#270: How desperate are you for a breakthrough in your writing?

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 this mentoring moment. Our topic for today is how desperate are you for a breakthrough in your writing? My name is Shelley Hitz.

And I'm CJ Hitz.

And we are mentors to Christian writers just like you Inside Christian Book Academy. And we're thrilled to be speaking with you today and sharing this encouragement.

So we want to read a story from the Gospels and then just kind of break that down a little bit and apply it toward us as writers and just the breakthroughs that we're all seeking. And so I want to actually turn to Mark, chapter two.

And we're going to start in verse one. We're going to read the first 12 verses. This is Jesus heals a Paralyzed man. So it starts off when Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, what is he saying? This is blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking. So he asked them, why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven? Or, stand up, pick up your mat and walk, so I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth and to forgive sins. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, pick up your mat and go home. And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God exclaiming, we've never seen anything like this before.

And so I want you just to.

Put yourself in this story. Just imagine, you know, you could be one of those stunned onlookers. You could be one of the people in the house, maybe the host that owns the house. You might be a little perturbed that there's now a hole in your ceiling, Right? But I want you to just to picture. Imagine you're this paralyzed man. You're being lowered down through that hole in the roof by your friends. Imagine the testimony of this paralyzed man lowered through the hole in the roof by his friends, but walked out the front door under his own power after encountering Jesus. And what we want to really bring out in this is that when we encounter Jesus, breakthroughs can happen.

Amen.

But sometimes there has to be an absolute desperation on our parts. You know, sometimes we have to get a little crazy. You know, kind of makes me think of that. That song by Seal, you know, get a little crazy. You know, I won't bore you with my. With my singing on this podcast, but.

CJ says he's a backup singer when, when he sings, people back up.

That's right.

But he actually, to me, at our wedding, little tidbit about us, I call that my.

My one hit wonder.

But sometimes we do need to get a little crazy, so to speak, you know, as we find our way around the crowds of the things that keep us from Jesus. You know, you just think about your own book, think about your writing. There are crowds. There are things getting in the way. There are. There are even the naysayers. We see the naysayers here that said, what right do you have, you know, to forgive? S. Well, first of all, that ought to be a clue for us that Jesus was God and is God, but not anybody was going to do that. But they said it very correctly, only God can forgive sins.

And that shows you right there that Jesus was fully God and fully man. But there's going to be those naysayers as well that sort of stand in the way between our breakthrough in getting that book done. There may be people that are critical, but desperation sometimes comes after we've exhausted all other options that haven't worked. And I also think of just a couple chapters later in Mark, chapter five, we read this story about a woman that had this issue, this blood disorder.

And she had been to doctor after doctor after doctor. She had been to specialists. Nobody could figure it out. It said she even just emptied her bank account trying to figure this thing out. She had spent all her money on these specialists that essentially didn't give her any cure, didn't give her much more help than she, you know, already had in and of herself. But she was desperate. And one day she realized Jesus is passing through and I have to get to Jesus. I have to get there. Even if I can just get through there and touch the hem of his garment, I know I've got a chance if I can even just get through there. But she had to bust through those crowds. She had to probably be a little rude in getting through and bumping people. And finally she got to Jesus and touched the hem of his garment, and healing power did run through her body. And eventually Jesus pointed her out. He wanted to look her in the eyes. He didn't just want a quick miracle and I'll be off, you know, he wanted that personalization.

Yeah. So, you know, as C.J. was talking, it made me think, like, what would that look like for us as writers? What kind of desperate act? Because it was an action. It wasn't just talking words. It wasn't just an idea. They took action and put a hole in someone's roof that. I mean, it was basically, they were probably breaking a law of some sort, but they got an amazing result. And so what could that look like for us as writers? What if you did something desperate like turning off this, Turning off your phone, putting it in another room when you write, you know, turning off all notifications on your phone, which we recommend. I only have, like, text and phone and calendar. I mean, turn them off. Get desperate. What if you were so desperate you decided to take a social media fast for this month so you could finish writing your book?

Yeah.

What if you got so desperate that you decided you were going to save up for, you know, reserving a retreat center or a hotel or going somewhere so that you can have uninterrupted, undistracted time to write your book, even potentially in a week vacation. What if you were so desperate you were willing to do some of these things? And so, you know, it might require actually a fast from food. We have one of our members, Christian Book Academy members, she's now a mentor, Jay Harris. She said she actually had to start fasting and in order to get breakthrough. And that's when actually she found us, was after her fast. And so what might it look like for you?

Yeah, And I also think of these four friends, good friends, that all took a corner of this map. They helped dig the hole in the roof. They helped lower him slowly. So they just drop him down there. They slowly moved him down in front of Jesus. And what I want to ask each of us is, are you desperate enough to contact four close friends who would then take you to prayer, take you to the Lord in prayer? So it's as if they're gradually lowering you on the mat before Jesus. Do you have four friends? Do you have four people in your church that you can look in the eyes and say, I'm desperate. I need you to be praying at this time because I'm going to endeavor to sit down in that chair and write and I need a breakthrough. Yeah, I'm desperate.

Do you have those people? We should all have those people at some points where we just say, okay, I know these four friends of mine. They care about me so much that they're going to slowly lower me down in front of Jesus, and I'm going to wait for that mirror. I'm going to wait for that breakthrough.

That inspiration that comes from the Holy Spirit as I get into that flow of writing.

And this is something that we've been recommending for years, is to form a small, private prayer team. And we actually had it recommended to us from someone that was in our church when we were in speaking ministry. And so we've been doing it for almost a decade now, I think. And I personally send out an email to that prayer team list every week, typically on Mondays. And I know it's their prayers that have gotten me through some really difficult times. And so if you need to say, hey, my writing mentors told me I needed to reach out, put it on us, you know? But so many people will never take the step of reaching out and asking people to pray. But I don't want you to be one of them. Do it. Do it this week. Set it up, and try to send them specific prayer requests at least once a week.

Yeah. And finally, you know, we want to wrap this up by.

Just mentioning the stunned onlookers. You know, in verse 12.

These people, it says, praised God for this miracle. And you know, our books, after we've taken those steps that we mentioned, we've gotten desperate. We need a breakthrough. We've asked our friends to pray for us, maybe even to fast for us. We've undertaken maybe some fasting ourselves. When this book is finished, imagine the testimony of the onlookers. Imagine those who get a hold of your book. They are witnesses to what happened.

You.

You might even give that book to those people who are in your corner, holding up one of the corners of your mat, so to speak. And they really read it and they're encouraged, but they're just like, praise God that they finished this, because this gives glory to God, this story or this thing that has to get out to the world. And you never know who those stunned onlookers are going to be. It could be Somebody halfway around the world that receives a copy of your book, and they needed to read that, that testimony, that story. But we want to close by saying, you know, have you felt paralyzed in your writing? Jesus brings life and movement to things that have long been paralyzed. Some of you may be in a position right now where you have felt paralyzed for years. There had just been.

There's been one thing after another that's kept you from even beginning that book, let alone finishing it, right?

And you just need a breakthrough. You need a breakthrough for just beginning the book. Some of you need a breakthrough for that final push to finish. Some of you are in the middle part of the book, and you just need to see a light at the end of the tunnel. But either way, no matter what phase you're in, before, during, or at the end, you need a breakthrough. And, you know, a breakthrough can only happen with a touch from Jesus. Amen. And so where are you at right now? You know, we want to pray for you. We're going to pray for that breakthrough. And we're asking that as we pray, you just reach your hand out and say, oh, that one's for me. I need this breakthrough. And picture yourself gradually being lowered through that roof, gradually being lowered on that mat in front of.

The great physician, the one who wants to heal you and wants to remove that paralyzation that you've been under, mentally, spiritually, whatever it might be. And you want to see progress. You want to see movement. So let's pray together and just believe that God wants to bring a breakthrough in our writing life. So, Father, we thank you so much that you are the God of breakthrough. We thank you that we can come before you. We can fight our way through the crowds, the distractions, the things that have held us back, that have been obstacles, so to speak, between us and you. It could just be our phones, as Shelley said, our social media habits. We just need to sort of take the bull by the horns and be more aggressive and be more intentional. Get desperate before you. And we know that in scripture, when people were desperate, many times it led to a breakthrough. And we are asking, Lord, for the person listening or watching right now that is in that spot of being paralyzed, we are asking. We're lowering them gradually before you, Jesus, and we're asking that you would touch them in a miraculous way, that you'd open up their vision, open their eyes, maybe the scales even drop from their eyes. May they begin to see movement in their fingers, to type or write. May there just be breakthrough that leads to powerful writing. Experience. Maybe it's finishing that blog post that really impacts people. Maybe it's finishing that book that they've been working on for a while and they just need that final push to get to that finish line. But we're praying then, Lord, that after the breakthrough that there would be stunned onlookers that can give glory and praise to you, Lord, for that breakthrough and for that healing, so to speak. And so for those who are struggling most right now, Lord, we set them before you and we ask, Lord, that you touch them in whatever way you desire. And emotionally, spiritually, physically.

We just ask, Lord, for healing to run through them. And we're going to give you the glory and the honor, Lord, for all of the breakthrough that you do bring in our lives and allow us to get into that moving flow in a sweet spot in our writing. And we're going to ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Well, we pray that this was an encouragement to you, an inspiration, if so, make sure to share it with another writer in your life and let us know. Let us know what kind of breakthrough you feel like God has given to you. But we're so grateful for you. And we just pray that God continues and to bring people into your life like those friends on the corners. And if you don't have those people, pray for them. That's your first prayer, but then also that you can be someone that does that for someone else. So we're so glad that you joined us for this and pray that it blesses you.

Love you guys.

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.