Your Biggest Breakthrough

Are you tired of making a mess of things because you've been doing everything in your own strength? Today's episode will show you the way to freedom and how to become who you were meant to be, by surrendering.

Emma Mullings wanted to die when she was young. It's not that she hated her life, it's that she terribly missed her mother who was taken from this earth when she was only 4 years old.

In the darkest place you can be spiritually, her life was seemingly in a tailspin. Then she was approached by someone at a church near where she lived in Australia. She attended a few services, always leaving right before the altar call.

Who wants to be "that gal" that needs to get saved? Of course, everyone knows it's you that's the biggest sinner in the room - or so said her pride at the time.

But eventually, she relented, in her words, "running" to the altar to give her heart to Jesus.

The troubled child suddenly had hope.

She married a strapping young lad, a saint who patiently waited for Emma to work through the massive dysfunction she had known her entire life.

She became an award winning success in the Australian music scene. Then her husband announced they were going to move to America to start a church. Not in the Bible Belt, where there are churches on every corner. Nope, she and her husband are now a light of the gospel in Miami, Florida...a modern Sodom and Gomorrah if there ever was one.

It required a surrender and simple trust to take the next step following the lead of the Holy Spirit.

In our chat with Emma, you'll hear:

-When Emma made the decision to surrender to God's will in her life...04:45

-Dealing with tragedy in the family at a young age...07:00

-Wanting to die to be with mom...13:00

-Filling the God-shaped hole in her heart...19:00

-Overcoming dysfunction after coming to know the Lord...23:00

-How Emma and her husband came to move to the U.S. to begin a church...28:10

-Called to minister in modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah...31:00

-How to take the next step in uncertain times...35:30

-One thing about Emma most people don't know..42:00

Resources from this episode:

"Called to be light in the darkness, not hide in the light from the darkness"

historymakers.church

Find out exactly what stands between you and your biggest breakthrough and how you can achieve your next level of living.

Get your FREE 12-page starter kit now!

As we bid farewell to what has arguably been the most unusual calendar year in human history, Todd and Wendie share some insights and guidance on how to set "SMART" goals moving forward.

Goals can be a blessing in that they keep us on target and accountable. They give us something to aim for in that there's always even a faint light at the end of the tunnel even when the night seems to last forever.

They can also be a bit of a hindrance to real progress. If we become obsessed with setting and keeping goals, they can potentially distract us from our mission and purpose in life. 

Sometimes you just have to "go with the flow" as they say. It's easier said than done, as Todd can attest. Going with the flow means we lose the illusion of being in control of our circumstances to a certain degree. But when your mind is stayed on God, when you trust Him to provide for your needs, letting go of control can be a beautiful thing. 

Lean in as Todd and Wendie shed light on New Year resolutions you can actually keep, setting goals that are in alignment with your calling in life, and how at the end of the day, it's God who gives the increase whether we stay true to our goals or not.

In this episode, Todd and Wendie discuss:

-Where is your mindset?...03:00

-A different way to think of new year's resolutions...05:40

-God's "2020 vision" turned out to be very different from what we expected...08:45

-Be grateful in your circumstances, not for...12:00

-S.M.A.R.T. goals explained...16:00

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-sensitive

-Goal-setting can be a type of bondage...20:55

-We're wired to create and advance in life...23:30

-Don't get hung up on the "hows"...26:40

-The story of the dirt cookies...28:00

Find out exactly what stands between you and your biggest breakthrough and how you can achieve your next level of living.

Get your FREE 12-page starter kit now!

Let's face it. There's no shortage of negativity in this world in which we live. It's easy - natural even - to focus on that negativity. To have an outlook that transcends all that negative energy and emotions, and focus on the positive is a miracle in its own right.

Karol Ladd is able to do just that, and gives all the credit to God and His Spirit for that ability.

Having a genuine experience with God at a young age, Karol learned to discern the source of joy she felt as the Holy Spirit.

She doesn't have any dramatic stories of turning from God, and having him rescue her from some mess she made. She just plodded along in the joy of the Lord, trusting Him through good times and not so good times.

Sometimes being boring isn't so bad, right?

It was the joy of the Lord, trusting in the efficacy of the Scriptures that enabled Karol to process the grief of suddenly losing her mother in a vehicle accident.

It was the joy of the Lord that allowed Karol to take the skills she developed teaching 6th grade math and science and help parents turn ordinarily boring things like birthday parties into memorable events and eventually mentoring parents to have a meaningful impact in the lives of their children.

About the guest:

Known as the “Positive Lady,” Karol Ladd is the best-selling author of over 35 books including The Power of a Positive Mom and Thrive, Don’t Simply Survive. She is a popular keynote speaker for conferences, retreats, and events. Recently, Karol started an outreach called Engage Positive Parenting Initiative which reaches out to parents in communities affected by poverty and adversity. Her most valued role is that of wife to Curt and mother to grown daughters, Grace and Joy, and most recently embracing the role of “Kay Kay” to her four precious grandchildren.

Website: http://www.positivelifeprinciples.com

-Whether or not Karol was born positive...03:00

-Embracing the Savior and discovering the joy of the Lord...07:30

-Advice for those who haven't experienced God in a real way..09:30

-Not the comfort Karol desired at that moment...12:05

-We all receive comfort from God in a way we can receive it...20:40

-Utilizing her teaching chops to liven up kids' parties...23:45

-How Karol began the Engage Positive Parenting Initiative...29:30

-Whether or not to run with the seed of an idea you have...34:01

-How the positive lady stays positive in this fallen world in which we live...38:00

Resources mentioned:

positivelifeprinciples.com Karol's website

Books by Karol Ladd

Engage Positive Parenting Initiative

This episode will teach you how to be perfect in all things, at all times, in all ways. Your listening experience will be perfect. Your fingers will glide across your iPhone with ease, your forefinger will touch every button correctly the first time. Your mind and spirit will be perfectly calm, you will comprehend every word spoken and be able to recite it with perfect recall on the first listen.

Sounds a little cray cray, right? If that were the expectation, you probably wouldn't want to listen at all.

So why do we expect things to be perfect in other parts of our life?

For Brant Hansen, perfection prevented him from writing his first book. But then it occurred to him, that he couldn’t write the perfect book anyway. Once he accepted that reality, he made the decision to go ahead and start by committing to write at least one chapter.  

Brant discovered that those perfectionist tendencies enabled a bad habit of procrastination.

One of the cures for this? Live radio. You can't procrastinate when the little red light is about to turn on in 3 seconds. What comes out of your mouth is what you've got to give in that moment. If you're terrible - or worse, mediocre - you just have to suffer through it and live to suck another day.

Brant is a devoted follower of Jesus, and by his own admission, one who is perfectly “imperfect.”

He came to realize that being "perfect" is not about being without sin, or fault. It means endeavoring to use our gifts to build His kingdom here on Earth to the best of our ability. Not to have our identity wrapped in these gifts, but in Him, now and forever.

In our conversation with Brant, you'll hear:

-Why not shipping your product is hidden protection for the ego...3:15

-How live radio is a panacea for procrastination...8:20

-How perfectionism plays out in Brant's relationship with his children...10:15

-Brant's spiritual journey...15:20

-Why perfectionism may be a mental illness...21:05

-What to do with the phrase "Be ye perfect" in the Bible...24:55

-How Brant has used his "handicaps" to his advantage...29:50

-How not to be an "analytical Christian"...35:40

-One thing you, dear listener, don't know about Brant...39:30

-Wendie and Todd's takeaways from the episode...42:30

branthansen.com

Lynchpin by Seth Godin

Unoffendable by Brant Hanson

Blessed are the Misfits by Brant

The Truth About Us by Brant

BIO:

Brant Hansen is an author, nationally syndicated radio host, and advocate for healing children through CURE International.

He’s won national “personality of the year” awards for his work on his offbeat and quirky radio show, which airs on more than 200 stations. His podcast with his friend and radio producer, Sherri Lynn (“The Brant and Sherri Oddcast”) has been downloaded more than 10 million times.

He leverages his radio platform to advance the healing work of CURE, which provides life-changing surgeries for children with treatable conditions.

His first book, Unoffendable, has prompted a national discussion on the idea of forgiveness, and our culture’s embrace of self-righteous anger.

His second book, both provocative and very personal, is Blessed are the Misfits: Great News for Those Who Are Introverts, Spiritual Strugglers, or Just Feel Like They’re Missing Something. In this book, Hansen addresses his own, and many others’, inability to “feel God’s presence”, and how God might Himself feel about that.

His latest, The Truth About Us: The Very Good News About How Very Bad We Are, hit bestseller lists in spring/summer of 2020.

Brant speaks to groups/conferences/churches when his schedule allows.

He has written for CNN.com, The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Relevant, and numerous other outlets on matters as varied as public policy, culture, sports, Asperger’s Syndrome, and faith. He’s been a game inventor, fronted a modern rock band, and still dabbles in singing and songwriting.

He’s traveled extensively throughout the world for CURE and other groups, including multiple trips to CURE’s hospital for women and children in Afghanistan.

He has been married for 30 years to Carolyn, and they have two grown children.

It all started with a bucket of steam.

When Robert Borelli was a wee lad, the “associates” in the local crime family told him to walk into the nearby store and order a bucket of steam.

Of course, this is a ridiculous request. You don’t buy steam, by the bucket or any other way. Robert was being tested by these people, to see what he would be willing to do at their behest. 

It turns out Robert was willing to do quite a bit when ordered to do so. So much so that by the age of 20, he was granted audiences with the heads of New York’s major crime families. 

He was on the rise - and going the absolute wrong direction. 

His lack of conscience, his inability to comprehend consequences for his actions, however, led to his fall from grace from the mafia. He was told to move to Florida where his mother lived because he was too much of a liability to his associates. 

His mother told him to go back to New York because she couldn’t tolerate his reckless behavior and criminal lifestyle. 

Finally, after a weeklong spree of snorting cocaine, he was awakened by his two “angels”. These angels didn’t have wings, they had guns. They were there to arrest him and take him to prison, most likely for life.

He accepted the concept of consequences a little too late. 

All Robert wanted was money for an attorney and some cigarettes at the prison commissary.

He got a Bible. 

The Bible didn’t have money for a lawyer tucked away in its pages. But it did awaken a part of his soul that had been neglected to this point. He spent every possible moment watching Christian shows on his television in his cell. He was truly a changed man.

His fellow inmates thought it a ruse. “You’re doing this because you’re in prison...but we all know who you really are...”

When Robert was 60 days away from being released from prison, he wrote in his Bible, “Let your word penetrate my heart so that I never forget or dishonor you.”

Robert has been out of prison for almost two decades, and he hasn’t reneged on his vow. He speaks to people that are of age to make the kinds of decisions that robbed him of the best years of his life.

His message? “You don’t need to go through what I went through to get to where I am.”

In our conversation with Robert Borelli, you’ll hear:

-Growing up with the mafia a ubiquitous presence in the neighborhood...4:20

-Discipled in the wrong way...10:34

-“A legend in my own mind”...18:00

-An addictive personality leads to big losses...22:00

-Enabling bad behavior by giving it improper attention...25:05

-Finding himself in jail at age 43...30:50

-The Bible won’t pay for an attorney...35:30

-Nurturing his new relationship with God...39:50

-Using stubbornness for good rather than bad...44:00

-How to contact Robert...48:00

robertborelli.com

214-235-2244

The Witness by Robert Borelli (actually written by H. Scott Hunt)

Your biggest breakthrough is often a process, and on occasion it's an event.

We expect it to happen in dramatic fashion. Perhaps we even wish it would happen that way.

We're in deep crisis in our lives. On our knees, tears flowing, hands white-knuckled in fervent prayer, we cry out to God for his intervention. We often expect a clap of thunder and lightning, a miracle of biblical proportions to occur in our lives.

And of course it's always possible for God to intervene in that way. But more often than not, t's the small, everyday breakthroughs that lead to our biggest breakthrough.

Hannah Keeley, as you'll recall from Episode 4, expected a miracle, and found it when she folded her laundry.

Not exactly Moses' parting of the Red Sea, is it? But it was a tiny shift in mindset that allowed Hannah - and all of us if we're open to it - to achieve the breakthrough we all desire.

A shift in mindset is the thing that will propel you to the next level, and it starts with the mundane things in life.

Allowing the body to recover from an injury in its own time (sorry old-timers, it takes more time the older you get)...

Remembering your spouse gets irritated when you squeeze the toothpaste from the middle, so you mindfully squeeze it from the bottom.

It's nothing that will make the evening news, but now you're in the right frame of mind to receive the abundance coming your way -- when the time is right.

Remember these 3 things when it comes to breaking through...

1. Mindset
2. Perseverance
3. Patience

Having the mind of Christ, meaning you're obedient in every part of life, you'll say like the Scripture: "With God, nothing is impossible!"

This episode is for you. 

Gaye Lindfors was raised in a tiny town in central Minnesota. Taught from an early age to fear the Lord, she chose a career in Corporate America in order to "reconcile her faith with the real world." She desired a more practical way of living her faith than that of the monastic monk praying and handing out tracks to strangers. 

As the head of human resources for a major airline based in Minneapolis, Gaye was responsible for resolving at times extremely complex issues involving employees of the airline.

So when her mother's Alzheimer's degraded to the point that she needed full-time live-in assistance, she thought, "No problem! I've got this."

Famous last words.

Gaye soon realized that dealing with an ill mother was not quite the same as dealing with complex issues involving employees with whom she had little or no emotional connection. She realized her controlling habits and mindset were a major obstacle to her ability to care for her mother, and was in turn creating health issues of her own.

Gaye realized that in order to properly care for her mother, and for her own sanity, she needed to break through her need to always feel like she's in control. 

Now that the storm has passed, and she has properly grieved her mother's passing, Gaye can laugh at her own ControlFreakitis and give encouragement to others who have similar struggles.

About the guest:

Whether she’s speaking at women’s conferences or retreats, blogging, or writing books, Gaye’s not afraid to poke fun at her own mishaps. She brings a blend of Bible teaching, life stories, and humor. 

Gaye started her own company after a successful leadership career in corporate America. She served as the Midwest Regional Director for Christian Women in Media and is past-president of the National Speakers Association for the Minnesota Chapter. 

Her most recent book, “Getting My Ducks in a Row and other Stories of Faith,” reminds us that when we don’t have our act together (which, for a lot of us, is much of the time), when we can’t even find our ducks and getting them in a row seems like mission impossible, God is faithful. We can stop fixing, fretting, and striving. 

Gaye will encourage your soul, refresh your faith, and give you something to giggle about.

In our discussion with Gaye, you'll discover:

-Gaye's "Faith Breakthrough"...04:05

-Needing encouragement dealing with Mom's Alzheimers...08:20

-A saint in blue jeans...10:50

-Gaye's support system dealing with the chaos...13:35

-Responding to the feeling of lost control...15:10

-Giving up the need to control and fix...17:20

-Not born with a "badge of courage"...24:20

-The inspiration behind Gaye's book...26:45

-What do people think when they see a glimpse of your life?...29:30

-The true meaning of piety...32:15

-Overcoming chronic controlfreakitis...36:00

Download Gaye's FREE ebook: "Finding a Breath of Fresh Air, And a Way to Start Again" at her website gayelindfors.com

"Can life get any better?" Gene Kent asked his wife Carol as they walked together one autumn evening in upstate Michigan where they had both been born and raised.

They were the proud parents of J.P., their only child, who was a recent graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and was now training for his fledgling naval career in Orlando, FL. J.P. had surprised his parents by informing them he was marrying a woman they had never met, but who had a child of her own Carol and Gene could now call their grandchild.

Two weeks later, they received news that will make any parent cringe.

Their only child had been arrested and charged with the murder of his new wife's ex-husband. After years of wrangling with the legal system in Orlando, J.P. was convicted of his crime and given a life sentence in prison.

In many parts of the U.S. a life sentence means a 20 year term with possibility of parole. 

In Florida, it means you spend the rest of your life in prison.

The judge handed down two sentences that day. One for J.P., the convicted murderer, and one for his parents, who would never again see their son live the life of a free man.

To this day, Carol and Gene suffer their loss. The enemy of their faith does everything he can to make them feel like failures as parents and as human beings.

But with time, community with others who have suffered, and God's grace, a new understanding of freedom has taken shape in the lives of Gene, Carol and J.P. It is defined not by compliance with a legal system, but by identity with the One who suffered unjustly so that all who have sinned can be truly free.

In this conversation with Gene and Carol Kent, you'll hear:

-Carol and Gene's journey of faith...05:00

-Inheriting grandchildren via marriage of their son...10:03

-Dealing with trauma and shock in the face of tragedy...16:45

-When God appears to be absent, he's the most present...21:30

-Truth is the only way to counter the enemy's taunts and lies...24:00

-Finding inspiration to write about the traumatic experience...27:50

-Identifying your "Isaac"...31:30

-Finding comfort in community with fellow sufferers...35:05

-Strengthening a marriage through adversity...38:45

-Serving through suffering...44:40

-Info on Carol and Gene's free book...49:00

Text GIVEAWAY to 55444 to receive Gene and Carol's free daily devotional

Carol Kent's website

Speak Up Ministries

Staying Power, co-authored by Gene and Carol Kent

When I Lay My Isaac Down by Gene and Carol Kent

Reverend Carl Wesley Anderson is an international equipping evangelist and documentary filmmaker. His vision, through itinerant ministry and his unique calling as a Media Missionary, is to inspire and equip believers for passionate discipleship and hearing God's voice. 

Carl is the author of LOVE SPEAKS as well as the writer/director/producer of the LOVE SPEAKS film series. 

He is also the Executive Director of Born To Blaze Ministries which produces and publishes quality evangelistic content like LOVE SPEAKS & FROM HISTORY TO HOPE in order to impact others, grow others spiritually and advance the kingdom of God.

In our conversation with Carl, you'll hear:

-How to hear God's still small voice...4:45

-Developing a deep, close relationship with God...6:30

-What to do with the deep yearning in our soul that no material thing can satisfy...11:30

-Breaking through cancer...14:00

-Learning to live with tragedy...17:45

-Considering the legacy we leave when we leave the earth...24:50

-Matching the enemy's aggressiveness in treating disease...28:50

-Moving into position to experience God's breakthrough in your life...35:05

-Transition to a media missionary...39:00

Love Speaks book

lovespeaks.today

-Hope in the midst of uncertainty...3:50

-An opportunity to level up in our faith...8:15

-How to have true gratitude when we're expected to show Thanksgiving...12:45

-Making a conscious decision to thrive in an unprecedented era...17:20

-Thanks, babe... er, I mean, Todd...23:00

-If you didn't get all that, get this:

• Have the right perspective
• Have an attitude of gratitude
• Become role models
• Persevere always

Isaiah 55:8-10 - “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 -  Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 4:15-16 - Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Galatians 6:9-10 - Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.