Hey mama, I think you understand that developing a business is HARD!
Motherhood is Hard
Being a wife is Hard
Relationships can be Hard
Life can just be hard at times and when we face those hard crossroads...you know, the moments where you question everything and are on the brink of giving up?
THESE are the golden opportunities to dig deep within and deep into God’s Word.
It’s very encouraging to see the journey of the Israelites - God’s CHOSEN people and what their story looked like in the Book of Joshua. It gives so much hope, encouragement, and VISION for the HARD in our life.
First, I want to encourage you to go back to episodes 10, 11...and then 19 and 20 to catch up on ALL the treasures we’ve already uncovered! These episodes are LOADED with value...not just encouragement but clear blueprints for YOUR success as a kingdom entrepreneur.
When you are pursuing a business or a goal - GOD’S WAY...things often look different! So let’s learn from the battles of the Israelites in Joshua so that we can be strengthened for TODAY!
So, pull out that journal again to take some notes and grab a cup of your favorite beverage and let’s have a little podcast Bible study together!
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.
Before we get started, I wanted to ask a quick favor of you-would you be so kind to take a minute and leave a review or share this podcast with someone today? My heart is to spread God's goodness into the homes of women just like you and I need your help to bring awareness that The Nourishing Mompreneur podcast is available for those looking for support on their journey. There is greater strength when you have the opportunity to process life together and I just want to be a friend to you in this way. So thank you in advance for your support. I so much appreciate you tuning in today and for taking your precious time to grow and develop yourself and just to seek God more. I'm proud of you and I can't wait for you to hear all this beautiful wisdom from the Word of God that you can be empowered today to be successful.
Today we're going to go over part 3 and success principles from the book of Joshua I didn't know how long this was going to take. But I don't want to rush these amazing biblical truths that you and I both need to embrace in our lives and for our journey. So I've just kind of been going through my notes through my journal, some of the things that I've jotted down during my quiet time, things that have just stuck out to me from the book of Joshua, and they're so relevant to us today. Not just in our lives, but especially as we pursue God's best as we cross over into greatness, as we are women and entrepreneurs just seeking more for our lives. This is so good for us you know, following God will lead you where you're supposed to be but it's hard because he takes you to places you've never been before.
The first point I want to make from reading through my journal is that even when you are walking in the promises of God, there will be many attacks. The Israelites they not only had battles, but people were also ganging up coming together ganging up against them to attack them. But if God is for you, who can be against you? We've already talked about how there's going to be a lot of challenges and battles on our personal growth journey. That's actually how we grow. When we face those hard moments. You know, the moments where you question everything and you're on the brink of giving up. These are the golden opportunities to dig deep within and deep into God's word. It's actually encouraging to see the journey of the Israelites God's chosen people and what it looks like for them. For them, it looks like wandering. It looks like confusion. At times. It looked like discomfort and looked like growing pains. It looked like fighting through challenges. But God was with them. They were his people. And you my friend are God's girl and he loves you more than you know. He cares more about your heart than about your comfort and he wants you to grow in faith and he wants you to just do amazing things in your life.
We talked about in the last episode, how there's going to be battles in our life, even as we walked in and towards the promises of God. So we've got to ask Him about everything. God what does success look like to you? What is my next right step? God how am I going to fight this battle? what should be my strategy here? God show me the way and help me to walk in obedience. And naturally as we go, we're going to make some mistakes and mess up and today I want to encourage you with a few examples from the Israelites and their battles. You'll see that even though they made mistakes, God was still got any redeem the situation.
So the first thing I want to bring up is from Joshua 9. There's a story about Gideon and how he deceived the Israelites. I'm just going to read it straight from the Bible and then we'll chat about for a second. It says, "but when the people of Gideon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and I, they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua loading their donkey with weathered saddlebags and old patched wineskins. They put on worn out patch sandals and ragged clothes. And the bread they took with them was dry and moldy. When they arrived in the camp of Israel at Gilgal. They told Joshua and the men of Israel, we have come from a distant land to ask you to make a peace treaty with us.
The Israelites replied to these Hivites. "How do we know you don't live nearby? For if you do we cannot make a treaty with you."
They replied, "We are Your servants."
"But who are you?" Joshua demanded. "Where do you come from?"
They answered, "your servants have come from a very distinct country. Please make a peace treaty with us."
So the Israelites examine their food, but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them and guarantee their safety and the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath.
Wow. So the Israelites weren't trying to make a peace treaty with the enemy. They were actually trying to do the right thing, but they made a big mistake here. Here they are. They're in the land that they've been given. They're in the Promised Land. And their mission is to conquer it to conquer all of these people that are living there before them to wipe out the nations before them. And here they go and on accident, make a big mistake and they make a peace treaty with their enemy. And now by Oh, they cannot kill this large group of people. There's no way the root of their mistake was that they did not ask God first. They did what they thought seemed like a good thing. They made the decision that seemed best based off the information they were given. They had faith and others their heart wasn't wrong. But they didn't ask God. Gosh, that's so convicting for me because how many times we make decisions and we do what we think is best. We take all the information we figure things out, you know, as moms, we're problem solvers. But we forget to ask God, let's not forget to ask Him about everything. But God is so good because he redeems every situation he can and in this situation he redeemed it by actually making those people slaves. The perfect plan was for him to wipe out all of these people but because they made this peace treaty, this Oh, they couldn't kill them. And so what it says in the Bible, it says, May you be cursed from now on? Is it the enemies he's talking to? You will be servants You will always be servants who cut wood and carry water for the house of my God.
So not just any slaves, the people that were supposed to be wiped out actually became slaves, but not just any slaves, but the enemies of God. Right. They were actually ended up serving in the house of God. Isn't that just like God to do that, to make our mistake for His glory? Just like in Psalms 23. He says, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows."
Even when you mess up, we can have hope because ours is the victory through Christ. He can redeem every situation. Just as Joseph accidentally made a peace covenant with the enemies of God. God redeemed it. You cannot fail with God. And I love the promise. We all know this verse But Romans 8:28 We can never get enough of this. It says, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose."
The second point I want to bring up this is from Joshua 10. As we're looking at the Israelites as they're here in the Promised Land, and they're fighting battles. They're conquering the people that are taking possession of the land. We want to remember to always remember that there is more than what meets the eye. Don't live by what you see, but live by what God says. So when we look in Joshua 10, the Israelites are facing another impossible battle rhyming impossible. I mean, they were all the odds were against them time and time again. It's crazy. These stories are awesome. You've really got to go to read it for yourself. But the Lord told Joshua, "Do not fear them for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you."
This is the same battle where God sent hailstones to kill most of the enemy, says the Lord destroy them with a terrible heels hailstorm from heaven that continued until they reached Ezekiah. The hail killed more of the enemy than the Israelites killed with the sword. So crazy. It's like these situations are impossible, and God just comes in and sends a hailstorm and like wipes them all out. And so we're here in the same battle later on, where God had the sun stand still in the sky and totally were victorious and they finished the fight.
It says in Joshua 10:14 "There had been no day like it before or since. When the Lord heated the voice of man." Meaning he heard their cry. He heard their requests. It says "for the Lord fought for Israel."
You may not always feel prepared but you can always be dependent. Our strength is found in our dependency on God, and we've got to trust him. There is nothing to impossible for God. Now moving along in the next chapter, we're reminded that when you're walking in the promises of God, the land that God has given you, there's going to be many attacks. We've already talked about this are fighting battles, but there's also attacks, others are going to team up against you in opposition and the realities that you see with your eyes may seem impossible, but God it says in their next battle, that I'm quoting this from the Bible says their combined army so there's all these armies. They're like, oh my goodness, we need to take out the Israelites. Let's collaborate. Let's get together and let's let's do this together. They combine their armies and formed a vast Horde, says and all our horses and chariots, they cover the landscape like sand on the seashore. I cannot even imagine how Joshua and his men must have felt I mean, clearly they were outnumbered. It was just crazy. It's one against many.
Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them. By this time tomorrow. I will hand all of them over to Israel as dead men." So again, we talked about this in the last episode, but it's just a reminder that the things that we see with our eyes are not the way God sees it. There is so much more going on behind the scenes and we have to trust him. We can't you know what he's done. It's finished before it's already begun. He already I said this before, but I love this concept and I'll never get enough of it that our future is his past like it's already finished. The victory is his it's already been done. We're just figuring it out in process, but it's already done. So God already had given them the Victor and he told them this but yet what they saw everything they saw with their earthly eyes looked impossible. We don't have to know how the victory will come. We just have to know who is on the throne. Impossible is where God moves. If God says the victory is yours you can believe him. It will be just as he says, yes and amen. His promises are yes and amen. So believe whatever God says, hold on to his promises in your heart. I love the little I don't know mantra or affirmation, if you will. It's I think it goes say what you see until you see what you say. Speak life. Say what you see say what? God shows you what you see with your heavenly eyes, until you see with your earthly eyes what you say. Joshua told his men as they were about to slaughter, the kings of who they were conquering, so they've got all these kings. He has five kings rounded up in this one store again, there's so many battles that happen in Joshua and there's just really cool things. I'm just kind of pulling out some highlights so that you can glean some of the principles that you can see in these stories.
So they're conquering these people. Joshua's got five men rounded up kings, and he's about to slaughter them. And he tells his men in that moment, he says, "Don't ever be afraid or discouraged." Joshua told his men, "be strong and courageous. For the Lord is going to do this," meaning wipe them out. He's going to do this to all of your enemies. So as your friend today, I want to tell you the same. I want to tell you and remind you to be strong and courageous. God is fighting for you. You may not see it, you may not feel it. You may not understand it, but it doesn't mean that God is not in it. Keep the faith and keep working out your faith as you pursue your greatest potential. It is for God's glory. Yes, the Israelites. They did become famous. Everybody knew and talked about this conquering, victorious nation and all the great things they were doing and all they had done. It was it was clear in all the land who these people were. But that is not why they were doing it. They were fighting forward and obedience to receive the promises of gods that God would be glorified for generations to come. So don't be discouraged if what you have or where you're at seems small. Give God your little. And do your part of Kingdom work while you're here on this earth. In Joshua 13, It says "when Joshua was an old man, the Lord said to him, "you are growing old and much land remains to be conquered.""
It's amazing that Joshua had such a full life he did so much he was there before they cross over into the promised land. He was the first one that scattered it out. And then he ended up taking the Israelites over to the promised land and you know, leading them in battle to fight time and time again. And even at the end of his life, they were still fighting. They were still taking territory, they were still in battle. God's purpose, outlives us, our legacy will live beyond us. Our life may be only a piece of his great design, but let's stay faithful to the end. As long as we have breath in our lungs God is still working in and through us. And that just brings me so much hope. I hope that brings you so much hope today. We are leaving a legacy mom's and so much of our life. It's not about us. So much of your life. It's not about you. It's about the future generations to come. So fight fearlessly and let it not be about you. Keep your eyes on Jesus. He is the author and the finisher of your faith. If you want more in your life, you've got to accept the hard and the journey of entrepreneurship and personal growth. I'm sorry, it's hard and it can feel so heavy. All these truths. That we're talking about in these last few episodes. They sound good and they're encouraging. And they're not that hard to digest in our heads, but they're harder to reconcile in our hearts when we're actually going through those things. We need more of God's glory. You need his presence in our life. The word glory you know in the Old Testament is the word "weight" w-e-i-g-h-t if I can spell that correctly, and the word is the word weight.
The call about on our life can feel heavy. Your business your calling your purpose. It's not about you the work of your hands is simply an opportunity a platform to make a greater difference in the lives of others and bring the kingdom of God to earth through the life that you live and the work of your hands. So don't complicate things. seek God's presence and choose to be more presence driven than purpose driven. You hear them say that all the time is seek God's face, not his hands. You always want to seek his blessings. We want him to do this for us and I think it's Christine Caine. She's like "God is not your sugar daddy." Oh my goodness. He gives us what we need. He knows what's best for us. It may not look like we want it to we may not understand. There's a lot of things we won't understand. But stay the course. God's presence. It's not passive. It's for Warriors. Israel lost every battle that they didn't pray through. So at the end of the day, at the end of the conversation, I always want to just point you back to the Lord and let you know where I'm at and what I'm learning and growing in daily. It's like, gosh, we just got to seek His presence. He is the answer to everything and it starts and ends with him. So let's connect the worship with the work. The presence of God is not for us to feel empowered. It's for us to go forward in power.
Let's pray today. Father God, thank you so much that you are for us and if you are for us, who can be against us God we thank you that Your ways are higher than ours, and that we can trust you no matter what God. Lord, I pray that the mom listening that whatever she's going through whatever she sees with her eyes, whatever she feels in her heart, Lord, that she would just take her emotions, her feelings, her thoughts captive, and she would just submit it to you God, that you would be on the throne of her life today and that she would just trust you and know that there's way more going on behind the scenes. And she can see that that the battle she's facing are not against flesh and blood and that she is victorious by your strength and that her strength actually comes from her dependency on you God as she seeks your face. Lord I thank You that You know us and you know how we're gonna mess up and we're gonna make mistakes God that you redeem every situation, or thank you for the call on our lives. Thank you for the purpose that you've given us. Thank You that You've given us a call and a desire and a dream for more God. May we live with vision and purpose to leave a beautiful legacy behind by the life that we choose to live today God. Empower us and strengthen us and may we move forward and go forward in power and love others well and serve others well today. In Jesus name I pray, 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
