Finding Faith, Peace, and Breakthrough in Life's Hardest Seasons

0:00 Whatever problem you're facing, whatever situation, hardship, person you've been praying for, it doesn't matter how grim it looks. It doesn't matter if it seems dead and gone. This is the Jesus we serve. Welcome to the iRefresh podcast, where every conversation points to the life-changing power of God's living word. Let's pursue God together, one conversation at a time. I live here in the Tulsa area, Sepulpa, actually. And like Cheryl said, I'm working on my master's at ORU. It's been a long time since I was in college, so it's all new. And I get to travel with my husband. We do conferences and crusades.

0:41 I get to do women's conferences internationally, and that's been fantastic. It's something that... God put on my heart. It's something that was prophesied over me here at one of these meetings too. And then along the way, different visions that God's given me over the years. But there's been times where in my life that didn't seem possible. You know, even though God had given me a vision or a dream of that, there was moments where it was very distant and not something that I even could possibly expect to happen in that moment. So I'm going to share that with you tonight. And one thing that I wanted to share about one of those Brazil trips is actually last summer, and just to show you how great God is, last summer I did a women's conference in Brazil, and actually Stella joined me on that one.

1:30 And I got to pray for the women after the conference. And there was, it was a really large room of women. And I felt the Lord put on my heart that night, just pray for knees, just tonight's knees night. And so I asked my translator to, Tell them I want to pray for their knees. Anybody with knee problems, come on up. So there was about 100 women that came up with knees, knee problems. And one right after the other, God healed right there on the spot. They were shouting and jumping and shaking. And God was moving and miraculously healing every single one. It was fantastic. But like I said, that would have never been possible without God's faithfulness.

2:11 So who in here has experienced some hard times before? Yeah, I'm pretty sure every single one of us has gone through something really difficult. And it's required a miracle oftentimes. Life happens. And, you know, sometimes we can get into a state or a really hard time where we're questioning God, where we're questioning his faithfulness. Where are you in this situation? I don't feel you. And I just want to let you know God is not the problem. He is never going to be your problem. He is always the answer. He's always the solution. And so we just need to get into alignment with what he's got for us. Get into an alignment. Get out of our flesh. Get out of the way we think things are going to go and get hooked up with God because that's when he's going to move.

2:55 So, yeah, I'd gone through some pretty tough stuff. I'd gone through a divorce, and I was a single mom, raising kids on my own, working full-time, crazy hours. There were some nights where my son would tuck me into bed, and he'd be like, Mom, you've got to put the computer away. It's midnight, it's too late, you need to put that down. So I was working, burning the candle on both ends, running kids back and forth to sports, going different towns for sports. Both my kids are pretty athletic, so... We were all over the country driving around trying to make things happen for him. So things were really chaotic in my life. And then they got more chaotic. So soon after that, my dad, his health started to decline.

3:40 And like Cheryl mentioned, I was really close with my dad. Like he was a kindred spirit to me, you know. Just the person that I would call when I needed an answer, when I needed anything. I knew no matter where I was in the world, if I needed something, my dad was going to show up. And he's going to tell me what to do. And he'd have wisdom. And he'd have exactly what I needed. So I could always count on him. And his health was starting to decline. He was needing more care. I had to figure out some financial stuff for him, figure out what kind of facility to put him in after a hospital stay. And so that was a whole nother thing that was on my plate. So then I'm trying to visit him, take care of my kids, work all the time, travel, all of these things.

4:23 And then now I'm taking care of my dad who was aging, and having a lot of sickness and headed towards the end. So that was a pretty tough time of life. I think that kind of took me to, and I don't wanna say a breaking point, cause I don't think I was broken. I think I just piled everything on and was trudging through. I think I was just not really worried about the situation. I was gonna get through it. And I was trying to get through it so hard. And that spring, let's see, April of 23, he passed away. And that was a really tough time for me. I was I knew I knew it was coming. I had actually got to give me some visions about him passing and what a glorious time it was.

5:06 And I was really I wasn't sad in that regard. I was I was sad because that was my that was my person. That was my my best friend, you know, and on top of that, my mentor, the person I looked up to. And then also part of me knew that that meant I needed to step up. So when he was passing, all of those things combined and all of the weight on it on me at the time. And it really, you know, it's a far cry from what God had shown me. It's completely different from what I had seen. You know, God. getting to work in the ministry full time. He had told me these things a long time ago. Well, that wasn't what I was seeing. So two very different pictures were happening.

5:46 And I think I could have in that moment been really discouraged. And I could have been like, God, where are you on this? You told me this and I'm not seeing it. You said this, God, but this is what's happening. But I wasn't too concerned about God. I know he does his part real well. And so I know that God can do a miracle in any situation. And even through the death of my dad, I was in deep grief at the time. And I was praying and crying out to God. And I remembered right where I was in my house. And God spoke to me. And he said, do you want to take his mantle? Do you want to continue his ministry? And he was giving me the option.

6:26 He wasn't telling me I had to or it was a requirement because I had seen the price my dad paid. He paid a heavy price for that. It was a cost to it. He was not just financially but in every way It was a burden he carried, but in all the right ways. And so I knew what the weight of that looked like. And I said, yes, I want that, but I want someone to do it with. And I felt like God and I came to an agreement in that moment. And I was like, okay. And so I didn't, and obviously my situation didn't look like that yet. I wasn't experiencing that yet, but I felt like, you know, down the road. Down the road, God's going to work that out.

7:07 I'm just going to keep going forward. And the next day... God kept bringing someone to my mind that I had never thought about, would have never thought about. And so I asked him, I was like, God, who's this person? Like, or I knew who they were, but I thought, why are you bringing them to my mind? Why, why am I thinking about them? And he said, you're going to go to lunch or coffee with them this week. I was like, okay. And so within 30 minutes, I got a message asking me to go to lunch or coffee that week. I was like, all right, I guess so. So I accepted, went to coffee with this person who's my now husband. And I was thinking at the time it was gonna be just for ministry.

7:48 I was like, well, God and I talked, so doing ministry. And, um, God was also answering the other part of my prayer, which was a concession to have someone to do it with. So I didn't have to do it on my own. And so, um, now I get a wonderful husband and a big blessing out of it. And God took me from a total despair situation. where everything was on me, all the weight, all the burden, to a completely different outlook, and actually now getting to walk in a lot of those things that he had shown me years and years ago. So Romans 8, 28 says, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purposes.

8:32 That verse says, all things work together for good to them that what? Love God. What does it mean to love God? It means to obey God. Jesus said that if you don't obey me, you don't love me. So how do we show our love to God? We obey. So that's a qualifying factor there. He's saying all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purposes. Genesis 520 says, But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. Now this is talking about Joseph. Joseph was saying this to his brothers that had thrown him in a well. Talk about a dark situation.

9:14 Pretty desperate situation. He's saying, you meant evil, but God turned it around for good. That's a pretty desperate situation. God wasn't stopping. He saw the beginning to the end. He's the alpha and the omega. That means no matter what our situation looks like, God still intends for it to come to completion. All it takes is our submission. It takes us getting into alignment with him. Jeremiah 32, 27 says, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? Sometimes we forget. I forget. I'll be thinking and worrying about something, praying about it. This says, is anything too hard for me?

9:56 Indeed. We're not supposed to forget his benefits. He says, forget not my benefits. We're supposed to actually remember my God's a good God. He's got good plans for me. He's going to make a provision for me. He knows the plans he has for my life. And he wants to bring it to completion. He wants to bring it forth. I was thinking about this the other day. My dad had this video game that we used to play as kids. I don't know if you guys remember Pilgrim's Progress, the book. He's really old. I'm aging myself. Well, there was this like 1980s video game that we used to play too. And basically, it's this character and he's going along. And he has to defeat this stuff and he's getting these jewels.

10:38 He's collecting these jewels, this fruit of the spirit as he goes. It's a fun game. Anyway, life's exactly like that. As we overcome things through Jesus, we're getting jewels. We're getting the blessings, the benefits of that. It's an increase. It's taking us forward in our journey. That's exactly what our life's supposed to be like, this journey. And God wants to work a victory in your life. It's really easy to say these things. It's really easy to quote these scriptures and be like, yeah, of course God means that. Of course he's good. But he wants you to experience it. He doesn't want you just to read it on a page. He wants it to be your lived experience through him by faith. So overcoming these challenges, that gives us faith for future stuff.

11:21 Each time we overcome something, it's building up our faith so we can look back and be like, no, that's what God did there. God met me in that moment. There was a time I remember when right after the divorce and I was there with the kids at the house and I'm praying and I'm like, what now, God? What do I do now? And I remember him speaking to me very clearly and saying, I'm going to be your husband and I'm going to take care of you. And in that moment, I had total peace. I wasn't worried about anything. And he did exactly what he said. And I didn't lack and I had what I needed. And I was able to take care of my kids, thank God. But even now, I remember last weekend, I was having some pretty high stress stuff going on and some family issues.

12:03 And it was keeping me up at night. I just had a knot in my stomach and I was praying and I couldn't sleep. And I was I was up all night praying, kind of I wouldn't say striving, just praying and praying and trying to do all that I could do. And I remember the verse, my peace I give to you. And so I started to pray that verse and God met me in that moment and spoke to me. And then that anxiousness, that worry, that fear that was not even giving me sleep and it was making me sick because I was so concerned about it broke in that moment because God moved because I wasn't going to stop until I got what his word said, because he said, my peace I give to you.

12:46 So I'm going to make sure I get that peace. I wanted it to be my actual experience, not a word that I agree with. I wanted to receive that peace, and he did, and he broke through, and I've been having peace ever since, thank God. The situation didn't completely change yet, but my peace is there, and it's a peace that the world can't give. It's a peace that comes only from God, and I just wanna encourage you that if you're struggling in a situation, if something's going on in your life, God actually wants to meet your need. He actually wants to touch you. He wants to solve the problem for you. But it takes meeting with him on these things. Maybe making some adjustments, aligning yourself to his will, operating in obedience.

13:29 John 14, 18 says, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. And like I've mentioned, I had a good dad. Not everybody had that experience. But God was reminding me over the weekend that he's such a better father than I had, that he loves me so much more than what I even experienced. And so much more does he want to meet with me and help me. And he's not a respecter of persons because every single one of you that's going through or has gone through something, God also wants to meet with and he also wants to correct that problem. Deuteronomy 31.8 says, and the Lord, he is the one who goes before you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

14:11 Do not be dismayed. And that word dismayed in the NIV means discouraged. And in the NLT, it means neither fail nor abandon you. And then in the Greek, it means to break down either by violence, confusion, or fear. He's saying, don't be that. You're not abandoned. You're not broken. He's going before you and he doesn't forsake you. But this is when you take hold of these things by faith. Like I said, we can agree to this word and just say, yeah, I passively agree with that. Or I can actively be in faith for that in my life to transform my situation. It's a big difference. And John 16, 33 says, I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace.

14:55 In this world, you're going to have trouble. But take heart, I've overcome the world. We have access by faith. And sometimes we can get bound up. in our own strength, trying to make something happen, worrying, trying to force something, striving, getting frustrated. And God's saying, I'm gonna give you peace. We have access to these things by faith, but we have a part to play, like I mentioned. And we have to submit ourselves wholly, like it says in 1 Timothy 4.15. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. God takes notice of these things. He takes notice of your faith and he sees it and he moves.

15:37 God is ready to move. He's waiting for us to make the adjustment. Like I said, he's a good God. He's not withholding something from you. He's not dangling the carrot in front of you. Can't have it. No, he wants you to have it. He said, I've laid these things up in store for you. I want you to enter into these things. I want every part of it for you. So he's not the problem. It's us. We got to get into alignment with him. Submit thyself wholly to him. And I was thinking about Noah's Ark the other day and how the earth had been utterly destroyed. It was gone. There was nothing. It was void. It was void. Nothing was there. It was all gone. And that didn't look good, right?

16:19 Kind of like some situations. So kind of like how I might have felt back in my situation. But Noah sent out a dove. And that dove was looking for a place to land. It was looking for a place to pour out on. And God is the same way. He's looking for a place to land. He's looking for a habitable place of your earth, your earthen vessel. So he's sending out his spirit and he's saying, looking for somewhere I can move. But you've got to give me a place to land. We've got to do things his way. Because his way is so much better than our way. We think we've got it sometimes. We think we're moving in faith maybe. Sometimes we've got to go back and say, God, where did I miss this? Teach me your ways, Lord.

17:01 so that I can be right with you, so that I can move with you. I don't wanna go my way, because it's not gonna end well. I wanna bring you glory, God, in everything in my life. He's not our problem, and he's not causing it. We live in a fallen world. It says we battle against our flesh, the world, and the devil. Sometimes we need to check that flesh part first. There might be something in us. I had to do that last weekend. Lord, if this is a me thing, I repent. If there's something going on in me that is in the way of what you're trying to do, God, remove it, reveal it, show me. Because I don't want to be in God's way. I want to move with him. Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

17:45 Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he'll direct your paths. We need to do it his way. We've got to be led by his spirit, or we do not proceed. And I was thinking about the promised land. God wanted those people to enter in. He wanted the Israelites to enter into the land. But their hearts needed to be right. There was a whole generation that wasn't able to. They were out there wandering around. They were out there camped about when God had all this provision laid up in store for them. He said, all of this is yours. I've got this land ready to go, flowing with milk and honey. That's my plan for you. But they weren't willing to get in line with what he wanted.

18:26 Their hearts weren't in the right place. Was it God's plan? Absolutely. He was ready to take him in. He was ready to go. But sometimes we got to get into alignment with what he's wanting to do. And so just like my testimony of how God broke in and gave me peace when I heard that, That's exactly what God wants to do in our situations. He's wanting to break in and he's willing to do it. His hand is outstretched. God's not withholding. He has an outstretched hand ready to go for you. He's not up there going, that wasn't a good enough prayer. That wasn't the one. No, he sees your heart. And he's saying, when you submitted holy to me, It's going to move.

19:07 Just like that when I was praying for peace, he broke in on me. He moved me. And I received that peace in that moment. He was ready to go. And we have to position ourselves in faith. And one last thing that I wanted to... mention is the story of Mary and Martha that has it really has spoke to me um a lot of times Martha gets a bad rap you know everyone's like don't be a Martha she wasn't choosing the right thing and in Luke 10 she was she didn't choose the better Mary did but Martha redeems herself In the book of John, I believe it's chapter 11. This is when Lazarus has died.

19:49 Most of us know this story. And he's dead. But what's Jesus' response? He says in verse 4, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified through it. Well, I want to tell you tonight that your problem that you're going through, your issue, that's not into death. It's so that God's going to be glorified in that if you let him. If you want him to move in it, God wants to move. So God's ready to go. We want him to be glorified in our situations. We don't want some issue to continue to be an issue. We want it to be a testimony for Jesus. We want our lives to glorify him.

20:29 Every situation, every problem that's come along, we want to say, no, no. My God can move that mountain. My God's going to move in this situation. It doesn't matter how grim it looks. It doesn't matter how difficult this path has been. I'm ready and expectant for God to move. I'm going to get in faith on it. So that was what Jesus was saying. He's saying God's going to be glorified in this situation. So if you skip on down to about verse 19. So some of the historical background of this, because I've been taking all these classes, so the historical background on this is a lot of times in this culture, when someone would die, the people in the town would go and gather at their home for days to help them mourn.

21:11 So they would be in their homes mourning, and they wouldn't leave their home. They would just be expected to stay there. And the women of the house, Mary and Martha, whose brother Lazarus had died, would be expected to talk to these people and discuss their brother. So they're not expected to leave. That's one of their traditions. So in verse 19, it says, And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha... As soon as she heard Jesus was coming, that sounds like she moved pretty quick. She's in devastation. She's in mourning. She's hurting. The worst thing in the world's just happened to her. But this says, as soon as she heard Jesus was coming, she went and met him.

21:56 She left her traditions behind, her customs, everything that she had been told for generations on how she was supposed to act. Every expectation that was held against her. Everyone expected her to stay there and mourn. But she went to go meet Jesus. She separated herself out and said, I don't care what's going on. I'm going to go meet Jesus in this moment. And so Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And she's not saying that like, oh, man, Jesus, wish you would have been here. She's not saying it negatively. She's saying that in faith. She's saying this isn't an accusation. That's true. Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

22:37 But now I know whatever you ask, whatever you ask of God, God will give you. In that moment, she had faith. She said, I know if you'd been here, he'd be alive, but even now, my brother's dead in the grave. He's been in there for days. Even now in this moment, whatever you say is gonna happen. He's gonna be raised to life. This situation's gonna change. Whatever problem you're facing, whatever situation, hardship, person you've been praying for, it doesn't matter how grim it looks, it doesn't matter if it seems dead and gone. This is the Jesus we serve. This is the one. And when we position ourselves in faith like Martha, where we're ready to go, where we're running to Jesus, where we're gonna go meet him on the road, where we're gonna leave everything behind that we knew and we're gonna say no.

23:28 I'm not going to go along with this. I'm going to meet you, God, and I'm going to believe that even now in this situation, you're going to change it. Even now, God, no matter what's going on, you're going to transform it to your glory. And that's got to be our prayer. That's got to be our statement of faith for our lives. That no matter what, God, I believe that you can change the situation. You're going to transform it. Whether it's something in me or some situation that I face, you are able to. And we need his help. Amen? We need God to move. He's a faithful God. But we've got to also respond in faith. We've got to meet him. We've got a part to play. And God wants us to play it.

24:09 He wants us to step up in faith. That's what it's about. This is the faithfulness of God is what I've been talking about tonight. But it requires our faith in him. Each step is a step of faith. We've got to be preparing our hearts to... We've got to be setting our minds on this because this is real, this word of God. This is not just letters on a page. This is life-changing manna from heaven. This is what he sent. He sent his son. Jesus died for this. This is no joke. And he's ready to go for you. He doesn't play about you. Sometimes we play about God. And we think we can do it our way. We think we can do things better.

24:51 Or we just don't think we need to include him in our situation. But let me tell you, you need God. We're supposed to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We're supposed to ask and be filled. This is going to be a daily thing. And if we want to see God move in our lives, we need to position ourselves in faith. We need to go meet him out on the road. Say, God, I know you're going to move in this situation. You can do it, Lord, even now. Even though things look wrong and bad, I believe you're going to move in my life. I believe you're going to move in my situations. And so even tonight, whatever you're expecting from the Lord, if there's certain things that you have on your heart, I want to encourage you, position yourself in faith because God is ready to go.

25:35 He doesn't want to leave you an orphan. You have a father. You have a father that is ready to heal you, ready to set you free, to give you what he called you to do in life. That testimony, I mean, I could have still been in that situation. I could have still been in the same place I was in, in a place of hurt, and I could have remained there. But I said, no, I'm going to follow you, Jesus. And if you're calling me to do this, I'm going to follow you. And he provided the whole way. He didn't leave me. He said, I've got a plan for you. And if you follow me, that's the obedience part. If you follow me, I'm going to bring it to completion.

26:15 That's how he's the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the completion of our faith. But we got to walk in those steps of obedience with him to see that come to pass. Amen. If this episode encouraged you, don't let it end here. Open your Bible, seek God's heart, and discover the life-changing power of His promises for yourself. Until next time, keep pursuing the God who changes everything.