Vision In The Valley
Finding inspiration, even in the low valleys of your journey and appreciating that the Lord speaks to us wherever we are. You are at the foundation of your next victory, your next peak...and the only place to look is UP!
Vision In The Valley
The Garments We Adorn
Inspired by the story of Lazarus, we delve into the theme of "Be Free and Embrace Your Purpose." We discuss the importance of shedding our metaphorical grave clothes with the support of loved ones and preparing ourselves for spiritual battles by donning the full armor of God. I also share a powerful recommendation to watch "Deliverance," Season 2, Episode 7 as a source of inspiration. Together, we celebrate the bravery required to share our stories and express heartfelt gratitude to the supportive community that makes our journey possible. Join us for an inspiring conversation about second chances, spiritual growth, and the incredible power of community.
Welcome back to Vision in the Valley. This episode is dedicated to Ms Patricia Banks, the Executive Director at Sister House, and the graduates for 2024. Only did she help me to fulfill my heart's desire, which is just to talk and share the goodness of God with as many people who will have me, but in creating the commencement speech, I was able to have a breakthrough of my own. So I wanted to dedicate this episode to again Miss Patricia Banks and all of the lovely staff there, as well as the graduates of 2024. I'd like to share with you my speech and my breakthrough. Good afternoon, sister House. I love that we serve a God of second and third chances. I love that, no matter what our imperfections are, he sees us as precious and he loves us. It is an absolute pleasure to be here to celebrate this occasion with you, and I'm thankful to Ms Patricia Banks for extending the invitation and allowing me to share in on this milestone in your lives.
Speaker 1:Today, I'd like to talk about garments. At Sister House, you've learned to be vulnerable with each other. There is healing in your vulnerability. There is healing in transparency, and I'd like to be transparent with you today, woman to woman and sister to sister, woman to woman and sister to sister, and as your sister, I feel a certain level of comfort and I'm ready to unveil myself, if you will, and share my favorite beauty secrets, the things that I pack, no matter where I'm going, what I'm doing, what I've been assigned to or who I'm speaking to. Now, as I transition into my close of transparency and vulnerability, I must begin by sharing that I'm a survivor of a few things.
Speaker 1:I understand that being vulnerable can be a trigger word for a lot of our traumas. Vulnerable means to expose or be at risk. Vulnerable means to expose or be at risk. We focus so much on the exposure and being at risk that we begin to worry about the judgment that can also follow. So vulnerability to me means embracing the openness to be honest and authentic about one's feelings, one's fears and one's imperfections. It involves the willingness to expose oneself emotionally, to take the risks and to be seen for who one truly is, without the protection of masks or facades, to go from being at risk to taking risk right the exposure, the removal of the clothes or the garments that hide our battles. It can be freeing, actually, and the freeing of those restrictive bindings. Those are pieces of garments we don't need. We could quite possibly unwrap our bodies from the very threads that bind us, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
Speaker 1:I don't have to tell you about surviving because I'm in a room full of survivors. Some of us have been fighting the battle since birth, and some of us more recently. Some of us battle with inner conflicts, things we inherited, and others with the things we inflict on ourselves. My focus is not on what you battled or what you still may be fighting, but instead my focus is on the victory that is already ours. We are survivors. We've been through a thing or two.
Speaker 1:Right, my bio gives a glimpse into my life and it doesn't do justice to how God has blessed me. It skips over the hardships and the low value moments and it delivers this dressed up, fully clothed version you know that version with the makeup and the eyelashes and a perfume. Right, because I've been over. Now I'm not talking about your standard makeover, but instead one that takes place from the inside out. Among other things, I'm a motivational speaker and a podcaster, and one of my favorite things about my podcast is connecting the dots between Sunday services and our regular degular lives. Right, I use everything from nature to everyday scenarios to bring home the message I'm trying to convey. I'm a storyteller and that's just one of my gifts, and the Lord is using that gift to tell his story. I believe wholeheartedly that he's about to stir up your gifts so that they, too, will be used.
Speaker 1:I could have chosen any number of topics to speak about today, but the Holy Spirit led me to share this one, one that I've not yet shared with my listening audience. I've spent five seasons introducing myself and setting the tone. It was my idea that I'd share my right nows, my right nows, my wins that are occurring right now, so that I wouldn't be judged for my back thens. But the Lord continues to encourage me to tell my story, because everyone has a story and every story has a beginning, has a story and every story has a beginning. The problem is that my beginning was tough, and so it's tough to tell. It was filled with shame and regret, guilt and embarrassment and, in a nutshell, it was chaos, and the opposite of chaos is peace and order, of chaos is peace and order. The last thing I wanted my listeners to do was to pity me, because pity can be condescending, right or demeaning, and if it is, it's void of respect.
Speaker 1:So as soon as I read your mission statement, I knew I was in the right place. I knew I was in the right house among the right people. This is a place where you value respect, order and peace. This is a safe place to be vulnerable. You see, my story is tough because I am a product of rape. My mother was raped at age 12, and she gave birth to me when she was 13 years old. She's schizophrenic and she's bipolar. She was raised in a household where her trauma was not addressed and likely contributed to her diagnosis right. In fact, my father was my grandmother's boyfriend, so now there's guilt attached to my grandmother.
Speaker 1:I've discovered that the Lord will protect you from knowing everything about what happened until you're in a better situation, until you're better prepared to deal with your truths. He protected me from living with guilt that my very existence fed my mother's trauma. I would be a different person today had I carried that as a child, and so I was protected. I don't know the details of your journey, but I believe that you've dealt with a thing or two, those things that may have held you captive, things that restricted you from being your best. We're here today because you've defeated the enemy and chaos is being replaced with order. I sincerely believe that being born into chaos gives me a license to speak to chaos in any situation. It qualifies me to identify it and call it by its name. It doesn't alarm me and in fact, I believe that everything I went through prepared me for my next, and I know this to be true for you as well.
Speaker 1:We use the power of our tongues to defeat the enemy by declaring life and not death, victory and not defeat, testimony instead of embarrassment and regret. Proverbs 18.21 teaches us that death and life are in the power of our tongues. With license and power, you have authority to bring order and peace to what once was chaos. You have the ability to demand order from what tried to distract you, because chaos is just a distraction the enemy uses to throw us off of our targets. But God, he can get the glory out of even the toughest situations, including rape.
Speaker 1:I was restricted and unable to completely walk in my purpose, and that feeling of being robbed of my future really had me bound tight, right like grave clothes. I was wrapped up in generational clothes of guilt and shame and embarrassment and oppression. Right, right, that's huge, but sometimes the Lord will allow something to happen to get the glory out of the miracle he's about to perform. Now, that's heavy. This reminds me of Lazarus and his grave clothes.
Speaker 1:In John 11, 38 through 44, we learn that Jesus called a dead man to rise just by speaking. Talk about power in tongues. Right, lazarus was a dear friend of Jesus and he had died. Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of his tomb that was holding him like that restrictive thing. Come on out, raise up. Holding him like that restrictive thing. Come on out, raise up. Lazarus came out, but he came out with his hands and feet bound and his face wrapped up and Jesus said loose him, take off the grave clothes and let him go Now. He could have saved Lazarus before he died, but that testimony wasn't for him, nor for the people that would soon witness this miracle. Right, jesus was doing a new thing and the grave clothes being removed were all a part of that miracle.
Speaker 1:Grave clothes were not meant to give way right to someone walking. They're restrictive. They are intended to be restrictive, but seeing grave clothes on a living, moving, breathing person shows us that the enemy cannot stop us, even when the situation looks dead. In fact, lazarus had been dead for four days. In fact, lazarus had been dead for four days. So not only was he dead now, his body had begun to decay, so it literally got worse before it got better.
Speaker 1:Can you identify with that? What was meant to harm my mother and her bloodline did not prevail. He could have prevented the rape, but then I wouldn't be here. He could have allowed her psychiatric treatment early in her life, but that would have removed my compassion sensitivity that I learned throughout this battle. He could have prevented her from abusing me right, but then I would have missed the breakthrough of choosing to visit with her, where I can hear her say that she loves me. This is not just a breakthrough for me, but one where my mother is no longer a victim.
Speaker 1:Look at how God has worked in this situation right here. I believe that whenever she's able to see me or hear me, she can pull another layer of her grave clothes from her body. That is so good that with each statement she is stomping on the head of the enemy. She's also speaking to the thing that robbed her. She's being loosed. You see, I had to remove the grave clothes, and you must take them off as well. Sometimes we need the aid and assistance from other people to help us get loosed right.
Speaker 1:Lazarus, grave clothes were taken off by people who loved him. His sisters were there. Your sisters are here today as well. They're here to help remove the last pieces of grave clothes, should they still exist. I decree and declare that you are loosed to walk in your full purpose. Whatever is binding you must be taken off. Now. What you defeated was not just your testimony, but has allowed others to see the miracle in your rebirth, your awakening and your deliverance. Now here's my beauty secret Discard your grave clothes and replace them with the full armor of God. Get dressed from the inside out. Be made over in Jesus, because the war we fight is not flesh and blood but instead spiritual.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 6, 13 through 18. Ephesians 6, 13 through 18. Thanks for all the Hospitality, sister House and for my sister slash friends, who are all survivors of life. I like to close asking you to check out the episode entitled Deliverance. It's in season two, episode seven. It blessed me and I believe it will be especially impactful today, because vulnerability is about courage and strength, not weakness. It takes a great deal of bravery to show our true selves, especially in a world that often emphasizes perfection and invulnerability. By being vulnerable, I hope to inspire others to embrace their own journeys and their own vulnerability and to find strength in their own stories. I love you, guys, and I can't wait to talk with you soon.