Let God Be the Masculine Energy

How to let God do the heavy lifting to see the supernatural in your life. In this episode, we discuss the role of faith and works, and how to lean back and let God move in your life.

Diving into a story of Jonathon making a bold move, followed by a supernatural move of God. Plus what Peter's act of walking on the water demonstrates.

My Worship Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ymqW6Yjv7Iw5ZbTan2uuU

Have a beautiful and blessed week!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello, my beautiful ladies. Welcome back. I've so missed you. I think we've only missed each other for one week, but it feels like forever. How are you doing? I'm so happy that you're here. We are talking about letting God be your masculine energy, letting him do the heavy lifting in life and really leaning back into the feminine and just trusting that he's got things. So if this is your first episode, welcome. My name is Alexis. I'm a feminine energy and inner work coach, and I love Jesus. And this podcast is the place where we talk about both and how you can become the woman that God has created you to be and understand how your healthiest form of feminine energy will look like. And I extra, extra love this episode because it's so on that topic about how to rest in the feminine, how to let God do what he does best, and how to have what it is that you desire in life, what you're dreaming of, without burning yourself out to get it and without putting your faith in you to get it. When you put it in God, it's going to work out so much easier and better than you expect. And we're going to talk about two stories today that specifically highlight this. So themes of this episode: letting God do the heavy lifting, faith versus works. We'll come back to this in a bit. And we're going to conclude by talking about why God has designed our brain and our body so specifically to let Him do the heavy lifting and to let our one job be one thing. And we'll come back to that at the end. So we're in the Old Testament today in 1 Samuel 14. And our last episode, we were talking about Samson's story, and we're talking about how to protect your femininity. If you have not listened to that episode, please go listen to it because it's going to go so perfectly with today. Today we're talking about another man named Jonathan. Jonathan is Saul's son, King Saul. A quick backstory on who these people are, if you've never heard of them. So once the Israelites left Egypt, God delivered them out of slavery. He said, I'm taking you to the promised land. This land belongs to you. And I want to bless you and protect you. I don't want you to ever be in slavery again. He brings his children out of Egypt. Fast forward some time, they're now in the promised land. Fast forward 40 years later, I should say. It was supposed to be an 11-day journey. Took them 40 years. And now they're finally in this promised land. And you would think, okay, God brought them through all of this. He delivered them from their enemies. He delivered them out of slavery. They're going to love God and be faithful to him forever, right? Wrong. We are human beings at the end of the day. What happens is the Israelites they start worshiping false gods, they start sinning, they start forgetting God and kind of just tossing him to the side. And they lose the promised land because of it. They're still in their promised land. There's so many different parts that make up their promised land. There's parts of Lebanon, uh, parts of what is Israel today. And what happens is this land that they were supposed to have, and it was supposed to be their promised land, their unfaithfulness and disrespect to God causes them to lose it. God lifts that shield of protection. He says, Okay, let the gods that you are worshiping come and protect you. The Israelites are overtaken by their enemies, they lose the promised land, they become slaves to, they become slaves in the very land that they owned and were supposed to be free in because of their disobedience. And in the book of Judges, which we talked about in the last episode where Samson comes in, you can see these this pattern of the Israelites are faithful, they get their land back, they're out of slavery, and then they fall back into the unfaithfulness. And it's just up and down. And finally, the Israelites, they're like, we don't want judges anymore. We want a king. We want to be like all the other nations around us, we want a king. And this really hurts God when they ask for a king because God was their king. And he goes, Okay, if you want to be like all the other nations around you, sure, you can have a king, but just know this: you will regret it later. Your king is going to oppress you, he's going to use you, he's going to make soldiers out of you. This was not my will for you. But they toss God to the side yet again, and they ask for a king. And so they get a king, the very first king of Israel. His name is Saul. Okay, that was a really long backstory. If you're still here, I love you. Okay, now we're talking about Saul's son, Jonathan. I really, really love Jonathan. He's one of my favorite characters in the Bible. And Jonathan, he has a really good heart and he's very strong, he's very bold and faithful. And at this time, why Jonathan is playing a role here is because Saul, he has become the king and he's leading the Israelites into battle. But they are severely outnumbered, they are extremely oppressed. They have been on a very bad losing streak against their enemies. Their enemies at this time are the Philistines. And Philistines, that's where uh Goliath the giant comes from. And so they're losing badly against the Philistines. They're so oppressed by them to the point that the Philistines don't even let the Israelites make any weapons. They forbid them from making weapons, they take away all their resources. The Israelites are hiding in caves or hiding under the ground. They're so scared of these Philistines. The only people that have weapons are King Saul and Jonathan, and they just have like a tiny little sp little spear. And so uh that's gonna be important because you'll see how when you have faith in God, he does literally the impossible with no matter what resources you have. All right, 1 Samuel 14, we're gonna read for a bit. This part isn't too long. So this is 14, verse 6, and it's titled Jonathan's Daring Plan. Let's go across to the outpost of those pagans, Jonathan said to his armor bearer. Side note, what does pagan mean? A pagan was a name for anyone who didn't worship God or who worshipped false gods, who worshipped nature, things like that. So Jonathan is telling his armor bearer, Come on, let's go to the Philistines. I trust God. He says, Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle, whether he has many warriors or only a few. Do what you think is best, the armor bearer replied. I'm with you completely, whatever you decide. All right then, Jonathan told him, We will cross the river, or we will cross over and let them see us. If they say to us, Stay where you are, or we will kill you, then we will stop and not go up to them. But if they say, Come on up and fight, then we will go up. That will be the Lord's sign that he will help us defeat them. When the Philistines saw them coming, they shouted, Look, the Hebrews are crawling out of their holes. Then the men from the output outpost shouted to Jonathan, Come on up here, and we'll teach you a lesson. Come on, climb right behind me, Jonathan said to his armor bearer, for the Lord will help us defeat them. So they climbed up using both hands and feet, and the Philistines fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer, and his armor bearer killed those who came behind them. They killed some twenty men in all, and their bodies were scattered all over about half an acre. Suddenly panic broke out in the Philistine army, both in the camp and in the field, including even the outposts and raiding parties. And just then an earthquake struck, and everyone was terrified. Saul's lookouts in Gibeah, in Benjamin, saw a strange sight. The vast army of Philistines began to melt away in every direction. Okay, we're gonna pause the reading here. Jonathan, having a tiny little sword and one man with him, has so much faith in God that he says, if the Lord is with us, no enemy is too great for us. And this leads to such a huge shift in the battle. We're not going to read the next part, but if you want to read, we're in 1 Samuel 14 for what happens next. The Israelites end up winning a huge battle after this because of Jonathan's small, small act of going up, literally just climbing up a rock with his assistant. And the Philistines were terrified and got confused and fell. And then God caused an earthquake to happen. There's so much significance in this story. Number one is we must make the first move. I think this is so funny how this masculine-feminine dynamic works with God. We must make the first move. We must drop the towel as we would do back in the day. You know how when women wanted to signal to a man that they were interested, if you've seen Bridgerton, you'll know this. They would drop the towel or drop their handkerchief, and men would know, oh, she's opening the door and she's okay if I go and pursue her. We must do this to God. We must signal to him, I am okay with you coming into my life and doing the supernatural. I invite you in, Lord. You must make the first move. And I know this can seem, ah, but what about feminine energy? Yeah, this is total feminine energy. Invite God in, and that is when you will see the supernatural. We'll come back to that in a minute. But notice how after when the Israelites they end up winning this huge battle against the Philistines because of this small act, it was such a ripple effect. Jonathan had faith. Jonathan moved on that faith. God moved next and did something supernatural by causing the earthquake. Well, if we skip down a little bit to verse 20, it says, Then Saul and all his men rushed out to the battle and found the Philistines killing each other. There was terrible confusion everywhere. So what pretty much happened is something so unexplainable that this huge, powerful army, imagine the most powerful military army that exists today, so well trained, so orderly. Imagine you just see them all turning and killing each other on the battlefield. It makes no logical sense. God's moves usually don't. And how this happens, I just read this this morning and I'm like, but how does God actually confuse people? How does this happen? Uh, what about our free will? God doesn't uh impose on our free will. And I almost Googled it, but I felt the Holy Spirit say, sit, just sit and see what is revealed. And what I felt him saying is, God doesn't bend our will, he changes our hearts, he changes what we see, he changes what our mind sees, and he changes also what our eyes and our heart sees. If you've ever heard that worship song, open the eyes of my heart, Lord, it hits different when you realize this that God can impact what your eyes, your mind, and your heart are seeing. And so these enemies in battle, they were seeing something that made them confused. They were seeing a distortion of reality, and they they literally started killing each other. I'm sorry that this one is so graphic. So God can do the supernatural, but we must first allow him to. Please listen to that one too, if you haven't. You must release hyperindependence because if you are the masculine energy in your relationship with God, it doesn't mean that you can't take action and move and use the logic. Yes, that's important, but if you are the main masculine energy and you are leading, you will be setting the tone. And imagine if God was the one to set the tone instead. There was an interesting statistic that my mom would always share with my siblings and I. And she would say, you know, when a mom is the one that has the strong faith in a household, her kids are less likely to grow up and continue going to church than if the dad were the one to have the strong faith. And I would always wonder about this. I'm someone who loves logic. I've really had to work on my own masculine energy. And when I looked this up, it's true. What studies have found is that if only the mother in a family dynamic believes in God and goes to church, the kids will have a 2 to 3% attendance, church attendance rate as adults. Do you want to know what the attendance rate jumps to if it's the father, the husband, that is leading the family with the faith? It jumps from 2 to 3% of kids continue attending church as adults to 44% of children grow up and continue attending church as an adult. The masculine energy sets the tone. So to recap this story, then we're going to be discussing how faith and work play a role here. Is don't worry about your resources or your capabilities. Do what you can. God has given you the capabilities to do that desire that is on your heart, to win that battle that you are struggling with. He will come in and do the supernatural, but you must move first with the resources that you have. My business students always tell me, I don't know if I have the qualities or the qualifications that I need to teach or to be a coach. And I say, you are already qualified. If you are looking for another certificate, if you're looking for another verification outside of the resources that God has given you, what you're really looking for is permission to move. You're not going to get that from the world. God gives you the permission to move. You just have to say yes. You don't need worldly resources to win. You don't need worldly weapons to win. In fact, almost every battle that you are facing right now is spiritual. It looks physical, but it's spiritual. It looks like anxiety, but it's the enemy attacking your identity and your peace. It looks like procrastination, but it's a spirit of fear that is causing, that is disguised as laziness a lot of the times and causing you to stay frozen. You must face the fear with spiritual weapons, which we have another episode called Spiritual Warfare, How to Win the Battle for Your Soul. You must use those spiritual weapons, like the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation. And that is how you will win the battle spiritually first, physically second. And God will do the supernatural. In this story, it looked like an earthquake. And it also looked like the enemies being confused and starting to kill each other. It could look like an open door in your life. It could look like a person that enters your life. It could look like a miracle of healing in your life. Let God do the heavy lifting. And remember that God He opens and closes our eyes, our minds, and our hearts. Even the example of Pharaoh back in Exodus, it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And there's so much to that. I think it's more than just God decided, let his heart be hard. No, it's Pharaoh chose a certain way of being, and God showed him things that confirmed his belief. So we see things differently according to what God is allowing us to see. Have you ever heard those people who are talking about someone that is just really bright and full of joy and probably has the Holy Spirit? And people will describe them as they just have a glow around them. All the time I hear people say, uh, there's an aura that's so bright, or they have such a bright aura. The world will tell you that it's aura, but the Bible will tell you that it's the Holy Spirit. So people can see things when God opens their eyes. And if you want your eyes to be open to what step you need to take, or what the miracle looks like, or how to get to your destination, you must have faith and you must do the work. So coming into the second part here. Which moves first, the faith or the works? This one could definitely be debatable, but I'm going to say the faith moves first and the work follows. Jonathan, for example, when he says in verse 14, 6, he says, Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he is many warriors or only a few. He is declaring his faith out loud first, and then he's moving second. In verse 8, it goes, Alright then, we'll cross over to the river. I don't know why I keep saying cross over to the river. It says, We will cross over and let them see us. He moves second. Second story from the Bible. We're not going to read the full story on this. This deserves its whole own episode of its own. Peter walking on the water. Is anyone familiar with this story? I'm sure most of you are. Same thing. Which one moved first? Did Peter walk on the water first, or did he believe that he could walk on the water with Jesus helping him first? He believed and then it happened. So in Matthew, this is 14 verse. Let's see. Uh 14 verse, I'm gonna start with 25. It says, About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, It's a ghost. But Jesus spoke to them at once. Don't be afraid, he said, Take courage, I am here. And I love that he says, take courage, not have courage, take it. Means literally, you are responsible for what you feel. Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water. Yes, come, Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. Save me, Lord, he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. You have so little faith, Jesus said. Why did you doubt me? Can you imagine being in the physical presence of Jesus? Walking on the water with him, you're doing something supernatural, and then you look at the waves, you fall, you're drowning. He comes and picks you up and says, I'm literally right here. Why did you doubt me? Yeah, from our perspective, it seems like, Peter, come on, wake up. Wake up, bud. But you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, and you still ask the same thing. You still doubt the power of the Lord. Before Jesus is getting ready to die on the cross, he says to his disciples, I am sending someone to help you. This is going to be a gift for you. They cannot come and help you until I leave. Who is it that he's referring to? It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our helper, our advocate, and it the Holy Spirit living inside of us enables us to do what logistically does not seem possible. It's so easy to look, Peter, come on, Jesus is right there. The Holy Spirit is also right here for us. And we must remember. And so Peter had faith in Jesus first, and then he walked on the water. One important side note here is that Peter's faith shifted, and that's why he fell. It shifted from Jesus to worldly circumstances. It shifted from Jesus to the waves that were around him. From Jesus to his situation. We fall when our faith moves off of Jesus. We drown when our faith moves off of Jesus. Even more dangerous, when we put faith in ourselves, we will always remain limited and asking God, why aren't you moving? When the faith is in ourself, or when our faith is in ourself, we cannot produce a supernatural. If Peter, knowing how the physics of water and gravity works, if his faith was in that over the one who created water and physics and the laws of gravity, he would never have been able to walk on the water. And I think that this is so similar to what science is teaching, how our current beliefs can never produce a future desired reality. You cannot have a reality thinking, I'm going to have a healthy body, I'm going to feel good in my body, I get to be energized when your current beliefs are I'm sick, I'm unhealthy, I'm lazy, I'm unmotivated. You can't have the healthy, energized, fit body and the beliefs of a body that is unhealthy. You must have one or the other. You cannot have faith in the supernatural, but be believing in yourself. Your faith must be in God. And it's so relieving once you realize this because you literally lean back and go, God, you've got the heavy lifting. What do you need me to do? It's like a My Sims character thinking, I have to control this whole game. I have to press the buttons and I have to turn the game on and I have to charge the Nintendo. No, you are responsible for all of the outer that makes the Sims world come to life. And your Sims just gets to wake up and yeah, maybe they have to cook for five minutes and it feels like work, but you are doing all of the background. That's similar to how it is with God. We think I have to do everything, the world is on my shoulders, the world is not on your shoulders. And I think it's so hurtful to God to see us like this carrying the world when He goes, uh I existed the world or I created the world, and when I created it, I intentionally made it very heavy because it's not meant to be on your back. When I created you, when I formed you in your mother's womb, I did not form you with a back that can carry the world. And so we have to make the first move. It's usually a very small move, although it feels so scary for us, but our faith overrides the fear. And when we move and we work, God comes in and does the supernatural, just like he did for Peter, walking on the water. And I love thinking about anytime I'm so fearful of my circumstances, or I'm anxious, or I'm focused on a big wave in my life, I stop and I think, why would I put my faith in the creation when there is a creator who created that wave and knows how the wave works? God never abandons us, he never goes against his word. And time and time again, in his word, he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He sees the wave, he knows that it's happening, and he's equipped you with the tools to overcome the wave. And on another note, sometimes we go through waves to wake us up and make us realize that our faith has been in ourself, and that's why we're in the situation that we're in. So when it comes to signs, it's so important to make sure before we ask for the sign that our heart is aligned to God's will. Psalm 37, 4, I believe this is the verse we've talked about it before. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. I used to read that and think, okay, any desire that I have, God's gonna give it to me. I just have to delight myself in him. Then as I kept reading and learning from the Bible, I realized, okay, the more I take delight in the Lord, the more that I focus on being in his space and spending time building that relationship with him and loving him, the more he changes the desires on my heart, the more he gives desires that fill my heart. Not I have a desire and he answers it, he places the desire in there. And so when you are asking for a sign, if your heart is aligned with God's will, what you ask for will be given to you. Peter asked for a sign. Lord, if it's really you out there on that water, tell me to come to you. Tell me to come and walk on the water. And Jesus answered him. It is okay to pray and ask for signs. I think that's the big debate is I don't know, is that controlling my reality or trying to play God or is it doubting God? You can ask for signs. Before you ask for the sign, check your heart and make sure that it's alignment in alignment with God's will. When I had quit my job about four years ago now, which it is crazy, it's four years. It seems like it was so recently. I asked God for a sign. I said, God, can you please send rain if I should quit my job? Send rain today. There was not a cloud in the sky when I asked this. And about 10 minutes later, it started raining. Before that, I had been praying and praying, and I had felt God telling me, I want you to start helping women heal, help them reconnect to their body, help them heal from their past trauma, help them get back into their feminine as I've created them. But I was so scared. I don't know how to build a business around this. I don't know how to not have a job and still be stable. But I kept praying, God, remove the fear, please show me how to do this. And one day I just felt so strongly on my heart to ask for that sign. And he gave it. And that same day I quit the job. So signs, yes, they work if our will matches God's will. And if what we ask for is not rooted in our own desire, but in the desire that God has given to us. And I love signs because when you ask for it and God shows you, it's like you doing the work to believe, and God doing the supernatural work to show you what you are believing. For the rain to come in 10 minutes, I know that this is a supernatural sign just for me. And I'm sure my neighbors enjoyed it too, but there's so many signs that we ask for that are so specific just for you. If you don't have faith, you will not even see the sign. I think a lot of us speaking to my old self too, who is very, I need evidence, I need logic, I need a formula, I need research. How do I know that this sign is real? How do I know that this is for me? When your faith is in God, you will know. And when you're believing that God can send you a sign, like I used to do this thing where I would ask for a sign, but I didn't really believe that God could send it to me. I didn't really believe that he could show me a butterfly if I asked or send rain. And so I never saw signs. It's so important to number one have faith that God can do it. Because until you have the faith, you will not be able to move supernaturally with him. Okay, we're gonna come back to um faith and works. But one verse that's so important, one of my favorites, is James 2.26. Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works. Faith is powerful. God also tells us that it's not enough. Faith on its own is a body without oxygen. It's not a very useful body. As we talked about in the beginning, we must drop the towel with God and invite him in. We must move first, just as Jonathan did. We must move in faith, just as Peter did. We must step out of the boat and make that first step, even if it is scary, even if it does not make sense. There's a question that a lot of my students and women who come to the retreat ask, How do you know what to teach? And I always tell them the same thing. I don't. And I tell them a bit more after that. But when I am teaching something, even on this podcast, for example, yes, I have an outline of what I'm going to be talking about. But about 50 minutes ago, I had no idea what we're going to talk about on this podcast. Before I take out my notebook and Bible, I pray, God, please reveal the topic to me. What do you want me to teach today? When I'm speaking right now, I don't always know the words that I'm going to say. Sometimes I don't even know how those words came, other than that was God. There is things that you do that are not you moving, it's God moving through you. And you don't have an explanation for it other than your faith and your works. In order to even teach, in order to even host a retreat, in order to even film a YouTube video, I must first set up the camera, set up the podcast tripod, set up the retreat, and then God moves. I think it's very easy to look from the outside and think, it's so easy to have a ch have a YouTube channel, host a retreat. Yeah, I'm I'm scared. Okay, it looks easy, but there's still fear, there's still nervousness of what am I gonna say? I don't know. I hope that this lands, I hope that this can change someone's life. And then I start talking, I start either teaching at the retreat or filming the podcast, and I forget that I'm even moving my mouth. It's God doing the supernatural. Sometimes, if I listen to episodes back, I think I do not remember talking about that because it wasn't me. And that's the thing, when our faith is in ourselves, we will fall. We can be successful for a while, but we get burnt out, we lose momentum, we lose creativity, or we just plateau and never grow and stretch further. And so you must do the setup first. You must drop the towel, you must set up your camera, you must decide, I'm going to do this, you must make the first bold step. Yes, it's going to be a bold step. It should scare you. Not scare you into being paralyzed, but it should not feel comfortable. Do you think that if Jonathan did something that was comfortable, that God would have sent an earthquake, that he would have confused all the enemies? Probably not. He had to climb up, cross that, I was about to say, cross that river again. He had to cross over to the land to go into enemy territory, stand in front of them and say, Hey, that was scary when they had been oppressed for years and years and lost every single battle before that. Another example of this, faith and works, fasting and praying. Please pray for me because the day that this is coming out, I'm fasting and praying. I fast and pray once a month, and it is the best thing ever. I will say that the day before I do it, I'm a little scared, like, ah, to give up food, to give up cooking. Of course, my flesh is not going to like it. And that's the exact point because I want my flesh to be broken so that my spirit can be repaired. And it's always the most amazing thing, and ends up being way better than I expected. Uh, so when I fast, I remember when I did my first three-day fast, first and only three-day fast so far. This is back in March. I asked God day two. I was like, God, I'm feeling a little tired today. Please, will you give me energy? Will you restore me? Jesus, I know that you are the bread of life. Will you be my daily bread today? And I remember a couple hours later just feeling so energized, going for a walk, feeling excited to read the Bible, just hanging out with Gus, dancing around my apartment, and I'm like, wait a second, this energy is not from me because I did not have this a couple hours ago. And then I remembered that I prayed and asked God for energy and he gave it to me. Logically, it did not make sense. My body did not have any food for about 36 to 40 hours at that point. But supernaturally, I had energy. Whatever you ask for in Jesus' name will be given to you. And it also must align with God's will. So, another example, uh, we talked about fasting, getting energy from God. I had to do the work first. I had to say, I'm not eating food for three days. I'm going to honor my body, I'm going to fast, I'm going to detox, I'm going to be filled up spiritually. Another example of uh having faith and doing the work is when I was in college, I haven't shared this story too much, but I do need to share it more because it's absolutely crazy and proof of God being supernatural. When I was in college, I had filled my schedule so much the first couple years with credit that I could have graduated one semester early. And so, as I'm in my junior year of college, I'm setting up my classes for the next year. And my college was online at this point because it was during COVID. And so I'm looking at my schedule and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I only need one more class to graduate. And how am I why am I going to pay for an entire other semester? My tuition, by the way, was extremely, extremely high. It was about $70,000 a year. I did have academic scholarships, but still I thought I don't want to pay the tuition fee. And I was paying for my college by myself at this point. And so I'm looking and I'm thinking, I have one more class that I need to graduate. I don't want to pay the tuition just for this class. What can I do? And I'm trying to figure things out. I had already maxed out the amount of classes I could take that last semester of junior year, so I couldn't add that last class to my schedule. And I just remember feeling so stuck, and I'm crying, I'm praying, God, I cannot be in this much of student debt when I graduate. Can you please open up another door, another option for me? And I'm emailing with my school, and I'm I'm explaining the situation, and my school was amazing, by the way. It was, they were so just helpful for the financial situation that I was in. And they gave me more scholarships. It still was not enough. And I asked them, is there anything else that I can do? I just need this one last class to graduate. I get an email from a professor that I had, one of my marketing professors, and he was teaching this class that I needed to graduate. He goes, Hi Alexis, I've heard about your situation, and I want to offer you this. I will teach this class to you privately over winter break. This is my junior year. Over winter break. It's going to be very intense because I'm combining four months of semester content into six weeks for you. But I heard your situation and I want to help you. I started crying. I was like, oh my gosh, I was so happy. I graduated college in three years. Never did I expect that I could graduate in three years. And the class was amazing. He was such a great professor. He taught me so much about business and branding, and I still email him, I'm like, you changed my life. Like I could start my career and my life and my inner work an entire year early because of you. And that was God moving supernaturally. I had never heard of a professor offering a private class like that. I had never heard of being able to graduate in three years the way that it worked out. And that was God moving supernaturally. I had faith that it could happen. I was not going to give up. That was one of those times that I was like, I am not giving up on this. I will be graduating in three years without taking this extra class and having a fourth year. I had to move first. I had to send the emails. I had to ask for help. That is why you must, must, must let go of hyperindependence. Because if you don't, you are closing yourself off to people and resources that will help you. And God did the supernatural. Still doing the supernatural to this day. So just as the body is dead without breath, so also is faith without good works. We're going to come back to that in just a minute. Coming to the conclusion. Here's a hint. If you want to know where this is, where do you continuously say, I want to do this, I want to have this, I want to be this, but you remain frozen. That is where you are saying you want to have faith in God, but actually you're still having faith in yourself. Second part of this conclusion, ask God for guidance. Ask and you shall receive. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened for you. Matthew 7 7. Ask God for guidance. Exactly what Peter did. Lord, if it's you out there on that water, tell me to come to you. Guide me. God wants to help you. Imagine how frustrating it is for a parent watching their child, their child try to figure something out that they already have the answer and the resource to, and saying, if you would just come to me, I want to help you. But God also gave us free will, and he's not going to impose an overstep. He wants us to run to him. It's the best thing. Like I cannot even imagine being a mother of actual children. But with my dog Gus, when I get home, like this morning I got home from the gym, he's just on the couch. We lock eyes and he runs to me and we play and cuddle. It's the best feeling. My mom's out there, I cannot even imagine how this is when you have kids seeing your baby run to you. And can you even imagine how this is for God when we run to him? How much joy that fills him up with? He says so many times, I wanted you to turn to me. I wanted you to run to me. He's just there with open arms, and the enemy is so good at making us feel like we are not enough, like we're too far gone, like we are too shameful, like we're too unclean to go to God. That is a lie from the enemy because he knows how powerful it is when you do run to God. Run to him. The very first thing that I do when I sit down and pray every single night is I imagine that I am a little kid running to God. And that he just picks me up and hugs me, and we have this reunion, and he's like, I've been waiting all day for you to come and talk to me. Let's chat, what's on your mind? And it's the best feeling. So ask God for guidance in this last part here. I love this part. I was gonna put this in the beginning, but I thought we have to save it for the end. Move closer and get into the proximity of what you're having faith for. What did Jonathan do? He moved closer and said, Let the enemies see us, let the Philistines see us. He was safe. Hiding out wherever he was hiding out with his dad, who was the king, with the other with the other Israelites to protect him. But he takes his armor bearer and says, I'm believing that God can move this battle for us. Let's move closer into the enemy territory and let's let them see us. He changed his proximity and got closer to what he had faith for. And God delivered the supernatural. There was a huge earthquake. His enemies were very destroyed by that. And then all the confusion in battle. And I love this because it doesn't just affect Jonathan and his armor bearer. All the Philistines that are down in the area by King Saul and the other Israelites, they all start fighting each other. Not just down there, but also in all of the camps. When I was reading about this before, it said that the Philistines were camped in every direction around the Israelites. The Israelites, they were outnumbered. And all around, they're confused, they're killing themselves, and this is supernatural. So you must get into the proximity of what you're having faith for. Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works. Here's what we do. I'm believing God for a partner, but I'm never going to leave my house besides going to work and going to church. I'm sorry to say this, but your partner may not be at church. As anti-spiritual as that sounds, as anti-uh-religious as that sounds, your partner may not be at church. He may be in the gym. He may be on that walk that you're supposed to be going on. He may be in that country that you need to get out and visit. He may be in that class that you need to get outside of your comfort zone and sign up for. I remember one time I tithed $1,000 to my church because I had made $10,000 that week. And I thought, God, why would I ever doubt you again? What he says he will do. You must have the faith and you must do the work. Sometimes the work is changing your habits. Sometimes the work is releasing what you're holding on to. Sometimes the work is getting out of your house and going somewhere that is not in your comfort zone. And they all begin by faith. And I just love how God designed us. He designed our brains to only see solutions when we first believe that they can exist. And how do we believe that they can exist? It's through faith. Faith that God is in control, that He can do the heavy lifting, that He can deliver the supernatural. And that our job is just to have the faith and to make the first move, to drop the towel. He's such a good father. He's such a powerful masculine energy provider. This goes for men and women. We just have to do the work, which is to have faith and to take the first step. I hope that this has helped you. I am always praying for you. And this week, especially, I'm going to be praying that your faith is strengthened and that you're that you feel so bold to take that first move and to do the work. Remember that you're not carrying the whole workload. God just needs you to do the step because when you take the first step, it's like confirming that your faith is true. It's confirming, God, I really believe that you can do this. So I'm taking the first step. You take the first step, and God delivers the earthquake, okay? It doesn't get better than this. I love you so much. I'm so happy to be back with you. I'm going to be posting my siblings trip vlog very soon. I took a trip with my siblings, and it was just so healing and so life changing. And I did vlog on the trip, so I will be posting that to YouTube soon. So thank you so much for your patience when I was a little bit MIA last week. And yeah, I love you so much. I'm praying for you. Have a beautiful week and a blessed week, and I will see you in the next episode.