Latest / The Rachelle Starr Podcast / Learning to Hear His Voice | The Rachelle Starr Podcast Episode 12

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Learning to Hear His Voice | The Rachelle Starr Podcast Episode 12 · The Rachelle Starr Podcast

• PodcastE12 1920x1080 R2: Hi, I'm Rochelle, the host of the Rochelle Star Podcast, where we equip the church to bring the hope and love of Jesus to women in the adult entertainment industry. We're going to be having honest conversations about what that really looks like. So if you've ever wondered how to engage in this space or how to do it well, you're in the right place. Welcome back to the Rochelle Star Podcast. I am your host, Rochelle Star, and I'm excited to be with you guys again. We are going to be talking about the Holy Spirit and outreach. And what does it look like to rely on the Holy Spirit and not our own voices and not our own strength to to to do outreach? Not only in clubs, but you could apply this topic to to anything really as a Christian because I don't think many of us. Know how to rely on the Holy Spirit, especially in moments when you are up against the darkness and you are speaking to somebody who does not have the Holy Spirit. What does that look like? And we're gonna frame that out today. I want to start with a scripture that has always sort of stuck with me, John 14 17, which Jesus is talking about that He He gives us a spirit of truth. And where does that spirit come from and how do we know when to use it? How do we know when to ask God for it and what does that look like? And so I want to start out first of all kind of going back to the beginning where I was praying and asking God to give me a people and a purpose and what would he use my specific life for and my the days that he would put me on this earth for? What did that look like? I knew I loved the gospel. I knew God had changed me personally, and I knew that was someone that was seeking the Holy Spirit, but up until this point of my life, which was my early twenties, I wouldn't say that I had direct a direct experience hearing directly from the Holy Spirit. and it was on that day in May of 2007 where I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit really for the first time in my life answer that very prayer that I had been praying. And he said, Rochelle, Go and share my love in that place, which was a theater X, share my hope and my love. That was the first time I can really remember experiencing the Holy Spirit's voice, as you might say. It is not an audible voice, but is something that as I have the Spirit of God in me, and as we as Christians have the Spirit of God in us and we're seeking the Lord, we're speak seeking a spirit of the spirit of truth, he will speak to us. And get our attention in various ways. And so what began that moment from hearing from God and the Holy Spirit would lead me on a journey that I would begin to recognize the Holy Spirit more and more and more. One of the things that I often say in ministry now is that we are not people's Holy Spirits. that nothing I can say or do can convince somebody to leave the industry or join our team or donate money that I'm not not anybody's Holy Spirit. But the living God that is God of the universe is also living in me as a believer and living in you as a believer. And we can ask God to speak through us and to show us a path or a way or a word for another person. And so this would also bring me back very much to the the beginning story of when I first went into a club and I remember asking God who to talk to. God, will you point me? will your Holy Spirit prompt me when I'm supposed to speak to a manager or a bartender or a woman from that that was a dancer. And I would gently go along and I would think, okay, maybe this is what the Holy Spirit was saying, but it was through prayer and then the prompting of the Holy Spirit that I walked over to a man and I asked him, I reached out my hand, I said, Hi, my name's Rochelle. Jesus sent me here to do something kind and loving for the people in this place. Those were the words that the Holy Spirit gave me, and it was the man that the Holy Spirit prompted me to go speak to. And it happened to be the general manager who happened to be the owner of the club. And at that moment, the Lord began to work, both in his life and in mine. I began to learn to rely on the Holy Spirit for those promptings, to begin to hear his voice over my voice, his voice over someone else's voice, his voice over fear and shame and doubt. And it was his voice that I needed to learn to rely on and we need to learn to rely on every step of the way. So what does that look like? Practically speaking, that never gets old. And ne listening to the Holy Spirit's voice and relying on the Holy Spirit to do outreach never gets old. Each and every single person that I encounter, each and every single person or club that we go into, or door that is opened or door that is shut, requires a reliance on the Holy Spirit that I've I've equated it to like a muscle. If you never work out your muscle, muscles in your legs and you go to do a 200 pound squat, you're not gonna be able to do it. You're not gonna be able to lift that amount of weight because you haven't practiced or put in the effort to understand the inner workings of being able to work up to lifting 200 pounds. And so it relying on the Holy Spirit, seeking the Holy Spirit is like building a muscle. The more you hear his voice, the more you know his voice. And I think that's something that's so powerful when we're trying to bring the light of Christ to the darkness because we have to rely on the Holy Spirit to do what the Holy Spirit does and and we just get to show up and be obedient to the Spirit and the Spirit of truth and his work. So a couple of things that have been interesting along the way and a couple stories that I want to share with you that kind of give you an example of this. is I was with a w a woman many, many years ago and she honestly really hated us. She wanted nothing to do with us and I would I would every week I would come into the club. It was actually our fourth club that we entered into and the fourth door that God opened for us in in the city that we started. And we would go in and I didn't quite understand where she fit in this business. She wasn't a dancer, or at least didn't appear to be a dancer that worked down on the floor, but she was always in the dressing room and she was always very close by. But I would go up to her and I would smile and ask her how she was doing and she would give me one word answers and she would just kind of dismiss us. She would never take a plate of food, at least not when I was there. Our team would Church lady after church lady after church lady would come in and we would all have a prayer for this particular woman that she would open up and that the Holy Spirit would allow us to have a breakthrough with her. Year after year went by and we kept doing the same thing. Showing up with a meal, with a smile, asking her how she was doing, was there anything we could pray for her? And then the Holy Spirit gave us some windows into her life and and started giving us some ways to have breakthroughs. And so I would start recognizing how she interacted with the other women. And I would start commenting on that, that she was actually very kind and that she was actually super smart. Like I didn't know how she knew that or how she would prompt something in the dressing room and And it gave us windows into seeing her and to encouraging her. Well, as the story goes, we would actually get kicked out of this club about eight years after we had been in there and served thousands of meals. And nine months later, we were having this really large event that was for all of the women in the industry. We would invite all of the clubs to a glamour night. And this was held at a church and we would have stuff for the kids and we would cut hair and we would have, you know, clothing there and we would have job resume building workshops and different things like that. And we would also have a pastor share the gospel. And in walks this woman who really never responded in the club. And she told me, she walked directly up to me and she said, Are you Rochelle? And I said, Yeah. She said, I didn't really recognize her. And she said, Well, I am actually coming here to ask for your forgiveness. And I paused and I thought, what could she possibly need to ask me for forgiveness for? So I started praying and asking the Holy Spirit to really help me not dismiss what the Lord was doing and the Holy Spirit was doing in her life, but to to be present with her. And so She said, I need to ask for forgiveness because I hated you. And I hated what you stood for, and I hated God, and I hated what God allowed me to go through in my in my childhood and in my former marriage and in my life and at the club. And I I hated all of it. But you were kind to me, and you planted seeds that I had no idea God was going to use to save me. And This story has come up many, many times before where the Holy Spirit has Had us plant seeds over and over and over again. And then the Holy Spirit has prompted us in a way to speak to her differently or to have a different perspective. And and if you can metaphorically look, that seed going a little deeper into her heart and into her soul. And then apart from us, when we were disconnected and kicked out of that club, the Lord brought fruit in the darkness to the light. And Something began to grow in her life. Well, this woman would go on to serve in our ministry, would go on to work for our organization. She would go on to bring other women to the Lord, become a member of a church, and the Holy Spirit brought that seed fully to fruition. But it started with a prompt. It started with listening to the Holy Spirit. One, what club are we to go and enter into next? And the Holy Spirit pr led us to her club. The Holy Spirit opened that door to get into that club. The Holy Spirit opened a way for us to minister to the other women and and because we became very good friends later on, she would tell me she would watch us and she would watch how we interacted with the other women and how we were so thoughtful and intentional. Well that was done by the power of the Holy Spirit. That wasn't done because we're so good in our flesh, but it was done by the Holy Spirit's work in our lives as Christians. And church ladies would show up and plant thousands of seeds that God would bring to fruition. And now through this woman who gave her life to the Lord, now is bringing other women out of darkness. That is the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what can happen whenever you whenever you listen to the Holy Spirit. But we first, I believe, have to call on the Holy Spirit To speak to us, to call on the Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear. And I believe wholeheartedly the Holy Spirit will show up and do what He intends to do. The last thing I want to leave you with is that the Holy Spirit is I recently had a conversation with a manager of a club that said the Holy Spirit can be in anything. It could be in this desk. And he pointed to the the strip club desk in the manager's office. And he said, the Holy Spirit could be on this wall or in these curtains or what have you. And the last thing I really want to leave you with is the Holy Spirit doesn't work like that. The Holy Spirit resides in God's people, in his daughters and in his sons, and he lives in dwelling with us. And that's the gift of the Holy Spirit when we give our lives to Christ. And that's the message of Scarlet Hope is that when we When we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved, and he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for listening to the Rochelle Star Podcast. If this conversation encouraged you or challenged you, I'd invite you to take the next step. Whether that's learning more, getting involved, or sharing this episode with someone else. At Scarlet Hope, we believe consistent presence changes lives, and there's a place for you in this work. You can learn more at ScarletHope.org.