Greetings, Dear Friends!
I post on the last Thursday of each month, which these days, puts me on holidays. Oh, well. 🙂 My monthly theme is around building a speaking platform.
When was the last time you had a conversation with someone, and something they said about knocked you over? Maybe it was one word or a short phrase or a word picture, but when those words went into your ears, your heart beat faster and maybe your cheeks even felt flush. Does that ever happen to you?
Sometimes those moments happen while watching a movie, reading a book, or listening to a song. Such moments are now-moments when God is speaking to us and we’d do well to slow down and really listen to what the Creator of the Universe is saying to us.
Prior to every new speaking season, I spend some significant time in prayer and I ask God for a few inheritance verses for my upcoming season. And since faith pleases Him, I also ask Him what I can believe Him for – what He wants me to reach up for and lay hold of. Surprisingly, one of the things God asked me to believe Him for was for many more now-words for my audience.
Let me explain.
I knew God wanted me so in step with Him that when I spoke from that platform, the very words I used – sometimes unknowingly to me – would be the exact words needed to hit the mark and bring truth where there was a lie. In my prayers, I imagined women having light-bulb moments where one moment they believed the worst about themselves and the next moment, they believed the beautiful truth about themselves. One moment a cloud of oppression hangs overhead, and the next moment, joy breaks through!
The more earnestly I prayed, the more excited I felt about the possibilities before me.
My speaking season runs from fall to spring (September to May). I’ve completed the first half of my season and let me tell you, I’ve had MORE women approach me with tears in their eyes, letting me know that I said exactly what God had previously spoken to their hearts, or exactly what they had just read in the Word, or exactly what they needed to hear. Some women asked me if I had been reading their mail.
All of this to say, as Christian communicators, we have access to SO much more than we know! Therefore, as we venture into a new decade, may we be bold enough to lay hold of God’s presence and power and provision for the sake of those we are appointed to reach.
Yes, the times are troubling, but God’s promises are true!
Everywhere we turn, we hear words of death, defeat, of gloom and doom. But Jesus is alive and well and He is busy and active in our midst!
May we spend time with God before we go out and speak so that when we open our mouths, words of life flow freely through us.
Jesus said, “Whoever believes in Me as the Scriptures have said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38).
Until next month~
Stephanie Shott
January 1, 2010 - 23 : 44 : 07I recently shared with someone that one of the greatest things about speaking is the “Light bulb” moments that we see in the eyes of women in need of the encouragement of God’s Word, God’s truth and God’s principles.
ReplyHis call to speak is motivation enough, but when He uses us to speak “eye-opening” truth into someone’s life, it confirms that we are sharing something from His heart to theirs.
You have encouraged me that my prayer for this decade would be, “May we be bold enough to lay hold of God’s presence and power and provision for the sake of those we are appointed to reach.”