Failure to Thrive: A Call to Action for Christian Leaders

Hello, welcome to Facebook and YouTube. Welcome, welcome, welcome. If you come back later, be sure to hit hashtag replay, hashtag replay. So thank you, um, you guys so much for waiting for me to come live, to go live at 7:00. Um, originally I was going to go live at 6:00, but I had a very busy day and I did not want to rush to start, okay? And so here I am. I'm super excited to be before you all tonight, um, to share with you, um, a very short but powerful message to you about failure to launch as a Christian leader. So before I get into it, I'm going to pray. I'm also going to share with you more about who I am and why I am doing this on today. And so, um, again, my name is Shakeeta Torres. If you're new to me and my channel on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram, welcome to my new followers as well. Um, thank you so much for being here. Um, and so I'm also— I am a licensed therapist, I am a life coach, I am a speaker and an author, okay? And I've been a therapist, gosh, y'all, since 20— 2013. 2013, okay? And in 2017, um, is when God called me to begin my own private practice, okay? And so with that, um, I had, you know, prayed and asked God, God, who are you leading, leading me to? Who are you calling me to serve? And he told me the body of Christ, and particularly Christian leaders. So when I began my private practice, primarily I healed people who were leaders. There was prophets, they were teachers, uh, pastors, evangelists, uh, those who are just in ministry or leadership. Whether you are in marketplace ministry or working with, um, working at the church, you are a Christian leader. If you are leading people at your job, you are a Christian leader. So this live is for you today. For those of you who are leading now and who desire to lead, this is for you. And my primary goal has always been to empower Christian leaders to heal on purpose, meaning doing it intentionally for your purpose. Because what you don't heal, you guys, the enemy will try to use it against you and cause you to become stagnant. He will try to use it against you to abort your assignment and so much more. Okay, um, so before I start, I want to go ahead and pray. So Father, I just thank you right now for those who are coming on now, for those who were, um, come back and watch the replay. Holy Spirit, lead me. Father, help me to articulate and to say, God, what it is that you want me to say to your people on tonight. Father, I yield my ear to you, I yield my heart heart to you, my mind to you, and my mouth to you, God, to speak what thus says the Lord. Amen and amen. So with that being said, um, probably about 2 months ago, I had been feeling this strong urgency to go back to the beginning of my ministry when I became— when I came online, okay, which is— which I believe like 2020, I believe in the fall. So, you know, I didn't really have clarity at that moment, but when I met with my business mentor, um, and she and I was talking about different things that I'm doing now, ministry, how God has like really just added so much to my plate. So I've been really busy building for the kingdom, I'm being obedient to God, I'm allowing him to, um, grow me, you know, in different areas as well. And so, um, she said, what is the one thing that God is calling you to do right now? And I said I said Christian leaders. That's always in my heart. My heart has always been to see Christian leaders to really thrive. Even as a baby in Christ, I was always the one praying for them. And honestly, I was in, you know, in church as a babe. Some of them will call me, some of them would, you know, um, confide in me about certain things, um, that no one else knew about. And I will, you know, give them wise counsel. I will pray for them. I will encourage them. So God has truly given me a heart for leaders since the very beginning, okay? Um, so this right here for me is not— it's not new. It's not new, all right? Um, because Christian leaders do carry a certain level of burden that the average person does not carry, and it takes a person who truly understands and have a heart for them to really meet them where they are and help them to, um, to grow and to overcome many different things, okay? Um, and so With that being said, as I begin to see, God said, well, God, you know, last year, uh, 2023, in the fall, I did a Christian leadership series. And out of that series, I end up writing a book that God put on my heart to write, um, a workbook, um, to help Christian leaders to truly see some of the stumbling blocks the enemy could use to cause them to stumble in ministry and to cause them to stumble in their walk. It does not encompass everything at all whatsoever, but but it does go over the top 10 things that God had given me. And so I said, well, God, what else should I talk about? You know, going back to this, going back to really truly speaking to your leaders. And so, uh, I was in prayer with my, my, my best friend, uh, my sister in Christ. Uh, we were doing a Marco Polo actually, and I was sharing with her. I said, girl, I don't know what to talk about right now. And it's weird because, you know, y'all, I could talk. You know I can talk, right? Um, but I didn't know specifically what it was, um, that the Lord wanted me to share moving forward because I went live maybe about 2 or 3 weeks ago letting you all know what direction I was going in, especially when it come to social media. Okay, and so, um, she was praying for me and I'm listening to her pray. I heard the Lord give me two different messages, you guys. So I'mma share the first one today, which was Failure to launch. Failure to launch. And the Lord began to minister to me that many of my people that I am calling to the forefront right now are failing to launch. Many people have failed to launch in the past for many different reasons. And today I'm going to go over what some of those reasons are and also go to scripture to show you, you know, who else have failed to launch in many areas that cause delay. Okay, delay in the ministry, delay in being obedient, and all that good stuff. I, I've been there. I've shared that story plenty of times about how, you know, the Lord had launched me out initially on social media, um, in 2018. And I did, I launched out, but because of, you know, fear, because of the rejection I was still dealing with, and because of, you know, needing validation from my leaders at that time, I did not continue. I, I literally pulled back, and I regretted it so much. So to where, you know, I feel— I just feel just so just like so sad and just like upset with myself, okay? So I had to forgive myself. The Lord had really said, hey, get back up, I still have need of you, keep going, get back up. And so in 2020, I came back into social media world, but really, you know, when it comes to my prophetic ministry, I still wasn't doing that as much, okay? And so around 2022, the Lord said, okay, daughter, I have need of you, I'm tired, you can't hide no more. I don't want you hiding no more behind just being a therapist or being a life coach or a speaker, but you're also my prophet. So whenever I want you to speak in my word, I need for you to come forward. So no more hiding. So y'all, he put a demand on me. He put a demand on me and literally thrust me out because the burden had became so great to the point where I had no choice but to move forward, okay? And so here I am today. I wear many different hats, you know, in the kingdom of God, um, and today I am coming more so as a therapist slash life coach. Um, to share, uh, what's on God's heart and what's on my heart. Okay, and so what happens is, you know, right now in this time that we're in right now, as you can see, there's exposure everywhere. There's so much exposure, um, in ministries, you know, uh, government, music, uh, the music industry, everywhere, right? And so God is doing a cleansing. He's cleansing the body of Christ. He's trying his best to thrust out new leaders to be able to catch the sheep. The sheep who have been scattered, they're already scattered. They're already scattered. The harvest is here. The soul harvest is here. Okay, so if God is calling you to come to the forefront and come into ministry, now is the time to do that. Like, there should be no more room for delay for you. It's no more delay because you're going to miss what it is that God is doing. I don't know about you, but I want to be on the train. I want to be on the train that's moving Shakeeta Torres ministry, towards my purpose, towards my calling, okay? And I passionately— and I really want to see other people do the same thing, okay? And so a lot of things that you can battle with when trying to launch out is number one is that rejection, the fear of rejection. And you will get rejected, okay? Um, also feel a fear of failure. That's a big one. You might have anxiety around that. Um, you might, you know, have a hard time, you know, um, truly accepting that, wow, God, like, who am I for you to call me to this position? Been there too. I'm like, God, who am I to be your mouthpiece? Who am I to be able to go forth and say what you say? I definitely felt inadequate. I definitely felt like I wasn't qualified. But God reminded me of the scripture that, you know, he calls, he equips the call on the call, okay? You don't just show up and know every single thing, but you grow and you learn as you walk it out, as you walk with God. It is a faith walk. It is literally a faith walk, okay? I had to go live last Sunday to give a prophetic word, and I had no idea what I was going to get into that day, but I had to announce that I was going live days in advance because God said, I'm putting a demand on you. Put demand on yourself. It requires faith to do that. Faith to know to understand and know that God is going to be right there with you, okay? And so today I'm speaking to two groups of people: those who are new into leadership, who is coming into it, okay? And then you have those who are already in leadership and God is calling you to go higher, he is calling you to go deeper, he is adding more to your plate and you're not moving. Or, and like, you desire to move, you want to obey, but it's like fear has, has you in a chokehold. Pretty much, okay? And so let me go to my notes a little bit. And so one of the biggest things that I see people deal with when it comes to launching out into what God's calling them to do is validation. Validation, okay? I shared two weeks ago about how the Lord had first called me to social media but I was coming as a therapist, also as a prophet, and I, I gave prophetic words that were, they were true words. I mean, everything was, was going great, and then I was looking for validation in one of my leaders, and I did not get what I thought I was going to get, and I just completely just pulled back. And the Lord had to deal with me. I had to really dig deeper into understanding the root of that, really understanding, you know, um, how rejection was affecting me and so much more. So you— I can't get into all that today, Um, I have to get into that next year whenever I do my group mentorship group, okay? So wait to the end and I'll tell you more about that. And so, um, I really had to do my work. And when I look back over my life and my walk and my journey to healing, it has been a journey. I have been walking with the Lord since '08, you guys, '08. And ever since then, bit by bit, the Lord had been healing me and like stripping me of my old self and renewing my mind, renewing my spirit. But I had to surrender. I had to surrender to the process. It also is a journey. You're not going to get it overnight. You're not going to just wake up and just magically have everything all together and figured— and figured out. That's not how life works, and that's not how ministry works, and that's not how your walk with God is going to work either, okay? It is a faith walk. It is a journey. I also shared, you know, last year when I was doing a whole bunch of lives as well, is that when you are healing from certain things, you know, God is not going to just take it all away, because if he does that, you're gonna be like left void. And what's the point of healing you from something that you're not fully aware of that you're operating in? So for example, prime example, um, whenever I was really dealing with rejection, one area was like from my mom. My mom rejected me because, you know, of, you know, past trauma that I had going on. She don't want to believe me. You know, what happened to me and everything. But I carried that over into my adulthood, and I had this pattern or this cycle of every time, you know, I will, you know, meet, you know, a new woman or a new mentor, it was like it would always, you know, hurt me in some way. And it would happen over and over. And I said, God, I don't understand. I'm like, what is going on here? And the Lord began to tell me, you still have mother wounds. So I had no idea that I had mother wounds still. And I said, God, can you please heal me from my mother wounds? And he did. He did that actually pretty instantly, okay, because I was aware of it, okay, aware of my behavior. And he was beginning to tell me, okay, you're doing A, B, C, D, stop doing these things, right? You, you need to, you know, heal from the things that your mom allowed to happen to you, okay? And so this is how this can affect your leadership. Okay, because when you are seeing people and situations from a lens of your past and not even know it sometimes, right, it really affects how you lead other people. Um, one of the things that I'm graced at, like God has graced me, is that I forgive people easily. Okay, I'm not saying that, you know, I'm in their face and like my best friend. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm not saying I don't get hurt because I do get hurt. I, I do get disappointed. But I don't allow myself to waddle in it. I can allow myself to stay and live in it because I know what it cost me. It cost me so much time. It cost me, you know, my focus. It can cost, you know, you know, me from, you know, God not hearing my prayers, unforgiveness, right? So y'all, it's just, it's just so— I can't even like put it into one word, to be honest. And every single individual is different. Every leader, every person is different. Your personality is different. How God made you is different. Your past is different. What you've been through is different, okay? Your calling is different, okay? Uh, so in comparison, that's a big one. Comparison, you know, we compare ourselves to other people and what it is that God's called them to, and we expect for what, um, for what we're doing to look like what they're doing. And that's, that's not true either, because we're called to a certain people, a certain people group. Okay, and so the next group here is those who are already in leadership, and God is trying to expand you. He is trying to increase your territory. He is trying to, you know, get, you know, put, push you further from, um, faith to faith, from glory to glory. And it's the same thing, you're dealing with, you know, perfectionism. Am I enough? Am I adequate? You know, do I have, you know, rejection? All of the above, right? With my leaders? Will they, you know, support me? Will they? And sometimes they don't, y'all. And with that, um, we have to remember this, you guys, and I'm never going to say don't seek your leaders for support and for guidance, but the problem I have is the other side of it, is when we have leaders who are, are holding back, you know, God's people from being in leadership in any kind of way, whether it's marketplace ministry whether it's ministry at your church. It frustrates me because they become jealous, they become envious, they want to covet, they want to, you know, control your anointing, control your ministry. Um, thank God I haven't really dealt with it a whole lot, to be honest, but I know people who have dealt with that, and it really hinders you from truly obeying God because you're looking for your leaders to support what God is showing you and telling you to do. But we have to remember that the first person over us is the Holy Spirit, is the Lord, okay? He is the one that we should be seeking in all things, okay? Oh my gosh, you got— there's times when I have been under ministries before where, you know, I know what God was telling me to do in this season, but then they were trying to get me to do something totally different. I'm like, no, that's not what God's telling me to do in this season. He's not telling me to lead this, you know, ministry here. He's telling me to do this or do that, and they try their best to get me to do all these extra things because I'm good at it, but it don't mean got to say and do it right now. And so just because, my God, it's ministry, it don't mean that it's right. Oftentimes people say, because, oh, you a, you a leader, you a Christian, you should be doing XYZ, XYZ. That is not true. What did God tell you to do? What did God— so I'm definitely in this, you know, a place in my life now where I listen to what God is telling me to do, not man, okay? I will take it to God every time because I've received wise counsel before from people and I take it back to God and God said, okay, this part is correct, but this part is not right right now, not in this season, right? This is why it's so important for you to be confident and sure that God is showing you something because not everyone's going to see it, you guys. Not everyone's going to see it. And he even told me there's times the people in your circle who are called to help you, called to cover you, are not going to always understand either. Like, you know, I'm married, I have a husband now. Of course I go, I take everything to him. What I'm doing, like, hey babe, this is what God telling me to do. He said okay, but there's time when he didn't understand. He was like, okay, forget what I said at this point, I trust you, you do what God telling you to do. Same with my best friend. She loves me, she, you know, she want to see me, you know, thrive and all that good stuff and be, you know, be covered. But I'm like, girl, this is what God telling me to do. She's like, Shakeeta, I believe you, but I just don't want you to get disappointed. Or her, I'm like I'm like, girl, I gotta do it. So there are going to be times when not everyone that you even trust is going to agree with what you're saying, and that's okay. That's okay. This is where God is testing you. He wants to see, are you going to obey me? Are you going to move forward with it? Yeah, I have so many stories, not just my own stories, but you know, clients I've had over the years, people I have coached for life coaching as well over the years who have been in places, places where where like they have been stuck and they have been like kept in a container and they can't breathe, right? Um, because their leader is not releasing them. And they're like, well, I didn't get released yet. I said, but did God release you? And they're like, yeah. I'm like, well, what are you waiting on? Obey God. Obey God. Obedience is better than sacrifice. That's scripture, okay? And oftentimes the, the sacrifice for you, for that person, could be, you know, mental torment about it, you know, second-guessing themselves, being double-minded, right? Having anxiety, right? Because they're not obeying God and they obey a man, okay? Not everybody knows everything. I say this all the time to myself: God is the one that knows everything. People know in part, okay? I know in part, but God is the one that knows everything. And so I know I struggle with this, you know, with this too, is, okay, Lord, you gave me A, but where's B, C, D, E, F, G? I need, I need a whole plan. I need a whole blueprint, right? And he wasn't giving me that. He was like, do the first thing I told you to do. And my husband said, babe, the Lord said if he gave you the whole picture, that you would have so much anxiety trying to hurry up and get to the, to the, to B, C, and D, and E, right? I'm much better now, so he can give me more. He can give me A, B, and C, okay, now, and I'm much better in that area. But before, in the beginning, my God, I was like, Lord, I can't, I don't understand. Like, you told me to go do this, but why, why? You know. And so now, you know, I try to practice obedience, okay, even whenever I don't feel like it, even when I don't understand. I try to practice obedience, you guys. And so if God is calling you to leadership and you're new and you coming into this, right, he's not going to give you every single thing. Now, he might give you the overall vision of what it's supposed to look like, because he— because he has, um, done that for me so many times on things that I'm doing, like the big picture. But it's still steps to get to that big picture, okay? He, he showed me where I, where I will be. When I'll be there, I don't know. I have no idea, okay? Um, but there's steps to get there, right? And so it's important to obey God in the little things in order to get to the bigger things. And he has to see if he can trust you with a little so he can give you more. When I first came on social media, I was really only focusing on Christian leaders, okay? And everything since then he's been giving me more and more and more and more to build and to create. And now he's telling me, I want you to go back to my leaders and speak to them, encourage them, right? Offer them, you know, your, um, you know, um, what you have to offer, right? Because he has need of you like now, not tomorrow, but he has need of you now, okay? And so I want to go to scripture real quick, okay, to share with you a couple of people, 3 people that definitely, um, you know, was failed to launch or failed to obey the Lord and what he was telling them to do in their assignment because they didn't think that their assignment was that great or what they were doing or going through was really significant, from my understanding. Okay, so the first person here is, um, Jonah. You remember Jonah? Okay, so God told Jonah to go to the— to the town of Nineveh and preach repentance to them because they disobey God, right? And so Jonah fled. He said, oh, I'm not doing that. Who got time I don't have time for that, okay? They hard-headed, don't listen to me or whatever. I'm leaving. So he, he leaves, you know, and he ends up getting swallowed by a great fish. No, go back a little bit. He leaves on a boat first, okay? And God was just so displeased with him to the point where he allowed a storm to come. And when the storm came, it was blowing on the boat so hard that they were like, what's going on? Like, who, who on this boat, you know, did anything wrong? Like, it's like they knew that someone did something wrong. So Jonah said, hey, it's me, I'm sorry. You know, I'll get off the boat. So he ended up getting off the boat, jumping into the water, and got into the fish, you know, into the whale's belly for 3 days, okay? And God begins to deal with him about what he needed him to do. And so Jonah did end up doing it. He went, you know, um, preached to the people, and they repented. They repented. So a whole town was able to be saved through Jonah's obedience. Simple obedience, okay? Now, they say Jonah was very prideful. They said that, you know, he was just being stubborn, or he felt like people didn't deserve it. I don't really fully, truly, right? But some of us might feel like, hey, I don't want to do it because I'm afraid. Like, you know, Jeremiah was— Jeremiah was, you know, afraid to speak for God's people. Um, Moses was very, you know, afraid to speak too because he had a, um, you know, he had a stutter as well, okay? And so there's many different reasons why we don't go do it, but for Jonah, he was just— he wasn't having it. Um, then you have Saul. You know, Saul could have had a really long, just beautiful, like, kingship but because he allowed greed and pride to come into his heart, he became disobedient and he, he failed. He failed to thrive. I mean, he failed, failed to launch to the next level. And you have the Israelites, okay, okay. So for 40 years, 40 years, okay, they are in the wilderness, y'all. That's a long time because they murmured, they complained, they murmured, and they complained. They said, God, where's our meat? Where's our bread? Like, everything that Moses was trying to do to lead them, they was rebellious towards him. They was comparing what they had to, you know, the Philistines, saying that, hey, you know, they got all this nice stuff. Like, where our nice stuff at? But God was leading them to their promise, and it did not have to take 40 years to get there. But because of their delay, because they failed to launch and walk into the promised land, and God had to have them not only walk into it physically but also mentally in their mind. They did not have a, you know, their mind wasn't reset to really fully receive what it is that God had for them. And so they too were stuck for a long time. And so some of you guys are stuck, some of you guys are stuck, okay? And so, um, I do want to talk about, uh, the program that I'm going to be launching in January. But before I do that Um, November 24th, I believe. I'll put the link in the bio pretty soon, probably by Friday this week. Okay, um, I'm having a free webinar where it's more intimate, you know, um, between me and the leaders to talk about setting healthy boundaries. Okay, um, that's a big one that I've seen with leaders across the board, not understanding and setting, um, those healthy boundaries, because we cannot be all things to all people. You just can't, okay? Even me, I have to say no. I'm sorry, I love you, but I can't help you. I would love to help you, but I can't help you. So that's been a big one that I've seen. I'm, I'm seeing when it comes to leadership. I used to have a hard time with that too in the very beginning of my ministry because I wanted to help everybody. But the scripture that God would give me all the time is that one man's souls One man waters, and God is the only one that can bring the increase, okay? And boundaries that encompasses, you know, communication styles, being more assertive, okay? Understanding what your boundaries are and so much more. So we'll go over all that in the free webinar that I'm having in November, okay? Now in January, um, I'll be having my, you know, group, um, coaching program for Christian leaders. So we're gonna be going over a lot, and I'm excited. I'm excited to pour into y'all because I, I see the need to understand the need. I walked it, I lived it. Over— I've overcome it, okay? And so now I have overcome it, I have authority in those areas, I can help you to do the same thing. So I'm not going to go into all that right now, but at the webinar I will share more about it in great detail. Uh, it's going to be honestly very affordable for you guys, and it's going to be amazing. It's going to bless you, okay, and help launch you out even further to be more confident who God's called you to be, okay? Um, so with that being said, I have to have some comments on Facebook. Or is it probably on YouTube? Let me see that. I probably missed comments. Oh, good evening, Helen. Good evening to Carolyn. Thank y'all so much for being here. If you're still here, thank you. Let me know where you guys are from. Okay, Carolyn's from Memphis, Tennessee. Thank you all for being here. Shakeeta Torres, Instagram. See where you guys are from. Okay, so if you're just getting on or you're, you know, come in toward the very, um, the very end, um, today I talked about, you know, failure to launch. As a Christian leader. There are some things that God has been giving all of us to do in this next season, um, to really prepare to catch these souls. As you guys can see, y'all, people are getting saved left and right. I mean, celebrities, non-celebrities, God is doing a work, um, in the kingdom. Yes, it's a lot going on as far as chaos over here, but also God is also releasing his glory and releasing like this, this new mantles, this new, new, new everything, and I'm excited about it. Okay, um, and so if you can go back and watch watch the replay, uh, let me know in the comment section where you were from. Um, you have any questions, let me know, comment below as well. And it's all I have for you guys tonight. Um, I said I wasn't gonna be up here long, but I wanted to come up here and be obedient and share with you, um, the first word God gave me. So I'll probably be going live again, probably Sunday, possibly maybe Sunday, next Sunday, I think. I'm not 100% sure, but when I do, I'll let you know. Okay, so subscribe also to my email list, you guys, where. I send out, you know, newsletters every, um, every other week, um, encouragement, um, content, and staying in the know about what I'll be offering and so much more. So I'm going to pray and then I will be done. I'll check the comments one more time before I get off and then I will leave. Let me see, Chilla Bella put, oh, true. Yes, yes, Lord Brother Jonah. Exactly, Jonah was something else. I'm from DFW. Where is that at? Where's DFW? If you don't mind putting in the comments. Okay, all right. So Father, I just thank you right now for your word. I thank you, Lord God, for those you are calling into leadership. I thank you, God, for their hearts to serve. Father, I thank you, God, that in this season you are doing something new. God, you are releasing new mantles, you're releasing fresh oil, you are releasing fresh anointing, and you desire for them to be equipped and to be confident in who you are calling them to be. So Father, I might just pray, God, for them, Lord, to continue to seek your face, continue to to, to just hearken their ears to you, Lord God, to hear what you have to say about who they are, and that God, they'll get clarity about who you're calling them to be, where to go, what to do and what not to do. Um, and so Father, I just pray that tonight's, um, live just bless them and encourage them, Lord, and that God, those who feel led to be a part of what it is that you're calling me to do, God, will be obedient. Uh, Lord God, so that way they can thrust out into the next level. So God, we thank you, we love you, and we give you all the honor, glory, and praise. In Christ's name I pray. Amen and amen. All right, y'all, that's all I have for tonight. Again, uh, thank you so much for being on here, and I will see you guys next time. All right, bye.