Month: January 2012

circle of fear, God, prayer, success

The Circle of Fear

livingwholecoaching

Once again I am going around this same old process.  I am tired of standing in the face of success with fear.  What am I afraid of?  God gave me the plan and endorsement, so just do it already!  But sometimes this paralyzing feeling of fear of success creeps up inside of me and I feel like a deer caught in headlights.  Afraid to run and afraid to stand still.

I know I said earlier this year (and January isn’t even over yet), that I would walk by faith.  I said that I would continue to move forward regardless of my own human limitations.  But here I am again stuck in a place of overwhelming fear that I can’t do what God asked me to do.  I know that sounds awful and I feel awful for saying and feeling it, but it is true.  I understand that the key to being able to push past this feeling is prayer.  I need to continue to seek God every minute of the day for direction, motivation, and clarity to accomplish my mission.

I wonder if others ever feel the same?  Did those who have reach their moment of success ever feel overwhelmed with fear? I need to hear their stories of overcoming.  I need to know what was the pivotal moment that released them to push past that moment/feeling?  What was it that catapulted them to move past the fear and grasp the reality of success that they knew would come?

I really don’t want to continue on this circle of fear of success.  I want to move past it and begin to walk in the purpose and destiny that God has ordained for me.

Today I am asking for your feedback, comments, and stories about how you have overcome the feeling of fear of success and moved into your purpose.  Thanks in advance for your input.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

book, Denise Hall Brown, destiny, dream bigger, Faith, God

Dream Bigger!

livingwholecoaching

What does faith have to do with dreaming bigger?  Everything, we can only dream as big as our imagination can take us.  Beyond that point we have nothing. We can strain and squeeze our brains all we want and we are never going to be able to imagine more that it can contain.  But with faith you see anything is possible.  God is able to do above and beyond our wildest, most creative dreams.

My good friend decided to step off the cliff into a “faith walk” that God had prepared for her.  I was so scared and happy for her all at the same time.  I envied her tenacity to make such a bold move with her life.  I wanted to do the same thing, but I didn’t have the nerve that it took to even get to the edge of the cliff.   But my friend Denise said the urge to step into her destiny was so strong she felt she had no other choice.  So she took a quantum leap with God and the results have been more than miraculous.

You see, my friend, Denise Hall Brown, has suffered a tremendous amount of lost and tragedy since the time that I met her.  Years before I even knew who she was or her story, she had lost her mother to a tragic accident with a drunk driver.  Her mother was her world and at her tender age, it was a devastating event that would rock her world.

Years later, when I did have the opportunity to know Denise very well,  is when she suffered the untimely loss of her 6 month old baby boy,  Isaiah.  I remember that day just like it was yesterday and I don’t think I will ever forget it.  My heart broke in a thousands pieces for her and her family and I feel like a part of me will never be the same.

Yet in still she rose to the top and she survived and she began a deep walk with the Lord.  She opened her heart to Him in such a humble way that it amazed me to see her grow so fast in her spiritual journey after all that she had endured.

Then again tragedy struck when one winter season not very long ago, she lost her husband.  I began to wonder too what was God doing in the midst of this sisters life.  How could she take anymore upon her soul?  But she continued to grow in her walk and she grieved and grieved.  She was down but she wasn’t out.  You have to read her full story in her book: 2Grieve 2Gether for the rest of her journey.   More about Denise’s story and how to purchase her book:  www.2grieve2gether.org or www.amazon.com

Today, she is not only surviving, she is thriving!  If you ask her I am sure she would tell you that she never would have dreamed that she would be in the place that she is today.  Her story/book has just been nominated for: Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author with the 43rd NAACP Image Awards! (www.naacpimageawards.net)  She wrote that book to help other survivors and supporters get successfully through the grieving process.  She understood her purpose and destiny and she humbled herself to give to others.  In the midst of that God has shown her favor.  And because her mind could only image so much, God took over and helped her to – Dream Bigger!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

relationships, teach

Teach It and They Will Know

livingwholecoaching

I was having a wonderful conversation with my fiance during linner (time right after lunch but before dinner) today about relationships.  From the beginning we have shared our life lessons through the relationships that we have been involved with.  Needless to say he always helps me learn more and more about the male perspective than I have ever known in my life.

But what I told him was that I didn’t understand why other women in my life hadn’t taught me about the fundamentals of relationships and the way that I should approach them in a godly manner.  I’ve come to the conclusion that no one ever taught them so they didn’t have any information to share.  Sad but we tend to mimic what we see and know from growing up and we don’t know any different if we aren’t taught any different.

As I looked back over my life I don’t ever remember my mother sitting me down and telling me things about being in relationship.  Most of the things I remember from my mom is her standards.  I knew without a doubt that she wanted me to live my life with standards.  I tried to do that but the problem came in when I didn’t know what standards were good and which ones were bad.  I didn’t know my worth as a woman and so I lowered my standards to fit in to a relationship.

Seriously it wasn’t until recently that I sought the Lord for explanation on my “true” worth and He completely showed it to me and now I know.  All other things, relationships included will need to fall into line with that.

Another astounding revelation was that I have grown up in the church most of my life.  To be recollection I don’t remember being taught anything that would come close to knowing my worth in God and certainly not how to be in a relationship the way that God intended.  But why?   Why doesn’t the church teach the young ladies and young men their true worth and roles as children of God and in particularly in relationships?  They need it!  What happens is they go into relationships from what they see in the world.  And like me, we suffer useless pain and often times devastation because of our careless, untrained ways.

I want to challenge churches today to be that place that people can find what they need – yes God, and beyond that how to live a life that God intended.  We don’t need anyone to tell us don’t do that because that is not right.  Please tell us why and don’t forget how.  Why can’t we meet people at their point of need like Jesus did?  He taught in parables because that is what the people could understand for their own lives.  They understood Him.  The same holds true today, reach people right where they are and help them to understand the way God intends for us to live a blessed life in Him.

I can remember all the stories of the Bible with vivid details, but a few short years ago I may not have been able to tell you how it pertained to my life.  It is our job, you and me, the ministers, the church leaders, and the sunday teachers to teach so they will know.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

God, hope, Lord, love, prayer

Today I Pray

livingwholecoaching

The only burning thing on my heart today was a prayer for you!

Oh Lord our God how excellent is your name in all the earth, how marvelous are your works.  Father, I thank you for the liberty to say a prayer for those that are out there in internet world that I don’t even know.  I thank you for being a God who is wonderful to me!  I thank you for being God!

I pray for those whose hearts are breaking in a million pieces at this moment from some tragic situation.  I pray that you will guard their hearts and minds and comfort them through to the other side of pain.

I pray for those who don’t know how they will make financial ends meet for their children/family.  I thank you in advance that you will provide every provision that they stand in need of and that you would send an unexpected blessing to give them hope.

I pray for those who are sick and dealing with illness and depression.  I ask that you reach down and touch them with your healing hand and set them free from the infirmities that cause them to be in a place of dispair.

I pray for the wayward son/daughter that has lost their way and has landed in a pit of vipers.  I am asking that you would deliver them Lord back unto yourself.  I ask that you hold back the night so that they can make a conscience decision to be free from the dangers of the evil one.

I pray for the spiritual leaders all over the world.  I pray that you would protect them as they share the gospel of life.  I ask that you would cover them with angels of protection so that no weapon formed against them would prosper.

I pray for the soul who has given up and wants to end it all tonight.  I ask that you would whisper in their ear that they are somebody and that you love them.  Send a ministering angel to them right now!

I thank you Lord for allowing me to bring this humble prayer to your ears and that you would be faithful to answer!  And I thank you in advance for what you are going to do!  We love you tonight Lord!  We worship and adore you!  We give you all honor and glory!  In Jesus name, amen!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

affirmations, arousing Adam, being a man, being a woman, Christ, God, love

I Can’t Validate You!

livingwholecoaching

I can and will give you inspiration, motivation, and affirm you through my words, but one thing I can not do is validate your soul.  The one thing that lies empty in your spirit that is longing for validation can only be filled with the love of Christ.

I have been reading a chapter from: Captivating – Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul by John & Stasi Eldredge, to prepare for an upcoming BlogTalk radio show.  The most interesting thing about this chapter entitled: Arousing Adam is a great eye-opener to what we as women fail to do in our relationships with the men in our lives.  Yeah at first glance the title might take your mind somewhere else, as it did me when the hosts of the  show invited me to join them as a guest host to talk about “Arousing Your Man (Adam)”.  Immediately we think carnally about arousing a man in the natural, but this information is much deeper.  A spiritual arousal that we as woman can do for our men.  But one of the most amazing important revelations of the chapter was that we can’t validate Adam’s soul and neither can our Adam validate ours.

But we often turn to each other to do just that and that is when we miss the mark of our role for each other.  However, the part that we should be playing is the arousal of Adam’s spirit and soul to seek out it’s true validation from God.  We have a wonderful, perfect role to play as  women and when we understand that place we can experience the type of love that God created for a husband and wife (women and men) to have.  We can affirm, inspire, and motivate our Adam that he is a man in every sense.  We can need him as our help mate and we “believe in him”.  This sisters is our role.  And from the man, he can affirm, inspire, and motivate us to know that we are a woman in every sense.  Our femininity arouses his masculinity.  We allow him to be the hero that he is born to be, the man.  He in turn can inspire us to be feminine as he is attracted to the beauty inside and out that makes us a woman.  God created us to be that for each other and it is wonder to behold when we get it right!

Join us on January 22, 2012  at 6:30 pm EST @ www.lifes-journey.org/talkshow.htm, host Life’s Journey: Woman to Woman.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

all or nothing, change, destiny, Faith, God, mission, women's conference

Its All or Nothing

livingwholecoaching

When God gave me another chance to change my life to something extraordinary, I took the challenge.  I am all in.  I never knew that some days would be so challenging that I would want to turn back.  As I was reading the Bible the other night about the story of Abraham, I started to think do I have what it takes to please God no matter what?

A few months ago God woke me up to give me specific details of the things that He expected of me to accomplish through Him.  While it was very exciting to be chosen and spoken directly to by God, as the words unfolded on the paper, my mind began to think “I can’t do this”.  And no I can’t, not in my own might or strength or wisdom, but God said to trust Him.  So I am.

As I immediately began to set out on total faith to begin the plans of what the Lord wanted me to do, He opened doors for me that I can’t even begin to explain.  One of the major things God asked me to do was hold a conference for women to introduce the ministry that He asked me to coordinate – The Butterfly Journey Ministry.  But wait not only shall I host a conference, but it was to be in Seattle, WA (somewhere I have never been) for 1000 women.  I decided not to tell anyone but a few close spiritual friends that would be praying for me and coming along side me to help me see this mission through.  My bank account doesn’t show any signs of opening up with huge amount of seed money to pull this off, so by faith we shall do this.

I connected with an event planner in the Seattle area who has been a true God-send.  I told her up front that this was being planned on faith alone and she never thought I was crazy or anything.  As a matter of fact she embraced the idea and said even if I didn’t use their services to get this event together that she personally wanted to attend because she was so drawn with my testimony.  A few days past as she went to consult with her boss about taking on my event and came back to me to say that her and her boss would be not only helping me to plan this event, but they would be praying on that end of the country for the success of the event.  They have taken hold of the vision for the ministry that God has given to me!  Wow, I am way past amazed!

Needless to say that they have found a wonderful venue to hold the conference and the facility personnel is all in to help me make this vision come to life.  Now I need the women, I don’t know where they will come from but I know that they will come if God ordained this conference.  He wants to give them something that they need, that they seek, He wants to change their lives forever!

Because the outcome is going to so great and far beyond anything I can imagine, I can’t turn back.  I have to fulfill the promise that I made to God that I would lead this ministry for the women of this world.  I want to be the catalyst that will help women heal, find their purpose and move into their destiny.  The mission is more important than anything that I have done in my life and I don’t take it lightly.  It’s all or nothing.

Can you help me find the women that God wants to move in their lives, to change from the inside out, to fill that void that nothing else can fill but Him?  I need your help on this one, to stand in agreement with me that we can do this and lives will be changed and God will get the glory!

It’s all or nothing!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

Faith, God, hope, The BAMs of Life, the butterfly journey, tragedy

The BAMS of Life

livingwholecoaching

Life is so unexpected.  Just when you feel your on the verge of getting started with your purpose and you’re feeling great about all the possibilities and BAM, something comes along to smack you in the face.  There is a trick to being able to stand against the BAMs of life and that is God.

Unfortunately, there is no “real” silver lining in life, but from my experiences with God, I can stand firm that “this too shall pass.”  Nothing lasts forever and tomorrow will come.

Sometimes things come to rattle our whole world.  I just read a Facebook post that a man lost his wife and newborn baby in a tragic situation.  I am assuming it was through child-birth, but the post didn’t really say and they didn’t really have to, after all it was a tragic loss no matter how it happened.  It is in those times that you ask yourself; “how in the world will he get through that?”  We ask ourselves all kinds of questions trying to figure out the reason.  How will he cope with the loss and raise his 2-year-old son in the midst of his grieving?  There is an old hymn that says: “we’ll understand it better by and by” and sometimes this hymn gives me hope that one day we can find out just what happened.  God can explain the full picture of what we can’t see.

Nevertheless, the BAMs of life can leave us numb and full of pain.  What do we do, how will we survive?  For me it is by the faith in God that He has my heart in His hand and  that He will be the one to come along side of me and comfort me.  Sure sometimes  you doubt, sometimes we even question God, that is a part of our human nature.  I find if I don’t have hope in God, then I don’t have any hope at all and that my friends is an awful life to live.

So as I ponder my own BAMs, I can remember that God says that “I will not be utterly cast down.”  I may trip and fall, I may even be laid out prostrate under the weight of the BAMs that come to kill me, but I remember the word of God tells me that “no weapon formed against me shall prosper!”  And to that I hold on to in the midst of the BAMs that come my way.

What gets you through the BAMs of your life?

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

 

book, God, love, relationships, the butterfly journey

Relationships: You Still Have Time

livingwholecoaching

I was super bummed when I finished writing a lovely post about relationships this morning and clicked on the publish button and to my surprise or perhaps my demise half of the post was missing.  I had to trash what was left and decided to walk away until this evening.

But in the efforts to post something of wisdom, something positive, something motivating everyday I am re-doing my earlier post in hopes that I capture the essence that I wanted to.

Relationships are a huge part of life that shapes who we are, who we become, and how we handle all the other aspects of our lives.  I was not at all great at relationships.  Not that I didn’t have any but I didn’t have healthy ones, at least not for me. I called myself a chameleon.  I would change myself into whatever type of person that relationship wanted.  I hid my heart, my dreams, my desires and wants deep inside.  It really didn’t matter, no one seemed to want to know the “real” Lisa anyway.  But just like any other woman I wanted a relationship where I could be me; the real me.

It didn’t come until after the healing process started during my depression that I began to understand the why’s of my unhealthy relationships.  God had to show me that I was worthy.  Me, Lisa, was worth something more than what I had experienced in these unhealthy relationships.  But I didn’t know that then and that was my problem.  I equated my worth with how pleased the other person was with me.  And since I wasn’t even sharing the real me I didn’t realize that what they were giving me in return was not equal to my worth.  Whatever they offered I thought that was all that I was worth!  But God said no!  That is not who you are, you are beautiful, lovely, and unique because He made me that way.  I was worthy of great things because God said so.

When God gave me the man of my dreams, I didn’t know if I could pass the test and use my new-found wisdom to cultivate the relationship in a healthy way.  And sure enough the old me came slipping back into play, but God stopped me every time I tried to revert back to my old ways.  Craig, (my fiance) is a wonderful man of God and he was very patient with me in my learning stage.  He has taught me a lot about love, patience and friendship and today he is my best friend!

I explain more about my experience with relationships in my upcoming book: The Butterfly’s Journey coming soon!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

be all you can be, change, life, seeking God, start living

Got Life?

livingwholecoaching

Life is not a spectator sport.  On the contrary, you need to get out there and take the bull by the horns and shake things up!  If you don’t do it for yourself, who is going to do it?

I have seen people live their lives with no enthusiasm, no zeal, no dreams, no aspiration and die unfulfilled.  Why would you to do that?  Often times it’s because no one took the time to inspire or motivate them to become their “greatest” selves.  Me, myself I am my greatest motivator!  I desire to have something better than what my life was yesterday.  I knew in my knower that there must be something more to life than just living.  It has to be more than walking around like a robot, being humdrum and just surviving.

But guess what it takes some effort on your part.  Amazing discovery I know, but seriously how is your life going to change if you don’t participate in the change process.  If you never pursue filling that void, how are you going to know if you ever reach it or not.

Back to what I know best; God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.  Okay, so you don’t believe in God, now what?  But why don’t you believe?  Do you have any proof that He is not real?  What would it cost you to seek Him?  A better life, a sense of peace, joy when you need it, the experiencing of a love that is so profound that it amazes you?  These are the things, the experiences that you can have with God.

Many have passed away never really experiencing life the way that it should be experienced.  Sad but it’s true.  You know we all have our moments of reflection when we see how fragile this life we have is and it is at those moments that I want to run and jump and be fully embraced in my life.  I had such a moment last night sitting in the ICU waiting room, while my nephew was lying in the hospital bed breathing with the help of a machine and tubes coming from everywhere on his body.  He is only 18 years old!  Fragile!  As I prayed over him, I asked God to not only heal his body but also his soul.  I asked God to give him a zeal for life that he would never take it for granted, but live it to the fullest potential in God.

You have to be a participant in your life.  We can’t all walk around victims of our circumstances or the world would be in a worse state than it is right now.  If you have a life, start living it to its fullest potential.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

depression, destiny, dreams, purpose, seeking God

Where Are You?

livingwholecoaching

One of my favorite phrases was; “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.”  And I used that phrase up until a few years ago!  I have been grown for quite some time, but I never really knew what it was I was supposed to do, or that I was good at.  I used to envy those who said they have known since they were kids that they wanted to be a certain profession or accomplish a certain thing in their life.

I figured out that if I had stopped and reflected on my life and my experiences I may have understood what my role in life was far before now.  However, I was too busy doing life, working, taking care of my family, and just being.  I had dreams and aspirations, but I still didn’t know exactly what they were.  But I knew it was more than what I was experiencing.

I had to find out where I was in order to understand where I was going.  And God helped me with that, but it was after a terrible, long, bout with depression that He showed me my purpose.  Seems ironic I know, but until I knew where I was or had been and understood all the experiences that I had suffered I couldn’t grasp the purpose that God had for my life.

The first thing that God had to show me was me.  Like the caterpillar’s journey to becoming a butterfly, my life had to be broken down (literally it was during the depression) just like when the caterpillar goes into the cocoon.  When the caterpillar goes into the cocoon (chrysalis), its safe place, it is broken down and liquified and it begins its change.  There in the midst of the depression I began my change.  The caterpillar knows their purpose and destiny is to become a butterfly.  But for me I didn’t know what my life would become after that.  I didn’t even know if I would make it out of that stage of my change.  But you know what, I only could depend on God that He would see me through and that my friends was my life-changing lesson.  God was the only one that I could depend on from that point forward.

So you see, knowing where you are right now is very important to your process of transforming.  This is your opportunity to seek God for what it is that He has for your life and start living an extraordinary life with purpose!  I wouldn’t have chosen the path of depression as my lesson to find out my purpose and my worth, but today I wouldn’t change my experience for the world.  It was there that I learned to cling to God and our relationship has become one I would never want to lose.

Where are you today, do you know?

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa