IJLMI: Into Powerlessness Pt. 2

[00:00:00] You cannot walk in power if people want to keep reminding you of what bad thing could happen. They want to play devil's advocate and remind you that God could not come through for you. That's great. First of all, let me just speak to the kid. If you are a devil's advocate person, if you are a, oh, well, you need to check that. Check that. Check it quickly. Because who are you helping,

[00:00:24] especially if you call yourself a Christian, by reminding somebody of the bad that could happen?

[00:00:32] What's up everybody? It's your girl Liz Speaks and welcome back to another episode of I'll Just Let Myself In, the podcast where we don't wait for an imaginary permission slip or a seat at an imaginary table.

[00:01:00] We let ourselves into our God-given doors. And I'm excited because we're going to get into part two of an episode that we started two weeks ago. Now I owe you an apology. I was supposed to have this episode to you last week, but life, life, then I decided not to life with it for a little while. And so this episode is late, but I promise it will be worth the wait. Before we get into part two of the powerless Christian and oxymoron,

[00:01:24] I want to make sure I thank a few people. First of all, I want to thank you. If you're listening on Holy Culture, Sirius XM channel 140 at 8 PM Eastern Standard Time on a Monday night, I thank you for listening there. If you're watching on their YouTube, I thank you for watching there. If you're watching on my YouTube, I want to thank you for watching here and remind you to subscribe. Make sure that you subscribe so that you don't miss anything we have going on.

[00:01:49] We've got a couple of really fun things that I think you will enjoy and that will encourage you. And so I want you to subscribe. Please make sure that you are liking the videos, leaving comments. If you're listening on the audio, go ahead and leave us a review. We want to hear from you guys. There's some cool things happening with this podcast. And without saying too much, I want to let you know that if you love this podcast,

[00:02:14] I need your support now more than ever. I need your visible support. I need your audible support. I need you sharing it with friends and telling people the value that we bring to you. And I just thank you so much for all that you already do to help this podcast to be a success. All right. Now let's get into the podcast. This is part two of the powerless Christian and oxymoron.

[00:02:38] Now, if you have not listened to part one, I want you to go back and listen to part one. Go back and listen to part one of the podcast. I want you to go back and take it in because today we're going to get into some of the solutions to the problems that I presented with powerlessness and Christianity in part one. I'll do a slight recap because I know some of you are stubborn and you will not go back and listen to part one. You're going to just keep listening to this. So for those of you who have not heard part one, here's a little bit of a recap.

[00:03:08] So the powerless Christian is an oxymoron because by nature, you cannot be both powerless and a follower of Christ. It's just like something being bitter and sweet, as I said in the first episode. Right. You can feel like something is bittersweet, but something cannot be both bitter and sweet. That's not how that works. And so oftentimes we may be feeling like powerless Christians, but I'm here to let you know you are not a powerless Christian.

[00:03:37] If you are a follower of Christ, you have power. The issue is you may not be walking in it. And so we're going to talk a little bit about solutions for that today. You know, I don't know any person who wants to live a powerless life or feel powerless in their lives. I don't know a person who wants to have anxiety or wants to be anxious or wants to feel defeated in the things that they want to do.

[00:04:05] I don't know a person who wants that, but I know so many people who are living that way. And so if you don't even want it, you have to really decide that you're going to investigate why you're living that way. I have a couple of things that I think we can do in order to combat that, as is my practice here at this podcast. We're going to hit three of them, but there are so many things we can do to combat this powerlessness that we may feel in our Christianity.

[00:04:33] And the first one I think is probably the most important. It is being in the word of God. Being in the word of God is the best way for you to combat powerlessness because it'll give you the evidence that you need of God's power. The scripture that really hits me when it comes to this is in Romans 10, verse 17. And, you know, in the scripture, the Bible just tells us simply this.

[00:04:59] It says, consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ. This scripture is about people coming to faith. But I also believe that us sustaining our faith comes from hearing the message, hearing the word of God, hearing the word through Christ. Next, there's this person on social media and they will show themselves going up to Christians.

[00:05:26] And they will show themselves going up to people and they will ask those people, hey, are you a Christian? Do you identify as Christian? And people say yes. And then they will ask this person the most basic thing about the Bible, the most basic, you know, how many disciples are there? What's their name? You know, and so many people cannot answer these questions. Sometimes they'll ask, what's your favorite scripture? Or tell me a scripture verbatim when I give you $100. And people won't do it. You know, sometimes people could be camera shy or whatever the case may be. Or these could just be the people that they decide to post for whatever reason.

[00:05:56] But it is very telling to me that we live in a society where you can call yourself a Christian and not read the word of God at all. Not have a deep understanding of the words of Christ. I always think about the Bible as a love letter, you know. And my grandmother, who passed away when I was 19. I was very, very close to her.

[00:06:20] And I often wish that she left some journals or something behind where I could have read her thoughts. In fact, one of the reasons that I do this podcast is that hopefully one day, if I have children or even just my family now, when I'm gone, they will have something to look at and know who I was. They can show generations, you know, my thoughts and my legacy and things like that. And I think about this. I think about, you know, the fact that we have a book.

[00:06:48] If you believe in the Bible, in the faith of the Christian faith, we have a book that tells us the stories of our spiritual lineage. Right. And I think that so many Christians are forfeiting a level of faith that they could have to overcome, to believe, to fight, to be who they want to be, to rest in the in the love and safety of Christ.

[00:07:16] If they would really read their word, if we would get into our word deeply more than we're on social media, more than we read other books. And listen, I'm guilty of this. And I read my Bible a lot. But there are some weeks where I'm like, now you've been on social media a lot more than you've been in your word. Let's just keep it real. Right.

[00:07:35] And so if faith comes from hearing the word and sustaining your faith comes from being in the word, we're in a scary place if we are not prioritizing our time in the word. You know, prioritize listening to sermons. Prioritize listening to spiritual podcasts. Prioritize reading your Bible for yourself. You know, sometimes the word you need to hear is a word from God. And you can't hear a word from God because you're so distracted by everything else.

[00:08:03] You're so distracted by everything else. You're so into the body that you're leaving out the head. You know, this is not always popular with my church going folks. But I don't think it is equally important to be close to the body as it is to the head. That's controversial. But let me tell you something. In the Old Testament, there was no church. Okay.

[00:08:30] There was nobody meeting two and three times a week and having this and having that. These people had to have a real connection to God. Do I think you should go to church? Yes, I go to church. Part of a church. Work hard to make sure that I find a place that I can serve and be served in all the things. But I have seen people dismiss the head because of what the body did. I have never seen someone dismiss the head for the body.

[00:09:00] Someone who is really close to God, they'll find another church. They'll reconcile the issue that they had with that church. But they're not just going to dismiss and leave God altogether because of what the body did. But maybe the other way around, people that are so connected to the body but not connected to the head, not connected to what God has for them specifically, their time with God, hearing a word from God, wanting to be close and alone with God.

[00:09:28] As soon as the church don't do them right, they blame it on God. And so it is so important that you don't just hear the message on a Sunday or from a pastor or from a podcast, but that you actually ask God, what do you have for me? What do you want to tell me? What do you want to fill my spirit with? He may lead you to the Bible to show you that. He may lead you to a passage to show you that. He may tell you himself. He may put it on your spirit.

[00:09:55] But it's important that if you're going to be a person who walks in power, you hear the word of God. There is nothing more emboldening for me. I don't even know if that's a word. Then when I know for a fact, God has something for me to do, get or be. There's nothing anybody can tell me. My husband will tell you this for a fact. I'll be like, baby, I got a word from God. I got a word. I got a word.

[00:10:24] And sometimes the word is something I read. It's something I heard. It's something I prayed. And then something happened. I'm like, whoa. But there's nothing more emboldening than that. There's nothing that God can tell me that I can overcome, which according to his word is anything, that I will not believe I can overcome if I'm actually reading the word. When you start doubting, it's because you're not in the word. And I think this is a part that we are missing.

[00:10:47] So what's important, you know, when we're talking about solutions, feeling powerful, that we are in our word, that we're connected to the head, that we're understanding from God and from his word what he has for us. I'm telling you guys, that will put a smile on your face and a pep in your step like nothing else. Another thing that will do that is keeping the right company. In 1 Corinthians 15, 33, the Bible talks about the company that you keep. And it says, do not be misled.

[00:11:15] Bad company corrupts good character. You know, this scripture has taken on different meanings for me at different times in my life. When I was young, my mother would say, bad company corrupts good character. And it was about choosing the right friends and making sure that I wasn't doing the things that my friends did that my mom had taught me through God's word were not of God. You know, she would say to me, I don't care what everybody else is doing. You know right and wrong. Do right.

[00:11:42] You know, and I really had to internalize that at different times in my life. And then when I was in my 20s, you know, and early 30s, not keeping bad company meant, all right, don't be around anybody who is living a crazy lifestyle that you know is going to tempt you. So you don't want to be around people who always drinking, smoking, having sex, doing these things that you're not doing. You want to make sure that you're around people who can influence you in the correct way.

[00:12:10] And not that you don't have anybody in life who's not living like you, but you know, you want to make sure that you have people in your life who are going to encourage you correctly. In my 30s, bad company is defined as people who complain too much. Yeah. See, when I was a kid, it was defined by, you know, just the wrong crowd and making sure that you're not around people. You know, in my 20s, it was defined as people who were living in ways that I was trying not to live.

[00:12:37] In my 30s, bad company is defined by people who complain too much. People who have a problem for every solution. People whose first instinct is to talk about what can't go right. Why something won't go right. All the things that are going wrong in their lives. Yeah, that's the company I don't keep. It says bad company corrupts good character.

[00:13:04] In the New King James Version, which I love, it says evil company corrupts good habits. Yeah, that's a good one. Because if you have a habit of being faithful, if you have a habit of seeing what God could do, if you are constantly surrounding yourself by people who don't have that habit, it will corrupt your habit. You will find yourself being negative. You'll find yourself depressed.

[00:13:30] You ever been around sitting somewhere and you feeling a way and you're like, why am I feeling like this? Then you start to think about the last several conversations you've been around, the last couple of people you've been around. You know, there's some people, it takes me days to decompress. My husband, he would be like, man, that really affected you. I'm like, yeah, I cannot be around certain energy for days and days at a time. I can't do it. I need to be around faithful, believing people.

[00:13:56] And I'm very blessed because the majority of my friends, they have saved me so many times. They have talked me off ledges. They have been faithful when I was struggling to believe. They have been glass half full when I was like, where is the glass? Is there even a glass? You know, even right now, there are circumstances and situations in my life that I'm fearful about. Things that I worry about, things that I'm like, man, is this too late? Did I just...

[00:14:25] The women in my life that I allow in to those spaces, those intimate feelings, baby, they make me believe anything is possible. They make me believe God can... What? That is nothing for God. Girl, we're going to pray. We're going to fast. Of course, look at this example. Look at this person. Look at this. Look at what God did for them. This is nothing for you. That same situation, there are people in my life who I don't talk to about it at all. Because the first thing they say is, yeah, I don't know, girl. Yeah, it is.

[00:14:55] I don't need that kind of energy. So you know what? They don't get those conversations. Because that is not the company I need to be faithful, to walk in power. You cannot walk in power if people want to keep reminding you of what bad thing could happen. They want to play devil's advocate and remind you that God could not come through for you. What? That's great. First of all, let me just speak to the guy.

[00:15:24] If you are a devil's advocate person, if you are a... Oh, well, you need to check that. Check that. Check it quickly. Because who are you helping, especially if you call yourself a Christian, by reminding somebody of the bad that could happen? By reminding someone or just, I just want you to think about... There's nothing of God in that.

[00:15:50] You know, when you're telling someone about a business plan or a business idea or something that you are just excited about, and the first thing they start talking about is everything that could go wrong. I want you to put... I don't care if you have to put your hand on your lip. Silence yourself. Silence yourself. Walk away from that person. Successful people don't do that. Successful people do not do that. When you tell a successful person about an idea you have, even if it's half-baked, even if it's like, I don't know... Let me tell you something.

[00:16:20] They're going to be so excited for you. They're going to be telling you solutions and giving you suggestions and saying, man, let me know how that goes. Even if they do have something like you might be overlooking, they're going to say it to you in such a way, hey, but have you thought about this? Make sure you think about this and let me know if I can help. It's not going to be anything negative or any sort of downward slant on what you're trying to do because successful and powerful people do not think that way.

[00:16:46] Ask yourself if the company that you're keeping is helpful to you or not. You know, if you're trying to leave something alone, you're trying to leave a substance alone, you're trying to leave a person alone, you're trying to leave a space alone. You cannot keep surrounding yourself with people who don't see a problem with that thing. It's the same as complaining. If you surround yourself with people who don't see a problem with complaining, you're going to be stuck. So if you're trying to stop drinking, stop smoking, stop having sex,

[00:17:12] you have to surround yourself with people who are not going to keep trying to pull you back into that. You got to keep good company. That good company is going to help you to have a good, powerful character. That faithful company is going to help you to be faithful when things look bleak. That company that's honoring God with their body is going to help you honor God with your body. I would not have made it to marriage without breaking my vow to God

[00:17:41] if every single one of my friends was having sex. I just wouldn't have. That's just a fact. Did I have some friends who were having sex? Of course I did. I'm a grown woman. But the majority of my friends, the majority of the people that I spent the most time with, going to church, going to events, they were living just as we were struggling together. We were trying to figure it out together. Those who were married had lived that life and could talk me through and help me through.

[00:18:10] And the ones who had it could say, girl, you're not missing anything. And I wish my husband was the only person that had ever had me. That was my experience. I needed that. If you are trying to abstain right now, woman of God, man of God, but all your friends got every story of how they put the thing down, flip it and reverse it, you got to get some new company. Yeah. Yeah, the bad company is going to corrupt the good character. And I don't mean that they're going to make you go out and do something because they can't.

[00:18:40] They can't control your body. But those stories and that company can make every single second of you waiting excruciating. You got to get around some people who respect your journey. Right? And even some of my friends who were, you know, living that life, they were very respectful of what I can handle, the stories I can handle. You know, they were very respectful of my tolerance for their shenanigans because they knew I wasn't living like that.

[00:19:07] And some of them, as I talked about in the episode, talked me out of making poor decisions in that realm. You know, talked me out of following my flesh into temptation. Girl, what are you talking about? You're going to hate yourself after you do that. I had a friend tell me, don't do that. Don't matter. You've waited this long. Keep waiting. Every day I'm so grateful for those people because that good company helped me to have good character. That faithful company helped me to have a faithful character.

[00:19:37] That patient company helped me to have a patient character. When I think about what I'm building and what I'm doing now in my life and the people that I'm interviewing and things like that, there's some people who never thought that I could do some of the things that I'm doing. I don't listen to those people. There's opportunities that I get and some people don't find out about them until they are posted on the internet. You know why?

[00:19:58] Because I don't need even a slight doubt of questioning how delulu, right, I feel about what God can do in my life. Because it's only delusional until he does it. And he has done it several times in my life. I've had people say, well, girl, that's, well, girl, that's, and I, it's in. I don't talk to them about that topic again.

[00:20:23] And then when God does it, I go back and I say, you see, I'm telling you, I got so many stories of things that people like, girl, it's not that same. And God does it because I had the faith to believe that he could. You got to surround yourself by people who get it. And it doesn't mean that you cut off every person who doesn't. But you may need to just limit the time you spend talking to them or talking to them about that topic.

[00:20:51] It's important that you walk in the power of the faith that God can do anything he has told you from his word that he can do. Anybody who is a threat to that is a person that you have to make sure has limited or maybe no access to you. And that just is what it is. Lastly, I think one of the things that is the most important in order for you to live a powerful life is prayer.

[00:21:14] Your prayer life has to be consistent, has to be powerful, and has to be one that is close to your heart in order for you to really walk in the power of God. And this is my lifeline. Prayer is my lifeline. I don't even know who or how or what or where I would be if it wasn't for the power of prayer. And my favorite scripture on prayer is one that you guys have heard me talk about before. It's Philippians 4.

[00:21:44] And I love this scripture for several reasons. But in Philippians 4, the Bible says, verse 4, it says, Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything. How many of you want to live a life where you can say, I'm not anxious about anything?

[00:22:14] The Bible tells us how right here. It says, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is the one, y'all. This is the one. If you don't get nothing else out of this, baby, get this. You have to present your request to God.

[00:22:43] God wants to hear from you. You know, so much of our anxiety and our overwhelm comes from not presenting our request to God. It comes from not, some of us not presenting our request to anyone. You ain't asked for help since somebody told you they wasn't able to help you 10 years ago. You're like, forget it. I ain't gonna ask nobody. Nobody can do nothing. You gotta present your request to God. Bible says, don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition.

[00:23:12] Some of us pray for something one or two times or we prayed for it 10 years ago and it hasn't happened. Bible says prayer and petition. That's constant. That's on God's neck about whatever you want him to do. I have news for you. You will feel powerful when you decide that you are going to pray without ceasing for God to change something in your life. Especially if it's something that God wants to change, right? Some of us, we don't know.

[00:23:40] Like when I was single, I was like, well, God, you know, I don't know if I'm going to have a husband. I don't know if that's in his will. I'm going to pray for it because it's what I want. But I knew God wanted me to work on my character. I knew God didn't want me to be easily angered. So praying for God to make me more patient, praying for God to make me, you know, more self-aware in the area I needed to be self-aware, which is still something that I pray. Praying for things that you know God wants you to be. Without ceasing, he will change it.

[00:24:09] I got news for you. You don't have to feel powerless to any sin. It is God's desire that you overcome that sin. So praying to him is music to his ears for him to help you. He does not look down upon us when we ask him for help. You know, maybe you had a parent who if you ask for help with your homework, they're like, you should know this. You've been in school all day. But you ask for help with maybe cleaning your room or tying your shoe or something. And it has conditioned you to not ask for help. God loves.

[00:24:38] He is not offended. God is not offended when you say, hey, God, can you help me love you better? Can you help me want to read your word? Can you help me want to obey your word? See, in our human thinking, that's offensive. If your best friend came to you and said, hey, can you help me want to be your friend? You'd be like, well, girl, you ain't got to be my friend. You know, or if your spouse came to you and said, hey, can you help me want to serve you? You'd be like, let's call somebody because we need some help up here.

[00:25:06] God is not offended by that. Pray to him and ask him to help you overcome the errors even of your relationship with him that are a struggle for you. You know, God is not offended by you asking him for something multiple times over and over and over and over again. He would rather that than you not ask. He would rather that than you just suffer.

[00:25:29] He would rather you be on your knees in petition, praying for him to help you. And what I love about the scriptures is, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Something that transcends all understanding is very powerful. In fact, by definition of power, it is beyond understanding, right?

[00:25:57] When you look at MCU or when you look at different movies and things like that, and you see these powerful beings doing things that are outside of human understanding, being able to stop a bullet or fly or convert water to ice or whatever, right? You could tell that I'm new around those parts, thanks to my husband. But, you know, these things are powerful because they are outside of human understanding.

[00:26:23] If you could figure out how to do everything, fix everything and be everything, there would be very little power in that. Hold tight to the fact that God can give you the power to overcome these things if you are willing to cling to him. If you're willing to be in your word, which will remind you of his power, of his grace and of his love. If you're willing to surround yourself with good company that will never let you think God can't do something.

[00:26:51] And if you're willing to pray and be in petition to be earnest, to be consistent in asking God to reveal his power in the areas of your life that you needed. I promise you, you will not live the oxymoron of a powerless Christian. You know, I really hope that this episode helped you to just start on your journey in the areas that you feel powerless. In episode one, I talked about some of the areas where I felt powerless in the past.

[00:27:19] You know, the thing that's helping me so much right now as I'm walking this out right with you guys is remembering that I am serving a God who wants to see me do well. You know, I am, I have a series on Instagram where I talk about what I have, what I'm learning on my walks because I go on these walks every day. And, you know, I'm in my health journey trying to get myself together. And I have to remind myself, God wants you to be healthy. He's not going to make it hard. And people will tell you, well, you got to check this and this disease and this.

[00:27:49] And I'm not saying that those things are not real at all. Trust me, I know. But I also know that I serve a God who can heal my body and that he has given me people around me who have been living examples of changing the way they eat and changing the way they move their body and have seen great results no matter what the doctor told them about why they couldn't lose the weight. I've seen this. We've all seen it. If you haven't seen it, Google it.

[00:28:18] Someone will be on Instagram telling you how the doctors told them thyroid this, da, da, da, da, da. And now they are living a very healthy life. Someone will be able to tell you how they overcame drug addiction, overcame sex addiction, overcame gambling addiction, overcame debt, overcame. You fill in the blank. There is someone out there with a story that can encourage you. God wants you to live a powerful life.

[00:28:45] John 10, 10 says that Jesus came so that we may have life and have it to the full. Have it more abundantly. He wants you to live in his full power. It is his pleasure to bless you. It is his pleasure to help you overcome. It is his pleasure to be able to see you walk through the doors he has for you. Thank you so much for listening. And I want to encourage you to please share this episode with someone who you think that it can help.

[00:29:15] Once again, if you're listening on Holy Culture, SiriusXM, we thank you for listening there. If you're watching on the YouTube, thanks for watching on Holy Culture. And if you're watching on my YouTube, thanks so much for watching here. This has been another episode of I'll Just Let Myself In with your girl, Liz Speaks. And we'll see you same time, same place next week. And we're going to have a guest so you don't want to miss it. See you then. Peace.