Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] When the world is closing in on me and it gets so heavy.
[00:00:09] Hey there. Welcome to Grace and Grit podcast, and I'm your host, Shanna Williams. So what is this all about?
[00:00:19] Grace and Grit is a faith filled journey designed to empower you with spiritual strength and resilience. Each episode, we're going to delve into biblical topics, offering insights and teachings to help you overcome life's mental and emotional challenges. We're going to use scripture. I'm going to tell you stories. It's going to be a blast. I can't wait to see you today.
[00:00:50] Hey there. This is Shanna Strange Williams, and you are listening to grace and Grit podcast.
[00:00:58] And I can't wait to jump into this week's lesson or just. I really just call this a talk. It's really like more of me sharing these little nuggets that the Lord gives me. And my goal is to encourage you, to equip you, to inspire you. And I really have this heart that I want to see people experience the Lord in ways that I personally have experienced. I know that everybody's experience is going to be different, but I just mean the general quality of living in this closeness with God that I think we were destined for. I do not think we were made to live on the fringes, or we were made to live kind of this superficial, surface level relationship with God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit. I feel like he invited us into this relationship with him, and he desires it to be intimate. He desires it to be kind of the focus of our life. And that's what's on my heart today is looking at John 15 a little bit and kind of just expounding on it and just releasing some of the revelation that the Lord has given me over the. About this over the past three years. And it's been so experiential for me. It's not just like a mental ascent type thing. This is more like, no, I really know this in my core because I've been living it out the last three years, because for so many years I was a person that really. And I didn't know I did this. Maybe you can relate. I was a Christian. I was. I knew him. I loved him. I've. I've been a Christian most of my life. I got saved very young.
[00:02:47] But I can honestly say I kind of lived compartmentally, I guess would be the way to say it. Or I kind of lived like, I'm saved and I love Jesus. And, yes, I mean, it definitely affected, you know, my values and my morals and, and how I spent my time. But what I mean is, I was not living connected to the vine. I was kind of living connected to the vine, but not in the capacity that he wanted. And it has taken me a lifetime, honestly, I say the last three years, but it's really taken me a lifetime to get. To get better at this. And I'm still learning every day. I'm still learning because my propensity is, and I don't know if yours is this way.
[00:03:35] My tendency is to handle things on my own. My tendency is, if I see a problem, I got to solve it. You know, I've got to get. I've got to get the solution. So in my mind, when the problem arises, I've already, you know, thought up five solutions, five possible solutions that might be the answer for this situation.
[00:03:56] Instead of. Instead of praying about it, instead of stopping and saying, lord, show me what the solution is, let me involve you in this. Let me invite you into this. And I think that a lot of us do this.
[00:04:09] And, you know, I think it's even harder the more intelligent you are or the higher your iq is, you know, and I'm not. Mine's definitely not way up there or anything like that. I mean, but it seems to me that the more intelligent you might be, the more you might struggle with this, because you would tend to rely on your own self. Like, you're like, I can take care myself. I can do this. I can do that. And, you know, if you've been through enough life or if you have some gaping wounds like I have, or you have these flaws that God allowed in you that have kept me humble, you know, that that's actually a gift. When God gives you some of these flaws and some of these things that you think are just awful about yourself, hey, you know what? They actually have kept you humble. And that humility, that lack within ourself is what causes us to come to him like children to come to him, because we need him. So don't ever despise the fact that you need him so much.
[00:05:15] And as a matter of fact, I'm going to go as far to even say he loves it when we need him. And I can prove that to you. I'm going to read to you John 15 a little bit today. This is out of the passion translation, which I love.
[00:05:29] I love the language and the passion translation.
[00:05:33] So John 15 says, I am a true sprouting vine. This is Jesus saying this. And the farmer who tends the vine is my father. He cares for the branches connected to me by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest. So I love the picture of this. Jesus is saying, hey, I am the vine, like, I came straight from the father, and I'm the vine that he sent. And my father is the one that actually tends the vine. So he's the one. And I love this picture. He says that he's lifting up and propping up the fruitless branches. So, you know, he's not just saying, hey, this little shoot over here, this little branch looks really weak, so let me just rip it off and throw it in the trash. I mean, he does do some burning here in a minute, you'll see. But I just like that he is so tender.
[00:06:27] He's a vine dresser, you know, and he is lifting and propping up these fruitless branches or these areas, you could say this way, these areas of our life that he wants to work on, right? He's not just tossing the baby out with, with the bath water and saying, you know what? You get on my last nerve. And so I'm just, the whole thing, you, everything about you, he's driving me and saying, I'm just going to toss you, cut you off, you know, he's not doing that. He's so careful. He's lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and he's pruning every fruitful branch. So even the parts of us that we think are so amazing, you know, maybe you're really good at one thing or maybe you think that, you know, you excel in this one area, and all of a sudden God will.
[00:07:18] He will kind of prune you back in that area, in an area that you thought, man, you thought you had the green light in it and you thought this would be an area that God would open doors for you and. But then he prunes you back in it instead of, instead of going the other direction. And, you know, that's pretty normal language when you're talking about a vineyard or you're talking about vines, grapes growing on the vine. You know, I actually got the opportunity to go to a vineyard, a real vineyard down the road here, and a friend of mine has one. She has a really cool, like, little restaurant and vineyard there. And so she took us around and kind of showed us, you know, just things within. What happens in the vineyard? What happens to the vines? When do they trim them? Why do they trim them? And just explained the whole process to us. And it was so eye opening because, you know, you would see these beautiful branches and and you would think, oh, you should never cut that one. That one is so beautiful. But she would say, no, that's the one we're probably going to prune, because if we don't, it's going to fizzle out in the next year or two. We have to every, you know, every so often we look and we see which ones are over producing. They're too abundant, and we cut them back, and you're thinking, ouch. But it's the wisdom. It's the wisdom of the vine dresser to know when to prune something back and when to prop something up. So that's really good.
[00:08:53] So it's the wisdom of the vine dresser to know when he should prop something up or when he should prune something back. And sometimes that's what we go through. Right.
[00:09:05] Okay, let me keep going. That was verse four. Now I'm just going to keep going. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine. So your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine. I am the sprouting vine, and you are my branches. As you live in union with me, as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you. But when you live separated from me, you are powerless.
[00:09:46] If a person is separated from me, he is discarded. Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire and burned.
[00:09:54] But if you live in life, union with me, and if my words live powerfully within you, then you can ask whatever you desire, and it will be done.
[00:10:03] When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are my mature disciples who glorify my father.
[00:10:13] I just love this man. And let me tell you where this is coming from, because about, like I said, three years ago, this. This became really, really, um, it started stirring in my spirit and got really powerful. And I'm like, why you keep showing me this, you know? And. And then I got to go to the vineyard all within this time frame frame and see kind of what, how that works and everything. And really what I have learned is this whole concept of abiding in the Lord and what that means.
[00:10:46] When Jesus says back in John, chapter 14, I believe it's 14.
[00:10:53] Let me just zip back here real quick.
[00:11:01] Yeah. He says a little bit further back that if you. He says basically this. I'm not going to dig around and waste time. But he says, you know, if you.
[00:11:14] If you accept me and you invite me in, my father and I will come. And we are. We will make our home with you.
[00:11:24] And so it's this idea of abiding and living with someone, it doesn't. It's not the idea of getting saved. And then you just kind of do your own thing, you know, you're like, hey, see you later. Thanks. I appreciate you dying for me, and I thank you for everything you've done. And now I'm just going to go over here and just kind of live my own life, because people like that, they are detached from the vine, and they typically, you know, I mean, I. We all have examples of people who've gone down that path, and things didn't end so well for them, or maybe they're still in that path, you know, and. But when we live attached to the vine and this idea of abiding in, this idea of intimacy with. With the Lord, this is what we're created for. And I feel like this is one of those messages that burns in my heart when I look back at a lot of the messages. I've taught some of the stuff on my website you can get to. I've done some audio series on this. I was part of a devotional that was about intimacy with God. I look back, and almost everything I talk about stems from this. This idea of having this alive, this life, union, connection with the Trinity, with this idea of knowing that everything I do, I'm attached to. I'm attached to Jesus, who's the vine, and I'm just a branch, right? So I can't produce anything worthwhile. Let's just put it that way. I can't produce good grapes, which are going to be turned into wine at some point, which is kind of the very picture of that. We see a lot in scripture. He talks about wine a lot, and it's this idea of, like, kind of this perfection. You know, wine is, like, symbolic of, um, just. You've reached the very top of. Of living, I guess, or this beautiful idea there, you know?
[00:13:29] So here's the deal. Like, when we try to live separated from the Lord, and. And when I say separated, you know, here's the thing. A lot of people think separated means. Okay, well, that just means that I've decided I don't want him. I don't want to hang out with him. I don't really want to be a Christian, whatever. I'm not talking about. Yeah, that could be separated, but I'm talking about not involving him in every aspect of your life. If you want to be fruitful in every aspect of your life, then you have to invite him in to every part of your life. That's what I'm trying to say. So let me explain this. Just using my life as an example, like, I told you before, so I. I was really bad about handling. Trying to handle my own issues without, like, praying about them. I would be like, this is a stupid thing to ask God for. I mean, he, you know, like, I can do this. Like, you know, I would never say he doesn't have time for this. God has time. It's not that. It was more like, I can do this. Like, this is easy, you know? And so I wouldn't necessarily ask him. I wouldn't. I wouldn't pray in such a way every day where I'm just saying, hey, lord, take hold of my day and bring the opportunities that you want and show me, give me wisdom in the situations that are brought before me. And then when the situations happen, I wouldn't necessarily run to them. Like, I have one right now. Like, right before I jumped on this podcast to make this episode, I have a work situation that's daunting and overwhelming and, you know, my personality is, hey, solutions, let's figure it out. Let's get a bunch of people involved and blah, blah, blah, see if I can get some help. I just feel like the Lord's like, why don't you ask me to help? Like, why don't you ask me to get involved? You know?
[00:15:18] So I don't know. I mean, that is such a different paradigm, a different way to live whenever we are living from a place of complete dependence on him in order for us to be fruitful. But it's not just like you're using him just so you can be fruitful. That's not what I mean. I mean, the vine. The branches get their entire life source from the vine. Their whole life is about the vine, right? Like, they love the vine. Why they love the vine because the vine is what feeds them, is what nourishes them. It's what keeps them alive. It is the life force driving everything for that branch, right? And so they. The divine is. I mean, I'm talking in terms of, like, it's a person, but the vine knows it cannot live without the branch, let alone be fruitful.
[00:16:18] You can't. Right? So. But we try to do that as christians. We try to be fruitful. Another thing that I catch myself doing as a creative, artistic person, I have been dumb enough to try to, you know, create music or things like this, the podcast, or I felt this constant pressure because this is the pressure of the world, and this is the wisdom of the world. This is not the wisdom of the Lord. The world says, hey, you got to market yourself. You got to constantly make a new content. You got to make, you know, you got to release three or four or five, whatever album. You got to release an entire album every deer every year. For music. You need to write blogs every week. You need to be making sure you're sending out your email newsletters to all your subscribers. You need to constantly be making new content. You need to be developing courses. You need to do this, this, this, and that's all fine and great, but I can't do that. That's fruit. That's fruit. Okay?
[00:17:20] I can't do that unless I'm attached to the mind. Now, I'm not talking about unbelievers.
[00:17:26] You know, I mean, they're getting their source. I don't know. That's not. I'm talking to the believer who has. Has proclaimed and declared that Jesus is your savior and you love him, and you are a believer.
[00:17:44] You cannot be fruitful unless you're attached to the vine, and you shouldn't even try.
[00:17:49] Okay, so this is what happens to people who get. I don't want to say trapped, but find themselves in ministry. Maybe. Maybe they're on a worship team. Maybe they are teaching at church, or maybe they have a platform ministry. Maybe they're a pastor, or maybe, you know, maybe they just have a job that requires. Maybe they're counselors, and it requires a lot out of them.
[00:18:14] It can get really hard, and you can get easily burnt out when you are in full time ministry and you're trying to be fruitful, but yet you are not feeling connected to the vine. So I've talked about what it looks like to be connected to the vine, but how do you do it? Right? Because, I mean, it's. It's not just knowing that you need to be connected, but how do you.
[00:18:42] How do you do that? And I think we just over complicate it. It's not.
[00:18:48] It's not a hard thing to be in a relationship with someone, and it's not always.
[00:18:54] Okay, step one, step two, step three, this is what you need to do. It's a relationship, guys. It's a living, breathing relationship. Jesus said a minute ago, you remain in life union with me. So I kind of view it as, you know, and the way that Jesus talks about us is we're his bride, right? So I view it as a marriage relationship. And my husband and I, things get kind of funky if we don't, like, constantly talk to each other several times a day. If we don't intentionally go out on dates, if we don't spend time together, if we just don't aren't intentional about being together. Right. That's really what it is. Abiding. Hello. That's what it is. And if we aren't intentional about it, before you know it, it gets funky around here, you know, like, all of a sudden, you're getting on my nerves, and I don't like what you just said to me. And, oh, my gosh, did you just smart off to me? And, you know, little fights start escalating, little fires, and you're like, okay, what is going on? And my husband and I have, you know, we have a great marriage, and I'm actually going to have him on the podcast. I want to start bringing him in because it's going to be so great to have that interaction between he and I think, to just talk about things like this. But we don't fight a lot. We're not the kind of people that nitpick each other and grip and complain and are mean. We are, like, super happy together. But we have noticed when we aren't intentional about being together that. And I don't just mean, like, you know, coming home from work and plopping on the couch and watching tv together. I think that can become even a situation where you just disconnect from each other. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, watch a movie together sometimes. That's cool, you know, because you're doing it together. You're both watching it. You're not playing on your phones or whatever, but, you know, or go to the movies if you want to do that, or read a book like he and I have been reading together. That's kind of one of the ways we spend time together or, you know, like exercising. We've been. We started. We have a home gym. We've started going in there and working out together. So it could be those kind of things. And I think that's the whole idea here is what I'm trying to say, is we have made this all about. Okay, I need to get connected to the vine again, which, by the way, you never disconnected. If you are a Christian, you're always connected to him. You just don't realize it that you have not turned your face toward him, which is really what we have to do. Okay. If I turn my face toward him, I'm looking at him, I'm talking to him, I'm realizing that he's already with me, and that's what this is all about. So what does that look like for you? Because it's different. It's different for everyone, you know, I mean, your relationship with Jesus and with the Father, the Holy Spirit, that's different than my relationship. So, for me, I like to do things like go take a walk in the morning and just talk with him or drink my coffee in the morning, reading my scriptures, and then just kind of pouring my heart out to him. And then also all during the day, like, it's not just like, this one specific time that I. That I talk to him and acknowledge him. That would be the best way to acknowledge that he's there, because he is.
[00:22:19] They're actually saying, lord, I know you're. You're in this moment right now. Like, if you have a moment during the day where things are overwhelming, maybe it's work, maybe it's kids, whatever, stopping right then and saying, I know that you're in this moment with me.
[00:22:33] I know that you are. And I thank you for it. Like, acknowledging it and thanking him for it and then asking him, you know, show me what to do. Be with me right now. Open my eyes to show me that you're already here. Give me peace, lord. Show me the answer, whatever it is that you need to pray for, but just acknowledge that he's in it. It's just like practicing the presence, and that is what you do in a relationship. Right. I mean, so I don't just talk to my husband for 1520 minutes in the morning, and then I don't talk to him the rest of the day. That would be so weird, right? Like, hey, I love you so much. So good to see you this morning. I hope that you have a great day. Okay, bye. And then I don't talk to you again until the next day. What a weird relationship, right? But that is what we do so much of the time. And I'm not bringing condemnation because I did this. And it's just more of a. An awareness and an interaction that's intentional between you just turning your face toward and whether that be turning on a worship song. Like, I work from home. I can easily turn on a worship song. I can easily stop what I'm doing and jump on the piano for a minute and just say, you know, I think you're here with me right now. Like, I thank you and I love you. Just that moment, I just turned my face toward him. I'm telling you, that is connecting to the vine and that not only is going to give you life, right. Because he is life. He's the vine. It's going to make you fruitful, too. And I think. I think what we have done is put the cart before the horse. Make sure I said that right. Cart? Yeah. We have said, okay, as a Christian, I am supposed to and pressured and into being fruitful, but I'm not, like, I'm not connecting with God the way I need to, with Jesus the way I need to. So I'm putting, you know, performance and fruit ahead of my relationship, and that never works. So we always have to minister. And I would say even live. When I say minister, too, I think people are like, oh, you mean platform ministry? No, I mean, you know, like, to minister. Actually, when you look at that word, it does not mean, like, standing on a platform and telling people, singing or preaching the word that is part of ministry, but it actually means to, like, tend to the needs of someone else. That's really what it means. We have made it into this whole other thing where it's about, like, almost being a superstar or something. It's really just about tending to someone's needs. You're a minister of the gospel. We all are, by the way. And the sooner that we realize that, the better. Right. That's what he's coming back for. It's a bride who knows who she is, and she's busy tending to the needs of others, but she's doing it from a place of overflow. Right. So when you are tending to the needs of your children or your husband, or you're at work and you're taking care of the people, people's needs at work, you are ministering.
[00:25:43] But you will be so much more effective and fruitful at it if you are connected to the vine the way that he wants you to be. And remember, it's as easy as turning your face toward him. Don't make it more complicated than that. It's beautiful to create.
[00:26:01] And maybe I can talk about this some other time, because I'm almost out of time today. But, yes, I love some of the sacred and the discipline, the spiritual disciplines that have kind of been erased from Christianity that I really feel like are so good. Like, even liturgical prayers or fasting, of course, praying some of the spiritual disciplines that have been lost, meditation on scripture, these things are great because they do. They're all the same principle, that they're turning our face toward goddess. So start. Start small. Start with these little quick prayers, if that's what you need to do, but just start. And then, you know what I'm telling you, within a few days, you're gonna realize, wow, wow. You're gonna feel amazing. You're gonna be so fruitful and you're gonna have so much joy and so much peace, and you are gonna be ministering to the people around you in a way that it's not even hard and just kind of comes out of you because it's overflow and it's fruit.
[00:27:03] Yeah. That's exciting. I'm so, so, so excited about this. So I hope that you enjoyed this today. You know, I.
[00:27:12] I always want to be an encouragement and inspire you in the ways that I feel. God is saying, hey, tell this to some people. They need to. Need to hear this. So, yeah, I would love it if you would subscribe to my podcast, whatever platform you are listening on. You can. You should be able to subscribe. Would you share this? Would you think about, like, sharing this on your social media? I mean, if it. If it touched you, maybe it would touch someone else. You can always find some other things I've released on YouTube. Just go to Shanna Strange. Just look me up on YouTube. Look up my website, Shannastrange.net, for other resources. That's a lot of stuff you could do, but I wanted to give you a lot of options. So, until next time, God bless you guys. Walk out. We'll run to the shelter of your wings like a prodigal. Come home.
[00:28:04] Close.
