July 10, 2025 • 24 mins
This episode explores finding joy and healing when life breaks you, focusing on exchanging beauty for ashes as described in Isaiah 61:3.
• Taking necessary spiritual breaks and resets to avoid exhaustion
• Responding to betrayal dreams with the oil of gladness instead of fear
• Wearing a garment of praise rather than a cloak of bitterness
• Understanding that turbulence often precedes elevation in life
• Letting go of our controlling nature to let God work
• Changing our perspective to see God's removal of people as protection
• Exchanging our ashes for a beautiful headdress through praise
• Finding smaller spiritual communities for deeper connection
• Trying different spiritual practices like Afro gospel music for refreshment
Join us for more Joy-focused teachings throughout July as we continue to explore how to maintain joy through life's challenges.
Come join us at our virtual events monthly. Visit our website to learn more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
no-transcript.
(03:29):
Well, I took a break last week,so that's why there was no live
teaching or live videos,because I needed to take just a
short vacation just to getrecharged, and I loved it.
So I'm back.
I'm excited still about themonth of July, about what we're
going to talk about.
This month.
We're going to focus on beingjoyful, finding joy, and today
(03:54):
we're actually going to talkabout healing when life breaks
you.
But it's not just like healingwhen you're mourning or healing
when you've had great loss, justhealing even when you've gone
through any form ofdisappointment whatsoever, right
, so that's where we are.
There's so much going on rightnow, y'all and I'm also going to
(04:14):
share a personal example ofjust something that happened to
me this here fine week in Julythat I want.
I want us.
Even even if bad things arehappening, there's still good
things that's happening aroundus.
So, lord, we just thank you forgiving us the opportunity to
see another day.
Father, I thank you forblessing us with this awesome
(04:37):
Thursday.
I know that better and betteris coming for all of us, and so
we're believing that thismorning that wherever we are in
our lives, whatever is going on,that better is still coming.
We thank you for the blessingstoday.
We thank you for the open doors, we thank you for forgiveness,
we thank you for peace and wethank you for joy in our hearts.
Despite everything that's goingon, we know that you're still
(04:58):
in control of everything and welove you, lord.
Amen, because you got to startthere, all right.
So I'm going to pull up thisverse.
I think, again, a lot of us weprobably know this verse.
So, good morning y'all in thechat.
I'm going to show the commentson the stage, this verse here.
Let me pull this up real quick.
It's a little bit long, okay,but we like this, right?
(05:22):
Thank you, dr Tracy.
I had to hit that reset and eveneven though I hit it, I'm still
not.
I'm still enjoying the calmnessy'all Okay.
So Isaiah 61, verse three itsays to grant to those who mourn
in Zion, to give them abeautiful headdress instead of
ashes, the oil of gladnessinstead of mourning, a garment
(05:45):
of praise instead of a faintspirit, that they may be called
oaks of righteous necks.
Oaks are again.
I want y'all to go back andresearch an oak tree.
You know the power that itcarries.
The planting of the Lord, thathe may be glorified, okay.
And so I want to talk to usabout even this mini reset that
(06:07):
I had to do.
Let me stop sharing so y'all cansee me but even this mini reset
that I had to do mentally,physically, emotionally,
spiritually because even ifyou're someone who is teaching,
leading, praying for others,even if you're volunteering at
your church or you're leadingwhatever it is, you end up
(06:31):
exhausting yourself Spiritually.
You can exhaust yourself andyou need time to pull back and
hear from the Lord about whereyou're supposed to go, what
you're supposed to teach.
He's dealing with us in our ownflesh, our own things, right.
You're supposed to teach.
He's dealing with us and ourown flesh, our own things right.
One of the most incrediblethings that I've watched the
Lord do over the past few daysagain just sharing my personal
(06:51):
business with y'all is I hadthis dream on Monday.
I had this dream on Monday.
It was a betrayal dream.
So, y'all, when you get dreams,it's not the enemy isn't
attacking you in your dreams.
Again, I walk with the Lord, sothe enemy doesn't have access
to me, okay.
So stop, stop pulling thosethings into your life.
(07:14):
But I had this dream.
He was showing me something inthis dream on Monday, and it was
a.
It was a typical betrayal dream.
Betrayal dream is sometimes whenyou have these dreams and you
dream that it's someone who'sfamiliar to you, but it's not
always that person.
So you might dream I'm justmaking this up for y'all you
might dream that your childbetrays you or your boss betrays
you and you wake up you're like, oh no, that person's coming to
(07:36):
me.
No, it's just a warning so thatyou can pray against that thing
or you can ask the Lord to giveyou wisdom and show you how to
respond.
You know if that thing comesabout.
So I had the warning on Mondayand then on Tuesday it happened.
On Tuesday, I had, uh, I had,uh, I saw this thing play out,
where it was a betrayal, um, andthen on Wednesday I saw the
(08:00):
Lord turn that thing around andbless me in a way that was just,
it was one of those, in spiteof that, because of my response
to that.
So how I responded and again,just my personal testimony we're
learning together.
You might do it a different way.
This is how it worked for mewhen I got that dream on Monday,
rather than going into the.
(08:20):
When that?
When I got that dream on Monday, rather than going into the oh
Lord, I'm under attack.
My response was first of all,it was actually tied into Isaiah
61.3.
So it's very, very timely forme.
But I started to take on what wecall the oil of gladness.
I went into praise.
I was praising God for hisblessing.
(08:41):
I was praising him and thankinghim for his protection.
I was in Jeremiah, I believe 30, verses 19 through 21.
Y'all can look that up.
And I started to declare thatbetter and better is coming for
me.
I mean, I literally you knowthere's a part in that Jeremiah
(09:01):
30, where it talks aboutThanksgiving spilling out of
your windows.
Y'all can look it up, right,spilling out.
So I started to thank God likeThanksgiving is spilling out of
my windows, thanksgiving isspilling out of my doors.
There's laughter in my house.
I started to declare, in spiteof what was coming, in spite of
what was coming on Tuesday,where I dreamt on Monday I was
(09:24):
preparing this oil of gladness,I had this garment of praise,
meaning I wasn't going to takeon the burden of a betrayal or a
loss or anything like that.
You understand, I started tosit in that thing and so when it
happened to me on Tuesday, Iwasn't in a place where I could.
(09:46):
Even I was disappointed, but Iwasn't shooketh because I was
wearing that garment of praise.
Right, I was planted in that.
So when it happened it was like, oh, but thank you, god, that
you're going to deliver me outof this.
And the next day he did.
And he did it in a way thatthat, even if I couldn't have
(10:07):
imagined it myself, right, god,doing greater, bigger, above all
else, as the word says.
Right, going before us andpreparing things for us.
So what does this mean for you?
So we're talking about beautyfor ashes.
There is an exchange that wemake.
So I'm exchanging beauty forashes, I'm changing things.
(10:29):
Beauty for ashes, I'mexchanging, I'm changing things
out.
This month I am, I am, um, I amspiritually putting on a
beautiful headdress.
I'm not wearing a cloak ofshame, I'm not wearing a cloak
of worry, I'm not wearing acloak of doubt.
Y'all can keep that right.
I've even, I've changed.
I've had to reposition where Igo physically.
(10:50):
You're not going to find meeverywhere.
You know what I'm saying.
I've had to put on the oil ofgladness and, again, it doesn't
mean that life isn't lifing andpeople aren't people.
And, like I say all the timeright.
But my response to thatsituation when life starts to
break you or things start tocome for you or you start to
(11:11):
feel real loss, not just loss inmourning, but loss in like
business, loss in friendships,loss in partnerships and
something else I want to sharewith you all that a lot of us
are asking the Lord to build usup and to establish our causes,
our business or all the thingsright.
(11:32):
Or maybe you're asking for theLord, maybe you're asking for a
promotion, maybe you're askingfor a job, a new job, you're
asking him to restore yourrelationships, your marriage,
your relationship with your kids, all the things.
But when you ask for elevationin any form of way, like I think
I shared this example beforelike just like when a plane is
(11:53):
taking off and there's a littlebit of turbulence before things
get smooth, that's life thatwill happen to you, right?
But while you're going to thatlittle bit of turbulence, don't
freak out.
This is when we put on the oilof gladness.
This is when we start to do thethings that make no logical
sense.
We start praising God, I startpraising him for the blessings
(12:14):
that I know are coming my wayand I start to receive all of
those things.
If I don't, if, when thingsaren't going my way, right Again
, it makes no sense.
It's not going the way Iplanned.
If I start to just sit in thatand put on that cloak, y'all,
then the things that God has forme won't come to me.
(12:35):
If I, for example, if you gothrough any form of betrayal and
you sit in that seat and youbecome bitter and you'll miss
out when God has new doors openfor you.
He has to show you certainthings.
He has to show you things aboutpeople.
People are going to talk aboutyou, people are going to dog you
.
All the things.
Okay, that's a part of life.
(12:55):
But you can't sit in that seatof bitterness.
We want to sit in that.
We want to put on again the oilof gladness, the garment of
praise.
We don't want to have faintspirits this month of July.
We're going to, in the same waywe turn things up in June.
We're going to keep it movingforward, right, and that's just
the way it is.
We want to have again the oaksof righteousness planted in the
(13:21):
Lord so that what he will beglorified.
When people look at my life,they see him.
They don't see me because theyknow I'm not doing anything
right.
They see my obedience.
He can, you know, when you lookat, and this is what the life I
want, I want when people see me, they see him in me.
They want that.
They see Christ in me.
Where, on the job, in thecommunity, in the car, in the
(13:42):
store, wherever I am.
I want people to see him, notme.
So that also means that there'ssome things that you're going to
have to let go of that.
You know.
Maybe you thought no, then theLord told me to do this, blah,
blah, blah.
And it's your desire, right,but it was a desire for a moment
.
So something else we're goingto have to do this month, as
(14:02):
we're finding joy, is we'regoing to have to let go of our
thinking.
We're going to have to let goof some of the things that are
stale.
It's broken If it's not working.
Y'all, we got to let somethings go so that we can move
into the next phase of our life.
What was really cool for methat he showed me just yesterday
is my mindset had to be changed.
(14:24):
As successful as I think I amright he had to.
He had to change my mindset,and I was talking to one of my
mentors just again.
Everything was just played out.
So I happened to have thisconversation with one of my
mentors yesterday and he wassharing with me about things
that happened to us.
As we continue to grow whetheryou're growing in your career or
(14:46):
your, you know yourrelationships just growing as
just growing in general, okay,and that as God's desk starts to
move things around you right,move, people start to move these
things around you A lot of ustend to look at it in a negative
way.
Oh Lord, why is that happeningto me?
You know what I'm saying.
We go through all the thingsand we actually count that as a
(15:07):
loss and we the truth is, weshould be counting it as a game,
because if you really trulybelieve that God is in control,
if you really truly believe thatyou gave your life to him, if
you really truly believe that heis in you and you're in him, if
you really have taken on hismindset, then you will have
(15:28):
wisdom and you will come tounderstand that these changes
have to happen and sometimesit's painful.
It's painful for a moment,right, but don't let that break
you.
When the Lord is moving, movingthese plates, moving people,
when he starts to give youwisdom and he starts to say,
okay, now you got to let go inorder for you.
(15:48):
My husband and I were talkingabout this yesterday and he was
sharing how he was coachingsomeone who works for him and
was explaining to him that youactually get more when you give
more.
So if I hoard all of my gifts,if I hoard this platform, if I
hoard come out of the wildernessministry, if I hoard three
(16:09):
pranks, if I hoard that and makeit all me and all about me, it
will never grow.
So I do the opposite, right.
I release it.
We have incredible women whoare doing the work.
If I hoarded all of this thing,it would die right.
So that's a part of us beingcalled to be strong oaks of
(16:32):
righteousness planting of theLord so that he'll be glorified
not me, right, his work, hiswill be done right.
So when life breaks you, youwill have to go through that
mental change.
That's the mental change I hadto go through, a change of not
being controlling and lettingthings play out.
Let things play out, let God beGod, right.
(16:53):
And in doing that y'all, whileI'm releasing, while I'm letting
God be God, you know what I'mdoing Back to the garment of
praise.
Thank you, god.
You're so amazing.
I praise you.
I'm so grateful for all thatyou're doing.
I know that you're going tobless everything that I touch
and everyone around me.
I even thank you for thoseyou're removing from me, because
where I'm going, they can't go.
(17:13):
Y'all.
I have the craziest prayers ever, right?
I thank you that every day isgetting better and better, that
everywhere I go, everywhere Iplace my feet, I'm blessed.
Lord, I even bless those whocurse me, right?
I'm just telling you, right, Ibless those who curse me.
I thank you, lord, that you'lleven use this as a prayer for
y'all, even those who mightconsider themselves an enemy,
(17:35):
that they'll end up beingadvocates for me and me for them
.
Lord, I thank you that yourlove covers me, my family, my
friends, all of the ministries,all the work that we do, that
you show up and I thank you, god, just going into prayer, that
you'll heal all of us, all of uswho've been disappointed,
disappointed that things aren'tworking out the way we want them
to.
Maybe they're disappointed inpeople, disappointed in
(17:58):
colleagues, disappointed inspouses, disappointed in
children, disappointed incommunities, disappointed in
government.
Whatever we need to be healedfrom that.
I'm asking, lord, that you'llheal us this morning.
And, lord, we want to take on agarment of praise in every
situation of our lives, the kindof praise that makes no sense,
but it's also the kind of praisethat opens doors for us, that
(18:21):
we're standing in agreement withwhat heaven has for us, that
with this praise it's open andunlocking doors for us.
This praise puts us back inalignment with what God has for
us, and we know, lord, thatanything you have for us is
better than we could everimagine.
So that's what we're callinginto this day.
We're exchanging, lord, god,the headdress instead of ashes,
(18:44):
a beautiful headdress, thecovering that we have, the
covering on our jobs, thecovering in our productivity,
anything we do with our hands.
We're asking, lord, lord, god,that it's a beautiful headdress,
that wherever we go, thelegacies that we create for our
children, for our grandchildren,for our great grandchildren,
they will come to see us, lord,god, as those beautiful
(19:07):
headdress, wearing aunties,uncles, mamas, daddies, all the
things right, and planting usand establishing us so that you
will be glorified.
So bless you, lord.
I thank you for all and everyfamily represented under my
voice, for anyone who's standingin need of just a healing word
this morning, that you'll justspeak to their hearts and that
they'll receive this word andthat they'll praise you right
(19:29):
where they are.
Lord, we thank you for all.
We know better and better iscoming, but we're just grateful
for what you have for us thismorning, giving us this portion
of praise, asking you to give uswisdom in this day.
Help us to change ourperspective.
We want to change ourperspective so that we can get
the best out of what you havefor us.
We don't want to be stubbornand unwilling to move and
(19:52):
unwilling to do thingsdifferently, so that you know we
can take on what you have forus.
So we thank you, lord, for allof these things, and all of
these things we say in Jesusname.
Amen Y'all.
Thank you so much for watching.
I wanted to share real quicklysomething else that I started
listening to Afro gospel.
I didn't know nothing, I didn'teven know Afro gospel existed,
(20:14):
but I've really been enjoying it.
It's upbeat and there's achange.
I wanted to even change themusic that I was listening to.
You know, typically I listen to, like you know, typical
American gospel, but I startedlistening to Afro gospel, so I
have that.
It's upbeat, um, it does.
It's like a.
It's a good mood shifter for me.
It's, it's a change.
(20:34):
Um, I also like wednesdaynights.
Um, there is a church it'scalled saint john's baptist.
It's back in uh tennessee.
I'm gonna give them a shout out.
They'll probably never knowthis, but when we were uh first
married so 20 something yearsago, we were members of this
church and this pastor, pastorBell, pastor Robert Bell he
(20:55):
still since the pandemic he wasdoing Wednesday night prayer.
It's a small church, y'all Okay, and every now and then I'll
and it's on Facebook, I'll go onand I'll sit in and watch, if
you will one of his teaching.
It's just sometimes you get to apoint where I don't want to
(21:16):
hear the band, I don't want tosee the production in the lights
, I don't want to be entertainedby church.
I just want a solid, good,old-fashioned Bible study, you
understand, and so I'm going toencourage y'all to try to do
that, if you can.
(21:36):
I'm not asking you to abandonyour church.
Don't hear what I'm saying.
I'm saying that some of us haveto go back to the very basics
of where we're getting our wordand where we're tapping in and
what I loved about it.
I came on in the Facebook liveand that pastor called me out
and blessed my family.
You know what I'm saying.
So I think we need to get tosome of that.
So, for those of y'all who arereally in a season where you're
(21:58):
feeling like you're goingthrough a lot of hurt right now,
or you just you know, listen,life is lifing right now I want
to encourage you to really tapin.
If you're going to a largerchurch, hopefully that large
church has a small community,because you need to be able to
connect with people when youleave, when you get to the
parking lot, you understand.
So I'm urging you, if yourchurch has a small group, that
(22:22):
you join your small groupdiscipleship groups.
I go to Perimeter Church herein Georgia.
It's a large church, but wehave a small group disciple
group by communities, right.
So I'm just urging you to find asmaller group now.
Why?
Because you want to be aroundpeople who see you, where you're
not just a member, okay, butyou're tapping into.
(22:46):
You really need to tap in alittle bit differently, and
that's what I'm doing now.
Again, just another change.
Why is this?
Because y'all, we need to notbe entertained right now.
The Lord is speaking to us in adifferent way and a lot of us
can't hear because of all thenoise and distractions even in
our churches.
(23:07):
So, while I appreciate all ofthe things, I'm not for a.
I'll come off my box.
Just find a.
Just find a smaller community.
Obviously, we're still here topray with you on Thursday, but I
just want to keep encouragingyou to tap in a little bit, go a
little bit deeper.
Smaller groups and um and tapinto your church so that that
(23:30):
church again is called St John'sBaptist.
They have a Facebook page.
Pastor Robert Bell.
Every Wednesday I believe it's7 pm he does a live.
He does it straight from hischurch.
It's a small group and it'sgood, old fashioned, back in the
day type Bible study, where youfeel like you're a part of this
(23:51):
incredible group, feel likeyou're a part of this incredible
group and I just love him.
So I just wanted to give ashout out to Pastor Bell because
, again, those old pastors arestill out there.
Okay, all right.
So I hope this blessed you.
I'll be back next week.
Y'all take care of yourselves,take care of each other.
As I always say, I love you,but Jesus loves you more.
(24:11):
Have an amazing rest of yourday.
Take care.
no-transcript.
(03:29):
Well, I took a break last week,so that's why there was no live
teaching or live videos,because I needed to take just a
short vacation just to getrecharged, and I loved it.
So I'm back.
I'm excited still about themonth of July, about what we're
going to talk about.
This month.
We're going to focus on beingjoyful, finding joy, and today
(03:54):
we're actually going to talkabout healing when life breaks
you.
But it's not just like healingwhen you're mourning or healing
when you've had great loss, justhealing even when you've gone
through any form ofdisappointment whatsoever, right
, so that's where we are.
There's so much going on rightnow, y'all and I'm also going to
(04:14):
share a personal example ofjust something that happened to
me this here fine week in Julythat I want.
I want us.
Even even if bad things arehappening, there's still good
things that's happening aroundus.
So, lord, we just thank you forgiving us the opportunity to
see another day.
Father, I thank you forblessing us with this awesome
(04:37):
Thursday.
I know that better and betteris coming for all of us, and so
we're believing that thismorning that wherever we are in
our lives, whatever is going on,that better is still coming.
We thank you for the blessingstoday.
We thank you for the open doors, we thank you for forgiveness,
we thank you for peace and wethank you for joy in our hearts.
Despite everything that's goingon, we know that you're still
(04:58):
in control of everything and welove you, lord.
Amen, because you got to startthere, all right.
So I'm going to pull up thisverse.
I think, again, a lot of us weprobably know this verse.
So, good morning y'all in thechat.
I'm going to show the commentson the stage, this verse here.
Let me pull this up real quick.
It's a little bit long, okay,but we like this, right?
(05:22):
Thank you, dr Tracy.
I had to hit that reset and eveneven though I hit it, I'm still
not.
I'm still enjoying the calmnessy'all Okay.
So Isaiah 61, verse three itsays to grant to those who mourn
in Zion, to give them abeautiful headdress instead of
ashes, the oil of gladnessinstead of mourning, a garment
(05:45):
of praise instead of a faintspirit, that they may be called
oaks of righteous necks.
Oaks are again.
I want y'all to go back andresearch an oak tree.
You know the power that itcarries.
The planting of the Lord, thathe may be glorified, okay.
And so I want to talk to usabout even this mini reset that
(06:07):
I had to do.
Let me stop sharing so y'all cansee me but even this mini reset
that I had to do mentally,physically, emotionally,
spiritually because even ifyou're someone who is teaching,
leading, praying for others,even if you're volunteering at
your church or you're leadingwhatever it is, you end up
(06:31):
exhausting yourself Spiritually.
You can exhaust yourself andyou need time to pull back and
hear from the Lord about whereyou're supposed to go, what
you're supposed to teach.
He's dealing with us in our ownflesh, our own things, right.
You're supposed to teach.
He's dealing with us and ourown flesh, our own things right.
One of the most incrediblethings that I've watched the
Lord do over the past few daysagain just sharing my personal
(06:51):
business with y'all is I hadthis dream on Monday.
I had this dream on Monday.
It was a betrayal dream.
So, y'all, when you get dreams,it's not the enemy isn't
attacking you in your dreams.
Again, I walk with the Lord, sothe enemy doesn't have access
to me, okay.
So stop, stop pulling thosethings into your life.
(07:14):
But I had this dream.
He was showing me something inthis dream on Monday, and it was
a.
It was a typical betrayal dream.
Betrayal dream is sometimes whenyou have these dreams and you
dream that it's someone who'sfamiliar to you, but it's not
always that person.
So you might dream I'm justmaking this up for y'all you
might dream that your childbetrays you or your boss betrays
you and you wake up you're like, oh no, that person's coming to
(07:36):
me.
No, it's just a warning so thatyou can pray against that thing
or you can ask the Lord to giveyou wisdom and show you how to
respond.
You know if that thing comesabout.
So I had the warning on Mondayand then on Tuesday it happened.
On Tuesday, I had, uh, I had,uh, I saw this thing play out,
where it was a betrayal, um, andthen on Wednesday I saw the
(08:00):
Lord turn that thing around andbless me in a way that was just,
it was one of those, in spiteof that, because of my response
to that.
So how I responded and again,just my personal testimony we're
learning together.
You might do it a different way.
This is how it worked for mewhen I got that dream on Monday,
rather than going into the.
(08:20):
When that?
When I got that dream on Monday, rather than going into the oh
Lord, I'm under attack.
My response was first of all,it was actually tied into Isaiah
61.3.
So it's very, very timely forme.
But I started to take on what wecall the oil of gladness.
I went into praise.
I was praising God for hisblessing.
(08:41):
I was praising him and thankinghim for his protection.
I was in Jeremiah, I believe 30, verses 19 through 21.
Y'all can look that up.
And I started to declare thatbetter and better is coming for
me.
I mean, I literally you knowthere's a part in that Jeremiah
(09:01):
30, where it talks aboutThanksgiving spilling out of
your windows.
Y'all can look it up, right,spilling out.
So I started to thank God likeThanksgiving is spilling out of
my windows, thanksgiving isspilling out of my doors.
There's laughter in my house.
I started to declare, in spiteof what was coming, in spite of
what was coming on Tuesday,where I dreamt on Monday I was
(09:24):
preparing this oil of gladness,I had this garment of praise,
meaning I wasn't going to takeon the burden of a betrayal or a
loss or anything like that.
You understand, I started tosit in that thing and so when it
happened to me on Tuesday, Iwasn't in a place where I could.
(09:46):
Even I was disappointed, but Iwasn't shooketh because I was
wearing that garment of praise.
Right, I was planted in that.
So when it happened it was like, oh, but thank you, god, that
you're going to deliver me outof this.
And the next day he did.
And he did it in a way thatthat, even if I couldn't have
(10:07):
imagined it myself, right, god,doing greater, bigger, above all
else, as the word says.
Right, going before us andpreparing things for us.
So what does this mean for you?
So we're talking about beautyfor ashes.
There is an exchange that wemake.
So I'm exchanging beauty forashes, I'm changing things.
(10:29):
Beauty for ashes, I'mexchanging, I'm changing things
out.
This month I am, I am, um, I amspiritually putting on a
beautiful headdress.
I'm not wearing a cloak ofshame, I'm not wearing a cloak
of worry, I'm not wearing acloak of doubt.
Y'all can keep that right.
I've even, I've changed.
I've had to reposition where Igo physically.
(10:50):
You're not going to find meeverywhere.
You know what I'm saying.
I've had to put on the oil ofgladness and, again, it doesn't
mean that life isn't lifing andpeople aren't people.
And, like I say all the timeright.
But my response to thatsituation when life starts to
break you or things start tocome for you or you start to
(11:11):
feel real loss, not just loss inmourning, but loss in like
business, loss in friendships,loss in partnerships and
something else I want to sharewith you all that a lot of us
are asking the Lord to build usup and to establish our causes,
our business or all the thingsright.
(11:32):
Or maybe you're asking for theLord, maybe you're asking for a
promotion, maybe you're askingfor a job, a new job, you're
asking him to restore yourrelationships, your marriage,
your relationship with your kids, all the things.
But when you ask for elevationin any form of way, like I think
I shared this example beforelike just like when a plane is
(11:53):
taking off and there's a littlebit of turbulence before things
get smooth, that's life thatwill happen to you, right?
But while you're going to thatlittle bit of turbulence, don't
freak out.
This is when we put on the oilof gladness.
This is when we start to do thethings that make no logical
sense.
We start praising God, I startpraising him for the blessings
(12:14):
that I know are coming my wayand I start to receive all of
those things.
If I don't, if, when thingsaren't going my way, right Again
, it makes no sense.
It's not going the way Iplanned.
If I start to just sit in thatand put on that cloak, y'all,
then the things that God has forme won't come to me.
(12:35):
If I, for example, if you gothrough any form of betrayal and
you sit in that seat and youbecome bitter and you'll miss
out when God has new doors openfor you.
He has to show you certainthings.
He has to show you things aboutpeople.
People are going to talk aboutyou, people are going to dog you
.
All the things.
Okay, that's a part of life.
(12:55):
But you can't sit in that seatof bitterness.
We want to sit in that.
We want to put on again the oilof gladness, the garment of
praise.
We don't want to have faintspirits this month of July.
We're going to, in the same waywe turn things up in June.
We're going to keep it movingforward, right, and that's just
the way it is.
We want to have again the oaksof righteousness planted in the
(13:21):
Lord so that what he will beglorified.
When people look at my life,they see him.
They don't see me because theyknow I'm not doing anything
right.
They see my obedience.
He can, you know, when you lookat, and this is what the life I
want, I want when people see me, they see him in me.
They want that.
They see Christ in me.
Where, on the job, in thecommunity, in the car, in the
(13:42):
store, wherever I am.
I want people to see him, notme.
So that also means that there'ssome things that you're going to
have to let go of that.
You know.
Maybe you thought no, then theLord told me to do this, blah,
blah, blah.
And it's your desire, right,but it was a desire for a moment
.
So something else we're goingto have to do this month, as
(14:02):
we're finding joy, is we'regoing to have to let go of our
thinking.
We're going to have to let goof some of the things that are
stale.
It's broken If it's not working.
Y'all, we got to let somethings go so that we can move
into the next phase of our life.
What was really cool for methat he showed me just yesterday
is my mindset had to be changed.
(14:24):
As successful as I think I amright he had to.
He had to change my mindset,and I was talking to one of my
mentors just again.
Everything was just played out.
So I happened to have thisconversation with one of my
mentors yesterday and he wassharing with me about things
that happened to us.
As we continue to grow whetheryou're growing in your career or
(14:46):
your, you know yourrelationships just growing as
just growing in general, okay,and that as God's desk starts to
move things around you right,move, people start to move these
things around you A lot of ustend to look at it in a negative
way.
Oh Lord, why is that happeningto me?
You know what I'm saying.
We go through all the thingsand we actually count that as a
(15:07):
loss and we the truth is, weshould be counting it as a game,
because if you really trulybelieve that God is in control,
if you really truly believe thatyou gave your life to him, if
you really truly believe that heis in you and you're in him, if
you really have taken on hismindset, then you will have
(15:28):
wisdom and you will come tounderstand that these changes
have to happen and sometimesit's painful.
It's painful for a moment,right, but don't let that break
you.
When the Lord is moving, movingthese plates, moving people,
when he starts to give youwisdom and he starts to say,
okay, now you got to let go inorder for you.
(15:48):
My husband and I were talkingabout this yesterday and he was
sharing how he was coachingsomeone who works for him and
was explaining to him that youactually get more when you give
more.
So if I hoard all of my gifts,if I hoard this platform, if I
hoard come out of the wildernessministry, if I hoard three
(16:09):
pranks, if I hoard that and makeit all me and all about me, it
will never grow.
So I do the opposite, right.
I release it.
We have incredible women whoare doing the work.
If I hoarded all of this thing,it would die right.
So that's a part of us beingcalled to be strong oaks of
(16:32):
righteousness planting of theLord so that he'll be glorified
not me, right, his work, hiswill be done right.
So when life breaks you, youwill have to go through that
mental change.
That's the mental change I hadto go through, a change of not
being controlling and lettingthings play out.
Let things play out, let God beGod, right.
(16:53):
And in doing that y'all, whileI'm releasing, while I'm letting
God be God, you know what I'mdoing Back to the garment of
praise.
Thank you, god.
You're so amazing.
I praise you.
I'm so grateful for all thatyou're doing.
I know that you're going tobless everything that I touch
and everyone around me.
I even thank you for thoseyou're removing from me, because
where I'm going, they can't go.
(17:13):
Y'all.
I have the craziest prayers ever, right?
I thank you that every day isgetting better and better, that
everywhere I go, everywhere Iplace my feet, I'm blessed.
Lord, I even bless those whocurse me, right?
I'm just telling you, right, Ibless those who curse me.
I thank you, lord, that you'lleven use this as a prayer for
y'all, even those who mightconsider themselves an enemy,
(17:35):
that they'll end up beingadvocates for me and me for them
.
Lord, I thank you that yourlove covers me, my family, my
friends, all of the ministries,all the work that we do, that
you show up and I thank you, god, just going into prayer, that
you'll heal all of us, all of uswho've been disappointed,
disappointed that things aren'tworking out the way we want them
to.
Maybe they're disappointed inpeople, disappointed in
(17:58):
colleagues, disappointed inspouses, disappointed in
children, disappointed incommunities, disappointed in
government.
Whatever we need to be healedfrom that.
I'm asking, lord, that you'llheal us this morning.
And, lord, we want to take on agarment of praise in every
situation of our lives, the kindof praise that makes no sense,
but it's also the kind of praisethat opens doors for us, that
(18:21):
we're standing in agreement withwhat heaven has for us, that
with this praise it's open andunlocking doors for us.
This praise puts us back inalignment with what God has for
us, and we know, lord, thatanything you have for us is
better than we could everimagine.
So that's what we're callinginto this day.
We're exchanging, lord, god,the headdress instead of ashes,
(18:44):
a beautiful headdress, thecovering that we have, the
covering on our jobs, thecovering in our productivity,
anything we do with our hands.
We're asking, lord, lord, god,that it's a beautiful headdress,
that wherever we go, thelegacies that we create for our
children, for our grandchildren,for our great grandchildren,
they will come to see us, lord,god, as those beautiful
(19:07):
headdress, wearing aunties,uncles, mamas, daddies, all the
things right, and planting usand establishing us so that you
will be glorified.
So bless you, lord.
I thank you for all and everyfamily represented under my
voice, for anyone who's standingin need of just a healing word
this morning, that you'll justspeak to their hearts and that
they'll receive this word andthat they'll praise you right
(19:29):
where they are.
Lord, we thank you for all.
We know better and better iscoming, but we're just grateful
for what you have for us thismorning, giving us this portion
of praise, asking you to give uswisdom in this day.
Help us to change ourperspective.
We want to change ourperspective so that we can get
the best out of what you havefor us.
We don't want to be stubbornand unwilling to move and
(19:52):
unwilling to do thingsdifferently, so that you know we
can take on what you have forus.
So we thank you, lord, for allof these things, and all of
these things we say in Jesusname.
Amen Y'all.
Thank you so much for watching.
I wanted to share real quicklysomething else that I started
listening to Afro gospel.
I didn't know nothing, I didn'teven know Afro gospel existed,
(20:14):
but I've really been enjoying it.
It's upbeat and there's achange.
I wanted to even change themusic that I was listening to.
You know, typically I listen to, like you know, typical
American gospel, but I startedlistening to Afro gospel, so I
have that.
It's upbeat, um, it does.
It's like a.
It's a good mood shifter for me.
It's, it's a change.
(20:34):
Um, I also like wednesdaynights.
Um, there is a church it'scalled saint john's baptist.
It's back in uh tennessee.
I'm gonna give them a shout out.
They'll probably never knowthis, but when we were uh first
married so 20 something yearsago, we were members of this
church and this pastor, pastorBell, pastor Robert Bell he
(20:55):
still since the pandemic he wasdoing Wednesday night prayer.
It's a small church, y'all Okay, and every now and then I'll
and it's on Facebook, I'll go onand I'll sit in and watch, if
you will one of his teaching.
It's just sometimes you get to apoint where I don't want to
(21:16):
hear the band, I don't want tosee the production in the lights
, I don't want to be entertainedby church.
I just want a solid, good,old-fashioned Bible study, you
understand, and so I'm going toencourage y'all to try to do
that, if you can.
(21:36):
I'm not asking you to abandonyour church.
Don't hear what I'm saying.
I'm saying that some of us haveto go back to the very basics
of where we're getting our wordand where we're tapping in and
what I loved about it.
I came on in the Facebook liveand that pastor called me out
and blessed my family.
You know what I'm saying.
So I think we need to get tosome of that.
So, for those of y'all who arereally in a season where you're
(21:58):
feeling like you're goingthrough a lot of hurt right now,
or you just you know, listen,life is lifing right now I want
to encourage you to really tapin.
If you're going to a largerchurch, hopefully that large
church has a small community,because you need to be able to
connect with people when youleave, when you get to the
parking lot, you understand.
So I'm urging you, if yourchurch has a small group, that
(22:22):
you join your small groupdiscipleship groups.
I go to Perimeter Church herein Georgia.
It's a large church, but wehave a small group disciple
group by communities, right.
So I'm just urging you to find asmaller group now.
Why?
Because you want to be aroundpeople who see you, where you're
not just a member, okay, butyou're tapping into.
(22:46):
You really need to tap in alittle bit differently, and
that's what I'm doing now.
Again, just another change.
Why is this?
Because y'all, we need to notbe entertained right now.
The Lord is speaking to us in adifferent way and a lot of us
can't hear because of all thenoise and distractions even in
our churches.
(23:07):
So, while I appreciate all ofthe things, I'm not for a.
I'll come off my box.
Just find a.
Just find a smaller community.
Obviously, we're still here topray with you on Thursday, but I
just want to keep encouragingyou to tap in a little bit, go a
little bit deeper.
Smaller groups and um and tapinto your church so that that
(23:30):
church again is called St John'sBaptist.
They have a Facebook page.
Pastor Robert Bell.
Every Wednesday I believe it's7 pm he does a live.
He does it straight from hischurch.
It's a small group and it'sgood, old fashioned, back in the
day type Bible study, where youfeel like you're a part of this
(23:51):
incredible group, feel likeyou're a part of this incredible
group and I just love him.
So I just wanted to give ashout out to Pastor Bell because
, again, those old pastors arestill out there.
Okay, all right.
So I hope this blessed you.
I'll be back next week.
Y'all take care of yourselves,take care of each other.
As I always say, I love you,but Jesus loves you more.
(24:11):
Have an amazing rest of yourday.
Take care.
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