#217: Be Strong and Courageous (Overcomer 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 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.

Welcome to the Overcomer series. My name is Shelli Hitz and in this series my husband CJ and I will walk you through some steps to help you overcome in your writing, publishing and marketing of your books. This series was originally recorded as live videos inside Christian Book Academy. And so if you would like to join us and be able to stay spend time with us live, then join us@christianbookacademy.com we wanted this series to also be able to encourage you. So I hope that you enjoy it and leave us a review and let us know how this podcast is encouraging your writing. We would love to hear from you. Enjoy this episode Theme Scripture for Today is Joshua 1:9. This is my command. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord, your God is with you wherever you go. And the main thing that I feel like God gave me for this video today, this encouragement for you today, is that perfectionism doesn't write books. Courage does.

Amen.

Can I get an amen? Perfection doesn't write books. Courage does. And so today we just want to say courage rise in every single one of you. That you would have the courage. Maybe you felt like you've been getting bullied by the enemy this week. I don't know, every week's different. Right. But that God would fill you with his holy spirit, would fill you with courage and to realize that it really takes courage to write books.

Absolutely.

And so the definition. I looked up the definition of courage in the dictionary, the macmillan dictionary, and it says it's the ability to do something that you know is right or good. Kind of like writing a book. Right. The ability to do something that you know is right or good, even though it is dangerous, frightening, or even very difficult.

And it really resonated to me that that's how it is oftentimes when we're writing a book, you know, we know it's right, we know it's good, but it's doing it in spite of, you know, maybe it feeling frightening or difficult. And so today we have that encouragement for you.

Yeah. How many know that.

Sometimes it actually takes courage to get out of bed?

Oh, yeah.

In the morning.

Sometimes I just want to stand through the covers.

You know, it's there's you know, if we need any reminder that we live in a fallen world, that.

This is not our true home yet.

All we have to do is look around and realize, yep, there's going to be things that happen. We do have that spiritual bully that really tries to.

Control us or manipulate us or influence us, get us down. And yet I really refer to Satan as more of a toothless lion. You know, he's all roar, no bite, unless we allow it. You know, we can allow him to run all over us, but we have the authority in Christ as sons and daughters. And that, that is a promise. It's not going away. And so I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for God's Word that reminds me that every day, you know, keeping our nose in the word, having those reminders. And so courage is something every one of us need on a daily basis.

So I compiled a bunch of quotes just to really encourage you, right?

And if you want these later, I can copy and paste them in the comments. But Winston S. Churchill said, success is not final. Yeah. Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. You remember who Winston Churchill was?

You know, I mean, he had to have courage, right, Facing Hitler and that army and, you know, D Day and all the things that happened in World War II. But I love that one.

Another quote is by a guy named John A. Shed. And he said, a ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for, right?

We can be in our comfort zones all day, but that's not where God created us to be. Right?

Many of us would love to stay there, you know, and camp out there longer than normal, even. Yet the Lord does move us out and he's got assignments for us. He's got trips for us to sail around the world, so to speak.

Your left foot is on there. There you go. William Faulkner says, you cannot swim for new horizons unless you have courage to lose sight of the shore. So it's very similar to the past one, Leaving your comfort zone, leaving the known into the unknown. So that's the picture, you know, of leaving the shore, leaving your comfort zone, what's known, what you can control. And in order to go out into the journey that God has for you as a writer.

Mark Twain, Courage is resistance to fear. Mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

Yes. Ernest Hemingway said, courage is grace under pressure. Anyone else felt the pressure this week?

Oh, Lord, give us courage. Right.

John Wayne, that great western actor. Shelly and I actually were, you know, many of you know we went down to one of our favorite places called Ouray, Colorado.

Near Ouray is a little town called Ridgeway, which is actually where John Wayne and and the rest of the crew filmed True Grit. And they actually have the True Grit Cafe in Ridgeway, Colorado. So that was kind of cool to. To be in that neck of the woods. But John Wayne said courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.

Yep. Let's saddle up. Right. Giddy Up.

Song I say old I'm dating myself here, but Stephen Curtis Chapman. Saddle up your horses.

Yes, saddle up your horses. Brene Brown says courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen. And we talked a little bit about authenticity and vulnerability last week. If you missed that, you can go back and watch the replay. But courage starts with showing up. You know, half the battle is just showing up for class. Right. Showing up and letting ourselves be seen.

Yeah. Theodore Roosevelt, one of our presidents. Believe you can. And you're halfway there. So it goes along with that.

Just having that belief is huge. Because then you realize, okay, I can go the rest of the way here with the Lord's help.

Amen. Marianne Radmacher says courage doesn't always roar. You know, sometimes we think of courage and we're like a lion. You got to be like this loud and everything. But courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, guess what? I'll try again tomorrow. Right.

Dorothy Bernard, who was a popular actress back in the silent film era back in the early 1900s, she said, courage is fear that has said its prayers.

Amen.

And that's a pretty popular quote. Many of you have probably heard that one. But you know what came to me? You know, when Shelley mentioned that the theme scripture was going to be Joshua 1:9, one of the first things I thought about was the other guy associated with Joshua, Caleb. Yeah, you know, Those were the two guys that only. The only two out of the 12 spies who Moses had sent to spy out the promised land, the scouts, so to speak, they were the only two that came back and said, we can take these guys. We can do it with the Lord's help. And yet 10 of the 12 convinced the people otherwise. And I want to. I want to just pick up in Joshua 14.

Starting in verse 6. And I'm going to read through.

Through 12, 12 or 14, so bear with me here. But this is. And I'm just going to start off, this is the. The subtitle of this section. It just says, Caleb requests his land now, right there, we could probably preach a sermon. Yeah. I just want to ask you before I get into this passage, what land would you request today? What land would you say, lord, this is the land that I want. Anything that you want. What would you ask the Lord in terms of your land? So, a delegation. This is verse six. A delegation from the tribe of Judah led by Caleb, son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb said to Joshua, remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh barnea? I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land of Canaan. I returned and gave an honest report. But my brothers who sent or my brothers who went with me, frightened the people from entering the promised land. Now, I want to just pause right there. You and I have all kinds of voices, either voices in our heads or voices we've heard all of our lives that have tried to frighten us from entering and taking the promised land that God wants to give us. And it varies for every single one of us. I just believe God has something. You were put on this planet for a specific reason. And I want to ask, what is the promised land that we still need to take back? That the enemy has had long enough. Our spiritual enemy has had long enough. And so, picking up here for my part, I wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God, Caleb said, Verse 9. So that day, Moses solemnly promised me, the land of Canaan on which you were just walking will be your grant of land and that of your descendants forever, because you wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God. Verse 10. Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these 45 years since Moses made this promise, even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Some of us have been wandering in the wilderness too long. And it's time to take that promised land in the form of that book that God has put on your heart. Today I love this. Today I am 85 years old. I am as strong now as when Moses sent me on that journey. And I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. You can just hear the spunk in Caleb's voice. And I want to tell you, I don't. I know we have members of all ages here. We have probably members in. In their 20s. We have members in their 70s, maybe even the 80s. I'm not sure. Yeah, but what I'm saying is age doesn't matter. When God's put something on your heart and he's given you the strength, he will help you take that promised land, whatever that is. He'll help you complete that book. Some of you have said your book has l dormant for 20 years. God put something on your heart. And I believe that God is going to help you complete that and enter into that promised land. I am as strong now as when Moses sent me on that journey. And I could still travel and fight as well as I could then. So give me the hill country. And I love this audacity of Caleb. So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You. You will remember that as scouts, we found the descendants of Anak living there in great walled towns. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said. Now, I want to tell you this right now. Those descendants of Anak, those were giants. They were essentially giants. They were cut from the same cloth as Goliath. Goliath's descendants went way back to those folks. And so these are the people. So Caleb and Joshua said, we can take these guys back when they scouted 40 years ago, 45 years before that. And Caleb at 85 says, I'll still take these giants down. I'll still take this hill country, and I'll take down these walls that they feel so protected by. And so what I'm saying is, you and I have giants that God wants to help us with his help alone, not in our own strength, but he wants to help us overcome every giant that has stood in our way to achieve the things that God's called us to do. He said something to you. He said something to me.

In it. And he will provide. He will help us. He'll give us that strength no matter what our age. And so verse 13. So Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and gave Hebron to him as his portion of the land. And so.

I just want to say that Caleb is a wonderful example.

For all of us in terms of courage. But he knew it was in the strength of the Lord, and he was willing to go to battle with the Lord leading ahead. And that that's what set him and Joshua apart. The other 10 said, we can't do it. They only saw it in their own eyes. They said, you know, we're like grasshoppers in. In the face of these people. We can't defeat them. And they stirred the people up. And yet, if you and I will trust the Lord.

The Lord will allow us to complete the works that he's given us. And so that's just an encouragement to say, look to Caleb, look at his example. Didn't matter what his age was, he was willing to hang in there for the Lord.

Yeah. So if you just feel like you need courage today, just share with us in the comments or give us some emojis. I'm just gonna pray over you right now in Jesus name. We just pray that each person listening right now live or watching the replay, God, that you would just fill them right now with your spirit, your courage. We just command courage to rise in Jesus name. We command all fear and lying spirits to leave in Jesus name. And we just ask God that your truth would just fill each and every person listening, that your truth would replace the lies of the enemy who may be trying to bully them to stay in their comfort zone, to not keep moving forward, to not keep writing their book or doing the marketing or whatever it is that they're working on right now. And so, Lord, we just pray that courage would rise. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

And you know, I believe many of your books will help drive out the giants of land all over this world. As people get a hold of your books, I believe that the Lord will use those to help sort of drive out the giants, so to speak, to drive out the spiritual enemy, to help bring freedom, you know, to a lot of folks through your story, the unique giftings that God's given you.

And even just the example, whether you write a Christian book or not, just the example of you stepping out your ship, leaving the shore, that you're willing to take this journey of publishing a book, you know, just that, whether it's a cookbook or it's, you know, a book that's, you know, talking about faith. I mean, that in and of itself, people are going to see that. They're going to be like, wow, look at Jan, or look at Deborah or Rebecca or this or that. Look at them, look at John and what they're doing and the way that they're stepping out and they're taking these bold, courageous steps to publish their book. And just simply your example of publishing a book is going to be an example to many, many people. And it will open a door. But for you to share a testimony of what God has done, you know, as you have been writing and publishing this book and so, so excited to hear all of that for you.

I love a comment that I just noticed that Jan wrote as well. She said they looked at God's promises not the problems. And that's so true that when we really keep our minds upon God's promises and filling our minds daily, you know, those are, those are the weapons that we're filling our minds with. Those promises. Yeah, they, that's what Jesus combated Satan with. When, when Satan approached Jesus when he was out on his 40 day fast, combated it with truth and, and the, the enemy just had to flee. Satan would just leave. He knew that he couldn't, he couldn't stand up to that. So, Father, we do pray. Joshua 1:9. And you know, this is my command. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord, your God is with you wherever you go. We ask, Lord, that in this coming week, yes, I pray that each and every Christian Book Academy member would go in the strength of the Lord. We send off a blessing with them that, Lord, they would accomplish all that you desire and that they would be able to even see giants removed from their promised land that you have promised to give them in terms of their writing, the impact that they make and just essentially taking back land that the enemy has had long enough. We proclaim that over each and every Christian Book Academy member. And we are excited about the victories that you're going to bring about this coming week. And I pray that you would fill each and every Christian Book Academy member with your courage and your boldness and your strength, that they would be people that are feared by the enemy because of what they're endeavoring to do in joining you in this powerful work. And so we thank you, Lord, for each member and the special gifting and anointing that you've given each of them. And we look forward to hearing more testimonies this next week. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much for spending time with us in this episode. It truly means the world to us. We also have a free gift for you. It's a new PDF that CJ and I recently wrote called 8 surprisingly Simple Writing Tips. Say that 10 times real fast in a row, right? But it's a PDF you can get instant access just go to trainingauthors.com writingtips we'd love to send that PDF to you right now. And again, it's called 8 surprisingly simple writing Tips. Enjoy.

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 kids Kingdom Writers.