Abide & Thrive: A Recap from Our Inner Circle Kick-Off

Hey, are you thriving right now? Do you feel like there's an overflow of the best of you happening? Well, if you do, awesome. If you don't, you're not alone. Listen, after all we've been through, this world opening back up, man, it is tight and not right. It is like trying to keep up and catch our breath. And you aren't by yourself if that's how you feel. Listen, I believe that you and I were created to thrive. And I have some content that I'd like to share with you today to remind you of that truth. My name is Chrystal Hurst. I'm an author and a speaker who lays down audio for podcasts and creates videos for YouTube and Facebook, all with one purpose in mind: to help you live life well. I also have a membership, and every week in that membership, I go live to share some fun, some foolery, and some facts. We take that content, we package it up nice and neat, and we share some of that content with you every week. But we just closed our membership because we're kicking off our next journey. And as a part of that kickoff, we had a special meeting— more like a party— and it was fire. And I want to share a portion of the encouragement I gave in that meeting with you. This will hopefully, prayerfully, definitively remind you that you were created to thrive. And I pray that after you finish watching this, you believe it. It doesn't matter what you're coming out of. It doesn't matter what you hope you're going into. You can thrive right where you are. You might just need a little encouragement to do it. And that's what I want to share with you today. You need to know what it is to thrive. You do. You need to know that even though you've been uprooted, or maybe you feel like you've been replanted, that COVID has left you trying to figure out what really matters, what was broken, what was fixed, what you want to change, what you never want to change again. In this season of, of upheaval, you need to know what it means to thrive. And if you already know, then you need to do a better job of doing it even more. Why? Because the more of you that you inhabit and accept and love, the more of you, you believe that God actually created you to be who you are, you bring better bounty. You build more fruit. You produce more beautiful, um, harvest and crops for other people and other generations to grow and be nourished from. That only happens when, even when you've been uprooted and upplanted, that you know how to connect with you. This next season is about growing what's already in you. I want you, I want me to know what it is to thrive. Here's what this means to thrive. Thrive is defined as growth or development that happens well. It is vigorous blossoming. It is a process of progress where you are realizing a goal despite or instead of your circumstances. When you thrive, it means you are flourishing. That's what it means. We have moved to a place that has trees around it and grass around it. And when we bought this place, I asked the previous homeowners, what do you do to get the grass as green as it is? Because all I thought is, I have 3 boys that in 10 years, because we've been renting, haven't mowed the grass. They don't even know how to do it. And my husband sold the lawnmower, and I was looking at my children thinking, this is going to be— this is going to be hard. This is going to be an opportunity for them to develop in their manhood, develop good work ethic. It's an opportunity for my husband to train his sons. This is awesome. But I sure did look at that man who sold me this house and I said, What do you do to keep the grass so green? And he said, nothing. He said nothing. He said most of what you see was planted when we got here, and the person who knew what they were doing is who planted this grass, seeded the sod, and put this grass down and put up these crepe myrtles and put up these trees and put up these bushes and put up these thorny roses because they put stuff here that was designed for this ground. So I said, okay, that seems like a lie to me. I just don't think that's how it's gonna work. But let me tell you something, we really don't do too much and the grass is pretty much green. It's a It's amazing. We have the runoff, I think, from a pond behind us, and so when it rains, we get extra water. We are planted well, but because we're planted well, there are all kinds of things that grow in addition to the grass. I currently right now have bushes that are beautiful that have ivy that have become very aggressive, and they're taking over the bushes, crawling along the top of the bushes, and starting to crawl up the house. This area, even though it's thriving, there are things I have to deal with, things that shouldn't be here that I have to weed out, things that are taking advantage of the good soil that has been put here, of the good runoff that has been deposited here. Of the history of the first owner who planted it here. And even though I look out and see green, there's work to be done. So lest you think that thriving means you have to get yourself up off the floor because your life sucks and nothing is going right and you're sad all the time, that's one area of your life that you may need to know how to thrive for sure. But I want to challenge you. That even if things are looking pretty okay, even in thriving seasons, there are things to weed, there are things to prune, and there are things that need to be repotted or replanted. In fact, sometimes the very idea that you are thriving means that action needs to happen so you can keep thriving. What you have done yesterday will not take you forward into your tomorrow. It'll set the stage, it It'll give you a good foundation. It'll teach you what you know well about thriving and what you may have to release in this next season that worked for you then and it doesn't work for you now. What I want to tell you is that thriving is moving from glory to glory. It is God taking you from what you knew about you when you were in your 20s or in your teens and amplifying that and multiplying that and giving you a new vision for your life in your 30s. It is what you knew about yourself in your 30s and your 40s, and then in your 50s, you realize that time is not on my side. And if I'm gonna do the thing, I'm gonna do the thing. And if I'm gonna say the thing, I'm gonna say the thing. And you refuse to allow the fact that you've got 30 years of adulthood in your back pocket to make you think that you still cannot thrive. That everything that God allowed, that he did in your life, that he provided for you, that he made available to you, even if you didn't use it right, was compost. It was stuff that went into the soil of your life so that in the season you're in, it all adds up to good. It does not matter what season of life that you're in. It does not matter how much you have been replanted, repotted, pruned back, transplanted. It does not matter how much you bloomed last year, how beautiful you were, and how little maintenance you required. Every season of your life, every single one, is an opportunity for you to look at God and say, what do you want to come out of me now? How do you want me to blossom now? What fruit, what harvest, what crop do you want out of me now? Because I don't want to just grow from last year and produce what I produced last year. If I produce something last year, what am I supposed to produce this year? Which means you have to be listening. It means you have to be connected. It means you have to know what the word says. It means you have to be praying. It means you have to seek wise counsel. It means you have to be in somebody's church. All lot of work, but in the church is even better. In fact, it's actually mandated. You should not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Community. Jesus gave that as an example. The 12, the 3, and the 1. There are all of these things that you need to be committed to doing, not all at the same time, but certainly with a mindset. And a humbleness and a surrender that says, God, what do I need to fertilize my soil with in this season? In this season, so that the soil that you've given me doesn't erode, that it doesn't get covered with weeds that are benefiting on the, the blessing that you've given me, and that I keep it ready ready for production. How do you stay connected and know when you throttle up, when you throttle back? Know when you get quiet and when you get loud? Know when it's time to grow, when it's time to prune back? How do you know? The Bible says in John 15:1-5, I'm going to read this to you. I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off— whoa, sorry, He cuts off, he prunes, he snips, he takes the scissors to everything in your life that's not bearing fruit. Because his interest in you thriving is not so that you can just be beautiful where people are looking at you and saying, oh, ah, isn't she lovely, that's nice. But that's not the goal. His goal is fruit. Fruit. Fruit. Fruit is evidence. Fruit is something people can see. Fruit is something people can take with them. It doesn't stay on the vine, on the branch, on the twig forever. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he still cuts, but he prunes it so that it will be even more fruitful. See, some scriptures, y'all— and I don't know why I'm in such a preachy mood tonight— some scriptures, y'all, don't even need you to add anything to it. You just need to read it right. Every branch that bears no fruit, he's gonna cut it off. There's a difference between the cutoff and the snip. Both of them are a cut, but one is an end and one is a beginning. You are already clean. Did you hear that? Let me, let me say that to you a different way. You are already planted. Let me say that to you a different way. You have everything you need already. You are already washed. You are already accepted. You are already worthy. You are already royal. You are already seated in heavenly places. You are already clean because of the word. In the beginning was the word, and the word is God, and the word was with God. In— because of the word I have spoken to you, you have been abiding, receiving, absorbing, getting nutrient-dense You have everything you need because you've been with me. Here's what I need you to do. Here's what the word says: remain in me. Stay a while. Don't get distracted. Don't get busy. Don't look away. Remain in me and I will remain with you. Stay connected because you cannot do— here it is— no branch can bear fruit by itself. No branch can bear fruit by itself. Let me say that again. No branch can bear fruit by itself unless it stays connected. The word says it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. Here it is. I am the vine. I am the source. I am the beginning. I am the flood. I am the water. I am the Alpha. I am the vine. You are the branches. Don't get it twisted. It starts with me. And if you remain in me and I in you, you will— it's a promise, it's a guarantee, it is for sure— you will bear much fruit. Not that you will bear fruit. He didn't just say you'll bear fruit. He said you will bear much fruit, like a whole lot. Like, there will be no denying that you are a fruitful tree, a fruitful branch, a fruitful bush. There will be no denying that you have got to be connected, that there has got to be anointing in your life, that there has got to be access to the Father, that you have got to be hearing from the heavenlies. Because what you're getting, the kind of fruit that you're getting, is not the kind of fruit that people are getting. And when they look at you, they say, she's got to have something I don't have. What is it? It is connection. It's connection. That's it. What do you need to thrive? You need connection. You need connection to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. You also need connection to other people. Thriving is counterintuitive. It's not about what you do. It influences what you do. It motivates what you do. It supports what you do, but it is not what you do. It is you being connected to the vine in a way that the fruit can be born in your life. And part of thriving is pruning. And that means cutting back. Here's the deal though, it's not rocket science. It's not rocket science, y'all, but most of us don't do it, which is why we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and connection, the word of our testimony, because we usually don't do the work of allowing ourselves to be pruned, allowing our circumstances to be cut back. Allowing ourselves to do less with less people, slower. That's not what we are told in the world we need to do. And it's hard. Even if you do the right thing, sometimes you're left with the feeling that everybody else is ahead because they're doing more than me, faster than me, better than me. And God is saying, no, no, that's not, that's not actually how I operate. I need you to be still. I need you to be planted. I need you to be connected. And then there are certain things, certain circumstances, certain people, certain mindsets, certain words, certain books, certain TV shows, certain programs, certain relationships, certain friends, certain family members, certain kids that I need to prune out of your life. And you refuse to grow because you're afraid to let go. Ah, but letting go is how you're left with open hands, because the position of thriving is receiving. You don't see what I just did there. You missed it. You missed that. If you let go, you are in the right position to receive. If you let go, you are in the position to receive, which means that you are in the position to thrive. So let me just do the A plus B equals C situation. If you let go, you are in position to thrive. But that's not what the world says. It's not what the world says. It says hold on to it. Hold on to that dream. Hold on to that habit. Hold on to that business. Hold on to that person. Hold on to that dream. And God is like, if you would just stop making this so hard for me to take this thing out of your hands, I am trying to set you up. Prune you back to receive. Girl, I'm trying to get you to thrive. I'm trying to get you to thrive. When you let go, you have room to thrive. Thriving comes when we choose God's way over the world's. The Bible says in Psalm 1:1-3, oh, the joys of those— this is the scripture I was quoting earlier. This is the New Living Translation. Oh, the joy of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers, but they delight— they know the word, because you have to know the word in order to abide in the vine— meditating on it day and night. They're like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves neither wither, and they prosper in all they do. Your season doesn't matter when it comes to thriving. You can thrive in any season. So how do you thrive? You learn to abide. You allow what God is doing in your heart to overflow out into your world. It comes from setting limits. It comes from slowing down. It comes from recognizing where you're overworking, overcompensating, overgiving, overdoing, and deciding what you're not going to do. Where, where does God want to prune you back in your life? It means you have to look at your life and figure that out. It means that you will cut out things that are not geared for your growth, uh, TV or social media that's wasting time that needs to be developed or spent in time with God or spent in areas that God wants you to develop. Maybe it's conversations or relationships that aren't productive for you any longer. It means that you have to be intentional about your relationships and your friendships and your Sabbath rest. It means you have to be decisive about getting what you need, whether that's time with your friends or time with a counselor. What would it look like for you to thrive right here, right now, even if your soil doesn't change, even if your circumstances don't change? What if you cannot change external factors of your life? What could you choose to do right now, right now? That would set the stage for you to thrive, for you to get the maximum amount of sun, the maximum amount of nutrients, the maximum amount of growth, because you're connected to the vine? What would that look like? Out of all the things I've said, what has grabbed hold of you the most that makes you say, oh, I gotta do that? What is helping you right now? And what is hurting you right now. And whatever is hurting you that God has not asked you to hold, let it go. Let it go. Thriving will look different for each of us. We're not in the same soil. We're not in the same season of growth. For some of us, it'll mean doing less. For others, it might mean doing more. For others, it will require— well, for all of us, it will require abiding and knowing exactly what God wants us to do. It's time for you to focus on being instead of doing, that the doing overflows out of your being, and that that's enough for you. So I have a question for you: are you ready to thrive? Are you ready to produce what he wants you to produce, to grow where he wants you to grow, to do what he wants you to do? And then to realize, because you only get this one life, you get to choose to receive, to thrive. To be who God has asked you to be. And the cool thing is, is you already have what you need. The blood of the Lamb. The Lamb is Jesus. Jesus is the Word. You're abiding in the Lamb of God. And connection. It's time to thrive.