You're welcome. Today we have a special guest, Sylvia Washam. She's from Austin, Texas. She's the a best-selling author and a keynote speaker focusing on spiritual transformation. She hosts the Released Out Reveal Purpose podcast, helping people surrender control to find their true God-given calling. Obviously, you can see she's a great fit for our episode today on the 40 Days with Reconciliation podcast. Welcome, Sylvia. Oh, thank you so much, Emmanuel, for welcoming into your amazing podcast. We are soon going to dive into a few things that we want you to help us on, but it would be fair to allow you to first tell us how you came to start this spiritual transformative coach program. It was a long road for me. It was not linear. I began my career in this back in 2012, really, is where the transformation occurred. I was coming from the corporate side of the uh corporate America. I worked in pharmaceuticals for many years. And I was operating from a space of fear and survival in those years. And in 2012, I received the enormous blessing of nearly dying. And I'll I'll explain why I think that's the best blessing I ever received from God ever, and how grateful I am for it because it shifted the way I looked at life, the way I looked at myself, the way I loved myself, and projected a deeper relationship with our Lord. So in 2012, I had already survived a divorce. I had been a single mom for about three years. I had a little boy who at the time of my divorce was four, so at that stage was almost seven years old. And I began dating who would become my second husband. And it was during Easter weekend that this I received three miracles within 72 hours. I began having pain in my chest before I boarded a flight from where I used to live in very South Texas in the United States to Houston, Texas, which is known as one of the world-renowned medical centers in the world. And that was a miraculous thing, let me put it that way. Because when I boarded the flight, I did not know it at the time. I had pulmonary embolisms. And for those listening, that is a deadly disease that most people only have one and die. I had multiple in my lungs before I even took a flight. And when I landed, I was in so much pain that we decided to stay overnight in Houston. And in the middle of the night, at three o'clock in the morning, a pain jolted me out of bed. And it felt like 50 knives were piercing my chest every time I took a breath. It was awful. And I heard a prompting from the Lord, from the Holy Spirit, that said, lean forward and you'll be able to breathe. And so I do. I lean forward immediately. I don't, I don't reject the idea. I don't try to question it. I don't resist it. I simply lean forward. And that decision actually, according to the doctors that saw me yet the next day in the emergency room, said that that in itself saved my life. Because in that moment, my heart had two blood clots that were passing through it to get to my left lung, and they were rather large. The doctors believed that they were racing against time with my case because when they took an initial look inside of my body, they noticed aside from having a lot of pulmonary embolisms, which is deadly, I my liver was inflamed and they didn't understand why. And the next day they took a scan and I had six doctors walk into my room. And I knew because I came from the sales environment, they wouldn't even look at me in the face. I knew it was very bad news. And for those listening, I come from an entire family of doctors. They were all called into consultation. They all knew that I faced an 80% chance of dying. I didn't. They concealed that information from me. And as they were talking, I could just sense the energy in the room that I was in very big trouble. I was going to lose my life. I knew that science was only going to get to a certain place. And then there was God. There was our Lord who could come into an impossible situation, as the doctors were explaining, and make it very possible. And I begged for my life. I I asked the Lord if He if He would give me a second chance at life, I would devote my life to Him. And the next morning, it was Easter Sunday morning. So for the Christians, it was Resurrection Day. A woman with the Catholic diocese walked into my room and I we were praying. We we began the Lord's prayer. And in the midst of that prayer, a love so immense filled the whole room. I felt the presence of our Lord cradling me and letting me know I was okay. There was a knowing and a peace that washed over me and a love that is so hard to describe. I tried in my book, In Faith I Thrive, finding joy through God's Master Plan, but no amount of words could adequately describe that love. It felt like a warm blanket, the gentle and kind presence. And he let me know that he had heard my prayers and that he had granted my second chance at life. And when the nurses saw me soon after the lady left my room, they said that I looked radiant. My face was illuminated in a light they had not seen. And my boyfriend, who then turned out to be my husband later, when the lady left the room, turned to me and said, You felt him too, didn't you? So you see, God made himself known. When they wheeled me to take a look inside, the doctors were very shocked. And they were expecting me to have long-term complications. There were none. It was as if I had never been sick at all. And see, these three miracles profoundly shifted the way I looked at life. And that that was the moment, the pivotal moment that shifted everything. And how I became a spiritual transformative coach, it it was a series of acceptance, of obedience, of full surrender to his plan. And that's where that's how I became a spiritual transformative coach and just began that journey. Thank you very much. What a great testimony. Wow. Uh yes. Uh, would you like to tell us about your career before that? How was it? How was your relationship with God? It was distant because I had married young. And when I began going to the Catholic Church, I experienced hypocrisy in the church. And in my uh naiveness, I did not realize that I had blamed God for the hypocrisy I had experienced in the Catholic Church. So I turned away for 10 years during my first marriage. And it was soon after my divorce that I began to turn inward and I felt compelled. My soul felt a pull to get to know him again. In fact, I heard the his voice clearly say, You and I need to get to know each other again. You've you've I want you to know who I truly am. And I began writing. See, I've always been a writer ever since I was a little girl. So I started to write journal pages, and he started to send me messengers along my journey that gave me indications of what my next steps were because I would feel his presence and peace when I made decisions along my journey. But who I was before was I was a perfectionist. I was a super high achiever. I knew how to achieve. And I was working my way to achieve love and worthiness and significance through my doing instead of receiving God's love and being and embodying the love, the joy, the fruits of the spirit. That's who I was prior. Thank you so much. Uh, it's a very great message for people who are lost in career, trying to find fulfillment in career. Uh do you feel like what you're doing today? Do you feel like you've lost anything? How would you relate your life today with your life before that transformative encounter with Christ? Before it was empty, unfulfilled, striving for significance and validation from outside of me that doesn't fill you, that leaves you empty and drained. Who I am now is completely different. I am fulfilled or on roots of becoming fulfilled, of understanding what true alignment is, and that is when ego, soul, and spirit are one. And that's the concept I explain immensely in my best-selling book, In Faith, I Thrive, Finding Joy Through God's Master Plan. Because you see, the mind is very powerful, and it will block you from seeing the light and your I your calling and your identity in Him. That's what gives you fulfillment. That's what gives you wholeness and what they call perfection in the Bible in Scripture. See, perfection in biblical standards doesn't mean perfect the way us humans view perfection, which is unattainable, by the way. It's an illusion of the mind. Perfection means wholeness in scripture, and wholeness only can come from the Lord. He's the only one that can fill you with the joy, with the peace, with the happiness, the gentleness, the faithfulness, the goodness, and the self-control that your soul needs to step into the light, step into your divine calling and identity. And once you do, everything falls into perfect alignment and harmony. Not that you'll never feel trials and tribulations, but when you do, you'll know who you are in Him. You'll know you're a daughter of a king or a son of a king. You're co-heirs with Christ. That is fulfillment, not all this other stuff that the world tells you you need, another job or uh validation from your spouse, or only he can give you that. And you as well, because when you hear scripture, abide in me as I abide in you, when you become one with the Lord, you start to co-collaborate with him, that's when you get what you're seeking. When you felt pain in your chest and then there was a bad report, you actually don't look like you looked at the report, it looked like you looked at the cross and your deliverance came through. And what would you say to somebody right now listening to this podcast and is sick and feels like their healing is delaying? His timing is perfect. I know it's hard to understand sometimes because we want the healing now, and we cannot possibly understand or comprehend his plan because we're not him. We don't see what he sees, we don't understand, and we don't have the knowledge he has. You see, our knowledge is limited to our perspective, to what happened to us. We don't know the purpose in those moments. They all it that purpose comes when you sit back and reflect years later and see his hand and his providence, his protection for your for what's coming next and your role in his master plan with others. Let me explain what I mean by that. In my career, the first go around, I wanted to get promoted so badly. And I I I knew in my heart, I I had what it took to make to get that job and to fulfill it to the best of my ability. But God said, wait, you need to wait. And I I was stubborn and I was full of pride. And I was like, Well, wait, I know best. I know that I can do this. Why are you why, God, are you holding me back? That was my thought process. And he kept saying, Sylvia, because I have to put certain things in place, and I can see beyond and I know what's coming next, you don't. And I I couldn't see that Pfizer, my company, was going to be going through a round of layoffs and that the jobs I was going for, they were gonna be laid off. And he saw that my husband was going to ask for a divorce and I was gonna need money to to protect me and to and to help me, because that's would be that would be my biggest fear of how was I gonna financially move on after the divorce. He knew that about me. He loved me so much that he said no to me when I said I wanted to get promoted. And when the time came, I got promoted into the hospital division. It was the only position, Emmanuel, that did not get laid off by Pfizer. At the same time, my husband asked for a divorce. And not only that, I became the number one saleswoman at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in the same year I got divorced, and I earned the highest payout ever given to a representative, male or female, in that division. He knew my husband was gonna ask for money. I was able to provide it and then have some to support my goals moving forward. That's God's timing versus ours. Thank you so much. A testimony of grace, dependence on God, waiting on him. Thank you so much. As you spoke earlier about your faith in your testimony, I noted down this was daring faith. And it reminded me of Prophet Daniel, how he became so uh steadfast to the extent that he was thrown into the den of lions. And when the lions saw him, they knew where he was from, they couldn't touch him. Yeah, and yeah, so we when I look at the faith you had, uh, sorry, I'm going back to the uh pain in your chest. Right now, there are so many things around the world that may not necessarily bring pain in the chest, but they may actually bring a particular pain in the spirit and a grieving. So, how can we use this faith that God gave you in the hospital to stay steadfast until the Lord Jesus comes? Such a great question, Emmanuel, and I really want to thank you for that question, even though it's very deep. And let's break it up for people, break it down for people listening. I look to Paul, who wrote the in almost the entire New Testament. I look to his example, and that's what God has led me to look at. See, when when Paul wrote the New Testament, he was sitting in a Roman prison. And for those that don't know what being in prison looks like, visit Israel one time or go to a prison and look to see the conditions. His conditions were horrible, and yet he wrote about being grateful in his trial and tribulation. When you see an example like that, in contrast to what I'm currently going through, I use that as my role model. And I look to his life and I say, when we are the chosen people of Christ, when you are chosen like me to advance this kingdom forward, you are going to be faced with lions, whatever those are for you. It could be a health crisis, it could be a job that you really want that you don't know if you're ever going to get. It could be a child that you've tried so many rounds of fertilization, you know, to get pregnant and you just cannot and you don't understand. Know that our God loves you. You are so beloved, and his protection, he's always with you. That's the promise he gave all of us that no matter what you face, he will be with you and he will provide the strength and the endurance to persevere through these trials and tribulations. You're not alone in this. And when you sit back and reflect and you look to see God's hand in your life, he will reveal to you how he has been there for you. But you got to invite him. You have got to say, Lord, I want, I want to know you. Please reveal to me. Let me give me the eyes to spiritually see what you need me to see about these circumstances. Give me the ears to hear and understand so I can embody the patience I will need in this circumstance. And Lord, let me have the heart to believe in who and what I am in you, Lord. I need that from you, and he will give it to you. I promise you that. When you seek him with all your heart, you will find him. Awesome. Thank you. And after the medication, uh, while other people fear for you, God actually assured you, even medically proved it, that you had no long-term complications. So it proves the faith you have in God as genuine faith. Yeah, many people don't want to open up and release things to God. Actually, I like this book that you wrote titled Release Doubt, Reveal Purpose. Oh, the podcast. For this reason, yeah, it's a podcast. For this reason, I think it's important that our listeners and those watching on YouTube are able to know where to find these books because these books they have to read. It's a testimony, it can save somebody. So please, you would you like to share with us where we can find books? Sure. My my website. My website is the best place to find my podcast. The links to my podcasts, the links to connect with me, all my social media sites, and uh a way to purchase my book on Amazon because it's available internationally as well. That is www.sylvia spelt s-y-l via sin victoria w o r s h dot com. Thank you very much. You also uh shared with us how you faced hypocrisy in the church, and it reveals to us that you are not the kind of person who has a broken mind. You opened yourself, you opened your mind to Christ. And I love this. I love I love the freedom of speech, uh, and I want to thank God uh on that side to thank God for the United States of America where you are right now. We're also trying, we're coming up. But what I like so much about your testimony, you actually indicate you opened yourself to the Lord. So he revealed the truth to you. So I would what would you say to people who want to just follow? They just allow to be brainfolded, they don't want to use their brain to read the Bible to understand, they don't want to read critically, they just want to hear what people say, and then they say yes, yes, yes. Oh, in other words, like the biasness, like so to align to what they're saying instead of opening to a different point of view. Is that what you're asking? Yes, okay. What you're doing is easy to do. Anybody can do that. It's a lot more challenging, and it's the opportunity for you to grow as a person spiritually lies in you opening up your curiosity, number one, allowing yourself to open your heart and tell the Lord, please seek my heart. Let me know what it is that I'm doing that's blocking my light and my journey. Please help me understand why I'm allowing the wounds inside of me to inform my choices every day. That's why you take the easy way out because it's too painful. You think that if you open your heart, it's going to be so painful, you're not going to be able to go through it. And I'm here to tell you you would be wrong. Uh, it's actually what's hurting you more is by closing your heart. And that's what's keeping you in the dark. And I'm going to challenge you and say this the enemy has been baiting you this whole time, and you've been taking his bait. The father of lies is very alive and well in this world. And you are playing on his team when you stay in the dark, when you choose that. The easy route. That's easy to do. But you are a daughter and a son of the king, of the maker of the entire universe. You are co-wares with Christ. He died for you. He sacrificed and lived a perfect life so that your sin could be forgiven forever. And you would have a place with your heavenly father. That's love. That's unconditional love. What the father of lies is offering you, what the devil is offering you, is to stay in the dark, to stay in your security and in your comfort. But you're actually quite miserable, aren't you? Because you're not happy and you're not fulfilled and you're looking for it everywhere and it's exhausting you. And you may have already gone through a divorce because you have pushed everybody away in that pursuit. You have lost so much. I'm here to tell you that when you open up your heart to the Lord, you will find a love that no amount of person will ever be able to give you. That validation you seek, that significance, that purpose that you seek, only He can give you that. And when you feel the freedom that I have felt from that fear and embody, truly embody the joy and understand the value of surrender, you won't want to look back to your old life. Your old life will be like, what was I thinking? kind of like. So that's what I want to leave you with. Thank you. And from my ministry experience, when you use words like that, it could be that somebody is gonna watch this or is watching right now. And those words are already passage true to this person. So, what is your advice? How would somebody with that situation come out of that problem? One step at a time. One baby step at a time. The first step is awareness that you are in a dark space and that you want something different. See, the Lord, that's all he wants is your heart. He doesn't care about your accomplishments. He does, you don't have to earn anything with him. All you must is like any relationship out there, is just be real with him. Repent what you need to repent. Confess to him. He's not gonna judge you. He's not that God that we grew up as with little kids from the Old Testament that judge us. That's not who he is at all. And when you read his word, you'll know. Read his word and you'll see who he truly is. And when you do, when you start reading his word, he will reveal to you. He'll give you the eyes to spiritually see what you've not seen this whole time. And he won't do it in a harsh way, he'll do it in the most gentle and loving way. Believe me. I have been in your shoes. I know what this is like. I have been in the dark. I too rejected him. I too felt like he had abandoned me. But he never did. You did. You abandoned him. He's been at your door waiting to be invited. I have to do it. Say, Lord, please come in. I want to know you. That's it. That's all you have to do. That's your very first step. And he'll take it from there. Believe me. He will guide you into your light, into your calling, and into that beautiful identity. To the true version of you. Before all the lies and all these significant emotional events blinded you from the warmth of his life. Thank you so much. This has been Sylvia Bosham. What a wonderful experience, so prophetic experience. God bless you, Sylvia. Thank you. Joining us on the 40 days of reconciliation. May you please give your final word and then we close. Surrender. Thank you. God bless you. And you as well, Emmanuel.