In this interview, CJ Moneyway explains how he receives spiritual inspiration for church talks and writing. He recounts his early exposure to church through his mother, his departure from regular attendance during adolescence, and a later season of isolation that led him to read extensively and develop an intimate relationship with God. This relationship, built on prayer and immersion in scripture, now allows him to receive ideas naturally; when asked for a talk topic, he reviews the subject and the inspiration emerges without needing to script it. He also mentions the honor of being invited by pastors to speak at anniversaries and how his process evolved from writing notes on his phone to speaking spontaneously.
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You said for you, it's you presenting and speaking and inspiring in church. I'm so curious about your process for receiving that inspiration, whether it's for like a book you want to write or a talk you want to give. Is it a process of you going into prayer and meditation? Is there some like, how does that inspiration move through you and how do you put those thoughts together?
You know, um, when you first start off in something like— first it's the honor, you know, when, when your pastor or, you know, somebody else from church elder, they want to put you on a program to speak. And so, you know, then when it over time, like, okay, like every pastor's anniversary, a church anniversary, you're one of the, you're one of the main people that they want to come up there and give encouraging words or, you know, say something about, you know, how did the— how did, how did this ministry help you move And so the process, it used to be that, you know, I used to write everything down and then I go up there and I read it off of my phone or whatnot. But as time go on, it's like I, I put it like this, Joy. Coming up, growing up, uh, my mother took me to church. And, and I know it's a word that say that when I was a child, you know, train up a child in the way that they should go, when they get older they won't depart from it. And so when I got to a certain age, I stopped going to church. Yeah, but I was— that was the foundation that was built in me, but I stopped going. And so, you know, I went through all type of things in life, but then I got back into it. And so it was a season. It was a season where I just cut off everything. People was just walking away from me. I didn't even have to lose friends. They was just walking away from me. I, you know, you just find yourself by yourself. At times. And so during this time period, I read a lot. And so me reading a lot, I began having an intimate relationship with, as you say, we call it with God. That was my intimate relationship. And so I began filling myself up with word. And so now as I do speeches and things, it just comes naturally. Like, okay, somebody will come and say, well, CJ, Uh, this is the topic, whatever, whatever. Okay, I'll look at it, I'll read it, and then boom, it'll just come.