Welcome to the Hope Unlocked Podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome Yolanda Troopsmith to the show. I'm so excited to have her here today. I feel like it's been a long time coming, and I feel like I've known her forever. We had a chance to chat a little bit before we hit record, and I know that she's going to share so much goodness today. So before we get into where you've been and where you are now, just share a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER_00Well,
I am a native of Columbus, Mississippi. You probably haven't heard of that. It's a small town. It does have an all-girls' college there and an Air Force base. So it does have mobility and people coming in and out, but it is small. I grew up an only child to mom and dad, to parent home. Mom was a counselor. My dad was a welder. And their life was all about making sure that I was raised the right way, raised as a Christian, raised as a child that, you know, was knew that God was the was real. We our life, he's a great part of our life. He's important to us, and it's important to them that they raised me, right? My life had a lot of structure, order, and instructions. Yes, yes. So they were amazing, loving parents. There was nothing that I needed that I did not have. And I didn't get blessed with a lot of my wants, but I uh most of my young life was all about I can't wait until I'm free, you know, to be released and be able to make my own choices and not have so much order and so many instructions. And so that is how the beginning of my life was shaped the way that it was, with that crazy desire of I can't wait to get away. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I love that. Do you feel like you were always like that though? Did did you push against, like were you constantly pushing against kind of the boundary lines in all?
SPEAKER_00They were my parents believed in spankings. So I didn't like spankings. So I I pretty much tried my best to go along with the program. The my negative part was I was very talkative. So mouthy would be the word. With my mom being a high school counselor, she wanted me to have the freedom to talk about it. We can let tell me your thoughts, tell me your ideas, I'll tell you the rules, and I'll give you the opportunity to chat. And I'm thinking I have made a difference. She'll go, you know, I'm so glad to hear your side of the story, but our rules have not changed, you know. Okay. But she did let me vent. Um, they did let me talk, but they really were all about rules and order, following the rules, and that, you know, you'll you'll have a great life because you are doing things the right way. So I left going to college, like I said, ready to branch out. And so I learned a lot of lessons with a lot of mistakes that I made because I wanted the freedom. And I didn't realize that when you don't have boundaries, when you don't have rules, things can get a little bit out of order. So I began to make crazy mistakes, but in the midst of those, God began to talk to me. And it started the journey of wow, God is talking to me.
SPEAKER_01And you hadn't experienced that.
SPEAKER_00And I had not experienced that before I left home. The only thing I had experienced before I left for college, for college, was I would sing in my church choir. I would go to the university for women, and I took voice vocal lessons there when I was in high school. I had a couple of vocal issues. So my parents had me to go there to take vocal lessons. But I really just kind of pretty much flowed with what they were saying. And we would go to Sunday school, go to church. But if you read my book, I talk about I'm talking in church. So I'm talking to the people next to me. So I'm not really getting a lot, you know, from the message because I'm chatting, passing gum, eating candy, you know, and stuff. So I wasn't really in tune, you know, to that at all. But there was an experience where I had some young people over and spent the night, and I had said to them, oh, some guys are down the street. Let's go down the street to visit in the middle of the night. But this wasn't college. No, no, this is high school. So this was so that that was the one little time you said something to me. I told them guys were down the street. I had opened the window and let them go down the street. I didn't go because I was afraid of what Helen and Jesse would do to me because I would be breaking the rules. And so they go outside and my dog gets after them and they run back in, and everybody's falling on the porch, running through the window. And the next thing I hear, my dad opening the door. What were the rules, Yolanda? What were the rules?
SPEAKER_01Like, send them out.
SPEAKER_00They go to everybody's parents the next day. Everybody gets in trouble because of me. So in school, everybody's mad in high school saying, You got us in trouble. And people are walking up and down the hall saying, screaming out loud, what were the rules, Yolanda? What were the rules? And falling all on the floor, laughing at me. So that probably lasted for about two weeks. You know, my name was Dirt. Dirt to everyone. But then I it's it's it's like, wow, don't you realize you led them? You know, you told them this, you led them. But it still didn't mean anything to me. It was just I heard you led them in the wrong way. And and that was all. But then I go to college and I do
another situation where I lead somebody. So I with these young people, we were all playing cards, and we it's late at night, guys and girls, and we say, Wow, we're hungry, pizza would be great. And then I we all say, Well, we don't have any money. So then the devil gives me this idea. And he says, I mean, like, told me the whole plan as if I had written it out, uh, Christian. Seriously. He says to me, You know what? When you're in college and you call the pizza place to make an order, when they get ready to leave the pizza place, they call you back and say, We're on our way. And so the devil said, tell somebody to be downstairs at the desk before they get there. Because they always put the pizza on the desk, turn away and walk to the phone and call you and say, We're down here. And when they put it down, you already be there and steal all the pizzas. And when they turn around, the pizzas are gone. And so I promise you, it came to be just like that. I had never seen anybody do it. The devil just gave me the plan, and I told them, and those guys were from Chicago, and it was like, it ain't nothing but a plan, baby. Let's go.
SPEAKER_02Let's go.
SPEAKER_00They are down there, they steal the pizza, and I walked downstairs acting like I know nothing. And I said, Oh God, okay, I'm excited. Where's the pizza? And they go, the guy is like a southern draw. Oh my god, oh my God. They had to be on the track team. I tell you, I never seen anything like it in my life. They were going so fast, I couldn't see a thing. I don't understand what's going on here. Take these drinks, ain't nothing I could do with them. He was like, and I'm standing there going like wanting to explode in laughter at his the way he's talking. And then he gives me the soda. I go upstairs, we enjoy the soda and the pizza, and we're laughing because we got over. And then God talks to me and says, Yolanda, you are leading people, and you're leading them the wrong way. You weren't raised like this, you weren't raised like this. What are you doing? You are leading people to do wrong. You didn't do it, but they did it under your instruction. Look at what you're doing. You are not, you're using a gift in the wrong way. Letting the enemy talk you into this. Now, hey, I was still young. So how old were you at that time, Lady? I was probably depressing. Yeah, like I got well. I went to school, I turned 18 in December. So I was probably still 18, hadn't even turned 19. But see, God was telling me, you have leadership gift. You're leading these people, and I'm going like, so he told me.
SPEAKER_01And they're listening to you.
SPEAKER_00They're doing it. And I and I I had never tried to lead anything in my life. Like my husband in high school, he was like SGO president, you know, student government president. He he was secretary. I did nothing leadership, nothing. I didn't want to be bothered with leadership because I felt it would put a burden on my shoulders, a responsibility that I didn't want. But now I would be on your team and work like a horse, but I didn't want to leave. He was like, but you're leading. You know, I'm like, no, no, no, no. I don't want that, you know. So I go on through college. All I do is have a mindset to party. Because remember, all I wanted to do was be free. Okay. I wanted my parents would let me go out, but it was always Friday night or Saturday. And it had to be with somewhere that was going to be a chaperoned environment. So if it was a party, it was a party thrown by, like it was a thing called the Elks Club. These guys with men would throw parties for the high schoolers, but they chaperoned it. They had security. And the only way I got to go was my girlfriend's dad was one of the Elksmen. So he would pick me up with her and her other sisters and brothers. So I got there, but it still was order and rule. Air control. Air control. And one time I didn't go with them, I began to drive. I'm jumping all over the place. I'm sorry. No, I'm I'm following. But I drove one time because I got my license. And no, did I drive? Yeah, I think I drove. And my dad and mom said, Your curfew's 12. But everybody else looked like everybody else in the world. Their curfews were always more. So I think my dad must have driven his truck up there. And I am, how did this happen? No, no, no, no, no. I'm wrong. My dad dropped me off and said, okay, you know, we leave at 12. That's your time. So he's out there waiting on me. And I decide I'm having a good time. I ain't going out. I'm gonna stay in and party. So the DJ gets on and says, Yolanda Troop, your daddy said you need something. Oh my gosh. You better get out. And I'm like, oh my God, I am so embarrassed. So they did not play. Okay. It was always order. They're like, we let you do some of the things you want to do, but you gotta fall in line. So all I wanted, Kristen, was freedom. So I would go to every party. I would come in when people were getting ready to take a shower to go to class. Stay out all night, eating at a at a crystal or somewhere that was 24 hours after we partied, after the party where the good girls go. I go to a hole in a wall in a country just so I could be able to keep dancing. I love dancing. I would dance until the shoe would look like it was stuck on my foot. You know, it was it was it was just it was unbelievable. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01I love this. Like you, you ex you were able to like kind of sneak in freedom.
SPEAKER_00I I I just went, I was bananas. Now I wasn't wild as far as in bed with men or anything like that, but just running. But what I was doing was being in places that were unsafe, just because I wanted to be free and still be able to party. So I began to start watching men look at me a little differently at those places because I shouldn't have been there, you know. And a lot of that's to my book telling a lot of these stories how I could hear my mom say, any decent girl wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this. You know, I can kind of carry her eyes or there. No, yeah, yeah, saying things to me like, you know, what are you doing? You are what what what in the world is happening here? But then I was like, uh, you know, uh, you don't know what you're talking about. You know, you're old, you don't understand, you know, you went to college at a place where you almost couldn't do anything, you know. So that's the enemy, you know, telling me enough information to shoe it out of my mind. So I'm still kind of wild there. Grades aren't the best. And so one day, you know how God would, because what's happening is my parents are praying for me. Because she could tell this child of mine. I don't know. Now they had start showing up every Sunday because it was only an hour away. I went to the University of Alabama, uh, an hour from Columbus. They would show up on Sundays and we go out to eat after church. My girlfriends would come with us. Everybody, they liked them coming because we got to eat out. I didn't want them coming because I wanted to be free. Okay, stop coming every Sunday, please. You know. Anyway, so were you hungover too?
SPEAKER_01Huh? Were you hungover at that point too?
SPEAKER_00No, because I did. I only got drunk one time. No, two, two times. I would only drink two mixed drinks that were real fruity with a little bit of alcohol, and then I let the ice melt in it because I ain't drinking two. So I I I wasn't really weren't really doing that that bad, but but I wasn't doing well in school. I was going against everything I was taught. It wasn't right. So I um end up one day getting a phone call in
my dorm room, and a guy says, Hey, Yolanda, how you doing? I'm like, he said, Hey, how about if I take you out to dinner? I went, Yes, Cindy, treat you to dinner. So I get dressed and I run downstairs. And Christian, this guy is so handsome. I'm like, I don't even remember who is this? I've never seen this boy in my life. I was like, free dinner. Anyway, he loves that word. So I just go get in a car with him and another man to go get a free deal, meal. Crazy. Never remember that before. Never met them before. I was like, oh, they're so nice. You know, so I get in the car, we go out to eat after the dinner's over. He says, Hey, come by my dorm room and let's sit and chat. Well, then this is when again, God speaks to me. He says, Yolanda, you know that campus, they don't have visitation. You don't need to take your behind over there. And I'm like saying, I get out of this, I don't know how to get out of this. I'm telling you, God said, tell them, take me back to my room and let me freshen up. And then I can go. And then he said, when you get back to your room to freshen up, call back down to the front desk and tell them something's come up and I'm not gonna go. And I did just what the Lord told me. And he and I didn't go back down. Few days later in the newspaper, he was the guy who had been raping all the girls all over the campus that they had not caught and they finally caught it. And all I could do was just shake. Oh my God. God is real. You talked to me, you told me to go do this, that, and the other. Oh, I'm so glad I listened. Oh, Jesus, you know. So at that point, I'm just in shock, scared for a little while. You hear me? For a little while. I was scared. So when my grades come out at Sophomore year, my mom said, You're just playing around, you're you're not even taking real classes, you're over here taking repelling and basket weaving and throwing stuff. You are your major was computer engineering. What are you doing? And they were like, We're not gonna keep paying for this. You're coming out. So, my my the beginning of the second semester sophomore year, my parents said, Don't leave a thing in this dorm. You're packing everything up, and you're coming out of here. And we're gonna, you're gonna go to my alma mater, which was a small uh Methodist college in Mississippi in a small town with absolutely nothing to do. And I was like, Oh my God. She said, Well, you can go here, don't go anywhere. They're not gonna spend any more money with you and your wild living and your your out of order that you're doing. So I tried crying boo hoo thinking over the Christmas holiday they would change their mind, but they did not. So I didn't want to stay at home. So I went to the small Christian college. But what happens here, Christian, is God is always behind the scenes shaping our destiny, even though we're doing stupid stuff. Okay,
so so while I was at Alabama, I would sing in the lobby a lot when they let people sing in the lobby in the cafeteria, different places. I sung with a little choir there. I was still singing and having fun because that was my call, too. So I go to this other campus where my mom sends me. They it was has a world-renowned choir there, the Russell College Acapella Choir. And we sung all in in cathedrals in Paris and London and Belgium, Holland, all over the world. And we would we do classical and we do religious Negro spirituals where they blow a pitch pipe and no music. And we would, it's just a most beautiful sound. They still do it today. But so that was back in the 80s, I think, when I was there. And so I got so much amazing training there by being in that choir, you know, singing all over the world because he had my destiny in line, even though my decision would have been, I don't want to have anything to do with this.
SPEAKER_01You really would have said that?
SPEAKER_00I would have probably I would have because I was like, I don't want to be at this little school, this, this, this religious school. What kind of fun will I have here? You know, I'm still trying to have fun.
unknownRemember?
SPEAKER_01But the singing, the singing part though, is that something that you always had as like always, always, always. But did that get did that get kind of buried a little bit when you're at the school prior?
SPEAKER_00At the school choir, I just sung a little. I still was in a little choir there, but not a school choir. It was like a church choir or something. But when I got here, I I had always sung soprano. So when I got to this choir, he had too many sopranos. So he took us down the scale, and whoever could go lower, we became Altos. So that was the first time I became an alto. So I got to learn how to sing parts. You know, I shifted and I became aware of Soprano, Soprano, Alto tenor. I became aware of, ooh, when you're an alto, I gotta sing next to somebody as an alto, and I gotta hold my apart, you know, and and it was such a learning experience for me. It was amazing and got to go all over the world and sing. Well, I also met a girl. One girl was a Christian girl. Her dad was a minister. And later on, I could reconnected with her, but at first, she wasn't moving like I wanted to move. So I met a girl in one of my classes that she was smoking marijuana. So I went from just a little bubbly drink every now and then to I started, I wasn't smoking it, but I was inhaling it. So the devil was saying, Well, you ain't smoking it. So we would go sit in a car with this guy, and they would keep the windows rolled up, and we would just smoke all this marijuana. They would smoke all the marijuana, and I was just sitting there with them saying, Well, I ain't doing it. I ain't doing it, God. I ain't doing it. But I didn't realize I'm inhaling it.
SPEAKER_01Just stupid. Like what kept you? I have to know this. Like, what kept you from not even so? Did you ever smoke it?
SPEAKER_00You know, I'm trying to say, did I ever put a did I ever put one? I have to know that. Maybe somewhere somebody made it told me to try one and I put it to my mouth and smoked it, and I got choked because I never smoked a cigarette.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00I didn't know I didn't know how you it breathe it in and it comes out your nose or whatever. I know it sounds crazy, but I never did do that.
SPEAKER_01So I never talked about that's like that's God's hand on you, truly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just in the midst of all kinds of foolishness. And you know, I mean, and I gotta go back and capture a lot of these different stories. I'm gonna jump back to you while I was at the University of Alabama. This guy was in my class. I would always talk all the time. So I'd be meeting all these people. And so he and I were like great friends. So he has a party at his house. He says, Oh, Yolanda, come on and help me at my party. So I was like pulling the food out of the refrigerator, setting up the trays and stuff, and just walking all around. And we got along very well. I didn't know he liked me. I just he was just my friend. So I began to see all these people going into one of these rooms in his apartment, and they were closing the door. And I'm like, what's going on in there? So I go in the room and I see that now I know it was cocaine. Back then I didn't know it was because I'd never seen it for in my life. So they're sitting there with a glass on somebody's lap or on the table, maybe, with these lines. Guess what I did, Christian? I'm just telling you how crazy I was. I walked in there and plucked the glass and said, What y'all doing in here? And it and it plucked up. It just it just moved. And he was like, You better be glad I like you, because you're crazy. You doing, and when I saw his personality change, because he's like, Do you know how much money this stuff is? I didn't even know what it was. So I got out of there, and he later came and said something to me. Well, after that, I didn't have nothing else to do with him anymore because I didn't know, yeah, I didn't know. So I was so naive with the world, and God was just continuing to cover me in my stupidity. You know, so it was just a lot of things that I caught myself in that he just took care of me because he knew I had no motive, not I had nothing, I didn't know any, I had no idea what that was. So I kind of left him alone and I would see him, you know, in class and say hello. But so I met this girl and jump back there to where I was at the college. I met
this girl in class, and and we were smoking marijuana in the car all the time. And so I'm high and don't throw them high, you know, but we we we just ran together. So she says, Hey, go home with me for the weekend. And I was like, Yeah. She said, Girl, we're gonna party. We be partying in my town, you know. And I'm like, yeah, ready. That's all I want to do, right? You know, pre-up, you know, so so I go home with her over the weekend, I meet her mom, beautiful lady. And then I meet some of her sisters. They're really beautiful girls, long, beautiful hair, pretty. And so then we get to this last girl. We go to her house, her older sister, and we walk inside, and Christian is pitch black in there. And the only light is like if a curtain was left open, just a little bit of ray of sunlight came through there. I was like, why is it so dark in here? You know, what in the world is going on? So we finally get over to the sister. You could tell that back in the day, she was beautiful. But right now, she was very fair skinned, so her eyes were just black all around here, just black, black, dark, black. And I'm looking at her, going, what in the world is going on here? And she begins to say, what it gonna be like? We're gonna put it, we're gonna put it. And she opens her mouth and all of her teeth are decayed. And I said, Jesus. And then this is what God says to me. Take a look, Yolanda. Take a long look. Because that's gonna be you, the road that you're going on. You weren't raised like this, you've gone from a little mixed drink, from no drinking to a little mixed drink, and now you're smoking marijuana. Now you're at all these parties, you're you're coming to spend the weekend with people, you don't even know whose house you were going to. Just going with people. You don't even know who these people are. You know, that's just talking to me. Now, I should have been scared straight when I went out on a date with a rapist. That didn't scare me straight. But looking at how she looked and God telling me that's how you're gonna look, now that scares me straight.
SPEAKER_01She's like, I'm out of care if somebody kept me home.
SPEAKER_00Maybe you're gonna like I ain't have nothing else to do with her, Jesus. If you get me back to this campus, you ain't gonna have to worry about me, baby. I start going to church every Sunday like I used to. Did you really? Yes. I was like, we're going to church every Sunday. The the one girl I told you I met in the choir that we got along very well. She was a member of a denomination, the Church of God in Christ, that had a church there. And I started going to church, I was like running to Jesus. Like, I'm not you know, so that was like literally the epitome of darkness. Girl, it scared me so bad. And he said, You take a long look because that's how you're gonna look. Because the road you're on, my sister, is the wrong road. And I keep talking to you and you're not listening to me. I keep on protecting you and you're not listening to me. I keep on taking care of you and you're not listening to me. I keep on talking to you and giving you information to spell you and save you from your crazy self and you're not listening, Yelana. You better wake up, girl, before something really bad happens. But see, also, my mom and dad are at home praying because my mom is saying, Oh, that child of mine, I didn't tell she's into something she ain't got no business doing, but I can't put my hands on it. You know, she told me she was just praying, praying, praying. So I come back after that weekend. I saw her in class every time. Hey, how you doing? Ran from her. I ain't have nothing else to do with that girl no more because I was like, uh-uh, uh-uh. I got to get myself together, Jesus. So I began to start going to church with my friend. And for the first time in my life, I'm listening to the word in service, Christian. I'm not eating. Do you remember? Do you remember the first? Like, I don't remember the first sermon, but let me tell you, he was an amazing minister. He preached until it was like the words of the pages in the Bible came to life. Walked off the pages and painted a movie picture. And I was like, wow, I'm getting this. I've never heard anybody preach, teach like this. It's amazing. I'm enjoying it. I want to go to church. I'm falling in love with this. That was my first encounter. And I began to start going to church all the time. I started dating this guy that was writing songs, and I used to be singing the songs he wrote, and then, but I was a year older or two older than him. So we dated for a little while, and then that broke up because I went to graduate school. And so when I get to graduate school, I start meeting people that had choirs and I began to sing and this, that, and the other. And uh, I remember I got into Miss Miss Mississippi State University pageant, and I won the talent in that. It was, I just began to really find my spot, majoring in computer, master's in teaching with concentration in computer science. And I began to start talking to God, or shall I say, listening, and now I'm starting to talk to you.
The conversation.
SPEAKER_00Okay, the conversation. Because before he was trying to pursue me from my mama's and my daddy's prayers, okay, but now I'm beginning to say, I think I want to pray to you myself. Because back in the day, it probably would have been if it was trouble. Oh, God help me, you know, and that was probably it. But now I'm beginning to develop a relationship or as you say, a conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yes, like a friendship, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. It was like, I'm talking to you, do this, Yolanda, do that. Now, believe me now, I ain't do everything you told me to the T exactly when he said the time frame that he said, but I was learning, okay? I was learning, and it and I was getting better at it. So I finally leave.
I meet this guy, we date, we get married, but he was not saved.
SPEAKER_01And so God knew that ahead of time.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and God told me not to marry him, but I was like, but he's cute, and he's gonna be an engineer, and I'm gonna be a computer science instructor, and it's gonna be great, God. And I married him anyway, and it was not great, it was a very rough situation. And God told me, don't hate him. As a matter of fact, now, believe it or not, he got saved right before we got married because I called the wedding off and said, I can't marry you, you're not saved. He runs to the hometown, a minister down the streets over in my house. She said, Well, what's wrong with him getting saved right now? And then he got saved, but God told me, He said, You're still unequally young. Girl, you've been knowing me since you were nine. This man, 20-something. Y'all are not on the same page. He said, I'm not trying to tell you that you're better than him. It's just that you are in a different place than where he is. And to put you together is going to be an issue. An issue, a problem. But all I can think of, he's cute, and this is gonna happen. And so it was, it was really rough. I stayed 17 years. Oh my God, when God pulled me out, uh I was wearing probably a 12 or 14 inch girls' clothes. I was skin and bones, it was horrible. So those, those uh how many years, 17 or 18 years were I started off a fireball for God because as I grew with listening to him through graduate school and home for a little while before I got married, my relationship grew. And then when I went there to live with him, I was reading the word on my own. I would watch my favorite people, Joyce Myers, Creflo Dollar, uh, what's her name? Marilyn Hickey. I had my favorites that I would watch. And so I would be the God was depositing everything in me from my time with them, from the books that I read and my time in the word. And I was growing, I was strong, and I was strong, strong, strong. So I felt I'm strong enough that I can bring him to God. I can handle what's not in order, I can do this. Okay, I got this, okay? I got this because of my walk with God. And my scripture was because of the wife, the whole, you know, the husband and the whole household will be saved. But baby, you ain't his wife right now. So that ain't you, that's not you yet. So I but I grabbed my scripture. Now, see, God, he kept talking to me because it was a lady whose ministry I loved a lot, and she would have a noonday prayer. She'd have prayer benches, and I would go in there at noon and just pray, pray. And I talked to her, and she told me, she said, Young equally, yo, don't do it, Yolanda, don't do it, Yolanda, don't she told me. And I just said to myself, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, Yolanda. You can do it, Yolanda, you can do it. And I married him, and it got worse and worse. And it just, it just wasn't a good match. So at first, you know, I began to be angry with him and want to like hate him and everything. And God said, uh-uh. He said, You the one didn't do what your daddy told you. I told you not to marry him. I ain't telling him nothing. I told you. This is about you and me, Yolanda, not you and him, baby. He said, so so now that he said, You're okay and he's okay. You're just not okay together. I didn't put that together. You did that. And so at this time, he had been talking to me about Christians. You can have holy trials or and you can have unholy trials. The the holy trials, what God puts you through to shape and mold you to be whatever he wants you to be, and he's got you through that. But the unholy trial is the one you put yourself in. Now he'll still bring you out, but you're going through stuff you didn't have to go through. That's a sidebar over there. Okay. That that has whipped you, and one thing about it, he'll bring you out, but you're gonna still have scar tissue.
SPEAKER_01That's good.
SPEAKER_00You're gonna still have scar tissue. You're gonna have scar tissue because you went through it, so it's leaving its mark. Now, what we can do is I can be depressed and down and never rise up again because of my scar tissue, or I can take my scar tissue and use it to help somebody else.
SPEAKER_01Listeners, can you imagine what she decided? I can. At this time, what age are you then making this?
SPEAKER_00I am I married at 24 and I stayed with him 17 years.
SPEAKER_0141. So you're 41. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01So yes, how did you get we're gonna use the freedom? How you how did you get free? Okay.
SPEAKER_00So I had a horrible trial in there with him. My second baby, I had 11 fibroid tumors, and five were larger than big giant grapefruits. I had no idea that I had fibroids. I mean, I went and got my regular doctor checked ups. No sign of none of this. I didn't have bag craps during my cycle, nothing. When I go and he tells me I'm pregnant, here he tells me all of this. And he says, Well, you know, we can't remove them until after the baby. You're gonna have to carry all of them, Yolanda. So I'm like, okay, it'll be all right, you know, it's gonna be all right. Well, see, even though we have a relationship with him, he wants us to grow stronger and stronger in him. Why? Because the stronger I get to know him, the more I get to be like him. See, and then and then I'm able to handle my issues and my trials like he wants me to. As you say, now I can come out with like pure gold, I can come out blessed, I can come out stronger and then able to go give it to somebody else. That's what it's all about. Giving it to somebody else, you know, each one, reach one and and and share the formula. So while in the midst of all of this with him, God begins to use me in the college wire where I am. Um, believe it or not, back then that campus had a religious emphasis week. Yes. And so the pre the president comes to me and says, Hey, I want you to get on the religious emphasis committee. And I'm going, why is he picking me for that? I don't be, do I look like I got Jesus on my shirt or something? You know, why is he saying he wants, you know, why do you do that? You know, I'm just in my mind, right? And so I get on there. And the reason was it was an older lady that was on that, that she was the head chair of that committee. And she was a very, she was a really sweet lady, but she was very, she looked like church all day long, you know, long dress, all that, you know, not looking like to me that she enjoyed life at all, like everything was strict. And in my younger years, and you'll find that in the book, I talk about my first experience with the Holy Spirit and how I was in a church that no lip, no makeup, no nail polish, no pants, and all of that. So it made me say, I don't want to have nothing to do with that Holy Spirit. Because you that oh, what is that? Oh, uh-uh, you know, there's no freedom there, rules and regulations, right? Okay, so like no, you know, so my mindset of that was bad thing. I don't want that. Somebody got off, it's a cult. It's the devil, right?
SPEAKER_01Like that was your interpretation of it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, my mindset. So God had to rework all of that, okay, uh, through time. So I'm here at the school. That was her, she was from that type of church, and so that's why I probably really didn't want to be on that committee because I was like, uh-uh, I don't want to be now. She's gonna be trying to tell me I can't wear my pants and my white do that, you know, because I like dressing, I like to look cute. So that ain't it for me, you know. So he puts me on there, and and because I was raised to respect and love everybody, no matter where they are or what they're doing, because nobody's any better than anybody else. All it is is the Holy Spirit helps us do better, but we are no better. Okay, so I was raised like that. So I treated her like I should have treated her, and then I began to start learning stuff from her. You cannot be in company with God and not pick something up. You're either gonna pick it up or you're gonna run. Okay, so I stayed. And then she retired, and then the president says, Hey, I need you to be over the religious difference committee. I was like, no, you know. I love, I love you. I'm in my twenties. I resonate, I resonate with them. I'm in my twenties. What are you doing? That's for old people, you know. You're getting called. Yes. And see, I would say all this to God in my mind, you know, talking to him all the time, like, what are you doing? I don't like that, you know.
SPEAKER_01So, so it's I want to I want to just pause for a second because I feel like somebody who's listening today, like, I I feel like you need to give them permission to talk to God in that manner. Like, we can be honest with him, we can be like, what are you talking about? Could you could you talk about that for just a second before you continue on? Because I feel like this is a key for somebody.
SPEAKER_00And I think it probably came a lot from my mom allowing me to be so verbal and so talkative with her, and that I would say, Well, Ma, I don't understand. Why is it always no? You know, tell me why. What's your reason? Why you doing this? You know, so I would just talk to him like that. And listen, there's even a scripture that says, let us reason together. Yeah, and I don't know the rest of that scripture. So God is okay with me talking to him, saying, I don't understand why you're doing it, Daddy. Please help me, you know. And when we go, uh, the book that I have, and I'm not, and I know I don't want to go too long with your time because I know I talk too much. So let me try to, you know, try to stay in line. But I began just to talk back to him because I I didn't feel comfortable asking anybody else the crazy stuff that I was thinking. Yeah, just to somebody else, how I'm thinking, because another re one reason is because a lot of people back in the day, old people would say, you don't ask God that, you don't talk to God like that. God ain't got time to be worried with that mess right there. I had heard people say that, so I didn't feel comfortable going and telling somebody else my thoughts that I felt were kind of a little crazy. So I would talk to him.
SPEAKER_01I mean, that's I think of Job's friends, you know, Job's friends.
SPEAKER_00They came to him saying, you know, you did something wrong. You know, you know you messed up. Why don't you just go on tell us what you did?
SPEAKER_01You can't talk about God like this. You can't talk to God like this. And he was a man of of reproach. He was a man that was actually in the right, whereas the friends were all over here. I just thought I'd share that.
SPEAKER_00And I think that's great. And so what we have to realize, he's after the relationship, he's after the conversation. He's he he wants to hear our heart so he can fix our heart. See, when he hears my craziness, he'll go now. If you ask him, why can't I do that? Because of this. So I, you know, I had just gotten a great relationship with chatting with him. Now, in the book, I have a lot of stories of how I'm going through things and talking to him. So my
journey of beginning to learn how to trust him the more came from crazy things I did. So one day I'm shopping in this is Vicksburg, Mississippi. I'm shopping and I go in this place called a bed in a bag. So you're you're probably not old enough, Christian, to know when the bed in the bag came out. It was where you get this bag and it has the spread, the sheets, the prices, and the pillow slams. Yeah, it was called a bed in a bag. Well, it came out way long time ago, probably in the 90s. Yeah, 80s or 90s, because I married my first husband in 86. So somewhere up in there, it came out. And then they would have these things called like a pop-up store. And so it would be like in a mall that had an empty area. They will pop up and they may stay there for two or three months. So this bed in the bag thing pops up, and everybody's going out there getting those bed in the bags. You're excited because your bed looks amazing. You have every the dust ruffle, the spread, the sheets, the pillows, the pillow shams, ruffly beautiful. So I bought me one for a day bed I had in one of the extra rooms in my home. And girl, when I got home, it had an extra set of pillow shams in my bed in the bag. I said, I got four pillows with ruffles around it. Oh, it's so beautiful. And then God says, That's not your pillow sham, Yolanda. Take it back to the store. Take it away from me. It's beautiful. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. So he's talking to him. And I was like, I will not. And so I didn't talk to him about it anymore. Everywhere I went, if I drove to the store and stopped at the stoplight, I tell you, no, like Christian, I heard pillow sham, pillow sham. If I went in a grocery store and I'm shopping, he goes, Pillow sham, pillow sham. And he kept doing it so much I said, stop it. I said, Okay, daddy, I'll take it back. So I go take it off the bed and I take it back to the store. And when I walk in, the lady says, Oh my God, I don't believe you brought this back. She said, Who does that? I said, Well, honey, I ain't been able to get no peace. So I had to bring it back. She said, Girl, since you did this, you can have those fellow shams. And God bless you. And when I get back in the car, he said, I'm trying to teach you that if you do what I tell you to do, I'm gonna take good care of you. I got you. I got great things for you, but I got to teach you to hear me and obey. Because what I got for you is exceeding abundantly above all you could ever ask or think. But it's according to the power that works within you. I am your power source. Stay connected with me, and I got great things for you. Listen, talk to me, listen, obey me, but obey me quick. Because I was to obey me slow. I was he got to reach the other Jesus. The devil is a lie, Jesus. That ain't you, that's the devil. So this was me doing all of this stuff, moving slow, and he's got I got great things. Girl, but you're gonna have to speed it up, sister.
SPEAKER_01He's so patient, though. I mean, if you guys are listening, patient, protective provider, right?
SPEAKER_00Girl, the stories of how he taught. Me. So so this is because I skipped one of my major, but there's so many in the book. I don't want to tell you.
SPEAKER_01You'll have to tell us the name of the book in a second because we want to make sure everybody can get because you're you're giving us some some good snacks here for the for the thing.
SPEAKER_00He really was patient with me because it it took me probably almost a week before I got those pillow chance back up in there. And he was like, I'm trying to tell you, girl, I want to lead you. I want to lead you. So he gives me this other earth situation with a pouch. I was the college I worked in had a little pouch with all the logo and stuff for the college. And I wouldn't keep this with the little wristband hooked on it. And this will be my lunch money in there, you know, for when I'm in during the day, because I didn't keep my purchase out with me. You know, I'll go in and out teaching my classes, my computer science classes, lunchtime, walk over with my pouch. So I decide that I want to go shopping. Must have been a Saturday, a Sunday night or something in the mall. And I see some isotoner gloves and I'm in love with them and I wanted them. So someway I put the pouch down inside that bay of gloves, and I never got it. But I did something that my ex-husband told me not to do. We got our income tax check back. He said, Yolanda, deposit it. He said, Don't sign it right now, Yolanda, till you get to the bank, Yolanda. Don't sign it till you get to the bank, Yolanda. Yolanda signs it now, puts it in the pouch so that I can take it to the bank when I get off work Monday and I go shopping Sunday evening and lose that thing. And then I didn't know where I had lost it. So I get up Monday morning trying to find the pouch, looking all over my house. And then I go in my, my, I had a Ford Explorer. I was moving the seat back and forth, trying to see if it had fallen out. I was like, oh my Lord, I've lost the pouch, Jesus. Oh my God, he's gonna kill me. I lost the pouch with all of the information in it. Oh my God, what am I gonna do? So I said, okay, I've been going to this church that teaches, apply the word of God to your life. So I said, okay, okay. The scripture said, ask anything of the Father in Jesus' name and he'll do it. And it says I can't have any doubt and unbelief in my mind. I gotta believe he'll do it. Because if you're asking, young lions may lack milk, but those that reverse the Lord shall not lack any good thing. Oh, I was rolling up scriptures out. I'm gonna believe it, I'm gonna believe it. And I said, God, I want my pouch back without a red scent missing because I had some cash in there too. So I gave my my request to the Lord, make a request known unto God. I said, I got it now. Yeah, I'm on it. I'm fired up. I'm believing He's gonna do it for me. And so then I go to work, open my mouth, and tell one of the women on the job what happened. She said, Girl, you crazy. That don't people that found that pouch got a friend at the bank, and she already done connected with her, and they done cashed your check, girl, got your money. You ain't gonna never see that no more. And I said, You're right. You're right, you're right. So I left work with as a defeated foe. So on my way home, God is saying, I can't believe you let the devil do you like win like that. He said, That's why I told you, guard your eye gates, your ear gates. You don't go tell everybody everything. You can't spread what you're believing me for and tell it to everybody because everybody's not gonna encourage you. The devil's gonna have people to discourage you. He said, now you went 10 steps forwards and 25 steps backwards when you talked with her. He said, now I can restore you and I can work it out. Repent for talking to her. Repent for not believing in me. And come on, let's get on back up here and get this pouch in Jesus' name. So I begin all every day. Lord, I thank you. I thank you for bringing me the pouch. Oh, glory to God. He said, just keep praising him every time you think about it, and don't listen to the devil talking to you. George Meyer says the devil and God can't both talk to you at the same time. So if the devil starts talking, start praising him and lifting him up and you can't hear. Now don't believe this. He's gonna come back, but then you're gonna praise God again. So you can clearly listen to the master and be encouraged. So I kept doing that. Then I get a Lord tells me to call this friend of mine that works at that store to be on the lookout for the pouch. And so I go back home, I have a message on my answer machine that says, Hey, come to the information center of that store and we've got your pouch. I say, Glory to God. Hallelujah. I get to the information desk, they say, Don't nobody know what you're talking about, and nobody heard nothing about no pouch. And the devil said, They stole your pouch and took your money. You need to jump across there and beat them all down. You know, all kind of craziness covered up in my head, you know, all kind of stupid stuff. And I was like, I don't do that, I can't do that. So I just go home saying, okay, God, what's going on, Lord? Help me, help me, help me. And then I could hear, just keep on praising me. Don't pay no attention to what you see. Believe that I'm gonna do what you ask me. No doubt, Yolanda. Just keep saying that, oh Lord, I thank you. I don't care what I see. Oh, praise your name. Hallelujah. It's coming, it's coming. And I kept saying that. And then I end up getting a phone call from the girl that says, I have your pouch. She said, I started to take it to the information desk, and something told me, don't do it. They're not gonna be honest, and they're gonna take her money. And she said, I have it here. And I went and met her. And she said, I came to work that morning, and something said, Go look in the bin. Just out of nowhere. And she says, I go to the bin and I see your pouch and I look in there and I find your phone number and I call and say, you know, I'm gonna leave it over there, but then I change my mind and so forth and so on. And I get it back without a red scent missing. Everything intact. Oh, so he was teaching me to trust him through every one of these situations. He was teaching me that he can be trusted. And look, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not into your own understanding. And all of our ways acknowledge him, he will direct my path. I acknowledged him, he directed my path into victory over a situation that brought up several examples to say give up. The woman, the all on the information, when I get to the information desk, it was so many things that said give up, throw in the towel. And if I had done that, I wouldn't have gotten it back because it's the supernatural move of God that does it by my human reaction.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And how many would you say? I mean, just think of how many people you know, and I'm sure you've walked through this. Obviously, you've walked through this where you're so close to that breakthrough. So close. And then something, someone, the what if, the plan B, you know, all the the the what if people. I call it the butt what if people.
SPEAKER_00See, that's what happens, really, Christian. When all of these things begin to happen, that means the breakthrough is right around the corner. And the enemy's trying all that he can to stop you from getting the breakthrough. Because if you get the breakthrough and you give God the glory, the honor, and the praise and tell the story and share it, now you're making others begin to trust him. And that's what the devil does not want. Yeah. So he's trying to shut you down. So you don't have that story to tell, you don't have the story to share. Because when I do all that I'm doing, it it ignites. If you got, if you are a Christian, it's going to ignite your flame to activate him in your life because I'm no better than anyone else. If he did it for me, he'll do it for you. He's saying, I'm the power source. You can't do it without me. What he does are the things we can't do ourselves. Yeah. And he's waiting to do it. He wants to do it. He loves us. He created us. He knows us all by name. He's just waiting to take care of you. So that whole time in that city where all these little different situations happening, you know, with the marriage messing up, craziness that happened, you know, all the things he did that were out of order, and everything that drove me to God saying, You can leave now, Yolanda. You can leave now. He's gone on his way. He doesn't want you. You know, you got to get over that. He doesn't want you. You got to get over it. You know, you stopped eating, you've been grieving, you know, you a size two is too big. Um, I was uh just pitiful. Um, so I left there when God told me to go back to my parents. I left my teaching job. Um, they were saying, come on, come on, we want you to keep on teaching. I was so mentally unstable. But there was so much trying to even keep you there. Oh, yeah. They were they were saying, Oh, well, I was actually even teaching online as well. They was like, you can keep teaching online, but I had allowed the enemy to mess with my mind so much till I, girl, I went home and slept for two months. And my parents took care of my kids because that that war with him and the enemy, I was losing. Yeah, when my parents came, I said to them, my mom, I met them at the door saying, I know I'm supposed to be able to tread on serpents, but mama, serpents are treading on me, is what I said to her. I had just really gotten into such a situation that I was just being overcome. And I had to turn around. And so that was an example, but probably the worst one of it all, Christian, was the 11 tumors. And when I go to the doctor, every the three doctors say, you need to abort this baby because the tumors are gonna kill
you and him. There's no way you both gonna live through this, and you need to give it up, throw in the towel, go on and have an abortion. So three doctors made the abortion appointment. I mean, three doctors said abort, the last one made the appointment for me. You're not gonna live. And this baby's not gonna live. I'm telling you, it's it's it's every part of you, the capacity is taken up with these tumors. A baby ain't even got room, Yolanda. So I go back home and I was like, okay, God, what to do, Lord, what to do? All the doctors are telling me to abort. I already got the abort appointment made and everything. So I need to go forth. I go to sleep in an inner dream. I'm in concert. And this lady stands up and says, Shut up and sit down, kill that baby. Don't nobody want to hear nothing you got to say. If you could make it through your own trial and hold on in Jesus' name, what you trying to tell us something for? You couldn't even have your own baby. And I woke up out of my dream and God says, I will forgive you, but man's gonna have a hard time forgiving you. Your ministry will be altered because of this. So you gotta understand, I will be with you, I will bring you out. But he didn't let me know how much pain it was. Oh my God, it was so much pain. Because I had people praying all over the world for the tumors to die. And I didn't realize they are, they they drained my blood supply. So if they're not getting the blood supply and the baby is, like I prayed for everybody to make that happen, they shrivel up and die, and they ache like a toothache, like a hundred times more intense. I went to the hospital 11 times before I had the baby. It five, three or four times I stayed in the hospital. The others were emergency visits. I would go there, go, hey, Miss Williams, I was Williams, and how you doing? I went so much. And what was happening was he was going through the he was going through the phases, and when I would get there, they would take me to the ward where all the newborn, the babies that were born premature, so I could see one baby was born without one leg or one hand. Because they say, Yolanda, when we take him out, whatever he has, it that's just gonna grow. Nothing extra will grow. So if his hand hasn't developed, he'll be born without hands. If his lungs are not complete, they're not gonna finish. He was like, You're gonna have to hold out, or you're gonna have us taking a baby that is not fit to live. So they kept talking to me, and I would pray. I would pray all night long, and I promise you, I probably had 10 minutes of sleep. Praying, fall off, and wake up. I couldn't sleep. It was it was horrible. It was horrible. And so someone joked to me one day, the Lord won't even let me tell who the person was because I don't want to spot them out. Because they may listen to this. They said, Where's your God now? While you all laid up sick and you know, and this pregnancy half killing you, where's your God now? And I I just boohooed and just fell apart. And then God came to me and said, They're right. Where is your God? You are not calling on me in warfare to tear the devil up on your behalf. You're sitting here letting them tear you up, laying in the bed, moaning and groaning. Get up, warrior, and fight. Yes, yes, and so he said, Get your scriptures that go along with this. You know, he said, You gotta fight. He said, My will is that you should prosper and be in good health. This ain't good health. You know, he said, Ask anything of the Father in Jesus' name and it shall be. What are you doing? Get your word, and so I had to start getting my word. But this is where he's always with us and always working things out behind the scenes. So this is what happens. My ex-husband's half-brother, wife was a minister. I forgot she was a minister. They kept saying they wanted to come visit. And I kept telling them, I don't want to see nobody. I look bad, I looked like I had triplets because I had the baby growing and the tumors are growing. I looked a hot mess. I didn't want to be bothered or seen. She asked, kept saying, Can she come? I kept saying, No, no, no, no, no. Kept telling my mom to come and stay with us. I told her to say no. So one day we look up and they were ringing the doorbell. She didn't ask, they just came. Best thing that could have ever happened. This woman comes in that house and Christian, she prayed to every ounce of Jesus that was in me, woke up. She kept saying, Body, get in line with the word of God. She's supposed to be prospering, she's supposed to be in good health. By Jesus' stripe, she's healed. She kept saying, By Jesus strife, Yolanda's healed. Yolanda is walking in her wealthy place, in her healthy place. That woman prayed, oh my God, and woke me up. And after that, I began to fight and war with a word and with my praying. And I got out of that situation. It wasn't easy. I still was going through my pain, but I would pray through it. And I began to get out of the bed. And believe you, let me tell you what my first great thing was. You're gonna fall out. I went to Walmart and drove the cart and got my grocery.
SPEAKER_02And I was able to go get my own grocery hand. I love it.
SPEAKER_01I love it. I'm thinking, like, you, you know, Jericho walling, but you went Walmarting.
SPEAKER_00Started getting out and you know, and going places, driving the little cart. Not a lot, but I mean, because I had been in for months because when I was still.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So I ended up coming from the bedridden to going to Walmart and getting I liked it. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01And and like what kind of experience was that for you? Because you literally went, I you know, I'm almost imagining like that room that you're in, that dark room with the, you know, just a little bit of light. You went from there.
SPEAKER_00Girl, it was horrible. And I had to start learning how to apply the word, you know, to the situation. And, you know, and I talked it. And I still weren't, I was not a strong warrior. You know, how some people they can get that prayer through, bam, right then. And then others, it takes a little time. So I'm growing. And it was just a lot of stuff that I went through in there in that first marriage. And then God said it's time to go. He said, everything that he could have done to break the covenant has been done. And he's not interested in you. Let it go. You're gonna have to realize he doesn't want you anymore. Let it go. I know you came from a home where when my marriage, when my daddy died, my mom and dad had been married 62 or 64 years. I didn't want a divorce. I didn't want that. But it just wasn't what I was supposed to do in the first place. So I came back to my parents, you know, and started over. And after eight years, I went through the seven-year completion, the eight-year new beginning, and he puts me with the gentleman that I had known all my life. We both were, you know, we loved the Lord and wanted to work for the Lord. Mindset was the same. Um, he retired. Before then, we were working for the Lord. We're both elders in one fellowship and overseers in another fellowship. So just that's our life. And we love it like that. You know, helping God's people, loving on God's people, helping God's people, and letting God continue to shape and mold us. And so, in the middle of all this, I'd always sang, and I used to write little songs on the side. I was in the Mississippi Mass Choir, which is a world-renowned mass choir. And in that choir, God let me watch them write songs, record songs, put the songs together. Well, while I was in that choir, I would look, that was back when I was in Victoria, I would just be, Lord, why you keep giving me all these songs and you won't let them record any of my songs? Why can't this? He said, baby, this is your time not to reign, but to be trained. It's not your time to reign, Yolanda. It's your time to be trained. So suck it up. He said, suck it up. Learn everything, be a sponge, learn how you're right. If I gave it to you, you couldn't do anything with it anyway. You're not there yet. Okay? So I had to learn how to listen and watch and be glad for others and pray for God to do things for others, that my time will come when he's ready and trust his timing. Now, you know, I had a whole lot of talks with him. Like, welcome down, like my stuff. And you know, when you're an only child, that's a real hard thing. Because you know, when your only child, parents are all, it's all about what this child needs. And then you have to learn, hey, God got a whole lot of children, baby. And he's gonna take care of all of us, and he's gonna do it the best for everybody. Trust them, you know. And so I went through that. Can I stop you for one second?
SPEAKER_01Speaking of children, the baby. Yes. I mean, I might be the only one wondering. What's no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00So when I left him, the baby was had not turned one, and the older one was 10.
SPEAKER_01Two boys. Girls, the doctors, the doctors wanted you to abort. Was your baby try?
SPEAKER_00Made it through. It was a lot of pain, but we made it through. I carried him to eight and a half months, and then they finally went on and induced. Okay, but was he fine? He only thing he had was jaundice, which a lot of kids have that. And so after that, he's fine. He is 25 now, and the older one is 35.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01So I just I I want us to capture this right now because again, she had people planting seeds of doubt, and she had a choice. You had a choice. You had a choice to abort, because we've got medical professionals telling you something. Three. Three of them like second opinion, third opinion, and then you've got what what opinion? You've got a god opinion.
SPEAKER_00God opinion. Well, I was gonna do it. Yolanda's opinion was leaning to the doctor, which is normally your a human thing to do, right? But the dream is what made me make my decision. You know, he he's guys figured out how to reach me, you know, show me something. Show me the girl's mouth. Yeah, he showed me in concert and what people he was saying they were going to do. And he said, Your ministry will be dead. I will forgive you, but man won't. So my talk with him again, he kept talking to me. He kept talking to me, and he doesn't want to just talk to me and not talk to you, listeners. Exactly, exactly. You are important to him, he created you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and unique, and he has a purpose for everyone. And what he called you to do, nobody else can do it better than you. That thing, whatever that thing is.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. Oh my gosh. Well, tell us about your book because I know you mentioned a book, but I I know you've got like books in here for you.
Many more book babies to come. Hey, man. So much. Even maybe what is it? I I didn't think I'd be an author because I I think there's listeners, and they're like, oh, I could never be an author. What was that process like for you? Was it God that gave you this dream idea? Did you have doubters, people?
SPEAKER_00Well, this is what happened. I never thought about writing. Okay. I never I didn't like to read unless I was researching. I was a researcher kind of person. Like, if I get a problem because Computer science degree. I was driven to solve, analyze it, and solve the problem. So I'm not interested in reading for pleasure, like people read books like that. I just, I was too busy for that. So what happens is I come back home after a divorce. I'm in Sunday school one Sunday, and the topic is the Holy Spirit. And everybody has little remarks to say, and I'm sitting there saying nothing. And God says, Why don't you have anything to say, Yolanda? I said, because I don't know what the heck they're talking about. I don't know nothing about that. That's me in Sunday school talking to him in my head. He says, Precisely, you don't know anything. That's why you need to go study. So instead of screaming and falling out and crying, when your kids go to spend the weekend or a week with their dad, you need to go read and study about the Holy Spirit. That was my instruction. So I began to read and study and get confused and pray and ask him to give me a revelation. And we come up with this first book, which is the Holy Spirit, the person, the works, don't live without him. I start telling a few stories, but I do a lot of scripture in here explaining who the Holy Spirit is, how he works in the life of a believer, and some stories, and then different phases, like everything that he did for me in my life, like a little calendar of he did this, and then he did the first CD, and he did the this and that job, and how I was working at the YMCA as assistant director of ministries and the teen director. When I went back home, he took me from the computer world to ministry. I didn't even know the YMCA had a ministry department. So, yes, you know, it's it's young men's Christian Association. And so I'm there doing all this stuff, and this book comes out. I'm writing it as notes to learning who he was. And then when I realized I thought I was finished, I put my notes down in the notebook. And then this girl calls me and says, Hey, I'm doing a women's conference, and I need you to do one of those sessions, you know, breakout sessions. And God told me to tell you to use all that stuff you've been writing about that Holy Spirit over there in that notebook you got. I said, What? She said, Yes, you know about it too. She, I I knew her, and I told her God had me doing something, but I didn't even get back with her to even let her know what all had happened. And she said, God said, bring all that stuff you've been writing over there. And I was like, oh my God. So God says, put it all together in a booklet and then teach on it. You know how to teach, you got a master's in teaching, you've been doing it for years. I did it, and I'm telling you, it was a blessing. The move of God in the room. I had the pamphlets that you could give me a donation. Everybody took every pamphlet. Next thing I know, this minister calls me and says, Hey, I need you to come to my noonday Bible study, talk about that Holy Spirit stuff everybody says you talk about around town. Then he told me to come back on a night of Bible study and preach it. Then God gives me the song, so I sing the Holy Spirit song from the real early parts when I was going to the church. And I was like, What is this? What's going on here? You know, and the next thing I know, uh God calls me to be a minister. And then the next five years, an elder. And I'm walking in this whole new walk that I wasn't even thinking about. And this is still in a pamphlet form now, not a book. So I married my husband, moved to Atlanta, had the pamphlet in the basement. God says, Take that upstairs. And I did it because he just said to put it on a counter. One of the elders was over there for something and said, What is this reason? says, Oh my God, you need to publish it. And so I said, Really? She said, Yes. I talked to God. He said, I want to kind of switch it up a little bit. That's this book. So it's telling you who he is, and then it's saying, You don't want to live without this hookup. So the slogan became get the Holy Spirit hookup. Hook up with him daily to get your instructions on how to live that life he has for you. So that was the first version. Well, I did it, but I didn't quite know how to put it out there. But I did what he said, and different places have me coming. But this was in 2015. So the letter. So then he kept telling me at the end of this book, lay out the blueprint of how you handle your day. And that's at the back of this book. So he's telling me you need to do a second book. It's going to be called The Blueprint. And I'm like going, Lord, I know you're so displeased with me. So many years have gone by, and I haven't even done anything, Lord. I've just been doing writing songs and recording, you know, and preaching. And I just hadn't been doing, oh, I'm so sorry, Jesus. And so then all of a sudden, my husband's niece starts a publishing company. She was judge and attorney, and God made her quit all of that and said, I want you to help Christian authors get their projects get heard. And it's called Get Heard Publishing. And because she's an attorney and a lawyer, she knows all the stuff.
SPEAKER_01There's all the background.
SPEAKER_00Everything together and make sure everything's great. And so we would sometimes call and talk about the Lord because she's written a Christian book that's been number one on Amazon several times, just together. And so she's calling me and we're praying about something. And God says, Ask her what she's doing, Yolanda. Ask her what she's doing every day. I was like, I already know what she's doing. She's writing Christian books, you know, in my head. Just writing. That's it. So he says, Ask her what she's doing. And I said, Jackie, what are you doing? Oh, I've started a publishing company to help so and so. And God said, get her right now, use her, use her for the next book. So I talked to her. And when I say we'll work you like a horse, so I'm thinking all I wanted to do, Christian, was a daily devotional to the first book. That was what God wanted. God wanted four more books. So the first book is the blueprint. How the Holy Spirit connection can change, how the Holy Spirit connection changed my life. More stories, a few that were in the other book that tell you.
SPEAKER_01You cannot bring stories. You have to bring stories. You have so many stories.
SPEAKER_00It's a thousand stories. And people are telling me, they said, girl, when I get the book, I read it all in one setting. It takes about two hours. They say you can't stop reading it. The stories are unbelievable, and the lessons that you learn. So this is a little bit of scripture, a lot of stories telling you all about it. So then God says, Do you think that you went and got a master's in teaching and that I was through with teaching? This book was like about 140 something pages. 265-page workbook with illustrations to teach you like look, all kinds of illustrations, diagrams, let me see if I multiple choice. It's a teaching tool with everything in it, like a teacher's manual, but broken down so any grade level, even from a child, can understand who the Holy Spirit is. Now, the blueprint, Christian, is salvation, baptism with water, baptism with the Holy Spirit, and walking in power. God says about 70% of Christians have not finished the blueprint. They are living their lives without being baptized with the Holy Spirit, nor are they walking in power. They are walking, and the devil is tearing them up because we didn't complete his plan. And that's the blueprint. So what I did after you go through all of these, they go along, the chapters go along with the pages in here. They come together, and I don't have it with me, and I normally do. I have another workbook, looks just like this, except it has in red teachers edition, and all the answers are in red. Okay. So that you can use it as a teaching tool. I have a lot of people having their own personal Bible studies and book clubs doing this. So now, so the the this workbook is the blueprint workbook, how the Holy Spirit Connection can change your life. That's the subtitle. The other one is the how you can help others get connected to the Holy Spirit, is what the workbook says with the teacher's edition. How you can help others is the subtitle. And then last Christian is the blueprint journal. Oh, a lot of the cover. That's the Holy Spirit. So what you're doing is you're coming from information to revelation to activation. Inside this 265-page journal, four pages repeat themselves. The first page is daily Holy Spirit hookup. You tell me what scripture you're gonna use, what type of uh you can use a Bible app or whatever you want to use. You fill out this page, and then the second page just gives you second and third page, tons of blanks to write everything in response and what you're feeling as you're talking to him. He's talking to you, so you can write it down because the devil likes to make you forget it and you go, What did God say yesterday? Oh God, I don't remember. So you write it down, and then the last page is one of my favorites, Christian. Let me tell you what it says it says, request date, and then next to that prayer request, you write out what you're asking, and then the next line says answer date and how God answered, so you can go back and look at what he has done for you to strengthen your faith and your trust in him. And that's the packet, that's the blueprint.
SPEAKER_01So good. Have you had like share like any testimonials that you've heard from people that have gone through this?
SPEAKER_00Listen, one gentleman, because my church got me to take a whole month each night of Bible study and go through this whole and teach the whole thing. I've had people having me to come teach the whole thing. Some people do it on a like a Saturday for four or two to four hours. And at my church, it was 30 minutes four times, so it's two hours. So this gentleman comes up to me and he says, Oh, Elder Lord Jesus, I am gonna get on the blueprint. Next thing I know, he's getting baptized to the second step. He said, I'm on the blueprint, I'm on the blueprint. And how old is he? Hey, he had to be 30. Oh my gosh. And I'm like, Oh God, look at what you're doing. And I'm telling you, I had to shut in to get all of this from him. It was like months of my husband said, Where is my wife? She just had to, I said, because I have to be shut in so I can write what he wants me to write. It's not what I want to write, because what I write won't touch a heart or change a life.
SPEAKER_01Yes, this is the Holy Ghost writer.
SPEAKER_00You know, so I'm like, thank you, Jesus, for what he's given me. And it's taking off. So I finished it in 2025, parts of it, but the whole packet began to get finished, you know, this year, all the parts. So now, guess what? God says next step is Christian. It's gonna be translated to Spanish and Portuguese and Mandarin, French, all of those. My publisher has accent. We're gonna start doing still have the same publisher. Yes, get her publishing. She's gonna change all of that. The song, so the the Holy Spirit song, I was singing it at home before I married Dunnail, but it was like just an a cappello with a little piano. It has been done on my first album. I've done a video for that first album, and the Holy Spirit song, all of those about six songs are on YouTube, and the Holy Spirit song has about 77,000 views.
SPEAKER_01Um, it is just amazing what what got be sure to add this YouTube channel to the show notes so people can listen in too. Okay. This is incredible. I I just want to really capture, we'll have to wrap up for today, but you know, if you guys think back to Yolanda and her early days leading, leading people and the and the way she's leading now. Like, you know, how many years difference? You know, there's there's a process that we go through to truly get to a point where she is literally walking out her calling, and her yes is creating a ripple effect of like we just don't even know. We won't know fully until heaven. But thank you, Lord, for your yes. I just would love for you to share, first of all, how people can get in touch with you.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00I'm on all of your social media platforms, Yolanda Troop Smith. And it's a Y-O-L-O-N-D-A-T-R-O-U-P-E-S-M-I-T-H.
So on all of those platforms, if you just message me, you I will respond. We can I can come wherever God is sending me to go. That is my job. And my husband and I are so excited because we were with the two men, the two fellowships, the international one. I've had the opportunity to preach and teach and Saint Kits and Barbados and singing Australia and just all over, and it's all God. It wasn't me advertising it. God put it, God made it happen because I'm going to serve and not to be served. And it's it's amazing. Amazing. Seriously. It does. And so the songwriting, um, still writing, getting ready to put some new things together on that. Uh, he even gave me the gift to write jingles. So when people give me like the church vision or their mission statement or their business vision or mission statement, I can do jingles to that, you know, from a 60-second to a 30-second to a 15-second. I I'm just I'm because see, remember the music was my first love. That's what I really wanted to do was write. And and he took me down some of this other stuff with all this stuff. But now I love it, Christian. I love everything that he has done, is doing, and will do. I'm excited about my future, and I'm here to tell all of those, you know, that are over 60, hey, it ain't over. I mean, 65 my birthday, and I believe he's just getting going. I mean, oh yeah, it was. Let me give you an example. Uh Friday coming, Friday coming. Um, one of the young people kept saying, 'You need to go and get on some of these little showcases with you're writing the music, and a lot of people don't even really know about you, Miss Yulana.' So he had me to submit something. A lot of times he's giving me things to submit, and I really didn't submit it. A little bit of fear in there, like, I'm so old. All these young people be singing all these rips and runs and singing circles around me. I'm like, I don't want to go, Jesus. And so he he he kept talking to me. I submitted it and got chosen to sing on a showcase this Friday night. And I'm like, God, I'm a little scared. He was like, You ain't singing. Not now, not this Friday, next Friday. And he's like, I ain't singing. I mean, you're you're not singing, I'm singing. The Holy Spirit's gonna do this. And so then this guy shoots me back and says, Hey, you've been chosen for some company out of this city. They want to interview you on that night. And I'm like, Okay, God, what you doing? He said they can give your ministry exposure. I'm like, okay, God, what you doing? Yeah. So all I want to do, Christian, is make sure that everything I say, everything I do is pleasing to the Lord. That it's not about me, it's about him and the purpose that he has for me. And I want to make sure I'm doing what he wants because you know, he didn't have to choose me to do this. He could pick anybody else. Sounds like you've been chosen. He doesn't need me.
SPEAKER_01I need him. Sounds like he chose you exactly for where you're at for such a time as this. You know, the age is relative. How many in the Bible were uh 80s, 90s? 120, you know.
SPEAKER_00So I just want to let him use me. And if you go to YouTube, I have that same YouTube channel, Yolanda Troop Smith. I have what, about six videos out there from that album. I have a Christmas single out there, and I have a lot of um where I've been interviewed on different shows. I have where I was teaching at my church those four times. It's a lot of different things out there on my YouTube channel. So you can listen to the music on Spotify and Apple Music, and and I do Monday motivational moment on my TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. I give 60 seconds of a word from God on Monday. 60 seconds. 60 seconds. It's I have to go.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna have you do something that 60 seconds. Think of the one who's listening in today. What word would you give them in 60 seconds to encourage them?
SPEAKER_00It your life is not over until God takes the breath out of your body, until he takes the breath out of your body. Get to know the Holy Spirit so he can breathe on you, change you, transform you, and make you everything that he created you to be. It's not over until God says it's over.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I just love you. You're amazing. Thank you. I don't know if that was six. I don't think that was 60 seconds, but I just think it's amazing that you're doing that, you know.
SPEAKER_00But it's a little better than I think it's better than that because I'm praying. I'm going in and praying, and he gives me what he wants me to do for the 60 seconds, and then um I practice it, and then I go and give it to the people. So I'm just I I'm like I said, I'm just glad to be in the number, um, to be used. You know, there's a lot of people at 65, they're sitting in a chair sick, you know, they they don't even know their name. So to be able to get to 65 and to be able to still have breath in my body and to be used by God to help his people is a blessing. And I don't take it lightly. And I want to tell you, Christian, it was a pleasure having the opportunity to share on your amazing platform where I see that Jesus is Lord in your life and you want to share that with others, and you're making a difference in the body. Praise God for you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. It's, you know, we continue to say yes to what he's calling to, right? Well, thank you so much for being on today. I'll be sure to have her contact information in the show notes, but I'm gonna close with our hope unlocked anchoring verse. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And
that's Romans 15, 13. So thank you, Yolanda. You've been amazing. We might have to have you back again when you're in movies, and who knows where he's gonna leave you at this point.
SPEAKER_00Anytime, anytime. Because it's gonna, he's let me know it's not over.
SPEAKER_01It's not over. Yes, I'll be back with another episode next week. Bye, listeners.
SPEAKER_00All right, God bless you. Bye bye, everyone.