#311: Encouragement and Prayer for the New Year

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 Shelli 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.

First of all, I just want to say thank you to every single one of you that has already purchased a copy of our brand new book, Kingdom Writers. We appreciate you like we do not take this lightly, that you have not only invested in us, but you have invested in your writing, in your future, future readers, and the things that God wants to do in your life through your writing. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And if you haven't gotten a copy yet, you can get your copy@trainingauthors.com book and in this training, I thought it would be fun to share an excerpt from our War Room prayer meeting that we hosted with Christian Book Academy in January. So we do this every month with our members and we would love to have you join us@christianbookacademy.com but this particular time we really just had you think about the New year and had some pictures for you and a prayer for you. And so I just wanted to share this with you. Even though we're past the New year now, you might need a little extra brush burst of encouragement and so enjoy this excerpt. All right, welcome. Happy New Year.

Happy new year.

It's 2022. Can you believe it? 2021. It's just like it was a blur.

In the rear view mirror now.

Yes. And so we're so excited to be here with you. Cj, why don't you just open us up in prayer and then, you know, C.J. and I both have something that we're going to share with you all.

Father, we just thank you for this beginning to a new year. Yeah, we know there's always excitement, there's anticipation. There's just something about turning over a new year on a calendar that gives us new hope. It kind of infuses fresh hope. Not that that date is, you know, significant in any way different than September 3rd or October 8th or whatever it might be. But we just want to dedicate this 2020 to you. And we come to you in prayer seeking your guidance, seeking your wisdom, seeking your power to be able to have a 2022 that you want us to have. And so we just thank you so much for this time together. We pray that it'd be a blessing and encouragement and that we would each walk away just even feeling more hopeful and empowered for the work that you have for us. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

And all the Kingdom writers said.

Amen. Awesome. So, as I usually do, I usually just ask the Lord if there's a picture or a word that he wants me to share with you. And as I woke up this morning, I was like, lord, is there something that you have for our members this morning? And I just felt like he gave me the picture of an open door. And, you know, in the new year, there's just so many. Like, it's just. It feels like, you know, a fresh start. And, and so that, that, that, that picture or that theme of open door, I was like, that kind of makes sense for the new year. But then I've read Acts 5 today, and then it really made sense. So I'm going to read a couple verses with you from Acts 5 and then share just a little bit. But.

It was. This was when one of the times that Peter, but also some other apostles were imprisoned, and it said verse 17, but the high priest rose up and all who were with them, that is the party of the Sadducees. And filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors.

Open doors, right. If you're here live, just type in the chat. Opened prison doors and brought them out and said, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. And I just felt like the Lord was just showing me that many times he wants to open doors for you. Prison doors. Maybe they're prison doors of doubt or a fear or of, you know, people's opinions or even, like, scarcity and the money that's going to be required to write and publish a market, your book or whatever it is, there's. Sometimes we're held back in a prison and, you know, the enemy of the apostles at the time, you know, those, the high priest with the Sadducees, they were filled with jealousy and they put them in prison. But sometimes, you know, we can be in a prison of our own, and yet the. The Lord wants to come right now and open those doors for you. Why is it just so that you can feel good and, you know, be released? Those are good things. But what did he do in the Scripture? It was so that they could go, the apostles could go back to the temple and speak all the words of this life. And I feel like each one of you, whether it's in a book you're writing right now, that God is using you to speak words of life, or it's a book you've already published and you might be in a prison regarding the marketing, but God is saying, I'm opening doors for you so that you are able to go and reach more people with these words of life in your book. And so, you know, the new living translation, this was esv. The new living translation says, give the people this message of life. He wants to open doors for you so that you're able to give the message of life. Or the NIV says, tell the people all about this new life. Another translation says, preach the words that bring life. Amen. And so I just believe that as we come into this new year, God is doing things right now to open prison doors for you personally. Why? So that you can, with your words, you can teach and preach and share words of life. Even if it's a fiction book or a children's book, there are concepts and there are themes of life that you're sharing in your books. And I'm excited to see what God is going to do through CBA members this year.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Open doors. Who wants an open door?

Yeah, if you want an open door, type me in the comments.

Well, I wanted to share just a word of encouragement as well as we embark on this new year. And I think it's a message that if we really allow it to sink deep into our souls, the deepest part of us, that it really will guide us through the whole year regardless of circumstances. Are we guaranteed an easy year? Are we guaranteed a perfect year? Are we guaranteed problem free year? No, none of us. We know that at the beginning of the year, no matter how much hope we have, we know there's going to be obstacles. We know there's going to be things that happen we don't like. But if we can wrap our minds and our hearts around this concept that I want to share, I think that it will really guide us through any rough waters we might face. And so it has to do with Jesus's baptism. And I'll just read a couple verses here. In Matthew chapter three, it says, after his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. Now listen to this verse 17. And a voice from heaven said, this is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy.

Mm.

Let those words sink in. Because those words are for you and I as well. Yes. They were specifically given to Jesus as he was coming up out of the water. And there was, if you read the verses before that, there was some protest by. By John. John didn't want to baptize Jesus. He thought, what am I? Who am I to baptize you? And yet Jesus says it needs to happen. I'm following through as an example of obedience to my Father for all that follow me. And those words, though, if we allow those words to sink down, that we are the Beloved, that we are a son or daughter, that brings our Father great joy. Do you realize these words were spoken before Jesus had performed one miracle, before he had spoken one sermon, before he had confronted religious leaders? He had grown up in Galilee. He had grown up in a. In a loving family. Joseph and Mary raised him as a good Jewish boy, following everything he needed to, raising him, keeping him healthy, providing for him. He learned to trade, he learned a skill. And yet these words were spoken to him before he officially saw a lot of fireworks in his public ministry. And I want to tell you this today, that this message on January 6th, if we can let this sink deep into our soul, we're going to be okay when it comes to July or August or September. You know why? Because even if we. Before we sell one book, before we have one successful marketing promotion, before we even write a word to that first chapter, we need to realize and let this sink down deep that you and I are a beloved son and daughter who brings the Father great joy. Not for the book that we write, not for how many we sell, not for a successful campaign. None of that. Even before any of that happens, you and I are the beloved. You and I have been chosen. And you and I have a specific task in the body of Christ as Kingdom writers. But we are loved even before we have anything that the world might consider success. And so if you'll let that sink deep down here at the beginning of the year for all of us, I think it's going to save us a load of unnecessary heartache, anxiety, worry. You just know. You know what? I've already won on January 6th, I've already won. I've already won 2022 because of the fact that I'm beloved and I bring the Father great joy as I walk forward in obedience, as Jesus did, and say, whatever you want to do through my life, whatever words you want to write through me, I'm excited. Lord, let's do this. Let's do this adventure. So that's my Word of encouragement to you is to let the words of Matthew 3:17.

Sink deeply in your own soul. I can imagine how. How love Jesus felt in that moment as the Spirit descended, as he heard that voice from his Father.

I can just imagine what that did in terms of getting in him and launching him into his ministry. And if we let those words sink down deep into us, we will find our launch into 2022 that much sweeter.

Yeah. And, you know, so much, so many times the world teaches that we're to do, do, do right. Like, you know, we have to have the actions before we're, you know, approved or validated.

Prove that you're worthy. Prove it to me by how much you sell, you know, and, yeah, and.

Lately the Lord has just been speaking over me, especially one week in church. I think it was even a couple of months ago. But it just keeps coming back to me since then. Of like, Shelley, you have nothing to prove. And I feel like that's kind of what CJ is saying here. You have nothing to prove. You don't just drive. You don't have to grind. You don't have to. You know, yes, we have the amazing opportunity to part partner with the Lord and to walk through those open doors. Peggy says, I not not only want open doors, I want to walk through them. And we have this amazing opportunity to partner with God as we do that. But it's. Our worth is not based on how good we write or how many books we sell or how, you know, if we press publish this year or not, you know, how long it takes us. Right. Our worth is based in our identity as God, God's child, his son, his daughter. And so I just want to even just remind all of you today, you have nothing to prove. And God is with you. He loves you and proud of you. He is proud of you.

You write. One word.

Yes. So good.

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.