#246: Kingdom Math (Kingdom Marketing Mindset 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 Kingdom Marketing Mindset series. My name is Shelley Hitz, and my husband CJ and I are so thrilled that you have joined us for this series. I really believe this is going to be a landmark series for many of you, helping you to get your message to more people, to really be able to do what God has called you to do in a way that is so freeing and that actually works. And so we are excited. And the foundation of this entire series really starts when you start having regular business meetings with God. And I have a free training for you on this that walks you through the steps. I've been doing this regularly myself for the last few years, and it just works. So go get this training for for free@trainingauthors.com businessmeeting. I guarantee if you start having weekly business meetings with God, your life is going to change, your marketing is going to change, and there's going to be some amazing things that happen. So go get that training@trainingauthors.com businessmeeting and I hope that this series is a blessing to you and your book marketing. So welcome back to another episode for the Kingdom Marketing Mindset series. This has been such a fun series, and this week our topic is on Kingdom Math. And this is something that I have talked to my friend Shay Vines about and then CJ and I have talked about. And it's just been something that God has been challenging me with Kingdom Math, how it looks different than a lot of the things that, you know, we think as related to finances and numbers and all of that. But.

You know, the concept with Kingdom Math is, you know, God is our source and everything else is a resource. And that was something that Shay Vines has taught me as well as she was. Like, God had showed her that we're to be distribution centers. So, you know, it's kind of like an Amazon distribution center. A lot of people mail their products into Amazon, and then Amazon distributes out. We are to be distribution centers. So as God blesses us with finances, right? As God blesses us with things, then we are to be distributing them out as he leads us. And so just remembering that he is the source and everything else is a resource has been so freeing to me. Because if Our book sales go down one month. I'm not freaking out, because guess what? Amazon book sales are not my source. God is my source. Right. And so something that God has really been teaching me about this topic really came from some Psalm. Chapter one. It's just a short Psalm, verses one through six. And so CJ's gonna read this, you know, to you, and then we'll just kind of unpack it for you. Related to Kingdom Math.

Yeah. Says this is a new living translation. Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do. But not the wicked. They are like worthless chaff scattered by the wind. They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Yeah, so I've read this scripture, you know, it seems like a hundred times. I mean, I've been a Christian just about my whole life, and yet it hit me in a different way this time. Has that ever happened to you, where you read a scripture and then all of a sudden it's like God gives you a revelation in relation to something different? Well, God gave me a revelation with this passage in relation to this topic of Kingdom Math and finances and numbers. And, you know, it says.

Let'S see, verse one says, oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked. Hold on, I'm going to start preaching.

Once she gets the hand going.

Who do not follow the advice of the wicked. And God was like, shelly, whose advice are you following? Who are you following? And all of a sudden it was like.

You know, it's a verb. It denotes action. And so it's like, you know, it's denoting, like, action taken on the advice of or counsel of someone. And I was struck by the idea that.

Social media and marketing advice can be this for me. So whether or not I'm following the advice of social media, I'm following the marketing advice. And we don't always know someone's heart. We don't always know their motives. You know, I don't. I don't want to just say, you know, oh, this person's wicked, or, you know, that sort of thing, but are you following a person Right. Are you following the advice of people, or are you planted deep? Are your roots planted deep by the Lord? It says, we will be blessed when we don't take action based on the advice of the wicked or hang out with sinners. You know, a lot of us hang out online, you know, a lot of the day. And I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm saying all I'm saying is, you know, the opposite says, instead, we will be blessed when we meditate on God's word day and night, and we'll find delight in Him. Not in a screen, not in numbers, not in a bank account, not in what the world says is successful. Right? And the rewards are so great. What does it say, cj? What does it say the rewards will be?

They're like trees planted along the riverbank bearing fruit each season. Their leaves won't wither.

They prosper in all they do.

They prosper in all they do.

They bear fruit in each season, every season. Right? And then God led me, as I was studying, that led me to Jeremiah 17. CJ, you want to read 17 verses 7 and 8?

Yeah. So that says, but blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.

And God just gave me this phrase, shall he plant deep roots? How many of you know that our culture thrives on shallow. How many of you know that? You know. And when we're talking about this whole concept of kingdom math, this might not seem like it. It relates, but God showed me, Shelley, when you position yourself, when you position yourself by that stream of water, when you allow your roots to go deep, guess what? We are positioned in alignment with God, for whom everything flows, including finances. And he can start flowing those finances to us that we need or that he wants to give us, that we can be distribution centers. He's our source, not scrambling around trying to do every new marketing strategy. And God told me one day when I was struggling with this, I was struggling, and I was like, God, how do we, you know, make our, you know, our business grow? You know, because we've had some financial struggles in the last year, and. And God was like, shelly more, marketing is not always the answer. Because, you know, following the advice of the wicked, following the advice of, you know, mainstream marketing, they always say, well, how much marketing are you doing? You just need to do more marketing. You need to do more marketing, get in front of more people. But God was like, Shelly, more marketing is not necessarily the answer. The answer is being positioned where I have you so that I can allow the flow to go through you and bring those divine connections and I can give you those God ideas, right? Not just the good ideas. I can provide for you. I am your source. Everything else is just a resource. And so it says that in Jeremiah, it says they will never stop producing fruit. But the thing that really caught my attention is such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. And what God immediately brought to my mind was Shelley. Such trees are not bothered when the economy crashes. Amen. Such trees are not bothered by the circumstances around them that say everything is going down, down, down, down. Such trees are not bothered by that because they know. And that doesn't mean we're going to be millionaires. We could be, but it means that God's going to provide for us. And it says they never stop producing fruit. You know what I think happens sometimes when we get the kingdom math out? You know, we're not operating in the kingdom math. We're not operating that God is our source. We're trying to screw, scramble around. We're trying to figure it out. I think sometimes we just get distracted, right? We get distracted by all the circumstances, by the heat, by the drought. Ah. You know, we get distracted and then we stop producing fruit because we're not living out our assignment. We're not, we're not asking God in our, we're not having business meetings. We're not asking God for those God ideas. And so we're not acting on those. And then we're not receiving the, the benefits. Right.

And so it reminds me of abiding John 15, 5. You know, it says, apart from Jesus, we can do how much.

What does it say, C.J.

Nothing.

Apart from him, we can do nothing. And I've tried to strive and I'm a redeemed, you know, I say redeemed workaholic. So I'm teaching this from a different perspective. And yeah, I know I'm, I'm begin to experience it. Just what happened to us with our, our condo and just being able to get the down payment for that, that was kingdom math. Like that just didn't make sense. Like how in the world did that even happen? And I wasn't freaking out, I wasn't anxious, I wasn't, I mean, do you remember? I, like, I just, I feel like I handled that in such a different way.

Yeah.

Because God is growing me to not be always following the signs of the heat and the drought, but to know that my roots are planted deep and God has resources that we cannot see right now.

Yeah. And I think that, you know, in our culture, but also with, with any of us, because we're human beings, is sometimes we have a tendency to be a reservoir rather than a river. And the Lord is looking for rivers that flow and continually offer all of his resources wherever they want to be directed. When we're reservoirs, we're holding on to stuff because we think, well, I'm not going to get any more for a while, or that's our mindset. And when we do that, we diminish who God is. I mean, God is limitless. He has un immeasurable resources. His resources come from, from heaven and he's always ready to open up his storehouses for us. And again, we don't believe it's for us just to be multi millionaires. Now. If the Lord blesses people with huge financial wealth, he expects a lot more of them. He really does. He expects them to then distribute that wealth, not just to collect it for their own 401k, so to speak. And I'm just a firm believer that if God's really blessed us, then that means it's a huge privilege for us to then be a blessing and conduit for others and not just gather, but allow our lives to be rivers that just flow. So peace like a river, you know, like the song allowing. I just believe that when we're rivers, we do have a peace in us even. It's like, oh, it feels so good to allow that, that water to keep flowing. How many know? It's a lot more stressful when you're trying to maintain a reservoir that just continually keeps having water thrown into it. You're doing everything you can to keep it from flowing over the banks. And you're striving, you're. You're trying to control instead of just letting the river run its course, you know, wherever God wants it to flow. And there's, there's peace there.

Yeah. And so the key for Psalm 1 is, you know, are we meditating on God's word day and night? Are we spending hours scrolling on social media? And I'm not saying this out of any condemnation. I'm just saying, like, I am a recovered addict from Facebook and Instagram. You know, I'm an, I'm a recovered scroller and God's been showing, showing me Shelley there is so Much fruit that will come when you meditate on my word. And so I recently connected with an app called the Dwell App. It's a group of creatives that have recorded the Bible in different ways and they have background music and you can then choose just different scriptures and have it repeat over and over to help you memorize, to help you meditate. And I've been meditating. And then I have, you know, my Bible that I do deep study, and then I have my Bible that I just read. And it's like planting deep roots. And those are things that most people will never see me do. I mean, cj, he'll see some of that, but most people will never see the things that I'm doing behind the scenes. They'll just see the results, right? And then they'll say, okay, Shelley, what was the five secrets to your success? Right?

Business meetings, meditating on God's word.

You know, planting those deep, deep roots. And so Kingdom Math, a lot of times we look at our bank account with what we can see, right? That's the way that I have operated most of my life. And God is challenging me to see things with kingdom lenses, as you know, that Kingdom Math, and that means the unseen. So yes, we do need to be good stewards of what we have. And, and yes, you know, if we have $10 in the bank to sign up for that thousand dollar course, probably doesn't make sense right now, right? Unless you ask God to provide and then he provides that money. But there are many times I look at our bank account and I'm just like, we're going to be like 1500 dollars short this month. Like, how are, you know, how's this going to work, God? Because I. God's given me the assignment to finish recreating all the curriculum and Christian Book Academy, so I don't really have time to do the marketing. And I'm like, okay, Lord, how is this gonna work? And then if I just look with my eyes and do my math, it doesn't make sense. And yet we have so many different streams of income. It just always works out, right, CJ?

Yeah. Hey, we can look back on 20, almost 22 years of marriage.

Oh, my goodness.

And the Lord's never let us down. Have we made bad decisions? Absolutely. But we look at the Lord's hand of provision, and yes, there's been many times it's been provided at 11:59, you know, at night before the clock strikes midnight. But.

It could almost bring us to tears just seeing the Lord's hand and knowing that he's never let us down. And yeah, we can, we can make horrible decisions. You know, I made a bad decision. You know, I've mentioned this story before when we were in the country of Belize for two years and I was planning a concert series where we brought three people from the states, Christian hip hop artists and a speaker. And we scheduled three cities. And those three cities, I just decided, hey, I'm going to take out a $10,000 loan and do the marketing. Like, I'm going to buy radio ads, newspaper ads, you name it, and it's going to really go off well. And instead, not only did we owe the $10,000 at the end of the concert series, I owed another 6,000 on top of that because it flopped so badly.

And that's an example of doing our own math. Right? Like, we did our own math in our own minds and was like, okay, if we just sell this many tickets, oh, that's a no brainer. But that wasn't God's purpose in that moment. And yet right now God's told me, shelly, my purpose in this moment is for you to spend all your time, a majority of your time, creating this curriculum and not spending all this time marketing. And, and I will provide for you. And he, you know, he said that to me last year. He's like, if you will do this, I will provide for you. And so we have to be planted that tree planted by the stream with deep roots and know, like, and, and you know, sometimes we get it wrong, sometimes we hear God wrong. But when God has asked you to do something and he says he'll provide, he'll provide. It doesn't mean that we always have what we want. You know, C.J. and I, there's many times that we, we have, we don't have what we want, but God provides what we need.

And I can honestly tell you that that was completely my fault. You know, back when I took out that loan, I knew I probably shouldn't have done it, but I thought, well, it's a no brainer in my own.

Mind, in our math. Yeah.

And so I went through with it. I plowed through, and it's like I was going to do it no matter what. And it was a, it was a lesson that was learned. It was a tough lesson because I know looking back that had I just sought the Lord for wisdom, he would have spared me from even having to take out a loan. You know, it was like, hey, let's see how this works out without man's methods, so to speak.

But, yeah, it was a learned lesson, and I'm grateful. I mean, would I do it over again? Would I do something different? Yes. But I'm grateful for what I learned through that. And it provided something that hopefully can help others in terms of sort of muddling things with their own hands instead of watching the Lord win the battle and really win a victory.

It's like God has told me so many times, Shelley, don't create an ishmael. Right? Don't try to make something happen in the thing that I promised you. Because some of you have received promises from God. You received, you know, what, people have spoken things over you or whatever, and it hasn't come to pass. And you might be tempted to try to make it happen, right? Don't create an ishmael. And yet, you know, C.J. and I had to forgive ourselves. We had to ask God's forgiveness. You know, we had to let go of that. But then in this recent situation with our mortgage, you know, we were in a situation where it's like we were gonna have to move out or buy. And I just didn't even see how we were gonna be able to buy it. And yet I was praying about it one day, and I was like, you know, Lord, I could ask my mom for a loan because I know that she would give me one. She recently had loaned my sister some money, and my sister paid her back, and I was like, I know we could pay her back. The Lord brought that to my memory about Belize, you know, and it's like, shelly, let me show myself. Let me show my faithfulness to you. Don't go out in self sufficiency and try to figure it out. Wait and see what I'm gonna do. And, you know, he did it. He provided above and beyond what we needed. And yet I think in this current situation, part of what helped me was remembering from that past situation, right?

And Kingdom Math does not always make sense, right? It does not always. It's not always one plus one equals two. Sometimes when God asks you to do something, just like right now when he's asking me to do this for Christian Book Academy, it's like, you know, it just. It doesn't make sense to me. It's like, why don't I just take a break? I can just market, grow the membership, and then I can come back and do this another, you know, finish this other, you know, stuff later. It's like, no, I know. And I know that I have to obey, right? Like, sometimes, you know, you just know, like, okay. And I know that God's gonna, God's gonna take care of it. He's gonna do it. And I want to be planted with those roots deep where I'm not fearing the drought, I'm not fearing the heat. And I'm allowing God to be my complete resource. I'm allowing him to, to show Himself faithful to me. I'm not trying to go out in self sufficiency with my math right, and make it happen, but it doesn't always make sense.

So what I wanted to do was actually read you a little section from a book that I'm going through. It's Andrew Murray on prayer. So it's an old classic. Thing is thick. And let me tell you something. When you, when you read like four pages, which is about each of his little devotions, they're rich and so four pages a morning is enough. But I, I ran across a section here that I wanted to read. You know, this whole section is about abiding and I just love this. He says, if only.

Your ears are open and your thoughts brought into subjection and your heart prepared in silence to wait upon God and to hear what he speaks, he will reveal to you his secrets. I love that. And one of the first secrets will be insight into the truth, into God's word. That as you sink low before him in nothingness and helplessness, in a silence and a stillness of soul that seeks to catch the faintest whisper of his love, teachings will come to you. I think this is great for us writers, for us authors. Teachings will come to you that you had never heard before.

Because of the rush and noise of your own thoughts and efforts. Man isn't that good. In other words, he's essentially saying, if we'll quiet ourselves before the Lord, if we will position ourselves to hear his voice, he will reveal secrets to us in his word. Things will jump out at us that maybe didn't before.

And it will be essentially due to the noise and all of our self effort in our own minds. And how many voices around us in this world that we're living in right now. Is there any shortage of voices out there?

No.

Is there any shortage of people saying do things my way, do things my way, do things this way and buy this and buy that instead of, oh, if I would just quiet myself, position myself before the Lord. And for me it's in the morning. But I also like sometimes at nights, you know, in the stillness of the nights, looking up at the night sky, if we'll just position ourselves, God will deliver secrets to us that I believe we as Christian writers, whether it's our marketing efforts, whether it is something that he wants us to write in a chapter in our book, whatever it might be, there's going to be secrets that we are given that really help specific people around this world in ways that never would have happened through us otherwise if we didn't position ourselves. Wow. This was written in the late 1800s, in the early 1900s. And yet aren't Andrew Murray's words just as poignant today as they were in that time period? Even then there were many noises and many self efforts and many things crowding minds, that we're crowding God's voice out. And I think this is the key.

Asking you to read that quote again.

Yeah, it's a rich one. And I think. I think you're right. It does take two or three readings.

Yes.

He says if only.

Your ears are open and your thoughts brought into subjection, your heart prepared in silence to wait upon God and to hear what he speaks, he will reveal to you his secrets. And one of the first secrets will be the deeper insight into the truth that as you sink low before him in nothingness and helplessness, in a silence and a stillness of soul that seeks to catch the faintest whisper of his love, teachings will come to you that you had never heard before because of the rush and noise of your own thoughts and efforts. It's not that.

You couldn't. It's not that you weren't doing some good things in the past or myself. It's that we hear with ears that were too crowded before. We're hearing things that he's been trying to whisper to us the whole time. You know, it's like he said with Elijah. You know.

He came to Elijah with a still, small voice. He wasn't in the wind. He wasn't in the earthquake. He wasn't in, you know, all these things that were noisy. But Elijah heard that still small voice. And I really believe that the Lord wants our complete attention without competing with a whole host of other things trying to compete. And we live in a world where I've said this for years. I think young people today have more temptations per second than any other generation in the history of mankind. It's because they have the phones and there's just constant information coming to them.

Not just young people.

Pornographic, all of us. Pornographic messages, you name it. There are more temptations per second. So if you can make it through the matrix of all of the obstacles that the enemy places before us and come out stronger and come out even more.

Enamored with the Lord, then you know that.

You'Ve got a true believer there because of all of the stuff they've had to wade through, and they've still said, I still want Jesus more than anything else. I still want to hear his voice more than anything else. I still want you, Lord, and nothing else. It's about positioning, though, in order to hear. And I just believe that as we've been talking about kingdom math.

Ideas and secrets, as Andrew Murray says, are going to come to all of us. And again, we're going to be able to share it in the group with one another. We're going to be able to implement things ourselves in our own books. We're going to have chapters that are filled with these secrets that were revealed to us through God's word. There's just going to be a host of benefits. And we as believers, we as Christian kingdom writers, how much more do we need to keep our ears tuned to what God has for. For a dying world all around us? And each of us has words that God's wanting to pin through us and that change the course of somebody's life.

Yeah. And when it comes to this kingdom math, like we've said, it just doesn't always make sense. And you have to not just depend on what you're seeing, but the unseen. And the unseen and having that faith in what God is going to do. It comes from these times with him. Right. It comes from hearing him and listening to him. And it's been a journey. And, you know, it's not something that's just going. You snap your fingers and then it's good. I started a journey in 2016.

Where God just began to reveal to me that I filled every spare moment with my phone, with social media. I mean, C.J. would know, like, I'd be on it when we were at a restaurant in the car. Like, I mean, just. I feel bad, you know, and I've apologized even to CJ that I didn't give him my attention. And it's taken time, you know, it's taken deliberate, intentional efforts. It's been very hard. But I would say that I am a different person today.

Yeah, absolutely. I've seen that.

Yeah. And I'm hearing God's voice in ways that I was not hearing his voice before. The world may have still said, oh, you were successful. You were, you know, still being successful. But it was. It was a fleeting thing. And in Psalm 1, it says, you know, the wicked are like chaff. They're scattered. Right? They're scattered by the Wind, they're scattered by the circumstances. And I was so scattered in my mind. I mean, I was still saved. I wouldn't say that I was, you know, apart from God, but there was still this scatteredness. And now I just feel rooted, but I'm still learning. Like, God is taking me deeper and deeper and deeper. And I want to go, whatever the sacrifice. I mean, it has been hard, and we. I mean, I was crying on Sunday because I've had to make some very hard sacrifices through the years to do what God has called us to do. And no one really knows fully, not even CJ Knows fully the sacrifices that I've made, but yet it's so worth it. Right?

You guys understand that concept of someone threshing wheat?

They usually would get on. On a higher ground area where they would have the wheat and the piles of it, and they would. They would take a. Probably a pitchfork or some kind of a threshing tool and throw it up in the air. And the reason they were on a higher spot is because they want. They wanted to do it on a day where there was a little more wind. As they toss that wheat in the air, the substance falls, the heavier stuff falls to the ground, but the chaff is what blows away. And so that's the whole idea of someone threshing wheat on a threshing floor. They would position this specifically. But I think it's such a good picture for us because don't we all want substance that we can share with a dying world? Don't we all want substance instead of just all the noise? And as I remember hearing, I think it was Cal Newport in. You know, he's an author that talks about distractions with digital media.

He wrote the book Deep Work.

He calls that. He calls it nuggets of nothingness. Yeah, there are lots of nuggets of nothingness on Twitter, on Instagram, on Facebook, on. On. On our news channels, you name it. But you and I, we want substance. We want something that's going to last through the storm and. And something that falls to the ground and can be nourishing.

Yeah.

And then let the chaff blow away. Let God's wind take. Take the chaff away in our lives, but let me have the substance of God's heart, of what he wants to. The secrets, as Andrew Murray says. And that's the picture that we should have, is the chaff just blows away. But we're left with good stuff that can be made into bread, you know, made into something that is nourishing.

In both. You Know, as we could say, even a spiritual way.

Yeah. So do you want to be scattered? Do you want to be rooted? And when it comes to Kingdom Math and it comes to finances, it is really easy to be scattered. And it's really easy to be focusing only on what we can see, our math. And instead of really allowing God to show us the unseen things.

To trust him even when he doesn't show us, and he just says, will you just let me show my faithfulness to you? Will you just do and be obedient to what I've called you to do and trust me to provide? Even when. When it doesn't add up, right? Even when it doesn't make sense, will we trust Him? And then when we do, guess what? We're going to be a sign and a wonder to people all around us. When we were able to buy our condo, I shared the testimony on social media and hundreds of people replied, you know, they heard the goodness of God. They heard that, you know, instead of going into self sufficiency, I trusted God and he provided, you know, glory to God. And so we can be that shining light, you know, just like in Matthew 5, you can, you know, let us shine our light so that people can see our good deeds and glorify who. So they can glorify Shelley and cj so they can say, wow, Shelly, good job, so that they can glorify your Father in heaven. Right? That's what Kingdom Math does. Kingdom Math helps us to show off God. It helps to show off God's glory. It helps to show the world that there is more than what we can see and that God is good. And so we just encourage you to really press in, to seek in, to have.

Deep roots. Plant deep roots by that stream. And the position of those roots matters. Don't just plant them anywhere. You can plant deep roots anywhere, but make sure they're planted by the stream, right? And so we're gonna give you a minute of reflection and a time to just ask God, what is it you have for me in this whole concept of Kingdom Math? How do you want me to trust you in this time, time and the unseen and share in the comments, anything that God speaks to you.

Sam.

All right, so God just gave me a picture like he often does. And the picture he gave me was like the unseen resources, right? That Kingdom Math, when it doesn't make sense. And he gave me this picture that, like, what if there was, you know, maybe there's someone in your house or maybe it's just someone in your family. If you live alone, but without you knowing. They have this separate little piggy bank. Let's say CJ had this thing, and he had it tucked away, you know, in the back closet, where I don't even see it. I never see him put anything in it. But he's just adding change into it every day. You know, when he has extra change, he just keeps adding and adding and adding. I don't even know it's there. I don't even see that we have that resource. You know, maybe he puts some dollar bills in there. Maybe he puts a 20 in there. Maybe he puts something else in there. But he's adding to this all the time without me knowing. And then, you know, 10 years later, five years later, whenever, and. And we're in a tight spot, and I don't see it in our bank account. I don't see how it's gonna get paid for, how it's gonna happen. And C.J. is like, oh, Shelley, I never told you. I have this shoebox under the bed where I've been saving up $10 bills or whatever. You know, let me count. And all of a sudden, he counts, and it's like $3,000 that I didn't even know was there, right?

So.

And it's just a picture that sometimes God has these resources. God has these things behind the scenes that you don't know about, that you can't see. And I just want to encourage you to trust. Trust him and follow his voice. And instead of following the advice of the wicked. Right. Let's meditate day and night on his word. So, cj, why don't you go ahead and close us in prayer, and then we'll have some time for some questions at the end.

Father, we thank you so much for Kingdom Math.

We don't always understand it with our finite human minds, and yet. Yet we have access to secrets that you want to reveal to us. We have access.

To the vaults of heaven. We actually even have the mind of Christ. And I pray, Lord, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear. I pray that each of us would have a desire to linger with you. And as we do that, you reveal these secrets through your word, maybe divine God, ideas that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise had we not lingered with you. And I just pray for each and every one of our members that you would give them what they need today, but that each of them would have a desire to keep seeking you every day for what you have for that particular day. It's like the. The manna that.

That you allowed the Israelites to be sustained with. They gathered a little bit for each day and if they tried to gather more, it would rot. And yet you gave them enough for each day. You provided every day for them. I just pray that we would have that same mindset of coming to our Father for provision.

Whatever the day's allowance would be in terms of a need. I pray that you provide resources for each and every one of our members. I pray that you provide for them financially, provide for them in terms of ideas and creativity, give them words that they can then string together into sentences and paragraphs and chapters. And I pray that, that it would just flow, each person would just flow in your spirit, knowing that you are guiding and directing and empowering. And we'll just give you the glory and the honor for everything you do. Lord, we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. And you know, with this whole thing of Kingdom Math, as God was like, Shelly, I don't want you to be focused, unbothered by the heat or worried by the months of drought. I don't want you to be focused on, you know, your country's economy. I want you to be focused on heaven's economy. Right, Heaven's economy. God owns all the cattle on a hill. And you know, it's going to feel different. It's going to feel awkward if you're right handed. It's like being left handed. It's going to feel different. It's going to be, it's going to be, you know, so weird and yet it's so freeing. So we just hope that each one of you will just continue to press in and seek God as you're marketing your books, as you're, you know, know, even as you're writing and publishing, trusting him for the provision for that, that, that you would see things through Kingdom Math. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode in our Kingdom marketing mindset series. God has really led us to start teaching marketing differently. So, yes, we will still teach you the skill sets and the strategies, we will give you all the case studies, but we are going to be teaching marketing from a Kingdom market marketing mindset, encouraging you to hear from God and get those strategies directly from Him. I am just so excited for you to start going through the training that I have been creating for you in our book launch challenge. If you're tired of the same old messages with book marketing, I encourage you to join us inside Christian Book Academy. I believe it will truly be a breath of fresh air for you and you'll not only get the practical training you need, but you'll get the encouragement to to stay connected with God, to receive his blueprint and his strategy for your marketing. Join us now@christianbookacademy.com I can't wait to work further with you and help you reach more people with your message. I'll see you on the inside.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom. 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 Book Academy, where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.