Ep. 4.22 In the Trenches Techniques for Spiritual Growth

On the AU podcast this week, we’re looking back at this season and finding in the trenches techniques for growing spiritually. Whether you’re in a busy season of life or a calm season of life, there are ways for you to grow in your relationship with God. And we are here to help you achieve this!

3:11-3:40 Are the trenches in conflict with God?

4:38-5:01 Declarations

6:57-7:25 Building self-awareness

8:02-8:25 Benefits of a prayer date

9:25-9:55 Why Sunday should come first

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Hello and welcome to today's episode
of the Authentic Uprising podcast.
I'm your host, Jill Simons, and I'm so
excited to grow in the radical art
of standing in what God says
about you with you today.
The show is a place where we
pour into the sense of who God is,
who we are, and how we can live
more in the freedom that He
has for us every
single day.
Hello and welcome to today's episode of
the Authentic Uprising podcast.
I'm your host, Jill Simons, and we're
coming close to the end of season four,
which is really crazy. This podcast
has been going almost two years now,
and we are coming to the end
of our fourth season.
We'll have the fifth season
starting for you in the month of
July with a little bit of a new
take on our direction,
which we're so excited about. I've
teased it a little bit in the past.
We're gonna be talking a lot
about how we can not only grow
in our own view of ourselves
and how we view ourselves,
but how we can transmit this
kind of self awareness,
and self view to young
people in our lives.
And we've got so many amazing guests
scheduled to be on the podcast,
starting in season five and
really going deep on this topic
as well as an event coming in July
that we're so so excited about.
We'll be sharing with you more
about in the coming weeks.
That's just going to be like
a really awesome chance to immerse
deep in how do we
form young people.
So we're so excited about
everything that's coming.
But as kind of a summary
of season four,
we really wanted to take this
episode here as we approach
the end to talk about a lot of
things we've talked about this
season so far and kind of
distill them into simple,
in the trenches techniques
for growing spiritually.
There is a lot of feeling, I feel
like especially amongst women,
that in order to be growing
spiritually, I'm talking about, like,
actively moving forward. I'm not
talking about spiritual maintenance.
Actually moving
forward with God.
There's kind of this narrative
that you kind of have to wait
for a different season. That if
you are in young kids, busy kids,
sports kids, season of life,
that that's just not the time
that you can expect really
to grow spiritually.
And I kinda wanna call BS on
that a little bit because I
think that you can do whatever you
prioritize in any season of life.
And to the good
and to the bad,
I think that there's people
that make tremendous strides in
hobbies in you know, playing tennis,
some of my friends and things like that,
while their kids
are in this age,
so you can make tremendous strides in
whatever you wanna prioritize.
And I think that that absolutely
can be spiritual growth if
that's what you
want it to be,
and I would encourage you to have
that be what you want it to be.
But there's so many ways that
you can grow spiritually while
you're still in the trenches of
your life, working full time,
being a full time student,
having a busy social life,
whatever it is that you have
going on in your life.
God wants to come alongside you,
where you're at, and He has put you,
where you're at. And
so where you're at,
even though might feel like it is
not truly in conflict with God.
Because He puts you there. He
is in what is happening in your
life right now and you can grow
in your cooperation with that,
with Him throughout whatever
season of life you're in.
So I'm just gonna summarize
a few things that we've talked
about so far this season and
put it all together for you in
just a nice package along with
all of the special offer opt
ins that we've
created for you,
this season about how to really
execute on these different tools.
So to begin, we talked a lot earlier
in the season about the difference
between mantras, affirmations,
and declarations.
And so you can go back and listen
to that episode from April
if you haven't it heard it
recently, but basically,
mantras and affirmations are going
to be things that are coming
from a place that don't
really wanna go to.
Declarations are bringing ourselves
into alignment with the truth
that God has revealed. And so
that's really the term that I
think is most correct to use for
what we're doing where we're
using what God has revealed
to be true and actually
consciously stepping
into that.
And so when we use declarations
either from Scripture or that
we've received
directly from God,
we are forming ourselves more
in alignment with truth.
And so that would be tactic
number one, for sure.
Very simple to do at
whatever stage of life,
whether it's from our pdf
that we link down below,
whether it's directly from your
own Scripture study, or whether
it's directly from your
own time of prayer,
coming up with three to five declarations,
that you say on a regular basis,
put them on your bathroom mirror,
put them in your planner,
put them on your computer deck, whatever,
look at PinkSaltRiot.com,
see if we have something that has
that declaration or something
similar on it and incorporate
that piece into your daily life,
whatever it is, include those
declarations in your life on a daily
basis because again, we talked about
lots of times throughout this season,
how we have the choice to struggle
against what is happening, what is true,
or we can lean in and go with it
and move so much more quickly
so much more streamlined way if
we lean in and cooperate with
what God is doing. And declarations
is part of how we do that.
Part of how we rewire our brain, you can
return to Doctor Caroline Leafs work,
if you want more of
the science approach to this,
which is a hundred percent
in line with the faith.
But which whichever direction
do you wanna come at it from,
whether they wanna come at it from
science or come at it from faith,
you get to the exact same
place because truth is true,
no matter where you find it.
And we have the opportunity to
bring our mind into alignment
with what is actually true by
using these declarations
on a daily basis.
We also have the opportunity
to grow in our self reflection,
that would be option number
two or tactic number two,
I would say for growing spiritually,
at whatever stage in life you're in.
Being curious about what's going on
in you? What is it that you believe?
Why do you believe that? Why
are you having the emotional
reaction that you're having? Why are
you feeling the feelings that you are,
and letting that be something that is
spoken into during your times of prayer,
building that self awareness
and cultivating that reflective
lifestyle that allows you to consciously
cooperate with what God is doing.
It's just a really really powerful
way of orienting yourself
towards grace and
towards God.
Tactic number three would
be going on prayer dates,
like we talked about
several episodes ago.
When you go on a prayer date,
you create an extended amount
of time for you really
go deep with the Lord,
just like we value date nights or
overnights away within a marriage.
It's the same with God. We wanna
have that time to really go
deep into reflection and into
intimacy with Him so that we
can really get to
know Him better.
And that is something that just
makes daily life so much better.
And if you're married, you
experience this or if you have close
relationships with friends.
After you have an extended time
where you're really allowed
to go deep with each other.
That intimacy is better all
the time afterwards for a period
of time after you have had
that experience together,
and that's exactly what we see
in our relationship with God.
And so this is something that obviously
has a higher time commitment,
but less frequently. And so it's
something that anyone at any
stage of life can prioritize even if you
are in a crazy crazy stage of life.
This is something you guys that
is worth getting a babysitter for.
Even I'm thinking like, most intense
situation if you are a single
parent with multiple children. This
is worth asking your girlfriend,
will she sit with your
kids. Asking your parent,
will they sit with your kids.
Paying a babysitter, if
that's within your means. Because
this is going to be something
that is beneficial for days and
weeks and months after it happens.
Building that intimacy with
God that allows you to be what
you need to be in the high
stress life that you're living.
So I can't recommend
that highly enough.
And the fourth tactic would be having
that mentality of Sunday coming first.
We had a whole episode about
this a couple of weeks ago about
this idea that Sunday is
the first day of the week.
We want to rest and receive from
God before we do anything else.
This can be coupled
with a prayer date,
Sunday is a great time to do
that and to take that time away
so that you can really invest
with God in your relationship
with each other because
that is going to be the thread
that can carry through
any circumstance,
any reality of your life and
be at the same level detached
completely from
your situation.
It is something that I don't
think enough people reach for
because enough people don't really
believe that it's possible.
And that circles us back to number two,
which is looking at what we believe.
So do we believe that it's possible
that our relationship with
God can transcend situation
and be something that carry us
through literally anything
that can happen in our lives.
And so all four of those tactics
are going to be really,
really helpful ways to grow
in the thick of things.
We have so many products to
support all of these things at
PinkSaltRiot.com. That's why we
exist is to empower you to do this well.
Our vision, our mission is to
have a world absolutely
packed with women who
know who they are,
know what God says about them,
and are constantly in intimacy
with God because that's
the world we want to live in.
That's a hundred percent why I
do this is because I want to
live in world where as
many people as possible,
ultimate goal is all people,
but fallen world,
as many people as possible
are living this way because it
benefits everyone. The more surrender
to God in the culture at large,
the Church as a whole,
the better.
The more the body of Christ is
in touch with Jesus Christ,
the better things are for
everyone because we're living in
greater alignment with who
God is and what He says.
So that is what everything is
that we create here and I'm so
thankful that you've allowed us
to speak into that in your life.
Go ahead and leave us a comment
on which tactic or which tactics
you have used in your life or
would like to use in your life
and how they've been helpful to
you if that's something that
you have done or picked up,
maybe after our previous episodes
about those things. I would love
to hear how the Lord is moving
in your life through those
things and that also helps build
other people's belief that God really
does wanna move in those ways.
So it's really helpful to the community
at large for you to leave a comment.
Thank you so much for
being here with me today.
We've got two episodes,
left in season four.
Next week, we've got
an awesome interview
with Karis Meier, who has just
experienced a tremendous amount
of the Lord's grace through
a time of suffering,
which really speaks into this
reality that we're talking about
this week that spiritual
growth transcend situation,
and we don't have to be a slave
to our situation and back
burner our spiritual growth. We
can really prioritize that no
matter what season
of life we're in.
That episode is also coming out
next week, like I said,
the anniversary week of
the birth of my son Jack,
who is going to be turning
one which is so exciting,
but it is also the one year anniversary
of me almost losing my life,
giving birth to Jack. And I felt
like it was just so fitting
to have an interview about
suffering that week because that
was such powerful experience of
God in the midst of something
so challenging for me
and for my family,
and it's something that really
did renew my mind about how God
wants to be present to us even
in the midst of suffering and
how He really does work all
things together for our good.
And so I just want to thank
the Lord for the gift of my life
that I am enjoying here for another full
year after it being an unsure thing,
and I also just wanna thank
the Lord for the opportunity to
recognize that it's not a sure thing
that we have our life ahead of us.
Nothing is ever guaranteed to
us except for this moment.
And so when we take the opportunity
to grow with God in this moment,
we are really saying yes, to
the life that God has given us
right now and we're not
delaying for a later date,
what God has for
us right now.
You read that parable about the virgins
with the oil in the Scriptures
and you have ten virgins who have
enough oil and ten that do not.
And the ten that have enough don't
have enough to share with the others,
but they are ready when the bridegroom comes, when their time comes,
when the end of the world comes,
whatever comes, they're ready.
And so that's what I wanna
encourage you to use these tactics
from this episode to
do is to be ready.
Be ready for whatever it is that
comes because we don't know.
I don't say that's to morbid of it,
I don't want you to be, you know,
thinking about death all the time,
but I could have died a year ago,
and that has changed my whole
perspective on this last year.
So now there's a level of thankfulness
for just being here that I
had never experienced before.
So I am very excited to share
that episode with you, and I look
forward to seeing you next week.
Thank you so much for joining
me on today's episode of the
Authentic Uprising podcast. It
is always a joy to be with you.
I encourage you to subscribe to our podcast,
subscribe to our Youtube channel,
whichever place, you most prefer or do it
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We would love to continue to get
to know you better and grow in
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I encourage you to check out
the links in both our show notes
and our Youtube description that
tell you more about where you
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The two big things we have going
on beside the podcast is our
shop that is full of reminders
of who you are in God,
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that radical art of standing in who
you are and giving gifts that
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The other big thing we have going
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This is all of our formation,
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everything is available virtually
and on demand where you can
sign up and continue to learn
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in what God says about you,
especially if you were in a place
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All those links are
in our show notes.
And if you enjoyed this episode, I
encourage you to leave a review.
Reviews are the number one way that
we help get in front of new faces.
New people that are able to be
touched by the radical art of
standing and what God says about us.
I love you. I'm praying for you.
I hope you have
an amazing week.