Called to Build

In all our goals and plans there comes a point when we have to start talking about it and get down to the business of making it happen. How are we going to take practical steps to move toward the thing God has put in our hearts to do?

In this episode I share some insights from the book Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy about how to start with the thing on our list that will make the biggest impact on our lives, the one that we tend to procrastinate on so in the end we are busy but don't make a lot of progress.

I also share a little peek behind my processes and how I try and keep my productivity flowing and few tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your time with batching and some apps I use.

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Welcome to Season 2 of Called to Build!

Thank you to everyone who has been listening, giving feedback and leaving reviews, it really makes such a difference! This season we have a lot of great guests and topics to cover that I really pray will be helpful to you, thanks for being here friends!

In this episode, I talk with my friend Suzanne McLean who I met 16 years ago in Northern Ireland where she was eventually my boss for a performing arts team called “Axiom” where we traveled and performed in churches and schools and I loved it.

Suzi has been in youth work for years but eventually felt the nudge from the Lord to try for the National Director for Youth for Christ in Northern Ireland and to her surprise, she got it.

We discuss the difficulties of leadership and how we can not spend time trying to please people but focus on obeying the Lord, about how finding and following our calling is about listening for God’s voice along each step of the way and about what advice she would give to those who want to step out and believe God to use them in whatever way He has designed them for.

I loved this conversation so much and you will enjoy listening to her Northern Irish accent!

Check out the show notes here

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Every year seems like to fly by faster than the year before. I remember when my boys were babies every day seemed incredibly long and it seemed so hard, no it didn’t seem hard, it was hard. Every one would always tell me how fast it all goes but it mostly felt like just trying to survive.

Now every time I look at my boys I wonder how they got so big, 9 and 6, and yet trying to drink in and hold them in the space they are in, because soon these will be the days that I will say, “oh they were so little”. I wish I could freeze them in time, but they remind me they have to grow up, I know.

There have been a lot of really hard seasons in my life, but what I have come to realize that there is always the challenge facing all of us that asks, “will I trust God now in this”?

I am not sure why we keep wondering why things seem so weird, so hard to understand, so different to everyone else we are trying not to compare our lives to. But I think this is the life of following God. What kind of life are we are living if we always understand how everything will turn out, if we are always sure of what is going to happen next, if we are the ones who we need and don’t stay absolutely dependent on our true source, God?

Let me let you in on a little secret, none of us have this figured out, we all struggle, we are all army crawling our way through this, groping our way in the dark. But here is another thing, we have this choice. A choice that says, “ I am going to take the path of least resistance, I am going to micro manage my life because if I don’t who will, I am going to strive, work harder, run from my wounds and avoid all conflicts in order to try to keep myself safe.” OR we can say “I am all in Lord. Whatever you say I will do, no matter how scary and irrational your way seems.”

The bottom line is this, if we choose to follow the Lord and walk by faith our life will never feel “normal” whatever that is. We can just get comfortable with being uncomfortable until the only thing that seems to remain that our constant source of comfort is the one who was always there, Jesus.

Just look at the Bible and all the many stories showing us what life is meant to look like for the people of God. Not perfect, not without hardship, not without feeling like Jesus sometimes is late or never comes at all, not without disappointments or confusion and certainly not without having to sometimes look like just a plain foo. Noah built a boat before there was rain, Joshua led people to march around walls and shout to conquer a city, Jesus himself was born to an unwed mother, raised a carpenter and the man that came to bring salvation to all mankind was hanging out with fishermen and prostitutes. If your life feels unconventional, welcome to the club, you are one of us, we love you and let’s talk how weird and wonderful it is to not fit in.

God’s Word says that His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path in Psalm 119:5. There are so many times I wish it said His Word was a spot light down the path and around the corner but it doesn’t. God knows our proclivity to want to run ahead, to rely on ourselves and get into all kinds of trouble He is trying to get us to avoid. When we are surrounded by the dark, our steps are much more careful. We do not know what is coming and this makes us dependent on our source of light to make our next step sure, one moment at a time.

As we start to step into this new year, this new century we don’t know what it has for us, what trials, what joys, what learning or stretching opportunities are coming our way, but the one who loves us does. The one who called us from the beginning, the one who thought us up before we were, the one who chose to die for us with no guarantee we would ever choose Him back, this great lover of our souls knows what is ahead and He will help us through, one step at a time. We can trust Him.

Merry Christmas everyone!

In this short episode we recorded as a family to share a little about us and send our season's greeting from our family to yours.

We hope you enjoy!

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http://www.instagram.com/ashley.morgan.jackson

Almost as much as I love the holidays, I love this time of year for thinking about the next year.

This is the time when we get ready for new beginnings, think about what worked and what didn’t work. It is the time of year to plan and dream and listen for what God might be speaking about what He might be dreaming and planning for us.

My goal setting and planning is a hodgepodge from much wiser, more well thought out women (namely Lara Casey and Jennie Allen) but I will share my process and hope to help you think through a little about what you want to see in your life in this next year.

One Little Word

Picking a word for the year is no new thing here on the internets. I am not sure how many years now I have been picking one word to focus on for the year, maybe 6 or 7 years now, but I love doing it. If you are new to the idea, let me explain. Instead of coming up with a ton of New Years resolutions you pick one Word to really focus on. Lara Casey has great articles on how to find your one word. Here is the one from 2019, but I am sure she will have an awesome one this year as well. As she takes you through her process you look for themes and choose your one word that way. I have done that and I have simply just asked the Lord for the word.

The thing that I love about it is you find the theme running throughout your year, like an anchor point bringing you back to center, what you want to focus on.

What will your word be for 2020? I encourage you to take some time and sit down with your questions and really take some time to think through it.

So, what other parts of goal setting have I found helpful?

One of the best parts of Lara’s process I think is asking ourselves the question, “what worked this year” or “what didn’t work” and what we learned from those things. We have all heard it a million times that doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. If we want a different outcome to what our lives look like, we have to be willing to change some things, no matter how scary it might be.

What is it we want to accomplish? How do we want to change? What do we want to experience? What is the legacy we want to leave with our families, with our friends and loved ones, with the world? What burns in our hearts?

The biggest encouragement I can tell you to do is write it down. Write down what you want to do and how you might go about doing those things. I don’t know what it is about writing it but it makes a difference and it’s a place where you can always go back and see how far you have come, what progress you have made.

Happy Goal Setting!

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CALLED TO BUILD

Free Workbook:

WHAT AM I CALLED TO?

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http://www.instagram.com/ashley.morgan.jackson

In this episode I have a conversation with Josephine Rose of Diverselines who has a thriving online ministry encouraging women to live lives depending on Christ and also to survivors of trauma.

Josephine has an extraordinary testimony of how God saved her both physically and spiritually and when illness stuck and left her bedridden and her plans were derailed she knew God was directing to start sharing about Jesus and eventually her own journey and struggles through Instagram.

Josephine shares the many blessings of using Instagram as a platform for ministry, some of the struggles and a few tips on how you can best use this avenue to share the message God has given you without getting sucked into the comparison and temptation to strive for man's approval and keep God first!

Be sure to check out and support Josephine! You can find her at all the links below.

https://www.instagram.com/diverselines/ - Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/healingthepieces/ - Instagram (trauma encouragement page)

https://www.stonesofdiverselines.com/ - Website

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2k4w-jjEprZ8Gsmwv5I__w?view_as=subscriber - Youtube

Follow the podcast on Instagram:

CALLED TO BUILD

Free Workbook:

WHAT AM I CALLED TO?

Follow Ashley on Instagram:

http://www.instagram.com/ashley.morgan.jackson

I don’t know about you all, but I wasn’t taught a lot about fasting when I was growing up in the church. I think the extent of my interaction with it was something called “the 30 Hour Famine”. Did you guys do these in your youth group? If I am honest I don’t remember exactly why we did them just that we went 30 hours without eating.

Well into my marriage and my thirties I began to become more interested in learning about fasting, what the Bible said about it and what impact it can have on our lives and the lives around us. Our church in Denver at the time called us to a 40 day fast and we decided to participate fasting during the day and then eating dinner at night. I don’t remember very well what the outcome was for that time of prayer or even what we were praying for, but I do remember the intimacy with the Lord it created.

When I first started this process it was easy to get discouraged and the Enemy would come to mess with me in the most irritating of ways. I would wonder why I wasn’t seeing answers to my specific prayers right away? But during that time I also found a series on fasting by Tony Evans (you can find it here).

He said that often times when we are praying for something that has been a stronghold for many years, that each time we fast it is like taking a sledgehammer to a concrete wall. At first, you only see a little crack, but the more you do it, the bigger the cracks are and eventually, with enough persistence, that thing is coming down.

Do we believe that God is able to do more than we are currently seeing? Are we willing to press in and seek it?

If so, let’s take God at His Word and begin to implement this on a regular basis, but know this, the Enemy knows how powerful fasting is and He will come for you. Any little irritation to get you to doubt, stop, become anxious and get you away from the places where the power lies will start happening. Be prepared, be in God’s Word, be in worship, this is a battle, but a battle that is well worth it.

Another thing that I have seen again and again in fasting is that answers do not always come right away. t might be days, weeks or even months before you start to see even a glimpse of the work God might have begun from the moment you began to pray. In most of my fasts, I have seen things come about in many ways within months, however.

Fasting is not just for ourselves, but to fight in faith for others, because we know Him and we know what He is capable of. Will we intercede on behalf of the people we love? What do we have to lose for the chance that God might intervene in their lives?

As we become more and more free, let’s press into love to the ones who we are called to build for. Let’s love the Lord and others by taking Him at His word in prayer and fasting.

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Join the Community:

CALLED TO BUILD COMMUNITY

Free Workbook:

WHAT AM I CALLED TO?

Follow Ashley on Instagram:

http://www.instagram.com/ashley.morgan.jackson

In this episode you will hear the journey of writer and counselor Michelle Neitert of following God and all the different ways God took her that seemed so confusing and often painful but led her right where she is today, tying all the different aspects.

Michelle not only shares her journey in finding and following God in her calling but also insights on how to remain faithful, trust God and His voice even and especially when it’s hard, and shares insights into the ups and downs of being a traveling speaker.

Michelle has so much insight and wisdom and would love to connect with you!

Find her here:

Website: http://michellenietert.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michellenietert

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellenietert

Podcast: http://michellenietert.com/podcast/

What on earth is the Fear of Success?

Is this really a thing? Do people really struggle with this?

Isn’t success the thing that we’re all sort of wanting in our lives in even the tiniest ways? Why on earth would we fear this?

I hear you loud and clear because these questions and thoughts were the ones I had as well. Yet, as I followed the Lord into what I thought He was asking me to do I knew I was struggling with fears that were on the verge of debilitating but I couldn’t figure out what was at the root of them? The fear of failure was so up in my face, it felt easier to locate, describe and address, but there was still something else lingering in the background and when I boiled it down it was that there was a part of me that was afraid of succeeding.

When we say success maybe what automatically comes into mind is a rich man on a yacht retired in his old age fanning himself with hundred dollar bills (just me?), but success can encompass so many things. If we want to start a business and it actually takes off, stepping out into a dream or pursuing what God is speaking to you, or it could be becoming free from harmful patterns we have allowed for far too long in our lives.

Again, not so easy to identify why anyone wouldn’t want these things but let me ask you something…have you ever judged anyone who is successful because it has made you feel some kind of way?

Be it insecure, behind, lacking, alone, inferior, whatever the case may be, often times the success they are embodying makes us feel less than about ourselves and so we will judge the people as bad, fake, wrong.

So how do we deal with this in a world of social media set up for us to constantly judge one another, do you like this or don’t you like it? The first thing we can do is notice our thinking about certain topics or people, how does the person or this idea of succeeding in that way make me feel, how do I react? Is there a pain that is associated with this and where was that pain afflicted? What does the Enemy whisper to us about our self-worth and why we should loathe others who trigger our greatest insecurities?

It can come up in so many ways. We can’t dare risk moving forward because it may cause pain or disappointment and so, we simply refuse to try or come up with a million excuses why we can not or do not want to try. Or what if having success means I make people uncomfortable (like healthy people made me feel being overweight) and they, therefore, reject me because I am successful, is it really worth it?

Lastly, we can fear the result of having success, will people look at us more when we might want to stay hidden, will we have more responsibility when we aren’t sure we can perform, will we be expected to keep going and doing and can we handle that pressure.

We know where we have always been but actually getting success in little or big ways is uncharted territory. We don’t know what it is like there, we don’t know if it is safe?

If we are growing and using a large portion of our talents than we are successful. Becoming people of character, daring to have the conversation, volunteer for the ministry, start the podcast, every time we overcome our fears or dare to trust God and step out with what He has put in our hands we watch God do impossible things for no ones like you and me.

What might we miss out on as an amazing adventure with our wildly creative and loving God because we allowed this fear to stop us?

Follow the podcast on Instagram:

CALLED TO BUILD

Join the Community:

CALLED TO BUILD COMMUNITY

Free Workbook:

WHAT AM I CALLED TO?

Follow Ashley on Instagram:

http://instagram.com/ashley.morgan.jackson

In this episode my husband, Daniel Jackson and I do a marriage tag to share a little bit about our marriage and how it works. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it!