32. Breathe

Have you ever felt so heavy with the cares of life that it felt like you couldn't breathe?

In this episode of Heart Work with PBJ, Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson shares how declaring a song helped her move through a heavy season.  There is power is what you declare over your life.  However, be careful, because your declaration should be in alignment with God's plan for your life.

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Transcript

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Hey friends, this is Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson. But you can call me PBJ. Welcome to another episode of the Heart Work with PBJ Podcast, where we are disrupting cycles of burnout for people who do their work from the heart. Yeah, this podcast is dedicated to you, is dedicated to those who serve, who give, who take care of, who nurture who teach, who counsel who support, but sometimes you don't give that love back to yourself. This is a place that you can come to be refreshed, to be revived and to be reminded, and I'm so grateful that you choose to join me in this journey. Listen, friends, if you don't follow me on Instagram, you are missing out. I need you to follow me on Instagram@drpatricebucknerjackson. That's where you're going to get your spoonful of PBJ every Monday, get you jump started for the week. And also remember you get a new episode of this podcast every Wednesday. So go on over to Instagram make sure you follow me@drpatricebucknerjackson. All right, let's get into our episode. So today, friends, I want to share something with you from my heart. Just kind of where I've been lately, and, but also something that's just come to my heart that has encouraged me, and I want to encourage you, I think I share with you all there's, you know, there's been a whole lot going on, there's been a whole lot going on. Have you ever been in a situation or if you've been in a phase of life where you had some tremendous things like outstanding, tremendous, and at the same time, you had some crazy. And it's like the crazy won't let you get too high. For the tremendous because while you're enjoying the tremendous, you're reminded that this crazy is right over here, sitting on your shoulder. And that feels like where I've been in the last few weeks, I think I share with you our daughter graduated college with a Bachelor of Science and Mathematics. And we're so excited for her. But we also got a chance to celebrate with family, which we haven't had a chance to do since the start of the pandemic. So that was beautiful. I had the honor of sharing a commencement speech at my alma mater, which is also the same school my daughter graduated from. So that just blew my mind and was the greatest honor. And, you know, I've been I've had the opportunity to share on other people's podcast and to keep doing this podcast. And all of those things have been wonderful and tremendous, and out of this world. And just just beautiful. And at the same time, I think I share with you all that my husband had two surgeries in like four weeks. This is his fourth surgery in the last year. And because of the surgeries, you know, all the medical bills, and all of that it's crazy. And then on top of that we had some other things come in that we didn't expect and just kind of took our breath away. And we needed a moment to kind of figure that out, figure out what we're going to sacrifice to take care of some of this stuff. And this has been a lot of stuff. There's been a lot of stuff going on a lot of challenge. So Wow. Some really big, wonderful things are happening. Some really tough things are also happening. And if you're like me, I'm just pushing, just pushing through, like we got it, we can do it, we got it, we're gonna be okay. But at some point, you have to stop and recognize the impact of all of that and recognize that there is an impact of all of that. Now that I'm at the point that I'm like, okay, it really has been a lot. You know, I think back to those days in the waiting room when my husband was in surgery, and just praying, just praying. It wasn't necessarily a life threatening surgery, but my husband has a condition that makes it difficult for him to wake up from anesthesia. So any surgery for him is dangerous. So sitting and of course it's COVID. So you can't have anybody in the waiting room with you. Thankfully they let me go in. So I was just grateful for that. But just thinking about sitting through those waiting rooms both times is praying, you know, God, let him wake up. I let him wake up and, and all of the recovery and the things that we have to do to take care of the wound and all that, that it's a lot, thinking about, you know, all the financial stuff that has come up lately and all the other things, just a lot of things that have come up lately, there's no wonder that I found myself in this heavy place. I think heavy is just the best word and in this heavy place, kind of like a elephant was sitting on my chest, you know. And when I get to that place, I find sometimes it's even harder for me to pray. Even though I know that prayer is what I need. I know that prayer is the answer. I know that it's critical that I communicate with God. When I get in a heavy place like that. It seems like prayer is the hardest thing for me to do. What but while I was going through that, I believe that the Holy Spirit gave me a gift. And not just me, but I feel like it was a gift to me. Because songs speak to me, music speaks to me. And there's a new song. There's a new song called Breathe by Maverick City Music and Jonathan McReynolds and Chandler Moore and Doe are on the song. And I keep up with Maverick City Music pretty well, because if you haven't heard of them, you need to, you need to Google Maverick City Music, everything they are coming out with right now. It's just powerful. It's not just good music, it's anointed. It's powerful. So I keep up with them pretty well. And I saw the song come through, didn't really click on it right away. But it kept coming up and kept coming up. So like, Well, let me let me check this out. Let me see what this song is about. And oh, my goodness. Oh my goodness, it was a gift to me. It was exactly what I needed. I'm going to read the chorus to you need to go here to song. But I'm going to read the chorus. The song is called breathe by Maverick city music. And the course is just breathe. It's a miracle we can breathe. There's power in the way that we breathe. Release your heavy burden. And let everything that has breath, Praise the Lord. This is why we have breath. Praise the Lord. It is deeply deeply in my spirit right now. I came right on time. It came right on time. And it's amazing how a declaration can become real in your life before you know it. You know, I just thought I was singing a new song. I knew the song was ministering to my spirit. But I thought I was just singing a new song. And I sang it all week long. I sang it all week long and intentionally pushed myself to spend some time with God and I closed my social media didn't close it, you can still follow me but I kind of deleted the apps from my phone. So deleted the social media apps for the week, and did some other things to kind of just shut myself off and, and shut off the noise. And was listening to this song, a few other songs but definitely this song on repeat, and just singing it and singing it and singing it to myself. And before I knew it, the heaviness was lifting. When I first started singing it, you know I was singing it in this heaviness and then this grieving and then this overwhelm. But the more I sing it that before I knew it, I was singing it with joy and I was singing it with praise and praise was coming from my spirit. And then we went to church on Saturday night and the praise team sang it. And it was just like a rejoicing that burst forth in my spirit because it hit me. It hit me that through singing the song I was praying, I was making a declaration over my life. And the more that I made that declaration it can it manifested. It came to life for me. And you know, there's a big conversation right now about manifesting especially with our millennial and Gen Z generations. There's a conversation about manifesting what you want. And here's the bottom line friends like it's a biblical principle, you will have what you say. So you can Yes, manifesting is real, but I would caution you, I would caution you so let's walk through it for a minute. Because first of all, yes, you will have what you say. But it's deeper than just saying Because when I was growing up in the church, there was this naming and claiming and blab it and grab it kind of idea. Like if you said it, it was gonna happen. But I heard a lot of people say stuff that never happened for them. So it had to be more to it. And as I grew, and maturity, and then gears, and then in spirit, I learned that it's not just what you say, but it's what you say, and aligning your behavior with what you say. Because it's one thing just to say it, but it's another thing to do things that align with what you are saying. So the power comes, when you actually do you align your behavior with what you say. So then faith without works with no faith without works is day you put that works with your faith, and that is what you're going to get. And it works. It's a biblical principle. It works whether you believe in the Bible or whether you don't, it does work. But here's what I will caution you, make sure what you get is what you actually want. See, that's the key. That's the key we can name and claim we can call it we can align our behavior, and it will come to us but will you want it when when it comes? That the secret for us that are believers is that we know that we have a creator, we have a manufacturer, we have a father in heaven, God who created us knows all about us knows what's best for us. He knows what we need and what we don't what will work and what don't, what won't. So we don't have to guess we don't have to guess what is going to work, we don't have to guess what's going to be a good fit. We don't have to guess what we should be declaring over our lives. One because his word already gives us what to declare, he already tells us who we are. But two, we have the privilege to check in with him through prayer before we start manifesting stuff. Before we start calling now stuff, before we start calling in stuff, we have the privilege to go to the Creator, to our man of manufacturer to say Will this work for me? See, sometimes our manifesting comes from speaking what we see in other people's lives or speaking what we see work for somebody else, that doesn't mean it's going to work for you. So we have the privilege when we have relationship with God, we have the privilege to go to Him in prayer and to seek His wisdom, before we start claiming, before we start the clearing, before we start saying before we start doing before we start manifesting, make sure what you call, what you're calling on is going to be a good fit for who you are, and what you're called to do. See that that goes back to living in alignment. If you start declaring stuff that is not a fit for you, it's going to overwhelm you. So you got to be careful thinking that the power is in and of yourself. You've got to submit that power to the one who knows it all. And that's how you keep your life in alignment. Submit that authority that you've been given to the one with all authority, and trust that he has your best interest in heart. And know that if you live in obedience to your life in alignment, then what manifest for you will bless you and not bring you harm. So we do have power to declare over our lives. And when you're in a heavy season, like I have been, when you're in a heavy season, you can declare a thing according to the Word of God, and it will become real for you. It will manifest it for you. So as I was singing these lyrics as I was singing the lyrics of just breathe, it is a miracle we can breathe. There's power in the way that we breathe, release your heavy burden, and let everything that has breath, Praise the Lord. This is why we have breath. Praise the Lord. As I was declaring this over my life. That is what manifested over my life. I went from the place of feeling like there was an elephant sitting on my chest to the place of praise and worship and adoration and appreciation. Because even in the midst of everything that might feel heavy to me right now. God is good. And life is good. And I am good and my family is good. We are okay. Even in the midst of those things. And I'm not saying that I just throw those things away like they mean nothing. They have had an impact on me. I can acknowledge that impact and be grateful. I can acknowledge Is the heaviness and be grateful, I can acknowledge the weight that was on me and be grateful both can be true. Both can be true. I don't have to choose. I don't have to choose. You know, when I was growing up in the church, it felt like you just ignored all your problems. You ignore that you ever had problems. And you just praise the Lord. And that's it. Now you're doing Praise Lord. That's it, that nothing else matters. Praise the Lord. Here's the danger in that we are human. Here's a danger in that we do feel. And that causes us to make us feel like we serve a God that's untouchable, who doesn't understand what the Bible says he does understand. He does understand what you're going through, he does understand what you feel. So I'm no longer living in that place where I have to pretend that everything's always okay. because everything's not always okay. But I can acknowledge when everything's not okay. And I can still be grateful, I can acknowledge that I'm feeling heavy, and still worship God, and still appreciate him, and still pray to Him, and share with him and be honest with him, and tell him what I'm feeling and tell him what I'm concerned about, and not withhold from him, and still be his child. And still love him and still be acknowledged by him. Both can be true. Both can be true. So I'm, I'm just sharing today. I'm so grateful, I want you to not feel better. I'm continuing to feel better. I'm continuing to feel my joy feel so grateful. And it's not even that any of the circumstances have changed. None of those things that I was I've been heavy with has necessarily changed. But I've changed. I feel my joy. I feel my strength coming back. I feel my focus coming back. So if you are in a heavy place today, I would encourage you to shut off the noise. Whatever that is for you. For me, it was social media and other things. Whatever the noise is shut off the noise. I would encourage you to grab a song, grab a song, even if you're not a singer, it's okay. This is not a concert. This is not for anybody else but you. Grab a song even when you can't pray, declare the words of the song, and it will become your prayer. It will become your prayer and before you know it, you gotta be living in what you're declaring. You'll be living in what you're saying. So as always, you are powerful. You are significant. And you are loved. Loved by me and by your heavenly Father. You are loved. love, always