I'm trying to see where y'all are going to be able to see me.
off my grandmother's pine tree for the hair and all that. So then I trace my little muddy self,
my, my pants are all muddy now. My, my, my shoes are all kicked in mud. So I trace back into the
house, you know, create, create this muddy track all the way into the bathroom and clean myself
off. And, but that was, of course, after I'd been walking around a little bit longer in the,
in the, my bare feet in the snow, in the yard to finish this doggone snowman. And,
anyway, so I had, I had a lot of fun, took pictures with it, put my arm around it,
take a picture. I had myself a good time. All by myself. Yeah, really? All by myself,
just me and the Lord. I was telling the Lord, Lord, this is so much fun. You knew that this
winter I was just on my heart to build a snowball. And so I made a snowball and I thought,
wait a minute, I can make a snowman. So then I made the whole snowman. Anyway, it was a lot of
fun, but the snow will probably all be gone by tomorrow, like mid morning, something like that.
So, cause it's almost all gone now. So then I had to clean up the bathroom and the floor,
totally worth it. Totally worth it. So much fun.
It's so funny. That's so funny that you say that because I was like in the exact same position as
you, but it was tobogganing instead of building a snowman. Oh, how fun. Oh, I love sledding.
I haven't tobogganed in like, like you said, like decades, right? Since I was a little kid. And it
was so funny cause my daughter and I went to the park, a park we've never been to. I didn't even
know there was a hill there and it was hidden. And then all of a sudden we saw a skate park
nearby. So I'm like, Oh, do you want to see what a skate park looks like? So we went to the skate
park and then I noticed the hill all the way there. And I went, Oh, it's too bad. We don't
still have that toboggan. My husband put it at the side of the road thinking we didn't need it.
So someone took it for free. I thought, I wish we still had that little red toboggan. We walk
over to the skate park and there's a red toboggan there that looks exactly the same as ours,
except there's like a hole in it. That's about this big. So it still works, but there's like a
big hole in it, right? It got cracked. So I'm like, well, whatever we took it over to the
hill. And my daughter had never been tobogganing and it was pure ice, pure ice. So we're like,
Oh my gosh. So I go down, she goes down, we are having a blast. She's like totally loving it
cause she's never done it before. We met this family, they had better toboggan. So they let
us use their toboggans, but it was, it was so funny, right? Cause you just end up being like
a kid again. And it's this amazing feeling of just enjoying something like nature, right? That way,
which is not probably few and far between with snow, especially in Texas, right?
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So you've probably been seeing on Facebook with your friends that are in the South,
you know, we're not used to seeing well, Lubbock will have snow periodically. That's where I,
where I am. Lubbock will have snow and maybe, maybe, maybe like two, at least once a year,
usually sometimes twice, but it usually isn't very much. It's just like a couple inches.
So the fact that we got six inches was just so much fun anyway, but I wasn't here for the big
thing. I was, Dallas didn't hardly got anything, all just little girls. They just kind of like
went outside and like licked it out of the air. There just was not much to collect.
Well, by the time they actually collected any snow that was there
to collect, it turned immediately to ice. So they had a couple of ice balls.
That was fun to toboggan on though. If you guys haven't sled, sledding on ice is quite fun.
Yeah, that sounds super fast.
Oh, so hey Steph. Hey Amy. Hey.
Okay. So what? Long time no see. It seems like I know.
Missed y'all too.
It's nice. So that I think we're pretty much back on a schedule again, but you know,
have a rest impact again next week. So we'll have to move this time again, but
I wish that I knew it was the best time for everybody overall. I mean, I hate for it to go
so late as from 10 to 11 Eastern, but if we go earlier, I don't know that I'm trying to figure
out which is the one that most people are likely to be able to make it. I know it's not,
I know it's not perfect, but if I'm doing a rest impact five days and only doing this one day,
it's best if I do the rest impact during this time. So anyway, I wish there was something
just a little more perfect that made me feel better.
So does anyone have anything to start us off with?
Well, if nobody else is going to go, I'll kind of like share a little bit about, you know, I'm kind of in this space right now where I had this client who went into my program for three weeks and decided all of a sudden that she was going to threaten me that if I
charged her any more money she was going to, she's already been able to seek legal counsel and she wants no more money taken out. So, I, and it was shocking because she was never like that and she had experienced some amazing things in the first
three weeks of the program and then she just decided to kind of cut and run.
So, I think where I'm at right now with it is,
I know God's my protection and my provision. I know I don't need her financial investment.
I'm sad because I feel like, you know, she was getting something really amazing from the program and I could see that and then all of a sudden it was like the fear set in and now she wants to run.
I've tried really hard not to make it about me and something being wrong with me or something being wrong with my program, which is hard because when you put your heart and soul into something and then somebody experiences them then they're like, well, this wasn't what I was told it was going to be or something along those lines.
So, I know it's probably not about me and I know God's my provision.
And there's like this feeling deep down where I had a call with another potential client the other night and I just, I was so flat. I wasn't enthusiastic, I wasn't excited.
I was in this space of, well, if this girl's going to, you know, run away after three weeks, what if this person does too? So, I don't know if I want to even like put the effort and energy in if someone's just going to walk away.
It was a weird feeling, you know, and I will put the effort and energy and I'm doing a five-day intensive this week and I'm putting so much effort and energy into that.
And I love serving and I love, you know, giving back but it was just that phone call was like a really big awareness for me because I noticed that I didn't show up for this girl on the other end of the phone like I would have if I hadn't have experienced this situation with the other one.
I guess I'm just in this space of, I'm finishing my intensive tomorrow. Women have an opportunity to book a call with me if they want to explore working together in some way.
And I'm feeling like a bit of imposter syndrome, like if this girl's going to do it for three weeks and run away, then what is to say that someone else isn't going to feel the same way and is my program really that good? Am I really doing the Lord's work?
I ask myself all these questions and I get into like overanalyzing. So I guess I'm just looking for a little bit of wisdom on that, like how I can snap out of it a little bit and just be in a space of trust and love and contribution and it's not about me, but it's hard because I'm making it about me. It's just a weird feeling.
Yeah. Well, so this is another way in which it evidences the fact that we're looking at where we don't realize that we look at the results.
And as much as we actually do, in the fact that, well, what are these results saying? You know, what therefore does this mean? That, you know, I'm not able to show up for this other person because, and you're what it is that she needs.
In other words, you are the life giving spirit that you're bringing to the conversation. She can choose whether or not she wants to receive it, but that you're bringing a life giving spirit.
And if that life giving spirit isn't being brought, there's your own oxygen mask that needs to be put back on.
So in other words, getting back with the Lord where it's no longer about the results, the results aren't, you being a life giving spirit is not always going to, how can I word this? Sorry.
I knew very clearly how I was going to word it. And then, and then I, when you were talking and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, it's my turn. And all of a sudden I'm like, how was I going to word that?
Where, in other words, where it's, well, you know, can I, you know, that imposter syndrome, you know, that you were talking about where it's like, well, wait a minute.
Do I have what it takes? Do I have what it is that they need? You know, this is how they're responding. Maybe this is saying something about me.
Maybe this is saying something about where it is that I'm pulling my source from.
Maybe it means it's, it's stopping.
It's understanding that God is responsible for the results.
Any type of interaction that we have in life, we turn around and we get up and wake up in
the morning.
There's risk.
When we're asleep, there's risk because people die in their sleep, right?
There's just risk.
We just live in risk all of the time.
So when we're interacting with another human being, there's going to be risk too.
We don't know what they're going to do.
We don't know if they're going to act just like the other person or not.
So God is responsible for the results.
We're just responsible for, for being, um, choosing that God is who he says that he is
and that we are who he says that we are.
And then interacting in the life from that place as opposed to, well, what are these
results telling me?
We can't look at the results to tell us anything.
We're supposed to tell the results what they're supposed to be.
Now, God, yes, God creates the results and he, um, I mean, we do it with him, but he's
responsible for the results, but our partnership with him will end up, our spirits will end
up manifesting in the particular results, but they don't tell us something.
We create them.
They don't create, describe, or define us.
Um, so it's another way in which we can actually see we are elevating results to a higher position
than they actually have and giving them a meaning than they actually have in the fact
that we're looking at them at all.
Um, so, um, anyway, it's, it's, um, yeah, yeah.
There's more I could say about it.
There we go.
So does, does that make sense?
It's still another aspect of, of we're thinking that somehow there's a protection, there's
a provision, there's a, there's a something that we're responsible for it creating, because
if it doesn't look a particular way, then it's not, then something's wrong, may not
be anything wrong, nothing whatsoever, because the responsibility is not in us creating a
business that works a particular way, a ministry that operates in a particular way.
And then that, um, that there, yeah.
And that the, you're always going to get a guaranteed type of results.
It's no, my whole point in life is I am, was created out of relationship with the Lord.
And then God created earth and put me on it in order to manifest who it is that we are
down into it, not to get a particular results.
The result will take care of itself.
If we, if we stay in relationship with him, cause it will automatically manifest itself
and it can't help itself.
Remember that what we're talking about in the rest intensive is getting out is, is releasing
is letting go.
It's not doing something because it's all automatically, everything is in line to, to
just fall into place.
It's, it's going to operate.
As soon as we let go, everything's going to operate according to the principles that God
set in motion, including the manifestation of who it is that we are.
Um, in, in spirit, we don't have to try to make any of it happen.
We have to stop trying.
We have to get our hands out of the pie.
So.
Yeah.
My word for 2021 is release.
And I feel like this is a great opportunity for me to release it.
And I'm also, I mean, there is a part of me and I can, I'll be gut level honest.
There's a part of me that's like, I'm investing a lot of money into this business.
And I really would like to get to a point where I'm making enough money at it that I
can quit my teaching job and start doing this full time.
And so I know that's all in God's timing, but it's like, I'm, I think I'm looking at
the money as like the freedom of being able to do this all the time, instead of having
to like pull myself in so many different directions.
And I don't know.
I just, I want to be able to release the outcome.
And yet I'm tied to the outcome because the outcome to me represents the life that I want.
You know, exactly.
So, so you actually said what I was going to say that freedom, if I actually answered
Alicia's post that she made yesterday while I was traveling, sorry, Alicia, it took me
a while to get back to you.
And I commented on it today.
And in it, I talked about what freedom actually is.
And freedom is not the absence of uncomfortable situations or situations that we don't want
to be in.
It's understanding that we're not threatened by whatever situation that we're in.
We can be in whatever situation and we're still free.
So the thing is that what it is that we have often done.
So, you know, I did this.
With when I first started out in business that are not for started out, but when I first when I when I wanted to change my business and I wanted to do it remote and all of this, I'm telling myself, well, I'm willing to give myself freedom.
I'm wanting to give them whatever the problem in the thing that the Lord just really had to had to work on me about was my death. I'm the one who defined what I thought freedom was.
And I needed him to match it.
And I needed him to his character to manifest in such a way that that freedom looked in my life the way that I had defined what freedom was, as opposed to submitting myself vulnerably to Lord going okay Lord, you say that I'm free.
I'm leaving it up to you to define what freedom looks like in my life.
And that's very hard. Trust me, because I have to live it. I am very aware of what it is that I'm telling you, because I'm in that situation, I have to do this too.
And there have been many times where I've wondered, you know, Lord, am I am I doing the right thing you know should I find it should I find a job should I, you know, whatever.
And in the, in the Lord justice, or I'll just be in a transition in in the ministry in the business I'm going, Okay, Lord, what does this. What are you doing this transition or what are you trying to say are you trying to say that my time doing this now
now need to look very different than what it's been looking like for the past several weeks to the past several months or whatever. And I really do have to release that I really have to have to surrender and I have to remember, he's the one that defines what freedom
looks like to me, and in freedom is not our environment and what type of circumstance or situation that we're in. It's the fact that nothing, we're not enslaved to anything no matter what our circumstance and situation is.
And once we realize that we suddenly don't care what our circumstance and situation or. I know that because I experienced it, because all of a sudden things that I wanted I no longer wanted once God gave them to me without having to change my circumstances.
And I was like, Oh, well, so I got it without having to move halfway across the world. I found it because I wanted to move to London.
And before I knew it, I just, I stopped focusing on London and I just started, it was still my dream that's still what I wanted to do, but I was just focused on what does the Lord, you know my gaining freedom from the enslavement that I was feeling inside
and just focusing on what it, you know, who does God say that he is and I will step out in that in my life, without even changing the things that I'm going to do, I'm just going to change, or in other words, all of these dreams that I have, and not take necessarily
away from them or whatever, ignoring that action and just like focus on who is God and how can I actively act like that according to act according to what it is that I'm believing he's saying about himself in my life right now, today, and before I knew it, it was, I, it was months later, and I remember I kind of like stopped and looked up.
I was by myself and I literally did that I looked up and I thought, wait a minute.
I haven't thought about London, and I don't know how long. And that was my main goal. That's what I was going to do, I was going to move overseas and I was going to live in London I was creating business so that it would enable me to do that and whatever.
And I thought, why do I not. Why have I not thought about it and I realized the need that I was using London to fulfill in my life, the opportunity, the things that I thought it was going to give me opportunities to make new friends and to network and to travel and to, I don't
know, see other just have new experiences and, and, and all of that because I thought again I thought that's what I wanted I thought that's, that'll give me what it is I want that'll give me freedom, whatever.
When I discovered freedom in the Lord where it is that I was without moving to the other. I realized, I no longer cared about moving to London.
And this has been a dream ever since I was young, I can tell you, I no longer cared, because God gave me what it is that I actually wanted, which was freedom in him, so that I could actually live it no matter what situations that I was in so I still live
regardless of how uncomfortable it is. I told August my brother and Brendan, this a year ago, little over a year ago or I was sitting in his living room, literally crying, because my situation was so difficult.
And my brother had already chosen to walk this path and everything and I've been in it for a while. And it was hard, man, it was hard. And I was struggling financially I was struggling in relationships and my reputation had been had been attacked by at the time,
and a friend, a personal friend that I had shared something very, very personal and private with.
And they had used it, they had attacked me and then used that thing against me all in the same month. Boom.
So I was crying to him and I told, I told, I was feeling all of these pressures, financial relationship, all of that good stuff.
And I, and while I'm crying, I told him, I said, you know, Brennan, I still would choose this, this moment, this experience, this situation.
Because even though it's so hard, I'm free.
And I will take this freedom with these circumstances and with these situations over having comfortable circumstances and situations and going back to how I lived in them.
So anyway, those, it's just been a process that the Lord's had to, had to change, change in me.
Again, if ever we're struggling with something, we put on our own oxygen masks first.
We always go back to who does God say that he is and how am I feeling that my environment circumstances, my inability to get further ahead than I want to,
my inability to make any progress or things aren't working out and everything's coming against me and people and circumstances aren't allowing me to do this, that and the other.
You know, the, that all of those, that, that, to understand that all of those things actually aren't hindering us in, in our, in our freedom.
It's understanding that has absolutely nothing to do with how it is that I'm feeling.
Because it can't give me what it is that I want anyway.
Even if I got it, it can't give it to it.
Even if I had those things, maybe if everything worked out, all I would do is I would simply be in the situation that I thought I wanted and discover it can't give it, it actually doesn't hold what it is that I thought that I wanted.
And it is, it's a very hard, difficult transition.
So you just always go back to what is it that I'm thinking, all these hindrances aren't allowing me to do, and God's, God's, God's not, God's not helping me.
God's abandoned me.
God's not letting me do what I want to do. He says he gives me freedom, but he won't let me have it.
Etc, etc. It always goes back to the accusation against God. Why is he making this so hard?
It always, always goes all the way back. So that's all that we have to go back to.
That's a great echo of the accusations against him for sure. I feel like I know a lot of this on my, in my head right now but I'm having trouble getting it down and I, it's like if, if somebody is struggling financially and they really want that financial freedom or else they're going to lose their house or something.
Maybe God has a plan that they're going to move in with great people and you know something else is going to happen but how do you not be stressed in the situation where you think that what you want is going to help alleviate the pain or meet the need.
How do you stop feeling that way because you know in your head.
I know in my head all of these things but how do I stop feeling stressed about it.
Yeah, that's a really interesting thing that we talked about in. Sorry, let me grab something really quick.
Earlier today, and now she has a diagram so you will. Right.
So, prepare us for today. Thanks.
So in other words, this isn't anything new.
This is all stuff we all know, but that's why whenever I talk about all this stuff, it is that I try to help us all understand how to apply these things, but it always goes back to the simple stuff that's already in this foundational videos, it all goes back to the same
And that is when you're talking about you know what do you do with fact that I feel this way but I know I know different, because we are feelings follow what it is we believe not what it is that we know we should believe.
And so, in order to shift our feelings, we go through that process of, you know, this one. Hopefully it's right side for y'all, you know the no shame and no condemnation.
There we go. And then we just tell ourselves to stop. And then the having the no judgment is in, you know, thinking oh it shouldn't mind my circumstance and situation, it shouldn't be like this, it should be different.
It should be easier than this. By now, I should have made progress.
You know this lady shouldn't have done this to me.
I should have, you know, more clients by now I should have less clients by now my clients should be easier my clients be harder I don't know whatever it we're making a judgment of situation, and then so when you're what it is, so I'm just reminding ourselves with this diagram is saying the situation that you're finding yourself in is when these things, if these things are not working.
which is you just simply have to choose.
If God says it, then it's true.
And we choose it because we don't feel it
and we don't believe it.
We know it in our head.
We all know it.
We can all preach it to each other.
This is why I encourage,
when I was very specific about the post that we needed,
that I'm having us all make in the rest intensive,
and why I'm so specific about it
is that we all know the stuff.
We all know it.
So I don't want posts in there,
so I remove posts very quietly, very gently,
but I remove posts where there's simply all of us,
people just saying, posting something that they know,
as if we're trying to encourage someone else.
That every post needs to have a vulnerable aspect
about yourself that you're explaining.
Now, it didn't have to be very private and personal.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying it has to be about one's own personal journey
and where it is that somebody else,
where they specifically are.
And here's why,
because that will help us start to actually shift
because we're forcing ourselves to articulate
the processing that God is having us go through
so that it leaves us more open
and able to choose that what he says is true.
Because if we all just talk about,
oh, this stuff to encourage everybody else
as if we're trying to teach each other,
under this nice little guy,
so I just wanted to encourage everybody else
because this was encouraging for me.
The problem is we all know that stuff.
We all know it.
So it's more knowledge.
It's more stuff we all know.
What we're talking,
what my whole point of this rest intensive about
and why I'm so protective about the community
is it is about experiencing actual real shift
and actual movement of oneself.
That comes back to this whole choosing.
We have to choose that if God says it, that it's true,
even if we don't feel it,
and even if we don't believe it.
And then we act on where our spirit finds the peace.
And this goes to the,
when I talk about it in the video of making decisions
from a place of rest,
where you let your soul have it say first.
So it's been able to voice what it feels
about the situation.
And your feelings,
finally you get to actually let your soul decide.
The spirit is quiet.
You don't listen to it.
Just let your soul have it say,
just like, how do you feel about it?
What direction do you wanna go?
And you present all of that before the Lord,
not in isolation from him,
but presenting all that before the Lord.
This is how I feel.
This is what I wanna do.
This is why I don't wanna do this
because it's this other,
because it's scary or Lord,
it feels like you're abandoning me
or it feels like I would have failed
or it feels like it's never gonna happen.
And that there's no hope.
I don't know, whatever someone's struggle and fear might be.
And then after it's had its say,
then the spirit would come in.
Then you let the spirit have it say,
you know, your spirit.
Okay, where does my spirit that is one with the Lord,
where does it sense peace?
Does it believe that God,
does it sense it in making this type of decision
and moving forward in my business like this?
And it doesn't have to be a big thing.
It could be like a small decision
you're trying to make, whatever.
But, you know, should I go this direction
or does my spirit feel like I should go this direction
because your spirit is relying on the care,
what it believes, the degree of faith
that it currently is at
and what it believes God's character to be.
Your faith will grow more.
So you don't have to believe that God is everything
that he says that he is.
And you're like, I don't know how much that is.
It's to whatever degree that you believe
the character of the Lord to be in that moment.
And then that is where you're,
and then you'll feel my spirit has peace there.
Then you can make a decision from that point.
Are you at the point where your faith is strong enough
that you can act on that spirit, on that spirit peace?
Or are you to the point where you can't do that yet?
And I've done this a few times.
It's not often, but I do it a few times
where I'm like, okay, Lord,
I know that you say that you're like X, Y, and Z,
but Lord, my soul is struggling so much
that I can't quite get there right now.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm still gonna declare
that you're as good as you say that you are
and that you are giving me a gift
of operating using a tool in either this,
that we normally find in the soul realm,
in the spiritual principles,
or in the body realm, in physical principles
and act where my soul has peace.
What finally gets my soul to stop at.
acting out and gets it to calm down, where it finally feels secure.
It finally feels safe if I do X.
So going where your spirit finds peace or where your soul finds peace.
Yeah, yeah.
So does that make sense?
I like the diagram. That was awesome.
Yeah, I know I need to I need to make a little nicer.
Maybe I can post in the group.
It says that it needs to say it's perfect.
But it says what it needs to say, it's perfect.
It's yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know it's very simple, but I thought, oh, well, maybe if I can, like,
I'll probably do a little like I don't know, not a yeah,
probably like a little PowerPoint or something,
no PowerPoint slide and maybe post it in the group at some at some point.
Yeah, I was going to ask if you could post
resources like that in a tab in the group, little handout things like that.
I don't know. Yes.
Yeah, yeah, that would be that's something that I had thought about not that long ago,
and so I'm sure it'll be something I'll just kind of and that I can start adding
there, though, you know, yes, I did that.
Y'all think that would be helpful.
So
does anyone have anything?
Else.
I'm checking the chat, making sure that I
haven't missed something that was said, let's see.
Is more reliable than the US dollar, yes, most things are
I'm being funny.
Yes, letting staff that's letting go of my shouldn't judgments has made a huge
difference, I know, I know.
So you've made one decision this week that this is stuff, she says in the chat,
we've made one decision this week that stands out to me as being something I
would not have chosen, but it's still kind of dread.
But I know in my heart it is right.
And I have peace about it that the Lord will provide and work it out.
Wonderful.
Yeah. So we're you know, that the rest
intensive is about focusing on rest on how to actually shift interest,
not that our circumstances will start to look a particular way in life.
Well, how do I get and how do I become
successful in such and such a business that I've decided that I want to do?
Or how do I get to, I don't know, marry so and so?
Or how do I get to do whatever?
It's not how do I get my children to act like this?
How do I get my husband to change?
How do I it's not how to create results in our life.
Remember, those are results that are that we leave up to the Lord.
It is it's about how do we shift into
abiding in rest and truly realizing we're free and we're not enslaved to all
of these other things, so those other we don't require that other things change
in order for us to find peace and rest, because peace and rest is our
inheritance and our right as sons of God.
So
can those types of results come from being in rest?
Well, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
But we my point is that like what we were talking about earlier,
we don't focus on the results we've and what it is that we can get.
And because it's holding God and his
character accountable to how we see it manifest and our focus always needs to be
on the giver, not on the on the gift.
And so it's the giver that we need to allow
for him to love us in the way that he chooses.
And and we yeah.
And then can we affect things around us by being in rest?
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Because people respond to us as sons of God.
People always respond to sons of God.
They don't always respond the way we want them to.
I mean, the fig tree didn't give Jesus fruit.
So, you know, when he commanded it, he said, you know, well, he didn't command it,
but he walked over to it expecting it to give him fruit and it didn't.
And so he said that the reason I cursed
it is, he said, because you did not give me fruit.
So anyway, everyone can we all of creation has a will that chooses
to respond and how it chooses to respond to a son of God.
I think it's in Romans eight where it says
that creation was subject to frustration, not by not not by its own will.
So anyway, so in other words,
creation has a will to choose how it wants to respond.
But yeah, everything always responds to a son of God.
And usually it will respond favorably because of how it was created
or created to naturally choose to respond.
But we do have to overcome our own fear.
that the thing that we're responding to
is actually a safe place for us to be vulnerable with.
And it might be choose to that,
to believe that we are not a safe place
for it to be vulnerable with.
And someone else, my goodness, the chat is so busy tonight.
I've noticed that the more I operate from a place of rest,
the more our husband seems to as well.
Yes, okay, I've heard about this multiple times.
Multiple people have told me
that the more that they shift into rest,
the more their husbands do.
Exactly, children, it creates an atmosphere,
not just in our home, but that people can choose to,
people that can choose to respond to.
Again, talking about the post that I had,
that the comment that I had made on Alicia's post,
where she was talking about women in the Bible
and how they were treated and that,
and I was mentioned, I think I mentioned at the end
that women are meant to, for multiple,
oh, so Alicia hasn't gotten to see my response yet,
that women are meant to picture for men
how they are supposed to picture for men their position,
their vulnerable position in relationship to Christ
in their union with Christ,
just like women have the vulnerable position in marriage.
Now, yes, both are vulnerable to each other.
The man's body belongs, or the husband's body belongs
to the wife, the wife's body belongs to the husband,
you know, that kind of thing,
but there's still an element that we all know physically,
sometimes, and in various other ways
where women can feel very vulnerable.
Well, that is actually, women are putting on display
in real life circumstances and situations
what men are supposed to be able to look at
and see themselves in as a mirror
to be able to understand their position
in their relationship with Christ,
in their vulnerability, the fact that they are vulnerable
and how they should respond to Christ
in their union with Christ out of that vulnerability.
But if women are constantly,
I'm not trying to villainize us at all,
I'm just pointing out the position and the responsibility
and the role that we have as part of the body of Christ.
And one of them is to give a real life picture
to all of us of that vulnerable position
that is called to submit to a head
and how dadgum hard it is.
Well, yeah, how else are men supposed to be able to see
and to be able to picture what God is talking about
when he says, I want you to submit yourselves to Christ,
you're in a vulnerable position
and I want you to submit yourself to the head.
They see a type in shadow of their own position to Christ
and how God's calling him to relate to him
in how they see women respond to men.
And women can affect men so heavily.
My big fat Greek wedding, how she says,
the man is the head, but the woman's the neck
and can turn the head whichever way she wants.
The idea that both are dependent on
and influenced by the other.
Each one has a very, very powerful role
in the body of Christ of how we are called
to picture an aspect of humanity
and of our relationship to Christ for the other.
Men do it for women and they have a position,
particular role, position, responsibility
and it reflects to women certain things about themselves
that they need to know and understand and walk in.
And we're supposed to be able to see a picture of that in men
and men do the same thing with women.
But if we don't all see that,
then if we don't all see that,
well, then we can just think that men and women
are in very unfair positions to each other
and we can see that things is very unfair
as opposed to understanding, no, we just, we're very,
and I don't mean this in an unhealthy way,
we're very codependent because we're one body,
we're not two separate bodies.
So anyway, I don't remember why I was saying all of that.
There was a reason, it was going along
with what we were talking about.
So does anyone have anything else?
This isn't so much a question,
but you just mentioned about being codependent
and it's because we were created to be one body,
so different from another.
And I just found really interesting and kind of sweet
And so maybe you could talk a little bit more about that.
About the codependency, what, men with women?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I'm trying to think of what direction to go with it.
But yeah, each one,
I've always found it so fascinating
that women are in such a vulnerable position,
but they hold such a power,
such a position of powerful influence.
You think about the queen.
And not because she's a woman,
but because of her office and her position.
It's the same thing if you had a male there,
if you had a king, whether her father,
was that Prince, was that, oh, no, was it King George?
Was King George her father or King Edward?
I think it was King George.
And then, of course, her son, Prince Charles,
when he becomes king,
regardless if it's a man or a woman,
the position is one of influence.
It's not one of any power that can create any law.
And I read a biography about her
that was really, really, really powerful.
And there was one particular sentence.
I don't remember the exact phrase,
but I wrote it down somewhere
because I thought out of the entire book,
this is the most powerful sentence.
And it was about the fact that she had realized
how to use her influence to shape worlds,
to shape world politics, to shape world leaders
and to shape world policy, not in a manipulative way,
but still to be able to influence it.
And anyway, I thought that that was really interesting.
And also another thing, I know it's kind of sounds
kind of maybe an odd time to mention this,
but the fact that the most powerful position
is the position of the one who is being served,
which would be the most vulnerable position.
So the most vulnerable position
is the one that is being served.
And that is the most powerful position
as opposed to the one who is being given to
as opposed to the one who is giving.
And the Lord, fascinatingly,
is the one who put us in that position.
He put us in the name of the book I referenced.
Oh, I think it's just Elizabeth II,
but it's by Sally Bendell-Smith, I believe.
Sally Smith.
And I believe that the middle name is Bendell,
B-E-N-D-E-L-L or B-E-D-E-L-L.
It's either Bedell or Bendell, I don't remember, anyway.
Very, very, very, very, very good.
That book is like this thick, just to warn you,
it's extremely thick.
Oh, I missed it.
So do you mean the one who's serving the other
has the more powerful position?
No, the one who's being served,
the one who's being given to is an extremely,
it's more powerful to be served than to serve.
Now, the thing is that you notice, though,
the way that Christ set everything up.
He set it up that we serve him,
but he set us up in the vulnerable position
of being the one that is being served.
So you see how it goes both ways.
So there's a picture, even of Christ in the church,
that we should understand and should translate
into our marriages, that each one does serve the other,
that the head, yes, does serve the most vulnerable,
so that it serves the most vulnerable party,
covers her, is responsible for her,
takes authority, provides a spiritual hedge
of protection over her.
And yet, there's an aspect in which
it's more easily understood, especially by non-Christians,
that women serve and make themselves serve their husbands.
But even in the Bible, it talks about the fact
that husbands serve their wives as well.
There's that, again, that codependency
that both are in very powerful positions
of being ones that are being served by the other.
And it's hard to be served.
It's a very powerful position,
but it's also a very vulnerable one.
So anyway, there's that aspect of codependency,
but I think it's so important.
Okay, so here's another aspect.
So masculine and feminine is in every single person.
It's not just in male or female.
Males have both masculine and feminine in them,
and females have both masculine and feminine in them.
So men are supposed to picture for us
the masculine side of ourselves
so that we can know and picture from the outside
and take it so that we can have a known
that more readily helps us understand an unknown.
That's what the.
and us and how to stand and operate in that.
So we take righteous men as an example in our lives
that are following the Lord and understand that the way
in which they're operating in masculinity
is the way that we're called,
is the way that our masculinity is called
to operate within us.
And the same thing that men are supposed to receive
from women, that they receive the feminine,
that they see the femininity in us.
And I'm not talking about the fact that we're, you know,
that we like roses and, you know, and tea and picnics.
And I'm not talking about that kind of a thing.
I'm talking about the feminine,
what a lot of times people were, well, feminine traits,
the feminine aspects of someone that, in other words,
the one who's supposed to receive,
the one who's vulnerable,
the one who is called to submit,
is called to surrender, that kind of thing.
They are supposed to see what that looks like,
where it's still in, where it's not,
that where vulnerability is not weakness,
vulnerability is strength.
But if we only present to them
what vulnerability looks like in fear,
then it's obvious that men would only see
vulnerability as weakness
and why men don't want to be vulnerable.
Because that's how women present,
if that's how women present vulnerability,
is in weakness.
What we are, I mentioned this when I,
I think I mentioned this in Alicia's thing,
that we're called to,
that we are not subject to our physical bodies,
our hormones, our psychological makeup
and our psychological wiring
that the world wants to define as being a woman.
We are not subject to it.
We are given those things in order to govern it
so that the things that those were intended to create
out in creation can actually finally create them.
But if we're fighting against them,
or if we're operating,
if we're operating subject to ourselves,
then we, then it doesn't have a king over it
that is finally allowing it to do what it's supposed to do
because we're being run by them.
We're, you know, it's anarchy.
So we're called to stand in our place
and men, by looking at a woman,
can finally understand their position
and how they're supposed to respond and react to Christ.
And then they can finally receive from Christ
because they're in a position
needing to receive from Christ
and it is really hard for a man to receive.
So if he sees a woman doing it,
he's more likely to be able to see,
okay, it's nothing that I need to be afraid of.
And if she can believe God, and if she can believe me,
then I can position myself vulnerably to receive from God.
And it's from God that a man gets
what he's supposed to be giving to his wife.
So if a man is not giving something to his wife,
he doesn't know how to receive it from the Lord.
Why does he not know how to receive it from the Lord?
He doesn't know what it looks like.
I'm not putting all the blame on women.
I'm just, I'm pointing things out to us
that maybe we've just never thought about.
There's this codependency.
There's this thing that we each have a very, very,
are supposed to highlight an aspect of ourselves
that is in both of us, the masculine and the feminine
and the female and masculine and feminine and the male.
And the male highlights masculinity
and is responsible for putting certain things
on display so that the woman can know certain things
about herself, rise up in it and operate
in her masculinity righteously.
And the man vice versa with his femininity.
Another thing, very important.
Oh my goodness.
You opened up a can of worms, Misty.
Okay, so here's another thing.
So that the masculine and feminine are not supposed,
within us, are not supposed to be at war.
And you're not supposed to be able to be vulnerable
or strong.
And here's me as in a good example for whatever it's worth.
I tend to, I can operate, Dawson.
Sorry, just a second.
She's growling at me because she needs her bed all flipped up.
Okay, there we go.
It's hard being little and you can,
and with little arms and there's only so much you can do
to take care of yourself.
But so I tend to operate in,
and I've struggled operating in extremes.
I'm extremely feminine.
And for people who know me really well,
they know that I can be very extreme masculine.
I, not in like, I don't know,
like the outdoorsy stuff or things like that,
but I can go head to head with men in business.
And I mean like hard.
It's the side that I just don't show very often.
It's the side that I just don't show very often,
but I can go for it.
I've just seen bits of it.
She's seen a lot of it growing up,
but I can even do more than that in certain circumstances.
I mean, comes out guns a blazing.
And so it's very, very extreme.
And what I've struggled with is some people know this.
side of me. And some people know this one. Some people know the extreme, extreme feminine part
of me. And some people know the extreme masculine and people that have been in either one, people
that have seen me here, people that have seen me here are, have verbally told me that actually,
I didn't know you could be like the other, but they finally see me in the opposite situation.
I'm like, actually, I've never seen you like that. I didn't know you could do something like that.
Um, and, uh, because, and, and here was the problem. I had these two aspects of me that I was,
could be very strong in a feminine and very strongly masculine. And what the Lord is teaching
you to do is understand that they're not in, they're not in, they're not juxtaposed to one
another. They're not, they're not contrary to one another. They're called to support one another.
They each have particular functions, but they're called to work together in harmony.
I'm supposed to be able to be both at the same time to have strength and to have,
and to have vulnerability. Um, and, uh, anyway, so that it, it's not to the point where
eventually men and women are all going to look the same, you know, and how we act, but it's,
my point is just simply that is simply that, um, that those different sides of us are good.
And they're supposed to, and we're supposed to see how they work together. This differences can
be celebrated and enjoyed, but they are supposed to work together, um, towards the same, to same,
the same goal, deferring to one another in, but not in isolation of the other, like, okay, well,
we're just going to do the masculine side of this to the abandonment of the feminine. No,
the feminine comes with us and we operate in both at the same time, but we let the masculine take
the lead or vice versa, just like a husband and wife do a man and a woman. Um, that felt
like a very deep subject, but was that helpful? Um, yeah. And there's something that we use at
work. It's an instrument and it's called, um, leadership attributes and 20 feminine attributes
and 20 masculine attributes. And we ask the women to rate themselves on each one, whether
and we also have a column for their score or at home. And, um, so, uh, as you were at home,
their score at home and their score at work, like you were out yourself, like how you can show up
in work, these masculine attributes, um, that people who don't know you at work may not get
to witness. Yes. Yeah. So as you were talking about that, I, I was, I was able to relate to
it easily because, because of, because of that. And, um, and so it's, it's just interesting to,
to see how, um, one is not like what we are. You were also talking about prior to that,
about being subject to, like, before I was a believer, I was very hardcore about, you know,
women and feminists and this and that, and don't open the door for me. It just all, you know,
all these things I found out once I became a believer and I got free, I was actually a slave
too. Exactly. Like we can't be threatened by outside circumstances anymore. Who cares what
the body and the soul realm is doing? Yeah. Yeah. No, I didn't mean to interrupt. I was,
I was affirming. Go ahead. Oh, that's it. That's, I mean, that was it. Like once I was a believer
and I was able to like, get free from any of those constrictive thoughts, it was like, I just opened
up a whole other color palette to who I could be. Yeah. Because yeah, what's happening to us and
around us isn't actually what we're enslaved to. It's, it's our own belief about what we believe
about God, that we think that the thing is telling us that's what we're enslaved to.
The accusation that it creates. Yeah. That somehow it's saying something about me that
I'm not good enough or that I'm whatever. So I'm gonna have to fight for it in the body
with like physical things, like whether or not they're opening the door
and whether or not they're, you know, whatever. I mean, I've had to get that up on the,
on the opposite end where I grew up with where men open doors. And then, you know, out here,
out here in West Texas, where, where I grew up before we moved overseas, where I had to,
where, you know, men used to, you know, raise their hats when they talked to me and, you know,
they, they'd stand up when I would come to the table to sit down and then they'd wait for me to
sit down before they would sit down. That's what I was used to. And then, then I find,
no, most of the time other people.
Did she freeze or is it me?
Let me see.
Yeah, true. With the snow out in the middle of nowhere actually snowing there now.
Well, I'm the other day.
Yeah.
On this ground at least.
But she said she was having trouble with her internet earlier.
Let me text her real quick.
Oh, it's 10 maybe she just signed off.
Yeah, that's it.
Well I texted her we'll see what she says she's probably trying to work to get back on.
Probably.
But we were on earlier on.
I think it was.
She there.
No.
She's on there. Oh wait, there she is. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, my
trying to get my internet out here so we're currently on cellular. Anyway, I was done talking. So, and it looks like my internet has his or not my internet but my cellular service is pretty wet wet low, I don't know why I went from LTE to 3G.
I don't know my.
Well, and it was good to get to see everybody tonight.
There she goes again.
You paused again you froze.
I do have one question but it's for Alana, are you eating chocolate cake.
Nope.
That's what it looks like. Oh.
And I eat it with a fork. I know it's like my little snack that I love my tree, and yeah.
What is it is it almond butter. Yeah, I'm eating I was eating almond butter with a fork out of
which is done now.
Yeah, I'm actually before we go I was asking a question in the chat real quick because I was trying to like wrap my head around this because it's so new to me.
When you were saying that the more powerful position is the one that is being the one that is being served see I know it's for me to say because I'm like what.
Amy was saying well think about a king right and they're the one being served, they're being elevated because they're being served. So then I'm like, we want.
Sorry.
It. Yeah, because they have value and they're being honored honored honor is being shown. Yeah, so that's the more powerful we have to understand that power means something very different in the Lord and in that in the kingdom in the way he created
power than power here on earth that has been twisted into meaning that someone can dominate someone else and manipulate power is just strictly an ability to influence someone else.
Okay, this power is this power is bad power then like I was thinking that you meant, I think I was, I got it wrong in my mind because I was thinking that we were supposed to be in a power position and then being in the power position would mean that other people
needed to serve us and then I was really confused.
You know, other people don't need to know other people don't need to serve as I was talking specifically about the aspect of, you know, husbands and wives, serving each other just as Christ and his bride mentioned in the Bible are set up to serve one another we all
serve Christ he mentions that lots of times you know all throughout scripture, but also the fact that Christ serves us. And in the fact that and we know and we know that because it says husbands, love your wives, you know, and serve them and all of that.
And they're in the, they are in the more vulnerable position. They're in the weaker position there, meaning that they're more vulnerable.
And so that is the picture of the position that we're in is the bride of Christ and Christ serves us remember Christ gave us everything including died for us while we hated him.
He's already given us everything all that's left for us to do is to choose to receive it.
And so we've been given everything we are the ones being served.
And he's put himself in that vulnerable position of, yes, being the one who's being served by us, but also vulnerable position of being the one who is serving us.
In other words, he's allowing himself, he put himself strategically in the position to allow himself to be affected by us.
And so he's showing honor to us, just like we are called to show honor to him.
But when it comes to the head and the preeminence, the position and the relationship that he has to us is as the head and as the preeminence.
Okay, so he put us in a power position by serving us in some way. And now we translate that onto what we do on earth by serving others. Is this like the circle? Is that kind of, I apologize that I'm having trouble getting my head wrapped around this one.
Yeah, I'm just talking about Christ and the body. Each one is putting themselves in a position to serve the other. And each one is in a vulnerable position and each one is in a powerful position.
The powerful isn't to wield it manipulatively on someone else. The power is to always to benefit, is to use one's power to benefit and to love the other.
Not to manipulate and control them and to get them to do something we want them to be. But the power is in the ability to serve them.
And then we're called to do that as husbands and wives. We're also called to do that between parents and children, that's the same, or peers or coach and client, whatever.
There's always this aspect of serving in order to honor someone else, that kind of thing. And remember that Jesus, when he was here on earth, again, it's another picture of how Christ operates with his church.
He washed the disciples feet and he said, the greatest among you needs to be the servant. So God always talks about the honor of serving someone else and the honor that is trying to be bestowed on the one who is being served.
Anyway, it's a self, or what we always call that, it's, well, there's feedback loop, but that's not the word I'm looking for. And again, not codependency because that has such negative connotations, but there's just this thing of like, it's called relationship.
It's two way street, and it's supposed to be balanced, but not everyone in a relationship has the same position. In other words, this person, Christ relates to us, or Christ relates to us, the same side of the screen, Christ relates to us as a husband does to a wife.
A wife has specific roles, her position in the union, in the relationship is the one being receiving. She, as the receiver, then has her own responsibilities to him. And then, and his responsibility is obviously to provide headship, leadership, that kind of thing.
I think I explained that full circle. I'm not sure if I closed the loop there, but I was trying to. So that's all that I was saying. But yeah, we can take that into our relationships with other people as well. It's why healthy relationships with other people are ones in which both parties take ownership and responsibility of their side of the relationship, because that's important in the relationship.
Thank you for clarifying that, that makes a lot more sense now.
You're welcome. And whatever doesn't make any sense, you know, just always ask your spirit, you know, before the Lord, because, you know, don't say anything, take anything that I say and think, oh, well, yeah, that sounded logical, or it doesn't sound logical. Yeah, but logic doesn't hold up in spiritual court.
The only way that we, we can only regurgitate that information, but in order to own it, the Lord has to actually reveal that to our spirit. So this is what I believe in how I operate. But, you know, you take for the Lord, see what he says.
Ashley, as you were talking, I kind of got a little more insight into what you were saying that I just I'll share it really quick. I wrote down that first of all, that my train of thought, it was just in my weakness, I'm strong, which kind of fed off of what you were saying. And then what came out out was that my need or my vulnerability is actually what caused God to serve me.
Like, because, because I was broken, he came and healed me. And so in that sense, it's, yeah, it kind of, I don't know if it makes, if that makes sense, but it did to me and it kind of went along with what you were saying.
Yeah, it's like Ezekiel 16, where he says that he came by and
We were lying on, we were lying on the road, kicking about in our blood, and there was
nothing that he would, that would cause us to desire, him to desire us and, and whatever.
And then it goes on, you know, from there it's, yeah, we were extremely vulnerable.
We were within his power to do whatever he wanted to with us.
And yet it, because we were so vulnerable and, and he showed, he showed his character,
he showed it to be as good and loving as he said that he was by using his power for not
just our benefit, but to put himself in a vulnerable position in relationship to us as well.
Right.
We didn't have to, if we were in a vulnerable position, a relationship, a position of relationship
with him, he does not have to then put himself in a vulnerable position relationship to us.
Yeah.
That's really beautiful.
I just really got a good picture of that.
It's, it's incredibly beautiful.
Yeah.
And that Ezekiel passages never spoke to me before.
I've just always read it.
I remember that.
Now I get it.
That was just all the blood and everything.
I just, it just, I don't know.
I'm sorry.
Well, you didn't write the Bible.
I know.
I doubt that's just a real gruesome part.
I don't know why we were lying, kicking about in their blood.
I thought it was very interesting as well.
I don't know why he said it like that, but he did.
I know there's a reason.
Right.
Yeah.
So does anyone have anything before we jump off?
Yeah.
What verse was that again?
Chapter 16, Ezekiel 16.
Thank you.
Yeah.
If you look at it, you know, it's mentioned in the, in the video, love affair.
It's the very first one.
Okay.
Yeah.
Very first one.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
You know, where he waited until we were old enough for love.
And then he adorned us, made us a queen.
That one.
Yeah.
At the beginning, apparently we're relying on the road kicking about in our blood.
Okay.
Well, that's the part.
Okay.
I remember reading that a long time ago and I was like, well, that's very graphic.
Thanks.
I know.
Well, which is fascinating.
It's a baby.
The most vulnerable, the most vulnerable.
What we think of as the most vulnerable age is a baby.
That's when he saw us.
So, yeah.
That's a good example.
Cause you think about a baby, how vulnerable they are, but they have power.
As soon as they need something, we jump.
Don't we have power?
I know.
Even the toughest guys, they figure out how to make the baby stop crying.
That's so good.
Again, very, very powerful.
Vulnerability is a very powerful position.
You can get anybody to do anything.
Very influential.
Okay.
Right.
Well, is that it?
Anything else for a jump off?
Okay.
It was good to see everybody.
Bye.
Love you.