Season 3: (Episode 10) God's Lost Sheep: A Message for Christian Leaders

Welcome to Pain, Passion, and Purpose. I am your host, Shakeeta Torres, where I share mental health education, biblical teachings, and tips to help you to heal on purpose so you can walk boldly in your God-given purpose. This podcast is sponsored by Empowered Purpose Academy, a certified online Christian academy where where we provide services such as certification for Christian life coaches, mentorship for master's level aspiring and existing Christian therapists, mentorship for Christians, and continued education courses for the body of Christ. You can visit www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com to learn more and to download your free guide. If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave us a raving review so that others can tap into the knowledge and wisdom that will be shared on this podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

Hey, so before I get started on today's episode, if you have not subscribed to the paid membership of my podcast community, please do. It is going to bless your life. Listen, my episodes are already like therapy slash coaching sessions where I give you strategy and insight and all that good stuff. But the community, you're going to get a lot more. You're going to get more resources, more tools, and be able to ask more questions where I can create episodes around your questions. And you will be able to get discounts on some of my, my products and my events. So what are you waiting for? The price is very affordable. This is for those who are not quite ready to invest in one-on-one coaching with me or into the Pain, Passion, and Purpose mentorship program, which is also low, by the way, but that one is a lot more in-depth. You get access to courses, you get access to the Facebook community and all that good stuff. But this is for those who just need to just listen and just gain some tools along the way. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead, subscribe. You won't regret it. It'll bless your life. We'll have topics around mental health and faith, biblical teachings, prayer, um, boundaries, communication, anxiety, depression, purpose, and so much more. I have had experience in mental health since actually about 2008 when I first finished my bachelor's program, and then from that point all the way up today and moving forward, I have gained so much so much experience, so much wisdom, and I am anointed for it. So go ahead, hit that button, and I hope to see you in the community.

So I discussed before who I am. Now I want to discuss with you more of my mandate. So as you can see on the first slide, the name of today's, uh, video and teaching is God's Loss Sheet: A Message for Christian Leaders. Okay, so in 2017, God called me into entrepreneurship, and he called me to create my own private practice for therapy. Now, prior to that, I have been practicing as a therapist since 2011. So since then, um, I have been, you know, working, you know, in mental health, in the community, and hospice and elderly care and so much more. Also, prior to that, I was a social worker where I worked at DSS. I also worked at hospice as well during that time before, um, before becoming a therapist. So I've been in this field since 2006, and I've gained so much knowledge. And when I fully gave my life to Christ, it's like God just— whoo— he just blessed my brain even the more to be able to carry wisdom, knowledge, and insight on how to treat his people the way he would like for me to treat them. Hello. And so I already discussed before in the first slide, um, what I offer as far as my services. Also, like I said before, you can look at, um, some free resources that I have. And so back to how my mandate and how this word was birthed. So whenever I answered the call to go ahead and start Empower the Shift, my mental health practice, I asked God, I said, well, God, you know, who am I called to? I said, there are, um, so many niches out here. I know I love trauma, I know I love treating grief, I love treating anxiety and depression, parenting. I actually love, um, love treating a lot of different areas, to be honest. But over the years, I kind of niched down a little bit, okay? And so, as clear as day, I heard God say I'm calling you to my lawshi. I said, okay. I'm like, wow. So of course I had to do what? Go to scripture about what God was telling me who I was called to. Now, I've studied the scriptures before, but God put it on my heart last week to go back and do a more detailed study about this so I can teach it to you guys today., okay, and how this is so close. This is like my mandate, okay. And before, in 2017, God didn't tell me that I was called to Christian leaders. He told me that maybe about probably about 2 or 3 years ago because I noticed that in my practice I was working with the Fivefold Ministry. I was working with people who were— had, you know, had ministry roles in their churches like deaconess, Deacons, pastors, um, prophets, teachers, all of the above. I'm like, wow, God, you, you really are sending me your people. All right, he told me, I'll send you the people that I have for you to work with, and he did just that. And so bear with me as I go through the scripture. I will be paraphrasing a little bit in some areas for the sake of time. But when I say Christian leaders, who am I talking to? Fivefold leaders, therapists, life coaches, marketplace leaders, worship leaders, celebrity leaders, anyone who has an influence over God's people, over the souls of mankind, that you are discipling in whatever capacity you working in. Whether you're a doctor, whether you're a school teacher, whatever capacity you working and you— and it's your ministry, That's who a leader is. Um, oftentimes when we hear the word Christian leader, we think about just, uh, the church and the four walls. But no, it's even outside of that. It's outside into the marketplace, right? So I'm a marketplace Christian leader. That's who— that's who I am, you know. If God decides to put me back in the four walls, then he will.

He'll let me know.

But over the past few years, I had been building, building, building um, my ministry and different things God put on my heart. And when it comes to how he want me to pour back into the body of Christ, okay. Alrighty, so the first scripture, um, we're gonna be coming from Luke chapter 15, verse 1 through 7. So I'm gonna read it. I have it up here for you to read as well if you want to read it in your own time. You definitely can do that. So it says, now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Okay, then Jesus told them this parable. Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep!' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not repent. Who do not need to repent. Listen, whoo, this is a mouthful, right?

It's—

to me, it's very simple, it's very easy to understand. But when you begin to break this thing down, you see that Jesus cares and he loves the lost sheep, and he will move heaven and earth to go and get them. And this is who God is calling me to. That one, that one that is lost, that one Christian leader who has been on the battlefield. You've been fighting, you've been going through life circumstances, you've been going through so, so many different things in life, trauma, through grief, and you feel lost. Okay, so in mental health, that's exactly what I did. I help leaders to rehabilitate so they can continue to do what God's calling them to do. Okay, and so And I was studying this as well. It says he rejoices whenever he's able to go get that one, that one. All right, the next one is scripture reading Luke chapter 15, 8 through 10, the parable of the lost coin. He said, or suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me, I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. All right, and so, you know, God is comparing the joy we have Whenever we find something that we've lost— how many, how many of you guys have like lost something? I know I have. And then when I finally find it, I'm like so excited. And the Lord is saying, listen, the same way you get excited for yourself or for your friends when they find something, the angels in heaven are doing the same thing. They are rejoicing whenever one of his lost sheep comes back home. And let me tell you this, I know you'll probably be wondering as well, okay, sinner, like, I haven't sinned, I haven't done anything wrong, I'm just like out of alignment with God. And that can happen too. So sinner, of course, is a person who has been led astray, who has been dibbling and dabbling in the world, who have been, you know, being disobedient. That's, that's sin. It is, it's sin, right? When you be disobedient to God. And so that's what a sinner is, but we'll get into it in my next couple of slides, the different ways that we can become lost. So bear with me. So the next one, I actually paraphrased this one because it's long, and for the sake of time, I don't want to put every single, um, scripture from this one up here. So it's, um, Luke chapter 15, verses 11 through 32. The Parable of the Lost Son. So a certain man had two sons. The younger one traveled away after his father gave him his portion of his inheritance. So the younger son wasted it away, and instead of going home immediately due to shame— and I put shame, I put shame because you do— I could tell he was shameful because he was in the wilderness. He was like eating pig stuff and working in the field, doing things that he didn't have to do because he was ashamed. And then he said, you know what, how many of my father's hired men have more than enough food while I am dying here of hunger? So he went home still having doubt.

Go back and read it.

And his father took him back and he had a party. In verse 32, it says his father says to the other son, but it was fitting to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live. He was lost and he has been found. My God. So when you think about our Heavenly Father and you think about this man, God is saying that I don't care what you done wrong, I don't care how led astray you have been, I don't care what's going on, I don't care what you did, just repent. Just repent and come back to me. Because oftentimes I see, um, clients or people in general who have done things that they are so shameful of, and either they have gone to someone else in the body of Christ seeking help, or it's their own, you know, thoughts of shame and guilt, and it keeps them away from God longer than what it's supposed to because of shame and because of guilt. And God is saying just repent, just come back home. I don't care what you did, we'll work on that, we'll work it out, but I want you here with me because you belong to me. You're my daughter and you're my son. And so I'm a big, a big stickler for trying to like research words and understand, you know, what it means. I don't do that for every single word, of course, but there's certain words that kind of stick out to me that I know I need to go and do more research on. So what is, um, the synonyms of the word lost? I put definition, but I didn't put it up here for some reason, so please forgive me. The word lost, the synonyms of that is absent, adrift, hidden, invisible, disoriented, misplaced, vanished, lacking, minus, astray, wandering, falling between the cracks, off course, wayward, nowhere to be found, missing, unavailable, gone, and neglected. We, when we hear the word lost, we automatically probably go to the, the thought of, oh, they're just gone, they're nowhere to be found, right? Which is true, but there's other words that mean the same thing as lost, right? You can be in church, you can be going to all these ministries, going to conferences, hearing their left and right and still be lost, still be lost, still feel confused, still feel disconnected to God because no one really is like seeing beneath the surface to see the areas where you're broken. My God. And so whenever I'm seeing my clients and they're coming to me, they're opening up their heart to me, I'm seeing through the eyes of the Lord, I'm seeing through the eyes of Holy Spirit, I'm hearing through the ears of my father, so I can hear and see exactly what's going on with his people. And as I study, you know, I'm a therapist, so, you know, I have all this knowledge and education and courses I've taken, courses I've created to help me to learn about mental health. And I have to continue to learn it because I'm licensed. As long as I'm licensed, I have to get hours every single year to keep myself fresh. And in order for me to hear God, in order for me to hear what he has to say about you, I have to keep my ears to him. I have to worship, I have to pray, I have to be in my word, I have to fast, I have to be available to hear what it is that my Father wants to do on behalf of his people, because I care about God's law sheet. Now let me share this with you real quickly. So I have my own history of trauma. If you go and you purchase, you know, the book I co-authored called Just Say No, we made it to number one bestseller list. Uh, it's amazing. My chapter is amazing. My chapter is very, um, transparent, and I'm very vulnerable about the things I've been through. Okay, and so when I became a Christian and came into Christ, I had never been to counseling before. I got, I got saved for real for the last time, the last time, right? And oh, and I said, God, you can have my life. Like, I share my testimony a little bit on my podcast about how I got saved. Y'all, it's— the story is hilarious, by the way. It's so funny. And so, um, and so on my journey as a, as a baby in Christ, I was hurt by a lot of leaders. A lot of leaders. They wanted to control me. They wanted to manipulate me. I was played with religion about what I should do, what I shouldn't do, what it looks like to be a Christian. And if you go back and look at my other video, you'll be able to see a word that God gave me called Relationship Versus Religion. It's fire to me. It's fire, okay? It's fire. So go back and listen to that. And so, um, I was hurt, I was broken, I was frustrated. I have became lost. And my loss wasn't, wasn't, um, that, you know, I didn't love God anymore or I wasn't connected to him, but I was just hurt and I was angry. I was starting to become bitter. And so I had to really dig deep into my healing journey to figure out why that I keep getting hurt by leaders, okay? And as I begin to heal and I begin to ask God a kazillion and one questions, by the way, he began to reveal to me, he said, well, for one I was being hurt because the leaders, they want healing. They had been, you know, burnt out. They have been, you know, in ministry where they have been disappointed. They hadn't healed from their trauma. They hadn't healed from rejection. They haven't— they didn't have a proper covering, um, to be able for them to go to and talk about the things of their heart, talk about their mental health. They didn't have that. They didn't do that, right? And then for me, I'm responsible because I did not heal myself. So I got mother wounds, father wounds, all kind of wounds, right? And I'm looking for validation, I'm looking for a place of belonging. I'm hungry for God, but I also want like that community, okay? And so as a baby in Christ, I was so vulnerable, I was so vulnerable. And so many leaders, some hurt me intentionally and some hurt me unintentionally, all right? And so God had to heal— he has healed me from that, okay? And so, oh, so out of that, even before all my hurts from leaders, I always had this like strong love and passion for Christian leaders.

Hey, hey, hey, I hope that you were enjoying this episode thus far. I wanted to let you know that the Christian Leadership Coaching and Mentoring Program is officially open for application. So this academy is for you if you feel stuck in your calling, need clarity on who you are called to serve, need community and a safe place to process your stuck points, need development in your spiritual gifts, need to be sharpened, need a safe place to heal and process some of your thoughts and things you've been through. And so I am so passionate about Christian leadership because I understand that sometimes we don't have that safe place to be able to share our most intimate struggles. And also as leaders, aspiring and existing Christian leaders, we do need more support to grow. And so I know for a fact that I'm really good at pulling out things in others. I'm really good at pushing people to the next level. I've been doing counseling and coaching now for over 15 years, and I love it. And I have counseled and coached many people as far as Christian leaders and helping them to get to the next level. If you're interested in this, go to www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com. And here are some of the things that we're going to go over, okay? So one, education about trauma, anxiety, depression, healing your image of God, healing from rejection, understanding your identity, improving communication styles, improving your boundaries, being more assertive, improving your self-esteem, understanding your value, uncovering more of your passions, understanding the fruits and the gifts of the Spirit, combating imposter syndrome, growing spiritually, biblical education, interpreting dreams and visions, and hearing God's voice. Listen, that's a lot, right? And so this program is going to be power-packed full of information to help you to grow and to heal on purpose. So again, visit www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com and submit your application.

Hey, hey, hey! I hope you are enjoying this episode so far. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a raving review. I also want to share with you more about Little Warriors in a Bottle. This is healing anointing oil that God instructed me to prepare back in 2015. I have received so many testimonies since 2015 about this oil. It is powerful. It has changed my life and others. So be sure to go visit www.empoweredpurposeacademy/shop to learn more about the oil. And while you're there, you can check out the new book that I co-authored called Just Say No, a number one international bestseller, where I share my story called What Trauma Stole from Me. It is amazing.

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So that's it for our little break. Let's get back into part 2 of this episode. Strong desire to see them heal because I understand, and God allowed me to feel and carry the weight of what they have to carry when it comes to serving the body of Christ. I have served as an usher, I have served as armor bearer, I've been licensed, I've ministered before, um, I've had— I used to be over a dance ministry where I was over people, you know, leading them, right? Um, I had my own, on my own businesses with an S at the end. So I've dealt with a lot of people over the years, but I have to be over, and it's not easy. It's not easy dealing with people all the time. I've been hurt, I've been disappointed, and all that. And so God has truly allowed me to feel and even see the pain and burdens that leaders carry, and it really, um, makes me sad, especially whenever they don't have a safe place to be able to process their most intimate struggles and their most intimate pain in a safe environment. I am very, very, very, very private. And even though I know that with my profession, um, it's required by HIPAA that I keep things private, but I'm a private person anyway. What I'm saying is I don't go share their stuff with the world because that's like stuff that's like between you and them and between God. And my job is to pray for them, intercede for them, and cover them. And pray that they can, you know, get back to a, to a good, good place where they need to be at mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. So what are some reasons why we become lost? Here we go, we're getting into it. Sin. The number one thing could be sin, sin of any kind. According to, I think, Galatians chapter 5, if you go in there and you read about sin, you know, those are some of the things that can, that can push us into condemnation and make us feel like we're not, um, we're not good enough and that we can't, um, come back from the things that we've done wrong, right? So sin. Number 2, life circumstances. That can be, you know, dealing with trauma. Well, listen, we just had COVID. We just had COVID and people are still hurting. People are still bleeding because some people have lost so much. It's like they're really having a hard time with trusting God again. They're having a hard time with, you know, letting their guard down and trusting and believing that God himself has their best interest at heart. They've been through so much. So you have, you know, um, trauma, anxiety, depression, you know, all these things that can happen in our life that can make us feel sad and lonely and isolated. And over time we become, you know, stagnant, and we don't put that time in with God like we used to. It happens.

I've seen it.

I had clients over the year that happened to where they fell by the wayside because of their own pain and their own— and they powerful men and women of God, powerful, powerful. Lack of knowledge, right? Not really understanding, to be honest, scripture, and not really understanding mental health. Everybody thinks that mental health, everything about it is demonic, and that's not true. So, so this is what happens, right? So first of all, I'm not going to go into a whole deep teaching about mental health and, you know, and faith right now, but I will say this, like, there's different levels of pain that we go through, okay? And so of course the spiritual realm is real, of course demons are real, of course people are being oppressed by the enemy in the spirit, right? And I have had to counsel people in that aspect where we're dealing with spiritual principalities. Okay, yes, I have, right? But it takes wisdom for God for me to know how to treat that person. I might have a person who's just going through grief. Well, they— their mom died, their spouse died, they had a divorce, they had a relationship that, you know, that ended sour, they were hurt, right? So we process that pain, we go through, you know, the thing that, you know, they're, you know, they're feeling and their anxiety and depression. And as they work on that stuff and I begin to speak life into them, they begin to heal. They learn coping skills. They understand how, you know, depression works, how anxiety works, their triggers. Um, you know, we— it gets deep. It gets really deep. So everything is not demonic. It's not. It's called soul healing. Your soul needs to heal, okay? And so what happens is if we stay in a place of being wounded for too long All right, when it comes to mental health, our body has been created to heal. Look at our blood cells. Look at when we get a wound on our hand or our arm, we build scabs, right? And our body naturally heals if we have the correct what? Antibiotics. If we have the correct what? Nutrients. The proper care of our skin. It's the same thing with our spiritual health and our mental health. If we stay in a place too long that is not healthy, over time we become weaker and weaker, and that makes us vulnerable. And the more vulnerable we are, that leaves room for the enemy to come in and dig his roots in us deeper and deeper and deeper. That's how it goes. I have counseled clients who— I had one client before, it was just— I was like, wow, God. Her dad had died maybe 10 years ago. And she was still grieving like he had died only yesterday. That is not healthy. She did not process the grief. She was still crying every day. She was going through a lot financially. She was going through a lot. She couldn't find a job, smoking marijuana every other day, had her son— her son was not getting what he needed emotionally. And so we just began to do some, some grief work, some grief work, some CBT work, um you know, going through her pain and what she missed about her father. She never had a chance to talk about her pain. And then she did that, and she gained coping skills for me. And you know, in my private time, I'm praying for my clients. I'm praying for them. I'm praying for them in a secret place. And so over time, she began to gain her strength. My God, she began to see, oh my God, I need to get out the place. Let me take off my sackcloth. Hello! She got a new job, her money was flowing in good, her son was doing better. I gave her skills to help him with his grief as well over his grandfather. Like, that's how mental health is supposed to be, especially when it comes to the body of Christ, right? And so this is some of the things that I go over in my mentorship program for aspiring and existing Christian therapists. Like, soul care is so important for all, for all the body of Christ, okay? And people are so quick to like just demonize everything, and it's a, it is, it's a fine line. I'm not gonna lie. Oh, he'll let me know. And if the client said, ah, Shakeeta, I just don't know, something don't feel right, and if I hear the Lord tell me, go ahead and tell them, like, yeah, you're dealing with the principalities, you're dealing with some stuff that is not normal. Grieving is normal. Okay, um, going decade after decade in turmoil is not normal. That's a clear sign that you're dealing with principalities, okay? And so God himself has trained me to know. Not in— he's trained me. I've also had like mentors from afar where I'm reading. Like I said, I have to study, and I've been doing this for, gosh, almost 15 years now, and I'm still going. I'm still learning, and I put— and I invest invest in where I'm going. I invest financially in my learning, both scripturally and biblically, my time with God and mental health, right? And so they can't— they do coexist with each other. They do. I've heard people say, oh well, I have my pastor. That's great, you should have your pastor to help you and pray for you. But what if your pastor is not equipped to really understand what you're dealing with? Some pastors are not. Some pastors are— they do have training with mental health, which is beautiful to me. They need it. They need to. This is why I created my online certification program called Empowered Purpose Academy, where I have courses for leaders that needs to have this education and knowledge on how to even pinpoint this in the body of Christ, in their church. Like, my courses are fire. They're great, okay? And I have more that are coming that God has given me to continue to create. So whatever he give me to create, I'm going to create it for this school, okay? It's a registered trademark and everything, okay? It's legit, all right? Um, okay, so also then shame and guilt. As we can see in the parable of the lost son, he did not want to, you know, go home at first because he was shameful what he did. He actually stayed in the wilderness a little bit longer. It's like, here, okay, okay, here it is, right? So like, let's say you make a mistake and you're like, man, God, I made a mistake. Like, I didn't realize I was being ignorant and I was being just a fool. And then you condemn yourself, and then you feel bad, and then you get depressed, and then you deal with anxiety, then you're dealing with low self-esteem, low self-worth, and the list can go on. And you're condemning yourself from the inside, okay? God knows. And so it hinders you from going back to the Father sooner, sooner. And that's where I come in at. That's where I come in at, to come in and help God's Christian leaders to rehabilitate. And you want to know why? Because you have influence. You have influence. You are over other people's souls, and out of your mouth flows the issues of your heart. It does. I've seen it. I've seen it. I lived it. And when I realized that I'm doing that, I'm, uh-oh. I gotta back up because I need to go and spend time with God about this one particular area. I need to go to therapy. I have done that before a couple times. Shakeeta Torres, something ain't right, girl. Go to counseling, work on this area. Because the last thing I want is, number one, to hurt God's people, and number two, minister and pour out from the issues of my soul, okay? From the issues of my soul. I cannot do that. Because it does, like, it affects people, it affects your ministry. If, like, like, the higher you go in God and you don't deal with this stuff from your past, especially from childhood, it affects you. I've actually— I also counsel, you know, pastors' kids, and I'm, and I'm counseling the kids— well, they're not kids, they're grown people— and they're sharing with me some of the things their parents, you know, did or didn't do. I mean, nothing crazy, like nothing crazy, But like, some things like teaching they receive from their parents, they're like, Shakeeta Torres Torres Torres, like, my dad, my mom, they got so much unresolved trauma. I see that now after learning from you about what trauma is, after learning from you what that looks like and how it can affect your marriage, affect your parenting, affect how you shepherd souls, affect how you deal with people from day to day, right? So that's why it's important to heal on purpose. And I say heal on purpose because you need to be very intentional about your healing. Don't ignore the red flag that you see within yourself. Don't ignore it. And don't be in such a hurry to get to the next level without dealing with the roots in your heart. Don't do that. Please don't do that. I, I'm begging you not to do that because I was a victim of that once and I know what that feels like. It does not feel good. And it takes time to heal from this stuff. So we don't want sheep hurting sheep. We want shepherds hurting sheep, okay? Leaders hurting sheep. We don't want that. And of course we all make mistakes and we all, you know, don't make— all make the best decisions, but it shouldn't be at the cost of somebody else's mental health. All right, so when I was, um, going through writing this message today and really, you know, seeking God for more clarity, um, this came to my mind. The scripture here says, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That's so true because I see it in my own practice. When my clients are coming to me and they're being vulnerable about the things they've done wrong or things that they find themselves at fault at, I'm praying for them. I don't judge them. That's not my responsibility. We already judge ourselves enough. We already judge ourselves enough. We don't need nobody else to help us with that, okay? Between judging ourselves and between the enemy's voice, in between whatever else we got going on, we don't need help. Unless you operating in pride, we don't need help, okay? So when you confess what you're going through in an environment where Holy Spirit lives, which is my practice and what I do, you will receive healing. You're going to receive healing. Like, I can't tell you how many times someone has shared something with me and like, oh my God, I feel like a burden is off my chest, I feel like it's been lifted off of me. And I'm like, yeah, it has been, it has, because the scripture right here proves it. Okay, and then finally, the next one, um, is speak life. Okay, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Listen, so what this saying is, you're gonna eat the fruit of the words that you say. So I'm very careful about the words that I release to God's people and God's sheep, okay? Even if they're in error, even if they're wrong, even if they don't want to get together, I still think, mm-mm, I, I, uh-uh. I speak right now that so-and-so, they will be healed, they will get back in line with God, they will walk in their purpose, they will heal from whatever area that God wants them to heal in. Listen, no, we ain't speaking no death over here, all right? This past weekend, I had an awesome weekend, you guys. Like, that's a whole nother teaching— I mean, not just a whole blog, vlog all by itself. Was amazing. Yeah, but anyway, one of the ladies that I had just met, my sister in Christ, my Shakeeta Torres, she's like, you have a gift of mercy, don't you? I said, yeah, I do, of grace and mercy. I do. God has given me that, to have grace and mercy for his people. Because every time I counsel somebody and I hear that story, I'm like, it could have been me, it could have been me, it could have been you, okay? None of us are exempt from a lot of things. It's about choices, of course. About choices. It's about choices. And so also keep in mind too that healing, depending on how, how deep the pain is or how long you've been operating in that particular like vein of hurt and pain, right? Whether it's a month, years, decades, or whatever, healing takes time, y'all. Deliverance takes time. It's a process. Like, you just don't go to therapy like one or two sessions and like just be miraculously healed. I have had people come to therapy after a session or two saying, am I healed? I'm like, no, you're not healed. Because first you go through that, that like, I call it first, you know, coming to the knowledge of, okay, wow, I have a problem. This is affecting how I see myself, how I see God, how I see other people, how I see the world. Okay, so Do I want to heal from this or not? That's the next question. And then you make a decision to heal from it. You have to be vulnerable. You have to be transparent. Vulnerable with God more than anything than you are with me. Vulnerable, transparent. And then it's like, people don't understand deliverance. If your mind is not changed, if you haven't reprocessed your mind or retrained your brain to think opposite of what you used to think, you're gonna fall right back into the same thing you were delivered out of. So oftentimes, like, I've heard, you know, leaders say, you know, people come to the altar and they're getting deliverance, and in that moment they're doing great for a couple of weeks or so, and they go right back into it. For one, their mind— their mind has to be renewed by the Spirit of God, by his word, by education. By knowledge, by looking at your habits and your triggers and how what mama did, what daddy did, how's affecting you today. Like, it's a process, y'all. Like, I be— I can say I officially began my healing journey in 2009. I got saved in '08. I went through that, you know, oh my God, I'm a Christian phase. By the time that new year came around and got— and I had, you know, at this point, you know, could hear God, trusted God, I knew God loved me, and he began to highlight areas in me that I needed to heal from. Boy, it was like a slap in the face. And so here we are. That was '08, '09. It's 2022. It took me years to peel back layers and onions and layers and onions and layers of onions, and I was very intentional. So if you're a person who is healing passively and not healing intentionally, you're gonna have a longer journey, okay? If you're not willing to submit to the Spirit of God and ask God questions, invest in your healing, go see a person who is equipped like myself— listen, like myself— to help you and embrace the process, it could be difficult. It could be difficult. And trying to heal by yourself It's hard because you don't have accountability, you don't have the tools or the skills, okay? I can honestly say I've been to counseling before, 3 different times, okay? 3 different times for 3 different things, okay? 3 different things. And as I'm going to counseling, I'm always asking, okay, God, can you highlight to me areas that I need to work on? And he did, uh, He did. And I would ask him, God, today I want you to speak to my therapist today. And he did. He would highlight areas to me about me having poor boundaries, about, you know, having low self-esteem, being passive, having unresolved trauma, you know, showing me how it can affect my children and how it can affect my parenting and me being a wife and all that, you guys, all that. Now of course life happens and you can be healed and if something can happen, they kind of knock you off your feet, you know. But that healing journey to me is not as intense as dealing with all your stuff from your past. Now of course, like, to me, dealing with grief and death, now that's something that can knock the wind out of you. It can knock the wind out of you, but you can still love God and you can still trust him, but you're hurt. You're hurt. You heard. And God is a strong tower. And God, he— oh my God, he will see you through that. He will. But there's nothing wrong with seeing a counselor to get educated, to get coping skills, and to have a place to process. My God, Jesus. Jesus, just the process. Okay, so this is all I have for today. This is what God put on my heart, um, with this message today. Um, before we leave out, I just want to say, um, a prayer. Um, again, like I said before, like, comment, subscribe to my YouTube channel. I'm mostly on Instagram. You can text Heal to 910-387-4717 to chat for me a little bit, you know, um, and look at some free things that I have in a link below about boundaries, anxiety, forgiveness, and I'm bringing out so much more stuff soon. Okay, so Father, I just bless your name right now, God. Father, I pray, Father, for every person listening to this right now, whether they are a leader or they are an aspiring leader. I pray, God, that Lord, they seek your face. They ask you, God, about the areas in their heart they have not healed from. Father, Father, I just ask you, Lord God, just to be with them, just to comfort them. Father, Father, I ask you, Lord God, to shine your light on dark places, God, that the enemy tries to deceive us in to make us think that we are okay and we are not. Father, I pray, Lord God, that for, you know, for minds to be shifted about mental health, Lord God, and the importance of it. Father, I pray, Lord God, for hard hearts to be turned to flesh so that the words that I have spoken today will be sown into their heart. So, Father, I thank you for the opportunity to be able to serve in this capacity, to be able to serve your people, to be able to minister to your people, and I look forward to everything that you have in store for the body of Christ in the years and decades to come. In Christ's name I pray, amen. Till next time, see you later. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. Our prayer is that this podcast episode has blessed you.

You.

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