Ron + Hope: Unfiltered: The Necessity of Sabbatical Rest with Guest: Heather Lindsey

Foreign. Hello, everybody. It's Ron and Hope. Unfiltered, real, raw relevance. You see Ron right here? Isn't he so handsome? Or. He's usually right here. He's so awesome. I love you, Ron. This is when he's the sweetest, guys, when he's. When he's sitting right here like this. That's not true. He's always sweet. Y' all know he's sweet. But he's not here today, But I have an amazing guest, one of my greatest friends, a sweetheart in ministry and in life, and it's Heather Lindsay. Hey, girl. What's up? How are you?

I'm so good. Thanks for asking me to be a part of it. Always an honor. Always an honor.

Absolutely. And, you know, God brought you into our life, you and Cornelius, years ago, and we have had some amazing times together with family, with vacation, with fun and, you know, it's just so important to have good, godly people in your life. And I'm so thankful for you and excited for you guys. You're in la.

Hey, Bill. I'm so excited.

And you guys were a year, right?

It's been two years. Over two years. Yeah, it's been two years. Isn't that crazy?

That is nuts.

It's crazy. But, yeah, we're so thankful for you. And, you know, Pastor Ron, like, you guys were such a support and encouragement to us. Like, you guys are amazing, like, behind closed doors, you know, And I'm just so thankful for you guys forever. Thankful.

Well, it's. It was an. It was an honor. And we're excited about what's coming up for you guys. Your church. You're about to open up. When is that? In a. In a few weeks. Right.

It's actually this upcoming. I'm not sure when this is recording, but it's this Saturday. Friday and Saturday. We're actually.

So that is your first. Your first meeting?

Yep. September 22nd, I think, in 24. I'm so excited. It's just. It's been two years in the making of just praying, believing, being still and getting quiet long enough to hear what God wants us to do here. So we're just, you know, I know.

All the behind the scenes stuff, and my thing is everybody. Everybody doesn't know all that, and they don't need to know all that. But my thing, just watching your life, you know, you. You started out two years ago ready to. To open a church, to be back in ministry, to pursue your call, and. And then you didn't. And then you waited and you were still and then the things that God started just bubbling up and exposing and the things God started revealing and bringing and the family situation and so many amazing things. This just. Man, that, as that movie says, mind bottling. It's just so mind boggling.

It really is. It's literally like, you watched our movie. Like, yes, you watched our whole movie. It was crazy. It just didn't feel real. I'm like, is this happening? Like, so many things happened in the past two years, but it's shaped my character and it's just prepared me literally for this moment to like go back into ministry after my sabbatical.

It did. It really did. And there were so many missing pieces of you guys puzzle that, that God brought and just went, here, let me just, let me just shore this up. Let me just give you this. And I mean, he really has undergirded you, he's prepared you, he's restored you. And all that came, Heather, from being still. And that's what we're talking about today. We're going to talk about the power of rest.

I love it. The power. So talk about it.

When I say that, the power of rest, what does that, what does that, what does that do to you?

To be honest, I hated that word in the beginning. I was coming off of my conference when we first moved to la. I was coming off of my women's conference in Atlanta. Mind you, I'm renting out the largest ballroom in Atlanta, right? Like, thousands of women are coming. We're laying hands. People are getting healed from heart conditions, we're casting out demons. Tumors are shrinking right in front of us. Like, it's powerful. So I get on a flight two days later after my largest conference and I'm in la. I'm like, revival is here. Let's go. Take me to the beach. I'm ready to baptize some people. I'm ready to lay hands. Like, let's go. And God was like, no. He said, listen. He said, you know how I sent the disciples out two by two? What did they take with them? And I said, nothing. They didn't even take a purse. He said, all the ways that you brought in money in Atlanta, I want you to leave it in Atlanta. He told me to turn down book deals, speaking engagements. He told me not even to put videos up on YouTube. I just used old content and my assistant would just upload it. I wasn't perfect preaching, I wasn't doing anything. And resting was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. And because going through that season of rest, I felt like a loser. I literally said that. I said that to her. I was like, I feel like a loser. And he said he showed me my identity was wrapped up in what I did and who I was and not in him. So he had to pull me back for a season to heal me, to get my identity straight, to get me together, to get quiet, and to really start to deal with so many suppressed areas I had in my life. I thought I was fine. Right. And I realized I didn't deal with, like, being adopted. I didn't deal with my childhood trauma. I didn't deal with my frustration towards, you know, my dad, who passed away. Like, he died, like, 20 years ago, but I was carrying all these stones in my heart towards him.

Yeah.

So I just feel like when I finally got still, then I felt like I was being bulldozed. Like, I. I had this whole field at this whole house, and God just tore it down. Like, everything. Everything that, you know, had been built the past 12 years in ministry, and then God's like, sit it all down.

Yes. And, you know, when we're. When we're so busy, I mean, and sometimes we do that on purpose. We're just busy, busy, busy, because we don't want to feel. We don't want to deal or feel.

I'm a. I was a runner. Like, I was a run. Like, I would run from my problems, run from my issues, run. I would go shopping to feel voids. Like, there's so many things. I mean, I would emotionally eat, you know, I would self.

Well, you wouldn't eat anything bad. You would eat a mushroom or a piece of lettuce.

That's extra. I'm vegan, and I like, my sweets are like dates and almond butter, so. Yeah, I agree.

So let's don't even go there. Heather Lindsay. So you did other things. You had nice purses and shoes.

I spent. Money's just stupid, right? So I just feel like going through that season, I just. I didn't like it. But it's almost like when I stopped wrestling with God, I started to see the purpose of it. And that's what was hard for me, because I'm like, God, you had me turn down book deals, you had me turn down speaking engagements. You had me turn down everything. And here I am turning, just sitting here, and I'm like, what am I supposed to do? You know? And all those.

And all those things are good.

They're great.

But he made you say no to good?

Honey, he made me say no to Everything. So that was very difficult for me to just lay it all down. And I think sometimes we hear the scripture, like when you lose your life, you're actually going to find it. And I had to lose my life again after being in ministry since 2, 2011. Okay. So now I'm going on like, you know, 10 years of ministry full time. But you know, I never had a break. I never rested. I was on the road non stop every single week, preaching all over. I wrote eight books, I was on autopilot. I was, it was non stop. And I, I'm so thankful that God pulled me away for a season to heal. When I was going through it, I hated it though. At first, at first, I hate. The first year was tough. Like the first six months to a year, I'm like, what is this? Because during that time God's revealing all these problems and all these issues and all these things in my life. And that was the tough part for me is actually, okay, I'm not feeling like I'm walking in my purpose. And now you're revealing to me all these issues, all these things I need to work on.

Yeah.

You know, so I can't even run to a speaking engagement and you know, feel like, oh, you know, I'm getting on the stage, I'm preaching, I'm laying hands, I don't nothing. No, Heather, you sit here and you gonna deal with it. It was tough.

Yeah. Yeah. Because your chaos was your norm.

Yeah.

And so many people think that, that running, running, running, that I'm anointed to do, that it's fueled by the Holy Spirit when it's not even the Holy Spirit spirit fueling it. It's toxic things that fuel our running.

It's performance, it is, it's that performance that you want to feel enough. Because maybe you didn't get that need met as a child or maybe you felt rejected as a child. Maybe you didn't feel like you were enough. So now you want to prove everybody wrong. Yeah. By running yourself into the ground.

But the Lord, you like the high. You like the high feeling because the high feeling keeps you from feeling the low feeling that God's wanting to touch.

Exactly.

Yeah, man. I, I, I know everybody listening to this can identify with everything that you're talking about. I mean, it's just so really, truly blows my mind to watch you guys story, to watch your journey and to see, tell, give them one good, good news. Tell them who all got reunited during this rest period that would have never happened if you hadn't had it.

I met my birth dad for the first time, and my husband met his. Or he connected with his dad for the first time. He. For 36 years, he thought another man was his father, and he found out he wasn't his father. And then two weeks later, I connected with my birth dad, who'd been searching for me for the past 40 years, within two weeks of each other. So it was crazy.

Just crazy.

But the thing is, I felt like God was healing us from literally the sperm, literally the womb, and revealing and exposing. But then when he came around my birth dad, I had to start to deal with my daddy issues, right? And he was saying, I never wanted to give you up for adoption. And then my birth. Then my adopted dad and I didn't have a good relationship whatsoever. And so I had a hard time even dealing or even feeling like, I need. I don't need no daddy. Like, I don't need you to call me like, it's great to meet you, but, like, I don't. I don't need anything. I don't need nobody. You know what I mean? So then it started to reveal all these other issues in me and then in my marriage, and I was like, wait, do I do that to my husband? Like, when my husband tries to, you know, do nice things for me, am I really hard on him? And I realized I was, no, no, you're not.

Not you, Heather.

I'm taking out my daddy issues on my man. Like, no, that is not.

That's what we do.

Isn't that crazy?

I know. So before God wanted to launch you into your next, there were so many things that he wanted to unravel, he wanted to reveal and he wanted to heal. He wanted to unravel, reveal, and heal. And I am so excited we're going to dive into this today. But right now we have an amazing ad that we're going to go to, and it's really along the lines of what we're talking about today. And I love this. This group. It's Better Help. This show today is sponsored by Better Help. Working with a counselor or a therapist. It will help you get closer to the best version of you. I didn't say it was the answer, but it will help you get closer to the best version of you. There have been so many times in my life when I needed someone to talk to, when I needed some help from the outside, a safe place to go to vent, a safe place to go to get a different perspective. And listen, we need that. We need people in our life who will help us Ground us to our character. Help us try to figure out what's going on in our life. And Heather like her story today. I'm sure she has used many outside means and I think you even love better help. But listen, have you ever found found that just as you were trying to fall asleep, your brain suddenly won't stop talking? Listen, do your thoughts start racing right before bed at other inopportune moments? Listen, I've had this happen. It'll keep you up all night long. It's so frustrating. You won't have thought about any of that till you lay down at night. Well, it turns out one great way to make those racing thoughts go away is to talk through them. Therapy gives you a place to do that so you can get out of your negative thought cycles and find some mental and emotional peace. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suitable to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Listen, get a break from your thoughts with better help. Visit betterhelp.comronandhope today to get 10% off your first month. That's better. H E L p.comroninhope try it today. I think you'll like it. All right, Heather Lindsay, here we are. We're going to talk about the importance of rest. Don't talk about the importance of taking a break. We're going to talk about the importance of Sabbath. And ironically, that's the name of your church.

Yep, it's Sabbath. LA.com so if you guys ever want to come and check it out, you're welcome to come and visit us in la. So excited.

I love it that that was birthed out of your Sabbath.

Isn't that crazy? Like it was literally birthed out of it. Like, and the crazy thing is we, right when we landed, we're like, let's go, let's look for a location. And it's so interesting because literally we can have our plans but God really directs our steps and he will shut down every door and he'll close everything. And I think sometimes you take it as rejection or you feel like God doesn't have a plan for you. There's seasons under the sun for everything and if you try to force the season, you're going to be frustrated. It wasn't my season to, you know, to go preach everywhere and to be on the road non stop. It wasn't my season for that. It was my season to rest and to heal. So when I stopped wrestling with God, I said, okay, I'm going to accept this. I'm going to accept this. And I was kicking and screaming. I wasn't like, oh, it's fine, God. I'll just. No, I was like. I was like, I'll be honest. I was bitter. I was frustrated. I'm like, God, why didn't you let me go? You know, you created me for this. And you know what blows my mind? After, like, the year and a half sabbatical, I was spending time with the Lord. We had just moved to our new home, and I'm just really, like, not spending time with God like I usually do, just feeling really frustrated. And I sat down to my quiet time. I reopened my Bible, and I'm just, like, feeling stuck. And I heard the Holy Spirit said, you are more anointed now than you have ever been.

It's true.

I was like, wait, excuse me. I was like, I have not even been in my word like that. I haven't done this. I haven't. And I'm starting to give God my list of works. And he's looking at me and he's like, how is the anointing produced through the crushing? And I've gone through so much crushing these past two years that I've never gone through before. And that's what anoints us. Not. Not all of our rules and regulations. And how great of a person, like, going through the process, going through the test, the trials. And look at Job, like, when he went through everything he went through, he got restored. And God gave him so much more when he surrendered to the process.

I think that's so hard for most people, though. I know it is. I mean, I've been there, done that. And I think we think the more we do, the more we. All of the. The goodness that. That we portray, the work we do, the we. We do our job well, we do our job better. We're never late. We're always on time. You know, all of these things should get me these promotions and get me this place in God. And God's favoring me because I'm so amazing. And that is not it at all. It's not it at all. I was doing all those things for 43 years, working so hard and driving myself in the mud and had no peace, no joy, had no appreciation for the beautiful things in my life. I mean, just trying to run. Like you said, you're a runner. You're trying to fill voids with shopping and going and doing Listen, a vacation is not rest. It's not. We're talking about. That is absolutely not what we're talking about. I have come home from vacations exhausted.

That's accurate.

Completely exhausted. Dragging suitcases and checking in hotels and flights and, and running and paying money and then worrying about how you're going to pay for it when you get home. Vacations are not rest. That is not what we're talking about. We're not talking about taking time and going to the spa and going to. Now some of those things can be incorporated into Sabbath, can be incor into rest. But that is not what it is what we're talking about today. Listen, and it's not sleep either. Have you ever had a good night's sleep and you wake up the next morning? You say, I'm exhausted, exhausted. You wake up so tired. Sleep is not rest. Listen to this. But good quality sleep trickles down from a life that is well rested. Good sleep trickles down from a life that is well rested. Let's talk about well rested life, man.

Well, it's funny because it's so good, because it's funny because I was reading how a woman would win her husband over with her quiet and gentle spirit. And the Lord said to me, her quiet and surrendered spirit. And there's something about surrendering your husband, surrendering your job, surrendering your life, your purpose to Jesus. And when we can surrender it to him, we have a rest in our soul. So we have peace, we have joy. And the foundation is right. I think before I didn't realize it, but I was so works based, it was in me. And I stopped depending on the Father for things, right? Because when it's all about you and your works and your promotion and your hard work, you begin to almost think that it's you and it's not you, it's really God who did it, right? And he's jealous for us and he's jealous for our attention. So I believe he'll pull the rug to get you back on your behind, back on your knees so you can say, God, I surrender to you so I can have that well rested, watered life that you have for me.

Yeah. And it's not a house that's immaculately clean and it's not, you know, the dishes are in the right place and all the laundry's done. And it's not that a well rested life is when you can sit there and see that load of laundry, but you are 100 fine to be sitting there holding your child in your hand, you know, and Spending time with them, that going on a walk with your family is the most important thing over your laundry. You know, I don't think we supposed to be nasty, you know, and I can't. I can't stand a nasty house. But you know, it. It really is about the basics. What are the most important things that God's called us to? He's called us to a relationship with him. It's our relationship with him first and foremost. And when that is full, everything else in our life flows out of that. Really, we tell on ourselves because the Bible says out of the abundance of.

The heart, the mouth speaks. Come on.

Mouth speaks. And our mouth produces our life. Our heart issues produce our life issues. So if we've got issues in our life, we've got heart issues. So a well rested life is a life where our heart and our emotions are at rest when our life is right. And I just see God has done that. So you're not at 100% place there. I'm not there, no. None of us glow in the dark. But I see the work that God's done in your family, family over the last two years and it's been a beautiful thing. And none of us like to be put in that emergency room and have heart work done on us. None of us like that. It's not easy. It's not quick. None of it's quick.

Oh, no, it sucks. It's. But I think what's. What I'm thankful for is the people that were in the waiting room helping and being there for us and bringing meals and supporting and you and Pastor Ron and you know, it's almost like when you're in those moments, like, who are you surrounding yourself with? Like, you put us on to living waters and that was huge. Like a huge help in our life and our marriage and everything. And then you guys as well just poured so much into us. So I found that like when you are going in that rest season, like, you got to be careful who you surround yourself with because you weren't telling me, well, you need to go. You need to get out there. You need to pre. You weren't saying that you were like, you need to accept wherever God puts you. I'm so thankful that our relationship is not transactional. And I think sometimes when you go through a rest season or you lose your career or your job or God pulls you down for a season, you start losing friends that were around you for the wrong reasons.

It happens.

You lose opportunists, you lose people that you didn't lose. Them, they just showed themselves to be strong of who they really were.

Right.

And so I'm thankful for that. But, like, I'm thankful that throughout all of that, like, God connected us even tighter together through that. And it just proved to me your guys's character, because I wasn't on the road every week preaching all over, and you still were like, hey, let's all go on vacation together. Like, I'm going to pour into you. I'm going to love on you. I'm going to encourage you guys. But that's what you need. You need good people around you. So when you go through seasons of rest or you go through, it seems like you're in a dry season or a silent season. Like, look around. Like, if people are leaving you, then they weren't for you in the first place. Right. You got to accept that because everybody doesn't love you for who you are.

That's right.

And going through a rest season will prove the people that really love you and have your back.

That's true, because they don't love you at your core. They love you for what you do or for what you produce or how many followers you have or how many places you're out speaking or doing or whatever.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it really, really sucks.

When I went through my. My season, you know, I was just forced to a Halt. This was 10 years ago. It was so interesting to me. And about God revealing people. And, you know, I led thousands and thousands alongside my husband. But, you know, I could probably count on two hands the people that really checked on me, the people that really cared, and the people that sent me cards or, you know, would even take a drive up to see me, they knew where I was. And I mean, literally, probably only three or four people, honestly. And that was so revealing to me. But then I had to work extra hard to guard my heart at that, to say, God, you know, whatever you're doing in me, Lord, I can't sit over here and get bitter. I can't get mad. I just got to say thank you for the revelation. Thank you for revealing. And I'm learning so much now going forward about relationships and about people like.

You don't have my back. You just wanted to be around me for what I give you, and that's hurtful. So while I was going through my rest season, I'm not only trying to heal from my own crap, but now I have to heal from that. I have to heal from our relationship because it's like this throwaway thing that we do in Christianity. And this also goes for people that maybe have fallen openly, publicly. And we've seen it before in the media, the cancel culture. We've seen all that stuff. But it's so sad to me to see that's how we treat other believers. But it made me even more passionate to never treat anybody that way. Like, never hurt. Like, I reach out to those people that the world's canceling. Oh, we're friends. We're friends. And I will support you publicly and privately. Because if the world crashing them, I'm like, oh, I've been there. Come on. Yeah, I know how that feels. And I will never do that to anybody. But going through a rest season or going through that hard times, you develop so much empathy and love towards people. I love that you never. That would have never came unless you've been pressed by that oil.

Right.

So I feel like I love people now more than I've ever loved them and a more understanding of them. People that are different, other religions, people that don't look like me, people that don't act like me. The old me would have been so judgmental and mean towards these people. Like, what, girl, you're a whole believer. Like, why are you being mean to these people? Because. But I've learned through the season to. I've sat down with people that don't look like me, that are not Christians, and I'm listening to their story of why they're choosing, you know, to be a lesbian. And they're. They're like, they've been molested by their dad for. For 15 years growing up, you know.

Yeah.

There's trauma there. So now I'm working through. And now they get saved and give their life to Jesus just because somebody loved them.

Yeah.

You know, I feel like this Christian thing, sometimes people can be so mean, you know, that's where we've missed it.

It really is. The Bible says that's how the world will know that we are who we really are. It's how we treat people. It's by our love, one for another. And we have really, truly missed that because we want to. To hang on to our right to be right.

Yeah.

We want to push people into works, we want to push people into performing. And that's what drives us into these ruts, into depression, into psych wards, into wanting to end our life, into alternative lifestyles, because we're just trying to be loved and accepted. And if we would just listen. People will let you down. They gonna let us down. They will let us down tomorrow. They're Gonna let us down next week. But if we can ever get to this true place of rest in our relationship with the Lord, where we are enough, where I am more than enough, where I am excited, accepted in the beloved, no. On my good day, on my bad day, on my fallen day. But I gotta get back up and I gotta pursue this relationship with him. It's so beautiful to watch. I read, read this, and I wanted to read it out loud. It said, rest is about replenishing, restoring, renewing, recovering, rebuilding, regenerating, remolding and repairing. Rest begins with the prefix re because it requires us to go back to a prior state. It's a second chance.

Come on. That's so good.

Rest is a second.

That's a good word right there.

Is repairing. It is restoring. So that immediately tells you that something's broken.

Come on.

Something's broken. So you rest means that you go back and repair all the broken places. Come on, somebody.

That's so good. It's so funny. I just told my girlfriend, I said, I feel like the past two years I've been in open heart surgery, and I feel like I'm finally patched up. And now there's, you know, the stitches there. And the stitches are slowly dissolving. I still see them, but they're slowly dissolving. But I feel like.

And the pain of it goes away, too. It's just like any scar. When I was in second grade, I was help. Helping my daddy, not helping my daddy. I thought I was. I was in the woods with my daddy, helping him cut firewood. But I just wanted to be with my daddy. And I had begged him and begged him, daddy, please let me carry the chainsaw back to the truck. No, hope you're in second grade. Carry the chainsaw. Well, this day he let me. And I thought I was like the queen of the world. And I'm carrying the chainsaw. Tripped over a tree branch, and it was not on, but it still was very, you know, sharp and sliced my arm open. Well, the pain of that was traumatic for a few weeks. I had to go get stitches. It was, you know, very painful. I can still see the scar and I can still vividly remember the event. But there's no pain. That's what rest is.

Come on.

That's what rest is. You can see this car. You remember the event. You can talk about it, but you don't cry. It's not painful. Those who are listening today, I am believing that you are going to get a new perspective on rest. It's not a Vacation, it's not sleeping all weekend. None of those things can do what going back and repairing and. And getting a second chance at life will do. You have got to fix this so that you can live a life of rest, not an event of rest.

Come on.

Sometimes God will sit your hips down so that you will have that season to repair, restore, regenerate, fix all of those things so that you can launch out into your next.

Come on.

So that you can run this race. You can run it with endurance. You're not gonna fall, you're not gonna give out because you're strong in the Lord. That is my prayer for you today. That is my prayer for the people listening today. Heather, thank you so much for taking time to be here, for sharing your story, for being vulnerable, to say, this is what we had to do as a family. But look. Look at the beauty of it.

So thankful.

I'm so happy for you guys. I'm so excited for your next. I just know that. And now that you've learned to employ these principles, it's a lifestyle, right?

Oh, a hundred percent a lifestyle.

Yeah.

Like, it's. It's beautiful. Like, if I even sense that I'm. I'm getting into works. Oh, I pull back. No, I'm good. I'm good. My hope is in the Lord. That's it.

That's right. That's right. Absolutely. Well, I love you, girl.

Love you.

I'm excited for the Sabbath LA. Tell them the website.

Okay, so it's SabbathLA.com and then also I'm gonna be doing women's nights, Friday nights, once a month. And it's wildflowerorg.com wildflowerorg.com in LA.

I'm just gonna have to show up in LA because, you know, I love me some LA.

Come on.

I love some Heather. Lindsay, Come on.

Come on down, boo. I got your hotel. I got your hotel.

Is it Hotel Lindsay?

Oh, yeah, I know, right? That's our spot. You know, our hotel.

That's right. Because I know Roman's gonna want to be playing with me.

I know. And he's gonna be prophesying your future.

That sweet kid. I love him so much. Guys, thank you for joining. Today. It's been Ron and Hope, just Hope and Heather. Unfiltered, real raw and relevant.