Embracing the God-Given Desire for More - Ep 134

Links mentioned: Upcoming Workshop

You know God made you for more. You're pretty sure you know what it is, yet you are not moving forward the way you want to.

What if you don't need more clarity or discipline?

What if you need a new experience with Jesus to move you forward?

See why feeling your emotions and taking your thoughts captive go together to unlock your next level.

I'd love to connect with you!

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Transcript

The God-Given Longing For More

Speaker 0:01

As a Christian woman, you want more. And sometimes you know what that more looks like, and sometimes you don't. And maybe you even get frustrated at the lack of clarity when you're not sure what the more is or why you can't, like, just be content with where you're at Maybe you feel like you know what that more is and it seems like you're lacking the discipline or the systems to follow through and make it happen and really pursue that more that you're longing for. And first I want to say that that longing for more is not wrong. It's God-given. We're made for more. And I can assure you that you are made for more because He calls us to go from glory to glory. And until we're finally with Him and made completely like Him, there will always be more. So that longing for more is from Him. And depending on where you've come from and what programming is in your past, there could be a piece of that always striving for more, being trying to earn something that's a gift. This is why discernment is so important. Is the longing for more because that's what you're made for? Or has that longing been somehow twisted by pain in your past where now you're trying to earn something, the approval, the acceptance, the love that God has already freely given? As I've raised that question of is it the God-given longing and desire or is it striving? I wanna walk you through, like, how would you know? How do you discern, is this God leading me or is this me pushing?

Striving Or Calling The Discernment Test

Speaker 2:20

God has shown me that's why emotions are such an important part of discernment. Not to be led by your emotions and let them run the show, but to be able to sit with things and say, "Okay, this desire for more," whether it's to be more gracious, to be a better example, to build a business with bigger impact, to build a ministry with bigger impact. Whatever it is that the more is for you in this season, and it's probably more than one area. Like, there's personally and spiritually ways that you want more, and there's ways with your business or your family, your ministry that you want to be more and be doing more and have that impact So as you sit with that desire, how do you feel inside? Does it feel like pressure and struggle and striving Or does it feel like an invitation? Does it feel like peace? Is there hope and joy and excitement with it? If it feels like pressure and feels like something you have to do and you have to make this happen, those different sets of emotions feel very different. And since the Lord is peace, like Jesus is our Prince of Peace, He is our shalom, He is hope. Those are the emotions that go with things He's saying. He leads us with His peace. So where you're feeling pressure and striving That's there's something there that's not of the Lord. Like the desire itself might be what the Lord is saying, but There's something in there that's not completely aligned with the Lord if you're feeling pressure or fear or doubt or confusion And often there's a mix of, there's both of those sets of emotions. There's the peace and the hope and the excitement, and there could be the pressure or the doubt or

Peace Versus Pressure In Your Body

Speaker 4:36

the striving And that's where it becomes important to look at your thoughts. We're told to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. So look at the thoughts that surround or that are connected to those different sets of emotions. When you're feeling peace and excitement and hope, what are the thoughts that go with that? There's probably scripture verses, promises the Lord has made to you, visions you've seen thoughts of like trusting the Lord and how he's going to work and things like that. And then with the other emotions, if you're feeling pressure, there's probably thoughts like, "I have to make this happen, and I don't know what I'm doing, and I've failed before." Or there's accusations in there of, "You can't do this," or, "Who do you think you are?" Or, "Why would God allow you to do that? You've made such a mess of things before." Taking those thoughts captive, and I like to like literally take them captive on a piece of paper and being able to take each thought then captive. Like it's captive, I can look at it, and that thought that says, "I have to do this. I have to make this thing happen for God," that feels heavy. That feels so much pressure and like intimidation of like, "How can I do that?" Because that thought doesn't agree with God. It doesn't agree with His Word. He says that it's His power that works in us. It's Him that's going to complete the work He started in us. It's not us So seeing there's a place that because you listened to that emotion and you felt like, "Oh, I feel this, this pressure," and then I can see the thoughts that are there telling me that this is my responsibility, that I have to make this happen, and the voice of the enemy in there being like, "You can't do that. You're pathetic. Look at what a mess you've made of everything so far."

Take The Thoughts Captive

Speaker 6:57

When those thoughts are captive, we can see, "Oh, that's not true, so I'm going to come out of agreement with that. I'm gonna repent for having thought that way And maybe with some of those thoughts, somebody comes to mind of like, "That's what my mom always said about me," or, "That's what that teacher said about me," or that pastor or whatever it was. And so you can see, I need to forgive them for speaking that over me because they didn't know what they were doing. So I can forgive them and release them from that, and also free myself of I don't have to believe that because I can see now that that didn't come from the Lord. It's not true. Even if I've made a mess, it's not true that God won't work in and through my life to do good things in the future because I've made messes in the past. That's why Jesus died, was so that He could live life as us. He died as us so that we could live as Him, which is just astounding. And that's the journey, like, that's why we want the more. We're supposed to be living as Him because He already died as us. And so there's always more to press into of that, of being able to walk in step with the Lord every moment of the day, to be able to do the miraculous things, to have the impact we're supposed to have, whether that's the one person in front of us or whether that's multitudes. And it could be both in your life or it could just be that, like, you have a life of meeting that one or that you have I don't think, or that you have a public, there's always, there always should be the meeting, the one in front of you. And that's in no way diminished if that's what it is that God has called you to. Because Jesus frequently stopped for the one and ministered to the one, and the apostles did the same And there was times where they were addressing multitudes and having massive impact that way. But by addressing the one, that one might go on to address the multitudes, or one by one by one, it multiplies through the generations or whatever. But So that longing that you have for more is good. And taking the time to sit with the emotions that you feel around that wanting to do more, the impact, the business, the godliness, whatever it is Feel those feelings and then take the thoughts captive that go with them. And if any of those thoughts from the enemy feel really, really true, even though you can look at them on paper and know they're not true, they don't line up with scripture Ask the Lord for a new experience so that you can think differently. Because our emotions are created involuntarily out of our experiences. So if someone spoke over you or by their behavior just demonstrated to you

New Experiences That Rewire Belief

Speaker 10:40

that you weren't worthy, that you were inferior in whatever fashion, you had an experience where you felt a certain way, and then you started thinking the way that you were thinking. And that could be because somebody told you to think that way. Could be because the enemy told you to think that way, and nobody was there to help you see that that's what was going on, and circumstances reinforced that. So then you're thinking in agreement with that, being worthless or whatever it is So You need a new experience where you had a negative or hurtful experience that taught you to think these things that aren't true. You need an experience with the Lord To be able to feel His love and acceptance and favor, and be able to think things that are in alignment with His truth There's also an element of needing new experiences with healthy people who will tell you that you are worthy, that love you because you're made in God's image to help you have new experiences and be able to think new thoughts because you feel differently. And yes, there's power and there's absolutely necessary to choose to think the right thoughts no matter how you feel But always doing that and never addressing why you feel the way you feel is a much slower path to transformation. It's much more frustrating. It takes a lot more energy than being able to identify why you're feeling what you're feeling, and then to be

Live Workshop Invite And Next Steps

Speaker 12:40

able to have new experiences to feel differently I'm going to be doing a live workshop July 17th where I'm gonna be walking you through this process in real time if you can attend live and be able to help you experience this instead of just hear about it The workshop is for the Christian businesswoman who feels that pull to more in her business, whether it's following the Lord in a new direction, being more bold about her faith, just expanding to the next level. And we're gonna take the time in the workshop to, like, identify what that more is, and then sit with the feelings and the thoughts that come up around that to help you see that it's not necessarily the clarity or the discipline that's missing, but it's this underlying current of being unworthy or not wanting to be selfish or not wanting to offend or whatever it might be that's actually holding you back from the more. So there's a link in the description if you wanna register for that workshop. If you can't attend live, you will get the replay. If you attend live, you will get entered in a drawing for a free session. If you watch the replay and send me a message with your takeaways from it, that will also enter you for a free session Remember that your healing heals generations, and we'll catch you next time