Notes from this week's podcast: Transformed Tuesday with Tracey Wilson

Transformed Tuesdays - testimony of a disciple how that journey has transformed their spiritual life, emotional life, as well as physical life poured over into their home

As God was transforming us through the year, through the discipleship journey, it was important to speak it out so that God would get the glory. On this podcast, we need others to hear how God is transforming the heart and home through testimonies.

Tracey Wilson - friend, prayer warrior, disciple

Tracey: 2005 - God started to stir a hunger in my heart -- didn't know I had that hunger. I learned there was so much more depth to the Word.

When I became involved in discipleship, the Lord really started to reveal more of who He was to me. I had no idea of what I had missed. I had not gotten to the point where my life was completely surrendered to the Lord. In Esther: She goes before the king and basically says "whatever pleases the king." That so resonated with me because I hadn't had the attitude in my life. I hadn't had an attitude of humility, where my plans come second. God's purpose came first. I just didn't trust Him enough. I didn't know how to enter into that personal relationship to get that intimate -- to get that trust. Through discipleship, my life was transformed by allowing me to learn more about His character, His love, His desire for relationship with me, through His Word, and through prayer, and through fellowship of others in that group.

Jo: You mentioned something that's pretty profound for us as women. Trust. We hold back. That's a big challenge for us as women -- to trust other people. But what I heard you saying: You learned to trust God. And in trusting God, how did that transform you in your relationship with other people, with your family?

Tracey: When you start to break down the barriers by learning the truth, and that's how it happened for me... Becoming more and more aware of the Truth of God's Word, through that, I learned that God was a God of His Word. That His Word could be trusted, that His timing was perfect, that His Word went forth and performed as Isaiah 55 says -- what it's intended to do. I wasn't intimately acquainted with Him through His Word. I was intimately acquainted with what I thought about God, from what other people had told me, not through His Word. It was from hearing the Truth that really taking root in my heart, those barriers started to dissipate and to break down, and I became vulnerable to that, and I became vulnerable to God. And, in that vulnerability, the trust started and it has just grown since then.

Jo: You made such a profound statement there. You really distinguished for us very succinctly the difference between Bible study from discipleship.

Bible study is where you started. You were getting more Word. But somehow it didn't break through to where your heart was seeking. [You said discipleship] takes time. It's one word at a time. And that can be a slow process. And we live in a fast-paced world. And, I believe that's a snare of the enemy -- to snatch and steal what God has for us. Because, you were willing to give time, and let the Word sink in -- one word at a time -- process it, walk it, and live it and apply it to your life, that's how the transformation happened.

Tracey: It's the willingness to say yes, to give something the opportunity to do what God is calling us to do. Discipleship takes us from the very beginning -- from the first building block and they don't get out of order, as our hearts are prepared to receive it.

Jo: What was one of your "wow" moments?

Tracey: I reference back to the Esther story because that really gripped me and really hasn't let go of me for all of my life. For me, being very career-minded, in sales, and very focused on performance, that thought of humility, was not really something that was in my vocabulary. For me and my life, it had never really been something that I had given a lot of thought to -- And in the story of Esther, from the very beginning of the moment that she's chosen to the very end and to see how God worked through that story, it was a revelation for me -- of how God moves so powerfully through our humility. I had never experienced that before I spent a lot of time with God in that -- it was a wow moment for me, still is today. I still don't completely have it. But I want to.

Another wow moment: Isaiah 55:11 -- God's Word goes forth and performs what God intended for it to do. God's Word is power. From that moment, I realized that God's Word had to be a part of my thinking, my speaking. It needed to be hidden in my heart. It needed to be my benchmark, my measuring tape, against the things I hear in the world or how I make decisions because it goes forth and performs what God intended.

Jo: It ties back to humility: No more me, God. I'm leaning in to all of You. Humility is nothing more than giving God all the room to do whatever He needs to do. How did that begin to transform the people around you?

Tracey: My family began to see a change in me and they wanted to know what it was. God softened my heart to the roles. He equipped me, empowered me to live up to these roles. God began to teach me what my role as a wife looked like. That, too, was a wow moment for me.

It prepared me to walk through some difficult circumstances that would come later, that I didn't know were coming later for my family.

Not only was I a recipient, but I realized that God made me a steward.

I have been broken, tearful, and sorrowful. There is that because we are human. But, those things did not keep me far from God. They drew e near to God, in a dependence that I never would have known had I not been prepared earlier through walking through discipleship. He was where I ran. 

Jo: When you've drawn near to God and you've really surrendered your life to God, and it's a new journey wholly committed to Him, you see that whatever God allows into your life, He's not going to waste it.

Tracey: To me, that's the real joy of walking with the Lord all these years -- seeing how He can manifest Himself through our lives

For further reading: Andrew Murray's "Humility" 

For further study: the book of Esther, Philippians 2 (vs. 5-9), Isaiah 55:11, Isaiah 61:3