This conversation I have with Jennifer Awili is one I'll be thinking about for a long time. She's a 34-year-old accountant from Uganda who felt a quiet prompting from God to go speak to eight men drinking alcohol on the edge of a war zone... and forty people gave their lives to Christ that afternoon. Four years later, over 150,000 people have come to the Lord through a movement she never planned to lead.Jennifer Awili is an accountant with Open Grace International, a disciple-making organization based in Uganda. She leads a grassroots DMM (Disciple Making Movement) in the Karamoja region, one of the most dangerous and historically violent areas in East Africa.Here's what we explore:▪️ The fear Jennifer had to push through to walk up to those eight men... and what happened when one of them, around 60 years old, started crying and asking if God could really forgive someone like him▪️ How the Karamoja region, a place where people locked their doors at 6:30pm out of fear, is now experiencing real, measurable peace because ex-warriors are leading discipleship groups▪️ The oral learner method Jennifer's team uses to disciple people who can't read or write, and how it multiplies through wives sharing with husbands and parents sharing with children▪️ What Jennifer says it actually feels like when God is speaking... and how she knows the difference between a random thought and a real prompting▪️ The four-tier leadership structure (facilitators, coordinators, coaches, coach of coaches) that allowed this movement to grow far beyond what Jennifer could manage alone▪️ Miracles she's witnessed firsthand, including more than 20 women who had been barren for over 15 years conceiving after prayer▪️ What Jennifer would say to any woman... or anyone... who feels too ordinary, too disqualified, or too afraid to take the step God is inviting them intoChapters: 00:00 Intro01:43 Jennifer's Background and the Karamoja Region04:50 The Day She Obeyed: Eight Men, Forty Lives, One Afternoon07:40 How the Gospel Brought Peace to a Place Known for Violence15:53 What Listening to God Actually Sounds Like in Practice24:06 Miracles and God Using People Nobody Expected31:25 What Jennifer Would Say to Anyone Afraid to Take the StepIf Jennifer's story stirred something in you, I'd love for you to sit with it. She doesn't have a website or a formal donation page. She's just an ordinary person doing extraordinary things, and all of what you give goes directly to her and the movement she's leading.💛 Support Jennifer and the movement in Uganda - https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/help-jennifer-and-the-movement-in-uganda🔗 Join The Receive Academy - https://receiveacademy.com/🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge - https://hearinggodchallenge.com/

This conversation I have with my friend Laurie Shopland opened with a prayer, and what surfaced in that prayer set the tone for everything that followed. Laurie's story includes a stranger who walked up to her husband in a church lobby one Sunday, told him he was actually there to talk to her, and delivered a word so specific that she's read it at least once a week ever since. In this conversation, we trace how she got from ritual religion and real anger at God... to 4:30am morning prayer with her husband, a three-year TED Talk journey through two rejections, and what it looks like when God starts inviting you further out than feels financially safe.Laurie Shopland is a coach and speaker from Canada who works at the intersection of emotional wellbeing, identity, and truth-telling. She recently gave a TEDx Talk on truth-telling and the misuse of non-disclosure agreements, and she's on a path of what she describes as being a lighthouse to the nation.Here's what we explore:▪️ Why we discount what God says to us through other people... even when it's exactly right▪️ Laurie's faith story: from a denomination of ritual (not relationship), through loss and anger at God, to a Holy Spirit moment she didn't go looking for▪️ What secular corporate coaching looks like when you know every moment of peace is the Holy Spirit▪️ The fear underneath the invitation to bring God more explicitly into her work, and the financial scarcity sitting under that▪️ Three years and two rejections: the TED Talk journey and why the timing couldn't have been any earlier▪️ Learning to stop softening what you hear from God and just stand in it▪️ A vision of a clock and a little toy, and why those two images have become her daily anchorChapters:00:00 Intro and Introducing Laurie Shopland02:06 Opening Prayer03:32 The Vision Story: When God Confirmed Himself Through a Stranger09:41 Laurie's Faith Story: From Ritual Religion and Anger to a Holy Spirit Encounter13:58 Helping People Find Peace in Corporate Settings Without Saying "God"17:15 The Fear of Going Further With God-Language at Work20:41 Three Years, Two Rejections, and the Perfect Timing of a TED Talk27:20 What Daily Listening to God Actually Looks Like31:05 Learning to Speak With Authority About What You Hear From God40:50 The Clock and the Stillness: Trusting God's TimingIf something in this conversation landed for you, I'd just love for you to sit with it... and notice what God might want you to receive from it.🔗 Check out Laurie's work - https://shoplandcoaching.com/🔗 See Laurie's TEDx Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Ftcp5WOf4🔗 Join The Receive Academy - https://receiveacademy.com/🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge - https://hearinggodchallenge.com/

This conversation I have with my friend Ashley Romney started with a simple question about her journey with God, and somewhere in the middle of it she said something that caught me off guard... I had to stop and just sit with it. Ashley is a coach for young women, helping them move through shame and into the truth of who they are as loved children of God, and she was a client of mine before this. We get into what it actually looks like to stop earning your worth and start receiving it.Ashley Romney is a coach for young women who walks them through shame and the things that block us from living into our identity as loved beings. You can connect with her at https://ashleyromney.com/Here's what we explore:▪️What changes when you stop seeing God as a "Santa Claus god" who's keeping a list▪️The five-year relationship Ashley stayed in trying to save someone, and what finally helped her take the leap▪️How she went from receiving everything through other people to hearing God for herself▪️"Love is all that exists" and what it does to your fear when you actually believe it▪️The porcupine and the puppy dog... a picture of what it looks like to learn to receive love▪️Why she competed in nine pageants, never won the crown, and how God showed her she was "secret Miss Murray" all along▪️Why your worth was never actually in questionChapters:00:00 Meeting Ashley and Why This Conversation Stayed With Me01:31 The "Santa Claus God" and Trying to Earn Worth06:41 Building Faith Back and Learning to Hear God for Herself11:40 When "Love Is All That Exists" Started to Change Everything17:23 The Porcupine and the Puppy Dog: Learning to Receive Love20:17 Nine Pageants, No Crown, and Being "Secret Miss Murray"33:21 Seeing God as a Partner Who Has Faith in YouIf something in this conversation stirred something in you, I'd love for you to just sit with it. Worth was never in question... maybe that's worth receiving today.🔗 Join The Receive Academy - https://receiveacademy.com/🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge - https://hearinggodchallenge.com/🔗 Connect with Ashley - https://ashleyromney.com/

This conversation I have with Julie Obenchain is one I've wanted to record for a long time. She's been showing up to the daily Receive Experience call every single morning for three years, longer than anyone else in the community. And in that time she's navigated heart surgery, dialysis, kids who've walked away from God, and seasons where the heavens felt completely silent. What she shares here is real.Expect to learn what it actually looks like to keep showing up to God when He's not removing the burden, how "little nuggets" of truth from God can carry more weight than a hundred answered prayers, what Julie received when she asked Jesus what makes Him laugh, how the word "repentance" shifted from shame to something she could actually do, why mission and activity follow relationship rather than the other way around, and more...Chapters:00:00 When Pressure Creeps Into Ministry and What To Do With It05:04 Julie's Story: Heart Surgery, Dialysis, and Silence From God09:26 When Kids Walk Away and God Says "Just Keep Loving Them"13:22 Why Small Nuggets of Truth Are Enough to Change Everything17:00 How Julie's View of God Has Shifted Through the Hard Years23:21 Jesus Spinning in the Office Chair and What It Revealed45:00 Living From Identity Instead of Striving Toward MissionIf something in this conversation stirred something in you, I'd love for you to sit with it. And if you want to go deeper, come find us at The Receive Academy.🔗 Join The Receive Academy - https://receiveacademy.com/🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge - https://hearinggodchallenge.com/

This conversation I have with Beatty Carmichael is one I've been thinking about since we recorded it. Beatty has spent decades learning to trust God at His word through financial near-disasters and real-world healings, and what he shares here is deeply biblical... and quietly life-changing.Beatty Carmichael is a businessman, author, and healing practitioner and the author of The Prayer of Freedom.Expect to explore what it actually means to take God at His word in financial crisis, how Beatty tripled his giving while broke and why the math still worked, what scripture says about the connection between unconfessed sin and physical sickness, the heavenly courtroom framework and why pleading the blood of Jesus isn't just metaphor, and how anxiety, chronic pain, and addiction can disappear through confession and repentance.Chapters00:00 Tripling His Giving While Broke: The Story That Started It All06:37 The $25 Test: What Happened When Beatty Gave 45% of His Income11:38 Naaman's Story and Why Faith Is Just Obedience19:14 "If You Believed I Would, How Would You Be Acting?"25:30 Learning to Hear God's Voice and Why Beatty Stopped Trusting Men to Interpret Scripture32:00 How Sin Creates a Legal Opening for the Enemy40:00 The Heavenly Courtroom Vision and Pleading the Blood of Jesus58:32 The Biblical Pattern: Sin, Sickness, and Confession01:06:12 Anxiety Gone in Four Minutes: A Real Story from the Prayer Line01:12:03 Catherine's Story: Heroin, Migraines, and Anxiety — All GoneIf something in this conversation stirred something in you, I hope you'll sit with it... and maybe even bring one part of it to God and ask Him what He wants you to do with it.🔗 Beatty's Book & Resources — https://theprayeroffreedom.com/🔗 Join The Receive Academy — https://receiveacademy.com/🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge — https://hearinggodchallenge.com/

This conversation I have with my friend Sylvia is one I've been wanting to share for a while. She tells the story of how fear and anxiety almost led her and her family into a polygamist offshoot religion... and the quiet moment at a friend's doorway that brought her back. Sylvia has six kids, homeschools, and has learned to hear God in a way that's woven through her ordinary days.

My friend Sylvia is a mother of six, a homeschooling mom, and someone who has been showing up to the Receive Experience call in the mornings. What I love about her story is the honesty of it... she's not pretending she always heard God clearly. She walks us through what it actually felt like to swallow a lie, to feel God's love drain out of her, and then to feel that first little ping of the Spirit returning.

Here's what we explore:

▪️What it feels like to reach "sideways instead of up" to God

▪️The subtle moment of choice she missed before going down a path of fear

▪️How logic helped her reason her way back to a loving God

▪️The story of Ruth and what it taught her about being led

▪️A simple practice for hearing God in the small things (yes, even pancake batter)

▪️How Sylvia partners with God in parenting six kids and homeschooling

▪️Why God's voice never sounds like condemnation, and what to listen for instead

If something in this conversation stirs something in you, I just invite you to sit with it. And if you want to start practicing hearing God for yourself, the Hearing God Challenge is a great place to begin.

🔗 Join The Receive Academy - https://receiveacademy.com/

🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge - https://hearinggodchallenge.com/

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

02:31 When I Almost Joined a Polygamist Community

03:34 Reaching Sideways Instead of Up to God

05:25 The Subtle Moment I Felt God's Love Drain Out of Me

08:36 The Dinner and the Sentence That Brought Me Back

10:41 How Logic Helped Me Believe God Is Love Again

14:13 Learning to Partner With God in Parenting

19:16 What the Story of Ruth Taught Me About Being Led

26:35 Hearing God in Sensations, Pancakes, and Everyday Life

33:11 Why Condemnation Isn't God's Voice

I sat down with my friend Johs Wu for what started as a casual catch-up — and somewhere in the middle of it, something clicked for me that I'd been holding onto as a question for a long time. If you watch this one, I'd love for you to guess in the comments what that insight was.Johs Wu is a coach, author, and Identity Exchange practitioner who has spent years helping people discover who God calls them and walk in it. He's also the author of The Golden Wish Junior, a picture book about identity and breaking generational patterns.Expect to hear about what happens when your true identity becomes another thing to perform, how God speaks in far more ways than we think to notice, why the "harvest is plentiful" passage might mean something completely different than what most sermons say, what Peter's denial actually reveals about perfect love, and what it looks like to move from doing this stuff out of fear to doing it out of love — and more...Chapters:00:00 Welcome and Intro to Johs Wu02:10 The Book Johs Wrote About Identity and Generational Patterns07:25 What "Friend First" and "Light Bringer" Actually Mean to Live Out13:19 When Living from Your Identity Becomes Striving28:47 Why God Shows Us Things That Haven't Happened Yet30:04 Peter's Denial and What Perfect Love Actually Looks Like36:00 Asking God What He Means — Not Just What He Said40:19 How Any Good Practice Can Become Performance53:09 Is Intentional Practice a Formula or a Muscle?1:05:43 The Last Word God Put on Johs's HeartIf something in this conversation stirred something in you, sit with it. And if you're ready to go deeper in hearing God for yourself, the links below are a good place to start.📖 Get Johs's book The Golden Wish Junior — https://amzn.to/48wITPA🔗 Join The Receive Academy — https://receiveacademy.com/🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge — https://hearinggodchallenge.com/#HearingGod #IdentityInChrist #ListeningPrayer #SpiritualFormation #ReceiveAcademy

I sat down with Adam Cruz to talk about something I think a lot of us feel but rarely name out loud — what happens when your drive to build and create is running on fear instead of freedom. Adam nearly lost everything chasing success, and what he found on the other side changed how he thinks about ambition entirely.Adam Cruz is a coach, entrepreneur, and the founder of Healed to Hustle. He's spent years studying what makes high achievers collapse — and what it looks like to build something meaningful without burning everything else down in the process.Expect to hear about the seven hidden inner life variables that determine whether your ambition sustains or destroys you, why your real motivation is almost never what you think it is, what it actually looks like to hustle from a healed place, the simple morning habit Adam keeps coming back to when everything starts to unravel, and what changes when you start asking "why am I doing this?" as a daily practice rather than a crisis question — and more...Chapters:00:00 Welcome and Intro to Adam Cruz01:30 How Adam Nearly Lost Everything He Built06:00 The Seven Hidden Variables That Determine Your Sustainability11:00 Identity Is Where It All Starts16:00 The Six Levels of Motivation (And Why Most of Us Aren't Honest About Ours)22:00 Recharge Routines vs. Achievement in Disguise24:00 Why Adam Touches the Grass Every Morning28:30 What Work Looks Like When You're Not Trying to Earn Anything37:00 Peace Is the New Profit44:30 What God Wants You to Know Right NowIf something in this conversation stirred something in you, sit with it. And if you're ready to take a look at where your own ambition is coming from, Adam's free assessment is a great place to start.🔗 Take the Healed to Hustle Assessment — https://www.thehealedhustle.com/🔗 Join The Receive Academy — https://receiveacademy.com/🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge — https://hearinggodchallenge.com/#HearingGod #HealedToHustle #IdentityInChrist #SpiritualFormation #ReceiveAcademy

I had a conversation with my friend Chris Fox that I didn't record... but the insights were too good not to share. So I pulled the transcript and walked away with 10 things I thought were powerful.This one is about abundance, but probably not the way you're thinking. It's about living from a place of being fully resourced, letting challenges become invitations, and sitting with the question that quietly changes everything: What if my only job today is to be loved?Here's what I share in this video:▪️ How asking "Lord, what do you mean by abundance?" shifts what you actually see▪️ Why every frustration in your life is an invitation in disguise▪️ A simple practice from Baxter Krueger: name five ways God spoke to you today▪️ What happens when you stop looking for the right way to listen and let God out of the box▪️ Why "put it all to death — even the good stuff" might be the most freeing thing the Lord ever says to you▪️ How operating from "I am fully resourced" changes the quality of everything you create▪️ Why safety plus truth is the foundation of any conversation that actually goes somewhereChapters:00:00 Introduction01:17 Insight 1 — What God Actually Means by Abundance05:13 Insight 2 — Every Challenge Is an Invitation in Disguise07:21 Insight 3 — Name Five Ways God Spoke to You Today10:58 Insight 4 — What If There's No Wrong Way?16:53 Insight 5 — Mission Over Rules (The Stagecoach Story)19:54 Insight 6 — Put It All to Death, Even the Good Stuff21:35 Insight 7 — You Are Fully Resourced Right Now25:01 Insight 8 — Your Only Job Is to Be Loved29:25 Insights 9 and 10 — Safety, Truth, and the SandboxIf something landed in this video, I'd just invite you to sit with it for a minute. Ask the Lord which one of these is for you today.🔗 Join The Receive Academy — https://receiveacademy.com/🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge — https://hearinggodchallenge.com/

This conversation I have with Dr. Baxter Krueger is one I've been sitting with since we recorded it. Barry and I get to spend over an hour with a theologian who has spent his life recovering what the early church actually believed about the kind of God we have... not a distant, watching God with a disgusted heart, but a Father who brought His Son, His Spirit, and Himself to live inside every human being. If you've ever felt like you're trying to close the gap between you and God, this one is for you.Baxter Krueger is a theologian, author, and speaker whose work has been described by a Greek Orthodox bishop as "straight out of the heart of Athanasius." He studied under JB Torrance in Scotland and has written several books including The Great Dance, Patmos, and The Mediation of Jesus Christ. His life's work is helping people move from the idea of a faraway God they have to appease... into the lived reality of a Father who is already in them and has never let go.Expect to hear the story of Baxter's son and a camouflaged friend flying through the air on a Saturday afternoon, and how that moment became the clearest picture of the gospel Baxter had ever seen, what it means that the average Christian is committed to the "real absence of Jesus" without even knowing it, how reading Athanasius at a library in Mississippi completely changed how Baxter understood God's nature, why there's no such thing as "just me" and what it looks like to see the Holy Spirit in your ordinary humanity, what it means to take sides with Jesus against the way you see God, yourself, your neighbors, and even your enemies, the practical homework Baxter gives almost everyone he meets, and how to ask Jesus your real name and actually receive an answer.Chapters:00:00 Intro00:03:26 The Real Absence of Jesus in Western Christianity00:13:05 The Book That Changed How Baxter Saw God00:28:45 The Commando Story and the Heart of the Gospel00:41:45 Why Jesus Promised Joy, Not Just Religious Duty00:53:04 Taking Sides With Jesus Against the Way You See01:01:28 The Holy Spirit Is Already in Your Ordinary Life01:07:08 Ask Jesus to Show You Five Ways You've Shared His Life01:22:03 What Could Try to Derail This Awakening01:31:56 Ask Jesus What He Calls YouIf something in this conversation stirred something in you, I'd just invite you to sit with it. And if you want to go deeper into actually hearing from God for yourself, I'd love for you to join us in the Hearing God Challenge. The link is below.🔗 Sign up for the next Hearing God Challenge - https://hearinggodchallenge.com/Connect with Baxter Kruger:https://perichoresis.org/