March 6, 2025 • 68 mins
Join us for a heartfelt conversation with Lauren Saulnier as she shares her powerful story of finding spiritual resilience in the face of loss and trauma. Discover how to cultivate a genuine relationship with God, beyond mere church attendance, and explore the importance of community, prayer, and perseverance in faith.
Key Takeaways:
- How traumatic experiences can deepen your faith connection
- The difference between legalism and a loving relationship with God
- Practical tips for incorporating prayer into daily life
- The significance of community support in building faith
- Insights on fostering children's faith in today's world
Connect with Us:
Visit our website at www.gracefilledcommunity.com
Follow us on Facebook: GraceFilled Community
Follow us on Instagram @gracefilledcommunity.
Connect with Lauren Saulnier:
Website: https://www.herprayersco.com/
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/HerPrayersCo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herprayersco/
Amazon: Lauren Saulnier
Keywords: faith, spirituality, resilience, prayer, community, family, friendship, spiritual growth, personal development, Christianity.
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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.
Hi, welcome to GracevilleCommunity, where we have real
heart-to-heart conversationsabout impacting the faith-based
community.
My name is Nicole Cater, yourhost and founder of Graceville
Community, and I am so excitedtoday to have Ms Lauren Arnn
(00:44):
with Her Prayers Company, laurenhi, hey girl, hey everybody,
nice to meet you all.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yes, okay, lauren.
So I have actually been lookingforward to this.
I know we had a couple of dayswhere it's like we're going to
do this, but tell me first ofall Her Prayers Company.
I mean, obviously I'm a she,but tell me first of all her
prayers company.
I mean, obviously I'm a she andprayers is one thing that I
love, so I'm like, give it to me.
What is?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
happening with her prayers company.
So my journey started a coupleof years ago with two very
traumatic birth experiences.
With my daughter, I almost losther multiple times during our
pregnancy in utero, and with myson, he was actually stillborn
from a silent placentalabruption.
Through both of thosesituations, god really showed me
(01:34):
how far away from him I trulyhad been.
I've been a Christian my entirelife and I was always the person
who was like you know, lord,it's okay, the whole world is
under your purview.
I'm a Christian, I know therules, you know I'm going to
pray to you every day, I'm goingto go to church.
(01:57):
But like, I've got this.
You know you, you set me upgood, I got this.
And then, whenever I didn'thave it, all of a sudden it was
like Lord, save me.
And then we'd go right back tooh, that was a close one, god,
thank you, I got this again.
You're good.
I got, you were there when Ineeded you.
You're always there with me.
(02:17):
But I got this.
And then, all of a sudden, I'min a position where I'm going to
the doctor every three days tosee if my daughter is still
alive and God's like yeah, howfar away from me are you Lauren?
And it was like, oh, okay, god.
And even then my daughter's nowseven.
(02:38):
She's beautiful, she's healthy,she's vivacious, she's such a
warrior for God.
Even then afterwards I was like, okay, god, thanks, I got it.
I can now hear your voice,we're talking more regularly.
I'm going to go to Bible studynow on top of church.
But I got it Right.
(03:01):
And then, when it came to my son, all of a sudden he was still
born and resuscitated.
I was stuck in the hospitalduring COVID.
He was at a different hospitalreceiving life giving treatment.
There were five days where Ididn't know whether he was going
to live or not and all of asudden it was like I thought I
had this, I thought I hadlearned, but that's not having
(03:25):
relationship with God.
I was still being a wishy-washyCEO Christian where I knew
about God, I knew about Jesus, Ihad accepted him.
I was born again, covered bythe blood, but I was not walking
in faith every day but I wasnot walking in faith every day.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes, you know, I do want to pause right there
because I mean there's so muchcontext in what you just said, I
mean so much that I'm like, oh,my goodness, you know, I think
that, especially for those of usI grew up in the church, right,
and at some point you get tothe stage where it's like it's
not just the legalistic side,it's not just like, okay, yeah,
I read these confessions andokay, yes, I, you know, just go
(04:09):
to church weekly and I'm walkingin and I'm walking out and
nothing's really changing apersonal relationship, right.
And so I feel like we havethese, what I like to call these
God moments where it's therecognition that we're not in
control and need the one who isin control, right.
(04:30):
And so I think of, like, thesuffering with Christ.
It's for our own good, actually, that we go through these
circumstances.
And I mean you definitely havea story to tell.
I, as many of our viewers know,lost our first child in a
traumatic way and came to apoint with like, just like you
(04:54):
do, I really know you Do, Ireally rely on you.
And so I love that you speak tothis, because I know often I
speak to our followers or peoplethat tune in and they're going
through hard circumstances andthe mindset of like oh God left
me or why am I in this?
Versus what is there to pullfrom this, and so I just wanted
(05:14):
to pause there because, even inall that you said, I'm like
there is so much context, somuch goodness of.
We need moments like thatbecause it does draw us near.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Well, and how much of that is us doing it unto
ourselves?
You know not to not to say that, like you caused your child to
die, or I caused my child to beunhealthy, but these kinds of
things stem from sin.
They do.
That's where all of thishardship, all this hurt, all
this death, that's where itcomes from, that's where the
(05:46):
wages are.
And I don't know about you, butgrowing up in the church, I had
always kind of took therepentance prayer.
As you know, if I did it, itwas covered type thing, and it
didn't matter how I did it.
And as a mom and you'll knowthis because you're a mom too
when you're teaching somebodyabout apologies, there are
(06:09):
acceptable apologies trueapologies and there are not
acceptable apologies not trueapologies.
So that's why I always startwith my story, because there was
a lot that I hadn't evenbothered to repent of.
I hadn't even bothered to sayI'm so sorry, lord, cover this
(06:31):
for me, because I was alreadycovered, I was already saved.
It was handled by Jesus.
He died for it.
I don't actually need to beatmyself you know
self-flagellation or things likethat to give it to him.
However, we still need to beatmyself you know
self-flagellation or things likethat, to to give it to him.
However, we still need toacknowledge that it happened,
(06:51):
and that's what Leviticus showsus.
Is that's what, what part ofthat ritual and sacrifice was?
It was acknowledgement that wehad stepped out of line with the
creator and had a desire to getback into alignment with him.
So, um it's.
It's a heavy thing, you know,and I there.
(07:13):
We don't understand the will ofgod.
We don't understand what, whatimpacts what.
It's kind of like the butterflyeffect, you don't know you know
um, yes, but scripture tells usthat what be what befalls the
child, is covered by the head ofthe household in the old.
Testament, and so you know wehave that responsibility to
(07:34):
stand up and say this was mineand I need to repent for it, I
need to pray for it, I need tocover my children in anointing.
And it's heavy.
I mean, both of my childrenwere severely impacted by my
lack of faith.
They were severely impacted bymy lack of prayer and it's heavy
(07:58):
to live with.
It is it's heavy.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yes, yes, I think of how you know, as you stated, and
especially being, I mean,grace-filled community, right?
One of the biggest things thatI like to make sure that there's
an understanding of is yes, isthe Lord's mercies new every
morning?
Absolutely, but I don't want tolive off of that mercy, right,
(08:21):
because the word says that theLord is the same yesterday,
today and forevermore, meaningthat there are still
consequences to the actions thatwe do, and so, although those
mercies are new every morning, Istill have to understand and
take responsibility that thereare going to be consequences for
the actions that I make, and sothank the Lord that we have a
(08:45):
Jesus Christ that sacrificed sothat we can come into repentance
and we can be in a relationship.
But I think that leads to theconversation of, like legalist
versus love, right.
And when I think of thefoundation, like why it's so
important to have that personalrelationship, as you mentioned,
(09:08):
is when we love someone, we dothe things that please them,
right.
I think about, like, myrelationship with my husband.
We're entering about to enter20 years and so thank you, and
so when I think about it, likein my love for him, is when I
(09:28):
don't maybe feel like getting updoing something, but I will.
It's in my love for him that Iwill speak to him a certain way
to, because it's pleasing to him, it gives him honor and respect
.
It's through my love for him,right.
And I think that sometimes wehave become, um, and I say we,
including me, have had times ofbeing fickle with it right,
(09:49):
because I want to love him inthe same sense of like, oh, I
love this tv show because I feelgood about it, but we feel good
, I love that analogy, um,because I was already kind of
pre-thinking, but but that's,that's a fabulous analogy that
you know, we just want to um, toexist in love, but that's not
(10:14):
reality.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That TV show it's.
It's not reality.
And you know, I love this topicbecause, like so many topics
where the Christian community isso divided, the reality is it's
both God and Jesus, they're thesame.
Legalism and love it's the same.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I love my children, so I put boundaries and rules
for their success, for theirsafety, for the betterment of
them into place and, like God,even says okay, moses, I'm going
to depart from Israel and I'mgoing to give you an angel.
Don't mess up with the angel,because he is not forgiving.
(11:00):
And Moses is like no, have youseen these people?
Don't leave us with anunforgiving angel.
We need forgiveness, we needyou.
And then God and Moses go backand forth, complaining about the
Israelites to each other.
The entirety of the book ofNumbers.
It's flippant, hysterical.
But in order for God to dwellwith the people of Israel and
(11:27):
not automatically smite them,rules had to be put into place.
It's like, in order to not gethit by a car, we need rules for
street safety.
It's cause and effect and it'sit's like gravity what goes up,
what comes down.
If sin is in the presence ofGod, it's obliterated, and it's
(11:49):
obliterated mercifully.
You know.
There is no place in the oldTestament where things are
tortured by God, um, mauled,mutilated, destroyed by God in
an in a horrific way.
It always says, and theydropped dead, like this was just
no more, bye-bye, all done.
And so, like you don'tnecessarily go.
(12:12):
Oh well, a whole bunch of deathis merciful, but at the same
time, we had to get to jesussomehow.
Jesus is the mercy.
That's where that came from,and there were many times where
Moses and Aaron and Joshuaprayed on behalf of Israel and
God granted that mercy.
(12:33):
Many times where Elijah prayedfor the people of Israel and God
granted that mercy.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So, like, just like you said earlier, he is the same
today, tomorrow, forever.
He's the same in the oldtestament as the new testament,
and so when we start talkinglegalistic versus love, jesus
preached legalistic too he didabsolutely like it's like yes,
(13:01):
both I, it is no, that's so true, it is both.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
And there's this component that we like to say,
actually, in all things, thatthere is a balance, right, which
.
Thank the Lord for the HolySpirit that leads us and guides
us.
You know, when you're speakingof discipline, I can't help, and
of course, this is a scripturethat comes to mind.
Right Like Hebrews 12 and six,for the Lord disciplines and
corrects those that he loves,and he punishes every son whom
(13:29):
he receives and welcomes to hisheart.
And we think of it as like aparent, right, like the actual
Hebrew word for discipline isMusar, and it refers to
correction, instruction, reproofand, particularly in the
context of disciplining like achild, right and so, just like
the example you gave, like weteach our kids, don't cross the
street without looking first,and when you do, there is a
(13:54):
consequence that we want toplace on you so that the next
time you know for sure I willnot do this right.
And so it's brings me to theconcept of God.
Even in old Testament, there waslegalism centered out of his
love.
Right, he corrected through hislove, and in that he didn't do
(14:18):
anything without warning, no,and so you know, I consider the
concept of like I mean the termI always love is the Bible.
First of all, the Bible is aliving story and it is the best
story ever.
I'm like, if you wantentertainment, go to the Bible
because there is some drama inthere.
(14:39):
Right, oh, much drama, yes, butthe reality is like, even
before he opened the earth,there was warnings, before he
flooded and had.
No, there were warnings Like.
It's not heeding to the warning, it's not heeding to the
correction that's given, thatcauses consequence and
(14:59):
punishment, right.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I always look at the story of Exodus because in there
God says, okay, I'm going toharden Pharaoh's heart so he
won't let you go.
And the first time I read it asan adult I was like, oh, like,
that's mean.
Why would you intentionallymake it so that they're punished
?
But you know what?
The Israelites had been therefor 500 years.
(15:23):
They had exposure to the God ofcreation.
For 500 years they had beensaved by saved from famine.
They had been saved fromdestitution.
They were created, uplifted byGod through Joseph and elevated
in status to provide for theregion surrounding them.
(15:47):
God had blessed them and theystill went.
I'm going to worship Ra.
Now I'm going to worship Osiris.
I'm going to mistreat thepeople that came here under the
covenant of God's mercy.
We're just going to forget theGod of Israel exists, and this
was God.
Going 500 years is long enoughfor exposure before he said
(16:26):
enough.
It is time to separate mypeople from this people, because
this people they're breakingthe laws.
They know the Israelite laws.
They've seen the Israelitesacrifices, they've they've
heard of the atonement.
It's, it's time.
It's time to to make change.
(16:46):
And so you know when we, whenwe look at at reproach, when we
look at correction.
I always, you know, you hearGod is so wrathful in the old
Testament.
But you know, and especially wetalk about it when, when we're
talking about the things thatare happening to us.
You know why did I get cancer?
(17:08):
You know god is so wrathful why.
Why did, why did my child die?
God is so wrathful.
In the old testament, god poursout wrath on an individual like
twice, two times.
The wrath of God is reservedfor nations.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And usually it is big fire.
Global flooding Plagues.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You know, that's the wrath of god.
So we, um, we need to startbeing a little bit more careful,
as the christian church, in mypersonal opinion, as to the
curses that we're bringing uponourselves with our mouths and
what we're speaking intoexistence, cause, like you know,
(18:04):
I I mean, I myself have alwaysbeen this it's like, oh my gosh,
I, I, I really struggle to loseweight.
I have such a hard time, theweight's not going anywhere.
It's, it's just not, it's notworking, it's never going to
work.
And it's like what, what did Ijust say there?
And it's like what, what did Ijust say there?
(18:26):
Right, not working, so it's notgonna work.
And, like you know, there'sthere's confusion here with
manifestation versus blesses andcurses, and blessings and
curses.
But you know, when we got Godcreated with his mouth yes,
that's how he created.
So when we start talking aboutourselves, about our siblings,
about our relationships and ourcommunities, we have that power
(18:49):
to give that grace, to give thatungrace.
And I mean even Moses in theOld Testament.
Moses said Pharaoh's nevergoing to go for it.
And God said you're right,pharaoh's never going to go for
it.
And God said you're right,era's never going to go for it.
Right, yes, so it's veryinteresting to me, especially
(19:11):
when we start talking aboutcommunity.
I actually have a Bible studycoming out right now about our
two, about community and thespiritual warfare that we do
upon each other.
Yes, because you're a spiritbeing, yes, I'm a spirit being.
The church has this conceptthat spiritual warfare is solely
demonic, and it's just not.
(19:31):
I can, I can, wreak spiritualwarfare upon you Even as a
Christian.
You can wreak it upon me, evenas a Christian.
When we come out of alignmentwith God, we step into into that
sin space.
I mean you can even pray from aposition of sin and it's like
(19:52):
well, you know, I can't, I can'thave sinned, I prayed and it's
like, yes, in manipulation, wecan try and manipulate our
prayers, which is praying out ofsin, right?
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And so, yes, definitely, you know, I think
about um.
Scripture tells us that we areimage bearers, right, and so
when I talk about community,there's a concept of how you see
the person next to you, how yousee your neighbor, because
biblically, we are all neighborsto each other.
(20:36):
Like you are my neighbor, thisis my neighbor, this is my
neighbor, you got it, you got it.
You got it Like we are allneighbors.
This is my neighbor, you got it, you got it.
You got it.
Like we are all neighbors, itdoesn't matter proximity, right.
And so we were all created hisimage.
Now, I may not see outside ofyou the fruits coming through,
but you were creating his image.
(20:57):
That means you're an imagebearer, and so if there's a
concept inside of us thatrecognizes, no matter what
you're doing in the outerappearance, you were created,
you're an image bearer, whichone of the ways that I look at
grace is recognizing that, asindividuals, in our humanity,
(21:25):
there are past experiences thatshape the way we respond to
what's happening today, and thegrace that's inside of me will
allow me to not look and judgeyou upon what's happening today,
but to consider that there waspast experience that led you up
to today, but you are still animage bearer of God, because
(21:47):
that was your creation.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Oh no, go for it.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
When we see that echoed in Jonah.
You know Jonah was sent topreach to Nineveh.
Nineveh and the Israelites wereat war.
They were that.
Nineveh and the Israelites wereat war.
They were Nineveh and theIsraelites were at war.
You know they were swornenemies.
They were killing each other.
There were active battles goingon.
(22:14):
And God's like I want to savethe people of Nineveh and
Jonah's like well, I don't, soI'm not going.
And God's like you're going toNineveh.
And so, and even then, when hegets there, he half-heartedly
preaches God's message.
Nineveh hears it and turnsaround, and then he goes and
(22:36):
pouts about it and God's likewhy are you pouting?
I saved 200,000 souls yes.
I saved 200,000 souls, jonah,and it's like you know, we, we
look at the world and therethere's this this my enemy
(22:57):
versus your enemy,characteristic, which is so
anti-community.
And, at the end of the day,god's sitting here going my
enemy isn't necessarily yourenemy.
And there's this verse that isso often misquoted and I'm going
to level it here we, we oftensay well, god says vengeance is
(23:17):
mine, declares the Lord where'sthe vengeance in my honor?
Just because God, just becauseyou think that God delivers
vengeance?
That's not what the verse says.
The verse says that vengeance ismine.
It is mine to dish out, it ismine to give mercy, it is mine
(23:38):
to define what vengeance lookslike.
Define what vengeance lookslike just because you view
vengeance as smiting, as loss,as pain, injury, you know,
things like that doesn't meanthat that's God's definition of
vengeance, and it doesn'tnecessarily mean that the person
(24:00):
you want vengeance wrought uponis the person who God chooses
to wreak vengeance upon.
He might look at that and go.
You have no idea the demonstwisting that person.
I'm going to wreak vengeancefor both of you on that demon,
but you're still going to haveto treat this person as a friend
, as a brother, as a sister.
You're still have to findforgiveness, like Job had to
find forgiveness in chapter 42.
(24:21):
You're still going to have topray, blessing, thanksgiving and
beg God for forgiveness for theperson who hurt you so badly.
That's your job.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yes, yes, I like to say you can't be in God and
think you can have love and hatetogether.
Hate is not a part of him.
We often and we say it socasually like God is love, god
is love.
Well, guess what?
You can't be in alignment withhim and have any parts of hate
(24:54):
inside of you.
No, you can't.
I think about an aspect too ofand I actually pulled it up
because I wanted to make sureI'm blank Ephesians 1 and 11, it
says in him we are also chosen,having been predestined
according to the plan of his, ofhim who works out everything in
(25:15):
conformity with the purpose ofhis will.
And so the word works out,which you know we're talking New
Testament, so I'm gonna givethe Greek word right, which is
energeo, and it actually meansenergy and energizing force,
right?
So, essentially, when I look atthat, I'm like God is the
(25:35):
energy and the energizing forcebehind everything.
There's not a moment thathappens on this earth, there's
not a detail that happens thathe does not have to allow.
I mean, even when we thinkabout the story of Job, like
Satan came with the angels, bythe way, satan came into God's
presence and had to getpermission to touch, job.
(25:57):
There's not a thing thathappens that the Lord does not
allow.
And so I know that that was ahard concept, like when I lost
my child and I'm like Lord, I'mserving for you, like my husband
and I are youth pastors and youtook this away Like what
occurred, right, and so, in allthat confusion of all that, like
sitting and fighting, gettingto a place where I just
(26:19):
authentically and we're going totalk about prayers, right, but
having an authentic prayer oflike the thing that you already
know about my hurt, my anger, myupset, that I'm just going to
cast it up to you and let's dealwith this, like, let's go at it
with this, right, but in that,that was the hardest concept of
God.
You had to allow this to occur.
(26:42):
But I think when we sit in aposition you mentioned earlier
of thinking like, oh, I gotcancer, oh, I got this, I like
the term and I see we, you know,we see it sometimes on social
media, we see it in differentways the term like oh, but God,
yeah, yet there's a reality.
But God, you know, I look at Imean we look at people all
throughout the Bible.
If I look at, I mean we look atpeople all throughout the Bible
.
If I look at Joseph, likeJoseph, his father's favorite
(27:05):
Dakota, many colors, all of thatand goes through like the worst
times slavery, prison but thencomes out on top right, that's a
but God.
And I think if we stop andrecognize the but God moments,
it helps us increase our faithso that when things come up, we
(27:28):
recognize Lord, you're still inthis, you had to allow it to
happen, so there's a purposethat's according to your will
for this.
So, oh, I have cancer, but God,god is a healer.
Oh, my job made cutbacks, butGod, god is my, jehovah Jireh,
he will provide.
(27:49):
Yeah, and so it's in thosethings that I think you know we
have to sit and really enterinto relationship of prayer, to
be open and honest with God.
I mean, he already knows and Isay that often like the concept
that we think, like, oh, maybeif I don't say this out loud, or
(28:10):
maybe if I don't talk to himabout this, yes, so just the
concept of trusting God, yeah, Imean it's trusting him and it's
having open, honestcommunication with him.
Hey, let's take a quick break totell you about Grace Filled
(28:31):
Community.
Grace Filled Community is anorganization that focuses on the
primary principles of theChurch of Acts, centered around
building communities that impactthe kingdom of God.
We do this through three coreextensions.
(28:52):
One, graceville Church Network,where we empower churches and
nonprofits for God's success andgrowth.
We offer tailored growthstrategies rooted in biblical
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.
(29:14):
Our second extension is Projectof the Grace Field, where we
provide biblical counseling,mentorship, workshops and events
that are dedicated toencouraging individuals to live
a life filled with grace andpurpose, rooted in the
understanding that all havefallen short and are a working
(29:35):
project.
Let us help the individuals inyour community grow as they walk
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
(29:55):
God, that brings increase andallows them to pour back into
his kingdom, through marketplaceministry and financing his
kingdom.
We do this through our 15 yearsof experience of virtual
administrative work, digitalmarketing, business development
and consulting.
Welcome back I really want tojump into, because I mean her
(30:19):
prayers company.
I want to jump into, like,because I mean her prayers
company.
I want to jump into, like whatis it that you do that's
impacting?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
the community to in prayer?
Yeah, no, I would absolutelylove to dig into that.
So, as I was saying, you know,I almost lost both my kids.
I was in the hospital alone andjust rediscovering and
reconnecting with God, andthroughout the next couple of
years the last six actually, youknow the Holy Spirit just kept
(30:50):
telling me little tidbits.
Here and there I read a Bibleverse and all of a sudden, like
an explosion of understandingwould happen, and so I'd write
down this little paragraph hereand a little paragraph there, or
I'd be doing the dishes one dayand my mind would be wandering
and all of a sudden the rightanalogies would click.
(31:12):
And all of a sudden I'm like, ohmy gosh, my entire life I've
been chasing happiness becauseI've been depressed for 20 years
.
I don't need happiness becauseit's a lie, oh my goodness,
because anything that is just is.
If it is not, then it is a lie.
And so I was like, oh my gosh,I've been chasing this concept
(31:35):
of happiness, this lie, myentire life, when I should be
chasing the joy of the Lord,which means that it doesn't
really matter what comes andwhat goes.
If that happiness flees from me.
I'm still fine Cause I havethat joy.
And so, like uh, last year andum, in May, god finally was like
(31:57):
, okay, lauren, where are allthose little writings?
Where'd they?
And I was like, oh gosh, Idon't know.
And so I had to dig through mytext messages, my iPhone notes,
my Facebook messenger posts, myemail drafts, like I'm my
notebooks and journals, I'mpulling everything everywhere
and I throw it all into a GoogleDoc.
(32:19):
And it was 64 pages, pages ofcontent, just this massive
amount of writing.
And I'm just like, uh, okay, nowwhat?
You know, you told me to findall this stuff.
I'm supposed to do somethingwith it, right, right.
(32:39):
So I'm staring at it and doinga little editing here and there
and my mom's like, oh my gosh,look at what you've written,
it's wonderful, it's a, it's amommy blog.
You know, my girlfriend's likeyou should monetize it.
You know, this is great writing, you can help people with this,
and I'm like that just doesn't.
It doesn't feel right.
(33:00):
I'm gonna sit on it and finally, in July, god said these are
Bible studies.
There are seven of them and asI started tearing them apart, I
and putting them in theirdifferent categories, I noticed
a theme and it was how to praywithout ceasing.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Because I have always looked at that Bible verse and
gone.
That is such a ridiculousexpectation.
How is that even a possibility?
Like I got a life to live andof course you know you hear the
only type of prayer you hearreally talked about.
(33:46):
Besides, what is displayed foryou in church is going into your
secret place, going into thatprayer closet, locking yourself
in there for hours, and I'm likethe two do not go hand in hand
yes I have a four-year-old Justrecording.
This is dangerous, yes, like.
(34:07):
Explain this to me, god.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
But that's the thing is that it's not that we are
supposed to remove ourselvesfrom our lives, it's that God is
supposed to be so in our lifethat everything we do turns into
prayer, everything we do turnsinto worship.
We have invited him in soexplicitly and intrinsically
that we are walking through thegrocery store with the Holy
Spirit and having his anointingon us to the point where we
(34:35):
touch a thing that we are notsupposed to buy, our hand is
repelled, so that in and ofitself is her prayers code.
There are seven to eightanswers when somebody in church
is asked to pray and only one ofthem is yes.
And most of the time we'restanding awkwardly in a circle
(34:57):
staring at one another, seeingif anybody's going to have the
gall to say yes.
Lord, I want to talk to youright now.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
But, no.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Do you see people in church fighting for the
opportunity to pray over eachother and bless each other?
No, you don't.
Why?
Why we should be battling itout to talk to God.
Yes, but we're not.
So, god, put it on my heart,tear apart these lies.
(35:27):
This is a cry for shepherding,this is a cry from the God's
community saying I don't know,I'm not comfortable, I don't
have words.
And we, as a church's responseis it's okay, do it anyway.
Like it's so condescending andso demeaning and so invalidating
(35:50):
.
Yep, do it anyway, it's fine,you'll figure it out, it's good,
it's good.
And I myself have been thatperson where I've been like no,
no, no, you know, the only wayyou get better at praying is to
pray.
So who?
Who cares about the pressure?
Who cares about the words?
Just just do it.
Go out of your comfort zone,your feelings don't matter.
Connect with God.
(36:10):
And what we're actually sayingis God doesn't care about your
feelings either.
What we're actually saying isGod doesn't care about what you
pray.
We're saying that God doesn'tcare, and what we are meaning is
(36:31):
that God's not going to hold itagainst you.
But what they're hearing isthat there is no relationship
between God and I, because if hedoesn't care about my feelings,
if he doesn't care about me,then what is the point?
So we are creating spiritualwarfare while trying to
encourage people to pray.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yes, yes, yes, so I think about so.
When I was geez, let me tellyou.
So I have now three teenagers,and so at a period of time, I
had three children all underthree, all in diapers, yes, and
I remember someone telling melike you need to get your hour
(37:16):
of prayer in every morning.
And I'm like, do you know whatlife I live?
Like I would like to not be thefeeder for an hour.
How about that?
And so it was just like that'sso unrealistic.
And I started carrying thisguilt and shame of, like I'm not
getting up, I'm not getting myprayer time in, I'm not sitting
there with all of my confessionslaid out to say this and this
(37:39):
to the Lord, which really, Imean what God wants is
relationship, right, and even,as we talk about community.
That's why prayer is also soimportant, because the first
example of what relationshipshould look like comes from
God's relationship with us.
It shows me what forgivenessshould look like, shows me what
(38:01):
mercy looks like, shows me whatgrace looks like, love, kindness
I mean, let's just go throughthe fruits of the spirit Like.
It shows me what relationshipsshould look like, and so it's
important that I can enter intothat and I value cause.
You're absolutely correct.
If we don't give peopleguidance or even what prayer is,
what prayer means and, yeah, Ithink, even some instructions on
(38:24):
like, how do you start enteringinto this, we are kind of
discrediting their feelings, andwe have a saying in our house
that feelings may not be factual, but feelings matter.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
They do they do.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Feelings will create the actions that you do if you
don't address thoseappropriately, and part of
prayer is addressing theemotions and the feelings
Emotions which I like to saythat God did create.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
He created emotions.
Yes, it's like biting my tonguegoing.
I want it.
You know, God made everythingwith a purpose.
Yes, the first devotional weput out is a devotional for
brand new mommies.
Because, just like you weretalking about, where is God when
I got a kid attached to my body?
Where is God?
(39:12):
Where I'm still trying tofigure out how to bend over,
like how am I supposed to hit myknees?
And it's like you're not.
You're not, but there is noreason you can't pray while you
nurse there is no reason youcan't put some worship music on
while that baby is napping,because it is calm and it is
soothing.
There is no reason why I meangosh, I found god in pooplosions
(39:36):
like god is there inpooplosions and the beauty is he
will speak to you in the nameof that poop right, which I feel
like it's just like our lives.
You know, I'm watching you onbutts and throwing in bathrobes
and I'm like, is this just howyou view me, god, just covered
in my own poop all the time, myown mess, my own unworthiness
(39:58):
and selfishness and thesilliness that I get myself into
.
And it's like, yes, lauren,that's how I see you, covered in
your own mess.
But you know what I love youanyway, just like you love that
baby anyways, just like you wantto clean that baby anyways.
That's what I want to do foryou and so like and that's
(40:19):
that's the entirety of theministry is, wherever you are,
god is there and it is my job toencourage you, to put sometimes
enable you and sometimes toeducate.
So it's kind of a trifle.
In the beginning, god said thatman was not good to be alone.
(40:45):
He needed a helper suitable,just like god has a helper
suitable.
With the holy spirit.
We are in the family unit, theholy spirit representative.
We are the lionesses of judah,god says, because your mother
was so great and she stood atthe entrance of the den
protecting you.
We are the spiritual warfaresof our warriors, of our house,
(41:10):
and this generation of womenhave forgotten and the
generation who were so foundedin prayer that you could not
shake them are dying off.
They're going to be with theLord.
God is calling his army forthright now.
He's calling you, he's callingme, he's calling my daughter,
(41:31):
he's calling the daughters ofthe king to stand up, go to
battle against this world andagainst the wages of sin,
against the demonic, againstourselves, and to take ownership
of what comes out of our mouths.
For the Lord.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yes, yes, I love it.
I love it, and of course, I canjust hear from your heart, your
passion behind what it is thatyou're doing to impact God's
people, impact community.
And when I say God's people,know that every one of his
creation is his people.
There there is, I mean we.
We find often, especially inchurch, we can hear a separation
(42:09):
like, oh, god's people, as ifthis is just those that are
sitting here week by week.
But he created and he loves allof his creation, and so in our
aspect of loving him to thepoint of obedience unto death,
right Then we should love all ofhis creation and by love, using
(42:31):
that discipline that we talkedabout earlier, to speak truth to
them, to correct them, to guidethem, to educate them, to
enable them all the things thatyou said, and especially in the
prayer.
And so I love what it is thatyou're doing and so appreciate
all that you're doing to impactcommunity as a whole.
You know.
(42:52):
One more question that I justhave is you brought up something
that is very near and dear tome.
In our home we do these thingscalled family talks, and with
those family talks, one of theum, they rotate like week by
week, like what's the questionfor the week?
And you know we come backaround to them and so forth.
But one of them is, like youknow, in a concept of
(43:12):
representing and understandingthe representation that god the
father represents in the home,would be the male party right,
the husband, and the Holy Spirit, that lovely comforter, helper,
guider, the one they're a lotof partner with, is mother role,
right, and Jesus, our brother,who sits on the right hand, like
(43:35):
interceding, like right, likehey, I'm partnered with her.
Okay, father, give her mercy inthis right.
That is the role of sibling,right, and so that's kind of how
we present like how the thingsshould be happening in our home.
Let's get aside from like.
Does that mean that you know,my husband can't do the dishes?
No, by all means, please dothose dishes, okay.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Who said that God didn't do dishes?
He flooded the earth.
He cleans up.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yes, he was smart enough to create some automatic
systems.
Right, he's clean after Right.
But all that to say like itdoesn't, it's not about the
responsibility, it's not aboutlike a gender role, but what it
is about recognizing what isinside of us, what was created
in us, and how we carry out thismannerism of God's creation
(44:26):
Right.
And so I love how you, broughtup as women, we need to be doing
the spiritual warfare, not onlyas how we treat each other,
which is one of my caveats, isthe whole like women can't get
along.
Yes, women can get along.
Right, women should get along.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
We used to be tribal to the point where we would
raise each other's children andwe would.
That's a whole other right.
I'm like but yeah, no, that's it, it's 100%.
What you were saying is thatit's not a role, it's a gift
(45:05):
that we have gifting.
If you look at women, we aremore intuitive, we are more
emotional, we see to the heartof the issue and not the the
surface level presentation.
And that is 100% what the HolySpirit does.
It is the gift of discernment,and if you talk to most women,
they will have the gift ofdiscernment in terms of
(45:27):
spiritual gifting, because thatis the Holy Spirit in and of
itself.
And so when we walk through ourhouse, we need to be able to
look at our children and go.
You are under spiritual warfareand I'm going to pray for you.
I'm going to go anoint thishouse, I'm going to anoint your
bed, I'm going to writescripture on your backpack to
keep you safe wherever you go,because God is with you and I
(45:49):
want you to see those things andbe able to declare them upon
yourself throughout the day.
And I learned this personallybecause we actually had a spirit
of fear tormenting my daughter.
She was having night terrors.
We had a spiritual, a spirit ofanger tormenting my husband.
We had a spirit of insecuritytormenting myself, and once I
(46:14):
started routinely anointing thehouse in oil and declaring this
space as the space of the holyspirit.
Um, because that's what theydid scripturally for the time.
It is, oh, absolutely, uh,going what I'm not doing.
Hooey, hooey right it isbiblical.
It is biblical, absolutely yes,biblical yeah I I gotta say that
(46:36):
because whenever I starttalking in oil people, uh,
talking about anointing in oilpeople go, ah, like right,
you're putting up some likewitchy barrier or something, and
I'm like no, no, it's asymbolic invitation for the holy
spirit.
It's not.
There's not.
There's no spells, there's nocharms, there's no nothing.
You don't even need to use oil.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
The music doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Anoint in sweat, yes, use some water In Passover.
They anointed with blood, likethere are different kinds of
anointings in scripture.
And so when we start looking atthe invitation of the Holy
Spirit, that is 100%, what 99,that's 99% of my teaching right
(47:27):
there is invite him in.
We are so busy trying to takecare of everything ourselves.
We're so busy getting advicefrom Dr Google, from our parents
, from our best friends, fromchat, gbt, parenting books, the
dictionary.
We are so quick to diagnose anddefine and determine, but we
(47:47):
are not praying, we are notanointing, we are not saying oh,
I rebuke that statement over myhousehold.
I'm so sorry, I rebuke thatstatement over my child.
My child is not having a hardtime learning.
They learn differently andthere is a difference between my
child learning differently andmy child not being able to learn
(48:09):
.
And I'm not going to receivethat word.
We're going to receive thesewords and so you and me, we're
going to come up with a way toreach my child, not declare them
broken you know.
And so when we start walking inthe Holy Spirit as spiritual
warriors, when we start walkingas lionesses of Judah, we start
(48:30):
viewing the world as acceptableand biblical and not acceptable
non-biblical.
And that's where you start tomake those decisions and
discernments of we're cuttingthis out because it's not good.
We're cutting that out becauseit's not good.
We will accept this because itis good.
And especially when you've gotlittle people like you're, at
the point where you're, you arepassing the mantle.
(48:52):
You are teaching your sons toview these things for themselves
.
You are teaching them to standup in prayer for themselves and
to accept what is and isunacceptable for themselves.
You're kind of letting go, butthat doesn't mean you're not
praying anymore.
That doesn't mean that you'renot.
It never stops, right, right.
(49:12):
Yes, you are still at war.
Yes, still defending yourhousehold, even when another
woman comes in and right you'renow praying for that woman.
Yes, you're praying for yourgrandkids.
You're still praying for yourfamily line, and I learned this
from my dad.
He's like if you look atabraham, you look at isaac, you
look at jacob, the blessingdoesn't stop with one generation
(49:34):
.
No, abraham was still blessing,is still blessing, jacob still
blessing.
Yes, out the Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
There's a reality, Like.
Like you said, I'm at the stageof passing the mantle right.
So it's no longer like do thisbecause I say right, or that I
show because I'm a firm believerof like let me show you right,
Not just say it, let's do both.
Let me show you through myactions.
If I'm telling you that weshould get up and start reading
(50:02):
with our Bible, then I need toget up and start reading with my
Bible, Right and so and notjust on my phone, because you
see me do everything else on myphone.
So I need to physically like theBible and let you see that I
know how to open this Right.
I can read a book this book andI can like jump from one book to
(50:24):
another.
Yes, I do know how to get there, but there is this aspect of
when they were smaller.
There was the foundationalthings that, like we don't
listen to certain music, wedon't watch certain TV shows, we
don't go with those people, notbecause we don't love them, but
because we are not in agreementwith the actions that happen in
(50:47):
that location.
We don't go clubs, we don't dothis, and so, in that I remember
them being young, being likeman, we don't do anything, or my
friend does this, or thisperson does this.
This is it which is why I'velearned that it is so important
in community, right, not that wetry to create this bubble, but
in those foundational pieces,when they are developing and
(51:09):
recognizing their identity inthe one identity in Christ, that
when you keep a stewardshipover the honor and the gift that
you have to upbringing, that,when you do that, when they get
to the age where I am with theseteens, right, they start having
conversations like I get whyyou did that, I appreciate why
(51:33):
you did that, I see, you knowwhat I see this person who was
doing this and now it didn'twork out good for them Right.
And so then it opens up for youknow again relationship right,
and community definitely starts.
Community starts with yourrelationship with God vertically
, and then the relationships inyour home, right, we can't do
(51:53):
community outside the home ifwe're not taking care of what's
happening in the home right.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
100% Exposure is acceptance.
Yes, starting from a young age,and so I'm really careful what
I expose my kids to, and if Icannot find a way to point it
back to God, then I don't exposethem.
And just like you were sayingfor those who are in my stage,
where I've got little people,you know, I started explaining
(52:19):
to my daughter that I have a jobhere.
I'm not just your mom, I have ajob.
There are four things I have todo for you.
The first is I have to keep yousafe and healthy.
Yes, so if what you want goesagainst the premise of keeping
you safe and healthy, it's a no,I'm sorry.
That's my job, it's my rulesand they weren't made by me.
(52:39):
Right, I didn't make my ownrules.
That's not the concept ofadults make their own rules.
That's not true, it's a lie.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
We're not going to even teach that lie, I have a
boss.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
The boss is God, yeah .
And then the second one is Ineed to help you be the best
person you can be morally,ethically, you know, balanced
emotionally, spiritually, likethere, there is a requirement of
refinement.
I am to refine you, you know.
That gave me some great rawmaterial to shape and that's my
(53:15):
role, my job.
And then the third one is I'msupposed to help you explore and
experience your world, createfoundational experiences that
broaden your horizons, teach youabout yourself, make you think
about things differently, and ifI absolutely can, I will try to
make you happy.
The fourth one, but it's notrequired not required not
(53:38):
required.
And so now we're at a placewhere it's like, okay, this is
what disrespect is.
It's anything that goes against, though, that that premise
those four rules.
When you speak against the fourrules, that's disrespectful.
When you um throw fits againstthe four rules, it's
disrespectful.
It's not that I don't want youto be obedient it to the point
(54:03):
where you don't think foryourself, like you're allowed to
ask questions, get clarity,find understanding.
What you're not allowed to dois go.
I don't like your answer.
So you know that's too sassy,frassy for me.
And then now, when you're atyour point, because you've put
in that foundational work ofthis is what?
(54:23):
How you think for yourself, butwe're going to think for
ourselves through mom's rules.
Because, guess what, eventually, mom's rules will become your
rules.
Right, is this safe and healthyfor me?
Is this going to push me to thebest of gods that god has for
me?
Is this going to give me goodexperiences or bad experiences,
(54:44):
and how do I view those things?
And so, since you put in thatfoundational thought process,
they're now able to go wow, mom,thanks.
And it's so beautiful.
I love the, the concept of youknow and not like.
Those things don't just comefrom us.
No, they come from our churchmembers, they come from our
(55:06):
neighbors, they come from ourgrandparents.
And um, that, to me, that iswhy the enemy is pushing so hard
on unforgiveness, boundariesand barriers right now is
because if he can destroygenerational knowledge, he
destroys the family, and if hedestroys the family, then he
destroys the future generation.
(55:27):
For god and it's like I can'teven tell you how often right
now I'm preaching forgiveness,because the world is so
anti-forgiveness for everylittle thing- yeah.
Don't get me started, that's awhole other podcast.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
I'm like we have a few we can like.
We're definitely going to haveto come back.
I'll definitely have to inviteyou back on Cause I feel like we
have so many things that wecould discuss and I mean
definitely topics to go into.
I mean, when you mentioned theanointing oil for our listeners
I don't want to assume all thetime that they may know, so I
actually want to clarify somescriptures that do lead to
(56:06):
anointing.
You know, as we talk about likethe previous generation, and the
Bible talks about the olderwomen teaching the younger women
, right when I was newly marriedand about two to three years
into my marriage, we went some,I mean tough times Okay, and so
I yeah, I'm like usually, yes, Irecall having a, I'll say, more
(56:30):
seasoned, more mature woman inthe church that was so kind to
me and say, hey, you know what,take that anointing oil, put it
in his shoes, put it, put it onhis socks, put it under his
pillow, like, and at first I waslike, okay, now I'll use wisdom
, because now, this, this, yes,I'm going to tell you guys.
(56:52):
I went right over to Costco, Igot the biggest bottle I could
find of olive oil and sheprobably should have told me to
use maybe a little bit discreetdiscretion before I just started
dumping, because I was like, oh, we gonna get this, but does it
(57:13):
take all that?
Go ahead and get a dab.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
I'm sorry that was that.
That is the best story foranointing, I think I've ever
heard.
Speaker 1 (57:24):
Oh gosh, it's so good , my friend and I have a joke
about me going to costco and getan oil because I'm like we, we
ain't gonna run dry over here.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
Okay, no, no, heck, no yes.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
But if we look scripture wise and going back to
that, like she gave me thatpiece of wisdom and she told me
like, use that oil, pray over it.
Like you know, anoint theplaces that he would touch.
And let's go even furtherAnoint the places that you will
touch.
Anoint your children.
Anoint the places they willtouch.
Anoint your home, anoint thedoor that evil cannot forget.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
Anoint, yes, anoint, and so everything but yes.
Well, the takeaway for this isthat there is a time and a place
.
If you're struggling somewhere,that's where you grab that
anointing yes, because when wesay anoint your whole dang house
, I mean literally, you couldanoint your entire house.
Speaker 1 (58:22):
But I'm not recommending you go get yeah,
don't get.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
Go get a paint roller and start rolling.
Usually just to clarify,blessing bottles are about this
big of oil.
All you're doing is getting alittle bit on your finger.
You can just draw a smudge, asI said, dab it on and really the
(58:46):
power of it is to stop andintentionally pray over
something, to stop and use thataction to keep your mind focused
.
Um, I don't know about you, butwhen I'm praying, sometimes it
is so hard to stay on one topicoh yeah, down to pray over your
husband.
You sit down to pray over yourkids.
(59:07):
All of a sudden, you findyourself complaining about them
to god, which is perfectly fine.
But that wasn't the goal.
The goal was to sit down andbless them.
The goal was to sit down andbring forth the things from the
Holy Spirit that you hope is isgrown within them from the seeds
that you're planting.
And so you know, it's not thatwe're sitting there going.
(59:29):
Oh, I want to see more kindness.
So, lord, make them more kind.
It's's, it's lord.
Help me plant those seeds that.
Help them grow kindly yes lord,help me.
Help me view my childrenhonestly, not through my own
corrupted eyes, but from youreyes, and guide the prayers and
the anointings in the holyspirit, so that we're not trying
(59:53):
to create automatons that justlisten to us, but we're trying
to, you know, create, create, uh, warriors and people of god
that that believe in morality,that believe in scripture, and
it's not just, you know, beafraid of hell and, and you know
you don't want to go there.
so we're gonna, we're gonna prayover you and're going to you
(01:00:16):
know you're three years old, sosay Jesus, jesus, I want, I want
you know it's not out of fear,it's out of love, it's not out
of fear, it's abundance.
And you know, being able tostand there in the Holy Spirit
and define not an automaton,being able to stand there in the
Holy Spirit and define not anautomaton, but somebody who will
(01:00:38):
walk towards the Lord becausehe understands the Lord is good.
Yes, that we have createdrelationship with him.
Because we've taught ourchildren not to recite scripture
, not just to pray a singularprayer, not to recite something
by rote as far as worship goes,but we have introduced them to
(01:00:58):
the God that created them.
We have shown them his lovethrough us, through relationship
, through answered prayers,through the power of worship
that we have stood at thedoorway and said this is God's
will for me, what is God's willfor you, and taught them what
that looks like, because we'vehad enough generations who know
(01:01:23):
things by rote and have walkedaway from God.
Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
That's why people walk away is because we've only
taught them about, we haven'tintroduced them to.
And when we start focusing onwhat prayer is.
That's the heart to heart withGod.
Yeah, that's the whole point.
And I look at my little girl.
She had a nightmare and shecame up to me and she's like
(01:01:49):
mama, where's the oil Got toanoint my bed?
Yes, I'm going to go pray overmy dwelling space.
I'm going to war with the enemy.
And it's like let mommy comewith you.
You're only seven.
Let mommy come with you.
Yeah, we're not going to letyou take on the Right, the
(01:02:11):
darkness by yourself.
I'm still your shield girl.
Yes, right, by yourself, I'mstill your shield girl.
Yes, but you know, um, we have ajob and god's told me that my
job is to just talk about ourjob.
My job is to write books thathelp you do.
Your job is to to simply shinea light that says hey, you know,
(01:02:33):
I didn't know, I was awishy-washy christian, are you?
I?
I don't know, you can't, Ican't answer it, you can't
answer it.
But I do know that typically,most of my conversations circle
back around god, because I'mjust so excited I can't help but
talk about it.
Our role here is first to be aprayer warrior and have that
(01:02:54):
good of a relationship with godthat we can go to war.
Secondarily, it's to spreadseeds for the holy spirit to
grow but prayer is where it allstarts.
You know people go.
Oh, you know, I don't want toget into ministry, I don't want
to be a pastor.
We are all supposed to be inministry, right, but ministry
(01:03:14):
isn't just pastoring yesministry can be as simple as a
god bless you at the end ofevery transaction at the grocery
store.
Ministry can be a lord keepthem safe after a car accident.
Ministry can be a simple gobefore them when they enter that
school.
(01:03:35):
Yes, that's ministry.
Yes, and it's beautiful.
God is so good.
I've loved him.
Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
He is.
Oh, I have really truly enjoyedour time together, lauren.
I mean, again, we got to bringyou back out because I feel like
we could go so much more, butthat's what it is right.
We talk about the goodness ofGod and being people that
recognize the impact that he'smade on us and wanting to share
(01:04:02):
with others, because I want youto see all that God has for you,
all that God is, all that Godis.
And so, listeners, I encourageyou to go find Lauren, follow
her.
We will plug in all her socialsand website and details below,
(01:04:24):
and even how you can get herstudies and so forth.
Please, please, please, go findLauren, follow her, connect
with her.
Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
We're on Amazon, we're on TikTok, we're on
lightly on Instagram, because Idon't really like Instagram.
There's not enough talking onInstagram.
I'm a talker.
We're heavily on Facebook thewebsite's herprayerscocom or
herprayerscom and just come talkto me.
(01:04:54):
If you do not see a resourcethat you need, tell me what you
need, we'll make one for you.
Yes, yes, because that's thatif you need it, someone else
needs it too.
Yeah, so tell me what you needand we'll make it happen.
Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Well, thank you, lauren.
Thank you so much, followers.
I also want to say if you havequestions, I am here for it.
We are here for it.
If you are watching this andyou're like, or listening, and
you're like, hey, I havequestions, what about this, what
about that?
Plug them in.
We are here to be a resourceand if we don't know answers, we
(01:05:31):
know the Holy Spirit, and so wewill go to him for direction
and guidance on where to helpyou get those answers.
If you have questions aboutanointing oil, I do want to tell
you James 5, 14 through 15,this passage talks about
anointing the sick with oil.
Exodus 30 and 25, it talksabout the sacred anointing oil.
Luke 7, 44 through 46 talksabout Jesus scolding Simon for
(01:05:56):
not anointing his head witholive oil.
And so Mark 6, 13, genesis 28,10 through 22, we can give them
to you.
Love you all.
Thank you for tuning in toGraceville Community and always
be reminded to love God and lovehis people.
Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
And pray.
Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
And pray and pray.
Thank you for tuning in totoday's episode of Graceville
Community Podcast.
We would like to invite you tovisit gracevillecommunitycom.
Graceville Community is allabout doing church the way
Church of Acts did, Using fivemain principles that we see in
(01:06:38):
the book of Acts Sharingresources, as believers pooled
their possessions and resourcesto support those in need, as we
see in Acts 2.44.
Through hospitality the earlyChristians practiced hospitality
by opening their homes toothers, as we see in Acts 2 and
(01:06:58):
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.
(01:07:21):
And finally, spiritual guidancethe apostles and elders
provided spiritual guidance andteaching to help strengthen and
build the community, as we seein Acts 15 30.
The community, as we see inActs 1530.
I would like to encourage you.
If any of those areas are areasin which you are in need or can
(01:07:43):
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.
Hi, welcome to GracevilleCommunity, where we have real
heart-to-heart conversationsabout impacting the faith-based
community.
My name is Nicole Cater, yourhost and founder of Graceville
Community, and I am so excitedtoday to have Ms Lauren Arnn
(00:44):
with Her Prayers Company, laurenhi, hey girl, hey everybody,
nice to meet you all.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yes, okay, lauren.
So I have actually been lookingforward to this.
I know we had a couple of dayswhere it's like we're going to
do this, but tell me first ofall Her Prayers Company.
I mean, obviously I'm a she,but tell me first of all her
prayers company.
I mean, obviously I'm a she andprayers is one thing that I
love, so I'm like, give it to me.
What is?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
happening with her prayers company.
So my journey started a coupleof years ago with two very
traumatic birth experiences.
With my daughter, I almost losther multiple times during our
pregnancy in utero, and with myson, he was actually stillborn
from a silent placentalabruption.
Through both of thosesituations, god really showed me
(01:34):
how far away from him I trulyhad been.
I've been a Christian my entirelife and I was always the person
who was like you know, lord,it's okay, the whole world is
under your purview.
I'm a Christian, I know therules, you know I'm going to
pray to you every day, I'm goingto go to church.
(01:57):
But like, I've got this.
You know you, you set me upgood, I got this.
And then, whenever I didn'thave it, all of a sudden it was
like Lord, save me.
And then we'd go right back tooh, that was a close one, god,
thank you, I got this again.
You're good.
I got, you were there when Ineeded you.
You're always there with me.
(02:17):
But I got this.
And then, all of a sudden, I'min a position where I'm going to
the doctor every three days tosee if my daughter is still
alive and God's like yeah, howfar away from me are you Lauren?
And it was like, oh, okay, god.
And even then my daughter's nowseven.
(02:38):
She's beautiful, she's healthy,she's vivacious, she's such a
warrior for God.
Even then afterwards I was like, okay, god, thanks, I got it.
I can now hear your voice,we're talking more regularly.
I'm going to go to Bible studynow on top of church.
But I got it Right.
(03:01):
And then, when it came to my son, all of a sudden he was still
born and resuscitated.
I was stuck in the hospitalduring COVID.
He was at a different hospitalreceiving life giving treatment.
There were five days where Ididn't know whether he was going
to live or not and all of asudden it was like I thought I
had this, I thought I hadlearned, but that's not having
(03:25):
relationship with God.
I was still being a wishy-washyCEO Christian where I knew
about God, I knew about Jesus, Ihad accepted him.
I was born again, covered bythe blood, but I was not walking
in faith every day but I wasnot walking in faith every day.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes, you know, I do want to pause right there
because I mean there's so muchcontext in what you just said, I
mean so much that I'm like, oh,my goodness, you know, I think
that, especially for those of usI grew up in the church, right,
and at some point you get tothe stage where it's like it's
not just the legalistic side,it's not just like, okay, yeah,
I read these confessions andokay, yes, I, you know, just go
(04:09):
to church weekly and I'm walkingin and I'm walking out and
nothing's really changing apersonal relationship, right.
And so I feel like we havethese, what I like to call these
God moments where it's therecognition that we're not in
control and need the one who isin control, right.
(04:30):
And so I think of, like, thesuffering with Christ.
It's for our own good, actually, that we go through these
circumstances.
And I mean you definitely havea story to tell.
I, as many of our viewers know,lost our first child in a
traumatic way and came to apoint with like, just like you
(04:54):
do, I really know you Do, Ireally rely on you.
And so I love that you speak tothis, because I know often I
speak to our followers or peoplethat tune in and they're going
through hard circumstances andthe mindset of like oh God left
me or why am I in this?
Versus what is there to pullfrom this, and so I just wanted
(05:14):
to pause there because, even inall that you said, I'm like
there is so much context, somuch goodness of.
We need moments like thatbecause it does draw us near.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Well, and how much of that is us doing it unto
ourselves?
You know not to not to say that, like you caused your child to
die, or I caused my child to beunhealthy, but these kinds of
things stem from sin.
They do.
That's where all of thishardship, all this hurt, all
this death, that's where itcomes from, that's where the
(05:46):
wages are.
And I don't know about you, butgrowing up in the church, I had
always kind of took therepentance prayer.
As you know, if I did it, itwas covered type thing, and it
didn't matter how I did it.
And as a mom and you'll knowthis because you're a mom too
when you're teaching somebodyabout apologies, there are
(06:09):
acceptable apologies trueapologies and there are not
acceptable apologies not trueapologies.
So that's why I always startwith my story, because there was
a lot that I hadn't evenbothered to repent of.
I hadn't even bothered to sayI'm so sorry, lord, cover this
(06:31):
for me, because I was alreadycovered, I was already saved.
It was handled by Jesus.
He died for it.
I don't actually need to beatmyself you know
self-flagellation or things likethat to give it to him.
However, we still need to beatmyself you know
self-flagellation or things likethat, to to give it to him.
However, we still need toacknowledge that it happened,
(06:51):
and that's what Leviticus showsus.
Is that's what, what part ofthat ritual and sacrifice was?
It was acknowledgement that wehad stepped out of line with the
creator and had a desire to getback into alignment with him.
So, um it's.
It's a heavy thing, you know,and I there.
(07:13):
We don't understand the will ofgod.
We don't understand what, whatimpacts what.
It's kind of like the butterflyeffect, you don't know you know
um, yes, but scripture tells usthat what be what befalls the
child, is covered by the head ofthe household in the old.
Testament, and so you know wehave that responsibility to
(07:34):
stand up and say this was mineand I need to repent for it, I
need to pray for it, I need tocover my children in anointing.
And it's heavy.
I mean, both of my childrenwere severely impacted by my
lack of faith.
They were severely impacted bymy lack of prayer and it's heavy
(07:58):
to live with.
It is it's heavy.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yes, yes, I think of how you know, as you stated, and
especially being, I mean,grace-filled community, right?
One of the biggest things thatI like to make sure that there's
an understanding of is yes, isthe Lord's mercies new every
morning?
Absolutely, but I don't want tolive off of that mercy, right,
(08:21):
because the word says that theLord is the same yesterday,
today and forevermore, meaningthat there are still
consequences to the actions thatwe do, and so, although those
mercies are new every morning, Istill have to understand and
take responsibility that thereare going to be consequences for
the actions that I make, and sothank the Lord that we have a
(08:45):
Jesus Christ that sacrificed sothat we can come into repentance
and we can be in a relationship.
But I think that leads to theconversation of, like legalist
versus love, right.
And when I think of thefoundation, like why it's so
important to have that personalrelationship, as you mentioned,
(09:08):
is when we love someone, we dothe things that please them,
right.
I think about, like, myrelationship with my husband.
We're entering about to enter20 years and so thank you, and
so when I think about it, likein my love for him, is when I
(09:28):
don't maybe feel like getting updoing something, but I will.
It's in my love for him that Iwill speak to him a certain way
to, because it's pleasing to him, it gives him honor and respect
.
It's through my love for him,right.
And I think that sometimes wehave become, um, and I say we,
including me, have had times ofbeing fickle with it right,
(09:49):
because I want to love him inthe same sense of like, oh, I
love this tv show because I feelgood about it, but we feel good
, I love that analogy, um,because I was already kind of
pre-thinking, but but that's,that's a fabulous analogy that
you know, we just want to um, toexist in love, but that's not
(10:14):
reality.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That TV show it's.
It's not reality.
And you know, I love this topicbecause, like so many topics
where the Christian community isso divided, the reality is it's
both God and Jesus, they're thesame.
Legalism and love it's the same.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I love my children, so I put boundaries and rules
for their success, for theirsafety, for the betterment of
them into place and, like God,even says okay, moses, I'm going
to depart from Israel and I'mgoing to give you an angel.
Don't mess up with the angel,because he is not forgiving.
(11:00):
And Moses is like no, have youseen these people?
Don't leave us with anunforgiving angel.
We need forgiveness, we needyou.
And then God and Moses go backand forth, complaining about the
Israelites to each other.
The entirety of the book ofNumbers.
It's flippant, hysterical.
But in order for God to dwellwith the people of Israel and
(11:27):
not automatically smite them,rules had to be put into place.
It's like, in order to not gethit by a car, we need rules for
street safety.
It's cause and effect and it'sit's like gravity what goes up,
what comes down.
If sin is in the presence ofGod, it's obliterated, and it's
(11:49):
obliterated mercifully.
You know.
There is no place in the oldTestament where things are
tortured by God, um, mauled,mutilated, destroyed by God in
an in a horrific way.
It always says, and theydropped dead, like this was just
no more, bye-bye, all done.
And so, like you don'tnecessarily go.
(12:12):
Oh well, a whole bunch of deathis merciful, but at the same
time, we had to get to jesussomehow.
Jesus is the mercy.
That's where that came from,and there were many times where
Moses and Aaron and Joshuaprayed on behalf of Israel and
God granted that mercy.
(12:33):
Many times where Elijah prayedfor the people of Israel and God
granted that mercy.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So, like, just like you said earlier, he is the same
today, tomorrow, forever.
He's the same in the oldtestament as the new testament,
and so when we start talkinglegalistic versus love, jesus
preached legalistic too he didabsolutely like it's like yes,
(13:01):
both I, it is no, that's so true, it is both.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
And there's this component that we like to say,
actually, in all things, thatthere is a balance, right, which
.
Thank the Lord for the HolySpirit that leads us and guides
us.
You know, when you're speakingof discipline, I can't help, and
of course, this is a scripturethat comes to mind.
Right Like Hebrews 12 and six,for the Lord disciplines and
corrects those that he loves,and he punishes every son whom
(13:29):
he receives and welcomes to hisheart.
And we think of it as like aparent, right, like the actual
Hebrew word for discipline isMusar, and it refers to
correction, instruction, reproofand, particularly in the
context of disciplining like achild, right and so, just like
the example you gave, like weteach our kids, don't cross the
street without looking first,and when you do, there is a
(13:54):
consequence that we want toplace on you so that the next
time you know for sure I willnot do this right.
And so it's brings me to theconcept of God.
Even in old Testament, there waslegalism centered out of his
love.
Right, he corrected through hislove, and in that he didn't do
(14:18):
anything without warning, no,and so you know, I consider the
concept of like I mean the termI always love is the Bible.
First of all, the Bible is aliving story and it is the best
story ever.
I'm like, if you wantentertainment, go to the Bible
because there is some drama inthere.
(14:39):
Right, oh, much drama, yes, butthe reality is like, even
before he opened the earth,there was warnings, before he
flooded and had.
No, there were warnings Like.
It's not heeding to the warning, it's not heeding to the
correction that's given, thatcauses consequence and
(14:59):
punishment, right.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I always look at the story of Exodus because in there
God says, okay, I'm going toharden Pharaoh's heart so he
won't let you go.
And the first time I read it asan adult I was like, oh, like,
that's mean.
Why would you intentionallymake it so that they're punished
?
But you know what?
The Israelites had been therefor 500 years.
(15:23):
They had exposure to the God ofcreation.
For 500 years they had beensaved by saved from famine.
They had been saved fromdestitution.
They were created, uplifted byGod through Joseph and elevated
in status to provide for theregion surrounding them.
(15:47):
God had blessed them and theystill went.
I'm going to worship Ra.
Now I'm going to worship Osiris.
I'm going to mistreat thepeople that came here under the
covenant of God's mercy.
We're just going to forget theGod of Israel exists, and this
was God.
Going 500 years is long enoughfor exposure before he said
(16:26):
enough.
It is time to separate mypeople from this people, because
this people they're breakingthe laws.
They know the Israelite laws.
They've seen the Israelitesacrifices, they've they've
heard of the atonement.
It's, it's time.
It's time to to make change.
(16:46):
And so you know when we, whenwe look at at reproach, when we
look at correction.
I always, you know, you hearGod is so wrathful in the old
Testament.
But you know, and especially wetalk about it when, when we're
talking about the things thatare happening to us.
You know why did I get cancer?
(17:08):
You know god is so wrathful why.
Why did, why did my child die?
God is so wrathful.
In the old testament, god poursout wrath on an individual like
twice, two times.
The wrath of God is reservedfor nations.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And usually it is big fire.
Global flooding Plagues.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You know, that's the wrath of god.
So we, um, we need to startbeing a little bit more careful,
as the christian church, in mypersonal opinion, as to the
curses that we're bringing uponourselves with our mouths and
what we're speaking intoexistence, cause, like you know,
(18:04):
I I mean, I myself have alwaysbeen this it's like, oh my gosh,
I, I, I really struggle to loseweight.
I have such a hard time, theweight's not going anywhere.
It's, it's just not, it's notworking, it's never going to
work.
And it's like what, what did Ijust say there?
And it's like what, what did Ijust say there?
(18:26):
Right, not working, so it's notgonna work.
And, like you know, there'sthere's confusion here with
manifestation versus blesses andcurses, and blessings and
curses.
But you know, when we got Godcreated with his mouth yes,
that's how he created.
So when we start talking aboutourselves, about our siblings,
about our relationships and ourcommunities, we have that power
(18:49):
to give that grace, to give thatungrace.
And I mean even Moses in theOld Testament.
Moses said Pharaoh's nevergoing to go for it.
And God said you're right,pharaoh's never going to go for
it.
And God said you're right,era's never going to go for it.
Right, yes, so it's veryinteresting to me, especially
(19:11):
when we start talking aboutcommunity.
I actually have a Bible studycoming out right now about our
two, about community and thespiritual warfare that we do
upon each other.
Yes, because you're a spiritbeing, yes, I'm a spirit being.
The church has this conceptthat spiritual warfare is solely
demonic, and it's just not.
(19:31):
I can, I can, wreak spiritualwarfare upon you Even as a
Christian.
You can wreak it upon me, evenas a Christian.
When we come out of alignmentwith God, we step into into that
sin space.
I mean you can even pray from aposition of sin and it's like
(19:52):
well, you know, I can't, I can'thave sinned, I prayed and it's
like, yes, in manipulation, wecan try and manipulate our
prayers, which is praying out ofsin, right?
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And so, yes, definitely, you know, I think
about um.
Scripture tells us that we areimage bearers, right, and so
when I talk about community,there's a concept of how you see
the person next to you, how yousee your neighbor, because
biblically, we are all neighborsto each other.
(20:36):
Like you are my neighbor, thisis my neighbor, this is my
neighbor, you got it, you got it.
You got it Like we are allneighbors.
This is my neighbor, you got it, you got it.
You got it.
Like we are all neighbors, itdoesn't matter proximity, right.
And so we were all created hisimage.
Now, I may not see outside ofyou the fruits coming through,
but you were creating his image.
(20:57):
That means you're an imagebearer, and so if there's a
concept inside of us thatrecognizes, no matter what
you're doing in the outerappearance, you were created,
you're an image bearer, whichone of the ways that I look at
grace is recognizing that, asindividuals, in our humanity,
(21:25):
there are past experiences thatshape the way we respond to
what's happening today, and thegrace that's inside of me will
allow me to not look and judgeyou upon what's happening today,
but to consider that there waspast experience that led you up
to today, but you are still animage bearer of God, because
(21:47):
that was your creation.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Oh no, go for it.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
When we see that echoed in Jonah.
You know Jonah was sent topreach to Nineveh.
Nineveh and the Israelites wereat war.
They were that.
Nineveh and the Israelites wereat war.
They were Nineveh and theIsraelites were at war.
You know they were swornenemies.
They were killing each other.
There were active battles goingon.
(22:14):
And God's like I want to savethe people of Nineveh and
Jonah's like well, I don't, soI'm not going.
And God's like you're going toNineveh.
And so, and even then, when hegets there, he half-heartedly
preaches God's message.
Nineveh hears it and turnsaround, and then he goes and
(22:36):
pouts about it and God's likewhy are you pouting?
I saved 200,000 souls yes.
I saved 200,000 souls, jonah,and it's like you know, we, we
look at the world and therethere's this this my enemy
(22:57):
versus your enemy,characteristic, which is so
anti-community.
And, at the end of the day,god's sitting here going my
enemy isn't necessarily yourenemy.
And there's this verse that isso often misquoted and I'm going
to level it here we, we oftensay well, god says vengeance is
(23:17):
mine, declares the Lord where'sthe vengeance in my honor?
Just because God, just becauseyou think that God delivers
vengeance?
That's not what the verse says.
The verse says that vengeance ismine.
It is mine to dish out, it ismine to give mercy, it is mine
(23:38):
to define what vengeance lookslike.
Define what vengeance lookslike just because you view
vengeance as smiting, as loss,as pain, injury, you know,
things like that doesn't meanthat that's God's definition of
vengeance, and it doesn'tnecessarily mean that the person
(24:00):
you want vengeance wrought uponis the person who God chooses
to wreak vengeance upon.
He might look at that and go.
You have no idea the demonstwisting that person.
I'm going to wreak vengeancefor both of you on that demon,
but you're still going to haveto treat this person as a friend
, as a brother, as a sister.
You're still have to findforgiveness, like Job had to
find forgiveness in chapter 42.
(24:21):
You're still going to have topray, blessing, thanksgiving and
beg God for forgiveness for theperson who hurt you so badly.
That's your job.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yes, yes, I like to say you can't be in God and
think you can have love and hatetogether.
Hate is not a part of him.
We often and we say it socasually like God is love, god
is love.
Well, guess what?
You can't be in alignment withhim and have any parts of hate
(24:54):
inside of you.
No, you can't.
I think about an aspect too ofand I actually pulled it up
because I wanted to make sureI'm blank Ephesians 1 and 11, it
says in him we are also chosen,having been predestined
according to the plan of his, ofhim who works out everything in
(25:15):
conformity with the purpose ofhis will.
And so the word works out,which you know we're talking New
Testament, so I'm gonna givethe Greek word right, which is
energeo, and it actually meansenergy and energizing force,
right?
So, essentially, when I look atthat, I'm like God is the
(25:35):
energy and the energizing forcebehind everything.
There's not a moment thathappens on this earth, there's
not a detail that happens thathe does not have to allow.
I mean, even when we thinkabout the story of Job, like
Satan came with the angels, bythe way, satan came into God's
presence and had to getpermission to touch, job.
(25:57):
There's not a thing thathappens that the Lord does not
allow.
And so I know that that was ahard concept, like when I lost
my child and I'm like Lord, I'mserving for you, like my husband
and I are youth pastors and youtook this away Like what
occurred, right, and so, in allthat confusion of all that, like
sitting and fighting, gettingto a place where I just
(26:19):
authentically and we're going totalk about prayers, right, but
having an authentic prayer oflike the thing that you already
know about my hurt, my anger, myupset, that I'm just going to
cast it up to you and let's dealwith this, like, let's go at it
with this, right, but in that,that was the hardest concept of
God.
You had to allow this to occur.
(26:42):
But I think when we sit in aposition you mentioned earlier
of thinking like, oh, I gotcancer, oh, I got this, I like
the term and I see we, you know,we see it sometimes on social
media, we see it in differentways the term like oh, but God,
yeah, yet there's a reality.
But God, you know, I look at Imean we look at people all
throughout the Bible.
If I look at, I mean we look atpeople all throughout the Bible
.
If I look at Joseph, likeJoseph, his father's favorite
(27:05):
Dakota, many colors, all of thatand goes through like the worst
times slavery, prison but thencomes out on top right, that's a
but God.
And I think if we stop andrecognize the but God moments,
it helps us increase our faithso that when things come up, we
(27:28):
recognize Lord, you're still inthis, you had to allow it to
happen, so there's a purposethat's according to your will
for this.
So, oh, I have cancer, but God,god is a healer.
Oh, my job made cutbacks, butGod, god is my, jehovah Jireh,
he will provide.
(27:49):
Yeah, and so it's in thosethings that I think you know we
have to sit and really enterinto relationship of prayer, to
be open and honest with God.
I mean, he already knows and Isay that often like the concept
that we think, like, oh, maybeif I don't say this out loud, or
(28:10):
maybe if I don't talk to himabout this, yes, so just the
concept of trusting God, yeah, Imean it's trusting him and it's
having open, honestcommunication with him.
Hey, let's take a quick break totell you about Grace Filled
(28:31):
Community.
Grace Filled Community is anorganization that focuses on the
primary principles of theChurch of Acts, centered around
building communities that impactthe kingdom of God.
We do this through three coreextensions.
(28:52):
One, graceville Church Network,where we empower churches and
nonprofits for God's success andgrowth.
We offer tailored growthstrategies rooted in biblical
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.
(29:14):
Our second extension is Projectof the Grace Field, where we
provide biblical counseling,mentorship, workshops and events
that are dedicated toencouraging individuals to live
a life filled with grace andpurpose, rooted in the
understanding that all havefallen short and are a working
(29:35):
project.
Let us help the individuals inyour community grow as they walk
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
(29:55):
God, that brings increase andallows them to pour back into
his kingdom, through marketplaceministry and financing his
kingdom.
We do this through our 15 yearsof experience of virtual
administrative work, digitalmarketing, business development
and consulting.
Welcome back I really want tojump into, because I mean her
(30:19):
prayers company.
I want to jump into, like,because I mean her prayers
company.
I want to jump into, like whatis it that you do that's
impacting?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
the community to in prayer?
Yeah, no, I would absolutelylove to dig into that.
So, as I was saying, you know,I almost lost both my kids.
I was in the hospital alone andjust rediscovering and
reconnecting with God, andthroughout the next couple of
years the last six actually, youknow the Holy Spirit just kept
(30:50):
telling me little tidbits.
Here and there I read a Bibleverse and all of a sudden, like
an explosion of understandingwould happen, and so I'd write
down this little paragraph hereand a little paragraph there, or
I'd be doing the dishes one dayand my mind would be wandering
and all of a sudden the rightanalogies would click.
(31:12):
And all of a sudden I'm like, ohmy gosh, my entire life I've
been chasing happiness becauseI've been depressed for 20 years
.
I don't need happiness becauseit's a lie, oh my goodness,
because anything that is just is.
If it is not, then it is a lie.
And so I was like, oh my gosh,I've been chasing this concept
(31:35):
of happiness, this lie, myentire life, when I should be
chasing the joy of the Lord,which means that it doesn't
really matter what comes andwhat goes.
If that happiness flees from me.
I'm still fine Cause I havethat joy.
And so, like uh, last year andum, in May, god finally was like
(31:57):
, okay, lauren, where are allthose little writings?
Where'd they?
And I was like, oh gosh, Idon't know.
And so I had to dig through mytext messages, my iPhone notes,
my Facebook messenger posts, myemail drafts, like I'm my
notebooks and journals, I'mpulling everything everywhere
and I throw it all into a GoogleDoc.
(32:19):
And it was 64 pages, pages ofcontent, just this massive
amount of writing.
And I'm just like, uh, okay, nowwhat?
You know, you told me to findall this stuff.
I'm supposed to do somethingwith it, right, right.
(32:39):
So I'm staring at it and doinga little editing here and there
and my mom's like, oh my gosh,look at what you've written,
it's wonderful, it's a, it's amommy blog.
You know, my girlfriend's likeyou should monetize it.
You know, this is great writing, you can help people with this,
and I'm like that just doesn't.
It doesn't feel right.
(33:00):
I'm gonna sit on it and finally, in July, god said these are
Bible studies.
There are seven of them and asI started tearing them apart, I
and putting them in theirdifferent categories, I noticed
a theme and it was how to praywithout ceasing.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Because I have always looked at that Bible verse and
gone.
That is such a ridiculousexpectation.
How is that even a possibility?
Like I got a life to live andof course you know you hear the
only type of prayer you hearreally talked about.
(33:46):
Besides, what is displayed foryou in church is going into your
secret place, going into thatprayer closet, locking yourself
in there for hours, and I'm likethe two do not go hand in hand
yes I have a four-year-old Justrecording.
This is dangerous, yes, like.
(34:07):
Explain this to me, god.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
But that's the thing is that it's not that we are
supposed to remove ourselvesfrom our lives, it's that God is
supposed to be so in our lifethat everything we do turns into
prayer, everything we do turnsinto worship.
We have invited him in soexplicitly and intrinsically
that we are walking through thegrocery store with the Holy
Spirit and having his anointingon us to the point where we
(34:35):
touch a thing that we are notsupposed to buy, our hand is
repelled, so that in and ofitself is her prayers code.
There are seven to eightanswers when somebody in church
is asked to pray and only one ofthem is yes.
And most of the time we'restanding awkwardly in a circle
(34:57):
staring at one another, seeingif anybody's going to have the
gall to say yes.
Lord, I want to talk to youright now.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
But, no.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Do you see people in church fighting for the
opportunity to pray over eachother and bless each other?
No, you don't.
Why?
Why we should be battling itout to talk to God.
Yes, but we're not.
So, god, put it on my heart,tear apart these lies.
(35:27):
This is a cry for shepherding,this is a cry from the God's
community saying I don't know,I'm not comfortable, I don't
have words.
And we, as a church's responseis it's okay, do it anyway.
Like it's so condescending andso demeaning and so invalidating
(35:50):
.
Yep, do it anyway, it's fine,you'll figure it out, it's good,
it's good.
And I myself have been thatperson where I've been like no,
no, no, you know, the only wayyou get better at praying is to
pray.
So who?
Who cares about the pressure?
Who cares about the words?
Just just do it.
Go out of your comfort zone,your feelings don't matter.
Connect with God.
(36:10):
And what we're actually sayingis God doesn't care about your
feelings either.
What we're actually saying isGod doesn't care about what you
pray.
We're saying that God doesn'tcare, and what we are meaning is
(36:31):
that God's not going to hold itagainst you.
But what they're hearing isthat there is no relationship
between God and I, because if hedoesn't care about my feelings,
if he doesn't care about me,then what is the point?
So we are creating spiritualwarfare while trying to
encourage people to pray.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yes, yes, yes, so I think about so.
When I was geez, let me tellyou.
So I have now three teenagers,and so at a period of time, I
had three children all underthree, all in diapers, yes, and
I remember someone telling melike you need to get your hour
(37:16):
of prayer in every morning.
And I'm like, do you know whatlife I live?
Like I would like to not be thefeeder for an hour.
How about that?
And so it was just like that'sso unrealistic.
And I started carrying thisguilt and shame of, like I'm not
getting up, I'm not getting myprayer time in, I'm not sitting
there with all of my confessionslaid out to say this and this
(37:39):
to the Lord, which really, Imean what God wants is
relationship, right, and even,as we talk about community.
That's why prayer is also soimportant, because the first
example of what relationshipshould look like comes from
God's relationship with us.
It shows me what forgivenessshould look like, shows me what
(38:01):
mercy looks like, shows me whatgrace looks like, love, kindness
I mean, let's just go throughthe fruits of the spirit Like.
It shows me what relationshipsshould look like, and so it's
important that I can enter intothat and I value cause.
You're absolutely correct.
If we don't give peopleguidance or even what prayer is,
what prayer means and, yeah, Ithink, even some instructions on
(38:24):
like, how do you start enteringinto this, we are kind of
discrediting their feelings, andwe have a saying in our house
that feelings may not be factual, but feelings matter.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
They do they do.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Feelings will create the actions that you do if you
don't address thoseappropriately, and part of
prayer is addressing theemotions and the feelings
Emotions which I like to saythat God did create.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
He created emotions.
Yes, it's like biting my tonguegoing.
I want it.
You know, God made everythingwith a purpose.
Yes, the first devotional weput out is a devotional for
brand new mommies.
Because, just like you weretalking about, where is God when
I got a kid attached to my body?
Where is God?
(39:12):
Where I'm still trying tofigure out how to bend over,
like how am I supposed to hit myknees?
And it's like you're not.
You're not, but there is noreason you can't pray while you
nurse there is no reason youcan't put some worship music on
while that baby is napping,because it is calm and it is
soothing.
There is no reason why I meangosh, I found god in pooplosions
(39:36):
like god is there inpooplosions and the beauty is he
will speak to you in the nameof that poop right, which I feel
like it's just like our lives.
You know, I'm watching you onbutts and throwing in bathrobes
and I'm like, is this just howyou view me, god, just covered
in my own poop all the time, myown mess, my own unworthiness
(39:58):
and selfishness and thesilliness that I get myself into
.
And it's like, yes, lauren,that's how I see you, covered in
your own mess.
But you know what I love youanyway, just like you love that
baby anyways, just like you wantto clean that baby anyways.
That's what I want to do foryou and so like and that's
(40:19):
that's the entirety of theministry is, wherever you are,
god is there and it is my job toencourage you, to put sometimes
enable you and sometimes toeducate.
So it's kind of a trifle.
In the beginning, god said thatman was not good to be alone.
(40:45):
He needed a helper suitable,just like god has a helper
suitable.
With the holy spirit.
We are in the family unit, theholy spirit representative.
We are the lionesses of judah,god says, because your mother
was so great and she stood atthe entrance of the den
protecting you.
We are the spiritual warfaresof our warriors, of our house,
(41:10):
and this generation of womenhave forgotten and the
generation who were so foundedin prayer that you could not
shake them are dying off.
They're going to be with theLord.
God is calling his army forthright now.
He's calling you, he's callingme, he's calling my daughter,
(41:31):
he's calling the daughters ofthe king to stand up, go to
battle against this world andagainst the wages of sin,
against the demonic, againstourselves, and to take ownership
of what comes out of our mouths.
For the Lord.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yes, yes, I love it.
I love it, and of course, I canjust hear from your heart, your
passion behind what it is thatyou're doing to impact God's
people, impact community.
And when I say God's people,know that every one of his
creation is his people.
There there is, I mean we.
We find often, especially inchurch, we can hear a separation
(42:09):
like, oh, god's people, as ifthis is just those that are
sitting here week by week.
But he created and he loves allof his creation, and so in our
aspect of loving him to thepoint of obedience unto death,
right Then we should love all ofhis creation and by love, using
(42:31):
that discipline that we talkedabout earlier, to speak truth to
them, to correct them, to guidethem, to educate them, to
enable them all the things thatyou said, and especially in the
prayer.
And so I love what it is thatyou're doing and so appreciate
all that you're doing to impactcommunity as a whole.
You know.
(42:52):
One more question that I justhave is you brought up something
that is very near and dear tome.
In our home we do these thingscalled family talks, and with
those family talks, one of theum, they rotate like week by
week, like what's the questionfor the week?
And you know we come backaround to them and so forth.
But one of them is, like youknow, in a concept of
(43:12):
representing and understandingthe representation that god the
father represents in the home,would be the male party right,
the husband, and the Holy Spirit, that lovely comforter, helper,
guider, the one they're a lotof partner with, is mother role,
right, and Jesus, our brother,who sits on the right hand, like
(43:35):
interceding, like right, likehey, I'm partnered with her.
Okay, father, give her mercy inthis right.
That is the role of sibling,right, and so that's kind of how
we present like how the thingsshould be happening in our home.
Let's get aside from like.
Does that mean that you know,my husband can't do the dishes?
No, by all means, please dothose dishes, okay.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Who said that God didn't do dishes?
He flooded the earth.
He cleans up.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yes, he was smart enough to create some automatic
systems.
Right, he's clean after Right.
But all that to say like itdoesn't, it's not about the
responsibility, it's not aboutlike a gender role, but what it
is about recognizing what isinside of us, what was created
in us, and how we carry out thismannerism of God's creation
(44:26):
Right.
And so I love how you, broughtup as women, we need to be doing
the spiritual warfare, not onlyas how we treat each other,
which is one of my caveats, isthe whole like women can't get
along.
Yes, women can get along.
Right, women should get along.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
We used to be tribal to the point where we would
raise each other's children andwe would.
That's a whole other right.
I'm like but yeah, no, that's it, it's 100%.
What you were saying is thatit's not a role, it's a gift
(45:05):
that we have gifting.
If you look at women, we aremore intuitive, we are more
emotional, we see to the heartof the issue and not the the
surface level presentation.
And that is 100% what the HolySpirit does.
It is the gift of discernment,and if you talk to most women,
they will have the gift ofdiscernment in terms of
(45:27):
spiritual gifting, because thatis the Holy Spirit in and of
itself.
And so when we walk through ourhouse, we need to be able to
look at our children and go.
You are under spiritual warfareand I'm going to pray for you.
I'm going to go anoint thishouse, I'm going to anoint your
bed, I'm going to writescripture on your backpack to
keep you safe wherever you go,because God is with you and I
(45:49):
want you to see those things andbe able to declare them upon
yourself throughout the day.
And I learned this personallybecause we actually had a spirit
of fear tormenting my daughter.
She was having night terrors.
We had a spiritual, a spirit ofanger tormenting my husband.
We had a spirit of insecuritytormenting myself, and once I
(46:14):
started routinely anointing thehouse in oil and declaring this
space as the space of the holyspirit.
Um, because that's what theydid scripturally for the time.
It is, oh, absolutely, uh,going what I'm not doing.
Hooey, hooey right it isbiblical.
It is biblical, absolutely yes,biblical yeah I I gotta say that
(46:36):
because whenever I starttalking in oil people, uh,
talking about anointing in oilpeople go, ah, like right,
you're putting up some likewitchy barrier or something, and
I'm like no, no, it's asymbolic invitation for the holy
spirit.
It's not.
There's not.
There's no spells, there's nocharms, there's no nothing.
You don't even need to use oil.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
The music doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Anoint in sweat, yes, use some water In Passover.
They anointed with blood, likethere are different kinds of
anointings in scripture.
And so when we start looking atthe invitation of the Holy
Spirit, that is 100%, what 99,that's 99% of my teaching right
(47:27):
there is invite him in.
We are so busy trying to takecare of everything ourselves.
We're so busy getting advicefrom Dr Google, from our parents
, from our best friends, fromchat, gbt, parenting books, the
dictionary.
We are so quick to diagnose anddefine and determine, but we
(47:47):
are not praying, we are notanointing, we are not saying oh,
I rebuke that statement over myhousehold.
I'm so sorry, I rebuke thatstatement over my child.
My child is not having a hardtime learning.
They learn differently andthere is a difference between my
child learning differently andmy child not being able to learn
(48:09):
.
And I'm not going to receivethat word.
We're going to receive thesewords and so you and me, we're
going to come up with a way toreach my child, not declare them
broken you know.
And so when we start walking inthe Holy Spirit as spiritual
warriors, when we start walkingas lionesses of Judah, we start
(48:30):
viewing the world as acceptableand biblical and not acceptable
non-biblical.
And that's where you start tomake those decisions and
discernments of we're cuttingthis out because it's not good.
We're cutting that out becauseit's not good.
We will accept this because itis good.
And especially when you've gotlittle people like you're, at
the point where you're, you arepassing the mantle.
(48:52):
You are teaching your sons toview these things for themselves
.
You are teaching them to standup in prayer for themselves and
to accept what is and isunacceptable for themselves.
You're kind of letting go, butthat doesn't mean you're not
praying anymore.
That doesn't mean that you'renot.
It never stops, right, right.
(49:12):
Yes, you are still at war.
Yes, still defending yourhousehold, even when another
woman comes in and right you'renow praying for that woman.
Yes, you're praying for yourgrandkids.
You're still praying for yourfamily line, and I learned this
from my dad.
He's like if you look atabraham, you look at isaac, you
look at jacob, the blessingdoesn't stop with one generation
(49:34):
.
No, abraham was still blessing,is still blessing, jacob still
blessing.
Yes, out the Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
There's a reality, Like.
Like you said, I'm at the stageof passing the mantle right.
So it's no longer like do thisbecause I say right, or that I
show because I'm a firm believerof like let me show you right,
Not just say it, let's do both.
Let me show you through myactions.
If I'm telling you that weshould get up and start reading
(50:02):
with our Bible, then I need toget up and start reading with my
Bible, Right and so and notjust on my phone, because you
see me do everything else on myphone.
So I need to physically like theBible and let you see that I
know how to open this Right.
I can read a book this book andI can like jump from one book to
(50:24):
another.
Yes, I do know how to get there, but there is this aspect of
when they were smaller.
There was the foundationalthings that, like we don't
listen to certain music, wedon't watch certain TV shows, we
don't go with those people, notbecause we don't love them, but
because we are not in agreementwith the actions that happen in
(50:47):
that location.
We don't go clubs, we don't dothis, and so, in that I remember
them being young, being likeman, we don't do anything, or my
friend does this, or thisperson does this.
This is it which is why I'velearned that it is so important
in community, right, not that wetry to create this bubble, but
in those foundational pieces,when they are developing and
(51:09):
recognizing their identity inthe one identity in Christ, that
when you keep a stewardshipover the honor and the gift that
you have to upbringing, that,when you do that, when they get
to the age where I am with theseteens, right, they start having
conversations like I get whyyou did that, I appreciate why
(51:33):
you did that, I see, you knowwhat I see this person who was
doing this and now it didn'twork out good for them Right.
And so then it opens up for youknow again relationship right,
and community definitely starts.
Community starts with yourrelationship with God vertically
, and then the relationships inyour home, right, we can't do
(51:53):
community outside the home ifwe're not taking care of what's
happening in the home right.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
100% Exposure is acceptance.
Yes, starting from a young age,and so I'm really careful what
I expose my kids to, and if Icannot find a way to point it
back to God, then I don't exposethem.
And just like you were sayingfor those who are in my stage,
where I've got little people,you know, I started explaining
(52:19):
to my daughter that I have a jobhere.
I'm not just your mom, I have ajob.
There are four things I have todo for you.
The first is I have to keep yousafe and healthy.
Yes, so if what you want goesagainst the premise of keeping
you safe and healthy, it's a no,I'm sorry.
That's my job, it's my rulesand they weren't made by me.
(52:39):
Right, I didn't make my ownrules.
That's not the concept ofadults make their own rules.
That's not true, it's a lie.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
We're not going to even teach that lie, I have a
boss.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
The boss is God, yeah .
And then the second one is Ineed to help you be the best
person you can be morally,ethically, you know, balanced
emotionally, spiritually, likethere, there is a requirement of
refinement.
I am to refine you, you know.
That gave me some great rawmaterial to shape and that's my
(53:15):
role, my job.
And then the third one is I'msupposed to help you explore and
experience your world, createfoundational experiences that
broaden your horizons, teach youabout yourself, make you think
about things differently, and ifI absolutely can, I will try to
make you happy.
The fourth one, but it's notrequired not required not
(53:38):
required.
And so now we're at a placewhere it's like, okay, this is
what disrespect is.
It's anything that goes against, though, that that premise
those four rules.
When you speak against the fourrules, that's disrespectful.
When you um throw fits againstthe four rules, it's
disrespectful.
It's not that I don't want youto be obedient it to the point
(54:03):
where you don't think foryourself, like you're allowed to
ask questions, get clarity,find understanding.
What you're not allowed to dois go.
I don't like your answer.
So you know that's too sassy,frassy for me.
And then now, when you're atyour point, because you've put
in that foundational work ofthis is what?
(54:23):
How you think for yourself, butwe're going to think for
ourselves through mom's rules.
Because, guess what, eventually, mom's rules will become your
rules.
Right, is this safe and healthyfor me?
Is this going to push me to thebest of gods that god has for
me?
Is this going to give me goodexperiences or bad experiences,
(54:44):
and how do I view those things?
And so, since you put in thatfoundational thought process,
they're now able to go wow, mom,thanks.
And it's so beautiful.
I love the, the concept of youknow and not like.
Those things don't just comefrom us.
No, they come from our churchmembers, they come from our
(55:06):
neighbors, they come from ourgrandparents.
And um, that, to me, that iswhy the enemy is pushing so hard
on unforgiveness, boundariesand barriers right now is
because if he can destroygenerational knowledge, he
destroys the family, and if hedestroys the family, then he
destroys the future generation.
(55:27):
For god and it's like I can'teven tell you how often right
now I'm preaching forgiveness,because the world is so
anti-forgiveness for everylittle thing- yeah.
Don't get me started, that's awhole other podcast.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
I'm like we have a few we can like.
We're definitely going to haveto come back.
I'll definitely have to inviteyou back on Cause I feel like we
have so many things that wecould discuss and I mean
definitely topics to go into.
I mean, when you mentioned theanointing oil for our listeners
I don't want to assume all thetime that they may know, so I
actually want to clarify somescriptures that do lead to
(56:06):
anointing.
You know, as we talk about likethe previous generation, and the
Bible talks about the olderwomen teaching the younger women
, right when I was newly marriedand about two to three years
into my marriage, we went some,I mean tough times Okay, and so
I yeah, I'm like usually, yes, Irecall having a, I'll say, more
(56:30):
seasoned, more mature woman inthe church that was so kind to
me and say, hey, you know what,take that anointing oil, put it
in his shoes, put it, put it onhis socks, put it under his
pillow, like, and at first I waslike, okay, now I'll use wisdom
, because now, this, this, yes,I'm going to tell you guys.
(56:52):
I went right over to Costco, Igot the biggest bottle I could
find of olive oil and sheprobably should have told me to
use maybe a little bit discreetdiscretion before I just started
dumping, because I was like, oh, we gonna get this, but does it
(57:13):
take all that?
Go ahead and get a dab.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
I'm sorry that was that.
That is the best story foranointing, I think I've ever
heard.
Speaker 1 (57:24):
Oh gosh, it's so good , my friend and I have a joke
about me going to costco and getan oil because I'm like we, we
ain't gonna run dry over here.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
Okay, no, no, heck, no yes.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
But if we look scripture wise and going back to
that, like she gave me thatpiece of wisdom and she told me
like, use that oil, pray over it.
Like you know, anoint theplaces that he would touch.
And let's go even furtherAnoint the places that you will
touch.
Anoint your children.
Anoint the places they willtouch.
Anoint your home, anoint thedoor that evil cannot forget.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
Anoint, yes, anoint, and so everything but yes.
Well, the takeaway for this isthat there is a time and a place
.
If you're struggling somewhere,that's where you grab that
anointing yes, because when wesay anoint your whole dang house
, I mean literally, you couldanoint your entire house.
Speaker 1 (58:22):
But I'm not recommending you go get yeah,
don't get.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
Go get a paint roller and start rolling.
Usually just to clarify,blessing bottles are about this
big of oil.
All you're doing is getting alittle bit on your finger.
You can just draw a smudge, asI said, dab it on and really the
(58:46):
power of it is to stop andintentionally pray over
something, to stop and use thataction to keep your mind focused
.
Um, I don't know about you, butwhen I'm praying, sometimes it
is so hard to stay on one topicoh yeah, down to pray over your
husband.
You sit down to pray over yourkids.
(59:07):
All of a sudden, you findyourself complaining about them
to god, which is perfectly fine.
But that wasn't the goal.
The goal was to sit down andbless them.
The goal was to sit down andbring forth the things from the
Holy Spirit that you hope is isgrown within them from the seeds
that you're planting.
And so you know, it's not thatwe're sitting there going.
(59:29):
Oh, I want to see more kindness.
So, lord, make them more kind.
It's's, it's lord.
Help me plant those seeds that.
Help them grow kindly yes lord,help me.
Help me view my childrenhonestly, not through my own
corrupted eyes, but from youreyes, and guide the prayers and
the anointings in the holyspirit, so that we're not trying
(59:53):
to create automatons that justlisten to us, but we're trying
to, you know, create, create, uh, warriors and people of god
that that believe in morality,that believe in scripture, and
it's not just, you know, beafraid of hell and, and you know
you don't want to go there.
so we're gonna, we're gonna prayover you and're going to you
(01:00:16):
know you're three years old, sosay Jesus, jesus, I want, I want
you know it's not out of fear,it's out of love, it's not out
of fear, it's abundance.
And you know, being able tostand there in the Holy Spirit
and define not an automaton,being able to stand there in the
Holy Spirit and define not anautomaton, but somebody who will
(01:00:38):
walk towards the Lord becausehe understands the Lord is good.
Yes, that we have createdrelationship with him.
Because we've taught ourchildren not to recite scripture
, not just to pray a singularprayer, not to recite something
by rote as far as worship goes,but we have introduced them to
(01:00:58):
the God that created them.
We have shown them his lovethrough us, through relationship
, through answered prayers,through the power of worship
that we have stood at thedoorway and said this is God's
will for me, what is God's willfor you, and taught them what
that looks like, because we'vehad enough generations who know
(01:01:23):
things by rote and have walkedaway from God.
Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
That's why people walk away is because we've only
taught them about, we haven'tintroduced them to.
And when we start focusing onwhat prayer is.
That's the heart to heart withGod.
Yeah, that's the whole point.
And I look at my little girl.
She had a nightmare and shecame up to me and she's like
(01:01:49):
mama, where's the oil Got toanoint my bed?
Yes, I'm going to go pray overmy dwelling space.
I'm going to war with the enemy.
And it's like let mommy comewith you.
You're only seven.
Let mommy come with you.
Yeah, we're not going to letyou take on the Right, the
(01:02:11):
darkness by yourself.
I'm still your shield girl.
Yes, right, by yourself, I'mstill your shield girl.
Yes, but you know, um, we have ajob and god's told me that my
job is to just talk about ourjob.
My job is to write books thathelp you do.
Your job is to to simply shinea light that says hey, you know,
(01:02:33):
I didn't know, I was awishy-washy christian, are you?
I?
I don't know, you can't, Ican't answer it, you can't
answer it.
But I do know that typically,most of my conversations circle
back around god, because I'mjust so excited I can't help but
talk about it.
Our role here is first to be aprayer warrior and have that
(01:02:54):
good of a relationship with godthat we can go to war.
Secondarily, it's to spreadseeds for the holy spirit to
grow but prayer is where it allstarts.
You know people go.
Oh, you know, I don't want toget into ministry, I don't want
to be a pastor.
We are all supposed to be inministry, right, but ministry
(01:03:14):
isn't just pastoring yesministry can be as simple as a
god bless you at the end ofevery transaction at the grocery
store.
Ministry can be a lord keepthem safe after a car accident.
Ministry can be a simple gobefore them when they enter that
school.
(01:03:35):
Yes, that's ministry.
Yes, and it's beautiful.
God is so good.
I've loved him.
Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
He is.
Oh, I have really truly enjoyedour time together, lauren.
I mean, again, we got to bringyou back out because I feel like
we could go so much more, butthat's what it is right.
We talk about the goodness ofGod and being people that
recognize the impact that he'smade on us and wanting to share
(01:04:02):
with others, because I want youto see all that God has for you,
all that God is, all that Godis.
And so, listeners, I encourageyou to go find Lauren, follow
her.
We will plug in all her socialsand website and details below,
(01:04:24):
and even how you can get herstudies and so forth.
Please, please, please, go findLauren, follow her, connect
with her.
Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
We're on Amazon, we're on TikTok, we're on
lightly on Instagram, because Idon't really like Instagram.
There's not enough talking onInstagram.
I'm a talker.
We're heavily on Facebook thewebsite's herprayerscocom or
herprayerscom and just come talkto me.
(01:04:54):
If you do not see a resourcethat you need, tell me what you
need, we'll make one for you.
Yes, yes, because that's thatif you need it, someone else
needs it too.
Yeah, so tell me what you needand we'll make it happen.
Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Well, thank you, lauren.
Thank you so much, followers.
I also want to say if you havequestions, I am here for it.
We are here for it.
If you are watching this andyou're like, or listening, and
you're like, hey, I havequestions, what about this, what
about that?
Plug them in.
We are here to be a resourceand if we don't know answers, we
(01:05:31):
know the Holy Spirit, and so wewill go to him for direction
and guidance on where to helpyou get those answers.
If you have questions aboutanointing oil, I do want to tell
you James 5, 14 through 15,this passage talks about
anointing the sick with oil.
Exodus 30 and 25, it talksabout the sacred anointing oil.
Luke 7, 44 through 46 talksabout Jesus scolding Simon for
(01:05:56):
not anointing his head witholive oil.
And so Mark 6, 13, genesis 28,10 through 22, we can give them
to you.
Love you all.
Thank you for tuning in toGraceville Community and always
be reminded to love God and lovehis people.
Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
And pray.
Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
And pray and pray.
Thank you for tuning in totoday's episode of Graceville
Community Podcast.
We would like to invite you tovisit gracevillecommunitycom.
Graceville Community is allabout doing church the way
Church of Acts did, Using fivemain principles that we see in
(01:06:38):
the book of Acts Sharingresources, as believers pooled
their possessions and resourcesto support those in need, as we
see in Acts 2.44.
Through hospitality the earlyChristians practiced hospitality
by opening their homes toothers, as we see in Acts 2 and
(01:06:58):
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.
(01:07:21):
And finally, spiritual guidancethe apostles and elders
provided spiritual guidance andteaching to help strengthen and
build the community, as we seein Acts 15 30.
The community, as we see inActs 1530.
I would like to encourage you.
If any of those areas are areasin which you are in need or can
(01:07:43):
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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