The Bible says the entrance of His word gives light and understanding to the simple. As the word is preached today, I believe you’re going to receive understanding and light in areas of your life, just like I did and continue to do every single day.

It’s time to stop going around the mountain. 2026 is the year we start going up and over these things. Anything in your life that is stopping you from going to the next level, from progressing, growing, or flourishing where God has placed you—that’s a big deal. You need to get up and get over it.

1. Your Mind

This is the number one area that every woman has to conquer. Your mind wants to go a million miles a minute, everywhere but where it’s supposed to be. You know, it may not be coming out of your mouth, but you’re thinking it.

The Bible says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” I put this as number one because this is the foundational area we must conquer.

To be honest, today as soon as I decided to do this broadcast, every thought from every direction started coming against my mind. This mountain in my life—fear, insecurity, whatever you want to call it—was really just a mountain I had built up in my mind. It was stopping me from sitting here and doing the thing I’m called to do.

There are things you’re called to do. Great works you’re called to be a part of. You can’t let your mind convince you out of the things you are called to do.

2 Corinthians 10:5 says you have to take every thought captive to obey the word of Christ. Every thought—not just some, not just on certain days. Every single thought has to be taken captive to obey the word of God. Anything that does not line up with the word of God, you have to flush it out of your mind. Get it out of your space. Rebuke it. Cast it down.

I love what a man of God said: “Not every thought that flies over your head has to land and make a nest.”

You have so much more control than you think. I hear women say, “I just can’t. I just can’t.” No, you can. You have the ability. God has given you through the word of God the ability to speak a thing, decree a thing, declare a thing, and it shall be established.

You can cast down thoughts in your mind that you don’t want. You don’t have to have racing thoughts. You don’t have to have plaguing things at night—dreams, fear of dying constantly plaguing your mind. That doesn’t have to be the case. But it starts with you making the decision.

Philippians 4:6-7 says to be anxious for nothing. That is not a suggestion or recommendation—it is a command. Be anxious for nothing. And when you do that, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will come and stand guard over your heart and mind.

You have to recognize that the battle going on in your mind—you have full control over. You have the ability to silence thoughts that you don’t want, that you don’t need, that are annoying to you. You have the ability to cast them down and take authority over them.

When you conquer the battle in your mind, everything about you begins to change.

As you think in your heart, so will you be. You have to get out of your head and start living out of your spirit. Your mind and body are not going to want to do what you know in your spirit you need to do.

There are things you probably don’t want to do—a book you’re supposed to write, a business you’re supposed to launch. Or maybe you started and took a step back because you realized it’s harder than you thought. Get out of your mind and start living out of your spirit.

Your spirit man aligns with the word of God. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. God hasn’t given you a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

2. Your Emotions

This is a really big one for us women. God is not moved by emotions.

I remember time and time again crying out to the Lord, “God, why is this happening? Why is that not happening?” All emotional in my feelings. And God said, “I’m not going to do anything about it. I gave you the power to do something about it.”

God is not moved by emotion. God is moved by faith, and faith comes by hearing the word of God.

You have to keep yourself in the word—the Bible says to meditate on the word of God day and night. You have to constantly keep yourself meditating on it, praying and speaking the word over your life.

My husband says the best voice of faith you can hear is your own—reading the word out loud to yourself, speaking it over yourself, commanding your mind and emotions to come into line with the word of God. That’s your foundation. That’s the only way your life won’t feel up and down and all over the place.

You have to keep your emotions in check.

Proverbs 25:28: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls.”

If you can’t keep your emotions in check, you’re going to struggle. Anytime I’ve struggled or been frustrated, it’s because my emotions were all out of whack. I was making decisions based on my emotions or allowing thought patterns to be built up based on my emotions, not on reality.

Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life.” You have to keep your heart. Guard your heart. Protect it. Don’t just give it away.

The change has to start on the inside. The change had to start with me. When I wanted things to change, when I was frustrated with where life was going, the change had to start with me. It started in my mind, then I had to work on my emotions.

I had to start blocking down and casting down imaginations and things that the Bible says exalt themselves over the knowledge of the word of God.

We wonder why our generation is having all these issues with depression, anxiety, constant fear, panic attacks. They don’t know how to cast down imaginations and things that would try to exalt themselves over the word of God in their life.

You can’t make great impact if you yourself are not changed. You can’t help other people if you’re all messed up and can’t keep your mind straight.

Thoughts come to everybody. My husband and I deal with thoughts daily. Every single day we have to cast down thoughts. The more you do it, the easier it gets. That feeling of anxiety tries to come up—maybe a debt, financial pressure, stepping into something you don’t fully know. No, I’m not yielding to that. I’m keeping my mind and heart set on those things which are above, set on the word of God.

I refuse to have ups and downs in my life. If you just stick with the word, you’re going to be okay.

Turn your phone off and just go sit and read your Bible, even if it’s a struggle. You have so many tools available today—there are no excuses anymore to not be filled up with the word of God.

3. Consistency

It’s so easy to start strong. You get an idea, get all zealous, and think, “This is it. This is the thing. It’s going to shake the world.” Then you get about three weeks in and it starts to lose its zeal.

The area of consistency is one every woman has to conquer because a lot of life is very mundane. It’s not going to be fun every five seconds. It’s not going to be a constant hit. We’re so used to scrolling on social media, getting dopamine and happy feel-good emotions.

Not all of life is going to be like that. There are going to be moments where you’re washing dishes, doing laundry, taking care of your kids, working your business. It’s not going to be all glamour and glitter all the time.

But you have to keep the consistency because the consistent everyday steps you make are what keep you breaking through. People tend to give up way too soon.

My pastor said people want breakthrough on day ten and give up on day nine. Consistency every single day will keep you from doing that.

Let’s say you feel called to write a book. It’s not sitting down and pushing out the entire book in five hours. No—every day you do a little bit. One day you write the outline. The next day you write a bit of your intro. Then you draw a cover. Then you start looking into what it takes to get published. It’s every day, step by step, little by little.

You have to be consistent every single day.

4. A Wandering Spirit

You have to conquer the area of having a wandering spirit. This is so vital.

A lot of times you can get caught up in the glamour and glitter, the new thing over here, the new thing over there. There’s such power in being rooted somewhere—not your roots going out across multiple areas, but being rooted deeply.

When you allow yourself to have a wandering spirit, you’re not rooted in anything. It’s a new project every week, a new job every week, a new venture, new friends. You can’t keep friends. You can’t keep a job. You’re going from one church to another.

People have a wandering spirit where when things start to lose their glitter and glamour, they begin to drift, wander, move on, and say, “Oh, I guess the Lord’s just moving me on.”

That in and of itself will destroy your growth as a Christian. When you grow, your roots go out instead of deep. When they grow out, it’s easy for the enemy to come with an axe and chop at a root on the surface.

People get severed because they’re so spread out everywhere. They don’t even know the enemy’s been chopping away at one of their roots. They’re getting picked apart in one area, but because they’re so everywhere, they don’t even notice it.

You’re everywhere instead of rooted down deep. You need to be rooted into one church with one pastor. That doesn’t mean you can’t visit special meetings as the Spirit leads. But it’s not just bouncing around everywhere.

A lot of times the enemy doesn’t have to get you off sinning. He just has to get you focused on all these other things instead of the thing God wants you to do.

If you’re gifted and talented and you throw yourself out there saying, “Let me do this, let me do that,” you will be used. That’s just reality, and you are responsible for it.

Instead of trying to help everything and everyone, get rooted down deep where God has called you to be.

When I first started the ministry, I wanted my hand in every department—media, finance, everything. Then I got frustrated because I felt like I was managing ten plates with no time to spend with the Lord.

Noah asked me, “Why are you doing it?” I said, “Because it’s the thing I’m supposed to do.” He said, “Is it?” I realized I’d done this to myself. I was trying to operate at a level we weren’t even at.

When I dropped about half of that and delegated, the ministry started to grow.

There is such power in being in the one thing God’s called you to do instead of trying to manage all the things He never called you to do.

Get rooted somewhere down deep, not out wide.

If you’re always chasing the next thing, you are not cultivating the current thing.

Growth happens when roots go deep, not wide. God works through long obedience in the same direction. You cannot grow weary in doing good.

5. Worry and Anxiety

Carrying tomorrow’s weight with today’s strength. Everybody’s given 24 hours. Don’t try to focus on what’s happening tomorrow. That’s how you stress out and crash out.

1 Peter 5:7: “Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.” This is a command.

Worry and anxiety will drain every part of your life—mentally, physically, spiritually. It will drain your friendships, your workplace. There is nothing that comes out of worry and anxiety that you want.

How do you conquer it? By keeping yourself rooted and planted in the word of God, the house of God, planted around people who are not anxious. I don’t hang around worriers or fretful people because whatever you’re around is going to rub off on you.

You have to let the worry go. You have to let the anxiety go. Cast your cares upon the Lord because He cares for you.

No matter what you’re going through, the word of God is the great equalizer. The word of God works if you work it.

When Noah and I first started the ministry, there were times we thought it was the end. There were times I was crashing out thinking, “We don’t have the money.”

Thank God for Noah. He’s such a man of faith. He’d say, “Babe, it’s fine. The Lord’s got it.”

I had to learn how to cast those anxieties and cares upon the Lord. Guess what? Every single time the Lord came through. Every single time the Lord didn’t fail us. Every single time an abundance came in, an overflow came in.

People keep going around this mountain of worry and anxiety because they don’t know how to just rest, be at peace, allow the Lord to take care of you.

If you’ve done everything He’s told you to do, if you’ve done everything in the natural you know you’re supposed to do, wait upon the Lord and He will renew your strength and take care of you.

6. Comparison

Comparison is the thief of joy.

When you’re always looking at somebody else’s thing—what they’re doing, what they look like, what they sound like—you eventually start to veer off course from the thing you’re supposed to be doing.

Keep yourself focused on the thing God has called you to, the assignment He has you in.

The Bible says mind your own business, not everybody else’s.

Don’t be overspiritual thinking, “They need to pray more. They need to worship more.” Focus on you. Mind your own business.

My husband said, “You don’t want to be the person that steps in between God trying to teach somebody a lesson or bring somebody up over a mountain.”

Sometimes people do stupid things and have to reap stupid consequences. You don’t want to step in and throw it off. They’re just about to go over the mountain, and you put yourself right in the middle of it. Now they have to go back around it again.

2 Corinthians 10:12: “When they measure themselves by themselves, they lack wisdom.”

7. Fear of Failure

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

Obedience matters more than outcomes. And your obedience will always produce a great outcome.

To be honest, this broadcast is not my favorite thing to do. I love talking to you all, but I don’t like doing it while looking at myself on camera. But I am further now than I was at the start. I’m a little bit more over myself.

Obedience is not always comfortable. In fact, I don’t think any obedience the Lord has asked me to do was comfortable. If you’re comfortable, check yourself. Am I even doing the thing God has called me to do? Because if you’re not being stretched, if you’re not growing, something’s wrong.

It’s very easy to be avoidant. I was the queen of avoidance. I wouldn’t do the broadcast, but I’d make cool social media posts, put Noah’s messages out in a nice email—do all the things but the thing God wanted me to do.

Don’t do that because you’re just going to keep going around the mountain again and again.

Don’t be afraid to move forward. If God asks you to move forward, it’s always because He has your best in mind.

You have to do what God tells you to do when He tells you to do it, as He tells you to do it, how He tells you to do it. That is true obedience.

Delayed obedience is disobedience. Half obedience is disobedience. Partial obedience is still disobedience.

Obey the Lord.

8. Perfectionism and Criticism

The biggest one I had to deal with recently: perfectionism and criticism.

Sometimes you can be critical outwardly toward other people—just stop it. Stop being critical of other people.

Other times you can be critical of yourself. Stop it. Stop being critical of yourself.

God made you. You’re made in His image. There’s a great call on your life. Stop being critical of yourself. Understand you’re a work in progress. You are saved, you are sanctified. The Bible says you are renewed day by day. His mercies are new every morning.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. If you made a mistake yesterday, allow yourself five minutes to process it, then get over it.

The Bible says to think on those things that are good, pure, of good report, lovely. Think on the word of God.

Stop criticizing yourself. Stop critiquing everything about yourself. Get all of that, flush it, get it out of your life.

One thing to understand: if people are critical of you, it’s because they’re very critical of themselves. Don’t become that. Don’t sit around critiquing everybody else.

Perfectionism

God cannot work with a perfectionist because a perfectionist says, “Until it is to my standard, my approval, I’m not going to do it.”

I confused for a long time what excellence was and what perfectionism was.

Old Chloe would have said, “I’m not doing this broadcast because that light is glaring.” But I decided I’m not going to be a perfectionist. I’m going to be the person that does the thing, even if it makes me cringe the first time.

Your first videos are not going to look like the videos going forward. But if you’re constantly thinking perfection, perfection, you’re never going to progress. You’re just going to go around the mountain over and over again.

When we first started the ministry, I was obsessed with looking perfect on the outside because there was such a high standard from where we came from. Now I look back and think, “That was so stupid. Why was I so focused on what other people’s expectations were?”

Don’t be such a perfectionist that you don’t have a beautiful story of growth. There should be that small beginning. The Bible says there’s something beautiful in the small beginning. But don’t allow fear to cause you to hide the beautiful thing that God finds delight in.

God delights to see the work begin. Allow the work to be shown. Allow the not-so-great graphics to come out. Just go with it. Just do the thing and figure it out as you go.

Then look back and say, “Wow, there’s such a big difference from when I first started to now.”

Allow yourself to find joy in the beginning, joy in the process, joy in the not-so-great parts.

When we first started and had five people in the church, we felt like failures. I was such a perfectionist, I didn’t want to show our five or six people. Now I look back—we’re sitting at 25 to 30 people—and I wish we had shown the five people we had. Some of those services were the best services ever, so powerful. But because of fear, I didn’t allow myself to document the beautiful beginning.

God delights in your beginning. You should too.

Toward the end of 2025, we decided we’re going to be Ambassador Global to the max. We’re going all the way in on being the house that God wants it to be, not a mirror or reflection of somebody else’s vision.

It needs to be the same with you. Don’t write a book because your friend wrote a book. Write a book because God told you to and He put this burning passion inside you.

Don’t start a business because you need money. Do it because there’s a burning passion and the Lord has spoken to you to do it.

It may be ugly in the beginning, but if you keep going and you keep that thread of consistency, it’s going to be beautiful.

9. Small Thinking

Believing what’s in your hands now is too small to matter.

That is how you stop up progress. You’ll never grow further than what’s in your hands right now. If you don’t use what’s in your hands, if you’re not faithful with the little bit God entrusted you with, you won’t grow.

Nobody just wakes up a billionaire. You don’t come out with multi-million dollar businesses. It doesn’t happen.

You have to get rid of small thinking. Let it go. Remove it.

You know what enlarges your thinking? The word of God.

You begin to see that you are far more valuable than the clothes you wear, the place you come from, the color of your skin. The word of God is the great equalizer.

You need healing? It’s there. You need prosperity? It’s there. You need your mind to be clear? It’s there.

The word of God enlarges your capacity to see things.

When you serve a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and whose streets are paved with gold, when you begin to know Him, know His character, how meticulous and detailed He is, it enlarges the way you think.

You’re in this world but not of this world. I live here, but my sustenance, my abilities, my resources are not from here. I have a whole account in heaven that I have access to by my words and by my faith.

The Widow at Zarephath (1 Kings 17)

Elijah goes to her. She and her son are about to die. They don’t have anything, but she had a little. And with that little, God made a lot.

The Bible says if you’re faithful with a little, you’ll be ruler over much. There are people who stay in the rat race, in the little bit they have. They just keep paying their bills. There’s never anything more because their thinking is small.

But there’s so much more to life than just paying your bills paycheck to paycheck.

We chose to be faithful with the little bit God had entrusted us with. And as you’re faithful, He makes you ruler over much.

It’s not “when I have enough.” It’s “with what I have, I will honor the Lord and max it out as best as I can.”

When we first started our broadcast, we ordered gear off Temu and Amazon. I had a camera from my wedding photography business that I still owed money on. We made the most out of what we had and figured it out as we went.

It was such a small beginning. People said, “Oh my gosh, your studio looks so good.” And I was thinking, “Lighting makes such a big difference.” We had this little $5 thing from Temu and this little IKEA lamp that kept falling over and got so hot I was convinced it was going to burn down the house. But we made it work.

We did what we could with the little that was in our hand.

Stop being a perfectionist. Just go for it. Stop being critical.

Here’s one of the greatest revelations I got: nobody cares. People are so focused on themselves. If you do or don’t do something, they’re not going to notice.

Only you and the Lord are going to know if you obeyed Him.

But you know what people do notice? When you start to do the thing God’s put the grace on your life for—the calling, the assignment.

I don’t get any engagement on my Instagram. I post a picture of me and my kid—cute, but not much. As soon as I started putting blogs out, broadcasts, vlogs, suddenly people I didn’t even think followed me were seeing it.

It’s because I stepped into the assignment God placed on my life after I got over what I thought people thought about me. But the reality is nobody was thinking about me.

Understand that. But it is noticeable when the Lord begins to promote and elevate you and there’s a grace on your life.

Make a System for This Year

Don’t just let this year be whatever it’ll be. That’s how people end up 80 years old wondering what happened.

When the Lord speaks to you or impresses upon you that there’s something for you to do, you need to take steps in that direction. The Lord is not going to do it for you.

You have to make a system, make a plan. Write the vision, make it plain. Write it down, then take small steps.

I break my year down into quarters. If it’s a big project, I break it into four quarters. If it’s something that’ll take one quarter, I put it there. If I don’t accomplish it, I don’t get to move on to quarter two. I have to do the first quarter because I don’t want to dishonor the Lord and not take His word seriously.

Ask yourself: Are you treasuring and valuing when the Lord speaks to you?

He’s telling you to do something because He knows that if you would just dig in and go for it, not only would His will be accomplished here on earth, but you would feel fulfilled as well.

You have to make a plan and a system for this year. Be intentional.

Lastly

If you overcome these areas—if you can overcome the battlefield of your mind, if you can manage your emotions, if you can be consistent, if you can be rooted instead of wandering, if you can push back worry and anxiety, if you can stop comparing, if you can conquer fear of failure, if you can stop being a perfectionist and critical, if you can eliminate small thinking—there is absolutely nothing the enemy can throw your way.

That covers every area of your life. There is nothing the enemy will be able to stop you with.

Be established. Be rooted in the word of God. It’s going to be good. It’s going to be a really, really good year.

I feel it so strongly—for anybody wanting the Lord to establish them, wanting to make the most of this year—it is going to be your best year yet.

Reflection Questions

1. Mind Battlefield: What specific thoughts keep “flying over your head” that you’ve been allowing to “land and make a nest”? What scripture can you use to take those thoughts captive this week?
2. Emotional Management: In what areas of your life are you making decisions based on emotions rather than the word of God? How can you begin to “cast your cares” on the Lord instead of carrying them yourself?
3. Consistency Check: What is one thing you started with zeal but didn’t finish because it lost its “glamour and glitter”? What would it look like to pick that back up with consistent, daily action?
4. Wandering Spirit: Are you rooted deeply in one place, or are your roots spread wide across many things? What relationships, commitments, or projects do you need to let go of to root down deeper where God has called you?
5. Worry and Anxiety: When have you seen God come through when you chose faith over worry? What current situation are you trying to control instead of casting on Him?
6. Comparison Trap: Whose “lane” have you been looking at instead of staying focused on your own assignment? What would change if you truly believed your calling is unique and incomparable?
7. Fear of Failure: What is one thing God has asked you to do that you’ve been avoiding because you’re afraid it won’t be perfect or you’ll fail? What would obedience look like this week?
8. Perfectionism: What project, idea, or calling have you been holding back because it’s “not ready yet” or “not good enough”? What would it look like to document your “beautiful beginning” instead of hiding it?
9. Small Thinking: What “little” do you have in your hands right now that you’ve been dismissing as too small to matter? How can you be faithful with that little this week?
10. Your System: What specific, practical system will you put in place this week to conquer one of these seven areas? How will you break down your goals into quarterly action steps?
11. Self-Reflection: Which of these seven areas resonated most strongly with you? Why? What is God highlighting for you to work on first?
12. Accountability: Who can you share this with who will hold you accountable to making the changes you know you need to make?

“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”
Isaiah 61:3 (KJV)

Start Here: Your Inner Climate

“… the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; ….” (Isaiah 61:3).

In Hebrew, the word “spirit” means “Ruach.” It is essentially the “atmosphere” of your internal world—the inner climate of a person—and Kehah is heaviness, coming from a root meaning dim, dull, or fainting. It’s the same word used to describe a lamp wick that is smoldering and about to go out, or eyes that are growing dim with age or grief. Heaviness does exactly that.

1/ Walk out of the pit, into the light.

An effect of heaviness is that you begin to see things differently—dimly, not seeing sharply or clearly. If you’re in a pit, all it takes is one match to cast light around you. What is light? The Word of God. As you enter the Word, the Bible says it gives light and understanding to the simple.

Come to the understanding that you’re not under attack; it’s that you are under ignorance! There are tools that God lays out for His people, one being the word of TRUTH. Heaviness often builds up a world around you that seems unconquerable. As it builds, the light gets darker and you find yourself in a pit cloaked in heaviness. But there is an answer: His Word.

“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” (Psalm 119:130)

Get out of your thoughts and start speaking with your mouth!

2/ Reverse weighted thinking with thankful speaking.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving… (Psalm 100:4).

Flip it. Begin to think about everything you could be thankful for: life, salvation, and abilities. A thankful person will not have a heavy spirit. Focus your affection and thanksgiving on the Lord. Heaviness comes when you think too much in one area—usually about yourself, worry, or situations. The devil will lure you down a road that seems innocent at first, but there’s a pit waiting for you.

Flip it. Reverse weighted thinking with thankful thinking!

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” (Proverbs 12:25)
“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” (Psalm 55:22)

3/ Pick up your garment of Praise

…and into his courts with praise. (Psalm 100:4).

“You cannot pray away what you are supposed to praise away!”

For those who desire to be free from heaviness, it requires you to throw off your cares and take up something in its place. Praise is not just a moment of a service or a feeling; it’s an action that delivers incredible results. One of the greatest acts of faith is to praise God; you’re showing Him you believe what He said to be true. He gives a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness, but it requires effort. Any breakthrough has a direct tie to a moment of praise.

The vast world of access we’ve been given today has created a thought pattern in people I don’t think they even realize is there. We live in the most connected age in human history, yet more people are feeling disconnected.

Every day your mind is performing a rapid, subconscious calculation with only two possible outcomes. With every new post, influencer recommendation, and reel that flashes across your screen, you do one of two things:

1. Relate and feel understood.
2. Aspire and wish you were like them.

The Cycle of Exhaustion

The algorithm knows this. Neuroscience confirms this.

See someone baking perfect sourdough? I should do that. A jet-setting business woman? I want that life. A cottage-core homestead? That’s the dream. It gets thrown on the “saved” list. We’ve become curators of a hundred different lives, rapidly cycling through doors to different versions of who we could be.

On the surface, it feels like opportunity. But in reality, you are collecting nothing. Wouldn’t that make sense that we have a lot of chatting but not a lot of doing? Job rates are down because we have been shown to dream but not shown to move.

We save the ideas, the aesthetics, the “vibes.” And before we know it, we’re a dizzying mix: a cottage-core, business-leading, chicken-keeping, ministry-running, writer, media maven who is, frankly, annoyed. Not speaking about anyone in particular… (okay, it’s me).

You’re Dizzy. So Get out of the Revolving Door.

Psychologists have a name for this: “Identity Diffusion”—a lack of a stable sense of self, where you borrow values and roles from every appealing source without integrating them.

Coupled with “Option Paralysis”—the anxiety that comes from too many choices—this cycle of Relate → Aspire → Save → Exhaust is directly fueling the skyrocketing rates of anxiety and depression. We are trying on selves like fast fashion, and in the desperate search for a “better you” or the elusive “it girl,” you lose You. The woman created for a specific purpose gets flooded with expectations that don’t even exist in the real world.

And doesn’t it make sense that the Devil would get you enamored with the revolving door of “options” thinking—because you’re “moving,” you’re making progress, but really you’re just going in circles? Anyways.

THIS IS WHY IT DOESN’T WORK

This isn’t just a psychological problem; it’s an ancient spiritual condition. The Bible calls it being “double-minded” or having a divided focus.

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” (James 1:6-8)

Sound familiar? Blown and tossed. Unstable. That’s the “rapid door cycling” in spiritual terms. Our focus is fractured. Jesus said:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness…” (Matthew 6:22-23)

Our “eye”—our focus—is constantly scanning for the next thing to want or become. It fills us with the darkness of comparison and inadequacy. But He continues:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

Get Out of the Cycle and Get Moving: So, Who Are You?

The world’s relentless question is: “Who do you want to be?” It’s a question that leads to the saved list, to the exhaustion, to the performance. Really, what you need to ask yourself is: “Who has God declared me to be?”

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
“When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” (2 Corinthians 10:12)

For years, I changed to make people like me. And some did—many didn’t! LOL But in the midst of that, I lost what God wanted me to do and who he said I was. So let me say it plainly: screw it.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

A New Vision for the New Year

Before you step into the new year, and trying to be a better you, figure out: Who did God make you to be?

You can try everything. Attain all you desire. But if you attach your worth/value to your achievements, you will be disappointed every step of the way. Scratch earning the applause of people because they simply like that you’re doing what they think you should be doing.

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)

I am who He says I am. I can do what He says I can do. I will be what He says I will be. And that is good enough for me.

Secure the goals. Build a big, God-sized vision. But don’t lose yourself in the vast world of thought and “new year new me” that you miss the point entirely.

Before you credit the devil for your bad week—or even your bad year—here are five practical checks so simple you’ll probably laugh. We often look for a spiritual explanation for things that are actually within our control.

1. Have You Been Outside? ☀️

Or are you sitting on your couch or behind a desk wishing life would change? Your body needs movement. Is this a “spiritual attack,” or are you just going against your design and remaining stagnant?

God designed your body to move. If you don’t, you are literally sitting in toxins. Your lymphatic system requires your cooperation to function properly. Don’t credit the devil for your lack of effort; I’m just being truthful!

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” (Psalm 139:14)

2. What Are You Looking At? 📺

Be mindful of what your eyes see and your ears hear. Years ago, I went through a short period where I was plagued by thoughts that I was losing my mind. I was completely thrown off—until I finally asked the Lord why these thoughts were attacking me.

Immediately, a movie I had watched recently flashed before my eyes. The woman in the movie had a mental breakdown. I had unknowingly opened a door to fear. The Lord reveals to heal; once I saw the source, I laid hands on my own head and cast those thoughts down. They never came back. There is a spirit of this world, and you might just be giving it your time and attention.

• “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes” (Psalm 101:3)
• “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

3. When Was the Last Time the Word Came Alive in YOU? 📖

Not from your pastor or a YouTube preacher—but YOU. It’s dangerous to remain a “spiritual baby.” If all you do is eat what others feed you, you eventually become full and stagnant.

You have to learn to grab the spoon and pull up a seat to the table yourself. How are you supposed to grow if you always hand the responsibility to others?

“The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:130).

4. Are You Simply Lonely and Friendless? 🏝️

Are you living as a “lone island,” or are you actively involved in God’s work? Whether it is through your local church or fulfilling the Great Commission in your own neighborhood—you have to have purpose.

Isolation is a fun place for the devil. This is exactly why Jesus gave us our mandate. If you feel like you have no personal vision or direction, find one worth attaching yourself to.

“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly…” (Proverbs 18:24)

5. Are You Picking and Choosing Your Obedience? ⚖️

When life feels “off” or your mind feels “chaotic,” it is often an indicator that you are out of alignment. Ask yourself: What was the last thing God told you to do? Are you doing it?

If you aren’t, that is likely why you are struggling. People often ask for prayer for problems that actually require a “decision.” Remember, delayed obedience is still disobedience. The peace of God is not found running from the will of God.

• “Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble” (Psalm 119:165)
• “The mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6)

1. Focus on Becoming the Minister, Not Running the Ministry

Focus more on becoming the minister than running the ministry. Because I had worked for such high-functioning ministries, I didn’t know how to be where I actually was. I had to learn that the Lord delights in seeing the work begin—and most importantly, the work in me. Not in the idea of ministry or trying to keep up with everyone else.

2. Never Stress About Money

Never stress about money. It is simply a tool in the hands of a wise person. When you think you’ve reached the end, you never really have; it’s usually just the place where your own ability runs out. That is the exact moment you tap into supernatural supply via faith and WOW. It has been the most fun adventure.

3. Master the Art of Speed

Master the art of speed. What takes most people a week, aim to do in a day. Speed solves a lot; over-planning can often cause you to miss the point entirely. When God says “do [this],” immediately make a list broken into steps on how to get there the quickest way possible.

4. Pray Continually

Pray, pray, pray. A lot. Always. Continually.

5. Devour Every Book on Leadership

Devour every book on leadership. You can be anointed and still be a horrible communicator or leader. Titles and callings do not automatically generate wisdom; leadership must be developed. “It’s my Personality” is a weak excuse (I tell myself this a lot).

6. Know When to Run and When to Rest

Know when to run. Know when to rest. This is the simplest advice I’ve received recently, yet it completely changed my perspective: take three days every quarter away from everything with your family. You’re not weak because you rest. You are weak if you are operating from a place of depletion.

7. Eliminate Excuses

Eliminate excuses. Start with the small ones you can fix today. Immediately begin removing every “reason” that stands between you and what God has asked you to do.

People ask me all the time if we have any tips or advice for church planting or ministry. Quite honestly, …

I want to tell you something before we get into anything else: you are going to make it.

Whatever you came in with, whatever burden, whatever circumstance. Maybe all your bills are paid and you’re doing pretty good. Guess what? God is calling you up to a higher place, and you’re going to get stretched a little bit. Either way, you’re going to make it.

Faith is not complicated. It’s simple. God sees you as His child. He loves you. He’s rooting for you. God already sees you in the victory. He doesn’t see you as a lowlife or at the bottom. He sees you on top. God sees you through the eyes of faith. He sees you victorious. He sees you an overcomer. He sees you changing your city, your family, your town.

“But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

But as a believer, there are some things we have to do to make it. Some things that are very radical. Here’s the line I want you to remember:

A believer that plays it safe will maintain an average, normal life. A believer who takes a chance, steps out, and believes God in faith will have a radically different life.

We all know the story of David. Even if you didn’t grow up in church, you know David. He’s the guy who took the stone, flung it at the giant, and killed the giant. But when you actually read 1 Samuel 16 and 17, you begin to see there was more that transpired than somebody chucking a rock. There were things that happened in the field. There were things that happened before David ever entered the fight.

Remember where he started. When Samuel came to anoint a king, David wasn’t even invited to the lineup. Seven brothers were presented, and the Lord passed on every one of them.

“And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep.” (1 Samuel 16:11)

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.” (1 Samuel 16:13)

The kid nobody thought to call in from the field is the one God chose. Here are five radical moves David made that we can take and apply to our lives today.

1. Radical Believing

David understood something: it doesn’t matter who I am, it matters who He is. While the entire army saw a nine-foot champion, the Bible says David saw an uncircumcised Philistine, not in covenant with his God. Listen to how he talked about it:

“For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26)

In David’s mind, that giant couldn’t even stand on the same ground as him. And his believing wasn’t empty. He had a history with God, and he rehearsed it out loud:

“Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:36-37)

As a believer, you need to root this deep, not only in your heart but in your mind: you are not normal. You are not meant to just be the person everybody has always known. You are called and anointed of God. You are to be the best of the best in everything you do. You may not even know how to do the thing, but as soon as your hands touch it, somehow it works. Somehow it flourishes. Those who are planted in the house of God shall flourish.

Faith is believing in your heart what God said. Not what you think. Not what you hope. What God said. His word can never fail. Your ideas, your expectations, and other people may fail, but God’s word will never fail. That’s why we build our faith on the word of God, not on hopes and opportunities. As soon as you start chasing opportunities, God will remove them all. But as soon as you start chasing the word and saying, “I know who my God is, I know He has called me and anointed me for such a time as this,” the opportunities show up as you move forward.

That’s what separates David from his brothers. The brothers had the position, the looks, the spot in the army. David had the believing.

I’ll be honest with you. When I was a kid, there was this weird mentality planted early that if you weren’t a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl, you weren’t pretty. I’m the exact opposite of that. Curly-haired brunette who liked playing with the boys. And people say things to kids, and those things stick. As I grew up, I had to see myself in the word of God and recognize that I am who I am and God is going to use me. I had to radically believe what He said about me instead of what people said about me.

Believing God is not walking around denying what you see. It’s seeing something bigger in your spirit. You may not like what you see in the mirror. Look in that mirror anyway and say, “I am made in the image of God. I am who I am, and God made me like this for a reason.”

David saw himself differently than everyone else saw him. He believed not just in what he had done, that he had killed the bear and the lion, but that God had enabled him with the ability to do it.

2. Radical Speaking

Faith is not just believing in your heart. It’s speaking with your mouth.

“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.” (2 Corinthians 4:13)

I realized recently that I believed in my heart some things God was going to do, and I was making steps and taking action in that direction, but I had closed my mouth. I kept asking, “God, why am I not seeing it? I see bits and pieces of what I’m believing You for, but it’s not turning out how I expected.” And the Lord said to me, “It’s because you closed your mouth. You stopped speaking.” Believing and acting are two parts of faith. Speaking is the other part.

God likes loud mouths. David was a loud mouth. He didn’t just quietly grab his stones and go. The Bible says David announced the outcome before the fight ever started:

“Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee.” (1 Samuel 17:45-46)

“And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give it into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:47)

Everybody around him thought he was crazy. He said it anyway, before anything happened.

It doesn’t make sense for a rock from a river to knock out a nine-foot giant. A little stone doesn’t take down a giant. But God can. The anointing, the empowerment, God backing you to do what He’s called you to do, will turn your situation around.

“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.” (1 Samuel 17:50)

And David is no different than you. David was a child of God. Are you a child of God? Then why is your case different? It isn’t. The same Jesus that healed the woman with the issue of blood, the same Jesus that healed the blind beggar, is here today to heal you. Believe it in your heart, speak it with your mouth, and act on it.

We’ve overcomplicated faith to the point where churches just don’t talk about it anymore. They’ll tell you to tithe and fast and give, but healing and breakthrough in your finances get pushed off to the side. No. You have to radically speak. You could be doing everything right, but if you refuse to open your mouth, you will not see the fullness of all you could have. That applies to healing, finances, your marriage, your family, your children. You have to speak it, even when it doesn’t look like it, even when it doesn’t sound like it.

You may have a negative bank account balance right now. By faith, say it anyway: “All my bills are paid. I am a funder of the end-time harvest.” You feel like an idiot saying it because you know you’re negative two dollars and the overdraft fee just hit. Say it anyway. Faith speaks. And as you begin to speak, you begin to see your situation change. It’s in the moving.

Violent faith is activated by violent speaking. Be a loud mouth. Speak your vision.

3. Radical Engagement

Run toward the thing that everyone is avoiding. Run toward the thing in your life that you don’t want to confront. That’s how you grow. That’s how things change.

For forty days, that giant strutted in front of the army of Israel, and the entire army ran from him.

“And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.” (1 Samuel 17:16)

“And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.” (1 Samuel 17:24)

Everybody ran from Goliath. The Bible says David ran at him:

“And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:48)

Same giant. Same battlefield. One boy engaged, and the whole nation’s story changed. When you run toward something that’s bigger than you, that costs more than what’s in your bank account, and you say, “But I know my God,” that’s radical engagement.

Not every Christian has the same life. God loves every Christian, but why is it that one person is successful and one isn’t? Why does one struggle and one doesn’t? Ask yourself why. Your mouth. Your decisions. Your believing. Your engagement.

Say this with me: I will not play it safe. I am making radical decisions from today.

God likes when you win. God likes when you succeed. God likes when you’re prosperous. God loved it when David cut the head off that giant. He said, “That’s my boy.” Are you God’s girl? Are you God’s guy? Where God looks at your business flourishing and says, “That’s my girl, and she knows who I am.”

And while we’re here, engage with people too. The Bible says, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly” (Proverbs 18:24). I used to leave church the second service ended, then wonder why I didn’t have friends. It’s not that nobody liked me. Nobody knew me. Be friendly. Make friends. Engage.

That’s radical believing, radical speaking, and radical engagement. In Part Two, we pick up the final two moves: radical obedience and radical giving.

Reflection Questions

1. Radical Believing: What has God said about you that you’ve been filtering through what people said about you? Like David rehearsing the lion and the bear (1 Samuel 17:36-37), what has God already brought you through that you can rehearse out loud this week?

2. Radical Speaking: Where have you been believing and acting but keeping your mouth closed? David declared the outcome before the battle (1 Samuel 17:45-47). What will you start speaking out loud over your situation, starting today?

3. Radical Engagement: What is the one thing in your life everyone (including you) has been avoiding for “forty days”? David ran toward the giant (1 Samuel 17:48). What does running at it look like this week?

This is Part Two of Five Radical Moves That Bring Radical Results. In Part One we covered radical believing, radical speaking, and radical engagement. Here are the final two moves, and why you’re now accountable for what you read.

4. Radical Obedience

Do it God’s way, not man’s way. Not what you think. Not your plan.

Look at how David even ended up on that battlefield. His father asked him to run bread and cheese to his brothers. That’s it. A grocery errand. And the Bible says he did it right away:

“And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him.” (1 Samuel 17:20)

Obedience in the small thing put him in position for the giant. And when it was time to fight, Saul tried to dress David in his own armor. It was man’s way, and David refused it:

“And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook.” (1 Samuel 17:39-40)

Man’s way said armor and a sword. God’s way said a sling and a stone. David did it God’s way.

It’s amazing how many times I’ve written out plans. “We’re going to do this with the church, it’s going to grow like this, we’re going to go to this location.” And every time, the Lord says, “Throw that out. That’s not what I told you.” But in prayer, He gives direction, and His plan always outdoes my plan. I can spend five hours on my plan, and the Lord takes thirty seconds: “Actually, you’re going to do this.”

“And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments… all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2)

Diligently. Not if you listen a little bit. Not if you pick and choose the parts you like. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Half obedience is disobedience. Partial obedience is still disobedience.

Many Christians think showing up on Sunday is the whole thing. Showing up is great. But there’s more, and I’m not talking about running yourself down attending every single meeting. I’m talking about your secret, personal, intimate life with God. There’s more, and God has put people in your life to teach you and help you get to the more. You just have to be humble enough to receive it.

The Bible actually calls you a slave to Christ. We hear “slave” and think it’s bad, but when I’m a slave to Christ, I belong to Him. He is the deciding factor on my life. And He doesn’t stop there. When you get saved, you become a son or a daughter. You come into the household of faith. And in God’s house, the kingdom works differently. He says there’s a table laid out before you in the presence of your enemies, and you can have whatever you want, but you have to grab the plate, grab the fork, and walk over to the table.

Faith is believing what God said. Faith is speaking what God said. And faith is acting on what God said. That’s all it is.

When you live radically obedient, you don’t get the whole roadmap. The Lord tells you one thing. Apply at this one job. Move to this one state. Do this one small thing you’ve been avoiding because you think it’s either too small for you or too big for you. And you say, “Lord, but what next?” It doesn’t matter what’s next. He tells you as you go. It’s in the moving.

I’ll tell you the honest truth about us. Anytime Noah and I have pulled back on this ministry, anytime we said “let’s pump the brakes, this is starting to feel bigger than us,” that’s exactly when the ministry dipped. Every time. We tried to hold on, figure it out in our own minds, plan our own way, and God said, “You can’t do that with the call of God. You can’t even do that in your own life.” Sometimes you have to speak by faith, step out of the boat, and go. Some of you are about to make moves that make no sense to the people around you. But because God called you, He’s going to provide for you. Because God is sending you, all of heaven is backing you.

5. Radical Giving

We’ve been taught to say, “Bless those who have to give and those who do not.” That doesn’t work. There are principles in the word of God:

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” (Luke 6:38)

You want to not be broke? Give. Everything in the kingdom is opposite of what you’d think. You want to grow? Humble yourself, sit under somebody, and listen.

Now, many Christians lean to one side or the other. They think if I just give, money will find me. Or if I just speak, my situation will turn around. It’s the combination. You believe in your heart, you speak with your mouth, and you act on it. And where does faith come from?

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

If none of this is making sense to you yet, start there. Open your Bible and find every scripture on the thing you’re believing for. Fill yourself with the word until faith rises up.

You Are Accountable for What You Just Read

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of a master who entrusted his money to his servants. Five bags of silver to one, two to another, one to the last. The five-bag servant went to work and earned five more. The two-bag servant did the same and doubled it. But the one-bag servant dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money out of fear and passivity. And look at what the master said to the ones who moved:

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matthew 25:21)

I need you to understand that God loves you, but you are going to give an account for your life. The knowledge you’ve received is the knowledge you’re accountable for. That’s why when you first get saved, everything feels light, and then you hear a scripture and suddenly the convicting power of the Holy Spirit starts working on the inside of you. That’s not condemnation. That’s growth. A parent corrects a child he loves. If God is correcting you, it means you are very loved.

So now you’re accountable to this. You can leave this page and say, “That was a nice read, but I don’t know if I’m going to do everything she said. Maybe bits and pieces.” And you’ll experience bits and pieces. But if you go wholly, fully into being a radical Christian, your life will never be the same.

You want your kids saved? Get a Bible and a notebook for them and start writing in it. You want a house? Go pick out a doormat. Do things that make no sense to your natural mind, because radical things like that bring in radical results.

Not every Christian gets the same results. The Christian who believes it by faith and says “I count it done” gets the results. That’s how a Christian stops living on the bottom and goes higher with God. You can be the top of the top. Your marriage can be beautiful. Your family can be saved. Your children can come into the kingdom. But you have to radically believe it and make steps in that direction.

You’re not called to be small. You’re not called to just make it. You are called to have a radical life.

All gas, no brakes.

Reflection Questions

4. Radical Obedience: What was the last thing God told you to do? Are you doing it fully, like David going “as Jesse had commanded him” (1 Samuel 17:20), or partially? Remember, partial obedience is still disobedience.

5. Radical Giving: Are you leaning on one part of faith (only giving, or only speaking) instead of the combination? What does believing, speaking, and acting together look like for what you’re trusting God for right now?

You are believing God for something. Your body. Your marriage. Your finances. Your mind. And right now, you are in a waiting season, and somebody has already told you God’s got this.

He does. Write that down and settle it in your spirit: God is not a man, that he should lie.

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)

But you must understand something. Faith is not sentiment. Faith is not a nice feeling you carry into a waiting season and hope holds up. Faith is a spiritual force, and it is the only force by which a believer takes delivery of what heaven has already released.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Substance. Not a wish. Not a mood. Faith is legal title to what you are standing for, settled before it ever shows up in the natural. This is why hoping is not a strategy. Hoping has no substance to it. Faith does.

This waiting season will reveal exactly what you believe. Not what you confess with your mouth when the church is watching, but what is settled in your spirit when nobody is watching and the answer has not yet appeared.

You were not born again to live beneath your privileges as a joint heir with Christ. Every promise in this book is already Yes and Amen over your life in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). So before you go one day further into this wait, get honest with yourself about two words: logos and rhema.

1. Logos and Rhema

There are two Greek words in the New Testament translated “word.” Logos and rhema. You need to know the difference, or your prayer life is going to stay stuck on the surface.

Logos is the whole word of God. Every page. Every book. Every promise, from Genesis to Revelation. It doesn’t change. It was true before you were born, and it will be true after you’re gone. Logos is the whole armory. It’s every promise sitting on the shelf, available to you.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

Rhema is different. Rhema is a specific word. A verse that used to just sit there on the page, and then one day it moves. It gets up. It becomes alive on the inside of you, and you know, that you know, that you know, that verse is for you, right now, for exactly what you’re standing in faith for.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

Notice it doesn’t say faith comes by hearing the whole logos. It says faith comes by the word, the rhema, spoken and quickened to you specifically. That’s not by accident.

2. How a Verse Becomes Yours

Here’s how it actually works. You go into the logos, the whole word, looking for your promise. You read, you search, and one verse starts to stand out. It won’t let you go. You read past it and something pulls you back. That’s the Holy Spirit doing His job.

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26)

When that happens, stop skimming. Take that one verse, three verses, whatever it is, and meditate on it until you cannot be talked out of it.

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night… for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)

The verse you can’t shake, the one that feels like it was written directly to you, the one that shows up again in the sermon, in a conversation, in your own reading, three different times in one week? That’s your rhema. That’s the word you build your whole waiting season on. Not a general good feeling about God. A specific word.

3. Believe It. Confess It. Move on It.

Once you have your rhema word, here is what you do with it. Faith is not a feeling you’re waiting to catch. Faith is three things working together: believing, speaking, and acting. Leave one out and the other two won’t carry the weight.

Believe in your heart.

“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” (Mark 11:24)

Believing isn’t denying what you see. It’s seeing something bigger in your spirit than what’s in front of you. Believe the report of the Lord over the report in front of you.

Confess with your mouth.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9–10)

You could be believing everything right in your heart, but if you keep your mouth shut, you will not see the fullness of what you could have. Violent faith is activated by violent speaking. Say your rhema word out loud, every day, even when it doesn’t look true yet.

Act with your feet.

“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone… shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” (James 2:17–18)

Don’t just believe it and speak it and then sit on the couch. Do the next obedient thing your rhema word is pointing you toward. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Believe it. Confess it. Move on it. All gas, no brakes.

4. Relationship, Not Emergency Help

Here’s a question to sit with honestly. When you go to God about this, is that a normal part of an ongoing relationship you already have with Him? Or is that the only time you’ve talked to Him in months, and you needed a flare shot up because things got bad?

There is nothing wrong with asking for prayer. The Bible tells us to come into agreement with other believers.

“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19–20)

But it becomes a problem when you know exactly what you’re supposed to do, and refuse to do it, and instead try to piggyback off someone else’s faith. Your prayer team, your pastors, your small group, they can stand in agreement with you. They cannot have a relationship with God for you.

So while you wait, don’t just wait on the answer. Build the relationship. Get in the word on your own, not just when things fall apart. Because the depth of your relationship with Him going into this season determines how much of His voice you’re able to hear and hold onto while you wait.

It Will Not Tarry

God did not forget your name. He is not slow. What you’re waiting on is already on its way, and while it travels, you have a job to do: get your rhema word, believe it, confess it, and move on it, out of an actual relationship with Him, not a once-a-crisis phone call.

“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Habakkuk 2:3)

Do that, and the wait will build something in you that the answer alone never could have.

Want the full guide, plus a scripture bank organized by category, healing, finances, fear, breakthrough, peace, identity, and family, to keep with you through the wait? Download it free from our Resources page.

Reflection Questions

1. Logos and Rhema: What verse has been quietly getting up off the page for you lately? Have you stopped to actually meditate on it, or have you kept reading past it?
2. How a Verse Becomes Yours: Have you found your rhema word for what you’re believing God for right now? If not, what would it look like to actually go search for it this week instead of waiting for it to find you?
3. Believe It, Confess It, Move on It: Of the three, believing, confessing, or acting, which one are you actually skipping? What would it look like to add the missing piece this week?
4. Relationship, Not Emergency Help: Honestly, is your relationship with God an ongoing thing, or mostly a once-a-crisis phone call? What’s one ordinary way you could talk to Him this week that has nothing to do with the thing you’re waiting on?

You fought for this. You believed God, you confessed the word, you refused to quit when it looked like nothing was moving. And now it’s here. The job came. The healing manifested. The family got restored. The money showed up.

Here’s what nobody tells you: more people lose their breakthrough than lose their fight for it, and it doesn’t just happen with money.

I’ve watched it happen more times than I can count. Somebody gets healed and slowly drifts back into the exact habits that wore their body down in the first place. Somebody’s marriage gets restored and eighteen months later they’re right back in the same silence that almost ended it. God didn’t change His mind in either case. They just never learned what to do with their hands once the answer was actually sitting in them.

Getting the breakthrough is one assignment. Keeping it is another.

“The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10:22)

Sorrow was never attached to God’s blessing, whatever kind of blessing it is. But I have watched a breakthrough get handled wrong so many times that it manufactured its own sorrow, and it wasn’t God taking it back. It was someone who never learned how to carry what they’d been given.

1. Get Purposeful, Not Comfortable

The first danger after breakthrough is comfort.

The moment the pressure lifts, most people exhale and stop moving. They fought hard to get here, so now they rest. But rest and retirement are not the same thing, and too many believers retire the moment they should be re-deploying.

Look at what God told Israel the moment they crossed over Jordan. He didn’t tell Joshua to unpack forever. He told him to get up, because there was still land to possess.

“Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them.” (Joshua 1:2)

The crossing wasn’t the finish line. It was the starting line. Your breakthrough works the same way, whether it’s a clean bill of health, a marriage that’s talking again, or a bank account that finally breathes. Ask what it’s positioning you to do next. If you can’t answer that yet, you’re not stewarding it, you’re just sitting on it.

2. Guard It Like Property

The enemy understands something most Christians never think about. A breakthrough left unguarded is an open invitation.

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

What you don’t guard, you don’t keep. The enemy’s assignment doesn’t end when your prayer gets answered, it just changes shape.

If it’s your health, guard the habits that got you here. Keep doing whatever you started doing when you got serious, rest, diet, the follow-up appointments, the prayer. Healing that gets neglected has a way of quietly reversing.

If it’s your family, guard the pattern that rebuilt it. Whatever conversation, whatever forgiveness, whatever daily choice brought the relationship back, that’s not a one-time fix. It’s a new habit you have to keep choosing.

If it’s your finances, guard it by giving from it. Waiting until you feel secure to give is backwards, giving is what makes you secure.

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse... and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing.” (Malachi 3:10)

And whatever kind of breakthrough it is, refuse to isolate. The breakthroughs that get stolen quietest are the ones nobody else knew about.

3. Multiply It

A breakthrough that stops with you was never fully received. It was only briefly borrowed. Every harvest in scripture carried seed inside it, whether God gave you money, a diagnosis reversed, or a family put back together.

“He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6)

Somebody in your life is exactly where you were six months ago. Sick where you were sick. Estranged where you were estranged. Broke where you were broke. Your job now is to become the proof that keeps them from quitting.

Testimony is warfare, and it works the same way no matter what the breakthrough was. Every time you tell what God did, healed, restored, or provided, you’re handing somebody else the bricks to rebuild their faith with.

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” (Revelation 12:11)

Can your healing be the thing that keeps a sick friend praying? Can your restored family be the hope a struggling couple needs? Can your financial breakthrough fund somebody else’s need? Hoard a breakthrough and it shrinks. Sow it and it multiplies.

The Charge

God did not bring you this far to watch you drop it.

The breakthrough sitting in your hands right now, whatever kind it is, is a chapter, not the whole story. Guard it, because it’s valuable. Steward it, because heaven is watching how you handle what heaven gave you. Give it away like seed, because that’s exactly what it was designed to be.

“The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.” (Psalm 138:8)

He started this. He is not asking you to finish it alone. He’s asking you to steward it well, and let Him keep building from there.

Don’t just enjoy your breakthrough. Multiply it.

Want the full guide, with a checklist and a scripture bank organized by category? Download it free here.

Reflection Questions

1. Get Purposeful, Not Comfortable: What is your current breakthrough actually positioning you to do next?
2. Guard It Like Property: Whatever kind of breakthrough you have, are you still doing what got you here, health, family, or finances?
3. Multiply It: Who in your life is exactly where you were before your breakthrough? Have you told them your story yet?

Most people think water baptism means “get wet in front of everybody.” That’s not wrong, exactly. But it’s missing almost everything that makes baptism so powerful. To really see it, we have to go back to the actual word the New Testament writers used, because in English we lost something in translation.

The Word Behind the Word

Every time you read “baptize” or “baptism” in your English Bible, the word sitting underneath it in the original Greek is baptizo (pronounced bap-TID-zo). Here’s the first thing worth knowing: the King James translators didn’t actually translate this word. They transliterated it, they just turned Greek letters into English letters and called it a day. So “baptize” in English isn’t really an English word at all. It’s a Greek word wearing an English costume.

That matters, because it means most of us have never actually heard what baptizo meant to the people who first used it.

What Baptizo Meant on the Street

Baptizo wasn’t a churchy, religious word before the New Testament picked it up. It was a completely ordinary Greek word used constantly in everyday life, and its use outside the Bible tells us exactly what it meant.

Ancient Greek dye makers used baptizo to describe what happened when you took a plain, undyed piece of cloth and dipped it into a vat of dye. The cloth would go in one color and come out a completely different color, and it wouldn’t wash out. The dye didn’t just sit on top of the fabric. It penetrated it, saturated it, and permanently changed its identity. Ancient writers described the cloth as being “baptized” in the dye.

Greek writers also used this word to describe a ship going down at sea. When a vessel sank beneath the waves, it was “baptized.” Not sprinkled. Not splashed. Completely overtaken, completely submerged, completely changed in status from a floating ship to a sunken one.

Do you see the pattern? Baptizo always describes a total change of identity through total immersion. Not a light touch. A complete overtaking.

Why That Changes Everything About Your Baptism

Now read Romans 6 with that meaning loaded into the word:

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3–4)

Paul isn’t describing a light sprinkle of religious ceremony. He’s using the dye-vat word. He’s saying that when you go under that water, you are being baptizo’d into Christ the same way that cloth was baptizo’d into the dye. You go in one identity. You come out a completely different one, permanently, all the way through, not just on the surface.

That’s why we don’t sprinkle at Ambassador Global. It’s not because sprinkling is wrong exactly, it’s because it can’t picture what actually happened to you. You didn’t get a little bit saved. You got fully submerged into a brand new identity in Christ, the old one gone, dead and buried, and a new one raised up in its place. Full immersion is the only picture big enough for what Jesus actually did to you.

It’s a Testimony Before You Say a Word

Here’s the part people miss. Water baptism is a sermon your body preaches without you saying anything. Going under the water pictures your old identity dying and being buried. Coming back up pictures resurrection, brand new life, on the other side of the grave your old self went into.

Everyone watching gets to see the gospel acted out in front of them. That’s why we don’t do this quietly. Baptism is meant to be watched.

What to Actually Expect

Getting baptized doesn’t require you to have your theology perfectly sorted out or your life fully cleaned up first. It requires faith in what Jesus already did, and a willingness to say so publicly.

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” (Mark 16:16)

Belief comes first. Baptism is simply you agreeing, out loud, in front of witnesses, with something that’s already true about you in Christ.

If you’ve believed and you haven’t yet gone under the water, don’t wait for a feeling. The dye doesn’t wait for the cloth to feel ready. It just goes in, and the cloth comes out changed.

Want to go deeper on this word study? Download the free companion guide here, or sign up to get baptized.

Reflection Questions

1. Before reading this, what did you picture when you heard the word “baptism”? How does the dye-vat picture change that?
2. Is there an area of your identity that still feels more “sprinkled” than “fully immersed” in who Christ says you are?
3. If you’ve already been baptized, what did that day preach to the people watching you?

If you've never read the whole Bible, or you've started a dozen times and never made it past Leviticus, start here instead. Start with John.

Out of the four gospels, John is the one written specifically so you would believe.

“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” (John 20:31)

That's not a side note, that's the author telling you exactly why he wrote it. Not to give you history. Not to give you religion. To give you life, through believing exactly who Jesus is.

Why 21 Days

Twenty-one days isn't a magic number, but it's long enough to build a habit and short enough that you can actually see the finish line from day one. One chapter a day gets you through all 21 chapters of John in three weeks. That's it. No pressure to catch up if you miss a day, no guilt trip, just open your Bible and keep going.

We didn't build this to make you feel behind. We built it because the single biggest reason people don't read their Bible consistently is that they don't know where to start or how much to read. This removes both excuses.

What You'll Actually See

John doesn't read like the other gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell you what Jesus did. John tells you who Jesus is, over and over, in Jesus' own words. “I am the bread of life.” “I am the light of the world.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” Seven of these “I am” statements sit inside this one book, and every one of them is Jesus answering the question people are still asking today: who are you, really?

You'll also watch faith form in real time, in real people. A woman at a well who came for water and left as a witness. A man born blind who couldn't explain the theology but knew “one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” (John 9:25) A friend named Lazarus who was dead four days before Jesus called him back out.

How to Actually Use It

Read the chapter for the day. One sitting, start to finish, out loud if you can, faith comes by hearing, even when you're the one doing the reading. Don't rush to the next chapter early. Let one day's chapter sit with you before you move to the next.

If a verse stops you, stop there. That's not a distraction from the plan, that might be the whole reason you're on day 9 instead of day 3.

Want to walk through it at your own pace? Download the free 21-day plan here.

Reflection Questions

1. If you've tried to read through the Bible before and stalled out, what usually gets in the way?
2. Which of Jesus' “I am” statements in John do you most need to hear right now?
3. What would it look like to actually finish something you started, this time, in 21 days?

Most believers who never share their faith aren't afraid of rejection. They're afraid of messing up the words. They're worried they'll forget a verse, stumble over an explanation, or freeze the moment somebody asks a hard question.

Here's the good news: you don't need to be eloquent. You need to be available, and you need the truth. That's it.

“For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” (Romans 1:16)

Did you catch what actually carries the power in that verse? Not your delivery. Not your confidence. The gospel itself. You're not the power source, you're just the one holding the wire.

Why We Wrote You a Script

A script isn't a crutch, it's training wheels. Nobody rides a bike forever with training wheels on, but nobody starts without them either. The first few times you share the gospel with someone, having simple, clear words ready to lean on takes the pressure off you to perform and puts the focus back where it belongs, on the message.

Jesus sent His disciples out before they had it all figured out. He didn't wait for them to become eloquent theologians first.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 28:19)

He said go. Not go once you feel ready.

What Actually Matters in the Conversation

Every soul-winning conversation, however it unfolds, is really carrying the same handful of truths: that every person has sinned and is separated from God, that Jesus died and rose again to close that gap, and that anyone who believes and confesses Him as Lord is saved. You don't have to say it perfectly. You have to say it.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Notice that verse doesn't say “if you can explain the hypostatic union.” It says believe and confess. That's the bar. That's genuinely the whole bar.

What to Do With Fear

You will feel nervous the first time. That's not a sign you're doing it wrong, that's a sign you understand what's actually at stake in the conversation. Feel the nerves and open your mouth anyway.

Keep the script somewhere you can actually get to it, your phone, a card in your wallet, wherever. You're not reading it to someone like a robot, you're leaning on it so you don't freeze.

Ready to actually use it? Download the free Soul Winning Script here.

Reflection Questions

1. What's actually stopped you from sharing your faith in the past, fear of the words, or fear of the rejection?
2. Who is one person in your life you could have this conversation with this month?
3. What would it change if you believed the gospel itself carries the power, not your delivery of it?