Do you feel like you’re waiting on a promise of God to come to pass?
Do you feel stuck or stagnant in business?
Do you feel like your days are circles of the SAME? #momlife
If you are ready for the NEXT season, the NEXT promotion, the NEXT blessing to come to pass...let’s get prepared NOW!
In this episode, we talk about 3 simple truths found in the book of Joshua that will help you live in a place of “READY” as you prepare to cross over into God’s best.
LET’S STAY CONNECTED
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Michelle5Hiatt
Email: hello@nourishingmichelle.com
Full Episode Transcription:
0:04
Hey guys, do you feel like you're waiting on a promise of God to come to pass? You feel like you have a promise, a dream in your heart that you're just holding on to and waiting for it to happen someday, one day. Do you feel stuck or stagnant maybe in business? Do you feel like your days are circles of the same #mom life?
0:24
If you're ready for the next season, the next promotion, the next blessing, the next thing, whatever that is to come to pass, then we have to get ready now. We have to live ready, we have got to get prepared.
0:38
In this episode, I'm going to talk about three really practical and tactical truths found in the book of Joshua that are going to help you live in a place of ready as you prepare to cross over into God's best.
0:59
Welcome back to The Nourishing Mompreneur Podcast, where we get encouraged and empowered as we pursue our greatest potential within the walls of our home. Hey Mama, my name is Michelle Hiatt, and I'm so thankful you're here. Do you feel like your life is good, but something in you feels unfulfilled? Do you feel stuck in the trenches of motherhood, exhausted and working so hard, but feeling like you're getting nowhere? Do you have big dreams you hold in your heart, but you've been living small? Are you motivated for more, but don't have the clarity or the courage to do anything about it? Do you want to discover God's best and see if it's really possible to be an excellent wife, an intentional mother, and be successful in business, all for the glory of God? As a wife of 16 years, a homeschooling mom of five, and an entrepreneur, I know exactly how you feel. Every bit of it. I truly believe that the most important work you will ever do is within the walls of your home and that there is purpose in every season. If you are a fellow business-minded mama, with a heart for home and a love for Jesus, let's process this journey and grow together.
2:02
Hey friends, so we all know and say often that life is a journey, but I have never in my life had such clarity. So the journey that I'm on, as I've watched the past few months unfold, God has been revealing to me prophetically through the book of Joshua my path, my next step, and it's been crazy to see the Bible come to life to guide my life in this way. It's been so encouraging and comforting to see myself in the Word of God. I mean, I know that the Bible is for me, and that I am one of God's chosen people, but for him to reveal just how relevant the words of Scripture are to the timing in my life. Really, the timing in our lives is a beautiful thing.
2:40
I think that we are always in this state of preparation. Everything in life leads us to the next step. Our life is just one step leading to the next brick by brick we're building upon that and moving forward and progress towards our goals towards the glory that God has for us here on this earth. It's been amazing how, for me specifically in my own personal life, as I've been on this journey of preparation, He kind of stopped me in my tracks, messed me up, wreck me around a little bit, the beginning of 2021 here and consecrated me during this time and as I came out of this place of just being transformed in new ways, going deeper and just learning to surrender and true ways where He's on the throne of my life, and I'm not just spearheading the way as much as I had in the past. As I've come out of that place, I was like God, where do I go from here? And he brought me to the book of Joshua. So I started reading this and it has just been incredible, and so that's what I want to share some of that with you today.
3:45
You know, I don't know how long this is going to take but I want to hang out in the book of Joshua for a little bit. share with you some of these things that I'm learning because they are absolutely for you, too. You are listening today because you're one of God's children. You're His chosen. You're already a leader. You're already pressing on and walking into the promises and the purpose of God. So this is for you. The Book of Joshua is loaded with principles for success and really proper expectations and tips for your journey that you don't want to miss and I can't wait to tell you what God has been revealing to me but first, I just got to be super clear. I am not a Bible scholar whatsoever. I have no degree or credibility other than the fact that I am an ordinary wife, mom and entrepreneur that believes that God can do extraordinary things in and through me. God is the extra in that word extraordinary and I'm seeking to surrender and just pour out my life and the lessons that I learned to you, my friends in the process. So I'm just ordinary here I'm showing off God is the extra and together I just know that he can use me and do some extraordinary things. I have faith in that. At the end of the day. At the end of the conversation, my goal is simply to lift you up and appoint you to the Lord if I do that in any capacity, to me this podcast is a success.
5:04
So as I share with you what the Holy Spirit is revealing to me, please take it up with God. You ask the Holy Spirit for clarity and confirmation what you need to hear, look to the Word of God and see what he reveals for your life. Don't just take my word for it. I'm going to be skimming the surface here, but in these episodes to come as I pull out principles and truths from Joshua, I would encourage you to let it be something that pushes you to dive in to the book yourself and take a look and see what God has for you. So I thought that I was just gonna run through the points the truth the principles that I was seeing in the book of Joshua, probably like one or two episodes. That's kind of how it worked. For me, I started reading and I would write down this point, this principle that I saw the timing of it was exactly what I was walking through in my personal life. It was literally God taking me step by step on this journey. So I thought hey, let me pull up my notes and run this through with you guys. But I'm realizing that I'm going to need to take some time, point by point. So episode by episode we'll just see where this goes. This girl loves having a plan. But I'm going to flow with this and just share these principles as I'm applying them to my life so that you can apply them to your life too. So I would encourage you to take some notes these principles are going to set you up for success in both your home life and your work life.
6:28
So the very first thing that I had written down in my notes is we need to live in a place of preparation. We need to live ready because you never know when God is going to promote you. The crazy thing was the Israelites they were not ready the first time they were positioned to enter the promised land. They're there standing on the banks of the promised land. They could have got walked in, they had the opportunity, but it didn't happen. Well, why? Fear, doubt, negativity, complaining, lack of faith. Aren't these the things that hold us back in our life from pursuing some of the opportunities that we need the courage to press into? Because of their fear and their lack of faith they had to go back into the wilderness to get prepared. They had to get ready. But during that time in the wilderness, you know the short 40 years they were in preparation, God was getting them ready and here is the key the Israelites were READY when God told them to march into the promised land the second time.
7:35
There wasn't time to prepare, but they were just waiting for the word they were waiting for God to give him his word and tell them when to go and where to go. It says in Joshua 1:10-11 "Joshua then commanded the officers of Israel, Go through the camp and tell the people to get their provisions ready. In three days, you will cross the Jordan River and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you."
8:00
So for 40 years they're wandering in the wilderness getting ready, and then God's like "Alright, time to go." And so it's three days and they're over they're there.
8:10
They were ready. They were already ready. So the question that I have for you, is are you living in a place of ready on your journey of preparation? I don't think that we ever arrive. Life is not about arriving. It's about just being ready for the next thing for the next step to cross over into the next blessing. To be ready to be promoted to that thing that we're working towards.
8:40
I never forget I was a volleyball player in high school and I think I was probably a middle school had to be middle school because I just can't imagine this happening in high school but so crazy and embarrassing. I was playing volleyball, I'm standing out on the court and the other team goes to serve the ball and the ball comes over and it hits me in the head like on the head. Like I don't even know how that happened, but the point is, is clearly I was not ready. I was not in my ready stance. My eyes were not on the ball. I was distracted. I was taking my position on the court for granted. It was super embarrassing, like what in the world everybody's watching the game is in session. They go to serve the ball and it knocks me right on the head like, where was I even at at that moment? But I was not ready. You can miss the timing of the promises of God if you're not ready. Now His promises are always Yes and Amen.
9:37
I was looking in Joshua, Joshua 1:13, He said all right, time to go, Joshua calls the tribes of Israel to tell them to get ready. He says "Remember what Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded you, the Lord your God has given you a place of rest. He has given you this land."
9:53
So the promise was spoken so long ago, but when it's time for them to move, and get ready to actually cross over, he reminds them of His promises. God's promises are always yes and amen, but his timing is the variable. Don't take your season for granted. Don't waste your time in the wilderness. Even if you're not exactly where you want to be, where you're not going to be, you need to learn the lessons that God wants you to learn before He can bring you to the next season to the next blessing. So we have a huge part in stopping the cycle- stopping the circle of that wilderness wandering place of really, it's kind of a frustrating place to be there. But there's purpose in it. So that's the beautiful thing. It's not a it's not a bad place to be in the wilderness, by the way. God is still leading you. He's still using you. There's just more ahead. God has more for you than to remain where you're at.
10:55
So much of getting ready is not about what we do. It's about the position of our heart. I'm gonna say that again, because I need to hear that again. So much of getting ready of living ready, it's not about what we do, it's about the position of our heart. Is our heart surrendered? Is God really on the throne of our life? Is He really leading the way in our business towards our goals? In all the things that we do? Where is our heart position?
11:22
He already has the victory. He's already paved the way, He's already given the promise. We just need to be ready and so much of that is the inner game. From a practical standpoint, okay, I'm going to give you three things that you can do to get ready or to stay ready.
11:38
So the first thing is we have to get rooted in the word of God and learn to trust His character. He is the same God yesterday, today and forever. Which means that He's the same God that can make water come from a rock, He can part the sea of impossibilities, He can make food provision fall from the sky. He's the God of the miracles, signs and wonders, and you have to see that He is bigger than what you see with your earthly eyes. We have to see, I gotta say that again that God is bigger than what we see with our earthly eyes. We have to make God bigger than our circumstances and our reality will change. It's all about this journey, life- is all about building your faith so that fear doesn't dictate your future.
12:29
Think about the decisions that you're making or maybe not making. Always trace it back and find out- is fear at the root? If fear is driving that decision, to move to not move, to do that thing, to not do that thing, then it's probably, you need to check yourself and you need to decide, is this really the right thing? Because fear is we don't ever want to be driven by fear. We want to walk in faith. It was fear that kept God's people out of the promise land at the first opportunity.
12:59
Okay, number two, we have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and learn to be okay with not knowing. This is something oh, I've been learning this so much in my life lately. But God, He kept his people on the move. They weren't just stuck in the wilderness camping out they were moving from camp to camp. He kept them on the move so that they could keep growing, keep trusting. Growth never happens in your comfort zone. Self-development 101, right? You could find a million quotes about that. That concept right there and it is gold and it is so true. But we got to keep moving and we can't allow ourselves to get stagnant or stuck even if you don't know where you're going. Just keep moving.
13:38
This past weekend. My daughter was at her soccer game and they put her in as goalie, now this is not her position. She was not prepared to play goalie. This is not where she's practiced, not where she's been trained, and I was just like, my heart kind of sunk. I was like, oh no, here we go like this is this is not good. I could see the terror on her face. So being the nice competitive mom that I am I went back behind the goalie and I started coaching her and I'm trying to help her I'm trying to help her have the courage and get her head in the game because she's just got a lot of fear. She's not prepared for this. She's not ready. So I'm trying to coach her, you know, I don't know if I made it worse, better, who knows? But I was there. And it was just a crazy experience because the reason why I knew that she wasn't ready is because the way she was standing her position. She was standing there straight up and down. Her arms, her shoulders were kind of hunched. She was back like in the goal in the middle and I was telling her like "Baby, you got to move out of the goal. You see these red lines, you have all this space to move. Keep your eye on the ball, shift this way, shift that way, you know bend your knees, get down, be light on your toes." You know I'm trying to help her get in "Ready Stance" because I'm like she needs she needs to be ready. I know that she's not prepared for this. I know she's not been trained for this in practice for this position, but she can still be ready. It was just really hard because the fear kind of gripped her and took over and she did the best that she could it wasn't the most successful experience for her, but that's okay. That's okay. We can always learn and grow and get better at being ready.
15:17
So after the game, my other daughter she was kind of complaining. She's like Mom, I don't want to be on defense. I want to be a striker. I want to be on midfield and I just told her I said "Baby, you got to earn your way to get promoted. You've got to show your coach that you are ready to move up that you can be trusted with more." But I just told her I said "Whatever position you're at, play your position with your head held high, the best that you can. If you're going to be on defense, be the best defender that there ever is. Show your coach that you can be promoted in midfielder if you're going to be a midfielder, be the best midfielder you can. If you're going to be a striker, be the best most aggressive goal scorer/striker, whatever, that there is."
16:03
Whatever position that God has you in, be the best that you can and play your position stop trying to be in somebody else's position. Just be where you're at and when you're ready, God will promote you. But when you feel scared, the key is we got to stay quick on our toes. We don't want to be stagnant. We got to stay ready, part of being ready is just being in a ready stance. When I looked at my daughter and the goalie, part of her being ready was just to be in that ready stance, she just needed to bend her knees kind of hunched down if I was with you, I would like show you because I'm a volleyball player. I know ready stance really well, but you would be light on your toes kind of shifting around. Be ready to move where the Lord leads, but be in the ready stance.
16:46
Okay, number three: do not grumble or complain. If there's anything you learn from the Israelites in the wilderness, it is that God definitely does not appreciate grumbling, complaining, negativity. He does not appreciate it. Yeah, just go just go read the first.. just go read Exodus. Think about how much it drives you crazy. It makes you really angry when your kids are whining, bickering, arguing. One of our biggest desires as a mom is for our kids to be content. We just want them to be happy. We want peace and we want them to be content. We want them to get along. Aren't we also children of God? Don't you think that he desires us to be content too?
17:26
Remember that verse you know the one we quote all the time "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Well, the context of it. Let's just read it Philippians 4:12-13. This is Paul writing. He says, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret to facing plenty of hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who gives me strength."
17:57
God strengthens us to be content in whatever circumstances. That is success. That is success, because his heart is positioned in the right place. It's not about what he sees with his eyes and what is going on in the circumstances, his heart is in the right place and if his heart is in the right place, he has God's strength in him and he has all that he needs. But we need to learn to be content too and all the grumbling, the whining the negativity that can often creep in when we are just struggling to succeed in business, when we're struggling in the home, when we're dealing with just circumstances and frustrations and conflicts with our children. God wants your heart to trust. He doesn't want your drama. He just wants you to trust Him.
18:44
Listen, I've got four girls and I get women, I get emotions but I don't do drama at the house. I don't I don't encourage that. But here's the thing. When I raise my girls, I understand that they have emotions and feelings I want them to I validate that. I want them to come to me with their emotions, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I want to sit with them in their moment. I want to create space for them to go through what they need to go through. But as their good mama, I don't want them to stay there, and I fully let them know that they are they are responsible for how they come out of that moment and respond. It's okay to feel how we need to feel and have our emotions and feel frustrated, but we are responsible at the end of the day, how we choose to respond, what we do with that and how we come out of that.
19:34
God created you, He understands that you have emotions. We just have to bring our emotions to God. He already knows your heart, he knows every bit of it. We don't have to hide it from him. But when you look at the example in Psalms, we can understand and this is really encouraging that it is perfectly acceptable to complain to God. Not to one another, not to your earthly leaders, not to the people in your life. There's a difference. We can bring everything to the Lord we can lay it at his feet, all of it, all the emotions, we can complain to Him. We can be real with God. But it doesn't help to complain to one another. That should not be our response when we have frustrations.
20:18
So just kind of wrapping this topic up, about living in a place of ready. We got to ask ourselves some questions. Are you living in a place of ready? What can you do to embrace and thrive in the preparation process? How can you better stay ready? Something we have to actively work at staying in and remaining in that place. I know that God has more for you than where you're at. That's why we're here. We're here because we know deep down that God has more for us and we want to press into that and that is what this conversation is all about. I'm sitting here I've got my coffee to my right. I don't know where you're at in your day, but I'm here having conversation with you because I want more for my life. I want God's best for me and I want God's best for you and I know that's what you want to. He has more for all of us. But we've got to be preparing ourselves so that when He's ready to move us on He's ready to promote us to greener pastures, to bigger blessings, crossing over into the promises that we've been holding on to, we're positioned well.
21:26
Father, I just pray for us as moms today, God that you would just remind us of your promises God. That we would hold on to those closely and know that you will fulfill the promises that you have. Help us to remember and understand that we actually hear you speak to us more than we realize. But I pray that You would give us eyes to see, to see that you are bigger than the things that we see with our eyes, God. Give us ears to hear, help us to know your will, God, to walk in your promises, just to know the next right step God. We don't see the full picture, we don't know what the future holds, it's not about arriving God, it's just about taking the next step in faith, God. But help us to be ready to take that step. Lord, I pray that you would just help us to trust your character. Build our faith today, Father. Help us to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and just not knowing. Lord, we thank you that you are sovereign over everything and that you are the God yesterday, today, and forever. That there is nothing impossible for you. You are the God of impossibilities. Everything is possible with you on our side, God. You go before us, thank you that our future is your past. You're already there. You're already there, God. And I pray that you would just help us to position our heart for the next step, for greater blessings, Lord, and to position ourselves in a place of ready. That we wouldn't grumble, complain in the process, but that we would just run to you. We would run to you with every care and every concern and we would lay it at your feet and just surrender every bit of our hearts, our emotions, our thoughts to you, Lord. We exalt you and we worship you today. In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Head over to iTunes and scroll down to the bottom of The Nourishing Mompreneur Podcast to rate and leave a super quick review to let me know what spoke to your heart. AND if you're feeling a little extra today, take a screenshot of today's episode and tag me on social. I value your time so much and appreciate you connecting with me. Find me at NourishingMichelle.com/connect
