The simple gift of obedience

When "hearing" invites us to actually align with the God-given vision.

My brain is veeeeeeery good at picking up on opportunities and solving problems. But sometimes, even though I see a “good solution,” the Spirit of God prompts me and says “it’s not for you to share right now.”

And I’m glad I’m learning to listen.

It happens a lot in my sessions with clients and I’m honestly so grateful. Especially in my therapist role, where shutting up is a healing modality just as much as pondering out loud alongside the person across the room or on the other side of my screen.

And then there are moments when I’m tentative about sharing something, and He’s giving me a little prod in the shoulder saying “my son/daughter needs this right now.”

As someone who has worked in therapy contexts with mostly non-Christian clientele, bringing faith into the room through means of terminology, theology and matters of the heart of man and God is not a practiced norm. Not a habitual process. And yet that does not bother me, because I’ve really sunken more into attuning to the Spirit who knows the inner thoughts of the children He brings my way — whether 13 or 42.

I’ve been really seeing how obedience to His Spirit is far more aligned with the true Ruth and feels the most authentic approach to my practice. It’s authentic, because I am born of God.

Prompting my clients back to their freedom in Christ, back to remembering who this Christ even is, and what that means for their daily life — it’s always a magical little adventure together. The word reveals how alive it is as you speak it. My Bible now often sits open by my computer somewhere between Romans and the rest of the epistles, and I remind them of the new self as we talk about stewarding ourselves out of the narrative the old self was bound to.

And then there are those I’m not even working with yet — those in my DMs who are curious about what I do, how I do it. And they, too, can be tender places. Complete strangers but sisters (and sometimes brothers) in the Spirit sharing vulnerably where they’re at, and the mountain that stands before them.

I tell some about how their conscious decisions to embrace a new healing narrative is going to tear the wall around their mind down brick by brick, until enough light comes through and they tear it down with force. For others, I tell them to pick up the bat laying behind them and with all the energy that built up as a result of the emotional fury and frustration from the hurt, betrayal, grief and abandonment swing it fiercely and knock it all down. And it’s by the Spirit of God that I’m led in how to approach this.

Sometimes I get it wrong. But when a potential client lets me know, I celebrate that because they’re using their voice already. Speaking up, honouring their God-given humanity. Immediately, their correction has a soft place to land — a mind open to their fullness: my very own.

The work I do is precious and powerful.

All because it’s prayerful.

All because it’s His heart echoing through me.

In what ways do you see His heart echoing through you?

I talk a lot about Christian women knowing the nearness of God to their hearts so they can minister His heart to others boldly over at Embody Faith with Ruth — head on over and give me a follow for upcoming free webinars, 1:1 coaching, a private community for women to be bold and share from the overflow, and more about the precious work He’s giving me to steward.