Walk Boldly With Jesus

How Do I Repent?

Ezekiel 18:30 " Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise, iniquity will be your ruin.”

This first sentence is letting us know that we will be judged based on our own actions. At one time, it was believed that we would be judged based on the actions of our ancestors. This verse corrects this thought. When I looked up this verse on the Enduring Word Commentary, it said, “The error in believing in communal or family salvation or damnation is so serious and dangerous that God unmistakably emphasized the individual’s responsibility before God.

“It may be true that in my physical being I have inherited tendencies to some forms of evil from my father, but in the fact of my essential relation to God, there are forces available to me more and mightier than all these tendencies. Neither righteousness nor evil is hereditary.” (Morgan)

This is important for each of us to understand. We are not bad because our parents were bad. We are not good because our parents are good. We are responsible for our own actions. This is good news. This means we don’t have anyone to blame but ourselves.  This also means all the responsibility falls on our own shoulders. I want to take a minute to look at one line in particular in the Enduring Word Commentary. It said, “In the fact of my essential relation to God, there are forces available to me more and mightier than all those tendencies we might have inherited.” In other words, we don’t have to do this on our own. Even though we will be judged on our actions, we don’t have to have the strength to make the right choices all on our own.

Because we are children of God, we can call on Him to give us strength and to help us make the right choices. The second part of the verse above says to repent and turn from all your transgressions. The verse I discussed in yesterday’s episode told us to repent and return to the Lord. Today’s verse is telling us to repent and turn away from our transgressions. When I was trying to think about what to talk about in this episode it dawned on me that we might not all know how to repent. Repent is one of those words that we all kinda know what it means but we don’t necessarily know how to define it or how to do it. Repentance is more than just saying “I’m sorry.” It’s a heartfelt turning away from sin and turning toward God. Here’s a biblical and practical step-by-step understanding of how one repents:

1. Recognize the Sin

Repentance begins with awareness. We often live unaware of how our choices, attitudes, or habits go against God’s will.

Ask God for clarity. Sin can be obvious (like lying or cheating) or subtle (like pride, bitterness, or fear that blocks faith). Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart.

Listen with humility. Sometimes God uses other people, Scripture, or conviction during prayer to expose what needs to change.

Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Reflection prompt: Where in my life am I resisting God’s way? What attitudes, habits, or relationships might be leading me away from Him?

2. Feel Godly Sorrow (Not Just Guilt)

This isn’t about shame. It’s about recognizing how our sin hurts our relationship with God and others, and it grieves us deeply—not just because of consequences, but because of love.

Worldly sorrow says, “I’m sorry I got caught or hurt someone.”

Godly sorrow says, “I’ve grieved the heart of the One who loves me most. I want to be changed.”

2 Corinthians 7:10 “ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.”

Reflection prompt: Do I feel sorrow because of what my sin cost, or just because it was exposed?

3. Confess the Sin to God

Confession is honest communication with God. It’s naming the sin and agreeing with Him about its seriousness, without hiding or blaming.

Openly admit your sin to God in prayer. Be specific and honest. No excuses or blaming.“God, I’ve been dishonest in my work,” or “I’ve held unforgiveness toward ___."

Confession is not groveling—it's returning to a loving Father who already knows and still welcomes you.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Reflection prompt: What do I need to confess out loud to God today, trusting in His mercy?

4. Turn Away from the Sin (Change Direction)

This is the literal meaning of repentance: to turn. It means letting go of the old and moving toward a new way of living.

Make a conscious decision to change direction.

You may need to delete contacts, change your routine, stop certain conversations, or set up boundaries. This part is hard—but repentance without change is just regret.

Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out,”

Reflection prompt: What do I need to let go of today so I can move toward God?

5. Turn Toward God (Restore Relationship)

Repentance isn’t just about stopping sin—it’s about renewing intimacy with God. When we turn from sin, we turn to grace, peace, purpose, and healing.

Pray, even if you feel unworthy. God is not holding your sin against you—He’s welcoming you home.

Dive into Scripture, worship, community, and His promises.

James 4:8a “ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

Reflection prompt: How is God inviting me to return to Him—not in fear, but in love?

6. Bear Fruit That Shows Repentance

This is the outward evidence of an inward change. You don’t earn God’s love by being good—but real repentance produces visible fruit.

Fruit might look like changed speech, different choices, seeking reconciliation, or serving others with a humble heart.

This fruit grows over time—don’t rush it. Stay connected to God and He’ll transform you.

Matthew 3:8 — “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Reflection prompt: What new actions or habits is God inviting me to develop that reflect a changed heart?

Summary: True Repentance Involves…

Head (Recognizing the wrong)
Heart (Feeling sorrow over it)
Hands & Feet (Turning around and walking in a new direction)

Repentance is not about being perfect—it’s about being real before God. It’s how you return home to His love, over and over again. He’s not angry; He’s ready to embrace you.

Luke 15:20 “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Lord, help us to understand repentance more. Move our hearts and show us where we need to repent. Show us where we have sin in our hearts and in our habits. Please help us to recognize sin in our lives and to repent and turn back to you. Please help us to repent and turn away from that sin. Give us the strength to ask you to show us the sin in our lives and the courage to change our habits so that we can walk away from that sin. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Today’s episode was an example of what I teach in mentoring. Tonight I will go deeper and give more detail into each one of those six steps to repentance. At the end of each mentoring session, I give 2-3 reflection questions to help us stop, talk to the Lord, and really reflect on what we just learned and how it relates to us personally. We look at how we can use what we just learned to make lasting changes in our lives. I invite each one of you to join the mentoring tonight. There is a link below or you can go to the mentoring tab on my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Tuesday: Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Do not be afraid to go forward. I am with you each step of the way. Do not go in the shadows, I keep telling you. Come to me. Come, and I will reveal my light. I will make you a light to others, so that they may come to me and know my love.”

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Repent & Have Your Sins Wiped Away

Acts 3:19 "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out”

Peter is preaching repentance in this verse. He is not the first to preach about repenting and turning back to the Lord. There were many prophets in the Old Testament who preached about repentance. The one that comes to my mind first is Jonah. He knew the power of repentance, and he was asked to go and preach this message to Ninevah. However, Jonah didn’t want to preach this message to Ninevah because he didn’t think they were worthy of God’s mercy. He didn’t want God to save them. He thought they were too far gone for God to save.

Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever felt like you were too far gone for God to save? Maybe you have felt like someone else was too far gone for God to save. Jonah knew how great God was. He knew if they repented and turned back to the Lord that He would save them. Yet, he decided that they didn’t deserve this. He decided they were terrible people and they deserved what they had coming to them, so he fled this calling. He tried to run from the Lord. As much as I would love to judge Jonah and say how wrong he is, I think we can all relate to him.

I think we have all had times when someone has done something and we don’t think they deserve forgiveness or mercy. We almost don’t want them to say sorry because we don’t want to have to forgive them. I think we have all also been in a place where we feel God is calling us to do something, and we don’t want to do it, so we try to run from that calling. We might try to hide from that calling. We know on some level that we can’t really hide from God, but on another level, we really don’t want to do what we are feeling called to do, so we try to hide anyway.

Hiding from God won’t get us anywhere we want to be. When Jonah tried to run away from his calling and hide from the Lord, he was thrown overboard from the ship he was on, swallowed up by a huge fish, and stayed in the belly of that fish for three days before he was spit out onto shore. I don’t think the same would happen to us, but as you can see, nothing good will happen, that is for sure. A better idea is to talk with the Lord. Explain to Him why you don’t feel you can do what He is calling you to do, and then listen to what He tells you. God is smarter than we are. He sees everything, and we only see a small fraction of things. If he is calling us to do something, there is a very good reason, and who are we to judge it? Who are we to question it?

Let me get back to the verse, “"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out” There are three things this verse is pointing out to us. The first is to repent. What does this even mean? According to the Oxford language, Repent means to feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin. The word repentance in the Bible literally means “the act of changing one’s mind.” True biblical repentance goes beyond remorse, regret, or feeling bad about one’s sin. It involves more than merely turning away from sin. Eerdmans Bible Dictionary includes this definition of repentance: “In its fullest sense it is a term for a complete change of orientation involving a judgment upon the past and a deliberate redirection for the future.”

As you can see, when Peter is talking about Repentance, he is not just talking about saying I’m sorry for my sin. He is talking about changing our minds. He is talking about realizing that what we did was wrong and then changing our behavior so we don’t do it again. It doesn’t do us any good if we apologize to God for our sin and then go back to doing the same thing. It also doesn’t do any good if we say sorry, but we don’t actually think we have done anything wrong.

I feel a prompting from the Holy Spirit to take a quick moment to talk about what happens when we feel the Church has rules that we don’t believe in. Maybe you don’t agree with all of the Church’s teachings. You do your best to follow most of their rules, but some you don’t understand or don’t agree with, so you ignore those. You don’t bring them up in confession because you don’t feel you are sinning, because you don’t agree with that rule or that teaching. At my retreat in April, we had a speaker who was in this boat. She was a devout Catholic and followed all the rules and teachings. However, she did not agree with the teaching on contraceptives. She felt that the church had no right to tell her what she could do with her body.

If you want to hear her talk, you can find it on her website, pattyschneier. It is called Prove it God… and He did. I put a link to it in the show notes. Click Here. I don’t have time to recount her whole talk to you, although I really encourage you to listen because it was so good! Even if that is not the thing you don’t agree with, her talk gives you a way to talk to God about the things you don’t agree with and let him teach you. Patty was set in her ways and was convinced of her stance. However, over several days, or maybe weeks, God came in and gave her an understanding she couldn’t ignore. He completely changed her life, her marriage and her family in just a short time once she was ready for Him to show her the truth.

God will do this for you, too! If there are teachings you don’t understand, bring them to the Lord. Ask Him to show you why, help you understand, and renew your mind. You will be surprised at How He works. You will be surprised by the way He responds to you. God doesn’t want our empty promises to change. He doesn’t want us to say what we think He wants to hear. He wants us to truly repent, and if we think we have no reason to repent, then bring that to Him and ask Him to show us where we need to repent. If you ask, He will answer.

He will show you where in your life you need to repent, or what in your life needs to change. An amazing thing about God is that He will show you where you need to change, but He will do it in such a gentle and loving way. He doesn’t usually show you all the places at once. He will begin change in one area, and as you grow in that area, He might show you change in another area. Also, He won’t make you do all the work on your own. If you ask God to help you make the changes, He will. What just came to mind was one of the saints. The Lord told him that He needed to change, and he told the Lord he would change, just not yet. The Lord still used him powerfully when he was ready to change.

Be honest with the Lord. He knows your heart. You can’t hide anything from Him. If there are things you are struggling with, bring them to Him and ask for help, knowledge, or guidance. He will help you. You don’t have to do this alone. He will be happy to help you and to guide you. He is not asking for perfection. God is just asking that you try to do your best. He has so much mercy. He is so patient and so forgiving. All He wants is for us to try and for us to invite Him into the struggle so He can help us.

The second thing the verse is asking us to do is to turn back to the Lord. This can be hard if whatever we did was so bad that we think we don’t deserve to turn back to the Lord. God is always waiting for us to turn back to Him. He is waiting for us to come back to Him, and He is waiting with open arms. There is nothing you can do that would prevent you from coming back to the Lord if you want to. If you are sorry for what you have done, He forgives you. It is that simple. It is not complicated with the Lord. Maybe in the Old Testament, it might have been a bit harder because there were all these rules about what you needed to sacrifice in order to be forgiven. That is not the case anymore.

When Jesus died for our sins, He paid the ultimate sacrifice. He fulfilled all the requirements for sacrifice. We no longer have to do anything except be sorry, change our ways, and turn back to the Lord. Some might be wondering what “turn back to the Lord” means. Does that mean I have to instantly follow all the rules and the teachings of the church? I think my answer may vary from others, but what I feel the Lord has put on my heart is no. If you are far from the Lord, if you have been away from the Church for a long time, if you aren’t sure what you believe, but you want to know more. I think it is ok to invite God in and then ask Him to lead you to where you need to be.

Many of us think we need to be perfect to invite God in. Many of us feel we aren’t ready to go to church each week. We aren’t prepared to be all in, so we can’t invite God in. We think we will just disappoint Him because we aren’t ready to do everything yet. God knows your heart. He knows where you are at and He is very patient. Please don’t wait until you are ready to be all in before you invite God in. He wants you to invite Him into the mess. He can help you grow. He can help you overcome all the things that are standing in the way of you being with Him. He can help you, but only if you invite Him in, only if you give Him permission to work in your life. God is a gentleman, and He will not come in where He is not invited.

The last thing this verse talks about is that when you repent and turn back to God, your sins will be wiped out. Did you know that God does not remember your sins once you have repented of them? Hebrews 8:12, "For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” God is merciful towards us, and He does not remember our sins. Isn’t this amazing? I know you may not be able to forget all you have done, but God wipes them away.  He does not remember them. Wouldn’t it be great to have your slate wiped clean? Wouldn’t it be great to just start fresh?

This is exactly what happens when you repent and turn back to the Lord. When you go to confession, or when you sit with the Lord and tell Him all you have done, and let Him know you are sorry for all the ways you have hurt Him. In the Catholic Church, after we confess our sins, we say an Act of Contrition, and there is one line that always gets me. Here is one version of the Act of Contrition, “O my God, I am sorry and repent with all my heart for all the wrong I have done and for the good I have failed to do, because by sinning I have offended you, who are all good and worthy to be loved above all things. I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid the occasions of sin. Through the merits of the Passion of our Savior Jesus Christ, Lord, have mercy.”

The line that gets me every time is when it says, “but most of all because they offend you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love.” There is another version that says, “But most of all because they offend you, my God, whom I should love above all.” Every time I say that, I am reminded of how much love God has for me and how, when I sin, I am choosing something else above God. It is a pretty powerful reminder to me to choose God first. To put God first. That doesn’t mean I always do, because I am human and I mess up a lot. But I love going to confession and saying the act of contrition to remind myself.

Whether you go to confession with a priest or you take your sins directly to the Lord, He wants us to repent, He wants us to turn back to Him, and as soon as we do, He forgets our sins. He wipes the slate clean. It can be scary to go to confession. It can be scary to sit and think of the ways we have offended the Lord, especially if it has been awhile, or if we have never done it, and yet, once you do, you will feel this weight lifted off your shoulders. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that stuff wiped clean? What are we waiting for?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Lord, help us understand repentance more. Help us to see all the ways we are hurting you, and help us to change. Help us to have a renewal of our minds. Help us to turn back to you, Lord. Give us the strength to turn back even if we don’t feel we are worthy. Help us to repent Lord. We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to invite you all to mentoring this month. The theme is “Repentance.” We will dig deep and talk about God’s call to repentance, God’s mercy and forgiveness, Evidence of true repentance, God’s joy over repentance, and how repentance leads to new life. There are five Tuesdays in June, so it is a great month to join because there is a bonus week! If you have been thinking about joining for a while, or you have been wondering what it is all about take this as your sign that you should click on the link below and check it out. Or go to the website WalkboldlywithJesus.com and click on the mentoring link.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, do not live in the shadows. Come into the brilliance of my light, and you will see life as it is.”

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A Place Of Abundance

Psalm 66:10-12 “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.”

This month in mentoring, we have been talking about what to do when we have to wait a long time for the answers to our prayers. I know a lot of people who have been sick for a long time, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. I know others who have been struggling for a long time, and there is no deliverance from that suffering in sight. Yesterday’s podcast addressed this, and I feel as though the Lord gave me a deeper understanding as to why sometimes our prayers aren’t answered immediately.

Then I saw this verse this morning, and I thought it was a good one because of the imagery and because of the message. It begins with, “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.” The first thing that comes to mind is that not everything is a test from God. You are not sick because God is testing you. You did not get divorced because God is testing you. God does not create bad things in our lives so that He can test us. This is important to remember. Just like if you have children and they are going through hard times, you may let them struggle a bit so they can learn from the situation, but you did not cause the situation.

God is for you; He is not against you. This is an important fact that can be easy to forget when all seems to be going wrong in our lives. If you are struggling to believe this, I urge you to write it down on a piece of paper or a sticky note and place it somewhere where you will see it multiple times a day. It is the truth. God is FOR you, He is NOT against you. He does not create illness, He is not the author of bad things happening in your life.

All of that being said, God does allow us to go through illness; he allows us to go through hard times because He knows we will be stronger on the other side. He knows we will become different people in that struggle. Who we become in the struggle is up to us. We have to make a choice, or many choices, throughout our struggle to become who we want to be. Going through a really difficult season can help us rely on the Lord more. It can help us become more compassionate to others who are struggling. It can teach us patience and resilience. It can teach us to slow down and to pray more. A lot of good can come out of having to struggle. We have to choose that, though.

Going through a really difficult season can also have the opposite effect. Some people turn away from the Lord when they are struggling. They are angry, they don’t understand why it is happening, and instead of leaning in, they turn away. It can also harden people’s hearts and make them angry and bitter. It can make them resentful because they are suffering and others aren’t. They might be frustrated that they can’t do all the things they want to do and they take it out on others.

As I said, if you want to come out better on the other side, you have to make a choice. Actually, you will need to make a lot of choices throughout the difficult season. All day, every day, you will be faced with choices to lean into God or to turn away. You will be faced with choices of developing more compassion towards others or hardening your heart towards others. You can search for things to be grateful for, or you can find reasons to be jealous of those more fortunate. You can be bitter or you can be joyful.

I want you to know that I am not saying any of this will be easy. It is not easy to choose to believe in God when you feel like He is taking everything away from you, or you feel as though He made you sick. It is not easy to be joyful when you are stuck in bed and are in so much pain, and you have been this way for months with no end in sight. It is not easy to find joy in the pain. It is not easy to be grateful when you feel like your whole life is falling apart. I know this, I have been in really difficult seasons when I had to make these choices too.

Do you know what, though, it is also not easy to be miserable. It is not easy to be bitter and resentful. It is not easy to have everyone avoid you because you can’t seem to be kind to anyone. It’s not easy to have everyone avoiding you because you are so negative, and all you do is complain. It is not easy to turn away from the Lord and block all the healing, strength, and love He has for you. Life is not easy. No matter what choices you are making, life is not easy. You just have to decide if you are going to make the hard choices that will benefit you or the hard choices that will hurt you. What will you choose?

The ending of the verse today is the part that I wanted you to hear the most. It says, “You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.” We can all probably relate to this verse. We are either in a time like this right now, or we can remember when we have been. We have been in a situation where we felt like the burden was crushing us. The weight alone of what we were going through was too much to bear. Maybe you felt like you had gone through water and fire.

What I want you to know is that God will bring you out of where you are now and He will bring you into a place of abundance. Can you look back on some difficult times that God has already brought you through and see that time of abundance? Abundance means a very large quantity of something. So, it doesn’t mean that you will come out of a difficult situation and suddenly win the lottery. It doesn’t have to be an abundance of money. Maybe you will come to the other side of this hard time, and you will have an abundance of faith or patience. Perhaps you will have an abundance of understanding, love, wisdom, and strength. Maybe you will come out of all of this with an abundance of gratitude or an abundance of people surrounding you. I am not sure what your “place of abundance looks like, but I know it will be there waiting for you. If it is in the Bible, then it is true. If you are still in a difficult place, you can look forward to the place of abundance. If you have been through a hard season and have made it to the other side, look back and try to remember or see that place of abundance.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Bless them and bless their families. Lord, please help us to choose the right path. Help us to make good choices in our suffering and in our pain. Please help us all make good choices throughout the day, even if we aren’t suffering right now. Lord, help us choose you and only things that bring us closer to you. Please help us to focus on the positive and not the negative. Please help us grow closer to you and not turn away. Please help us to be grateful and not bitter. Please help us, Lord! We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Yesterday, I mentioned my newsletter email list, where you will get all the information about upcoming retreats, books, and other news. Today, I want to remind you that you can sign up for the Word of the Day emails. Every day, I email the Word from the Lord that I post at the end of each podcast to the email list. I create an image for the word, and then I send it out 7 days a week. Wouldn’t it be great to start your day with a word from the Lord? CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails. You can unsubscribe at any time by just clicking the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email. I look forward to seeing you again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day! 

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, let not fear take hold of you. Let it not paralyze you. Move beyond your fear, for I am there. I will help you overcome.”

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What Is Expectant Faith?

Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

I heard this verse on the Elevation Podcast this morning. It was not this week’s sermon; it was from May 4, 2025. The episode was titled, “All You’ve Got To Do Is Don’t.” It was a really great sermon, and I invite you to check it out. There were a lot of things that he covered today, but one of them, especially this verse, spoke to my heart and answered a question that I had just been talking to God about while I was at Eucharistic Adoration. I was sitting there talking to the Lord about my disappointment when prayers aren’t answered when I think they should be. This is something I think we all deal with. Yet, I am not sure we all know it is ok to be disappointed.

I am going to share my struggle with you this morning in case anyone else has been struggling with a similar issue. I have spent a long time getting to know God and learning about all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I have spent a long time trying to understand what it means to have the Holy Spirit living inside of me. Trying to understand how to use the power that God sent to us with the Holy Spirit.  I have been learning about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how to use them for at least 7 years now in the Charismatic Renewal. I have just spent 2 years becoming equipped and activated to use those gifts through the Encounter School of Ministry, Boston Campus.

I tell you all of this to say that I have come to know God well over the last 8 years. I have come to know how much He loves us and how he wants us all whole and healed. He doesn’t want any of His children to suffer. He doesn’t want a single one of us to be lost or separated from Him. I know all of this, and so when I pray with someone for healing or for something else, and I don’t see results, I get confused. This may seem prideful, and this may seem like I am trying to take credit for the healing. I am not sure what this says about me. I am just being honest with you and letting you know how I feel.

Here is what I wrote in my journal this morning when I was coming to the Lord for answers. “Lord, why do I get so upset waiting for your timing? Why do some people have to wait so long for relief? Why does my friend still need to have nightmares, and why is my other friend still blind? Why lord? What am I missing? I feel we do believe. I feel we are coming to you in expectant faith. We are asking in Jesus' name. So why the delayed answers? Why isn't everyone healed? Am I doing something wrong? Am I not doing something I should be? Is something else getting in the way? Please help me to understand.”

Here is what I felt like the Lord said back to me. "My dearest daughter, it is not you. You are not the one healing. I am. I can heal through imperfect people. I can heal even if you don't say or do the right thing. I can use you even though you weren't perfect.”

I replied in my journal, “What about when Jesus ' apostles couldn't get the demon out of that man's son, and Jesus said Oh, faithless generation, how long will I be with you? This is confusing to me because it does seem like it was the disciples' fault, almost. It seems like Jesus was saying that they didn't have enough faith or they didn't pray enough. What am I missing, Lord? Please help me to understand this better.” I also wrote down two verses from this section. Mark 9:23 “Jesus said to him, ‘If I can! Everything is possible to one who has faith.’” and Mark 9:24 “The boy's father said, ‘I do believe, help my unbelief.”

This is when my hour of adoration ended, and I needed to get home to wake Ryan up for school. I figured I would talk to the Lord about this later, as I was still not sure what I was missing. Then I heard this verse on my way home; I felt like the Lord was speaking it directly to me. Here is the verse again, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” The words that the Lord highlighted for me were IN DUE SEASON. I felt like the Lord was telling me that only He knows when it is the right time for something to happen. I know his timing is best. I know He knows all, and that He can do all. I know all of this, and yet when I am praying for someone, I am expecting immediate results because I know God wants everyone healed. I know He doesn’t want to see His children suffer.

I know all of this, and that is why I get so confused. I don’t understand why He won’t just take this from them. I know He can use it for good, and yet I also know He can do anything, so He could teach them what He wants to teach them in a different way. I just don't want to see people suffering. I want God to take this from them. I feel the Holy Spirit putting on my heart that this is the same in my own life. I want to take the suffering away from my kids or my loved ones, and yet sometimes that is not what they need. Sometimes they need to go through it to get to the other side. Sometimes, when we keep people from suffering, we are robbing them of the lessons and the blessings they will gain by going through the suffering.

God doesn’t need my friend to have the nightmares in order for her to learn a lesson or gain the blessings, yet this might be better than the alternative. Or the blessings might be greater than if she didn’t go through this. For instance, maybe He will use this experience to help her be a more powerful intercessor for others who are tortured in this way. My friend doesn’t need to be blind in order for God to accomplish what He is doing, and yet God has a plan, and as much as I don't understand it, it is much better than my plan, and it will all make sense one day.

Let’s look at the verse again. "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Let us not grow weary of doing good. This is something that Steven Furtick addressed in the sermon he gave, and it really spoke to me. What he said can help us not to grow weary and not to give up. He said it is not the work, or the doing good, that makes us weary. It is the expectations. Man, this hit me right in the heart. Praying for people does not make me weary. My expectations of the outcome of those prayers can sometimes make me weary.

I feel as though the Lord was speaking to me about expectant faith this morning with this message. I mentioned in my journal entry that my friends I mentioned above and I are coming to the Lord with expectant faith, we know God can heal them, and we are asking in Jesus’ name, so why aren’t they being healed? First, as I wrote, I realized that they are being healed in so many ways, just not the way I thought they should be healed. He is working on so many things with them. They feel His presence so much more than they did before all the prayer. He is working. Second, I feel the Lord was convicting me that expectant faith isn’t attached to a timeline. For instance, expectant faith doesn’t mean that I wake up expecting to be healed today. Expectant faith is knowing that my healing, or their healing, is coming in due season. Knowing that we have asked for it, and when we ask, God answers. I feel as though the Lord was convicting me this morning that expectant faith is knowing that God will heal me or them at the right time, and that until that healing comes, He will continue to give me all I need to make it through this difficult time. Expectant faith is knowing that God has this all under control, and although I want it to be over today, I know that God’s plan is better than my plan.  

I feel strongly that God is telling me that my expectations of time are what I need to let go of. God’s ways are higher than my ways, and I won’t understand them, and I don’t need to understand them. I feel as though He is telling me to let go of my expectations of time. I feel He is telling me that expectant faith is praising him for the healing, even though I don’t see it yet. Praise Him for delivering my friend from her nightmares, even though she hasn’t been delivered yet. Not because I see proof of that delivery. Not because I see proof of that healing. Praise Him because of my expectant faith that the healing and the deliverance are coming on His timeline and that if we don’t give up, if we don’t grow, we will reap the harvest.

I pray this is for someone else besides me this morning. I pray that if you are waiting for answers to your prayers, this will bring you some comfort. I pray you will join me in releasing the expectations of “when” and start praising the unseen answers. I pray you will start praising the Lord with expectant faith that He will answer your prayers, in due season, and that you will eventually reap the harvest of all those prayers and all that expectant faith!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Lord, please help us to have expectant faith and to release our expectations of timelines. Lord, help us to know that your time is better than our time and your plan is better than our plan. Help us to be humble and to release our expectations of when and how. Lord, let us praise you for answering our prayers in any way you want. Let us not grow weary of doing good, and let us not give up. Let us trust that you will give us whatever it is we need to get through this hard time. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in the name of Jesus! Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am trying to get my devotional book about Identity out into the world by the end of June, so be on the lookout. If you are not already signed up to get my email newsletter so you can stay informed of any books, retreats, talks, etc., please click on the link below. I don’t send a lot of emails, just one per week with all the info.  CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “The pillar of fire by night was not only to enable my people to move forward. As they moved forward, it was also a shield impenetrable by their enemies.”

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Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Salvation Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

Denice: My grandson, Elijah (age 19), was an unbeliever his entire life. I’ve been praying that he would find God. He was invited to a Bible study that 2 of his good friends started. He was resistant at first, but his friends never stopped inviting him. And finally, he gave in and went. I wept with joy.

A few months into this study, Elijah asked me if he could host the study at my house. I couldn’t say “Yes!!” fast enough!

 25 kids, aged 15 to 29, showed up that Wednesday night and filled my entire living room. I was so proud of this group telling them they are disciples on the ground – that we are living the year of the Lord’s favor today. I told them the Gospel is still moving, and they are a part of it. They are no different that the 12 disciples they are reading about in the Bible. Discipleship is still happening through you and me, and the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. The Kingdom will spread in you and through you. The Gospel works because of who Jesus is; not because of us. I am proud to be a seed.

These young people take turns leading the study and I have had the pleasure to sit in on several of their studies. It blows my mind. My oldest grandson, Justus (age 29) has also joined this group and has never missed a Wednesday night. I can see the changes in both of them. God is so good… And to witness this is powerful. These young people, dedicated to the Lord, are now getting together on Thursday as well!

They were studying sin, and I reminded them that the Living God does not hate sin because you broke a rule. He hates sin because it breaks you. Sin weakens you. And that sometimes we pray for our circumstances to change when maybe God wants YOU to change in the circumstance.

I am so proud of this group of young people. It has become a great opportunity to share my faith and to watch God move in their lives.

This is what prayer can do….  So don’t stop praying!

Next is Brad:

Hello West Family,

I would like to share with you my testimony of opening my heart to Jesus Christ and how He completely changed my life.

My mom left my father when I was around one year old. She soon remarried my stepfather, who she is still married to today. He had two daughters and one son. His son stayed with us more often than the daughters did, so I instantly gained a brother who I grew up with. He became like a blood brother to me.

We were raised going to church, but as time went on, we attended less and less due to constant fighting between my mother and stepfather. My biological father was barely in my life and lived in California, while I lived in Kansas. As we stopped going to church, it felt like my mom and stepfather became increasingly strict with us, and discipline became harsh—belts and paddles, being slapped in the face, soap shoved down our throats, etc.

Time passed, and we went through the typical phases—Boy Scouts, sports, family activities—and while at times it seemed harsh, there were good times as well. I was diagnosed with depression in my early teens and was quickly put on medication, as that seemed to be the only solution at the time.

As we got older, my brother moved out after graduating from high school. For his 21st birthday, he invited me to the lake with his friends. But at the last minute, he told me they weren’t going to the lake anymore and that I couldn’t hang out with them, probably because they planned on going to bars and drinking. That hurt me deeply.

So, on the night of my brother’s birthday, I ended up staying at a friend’s house. Strangely, I couldn’t sleep at all. I felt as if something wasn’t right. As I was tossing and turning, I heard my friend’s phone ringing in the middle of the night, which struck me as odd. His mom called downstairs to me, saying the phone was for me. I answered, and it was my mom. She told me something had happened, but she couldn’t talk and handed the phone to my sister. I was told that my brother Jason had been in an automobile accident and didn’t make it. My brother and his friend had both decided to leave an Applebee’s restaurant after drinking heavily and get into my brother’s friend’s brand-new Firebird. They made the tragic decision to drink and drive. They were traveling at a high rate of speed when they hit a telephone pole. My brother died instantly, and his friend barely made it out alive.

In an instant, my whole life changed. From that moment on, my life spiraled. I struggled with uncontrolled drinking, sleeping with different partners, failed relationships (one of which resulted in a child), and on-and-off jobs. Nothing seemed to be going right.

I prayed to God for someone to come into my life, and He gifted me with Elisabeth, who is now my ex-wife. I jumped into that relationship quickly. We lived together within three months, married soon after, and had two children. She essentially became the mother to my first child, as her mother was in and out of jail and struggling with drugs.

We bought a house, had three kids, and life seemed good. I opened my heart to God, and we attended church. But then, I wanted to live life my own way instead of following the path God had planned for me. Ultimately, I lost everything. Elisabeth and I divorced and ended up selling the house.

For the past 10 years, I tried living life on my terms. My mental health deteriorated, I was drinking excessively, and I even started taking pills. I slept with multiple women, and everything spiraled out of control. I treated my children poorly, and my anxiety, stress, and worries were overwhelming.

However, a couple of months ago, I made the decision to open my heart fully to Jesus Christ once again. I’ve completely changed my mindset and behavior. I am now more mindful of how I interact with people, especially at work, and I’m committed to not treating people poorly or gossiping about them. I’ve started reading the Bible every day and am trying to live by its teachings.

My children and I now go out and write Bible verses and encouraging messages on sidewalks with sidewalk chalk. We listen to Christian artists like you and sing along together in praise to Jesus. I even took my children to their first Winter Jam.

Jesus Christ is alive and can change anyone.

Thank you for your time.

Your Brother in Christ,

Brad

Thank you so much to both of you for sharing your stories. I appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing your story so that others know they are not alone. It also shows them that if God got you through it, he will get them through it too! Thank you so much for sharing!

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Oh Death, You Are Dead To Me!

Isaiah 25:7-8 "On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.”

This morning, I was thinking about using a song that I have heard a lot lately, which I thought would be really good and go with the theme of mentoring for this month. Then, while I was driving my son to school, this other song came on the radio, and I felt like it was a song we all needed to hear. The song is called “Oh Death” and is sung by MercyMe. I will go into the song in a bit, but first, let’s talk about this verse.

It begins by saying, “On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers the nations.” It was believed that there was a veil of sorts over the whole land that prevented people from seeing and following the Lord and living the way He wants us to live. I would say this is still true today. The enemy tries to put a veil in front of us so that we don’t want to live the way God wants us to live. He tries to separate us from the Lord.

Before Jesus died on the cross, there was a veil separating us from the Lord that was put there by God. After Adam and Eve ate from the tree, they could no longer have free access to God. From then on, only certain people could see God and talk with the Lord. However, once Jesus died on that cross, that veil was torn in two, literally. (Matthew 27:51). Now we have free access to the Lord. There is nothing separating us from talking with him. He did not want that separation anymore.

However, the enemy likes to put up walls and make us believe that the Lord is too busy for us or that God is too great and we are not worthy to talk with Him. There is definitely some sort of veil over the world that tries to dim God’s light and separate us from Him. The enemy wants us to feel separate from God because when we feel apart from Him, fear can creep in and try to turn us away from God. This verse is reminding us that God will destroy that veil just as he did the other one.

The next line is the one that reminds me of the song. It says that the Lord will swallow up death forever. I know so many people who are afraid to die. And that makes sense because we don’t want to leave our loved ones and our friends. We aren’t ready to say goodbye yet, or maybe we aren’t sure our loved ones are ready. Will they be ok without us? Will they be ok on their own? These are all questions that go through our minds when we think about death.

We also might be worried about death because no one knows for sure what it is all about. No one knows quite what to expect. We hope that we will be in heaven with God, but then we have the enemy whispering in our ear, telling us we won’t be. He reminds us of all that we have done wrong and tells us there is no way that we will get to be with God, not with what we have done. The enemy is a liar! Don’t believe him. Yes, you may have done some pretty bad things, we all have. Yet, Jesus took all of that to the cross with Him, so don’t let the enemy pile it onto your shoulders again.

The verse above also says, “The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.” God is so gentle and caring that He wipes away the tears from our faces. He not only takes away our pain, but he wipes our tears too! He also removes all disgrace that we have. The devil wants us to keep our disgrace and our shame. He reminds us of it so often that it seems like we will never forget. However, verses like this remind us that God does not hold onto the things we have done after we repent for them. So, if God isn’t holding on to it, why are we?

I wanted to share this song with you today because I know a lot of people who are pretty sick. Several people listening to this podcast are chronically in pain. There are several who are listening who worry about loved ones who are sick. What I love most about this song is the upbeat music and the lyrics. When you feel down, or when you feel like you might be scared of death, or scared that the enemy might be winning the fight, listen to the lyric video of this song and sing along with it. I bet your fear will disappear.

The song begins:

You said my fate was sealed, you said my days were numbered

Case closed with no appeal, my future six feet under

Messin' with my head in ghost fashion

My heart was holdin' its breath (holdin' its breath)

Terrified of takin' my last one

Oh death, you scared me to death

This is what the enemy does. He whispers all these lies in our ears and he does it so often that we start to believe them. This is why it is so important to spend more time reading the scriptures, and surrounding ourselves with people who speak light and truth into our lives. If we hear the lies more often then we hear the truth, of course we are going to believe it. We have to make sure we are hearing the truth more often!

Whoa, you ain't my king though

Whoa, where did your sting go?

Oh death, I will not be afraid

In the end, you will lose

I will dance on your grave with the one who buried you

You ain't nothin' but a stone that my savior rolled away

Set you straight and set me free

Oh death, you are dead to me

(Oh dear, you are dead to me)

This chorus is great because it shows the enemy that we are not afraid. God is our King; He is the one who decides everything. The enemy has no say. If we can stop thinking of the enemy as this giant thing that can take us down and start thinking of him like it talks about him in this song, I am sure we would feel stronger. This song says, “I will dance on your grave with the one who buried you. You ain't nothin' but a stone that my savior rolled away. Set you straight and set me free.”

God already defeated death and sin when He sent His only Son to be sacrificed for us. We don't have to be scared of death. Death was already defeated when Jesus rose again. We don’t have to be scared of it! God already won the war of good vs. evil and death vs. life. I love how the song says that we will dance on the devil’s grave with the one who buried him!

My faith don't flinch, it's alright

Devil, come get off of my shoulder

You thought you had the last laugh

You thought this song was over

Whoa, you ain't my king though

Whoa, where did your sting go?

Oh death, I will not be afraid

In the end, you will lose

I will dance on your grave with the one who buried you

You ain't nothin' but a stone that my savior rolled away

Set you straight and set me free

Oh death, you are dead to me

Oh death, you are dead to me

The enemy always thinks he has the last laugh or the last word. He refuses to accept that he has lost the war. We need to be on guard to protect ourselves from the enemy but we don’t need to be afraid of him. If we are constantly turning back to the Lord. If we are rooted in the Lord and His love for us, then the enemy doesn’t stand a chance!

The song goes on to say:

Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of you

I know I'm just passin' through, oh yeah

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of you

I know I'm just passin' through, oh yeah

Oh death, I will not be afraid

In the end, you will lose

I will dance on your grave with the one who buried you

You ain't nothin' but a stone that my savior rolled away

Set you straight and set me free

Oh death, you are dead to me

I like this last verse too because it reminds us of something very important. It says, “Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of you. I know I'm just passin' through.” This is important for us to know. Yes, we will be in the valley sometimes. Yes, the enemy will attack us sometimes, and yet the Lord is always there with us. He will always be there to save us. We are stuck in that valley, and no matter how much it feels like it, you aren’t going to stay there forever. You are just passing through to pick up whatever you need for your next adventure in life. Maybe you need more perseverance, resilience, strength, peace, healing, whatever it is that this valley is teaching you. You are just passing through to level up so you can make it through the next season of your life.

I pray this song makes you smile. It makes me smile when I hear it on the radio. It makes me smile when I imagine myself dancing to this song on top of the devil’s grave with Jesus. It makes me smile when I think about how God rolled away the stone and rose so we could be forgiven. It makes me smile to remember I am just passing through this valley, and even though it seems like I have been here forever, I will get out of it. I invite you to look up this song on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to music and hear this song today. It really is a great song with a great beat.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today! Lord, we love you. Please help us to remember we are just passing through this valley. Please help us to see that you have already defeated death, and we have nothing to be afraid of. Please help us to walk in your light and not in the darkness. Please help us to stand firm in the truth that you are our Lord and you have defeated evil. We thank you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Be bold. Be not afraid to speak my words to those you meet. Be courageous in times of trouble. I am your God, and I am there to help you.”

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God Never Forgets Us!

Psalm 10:12&14 “Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.”

I like these verses because they remind us that God does not forget us. He sees the trouble we are in. He considers our grief, and He knows how to help us. It reminds us that we need to commit ourselves to the Lord, that He is our helper. It can seem like God forgets us because the enemy makes us feel alone. It can also seem like God forgets us when we have been asking for the same thing for a really long time, and yet it seems like our prayers are going unanswered.

There is a song that came on the radio the other day, and I knew I wanted to share it with you. It is what reminds us that God doesn’t leave our side. It reminds us that He always hears our prayers and He is always working for our good. God is for us, not against us. This can be something that is hard for us to remember for some reason. When we look at this broken world that we live in, it can be easy to believe the lie that God is working against us. He is punishing us for something. He is ignoring us. This is easy to believe at times because that is how we treat each other. That is not how God treats us. He treats us way better than we deserve. The song I am talking about is titled “Never” by Tasha Layton. Here are the words.

When this broken world is breaking me down

When my tears and knees both fall to the ground

When my questions make me doubt You more than ever

You remind me that Your answer is always never

When I first heard this song, I had no idea what she meant. We usually hear that God is a yes God. We usually hear that God will give us what we need, and a lot of the time, He gives us what we want as well. So, when I heard that God’s answer is always never, I was confused. Then I kept listening.

Never forgotten, never forsaken.

Never abandoned, not for a second

I am safe in Your hands always and forever

You're never not working, my heart is the proof

There's not a broken, too broken for You

Will there ever come a day when You're not holding me together?

You say never (oh-oh, oh-oh)

After hearing this chorus, it all made sense! We are never forgotten and we are never forsaken. God is always with us. He never leaves our side. God does not just walk away and leave us up to our own devices. He does not throw His hands up and say that there is nothing He can do here. God is always working on our behalf. We might not see it because he might be arranging things in a way that takes time. But He is never not working. I love the line, “There’s not a broken, too broken for you.”

We can definitely forget this fact all the time. Or, maybe we aren’t forgetting it, perhaps we aren’t believing it. Do you think that you are too broken for God? Do you believe He can fix a lot of things, but He can’t fix you? If you feel this, you are not alone. Many people think that they are too broken for the Lord to fix. We ask why he would want to fix us. Why would he bother when there are so many other worthy people in the world? We think we are a lost cause, and He should spend His time on other people who aren’t as far gone as we are. God created the entire universe with his words. If he can do that, why would we think we are too far gone for Him? Nothing is impossible for the Lord!

I like the next line too. It says, “Will there ever come a day when you’re holding me together? You say never!” You are not going to wake up one day to find out that God has moved on. Maybe you have had that experience with people, but god is not a person. He is not going to leave you and there will never be a day when He is not holding you together. He will always be there with you. Even when you feel like you are broken into a million pieces, He will hold all of those pieces together for you. He is that good!!

Next the song says,

Every single time I look back, I see

There's never been a promise You didn't keep

You don't waste the wounds, You use them for the better

When it comes to You, Your answer is always never

That first line in this section is some good advice. When we feel like God might be abandoning us or leaving us, we can look back over our lives and ask ourselves if He was there. Was there a time when he had abandoned us or left us to our own devices? I am not saying that you can always feel God’s presence, but can you look back and see all the ways he arranged things for you in the past? Can you look back and see that even though it felt like God wasn’t there, He actually was there working in all those situations, too? If you can, this will help you have hope that He is there for you now, too!

The rest of the song repeats the verses above, so I won’t read them all to you. I do think this concept is something that we really need to remember. I will just leave you with the chorus today. If this is something you struggle to believe, take out a piece of paper or take out a sticky note, write down this chorus, and read it often! God says, you are:

Never forgotten, never forsaken.

Never abandoned, not for a second

I am safe in Your hands always and forever

You're never not working, my heart is the proof

There's not a broken, too broken for You

Will there ever come a day when You're not holding me together?

You say never (oh-oh, oh-oh)

Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Lord, help us to truly believe that you will never forget us. You will never abandon or forsake us. Please help us to believe we are always safe in your arms. Help us remember that and run back into your arms whenever we are in trouble. Help us truly internalize the words “there is no broken too broken for you!” Help us to bring our brokenness to you, Lord, instead of trying to hide it. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I had a podcast listener reach out to me for prayer yesterday, and she mentioned it took her a while to reach out. I want to reassure all of you that when I say I would love to pray with you, I truly mean I would love to pray with you. Nothing makes my heart happier than praying with people and trying to bring them some relief from whatever they are struggling with. My email is [email protected]. There is also a contact me link below the show notes. If you need prayers, I am happy to pray with you! I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, when I hear you call me, I come running. I don't just walk slowly. I come running. And I run. And I run, and I run. I am never out of breath with my running, so when I arrive, I have all the strength that I need to help you.”

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MY 1,000TH EPISODE!!!

Good Morning! Today’s Witness is about me and my journey with this podcast. Today is my 1,000th episode. I can hardly believe it! Back in 2019, I decided I wanted to change my career. I had my undergraduate degree in psychology and my Master’s degree in Special Education. I was a teacher at a DoD school in Turkey for 2 years when our son Sam was born. Tony and I had both decided before having kids that I would stay home with them when we did have them. So, from Turkey we moved to New Jersey, where we stayed for 5 years, and we had two more boys, Noah & Ryan. I stayed home with the boys through our stay in New Jersey, our move to Germany, and our move to England. When we moved back to Massachusetts, our boys were in 6th grade, 4th grade, and 2nd grade. I decided to try to go back to work.

I was a licensed teacher in NJ, but needed to take the tests in MA to get my license. While I studied for the tests, I decided to substitute teach. Once I got my license, I applied for a few jobs, but all of my teaching experience was now at least 10 years old. I also realized that although our boys were in school they were struggling with things and I couldn’t really get a traditional teaching job because I never knew when I would have to go to school to pick our son up from school, or when one of our kids would refuse to go to school and I would need to stay home to watch him.

I started trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I had done a lot of personal development stuff in the years from 2015, when we moved back to the states, to 2019, when I decided what I wanted to do besides being a wife and mother. I had been talking to a lot of people who were unhappy with some aspects of their lives, and yet they felt stuck. They felt like there was nothing they could do about it. I knew this wasn’t true. I knew there was always something you could do to either change the situation you are in or change who you are in the situation. I decided to become a life coach so I could help people get unstuck. I wanted to help them overcome their challenges so they could live a happy and fulfilling life.

I looked through several programs. One day, I found the Life Purpose Institute. They had a program where you could become a life coach and a spiritual coach. This was perfect for me as my heart really lies in the spiritual coaching, but I also still wanted to help people who were stuck with life issues as well. The program consisted of 60 hours of training. I took the 5-day intensive with four follow-up classes. After doing peer coaching, practice coaching, and taking a final exam, I was finally certified in December of 2019. I made my marketing plan and I was all set to go out and do workshops at local churches and local libraries. I was all set to build this business, and then three months later Covid happened and we were all stuck inside. No workshops, not speaking engagements, my marketing plan went out the window.

It was also difficult because as I was learning how to have my own business and work from home, I also had my husband and three kids at home with me. I figured it out, I got some clients, and I was on my way. In June of 2020, I started a blog. Each week, I would write an article, sometimes about life coaching, but they mostly turned out to be Spiritual in content. I found out that writing about Jesus and my faith came pretty easily to me, much to my surprise. I say I was surprised because just a few years earlier, I was asking the Lord why I was the only person in my family who couldn’t write. My siblings are all great writers. I have two siblings who have published books. My younger siblings are all really good at writing poems. It was just me who felt like I couldn’t write. Either God changed that, or I just hadn’t found what I liked to write about yet.

In 2020, in the month of May, I decided to go on Facebook Live every day. I thought if I can’t go out and get the word out about my business, maybe I could do it on Facebook. At this time, my brother Danny reached out to me and said if I wanted to speak in Public, I should join the Toastmasters Club, which teaches people how to do public speaking and also gives you lots of opportunities to practice. I was nervous, but I decided to give it a try and found out I really liked it. I even won awards in their annual speech contest three years in a row.

For Christmas in 2020, my brother Danny and his wife Jess gave me a Blue Snowball iCE microphone so that I could have it if I wanted to go online or if I wanted to do a podcast. I was so excited. I spent the next few months trying to figure out what to call my podcast, what type of podcast it would be, and so on. My friend Kim helped me come up with the logo for it. I was so excited to see that it was actually happening. At this point, I have been listening to the Big Life Podcast with Pamela Crim for over 3 years now. She does a daily devotional podcast, and it is amazing. You should definitely check it out. I decided that I wanted to do this too. I decided each day  I would take a scripture verse and relate it to real life somehow. I was all set to go.

Except for the fact that I had no idea how to start a podcast. I didn’t know what website to use, what program to use to record it or edit it, how to upload it, or get it out to all the podcasting websites. Luckily, my brother John and his wife Rebecca had been doing a League of Legends podcast for about a year at this point. They actually had another podcast about movie reviews. So, I asked if they could get on a Zoom call with me and teach me. They were happy to help. So, after some help from them, I was able to find some free music on the internet to use to begin and end my podcasts. I wrote my intro and outro, and I was ready to go.

My first episode was released on June 16, 2021. That was a Wednesday. It is funny looking back because I remember thinking I should start on a Monday, but at the same time, I didn’t want to wait any longer. I just wanted to start. Now, almost four years later, I have reached my 1,000th episode. It has been such a fun journey. The podcast has evolved over time. During February 2022, my prayer group decided to do an online Life in the Spirit Seminar. The people who attended said that what they liked best about the seminar was listening to everyone’s experiences about certain topics.

This is when I decided to add “Witness Wednesdays” to the podcast lineup. Every Wednesday, I was hoping to get a different person who would talk about how God was working in their lives. At the beginning, I got a lot of different people. I have also given a lot of the witnesses myself, which was great because it helped me to look at the various events in my life and see how God was working in all of them! Then I discovered the PopWe website from Matthew West and his Father, along with the Global Awakening website and the Encounter Ministry’s website. God is definitely still working powerfully in this world, and so there is no shortage of testimonies out there talking about it.

The next change came when I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to add the words of prophecy that we receive in my prayer group to the end of each episode. I felt like the Lord wanted me to get His word out to more than just those in our prayer group. I also hope that if we get used to hearing what the Lord’s voice sounds like and the types of things he usually says, we can better discern when it is not the Lord’s voice speaking to us. We will hopefully be able to block out or ignore the enemy's voice more easily. If you want to receive a daily email with these Words from the Lord, email me at [email protected]. They really are amazing. It really helps us to get to know the Lord in a different way. It helps us to see him in another light. It also usually happens to be just what you needed to hear that day.

I want to take this time to thank every single person who has listened to even just one of my episodes. It means the world to me that you would take the time out of your day to listen. Thank you to those who have reached out over the years to share your testimony for Witness Wednesday or have just reached out to encourage me and let me know you like the podcast. I am so grateful to God for each and every one of you. Sometimes I will write a podcast, and I think it doesn’t even make any sense, and then someone will reach out and say that the podcast really spoke to them. The Holy Spirit is good like that. He knows what people need to hear and speaks through me. I am well aware that it is not I writing these podcasts alone. I am aware that the Holy Spirit is working through me, and I am so grateful that God is willing to use me.

My goal when starting this podcast was that I could help those who listen walk more boldly in their faith. My goal is to help everyone learn more about what it means to have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. I want everyone to discover the power they have living inside of them. The devil doesn’t want you to know. He wants you to feel alone and weak. This is not the case. You are never alone as God never leaves your side and you are not weak. You have the same Holy Spirit that Jesus had living inside of you. The same one that empowered Jesus to do all of the miracles. The same one that raised Jesus from the dead.

Did you know that Jesus didn’t do any miracles before He was baptized? That is because He chose to only use the human part of himself, along with the Holy Spirit to do miracles. That means that you have that same power living inside of you! What are you doing with it? How are you using it? How could you be using it? John 14:12-14, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Did you hear that? “Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Think of the most amazing thing that Jesus did. That thing that you just can’t believe He could do. Then reread that verse. Do you believe in Jesus? Yes, then you can do the things he did and even greater things. This is the whole point of this podcast. I hope that if you have been with me for a while now, you are starting to realize this to be true. I hope you are starting to understand how powerful you really are. The enemy doesn’t want you to know this, and I am hoping that enough of us start using the power the Lord has given us, and then others see us and they join in, and before we know it, we are all living in the power of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine how different this world would be if we were all aware and living in the power that the Lord gave us?

I love each and every one of you. I am beyond grateful for your support. If you are listening and I don’t know you, I would love to get to know you. Please reach out to me through email at [email protected]. If you would like to give your testimony, send me an email. It really doesn’t take a lot of time and could really help someone else out. If you would like prayers, send me an email. It would be my pleasure to pray with you over the phone or add your prayers to my list of prayer requests. Thank you again for listening and for celebrating this momentous occasion with me!!

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There Is Still Good Ahead

1 Kings 19:3-9 ““Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once, an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”  He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.”

I heard an episode of the Big Life Podcast last week, and it reminded me of the story about the prophet Elijah that I just read to you. As soon as I heard it, I felt the Holy Spirit wanted me to share it with all of you this week.

What came to mind when I heard this verse is that it might be helpful to know that Elijah wanted to give up. In case you don’t know who Elijah is, let me summarize who he was. Elijah was a prophet of God in the Old Testament, known for his bold faith, miraculous acts, and deep emotional struggles. He lived during the reign of King Ahab in 9th century B.C. Israel, a time when the nation had turned away from God to worship false gods like Baal. 

Here are some Key Highlights of Elijah’s Life:

Confronted King Ahab and Jezebel

Elijah boldly declared a drought as God’s judgment (1 Kings 17:1) and later challenged the corrupt leadership promoting idolatry.

Miracles by God’s Power

Multiplied flour and oil for a widow (1 Kings 17:14–16)

Raised her son from the dead (1 Kings 17:22)

Called down fire from heaven to prove God’s power on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:36–38)

Ran for His Life and Struggled with Despair

After his great victory, Queen Jezebel threatened his life. Elijah fled, became discouraged, and asked God to take his life (1 Kings 19:4).

God met him in a gentle whisper, showing that God’s presence isn’t always dramatic—it’s personal and close (1 Kings 19:11–13).

Taken to Heaven

Elijah never died—God took him to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), making him one of only two people in the Bible (with Enoch) who didn’t experience death.

Symbol of the Prophets

Elijah later appears with Moses during Jesus' Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3), representing the prophets alongside the law (Moses).

Elijah did a lot for the Lord. He was close to the Lord, and the Lord used him to do amazing things! He knew how mighty the Lord was, yet he felt he wanted to die. He felt like what the Lord asked him to do was too great. Sometimes, when we feel like giving up, we feel weak. We feel like we have failed or let the Lord down because He trusted us, yet we feel we can’t go on anymore. If you feel this, I want you to know that you are not alone. There are several people in the Bible—deeply faithful, even heroic people—who reached a breaking point and felt like they couldn’t go on. Some even asked God to take their lives. These moments show that God isn’t afraid of our despair—He meets us in it, and He restores. Here are some of those people and where you can find their stories in the Bible in case you want to look them up and read more about them.

Throughout Scripture, we see that even God’s most faithful servants reached moments where they felt like they couldn’t go on. Elijah,1 Kings 19:4 “He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. ‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’” Elijah, after boldly confronting false prophets, fled in fear and isolation, collapsing under a tree and begging God to take his life. He felt completely alone—yet God met him not with punishment, but with rest, nourishment, and a quiet whisper of presence. Like Elijah, when we are drained and overwhelmed, God offers compassion, not condemnation.

Moses, Numbers 11:14–15 “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me…” Moses, exhausted by the emotional and logistical burden of leading a complaining people through the wilderness, cried out to God, saying he’d rather die than continue carrying the weight alone. God didn’t take his life—He sent help. For us, this reminds us that we don’t have to carry everything ourselves; God provides support in community.

Job, Job 3:11 “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?”

Job, who lost everything—his children, health, and livelihood—wished he’d never been born. He poured out bitter questions and deep grief. And yet, God patiently listened, answered with presence and power, and ultimately restored him. Like Job, our suffering doesn’t disqualify us from God's love.

Jeremiah 20:14, 18 “Cursed be the day I was born! … Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?”

Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet, was mocked, beaten, and ignored. He cursed the day of his birth, feeling like his life was wasted. But God never revoked his calling—He reassured Jeremiah that his voice still mattered. When we feel like our lives have no impact, God sees eternal value in our faithfulness.

Jonah, Jonah 4:3 “Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah, bitter that God showed mercy to his enemies, sulked under a plant and asked to die. God responded not with wrath, but with a question, inviting Jonah to see the world through a lens of compassion. This shows us that God works with us even when our attitudes fall short.

Finally, Paul, 2 Corinthians 1:8 “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.” Paul confessed that he and his companions were burdened beyond their ability to endure—so much so that they "despaired of life itself." And yet, this deep despair drove Paul to deeper reliance on God. His story reminds us that feeling overwhelmed is not the end—it can be the beginning of a deeper trust. In every story, God meets brokenness not with rejection, but with grace, purpose, and presence, offering the same to us today.

The point of the Big Life podcast that I listened to is that there is life after this hard season that you are going through. None of the people listed above stayed in the difficult season forever, even thought it might have felt like they were going to. They had moments when they called out to the Lord saying they couldn’t make it any longer, and yet they all made it through the hard time. God showed up for each one of them and showed them how loved they are. He will do the same for you.

After their breaking points, each of these men went on to live with renewed purpose, proving that God can bring beauty out of despair. Elijah, after begging God to take his life, was gently restored by God’s presence and went on to train Elisha, his prophetic successor, leaving a lasting legacy. He even became one of only two people in Scripture who never died—he was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire.

Moses, after pleading for death under the burden of leadership, received help through 70 elders and continued to lead Israel toward the Promised Land. He experienced God’s presence in deeper ways, even speaking to Him “face to face,” and was honored at the end of his life for his faithfulness.

Job, after cursing his birth, encountered God in a deeply personal way. God didn’t just restore what Job had lost—He blessed him with double what he had before and gave him a new chapter of joy, family, and peace.

Jeremiah, though weary and rejected, faithfully kept speaking God’s truth. His words endured, and we still read his laments and prophecies today—proof that even painful obedience has eternal value.

Jonah, despite his anger and desire to give up, still completed his mission. The entire city of Nineveh repented and turned to God, one of the greatest mass revivals in Scripture, even if Jonah struggled to celebrate it. God still used him, flaws and all.

Paul, after saying he “despaired of life itself,” continued his missionary journeys, wrote most of the New Testament, and encouraged countless believers, many while in chains. His despair didn’t disqualify him—it became the soil on which deeper trust and greater impact grew.

These stories remind us that our lowest moments are not the end of the story. God doesn’t discard us when we’re weak. Instead, He draws near, strengthens us, and leads us into a future still full of purpose, impact, and hope. There is life after the breaking point—and with God, it can be more meaningful than before.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening. Lord, I ask you to come in a special way to all those who feel like they can’t go on. To all those who feel like life is too hard, or what you are calling them to do is too hard. We ask you to send the Holy Spirit to strengthen them and renew their hope. Show them that there is life after this challenging season. Please show them you are there with them and that they can do everything through you. Lift them, Lord, and help them persevere through whatever they are going through until they get to the other side. Help them climb this mountain they are facing. We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. It is that time of year again when I start to mention the retreat I will be holding in October. It is not open for registration yet, but I would like to mention it early so people can start thinking about it. It is always the second weekend in October. This year’s theme will be Identity: Who does God say you are? It will be great, and I hope you can join me! More details to follow. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Give yourself to me always. I will renew you each day. You are mine and I love you.”

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A Personal Relationship With God

Psalm 91:4 “He will cover you with his feathers.  He will shelter you with his wings.  His faithful promises are your armor and protection.”

I love this image.  I picture the Lord as a giant eagle and He puts his wing over us like we would put our arm around a child.  When I think of this I am filled up with a sense of love that I just can’t explain.  Sometimes I think we think of the Lord as this all mighty being that is so magnificent and is so busy that He doesn’t really have time for us.  I guess I don’t really mean that he doesn’t have time for us.  I think that we all know that He is listening to our prayers.  I think we know that He spends lots of time on us.  I guess what I mean is that we don’t really think that He knows us personally, if that makes sense.  

I don’t know, maybe I am wrong.  Take a minute and think about your impression of God.  What comes to mind when you try to picture Him.  Do you think of a loving father, do you think of an almighty God that is kind of intimidating, do you think of someone that answers your prayers, but does not know you personally?  How do you picture God?  I think the reason I am asking this is because I think that many of us think of God as someone that is unapproachable.  Yes, we can pray to Him and He will answer our prayers, but that is the extent of the relationship.  I wonder how many of us know that God longs to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us.  

Yes, even you.  God wants to have a personal relationship with you.  When I first heard this, I thought, what does that even mean?  How does one have a personal relationship with someone that they can’t see, hear, touch, talk to, etc.  This is when I began my journey to have a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. (Actually with all three members of the Trinity) So, how does one begin something when they have no idea how to do it?  Lots of ways I guess.  What I did was try to learn what it means to have a personal relationship with God.  I read some books and talked to lots of people.  Here is what I have learned so far.  Although I am still very much in the learning phase.

First, you can talk to Him.  You can talk to God anytime you want to.  He is always willing to listen.  You can talk to Him about anything.  Sometimes I think we feel as though God is busy and so we come to Him when we really need Him, but we don’t want to bother Him with our day to day stuff.  Or at least that’s how I felt.  God has time for you whenever you want.  He is not bound by the same limits we are when it comest to time or attention.  He can be there for each of us all of the time.  He is not only willing to listen, but He wants to listen.  He loves to hear about your day.  If you are a parent, think about how happy you are when your children, no matter what age they are, take the time to tell you about their day.  This is how God feels when you take the time to just sit and talk with Him about whatever is on your mind.  

Second, get to know who God is.  If you are trying to develop a personal relationship with someone one you would learn as much about that person as you can.  The same is true with God.  The best way you can learn more about God is to read the Bible.  Reading scripture and spending time in God’s word is a great way to feel closer to Him.  The more you read about and learn about our Heavenly Father, the more you will begin to see Him in a different light.  You will begin to see how much He truly loves His people.  How much He has done and continues to do for us, even when we don’t deserve it.  Reading scripture will help you to get to see several different sides of God.  You will get to learn so many different things about Him.  Yes, God is all mighty and He is also very compassionate.  Trust me, if you want to feel closer to the Lord, spend time daily in scripture.  

Another way you can develop a personal relationship with God is to listen to what He has to say.  Once you start to talk with God and tell Him all about your day, then you can also spend some quiet time just listening to what He has to say.  You will most likely not get an audible voice that you can hear, however, some people have had this extraordinary gift.  What I hear about most often is that you get a sense or a thought that comes to mind.  For instance you are sitting there quietly and you tell God that you are available and listening.  Then sometimes you will get a thought in your head from God.  A sentence, a statement, some people get visions.  It could be whatever you are open to.  God is not going to force this on you.  He will talk with you if you want to listen but only when you are open to it.  I have had words of prophecy come to me in this way occasionally.  How I usually listen to God is that I write Him a letter in my journal and then I tell Him that am listening and then I write down any thought that comes to my mind.  I do not sensor it, I do not ask myself if this is really God talking, I just trust that I have told Him I am listening and so He is talking.  That being said, I understand that I am new to listening to God and also that I may have heard something wrong or added something I wanted to hear.  So, I do not take everything I write down as gospel, but I have found it is a great way for me to take time to listen to the Lord.  I learned this letter writing technique from Fern Gorin at the Life Purpose Institute.  

Those are just a few ways you can develop a personal relationship with God.  I had no idea I was going to talk about that today.  I thought for sure it was going to be about how God is our shield and our refuge.  The Holy Spirit is funny like that.  We think we have a plan but He knows best and so He just takes over.  I love it when that happens.  I think it is important that we develop a personal relationship with God so that we can truly understand how much He loves us.  Also, so that we can truly understand how much he knows us personally.  We are not just another person to Him.  We don’t get lost in the shuffle.  He calls each of us by name.   I will leave you with a word of prophecy from my prayer group that shows you just how much God wants to have a personal relationship with you.  “I have called you by name into life. I have called you every day by your name because I know you, I love you, because you are my friend.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask that you help us develop a personal relationship with you. We pray that you help us to understand how much you love us and how much you know each one of us personally. We thank you so much, Lord, for that personal attention.  We thank you for all the countless times you have listened to us, and we pray that we can teach us how to quiet our minds and listen to you.  We love you, Lord, and we long to have a personal relationship with you.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to Walk Boldly With Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I. Have a blessed day.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Choose me all the time. Choose my light, choose my truth, choose my word. There is no trial greater than me. I conquer all things. Choose me.”

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