What does it take to go to the NEXT LEVEL in your Spiritual Strength?
What does it take to go to the NEXT LEVEL in your Spiritual Strength?
Rosalinda Rivera and I chat about the keys to transforming your life as well as those around you. The LAST point is the best!!!
- Alita
Alita Reynolds: We both know that spiritual strength is so important.
My friend Rosalinda Rivera, we just recorded an episode.
And we're both so passionate about spiritual strength. So what does that actually mean?
What is spiritual strength? What I think about is when things get rough, when things are hard, who do you go to? Do you allow your faith, your relationship with Jesus, to really drive how you live out your life?
So, Rosa, I just want you to share some things that you've done to develop your spiritual strength in life.
Rosalinda Rivera: As a leader, it does get rough. I'm a mom, I have kids, business, we have a ministry, but I have to set apart time. I've got to in all the busyness. So I have to say no to a lot of things. I have quite a lot of things, and sometimes we have to quit things.
We have to say no so that we get time with the Lord. For me, I know it gets crazy once a day gets rolling.
So before anything happens, just even if I'm laying in bed right there, I take time to be with the Lord. I love having devotion. So I want to encourage you to do that.
I love worship, even playing worship from the house, Alexa and worship, even Alexa knew that it's good. But that has really helped but more than the quick devotion.
Sometimes it's easy just to read that one scripture and think that that will carry you through while we get to go a little deeper. So I just want to encourage everybody out there to kind of open that word and ask God to show you a new revelation.
Alita: That's good! For me, personally, if I need to hear from God, in a deeper way, in a time where I'm searching for something, and going through a trial and going through something difficult. The quick devotion is good. I need to sit there for a long time. I get away by myself.
Jesus is my best friend. I want to spend more time with Him to find that revelation than anybody else.
The only way to become spiritually strong is through that deep relationship with Jesus.
I think about how do I hear from the Lord? What are the ways that we hear from the Lord?
We hear from the Lord through Scripture, through confirmation through relationships.
What are some other ways that we hear from the Lord?
Rosalinda: I think God puts people in our lives when we don't know the answer. And I may ask somebody to just pray with me through it. There are times when I feel like there are crickets. I’m not hearing anything. And so you're right, I'll stay there a little longer.
I have to turn off distractions. I'm one of those people that has so many distractions going on. And I have to give time, quality time in a relationship, especially with my husband, my kids. I want their focus. I have to turn things off in here from the Lord.
You don't always hear from Him right away, but He is faithful.
Alita: We just want to encourage with spiritual strength. How do you become spiritually strong? We know that we as women have the opportunity to affect the world in a way that is unlike ever before.
We have opportunities to rise up, to be life leaders. I talk about that a lot. A life leader is somebody who is leading themselves well, and the only way you can lead yourself well is through being spiritually strong.
Talk about the connection between leading yourself well and spiritual strength.
Rosalinda: I can't keep on pouring into people if I am not refilling myself. And so it's really, really important. Everybody has a word for the year. And this might sound crazy to you, but my word for the year was "me". And it's never been made.
Wow, I've always poured out onto other people and into our international missions, all kinds of stuff. And I was like, God, is it okay for me to be a focus? I'm at a point where I am going to have a birthday. All kinds of major things are happening. And "me" didn't mean just the material me, but it meant I needed to grow my faith, and my walk. I need to take care of myself. I need some good health habits. Things have to change for me to pour into other people.
When we lead others, we can run out of gas, just like our car on the side of the road. Sometimes you have all these gifts and talents. You may be leading a ministry right now, and you just kind of feel as a leader, "I've got no more".
That's because we have to get poured into. So it's super, super important.
Alita: I think about, who are you leading?
A lot of times, we think we're not leaders. When I was in my younger years, I would have said I'm not a leader at all!
You're always leading one person.
You’re leading yourself.
You're leading those that are in your home.
You're leading the little ones running around your feet.
Maybe you're an empty nester, and they’re out of the home; you’re still leading.
Maybe you're single; you’re still leading your friends whether you want to or not. You have an opportunity to lead them.
You're leading people in your community at your work.
I always want to encourage people. So when we talk about life leadership, it's really for everyone because we're all leading, at least ourselves.
If we want to influence other people, it always comes back to that spiritual strength.
I think of it as a ripple effect. I have to take care of me going back to your comment, Rosalinda.
I have to take care of me first, and that cup has to be full and overflowing. What does it overflow on to first, though? Who are the most important people in your life? When my cup is full, and it's overflowing onto my husband, my children, the people that I love and care about the very most, and then you kind of go to that next ripple effect.
So it's coming out out of us. We’re overflowing with joy. We're abundant. We are overflowing with the Holy Spirit. It overflows onto the people we love the most, then maybe acquaintances and friends and people that we're not spending as much time with.
Then what's the next layer? We overflow onto the world, those that are peripheral to our lives. The only way to be overflowing and have that ripple effect of the spirit, coming over other people and having that life leadership, the influence onto other people, is by us being filled. The only way we can be filled with the Holy Spirit and live out the life that God has called us to is by being spiritually strong.
Rosalinda: I love that analogy. Some people feel like, there's so much in me, but why do I still feel empty? I'm going to church. I’m worshiping, reading my word. Why do I still feel empty? Think of it this way, we're a vessel.
Sometimes there are the stones in there taking the space, and God's like, pour it out, but you still feel empty.
That's because we get to surrender. Sometimes there are things that we have to just pull out of our life. Maybe it's a friendship, or it's a bad connection you're holding on to. We’re putting our heart space into other things that have nothing to do with God.
Some of us say, I want to surrender my whole heart to God. Things have just to be placed in there like a puzzle. Sometimes when something doesn't fit, maybe it has nothing to do with God's plan for your life. You've just been holding on to this or that, and it's not right before the Lord. It's okay to surrender those things.
When we do, we're lifting it out of that vessel. We're making more space for things to flow. Here are all those amazing things he got his all into overflowing, but he's not just doing it for your life. It's so you can pour on the life of a sister or somebody else. There's people just waiting to let that just flow onto their life. They need that!
If you feel a little empty, check your heart. Maybe there's something that needs to come out.
Alita: That's so good, Rosalinda.
I'm excited for you all to listen to our entire episode on the Women of Faith Show!
We had such a good time we talked about time management.
We talked about habits and addiction.
We talked about marriage. We talked about it all! And we laughed, of course!
We just love you guys.
We would love to know what type of videos would you like us to place here on Women of Faith.
We want to support you. What are you dealing with? What are you struggling with? We want to talk to you and help you grow.
Because if we don't talk about things, how can they get better?
Let's talk about the things that are sometimes not easy to talk about.
I want to talk about one last thing. Obedience. Let's get real. It's not that easy to be obedient! I think about being a parent. You want your child to obey, don't you? Every day you're like, “if they would just obey... if they would just do what's best for them! Their life would be so much easier."
And this is what God is saying to us each and every day. When you look in the Bible, it's all about following the Lord, obeying Him. He's telling us if we want to be spiritually strong, He's telling us what we need to do.
We're not guessing. We're not wondering, what are we supposed to be doing? We know what we're supposed to be obeying.
There is surrender. There is actually obeying what He's asking us to do.
If we want to be strong, let's start with obedience.
Our heavenly Father wants us to be obedient to what He's asking us to do.
Rosalinda: I'm sitting here just laughing because we're grown women, and sometimes we can be guilty. I tried to give bad advice to God. I'll think, "but God, if you would just see, I know!" We hear about backsliding, but there is also front sliding or go ahead of God. The Israelites were walking around the desert. They were so close to the promised land, but they were griping, complaining, being disobedient. And all along, the answer was right around the corner.
Maybe you're listening today, I want to encourage you that your answer is probably right around the corner. I'll never forget when my mom called me, and we were doing this business deal. She's said, "God just woke me up to tell you this is not really of God". My response was, "Well, I pray too, don't you think God would tell me"?
I should have listened because it was the most painful season of my life. We had this whole thing that just went south, and her prayers ring in my head.
Because of that disobedience, I've learned now to ask God, "just show me". Sometimes it's not easy. We want to do what we want to do, but sometimes that costs us a lot. We need to listen to the voice of God, even if we don't get the way He works it out. You've probably seen that in your life. You think, "I'm so glad I listened because this is way cooler than if I would have done it my way".
Alita: I've tried to do it my way. I'm an activator. So that means sometimes that instead of "ready, aim, fire", sometimes I "ready, fire before I aim". I will just go do something before I have it planned out and before God has really asked me to do something. I may go before Him.
I've realized it's a bad idea over and over again. I say, "Alita, get through your head, quit going before Him".
When I slow down, when I get in the Word, get in my chair, and just put everything else away, I put all the distractions away, and I am with my best friend, be with Jesus.
I promise you, if you want to be spiritually strong, spend time with Him.
Sit there and sit there and sit there, read the Bible.
Look at the cross-references. Look at the other scripture. Just get in the Word.
I promise you it will change your entire life. It just changed me. It has transformed me. The scripture says, "let God transform you".
And the only way you can do that is by spending time with Him.
Rosalinda: I just want to stand here with you, my sister. Let’s just agree that God is going to fill you because He loves you. He has a purpose.
You are valued. You’re stronger than you think.
Lord, I just pray right now for every woman, Lord God. Maybe they do feel a little empty or they've been disappointed because they tried to do it their own way. Father, in Jesus’ name, I just pray that you would surround them with your presence, pour your spirit out on them in a new in a fresh way. When they read the word, Lord God, I pray that you reveal to them things that they never saw before the answers that will make them stronger. The guidance that will make their foundation firm, Lord God, and if they're going through a storm, Lord, that they would surrender, Lord, to You and let You take us through. You are faithful. I praise You right now for every woman watching in Jesus’s name, Amen. Amen.
