Navigating Life's Crossroads: Finding Peace and Purpose Through Spiritual Renewal

Have you ever stood amidst life's crossroads, weighed down by the ghosts of your past, and wondered if there's a path that leads to peace and fulfillment? Join me, Shaniqua, as I guide you through the spiritual wilderness—a place where embracing the ebb and flow of our personal evolution is not just a choice, but a calling. We'll traverse the landscapes of change and renewal, exploring how to let go of what no longer serves us to step into the light of God's divine plan. This is more than a conversation; it's an invitation to a transformative journey where your faith will be the compass that navigates you through the trials and triumphs of life's seasons.

This episode is a reservoir of solace and strength for those grappling with the shadows of childhood traumas, abandonment, or self-doubt. Together, we'll acknowledge the necessity of shedding old skins to grow anew, and I'll shed light on the pivotal role inner work plays in catapulting us toward our highest potential. Remember, your worthiness is non-negotiable, and your journey toward love, support, and authenticity starts with a single step—often the one you're most hesitant to take. So, let's embrace our true selves and embark on this week with hearts wide open, secure in the knowledge that with every forward stride we're touched by grace and inching closer to greatness.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Free Concepts Unmasked, where we motivate, educate and elevate. I am your host, shaniqua. Thank you, guys, so very much for tuning in, listening, supporting, just. Thank you, thank you for sharing. I'm so grateful to you. So listen, guys. I want to talk to you, but before, of course, I begin, I want to start off with prayer.

Speaker 1: 0:25

God, I thank you, father God, for everything that you've done, everything you're doing. God, I ask for a fresh anointing over my life, god. I ask, father God, that you pour a fresh anointing over our listeners. Continue to bless them, god. Move in such a way, father God, that they know it's you, god. Continue, father God, to bless me. Help me, father God, to be able to speak the words that you want me to speak to your people, some encouraging words on today, because Lord knows that they need it. God, oh God. I thank you, father God, for your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness and, most of all, I thank you for your love. God, I ask that you touch our people, open their hearts, open their minds to be able to receive whatever it is that you have for them, god, that they submit, surrender to the process. God, we thank you, father God, to be able to breathe, breath on today, that somebody didn't wake up. But we woke up. Today, god, we have another chance at life to be able not only to exist, but to be able to live. Oh God, we thank you, father, god, for all things. In Jesus name, we pray amen, amen, guys, I am just so grateful, so grateful. I just am reflecting at this time, having a reflection of what it is that not only I want for my life, but what God has in store for me.

Speaker 1: 2:02

It's so many times that we let life pass us by, we don't understand our journey, we don't understand what it is that God has us doing in certain seasons of our lives. I call them seasons because there's reasons for the seasons, just like when winter, spring, summer, fall. They all have something different. That happens, whether in the spring, as they say, april showers brings May flowers, in the wintertime it's cold, it may snow and sleet. In the fall the wind is blowing really hard that it blows off the leaves and takes all the leaves off the tree, and the tree then develops and grows back at a certain season. So I really feel like God is doing something within us where sometimes he has to remove all the leaves and then be able to give us our leaves back.

Speaker 1: 3:25

Many times we are in the wilderness and we don't understand how we got there. But if we can think back and be accountable and reflect on what got us to this point, I know for sure for me that there were times that I needed to grow. God was trying to grow me because I was stagnant in relationships or just stagnant in general, just stuck in that same mental behavior. And it's a transformation of the mind that God is trying to do. He's trying to take us to another level.

Speaker 1: 4:14

A lot of times we don't understand where God has taken us and we don't want to move, we don't want to change because we don't like change. We get comfortable, we get complacent, we start this routine in life and when, if anything, disrupts that routine, then we feel off balance, we feel inadequate or we feel stressed and our anxiety peaks and we don't really understand the process because we don't know where God has taken us. It's kind of like when we're blindfolded and somebody's trying to walk you. You know, while you're blindfolded and they're leading you and you don't know where you're going and you're scared. You might, you know step, you know the wrong way or miss a step or you don't know what's ahead, but just know that God is leading you. And oftentimes it does feel like we're blindfolded, but that's okay. God has a plan and as long as he has a plan, we know it's going to be all right.

Speaker 1: 5:23

We've seen dark times before. We've seen and been through trials and tribulations. We've been through hurt and disappointment, but somehow God will bring you through. You've gotten through it. You don't even realize sometimes how you got through those hard times. When you look back over your life, you could just, you know, shake your head and be like Lord. What was I thinking about when I was doing these things? You know what type of frame of mind was I in?

Speaker 1: 5:57

And a lot of times we don't even realize that our childhood traumas and things that we've been through early in life has molded us into this person. And sometimes it's good because we have that survival instinct that kicks in and it's good for that season. It's good for that season. But when he tries to elevate you then to the next season and he's elevating us we don't really, you know, we feel blinded again, like, oh Lord, where are you taking me now? You know what I mean. Like I was doing good, you know Now, you know I lost my job, or my marriage is not working out, or my relationships aren't working and I just feel like things just aren't the same. And if you think about it, things aren't supposed to stay the same. We can't stay the same If we want to walk into our future and what God has destined for us. We can't stay the same y'all. We have to be able to give into the process of what God is doing in our lives, even if we know or don't know what's going on. We just have to just go with it, rock with it. You know, we know that on the other side it's going to be better, but sometimes God has to break us down to rebuild us.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Oftentimes we go through so much in life and we end up growing a thick skin. We end up putting this guard up, this guard over our hearts becoming cold, not having empathy or understanding or compassion for others, because we just feel like, you know, people weren't there for me, or people have, you know, treated us bad, or you know how it is, guys, people don't treat us like we treat them. We go all out. We love people, we get up for them, we take care of people Better than we do ourselves. But God is trying to show us in this season, right now, that it ain't about them people, it's about you and his relationship with you.

Speaker 1: 8:29

It's so important to have a relationship with God. I'm not talking about religion, I'm not talking about sitting in church and filling up seats. I'm talking about having a true relationship with God where any move that you make under that covenant that you made with God is just like a marriage. Basically. Now I'm talking about a healthy marriage. Okay, but it's like a healthy marriage where when you make that commitment to God that you don't do anything without consulting God In marriages we're supposed to consult each other and be partners and listen and understand and walk as a unit together.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Same thing with God. Having that relationship and have that covenant, we're supposed we're committed to God and when we make that commitment to God, we don't move unless God says move. We pray to him and we seek answers. Then we move, but oftentimes we get impulsive and we move too fast, too quickly without consulting with God. And then when we find ourselves in some messes, then we want to then consult with God and pray to God to get you out of that situation that you didn't even pray about in the first place and you saw red flags and he tried to show you signs but you ignored the signs.

Speaker 1: 10:01

And then we get angry with God in those moments that we put ourselves in, we did it our flesh, and oftentimes our spirit is fighting our flesh, because the flesh needs to die in order for the spirit to live with inside of us. But the flesh is used to the chaos. The flesh is used to, you know, just unstableness. The flesh is used to doing what it want to do when it want to do it, no matter the consequences. You know, a lot of times we go through life just out of feelings and emotions, and it's okay to have feelings, it's okay to have emotions.

Speaker 1: 10:46

But when you allow your feelings and emotions to override the spirit of God that's directing you, your intuition, your discernment, if that overtakes your flesh, overtakes all of that, then you moving in flesh, not the spirit, and then we want to get mad with everybody else and upset with everybody else, like they did something to us. But we will put ourselves in those very situations that we get hurt. We put ourselves in those very situations that we know that's toxic, that we know better. We know better God shows us, but we still do it anyway. And then we mad with everybody else, we mad with the world, we mad with God. The person we should be mad with is ourselves, and not even then, even when we mad with ourselves or say you know, like dang, I know I shouldn't have did that, I feel foolish, I feel stupid.

Speaker 1: 11:50

No, take it as a lesson learned. My grandmama used to say you live and you learn. Baby, you live and you learn. If you live in this world long enough, you're going to learn some things. So take it as a lesson learned. Don't be so hard on yourself, don't beat yourself up, but stop taking it out on everybody else for the very decisions that you made, the choices that you made knowing where it was going to lead you in the first place. And then, when you find yourself there in that pit, in the darkness, in the drama and the turmoil and the hell that you feel like you're in when you're going through it, we put ourselves in that very situation. We don't consult with God. We just do what we want to do and think it's going to work out the way we want it to work out. That's not life. Life is going to be able to. It's going to only work for you when you work for it.

Speaker 1: 12:57

And when I say that, it means that you have to listen, you have to be at peace, you have to sit still. You can't be always on the go, moving too quickly and too fast, because if you're talking too much, you can't listen. God gave us one mouth and two ears to listen more. Talk less, listen more, because if you're talking all the time, how can you listen? Listen, how can you listen to God and what he's speaking to you? You too busy trying to get through the day and God is trying to show you something within your day. God is trying to teach you something and you too busy trying to get through the day and get through the week and get through the until Friday, the weekend, so you can party it up and do what you want to do. But just ask yourself, how much time do you take with God and speaking with God and consulting with God?

Speaker 1: 14:07

You consult with everybody else, people that can't even help you with your problems. We dump on people our problems and we talk about the same things all the time, until a point sometimes people don't even want to listen. They don't even answer the phone no more because you're still going through the same cycle. It's doing the same things you was doing 10 years ago and you expect change doing the same things. There's no results unless you change.

Speaker 1: 14:42

You have to change. You have to change your thought, your thoughts. You have to change your way of thinking, how you do things, how you move, how you operate. You've got to change who your friends are. You have to really dig deep within, doing the inner work, figuring out how did I get here? How did I get to this place? What can I do differently next time to not be back in this same situation that I find myself in?

Speaker 1: 15:15

Often we don't listen enough. We just keep going, and I know a lot of times we're raised and taught to keep going. No matter what happens in our lives, no matter what tragedies happen, we just keep going. But sometimes you got to just stop, stop, take heed and listen to what God is trying to show you or tell you. If you keep going through the same things and you've been going through the same things all your life then, baby, you need to take time with you and God Work on you. Do some soul searching. A lot of times we work off of abandonment issues from childhood or neglect issues and not feeling like we're enough and not feeling like we're worthy, and we sabotage relationships. Because if it's too good to be true, then we feel like you know there's something wrong with this picture.

Speaker 1: 16:19

When somebody treats you good and you're not used to being treated good, you push it away. You push people away, the very people that want to love on you and don't want nothing in return. You'll think they're weird or stranger. They want something from you. Not everybody wants something from you. Some people just want to love on you. But without God you can't distinguish the two. And the enemy will try to talk you out of things. He wants you to have fear. He wants to talk you out of things. He wants you to have fear. He wants to hold you back from your purpose and sometimes we give in to that devil, we give in to the enemy. A lot of times we are our own enemy because we don't allow God to move us, because of fear, afraid of what may happen.

Speaker 1: 17:19

You've already quit before you started. You got to at least try, and if you fail, then you just backtrack and say, okay, what can I do differently next time? What could I have done differently. So sometimes we put ourselves in these messes, we put ourselves in these situations. But we got to consult with God first. We got to put him first. We got a. Sometimes we got to throw away the drinking, throw away the cigarettes, throw away the weed, throw away the things that enable us even heck the coffee.

Speaker 1: 17:57

Some people say I can't start my day without my coffee. Well, how about? You can't start your day without God, without prayer? Heck, you can't start your day without you, just you. And I know things are hectic, but at the end of the day it's okay to drink, it's okay to do certain things. You know what I mean, as long as we don't over indulge, we don't abuse it, where, if we don't have that coffee or we don't have that drink or we don't have peace in all circumstances, peace, peace of mind.

Speaker 1: 18:45

Let me tell you guys, if y'all don't know or ain't never been through nothing, peace of mind, honey, I don't want to let nobody steal my peace. Okay, I protect my peace at all costs. You are not going to disturb my life. You ain't going to disturb my peace at all costs. You are not going to disturb my life. You ain't going to disturb my peace. I'm not going to allow it, and a lot of times we allow people to come in and disturb our peace. We allow certain treatments because we don't feel like we're deserving. But I'm here to tell you that you are deserving, you are worthy, you are enough, you are of value, you are capable. There's nothing that you can't do if you don't put your mind to. I'm telling, if you put your mind to it, to whatever it is that you want to do, you can do all things through Christ. I believe that we're all capable. We all have gifts that God has given us. We're able to do things, but we disable ourselves. We disable ourselves because we don't think that we're worthy of having certain things or a certain life, or having a certain marriage or whatever it is for you.

Speaker 1: 20:08

You may think you're not worthy of having a certain job and you give up before you even continue. You just quit because it gets too hard, it's too difficult. Nothing in life is easy. You're going to have to work at it. You're going to have to do the work. Nothing ain't going to just drop in your lap and be like here I am. That job ain't going to drop in your lap. That husband or wife ain't going to just drop in your lap. The children ain't going to just start acting right. You have to be that leader. It starts with you.

Speaker 1: 20:46

So on that note, I'm going to leave you here with. It starts with you having a relationship with yourself and having a relationship with God. Going within and figuring it out there. Going within and figuring it out. There's nothing wrong with figuring it out. Nobody's perfect. Nobody expects you to be perfect, but be the perfection that you need for yourself. Be the better version of yourself.

Speaker 1: 21:15

Be better each day, whatever you felt like. You messed up yesterday. Make it right today. Make peace with yourself. Make peace with your demons. Make peace with all of what the devil is trying to bring against you. Make peace with that. Make peace with your past. You Make peace with that. Make peace with your past. Don't keep allowing the things or people that hurt us in the past to still have power over you now.

Speaker 1: 21:47

Let that stuff go, because if you don't let it go, then you won't be able to walk into the future, into your purpose that God has set up for you. You're delaying time and, as you know, we don't have that much time, so stop taking advantage and taking life for granted and time for granted. Some people didn't make it as far as you have, and that means something. So if God woke you up today, then that means that he has something for you. He has more for you to do in this world before you go home to glory. So again, with that being said, god bless you all. I ask that God shows you yourself, that God shows you yourself, shows you what he's trying to do in your life, and that you listen, even if you have to disconnect from some of the people that's around you.

Speaker 1: 22:46

If you got negative people around you that's always naysayers oh how you going to do that? You can't do that. If you got those type of people in your life, cut them loose. It's okay to be by yourself. You need to be by yourself for a minute to be able to reflect, figure out where you really want to go in life. Do you want to keep doing the same things you've been doing for the last five and ten years, or twenty years, or do you want change? Do you want a new change, a better change?

Speaker 1: 23:21

Ask yourself that, say what is it that I want to do with my life? Moving forward, do you want to stay on this path that I'm on right now, or do I want to change the course? Or do I want to change the course? Take a detour today to get back on the right path that God has already set up and aligned for you. I love you, god loves you. Enjoy your day, enjoy your week, be blessed and come back next week with free concepts. Unmask, unmask. Take the mask off and be you. It's okay to be you, babies. God bless you. Have a great one.