Latest / Stuck No More Voices / 292-Can We Talk About Cancer? When God Asks: “Can I Use This for My Glory?” — Theresa Croft Guest On Kingdom Connections

Transcript

292-Can We Talk About Cancer? When God Asks: “Can I Use This for My Glory?” — Theresa Croft Guest On Kingdom Connections · Stuck No More Voices

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: So what story is God asking you to share for his glory?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was a guest of Kingdom Connections, and I was right before I had surgery with cancer.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I was very had lots on my mind.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I I got a note though.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: She asked me, what do you really do, Teresa?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I went on a tangent with the story.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I am a podcast coach.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: I believe in helping you be able to create your podcast from the overflow of your relationship with God using two simple AI tools.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now I talk a lot about the overflow.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: So without further ado, Kingdom Connections, it was such a joy to sit down with her and share part of my story.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome to this special edition of the Stuck No More Voices podcast, where we connect with Sabrina Hammonds.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Kingdom Connections podcast.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so honored today to share with you someone who is my new friend, but I feel like we've just known each other forever.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: My friend Teresa Croft.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to introduce Teresa to you using her bio.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: But let me just tell you, I feel like we have just become fast friends.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: And she's just one of those people that we got in the room together, had a conversation, and it's like, you're my people.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I want you to get to know Teresa.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: So it says for years, Teresa Croft wrestled with the tension of having a voice, but feeling unable to fully use it.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: After leaving a career in radio, of all things, she faced a deeper battle over identity, worth, and confidence, especially during a difficult marriage and later after the loss of her husband.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Through her personal healing and inner transformation, Teresa reclaimed her voice and birthed her signature message: how to win the war on your voice.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Today, as the founder of Stuck No More Academy, she empowers faith-driven entrepreneurs to overcome fear, find their voice, and create lasting impact through podcasting and speaking, all while continuing to share her journey of healing and hope, even as she now walks through her own battle with cancer.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, welcome, welcome, Teresa, my new friend.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you love it?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, God can do that.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I love, I love technology because there's something I think God thought of Zoom, you know.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just feel so honored to hang out with you, have a cup of coffee, and the listeners, they just get to come along with us.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm so excited and just so moved, really, by how you're just an open book.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like you really do allow God to just flow in and through you.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: And even like your bio talks about, even in the midst of your own battle with cancer, like you're just allowing it all to come through, to flow through.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I would just love for you to share your backstory, like of the I know when we met and how beautiful you just articulated and gave me the snapshot.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: I would just love for you to share a bit of your backstory, a bit of your journey, and what has led you to where you are now.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my honor.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, and thank you for your work, Sabrina, with Kingdom Connections podcast.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Love what you're doing.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I always say, just very candidly, I could write a book, How to Win the War on Your Voice, subtitled, I'm So Glad My Husband Died.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, while you're while you're oh my god, you can't believe you said that.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Just know I'm all for the covenant of marriage.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Not against guys.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: A good-looking guy, good-looking junk goes by, my head's turned, my heart's gonna skip a bait over the truck.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now, why I say that is six years into a career as a radio announcer at a major FM station, the war for my voice began.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: I got married, and you know, I don't think a man can properly love a woman if he doesn't deal with the brokenness of his own soul.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a lot of brokenness, and it came out in the form of what we call narcissism today.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm loyal, I didn't know, I went through the landmines, you know.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: So when I share my story, I want my life to be your rescue story.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: So he did pass away, just to sum it up, so you don't think I took him out for the count.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the last it crossed my mind in 2009.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: But but for the last eight months, he was burned with third-degree burns, over 30% of his body, and wouldn't go to the hospital.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to tend his wounds.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Four months later, he found out he had cancer and pancreatic, and then four months later he passed away.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: The marriage 26 years was tough, but those last eight years felt like I was open heart surgery with no anesthesia.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a process after he passed of fighting for my voice again.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: I fought a lot in the marriage because of being controlled and someone jealous, and but what I think it is is I God showed me a secret.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: I said, God, why was I able always fighting for my voice?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, Because you were creating the way I created.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I would have, I still was, I was, I was in the word, and God would speak to me in the words of the vine dresser, and I'd just write them down.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I would share a few on Facebook, and the response was like, so I wrote three devotionals while in the midst of the fire.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: But listen, you don't you don't have to wait till your husband dies to create the way God creates, okay?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Just let me say that real quick.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: You create the way God creates in your business and taking care of your family, in your music, in your writing.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So through the process and going through some really good therapy, okay.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna speak from my scars, not my wounds, because you're gonna get nothing if I spoke from my wounds.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're able to speak from your scars, this is the key that I have found, whether it's teaching in the Psych No More Academy, whether it's writing, or whether it's being a guest, you're coming from the overflow of your relationship with God.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's everything.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when you come from that overflow, it's truly you are able to take the agony and the anguish of the mess and have a message to take that misery into your destiny, and yes, to make your landmines landmarks now for God's faithfulness, coming overflow of the relationship with God, intimate relationship with God.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's the only way I can say how I can sit here and have so much hope and so much passion.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm really passionate.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: You got a voice, you know, come through your screen.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because I believe I was voiceless, even though I was on the radio, I felt voiceless afterwards.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: The stomping down, it's really you can be voiceless in a in your marriage, you can be voiceless in your community, and that to me is so it's just like I think of your voice as your identity.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: When you realize your voice is the unique expression of your values, your identity, and your experiences that that can impact thousands.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a warrior, I'm fighting for women's voices.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I I really hope that you're just listening and taking this in because this is this is why she's my people here.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Because what you're saying is so true.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like we can be in a situation and feel like really we have nothing to say.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: We have, you know, we have nothing to share, right?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't even imagine just the the things that you have been through and and just how you would have felt like you have nothing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: And yet, but I think it's so ironic that you were using your voice in a capacity on the radio, and yet feeling like you didn't have a voice.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's more than just speaking.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's it's coming from, like you said, the overflow.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it's coming from your identity.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't know your identity, you don't know who you are, you don't like it's like you just can't say you have nothing, right?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: You have nothing to say, but yet, man, what God has done and how He has used what you you say is a landmine and has is turning it into somebody else's landmark.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I just want to take a minute here because I don't know that you've really shared what it is that you do and how you are serving people in the podcasting space because it does talk about through podcasting in your bio, but you are really helping people to unlock their voice.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: And it's more than just okay, this is your podcast, this is, but it's it's about who you are on the inside, yeah, and and that unique expression of who God has created you to be and the message that He's given you, oh, that goes way beyond starting a podcast.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's always a back backstory.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And if someone's listening and saying, Well, what do you mean by identity?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Or what do you mean by voice?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: What I mean by voice is your identity, but I always like to challenge people with this question.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: When you were a child and you were just playing carefree, what did you like to do?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I started to uncover this in my own life, and then when I'd interview, I'd always ask, What did you like to do?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was like six or seven, I was fascinated with microphones.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Go figure.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm gonna date myself, but my dad would bring home what was then modern technology, a tape recorder with a microphone.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Put it under the bed and he said, Don't mess with it.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: I messed with it, I played for hours.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: We also in this house had massive steps, and I'd climb to the top of those steps and I'd look out at a crowd as big as Billy Graham or Roberts, and I would breach.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was Catholic, I didn't want to be a priest, I didn't want to just break.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: We later we later moved, and there were only two little steps.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: I remember one day going out playing, and like, I think two of those steps, huh?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I miss my big steps.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I noticed in the corner of my eye an apple cart.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I tipped that thing lengthways this way and the long ways, got up in that wobbly thing, and I did preach to the birds, the bees, and the apple trees.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, you really need Jesus.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let's think about this.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: I said threads, Apple cart to decades later, Apple products, i Mac, iPhone with filters, of course, MacBook Pro, iPad.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a layer of a thread that from Apple cards to an Apple computer.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not paid by Apple to say that, but you know that.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I like to ask people what what did you like to do?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: The most recent one fascinated me.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jessica Shakur, when she was a little kid, used to pretend like she was a princess and try to do a signature like a princess.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: She later worked for Disney as a princess.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, come on, look at so that's the starting point.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen, if it was tragic, like my friend who at four fell and had a brain injury, you still can you can still use that as a thread because you know what she's doing today?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: She's helping people neurologically with neurocycle.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: So if it's a tragic beginning, you get healed, you go through transformation, and you get you get it to set up, you get to speak to the person you once were.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not saying your childhood has to be perfect, but can you you what were you the rescuer in your family?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then you find yourself rescuing now, but not realizing you have to take care of yourself.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I I just in non-fail, ever since I put some pieces together when I interview people or off mic, hey would tell me what'd you like to do when you're little?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's so consistent.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: One lady said, a consummate businesswoman, she says, Well, I would color and I would tear it out and I would sell the pages.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes the starting place, if you're listening, don't be afraid to go back.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you're a child, you play usually with no, you don't have the inhibitions, you you're just free, almost free.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: You come out of the wound, love me, love me, love me.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, love is your identity.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Love is what's in your core of who you are.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then how is how is your identity in that love?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times the identity is expressed through your identity.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that you're a podcaster and that's your identity.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's expressed through.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I have there's a lot of podcast coaches out there.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: I say, God, there are a lot of podcast coaches out there.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: What's gonna separate me from anyone else?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And God was clear talk to their values.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I talk to the values, and most people have the same values I do: a relationship with God, a fellowship with the Holy Spirit, their family, a good set of inner circle friends that cheer them on, celebrate them, don't tolerate them.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so I speak that.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And what we do is we we talk about identity.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: They think they're coming in for a podcast, but we do a lot of identity.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, do we talk about microphones?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do we talk about artificial intelligence?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: You betcha.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I am so fascinated that you can teach from the overflow.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: I've trained, I it's called a GPT.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's Chad GPT, and then there's a GPT, and I was playing around with it the other day.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Let's let's write a 30-day devotional.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: So the next day I'm like, How are you doing?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And GPT said, Well, this is such a sacred piece of words.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: I am praying about it.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'll let you know in two days when you see my one of my friends said, Chat GPT got saved.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: No, so when I say that I am tra I teach the ladies with the right prompts, I really do teach the ladies.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So when they get something spit out, they look at it, they they manage it, and then they can use it.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because it takes a lot less time.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna do a podcast, I don't want you to take all day.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like in the old days, I took all day.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: But there's artificial intelligence now, push the button, you're recording, push the button, you're sending it over to Buzzpout using Chat GPT for title and description that sound like you.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I mean, I really truly get so excited.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's from the overflow.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is from the overflow.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: For example, the other day I was really struggling.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, actually, it's a couple weeks now, and I work at the radio station and I actually use Chat GPT, the GPT, and I had I give it a sentence and then I ask it for a paragraph in second person ending with a Bible verse.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I had written, I don't even know what the sentence was, but it came back and it moved me so deeply.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was like the Holy Spirit was using what I did on the radio.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I remember doing the that stop set, like, oh, don't cry, don't cry.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: You wrote this, but don't cry.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I was so moved by it.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one morning I'm like, God, I'm really moved by this.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna throw it in Chat GPT and see if I can get some more revelation on it.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Next thing you know, I had a three-point podcast.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Not trying to go to the word, not trying to go to my presence to get a podcast.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm walking out, so I it's actually a free resource that I shared.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: I show them how this is where it started.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: You'll even see me worship in my room with my cat for a few seconds.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Come down here, map it out, and turn green light on it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: So much now part of you because it's coming from the overflow.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: You barely have to read your notes.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think the only thing I had to read was, okay, I don't have this memorized.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Let me read what ChatGPT said.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, people have lots of different things.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's artificial.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it doesn't have to be artificial, you do some work, prompt it.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I teach my members, I give them prompts, and they have to answer what the questions are, and they keep it in one thread.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, you can tell by their grin.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness, it sounded like me.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's a tool.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a tool.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is a tool, it can be for good, it can be used for bad.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: So there are if you're religious and don't think that's the way to go, God bless you.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Remember when the internet came out?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to be harsh, I'm just I'm actually very excited to see how God works.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it it is a tool, and and I believe that that God does bless people with the creativities, right, to create things.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: And like you said, it can be used for for good or not.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we can partner with the Lord and utilize tools that He's given us in order to share our message and do so efficiently, effectively, right?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: And and be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: And and again, I think what you said, like if this is the way you feel about it, then that's okay.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Go on and and and do as the Lord leads you to do, right?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I think to each his own and and be led by the Lord, because I was one that that said at the very beginning, I will not use this.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then I had a conversation with someone and it was like a perspective shift, yeah, because it was introduced in a different way, and it came from someone that I like I knew her heart and I trusted.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was open enough to listen.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then I said, Lord, let me see this as a tool and show me how I can utilize it to my advantage to be a good steward of my time.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Steward of your time.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like yeah, I used to spend so much time writing my blog posts or writing my descriptions, and I want you to have more time with your family.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, most of the people who come through the academy have had a touch of it and they want more.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I there is a target, their values match with mine, overflow.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: But think about that, you're using the overflow of your relationship with God, a place you trust, yeah, a sacred place, and God is showing you how to how to use it from that, any artificial, how to use it from that place.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're not using it for you're you're using it to this is the key, you're using it to stay authentic.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not authentic, people can smell that a mile away.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: But can you train something and and make it authentic, just as authentic values?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: What are your values and and have it express that and help you?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: I have to be careful.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: The last few times I'm like, okay, God, I'm really just coming here to worship you and you know, pray in the spirit.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Don't let me think I gotta get a word from you for my podcast.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, usually it doesn't, just like God just kind of is like, you know, back in the day I was really religious about my time with God 10, 12 years ago.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it would be like, I'm having my time with God.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: I striving even in my time with God, and then the Holy Spirit would come in, give me a marketing idea.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Stop, get away.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having my time with God.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Then here would come another one.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, I think it was Bill Johnson of Bethel.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Don't you think if you're having time with your father, and he gives you an idea, you're having your time with your father.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: So write it down and set it aside.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: Girl, I've had the best marketing uh strategy just hanging out with Jesus.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, that's good.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: But can I say this?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is something I've learned.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hustling is not of the Lord.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hustling, I gotta do it.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's all me.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Push, push, push.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: When you come from the rest, the finished work of the cross is done.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: But he does say we overcome them by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: So your testimony is important.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: But you can come from a place of rest because the work is finished.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And my favorite, can I just share my favorite verse on that?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11, verse 11, in the Passion Translation, they're talking about Sarah.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's after she laughed.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: It says, Sarah embraced God's miracle, Sarah's faith embraced God's miracle working power, even though she was past the age of childbearing.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Her faith rested in the authority of the one who promised, and she tapped into his faithfulness.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of rest there.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And tapping into his faithfulness to me is then you go to work because you're God's called you, someone's listening, and you know it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: You feel it burning in your heart.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: God's called you to step up to the plate.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a microphone, maybe it's stage, maybe it's just on your social media.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: But when God calls you, he gives you the authority to walk in that lane.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes your faith has to rest in that to believe it.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you got to put away, you know, a really good God idea, God inspired, Holy Spirit inspired.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: You might have to say no.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of no's behind my yes to the Secnomar Academy.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just learning this in the last year and a year.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: So they're good, yes.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: They're, I mean, I want to say yes.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's like so fun.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: But God says, What are you focusing on?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's been so freeing to focus just on Secnomar Academy, soon to be also a membership uh community.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: But that's where my energy from God should be, the mental capacity.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we live in such a strive, hustle, it's all up to me.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not all up to you.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: If God truly calls you, yeah, he gives you the grace to walk in it.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: He does, but he does want you to have clarity.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I think sometimes we say we're in a hurry, we look at the camera, and behind our mind is that MasterCard, we have to pay.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we're not coming from rest, we're coming from I gotta make this sell.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of, I am a much loved daughter, I'm a son, you know, daughter.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna come from sonship where it's not about striving, it's I'm not a I'm not a worker, a hireling.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: I get to reign, I'm a co-heir with Christ.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: It works.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: Biblical principles work, and it's the only way to to live, it's the only way to live with the Lord, to partner with him in life.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the if I could say like all the things that you're talking about right here in this moment, it's it's the seek first the kingdom way of living, it's seeking his face and and really living and abiding and then allowing him to flow through you, yeah, in in whatever capacity that that looks like.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so if he's called you to start a podcast, if you're called to write a book or you're you're building a business, or maybe a combination of those things, right?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: You could, you know, I guess incorporate your faith into those things and and and do it by biblical principles, or you could simply sit at the feet of the father and ask him, you know, what does this look like to steward well what you have entrusted to me?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and I love that you said for every yes, there's all kinds of no's.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it really reminds me that I feel like God is calling us to this place where it is a narrow road.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is an it is the narrow road that the word talks about, that that few find it, right?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: And and I just keep getting this picture from the Lord, like with every new season, like the road becomes so much more narrow.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's because there's no room for distractions.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's there's there's no we we can't say yes to everything, even great things, yeah, godly opportunities, even right, things that look right, that feel right.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what does he say?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because for everything that you are saying yes to, you're gonna have to say no to some other things.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and but I believe that when we're we're hearing from him and we're doing things his way, it is that that rest.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: We're resting in in him.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: And man, he brings about the harvest.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: We trust him for the harvest, right?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: And and I love that you said, you know, when we're showing up with from that place of like in our mind, we're thinking of the things we have to pay.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: And don't get me wrong, these are real things, right?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is real practical, real life stuff.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: But when that's where our focus is, it comes out in the things that we're doing and how we're serving and how we're showing up, because that's from a place of pressure and not from a place of just rest.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like I know that God is my provider, and I know that when I'm going where he says go, and when I'm saying what he says say, He's gonna take care of the rest.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Someone said you you say coming from the overflow for podcasting, does it work for business?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Yes.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: So let me give you three keys.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Key number one is your intimacy with God.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes, I under when I understand.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, I understand having bills to pay.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: I do really truly understand that.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: But when you prioritize that intimacy relationship, when you wake up in the morning, you don't look at your to-do list, you don't get on the phone and start scrolling on Instagram, which is it puts you an instant, I'm not a good enough.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: And there's I'm not religious about spending time with God.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about that.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: But there is, hey, he's got me.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna, if something's bothering me, I've gone through two years of nervous cycle, so if something's bothering me, I'm gonna medicug it out.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: But number two is that sonship.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sonship.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not just saying guys, but to know understand your sonship, yeah, means you come from not a place of striving, but you already have it.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're a much loved son, you're a much loved daughter.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're a son, you're a daughter, you're a reign in Christ.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: It takes that push away.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: When you push, it's all up to you.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: But when you know you're a son or daughter, much loved son or daughter, that takes that that that does it's almost something deep down that settles.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: It takes some time because believe you me, how many years ago I had a series, orphan no more?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I was really trying me trying not to be an orphan so much.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you are an orphan, you're surrounded by fear, survival mode, you're never good enough.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: You you you just didn't do good enough.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's not the way father looks at you.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then point number three is real simple.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Faith is the currency of the kingdom of God.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is the currency of heaven.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: We don't understand what happens when we activate faith.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: One thing I think happens is we get with our faith, we get the favor of God.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: What would take an hour, what would take like all day long, God's favor comes in and it could only take five minutes.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're activating by faith.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think God loves to see us.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: But what is it?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: But to those who believe him, he rewards them.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: There's another aspect of that.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Faith is a gift that opens the eyes of our hearts so we can have an intimacy.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: It that gets intertwined.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Faith enables me to say I am a son or daughter.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like So Heather, Sarah, my faith is resting in the one who promised.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's not resting in me, it's resting in the one who promised.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to tap into his faithfulness.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to stay in my pajamas all day.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: Although maybe I need to because I need to rest.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not against resting.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's good.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think half the time we need to rest.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I just am so passionate because I'm seeing it activate in my own life in the last year and a half, two years, gone through a healing after my husband's passed.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then February 14th come face to face with a diagnosis of cancer.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Do you notice I said diagnosis?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to say I have cancer.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: And through a process of biopsies, next week I'm scheduled for a double mastectomy.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so you say, Well, where's the scar?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's so recent.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is where God put a scar in my heart.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was the first biopsy.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I was laying out on the table waiting for the doctor, and I just ever so clearly said, Holy Spirit said, Teresa, T, can you make this another story for my glory?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: So clear.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Boom, cancer.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Go for another biopsy.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: Boom, cancer.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: Mastectomy decided on.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: I have now, Grant, I'm all anxious about the surgery, but I I it's like he put a put a place of peace and hope in me because he asked me, can I trust you with another story for my glory?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I don't always want to talk about 26 years of living with a narcissist.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's a tough story to talk about.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, okay, I have another story.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: And who knows this story.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, granted, I know Sabrina, I know some people really have this tough, okay?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: I am blessed.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: They caught it early.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's not invasive.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I am sorry for anyone that it really comes up and it's invasive.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Mine's not, but I'm not taking any chances.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Without a shadow of a doubt, I said, my identity is not a body part.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get it all out.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because I don't want to keep coming back here for biopsies.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I surprised the surgeon and his doctor assistant.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, Yeah, I made my decision.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm gonna fit in that switcher maybe a little bit better.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm not I'm just using humor to brace and not make it seem so.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: I love to use humor to kind of soften the blows of really hard things.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, well, who knows?
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm in a place to understand the pain of after surgery, understand the pain of having tubes come out of you, understand what that's like to deal with the anxiety.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: May I do it, Sabrina?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: May I speak from the overflow of my relationship with Jesus?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: The doctor said, the only thing you're gonna be able to, the only thing I'm gonna let you hold is a cup of coffee and maybe your iPhone.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing else, mom.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot carry big things at the coffee and Jesus.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta put I got a plaque, you know, Jesus and coffee, fueled by Jesus and coffee.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's been the key of my life.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, yes, and coffee.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's the reason I can come here and and smile at you, or if you're watching, or or hopefully a smile comes from my voice if you're listening.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: No pit, my friend, is so deep that God's love is not deeper still.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: It says in Psalm 103, He read He forgives all our sins, He pardons all our iniquities, He heals all our diseases, He redeems our life from the pit, He crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercies.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm 103.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it also says later on in Psalm 103, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so far, so big does he love us, and as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions, forgiven us.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you walk in that and you start believing it, and even on rough days, feeling is healing, choose to feel, don't stuff it.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: Number one stuffer.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm raising my hand.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: Feel, choose, and then choose the things that God's saying, or maybe go to a good someone who's really going to help you.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Deconstruct the lies.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's 26 years of lies.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: Deconstruct them, then reconstruct, renew your mind.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: Then you're in a place where you can handle the declarations because you're deconstructing the trauma, the drama, the ugly words, the psychological abuse.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: I never thought I was good enough.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: That was the number one story.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: Not good enough.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: So to build that up, you don't just all of a sudden, oh, I'm good enough to make a declaration.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: I am good enough.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's gotta be some, there's gotta be some work, some mental work.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: But it's so rewarding.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: It is so rewarding.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just taking it all in, honestly, because I feel like this is just a breath of fresh air, you know, and just such a reminder, something you said about will will you use this story for my glory?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: I believe we're all asked that question.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: We are at different times and seasons in our life when we're going through something.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe it's not like fresh in that moment, like what you're talking about.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't, I don't know if I've ever been in a moment where it's that intense.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think, but I mean, the Lord knows you, right?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: The Lord knows you so personally that He would ask you such a question in such a moment where I feel like it would just be very intense.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: But when you think about it, our life is to be an expression, a unique expression of Christ in the earth.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: And not just what we would consider the things that maybe people might want to hear or whatever, right?
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: All of it.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: The things that are so messy that we don't care to share those things, and that's okay.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I mean, there's the time to heal because you want to speak to the person you once were, so we're not saying blab about your pain, you know.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think you were saying that, but really find a place of healing and think of how much powerful because we don't get much from your wounds because they're gonna be messy and you're we're gonna get the mess.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: But if we hear your scars, whoo we get we get some healing for ourselves.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: I love how that came out for ourselves, yes, yes, and I think really if we could just sum up what we have talked about today, I think I would say what you had just ended with about will you use your story for my glory?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like first recognize that what has happened to you, God wants to use to speak through you in order to bring breakthrough healing for somebody else, that nothing is wasted.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_02: So say yes to him.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I will let you use this story, my story for your glory.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: And when you say yes to him, I believe it's an invitation for what you talked about, speaking from your scars and not your wounds, right?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because before you can really share and speak openly, allow God to heal those places and be honest about the feelings, like you said, don't stuff them.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so you're saying yes to the Lord, to allowing him to speak through you.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you are allowing the healing, the deep healing to take place and to acknowledge those feelings.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I feel like then it's that unlocking of your voice.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, because you recognize, oh my gosh, look what God has brought me through.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then you're able to share from a place of there's no more shame, there's no more guilt, no more condemnation.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: I am not who I was, I am who God says I am.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then, whoo, then it's from that place that somebody on the other side gets to hear that there's hope because they recognize that man, if God can do that, and I can I can share, I can still have hope, then there's hope for me.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like that is why we share our stories.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: That is why we say yes.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think it's just such a beautiful thing that you just are so open and so transparent, you know, even though you're literally walking through something even right now.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and to me, that's that's the Lord right there.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's only God.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll leave with one, I'll leave with one sentence.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope you if anyone remembers anything, they'll remember this.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: Breakthrough is an inside job.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: First, it starts with you, and then your breakthrough gets to be someone else's breakthrough.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the breakthrough isn't just about you, but it's an inside job.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: And God does really good on inside jobs if you open your hand to him.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's it.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: I there's nothing left to say.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's that's where we that's where we leave it.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wonderful.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Teresa, for just being with us today.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and for sharing from the overflow today.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, for those of you listening, I know that you're gonna want to connect with Teresa.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_02: So let us know.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: Let them know, Teresa, how they can connect with you.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Probably the best way is in my DMs on Instagram at Teresa Croft.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's Teresa with an H.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can also check out stucknomoreacademy.com.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: There is a wait list, but there's I got loaded it with some goodies that you can actually start doing now.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, but I love my DMs because I can be real personable, send voice notes.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that makes it easy.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: Teresa with an H or on Instagram or stucknomoreacademy.com.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for letting me be a part, and thank you for letting me share the hearts of your listeners who are leaning in because you, Sabrina, are a voice for the nations right now.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Your voice is meant to carry hope, and it's not a coincidence you have Kingdom Connection podcasts because you truly, I called you the jumper cable of the kingdom of God, connecting people to hope.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you very much.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much for listening.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: All the links are going to be in the show notes, and until next time, we are gonna show up and be who God has called us to be.