Ch4: Intro: Unlocking the Extraordinary: Faith's Journey from Simple to Supernatural

0:00 Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host Connie Morris. In this podcast series, I was yelling, sorry about that. What is in your, chapter 4, what is in your hands from the simple to the supernatural? We will explore the impact of faith, particularly how the simple things in your hands can be transformed into the supernatural when we entrust it to God. Chapter four of our devotional, What's in Your Hands? From the simple to the supernatural delves into the powerful concept through various biblical narratives.

0:45 So join me as we journey through five compelling episodes, each revealing how God uses the ordinary to achieve the extraordinary. Are you ready for that? For God to do the extraordinary in your life, to take the simple to the supernatural in your life. That's what they do best, right? So let's let them do it. So we have five episodes. First one, the widow's oil that's found in second Kings. And our first episode, we will explore the story of the widow's oil. She was facing a desperate situation. She was getting ready to go to jail for a debt.

1:31 That her husband couldn't pay. So the little small jar of oil becomes the source of a miraculous provision when she acts in faith. This narrative teaches us what we have, no matter how small, can be multiplied by God to meet our needs and more. So no matter what we have can be multiplied supplied by God to meet our needs and more. Episode two, we'll talk about Moses' staff. And Moses' story, it starts in Exodus, I think it's three or so.

2:14 And we'll turn to Moses. We won't read the whole thing, but we'll talk about Moses' staff, which is his shepherd's tool. So he uses that all the time. What do you have in your hand that you use all the time? an instrument that you have, especially our carpenters, you know, that uses a tool. And this tool is transformed into an instrument of God's power, performing miraculous signs. And during this episode, it will encourage us to see the potential in the ordinary things we possess when we surrender it to God's purpose. Episode three, the Queen of Sheba. That's in our third episode.

2:58 We will examine the journey of Queen of Sheba. It's found in Matthew and also in the Old Testament. I think it's in Kings. Her quest symbolizes the value of seeking and recognizing divine truth. So she came a long ways to see Solomon, to talk to him about the wisdom of God. And we will reflect on her pursuit of wisdom and how it leads us closer to God's greater purpose. Sometimes it's not about stuff. Sometimes it's just about the wisdom, the understanding, and the knowledge of God that can get us into some doors that only he can open, that only he can close.

3:46 How good is that, y'all? And then episode four, we're going to talk about the widow of Zarephath. It tells the story of a widow who in a time of famine gave her last bit of flour and oil to the prophet Elijah. Her faith and obedience led to an unending supply of food. This episode highlights the importance of trusting God and giving in faith, even in scarcity. You know, so it's a time where, you know, it's a time in our, and even in our day, in today's world, where they keep talking about food scarcity.

4:28 Well, if we have the faith of this woman and what we have in our hands, come on now, y'all. And we trust in God that we won't have to worry about whatever the world is trying to shake up and make us nervous about running out. We can believe God that in the time of famine, that we will not run out of food because our God is more than enough. He will supply all our needs. Sound like a song, right, y'all? Yeah. Yeah, so let's get our faith built up before they try to scare us with another shortage of any kind, right?

5:09 What do you have in your hands? I remember, I shouldn't share this story now, but my mom, we were never really rich, but our cabinets was never really, really full, but we were never really, really hungry. Our mom knew how to make something out of nothing, and it was always delicious. Delicious and so i just trust that god was always with us even when we didn't have much so when they start talking scarcity i'll be like what do i have in my cabinet i'm quite sure when you look in your cabinets there's something in there you can mix up so let's not let fear take over i don't know that was a side note let's go to episode five.

5:49 The blessing of tithing. When we start talking about money, people turn off, turn those ears back on, turn up that volume. In our final episode, we discussed the blessing of tithing. What do you have in your hands? If you've got a job, you've got some money. If you're still broke, you ain't tithing. Come on now. God promised to open the floodgates of heaven for those who bring their tithes and offerings. So this episode, we're going to talk about spiritual principle of giving back to God, what he gave to you. He gave you that job. So blessing him is giving it back so he can give you more because that check probably ain't making it. Come on.

6:33 And so when you bless him, he said he will open what? The flood gates of heaven. Different translation says it different, the windows of heaven, right? So God says, give me what you got in your hand and I'm going to take care of you. If you haven't heard my series, taking God seriously, when you take him seriously, he takes you seriously. No, I'm not going to preach the introduction, but don't get me started. So let's just review just how, what we're going to cover in our five episodes. They are good episodes. And I said, this is one devotional and I don't want to like give it to you all at once. That's a lot to get.

7:15 And so I like to give it to you in little bite-sized pieces so you can chew on it a little bit. And then once you chew on it a little bit, maybe you'll put something to action. Maybe something will stick, but just a little, I like to give a little bit at a time. You know, we'll hear a sermon for 45 minutes and we'll leave and we'll forget it. I don't know if that's you. But if I give it to you a little bit at a time, you go, I didn't know that. That's pretty interesting. And so how I have it set up this time is like every other day. Every day, I think I have the podcast dropping at about every day, about three o'clock Central Time, because I live in Central Time Zone. on.

8:00 And so every other day, I probably have it every Tuesday or Thursday. I think that's good enough. So you have enough time to, to get to them, you know, listen to it twice. Then it for, before the next one drop, because I want, I don't want to just be dropping podcasts and you're not like absorbing it. I want you to get to absorb it. Let the word of God be like part of who you are, you know? So you say, I heard that. Look up the scripture, get the scriptures in your eyeballs, Get to know these Bible characters by name. Where can you find their address? Their address is a biblical scripture. Know their addresses, you know, get to know them. And so that when it happens again, you can remember it.

8:44 And then you can say, oh no, Lord God, this widow with the oil, you did a miracle for them. I believe that you can do a miracle for me, right? Right. So you can have your faith exactly where you need it when it's neat, when it's time. You can have a supernatural faith with your simple. Right. Because you have an address of where God did it before. So God did it before. He can do it again and he can do it, do it for you. Same way with Moses. Moses, even though it's a diary of a black woman podcast, there are some men characters in here that I love some men characters in the Bible. Hello, women. Right. And so we can still put our faith with our husband, you know, but we also can use women.

9:31 We have jobs. What tools do you use in your job? You know, I'm a, I work, I'm an educator. So I have a lot of books, computers. What can we use in our job? You can pray for your husband. And if men happen to pick up this podcast, they can have some faith out there. They can use these same tools. They use oil and they were for oil company. Come on now. Hello. And use their faith to find oil on their land that they bought some farmland that they bought and they're rich now. Right? So just keeping the faith going. God needs us as Christians, especially as Christians, to keep our faith active, keep it moving so that people who are not believers can actually say there is a God out there and he is still doing the supernatural.

10:22 He is still doing the miraculous. He is still doing the simple to the supernatural. He is still that God in the Bible. God wants to show out for us in that way so people can believe him and stop mocking and playing around with him like that, right? So, hello? Stop mocking and playing with the God of the Bible. He's still alive. But then we also want to believe in ourselves, too, that the God will use you and not be afraid of those small beginnings. The Bible says, do not be afraid of small beginnings because God said he rejoices when we start.

11:08 So just start something. I think I share that in every episode, but just start something. Maybe that's the theme of the podcast. I don't know, but just start something. What do you have in your hands? What is it that he's trying to get you to do? What is it to move? Like I'm thinking of a time when I had the kids that grew up out of all their little clothes and all their little toys. And we and it was fun we had a little garage sale and we set everything up and they were still young but they enjoyed selling their little toys and clothes you know we folded them up and whatever they sold it was their money you know and after that we put it in a little bank account and first they got to go buy some new clothes with the money they made but also it was their money so So they learn how to mind. We have another sale.

12:07 Yeah, another couple of years when you get rid of us. So they were learning how to take care of the clothes that they had, that they grew out of. So we made it a little business until they got older, you know, but that's what you do. You teach the kids the things that you learn from God. What do you have in your hands from the simple to the supernatural? So we're going to talk about the widows or Moses staff, Queen of Sheba. She had a lot of stuff, but she didn't have wisdom. I mean, you know that you have you have some friends who so they're beautiful, they rich, but they don't have wisdom. They come to you for wisdom because you have the wisdom of God. Girl, you got all that stuff, but I don't have wisdom like you.

12:49 I'll give you, you know, whatever they give you. For the wisdom that you have. And then the tithe, we cannot forget that we honor God with what he's given us. Then that makes room for more. And that's all I have for our introduction. So you see how excited I am about that. So we're going to start episode one after this introduction. But so I want to thank you again for the support you have given me on the podcast series, Diaries of a Black Woman podcast. And we're only on chapter four of about 100, and I think I'm at 114 devotionals. And so I have a lot more to go, but God also has other resources He wants me to explore as far as bringing it out to the podcast.

13:37 So God always got new things. Like I said, whatever you have in your hand, once you open a door to God regarding your time and your giving and your effort, he's going to keep pouring it in. You're never, ever going to run out. Trust me. Trust me. Just give God a chance. But meanwhile, I got some podcasts, episodes to podcasts. Got stuff to do. So let's get this episode completed and I'll see you on the next podcast. So thank you for joining me here on this journey through a chapter introduction of chapter Chapter four on what's in your hands from the simple to the supernatural. So as we explore these stories, may you be inspired to recognize the extraordinary potential and what you hold in your hands and offer it to God in faith.

14:28 Stay blessed and keep believing. And I also want to encourage you that each and every devotional is on my website, site, diaryofablackwomenllc.com. You can access also other resources there. And if you want to stay connected or seek further guidance or just share your journey or insights, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can email me directly at ConnieMorris at diaryofablackwomenllc.com. Your stories and experiences are enriching and help build a better community, right?

15:09 And a stronger walk with Jesus. Signing off, this is Connie Morris at the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. Until we meet again, bye-bye.