Latest / She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ / (Part 1) Enthusiasm That Endures: Moving Beyond Motivation in 2026 With Jayme Elizabeth

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(Part 1) Enthusiasm That Endures: Moving Beyond Motivation in 2026 With Jayme Elizabeth · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

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Hey, welcome back to She Speaks Life.
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This is the very first episode of 2026 and I'm so thrilled to
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be back with you all. I have some exciting episodes
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planned for the new year and I can't wait to share them with
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you. Today's episode is super
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special. It's one that I wish I could be
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encouraged with every time I begin a fresh year.
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You know, the kids are back to school, everyone is getting back
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into their routines. And I don't know about you, but
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I want this year to be the year that I went further than the
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last year. And So what I mean by this is,
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have you ever started a year on fire for God?
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Full of vision, full of faith, full of the dreams and and just
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ambition and goals, only to find yourself exhausted, discouraged,
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and wondering by mid year what happened to my fire?
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So today we're not talking about hype.
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We're talking about how to really carry a fire that
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actually lasts. So I titled this episode
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Enthusiasm That Endures, staying Fervent, Bold, and victorious by
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the Holy Spirit for your 2026. Because let's face it, how many
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of us are such good starters? Like a runner at the starting
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line when they hear a gun go off our horn to start sprinting and
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they are going and going. And then we start to get a
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little fatigue, right? We struggle with the finishing
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part. And so I know I've fallen in
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this category. And how many of us have actually
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stepped into the new year with that excitement and that vision,
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anticipation, right? We've all been there where we
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get stirred, we're motivated and hopeful.
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But in a few days, a weeks or months, the excitement starts to
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fade. Challenges in life arise, and
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the results may not come as quickly as we expected.
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So you may have seen this pattern before.
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You get this, the fire in January, fatigue by March.
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And then you get discouraged by summer and by summer or earlier.
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You've lost that momentum. And then you tell yourself,
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maybe I should try something else.
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Maybe it's not meant to be or you're questioning yourself if
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God even put that in your heart. We've all been there from time
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to time and then it keeps us in the cycle of always starting and
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never finishing. So what I want for us by the
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time you are done with this episode that you will take these
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Nuggets of truth and it will carry you strong in your spirit
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to accomplish those assignments. Accomplish those goals and
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dreams and visions, those desires that God has placed in
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your heart. Because I believe that there are
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several reasons we putter out, and the big one is that we are
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responding with motivation instead of enthusiasm.
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And let me explain with that. Motivation is fleeting.
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It responds with emotion or feelings.
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Motivation in itself is not bad. We need that motivation.
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We need that starter motivation art.
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They're great starters, but not great finishers.
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Rather, enthusiasm responds in the Holy Spirit.
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I believe God is not looking for us to just be temporarily
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excited about something, right? To do what He's called us to do.
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But He's called us into this enthusiasm, a fire that is not
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fueled by emotions, but by the Holy Spirit.
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Let me read you a verse that explains this.
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In Romans 12/11 in the King New King James version, it says not
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lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, that
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fervent means to be hot in spirit.
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It's a holy fire to serve the Lord.
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Another version in the Amplified, which is my favorite
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version, it says never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor.
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Be aglow and burning with the Spirit serving the Lord.
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Now that aglow means intense enthusiasm.
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It means you're so hot for the Lord that you're boiling over.
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Have you put a pot of water on the stove and it gets so hot it
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starts to boil over? This is that fervent, hot, holy
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fire. So this is God's design for us,
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not just for the beginning of the year, but throughout the
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year for ages to come. So first I wanted to breakdown
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what enthusiasm means because it's actually a one that is got
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God in it. It has God in the word
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enthusiasm for one. God gave this word to me for the
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year. And if you don't have yours yet,
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this is a perfect time to seek Him and ask Him, because
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whenever where we ask, we can expect an answer from the Lord.
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I'd love for you to share your word for the year as well.
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So I if you know me by now, I'm this Greek word geek.
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I like to break down words that the Lord highlights to me.
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So let's break down the word enthusiasm.
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It comes from the Greek word enthusiasm, which comes from NEN
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and theos, THEOS meaning in God. Theos means God in means in.
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So if you break down the root, it's, it's actually got in God
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or God within. There's also other versions of
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full of God, God inspired. The bottom line.
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This enthusiasm means that we're full of God.
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We're full of the Spirit of God within us to actively engage, to
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walk boldly obedience in our faith and in our purpose.
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The ASM is sustained by the Holy Spirit, not by human strength.
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And I love this favorite verse of mine, Zechariah 46 and it
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says not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord
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of hosts. This was written during the
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period when the Temple was being real rebuilt, a time of immense
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discouragement and opposition, when the Jewish people were
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returning to Jerusalem and so Zechariah and Haggai.
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They were prophesying to encourage leaders like
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Zerubbabel and Joshua to complete the Temple project,
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emphasizing it would be accomplished by God's Spirit,
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not human might. This was a word to remind us
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today that it is by His Spirit, not our own human power or
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might, but by His powerful Spirit that we can do what He
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has called us to do. So how do we keep fostering this
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enthusiasm? By the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Because the truth is, God has us do our part.
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We are required to do our part, right?
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We need to know how to keep stocking that fire of the Holy
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Spirit, keeping it fervently hot a glowing in US.
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And He does the rest. So I'm going to give us these
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four points on how to keep this enthusiasm going throughout the
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year to accomplish those things that God has placed in our
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hearts. So with the foundation of all of
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this, before I give the four points, I want to lay out the
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foundation because if we're not doing this, then we're not going
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to get far at all. And this is something we need to
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be doing every single day. And that's, you guessed it,
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daily study of our Bible. Apply the Word of God to our
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lives. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew,
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we shall not live on bread alone.
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Meaning we don't live on just physical bread, but by every
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word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
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In order to live, we need spiritual nourishment.
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We need God's word daily, right? It's like oxygen to our bodies
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because we need to know what His word says.
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We need to have it dwelling in us.
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We need to know what his his word says.
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Because that's his will. That's his plan for our lives
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and it has to be done by taking action in it the the, the word.
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We got to put it into action. So James 122 says, but don't
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just listen to God's word. Don't just read it and listen.
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You must do what it says actively listen right.
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Do it. Otherwise, it says you are only
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fooling yourselves. In other words, you're just like
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pretend play. There's plenty of people that
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read their Bible, but the transformation isn't there.
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The revelation isn't there, the fruit is not there, right.
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So in Scripture it says faith without works is dead.
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Faith is demonstrated through action, not just a belief
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system, but but demonstrating it, implying the word of God in
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our lives and actually doing it. So this comes into my first
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point that I want to build on. So we've got our foundation.
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So the next thing that we build on that foundation, it's super
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important and #1 is our words we speak and thoughts.
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Yes, this podcast is called She Speaks Life because I believe
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that this is life transformation right here because words are
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like seeds. We either plant faith or fear
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life or death. Words aren't just sounds, but
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they shape our reality. Words are spiritual.
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They do not go away when we speak.
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They go out forth. They go forth and they create.
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God spoke, let it be in Genesis, and there is creation.
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We are created in His image and we have the authority through
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Jesus Christ to use our words to create.
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He designed us to create and that there is power in our
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tongue, says Proverbs 1821, says death and life are in the power
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of the tongue. It's in the power of the tongue.
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Not the tongue itself, but the power that we give in the
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tongue. So we can either build or tear
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down. We can either release faith or
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fear. We can either release the power,
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blessing or cursing Speak life. We will literally start to see
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life. Speak defeat.
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We will literally start to see defeat in our lives.
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I saw this in my own life when the words that I loud and coming
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out of my mouth when I was raising kids, I didn't allow my
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mouth to talk negatively about toddlerhood or teenage years.
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People around me would say these things like oh watch out for the
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toddler years, oh watch out teen years.
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Absolutely horrific. And I decided at that time that
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I wasn't going to receive that and I was going to call it out.
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What I would like, I would love to actually enjoy every stage of
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life. Are every stage of life perfect?
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No, there's no such thing, right?
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But when we start to speak life words, that's what we're going
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to expect. That's the stage that we set.
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And so when I was looking at those people that would say
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negative things about their kids, they ended up having a
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miserable time in the stages with their kids.
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And me, I enjoyed every stage because I went in expecting it
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and then receiving that because what I was confessing out of my
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mouth was shaping my experience. You know, negativity, it's
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absolutely poison to our hearts. And unfortunately, I grew up
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around a lot of negativity. It felt normal to enter your
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dialogue, to say complain, what's wrong, You know this and
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that. I had to change this pattern.
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And so it wasn't common to to watch the words and thoughts.
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I didn't grow up with that. I had to learn in scripture
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about it and practice it out that words are powerful, the
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powers in our tongue. And until the words of life
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became my norm, right. And then the negativity felt
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wrong, felt not right. Thoughts can move from our minds
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to our hearts. It's very important as as much
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as we speak out, it's as much of importance of what are our
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thoughts doing right? Because if we allow our thoughts
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to, to sink down, take that, you know, elevator from our mind to
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our hearts, it gets planted in the soil of our hearts.
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I, I picture our heart as a pot, right?
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And we can grow this beautiful tree or this beautiful harvest.
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What we harvest is what we will eventually see.
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So we got to make sure that our thoughts, our words are aligned
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with what God's Word says. Philippians 48 Paul says it
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perfectly here on what we should be thinking.
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He says finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is
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honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
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lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if
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there's anything worthy of praise.
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Think about these things. Paul is telling the believers,
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you know what? You can control your thought
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life, directing it toward good, uplifting, and godly things.
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When our minds are directed on Christ, our actions will follow.
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This, I believe, is why the enemy attacks our thought life
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so much, because what we believe effects our actions.
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If we believe the lies, our life will reflect those lies.
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It's important to reject the lies so they do not become a
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reality. And thank you Jesus, that He
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gives us all that we need, all authority and truth and spirit
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to dispel those lies and not give it a welcome mat.
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Remembering whatever we speak gives life to our thoughts.
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Speak fear and doubt. That's what will grow.
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Speak faith. Faith will grow and be
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strengthened. And then speaking and declaring
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words of yourself, it will produce good things.
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Speaking things out loud. You know, Scripture in the
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beginning it was meant to be spoken out.
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So they spoke it in the beginning so that I will be
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written. Now it's written and we need to
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be speaking it out. So let's start with these
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declarations, 'cause I just think this would be so great.
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Just wherever you're at, just say these words with me.
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I am equipped to do every good work in Christ I can.
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Doors are opening in my favor. I am blessed and good things are
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coming my way for 2026. I will choose today peace, joy,
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truth and faith. You know that declaration right
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there, the one in Christ I can. Anytime something I don't know,
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challenging enters and I start to go, oh, you know, starting to
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make me nervous. I don't know, I automatically
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will yell it out or declare it out, say it to myself.
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I'll say in Christ I can, in Christ I can.
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And it's incredible the shift that happens when we just say
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those words in Christ. I can do that in Christ.
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I can get up and go and and do that project in Christ.
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I can go and go to that job interview in Christ.
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I can't. And you fill out the blank,
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whatever that is. You can do this every day.
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You can do whatever it is where you have a tendency to struggle
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in that area. You go in Christ, I can.
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And when you do that, watch what it does to you.
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Because if we want to see change, it always begins with
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the tongue in our minds. It's from our neck up.
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What we say aligns us with His truth and it shapes our destiny.
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Physical healing. I had a shoulder that needed
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some healing and every day I kept saying thank you God for my
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healing. Thank you that I have a healed
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shoulder. Thank you that I have a new
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shoulder. And even though everything in
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the natural was telling me otherwise, the symptoms that
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hurt, I couldn't use it. I couldn't function.
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But I literally did this every day for eight to nine months.
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I mean it felt like a whole year until finally I had my church
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had an evangelist come and we all lined up those that were
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believing in their healing and he told us all after prayer to
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start moving the the the body part that we were praying over
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for healing. And I kid you not, my shoulder
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felt like a 5 year old little girl's shoulder again.
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I mean, it was amazing He had us all go on the microphone and
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give God glory and share what he has done to our healing.
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And I really truly believe that God, he, he adores that.
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He delights in that when we give him glory, when we give him the
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credit of his healing power and we announce it, right?
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So that others can see your faith and can see your healing,
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to be encouraged that He wants to heal US, right?
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So even though you're not feeling it, even though you're
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not seeing it, we walk by faith, not by sight.
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What you declare you will start to see.
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Speak it until you see it, right?
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And we speak it and we tell our bodies what to do.
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This is such a crucial part because.
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I experienced this with my own self a years back.
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I'm sure you've heard this before, my testimony on the fear
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of publicly speaking. And it was this one day I was
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listening to a a pastor in my car.
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I was driving and I read this verse, second Timothy 17, where
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God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and
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a sound mind. And for the first time I saw,
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wow, fear is a spirit and it doesn't come from God.
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Well, I don't have to deal with this.
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I don't have to manage fear. I don't have to struggle
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battling it. I could see it for what it is.
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And then God gave me the authority with His word, by His
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word, to make it go. I don't have to have this
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constantly attacking my spirit. So over the, the time period
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after that, I started getting these opportunity, more and more
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opportunities to come in and speak.
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And there's this one Sunday morning and I had planned to
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speak at a, a Sunday service at, at my local church.
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And I'm putting on my makeup and my body's trembling.
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My hand is, I'm trying to put eye makeup on and my hand would
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not be still and I was feeling nervous.
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My nervous system was going out of whack.
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But what was so bizarre was there's this contrast with my
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spirit, your spirit in your heart down there towards your
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belly. I am feeling peace.
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I'm feeling calm, but my body is reacting to nervousness.
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And I remember hearing this, hearing this in Scripture,
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hearing this from other pastors that hey, you tell your body
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what to do. You could tell your body to shut
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up. You could tell your body, hey
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nervous system, you have to normalize because our spirit,
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the Holy Spirit in our spirit the Word of God has authority,
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is the Master over our body because we are made-up into
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body, soul and spirit. Our soul is our mind, will and
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emotions. And then our body just contains
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what we have, the spirit and the soul.
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And so when we have our spirit, it's Master over our mind, will
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and emotions. And so when we have the Holy
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Spirit at work ruling over our flesh, we can tell our body that
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it must obey in Jesus mighty name.
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So I was very specific. I said my blood pressure has got
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to normalize nervous system. You have to calm down.
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Everything has to be at peace, including every cell, every
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nerve, everything that is working my blood, everything
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inside my body must listen to the word of God.
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And I'd speak scripture over it. And instantly I felt my body
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sinking into this calmness and it was no longer able to just do
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what it wants. Now my body was aligned with
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what my spirit was feeling. It was feeling peace.
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So there is power in our tongue, like we were saying, our words
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carry value, it carries eternal weight.
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And we don't wait until circumstances change.
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We speak as though the promise has already been fulfilled
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because it already has in the spiritual realm.
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So as we go through this year, to keep that fire of enthusiasm
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going, we speak life over whatever we are walking in,
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whatever God is putting our hands to.
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It matters what we are saying in our day-to-day.
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OK, so #2 so number one was our words and our thoughts.
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Number 2 is daily surrender. This is saying each day, Lord,
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I'm yours, lead me, use me. Surrender actually takes care of
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frustration and exhaustion. When we surrender, we get
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infused with God's mighty strength in US.
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And when we surrender, it provides us with this position
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to trust in Him. And when we're trusting in Him,
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we're resting in Him. And when that happens, we get
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His renewed strength infused in US.
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Psalms 28 seven says it perfectly here it says the Lord
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is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him.
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I am helped, therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my
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song will I praise Him. It says my heart greatly
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rejoices. That is a a heart of joy.
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The joy of the Lord is our strength.
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We are trusting in Him and he gives us the strength.
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The other one, Psalm 18, two, says the Lord is my rock and my
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fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will
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trust. God gives us the strength when
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we trust. When we trust, He gives us the
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strength. It's this beautiful, intertwined
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promise that He gives us, and we are given this as we surrender.
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You know, previously I did an episode on casting your cares to
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Him and how God gave me this image of each stone was a care
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or a concern and how I would take that rock and I'd skip it
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into the lake or an ocean. Well, two things #1 you're not
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going to go and look for that rock that you just skipped in
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the ocean. And God was saying, this is what
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I want you to be doing when you cast that care, when you cast
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that stone to me, imagine it just going out in the ocean.
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You're not going to go and pick it back up because how many of
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us will cast something to him and then we go and feel like we
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got to control it again or we got to go pick it up again.
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It's not happening fast enough for me.
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I got to go and and do something about it.
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No, God's saying I'm taking care of it.
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Even though you don't feel it, see it, touch it, it's being
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taken care of. And the other thing is that,
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God, he is such a gentleman. He's not going to force his way
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in. So when you're skipping that
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rock, if you notice when you do a good skip, you're releasing
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it, right? You're, you're not holding on to
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it ever so slightly. Because when you do, when you
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skip a rock and you hold on to that grip a little too much,
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that rock doesn't go far. It just kind of falls right in
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front of you, right? So imagining when we, when we
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release that rock, because that's what God wants us to do.
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He wants us to fully release that grip because he's not gonna
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like force it on us. He's not gonna just bombard us
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with it, right? He's a gentleman.
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So in those moments when we completely let go of that grip,
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that's where His power can be activated in our lives.
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Surrender, we got to understand, goes beyond those words.
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It shows up best in that heart posture.
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It's not about stopping action and not doing anything.
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It's about stopping the striving to do things our own way.
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When God says my ways are higher than than your ways, my thoughts
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are higher than your thoughts, it's US wanting.
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I mean, thank you, Jesus. He's higher than our thoughts
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because we want to align ourselves with his thoughts.
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We want to align ourselves with his ways because they are way
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higher. And so in that, in that
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surrender is when we can align ourselves with God.
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What do you want for my life? And then he gives us that next
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step and then he gives us the outcome.
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Each step is our faith step. And then when we take that step,
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then he releases another step. He releases his way, his divine
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perfect way. It's us that need to release our
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timeline, what how we think it needs to go and how fast it
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needs to go, right? Because when we do, then we
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start to be, then we start to flow in this grace, in this ease
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without striving. And we don't struggle with
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burnout and exhaustion. We can always tell if we're
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trying to do things our way or do it by our own strength or
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will, because we will be frustrated.
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We will be exhausted, you know, and surrender doesn't
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necessarily mean that we have to come to Him with something
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weighing us down. Surrender should be a daily
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coming to Him in His presence, having that humble heart to come
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to Him, listening to the Holy Spirit in our prayer life and
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our quiet time and praying in the Spirit.
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It's a wonderful gift to have that praying in the Spirit to
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know God's will and God's plan for our lives.
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Quieting our souls before Him is an absolute must if we want to
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be strong in every arena of our life.
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He wants to give us the wisdom and guidance.
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He wants to talk to us. There's so many times where I'm
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finishing with my prayer and then my mind starts to kind of
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wonder and then it's like he's pulling my hand, you know, or
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just holding my hand and saying, wait, I've got so much to share
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with you. Come back, sit down.
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I want to share what I have to say to you because this is the
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daily leading. This is his voice that we need.
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It's training our heart ears. You know, Elijah didn't find
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God's voice in an earthquake or a loud wind sound.
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He found it in the still small voice.
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That's what we get to hear his in our spirits.
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We, we have these, I always say train your heart ears to hear.
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We got ears in our heart, ears in our spirit.
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And it's like the shepherd. He says the, the sheep know my
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voice. I am the shepherd and the sheep
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know my voice. I shared this example of a
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whistle that my husband does with the kids.
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The kids know the whistle of their dad and they come running
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over. They they're attentive to that
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whistle. We need to be attentive to that
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similar voice that we hear from God.
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That's him speaking to our spirits, and the greatest
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victories that we can ever find in our lives is in that
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surrendered heart posture. Hey, you have just finished Part
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1 of A2 part episode. So for the next two ways that
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you can stay fervent in the Holy Spirit in your 2026, then you
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won't want to miss listening to part.