God has a Great Adventure for You, Laura Allred's Story

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Hey friends, I love a good story, especially when it's a God story.

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I love to hear how God takes ordinary women and does extraordinary things in,

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for, and even through them.

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I'm your host, Jodie Chiricosta, ministry leader at Somebody Cares America,

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international author and traveler on this journey of faith.

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And I've got a story that will equip, inspire, and encourage you in your walk

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with the Lord. So welcome. I am so glad you've tuned in.

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Hey, have you heard about the Her God Story podcast clubs?

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It's an easy way to gather together a few friends, neighbors,

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or colleagues to talk and encourage one another in your journey of faith.

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It's very, very simple. Listen to the same episode,

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download our prepared podcast questions from hergodstory.org,

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and then discuss over your favorite refreshments.

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And it's a great way to reach out to friends who don't yet know Christ,

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include them in the conversation and see what God will do.

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Listening to an episode takes much less time than reading most books.

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And we think you'll have a lot of takers. So gather some friends and try it out.

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When you do email us at prayer at somebody cares.org to let us know so we

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can be praying for you. When Paul was a prisoner in Rome,

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he wrote to the church in Ephesus,

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pleading with them in chapter four, verse one,

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to lead a life worthy of your calling for you have been called by God.

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And dear friend, if you have put your faith in Jesus,

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you also have a calling.

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Laura Allred has known this from a very young age.

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She has chosen again and again to say yes to her calling.

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And God has used her in some remarkable ways.

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Laura is a dynamic speaker, evangelist, and prayer warrior.

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She currently serves as the young adult pastor at Trinity church in Dallas,

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Texas, and as a wife and devoted mom to her beautiful daughter. Welcome Laura.

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Thank you so much, Jodie. Thank you for having me.

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I'm excited to be here. Laura, from a young age,

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you had a really tender heart toward the Lord and a desire to do as well.

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But where did that come from? And how did that play out in your young life?

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Well, when I think about where it came from,

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I think about the scripture in Timothy where Paul talks,

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Paul writes a letter to Timothy and says,

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I know the faith that was in your mother,

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Eunice and your grandmother, Lois, or maybe it was the other way around.

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And he said, and now that faith is also in you,

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Timothy. And I know that a lot of my faith has come from the godly heritage.

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I had a praying grandmother, praying mama.

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And so from a very young age, you know, the Lord, before my parents had me,

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they were, they said, Lord,

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we want to have this next child and we want it to be dedicated to you.

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Because before that they had not been saved.

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So I was their first child as a, as a believer.

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And so they dedicated me even before they conceived me.

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And I just had a very tender,

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hard like I just remember being young five, six, seven years old.

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And, and just having a very open, tender heart to the Lord and,

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and just weeping in his presence and hungry to grow in him from those very

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tender ages.

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And from what your mama tells me, because I know her as well,

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you were a little evangelist even when you were in elementary school.

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Yeah. So I was fasting.

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I don't even know where I heard about fasting in the second grade,

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but somehow I did.

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And I was actually fasting for my classmates in the second grade and,

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you know, skipping lunches and praying for their salvation.

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I realized that many of them didn't know the Lord.

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And one time I threw my pencil under my desk so that I could lean down under my

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desk in kindergarten and pray for my classmates who were misbehaving,

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that they would come to know Jesus.

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And, you know, I, I, you know, all the second, third grade,

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fourth grade, and I would even like witness, you know,

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witness to my friends and some of them still serving the Lord today.

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One in full time ministry,

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whose family never came to the Lord, never came to Jesus, but you know,

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just through faithful witness, she's still serving the Lord in ministry.

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So I've always had a heart for people and for the Lord to be,

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you know, made real in their lives.

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Yeah. And nobody can say that God does not answer the prayer that he's

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saying, you know, that God does not answer the prayers of children.

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But because, you know, children pray with such faith. Right.

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So there's no junior Holy spirit, right? That is true.

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So there's no junior Holy spirit.

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So my, even now my daughter's having visions and seeing things.

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And I'm like, yeah, come on to having prophetic words. And yeah, we love it.

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Yeah. So clearly you were marked at a young age.

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But in your teen years, you went through some sifting,

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a sifting period when the lies of the enemy took root in your heart a bit.

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What did you go through and what changed things for you?

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Yeah. So in high school, I started hanging around different people.

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And some of them began to pose the question like, well,

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how do you know that Jesus is real?

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Or how do you know you were actually filled with the influence of the Holy

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spirit at a young age? You know, this is all you've ever known your whole life.

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So maybe you've just been conditioned to believe this way. So I'm, you know,

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17, 18 years old and I start questioning a lot of things and

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even encounters that I had as, as a young child.

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And I'm just like all or nothing. Like I'm all in, you know,

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I'm just like, what you see is what you get. I'm so genuine. I'm just like,

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just, this is, this is my whole life. I'm, I just,

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I'm not great at hiding things or pretending.

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And so about the age of 18,

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I had a conversation with my parents and I said, listen, I'm,

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I'm starting to wonder about all of this. Like all I've ever known is growing up

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in the church and maybe, you know, maybe there's other ways. You know,

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I didn't know what any of those other ways would be,

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but I did know that I didn't want to continue to like go to church and pretend

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and play a good church girl and worship when I knew that my heart was being torn.

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So I just said, Hey, I'm just not going to come to church.

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And my mom was devastated. My parents, both of them were devastated.

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And I began to just kind of, you know,

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explore and kind of party and drink and do some drugs and you know,

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nothing hardcore, but just, you know, young adult rebellion really.

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And now that I'm a young adult pastor, right.

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Now that I'm pastoring 18, 19, 20 year olds,

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I actually gathered several of them in my house just last week. And I said,

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why do you keep coming to church? Now it's not just your parents' faith.

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It belongs to you. So talk to me about how you made that transition.

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And so that's basically where I was. I was just discovering, okay, you know,

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the cult, the hand of God in my life. And so I was, I don't know,

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maybe a year or a year and a half into this rebellion.

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And I ended up going to party with some friends and tried some experimental

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drugs I had never tried before. And like shrooms and acid and just

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things that are very like hallucinogenics, you know? So, you know,

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it opens up your mind,

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but it also opens up your spirit to actually see the spirit world.

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And I heard the voice of the Lord so clearly. And he said, Laura,

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what are you doing here?

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This is what you have been trained to stay away from your entire life.

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Like you've been called to something more.

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And so I ended up literally running out of that place.

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I like on foot ran and just got help.

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And from one day to the very next, I was like, that's it.

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Like I belong to Jesus. It was like a wake up call.

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Like I knew I belong to the Lord.

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God has amazing things for me and this is not what I was created to do.

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And so it was just like the, the, the switch went on.

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And I literally from what I did,

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180 from one day to the next and just never looked back. Like I belong to

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Jesus and behind the scenes, your parents were in deep intercession,

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weren't they serious intercession. So, you know,

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I just want to encourage anybody who's listening,

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who may have protocols that are running from the Lord, you know,

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sometimes it gets worse before it gets better because the enemy does not want

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your children to fulfill their destiny.

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And so my parents were like tired of seeing me running from the Lord.

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So they, they wouldn't, they,

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someone gave them keys to a little house on the ranch somewhere in Texas.

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And they went into a bunch of liquids and soups and juices and said,

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we are going to come here and fast and contend for breakthrough for our

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daughter until we feel released from the Lord. And they did that.

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Of course they didn't tell me I had no idea until later.

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And it was shortly after that, that their prayers broke through,

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Jesus broke in and, and that was, you know, that, that was a game changer.

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Amen. So you woke up literally and spiritually from that,

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those nightmare years and your first love for Jesus just consumed you again.

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And you determined at that point to live a life of obedience to God.

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Now I know the word obedience can have a really negative connotation for a lot

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of people. It did to me for many years. I mean, you know, obey, obey, obey.

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It seems so legalistic, right? Until the Lord gave me a revelation.

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The obedience to God is really just walking with him.

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You know, walking side by side, if we're walking with God,

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we're following his lead. And, and that's what you did.

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You started saying yes to whatever God said,

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and you took, he took you on quite a journey.

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How did it begin and tell us a little of where it led.

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Cause I know we don't have time to talk about every, everything you did.

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Oh my gosh.

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Here's some of the highlights.

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Yeah. So I just, I gave her, I gave the Lord my heart.

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And just like any relationship, when you get to know someone, you,

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if you have a best friend that goes like, Hey, I really hate drinking coffee.

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Like let's not go on coffee dates. Let's go do something else.

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I would be like, yeah, let's go do something else. You know, so it was kind of,

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in that way, cultivating my relationship with the Lord through his word

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and learning him through the Holy spirit, what kinds of things bless his heart.

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And what would draw me close to him and what would put separation between us.

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And I learned early on to listen to his voice, to listen for his voice

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and that he would lead me and direct me.

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And so, you know, it started really simple with me saying yes,

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to go to Louisiana, to a Bible interview.

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A Bible internship training discipleship school.

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And I committed, you know, two years there.

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And when I was done, I just had this heart for evangelism

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and street evangelism and to see people, you know, just come to know Jesus

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that were far from the Lord.

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And so for a graduation present from my time in Louisiana,

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my mom sent me to a street ministers conference.

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And I was like, yeah, you know, like what kind of young adult woman?

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Like, that's her graduation prize.

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I was so excited, like to learn how to preach on the streets.

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And I got there and I saw this young married couple

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who were both in ministry.

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He was preaching and she was leading worship,

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and they happen to have two small children.

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And I had been practicing listening to the voice of the Lord.

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And I thought perhaps I heard the Lord say, hey, why don't you ask her

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if she needs help with her kids?

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Maybe you could serve her in that way.

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And my initial thought was I don't want to, Lord.

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Like, I want to learn how to be a good street preacher.

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I don't want to babysit.

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I don't. And I just heard the Lord just, you know, kind of press on my heart.

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Like it was an invitation, Jodi.

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Like, I feel like that's how the Lord works with us.

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He like invites us into a God adventure.

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He invites us into something that wouldn't normally occur to us.

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And so he invited me to to this.

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And so I was like, OK, Lord, I want to obey and yes, let's I'll do this.

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And so, you know, asking this, I thought, but for sure, she's not going to say yes,

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because if I were a mom and some woman that I came up didn't know me and asked,

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you know, can I watch your kids? I'd probably say no.

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So I thought, surely this is just a test and she's going to say no.

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Well, unbeknownst to me, she was like she just felt a yes in her spirit.

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She's like, that would be so great. Yeah. Could you please could you please do that?

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So there I am at this conference, you know, pushing this five year old

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playing with a five year old, pushing a six month old in a stroller, thinking,

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Lord, what is this even about? Like, why am I even doing this?

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You know, I paid good money to be here.

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I paid good money to be here at this conference, you know, but as I obeyed,

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the Lord actually had a relationship with this woman and her husband for me,

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a mentor discipling relationship that would open the door later for me

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to join them in their ministry in Colorado, that would later open another door

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to meet my spiritual mom, Cindy Jacobs, and and just so many other things

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that led through that one act of obedience.

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I can even trace actually meeting and my husband, my current husband,

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to that act of obedience.

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If I hadn't said yes to watch this woman's children in a time

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that was uncomfortable and I really didn't want to,

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it wouldn't have led to another relationship that led to another relationship

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that eventually led to me meeting my husband.

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And so that act of obedience was I just am so grateful that I said yes to the Lord

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and all the twists and turns that it took me down the journey

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but that's one of the stories of obedience and saying yes to the Lord.

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Yeah, and that opened up, that act of obedience opened up an opportunity

230
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and really gave you a heart for Norway,

231
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which you didn't even know where Norway was on the map, right?

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I didn't.

233
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No, so in a time of prayer, I heard the Lord say, you know, again,

234
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learning to listen to his voice, I would like you to an invitation,

235
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hey, let's pray for revival in Norway.

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And my heart was so moved, my spirit was so blessed

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and I was so gripped.

238
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It was almost the closest to audible I've ever heard the Lord's voice.

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It wasn't audible but I'm telling you, it very well could have been,

240
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it was so short to me, but I didn't know where Norway was,

241
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I had no idea where Norway was on the map,

242
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but I knew that God had called me to this country.

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And I am the very opposite of Norwegian culture.

244
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So, you know, Norwegians are very demure and quiet

245
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and I'm Latina and I'm from the inner city of Houston

246
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and Norway is like stepping back in time.

247
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You know, the culture is just so precious and pure

248
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and just so beautiful.

249
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I mean, just polar opposites really,

250
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personality and ethnicity.

251
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And the Lord opened up a door six months after he shared that with me

252
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to go to Norway and I went, it was 1997.

253
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That's been some time ago.

254
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And I, from where we landed in Oslo, Norway

255
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to where we drove for our first ministry opportunity,

256
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which was a city called Kristiansand, Norway,

257
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it was a six-hour drive.

258
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I wept the entire time because the Lord had so knitted my heart to this nation

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that I had no natural connection to, just a spiritual connection.

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And I wept the entire time and I just felt so much love

261
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and like, God, what do you want to do in this nation?

262
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And that trip opened up and I ended up staying for like three months.

263
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This is back way before 9-11 and you could extend your time

264
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and just kind of, we were able to move about the nations a little bit more freely.

265
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And the Lord opened so many doors for me to go in and out of the nation

266
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and meet parliament members and ended up just wild journeys

267
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all over the country of Norway and praying in very key places

268
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and doing strategic prayer journeys there.

269
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So, yeah, it's kind of a dream.

270
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When I even recount the story and I look back, I'm like, how did that happen?

271
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Yeah.

272
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Like, yeah, go ahead.

273
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Well, then you left Norway and you ended up going with a group to Israel

274
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for the Feast of Tabernacles.

275
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Right.

276
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And you had another encounter with some Norwegians there.

277
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Yeah.

278
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So when I came home from Norway after that first trip, I was like,

279
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I had what I call inverted homesickness.

280
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And my heart was just still so gripped for this beautiful country

281
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and for God to make himself real.

282
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Because at that time, less than 1% of Norwegians are Christians.

283
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And so they needed a revival.

284
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So I came home and had this wild prophetic word from this prophet that said,

285
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keep your bags packed because you're going to be going across

286
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from border to border in this season.

287
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And it's like 1998 or so.

288
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And I have no money.

289
00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:38,440
I'm just this young adult woman with a yes in my heart to Jesus.

290
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:45,120
And I ended up through just wild one step of obedience after the other,

291
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:48,880
I'm meeting people who then invited me to spend the summer in Canada

292
00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:54,720
doing ministry and then came home one day, washed my clothes, packed my bag,

293
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:59,680
went to Argentina with Excervoso, came home, dumped out my clothes,

294
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:05,360
washed those clothes, packed them again, went back to Canada, went to Israel.

295
00:17:05,360 --> 00:17:09,800
I mean, it was just this summer where I was literally in five different nations

296
00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:10,800
in just one summer.

297
00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:15,120
And it was all Doug Stringer says, I think he was the first I heard him say

298
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the kingdom of God is built on relationships.

299
00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:20,600
And it was just one door after the other from saying yes to the Lord

300
00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:21,720
and making myself available.

301
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:25,880
So I ended up going to Norway with the group of First Nations

302
00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:27,760
for the Feast of Tabernacle in 1999.

303
00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:28,560
You went to Israel.

304
00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:29,840
To Israel, yeah.

305
00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:35,480
Went to Israel for the Feast of Tabernacles with some First Nations family.

306
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:40,000
And I met this big convention center and there's everyone from all over the world.

307
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,600
It's just fulfilling a prophecy in Zechariah, I believe it is,

308
00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:45,320
that all the nations will come and worship before him.

309
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So anyway, I'm there.

310
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And I just think there's Norwegians here.

311
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I just know it.

312
00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:52,760
They're somewhere I can just, I almost can smell them.

313
00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:57,240
So I actually ended up seeing these two men that were dressed in their national

314
00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:03,240
bunad, which is the Norwegian folk costume or their wear.

315
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:05,480
And a spirit of prayer just came over me.

316
00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:09,320
And so I asked this one gentleman, can I pray for your nation?

317
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:12,680
And he said, yeah, yeah, very stoic.

318
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And so I went behind him and I put my hands on his shoulder.

319
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:19,120
And I just began just gently, spirit of prayer came over me

320
00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:23,720
and I began to weep and say, Jesus, come to Norway,

321
00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:28,560
which is just revival for Norway, God sent revival over Norway,

322
00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:30,800
just with tears just began to weep.

323
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,640
And I opened my eyes and I could see that he was like, you know,

324
00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:37,080
up in his chair and kind of, I thought, oh my goodness,

325
00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:38,280
I'm scaring this Norwegian guy.

326
00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:40,760
So I kind of stepped back slowly.

327
00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,000
Well, they came out to the lobby to find me, he and his friend afterward.

328
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,080
And they said, why are you praying for our country?

329
00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:49,800
And like, how, where are you from?

330
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:51,240
I said, well, I'm Mexican.

331
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:52,200
I'm from Texas.

332
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:57,080
And they're like, why is this young Mexican woman from Texas praying for our country?

333
00:18:57,080 --> 00:18:59,120
They were so taken back.

334
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:01,200
How, like, what would the connection be?

335
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:05,360
And I just shared quickly, the Lord asked me to pray for revival in your country.

336
00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:10,920
And one of the gentlemen was the editor of the largest Norwegian Christian newspaper

337
00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:16,160
at the time, his wife was a parliament member, elected parliament member,

338
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:17,880
high profile parliament member.

339
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:21,640
And we built a relationship and they invited me to go in and out and go

340
00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:27,360
into the parliament and lead prayer meetings and all kinds of amazing God adventures,

341
00:19:27,360 --> 00:19:31,240
all just traced back to a simple obedience and yes.

342
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:36,200
Yeah. And that obedience actually led you to a three month prayer journey in Norway.

343
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,520
And, you know, a lot of people might not know what a prayer journey is.

344
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:44,600
I took a prayer journey to Mongolia in 1995 as part of the Praying Through the 1040

345
00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:47,320
Window 100 Gateway City initiative.

346
00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:50,080
But explain what you did on your prayer journey.

347
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,920
I mean, it's more than just praying.

348
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:54,480
That is obviously a big part of it.

349
00:19:54,480 --> 00:20:02,240
But how did you, how did God lead you to pray and proclaim the promises of God over that nation?

350
00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:07,960
Yes. So I had taken probably about four trips, had so much favor in Norway

351
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,960
because obviously I was called there in that season.

352
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:15,880
And I came home and I, in a time of prayer, heard the Lord ask me, do you think, Laura,

353
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:20,440
do you think the prayers of one young woman can change the fate of a nation?

354
00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:24,920
And you know how the Lord will ask a question if you're learning to the voice of God.

355
00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:25,960
It's like he asks a question.

356
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:27,200
He already knows the answer.

357
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,480
He just wants to get you to understand that answer.

358
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:36,280
And so I knew right away when he said young one, one young woman, he was talking about me.

359
00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:40,240
But he was also paralleling the story in the Book of Esther,

360
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:44,280
where Esther's prayers changed the fate of her people at the time.

361
00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:46,080
And so I knew the answer was yes.

362
00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:51,920
And I feel like it was a deeper invitation to pray on a deeper level for the nation of Norway.

363
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:54,400
So I submitted it to my family. I'm single.

364
00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,760
You know, I'm probably 25 years old now and I'm a single young woman.

365
00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:03,120
So I submitted it to my parents and to my pastor and said, this is what I feel like God's calling me to.

366
00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:07,960
I feel like the Lord wants me to do some serious prayer for the nation of Norway,

367
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,560
some what we would call spiritual mapping.

368
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:16,240
Like, let's do some research on the nation of Norway and find out the most influential cities.

369
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:18,480
And what are these cities called to?

370
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:21,880
What are what are the redemptive gifts and blessings of these cities?

371
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:26,400
Not not what's all the negative thing that's going on in the city right now.

372
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:30,400
Like, for instance, Bergen is a city of great spirituality.

373
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:34,480
There's lots of witchcraft, but they have a prophetic call on that city.

374
00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:39,520
So instead of focusing on the witchcraft, let's talk about the prophetic call and the

375
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:41,680
prophetic destiny on the city.

376
00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:48,360
And so I did that in the four gate cities of Norway, which are Christiansen, Oslo, Trondheim and Bergen.

377
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:55,400
And I looked at the map and the Lord gave me a strategy and we started on the king's birthday.

378
00:21:55,400 --> 00:22:00,080
We started at the palace and we blessed the king, just me and young one young woman.

379
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,360
It was not hype. It was not big meetings in churches.

380
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:07,640
It wasn't big. You know, I wasn't doing interviews with the Christian newspaper at this time.

381
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,200
This was like we're just doing business for the Lord.

382
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:13,480
So we went and did a 40 day fast.

383
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:22,240
This young woman and I in the dead of Norway winter, which is, you know, the sun only shines maybe four hours a day.

384
00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:25,800
And even that sun's really overcast and there's snow nonstop.

385
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:32,400
So this Texas Houstonian was like really on the struggle bus with all the snow and the darkness.

386
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:34,400
And but God had called me there on the mission.

387
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:42,320
So we this young woman and I, we traveled to the highest places in these four gate cities, the highest we could get to.

388
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:44,960
And we did research and found out what their blessings were.

389
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:51,240
And we stood there and just began to bless the cities and began to speak the destiny of God over these cities.

390
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:58,320
And we would hop on a train, hop on a bus, get on a plane or on a ferry and travel across the country to the next city,

391
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:02,720
climb up the mountain in snow and do the same thing over that city.

392
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:04,520
And we did this over and over.

393
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:10,000
And as we were fasting for 40 days, it was my first liquid only fast for 40 days.

394
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:15,520
And we just held the nation of Norway up before the Lord and said, God, you have purpose and you have a destiny.

395
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:17,360
And we went to a small little cabin.

396
00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:29,240
We ended our fast by going to a tiny little cabin on the south coast of Norway with no TV, no radio, no connection for a week and just waited before the Lord and fasted and prayed.

397
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:37,040
And when we got out, when our ride came to pick us up at the end of that week, they said, you'll never believe what's happened.

398
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:38,280
We're like, what's going on?

399
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,760
And they said there's been an entire parliamentary shift.

400
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:49,320
The prime minister, who was the prime minister when you began your prayer journey earlier this week, has been voted out.

401
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:51,040
And there's been a shift in the government.

402
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:55,720
And we really believe this is a wake up call for the church to start praying.

403
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:59,920
And many Christians were like, this is this was nothing like this has ever happened.

404
00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:02,440
It really shook up the nation.

405
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:05,960
And, you know, it's just was such a powerful time of prayer.

406
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:08,800
We knew that the Lord was aware and hearing our prayers.

407
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:13,520
Yeah. So a lot of times we don't necessarily see that right.

408
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:20,800
The end result of our prayer. But God gives you a little glimpse that you connected, that you connected with his heart for it.

409
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:31,120
But after quite a few years of ministry overseas, a lot of which we weren't able to go into, God sent you back to Houston to minister quite literally at home.

410
00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:34,200
It was a tough time for your family.

411
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:40,000
And even in the midst of that tough time, God was still calling you to a new aspect of ministry.

412
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,920
So share about that season a little bit.

413
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:49,160
Yes, sir. I had finished my long I was actually in Norway, my longest stint there working for Nikki Cruz.

414
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:55,680
And we did some evangelism outreach. So I got to pray this is another season years later that I got to be part of reaping the harvest.

415
00:24:55,680 --> 00:25:04,320
That was really, really beautiful. But I got a phone call from my mom and she said, your dad had some grand mal seizures overnight.

416
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:08,560
And they did a CAT scan and found a spot on his brain.

417
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:12,560
And that very day, I packed up all my belongings.

418
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:22,800
And I said, live there for almost a year and flew home that day to my dad being diagnosed with a massive brain tumor in his frontal lobe.

419
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:32,560
And he was never the same. So, you know, from I came home just it was it was it was a very stark pivot.

420
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:38,400
And so I'm like, OK, well, here I am. I'm going to say yes to honoring and taking care of my father.

421
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:43,520
And it was really, really difficult the type of brain tumor that he had in his frontal lobe.

422
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:47,960
And the doctor said it's going to present a little bit like Alzheimer's, but on fast track.

423
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:54,920
So what normally happens with Alzheimer's patients forgetting, you know, different things, you know, despondency and all kinds of I mean,

424
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:59,600
that's indeed what happened in a very, very short amount of time, like rapid rapidly.

425
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,880
Like before we knew it, he was unable to swallow his food.

426
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:11,560
He was falling down in the house and he was kind of a John Wayne man's man, burly kind of guy who could fix anything.

427
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:14,520
And I was definitely I'm a daddy's girl.

428
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:27,560
And, you know, it was just so stunning to watch his quick downward progression and how his his life began just to wither away literally in front of us.

429
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:34,080
So from the time he was diagnosed to nine to when he passed away and went to be with Jesus, it was nine months.

430
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:43,200
And at the end of that time period, I began to be his primary caretaker because it was so difficult for my mom to see that and to just, you know, to watch.

431
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:45,760
So I just said, hey, you know, let me let me take this on.

432
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:55,480
And so I was up through the night with him, you know, feeding tubes, administering medicine at the very end, you know, as his lungs are starting to give in because he's immobile and,

433
00:26:55,480 --> 00:27:02,360
you know, beds or just the whole bed sores and, you know, his pneumonia setting in.

434
00:27:02,360 --> 00:27:05,800
I mean, it was it was really heart wrenching.

435
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:11,040
Oh, yeah. And just, yeah, just so difficult to see.

436
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,280
But I will never, ever forget.

437
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:16,080
I'll just just tell you the story quickly.

438
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:21,240
And, you know, he was at the very end is probably maybe a week or so before he would pass.

439
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:33,080
And at that point, he's nonverbal, completely nonverbal in a semi comatose state, mostly asleep, awake, you know, maybe two minutes of the day, three minutes of the day.

440
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:36,640
And and even then, his eyes are he's just in the slumber going into sleep.

441
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:43,440
And I crawled up in bed with him and I put my arm around his head and I, you know, he can't move his limbs.

442
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,360
You know, he's again just almost like a vegetable.

443
00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:50,280
And I, I, I held his hand and I put his fingers.

444
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:58,600
I intertwined his fingers into my fingers and I began to pray for him because my dad loved to worship the Lord.

445
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:04,000
And I felt like he wanted to worship the Lord and his spirit was alive and well.

446
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:05,840
It was just his body that was shutting down.

447
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,240
So I just began to worship the Lord.

448
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:09,640
I said, Jesus, we just love you.

449
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:11,080
We worship you right now.

450
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:12,520
We we praise you.

451
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:13,480
And I just began to pray.

452
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:17,400
And all of a sudden, he began to start responding.

453
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:21,960
And he was saying, amen, amen.

454
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:28,920
And I just was trying to articulate what was in his spirit and his spirit was alive.

455
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:31,480
It was so beautiful to see.

456
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,240
And he kind of squeezed my hand back.

457
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:41,600
And that was kind of almost the very last interaction I was able to have with him was was

458
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:46,800
worshiping the Lord with him and praying and then saying to him, go be with Jesus, daddy, it's OK.

459
00:28:46,800 --> 00:29:02,800
You know, so I was when he went to be with the Lord, we immediately shifted our although we fasted and prayed for God to heal him and would believe that he would.

460
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:10,160
Immediately, my mom, as soon as he took his last breath, thrusted her to hug him.

461
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:13,040
And her first words were, I'm so happy for you.

462
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,400
We were just so happy that he was getting to be with his Lord, with the Lord.

463
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:22,400
But of course, after all of that, you know, when you start to grapple with, OK, Lord, why didn't you heal my dad?

464
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:23,960
You know, what's what happened?

465
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:29,320
You know, the grief sets in a lot of questions for the Lord about that.

466
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:39,520
But I kept turning my heart to yes toward him, even though in the healing, you know, just kept trying to pivot and just keep being obedient to Jesus no matter what.

467
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:41,120
Yeah.

468
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:49,320
And that while you were there, that that kind of took you into starting to minister to young women.

469
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:55,520
And and during that time, you you met your husband shortly after shortly after.

470
00:29:55,520 --> 00:30:00,000
Yeah. So I might, you know, in this grief season.

471
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:09,320
But then I went to a really large church in Houston, a mega church there in Houston, and I started seeing all these young women around me that needed discipleship.

472
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:16,800
And it was like they didn't know I was, you know, my end into my 20s, then, you know, early, early 30s.

473
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:18,800
And they didn't know they needed a mentor.

474
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,840
But I would they would just keep gravitating toward me for mentorship.

475
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:25,600
And I was like, let's just make this official. Let's just start something for young women.

476
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:34,120
So we started I started a ministry called Captured for Young Adult Women that I did for seven years in total.

477
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:37,920
It was a biweekly gathering. We did some conferences out of that.

478
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:41,160
And started this biweekly gathering and it was growing.

479
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:47,480
And I actually met Gabriel through Cindy Jacobs.

480
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:49,440
Our story is pretty, pretty amazing.

481
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:57,880
The prophetic words that I got, the same prophetic word that told me to keep my bags packed back in 1997.

482
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:07,400
In that same prophetic word, the prophet said, you are not called to walk alone and you're going to spiritually bump into your husband and he's going to be your partner in every way.

483
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:12,160
So as I went through my 20s and 30s, I was like, Lord, spiritually bump in.

484
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:16,400
That's so vague. Like, what does that look like?

485
00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:20,200
How do you spiritually bump into someone? People would try to hook me up with, like set me up on dates.

486
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:22,000
I'm like, I don't think that's spiritually bumping.

487
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:27,120
You know, I had this I had this word over, you know, my whole life anyway.

488
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:36,680
So I did meet Gabriel and and he reminded me once we met and started talking that we had met five years before.

489
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:46,040
At a conference that we were in at a young adult conference and we were in the foyer of this conference and he struck up a conversation with me.

490
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:53,600
And it was just very quick, like just random stranger conference, you know, and he remembered me.

491
00:31:53,600 --> 00:32:02,240
And five years later, saw me again and recognized me as the woman that he met and the young woman that he met in Arizona.

492
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,960
And we spiritually bumped into each other. I mean, it literally happened.

493
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:11,080
So, yeah, so we started this ministry, met my husband Gabriel, moved.

494
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:16,920
We got married, moved to Dallas and continued in ministry.

495
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:24,960
This young women's ministry took a lot of different twists and turns, but it eventually led me into a national pro-life voice.

496
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,120
But, yeah, it was an amazing journey.

497
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:35,920
So during all those years when you were traveling, waiting for your husband to come, you also had desire to be a mom.

498
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:43,480
So when you got married, you were in your 30s at this point, you wanted to start a family pretty quick, as is quite understandable.

499
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,040
But right away you started running up against challenges.

500
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,640
Share a little about that struggle and how that affected your faith.

501
00:32:50,640 --> 00:33:00,160
Well, well, well, so, you know, I can totally relate to women that are wanting to be married and tired of being alone.

502
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:09,600
And, you know, we, Gabriel and I, when we met and it was from our first date to our wedding day was 11 months, less than a year.

503
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:18,760
Right after we got married, within two months, I got a random illness that hindered our intimacy.

504
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:21,640
It hindered our newlywed connection.

505
00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:26,720
And it's something that only two percent of women will ever experience.

506
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:33,280
It's a random, obscure female issue that is a lot of pain, increased pain.

507
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:42,120
So I'm a little bit frustrated with the Lord because I'm like, all right, here I am, like 31 years old, 32 years old, finally married.

508
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:47,520
Super excited to have this great honeymoon, newlywed sex life.

509
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:50,320
And then we can't even do that. Right. It was heart wrenching.

510
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:54,480
I'm like, OK, Lord, you know, I'm not going to I'm just I'm just going to keep obeying.

511
00:33:54,480 --> 00:34:01,320
And so about a year or so, we're ready to start having children and I can't get pregnant,

512
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:08,880
which I never thought would have been an issue because all of my family members, you know, we have my mom's one of 10.

513
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,440
You know, we're Latina. We have lots of kids.

514
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:19,800
And so I when we started, you know, coming against infertility after a year of trying, it's not happening.

515
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:28,400
I was bamboozled. I was surprised and shocked and heartbroken.

516
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:33,360
And we began to seek the help of doctors like what's going on.

517
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:36,720
It was unexplained. There really wasn't an issue.

518
00:34:36,720 --> 00:34:40,680
We're not really sure. Probably just advanced maternal age.

519
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:47,080
And it was it progressed from one year to two years to three years.

520
00:34:47,080 --> 00:35:00,040
All the while, I'm still doing ministry ministry to young adults when the Lord starts rekindling a childhood call for praying for the ending of abortion.

521
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:05,840
Now, this is something that I ending of legalized abortion, I should say.

522
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:11,080
I know abortion will always be happening in our nation, but the ending of legalized abortion.

523
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:18,800
So, you know, as a young girl, I was gripped by by this issue in like nine, ten years old.

524
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:29,720
And so fast forward all these years later, as I was leading these young women, we began to pray into this and be, you know, pray at clinics.

525
00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:33,120
We helped fund adoptions, all sorts of things.

526
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:37,840
So began this began to be stirred up in my heart even more.

527
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:42,120
And I'm half asleep one day in the middle of this infertility journey.

528
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,320
So my heart is all over the place.

529
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:55,240
But I heard the Lord say, I want you to do another prayer journey and and do a prayer journey from the nation's largest abortion clinic, which is in Houston, Texas at the time.

530
00:35:55,240 --> 00:36:03,360
Seventy thousand square feet and walk back to Dallas, where the first federal filings were for Roe v.

531
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,360
Wade. So so for your listeners, I know this.

532
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:10,240
It probably sounds completely like, wait, what?

533
00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:13,720
And it was it was similar to the prayer journey for Norway.

534
00:36:13,720 --> 00:36:25,280
Right. But it was a strategic prayer, a strategic prayer journey, just like the children of Israel walked around the walls of Jericho seven times and then shouted like God gave them that strategy.

535
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:28,080
He gave me the strategy to do this walk.

536
00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:31,960
And it was quite the feat for sure.

537
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,160
Yeah. And that was called the back to life walk.

538
00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:38,200
So you're you're infertility treatments wanting to have your own child.

539
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:41,480
The Lord gives you this burden to do this walk.

540
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:44,440
And you said yes.

541
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:51,360
So tell us, I mean, it required some sacrifice in your on your part.

542
00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:58,760
And you know, when God invites us into something, as you said earlier, it doesn't always really require much sacrifice from us.

543
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,520
Sometimes it's like, yeah, God, let's do it.

544
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:09,040
But sometimes it's like, oh, you know, this is I'm going to have to lay something down that's dear to me.

545
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:11,760
Absolutely. To join God in this adventure.

546
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:18,920
So tell us really what this back to life walk was all about.

547
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,800
What were some of those sacrifices for you and what miracles did you see God do?

548
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,280
Because he confirmed and did miracles all along the way.

549
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:35,240
Yeah, so when the Lord asked me to do this prayer journey, I knew that the undertaking would be would be quite large because here was the vision.

550
00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:39,720
At that time, Roe v. Wade had been legalized for thirty nine years.

551
00:37:39,720 --> 00:37:47,280
So the Lord specifically asked me to get thirty nine young women with an emphasis on minority women,

552
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:50,440
because that's the largest demographic that are that are having abortions.

553
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:52,720
It's there at the demographic that's really targeted.

554
00:37:52,720 --> 00:37:59,440
And so so get thirty nine women who actually have a personal story regarding abortion.

555
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,080
Perhaps they had they were post abortive.

556
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:04,840
Perhaps they had siblings that were aborted.

557
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:10,560
Perhaps they were walking for, you know, I had one girl that came that was hurt.

558
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:15,400
She had a Down syndrome sister and she was like, I'm so my sister's life is so beautiful.

559
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,720
And ninety nine percent of Down syndrome babies are aborted.

560
00:38:18,720 --> 00:38:20,880
So they all had different personal stories.

561
00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:27,880
And and the amount of money to be raised, the first quote I got, you know,

562
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,080
figuring all out was a million dollars.

563
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:33,720
And here I am with one hundred dollars in my ministry account at the time.

564
00:38:33,720 --> 00:38:36,600
You know, so it was the undertaking was quite large.

565
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:41,880
And I knew that there was no way that Gabriel and I could pursue continue to pursue

566
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:48,680
having a child while I'm planning this logistical feat that, you know, that no one had ever done before.

567
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:52,480
I couldn't go, tell me how you plan your your two hundred and fifty mile walk, you know,

568
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,000
like a conference or anything else.

569
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:59,160
I would have to lay that dream down of becoming a mother.

570
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:04,600
And I'm, you know, advanced maternal age, probably thirty eight at the time.

571
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:07,760
And I'm like, Lord, like time is of the essence.

572
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:11,280
And this clock is like the tick is like I can barely hear it.

573
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:13,520
It's like ticking like very quietly now.

574
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:19,680
And, you know, like the end and all my whole life when people would ask me as a young child,

575
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:21,560
what do you want to do when you grow up?

576
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:26,120
I wanted to be a minister check and I wanted to be a mom.

577
00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:28,720
Like I just wanted to be a mom.

578
00:39:28,720 --> 00:39:30,680
I didn't I wasn't asking for five kids.

579
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:37,960
I just really wanted to know what it was like to feel life in your room and to birth a child and to,

580
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:41,680
you know, I just it was so part of who I was.

581
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:45,880
So to do the back to life walk, it was going to take two years of planning,

582
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:49,920
a lot of money and two years of laying this dream on hold.

583
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:56,560
And I knew ultimately from following the Lord that I was going to say yes to him,

584
00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:59,480
but it was at a great cost.

585
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,120
And I wept and I grieved it.

586
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,600
But I was like, OK, Lord, I am going to trust you.

587
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:08,640
And so we start planning the walk.

588
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:11,720
It builds national momentum.

589
00:40:11,720 --> 00:40:18,120
I am crisscrossing the country doing radio interviews and raising money and,

590
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:25,000
you know, getting these girls trained and, you know, because we had we were going to walk 16 miles a day for 21 days.

591
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:29,080
So to walk 250 miles, you can't just go, hey, let's start tomorrow.

592
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:38,600
Like you have to even though it's just walking, we had to build up resistance and and lots of prayer and lots of fasting and just lots of mobilization.

593
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:47,960
And it was such a beautiful journey all the while in my heart and in the back of my head.

594
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:52,640
I'm like, OK, what I'm, you know, I'm saying yes, but I'm trusting you.

595
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:57,280
I'm trusting that you are going to do something, you know, and you're going to make up this time.

596
00:40:57,280 --> 00:41:00,600
You know, I'm really trying to lead into trust, Jesus.

597
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:05,560
And so it was that was in 2012 and it was a beautiful journey.

598
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:07,920
It was so impactful, impactful.

599
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,960
We did live streams, Jodi. This is 2012.

600
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:17,440
This is before Facebook Live or Instagram Live or we had to have a big satellite pack,

601
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:26,400
like a huge backpack and cameras that followed us, a whole media crew so that we could stream it three times a day.

602
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:31,240
And because we had thousands of people all over the nation praying with us.

603
00:41:31,240 --> 00:41:33,800
So it was a pretty amazing journey.

604
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:39,240
So we're going to continue Laura's story in the next episode.

605
00:41:39,240 --> 00:41:48,320
So stay tuned. But as we wrap up this one, Laura, would you share about a woman of the Bible who inspired, encouraged or taught you something?

606
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:57,240
Yes. So often when I share my story and I talk about that first big sacrifice of obedience,

607
00:41:57,240 --> 00:42:04,960
which to me at the time was big, was asking that young woman to to watch her kids at the street ministers conference.

608
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,960
I often think about Rebecca and Genesis 24.

609
00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:15,280
And I think about how Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac.

610
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:19,440
And I'm a little emotional. I just love the word of God.

611
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:30,520
But, you know, he had 10 camels and he saw Rebecca going down to to the well to get water for her sheep or for whoever she was getting it for on her.

612
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:33,960
Her water jar was on her shoulder, the word says in verse 15.

613
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:36,720
And he looked up and saw that she was very beautiful.

614
00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:40,520
And she replied, I will get I'll get you water, sir.

615
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:48,280
And also for your 10 camels, which I read somewhere is like 60 different trips,

616
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:51,200
because that jar was about five gallons of water.

617
00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:59,160
So 60 different times, Rebecca goes back and draws water again and again and again.

618
00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:07,040
She had a yes in her heart, even though she didn't know that that act of obedience would open the door for her to marry Isaac.

619
00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:14,760
That would lead her to be in the genealogy of that the savior of the world would be in her part of her loins.

620
00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:27,640
You know, like that act of obedience, and she just inspires me in her obedience to serve and her willingness to serve and her willingness to lay down her conveniences.

621
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:37,560
And, you know, a lot of people will will say yes and obey, but only to a limit, only to where it's comfortable for me or if it fits within my paradigm or my schedule.

622
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:41,360
But we see Rebecca drawing this water over and over and over again.

623
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:53,120
And it opened the door to her destiny. And I feel so grateful to the Lord for all the times that I've said yes, that he's invited me into something that I've said yes to.

624
00:43:53,120 --> 00:44:00,680
And I can see his hand in my life the way his hand was in Rebecca's life through her obedience.

625
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:06,240
You know, Ephesians 2 10 tells us that we are God's workmanship.

626
00:44:06,240 --> 00:44:13,440
Created in Christ Jesus to do good work, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

627
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:21,840
We're all called to different things, different works that God specifically created us for and called us to.

628
00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:28,360
And when we say yes to God, to his leading, as Laura has done, he'll use each of us in ways we could never imagine.

629
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:31,880
It's not something to be afraid of because he created us.

630
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:38,160
He knows exactly what will thrill us and what will fill us with peace and with joy.

631
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:41,320
Laura, would you pray for our listeners? Oh, absolutely.

632
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:48,720
I would love to. Jesus, I just thank you, Lord, for every heart that is listening to this prayer right now.

633
00:44:48,720 --> 00:44:58,600
God, Father, I thank you for the invitation that you have for them into a God adventure and to a God journey, Lord,

634
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:05,960
that would fulfill them, that would exhilarate them, Lord, that would draw them close to you.

635
00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:17,960
Father, I just thank you, God, that you have your hand on every life and that your ultimate desire is for them to know you in an intimate way.

636
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:27,080
Whatever that journey looks like, Lord, I just pray, God, that, Lord, those that are listening to you, that consider themselves lovers of Jesus,

637
00:45:27,080 --> 00:45:33,920
loyal lovers of Jesus would just say yes to you over and over and over again.

638
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:42,800
And God, we thank you that through our yes, your kingdom advances on this earth, Lord, through our yes,

639
00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:52,240
not only are our own lives blessed and fulfilled, but Jesus, your kingdom is advanced on the earth, Lord.

640
00:45:52,240 --> 00:46:00,800
People come to know you. Nations are changed. Children are reared into loving you for the rest of their lives.

641
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:10,960
Generation upon generation is blessed by those who have simple yeses in their heart to you over and over again.

642
00:46:10,960 --> 00:46:20,440
So what I just thank you, God, that you are solidifying our hearts in contentment to you, our hearts in obedience to you,

643
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:28,680
our hearts in obedience to your word. And I bless every listener, Lord, with

644
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:41,360
that there would just not be just religion and obedience out of duty, but, Lord, out of invitation and exhilaration to follow you closely and

645
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:48,760
that you're just we just say yes for you to write the story of our lives in Jesus name. Amen.

646
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:57,440
Amen. You know, friends, there are children all over the world who are without parents and orphans who need to experience a tangible

647
00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:03,960
expression of God's love right now. Many have special needs that we as a company of women can meet together.

648
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Would you consider joining us with a special gift to help? Just go to hergodstory.org and click on the widow and orphan tap at the top of the page.

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Thank you for tuning in. Check out our show notes at hergodstory.org for links, scriptures and other information.

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And you can sign up for emails and get a free six week downloadable devotion on women of the Bible.

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Or you can purchase a 12 week devotional on women of the Bible for just twelve dollars, knowing that all the proceeds will go to the widow and orphan fund.

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And now I bless you from Second Thessalonians 1 11. May God make you worthy of his calling and by his power,

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may he bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.

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Her God Story is a ministry of Somebody Cares America and International.

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To find out more about or support the ministry, go to somebodycares.org.