#213: Dream with God About Your Writing: A 7-Step Guided Journaling Experience

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 Shelley 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.

Have you ever taken the time to dream with God about your writing? Today's podcast is a seven step guided journaling and prayer experience. And I've never done anything quite like this on Facebook Live. And so I did it on Facebook Live. I had a mind map that was on the screen and if you want to get that handout, just email me@supportrainingauthors.com or click the link in the show notes for the video. But this is an experience. I really recommend having a paper and pen and spending some time journaling and dreaming with God. You can pause this if you need more time. We give you a minute of silence in between and you know, I want you to really take some time and go through this. If you're listening in the car or while you're cleaning, you can always pray out loud to God or quietly and you can do it that way as well. I hope this episode blesses you. Enjoy. Today I'm going to take you through a seven step guided journaling and prayer experience to dream with God about your writing. Now it's interesting because sometimes we can just go through the routine, go through, you know, just the writing and we're not really dreaming with God about what could be possible. My name is Shelli Hitz and my husband and I are the owners of Christian Book Academy. And today I'm so excited to share with you. We have opened our doors for enrollment for the fall semester. So if you're interested in joining us for our first draft challenge, check it out@christianbookacademy.com but today we're going to dive in deep and this is actually going to be a Facebook Live or if you're listening to the podcast or watching on YouTube, it's going to be an interactive training. So if you're able, I'd like you to get out a journal. I just use the 50 cent ones from Walmart and pens. Now I do like my fountain pen, but get out your journal, your pen and be ready to write. I think there's something powerful that happens and there's research that shows there's something powerful when you're writing it out. And if you're not able to write right now, then maybe just say your prayer out loud. Or you know, communicate with God that way or come back at another time when you are able to do that. So I have created a mind map for you. Let me come over and share my screen. So you should be able to see my mind map now. And if you want this handout, you can get the handout from me. You can just message me either on Facebook or, or Instagram or just email me@supportrainingauthors.com and I will get that.

Handout to you.

And hey Jeanne, so good to see you here. I am going to just dive right in and we have a seven step process. So I just want to admit to you I had this idea but I, I didn't think I really had time to do it. And so yesterday I thought, oh, I didn't have time to prepare, I'm just not going to do it today. When I woke up, God just gave this to me and you know, I prepared for it this morning. It's last minute. I've never done anything quite like this before on a live video. We've done this in trainings in our academy. But I'm really excited to do this. It's a live experience where we're actually going to be journaling through some things. So if you're here and, or you're on the replay and you're able to comment, just type ready in the comments. If you're able to journal and actually get out some paper and pen, do that maybe in the notes app of your phone or whatever you're able to do. I really want you to do the exercises because that's when you're going to hear from the Lord. All right, so step one is gratitude. Now I have an entire series on gratitude, so. So I have seen the power of this in my life and I just want you to start with some gratitude. And you know, Psalm 50, I was just reading this this week, so this was just this week and I just felt like this was the verse that I was supposed to share with you. So Psalm 50, verse 14a says, make thankfulness your sacrifice to God. That's an interesting thought, right? That it's our sacrifice to God, but giving thanks. And then verse 23a says, but giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. So that's God talking. He's saying when we give thanks, it truly honors him. And so I just want to take a minute and have you just journal. I have the prompts here for you and we're just going to take one minute and thank God for your writing. And I'm just going to set a timer and I just want you to either journal it out, speak it out, pray it out, and just take a minute to journal your thanks.

And as you're journaling your thanks to God, maybe give him gratitude for your writing, what you've written so far, what you will write in the future. You know, be specific towards your writing.

All right, just a few more seconds. Just either speak out your gratitude to God for your writing or write it out.

All right, there's our timer.

Hey. For those of you joining us live, we are. This is an exciting. We are walking through these seven steps of dreaming with God. And I always think it's so powerful to start with gratitude. And so gratitude is step number one and step number two is to prepare spiritually. So I have really been in the trenches these last two months. I have done one on one interviews with many of my members, my academy members. I have gotten emails from, oh over 75 of you with specific obstacles that you're facing with your writing. I recorded video prayers for you. So I've been hearing you, I've been listening to you. I am in this with you. And the thing that I keep hearing from you, my audience over and over and over are these obstacles of fear, doubt, distractions, not enough time, you know, the same themes over and over and over again. And so as we go into dreaming with God, I believe the enemy would want to stop, that he would want to say, no, I don't want you to dream with God. I want you to stay stuck in fear. I want you to stay stuck in self doubt. I want you to stay stuck right where you are distracted by all the things that don't really matter. And I want you to stay stuck. So I really believe we need to prepare spiritually. Amen. And so Ephesians 6, 10, 18, I encourage you to go and read that later. It talks about putting on the full armor of God. And so it's really good. It's a great habit to get into even as you start your writing habits, as you start your writing sessions, like to read those scriptures as a prayer and to mentally, you know, think of yourself putting on your helmet of salvation, your belt of truth, you know, your breastplate of righteousness, you know, every piece of the armor and really just giving that to God. And then I want you to know I shared a post about this the other day and it resonated with several of you. But as followers of Jesus, we have authority in Jesus name to have victory over all of these enemies. Every single enemy you have personally told me that you face in your writing fear, doubt, insecurity, whatever it is, you have the authority. You have been given the authority in Jesus to take captive all of that, to have victory over all of that. Jesus shed his blood on the cross for your victory. And now it is time to stand, stand in that victory in your writing. Amen. I'm getting kind of excited because I have been talking to so many of you. I have been hearing your what's stopping you? Your obstacles. And it is time, kingdom writers, it is time to rise up. It is time to take our stand against the enemy. And it is time for God to have the victory in your writing. Amen. And so I want you right now just to write out a prayer where you are taking your stand in Jesus name, not in our own authority, not in our own strength. In Jesus name. He conquered it. He nailed everything to the cross. And take a minute and write this out, or you could even just write out Ephesians 6, 10, 18 or speak that out loud as a prayer. And I'm just going to go ahead and set this on a timer for one minute and I'll have you go ahead and take the authority that is yours in Jesus name.

It.

All right, there we are. And.

Now we're ready to get in the good stuff, right? It's all good. No, it's all good. Now I encourage you to really open your mind. Take away every limitation, take away every excuse, every doubt, every reason that you can't do it. And I want you to dream with God for your writing. I want you to pour out your heart to God. David tells us in Psalm 62:8, pour out your heart to God. And I want you to do this now. And I want you to share your heart, your hopes with God. I want you to share your dreams and your desires for your writing, specifically for your writing. So I want you to take a minute, and you may need to come back and do this even longer later, but I want you to take a minute and I want you to dream with God for your writing, your hopes, your dreams, your desires. And if you feel comfortable.

Share what God has given you or what you felt bubbling to the surface in the comments. Going to go ahead and set the timer for one minute. Just start dreaming. Dream big with God.

He is an unlimited God.

Okay, just a few more seconds. Just pour out your heart. What are your hopes, your desires, your dreams? How are you dreaming with God regarding your writing?

Right, there's our timer. And like I said, I really believe it's gonna you're gonna need more time. That's just one minute. It goes by so fast, right? But take off the limitations. Like, I almost see, like a box with a lid. Take off the lid and just realize that there are no limits with our God. So step number four is to ask God. So as I've been emailing and chatting with many of you the last few days, one of the things that came up again and again is, well, I just don't know what to focus on. I don't know what season this is for me in my writing. I don't even know what book to write. I just feel like I have so many ideas. It just kept coming up again and again. And I just want to remind you that you can ask God. He has these answers for you. And in James 1:5, it says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God. He is a generous God. Ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. And so this step four, I encourage you to take a minute and ask God, where is it you are to focus this season? You may be a seasoned author and have published many books. What is your focus for this season? Maybe you're a beginner and you're just starting out and you don't even know where to start, what to even write about. Ask God. Ask him where to focus during this season. Because how many of you know there are different seasons, and so there are different times, different seasons for our writing. And some of you may be in a season where it is just like, you know, full speed ahead. And then some of you are in a season where maybe you have a health crisis or a financial crisis or family crisis or something else that's taking most of your time and energy right now. And so writing has to be something just in a different season. And so also ask God what is for now and what is for later. So you know all those ideas that we get. Ask him. Ask him what is for now and what is for later. So I'm going to go ahead and put the timer on for one minute. Go ahead and ask God. And he wants to reveal it to you. He wants to share this with you. He wants to speak. Speak to you right now.

And if you get some clarity, post it in the comments and let us know.

Because God wants you to receive clarity today.

All right? And I want to encourage you if, you know, hearing God's voice is a different thing for you, if you haven't really practiced that, if that's something that's new to you. We have an entire training, it's an entire workshop that I created for you on how to hear God's voice inside Christian Book Academy. And it is powerful. It is probably the one thing that changed my relationship with God more than almost anything else, except for my salvation. And I learned these concepts in 2009 from Mark Ferkler. And then I was able to purchase the rights to teach his material. And so all of that is in Christian Book Academy for you. And I recommend that you seek it out. You can also buy his books online. But when you learn this and you can hear from God, you will know, you will have that clarity. You will be able to ask him and be able to receive from him, what are the next steps? Or what are what. What is this season? Where am I to focus? And you won't feel so confused. All right.

Step number five is vision.

And you know, this is something we talked about on our live video on Monday of this week. And it was something that a lot of you had said that you really have not asked God, God for a vision for your writing. And you know, Proverbs 29:18a in the King James Version says, where there is no vision, the people perish. And I just really believe that sometimes, like we are just trying, we're just surviving, we're not thriving. And you know, there's reasons as well that we may not be seeking, you know, those pictures and the vision. For me, it's also part of the how to hear God's Voice training inside Christian Book Academy. There's a whole segment on vision. And when I was going through it, they share different. Mark Vergler has different obstacles that can be stopping your vision. And for me, I'm a very visual person. But I wasn't seeing those pictures and hearing from God in that way several years ago. And God showed me it was because of the addiction I had to pornography. And I was so afraid now that I'm free from pornography, I was so afraid to open that capability again that it would get perverted that I shut it all off. And so God has healed that in me and he's allowed me now to have vision as part of my relationship with Him. And it is a beautiful thing. It is a God given thing. And so I just really encourage you to seek out those pictures, that vision from God. And we're just going to give you a minute to journal. And I just want you to ask God for a vision, a picture for your writing. What is it that could be possible, you know, once you publish your Book, once you take these steps of faith, what could be possible? I'm going to give you one minute to. And I am going to let you just ask the Lord what is that vision for your writing?

And this is also a step you may want to come back later and spend more time on.

Right, there's our handy timer. I was asking God even during that time if he had a picture. And he often speaks to me in pictures. And the only, the main picture that I got was just a field. And again, what we talked about, C.J. and I talked about on Monday is, you know, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. And God just showed me that field and he is using CJ and I to pray for workers to go out in the harvest, you know, for writers like you to be activated. For we're pouring our lives into you so that as you know, we're going out into the harvest field, but then we're equipping you to go out into the harvest field as well. And you know, it was just. That was a picture that he gave for me. So what is the picture that he gave to you?

You know, I just encourage you if you're, if you're willing to post that in the comments, just encourage everyone that is watching. And then step six is your next steps. So what are your next steps for your writing? So some of you have joined us in Writing week last week, and you're kind of like, okay, like, what are my next steps? And I love Proverbs 3, 5, 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct you your path. And you know the new living translation, I have it memorized from niv, but the new living translation says it like this. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will and all you do, and he will show you which path to take. So what path to take next? You know, for some of you, your next steps might be to simply commit to writing 15 minutes on a consistent basis, whether that's daily or whether that's five out of the seven days or at least a consistent basis. I try to exercise at least four to five times a week. And I'm not legalistic about it, but I have developed a consistent pattern. It makes me feel better. It's good for my health. And when you develop a consistent habit with your writing, you're going to start to see the flow. You're going to be able to start to see you're going to get into it even faster. Some of you, your next step could be to finish writing the book that God has put on your heart and, you know, to persevere, to have that patient endurance and to keep moving forward to finish the book. And for some of you, it may be that for you, the next step is joining Christian Book Academy. We start our first draft challenge next week, and I've talked to many of you that I really feel it is a really good next step for you. We're gonna be walking all the way through choosing your book topic to outlining your book. We're gonna be spending two days together on the virtual writing retreat as well as other time of group writing. But C.J. and I are gonna get to pour into you. You're gonna have a community and that accountability. So that accountability is what really can make the difference, I think, for many of you. So I just want you to journal and ask the Lord, what are my next steps with my writing? And everyone, it's going to be different, Everyone. And so I just am going to give you one minute and I'm going to just go silent. And if you feel comfortable, also share in the comments what the next step is for you.

Aren't you glad I was just thinking about this. Aren't you glad that we have a God that speaks to us? It says in, in John, it says, his sheep, hear his voice. And if you are one of his followers, his sheep, you can hear his voice. And it takes so much burden off of us. Like, even as I've been live chatting with you and emailing with you and sending you video messages and talking to so many of you this week.

I don't feel like it's a high pressure, high sales thing because I know that God will speak to you. He will show you, he will tell you, he will lead you. And if this is the right time for you to continue your writing, whether it's on your own, whether it's with a different writing mentor, whether it's in Christian Book Academy, I believe that God is going to give you that peace. He's going to give you that assurance. He's going to show you what to do and which steps to take. And so that's what's so freeing. Like, he will show you. And I love that. So the final step is to praise God. So one thing I love to do at the end of my time with God in the mornings, and this is part of the illuminate prayer journal that C.J. and I created, is a Time of praise and worship. So it's always good to spend just a minute praising and worshiping God. Carolyn Leaf, she's talked a lot about neuroscience and how your brain changes. She said if you'll just spend a minute every day in gratitude, in praise and in worship, your life and your brain will begin to change. And so let's just spend a minute praising God. The verse that God gave me for today was Psalm 150 verses 1 to 2. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary, Praise him in his mighty heaven, Praise him for his mighty works. Praise him for his unequal or praise his unequaled greatness. So I just encourage you to spend a minute just praising God for what he has shown you during this time of journaling and prayer, what he has shown you regarding your writing, what he has done already through your writing. So just spend some time and if you want, you use that scripture, write out that scripture as the way that you choose to praise God Today.

It.

All right. Now I believe if you truly went through all of these steps with me and you took the time to journal out and to pray through each of these steps, I believe that God has just given you clarity and peace. You cannot put a price tag on clarity. You cannot put a price tag on peace. And we are able to do this every day with the God of the universe. That's why I created the Illuminate Prayer Journal. It was more for myself than for anyone else, but it was just to have a process of meeting with God, of hearing from Him. And you know, I just really think even if you just spend that time in gratitude but also in praise, you're going to start to see things change.

So I want to share a little bit with you. We are closing our doors for enrollment next week on Wednesday for Christian Book Academy. And I want to invite you to join our first draft challenge. This is something we have have not done in this way before. We have done 90 day publishing challenges, but in that time it was like doing the whole process. And what I realized is most people that's too quick, you know, to try to get everything done in 90 days. And so what I wanted to do is really have a semester 90 days where we're focusing on finishing this first draft, getting all of the ideas, all of that out of your head and getting it onto paper, being able to pour into you and encourage you every week. Enrollment, like I said, does close next Wednesday, September 4, 2019 at 8:00pm Eastern. And you can sign up right now@christianbookacademy.com. and if you have any questions at all, please, please, please. There's a little button, a little teal button at the right lower hand corner of our sales page and it says chat. And just click that chat button. It will be me. So my team doesn't even have access to our live chat stuff yet. This is actually something new that I've just recently added, but it's going to be me. And so ask me your questions, whatever questions you have. Maybe you went through this seven step process and you're still feeling like, well, I still am not 100% sure what my next steps are. Ask me. You know, let me help you. Let me help you decide, you know, what is going to be best for you in this season. And I have saved this mind map as a PDF and so if you want this PDF, just feel free to message me here on our page on Facebook or email me. Supportrainingauthors.com and this is something I think that would be good to do on a regular basis. So maybe even every year. Put it on your calendar. On the Google calendar. You can make it a recurring, a recurring reminder. You can make it a yearly reminder, dream with God and go through this process. It doesn't take that long. We've been on here, I've been on here 30 minutes and you know, so this is something that could drastically change your writing as you begin to dream with God. So those of you that are here live, if you have any questions or any comments for me, just let me know in the comments. I would love to be able to help you find clarity, to help answer any questions that you have. And like I said, you know, go over to the, the sales page. As soon as I get off, I'm going to be over on live chat. I'm going to try to be on there live as much as I can between now and when our enrollment closes next Wednesday. So let me pray for you. So God, I just thank you for every writer that is listening right now. I thank you for their writing. I thank you for just their hopes and their dreams and their aspirations and just everything that they have poured out to you. Lord, I thank you for the vision that you've given them for their writing. I thank you that you are with them, that they can ask you, that you can lead them and guide them and show them which way to go, that you are a God that speaks. And James 1:5 says, if we lack wisdom, we can ask you and you will give it to us generously. And so I just thank you that you're able to lead us and you're able to guide us in our writing, what season this is and where to focus. And Lord, we just praise you today for everything you're going to do through each one of us, what you're going to do as we choose to release those words inside of us. I just got this picture earlier today when I was praying for someone. I just got the picture again today. It's almost like your words have been caged and your words are like. It's like a bird in a cage. And it's time to release those words. They've been locked up. It's time to open the door of that cage. It's time to let it, that bird fly out. Let your words, let your book, whatever it is, release it. Release it to the world. I know it's scary. I mean, I feel my heart a little bit even just thinking about this for all of you because I've talked to many of you this week. I know what you're feeling. I heard you. Like, it's scary. It's so personal. It's so like, it's our creativity and it's our stories and it's, you know, all of these things that it is so hard sometimes to let go and release those words into the world. But it's time. It is time to let go. It's time to release those words. So, Lord, we just thank you that you are just helping people right now. I'm getting chills, even just praying this, Lord, that you're opening that door. You're opening that cage. The birds are flying out, representing words and books and blog posts, social media posts and so many other forms of writing. Lord, you are just releasing so many things out to the world that will be a blessing to so many people that we don't even know. We will probably not even hear until we get to heaven. How those words that we were willing to open our fists, we were willing to say, okay, I'm going to take that courageous step. Okay, I'm going to do it. Okay. I'm going to join Christian Book Academy or I'm going to join a local writing group. I'm going to do this consistently. I'm going to write 15 minutes every day and release those words to the world. We thank you, God, for what you're going to do with those words. And we pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Yeah, Stephanie says, yes, it's time to release our words and give them wings. Yeah, that's what I've just been picturing. And Elizabeth says, thank you for this today. This was so good. Stephanie said, you're welcome. And this is something I would recommend saving. If you're on Facebook, you can save videos. You could save this video. And then like I said, every year, every six months, maybe even every quarter, come back and do this with me and do the journaling. Like actually write it out and dream with God and, you know, ask him, what are the next steps? What is this season? What is next? And really just see what God does as you give him permission to do what he wants with your writing. I know it's scary, but it is so exciting too. At the same time, I've heard someone say that fear is excitement without breath. So it's almost like you're holding your breath if you just start breathing. Fear is actually excitement. It's, you know, if you can just see both sides of it when you're afraid, there's also a component of it that could be really, really exciting. And so I am so excited for you. Please, please, please message me here on Facebook or live chat with me, ask me all your questions, let me know.

What questions you have and I will talk to you soon. Thank you so much. 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, 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.