Hey everyone.

Welcome back to another episode of These are the Valleys.

It's your host Jasmine Cambridge.

Today's episode is inspired by a time in my valley period, where

I became so reliant on God and confirmation and his plan, that

I became paralyzed in the valley.

I was essentially using God as a crutch, as a spiritual fallback.

And not in the right way.

I was preferring his plans, right, over his presence.

I wanted to know what he had for me.

I wanted to know what the next level was.

I wanted to hear about this and that and the third during our time together.

It just kind of seemed like a one-sided relationship, when I really looked back

on it, every time I go to him, it's "can I have, can I have, can I have, can I

have, can I have," but there's never any actual, real relationship building.

There is no actual love for God, but just a love for what he can do for me.

Um, I got to that point where I was preferring revelation over relationship.

And so, I'm just here today to kind of speak to anyone who's currently

going through that same thing.

I've spoken to a lot of the women in my network and spiritual social circles.

And this seems to be something that a lot of people are struggling with.

A lot of people are trying to find the balance with.

And so I'm so glad that God brought me through that season.

And I had to kind of learn that the hard way that I was leaning on God as a crutch.

And I was kind of using him in a sense.

Um, so what that looked like for me personally, was I got this

idea about the podcast from God.

Right?

Cool.

Now I'm sitting here nitpicking every little thing, asking God

about this, that this, that can I have confirmation about this?

Can I have confirmation about that?

Can you reassure me about this?

Can you remind me?

And it's like, bro, God gave us human logic and only that we have to remember

what I said in, um, the identity in the valley episode, that God chose us

for very specific purposes and plans.

So I had to trust that he had given the podcast to the right person.

Looking back on it, I kind of almost think that I was trying to qualify myself or

I was trying to have God do everything because I didn't feel qualified to do it.

Looking back, that kind of seems like the root of where everything was coming from.

So I was trying to get him to do everything for me so that I

could have more confidence in what he was calling me to do.

But honestly, I didn't have to be confident in it.

I just had to be obedient.

God, isn't asking for us to be 100% sure, a hundred percent, this,

that, or the other, honestly, we're falling short of a hundred percent

everywhere we turn, you know?

It's really hard for humanity to reach a hundred percent in anything.

We don't even to use a hundred percent of our brains.

So it took me some time to realize that I was trying to qualify myself when

the qualification already came when he told me about the podcast, right?

Priscilla Shire.

I love her book, Discerning the Voice of God.

I would definitely say, get that if you're having trouble with

identifying how God is speaking to you.

But she reminds us in the book that it's God's responsibility to talk to us.

As long as we're drawing near to him, not in strategy, but in love, when he

speaks, we will hear him just fine.

To reiterate the last point, I was really trying to get with God

so that I could hear something about my future, which is fine.

And that's cool.

That should be an aspect of us spending time with God, but it

shouldn't be the full thing.

I realize looking back on it, it was kind of a one-sided relationship

where I was just going to him just to ask for things and then leave.

I wasn't even staying long enough one, for him to really talk to me about

it, but I wasn't staying long enough for us to have a genuine relationship.

And at the end of the day, that's what God wants from us most.

He wants us to commune, to have a loving relationship.

Yes.

God loves to bless us.

He loves to give.

He's a good and generous father.

However, how would you feel if someone was only hitting you up when they

had to ask you for stuff because they knew that you are a generous person,

they knew you were a loving person?

Wouldn't you kind of pull back on giving that person stuff?

And so we have to view God in the same way.

I don't want to be blasphemous and say "humanize" God.

But to an extent we have to use our human point of perspective, to

really get a better understanding of what this relationship is

kind of supposed to look like.

So I think sometimes we mystify God and we just make God this big

entity that doesn't have feelings.

That doesn't have emotions.

That doesn't have, um, any sense of logic about how a relationship should work.

When it's like, come on guys, we're talking about God.

Like he created us all.

Like he is the author of relationship.

Like, come on.

He's the author of love.

He is love.

So if we want to get into a better place, not only in our lives, but more

specifically in our walk with him, we have to begin to cultivate relationships

that look like the two-way street that were intended to have with God.

So get with him and see what practices and routines you need

to pick up to foster a properly loving relationship between you two.

That is not solely based on God's telling you every little thing to do,

because I mean, when you think about it, God gave us free will for a reason.

Okay.

He's not supposed to tell us every little step.

If he told us every little step and every little choice that we were supposed to

make in every decision that we make, or every calling that we have, we wouldn't

need free will, we would be robots.

So I think it's important for us to, to not negate the little

spin and flare that God gives us.

The room that he gives us to put that on the stuff that he's given us.

These are the Valleys is very much so God's podcasts, but there's

a lot of Jasmine's spin on here.

Okay.

Like.

It's me talking.

Let's be real.

Like, you know, my personality is sprinkled out throughout the show, my

sense of humor or whatever, you know?

So God's given it to the right person so that that person can make it all

that it's supposed to be because he's given it to the right individual.

So I think a lot of times when we get paralyzed, it's because we

feel like we are not qualified to do what God has called us to do.

And so we're just kind to kind of trying to scapegoat the responsibility and the

accountability of pulling this thing off because we don't feel qualified.

So I just want to speak against those whispers of the enemy that may be

reminding you or suggesting to you that, "oh, you don't even know anything.

You haven't even finished reading the Bible.

How are you going to have a Christian podcast?

You still do this, or you don't do that."

I come against every little whisper of the enemy right now that is in your

ear, suggesting and denying and shaming.

And I tell it that it must go.

I bind it on earth as I bought it in the heavenly realms.

Okay.

I loose peace and confidence, encouragement.

I lose spiritual reassurance right now.

We have to begin turning toward our Word for reassurance on these things and to

really see all that God has promised us, not just the fortune, the fame, the fruits

of our labor, whatever it is that you are specifically pulling out Bible verses

to read about yourself and your calling.

Let's look at the things that he's promised all of us, and

especially what they show us about how this walk is supposed to go.

So first we're going to look at Philippians 2:13 "For God is working

in you, giving you the desire and power to do what pleases Him."

I absolutely adore this verse.

This is one of the verses that I've really had to commit to heart, especially during

that valley season, because it really gave me the encouragement to, to push forward.

So what I love about this, this is not just saying, oh, you know, God

is going to give you the fruits of your labor or like Habakkuk,

oh, the plans and the revelations will come at their appointed time.

Okay.

That's all well and good.

But what happens right now when I don't feel like doing what God told me to do?

What happens right now when I don't have the qualifications

to do what God told me to do?

So I love this verse because it's empowering.

Letting you know that God is doing the work in you.

Okay.

He's giving you the desire and he's giving you the power to do what pleases him.

So you don't have to try to qualify yourself as God is

already doing that work in you.

So you just have to begin to do what he's asking you to do, what he's giving

you the desire and the power to do.

So it looks different in every situation.

So that's why I can't throw out exact things, but if God gave you a business

idea and you know, you're supposed to be getting it off the ground

soon, go ahead and get that, LLC.

You don't have to wait on God to file an LLC, you know, go ahead and

reserve that name with the state.

Go ahead and start looking into, you know, proper business

practices and like do what you can.

In my example, if God has given you a podcast, go ahead and start

doing research into microphones.

Go ahead and start doing research into how to edit podcasts or what it takes

to get a podcast on the platform.

If God has giving you a product line, start looking into

how much these things cost.

How other people with similar product lines are getting

their products out there.

What avenues are the best?

There's nothing wrong with research.

There's nothing wrong with research.

There's nothing wrong with getting the paperwork and get them getting

the legalities of things checked out.

You don't want God to give you a business and you sit there and

operating that business out of illegal, um, tactics and methods.

And now you've tainted what God has given you to be a blessing.

So sometimes it's the groundwork that we be overlooking sometimes

in our overthinking and in our listening to the enemy.

So we have to get back into the word guys, Psalm 32:8 " I will instruct you

and teach you in the way you should go.

I will guide you with my eye."

God is telling us here, guys, we don't have to have it all figured out.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

Like guys that's so good.

And so encouraging.

Have you ever felt like you didn't know which way to go?

Have you ever felt like you were at a fork in the road?

And it's like, uh, I don't really know what to pick Lord, but I'm

feeling like I should pick B.

God is working in you.

He's instructing you and teaching you.

So as long as you remain consistent in his presence, not like, "oh

Lord, which way should I go?

Help me?

Jesus, help me.

Jesus."

Like just literally enjoying his presence.

You will know which way to go.

Okay.

And this last one that I just really want us to touch on really quick, James 2:26

"Just as the body is dead without breath.

So is faith dead without good works" I love this scripture, your faith

and fruit will require your action.

Hate to break it to you.

So sorry.

If nobody told you, it looks like I'm the first.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Um, but yeah, and it's not just any old actions, but good works.

Lasting things aren't good without intent.

Okay.

Without intentionality.

So we have to do our part and we have to do our part well, which is why

I encourage you guys to research.

I encourage you guys to ask around, you know, certain things that you will have

to protect about what God has given you.

And that's fine.

And also have discernment about who you're asking for wisdom and

where you're getting wisdom or, um, where you're doing the research.

However, These are things that you can do now, guys, I always hear

people say, oh, you know, God's not saying anything to me about this.

How do I hear from God about this?

Do y'all know, like when y'all are having your maps on: Maps, Google

maps, Waze, whatever you use, your GPS, doesn't say anything to you when

you're going the way that it planned.

When there's no turns up ahead, and you're going down the right road,

the GPS doesn't have anything to say.

So sometimes we can use our human perspectives to understand God better.

And in this context, God, doesn't have things to say anything to correct or

tweak when you're going the right way.

Stop asking your GPS.

You don't ask your GPS, "should I be in the first lane, the

second lane or the third lane?"

If you don't have a turn upcoming, the GPS does not care what lane you're in,

as long as you keep going straight.

So I think sometimes we get so caught up in the minute details and it's the work of

the enemy to have us just so caught up in the minor stuff that doesn't even matter,

that we forget to go in the first place.

There's this saying that what the enemy can't destroy, he will distract

and with the salvation through Jesus, he can no longer destroy us.

Right?

But he could distract us and that's just as good.

If you could get someone --okay.

If someone's on their way to go pick up a million dollars, and you want

to steal that million dollars from them, if you can distract them long

enough to where their time window to go pick up that million dollars is gone,

you have prevented that person from getting what they were supposed to get.

And this specific analogy.

The enemy is like, oh yeah, y'all, ain't getting no million dollars.

I, I know I already lucked out of my million dollars and misery loves company.

So guess what?

Y'all, ain't getting that million dollars either.

So if I could hold y'all up right here at the starting line, hemming and hawing

over which car to take, then-- you know?

We really have to get, get a grip guys.

We got to look at ourselves like, am I even moving forward

and all this questioning and confirming, and this thing and that.

We-- we've got to do better.

So I just came on here real quick to encourage you guys that

you need to get moving on the things that God has given you.

Nobody's going to do it for you and God is not going to Amazon prime it to your door.

You have got to do it for yourself.

So pray on it.

Thank God for the discernment.

Thank God for the vision and start start making moves.

Hey God, I'm thinking I'm bout to go ahead and do this, LLC.

If there's no reason that I shouldn't do it right now, you know, then

I'm gonna go ahead and do it.

But I'm consulting with you real quick before I go do it.

If you feel like you're not hearing nothing.

Cool.

Go do it because if you're not supposed to go do it, God will tell you just the same.

Oh my goodness.

I was listening to this podcast one time and she was talking about, uh,

how a lot of us lean on confirmation.

And that's so true, especially when you're paralyzed in the valley

and you're like, oh, confirmation, confirmation, confirmation.

Well, no confirmation is also confirmation.

She said that, and it really kind of knocked my socks off.

She was like, sometimes God is telling, you know, sometimes in that silence,

that's, that's all you needed to know, but that's not the answer you want to hear.

So you keep asking to ask him to ask him because you want

it in a, this way or that way.

Remember we were talking about putting God in a box and how he responds and how

he helps him, how he provides for us.

That same thing applies to confirmation.

If you're asking God for a confirmation, oh God, am I

supposed to do this podcast now?

And you don't hear anything?

Well, then proceed based off the previous instructions.

If God tells you to do one specific thing for the podcast, and that's what

you should be focusing on and that only.

I don't have all the answers y'all, and every situation is unique, but this is

why I'm stressing to y'all that is so much more important to have the relationship

over the revelation, because if all you have is the revelation, you're bound

to go wrong without the relationship.

So, yeah, I just wanted to leave y'all with that, that gem that

just came to mind real quick.

Thank you, holy spirit because stop trying to get God to give you

the answer that you want to hear.

And just go for the answer that he's already given you.

Okay.

I love y'all.

Please be blessed.

Feel free to hit me up @theJasmineCambridge on Instagram.

Uh, leave a review, leave a review.

Leave a Yelp review, contact the better business bureau.

I don't know.

Just let me know how you liked this episode.

I'd love to hear from you guys, but yes, I don't know what it looks like

from the mountain tops just yet, but for now, these are the valleys, Byeeee.