April 11, 2025 • 59 mins
What happens when God asks you to be the answer?
In this powerful episode, Dr. Linda Jones shares the defining moment that launched her ministry—standing in her backyard, frustrated by women who couldn’t seem to hold on to their spiritual healing. God’s response? “So what are YOU going to do about it?” That divine question became the foundation of her life’s work.
Dr. Jones opens up with rare authenticity about her journey through personal trauma—including domestic abuse and the heartbreaking loss of four pregnancies—and how those painful experiences became the soil for her calling. She challenges the “just pray it away” mindset that often oversimplifies healing in faith communities, and instead introduces a holistic framework she developed called H.E.R.S.: Healing, Equipping, and Restoring to Serve.
💡 In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How unhealed trauma often shows up as anger, reactivity, and emotional shutdown
- Why spiritual healing must be paired with practical tools like journaling, counseling, and community
- The myth of being “fully healed” before you can serve others
- How to move from emotional survival to divine purpose
- The power of leading while bleeding—and why your story matters now
✨ Whether you’re navigating deep pain or supporting others on their healing journey, this conversation offers encouragement, wisdom, and tangible steps toward transformation.
👉 Ready to heal, grow, and serve from a place of wholeness? Tune in and learn how your greatest wounds might hold the keys to your most powerful ministry.
🔗 Connect with Dr. Linda Jones
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pastorlindapjones/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lindap_jones
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-p-jones-ministries/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lpjministries/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_EQ72np32CrtxgJY_-GE5w
Mail: linda@lindapjones.org
Website: lindapjones.org
If you're seeking community, email grow@gracefieldcommunity.com and we would be happy to connect you with trusted community partners near you.
Connect with Us:
Visit our website at www.gracefilledcommunity.com
Follow us on Facebook: GraceFilled Community
Follow us on Instagram @gracefilledcommunity.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Nicole Cater, your host, founder and
servant leader of GracevilleCommunity.
I want to thank you for tuningin to Graceville Community
Podcast.
This is a safe space, a placein which we just share stories
of how God has touchedindividuals' lives all across
the world and how they are nowimpacting the kingdom of God.
(00:21):
Thank you for tuning in.
Blessings to you.
Hello Graceville community, Iam so excited to say howdy to
you once again.
Today we have an amazing guestand I know you guys are like
Nicole.
You tell us that every week,but every week it's been good,
(00:43):
right?
Yes, so I am so excited fortoday, as always, we're going to
have just great conversation,conversation about our goodness
of the Lord and also the realityof life.
So I welcome you to tune in,listen in view, in from wherever
(01:04):
you are.
Welcome to Gracefield CommunityPodcast.
So I'm not going to hold us up.
As always, I'm going to diveright in.
Let me just tell you actually,let me pause.
I'm going to let her tell you alittle bit about herself.
Welcome today, dr Linda Jones.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you so much for inviting me onto the podcast.
It's a pleasure.
It really is.
I always count it an honor tobe on anybody's podcast.
I think that's an honor givenby God.
Well, you wanted me to share alittle bit about myself briefly?
Yes, please, okay.
(01:44):
Little bit about myself briefly.
Yes, please, okay.
I'm Linda P Jones.
There's another Linda P Jones,but I'm Dr Linda P Jones and I'm
a transformational leader,mentor, life coach and speaker.
I have a doctorate in practicaltheology from the University of
Masters InternationalUniversity of Divinity in
(02:05):
Evansville, indiana.
I was born in Trinidad, westIndies, and migrated to Canada
in my teens and, through a veryCinderella story, I met my
husband and relocated toBarbados, west Indies, so back
in the Caribbean, but not in myhomeland, and I have several
(02:26):
citizenships, so I considermyself a global citizen.
I have one that I was born inand I have two that I legally
have, so I think I have aboutthree citizenships.
Yeah, don't tell anybody, but Ido.
I.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I'm like I'm sure that's a hot topic nowadays,
like I don't let them know.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So, yeah, actually I'm welcoming, I can go into any
of these three countries,including the United States,
actually without any problembecause of my Canadian
citizenship.
Yeah, so my motto is empoweringwomen to be hers H-E-R-S Healed
, equipped and Restored to Serve.
I'm the founder of Linda PJones Ministries Women of Worth
(03:14):
as well as Soul Survivors Ispell survivors with the H-E-R-S
at the end because that's theframework of the ministry Healed
, equipped, restore to Serve,which is an online global
academy, biblically based, tomentor women to help them
overcome their past, especiallythose that are eager to move
(03:36):
into their God-ordained destinythrough biblical equipping
courses and coaching.
I'm an author of several booksI think about 12 or 13 on Amazon
and my superpower is biblicalteaching and that's my
superpower and I do enjoyteaching very, very much.
(03:59):
My personal mission statement isLuke 4, 18 to 19.
I figure you can do better thanJesus, because that was his
mission statement and so it'smine to heal the brokenhearted,
set captives free, open prisondoors.
That's basically what mymission statement is and
(04:20):
basically that I've served inseveral capacities and in
several different countries.
I've spoken viral and I'm onlocation.
I'm married to Oliver Jones forover 35 years Congratulations.
Actually, we celebrated ourfourth year last year, so I was
(04:41):
married when I was about in myteen.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Sorry, I was a teeny, teeny girl when I was married,
when I was about, you know, inmy team, sorry, and we have one
adult daughter from that umunion, yeah, awesome.
Well, I mean, like yournutshell, there has a wealth of
wisdom right there in it, um, somuch that I'm sure of just
(05:07):
wisdom right there in it, somuch that I'm sure of just
testimonies of how God has beenwith you through all these moves
and through life.
Right, I mean 40 years ofmarriage.
Right there I'm hearingmultiple citizenships.
I can imagine what the processwas like, for that You're a mom.
I mean I can just imagine howmuch wisdom is flowing from you,
and so I'm excited for today'sconversation.
Being that you are atransformational coach, I would
(05:33):
say, right, share with me adefining moment in your life
that led you to minister towomen and help them heal from
trauma, like what brought youinto this or gave you this
passion for this touch.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It was a funny, it wasn't?
You know?
Some people say the Lord toldme this and the Lord told me
that it was one of those momentsI was literally in my back
veranda hanging out clothes andthough I've been in ministry for
many years in my church, when Iwas going to different the
assembly that I came out from, Iserved at several capacities,
(06:11):
several worship leader,intercessor, counselor, sunday
school teacher.
You know, I did the whole thing, but I was always running into
women with a lot of issues and Iremember one day hanging out
clothes in my back veranda andjust really fussing, fussing
with God.
I well, I was fussing, but Iwas really fussing with God and
(06:33):
I said why all these women?
Every time you meet them,they're broken, something is
wrong.
They come to church, and I wasparticularly referring to
Christians.
They come to church, you pourin, they rejoice, they're happy,
and next week you meet themthey're back to the same place.
What you know, and I'm justreally having this conversation.
So he said, um, it's becausethey have leaky and the word was
(07:00):
leaky leaky souls, because it'slike a basket and you keep
pouring into and because theirsouls are broken.
Everything just drips right out, you know runs right out.
So you're back to where theystarted.
So I'm going on and I'm good, becareful when you're having
(07:21):
conversations with God.
So I am going on and on, likewhat I'm going to do about it,
I'm going to do this and I'mgoing to do that.
So he said so what are yougoing to do about it?
And I went, oh, okay, like yeah, I want you fussing about it.
It's something on your heart,it's something that it's a
(07:43):
passion, obviously, and so youalready have within you what
needs to being about it.
It's something on your heart,it's something that it's a
passion, obviously, and so youalready have within you what
needs to be done about this.
So, literally I just because Iwas not as adventurous as I used
to be, but I was veryadventurous I do crazy things on
a whim and let the results fallwhere they may.
So I said, well, I'm going todo this and I'm going to do that
(08:06):
.
He said, girl, go right ahead.
So I started with seven women inmy living room At that time it
was called Women of Worth and Istarted with seven women,
started to.
I called them, I said are youinterested?
And seven showed up and Istarted to minister to them and
teach.
The word showed up.
And I started to minister tothem and teach the word, and,
(08:27):
and that grew and grew until wehad a um, a monthly meeting
called women of worth, come inmy basement.
And that grew.
And then I went into full-timeministry as a pastor and that
grew Right here I am now.
He took me out of full-timeministry, within the four walls,
and put me on to the onlinespace.
(08:48):
It was like dropping me off thecliff into the deep unknown.
I'm telling you.
So that's how it started and Ihaven't looked back.
Yes, well, I love it.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I mean, we all have our stories of trauma.
I've've done the study I'm notsure if you're familiar with it
how we love where they talkabout us coming from areas of
brokenness, right, because weare broken people and we tend to
be raised by broken people,right?
So whether they're caregivers,whether they're parents there
(09:23):
was some form of brokenness thathappened in the home, just
because we are imperfect peopleand so when we navigate through
life and we take these thingsand we go into adulthood,
there's a high chance that thereis some trauma there that needs
to be addressed, needs to behealed from, and so I love that
you're doing that, especiallywith women to be addressed,
(09:45):
these to be healed from, and soI love that you're doing that,
especially with women.
So many women struggle withthese past hurts, these
emotional wounds right, whetherthey're mother wounds, father
wounds, caregiver relationshipright Just all the various
wounds.
What do you suggest is thefirst step to breaking free and
really embracing healing?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
breaking free and really embracing healing.
Well, the first step I havefound I'm talking from my own
experience because I came from awhole lot of brokenness beyond
words with an alcoholic fatherin a.
He used to beat my mother upevery week.
You know a lot of physical andverbal abuse in the house.
So I came from tremendousamount of brokenness and I
remember when God accosted meand he said you know what it's
(10:35):
time to heal?
And I thought I remember sayingI don't think so, I am not
ready to touch this thing, andhe said okay, and that was it
for another few years I'mashamed to say how many years
until one day I finally said I'mready, I'm ready.
(10:56):
I was so broken and because ofmy brokenness I was negatively
affecting other people that Ilove and in my inner circle that
I realized I had to dosomething.
So the first step I would sayis acknowledging that you need
help.
As women, we tend to suppressour pain, believing that we are
strong and we are capable andyou know.
(11:18):
But true healing begins when weallow ourselves to be honest
before God and says I need help.
And the thing about the Lord isthat he always comes and ask a
question, like with Adam, adam,where thou?
Like, if he didn't know hewasn't asking about a physical
location, he was asking abouthis emotional location.
Where are thou, hey God?
(11:39):
What in it thee?
Well, hello, I'm in the deserthere with my son, blind
Bartimaeus.
What do you want from me?
So God always asks a question,first because he wants us to
come to terms with the fact thatthere's something wrong.
I remember him saying to me onetime there will be no closure
(12:04):
without exposure, and it is.
He wants the honesty.
He wants.
He's not saying I want you tofix it, he just wants you to say
there's a problem andacknowledge it.
And he said well, now we canwork together because we
acknowledge in this you can'thave someone who refuses to say
something's wrong.
You might see something wrong,but if they don't think
anything's wrong, well, you canhelp them.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Absolutely.
I think one of the things thatI've seen over my time of doing
the same and just servingindividuals that are healing
from trauma is that if they'renot at a state where they've
acknowledged the trauma, youtend to blame or think
something's wrong with everyoneelse around you.
Right, and so it's almost likethe thing that you know, we
(12:50):
think we should be obvious, oflike, hey, if everyone else
around you is having a strugglewith you, you may be the common
denominator, but often, whenyou're in that trauma, you don't
see it that way, because weknow that there's various
attachment styles You're, youknow, running into, avoid it.
Or you, when things get hard,when there's conflict, you may
(13:12):
avoid or pull back or cut, evencut off relationships, so you
have no long-term relationships.
I mean, there's various signsthat we know can lead someone to
recognize that, hey, I havesome unhealed spaces and trauma.
And so I want to ask what aresome of the signs that you've
seen over time that are cluesthat, hey, you need to sit with
(13:36):
the Lord, let's embrace some ofthis trauma so you can heal from
?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Well, I always have to go back to myself because I
am my own.
I am my own example.
Yes, because I am my own.
Um, I am my own example.
Yes, I am my own avatar.
Um, it was anger.
I would be enraged at thesmallest things.
And this slight trigger and Iwill go off, you know, like a
(14:02):
hot balloon, you know, and um,not rising slowly, like a one
that you pop and you go all overthe place, right?
Um, so anger was one of thealways blaming.
It was always somebody else'sfault, it's.
You know, you never takeresponsibility for anything.
Um, unforgiveness is a biggie,right, you have in this anger
(14:28):
and unforgiveness towards anindividual and sometimes the
person, like I said.
But the trigger, especially, isnot even the person.
The person might look likesomebody that did something to
you, or some association, youmean, and then you, you, you
just totally off the totally offyour handle.
You just have no controlwhatsoever.
(14:48):
So those, to me, were some ofthe signs yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
One thing that I've studied over time is even the
implicit memories.
Right like you can sometimesrespond to someone from a memory
that you don't even consciouslyrecognize, exactly like our god
has designed our body, ouremotions.
I mean he created emotionsright and so he has designed
them in a magnificent way thatthe body naturally responds
(15:18):
almost in what we know to belike.
What is it?
Um, flight or fight, right,like don't fight, yeah.
And so our body will naturallyrespond, and often to
circumstances that have happenedthat we may have consciously
removed from our memory becauseof the trauma, or even times
(15:39):
that were in early childhood,where we don't have vivid
memories of.
But our body, our mental, knowsto respond in this way, and so
those my husband likes to callit activating, because he's like
trigger is triggering me.
Using the word trigger he likesto say I'm being activated.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Like someone said, the issues are in the tissues.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yes, absolutely.
I love that.
So so, so true, but that wasone of the things that I would
say, even in healing from my owntrauma.
It was definitely anger.
There, Anger and unforgivenesswere the primary two.
Anger is a secondary emotionand for our listeners, when I
(16:24):
say secondary emotion, meaningthat there's another emotion
that lent into anger, likeeither there was sadness or
there was disappointment orthere was something there that
lent into anger coming out.
And so when I look at that, evenfor myself, it was anger at my
circumstance of forgiveness, andmuch of it was.
(16:47):
I was angry with God.
I carried on forgiveness of notunderstanding why did he allow
you know, my daughter to leavethis earth, why did he allow me
to go through thesecircumstances while I'm in
ministry, while I'm serving him?
And angry, feeling like I was,I almost think back to Adam and
Eve, feeling like the Lord waswithholding something from me,
(17:10):
right.
And so when I think of that,one of the questions I would ask
you is like what are some ofthe biggest roadblocks that hold
women back from stepping intotheir God-given calling?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I would say fear.
Fear is always paramount.
Fear in all of its glory, ifyou could put it that way, fear
of stepping out, fear ofjudgment, fear of failure.
And for me it was insecurity,just totally lack of sense of
self-worth.
I was in my eyes, I was nobody,because I was told in so many
(17:46):
ways maybe not directly that Iwasn't worth anything.
So one of the biggestroadblocks, besides fear, is
that sense of low self-esteem,not having any sense that you're
worthy of anything.
God can't use you, that you'reworthy of anything God can't use
you.
You're not worth, you don'thave a contribution to make to
(18:09):
life.
What could you tell?
What could you do?
You're nobody.
So I would say those are someof the major roadblocks Unhealed
well, we're talking aboutunhealed trauma.
So if it's not healed, you onlyspew out more of what you are.
(18:30):
So I would say fear and lowself-esteem, insecurities, fear
of failure, fear of abandonment,fear of rejection big big one,
fear of rejection.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Rejection, big big one, fear of rejection?
Yes, absolutely, wow, Okay.
So you know, even when you talkabout that, I think about
Philippians three, and I want toencourage our listeners.
I always tell them like y'all,I will quote these scriptures.
I'm like where exactly is itbut Philippians?
three okay, towards the end ofthe chapter, y'all, I will post
it in the show notes, but I'mgoing to give you an overview of
(19:06):
Philippians three.
It talks about not havingconfidence in the flesh right.
Confidence is in the spiritualthings.
Paul goes into discussing howhe had all he carried some of
the fleshy aspects right.
He came from a family thatfollowed the law right, so he
was considered circumcision onthe eighth day, meaning that
(19:28):
they followed the law, theyfollowed the practices.
He came from a family that hadthe financial status right, so
he talks about in his exampleleaving that behind, even though
he could have taken that withhim.
But we also know that Saul wasa Saul before Paul, so he was
also one that persecutedChristians.
(19:50):
And so when I think about likeall that he did and having to
leave that, I imagine it was adaily choice to pick up the mind
of Christ.
To verse 14,.
It actually is to press forwardtowards the mark of the high
quality which the NIV would say.
I press on towards the goal towin the prize for which God has
(20:13):
called me.
Heavenward in Christ Jesus.
And so, as you were saying that, I just immediately thought of
how many times, even for myself.
I have to pass.
I have to cast down the pastactions, cast down the things
that the times that I wasrejected in the past, cast down
all the insecurities and say I'mpressing forward towards the
(20:35):
mark that he called of me Right,even in this podcast.
This is pressing forward towardsthe mark that he called Cause
there are things that I meanwhen you put yourself in, like
you said, our line is adifferent beast, right.
So when you put yourself inthat component, it's really not
sitting in the confidence of theflesh, but sitting in the
confidence of the Lord.
(20:56):
And so what are some of thethings that you would recommend
someone does to overcome thatfear or those things that are
holding them back from reallywalking in the God-given calling
and the purpose of why they're,you know, even present?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Well, you know, the first thing you talk about cast
down and the scripture.
Know we?
I always say, if God's worddoesn't have the principle, the
(21:41):
strategy or the example orwhatever, then I really don't
have a basis for saying anything.
So the word of God istransformational.
You know Hebrews 4, I think 16says it's powerful, it's sharper
than any two-edged sword and itpierces in and divides bone and
(22:01):
marrow.
So it goes physically, it goesemotionally, it goes mentally.
The word of God is thatpowerful sword that has the
power and the ability to changemindsets, to heal in every
dimension of our lives.
So I would say get rooted inGod's word, renew your mind with
(22:24):
scripture.
There's up to two days ago Iwas listening to a coach and she
said it takes 21 days to changea habit, 21 days to change a
mindset.
One day is to change ourmindset.
So make it a daily habit tomeditate on God's promises,
because his words will anchoryour identity, one of the things
I used to do.
(22:45):
I have tons of them, three byfive cards, and I will literally
write out scriptures about myidentity or whatever issue I was
going through, and a lot of ithad to do with my identity.
So who I am in Christ, and onand on, and I just read them,
read them, read them so thatwould be one of the practical
(23:06):
steps and surround yourself withthe right people.
Healing and growth happens inthe right environment, in a
community of faithful women whowill uplift and not only hold
you accountable but challengeyou in your and taking small.
I believe you cannot do this.
(23:27):
This is not a one-man show.
Yes, you get into the wood, butyou really need the right
people around you and takingsmall steps of obedience,
whether it's journaling, prayingintentionally or you know.
Journaling was big for me,really, really big, and I still
have journals from back in 1990something you know, so that's a
(23:50):
long time where I just used itto connect with God, to pour out
my feelings, to say this andsay that you know, a lot of it
sounded like the book ofJeremiah, but it you know, but
nevertheless, it was the way Ihealed.
This was the way I made stepsforward and also being able to
um get coaching and counseling.
(24:13):
Let me take out the coaching,counseling um from a good mental
health provider, coach orsomething like that.
Yeah, I need, I.
I have one up to this day andthat's a long time ago he
started with me and my dream.
My daughter is now 13, mydaughter is 32 and he's been a
(24:36):
friend of ours for the beforeshe was born.
So he's been my, and every sooften I go for a little
refresher.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yes, absolutely Absolutely.
I tell people now I'm like,listen, I keep counselors aren't
standby, like my therapistaren't standby.
Sometimes I go and I'm like Idon't have a big thing that I'm
here for.
I'm here for my mental health,I'm here to have that space to
talk through.
And often when I sit there I'mlike, oh, I do have something,
(25:06):
let's work through this, right?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Well, you have theintentionality to want to care
for those things and we areabsolutely emotionally, mentally
, physically and spirituallyLike.
Those are what create us as aoverall, like in this human body
being, and so it's important totake care of all aspects.
(25:27):
I love even the using the threeby five cards.
I'm a post-it girl, y'all.
So I keep a post-it and a pen,because now if you look at my
wall, you'd be like this girl,what is going on here?
But, like you said, sometimesit's words that come, sometimes
it's even songs that the Lordthat's right, it's his scripture
(25:51):
, it is definitely y'all.
I mean, obviously we'regrace-filled community, believe
in community.
There is power in being aroundother like-minded individuals
that will do exactly what yousaid, dr Landon just hold you
accountable, challenge you,encourage you, even pick up
those things that you don'trecognize in yourself right and
(26:12):
call those that's right call.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, definitely, and that was my saving grace,
really.
Beside my husband, I had a coreof women at that time around me
who just kept calling out thegold in me and when all I saw
was tumbleweeds, they keptcalling out the gold and at
times I just thought, just stop,I don't want to hear anymore,
(26:36):
because I felt like a tumbleweed.
But especially my husband.
He will keep saying oh, there'sa rose coming out of you and
I'm and I felt he's gettingpricked by the thorns.
I could tell you for sure,because there's no rose here.
But he kept.
He kept rehearsing that andrehearsing that to me over the
years and eventually I startedto receive it and believe it as,
(27:01):
as I got more and more healed,one of the things I want to say
quickly healing is a journey.
It's not a one-time thing, it'snot an event.
It's a journey of intentionalsteps towards freedom.
And once you're ready andyou're saying I had enough of
this.
You know I've wasted enough ofmy life mourning and groaning
(27:23):
over what was, who did what, whodidn't talk to me, who rejected
me, who are bad, I had enoughand I'm ready to go forward,
then this journey is an excitingjourney, honestly.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Absolutely, I want to say the journey leads to a
peace.
When we talk about that, peacethat surpasses all understanding
with him, like the journey ofhealing leads to a peace that
will surpass all understanding.
I think of even how you seeothers.
When you become healed, you'reable to lend grace to others.
(27:57):
When you become healed, you'reable to lend grace to others.
You know, our listeners know.
If this is your first timelistening, I'm going to give it
to you my definition and yes,this is Nicole Cater's
definition of grace the abilityto understand that the reaction
you're seeing today is fromsomeone's past experiences, of
their yesterday.
(28:17):
And so not to lean into thereaction you see today, but have
the empathy to understand thatthere was something in their
past experience that is causingwhat you're getting today, and
you can love someone in thatmanner, just as God loves us in
that manner.
It gives you the ability to beempathetic, to intercede for
(28:39):
them, to even have healthyboundaries, but understand that
they're maybe not lashing outagainst you.
Maybe that cashier isdefinitely not angry at you
today.
She just had a very long dayand that's right.
It's triggered some thingsbehind her.
It gives you the ability towalk with people in love and so
(29:01):
when you healed you, that comesout.
That's what shows, just like,when you're hurting, when you're
sitting with that trauma,that's also what shows.
Right, what is it?
What's inside of you is what wesee outside of you?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
right, that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think about
even scripture telling us, likeyou know, to take our time in
the secret place with the lordright is what we see outside of
you.
That's right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, yeah, I think about even scripture telling us,
like you know, to take our timein the secret place with the
Lord, right, and I it's so true,I'm telling you kids will call
now those are the people thatwill call the thing out of you.
Okay, for real, yes, and sositting here with my three
teenagers, it's so funny.
There are times where you knowlife is going and I'm like I
(29:39):
didn't get up and do thatworship time or I didn't get up
and go into that secret placeand so we'll get ready to go.
Most days is, if that happens,it's a day that we have to be
someplace early and I got uplate and we're just going.
So I remember one time we'relike in the car and I'm just
fussing like y'all.
I'm just telling myself I wasfussing, nothing seemed to be
(30:00):
going right that morning.
I'm like you forgot this.
Where is this?
I'm frustrated.
And they just so gently saiddid you have time in the secret
place today?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
and I was like, oh yeah yeah, yeah, something
similar happened with mydaughter.
I remember she must have beenabout, I don't know, eight or
nine.
I also somewhere in there.
She was in the couch and I wasgoing through change of life at
that time that is an excuse andI was in the kitchen because the
the family room and kitchenkind of on t-shirts and she's
(30:35):
watching me in the kitchen thefamily room and kitchen, kind of
on teacher.
Then she's watching me in thecouch and I'm going on and
fussing, fussing, fussing,fussing, fussing and she goes
mommy, you need more of Jesus,you need more of Jesus in your
(30:56):
life.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I said, yes, I need more of Jesus right now.
It's so true Like it's justthat's in our home, right With
our families and our children.
It is a form of community andthat community does the greatest
thing of reminding you, callingthat thing out of you as you
can hear, like as our childrendid, right.
Like you mentioned goingthrough the change, I will say
(31:23):
our listeners know I am in thisperimenopause stage of life,
right, and so even in that, Ithink, recognizing that the body
there was a design and as women, our bodies go through change.
But when you talk about goingback to your first step of just
(31:44):
acknowledging even acknowledgingsometimes that you have some
emotional dysregulationshappening, and how do you sit
with the Lord in that so thatyou also are not letting those
affect those around you oraffect your witness, right, and
so even having wisdom in thatand being around community of
women has drastically helped mein that.
(32:06):
I mean, I was first of all, Iwas sitting in space and when I
didn't even recognize what washappening and then I was about
around women and they wereexpressing like, oh, this, and
you know, night, night sweatsand this, and I'm thinking I've
been having that, I've beenhaving.
Is this what's happening?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
right, exactly, just knowledge is power, though
knowledge, yes, you're not goingcrazy it is.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
It is.
So I have to ask when you hearabout um others like, or hear
about leading while bleedingright, how can women kind of use
their personal stories toinspire, uplift others, even
while they're still through thisjourney, walking through this
process?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Hey, let's take a quick break to tell you about
Grace Filled Community, to tellyou about Grace-Filled Community
.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Grace-filled Community is an organization
that focuses on the primaryprinciples of the Church of Acts
, centered around buildingcommunities that impact the
kingdom of God.
We do this through three coreextensions.
One Grace-Filled Church Network, where we empower churches and
nonprofits for God's success andgrowth.
We offer tailored growthstrategies rooted in biblical
(33:26):
principles that will help youexpand your reach and impact
your communities.
Just like the early church, wefocus not on attendance and
numbers, but on discipleship,providing leadership teachings
and trainings to today'sministry leaders.
Our second extension is Projectof the Grace Field, where we
(33:46):
provide biblical counseling,mentorship, workshops and events
that are dedicated toencouraging individuals to live
a life filled with grace andpurpose.
Encouraging individuals to livea life filled with grace and
purpose, rooted in theunderstanding that all have
fallen short and are a workingproject.
Let us help the individuals inyour community grow as they walk
(34:08):
with God and experience thefullness of his love.
Our third extension isGrace-Filled Business.
Grace-filled business is hereto help small faith-based
business owners develop theirbusiness in a way that honors
God, that brings increase andallows them to pour back into
his kingdom through marketplaceministry and financing his
(34:30):
kingdom.
We do this through our 15 yearsof experience of virtual
administrative work, digitalmarketing, business development
and consulting.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Welcome back.
Wow, I can talk about leadingwhile bleeding.
You know, sometimes I thought Ihad to wait till everything in
my life was just proper before Idid what I did.
You know, I went and I realizedthat God will bring me to a
certain space of certain levelof healing and I'll be used, and
(35:03):
then he will.
Then there'll come a transitionpoint.
I need to deal with somethingand then we can move on.
So there's always a place wherewe are always healing, but you
know, we can use it.
It doesn't take away from ourpersonal stories to inspire and
(35:25):
lift others up.
So our testimonies often havethe very thing that bring
healing to others, like we werejust talking just now about
menopausal.
When we start to talk and say,oh so this is what is happening,
oh so I'm not going crazy, soI'm all right, even in that
space of being able to shareyour story with someone else,
(35:48):
you haven't arrived.
Thank god, I'm still in theprocess.
Yes, at least my story isimpactful, because when I go
back to tell my stories it'slike I have.
My biography is called SoulSurvivor and I remember when it
first came out, one woman saidto me the person on this, the
(36:10):
front of this page, the cover ofthis book, is not the person on
the inside of this book and Isaid, no, she's not.
Is not the person on the insideof this book and I said no,
she's not.
But at that point I had notbeen fully healed.
But my story was impactingwomen across the world, across
the region, and so your storycarries power, even when you
feel like it is unfinished,sharing what God has already
(36:33):
done, even if you're still inthe process.
Others will see God's face,faithfulness in real time, you
know.
Then they'll look and you say,well, she doesn't have it all
together, but look where she'scome from yes so, even if you're
still in the process, you, youcan still.
(36:53):
Your story still has impact.
It's not about being perfectand polished, it's about being
authentic, and women want to seewomen that are like them.
They want to see someone whobeen through it and could say
I've been through it, I had anabortion or I was in an illicit
(37:14):
affair, whatever the case may be.
That's the problem with ourchurches.
We have learned to be so pious,at least in my time anyway.
I don't know what they're doingnow you're right, let's.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
I might keep going with it, yep we, we want to.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
We want to do all the glam, we want to have the nails
, the tips and the hips.
We want to have everything andand look perfect and polished,
and inside we are falling apart.
Our homes are full and we don'twant to say this is what I'm
going through, right, sovulnerable.
There's a place forvulnerability, and when we do
(37:52):
that, we give others permissionto do the same.
It's not like we sit cryingover our soup and it becomes a
community of cry babies over thesame thing.
We are learning and growing anddeveloping out of it, but at
the same time, we want to saythis is where I have been or
this is where I'm at right now.
(38:13):
I don't have it all together,but I am aspiring and moving
forward.
So I think it's important thatpeople be able to share our
stories in safe spaces with safepeople.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Because someone is waiting on the other side of our
story or our testimony that,and it may be the key to their
breakthrough Right.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean when I think about, aswe talk about the church and how
we manage even the broken thatstep in, like the church is the
hospital.
Jesus said I came for the sickright.
And when I think about how wego into the doctor's office or
we go into the hospital like Idon't know about you guys, but
when I go to the doctor I'm likeyou about to hear it all.
(38:58):
I'm going to tell youeverything that's going on,
cause I want you to have all theinformation so that you can
help me in this Right.
And so when I think about thechurch being a hospital, a place
for the sick to come to, likethere we don't need the the
pretense, we need to be able tobring it all, just like we
(39:20):
should be bringing it all beforethe lord so that he can walk us
through the process of healingin it.
But when we try to cover theinformation, we try to make it
seem like it's one thing versusanother thing, then we can't get
the help.
I mean, we're talking to women,so I'm going to go with the
basic thing.
That often is a thing for womenis like weight, right, there's
(39:42):
so many women that talk aboutweight when I think about it.
You don't go to the doctor andthen they say what do you weigh?
And you try and tell themyou're a hundred pounds less.
You know that you're going tostep on a scale and you know
that the accuracy of your weightcan affect how medication is
received.
It can affect even what they maychoose to prescribe.
(40:02):
It can affect the treatments.
It can affect, if you're goingto physical therapy, what type
of movements they can do, and so, because you're conscious of
that, you'll say this is whereit is right.
They may get the most accuratenumber to the T I'm 205.67,
(40:23):
right.
You want the information outthere and I believe that's
something that we need to do inthe months of safe space, which
the churches should be, shouldbe safe space, so that we can
bring all that and put it beforethe Lord and be open to
receiving the process, thetreatment of the healing process
(40:45):
in it.
So I love how you brought thatinto play, because that's very
important.
That's an important space ofbeing able to share your
testimony, as it is in thefinishing process, because we're
going from glory to glory.
So until we're in that space,we are still a process ever
being worked on.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
And I think it's not only just for that, because when
people come into the church andthey see us looking like we
have it all together and thenone day pop goes, the weasel and
everything is blown, they areshocked.
I thought, well, I thoughtthese women, and so there's a
disillusionment that happenswith with people, and then they
(41:27):
come out and say the people inchurch are fake, because right,
so with not that we go in and wewe air all our dirty linen all
over the place, but they need tosee authenticity from from us
in the body of Christ, and alsosee the power of God that is
healing us in the process, inthe journey, like you said,
(41:51):
going from glory to glory yes,yes, there's this, um, I don't
want to call it old school song,because I may say old school
because it's from my childhood,but there's this song about you
see the glory, but you don'tknow the story Exactly.
And.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
I bring that up so often because even for myself I
mean, isaiah and I justcelebrated our 20 years of
marriage.
People see our children and I'mso grateful that I've been
blessed, but it took work.
Right, it took work.
We have a story that led fromseparation, of coming back
together.
We have a story of loss.
I mean we have.
(42:26):
I mean there's multiple traumasin there.
Like when we look at ourtimeline which is something I
suggest people to do is reallypull up a timeline from as long
as you can remember, you know,put the the great things up here
and the things that you recallthat weren't so great, and you
see that timeline and you'reable to sit with the Lord and
see and ask him like where wereyou in this?
(42:47):
And see where he was, takethose things before him.
But I often tell people likeyou see, this stage of life
which has has not arrived, lordknows each day there is still
work to be done has not arrived.
But there's so much to thisstory and if I don't tell you
the story, you just think thatyou get the glory.
(43:08):
Yes, I would think we justarrived.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yeah, and that's where journaling comes in.
You know, um, I can go back andto any timeline in my life over
the last 30 something, plusyears, maybe even 40 years,
because I have a big box ofjournals.
I don't know what my daughteris going to do with them when
I'm gone, but all my stories arein there and that's how I was
(43:32):
able to write my, my, my, whenGod told me to um, put my story
on paper and I thought you'vegot to be joking, you want me to
tell this story.
And um, I fought almost 10years over it.
That's how bad it was and um so, but my journals were able to
(43:52):
help me to go back to, to putthe whole story together,
because you, sometimes, you, youyour memory, you can't always
trust it, but once it's writtendown in black and white, you
know that it happened.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
You didn't make it up , yeah, so yeah right,
absolutely, um, so as we talkabout, I mean, we definitely
tapped into some spiritual stepsthat these women can take when
we're going from trauma tohealing.
Um, what are some?
I'm just asked for threepractical steps that women can
(44:28):
take today and start walking inconfidence and healing in their
purpose.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
I think I shared those earlier, but I'll give
them again because, okay, no, itwas a different question, but I
think this answer just aboutsuits it as well.
Like I said, community,community, community.
You can't go wrong with theright set of people around you,
because one you're not going tothink you're going off your
(44:57):
rocker and, um, the scripturetalks about he who separates
himself.
Um, I'll just paraphrase it isdid he say it's a fool?
But he did say that personwants to do what they, they want
to do what's on their own mindand their own agenda, and that's
really dangerous.
So it's as tough as it could besometimes, because if you're
(45:18):
not, um, an extrovert communitycould be a little tenuous for
you.
But at least find people, theright people, around you, even
if it's two or three.
Do not isolate yourself.
Do not isolate yourself.
It's the worst thing, becauseyour mind and the enemy goes in
the mind.
It's going around and aroundand around and before you know
(45:41):
it, you could just about lose asense of perspective so quickly
and so easily.
Get into God's word yes.
If you don't like to read, thendo audio.
Yes, right, get into the word.
There's so many apps and stuffaround for the word, in all
(46:04):
forms, shapes and fashion and inevery, every translation, and
you can see if I'm a reader asyou can see back here, I'm a
reader and I have more.
This is just a one 16th or lessof the books.
I have not counting thehundreds that I have on Kindle.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Hundreds on Kindle.
I'm ashamed to say everything.
Oh, I want that book.
I want that book.
Read, build yourself up in thewood.
Read other people's story.
Who has gone through similarthings you're going through?
Find that community in the wordas well, because that's a kind
(46:50):
of a community and a kind ofcoaching in the word in people's
stories.
So get together.
Transformation begins with therenewing of your mind through
scripture.
So make it a daily habit tomeditate on god's words and, you
know, take small steps ofobedience.
You don't have to have it allfigured out one step at a time.
(47:11):
Yes saying, saying yes to thenext step.
You might do it perfectly.
Don't worry about perfect,there's no such thing.
It's just keep on putting onestep before the other and if you
fall back, well, heck, get up,dust yourself off and go again.
Because if you've seen a baby,you ever seen a baby fall and
(47:31):
said that's it.
I'm not going to walk for therest of my life.
I'm going to stay here and bowland score.
Well, they'll be 30 somethingyears old and still sitting
there bowling and scoringbecause I haven't learned to
walk.
You don't give up when you fall.
You get right back up and youtry and you try again, and
always reach out to community,always reach out and spend and
(47:52):
time spent with the lord.
I know you asked me for three,but I I cannot underestimate, um
over overestimate how importanttime spent with the Lord.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
Yes, those are some amazing tips.
I know that you yes, you gave.
I need a conversation.
You shared those things with us, but even just breaking them
down as such I love the termyou've used Just, it's progress
over perfection.
It's uh, you said, steps offaith, right, steps of obedience
(48:27):
.
I'm sorry, and so just takingthat step of obedience, one step
at a time, right, um, I lovethat because so so many times we
can, we could get caught up inthe big picture.
There's so many little stepsthat lead to that big picture?
yes, yeah, yes, well, Isincerely, I'm like, once again,
(48:49):
I look at the time and I'm liketime flies, but I'm so grateful
for you coming on today,lending us your wisdom, your
knowledge, your experience.
Thank you.
I do not take it lightly andI'm so grateful that our
listeners could tap into such.
Before we go, I just want toask one more question Is what is
(49:13):
your why?
What is your why?
Speaker 2 (49:16):
What is?
Why do I do what I'm doing?
Yes, besides the first, when weopened up, I talk about when I
was fussing with the Lord aboutthe women, it went beyond that
because I came out of severebrokenness, um, dire brokenness.
The story is like a take yourbreath away kind of story and I
(49:40):
didn't have the community andthe people who understood.
They were of the type that prayit away, just pray to Jesus and
everything will be solved.
You know, I came out of thatkind of old-fashioned
Pentecostal go to the altar andpray and everything will be
solved.
So my husband is beating thecrap out of me.
(50:02):
Pray and it will be all right,don't leave him, just stay and
God will take care of him.
You know, my mother is verballyabusing me.
Just pray and so.
So I came out of all of that anddidn't have the assistance.
Didn't have the support, didn'thave the know-how.
That's why I turned to books,because nobody was giving me
(50:25):
answers and the praying wasn'thelping.
I'm sorry to say it was helping, but it wasn't going to the
deeper issues.
There are things that justpraying about it will not, I
hate.
I hope I'm not saying anythingthat's wrong, but there are
things we have to go deeper.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
We have to unearth some stuff.
And so I suffered long andreally deeply and I thought
another woman shouldn't have togo through this.
You know Another woman.
(51:04):
She needs to have somebody whocan say been there, done that,
I'll hold your hand, yourhusband beating the crap out of
you and abusing you.
I understand you lost fourbabies.
I understand you know and andhelp to walk with you through it
.
So I wanted to be that wife forsomeone else.
Because you name it.
I've been it.
(51:25):
I literally have five children,but I only have one that's alive
, and four of them were lost inpregnancies and one was ectopic.
So I almost died not knowingthat it was there and it's just
a strange thing that happened.
That made me go to the doctorand he found that the pregnancy
was in my tube and wouldn't be amatter of hours I would have
(51:47):
died, um.
So I did have at that time thekind of help I needed.
So I wanted to be the handreaching out.
I'm not for everybody, I knowthat, but for those who are
looking for me, who are lookingfor my story, I wanted to be
there for them so that theydidn't have to go through what I
(52:11):
went through to get the kind ofhelp that I needed to get where
I am today.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Yes, I absolutely love it.
I mean, I'm sitting herelistening.
I'm like you're talking into mywhy?
Like very similar.
I grew up in the church andwould see things and see like
the prayer, seeing the shouting,seeing like one thing happened
on Sunday, and then I'm like, bySunday night I'm seeing
(52:37):
something different the week andhaving experiences, watching
people walk through things.
I'm like, well, where, where isGod in this?
Where is God in this?
And it wasn't that God wasn'tpresent, it wasn't even that he
wasn't available or willing toanswer prayers.
But we have our part.
And there was the aspect ofhaving to walk through the
(52:58):
process right, taking some ofthose practical steps, having
people around you that's willingto share how they've overcome
and the things they overcame.
And so when I was able to healfrom my grief process and heal
from the damage it did to mymarriage and heal from all the
pain that I had, my first verythought was I don't want someone
(53:22):
else to do this alone.
That's right, because I thinkof all the times that I thought
that I was crazy.
I thought that there wassomething wrong with me.
I thought that like, oh my gosh, who can be angry at God, like
all those things, versus beingable to openly say, hey, I have
some issues and I need some helpwalking these, walking through
(53:42):
these issues right and theywouldn't tell you it's because
of sin.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
You know, I remember when I lost my first, I was told
that well, you must have seen,you must have done something
wrong, oh god yes.
Speaker 1 (53:57):
I almost committed murder, you know right, oh, I'm
right there with you.
So we actually, I will tell you, my husband and I were told the
same thing.
We were asked what, who we did,and I said and I, I sat in this
place because, having beentaught that that works was
earned in a sense, right, yourrighteousness was earned.
(54:18):
I sat in a place evaluating andblaming myself for so long and
then blaming him, and then we'reblaming each other.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
That's right, right, right, and then blaming god, and
then blaming the lord.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
I went through the full circle, right, yeah, um, to
find to realize that, even whenthe lord um performed the
miracle, performed the healing,and they asked like, asked like,
well, what did this man do?
What did this man's parents do?
What sin did he?
Commit Exactly what sin did hecommit Nothing, and the Lord
said nothing, and so there aresome things that come through
(54:53):
the trials and tribulations oflife because we have an enemy
out there that has come to steal, kill and destroy.
Yes, and so, man, I'm like wecould definitely go down a
journey with that.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Yeah, yeah, there's so so much, so much, yes, so
much.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
This has been awesome though.
Yes, oh yeah.
Well, thank you again.
I mean, this has been a truepleasure.
Every time we do a podcast, Isit and I say, yes, listeners,
this is for you.
But Lord knows, I sit and sayyou know, this is the goodness
(55:33):
of God, just encourages me, itstrengthens me, and I pray for
you, listeners and viewers, thatit has inspired you, it has
encouraged you as you're sittingand you listen to this podcast
and you're saying, hey, I needto connect with somebody that
can help me in this phase oflife.
Dr Linda, please just tell themhow they can connect with you,
how they can locate you, findyou.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Well, the easiest will be wwwlindapjonesorg.
That's my website, and once youget there there's an automatic
drop down where I do a monday uh, a weekly monday devotional and
if you sign up for that you'llbe getting um.
(56:11):
I write them myself and um justsend them out.
And then I have other thingsgoing on, like I'm doing a
six-month group coachingstarting March 13th.
But definitely thewwwlindapjonesorg, my website.
I have free resources, so onceyou go to the tab you'll see
(56:35):
where the free resources are anddownloads.
You can have my books, etcetera.
My website will be the easiest,or you can email me at linda at
lindapjonesorg.
Linda at lindapjonesorg.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Awesome.
Well, listeners, as always, weare going to put the contact
information for Dr Linda in yourshow notes.
So, please, if you feel aninspiration to connect with her,
if you've been encouraged bytoday's podcast, if you
recognize that you would likesomeone to walk you through your
journey, I encourage you toconnect with Dr Linda.
(57:13):
As always, Gracefield Communityis a resource here for you to
help partner you and connect youwith others, just like Dr Linda
.
That will walk you through yourjourney.
If you are in a space, connectyou with others, just like Dr
Linda that will walk you throughyour journey.
If you are in a space where youneed community, trust me when I
say you were not meant to dothis life alone.
Please reach out to us.
We would love to connect youwith the community in your area,
(57:34):
a safe, trusted community thatwe have partnered together with
for you in your area.
Dr Linda, thank you once again.
Speaker 2 (57:42):
Thank you.
Thank you my pleasure, reallyenjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
Absolutely.
All right, graceville listeners, until next time.
May the Lord be with you.
Thank you for tuning in totoday's episode of Graceville
Community Podcast.
We would like to invite you tovisit gracevillecommunitycom.
Gracefield Community is allabout doing church the way
Church of Acts did, using fivemain principles that we see in
(58:11):
the book of Acts Sharingresources, as believers pooled
their possessions and resourcesto support those in need, as we
see in Acts 2.44.
To support those in need, as wesee in Acts 2.44.
Through hospitality the earlyChristians practiced hospitality
by opening their homes toothers, as we see in Acts 2 and
(58:31):
46.
By financial aid the church inAntioch sent financial aid to
believers in Judea during a timeof famine, as described in Acts
11 and 29.
Prayer and encouragement theysupported each other through
prayer and encouragement, as wesee in Acts 4 and 24.
(58:54):
And finally, spiritual guidancethe apostles and elders
provided spiritual guidance andteaching to help strengthen and
build the community, as we seein Acts 1530.
I would like to encourage you.
If any of those areas are areasin which you are in need or can
(59:16):
contribute, please reach out toGraceville community.
We are working together acrossthe world with ministries and
individuals alike to help bringback the Church of Acts.
My name is Nicole Cater, your host, founder and
servant leader of GracevilleCommunity.
I want to thank you for tuningin to Graceville Community
Podcast.
This is a safe space, a placein which we just share stories
of how God has touchedindividuals' lives all across
the world and how they are nowimpacting the kingdom of God.
(00:21):
Thank you for tuning in.
Blessings to you.
Hello Graceville community, Iam so excited to say howdy to
you once again.
Today we have an amazing guestand I know you guys are like
Nicole.
You tell us that every week,but every week it's been good,
(00:43):
right?
Yes, so I am so excited fortoday, as always, we're going to
have just great conversation,conversation about our goodness
of the Lord and also the realityof life.
So I welcome you to tune in,listen in view, in from wherever
(01:04):
you are.
Welcome to Gracefield CommunityPodcast.
So I'm not going to hold us up.
As always, I'm going to diveright in.
Let me just tell you actually,let me pause.
I'm going to let her tell you alittle bit about herself.
Welcome today, dr Linda Jones.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you so much for inviting me onto the podcast.
It's a pleasure.
It really is.
I always count it an honor tobe on anybody's podcast.
I think that's an honor givenby God.
Well, you wanted me to share alittle bit about myself briefly?
Yes, please, okay.
(01:44):
Little bit about myself briefly.
Yes, please, okay.
I'm Linda P Jones.
There's another Linda P Jones,but I'm Dr Linda P Jones and I'm
a transformational leader,mentor, life coach and speaker.
I have a doctorate in practicaltheology from the University of
Masters InternationalUniversity of Divinity in
(02:05):
Evansville, indiana.
I was born in Trinidad, westIndies, and migrated to Canada
in my teens and, through a veryCinderella story, I met my
husband and relocated toBarbados, west Indies, so back
in the Caribbean, but not in myhomeland, and I have several
(02:26):
citizenships, so I considermyself a global citizen.
I have one that I was born inand I have two that I legally
have, so I think I have aboutthree citizenships.
Yeah, don't tell anybody, but Ido.
I.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I'm like I'm sure that's a hot topic nowadays,
like I don't let them know.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So, yeah, actually I'm welcoming, I can go into any
of these three countries,including the United States,
actually without any problembecause of my Canadian
citizenship.
Yeah, so my motto is empoweringwomen to be hers H-E-R-S Healed
, equipped and Restored to Serve.
I'm the founder of Linda PJones Ministries Women of Worth
(03:14):
as well as Soul Survivors Ispell survivors with the H-E-R-S
at the end because that's theframework of the ministry Healed
, equipped, restore to Serve,which is an online global
academy, biblically based, tomentor women to help them
overcome their past, especiallythose that are eager to move
(03:36):
into their God-ordained destinythrough biblical equipping
courses and coaching.
I'm an author of several booksI think about 12 or 13 on Amazon
and my superpower is biblicalteaching and that's my
superpower and I do enjoyteaching very, very much.
(03:59):
My personal mission statement isLuke 4, 18 to 19.
I figure you can do better thanJesus, because that was his
mission statement and so it'smine to heal the brokenhearted,
set captives free, open prisondoors.
That's basically what mymission statement is and
(04:20):
basically that I've served inseveral capacities and in
several different countries.
I've spoken viral and I'm onlocation.
I'm married to Oliver Jones forover 35 years Congratulations.
Actually, we celebrated ourfourth year last year, so I was
(04:41):
married when I was about in myteen.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Sorry, I was a teeny, teeny girl when I was married,
when I was about, you know, inmy team, sorry, and we have one
adult daughter from that umunion, yeah, awesome.
Well, I mean, like yournutshell, there has a wealth of
wisdom right there in it, um, somuch that I'm sure of just
(05:07):
wisdom right there in it, somuch that I'm sure of just
testimonies of how God has beenwith you through all these moves
and through life.
Right, I mean 40 years ofmarriage.
Right there I'm hearingmultiple citizenships.
I can imagine what the processwas like, for that You're a mom.
I mean I can just imagine howmuch wisdom is flowing from you,
and so I'm excited for today'sconversation.
Being that you are atransformational coach, I would
(05:33):
say, right, share with me adefining moment in your life
that led you to minister towomen and help them heal from
trauma, like what brought youinto this or gave you this
passion for this touch.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It was a funny, it wasn't?
You know?
Some people say the Lord toldme this and the Lord told me
that it was one of those momentsI was literally in my back
veranda hanging out clothes andthough I've been in ministry for
many years in my church, when Iwas going to different the
assembly that I came out from, Iserved at several capacities,
(06:11):
several worship leader,intercessor, counselor, sunday
school teacher.
You know, I did the whole thing, but I was always running into
women with a lot of issues and Iremember one day hanging out
clothes in my back veranda andjust really fussing, fussing
with God.
I well, I was fussing, but Iwas really fussing with God and
(06:33):
I said why all these women?
Every time you meet them,they're broken, something is
wrong.
They come to church, and I wasparticularly referring to
Christians.
They come to church, you pourin, they rejoice, they're happy,
and next week you meet themthey're back to the same place.
What you know, and I'm justreally having this conversation.
So he said, um, it's becausethey have leaky and the word was
(07:00):
leaky leaky souls, because it'slike a basket and you keep
pouring into and because theirsouls are broken.
Everything just drips right out, you know runs right out.
So you're back to where theystarted.
So I'm going on and I'm good, becareful when you're having
(07:21):
conversations with God.
So I am going on and on, likewhat I'm going to do about it,
I'm going to do this and I'mgoing to do that.
So he said so what are yougoing to do about it?
And I went, oh, okay, like yeah, I want you fussing about it.
It's something on your heart,it's something that it's a
(07:43):
passion, obviously, and so youalready have within you what
needs to being about it.
It's something on your heart,it's something that it's a
passion, obviously, and so youalready have within you what
needs to be done about this.
So, literally I just because Iwas not as adventurous as I used
to be, but I was veryadventurous I do crazy things on
a whim and let the results fallwhere they may.
So I said, well, I'm going todo this and I'm going to do that
(08:06):
.
He said, girl, go right ahead.
So I started with seven women inmy living room At that time it
was called Women of Worth and Istarted with seven women,
started to.
I called them, I said are youinterested?
And seven showed up and Istarted to minister to them and
teach.
The word showed up.
And I started to minister tothem and teach the word, and,
(08:27):
and that grew and grew until wehad a um, a monthly meeting
called women of worth, come inmy basement.
And that grew.
And then I went into full-timeministry as a pastor and that
grew Right here I am now.
He took me out of full-timeministry, within the four walls,
and put me on to the onlinespace.
(08:48):
It was like dropping me off thecliff into the deep unknown.
I'm telling you.
So that's how it started and Ihaven't looked back.
Yes, well, I love it.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I mean, we all have our stories of trauma.
I've've done the study I'm notsure if you're familiar with it
how we love where they talkabout us coming from areas of
brokenness, right, because weare broken people and we tend to
be raised by broken people,right?
So whether they're caregivers,whether they're parents there
(09:23):
was some form of brokenness thathappened in the home, just
because we are imperfect peopleand so when we navigate through
life and we take these thingsand we go into adulthood,
there's a high chance that thereis some trauma there that needs
to be addressed, needs to behealed from, and so I love that
you're doing that, especiallywith women to be addressed,
(09:45):
these to be healed from, and soI love that you're doing that,
especially with women.
So many women struggle withthese past hurts, these
emotional wounds right, whetherthey're mother wounds, father
wounds, caregiver relationshipright Just all the various
wounds.
What do you suggest is thefirst step to breaking free and
really embracing healing?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
breaking free and really embracing healing.
Well, the first step I havefound I'm talking from my own
experience because I came from awhole lot of brokenness beyond
words with an alcoholic fatherin a.
He used to beat my mother upevery week.
You know a lot of physical andverbal abuse in the house.
So I came from tremendousamount of brokenness and I
remember when God accosted meand he said you know what it's
(10:35):
time to heal?
And I thought I remember sayingI don't think so, I am not
ready to touch this thing, andhe said okay, and that was it
for another few years I'mashamed to say how many years
until one day I finally said I'mready, I'm ready.
(10:56):
I was so broken and because ofmy brokenness I was negatively
affecting other people that Ilove and in my inner circle that
I realized I had to dosomething.
So the first step I would sayis acknowledging that you need
help.
As women, we tend to suppressour pain, believing that we are
strong and we are capable andyou know.
(11:18):
But true healing begins when weallow ourselves to be honest
before God and says I need help.
And the thing about the Lord isthat he always comes and ask a
question, like with Adam, adam,where thou?
Like, if he didn't know hewasn't asking about a physical
location, he was asking abouthis emotional location.
Where are thou, hey God?
(11:39):
What in it thee?
Well, hello, I'm in the deserthere with my son, blind
Bartimaeus.
What do you want from me?
So God always asks a question,first because he wants us to
come to terms with the fact thatthere's something wrong.
I remember him saying to me onetime there will be no closure
(12:04):
without exposure, and it is.
He wants the honesty.
He wants.
He's not saying I want you tofix it, he just wants you to say
there's a problem andacknowledge it.
And he said well, now we canwork together because we
acknowledge in this you can'thave someone who refuses to say
something's wrong.
You might see something wrong,but if they don't think
anything's wrong, well, you canhelp them.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Absolutely.
I think one of the things thatI've seen over my time of doing
the same and just servingindividuals that are healing
from trauma is that if they'renot at a state where they've
acknowledged the trauma, youtend to blame or think
something's wrong with everyoneelse around you.
Right, and so it's almost likethe thing that you know, we
(12:50):
think we should be obvious, oflike, hey, if everyone else
around you is having a strugglewith you, you may be the common
denominator, but often, whenyou're in that trauma, you don't
see it that way, because weknow that there's various
attachment styles You're, youknow, running into, avoid it.
Or you, when things get hard,when there's conflict, you may
(13:12):
avoid or pull back or cut, evencut off relationships, so you
have no long-term relationships.
I mean, there's various signsthat we know can lead someone to
recognize that, hey, I havesome unhealed spaces and trauma.
And so I want to ask what aresome of the signs that you've
seen over time that are cluesthat, hey, you need to sit with
(13:36):
the Lord, let's embrace some ofthis trauma so you can heal from
?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Well, I always have to go back to myself because I
am my own.
I am my own example.
Yes, because I am my own.
Um, I am my own example.
Yes, I am my own avatar.
Um, it was anger.
I would be enraged at thesmallest things.
And this slight trigger and Iwill go off, you know, like a
(14:02):
hot balloon, you know, and um,not rising slowly, like a one
that you pop and you go all overthe place, right?
Um, so anger was one of thealways blaming.
It was always somebody else'sfault, it's.
You know, you never takeresponsibility for anything.
Um, unforgiveness is a biggie,right, you have in this anger
(14:28):
and unforgiveness towards anindividual and sometimes the
person, like I said.
But the trigger, especially, isnot even the person.
The person might look likesomebody that did something to
you, or some association, youmean, and then you, you, you
just totally off the totally offyour handle.
You just have no controlwhatsoever.
(14:48):
So those, to me, were some ofthe signs yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
One thing that I've studied over time is even the
implicit memories.
Right like you can sometimesrespond to someone from a memory
that you don't even consciouslyrecognize, exactly like our god
has designed our body, ouremotions.
I mean he created emotionsright and so he has designed
them in a magnificent way thatthe body naturally responds
(15:18):
almost in what we know to belike.
What is it?
Um, flight or fight, right,like don't fight, yeah.
And so our body will naturallyrespond, and often to
circumstances that have happenedthat we may have consciously
removed from our memory becauseof the trauma, or even times
(15:39):
that were in early childhood,where we don't have vivid
memories of.
But our body, our mental, knowsto respond in this way, and so
those my husband likes to callit activating, because he's like
trigger is triggering me.
Using the word trigger he likesto say I'm being activated.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Like someone said, the issues are in the tissues.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yes, absolutely.
I love that.
So so, so true, but that wasone of the things that I would
say, even in healing from my owntrauma.
It was definitely anger.
There, Anger and unforgivenesswere the primary two.
Anger is a secondary emotionand for our listeners, when I
(16:24):
say secondary emotion, meaningthat there's another emotion
that lent into anger, likeeither there was sadness or
there was disappointment orthere was something there that
lent into anger coming out.
And so when I look at that, evenfor myself, it was anger at my
circumstance of forgiveness, andmuch of it was.
(16:47):
I was angry with God.
I carried on forgiveness of notunderstanding why did he allow
you know, my daughter to leavethis earth, why did he allow me
to go through thesecircumstances while I'm in
ministry, while I'm serving him?
And angry, feeling like I was,I almost think back to Adam and
Eve, feeling like the Lord waswithholding something from me,
(17:10):
right.
And so when I think of that,one of the questions I would ask
you is like what are some ofthe biggest roadblocks that hold
women back from stepping intotheir God-given calling?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I would say fear.
Fear is always paramount.
Fear in all of its glory, ifyou could put it that way, fear
of stepping out, fear ofjudgment, fear of failure.
And for me it was insecurity,just totally lack of sense of
self-worth.
I was in my eyes, I was nobody,because I was told in so many
(17:46):
ways maybe not directly that Iwasn't worth anything.
So one of the biggestroadblocks, besides fear, is
that sense of low self-esteem,not having any sense that you're
worthy of anything.
God can't use you, that you'reworthy of anything God can't use
you.
You're not worth, you don'thave a contribution to make to
(18:09):
life.
What could you tell?
What could you do?
You're nobody.
So I would say those are someof the major roadblocks Unhealed
well, we're talking aboutunhealed trauma.
So if it's not healed, you onlyspew out more of what you are.
(18:30):
So I would say fear and lowself-esteem, insecurities, fear
of failure, fear of abandonment,fear of rejection big big one,
fear of rejection.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Rejection, big big one, fear of rejection?
Yes, absolutely, wow, Okay.
So you know, even when you talkabout that, I think about
Philippians three, and I want toencourage our listeners.
I always tell them like y'all,I will quote these scriptures.
I'm like where exactly is itbut Philippians?
three okay, towards the end ofthe chapter, y'all, I will post
it in the show notes, but I'mgoing to give you an overview of
(19:06):
Philippians three.
It talks about not havingconfidence in the flesh right.
Confidence is in the spiritualthings.
Paul goes into discussing howhe had all he carried some of
the fleshy aspects right.
He came from a family thatfollowed the law right, so he
was considered circumcision onthe eighth day, meaning that
(19:28):
they followed the law, theyfollowed the practices.
He came from a family that hadthe financial status right, so
he talks about in his exampleleaving that behind, even though
he could have taken that withhim.
But we also know that Saul wasa Saul before Paul, so he was
also one that persecutedChristians.
(19:50):
And so when I think about likeall that he did and having to
leave that, I imagine it was adaily choice to pick up the mind
of Christ.
To verse 14,.
It actually is to press forwardtowards the mark of the high
quality which the NIV would say.
I press on towards the goal towin the prize for which God has
(20:13):
called me.
Heavenward in Christ Jesus.
And so, as you were saying that, I just immediately thought of
how many times, even for myself.
I have to pass.
I have to cast down the pastactions, cast down the things
that the times that I wasrejected in the past, cast down
all the insecurities and say I'mpressing forward towards the
(20:35):
mark that he called of me Right,even in this podcast.
This is pressing forward towardsthe mark that he called Cause
there are things that I meanwhen you put yourself in, like
you said, our line is adifferent beast, right.
So when you put yourself inthat component, it's really not
sitting in the confidence of theflesh, but sitting in the
confidence of the Lord.
(20:56):
And so what are some of thethings that you would recommend
someone does to overcome thatfear or those things that are
holding them back from reallywalking in the God-given calling
and the purpose of why they're,you know, even present?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Well, you know, the first thing you talk about cast
down and the scripture.
Know we?
I always say, if God's worddoesn't have the principle, the
(21:41):
strategy or the example orwhatever, then I really don't
have a basis for saying anything.
So the word of God istransformational.
You know Hebrews 4, I think 16says it's powerful, it's sharper
than any two-edged sword and itpierces in and divides bone and
(22:01):
marrow.
So it goes physically, it goesemotionally, it goes mentally.
The word of God is thatpowerful sword that has the
power and the ability to changemindsets, to heal in every
dimension of our lives.
So I would say get rooted inGod's word, renew your mind with
(22:24):
scripture.
There's up to two days ago Iwas listening to a coach and she
said it takes 21 days to changea habit, 21 days to change a
mindset.
One day is to change ourmindset.
So make it a daily habit tomeditate on God's promises,
because his words will anchoryour identity, one of the things
I used to do.
(22:45):
I have tons of them, three byfive cards, and I will literally
write out scriptures about myidentity or whatever issue I was
going through, and a lot of ithad to do with my identity.
So who I am in Christ, and onand on, and I just read them,
read them, read them so thatwould be one of the practical
(23:06):
steps and surround yourself withthe right people.
Healing and growth happens inthe right environment, in a
community of faithful women whowill uplift and not only hold
you accountable but challengeyou in your and taking small.
I believe you cannot do this.
(23:27):
This is not a one-man show.
Yes, you get into the wood, butyou really need the right
people around you and takingsmall steps of obedience,
whether it's journaling, prayingintentionally or you know.
Journaling was big for me,really, really big, and I still
have journals from back in 1990something you know, so that's a
(23:50):
long time where I just used itto connect with God, to pour out
my feelings, to say this andsay that you know, a lot of it
sounded like the book ofJeremiah, but it you know, but
nevertheless, it was the way Ihealed.
This was the way I made stepsforward and also being able to
um get coaching and counseling.
(24:13):
Let me take out the coaching,counseling um from a good mental
health provider, coach orsomething like that.
Yeah, I need, I.
I have one up to this day andthat's a long time ago he
started with me and my dream.
My daughter is now 13, mydaughter is 32 and he's been a
(24:36):
friend of ours for the beforeshe was born.
So he's been my, and every sooften I go for a little
refresher.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yes, absolutely Absolutely.
I tell people now I'm like,listen, I keep counselors aren't
standby, like my therapistaren't standby.
Sometimes I go and I'm like Idon't have a big thing that I'm
here for.
I'm here for my mental health,I'm here to have that space to
talk through.
And often when I sit there I'mlike, oh, I do have something,
(25:06):
let's work through this, right?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Well, you have theintentionality to want to care
for those things and we areabsolutely emotionally, mentally
, physically and spirituallyLike.
Those are what create us as aoverall, like in this human body
being, and so it's important totake care of all aspects.
(25:27):
I love even the using the threeby five cards.
I'm a post-it girl, y'all.
So I keep a post-it and a pen,because now if you look at my
wall, you'd be like this girl,what is going on here?
But, like you said, sometimesit's words that come, sometimes
it's even songs that the Lordthat's right, it's his scripture
(25:51):
, it is definitely y'all.
I mean, obviously we'regrace-filled community, believe
in community.
There is power in being aroundother like-minded individuals
that will do exactly what yousaid, dr Landon just hold you
accountable, challenge you,encourage you, even pick up
those things that you don'trecognize in yourself right and
(26:12):
call those that's right call.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, definitely, and that was my saving grace,
really.
Beside my husband, I had a coreof women at that time around me
who just kept calling out thegold in me and when all I saw
was tumbleweeds, they keptcalling out the gold and at
times I just thought, just stop,I don't want to hear anymore,
(26:36):
because I felt like a tumbleweed.
But especially my husband.
He will keep saying oh, there'sa rose coming out of you and
I'm and I felt he's gettingpricked by the thorns.
I could tell you for sure,because there's no rose here.
But he kept.
He kept rehearsing that andrehearsing that to me over the
years and eventually I startedto receive it and believe it as,
(27:01):
as I got more and more healed,one of the things I want to say
quickly healing is a journey.
It's not a one-time thing, it'snot an event.
It's a journey of intentionalsteps towards freedom.
And once you're ready andyou're saying I had enough of
this.
You know I've wasted enough ofmy life mourning and groaning
(27:23):
over what was, who did what, whodidn't talk to me, who rejected
me, who are bad, I had enoughand I'm ready to go forward,
then this journey is an excitingjourney, honestly.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Absolutely, I want to say the journey leads to a
peace.
When we talk about that, peacethat surpasses all understanding
with him, like the journey ofhealing leads to a peace that
will surpass all understanding.
I think of even how you seeothers.
When you become healed, you'reable to lend grace to others.
(27:57):
When you become healed, you'reable to lend grace to others.
You know, our listeners know.
If this is your first timelistening, I'm going to give it
to you my definition and yes,this is Nicole Cater's
definition of grace the abilityto understand that the reaction
you're seeing today is fromsomeone's past experiences, of
their yesterday.
(28:17):
And so not to lean into thereaction you see today, but have
the empathy to understand thatthere was something in their
past experience that is causingwhat you're getting today, and
you can love someone in thatmanner, just as God loves us in
that manner.
It gives you the ability to beempathetic, to intercede for
(28:39):
them, to even have healthyboundaries, but understand that
they're maybe not lashing outagainst you.
Maybe that cashier isdefinitely not angry at you
today.
She just had a very long dayand that's right.
It's triggered some thingsbehind her.
It gives you the ability towalk with people in love and so
(29:01):
when you healed you, that comesout.
That's what shows, just like,when you're hurting, when you're
sitting with that trauma,that's also what shows.
Right, what is it?
What's inside of you is what wesee outside of you?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
right, that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think about
even scripture telling us, likeyou know, to take our time in
the secret place with the lordright is what we see outside of
you.
That's right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, yeah, I think about even scripture telling us,
like you know, to take our timein the secret place with the
Lord, right, and I it's so true,I'm telling you kids will call
now those are the people thatwill call the thing out of you.
Okay, for real, yes, and sositting here with my three
teenagers, it's so funny.
There are times where you knowlife is going and I'm like I
(29:39):
didn't get up and do thatworship time or I didn't get up
and go into that secret placeand so we'll get ready to go.
Most days is, if that happens,it's a day that we have to be
someplace early and I got uplate and we're just going.
So I remember one time we'relike in the car and I'm just
fussing like y'all.
I'm just telling myself I wasfussing, nothing seemed to be
(30:00):
going right that morning.
I'm like you forgot this.
Where is this?
I'm frustrated.
And they just so gently saiddid you have time in the secret
place today?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
and I was like, oh yeah yeah, yeah, something
similar happened with mydaughter.
I remember she must have beenabout, I don't know, eight or
nine.
I also somewhere in there.
She was in the couch and I wasgoing through change of life at
that time that is an excuse andI was in the kitchen because the
the family room and kitchenkind of on t-shirts and she's
(30:35):
watching me in the kitchen thefamily room and kitchen, kind of
on teacher.
Then she's watching me in thecouch and I'm going on and
fussing, fussing, fussing,fussing, fussing and she goes
mommy, you need more of Jesus,you need more of Jesus in your
(30:56):
life.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I said, yes, I need more of Jesus right now.
It's so true Like it's justthat's in our home, right With
our families and our children.
It is a form of community andthat community does the greatest
thing of reminding you, callingthat thing out of you as you
can hear, like as our childrendid, right.
Like you mentioned goingthrough the change, I will say
(31:23):
our listeners know I am in thisperimenopause stage of life,
right, and so even in that, Ithink, recognizing that the body
there was a design and as women, our bodies go through change.
But when you talk about goingback to your first step of just
(31:44):
acknowledging even acknowledgingsometimes that you have some
emotional dysregulationshappening, and how do you sit
with the Lord in that so thatyou also are not letting those
affect those around you oraffect your witness, right, and
so even having wisdom in thatand being around community of
women has drastically helped mein that.
(32:06):
I mean, I was first of all, Iwas sitting in space and when I
didn't even recognize what washappening and then I was about
around women and they wereexpressing like, oh, this, and
you know, night, night sweatsand this, and I'm thinking I've
been having that, I've beenhaving.
Is this what's happening?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
right, exactly, just knowledge is power, though
knowledge, yes, you're not goingcrazy it is.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
It is.
So I have to ask when you hearabout um others like, or hear
about leading while bleedingright, how can women kind of use
their personal stories toinspire, uplift others, even
while they're still through thisjourney, walking through this
process?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Hey, let's take a quick break to tell you about
Grace Filled Community, to tellyou about Grace-Filled Community
.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Grace-filled Community is an organization
that focuses on the primaryprinciples of the Church of Acts
, centered around buildingcommunities that impact the
kingdom of God.
We do this through three coreextensions.
One Grace-Filled Church Network, where we empower churches and
nonprofits for God's success andgrowth.
We offer tailored growthstrategies rooted in biblical
(33:26):
principles that will help youexpand your reach and impact
your communities.
Just like the early church, wefocus not on attendance and
numbers, but on discipleship,providing leadership teachings
and trainings to today'sministry leaders.
Our second extension is Projectof the Grace Field, where we
(33:46):
provide biblical counseling,mentorship, workshops and events
that are dedicated toencouraging individuals to live
a life filled with grace andpurpose.
Encouraging individuals to livea life filled with grace and
purpose, rooted in theunderstanding that all have
fallen short and are a workingproject.
Let us help the individuals inyour community grow as they walk
(34:08):
with God and experience thefullness of his love.
Our third extension isGrace-Filled Business.
Grace-filled business is hereto help small faith-based
business owners develop theirbusiness in a way that honors
God, that brings increase andallows them to pour back into
his kingdom through marketplaceministry and financing his
(34:30):
kingdom.
We do this through our 15 yearsof experience of virtual
administrative work, digitalmarketing, business development
and consulting.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Welcome back.
Wow, I can talk about leadingwhile bleeding.
You know, sometimes I thought Ihad to wait till everything in
my life was just proper before Idid what I did.
You know, I went and I realizedthat God will bring me to a
certain space of certain levelof healing and I'll be used, and
(35:03):
then he will.
Then there'll come a transitionpoint.
I need to deal with somethingand then we can move on.
So there's always a place wherewe are always healing, but you
know, we can use it.
It doesn't take away from ourpersonal stories to inspire and
(35:25):
lift others up.
So our testimonies often havethe very thing that bring
healing to others, like we werejust talking just now about
menopausal.
When we start to talk and say,oh so this is what is happening,
oh so I'm not going crazy, soI'm all right, even in that
space of being able to shareyour story with someone else,
(35:48):
you haven't arrived.
Thank god, I'm still in theprocess.
Yes, at least my story isimpactful, because when I go
back to tell my stories it'slike I have.
My biography is called SoulSurvivor and I remember when it
first came out, one woman saidto me the person on this, the
(36:10):
front of this page, the cover ofthis book, is not the person on
the inside of this book and Isaid, no, she's not.
Is not the person on the insideof this book and I said no,
she's not.
But at that point I had notbeen fully healed.
But my story was impactingwomen across the world, across
the region, and so your storycarries power, even when you
feel like it is unfinished,sharing what God has already
(36:33):
done, even if you're still inthe process.
Others will see God's face,faithfulness in real time, you
know.
Then they'll look and you say,well, she doesn't have it all
together, but look where she'scome from yes so, even if you're
still in the process, you, youcan still.
(36:53):
Your story still has impact.
It's not about being perfectand polished, it's about being
authentic, and women want to seewomen that are like them.
They want to see someone whobeen through it and could say
I've been through it, I had anabortion or I was in an illicit
(37:14):
affair, whatever the case may be.
That's the problem with ourchurches.
We have learned to be so pious,at least in my time anyway.
I don't know what they're doingnow you're right, let's.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
I might keep going with it, yep we, we want to.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
We want to do all the glam, we want to have the nails
, the tips and the hips.
We want to have everything andand look perfect and polished,
and inside we are falling apart.
Our homes are full and we don'twant to say this is what I'm
going through, right, sovulnerable.
There's a place forvulnerability, and when we do
(37:52):
that, we give others permissionto do the same.
It's not like we sit cryingover our soup and it becomes a
community of cry babies over thesame thing.
We are learning and growing anddeveloping out of it, but at
the same time, we want to saythis is where I have been or
this is where I'm at right now.
(38:13):
I don't have it all together,but I am aspiring and moving
forward.
So I think it's important thatpeople be able to share our
stories in safe spaces with safepeople.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Because someone is waiting on the other side of our
story or our testimony that,and it may be the key to their
breakthrough Right.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean when I think about, aswe talk about the church and how
we manage even the broken thatstep in, like the church is the
hospital.
Jesus said I came for the sickright.
And when I think about how wego into the doctor's office or
we go into the hospital like Idon't know about you guys, but
when I go to the doctor I'm likeyou about to hear it all.
(38:58):
I'm going to tell youeverything that's going on,
cause I want you to have all theinformation so that you can
help me in this Right.
And so when I think about thechurch being a hospital, a place
for the sick to come to, likethere we don't need the the
pretense, we need to be able tobring it all, just like we
(39:20):
should be bringing it all beforethe lord so that he can walk us
through the process of healingin it.
But when we try to cover theinformation, we try to make it
seem like it's one thing versusanother thing, then we can't get
the help.
I mean, we're talking to women,so I'm going to go with the
basic thing.
That often is a thing for womenis like weight, right, there's
(39:42):
so many women that talk aboutweight when I think about it.
You don't go to the doctor andthen they say what do you weigh?
And you try and tell themyou're a hundred pounds less.
You know that you're going tostep on a scale and you know
that the accuracy of your weightcan affect how medication is
received.
It can affect even what they maychoose to prescribe.
(40:02):
It can affect the treatments.
It can affect, if you're goingto physical therapy, what type
of movements they can do, and so, because you're conscious of
that, you'll say this is whereit is right.
They may get the most accuratenumber to the T I'm 205.67,
(40:23):
right.
You want the information outthere and I believe that's
something that we need to do inthe months of safe space, which
the churches should be, shouldbe safe space, so that we can
bring all that and put it beforethe Lord and be open to
receiving the process, thetreatment of the healing process
(40:45):
in it.
So I love how you brought thatinto play, because that's very
important.
That's an important space ofbeing able to share your
testimony, as it is in thefinishing process, because we're
going from glory to glory.
So until we're in that space,we are still a process ever
being worked on.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
And I think it's not only just for that, because when
people come into the church andthey see us looking like we
have it all together and thenone day pop goes, the weasel and
everything is blown, they areshocked.
I thought, well, I thoughtthese women, and so there's a
disillusionment that happenswith with people, and then they
(41:27):
come out and say the people inchurch are fake, because right,
so with not that we go in and wewe air all our dirty linen all
over the place, but they need tosee authenticity from from us
in the body of Christ, and alsosee the power of God that is
healing us in the process, inthe journey, like you said,
(41:51):
going from glory to glory yes,yes, there's this, um, I don't
want to call it old school song,because I may say old school
because it's from my childhood,but there's this song about you
see the glory, but you don'tknow the story Exactly.
And.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
I bring that up so often because even for myself I
mean, isaiah and I justcelebrated our 20 years of
marriage.
People see our children and I'mso grateful that I've been
blessed, but it took work.
Right, it took work.
We have a story that led fromseparation, of coming back
together.
We have a story of loss.
I mean we have.
(42:26):
I mean there's multiple traumasin there.
Like when we look at ourtimeline which is something I
suggest people to do is reallypull up a timeline from as long
as you can remember, you know,put the the great things up here
and the things that you recallthat weren't so great, and you
see that timeline and you'reable to sit with the Lord and
see and ask him like where wereyou in this?
(42:47):
And see where he was, takethose things before him.
But I often tell people likeyou see, this stage of life
which has has not arrived, lordknows each day there is still
work to be done has not arrived.
But there's so much to thisstory and if I don't tell you
the story, you just think thatyou get the glory.
(43:08):
Yes, I would think we justarrived.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yeah, and that's where journaling comes in.
You know, um, I can go back andto any timeline in my life over
the last 30 something, plusyears, maybe even 40 years,
because I have a big box ofjournals.
I don't know what my daughteris going to do with them when
I'm gone, but all my stories arein there and that's how I was
(43:32):
able to write my, my, my, whenGod told me to um, put my story
on paper and I thought you'vegot to be joking, you want me to
tell this story.
And um, I fought almost 10years over it.
That's how bad it was and um so, but my journals were able to
(43:52):
help me to go back to, to putthe whole story together,
because you, sometimes, you, youyour memory, you can't always
trust it, but once it's writtendown in black and white, you
know that it happened.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
You didn't make it up , yeah, so yeah right,
absolutely, um, so as we talkabout, I mean, we definitely
tapped into some spiritual stepsthat these women can take when
we're going from trauma tohealing.
Um, what are some?
I'm just asked for threepractical steps that women can
(44:28):
take today and start walking inconfidence and healing in their
purpose.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
I think I shared those earlier, but I'll give
them again because, okay, no, itwas a different question, but I
think this answer just aboutsuits it as well.
Like I said, community,community, community.
You can't go wrong with theright set of people around you,
because one you're not going tothink you're going off your
(44:57):
rocker and, um, the scripturetalks about he who separates
himself.
Um, I'll just paraphrase it isdid he say it's a fool?
But he did say that personwants to do what they, they want
to do what's on their own mindand their own agenda, and that's
really dangerous.
So it's as tough as it could besometimes, because if you're
(45:18):
not, um, an extrovert communitycould be a little tenuous for
you.
But at least find people, theright people, around you, even
if it's two or three.
Do not isolate yourself.
Do not isolate yourself.
It's the worst thing, becauseyour mind and the enemy goes in
the mind.
It's going around and aroundand around and before you know
(45:41):
it, you could just about lose asense of perspective so quickly
and so easily.
Get into God's word yes.
If you don't like to read, thendo audio.
Yes, right, get into the word.
There's so many apps and stuffaround for the word, in all
(46:04):
forms, shapes and fashion and inevery, every translation, and
you can see if I'm a reader asyou can see back here, I'm a
reader and I have more.
This is just a one 16th or lessof the books.
I have not counting thehundreds that I have on Kindle.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Hundreds on Kindle.
I'm ashamed to say everything.
Oh, I want that book.
I want that book.
Read, build yourself up in thewood.
Read other people's story.
Who has gone through similarthings you're going through?
Find that community in the wordas well, because that's a kind
(46:50):
of a community and a kind ofcoaching in the word in people's
stories.
So get together.
Transformation begins with therenewing of your mind through
scripture.
So make it a daily habit tomeditate on god's words and, you
know, take small steps ofobedience.
You don't have to have it allfigured out one step at a time.
(47:11):
Yes saying, saying yes to thenext step.
You might do it perfectly.
Don't worry about perfect,there's no such thing.
It's just keep on putting onestep before the other and if you
fall back, well, heck, get up,dust yourself off and go again.
Because if you've seen a baby,you ever seen a baby fall and
(47:31):
said that's it.
I'm not going to walk for therest of my life.
I'm going to stay here and bowland score.
Well, they'll be 30 somethingyears old and still sitting
there bowling and scoringbecause I haven't learned to
walk.
You don't give up when you fall.
You get right back up and youtry and you try again, and
always reach out to community,always reach out and spend and
(47:52):
time spent with the lord.
I know you asked me for three,but I I cannot underestimate, um
over overestimate how importanttime spent with the Lord.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
Yes, those are some amazing tips.
I know that you yes, you gave.
I need a conversation.
You shared those things with us, but even just breaking them
down as such I love the termyou've used Just, it's progress
over perfection.
It's uh, you said, steps offaith, right, steps of obedience
(48:27):
.
I'm sorry, and so just takingthat step of obedience, one step
at a time, right, um, I lovethat because so so many times we
can, we could get caught up inthe big picture.
There's so many little stepsthat lead to that big picture?
yes, yeah, yes, well, Isincerely, I'm like, once again,
(48:49):
I look at the time and I'm liketime flies, but I'm so grateful
for you coming on today,lending us your wisdom, your
knowledge, your experience.
Thank you.
I do not take it lightly andI'm so grateful that our
listeners could tap into such.
Before we go, I just want toask one more question Is what is
(49:13):
your why?
What is your why?
Speaker 2 (49:16):
What is?
Why do I do what I'm doing?
Yes, besides the first, when weopened up, I talk about when I
was fussing with the Lord aboutthe women, it went beyond that
because I came out of severebrokenness, um, dire brokenness.
The story is like a take yourbreath away kind of story and I
(49:40):
didn't have the community andthe people who understood.
They were of the type that prayit away, just pray to Jesus and
everything will be solved.
You know, I came out of thatkind of old-fashioned
Pentecostal go to the altar andpray and everything will be
solved.
So my husband is beating thecrap out of me.
(50:02):
Pray and it will be all right,don't leave him, just stay and
God will take care of him.
You know, my mother is verballyabusing me.
Just pray and so.
So I came out of all of that anddidn't have the assistance.
Didn't have the support, didn'thave the know-how.
That's why I turned to books,because nobody was giving me
(50:25):
answers and the praying wasn'thelping.
I'm sorry to say it was helping, but it wasn't going to the
deeper issues.
There are things that justpraying about it will not, I
hate.
I hope I'm not saying anythingthat's wrong, but there are
things we have to go deeper.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
We have to unearth some stuff.
And so I suffered long andreally deeply and I thought
another woman shouldn't have togo through this.
You know Another woman.
(51:04):
She needs to have somebody whocan say been there, done that,
I'll hold your hand, yourhusband beating the crap out of
you and abusing you.
I understand you lost fourbabies.
I understand you know and andhelp to walk with you through it
.
So I wanted to be that wife forsomeone else.
Because you name it.
I've been it.
(51:25):
I literally have five children,but I only have one that's alive
, and four of them were lost inpregnancies and one was ectopic.
So I almost died not knowingthat it was there and it's just
a strange thing that happened.
That made me go to the doctorand he found that the pregnancy
was in my tube and wouldn't be amatter of hours I would have
(51:47):
died, um.
So I did have at that time thekind of help I needed.
So I wanted to be the handreaching out.
I'm not for everybody, I knowthat, but for those who are
looking for me, who are lookingfor my story, I wanted to be
there for them so that theydidn't have to go through what I
(52:11):
went through to get the kind ofhelp that I needed to get where
I am today.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Yes, I absolutely love it.
I mean, I'm sitting herelistening.
I'm like you're talking into mywhy?
Like very similar.
I grew up in the church andwould see things and see like
the prayer, seeing the shouting,seeing like one thing happened
on Sunday, and then I'm like, bySunday night I'm seeing
(52:37):
something different the week andhaving experiences, watching
people walk through things.
I'm like, well, where, where isGod in this?
Where is God in this?
And it wasn't that God wasn'tpresent, it wasn't even that he
wasn't available or willing toanswer prayers.
But we have our part.
And there was the aspect ofhaving to walk through the
(52:58):
process right, taking some ofthose practical steps, having
people around you that's willingto share how they've overcome
and the things they overcame.
And so when I was able to healfrom my grief process and heal
from the damage it did to mymarriage and heal from all the
pain that I had, my first verythought was I don't want someone
(53:22):
else to do this alone.
That's right, because I thinkof all the times that I thought
that I was crazy.
I thought that there wassomething wrong with me.
I thought that like, oh my gosh, who can be angry at God, like
all those things, versus beingable to openly say, hey, I have
some issues and I need some helpwalking these, walking through
(53:42):
these issues right and theywouldn't tell you it's because
of sin.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
You know, I remember when I lost my first, I was told
that well, you must have seen,you must have done something
wrong, oh god yes.
Speaker 1 (53:57):
I almost committed murder, you know right, oh, I'm
right there with you.
So we actually, I will tell you, my husband and I were told the
same thing.
We were asked what, who we did,and I said and I, I sat in this
place because, having beentaught that that works was
earned in a sense, right, yourrighteousness was earned.
(54:18):
I sat in a place evaluating andblaming myself for so long and
then blaming him, and then we'reblaming each other.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
That's right, right, right, and then blaming god, and
then blaming the lord.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
I went through the full circle, right, yeah, um, to
find to realize that, even whenthe lord um performed the
miracle, performed the healing,and they asked like, asked like,
well, what did this man do?
What did this man's parents do?
What sin did he?
Commit Exactly what sin did hecommit Nothing, and the Lord
said nothing, and so there aresome things that come through
(54:53):
the trials and tribulations oflife because we have an enemy
out there that has come to steal, kill and destroy.
Yes, and so, man, I'm like wecould definitely go down a
journey with that.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Yeah, yeah, there's so so much, so much, yes, so
much.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
This has been awesome though.
Yes, oh yeah.
Well, thank you again.
I mean, this has been a truepleasure.
Every time we do a podcast, Isit and I say, yes, listeners,
this is for you.
But Lord knows, I sit and sayyou know, this is the goodness
(55:33):
of God, just encourages me, itstrengthens me, and I pray for
you, listeners and viewers, thatit has inspired you, it has
encouraged you as you're sittingand you listen to this podcast
and you're saying, hey, I needto connect with somebody that
can help me in this phase oflife.
Dr Linda, please just tell themhow they can connect with you,
how they can locate you, findyou.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Well, the easiest will be wwwlindapjonesorg.
That's my website, and once youget there there's an automatic
drop down where I do a monday uh, a weekly monday devotional and
if you sign up for that you'llbe getting um.
(56:11):
I write them myself and um justsend them out.
And then I have other thingsgoing on, like I'm doing a
six-month group coachingstarting March 13th.
But definitely thewwwlindapjonesorg, my website.
I have free resources, so onceyou go to the tab you'll see
(56:35):
where the free resources are anddownloads.
You can have my books, etcetera.
My website will be the easiest,or you can email me at linda at
lindapjonesorg.
Linda at lindapjonesorg.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Awesome.
Well, listeners, as always, weare going to put the contact
information for Dr Linda in yourshow notes.
So, please, if you feel aninspiration to connect with her,
if you've been encouraged bytoday's podcast, if you
recognize that you would likesomeone to walk you through your
journey, I encourage you toconnect with Dr Linda.
(57:13):
As always, Gracefield Communityis a resource here for you to
help partner you and connect youwith others, just like Dr Linda
.
That will walk you through yourjourney.
If you are in a space, connectyou with others, just like Dr
Linda that will walk you throughyour journey.
If you are in a space where youneed community, trust me when I
say you were not meant to dothis life alone.
Please reach out to us.
We would love to connect youwith the community in your area,
(57:34):
a safe, trusted community thatwe have partnered together with
for you in your area.
Dr Linda, thank you once again.
Speaker 2 (57:42):
Thank you.
Thank you my pleasure, reallyenjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
Absolutely.
All right, graceville listeners, until next time.
May the Lord be with you.
Thank you for tuning in totoday's episode of Graceville
Community Podcast.
We would like to invite you tovisit gracevillecommunitycom.
Gracefield Community is allabout doing church the way
Church of Acts did, using fivemain principles that we see in
(58:11):
the book of Acts Sharingresources, as believers pooled
their possessions and resourcesto support those in need, as we
see in Acts 2.44.
To support those in need, as wesee in Acts 2.44.
Through hospitality the earlyChristians practiced hospitality
by opening their homes toothers, as we see in Acts 2 and
(58:31):
46.
By financial aid the church inAntioch sent financial aid to
believers in Judea during a timeof famine, as described in Acts
11 and 29.
Prayer and encouragement theysupported each other through
prayer and encouragement, as wesee in Acts 4 and 24.
(58:54):
And finally, spiritual guidancethe apostles and elders
provided spiritual guidance andteaching to help strengthen and
build the community, as we seein Acts 1530.
I would like to encourage you.
If any of those areas are areasin which you are in need or can
(59:16):
contribute, please reach out toGraceville community.
We are working together acrossthe world with ministries and
individuals alike to help bringback the Church of Acts.
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