#227: Fresh Start (Finisher 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 our Finisher series. So if you've been following along, last summer we did our breakthrough series, helping you break through those obstacles keeping you from writing your book. Then in the fall, we did our Overcomer series, just helping you overcome and really do what God has created you to do in your writing. Now it's time for the Finisher series and we are going to be focusing this series on helping you cross the finish line of publishing your book. This is spiritual encouragement, but we're also going to be talking about some practical things and we record these live inside our private group for Christian Book Academy. Now I would love to invite you to join us. Just go to ChristianBookAcademy.com I hope this episode encourages you today. The theme for this week is four Fresh Start. And we are so excited to be walking with you, alongside you, to be in this with you. And we just want to provide some encouragement today as we start launching into our publishing challenge. And in the publishing challenge, you're going to see we have different publishing paths. So as you go through the training, you're going to choose which publishing path you want to take and then you're going to step stick with that publishing path all throughout the training. And so we're so excited to walk with you through this process. And whether you're writing your first draft or publishing or marketing, wherever you're at, we want to encourage you in the process.

Yeah. So, you know, this whole new beginning, fresh start, beginning of a new year, of course you hear about people, maybe you're one of those who set these new year resolutions.

That sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. But how many of you know that we do have a real enemy out there that hates New Beginnings, loves to squash New Beginnings, sort of loves to slow down the momentum, really just stop the train in its tracks from moving forward. And, you know, as I was considering some words to share.

You know, for this particular opening, you know, of this semester, a lot of times, you know, these words just come out of my own time with the Lord, you know, I'll be reading a chapter and something will just hit me, you know, like this. This needs to be shared, you know, with our group. And that's what happened here over the last week, and I'm going to get to that passage in a second. But, you know, the enemy.

Of our writing, of our souls in general, is real. And there are all kinds of accusations that he loves to throw at us day in and day out. A few of those you'll recognize here. We all recognize them as writers. You'll never finish your book. You're not qualified to be an author.

What are your credentials? You could almost hear the Pharisees as they asked Jesus what his credentials were. Nobody wants to hear your story.

Who are you to publish a book? You almost hear this cynicism, the sarcasm, you know, with each accusation, you've done too many shameful things, or you're not smart enough, or nobody in your family ever succeeds at anything, or you're a failure, man, how many times have we heard that one? You're a failure. You know, and we sort of believe the depth of ourselves as being a failure, and we live that out. In some ways, it just goes on and on and on, and sometimes it just turns into this broken record. And yet when I stumbled across this passage in Zechariah, chapter three, I was just blown away. You know, I know I'd read it before, but, you know, sometimes you don't see something for a year, two years, three years. Who knows? If you're going through the Bible in a year, you should, you know, probably hit it at least once a year. But I had sort of had some amnesia, you know, on this. On this particular chapter. And yet it was so freeing. When I read this, I just want to start off reading, and I'll kind of comment a little bit along the way. But it starts off in. In. In Zechariah, chapter 3, verse 1. Then the angel showed me Jeshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord. And the accuser, Satan was there at the angel's right hand making accusations against Jeshua. Now, you need to understand the context here. The Lord, you know, hasn't been particularly happy with Israel.

You know, sort of wander, you know, that whole thing of wandering away from him, going to other things, idols, you name it. And so Zechariah is really a calling the people back and also a challenge to them to finish the temple, finish rebuilding the temple. And so he's now dealing specifically with the high priest, Jeshua was his name.

And Jeshua at the time is feeling pretty low. And you're going to see that here in a second.

But listen to this.

Verse 2. And the Lord said to Satan, I. The Lord Reject your accusations, Man, I love that I reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you.

This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire. And I want you just to put your name in the spot of Jerusalem. Just. Just. Just go with me on this one.

I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord who has chosen Pam. Yes, the Lord who has chosen Deborah. Yes, the Lord who has chosen John. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen C.J. and Shelley rebukes you. And that's what the Lord does. Rebukes these accusations, Let them fly. But ultimately isn't the most important opinion at the end of the day, Father in Heaven, it's the only thing that really matters. And I've said this before, that us plus Jesus always equals a majority. It's a winning combo every single time. This man is like a burning stick that's been snatched from the fire. How many of you have felt like burning sticks? They've just barely been snatched from the fire.

And yet the Lord says, there's still a lot of good that I can use this stick for. There's still a lot that's going to take place as I mold, as I shape, as I craft, what I'm going to do through this person. They were not completely consumed. And not only that, I'm going to bring a healing and a power in a fresh new way. Zechariah 3, 3, 5. Let's continue. And I love this. I mean, as I'm reading each verse, it's just full of.

Relevance for each one of us. So verse three. Jesuit's clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. So the angel said to the others standing there, take off his filthy clothes. And turning to Jeshua, he said, see, I have taken away your sins.

And.

Now I'm giving you these fine new clothes. And then I said, and this is Zechariah chiming in here like, thanks, Zechariah, for noticing, you know, the. The extra detail of the turban, you know, on the head. Then I said, they should also place a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes with. While the angel of the Lord stood by.

You. And I have been given new clothes and a fresh start. And I want you to consider this new semester an opportunity as we are putting on daily the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our clothing. His garments are our garments, and he has cleansed us. He's already taken care of the Bill. And every one of these accusations that have been thrown at us by the enemy, they are void. They are no longer effective because the Lord himself says, I reject your accusations, Satan. I reject them.

It's like when we write void on a check.

Yeah.

Nobody can use it.

Can't be cashed.

Can't be cashed.

So I want you just to think that each new day offers new opportunities to write new words that inspire others and that God himself is inspiring through and in us. And I feel like there was a phrase that the Lord gave me that I think all of us can walk around with. This is sort of a new.

Title or, you know, a subtitle to us as Christian Authors. Let me tell you what a Christian author is. Here's what a Christian author is. We are priestly pens in the hands of the author of life. He's writing something new through each and every one of our unique stories. You and I are priestly pens that God is using to write incredible stories that he shares with the world. And every person that reads what you have to write, God's going to use you for very specific people on this planet. And I'm telling you, if you're willing, God's going to do incredible things. Now, let's continue here. Verses 6 and 7. Then the angel, the Lord spoke very solemnly, so the tone gets serious here to Jeshua and said, this is what the Lord of Heaven's army says. In other words, listen, if you follow my ways and carefully serve me, then you will be given authority over my temple and its courtyards. I will let you walk among these others standing here. These others what? Essentially, he's telling Jeshua, you'll be walking among angels. You'll be walking among the heavenly host and the Lord God Almighty as you go forth. Now notice he says, if there's a condition there. In a similar way, I believe the Lord speaking serious, solemn words to you and I as Christian authors. This is serious business that we're involved in.

If. There's a big if right there, it's conditional. If you follow my ways and carefully serve me, I believe this is what he's saying to us in Christian Book Academy. Then you will be given encouraging, inspiring, timely, and authoritative words that impact those in my church.

And beyond.

Amen.

So it's not just in the temple, but also the courtyards and even outside the temple. I believe the Lord's going to use us in our writings to draw men and women to Christ. He's going to use us to draw men and women closer in their relationship to Christ, going to draw children from all over the world.

Toward the Lord. And so if you follow, that's conditional. If you follow my ways. And so each and every day, you and I have to choose to say, how do you want to lead me today? We come to the Lord and say, what do you have today? Which words? And Shelu is actually just reminding me personally, because I've had some times here in the last few weeks where I didn't get into the flow that I wanted to get into. You know, you sit down, you want to write, you have these good intentions, and it's like nothing happens. And so you sort of decide, I'm going to close up shop. And maybe some of us, like myself, have done it early. We've even sort of squashed something good instead of sticking with it. And so we say, well, maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I'll just do something else today. But Shelly was reminding me, come to the Lord every day and say, what do you want to write through me today? How do you want me to partner with you today, Jesus? What is it that we're going to write together? And I think just getting into that rhythm and that habit of just waking up and immediately saying, what are we going to do today, Lord?

Yeah.

And being excited about it, you know, like, there's going to be different words arranged in sentences that turn out to be paragraphs, that turn out to be chapters that are written today. And it's exciting, I think, if we can tweak our perspective and say, always, okay, Father, I put myself before you. What is it you want to do today? And if we'll have that attitude, I believe in the hands of the Lord will be unstoppable. Priestly pens that write incredibly impactful content, that glorify the name of Jesus.

Yeah. So Peggy was asking for you to repeat that.

Yeah. So this is the little thing that. The phrase that. That I feel like God has given to all of us in Christian Book Academy. We are priestly pens in the hands of the author of life.

He's writing something new.

Amen.

And I put that in all caps through each of our unique stories. We are priestly pens. He's the author of life. He's using us in a lot of ways like a pen. And yet all kinds of unique things are coming through each of our lives, because we all have different backgrounds, we all come from different places in life, we have different circumstances, and yet God uses every ounce of it. There's no waste whatsoever in the kingdom of God.

Amen. And God is reminding me this week, those of you that have been following along in the posts in the group and some of the things I've been sharing know God has really been taking me to a place of obscurity. And I've been reading that book, Humility by Andrew Murray. It's been wrecking me, but in a good way. It's a hundred plus years old, but still relevant today. My goodness, my. But God was reminding me that, you know, this week I've seen how he's used me in individual, specific people's lives and given me exactly what he wanted to share and for that person at that time. And I could speak for an hour just sharing the testimonies, but God was reminding me, Shelly, you know, it's not always about the crowds that, you know, we're writing for or the crowds. Jesus actually said he left the 99 sheep to go for who to go find the one. And right now I want you to think like, not just of the crowds and the platform and the big. And all of these things that God can do with your book, which I hope he does. You know, we pray. We just prayed before we got on here that God blesses each one of your books. But I also want you to think about God has that one and then another one and then another one and then another one. Like CJ was saying, that are going to be impacted by the words that you write and you have a sphere of influence right now that are going to be impacted by books are door openers. You know, I even think that with my art sometimes, like one of the testimonies had to do with me giving away one of my pieces of artwork. You know, it's like things we create can be door openers. And so, you know, I want you to also be, you know, praying and asking the Lord to help remind you of who you're writing for. That one and that other one and that other one. And, you know, when C.J. was listing out the accusations earlier, how many of you could relate to some of them? I think we all can, right? We all have at times heard accusations from the enemy. And I was even hearing something today of like, Shelly, you're not a good enough and fill in the blank. And I'm not going to go into it because it's not time for me to share that. That story. But, you know, the enemy was coming at me again, you're not a good enough. Fill in the blank. And I was like, wait, wait, I'm recognizing, you know, the first step is to recognize Wait a second. That's an accusation. That is not who I am. And, you know, the lies of the enemy or the accusations.

They are received and they connect with our old self. So that that accusation, the old Shelly, is like, you're right, I'm not a good enough. Fill in the blank. You know, I'm not good enough. I'm not. I did, you know, feel at the I, da, da, da, da, da. And it starts to, you know, you know, the old person and, you know, the old Shelly starts to connect with all of those things. And yet the enemy knows that if we stay in that old man, in that old self, that the enemy.

Can have the upper hand. Because we're trying to do things in our own strength, right? We're trying to do things out of our own striving, our own self. However, the good news today is that we have a choice. And God was reminding me even today I was on my run and those accusations started coming. And I actually, like, went through this process today on my run, and the Lord was reminding me, shelly, it's a choice for you to die to yourself daily. There's actually a scripture, you know, it says, take up your cross daily. Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and follow me. You know, C.J. was talking about following God. And I have a choice today. You know, to die to my old self. Then to lift up my shield of faith. You know, it's Ephesians 6 talks about having that shield of faith that will extinguish the fiery arrows of the enemy. And as we've moved forward in what God has called us to do, because the enemy will try any other little sneaky way to stop us, right? And as I was doing this and thinking about this and actually visualizing, like, my old self dying and being resurrected and rising with Christ as a new person, a new person that those accusations no longer stick to the new person. Those accusations no longer have any meaning when I have my identity in Christ. And all of a sudden, as I was running, the song came on bulletproof. And it's like we become bulletproof to the enemy. The enemy can't. Can't get us. But you know what the Lord has been showing me lately? And he's been just giving me revelation after revelation. And it's because I'm taking a break from social media. I'm turning off the noise of the world, but God is speaking and. Oh, my goodness. But one of the revelations is like Shelley. It is a daily process of dying to yourself. And so as we're writing as we're publishing, you know, and, you know, it's not about, like, beating ourselves, like, because sometimes I'm like, I'm still struggling with this God. Why am I, you know, I should be further along. I've been a Christian since, you know, 92, 1992, so 28 years. I should be further along than this. And the Lord's like, it's not about being further along. It's about just a daily process of dying to yourself and being resurrected and, you know, that new person. And so, anyways, I could talk a long time on this because God's been revealing a lot to me. But basically what I wanted to say is that you have a choice today. To die to the old man and to be raised in Christ, where you will be bulletproof. Those accusations will not penetrate.

Yeah. And, you know, one of the things I've been doing myself here lately, just as a practical thing to renew my mind and give my mind encouraging thoughts, especially when I'm feeling more down, is, you know, many of you have tapped into those couple new playlists on Spotify that we've put together. The one on songs that sort of revolve around finishing or running a race. And then there's also the one that revolves around trust and that whole thing. And I just want to encourage you. There may be some songs on there that you're like, not. Not into that one, but there's going to be others that you might identify with. But I just want to encourage you to allow those to play in the background or maybe just spend half an hour laying down on the floor with your earbuds, and you're just listening to several songs on those playlists. There's just something about music that lifts up the name of Jesus and glorifies the Lord that gets into our spirit down deep, and it begins to just, you know, of course the enemy hates worship. He hates it when we. We lift up our worship to the only true God. And that's one of the reasons. So we've created those as much for us as anybody. But I want to encourage you to take advantage of those lists because it's also a way that we can also be united with these songs. And there may be a song or two or more that are added to those lists that. As we go, but this is a way that we can be united, even in some of the encouraging messages we're putting into our minds. And this. This does require.

A finish, but it requires really trusting in the God who can help us finish. Getting to that finish line of Hitting publish on a book. And. And we should realize that there's all kinds of other ways that we're going to finish in our writing as well. Finishing blog posts that really encourage lots of people, maybe finishing a social media post that you're putting up there. There's going to be a lot of different things that God's going to use you in, in this semester. Not just hitting that publish button, although that is a goal. But, man, there's all kinds of ways that you can finish something. We can finish something every day, whether it's a paragraph or a chapter or whatever it might be. And we say, thank you, Lord, you are the one who enabled me to finish this particular thing.

Yeah. Or even finish writing your book description, which, that lesson. I'm going to be recording that one today. But, you know, if you want to dive into this whole area deeper, we do have a training in the Kingdom foundations module on renewing your mind. And so I encourage you to go check that out. But Pamela Bowen was saying, don't should on yourself, Shelly. And you know what? Isn't that another accusation from the enemy? I should be further along. I should do the. You know, that's another way those accusations come in. Right. And I'm just being honest and real with you that I still deal with them. But it's a daily process. It's, you know, it's not that that we're feeling in any way. It's just that we live in a fallen world. And on this side of heaven, it is a daily renewal. And God recently showed me an illustration from cj. He. Do you mind if I share?

Go for it.

Yeah. He recently had a crown fallout. Been there for 15 years.

That's just another example of laying our crowns, you know, before the Lord.

Yeah. Yeah. So he. His crown fell out and he had to go to the dentist. And we've been without dental insurance now since I quit my physical therapy job in 2011, I think it was. And so, you know, he had. Went without going to the dentist, I think you figured out was like nine years or something.

Yeah, it was. It was at least nine years. But the crown itself lasted 15 years. Oh, that's. That's that's some good work.

It was good, but, you know, he went to the dentist. He still has to get some work done and all of that, but, you know, he went to get his first cleaning after nine years. And they're like, because it's been so long, there's naturally going to be more plaque buildup and you're going to need a debridement.

I thought I'd go, what? I already have a bride. Oh, wait, debridement. Okay. Yeah.

And so he had to get, like, this special, like, deep cleaning, you know.

Well, and it's like the first phase. I have to actually go back.

Yeah.

Another time, actual cleaning that they'd normally do on somebody that maintains the plaque, you know, on a regular basis. But this was like heavy duty equipment.

And, you know, you would admit you haven't been flossing, you brush your teeth.

But I've been flossing since I went into that office. Yeah.

But God was reminding me through all of this of, like, it's kind of like our pride or, you know, our old man. The old man, you know, it's like, you know, if we deal with it, if we're brushing our teeth and flossing every day, we're dealing with that plaque, we're dealing with those things, you know, and we're. We're getting that cleansing every day, but, you know, going to regular appointments every six months, that sort of thing. But when we're, when we're, when we neglect that, it, like, it adds up, it piles up. And we may need a debridement spiritually.

Yeah.

But when we stay consistent, coming to the Lord in a spirit, spirit of humility, of confession, dying to ourselves every day, deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Him. When we come to him on a daily basis, then we're going to stay cleansed before him, you know, and so it's just a good reminder of just coming to God daily and being a clean vessel that he can speak through as he pours out to you the writing that he wants to then bless others with. And so we want to give you a minute. We're going to. This is a new thing we're adding this semester. We want to give you a minute of listening prayer. So this is a time, you know, we've talked about a lot of things and encouraged you with a lot of things. I want you to ask God, what is it you want to say to me? From what I, you know, what I heard today, and it might not even be anything that we specifically said. God may speak to you on something completely different. But what are you saying to me today? And if you have a journal or you're able to write it out, definitely do that. If you're here and you're willing to share in the comments what God speaks to you, I'm going to be playing some soft instrumental music in the background by Tammy Sorensen, and she's given us permission to use it. But we're just going to give you a minute. And cj, I don't know if you can start your. Your timer or wait, maybe we can use your timer.

Sure.

And we're just going to give you time. Ask the Lord. What is it you want to say to me today.

Sam?

All right, so if you're here with us and are willing to share, please share what you feel like God was speaking to you today. It could be related to what we shared, or it could be something completely different. But we love really just connecting you with God because we can speak into you, we can share scriptures, we can pray for you, but ultimately the best is for you to hear directly from God. And cj, why don't you just pray? Pray for everyone and say a prayer right now.

Father, we just thank you so much for this time together as we kick off this new semester with the publishing challenge and really just this whole Finisher series. Yes, we ask that you would, one by one.

Fuel each of us to the finish line. That you would empower us to write anointed words that come from your heart. We are asking that you would also help our minds to stay planted upon the word of God and upon.

The power that we have available in Christ. And we just say with the scripture that we read that.

As a whole body in cba, we reject the accusations of Satan and his.

Demons. We reject those accusations in Jesus name and we throw them back into the pit of hell. They're not welcome here. I ask that each and every person in CBA would be renewed day by day by your word. And that you'd give a hunger and a thirst to each of us to spend time with you, to really come to you, come running to papa as we realize that without you, we're nothing. And I thank you for all of the books that are being worked on right now and all the books that are going to be birthed into this world as a result of what you do through us. We are priestly pens in the hands of the author of life. And I just pray that you would continue to write your unique story.

Through each of us in the academy, that we each have testimonies that we'll be able to share, stories that we'll be able to share of how our writings impacted those around the world. And as Shelley said earlier, one by one. And we thank you for the one we're praying that lives one at a time would be transformed by what you do through us. So thank you for each one here, whether they're live or watching this replay or listening to an audio version, we thank you for each and every man and woman that is called by the Lord God Almighty.

Regardless of every accusation thrown their way, all of those accusations are void. And we thank you for the call that we each have upon our lives. That's why we're here. That's why we're gathering in a place called Christian Book Academy. And so I pray that many battles would just be continued to be one, day by day. And we're going to look to you, Father, for guidance each and every day. We want to serve you daily, and we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. And last night, I was just asking the Lord if there was a picture that he had that he wanted me to share with you today as an encouragement. And I just kept seeing many of you just swimming in an ocean and just swimming and swimming and swimming. And I was like, okay, what's this about? You know, and then I saw this big luxury cruise ship, and I felt like God gave me that picture as a picture of us trying to do it on our own strength through the old man, you know, through the flesh of swimming and swimming and swimming and, you know, and how far can we get swimming on our own, right? And that luxury cruise ship represents all that Christ has for you, all that God has for you when you come to him and you're raised in new life. And you have that authority that we are literally, it says the Scriptures, that we are seated at the right hand of God, seated beside Christ. We are co heirs with Christ. We have all authority in Jesus name, and he has everything that we need. That doesn't mean that we're just going to sit back on a, you know, on a. A chair and just do nothing, you know, eat bonbons all day or whatever. But that we will stay connected with the resources of God, you know, the resources available on that cruise ship. You know, usually it's like, what, unlimited food, right? All you can eat. But, you know, asking the Lord every day, you know, for his manna from heaven, what words do youo have for Me? Like CJ was saying, what do you want me to write with? What are we. What are we gonna write today? Like, writing with him and tapping into his resources, listening to Him. Some days he may tell you, I just want you to go into your prayer closet and pray. I want you to pray for the people who are going to read your book. That could, that could be the marketing strategy for that day.

And that is another form of productivity. Yes. It doesn't mean that just because we write, you know, one, two, three chapters in a day, that's not the only definition of productivity. He may be preparing something in us so that maybe in the next coming weeks we're writing incredibly impactful words that only come from that closet. Time with the Lord.

Yeah. God is on the move.

Amen.

All right, so thank you so much for being here with us today. If you can, try to be here again next week and we will see you next time.

Love you guys.

Bye bye. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the Finisher series. It really means the world to us that you would invest time and be here with us today. So thank you. We have a free gift for you. We recently just made this available to the public. Previously was only available to the paid members in Christian Book Academy, but it's a copy of my publishing map. I hand drew and lettered this map out for you and it literally takes you through the steps of publishing your book. And our members love this resource. Some have said they print it out and they use it every single time they publish a book. You'll also get access to a video of me explaining the publishing map to you. And so I really hope that this also helps you overcome any confusion or overwhelm regarding independent publishing. And you can download this for free@trainingauthors.com.

Or just swipe up and the link will be in your show notes. Thank you again for joining us. We love you all so much. See you next time.

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.