Saying Yes Again.

After a year and a half away from podcasting, Brenda Palmer is back behind the mic.

In the first episode of The Journey of Yes, Brenda reflects on moving from LA to Dallas, navigating a deeply personal cave season, rebuilding community, and learning how to obey God when you don’t have all the pieces.

She shares what it looked like to confront isolation, transition, and the pressure to always be productive, while discovering who God is apart from platform, ministry, or assignment.

Sometimes saying yes doesn’t come with a clear plan. Sometimes God asks you to plant, wait, heal, and trust Him before you understand what He’s doing.

If you’re in a season of transition, rebuilding, surrender, or trying to find the courage to take your next step, this episode is for you.

The Journey of Yes is the everyday adventure of continually choosing God, especially when you don’t know where your yes will lead.

Transcript

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Hey guys, I am Brenda Palmer, and welcome to the first episode of the Journey of Yes podcast. Okay, I have some explaining to do, okay? So it's the first episode of The Journey of Yes, but it's probably like, I don't know, a hundred and fifth episode of me podcasting. And here's the truth. I've been gone for a minute, but I'm back. And I know some of you are sitting there and maybe you're singing, Where have you been? Or maybe you feel more like since you've been gone. I don't know where you land on the spectrum, but I just wanna say that this is my sorry for 2006 26. And um, I ain't gonna mess up no more. Um all that to say, guys, we are back to podcasting and we're starting a new journey. Um, I literally bought this microphone um maybe two weeks ago. And the truth is, um, if you've been here before or you see me make content, you know that I used to have the whole shebang. Um, but last year I moved from LA and I came to Dallas, and I assumed that podcasting was a thing of the past. So I actually gave my podcast equipment to some friends who um intend to create podcasts. So I had to purchase a new microphone because I had to eliminate all excuses for not recording podcast episodes because um, yeah, we're back. And so uh welcome to my home. And I was really going back and forth about whether or not I wanted to go into the studio where I filmed other episodes, or if I wanted to bring you guys here. And at first I didn't. My walls have no pictures, and um I'm still trying to figure out the vibe I want to go with in my apartment. And right now, all I got is a couch and a rug, and I do got a credenza and a TV, but you can't see all those things. Um, and all you can see right now is just my big comfy couch and my white wall. And I wanted to start here simply by saying some journeys of yes don't have all the pieces, but God is still requiring us to say yes. And so here I am in the messy middle of not knowing what this is gonna be, not knowing how this is gonna turn out. I'm just deciding to very much like when I first started podcasting six years ago, picking up a microphone, telling the Lord yes. Now I'm turning on a camera, and just trusting God with the journey. Okay. So, guys, it's been about two years since we've been together. It is not like a full two years, but we almost there. And um, so much has happened. I just told you, I moved from LA after eight years of living in my dream city. I currently reside in Dallas, Texas. That don't even sound right coming out of my mouth, but it's where we are. Um, and what else? I released my first book since I've been gone. I think the last time we were here was April of 2025, and I was coming out of a really, really hard season. Uh, top of 2025, my city that I was living in, LA, started off burning, like literally burning. I remember not having uh electricity in my apartment, having the Uber to my friend's house. And yeah, it was really, really weird. I battled with suicidal ideation and wanting to give up and deciding that the journey of yes would just be the legacy that I would leave behind. But thanks be unto God that he loves and pursues us despite us going in the direction of our feelings. He reminds us that he loves us and that he's always present and he's always there. And so I started podcasting again and we ended up in a conversation with Jada Edwards, and we talked about loving the way Jesus loves. And let me tell you, that was a really hard conversation for me. I was in the middle of a lot of friendship breakups, and the Lord just kind of rearranging my community and my circle and me learning how to navigate that while still trying to show up and be all that God's requiring me to be in this season. And a lot of twists and turns. Uh, I went on a book tour. I had no idea what I was doing, but we did it. Okay. Um, and it was really, really great and really, really fun. I traveled the world and got to preach the gospel. I think last year uh I went to London for the first time. I went to the Bahamas for the first time and preached the gospel. And I don't know. I feel like I just wanted to start here because I wanted to invite you into my journey of yes. That's what this podcast will be all about. You getting to hear what my journey of yes is teaching me. And also um the people who are in my life or people that I admire or voices that you wouldn't necessarily get to sit down and talk to them about the messy middle. This podcast is gonna be all about what it truly means to say yes to God, what happens, what it takes, what you learn, what you like, what you don't like, who you become on the other side of your yes. And we're gonna be pulling back the curtain and allowing you in to our lives. I promise you, I really, really, really got some good episodes coming. But I just wanted to start off with inviting you into my current journey and what I'm saying yes to. I moved to Dallas, Texas, uh technically at the end of the year, but also at the beginning of the year, I moved into this apartment. And man, it's been a lot of God stripping back and pulling back the layers and revealing to me how so much of my identity was tied to what I got the privilege to do for God. And this year started off really, really slow. A lot of sitting and a lot of the Lord going, Hey, you know, I love you if you don't do anything for me, right? You know, I loved you before you were formed in your mother's womb. And I know those are things we say all the time. But in this season, God's really been saying those things to me in a way that is piercing my heart. Okay. I've endured a cave season. I just had to sit and commune with the Lord and learn who he is, apart from helping me prepare to minister to people. Just like wanting to commune and sit with him. And I don't know, y'all. Like, it's been a really, really interesting journey. I said yes to moving to Dallas without any idea what that meant or what it was gonna look like. When I first moved here, people are like, so what are you doing in Dallas? And I'm like, living because genuinely that is what it has been. I feel like I've just been day by day taking steps and learning how to just, man, allow the Lord to give me a pace and catching rhythms. And I think I've shared this before, but I'm really, really learning how to settle in this season and not like settling for less, but like how to plant and um get roots. Because for the last, I don't know, nine or ten years, that's been really hard for me. I'm really, really used to the Lord sending me to a place with an assignment and then telling me, okay, let's go to the next place. And not that I think that's changed about my life, but I do think in this particular season, the Lord is teaching me how to plant roots and how to settle in and how to meet new people and how to make friends and how not to lock myself in a prison and miscall it boundaries. Hmm? Okay. So that was just like my little intro, just to tell you like where I've been. I know I jumped all over the place, but now I'm in Dallas, Texas. Um, it's really cool. I'm closer to my parents. They live in Chicago. It's like a two-hour flight just to get to them, and I like that. I like being able to sneak up on them and check on them because for whatever reason, nobody gave us the warning that when we become adults, that our parents become our children and and and and we the boss. And they don't really like to listen. And I kind of regret not listening as a kid because now they think they cannot listen as my grown kids, and I don't like that. Um, and so, you know, we're always gonna dive into scripture and um a verse that I feel like has been, man, encouraging me in this season has been really the book of Joshua. Um, when I think about where the journey of yes is starting for us as we begin this season, I think Joshua has a couple of verses that I think roots me, even in starting this podcast again. I have no idea what this is supposed to look like. When I started Life in Perspective six years ago, I didn't know what that was gonna look like either. I also didn't know you. And I didn't really think anybody was gonna listen to it. And um honestly, I just was being obedient. I wanted to start a podcast called I Got Questions and I wanted to talk about pop culture. And one day the Lord told my best friend Stephanie to tell me that whatever he was asking me to do, that I needed to take it seriously. So I started a podcast in my closet, in my studio apartment in Long Beach, California, with no idea where it would lead. And here we go again. I am starting this journey over as a completely different person, um, with such a fresh perspective on who God is and who I am according to who God is. And I'm on my couch this time, and now we have a camera, and now people can see. And we've already, I don't know, navigated through nine seasons of a podcast, and now we're letting the Lord give us a new name. I feel like we are journeying from Abram to Abraham as it relates to what the Lord wants to do through this. And I really, really, really had to surrender in this moment. I am a recovering perfectionist, and um, I also come from the world of production. And when I cannot do things the way that I see them in my head, I usually tend to just not do them. And I felt like God was challenging me to care less about not the quality, because we're still gonna do great things, but like not having all the pieces and instead of waiting until I could figure everything out, why not just tell him yes and let him create what this is supposed to be? Let him answer all my questions and let him deal with all my fears. And this is how we're starting. Um, and so when I think about that, there are two verses that come to mind in the book of Joshua. The first one is Um, wherever the soles of your feet shall tread that which I have given you. And if I could tell y'all the amount of stories that that verse has ministered to me in the last eight months, I I probably would be here all day. Um, but I do remember uh Pentecost Sunday, I went to church at the Dumasis, uh Kingdom Culture, uh, the Dallas, Texas campus. And I love Apostle Sherman and Dr. Jacquette. They are friends. And I mean that when I say that. Like they're just people that God, I feel like gives language to my season through. Like there has never been a time where I've gone to their church and they haven't ministered to me in some way, like just randomly, which we know it wasn't random. The Lord sent us there. And I want to pause and encourage you. Because for some of you, you don't like to go to places that are not necessarily comfortable for you because you're like, oh, I don't know nobody, or I don't want to go by myself. There are some things that God will send to you at a spot and you'll miss it if you don't get to that spot. So if what I'm saying to you resonates, like God has told you to go somewhere or visit something or take a trip somewhere, and you've been not doing it because it requires you to step outside of your comfort zone. I want to challenge you to meet God where He's asking you to go. Um, these last few months, I've just been going places with one instruction. The Lord said, go and see. And I've been able to do that, and it's been life-changing for me in the most unexpected way. I went to, I'm gonna get back to my story. Y'all know how this goes, but I went to Mantle Conference for the first time this year. I've watched it online a couple of times, but God was like, go and see. And it was a really, really great and unique experience. Um, I went to YLC conference, and that was my first time, and it was really good. And I'm gonna tell y'all why it was like really, really good to me. Like there's so many things um that were impactful, but um, I preach a lot in evangelical spaces, and a lot of dialogue and conversation on that side of the body is that um black communicators or pastors or preachers or bishops are very um emotional, right? And that when they teach, they aren't teaching sound doctrine. And it's like, you know, they're like all these misconceptions. When I tell you, at YLC, I heard some of the most prolific and sound communicators of the gospel that I've ever heard in my life, like in a really, really long time. It was so encouraging because I know that not to be true. Um, I grew up around a lot of intellectual black men who articulated the gospel in a sound and impactful and encouraging and enlightening way. And so I know that not to be true, but it was just refreshing to be in a room where the the bishop is like going to preach us down and give us historical context and uh exegete the text correctly and also hoop and and preach in our cultural norms. I needed that. My soul needed that. And so I was really, really inspired. All that to say that you have no idea what you'll get out of an uncomfortable place or environment that God's sending you to. And I think uh we miss out on a lot when we don't allow ourselves to embrace the uncomfortability of an instruction. And so my encouragement to you would be go to the place that the Lord is asking you to go so that he can meet you there and blow your mind in a way that you could have never expected. Allow him to be the God of Ephesians 3.20, where he can do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think because you are obedient. Some of y'all don't want to tell the Lord yes about nothing, okay? All right. Now, back to our regularly scheduled conversation about Pentecost Sunday. So I go to the Dumases, and um, there was an a prophet there named Taurus Solomon, and he was ministering to everybody in the room. And um, you might not know this about me, but I really just be trying to just be in the rooms, you know, and and keep to myself. And I was hiding, okay? Um, and I just was waiting on him to finish. And he kept saying, I gotta go, I gotta go. And I'm like, Yes, you do, sir. You do gotta go. And um, he calls me out. Um, and he starts to give me a word. And one of the words that God had already been ministering to me that week was Joshua, wherever the soles of your feet shall tread, that which I have already given you. And the part that of that scripture, like you gotta sit in it. You can't just like brush over it or rush through it, is that which I have already given you. So where my feet are going, if I'm going in the direction that God is calling me in, he's already given me the place where my souls will will tread, like the souls of my feet will go. And that that speaks to territory, that speaks to authority, that speaks to um instruction, that speaks to provision. Everything that the Lord desires for me to have to carry out the vision he's calling me into, he's already given it to me. The way that I take hold of it is by taking the step towards him. And I don't know, like that was just an example of me trying to share with you how that verse has been um really, really instrumental in me taking steps in this season into the unknown, like into things. Um, and it's crazy because a lot of my steps that God's been requiring me to take this season haven't been steps I haven't taken before. It's just I'm taking the same type of step in a new way, if that makes sense. So starting the podcast again. Um, I'm working on my second book and I'm having to trust the Lord in that in like the same space, but in a new way. And it's, I don't know, like that is more stretching to me. Like, it is different when I'm saying yes to an unknown, because I don't know. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't have no expectations, I don't have anything to match it up against. I'm just like, okay, cool, Lord, I'm taking a step and I'm just jumping off a cliff. But when you, it's like bungee jumping the second time. Um, I've never been bungee jumping, but I would imagine the first time feels really, really hard because you have no idea what's gonna happen, right? But then you jump, okay, and you experience this the fear, you overcome the fear, you you navigate it, you like boom, I did it. Okay. But then when you go back to jump again, you now have somewhat of an expectation because you've experienced it already. And sometimes that expectation and that former experience can be an enemy of God trying to do a new thing. It makes me think about Isaiah, right? Where he goes, Behold, I'm doing a new thing. Don't you perceive it? And he talks about in that verse all the things he did before. And there's this way that he's communicating where he's saying, Don't allow what I've done before and the way I've done it before, how I did it before, when I did it before, to limit your ability to perceive what I'm doing now. And sometimes God is asking you to do the same thing and believe that he'll do a new thing and the same thing he's asking you to do. I'm sorry, because I'm I'm kind of preaching to myself because it's been really, really hard like to start the same thing in a new way. It's been challenging. Like, I don't, y'all do not understand that six weeks ago, 46 days, 47 days now, ago, I filmed a podcast. Like, I finally got up the nerve to book a studio. I got a crew. I did three episodes that day with guests that are in Texas, just people I just been wanting to have conversation with. And then after I did it, I just, it was like I froze. It was like I started to think, like, what if this sucks? Like, what if this isn't like it was before? And like, here's the thing. I don't really have a marker of what success is in this space for me, because um I'm typically doing this on my own, and I don't really have a goal for anybody to sponsor it. Like, it's literally a step of obedience. So I say all of that to say I don't even know what a failure would look like. I mean, I guess I could post it and and nobody engages with it, then that would feel like a failure. But the truth is the success is in the step. The success is in saying yes. And I wrote a whole book about it. And Dr. Sarita, love her. She's a trusted voice in my life. And one of the things she always says to me is, the Lord is gonna make you live every word you wrote in that book. And the funny thing is, I thought I already did. And there's this way that the Lord's like, yeah, you're not just writing this book to tell stories. You're also writing this book to create a manual for how you will live out the rest of your life. And I appreciate that. Um, I love that. I'm grateful that the Lord gave me language to a season. I'm glad that the Lord gave me language to my life. Um, because I think that's the issue. We think that certain things are seasons when God's like, no, this is the way I'm calling you to live. And when we don't embrace that, we we have this sort of like anticipation for like, okay, I'm gonna do this, but I'm waiting on something to come on the other side of this. And he's like, no, this is it. This is the way you're required to live from now on. So it wasn't a story to tell, it was a life to live. And so here we are. That's why the podcast is now called The Journey of Yes, because this is the life we live in until Jesus comes back. Um, we're gonna keep telling him yes, and we're gonna keep navigating what that means. And I I had to call it a journey because I think most of us think that yes is a destination to get what we want from God. And the truth is, journey is a is a life you live with God. And that's just what it is. And so that is what this podcast is gonna be about. I didn't want to be here all day, you know, and talk your ear off for hours and hours in this first episode. I just wanted to kind of give you a precursor to what we're gonna talk about and how this journey is gonna go. Some weeks it's just gonna be me and you. And other weeks I'm gonna invite some trusted voices in my life to share some encouragement on faithfulness and how we can navigate this journey of yes with the Lord well. How can we steward what's been entrusted to us and how can we not lose sight of the main thing? My heart's posture is to keep the main thing the main thing. And if anything disrupts the main thing, it gotta go. Because the main thing has to stay the main thing. And so um, I gave you one verse in Joshua, and I'm gonna give you two more. Uh, these two I want to read. So give me a minute while I pull them up. Okay, so all of Joshua won is God commissioning Joshua to now do the thing that he's been able to watch for so long. And that's so encouraging. Like, I think about back to Exodus 33. Where Moses builds a tent to worship the Lord. And it was far off from the camp. It was outside of the camp. And Moses would go in there. And it says the Lord would descend like a cloud and talk to Moses face to face, like that of a friend. But the coolest thing about that passage of scripture is that when Moses would leave, it says, And Joshua, son of Nun, remained in the tent. And there is this way that Joshua understood the presence of God. He understood a secret place and he understood what it meant to dwell there. And the dweller eventually became the leader. And I'm saying that to say that we don't just get to Joshua 1 at like because Moses died. Like, yeah, because Moses died, Joshua now has to continue leading the Israelites. But also the life that Joshua built in the secret place prepared him for Joshua 1. Does that make sense? There is a thing that God is preparing to walk you into. And if you do not learn how to master the secret place on the backside of the mountain, when no one knows your name, when no one is concerned about what you bring to the table or what you do or your gifts and your talents, when you're just cultivating them in the secret place, you gotta learn to master that place and remain there. And when God calls your number, how you prepared in that place will determine how well you steward this place. And so when God talks to us about doing a new thing, the new thing is in response to what you've cultivated when no one knew your name. When, and here's the thing: what God's about to walk you into doesn't necessarily mean people are gonna now know your name. It is, though, a new thing, right? It's gonna require you to um pull on who you became in your past season. And so I want you to not negate where you are right now. So often, when life slows down for us or when life is not platformed or people aren't calling us or pulling on us, we sometimes miss them the gift of those seasons because it feels like, oh, I can just twiddle my thumbs or I can ease off. No, those are the seasons you need to go the hardest because those are the seasons that are gonna prepare you for whatever God is walking you into next. Okay. I'm gonna start at verse seven and then I'm gonna read through verse nine. Okay. And um, I'm reading this in the Amplified because the Amplified amplifies it. Verse 7 says, Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do everything in accordance with the entire law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper and be successful wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read and meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified or dismayed, intimidated, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Guys, that is the basis of our episode today. Is first of all, it's so good, right? Because the Lord is telling Joshua only be strong and courageous. And everything that Moses taught you according to the law that I gave him, don't depart from it. Don't go left, don't go right. And this book of the law, this word, meditate on it day and night, and then you'll make your way prosperous and successful. Don't be afraid. Only be courageous. Don't be intimidated, don't be terrified, because I, the Lord your God, will be with you wherever you go. Now, the reason I had to start with this is because this is what the Lord is ministering to me. As I came to Dallas, as I'm embarking on starting this podcast over, as I'm doing things that I have no idea what I'm doing, and it feels like that most of the time. But what I do know is there are some instructions, there are some things that I know about God that I'm not gonna depart from. I'm not gonna go to the right or to the left. I'm gonna stay focused. I'm gonna fix my eyes on Jesus. I'm gonna meditate on the word day and night. From there, I get instructions that will make my way prosperous and successful. And then when I take the step, when I tell the Lord yes, I don't have to be afraid or intimidated or terrified because the Lord will be with me wherever I go. And that is really all I had to say to you today. Here I am, stepping into this new season of podcasting and it's a new season of ministering to God's people in this manner, and I have no idea what this is gonna look like. I have no idea what it will yield and what will come from this. And none of that is my concern. My job is to make sure that I don't depart from the instructions that the Lord has set, that I meditate on his word day and night, and that makes my way prosperous and successful. So if I meditate on his word day and night, my success is found in what I meditate on, and that is his word day and night. Whatever I meditate on will determine how I see, how I hear, how I move, how I respond. So I'm gonna choose to meditate on God's word day and night. His word never returns void and it always accomplishes what it was sent out to do. And today, the word was sent out to encourage us to take the step. And so this is where we're starting at the journey of yes. We're starting with another yes, saying yes again and trusting that wherever we go, wherever God is asking us to meet him, that he is with us when we go. He is an ever-present help. And I love that God is already in the thing he's inviting us into, but he's also with us, walking us through it to ensure that we get to the expected end, which will be a prosperous and a successful way as long as we don't depart from what he's taught us and we meditate on his word day and night, and we choose to be strong and courageous. I love that he's not saying, Can you be strong? Can you be courageous? He's telling us to be strong and be courageous. God is not gonna give us an instruction without the will to empower us to carry it out. So that's my instruction to you today. Hold on to what God has given you, meditate on his word day and night so that you can make your way prosperous and successful. And don't be afraid, don't be terrified, don't be intimidated, don't be dismayed because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. You already know. I want to pray with you. I hope that something was said today that helps, you know, to bring your yes into perspective. Guys, we're gonna have so much fun and so many conversations where we just get to pull the layers back on things and figure out what it is God wants us to say yes to. And for some of us, it's not always stepping into a thing, coming out of a thing, or going into a new thing. Sometimes it's just yes to remain exactly where God has you and to trust him with all of your heart. You already know the language of the journey of yes is Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, that we'll trust the Lord with all of our heart. We won't lean on our own understanding, but we'll acknowledge him in all of our ways. Another version says, submit to him in all of our ways, and he'll show us which path to take. And so that is my prayer that you learn to hold on to the instruction the Lord gave you, that you meditate on the word day and night, that you trust him with all of your heart, and that you're not afraid, that you're strong and courageous, because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. I don't know about you, but the greatest promise in Scripture is that God would be with us. And I love that from Genesis to Revelation, he not only proves that, but he does it over and over again. And sometimes the way he did it last time doesn't look like the way he'll do it the next time. But I can trust that the Lord my God will be with us always. So let's pray. Lord, I thank you for my brothers and my sisters that are um navigating this journey of yes. God, today, we just wanted to lay some foundation to start this new journey together by telling you yes. And for some of us, for most of us, we have no idea what that yes looks like, where it's gonna lead us. But what we do know is that the Lord our God will be with us wherever we go. So today I pray for hearts that are struggling to trust, that are struggling to surrender, not because they don't trust you, but because they fear the unknown. And so, God, today, my prayer for everyone under the sound of my voice is that you would give us the courage to trust you more than we fear what we don't know. God, you have never forsaken us. You've never failed us. God, every time we told you yes before, you've always shown up for us. You've always lit the pathway that gets us closer to you. And God, we're privileged every time you give us an invitation to say yes. So today, we choose to not leave you out there standing at the door of our hearts, but we're letting you in. We're inviting you to our table to fellowship with us, to journey through this life with us. God, today we make the decision to tell you yes. Whatever it looks like, we know that we can trust you, we can be strong and courageous because you will be with us wherever we go. So, God, thank you for meeting us here. I love you. We give you all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise. In your matchless son, Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Guys, we did it, okay? I don't know about you, but that was a little tough for me. I'm a little rusty, and um, I'm trying to navigate all the things that the Lord would have us share in this space. You already know. Like this, comment, subscribe, share, share, share, share. Invite your friends to take this journey with you. We're gonna be creating some spaces for us to continue this dialogue from week to week. So you'll get an episode, and then every single day there will be ways for us to engage. I want to hear about your journey of yes and what the Lord is speaking to you and teaching you in this season so we can all grow together. Today, we are officially a tribe called Yes. We get to do this yes together, and I'm so excited for where God's gonna take us on this journey. So you already know, I love you, and I hope that something was said today to help encourage you on your journey. We'll be right back here next week for another episode of the Journey of Yes podcast.