You Were Made to FLOURISH | Sarah Wehrli | EP 109

Even when we feel like we don't even have strength to speak the Word, if we will just begin to worship God and declare His goodness and His faithfulness, then strength comes. God didn't take stripes on His back just for physical healing. That's for emotional healing. Maybe the answers could be found just in being heard and being seen and finding someone else that understands. I was seeing God's hand in the prayers that I was praying for other people. When you are not focused on yourself, it frees you to actually be part of a miracle in somebody else's life. Welcome to iRefresh, where we talk about the power of prayer and God's Word. Welcome to another episode of our iRefresh podcast. I have with us today, Sarah Whirling. Welcome. Thank you so much. Glad to be here. It is great to have you. And you know, one of the things I've learned is I've been around you for years, but when I started to look at all the incredible... Bible study books that you have, I was just thrilled to begin. I went, started going to your YouTube and went through from the beginning and went, started listening to each one. And there are so many great books and their studies. I love, we've got one here, Advance. I was definitely interested in how to hear God's voice and loved going through that and also Awake. But today I am excited. We're going to focus in on your newest release called Flourish, which is great. You were made to flourish, which, you know, I have heard the verb verbiage about flourishing, but I would love for you just to walk us through like what what made you think, OK, I'm I'm wanting to write something like where was it that God was showing you that you felt you need to go deeper with him to write something? Well, I think in 2016, we went through a major hurricane when we were living in Orlando. Okay. And during this hurricane, this storm, I remember the news people coming on saying, board up your house, get ready, it's gonna be devastating. So we prepared, but we also were praying for protection. And then through the night, as we were watching, things were just flying all over the place. Trees were being uprooted, things were everywhere. And I kept looking at my palm tree in the yard and it was just being pushed all the way down to the ground. And I thought for sure it was gonna snap like all the other trees were falling. And then after the storm, we quietly, you know, just creeped outside and looked around. We realized it wasn't as bad as we thought. It wasn't as bad as the news predicted. And everybody was okay. We were alive. The city was okay. And I looked around and although a lot of other trees were uprooted and all over the place, my palm tree was right back in place. And so I was really intrigued because I loved my palm tree. And I thought, I'm going to research this. And so I started researching the palm tree. And I found that the palm tree is so resilient that the more it's pressed down during a storm, the more its root system gets strengthened. Really? Yeah. And it has this resilience about it that it just bounces back after a storm. Not only that, it gets stronger through the storm. And it's abundantly fruitful. It's fragrant. Every part of it has a purpose. And throughout the Bible, I began to find scriptures of the palm tree. It symbolizes victory and praise and overcoming. And then I just began to study passages, Psalms 92, where it says, the righteous will flourish like the palm tree. And I began to just think about just like the palm tree, we can overcome the storms of life. We can bounce back by the grace of God when we go through challenges. And we all face storms. All of us, in fact, through the pandemic and even just through the past several years, a lot of people have faced challenges. storms, challenges, trials. And what I really felt the Lord encouraging me to write is that you can overcome. You can thrive, whether you're in a pandemic, whether you're in a challenge, whether you're in a storm, whatever you might be going through, God's given us the power to overcome because the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. And Jesus said, although you may face storms, trials, John 16, 33, you can overcome because I'm with you. And so that's really where I began to write and study and then just began to look throughout, you know, the Bible of passages. You know, we see a lot of passages about flourishing and fruitfulness. And so that's where this idea first started. You know, I think it's not the irony when God's promising us that we are to flourish, but then you're also, you mix it at the same time you're also talking storms. It seems like they're two opposing forces. And yet, but somehow I think it's just the irony that God wants us to know that in that place, when we're in the midst, that we can actually feel comfort, we can find peace and And that reassures us that he actually wants to make sure that he is prevalent in the midst of what we're walking through. That's good. So I'd love for you just to break down some of the highlights of this book. We recommend it to you. We'll put it in our show notes. And down below, you'll see how to go to Sarah's website, which would be Sarah. Youweremadetoflourish.com. Youweremadetoflourish.com. So we'll have that. But let's highlight, what are some of the key factors you'd want to share about your book here? Yeah. Well, Anna and I talk about getting vision, getting God's vision for your life. I went to, in the process of writing this, I went to a farm and I was talking to the farmer and it was actually during the fall season where everything was barren and everything had been picked over. And he said, he just began to describe the farm. He said, no, you just wait till the spring. I'm clearing the ground. I've got a vision for what I want to see. I've got a vision for the harvest that I want to see and I'm planting seed. I'm preparing the ground. I'm clearing the clutter. I'm clearing the debris, the junk that you see, and I'm getting ready to plant seed. And you come back in the spring. It's going to be amazing. And so in the process, I would go back and forth to the farm in the process of writing this book and just write principles, you know, practical principles that we can apply in our own life, you know, of getting vision. Clearing the clutter, you know, making space for what God wants to do in us and then planting seed, planting the seed of his word in our heart and then tending the soil of our heart. You know, uprooting things that could choke the word of God from really flourishing and bearing fruit in our heart. Things like. Bitterness or whatever. Well, and that's key. So when you're talking about from the place where you look at it, it reminds me of breakup in the Old Testament when it talks about breaking up the follow ground. That's good. That hardness that comes in our heart when we are not walking in a place of forgiveness. Yeah. When somebody has done something against us, whether it's intentional or not, that we have to release them because you talked about the bitterness that can begin to root into our hearts. making it harder the longer we wait to forgive someone. It's true. And for our own sake, we have to release them. Yeah. So that's good as far as attending, you know, to that heart. Yeah. When you talk about a vision, what is someone that's listening? They're like, well, like, how do I figure that out? Like, I don't, I'm not one of those people that has a vision for my life. Like, I'm just, I go to work. I do what I'm supposed to do. How could you speak to someone like that who has not even experienced what it is to have a vision in their life? I think seeking the Lord, because he said, if we lack wisdom, ask. So I think seeking him and asking him, Lord, what is your vision for my life? What are you calling me to do in this season and this time in my life? You know, a vision for somebody in their 20s is going to look different than somebody in their 30s or 40s or 50s. It's going to look different. Flourishing looks different with different seasons of our life. But I believe in whatever season God can give us vision, direction that we can begin to walk out and see what God will do and see how he'll cause things to flourish. So that's so good. And we want to encourage you, too, when she's talking about a vision, Habakkuk talks about that, about when you get that vision, when you pray, begin to write. Maybe you don't journal. I journal on and off. I have more journals than I've started so many different times. But I realize the more that I write something down, you're really committing yourself to. Absolutely. And even if beginning, if you in your time is take a journal, write on some paper and begin to then ask the Lord, okay, what is it that I like to do? What is it that the Lord has that I can do? What is my talent? Maybe I like to bake or to cook or like to clean. How can I then... Use that thing. It's practical. I just do it. Right. But that practical for someone else is overwhelming because they don't do that and they're not good at that. They have a cluttered life. But maybe you could, what you're talking about even too about the seed. Yeah. Maybe that's a seed that you could plant into someone else's life as you were trying to find out what God's called you into. That's great. Yeah, I mean, we can plant seeds not only of the Word of God in our heart, but we can also plant seeds of our time, sowing our time, sowing our prayers, sowing our talents, you know, giving out, sowing our treasure, you know, sowing seed, expecting God to bring a harvest. So there's a lot of seed, you know, that we can sow in our life and then see what God will do on the other side. So... That's good. So, okay. So, and I'm going to go back to, because you're talking about to see the word being the seed in us, you know, how is it, if you don't have that pattern in your life, where would you recommend where somebody will start? Like they're overwhelmed, like, okay, I don't know where to start in the word. I haven't made a normal habit of it. How could you pinpoint a starting point for someone? Well, for me, I started with a Bible study like this, you know. And so, you know, and that's really one of the reasons why I wrote these. They're, you know, daily chapters and then questions at the end. And even study scriptures that people can study and reflect and process. what God is speaking to them. But, you know, that's one way is starting with a devotional, starting with, you know, a committed time. Yes. I like to have time in the word in the morning and they go out and walk and pray. But, you know, that is so good because what I really enjoy is I've gone through, I've actually got multiple ones started because I love the practicality of what Sarah is doing is she takes a word and, And I love the translations you have of the world. Like, oh my goodness, I've never seen it. When you see it from the different translations, you're like, I never understood it until you brought in a different translation. I'm like, okay, that's life-giving. And I'm like, I'm like highlighting, I'm going, yes. And I'm somebody who likes to do lots of different colors. And I'm like so good to where... You take it, and the thing is great, too, that you do really well is you give us an opportunity to ponder it and meditate. So if you don't know what that means, honestly, the practicality of what she does is sharing a highlight of life. Like for this book right here is getting that vision is she allows you the opportunity to share the word, give you some thoughts towards the word. And at the end of this chapter, I love how there are places for you to consider. And that's what meditating is all about. It's taking that word. It's just kind of pondering it and thinking. Mary said she pondered those things in her heart. Yeah. And in that way, you allow us to not just, I don't know, you can just read through the Bible. You can kind of go through it. But if you don't give moments to really reflect on what you just read, you'll go about your day. And it's just, it's a checkoff list. Yes. And this is a great way for us to take the word and then help it to really soak in. So we can remember beyond just the moment in the morning. Amen. Yeah. I mean, one specific situation was after my dad passed away and we were it was like the year after he passed away. This has been 14 years ago. And about a month after I was traveling and I thought I was having a heart attack. And I rushed myself to the hospital and I told the doctor, I'm having a heart attack. And they ran all kinds of tests. They said, no, no, you're okay physically. You must have just had a stress attack. And so then I thought, what? You know, and I went about my routine and it happened again in a few weeks and again. And I thought, Lord, something is off. And so I began to pray and I asked the Lord, God, what is going on? They say there's nothing wrong physically. So what is going on in my body, my spirit, soul, and body? And the Lord just began to speak to me that I had begun to doubt the goodness of God. And he spoke to me about sowing the seed of the word of God, renewing my mind afresh. You know, we're to be constantly renewed in the spirit of our mind. And so just going back over scriptures of God's faithfulness, of his goodness, of his healing power, and breaking the spirit of fear. And so I began to get out scriptures, you know, and I, things that I knew things that I've learned, but just get them out again and confess them over my life. And I began to declare, I don't have a spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind. I began to declare all these passages and uproot that toxic spirit of fear and doubt, you know, and then, um, they were gone. And that was now 13, 14 years ago, and it never happened again. But it really was, for me, it was renewing my mind afresh and going over that. And I, to this day, I still do confessions. I speak the word because I believe there's power in not just believing the word, but then speaking it over our life. It's like we're watering the seed in our own heart and we're letting God's word take root and then be established and grow. So I think, you know, in our own life, we have to take our thoughts captive. Things that don't line up with his word and renew our mind with what he says. And it's, I believe it's a continual thing, you know, we never outgrow and there's always more things we can, we can learn as we meditate and as we dwell on his word. So that's so good. It's very life-giving. And, you know, for someone, some people have more of a bent toward maybe being a pessimist or more negative or you are in a negative environment. But literally, if you understood what Sarah is saying is that you have the capacity to literally change the atmosphere and where you're at, no matter what situation you're in, whatever relationships you're in, your work environment, whatever, as toxic as it may be. To really realize if you began to take some of those scriptures and under your, you know, under your breath or whatever you're whispering and maybe at work or whatever is, and maybe put a card of that scripture and put it somewhere on your computer screen or somewhere where somebody sees it. But it's that confession is keeping it in front of you and it's recognizing, okay, greater is he that is in me. Amen. Than the stuff that's around me. Yes. And when we declare it, we're literally, we're putting it into the atmosphere around us. Yes. And you can't have light and darkness at the same place. No. Like you're literally, you're dispersing God's light. Amen. And you talk about that. I was in several of your Bible studies about that is, you know, that we are to reflect his glory. Yes. And I'm like, okay, he is the light that he's trying to allow to root out all darkness within us, but also then that so we will disperse his glory, his light. Yes. And I'm like, that is so powerful when you recognize why are we feeling downtrodden? I mean, the Psalms talks about that, you know, when you go through those difficult times and we, we can stay in the place. where we can feel that defeat and frustration, or we can choose to be in again, just to spread the light of God's word into the atmosphere. It's amazing. And you've been talking about it too, if of using it also his word, but begin to praise the Lord. Yes. Yeah. I mean, praise is powerful. It's a weapon against the enemy. And, and you know, one example in my own life is when, We were flying over to Asia. We were living on the mission field at the time in Hong Kong. And my little boy was very sick. In fact, I looked to my right and he stopped breathing. He turned blue. His eyes went to the back of his head and he just went limp and he stopped breathing. And we started doing CPR. Here we are on a 16 hour flight over. He's three years old and we start doing CPR. He wasn't responding. So we got an oxygen tank on him. Finally, he started breathing, but he was so weak, he began to have seizures. He got stabilized, but as soon as we landed, we rushed him to the ER, and they ran all kinds of tests. They said, oh, he'll have long-term seizures. And they didn't even know the cause of it. This had never happened before. And so I am just, you know, in shock. And of course, speaking the word of God at the same time, because I know how powerful the word is and praying. And we went for about a month where we were in and out of hospitals. We were standing in faith, believing for a miracle for Isaac. And I remember at the end of the month, I was weary. You know, sometimes we can get weary in a fight of faith. And so I was just weary. And I said, Lord, I was all by myself in the room with him. I said, Lord, I'm tired. I need a miracle. We need a miracle for Isaac. Please speak to us. And the Lord just said, sing, Sarah, sing. Worship me. And I realized he wanted me to get my eyes off of the circumstance, off the storm and onto his greatness. And so I just began to sing with tears streaming down my face. I will sing praise. I will sing praise. No weapon formed against me will remain. I will declare you are my victory and you're here. And as I began to sing, faith began to rise because something happens. You know, when we begin to worship God in our darkest hour, faith begins to rise. And then I began to speak the word even with more strength. No, God, God, I believe that Isaac will live. He will not die. He will declare the works of the Lord. My children are for signs, wonders and miracles by your stripes. He is healed and just declare the word. I all of a sudden got peace and it was like settled in my heart, Lord, I thank you, you're working. I trust you, you are working in his body. And that week, everything changed. It was miraculous. All of a sudden that week, he got up out of the bed, he started running around, he got his strength back, he started asking for food and he never had a seizure after that moment. Never had to be on medication for seizures. It was truly a healing miracle. And he's 18 today. And I just thank God. But in those darkest moments, even when we feel like we don't even have strength to speak the word, if we will just begin to worship God and declare his goodness and his faithfulness, then strength comes and there's power in praise and worship. There's power when we get our eyes on him and how great he is that nothing is impossible with him. You know, I think, Sarah, it's incredible when you think that you've created that pattern in your life so you knew what to go into automatically when you were prepared before the crisis. So you naturally, you walked into that place. And so that is something that we, that's why when you say you daily have to, what renewing means, you constantly have to be in the word. You have to constantly be. fixing our eyes on what the Lord says on all of our circumstances. Yes. That way you knew how to do battle. Yes. You know, the Lord just guides you, but you had to create that pattern. It was your exercising of your faith walk so that when the battle came, you were ready, ammunitions. Yeah. Got my sword. Right? Yeah. You were ready to go and to fight the war because the greater, you know, which is powerful when you think about it. You could have had the fear or it was the faith. And you were in that place of staying in a place of faith. And knowing that God's orchestrated Isaac's life in such a way that God has mighty things for him. What a beautiful experience. Praise God. Wow. I love that. But, you know, like you said, it's planting the seed of the word in our heart before the crisis. So that when crisis comes or when storms come, we begin to pull out our sword, our weapon against the enemy. And we declare what God's word says against the enemy's attacks. Because we all will face challenges. Flourishing doesn't mean we aren't going to have a storm. Flourishing means that we can still thrive and overcome. He's called us to be overcomers. And we can overcome no matter what challenge that we face. I don't know about you, but how many times when you walked around and just in your normal daily life, how is it that seed that you have in yourself, how is it that you shared it with other people on a practical experience? Have you seen that even just going out and doing your normal busy life? Do you find that you're able to share words of the Lord to encourage other people? Yeah, because God blesses us so we can be a blessing. You know, that seed of his word takes root in our hearts so that we can then give out to others. So I think it definitely helps me to be more sensitive to those interactions on a daily basis and people that I might come in contact with to then speak a word. of encouragement or, you know, God gives a word of knowledge or word of wisdom, whatever it might be. But to encourage people in that to give, if God says, give this to somebody that I'm sensitive to say, okay, Lord, I trust you. If I sow that seed into that person or into that, that you'll bring a harvest. I trust you because I've seen your faithfulness in the past. So I think it definitely, as we're sowing the word in our hearts, it definitely helps us to be more ready for, to reach out to the people that we come in contact with and to be a blessing. Because we're not just to flourish for ourselves. He's blessed us so that we can be a blessing and to reach others for him. I think that's the thing that's different about what you're saying is all these things are not just for yourself. You know, it's not that we flourish so we can feel good and have a great life personally or just our family. Right. But it's for us to be able to extend that. Yes. And so, I mean, I would love to, too, is, you know, you said make room for pruning. What does that look like for you? I think, you know, pruning could be... where the Lord begins to convict us of sin. But it also can be where the Lord says, I'm done with this assignment. that I had you in this season. And now I'm calling you into this new thing. It's really, that's how these started. Because I was doing something else and it was a good thing. And then the Lord said, I want you to write. I want you to write Bible studies. So I had to make room. I had to prune my own schedule. Does that make sense? That's painful. No, I get it. No, I've even had to have my family. I'm like, okay, here's the schedule. What should I prune? Like, what do I need to take away? Yeah. Because for me to be flourishing in what I'm supposed to do, I need to be, something has to go. Yeah. Because you get burned out. Right. And so sometimes pruning is just distractions or busyness or things that were good in one season, but are not helpful for the new season. Because God's saying, I want you to focus on, on this, you know, new assignment, you know, our purpose stays the same, but our assignment changes, you know? And so I think. discerning that and asking the Holy Spirit, okay, Lord, if you're done with that, not that he's done with something that's good, but for me doing that, and you want me to move on to this, help me to be quick to obey and trust you in that process, you know, so I think that's a part of our pruning at times is. just, um, you know, eliminating distractions or things that would hinder us from the new thing. He's saying, I've called you to do this and I've given you this fresh vision, but you've got to make space for it. That's good. So, well, cause if you would have been trying to do two different things, you'd be scattered. And like, you know, I've heard some people say like, my brain just feels foggy. I feel distracted distortion that's happening because I'm hearing people, they're saying all these different things that they're doing and they all sound good, but I'm like, okay, okay. it's not for me. I'm not the judge and jury. That's the Holy Spirit's going to convict you of what is supposed to come off of that schedule because that scatteredness is not from the Lord. And so having the opportunity to be able to say no to something was great. And which is probably sometimes it's like, Oh, I don't want to give that up. I know that's a hard challenge. Journey's painfully good. That's all I have to say. Yes. But you know, when we think, the possibility of trusting God is how we grow even better. Cause when we look at a plant that's actually pruned, it actually does so much better after the pruning process. You know, I think, you know, Tulsa, we've had so many really rough winters and we've had a lot of things die. And, Some of the trees around the first year, no one in our neighborhood had trimmed anything. And I started having fun with some new scissors and saws and stuff. And I went in, started clipping, and the neighbor was helping. And people were like, oh, thanks for cutting out all the dead stuff. And you're like, okay, it was literally a weird-looking bush. But I'm like, all the dead was out of it. And so everybody, even as weird as it looked, after all the pruning, all the dead stuff was out, everybody was so much happier. Yeah. of a non-shaped, all green bush. And I'm like, how funny is that? Like, God does that with us. We don't necessarily want that, but really it's going to become a dead thing in our life. Oh, that's so good. If it's not what he has that season, as great as it is, it was, like you said, it was a chapter as a season needs to be released so that somebody else can take that and run with it. You know, there's so many other great things that you're going to find in this Bible study. And I really encourage you to go and get a copy of it. But I would love, Sarah, why don't you just talk to our audience and just tell them what's on your heart of what your takeaway for them just to be encouraging and your place where they need to be thriving and flourishing where God has them. Well, I want to encourage you, if you've been in a process where you're waiting on a harvest, don't get weary in well-doing. Galatians 6, 9 says, don't grow weary. For in due season, you will reap if you don't give up. And so I want to encourage you, if you've been sowing seed, trust God's timing in the harvest of that seed. One example that I love to share is of the Chinese bamboo tree. And I learned that when that seed is first planted in the ground, you don't see anything come up for the first five years. But somewhere in that fifth year, that seed can sprout up to 90 feet in six weeks time. And somebody might think, wow, that thing just sprouted up overnight. But it didn't. It took time. for the roots to get deep, for it to be watered, for then it to be able to flourish. And our life is so much like that process. We don't always see overnight results, even though we live in an instant society that wants everything at our fingertips. We don't always see that automatic result, but be faithful because God's way is a progressive way. It's a progressive growth. He talks all through scripture about seed time and harvest. So be encouraged. and the seeds that you're sowing that God is faithful to fulfill his promises in your life. That's so good, Sarah. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for sharing really important things for you to be in a place. No matter where you're at now, even maybe you're in a good place. I would encourage you, as we have talked about, is you need to be prepared because, like she said, there's going to be the storms. We all go through it. But if you're prepared for the battle that's ahead, you are going to be able to be equipped, just like you did with your son. You're ready to declare the word into your life or into your loved ones so that we all can be in a place where we all flourish. So thank you, Sarah. Awesome. Thank you so much. All right. I wasn't sure where to look. Forgive me. At the end, I go here.