Notes from this week's podcast: Transformed Tuesday with Colleen Viter

Jo: Today, I want to offer you some hope. Take your circumstances and see them as an opportunity for purpose, see them as divine missions. 

Entrust whatever we're walking through to Father God. 

It's a trick of the enemy to make us look around at other people's relationships, to make us feel like we're the only one walking through something heavy. 

As Christians, the power of God is within us. 

...How you've seen God through some of the opportunities in your family as you pray for your family to turn them into an opportunity for joy

Colleen: You've taught me, through discipleship, how to pray for my family using the Word, using the Word as my weapon, using prayer, using fasting to fight against the enemy for my family. 

I took that guilt on and condemnation. But, in discipleship, I was set free from that. When you have those strongholds on you, you don't have any power. Being set free enabled me to fight for my family. 

My purpose as the Lord has told me: They are my cross to bear. I am to pray for them, stand strong for them. 

Jo: What do you do -- day in and day out -- when you see that they're not living for Christ, they don't follow this Word? How do you stay in that fight? How do you stay encouraged, uplifted knowing that God is at work fulfilling that promise?

Colleen: There are days I feel down. But I know what to do. I go to the Word, to this promise. I just get in the Word and be re-strengthened. I ask God for that glimmer of hope today: "Will you open up that [glimmer of] hope for me today?" He's so faithful. Sometimes it's small, and that's all I need to get back on my knees. 

Jo: How do you keep your eyes so focused on God and not see these things that they're doing [away from God] as a defeat, as a temptation to say that they'll never amount to anything? That's the way the world sees it. How do you overcome that?

Colleen: Sometimes I pray: God, only show me what I need to see and nothing more. Keep my eyes fixed on You. Keeping my heart right and walking the righteous path so that I do not get deceived by the enemy and listen to the lies of the enemy to stay pure before Him, so that my children and grandchildren can see Jesus in me. 

Jo: How do you recognize that there may be a stronghold, an obstacle in your own life that may be inhibiting your promise coming forth? 

Colleen: I will feel not lined up with God, something wrong in my spirit. I know I need to get realigned to Him, repent for letting my thoughts go along with the enemy, instead of staying on the righteous path, captivating my thoughts to be obedient to Christ. 

Jo: We can justify. That's what the enemy wants us to do -- for us to be the obstacle by our own shortcomings. 

How did you stay faithful in your relationship to God and faithful in your yearning for [your parents] to know God that it didn't effect your relationship with them?

Colleen: I just showed them love. I didn't push Jesus on them, but I was on fire because I had such a transformation that it didn't matter what they said. I was excited to be in relationship with Jesus. I knew to be careful and to love them. And, as time went on, I started witnessing to them. I loved them. I didn't allow myself to shut that door. 

Jo: It was more important that they know Christ than receive rejection from them. You see them as God sees them. 

What's your advice to parents that may be lamenting over a child that's wandering in the wilderness? How do we stay steadfast, unmovable believing that it's God's heart that they come back to Christ, more than it's our desire? 

Colleen: Love them where they are. Reach out even if they reject you. 

When I was in discipleship, I was able to have other disciples come alongside me and pray with me. 

Get in the Word and get other people to pray with you, and [don't] worry about other people judging you for what's going on in your children's lives because that's a trick of the enemy that will keep you from asking for prayer. It will keep you from from even admitting there's a problem that's just pure pride. 

Jo: What I hear you say is "humble yourself." Often I hear people say: I don't know where to go in the Word. How do you find these Scriptures when you're in the throws of things and you don't know where to run -- to pray for the child, the parent, the circumstance? 

Colleen: I have tabs in my Bible that I can go back to now. 

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where to go in the Bible. He will direct your thoughts and direct you to exactly what He has for you. Ask Him to show you how to pray the Scripture to stand on, and mark those in your Bible. 

Jo: You don't always have to have a new word for a new day. 

After I voice that same word, I put that word for that issue before the Lord, and the burden is lifted. And the Holy Spirit may add to it. 

(Colleen's example of praying over the phone with her daughter and grandchildren before school started one day)

Take God to them, make God first, to start your day with prayer. I pray that my prayers are teaching them how to pray and how to seek God first. 

Jo: Sometimes the simple thing is being available. 

How is it that we can encourage people that when these unexpected things come our way? How do we turn it to God and know that God is doing something in His faithfulness and in His love? 

Colleen: I pray the Word and then I send Scripture in a text message, and follow up. Then, when they see God move they know it's God. Keep praying. 

Jo: God hasn't messed up. He's in the midst of it. It's all about what God wants to do. We're standing in the gap for children, grandchildren, parents, but yet there's God using time. He's standing in the gap for us. 

Scripture for further study: Isaiah 59:21, Deuteronomy 10:21, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Deuteronomy 30:6