the necessary next steps. You’ve been worrying a whole lot more than you’ve been pr...
Transcribed - Published: 4 December 2024
Your enemy, the devil, knows two things better than you … he knows God’s power and your potential. He has no doubt about who God is and what God can do. He is also fully aware of what God can do with a life like yours when it is fully surrendered and lived in wild faith. Honey, that’s why there’s a target on you. When you partner with God, every single thing that has ever held you back will be dropped and the enemy will no longer have your company in the dark corners where you’ve hidden before. God is saying, “Satan, you can’t have my girl! She’s mine and I’m coming to get her! Your chains have no place on her. Your lies are being replaced with my truth. My light is coming to expose you in the darkness. My girl will be restored!” Jesus is a restorer. He is a redeemer. He holds the power to break every chain, overcome every demonic power, and have you walking out of the bondage you’ve been held in … and he has the power to do it today! That’s what he’s here to do. Yeah, you’ve had a target on your back and the enemy has been chasing you. But you also have a target on your heart for which Jesus is in relentless pursuit. He’s not going to sneak up behind you like the devil does, no, he’s coming straight in for the capture of your heart to change things you’ve never been able to change before. Go ahead and let Jesus capture your heart. Let him do his work in you! When Jesus comes in, the devil and all his demons must flee. Luke 8 tells the story of Jesus healing a demon-posessed man. First, let’s address this: Are demons real? Absolutely they are. They are the fallen angels who chose to follow the angel Lucifier, who we now call Satan, when he rebelled against God. Demons are just as real as angels. They are on a mission to complete the enemy’s work which is to kill, steal and destroy. Scripture says they accuse us before God day and night. Yes, they are continually trying to convince God that you’re too far gone, you’re worthless, and you’re a waste of his divine power. If you ever feel like someone is talking bad about you, well, you’re right! Actually, it’s happening day and night! But God knows the truth about you! He knows your potential because he put it there. He knows your future because he planned it. So, yes, demons are real. They roam this earth trying to steal one more from the life they were created for. They work in disaster, they work in dysfunction, they work in distraction, they work in disappointment, they work in depression, they work in absolutely any darkness we allow in our lives. However, the devil and all his demons must flee at the name of Jesus. Girl, get to speaking Jesus. Speak it as loud as you need to and as many times as you need to. Speak the holy name of Jesus over your heart and your mind. Speak Jesus until every dark addiction starts to break. Speak Jesus over fear and anxiety. Speak Jesus over every soul held captive by depression. Yes, speak the name of healing and the name of life, Jesus! Speak Jesus for your family … I’m speaking Jesus for mine. There’s a song I often play on repeat called “I Speak Jesus” by Charity Gayle. The demons flee with that one! So, let’s read the story of Jesus healing the demon-posessed man. Luke 8: 27-38: As Jesus was climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came out to meet him. For a long time he had been homeless and naked, living in the tombs outside the town. As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down in front of him. Then he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please, I beg you,
Transcribed - Published: 3 December 2024
Wherever there is disorder in your life, God wants to bring it back into order. Where there is chaos, God wants to bring his peace. And what God wants, God can do! The question is, are you going to partner with God in the process, or are you going to fight it? The truth is, you can’t always make everything better, but you can always make things worse. What if the simple prayer to pray here is, “Lord, don’t let me make things worse.” We can really make a mess of the things that are already messy. We can destroy relationships that were already strained with our unmanaged words spoken in anger and frustration. We can make a job we don’t like absolutely miserable by focusing on the wrong things and showing up with our bad attitude and less than best efforts. We can take what was already struggling and absolutely destroy it. Now, God calls his creation back to order! We’ve gotten wrapped up in disorder. Do you remember the story of Jesus being in the boat with his disciples and he’s asleep during a great storm? Luke 8: 24, “The disciples went and woke Jesus up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’ When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.” The wind and the waves are the creation of Jesus. The calming of the wind and the waves is Jesus bringing order back to his creation. When God’s creation goes out of control, he is still in control of his creation. This is all his creation and this is all under his control. Creation has a way of naturally getting out of order. You don’t have to plant weeds, those grow with absolutely no effort. You don’t have to teach a 2 year old to throw a temper tantrum, they figure that out on their own and naturally give it a try to see if it works. And you and I, grown adults who know better, we tend to slack and drift. Our intentions and priorities slack, our habits get messy, then we look around at a life that is in disorder and wonder how it got that way. Jesus, please bring your creation back into order. 1 Corinthians 14: 33, “God is not a God of disorder.” Verse 40, “Be sure that everything is done properly in order.” God knows the danger disorder is to his creation. He knows the natural pull of life that causes us to drift and crash without our awareness. And he calls us back to order. How? His Holy Spirit that dwells within us. That little nudge within that says, “this isn’t good” … yes, that’s the call back to order. That gut feeling that says, “I need to change this” … yes, that’s God calling his creation back to order. God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within each of his girls is his call to step away from the chaos and partner with him in the divine order of life. Most of us know John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Those are powerful, life changing words. Now, let’s understand those words on an even deeper level today. The Greek word for world is Kosmos (with a K). This is where we get our word cosmos (with a C), meaning the universe. However, when Jesus said, “For God so loved the Kosmos”, the meaning was not only the whole world, but order. In Greek, Kosmos means order. God created the whole whole with divine order. The story of creation in Genesis 1 reveals every intentional act of creation in order. And God loved his creation, but his creation had fallen out of order. His creation had been destroyed by sin.
Transcribed - Published: 2 December 2024
Sometimes I just want to know why things are happening. I want to know why it feels like I’m under attack. I want to know the purpose of the problem, the source of the struggle, the meaning of the madness. Maybe you’ve been asking why. Maybe you’ve been trying to understand what is happening right now in your life. Ahhhhh, this is for you sister! God has been whispering to my spirit a message to share specifically with you. You ask why, here’s your answer: Because Satan has asked to sift you. Yes, that’s it. Plain and simple, the enemy has asked to attack you. He has asked to shake you up. He’s asked to strip you of a few things to see if you’ll still stand in faith through it all. And Jesus in confidence has said, “Yes, sift her. Then I’ll use it all for good when you do.” Girl, I’m not making this up. It’s all in scripture and it’s been there all along. At the last supper when Jesus is sharing his final meal with his best friends, knowing he was about to face crucifixion, he warned Peter of this sifting. Luke 22: 31-32 Jesus said “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.” First of all, Jesus is talking to Peter, but he calls him Simon. He not only calls him by his old name, he says it twice, “Simon, Simon.” What’s the significance of this? He’s saying who he used to be is going to show back up. The old impulsive, impatient, temperamental version of him is going to take over for a hot minute. Although he has now been called to be Peter, the rock on which Jesus would build his church, there’s still some Simon in him. Jesus gave him the new name of Peter, but the old Simon is still in there. And guess what, Jesus is okay with that. Jesus is making you a new person. He’s transforming your mind, changing the way you think. He’s helping you respond instead of react now. He’s changing your desires and removing old bad habits. But he knows while he is making you new, that old you will still be battling inside. I heard Steven Furtick say it like this, “Although Peter was the new name of Simon, Simon was still inside of him.” So Jesus is speaking to the old Peter, Simon. The one he was trying not to be any longer. And he says “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.” This is a real oh crap moment. Peter must have been like “Jesus, did you tell him no?!!!! Come on, please tell me you told Satan no. Don’t let him sift me.” But Jesus says “I have pleaded in prayer for you that your faith should not fail.” So here’s Peter trying to be this new version of himself, faithful follower of Jesus, a solid and steady rock Jesus would trust to build his church on, and he’s being called by his old name, remembered for who he used to be. Dang, that sucks. But this is actually great news for you and I. This means even when we stumble and go back to our old ways, even when we fail to show up as this new and improved version of ourselves, Jesus still says “I’m pleading for you.” Yes, even when you’ve screwed up, Jesus is on your side. Even when you’ve just wasted all the progress you’ve made and fallen right back into your old ways, Jesus is standing right beside you. He’s not walking away. He’s not giving up. He’s pleading for you. Speaking on your behalf, stamping his name on your ID,
Transcribed - Published: 29 November 2024
Every morning when we wake up, we get to choose our attitude. Any attitude we wish is available for the taking. We can put it on and wear it the entire day, and just like the right pair of shoes can change the outfit, the right attitude can change your experience. Most days we wake […]
Transcribed - Published: 27 November 2024
There are just some people you know are going to succeed. People you can trust to show up, do it, and do it right, without fail. People who can have all the odds stacked against them, and somehow come out of it ahead. These are the people you would bet on. Now the question is, […]
Transcribed - Published: 26 November 2024
God is calling you forward. He’s calling you boldly onward to your destiny. A pursuit of partnership with your Creator for your purpose is ahead, will you go forward? They say fortune favors the bold, therefore those who sit and stew, those who get stuck in their own head, those who delay and defer are […]
Transcribed - Published: 25 November 2024
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