Whenever you are crossing over into something new; looking to gain ground in business; preparing for a transition; pursuing the promises of God in your life...it is NOT easy!
Let me repeat that it is NOT easy!
There are so many battles we must face along the way and I know you feel me on this!
The good news is that YOU, my friend, are going to find a lot of encouragement in this conversation today!
So grab that cup of lukewarm coffee, kombucha, whatever...and grab your Bible and a pen to take some notes!
We’re going over 5 Key points -Biblical truths and PERSPECTIVES that will strengthen you for the inevitable battles or challenges you are going to face on your journey of growth.
Crossing over into the promises of God...our faith walk from “glory to glory” is not a promise to be easy. You are going to have to fight battles and TAKE what is yours. You are going to have to show your faith IN ACTION.
Remember WHO is in charge...and honor your duty as a servant. This is Biblical “warrior” status.
Your reality is not God’s reality. If you are marching forward and working IN HIS PRESENCE... You cannot fail. You ARE victorious because He IS your success!
You will have battles even though you are walking in and towards the promises of God. Just because you struggle doesn’t mean that God isn’t in it. Ask Him for wisdom for He gives generously.
Set your plan and intentions, but trust God to orchestrate the details.
LET’S STAY CONNECTED
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Michelle5Hiatt
Email: hello@nourishingmichelle.com
Full Episode Transcription:
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.
Today is part two of success principles from the book of Joshua. Today, we're talking all about battle blueprints, strategies and expectations that we can use for our journey of growth. I don't know about you, but as a business minded mama with a heart for home, who is intentional and love seeing goals accomplished or progress moving forward? I want all the tips and strategies for success. I've learned a lot on my self development journey and glean a lot of wisdom from others but at the end of the day, all the personal growth videos, YouTube videos, podcasts, books, blogs, it will all sell you short if you're not rooted in the word of God. So of course, I want to share with you some of my insight from experience for conquering those goals for your life and fighting your battles. But the most important thing I want to share is God's perspective, the simple truth he revealed to me in the Bible and my quiet time.
I share this so humbly because I want you to know that I am learning and reminding myself of these things right along with you. I want you to know that I'm always here with you on this journey growing alongside you. And I just hope that you feel that support and that sisterhood relationship in the in the process. I want to encourage you always to dig into the Bible yourself and see what special things God wants to reveal to you. Specifically, His Word is alive and living and he has a fresh word for you today, I am sure of it.
The Book of Joshua is full of principles and perspectives for success as you march forward and faith and really fight the battles you need to fight daily to move towards your goals, dreams and desires. We can learn so much about what this process can look like when we look in the book of Joshua. I've been unpacking some of my notes in previous episodes and I want to pick up where I left off. But first I want to remind you to check out episode 10 and 11 and also episode 19, which is part one of this episode.
Any Kingdom minded entrepreneur or mom pursuing God's best will glean so much from these biblical truths. These episodes are rock solid and I encourage you to share them with others too. Just as a way to encourage them and be a blessing. Whenever you are crossing over into something new, looking to gain ground and business preparing for a transition, pursuing the promises of God in your life is not easy. Let me repeat that. It is not easy. And for some of you right now, it's just like okay, all right. You're speaking my language. I'm not alone in this. It's not and you know what, there's a lot of battles that we must face along the way. I know you feel me on this. You my friend are going to find a lot of encouragement in this conversation today. So let's let's get into it.
As a mom, me personally with a you know little maybe large perfectionist bone in my body. I babied my first couple kids a lot a good bit when they were little and I took on a lot of the responsibilities myself. I cared about quality and excellence and felt that nobody could do it better than me. So what happens naturally is we tend to do it all. Also, I felt that I was loving my children loving my family by doing everything. Well it doesn't take long after you've had the third baby that you realize you are severely outnumbered and those perfectionist standards start to fly out the window. And by the time you have a fifth baby, you're just like trying to keep their names straight and take whatever help you can get. But having kids is one of the greatest refining processes you'll ever have. And I've learned to let a lot go in the process. All that to say that as a mom, you learn and you grow and one of the things that I've learned is that it is not in my children's best interest for me to do everything for them. Even if I can do it better. They need to learn and figure things out. They'll miss out on many life lessons if I give them everything they ever want or need on a quote silver platter. However, as a mom, it is my intention to always set them up for success. So whatever is expected of them, I do my part to guide them, direct them, train them do whatever is necessary to set them up for success. But I don't do it all for them. actually feel like the more kids I have an older they get to that the less I do for them that I ever have. I'm always here for them. They know that I'm right there. I watch over them and give them the vision and the leadership they need. I love them well, but they've got to step up. It's for their good because I want them to grow. I love them enough to allow them and give them the space and the opportunity to grow. Well, God as our good good Heavenly Father wants us to grow, wants us to grow in our faith. In a similar way. God sets us up for success. He gives us His promises. He fills us with a spirit he guides and directs our lives. But we actually have to move to take action.
When I was growing up I remember as a teenager I just would always picture myself kind of as as one of those string puppets. I was like God use me, do whatever you want with me, God. I just wanted him to move my arms move my legs just kind of like let him be in charge and I was the puppet and just let him do his thing. I've learned as life goes on. It doesn't take too long to figure out that actually you're the hands and you're the feet of Jesus and you actually have to move yourself with his guidance and with his leadership is our works that show our faith and we're here you're listening right now because you're a woman of faith, right? But how do we know this? We show this by the works of our hands. And it is this work. It'll look different and how have many different job descriptions along the way depending on the season of life that we're in. But righteousness often looks like work.
I want to read you a passage from our devotional yesterday with the kids if you missed it, go back a few episodes back. I can't remember what episode number it is at the top of my head about reading to your kids and giving them a biblical worldview. I love these devotionals called Hero tales and we've been reading about Amy Carmichael and she is a missionary in India. It's been such a beautiful story, but I was really touched by her story yesterday because basically she's in India. She went over there for mission work of course and she's traveling from village to village really doing her missionary dream if you well doing the things that look holy, that look righteous that that she feels like God has called her to do and her plans get changed dramatically. When she kind of gets thrown into a situation where she finds herself rescuing these Hindu girls these are girls. She pretty much pioneered the way for human trafficking before it was even a thing. These are these are temple girls and they were sold to the temple of the Hindu gods when they were little girls and they were very abused and it wasn't good. And so she ended up rescuing these girls and people began bringing her these girls, even babies. So let me pick up and read what it says. It says but these little jewels were a lot of work especially the baby's feeding, burping changing diapers rocking, hushing, and then it had to be done all over again. Sometimes when Amy was rocking a crying baby, she remembered the thrill of traveling from village to village telling people about Jesus. Had she done the right thing to give up that important work just to take care of babies.
Maybe you felt like that mom, maybe you're you've had a career or you had some something that you really loved and were passionate about and you feel like you gave it all up when you had kids. And now all you do is feed babies and change diapers and clean up dishes and clean up the crumbs and kiss the boo boos and do it all over again. Maybe you resonate with that. It goes then Amy reread the Bible story about when Jesus kneel down and wash the feet of his disciples. It was dirty work the work of a servant. Then Jesus told his disciples to follow his example. All right, I will. I'm God's servant. He agreed. And he did give me these little ones to care for.
Now in India, social caste or social class was very, very big back then, like you only did the things that were appropriate for your class that you were in. And so it says in this story One day a new Christian came to Donna for fellowship. This is her organization where she's rescuing these children and wanting to help with the babies. But when Amy asked her to wash the nursery floor, she refused. I can't. It's against It's against my cast. It would be too humiliating. She protested. Amy took the bucket of soapy water and got down on her knees. Housework she said gently, like any other job is God's work. Whatever we do becomes a good and holy task. If we do it for God. Isn't that a beautiful story? Your work moms. It doesn't have to be glamorous to be glorifying to God. Let your faith manifests itself into the works of your hands. And always remember to ask God what you want to be working towards ended define success with him. Faith he wants to move you forward towards your goals even if it looks different than you maybe thought or imagined.
In James 2, there's an entire passage about what faith looks like I actually read this yesterday and I just want to share this with you. It says,
"What good is it dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions. Can that kind of faith save anyone? So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue some people have faith others have good deeds but I say how can you show me your faith if you don't have good deeds? I will show you by my faith. I, my good deeds. You say you have faith for you believe that there is one God. Good for you. Even the demons believe this and they tremble and tear. How foolish! Can't you see that without good deeds, it's useless."
It's so crazy to me how in the Bible, God talks about land he will give his people time and time again. He reminds them of his promise to give keyword give them the land. He says things like I will bring you to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I will give it to you for a possession I am the Lord to your descendants. I will give this land I will give you the land up possess it, give give give. And then finally after all this time passes there's the waiting a wandering all the struggles of the process. The Israelites are finally there. They cross over the Jordan. They get into the land that they've been given. And God is like, there you go. But you have to take it. Like say what God You mean you said you would give me this land. He's like, yes, I've given it to you. But you have to take it. Even though God had gone before them and was going to give them the victory. It was already promised. They still had to go into battle. They still had to take it. The Promise Land didn't just fall in their lap. You have to know that as you move and grow in business, as a wife as a mother towards whatever goals that you have in your heart. You are going to have to fight battles and take what is yours. You're going to have to show your faith in action. You will not possess what you don't pursue. We have to remember that the battle belongs to the Lord. And that's the good news. I love that. It's his battle. His victory is ours. He is our victory and so we can have competence in that today. Knowing that there's going to be some challenges along the way. Let's talk about God's perspective for battle.
I love looking in Joshua because you can see the Israelites in their journey and their process and you can just see the bigger picture when you're from the outside looking in. So I love to see God operate and let's talk a little bit about his perspective. So we know we have some battles ahead and in Joshua five this is where the Lord's commander confronts Joshua. I'm going to read straight from the Bible here. It says,
"When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in his hand.
Joshua went up to him and demanded "Are you a friend or a foe?"
"Either one," he replied. "I am the commander of the Lord's army." At this Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence.
"I am at your command," Joshua said "what do you want your servant to do?"
Commander of the Lord's army replied, "take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did as he was told.
You remember how Moses had a similar experience when he met God in a burning bush? Life goes in cycles is interesting how we have to continuously be reminded of these truths, because we find ourselves in similar moments. As we move forward. By God's grace. We're moving from glory to glory. But here's the point of that. When Joshua met face to face with the commander of the Lord's army, he realized who it was he took off his shoes just like Moses did, because it was a holy moment and a holy place. He understood in that moment, who was in charge. He understood that he was a servant and he humbled himself as he honored the presence of God. This reminds me how Moses was also referred to continuously. He was always referred to the Bible as the servant of the Lord, the servant of the Lord. It is an honor to be a servant. I just need to tell myself that over and over every day because so much of our life as mothers it is serving business. Newsflash, it is serving. It is work. Okay, that we have to honor that remember who's in charge. There's always more than what our eyes can see. Our battles are not against flesh and blood and we have to trust that God fights our battles on our behalf. What a great reminder that story was. We simply need to stand in faith and march forward and obedience. He will bring the walls down and do the impossible the most important thing is that God is on our side and we are warriors in his army, not as charging ahead in our own ways, dragging him along, but we are warriors and his army that he is on the throne. Remember to keep God in the front line on the throne of your heart. That's really a heart posture more than anything, but an all you do. If you want great success in the battles that you're going to have to face you are His servant created for good works in faith.
Proverbs 16: 25 says, "There is a path before each person that seems right, but in the end, it leads to death."
God's ways are higher than ours. We've just got to trust him. We've got to trust that he's in charge. He knows best and we've got to let Him lead. God doesn't just give us a promise and drop it in our lap. We have to take action on it. We have to march in faith. We have many battles and obstacles that we have to overcome along the way. And we've got to know deep down our identity that we're warriors who we are. The task at hand that usually looks like work and it takes time. The good news is that God lives outside of time, and we can trust that if he said it, he will do it, no matter how long it takes. That's one of the things I love reading about these stories. Somebody like say Amy Carmichael, you can look at her life and you can see oh my gosh, it looks almost like in the moment how it would seem like time is wasted. Her time is standing still or we're taking a step. Back or this is unproductive or we've hit a major detour. But when you look at the big picture, you're like, No, this was purposeful. God was working in this was timely.
Only God can speak to the past about what is to come. Let me give you an example. This is so cool. In Joshua talking about the battle of Jericho, which was the first battle that the Israelites had to face in the Promised Land. These are two verses back to back, okay. It says now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of Israelites. No one was allowed to go in or out. So the reality, reality was Jericho. was tightly shut. People were afraid nobody's going in or out. It is sealed. It's a sealed deal. It's a done deal. But the very next verse, it says, But the Lord said to Joshua, I have given you Jericho, it's King and all its strong. Warriors, or reality. I reality is not God's reality. Keep the faith and do whatever God tells you to do, even if it doesn't make sense. Sometimes, the victory comes through shouts of praise and just being in God's presence. The Israelites marched around Jericho day after day with no change. made no sense. One stone fell out of the wall no progress was happening. I can't imagine how they must have felt just walking around every day like okay, God. What's next? What's what's happening here? I mean, it just, it literally made no sense. Nothing was happening. It seemed ridiculous, really. Have you ever felt like that? God, I'm marching. I'm walking in obedience. I'm doing what I feel like you're calling me to do and I don't see I'm getting anywhere. Nothing's happening. I'm not making any progress. And I feel like I'm doing all the right things. When you find yourself questioning. Remember the story but remember what the Bible says.
He says, "The seven priests with the ram's horn started marching in the presence of the Lord blowing the horns as they marched. So when the walls came down, they were in the presence of the Lord."
If you're marching forward and you're moving forward, and you're working in his presence, you cannot fail you are will be victorious.
The bible says, "Do not shout! Do not even talk. Joshua commanded, Not a single word from any of you until I tell you to shout, then shout."
Sometimes when comes to receiving God's promises, our mouth gets in the way sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do I heard a pastor say this one sometimes I'm a spiritual thing we can do is zip our lips and March. People were to march in silence around Jericho. Interesting. Remember, on this story, remember the power of your tongue and the things that you speak and and the things that you don't speak. Your critical part of the process. Speak when he tells you to speak. Be silent. When you're to be silent. Just let God do it. Each battle or active moving forward looks different. The Israelites it's so fascinating when you look in Joshua and you look at all the battles that they face. Each battle looks so different. The Israelites were to martyr on Jericho and one battle and then in the very next one there to fiercely attack. They were supposed to keep nothing for themselves in one victory and in another there to take all the plunder. The most important thing was that they were obedient to the God they were just following his command. You're a success in your obedience in the presence of the Lord. I encourage you to read Joshua, the story of the Battle of Jericho and then right after that read the story against the Battle of Ai.
It's totally different strategies. In that story, the second one the bible says
"Then the Lord said to Joshua point the spear in your hand towards Ai. I will hand the town over to you. Joshua did as he was commanded. As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped out from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire" and then a whole bunch of other crazy gruesome stuff happens and then it says "For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed. Joshua held out his spear towards the town for the entire day in this battle to lead them to victory."
This was a totally different battle strategy than with Jericho. It was pretty brutal and pretty aggressive. But you know what it was God's plan. And that's what matters. It was God's plan, different seasons of our life. We're gonna call for different strategies and some might resonate with us. We're like, Yeah, I like this guy. I like this marching thing. This is cool. And then other times, you're like, No, I don't want to fight that's a little too aggressive. That's a little too much. That's a little too scary. You know what, just be obedient. Be obedient to whatever God calls you. Ask him what his battle blueprints are for you ask him what his strategy is for you. There's going to be battles. This is the point on our journey. There are going to be battles, even when we're walking in and towards the promises of God, so don't get discouraged if the road seems hard. If it seems challenging, it doesn't mean that God is not in it.
By Joshua 12, right. By the time we get to Joshua 12, the number of kings that Israel defeated remember, this isn't the promised land so they crossed the promised land. This is the land they've been given. And by Joshua 12, only on the west side, they've defeated 31 kings. That's a lot of battles. That's a lot of circumstances they've had to go through.
It says again, in Joshua 8 it reminds him again, it says, "For the Lord your God will give it to you." He's always reminding them I'm giving this to you. Even though this was true, they still had to prepare. They had to strategize. They had to get up early, they had to take their possession in battle. It's interesting, how the land was already promised to them, but it wasn't theirs until they took it.
So again, I'm just reading these notes and I know that God is going to speak to you through this and that you're just going to glean some encouragement, some wisdom some insight, because I think this is so powerful and so encouraging, specifically for entrepreneurs, for us moms pursuing more. So ask yourself the question, what has God promised you in your life? What promises do you need to walk in today? And what action do you need to take? Israelites they had to take action, even talks about in the Bible, how they explored the land, they had to write out a description. They mapped out the territory, they had to do their part. They figured a lot of things out, but then they asked God and trusted him to do his part. They decided which territory belong to what tribe but at the end of the day, they cast their I think it call it they call it sacred lots before the Lord and let him have the final say. He had to plan it out. But God orchestrated every detail of the battles. So in conclusion, because I know there's just so much richness and goodness that I've just been sharing. Let me just share with you some of the main points that we can gather from Joshua, from this passage.
The first point is that crossing over into the promises of God on our faith walk from glory to glory. Not a promise that is going to be easy. You're going to have to fight battles it's going to happen and Take what is yours, you're going to have to show your faith in action. In your good works. Stay faithful. I always say this is just the cry of my heart. Just to stay faithful and know that in your faithfulness, you will bear fruit and do season.
Okay, point number two. Remember who is in charge and honor your duty as a servant. This is a biblical warrior status. You want to have warrior status from a Bible perspective, from a god perspective. Be a servant, be the servant of all, love others and serve others. There you go.
Number three, your reality is not God's reality. You're marching forward and moving and working in his presence. You cannot fail. You are victorious. He is your success. God is our greatest success. And if nothing else, if we just walk in His presence, gosh, that is everything that is everything. And sometimes I think he wants not sometimes I believe he wants our hearts to be so fixed on him. That nothing else matters that we want him we seek Him more than the earthly gains more than the goals more than the progress more than the accomplishments more than the followings of the likes or whatever. We want him to be on the throne of our heart and our heartbeat position in that way.
Point number four, you're going to have battles even though you're walking in and towards the promises of God, but just because you struggle doesn't mean that God isn't in it. I love that. That's so awesome and encouraging. Just ask God. Ask Him for wisdom. The Bible says he gives it generously.
So set your plans and intentions and trust God to orchestrate the details. Every battle that you face every challenge that comes it's going to look different. Just got to ask God. There's no blueprint for everybody. God didn't create us with a cookie cutter plan. He created us to walk and abide in a relationship with him to listen to his spirit walk with Him. And we need to ask him to commit to fighting our battles his way. Ask God How are you supposed to fight about how am I supposed to fight my battles? Are you supposed to wait on Him and worship? Are you to march in silence? Are you to strategize and take massive action? Are you to relentlessly fight until the job is done leaving no stone unturned? Just be alert. The Bible also remind us to be alert to the tactics of the enemy. Be aware of the testing and ask God about everything. I know that he will not fail you.
So Father God, I just thank you so much for the truth of your word. Thank you for encouraging us today with Scripture and thank you that we're your chosen people God. Thank you for what we can learn from the Israelites but that we we are woman of God. We are women of faith. We are your chosen people. We are your daughters, daughters at the Most High King we are your warriors, God. And I pray that above all, you just give us a heart to serve, to love and to stay faithful God and that when hard times come and when challenges comes, we wouldn't beat ourselves up, we wouldn't get discouraged, we wouldn't blame ourselves and keep on guilt and shame that is not of you, God. That we would look to you and we would fight in faith. That we will remember who's in charge God, that we would ask you, how you want us to fight how you want us to show up God, what strategy you have for us and that no matter what at the end of the day we would obey you and just walk in your presence. God we thank that you are a victory Lord, we just worship you we honor you we put you on the throne of our life. Thank You that You are the Commander in Chief of our life God and that we are soldiers in your army and that we don't have to have all the answers we don't have to have it all figured out. We don't even have to have a smooth road God you equip us for battle God and I pray that the mom listening that you would just equip her and anoint her and empower her today. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Hey Mama real quick, before you run off and do all the things, if you found value in today's conversation it would mean the world to me if you left a review on my podcast. I know you know how precious time is. The biggest thing that you can give me for taking the time to share on this podcast is to leave a written review. This helps me on my mission to encourage and empower others who are pursuing their greatest potential from home.
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
