Brunch N’ Bible: “Becoming The Real You” - Brunch N' Bible

Brunch N’ Bible: “Becoming The Real You” – Detailed Summary

Release Date: February 12, 2025
Host: Heaven Kore

Introduction

In the episode titled "Becoming The Real You," host Heaven Kore delves deep into her personal journey of faith, transformation, and self-discovery. This episode serves as both a testimony and a roadmap for women seeking to navigate the complexities of womanhood through the lens of Christian faith.

1. The Role of Grace in Becoming

Heaven begins by anchoring the episode in a pivotal scripture, 1 Corinthians 15:10, emphasizing the indispensable role of God's grace in one's personal development.

Quote:
"I am what I am by the grace of God." (00:35)

He highlights that while God's grace empowers individuals, it necessitates active participation and effort, fostering a partnership between God and the believer in their journey towards authenticity.

2. Early Struggles and Spiritual Attacks

Drawing parallels with biblical figures like Moses and Jesus, Heaven shares her early experiences of spiritual attacks that mirrored these narratives.

Quote:
"I can greatly identify with the story of Jesus and with the story of Moses by being attacked when young." (00:35)

She recounts how, from a young age, she faced various temptations and assaults, notably being exposed to lust and pornography by a family friend. This exposure, she believes, opened doors for further spiritual battles during her formative years.

3. Family and Spiritual Transition

Heaven reflects on her family's spiritual journey, noting that her parents were not initially saved. Their church attendance was more habitual than heartfelt, leading to a period of spiritual stagnation.

Quote:
"At the time, my parents were just churchgoers. We went to church Sunday in and Sunday out, but at home, we were not living like Christians." (00:35)

A significant shift occurred when her family transitioned to a new church, embracing a deeper understanding of Jesus, the power of His blood, and spiritual warfare. This transition was pivotal in ceasing the spiritual attacks she had been experiencing.

4. The Missing Personal Relationship with God

Despite extensive Christian education—from kindergarten through 12th grade—Heaven grapples with the absence of a personal relationship with God. Her upbringing was steeped in religious practices rather than genuine spiritual connection.

Quote:
"I was surrounded by so much religion, but I didn't have a relationship with God." (00:35)

This lack of intimacy with God led to an unhealthy fear, manifesting in empty prayers for salvation without true understanding or commitment.

5. College Experience: Wrestling with Light and Darkness

Transitioning to college introduced Heaven to a world of newfound freedoms and temptations. She found herself torn between her deep-rooted Christian knowledge and the allure of worldly pleasures.

Quote:
"There will be a tug of war between light and darkness." (00:35)

Heaven attempted to balance both sides—organizing Bible studies while simultaneously indulging in parties and social outings. Influenced by a spiritually vibrant cousin, she was drawn to prophetic operations and spiritual gifts, intensifying her internal conflict.

6. The Turning Point: National Pageant and Downfall

In 2018, Heaven achieved national recognition by winning a pageant, which paradoxically became a catalyst for her deeper descent into lustful behaviors and ungodly relationships.

Quote:
"God gave me the Privilege, right, in 2018, to win a national pageant. And after I won this pageant, that is when I really began to spiral into lustful desires." (00:35)

This period marked her transformation into a public figure, leading to involvement in toxic relationships and behaviors that distanced her from her faith.

7. Divine Intervention and Salvation

A critical moment of divine intervention occurred when Heaven ignored an audible warning from God to avoid a dangerous situation involving a toxic relationship. Opting to go despite the warning, she narrowly escaped a potentially fatal incident when the location was shot up.

Quote:
"I remember that was the first revelation of what it means when God says he loves you." (00:35)

This harrowing experience served as a wake-up call, prompting her to cry out for mercy and seek a genuine relationship with God.

8. Reflection on God's Love and Mercy

Heaven reflects on Romans 5:8, underscoring the depth of God's love and mercy, even amidst personal failings.

Quote:
"Christ demonstrates his love by this, that while we were yet sinners, he died for us." (00:35)

Through months of repentance and spiritual reflection, she recognized God's unwavering support and love, even during her darkest moments.

9. Conclusion and Encouragement

In closing, Heaven encourages listeners to embrace their own journeys of becoming by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. She emphasizes that transformation is possible for everyone, highlighting the importance of letting God's light shine through to realize one's true identity.

Quote:
"God saved me from a lifestyle of sin, of worldliness, of carnality, of confusion, of fear, of sickness, of addiction, of anxiety. And he too can do that for you, if you let him in." (00:35)

Heaven invites women to join her over the upcoming weeks, promising to equip them with the necessary tools to fulfill God's calling in their lives.

Key Takeaways

Grace and Effort: God's grace is foundational, but it requires active collaboration from individuals striving to become their authentic selves.
Personal Relationship: Beyond religious practices, fostering a genuine and intimate relationship with God is crucial for spiritual growth and overcoming challenges.
Divine Protection: Even in moments of doubt and sin, God's protection and mercy can lead to profound personal transformation.
Encouragement and Community: Embracing a supportive faith community and sharing personal testimonies can inspire and uplift others on their spiritual journeys.

Final Thoughts

"Heaven Kore's vulnerability and honesty in sharing her tumultuous journey before embracing Christ provide listeners with a relatable and inspiring narrative. Her emphasis on grace, personal relationship with God, and divine intervention offers a roadmap for women seeking to discover and become "The Real You" through faith."

If you found this episode enlightening, please like, share, and comment to spread the message. Join us in the next episode as we continue this transformative journey together.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Welcome to Brunch and Bible, where we navigate womanhood through the Word. I'm your host, Heaven, and this is more than a podcast, it's a movement. At Brunch and Bible, women gather, grow spiritually, embrace the complexities of life through word driven discussions, and find practical applications for their own journeys. Today's episode is a special one. It's my personal testimony and what my life looked like before Christ. I'm sharing the highs, the lows, the good, the bad, and. And the ugly. So grab your popcorn, settle in, and let's talk about how my becoming journey started.

B (0:35)

Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to Brunch and Bible. It's been so long since we've gathered here together. For all of you that have supported me in the past, I thank you so much. And for those of you who are new here, welcome. It's been, like I said, a very long time since I've sat in front of that camera and recorded. It's been about a year Since November of 2023 that I've sat down to record. So please pardon me and bear with me as we record this episode. During this year of just resting and resetting, I just feel like I've received so much more vision for the podcast. And towards the end of last year, the Lord began to speak to me about, you know, how he wanted me to come back. And he revealed to me a theme that we'll be following this year called becoming the real you, walking with a real God. And it was anchored by this scripture that I want us to look into. It's First Corinthians 15:10, and it reads, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. And I'm here to say that I am what I am by the grace of God. And I believe that in every woman's journey of becoming, they all are what they are by the grace of God. Now, I love what this scripture says because it mentions that the grace of God was given to us, but it wasn't given to us in vain. So although grace empowers you to be, it's not given to you in vain. There is a certain work that you have to put in because this is a partnership between you and God on your journey to becoming. Like I said, every woman has their journey to becoming. And I'm here today to share my journey of becoming. I want to share my testimony. I feel like Sharing my testimony would only be fitting for where we're going to journey on these next few weeks. And it goes a little bit like this. On many people's journey to becoming. What the enemy often does is he attacks them when they're very young, right? And we see this in the Bible with the story of Moses, right? Moses, we know, was a man who was destined for greatness. We know that he was a man that was called to be a deliverer. And we see that at his very infancy, he was attacked. And there was a decree that went out that said that any Hebrew boy, kill them. We also see this in the life of Jesus. When Jesus was born, his star was seen, and his star was seen not only by good people, but also bad people. And one of those bad people was Herod. So Herod comes out and says, every male child under two and under must be killed. I can greatly identify with the story of Jesus and with the story of Moses by being attacked when young. And when I was younger, I used to receive so many different kinds of attacks. And now, looking back right at that time, I know it's because I was destined, and I am destined for greatness. One instance in particular that I'll share just to be a bit vulnerable, is the door to lust and pornography opened when I was very young by a family friend. And as we go down the line, we'll get into that. We'll get into that. Grab your popcorn, because it's very interesting. But, yes, as a young girl, I was exposed to lust and pornography by a family friend. I believe that that instance opened the door to many more attacks that I was receiving as a young girl. Another part of my childhood is not so typical of the average Christian or average person. But I didn't really see my parents saved from the jump of my life. I kind of watched my parents come into their salvation. And so we attended a Baptist church that, you know, it was a good church. They were very communal in how they did things. But at the time, my parents were just churchgoers. And so we'd go to church Sunday in and Sunday out, but at home, we were not living like Christians, or I didn't see my parents living like Christians. And I remember at a certain point, the spiritual text that I was receiving began to really, really intensify. And at that point, we entered into a transition with a church that I attend now. At the church that I transitioned to, that I'm at now, is when we really, as a family, began to learn who Jesus was. And we learned also the Power of the blood of Jesus, we learned the art of warf. And so that is when I saw my parents begin to live like Christians. And I remember those days when my mom was first learning about warfare. She would be up in the middle of the night praying, smearing my forehead with oil, and all kinds of stuff. I would hear my dad decree and declare. And I knew that at that point something had shifted in our family. And by the grace of God, those attacks that I was receiving, especially when I was sleeping, they began to cease. So we began to see the fruit of that transition. I really bless God for my parents also because I feel like they contributed to where I am now. Right. In your journey of becoming, you will always have destiny helpers. And I don't think my parents understood what they were doing at the time, but they put me in Christian education. And I had been in Christian education from the time that I was in kindergarten to about 12th grade. In this Christian education is where I really learned the fundamentals of the Bible. Right? We would have Bible class every day. We would be in chapel services, I think every Tuesday and Thursday. We would get a sermon. We would sing songs of worship, hymns. What I started to realize is that I was surrounded by so much religion, but I didn't have a relationship with God. I hope that makes sense. Like, I didn't have a personal relationship with God, but at this point, I feel like I'm in church 24 7. There's church at school. There's church on Sunday. It's. It's a. It's a continuous thing. And so what I started to realize is that instead of formulating a relationship with God. God, I began to actually have a very unhealthy fear of God. So I used to do this thing. It's so funny. I would ask God to save me. Like, every night before I go to bed as a kid, I would ask the Lord to save me. I'm like, lord, please save me. I don't want to go to hell. There was a message that somebody preached, I think, at the school that I was attending about the second coming. And then I became so super obsessed with the second coming. I'm like, lord, I don't want to be left behind. Lord, save me, save me, save me. And so my whole childhood was full of empty, vain salvation prayers, right? Because I didn't really have a relationship with God. I transitioned through this school system, and it was time for me to go to college. And boy, oh, boy, that was just what the enemy wanted in your journey to becoming Right. There will be a tug of war between light and darkness. I believe in my college experience that light versus darkness warfare, right? The Bible says that we don't war against flesh and blood. That warfare began to intensify. And I'm coming from a background where I know all this Bible stuff, right? But I'm also so enticed now by the things of the world, right? I was not normally in those environments in my high school. And so now in college, you know, there's parties and there's boys and there's freedom, and there's all these things that I began to get myself entangled with, right? I was a girl in college that I had so much knowledge of the things of God that I thought it was normal to play both sides. And I would be the friend to organize the Bible studies, right? But I also be the friend that on Friday, yeah, we're gonna go turn up, right? We're gonna go have fun. We're gonna go to parties, we're gonna go to drink. We're gonna go. We're gonna go out. We're gonna be outside. And you know what kind of made this worse is that before I went to college, I had a beautiful cousin. And we'll talk more about her as the season goes on. And she really, really showed me what it meant to be young and to be in Christ. And she exposed me to her friend group, and they were on fire, and I loved it. And at that time, that was the first time I saw young people operate in the prophetic and operate in their spiritual gifts. And it was very enlightening and attractive. And I had all these experiences, and I would go to college and again try to play both sides. Sooner or later, I began to get involved in many different, you know, organizations. I was the leader of this program, and I was in asa, and I was doing this, that these and those, everything but what I was supposed to be doing. And my. My love for the world intensified, right? It increased. My lustful desires increased. And slowly but surely, the things of God began to dissipate. And I remember I was hot and cold for a while. And one. One semester I came back and I had. I had just freshly come back from an encounter. And I told my friends, hey, guys, like, this semester, I'm not partying. I'm not doing anything. Please don't include me in any of that. And they began to laugh at me, right? They began to actually laugh. Like, girl, you're not serious. You that, like, party. You that like this. You're not serious. And they. They were right. They were right. Within a few months, I was back to doing the things that I said I wasn't gonna do. Long story short, God gave me the Privilege, right, in 2018, to win a national pageant. And after I won this pageant, that is when I really began to spiral into lustful desires. Because at this point, I felt like I was hot stuff, right? I'm a public figure. They're asking for me to host here, there and everywhere. And I really, really, really went deep into the hole at this point. And I remember I was near graduation and I was starting to hit rock bottom. I wasn't recognizing who I was anymore. Like, I was changing rapidly into, like, this it girl. I don't even know what you would call it, but I was changing and I couldn't recognize myself. And at this point in time, right, I began to involve myself in very ungodly relationships. And there was a certain man in particular. Let's call him Mr. Toxic. Let's call him Mr. Toxic, because that situation was extremely, extremely toxic. I remember there was some back and forth that we had, and at this point, I was supposed to go and see him at a particular place, right? And I remember audibly hearing God tell me that you're not supposed to go. I had never in my life audibly heard the voice of God like I did in those moments. These are moments of deep darkness, right? And me and my strong willed nature told myself, well, I'm still gonna go. And I went to that place and everything went left. Everything went left. And, well, like I said, just stick with me on this journey. You're gonna hear all the details, but this is just, you know, the intro to get to where we need to get to. And I remember it was the end of the weekend. I had already seen him a couple of times, and this was like my last time to see him before he went back to his respective city. And I went back to my respective city and it was nighttime. And I remember I really wanted to go and see him. And so I told my partner in crime at the time, you know, my girl, my girlfriend, hey, you know, let's go out. Let's go see, you know, this guy and his people. And I remember the girl that usually is down for anything at this point in time says, no, I'm not going with you. And I remember being so shocked. Like, girl, we are. We are friends. We do this like, what are you talking about? And she says, no, I'm not going with you. It's been a long weekend. A lot has happened. I'm not going with you. And I said, fine, I'll go by myself. And I remember taking my stuff down the stairs and another group of girls I meet at the door, and I'm just telling them, hey, I've ordered my Uber. I'm about to leave. And they're like, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. You know, just wait, sit down. We'll go with you. At this point, it's like midnight. It's like one. And I'm like, guys, like, this is like prime time for the party. Like, it's prime time. Let's go. And I remember sitting down and these girls never ever got ready. Never, ever got ready. And I didn't know that what these girls were doing was a function of God's mercy. And I remember at I think it was about 2:30am I gave up. I was like, you know what? I guess I'm not going. I was pissed off at everybody. I guess I'm not seeing him. I sat in the house and just a few moments later, I got a text from a girl that was there saying that the place had gotten shot up, people were shot, she was running in the streets and all chaos had let loose. And I remember in that moment, it was like the spirit of God bore witness that had I gone to that function, I would have gotten shot. Now, obviously I'm here, right? But. And I didn't end up going to the party, but I knew in my spirit, man, that if I had gone, that was going to be a demonic orchestration for me to die. And I remember right after that, that was the first revelation of what it means when God says he loves you. Romans 5:8 tells me that Christ demonstrates his love by this, that while we were yet sinners, he died for us. And I remember just being reflective the rest of that weekend. And like, Lord, even in my sin, you covered me. Even in my strong willedness, you told me not to go. I went, you could let me go and die. And you kept me. You were still looking out for me, even while I was deeply in sin. And so a strong fear of the Lord came upon me from that day forward. And I remember going home and crying out for mercy, crying out for mercy, crying out for mercy for a month straight. God began to show me to me. And I believe that on every woman's journey of becoming, there's a point where God reveals you to yourself. And you sit down and you look at yourself and you tell yourself, is this who God has called me to be? Am I living the life that God has called me to be. Am I living the life that he ordained for me that is pleasing unto Him? And like I said, I remember for months straight just asking the Lord to wash me, to clean me. And if you can identify with any part of my story, I implore you to to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior so that he can help you become so that he can wash you, so that he can renew you, so that he can help you become the person that he has called you to be. I can assure you, if you're living still in a state of sin and darkness and confusion, you're not who God has called you to be. And when you allow him into your life and you let his light shine upon you, you then become who God has called you to be. So I'm here to say that God saved me from a lifestyle of sin, of worldliness, of carnality, of confusion, of fear, of sickness, of addiction, of anxiety. And he too can do that for you, if you let him in. Every woman has their story of becoming coming. Whether you identify with mine or you have your own. I want you to stick with me on this journey for the next few weeks so that you can get the tools that you need to become all that God has called you to be. If you were blessed at all by this episode, I want you to like, share and comment and I will catch you in the next episode.