January 4, 2024 • 34 mins
Happy New Year! Are you setting your new goals for the year? If so, the next four episodes will include some goals to help you grow spiritually. In this first episode of the year, Minister Denise discusses fixing our eyes on Jesus, and obeying his instructions so you don't overcommit or overdo things in this new year. You don't want to miss it. Click to listen.
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(00:09):
Come on, let's lift up thename of Jesus Christ. There is none
other in heaven or on earth.Welcome to another episode of Hope in Christ
with Denise here on Kingdom Influencers Broadcast, where we place our hope in the
only hope there is Christ, OurLord. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
(00:39):
Welcome back to Hope in Christ withDenise here on Kingdom Influences Broadcast. I
am your host, Minister Denise Welker, and I am back for a great
year of twenty twenty four as wecontinue to take the message of the Cross
to the world. And today we'regoing to jump right in in just a
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but before we begin, I'm gonnaopen us up with a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you, OGod, for your word. We
thank your God for just life itself. We thank you, Lord God for
continuing to keep us and cover us. O God. We pray Father God
for this word that you have forus today. O God, we thank
you, Lord God for us beingable to focus. So God, as
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we go into this new year,to focus on You, to fix our
eyes on you and obey and notoverdo it and not over commit. Father,
we give you glory and give youhonor in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen, Amen. So again,thank you, thank you, thank you
for joining us this morning, thisevening, or this afternoon, wherever you
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are in the world. Again,welcome back to a new season of Hoping
Christ with Denise. I thank youall for those who have consistently followed this
podcast. In twenty twenty three,I needed to take a break from the
show due to personal things. However, we are back and we are ready
to rock and roll. We arecontinuing to know that we are healthy,
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we are overcomers. We find ourpurpose, our God given purpose in Christ
Jesus, and we shift our mindsetsinto an eternal perspective. So for this
first episode, I want to highlightthe age in our ministry acronym once again.
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The H stands for spiritual health,so we are spiritually healthy. We
are healthy, overcomers purpose who alsomaintain an eternal perspective, and the AGE
stands for spiritual health. We willfocus on spiritual health through the first two
letters of a new acronym that Godhas given me. He downloaded in me
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before I got ready to relaunch Hopein Christ. And this acronym that He's
given is called the focused Method,and he wants us to start the year
with the focused MYTHOD and we're gonnado again the first two letters of the
new acronym, and the two lettersare fixing our eyes on Jesus and obeying
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his instructions. And we're going toalso in the oh part of the focused
acronym is obeying his instructions so thatwe don't overdo it this year and we
don't over commit this year. Andso we want to talk about that in
this episode today. So for themonth of January, as we launch and
go into twenty twenty four, Iam going to be teaching the focus method
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for each and every one of us. Again, the F is to fix
our eyes on Jesus, and theO is to obey his instructions so that
we don't overdo or over commit.Amen. So we're going to begin with
Hebrews twelve and one one through two, and so the word says, therefore,
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since we are surrounded by so greata cloud of witnesses, let us
also lay aside every weight and sinwhich clings so closely, and let us
run with endurance the race that isset before us, looking fixing our eyes
on Jesus, look into Jesus,the founder and perfector of our faith,
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who for the joy that was setbefore him, and do it the cross,
despising the shame, and is seatedat the right hand of the throne
of God. Amen. So again, as a teacher of the Word,
I'm going to read that scripture onemore time, and we're gonna jump right
into fixing our eyes on Jesus.It says, therefore, says, we
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are surrounded by so great a cloudof witnesses, let us also lay aside
every weight and sin which clings soclosely, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Looking
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to Jesus, the founder and perfectorof our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him, endured, endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is seated at the right handof the throne of God. So
fixing our eyes on Jesus. Soin this particular scripture, it says to
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lay aside every weight, what isweight, every burden, everything that hinders
you. So think about for amoment the things that might have hindered you
in twenty twenty three. And wedon't want to allow those things to hinder
us in twenty twenty four, Sowhat are your burdens? What are those
things that have hindered you from movingin purpose, drawing closer to Christ,
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doing whatever it is God has givenyou to do. What are the burdens?
And what are the hindrances? Fixyour eyes on Christ and give him
the weight, he says. Hesays, come to me and said,
take my yoke, for my yokeis easy, and my burdens are life.
And so if we fix our eyeson Him and lay this aside,
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we lay it aside because we're handingit to him, this weight and this
burden. And then it goes outto say, in the sin and sin
simply means to miss the mark orwander from the path. So whatever sin
is causing me to miss the markof what God is taking me in a
relationship in Christ and wandering from thepath that Christ is leading me down.
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And so I must do those things. But I can't do those things if
I don't fix my eyes on Jesus, if I don't look, I don't
pay close attention, if I don'tlock my attention on Christ. And then
it says, stay focused to stareat, so to look, to look,
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to stare at, to desern,clearly turn the eyes away from other
things. So staying focused, fixingmy eyes on Jesus, turning my eyes
away from other things, the founderand the perfector of our faith, that
Jesus in understanding and discerning that heis the founder and the perfector of our
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faith. Amen to God be theglory. And so we all have had
to refocus and fix our eyes,those of us who are believers in Christ,
we have had to fix our eyeson Jesus Christ and clearly desern who
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he is, his power, hisauthority, all that he has for us,
all that he can do, anythingbut fail, anything but fail.
We have to realign our focus.Many times, we spend a whole lot
of time going into the new year, creating vision boards, creating goals and
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all these different things. But crisiscalled us to fix our eyes on him.
And we will get the goals rightwhen we fix our eyes and we
stay focused, and we stare atand desern and turn our eyes away from
other things. And so I wantto talk about that for a second,
because when our eyes are fixed onJesus, we don't overdo right, We're
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gonna talk about that a little bitlater. But we don't overdo and we
don't overcommit, because when we're fixedon Jesus, he shows us our true
purpose, and so we don't tryall these different things that keep us off
track, right, keep us fromwondering away and wandering from the path and
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even sinning against God. When wefix our eyes on Jesus, He's going
to give us instructure, and theHoly Spirit of God is going to give
us instructions and tell us what's wrongand what's right. I often find myself,
especially in twenty twenty three. Itwas a year for me. It
was a lot going on in twentytwenty three, and I would often find
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myself saying, Okay, Lord,what do I do? Show me what
to do, show me what tosay, show me what I should do
here. And so that's what wewant to focus in on this year.
We want to focus in on.The vision boards are fine, and we
will be The vision boards are fine, But in order to grow spiritually,
remember we're talking about the age andhope. In order to grow in our
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spiritual health, we must fix oureyes on Jesus. Amen Matthew ten and
twenty one says you will be hatedby all because of my name. But
it is the one who has enduredto the end who will be saved,
the one who has endured. Andthe only way we endure or continue or
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we fight through it all is byfixing our eyes on Jesus. We're turning
away from things. What are thethings? The people, the relationships,
the false idols, the false religions, whatever it is, and even ourselves.
What are the things that keep usfrom enduring and keep us from fixing
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our eyes on Jesus. We haveto give Jesus those things again. The
relationships. Sometimes it may be familyrelationships and when it spamily or friend relationships,
and sometimes it may seem rocky,but we have to fix our eyes
on Jesus and give that relationship tohim. Why because that person, whoever
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they are, need Jesus. Theyneed him, They need to deliver it
and the healing and whatever it isfrom him. We try to fix things
sometimes and I know and maybe I'mjust talking about myself, but we try
to fix things. We try tofix people's situations when God has called us
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to fix, right, we're tryingto fix as in heal and help people
to come through things, and that'sokay, but not when it keeps us
from fixing our eyes on Jesus andrunning the race that He has set before
us a man. When that happens, it becomes the distraction. Sometimes it
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may become something that is sent tothrow you off. Now I'm not talking
about where there's someone seriously ill orpearing that God will. But again,
we still have to fix our eyeson Jesus so he can cause us to
endure or to make it through andbe consistent and sustained through even that have
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in our faith, growing in ourfaith. And so again Matthew ten to
twenty one says, you will behated by all because of my name.
But it is the one who hasendured to the end who will be saved.
We have to endure. We livein a world that is anti Christ.
Thus, can we just make thatnormalize that? Can we just tell
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the truth? We live in aworld, a current world that many have
the spirit of Antichrist. They don'tbelieve they there are so many that mock
the word of God. There areso many who don't believe in the dt
of Christ. There's so many.But what do we have to do?
We have to fix our eyes aman in order to endure, because Jesus
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said, these are the words ofChrist. He said, you will be
hated by all because of my name, because that name is great. And
the word says that demons tremble atthe name of Jesus. And so the
true and Living God, there aregoing to be those who hate because the
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spirit that's within them they have rejectedChrist a man. And so we who
have He has purpose, and heis called to go for it and keep
moving and keep helping others who wantto know me, who are seeking to
know who I am. Keep drawingthem, keep pulling them in so that
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they can be saved, that theycan learn how to endure. We endure
in Christ. We endure in Christ. We don't endure in our own strength.
Can we just normalize that we donot endure in our own strength.
We can't. We just can't.We try to, and it doesn't work.
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It doesn't work. Amen. Sowe must concentrate. We must fasten
our eyes on Jesus, on Jesus, no matter what's coming, no matter
what's going, we must concentrate andfasten our eyes on Christ. And an
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example is being a true follower ofJesus can cause people to hate us,
and so we know that, basedon the scripture, they can say evil
things against us. And instead ofus getting angry or getting into arguments with
those people, this is when weconcentrate on Christ and we keep staring,
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We keep sharing his word, staringat him, We keep our fixed eyes
on him and sharing his word todraw others. We don't fall back,
we don't ben We pray for theopening of the eyes of the person who
seems to hate us because of Him, because He already told us what would
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happen. Amen. And so wewant to make sure that we this year
twenty twenty four, that we fixour eyes on Jesus Christ, the one
who is the one who was,the one who is to come, the
one who can do it all,anything but fail. Amen. And then
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we want to obey his instructions,His instructions, not our instructions. His
instructions, not our families instructions,not our parents' instructions. Now I'm not
let me back up. Any childthat's listening that I don't mean, don't
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obey your parents. That's paused fora moment before we go, let's pause
and side because God just drops somethingin my spirit to our young people who
may be listening to this and thisyear, you have to walk in obedience
to your parents, walk in lovetowards your parents, no matter what.
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We've all gone through some things,and you may be going through something.
But God has called us to obeyour parents, and that is the commandment
with a promise that your life maybe long in the land. God has
called us to obey. And thatmany would say, oh, that was
for Israel, But I believe that'sa universal command. To respect and honor
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our parents, not curse our parentsout, not go and do what we
want to do and try to runour parents' house. In that sense,
we have to get back to respectand honor. And I wanted to stop
and say that because we're on thearea of obedience and so obeying his instructions.
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God's instructions is for us, nomatter what we've experienced, is to
obey and respect our parents. Now, those who are those of us who
are adults and those of us whoare believers in Christ, and we know
the Word says if we are willingand obedient in Isaiah one to nineteen,
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if we are willing and obedient,you shall eat the good of the land.
So it says if you are willing, So the young people that I
was just talking to, if youare willing, you have to have a
will to be respectful. And inorder for us to truly have a heart
and think before we respond, wehave to again go back to fixing our
eyes on Jesus. Allow Jesus totake away anger, Allow Jesus to heal
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us well we've been hurt. AllowJesus to walk us through whatever pain we
have experienced. Because the Word says, if we are willing and obedient,
willing and obedient, we will eatthe good of the land. And what
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does that look like. He willbless us, will bless our going and
come, and he will bless uswith provision. He will bless us with
his presence. We don't want tonot be blessed with the presence of God.
We don't want to not have theLord with us wherever we go,
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because we are battling spiritually in thishour and this hour we find ourselves living
in. There is a spiritual battle, and that spiritual battle cannot be won
without the army of the Lord,without Christ Jesus. Because demons only respond
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to that name. The word saysthat at the name of Jesus, every
need shall bow, and every tongueshall confess every need. It doesn't matter
who we are, It doesn't matterhow much fame we have. It doesn't
matter how much money we have,it doesn't matter where we think we stand
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in authority. The world says,every need shall bow and every tongue shall
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.What does lord mean? The one who
rules and reigns, and so wehave to allow him to be the lord
of our lives. The one whosits over we all in humanity will find
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out that he is lord of all. He is lord of all a man,
and so it says, what iswilling? Again? Willing is to
yield to, or accept or desire. So he says, we have to
be willing, We have to yieldto, we have to accept, and
we have to desire to be obedient. Now, what's obedient? Now?
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I'm as a as an English instructor, and as a teacher of the word,
I love to give you the definition, even though we may know this
definition. But to help us getclarity on what does it look like?
Let's talk about what obedience is obedienceaccording to the Strong Concordance, and I
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got these other definitions from the StrongConcordance as well. Obedience is to hearken
or pay attention or listen, tohearken, to stop long enough to pay
attention and listen. Many times throughoutour lives we are moving and hustling,
bustle, we're going out about thebusiness and were getting the money and all
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these other things. And the Wordsays that we must hearken or stop long
enough to pay attention and listen,listen, listen, And it says consent
or agree to right, So tohearken and pay attention and consent or agree
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to to be obedient to God.He's not going to force us to.
We have to be willing a manto hear God's word and act. That's
what willing and obedient means. Tohear the word of God and to act
on it, right, to hearit and act, not just to hear
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it. Because that's the difference.That's the difference. Can we talk about
the difference between religion and relationship fora moment. The difference is the obedience
the relationship, the drawing mirror,the submission, the allowing Christ to be
Lord. And religion is go Igo to church, I come home,
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I go to service, I dothis, I do that, But I
haven't submitted to the word, tothe relationship and drawn in relationship to Christ
and submitted and hearken and pay attentionand consent to what he says his will,
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hallelujah. His will not my will, but Thy will be done.
Willing and obedient. It says thatthis is a response of trust and it
secures God's blessing. This is aresponse of trusting God. There were times
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that I don't really believe I trustedGod. Sometimes when we're gone through where
we may not have a solid relationshipwith parents, or solid relationship with the
elders and our families, or thingsthat may have happened to us, we
struggle to trust God. And sothis has a response of trust, obedient.
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Okay, God, I'm gonna go. Think about Abraham for a moment.
Abraham was instructed. God gave himinstructions to leave his house, his
family, everything he knew, andgo to a place I will show you.
And Abraham had no clue about anyof this, but he had to
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be It was a response of trustingGod. He yielded, he was willing,
he yielded, and he accepted,and he desired to trust God.
And so oh what happened. Itsecured God's blessing for Abraham. And it
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goes on to say that it's imitatingGod in holiness, humility and love,
obedience imitating God in holiness of humilityand love. And it says, true
disciples do the will of God.True disciples do the will of God,
not our own will, not thewill of the culture, not the will
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of the world and what the worldwants, but the will of God.
And then it goes on to saythat being obedient, willing, and obedient,
it is to agree with God's way, agree with God's way. Exodus
nineteen and five says, if youwill indeed obey my voice and keep my
commandments, then you shall be myown possession among all the people's, For
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all the earth is mine, alltheir is mine. So if you are
willing to obey, you are willingto keep my voice. Obey my voice
and keep my commandments. Obey myvoice. There are a lot of voices
out here. There are a lotof voices out here. Please hear me,
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and hear me clearly, there area lot of voices out here,
and every voice is not the voiceof God. Every voice is not the
voice of God. Any voice thatcontradicts the Word, that comes against the
Word, that will stand up boldlyagainst the Word. Any voice that says,
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my culture is my God, myculture is my God, My family
is my God, an my race. Anything that we make God to us,
can we help us understand. Iwant to help us understand that we
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can make other things God, andso those things become more important, those
things become greater to us, andso that makes us and causes the world
to begin to question who God is. And I am a living witness before
we close out in a few minutes, I'm a living witness that Christ is
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real, a living witness. Ihave encountered Christ so many times in my
life. I've encountered the supernatural somany times in my life. There have
been times when my life was indanger, and immediately I saw visions.
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I saw God's sending angels to protectme. I saw them. I've heard
the voice of the Lord. Andso no one, let no one in
this year sway you away from Christany longer, any longer, It says
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if you will indeed obey my voice, not the voice of the enemy,
not the voice of a friend.We gotta get into the word to know
the voice of the Lord. Wehave to pray to know that God is
speaking. God will never contradict hisword. He will never There are times
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when I'm praying, the scripture comesto my spirit and God will take me
right to it. So never,never any longer allow anybody to sway you
away. He never said things wouldn'tbe hard, he never said things wouldn't
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come. But he said, behold, I'm with you even until the end.
Amen. And so again, let'sagree with God's way this year.
Let's fix our eyes on Jesus andlet's obey his instructions, agree with his
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way so that we are not overcommitting. In overdoing, we over commit,
and it seems like we are weighteddown with things because we may just
have not obeyed the instructions of God. Sometimes people will stop me and ask
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me to say, Denise, youdo a lot, but can I share
something with you. For a moment, before I started and launch hope in
christ ministries, the Lord spoke tome through another individual. He spoke a
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word basically prophesied to me, andthe word was, you have multiple ministries,
not just one. You have multipleministries. And so it took me
a while to get that, toget that everything that I do is ministry.
Even my business, it's still ministry. And so God taught me how
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to balance. God showed me strategiesand ways to what. Oh, fix
my eyes on Jesus and obey hisinstructions. Why because there's something in me
he wants others to hear or toreceive. And so there's something in you
that he wants others to receive andothers to get from you. And it
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might be multiple that just maybe multiplethings. And He will teach us how
to balance. He will teach ushow to run the race without being really
weary a man. And so aswe close out, remember that disobedience is
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a failure to hear and do God'sword, which affects our spiritual life.
So let's agree with God's way,because he knows the way. Right,
He knows the way, so thatI'm the way, the truth and the
life. Amen. So he knowsthe way, He knows the way to
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eternity, He knows the way totruth. He because he is truth,
He knows the way. When we'restuck somewhere and we're stuck in a situation,
he knows the way out, andso let's obey his instructions. A
man, let's obey his instructions.Hallelujah. God keeps giving me that let's
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obey his instructions, and let's fixour eyes on Jesus so that we may
endure. We may endure focusing onhim. Let's do our vision boards,
let's do our goal setting, butlet it not be anything that doesn't have
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to do with fixing our eyes onChrist and obeying his instructions. Because the
Word even tells us that we weresays what would profit a man to gain
the entire world but lose his soul? And so God is concerned about our
soul. God is concerned about arelationship with us. And that's the most
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important thing, above silver and gold, above anything else we could gain in
this world, Above any I'm anauthor, I'm a speaker, I do
a lot of things, above becomein New York Times bestseller, hallelujah,
bless your name Jesus. Above anyother thing, our relationship and our soul.
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It's greater, it's more important solet us keep that in mind,
Amen, and I'm going to prayus out. Father, we thank you,
O God, for your word,hallelujah. We thank you for your
grace, We thank you for yourtruth. And so Father, I thank
you, Lord God for continuing tokeep and I pray for those that are
listening that would listen to the replay, those that will take this and run
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with it on the focused method,to run and not be weary, and
to fix their eyes on Jesus andto obey so they won't overdo and they
won't overcome. In Lord will giveyou glory and honor. Help us not
to fill our plate with things,but fell our plate with purpose. And
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then and only then will you giveus balance. You will help us,
O God, to balance. It'llhelp us to not grow weary, because
it was you that gave it tous. And it's all purpose, and
it's not just things we powd ontrying to win a goal or trying to
reach a goal, or trying tohave something and things in this world,
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because we know this world is temple. And so God will give you goori
honor, and we thank you forit now in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen, and Amen. So again, thank you, thank you, thank
you for joining us for our newepisode for the year of Hoping Christ with
the Niece. Thank you, thankyou, thank you for continuing to follow,
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and I pray if you would havea phenomenal rest of your day,
week, and time that you willmove in God's purpose. Thank you for
tuning in you have been listening toHoping Christ with the Niece here on Kingdom
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Influences Broadcast. Remember at Hope inChrist, we are healthy, we are
overcomers, we have purpose by theTrue and Living God, and we must
maintain an eternal perspective as we seekwholeness and our true identity in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Please follow Hope inChrist with Denise on Facebook and Instagram.
Also check out my TikTok at dM Walker Hope and if you would like
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to purchase any of my resources orbooks, please visit Amazon, Barzanoble Books,
a Million and more. Thank youfor tuning in once again to Hope
in Christ with Denise. Remember toplace your hope and the only hope there
is, Christ our Lord
Come on, let's lift up thename of Jesus Christ. There is none
other in heaven or on earth.Welcome to another episode of Hope in Christ
with Denise here on Kingdom Influencers Broadcast, where we place our hope in the
only hope there is Christ, OurLord. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
(00:39):
Welcome back to Hope in Christ withDenise here on Kingdom Influences Broadcast. I
am your host, Minister Denise Welker, and I am back for a great
year of twenty twenty four as wecontinue to take the message of the Cross
to the world. And today we'regoing to jump right in in just a
(01:00):
but before we begin, I'm gonnaopen us up with a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you, OGod, for your word. We
thank your God for just life itself. We thank you, Lord God for
continuing to keep us and cover us. O God. We pray Father God
for this word that you have forus today. O God, we thank
you, Lord God for us beingable to focus. So God, as
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we go into this new year,to focus on You, to fix our
eyes on you and obey and notoverdo it and not over commit. Father,
we give you glory and give youhonor in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen, Amen. So again,thank you, thank you, thank you
for joining us this morning, thisevening, or this afternoon, wherever you
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are in the world. Again,welcome back to a new season of Hoping
Christ with Denise. I thank youall for those who have consistently followed this
podcast. In twenty twenty three,I needed to take a break from the
show due to personal things. However, we are back and we are ready
to rock and roll. We arecontinuing to know that we are healthy,
(02:09):
we are overcomers. We find ourpurpose, our God given purpose in Christ
Jesus, and we shift our mindsetsinto an eternal perspective. So for this
first episode, I want to highlightthe age in our ministry acronym once again.
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The H stands for spiritual health,so we are spiritually healthy. We
are healthy, overcomers purpose who alsomaintain an eternal perspective, and the AGE
stands for spiritual health. We willfocus on spiritual health through the first two
letters of a new acronym that Godhas given me. He downloaded in me
(02:52):
before I got ready to relaunch Hopein Christ. And this acronym that He's
given is called the focused Method,and he wants us to start the year
with the focused MYTHOD and we're gonnado again the first two letters of the
new acronym, and the two lettersare fixing our eyes on Jesus and obeying
(03:15):
his instructions. And we're going toalso in the oh part of the focused
acronym is obeying his instructions so thatwe don't overdo it this year and we
don't over commit this year. Andso we want to talk about that in
this episode today. So for themonth of January, as we launch and
go into twenty twenty four, Iam going to be teaching the focus method
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for each and every one of us. Again, the F is to fix
our eyes on Jesus, and theO is to obey his instructions so that
we don't overdo or over commit.Amen. So we're going to begin with
Hebrews twelve and one one through two, and so the word says, therefore,
(04:04):
since we are surrounded by so greata cloud of witnesses, let us
also lay aside every weight and sinwhich clings so closely, and let us
run with endurance the race that isset before us, looking fixing our eyes
on Jesus, look into Jesus,the founder and perfector of our faith,
(04:27):
who for the joy that was setbefore him, and do it the cross,
despising the shame, and is seatedat the right hand of the throne
of God. Amen. So again, as a teacher of the Word,
I'm going to read that scripture onemore time, and we're gonna jump right
into fixing our eyes on Jesus.It says, therefore, says, we
(04:49):
are surrounded by so great a cloudof witnesses, let us also lay aside
every weight and sin which clings soclosely, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Looking
(05:10):
to Jesus, the founder and perfectorof our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him, endured, endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is seated at the right handof the throne of God. So
fixing our eyes on Jesus. Soin this particular scripture, it says to
(05:33):
lay aside every weight, what isweight, every burden, everything that hinders
you. So think about for amoment the things that might have hindered you
in twenty twenty three. And wedon't want to allow those things to hinder
us in twenty twenty four, Sowhat are your burdens? What are those
things that have hindered you from movingin purpose, drawing closer to Christ,
(05:59):
doing whatever it is God has givenyou to do. What are the burdens?
And what are the hindrances? Fixyour eyes on Christ and give him
the weight, he says. Hesays, come to me and said,
take my yoke, for my yokeis easy, and my burdens are life.
And so if we fix our eyeson Him and lay this aside,
(06:19):
we lay it aside because we're handingit to him, this weight and this
burden. And then it goes outto say, in the sin and sin
simply means to miss the mark orwander from the path. So whatever sin
is causing me to miss the markof what God is taking me in a
relationship in Christ and wandering from thepath that Christ is leading me down.
(06:46):
And so I must do those things. But I can't do those things if
I don't fix my eyes on Jesus, if I don't look, I don't
pay close attention, if I don'tlock my attention on Christ. And then
it says, stay focused to stareat, so to look, to look,
(07:11):
to stare at, to desern,clearly turn the eyes away from other
things. So staying focused, fixingmy eyes on Jesus, turning my eyes
away from other things, the founderand the perfector of our faith, that
Jesus in understanding and discerning that heis the founder and the perfector of our
(07:34):
faith. Amen to God be theglory. And so we all have had
to refocus and fix our eyes,those of us who are believers in Christ,
we have had to fix our eyeson Jesus Christ and clearly desern who
(07:55):
he is, his power, hisauthority, all that he has for us,
all that he can do, anythingbut fail, anything but fail.
We have to realign our focus.Many times, we spend a whole lot
of time going into the new year, creating vision boards, creating goals and
(08:18):
all these different things. But crisiscalled us to fix our eyes on him.
And we will get the goals rightwhen we fix our eyes and we
stay focused, and we stare atand desern and turn our eyes away from
other things. And so I wantto talk about that for a second,
because when our eyes are fixed onJesus, we don't overdo right, We're
(08:41):
gonna talk about that a little bitlater. But we don't overdo and we
don't overcommit, because when we're fixedon Jesus, he shows us our true
purpose, and so we don't tryall these different things that keep us off
track, right, keep us fromwondering away and wandering from the path and
(09:03):
even sinning against God. When wefix our eyes on Jesus, He's going
to give us instructure, and theHoly Spirit of God is going to give
us instructions and tell us what's wrongand what's right. I often find myself,
especially in twenty twenty three. Itwas a year for me. It
was a lot going on in twentytwenty three, and I would often find
(09:26):
myself saying, Okay, Lord,what do I do? Show me what
to do, show me what tosay, show me what I should do
here. And so that's what wewant to focus in on this year.
We want to focus in on.The vision boards are fine, and we
will be The vision boards are fine, But in order to grow spiritually,
remember we're talking about the age andhope. In order to grow in our
(09:50):
spiritual health, we must fix oureyes on Jesus. Amen Matthew ten and
twenty one says you will be hatedby all because of my name. But
it is the one who has enduredto the end who will be saved,
the one who has endured. Andthe only way we endure or continue or
(10:11):
we fight through it all is byfixing our eyes on Jesus. We're turning
away from things. What are thethings? The people, the relationships,
the false idols, the false religions, whatever it is, and even ourselves.
What are the things that keep usfrom enduring and keep us from fixing
(10:31):
our eyes on Jesus. We haveto give Jesus those things again. The
relationships. Sometimes it may be familyrelationships and when it spamily or friend relationships,
and sometimes it may seem rocky,but we have to fix our eyes
on Jesus and give that relationship tohim. Why because that person, whoever
(10:54):
they are, need Jesus. Theyneed him, They need to deliver it
and the healing and whatever it isfrom him. We try to fix things
sometimes and I know and maybe I'mjust talking about myself, but we try
to fix things. We try tofix people's situations when God has called us
(11:16):
to fix, right, we're tryingto fix as in heal and help people
to come through things, and that'sokay, but not when it keeps us
from fixing our eyes on Jesus andrunning the race that He has set before
us a man. When that happens, it becomes the distraction. Sometimes it
(11:43):
may become something that is sent tothrow you off. Now I'm not talking
about where there's someone seriously ill orpearing that God will. But again,
we still have to fix our eyeson Jesus so he can cause us to
endure or to make it through andbe consistent and sustained through even that have
(12:05):
in our faith, growing in ourfaith. And so again Matthew ten to
twenty one says, you will behated by all because of my name.
But it is the one who hasendured to the end who will be saved.
We have to endure. We livein a world that is anti Christ.
Thus, can we just make thatnormalize that? Can we just tell
(12:26):
the truth? We live in aworld, a current world that many have
the spirit of Antichrist. They don'tbelieve they there are so many that mock
the word of God. There areso many who don't believe in the dt
of Christ. There's so many.But what do we have to do?
We have to fix our eyes aman in order to endure, because Jesus
(12:52):
said, these are the words ofChrist. He said, you will be
hated by all because of my name, because that name is great. And
the word says that demons tremble atthe name of Jesus. And so the
true and Living God, there aregoing to be those who hate because the
(13:13):
spirit that's within them they have rejectedChrist a man. And so we who
have He has purpose, and heis called to go for it and keep
moving and keep helping others who wantto know me, who are seeking to
know who I am. Keep drawingthem, keep pulling them in so that
(13:35):
they can be saved, that theycan learn how to endure. We endure
in Christ. We endure in Christ. We don't endure in our own strength.
Can we just normalize that we donot endure in our own strength.
We can't. We just can't.We try to, and it doesn't work.
(14:03):
It doesn't work. Amen. Sowe must concentrate. We must fasten
our eyes on Jesus, on Jesus, no matter what's coming, no matter
what's going, we must concentrate andfasten our eyes on Christ. And an
(14:26):
example is being a true follower ofJesus can cause people to hate us,
and so we know that, basedon the scripture, they can say evil
things against us. And instead ofus getting angry or getting into arguments with
those people, this is when weconcentrate on Christ and we keep staring,
(14:50):
We keep sharing his word, staringat him, We keep our fixed eyes
on him and sharing his word todraw others. We don't fall back,
we don't ben We pray for theopening of the eyes of the person who
seems to hate us because of Him, because He already told us what would
(15:11):
happen. Amen. And so wewant to make sure that we this year
twenty twenty four, that we fixour eyes on Jesus Christ, the one
who is the one who was,the one who is to come, the
one who can do it all,anything but fail. Amen. And then
(15:35):
we want to obey his instructions,His instructions, not our instructions. His
instructions, not our families instructions,not our parents' instructions. Now I'm not
let me back up. Any childthat's listening that I don't mean, don't
(15:56):
obey your parents. That's paused fora moment before we go, let's pause
and side because God just drops somethingin my spirit to our young people who
may be listening to this and thisyear, you have to walk in obedience
to your parents, walk in lovetowards your parents, no matter what.
(16:17):
We've all gone through some things,and you may be going through something.
But God has called us to obeyour parents, and that is the commandment
with a promise that your life maybe long in the land. God has
called us to obey. And thatmany would say, oh, that was
for Israel, But I believe that'sa universal command. To respect and honor
(16:40):
our parents, not curse our parentsout, not go and do what we
want to do and try to runour parents' house. In that sense,
we have to get back to respectand honor. And I wanted to stop
and say that because we're on thearea of obedience and so obeying his instructions.
(17:02):
God's instructions is for us, nomatter what we've experienced, is to
obey and respect our parents. Now, those who are those of us who
are adults and those of us whoare believers in Christ, and we know
the Word says if we are willingand obedient in Isaiah one to nineteen,
(17:22):
if we are willing and obedient,you shall eat the good of the land.
So it says if you are willing, So the young people that I
was just talking to, if youare willing, you have to have a
will to be respectful. And inorder for us to truly have a heart
and think before we respond, wehave to again go back to fixing our
eyes on Jesus. Allow Jesus totake away anger, Allow Jesus to heal
(17:45):
us well we've been hurt. AllowJesus to walk us through whatever pain we
have experienced. Because the Word says, if we are willing and obedient,
willing and obedient, we will eatthe good of the land. And what
(18:07):
does that look like. He willbless us, will bless our going and
come, and he will bless uswith provision. He will bless us with
his presence. We don't want tonot be blessed with the presence of God.
We don't want to not have theLord with us wherever we go,
(18:29):
because we are battling spiritually in thishour and this hour we find ourselves living
in. There is a spiritual battle, and that spiritual battle cannot be won
without the army of the Lord,without Christ Jesus. Because demons only respond
(18:57):
to that name. The word saysthat at the name of Jesus, every
need shall bow, and every tongueshall confess every need. It doesn't matter
who we are, It doesn't matterhow much fame we have. It doesn't
matter how much money we have,it doesn't matter where we think we stand
(19:22):
in authority. The world says,every need shall bow and every tongue shall
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.What does lord mean? The one who
rules and reigns, and so wehave to allow him to be the lord
of our lives. The one whosits over we all in humanity will find
(19:52):
out that he is lord of all. He is lord of all a man,
and so it says, what iswilling? Again? Willing is to
yield to, or accept or desire. So he says, we have to
be willing, We have to yieldto, we have to accept, and
we have to desire to be obedient. Now, what's obedient? Now?
(20:15):
I'm as a as an English instructor, and as a teacher of the word,
I love to give you the definition, even though we may know this
definition. But to help us getclarity on what does it look like?
Let's talk about what obedience is obedienceaccording to the Strong Concordance, and I
(20:37):
got these other definitions from the StrongConcordance as well. Obedience is to hearken
or pay attention or listen, tohearken, to stop long enough to pay
attention and listen. Many times throughoutour lives we are moving and hustling,
bustle, we're going out about thebusiness and were getting the money and all
(20:59):
these other things. And the Wordsays that we must hearken or stop long
enough to pay attention and listen,listen, listen, And it says consent
or agree to right, So tohearken and pay attention and consent or agree
(21:22):
to to be obedient to God.He's not going to force us to.
We have to be willing a manto hear God's word and act. That's
what willing and obedient means. Tohear the word of God and to act
on it, right, to hearit and act, not just to hear
(21:45):
it. Because that's the difference.That's the difference. Can we talk about
the difference between religion and relationship fora moment. The difference is the obedience
the relationship, the drawing mirror,the submission, the allowing Christ to be
Lord. And religion is go Igo to church, I come home,
(22:07):
I go to service, I dothis, I do that, But I
haven't submitted to the word, tothe relationship and drawn in relationship to Christ
and submitted and hearken and pay attentionand consent to what he says his will,
(22:30):
hallelujah. His will not my will, but Thy will be done.
Willing and obedient. It says thatthis is a response of trust and it
secures God's blessing. This is aresponse of trusting God. There were times
(22:56):
that I don't really believe I trustedGod. Sometimes when we're gone through where
we may not have a solid relationshipwith parents, or solid relationship with the
elders and our families, or thingsthat may have happened to us, we
struggle to trust God. And sothis has a response of trust, obedient.
(23:21):
Okay, God, I'm gonna go. Think about Abraham for a moment.
Abraham was instructed. God gave himinstructions to leave his house, his
family, everything he knew, andgo to a place I will show you.
And Abraham had no clue about anyof this, but he had to
(23:44):
be It was a response of trustingGod. He yielded, he was willing,
he yielded, and he accepted,and he desired to trust God.
And so oh what happened. Itsecured God's blessing for Abraham. And it
(24:08):
goes on to say that it's imitatingGod in holiness, humility and love,
obedience imitating God in holiness of humilityand love. And it says, true
disciples do the will of God.True disciples do the will of God,
not our own will, not thewill of the culture, not the will
(24:30):
of the world and what the worldwants, but the will of God.
And then it goes on to saythat being obedient, willing, and obedient,
it is to agree with God's way, agree with God's way. Exodus
nineteen and five says, if youwill indeed obey my voice and keep my
commandments, then you shall be myown possession among all the people's, For
(24:56):
all the earth is mine, alltheir is mine. So if you are
willing to obey, you are willingto keep my voice. Obey my voice
and keep my commandments. Obey myvoice. There are a lot of voices
out here. There are a lotof voices out here. Please hear me,
(25:21):
and hear me clearly, there area lot of voices out here,
and every voice is not the voiceof God. Every voice is not the
voice of God. Any voice thatcontradicts the Word, that comes against the
Word, that will stand up boldlyagainst the Word. Any voice that says,
(25:47):
my culture is my God, myculture is my God, My family
is my God, an my race. Anything that we make God to us,
can we help us understand. Iwant to help us understand that we
(26:11):
can make other things God, andso those things become more important, those
things become greater to us, andso that makes us and causes the world
to begin to question who God is. And I am a living witness before
we close out in a few minutes, I'm a living witness that Christ is
(26:34):
real, a living witness. Ihave encountered Christ so many times in my
life. I've encountered the supernatural somany times in my life. There have
been times when my life was indanger, and immediately I saw visions.
(26:57):
I saw God's sending angels to protectme. I saw them. I've heard
the voice of the Lord. Andso no one, let no one in
this year sway you away from Christany longer, any longer, It says
(27:22):
if you will indeed obey my voice, not the voice of the enemy,
not the voice of a friend.We gotta get into the word to know
the voice of the Lord. Wehave to pray to know that God is
speaking. God will never contradict hisword. He will never There are times
(27:47):
when I'm praying, the scripture comesto my spirit and God will take me
right to it. So never,never any longer allow anybody to sway you
away. He never said things wouldn'tbe hard, he never said things wouldn't
(28:10):
come. But he said, behold, I'm with you even until the end.
Amen. And so again, let'sagree with God's way this year.
Let's fix our eyes on Jesus andlet's obey his instructions, agree with his
(28:30):
way so that we are not overcommitting. In overdoing, we over commit,
and it seems like we are weighteddown with things because we may just
have not obeyed the instructions of God. Sometimes people will stop me and ask
(28:52):
me to say, Denise, youdo a lot, but can I share
something with you. For a moment, before I started and launch hope in
christ ministries, the Lord spoke tome through another individual. He spoke a
(29:14):
word basically prophesied to me, andthe word was, you have multiple ministries,
not just one. You have multipleministries. And so it took me
a while to get that, toget that everything that I do is ministry.
Even my business, it's still ministry. And so God taught me how
(29:38):
to balance. God showed me strategiesand ways to what. Oh, fix
my eyes on Jesus and obey hisinstructions. Why because there's something in me
he wants others to hear or toreceive. And so there's something in you
that he wants others to receive andothers to get from you. And it
(30:00):
might be multiple that just maybe multiplethings. And He will teach us how
to balance. He will teach ushow to run the race without being really
weary a man. And so aswe close out, remember that disobedience is
(30:21):
a failure to hear and do God'sword, which affects our spiritual life.
So let's agree with God's way,because he knows the way. Right,
He knows the way, so thatI'm the way, the truth and the
life. Amen. So he knowsthe way, He knows the way to
(30:41):
eternity, He knows the way totruth. He because he is truth,
He knows the way. When we'restuck somewhere and we're stuck in a situation,
he knows the way out, andso let's obey his instructions. A
man, let's obey his instructions.Hallelujah. God keeps giving me that let's
(31:04):
obey his instructions, and let's fixour eyes on Jesus so that we may
endure. We may endure focusing onhim. Let's do our vision boards,
let's do our goal setting, butlet it not be anything that doesn't have
(31:26):
to do with fixing our eyes onChrist and obeying his instructions. Because the
Word even tells us that we weresays what would profit a man to gain
the entire world but lose his soul? And so God is concerned about our
soul. God is concerned about arelationship with us. And that's the most
(31:49):
important thing, above silver and gold, above anything else we could gain in
this world, Above any I'm anauthor, I'm a speaker, I do
a lot of things, above becomein New York Times bestseller, hallelujah,
bless your name Jesus. Above anyother thing, our relationship and our soul.
(32:10):
It's greater, it's more important solet us keep that in mind,
Amen, and I'm going to prayus out. Father, we thank you,
O God, for your word,hallelujah. We thank you for your
grace, We thank you for yourtruth. And so Father, I thank
you, Lord God for continuing tokeep and I pray for those that are
listening that would listen to the replay, those that will take this and run
(32:31):
with it on the focused method,to run and not be weary, and
to fix their eyes on Jesus andto obey so they won't overdo and they
won't overcome. In Lord will giveyou glory and honor. Help us not
to fill our plate with things,but fell our plate with purpose. And
(32:52):
then and only then will you giveus balance. You will help us,
O God, to balance. It'llhelp us to not grow weary, because
it was you that gave it tous. And it's all purpose, and
it's not just things we powd ontrying to win a goal or trying to
reach a goal, or trying tohave something and things in this world,
(33:15):
because we know this world is temple. And so God will give you goori
honor, and we thank you forit now in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen, and Amen. So again, thank you, thank you, thank
you for joining us for our newepisode for the year of Hoping Christ with
the Niece. Thank you, thankyou, thank you for continuing to follow,
(33:38):
and I pray if you would havea phenomenal rest of your day,
week, and time that you willmove in God's purpose. Thank you for
tuning in you have been listening toHoping Christ with the Niece here on Kingdom
(33:58):
Influences Broadcast. Remember at Hope inChrist, we are healthy, we are
overcomers, we have purpose by theTrue and Living God, and we must
maintain an eternal perspective as we seekwholeness and our true identity in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Please follow Hope inChrist with Denise on Facebook and Instagram.
Also check out my TikTok at dM Walker Hope and if you would like
(34:22):
to purchase any of my resources orbooks, please visit Amazon, Barzanoble Books,
a Million and more. Thank youfor tuning in once again to Hope
in Christ with Denise. Remember toplace your hope and the only hope there
is, Christ our Lord
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