The Power Within: Yolonda Troupe Smith on Embracing the Holy Spirit

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In this uplifting episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we are excited to welcome Yolonda Troupe Smith, a multifaceted preacher, teacher, author, singer, and songwriter. Yolonda shares her profound journey of faith and transformation, detailing how her connection with the Holy Spirit has changed her life and can change yours too.
Hailing from Columbus, Mississippi, Yolonda reflects on her early experiences with faith, starting from the age of nine when she embraced her belief in God. She discusses the concept of the "Holy Spirit hookup" and unveils her unique four-step blueprint for living an abundant life through faith: salvation, baptism with water, baptism with the Holy Spirit, and walking in Holy Spirit power. Yolonda emphasizes the significance of each step and how many believers can miss out on the fullness of their faith journey.
Throughout the episode, Yolonda shares personal stories that illustrate her spiritual growth and the divine guidance she has received. From her encounters with danger to her experiences in the music industry, she provides listeners with a powerful reminder of God's presence and love in our lives. Her passion for helping others connect with God shines through as she discusses her books, including the *Blueprint Collection*, designed to guide others on their spiritual journeys.
Join us for an enlightening conversation filled with inspiration, hope, and practical insights on deepening your faith and understanding the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- The four steps of Yolonda's faith blueprint for abundant living
- How to recognize and embrace the Holy Spirit in your life
- Personal stories of divine intervention and guidance
- The importance of spiritual growth and bearing fruit as a believer
- Insights into Yolonda's music and writing projects that inspire others
For more information on Yolonda Troupe Smith and her work, visit yolondatroupesmith.com.

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with Curveball. If you believe, you can achieve Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast. Today I am joined by singer and songwriter. Yolanda Truth. Yolanda is also a transformational voice that focuses on helping people receive the Holy Spirit hookup and the blueprint that changes everything. So we're going to be talking to Yolanda about everything that she's up to and gonna be up to, and how the Holy Spirit can connect and change her life and how it can change yours. So, Yolanda, thank you for joining me.

Speaker 1 1:02

You're welcome. I'm so excited to be on this podcast today. Thank you for the invitation.

Speaker 1:08

Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 1 1:12

Well, I am a native of Columbus, Mississippi. Uh, it's a small town, but that small town was really filled with a lot of education and enrichment. And the state of Mississippi, our slogan is the hospitality state. So I grew up really loving to serve and be there for other people all my life. With that town being that small, we all knew each other and we all knew the needs of each other, and we were always there to help each other through all the different phases of our lives. So I believe that seed was planted in me as a small girl, and I grew, grew, grew to learn how to be helpful to others and how that Bible scripture that whatsoever a man soweth, soweth, that shall he also reap definitely is true. My life has really been rich with so many blessings from God, and I believe it definitely comes from serving and helping others.

Speaker 2:20

Okay, well, talk to the listeners about you know how you first found your faith and and and got connected with God in the first place.

Speaker 1 2:29

Well, I was uh, believe it or not, nine years old when a lot of my friends were um members of another church that was uh not too far from my church, but we all played together, went to school together, and they had mentioned to me that they were actually going to be away from playing with me for about a week or so because they all were going to the same church and they were actually going through the process of becoming a believer. Now, I had gone to church all my life, I knew all about a believer and what all that meant, but at the age of nine, nobody really had said much to me about becoming uh a part of God's family through the particular way of the mourner's bench and baptism. And I don't know if we have some people on the line today that are familiar with that term, uh, the mourner's bench, but back then it was a very, very known fact that this is the time that you actually decide I'm gonna show the world that I am a believer of the true and living God. And I want to let everybody know it by starting the process of getting on the mourner's bench, being away from my evenings with my friends for play, but going to the church and being there with a minister that will bring the word the entire week about being a part of God's family. What do you do to become a part of his family, how much he loves you, and how you love him so much that you want to dedicate the rest of your life of knowing that I love him, he loves me, and I want to follow him. So my church didn't have that. And I was so interested in making that step. So at nine years old, I went to my mom and dad and I mentioned to them that I true wanted to become a part of God's family, but because our church wasn't doing it at that time, I wanted permission to be able to go to that particular church in Columbus, Mississippi, and become a part of the rest of the children there for that week, going through the process of getting on the mourner's bench and becoming baptized and becoming a part of God's family. And my parents said yes. And when they said yes, I was overjoyed, I was excited, they accompanied me to the church, and we were able to go through that process for that week, and I became a part of God's family. It was a little different though, because all the other times that I had viewed it in my church, um, quickly the young people were coming off of the bench, standing up, you know, professing that I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but we didn't do it for some particular reason. The entire week, nobody got up. But the last night, the spirit of the Lord came through that church and it ignited all of the young people. And we began to feel the Spirit of the Lord take us over, and we all came up periodically and became a part of God's family. That was the first move that I had of beginning to really see God move in me at the age of nine. I did not join that church, but I came on as a person that believed in God, wanted to join his family, but not joined that church. So immediately that next Sunday, I got up in my church and I professed that I believed in Jesus and that I was ready to now begin to work for the building of the kingdom in whatever way a nine-year-old could work. And that was my first time touching the beginning of the road of becoming used by God in whatever way at nine years old. Now, you know I didn't know a whole lot, you know I didn't know everything, but I did know enough to have guts to go to my parents to get on board and then go back to my church. And I started then by singing in my church choir. That was my first encounter. And I have had the opportunity to have so many memories, so many experiences with my walk with God. And that's what I am so excited about right now is the things that he's done in my life and what he's allowed me to do over those years as far as being an author and a singer and songwriter, to take everything he's put in me and let him have his way with me fully to be used to encourage, to help, and inspire others, that a life with him is priceless and that everybody wants the opportunity to live like that.

Speaker 7:22

Well, you talk a lot about the Holy Spirit hookup as the blueprint connection that changes everything. Talk about what that phrase means and when that God actually revealed the phrase to you.

Speaker 1 7:36

Okay. The blueprint. It's four steps that God gave me on how a believer gets the complete package or complete plan that he has for us to live an abundant and amazing life. And that first step is salvation, the second step is baptism with water, the third step is baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the fourth step is walking or living in Holy Spirit power. Now, God worked on me through the years before he laid it all out the way he's done in these latter years. But we all, when we began to, as I did at nine years old, getting on that step, we start off with the first part, which is salvation. You know, believing that Jesus is a son of God and that he he died and he rose on the third day. And because he lives again, we have the right now to a life after this life. We have an afterlife where we go to be with him and we live with him forever. That's the first step. Most of us all know about that step because when you're a believer, that's where you get. But what God told me was, he said, there are a lot of Christians that are not completing that total, total plan. They get salvation, they go through that salvation process. They understand it, they get that. They realize that if I'm a part of a church, the next step is baptism. They do that right after you become a part of God's family. He said, but after that, we lose probably about 65 to 70 percent of believers because we don't go on with the rest of the plan. Some people take many, many years before they get to part three, which is baptism with the Holy Spirit, and part four, which is walking in power. My walk did not, I did not get to part three until probably my latter um, ooh, probably in my latter 20s, early part of my 30s is when I began to seek God more and read more to find out what is there more. Matter of fact, I didn't really seek myself to see if there was more. I began to uh become parts of different churches as I went to college and as I grew on and I began to learn more. So then I wanted to do more. So as I went through the different churches and heard the messages and heard the sermons, they began to talk more and more about the Holy Spirit. And I was like, okay, I've heard of the Holy Spirit before. I've heard people preach about it a little bit. But in my church, the Baptist church, we did not talk a lot about the Holy Spirit, other than the fact that he was present on the day of Pentecost, and that as a result of those disciples being baptized with the Holy Spirit, they were able to speak in different tongues and people understood each other. And now the communication of telling the story of who Jesus is and what he has for us later, they were able to do that because they spoke in different languages. We didn't learn anything else about it other than that, and we didn't talk about it anymore. So none of my friends had a conversation about who is the Holy Spirit, what is his purpose in our lives. Nobody talked about it. Nobody mentioned it until I began to get older and hear it and I wanted to know more about it. So God began to talk to me a lot about the different phases in the Christian law. And as he mentioned it to me, I thought about it. But as again, as I said, I just only got what I needed mostly or what I thought I needed mostly from listening to ministers preach in different uh churches. I didn't do any searching on my own. So one particular evening, I was at a particular church, uh still in Mississippi at the time, and they began to talk about is there anybody here that would like to receive the Holy Spirit? Well, I leaped off my seat because that's something that I had been thinking about for a long period of time, and I really wanted, you know, God to take me further in that, but that was something that I was not equipped to do on my own. So that particular time I was ready to jump, to get on board, and see what they were talking about. The gentleman preached about it. He told us that this is what you need. God has sent the Holy Spirit to you as your helper. And the Holy Spirit's job is to help you live a victorious life here on earth. You can't have the victory over all the tricks and the traps that the enemy has for everyone without having that help. It's divine help. It's not just human help, it's divine help. And we all know that God will use other people to help us. But when divine help is included, it's things that we cannot do ourselves that he helps us through, that he gives us the victory through it. And we know that it did not come from another human being. We know it was divine intervention. And when he began to talk to me more and more about it, I became more interested. I began to study. So I got up that night. And when I walked up, they laid hands on me and they prayed for me. Well, I was expecting some sign to show me that I had received the Holy Spirit because I had seen a lot of people speak in a prayer language that I hadn't spoken in. And I thought that was going to be my evidence to say that that had happened to me. But that night I prayed, they prayed over me, but I did not speak in another tongue. I did not have a prayer language time with God at that moment. So I sort of was a bit disappointed because I'm like, God, why didn't you take me there? Why didn't you let me have that opportunity to move to that next level that I keep hearing people talk about? But what's happening with me? So that particular night, that did not happen. But I continued to keep talking to God, saying, I want that next level, I want that to happen to me. When will it happen? Well, in my life, there were many more years that went by before that happened. But there were sure a lot of experiences and situations where God began to show me that I'm talking to you. And if you listen to me, I'll help you get the victory through everything. I want to share a story with you. And a lot of these stories are actually in the book that I have, and I kind of can can share a little bit about that because the book is what actually gave me the, as I say, the opportunity to really share things in a way that the time on uh interview won't give me enough time to do it. So this four-book collection has done that for me. Yeah, but yeah. So this four-book collection, um, the it's a book, it's called the blueprint book, and the blueprint book actually has God's blueprint laid out with each step, giving you a little bit of an explanation about each step, and lots of experiences, of stories that I went through to show you that God was behind the scenes shaping my destiny, working on my behalf when I didn't even have sense enough to know that that is what he was doing. Um, there was a time when I was in college and a gentleman called me on the campus phone and he said, Hey Blonda, how you doing? Uh, how about if I take you out for dinner? And I was like, Yes, because maybe no one else can understand this but me. But as a college girl, when anybody wants to take you out, you know, for any meal, you're excited and you can't wait to go and have a great time, a great meal, great fellowship. Um, the only problem was I just could not get together as to who this gentleman was. So I go downstairs and I meet him at the front desk and I see him, and he's a very handsome young man, and I'm like, I would never forget anybody that looked like this. Forget this man. And but even though I knew I didn't know him, I still went on the date. And then what made it even crazier is that I also went with him and he had another gentleman with him, and I didn't know either one of them. So you're talking crazy around, you know, 18 years old, just crazy. So I get in the car with the two gentlemen, and we go out and have a great meal. Everything was fine, laughing and talking, but I still realize I don't know them. So all of a sudden, I hear a voice speaking to me. It says, Yolanda, you don't know them. You need to go back to that dormitory and get yourself in a safe place. He said, This is how you do it. You they invited me to go to their dormitory, which was on another uh school altogether, and I knew from some of my friends that they did not have visitation on that campus. So the Holy Spirit was talking to me, saying, You need to tell them that you want to go back to your room and freshen up, and then you'll be ready to go with them. Now, I thank God for telling me that because they received it as, oh wow, she's really into us. She's gonna go back with us and we're gonna have a good time. So they took me back to my dorm, and when I got up in my room, I called back downstairs to that front desk and I told them to tell them something had come up and I could not go with them on the second part of the day. I was so thankful to God that I had gotten out of it, but I really didn't realize what God had done for me. Several days later, a newspaper comes out, and this is the rapist that had been loose on the campus, really, really doing some horrible things to so many girls. And God thought enough of me to talk to me when I was thinking crazy, not even thinking about him, and told me to go back. I'm so glad that I obeyed him. That was one of the first stories where God began to talk to me and show me how much he loved me, even though I was not even thinking about having a conversation with him on a daily basis, asking him anything to help me in anything except when I got in trouble. This was my first example, and my antennas went up that God is real, God is amazing, God does talk to his people, and God will take care of you. I was on fire and I began to listen. I didn't talk every day like you know I do now as an older seasoned Christian, but my antennas were up that he is real, and if he talks, you sure enough better listen and ask him to give you the strength to obey. So that was my first story that let me know he was real. And there were so many more situations of things I did in college that he talked to me and helped me. And then it began to, when I graduated from college and I got my first job, he still continued to talk to me. I I'll share another story to let you know how he started showing me that if you are a Christian, you need to be growing. Just like human beings grow from a baby to a teenager to an adult to a senior. He said, Christians have got to grow. They've got to grow up, and that's what those stages are in the blueprint. We're going through those stages, we're growing up. So I'm now in, I just finished graduate school, just got my master's in teaching. And I'm excited about it. My parents bought me my first designer dress, and I wore it for graduation, and I sent it to the cleaners. And when my dad brings it home to me, it has spots all over it. And I'm like, oh Lord, something has happened to mess my dress up. Let me take it back. So I take my dress back and he receives it. And when we get it back the next time, it has more spots than it did that time. So now I'm getting a little bit aggravated and a little bit upset and trying to figure out what's going on. So the enemy begins to talk to me. I don't know if anybody's ever dealt with the enemy, just putting things in your mind that are negative, like he meant to do that to you anyway, because this is in the 80s, and a lot of prejudices going on. And my the enemy tells me he did that to you on purpose because you know you got that degree and he messed your dress up. And now I'm angry. And as the enemy began to talk to me, I began to get so riled up all alone. Nobody else was telling it to be, just me by myself. So by the time I get to that cleaners, I am very upset. I'm hot, my mouth is ready to go, and I'm ready to get him told and ready to tell him you don't know who you're messing with. And and now that I got my teaching degree, my mind says I'm gonna teach him something. Oh, I'm all riled up, I'm just ready. And so when I get in inside of the cleaners, I begin to say, You mess my dress up, and he begins to kind of scream at me, and I'm screaming at him, and we just have this this vo this vocal battle, and I get mad and I storm out, and then God talks to me and says, You know, you weren't raised like that. That was an old man. And you talk to him like that. And then on top of that, you're a Christian. We don't act like that. You're supposed to have the fruits of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit. You're supposed to have love and joy and kindness and long suffering. And what you showed in there was not the fruit of the spirit. That was the works of the flesh. So in the book, he has me discussing how he had me to grow up and realize that I needed to be bearing fruit, fruit that pleases God, no matter what situation or confrontation or problem I have. I'm still supposed to bear his fruit. I'm not supposed to have the opposite of love, which is hate. And I'm in there with anger and madness and all those work of the flesh, 17 of them. And we jump into that character on a regular basis as uh human beings. Sad to say, but we do. So what God did was he had the book to give us all the information, the scripture, and then he had me to create the second part of that blueprint series collection. It's a workbook. And that workbook has 265 pages of diagrams, illustrations to reinforce what's in the book. So in the book, if I'm talking about the fruit of the spirit, in the workbook, I have a diagram of a tree and it has all those fruit hanging off. And then it has activities to that you fill in the um definition of that of that fruit. And what the fruit is, that is when you are getting your your character of God. You are bearing the character of God when we're dealing with that. And it's very important as a Christian, we should be bearing that. So when people see us, you know, you actually really, if you look at a tree, you see the fruit on the tree first. And that fruit is what actually lets you put that tree in the category or define it for what it is. If you see a tree with apples hanging on it, you go, wow, apple tree, pear, pear tree, lemon, lemon tree, orange, so forth. Well, that's what people should see when they see us. Our fruit, and they do see it. It just determines which one, what tree are we? Are we the tree that is bearing the characteristics of God? Or are we not a Christian? So it doesn't matter what we're doing because we don't care, or are we a Christian that's still operating in the baby stage, not aware that I should be bearing the fruit that pleases God that can be used to draw other people to want to be a part of the family of God and show them how God can help them? So I am so excited that He allowed me to do 265 pages of diagrams, illustrations that reinforce the 130-page book. So it's teaching you all the things that God wants us to know about the way a Christian should live through that blueprint. So every phase of that blueprint has chapters that go along with sections in the workbook. And it takes every chapter in the book and it has a section in the workbook that you go along with it and is teaching you so that you can understand all the things that I'm talking about through scripture and through story. And I just thank God for it. It took a minute to put it together, but it has been such a blessing. So many people have, you know, put talked about it, talked to me about it, um, expressed their reviews with me about it and how it has been life-changing. Because what we're doing is we're taking information, we're giving you a revelation of that information, and then we take you on to start going from revelation to activating it. Now we begin to activate it in our lives as we go through that blueprint, so our lives will be changed. And as we share it with others, now their lives are being changed. And it is one of the most amazing things that I've seen come to pass. So as we go from salvation to baptism with water, inside the book and inside the workbook, we talk about the meaning of baptism. What does it mean when a person goes down in the water and comes up? All of that is explained between the book and the workbook, and the workbook gives you illustrations of it so you really get that understanding. And when we step on over into baptism um with the Holy Spirit, we have all the information that you need. So remember when I first talked about, excuse me, uh being uh saved and then the baptism part, and we had the illustrations for that. And I mentioned to you that at that point, that's when we start growing fruit and we start maturing as we get up to the next level and baptism with the Holy Spirit. Now God has ways for us to mature even more. Now we begin to mature by spiritual gifts, and these are gifts that God places and blesses his children with that gives them special ability with the Holy Spirit helping them to be able to do special things, special things like administration, special things like evangelism. There are several spiritual gifts that are bestowed upon people. And then also we have the gifts of tongues. That is speaking in a prayer language or speaking in an unknown tongue. All of this is in the book with illustrations and activities to help you understand. So as God continued to keep working with me, He had me to actually keep these different things in my heart. I had not even written this thing back in the day, all these stories that he brought back to me. It's been amazing how he brought these stories back to me and how they're used to draw others in because some people say, Wow, something like that happened to me. Wow, I totally understand. Wow, that's amazing. How can I learn more? How can I hear more? How can I see more? How can I read more? So that's what the blueprint does. It gives you all the information that is needed. Not only when he has me to talk about the spiritual gifts, he even has me to talk about, as I said, listing each one, explaining what they are, then tells you what you do to allow God to cultivate them so you can use them. It's amazing. And then, as you mentioned, what in the world am I talking about when I say get the Holy Spirit hookup? Getting that hookup is learning about it first. And then after you learn about it, that gives you your revelation. Then we go through steps in the book and the workbook to show you how to get the hookup. I actually have pages with information that has not only the prayer for salvation, but the prayer for being baptized with the Holy Spirit and then the prayer for going in with a time with God so that you can receive what He has to tell you. And that's what I call the hookup. Actually taking the third part of the blueprint, which is the blueprint journal. And the journal actually has documentation in it where you read and you respond and you document what you're doing, doing during your time with him, receiving a hookup, a connection with the Holy Spirit, where you're actually documenting what he's saying to you and responding. And also inside that journal, we have a section where you put the date that you made a prayer request out to God, and then you go back and put the date that he responded. So you write the prayer request and you write the answer there. So you can go back and see what he's done for you over the years. So I have just enjoyed him sharpening me, getting me ready, so that I can go and help whoever he sends my way, personally through a phone call or a hand touch if we're near each other, and then through this collection. So that fourth part of that collection is the teacher's addition to the workbook. Remember my background, what I got a master's in teaching. I actually taught in community college for 17 years. And that time that God was using me, He actually had me to remember all those workbooks and things that went with my books when I taught computer science in two-year college to construct a book that will be a workbook, but it is very, very elementary. It's not on college level, it's elementary to help you get the meat of the matter. Now, through this entire time, though, God was building me up for this project, and I had no idea that he was doing that, Curtis. I was just trying to, you know, go through life and get my education to get a job and, you know, make some money, get married, have a family. That was all I was thinking. But when I was young, he also did something else with me. He gave me the love to really like to sing. I mean, you heard me when I said once I became uh a Christian, I got into the the children's choir at my church. So that was the first step of me beginning to walk with him. So I I have stories about that as well. But let me see if you, you know, have anything you want, anything else you might want me to add there or put in there uh as a result of um you getting a little bit of what I said so far.

Speaker 33:51

Absolutely. Uh what I wanted to ask is uh what are some of the common misconceptions about the Holy Spirit that uh believers have?

Speaker 1 34:00

Oh, that's a really good question. Um, and I can I was a living witness on some of them, Curtis. Uh my first encounter with the Holy Spirit, uh, which is actually in the preface of the book, was um with that same youth choir, but I was um not at the age of nine. By that time, I was probably about 15, and we had a really good anointed choir that would go all over our little small town singing. And there was a church um called uh uh uh Church of God in Christ. You may be familiar with that denomination. There was a church in my hometown that was a church of God and Christ affiliate, and we would go there every year for their choir day. They would always invite us, but we were Baptists. So almost everything that they did, we were not familiar with it, but but the singing. So we would go and we would enjoy the choirs from all over the city, different robes. And the minute we get in there, they start off speaking in tongues and saying, Oh, we praise God uh for being here. I'm saved, sanctified, filled with the precious Holy Ghost, fire baptized, living for Jesus, and we would all look at each other and say, Lord, have mercy, what they're talking about. Are they crazy? We would say all of those misconceptions that you're mentioning, like when they are speaking in another language, they have to be out of their mind. They've got to be crazy. Somebody needs to come get them, they need to sit them down. That's not real, that's not God. My preacher didn't mention that. And if my preacher doesn't talk about it, or my preacher didn't say it, or my church doesn't mention it, it's not God. I will not receive it. So we sat there, believing or not, year after year, sitting in the back of the church, listening to their testimony, hearing them speak in unknown tongues, and believing the misconceptions that it's not real, is not God. They've got to be crazy. I don't want any part of it. And here's the biggest one that I had. They can't wear lipstick or nail polish or pants or certain things. They can't go to games, they can't do this, they can't do that. So I don't want to have anything to do with that Holy Spirit because it is not a happy life. I don't want anything to do with it. So I've stayed that way, Curtis, for years, believing all those misconceptions, believing that it wasn't for everyone, it was something for people that were confused, mixed up, and people that didn't want to do anything with their life but live in church and not do anything else. Those are the ones that I knew about. I can imagine that there are more. Did I hit some of those that that maybe you are familiar with?

Speaker 36:56

Absolutely, you sure did.

Speaker 1 36:58

Yes, sir. So that was what I believed for a long time until I got to know him, as people say, for myself. And it was through the years of listening to different preachers preach. But this is the one church that opened my eyes to God is a little bit more than maybe what I thought, not to the Holy Spirit, but to knowing that He's more than just a little bit that I knew. I went to again a church of God in Christ when I was in undergrad. And uh I was in a choir called the Rust College a cappella choir. We had gone all over the world singing for the Lord to blow your little pitch pipe, you get on tune and sing those songs, and it was an amazing choir. We were actually singing all over the world. Um a lot of the uh some of the other students in the choir were um a part of the Church of God in Christ, and they went to this church in the city, and I began to follow them. And this gentleman preached so that it seems as if the words on the pages of the Bible were lifting up and becoming alive in his message, and I saw the word of God in a way I had never seen it before. It became something that could be activated in everyday living. Whereas in the past, there was a story about Jesus that I just liked to hear how great he was, but it didn't make me really feel like, hey, he wants me to put some of that, apply that in your life so I can do supernatural things for you, and you can live an amazing life for me. So that particular uh time that I was in that church, it began to make me see that it's more to it, but I just didn't know how much more. So all these years go by, and I continue to, um, as I leave colleges, I began to connect myself with different churches through every college that I go to. And then when I come back home, you know, I hadn't joined anywhere to become a different um uh denomination or anything, but my heart was changed. I was not the same Yolanda that I was when, you know, I had left. So I came home and I stayed maybe just uh a little while, and I ended up uh marrying the gentleman that I met in graduate school. And so he took me away, but it was still in Mississippi, and I began to get closer to God through different churches and joining the Mississippi Mass Choir. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. I uh sung with them for a while, and we went all over the world singing. So singing and connecting deeper with God had begun to be something special with me. I also had um stepped into my first job as a uh, as I said, a two-year college professor, and now I am you know moving about in this new area. I'm a part of the Mississippi Mass Choir. I sing in my church choir, uh, I'm uh teaching Sunday school at my church. I'm just growing more in God, but I still don't know uh anything much about the Holy Spirit. Not too much. So I lived there um for about 17 years, and I went through what maybe some of your listeners have gone through, and that's called divorce. So I um divorced and uh I came back to my hometown. I am an only child. So I came back with two children to my mom and dad, and they welcomed me back, and I was in a very, very broken, broken place in my life. And because I'm a Christian, when I became broken, I just went deeper into God because He was really all I had that could help me through this problem. My parents were there for love, support, helping me with my children, but I needed more. I needed a spiritual um uh uh fix. I needed to be made over, I needed help. And that's what I got when I went back home and I began to study in his word. And this is when I um actually got um a second awakening uh with the Holy Spirit because he touched me um when I was dealing with some of those children, and that's in my book, with a gentleman that actually um was a devil worshiper, and I got a little encounter with him, and and God kind of took me on up a little higher. All of those things are in the book, and they're they're amazing stories. But when I came back home, um this was the time where God said, Um, hey, if you left right now and went to glory, you wouldn't have even operated in your purpose. The real reason. So I um had a lot of stories there, Curtis, that I'm uh sharing with the world. And the ones that have read the book, um, they say they're really, really, really, it really has changed their lives. They love the stories. The stories give them, you know, a real life application of what I'm talking about, about getting to know God more, growing in God, getting connected with him, receiving the Holy Spirit, and then allowing time to connect with the Holy Spirit so that he can lead you, guide you, and teach you into a life with him that is so amazing, you'll never want to go back. And that's what I share everywhere. Um, I go I'm now 64 years old. So a lot of time has gone on since nine. Okay, and a lot of stories, a lot of experiences, and a lot of things have happened. But during my time that I was in Vicksburg, Mississippi and teaching and in Mississippi Mass, I got the opportunity to connect with some people that were amazing singers, amazing songwriters. I was in my beginning years and they were in their prime. So God told me this was my time that I would learn from them. I would be trained. It wasn't time for me to, you know, to go out and think that, oh, I can sing, so I'm gonna rain out here and use my gift. You know, it was a time for him to teach me. So I learned a lot about singing, about songwriting, about, you know, choir music, um, you know, songs that were solo songs, and I really grew, and then God began to give me songs. And I began to write them on paper, but I found out if I just write them, um, I might forget them. So he began to uh start me with something that I don't know, I don't know your age, so you might not be aware of an old-fashioned tape recorder that uh and they they used to be pretty big at first. You remember? Okay, so then I went to the handheld ones that were battery operated, and I kept it with me all the time in my car so that whatever song he gave me, I was able to keep it. And I just had collection, collections upon songs, and I was like, God, why you give them to me? And I don't know what to do with them because the people that I've connected with in Mississippi Mass, these people are at another level. I'm just beginning. Um, you know, I don't have the opportunity to connect with them on that level, but I can learn. So then he started, I started praying for him to send me helpers, and he began to start sending me people that had studios. I was able to get in there, I was able to write and then start getting some people that say, Hey, I'm doing an album. I'll put my stuff, put something, and I gave them a song, and just began to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. And so when I moved back home, I had been writing some things and had been working. So I came back home, and that's when I did my first CD projects, project. A gentleman out of um Chicago, Eleanor Percy Gray, um, actually had been nominated for uh Grammy, and he it was my first time getting with someone that was, you know, up on the up on the poll that really knew that that gospel poll that knew what was going on. And that was from he played at my aunt's choir in Chicago. And she talked to him and asked, would he work with me? And he said yes. I had been praying and got the opportunity to do the first CD with a Grammy nominated person. So it was great quality anointing. And blessed. That was the first project. And that was in the earlier part of my career. And then later, once I moved to the second phase of God blessing me to get married again, that's when I put out my second project here recently in 2021. And then in 22, I did a Christmas song. And now I'm in the process of working on some music that prayerfully the good Lord will let come out before this year ends. So I have just been enjoying what He's been doing with me, with the music and with the writing, with the teaching, with the preaching. When I went back home in 2005, I became a licensed minister in 2010, an ordained elder, and now I am working in two different fellowships. Just what I want to be, continue to live as a servant leader. I'm leading in the places that God sends me to lead, but I'm serving while I'm there. I want to make sure that everything I do, I say, and I think is falling in line with his will and his way and be there to help people. As I said, through the book, help people, through phone calls, through, you know, any interaction, face to face. I just want to be used by him to encourage, inspire, and help people, whatever way he says. And I'm just grateful, um, really, um, Curtis, that he's allowed me to do any of the things that I've done. It's not because I'm so good, but it's because he's so good, so gracious, so kind, so loving. And I'm just thankful.

Speaker 47:03

All right. Well, we got a few minutes left. So uh to close it out, uh, throw out your contact info so people can check out your music, your books, and keep up with everything that you're up to.

Speaker 1 47:14

Okay, well, I am so grateful and excited to be on some of the social media platforms. You know, because I told you I said, I'm 64. But I'm actually on Instagram, and it's Yolanda Y-O-L-O-N-D-A. Troop T-R-O-U-P-E Smith S M I T H. And that's on Instagram and the same on Facebook, Yolanda Troop Smith. And I also have a website, and that's Yolanda Troopsmith.com. So once you get the spelling of it, you got me. I actually have a YouTube channel um with the same. So there are several areas that you can connect with me on those sites. If you message me as well, I um I look in there and try to keep up and do whatever the Lord is leading me to do. Please go out to Spotify, Apple Music, check out that last CD and my uh Christmas song is out there. And if you go to Amazon, you will be able to see the blueprint collection, the book, the workbook, the teacher's edition of the workbook, the journal is out there. Um, actually, all of the songs that are on that project, you can get those individually on Amazon as well. The Christmas song is out there, and my first book is out there. The Holy Spirit, the person, the works, don't live without him. All on Amazon. They get it to you pretty quick, and you can just get the opportunity to experience everything that God has allowed me to put together, to put out there, to encourage, to inspire, and to help others.

Speaker 49:03

Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, Yolonda TroupeSmith.com. Check out her music, her books, everything that she's up to. This is an amazing lady with a with a lot of knowledge and just wants to help people uh get you know get to know God and become closer. And I could talk to her for hours if I could. So please be sure to follow Rate Review, share this episode to as many people as possible. Try to help as many people as possible, get that Holy Spirit hookup, and also go to www.curveball337.com. Sign up for the Living the Dream newsletter, follow Rate Review the show, and keep up with everything. Living the Dream. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Yolanda, thank you for all that you do, and thank you for joining me.

Speaker 1 49:54

And thank you for having me on this amazing show. God bless you.

Speaker 49:59

For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.curveball337.com. Until next time, keep living the dream.