The Struggle Is Real: Women Navigating Identity in a Submissive World
Women are stepping up and reclaiming their identities, and let me tell you, it’s about time! In a world where Christianity throws mixed signals about being submissive while also knowing your purpose, we're diving into the chaos of it all. This episode is all about unraveling those jumbled messages and figuring out how to embrace who we truly are, minus the guilt trip. We chat about how many women get lost in the shuffle of life’s expectations—sacrificing their dreams for others, only to wake up one day wondering where they went. So grab a seat and join us as we navigate this wild ride of self-discovery and empowerment, because honestly, who needs to fit into a mold when you can break it?
Takeaways:
- Women in Christianity are often torn between being submissive and finding their true purpose, which is pretty ironic, right?
- The journey of reclaiming identity is a messy one, filled with societal pressures and mixed messages, like a bad breakup.
- It's all about recognizing that the discomfort of change means you're actually growing, not just falling apart—who knew?
- Coaching isn't just about telling people what to do; it's about asking the right questions to help them discover their own answers.
- Our past experiences and upbringing can trap us into identities that aren't even ours—time to break free from that nonsense!
- Fear can be a real pain, but it's also a sign that you’re on the verge of something big—so embrace it and move forward!
Transcript
Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:The struggle is real.
Speaker A:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker A:It is so good to see you.
Speaker B:I see you too.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me.
Speaker A:Energetic.
Speaker A:Ej, I.
Speaker A:When I came across your bio, it just spoke to me so much, which is why I reached out to you about your platform and just all that you do.
Speaker A:I mean, you do the street.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, the Stretch street podcast.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Your impact, your show, your voice, your impact show your certified life and transformational coach and IAC masteries practitioner man.
Speaker A:But your bio spoke to me because I'm going to read what I reach out to you and I said your bio is intriguing and I want to speak about women reclaiming who they are.
Speaker A:In Christianity, women are given mixed messages by being submissive and knowing their purpose.
Speaker A:And their purpose may seem as if they no longer have to be submissive.
Speaker A:Welcome.
Speaker B:That is such a powerful submission.
Speaker A:Now, I want to start by talking about your podcast because when I was listening to it, I was just like, oh, my goodness, you.
Speaker A:I feel like I'm at home.
Speaker A:It's comforting, encouraging, and smooth and those are the adjectives that I thought when I was listening to your podcast.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's such a great feedback.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Welcome.
Speaker A:So my first question is, what was the journey?
Speaker A:What's what allowed you to start this journey.
Speaker B:To the journey to being a coach.
Speaker A:Just helping women reclaiming who they are.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's my coaching journey because again, I'm one of those multi potential people with multiple potentials and one with the desire to live full and die empty, like Les Brown would say.
Speaker B:So every expression that God has given to me.
Speaker B:So on my coaching journey, I would say, you know, when I, when I started, I did everything tagged or being associated with women because I'm like, no, I'm not, I'm not.
Speaker B:I don't want to be seen as a feminist or as a women empowerment, whatever, you know, I just want to be an exceptional coach and everything.
Speaker B:But the more I did it, the more I pressed into coaching myself as a coachee.
Speaker B:Not even as a coach.
Speaker B:I started coaching as a coachee, trying to regain my own self, reclaim my own self, you know, after being wrapped in lost identity and things like that and life happening to me, me just trying to find my way out of that rabbit hole to say, okay, I can't drown, God, I can't drown.
Speaker B:I have to come out.
Speaker B:You know, he's in the process of trying to find my way out that I discovered coaching for the first time and then I just literally dove into it and so When I started to, you know, serve in that capacity, even as a coach myself, I realized that most of the things that I put out, pretty much it attracts women.
Speaker B:And then I.
Speaker B:I belonged in many women communities.
Speaker B:I just find myself there.
Speaker B:I'm serving, I am helping, I am doing things with women and such.
Speaker B:As much as I wanted to run away from it, it felt like it was calling my name.
Speaker B:And so when I was getting closer to 40, it started to dawn on me, like, there's that unease, like, oh, my God, what is this?
Speaker B:Four decades?
Speaker B:This is not where I planned that I'm going to be at this age, you know?
Speaker B:And it dawned on me that there are a lot of women like myself who have, you know, who life has happened to, really.
Speaker B:And for some reason, they lost who they are in the mix of things.
Speaker B:They.
Speaker B:Sometimes they are the one who laid it down, being the matai that they are.
Speaker B:Laid it down, like, okay, I'm going to sacrifice this for my children, for my husband.
Speaker B:You know, I'm gonna.
Speaker B:After this, I'm gonna come back to me.
Speaker B:And then in the midst of that, they completely lost themselves and just kind of talk their dream, their goals, their aspiration.
Speaker B:They talk it back behind.
Speaker B:Behind, like the back.
Speaker B:Back burner, you know, if you use a gas burner or a gas cooker in the house, and if you haven't cleaned the back of it for a long time, the day you open the.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:Pull that gas off that corner.
Speaker B:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker B:All the forks in the house.
Speaker B:This is where they be hiding off.
Speaker A:The forks of the house.
Speaker A:There was something you said that.
Speaker A:That I had to write down that really stood out to me.
Speaker A:Running away from me.
Speaker A:I find that very interesting that you say that.
Speaker A:Elaborate more on that.
Speaker B:I mean, so it's like.
Speaker B:It's almost like you.
Speaker B:You know, there's this thing that your heart is turning into.
Speaker B:So at the stage where we were kids, we were young girls, we could dream far, we could imagine and fantasize about who we want to become, what we want to become, and all of that.
Speaker B:But then life starts to sip in.
Speaker B:One auntie here is telling you, come on, stop daydreaming and go get busy.
Speaker B:One mom or dad is telling you, be realistic.
Speaker B:Be realistic.
Speaker B:It's not for people like you, you know, and those little words here and there start to silence and start to kill that.
Speaker B:That ability or that dream or that desire.
Speaker B:And for.
Speaker B:For us, you know, it's like, okay, every time, because it is innate.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's God who placed it there right it keeps rearing its head, it keeps coming out.
Speaker B:It's like they say your character is like a smoke.
Speaker B:No matter how much you hide it, it will pop out.
Speaker B:Somebody's going to get on your nerve, and you would be.
Speaker B:Before you catch yourself, it's like it's out.
Speaker B:It's the same thing because it's innate.
Speaker B:It keeps coming up.
Speaker B:But then because of this word this person said, this, what this person said, you begin to push it aside, like, no, it can't be me.
Speaker B:It can't be me.
Speaker B:I don't want to be unrealistic.
Speaker B:I don't want to fantasize.
Speaker B:I don't want to be dreaming.
Speaker B:I want to be.
Speaker B:Be factual.
Speaker B:You know, and so sometimes we take on identities that are not ours.
Speaker B:You know, for some of us, we were born with that ability to imagine.
Speaker B:Imagine so vividly that only when we see it so clearly and we can formulate it so clearly in our heads can we bring it to reality.
Speaker B:It's, it's.
Speaker B:It's an innate gift that God gives to some of us, right?
Speaker B:But then with all these different experiences, we kill that.
Speaker B:And so when the image is forming, we run away from it.
Speaker B:We distract ourselves.
Speaker B:We try to, you know, fit in into the mold that our circumstances, our situations, our people around us are trying to force us into.
Speaker B:And so we run.
Speaker B:We run away from who we are to become who people want us to be or to become what feels like this is what will blend in, and that's how we lose ourselves.
Speaker B:And so I just felt like as I was getting closer to that fourth floor, it felt like there is, it's, it's, it's.
Speaker B:It's a season of reawakening.
Speaker B:And I didn't see that only in me.
Speaker B:I saw that in a couple of other people who were approaching that, you know, fourth floor or just got there or just, you know, they're in already and it's like they don't know who they are anymore.
Speaker B:Like, can I still start over?
Speaker B:It's too late for me.
Speaker B:And, and, and, and, and, and, and I've spoken to people who have totally given up.
Speaker B:You see, people like, I can't do this anymore.
Speaker B:And for some, they are valid.
Speaker B:So, for example, one of the women I spoke to during that time, as I was speaking, so I started to speak to a lot of women within their 40s, 40s, and above, so that, you know, I didn't just want to base off my, my practice and my desire to help women just on my own story.
Speaker B:I needed More references.
Speaker B:Because that's something that I've grown to understand, that in life as humans, we need references.
Speaker B:And that's why it's important that our environment, it plays a very, very big role in how far we can dream and how far we can go.
Speaker B:I have wanted.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:From a child.
Speaker B:From.
Speaker B:From a child, right.
Speaker B:As a child, I really knew.
Speaker B:I knew, right.
Speaker B:For.
Speaker B:For some time, I used to think I wanted to know.
Speaker B:I knew it.
Speaker B:I knew it.
Speaker B:That the screen and me are in tandem, like we are together.
Speaker B:It's my natural habitat.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I didn't have enough references while I was growing up.
Speaker B:And with the kind of messages that I had in the climb where I was growing up, it felt like it was vanity to even dream of it, to even think of it, of being in the spotlight.
Speaker B:It's like, vanity.
Speaker B:Like, that is vain.
Speaker B:That is vain.
Speaker B:Thinking that is vain.
Speaker B:You know, I'm a Christian, and so the kind of community I grew up in, it's like, that is vain.
Speaker B:So I had to kill that.
Speaker B:But I always knew.
Speaker B:I always knew when I watched tv, like, I could be that person.
Speaker B:I could be the one reading that news.
Speaker B:I could be the one presenting on the screen, you see?
Speaker B:So somehow, even though I kept killing that, I didn't have enough references.
Speaker B:Everywhere I got into, without necessarily thinking about it or planning it, I find myself at the top, on stage, leading other people doing something on stage, you see.
Speaker B:And so when I started to, you know, grow into teenage food and everything, I still find myself on the screen.
Speaker B:Might not be as big as I thought I would when I was dreaming as a young kid, but I'm still on screen.
Speaker B:I'm on screen right now.
Speaker B:Like, every.
Speaker B:Most of the thing I do is on screen is online.
Speaker B:And, yeah, people watch me on their big screen.
Speaker B:There was a time I was in a particular podcast and somebody was watching it on their screen, and they took a picture and sent it to you.
Speaker B:Like, eg, I'm watching you on the big screen.
Speaker B:I'm like, yes, that's a dream come true.
Speaker B:I mean, it might not be on tv, but I'm still on someone's screen.
Speaker B:So, yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker B:So as.
Speaker B:As I started to talk to these women within that age range, I started to see how a lot of them have really just left who they were because of other people, because of the idea that they couldn't be the best they could for the people in their lives without sacrificing the essence of who they are.
Speaker B:And I Think that is something that we can work or we can rework and say, fine, yes, you've.
Speaker B:You've done what it is you did.
Speaker B:You've made the decisions that led you up to this place.
Speaker B:But the truth is the fact that it's still calling at you.
Speaker B:Your heart is still feeling like there is something more.
Speaker B:This is not all.
Speaker B:To me, it means that that thing still wants expression.
Speaker B:So how can we tap into it?
Speaker B:How can we look at where we are?
Speaker B:How can we acknowledge the role that we've played to get to where we are and then make the decisions that will take us away from there to where we want to be?
Speaker A:Wow, that was so many nuggets.
Speaker A:First of all, I'm glad we connected.
Speaker A:Second of all, I had therapy yesterday, and it's so funny what you're saying, which is what we were talking about in therapy, and I was talking about to my therapist.
Speaker A:I said, you know, it's funny because I said, it's interesting because as women, we are trained right off the gate.
Speaker A:I mean, one of our first toys that we're given as a doll, and then we're giving, you know, kitchen products.
Speaker A:So as women, we are trained at a very early age of where path is supposed to be.
Speaker A:So when we get to a point where we.
Speaker A:The marriage, the kids, you know, the.
Speaker A:The schooling and stuff, we get to a point when we try and figure out our purpose and our worth.
Speaker A:And so what we're trained and our purpose and our worth, like it's all in struggle together.
Speaker A:Because from.
Speaker A:As children, we are trained to do a certain thing, but then this whole world is open to us, and it's like, well, I can do this, I can do that.
Speaker A:I remember I was listening to a podcast about she was making hair products and her daughter was trying to tell her to be in front of the brand instead of behind of the brand.
Speaker A:But, you know, for her, it was not age.
Speaker A:You know, for her at the time she started, she wasn't starting to make a business.
Speaker A:She was just starting problem to sell our problem.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:Not knowing her problem was bigger outside of her.
Speaker A:And so it's very interesting what.
Speaker A:What you said and what I talked about with my therapist yesterday is our purpose, our worth, and our training all just kind of.
Speaker A:It just clashes together.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But, yeah, I wrote down another quote you said was character is like.
Speaker A:It keeps popping out.
Speaker A:I just.
Speaker A:That that's just a nugget.
Speaker B:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I really think, you know, like you said, with just having that entanglement between our, the core of who we are, our environment, the way we were brought up and all of that.
Speaker B:And the truth is it's actually valid that we're having that entanglement because we didn't know better, our parents didn't know better, and that's how they allowed us get tangled.
Speaker B:But thank God for the resources and the tools that we have in our disposals.
Speaker B:Now, in their time, they didn't know what therapy was.
Speaker B:You know, they could probably rant, but there was no trained mind to, to kind of channel the rant in a way that ends in a resolve that helps you feel lighter in a healthy way.
Speaker B:You know, they didn't have coaching, even though they probably maybe had an expression of it.
Speaker B:But it wasn't this fine tuned in a way that we can say, okay, this is what we're working on, you know, these are the questions we are asking.
Speaker B:So as Christians, the biggest coach, the greatest coach ever is Jesus.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:You know, whenever he thoughts, he always asks questions, always.
Speaker B:And that's what coaches do.
Speaker B:We ask questions.
Speaker B:He speaks in parables.
Speaker B:You know, of course as coaches we don't speak in parables, but at the same time we don't essentially Australia, as life coaches, we don't essentially tell our clients what it is even, even if we can see it from the word go.
Speaker B:Like I see what she's struggling with, but I cannot tell her this is what you're struggling with.
Speaker B:Because the first thing that comes, no, that's a defense.
Speaker B:And that's you lost that person.
Speaker B:You know, it'll be difficult for them to get to the root of it, but you can see it.
Speaker B:Then your job is to question it out of them.
Speaker B:You see.
Speaker B:So coaching has existed, therapy has existed, but not as refined or as fine tuned as they are now that people can literally learn the principles behind it and be able to apply to other people to get results.
Speaker B:So yeah, the entanglement is real, is valid, but it doesn't mean that it should keep us in that place of confusion or, you know, of, of lost identity.
Speaker B:And it's a gradual thing.
Speaker B:And that's another thing I need to let women know.
Speaker B:It's a gradual thing.
Speaker B:Even as a coach, as somebody who has been on this journey of unraveling and consistently evolving, that's intentionally evolving because whether you like it or not, as humans we are evolving.
Speaker B:So but when you add the intentionality to it, that's when you begin see how you are updating your OS as a person from one grade to another.
Speaker B:So in the Past five years, I have constantly upgraded, so it's a work in progress.
Speaker B:I don't know everything, I don't know everything there is to know about myself.
Speaker B:And at each point that I start to need an upgrade, I see there is a discomfort that happens.
Speaker B:Currently, I'm currently in an upgrade season where it's looking like everything I've done up until now is like, what are you doing with your life?
Speaker B:Is this, is this, is this all there is to you?
Speaker A:It does feel like that.
Speaker A:Just your tone.
Speaker A:It does feel like that.
Speaker A:You know, upgrade.
Speaker A:The, the fact that you said upgrading, I, I didn't even write it down yet.
Speaker A:It was like another nugget and I only put a D.
Speaker A:Is it a discomforting that happens?
Speaker A:And you know, that's interesting because as I'm going through my journey with upgrading, that discomforting is actually, for me, fear because it's like, because it's disrupting and it's a fear of disrupting others around me because, you know, we are, for me, I should speak about me, there's this fear of if I am going to upgrade, someone is not going to get something, someone is going to lose something.
Speaker A:And so the question is, do I move forward or do I stay?
Speaker A:But the thing is, I don't even Sometimes it's kind of like what, someone's going to lose out on something with this upgrade.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:I think a good, a better, I think a way, a way to look at it or a way that I will look at it is as we, so if you, if you, if you go with the analogy of the butterfly and the, the moth, is it moth or lava and the butterfly?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I, I, it's got to stay, it's.
Speaker B:Got, it's got to leave that shape.
Speaker B:The caterpillar.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:It's got to leave the shape of the caterpillar to be able to get into, to be able to grow wings, to fly as a butterfly.
Speaker B:And now he's going to lose the movement of moving, you know, with the body.
Speaker B:I mean, you could get used to that.
Speaker B:Like, okay, sleek, it's smooth.
Speaker B:But what is there to gain?
Speaker B:A wings is coming, colors are coming, movement is going to be better.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So when you, when, when we look at it from that angle, we say, okay, what, what, what, what am I losing versus what am I gaining?
Speaker B:And even when you consider the people in your surrounding is, even if they lose this part of you, what are they going to gain if you upgrade?
Speaker B:If these are people who need to be in your life for A season or for the long term, then your upgrade is of benefit to them.
Speaker B:But then we have to also consider that there are people in our lives who are just there for a short time and who are there for a particular reason.
Speaker B:And so if my upgrade is not going to serve the reason that they are in my life anymore, it means that their time is up, it's done.
Speaker B:No bad feelings, no hard feelings.
Speaker B:Like, I'm just.
Speaker B:I just need to.
Speaker B:I just need to upgrade.
Speaker B:It's like saying you are in grade one and you need to move to grade two, but you love the class.
Speaker B:You love the colors around and the chair, but you've passed the exam, you need to move to grade two.
Speaker B:Yeah, the class is going to miss you and you're going to miss the classroom, but then you have to upgrade because that's what life is all about.
Speaker B:And it doesn't mean that if your teacher is still in the same school, you can't interact with your teacher anymore.
Speaker B:Do you see what I mean?
Speaker B:So when we look at it in that context, we will see that when we weigh the pros to the cons, oftentimes when there is intention in it, the pros are always higher than the cons.
Speaker B:And the cons is that they no longer serve who we are becoming.
Speaker B:So it would be a detriment if we sit with that just because we want to remain in our comfort zone or because we want to make some people happy.
Speaker B:But the truth is, even you being there, knowing that this is where you need to be, there's gonna come a time where you're going to resent yourself for it, because you begin to see the things that you are capable of doing but you're unable to do because you chose to be here.
Speaker B:And so you hate yourself, you hate being here.
Speaker B:And then to what?
Speaker B:You're not useful to anybody when you're grumpy.
Speaker B:You're not.
Speaker B:You're not.
Speaker B:Nobody's happy when you're.
Speaker A:That's a true statement.
Speaker B:So, yeah, when we consider it that.
Speaker A:Way, yeah, yeah, that's a very true statement.
Speaker A:And then when we hold ourselves back, or I shouldn't say even that.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I should say when we don't follow the purpose that has been laid out for us in the end, I mean, I can only imagine having a conversation with God, be like, you know, I wanted you to build this.
Speaker A:Why didn't it happen?
Speaker A:And you'd be like, because I was too scared.
Speaker A:Or, you know, and so in the end, it's really about the kingdom, right?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And, and, and also asides from the Kingdom, is that the reason?
Speaker B:Because again, the kingdom begins from here.
Speaker B:The kingdom is within us, and so we're building from here into eternity, right?
Speaker B:So there are things that needs to happen here.
Speaker B:So in you stalling and not making that move, there are people that are suffering, there are destinies that are tied to your movement that are suffering because you wouldn't move because she wouldn't say the word.
Speaker B:Somebody doesn't get to hear about Jesus on time, for example, because she wouldn't say the word, somebody doesn't get to think about that solution that you could have suggested to them because she didn't say a word and that stalls.
Speaker B:It's just the same thing that probably has kept us here.
Speaker B:There are things that some people didn't say on time, and we're hearing it for the first time.
Speaker B:I'm like, where have you been all my life?
Speaker B:If I had known this five years ago, I wouldn't be here today.
Speaker B:Do you see what I mean?
Speaker B:So again, if we look at it that way, that at the end of the day, especially as Kingdom people, we are all connected.
Speaker B:We are all a piece of a puzzle of what God is doing, right?
Speaker B:So when we shift or when we delay, it's causing a ripple effect.
Speaker B:And that's one of the things that really scares me as well.
Speaker B:Like something that, yeah, I could say scare me, right?
Speaker B:Like something I'm constantly praying about, like, God, please help me.
Speaker B:I don't scared.
Speaker B:I don't think I can do this.
Speaker B:But God, if this is you laying in my heart, please give me the courage to just do it.
Speaker B:Because I don't want to cause a traffic jam when I.
Speaker B:When there should be a free flow simply because I'm afraid, you know, I'm afraid to take this step.
Speaker B:And again, the fear is valid.
Speaker B:Says, sisters, the fear is valid, brothers, the fear is valid, but we cannot allow it.
Speaker B:And that's why, specifically, you know, the scripture says he has not given us that spirit of fear.
Speaker B:When the fear is crippling, it be.
Speaker B:It's a spirit.
Speaker B:It's no longer just an emotion.
Speaker B:It's no longer.
Speaker B:It's no longer.
Speaker B:I'm feeling.
Speaker B:No, when it's crippling, it's a spirit that's taken over.
Speaker B:When it stops you from doing the things that you need to do, it has taken over.
Speaker B:Of course, fear is there.
Speaker B:Fear will never go away because it's a sign.
Speaker B:It's almost like a compass for us to say, something is wrong, something is Wrong.
Speaker B:Imagine if you're not afraid.
Speaker B:If you're not afraid and you're walking on the street and you hear the horn of a car.
Speaker B:If you're not afraid, you're not going to move and you just might get hit.
Speaker B:But when you hear the horn, it jolts you and then you move.
Speaker B:That's, that's, that's the job of fear.
Speaker B:It's to give you signal like there's danger, there's danger, move or run or something, right?
Speaker B:But when it comes to a place where it's crippling and you're not able to move or do the things that is required, then it is a spirit.
Speaker B:It is now binding you down.
Speaker B:You need to break free from that and declare the word and say, no, God have not given me the spirit of fear.
Speaker B:That has been my scripture for the season.
Speaker B:Because I know there, there are things that God is calling me to.
Speaker B:And I'm like, oh my God, God, why?
Speaker B:Okay, I know I can do.
Speaker B:I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me.
Speaker B:God has not given me the spirit of fear, but of love, of power and of a sound mind.
Speaker B:I love what I do.
Speaker B:I love to be called by God.
Speaker B:I have a sound mind.
Speaker B:I have power because he who lives in me is greater than he who is in the world is greater than this assignment.
Speaker B:So, you know, I mean, the fear is real, but we can speak.
Speaker B:We can speak to it and get through it regardless.
Speaker A:Wow, that's a nugget.
Speaker A:Sometimes I think about, like when I read scripture, I'd be like, why can't God just like, be that direct as he was there?
Speaker A:You know, I was reading Second Samuel and David was like, can I attack these Philistines?
Speaker A:And God's like, sure, I'll deliver them to your hand.
Speaker A:Just go around these little trery bushes and I'll, you know, it would be like, oh, if only, if only it could be that simple.
Speaker A:But I mean, I know the name of the game though.
Speaker A:But the name of the game is to be able, as you said, to.
Speaker A:To walk without fear in Christ.
Speaker B:Right, Right.
Speaker B:I think the noise is actually much now.
Speaker B:That's why it's a bit difficult for us to hear.
Speaker B:Because, yeah, I think back then the noise wasn't this much.
Speaker A:That is a very true statement.
Speaker A:No social media, no cars, no TVs.
Speaker A:They had it easy.
Speaker B:The distract.
Speaker B:Real man, very real.
Speaker B:So it's going to require a lot of cons.
Speaker B:Consecration and in separation to, to hear that, like instant and you know, but you know, we, we we still thank God that you.
Speaker B:He lives in us.
Speaker B:And there are multiple ways that he can speak to us, but we just need to be able to pick the signal of what he's saying to us per time.
Speaker B:Sometimes it's just an idea, sometimes it's just a nudge.
Speaker B:You know, for example, today I had the nudge to just.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I had one person in mind to reach out to, like, check up on this person.
Speaker B:And as I checked, as I, you know, picked up my phone to check up on them to just send a voice note.
Speaker B:Not even like, call, just send a voice note.
Speaker B:I heard, you know, just check up on all your community members.
Speaker B:And then I checked my community and like, 200.
Speaker B:I'm like, Lord, 200 people.
Speaker B:Like, I don't have all that time, God.
Speaker B:But then I heard, just do it.
Speaker B:I'm like, okay, God, I don't know if this is a waste of time, but I'm just gonna do it anyways.
Speaker B:And guess what?
Speaker B:You know, not all of them have responded, but the ones who have are like, this is almost like, oh, my God.
Speaker B:Oh, my God.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for reaching out.
Speaker B:And there are some who are actually going through a rough patch, and I had no clue.
Speaker B:And they're like, thank you so much for just checking up on me.
Speaker B:I don't know what that is going to do for their day.
Speaker B:I don't know how that is going to boost their spirit.
Speaker B:But I have just listened to a simple nudge that feels almost like.
Speaker B:Doesn't even make sense.
Speaker B:Like you have better things to do with your time, but that's it.
Speaker B:So sometimes we just kind of miss out on.
Speaker B:On what God is telling us, because it doesn't come in the package that we expect.
Speaker B:It comes in just a simple idea, a simple nudge here, something somebody said, and it hits you, and you just like.
Speaker B:And you leave it like that.
Speaker B:No, sometimes you carry like, why did that hit me so much?
Speaker B:And you sit with it and it's going to deliver more to you.
Speaker B:So, yeah, we just need to be.
Speaker B:We need to pay more attention.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker A:That's beautiful.
Speaker A:I wrote that down.
Speaker A:Pick the signal.
Speaker A:And I think this is a last nugget to leave because, I mean, unlike David, I mean, probably the only noise he had was just birds and creatures that are unknown to me right now just running around for him to be easily to pick a signal.
Speaker A:And I think the last little nugget is that is to pick a signal.
Speaker A:Because at the end of the day, prayer, fasting, silence, just being with the Lord, knowing your purpose and moving forward.
Speaker A:I mean, as simple as it is, I mean that's such a simple plan when you think about it.
Speaker A:But it's just so hard for all of us.
Speaker B:Because there's so much to look around, there's so much to see, there's so much to compare with, you know, and say, am I, am I doing enough?
Speaker B:And I'm at that place now where I'm just getting to understand afresh.
Speaker B:Like, yeah, just stick with what God is saying to you per time.
Speaker B:It's not about how much work you do, but how, how much, how, how much to the details are you paying attention, how much to the instruct, how much instructions are you listening to per time.
Speaker B:It's not about what's going on around you.
Speaker B:And, and I know it's difficult.
Speaker B:Like it's easier said than done because as humans.
Speaker B:So for example, personally, I am an hyper achiever.
Speaker B:So it's difficult for me to sit still.
Speaker B:It's difficult for me to just relax and not do anything.
Speaker B:Like it look like they're stabbing me and they're killing me if I have to stay the whole day without doing anything.
Speaker B:I cannot or I couldn't.
Speaker B:But I'm beginning to learn that even in the stillness there is power there.
Speaker B:Because it's in that stillness that you hear that you sense that you can sit in with God.
Speaker B:Nothing.
Speaker B:Sometimes it's not even, sometimes even the praying is not.
Speaker B:The praying is not you actively saying words.
Speaker B:It's just you sitting still and just enjoying his presence.
Speaker B:And it's difficult.
Speaker B:It's something, yeah, something that we need to press into something that we need to fight for.
Speaker B:And I feel like that's.
Speaker B:When the scripture says that the kingdom of God suffers violence.
Speaker B:People think it's like violence to say, oh, my enemies die.
Speaker B:No, the violence is.
Speaker B:See, I'm finding it difficult to stay still.
Speaker B:And I'm gonna fight.
Speaker B:I'm gonna fight until I understand what it means to be still and know that he's God.
Speaker B:I'm gonna fight and sit with him and try to listen until I hear that word or that instruction.
Speaker B:You know, I'm going to keep listening.
Speaker B:And even when I hear the instruction, I take action.
Speaker B:And it feels like, no, maybe I didn't hear correctly.
Speaker B:It's fine.
Speaker B:I'm going to keep learning his, his voice, learning his presence, until it becomes a part of me.
Speaker B:That is it.
Speaker B:It's like you have to be brutally, you have to be brutal with the consistence and persistence.
Speaker B:Like, hey, I will listen.
Speaker B:I Will hear.
Speaker B:I will do right.
Speaker A:Well said.
Speaker A:I could.
Speaker A:I couldn't do better myself.
Speaker A:I felt like an amen.
Speaker A:A sermon is happening.
Speaker A:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker A:Ej, I just.
Speaker A:I just.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:I am relaunching my podcast.
Speaker A:You are my first interview, and I think this was a beautiful meeting for.
Speaker A:Not just for me, but for others out there, because it is knowing your purpose.
Speaker A:I had a dream, and it was the most weirdest dream in the world.
Speaker A:I was putting a piano through the car wash, and I was trying to dry it, and I saw my old self, and I was moving my old self so I can dry this piano.
Speaker A:So I'm telling a church member this dream, and she was like, you should be teaching.
Speaker A:And I was like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
Speaker A:This is not the interpretation that I was.
Speaker A:That I was expecting.
Speaker A:So when.
Speaker A:When she said that to me, that it.
Speaker B:What.
Speaker A:What you do for women, this is the process that.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:That I was going through, just that entanglement, you know, asking those questions, you know, that discomfort.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So I thank you for you being my first interview as I relaunched this journey.
Speaker A:So I thank you for that.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me, and thank you for reaching out and the opportunity to just share.
Speaker B:And I just hope that, you know, whoever is listening and who needs that clarity and that, you know, disentanglement, that they would hear what is theirs from everything I've said and.
Speaker B:And the Holy Spirit to breathe on it, on them, to really take the next step that they did require.
Speaker B:And, you know, sometimes in those seasons, we also need to pay attention to our teachers.
Speaker B:Like you said, it's interesting you mentioned teacher, but in those seasons, we also need to pay attention to our teachers.
Speaker B:There are people who.
Speaker B:Their message would feel like it's.
Speaker B:They are speaking to our souls.
Speaker B:So we need to sit with those people to kind of devour everything that they have in that season so that, you know, there's.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker B:There's a.
Speaker B:There's a faith.
Speaker B:You know, when the Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God is that there is a level you soak yourself into certain messages or certain scriptures that it.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It unleashes the giant that you truly are.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And that moment, you're able to take that step that just breaks the wall that lets you make that move that you require.
Speaker B:So I pray that, you know, whatever we've said today would inspire you to go look for your teachers or to.
Speaker B:To identify them when you see them, to press in.
Speaker B:Fight for what is yours and reclaim your life nuggets.
Speaker A:So EJ people can find you the Stretch street podcast.
Speaker A:Your voice, your impact show on YouTube, man.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:God bless you.
Speaker B:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:Bless you, too.
Speaker A:Okay, here we go.
Speaker A:Here we go.
Speaker A:To stop a recording op.
