I apologize. I had some major technical difficulties. I got here and then couldn't hook up to the
internet. So thankfully we live and work and go to church and have our entire social lives
in one building. And I ran back to the apartment, got to let, it's not fair. So you got it for
me and I ran back. So anyway, I am, hopefully we will have it all set up next time. And that's
because last time I realized that doing the wifi wouldn't work because it was just so slow. It was
just raw frozen and everything. So Ed told me, I have a hookup. And I was like, okay. He said,
it's in my office and it wasn't. So he sweetly found it for me. So, okay. So anyway, we have
arrived. I'm trying to make sure everybody, nobody's waiting on me. I think finally everybody's
in. It's good to see everybody. Okay. Let's see here. I know. Doesn't my lighting still look good?
I'm so excited. I'm like, now I can look professional like Lindsay and Bruce do.
So, and I have a, I have a tech session set up with Bruce on or Caroline or I'm on
Tuesday, I think. So anyway. All right. So who would like,
you're so funny. So who would like to start us out with something? I don't know if y'all got a
chance that I had done a couple, I'd caught up on a couple of questions that Cicely had wonderfully
asked in the chat or not the chat, the, you know, rest group, rest intensive Facebook group.
And so I'd finally gotten a chance to answer those today on my walk around the lake.
But anyway, so does anyone have anything they would like to start us out with? Yes. Go ahead,
Christine. Unmute myself. I have a question and Lindsay, I was, I didn't quite get to finish your
video, but it was really good, you know, about that sense of safety and depending on God for that.
And I can really relate to that. And I, I wrote in my journey sharing about,
you know, not feeling safe at work, though there's no reason to feel unsafe. And then,
you know, I've been, I was thinking about, you know, trauma and I'm wondering, well, I had,
you know, I've dealt with trauma I had as a child. I had a schizophrenic father.
So it was crazy. But, you know, I've counseling and dealing with inner healing and all sorts of
things. And then starting in August, I had this bout with breast cancer. And I'm wondering is,
is that, can that be kind of a trauma when you have surgery and all, I mean, get poked?
You know, I was poked four times in the breast and, you know, like the biopsy, then they,
um, before the surgery, they put in this thing called a savvy scout. And it is like,
with a remote control, the surgeon can find where the cancer is, where the tumor is,
is quite amazing. And then they put in, before the surgery, they put in isotopes.
And that was very painful. And then because I got the time mixed up on when I could eat,
I couldn't do that surgery. So then I had to have those isotopes put in again, but it wasn't so
painful that time. But, you know, the whole thing of safety and, you know, I was, I was trying to
tell somebody.
how I felt through this because I would just feel like crying, but usually I can express
what my emotions are. But I haven't been able to, you know, I would just feel like crying
and I'm not afraid of dying. I know God is taking care of me, but just this emotion of,
and I don't, you know, I really don't know what it is, but I guess I'm asking, you know,
how does, you know, and the whole sense of safety thing, you know, you know,
and now I have to go through radiation therapy and that, you know, isn't going to be pleasant
either. But how do I get to the point of just feeling safe in God about everything in my life?
And, you know, when there's things around me that I don't feel, maybe I don't feel safe, you know?
Yeah. So you're, yeah. And trying to think it, I always try to think of how to answer
the most succinctly as possible. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but I,
it's, it's honestly everything that we've already talked about. I'm just trying to think of how to
word it in a way that'll help us all understand the, when I've been dealing with things,
cause you remember that I try to word things in such a way that y'all can understand
what y'all are going through while you're going through it and kind of like have words to
articulate a moment or a, or a season in the journey or something like that. But I didn't
But I didn't have that. And so what I had to do is because I didn't have much of an anchor point
of like, okay, well, this is how I need to deal with it. For instance, what we've been talking
about, like negative emotions, like, oh, well, this is how I need to deal with negative emotions,
or, you know this is how I need to deal with this specific thing. This is how I need to deal with
this specific thing. I didn't even know what was going on, let alone have any have any idea about
what I was going about, what I was going through and where that fit into the journey or how to
address that specifically. So I just basically always required of myself the deep down reckless
abandon of, okay, what is the basics? What are the basics of what God said? And that's how I've come
to discover that even though it can feel unrelated, it really is the answer to the problem.
So that all being said, what I'm referring to is the fact that, okay, well, who does God say that
he is? And I have to choose that he's that, to the degree he says that he is that, and I have to
choose that I am who he says that I am. And I know that it sounds like I just always repeat it, well,
because I do. But the thing is that that is really the answer to literally every question it is that
we can ask. Sometimes we want something a bit more specific of like, okay, God, yeah, I get that,
but how do I deal with this aspect? Or how do I deal with this detail? And the thing is, God, that
is the answer to that detail and all of the other details. But in the moment, it can feel very
irrelevant. It can feel like, okay, yeah, God, I know that you love me. Or yeah, God, I know that
you are who you say that you are. I know you're as big as you say that you are, et cetera. But what
about, and I'm just going to use this one, because I've addressed it not only in the
fireside chat last time, but I also addressed it this afternoon. So in other words, it's come up
multiple times, is like, for instance, what do we do about negative emotions? We feel these
negative emotions, well, what do we do? And it really is that whenever I felt anything like that,
whenever I felt a negative emotion, regardless of what it was coming from, regardless of my
trigger, whether it was an inner wounds trigger, whether it was a fear of the fact that I didn't
know where money was going to come from for food, or I didn't know where money was going to come
through for internet, when I did my first rest intensive, I had no internet. And I had no idea
how I was going to meet the obligation that I just made to all of these people that I was going to
take them through the rest intensive, et cetera. And what I did, and then where I would be overseas,
and I would be traveling from city to city. And in every single city I would go to, I would find
that I'd have to ask, trust the Lord yet again, okay, God, I've run out of money. And I don't
have money to get out of this city. Let alone, you know, I don't have money to stay here. And
I don't have money to get out. And so in every single one of those situations, including the
fact that when I was in Venice, actually, I had a medical emergency. And they couldn't even deal
with it in the clinic. And they had to send me to literally the only hospital in Venice.
And I never go to the hospital for anything in the United States.
So then to then to all of a sudden have a medical emergency when I'm a single woman alone in a foreign country, that's just really not fun.
So in a variety of ways, whether it's for finances or for physical safety or for physical healing or whatever, I always have to apply the same thing.
Okay, God, I choose that you are that good.
I choose that you are providing I choose that you are protecting that you are provider that you are protector, and I don't know how that's how that's going to manifest into my life right now, whether it's that I'm needing physical healing or
whether I am you know afraid sometimes I know what I'm afraid of. And sometimes I'm just in a situation and I'm like, I don't know what I'm afraid of, like what you're talking about you're just like, look, all of these things that I could name I'm not afraid
of those I'm not afraid of dying, you know, I've already been through this situation before with cancer been and this is my second time like, or, you know, I've already been through the surgery and so now I'm going to have another thing coming up.
In other words, I already know it's coming I already have experience, I'm not afraid of these things and yet why am I afraid. And so, whether I know what I'm afraid of or not.
I always just choose, I always kind of shift out of my circumstance, and I choose God over my circumstance, as opposed to having something specific, like, Okay, God, how, how do you tell me to have faith or trust in you, specifically in this unique circumstance.
Sometimes I don't know what what I don't know how to.
I don't know how to use any particular thing that God has said in the Bible to help me cope with this specific situation, because this specific situation isn't anywhere that I can find in the Bible.
answer.
So I really have to abandon the circumstance I have to abandon the fact that I've trying to find some principle to be able to apply to this specific situation.
I have to choose him over the circumstance. And when I do that, everything within me stills, and I shift into rest, even though I'm still in the same circuit, even though I'm still in the circumstance, and I don't have a specific answer that uniquely
addresses from God to this specific circumstance, everything within me goes completely still, I feel at rest, and I now don't even need to know the answer, because I got the answer.
And so I know that that may not sound fun to say but I'm, I have actually lived this out. And the way that I did is because I didn't have anything specific that how to describe that I didn't have anyone to be able to ask these questions of.
And so that that and so I just went back I went all the way back okay well what answer did God give you know how far back do I need to go until finally find an answer God gave, and then I'll cling to that answer and the only answer I could find going all the way
back that would apply to this very unique situation whatever the unique situation was was God asked, who do you say that I am God your provider your protector, you, your lover, and you delight in me, you are, you know, you're good, you're holy you're,
you're, you know, just whatever.
And so as long as I chose that God was who he says that he was that brought my entire soul completely to rest, and my circumstance could be as unique as it wanted to be.
I could continue to get a variety of them, I could get them back to back, and I would get be completely at rest.
And what we often do is because the world teaches us that in order to survive, you have to have you, you, that those who survive are those who know the most.
And we're taught that the world is very complicated and there's all these circumstances and there's all these situations, and you have to know the unique principles to apply to all the unique situations, and therefore, there is so much to learn.
And they're always talking about how important it is to learn and that's why academics and education is always touted as like the greatest and the best thing is because that is what your survival and success depends on is your knowledge.
And so what we're trying to do is because we were taught that it was knowledge that would save us.
We think that in being a Christian, what we're doing is we're simply trading the world's complicated principles of knowledge for God's own version of a complicated world of principles that we're now just trading.
And we now trade all of the things that we all the principle of this world for simply all of these other complicated principles of the kingdom of heaven.
And it's just not true. God is very simple.
The world is very complicated so we're not taking it's not a like an exact thing like well this principle applies to this unique situation in the, in the kingdom of this world.
And we need to find its corresponding one in the kingdom of heaven and trade it. That's not what we need to do all we have to do is God says let go of this world and you choose me.
You may not even know what it is specifically about me that you're choosing.
And you may not know is that my goodness is that my provision is that my protection or is it some aspect of my character that I haven't even revealed to you yet, whatever it is I'm asking that it's me that you choose.
And very often God will ask us I want you to choose me before I reveal myself and it's only after you choose to receive who it is that I am that then I reveal myself.
And I won't reveal myself until you choose me first in other words that you choose that you receive me without conditions, without knowing what it is and determining whether or not you accept it and you approve of that aspect of my character.
And whether or not you approve that that aspect of my character is going to be sufficient for you, you choose first that whoever it is that I am is sufficient for you.
And then once you choose me first and without conditions, then I'll finally reveal who that to you who that is. So, honestly, that for me is what is, is what always always always always always always always works.
But anyway, so what are what are your thoughts after you've been hearing me say all that. Does it make sense does it resonate. Yes, it resonates make sense.
Yes, for sure.
Yeah, and I know that may not I'm glad that you're encouraged because I know that sometimes it may not feel encouraging because again we're so used to.
Yeah, but the world will give me a pat answer a very specific answer that makes me feel very secure that there isn't a specific answer for this very specific unique circumstance that's a different answer for a different circumstance and somehow
makes us feel very secure so we think all we're doing is looking for God's version of that answer.
And really God's just like no no scrap that whole system it's very complicated, you just choose me and I take care of everything you choose me over my sir over your circumstances and how I manifest myself into your circumstances, and what I choose
to do with your circumstances, etc.
That is that sacrifice that God's been asking of us that living sacrifice that living our life as a sacrifice, it's not doing something for God and building a church and building a ministry and being obedient and, you know, in, in checking off all these boxes that he
dictated to us that we're going to do. God says, you choose me over your life over how you live over the circumstances that you run into, you know, the people that I happen to bring into your life, you know with how things work out, whether it's pain or
comfort or it's whatever it is, I asked that I be more important to you than what your life looks like. And I think that I mentioned last time that that is the point on which everything in my life changed.
That's the focal point.
on which, like, if there's a, like a triangle or whatever and there's a point in it like a seesaw or some of their board sits on that point, it is the point on which everything pivots and changes direction.
And that focal point is where we choose God over our lifestyle.
We choose God and who he is over how our life ends up manifesting his character.
And we allow him we choose that he is who he says that he is without fully knowing who that is.
And, and just in what, and then I'll ask him, but this is what I did I just asked him God could you reveal who that is.
In other words, could you manifest who you are into my life.
into my life into Jesus's life I saw what happened to him. I saw the good the bad and the ugly.
And, and I saw what it made his life look like and what it caused him to have to go through but God even in the garden of Gethsemane, even though he struggled.
He's still old he's chose you over lifestyle he chose you regardless of what it caused him to have to live.
And so anyway, and that is in it's by Jesus always having done it that it then allowed God to come in and do the miraculous include.
being, you know, resurrect Jesus from the dead, let alone walk on
water and change water into wine or whatever, is we always have
to choose God over, over not only our lifestyle, but how God
chooses to manifest himself into our life that makes it what it
is. So in a way, it's almost like presenting our water to him
and asking and allowing him to change it into wine if he wants
to. So, so does that make sense? Yeah, thank you so much. You're
welcome. I think I'm missing some chat, some chats, making
sure no one's asking me question or something like that. Um, does
anyone have a, it doesn't look like a question. Does anyone
have anything? Another question? Still looking. Knowledge is
power. Yep. Yeah. Literally taught me in elementary school.
I know. And it is power in the world, but we have a higher
power in, in, in God that knowledge is not power.
Knowledge is the, is the idea that knowledge is the higher
power is the, um, is the lie that Eve believed. So she says
that she saw the fruit. Yeah. Casey.
Yeah. Okay. So my question, um, is kind of about church
community. And I grew up in the Catholic church, no longer in
the Catholic church, but I've been drawn to more, um, what do
you call them? Law abiding churches. And, um, so my
question is like the last couple of months, gosh, three, four
months, we have not been going to our regular church mainly
because I leave every time feeling condemned and I'm just
overwhelmed, discouraged. And I even had a talk with a pastor
about it, a short talk in tears. So it was kind of like a off
the cuff moment. Um, and so I'm in this place of one, I feel
like God is maybe hat has me us in that church for a reason, but
I also can't see myself walking back in it and hearing the
messages, but I also know that God is wanting to unify the
church. So it's. Unify the church, meaning, meaning he's
going to come reunited bride basically. Correct. So I'm in
it. I'm, I'm just wondering like how much, how important is that
church community that is believing similarly than you?
Like, like I feel like stuck because I want to be part of a
church community, but I don't know if you have any insight on
that. Okay. So you say that you're feeling stuck cause you
want to be part of a church community, but the church
community that y'all have, you're feeling condemned by
that's what you're saying. Yes. Okay. So, um, are you saying
that y'all don't feel the release to go? Do y'all feel by
the Lord that you're supposed to stay in that church or do you
feel a release to look for a new church or, or, or what, or
are you just wondering, is it important to go to church? Like
what's well, I kind of feel a release to go to a new church,
but I also felt like I heard the Lord tell me like iron sharpens
iron. Like he has as in this place is maybe a sharpening the
pastor, sharpening the other people in the church to help
come to a different knowledge of the gospel. And so I guess I
don't, so I guess I don't really know what my question for you is
then. Cause I feel like that's something only the Lord can lead
me to. It's not something that you can, you can give me an
answer to.
I can just, so now that I hear that, I can give you some, some
thoughts, but yeah, I can't tell you obviously what to do. I can
just give you some things and you can take it before the Lord
and use it as like starting points for your conversation.
Um, uh, for me, I was, for instance, I was in a church that
I loved. I was so excited. It had tremendous community. I'd
always looked for that. Um, we were, uh, growing strong in the
Lord. The, uh, the pastor was very biblically based. He was,
um, he, uh, he, um, he was also very, he was also charismatic.
And so we had the power of the gospel spirit and there was, it
was more of a family atmosphere than I'd literally ever
experienced in a church before it was, it was phenomenal. In
fact, to the point that we still get together periodically for
funerals. And then we're like 10 years later and it feels like a,
it feels like family whenever we get back together. No, that
you're fine. And it feels like family whenever we get back
together. So the thing is that, uh, it was, it was great. And
yet it finally started going through a season where God was
transitioning it. What ends up happening, um, over a period of
time is that God had them eventually, God knew the leaders
that the Lord was telling them to all transition into something,
but they didn't know what. And eventually what happened is the
Lord just told the leaders, okay, just close the doors. Now
were we supposed to have transitioned into something and
we didn't. And so therefore God said, close the
doors. I don't know. All I know is it eventually got to the point where the church closed.
But long before then, I was feeling that the grace, so to speak, I don't want to say the
grace was lifting, but that God was now moving in a different way in power. And the church
and the church body that I was a part of was no longer doing that. We hadn't transitioned
in following the Lord in the new way that he was doing things. He invited us to, but
we were in that process of like, okay, God, you're not no longer in the, in the old, where
are you? You know, you're moving into unfamiliar and unknown territory. So we don't know where
we're following you to. In fact, Lindsay and I've been talking about this. So the thing
is that during that time, I was just like, Lord, I'm not getting fed. Now I wasn't feeling
necessarily condemned, but I just like, Lord, I'm not longer getting fed. I said, can I
please leave? And what we, he personally told me in that situation is he said, Ashley,
don't leave because I want you there as salt right now. He said, because you're secure
in who it is that in what it is that I am teaching you and where it is that I'm showing
you that I'm now operating in a totally different way on the earth and all of that you are spiritually
and in your soul, you're secure in that you don't feel afraid, but all your friends are.
So even though you don't have to tell them anything, I want you to just be in their midst
because they need an emotional stability when, when their God has moved and they don't know
where he is because that's what it felt like. Now God was inviting them, but, but God is
like, you know, if kind of like in a, in a, it's kind of like if you're looking for God
in this place and he moves over and you're like, God, where are you? And he's like, I'm
still here. And you're like, God, where are you? I can't find you. I can't see you. That's
what their experience was like, but that's what he told me to do. And I was actually
very surprised that that's what he told me to do. But then after the church closed, he
released me and I didn't go to church. I wasn't in a church for, um, nine years, I think.
And I just started once I started coming to this church. Now I would go to churches periodically.
And I'm not saying that that's what everybody else needs to do. My point is that whenever
I would try to go to a church, God wouldn't release me to, to attend that one regularly,
but I'd pop in here and there in various churches. So God's just had me take my own specific
journey. That's just kind of unique, but I had to listen very specifically to him and
what it is he wanted me to do. I will tell you that my journey is very unique and very
unusual because even though I did that, I had to stay extremely connected to the body
of Christ because that's the whole point, whether or not it's an institution and it's
a church building and it's a, it's organized. It is extremely, extremely important that
we stay connected to the body of Christ because it's an aspect of the body that we're, I mean,
we're one with it. It would be like not interacting with the body. It's not the same thing, but
it's similar to the fact to what it would be like if we didn't interact with Christ
because he's the head and we're the body. So it's like the arm saying it doesn't have
need to interact with the leg. Well, the leg is vitally important. The arm isn't moving
the body, but the leg is, you know, or that, you know, the finger says that it's more important
than the toe or, you know, the mouse says it's more important than the ear or, and it
doesn't need the other. And God speaks very specifically about that in the Bible and says
that no, each other is very important. Y'all all carry a different aspect of who I am.
And if you aren't interacting, you don't get to see me. So it's not that God can't
sustain us, you know, you know, on our own, if God, if God puts us in those unique situations,
there are people who are in solitary confinement in prisons in China and God is not condemning
them because they're not going to church, you know? So, I mean, there's, there are circumstances
and situations, but just generally and overall, there is a vital importance to the community
and in building ourselves up by fellowshipping and the building ourselves up, isn't just
simply the encouraging each other and the praying for each other. It's the looking more
like Christ, the more that each of us starts fitting into our appropriate role and position
in the body relative to each other, because God says that he, that, that all of God will
be revealed in all. In other words, when we're all together, we can see God, there's a different
aspect each one of us is responsible to carry and to represent and to express because we
all have our unique union with him. And the uniqueness of that union needs to be combined
with all the other unique aspects of the, of those he's unified with in order to reveal,
not just God, but in order, in order for us to not just see God, but to reveal God to
the rest of creation.
We cannot release creation from frustration and not be in fellowship with God.
Sorry, fellowship with each other ultimately.
We might all be on a different phase of that journey.
Sometimes someone might be in a solitary prison cell in China,
and that's their season right now.
But it wasn't always their season and maybe it won't be later,
but we all have our different part to play and we all have
different phases of our life where God has us in
this church or he has us in this church or he has us in this body,
or we're in a season where we're doing life with these people or these people or whatever.
It's very unique and whatever it is that God is telling you all to do,
I just wanted to reiterate the while God can do anything and call you to anything,
there is a very vital importance in fellowshipping and with the body of Christ.
It's more important than just visiting and talking and praying and all of that.
Knowing who each other is,
it's that we all begin to shift more into our appropriate positions as the body,
and then so that we can actually act as in unity,
as opposed to simply just telling each other that we're all one in Christ.
We have to start actually acting like it.
The only way that we can do that is to do the hard work of interacting,
which is very challenging. Is that helpful?
It is very helpful.
They're just thoughts rather than because
there's no specific answer I can give you as to what y'all are supposed to do.
No, that's helpful. Thank you very much.
Good. You're welcome. Does anyone have another question?
So, yeah, Kate.
A lot of your answers I know are applicable to a lot of these different questions,
so we'll just keep asking them in different ways.
No, that's fine. That's why I have the rest of the time to
say the answer the same question in a variety of ways.
Yeah.
I'm fully aware that this is how it goes and I still love it.
Very good. I think you touched on it in some of your lives.
But in relationship to trauma,
so oftentimes trauma can be at the root of some of the wrong mindsets
and the unbelief and all the different,
the lack of safety or having to control all that stuff.
So even as we're pressing in and renewing our mind in these truths
and the Lord reveals that trauma is at the root of some of this
and we still choose to believe like, OK, you're my deliverer,
you're my healer, go back to that place.
Then like pre this class, the tension is to go and seek inner healing,
go and do all the things that we're not doing right now.
And so I guess my question is,
so if the words are feeling that there's some measure of trauma
that's at the root of it and we still choose to believe that you're my healer,
you're my deliverer, you're all these things that can handle this situation
once and for all, it's already been done.
It's already been handled and reconciled.
But is there anything else that we need to do as these things surface,
like is there to walk that out so that way it's resolved?
I mean, I know that a lot of us have gone after specific traumas
in those kinds of ways, inner healing, deliverance, all that stuff.
And it's still bubbling up, it's still surfacing.
And maybe there's been levels of healing in it
and there's always greater levels of healing.
So, I mean, we can address it on an emotion level or a trigger level
when those triggers come up and maybe that's the answer.
But is there, I don't know if I'm making sense of like
how to deal with the trauma situation at large of walking through it.
So, one of the things is that the whole like shifting into resting is not a...
I'm going to mention several things, you know, in answer to your question.
So, this is where I'm starting.
And that...
And I'm sorry, I forgot.
My mind then went to the next thing that I was going to talk about
and I forgot, what was I just saying?
The...
Oh, no, I lost it again.
Oh my goodness.
So, this is what happens when you think of,
oh, there's several different answers to your question.
Okay, so let me start here.
There are...
I never want to villainize all of these other things,
you know, for instance, that you're talking about,
like deliverance or like SOZO or I don't know what else.
you know, going to counselors and doing all of these things, there's nothing wrong essentially,
you know, with any of those tools. And I still use them. The thing is that we always have to
approach anything that we do from it, no longer that from not depending on it to create the
outcome, not depending on ourselves, not depending on the tool, not depending on the formula,
but rather depending on God. But then in depending on God, God, which formula do you
want me to use? In other words, which principle that you created should, do you want to allow
to be part of our process of healing? Like for instance, sometimes it's going to a Western medical
doctor. Sometimes it's going the naturopathic route. Sometimes it is going to a deliverance
ministry. Sometimes it's doing celebrate recovery. Sometimes it's going to a counselor
or a psychologist or a psychiatrist or taking Tylenol, or I don't know, just whatever it's
a, there's a variety of, of tools that God, that we can use that are based. And I'm not talking
about like wrong ones. I'm just talking about like all of the right ones that, that, that,
because God created all of those and you created the principles by which all of those things
work. Why does spiritual warfare work? You know, the ones that, uh, that are taught to us by like,
say deliverance ministers or whatever, why do they work? Because they're based on real life
principles that God put into effect. God's the one who created it to work like that,
but to battle spiritual warfare from all of those laws and rules can be very exhausting.
So we'll talk about all that later about like, well, when you shift into the position of where
it is that we are in Christ, just like what we were talking about the other day of like making
a judgment from that place is the same thing in dealing with spiritual warfare, spilling,
dealing from spirit, dealing with spiritual warfare from a place of being positioned in
Christ means literally everything is under your feet, including Satan and all of the powers of
darkness. So therefore you are not, I'm threatened by anything, spiritual warfare from a place where
you're above everything is no longer a battle. It's a command. It's a, you know, it's, it's just
operating as a, it's operating as a King. So it's very different, but we can also battle
in spiritual warfare, using all of the tools of applying the principles of spiritual warfare that
God put into place. Right? So there's nothing wrong with using tools that God created, but
God never wants us to depend on the tool. God never wants us to think that it's the tool that
saved us, the tool that fixed us, the tool that is the savior, the tool. He doesn't want us to depend
on it to determine our outcome as if we, if we lack it, then we're going to be unsuccessful or
we're going to die, or we're going to be, we're going to be attacked or we're going to be whatever
that we always submit ourselves completely into his hands. And then it's just like, okay, Lord,
in interacting with this world, which principle of yours, do you want us, do you want to be part of
the action? Do you want us to interact with, do you, what aspect of creation do you want to allow
to be part of the process, but God is still the one doing it. So anyway, I, I, I, I believe in,
in, in like going to people and having them pray for us, pray with us. I've been prayed over,
you know, for, you know, for deliverance and not that anything manifested, but, you know,
I was really hoping something would, because I really needed help and nothing was working. So
this guy said, well, maybe we should pray for that. I was like, I am all for it. Let's see if
something comes out. So, um, but anyway, uh, we, uh, we can use all of those things for,
and then, um, for example, I always use a medical example to explain this, um, say for instance,
that as far as, um, as a healing goes, if you have a headache, you can, I have talked to my
headaches and they've gone away, but more often than not, because I'm still learning about how to
have authority over my body and to make my body feel safe and for my body to no longer feel that
it has to succumb to attack. Then, um, sometimes I have to take Tylenol because I can't, I can't
connect with my body to the point where it, it, it believes that it's safe and it believes that
it doesn't have to succumb to those outside forces and those pressures. And it doesn't
have to have a headache. And, uh, and so then I'm like, okay, then, then what I do is I take
Tylenol and I thank the Lord for it as the Lord, you know, you created the principles by which
Tylenol works, you know,
All of the, all of the, I don't know, whatever it is that he put out into
creation, cause I don't know what all is in Tylenol, you know, you, you being
in medical school, you do, I have no idea.
Anyway, the thing is that whatever goes into Tylenol, that someone figured out,
Hey, if we put these things together and if we put in a specific active ingredient
that, that creation, you know, or mother nature, whatever it is that they would
have call it or God, you know, depending on whether they're a Christian says, okay.
And if we put this active ingredient in it, it'll, it'll numb the, um, numb
the symptoms of a headache.
Well, my God is the one who created that to be a possibility.
And my God doesn't create anything bad and anything wrong, but anything that we
do here on earth, uh, is going to have an element of death in it because all
flesh is subject to corruption at this point.
That's why Tylenol has side effects.
That's why essential oil has five side effects.
That's why good things like apples and I don't know, animals and people, you
know, good things that God created can have very bad side effects.
It doesn't make the thing bad.
And it doesn't mean that God's creative, uh, the, the God, the creator, as he,
when he created the thing, created something bad, it just simply means
that it's subject to corruption.
And that's what we're trying to save it from.
But in the meantime, anything, anything that we interact with, that is the flesh
that has an aspect of flesh here on earth, including another human being
is going to have side effects.
It's going to be some aspect of it that is subject to corruption.
And, um, but it doesn't mean that, but God says that he put us in this world.
And we're so there's, so we're, we're called to interact with it, interact
with it, and it's not bad to interact with it now, this is, this is, well,
nevermind, I'm not even going to say that I was going to say, this is just me.
And this is just what I believe in.
This is why I believe it, but I'm not even going to go there.
So we're just going to skip that one.
But, um, anyway, if, uh, but over time, what I, what I do though,
is I choose more and more.
Okay.
As I'm talking to Tylenol God, I'm choosing Lord that you are my
healer, not this Tylenol, but God in the, while I'm continuing to believe
you to greater and greater degrees, I believe that you, as a good father
gave me this Tylenol so that, or created this with the ability to give me relief.
And for that, I thank you.
I'm receiving this God, because I believe that you're good, you're good.
And it manifested in creating something that, that can be, that was, that was
created for the, for the purpose of giving me relief of giving me comfort or
whatever, um, and then of course, everybody has to choose between them
and the Lord as to whether or not God wants them to take Tylenol, whether
or not God wants them to watch television, whether or not God wants
them to go to a specific church, whether God, God wants them to read a specific
book, you know, there's, there's good and bad in everything in flesh.
So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and there's only one fruit on that
tree, there's not good fruit and bad fruit.
And that tree is bearing two different types of fruit.
It is one fruit and apple tree only bears apples.
That doesn't bear two different types of fruit.
Every single piece of fruit has both good and evil in it.
We can't separate them.
So every time we try to get something good from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, you know, there's going to be bad in there too, because all flesh
that was created as good is subject to corruption.
So currently there's good and bad in it.
So anyway, um, I just receive those things as God, having been a created.
You know, a gift as a good father to a son and I receive it as God being good to me.
Um, and just, anyway, so I say all that to say that about like inner healing
sessions or sozo's or deliverance sessions or counseling or, or whatever.
Um, it's the whole point is the source.
It's not what we do is where we do it from.
Um, and, uh, and the source behind it, including, and I know that this is going
to sound really weird to bring this up, but as many of you who's followed me for
a while, no, I always use extreme examples, including murder.
We all know that murder is awful.
And yet, when do we all agree that it's okay?
If someone is about to stab your child, what are you going to do?
And what do you know that God would have you do right?
So we all know, oh, it's bad until.
Right.
So anyway, it's, um, anyway, so does, does all, does all this
make sense, is there any aspect of, in which had a question?
Oh, no.
And then, okay.
So I'm trying to remember all of your questions.
You then were wondering, well, then what do we do?
Right.
Like, how do we handle the fact that it continues to come up?
So this is one of the things that I wanted to, this is the thing that.
I was going to say at the beginning is that shifting into rest is not a one and
done thing. Shifting into rest is a lifestyle.
It's this is now how we choose to live.
And the,
and we're going to understand this a bit more when y'all watch session five,
I believe, which is the three realms. I think it's session five.
And it's talking about spirit, soul, and body.
You'll understand a bit more about what I was just talking about.
Like for instance, like the Tylenol thing from season, uh, from session five,
but also this,
and that's the fact that what we're choosing to do is we are choosing to
overcome our flesh. And that is a process.
We can't just like, boom, we've, we've overcome it.
There's so many different aspects of the flesh that keep revealing themselves.
Some of which we've chosen to not believe God.
Some of which we simply inherited from our ancestors.
It is literally not figuratively literally in our DNA.
And there's aspects of their unbelief that became physical form.
And are in the DNA. And we are literally curing,
carrying them and living them out.
And then any aspects that we haven't dealt with,
we've passed on to our children, just what happens with humanity.
So what some of the stuff that we're overcoming is stuff that has been in the
DNA line and been passed down for generations.
And so that's why we're called, you know,
all as an entire body from Adam all the way to the end of
humanity, whenever that's going to be,
we're literally one body and we're all overcoming together.
We're all overcoming. We're all overcoming the flesh.
We're all overcoming different aspects of, um, uh,
that creation that subject to death in order to transition it
into spirit in order to completely replace it with spirit.
Remember that Jesus's body for instance,
and this is just one aspect because when I talk about flesh, you know,
I'm not just talking about physical body. Um, so we're,
when, um, uh, that,
that when Jesus died and he rose again,
the body that he rose again in now had a spiritual bot now was spiritual.
So it could, it could translate, it can move through walls, et cetera,
and yet he could still eat. And not only could he still eat, it literally was,
I mean, so not only was it a body, so yes, it was spiritual.
It could do all this.
It was no longer forced to operate according to the principles of
creation. It could choose when to obey them. And when to not, he decides,
you know what I want to translate right now,
or I want to move through the wall or I want to whatever.
So he could choose when his body was, uh,
followed the principles of physics. And when it didn't, he could choose that.
But when he chose it, he could, you know, eat fish, you know,
neat food, et cetera. But then in addition to that,
it's not just a body.
His body wasn't replaced. Like as in, I mean, it was replaced in a way,
but it wasn't like a different human body.
It was literally the same body he died in. It had the same wounds.
It's very,
very important for us to recognize that it literally was the same body he had
walked around on the earth in and the had died in. I mean,
it had the wounds in his hands and the wound in his side and when his feet,
et cetera.
So what that proves to us is that God didn't create these physical bodies or
souls or anything else that's out there. That's flesh.
He did not create it as a bad thing that he intends to completely
demolish and obliterate into oblivion.
And then just start all over, you know, and like in the beginning,
God created a new heaven and a new earth and a whatever,
what does it say about the earth?
It says that the earth will change like a, like it changes a garment.
It didn't it. So in other words,
it's still going to be the same earth,
but now it's going to translate or tran transition or whatever from
flesh into spirit, but it's still the same earth.
But this time, because it's aspects,
all aspects of it are spirit and not, and not flesh subject to corruption.
It will now literally never die again.
And so that's what Christ's body does.
That's what we're doing with our own bodies.
That's what we're doing with the rest of creation is we are transitioning it
by overcoming,
we are helping the Lord transition it from flesh into spirit.
We're taking the same thing and keeping it,
but we're transitioning it to spirit instead of flesh.
So it will now no longer die. That's what happened to Jesus.
That's how he did it. And that's what he's calling us to do.
So my point is that this is the process.
It's something that we're doing. So in the shifting into rest,
it's not this threshold that we're all kind of working up to.
And then finally, we're going to cross over. No,
this is a lifestyle that we're choosing and we're just releasing more and more
interest,
meaning that we are overcoming more and more and more of our flesh
over time. And I don't say that.
to our discouragement, I just say that, you know, that's just our, it's just our reality. I mean,
even Jesus lived that. Um, so, and Jesus lives, lived a perfect life. So, um, uh, trying to think,
did I answer all of the question or, or did you still have any part of that, that you have
question about? Yeah. Um, no, I mean, it answers a lot of it. I think for any question we ask,
we just want some anecdotal, like do this, this, and this, the recipe, the formula that we're so
used to. Right. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, I mean, all those services and all they're like, they're
like spiritual services, right. It can be overwhelming. Sometimes it's like feeling
like that. Oh, yes. All of those things to do, et cetera. Well, that's why, um, even if you do
all of those things, you know, you do the inner healing or you go to a deliverance, um, session,
or you do a SOSO or you do, you know, whatever. Um, if you, if you do it by relying on God
and his healing, um, and choose him over, over what's going to happen over the result of the
outcome of like the session over, um, if you choose him over your trauma, you choose him over
your healing. You choose him over everything. That is literally how you overcome, because it's
always in choosing God over. And instead of all of this, that this gets over that this changes
from flesh into spirit, because what we're doing is we're now neutralizing its power over us.
Because right now that, that what a trauma is, is it's an aspect of our unbelief or
that has power over us. So we're actually neutralizing it. So it doesn't have that power.
Um, but there are, you know, when overcoming traumas and whatever, a lot of times that is
a process and the fact that you are like what Lindsay and I were talking about, you know,
when she was asking question last fireside chat, you know, wondering like, well, if I encounter
this again, does that mean, you know, what, what does that mean? And it's just that we're learning
it at a deeper level. We didn't realize how deep that that trauma went into us. We didn't realize
how greatly we were affected. Um, we didn't realize how deeply that root of unbelief goes.
Um, for instance, how many times that we heard that the Lord loves us and how we so-called learned
our lesson or that, or that we can trust God's provision. How many of us have had miraculous
stories that we could tell about, about money that came in or food, or I don't know, just an
answer to a prayer, an answer to a decision that we'd been asking the Lord about, you know, question
or whatever. And yet we continue to doubt the next time that something happens, you know, yeah, but
yeah, but this one's different, you know, and we can have, we can have a sympathy for the Israelites
who would see miraculous things. And then three days later, they were grumbling again. I do the
exact same thing. And by that, I do mean the exact, I will literally watch miracles that God does in
my life. And then three days later, something else happens. I'm like, oh my word, but Lord,
you know, and, and, um, and I, and I would lay there thinking, this is what the Israelites do.
This is absolutely wild. In fact, I did that, uh, when I was at, when I was, uh, you know,
meeting many in Venice and I was lying on that hospital, that hospital that I was in the hospital
for a little bit, but I was in on the, um, I was on that hotel bed lying there. And I thought,
I cannot believe that I am struggling so much with the Lord right now. I have literally been
traveling with him for two and a half months. And I have seen the miracles that he performed
in key in protecting, um, a, uh, you know, a single woman alone, you know, traveling around
the middle East and then, and then, you know, different, uh, so where else did I go? Croatia.
I'd never been to Croatia in my life. I'd never, I'd hardly ever even heard of the country of
Croatia until 24 hours before I, before I flew into the country. And, and then I went to Italy
and all kinds of places. And I was like, Ashley, you, and you've lived by faith where the Lord
literally has provided for all of your bills for two years. By that point, you know, now it's been
longer than that. It was like, you know, your God, he's, you know, he's never had you go without food.
He's always protected you. Why on earth are you, are you struggling with him so much? And I thought,
but I still am. So the thing is I had to realize though, this is just a deeper layer.
This just a deeper layer. And so now at this deeper layer, who do I choose that God is?
Um, so that's what we're doing. What we're doing is we're choosing an overcoming lifestyle. We will
not overcome the same thing over and over. Once you've overcome it, it changes from flesh to spirit
and it can never die again.
So we can all be encouraged about that.
So once it changes into spirit, it literally can never die again.
And so you're not going to have to overcome that again.
But what I mean is that we are, it's an overcoming lifestyle is in like the,
the we're, we're choosing that we are going to save this world, that we are
going to release it from frustration.
And that is what it is waiting for.
Our souls are waiting for it.
Our bodies are waiting for it.
If you're reading Romans eight, it says literally even our soul and our
body is waiting for the manifestation of the sense of God.
Let alone the tigers and the trees and the, you know, and the, um, and, um,
gold and silver and, you know, soil and, you know, and the principles by which
business and finance work they're subject to corruption as well, and they're waiting
on the manifestation of the sense of God.
So everything is, so what we are choosing is much bigger than our lives.
It's much bigger than our 70 or 80 years.
And all of these milestones that we're crossing of like, which cars that we get
in, which cities we live in and which homes we buy and whether or not we go to
Bible study and who we end up mentoring and discipling and, you know, how much of
the, of the Bible that we memorize, it is so much bigger than that.
And that's what we're, and that's what we're choosing.
We're choosing who are we, and we are going to show the world who it is that we
are, we are the sons of the most high God.
And the end we're here to, we're here as Kings.
We're here to save it.
That's what we're here for.
But we can't save it.
If we think we're victim to it, we think that we're victim to our lives, our
circumstances, our situations.
If we think that we're victim to flesh and the fact that it's subject to
corruption and the fact that there's sin and sickness and, you know, et cetera.
So, and then, oh, and then you will also, when you get to session seven, there
will, I've already given you y'all several tools that you can use to shift
into rest in any given moment.
The first one is, um, obviously.
Um, choosing at a foundational level, you know, the Lord loves you, you know,
you'll go through that exercise and the fact that you're one with him, but as
far as the actual tools go, that I mentioned is the first one is no shame
and no condemnation that you choose, you know, in a moment when you're being
triggered, okay, release myself from shame and condemnation, it can feel
completely irrelevant to the moment.
You can be afraid that you're about to go into surgery, you know, just like
Chris was just talking about.
And yet sometimes if you release yourself from shame and
condemnation, everything will go.
All of the stress, all of the anxieties.
It is very surprising that something that seems so ill, so irrelevant to what you
think that your fear is will actually be the very thing that your fear is anchored
in, and once that thing goes, you know, you completely shift, shift into rest.
If that doesn't work, you can go through the other things that, um, will be in
session, I think it's session seven.
Um, but with the other one that I've also mentioned is the no judgment.
We talked about that one on the fireside chat on Thursday and that
no judgment is a really big one.
Um, uh, yeah.
So anyway, those are just two.
And then the others though, I'll, I'll let y'all watch that video because
it's like at least an hour long just to go through all of those.
Um, but those are, those are tools that you can use to help, to give yourself an
anchor of, of, uh, something to tell your soul that you're working on or that you're
focused on to help you like shift into interest in a, in a given moment, like,
okay, shame and condemnation.
Okay.
That I can kind of wrap my mind around and do something with that.
Um, or the fact that, you know, the next one is to tell yourself to stop, to tell
your soul and your body that whatever it is that they're afraid of to just
stop and to just let it go.
Um, and then the next one is no judgment.
Um, what's the next one?
The next one I think is to choose that you are, um, to choose that, that God is
who he says that he is to the degree.
He says he is that, and then, um, act on it, um, act on where your spirit
finds peace, and the other one is to declare what God says and go
where your soul finds peace.
But, you know, all of that's in that, um, in that, uh, session, which I don't
have time to go into all of it, but, so there are some specific tools that,
uh, that, um, that, you know, I, I think that you would find helpful and
there'll be in that other session, but, um, oh, there it is.
I think she got out for a little bit.
Um, but, uh, so what are your thoughts from everything that I said?
You're right.
Okay.
Um, and one more thing that I just want to say is along that is, um, uh, what
helps me is that I just chose, sorry, let me see here we go, is that I just
chose, um, to that whenever.
So I got, I got to the point where I stopped getting discouraged
that things kept coming up.
I'm no longer discouraged that things continue to come up in my life, because
what I realized is this is the world in which I live.
This is what I'm here to do.
I'm not here to write a book, to have the rest intensive, to help other
people to evangelize is not why I'm here.
I don't know.
I sometimes wonder why God's what people think that, that we are here.
Um, uh, to evangelize people, if God created the world before people even
send, I'm like, I don't understand, but anyway, that's okay.
So the point is I'm like, apparently we were created for something completely
different, but, um, while we could evangelize, while I could have the rest
intensive, while we can do all that thing, all those things, what I am here
for is I'm here to, um, I'm here to have a relationship with the Lord and to,
and to, and to reveal him, to show him into creation.
That's what Adam was created for, to show him and demonstrate him into
creation and to have, and to express, you know, in his own kingdom, to express
the goodness of God as a good King to his kingdom, just like his father
is a good King to his kingdom.
The issue is the kingdom that I inherited is subject to corruption.
And that has to be dealt with.
Now, thankfully the Lord's already had victory, but why I have to do is I have
to come in to be a good King over a, over creation that thinks that, that
the creation that's afraid of me.
That thinks that is afraid that I won't protect them, that I
won't look out for them, et cetera.
So I am here to sacrifice myself to prove to them that I really am here for their
safety, that I really am going to take care of them, that I really am going to
give it my own life, that they might be saved, that they might be taken care of,
that they might be released from, um, from frustration, you know, et cetera.
And, uh, so when I realized, oh my goodness, this is, this is what I'm here
to do, I just, I don't get discouraged that, oh my goodness, I'm, I'm further
that I'm doing that, that I am not as far along as in the Christian walk.
As I thought that I was, I don't know.
I have another aspect of the flesh that I'm overcoming that I, and, and gives
me an opportunity to choose yet again, who is my father and therefore who am I.
And let me to put that on display.
And that, and that requires an aspect of my flesh to die.
But when my flesh dies, it doesn't die and then no longer exist.
It dies, meaning it is overcome and is now replaced a spirit.
So, um, it's, it's not like this progress bar that I'm measuring myself by about
like, well, how far behind am I, or how far ahead or, or how good am I doing?
It's, um, um, I'm just here developing my relationship with the Lord and I don't,
um, and I'm just here, uh, revealing to creation repeatedly that I am who God
says that I am, and over time, the more that I choose that I am that the more
that he has seen, and the more that I discover how to demonstrate him, not
just in, um, not just in a relationship, but also in power into, into creation.
So anyway, and into the world, into my situation, et cetera.
So it's just, it's just a process.
I don't get, I don't get discouraged as much anymore, like on my word,
because I know it's like, well, this is what I'm doing.
I chose a lifestyle of rest.
I'm not rest.
Isn't some threshold I cross into.
So, so what I'm teaching everybody is how to live a new lifestyle and
approach life from a different way.
It doesn't mean you're getting out of this world and you'll
now be living in a new one.
We're all still living in the same world.
We all have the same life that we do now, but you'll live it more effortlessly
and you'll live operating through it in more power.
And from that, the after effect of doing all of that means that you will change
your life and you will say, and, and it will, um, and you'll save it.
So anyway, so, oh, I'm sorry, Christine trying on your phone.
Um, okay.
Someone asked a question.
When did you mention the release from shame and condemnation again?
And when was the no judgment one to go back to?
Um, I think, I don't know.
I think those were all on, uh, fireside chats.
So they were on the password fireside chats.
Um, uh, let's see.
Also, you know, what I'm going to do is I'm going to find there's a practical
shifting tools post that I made where I literally wrote all of this out,
all of the practical tools, and I am going to repost it at the top.
And, um, so that y'all can find it.
And then of course, to the expanded version of like, to hear me like flesh
out each of those things that will be in session seven, I believe.
Um, when y'all get through that on the teaching.
And so, anyway.
Alright, well, it is 1012 for me, so I'm going to close everything out.
Um, are these and nevermind.
Okay.
You got, I already answered that question.
Um, and, uh, yes, if y'all have any questions, y'all just feel
free to ask them in the, um, uh, in the, I keep calling it the chat.
It's not the chat.
It's the, the wall, you know, in the Facebook group, you know, just feel
free to ask questions that that's what Cicely's doing, and I think that's great.
Being able to ask things in between.
And, um, also I am going to post the Calendly finally, um, for everyone to
pick their, um, their transformation sessions, like when they want to do
their transformation sessions, because, uh, over the next four weeks and I guess,
I guess that's it, so anyway.
All right.
Well, um, it was good to get to see everybody and I will see y'all this week.
Bye.