Divine Designed Life Podcast

"His Will Alone," is now available on Amazon.com both as a Kindle eBook and in print, which discusses the concept of understanding with God's Will, even when it conflicts with personal desires.

I encountered unexpected challenges that seemed like distractions. Then I realized in God's Will He was using these trials as a refiner's fire, intensifying the power of the message.

Embracing Weakness: Unveiling God’s Strength Within Us

Through Our Weakness

Episode #863

07/27/2023

Walk and talk with John Enslow

You know, I can’t seem to get away from the topic of shame and paired up with weakness. Shame and weakness just reverberating in my spirit and reverberating my heart. When weakness is considered a four letter word by our culture, the reality of boasting in your weaknesses as Paul did, is almost profane. And to see weakness as beautiful, it’s off-putting at the best, but more often it see as grotesque. We’re seen as… why would you ever think weakness is beautiful?! It’s something that’s abhorrent. It’s something that should be shunned. But the reality is, when we embrace our weakness then we can experience Christ’s strength.

I wanna read you some verses out of two different versions of the Bible. One is 2nd Corinthians 12:8-10 in the Passion translation. It says, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to relieve me of this.” What? The struggle. The thing that was coming against him. “But He answered me, My grace is always more than enough for you, and My power finds its full expression through your weakness.” Through your weakness! “So I celebrate in my weakness, for when I am weak, I sense more deeply, the mighty power of Christ living in me, so I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted.” Goodnight! Do you hear the difference between that. Delighted rather than defeated. I have, so many times felt defeated by my weakness. And Christ is saying, “No, it’s a delight!” Why, why is it a delight? How can it be a delight? “For when I am weak and endure persecution because of my love for Christ, I am made stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal for God’s power.” Phew! Amazing!

Another translation of it is in Phillips. I love the Phillips translation. It’s all like the Moffatt and the Phillips. They’re just different translations that just give a rounded approach to it. “Three times I begged the Lord for it to leave me, but His reply has been, ‘My grace is enough for you, for where there is weakness My power is shown more completely.’” That’s a word! “‘My power is shown more completely in weakness.’ Therefore, I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses, because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ. I can even enjoy weakness, suffering, privations, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ sake, for my very weakness makes me strong in Him.” Wow, those verses are amazing. Do you see how powerful those verses are? So this is such a huge encouragement for the follower of Christ. I’m not left vanquished or lacking by my weakness because Christ Himself is my strength in my very moment. What hope does this provide.  God isn’t simply giving us an attaboy and a pat on the shoulder and saying, “Hey, do your best, pull up your bootstraps and do your best!” He is the tangible support needed for my life to thrive and flourish and for me to reach my destiny.

How can weakness, how could weakness have this power? How come my weaknesses literally carry the power in the strength of Christ’s Life? Because in my weakness…so it says, for when I am weak, I am strong. That’s what the Scriptures are basically saying. So when I am weak, when I am struggling, when I am failing, when I have my weakness and I surrender to my weakness and allow Christ to be my strength, it proves my, not only dependence in Him, but also my faith in Him. It is a faith that wells up within me and gives me the power and the strength to experience His dynamic, really, dynamic life.

Celebrating my weakness is such a punch in the eye to this shame. The shame of my weakness. The shame of my weakness. The fact that, I should be ashamed of my weakness?

Overcoming Shame, Embracing Healing, and Unlocking Your Divine Design

Is My Shame Large or Just Loud?

Episode #862

07/9/2023

Walk and talk with John Enslow

Hey there, so as I continue to work on shame and dealing with shame and doing this book on overcoming shame, I’m discovering all kinds of things. And one of the things I’ve discovered is that our loudest part can sometimes present itself as our largest part. Meaning sometimes when we are struggling with some blockade, some thing in our life that’s really standing between us and our destiny, us and our life, us and experienced victory. Sometimes it’s about the loudest part more than it is the largest part. And that’s a fascinating thing to me because I have experience that.

I have experienced things that I’ve said, “Oh no, I am the majority here!” And I realize, wait a minute, my choices don’t fall in line with this. This is not about my choice. This is about a part of me, an element of me that is still on healed and still wounded and still struggling but it’s just loud it’s not large. The mass majority of my heart and my purpose and my intention is going in one direction (with Him), and my life reflects that. But then I have this one part, this small little part that has a loud voice.

It is the minority not the majority, but because of its volume, because of its extreme demand to be heard, that part can control. So all if a sudden I was like going, “OK, that’s craziness!” Because it almost becomes like the little man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Oz, and this huge big grand thing is actually just a little guy in the back with insecurities.

So as I’m dealing with shame, and I’m facing shame, and I’m facing what prevents us from experiencing victory, wholeness and healing and living in our divine design and our spiritual DNA. I’m seeing that sometimes we need to take time and be curious with that little part, but not let it control us and dictate how our lives are going. I don’t have to let that little part to drive the bus. I don’t have to let her try to convince me that it is who I am, that it is my choice. It is my intention. It is my struggle. It is…? NO! This is an unhealed part that needs to be healed and I don’t have to focus on it as if it is my entire person. Because the choices I have made that I’ve set forth, and then I’m living, those choices are who I am. Those choices are presenting themselves in my life, and people are witness to those things. But the little parts, the parts are so loud, the parts that struggles, and the fears and the shame and the sins that are just really small, but they may be generational, they may be habitual. I don’t know what they are, but they present themselves as the whole and they’re not! They’re just a minority.

And so I know that I have worked with guys and I am being worked with to deal with those small parts, and its curiosity. It’s going in there and it’s listening, it’s curiosity, it’s discovering. It’s is having compassion for yourself. OK, these are some wounds, let’s hear it, let’s deal with it. Let’s also position it in the category that it deserves. It doesn’t need to hold the majority part. It is not running the roost. It is not on the throne. Jesus is on the throne, and my choices are leading me to Him and with Him and in Him. And then these little parts? These loud little parts, they just need to be dealt with, handled and sometimes that with with people that can help us. That can help us with walk through it. That can help us to discover what this part really is saying. What this part… you don’t wanna discount it. You don’t wanna bury it, because doing that only sets it off to to blow up bigger in a later date.

Empathy: The Key to Overcoming Shame and Finding Healing Together

Empathy in My Shame

Episode #861

07/2/2023

Walk and talk with John Enslow

Hey there, so as I am continuing on this journey of discovering shame, exposing shame, overcoming shame, I see one element of shame that is really key to overcoming it. Empathy! Empathy plays a huge role in how others help us overcome shame and heal from shame. So I know that as people of had empathy for me, and who have just stood with me, understandingly in my shame, it is caused the tremendous amount of healing. Just to know that somebody’s there with you, in it. That somebody’s not just saying, “Oh, isn’t that bad for you!” But that they’re really saying, “I understand that. I’ve been there. I can empathize with you.”

I’ve thought about how Brené Brown, she has an amazing video talking about the difference between sympathy and empathy. And she talks about empathy as being the evidence of somebody feeling WITH you. And there’s a huge distinction between the empathy and sympathy. Sympathy isn’t entering it with us. It’s not being with the person in there shame, in their situation. It’s literally being like, “Ooo, that’s kind of dirty…over there. Sorry for you!” But empathy gets in it. Empathy gets in it with us. And the difference between empathy and sympathy is connection versus disconnection.

Our connectedness really helps with shame. We can overcome a whole lot of things when we have those around us, surrounding us, to handle it, to deal with it, to face it, to overcome it. But sympathy is just… if you sympathize with me and you just say, “Oh, isn’t that horrible for you. I’m so sorry that you’re in that deep hole.” There’s no heavy lifting with that. To empathize with me, it is heavy lifting. You are literally getting in it with me, you were standing with me you, you’re understanding with me and you’re helping to be a part of the solution. You’re helping to be a part of the connection I need in order to get out of shame.

Shame is incredibly isolating. Shame is debilitating and I don’t need somebody to sympathize with me. I need somebody to empathize with me. I need somebody to see me in my moment and take my hand. You don’t even have to fix it, just to know you’re there. My Lord fixes shame. My Lord fixes the situation I’m in. But to have somebody there, a member of the body especially, the body of Christ, just to sit there and just say, “I see you, I see you in you’re shame, and I love you and I’m with you and I understand, I’ve been there.” That’s brilliant and that’s huge and it also makes me feel supported, loved, attuned to. Those are all amazing things to deal with shame. I know that as I’ve dealt with my shame, attunement has been one of the hugest things. That I’ve been attuned to by brothers, and they’ve sat with me in my moment of shame, in my belief of shame, whatever kind of shame it is. They’ve sat with me in it, they’ve seen me in it, they’ve helped me to overcome it and heal from it because they were with me.

So I’m celebrating. I’m celebrating those that can enter empathy and give us the ability to overcome and conquer shame. It’s beautiful! It’s beautiful and the Holy Spirit will use our brothers and sisters to really heal from the deepest parts of a shame, the deepest parts of our story that are shameful.  We enter in and then we can come into a place where not only are we healed from the shame, but then we could be a healing force in the lives of others. Because we could be there, empathizing with others in their shame and bringing healing. Holy Spirit is amazing how He moves among the body and in the body just to allow us to really be there, and enter into victory, His victory. But we don’t do it alone. We don’t do it isolated.

Discover the Power of Perspective: From ‘To Me’ to ‘For Me’

For Me or To Me Sovereign Touch

Episode #860

06/11/2023

Walk and talk with John Enslow

Well hey there, I had a meeting today with another coach and it was awesome. It was really, really awesome! I love connecting with coaches and how empowering it is. It is amazing when there’s a true connection with the coach, there’s an…almost a buzz, an energy, a life flow that comes out of it, just by the very connection. And I was asking another coach friend of mine and he said that is coaching. That’s when it’s best is when it gives you that buzz in your chest that encouragement, empowerment, energy. And I think it’s also a quickening of the Spirit, where the Spirit is just telling you stuff and revealing stuff that’s already there, that you may have known, but just didn’t make connections with. So I’m excited! I’m excited, I’m being coached on a number of a bases and I love being coached.

Coaching is so powerful and every time I do coaching I realize how utterly powerful it is, an amazing it is. And it makes me so proud to be coaching because I see the benefit, I see the power, I see the force of energy that comes out of connecting in coaching. Today we were talking about my book The Sovereign Touch, and The Sovereign Touch is a book about the sovereignty of God. But what it really shows is how the most glorious expression of God comes out of the most tragic situation in our life. That He’s that sovereign. That He’s able to turn things around and turn things forward and reveal Himself.  Reveal His purposes in the most tragic situation of our life.

This coach friend of mine is a coach on grief. And so we were talking about The Sovereign Touch and we had the revelation of this: Is life for me or to me? So when we have a bad situation that happen we need to look at it and say, is this being done to me or is this being done for me. And I think the difference and the distinction is incredible. Because of the fact that, to look at it for rather than to, “TO” is a victim mentality. To is that things are being put upon us, and that we were being put upon by God. But when we realize that God always is doing things for us, that is for our growth,for His revelation, for His glory, for our growth, for our maturity, that changes everything. Even the worst situations can become glorious situations when we’re looking at them as FOR rather than TO. To puts blame. To shift the paradigm to blame. We blame God or we blame the circumstance or we blame others, and we say that is being done to me. That removes our empowerment, it removes our ability to grow and move forward in in that and to benefit from even the hardest situation‘s. To disconnect us from the power in life source of God’s sovereign hand. I never want that to be the case of my life.

To have things done for you, even difficult things, even the most difficult things, for you. When we look at it in that view, with that mindset, we can be empowered, we can be charged, we can be electrified as we are being energized to live life to grow to be fuller with His Life and power. I want to always have things done for me, and in the moment, it’s very difficult to have that thought. In the moment it feels very much to me rather than for me, but I do know that, as we will shift our view to for me view, we will literally thrive and become victorious.

I am excited about it, and I really would love to invite you just to look at your situation, be curious with your situation. Am I looking at this as it’s being done to me or is this thing being done for me? That is power.

Believing My I Am or The I AM

Episode #859

06/03/2023

Walk and talk with John Enslow

Leaving wounding shame by embracing the truth of who you really are.

Hey there, so today I want to talk about shame as the I am statement. I realize that shame basically makes I am statements that affirm and confirm that we are worthless and contemptible. And that is not who we are at all! We are not worthless. We are not contemptible, anything but. But statement like: I am disgusting, I am worthless, I am stupid, I am ugly, I am of no value, I am flawed. All these are statements that come against us and come against something even greater. My negative toxic shame “I am” statements come against, truly, my great I AM, and what He thinks about me, because He never gives me the… I am disgusting, I am worthless, I am flawed, I am stupid, I am ugly, I am of no value. Actually, His Word tells me everything, but that. His Word comes completely against those shame-filled toxic statements, negative statements that destroy our value in our self, our self-worth, our joy, our excitement. And that’s what we had to come against. is literally all the statements that speak “I am” that is against our great I AM and what He says about us.

I have experienced in my life, countless people that have had to stand in the gap against me. Against my beliefs, against my false faith, against my shame. They’ve had to stand against, and they have said NO, that is not who you are. But the fact is that it is not an easy come against. We are very committed to our negative shame statements. We’ve had evidence that is proved it, usually over and over and over in our life.  And we’ve compounded those shameful thoughts, the toxic shame, thoughts that have solidified and cemented us in shame, and we can’t get free.  What the Lord does is He’ll send someone or multiple someone’s into our life to basically stand against say, “Stop, that is not who you are!” It’s one thing to spit scripture at us and say, “Well, this is what the Word says.” That’s great, that’s fine but it’s a totally different deal when the Holy Spirit will come and speak very specifically against our shame. He is definitely committed to destroy those shame field thoughts and those shame-filled feelings and shame-filled beliefs. He wants to crush them.

So in my life right now, what I’m doing is I’m standing in the gap. I’m coming against, through coaching, men’s negative beliefs, shame-filled, toxic shame thoughts that are coming against their design.  Their God-given, spiritual DNA and design that God has created them to live in. We have a divine design, and we are designed by the divine. And those thoughts come counter to what He says. Who He is and what He wants to do in our life and it prevents us from actually experiencing truth, reality and and love. Love is one of the things that we can’t, in shame, we can’t except love. We can’t receive love.  We push away from love; we leave love because it’s unbelievable. It’s something that is against the very thing that we’re believing.  And we unfortunately, usually will hold fast to those beliefs, and we will maintain them as truth. It’s not the truth. It’s absolutely not the truth, but sometimes someone has to stand in the gap for us. Someone has to come in and speak against those wrong shame-filled thoughts, erroneous thoughts, these thoughts that rise themselves above the Most High. Scripture says stand against those thoughts that rise up and exalt themselves against the Most High. These thoughts, it doesn’t only have to be about Him and what we believe about Him, sometimes it’s about the erroneous thoughts that we believe about ourselves. Those evil thoughts that go against His knowledge OF US.

I’m excited about that. I’m excited that not only am I able to receive that ministry in my life, as I have for years,

Dreams Versus Fantasy Discussion

Episode #858

05/28/2023

Walk and talk with John Enslow

From Fantasies to Dreams: Embrace the Vision, Experience the Life!

Well hey there, so I have been receiving some feedback from a number of my posts and podcasts and I was really excited about the one guy wrote me some feedback and he was really excited about the podcast and posts that I did about dreams and fantasy and what the difference is. He wrote, “I just listen to the difference between fantasy and dreams. Wow, that one really gets me dude! I guess I always thought that my dreams were too big for what God had for me, so I settled for fantasy.” Connecting that with my shame posts and my shame podcasts…that’s shame. That shame literally speaking shame to that man. I asked him if I could share this and he said absolutely. And I was really pleased because I feel that such a huge distinction whether we were in the shame of our fantasies or whether were in the life of our dreams.

You know fantasies always isolate and separate. Where dreams teem with hope and life. Dreams carry us. Without a vision the people perish. Dreams carry us, vision and dreams carry us. While fantasy drags us down and bogs  us down into hopelessness that any fulfillment will ever be had other than in our thinking. Think about that. So our fantasies literally push us back and hold us back from actually experiencing life and leaves us in an isolated thought chamber of nothingness and hopelessness, hoping to achieve with our fantasies something that could be meaningful all the while being meaningless. I hate it! I hate that our fantasies withdraws us from the actual experience of life.

I don’t know if you’ve read the posts or if you’ve seen the past podcast, I invite you to go do it. The difference is so immense and so crazy because it is a stark difference. And I never want to relegate my life to fantasy while I can be entering into dreams and hope and life and I can experience Him in those. Our dreams are usually connected to our God image, the God that dwells within us, the exchange life.

Our dreams have vision of the Kingdom and hope. It doesn’t even have to be religious or spiritual, because that’s not all that I am. I also am a triune being with a body, and a soul. I am I have to have my emotions touched and my body touched and my physicality touched. And God created me that way to have my spirit and my body and my soul all united towards a Kingdom purpose, but it doesn’t have to necessarily be a spiritual purpose. It can be a life purpose. It can be a connected purpose. Christ, amazingly, Christ wasn’t always about spiritual things. He was about things that were very, very connected to the earth. All His parables were connected to the earth, because He was trying to get our body and our soul in line with our spirit, so that we would be Kingdom people. And that’s what happens when we enter those dreams.

Even if it’s dreams for our family, we experience them by entering into them, and focusing on them, and allowing them to take over and to become our reality. Become our life, give us the direction that we’re looking for.  Where fantasy, it just boils us down to a soulish desire.

From Shame to Wholeness

Episode #857

05/21/2023

Walk and talk with John Enslow

Overcoming shame to experience freedom from shame’s devastation and isolation.

Hey there, I wanted to talk about shame again. I’m really on that, as I’m writing this book, I’m just fascinated with the subject because I’m seeing the power to destroy shame which is outstanding. It’s beautiful! I’m also working on a book on the Will of God. That one is done. I have a final read through and then I’m gonna be trying to get that one out. It’s called His Will Alone and it’s about how to know the Will of God and live in its many benefits. So I’m looking forward to that one coming out and being available. As I’ve read through it in the last two days, I’ve just been like: OK, this is really good! This is giving a good picture of how to enter into the Will of God. That one will be coming out, actually before the shame one.

I’m still collecting the stories from shame and the testimony of shame, overcoming shame, overcomed shame, as well as shames that are looking to be overcome. So that’s gonna be a really amazing thing. Today I want to hear that shame makes us deaf, as well as mute. You might say how could it make you deaf and mute? Well shame leaves us trapped in a shame filled echo chamber in fear that we will be found out and disconnected. As I’ve said a number of times shame’s isolating, shame literally separates us and makes us feel less then and we are afraid of being found out.

Whatever the shame is, we’re shamed of it, and afraid to expose it to anyone, and we hold dear to self protect us. But what I’ve learned is having curiosity and compassion for our self and shame will help give way to discovering the path to wholeness. And I want to see wholeness. I have experienced great shame in my life, debilitating shame my life and shame that I literally could not overcome. And then the Lord has done a work to crush that shame, and kill that shame, and I have been enriched because of it. I have been impacted so deeply as I have literally come out of the prison of shame in certain areas and walked free. I’m loving it, it’s night and day different.

I’m not saying I totally overcome shame, that I have no shame in my life because I think shame is inherently human. Shame is what we in the human condition our fallen human condition, we deal with shame. We deal with the shame of our nakedness, we deal with the shame of our exposure, we deal with the shame of our sin, we deal with the shame of our circumstances. We just deal with shame on a regular basis. And I think that the Lord is really desiring to crush that because ultimately not only does it separate me from me, me from others, but it separates me from God. Nothing can separate me from the love of God, but I can live separated in my thinking. I can live separated in shame, fearful, just like Adam and Eve did.

Adam and Eve left the tree and they were ashamed, and they were separated from God.  In reality? No, but in their concept, absolutely! They had to put on clothes, they had to put on fog leaves to prevent themselves from being seen. They were isolated in the clothing of their own making. And they were deaf and they were mute until God said, “Who told you, you were naked?

So I really want this to be powerful. I’m asking you for your prayers because I really really want this to be powerful. I want this to have the impact to hit it, and it may not knock down all the shame but if you can literally give a reverberation of freedom and wholeness. The possibility even…I’m excited. I’m really excited! So thank you for listening. Thank you for following and I love you guys. I appreciate your prayers. I appreciate your input. I appreciate your connection. I’ve had a number of guys reach out and basically tell me what this is meaning them and telling me that they have ...

Shame is either a signpost or headstone. Shame is a directional marker or gravestone, receive it's assessment or use it to learn from.