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Growing Truth Within to Thrive Genuinely Without
Who we are today does not compare to who we were yesterday if you are growing out of the old you. The invisible Christ effect on us creates, in time, a whole new you that might shock you.
I keep growing into who I am in Christ through a process of truth and understand of that truth. One day I understand one truth then the next I understand another.
This way of drip feeding me knowledge has made me stronger to defend who I am and given me freedom to be me. I had all kinds of worldly understandings of who I am and none of them would help me fight the battle I am fighting.
The Battle Within
We all have an inner battle we fight and we need to give it a name. I called those disobedient characters, of the old me, Demonic Divas. And the obedient characters of the new me Heavenly Hosts.
The battle for me rages on inside me on the daily, but the Lord is winning. He is raising up a Victorious Kathleen who understands her Kingdom Cause. She is going to thrive genuinely without in her Kingdom Cause.
The Kingdom Cause Battle
There is no reason for anyone to know who they are if they are not being armed to fight a battle for others. The battle within is the growing ground for the battle without. The battle without is our Kingdom Cause.
What injustice are you going fight to dissolve? Who needs freedom from what? This is your Kingdom Cause.
Each time we grow out of our Demonic Divas we are like a tree planted by the water that gives shelter to those who need us and are coming behind us to fight in their Kingdom Cause.
There will be no victory if we don’t fess up to the battle we wage. Our willingness to fight for who we are in Christ establishes a path for others to follow so they too can drink of our victorious identity in Christ.
My Visionary Living Advice đź’¦ for you this week is to recognize your Demonic Divas and begin to activate your Heavenly Hosts.
Join me in Midlife Ministry Makers this week to do a deep dive for divine direction into Biblical Power Tool #171 – Enter into who You are in Christ by Kathleen Derbyshire
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When the Seeds Fly, the Effect is Fire
For as long as we stifle our gifts and talent, that is how long it will be before we can live a highly effective Christian life.
I know that people have a sly way of making it sound like you are not gifted with teaching and preaching, or even the big one, speaking the words of God.
For many years women have been teaching on this subject, so I recommend that you read their books. More so recommend you start by looking for evidence in the Bible of women doing what you are called to do.
The Silencing of the Lambs
Jesus spoke clearly and in parables during His whole time in ministry. He spoke truth to the Pharisees and truth to His disciples. He wasn’t silent about truth.
If burying your gifts and talents was His plan for women, would He not have said that clearly in the three years He was preaching the good news to those who needed to hear it.
He called ALL of us His sheep. All of us are to follow Him. All of us are to use our gifts and talents to equip the Body of Christ. There should be no silent sheep.
Evidence Abounds in Scripture
Imagine if Esther kept silence. Imagine if Deborah did not prophecy to Barak. Imagine if Priscilla had not taught Apollos. Imagine if Mary (mother of Jesus) had not been obedient. Imagine how everything would sound without the voice of women relaying the voice of God to anyone.
Our voice is heard loud and clear in Scripture but the hard heart hears it not.
I know that your voice is screaming inside of you but your fearful spirit is turning it off. Or maybe your voice is screaming out loudly but anyone listening is turning it off. We can go from one extreme to another sometimes trying to be effective Christians.
Join me this week in Midlife Ministry Makers as we lay out the Biblical Power Tools for setting your home fires burning without burning every bridge you come across even if it is against you.
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The Matter of Growth
No matter how you feel about yourself, the Lord is in the business of making you new. He is going to plant you by the River of Life and make you grow.
I have told you before that I felt stupid growing up. There has always been a sense of not knowing or understanding in everything that I have learned.
I have spent many brain cells sitting in front of a book wrestling with the pages to put them into order so I was able to fully understand the action I was about to take. I was looking for the hidden path to reveal the mysterious answer hidden from me.
A Woman with Answers
I wanted to be smart at math, at music, at French, at my latest craze but I would hit a road block and have to hunker in to keep it going. Most of the time I quit saying it wasn’t meant to be.
But that wasn’t really the answer. The answer was that the Lord was not shining His light on that for me. The answer was that it was not a need but a want. The answer was that it was not part of my vision from God to play an instrument, speak French or be a scientist.
A Woman with a Conflict
I was conflicted because there was really nothing I was good at that the Lord shined His light for me to excel with. I had no natural abilities to speak of. This created a zeal in me to know who I am and what I am naturally gifted to do.
I tried everything that I could think of but my life conflicted with my need to know. I got better at designing cars when the computer age came. So, obviously I am going to excel at that and I did. What I really got better at was listening to this still small voice I kept hearing.
A Woman with a Passion
The most amazing thing that has ever happened in my life happened right under my nose. I became a Christian. I began reading the Bible. My brain was open to every story, every line, every word. I became passionate about reading and learning the Bible.
I excelled at remembering every detail of the stories I read. Then I excelled at relaying what I learned. Then I excelled at giving women hope. Then I excelled at making Christian living a priority in my life and doing what the Lord has assigned to me.
A Woman Called
This became the only subject calling my name for continuous growth. The River of Life is the only place I felt free to learn. The only thing I became passionate about. I had no idea what reading the Bible was going to do in my life. I didn’t know it was alive.
I just knew I was called to dive deep into it.
I knew I had to swallow it.
I knew I had to be planted by the River of Life to feel alive.
The still small voice I heard before I was a Christian became understandable to me as a Christian. The Holy Spirit was and still is directing me into His vision for me in every area of my life.
I knew I has a called to this.
A Grown Woman
This passion for knowing and following Jesus has lead me into many situation where I have had to use His words to break free from it. Even this morning I had to use them to break free from bitterness.
His word is a lamp for my feet and the light to my path (Psalm 119:105).
There has not been one day since, when I read the Bible, that I don’t hear the Lord preaching, teaching and leading me into me to grow into my vision in every area of my life and ministry.
Join me in Midlife Ministry Makers for The Peaceful Pace Part 4: Peace in Growth, A Firm Foundation this week to discuss make every day a day of growth in your life and ministry (Lifistry) using the Lifistry Disciplines as a guide.
We are diving deep for divine direction into Tool #170 Every day has an Appointment with God to Grow You.
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The Matter of Appointment
Note: Facebook removed notes so I have relocated The Affect to my website. I will eventually move them all onto this site from Issue 1 onward.
The Affect   Volume 1, Issue 17
The fact that the Lord ✝️ has appointed my days and is the only one who knows them drives me into His arms. I want my days to be filled with hope. My vision is that hope.
I am a Woman of Vision and you are too. The Lord has appointed your days to walk in that vision from the appointed time of sun up to the appointed time of sun down.
A Woman of Appointment
Our salvation is not a matter of man but a matter of God. He has brought you and me into salvation for His matter at hand. Our appointment is wrought with hope and anguish in the beginning because it is going to go against the flow.
Maybe the river you float in goes in the direction of women as decorations in the church. Maybe it flows in the direction of women replacing men in ministry. Maybe it flows meekly, insecurely or wavey with your progressive choices leading your out of the visionary direction.
A Woman of Courage
No matter how the river flows in your world, good or bad, the current will come against you because the Devil is controlling the opposing current to your vision from God. He is not expecting you to have courage. He is expecting you to stay in the boat while he shakes the courage out of it.
You know what you are made of. Jesus knows what you are made of. Jesus will allow the shaking to give you more courage because you are going to need it as your grow into your ministry.
A Woman of Knowledge
Since it is God who gave you this vision He will equip you to fight the Devil. He has appointed you to win but not without a fight. It’s the fight that gives you more courage. It’s the fight that makes you strong. It’s the fight that opens the door for more knowledge about the Devil.
We read the Bible so we can know the Lord and we fight the Devil so we can know his schemes against us, and the people we serve. The Devil will ask the Father to shake us. He will give him permission for the sake of our faith.
A Woman of Vision
“Climbing the Ministry Mountain” is faith driven. The more we follow the finger of God pointing out our direction the higher we will get toward this visionary cause. You are a ministry maker, for the glory of God. To bring people hope by answering the questions they have about themselves and Jesus.
Your vision is appointed to you alone. Your time to be released is appointed to you by God alone. Your ministry mountain is already standing. Your pathway to your ministry is already laid out. You can choose to either follow the God’s path or follow your path.
My Visionary Living Advice đź’¦ for you this week is to choose your path wisely because the consequences have also already been appointed.
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The Seeds have already been Planted
It has all been for a reason and the seeds have already been planted for your Upward Call of God. How are you able to grow them so you become the ministry leader you are meant to be.
Now all you have to do is say YES to them and you growing into your Upward Call of God.
How can you take the things you have learned in your life and rePurpose those into your Upward Call of God to lead? Or even vise versa?
You might never have thought, in your lifetime, that the Lord would call you lead, but He has and you are freaking out. Don’t worry I’ve got you.
You might already be in a leadership role but are doing the waiting game with Jesus for THE fulfilling leadership role linked completely to your Upward Call of God.
Either way, every detail of your Life Stewardship, your Kingdom Works (volunteer or leadership work to prepare you for your Upward Call) and your Upward Call of God have been planned out perfectly by Jesus. The pre-panted seeds…
It’s now time to rePurpose your time, talents and treasures in the direction the Lord is sending you from that vision. The one you have been thinking about and day dreaming about for as long as you can remember. You know…that one!
The How is the Solution
How do you take what you have learned, while that dream was on hold, raising your kids, washing your dishes or working for that paycheck, fully into the Kingdom of God?
It takes a bit of juggling the knowledge and the way you think about that knowledge plus creating some new Upward Call Habits. Join me on my Facebook page a plan of attack.
And if you have the understand that – everything you have been doing is for your Upward Call of God – it will be a lot easier.
You can always join us in the Midlife Ministry Makers for our monthly discussions. This Month our topic is Biblical Happiness = Contentment.
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Hope is my Upward Call Habit
Over the years I have not chased my calling to lead very hard because I did not trust that it would be. I trusted what my circumstance was saying and not what the Lord was saying.
What I did not realize was that all those leadership roles I garnered and lost were tests of training. Would I accept it?
I did at first, but when it was over, I failed. I wallowed in my “Downward Fall” from leadership and that caused my character to go right along with it.
A Life Fuelled by Emotion
I have a ton of Demonic Diva’s (emotions that overcome sound judgment) living inside me. They want the centre stage in my leadership. I had gotten in the habit of letting my circumstances control my emotions. As a result the Diva’s would take control of who I am.
My wallowing gave the Diva’s life. I have turned aside from worshipping the Lord and made my emotions kings.
The Journey Fuelled by Hope
The King of my life is Jesus and He brought with Him a whole host of heavenly character traits that I have available to me. I called them “Heavenly Hosts”.
I had to become aware that “Wallowing Wilma” (one of my Diva’s) had to be decreased with in me daily so I can begin fuelling my life with habits that move me to chase my “Upward Call”.
Going uphill needs lots of fuel. If I am to gain my “City on the Hill” (predestined leadership role) I must be fuelled by hope.
Shifting to Hope
Hope can be accomplish with just a one degree shift in thinking daily. As a result our actions make the shift as well.
We might have been rolling downhill with nothing to grab onto. Shifting to hope grows a branch large enough to grab onto. It stops the “Downward Fall” just long enough for us to pick up steam and shift upward again.
Just a tiny shift to hope will make a huge difference in your life some day. Meet “Shifting Shawna” right where you are today. She will get you closer to Jesus and your vision.Â
The Midlife Ministry Makers community will meet you right where you are and build you up as you shift your direction to your vision from God. We build up our “Everyday Christian Living” skills to make our uphill journey unshakable. Join us today and start climbing toward your City on the Hill tomorrow.
Kathleen derbyshire, everyday Christian living mentor -
Ministry thinking Complete for Now
This week started out slow but picked up speed until today. I had been looking for words. Ones that would impact and ones that I too can relate too.
I am not much of a word person but the Lord has taught me over the past couple of months that the more I practice saying words the more I will master their use and meaning in my life.
Over the last year the word “leadership” and “Christian Living” have been my go to words yet there was still something missing. One word or maybe two.
I created my courses and did my lives but I still knew something was missing. Something that would give me peace in my musing and teaching.
The last word came last Thursday and the other one came about 30 days ago. They are “Aspiring” and “Everyday”.
My thinking is complete.
My message is for women called into leadership but have not yet realized their full potential as a leader.
My message is about “Everyday Christian Living”. In your social life, your family life, your financial life, your personal health, personal growth and your works. All under the worship of the Lord.
Lifistry Sphere of Living by Kathleen Derbyshire I thought those words where missing but I now know that I was not ready to have them yet.
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How to tell if God has a Plan for you
I remember my first time going to a church. It was not the kind of church I would attend forever but it was the kind of church the Lord could use as a teaching for me.
That church was responsible for raising up all kinds of happy sinful people including Sooth Sayers in the choir and promoting their services to the congregation. Whatever makes people happy, they where doing it.
I was looking for happy then so I fit right in.
Why would the Devil reveal Your Plan?
The big question on my mind was always, “Why do I think and act the way I do?” It is just so much different than anyone else I knew. That made me odd and I did not want to be odd.
To be honest I didn’t like myself very much because of the way I acted. I longed for a better, deeper life than what I was currently living but my actions opposed that. I didn’t know what to do so I went to psychics and astrologers to find out what my future looked like so I could live it NOW.
One of them told me my dad would die which came true. One of them told me, my then 14 year old twins, would be heavy equipment operators which also came into being. But none of them where correct about MY future. Not one thing they said about me was correct.
Now, why would the Devil give sooth sayers information about how I would fight him for the souls of Lady Leaders and help prepare them for the work of the Lord.
Your Actions Reveal Your Plan
The Devil knows a lot about who we are and how we will work for Jesus. He can tell by the way you act that Jesus is going to bring you into salvation. He can also tell by the longings you have for leading that you will be successful for Jesus. He can tell by what motivates you how he can deflate you.
He can tell by your actions that you want a deeper life. Every one of our days has been a sign for him of impending doom. He is going to put up a fight just like a hooked fish puts up a fight.
He could tell by my actions that the Lord was going to use me to propel women into leadership faster. He could tell by the way I was fighting to be an effective Christian that I would provide those tools to other women gifted with leadership so they will be effective as well.
It is all about God’s Plan
As I continued seeking the Lord He taught me why I think and act the way I do. It is all about His plan for me. And because of this plan, the Devil has no power over me or my plan. My God anointed ministry is what powers me into the arms of Jesus and into a wrestling match with the Devil.
Ooo yes! Let’s wrestle over Lady Leaders, Devil.
Your lies about women in leadership are ineffective in my ministry. Your lies about women being subordinate to men have no effect over us. Your lies about male power, abuse and shame have no bearing over our ministries.
We are part of God’s plan for the future and only God can reveal that to us. For us it’s all about God’s plan not your lies.
Lead or Bust Workshop September 29th @2pm EST
To find out if you are part of God’s leadership plan you can register for “Lead or Bust” to get a free assessment. You will learn if you are a “Visionary Leader” or a “Commissary Leader” and how those tie into your plan from God.
Email me today to fill one of the 10 ZOOM spots available at kathleen@kathleenderbyshire.com for more information.
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Lady Leaders and our Crisis of Identity
When I was first saved I already knew I had a longing to lead. I used that gift of God to lead a bunch of different ministries from teaching the Bible to healthy living.
I did not enjoy any of them until I started teaching effective Christian Living skills for Lady Leaders. That is when the fight began and the identity crisis went into full bloom.
I started doing that in 2005 and have been fighting for my life ever since.
Is it really about our identity?
Women gifted with leadership are well aware they long to lead. I was well aware of it but what I wasn’t aware of was the fight that would ensue to actually keep leading.
I don’t believe Lady Leaders are alone in this. I think Gentlemen Leaders are subject to this too. Is it really a crisis of identity or something more sinister.
I think it is something more sinister than our identity — it is the Devil trying to eliminate influential leaders; male and female.
When the Fight Starts
The minute you admit that you are gifted with leadership is the minute the fight begins. After you admit it, you begin aligning your whole life toward being an influential leader in the Kingdom of God.
When you ignore the gift of leadership and/or administration your effective Christian living goes to pot. You stop leading yourself and your family in the direction of God. The longing does not go away so you have to stuff it down. In that stuffing comes confusion and unhappiness.
Do You Desire to Live that Way?
Confused and unhappy cannot be from God therefore we need to understand that the Devil has a sinister plan to squelch all Christian Leaders, male and female.
So then the big question is – do you want to live this squelched lifestyle or do you desire to burst into leadership to join the fight with the rest of the Kingdom leaders?
The Lead or Bust Workshop
If your answer from my posed question is “burst into leadership” now is the perfect time because I am teaching a workshop that is going to help you understand why the Devil wants you to squelch your leadership gift and how to fight him the right way.
Register for this free workshop Thursday September 29, 2022 @2pm EST by emailing me “I wanna Burst” at kathleen@kathleenderbyshire.com
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3 ways to grow into your Visionary Leadership Faster than Most.
Learning the truth about how we are gifted by God, for women, is not always something to celebrate especially if it is the gift of leadership and/or administration but we can learn it.
There are three significant acts you can take now to begin growing into your visionary leadership faster than most will.
- Don’t ignore your gift of leadership.
- Accept it as a Small Portion of Your Gifts.
- Follow Jesus in this Freedom.
Ignorance is NOT Bliss
I spent a lot of celebrating my leadership gift then hating it then celebrating then hating. It was a long process of back and forth so the Lord could work the hatred out of me.
I ignored my longing to lead to grow my vision yet how was I able to grow into my vision without activating my leadership gifts.
Just a Small Portion of my Gifts
It was impossible to be who I was created to be when I ignored how God has gifted me. I wasn’t being real because I wasn’t using every gift the Lord has given me.
Until I accepted my gifts I would never be free to accomplish them. I would never be free to be real and genuine in my service to the Lord or to women.
I learned that although Lady Leaders are controversial, leadership is only a small portion of my giftings.
Freedom to Follow Jesus
Once I got past the doubt of reality I was able to accept those male dominated gifts and actually activate my whole vision from God.
The freedom I felt to just follow Jesus and not man was so freeing. The opposition did not stop but the freedom to ignore it was more powerful than their opposition.
“Lead or Bust” Workshop
Ignoring opinions is much more appropriate than ignoring my gifts because they busted out of me anyway. It was so much harder to hold myself back from leading than it was to ignore peoples opinions about women leaders in the Kingdom.
Knowing the truth and allowing it to sink into freedom is imperative because you will always have a longing to lead.
This workshop is just in time for all of us. Lady Leaders are much more powerful when they accept their role and grow into it with freedom.
Email me at kathleen@kathleenderbyshire.com to be one of the few who leads the pack, in your church, toward accomplishing what you are assigned.
Thursday September 29, 2022 @2-4pm EST. Presented to a few on Zoom plus run live in the Midlife Ministry Makers Community on Facebook. Secure the knowledge of your gift in this workshop and where to go from here.
