March 13, 2025 • 51 mins
Do I Please The Lord With My Work? with Carolina In the latest episode of "The Kay Wats Podcast," Kay interviews the creator of Christian Corporate Girl Carolina. Kay and Carolina unpack her journey of following Jesus throughout her career. Carolina shares her experiences of working in the marketplace and ministry and how she surrenders her idea of being a servant of God. They share examples of how being a servant of God doesn’t require a title but obedience.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey guys, welcome to the KOs podcast. I'm your host
Kashawn Watson, but you know.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Me as KWATS. This is the place where we chat
about the questions that we ask God.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You shared testimonials around healing, wholeness and forgiveness, and I'm
super excited that you're joining us here today. At the
end of this episode, make sure you give us a like, share,
subscribe again.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to the k WATS podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey guys, welcome to an all new episode of the
k WATS Podcast. I'm your host Kashawan Watson, but you
know me as KAWATS, and I am super excited about
this week'skeeshaw. That's right, I mean super excited. I have
creator of Christian Corporate Girl.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's right. I'm talking about Carolina Minyuk Mariyuk close.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yes, oh guys, I'm in practicing before I hit the
record button.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, welcome to the podcast. Carol Ever, thank you so much.
I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, I'm honestly thank
you for the opportunity. You reached out to me and
I was like, Ah, we've chatted so much on the
graund that I was like, absolutely, this is a noe
prayed about it. I was like, I gotta do this.
I'm really excited to just even have this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
This is awesome. Same I was like, you know what,
this season, I have to invite her on. So for people,
let's say they're hearing this for the first time, tell
them a little bit about who you are.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And what you do. So my name is Carolina and
I started a Christian Corporate Girl I want to say
maybe like fourteen fifteen months ago, and it was one
of those things where I was like, you know when
you have those ideas where you're just like, I don't
know if anybody relates, but I'm going to do it
for my twenty year old self. I'm going to do
it for that, like I'm going to create exactly what
(01:37):
I needed when I was twenty and so I started
an Instagram page and it was called Christian Corporate Girl.
Pretty self explanatory. A Christian that's a girl that's in corporate.
And I was like, and I just wanted to share
encouraging things that I really needed to hear when I
was just starting up in my career and honestly still
(01:58):
need to be reminded of because I remember when I
had when I had started in the corporate space. I
was like, what does it mean to look like a Christian?
What does it mean to honor the Lord and to
love him well and to love coworker as well, while
also still being in you know, a corporate space and
still respecting people and still you know, and still kind
of understanding how the corporate world works, but also not
(02:23):
backing down from your core beliefs and you know what,
really the Lord has called you to. So it was,
it was honestly on a whim. I just texted a
couple of friends. I was like, haha, I started another
Instagram page and they're like okay, and they're like I
like it. No fancy branding, no fancy anything. I love it. Yeah,
And so I just started that and I wanted girls
(02:44):
to relate and ran with it.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So one, There's so many layers to this that I
want to unpack, because this is like one of those
things to where I'm like, I think about it spiritually,
I think about it practically. I think about how you
apply this and how this is something that every single
young woman in man honestly probably should if they're not
(03:07):
already following you, they should, and just have this type
of conversation because the majority of us, if we're talking
about millennials, we went to college and immediately went into
the workface into corporate. And for people that didn't go
to college, sometimes they graduated out of high school and
then immediately went into the workforce in corporate. And there's
(03:28):
so many things that we can kind of like unpack
when it comes to Okay, how do I show up
in a space where the Lord is not welcomed nor
want to be talked about? How am I still able
to be a light in that space? How do I
prepare myself spiritually to go into these spaces? How do
(03:49):
I prepare myself practically to navigate in these spaces to
still hold onto my integrity, to still hold on to
my beliefs. So before I get into those nuances, I'm
just very curious to learn more about kind of like
when did you first kind of like say, you know what,
I'm a follower of Jesus, I'm a believer, Like where
did that story start for you? How old were you?
(04:11):
And I'm just curious to start there.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I love that question and I'm so glad we're starting there.
So I grew up, so my background is Slavic. So
my parents immigrated to the States a year before I
was born, which was a long time ago, and so
they came here. For them, faith is like a core value.
And so I grew up in the church. I was
(04:35):
a kid in the church, and you know, and I
just remember being twelve years old and not understanding. I
was growing up in a Slavic church. So you're getting
sermons in Russian, you know, and so you're like, You're
trying to grasp what you can and I understand it
pretty well, but it doesn't It's still it still wasn't
you know. I'm not hearing the Gospel explain to me
(04:56):
at a at a in a way that I could understand.
And so I'm grasping what I can. And the Lord
is just so kind and so good. And I remember
being like twelve years old. My parents got me, you know,
I had different variations of children's Bibles, and so I
just remember sitting in my room and reading them. And
I mean, I look back and I'm like, I was
twelve when you were pulling on my heart, and I
(05:18):
was like, and then I remember hearing songs when I
was five six years old that I'm hearing now in
English that I heard in Russian and that I was like,
oh my goodness, Like I remember those songs and I
remember myself being five years old singing them. So I
could trace the Lord's kindness in my life from the beginning,
from as long as I can remember. But I think
I was about sixteen and a half and I wasn't
(05:41):
involved in any youth and my cousin's like, hey, come
to youth service with me, and I was like, I've
never been. Okay, great, and this was at my home church,
and so I'd only go on Sunday as there was
a really shy kid, like I mean so shy. My
eyes would tear up when I would talk to people,
which nobody believes me now, Yeah, nobody believes me now.
And I'm like, and that's the testimony. Yeah yeah. And
(06:02):
so I remember being sixteen and a half and I
just felt I walked into that room and I was like,
whatever this is, I want it. And so I got
involved and did all those things that you know you're
sixteen and a half, I was. We have a program
here in Washington where we can go into a community
college instead of finishing the last two years of our
high school and just transition there and finished high school there,
(06:25):
and so I was kind of already in this college thing.
My life was kind of rolling on, and so I
stepped into this and I was like, I love this,
Like this is incredible, Like I know what I want
to do with my whole life. And so I was like,
I know. Like for me, I was like sixteen and
a half seventeen, I was like, I want to be
a business woman that funds missionaries. And I felt that
(06:50):
at sixteen and a half seventeen. Wow, which is crazy
because when you hear the rest of the story, you're like,
what sixteen and a half seventeen And I just committed
to the Lord at that point and I was like, man,
I feel like I couldn't get enough of his word.
I wanted to be in his presence. And we grew
up in a fairly a conservative, a conservative Slavic traditional church,
(07:12):
which I loved, and they had a fear of the
Lord and a reverence. But I didn't always have the
permission to pursue the Lord in the way that I
wanted to, and that came a little later on. So
I switched to a church my parents were phenomenon really supportive.
So I switched to another church and I just felt like, man,
my feet hit the ground running after the Lord and
it was so beautiful. I was eighteen or nineteen years old,
(07:35):
and I remember I started to have these incredible experiences
with the Lord and really seeking his face and being like, oh,
like I like, he's for me, he loves me, And
it became so real. It wasn't just this God that's
out here and I better do everything right, but it
was like, Oh, he's inviting me into deep relationship. Why
because he loves me? And everything that I do out
(07:57):
of that love is an offering, you know, like everything
that I give him that sacrifice that we so call
it as an offering of love to him. And I
was like and grasping that when everything in your life
is moving, like everyone has different priorities, people are moving,
getting jobs, things like that, I was like, I just
wanted to like hide away and know the Lord. And
I remember this was absolutely pivotal moment. I was nineteen.
(08:22):
I was nineteen and a half and I was almost
done with my bachelor's So because the program kind of
accelerated everything, I was always on the go and I
remember it felt like I just kind of not even
necessarily hit a wall with my relationship with the Lord,
because I don't think that's the proper terminology, but I
just got to a point where I'm like, it was
(08:42):
like this craving for something more. It's not that I
felt like I knew him fully, but I was like,
there's something so tangible that he's inviting me to grasp
that I don't know how to and I don't know
anybody to ask at this point or anything. So I
remember I was sitting working on accounting homework out of Starbucks,
and I can tell you exactly which one, at a
(09:03):
Starbucks five minutes away from my college, and I just
I remember pulling out my headphones and was like, and
everything's spinning in my mind, like like the Lord and
school and work, and I was like, Lord, if there's
more of you, I want you, If there's more that
you like, if there's more of you, I want to
know you. And I feel like overnight my life completely changed.
(09:25):
I finished my degree and it was just a deep
invitation to know the Lord, and I just immediately went
straight into ministry. I was doing like youth and working
with like youth. Working with middle schoolers. That was like
my heartbeat, and I fully invested there while work and
(09:46):
everything else fell on the back burner like it was
it was it, And I mean I was showing up
and it was a great employee. But the sparkle of
the yes, yes, the sparkle the passion of that corporate
career of like, oh look get this and it just
died and I'm so glad it did in that time
(10:07):
and it was just like the Lord's birth and new
passion to love his people well. And I worked with
middle schoolers for seven years. That's my heartbeat, like I
have loved them. If you are currently listening to this
and you are doing that, your reward is great, hopefully
on earth and definitely in heaven, Like there's a grace
on that. Like I sometimes I'll pop in and I'm like,
(10:28):
oh did I do that? I was like, but there
it was beautiful. I the Lord for me in those places,
like he gave me a heart for people, and so
for me, that was so foundational to my walk with
the Lord. Yeah, and work was an invitation, Like I
was showing up and I was still kind of battling
(10:48):
these little things like how do I show up as
a Christian. But it was like, yeah, I'm just I'm
gonna be a good Christian. I might pull out my
Bible once in a while, but I was like everything,
everything was fully devoted onto what he had called me.
Work was just serving, like the paycheck was just serving
what the Lord has asked me to do. My lunch
showers were spent at a coffee shop nearby, studying for
the next thing. Knowing his heart, everything else came under
(11:12):
what he did for me, and so that that invitation
to the corporate letter just died almost overnag which was insane. Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, there is so much that I think, so many
different directions I can go with this. But one of
the things that I think is so powerful and humble
and beautiful about your testimony that I think that we
have not heard, like from a lot of people in
(11:43):
a very long time, is when you said that your
desire was just to have intimate time with the Lord.
And I think that when you know that there was
a real encounter with Jesus himself, because when you encounter him, yeah,
(12:11):
you just want to stay with him. Your first initial
thought isn't kind of like, oh, how do I market this?
How do you understand what I'm saying. You're not, you know,
which is so counter to what we're seeing right now
culturally in marketing, Like I think it's either the two
(12:34):
things that I've seen is that either it's like Laura,
I just would like to stay with you forever, or
I am so on fire right now I have to
run and tell everybody about you. Those are usually the
two things that you see when you hear people that
just had their real, like first genuine encounter with the father.
(12:55):
And I think that it's so beautiful because I think
that it kind of, like you said, set the foundation
for your walk. It's kind of like, Lord, from this
moment on, if there is more of you I wanted.
It was a posture, that it shifted, that it changed.
And this is the thing that I think also is
so powerful. Because people like to talk about their position.
(13:16):
They like to talk about places, they like to talk
about titles, they like to talk about all these different things.
But let's just talk about the posture of our hearts.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Sometimes say it again, Say it again, yep. The posture
of your heart should not change.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Rather, if you are in corporate, if you are a
stay at home mom, if you are a huge influencer
on social media. The posture of our hearts should be
so rooted. Yeah, and the love of God that no
(13:51):
matter where He sends us place us tells us to
stay still. That is what people should be getting off
of us. And I think that is powerful on so
many levels, and we need more I think testimonies of that.
That's just when we talk about the encounter and the
foundation of what that looks like. So yeah, so that's
(14:14):
just kind of like, wow, Okay, Carolina came through with
a whole like let's just let's just go in.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Deep, you know. Yeah, this feels so easy. Yeah, I
love I knew, I told you, I knew this is
gonna be a good flow.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
So my next question to you is is that Okay
the other part that you said, which I think that
I totally relate on, like did corporate for a very
very long time, basically all of my twenties, to be honest,
I lived in probably about seven different states, originally from Washington,
d C. From d C Saint Louis, Saint Louis to Chicago,
(14:50):
Chicago to Toronto, Toronto to New York, New York to
La Whoa, all through corporate, just climbing the ladder, climbing
the ladder as a single woman. And I get to
LA and I'm thinking to myself, you know what, this
is probably gonna be home base.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I'm gonna stay.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And it wasn't until the Lord really started tugging on
me that there was more to corporate, and not even
just more to corporate, but having me, I probably did
more evangelism in corporate, like I have.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
The amount of imitations.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That I did when I was in corporate is actually
like kind of has me pausing sometimes because me being
married to a worship pastor in a PK, I've probably
invited more people to church that were non believers of
different religions I'm talking about from New Age to Jewish
to Muslim. I have seen people filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Like Chris, this is God.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
This is what I witnessed while working a nine to
five in corporate. There was a different level of hunger
and recognizing like this is not my source, this isn't
even why I'm here. So Lord didn't send me all
those places for a job. He sent me all those
places to evangelize. So this is what we're going to
do right now, And It wasn't until I really started
(16:13):
seeing and understanding like, oh, this is not about a paycheck,
this is not about another title on the resume. He
just can trust me to be able to where he
sends me I'm going to go and not push back.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yes, that's why.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
He was using me that way, because if he said, oh, nope,
pack your bag of three days, you're headed to this day.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Okay, here we go, right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Which I love to tell singles, don't be so upset
that you're single, because the Lord use me in my
single season to be able quickly, to be able to
be malleable, to be flexible like that is that there's
nothing wrong with that that.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I don't know if I would.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Have been able to do that being married, you know,
like you have another person to check in with, there's
a whole different situation. But in my single season, throughout
my entire twenties, like he could trust me and use
me in that way way.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So where I started getting tough was working in this
space to where.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
The four walls of the space.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Was not very welcoming too.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I would be in my office and I would find
people positioning different crystals and rocks around the office that
I have to then.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Remove how to buy.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
You know, there are those little things to where you know,
like just different than you know, like not today, this
is it, this isn't what we're doing today.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Okay, let's just not my style, not.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Not not esthetically and knowing which and knowing which how
to communicate that.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So, yes, now that you did.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Ministry, and the Lord kind of like was really growing
and developing you to where it kind of like he
took any type of taste or hunger for climbing the
corporate ladder. He was still using you there to fund
you in ministry. But then there had to be a
level of shifting to where he was like, all right,
well now I'm gonna trust you to be able to
be in corporate so that you can have different eyes
(18:14):
to see, ears to hear.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'm curious about the shift.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And then when you went back into like, Okay, the
Lord's really established me in corporate. He did not tell
me to go in full time ministry. He still wants
me to be here. What did you witness and see
with new fresh eyes?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Oh, I cannot wait to get into this. Around twenty five,
I felt the Lord so I've put my job a
couple of times, all when I very clearly felt the
Lord didn't have a clear answer, just quit, and a
lot of them made sense. It was like one I
was burnt out and I felt permission. I asked my parents,
was like you know, and they're like absolutely. I felt
(18:52):
the Lord asked me to or invite me. I wouldn't
say ask. It was an invitation, his permission to quit.
And I was like, you know what, it's time for
me pivot out of accounting into something else. I'm going
to quit. My friend was ghost writing a book. She's
like coming to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. I
was like great, So I just rested and I was like,
while I'm there, I'm going to look for a job
in operations and logistics kind of that's more my scope.
(19:15):
I get a call to move down to California to
help be a project manager. Was technically an account at
the time, but I ended up being a project manager
on a building that's now a Bible college. So it
was with their yes. So I was getting in my
eyes at that point the dream the dream, it was
staff like I was on staff at my like dream ministry,
(19:40):
and I was like, I made it, and in my heart,
I was like, I made it, and out loud, I
was like, I made it. So that's I was. I
love it. I was correct it later on, but that
was that's where I made it, and so so that's
where I was kind of coming from, and I was like,
this is so great. I moved down to California again.
I've never moved for anything was you know, and it
(20:01):
stretched me. It was beautiful. My friends that are pastoring
that ministry, they're now at church as well, Like, they're
absolutely incredible. If I could ever work under people again,
it'd be them. And then the guys that own the
building are project managing, they're absolutely incredible. But to go
into something with no experience and to be afraid to
ask questions and to be afraid of disappointing people, that
(20:24):
comes with its own things so quickly in the next
nine months that died. That was the invitation during those
nine months, the invitation to please people, to get things ready,
to feel like, yeah, I had no prom saying that
I wasn't skilled. I had no problem asking Like I'd
be sitting with the city and they're like, and the
girl's like, I get the vibe that you don't know
(20:45):
what you're doing and I was like that vibe is
correct and I was liker, it's correct, and she's like
what And I was like, just tell me where I
can learn because I have twenty four hours before I
have to resubmit this, I will have and she's like okay,
And I was like, I'll guarantee you correct work if
you tell me point me any direction. She's like, write
this down. Wrote it down the next time. It was perfect.
(21:07):
So I was learning at a very quick pace. I
was not afraid. But I think when it came to
being in ministry and still having that thing, it was
just that like I want people to be proud of me. Yeah,
I wanted to know, and I think we have that desire.
Granted it's fulfilled by the Lord. You'll always disappoint someone,
(21:27):
but it's like in that moment, I was twenty five,
I'd moved from ministry and it's like I got this
big so they clearly trusted me. But then it's like
I want to make them proud. And I didn't feel
like I needed to earn it, but I feel like
there was things I needed to do and it's nothing
that they made me feel was all internally and things
were surfacing very quickly, and so I felt that I
(21:47):
was coming back to Seattle. I transitioned the project. It
was a great time, and I was transitioning the project.
I was gonna take three months off in Seattle, do
some traveling with my family, and come back to California
to kind of lead. They're middle school ministry. So I
was like, great, you know, I'm project Management's not for me.
Learned a lot, you know, even though it's so my forte.
(22:08):
I was like, I'm going to go back into traditional staff,
you know, you know something I'm comfortable with. I get
to Seattle and I feel this deep, deep cry in
my heart to not go back, and I was like,
that's not today. I was like, not today, I am
going back to South California. And I was like, that's fear.
I'm rebuking it. I'm saying every prayer I got no,
(22:29):
and two weeks I'm in this panic. And I was like,
you know what I have. I have three months. I'm
just gonna let it be. I get prophetic word after
prophetic word. Not a single one is very clear, Like
not a single one is like you need to stay here. Nothing,
all of them. I'm leaving with the same feeling that
they're like, you know what the Lord is speaking to you.
(22:51):
You need to you need to yield all of them.
I'm like, after every single one, I'm like, and my
my friend's like, my friend's prophesying and he's like, the
Lord's say you up, and you know what that means.
And I was like, I am not, what am I
going to do in Seattle? I transition everything before I left.
I left right, so what am I going to do?
I go back into work. I'm applying. I'm ready to
(23:15):
take on anything. I apply through a recruiter. I take
on this job, and let me tell you, for the
next six months, I feel like I failed God because
and this is something like I have processed so well,
and I don't feel like not a lot of people.
I've never heard anybody speak on this on a personal level.
And I remember, and I think, maybe that's why I'm
(23:36):
so bold. I was like, I felt like I failed
God because if he trusted me with full time ministry,
why why would he ask me to go back to
the workplace. And I was like that because in my mind,
I knew, if I could write it out, I knew
that he doesn't see a difference between full time ministry
(23:56):
and walking or calling. That's different. I knew that, but
in my art I had a hierarchy. What please God,
more I did because I was like it in my
eyes it was honorable, it was more honorable, and I
was not. I wasn't one hundred percent aware that because
I could put on paper. I was like somebody that's
a doctor that's working in a hospital, that's responding, is
(24:19):
walking in the same authority anointing and and understanding of
their calling as a pastor. There's people that are doctors
that should be pastors. There's doctors, there's pastors that should
be doctors. Like there's people that get it wrong in
all scopes, and then there's people that get it so right.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I knew that. I knew it here, but I didn't
know it in my heart.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And so for the next six months, I cry every
day to work and every day back. And my best friend,
one of my best friends, Sishana. She's on the phone
with me every she's a mom, a working woman, and
a wife. She's on the phone with me almost every
day walking me through this. I don't know. I tell
it this all the time. I was like, I don't
(25:01):
know why you did that, but I am where I
am because of you, Like I don't know where it
would have been, because it's all of a sudden, all
this stuff surfaces. And I remember I was listening to
podcasts from the Cageous Birds and Melissa Helser talks about
the disappointments we have and she's like, He's not afraid
of your disappointments, and I was like, and she talks
about this whole process where she's like, oh, like the
(25:23):
Lord's inviting her to share the disappointments, and I was like, oh,
and I'm listening to this. I was like, oh, like,
I'm not disappointing God. Of course things don't go like,
of course, I'm not living in my dream state and
I'm not in full time ministry and I'm not married
and I'm not all these things, and I'm starting from
I'm starting my career over in a completely different setting.
And I was like, no, I'm not disappointed. God just
has something better and I just feel I feel so
(25:45):
deeply in my heart and the Lord's like, bring that
to me. Yeah. And this is about six months before COVID,
So I start a full time job. Six months before COVID,
We're in office. I'm a pleasant employee at work, Like,
I'm like, oh, you know, I know what it's like
to be a believer. I was like, hey, like, my
work is going to testify, and so is my character.
I'm bringing great work. I'm a I'm a I'm an
(26:07):
asset to the team. That was easy for me. And
I'm also a really pleasant person personality higher the workplace
likes to call it. But when you walk with the Lord,
You're like, no, I'm walking with joy and walking with peace.
I'm wading an invitation with love. And so six months
before and I'm deeply processing this. Only three people know,
and I'm like, and then COVID happens and our work
(26:29):
shuts down a week before, and I hear the Lord
because we had like a little scare over here. And
I hear the Lord and he goes. The next six weeks,
You and me and the whole world, we saw it.
The whole world shut down. Every shut down. Everyone's like
on one end of the factum on other people use
(26:51):
respect on different opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah, and
my eyes, my heart, my entire self is locked in
with the Lord. I don't care where to be seeing,
no where to be found. I just I'm like, the
Lord's like, We're gonna unravel these lives and I'm going
to wrap you up with my truth. And it was
let me tell you, it changed me. It changed me.
(27:12):
It was like I he invited me to bring my disappointment.
I was like, I feel like, you know, I'm disappointed.
He's like, because you didn't feel like I came through,
I'm going to tear up again. But I was like,
I didn't feel like you came through. I didn't feel
like and He's like and all of those things. I
just brought to him without any shame, without any condemnation
from him. I felt and I was like, ah, sorry.
I literally was like there was like a moment. I
(27:34):
was like, when you brought it to him, I was like,
I wonder what it's going to feel. I felt the
entire love of the Father wrapped me. And I was
like that that for me was like, if you're listening
and you're in that same place, bring it to him.
Bring it to him. He is so ready to wrap
you in his love. And so those six weeks, I
would be sitting in my work laptop and I work
(27:56):
in commercial internet, so the whole world went to the
internet and our work trip. Well, so you're like losing
my mind working ten hour days and you're just and
you're locked in and you're in a and the world
is different. They're panicking and I'd be sitting there working
on a spreadsheet and I would feel a tug in
my heart where the Lord's like, you know, to me
(28:17):
to be kind and I was like, yes, Lord, I did,
and he's like, you know, me to be kind to
your friends, Like yes, Lord, yes you know. And you're like, yeah,
I'm agreeing, and he goes, but you don't think I'm
kind to you, No, no, no, God, I do. I'm
And I'm remembering all these things where he's kind. He's like, oh,
you feel like you had to earn that, And he's
picking at these little things that have taken opportunities to
(28:39):
steal joy, to steal pease, to steal contentment, to let
me feel like I needed I needed to figure it
out and God wasn't going to do it for me. Yeah,
And I would like to label that as stewardship and
where it's like yeah, it's like, hey, that hard heart,
(29:00):
that self preservation, give it to me. Yeah, And so
in that, in all of that, I think that was
when the Lord was like processing all those things and
he's like, if you're not fully And I had no
problem doing ministerry, like I felt like I was healthy,
and I feel like I was in the sense of
for other people. And I had no problem contending for
(29:23):
people in full faith, believing for healing, believe from miracles,
and I had seen those things. So when I was
coming to the Lord, I was like, I don't doubt
that you're a healer. I've seen tangible healing. Yep. But
the Lord's like, but you won't bring your pain to me,
and yeah, I'll be fine. God just help them. And
I felt like his blood and his body was enough
(29:45):
for everybody else but me. It was like, oh, like
when he gets to me, he gets to me. Yeah. Oh,
it was just such a beautiful time. And so when
I when the Lord started to work that out, it
felt like it was just like it was like a
river that started to flow. I'm like, I do not
care what where you're coming from. I don't care what
(30:07):
pain you're coming from. Like he's been kind to me,
I'll be kind to you. It was like generosity was
unlocked out of that where I was like, I had
no problems, Like, let me tell you what my God
did like I do not. I was like, I don't
even need to sit and preach to you at a workplace.
The love of the Father that you're going to see
me live out will draw you to me and you'll
ask questions. Yeap. And so I don't necessarily know if
that answers your question fully, but yeah it does. Yeah,
(30:30):
that has been layers. You've just been giving us layers.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
As soon as you feel like, oh, then there's another,
then there's another.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Well one.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
I think what you just experienced through that transition and
testifying in that so many of us have experienced in
different aspects. And I think the beauty in number one,
Like you said, a lot of people do not share
and we don't talk about that. Sometimes we have this
(31:04):
hierarchy preference of things that we think that God is
more pleased by m yep, right, And it's the beauty
in knowing that you are anointed just because you're his daughter.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yes, yep, will break chains.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yes you know, it's not because you're a pastor. Preacher,
pastor's wife have your own ministry half Formonia followers on Instagram,
you know, opening your Bible and talking that's that's not
why you're anointed. We're anointed just because we're His daughters
and period. Yeah, but that was the reason why Jesus
(31:50):
came is so that we could experience that type of
love from the Father and that we would know it.
And I think the law that the enemy has done
for the longest time, and this is recently for me,
probably in the last two to three years, where when
I'll ask the Lord, like, what do you want me
(32:10):
to study in the Word? Right, because you can do
your devotionals. But sometimes I'll just prompt him and say,
where do you want me to look today, Like what passage?
Speaker 2 (32:19):
What book?
Speaker 1 (32:20):
And I remember one time he said, start in the beginning.
The answer is in the beginning. So I went all
the way back to Genesis, and he showed me so
much that happened in the garden and in the transaction
of conversation between the serpent and Eve, and for the
longest time we talk about.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's where the fall happened.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
That's where you know, Adam and Eve took the bait,
they sinned against God.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
But something that the.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Enemy did was make Eve believe that she wasn't already
made in the image of God.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yes, yes, yes, I one hundred percent agree.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
That you want to talk about the double whammy that
he positioned. It wasn't just fact the fact that he
encouraged her to eat from the forbidden tree that the
Lord said, It was the tactic and the wording that
he chose to say, Well, no, the Lord knows that
if you eat of this tree that you would be
(33:18):
able to to be more like him. We were already
created in his image.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
You were literally in his image. That was the first book. Yeah,
but that was also his first.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Tactic that he still does to make us believe that
no matter the position, no matter the situation, the storm,
the success, that there is something that we are missing,
that there is a deficit that we disappoint him.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And we know those are lies because the Father says
that he delights in me and you, Yes, that's what
he says. Yes, So I totally.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Understand and have been there so many times in different
seasons and stages of my life to where the Lord
will have to remind me and the word that I
would get from a lot of people, which is so
funny when you said that, so many people will prophetically
say there was probably a span, and it recently happened
we moved to Nashville, and I just kind of like laughed.
(34:21):
This woman said this because people have been saying this
word to me since twenty seventeen. They will just ran
and say, the Lord tells me he delights in you.
I mean, on my best day and my worst. I
love that, And in my mind, I'm like, what are
they seeing. I feel so ashamed, I feel so depleted,
(34:42):
I'm so tired and weary, I'm so angry. And literally
he'll bring just a messenger of the Lord just to
whisper to me, I delight you. And it blows my
mind every time because what I think that he sees
or other people see, that's not what they see.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, so you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
I love it so much and that has allowed me
to trust that no matter where He takes me, sends.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Me what he tells me to do.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Pick up this, pick that, like, sit that down this season. Yeah,
take a pause on that this season. Actually, I need
you to rev up on that this even even if
you don't feel like I go beyond your feelings, So
it's not a matter if you feel equipped. I have
equipped you through my son Jesus. So this is what
you're gonna do. And I think that the more that
(35:38):
we as believers and as daughters and as Christians just
really take God at his word the first time.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah, like, but believe what he says about you.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yes, believe what he says. I mean, have that jogger
on repeat.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Yeah, renew your mind until until it goes from words
on a page yes, to the living and abiding word
of God in your life.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So the living and abiding Word of God. Believe like
you got to renew And that's the thing scripture says,
renew your mind. That's an actionable thing. A Practically, I'm
taking that scripture. I don't feel like I'm the delight
of God. I'm going to sit there and wrestle with
myself and take it captive to what scripture says. Yes,
(36:28):
now what am I? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:30):
AMIGHTA say? Well, God know you don't delight in me?
Who am I? Did you say that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:36):
And believe that like that is you get what I'm saying,
like I do. That's anti Christ.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
If we're gonna go there, like the thought has to
be take captive, yes, because then we're gonna start meditating
on well, there's no way possible. He is proud of me,
please with me, delights in me, like, and then you
marinate on that, Well what would please him? What would here?
He's already told you.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yeah, so it's literally written plainly in scripture right there. Yep.
So I love this so much, so my so much.
I can talk to you forever.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
But okay, but my last question to you is this,
Like the podcast, I usually say it was really birth
out of questions, because that was my thing with the
Lord is that I always kind of like asked him
questions and I was always in awe of his response,
or if he didn't respond immediately, just the process of
(37:33):
waiting on his response. So I always ask every guest like,
what is the latest question that you ask God? And
I'm just curious, like what that response has been or
what has been your process through that response.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
So I my latest question has been, Lord, would you
show me and would you trust me with your heart
for the city? Oh? Yes, So the Lord's do a
really beautiful thing in the Pacific Northwest, the things that
we've I'm a part of a community called the Finding
and so we meet Tuesdays on a Bible study every
(38:09):
other Thursday at DeVos, and then we started Sunday night services.
And it's you know when you dream with the Lord
for him to come and rest in a place and
he comes in that way and you're like, whatever you
got to do to get me out of the way, Lord,
do it. Whatever I need to do in my life
(38:30):
to yield, do it. And so it's been really beautiful
because it's been a long it's been an answer to
a long time prayer. So coming back to the Lord,
move me back here. I've tried to leave this state
like five times, like a series of five times, to
the point I was packing my room and was like,
I'm out until they hear the Lord said, snow, I
have meetings lined up to be like I'm moving back.
(38:52):
I'm going to California for a week. Four days before
the Lord's like, you were not to move, and I'm like,
I have not heard you that clearly in a very
long time. I will yield. It was such a holy
fear and I reverence. He invited me into to be
like if you move, its disobedience and I'm like, so
I was like, you know what, the Pacific Northwest. I'm
in the Seattle region, So the Pacific Northwest, it's typically
(39:16):
known as a very unchurched region all that stuff. Even
though we have a rich church history here, rich revival history,
it's been beautiful. And I was like, you know what, Lord,
if I'm going to be here, I'm going to be here,
I'm going to plant myself, I'm going to commit to
the city, and I'm going to love this city. Well,
would you give me a heart for these people? Would
you give me heart? So I started asking the Lord, like,
(39:38):
if I'm to be here, would you trust me with
your heart? Like, so, when I'm encountering people at a Starbucks,
it's about as secular as you can imagine. If you're
going to send me to Starbucks, would you encounter would
you help me love these people? Not out of a
love that I have, because that's going to run out
in thirty five seconds, especially sitting in traffic two hours
getting anywhere, Hollies like repenting six times for my driving
(40:02):
habits like I'm so sorry, so sorry, Yeah, don't forgive
me and so and so. We always we always have
an invitation for peace here in Washington State. When we're
driving yeah, but I love that, And so I asked
the Lord is like, when I'm encountering people, people that
think and see differently, would you just let your love
(40:24):
flow out of me in the way that they're like,
I don't have to say anything churchy Christians. I've always
tried to stay away from that language. I was like,
let your love draw them the same way drew me.
Because if your blood in your body was enough for me,
which I could proudly testify of that now that is
enough for them. Not a single person in the state
(40:45):
is too far gone. Like we constantly say, oh, I'm
in the secular city, I'm in the secular list. You're there,
You're there. And while you may not think you're capable
of changing one hundred million knives or the three million
that are in your city, you and change three and
five a year. You can invite them to know, you
can invite them into community and being in I mean
(41:06):
Seattle is also known as it's known as the Seattle Freeze,
where it's like community is really hard. There's a lot
of transplants, people coming in from Amazon and Microsoft. People
have a really hard time finding community as like like
scripture says, the fields are ripe with harvests, pray for
the labors. Yeah, and I can testify that in a
(41:27):
city that is known to be so difficult for community
and difficult. That's literally wow, that's an invitation from the Lord, like, hey,
you want a cheat code. I hate using that phrase,
but it's like you want a cheat code, Like here's
actionable said, go and love them. Yeah, because there's a
(41:47):
cry on their heart and they think it's community, and
they think it's I want someone to invite me, and
they do, but that deeper cries I want to be
known and I want to be seen. And while they
don't have the tangibleunderstanding of that being known and seen
by the Father and the Creator and the one who
loves them in a way that that love never fails
and never compromises. That's their deepest cravy, and as believers,
(42:11):
we should understand that. So when when he invites us
to in the moment of a busy thing, to be like, hey,
look at that person, tip them, look at that person
and acknowledge them in a way that they're like I
had one hundred customers today, but that person didn't say anything,
especially like how's your day? Whatever? You know, like, how's
(42:32):
your day, how's everything? Like, oh, you know whatever, Oh okay,
well we have a good day. But they feel they
feel the reality of Christ. Then they're like what what
what just script my heart for that moment? What was it?
So then you become a little regular and you start
the invitation. So that's been my Love's been my process.
That's been a little bit of that, Like, Lord, if
(42:53):
I'm here, I want to be here. I want to
love people well, even if at the expense of my comfort,
at the expense of my finding isn't at the expense
of my preferences. And he's so faithful to do that.
He is because I know, I know at the end
of the day, it's not you suffering for God. It
really isn't. It's not. And he's asking, you know, hey,
(43:14):
take that corner, Hey, pack up your bag, Like you're saying, like,
pack up your bags, go and we can we can
be like, no, I'm here, like I'm already actionally might
like I already have an action plan for me living here. Yeah,
And I was like please, ye, please quick, and You're like, Lord,
I'll do it, I'll do it. And when you look back,
I think I've turned now. I was telling a couple
(43:35):
of friends I've turned down some incredible job offers, an
invitation to London and back to California for a salary
that I was like, can I cash that out here?
And people were like, and my favor is when I
tell people, I'm like, Oh, don't worry, God, it's going
to do so much more. You're gonna get a salary
double that. And I was like, no, no, no, the opportunity
(43:55):
to lay that down. I was like, if he does,
praise him, praise him. But if he doesn't, Yeah, the
opportunity to say, oh, you're so much better than this.
It's not the fact of like, oh I'm suffering for Christ.
I'm saying no, because, yeah, if God is offering you
an opportunity with a massive salary and a move and
you feel him on that, take it, take it. But
(44:18):
if you're feeling that you need to stay and you're
being offered these things, oh, it's so nice to sit
and be like I actually like, it's a it's a
love offering to the Lord. It's not even it's like, oh, no,
I can't take that. I'm planted here in the state,
like I'm committed to your until he invites me to
go somewhere else, and it's it's not an offering, it's
not a sacrifice. It's just like, oh, the one who
(44:40):
I love, I know that that that's not what he
has for me. So I'm good. And so it's been
it's been a really good lass. That is so good.
I never even thought about it that way.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
And I think that that is so powerful that you
kind of like put one into together of like when
you are offered something that actually the offer goes against
the instruction that the Lord has given you. You denying
that opportunity is actually an offering to the Father because
(45:17):
it is always about our heart posture, yes, and us
not just saying but showing that we desire the Lord
more than anything else. And how does that happen? How
are we able to show that and to prove that? Well,
the Lord will give you opportunities to prove it, because
you're going to get an offer that sometimes looks appealing.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
You're going to get an.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Opportunity, maybe it's a relationship, even maybe it's something that
has a price tag.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
That looks real fun to it.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Maybe it's a fun city or opportunity, right, And then
that usually exposes We don't like to admit that, but
it exposes exactly where we are, how quick we are
to say yes, how quick we are to be like, oh, well,
maybe the Lord is bringing me that now, like forget
that last instruction.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
That he gave.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
But soon as we say, Lord, I am unbothered, I
am unmoved.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yes, I won't move unless you move me.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
That is when you know that your desire, your number
one desire, is to please the Lord.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
And I never looked at that as an offering as
a way, as a way or just even though he
doesn't he doesn't ask us.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
To do that.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
But that is revelation that you just gave to be honest, like,
that is holy, divine revelation to where the Lord is.
Like anytime the world brings you something and you say
no is actually an offering to me that you don't
have to do anything else but to do what I say, yeah,
and to say no if I don't say it period.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Yeah, So that is just so so good, I mean, honestly, Caroline,
you know, we could talk forever.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah, we're really good. But I am so I am so.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Honored, humbled and blessed, honestly just to be able to
have this conversation with you, to get to know you
in a deeper way. And the Lord had just been
highlighting to you for a while to me and I
didn't know why. You know, again, say, grace is always about,
you know, supporting and showcasing you know, the sisters in
(47:38):
Christ and what they're doing. But I love what He
is just has done is just continue to do through you,
and I'm just excited to continue to witness that. I'm
excited to see you continue to witness to others. And
I know there is so much that isn't going to
make the gram and that's okay because the Father in
Heaven sees it.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
And I'm just so grateful, you know what I'm.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Saying, like, yes, there I do, Yes, there's there's so
much right, No thanks, there's probably the one percent that
people actually get to see that under ninety percent is
just between you and the Father and that is beautiful
and more than enough, more than enough, agreed though, But
for people that do they want to follow you, learn
(48:21):
more about you, let them know like where they can
find you online and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
So you can find me on Instagram at Christian Corporate girl.
I'm also on LinkedIn if you guys want to connect there,
We're starting a community there. I'm maybe going on YouTube,
maybe not, we'll see maybe in the future. And so yeah,
there's one thing I will share a lot of is memes.
I'm going to be the source of showcasing the Lord's
(48:48):
joy through your day, things you can relate to. So yeah,
I'd love to connect with you guys. I do still
try and respond to as many dms as I can.
I get testimonies probably on every day or two about
what the Lord is doing, and I'm like that that literally,
like if you have a testimony, not even through something
that Christian corporate girl, are I've done on that, like
(49:10):
through anybody, reach out to them. It means so much.
It's just so beautiful to sit. Like when I get
a testimony, I screenshot at majority of the time, I
sent it to my friends and I was like this, like,
look at what the Lord is doing. Like I didn't
think more than twenty people would relate and like it
was like at a friend's party and my friend's husband
was like, you're the girl that does the videos and
I was like, Hi, what videos are we talking about?
(49:32):
And he's like the corporate, the corporate, the corporate video. Yeah,
he goes. I asked my boss for race and I
was like what, and he goes, And I got it,
he goes. I didn't think that was possible, and I
was like, oh, from there to understanding and being a light,
to having a refraining of the mind, to that even
if it's just a moment of peace and joy, like
I love to hear from it, and I know other
(49:53):
creators would as well, But I just wanted to thank
you for this opportunity. I have been absolutely loving with
what you're doing with your community, the way that you
champion others. You're constantly sharing, resharing, posting. You've been such
a delight and a joy to connect with on socials.
I know people, I love this season because I feel
(50:15):
like I'm meeting so many people through Instagram and I'm like, man,
i feel like the Lord's like highlighted the best of
the best. He's like this one connect with them, this one,
connect with them. And you're like, so when I got
that invitation, I'm not even gonna lie, like I barely prayed.
I was like, I felt like the light of the Lord,
and I was like I was telling my friends and
I was like, man, this is someone that supported me
from the beginning. And I was like, this is relational
(50:36):
and I was like, I'm so excited meet her and
chat with her, and so thank you for everything that
you do. I know. It's it's the championing that you do.
We don't see that often. It's counterculture. It is like
it's a competitive society to have people that collaborate, that
an invite that will make a place for others that
(50:57):
celebrate others at the expence of you could be marketing
yourself mm hmm, but instead you choose to celebrate others.
So I honor you for that. Thank you, thank you,
thank you, sis. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Guys, Definitely make sure that you go over to at
corporate Chushion girl on Instagram. Go and follow her, y'all,
like she she's.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Worth the follow more than that.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode
of the KWATS podcast.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Definitely make sure that you like, share, and subscribe, and
until next week, be blessed.
Hey guys, welcome to the KOs podcast. I'm your host
Kashawn Watson, but you know.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Me as KWATS. This is the place where we chat
about the questions that we ask God.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You shared testimonials around healing, wholeness and forgiveness, and I'm
super excited that you're joining us here today. At the
end of this episode, make sure you give us a like, share,
subscribe again.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to the k WATS podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey guys, welcome to an all new episode of the
k WATS Podcast. I'm your host Kashawan Watson, but you
know me as KAWATS, and I am super excited about
this week'skeeshaw. That's right, I mean super excited. I have
creator of Christian Corporate Girl.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's right. I'm talking about Carolina Minyuk Mariyuk close.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yes, oh guys, I'm in practicing before I hit the
record button.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, welcome to the podcast. Carol Ever, thank you so much.
I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, I'm honestly thank
you for the opportunity. You reached out to me and
I was like, Ah, we've chatted so much on the
graund that I was like, absolutely, this is a noe
prayed about it. I was like, I gotta do this.
I'm really excited to just even have this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
This is awesome. Same I was like, you know what,
this season, I have to invite her on. So for people,
let's say they're hearing this for the first time, tell
them a little bit about who you are.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And what you do. So my name is Carolina and
I started a Christian Corporate Girl I want to say
maybe like fourteen fifteen months ago, and it was one
of those things where I was like, you know when
you have those ideas where you're just like, I don't
know if anybody relates, but I'm going to do it
for my twenty year old self. I'm going to do
it for that, like I'm going to create exactly what
(01:37):
I needed when I was twenty and so I started
an Instagram page and it was called Christian Corporate Girl.
Pretty self explanatory. A Christian that's a girl that's in corporate.
And I was like, and I just wanted to share
encouraging things that I really needed to hear when I
was just starting up in my career and honestly still
(01:58):
need to be reminded of because I remember when I
had when I had started in the corporate space. I
was like, what does it mean to look like a Christian?
What does it mean to honor the Lord and to
love him well and to love coworker as well, while
also still being in you know, a corporate space and
still respecting people and still you know, and still kind
of understanding how the corporate world works, but also not
(02:23):
backing down from your core beliefs and you know what,
really the Lord has called you to. So it was,
it was honestly on a whim. I just texted a
couple of friends. I was like, haha, I started another
Instagram page and they're like okay, and they're like I
like it. No fancy branding, no fancy anything. I love it. Yeah,
And so I just started that and I wanted girls
(02:44):
to relate and ran with it.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So one, There's so many layers to this that I
want to unpack, because this is like one of those
things to where I'm like, I think about it spiritually,
I think about it practically. I think about how you
apply this and how this is something that every single
young woman in man honestly probably should if they're not
(03:07):
already following you, they should, and just have this type
of conversation because the majority of us, if we're talking
about millennials, we went to college and immediately went into
the workface into corporate. And for people that didn't go
to college, sometimes they graduated out of high school and
then immediately went into the workforce in corporate. And there's
(03:28):
so many things that we can kind of like unpack
when it comes to Okay, how do I show up
in a space where the Lord is not welcomed nor
want to be talked about? How am I still able
to be a light in that space? How do I
prepare myself spiritually to go into these spaces? How do
(03:49):
I prepare myself practically to navigate in these spaces to
still hold onto my integrity, to still hold on to
my beliefs. So before I get into those nuances, I'm
just very curious to learn more about kind of like
when did you first kind of like say, you know what,
I'm a follower of Jesus, I'm a believer, Like where
did that story start for you? How old were you?
(04:11):
And I'm just curious to start there.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I love that question and I'm so glad we're starting there.
So I grew up, so my background is Slavic. So
my parents immigrated to the States a year before I
was born, which was a long time ago, and so
they came here. For them, faith is like a core value.
And so I grew up in the church. I was
(04:35):
a kid in the church, and you know, and I
just remember being twelve years old and not understanding. I
was growing up in a Slavic church. So you're getting
sermons in Russian, you know, and so you're like, You're
trying to grasp what you can and I understand it
pretty well, but it doesn't It's still it still wasn't
you know. I'm not hearing the Gospel explain to me
(04:56):
at a at a in a way that I could understand.
And so I'm grasping what I can. And the Lord
is just so kind and so good. And I remember
being like twelve years old. My parents got me, you know,
I had different variations of children's Bibles, and so I
just remember sitting in my room and reading them. And
I mean, I look back and I'm like, I was
twelve when you were pulling on my heart, and I
(05:18):
was like, and then I remember hearing songs when I
was five six years old that I'm hearing now in
English that I heard in Russian and that I was like,
oh my goodness, Like I remember those songs and I
remember myself being five years old singing them. So I
could trace the Lord's kindness in my life from the beginning,
from as long as I can remember. But I think
I was about sixteen and a half and I wasn't
(05:41):
involved in any youth and my cousin's like, hey, come
to youth service with me, and I was like, I've
never been. Okay, great, and this was at my home church,
and so I'd only go on Sunday as there was
a really shy kid, like I mean so shy. My
eyes would tear up when I would talk to people,
which nobody believes me now, Yeah, nobody believes me now.
And I'm like, and that's the testimony. Yeah yeah. And
(06:02):
so I remember being sixteen and a half and I
just felt I walked into that room and I was like,
whatever this is, I want it. And so I got
involved and did all those things that you know you're
sixteen and a half, I was. We have a program
here in Washington where we can go into a community
college instead of finishing the last two years of our
high school and just transition there and finished high school there,
(06:25):
and so I was kind of already in this college thing.
My life was kind of rolling on, and so I
stepped into this and I was like, I love this,
Like this is incredible, Like I know what I want
to do with my whole life. And so I was like,
I know. Like for me, I was like sixteen and
a half seventeen, I was like, I want to be
a business woman that funds missionaries. And I felt that
(06:50):
at sixteen and a half seventeen. Wow, which is crazy
because when you hear the rest of the story, you're like,
what sixteen and a half seventeen And I just committed
to the Lord at that point and I was like, man,
I feel like I couldn't get enough of his word.
I wanted to be in his presence. And we grew
up in a fairly a conservative, a conservative Slavic traditional church,
(07:12):
which I loved, and they had a fear of the
Lord and a reverence. But I didn't always have the
permission to pursue the Lord in the way that I
wanted to, and that came a little later on. So
I switched to a church my parents were phenomenon really supportive.
So I switched to another church and I just felt like, man,
my feet hit the ground running after the Lord and
it was so beautiful. I was eighteen or nineteen years old,
(07:35):
and I remember I started to have these incredible experiences
with the Lord and really seeking his face and being like, oh,
like I like, he's for me, he loves me, And
it became so real. It wasn't just this God that's
out here and I better do everything right, but it
was like, Oh, he's inviting me into deep relationship. Why
because he loves me? And everything that I do out
(07:57):
of that love is an offering, you know, like everything
that I give him that sacrifice that we so call
it as an offering of love to him. And I
was like and grasping that when everything in your life
is moving, like everyone has different priorities, people are moving,
getting jobs, things like that, I was like, I just
wanted to like hide away and know the Lord. And
I remember this was absolutely pivotal moment. I was nineteen.
(08:22):
I was nineteen and a half and I was almost
done with my bachelor's So because the program kind of
accelerated everything, I was always on the go and I
remember it felt like I just kind of not even
necessarily hit a wall with my relationship with the Lord,
because I don't think that's the proper terminology, but I
just got to a point where I'm like, it was
(08:42):
like this craving for something more. It's not that I
felt like I knew him fully, but I was like,
there's something so tangible that he's inviting me to grasp
that I don't know how to and I don't know
anybody to ask at this point or anything. So I
remember I was sitting working on accounting homework out of Starbucks,
and I can tell you exactly which one, at a
(09:03):
Starbucks five minutes away from my college, and I just
I remember pulling out my headphones and was like, and
everything's spinning in my mind, like like the Lord and
school and work, and I was like, Lord, if there's
more of you, I want you, If there's more that
you like, if there's more of you, I want to
know you. And I feel like overnight my life completely changed.
(09:25):
I finished my degree and it was just a deep
invitation to know the Lord, and I just immediately went
straight into ministry. I was doing like youth and working
with like youth. Working with middle schoolers. That was like
my heartbeat, and I fully invested there while work and
(09:46):
everything else fell on the back burner like it was
it was it, And I mean I was showing up
and it was a great employee. But the sparkle of
the yes, yes, the sparkle the passion of that corporate
career of like, oh look get this and it just
died and I'm so glad it did in that time
(10:07):
and it was just like the Lord's birth and new
passion to love his people well. And I worked with
middle schoolers for seven years. That's my heartbeat, like I
have loved them. If you are currently listening to this
and you are doing that, your reward is great, hopefully
on earth and definitely in heaven, Like there's a grace
on that. Like I sometimes I'll pop in and I'm like,
(10:28):
oh did I do that? I was like, but there
it was beautiful. I the Lord for me in those places,
like he gave me a heart for people, and so
for me, that was so foundational to my walk with
the Lord. Yeah, and work was an invitation, Like I
was showing up and I was still kind of battling
(10:48):
these little things like how do I show up as
a Christian. But it was like, yeah, I'm just I'm
gonna be a good Christian. I might pull out my
Bible once in a while, but I was like everything,
everything was fully devoted onto what he had called me.
Work was just serving, like the paycheck was just serving
what the Lord has asked me to do. My lunch
showers were spent at a coffee shop nearby, studying for
the next thing. Knowing his heart, everything else came under
(11:12):
what he did for me, and so that that invitation
to the corporate letter just died almost overnag which was insane. Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, there is so much that I think, so many
different directions I can go with this. But one of
the things that I think is so powerful and humble
and beautiful about your testimony that I think that we
have not heard, like from a lot of people in
(11:43):
a very long time, is when you said that your
desire was just to have intimate time with the Lord.
And I think that when you know that there was
a real encounter with Jesus himself, because when you encounter him, yeah,
(12:11):
you just want to stay with him. Your first initial
thought isn't kind of like, oh, how do I market this?
How do you understand what I'm saying. You're not, you know,
which is so counter to what we're seeing right now
culturally in marketing, Like I think it's either the two
(12:34):
things that I've seen is that either it's like Laura,
I just would like to stay with you forever, or
I am so on fire right now I have to
run and tell everybody about you. Those are usually the
two things that you see when you hear people that
just had their real, like first genuine encounter with the father.
(12:55):
And I think that it's so beautiful because I think
that it kind of, like you said, set the foundation
for your walk. It's kind of like, Lord, from this
moment on, if there is more of you I wanted.
It was a posture, that it shifted, that it changed.
And this is the thing that I think also is
so powerful. Because people like to talk about their position.
(13:16):
They like to talk about places, they like to talk
about titles, they like to talk about all these different things.
But let's just talk about the posture of our hearts.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Sometimes say it again, Say it again, yep. The posture
of your heart should not change.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Rather, if you are in corporate, if you are a
stay at home mom, if you are a huge influencer
on social media. The posture of our hearts should be
so rooted. Yeah, and the love of God that no
(13:51):
matter where He sends us place us tells us to
stay still. That is what people should be getting off
of us. And I think that is powerful on so
many levels, and we need more I think testimonies of that.
That's just when we talk about the encounter and the
foundation of what that looks like. So yeah, so that's
(14:14):
just kind of like, wow, Okay, Carolina came through with
a whole like let's just let's just go in.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Deep, you know. Yeah, this feels so easy. Yeah, I
love I knew, I told you, I knew this is
gonna be a good flow.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
So my next question to you is is that Okay
the other part that you said, which I think that
I totally relate on, like did corporate for a very
very long time, basically all of my twenties, to be honest,
I lived in probably about seven different states, originally from Washington,
d C. From d C Saint Louis, Saint Louis to Chicago,
(14:50):
Chicago to Toronto, Toronto to New York, New York to
La Whoa, all through corporate, just climbing the ladder, climbing
the ladder as a single woman. And I get to
LA and I'm thinking to myself, you know what, this
is probably gonna be home base.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I'm gonna stay.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And it wasn't until the Lord really started tugging on
me that there was more to corporate, and not even
just more to corporate, but having me, I probably did
more evangelism in corporate, like I have.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
The amount of imitations.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That I did when I was in corporate is actually
like kind of has me pausing sometimes because me being
married to a worship pastor in a PK, I've probably
invited more people to church that were non believers of
different religions I'm talking about from New Age to Jewish
to Muslim. I have seen people filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Like Chris, this is God.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
This is what I witnessed while working a nine to
five in corporate. There was a different level of hunger
and recognizing like this is not my source, this isn't
even why I'm here. So Lord didn't send me all
those places for a job. He sent me all those
places to evangelize. So this is what we're going to
do right now, And It wasn't until I really started
(16:13):
seeing and understanding like, oh, this is not about a paycheck,
this is not about another title on the resume. He
just can trust me to be able to where he
sends me I'm going to go and not push back.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yes, that's why.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
He was using me that way, because if he said, oh, nope,
pack your bag of three days, you're headed to this day.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Okay, here we go, right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Which I love to tell singles, don't be so upset
that you're single, because the Lord use me in my
single season to be able quickly, to be able to
be malleable, to be flexible like that is that there's
nothing wrong with that that.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I don't know if I would.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Have been able to do that being married, you know,
like you have another person to check in with, there's
a whole different situation. But in my single season, throughout
my entire twenties, like he could trust me and use
me in that way way.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So where I started getting tough was working in this
space to where.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
The four walls of the space.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Was not very welcoming too.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I would be in my office and I would find
people positioning different crystals and rocks around the office that
I have to then.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Remove how to buy.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
You know, there are those little things to where you know,
like just different than you know, like not today, this
is it, this isn't what we're doing today.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Okay, let's just not my style, not.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Not not esthetically and knowing which and knowing which how
to communicate that.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So, yes, now that you did.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Ministry, and the Lord kind of like was really growing
and developing you to where it kind of like he
took any type of taste or hunger for climbing the
corporate ladder. He was still using you there to fund
you in ministry. But then there had to be a
level of shifting to where he was like, all right,
well now I'm gonna trust you to be able to
be in corporate so that you can have different eyes
(18:14):
to see, ears to hear.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'm curious about the shift.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And then when you went back into like, Okay, the
Lord's really established me in corporate. He did not tell
me to go in full time ministry. He still wants
me to be here. What did you witness and see
with new fresh eyes?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Oh, I cannot wait to get into this. Around twenty five,
I felt the Lord so I've put my job a
couple of times, all when I very clearly felt the
Lord didn't have a clear answer, just quit, and a
lot of them made sense. It was like one I
was burnt out and I felt permission. I asked my parents,
was like you know, and they're like absolutely. I felt
(18:52):
the Lord asked me to or invite me. I wouldn't
say ask. It was an invitation, his permission to quit.
And I was like, you know what, it's time for
me pivot out of accounting into something else. I'm going
to quit. My friend was ghost writing a book. She's
like coming to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. I
was like great, So I just rested and I was like,
while I'm there, I'm going to look for a job
in operations and logistics kind of that's more my scope.
(19:15):
I get a call to move down to California to
help be a project manager. Was technically an account at
the time, but I ended up being a project manager
on a building that's now a Bible college. So it
was with their yes. So I was getting in my
eyes at that point the dream the dream, it was
staff like I was on staff at my like dream ministry,
(19:40):
and I was like, I made it, and in my heart,
I was like, I made it, and out loud, I
was like, I made it. So that's I was. I
love it. I was correct it later on, but that
was that's where I made it, and so so that's
where I was kind of coming from, and I was like,
this is so great. I moved down to California again.
I've never moved for anything was you know, and it
(20:01):
stretched me. It was beautiful. My friends that are pastoring
that ministry, they're now at church as well, Like, they're
absolutely incredible. If I could ever work under people again,
it'd be them. And then the guys that own the
building are project managing, they're absolutely incredible. But to go
into something with no experience and to be afraid to
ask questions and to be afraid of disappointing people, that
(20:24):
comes with its own things so quickly in the next
nine months that died. That was the invitation during those
nine months, the invitation to please people, to get things ready,
to feel like, yeah, I had no prom saying that
I wasn't skilled. I had no problem asking Like I'd
be sitting with the city and they're like, and the
girl's like, I get the vibe that you don't know
(20:45):
what you're doing and I was like that vibe is
correct and I was liker, it's correct, and she's like
what And I was like, just tell me where I
can learn because I have twenty four hours before I
have to resubmit this, I will have and she's like okay,
And I was like, I'll guarantee you correct work if
you tell me point me any direction. She's like, write
this down. Wrote it down the next time. It was perfect.
(21:07):
So I was learning at a very quick pace. I
was not afraid. But I think when it came to
being in ministry and still having that thing, it was
just that like I want people to be proud of me. Yeah,
I wanted to know, and I think we have that desire.
Granted it's fulfilled by the Lord. You'll always disappoint someone,
(21:27):
but it's like in that moment, I was twenty five,
I'd moved from ministry and it's like I got this
big so they clearly trusted me. But then it's like
I want to make them proud. And I didn't feel
like I needed to earn it, but I feel like
there was things I needed to do and it's nothing
that they made me feel was all internally and things
were surfacing very quickly, and so I felt that I
(21:47):
was coming back to Seattle. I transitioned the project. It
was a great time, and I was transitioning the project.
I was gonna take three months off in Seattle, do
some traveling with my family, and come back to California
to kind of lead. They're middle school ministry. So I
was like, great, you know, I'm project Management's not for me.
Learned a lot, you know, even though it's so my forte.
(22:08):
I was like, I'm going to go back into traditional staff,
you know, you know something I'm comfortable with. I get
to Seattle and I feel this deep, deep cry in
my heart to not go back, and I was like,
that's not today. I was like, not today, I am
going back to South California. And I was like, that's fear.
I'm rebuking it. I'm saying every prayer I got no,
(22:29):
and two weeks I'm in this panic. And I was like,
you know what I have. I have three months. I'm
just gonna let it be. I get prophetic word after
prophetic word. Not a single one is very clear, Like
not a single one is like you need to stay here. Nothing,
all of them. I'm leaving with the same feeling that
they're like, you know what the Lord is speaking to you.
(22:51):
You need to you need to yield all of them.
I'm like, after every single one, I'm like, and my
my friend's like, my friend's prophesying and he's like, the
Lord's say you up, and you know what that means.
And I was like, I am not, what am I
going to do in Seattle? I transition everything before I left.
I left right, so what am I going to do?
I go back into work. I'm applying. I'm ready to
(23:15):
take on anything. I apply through a recruiter. I take
on this job, and let me tell you, for the
next six months, I feel like I failed God because
and this is something like I have processed so well,
and I don't feel like not a lot of people.
I've never heard anybody speak on this on a personal level.
And I remember, and I think, maybe that's why I'm
(23:36):
so bold. I was like, I felt like I failed
God because if he trusted me with full time ministry,
why why would he ask me to go back to
the workplace. And I was like that because in my mind,
I knew, if I could write it out, I knew
that he doesn't see a difference between full time ministry
(23:56):
and walking or calling. That's different. I knew that, but
in my art I had a hierarchy. What please God,
more I did because I was like it in my
eyes it was honorable, it was more honorable, and I
was not. I wasn't one hundred percent aware that because
I could put on paper. I was like somebody that's
a doctor that's working in a hospital, that's responding, is
(24:19):
walking in the same authority anointing and and understanding of
their calling as a pastor. There's people that are doctors
that should be pastors. There's doctors, there's pastors that should
be doctors. Like there's people that get it wrong in
all scopes, and then there's people that get it so right.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I knew that. I knew it here, but I didn't
know it in my heart.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And so for the next six months, I cry every
day to work and every day back. And my best friend,
one of my best friends, Sishana. She's on the phone
with me every she's a mom, a working woman, and
a wife. She's on the phone with me almost every
day walking me through this. I don't know. I tell
it this all the time. I was like, I don't
(25:01):
know why you did that, but I am where I
am because of you, Like I don't know where it
would have been, because it's all of a sudden, all
this stuff surfaces. And I remember I was listening to
podcasts from the Cageous Birds and Melissa Helser talks about
the disappointments we have and she's like, He's not afraid
of your disappointments, and I was like, and she talks
about this whole process where she's like, oh, like the
(25:23):
Lord's inviting her to share the disappointments, and I was like, oh,
and I'm listening to this. I was like, oh, like,
I'm not disappointing God. Of course things don't go like,
of course, I'm not living in my dream state and
I'm not in full time ministry and I'm not married
and I'm not all these things, and I'm starting from
I'm starting my career over in a completely different setting.
And I was like, no, I'm not disappointed. God just
has something better and I just feel I feel so
(25:45):
deeply in my heart and the Lord's like, bring that
to me. Yeah. And this is about six months before COVID,
So I start a full time job. Six months before COVID,
We're in office. I'm a pleasant employee at work, Like,
I'm like, oh, you know, I know what it's like
to be a believer. I was like, hey, like, my
work is going to testify, and so is my character.
I'm bringing great work. I'm a I'm a I'm an
(26:07):
asset to the team. That was easy for me. And
I'm also a really pleasant person personality higher the workplace
likes to call it. But when you walk with the Lord,
You're like, no, I'm walking with joy and walking with peace.
I'm wading an invitation with love. And so six months
before and I'm deeply processing this. Only three people know,
and I'm like, and then COVID happens and our work
(26:29):
shuts down a week before, and I hear the Lord
because we had like a little scare over here. And
I hear the Lord and he goes. The next six weeks,
You and me and the whole world, we saw it.
The whole world shut down. Every shut down. Everyone's like
on one end of the factum on other people use
(26:51):
respect on different opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah, and
my eyes, my heart, my entire self is locked in
with the Lord. I don't care where to be seeing,
no where to be found. I just I'm like, the
Lord's like, We're gonna unravel these lives and I'm going
to wrap you up with my truth. And it was
let me tell you, it changed me. It changed me.
(27:12):
It was like I he invited me to bring my disappointment.
I was like, I feel like, you know, I'm disappointed.
He's like, because you didn't feel like I came through,
I'm going to tear up again. But I was like,
I didn't feel like you came through. I didn't feel
like and He's like and all of those things. I
just brought to him without any shame, without any condemnation
from him. I felt and I was like, ah, sorry.
I literally was like there was like a moment. I
(27:34):
was like, when you brought it to him, I was like,
I wonder what it's going to feel. I felt the
entire love of the Father wrapped me. And I was
like that that for me was like, if you're listening
and you're in that same place, bring it to him.
Bring it to him. He is so ready to wrap
you in his love. And so those six weeks, I
would be sitting in my work laptop and I work
(27:56):
in commercial internet, so the whole world went to the
internet and our work trip. Well, so you're like losing
my mind working ten hour days and you're just and
you're locked in and you're in a and the world
is different. They're panicking and I'd be sitting there working
on a spreadsheet and I would feel a tug in
my heart where the Lord's like, you know, to me
(28:17):
to be kind and I was like, yes, Lord, I did,
and he's like, you know, me to be kind to
your friends, Like yes, Lord, yes you know. And you're like, yeah,
I'm agreeing, and he goes, but you don't think I'm
kind to you, No, no, no, God, I do. I'm
And I'm remembering all these things where he's kind. He's like, oh,
you feel like you had to earn that, And he's
picking at these little things that have taken opportunities to
(28:39):
steal joy, to steal pease, to steal contentment, to let
me feel like I needed I needed to figure it
out and God wasn't going to do it for me. Yeah,
And I would like to label that as stewardship and
where it's like yeah, it's like, hey, that hard heart,
(29:00):
that self preservation, give it to me. Yeah, And so
in that, in all of that, I think that was
when the Lord was like processing all those things and
he's like, if you're not fully And I had no
problem doing ministerry, like I felt like I was healthy,
and I feel like I was in the sense of
for other people. And I had no problem contending for
(29:23):
people in full faith, believing for healing, believe from miracles,
and I had seen those things. So when I was
coming to the Lord, I was like, I don't doubt
that you're a healer. I've seen tangible healing. Yep. But
the Lord's like, but you won't bring your pain to me,
and yeah, I'll be fine. God just help them. And
I felt like his blood and his body was enough
(29:45):
for everybody else but me. It was like, oh, like
when he gets to me, he gets to me. Yeah. Oh,
it was just such a beautiful time. And so when
I when the Lord started to work that out, it
felt like it was just like it was like a
river that started to flow. I'm like, I do not
care what where you're coming from. I don't care what
(30:07):
pain you're coming from. Like he's been kind to me,
I'll be kind to you. It was like generosity was
unlocked out of that where I was like, I had
no problems, Like, let me tell you what my God
did like I do not. I was like, I don't
even need to sit and preach to you at a workplace.
The love of the Father that you're going to see
me live out will draw you to me and you'll
ask questions. Yeap. And so I don't necessarily know if
that answers your question fully, but yeah it does. Yeah,
(30:30):
that has been layers. You've just been giving us layers.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
As soon as you feel like, oh, then there's another,
then there's another.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Well one.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
I think what you just experienced through that transition and
testifying in that so many of us have experienced in
different aspects. And I think the beauty in number one,
Like you said, a lot of people do not share
and we don't talk about that. Sometimes we have this
(31:04):
hierarchy preference of things that we think that God is
more pleased by m yep, right, And it's the beauty
in knowing that you are anointed just because you're his daughter.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yes, yep, will break chains.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yes you know, it's not because you're a pastor. Preacher,
pastor's wife have your own ministry half Formonia followers on Instagram,
you know, opening your Bible and talking that's that's not
why you're anointed. We're anointed just because we're His daughters
and period. Yeah, but that was the reason why Jesus
(31:50):
came is so that we could experience that type of
love from the Father and that we would know it.
And I think the law that the enemy has done
for the longest time, and this is recently for me,
probably in the last two to three years, where when
I'll ask the Lord, like, what do you want me
(32:10):
to study in the Word? Right, because you can do
your devotionals. But sometimes I'll just prompt him and say,
where do you want me to look today, Like what passage?
Speaker 2 (32:19):
What book?
Speaker 1 (32:20):
And I remember one time he said, start in the beginning.
The answer is in the beginning. So I went all
the way back to Genesis, and he showed me so
much that happened in the garden and in the transaction
of conversation between the serpent and Eve, and for the
longest time we talk about.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's where the fall happened.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
That's where you know, Adam and Eve took the bait,
they sinned against God.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
But something that the.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Enemy did was make Eve believe that she wasn't already
made in the image of God.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yes, yes, yes, I one hundred percent agree.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
That you want to talk about the double whammy that
he positioned. It wasn't just fact the fact that he
encouraged her to eat from the forbidden tree that the
Lord said, It was the tactic and the wording that
he chose to say, Well, no, the Lord knows that
if you eat of this tree that you would be
(33:18):
able to to be more like him. We were already
created in his image.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
You were literally in his image. That was the first book. Yeah,
but that was also his first.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Tactic that he still does to make us believe that
no matter the position, no matter the situation, the storm,
the success, that there is something that we are missing,
that there is a deficit that we disappoint him.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And we know those are lies because the Father says
that he delights in me and you, Yes, that's what
he says. Yes, So I totally.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Understand and have been there so many times in different
seasons and stages of my life to where the Lord
will have to remind me and the word that I
would get from a lot of people, which is so
funny when you said that, so many people will prophetically
say there was probably a span, and it recently happened
we moved to Nashville, and I just kind of like laughed.
(34:21):
This woman said this because people have been saying this
word to me since twenty seventeen. They will just ran
and say, the Lord tells me he delights in you.
I mean, on my best day and my worst. I
love that, And in my mind, I'm like, what are
they seeing. I feel so ashamed, I feel so depleted,
(34:42):
I'm so tired and weary, I'm so angry. And literally
he'll bring just a messenger of the Lord just to
whisper to me, I delight you. And it blows my
mind every time because what I think that he sees
or other people see, that's not what they see.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, so you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
I love it so much and that has allowed me
to trust that no matter where He takes me, sends.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Me what he tells me to do.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Pick up this, pick that, like, sit that down this season. Yeah,
take a pause on that this season. Actually, I need
you to rev up on that this even even if
you don't feel like I go beyond your feelings, So
it's not a matter if you feel equipped. I have
equipped you through my son Jesus. So this is what
you're gonna do. And I think that the more that
(35:38):
we as believers and as daughters and as Christians just
really take God at his word the first time.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah, like, but believe what he says about you.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yes, believe what he says. I mean, have that jogger
on repeat.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Yeah, renew your mind until until it goes from words
on a page yes, to the living and abiding word
of God in your life.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So the living and abiding Word of God. Believe like
you got to renew And that's the thing scripture says,
renew your mind. That's an actionable thing. A Practically, I'm
taking that scripture. I don't feel like I'm the delight
of God. I'm going to sit there and wrestle with
myself and take it captive to what scripture says. Yes,
(36:28):
now what am I? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:30):
AMIGHTA say? Well, God know you don't delight in me?
Who am I? Did you say that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:36):
And believe that like that is you get what I'm saying,
like I do. That's anti Christ.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
If we're gonna go there, like the thought has to
be take captive, yes, because then we're gonna start meditating
on well, there's no way possible. He is proud of me,
please with me, delights in me, like, and then you
marinate on that, Well what would please him? What would here?
He's already told you.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yeah, so it's literally written plainly in scripture right there. Yep.
So I love this so much, so my so much.
I can talk to you forever.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
But okay, but my last question to you is this,
Like the podcast, I usually say it was really birth
out of questions, because that was my thing with the
Lord is that I always kind of like asked him
questions and I was always in awe of his response,
or if he didn't respond immediately, just the process of
(37:33):
waiting on his response. So I always ask every guest like,
what is the latest question that you ask God? And
I'm just curious, like what that response has been or
what has been your process through that response.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
So I my latest question has been, Lord, would you
show me and would you trust me with your heart
for the city? Oh? Yes, So the Lord's do a
really beautiful thing in the Pacific Northwest, the things that
we've I'm a part of a community called the Finding
and so we meet Tuesdays on a Bible study every
(38:09):
other Thursday at DeVos, and then we started Sunday night services.
And it's you know when you dream with the Lord
for him to come and rest in a place and
he comes in that way and you're like, whatever you
got to do to get me out of the way, Lord,
do it. Whatever I need to do in my life
(38:30):
to yield, do it. And so it's been really beautiful
because it's been a long it's been an answer to
a long time prayer. So coming back to the Lord,
move me back here. I've tried to leave this state
like five times, like a series of five times, to
the point I was packing my room and was like,
I'm out until they hear the Lord said, snow, I
have meetings lined up to be like I'm moving back.
(38:52):
I'm going to California for a week. Four days before
the Lord's like, you were not to move, and I'm like,
I have not heard you that clearly in a very
long time. I will yield. It was such a holy
fear and I reverence. He invited me into to be
like if you move, its disobedience and I'm like, so
I was like, you know what, the Pacific Northwest. I'm
in the Seattle region, So the Pacific Northwest, it's typically
(39:16):
known as a very unchurched region all that stuff. Even
though we have a rich church history here, rich revival history,
it's been beautiful. And I was like, you know what, Lord,
if I'm going to be here, I'm going to be here,
I'm going to plant myself, I'm going to commit to
the city, and I'm going to love this city. Well,
would you give me a heart for these people? Would
you give me heart? So I started asking the Lord, like,
(39:38):
if I'm to be here, would you trust me with
your heart? Like, so, when I'm encountering people at a Starbucks,
it's about as secular as you can imagine. If you're
going to send me to Starbucks, would you encounter would
you help me love these people? Not out of a
love that I have, because that's going to run out
in thirty five seconds, especially sitting in traffic two hours
getting anywhere, Hollies like repenting six times for my driving
(40:02):
habits like I'm so sorry, so sorry, Yeah, don't forgive
me and so and so. We always we always have
an invitation for peace here in Washington State. When we're
driving yeah, but I love that, And so I asked
the Lord is like, when I'm encountering people, people that
think and see differently, would you just let your love
(40:24):
flow out of me in the way that they're like,
I don't have to say anything churchy Christians. I've always
tried to stay away from that language. I was like,
let your love draw them the same way drew me.
Because if your blood in your body was enough for me,
which I could proudly testify of that now that is
enough for them. Not a single person in the state
(40:45):
is too far gone. Like we constantly say, oh, I'm
in the secular city, I'm in the secular list. You're there,
You're there. And while you may not think you're capable
of changing one hundred million knives or the three million
that are in your city, you and change three and
five a year. You can invite them to know, you
can invite them into community and being in I mean
(41:06):
Seattle is also known as it's known as the Seattle Freeze,
where it's like community is really hard. There's a lot
of transplants, people coming in from Amazon and Microsoft. People
have a really hard time finding community as like like
scripture says, the fields are ripe with harvests, pray for
the labors. Yeah, and I can testify that in a
(41:27):
city that is known to be so difficult for community
and difficult. That's literally wow, that's an invitation from the Lord, like, hey,
you want a cheat code. I hate using that phrase,
but it's like you want a cheat code, Like here's
actionable said, go and love them. Yeah, because there's a
(41:47):
cry on their heart and they think it's community, and
they think it's I want someone to invite me, and
they do, but that deeper cries I want to be
known and I want to be seen. And while they
don't have the tangibleunderstanding of that being known and seen
by the Father and the Creator and the one who
loves them in a way that that love never fails
and never compromises. That's their deepest cravy, and as believers,
(42:11):
we should understand that. So when when he invites us
to in the moment of a busy thing, to be like, hey,
look at that person, tip them, look at that person
and acknowledge them in a way that they're like I
had one hundred customers today, but that person didn't say anything,
especially like how's your day? Whatever? You know, like, how's
(42:32):
your day, how's everything? Like, oh, you know whatever, Oh okay,
well we have a good day. But they feel they
feel the reality of Christ. Then they're like what what
what just script my heart for that moment? What was it?
So then you become a little regular and you start
the invitation. So that's been my Love's been my process.
That's been a little bit of that, Like, Lord, if
(42:53):
I'm here, I want to be here. I want to
love people well, even if at the expense of my comfort,
at the expense of my finding isn't at the expense
of my preferences. And he's so faithful to do that.
He is because I know, I know at the end
of the day, it's not you suffering for God. It
really isn't. It's not. And he's asking, you know, hey,
(43:14):
take that corner, Hey, pack up your bag, Like you're saying, like,
pack up your bags, go and we can we can
be like, no, I'm here, like I'm already actionally might
like I already have an action plan for me living here. Yeah,
And I was like please, ye, please quick, and You're like, Lord,
I'll do it, I'll do it. And when you look back,
I think I've turned now. I was telling a couple
(43:35):
of friends I've turned down some incredible job offers, an
invitation to London and back to California for a salary
that I was like, can I cash that out here?
And people were like, and my favor is when I
tell people, I'm like, Oh, don't worry, God, it's going
to do so much more. You're gonna get a salary
double that. And I was like, no, no, no, the opportunity
(43:55):
to lay that down. I was like, if he does,
praise him, praise him. But if he doesn't, Yeah, the
opportunity to say, oh, you're so much better than this.
It's not the fact of like, oh I'm suffering for Christ.
I'm saying no, because, yeah, if God is offering you
an opportunity with a massive salary and a move and
you feel him on that, take it, take it. But
(44:18):
if you're feeling that you need to stay and you're
being offered these things, oh, it's so nice to sit
and be like I actually like, it's a it's a
love offering to the Lord. It's not even it's like, oh, no,
I can't take that. I'm planted here in the state,
like I'm committed to your until he invites me to
go somewhere else, and it's it's not an offering, it's
not a sacrifice. It's just like, oh, the one who
(44:40):
I love, I know that that that's not what he
has for me. So I'm good. And so it's been
it's been a really good lass. That is so good.
I never even thought about it that way.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
And I think that that is so powerful that you
kind of like put one into together of like when
you are offered something that actually the offer goes against
the instruction that the Lord has given you. You denying
that opportunity is actually an offering to the Father because
(45:17):
it is always about our heart posture, yes, and us
not just saying but showing that we desire the Lord
more than anything else. And how does that happen? How
are we able to show that and to prove that? Well,
the Lord will give you opportunities to prove it, because
you're going to get an offer that sometimes looks appealing.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
You're going to get an.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Opportunity, maybe it's a relationship, even maybe it's something that
has a price tag.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
That looks real fun to it.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Maybe it's a fun city or opportunity, right, And then
that usually exposes We don't like to admit that, but
it exposes exactly where we are, how quick we are
to say yes, how quick we are to be like, oh, well,
maybe the Lord is bringing me that now, like forget
that last instruction.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
That he gave.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
But soon as we say, Lord, I am unbothered, I
am unmoved.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yes, I won't move unless you move me.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
That is when you know that your desire, your number
one desire, is to please the Lord.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
And I never looked at that as an offering as
a way, as a way or just even though he
doesn't he doesn't ask us.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
To do that.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
But that is revelation that you just gave to be honest, like,
that is holy, divine revelation to where the Lord is.
Like anytime the world brings you something and you say
no is actually an offering to me that you don't
have to do anything else but to do what I say, yeah,
and to say no if I don't say it period.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Yeah, So that is just so so good, I mean, honestly, Caroline,
you know, we could talk forever.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah, we're really good. But I am so I am so.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Honored, humbled and blessed, honestly just to be able to
have this conversation with you, to get to know you
in a deeper way. And the Lord had just been
highlighting to you for a while to me and I
didn't know why. You know, again, say, grace is always about,
you know, supporting and showcasing you know, the sisters in
(47:38):
Christ and what they're doing. But I love what He
is just has done is just continue to do through you,
and I'm just excited to continue to witness that. I'm
excited to see you continue to witness to others. And
I know there is so much that isn't going to
make the gram and that's okay because the Father in
Heaven sees it.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
And I'm just so grateful, you know what I'm.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Saying, like, yes, there I do, Yes, there's there's so
much right, No thanks, there's probably the one percent that
people actually get to see that under ninety percent is
just between you and the Father and that is beautiful
and more than enough, more than enough, agreed though, But
for people that do they want to follow you, learn
(48:21):
more about you, let them know like where they can
find you online and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
So you can find me on Instagram at Christian Corporate girl.
I'm also on LinkedIn if you guys want to connect there,
We're starting a community there. I'm maybe going on YouTube,
maybe not, we'll see maybe in the future. And so yeah,
there's one thing I will share a lot of is memes.
I'm going to be the source of showcasing the Lord's
(48:48):
joy through your day, things you can relate to. So yeah,
I'd love to connect with you guys. I do still
try and respond to as many dms as I can.
I get testimonies probably on every day or two about
what the Lord is doing, and I'm like that that literally,
like if you have a testimony, not even through something
that Christian corporate girl, are I've done on that, like
(49:10):
through anybody, reach out to them. It means so much.
It's just so beautiful to sit. Like when I get
a testimony, I screenshot at majority of the time, I
sent it to my friends and I was like this, like,
look at what the Lord is doing. Like I didn't
think more than twenty people would relate and like it
was like at a friend's party and my friend's husband
was like, you're the girl that does the videos and
I was like, Hi, what videos are we talking about?
(49:32):
And he's like the corporate, the corporate, the corporate video. Yeah,
he goes. I asked my boss for race and I
was like what, and he goes, And I got it,
he goes. I didn't think that was possible, and I
was like, oh, from there to understanding and being a light,
to having a refraining of the mind, to that even
if it's just a moment of peace and joy, like
I love to hear from it, and I know other
(49:53):
creators would as well, But I just wanted to thank
you for this opportunity. I have been absolutely loving with
what you're doing with your community, the way that you
champion others. You're constantly sharing, resharing, posting. You've been such
a delight and a joy to connect with on socials.
I know people, I love this season because I feel
(50:15):
like I'm meeting so many people through Instagram and I'm like, man,
i feel like the Lord's like highlighted the best of
the best. He's like this one connect with them, this one,
connect with them. And you're like, so when I got
that invitation, I'm not even gonna lie, like I barely prayed.
I was like, I felt like the light of the Lord,
and I was like I was telling my friends and
I was like, man, this is someone that supported me
from the beginning. And I was like, this is relational
(50:36):
and I was like, I'm so excited meet her and
chat with her, and so thank you for everything that
you do. I know. It's it's the championing that you do.
We don't see that often. It's counterculture. It is like
it's a competitive society to have people that collaborate, that
an invite that will make a place for others that
(50:57):
celebrate others at the expence of you could be marketing
yourself mm hmm, but instead you choose to celebrate others.
So I honor you for that. Thank you, thank you,
thank you, sis. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Guys, Definitely make sure that you go over to at
corporate Chushion girl on Instagram. Go and follow her, y'all,
like she she's.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Worth the follow more than that.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode
of the KWATS podcast.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Definitely make sure that you like, share, and subscribe, and
until next week, be blessed.
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