Sermon Series: Staying Calm

Good morning. Welcome to Reflective Spaces Ministry. I'm Tammy Toney-Butler, and I just want to welcome you this morning. I want to say a welcome to our social media family. All those in Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, everywhere you are watching us virtually. We just want to say thank you. We are one family, one church, united together. Thank you for every survivor, thriver, overcomer that is watching from all over the world. It is a special time that we have today. Many of you are facing a storm right now. And it is difficult to stay calm, to keep your head above water. Hurricane Helene left a devastating path across parts of our country. My heart goes out to the people affected. We are coming to you from Southwest Florida. And I know what it's like. to live through the uncertainty of a storm of that magnitude after going through Ian, huddled in a shed, not knowing an outcome, everything out of your control, fear kicking in, guiding your decisions. Those of us who've been traumatized, victimized in the past, Change can be difficult. Sudden change can be extremely difficult for us to bear. You won't do it in your own strength. You will do it in the strength of Christ. Many of you say, where was God? Why didn't he protect us? There are things that come at us that we go through. We may not see him, but he's there with us. And we just have to go through them. I had to go through Ian. Many of you now, you're in shelters, wondering, when am I going to return home? Loved ones may be missing. Draw strength. from the wellspring of living water. I'm Lord Jesus Christ. He will see you through. Today we're going to dive into a message, a teaching. He wanted me to come live and he helped me build it. I just obey. I'm a mere sinner that he set free and his mercy and his grace guides me, keeps me and strengthens me and gives me the ability to come on and to speak to each of you today. Because even if the ninety-nine are safe, he goes after the one. Some of you are the one listening to this. And you need to hear the words that he's going to speak to you today. Holy Spirit, we invite you into this. Have your way. Lord Jesus, help me to show your heart to your people. your love to your people. Help your strength flow through me into them like living water so that they can draw from a well that never runs dry and eat from bread so they're satisfied, so they never hunger again or thirst again. Thank you, Holy Spirit. May they see you and not me. May you heal them. in this time that we have together. In the mighty name of Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. Today, our message, our teaching is going to be on the storms of life. Stay calm. The Lord rescues people from many troubles. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his compassion and loving kindness endure forever. We are reading out of Psalm one oh seven. And for right now, I'm going to read out of the amplified version. And then I'm going to read some from the New King James Version. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversaries. and gather them from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary desert region and did not find a way to an inhabited city. Hungry and thirsty, they fainted. Then they cried out to the Lord in their troubles. And he rescued them from their distresses. He led them by the straight way to an inhabited city where they could establish their homes. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and for his wonderful acts to the children of men. For he satisfies the parched throat and fills the hungry appetite with what is good. Some dwelt in darkness and in deep deathly darkness. Prisoners bound in misery and chains. because they had rebelled against the precepts of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore, he humbled their heart with hard labor. They stumbled and there was no one to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distresses. He brought them out of darknesses, out of darkness and the deep, deathly darkness and broke their bonds apart. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and for his wonderful acts to the children of men. For he has shattered the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron apart. Fools because of their rebellious way and because of their sins were afflicted. They detested all kinds of food and they drew near to the gates of death. And they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distresses. I want to pause here for a moment and I want to read out of the New King James Version. And I want to read again, but with different words so that they resonate and penetrate bone and marrow and resonate in the heart of his people. Again, I'm reading Psalm one Oh seven. And this particular section, I'm going to start reading at ten and go through around sixteen. He wants me to also read in the New King James Version. And the King James Version, I believe, is. with similar words. Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons. And remember Psalm twenty-three, even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil for thou art with me and thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Remember that. Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons, because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. Therefore, he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness in the shadow of death. and broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron in two. Fools, because of their transgression and because of their inequities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. He sent his word and healed them and rescued them from their destruction and delivered them as the other version said. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and for his wonderful acts to the children of men. Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving and speak of his deeds with shouts of joy. Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters, they have seen the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They went up toward the heavens on the crest of the wave. They went down again to the depths of the watery trough. Their courage melted away in their misery. Their courage melted away in their misery. They staggered and trembled like a drunken man and were at their wits end. All their wisdom was useless. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he brought them out of their distresses. He hushed the storm to a gentle whisper so that the waves of the sea were still. And they were glad because of the calm. And he guided them to their desired haven, their harbor, their safe place. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and for his wonderful acts to the children of men. Now, before we go to the voice of the Lord in the storm, he wants me to read again out of the New King James Version. He wants me to start around twenty five. Psalm one oh seven. Twenty five. For he commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens. They go down again to the depths. Their soul melts because of trouble. Their soul melts because of trouble. And what is our soul? Our mind, our will, and our emotions. They can be all over the place when you're facing a storm. And he wants you to draw strength from his will so you can remain calm. focused and endure what lies ahead. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end and at their wits end. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble and he brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm so that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet. So he guides them to their desired haven He guides them to their desired haven. How does he guide them? How does he guide them? He's our shepherd, our good shepherd. And his sheep know his voice. He guides us by the whisper, by the knowing in our spirit. This is the way walking. This is the way, follow me, he's saying. Some of you are caught in a disaster area. You don't know which way to go and what to do. And you're holding on to that lifeline that you have in your hand. Whether it's your phone, your television, whatever it is, it's operating off of generator power. I want you to hold on. Help's coming. I want you to hold on. They're bringing water. They're bringing food. I want you to hold on because God is with you. He has not left you. He has not forgotten you. You may believe that everybody is going on with life around you and they don't see you and they're not coming to help you, but they're coming. Florida, they're coming. North Carolina, they're coming. South Carolina, they're coming. Tennessee, they're coming. Georgia, they're coming. They came for me. And I went to others in the middle of the storm. I tell you right now, God sent me. He spared our home through Ian. And I said to you, I said, God, why did you spare me? Thank you. I'm so grateful. But there's so many that lost everything. They're out there fighting for their lives. They're drifting. They're drifting. They're adrift, oh God. How do we bring them into safe harbor? How do we have them come into safety in the middle of the storm? And I drew strength. his whisper, his voice, his peace, his calm, his joy. He said to me, my sheep know my voice and they follow me. He's heard your prayers. He's heard your cries and they are coming. They're coming. They're coming to you. Just hold on. Just hold on. And listen to me. If you're a church, faith-based organization, disaster organization out there. And people are telling you, oh, stay behind. You can't go out there. Or there's cases of water sitting at churches. Cases. There's MRE meals. And they're waiting on the people to come and pick them up. They can't come pick them up. There's no public transportation running. Some of them never had cars to begin with. They can't come to you. You have to go to them. And God will protect you. Every rescue worker, everyone out there, God is protecting you. He is calling you. For the harvest is great and the laborers are few. Go to the people. Reach them. Meet them where they are. Help them in the middle of their storm. Whatever you're facing, God is there. God has not forgotten you. He will send someone to you. That person will come. Those people will come. You just hold on. You hold on. You hold on. You hold on. And how do we do that? How do we hold on when we're facing such uncertainty, such calamity? How did I hold on in the middle of being sex trafficked as a child? With no father because I lost my dad to suicide. How did I hold on? I held on. I held on through. God, I couldn't even see him, but he was there. Because I would have been dead if he had not been with me. And I know now where he was. The money that showed up in the mailbox. The people that happened to show up with cases of water, with food. He's not forgotten you. He's not forgotten you. People are coming to help you in the middle of your storm. The Lord will give unyielding and impenetrable strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. As Psalm twenty nine eleven on the Amplified Bible. The Lord will give unyielding and impenetrable strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. For the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth, came knowledge and understanding. Proverbs two six. He holds success in store for the upright. He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless. Proverbs two seven. For he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Proverbs two eight. Do not lose your faith now. He is coming. He sees you. Why do we have to go through things? Why as believers? Why is it church? Why do we have to go through certain things? But we We have to sometimes. We have to weather storms. We live in an evil fallen world. And that is why you need to hear and know the voice of your shepherd like never before. You need to seek wisdom, kingdom wisdom and kingdom understanding, supernatural spiritual ears to hear and eyes to see. You don't need to seek the world's wisdom. need to seek the wisdom that comes from the holy spirit and knowing this is the way walk in it he will guide you he will keep you he will never leave you he will never forsake you proverbs two nine then you will understand what is right and just and fair every good path reading out of an niv for wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul and what is your soul your mind will and emotions Proverbs two, ten. Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you. Proverbs two, eleven. He will guard you. He will keep you. He will say, don't go there. Go this way. This is the way walking. He will guide you to where there's water. He will guide you to where there's food. He will guide you to where there's gas. He will guide you. He will bring people to you. Draw from his strength, his wellspring of living water. You will never thirst nor hunger again. Let the word of God get your Bibles out and feast on the word of God right now. It will see you through whatever storm you are facing. He will speak to you through his word. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose ways are perverse. Proverbs two, twelve. There may be a voice saying, I'll just go take what I need or steal or I'll do this or I'll do that or I'll loot or do those things. No, no, that's not the answer. We are to remain calm. We are to be full of peace and unity, looking out for our brother and our sister. This is a time to unite as a community. This is a time to unite as a body of believers. This is a time to unite as a world, as a nation. And let's help our fellows, brothers and sisters through this trial and every trial there is to come. For we know the way we are to walk. How do we know the way? By his truth, by his light. by his wisdom. For the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it. Proverbs two, twenty one out of the NIV. I am telling the truth in Christ. Romans nine, the Amplified Bible. This is Paul speaking. I'm telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me, enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit. Guys, Christ is in me. I'm not lying to you. He sent me to tell you, you're going to be okay. He's going to see you through. You're going to come out stronger, more equipped. For this is the first of many trials that's coming. We know this. We know this. We are in the latter days. waiting on our precious Savior to come. But until then, we have to draw strength from His wellspring of living water. Draw courage from Him. Strength from Him. And overcome our desire to do evil. Instead, patiently wait and endure. till he comes for his bride, his true church, his purified bride. We need to seek wisdom and understanding above all else. That's kingdom wisdom. That's kingdom understanding. You say, Father, Abba, Father, Abba, Father, by the blood of your precious Lord Jesus, who died so I could be healed of every disease, healed of every sickness, comforted, protected. I want to seek your wisdom, oh God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I want to seek your wisdom and your kingdom understanding. So I know this is the way, walk in it. This is the way, walk in it. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians five, seventeen, King James version. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians five, seventeen. This is the way walking. This is the way walking. This is the way walking. This is the way walking. That's what he said. Father also put on me speak to you now to kind of bring in a little of my trauma responsive pulpit, which I like to do and change it up a little bit. This isn't a typical sermon. This isn't a typical teaching. This is teaching to people who have are in the middle of a disaster who yes, got through the initial piece of it with the storm, the physical storm, But right now you're in your own spiritual storm. You might be in a financial storm. But you are in a storm right now. Not knowing what's going to happen. Those of you in North Carolina that the bridges are out. How am I going to get food? What am I going to do? You are going to rely on the rock. You're going to hold steadfast in your faith. And you will not waver. Because the tongue is the udder. The rudder, I should say, not the udder. I'm thinking of my cow. The tongue is the rudder. The tongue is the rudder. It guides the boat. You speak life over yourself. God spoke the world into existence. Jesus healed many people just by the words that came out of his mouth. So I'm your rudder today, guiding you to his truth, speaking life over you, speaking healing, telling you they're coming. Hold on, just hold on. They're going to get you out of that pit of despair. They're going to get you out of that depression. They're going to get you out of that addiction. he's coming for you he's reaching down now where you are meeting you where you are Romans Matthew going to Matthew eight now I've got like four Bibles, five Bibles open in front of me with different versions because he, he's taken me just to different things. And he wants me to, to read out of this. And this is the new living translation. But he took me to Matthew eight, Matthew eight. He took me to Matthew eight. Remember our tongue. It steers us. It's our rudder. It guides us in the direction we need to go. This is the way, walk in it. It can be life or it can be death. Jesus spoke life. Jesus spoke healing. I'm speaking it to you now. And it says it in his word. In Matthew eight, it starts, Jesus heals a man with leprosy. But let's skip down to the faith of a Roman officer. When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, Lord, my young servant lies in bed paralyzed and in terrible pain. Jesus said, I will come and heal him. But the officer said, Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come into my home. How many of you said that? I'm not worthy for healing. I'm not worthy for Christ to save me. I'm not worthy for him to get me out of this pit of addiction. Yes, you are. You're worthy. Just say the word from where you are and my servant will be healed. I know this because I'm under the authority of my superior officers. And I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say go and they go or come and they come. And if I say to my slaves, do this, they do it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, I tell you the truth. I haven't seen faith like this in all Israel. And I tell you this. that many Gentiles will come from all over the world from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the feast of the kingdom of heaven in the kingdom of heaven. But many Israelites, those for whom the kingdom was prepared, will be thrown into the outer darkness where they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, Go back home because you believed. It has happened. And the young servant was healed that same hour. Jesus spoke from a distance. And that servant was healed. He was under the authority of Abba Father. Everything he did was under the direction of the Father. Every word he spoke. We see that when Paul's saying, let me bring that back up. Let me go back. Let me bring that up in Romans nine. I'm telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me. Enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in us. It was in Paul. It was in the church in Acts. It was in the apostles. And it's in me. Jesus is in me. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you, if you believe it in faith, you are being healed now. Healed of addiction. Healed of the spirit of fear, we rebuke it and cast it into the pit of hell. Healing, you're being healed from that spirit of deception that has been on you and on the church. You are being healed now. By his stripes ye were healed. That's past tense. Jesus died on the cross so that we could have abundant, full life. Sickness is not your portion. Death is not your portion. Poverty is not your portion. Addiction is not your portion. Your portion is abundant life, freedom that knowing Jesus brings. his work on the cross. He is our deliverer. He is our steadfast anchor. He is our rock. He will hold you. You will draw from his strength these next few days and weeks and months as you rebuild your lives, rebuild your communities. And we rebuild this nation on the cornerstone, the rock, which is Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. On love, Love thy neighbor as you love yourself. We love God with everything we have and we love our neighbor. Love. The very essence of everything Jesus did was this humble, humble, compassionate love. He looked through a lens of humility and compassion and love and love transforms. Love transforms communities. Love transforms nations. Love your brother. Don't steal from them. See how you can help them during this time. He's placed something else on me that he wants me to show you. Many of you know I don't have anything. He does. I'm filthy rags. He set free. I don't have anything. Everything I am, whether it's on my CV, on my LinkedIn page, whatever, all those accolades, it's all Jesus. He Did it all. He's prepared all this. I'm just going to show it to you. He led me to all this stuff when I was on my own healing journey and trying to figure out why I had so much junk in my own trunk and why I was acting a certain way and why I was spewing out hate at times or acting out into anger and fear. And I thrived in chaos. It was all I ever knew. And when he had me branch off and come out of chaos, out of darkness and into his marvelous light, he had to show me the way. because it was uncomfortable. I didn't know how to be healed. All I ever knew was trauma. Trauma shaped and molded me since I was a little girl, even before kindergarten age, being horribly victimized, sexually assaulted by more than one individual. Losing my dad to suicide as a teenager, you will experience loss. In this world. In hardship. He'll see you through in his strength. You take it minute by minute. Second by second. Hour by hour. Day by day. It's all you can do. Minute by minute. That's it. He will supply everything you need. He knows what you need before you ask. In my healing ministry work. His healing ministry work. He brought me to a book many years ago, Pete Walker's book, Complex PTSD from Surviving to Thriving. I don't know if I'm supposed to show it to you, but I'm showing you his book, Pete Walker. This is an amazing book. It let me know why I was the way I was in a lot of ways, because I knew I was one way and then I was different. And what happened in between was trauma. And I was a little child. I was an innocent little girl. I didn't deserve all those things that happened to me. I didn't ask for them. I didn't do anything wrong. I had a mother that couldn't protect me because she lived in survival mode. She lived and looked and functioned in a lens of trauma. And I was born and cultivated in a womb of trauma. Trauma shaped and molded me. But then I had to unlearn those lies and unlearn that pathway. I had to become thoughtless and aware of God's truth. I had to learn to speak life over myself with my rudder, my tongue. I keep wanting to say utter for my cow, sorry. And I don't even have, I mean, I don't have a dairy cow, I have a beef cow. But anyway, the rudder of the tongue. The rudder guides the ship. It is the piece of the boat that guides and steers the direction of where you're headed. And it's small, but it's mighty. And a mustard seed of faith if you have even just a little faith, it can grow and grow and grow. And that's what we're to do as believers. We are to start out even on milk, but then get into more and mature, get into the meat of the word, move from milk to solid food, to the meat, to get into the secrets, the revealed truth that's in the word of God. to seek out the wisdom, the understanding, the revelation, knowledge that will see you through. He will guide you. He will keep you. And I wanted to speak to those of you who are survivors, who've gone through, had some type of childhood trauma. Maybe you've never spoke of it. Maybe you didn't really realize what it was or, well, I... I'm not like that. I wasn't sexually assaulted as child, but yet your father went away to war and was gone several years and came back and was a little changed and different after the war. Or maybe your mother was struggling with addiction and you never had a father. She did the best she could, but then you went to live with your grandparents. maybe you were raised in a war zone maybe you were raised in natural disasters hurricanes kept coming through and you kept having to pick up and go from shelter to shelter maybe you lost your home maybe you were evicted trauma affects all of us and it can stay with us if we don't unlearn the behaviors that we put in place, not even knowingly, but adapted in order to survive what was happening and endure what was happening to us. Many of us as children, babies. So I wanted to go and the Lord took me to page two twenty and two twenty one out of Pete Walker's book, Complex PTSD from Surviving to Thriving. And if you go to my Amazon author page, I link to this book because I feel very strongly about it so that you can see Pete Walker's book. So if you forget the name, you can find it. It talks about critic management is often the primary work of early stage of grief work. You know, we grieve our inner child. We grieve that little girl and that little boy that never got the chance to be all that they were supposed to be. and it talks about defueling the critic in that inner critic that that voice that speaks to you that says you're not good enough you're worthless you'll never amount to anything that voice that says you you you won't make it you're gonna die where you are all these lies oh Just take that drug, you'll feel better. Drink that bottle. All those are lies from the pit of hell, but they can be buried in us. And we have to kind of understand, and this stuff can come out of us when we're faced with the uncertainty of poverty, when we're faced with the uncertainty of a condition that's out of our control, like a natural disaster, a war, things that we have absolutely no control over. We don't have any control over if people love us either. You can be rejected and face this. So I want to just, you to look at this because I had to let go of that little girl that all that stuff happened to. And when I let go of her and I, I, basically buried that victim self and said, no more will I carry her. And I surrendered her to Jesus. I said, Jesus, take that little girl. Take her. I don't want her anymore. I don't want the shame, the guilt, the fear, the regret. I don't want any of that that's related to her. I want you to take it. And I want to be resurrected anew and made whole. Holy Spirit, I want you to live inside of me because I know Lord Jesus is my savior. He is the son of God, died on the cross, rose again, died for me, a mere sinner. So I can be saved by grace. You can't earn it. It's not by works. He died so you could have it. You have to believe on his son, on the son of God, Lord Jesus, and say, Holy Spirit, I want Lord Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of my life. I want the Holy Spirit to live inside of me. And I wanted to take that little girl, that little girl. And I want to let go and let God and surrender and be healed and set free in the name of Jesus. I want to read this to you because I believe it's important. And I want to start with defueling the critic for grieving. Page two, twenty one. Fear drives the toxic inner critic. Many of you went through this storm. You're still in it. You're going through the aftermath, the spiritual storm even. And fear is rising up and you're spewing words of hate or you're spewing anger or you're nervous or you're twitchy or just you feel like you're coming unglued. Guys, that's trauma that stirred up within us. We can be triggered by this whole circumstance. So you just calm yourself and center. Center into the truth of the word of God and his promises. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He has you tucked under his wing. He's protecting you even now. He's with you. He sees you where you are. He's meeting you. He's giving you the strength to say, deliver me out of bondage. Take this addiction from me. I don't want it anymore. I don't want alcohol. I don't want drugs. I don't want a sex addiction. Take it from me, God. I don't want it anymore. It's killing me. I don't want it anymore. I want to walk in abundant life. I want to walk as a new creature. I want to step into who you've called me to be because I know whose I am. I am a daughter of the king, a son of the king of the most high God. Fearfully and beautifully and wonderfully made with an ordained purpose. And I will not let what happened to me dictate my life. No, no. I am victorious in Christ Jesus. I rise up as an overcomer. I am a thriver. I am no longer a victim. And I will walk in wholeness in abundant life. I will have a renewed mind, the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ. I will be transformed layer by layer. Every day walking towards wholeness. and holiness, purification, sanctification of Christ Jesus. I will mirror Christ. My life will mirror Christ. That's what he's saying to me. Fear drives the toxic inner critic. The critic feeds off fear and flashes the survivor back to the frightening times of childhood. She gets stuck seeing herself only through her parents' contemptuous, intimidating, or rejecting eyes. She then imitates them and scornfully mocks herself as defective, ugly, unlovable. She scares herself with endangerment scenarios and abhors herself for insignificant imperfections. Because fear is a core emotional experience, emotional tools are needed to manage the fright that runs haywire during a flashback, an emotional flashback. Healthy angering and crying can short circuit fear from morphing into the flashback triggering cognitions of the critic. I've seen grieving bring the critics devastating programs of drasticizing and catastrophizing to a screeching halt on thousands of occasions. It appears that children are hardwired to release fear through angering and crying. The newborn baby mourning the death of living safely and fully contained inside the mother utters the first of many angry cries, not only to call for nurturance and attention, but also to release her fear. In the dysfunctional family, however, the traumatizing parent soon eradicates the child's capacity to emote. The child becomes afraid and ashamed of her own tears and anger. Tears get shut off and anger gets trapped inside and is eventually turned against the self as a self-attack, self-hate, self-disgust and self-rejection. Self-hate is the most grievous reenactment of parental abandonment. Over time, anger also becomes fuel for the critic and actually exacerbates fear by creating an increasingly dangerous internal environment. Anything the survivor says, thinks, feels, imagines, or wishes for is subjected to an intimidating inner attack. Your inner critic can go haywire during this time. And you need to shut the mouth of the lying serpent. The moment that thought tries to come in that says you're not going to have any food, you're going to starve to death. You won't be rescued. You won't get out of this situation. You won't free yourself from addiction. You'll always be this way. You'll be worthless. Do you know how many times people said to me, you're worthless, you'll never make it. You'll never succeed. Called me names, bullied me, hurt me. Even as a follower of Christ, I've been persecuted and ridiculed. for being sold out for Jesus. Oh, but yes, I am sold out for Jesus because he set me free of that inner critic, of that fear, of that drasticizing, always thinking the bad and speaking curses over myself. Even accepting curses that have been spoken over me and words, negative words. I refuse that. I refuse that. I am the daughter of the most high king. I am successful. I am prosperous. I am healthy. I am whole. Cancer is not my portion. Poverty is not my portion. Sickness is not my portion. I've been healed and set free. No longer with a food addiction. No longer with a sex addiction. No longer turning to alcohol. Using sleeping pills to get to sleep and washing it down with a bottle of wine. He took all that from me and delivered me from that. And why did I do those things? I used it to cope. I used it to cope with that fierce inner critic because of that little girl that was so frightened. The moment that her boundaries were eroded, her personal space invaded, and evil came to her door. And I was victimized. when it came upon me and replaced the innocence of being that little girl. But now, I'm that little girl again, full of joy and peace, even in the middle of a storm, even going through this storm. I knew God had me protected, even through the tornado watches, the warnings. I knew he was there. And he sees you and he meets you where you are. There may be a reason you're going through a storm right now in your life. Maybe it's so you can come to the end of yourself so you can find yourself. I had to come to the end of myself. Panic attacks, flashbacks, claustrophobia, all these things started coming on me. And I had to come to the end of myself to find myself. And I called out to God and I said, no more. I will not live like this any longer. This can't be the way it's supposed to be. Because I was one way and then another. And what happened in the middle was I was a little girl who horrible things happened to. It happened to for many, many years, even up into teenager and on. I've known more pain and hurt and trauma and loss and grief than you can imagine. I've walked through places you never want to walk through, but somebody had to do it. so that I could bring you these words, his words, his truth, through a lens to which you could see it, grasp it, and realize healing is yours. Transformation is yours. Wholeness is yours. Healing is yours. Reach out and grab it. Walk in that abundant life that he has for you today. Knowing he will never leave you, he will never forsake you. He heals all of our sicknesses, our infirmaries, our diseases. He sees you where you are, that you are, he meets you. God bless you. I see all those who are listening to us from all parts of the country and all parts of the world. Those listening even in Pakistan, Africa, India, those throughout the United States, Canada, all around the world. Thank you. Thank you for listening to us. Thank you for tuning in. He just wants us to bask in his presence right now. Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, come. Have your way. Give them fresh oil. Strengthen them, oh God. As they go through the storms of life, help them to let the rudder of truth speak life and not death over their situation. We speak life into them. We speak peace into them. We speak the love and healing of Jesus Christ into them. We speak mighty connections, doors opening. Mighty connections, doors opening. We speak books of life being rewritten. Salvations. Oh boy. Names being entered into the book of life. No longer part of the kingdom of darkness, but walking in the light. Oh, deliverances and healing. Salvations. This is the way, walking it, knowing it. This is the way. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Father, Lord Jesus, we just lift them up to you. I lift them up to you, Lord Jesus. May they see you and not me. May whomever watches this, whenever they watch this, whenever they tune in, let it penetrate bone and marrow. Let it go into the crevices of their heart. Let it replace the anguish, the pain, the bitterness, the unforgiveness, the hate with words of truth, words of life, words of of life-sustaining living water. Let them be washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, sanctified and made holy, a royal priesthood set apart for your use only. Guide them and keep them and strengthen them. Show them your divine truth. Show them your love and your mercy and your grace that comes through your Son, Christ Jesus, and his work on the cross. Laborers, go into the field now. Go, go, go into the field. Help his people. We're calling laborers into the field from the north, the south, the east, and the west. Brothers and sisters in Christ, rise up. Come together and unify the body of the church and let revival break out into the hearts of the people. For it is time for transformation, healing, deliverance out of bondage. It is time. It's time. It's the appointed time. It's time. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you. Thank you, everybody that's watching. There's always hotline support information. in the show notes. It's on our website, reflectivespacesministry.com. Tune in to Reflective Hour, our other podcast. Like and subscribe to us on YouTube, Reflective Spaces Ministries channel, Reflective Hours channel. Follow our work. Sow a seed into the word if that's what the God's leading you to do. Listen, five dollars in our world is a lot. None of us have salaries. We just answer the call. God called us and we go. And I trust him for everything. Remember when he said, go out and only take your staff. Don't worry about anything else. I'll basically provide for you as he sent the disciples out. I'm out there walking with my staff, it looks like a staff, my cane, a walking stick out in the pasture with the cows quite a bit. And I think of that always. And I think of Psalm twenty three, going back to when we just read in one oh seven, when we read in Psalm one oh seven about out of the New King James Version, where it said those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons because they rebelled against the words of God and spies, the council of those high. When we go in about he saved them out of their trouble. Here it is. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death. I want to turn to Psalm twenty three. You know, I knew this one by heart and I would I remember reciting it as a child. but then it became a trigger to me. And I, for some reason I couldn't remember it because I would speak it over myself before, you know, while I was hiding in the, in the bathroom or closet, wherever, but bathroom was, was where I would go and I would hide and read. Um, it was my only place I could go to where I would get a minute of, of respite and I could lock the door, um, until he took it off the hinges or remove the lights from the sockets. Uh, so many means of, uh, torture that, uh, I had to endure when I fought back and refused to be broken. Anyway, for a while, I couldn't get the words out of the song. And so I know it now. I don't want to speak it. But then I just want to go back to the word and read it from here just to make sure. Psalm twenty three. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. See that restoration. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me and your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. You anchor into Christ. Of a father is a good father. He's not like the father that left me. Abandoned me much earlier. He went away to work, came back, wasn't the same, and divorced my mom at a very early age. And was pretty much an absent father until he lost his battle with complex trauma and died. We buried him on Father's Day when I was around fifteen. Died by suicide. Many of you have had parents that have opened you up to victimization. have not protected you, have made you feeling abandoned or rejected. You will never fear that, feel that, or fear that in Christ, in Christ, because the Holy Spirit will dwell in you when you surrender to him and you say, not my will, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And let him be Lord and Savior of your life. He will guide you. He will keep you. He will guard you. He will protect you. He will not leave you. Boyfriends may leave you. Husbands sadly can go off and leave you. Or you can find yourself in abusive marriages and things. People can die. People can leave us. We can grieve for others. But he will never leave. He meets you where you are in your pit. You hold on to the hem of his garment and he'll pull you out. He meets you where you are and you're never too dirty or full of shame to seek him, to seek his blessing, to seek his love, his guidance, his strength, his mentoring. He's my friend, my comforter, my advocate, everything. Jesus and I sit, we have coffee. We're going to the pastor. He teaches me. Oh, he teaches me with the craziest things, craziest things. You know, I, I was, um, after the storm, after the hurricane, of course we had debris everywhere that we needed to pick up and, and, and grateful. I'm grateful. My, my neighbors came to help me because my husband is helping his family, um, uh, his mom and dad who's in the hospital. And so I was alone on the ranch and And my neighbors came to help and picked up me, pick up this huge trailer of debris. And I can remember walking around our acreage and say, man, Lord, there's a lot of, you know, deadfall up top. We call it deadfall in the trees and you can't reach it. And I tell you, you'll go broke, you know, with tree trimmers coming to, to, to trim those trees and get that stuff out of there. So, you know, I remember asking him these things and talking to him and, And as I'm walking around and I'm picking up the debris and the palm fronds and all this, he's talking to me and he's saying, see, see, I know exactly how to bring the winds of change that come and blow and get those dead things gone. Because the dead things that are in our life, that we need to prune ourselves from, but we don't know how, or we refuse to, we rebel, or we can't do it in our own strength. Those dead things can cause us to speak negative words over our life. And remember the tongue is the rudder which steers the boat in the direction that you go. You can steer yourself in the direction of addiction, saying yes to those sinful desires, or you can let him get all that stuff out. His perfect timing, he knows when the trees were ready, they were ready to be pruned and that wind came and I'm grateful for that, that it blew all that debris out and they're able to thrive. And we have to let go of that. We have to let go of the dead things in our lives, dead relationships, things that are no longer serving us in this season of life. He's shown them to you. You know what they are. But we tend to hang on to people and situations and things and even jobs that we knew we needed to let go of. And sometimes those choices are removed for us and those doors are shut, slammed shut. to where we have no choice but to thrive in the middle of our storm, to thrive in the middle of where he's called us to be, where we find ourself in that hour, thriving in the middle of our storm, calming ourself in our storm. He will show you the dead things that need to go. He will help you be pruned in just the right way because remember, He's the vine and we're the branches, right? And then we have the vine dresser that knows exactly where to trim us, prune us. We've been crushed. We've been hurt. What are you going to do with that? Are you going to rise up victorious and move into alignment and position with who God's called you to be? Believing in yourself Knowing that you know that you know this is the way, walk in it. I'm worthy of that. I'm worthy of that promotion. I'm worthy of that husband. I'm worthy of that love. I'm worthy of that kindness showed by that neighbor. I'm worthy. Because even I still have a difficult time asking anybody for help or accepting help. And the Lord said to me, listen, if you want the ministry I've called you to have, you're going to have to have help. You're going to have to receive. Many of you people are trying to bless you and you won't take it. You won't receive it. Receive it. Receive it. It's okay to get help. Let people step into your situation because many times God speaks to us through others. And yes, he even speaks to me through my husband, David. He does. He will speak to you through those close to you. But will you listen? Or will you judge? I've had to correct myself and repent on more than one occasion because I didn't want to believe that the Lord was speaking through my husband. But he was. And my husband is a good man. And I would not be here without my husband, David And I was worthy and am worthy of his love. And I am worthy of the love of Christ and Abba Father. That unconditional love. That love that is always there. And that's how I can have peace in the middle of a storm. I've gone through many storms. Many tests. always come out on top because of Christ Jesus. Let's put it up again on the screen. I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me, enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit. I truly don't know if you understand and grasp the love that Jesus has for you. He loves each of you. He knows each of you and he wants you to choose him and choose life and choose the light of truth so that he can bring you into that abundant life, that abundance of joy, that abundance of peace, that abundance of love that he has for you, his creation, his sheep, his flock. Will you choose him? Will you let him love you? He's calling out and he's saying, Let me love you. Let me deliver you. Let me bring you healing. Let me show you trust in me. Trust in me, trust him. That's what he's saying to you today. That's what he's saying to you today. And I want to thank you. I want to thank everyone that's listening, everyone that has joined us. May God bless you. May he keep you. May he sustain you and deliver you. Because even if you get out of Egypt, Egypt can still be in you. But I'm here to tell you today that you have been delivered out of Egypt, transformed, renewed in mind, body, and spirit, and walking in wholeness in Christ Jesus. Because I speak life over you. I speak abundance over In the name of Jesus. Amen. God bless you. He loves you. And I love you. God bless you.