#201: Conquer the Fear of Sharing Your Story (Breakthrough Series)

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelli Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters foreign.

Hey, Kingdom writers, this is Shelly Hitz. Welcome to the Breakthrough series. So this is going to be a series of 12 episodes that we're going to dive in deep to the obstacles that you face as a Christian writer. We covered all of these topics in our online prayer meeting episode, and now we're going to dive deep into some practical things and some scriptures that that can really help you. So I hope you enjoy this series. We did record it live on Facebook, and so you may hear us say, you know, comment here, or we're gonna have some Q and A at the end. But just know that you can always join us live over on our Facebook page, Christian Book Academy. And we also wanted to provide this on our podcast so that you can listen to these as many times as you want to help you receive breakthrough as a Kingdom Writer. Hey, Kingdom writers, are you ready to conquer the fear of sharing your story? You know, whether you're a nonfiction writer or a fiction writer, it can seem like a daunting task. I mean, have you ever felt fear about sharing your words in a published book? I know it's something that we hear, C.J. and I, a lot from the writers that we coach. At least I heard it twice today in our private Facebook group. Just today. So in today's episode of the Breakthrough series, we're going to talk all about how to overcome this obstacle of fear, especially related to sharing your story. And what makes this breakthrough series different is that we combine the power of scripture with prayer and just really help you overcome these obstacles, not only with practical tips, but with spiritual power. So we're just so excited to be here with you today. I'm Shelly, and my husband CJ Is here as well.

Guys, it's gl Great to be with you again live on another Wednesday. And we, as Shelly said, have a biggie today. You know, the obstacle of fear is, as she mentioned, you know, it's like a bully that really intimidates a lot of people. That's what the enemy uses it to do. And we're going to actually look at some scriptures today and just some principles that can help us not only overcome this, but.

Really in Christ, be the ones in the driver's seat, you know, in control that we don't have to let this bully push us around anymore.

Yeah. So C.J. is going to start off with kind of our theme scripture for this episode of the Breakthrough series.

Yeah. So this is second Timothy 1, 7 and 8. And it says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me either, even though I am in prison for him. With the strength God gives you. And. And that's really going to be key, you know, as we. As we delve into this. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the good news. And that's Paul.

Writing to Timothy and really just encouraging his young disciple, you know, to stand firm and to realize we've been given a spirit of power, not timidity.

Yeah. And I think a lot of times we focus on verse seven, and we don't always think about verse eight, you know, and so I really encourage you if this is something that you struggle with, and I think we all do at some time, you know, to really meditate on both of those verses this week and really say, okay, God, what is it you want me to hear from these verses right now?

So.

I think you were going to mention something about the disciples.

Yeah. So, you know, when you think about the disciples and, you know, when Jesus left and he, you know, was, you know, raised from the dead and he left, the disciples were just kind of waiting and they were hiding and there was a lot of fear. Right. And so there was just a lot of fear and hiding. And it gives me a picture of what some of us as writers sometimes feel. We've been with Jesus, we've seen Jesus. We know he. He does miracles. We've seen them ourselves. We've experienced them. But sometimes we're just still like, hiding away and we're just like, oh. But then the disciples, if you read Acts, they started to go out in boldness and share the gospel in ways that, I mean, it was like a night and day difference. You know, it's like I used to watch Wonder Woman as a little girl, and like, she would spin around and all of a sudden she was the superhero. You know, it was like. It was. It was a night and day difference. What made the difference for those disciples? It was receiving the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

And so I want to tell you right now, if you're kind of hiding and fearful and not moving forward in your writing, you Know, I want to encourage you to ask the Lord, you know, for a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit for that boldness that when you are filled with the Holy Spirit and, you know, just picture that before and after of the disciples, of that being able to be the same thing for you.

Yeah. And you mentioned Wonder Woman. And the thought that just came to my mind was Superman. You know, Superman, Clark Kent would go into the phone booth, remember, change? And he'd come out of there, Superman. From Clark Kent to Superman. And, you know, you and I, we have that kind of transformation when we're empowered by the Holy Spirit in our own strength, we just kind of seem a little more feeble, you know, not really to take on the world. But in Christ, nothing, nothing can overcome that power. And, you know, I'm just reminded, too, that Satan tries to intimidate us in order to prevent something good from happening, even beginning, he tries to nip it in the bud before it can even begin. Because he knows once that once there's momentum that starts, once the words begin to be put on that computer to begin getting on in the notebook pages, the thoughts begin to materialize and you actually speak those, you write those, the enemy begins to scramble, begins to send forces to intimidate. And in just a little bit, we're actually going to read about an instance in the Old Testament where there was some of this intimidation tactic that was used in order to stop a specific work.

Yeah. And so, you know, sometimes, like, if you're feeling stuck and you know those. Those feelings of fear are coming, and that's very normal. First of all, I want to say you're not alone if you've ever felt fear. And wherever you're watching right now, if you could just say, I have felt fear, or, yes, that's me. Just so we know we're not alone, because first of all, I want to tell you, you're not crazy. You're not alone. We have all felt it. I know I felt it tremendously in 2016 when I was writing my book Broken Crayons Still Color. It was some of the hardest five months of my life. And if any of you have been following me for any length of time, you've heard me share this story. And I literally don't deal with depression, but I felt depressed almost that whole five months. It felt like spiritual warfare. It felt like there was just so much trying to stop me, and I felt so much fear, especially when I got towards the end and ready to publish the book because I shared some of my Deepest, darkest things, my struggle with pornography, the sexual abuse that happened to me, just all of the things, my grandma's murder and just the trauma and the things that I have been through in my life. And there was so much fear. What will people think? What's going to happen? And I remember I had to just simply do it afraid. You know, I've heard someone say, this is not my quote, but I've heard someone say, fear's what we feel. Brave is what we do. And, you know, sometimes we just have to do it afraid. But one of the things that really helped me during that time was I had a prayer team. And so I always recommend that Christian writers, even if it's just a few people that you have, a couple people that you're sending prayer requests to that you're able to share that with. And I know that my prayer team got me through that in amazing ways. But I also want to tell you, you don't have to tell all the gory details. You know, when I tell my story of sexual abuse or of pornography addiction, I don't share all the details. I only share enough that people know that I strug that people know that, you know, I went through that. And I focus on the hope and the healing in Christ, the freedom in Christ. And so I really encourage you to even, you know, just consider focusing more on that hope and the healing that comes through Christ.

Yeah. And another thing is to remember who you're writing for, you know, your story.

Specifically tailored to individuals somewhere around the world that need to hear your story.

Because that's the way God uses us. I mean, we think to ourselves, who wants to hear my story? And yet there are multiple individuals around the world that once they hear your story, it's like a key that unlocks something in them. It gives them permission to actually step forth and share their own story or to receive that healing that Shelley mentioned. And so just remember that when you endeavor to write your story and share it, there's somebody waiting expectantly. They don't even know it yet. They're expectantly waiting to hear that and grasp the freedom that can come with that.

Yeah. So there, there, there's moments where I goes, I go weeks or months without hearing from one of my readers. But recently I heard from two of my readers, like within the same day. One of them contacted me in a private message on Instagram and was telling me how my broken crayons still color book just really changed her life. And she had tears as she was reading it and she had to go Buy the book. She found my youversion devotional plan first and then went and bought my book. And then I heard from another person, and he was a man that had struggled with sexual addiction as well and was just. He said, you know, in tears again, both of them mentioned that and how God was using it to transform their lives. And I think sometimes, you know, when we're on this side of publishing our book, we can't always foresee. We can't see all the faces, the people who will be impacted when you share. But, you know, the thing is, we all have stories, and some of them are meant to be published, some of them are not. So that's where, you know, you ask God for wisdom. Is this story something to be shared? And I will tell you, I knew that. I knew that. I knew that. I knew that I was supposed to write that book. Broken crayons still color. I put it off for a year because of that resistance, that fear, you know, all of those feelings that come up. But I will tell you that I know now even more so for, you know, a fact that that was birthed from God because of the testimonies that come out of it. And so, you know, I just want to remind you that right now, you can't see their faces. Right now. You don't. You're not receiving those emails right now. You're not knowing who will be impacted with your story, whether it's fiction or nonfiction. But I want to encourage you, they are out there and like C.J. said, they're waiting for your message.

Yeah, I remember specifically a story that I was deliberating about in terms of sharing. And I shared this in our forgiveness formula book where I made a decision to take out a $10,000 loan in order to fund a music tour in Belize, Central America. You know, we were missionaries there for two years. Many of you know that. And we were bringing down a couple hip hop artists, Christian hip hop artists, along with a speaker, and we were going to bring them to four different cities. And I just remember thinking, man, we just need to get a loan. And then from there, you know, we'll make the money back and everything will be good. But it was a bad decision to actually get the loan. I should have just trusted the Lord. And I went up to the States, I got the loan. I used the money for all the marketing and all the different expenses involved because I thought, sure, it'll be repaid back with all of the concert sales. And what happened was we actually lost money. It was more of a flop than we thought it would be, for various reasons, won't get into. But the bottom line is at the end of that experience, I was not only humbled, I was a bit disillusioned. And I was questioning God, like, you know.

Why didn't you like throw up a red flag right away? And you know what? He probably did. I probably had just already made my decision and went bullheaded into getting that loan, thinking, hey, it's just a no brainer. And yet we reeled from that for a couple years, paying that back ourselves out of our own money once we got back to the States. And it was, it was embarrassing, you know, because it's like, well, I should have trusted the Lord. And yet there were lessons learned in all of that as well. I mean, it ended up even encouraging people that, you know, have made their own mistakes. We all make mistakes. We all have those moments where we lack faith or trust in God's provision. And that was a good example of just saying, hey, I'm going to share this with the world, with the hopes that someone else maybe even is even prevented from making that same mistake, but also to learn from it and to move through it, know that we have a forgiving God who helps us get out of those holes again. And that was my own personal example of something to share publicly that I was a bit embarrassed about and yet eventually encouraged other people.

Yeah. And I think sometimes, you know, those things that where we have felt like a failure. Like with my pornography addiction. I was a Christian married woman, I knew better. And so, you know, the enemy can come and make you feel shame and you know, for that failure or that thing that happened or you know, like cj, like I should have trusted the Lord and you know, we should on ourselves. Right? Shoulda woulda, coulda, shoulda woulda, coulda. And so a lot of times the resistance that we're feeling, it may actually be something that actually even requires a deeper healing within ourselves, you know, of forgiving ourselves. You know, I know both CJ and I have had to walk through that. And you know, C.J. in this situation, he's talking about for some of you like. And when we talk about it now, it doesn't seem like as big of a deal. But at the time it was huge. It was a huge. And it caused a snowball of debt that then it took us years and years to get out. We eventually paid it all off, but it was just, it was a turning point that really sent us into. I know for CJ struggled with some depression for a While. And so, you know, I encourage you, too, if some things are coming up for you, maybe there's some deeper healing for you to ask the Lord, you know, to either see someone or talk to someone or walk through him with it about.

I know that one of the things that we recommend is just, you know, as Shelley mentioned, using content from our journals. I don't know if you want to comment on that.

Yeah. So sometimes when we look at that blank screen or we're thinking about sharing our stories or, you know, we have that fear, you know, using something that we've already written can really help us get started and get that momentum that C.J. was talking about. And so one of the things that I've done is I'll go through my. My old journals and I'll take content from. From those journals, and that will be kind of the springboard to start. And obviously there's a lot of editing that goes on, but, you know, I encourage you to potentially look into that as well.

Yeah. You know, another idea is just this whole idea of healthy fear. I do believe there are some healthy examples of fear out there. Now, one of those is anytime that I get up on a stage to see speak. I don't know if many of you can relate to this. They do say that speaking, public speaking is the greatest fear that people have, even over death. Amazingly, they'd rather die than speak on a stage. And I was one of those for a long time. And, you know, I had this healthy nervousness that would drive me to just lean on the Lord and cry out to him with all of my heart, saying, lord, I got nothing. Yeah, I need you. If you don't come through, this is going to be an embarrassment. You know, I mean, they're going to throw tomatoes at me. And so, you know, Romans 8:11 says, the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

Amen.

And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living in you. And so when I say a healthy fear, a healthy fear leads us to lean on the Lord that much more. Whether it's public speaking, whether it's coming up to your boss with something that you need to approach them about, whether it's confronting a friend who either you need to forgive or you need to confront them on an issue that's difficult, or writing that story in the book.

You know, and publishing it.

Yeah, there's that.

And sharing it publicly, there's that healthy.

Nervousness or fear that can drive us to the Lord and his power, the very same power that raised Christ from the dead is going to empower us as we stand on that stage, so to speak, with all of our nervousness involved.

Amen. You know, because ultimately what God has been reminding me, and he was reminding me this again today, and I thought this would be a good thing to share, is that, you know, in our stories, Jesus is the main character. Yeah, Amen.

Amen.

Whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction or whatever, it's like we can just think of Jesus as being the main character and not us.

Yeah.

And if we can really get that point of, okay, it's his spirit in me. It is his power. I do have the power that conquered the grave living in me to conquer this fear, you know, that it's not about me. Jesus is the main character. I think, you know, it can really give us the courage to move forward.

So I was reading in Nehemiah yesterday, as a matter of fact, and I just feel like God put it on my heart to share a couple things from, from that whole story. I mean, you could read all 13 chapters of Nehemiah and you can see so much of even our own story as authors, as Christian authors endeavoring to write something, to build something. In the case of Nehemiah and the exiles that had returned to Jerusalem, their project was rebuilding a run down wall that had been broken down. And it was embarrassing to them. They were like, I can't believe that this wall is in this kind of shape. And so I want to just actually read.

You know, the first 15 verses of chapter four. You could pick anywhere in that and totally go a different direction. And I think we could actually do other podcasts on the, on the book of Nehemiah. But just so you know, you know, that's what's happening here. They've returned, they want to rebuild, but there's some opposition. And so listen to this. It says in chapter four, verse one, sanballat was angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews, saying in front of his friends and the Sumerian army officers, what does this bunch of poor feeble Jews think they're doing? Do they think they can build the wall a single day by just offering a few sacrifices? Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap, and charred ones at that? Tobiah, the ammonite who was standing beside him, remarked, that stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along top of it. And I want to stop and pause Right there. When you endeavor to write a book glorifying the Lord, you better expect opposition that's going to come to you with taunts. With all of these intimidation tactics to say, do you actually think that you have a story to offer? And, you know, when I read that about, you know, he even mentioned you think you're going to build a wall from all these charred stones. And how many of us could say we have a lot of charred stones in our lives, that we think this is? All I have to offer is some charred stones. And how many know that God can take those charred stones and make a work of art out of those charred stones?

Can I get an amen?

And so I want to move on here. Verse 4. This was Nehemiah's response. He said, then I prayed, hear us, our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land. That's a good prayer to pray against your spiritual enemies, against Satan and all of his cohorts that want to intimidate you. May it turn right back upon their heads as that fear and that intimidation is used to slow us down.

Amen.

Do not ignore their guilt, Nehemiah says. Do not blot out their sins, for they have provoked you to anger. Here in front of the builders. At last, the wall was completed to half its height. Now, that was a big accomplishment. Half of its height, around the entire city, for the people had worked with enthusiasm. I want to tell you this. If you'll come to the Lord with an enthusiasm, if you'll set about writing your story, if you'll set about setting aside time for this, maybe just a little bit each day, every other day, whatever it is, every person's different.

Whatever it can be for you, you're gonna see.

Oh, my goodness, half my book's finished.

Amen.

But when Sambalot and Tobiah, and this is verse seven, chapter four. But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites, Ashdodites, heard that the work was going ahead.

And that the gaps in the wall of Jerusalem were being repaired, they were furious. This is what happens, you know, the enemy gets furious when we make any progress. They all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw us into confusion.

But we prayed, man. I love those words. But we prayed to our God and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves. Then the people of Judah began to complain. The workers are getting tired, and there is so much rubble to be removed. You know, I Can almost picture ourselves. Man, I'm getting tired, Lord. I just don't know if I can complete this book or this project or sometimes even this blog post, whatever it might be that we're trying to complete. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves. Meanwhile, our enemies were saying, before they know what's happening, we'll swoop down on them and kill them and end their work. And that's what the enemy wants to do, is end our work. But verse 12, the Jews who live near the enemy came and told us again and again, they will come from all directions and attack us. So it was almost like this. These rumors were spreading and some of the fear tactics were working. Some of the Jews were getting stirred up. So I placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall. In the exposed areas. I stationed the people to stand guard by families armed with swords, spears, and bows.

Then as I looked over the situation, I called together the nobles and the rest of the people and said to them, don't be afraid of the enemy. I love that. Don't be afraid of the enemy. Remember the Lord who is great and glorious and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your homes. And when our enemies heard that we knew of their plans and that God had frustrated them, we all returned to our work on the Wall. And I'll stop right there. I mean, you could go on. I mean, you read the end of that whole story.

It's so inspiring, right? Especially when you think about it and compare it to writing a book. It is so true. And we will always have enemies and we will always have the resistance that tries to stop us from sharing our story. I mean, how many of you have seen some form of a book on your computer right now that you've never published? Yeah, I can almost bet almost all of you.

You just haven't clicked the publish button yet, you know, or done, you know, continued with the steps of formatting or whatever is needed. And we just want to encourage you right now. We are in this together with you, just like Nehemiah and, you know, the people, they were doing it together. They were encouraging each other. And I really believe that's why we are so passionate about Christian Book Academy and the community that we create for Christian writers like you. Because it is so easy to get disappointed or get discouraged and want to give up. But when you're in a community and you have people cheering you on, encouraging you, it's much easier to keep going.

Yeah. And again, don't be afraid of the enemy. Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious and I love this. This is you and I where he's saying, and fight for your brothers.

Yeah.

Your sons, your daughters.

Let's fight for each other.

Your wives in your homes. You know, we're. That's, that's what the academy is about. That's what praying for one another is about. We're fighting for one another. We need each other.

Amen.

That's why God instituted the church. And, you know, we lean on one another. We lean on him most of all. But we have our brothers and sisters. This. You're not alone. And it's going to get finished.

Yeah. And so, you know, have you ever heard the definitions of fear? There's two different definitions that I've heard, and I don't know who said these exactly, but one is false evidence appearing real acronym, and the other is face everything and rise.

Yeah.

And I love both of those because it's so true. A lot of times it is just face false evidence appearing real. Or, you know, we have the choice. Are we going to face everything and rise to what God has called us? And I just had that picture in my mind earlier as CJ And I pray before we come on here, we ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom. We've, we've done our research, we've made notes, but we asked the Lord to, you know, bring the right people to listen to this message, to use us. And as we were praying, I just got a picture Mel Gibson and Braveheart on the line, you know, riding his horse back and forth and saying, you know, I don't remember what he even said, but he was just basically like, we can do this.

Let's go. Let's rally the troops, basically. And that picture of him just coming back and forth, and Jesus is that person for us. He is cheering us on. He is, you know, he is leading us into battle. He is leading us into victory. We have ultimately won the victory. Right. And he wants to lead you into battle. And so, you know, as we're beginning to close this session, I did see a question come through. What do you do if the other characters in your story are still living? You know, how do you address that? And I think that is a sensitive topic. And one of the ways I've done it is, for example, the instance of sexual abuse that happened to me. I talk about it, but I never mention the person's name. I never give details that anyone could figure out who it was. I don't focus on him in the story. I focus on me. I focus on what happened, my feelings, the healing God brought me through, what God did to bring freedom in my life. I tend to focus more on the processes and the feelings and the emotions that I felt. Now I have had people that have actually went and gotten permission from people to share, you know, their stories in a book. And you can do that, but there are legal implications. And so, you know, that is something to consider, but not to let it stop you. There is still a way for you to share your testimony in a way that's honoring to all of the people that are part of it. And ask God for wisdom, ask him for wise counsel, and don't let it stop, stop you.

Yeah.

So one other scripture we want to look at briefly is Revelation 12:11, and it says, and they have defeated him, the devil, by the blood of the lamb and by the. By their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. So the enemy knows he can't touch the blood of Jesus, but one thing he tries to get at is our own testimonies, sharing our own stories. And that's what he tries to strike fear. You know, he even tries to get us to fall so that maybe, you know, we sort of, you know, muddle our testimony in front of non believers or whoever it might be. He does everything to. To really try to put egg on our faces. But when you share your testimony, you are helping defeat the forces of the enemy. And like I said, he can't defeat the blood of Jesus. It's already been done. And if you're covered in the blood of Jesus, the war has already been won for you. You know, it's already been done. Finished. It is finished. Jesus said, and yet we do have these daily battles that we can be a part of fighting. You know, we can be Mel Gibson and Braveheart.

Now. Yeah, but you know what? Yeah, that verse was really what spurred me on to publish my book. Broken crayons still color. You know, another version says, we overcome by the word of our testimony. It is so powerful. Something else I just thought of is when you're sharing your story, if there's people that are, you know, that you don't want to talk about or you don't want to expose. One of my academy members is actually writing her story as a fiction novel. And, you know, you can even write, you know, as a fiction novel with a pen name. So there's so many different options. There's so many different ways to, to still share the story. And I love this testimony by Rebecca. She shares, I Had a book completely done, including the COVID editing everything. It sat on my computer because I just didn't like it. I finally published it, and it's become one of my best sellers.

Right.

Way to go, Rebecca.

I love that because it's so true. Sometimes we have that fear or we don't like it, or there's something like. There's just something there and it stops us. And what if that book ends up becoming one of your best sellers, impacts people's lives? I mean, you have no idea what could happen by you just taking this courageous step.

And what if we had a habit, practice, where we just pause, Imagine the emotion coming up. Okay. Feel that emotion. There is some fear coming up. There's something coming in. I almost feel intimidated. What if we had the automatic quick question of, oh, there must be something powerful that's about ready to happen.

Amen.

Right. There must be something that the enemy wants to derail off the railroad tracks. Right. What if we had that automatic emotion or the automatic response to then go right to prayer, Pray against that fear. Pray against the intimidation sort of helping break through. You almost picture a train just rolling through a barrier and being able to stay on the tracks. And imagine, you know, if we had this automatic response now, it's easier said than done. All right, I'm saying that I'm not somebody that's a pro at this. I'm just saying, what if we had this automatic habit, praying. As we. As we feel that emotion coming, as we feel that intimidation, and we just know we can almost get excited right after that. We can say, man, something. The enemy must be trying to stop something, you know, powerful.

Yeah, I love that. And C.J. and I, when we share these things, just know we're preaching to ourselves, too.

Yeah. Three. Three fingers pointing right back at me.

When we point one at you. Yeah. So know that we're. We're, you know, in this with you. And so we're just excited for what God wants to do through you, through your stories, through your books, through your words, words that will outlive you. And so we just want to pray for you. And if you have any specific prayer requests, please post them. And we want to be praying for you, but C.J. is going to close us in prayer.

Yeah.

So, Lord, we just come to you right now with this whole issue of fear. Fear that has been paralyzing intimidation that has driven us back or caused us to stop the work. Just as the opposition tried to get Nehemiah and his builders to stop the work on the wall, Lord, we come against that in Jesus name and the authority that we have and the blood of Jesus. We come against all of the intimidation tactics that the enemy throws at us. And we say, we are secure in Christ. We can overcome. The same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, is the same power that lives in each and every one of us and is empowering us to even write these books that glorify your name, Lord. And so we come against that. And I ask that if there's anyone on this live or watching the replay or listening to the podcast that is dealing with this issue, I pray, Lord, that right now they would feel your presence, they would feel your strength rising up in them, and they would be able to conquer knowing that, man, my daddy, is going before me. And when I stand behind my daddy, there's nothing that can't be overcome. And I just pray that anyone that's struggling with this would have boldness rise up within them and give them power, give them the ability to finish the work, Lord. And may your mighty name of Jesus be glorified as we do so. And we just ask this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Yes. And Lord, I just pray right now that courage would rise up. Rise up right now in Jesus name. Almost see it like a muscle that hasn't been used for a while and it's weak, but you're working it out, you're using it, you're building it. And God right now is able to give you the courage that you need to take that next step. It doesn't have to be a big, bold, courageous step. It might just be getting out your notebook, getting out your pen and writing down a few thoughts. It might be finding that manuscript on your computer. But we just pray right now. Just as the disciples received your Holy Spirit and then they were changed, they were transformed. Almost like, you know, we think of those superheroes, you know, being transformed. They were transformed into different people. We pray right now that every writer listening would receive your Holy Spirit in a fresh way, fresh anointing, and they would be transformed into a new person to be able to have the courage and the boldness to write and to do the things that you've called them to do. And so we thank you right now that you are doing the work, that you are rising up courage in each of us. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen.

Yes. Awesome. Well, I have also done a previous podcast about seven tips to overcome fear about writing about your past. And I've linked to that in the description, or if you're listening on the podcast, just swipe up and it's in the show notes. And you know, if this series, this breakthrough series has been really blessing you, we encourage you to get our PDF. It's called 5 Practical Tips for Christian Writers to Breakthrough Writers Block. These are the best tips that I found in working with writers over the last eight years and you can download that for free@trainingauthors.com Breakthrough and remember, we're going to be with you again this Friday live again, 3pm Eastern. We love when you guys join us live. And thank you so much for being here. Let us know what blessed you, what are you walking away from this with, and what breakthrough did God bring in you today? Thank you for being here and we'll see you next time.

God bless you guys.

Bye bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy, where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers. Sam.