#229: The Key to Motivation (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. Our theme for today. What's our theme for today?

CJ Motivation or the key to motivation?

Yes, Our theme for today is the key to motivation. How many of you have trouble sometimes staying motivated to keep moving forward with your book, whether you're writing the first draft, whether you're in the publishing section? I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but it just popped into my head. Zig Ziglar used to say, motivation is like showering. You need to do it every day. You know, you need some every day. It's like, you know, there's always things that are gonna pull you down. And so there's always a need for motivation to continue. And we really believe that visualization, picturing the end result, picturing your target audience, picturing things, and then dreaming with God are both a key to having the motivation you need to publish your book. So, so we are going to be covering that in today's encouragement. But before we get into that, I want to share a few testimonies from the virtual writing retreat. Once again. I have like five pages of testimonials from you guys from our two day virtual writing retreat. It is always such an incredible breakthrough. It's a huge amount of spiritual, emotional energy for me. But it's worth it. Like, you all get so many breakthroughs. It is so worth it. So cj, why don't you so start by sharing one?

Yeah. So this one comes from Nancy Booth and she says, what an amazing day. I started the day Feeling very shaky, like, what am I doing? I ended the day with a solid outline. Seeing how everything ties together in my book and knowing the first draft ending is around the corner. Congratulations, Nancy.

Yeah. So excited for you, Nancy. And then Elizabeth Zacharias said, I typed in over 6,000 words over the past two days. Wow. Congratulations. Which said, thank you, Shelly and CJ for all that you put into this. It was great. So I always say, celebrate every word, but 6,000 words, girl, you need to be celebrating.

And John says, I had a stretch goal to finish the hard edits at 4pm on Saturday. I clicked the last edit. I walked away after that to try to get my head around it. I have worked relentlessly since August and any of us that have.

Seen John in and out of the the group and all the interactions and this great comments, know that John certainly has.

Put in the blood, sweat and tears, you know, for his books, along with being an encouragement to a lot of folks in his area. And we just really appreciate what you're doing for.

Broken and abused women in that area that you're at, John. So Lord bless you. And I know the Lord is going to use your book powerfully.

Yeah. So exciting.

Yay.

And then the last one we're going to share is Jan Cox. She's one of our newest members and she said, never have I accomplished so much in such a short amount of time. So exciting. Like, that's like the response a lot of people have the first time they come to a virtual writing retreat. And she said, the setup is perfect to keep me going. The resources are excellent and so is this group. I accomplished 20 devotionals, edited, adding endnotes for quotes. Next will be to find some images. Thank you, Shelley, for your time and enthusiasm. You have pumped me up for this publishing and to know that this publishing thing is doable. I want to say that to all of you, it is doable.

And Jan says, it's taken a number of years for me to find a group that can lead me to do this on my own, to hooray. I'm literally jumping up and down. So thankful to God for leading me to you and Jan. I just want to tell you, we pray specifically that God would bring the people that need what we have to offer. So you being here is an answer also to our prayers. So congratulations to all of you. Every single word that was written, every single breakthrough. If we shared all of them, we would be here the whole time just sharing testimonials. But so awesome. Praise God. We are cheering you on.

Yeah. And you Know, part of the key to motivation for all of us if we are all on the same page, is dreaming with God. And how many of you know that when you begin to dream with God, it kindles a new excitement, it kindles a freshness. It actually enhances hope. And when we have hope, even if we can't see two feet in front of us, sometimes it keeps us going. And I want to share a story with you that I really do believe ties into all of us as sort of kingdom missionaries, writing missionaries. But I want to share a story about a guy named William Carey who, who was.

A missionary to India. And listen to this. William Carey was a self educated shoe cobbler. So he had another day job in England who had a vision of taking the gospel to India. When he shared that idea with some ministers, one seasoned pastor called him a miserable enthusiast.

Oh, wow.

And told him that God would reach the heathen in his own way without human aid.

And Carey persisted and overcame setback after setback. He eventually got to India, learned and translated the Bible into almost 40 languages, founded a university that still exists, saw God make a substantial impact on the Indian subcontinent.

And Carey's motto was, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.

Amen.

And what I just want to say is every one of us may have had these visions of a book.

Reaching clear around the world or at the very least, impacting our country wherever we're at. But what I want to say, and I want to challenge all of us to ask is how big, or I should say, how often do you dream with God? Do you just dream with God, for example? I mean, if money were no issue, sometimes it's cool to think about, you know, what would we do for the Lord if money weren't an obstacle?

And then, you know, what could God do with your book? And I really want to encourage all of us to pray boldly, you know, and I don't mean, you know, that one person's dreams are bigger than the next. That's not what we're talking about here. What we're talking about is have you gotten alone with the Lord to brainstorm, to dream, to say, oh, Father, this, if this could happen, this is something that I would love to see with my book. This is the fruit that I would love to see borne out in what you do through this book. And I just want to encourage all of us to not hold back, you know, and I believe it does please our Father. It tickles him pink when we share these grand visions because I really believe that he's implanted those in us. He just kind of wants to pull those out of us and have us agree with him. His vision for our lives is bigger than our own.

Yeah.

We just don't always know about it. And yet when we do get on that same page, wow, it's dynamite. And so I just want to encourage all of us to begin, if you haven't already, to begin praying boldly about a God sized vision that without his intervention, it's bound to fail.

Yeah, okay.

It's bound to fail without his empowering. In other words, it would be that of a miserable enthusiast. Well, of course, you know, Carrie's visions were of a miserable enthusiast without God. He couldn't do that on his own. But he was dreaming with God. And look what happened. Look how God used his life. And there's still fruit all these years later being born out in the country of India.

So that's it that he said again.

About like, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. And I think that's just, that's, that's motivation right there.

Yeah.

Is anytime God is in the ingredients in the recipe, it's, it's a, it's bound to be bigger than what we can handle. And God again has these huge visions and dreams for our lives, including these books that he's given us. He hasn't just dropped this idea of a book in your lap to say, well, you know, once you hold it up and you kind of have the paper copy, then that's good, you can just put it on your shelf and you're good to go. That, check that one out off the box. No, he's put that vision in your heart because he wants to use that book to impact somebody for eternity or whatever skill set that you're teaching in your book. Even if it's not like directly sharing the gospel, it's going to lead them to more of what you're talking about. And as a kingdom writer, as someone writing for the Lord, they'll find out about your faith perhaps, or they'll be encouraged in one way, shape or form to step out and write their own story. So again, your books are not just for you. They're not just for me. Not to put on a shelf to look good as a nice coffee table, you know, decoration.

Yeah.

God had. God's up to something. Yeah, up to something.

And so, you know, CJ was sharing about William Carey, which it's interesting because CJ's first name is Carrie, spelled in a different way. But when you said carries you know, and you were talking, I was like, hey, that's kind of like. But he said, expect great things from God. And how many of you, this is the moment of honesty. We are honest, open, vulnerable here, and we want you to be as well, because that's how you'll move forward. How many of you share in the comments, if you're watching live or the replay. How many of you have ever had a worry or a fear related to either writing your book, publishing your book, or marketing your book, whatever stage you're at, how many of you ever have started to worry or started to have fears about, oh, my book launch is going to be a failure, I don't have any audience yet, or, how am I ever going to learn this? Or how am I ever going to get through the editing? Or.

Let'S be honest, how many of you have ever experienced. Experience that? Yeah, I'm seeing an absolutely.

What if you began to trade in those worries and fears and instead replace them with an expectation of what God is going to do? What if you traded in those worries and fears for an expectation? So God has spoken to me many times. I tend to struggle with fear. I tend to struggle with worry. God is working that out of me, but it's a daily process for me. And he's often said to me, shelly, what if instead of visualizing every bad thing that could happen in the future, like, I'll visualize, like, us not being able to pay our bills just for you guys that don't know this is what we do.

And our income is different every month and we have different things that come up, up. And sometimes I'll visualize not being able to pay our bills and the Lord's, like, Shelly, what if instead of visualizing the future and visualizing the worst that could happen, or visualizing that fear and worry, what if you visualize me in the future taking care of it? Because it always works out. He always works it out, right? And what if we would start visualizing and accepting, expecting that God is going to do something even when we cannot see?

And you know, it is not when we talk about dreaming with God, it is not about coming up with our own goals and our own dreams. You know, that's the world's way. And I will admit I've taught this in the past. I've done this in the past. But God is changing me. And I want to help, you know, to bring this to you in that. What if we instead listened to God? That's why we have an entire conference, entire course inside Christian Book Academy on hearing God's voice. Because it is that important. That one, that one module could change your entire life if you go through it and start applying it and start doing the two way journaling. And you know, I just cannot recommend Mark Verkler's book enough. But if you're a Christian Book Academy member, you have the content there for free for you in your membership. So the key is hearing God's voice and dreaming with him, asking him, God, what are those goals, those things that you want, you know, to expect God to do? What are those things that, those dreams that you have for my writing. And if you need help with this, with dreaming with God, I actually have created an entire training on this and I did it live last semester. And so if you want to review it or go through it for the first time, it's actual, it's an experiential journaling and prayer video. So I'm gonna be taking you through the steps and then you're gonna start, stop, you're going to be journaling, you're going to be hearing from God. So the link is in the description, if you have not gone through that or if you want to be refreshed in this, of dreaming with God, not just having, not just picking a big dream. Like, you know, I used to think, why do I not want to be a New York Times bestseller? You know, I'm a writer. Shouldn't that be my big dream? Shouldn't that be my big goal? God has never put that in my heart. I've never desired that. I mean, it came. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. More people are being impacted for the gospel. We're able to give more money away, you know, I mean, it would just be incredible. But isn't that interesting? It's like that's never. But I always felt like it should be. I always felt like. So I remember one time I wrote down goals and I was like, I put it down because I was like, I think that should be my goal. Right? But that's the world's way. You know, it's like, what are the big goals and dreams that you can aspire for? But maybe God's dream for you looks small in the world's eyes. Maybe it's like, you know, maybe even like something like what John's doing, ministering to a Small group of 10, 15, 20 in your community, leading them through your book, taking them through that experience, being able to pour into their lives. Maybe that is the dream that God has for you right now. And maybe that is A big thing for you, right? Maybe that would be really stepping out for you right now, but maybe not. So ask him, Ask God, what is the dream you have for me? And there is so much power, like I said, in visualizing. In visualization. How many of you love watching a movie? Not only is it the storyline, the stories that hook us, it's the visualization. It's being able to see the story played out. It's being able to see it before us. I think that's part of the power of video games and why so many young people and even adults are addicted to video games. There's so many things involved. But what if we used our imagination? What if we used our capacity to visualize for the Lord? What if we used it in a way that that would bring glory to him? And not saying that movies don't bring glory to him. I mean, obviously, it depends on which movie. But what if you started today during your prayer time, visualizing your book in your hands, being on that. On that finish line, in that place where you're holding your book in your hands or your Kindle device with your book cover on there. It's. It's on there. Whatever it is you need to visualize, start visualizing that you're holding your book in your hands. What if you started visualizing people being impacted by your words? The emails that you might get, the reviews you might get, the things that you will never hear about until we get to heaven. I know for a fact that as writers or we only hear a very small percent of any of the impact. And sometimes it's discouraging because you're like, is it even making a difference? Yes, it's making a difference. The majority of the people will never tell you, but visualize people's lives being changed or, you know, people, you know, your book giving them joy. You know, maybe it's a fiction novel or a children's book or them learning a new skill through your nonfiction book. Whatever it is, you know, picture someone's life being changed as a result of reading your book. What if you started to. It's almost like putting on glasses. You know, my dad had. He was having trouble. Like, he's a. He was a golfer, and he had trouble starting to, like, see the golf ball where it would land. He couldn't see, like, road signs far away, all of these things. And then he went to the eye doctor and he realized, like, he needed glasses. We started wearing glasses. He was like, oh, my goodness, I can actually see the road signs now.

I was like, oh, that's kind of scary. But it's almost like when you start practicing this, you start working this visualization muscle with faith, with, you know, with God, hearing God's voice and what, what to visualize, ask him, you know, what to visualize. But it's almost like putting on glasses and all of a sudden things become so much more clear.

Yeah. And, you know, going back to what Shelley said about how authors many times don't always hear those testimonies.

I even remember experiencing this, you know, in the times that we would speak. You know, for every hundred venues that you might speak at, you might hear just a handful of maybe emails that were personal testimonies of what came out of that in terms of a little bit of fruit. But I remember how powerful that was, and it was just like the Lord was using that as fuel to keep me going at times, because there were just those moments where you just kind of like, man, am I even making a difference?

Right.

Is this fruitful? Then at just the right time, there'd be a testimony that would come in. So what I want to encourage all of you to do is if we as writers enjoy getting those, I don't want to say, you know, mean kudos, but we enjoy seeing some of what God's doing. I want to encourage all of us to really be intentional about reaching out to the authors that have impacted our lives. I recently did this on a social media platform and just shared a few simple words about how I appreciated this, this author and the things that they had written. And you could tell they genuinely appreciated that.

It probably made their day. Yeah, it would make my day.

You know, it sort of probably kept. Kept him going the rest of that day. But what I want to encourage all of us to do is do the very thing that we want done to us.

The old golden rule, you reap what you sow. So if you sow that into other authors, if you sow that into them, you know, I really believe God will help you to reap that even in your own life in various ways.

Yeah. But, you know, another part of the key to motivation is that we need to be able to go at the pace of God's grace. And I know you've heard that, that phrase from Shelley, and Shelley probably got it from. From somebody.

Yes, from my friend Shay Bines, a kingdom driven entrepreneur.

But one of the things I think we as kingdom writers should realize is that we don't have to be in a hurry. We're never in a rush.

Yeah.

You know, when you read the Scriptures in the Gospels. And you see Jesus's interactions with people. He was never in a hurry. And there's no better example of this than when.

Jesus was told about his good friend Lazarus, who was the brother of Mary and Martha. Lazarus was sick, and he was dying. And when Jesus got word, he said, you know, this is. This is for the. For God's glory. Something's going to happen here where God and. And the Son of God are going to be glorified. And you can read the whole story in John, chapter 11, verses 1 through 45. I won't read that whole passage, but what I want us to see in that story is that it says that Jesus waited two more days before he even started for Judea, which is where Bethany was. And of course, he even got pushback from his disciples. Why are you going back that direction? They tried to stone you in Judea before. And Jesus just took his time. He wasn't in a hurry. It took him a couple days just to get to Bethany, where Lazarus was. And by that time, we read that for four days, Lazarus had been dead. Now, that was. That's what you'd call deader than a doornail.

Wow.

And what I mean by that is.

One of the significant things about Jesus being in the grave for three days is that that was the number that people realized that, okay, it's official, they're dead. And it was like, to prevent any excuses of, well, you know, they were just asleep, or they came out of a coma and they walked away. Jesus was dead three days. Lazarus was dead four. And when Jesus said, let's go to the tomb. Let's roll the stone away, of course, Martha, the sister, was like, are you kidding? Jesus, yeah, he's been in there four days. He's gonna stink. Or as the King James says, he stinketh.

Oh, man.

And let me tell you something. Some of us feel that way about our writing. I believe there's even people in CBA you're watching now. Maybe you're hesitant to comment. Maybe you're hesitant to really even get involved in a. In a deeper way to interact. You're just sort of waiting to see what happens. You're watching from the sidelines, but your writing has been dead for a while. And I don't care if it's four days or four decades.

Right.

When you're writing feels dead. How many understand that? It's hard to get motivated.

Yeah.

It's hard to sit down and say, we can do this.

And I've had those experiences myself, those feelings of man you know, times gone by, I'm rusty. I just feel dead in this area. And yet what I found is that as I got going, it was. It was almost like lubrication to those joints.

Yeah.

You know, it's like the synovial fluid, the joint fluid that's released in our knees whenever we exercise. So contrary to popular belief, running isn't bad for your knees. Neither is heavy walking or biking. Actually, those things are good. Good for your knees, because when you're exercising, it releases the synovial fluid in your joints, which is a good thing. Lubrication and allowing your joints to work properly, otherwise they dry out. And that's where the arthritis begins to form. And so that's why, just on the side, it's good to get up every so often from your desk, walk around, go for a brisk walk, get on your exercise bike, drink water, whatever it might be, get the lubrication going. But in our writing, we need to do that. That's why it's good just to sit down. Even if you write less than a hundred words, the practice of that is releasing that writing. Synovial fluid, so to speak.

Yeah.

And I just want to say that some of you feel like Lazarus. Some of you just feel like, man, I've been better than a doornail in this area. I don't even know why I joined cba. But I'm here to tell you God brought you here for a reason. And he brought you here because there's other people that can relate, and there's people that have been there, done that, and they're still probably going to be there again. And I got my finger pointing at me. You know, I certainly go through the ups and downs of motivation, but if Jesus can raise Lazarus from the dead after four days when he stinketh.

Then.

You better believe he can resurrect your writing and my writing for his glory again. Jesus said, this has happened. Let's go visit our friend Lazarus, who's been in the grave. He's asleep right now. His disciples actually thought Jesus meant he was just taking a nap and he's going to get better. But Jesus had to further explain, no, Lazarus is dead, but you're gonna see a miracle that's gonna glorify my Father. And you're gonna see you're gonna be greatly encouraged by this. And I want to say that many people are going to be greatly encouraged by your writing. So I want to encourage you to hang in there, show up, and just watch the Lord do it through you. Watch him resurrect that gift that you' dormant for years and just watch what the Lord does. You're going to look back and you're going to say, only the Lord, only the Lord could have done that.

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, as you take those steps of faith, I don't remember the exact quote, but it just came to my mind. Light on fire. And people will gather to watch. But as you take these steps, was it. I don't even know there was some kind of quote out there. Sorry. It just things come to my mind, you know, and then we say it. But when you start doing the things that God is calling you to do, like publishing a book, guess what? People are going to watch that and they're going to see that and they're going to be attracted and be like, what did you do? How'd you do that? You're going to be able to share your testimony of walking through this with God and Him leading you and the, you know, the ways that you've done this. And that in and of itself is going to be a testimony. Just the fact, excuse me, that you are a published author.

And so keep going. But in this process of dreaming with God, of visualizing, of going at God's pace, the pace of his grace, we really also want to encourage you to ask God for a deeper why. And I've taught on this many times before. You'll hear a lot of people talk about know your why. You know, there's a lot of marketing books out there on this, but, you know, New Year's resolutions are hollow unless they have something that deeply motivates you. So most people have already given up on their New Year's resolutions by now. There's actually, I found out in January. I think it's like the middle to the end. I don't have the exact date in front of me, but there's actually a National Quitters Day.

January 2nd.

I think it's the 12th or something. But it's like when people, like, have already lost their motivation to continue on their goals and it's just a couple weeks into the year. We don't want you to have Quitters Day. You know, if this is what God has called you to do, if this is his dream that he's given to you, he will complete it. He will do it. And so what is your why? Why are you writing this book if you're here with us live or on the replay? Share with us in the comments. Yeah, what is your why? It needs to be bigger than you. So, you know, a lot of times for writers, for, you know, authors. There can be just. Even. Even for us as Christians. Sometimes it can leak in, you know, that there's this motivation of money. Well, money is not bad. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. But, you know, it is good to earn money from your labor. A laborer is worth his wages. And so it's not wrong to earn money. It's good. God wants you to earn money from your books, you know, but if that's your only why is to earn some extra money in retirement, that might not be enough, you know, or, you know, I mean, a lot of us probably wouldn't even admit it, but I know in the past I've had this. Of just, you know, fame, of wanting, you know, to be known and to have this influence and impact and all of this. And. And if that's your only why, that's probably not enough either. And, you know, God's really been, this last year, really been just purifying my motives and humbling me. And, you know, it's just a process. But what is your why? Not knowing your why is like heading out on a road trip and not having an address to plug into your GPS for the destination. Wouldn't that be weird, like, if you didn't know where you were going? Like, if you. I mean, sometimes you just know. You know, how to get to grandma's house, you don't have to plug that into the gps, right? But if you're going somewhere brand new, like most of you, you're going somewhere brand new. You're. You're publishing a new book or you're publishing your first book, you're going somewhere new. And if you don't have that address to plug into the gps, you might be, like, driving in circles and you might, like, start getting frustrated or you may feel like I've just wasted my time. But you know what? Nothing is wasted in the kingdom. And even if you feel like you've been kind of here and there and just bright shiny object syndrome and jumping from this to that to that to the today is a new day. Today can be a new start for you. And God can do more in one moment than what you can achieve in a lifetime. So if you come to him and you ask him what is his dream for you, and you start plugging that into your GPS and you starting. Start letting that guide your life, and you start letting that be the thing that motivates you and keeps you going, guess what? Some amazing things are going to happen. Expect great things from God, right?

Yeah. And that just reminds me too of, you know, whether it's an NFL football team, of course. We just saw the Super, super bowl with the Chiefs, you know, beating the 49ers. If it's an NBA basketball team, you ask any one of these teams at the beginning of the year, what is your goal? And of course, the goal is to win the championship.

Yeah.

But here's the difference. The teams that win those championships, they implement a formula that they stick to day in and day out. Whereas the ones that many times fall apart are the ones that lose sight of that overarching vision and how to get there, doing the day to day in the trenches kind of work. And I know that many of us can't stand the New England Patriots. You know, I'm one of those people.

Please forgive me, those of you that live in the Northeast or in the Boston area, but the New England Patriots have just been a dynasty. Since the year 2001, that Tom Brady, Bill Belichick combination has worked and they win year in and year out with whole different casts of players, with the exception of that coach, Bill Belichick and that quarterback, Tom Brady. But what happens is they just know how to dial in. And I believe you and I, if we'll just dial in and do the day to day dirty work, show up, that God is going to bring us to a point where we look back and we say, wow, I didn't realize all that was taking place. I had my nose to the ground. But God will give you this and say, look at what we've been through, son. Look at what we've been through, daughter. We've walked hand in hand. And you know, kind of like that, that poem, footprints in the sand, which I won't recite for you, but when you look back, you'll see how far you've come. But you've also seen that God has carried you, just like in that poem.

Yeah. So I love seeing all of your wives come in. Those of you that are here live, keep them coming in if you're watching the replay. Chris looked it up. And National Quitters Day, by the way, is January 17th. So I was close.

They only give you 17 days.

But you know what? There is no Quitters Day here in CBA and Christian Book Academy. We are doing this unto the Lord. And we always say, you know, everyone, go at your own pace. Go at the pace that God leads you. There's no competition, there's no rush. We're not comparing each other. You know, I Used to be all about like, go, go, go, go, go. But God's, you know, just healing me of that and breaking that in me. And it's more about listening to him and being in step with him than about accomplishing something in a certain time frame. It's about doing what he's called you to do and whether that takes you the whole year, whether that takes you three months, whether that takes you three years. I mean, we're all different. And so we really encourage you to listen to God's voice instead of following the experts and gurus and all these people that have their five step plans and the, the three, you know, three ways to sell more books. And I mean, I have, I've done those types of trainings too. But instead of following the experts and gurus, allow God to lead you. Allow God to lead you. Yes. Learn skill sets. You know, you need to learn how to format your front matter and back matter. We have a lesson on that in Christian Book Academy. We teach you skill sets, but as far as strategy, as far as timing, as far as all these things, you need to hear that from the Lord. You need to receive that from him and realize that your path will look different than everyone else's. And that's actually good. God gave me a phrase many years ago, and I actually just found something the other day that had that phrase on it. And it's different is good because you know what the definition for holy is?

Set apart. Yeah, set apart. Different, you know, different is good. You know, when it is God leading you, when is God guiding you? You don't have to do exactly the same path and be on the same time frame as everyone else. In Christian Book Academy, you go at the pace of God's grace.

Amen.

So we're gonna do a one minute reflection time. We're going to give you time just to hear from God. So we want you just to ask God, what are you saying to me Today? We're gonna play some music by my friend Tammy Sorensen. Her website is in the description. If you want to learn more and just go ahead and ask God, what do you want to say to me today?

All right, if you feel comfortable, go ahead and share what you felt like God said to you in the comments. And even just during that one minute, I just got this picture of so many of you that might.

Not truly know God's purpose for your life. So not just, you know, what you think his purpose is, but what is God's purpose for your writing? You know, sometimes he won't Reveal it till later. Like Joseph. Joseph didn't know when he was in the prison that he was there because God was going to place him in a position to save not only that nation, but his, you know, the nation of Israel. You know, God has purpose for you. And sometimes you may not always see it right now, but some of you right now, I think, are just walking around kind of like you're an eagle. You have that in you, but you're walking around with the turkeys. You know, you don't. The turkeys don't fly like eagles, so you don't know that you can fly. But really, God's asking you to start expanding your vision of him and what he wants to do through your writing so that you can fly. And I just saw all of you, like, flying. And last night I just asked God if he had an encouragement that I could share with you today. And the picture that I got was of a little child and Little child that falls and, like, scrapes their knee or something like that. And, you know, what does a little child typically do when they fall and get hurt? You know, not all the time. I mean, I know sometimes. Cj, you would have done it as a little kid. You would have just kind of kept going.

But, you know, if you think of a really little kid, like 2 or 3 years old, you know, what are they gonna typically do?

Cry.

They're gonna cry, and then they're gonna probably. If you've had, you know, a good home life now, I know a lot of you may not have, but they are typically gonna run to their. Their parents for help and comfort. They're going to want to be comforted by their parents, but also, like, help me, help me. I'm hurt. And do they sit, you know, down, like, where they fell, and do they try to, like, call a doctor or find an emergency room? Are they trying to figure out, like, where to go? Are they thinking, like, is my insurance going to cover this? You know, are they, like, in analytical mode? No, they simply run into the arms of their parents for help and for comfort. And I really sense that this is for someone today. I don't think it's for all of you, but I sense that for. For someone or some of you, that you're stuck today. And it's. It's almost like you're that little child where you've fallen. Maybe you broke an arm, you got hurt, but you're just staying stuck there. You are stuck where you fell, and you're trying to figure out what to do next on Your own. And it's ludicrous to think of a two or three year old trying to like decide if it's going to be covered by insurance or, you know, figure out which hospital to go to. Right. I mean, the parents are going to take care of that, but I feel like so many of you are just in this independence, like self sufficiency. Like you're stuck and you're trying to figure it out and all you need to do today is get up and run into the arms of your father. He not only has your help, he will, you know, he has a supernatural answer to every natural problem. He not only has an answer, you know, and a way to help you, but he will comfort you. The Holy Spirit is our, is the comforter. And if you can't run, like, if you feel like I just can't run, I just, I can't even get up, then call his name and he will run to you.

Yeah.

You don't have to stay stuck today.

Yeah.

He is there to be your help and to be your comfort. So run into his arms or if you feel like you can't even run, just call his name. Jesus.

Yeah.

Well, we're going to close in prayer and as we close in prayer, you know, just lift up your heart, you know, to the Lord and cry out in your way and whatever emotions or circumstance you find yourself in. And again, as Shelley said, cry out to, to that eternal parent that, that, that daddy who loves you and is, is ready to fight for you and step right in and bind up your wounds, so to speak. So, Father, we just thank you so much for each and every one of these CBA members. Lord, we ask that you would.

Fuel us with your motivation. Not a superficial.

Quick motivation that is here today and gone tomorrow or a self help kind of message. But Father, we're asking for a motivation and a passion and a why that comes from your heart. We pray you would implant that inside of each of us. That it would be a seed that would just continue to grow and grow and grow and.

Stay even in the worst of circumstances, that it would continue to bear fruit through the years. That we can say it was only the Lord that implanted this in me, that kept driving me day after day to join him and what he'd already called me to do. So Father, would you be our motivation and would you just continue to lead us by your spirit? I pray each of us would be able to be tuned in to your voice and that vision that you've given us that we wouldn't turn to the left or to the right. But we would keep our eyes fixed on you and also on that vision that you have given us with the regard to these books. And I pray that you would bear fruit in ways that just blow us away. That we can honestly say after we've published these books and we've even seen them go out to people that it was only the Lord that brought about testimony after testimony or the the fruit that actually lasts. And I just thank you for each person here. I pray you energize them, empower them, and allow them to enjoy the rest of this day walking in your presence. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. So I'm so glad that you all joined us today and keep going, keep taking the next step, doing what God is leading you to do. We are here to help you. We are here to teach you skill sets and the things that, that you need to write and publish and market your books. But ultimately he is the one that will lead and guide you.

All right, God bless you guys.

We'll see you guys next week. 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 publishing map 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.