Episode 8 - Breakaway Fear of the Unknown

Fear is more than just a feeling; it’s a barrier. It keeps us from addressing the real issues beneath the surface. 

When I reflected on my own fears, I realized I was trying to shield my son from pain without understanding my own emotional landscape. What fears are lurking in your heart? 

Let’s create a safe space to share our worries—because you’re not alone in this. 

Together, we can lift each other up and find healing. 

What’s in your bag of fears? Let’s unpack it together! 

Still figuring this out myself. 

Welcome to Valetha's Greatest Moments with God, a podcast for women who desire to hear God's voice, find healing, and grow closer to Him.

Each week, Val Mitchell shares personal stories, biblical insights, and powerful revelations from her own walk with God. Through real-life experiences and practical faith lessons, you'll discover how God speaks in everyday moments, guides us through difficult seasons, and invites us into a deeper relationship with Him.

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Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Valetha's Greatest Moments with God.

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Until next time,

Hear God's Voice.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Today we're going to be talking about the fear of revealing the truth. So let's dive into what is fear. I'm not talking on the spiritual sense because I always get, oh, God didn't give me the spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind. But we sometimes forget that fear is often an emotion. And we're going to address the emotion of fear today. So when we look up the definition of fear, fear is an emotion that comes from either a dread or alarm that was caused by something dangerous or timid that happened in your life. Fear can also be an apprehension about an unwanted or an uncertain situation. I think I fall into that sometimes, right? So what God told me when I was in prayer, and he told me to bring this topic forward. He pretty much said that a lot of times things happen to us when it's with our children, when it's with situations going on in the household, we pay attention to the surface level. We see all the emotion and the breakdown and the screaming or even just the silence, which to me I can't stand. Somebody mad at me and they're just silent. Well, God wants to get down to the root. Because in order for you to heal any relationship, you have to go through that thick layer to get down beneath the surface to expose the root. Sometimes when we're in that space, we don't see the pain that may have come from the path, we don't see the pain that may have come from disappointment. We may not even see the pain that just comes from the unknown, the understanding of why is this going on. So, what I want to do today is I want to take a look at some unknowns as we try to understand why we are going through what we're going through. So this time I'm going to do the exercise because I know I let you guys do it last time.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

And what I have, I have a bag, and inside these bags, each pin is representing an unknown, and I have it bottled up inside of this bag.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

So I'm open the bag, and this pen it represents my fear of my son that he may not be able to provide for himself when he becomes a man. Me as a mom carry a fear inside my bag of this pen that represents I have a fear that my son is going to run into a wall that is in front of his face, and no matter what I do, he doesn't try to avoid it. That's a fear that I carry inside of this bag, and then finally, there's a fear that I carry that there is something or someone that is in his heart that has replaced me and a mother's love. So when he answers and needs to make a decision, he turns towards that instead of turning towards me.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

That is another fear that I have an unknown that I carry underneath the surface. What is in your bag?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

If I asked you to grab a bag that had some things in it that you were carrying, now mind you, in the bag, when you have these things in there and it's closed up, this is that thick surface that nobody can see and it's carried deep within. What's in your bag?

SPEAKER_01 5:29

What's some of the unknown things that you worry about when it comes to your son? What are some of those unanswered questions?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

What are some of the things you dare not speak about? But it doesn't mean you're not carrying that fear or that worry inside of your bag.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

I want you to take a few minutes and think about it. If you're brave enough, put it in the chat.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Remember, this is a safe space. No judgment here. We're moms, and you'd be surprised. Some of the things you fear or you worry about, someone else is going through that same thing. They're carrying that same fear as well. I had to think about it because I I come up under my pastor, John F. Hannah, in um New Life Covenant Church, and he always says, Whatever you're going through, somebody in the Bible is going through that same situation. So learn from them so we can walk in what we should be doing. So I did some digging. Who in the Bible is a mom, has a son, and maybe dealing with some unknown fears. Hagar popped out. Now, her Hagar and her son's relationship, the Bible doesn't really talk about um if they went through anything of like rebellious and things of that nature. But we know Ishmael grew up to have some issues when he got older. So when I went through this story, I had to dig a little deep. And when I dug a little deep, and then I could relate to what Hagar went through when it came to fear and unknown. Hagar was pushed into an unknown situation. If you don't know the story of Hagar, Abraham and Sarah were promised a gift from God. They were promised a son. Hagar was um Sarah's, I'm just gonna call her slave. Sarah got so tired of waiting on God and in this promise. She knew God was gonna feel it. She believed in God, but it was taking so long. Oh my gosh, how many of us can relate to that story? So what heck was Sarah started to do. She wanted to, hey, God said a son. He didn't say how it was coming, right? He just said we would have a son. So let me go get my slave girl here. Go make us a son so we can have this promise. That was a forced unknown situation that Hagar got herself into. Long story short, after the child was conceived and there was turmoil in the household, Hagar got kicked out of the house with her son. What is the fear that Hagar went through? The unknown of what am I going to do out here? Kicked out, can't go back, limited on food and water, with no place to go. Her biggest fear for her child was he was going to die. If I shift it and even look at it from Ishmael's standpoint, when they ran out of food, and Hagar could not face it any any further, he was left alone, hungry, tired, no water to drink, under a tree. Because his mother could not face his tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

So she left.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Ishmael did what any child would do in a panic, in a state of fear. He just cried.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

He just cried.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

That's an unknown of not knowing where your tomorrow is going to be, and you're fighting circumstances that's happening today.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

So that boy cried out to God.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Reality, we as moms, we face fears related to our sons. And what we don't even realize is the unknown fears that our sons are also carrying because we're too busy worried about our fears. We don't even look and see what they are going through as well. Beneath that thick surface, how do we know we are facing fears and not even recognizing it ourselves? They have symptoms. When you're on the surface, there are symptoms that do display. When you look at my personal story, and I shared it in my book, God, I'm Worried About My Son. When my son was a teenager, that household was rebellious. Oh my gosh. I was up at night fighting with him. He got upset, he shut down, he ran out the door, I put a tracker on the phone because I saw the lifestyle that he was going into, and I knew danger and red flags were everywhere. So the louder I screamed to stop him from doing what I saw he was doing, the more it encouraged him to run even faster. I was carrying because I was looking at the surface outside of the bag and not even paying attention to what is the real reason, what's the root issue with me, what's the root issue with my son. So what did I do? I ran to the altar. I am a woman that have learned, even when I wasn't all the way in with God, that when I needed God, I ran to where I knew God was. I laid on the altar. I prayed and prayed and prayed. And enough knocking on my side, God opened the door and answered. I laid me and I laid my son on the altar. And I said, God, if you don't intervene, ain't nobody gonna stop this train wreck that I can see my son running face forward into.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Got home that night, and the Lord came through. He revealed the truth to my fear.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

What he revealed, he didn't. I we go in thinking, my son, my son, my son, my son, my son, this, this, and that. And what he showed was what I was doing, which caught me way off guard. We always say, Lord, show me what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

And then when he did, you be like, oh my gosh. He showed me me.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

What he showed me was um through a dream, I think it was. Um a time when he was speaking on billboards. Uh Tyreeka says that um her fear is that he will not have his dad with him, that he will walk away. Amen. That's a that's a big fear. Amen. Amen. Danielle says, My worries about my youngest sons are many. I worry that our relationship will never be the same or even exist in the future.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

I also worry about, oh I lost my feed. There we go. Lost my comments. Let me go back. Oh Lord, I lost my comments.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Okay, I'll grab them back. I think I hit the wrong button on my thing. But um, for for me, Daniel, those are good fears, those are real fears, I'll say. Let's try to break those today. So, what the Lord showed me, me when I went to the altar, he said, um, in my dream, it was my mother, and it was my me and my son. So, me when I was younger. I think I walked in the door, and my mother was fuss, fuss, fuss, fuss, fuss, fuss. My mother was a fuss. If she's watching, I'm gonna be, I love you, mom. But she was, and it would get me so, so irritated, so strong and so fussy, because a lot of times she was just fussing this to be fussing, and then I woke up, and as soon as I woke up, the Lord put my face on my mother and instantly changed me as a child to my children, and that was a big jaw-dropping moment for me, and he was so strategic with it that um I was dressed how how I normally dress. So when I come home, I just get undone, I pull my hair up, you know, put on your comfortable, relaxed clothes, and there was a situation that came in the house, and I instantly started fussing about whatever I was fussing about, and the Lord quickly showed me that image, and I was dressed that moment that I was dressed in the dream. I couldn't do nothing but stop at that moment, and really couldn't, because um, it was it was an all it was it was him showing me that I was contributing to the issues in the house just because of how I was reacting with them over simple stuff. Then he showed me my son, and with my son, he showed me that it was another dream. My son was a toddler in the dream, and he was running from an evil spirit, like a lioness type of evil spirit, like running, and the evil spirit was fast on his tails, and he was running and running, and he was running so far behind him. And then I popped in in the scene, and my son, I was able to grab my son, and an instant wall went up, and the the monster came right at this the screen trying to get in, but he couldn't get it, and he was roaring so loud. That showed me that now. At the time, I didn't know what that evil spirit represented, but it showed me that something was bothering my son so bad it had him running since he was a little kid. Later after prayer, the Lord revealed what that that issue was, that spirit was.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

I never never knew that my son was fighting and running from whatever that issue was that he was dealing with since a toddler. That was a truth that brought me to tears.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

So, what the Lord did is I I brought him my chaos, I brought him my frustration, I brought him that I'm worried my son, I'm about to lose my son to this craziness. And he revealed the truth that was hidden underneath the surface, the thick, thick surface.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Val you're doing this, and your son is going through this.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

And over the next couple of weeks, he created a space for the both of us to get together and love and God and everything poured into that space.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

That marked the day of me and my son healing and the bond we share now that he's in his twins. That being said, um, I'm getting emotional. Um when we invite God into our situation, there is no other way to expose the root, the truth that each person is playing.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

What are some surface things that you may be seeing or you're personally dealing with that is it's a deeper root under it? Are you overreacting? Are you being too harsh on disciplinary things? Like, are you strongly reacting to like small things that they may have done? Spilled the milk. Oh my gosh, this boy done spilled this milk 20 times. I keep saying, pick your cup and hold it in the kitchen. But every time I turn around, he's constantly spilling the milk on the floor. That might be a rooted issue of fear that you feel like you're losing control. Because, and it might be a rooted issue, like if he don't stop spilling this milk on the floor, it could lead to something bigger that I might tell him to run in the street, don't run in the street, and he runs into the street. That's a surface issue. Are you emotionally breaking down on tears all the time every time you guys have a conflict? You may be feeling helpless, hopeless. Or what I face was another one avoiding silence. I can't stand when when I there's silence when you know there's obvious tension in the room. That silence could be something where I just don't want to confront this, I don't want to be bothered with it, I don't want to deal with this issue at all. So I'm just gonna avoid it, I'm gonna not talk about it, and I'm gonna pray that it just fixes itself over time. Are you nagging? Are you constantly nagging at them? Are you constantly criticizing where they feel like every time they come up? And I'm guilty, I am, I am guilty of that. I do nag a lot. I do, I do. I have to catch myself sometimes, and how I catch myself, because my 10-year-old will come up to me is like, Mom, are you okay today? And it literally stops me in my tracks where I say, Oh, yeah, I must be pulling a little too much out there.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Amen. Amen. So when we go back to what God says in Genesis twenty-four and twenty six, twenty six and

SPEAKER_00 22:34

24. This is when Moses was told to go back to the Egypt and free God's people. And Moses was a little nervous. He was a little scared. Remember, he was talking about I stutter. I can't speak to your people. You chose the wrong person. And God responded back to him and said, I am with you.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

And I will bless you. I go back to the story of Hagar.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

When Hagar was at that moment where she walked away from her son. Now she didn't go too far, but she went out of the sight where she could not see him, and Ishmael could not see her. So in Ishmael's mind, she was gone. Look, my dad just kicked me out. Now my mama just walked away.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

The angel of the Lord came as soon as he heard Ishmael's cry. He went over to Hagar.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

He told, and he opened Hagar's eyes. And when she first time could see something that she couldn't see before.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Then the next thing she was told to do is go back and pick up and comfort your son.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

God revealed truth to Hagar in that moment by letting her see something she never saw. She got to see that water well. God also helped her to bring back to her son the peace he was fighting with by going to get him. Go comfort your son. And then he made provision where they were able to walk across and find somewhere they can actually stay and reside.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

The whole point of what we're talking about today is that we cannot do this without God.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

And that power resides within us. That when we are trying to face these battles alone, we fail.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

But when we bring God into it, he's going to reveal the truth.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

And what God told me through the whole process when I was studying on what to say today is that you have to know that he is here.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

But we have to believe in him, we have to trust him, and we cannot depend on someone else to do it. We can't go to man, and believe me, I did. We can't go to other things.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Turn the substance, alcohol, other substance. We can't put other gods in our father's place, expecting them to fix it. Because he's gonna say, Okay, let me know how that turned out for you. He is the one true and only God, because he's that loving of a father who wants to help and quickly not just fix it, because we go in saying, just fix it, God, just fix it. It can't just be fixed because there's a rooted issue that has to be opened, identified, plucked out, and then poured in his loving oil in there. So that way if it tries to resurface, it ain't got nowhere to go because it has already been cleaned out. Second Chronicles says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, you have to turn away from. You got to turn away from all those things that are pulling you away from God, running in and being able to help.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Because when we go to God and we seek his face, he said, I'm gonna forgive you of your sin. And I will heal their land.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

He said maybe, he didn't say possibility.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

He said, I will heal their land. So my question is, have you tried God?

SPEAKER_00 28:28

I can't see your comments anymore. My my phone kind of just doing its own thing, so I apologize. But leave a comment, please leave a comment. Let me know. Can you trust God with this? Last week he had us literally cast our cares, put our son's name on there, grandchildren, and tear it up and say, This is gone. And he had to come back to me because I I I told you guys, and some of you guys were with me. That was that I really felt that. But we and then with me, with my son, when I did, when I went to the altar, I didn't get a revelation at the altar. I didn't get an instant, well, I'm coming to help at the moment. It wasn't until I left church. Still, I was at I felt I received some peace. Now I knew I had to go back home in a turmoil household, but I did feel a little peace. And I I can't remember if it was that night or if it was a couple nights when I had that dream, and God exposed me and exposed what was good going on with my son.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

My prayer for you today is that whatever your worry is, whatever it is, let's take it to God.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Let's stop taking it to girlfriends, friends. Not let's stop avoiding it. Let's stop saying, okay, I'm just gonna drink tonight. Whatever it is you're doing to turn towards thinking it's working. I'm gonna ask you to let's take it to God. Let's ask God to reveal our heart. Because I was I was I was surprised to learn that I had a part in it. Now, you know, some things you realize you probably do and you probably didn't do, but for him to reveal this right here that you're doing, this is what's contributing to this whole thing. This right here. And be okay when he shows it. Give yourself grace because he's not coming to condemn you, he's coming so you can identify it and work to fix it. Now, is it gonna change overnight? No, it is not, but you have to put forth a consistent effort until it becomes natural. My 10-year-old will tell you today, I still have those moments. I get it from my mom. What else can I say? But I'm in a space now that one, I can recognize it, and two, I understand if I continue to do it, the damage that it causes. Because that's the part I didn't see before is the damage that it causes. So I put forth an effort to back up, take a moment, because I need a moment. Look at whatever it is I'm mad about, and realizing it really is not as bad as I think it is, because I'm dealing with whatever I'm dealing with, and I already know my teen year old got the Holy Ghost because he'll stop me in a minute and be like, Ma, are you okay? Did you have a bad day today? I'd be like, that's just my household. Amen. Amen. All right, I hope this has been a blessing to you. I really hope you learned something out of it. Um, I'm not gonna leave us without homework because I really, really want us to dig into this. Amen. Amen. So in the group, I want you to simply, before you get to the group, tonight, when you get some alone time, uninterrupted time, I want you to simply do a simple prayer. God, what truth I am afraid to face?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

What is it that you want to tell me that I don't want to face? Please reveal it. And then let him answer.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

You'd be surprised how he answers. He may do it in a dream, he may take you to a verse, he may do it on billboards like he does with me. Be open to whatever he shows you. And remember, he's not coming to condemn, he's coming to say this right here, because I am with you and I will bless you.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

We're gonna deal with this together. Amen. Amen. So after you do that with your son tonight, in the group, please share how it touched you, how it blessed you.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

You know, please do not do not put in the group what God revealed. But that's not that's not, I don't want to go there. But I would like to encourage our other mothers in the group by what you experienced during that time. What is something you recognize that you were doing that you want, you know, you need to start doing a little bit better? Let's be like Hagar. God reveals the truth by removing the scales from our eyes, and we can see provision, we can see the things that we need to do or stop doing to helping our sons. Amen. Amen. Thank you for joining me today. I so love you all. If you find this encouraging, tag a friend. Tell them to come on over into the group. I want to be able to touch as many people as we do together, but I don't do this alone. When you guys share and post in the group, you're not only touching me, you are blessing the others who are in the group. So I really hope this blesses you. I love you so, so much. Again, we're doing this every Saturday at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, unless the Lord shifts me something else. I'll make sure you know. But I'm gonna try to walk this out. But I love you, love you so much. Thanks for joining me. Have a blessed and amazing day. Amen.