Hello, welcome.
How is everyone?
Good to see you all.
Just as a reminder, it's great to see you when I can see you.
For those of you that can turn your cameras on,
we love for you to come out of hiding
and come into connection and community.
And it's just really good to see you all in coaching,
while the ladies, while y'all are talking to each other,
all the things.
So I want to encourage you to do that.
If you've never met me before, my name's Bethany Cooper.
I'm one of the coaches in the Heartwork Group.
Who is new here tonight?
Is anyone here for the first time?
You've never been here before.
Anyone new?
It's okay.
Oh, do I see, is K110, what's your name?
What's your first name?
Oh, I can't hear you, sweetie.
You gotta unmute.
If you hover, it's okay.
If you hover over the bottom of your screen,
if you hover over the bottom of your screen,
it'll have like a mute button, a microphone thing,
or your video little area.
If you click the mute button, it'll unmute you.
And just so y'all know, when you go on Zoom,
quick little lesson for you.
If you hover over your photo,
there's three dots that appear.
If you click on that, at the bottom,
it'll say rename towards the bottom.
You can just create whatever name you want
when you come on to Zoom sessions.
So that way, if you have one for work,
you can always change it temporarily for like our sessions
or even later one day when you're doing video dating
and all that kind of fun stuff.
So just a little tidbit for you.
So again, welcome.
If you're joining us the first time,
you can put it in the chat as well.
Just FYI, you can do it that way.
Wanna remind you all, best practice.
What I mean by that is content-wise.
One week of content per week.
That's our recommendation.
If you go a little slower, that's fine.
We definitely do not want you going faster, okay?
So out of love for you all, if anyone,
when you all say you're finished,
we're gonna go in and look at the date
of when you started, okay?
And the reason we do that is because we don't want you
to move to the next thing
if you literally have only just begun, okay?
So if you just started a week ago,
please don't say I'm finished.
Please don't do that.
Because y'all, there's no way,
the healing work that needs to happen here,
there's no way it can happen in one week.
There's just so much that God wants to help you unpack
more than what you realize.
And we really wanna encourage you.
The reason you're here in the heart work
is because something wasn't working before.
And God led you here to get healing and breakthrough.
So we want you to take full advantage of it, okay?
Five weeks.
One week of content per week.
Again, if it takes you a little longer, that's fine.
But we definitely don't want you binge watching the videos
or binging on the book.
We build the course in progression, okay?
So, we're gonna give you five minutes
to get ready to help you unpack
and to give your heart the room and the space that it needs.
Some of y'all have had massive trauma
that has even some of you don't even remember it's in there.
It's stuffed so far down that your heart needs,
it needs weeks to know that it's safe
so that you know that you can open up and share.
So please, please don't rush this process, okay?
We want you to progress over perfection.
So for those of you that are struggling
or life distractions came up,
wanna encourage you just to keep moving forward, okay?
Instead of quitting or kind of isolating
and totally stopping, just take one day at a time,
one step at a time, just keep moving forward.
And also just wanna help you all.
When you come on the sessions,
it doesn't matter what week you're on, okay?
Even if you're on week one,
if I talk about content in week five, it's okay.
It's time to kind of relax and just know it doesn't matter.
And you can come on any week
and I'm gonna be coaching from different things.
So this week I've picked content
just that's not necessarily in your book per se.
I mean, it is, but it's not in a lesson
that you're going through.
So we're just gonna be talking about some concepts
and breaking it down and helping you all impact stuff
that you're learning in the course content
and to help you break free.
Cause some of y'all don't even recognize some of the things
until we start breaking it down in sessions, right?
Okay, so two other little mini things
and then we'll pray and get started.
Jesus Cares Board, how many people?
Can I see, you can do your digital hand
or your physical hand.
Who has done a Jesus Cares Board?
Show me who's done one.
It's okay if you're brand new or you haven't done it yet,
but I just wanna kind of get a feel for how many people.
Okay, we have a decent amount.
This is good.
Okay, if you have, you can go ahead and put your hands down.
I think that kind of gives me
at least a little bit of an idea.
All right, let's see, 31 people here tonight.
So about a little over half of y'all have done
the Jesus Cares Board.
I want.
encourage you, if you haven't done it, the enemy will give you every reason to not do it. Even the
Jesus Cares Board. He'll give you all the reasons. It has to be creative. It has to be perfect. You
have to know every care and worry to get it started. I want to encourage you just to get
started. Y'all, literally, you can start with a couple posted notes, stick it up on your wall
and get started. Because as soon as you start casting those cares on Jesus, He's going to come
in and start supernaturally working in those. So I want to encourage you, don't keep waiting
and move forward with that. This Thursday, we have a special session. It was not on your calendars.
We started announcing it last week, Thursday night, August 8th at 8 p.m. So just remember,
8, 8, 8. Thursday, August 8th at 8 p.m. Okay, Eastern Time. We say all the time Eastern Time,
so y'all just know like if we announce just and we say one time, it's Eastern Standard Time and
just kind of figure out from there. That's 7 p.m. Central and 5 p.m. Pacific. We have people in all
other different time zones as well. That special session is going to be on Dream Interpretation.
Y'all do have one in your course content. I want you to know that's completely different. Okay,
we're bringing a whole different guy and Jackie's going to do this. Like she's been collecting
questions that people have been putting in in each phase group. Y'all, the post is in the group
and she would collected those comments and questions and she's going to be interviewing
the guy. It's going to be really insightful. You guys were hopefully going to get some
answers to questions you've been having and even asking us and so we'd love to have you join us.
That event is already in your events tab. So if you look at Thursday night, it was placed there
today. So just so you know, it's already there for you. It just says Dream Interpretation.
So that's the one I'm talking about in your event calendar. Okay. All right. I'm going to go ahead
and pray. Father, thank you so much for your amazing grace. God, even just before we came on
live, Lord, I just sat and just remember just how many different times when I was in boot camp.
That's what we used to call it. Heartwork. Lord, I would come in and some days I just would have had
a bad day and Lord, just the prayer that I had was just that you would remove the remnants
of any kind of yuckiness or rough day or even arguments that rose up with family over the last
few days or anything that the enemy would try to use to hinder us from receiving all that you
have for us. I pray that you would remove distractions tonight. Even people texting
people during the session. Lord, all these things used to happen to me. So I just pray
that you would cover our ladies, cover their minds, their hearts, their spirits, and their souls.
Help them to lean in to hear what your spirit is saying to them. I pray that you would just
help them to remember that they are your sheep and your sheep hear your voice. And even at times
where they've questioned their ability to hear you, God, I pray that you just continue to teach
them who you are. And the more that they get to know you, the more they will recognize your voice
over the voice of the enemy or even their own voice at times. So Lord, I pray that you bring
anything out of darkness into the light, that there would be revealings for healing. And Lord,
we just thank you for sending the Holy Spirit, Jesus, when you ascended into heaven. And we
just thank you Holy Spirit for coming and being here, weaving in and through our conversations,
through the lesson, through just every aspect. You are the great counselor, the comforter. You
are the one that redeems and illuminates. And so we're just asking you to illuminate our hearts
and our minds and our spirits, creating us clean hearts, oh God, and renew steadfast spirits within
us in Jesus name, amen. Y'all, I used to years ago, I grew up on Joyce Meyer, y'all, my faith.
And we don't talk about a lot of outside people, but I feel like it's relevant. She used to always
say, if you just put your ears, your hands on your ears and say, I am his sheep and his sheep
hear his voice. And I remember seeing her do that for the first time and doing it. And just God
nudging me to do that all the time. Y'all I'm serious. I would just every morning, I am his
sheep and I hear his voice. God, thank you that I am your sheep. I hear your voice. And I would just
say it over and over again. And so I just want to encourage you. Maybe that's for you tonight. Maybe
you've been struggling to know if you hear from the Lord. And I just want you to know that you
can, and you do y'all he's always talking. It's just whether or not we're tuned into the radio
frequency of the heaven. That's I know it sounds so simplistic, but it truly is that. And for some
of us that causes frustration because you feel like you're trying to lean in. And I have this
happen a lot. People be like, I'm trying, I'm trying. And I just want you to know, he sees you
and he, he hears you. He sees you and he's going to help you recognize the way.
that you hear him, because the way I hear him might not be the way you hear him, but God's
going to help you understand the way that you hear him, recognize him in the world around you.
He created us all to hear and perceive differently, y'all. All right. So we're actually not talking
about that at all tonight. That was just extra. I believe that was the Holy Spirit coming up in that.
But I want to talk about a couple topics tonight. The first one is fear and anxiety kind of combo.
We're going to talk about coming out of fear and anxiety and into love, into love. And then we're
going to talk about control. So without further ado, I want to talk a little bit about our hearts
and how impressionable they are. I want you guys to think about today. I want you to think about
how many things were said to you by people, or even this last week, let's not just make it today.
How many people said things to you that without you even realizing the enemy was suddenly,
subtly, not suddenly, sorry, subtly, like very, very kind of sneaky, you know,
just weaving his way in there, trying to convince you of something that wasn't true about yourself.
I'm going to give you an example. I kind of alluded to this this afternoon, but I'm going to
go into it a little bit more tonight. I've had this situation with a dear friend of mine,
someone that a couple years ago, several years ago, really opened her heart and her home and
her family to me. And I started hanging out with them and their family became very close.
I was in her wedding. She was in my wedding. She's amazing, incredible person. But the tough thing is
that this friendship has changed and I have found that I'm pouring in and pouring in and pouring in,
and I don't feel like it's being reciprocated anymore. And so it's been this struggle for
two years that I've been trying to really like figure out, do I keep trying to revive this thing
and keep it going? Or Laura, do you want me to let this go? It doesn't mean I'm not going to be,
not going to be friends with her. It doesn't mean I don't love her, but like in new seasons,
sometimes y'all, our circles change and it doesn't mean God won't bring her back in close later.
But here's the reality. There's some things that have happened along the way in that two years
time, dates and times we set up where we were supposed to connect and she would say, well,
God's leading me this way instead. And she would blow off our connection time.
And I say, blow off. She believes she heard from the Lord, but here's the thing. Relationship is
commitment. It's showing up. And sometimes the more spiritual thing is to stay committed to
something. Okay. So I've been over here trying to not get bitter in my heart and resent the being
blown off. Okay. So I'm just trying to paint this picture a little bit. And you might wonder,
how's this connected to fear? And I'm going to show you in a little bit here.
So I've been working hard. I've been striving, trying to keep that going,
if you will, and not even intentionally striving, but kind of the final straw was she blew off
another time a couple months ago. And it was, it was a time I really needed my close friends.
We were going through a lot with denomination stuff and the big move that we had to make.
And, and when she blew me off, I just, I just was so hurt that I couldn't even, I couldn't even say
anything back. And I just, so I just said, I'll get back to you when I can. And I say that because
when I looked back at the last community communication time, y'all this last few weeks,
it was back in may. And, uh, I really had to look at a, I was, it was crazy busy. We,
I was working two jobs. I was getting ready for a move. We were under so much pressure with the
denominational stuff. It just really was a crushing all of press time. If y'all know what
I'm talking about. Um, but I also want to just be transparent and honest with you all. I didn't say
anything else to her because I was hurting. I felt hurt that she blew me off when I really needed
her. And so because of that, I put up walls and I just was like, I don't have time. I don't,
I can't just keep getting hurt over and over again by her. So I'm just not going to say anything.
And y'all, I never heard from her. So there's that too. Okay. So why am I saying all this? I'm
saying this because, um, she reached out last week, just like, Hey, I'm thinking of you praying
for you. That sounds great. You know? And I responded, thank you so much. I'd love to get
together with you. And it started this kind of whole thing. Um, y'all the short of it is that
I got
flown off again and not just once, but multiple times in one week.
And so I grew, I grew some courage.
I found my courage and I sent her this vulnerable message last Wednesday and
just said, Hey, you know, I just need to be honest and say, I've been, I've
been hurting because you blew me off way back in May and, uh, and then, you
know, I'm struggling with kind of how things are and when the response came
back, she wasn't unkind, but there was no acknowledgement of how I felt.
And not only that, but then at the end, she said, neither one of us have
invested in this, in this relationship at all, and y'all a hundred percent
transparency, that is absolutely not true.
And I can tell you, if I wanted to, I can make a whole list of the things that I
have done, not only in the last few years, but in the last year, even in the
last several months, except for those two months from that time that
happened in our move time.
So here's why I'm sharing all this.
It's okay.
You all I'm okay.
Just so you know, I am actually, this is really good for me.
And this is a good example for you all, because this is where
heartwork is a lifestyle.
Okay.
If I feel a Holy spirit on that, if I didn't have the heartwork in my life,
you all, I don't even think I would be as self-aware in this process as I am right
now.
So I'm sharing it to you with you because of this a, uh, the reality
is I fear the loss of friendship.
Okay.
I'm afraid to lose my friend because this is someone that when they say to
me, you're like my family, I take that seriously.
I take that seriously.
So that feels hard and hurtful to think, well, this isn't just my friend.
We're supposed to be family.
Okay.
So there's that here's the other thing.
I didn't even realize it until tonight.
So after my session with the 1 PM ladies before tonight, I was talking with a
different front and not gossiping, just processing.
And she said something to me and she said, Bethany, I've known you for years.
And I've never known you to be someone who doesn't pursue relationship
and invest in friendship.
And when I read her text, I was like, oh my gosh, you're right.
You're right.
It doesn't mean I don't make mistakes you all, but the enemy was subtly coming
in and attacking me and my identity through the thing my friend said.
So I'm saying to you tonight, as I'm kicking off fear and anxiety, and we're
going to talk about control, I don't want to lose that friendship.
I don't, but I can't control what someone else does.
We can't control what other people do.
Do I regret getting close to her?
Absolutely not.
I love her.
And I, you all, I know, I sincerely know that my friend loves me, but I think
her interpretation of love right now is different than my interpretation of
love and how we express it to each other.
Okay.
So I can learn how to hold people with an open hand in a big old open heart and
know that sometimes love hurts, but it's so worth it.
Hey, all right.
I'm setting y'all up because fear and anxiety comes in real quick.
Doesn't it?
In so many different ways.
I want you to think about how has your heart been highly impressionable to the
lies and the voice of the enemy, even in the last week, and that's why I use that
example, because the enemy was trying to come against my identity and say, you
haven't shown up and you haven't done enough to keep this friendship going.
And that is the honest goodness, not the truth.
Okay.
Um, and so what is it that he's been saying to you?
Where has it been causing fear and anxiety about a relationship, about a
situation, about a person, about a job, about money, whatever it's about?
Oh, I'm giving you an example of a relationship, but this could
come in so many different ways.
Proverbs 4 23 and the ESV says, keep your heart with all vigilance for
from it flows the springs of life.
Vigilance literally means the quality or state of being vigilant.
So what does that mean?
It's the alert, alertly watchful being alertly watchful to avoid danger.
So if, if, you know, Jackie talks about in the book, we have all
these passwords on our phones.
Y'all I can kind of chuckle.
I wish I could show y'all our front door.
It has three locks on it and we laugh about it, but y'all, we lock all three.
I don't know why they have three locks.
on the door. It's actually a pretty safe neighborhood. But I laugh about that and look at it as I'm
talking to you all because, you know, we guard our homes and we guard all this stuff, but
so often our hearts are kind of, there's no guard over that. And I'm not saying put walls
up. I'm talking about asking God to place the armor over your heart, to help you guard
your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. And how do we do that? It's to know the truth.
It's to go to God and ask for healing with even situations like I'm saying to you, I've
been going to the Lord and saying, Lord, this, this has hurt me. This is, I don't know what
to do about this. And just having conversation with my father who cares about me and he cares
about you. So where do you need to guard your heart? Maybe with a little bit more vigilance
in the next week ahead. Trauma that happened to us is what actually stops us from living
an amazing life. You all, that's not what stops us. Yes, it hurts us. It, it might slow
us down for a little bit, but ultimately that is not what stops us from having an amazing
life. Do you know what does the lies we believe because of the trauma we've experienced. So
in the kind of like, just asking the Lord to reveal things tonight, I want you to ask
him what lies am I still believing when you're looking at your life, where do you see problem
areas? Where do you still feel stuck? And that those things that, that, that kind of
translate into that. Those are the signals that tell you there are lies that you are
still believing in that area. Okay. I'm going to say that again, problem areas and areas
that you feel stuck. And those are signals that say, Hey, you're believing a lie here
still. Okay. So if you feel stuck in your job, y'all, it's not just the people at your
job that are mean to you. I hate to say it. It is that sometimes, but sometimes the reason
we're stuck in that job is because there's something God is trying to do in us. Am I
saying God put you in a job where people mistreat you? No, I'm not. That's not what I'm saying.
But what I'm saying is we got to get free on the inside and grow in our value. A lot
of times it's that we don't believe we deserve a different job, or we are afraid to go and
actually apply for a different job because we're not sure we will get it. I had, I had
someone I was talking to, uh, recently, and we were talking about this, this opportunity
that came up. And when she was talking about it, we were doing a coaching session and she's
just lighten up talking about this opportunity. And so I encouraged her. I was like, you should
just apply for that thing today. She's like today, she had the shock. Yeah. Today. I was
like, you're lighting up like all kinds of like, Woo. Like, I mean, literally she wasn't
saying that, but like her face was saying it. She wanted that job. She's like, okay,
okay. I'll do it. I'll do it. Y'all we get off that coaching call. And this is someone
I talk to on a regular basis. So it's not like a heartwork session. Weeks later, I circle
back like, Hey, just curious. Did you apply for that job? No, I didn't. Y'all. She ended
up worrying that her resume wasn't good enough. Then she got sick. Then she thought she needed
a friend to help her do her resume. And I get it. Y'all these are all fears we all face.
So I'm just trying to break it down. This is how it shows up in our life, right? This
is a job. She is a, like a dream job, but she never still to this day has applied for
it. Why? Why don't we? Well, deep down inside, there's something telling us, yeah, that job
isn't for you or you can't get that job or what? Some reason your resume is not good
enough. Y'all. I believe that God is big enough and good enough that if my, if I'm intended
to have a job that he's going to put my resume to the front of the line, I really believe
that. I believe God can give us favor in any circumstance. I really do. So where are the
lies holding you back from living the amazing abundant life that God has for you? Fear is
false evidence appearing real. I want you to remember that fear is false evidence appearing
real. So the enemy is trying to convince us that something negative is going to happen.
And he's, he's making it look very, very realistic. So with my friend, you're going to lose family.
You're going to lose that friendship. You're going to feel a void and you're not going
to get other friends like that friend. Does anyone else relate to this stuff? Y'all here's
the truth. I love her and I don't want to not have her in my life. But if the, if the
season of that friendship is ending, you know what I know? If I really lean into truth,
not in my fear, not in my sadness. If I lean into truth, guess what that means? That means
God is making room.
for somebody else that I need in this next season,
that I don't even know that I need them, but I do.
And they're gonna carry something.
I'm speaking to myself, thank you, Lord.
They're gonna carry something
that I need in this next season.
So some of you all, that's truth for you too.
Whatever you need, God will provide it in the days ahead.
If you, if we will not be afraid to let go.
Anxiety is what?
Anxiety is, how is it fueled?
It's fueled by fear and what I call the what ifs.
What if this?
What if that?
What if this happens?
And what if this doesn't happen?
And what if I do that and they do the, like y'all,
we just sometimes need to say, okay, devil, not today.
Like we need to serve that stop sign, eviction notice.
Like I am not going to sit
and listen to these what ifs today.
I'm gonna choose to put on some worship music.
I'm gonna choose to read scripture out loud.
Do y'all know one of the best ways
to get the enemy to stop speaking to your mind?
Just get your Bible out
and literally start reading scripture out loud.
Y'all, I used to do that even during COVID.
I mean, I lived alone.
I couldn't go see my family.
I really didn't even get to see friends.
It was a tough time.
Do y'all know what I would do?
I'm not joking you and I'm not patting myself on the back
cause I literally did not plan on saying any of this.
So I'm glad it's helping some of y'all.
I remember, and this might sound funny.
I was getting my steps in at the same time.
I would walk in circles and walk around my apartment
and just read the word of God out loud.
I would, I was getting my steps in.
I was reading the word of God
and y'all I was speaking to my spirit
and I was telling my spirit how it was gonna feel
and what my body was gonna do
because my body and my spirit
needed to get into alignment with heaven.
Because yes, it felt, I felt alone.
Y'all real talk.
I felt alone.
I felt afraid.
And I thought that was, that season was never gonna end.
At moments, it literally felt like
I was gonna be by myself for years.
But that wasn't true.
That wasn't true.
And God did not want me to stay in that false belief.
So I want you to ask God to help you with these things.
Ask God to show you what are the facts, okay?
When you're struggling with something, what are the facts?
And then what is the truth from heaven
that you need to know?
The Bible says that God will tell us the secrets from heaven.
That's not just for me, you all.
That's for all of us.
If we come in close enough and we spend enough time with him
we will start to hear through the word of God
when we're reading it, through prayer, through dreams,
we will start to hear the whispers from heaven.
We can overcome fears the more we heal
and become rooted in God's love and faithfulness to us.
So that's how, again, fear and anxiety overcome
by the more we grow in love.
I'm gonna read something to you all
real quick from the book.
It's called The Biggest Lie.
This is the section that says the biggest lie.
If you're not there yet, it's totally fine.
But this is what it says.
But not everyone sees the dysfunction
in their life as a problem.
The biggest lie that you may believe in life
is that your life is normal.
Many people live, excuse me,
many people that live broken lives
believe that it's reasonable to live that way.
They have inherited the emotional debt or trauma
from their family.
And they think it's normal to be overweight,
that it's normal to be unhappy, to be unfaithful,
to be in a relationship where someone mistreats you
or to be sick all the time.
They think it's okay to have massive amounts of debt
and spend all of their energy
trying to figure out how to pay the bills
or even more severe of a deception.
Here it is you all.
Like it's normal for people to get abused
and hurt by others.
And it's normal for that to be in your life too.
That's not normal.
It's not normal for us to live that way.
God created us to live in an abundant life.
Does that sound like any of those things?
Doesn't, right?
So I'm saying that to you
because maybe some of you that's your lie.
Your lie that the enemy is telling you
is that this is how your life is and this is normal
because your mom, I'm just gonna go here, okay?
I have a sister that has four kids out of wedlock.
I love my sister,
but it breaks my heart for her and her kids.
Do I think she can recover?
Yes, I do.
But she has to want to and she has to partner with heaven.
My mom and my dad had my brother.
My mom got pregnant with him before they were married.
They got married because they got pregnant with my brother.
Am I saying that my mom's choices and my dad,
that it's their fault my sister chose that way?
No. But what I am saying is that the things that we
choose do impact those around us for good or for not good.
So we have to understand that when we choose good,
you all, and we choose to be kinsmen redeemers in our families,
you all generations behind us will have blessing.
Some of you all, I know this is going to be a hard thing for you to hear,
but some of you all are fighting right now.
You're fighting and you're believing and you're pressing through,
not just for you.
This isn't just for you to find a man,
to find your spirit mate.
This is for you to break other people free.
Yes. Your kids and your grandkids and their grandkids and their grandkids.
So that freedom and blessing can be in the generations to come in your family.
Some of you all are fearing sudden things like,
you're afraid the other shoe is going to drop.
You're thinking the worst case scenario all the time.
I'm going to give you two scenarios.
Again, there's a ton of different scenarios,
but these were the two God gave me this morning.
Sometimes some of you all hear sirens and automatically your heart drops and
you're afraid that someone in your family that you love has been in a terrible accident.
Does anyone, put it in chat.
If you ever have that fear,
I want to see who you are.
Maybe no one tonight, but I do want to check.
If you've ever had fears like that, okay, Benjamin.
I don't think you're, are you Benjamin?
I'm teasing because I see you're not Benjamin.
You're on someone else's computer.
I just want to call you by the right name tonight.
All right.
So yeah, so let's ladies.
And when you're looking at this,
I want you to be aware of that lie that something bad is all like something always.
Why do we believe that?
Y'all I used to have the same panic thing.
Well, when I looked at it and I did the heart healing,
even around that y'all,
even around when we hear sirens that we automatically panic,
something bad happened to someone I love.
Well, when I did heartwork, guess what?
Do y'all know how many accidents my family had been in?
Like crazy number.
And my mom and my oldest brother and my sister were hit by a drunk driver.
And my family was massively impacted, like serious stuff.
So it's no surprise when I finally did heartwork around that
and just quit living with that.
See, even that, like, do you know how so many of us are like,
oh, this is normal that I get afraid every time I hear a siren.
It's not normal.
It's brokenness causing us to be afraid all the time.
Some of y'all, when someone doesn't respond to your texts,
you automatically think something bad has happened
or they're mad at you or they don't care about you.
The worst case scenario instead of believing the best.
So what is the heartwork for you?
Where does that come from?
Did someone that you love literally reject you
and not respond to you in the past?
Like, where is the fear coming from?
1 John 4, 18 in the NIV version says this,
there's no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear
because fear has to do with punishment.
Another version says torment.
The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
I want you to think about that.
Do you struggle with fear?
Because the Bible here is saying,
and this was a reality check for me.
It says the one who fears is not made perfect in love.
So y'all, when we're struggling with fear,
it's because we're forgetting how loved we are.
And we're forgetting who God himself is.
God is love and nothing.
It says nothing can separate us from his love,
not height nor depth, nor principality, nor power,
nor things in the present day or things to come.
Nothing can separate us from his love,
but why is our go-to fear versus leaning back
into the embrace and Lord,
I know the enemy wants me to be afraid right now,
but I know that you love me and I can hide in your love.
Totally different stance, isn't it?
I'm gonna read a different version of that same scripture.
1 John 4, 18, this is the amplified version.
There's no fear in love.
Dread does not exist in love.
The perfect, complete, full-grown love drives out fear
because fear involves the expectation of divine punishment.
So the one who is afraid of God's judgment
is not perfected in love, has not grown in love.
and into a sufficient understanding of God's love.
So how many of us, myself included,
y'all I've been admitting things already tonight,
need an upgrade in our understanding
of the love of the father?
Man, I feel like every day,
I feel like that's what I ask him all the time now.
Just help me, Lord.
Help me to have an upgrade in my understanding of your love.
Help me to know that I can hide in the cleft of your rock.
Okay, fear is a liar.
I'm gonna read a couple song lyrics to y'all.
It's from Zach Williams song.
And then I'm getting ready to put you in your breakout.
So start thinking about what you wanna share about,
but still listen to the song here.
What fear are you gonna ask God to help you
come out of alignment with tonight?
Okay, this is a couple lyrics,
song lyrics from the beginning of this song,
fear is a liar.
When he told you, you're not good enough.
When he told you, you're not right.
When he told you, you're not strong enough
to put up a good fight.
When he told you, you're not worthy.
When he told you, you're not loved.
When he told you, you're not beautiful,
you'll never be enough.
Fear, he is a liar.
Okay, he's talking about the devil here in the he.
He will take your breath, stop you in your steps.
Fear, he is a liar.
He will rob your rest, steal your happiness,
cast your fear in the fire,
because fear is a liar.
Here's the second verse.
When he told you, you were troubled,
you'll forever be alone.
When he told you, you should run away,
you'll never find a home.
When he told you that you were dirty
and you should be ashamed.
When he told you that you,
when he told you, you could be the one
that grace could never change.
Wow.
Oh, fear, he is a liar.
He will take your breath, stop you in your steps.
Fear, he is a liar.
He will rob you of your rest, steal your happiness,
cast your fear in the fire,
because fear, he is a liar.
So many lies, and you know,
he goes through so many lies.
Zach Williams, man, I'm like,
he must've battled with some fears there,
because he's speaking some truth.
How many times, y'all, when he told you,
you were troubled and you'll forever be alone.
I know some of y'all have been battling that.
And the enemy, Satan, is a liar.
Do y'all know that God is not a liar?
He's not a man that he should lie.
The Bible says he's not a liar.
The devil is a liar,
and he's the one feeding you lies
and has been feeding you lies.
He's the one that's bringing destruction
and death and harm in your life.
But God is there to help you pick up the pieces,
to right the wrongs, and to love you back to life.
Ooh, I felt the Holy Spirit.
To love you back to life.
So Lord, before you go into breakouts, ladies,
I'm just gonna pray real quick.
Father, would you just come into every crevice,
every broken place where the enemy has been sowing fear
and torment into their lives.
I pray that you would just help them even now
to know what fears they need to come out of alignment
with tonight, to decide that today is the day
that they are separating themselves from these fears,
and they're gonna come further into your love
and into your grace and into your mercy and your goodness.
Help them to receive your love.
Help them to not be afraid of you, God.
Yes, we're supposed to fear you, Lord,
but not tremble in fear of you.
To have fear and reverence towards you, awe and wonder.
Lord, help us to understand the difference
a little bit more tonight.
In Jesus' name, amen.
That's totally fine if some of y'all are driving
and can't go into breakouts, just stay here,
and I'll be praying and doing all of that
while they're in the breakouts.
Great.
There you go.
Go ahead and click to join.
Hold on one.
Mandy, I'll get you situated
as soon as I get everybody else in there,
because it bounces the screen around
until they get settled.
Welcome, welcome, ladies that are joining new.
All right.
There you go, Mandy.
That should be there for you to click.
All right.
Is anyone else?
Anyone else here that can't?
Did you get kicked out, Shelly?
I might've done it myself, Bethany.
I was in room six.
Let me see.
I don't know if it'll let me put you back in that same room.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't think so. Go ahead. And I'm going to just put you in a different room.
All right. Father, thank you so much for your amazing grace. God, thank you so much for
truth in life. We thank you that you bring light into dark places and you illuminate
everything that that which was dead can be made alive. Oh, it kicked you back again.
What's on? Let me find you. I wonder if a prompt that keeps showing up and when I try
to exit out, it kicks me out. So I'm not sure. I won't exit out of it this time. Okay, yeah,
just leave. Just let it go. I wonder if your connection is maybe tricky. I'll put you back
now and six. It'll let me do that now. All right. All right, cool. Thank you, Father,
that you know everything that we need to be set free. I thank you that you bring dead
things to life just in in my spirit. I'm just thinking about the story of Lazarus and and
father how you brought. Through the power of Jesus Christ here on Earth, you brought
Lazarus back from the dead and you gave him life again after three days in the tomb. So
Lord, we just thank you that every area that has felt dead where it's felt like we have
no life where we've been afraid or we've really struggled with anxiety or panic or
worry, dread disorders. We thank you that you can just right now in Jesus name that
you can quench all of those fears that you can bind and break in the name of Jesus Christ
and by the power of your blood, Jesus, the spirits of fear, panic, worry, just dread
oppression and anxious thoughts. We thank you that you would just silence those that
every voice of the enemy would be silenced tonight and that the ladies would hear your
voice louder than any other voice in their lives. And we just thank you for that, Lord.
We know that. Yes, this is so good, Philippians four, seven, NLT says, then you will experience
God's peace, which exceeds anything that we can understand. His peace will guard your
hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. So Lord, tonight, I thank you that you would
help us to experience you as God of peace, that you are the prince of peace. So we ask
you to release peace from heaven into their hearts, their minds, their bodies, their spirits,
their souls, that you would help our us to just come into complete unity with the truth
of heaven and, and help us, Lord, just to right now, just like your peace washing over
us that it would become tangible, that it would just come into the room where they're
at and just help them to, even as they're talking about fear, to just feel a supernatural
peace rising up in them. We just thank you for that in advance. Sorry, y'all, my throat
is getting dry. We thank you Lord that, um, you say in Proverbs 23, 23, to embrace the
truth and hold it close. Don't let go of wisdom instruction and life giving understanding.
So Lord, we know that your word also declares to ask for wisdom and to seek to get understanding
and even to like pay for it, to purchase it. So Lord, we thank you that you would help
us to know the places and ways to invest in getting wisdom and understanding this being
a part of this community is a part of that, that every dollar that we spend to invest
in the upgrade of our understanding of who you are, father, what it looks like to live
a healthy and whole life, to have a healed heart and to live from a place of abundance
and freedom because we're rooted and grounded in your love. Like nothing is worth more than
that. So Lord, we just thank you for blessing all of these ladies financially, blessing
them for investing in themselves, investing in your kingdom ultimately, because everything
you're doing in us here, God, it's causing ripple effects for eternity as we continue
to be a vessel that you can work through as well. So Lord, we just thank you for healing
and redeeming and restoring families. Yes, Lord, I thank you. I'm just hearing the Lord
say that he's going to, I don't know who this is for, but I'm just going to speak it out
that he's going to restore the missing link. I heard the Lord just say that he's going
to restore the missing link. So we just thank you for that. We thank you that you're healing,
you're redeeming, you're restoring, you're rebuilding every broken and fallen place.
I thank you that even some of us, you're calling us to be the builder. So I pray, Lord,
if we are a part of the rebuilding process, I pray that you would show us where to go,
what to say, what to do. I thank you that you would help us to just truly lean into
your heartbeat and convey that to your sons and daughters around us. We thank you in Jeremiah
17, nine through 10 in the message version that it says this, the heart is hopelessly
dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out.
but I, God, search the heart and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.
God, I thank you that we don't have to pretend
in your presence or with each other,
that we are safe in this community to come out of hiding,
to talk about the things that we struggle with,
to talk about fears, to talk about even sin areas
that have kept us bound so that we can step further
into freedom and healing and redemption.
So Lord, we just thank you that you would wash over
our hearts, our minds, our spirits, and our souls tonight.
We thank you that we are being transformed and renewed by,
or transformed by the renewing of our minds,
that all things are passing away.
Behold, everything in you is becoming new.
I thank you that you're making all things new
and that you're helping us to get rid of the old
so that we can make room to receive the new
that you have for us, new friendships,
new spirit mate, new truth.
And I just thank you for helping us, Lord.
Yes, Lord, help us to hear, help us to perceive and to know,
help us to see every situation in person with your eyes,
Lord, not with our flesh, not through our pain,
but your eyes, help us to hear with your ears
what your spirit is saying.
I thank you that you would help us to know
that you are not as the world is,
that you don't treat us,
you won't treat us the way that the world has treated us,
and we can trust you.
We can trust you.
Thank you for Exodus 26.
It says, I lavish unfailing love
for a thousand generations on those who love me
and obey my commands.
I thank you, Lord, that you are lavishing your blessings
and your love upon us as we obey your commands,
as we walk with you and talk with you
and receive your truth, your revelation, life-giving truth.
We thank you that it will cut through bone and marrow.
It will reveal truth to us.
I thank you that we will not hide or be afraid,
but to come into full view of you, God,
that we would allow you to have full access to our hearts,
our minds, our bodies, our spirits, and our souls.
I thank you, Lord God, that any area of our minds
that is still caught up in old ways of thinking,
limiting belief systems, orphan mentalities,
I pray that you would just come in
and reveal those areas to us
so that we can understand the areas
where we still just aren't seeing things clearly
because we have filters or blind spots through brokenness.
And we just thank you for that in advance.
Welcome back.
We have like 30 seconds and everybody will be back with us.
We have a couple of rooms we're still waiting on.
We'll set it up.
That is good, you all.
He's so good at healing.
He knows exactly what you need.
He's the master craftsman.
So just continue to trust him in your process.
He's going to weave everything together
in his perfect timing.
Yes, Lord.
I just heard him say too.
He's going to use some gold thread
to weave some of that stuff back together.
He's going to weave gold in your life.
Some glory.
That's what that is, you all.
His glory is so powerful.
He does amazing work.
He is a great physician and nothing is too hard for him.
Okay.
All right.
Just remember to mute.
Go ahead and mute for me.
And then whoever wants to share with the whole group.
Yeah, Michelle, go ahead.
Number one.
Yeah.
Well, first of all,
I'm still kind of a little bit choked up
about Cindy and Georgette's check-ins.
They're precious women and my heart is grieving,
you know, and feeling for where they're at.
So, but I'll talk about me and let them talk about them.
My worst fear came true.
That when you said earlier, Bethany, in the call,
you said, I just can't feel the loss
of even one more relationship or something like that.
And I think that used to be my fear,
my fear of being alone.
And I have family of origin issues that support that.
Well, actually my fear happened
and I lost my husband five years ago.
And since then I lost my two closest friends, not by death.
My husband was by death, suicide actually.
And my girlfriends were, I had to end the relationship
because they got off the narrow road
and went on the wide road
and they couldn't go where God was sending me.
So those had, and they were toxic.
They ended up being toxic.
They weren't, and they morphed somehow.
And then my sons, and I don't know what's going on,
I have three adult sons and five grandchildren,
and they all just pushed me out of their life.
And I've asked why,
and they won't offer me an explanation.
I think I sent a text about this.
And so I've literally lost
all that was most important to me.
I still have some siblings, but they're very, very busy.
I'm in the middle of a move
and nobody's coming over to help me.
Here I am a widow, a Christian widow,
and I have a Christian family
and nobody's taking some time to come and help me.
But you know what?
I'm doing fine.
I'm packing it up.
I'm purging most things and it's okay.
But the thing is, is what I shared with Cindy and Georgette
is my worst fear came true.
And guess what?
I'm not alone.
That's right.
I have Jesus, I feel his presence.
And I feel stronger than ever
because he is who I really need.
And I think he knew that I always felt that way,
but he needed me to know it.
So I don't know that, I don't think he orchestrated,
he just allowed everybody to do their will
and where I'm at.
And what I really sense is that he's opening the door
for a new life for me, a new spirit mate.
You know, my husband didn't want to be married anymore.
I didn't want to be alive anymore.
So he ended that new with a family, a new family.
And not that I will, my heart soil is still good
for my children to want to come back.
I received them with love and forgiveness,
but right now I can't control their choices.
So it feels like I'm in a really good place.
And even though it still hurts,
like you said with your friends, it still hurts,
but the overarching lesson and value that I got
from that suffering and that lesson is not replaceable.
I wouldn't give it up for the world.
Yes.
There's a song that comes to mind,
a couple of things just real quick.
I used to listen to It Is Well all the time.
I think that's the name of it.
It Is Well With My Soul.
Yeah, but the Bethel version.
I mean, I love it regardless.
I love that song, but the Bethel version especially,
and it really just helped me just in the hardest moments.
And I'm sure people have said this to you before,
but my husband just preached about Job two weekends ago,
and we were looking at the life of Job
and how much he lost and how that all went.
And then God gave him a double portion.
So I just wanna speak a double portion over you, Michelle,
that God is a double portion.
And that doesn't mean like you said
that your kids won't come back around
and you all won't reconcile,
because we're gonna be believing for that, okay?
As a community, I want us to align and pray and believe,
but it takes two, okay?
So just like with my friend, it takes two to tango.
It's gotta be from both sides, right?
And so when those people aren't ready, we love them.
We keep this soil of our heart good, like you said,
and we keep allowing God to heal us and be willing to love,
but just trust that God might be doing something in them
in the process as well.
And even when it doesn't look the way
we think it's supposed to look too,
because y'all sometimes it's like,
we think it should look a certain way.
So that's in the surrender and the letting go
that he can come in and create
a really beautiful masterpiece.
And he's way better at it than we are, isn't he?
So yeah, and I thought of Job too,
because in that book, if y'all remember,
it says the thing that he had feared came upon him.
You all, I don't wanna make you afraid, okay?
Because we're talking about
coming out of alignment with fear,
but here's the reality.
It's not good for us to live in fear,
because those things,
it can actually draw that stuff to us, okay?
So super important for us to come out of alignment with fear
and come into truth,
but also the reality is God is your defender.
He's the one that held you in his hand the whole time, okay?
So we're gonna be shouting and praising the Lord with you
as you step into your double portion season.
I think it's already started.
I think you're just, it's just in the spiritual,
it's already started.
It's just the physical has got to catch up now.
So we're gonna believe that for you.
Thank you so much for sharing with us.
Appreciate that so much.
Erica, go ahead.
Hey.
Um so my family of origin is very much um like if you're not perfect and you don't completely meet
their expectations um they just kind of cut you off and I have been cut off and um
and 95% of the time I'm okay with that because it wasn't really a relationship to begin with
um but um I've noticed going through this that certain things bring that up again um I had made
a post and I think it just got lost but because I was vulnerable in that post immediately I became
I went and again this like sideswiped me because I feel like I'm growing in my confidence
I'm able to sort of talk myself through things like if someone gives you a dirty look but I
don't know that before I would have taken that on and now I now I can start to think through
things like they don't know me enough to not like me right and so when the post was unanswered and
it's fine that it was but it's okay is it in the app it is in the app okay I'll go look for it
because I've I've been in there every day so that's kind of interesting that I haven't seen it
but I'll go look maybe maybe I'll post it again after this it's okay I'll I'll go look for it I'll
find it I'll find it in there and and it's okay honestly because it I shared it with my friend
and we talked through it and and it so it accomplished what it needed to accomplish
what my mind went to was immediately like you're too much um you don't have it all together
you're kind of you know um oh just the lies the lies and so this these past couple weeks I've
really learned like wow this is still real in my mind it's it's a lie that I um need to battle
and so I have really been doing that this week and it's it's been a struggle but it's been good
yes okay so here's the thing and I I understand your verbiage a lie that you need to battle but
I just want to cause you to shift the way you're expressing that a little bit because whether we
realize it or not the way we express it is typically how we look at it and so I want you
to consider it's a lie that you need revealed for healing okay so that's where that revealing
for healing cycle is going to really be key for for all of you all but y'all God fights our battles
yes we war and we do battle as well but sometimes some like some of y'all are battling so much
that like you're trying to do God's job too does that make sense not not necessarily you Erica but
like I do think sometimes we we are pushing we're striving we're trying to figure it out and
you know you're trying this you're trying that and you feel like nothing's working you're stuck
well it's because there's healing that needs to happen and in the healing in the resting
y'all sometimes in the resting rest can be warfare yeah worship can be warfare so many
times we think we've got to be in there with you know and this is a metaphor but guns blazing right
trying to make something happen so even with our family and those situations you know really would
encourage you um and I know that you're I really believe that you're fine with the post but I'm
kind of surprised that I missed it because I feel like I'm pretty good at getting in there
but I do think okay so here's the thing y'all I think what she has accomplished out of her
revelation is really important so I hope you all catch this excuse me
God used even me not seeing that post for a purpose
I I almost venture to say there's a part of me that's like okay did God
hide that post like you know because I'm in there every day so and Bethany you are always so good
about that that hit me last week because I think I had responded by saying you know thank you so
much for looking I know you're so good about responding and I was thinking about that as I
drove into work like could the Lord have made that not be seen so that I can realize wow this still
needs to be processed so that's honestly why I'm okay that you hadn't responded you know yeah yeah
and here's the thing too I want to I want y'all to be thinking about this because automatically
anxiety can rise up in us and the lies start beginning and and some of us attach our identity
um to getting a word to getting
response. Our culture is social media driven. So many times, even myself, I have to watch myself,
like constantly looking to see if people liked my post. I'm like, put the phone down. Put the
phone down. It doesn't matter at the end. I'm just trying to bless people. That's the point.
The point isn't how many people like it, comment. The point is that, you know, we're sharing. And
for you all, the point, a lot of you all is to use your voice, even through the text of what
you're writing. It's for you. It's for you to get that out and break free. So I want to continue to
encourage you all to keep posting, keep doing it, keep using your voices. I love that revelation,
Erica. It's so good. So encourage you. Also, when is the first time, you don't have to answer now,
but this is something I want you to be praying about this week. When is the first time that
you believed the lie that you were too much? And what was going on in that scenario? And what does
the Lord want to heal in that situation? Okay. I see a question in the app. Y'all, just so y'all
know, if you're in the Facebook group, you're right where you need to be. When you move to
phase two, you'll go to the app. So just, I just don't want people to get distracted from heartwork.
Okay. All right. And I know it gets confusing because we have a couple of different groups
all in here now. So I understand why that can be confusing, Shelly. So sorry about that, but
just everybody's where they need to be. Okay. All right. Erica, thank you for sharing on that. Okay.
I'm going to take two more now, and then I'm going to shift and we're going to talk about control,
but anybody else that wanted to share, you can come back. We'll do another, we'll do another
group share. Okay. So don't, don't feel not seen or heard. All right. All right. Tenora,
I'd like to hear what you had to share. Yes. Hi, I'm, I'm, I'm really nervous about sharing,
but I will. So it's kind of three in one. The first one is two facts. Second one is too many kids.
And then the last one is all men cheat and they can't be trusted. So I grew up in foster care
and growing up in foster care, I was really just destroyed as a person. And majority of the people
that was supposed to protect me, which was supposed to be my own father, he chose not to.
So I grew up automatically feeling like men were the devil. There's no other way to really put it
I'm out to get me out to kill me out to harm me. I was molested in front of family by men did
nothing really just tormented. And so I think growing up in that environment and then dead
in relationships to failed marriages made me really truly feel like I was invisible. If that
makes any sense, I got the weight. I got the weight loss surgery in 2000. I lost 120 pounds.
I am currently at 200 pounds. I needed, well, my weight loss goal was supposed to be 180.
So I'm still 30, 40 pounds out. And I'm still feeling like I'm that 320 pound woman,
five kids, two divorces. It's just this week has really just been making me feel way down,
way down in my weight, way down in my mind, way down with my job, which I actually
loved at one point. Now I'm starting to feel like I'm not sure if I like the job anymore.
What are you on to Nora? Just so I know. So this is I'm in phase four, I believe
you're in forgiveness. Yes. I'm in forgiveness. So trying to forgive myself at the same time of
not really understanding who I am in some areas. What exactly does this mean? It's just kind of all
those three things meshed in one. Okay. All right. So here is a couple things real quick.
So the most powerful thing, you know, the scripture talks about loving our neighbor
as we love ourselves, okay. Loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. And so I would encourage
you to really, as you're thinking about forgiveness and feeling like it's hard to
forgive yourself, I want you to also focus on the fact that God wants to help you learn how
to love yourself. Okay. You all so many times when brokenness and we make mistakes, self-hatred can
come in self-loathing, especially people that have gone through forms of abuse on any level.
Um, they can really reject their bodies in a lot of different ways. So I want to encourage you to
you're, as you're working through this week and you're feeling like all that pressure
just to really extend a lot of grace. Okay. So if you need extra rest, if you need, you
know, extra sunshine, whatever it is, like to give yourself permission to do the things
that you need to do to care for yourself really well, because you're on the way through, okay.
This week can be tough. A lot of people forgiving themselves is the one that's the hardest.
And so I want you to know you're not alone in your struggle that you're feeling. And
the other thing is just, you know, a lot of people feel like, and I don't know if this
is part of what you're struggling with. A lot of people feel like when we forgive, like
it's like, someone's asking us to forget this stuff happened, but God's not asking us to
forget. He's just saying, forgive as I forgave you. We're extending grace to ourselves and
to others the same way that Jesus Christ died on the cross and he shed his blood for us
to be forgiven for us to be healed. But also again, remember you, I'll always try to remind
us as a group. He also did it to create us in a way to be in relationship with him, just
as he's in relationship with the father relationship with the Holy spirit. So it was
always about relationship. So God's biggest concern for all of us is us being closer to
him being in relationships. So if you think of it as, you know, how can I learn to love
myself more as I learn also to love God more and let him love me more? Because I think
a lot of us, you know, even we go to church and we learn about love and you know, God
is love God, you know, yes, yes. God loves me. God loves me. And we say that, but so
many times we struggle to receive it, like to really like receive God's love and affirmation.
It says in his word that he removes our sins. As far as the East is from the West, he forgets
them like they don't even exist anymore. As soon as we ask for forgiveness, it is gone.
It's gone. But we, the enemy, we, we believe his lies and we allow him to continue to shackle
us over and over and over again with this stuff. And sometimes y'all, I was just thinking
about this the other day, crazy stuff. I've had thoughts like coming back to my mind that
I have gotten over long ago. And I said to the Lord the other day, like, what is going
on with this? This is stuff I've gotten over like 10 years ago. Where's this coming from?
And he said, the enemy is trying to assault your mind, assault it. A S S A U L T assault.
The enemy will try to assault our minds with stuff because if he can wear us down in our
minds, you all, he can wear us down. But you know what? Guess what? Do y'all know what
God gave us in the armor that goes on our heads? The helmet of salvation. Y'all serious.
I know I'm kind of like making light a little bit of this, but the armor of God is something
we should put on every day. The helmet of salvation to remember that I am saved. I'm
covered by the blood of the lamb, by the blood of the lamb and the word of my testimony,
I will rise and I will go forth. And the same can be true for all of you. Tanora, you are
made white as snow sister. And last thing I want to say is when you said, I still feel like
a 300, you said 300 something. So I don't want to say the wrong number pound women,
320 pound women in a 200 pound body. Okay. So, okay. So what I want you to really be
asking the Lord to help you with is to accept your body to love who you are on the inside.
And yes, I think we should work on our bodies. Y'all, I think I've been telling you, I've been
doing that too, but God has spoken to me so many times over and over and over learn to love
yourself now, not just the smaller me, not just, you know, hair done, make it like
looking in the mirror and learning how to love myself.
And say, I mean, just a second and say, I think my body was the first thing that was defiled.
If that makes any sense, my body was the first thing that I felt like was
nasty or ugly or tore up. If that makes any sense.
does. I don't know if you were on to Nora the week that I talked
about going through sexual abuse as well. And when you just said
that, I'm going to share one other thing. And then I'm going
to start to talk about our content because I want to make
sure we have time to get it in. The Lord told me just now when
you said that about your body was the first thing defiled. I
heard him so gently and quickly say tell her that her body did
not reject like your body didn't reject you basically,
like, it didn't, it wasn't angry with you. It wasn't your fault,
like, like, basically, what he's saying is like your body, what
you felt didn't become a nasty thing. And so we're going to be
praying and I'll remember as you guys start to go into
breakouts here in a little bit, I'll remember to pray, you know,
for a lot of you all that there would be convergence that would
start to happen where you would start to come back into
connection with your younger bodies, and self hatred and
self loathing and body rejection issues would go away. Some of
y'all really want to encourage you I know this is probably
like, little elementary kind of schoolish, but like, literally,
I just feel like so many of y'all just kind of need to wrap
yourself up in your own arms and hug yourself. No, we don't we
don't. We don't take enough time to love us. And then we want to
try to go out and love other people. So tonight, I'm serious
when some of y'all get off this live, I want you just to just to
lay there and put your arms around yourself and ask God to
help you feel his love. And just soak in it a little bit. Even if
you don't feel the feels, just just just believe by faith that
as you're doing the action of it, that you're experiencing a
hug from heaven, that you're learning how to love yourself a
little bit more. Okay. All right. All right. I'm sorry,
ladies that have your hands up. I love you. Stay there. When you
come we come back. I'll try to bring you in the loop again.
Okay, control. I got to go here tonight. We have to talk about
it. You all we love to control don't we? Who are my control
freaks? Can I see in the chat? Tell me tell me are you a
control freak? Tell me something you're struggling to control
right now in your life. What are you trying to control? Let
me see it. Let me see it. Put in the chat. All right, while
you're doing that. All right, money. Let's see some more.
Control is an illusion you all. It's a misleading image,
something that misleads us intellectually, physically,
emotionally, all of the things. Okay, oh, good. I see some more
here future now it's starting to go. It's so funny. It takes a
while and then they just start to fly future plans everything.
Sure. I everything she says I'm trying to control it all. I love
it. She's being honest stuff at work. I try to control what I
get afraid of. Okay. Oh, that's good. Shelly. My schedule. I'm
trying to control my job and where I live finances trying to
figure out unknowns. Unknowns came up earlier today as well
outcomes. My house has to be clean. All right, or what
Natalia fear controlling. Okay, so you struggle to control to
have your house clean. Tell me more. I feel like there's
something bigger. They're not making any mistakes over
thinking I want my everything my way kids and future time and
money. There's so many y'all I love this. Get these things in
here because this is what you're going to start letting go of
tonight. All right. Healthy people who walk in victory don't
try to control other people. They know it doesn't work. Y'all
it doesn't work. So we just need to stop trying to control
people. It's not our job. Okay, healthy people know it's not our
job to control people. You know what we can only control in a
sense or change who this person us I can only impact and change
my own self. And guess what you all even when you get married
is the same. You can't control people. Okay. I'm kind of Joe. I
mean, y'all in love you submit to one another. We're going to
talk about submission next week. We are coming here
about it, it's going to be good and spicy. But um, you all in
marriage, we submit to one another in love, but we don't
control and manipulate each other. Okay. What areas of your
life do you struggle to let go of control? Are you struggling
to let go of controlling people, places, things, here's some
perceptions. Some of you all are safe, right? I almost feel like
that house one, having the house clean feels connected there for
me somehow. Again, I don't remember who wrote that. But
Natalia was that Natalia is the only thing I can control. Yes.
So when life gets out of control, okay. All right. Hey,
Natalia, my youngest spiritual daughter has OCD with cleaning
the house when she gets really stressed out. I feel like
there's a connection there. And a lot of times it's because of
unhealed trauma from the past and fragmentation. So I want you
to pray into that a little bit more. Okay. perceptions are we
trying to like cause everyone to think we have it all together
that we never mess up that whatever, okay, whatever the
perception is that we've got all the designer stuff. Some people,
you know, we've got to have the name brand everything because
there's a perception of control. Maybe it's having straight A's
maybe it's you know, certain level in your job. I don't know
you all but you guys you know what what it is. Maybe your area
where you struggle to control is an outcome. We talked a
little bit about family tonight you all didn't we and
reconciliation that needs to happen. I talked about
friendship one that man I would love to control that outcome. I
know the outcome I want but I have to just surrender and put
that on my Jesus cares board and trust that God is going to take
care of that situation. Are you trying to avoid pain and getting
hurt? How many of you are trying to control because you're trying
to make sure nobody hurts you. So you got this barbed wire. I
just watched this movie last night. It's really cute on
Netflix. Harry Connick Jr. was in it. I don't remember
something falling. I don't remember. Anyways point it just
made me think about it. The movie these people come to this
cliff and they just they were jumping off and so he starts the
movies trying to build this fence because he doesn't want
people to do that. There's this whole theme of this fence. I
just felt led to bring that up. Sometimes we're these fences
we're trying to avoid pain. You know, we're trying to avoid
suffering. We're trying to avoid even other people suffering. And
so sometimes we even tell our friends things that's not true
because we just want them to be happy. And sometimes our friends
do that to us, don't they? Everybody just wants us to be
happy. That's not a bad thing, but it can get out of balance,
right? Are you trying to keep people where you want them so
that they don't hurt you? Y'all, this isn't abundant living. If
we're doing those things, that's not abundance. What can we
control? We can control our beliefs about God and other
people. We can control our responses. Remember, I've been
talking instead of reacting that we would respond instead that we
would pause and like, Lord, what do you think about this?
Help me not to get triggered. And if I get triggered, help me
to recognize why am I getting offended? Why am I getting
triggered? What are you trying to show me? We can control our
boundaries that we set with people. But I do want to
caution you all sometimes we get we get out of balance with our
boundaries. And we just put so many boundaries in place as
self-protection. Because again, we just we don't want anyone to
hurt us. So you got to have balance there. Remember to lean
into being God defended as well, ladies, that you are embraced in
God's love. Isaiah 26.3 says you will keep him in perfect peace
those whose minds are stayed upon you because they trust in
you. So when we trust in God, and we keep our minds steadfast
upon him, he'll keep us in perfect peace you all. It's time
to yield control. It's time to give in it's time to let go to
concede to who to God not to not to people. But to God, it's
time to wave the white flag and admit God, I can't do this
anymore. I've tried to control these situations and these
people and these things. And it isn't going where I want it to
go. I can't do this anymore. So you're going to go into
breakout. I'm going to put you in there for five minutes total
for this breakout. I want you to talk about where are you going
to let go of control.
Okay, it's going to be short and sweet.
I'm going to put two people in every breakout,
so you have two and a half minutes to talk about this.
Got to break these rooms down a little bit more.
If some of you go in and there's one of you in a room,
just stay there for a minute,
okay, because I have a couple,
there might be just one.
I'll move you, so don't worry,
and I'll try to do it as quick as possible.
Okay, there you go.
Father, thank you so much for your goodness.
God, thank you for reminding us that we don't have to
control any situation or anything, any circumstance.
God, we don't have to control perceptions or outcomes,
that we are God defended,
that you are warring even right now on our behalf,
that you're sending and dispatching.
I believe that by faith,
that you're sending and dispatching angels to fight for us.
Help us to hear what your spirit is saying.
Thank you, Lord, that you would help
us to continue to embrace your truth tonight,
that you would help us to hear just the whispers of heaven,
what you're speaking over us,
the areas that you're coming in.
We thank you for the balm of Gilead
being placed upon our hearts, our minds, our bodies,
our spirits, and our souls.
We thank you for the healing balm.
We thank you for just loving us unconditionally,
making us white as snow.
I thank you, Lord, that you're causing us to be
like Psalm 1 3 declares,
that we will be standing firm like a flourishing tree
planted by God's design,
deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss,
bearing fruit in every season of our lives.
We are never dry, never fainting,
ever blessed and ever prosperous.
Lord, I thank you that you'll help us
to begin to live the prosperous life,
that we would walk in prosperous mindsets and mentalities,
that we would lay aside the weights that do ensnare us
so easily and press on toward the high calling
that you have for our lives.
I thank you that you help us to hear, to see,
and to move and take action quickly,
that faith without works is dead.
So I thank you that we combine our faith with our works
and that we take imperfect action
to move towards your grace and your goodness.
And I thank you that you are just,
you never give up on us, Lord, you never give up on us.
Philippians 1 6 in the message version says,
there has never been the slightest doubt in my mind
that the God who started this great work
and you would keep at it and bring it
to a flourishing finish on the very day
Christ Jesus appears.
God, we thank you that you're always finishing the work,
that you're continuing to work in us even right now.
That Jesus, I thank you that you're sitting
at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us,
believing for us, praying for us right now.
Yes, Lord, I thank you that even in Philippians 3 2,
it says, I don't mean to say
that I've already achieved these things
or that I've already reached perfection,
but I press on to possess that perfection
for which Christ Jesus first possessed us.
I thank you, Lord, that you would help us
to learn a little bit more about the fullness
of who you originally created us to be
before trauma ever entered our lives,
before we ever believed a lie.
Help us to see ourselves through your eyes
and understand your view of us.
Help us to come out of alignment with self-hatred,
self-rejection, any kind of anger, wrath,
malice, outbursts of rage, violence,
violent thoughts that we have towards people or situations.
I thank you that you would help us to embrace
all the fruits of the Holy Spirit,
which are love, joy, peace, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control, forbearance is in there somewhere.
I think it might've been one of those words I said,
but thank you, God, that you help us to walk
in those fruits and that we can be an example
of your goodness and your mercy
and your grace to those around us.
I thank you, Lord, that when we struggle
with doubt and unbelief, that we can say,
God, help my unbelief, that you.
You don't turn us away.
And I thank you that even as Erica was sharing earlier, you
never have an opinion that we have to have it all together.
I thank you that there's only one perfect one and his name is
Jesus Christ and I thank you that you are continuing to work
in us and move and shift things in us to help us to know what
is your good good and perfect plan for us.
I thank you that you didn't bring harm or destruction, but
you have a plan that's full of good things.
And I thank you that you're continuing to align us with all
of those things.
Yes, Lord y'all sometimes it just you know, like I feel like
I just see in the spirit like just the Lord has taken lies
and swiping them right off of minds tonight.
So just even for some of you.
I just want to encourage you just kind of like do that
motion like Lord.
Thank you for getting rid of the lies off my mind tonight.
Thank you for helping me to hear what your spirit is saying
help my heart to receive your truth.
There's a scripture that talks about stubborn stony hearts
hardened hearts and Lord help us.
It says to have a heart of flesh that's soft and pliable to
you.
Y'all know what creates stony hardened hearts.
It's pain.
It's pain and brokenness things that are not healed harm
that's been done to us.
And so by God's goodness and his grace, he's wanting to wipe
the slate clean.
Okay, he wants to give you a brand new start.
Wants to give you a brand new start and literally I know
this might shock you but your start now could cause you to
enter the scripture that talks about your latter years.
Might be greater than your former years.
I remember the first time I read that scripture years ago
and I that was another scripture.
I really clung to that because I had so much pain in my
childhood you all like even even still today.
I don't feel the pain of it.
But sometimes when I sit and think about and I write down
my timeline my family timeline like I'm just like it's crazy
that that was my life because now I just feel like that wasn't
I just feel like that wasn't my life because I'm living.
I feel like I live a completely different life now.
So just know that God can do that in you as well.
Michelle, you know what I need to look up.
I have I that scripture comes up in my spirit a lot.
I should know where that's at.
But the latter years are greater than the former years.
Somebody is really quick.
If you want to look that up for that us and put that in
the chat.
I will would really greatly appreciate that.
Okay, who am I?
I had we won't have time for four.
I probably have time for two who want?
Okay, Michelle.
Go ahead.
Is that the Michelle with two L's?
Yes, ma'am.
I didn't notice when she said Michelle with the one and I
was oh, sorry was talking about.
Okay.
So this is part of the one that I was going to share in the
first breakout and I never got to because I don't think I was
ready but I was able to share it with my new friend Jessica
in this group.
But one of the things I need to let go is the control of
my daughter and controlling her choices.
She's been making some poor decisions as a young 15 year
old.
She thinks she knows it all and I know the outcomes and I
know what's going to happen if she continues making these
choices and it terrifies me to the point of giving my I hold
the anxiety for her.
Yes, and I need to let it go.
I need to let it go because God has her in his hands.
And so that was one of the things that I keep it keeps it
was I was you had mentioned something today about you are
walking around the room praying and I was I was telling Jessica
I was like I this morning I was totally being attacked and
Satan was at me and my mind and it was because I did not do
my devotion this morning.
And so I had I didn't put on my armor and I was in a hot mess
this morning and I was like every morning I need to wake up
and I need to put on the armor because without that I am
defenseless.
Yeah.
I do.
I feel like to I want to remind you all because I feel that
way a lot to Michelle in the past more than even now.
I am more now.
It's just because man, I miss my Papa when I don't spend time
with him.
I love him.
I love spending time with the father.
I really do.
And in the past I used to be afraid that if and I'm not saying
this is what you were saying, but I just want to make sure.
Everybody knows this, that there's grace that covers us even on the days that we don't.
Okay.
Cause some of, some of y'all have grown up in a lot of religion and you have to pray
an hour, read an hour, like there's all these rules.
And if you don't do all these things, God, isn't going to be close to you and protect
you.
And I want to make sure that we're not, we're not agreeing with that because that's not
truth.
Okay.
So spend time with your father.
Yes.
Some seasons, I will say the season that I was describing earlier was a season I was
in that constant, like now I do believe when I get called into intercession, you all that's,
I tend to lean into those kinds of things a lot more where I'm reading the word, I'm
praying it out loud.
There's an intercession that starts to happen.
And I feel this call, like, I just got to pray.
I just got to pray.
And that is a difference than when it's my daily, do you understand what I'm getting
at here?
I just want to make sure when you, when you're saying that Michelle, that you don't feel
afraid that you're not protected.
If you don't spend time in your devotion, because you're protected because the love
of the father is with you.
I think it's, I don't think it was that I, I don't feel protected, but I felt weaker.
I felt weaker.
I didn't feel as strong because I, it, my mind was weak because I didn't have solid
truth to come up because I had been immediately in it.
I mean, I, as soon as I woke up, I was, I was immediately attacked because all I could
think about was what had happened the night before.
Okay.
Yeah.
And so this is really good.
As you were just saying that I almost feel like a life preserver.
It's like a life preserver right now being thrown to you.
Like you really, it's like a lifeline to you.
You need it.
You have to have it like an IV intravenous and want to encourage you.
And when you said holding anxiety for her, so it's interesting.
My my spiritual daughters are both not making great choices right now.
And so I really related to what you said.
And I can't tell you how many times I'm sitting and thinking, like, if they continue on this
road, this could happen.
This could happen.
And that's where the what ifs all kick in.
Right.
And so even though I still have concern for those things, I've had to continue to remind
myself and tell the double this to God got me here through all of my mistakes, where
I am today.
Amen.
Yeah.
Just receive that.
Just receive that, sweetie, because God has your daughter too.
What's her name?
Just her first name.
Her name is Neveline, but she doesn't go by that.
Okay, that's all right.
God has her.
And at the end of the day, his love is greater for her than anything you could ever imagine
as deep as your love is for her.
And he's going to help her.
He's going to see her through one way or another.
And again, sometimes y'all in the physical realm, man, it's hard because we see with
our physical eyes, but I want to encourage you all if you if any of you are struggling
with anything similar, I want you to ask the father to give you his perspective.
Hey, give give you his perspective.
Help you to hear what is he saying?
This is something that God led me to do.
And I can't take credit for it.
I don't even remember where I read it, but I read it from a minister and he was saying
that he asked God for a word to speak over his child.
And he did literally not just scripture, but an actual like prophetic word that from heaven
to declare over his child.
And he started doing that.
Oh, I feel the Holy Spirit.
He started doing that.
And you know what you all that child started changing.
And and I'll tell you, I've tested this out and I've started seeing it some, but then
it was like it then the enemy just came back in.
But I'm still holding on to that.
But I asked for a word specifically for my older spiritual daughter.
And literally, I saw this vision of all this wisdom stuff, all these branches in life grown
up and out of her mind.
I feel the Holy Spirit.
I'm going to minister myself right now.
I don't even mean to you all.
She is battling her mental health more than ever.
And it's from brokenness from the things she's gone through.
But you know what?
I really do believe God got me through so much and he's held me and he's kept me and
he sustained me.
Even when I didn't.
live for him. So I believe, Neveline, Neveline. Yeah, I
believe that God is going to do the same for her and you'll see
you through to no matter what. No matter what. Thank you so
much for sharing and trusting us with what's going on. You're
welcome. All right, we're at 935. Take one more. I can take
one more. Susan, go ahead. Oh, you're muted, sweetie.
Okay, I think I've managed to do it. I have been in a season of
almost panic. I'm trying to prepare to go overseas. I'm
supposed to speak at a retreat there. I've got a bunch of
different things here that have to be done and finished. And
I've been finding myself going around in circles getting
absolutely nothing done, but trying so hard to control my
circumstances that I I'm not sleeping well at night, just
different things going on. So hard cry has been out to the
Lord. What do I do with this? And I had a dream the other
night. And the dream was, I was in charge of a wildlife park
with elephants and lions and zebras, that sort of thing.
Like a zoo. And I'm trying to get away. And this other person
called Kristen is trying to get me to to go just don't worry
about it. And I keep turning around and saying, Oh, but if
this happens with the lions, this is what you have to do.
Don't worry, I've got this, you just go get out of town, you
need to go rest. And I say, Oh, but I know the zebra have to
have this on certain certain days. And you need to apply
that. For that situation, just get out of town, go, I'm telling
you to go. Anyway, what was crazy in the dream was Kristen
was me, it was looked like me, it was identical to me. And I
noticed that my dream kind of quit. And I thought, well, what
was that all about? And as I was praying and pondering about it,
I suddenly had this picture across my mind. And it wasn't
Kristen, it was Christ in it is ch ri st in me. And it was like
there was an almost immediate release of, oh, it's Christ in
me has been telling me to stop and just get your mind into
perfect peace. Stay on, get your mind on me. I'll take care of
these details that you've been panicking about. And if you
quit panicking about it, you'll get these things done. And trying
to prepare for this retreat. I don't know how many times I've
written and rewritten and rewritten and rewritten. And
it's like, I just want to burn it all and start all over
again. And that got me to such a place of peace. I've had some
really sweet days with the Lord the last three days, but it's,
it's been that trying to control it and get it all in my hand and
fixed. That's been got me in circles. So
I can relate to what you shared so much, Susan, I tend to stress
a lot when I have big events coming before our move. I just a
lot I wasn't sleeping. So that can tend to make it worse. So
I'm so glad you have that breakthrough. It is find me
caught falling you all I just looked it up as she was sharing
too. But Susan, I'm so glad that you had that dream and you had
the revelation of what God was saying to you in that something
that stood out to me as well. Zebras are black and white, you
all they're light and dark, good and good and evil. Okay. So
I just feel like also the Lord is reminding you that no matter
what you face light nor dark, that he is in you. He's in you,
he is with you the same power that rose Jesus Christ from the
dead, you all is living in us and it can operate through us
every day. So that tangible piece that we need, y'all
sometimes we just need to reach up, search up, look up, but also
inside. Because he's in you. He's in you and he's with you
and he's gone before you so all the details will come together
is going to help you. And just believing that you all will
continue to receive his peace tonight. I really want to
encourage you all remember what I said, here's your one act
here. Here's one activation whoever wants to do it. I'll
give you all another one. I'm going to try to always give you
an activation every week. Hug yourself tonight. I'm serious.
Even if you don't put on any music, I want you just to lay
there and just what does it feel like to hug yourself and really
just like, God helped me to love myself more. Even if you don't
feel again, something tangible, but ask God, God helped me to
feel your love tonight while I lay here for a few minutes, set
a timer. And for some of you, it's gonna be real hard because
you're gonna want to do it for a second and get up when you set
a timer.
or for five minutes. I just want you to feel it. Some of y'all
need to cry and forgive yourselves. Some of y'all need
to just be kind to yourself and your thoughts. So think on
things that are good about yourself while you're laying
there. Receive God's love through your own thoughts
towards yourself. And here's your activation on on the fear
stuff. When fear comes at you this week, shoot, so I think
it's second Timothy, but the one that's, God has not given me a
spirit of fear, but he's given me a spirit of love and of power
and of a sound mind. I want you all to I want you all to
memorize that scripture this week. And every time fear comes
against you, I want you to remind yourself and the devil,
God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of love and of power
and of a sound mind. Let me look it up for you. Second
Timothy one verse seven, second Timothy one verse seven. Okay.
So your activations are hugging yourself, loving on yourself for
five minutes, setting a timer, doing it and tell us about it in
the group. I want to, some of y'all are going to have
supernatural breakthrough doing this. Come in and tell us how
did it go? Even if it felt awkward, feels awkward. I want,
I just want you to talk about it with each other. And then as
you face fears this week, memorize that scripture, have it
in your kind of like your back pocket, if you were, well, God
has not given me a spirit of fear, but of love and of power
and of a sound mind. And just start talking and speaking to
the devil, you know, when I say that y'all don't pay too much
attention to the devil, but it's just the reality you're telling
him where to go. Like in Jesus name, God hasn't given me a
spirit. And I used to insert my name. Y'all I used to battle
fear, something terrible, fear of the dark massively to the
point that I would run up the stairs. I'm not joking. It was
bad. And the Lord told me like to slow down and not run in
every step. God has not given Bethany a spirit of fear, but
God has given Bethany a spirit of love and of power and of a
sound mind. And I would just do that over and over and over
until God set me free. So God is going to do that for you as
well. Let me pray for you, father. Thank you so much for
your goodness, for your grace. Thank you for, for setting us
free in ways that we don't even realize it right now. Thank you
Lord for illuminating areas where we need to let go of
control, where we need to surrender supernaturally to you
and to trust that we are God defended that you have our back
and we never face life alone. I thank you that you go before us
this week. I thank you that you've provided the armor of
God, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the
readiness of the gospel piece, the helmet of salvation, the
breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the spirit, the
shield of faith. And I thank you that your glory is our rear
guard. I thank you that you've hedged us in that your love is
enough for us. I thank you that you'll help us to become more
rooted and grounded in the understanding and revelation of
your love. That's unconditional for us. Help us to receive it in
a fresh way this week in Jesus name. God bless you all. Have an
amazing night. Have a great day. Night. I'm sorry. Have a great
night. I'll see y'all in the group. That's what I meant to
say.