Category: depression

depression, Healing, healing and deliverance

I Am Healed! No Weapon!

livingwholecoaching

Isaiah 54:17

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. KJV

More times than I care to admit, I have felt weary and tired and ready to give up! Fiery darts flying, false accusations, scary situations, and health issues just to name a few of the seasonsim healed no weapon of my life that I have faced.

I was reminded recently that I am healed and no weapon formed against me shall prosper, because God is my Redeemer! Why do I need to keep being reminded of the fact that my God is awesome, gracious and able to do all that I need for my life? Why do I keep falling back into the snares that I know are being set for me by the enemy? I learned a valuable lesson, be consistent in following and believing God for everything that He did for me and all of His promises!

Another strong lesson that I learned was that every situation, although it may appear different stems from the same source, the enemy. The enemy trying to take me off the path of life that God had created for me. He doesn’t want me to reach my full potential in God, to serve and encourage women! He rather me be deep in stress, negativity and pessimism. Why would he want me to grow closer to God and learn more of His word and promises? Why would he want me to have the courage and confidence to move forward in the gift(s) that gave me to use in this dying world?

So I have to go back a few steps to recover the strength in God that was so evident in my life. Be consistent in my prayer and praise. Lastly, I need to remember who is against me in life. Not people, although the enemy can use them as part of his schemes. Situations that seem to be a blessing when looked at after the enemy has told you lies begin to look like a plantation, a place of discontented, a place where I would lose my creativity and energy. But wait a minute it really is a blessing, an opportunity that God allowed to happen to help me.

Stay focused and remind yourself every day until it becomes a part of your spirit that God will not withhold any good thing from me. He wouldn’t give me stones for bread! Stop in the moment that your thinking becomes opposite of who you know God to be. Remain faithful to the One who is faithful!

Prayer: Father, we thank you because even when we get off track you send ministering angels to pray for us and to us and remind us that we are the daughters of a God that is good and holy! Thank you Father that you care enough for me that you would restore and strengthen my inner man for the journey ahead! Keep our minds stayed on you Father, the author and finisher of our faith. Make our lives renewed in you. Give us a spirit of consistency to stay grounded, focused, and faithful to only YOU! We thank you God for who you are in our lives. In the precious name of Jesus, amen.

Blessings, Lisa

depression, encouragement, God, the butterfly journey

Could It Be You?

livingwholecoaching

20130610_CleanHeart_DM When you are involved in an unpleasant situation, do you naturally look at the other party as the reason for it?  I’m not saying that you are wrong for doing that because in some cases it could very well be because of someone else’s role that the situation occurred.

But this is what I want you to think about for a minute…could it be YOU?  I know you have examples for me that prove that it is not always you or it never has been you that caused a situation to go south.  However, hear me out.

I’ve shared my testimony with you many times, but since I haven’t blogged in a year (and I hope that I will have some new followers) I will give you a little bit of my story.  Thank God it has been over 7 years now since I suffered with major depression.  During the latter part of my dark journey I started asking myself and God why did I get to the place that I was in?  Well talking to myself I could explain a lot of my demise by pointing my finger at others.

God took me in another direction.  He pointed his finger at me!  Me?!  I did this to myself?!  But I didn’t fuss with God, I just listened, because at that point in my life that is all I could do.  I humbled myself and listened to God.  I allowed God to show me, myself.  Wow, what a journey that was; not pleasant at all.  What it did for me though was examine every choice that I had made.  The good, bad, and the ugly.

It was then that my life began to change…for the better.  I learned the most life lessons during this season of my life.  If you want to truly be free and walk in a better relationship with not only yourself, but God and others, you would embrace self-examination.

Would you agree that God only wants the best for you?  When He cares, he wants to show you ways that may be contrary to the what the world teaches you.  He wants to move you into a new level of “trusting” Him.  And if you can’t trust Him with your life, your entire life, than you have a lot to learn my friend.

Give yourself a chance to be the “best” you and trust God to show you, you.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within ME.” Psalm 51:10 NIV

Blessings, Lisa

depression, God, healing and deliverance

Depression Almost Killed Me – Part 1

livingwholecoaching

blackwomantearsI never imagined that my life would take such a drastic turn and leave me struggling to stay alive, but it did.

Over 5 years ago, I found myself empty, lonely, and scared.  Life had somehow made a wrong turn and I was spiraling down a dark hole before I even knew what was happening.

Even though it seemed that it all happened in a blink of an eye, I know it didn’t.  It was days, months, and even years building up to finally fully embrace me and by then it was too late to escape.  Always an optimistic person, seeing live full of promises and dreams, I didn’t believe that depression could attack someone like myself.  But slowly it found me and it took every good thing from me.  I was engulfed in its overwhelming darkness with no idea of how to get back to the person I once was.

For a couple of years it took all the things that I loved to do and made them far away memories in my cloudy mind.  I clung to the memories of a better time, but soon they eluded me and all I had was a pit of darkness surrounding me.  With small groans and moans of desperation I cried out in prayer to God for deliverance from this place that was threatening my very life.  It was all that I could do. . .

This is just a small part of my story and I will share more as the days go by.  I pray that my testimony will be a part of your healing if you are suffering from depression today.  Be encouraged, there is hope!

Connect with me at www.facebook.com/thebutterflysjourney, www.thebutterflyjourney.com or email me at lisa@thebutterflyjourney.net

Lisa ~ The Butterfly Journey/Christian Life Coach/Writer

 

Challenges, coach, depression, Faith, purpose, seeking God

Every Day A Challenge

livingwholecoaching

Even though, I am living my life on purpose now and far from the land of depression that I suffered a short few years ago, I still have challenges.

Every day is a challenge for me; something is always evolving from situation that I would rather not have to face.  But this just life.  I have to face my challenges and I do, sometimes with zeal, prayer and supplication.  Other times not so much.  I run to my friends for encouragement (while nothing is wrong with that), I come to know that really I need to seek God first in everything.

All of us have challenges we face on a daily basis, but our choice in how we face them is the key to getting through them in the shortest, most productive way that we can.  For me it’s prayer (conversations) with God directly.

Sure I can call on my friends, however, they have their challenges too and so they may not have the energy to deal with me at that particular time.  So  now I feel left out, I feel not valued or loved, but no I need to understand that my issues are just that – mine.

Trust me when I say that when I was engulfed in my depression there was no one and I mean no one that could come to my aid.  But the lesson I learned from that is that God wanted me to look to Him for everything that I needed during that time.  It was a lesson in FAITH and it has prepared me for the things that would come my way.

Find your comfort in facing your challenges, but do face them.  The worst thing that we can do is bury our heads in the sand, or couch and try to pretend that they don’t exist.  It will only get worse.  But next time seek God for the answers of how to deal with your challenge in a more spiritual way and see how He will orchestrate the outcome for you.

Join our new Life Coaching Program – STAGES to give you  the tools to navigate life in a more excellent way and catapult you into a life of purpose.  Email – lisa@thebutterflyjourney.net

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

depression, destiny, God, prayer, purpose

It’s Not About Me

livingwholecoaching

My challenge this year was to post new blogs everyday of the week.  Unfortunately, life comes at you and changes things.  More important things have arisen to take my attention.

As I begin to understand the full spectrum of this ministry that the Lord has me involved in, it is not going to be easy.  I didn’t believe that it would be, but I know that God is with me every step of the way.  And so I push on.

This ministry – The Butterfly Journey; is not about becoming famous and living in the lime light of TV or books or anything else.  It is about helping women become healed from the hurts of life and move into a new place of purpose in God.  It is about interceding in prayer for the women that come to me with their hearts broken and their fears magnified.  I want the women that come to this ministry to be drawn by the love of God that is in me.  I pray that my spirit will always be in line with what God wants, not my own agenda.  It has nothing to do with me really.

My prayer is that every woman who comes in contact with me and this ministry  will receive the restoration that they need to move into their purpose and walk out their destiny with God.  My compassion for them is so deep that I understand that I will have some sleepless nights.  I understand the role that God wants me to play for them, the message that He wants me to share with them.  The prayers that I will need to pray over them and for them.  It won’t be about nice clothes and pretty faces, it will be about the condition of their heart that God (and I) are concerned with.

I had to write this out today because it is a reminder to me of how important each woman who I come in contact with is, especially to God.  I can’t take one moment for granted.  I can’t get caught up in the hype that is all around me.  I can’t look at success in numbers, but in transformation of souls.  I took on this mission because God asked me to share all that He has done for me.  When I was in my place of darkness and depression, He saved me for His purpose and this my friend is an honor for me!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

 

 

 

 

change, depression, God, prayer, teachable heart, the butterfly journey

The Teachable Heart

livingwholecoaching

As I was reminiscing about my “butterfly” journey one of the things that God reminded me was to have a teachable heart.  It has been years since my journey began and everyday I learn more and more about God and my relationship with Him.

When I was suffering with the depression, the one thing that was so important to me was to find the answers to why I ended up in such a dismal spiritual place.  I wanted healing and I certainly wanted out of the dark place that I found myself in, but more pressing was to find out the “why”.

My heart was so open to understanding, because I knew that it would be the pivotal point in my journey that would free me to becoming the woman who God desired for me to be.  So boldly, I went to God and asked Him the questions.  Deep inside I was afraid of the answers, but I had to know.  I had to understand in order to help others heal from their past.

As the weeks and months went by, God revealed every answer in vivid detail.  He was gracious enough to release little snippets to me and not everything at once.  I would surely have been overwhelmed that I may have experienced a relapse of my depression.  It would have been too much for my soul to bear.  (Please get my book – The Butterfly’s Journey, coming this spring for my full story).

I allowed my heart to be teachable to what God was sharing with me.  I was ready to face the truth, the good, the bad and the ugly.  Having my heart prepared for what I had to face was an important part of my journey and my healing.  Without it I would have remained in a place of despair.

As God leads me to minister to other women that are in a place of disconnect, pain, hurt, abuse, and unworthiness; I pray that they will allow their hearts to be teachable.  God doesn’t want to just help you, but He wants to fully heal you to purpose.  Your purpose!

My question to you today is: Is your heart teachable?  Do you want to be free from the things that have robbed you of your purpose and true worth?  Will you dig deep to face those pains that haunt you and keep you in a place of despair and disconnect from God?  The choice is yours and you have the resolve to change the course of your journey!

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

 

 

depression, God, Joy, people pleaser, purpose, women

Women It’s Your Time!

livingwholecoaching

When I began my “butterfly journey”, I didn’t realize how many women in the world were suffering with the same issues that I myself had dealt with for so long.  But I am noticing that it is a common theme for most of us to lose ourselves, our worth, our purpose, and our faith while doing life.

You know when I think about life it is so much more than just working, cleaning, taking care of others etc.  God created it to be a time to understand who He is, understand of ourselves, our worth, our purpose and each other.  One of His greatest commandments is to love thy neighbor as thyself.  But we fall short on this because we lose the ability to love ourselves.  Our society is full of the message that it is selfish to do things for yourself, especially women.  But we must if we are ever going to reach the full potential of our lives as God has planned.

We are expected to have a career, raise a family, be competitive, have a great shape, complete our education, do the laundry, clean the house, serve in the church, take care of our extended family and whole host of other things!  Whew, that made me tired just typing it out!  And nothing is wrong with any of this, we do have responsibilities, but then where do we fit God in all of this?  That’s the missing link!  We end up doing all this and more and we lose our relationship with the one who can give us everything we need.  That’s what happened to me and I am not proud to admit it but it’s the truth.

My personality is one of “people pleaser” or so it was.  I had to fit in and make people pleased with me and my abilities.  What happened was I could finally take no more and I shut down; emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically.  I was a wreck!  I suffered a deep depression for over 2 years and tried desperately to figure out what happened to me.  That’s when my “butterfly journey” began. When I could suffer no more, God showed me my life using the analogy of a caterpillar’s journey to becoming a butterfly, to illustrate where I had gone all wrong. (The Butterfly’s Journey book to be released April 2012)!

The main thing (a relationship with God) had become a secondary, or really even third or fourth place in my life.  I was literally in a place of hell (separated from God) and it was horrific to say the least!  I didn’t understand my “true” worth in Him; I only knew what my worth was to others and to them I was disposable, even to some I was garbage.

I let the God of my creation heal me from the inside out and my life has never been the same.  Through my pain He gave me my purpose, through my tears He gave me joy, and through my newly established relationship, He showed me my worth!

It’s time ladies to take your rightful places in life and live a transformed life with purpose in God!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

change, depression, God, healing and deliverance, prayer

Only God. . .That’s All I Need

livingwholecoaching

One thing that I noticed about myself since I was delivered from the depths of depression, is that I am very aware of my feelings more.  I know when I am about to feel that overwhelming feeling that causes me to start to feel defeated.  I don’t like the feeling at all, but I am glad that now I can recognize it very clearly and act appropriately.

God has given me a censor (discernment) to know when I am getting in a place that is not good for me and I stop.  I stop right where I am and I pray and ask God to give me the strength and wisdom I need to push pass that place.  You see before I didn’t understand what that feeling meant and I would allow it to take over me and put me in a place of despair and if I wasn’t careful, it would take me right back to depression.

I am so glad though that God loves me enough to help me in every situation whether big or small.  I am glad that He is there for me when nobody else may understand.  I can depend on Him.  That is one of main lessons that I learned when I came out of my depression was I didn’t have to rely on a person to be there because God was there with me every single day of my 730 day journey in depression.  He was the only one there as a matter of fact and I never would have made it if He wasn’t there with me.

Wow, I could go on  page after page telling you about God’s goodness towards me especially during that time because it changed my life.  But  I will leave that for you to read in my book:  The Butterfly’s Journey, releasing in April 2012.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

depression, God, journey, Joy, life worth living, purpose

My Life is Worth Living!

livingwholecoaching

My life is worth living!

Even though my life has been filled with disappointments and trials.  It has had many turns and dips that have left me weary and exhausted.  I have suffered from unworthiness, low self-esteem, depression and a whole host of other negative things.  I have been lied on, cheated on, giving broken promises, but still my life is worth living.

Through every storm there has been a rainbow at the end to show me that God still exists and better still He has been with me through all of the pain.  He has kept on giving me reasons to push on!   Rays of hope and direction for my future!

Sickness has knocked on my door and lingered in my room sometimes too.  But God has healed me each time and strengthen me for the next leg of my journey.  I have had strangers and friends bless me with gifts of love right at the perfect time.

When I consider all that God has in store for me and how much He loves me and wants to give me a life of purpose, joy, and peace, I get excited!  My life is worth living!

Can you count the blessings that the Lord has given you over the year even in the midst of your mess?  Just think about what He wants to do for you and get in position to receive it!  Jeremiah 29:11 says; “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” NIV  Come on get that in your spirit right now!

Your life is worth living, so stop trying to figure it all out yourself and let God show you just what He has for you.

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa