WVW #006: How to know God’s Will & Plan for your life

(00:00): I've kind of grown up in this age of body, mind spirit. I remember first hearing the concept, maybe the late seventies, and it seemed a little weird. I was almost afraid of it by 1999. When I opened a wellness center with my sister bar, I had reached a whole new level of understanding and I couldn't wait to share it with our community. Guess what? Even then some 20 years later, so many seemed confused about that concept. In fact, they thought we were a little weird. I wish someone explained all this to me so much sooner. I wish I had a more simple, clearer understanding of this connection body, mind, spirit. Honestly, I wish I had tree Suh, a strong spiritual partner in my life, and we could explore that journey together so much sooner. Well, that's why Theresa and I are here. We're here to come alongside you for that very reason today, I'm going to share the one thing that made the biggest impact on me.

(01:04): Being able to hear from the creator. Welcome to episode six of the well versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller here with my cohost Teresa Morgan were two perfectly imperfect women who have a heart to share our life's experiences with women. Like you see what we've experienced in our life is the love of God. And if you stay tuned, we know what we're about to share will fill your life with all that love to that love means more peace than you can imagine. The piece you're probably looking for right now. Remember, this is not one of those religious podcasts. This is a podcast about relationship, and we're going to plug into our creator. I need you to stop and hit the subscribe button because these lessons are building on each other. And if you didn't hear that very first one where we learned what to do to plug into the creator, you're going to want to go back and listen. So what we do every episode is we take the first 20 seconds to be absolutely quiet and still and ask God to fill our hearts, our minds, and open our ears to listen to what he would be saying today. So that's where we're going to start. Go ahead, close your eyes. Take some deep breaths as we take these 20 seconds to be still

(02:52): [inaudible].

(02:53): That was 20 seconds. How quick is that? And how much better do you feel after just 20 seconds? We need to be still in order to hear from God. I used to think I had to walk into a church building to find or hear from God not true. I've learned that was once a week. Is that enough? Does anyone only need help once a week? I don't think so. Theresa.

(03:19): Absolutely not. Renee. You know, it's so interesting when you're in a relationship with Jesus Christ, he actually beckons you to come boldly to him every day. Such a wonderful, wonderful privilege that we have as a child of God. You know, we've discussed in previous episodes to have a relationship with God. First begins with hearing the biblical message of Jesus dying for our sins, repenting from our sins and extending an invitation to God, to come into our hearts, to be Lord and savior. Once this happens, we're born again. We're now a child of God. Hebrews four 16 actually teaches. And this is amazing that God beckons us because God, the father is on the throne. He's in heaven. And he says, come boldly to the throne room of grace that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in your time of need. I love that.

(04:19): It's such a personal beckoning to say I, I envisioned, uh, you know, as a little girl, I envision he saying, come, come to my throne, sit on my lap, tell me what you need. You know, Renee, the other thing I wanted to touch upon to your point, you were thinking about the past and perhaps growing up in our religious system where you went to church once a week, can you felt that there was, that is where you would pray. That is where you would connect from God, but as you and I grew, and as we started reading the Bible, we know that God is everywhere. One of the scriptures that I love is Psalm one 39 verse seven, listen to these words, it says, where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there.

(05:11): If I make my bed and how behold you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me in your right hand, shall hold me. I love that he shall lead us in. He shall hold us. And we've been talking about, you know, being a lot of God that the blueprints of our life are tied up with the creator himself. So what a beautiful understanding and revelation it is when we understand that he asks us to draw near to him. He asks us to come.

(05:54): That's so great. I love that expression. I know it's not the only place in the Bible where there's reference to God holding us. And it's so beautiful. If you can even imagine this great, big, powerful being holding you. And I love to the definition of prayer, it's not going to a ritualistic prayer all, although there are prayers that we can recite, but really even if you go to the dictionary, it defines prayer as a deep sincere request for help or an expression of thanks, addressed to God. Well that doesn't need to be in a building that doesn't need to be recited or memorized per se. It's this again, back to us talking about this relationship, it's conversational. It's an expression of, thanks. It's a deep, sincere request. I just love it. It's really very simple and it has been made complicated, uh, one way or another, but I love in my life to keep simplifying things, because I think I just have that simple mind. I just want the basic understanding without all the complexity, and then you can grow into making it bigger. So to speak. If that makes any sense.

(07:15): That's right, Renee, God is our father and he wants to interact with us. He wants to collaborate at every turn we make. The Bible actually teaches in James five 16, that the fervent effective prayer of the righteous avail as much power. You know, and when we talk about power, we're not talking about something esoteric or something so far reaching that it's now within our grasp. We're talking about the power of almighty God, the one who flung the stars and the heaven and the moon created the moon and the sun and the great oceans and the depths of the sea. We're talking about this creator who has power to love, empowered to actually change, make change in our life. As we cooperate with him, you know, as his child, we have the right and the privilege to fellowship with him through this vehicle of what we're talking about today.

(08:11): Prayer one might say, wow, God really hears our prayers and responds well. He absolutely does over and over and over. I'm not going to devolve to my age, but I can tell you he is faithful to answer prayer. So he not only loves to interact with us in prayer, but he loves to bring his will to pass in the earth from the prayers we pray. We can look at the Bible. We can see how Jesus prayer prayed. No. He taught the, our father, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is inhabited. We not only, this is amazing. We not only can pray and ask God to move and act on our behalf, but we can ask God to bring his will. That is in heaven, down to earth for the peace and the prosperity of the world of our fellow human human beings. Rare is that powerful?

(09:16): Well, that's interesting. I love that we're blueprint because if any of you listening, follow me or those who know me best know that I love a plan. I love a blueprint. I love to build things, go back to the episodes prior. And here's the thing about that. You know, as a, as a very focused priority driven business woman, I used to love to keep an extremely organized calendar. And here's that secret I was telling you about the one thing Theresa, that changed this spiritual connection for me was to actually make an appointment with God, to actually put him in my plan, in my blueprint in my day, every day. And to put that appointment in the calendar first. So if you're like Theresa and I, and you, your professional career has been full of appointments. As moms you're lives are full of appointments and you never want to be late.

(10:21): What if your calendar had an appointment with God? I love that. Sometimes I run around my house scrambling to meet that appointment because I know he's there waiting. And I said this in the beginning of the episode, this is the single biggest thing that changed my hearing from God daily. I made an appointment that was the same time every day. And I actually sat in the same space in my house. I would change it seasonally because I live in the Northeast and sometimes I can go outside on a porch. But when I made that appointment in that spot, it was absolutely that he was there waiting for me at that time. He will be there anytime. But that idea that, that was our time made things different for Maitri say it was, it was really crazy. And I, I love it. I continue it to this very day, obviously. And it makes a huge difference in my being prepared, prioritizing God and listening and hearing from him,

(11:30): Absolutely Renee. It's like, you're creating your own sanctuary with God, your own private place, where you can go share the cares of the world and he will respond. It's just a beautiful privilege. I keep saying it's a privilege because it really is. It's a privilege and it's an honor to fellowship with God, the creator to fellowship with Jesus Christ through the Holy spirit that is here on the earth.

(11:56): And just like you were saying, Theresa, if he's got the blueprint for our lives, if God already made the big plan, I call it the helicopter version of our life. Don't we want to go listen to what that might be and hear from him what that might look like. So it's just, it's just awesome. It's awesome that he's got the blueprint. It's awesome that we can access that blueprint by this process of prayer.

(12:26): Absolutely. You know, before I came into relationship with Jesus Christ, my life was scattered. They were many thoughts, and I could not seem to get to them in one cohesive place to make that plan and make that plan happen. I did well, but I didn't do really well the way God had intended for my life in when I found in Jeremiah 29 11, that God said that I know the thoughts, I think toward you says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil to give you a future and hope it dawned on me. Wow, Lord, you are the creator of my life. Not only the creator of the world, but you, you were the creator of my life that my life began. And in the mind of God, he and they at, you know, each step that you have planned for me. And if we further read on in Jeremiah 29, 11 going to verse 12, this is where he backends us. Once again in the Bible, he says, then you will call upon me in, go and pray to me. And I will listen to you. Wow. God promises to listen to us. And then if that isn't enough, the very next verse, and I always love to frame scripture, read the verse before, read the verse after, uh, of the verse you're concentrating on. So verse 13 says in, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart, I will be found by you

(13:59): So powerful to test God and see if that is true. He says, I will be found by you, but we have to look. We have to be still enough to listen. And that was not me. That was not me. And back to your comment, Theresa about my life was crazy, but I know the plans God has for me. And so that becomes my focus. And what we focus on is what comes to be,

(14:30): That is absolutely correct. In, again, it goes back, you know, into some previous episodes. When we talk about that, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. So when we see in the Bible that for instance, our steps are ordered by God, Psalm 32 eight, teaches that God instructs and teaches us in the way in which we shall go. He guides us with his eye. These are powerful scriptures that when we put our faith in them, they begin to happen. They begin to happen. And we could probably keep every listener here, here for hours, explaining testimony after testimony of how we've asked God for the next step in boy, before you know what it materializes and how many times have you. And I probably looked at each other and said, that's not coincidence. That is God. Ah, gosh,

(15:25): No question. And I love that we are putting in the show notes, all these scriptures. So what Theresa just said is our faith grows from that. And again, please listen to previous episodes and hit that subscribe button because we are building here and that faith, you know, I've said a million times, it's faith is the things you can't see, but you believe anyway. And that's hard for me. I'm a left brained. Want to see it? One plus one has to equal two and I have to see it in black and white. And the only way I could let go of that is by reading the scriptures, knowing them, and then seeing them come to fruition. As Theresa says, knowing it's not a coincidence. So these scriptures are in the show notes for you to download. We've put them in a beautiful format so you can print it out.

(16:24): And for that week, put it on your mirror and read those scriptures because we are building a faith here. We are building a faith and a relationship with God. And as you move through this, it's, it's like, I keep going back to riding the bike. You know, you, you got on the bike and you fell down and you got on the bike. And the next thing you know, you're racing your best friend. You're racing down the road and you're not even thinking it is that simple, everyone. It is that simple that you read these. You're not quite sure it's okay to be suspect. Test God. He will be faithful to show you just what Theresa read earlier. He will be there. If you draw close to him, he will not let you down. He is faithful even when we're not,

(17:15): He absolutely is faithful. One of my favorite scriptures is Hebrews 10 23. He who promised is faithful. You know, we're talking about prayer with God today in prayer with God, it really is essential for our relationship to grow with him. We can even look at Jesus in the Bible and how he drew away from the crowds to fellowship with his father. He is our model. He is our great example of how we're to walk this earth, God through prayer, refreshes us. And he is the refueling station of love and support for our lives.

(17:50): So Theresa to conclude here, we'd started with talking about this woo idea of body, soul, spirit, body, mind, spirit, and the connection. And I have to laugh being a wellness center owner. How much time we focus on our physical wellness, our food, our exercise, and how little time in my past I was focusing on the spiritual connection. And this episode has been about how to do that, but summarize for the listeners, the body mind spirit connection, if you would certainly.

(18:31): So th that always to me was very confusing as well. Renee, before I became born again and before I started reading the Bible and before the Holy spirit gave me truths and it gave me revelation and it actually is quite simple. The Bible teaches in first Thessalonians chapter five, verse 23, that we are a spirit. You know, we were made in the image of God. In the end, the Bible says, God is spirit. So we are a spirit in our inner core. Our inner being, we are, we are a spirit. So should someone die is our body goes into the ground, but their spirit, the Bible teaches lives on forever. So getting back to body, soul, and spirit, we are a spirit. We live in a body. This body helps us navigate earth, and we have a soul, a mind will emotions, creativity, imagination. So we are a three part being, but if you think that about it, we are a spirited, our inner core, and God is a spirit.

(19:32): So that's where God fellowships with us. He communes with us spirit to spirit. So after a person is born again, the Holy spirit recreates their spirit, the Bible teaches and slips into their spirit. So that's why it's so very important to make time for God, to have that inner sanctuary, if you will. So that your spirit and his spirit are communing one-on-one and then those thoughts and those plans start to emanate to your mind. And before you know it, your life is changing in your life is moving in the direction that God preplanned all along for your life. Exactly,

(20:10): Exactly. And this idea Theresa we've talked about before that, so many people use this terminology born again, and they use it because it's in the word previous episodes, we've talked about the strength of the word, but again, for me simplifying it, the reason that term is used is because we have to birth our spirit being, we actually have to make a decision to connect to God. So if we are body soul spirit, how do we turn on our it's the terminology born again? But it's a very simple process of asking God to come into your life of recognizing that you are a spirit being, you know, it's like any alcoholism or drug addiction, right? You first have to recognize that you need a God, that you are not God here on earth. And for some of us, we learned that the hard way you recognize that you need a savior, that you need somebody bigger, more powerful than yourself, and that then you actually invite that person to commune with you, that you indicate.

(21:27): I want a relationship with you. I want to know you, God. I want to know you on a deep level and hear from you because of what we just talked about today, we are drawn to connect to our creator because we are spirit. We need to know the blueprint that that creator has for our life. So it's essential that we know how to have a relationship with God, that we ask him to come into our life, to be in charge of it, to take the steering wheel. I like to say it's hard for me to be a copilot Teresa, but with God, when I learned to trust him, when I saw that he was so much better at life than I was messing it up myself, it was really easy. It became easy to let go of the steering wheel and let him drive my airplane.

(22:22): Absolutely. And, uh, you know, it's bringing me back years and years ago when I first invited Jesus Christ into my heart to be Lord and savior. And, um, my life changed. It just did a one 80 turn and just kept getting better and better. Uh, God healed the broken places in my life. He healed the broken parts of my flesh, my body. He calmed my mind. He took, uh, what was an anxious young woman, uh, and he has matured her into a peaceful, calm, uh, woman, uh, in, because of his grace filled me with wisdom so that I can impart to others. Um, especially in this world, in which we live, we need a piece, we need a foundation. We need something secure to hold on to. And the truth of the matter is he's, he's holding on to us as we first talked about earlier in this episode today.

(23:20): Amazing. Well, that's a lot right there, everyone. And I encourage you leave comments below. There are ways to connect and ask us questions. This is, it can be so simple. Don't let those complicated thoughts come in. That I still don't know. I'm still questioning. Just let it go and let God again, hit the subscribe button, leave us some review and comments so that we can help you further. We're Renee and Theresa. And remember our favorite verse of the well versed woman podcast, Theresa Romans chapter 10 verse 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Amen.