81: Living Life as God's Beloved Child: Insights from Cecil Taylor

Do you struggle with internal insecurity and a constant feeling of being unloved? Join me, Lyvita Brooks, in a heartfelt conversation with Cecil Taylor, author of "Live Like You're Loved: Fully Accepting That You Are Loved, Forgiven, Sent and Eternal." Together, we dive into the importance of overcoming these insecurities and embracing our value and worth as God's beloved children. Learn how to move from head knowledge to heart knowledge and develop a mindset and lifestyle that truly reflects the love you receive in Christ Jesus.

Cecil shares practical daily steps for living like we're loved, forgiven, and sent with purpose, as well as the role of the Bible and the Holy Spirit in guiding us through this journey.   So take a leap of faith and tune in to this episode that will surely fill your heart with love and inspiration.

Resources Mentioned on the Episode and suggested reading & social media handles:

·        Cecil Taylor Ministries – www.ceciltaylorministries.com

·        The Next Thing book by Cecil Taylor

·        Live Like You Are Loved book by Cecil Taylor

·        CIPA

·        Christianpublishers.net

Calls to Action:

·        Sign up for The Me Project Academy Newsletter for resources on developing disciplines to help you grow in Christ, prayer and new releases of the podcast. 

·        Website: www.hangingoutwithjesuspodcast.com

·        @hangingoutwithjesuspodcast (Instagram)

·        @themeprojectacademy (Pinterest)

·        support@themeprojectacademy.com (for comments)

·        www.goodreads.com/lyvitabrooks

Thanks for listening. I pray this episode was a blessing to you. Leave a comment or rate this episode . Check us out on Instagram and Pinterest.

Thanks for listening. I pray this episode was a blessing to you. Leave a comment or rate this episode . Then pass it on. Share this link: https://lyvitabrooks.com/

Transcript

Lyvita: 0:02

Saints, welcome to Hanging Out with Jesus podcast for believers who want to strategically go and do what God's called you to for such a time as this. And we do this by securing our foundation in Christ through practicing spiritual discipline and being reminded of who we are and whose we are In order to live a purposeful life in a collapsing culture. Now for more resources, including the free Christian blueprint, which helps you gauge where you are Foundationally in Christ, and disciplines to practice for spiritual growth, visit HangingOutWithJesusPodcast. com. You can also subscribe to the newsletter for twice a month reminders, podcast updates, challenges, spiritual disciplines, practice and movement. Hi, saints, I'm Lyvita Brooks, Christian Author, bible Teacher, founder of the Me Project Academy and your host. Now on to the intro.

Lyvita: 1:17

Hello, saints, this is episode 81 and this is part 2 of our conversation with Cecil Taylor. Two weeks ago, we talked about his book The Next Thing. Today we're talking about his book called Live Like Your Love, fully accepting that you are loved, forgiven, sent, eternal. One of the most important or the highlights of this book and our conversation with Cecil is that he said we must transport from head knowledge and absorb into our hearts, because until we do that, we cannot live like we are loved. So, saints, let's listen in to what Cecil has to say about his second book, and I do want you to know that I did a book review on both of the books. You can check that out at hangingoutwithjesuspodcast. com or goodreads. com slash LeVita Lyvita. I also did some clips on Instagram, so check that out Now on to the conversation.

Lyvita: 2:34

Now, saints, we are going to talk about how to transform your mindset to remember that you are loved in a world that doesn't seem very loving. Cecil, you wrote another book called Live Like Your Love, so what makes you think believers aren't living like they are loved?

Cecil: 3:01

Well, thanks for having me back on Lyvita. I really appreciate it and that's a good question. First, i think the Saints are a bit miserable and that's a symptom of letting lives miseries get to us. You know, we've had the pandemic political division, turmoil in the churches, loneliness is at an all time high, despite all of our social media, maybe because of our social media, inflation, violence, all the different isms that are out there. We're internalizing those problems and not operating with peace in the way that we should.

Cecil: 3:35

and even though there's always going to be misery in life, god didn't make us to be miserable. He meant something more for us to feel our connection to him and then to act out of that connection. Because the world doesn't love us, right? Not really. And even your best friend, even your spouse, is going to let you down at times. You are always going to get let down by humans, but God doesn't let you down, and so we need that love connection and then to act out of it.

Cecil: 4:04

And I think the other thing, the external problem is misery, but the internal problem is insecurity. You know, I talk to people about living like they're loved and I'll say you know, we believe that God loves everyone, but we do wonder if God loves me. I cannot tell you how many people start nodding their heads and go. You just pegged me right there. You just shot the arrow through my heart, because that's where I am, and there's some great servants of the Lord that still wonder deep down does God really love me? And so that's why I wrote the book was to address that insecurity and talk about how we can transform our lives to living like we are loved.

Lyvita: 4:54

Because we are, we really are, we don't always live like it.

Cecil: 4:58

That's the problem. We don't Yeah we don't.

Lyvita: 5:02

We don't. It's saying the name of the book. I want to give you the full name because Cecil decided to give it more, more on words. It's called live like your love, fully accepting, fully accepting that you are loved, forgiven, sent eternal And say if you remember, i told you this is going to be the second part to our conversation, but remember when we were talking about Crises, one of the things since Cecil share with us is that we had to accept the crisis. Well, now we have to fully accept That we're loved, forgiven, sent eternal.

Cecil: 5:50

No words.

Lyvita: 5:51

We got a fully accept what the Lord actually did for us on Calvary's cross and is now doing for us as he Seated at the right hand of the father, and if we don't accept that, you know we got miss out on that True blessing. So it's, it's. It's not just accepting it, it is living it it's living it, ah, so.

Lyvita: 6:17

so how can a, how can the saints transform their Mindset or the way they thinking? because it it am, i right, it's about the mind to remember that they are loved in a world That doesn't seem very lovely.

Cecil: 6:32

You know this is this is such a deep topic right, and the overall idea is to claim your value and worth that comes from God. You know we have a value and worth that got built into us by God that can never be taken away. But but the world tells us in various ways that we don't have that value and worth. You may have been raised in a home that wasn't very loving. You may have suffered from abuse of some kind as a child or as an adult. You may have had setbacks in your life where you don't feel loved. You know how many times I tell you I was a little guy. I was the last one picked in the recess, every time right to be on a team. Very love, you know.

Cecil: 7:18

But there's there's things like that all the time that just chip away at what we think our value and worth is.

Cecil: 7:25

But we have to realize that God is the one that gives us the value and worth and and a couple of things I say to remind ourselves of that is is, first of all, to well. First of all, you can count your blessings right And and start to see all the things you have. And if it's hard for you to see it. Then just look at somebody else who doesn't have as much as you do and whatever Accounting accounting you're doing, and you'll start to realize what you have. And then we look for the Holy Spirit also to assure us That we, that we are loved and that we are a child of God and that we do have value and worth. So those are a couple of things I think just to to get started in the mindset, it starts with knowing that we have a value and worth given to us by a loving God, and then we can start to go from there, thinking about how God loves us and forgives us And sends us with a purpose and invites us to eternal relationship.

Lyvita: 8:23

So, Cecil, what is the Next Thing? because isn't that the name of your book that we talked about.

Cecil: 8:32

It is.

Lyvita: 8:33

So what is the next thing that we have to do for living like we love? Yeah, the very next thing, yeah.

Cecil: 8:41

Well, the very next thing to me is I started with looking at scripture, right, and we start by looking at all the different ways that it's expressed in the Bible that God loves us and that God forgives us, like he takes our sins and puts them as far as the east is from the west, right, and we look at the different ways he sends us. There's a lot of instruction on how we're all sent, but then there's also a lot of examples of how people are personally sent. Moses got personally sent for specific tasks. We all have a common task that we all need to do and that we have personal tasks And God is always evolving those things. The Holy Spirit is restless. It is always moving us on to new things. So we're looking and we see that in the Bible. And then we see in the Bible that we have this eternal invitation, and John 17:3 indicates that that eternal invitation is that eternal life is to know God through Jesus Christ, and it starts right away. It starts right away When we know God through Jesus Christ. We're already in that track of eternal life. So we start with scripture as the next thing And then I think the next thing after that is that I put in the book what I call sales steps, and sale is SAIL for step in except improve your life and live it.

Cecil: 10:14

And what it is is. It's basically a model for saying how can I live like I'm loved? I need to do certain things, and here's some steps to live like I'm loved. Here's some steps to live like I'm forgiven. Here's some steps to live like I'm sent every day with purpose. And here's some steps to understand how to bring the present and the eternal together to where I'm walking with God in an eternal life. That starts right now, and so that's kind of the next thing. So it starts with scripture, and then the next thing after that is how do we actually do that? I don't like to just tell people to do it. I want to tell them how to go do it.

Cecil: 10:56

So they have some idea.

Lyvita: 10:58

Right. Right, because we need instruction, Because sometimes we sit down and say, well, hold up, ok, so what am I supposed to do? We need steps sometimes, and steps can open up the door to other things. Because you may say, read the Bible. And another person is thinking read the Bible, yeah, you know what? I haven't studied the Bible in three years. That's a good idea And that's why we need some steps. They allow the Holy Spirit to open up things that we have forgotten.

Lyvita: 11:39

So when I think about living like your love, one of the things that come to my mind is spending time in God's word. I mean podcasts is called hanging out with Jesus, so it's all about hanging out with Jesus. So when you say, starting with scripture, that is one of the most important things There's believers, i don't think we spend enough time there. I consider the scripture as hanging out with him. But when you take the Bible and you're reading it, you're studying it, you're digging in it, or you're just trying to memorize the scripture, or you just I just want to focus on the Lord And you're sitting there in your chair and you're looking at the sun And all you can think about is the S-O-N, the sun.

Cecil: 12:36

Yeah right.

Lyvita: 12:37

You know what I'm saying? That's hanging out with Jesus. That's living, am I? would you agree that that is a part of that? hanging out with him is also a part of of learning how to love, to live like you're loved, yeah definitely.

Cecil: 12:58

I think the one of the things that I find with scripture is that Jesus, through his Holy Spirit, makes that text new to me each time I read it. There are things like the famous I'll just take one example Jeremiah 2911,. You know, for I know the plans I have for you. I tell you, through the course of my life I have had about four different interpretations that verse, because when I read it each time I was a different person and it spoke to me in a new way that it didn't speak to me before.

Cecil: 13:33

So you could say well, you know I've read the Bible before, but when you go back, it's the spirit is gonna teach you what you need to know this time out of the Bible. And of course, you know in the book I give some scripture to help you go look at it and to go find that to point to. You know, sometimes you read the Bible just generally and sometimes you go in laser focus trying to find something that applies to this situation you're in. So both of those are valid. And you know, in the book I just go ahead and share some places you could go look and learn about being loved, forgiven, sent to eternal.

Lyvita: 14:14

Okay, so something happened in the last couple of weeks. The saints, we recorded this in April. I just want you to know. But something happened to you in the last couple of weeks. You went to two different conferences and what happened?

Cecil: 14:35

I got blessed beyond measure. That's what happened, You know so, just so everyone knows. I mean, I've been doing this ministry for a little while, but I just I was working at part time, Lyvita. I wasn't fully invested in it And, given where I was in my life, I couldn't quite get there.

Cecil: 14:54

And the spirit was telling me I can be patient, I'm waiting for you you know, But at some point about a year and a half ago, i went full time, i put my job and went full time into ministry And that's when I carved out the time to be able to start writing books and doing more with videos and things like that. So I wrote these two books last year and released them. The next thing, and Live Like You're Loved And I submitted them into these contests that were at the conferences I was going to. So one was in Alabama and one was in Michigan, and so the one in Alabama, my first book, the next thing won the prize there, and then I go to Michigan And so this just last week, at the time we're talking, it won the Oasis Award.

Cecil: 15:41

Live Like You're Loved won the Oasis Award as the top prize for nonfiction at that conference. So I'm in there with all these different, very established writers and some of them are new writers like me. But just to be singled out is such a blessing and such a confirmation, such an ability to help multiply the message of what I'm doing. And so I think you'll find these are two different books in that I think I write in a pretty simple style, but the next thing is written to where, like if you're in crisis. You don't have to sit there and read 300 pages because you're in the middle of a crisis, you need something quick.

Cecil: 16:18

So it's a thinner book and that's on purpose, And Live Like You're Loved is more of a contemplative book. It's still simple, but it's gonna make you think and to go through it kind of step by step and say, okay, here's what scripture says And now here's how I put this into my life and how do I go do that. Okay, now let's move on to the next idea. That kind of thing That's the feedback I'm getting from people is the reaction they have to each one of these.

Lyvita: 16:45

Oh, wow. Can you share what you're doing in your life that helps you fully accept that you are loved, forgiven, sent and eternal?

Cecil: 16:59

Yeah, i you know. One reason I came to this it's funny I wrote a video series called the Legacy Tree earlier and its principles were such that I really felt like I had to go live them and it really took me 20 years before I could write that, literally from the time I got the idea because I felt like I wasn't living it. But when I went into live like you're loved, it was kind of the opposite. I started realizing I actually was living these truths already. But then how am I living them Right? How do I break it back down for other people? So it was a little bit different And I think the biggest transition for me and I'm going to share something with you, i don't think is either the books is. The biggest transition for me is when I went from head knowledge to heart knowledge.

Cecil: 17:46

So what happened was I grew up in the church, my dad was a pastor. I was always doing stuff for the Lord, i was always very active and I was on this mission trip with the youth And on that mission trip we had a small group Bible study going on and I had the seniors and those seniors needed work And so I was. We were in the middle of this prayer session and I was praying and I already had this group of young men who was a little younger, who I was mentoring, and I said, lord, if you want, i'll take on a second group for you, i will take on these seniors and I'm going to do that too for you, and that's right. Immediately, the Lord said in prayer, said I don't want you to lead another group, what I want is your heart.

Cecil: 18:40

And I was so convicted because I knew inside myself the dirty truth, and that is that I didn't really want it. I would give my body to the Lord. But I didn't fully give up my heart to the Lord yet, and I went on a journey to start understanding how do you give your heart to the Lord, and part of that, of course, is fully accepting his love and fully accepting what all he has intended for you and not being fearful anymore. You know, as saints, we can get fearful of what our calling is and fearful of where God is leading us, and so what I've had to do over and over and over, is to abandon my fear and to just accept to his love and his constant presence and that he has some purpose, that I need to go do And we're always going to be scared.

Lyvita: 19:37

Yes, You know, quitting your job quitting your job.

Cecil: 19:40

LaBeata, you got to convince your wife. you're going to convince your job. Luckily, she believes it even more than I do, and that's a blessing. So it really starts with believing instead of with just your head and knowing about God, to believe in with your heart and knowing God as He is. If that, makes sense. It is a big transition from head to heart, and when you make that transition, then all this other stuff I'm talking about begins to flow.

Lyvita: 20:13

Oh wow, You said a mouthful.

Cecil: 20:17

I tend to do that.

Lyvita: 20:20

Oh, that, yeah, But you are so right. So with that, how can the listeners follow you?

Cecil: 20:29

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity for me to share that If you didn't hear it on the first podcast or if you need a reminder. So the best place I really recommend to start as a starting point for everything is CecilTaylorMinistries. com, and from there you can get to anything else that I do, whether I've got a book on Amazon, or whether I've got a YouTube video or I've got something in a podcast over on Spotify. You could go to those places or you could just start at CecilTaylorMinistries. com and you can branch out to everywhere. So it shows you my free content, like blogs and podcasts. There's products like my books and my small group videos and my study guides, and then there's my services, which I haven't really talked about before, but I'm a speaker, i love to speak, you could tell I love to talk, and so I'm willing to come speak and do seminars and panel discussions and retreats and what have you.

Cecil: 21:30

So all those things are starting point at CecilTaylorMinistries. com. It'll also point you towards my Facebook page, which is a good place to stay in touch, because I'm always posting on the Cecil Taylor Ministries Facebook page And then, if you go onto the site, this pop-up is gonna come up and ask if you want a free gift. And so I have a wonderful devotional e-book called 30 Minutes Over 30 Days. These are one minute devotionals So you can quickly engage with God and enrich your life that day. And I'll mail that free e-book to you and through doing that, I'll also start sending you my newsletter. We can stay in touch. Free newsletter, just so you know what's going on. I've got Lyvita. I've got a bunch of stuff I'm working on. I've got a Christian parenting book coming out.

Cecil: 22:21

This podcast series I'm working on may become a book. I've got some people asking me to write different kinds of books and videos And I may do sequels to the stuff we already talked about today. I've got so much stuff in my head and there's only so many hours of the day, so I gotta prioritize that and get it going, but you can keep track of all that through CecilTaylorMinistries. com.

Lyvita: 22:43

All right, ceciltaylorministries. com, that's it.

Cecil: 22:47

Yes,

Lyvita: 22:47

Saints, I'm gonna put that into show notes, because I always do So. Check that out. All right, Cecil, can you pray us out? Listen, first of all, before I ask Cecil to pray us out, this has been a blessing. I thank you so much in talking to us about crises and about the mindset, because you gave us a lot of nuggets We really did, you know, in order to live a life for Christ in a collapsing culture, so much is happening And as believers, we need that support, we need that reminder that we can, in Christ, make it through And our goal and our mission is not to give up. It's not Our goal and our mission is to complete it. So when we get to the Lord, when that last breath is taken, all of us can hear well done, my good and faithful servant. You know what I'm saying. We don't want to hear anything that doesn't deal with I'm going home. So thank you for those nuggets that you gave us And thanks for joining us in two episodes.

Cecil: 24:07

Oh, I am so appreciative of the opportunity and it's so great to talk to your listeners and, even better, to talk to you.

Lyvita: 24:18

So can you pray us out.

Cecil: 24:20

I sure would be blessed to do so.

Cecil: 24:21

Let's bow together, Lord.

Cecil: 24:24

we are grateful that this community is together and we are listening and talking together, that we are together and we. there is a community that is under your care, that you are taking care of and that, through our words today, is blessed and empowered. And I pray for all the people who are listening to this to be able to go out and to know your love, to know your forgiveness, to know your sending purpose, to know that path to eternal life that you have for each of us and to start living it just immediately that you offer being with us today. Lord, I know you didn't make us to be miserable, and we sure do feel miserable at times with what's going on in the world, but help us live in the freedom and immediacy of your love and to know where the true lover of our soul is and what he has in mind for us. And I pray for each of us to know that in our hearts, not just to think it but to feel it. And we pray all these things to your glory and your praise, amen.

Lyvita: 25:30

Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, So until we meet again on the airways, intentionally and daily hang out with Jesus Shalom Woo.