126. Waiting for a Sign? 10 Subtle Ways God Is Drawing You To Jesus

You can spend years chasing “truth” and still feel like you’re missing the one thing that actually holds. If you’re starting to soften toward Jesus after New Age spirituality, coaching culture, or a long stretch of “my truth is the truth,” the next step can feel strangely frustrating: you want God to prove Himself, clearly and quickly, the way manifestation and divination promised they could. I get it, and I also want to offer a better framework for what’s happening when God feels quiet.

We walk through why God isn’t a constant on-demand download of signs, why His silence isn’t rejection, and how seasons of testing can produce the kind of steadfast faith that lasts (James 1). Then we get very practical with ten grounded ways God may be revealing Himself without a dramatic miracle: a softened heart (Ezekiel 36:26), conviction that draws you closer rather than crushing you (John 16:8 and Romans 8:1), a growing hunger for righteousness (Matthew 5:6), Scripture suddenly feeling alive (Hebrews 4:12), peace that doesn’t make sense in hard circumstances (Philippians 4:6–7), and transformation over time through sanctification and the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23).

We also talk about discernment for anyone coming out of New Age practices: repeated themes and timely conversations can be God’s kindness, but chasing “signs” can pull you right back into divination. And if you’ve been waiting for a single lightning-bolt moment, don’t miss this: the desire to seek God may be the moment, because no one comes unless the Father draws them (John 6:44). If this helps, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s Jesus curious, and leave a review so more truth seekers can find it.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Jesus-Curious Shift

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Counterculture Mama. I am your host, Danielle Venables, and today I want to talk about a question that I saw online from people who are starting to move towards a place of faith, are starting to soften, are starting to be what I call Jesus Curious, which is where I was probably about a year and a half, maybe two years ago, where you're starting to open to the idea of Jesus. Maybe you're even feeling called to go to church or to read the Bible. And I know a lot of people who listen to this podcast and a lot of people who have been following my journey and you know connected on social media and friends and whoever else is listening to this, like I know a lot of you are truth seekers. And what I have come to realize over the years is that you can only seek truth for so long before you find Jesus. And you know, when I was in New Age, it was like, oh, like, you know, I've got my truth, and that that truth is my authority, right? Like my truth is the truth until I find a truer truth, and then basically that ceiling of truth um gets elevated. And I I was taught these layers of truth while I was in New Age and in the coaching space, and really I've talked before, and I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole again, just about the the fact that your truth is not the truth, the fact that subjective truth will never be the ultimate truth, because if you apply that logic, it can conflict. Like if you have a personal subjective truth, then your truth can conflict with another person's truth. And if your two truths are in conflict, then that means that one or both of them are not actually the truth by definition. Right? So I'm not gonna go in that direction, but that is something that kind of prefaces this whole truth-seeking movement, right? And there's a lot of mental gymnastics that go into the the belief in this whole inverted philosophy about truth, and it's not rooted in God, whether you believe in source or the universe or some benevolent God that or God figure that you know created the universe and stuff, like I hate to break it to you, but any force that created this universe in the order that it's in also has an order for right and wrong and for ultimate truth. And so when you're seeking truth, that becomes pretty apparent. So today, not to get too off track, today I want to talk to you about the different ways that God can reveal Himself to you and the different ways that, you know, sometimes we're expecting, especially for those of you who have been in the new age, you know, a lot of us new agers were looking for supernatural experiences, right? Whether that was manifestation and having something show up as if by magic, whether that's energy healing and all of a sudden you're magically healed, whether it's divination and like supernaturally finding answers to your

Why God Rarely Fits Our Box

SPEAKER_00 4:14

problems or seeking out psychics or mediums or whatever, right? Like often people in new age are drawn to new age because they like the power of the supernatural. And I was no exception to that, by the way. But then what happens is a lot of people come to a place where they're Jesus curious or you know, they're wondering, and they, you know, want God to reveal himself in that same like instant gratification, it's easy type of way. And we even hear stories about God revealing himself in that way in people's lives, right? Where they prayed a prayer and God revealed himself, and you know, the rest is history. It was like I had this supernatural experience, and then I felt the love of God, and I never turned back. And some people definitely do have those experiences. And I'm here to tell you that a lot of people also don't have those experiences, and it doesn't mean that God favors some people over others. What it means is God is a good father, He knows what you need, He knows how you tend to think, He knows where your pitfalls are in terms of building a faith that lasts, right? And so for some of us who are used to seeking the gratification or maybe, you know, hustling for the gratification or manifesting the gratification, oftentimes with people like that, he's going to build a slow, gradual foundation. So instead of giving you some miraculous revelation and then that setting the foundation and the blueprint for, oh, this is how God talks to me. And then what happens is it turns around and all of a sudden you're not feeling that heightened state of, oh, it's working, or he's speaking to me, or I'm so special, right? I'm I'm receiving prophecy or revelation from God, right? When that stops, because it does, it is not a constant open dialogue in terms of the way you would get with tarot cards or the way you would get by going to a psychic. Like it really isn't. And I I recorded a video that said, like, Jesus isn't Netflix and like you can't channel him. And I stand by that, right? Like God chooses, he is sovereign, he chooses when he answers us, he chooses when he leaves us to our own devices and allows us to figure it out. He chooses when to test us, he chooses all of it, right? So because of that, because of his sovereignty, we can't expect that he's gonna show up in the little box that we have labeled God's revelation to me, right? So, yes, miracles do happen and conversions happen as a result of miracles. And at the same time, not always and not for everyone. And if you're exploring Jesus, I need you to know that he is not forsaking you, he is not withholding from you out of a lack of love, he is not not answering your prayer because he doesn't want you, it's none of that, okay? What he's doing is he is very carefully laying and curating the foundation of your faith that sometimes requires you to build some steadfastness or you to build some non-sensationalized faith, or for you to open up your Bible and seek the truth instead of just waiting for God to reveal himself in a supernatural way, right? So it is kind of both end. He does reveal himself in these big supernatural ways, and he also reveals himself a lot of the time in very subtle ways that if you open your eyes, it is so plain to see. So the goal of this podcast episode today is to really go through some of the ways that God will reveal himself that are not these big supernatural encounters. I'm just gonna look something up quick. Um there is a Bible verse that I didn't actually prep for that just popped into my head. So I wanted to look it up and share it with you before we dive into this episode. And it's kind of on the topic of, you know, expecting those big miracles or expecting those supernatural encounters. And that is from James chapter one, verse two. It says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Testing Faith Without Instant Signs

SPEAKER_00 9:32

So that right there, the the literally the little title above that section is testing your faith. Okay, so there are going to be people, there are going to be times, there are going to be seasons, even if you had a supernatural encounter, and maybe you feel like it's quieted down and you're like, did did God abandon me? Did is he not answering my prayers anymore? What's going on? Maybe you're having a little faith wobble. It's like, no, these tests provide provide steadfastness, it provides staying power, right? So that you're not always expecting everything to be perfect all the time, to never have trials, to never have seasons where it feels like God's gone dark on you. He is he's teaching you to hold fast to your faith even in those seasons, because those seasons are going to strengthen you, they're gonna strengthen your faith, they're gonna sanctify you, they're going to increase your reliance and dependence on the Lord, and ultimately it's going to be a gift. It is going to be something worth rejoicing in in the end, even if it's hard to go through. So, what he's doing is he's training you for that. So I've got 10 reasons written down on my notes here, or 10 things, ways that God may be revealing himself to you that are not crazy miracles and divine revelation in the sense that you would think. Okay, number one, a softened heart. This is like one of my favorites because it definitely rang true for me. But a softened heart is basically like you suddenly care about things or people you didn't care about before. You care about truth, you care about repentance, you care about goodness, maybe you care about Jesus in a way that you didn't before. It's like this things just feel different, they're hitting different. And this is biblical, it is rooted in scripture. Ezekiel, Ezekiel 36, 26, which is an old testament prophet, part of

Softened Heart And Holy Conviction

SPEAKER_00 11:40

his prophecy said, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. This was one of the first signs for me. As I started to soften to the idea, there was a time in New Age where every time somebody would mention Jesus, I would harden, I would turn away, I would re not repulsed, but definitely like, no, lady, you're deceived. Good for you, but keep your beliefs away from me, was kind of the attitude that I would have. And that was my hardened heart, right? That was the heart of stone. But eventually, that turned into curiosity. That turned into exploration. It turned into me joining Christian Facebook groups, which by the way might be a bit of a mistake. Some of them can be not the best. But it it changed something in me. There was a curiosity there and a hunger there that wasn't there before. And I started to soften to the idea. And I did explore that, by the way, with very like mystic, quite frankly, heretical versions of Jesus before I actually opened up scripture and realized how devastatingly wrong that all was. But it started with curiosity, right? Number two is conviction. And there's a big distinction between conviction and guilt. Conviction is a deep inner awareness that something in your life needs to change. And it's not coming from a place of shame or guilt, but it's like to draw you closer to God. So an example of this in my own story is as some of you know, I obviously had a new age business, but I also wrote an Oracle deck. And the reason that I wrote that Oracle deck is because I was using Oracle decks all the time, like daily. I would wake up, I would, you know, make my coffee, I would sit down at my desk and I would pull oracle cards. And that would be how I would start my day. That would be how I would set the tone for my day. That was my like spiritual self-care, right? And over time, like it just kind of started to lose. Like it wasn't even like a I shouldn't do this or this is bad or this is evil. It just like lost its appeal to me. Like all of a sudden, I was just like, Yeah, I'm good. Like I don't, I don't feel drawn to that right now. And over time, that started to like that happened with Reiki, that happened with Kundalini, it happened with regular yoga, it happened with divination, of course. And then it evolved. And this was all before, by the way, before I ever watched my first church service online. This happened like before any of that, before I was even like admitting to myself what was happening. But I just I just turned away from all of it. Like I just was like, this doesn't feel like it's serving me in this season. And so that is my experience of like conviction. And I've had stronger convictions since about other things that like I don't even have an example that's like coming to me off the top of my head. Maybe like excessive like nudity or sexual immorality in like TV shows. That's one where I just like feel ick now about it. Like I used to watch it and not have an issue with it, and now I'm just like, eh, that doesn't that doesn't feel good to watch. Like I don't like unrighteousness being like promoted like that. And again, different people will have different convictions, and the Bible actually talks about that. We have a lot of freedom in Christ to basically, you know, there's certain things that are very cut and dry commanded in the Bible, but then there's a lot of like gray area where it's not explicitly said yes or no, and that comes down to personal conviction. And Paul talks about this in one of his letters to the Corinthians, I can't remember which one, where basically he talks about how each person needs to abide by their own conscience, right? Because like the conscience works with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit communicates to your conscience, and that is what you know communicates to you that okay, this isn't for you, or this isn't serving you, or this is becoming an idol in your life, those kinds of things, right? So, for example, like some people can some some people can work really hard without their job being their idol. Where other people, their success becomes their idol. If they work really hard, if they grind really hard, they start to place their success, their financial reality in the throne that only God is supposed to s supposed to sit on. And so certain, you know, career paths that really that really promote like the hustle culture and stuff, they can become convicted that okay, maybe that's not right for me, right? Same with drinking, right? Drinking is not is not forbidden in the Bible. Drunkenness is, but drinking is not. In fact, I think it's a psalm that talks about how alcohol is like a gift from God to gladden man's heart or something along those lines. Don't quote me on that exact verse because I don't have it in front of me. But with that in mind, like, okay, so the Bible says that drinking isn't bad, but drinking becomes bad when you get drunk. So if you have a history of alcoholism in your family, if you yourself have struggled with alcoholism or numbing out or escapism, like those kinds of things, there will be a personal conviction that'll come down on you at some point from the spirit that will say, hey, maybe it's time to not drink anymore, right? So we have freedom in Christ and we also have convictions that are unique to us that we're not meant to project onto other people. And by the way, I think that's something that a lot of Christians get really wrong is they'll have this conscience and this conviction, and then they'll try to place that rule on other people who don't have the same conviction and they'll treat it as if it's biblical, as if it's a command, and it's not. So I think, yeah, a lot of Christians just don't represent Christianity very well by by engaging in in that kind of like projection onto other people. One thing I will say is that in that same chapter in Corinthians where Paul is talking about, you know, if you're convicted of it, don't do it. If you're not convicted of it, you're free to do it. He also talks about not being a stumbling block for other believers. And so it's one of those things where we want to make wise choices, we want to be good stewards, and we don't want to cause other people to fail, right? Like you wouldn't walk into an AA meeting with a 12-pack of beer. That's just not what you would do. And so being aware of your surroundings, being aware of how your personal freedoms and the exercise of those personal freedoms might impact the people around you and being really conscious of like where you engage in those things, where you don't, might be wise. Again, that's something to like explore with yourself, with your conscience, with the spirit, but it is something to be aware of when it comes to convictions. But I just wanted to kind of touch on that. There are a couple of Bible verses as well that relate to this. John 16, 8 says, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. This is also one of the reasons that Jesus was so hated, because he did confront the the world and sin and unrighteousness, and he did so lovingly, but he still did it. And people didn't like that because it holds up the mirror, and if what he's saying is true, then I'm not as good of a person as I've been telling myself I am, and now that's upsetting to me, right? Is is basically what that comes down to. And then Romans 8:1 says, There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. And I wanted to add that one in because it's conviction, it's not guilt. If you feel condemned, if you feel like intense guilt and shame, I do think that in part, you know, guilt is something that is on our consciences. You know, we should feel bad after we do something bad. I I think that's you know God's morality written on our hearts. And at the same time, you are not condemned. God does not hate you, He is not unwilling to forgive you. Nobody is so far gone that they can't be saved by Jesus Christ. And so there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's like, like I said, there's that freedom. Of course, it's not freedom to commit continuous unrepentant sin, because that is quite frankly a sign that the Holy Spirit is not in you and that you're not being convicted and that you're not being sanctified, which is the word sanctified just means like to be made holy, right? To to gradually be purified throughout the span of your life. And again, that doesn't mean you never sin. No human is perfect. We all fall short. That is written in Romans. Uh but there we should be on a trajectory of seeking Christ-likeness, right? And that should be pouring out of us as we're being sanctified. You know, the they they say that the stuff that comes out of your mouth is actually what's like on your heart and in your mind. That's sort of the same same thing going on there. Number three is a growing hunger for God. So maybe you feel called to pray, maybe you feel called to read scripture, you're seeking truth, you want to know Jesus more deeply. Oftentimes, especially in the beginning, you can't even really explain it. We saw this a lot after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, where people were just like, I just feel like I need to go to church. And they're like, I've been away for 30 years, or I was never a Christian, or I wasn't raised in the faith, and I just feel like I need to go to church. And you know, in the grand scheme of a dark time, praise God that he used that

Hunger For God And Living Scripture

SPEAKER_00 22:27

for like a mini revival. And there are a lot of people who went to church for the first time in September of 2025 and are still going strong. So praise God for that. But wanting to seek Jesus and that hunger for God is 100% a sign that God is revealing himself to you, right? He's doing something in your heart, he is seeking after you, he is calling you to him according to his purposes, right? And Matthew 5, 6 says, this is part of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. It says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. And again, that is a promise. That is like red letter in your Bible. That is Jesus Christ speaking, saying, like, you will be satisfied. If you seek me, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be satisfied. And so that hunger for God is something that, like, it is inevitable that you are going to grow closer and closer and closer to him if you keep listening to that hunger and that thirst, and you keep submitting to it and you keep walking towards it and allowing him to reveal himself, even if it doesn't look like a supernatural miracle. Okay, number four, scripture suddenly feels alive. Maybe you have read scripture before. I can say, you know, being raised Catholic, I tried to read the Bible when I was in my early teens. And I think I got probably to the first genealogy in Genesis there. And I was like, oh, I know. And I stopped. I I never made it through Genesis. And it's only 50 chapters. It's really not that long. I mean, it's it's long-ish, but it's not that long. And I I just was like, okay. And I was a practicing Catholic at the time. I did love Jesus with my whole heart. And yet I was just like, eh, no, can't do it. I don't get it. It doesn't make sense. I I don't even know what I'm reading. It's like I'm reading these words on a page. And granted, I was young, but also like it's the best example that I can personally give you. Then fast forward to 2025 when I was starting to read the Bible again for the first time in like 15 years. And all of a sudden, I was being shown so much. And again, I started at Genesis and I was really hesitant to do it because I was worried I would fail again. I was worried I would drop off or it wouldn't make sense or I would have the same experience I had the last time. But what it did is it showed me so much of the character of God, of his eternal plan for redemption for his people, of how loving he is, but also how just he is. Like there was so much and so many layers that I was able to extract with my first read through Genesis. And it wasn't because I all of a sudden became a biblical scholar, right? Like I had been away from the faith for years and years. It was just that God got me to a place where his word could actually speak to me and mean something and reveal things to me. So if verses are hitting differently, they're feeling personal, maybe they're convicting, maybe they're really comforting. At times they like pierce through a lie that you're telling yourself. Sometimes it'll be like exactly what you needed to hear when you needed to hear it, and is not about taking Bible verses out of context and making them fit your life. That is not what the Bible is for. But sometimes you are reading it in context as it's intended, and you're like, wow, I didn't know I needed to hear that. Some examples for me, I know I've used this example many times on the podcast, but when I was reading through Exodus with the plagues, when the magicians would basically be able to replicate the plagues, but they could never restore the damage of the plagues, right? Like they could add to it, but they couldn't take it away. They were they were powerful enough to do magic to say it's like the plague of the frogs, and they could, you know, summon some more frogs, but they couldn't make the frogs that Aaron and Moses made appear go away. And for me, in new age, with you know, witchcraft and manifestation and all these other things, it was like, oh, so God is acknowledging that like this works, but it'll never restore, it'll never heal, it'll never make things actually better. And that was something when I was in that place of needing to make sense of like, okay, then why were my readings helping people? And why, you know, why did these things work? Why, you know, when I did an Akashic reading or I did an oracle reading or something, like, why did that speak to people and help people and even help people like manifest money and things like that? Why did it work? If it's so bad, like I was helping people, right? And so I needed to see that in scripture again, in context. If I had taken that out of context, it's like, oh, like I could I could have taken that and been like, okay, so Pharaoh's magicians are just as powerful as God. They're not. Okay. And I had to see that they can also contribute to destruction, but they can't contribute to restoration. That was what I needed in that moment. And scripture spoke that to me and illuminated that to me so that I could put that part of my past behind me with full peace and full conviction and full knowing that no, the two can't coincide. And I can't, you know, take the best of both and mix them, right? It wasn't happening. So that's like an example in my own life where scripture suddenly feels alive. It speaks to you in a different way. Hebrews 4 12 says, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, aka cutting through the lies and the deception, piercing the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Number five, explain unexplainable peace or clarity. So if you're going through a hard time, in the middle of that confusion or hardship, there is a steadiness. You still feel grounded, comforted, or like you're being guided, or like something has you, that is a sign of God working in your life. Philippians 4, verses 6 through 7 say, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Peace In Trials And Slow Transformation

SPEAKER_00 29:10

That is one of my favorite Bible verses of all time. But it really does speak to not only the power of prayer, but the power of knowing that like God is in your corner. Right. Like, God is not a vending machine, he is a loving father who's gonna let you walk through difficult seasons and difficult times in order to teach you something, in order to strengthen your faith, in order to, you know, really bring out the gifts and the virtues that that he sees in you, that he intends for you, and that you, you know, are meant to share with the world in one capacity or another, he's gonna let you go through hard times. And he never in the Bible promises us freedom from affliction. What he does promise is that he will walk through it with us and and he will not leave us or forsake us, right? So, yeah, if you have just this inexplicable piece where it's like, normally I would have spiraled and you know, found my answers at the bottom of a bottle of wine, and you know, whatever coping mechanisms you have, or whatever, or I would have been panicked, or I would have had to, you know, rush to my therapist's office to get more prescriptions or like whatever it is, right? When you feel that like calmness of like it's like this trust, it's like this settledness, even if you're not calling it God yet, but there's just this peace that's like not normal for your baseline. That's a sign that God is working in your life. Number six is transformation over time. You start to change, go figure. I started to notice this with my language, I started to notice this with profanity. And when I would swear, when I do still swear, because I do, it's becoming less and less. And I don't feel good about it when I do. And so part of that's conviction, part of that's transformation over time because I did not break the habit of swearing myself. I needed help with that. And so that transformation was a hundred percent God. Again, I am not perfect, but I am a heck of a lot better than I ever was, and that was a transformation over time that I certainly started to notice. You can also notice that you might begin to become more loving, more honest, patient, forgiving, humble, self-controlled. And that is a miracle in motion, right? Like all of those things, if those are not your typical default state, all of these things are what's called sanctification, right? Where the Holy Spirit is working in you to help you become more Christ-like, help you become more holy in the way that you exist, not just on the outside, but like your inner transformation, which comes out to the outside. And it's a it can often be like a slow miracle. At times the change is really fast, like something just snaps into place and you never do something again. Maybe you quit something cold turkey or you know, whatever. But oftentimes with like habits and stuff like that, it can be it can be a slower process, but you can look back at like something you did or said six months ago and be like, ooh, who's that guy? Who's that girl? Like, I don't even know. And so don't underestimate the way that he's working in you across a span of time. It doesn't, it doesn't have to be sudden and immediate and dramatic in order for it to be God. And so some of the things to look for in your own character are the fruits of the spirit, which Galatians 5, 22 to 23 says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I'll repeat those a little bit slower. Love, joy. Joy doesn't mean temporary happiness, it means just an overall like optimism, an overall like satisfaction and contentment with just life, with with where you're at. And it doesn't mean you can't be unhappy with the state of the world or politics or anything like that. Don't get me wrong, I have my moments. But underneath all of that, even when those things are going on, it's like, okay, I'm still content. I'm I'm still content. I I'm gonna do something about it, I'm gonna bring awareness to it, or I'm gonna, you know, flip tables or or whatever. But the joy is just like the undercurrent of that. It's like that's not gonna steal my joy. Nothing from this world can steal what God has given to you. And so Mark Carney can't steal my joy. Donald Trump, for you Americans, you can't steal my joy. Whether you love him or hate him, or loved him and now hate him, or whatever. I've seen it all. But he can't steal your joy because that joy was given to you from the Lord. Peace, same thing. Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, gentleness, self-control, kindness, those are ones that you see all the time with like interacting with people online. Are you being aggressive? Are you being ignorant? Are you being confrontational? Or are you speaking the truth in love? Right. Those are things that when we start to represent Jesus Christ, we need to keep in mind. How are we representing him? Because now it's not just about us, it's about how are we representing as Christians? And how how does that represent Christ? How does that invite people to join us, right? People aren't gonna be curious about your beliefs if all they're seeing is spite and you know, self-righteousness, and acting like you're better than everybody, and you know, acting like you've never sinned a day in your life or that you've never done those behaviors. Jesus actually rebukes that in the Bible. I can't remember which which chapter or which book and verse it is, but I just read it the other day. I think it might be Romans 2 or 3, where he's like, You teach all of these things, but then you're hypocrites and you're you're also doing them, right? Like, that's not righteousness, that's hypocrisy. And so really noticing where you're cultivating the fruits of the spirit versus where you are ending up in these in these cycles of being confrontational or combative, or and again, that that doesn't mean not standing up for truth, right? Gentleness doesn't have to mean weakness, but what it does mean is how are you presenting it and are you going after the person or are you going after the belief system? And that's a really big distinction for me that I had to learn between calling out, you know, the deceptions of new age without going after the people in new age, for example. You know, I've always had a heart for them, I don't think I've ever actually gone after those people, but just as an example, it's like I'm not attacking the people, I'm attacking the fundamental belief system and confronting why it results in pain and suffering and death, not only in the afterlife, but also in this life. And and that was I experienced that, so I can speak to that. So anyway, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, all fruits of the spirit, all things you should be looking out for in your transformation. And they will come, even if you're like, oh man, like self-control. I don't, I don't know. That's that's a tough one for me. It comes, it comes with time. Trust the process, trust God, trust the sanctification. You know, pray about it. If there's one that you're like really struggling with, pray about it. Ask God for help. Ask God to teach you patience. Warning, he'll probably test you, but He will teach you patience. Okay, number seven. God speaking through people or repeated themes. I want to be very, very clear for all you new agers with this one. God speaking through people or repeated themes does not mean angel numbers. It does not mean not using discernment with, you know, people coming up saying, I've got a message for you, or reading a little, doing the little oracle readings on Instagram, or, you know, whatever. Don't go looking for those signs because when you are looking for them, chances are you're going to find something that is not from God, right? But it is if the same truth, the same

Repeated Themes Without Chasing Signs

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theme keeps showing up through conversations, through sermons, through podcasts, through scripture, through circumstances, and I do want to say any message that you receive, if it contradicts scripture, it is not from God. If it tries to bend or twist scripture, it is not from God. Okay? Like, let's just get that abundantly clear right now. But there are times, like I had a week, a couple of weeks ago, where actually Philippians 4, 6 through 7, the one about do not be anxious about anything, but you know, bring your request to God through prayer and uh he'll give you the peace that surpasses all understanding. I completely paraphrased that, but that verse that I read to you earlier popped up like three separate times. First, it was in my daily Bible reading, and then I was on a call with my life group, and we were actually studying that chapter in Philippians, which was interesting. And then it came up in a Facebook group, and I can't remember what the context was of the Facebook post, but that was something that that came up there as well. And so sometimes you are just called to pay more attention to certain things. Sometimes it'll be somebody, you know, maybe you've been thinking about going to church, and then you meet somebody or you have a friend text you and say, Hey, do you want to come to church with me this Sunday? You know, like it can be something as simple as that. So don't go looking for signs, don't go looking for divination and for answers and hidden knowledge and that kind of stuff. But God can also use people, He also positions people in your path to start to get you like one step closer, basically. So my pastor at Lake Point Church does this analogy where he's like basically someone's 10 steps away from God, right? And you know, somebody'll, you know, do something excessively nice for out of the goodness of their heart without any expectation or anything. And then that person will find out that they're a Christian. And so they'll be like, oh, okay, maybe Christians aren't just like judgmental a-holes, like maybe there's actually some good ones out there. So they'll take like a step or two closer, and then someone else will come and maybe they'll be sitting beside someone on a plane, and the person that they're sitting beside is a Christian and you know, engages them in a conversation or shares their testimony about like this is how Jesus has moved in my life or whatever. And they kind of sit with that and they're like, Oh man, like I was kind of struggling with the same thing, and then and then they take that step closer, right? God positions people in your life. For me, it started with a Facebook reel. I had Pastor Josh Howerton show up in my Facebook reel. He actually said something in that reel that really challenged and confronted me, which is funny because I was already conservative. But he said something about like, if you have to choose between your wife and your mom as a man, like, what do you do? What's the answer? And he's like, Well, the Bible says your wife. And, you know, at first, I I have a really good relationship with my mother-in-law. So at first I was like really challenged by that idea because I was like, well, on one hand, I like the sound of that, and on the other hand, like, I don't know. I don't know. Like, I just I don't know how I feel about it. But that was the first thing. And then after that, obviously the algorithm started showing me more and more of Josh Howarton, and then I followed him, and then I attended his church online, and the rest is history. But, you know, he put God put that in my path so that I would find it, so that I would start listening to Josh Howarton, so that I would go to church online, so that I would join a life group and start serving online and be baptized, and yeah-da-da-da-da-da-da. That that was like sort of one of the first dominoes to be put into place that, you know, set off that chain reaction. And so that is what I mean by God speaking through people or themes or like placing people in your life who invite you to faith or to who model to you what it looks like to be a faithful Christian, those kinds of things. Again, it's not divination, it is not seeking oracles, it is not any of that. It is just God placing people and signs in your life that point you to something that aligns biblically. Number eight, looking back and realizing God was pursuing you all along. This is such a beautiful thing. Where you begin noticing moments of protection, moments of conviction, redirection. Again, like I was telling you earlier in the episode with my oracle cards, it's like I just kind of stopped, like they lost their appeal to me. That was conviction and redirection, right? He shows you mercy, or maybe there was like timing of certain events in your life that seemed insignificant at the time, but now that you're drawing closer to the Lord, you're like, oh, was that what that was for? Like, is that why I had to

Seeing God’s Pursuit In Hindsight

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go through that? You start to like maybe see things that are like, I wouldn't have gotten here if that hadn't happened. For me, that was the getting pregnant with my third child. I I was not. I was not necessarily feeling like I could handle another child. My husband was working away a lot. I was struggling with mental health. I was trying to build my business. You know, I had a lot going on. And I just kind of felt like I had gotten into the swing of things with my business again. And then I found out I was pregnant. And I grieved. I grieved my what I thought my business would be, and how much freedom I thought I would have. And how much time I thought I would have to devote to my business. And all these things. Like I it took me a bit to wrap my head around it. But as I went through that pregnancy, I started to let my business go. And so I was already reducing my income down to almost zero. And then I, when he was born, I just kind of never really picked it back up. Like it just, I thought I was going to, and it just still wasn't right. And then I spent the next year finding Jesus. So that is an example for me in my own life where God was pursuing me. And I needed to put all that stuff down so that I could remove the attachment to what I was building out of alignment with Him and I could just let it go. And it wasn't easy. I also had to let go of the Oracle deck, which was like launching the following year. Like it wasn't even a thing yet. And I had this publishing contract and all this stuff. Like that was not easy to walk away from. But I had to let go of everything else in order to be ready to let go of the Oracle deck when God said it's time to let this go. So anyway, it it's just crazy how the timing can work out with things like that. And Romans 8.28 reminds us that we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. So again, that's a reminder that he's always working in our lives, he is always calling us, and he was pursuing you long before you finally stopped being stubborn and started opening your Bible or listening to this podcast or going to church or whatever you were doing, he's been pursuing you since before then. Number 10, this is the last one. Realizing the desire to seek God may itself be the God moment. So for those of you who are looking for that supernatural intervention, people don't naturally drift towards God on their own. We see this all throughout the Bible. We are sons of unrighteousness. We like to sin. In fact, there is a chapter in Romans. Let me see if I can pull it up because it just like lays it on so hard. Where? Romans. Yeah. So Romans 128 says, And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those that practice them. So this is just like an example of the way that we don't naturally seek God because we don't like to submit to God's will and his definition of righteousness, right? We would rather be affirmed in our sin than submit ourselves to God. So the fact that you are feeling drawn and called to him in the first place is a sign that God is calling you to him. That is a sign that God is working supernaturally in your life to bring you to him, to save you from your old ways, from your life of sin, and you know, pull you into the kingdom. I think that that is honestly the most underrated answer for this. And it's also maybe one of the most powerful answers for this. And to provide a little bit of scripture to back that, in John 6 44, it says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. So again, like that is proof that you were predestined to come to Christ, that God has been pursuing you for a long time, that he has been seeking you out, that he had a plan, he let you walk through what you needed to walk through in order to truly appreciate the free gift of grace and salvation that Christ gave you through the cross. And yeah, like, like, praise God. Praise God. You don't just pursue him out of nowhere, you don't just pursue him because oh, you're such a a righteous person that you just want to walk the straight edge of the law. That is not that is not true. Okay, it's not true, it's not human nature, it is not how we've been ever since the fall, even before the fall, we were rebellious against God. That is why the fall happened, right? So the fact that you are running towards that, the fact that you are seeking that is a huge sign that God is at work in your life and he's at work in your heart. And yeah, praise God for that. So that's what I've got for you today. I hope you enjoy this episode. And as always, if you are somebody who is maybe new to your faith, or even if you've been practicing for a while, but you're like, I need support, I feel like I'm not growing, or I feel lost, or I feel confused about certain things, please reach out to me. I'm always happy to have a conversation, to support you, even to find you, you know, a group. I I do have like some Christian networks that I can get you into some mentorship, or I can personally mentor you. By the way, for you coaches out there, Christian mentorship is not paid. We just do it because we love Jesus and we want more people to develop

Support For New Believers

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a saving faith in him. So don't ever hesitate to reach out about that. And that's all I've got for you this week. I will talk to you in the next one.