WVW #022 – Persevere: Against all odds, how can we win?

(00:00): We are one week away from an election here in the United States. So I'm taking a break from my normal storytelling to just think about the importance of that. I can remember back in my busy, busy days that I'm sure you've heard about if you've been listening, not even having the time to vote, feeling like I didn't have the time to vote. And then I also talked to so many saying, what does it matter? God is in control. And we here at the well versed woman podcast, certainly know God is in control, but Theresa, why is that not the right thought to have in these times God's in control. So I don't really need to go vote

(00:46): Yesterday. This is why it's so crucial and so important to vote. God gets his well done in the years through his people. I'm going to say that one more time. God gets his, will done in the earth, through his people. The Bible says in James chapter two, verse 26 for justice, the human body without the spirit is dead. So faith without works works of obedience. The amplified Bible says faith without works is also dead. So it is so important to go vote because through the voting process, God can stir our hearts, give us wisdom so that we understand what he wants to do in the United States in the next four years. And we can choose the candidates that God is asking us to choose.

(01:43): That's great, Teresa. So here in the United States, we're encouraging you to go out and vote, but stay tuned because this is episode 22 of the well-versed woman podcast. Welcome to episode 22 of the well-versed woman podcast. I'm Renee Taylor

(02:07): And I'm Theresa Morgan, Renee. And I are two perfectly imperfect women who have a heart to share our faith in life's journeys with you.

(02:16): Yes, we are imperfect, but we know the one who is perfect. And we know if you stay tuned, you're going to get to know him too. And that's going to bring you so much peace in these times and in this world we're living in. But before we get started, we do something every single episode so that we can be sure to hear what God would have us say today. This is what we do. We close our eyes only if you're not driving. And we take some slow, deep breaths and ask God and the Holy spirit to fill our minds, our ears, and mostly our hearts to hear, he'd have to say today, we're going to do that for 20 seconds. And those 20 seconds start right now.

(03:26): [inaudible]

(03:26): That's it. That was 20 seconds. And every episode I encourage you before your feet hit the ground in the morning, when those eyes open up, I've learned to say, thank you God, for another day. And I just sit in stillness for two minutes, encourage you to grow that 22nd time into longer times so that you can hear from God. And then what the well-versed woman podcast is all about. We dive into the word of God. We dive into the book that was written through the inspiration of the Holy spirit, so that we can have confidence. I love that word, confidence that we talked about last week. We can have confidence about the times we're living in and our role and our position and our protection. In this time, we don't have to fear. We don't have to be anxious, be anxious for nothing. But last week we talked about protection. We talked about that. The Bible actually tells us how to be protected and how to dress up in the armor of God. It actually uses those words put on the armor of God, doesn't it Theresa

(04:47): Sure does Renee. And today I'll be quoting us the scriptures out of the book of Ephesians chapter six, from the amplified version of the Bible. You know, the amplified version of the Bible, expounds on the con the English words, which were originally written in Greek. So it gives us a more expansive understanding of what we're about to read today. You know, we're now I'd like to just introduce our scriptures verses 10 through 18 in the book of Ephesians chapter six, it says in conclusion, um, Paul is writing in conclusion, be strong in the Lord. And the amplified Bible says, draw your strength from him and be empowered through your union with him. Wow. So we want to be strong in the ward and in the power of his boundless mind, isn't that beautiful? And the heres like say, okay, I, you know, I hear that be strong in the Lord, but how do I go about being strong in the Lord? Trisha love that. And it

(05:58): Just reminds me of how we get strong in anything. How do we get strong in anything? It's what we said in one of the very early episodes, right? Repetition, meditation, understanding patterns and principles until those patterns and principles that are in the word of God become you. Like I like to say, get in my molecules, get in every cell of my body. It doesn't happen without exercise in the word and stillness so that we can hear. So that repetition is going to be very important, particularly for the scriptures. You're about to share Theresa.

(06:42): That's absolutely correct. And I've taught my children and what I sometimes do myself is stand up and I confess the scriptures as if I'm dressing in battle gear is if I'm putting my clothes on for the day, because Renee, as you have said, and as we say every week, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. And when we plug our faith in wonderful, wonderful things happen because as we know from Isaiah chapter 55, God's word does not return void. The Bible says he watches over it to perform it. So getting back to our texts, verse 13 of chapter six, it says, therefore put on the complete armor of God so that you will be able to successfully resist and stand your ground in the day of evil danger in having everything that the crisis demands to stand firm in your place, fully prepared, immovable and victorious. Wow. You know, we can apply this to anything in our life that we're going through. Any challenge, any struggle. If we see a promising God's word, it is ours for the taking

(08:02): Is everyone here that if we hear a promise in God's word, it's ours for the taking, I've learned probably that more than anything else from my friend, Theresa over the years, she has really, and she she's going to be shocked listening to this. She has pounded that into me and she's going to say pounded it to you because she's pretty gentle, but she has pounded that into me. She lives by that principle over and over again. But the word says, Renee, and I'll have be anxious for something. And she just put the word says, Renee, but the word says, Renee, I encourage everyone to understand that power because that is the secret that we believe in the power of those words that are spoken. You might be saying, I, I just can't. I can't really believe it. It's when I read some of the things in the Bible, it is so unbelievable that that could happen or that, that whatever is said could be it's like magic. Well, go back to last week, we talked about the whole spirit realm that exists, that exists as part of our world and our existence. It is unbelievable. It is hard for us to believe because it's a world that we, we can't see. Right. We can't see, we can't touch. We can't smell. We can feel it. We can feel it through the power of the Holy spirit. And the more you ask the Holy spirit to come in and reveal the more you're going to feel it and know the truth.

(10:05): That's absolutely correct. And that's a great segue Renee into verse 14, because we're gonna start, uh, you know, talking about the battle pieces of armor that the Lord has given us. And the first one is stand there for having girded your waist with truth. Wow. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, you know, I think today when I, we could spend the whole episode just talking about truth and righteousness, truth is so important in life. Truth keeps us free. It keeps us free from deception. And the Bible says in the book of John chapter 17, and this is Jesus speaking value word is truth that I word is true. So in a world that is swirling around us with lies to sections, trickery, evil, blotting, and deceitful fondness of men. We need truth today, likely to never need you to truth before in the beauty about our truth.

(11:06): And the beauty about Christianity is that there's a helper, the Holy spirit who takes the truth that we see the word of God and makes it palatable to us. He hacks it for us so that we know in every situation, how to apply the truth that we hear with our ears, that we meditate on with our souls, he takes that truth to help us apply it in life. Why is it so important to apply God's truth in our life? Because that brings victory, that brings success in life. And it keeps us free from deception because they ask, we know deceptive ways are always a snare. That is, uh, is a trap that if we follow deception, it eventually leads us to destruction.

(12:07): Yeah. So true tracer. And what a great reminder, there is an episode on hiring a helper. So go back, hit subscribe. If you haven't already go back. This is a great time to review the episode on hiring a helper, the Holy spirit, because as Theresa just mentioned, it's through that Holy spirit, that we're going to be able to do what we're talking about today.

(12:40): That's exactly right, Renee. So we have truth girded around our ways. It's a buckle of truth. Truth is going to have to ensure that the remaining pieces of armor stay in place. So let's continue. The Bible says having put on the breastplate of righteousness, you know, what is righteousness? I love the Bible because itself defines itself and Romans chapter 14, verse 17, and says the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace enjoy in the Holy spirit. So righteousness means we have right standing with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Those of us who've accepted him as our Lord and savior. We are right with God. It's not our works that make us right with God. It's the faith in Christ that has, has made us right with God. The chasm and the separation that came through sin has been closed. You know, Renee, what great news, you know, the gospel is good news and what good news. So when we miss it, we don't have to worry that we've lost our relationship with God. No, no, no. When we miss it, the Holy spirit will help us get back on the right path. But our salvation is sealed in Christ, in righteousness.

(14:14): Oh, so great. And it reminds me of what I talk about a lot, which is our heart. We keep our heart in the right place. We are humans. God knows that. He knows we're going to mess up. He knows, especially in the beginning of our journeys, he knows that he's not going to be in the forefront of our mind. It's just like, again, anything else you've done in life in order to learn, to brush your teeth, you had to be reminded day in and day out as a child to brush your teeth. You need to remind yourself to stay in righteousness. And as long as you're on that journey, as long as you've asked the Holy spirit to help you with that, it's going to happen. So be patient with yourself.

(15:07): Absolutely. So the third piece of our battle gear is our shoes of peace. The Bible says having strapped on your feet, the gospel of peace in preparation to face the enemy with, from foot footed stability and the readiness produced by the good news. So when we walk, we walk up, rightly we walk with the breastplate in place. We walk with feet that are covered and protected with shoes called the gospel of peace. Because in that gospel is everything we need. The Bible says for life and godliness. So if it's protection that we need, we look to the word and we see that he gives his angels charge over us. If it's healing, we need, we see that by his stripes, we have been healed. If it's some financial prosperity we need, we know that he provides all of our need. According to his riches in glory, we as Christians, we have the privilege of walking in peace

(16:22): Reminder that this is our gray series. So for several weeks now we've been talking about the grace of God, the free favor of God. This is grace to stand. This is grace to stand up. Like Theresa mentioned, she stands up some times in her home or in her, wherever she's snuggling with the Lord and says, I'm standing on this. When we stand up tall and confident and proud of who we are in the Lord, this is how we do it through this word that says, we have the right to this. I love that tracer.

(17:06): And many of us, you know, in Christian circles, we'll say, you know, what scripture are you standing on? What scripture are you standing on? Because literally we look and we see the scripture in the Bible. We confess it. We meditate on it and then God make sure to bring it to pass. I love that. I love that we're in a relationship with an all powerful, almighty God. Who's constantly keeping us on the straight and narrow path, like a good air traffic controller. I like to say, you know, we may veer because we're human, but he is faithful to get us in, keep us on the right path in life. So let's continue with the different battle that he's given us. He talks about verse 16, above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Wow. So what does that mean? That means we have a shield that if we keep it upright in place, a shield of faith that conquers and that destroys all of the evil works of man. He had, again, evil forces. If we keep that shield up and we know our place and we know the word of God, we will always be victorious no matter what comes our way to throw us off in life.

(18:36): That brings me so much peace that God's will for our life will always be done. If we follow step one, two, three, you know, follow the steps in the word, which is why you have to be in the word. You have to set aside time to know this. Theresa is an amazing friend to have. And you know, I wish you all could have her too, and you can through this podcast, but it's just incredible how she studied and stands on the word and that shield of faith. We talk a lot about faith in every episode, because it is our, it is our lifeline to God, that shield of faith that we stand on is our lifeline to God. And we'll allow these things to come to be.

(19:29): Yeah, absolutely. And faith grows, right? Jesus talks about faith as a mustard seed can move mountains. So our faith grows. And as we know, it grows by her understanding and our reading of the word in our fellowship with the Holy spirit. So thank you Renee, for those kind words, but let's continue. We have a few more pieces of armor that we need to get through the Bible says and take the helmet of salvation in the sort of the spirit, which is the word of God. Wow. A helmet of salvation. What does that mean? It means that the enemy and people who think wrongly, they want to come hit our minds with lies with deceptions, with thinking that is not in line with God's word. We can't say necessarily that people come with evil intentions. We're not saying that, but those who don't know the word of God and don't follow in the thinking of God and the Holy spirit, they're, they're walking in life based upon me and sinking in man's wisdom, which not necessarily lines up with God. So when these thoughts can our mind, we constantly have to bring those sorts to the word of God. So our helmet of salvation says, does this line up with God's word? Because the thoughts that are coming into my mind can get us off course. So we always want to have the helmet of salvation in place, knowing that through our salvation in Christ Jesus, we are saved and we walk according to the will. And the plan of God, which is laid out in his word,

(21:21): Reminds me of one of my favorite slogans, brain training, our minds. If we recall are a body part, they're an organ in our body. And so past experiences get recorded. There's a good reason they get recorded because they help us with a lot of things. Can you imagine if all the things we ever learned what recorded so that we could grow on the flip side, negative things get recorded. And without capturing those thoughts, like the negative thoughts, like a little prisoner by exactly what Theresa just said and putting on this helmet, going back to the word, putting on this helmet, to throw those thoughts out of our minds and put on the truth. This is all part of the armor. The truth is part of the armor as well. That's a great, great reminder, Tracy,

(22:24): Absolutely. In the scripture here talks about the w the word of God, the sword of the spirit. So if you can imagine in your mind, you have this helmet of salvation and you have a sword of a sword in your hand that you can wield against the enemy against whatever fight in life in the sword is the word of God. Meaning that what we do is we see what's in the Bible. And then like Jesus did right in when he was in the wilderness and tempted by the devil, he came back with the word of God. It is written. He would say the devil would come and twist, even twist scripture in a, like, Jesus knew how to properly wheel the word of God. And he did it by confessing the word out of his mouth. So if someone came to you and said, Hey, you have a deadly disease, you better be afraid of that.

(23:27): You come back with the word of God and say, but it is written. I will live and not die in clear that in declare the works of the Lord, it is written by the stripes of Jesus. I have been healed and made whole, and you know, these aren't just fancy. Hearsay's Renee. You and I both know this is exactly what we faced with both of us, with sickness, serious sickness in our bodies, Renee and I both have gone through cancer scares in what we had to do is strap on the battle gear every day, go to the word of God. When thoughts, frightening thoughts of, Oh my goodness, cancer can lead to death. We would rise up and say, no, no, no. By the stripes of Jesus, we have been healed. We know that we are the redeemed of the Lord. We know that is the fluxion will not raise up a second time in as we wielded the sword of the spirit. Rene, remember victory came. We didn't lie back in just say whatever may, Oh no, no. We fought the good fight of faith. We stayed in the peace in the rest of God. And our victory came in here. We are two perfectly imperfect women able to share our faith in our stories with them.

(24:53): So true. And if you think that this doesn't work, I want to go back Theresa to interject God himself, coming to the earth in the form of Jesus, the son of God, what did he have to do? Teresa? When he was tempted by the devil in the desert, what did he use? The God himself? When he became a human in the flash? What is the scripture tree said that he used, what did he say to the devil? What did God himself say to the devil?

(25:34): Absolutely. He came back with the word of God, time and time again. He would say he would quote, and it is written in, it is written in the devil fled. He fled the Bible, says he fled, uh, and was going to return at a more opportune time. But the Bible said he fled. So we can see again, a principle in place here. When we wield the sword of the spirit, the word of God, the devil has to flee in the very last verse in our scripture readings of today in Ephesians, chapter six is verse 18, praying, always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. So what is the Bible telling us to do as part of our battle gear is prayer. Renee, you and I just love this subject of prayer.

(26:35): It's such a sweet sounding scripture in our ears because it's through prayer, prayer. We fellowship with the Holy spirit and get our instruction for the day. If you will. The Bible says in James chapter five, verse 16, the effective prayer of the righteous next much power of the available. Wow, well, it's our prayers, but God's power. I got to say that again. It's our prayers, but God's power. You know, I'm reminded of a real life story back in the day when I was praying for a young woman who was going through a divorce and I felt so bad for her. And I just said, Lord, please send your labors, send people to minister salvation to her Lord. And what came back Renee was amazing to the still small voice of the Holy spirit. Connecting with my mind. I heard these words because you asked, I will send, I thought to myself, wow, because I prayed an ass. God is going to send in response to my prayer. Isn't that a beautiful thing. I think if we can understand and put in our heads that when we pray, God moves and responds. And if we can see him moving and responding, and of course, God moves and responds in ways, the Bible says greater than anything we can ask or, or seek he is going to respond only the way God responds in perfect fashion and imperfect victory in every situation.

(28:22): Yes, Theresa. I so resonate with what you're saying and I love, and again, this is what I just said about Teresa. What she followed that with being watchful to this end with all perseverance. That's one of my favorite words and perseverance is persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. So we need to be persistent despite how difficult it is to find the time to get up and talk to God every single day. And that's exactly how Teresa has built this strong, strong foundation for her faith. This persistence, this perseverance, despite difficulty, what was going on, what she had in her busy life. She did not let go of saying, this is my first priority. I have to persevere in this. That's what God honors. So we can persevere. However, because of the equipment that we talked about today, Theresa,

(29:42): That is correct. Let's review this battle gear. I just love it. We have around our race, we have our buckle of truth in front of us. We have a press plate of righteousness around our feet. We have shoes of God, the gospel of peace in our hands. We have the shield of faith on our heads. We have the helmet of salvation in our hands. We have the sword of the spirit and we're always moving our mouth in prayer. And as we pray while putting on the armor of God, we're believing all the while that he who gave us these promises gave us this battle gear, this beautiful armor. He is faithful to his word, to bring all of these things, to pass

(30:31): Such a great conclusion, Theresa, thank you for that summary. What is the favorite verse of the well-versed woman?

(30:39): Absolutely. Romans 10 verse 17. Faith comes by hearing

(30:44): And hearing by the word of God. We will see you next week. Now don't forget to vote. I'm going to bookend this episode with that reminder, but great news. We have some well-versed woman journals. We want to give them to you. All you need to do is subscribe rate and review this channel. And we'll be happy to send that right in the snail mail to you. Also, we have a community page on Facebook and we'd love for you to join us in there so that we can go deeper, answer your questions last but not least. Every single episode has shown notes of the scriptures. You can print them out. You can write them in your well-versed woman journal. If you do step number one, and you can put them on your mirror, memorize them, meditate on these words. You're going to want to print this week because you're going to want to remember the shield of protection that we have in the word of God until next week. We love you and we'll see you next week. Amen. Amen.