Latest / Stuck No More Voices / 320-The Call Was in You First | How God Uses Your Story to Prepare Your Voice

Transcript

320-The Call Was in You First | How God Uses Your Story to Prepare Your Voice · Stuck No More Voices

• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Three years ago, I was asking God one question: Can I do this?
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Today I realize he was asking me a different question,"Will you trust what I've been building in you all along?" so welcome to the Stuck No More Voices podcast.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: I'm Theresa Croft, your host.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I'm a visibility strategist helping Christian women go from stuck to seen by connecting their calling and their story to the message their ideal audience is looking for.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Now, before I jump in, w- if you're watching on YouTube, would you subscribe?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Or if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, share this.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Uh, someone may really be encouraged by this message.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: So a few days ago, just a few days ago, I watched a video of myself in a counseling session with my, uh, neurocycle friend and mentor.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I asked her,"Can I really do this?" Three years ago to the exact this date.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Today, I'm looking at that woman with compassion because I didn't know what God was doing beneath the surface.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: The truth is God was never trying to build the, my platform fir- first.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: No, he was building me.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: So I've been spending the last couple of years doing deep work with a neuroscience-based mentor, Elana Van Deventer and together we've been uncovering beliefs that were formed long before I ever started a business.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Not because I lacked talent, not because I lacked experience, because somewhere along my life, my nervous system learned that being fully seen wasn't always safe Maybe you understand that.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: You know God's called you.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: You know you have wisdom.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: You know you have something to offer.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Yet every time it's time to be visible, something inside you quietly pulls back.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I've learned that visibility isn't just making a marketing issue.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's a heart issue.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Today I want to share three things God has been teaching me right up to today.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Point one: God prepares the woman before He expands the platform.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I used to think I was waiting for the right opportunity, and believe you me, I jumped on a lot of different opportunities.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Now I realize God was preparing me to carry it.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Preparation doesn't always look productive.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: It can seem slow.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: It can seem like you're left behind.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Sometimes, though, it looks like counseling.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it looks like renewing your mind, the deconstruction to the reconstruction of your old beliefs to what God says about you.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: That's a work.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it looks like healing from things no one else even knew you were carrying.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it looks like learning that your worth isn't connected to how many people follow you.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: It's not worth how many times you post on social media.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: One of the greatest lessons I've learned is this: God is far more interested in who I am becoming than how quickly I'm growing.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: That's hard for ambitious Christian women, yeah?
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Because we naturally measure growth by numbers.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: God measures growth by transformation.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: You know, David, in the Bible, wasn't hidden because he wasn't ready.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: He was hidden because God was preparing a king.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Do you feel hidden right now?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: After my cancer surgery, I felt hidden because I had to stay still and heal.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I had two cancer surgeries.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I still did my podcast from a different chair, a different mic.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: But I remember after I finished one podcast, I heard God so clearly.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: He said,"Tee, if you don't learn to rest now and heal, you will not be able to handle what I have for you later on." Point number two: Your story isn't your message, it's the doorway people walk through to hear it.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: I like that because I don't want my message, I don't want my story, all my stories to be the main message.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I just want the stories to help you.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: One of the biggest mistakes, though, I see Christian make is believing they need a better message.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Most of the time, they already have one.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: You just haven't recognized where it came from.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: That's where your story comes in.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Your story isn't there so people admire you.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: It's there so women can recognize themselves in your story.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, every scar- Every disappointment, every answered prayer, every season where God met you, it becomes evidence of His faithfulness.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: I've stopped asking,"How can I sound more impressive?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: How can I beat the algorithm and, you know, make my voice go along with the algorithm?" Now I'm asking"Lord, where have you been faithful?" Because that's what people need.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Not another expert.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of them.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: But someone who knows God personally and is able to convey a message that can bring transformation You know, I, I notice even in the midst of being controlled and stuck, I still fought for my voice.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: And, uh, it was, like, two years after my husband passed, I asked God,"How was I able to fight for my story amidst the control, amidst that atmosphere?" And God said two things.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: One, you stayed in my presence.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: You fought for my presence.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: And two, in my presence, you learned to create the way I created.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Now, listen, you don't have to wait for your husband to die or your situation to improve, okay?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: You can do it right now.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Create the way God created.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in your business, in your calling, in your story.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: How I did it back then is I would hear the Holy Spirit, and I started writing.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: It would be, Listen to The Vinedresser.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I, I couldn't conjure Him up, but that's how God was speaking to me ever so personally as I wrote out what the vinedresser was saying.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I later found out other people could relate.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I published three books.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: They are taken down'cause I'm gonna republish them.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Listen to The Vinedresser.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: That's just one example how in the midst of some really difficult times, I was learning to create the way God created.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: I didn't find that out till later.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: That's how I fought.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: But you don't have to wait for that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: You don't have to wait for circumstances to get great.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: You can create right now the way God creates.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Point number three, your calling has beli- been leaving clues your entire life.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: This might be my favorite lesson'cause it comes with a story I have never shared.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Let me set the stage.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: My husband, after Hurricane Katrina, had built up another house in Louisiana, and we'd go there for a vacation.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: One day, we are coming home, and my husband was on a motorcycle, and he had taken the wrong turn, so he wasn't behind us.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: And I remember Anne and I feeling really anxious.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: We didn't know what we were anxious about.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: I backed my car in, yelled to the kids to help me unpack, and I went into my house.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: The alarm was not on.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: It was just beeping red.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: And I remember thinking,"Ooh, it's awful musty in here." As I was going down the hall of the house, right before I took the turn- I heard my daughter scream,"Mom, the couch is on fire." As I turned the corner, I saw the scarred, burnt wood that was on the closed door to downstairs.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Now, I knew from watching the movie Backdraft, I don't open that door, and all of a sudden I felt this heat on my legs.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I ran out of the house, called 911, and said,"Kids, get out of the house.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: The house is on fire." Well, basically it was started in the basement, and because my husband was really as big in drywall, it was a miracle that it didn't burn right down to the ground.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: That's just the first part of the story.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: We later found a rented home.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: But before we did, we lived in a motel for about four or five weeks, and get this.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I was in charge,'cause my husband was out of town working.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I was in charge of doing inventory of the house.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Every little item.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Take my kids to school, come back.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: But guess what I was still doing?
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: That calling in me was not dying out.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I was still working.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I was still working on the business I was working then.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: The, the, the v- the videos, the...
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: I would rent, but then I would stay over here.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: I would do inventory and I'd stay over here and I'd do a video The calling can survive the most burnt out things in your life, literally and figuratively.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: there was so much trauma.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: And, you know, I gotta backtrack this.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: One of the hardest things for me b- was realizing that the kids h- had trauma, and I didn't know how to deal with their trauma.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: But- Years later, there's restoration with my kids.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: And I start thinking,"God, he's been preparing me all along." So It ended by us being denied our fire claim and having move, moved back to Louisiana away from friends and family.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: But I s- the reason I share that story is even in the most crazy thing, I s- I didn't deny my calling.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: You could have fire going on in your life, but do, do you still have that urge,"This is my calling.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: This is what God put me on earth to do"?
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: And you can s- survive.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: So for years, I thought I needed to discover my message.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Now, I believe God's been revealing it my entire life.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: So think about your own life.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: What breaks your heart?
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: What fires of life have you gone through?
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: What gives you joy?
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: What have you survived?
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: What keeps showing up over and over again?
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: They aren't random.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: They're clues.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: So I learned in that story, even amidst the devastation, that calling was driving me through the dust, through that burnt things in the house, the aftereffect of devastation in my life, real time.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: That was 2008 to 2009.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Today, from the ashes has come God's presence, has come the overflow.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: I'm doing this work with women, by the way, on a whiteboard recently.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: It's the Calling Activation Study Seminar.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: And what I'm discovering is women are starting to connect some dots, their experiences, their gifts, their passions, their healing, that compassion.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: And almost every time they look up and say,"I've never seen it that way before.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, that makes sense." And even out of the clues, they're like,"Oh, I am meant to speak," or,"Oh, g- I, part of my calling is a podcast," or calling,"My calling is starting that business or continuing with that business." That's exactly what God does.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: He helps us see what was always there.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Your message isn't manufactured, it's uncovered.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: It's uncovered as you sit in the presence of God.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: And let Him speak to your heart that may be tattered.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Let Him say,"Yes, I put that calling in you." You're not driven.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: You are called.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, you're called to rest, though.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: You're called to rest, to run.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Being like Sarah, who embraced God's miracle-working power even though she was past the age of childbearing.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: But listen to this.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Her faith rested in the one who called her.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: It rested in the authority of the one who called her, and she tapped into his faithfulness.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: So there's some resting.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Tapping into his faithfulness might mean you go to work on your calling.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Maybe today you've just simply been asking the same question I asked years ago.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: As I looked in the camera t- with my neuroscience mentor, Elana, and I said,"I wake up in the morning, Elana, and I wonder if I can really do this." It was a particular business back then.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Can I share my story?
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: You may ask,"Can I really do this?" You may ask,"Can I believe this calling is real?" Maybe God is asking you a different question.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: "Will you trust the woman I'm forming?" God says.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Because there, before there was a business, there was a calling.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Before there was a purpose, a business, a ministry, there was a calling.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Before there was a platform, there was the purpose.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Before anyone ever heard your voice, God already knew who would need your voice and your story.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Your story is not the obstacle.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: It's one of the greatest gifts He's entrusted you to.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Of course, I always say this, you have to heal from the scars and not speak from the wounds.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: That's why I personally needed a few, quite a few years of a neurocycle coach to make sure I would speak from my scars.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: He's been preparing you all along.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: If this episode encouraged you, if it stirred something in you about your calling, I invite you to the next Calling Activation Study.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: It's July 28th.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: It's no charge.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: You can register at the link in the show notes.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: What this is is you discover the story that connects your calling to the people, to the message you're meant to serve.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: It's a live interactive calling activation study for Christian women, leaders, speakers, coaches, authors, leading a group, speaking a message that you know is inside them, but you want clarity on how their story becomes the bridge to the people you're called to.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: So I'll end you with this.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Please keep saying yes to the calling God placed in you first because someone somewhere is waiting for the hope that only your story carries.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Your story, yes, for God's glory, to speak to the person you once were.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: I'm Theresa Croft.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I will talk to you in the next episode of the Stuck No More Voices podcast.