Adventurous Obedience with Kari Jobe

God Hears Her Podcast
Episode 33 – Adventurous Obedience
Elisa Morgan and Eryn Eddy with Kari Jobe

Kari: There was this one moment where I got in my closet, and I just unleashed on the enemy. And I pulled my mama bear claws out, and I just said, how dare you? You will not attack my family. You better back off. And I was like, I take authority over my mind. I take authority over my family. I take authority over you, and I declare every assignment of the enemy to be broken off of my family. And I promise you, it did something in the depths of my belly to break the power of torment and fear that night. And I say that just to say this that are listening, you might just need to get really loud and really fervent and maybe just climb in your closet and move your shoes out of the way and get the enemy to back off of your family.

[musical interlude and introduction]

Elisa: Welcome to God Hears Her. I’m Elisa Morgan.

Eryn: And I’m Eryn Eddy. We’ve all heard it said, “Adventure is out there.” And life begins at the end of your comfort zone. But how do we know the difference between recklessness and adventure? And how do we recognize when it’s God who is calling us out of the comfortable into something new that He has for us? Kari Jobe has been there. And today, we will discuss what she describes as the adventure of following God.

Elisa: For more than two decades, Kari Jobe has been using her gifts to lead people into the presence of God as a well-respected worship leader. She started doing this as a 13-year-old. And now Kari has also sold more than 1.3 million albums in her career. Originally from Texas (yes) and now residing in Nashville, Tennessee, she tours the country with her husband Cody Carnes and their two boys, Canyon and Kingston. So let’s get to this inspiring conversation with worship leader and artist, Kari Jobe. This is God Hears Her. Okay, so when we read the Psalms, Kari, you know, we know David a worship leader so to speak, wrote a whole bunch of them. And we think we know David from reading the Psalms. And I think we might assume we know you by listening to your music. What do we need to know about Kari that’s maybe under the surface or, you know, maybe it isn’t at first super obvious? But it’s your heart. And if we knew it, it would draw us closer into the worship that God offers us through your gifting.

Kari: Well thank you. I love David. I write a lot of songs out of the hymns and you know out of his psalms. So I love that correlation. I am just a lover of Jesus. I’m married to my husband, Cody Carnes. We have two little boys named Canyon and Kingston. They are four and a half and one and a half, and they are everything to me. So I always say I’m a wife. I’m a mom. I’m a lover of Jesus. And then I’m an artist. I get to do music, and I get to just help people connect to the heart of the Father; and I love getting to do that.

Eryn: Okay, so Kari, will you share like who you were as maybe as like the…the childlike faith of the little girl.

Kari: Yeah, oh man. I grew up in a Christian home, and my parents were just very radical for what the Lord wanted them to do in their life. So I was raised like ministering since I was little bitty. My parents traveled and did evangelism. And I remember my dad did this walk across Texas when I was five to put prayer back in schools.

Elisa: Wow.

Kari: And I remember standing on the capitol steps of the state of Texas in Austin. And he did like an evangelistic revival night on the state capitol steps, and that was my heritage. I grew up with that kind of mom and dad just radical about trusting God and doing what God asked. So I got saved when I was five. And I remember when I was 10 having this really crazy encounter with the Lord. And I just remembered saying I want to write songs that help people say things to You. I want to help write songs that would help people pray things. And so yeah, that was…that began like a journey for me in my teen years of being in my youth group. And we would have these two and three-hour worship nights when I was young. And we just spent time on our faces. And I went to a beautiful church where we just believed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and just went after the things of God. And so that was me. That was like the me growing up. When I was 18, things began to shift where I had to start using muscles I didn’t know that I was gonna ever have to use. But it…it probably saved my life. Because everything was like I just thought everything you prayed that it would happen just like that every time. But God began me on a journey in my twenties to have to learn to use spiritual muscles and really like declaring the Word of God over my life and wait for the fruit, cause it wasn’t happening as quickly as it did when I was young.

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: You know.

Elisa: A time of testing, it sounds like of…

Kari: Yeah.

Elisa: …moving from your head to your heart out into your feet. Yeah.

Eryn: So Kari, tell me what are spiritual muscles? And when did you learn even what that term was?

Kari: I think spiritual muscles are…it’s like when you begin to work out on a new workout regimen. And you’re sore in places you didn’t know you could get sore, you know. You’re like oh wow like I didn’t know I could be this sore. And I think that sometimes certain life experiences just pull on different things in…in our spiritual walk with the Lord. And we have to learn to use our…a different muscle in our spiritual walk. So when I say that, I mean like learning to take God at His Word. You could say that, but it’s a different thing when you really have to do it.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: If you could pick three adjectives to describe yourself, anything, expected or unexpected, what would you pick and maybe why?

Kari: Oh man, three adjectives. I think I would pick silly, because I’m silly.

Elisa: I love that.

Eryn: I love that, that was a good one.

Kari: Yes. I think I would pick genuine, cause I really love to be genuine with people and with my family. And I think I would pick adventurous. I love to be adventurous. And you know obeying God in our lives requires I think an adventurous spirit. So yeah.

Elisa: Do…do you feel like those three adjectives would describe you just now or maybe throughout life?

Kari: I’m probably more adventurous now as a…you know as an older lady. Just I feel like getting to know yourself and becoming comfortable in your skin, you know you’re like I’m okay being adventurous. I’m okay being silly. I’m okay being dorky. I’m okay, you know, like this is me. This is like consistently what happens when I’m myself. And so, you know, and I think just being obedient to the voice of God in our lives. He gives us the bravery and the boldness to obey Him, you know and so I just love that we could say well I really felt in my spirit that I was obeying God. And at the end of the day, that’s all I know to do you know. Like I just recorded an album in the middle of a pandemic. And I was a little bit afraid that some people would think that, that was reckless or careless or you know I was worried about those things. I haven’t gotten any negativity. Everyone’s been very appreciative. Everyone’s been very honoring. Everyone’s been thankful that we went with no people. They respected it. They’ve respected that aspect to what we did. So yeah, I resonate with all those things.

Eryn: Will you share more about that process of like…like what brought you to writing the album and then like what you were expressing? Like it did feel like some people might think it’s reckless and yeah, what was that journey like? Just the…tell me just all of it. Tell me the beginning, the end, middle.

[laughter]

Elisa: We want it all.

Eryn: Want it all.

Kari: Oh man, how much time do you have?

Eryn: Right, I know.

Kari: Yeah. Well so I was writing for the album, cause I knew…I knew about a couple years ago that I was gonna do…that my next project would be a live worship project. And so began writing for that about two years ago. And we kind of had most of the album written probably by last September. I felt really confident that we were on a good trajectory to record this year. This is pre-covid. This is pre knowing anything was gonna shift and change and be very different. And so at the beginning of 2020, still pre-covid, I call it my eleventh-hour songs. There were three eleventh-hour songs that just really turned things like in our lives just begin to shift. And we just were like God, what are you up to? And the last one was The Blessing. And you know most people probably know the story by now. But we wrote it and released it within 10 days.

Elisa: Wow.

Kari: And which is pretty quick…

Elisa: Yes.

Kari: …on a song like you know.

Elisa: I would say so.

Eryn: That’s very quick, very quick. Wow.

Kari: But what was crazy is we felt so strong in our spirits that we were supposed to do that and get it out as quickly as we could. And then the week p…like right after that, one week later was when the pandemic affected the globe, and everything started changing. And I just remembered thinking like wow, what is this? What are we gonna do? You know like everybody was. What is this gonna look like? What’s this mean? How long is this gonna be? And I’m very positive, so I was like oh, it’s gonna be like two weeks we’ll we back to normal.

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: Like…

Elisa: Is that positive or denial? Yeah, gotcha.

Kari: Yeah. Maybe both.

Elisa: Right with you though…right with you.

Kari: Hopeful wishful thinking. Yeah. All of that. So yeah, I think once we were like a couple months in in April, I…I just was really seeking the Lord. Like okay, we really aren’t gonna tour this year. And…and I felt like we were gonna record my album in the fall of this year. Like I felt that last year, you know, I really kind of just…that was kind of what was in my heart. And I felt like the Lord was like I want you to go ahead and lean in on it. And I was like uh, no thanks. Like I’m like excuse me. Did you know there is a pandemic? And that…I don’t want to do that, yeah.

Elisa: Surprise, God. You might not have caught this yet, but there is a pandemic.

Kari: Yeah, I mean maybe you don’t have social media, but…

Elisa: I love it. I love it.

Eryn: Or the news.

Elisa: Or the news.

Kari: Uh huh, yeah, or the news.

Elisa: But this is kind of the definition of adventures then if I’m hearing you right. There is an edge to it of not knowing, you know, a standing on a bit of a cliff looking down thinking this is nuts. But there is this edge of heart obedience there.

Kari: Yeah.

Elisa: Yeah.

Kari: I just think of Noah building the ark. I mean what a…what a bravery…what a wild bravery to hear the voice of God begin to do something, and everyone around him is like what are you doing? What are you talking about?

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: You know, I’ve just always wanted to live like radical for the Lord and obey what He’s asking and like so many people. And you know once you walk that out in an area or an aspect of your life, you start to see that God is faithful. And so you’re like oh wow. This is a beautiful thing to have faith in God. And I…I’m in. I’m in. Especially when you feel His presence, when you see a miracle in your life. And you know it’s just such a beautiful walk with the Lord. So it’s worth it.

Elisa: How do you tell the difference between a kind of a recklessness that’s dangerous like bad and a recklessness adventurousness that’s obedient?

Kari: I think you have to test it by the fruit, you know. God never contradicts His Word. And so I think you just have to use wisdom. It also says there’s wisdom in a multitude of counselors, you know.

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: So not isolating yourself in a decision but you know in our lives, Cody and I are really big on bringing our pastors and our leaders in and checking things like a checks and balances of like hey, here’s what we feel like we’re hearing. Do you see anything that we could be missing or you know? And with this album, we met with our pastors and just said, we’re feeling this; but if we’re off please tell us. And they were like no, we think that that’s so the Lord. And we’re behind you, and we will back you. And you know when…then you’re like wait. I kind of wanted you to say no, we were missing the Lord.

Eryn: Yeah exactly.

Elisa: There’s this beautiful yieldedness in it though, Kari. You know and that’s what I’m hearing maybe is one element is…is that you know you’re…you see things reckless and it could be disobedient. Crazy, but it could be completely obedient. And how do you know you’re yielding? And…and you’re…you’re surrendering to how God leads and how He uses His people and how He uses the relationships and His Word and the fruit as you said.

Eryn: Yeah, yeah.

Kari: Right, yeah. I mean I’m thankful we can test something by fruit. Otherwise, I don’t…I don’t…just don’t know how we would figure that out. But it’s okay to fail too. It’s okay to miss Him. I’ve missed Him plenty of times, and there’s so much grace for that as well. And I think that’s how you learn is by trial and error and like oh, I think we were just a little off, and we missed it. But that’s all right you know. It’s good. It’s good to just trust the Lord and be brave and go for it.

Eryn: What do your conversations look like with the Lord, Kari, when you have missed it? Cause it’s so easy to like put on the coat of shame or guilt or just you know feel like you failed.

Kari: Yeah probably like anyone else you know just like oh man. I really thought I had heard You, and I just feel like I was like one degree off or something. And the beautiful thing though is like even if that does happen, you…you still feel the grace of God. And you feel…you see Him turn it for our good. So it’s almost like just this…this protection that He just covers it you know. It’s kind of like you see like huh. I think I may have been off. But the Lord like used it. And He’s just…He’s very gracious…

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: …and I love that about Him you know. Cody and I really surround ourselves just with really godly leadership too. And they’re loving. So if there is a time where we’re like man. Cause we…we missed something a few years ago with some touring stuff. We…we felt like we had heard the Lord. And we later on we realized we hadn’t. And…and there was just like a big financial thing that…that it affected.

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: We were pretty down about it. And we met with one of our leaders and pastors. And he said you know with God, nothing is ever a loss. It may have been a really expensive lesson that you learned.

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: But most often really important things we need to learn are an investment of our time and money. So just look at it as that, and the Lord will replenish what you lost. And he was right. The Lord did replenish financially. He…He made up for our decisions and the money we had lost on that tour. And we just watched Him be faithful. Our hearts were right, but it just…in the…in the natural, it didn’t pan out the way were hoping, you know.

Eryn: Yeah

Kari: Monetarily or whatever you need it to be sometimes. But spiritually it was beautiful.

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: So…

Elisa: There’s a way in which what you’re saying it…it resonates so much with me that even if we have our hearts inclined towards obedience, and we do the very best we can, we can sometimes, even with godly counsel, etcetera, we can sometimes quote miss it is…is the way you expressed it.

Eryn: Yeah, yeah.

Elisa: And what you’re saying I think is…is that God won’t let His purposes be missed. You know we might miss an experience of it.

Kari: Absolutely.

Elisa: We might…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …make a mistake. But God will accomplish His intentions through it. And…and then that…if we [attend to] that, Kari? Is that what you’re saying? Then that way we’ll never miss out totally, because we’re connecting to who He is and what He’s doing beyond what we can understand.

Kari: Absolutely. Yeah, I think it’s the heart behind something. If your heart is right and you’re submitted to the Lord and…and to you know having godly people in your life, I think it’s just not a miss. It’s just…it might be a different way of looking at it. You know but yeah. I think it’s when there’s pride. I think it’s when there’s a stubbornness and a…and like what you were saying earlier, maybe not yielding our hearts and what we want to the Lord is when we can get in a dangerous zone you know

[music]

Eryn: And when we come back, Kari will share a nightmare experience that was part of her inspiration for the award-winning song “The Blessing.” And she will describe what it looks like to stand up against the enemy when he goes after your family. That’s coming up on God Hears Her.

Elisa: Thanks for listening to this God Hears Her podcast. Eryn and I love sharing this space with you. And you know what? We want to invite you to become an even bigger part of our God Hears Her community. Just sign up for our weekly email newsletter. We’ll keep you updated on new podcasts, encouraging blog posts, exciting new products…so much. Just go to godhearsher.org and sign up today. That’s godhearsher.org. now back to the show.

Eryn: Welcome back to God Hears Her. I’m Eryn Eddy.

Elisa: And I’m Elisa Morgan. And in just a minute, we will hear from Kari Jobe on the challenges of loneliness, loss, and attacks from the enemy. But before we do, just a quick reminder that the show notes are available in the podcast description. The show notes not only contain the talking points for today’s episode, but they also include a link to a free resource. It’s a digital download titled “Live Free: A Fresh Look at the Fruit of the Spirit.” And this e-booklet not only helps us understand what the fruit of the Spirit is and is not, but also how we are set free to live a new life in Christ and enabled to serve one another in love. This download is yours for free. Just click on the link in the podcast description on our website godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org.

Eryn: Now back to our conversation with Kari Jobe. Before the break, Kari described herself as silly, genuine, and adventurous and explained that we can tell if we are obedient in our godly adventures by testing the fruit that it produces. We start the next part of the conversation by asking Kari about the inspiration behind some of her specific songs. And she touches on topics of loneliness, loss, and the enemy’s attacks. This is God Hears Her.

Elisa: You’ve got a lot of songs that have ministered to so many of us. And Eryn and I have both have kind of out a couple. For me, “I’m Not Alone” has been pow you know for me. It’s just so powerful. And it’s such a first person application message you know that when you’re singing it, when we’re worshipping singing it, you know, I’m…I’m brought right into…to God’s presence. And I think our world is super lonely right now. I mean we’re the most lonely generation that’s been on the planet. And America is one of the most lonely countries in the world. And “I’m Not Alone” just speaks to that. Can…can you tell us where that particular song was birthed in you?

Kari: Yeah. I was still single. It just was really a season that I was feeling alone. But also as I was leading worship and ministering in that season, I just kept being taken to Isaiah 43 where it talks about when we walk through the waters, we will not be overtaken. When we walk through the fire, we will not be burned. And that, you know, that Scripture that says “I am with you wherever you go.” It just was like very, very, very deep in my spirit at the time. And so I ended up writing it with a few friends. And it took quite a while to finish, cause we just…we just wanted to have some experiences with leading it before we finished writing it. Anytime we’d kick into the chorus and the bridge, everyone just was like more. We want to sing that more. And it wasn’t even finished. You know it was really sweet.

Eryn: Oh, oh.

Kari: And so I knew at the time I was like this is gonna be a really potent song for people’s hearts.

Elisa: That reminds me of often times when I’ve been taught about speaking, I’ve been challenged. Preach that message to your own heart before you preach it to someone else. And it sounds like that’s what the Lord was inviting y’all into was just to really experience that truth. Because when we experience what He’s trying to say, He pours it out through us differently. You know it’s like digested and…and…and purified. You know and…and made somehow more accessible to other people.

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: Yeah, totally. I think Bill Johnson said this a few years ago at something where Cody and I were. And he just said, when you write from an encounter you’ve had with the Holy Spirit, that encounter gets locked up in that song or in that message or in that book and can really invite other people into a similar encounter.

Eryn: I love that.

Kari: And it just stuck with me, and I just…it is so…it’s so true. Because there’s…there’s a reason we’re connecting to something. Cause there’s like blood, sweat, and tears in that song. It was a declaration over my own heart in that season. And so when I hear these stories of…of that being something that’s really helped people come out of depression and anxiety and things that I had experienced in that season, I’m like I’m not surprised. Cause it you know, it’s locked up in that encounter, so that’s really sweet.

Eryn: That is such a beautiful perspective and just truth. There’s a song, Kari, that you wrote “Speak to Me.” And that song just…I to give you just a little bit of context, I was going through a really hard time and divorce and heartbreak and just pretty distant with my relationship with the Lord, and I compartmentalized Him. And it wasn’t a [inaudible] thing. It was like when I felt like talking to Him and engaging with Him. And that song, it just brought me back into just communion with Him and surrender and really helped me to just have space to pray and express my feelings. Like it…that song created such a safe space for me to express what I was going through with Him. And I wonder hearing you say that, did that song come from any sort of place for you to write that?

Kari: That’s interesting that you’re talking about just that broken place, cause it definitely came out of that season for me. Just that was a season where my sister had lost a baby, and it was a stillborn birth. And it was extremely difficult to walk through that with her. I was pregnant too at the same time.

Elisa: Oh my gosh, yeah.

Kari: And so for two sisters, like we were dreaming of these sweet babies that were gonna be a couple weeks apart, so it was really, really scary. It was very confronting. I felt like I was in this season that when I talked to the Lord, it was very raw and very, very real. It was no fluff. It was just not very nice sometimes.

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: It was just real.

Eryn: Yeah, it was messy.

Kari: You know it was just….

Eryn: It was messy.

Kari: It was messy. Yeah, that’s a great word for it. I feel like my face is even burning now thinking about how when I felt like He had come close in that season, and I could hear Him speak something to me, it felt like my face was like warm. You know it felt very just real and raw. And I remember even sitting through all the strings that we had for that song. And there was too much going on in the music. And I kept scaling it back. And I had even sung a few things, and I was like no, cut me out. No, cut me out. No, cut…and I like…I think I had…I edited that song more than any other song on that…on that project because I was like I want people to be able to sit in this song and be able to play it over and over and over and just let the Lord speak to them and let them feel Him like this close to their skin you know. And so that was a…that was a…that was a hard song.

Eryn: That…that song translated that t…for me. It…it was such a monumental song in my…in my life, and I would put it on repeat. There was anger, and there was heartbreak. And there was just like you said, like it was…I was just so much messy was being brought to Him in that song. And I…I just…I’m so…I’m so grateful that you yielded to just like let’s just strip it. Let’s just create the space that I needed that other people need to just be spoken over.

Kari: Yeah.

Elisa: Tweak this conversation just a tiny bit. I’ve been really struck by “The Blessing,” this newer song that…that you have been given. And if you kind of layer “I’m Not Alone” and “Speak to Me” [as yours] and telling me stories, I’m struck by how outward it is. “I’m Not Alone, Speak to Me.” So many of your beautiful, intimate messages are like between me and God you know just me and…me and Jesus here, me and the Holy Spirit here. And they’re really, they’re corrective and healing and transformational in terms of who I am with God. “The Blessing” turns the arrows of our lives, if you will, outward. Can you talk about that and why you think God gave you that message for now for His people?

Kari: Ooh. I’m just like, I haven’t heard someone share it like that, and I think it’s really cool. Because I’m like wow. I just don’t think that we can declare things truthfully and it bring actually breakthrough for other people unless we really believe that. And I think it took me in my own walk with the Lord, those seasons of declaring I’m not alone. Speak to me, countless others that you know became these prayers and…and heart cries for me. There is this like mama bear thing on “The Blessing” that…that I feel for people. I really felt so strong to just declare out “He is for you. He will break through this darkness. He sees you. He hears you.” Like and…and I…I’ve written like different things in songs through the years that are similar, but it’s interesting that there’s like this common theme that He is for me. I started declaring that over my life years ago. I have it as a tattoo on my foot that says “you are for me.” Yeah, I…there is just…I could share this crazy story that happened about a year ago…year and a half now that I think is really locked up in “The Blessing” that I haven’t really shared much. About a year and a half ago, Cody was on tour with Elevation oddly enough, cause we wrote this song with some of the guys from Elevation. And Kingston, my baby, was seven weeks old. And I was in the middle of really, really tough post-partum. And I didn’t know it at that time, which most women don’t at the time. You know but I was in the middle of that and just…but I was also just healing. I had a C-section and it was just a really tough pregnancy. And so it was just a raw time for me physically and emotionally and spiritually. And I was really in a season of dealing with some really intense torment in my mind of fear like intense fear—fear of something happening to my baby. After walking through that with my sister, like fear of losing a child traumatically, like fear of just those things that the enemy just constantly tries to just…what if this happened? What if that happened: just that nagging enemy, the lies of the enemy. And you know and I was…I was listening to worship music. I was doing the things I knew to do in that season. I was…but still it was just very real. And so there was this one day that it was a little bit nicer outside, and so we want for a walk. And I had a friend with me, thank you, Jesus. Because Canyon was three at the time, and my baby was seven weeks. And Canyon fell down behind me. And when he did, my stroller…I just took my hands off the stroller just for a split second to pick Canyon up. And I wasn’t thinking about the fact that we were on a little bit of an incline. And we were right by a body of water. And the stroller got away from me.

Elisa: Oh my gosh.

Kari: And he went upside down into the water in the stroller. And so I…I run and jump into the water, and I…I was able to get him out. And when I pulled him out, he was strapped into the car seat. When I pulled him out, he was crying. So I knew immediately he was okay. And but I mean I was like crying out to the L…I was literally yelling and screaming, “Oh God. Oh God.” And…and people came and helped, and…and it was fine. They got us all out. But it was…it was a long 20-minute walk back to the car. And when I got in the car, for the next oh man, probably…probably five hours, I wept and wept and wept. And at one point, my friend stayed with me the rest of the night. And my pastor came…they came over and ministered with me that night. And but there was this one moment where I got in my closet, and I just unleashed on the enemy.

Elisa: Wow.

Kari: And I pulled my mama bear claws out, and I just said “how dare you? You will not attack my family. You better back off.” And I just began declaring, not that I was like just talking to the enemy cause I don’t like to do that a lot. But I was like, I had had it. And I was like “I take authority over my mind. I take authority over my family. I take authority over you, and I declare every assignment of the enemy to be broken off of my family.” And I promise you, it did something in the depths of my belly to break the power of torment and fear that night. And I say that just to say those that are listening, you might just need to get really loud and really fervent and maybe just climb in your closet and move your shoes out of the way. Get the enemy to back off of your family.

Eryn: Yes.

Kari: Because it just…it just did something. And so when I kick into that bridge on “The Blessing,” I remember that night when I was like that’s enough. I speak blessing over my family.

Elisa: [inaudible] Jesus, yeah.

Kari: And I thank you that the Word of God is for me and that He cares about me too. And you’re not gonna take me out, and you’re not gonna silence my worship, and you’re not gonna freak me out with all your lies, you know so. Anyway, yes, there is encounter locked up in that song too. And it’s really…it really means a lot to me.

Elisa: I hear this process of encountering God, locking it up by His great power, speaking it into yourself and then speaking it over others. And just you know, Kari, would you for just a minute…you know we say that God hears you. He knows you. He loves you. He sees you because you are His. Would you speak that locked up encounter over women who are listening right now, mama bear? Cause that’s what we do for each other. That’s what we do for each other, yeah.

Kari: Yes, that’s right. Yeah, and I had women lifting my arms in that season of you know it…and it takes that…that vulnerability with friends too. So I would just say that but…

Eryn: Yeah.

Kari: Lord, I thank you for these women and these…even these men that are listening. And God, I pray for an encounter with your presence, not an encounter with an idea of…of a God but an encounter with You as their true God. Lord, we just declare that Your name is above every name. that your name is above every sickness or disease, every spirit of torment, every spirit of fear and anxiety.

Elisa: Yeah.

Kari: Lord, I pray that those that have been saying out loud “I feel suicidal. I don’t know if I can do this. I feel alone. I don’t know if I can do this.” I just declare over you today; you can do this.

Elisa: Yes, in the name of Jesus.

Kari: You need to open the Word and just declare the truth of the Word of God over your family, over your lives, take authority by the name of the blood of Jesus. And just begin to watch this shift in your home. Turn worship music on. I…I remember for weeks I played worship music on YouTube. I just kept it going through the night even. Because when I was fearful in the night, I’d get up and I’d walk in the living room. And I would get on my face, and it took weeks. It did. It took weeks, but you can do this. And I promise you, you’ll begin to see fruit. It won’t be overnight. It will be a process, because you’ve got to take back the ground. And so I just speak that over you that you can do this with boldness and bravery. You can be adventurous and trust God and take Him at His Word. In Jesus’ name.

Eryn: Amen.

[music]

Elisa: Open the Bible and declare the truth of the Scriptures over your family and over your life.
Eryn: What a powerful prayer. This is God Hears Her. Well before we close out today’s episode, just a quick reminder that the show notes are available in the podcast description. The show notes not only contain the talking points for today’s episode but also include a link to a free resource. It’s a free digital download titled Live Free: A Fresh Look at the Fruit of the Spirit. This e-booklet not only helps us understand what the fruit of the Spirit is but also how we are set free to live a new life in Christ and enabled to serve one another in love. This download is yours for free. Just click on the link in the show notes on our website at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org.

Elisa: Thanks for joining us. Don’t forget. God hears you. He sees you, and He loves you because you are His.

Eryn: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Mary Jo Clark and Daniel Ryan Day. And we also want to take a moment and thank Bobby and Matt for their help in creating and promoting the God Hears Her podcast. Thanks, friends.

Elisa:God Hears Her is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries.