Episode 248-The Conundrum A conundrum is a difficult or confusing problem or question. It’s like a mystery we can’t solve. In Romans 7, Paul shares a conundrum that I identify with and I expect if you are honest, you do too. Like any problem or mystery, I want the conundrum to be solved in 30 minutes like a good tv show. I don’t want to be left han…

Episode 247-What War? We are in a war. We may not realize it as we walk through our daily lives but we are. Romans 5:17-6:23 talks about this as a war between the power of sin and the greater power of God’s wonderful grace. If we belong to Jesus, sin has no legal control over us. We are free to follow God. However, we are just as free to be entangl…

Episode 246-Patient Endurance If you’re like me, somewhere along the line in Sunday School you learned the nine fruit of the Spirit which include: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are all great virtues we should be incorporating on our Spirit-Led Transformation journey. As I was readin…

Episode 245-This Thing Called Faith Faith is foundational on our Spirit-Led Transformation journeys. Without it, we have no transformation. Without it we cannot be Spirit-led. So what just what is faith and how do we know if we are really living our lives based on faith? I’m a words person, so let’s see what the dictionary says faith is. First defi…

Episode 244--Why Forgive Others? An important step on our Spirit-Led Transformation is forgiving others. It’s actually a command from God. He demonstrates exactly what He wants us to do for others when He forgives us. He is teaching us by example. Most of the time, this feels like a really hard thing to do so we sort of just put it in the back of o…

Episode 243- Forgiven Forgiven. It’s such a great word. This is the second in our series of Spirit-Led Transformation because understanding the depths of being forgiven can set us free to follow God with all that we are and all that He made us to be. However, when we feel like we are not forgiven and feel deep shame and regret, we are stuck and can…

Episode 084-Flesh Versus Spirit This episode is going to be the first in a series I’m doing based around the book of Romans. It’s really a book that talks to us about Spirit-led Transformation so that will be a topic we’ll be exploring for the next several months. Because these episodes are so foundational I am putting them into a course that will …

Episode 241-Finding Freedom One minute I was sitting in the green metal lawn chair in my uncle’s front yard, talking and laughing with my aunt while cousins and our children played hide and go seek. The next minute I felt the bending and eventual collapse of the rounded legs of the chair as they slowly lowered me to the ground. Even though I’m sure…

Episode 240-What God Wants I’ve learned since childhood that I should listen to God. I knew He wanted me to give up sugar and flour and eat more meat, fruits, and vegetables. However, I continued to do the opposite. I was like the people of Jeremiah’s day. “We will not listen to your messages from the Lord. We will do whatever we want … For in thos…

Episode 239-King of My Heart Who or what is King of your heart, the most important thing in your life? The first stanza of the song, King of My Heart says, “I’m in a war every minute. I know for sure I’ll never win it. I am David up against Goliath and it’s a fight for my attention. I’m being pulled every direction.” However, David’s real giant was…

Episode 238-Intimacy I love this episode! I love talking about real intimacy with my husband and with Jesus. Intimacy is a deep, close relationship that makes us feel validated and safe In simple language Jesus told us how to be his intimate friends “You show you are my intimate friends when you obey all that I command you … I call you My intimate …

One of my issues growing up was I was the oldest child and my mother had many issues that caused her to be unable to do a lot of household duties. Many of these fell to me because otherwise they wouldn’t get done. So, as the oldest child of three, I stepped into a controlling, bossy mini-Mom. From an early age I took on a works mentality. I took ov…

Episode 236-Hiding from Fear? Are you afraid of people, things you failed at, things that want to make you go somewhere and hide and never come out again? Many are. This episode contains a fictional story about a woman who wanted to just live never having to deal with fear. When she thought about stepping outside the room, she felt naked, exposed, …

Episode 235-Self-Effort Are you doing things in your own self-effort? Or are you doing them with God’s help and strength? How do you know? How can you do things with Him instead of for yourself? Overcomers Academy link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/Overcomers

Episode 234-Who Am I? Who am I? Who are you? Many times in our lives, people knowingly or unknowingly tell us who we are. This happened to me when I was six years old. At the time, I didn’t really know what was said would define me. I tried to push it out of my mind. It stayed there until another similar statement when I was an adult jogged my memo…

Episode 233-Forgiven I sat on the back deck of the lodge at the north rim of the Grand Canyon while my family was hiking. I just wanted to sit there forever and take in the glory and the splendor of God’s majestic, vast creation. The canyon is miles across. It looked huge. I thought of the song, “There is a cross to bridge the great divide.” The wi…

Episode 232-Am I Greedy? I never really thought of myself as greedy, but my journey has really been one of greed. What is greed? The definition of greed is “an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.” Did you get that? It’s not just an intense desire for money or position. It’s also a selfish desire for food! Ar…

Episode 231-Deception A person who deceives is one who misleads by a false appearance or statement. Isn’t it interesting Satan can appear as an angel of light. One big deception the enemy threw to me was that I needed food to eat so I could eat all I wanted to. The devil is a deceiver who turns something, which looks good, into something which lead…

Episode 230-Prayer Answers For many years I was frustrated because I would pray and it felt like God wasn’t answering my prayers. I knew the Bible said He would, but I didn’t believe it because I wasn’t experiencing the answers I wanted, which was to have my mother healed of her bipolar disorder. They weren’t selfish prayers so why wasn’t He answer…

Episode 229-This is My Surrender The other day I was listening to a church service and they were singing, “I will Make Room”. As I sang along with them the words arrested me. “Here is where I lay it down. Every burden and every crown. This is my surrender. This is my surrender.” God stopped me and asked, “How are burdens and crowns alike so that wh…

Episode 228-Backdoor Grace "Crisco, Crisco fat in the can" churned around and around in my head for decades after a three-year-old said that to me when I was 11. He said it so he could distract me. Thoughts of I am fat went through my conscious mind and were archived in my subconscious right then. Our childhood emotions can lie dormant for years re…

Episode 227-Lies or Truth? It’s hard for children to separate truth from lies. When we grow up lies from childhood still chase us and take us down treacherous roads. Then my lies sounded like this: “I can eat whatever I want whenever I want it. If I want sugar or dessert I can eat as much as I want. It doesn’t hurt me. If I’m upset foods with carbo…

Episode 226-I Can't Lose Weight I CAN’T lose weight, I just can’t. I carried this feeling of defeat with me for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I was always outgrowing my clothes. Hey, it’s what kids do. They grow. It was true, as a child I couldn’t lose weight. I was designed to grow, not lose weight. The difficult part, especially for a ch…

Episode 225-Listen to Gdd All the time there are at least three voices vying for our attention: my voice, the tempter’s voice, and God’s voice. For years, though, I listened to the tempter’s voice constantly. It always has an element of truth to it. What he tells me is half-truth, half-lie. In the past he hadn’t needed to be too subtle. He just put…

Episode 224-Fighting the Battle Eleven years ago I weighed 430 pounds. Now let’s be honest that’s really, really large, especially for a woman who isn’t that tall. I’ve lost 250 pounds and I feel a whole lot better. However, to me the more important thing is I’ve undergone a total lifestyle change of a slow, steady weight loss. No matter what the q…

Episode 223- God's Great Adventure Most of us love a good adventure story. I love Sunday nights when we’d hear foreign missionaries tell us about their adventures. They seemed so different from my life, which was very boring in comparison. I longed for a bit of adventure, and a great adventure with God would be even better. Back then I didn't have …

Episode 222-Confessions of a Sugar Addict I am a sugar addict, set free by God Almighty. Most people greatly dislike the concept of surrender. It feels too hard, too difficult, too unnerving to actually give in to God. To me it is just the opposite. Surrender is beautiful because we finally discard everything we’ve been holding on to that is keepin…

Episode 221-Eating Myself to Death Most of us want to blame someone else for any problem we have. I knew good and well no one was to blame for my extreme weight gain, but me, myself, and I. My desire to do my own thing regarding what I ate and how I didn’t exercise or listen to God about my health was not working well for me. As a matter of fact, I…

Episode 220-Move My Mountain In order to lose weight and keep it off we have to begin and continue. We have to be committed to transformation. I was a reluctant loser, but God helped me lose 250 of the 430 pounds I once had on my body. I say I was a reluctant loser because God told me to give up sugar and I didn’t want to. Today, I'm a Christian we…

Episode 219-Overcomers Academy New God called me to coach others with weight issues after I lost 250 pounds. With His help I’ve been coaching now for 10 years. I was hesitant, but I have learned if God calls me I don’t have to worry about my qualifications. When God asks us to do a specific task, He and He alone will qualify us. He goes before us t…

Episode 218-God's New Thing I read this somewhere and it resonated with me. I don’t know the author. “God is telling me today, rest in Me. I am already ahead of you, working in your life. I will turn around every bad situation you are in. I will bless you and your family with all that you need. I will heal all that needs healing. I will wipe away o…

Episode 217-Here's My Heart, Lord You’ve likely gotten all kinds of gifts for Christmas already, but I want to give you another one. When I take the love language test, mine comes back words of affirmation, imagine that. It’s what I love to receive, but it’s also what I love to give. Words can build us up or tear us down. I hope these words, which …

Episode 216-Season for Temptation It’s the season for temptations especially for a sugar and comfort food addict like I used to be or like you may be right now. How can we resist falling into temptation? If we are surrendered to God it can help us resist temptation. Overcomers Academy link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/…

Episode 215-Make Time for God With so many time-stealers in our lives, how do we make room for God? First, we have to first above everything else. If we don’t have time set aside specifically to spend time listening to God, How will we know what He’s saying to us. How will we know what He wants us to do? James 4:8 NLT tells us, “Come close to God, …

Episode 214-Stubborn Surrender My mother used to say to me, “You’re so stubborn you’d argue with a fencepost if it would talk back.” Stubbornness is not a good trait when you are not wanting to do what you know God wants you to do. It just reveals a whole lot of the very worst of our humanness. Stubbornness is a huge part of being human and we thin…

Episode 213- Grace and Surrender Without the grace of God, I would never have surrendered to Him. I’d still be trying to work my way to heaven by trying to earn God’s favor God understands us though. He is not a distant far away God. He is the God of grace. We don’t have to earn anything. Failure is part of the learning process. God gives us grace.…

Episode 212-Efficacy and Surrender It was during my quiet time recently when kind of like a benediction on our time, God said, “May your day be filled with efficacy.” He does this kind of stuff to me a lot. It is one of the great benefits of a real quiet time. I said, “Efficacy? Why are you giving me this word, God?” He was quiet and I sensed He wa…

Episode 211- Surrender to His Majesty Lord, Don’t allow me to make a mess of my life, for I cling to Your commands and follow them as closely as I can. (Psalms 119:31 TPT). We all need to pray that verse every day, especially in the days we’re living in now. Everywhere I look it seems like everyone is in a world of self-doubt. Today I got a flyer i…

Episode 210-Surrender Bad Habits As humans we want to be in charge of what we want. We want others to listen to us. We don’t want anyone telling us what to do. We don’t want to give up what we think we have to have in order to endure this life and all its temptations, desires, wants, needs and must haves. We want stuff and we don’t want the trials,…

Episode 209-Surrender the Hard Stuff Why is this topic of surrender so difficult for us? As soon as I said that I answered my own question. “We can’t surrender to God, because the only one we have ever fully surrendered to and trusted in is ourselves.” It’s hard to trust in Someone you can’t see. While this is true, there have been many times when …

Episode 208-Why Surrender to God? Why should we surrender to God? The unstated question here is, what’s in it for me. I mean I’m doing pretty good here on my own. Besides I know a lot of people who say they are Christians and they are just as bad off as me. I don’t really see a reason to give over control of my life to anyone. How do I know what Go…

Episode 207-Surrender Control Surrendering what little control we have feels impossible. The truth is when we are trying to be in control, we many times wind up out of control while trying to be in control. That became the story of my life. I had been trying to be in control of everything and everyone in my sphere of influence. I finally had to adm…

Episode 206- Intentional Surrender Surrendering to God is a choice we make, but it’s much more than just choosing whether we will eat a huge piece of cake or not. It’s an intentional, purposeful choice to lay everything at the feet of Jesus and then follow Him completely. That means we will be intentional about listening for His voice. We will be i…

Episode 205-Surrender Takes Trust I know, above and beyond everything else, God is my source and the source for my family. I trust Him as the ultimate Puzzle Master, the only One who really knows what my final picture or story will look like. I didn’t always trust Him as my total source. My future used to be rather disconcerting. I said God was my …

Episode 204-Surrender and Destiny Why do we think it’s OK to ignore what God is telling us and yet get mad at Him when He doesn’t magically make the money appear to pay our bills, or stop one of our kids from doing drugs or getting in with the wrong crowd. Why do we refuse to surrender to God, but we still want Him to answer our every prayer exactl…

Episode 203-Fear and Surrender Through the last nine years, I have coached many women who tell me they want to surrender to God, but are afraid of giving up the foods they love. Surrendering to God reminds them of giving up. It reminds them of being forced to do something. When we feel forced, many of us rebel. That’s because it reminds them of a f…

Episode 202-I Surrender All What does it mean to surrender all? What things is God asking us to surrender that we haven’t? Does it really matter if we don’t surrender everything to God? Can’t we hold back a little for ourselves? When we think about surrender, we should immediately think about what Jesus did for us. When He came to earth was and sti…

Episode 201-7 Steps to Surrender God wants to be first without a second in our lives. He wants us to be totally surrendered to Him. He told us this in the first commandment. “You may worship no other god than Me.” (Exodus 20:3 TLB). Here are seven steps to surrender. 1. Have a relationship with God. 2. Get to know God better. 3. Understand what God…

Episode 200-This Thing Called Surrender God’s desire is for each of us is to totally surrender to Him so He can lead us to be victorious in Christ! Our surrender delights God, but most of us don’t really know what surrendering to God means, how to do it, or why we should do it. We think surrender means the same as being a prisoner. It's what happen…

Episode 199-Resisting Temptation What should I do if I’m tempted? Well, first it’s great that you know when you are tempted. Many don’t recognize that they are being tempted. However there is not an “if” about it. If you are a Christian trying to follow Jesus, you will be tempted. And the tempter will offer you exactly what you want because he’s be…