From Pressed to Purpose Ep. 2 | Pressing Produces Purpose

There are seasons where everything feels heavier than usual. You are showing up, handling responsibilities, and moving through your day, but you're feeling the weight. It follows you into your thoughts, your decisions, and your quiet moments.

In this episode, we talk about what it means to carry that kind of weight. This is for the person who keeps going but feels pressure in ways that are hard to explain. You may be walking through loss, uncertainty, a health challenge, or a major life shift. Whatever it is, the weight/pain is real.

I walk through how to stay present in a heavy season and how to keep moving forward without disconnecting from what you feel. You can acknowledge the weight and still take your next step with intention.

“You can feel the weight and still take the next step.”

If something in this resonates with you, take some time to go back and listen to the full Pressed to Purpose series. Starting with episode 1. 

If you want to go deeper, join me inside the Fulcrum Mindset Community and visit my website for more tools and support.

🎧 New episodes are released every Tuesday by 4 AM.

If you’d like deeper support, you’re invited to join the Fulcrum Mindset Skool Community. There, you’ll find courses, guided reflections, live meetups, and a supportive group focused on real transformation.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So let me ask you, what have you been telling yourself about this experience that you're going through? Maybe during this experience, you've been asking, why is God letting this happen to me? Or am I being punished or something? What did I do to deserve this? And I get it if you've been asking yourself that. When you're in crushing pain, it feels like punishment. But what if I told you what feels like punishment is actually spiritual pressing. So here's the shift I need you to make this week. You're not being punished, you're being pressed. There's a difference. Punishment destroys with no purpose. It's pain for the sake of pain. It tears you down and it leaves you there. But pressing extracts what's most valuable. It's pain with intention, it's pressure with purpose. If you are being punished, it would look like no growth, only loss, no lessons, only pain, no wisdom, complete breakdown with nothing left. Random and meaningless suffering. But if you're being pressed, extracted, it looks like growing through the pain. Lessons learned the hard way, wisdom emerging from experience, breakdown that leads to breakthrough. Purposeful productive suffering. So I want you to ask yourself honestly, which description fits better? Are you being punished or are you being pressed? And here's how you know is anything emerging from this crushing? Even small things count. New boundaries, clearer vision, deeper faith, stronger resilience, better discernment. If something is being produced, even through this intense pain that you're feeling, you're being pressed, not punished. This experience is not destroying you, it's extracting something from you. And that something is oil. Let me show you what I mean. In biblical times, olive oil was one of the most valuable commodities. You've been praying for some of that value. It was used for cooking and healing and lighting lamps and anointing the kings and the priests. But to get to the oil, you had to crush the olives. The pressure was intense and crushing was thorough. And the more pressure that was applied, the more oil was extracted. Now, here's what I found interesting. The oil from the crushing part was the finest, purest, most valuable oil. That was the oil reserved for anointing. The crushing was releasing the most valuable part of the olive. Before we go any further, I want you to see this process through your own eyes. The olives are crushed and the pressure is applied. The oil flows. When you see it, this metaphor is going to click in a whole new way. That's the oil. That is what you are experiencing. That is what is being produced in you. I also couldn't help but to notice that the olives were being crushed by an ass. Okay, we'll leave that alone. We'll talk about that in the community. As an olive, the crushing that you're experiencing is to produce the oil that is within you. It's wisdom, it's strength, it's discernment, resilience, anointing. But then there's something else, something particular to who you are and what you are being called to do. That is what is being extracted from you. And it's your specific calling, your unique assignment, the thing that only you can do. See, the oil that comes from your pressing isn't generic oil. It's oil that's specific to your olive, your experience, your story, your pain, your journey. The oil you're gaining is wisdom that comes from your specific crushing experience. The anointing you're receiving qualifies you for something specific. I can't tell you what that thing is. That comes through prayer, through a deep, intimate relationship with God, through spending time in his presence and asking, God, what are you extracting from me? What are you preparing me for? Who am I called to serve with this oil? And more than just asking, I need you to position yourself to hear him, listen for his answer. What noise is blocking you hearing from him? What posture do you need to take so that you can get to that answer? We'll talk about that posture a little bit more later. Maybe you're being pressed to minister to women in abusive relationships because you've gone through an abusive relationship. Maybe you're being pressed to help entrepreneurs navigate failure because you've survived it. Or maybe you're being pressed to counsel families because you've lived it. Or maybe you're being pressed to mentor people through career transitions because you've been there. Maybe God is just trying to get you to do the thing He's been calling you to do all this time, but you have not walked in it because of fear. If fear is the case, go ahead and grab that video where I address fear. Your specific calling in your particular assignment that comes from your particular crushing is between you and God right now. My role is just to help you get in position to see yourself in it. If you continue to focus on the crushing experience or experiences, it's blocking you from getting to the place where God is trying to take you. And I know it's going to be something great because in Jeremiah 29, 11, he says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. But I can tell you this right now: the oil is being extracted from you. Your calling is in the oil. The pressure you're experiencing, it's not random or pointless. It's not a punishment, it's extraction. God is preparing you, pressing you to get the oil out. And the oil is going to anoint you for what's next. How do I know? The crushing that I experienced gave me the oil I needed to start this and walk you through this process. And that brings me to tears. He's given me knowledge and wisdom from my crushing experiences. My cup runneth over, and I'm here to give it to you. Let me tell you a little story. I never forget being eight months pregnant and losing my mom at age 27. She was my everything. And in that moment, it felt like God had turned his back on me. Like I was being punished for something. How could he take her from me when I needed her the most, is what I thought. I had so many questions about life that only she could answer. And for a long time, I walked around feeling abandoned and alone in my grief. I felt like an orphan. But as life kept moving and new challenges came my way, something shifted in me. Every time I faced a hard situation, I found myself drawing on the wisdom that I had gained from her loss. I catch myself handling things with a strength I didn't even know I had. And that's when I realized I wasn't being punished. I was being pressed. Losing my mama, y'all, extracted an oil I didn't even know was inside of me. It gave me unshakable confidence in myself and complete faith in God. It taught me how to overcome fear and step into who I am with intention. I learned to appreciate every single day because tomorrow is not promised to us. I started taking my health seriously and I began living out all the lessons that she had poured into me. Now, when life gets hard, and believe me, child, it gets hard. I see things differently. Nothing in everyday life could ever hurt as bad as losing my mama. That perspective has been freeing. I've learned how to be okay with somebody telling me no because I know that God just has something better for me. I am using the wisdom that I've gained to squeeze the best out of life. I believe in myself because I know that outside of God, no one is coming to save me. And because of that, I take chances I never would have taken before. That pressing season, it broke me open. And it revealed the oil that I now feel is inside of me. And now I flow differently because of that oil. And I'm here to tell you that you can too. I believe in you. Psalm 23 and 5 says, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Do you see it? Do you see it? The table is being prepared while you're in the presence of your enemies. The anointing comes while you're still being crushed. The overflow happens after the pressing. The crushing is part of the anointing process. So while you're in the press, and while you're experiencing the pressure, while you're wondering if you can survive this, God is preparing a table. He's positioning you for what's next. He's producing oil in you that will be used for anointing. The crushing and the anointing are happening simultaneously. That's good. So, who are the enemies present while your table is being prepared? Let's look at them. They're not always people. Sometimes your enemies are doubt that thinking, this'll never get better. Fear? I'll never survive this. Shame? People can see me going through this. Financial pressure? I don't have enough money to make it through this. Rejection? Why am I not good enough? Betrayal? Why would they treat me this way? Disappointment? I thought it would happen for me. Or circumstances that seem impossible. Those enemies are present and they're lingering in your mind. But while these thoughts linger, God is preparing your table. Let's work to shift our thinking this week. Now here's where the fulcrum mindset comes in. How you think about your crushing determines how you move through your crushing. If you think I'm being punished, you'll stay stuck in that shame. But if you think I'm being pressed, you'll start looking for that oil. If you think this is random, then you'll feel powerless. But if you think this has purpose, you'll start processing this much differently. So let's look at this through the fulcrum mindset lens. Your thoughts shape your emotions. When you think I'm being punished, you'll feel shame, you'll feel hopelessness, you'll feel despair. But when you think I'm being pressed, you'll feel expectation, you'll feel purpose, and you'll feel hope. Remember that your emotions shape your actions. So shame makes you hide out from people, but hope, it makes you show up. Your actions shape your results. Hiding will keep you stuck, but showing up helps you move forward. So this week, we are shifting the narrative, y'all. We're reframing from punishment to pressing. That's step two of the fulcrum mindset method. So here's some examples. Punishment thinking, God is punishing me for past mistakes. Pressing thinking, God is refining me and extracting wisdom I need for my future. Punishment thinking, this pain is pointless. Pressing thinking, this pressure is producing oil. Punishment thinking, I'm being destroyed. But pressing thinking says I'm being refined. Punishment thinking is that God has abandoned me. But pressing thinking is God is with me in the press, extracting what he needs from me. Do you see the shift? Same circumstances, different narrative. And the narrative you choose determines how you're going to move through this. Look for evidence that you're being pressed and not punished. What's emerging? What wisdom is being produced? What oil is starting to flow? Now, this is deep mindset work. This is where your transformation begins. Not by changing your circumstances, because I could not change the fact that I lost my mom. But it's by changing how you think about your circumstances. That is the fulcrum mindset. I want you to think about the oil that is being produced. And that oil being the wisdom and the anointing that's being extracted from you. Your crushing is producing something sacred. And God has purposes for what's being extracted from you. Now, before you go, I need to tell you something. This reframe of pressing and not punishment changes everything. But you might not believe it immediately. You might even wrestle with it a little bit, depending on where you are. You might have days where you fall back into punishment thinking. And that's okay. Shifting your mindset is a process. It is not an overnight thing. But I want you to give yourself some time and I want you to give yourself some grace in this process. And every time you catch yourself thinking, I'm being punished, I want you to pause and I want you to reframe that. I'm being pressed. And I want you to do it over and over and over again until pressing thinking becomes your default. That's the work. And you're doing it. And finally, I need you to remember you're being pressed, not punished. And this pressure it has a purpose.