S3 | Ep. 5 Memorial Stones: Remembering God Through Every Season | Pat Domangue

 Pat Domangue shares her powerful journey from a "dark pit" to a life transformed by the Word of God. In this conversation, she explores the profound Hebrew meaning of "remembering," the freedom found in knowing that God chooses to "forget" our sins, and the difficult but rewarding process of releasing control of our children to their true Heavenly Father. Whether you are navigating ministry hurt or seeking to understand your true identity as God’s "beautiful vessel," Pat’s testimony offers a roadmap for persevering through every season.

About Pat Domangue Pat Domangue is the founder of On Fire Ministries and a dedicated Bible study author, teacher, and speaker. With a master’s degree in biblical studies and over 20 years of experience in women’s ministry, Pat has authored 13 Bible studies, including Quest for Wholeness, Equipped and Empowered, and her latest release, My Maker and Me. She is also the host of the HER Podcast (Healing Encouragement in Real Life), where she helps women find freedom and joy in Christ.

Connect with Pat:

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Free Resource (Prayer Matters Bible Study)

Chapters
04:01 Pat's Journey and Memorial Stones
11:49 The Power of Remembering God's Faithfulness
21:07 Navigating Difficult Seasons with Faith
28:56 The Call to Ministry and Perseverance
37:38 Exploring Identity in Christ
46:01 The Importance of Digging into God's Word
54:31 Encouragement to Persevere in Faith

#faith #God #ministry #identity #perseverance #Biblestudy #encouragement #onfire-ministries #prayer #testimony #PatDomangue #HERPodcast #BrendaSavanhu #RememberGodPodcast #MemorialStonesBook

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I was thanking the Father today for his mercy. I began listing the sins he'd forgiven. One by one, I thanked God for forgiving my stumbles and tumbles. My motives were pure and my heart was thankful, but my understanding of God was wrong. It was when I used the word remember, then I remembered. I remembered his words and I will remember their sins no more. Wow. Now that is a remarkable promise. God doesn't just forgive, he forgets.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Welcome to Remember God, a podcast where we practice remembering God in the midst of trials. Hi, I'm Brenda, and I help followers of Jesus recall God's miracles to successfully navigate current challenges. Welcome to Remember God, a podcast to practice remembering God in the midst of trials. If you're a follower of Jesus who's in a difficult season and finds yourself wanting to take control of the situation instead of trusting God, this is the place for you. This is where we'll help you remember the places where God has shown up in the past, giving you the tools and strength to navigate through today's challenges. I'm Brenda Savannu, author of Memorial Stones, writer, coach, and your companion on this journey of remembering what God has done. Today I'm excited to introduce our guest, Pat Domang. I just recently met Pat through Podmatch. Pat is the founder of On Fire Ministries and a dedicated Bible study author, teacher, and speaker. Pat has spent over 20 years in women's ministry, serving in both volunteer and professional roles, including her current role as volunteer women's ministry director at First Monroe. With a master's degree in biblical studies and a passion for deep scriptural engagement, Pat has written 13 Bible studies, including Quest for Wholeness, Equipped and Empowered and Dig, Digging Into God's Word. I love that. Her ministry mission is to ignite a passion in women to apply God's word to their everyday lives, helping them find freedom and joy in Christ. Pat speaks from a place of deep personal experience. Having come to know Jesus at age 30, her powerful testimony describes how God has transformed her life, taking her from a dark pit to a place of true satisfaction. Today she continues to encourage women through her writing, speaking engagements, and host of her podcast. Welcome to the show, Pat. Thank you, Brenda. I'm excited to be here. I'm so excited you're here. Even the moment we spoke, I was like, oh, I love this woman.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

I felt the same way. So we are, I think we're two peas in a pod, as my mama might say. Right. I think so.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Um and I just want to start with some commonplaces. You listened to my my first episode, and you discovered that we both love Beth more. I've definitely been impacted by her Bible studies and her ministry here in Houston.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

Hugely. Me too. I'm in Louisiana, but we're kind of part-time in Houston now because I have two daughters that live there. So we're we're there about once a month for close to a week out of the month. So we are definitely connected in a couple of different ways that I thought was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah. So awesome. So awesome. So as you know, on my podcast, um, I like to talk about remembering God and Memorial Stones. Where are the places where God has shown up? And looking back at those places for encouragement to get through the current seasons, at least I know that's how it worked for me. Um, God reminded me when I was going through a difficult season. What have I done for you in the past? And I had to look back and say, oh yeah, you showed up here, you showed up there. So even in this situation, um, I know you're going to show up. So given that, when you look back on your life, is there anywhere you would like to start with a particular memorial stone that really resonates with you?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Well, it's funny. I, you know, I just was praying before we got started today. And and all of a sudden, God just reminded me, I was thinking about just a different difficult season that I had gone through with one of my daughters that I just she went through a really dark season. I mean, like years. And it was just an awful time for us. And I was remembering what I had to remember when she was there because once upon a time, my life was like hers. A long time ago, um, I lived in this really dark. I think you even shared it in when you kind of were telling a little bit about me. I was in this dark pit and lived, uh, lived there, you know, and I had been raised in church and knew all about the Lord and all that, but I lived really rebellious towards everything I'd been taught. All of that to say, when I was thinking about remember God and the word remember, it was funny. I started remembering when I did, I was in seminary and we did the introduction to Hebrew. And I had to, as my main class project, pick a word in the original language that I was going to do my study on for the year and write, I mean, for that class and write my research paper and all that was from that. And I picked the word remember. And the the word remember in the Old Testament, uh, every time that was connected to God, it was connected to the fact that when he remembers, he acts upon that remembrance.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Okay. So I that was coming to my mind. And so then I remembered, I'm going through all this, um, it's all tied to what I'm having to do when my daughter's in the dark place. I'm having to remember my dark place and how he brought me out of it. Okay. So anyway, when I first came, my initial salvation moment, okay. I had that night, I was in my bed next to my husband. He was asleep, and God started just speaking to me of, and I mean, I'm seeking him, but I'm not, I wouldn't put myself in a saved position at this point. I really think this was the night of my salvation. Okay. So I started in my mind seeing a video of every awful thing I had done. It was kind of like, you know, when you hear about somebody dying and they'll they'll say they remember all these different things or whatever. Okay. I kind of was doing that. And it's interesting, I really was about to die, and I just didn't know it in the old me. Okay. So I was remembering all of this stuff, this ugly, awful past life I had lived. And I had cried. I started crying. It was just this awful, remorseful. And thinking that I was remembering too that I had learned when we had started going to church probably about three months before that. And I had learned that the wages of sin was death. Now, I did not remember in this moment that the gift of God is eternal life. You know, I didn't remember the other part of it. All I remembered was the wages of sin was death. And so, yeah. So I was remembering all of this ugly stuff, and I was like, okay, I I'm not, I know I realize I can't go to heaven because I've been too bad. But will you just save my children? Will you just save my children? So all of that, I'm crying. I it's like 4 30 in the morning. I've probably been crying for like four hours. And I finally just got to this point of I can't cry anymore. I I'm just, I can't cry over this anymore. So I got up, and when I got up, there was a book that somebody had given me that I was reading next to my Bible on my bedside table. And I picked up both books. And anyway, I pulled that book out. And I don't know, would you mind if I read a little bit of that? No, not at all, please. Okay, it's really cool. Okay, so this is the opposite of God remembering. It's the title of the page where I opened it to, my next chapter to read that morning after crying all night, remembering everything bad I had done. This was what the title of the chapter was, He Forgot. Okay. And this is what it says. I was thanking the Father today. And I'll just tell you, okay, this book is God Came Near by Max Locato. Okay. Okay, so the title is He Forgot. This is what it says. I was thanking the Father today for his mercy. I began listing the sins he'd forgiven. One by one, I thanked God for forgiving my stumbles and tumbles. My motives were pure and my heart was thankful, but my understanding of God was wrong. It was when I used the word remember that it hit me. Remember the time I was about to thank God for another act of mercy, but I stopped. Something was wrong. The word remember seemed displaced. It was an off-key note in a sonata, a misspelled word in a poem. It was a baseball game in December. It didn't fit. Does he remember? Then I remembered. I remembered his words, and I will remember their sins no more. Wow. Now that is a remarkable promise. God doesn't just forgive, he forgets. He erases the board, he destroys the evidence, he burns the microfilm, he clears the computer. He doesn't remember my mistakes. For all the things he does do, this is one thing he refuses to do. He refuses to keep a list of my wrongs. When I ask for forgiveness, he doesn't pull out a clipboard and say, but I have already forgiven you for 516 times. He doesn't remember. As far as the East is from the West, as far as he has removed our transgressions, so far as he has removed our transgressions from us, I will be merciful toward their iniquities. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool. All of that to say that night, my life changed because he spoke to me through his word. And I had to remember, go all the way back to where I started. I'm sorry I went so far into that. But it was that moment of going through the same dark, ugly places with my daughter that I had to keep coming back to. If he did it for me, though my sins were as crimson. Yeah. You know, he'll do it for her.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

I'm like still stunned with that. Um excerpt you just read that I remembered that he said that he forgot my sins.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Yes. That's amazing. So cool. I know. I was like, I feel like I have to pull this book out because it it felt like God was saying, remind them about remember, you know, this remember connection that you have.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

My gosh. So that was God was pulling up your memorial stone. I brought you out of this. I forgot your sins. So if I did that for you and you asked me to take care of your children, don't you think I will do that for them? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Yes. And it always, even from the beginning of my salvation, my motivation, because I thought at that point I did not understand grace. So I didn't realize that it didn't matter that I was too bad. Okay, because that was my thing. I was too bad for Jesus to do anything with me or to save me. But that's what we think when we go to those dark, hard places and all that a lot of times, and we've got all this sin and shame junk in our life. We don't come to him because we think we've been too bad. But once we get to know him and we learn of the grace of God, and I had to remember in those times with my daughter that that same grace was there for her, just like it was for me. And just as he pursued me, because he pursued me. I mean, there was a lot that led up to that moment for me. And he had been pursuing me. And I knew that why would he do that for me and not do that for my children? He would. You know, he's faithful. And you know, I love that passage that says, even if we are faithless, he is faithful. He can't deny himself. It's true. He is. So I I can trust his faithfulness in all of it. If he was faithful once, he'll be faithful again.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

He'll be faithful again. And you know what's striking me about your story is that even in that place where you thought, you know, I'm so bad, I don't even know if I'm redeemable, you exhibited the love of the father by saying, if I can't be saved, then save my children. That's the sign of the thing. I've never thought about that. Yeah. And so even in that place of like brokenness and unworthiness and all of those things, there was that in you that was willing to give yourself up for the sake of your children, which comes from him.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

That's awesome. I've never really looked at that like that, but that's awesome. Thank you for saying that.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

You're so welcome. Oh my gosh. So then how did you guide your daughter through this? Like how did you support her through this season? Oh, it was rough.

SPEAKER_03 15:08

Um, it was not all easy, that is for sure. But anytime that we go through stuff with our children, that's really difficult, is is really difficult.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Um and feel free, you know, don't divulge anything you don't want to, please.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Yeah, no, I understand. I I would just say that we really we had some seasons where we really didn't have, uh we didn't just disconnect from one another. I mean, I loved her and she loved me, but there was so much brokenness there. And um, so I just did my best to stay as connected as she and her life allowed during that time. And I tell you, one of the things that the Lord spoke to me through that was you can't fix her. Your job is to love her.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

That was a hard thing for a parent, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 16:01

Yes, yeah. It means you've really got to release that maternal control over and so trusting God with that, you know. And throughout throughout my life with them, with my children, God had always assured me I love them more than you do. You know, so I also that's another thing I had to remember, he loves them more than me. And and my love for them was so deep, and I knew that. So but he lives loves them perfectly. I I could not love them perfectly. All of my best loving was flawed, but I could just keep going back to he's the true father that's perfect. So um, in that, uh and the other thing I'll tell you during that season where so there was times that our conversation just I always made sure that our conversation came back to, I love you, I love you, no matter what, I love you, you know. And then as we went through that, I I felt like through that just loving her and stopping trying to fix her because I was trying to fix her. I wanted to fix her. And I, you know, I'd been through a lot of this stuff. And that's hard when you've been through a lot of this stuff and you've come out of it on the other side and you see that, oh my goodness, God has blessed my life beyond my wildest dreams. He has just done so much, set me free from all this guilt, shame, junk. And I you want, you want your daughter to experience the goodness of God like you've experienced, you know. So you're doing everything you can to try to get them to that place. But there's that point that you realize I'm not the one who can do it. My mama doesn't do it. The Holy Spirit did it. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_02 18:02

That's so true.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

And I'm sure my mama would have liked to have done it for me as well. But we have to that over to the Lord. But the other thing I would say I did during that is God started teaching me another thing or remember moment, is I was having to remember a lesson that the Lord had taught me, and I had taught others out of um, out of, I believe it was first chronicles, second chronicles, I'm not sure right now. It's either first or second chronicles 12. And it was the story of Jehosaphat, and he was surrounded by an army, several armies. Okay. Yes. And what happened in that story is I always love. I think it's um maybe it's 20, chapter 20, verse 12.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

It's 20, because that's what a view for you.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

Yeah, yeah. That he said, Lord, I have no idea what to do, but my eyes are on you. You know, and and so that story, and what happened in that story was God took this the prayers of this man and the the nation of Israel as they came back to him in this really awful time where they're surrounded by the enemy, and he fought for them. Yeah, and he wiped out the other armies. And but how did he do it? He did it through their praises. Yeah. So God reminded me of that story. One day I was in church, I was had my hands lifted, just singing my heart out to the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Lord said, I want you to remember Jehosaphat, because I'm singing and I'm praying for my daughter while I'm singing. I started singing every praise song. I would sing and I'd put her name in it. You know, we'll sing praise songs of, oh Lord, thank you that you did this for me. But I would see that you did this for Jade, and I would praise him for it. So it was kind of like a faith praise that he was gonna do that for her, you know. So anyway, uh I I don't know if I've kind of gone off your no, you haven't remembering. It is, yeah, yeah. So anyway, uh got to see such an incredible transformation that God did there and just has restored so much and given us impossible. He's he has done the impossible, yeah. You know, I've gotten to see that and it's just been a miracle. I I I say to my daughter, you're my miracle.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

I love that.

SPEAKER_04 21:10

I know. I do too.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

My gosh, this is so amazing. Wow. So then, Pat.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

How about how you ended up transitioning into ministry? What are your remember God moments there where I'm assuming that your salvation, your daughter, all of those things tie into ministry?

SPEAKER_03 21:39

Well, I my daughter was really the situation with her was a good bit later after God called me to ministry. So when God first called me to ministry was in 2002. So I've been serving the Lord through all that. Went I almost immediately went to seminary because I was so clueless. I mean, I had been living this one. Life and then God gets me and just transforms my life, and about five years later calls me to ministry, and I am clueless. What in the world am I gonna do? So I went to seminary because I'm like, what else do you do? If God calls you to ministry, go to seminary. Just because I didn't even know, you know. But um ultimately, and you're touching on something else that would be probably the other most extremely difficult, painful um part of my journey with the Lord was um because of and through ministry. Just some different seasons that I really went through some very hurtful things ministry-wise, and some people that I really trusted and looked up to, uh, you know, leadership in in ministry and all of that. I just had, I guess, I always say it like this that the rug ripped out from under my feet. Oh, yeah. And it was, you know, when you I think one of the things we do is sometimes we esteem leadership way too much. Yes, yes. And we it positions us in. I I think that we've got to be careful. There's a real tension there because we do want to trust. We want to have trust in the people that are leading us, um, especially when it's a Christian leader. But at the same time, we have to always remember they're human.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

And they have a tendency to uh make mistakes. And and I guess it's kind of like even when you're parenting, when you're parenting, you do the best you can, but you're still human and you make mistakes parenting, you know. Same thing in in ministry.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah. I've I I remember when I I went through something similar, and um the eye-opening was that the Lord was telling me that you started to idolize your leadership. Um and I didn't do it intentionally, but he was just showing me that the position of my heart was off. And so I took a step back um and just really started seeking the Lord and asking him to um reset my perspective and cleanse my heart so that he was always above everyone and everything else. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Yeah. And I I think it is our tendency, and and then I think that also happens when that happens, is uh another problem with that is I don't know, you've heard so many people that have stepped out of church even, you know, stepped away from being in a a community of believers because of being hurt. And so it's it's a a situation that has to be kind of handled carefully. But anyway, at that point, I I really didn't know that. You know, I did um this is 20 something years later. I can talk about that at a total different perspective than I had at that point. But in that, I really my remembering and throughout all of my journey, you know, I'm a Bible teacher. I know I'm a Bible teacher because of what God did for me through his word. He really transformed my life and it continues to transform my life through his word. So the word has been so impactful in my life that I it's one of the things that in my relationship with him, I'm continually going back to that to say, what do you say about this? And that's where I'm going to go back to and remember, you know. And so when this particular situation, God allowed me to see that it was coming. I He like presented it to me in a way that I was able to see something is on the horizon. Okay, when when I went through that bad hurt over 20 years ago. And we were all at a ministry conference. And when I saw it, I waited for everyone. There was two other people in the room with me. And when they went to bed and went to sleep, I picked up my Bible and I went to the bathroom. There wasn't anywhere else for me to go and turn on the light. And I sat, put the lid down on the toilet and sat down on the toilet with my Bible and opened it and said, What do you have to say? Because I have to have what you say in this. Otherwise, I can't do it, you know. And so in that night, when I sat there in that bathroom by myself, me and Jesus and his word, um, he began to show me different scriptures. And every single one of them that he took me to was about humility. And it was just like walk through this with humility. Well, I didn't even know what that meant, you know, at that point. But the thing that he was saying to me was I I felt like people I had not had lived my lost life real publicly. And I think there were people that expected me to fall, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

And so because there was j I I mean, I've heard people say there's no way Pat Domain got saved because I had lived so lost. So what he was saying. As if God is above that.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Pat is so far gone, God can't save her.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

Yes, but you know, we do that. We think that sometimes, don't we?

SPEAKER_02 28:31

Yeah, we do. We do. It's it's a human part of us.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

Yeah. But it was that thing of you walk through this hu with humility, and it's the thing that's gonna elevate your your testimony. It's gonna pres preserve it. It's going to be the thing that continually points out that I really did do that work in your life, you know. So um that was uh that was a long journey, and I had to walk through forgiveness that was just almost agonizing. Um, it was agonizing. I won't even say almost. It was. At times I just was like, there's no way. Um so there's so much to that story. But fast forward to many years later, I went through an almost like I I would say over 10 years later, maybe more like 15 years later, I went through a very similar situation. And in that situation, what did I do? I remembered all the points that God had ministered to me in that other season. Yes. Wow. Yes, yeah, and he got me through it and it kept me in ministry all those years. And I think I might have even said this to you when we visited. How many times throughout my journey in ministry have I gotten down on my knees and said, Lord, I can't do this? Yes, you did. Take this calling from me. Yes, okay. I have been there so many times. But every time he's been like, No, no, I'm not gonna do that. And he reminds me over and over again through other people, through putting that scripture in front of me. Um, two different scriptures that have really sustained me all through it all and kept me still in ministry from 2002 to right now today is Galatians 6.9 that says, if we do not lose heart while doing good, we don't grow weary while doing good, then we'll reap in in due season that reward. So that's one of them. And then the um, I think it's Psalm 27, 13, where David writes, I would have lost heart if I had not believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the limping. Yeah. So my so much of mine goes back to remembering what God's word says.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Yeah, yeah. It's so funny because even with my um my book, I was preparing for an interview in December. And um, you know, I was just just refreshing my memory with some of the things I had written. And I was going through something, and one of the chapters I read, the Lord was like, Yeah, remember that. So why are you doubting in this season? And I was like, Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Yeah, absolutely. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

Okay, so talk to me about her. I love what it stands for: healing, encouragement, and real life. Yes. What is a memorial stone? What were what were your remember God or are your remember God moments in um creating her?

SPEAKER_03 31:58

Well, it's funny that you ask that because I will tell you that God really started speaking to me. So this, I guess this falls into disobedience over absolute fear and not knowing, but he really started speaking to me to start a podcast in 2016, 2017, somewhere around there. And I was just like, oh, there is no way. I mean, I don't have the technological skills. I don't, I can't, I I don't know how to even go about it. You know, I gave them all the different lists of reasons. And so I didn't. And and I kept feeling like I should, you know, but and then you kind of question, oh, maybe it really wasn't God, you know. So I finally got the courage to just decide, because I I've been, right? I send out weekly emails um and that are all kind of scriptural biblical teaching and stuff. I've written all the Bible studies, I teach Bible studies, and so I'm ri regularly putting stuff out there and doing it in different ways, but I just hadn't done it through this podcast mechanism. Okay. So I finally got the courage to just decide that I was going to do that with the stuff that I was already doing and just kind of play with it. So that's what I did. Probably started that uh maybe three years ago. I I'm not even sure what year it was, but probably 2022 or 2023, that I just started doing some and didn't really put it out there. I put it out there, but I didn't put it out there. Like I wasn't promoting it. I didn't really want it to be. It didn't seem like I was just, I guess I was trying to see, can I even do it? You know? And so then um somewhere, I guess it's been about two years that I went really all in and said, okay, you're gonna do this. You could do it. And um, so that has been probably not as um pretty of a picture of I wish I'd have walked a little bit better in obedience to the Lord. But I doubted, I doubted myself, and in that doubted, you know, what God could do in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

But you you did TV though, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 34:38

Yeah, yeah, I did do. That's it's been a crazy journey. Yeah, that was another thing. Oh my gosh. In 2010 is when we started, we had uh, we called it Girlfriends, and it was a Christian women's TV show, kind of a talk TV show. And we did Bible study on it as well. But it's it was a local TV show, and I guess it was in 2009 that we were approached with this opportunity. And of course, I am like, what in the world is that? This can't be real.

SPEAKER_04 35:13

You know, it was just, I've been one of those. I mean, he called one into ministry that he is like probably shakes his head a good bit, but uh at the same time, he knew he knew what he was getting because he created me and made me. So um, but it was funny.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

We was a couple of friends of mine that we were kind of brought into this um this TV show journey, and we just went in, you know, and we we prayed, we just sought the Lord. We're all kind of like, is this God? It seemed like God kept laying out everything for it to work. And so you couldn't not do it, you know. It's like all the provision of everything just kept being there. The next step and it was there, the next step and it was there. And, you know, so it was like everything that seemed like, well, we don't have this. Well, the next thing you know, he's provided it. And so that was just a real amazing. You would think whenever that had happened, I could look at that podcast.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

That's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_04 36:24

Yes, but did I? No, no, I didn't. It's just what it is. It's true. I did not. It's like I'm seeing that right now and going, Lord, I'm sorry again.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

That I love that you shared that, Pat, because that's just so real and so human and so who we are. Right? Like sometimes we just, you know, it doesn't come to mind, or we just forget, or we're just like, I don't know that I even really feel like doing that.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Yeah. Goodness. He is good.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

He is good, he is good. And I mean, I I've listened to a couple episodes, and um, I've enjoyed listening to your podcast. I I love the teaching element. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, which leads me into then your Bible studies. You've written 13 Bible studies, um, and you've covered very various things like healing, spiritual battle, how to study the Bible. So yeah, talk us through that and remembering God in that.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

Yeah. Well, um, the latest Bible study, and this is this is another cool thing. I really hadn't even thought about it like that, but my maker in me is my latest Bible study. It was uh released in July, and it is a six-week women's Bible study um based on becoming God's beautiful vessel. And it's all based on Isaiah 64, 8 that says God is our father, he's our potter, he's the clay. I mean, we're the clay and we're all the work of his hands. And so the thing about that study is I started that study 20 years ago. When I initially wrote the study, it was 20 years ago, and it took all of these years. And honestly, I had kind of just put it to the side. I had taught it in one of the things I've done is do like community-wide Bible studies here, and I had taught it several times over and over throughout the years, and then it just was like, okay, I just put it over to the side. And then God started stirring me to go back to writers' conference. And I did that in, I think it was in 2023 that I did that writers' conference. And I was telling this um acquisition acquisitions editor about that study. And he was like, Oh my gosh, we need to get this published. And I'm like, uh, okay, you know, but it has really been a blessing for me to go back and remember. It's like all the things that I learned about the Lord then through that study, through the writing of that study, and even in that teaching then, he's brought it full circle back to me in the this time because I've had to go back and re-look at all of those lessons and and all of what I've learned in there. And through that, God really took me on a new journey of really realizing my true identity in Christ. Oh, yeah, I was about to say that's identity, isn't it? Yes, it's so much about identity and uh really letting me live in a new place with my identity fully and completely um seeing my worth and my value through the identity of Jesus, that he's my righteousness, and I am becoming his righteousness. Uh, he's given me robes of righteousness. And so it's like I had already come to grips with that to some degree. But you know, our journey is so progressive with the Lord. So it's like he teaches us these things and we take it on, we accept it, we live out of it, and then he brings us back to it and takes us through this. Like, it's almost like I went through a refresher course and live in another level and a new place of recognizing my true identity in the Lord. And it's just really helped me to see my worth and value in a different way. I I don't know if that all makes sense, but it's really for me been very personal remembering that uh past journey with that right in that Bible study.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

If if you're comfortable in sharing this, Pat, what false identities did the Lord expose that you shed? And then what true identities, what robes of true identity did you put on then after having shed those false identities?

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Well, you know, I I truly had a I am a bad person identity on me when I first came to the Lord. And it was so deep inside of me that I think that was part of the, like I had partly shedded that and accepted God's grace. And I had learned one of the things I always say, you know, I was just not a role follower. I mean, and though I was kind of raised to some degree where you followed the rules. That was how you lived out Christianity. And I just couldn't do that. It was not me. But it was that point of coming to know the Lord and coming to understand grace that I came to this place of understanding, okay, it's not about that. It's not about rules, it's about relationship with Jesus. So I once I started coming to that place, it really helped me get over that to a level that I could really serve the Lord in ministry. But I still feel like until God took me through this, going back through the lessons I'd learned in my maker in me again, was he took me back to to that identity place and that worthiness place and recognizing that he not only did he create me in his image, but he um he's working that image, his image out in me at all times. And because of that, I really have worth and value that is um way beyond what I think I can even comprehend, you know. And and so it's really just helped me come to the place of saying, I am worthy because of Christ. I am enough. You know, there's so many times I d I do really kind of struggle sometimes when I hear people say um the I am enough thing, because I I think we can really only say it. Once we recognize that we are enough because of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

Yes. Yeah, not because of ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

But once we're in him and we know that, it should really change everything for us. We can really work, not not work, walk in confidence in our identity, and confidence in our value, and confidence in our worthiness because the blood of Jesus is so powerful that every single thing that we've ever done has been wiped away. Our everything that we once were, we're no longer that. We're no longer that old identity. We're no longer that old person. We are a new creation in Christ Jesus. And we're no longer, you know, one of the things I've always struggled with and have struggled with this for a while, is people would say, Oh, I'm just a wretched sinner. Well, here's the deal. I'm not a wretched sinner anymore because my identity is new. It's in Christ. I am no longer identified that way. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. So anytime that I get in a space where I feel like that's the language, I really get real uncomfortable because I'm like, oh, not me. I'm not, I lived too long in that. And it's time for me to release that and move on into what God has for me in my new identity in Christ. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

Pat, why do you think we struggle with that? Why do we struggle with recognizing that no, Jesus took it all, he's the fullness in us. And so now there should be no more boundaries and no more obstacles. Why why do you think that in your years of ministry, talking to women, writing your Bible studies, your podcast?

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Hmm. You know, it's funny. I I'm having a flashback to I'm remembering a moment in a conversation with two very godly women that were probably about 20 years my senior. And God had called me to ministry. I was real new in ministry. It was way back then. And I was saying to them, I just, I don't know why God would call me into ministry. I don't know why he would use me. I mean, I am just such a mess. And, you know, why would he? And you what they said to me was, Pat, that is false humility. You are elevating what you've done over what the Lord did. And I was like, I didn't know what to do with that. I had to really go home and I it really I wasn't upset with them, but I didn't know what to think about it. I really had to go process that, you know? And um, but I think that we do that. Why we do that, I'm not sure. Uh it makes me think of my daughter, my oldest daughter is a counselor. And I know at some point we have um talked about negative thoughts and how they rule in our mind. Something like, I don't know if it's 85% of our thoughts are negative and we we cling to them way too much. I know. But we let that rule in our mind. But I think that's why God's word says to take every thought captive. Bring it into the obedience of Christ. When we bring it into the obedience of Christ, what are we doing at? We're bringing in to the obedience of God's word because he is the word made flesh. So we've got to bring those negative thoughts into what do you say, Lord? Not what do I think or what do I say or what did I do. Bring that thought about what you did into and under the authority of the word of God and see what he says and let that, but what and you know, what another thing is, is how we do that is we've got to know the word.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

And so it's so funny because my follow-up question was gonna be about dig. So, yes, like talk about that and then go into dig because I love this digging into God's word.

SPEAKER_03 48:39

Well, that's a how to study the Bible, Bible study for women. And it's because I once you start studying the word, I I don't know. I mean, that's why my ministry, the name of my ministry is On Fire Ministries, because he ignited a fire in my heart for his word. Once he ever got my attention in it, and I hadn't been able to put it out. I don't want to put it out. But um, I do want to help women get to that place where they can study the word for themselves. So I kind of took all the different lessons and things that I had learned in seminary and throughout all of my years in study and doing Bethmore Bible studies and all kinds of different Bible studies, um, and tried to condense it down into something that I felt like would be manageable for women that would never go to seminary, you know, but but for women that would want to go deeper than just reading the Bible, because I think if you really stay in the Bible, you're going to get that fire lit. I just don't think that you stay in God's word for a long time and you don't get that lit fire. I might be wrong. I just I haven't seen that. I've seen it in women around me where they have started digging into God's word, and then all of a sudden they're like, oh my goodness, I've got to keep doing this because he starts revealing himself to you and he starts changing you, you know.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

And so if we're operating in false humility and even in false identity, when we dig into the word, we'll find out who we truly are.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

And we'll operate in the true sense of humility as it's biblically defined.

SPEAKER_03 50:41

Yeah. And, you know, I was thinking about like just in all the things that we've kind of talked about in this time today already, and just seeing all the mistakes I've made in ministry and in following God in my calling, in um just in my faith in general, and recognizing the process of our faith and how God is fine with working with us in the process. Even though we stumble and we struggle and we don't act out our faith as much as we wish we could or we um should or what we think we should, still God is still working it out. He doesn't dismiss us. You know, he didn't dismiss me and and starting the podcast when I did it, then when I waited five years to even really consider opening the door to that, you know. He just kind of kept plugging away with me and walking me through it until one day I finally said, okay, I'll at least put my foot in the water, you know. So there's a lot to to be said looking back across our journey and seeing how good God is in letting us be our our human selves and making the mistakes.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

Yeah, yeah. And you do the other thing I love about what you just shared, Pat, is that it's easy for someone to look at your website and think, oh, she's, you know, she figured it all out, she got it all together. But there was, I don't want to do this. And and there's been moments, as you shared earlier, you got on your knees and you're like, take me out of ministry, Lord. Um and so yeah, I have to remember that too. Sometimes when I kind of just get into um self-pity and and my mind can start going to comparing. I have to remind myself that no, like in the background, we all have struggles and it all the things that we're doing, it's it may look great when you see it from the outside, but we don't know what it took to actually get there, and we don't know the struggles that are also happening in the background.

SPEAKER_03 53:16

Yeah, I it's a funny thing is that website is just a facade, you know. I mean, we've got to put that stuff out there, and and of course, you want it to look good and professional and all that, but it doesn't tell the story of all the now. If you go read all the blog posts, because I I kind of live, you know, I tell stuff in my blog post of my life, but um, you know, just on the surface, it looks a whole lot better than I'm not having to show you all the struggle and the behind the scenes part. That's just not there.

SPEAKER_02 53:55

And as we walk with God, he's with us in those places, in that struggle, in that I want to get out of this, in that why am I going through this? All of those things. He's there. Yes, yeah, he's faithful, as you mentioned earlier. Faithful. Yeah. Wow. Gosh, I love this so much, but we're almost um at time. So, what would you like our listeners to know? Maybe something that you wanted to share that you haven't had a chance to talk about yet.

SPEAKER_03 54:31

Well, you know, I guess the story of my life and of my faith journey, the word that God has always kind of just stuck into my mind and kind of it's the word that's carried me through. It's been perseverance and to not give up. You know, whatever God puts in you to do, um just don't give up. Don't give up on your child that seems too far gone. Don't give up on the ministry that he's put into your heart and spoken things to you about in the past. Don't give up on, you know, marriage. I mean, my goodness, um, I've been married over 30 years now, but I also have been divorced before that. And so, you know, and had I not had Jesus, I wouldn't have made it through that marriage. So I guess to any woman or person that is listening, whatever it is that God has put in you, that God has given you, um, that you have good hopes for, good expectations for, don't give up. Persevere. Keep doing the hard work because there is hard work in some of it, you know, relying on the Lord, rely on the Holy Spirit, rely on the faithfulness of God in it, but don't give up. Yeah, don't quit.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

Because something good is ahead.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

Yeah. That's a message for me too. So thank you for that. Yeah, well, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 56:14

I hope so. I love I love what you're doing, and I love your podcast too.

SPEAKER_02 56:18

So thank you. I appreciate that. And and you know, just like you, sometimes it's just hard. I'm like, oh God, I'm so tired. I know.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

And you wonder, is this really working? Is this doing anything?

SPEAKER_02 56:32

It is. That that hasn't, if you know, if no one else, it's definitely encouraged me. So thank you so much. Um, you're so welcome. Pat, tell us where we can find you. And then if you don't mind praying us out after that, I would appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 56:48

Love to. Well, on fire-ministries.org is my website. There you can find my blogs, my um podcast. I have tons of free resources, biblical resources on there. Uh, as soon as you get there, you'll see a free prayer matters Bible study. And it kind of just kind of talks about the basics of prayer. It's like a two-week little Bible study that you can sign up for. But there's all kinds of, I've got relationship, marriage, children, uh, resources in in there, as well as just some biblical study tools and stuff that you can um get on my website. So go to on fire-ministries.org and don't leave out the dash, because if you leave out the dash, you won't get me. Right.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

And I will also definitely link it all in the show notes to make sure that everyone can find you. Perfect.

SPEAKER_03 57:48

All right. You want me to pray? Yes, please. All right. Precious, glorious Heavenly Daddy, Lord God Almighty, we just give you praise today. We give you praise for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Lord, we give you praise for our story, for our testimony that you have given each and every one of us a story to tell of your goodness, of your faithfulness that's going to minister into somebody else's life. Lord, I pray that you would, the people that listen today, that they are hearing our stories and knowing, my goodness, he did this for me, and that they're taking that with them into the world to share that to someone else who's weary, who's hurt, who's broken, who needs your words of encouragement, Lord. And I pray, Lord, just your Holy Spirit filling and anointing us as we go with the gospel of Jesus Christ in all the places that every single one of us live, that we exalt you, raise you up, and lift you up, bring honor and glory to you. We love you, we give you praise, and um just invite you to do with this uh podcast anything and everything that you want to. We love you so much in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

Amen. Pat, I've loved this so much. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today. It's been amazing.

SPEAKER_00 59:28

Thank you. I loved it. Yay.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

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