Sarah Jakes Roberts (11:10)
Bye. I overstand this question and I can't wait to dig into it. But first of all, I just want to thank you you for the words you said about me in the beginning. I'm really grateful for the way that I am able to connect with you all and share what God is showing me and teaching me and how I'm learning, growing, and developing. And I appreciate you kicking it with me. So thank you for listening to this podcast and hearing my heart and allowing it to, you know, I think, water the seeds of your destiny in certain moments. So thank you. Okay, so this, this, this is a great question. As I mentioned earlier, I am very much so a planner. But because my life has moved in a direction that I could have never planned, I too find myself hesitant, hesitant to plan. So let me tell you, I didn't know, didn't never imagine having a podcast. Definitely didn't anticipate starting a ministry, having other businesses, you know, even, you know, a social media platform. Like, I, even, you know, I think early on I would just kind of like celebrate when I reached a certain milestone with followers. But then I stopped because it's like, I, I, I'm not planning any of, there's nothing wrong with people do that, don't like, please, you know, take this with a grain of salt. I don't have a word from the Lord on this, but it just wasn't the kind of thing that I felt like, I don't know, I'm weird. Don't worry about me me, just pray about me. So I didn't plan it, but it happened. And as it happened, I felt like I needed to be a steward, not a planner. And so I would challenge you to maybe think of it from this lens. How can I be a good steward of what God is allowing to happen in my life and to allow it to show up in all the things, things that I do and in my gifts and talents? And so part of being A good steward is planning, right? So I will tell you how the podcast started. So, one, I got a revelation from God about Eve that I felt like every woman should know. Up until then, I was just sharing my story, and I wasn't really convinced that every woman should know my story, because I've heard enough of your stories to be like, my story is not any different than the stories of a lot of women that I have heard. But when I saw this revelation about Eve, I felt like, now this is a story that every woman should know. Not just her journey of, like, eating the fruit. She ruined it for us all, but the way that God responded to her in this moment of knowing better and not doing better. And so I wanted to host a conference. This is the. I was like, I'm going to host a conference, and I want to talk about what it means, means to be a woman evolving from her pain, from her shame, her last victory. What does it mean to be a woman who's constantly evolving? And it felt like a conference was the best way to do that, because I wanted to gather the stories of other women and for them to talk about how they evolved in the area of finance, how they evolved in the area of skin care, how they evolved in the area of fitness. Like, how can a woman look at the totality of who she is and begin to evolve? And so I also was then like, okay, but it's kind of corny to just be like, come to a conference, right? I was like, how can I begin connecting with these women before the conference? And so that's when I started the podcast, because I felt like, I don't want to just wait until I see you on. I think the first conference dates were, like, July 13th through the 14th. I think that's true. I might be lying. Somebody will correct me. But July 13th through the 14th, in 2018, I want to start talking to you now about this concept, about what's happening in the world and then how it impacts you. So started that. Then the clothing line, like, everything just kind of. And then. And then I got rid of the clothing line, right? Because it's like, okay, I don't mind creating merch that is a reflection of the messages and the movement. But I don't know if I just want to be out here selling clothes for the sake of selling clothes. So you have to be willing to allow yourself to have trial and error as it relates to your plan. And then you also have to understand how your plan is tying into what God is doing in your life and how it can help and serve other people. So I wish I could give you. I hope that's a good answer. I wish I could give you more details. It feels like I'm missing something. Oh, that's. That's relevant to my journey. I had to wait for God to give me a vision for my life. There were a lot of people who were projecting their vision for my life onto me. Book agents, my parents, people who heard me speak like, you should do this, you should do that. You should do this. But none of it resonated with me. I had to wait until God gave me something that made their suggestions make sense. And you are cultivating. You said you weren't quite a babe in Christ, which helps me to understand that you have cultivated a relationship with God, and now your life seeks to give God glory. And as a result of that, you want to plan something that will be a reflection of that heart posture. And you want to plan something that will continue to draw you closer into being more like Jesus. So if you're going to plan, plan without pressure. For me, when I planned previously, the plan was going to be in some way a reflection of my identity, a reflection of my value and my worth. And so I put a lot of pressure on the plan. You don't have to have pressure on the plan. When you recognize that this plan is just a tool that God's going to use to build and develop my knowledge of who he is and what he can pull out of me and bring out of me in any given moment. It will not be about the outcome. It will be who I become in the process. And so if you can master planning without pressure, if you can then really choose to plan with intentionality, how does this awaken more of what God is doing in my life? How does this connect my gifts and talents? You know, you as a bottle girl, heard, felt, seen. Okay, you know, which means you've had to build rapport with people like, Lord, if I have this gift where I can build rapport with people and you're doing something in my life, is there anything that is connected to my ability to connect with people? People, but now I'm connecting with them to ultimately share the goodness of God or to create environments where they are receiving the social services that they need, where they're receiving tools on finances, like, look at the full inventory and audit of what God has given you, and be willing to say, lord, what do you want me to do with it? Be willing to wait, but just trust that all things are going to work together. So I Hope that helps evolve. So we took the time to reflect a little bit about my experiences this year. Now I want to hear about yours. We had a few of our listeners send in their own Reflections on 2024, and I want to share them with you. Some of them are literally miraculous in nature and others are inspiring. And so let's kick it off. We have a testimony from Tony Riley. For the past eight months, in 2024, I was battling stomach cancer. I was the youngest patient they've ever seen with stomach cancer. They don't know how I got it, even after doing so many genetic tests to understand why I got it. I'm very grateful that God held my hand through the whole thing. There were many times when I felt like giving up, but God kept encouraging me and giving me strength to stand. I'm also very grateful that he had a deacon who was at the hospital visiting his member pray for me. I'm not only grateful, but I'm thankful. If it had not been for God, I would have died this year at the age of 24. As of September 2024, I'm happy to say that I am officially cancer free. And I thank God for what he did for me. Oh, my goodness. We have to keep telling our stories. Who knows who may be listening right now, who may be in their own health battle, or they're standing in the gap for someone they love. And there is nothing like being reminded that God is still doing mirac miracles in 2024. He is still going ahead of us even in complicated situations and creating not just a way of escape, but a way of bearing and coping with those challenging circumstances. And so we thank God for Jesus, and we thank God for the deacons, and we thank God for you, Tony. So grateful that you made it to the other side. This next one is from Erica. Erica says I am a party promoter mc. So with that comes free drinks galore. I also was a huge weed smoker. I'm talking daily when I wa up, I smoke. On my way to work, I'd smoke. On my break, I'd smoke. Traveling home, I'd smoke. Hanging with my friends, I'd smoke. When I was troubled, I'd smoke. Reading my Bible and listening to the sermons, I'd smoke. Through good times, I'd smoke. And through bad times. Baby, no judgment, okay? Marijuana was good for my anxiety because it relaxed me, but it was becoming my God because I put the weed first. Alcohol wasn't a problem until it was a problem. This year on January 1st, I put both of them down And God willing, if I see January 1, 2025, I'll one year free from marijuana and alcohol. I remember one day, Holy Spirit saying how you asked me to order your steps and you won't follow. He was talking about the smoking and drinking. When I heard that, I threw out my grinder, my weed holder, and my reps. I thank God that I can hear him, but I also thank God for my. That part. Thank God for my obedience. Erica, let me tell you about your testimony, things that are blessing me in this testimony. First of all, when my girl said I used to smoke, she says, I want you all to understand that it wasn't puff, puff, pass. I was puff, puff, passing to my myself in every season, in every part of the day. I was bringing it on home to me. I was the rotation. Okay. As a former indulger of the devil's lettuce myself, I must tell you, felt, heard and understood. I just remember waking up one day and being like, I am higher than I have ever been and I don't want to be this high anymore. I don't want to be walking through life high. And I put it down as well and thank God for Jesus on the other side. So, um, I appreciate you, like, really breaking it down that this was not just like. No, just a little bit to knock the edge off for my anxiety. No, this was the way that I was making it through the day. Second thing I want to say is this and also the, the. You got to really know about, know about a life of just living where all you doing is smoking. To even understand the, the grinder, the weed holder, and my raps, it's. That's. That's a lifestyle committed to it. But what I really love the most is that you heard the voice of God. She says, God, I can hear him. If we could just take a minute and cue the shouting music and thank God that we can hear his voice. Oh, Lord. My biggest fear is that I would no longer hear the voice of God. Lord, please don't just tell me anything that I want to hear. Like, Lord, even if it's the heart things, please, please, please go out of your way. I want to constantly be one who hears you. And in addition to that, Lord, I also want to be one who obeys you, because what good is hearing the voice of God if you're not going to obey? What? I thank God for your obedience and I thank God that you are acknowledging the role that you played in your deliverance. I thank God that I can hear him, but I also thank God for my obedience. Go off Queen. Our next testimony is from Ruthie Bennett. Ruthie says, this was one of the most greatest experiences in my life. I am a 60 year old woman who thought my dreams was over. But woman evolved woke up the old bones in me. I still have fight left. God is still going to complete his mission in my life and for I am so grateful I'm going back home today and I'm ready to awake and manifest and break every curse that has been in my family for generations. It has come to an end. Everything that God has placed in my life, I have surrendered to his will, not mine. Thank you so much, Ruthie, for your example and your inspiration that even our queens who are in their 60s are still out here surrendering, evolving, growing and bringing a generation alongside them. Them last testimony. This one is from Zabrina. It says, I started with homecoming of woman, Thou art loose. From there I have done woman evolve twice. The theme this year was too impacting. I was on a surrender journey before I got there. So much has happened. But when you said you have to grieve and believe, I lost it about two weeks ago. I began to embrace two years of grief. From deaths to losses. So much hurt and pain. But God had you on target. Then I had the opportunity to bring my daughter daughters. I have so many testimonies from the evolution that I just can't tell it all. I was one step from being checked in. I was one hallelujah away from throwing in the towel. But God, he heard me. He answered what we had talked about. So when people started texting me from back home and at the conference saying I was on the video and Instagram and YouTube, I looked at the screenshots and saw the ugly cry. And Bishop Jake spoke on how people want to post what's cute. Ciao. I promise I wanted to be cute, but I had to surrender the ugly, the hurt and the pain and let the holy Spirit have his way. When I look at everything I've been through and what it took to get there, I can appreciate the posting. I wanted to be somewhat embarrassed, but in that moment it became another surrender. Thank you. Just isn't enough, but I gotta say it as abundantly as I can. Thank you. Thank you God. Thank you delegation. Thank you media team for holding me accountable to the surrender. I challenge us all to be accountable. God bless. Amen. Zabrina, I love this testimony so much and that you experienced so much breakthrough. It kind of made me feel like, I'm sorry that we put you out There like that. But also the fact that you said that there was this element of accountability to what you experienced and you wanted to really show up in a space of authenticity, that made me feel like maybe God worked it out for the better. But now I'm like, media team. We need to be more sensitive. Lord, tell me what to do. That's going to be my prayer for 2025. I want you to always have a safe space, and I want you to also stand 10 toes down for what God is doing in your life. So thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about your testimony from woman evolve24. I just feel like, like, all of these testimonies are just a sign of transformation and what happens when we are willing to trust God, even in seasons that feel challenging, to trust God in new experiences, to trust God as we step out on water and say, you know what? By faith, I believe that you're going to keep me afloat. And so more grace, more love, more anointing, more surrender, more peace, more trust, more faith. For those of you who are still navigating 2020, 2024, and trying to find who you are on the other side of what you've laid down. And just like that, the 2024 season is coming to an end. Before we close out this podcast, let's just take a minute and talk about all the ways that you can spend the next few weeks reflecting on what it means to really have experienced God's power throughout this year. And what I love so much about the testimony that we received from Erica when she says, I thank God that I can hear him, but I also thank God for my obedience, is that it is a perfect example of how power moves. Weed once had so much power over her that she felt like she couldn't make it throughout the day. But then that power moved into a space of obedience, into a space of being able to hear God's voice. And she is reaping the harvest of what it means to. To really tap into power moving. Power Moves is a book that I wrote this year that now that I am experiencing all the many ways that power moves, I believe that it is more necessary now than when I released it. Of course, I knew that we had a presidential election coming up, but I could not have anticipated how polarizing it would be, how we would see power moving from one group of people to another group of people, how that loss of power would make people feel isolated and dejected, and how the reception of power would make other people feel confident and affirmed in ways that we couldn't have anticipated. And now we are dealing with the reality that we're moving into 2025 and there's going to be many different shifts of power. We're going to see power moving from good to evil, from evil to good. But the question remains for ourselves is not how, how we see power move, but how power is moving inside of us. I want to encourage those of you who are starting the new year with this type of re reflection and heart posture to consider getting the Power Moves Bible Study. The Power Moves book was everything that God told me about the way that power Moves. The Power Moves Journal is all about you unpacking what you heard from God when you were listening to the book. But the Power Moves Bible Study is all about what the Word says. What the Bible says is with literally scriptures, chapters and verses for you to connect to your journey of reclaiming and redefining what power looks like for you in any given season. And I just wanted to give you all a little sample because as we're reflecting for 2025, I believe that this sample can be helpful for you in documenting the way that you experience power or lost power, but most importantly, how you can redefine after that loss, after those gains. Okay. With that being said, I want you to grab a journal and maybe some pen and paper and ask yourself some of these questions. I want you to list one to five areas where you have felt powerless this year. And then I want you to consider areas where you felt powerful. And then for the area where you felt powerless, I want you to consider what would change if you gained power. This is content directly from the Power Moves Bible Study, but I'm using it as the 2025 end of year recap for you because I believe it's important that we take a moment to assess the areas where we felt strong and also the areas where we feel like there's some room for development. Development. It's so important. I'm going to read this group question. Okay, that's. I should have told you all this. The Power Moves Bible Study is something that you can do as a group. And so there's group discussion questions for each lesson. There's like six lessons. So if you and your friends said, you know what, we're going to take the first six weeks and really understand, you know, the areas where God can change and develop us, what we need to understand about the Lord in order for us to go deeper in our relationship. But then how do I let what's happening inside of me show up? Outside of me and so that I am moving in power. This Bible study is going to be great for you, but okay, it's important to again state up front that true power in your life comes from God. I wanted to really ground this concept in us, recognizing that I said this earlier, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave, it lives inside of us. I'm talking about the power of God in your life. I'm not talking about culture's definition of power. I'm not talking about getting a bag and that being powerful or having the body and that making you powerful. This is about you recognizing the power of God showing up in your life. Romans 5, 6, 8 says, for when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love towards us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath through Him. What I love so much. Oh, I gave you a bonus scripture. That's all right, it's six through eight. But what I love so much about this particular text is that it goes to show that there was a moment when we were without strength, when we were without power. And yet God recognizing that we were without power, allow for his son Jesus to die so that we could have strength, so that we could have power. What's crazy about this is like the idea of someone dying for a good man is one thing, but let's talk about someone dying for somebody who don't have their stuff together. Someone who is out here just doing whoever, whenever, why ever? Why would anyone die? Oh, there's a song I want y'all to listen to. It's called sure Been Good by Elevation worship. Let me tell you, it is it. It about midway through it turns into like, I wish I could sing cuz I would tear that song up. But anyways, in the midst of us still struggling, God allows for His Son Jesus to die not because of who we were, but because of who he is and who we have the potential to become when we allow his perfect strength to meet our weakness. For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. So I just want you all to remember that it was the demonstration of God's love towards us when we didn't have our lives together that allows us to have access to power. That means when you're looking at that area where you feel powerless for whatever reason. I want to remind you that you feeling powerless is an illusion. If you say to yourself, you know what, I believe in Jesus, or you know what? I at least just want to try to believe in Jesus. Cuz I feel like sometimes it's too hard of the ass to ask someone who has never known Jesus, who has some questions about church, some skepticism about faith, to go from nothing into full fledged believing. But I am telling you, if you would just become suspicious about what your life could look like with Jesus, if you could just become curious about what people are talking about, I want you to understand that that journey of curiosity, that mustard seed, that little small speck of faith of what could happen is all that the Lord needs in order to start allowing power to move in your direction. When we are reconciled with our Father through Jesus, we have an unlimited access. Access to power. Not power for our own purposes, not power for our own lust and desires, but power to survive, power to withstand, power to grow, power to rest, power to have joy, power to have peace in difficult circumstances. You know that if you need power to have any of those things, it's because the environment or experiences that you're currently standing in or dealing with have the ability to rob you of power. But through Jesus, you have power for every season. He may have not felt powerful this year. You may have had some moments where you felt lost, where you felt defeated, where you felt like God. I wonder if you hear me at all. I am telling you that even in those moments that power was flowing in your direction. Sometimes it doesn't mean that you did anything wrong. Sometimes it means that we just missed it because we thought power would look one way, but turns out it actually came in another package. The Lord will restore the years. He will restore what the locusts have eaten. In the moments this year where you may have not felt powerful, I promise you that God's not finished developing and growing you in those areas. You may have felt like you lost out on relationships, that you lost out on resources and time as a result of not showing up in full power. Guess what? It's okay if the Lord say the same. In 2025, we flow in power again. What are some of the lessons from those moments where you felt powerless? What would having power allowed you? God's power? Not just any power. What would having God's power have done for you in those instances? Would you have said goodbye sooner? Would you have grieved more efficiently? Would you have asked for help? I want you to start. Consider wondering what Would having God's power have done? Would you been. Would you have been okay being alone? Would you have worshiped differently? Would you have allowed yourself to be more involved in your church and community with regular attendance? I don't know the answer for you, but I'm telling you that the best way that you can spend these last few weeks is seeing the areas where power stop flowing to. Then allow yourself to kind of look at what clamped that power down and instead say, you know what, God, I want you to release this hold of pride, this spirit of lust, this fear of rejection and abandonment so that power, your power, can flow through me again. And when power flows, baby, you gonna grow like never before. I'm grateful for my ability to serve you. You've certainly been with me throughout this year. Where the girl needed power to be still, power was moving and moving. I'm like power. Can you be still for a minute? Your def keeps changing. One moment, power is surrender. The next moment power is fighting. The next power is rest. I just needed power to be still. I am resting in the stillness of this season's power. I'm leaning into God's voice, God's knowledge, God's wisdom as it relates to my life. And I pray and hope that you will do the same. Thank you for spending 2024 with me. I think we're like 50. I think we did 50 episodes this year. It's only 52 weeks in the year we go together. I want to pray for you as we close out this year. Lord, I thank you for every heart, every listener, every story, every scar, every question, every guest, every letter that we have read throughout this year. Here. God, I thank you for creating community amongst strangers. Community in the pursuit of becoming everything that you've known about us. God, I ask that you would just plant within us a deeper. A deeper sensitivity to what it means to hear from you. A deeper sensitivity of what it means to respond with obedience and strength. God, I pray that as we lean into your voice and lean into your wisdom that we will realize that we're not missing a thing. Thank you for bringing us through this year, Lord. It was some moments where we didn't know what the end was going to be. But now we know that the end is just another beginning. Thank you, God, for allowing us to begin again in you. May we take advantage of the access we have and share it with everyone in our world. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Evolves.
