All right, welcome, welcome, welcome.
Power hour, here we are.
It's one of my favorite times, getting together with you sisters and our time to grow, to
discover the promises of God, the word of God, the principles of God, and pray together.
And I don't know, every week that I get to see you on Wednesdays, I love you guys even
more.
And for those of you that couldn't make it, we are praying for you.
Michelle is taking her mom into surgery, so pray for Michelle.
And Elen is in physical therapy.
And so for the ones that are not here, Linda said she was going to be here.
We'll be praying for the ones that are not here.
And for those of you that are here, just what a special blessing to gather together during
this time.
So we've been working through the PROSPER framework, P-R-O-S-P-E-R, here in Power Hour.
And then we deepen it in the Pressure to Partnership, right?
And then we apply it during office hours.
So three chances.
And so if you're following along where we are in the PROSPER system in the Total Soul
Prosperity book, this is chapter four that is simplify, creating space for what really,
really matters.
And so that's what our promises are going to be based on.
And I think this is such, you know, as everything tries to crowd in on us, it's understanding
that often the enemy doesn't take us out by doing bad things.
He takes us out by overcrowding our life with good things that we don't have enough time
for the one thing, right?
We don't have enough time.
And so the relationship gets crowded.
So this is S in the PROSPER system, which is simplify, creating space for what matters
most.
So our core promises, there's a few of them today and a few verses.
Some of them I'm going to bring back that we've done because they really reinforce this.
And I don't think we can hear the word too often.
And it shows how the verses apply in so many conditions.
So we're going to start in Luke 10 and verses 38 to 42.
And there's just a principle, and you've heard this story, but I want to go a little deeper.
Pretend you've never heard this story, right?
It's the story of Martha and Mary.
And so come with an empty cup and see what you see that is fresh today that you haven't
seen.
So who can read Luke 10, 38 to 42?
And tell me what translation you are reading from.
Friend, I have the NIV.
Great.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha,
that would be transcribed to me, by the way, opened her home to him.
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said.
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the
work by myself?
Tell her to help me.
Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you're worried and upset about many things, but few
things are needed, or indeed only one.
Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.
I used to always hear the Lord call me Martha, Martha.
And I am more of a Mary now, just saying less, but yeah, I get this.
Yay.
Somebody want to read it in a different translation?
Who's got a different translation?
Anybody have a different?
That was the NIV.
Yeah, I can do a modern English version for this one.
Okay.
As they went, he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus's feet and listened to his teaching.
But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came to him and said,
Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me.
Jesus answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.
Thank you. Thank you.
So, Martha, Martha, you're in trouble when he says your name twice, right?
You're worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed, only one.
Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.
Let's just pause here for just a second.
Martha was not doing something evil.
She was not being a bad person.
She was not doing something wrong.
She's serving.
She's working.
She's trying to be responsible, right?
She's trying to make things happen.
And that's why this story is really important for us,
because so many women are not distracted by obviously bad things.
Same as Mary.
You know, Martha was not corrected because she was working or because she was serving.
He was bringing to her attention she was worried.
She was upset.
She was anxious.
She was pulled from presence.
She was pulled from the partnership that we're talking about.
She was distracted, it said.
So, the issue is not the activity.
The issue is the anxiety.
Yes, Colette says the parts that jumped out at me were the words distracted.
Me too.
That was the word I heard, distracted.
And Jesus said, only a few things are needed.
Even one.
And that's really the promise that we glean from this,
that when we choose the one thing, everything else will fall into place.
Everything else.
So, Mary, on the contrary, Mary chose presence.
I love that word.
I'm thinking so much about when it says that Mary chose the good thing
and it will not be taken from her.
What did Mary choose?
She chose to be fully present.
That word presence, like we think about it like God's presence
and I want God's presence so much.
But you know, also the greatest gift we can give is our presence.
To be aware of the gifts and the people in the room
and give them our presence.
To smile.
For those of you that are married or have a partner,
I talk to women who have husbands.
How often do you ever just look at him and just smile?
It's the greatest gift you can give a man.
It's your presence.
Your children.
How often do you just give them your presence, right?
We forget to be present.
And Mary chose to be fully present.
Mary was present. And she was soaking in the presence. Just
think about that being fully in the moment being present and
soaking in the presence. She was attentive, she was listening.
She was focusing, she was giving her heart. You have that the
King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, infinite love, infinite
mercy in the room. It's a good time to stop thinking about
sandwiches, and what needs to be done in the messy kitchen, and
all the responsibilities and the long list. And take time for
the one thing that matters. What matters more than God's presence?
What matters more than capturing his heart? What
matters more than tapping into the mind of Christ? What matters
more? And yet we put everything above that. And so notice a
supporting text. We've done it before, which is Matthew 633.
Matthew 633 is a supporting text. We've done it already.
Seek first, the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all
these things will be added. Now, what are all these things? When
you look at the verses before the context, they were worried
about what are they going to eat? What are they going to
drink? They were worried about their daily needs. They were
worried how they were going to pay their bills. And Jesus also
is talking about the one thing here, seek first, the kingdom of
God, and all these things. So notice that there's a divine
order. Notice that there's a divine order. Seek first. Seek
first. I have to let Natalie in. I don't know how long I
left her in the waiting room. So if you guys see someone in the
waiting room, let me know. I'm sorry, Natalie. I get going and
I didn't see you in there.
I know. That's what I said. I said she she on a roll. She'll
see me eventually.
Thank you for your patience.
I didn't I wasn't offended.
Yeah, yeah, thank you. So, so, so, so Jesus is talking to
Martha and Mary, and saying, you have need, you're anxious,
you're distracted, you have need of one thing, Mary has chosen a
better thing. And so Mary chose to be present and absorb the
presence. And then in Matthew 633, same thing, you've got
people worried and distracted. What are we going to eat? What
are we going to drink? How are we going to pay the bills?
There's, there's many things crowding the mind. And Jesus
says, seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things will be added. So what you see there is a divine
order. Seek first, not the inbox, not the emails, not the
things that have to be done. Seek first, the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, all these things will be added. So when
we're talking about simplifying and, and making space, we're
we're looking at a divine order. Another one we've done that
really supports this is John 15. Right? John 15, we've been
talking about remain in me, right? We've been talking about
the branches and, and the vine and the branches and being
vitally connected. You see, fruit, or flowers, my cactus
bloomed, my mama cactus bloomed again yesterday, I'll probably
post some pictures later, most stunning, huge purple flowers.
And she's my mama, I've had her for, I don't know, probably 15
years. She's she's a gift from a land actually. And she's old,
she's tired, she's leaning over, she's lost a lot of color.
She's had a lot of babies over all the years, you know, but
she's still blooming, beautiful blossom. And
You know, what I know about mama is she's not striving to bloom.
Fruit doesn't strive to produce.
It's a natural part of that connection.
And so no matter how we're looking at it,
it's about this connection.
And so John 15, 4 and 5 says, remain in me.
I'll remain in you.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
So the promise for today, if we were going to summarize this,
is that when I make room for the one thing,
when I prioritize the one thing, God brings order, divine order.
And so with the order comes peace, comes clarity,
comes fruitfulness for the many things.
It's not that the many things go away,
but there's a divine order.
There's a divine prioritization.
And so simplifying isn't just about removing things
from your schedule.
Yes, there are those things that we need to look at.
And in the book, I teach you the strategy
that I've used all these years to do that.
I teach the four Ds.
But simplifying isn't just about removing things
from your schedule.
It's about divine order.
God is not a God of confusion.
1 Corinthians 14, 33 says, God is not a God of disorder,
but of peace.
And so when there's constant chaos,
when there's overcommitment, when there's that confusion,
that pressure that we've been talking about,
we're talking about tomorrow, from pressure to partnership,
when there's that constant sense of anxiety, which, by the way,
becomes a physical thing that gets in our cells
and becomes a memory pattern in our cells
that stress and chaos become normal to us.
And so we have to be aware of this
and reverse and bring back this divine order
and stop the scurrying and all of this.
You see, the enemy doesn't have to destroy your calling.
He can just overcrowd it.
That'll keep you off.
That'll keep it.
He could just overcrowd it, filling every space
with something urgent.
There's urgent tasks and urgent emails and urgent needs
and urgent opportunities and urgent emotions.
And it's this urgency.
If any of you, and you could go back and study it,
it's one of the classic books, Stephen Covey, when he wrote.
And when he did the chart, and that's
such a powerful chart of the urgent and the important
and being able to distinguish.
It's just a really powerful thing
to think about, how much of the important am I doing
and how much am I driven by the urgent
so that there's no room left for the quiet voice of God,
right?
And I often think about Jesus when he came to Earth,
like invaded our atmosphere, infinite, infinite love,
pure love, infinite wisdom, pure wisdom, infinite goodness,
infinite mercy, like the best, the King of Kings,
the Lord of Lords, descended and came to Earth
with all his glory.
And yet, there's such a powerful verse
that says there was no room at the inn.
There was no room at the inn.
There was no room for his glory.
And I always think about that.
I think it's such a metaphor for life
that we can live our life with no room for his word,
no room for his presence, no room for his power,
no room for his glory, no room.
We're just like little ants.
If you ever watch ants, and they're just like, go, go, go,
go, go.
And we're not ants.
We're not grasshoppers.
We're made in his image, and we're
made for this partnership.
We're made to sit in his presence.
We're made to soak.
Those that are led by the spirit are
the sons and daughters of God.
And so there was no room at the end,
just like the world right now is too full
to make room for his glory.
And so we look at our life,
where is my life too full for his glory?
Where's my schedule too crowded
that I can't sit at his feet?
Where's my mind so noisy I can't hear his whisper?
Where's my business so complicated
I can't even figure out the next step?
Where's my heart so full of obligation
I don't have time for the joy of obedience?
And so Mary or Martha, right?
Martha was doing many things.
Mary chose one thing.
Martha was worried and upset, stressed out, anxious.
And Mary was present, soaking, receiving.
Martha's asking Jesus to correct Mary,
to tell her to change.
And Jesus corrected Martha's pressure.
That's important, that's important.
When we're operating under pressure,
we often ask God to change everyone and everything else.
Lord, make them help me.
Lord, make them understand.
Lord, make life easier.
Lord, fix the circumstances.
And sometimes Jesus just lovingly says,
daughter, you're worried about many things,
but you have need of one.
Come back to the one thing.
So like I said, in my book,
I teach the four Ds, go over those,
about deleting, delegating, delaying, doing.
It doesn't need to be this.
There is a way to make space and simplify for that,
which is most important.
Let's do a quiet reflection and prayer.
But before we do, let's just talk real quick.
Well, let's do a reflection,
and then let's talk, and then let's pray.
So just take a deep breath for a second
and just put your feet on the floor.
Close your eyes if that's comfortable.
And just ask the Lord,
Lord, what is crowding out the one thing?
What's crowding out the one thing?
In my schedule, what is taking space
that's not producing fruit?
You know, you can get in the Prosper Membership.
You can do the time audit, the Prosper Time Audit.
And that's one of the things we look at.
What's in my schedule that's taking space
that's not producing fruit?
What is taking up space in your schedule
that's not producing fruit?
In my mind, in my mind,
what thought or concern is taking up real estate?
It's constantly occupying.
What thought or concern is holding way too much real estate?
Taking up space.
In my business or work,
what am I doing from pressure instead of from partnership?
Where did I leave Jesus' feet in my business
and just think I've got to scurry around
making sandwiches in my business?
My job.
And now write this sentence.
This week, I sense God inviting me to make room by releasing blank.
I love that, Christine.
Your mama cactus is delighting herself in the Lord.
I just get so excited when flowers flower in my garden.
I just get so excited.
Okay, let's have a conversation and let's pray.
What's God showing you?
What's coming up for you?
I can share, Brenda.
Yeah.
What's coming up with me is to let go of my own expectations, my own thoughts, my own ways.
So good.
Love that, Amanda.
I love that.
These self-made expectations.
I talk about that in my book.
The Slave Woman sets these unrealistic expectations, right?
So good.
Yeah.
And those torture us.
It's not even what God is asking.
It's our own, right?
You know, I talk about the Slave Woman in my book and coming out of the dysfunction
that I came out of, I made these inner vows.
And this is where I talk about the Slave Woman.
And I made this decision.
I wasn't going to have a family like this, right?
Because the addictions and dysfunction and violence and all that.
And so you don't even know.
It's a little six, seven, eight-year-old mind.
You don't even know you're making these vows.
But already I was setting these expectations that I would not have a family like this.
And I would be the perfect wife.
And I would be the perfect mother, right?
And then, of course, at 17, when I found the Lord, I added, I will be a perfect Christian,
right?
And then, you know, my passion for health.
I will have the perfect body.
And so, Amanda, this is just a recipe for, yeah, striving, separation, frustration, what
Jesus was saying to Martha, right?
You're worried.
You're distracted by many things.
And all those things are good things.
And they will all come when we seek first the kingdom of God.
All those things are added to us in the divine order.
All those things come with peace.
You can have a beautiful marriage.
You can have a beautiful body.
You can have financial freedom with peace.
So it's such an amazing thing.
You can get what it is that you desire, but from a totally different perspective.
Who else?
I'd love to see.
Here, what else is coming up for you?
What's the Lord showing you?
Is there something new that just was fresh today?
Is there some fresh manna for you today?
I think for me, it's just being, just being in gratitude and peace during the wait.
Because patience has always been not my virtue.
Yeah.
And I think we can all relate to that to some degree, but I think just waiting on him.
Yeah.
And just, and just centering that, the peace around that and, and, and really taking in.
and Tory of what that looks like.
It's funny that you say that Kim,
cause the last two days I've been reflecting on patience
and it's my growing virtue.
It's still growing, right?
And I was thinking of this morning
as I was blowing out my hair
and it just hit me about patience.
So it's funny you say that.
And I thought, wow, I wonder what kind of patients
if I think about Moses, he had 40 years in the palace
and then he had 40 years taking care of sheep with Jethro.
And then he had 40 years of trying to lead these people
through everything he had to have patience with.
Like, I wonder like what he felt about patience.
And then I started going through different Bible characters
and thinking about, you know,
it's like, we're such a microwave society
and even the microwave's not fast enough, right?
You know, old fashioned and letting a teapot boil
is like forever, right?
And so we've gotten so used to and it's only speeding.
You know, we're gonna expect more and more of that.
You know, we don't wait for a package in the mail for a week
Amazon delivers same day
and we don't wait for answers going to the library
and searching them out.
You know, AI delivers it instantaneously.
And so we have that kind of expectation
that our life will fix itself instantaneous
like the push of, you know, an AI button, right?
So, and yet we've talked so much about capacity
and the beauty of capacity that comes in the waiting.
Our ability to receive actually enlarges in that.
You know, Brenda, I wanted to,
you know, in your Prosper Daily Planner,
how you chunk things in 20 minute segments.
I was looking at an article on, you know,
how to improve vision.
And it's very interesting
cause it's more than just about that.
It was talking about the 20, 20, 20 rule.
And I don't know, maybe some of you have seen that
but talking about every 20 minutes,
just like when you, every 20 minutes look afar.
So look past everything you're doing for, you know,
for at least 20 feet, for at least 20 seconds.
And I thought of you first about that because I'm like,
oh, Brenda's always talking about that 20 minute rule,
you know, too, that sometimes we get very intent
on the thing that we're doing.
And I think that can also be a distraction too,
even though it may be a good thing, if that makes sense.
And it really hit home with me yesterday.
I'm like, gosh, I have to share this today
because I think that when we look past our circumstance
and we're so intent on that and it can be good
or it can be distracting.
But when we look past that, we can see the far vision,
like, you know, and just being able to take
that little bit of time, it, you know, reactivates,
it resets our reactivating, you know, system, right?
So I just had to share that.
Yeah, I'm glad that you're sharing that, that's beautiful.
And it's that incredible contrast that you're sharing.
So without vision, the people perish.
So we look out, I'd like to think of 20 years from now,
right, and so I look at that,
like if everything just is fulfilled 20 years,
this is what it looks like, right?
And then what can I do in this 20 minutes
to boldly advance in the direction of those goals,
dreams and desires?
What's the tangible thing I can do right here?
Because either one can become a trap.
We can be so lost in the vision that it feels so far away
and so overwhelming that we can't even imagine it
and we give up because it's just seems so far away
or we can get so in the minutiae, right?
Yes, Kim's mentioning The Gap and The Gain,
a really great book by Dr. Benjamin Hardy,
The Gap and The Gain.
And that's also a really good perspective
that we're talking about here
because one way of looking at life
is that there's this huge gap,
like it just feels so far away to get to that vision
and the gap just feels too hard,
too expensive, too time-consuming,
too, there's just this huge gap.
And if we look at it from where we're trying to get,
it can feel overwhelming.
The gain is if we look at how far we've come,
how much has changed in the last 20 years.
last year and the last five years.
And that's really encouraging.
And those of us, like Amanda was mentioning,
those of us that just set these high, high expectations,
it's like you accomplish something
and you don't even give yourself credit.
It's not even important.
And what's next?
I got it.
And what else?
And it feels like it was like nothing.
And you pause.
I will have a day where I'll just go, what a wasted day.
Like, I didn't accomplish anything today.
Literally, I'll be beating myself up.
This is a real true story, right?
And I'll just be like, I didn't accomplish anything today.
And then I'll be like, did you spend time with the Lord?
Yeah.
Did you go for a walk and take your dog for a walk
and just enjoy the fresh air?
And did you talk to God on the walk?
Yeah.
Did you?
And I'll start going through.
And it's like, this wasn't a waste of a day.
You did a lot.
But it didn't feel like all your expectations set, right?
That's where I relate to you, Amanda.
So it didn't feel like I was doing anything, right?
So yeah, the gap and the gain.
And in the gap and the gain, some of the stories
that they share is exactly that, where
people of considerable wealth that he interviewed,
that they had met all these expectations one
level after another, but they still
felt that it wasn't enough.
Because they were continuing to live in the gap.
Yes.
And they weren't seeing the gain in their life.
Yes.
I mean, that is so instrumental to me
that you have to go back to seeing the things
that you've done today.
Because most of the time, we do way more than we even
give ourselves credit.
Exactly.
You're not taking on the wins.
Exactly.
And I love that that was one of the additions
to your Prosper book.
At the end of the day, to count our blessings,
to count our wins, because that really, we sleep better.
It changes the circadian rhythm.
Like all these great things come into play.
Yes.
So if you don't know, Kim is referring to the Prosper Daily
Planner.
You can get this on Amazon.
And so there is the morning routine.
There's breaking down to the 20-minute chunks.
And there's even the evening routine.
And even down to writing down what you wore, it's all in.
These two pages, a Prosper Daily Planner
day keeps the squirrels away.
This is a way of focusing on the one thing.
Because you're deciding that one thing in advance.
And you're making sure that's the one thing that you do.
And of course, you're starting with the morning
spiritual practice.
Awesome.
Thank you for the feedback.
And let's make sure we have plenty of time to pray.
So let's go into prayer right now,
remembering the prayer requests that people have asked for.
And just asking God to bring us back to the one thing.
So everybody can pray, and I'll bring us to a close.
Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Lord,
for this gathering of these beautiful women, Lord,
that we are learning more about you, that we are growing,
and that we are enduring your wisdom, Lord.
And we just ask you, Lord, to remember, God,
that you are our main source, Lord,
and that the enemy is trying to keep us distracted, Lord,
and just let us just really come back and reflect on you,
God, and be in your presence, Lord.
Let us seek you first, Heavenly Father.
Let us soak in your presence, Heavenly Father,
and to really come back to what matters the most, Lord.
We just ask you, Lord, to continue to pray
over all of our sisters, Lord,
and their healing, Heavenly Father.
We just ask you, Lord, to be with my dad
in this situation that he's going through, God,
in the hospital, Lord.
And we just ask you, Lord, to give us guidance
and the best wise decision, Lord,
of what is best for him, God.
Just give us that comfort and that peace, Lord,
in this situation, God.
If it's meant to be to have a nurse, Lord,
to be able to come to his house.
daily, Lord, and have that 24-hour care. Let that insurance be able to cover it, Lord. If it isn't,
Lord, then let us find a way. Let me be able to go there and to help out Heavenly Father
and just give him the strength that he needs, Lord, to be able to conquer this surgery that
he has coming up, Lord. We just ask you, Lord, to be with Kim's mom in this time, Lord, and
just really just keep on giving her the strength that she needs to endure daily, Lord,
and the comfort and the strength for Kim, Lord, too, in this season that she is going through,
Lord. We just ask you, Lord, to be with Christine's friend, Christina, and her friend
that for her loss, Lord, and just her comfort that she is going through right now, and just
give her peace, Lord, through this situation. We ask you, Lord, to lift your healing hands, too,
to Helene and continue to heal her in her physical therapy, Lord. And we just
to ask you, God, to continue to surround us with your love and with your presence. In Jesus' name,
amen.
Lord, thank you for this opportunity once again to be with my sisters in your presence.
Thank you for all the Holy Spirit nuggets that have touched every one of us today through the
teaching, and let us implement more Mary versus Martha and be with every single one of the ladies
here and on the replay. Fill them with that peace that surpasses all understanding that only
you can give us. There's no other greater comfort in this world than that peace that you give us,
and please shine your face upon every single one of us in our circumstances.
Let us reorganize our days around your priorities, because we are here to be the hands and feet of
Jesus and to be used for your kingdom work. Lord, let your priorities become our priorities,
and that we may be able to make the moves that further your agenda versus our own.
You have put these desires in our heart, and we know that they will come into fruition,
but there's an order to it all, and we want to get away from the chaos
and step into the peace. Thank you. We love you so much. We praise and worship your name on high. Amen.
you
Father, we thank you for your word today.
I pray you just cover us,
blanket us with your love,
with your word,
with this truth that you'll be continually on our mind, continually in our mouth, continually in our heart,
that we will seek you first.
We will seek you first.
You've told us that the first fruit
Belongs to you
So Lord, let us just start
by making sure
that the first fruit
The first fruit of our morning
You've been teaching me from the moment I open my eyes before I get out of bed
That my mind is fixed on you
You've been teaching me to go outside barefoot in the grass and
Talk to you first thing in the morning move my body first thing in the morning
You've been teaching me to redeem the time
You've said redeem the time because the days are evil you've been teaching me to redeem the time
That when I'm getting ready, I'm listening to your word I'm listening to your music
When I'm doing things in the kitchen, I'm bringing your word with me into the kitchen
I'm just to to continuously give you first place
In our mind and in our heart and
First place
To hear your word and to receive divine direction
Lord I pray that will be a people
That they'll know you that they'll know we're followers of you
By our love
By our joy by our peace by our light
Help us Lord
To learn to be both present and to soak up your presence
We just invite your presence even right now Lord to minister to every single person
Listening to this live and to the recording
We just invite your sweet presence right now
Your healing presence you are the healer of the broken-hearted
So for people like Christina and and all the ones that have lost or are losing
loved ones be it through
Alzheimer's or through cancer or through all this stuff that's going on
Father God you are
perfect peace
You are the healer. Let your presence flood
Let your presence be first and foremost guard our heart guard our mind
You've said and I say at 26 3 that if we keep our mind fixed on you you give us perfect peace
Lord, I ask for perfect peace for everyone listening. I
Asked that we use our God-given ability to choose
To choose you first and foremost moment by moment in every decision
We honor you we worship you we love you
Thank you
Thank you Lord in Jesus name
Amen
So good to
to gather
Together with you sisters. We're gonna go deep tomorrow in
From pressure to partnership, so we'll see you there and of course in office hours
We're gonna apply it to your business. So we'll see you there
Lots and lots of love appreciate you so much
God bless