Speaker 1: 0:02

Hi and welcome to our podcast Revelation Within On the Go. I'm Heidi Biles-Maefferson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithinorg ministry.

Speaker 2: 0:13

And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within. We are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within On the Go, so we are so glad that you're here today. Today's episode is very close to our hearts, which is really how most of the episodes are. I think, but we're talking about something that we've been exploring deeply in our community this month. I love this theme. I love it. We're calling it In this Very Moment.

Speaker 1: 1:02

Yes, and if you're new to us, what we're talking about, about our community. We lead a private online Christian community called Revelation Within Team, where our big purpose is this we bring together Christian folks ready to break free from food and body image and other counterfeit comforts through renewing our minds with God's truth, so that we can walk in freedom, rest in our true identity and enjoy deeper intimacy with Jesus.

Speaker 2: 1:32

Yes, boy, that sounds good, doesn't it? I want to go there. That sounds really good. Come on over. Yeah, we are there. We're there all the time, we're there every day. We would love to see you there, but okay. So this message today it's not just for women with food struggles. It is for anyone who feels hurried, stretched, distracted. Do we ever feel like that?

Speaker 2: 1:59

Oh my gosh all the time, or if you're feeling like you're missing God in the ordinary. Yeah, wow, that's so good to think about. You know, if you've ever wondered where is he like right now, right now in the middle of my real life, if you've wondered that this episode is for you, you know, years ago God kind of whispered something to me that I haven't shaken.

Speaker 1: 2:28

I've never forgotten it, and maybe at some point I'll tell a story about where it came from exactly.

Speaker 1: 2:34

But the thing he told me was this moment, right here this one right now matters, not yesterday, not next week, but this moment, right here, right now. And I tell you what that truth has reshaped how I live, how I pray, how I surrender, even. And this moment, the one you're in right now, it is truly sacred ground. I just have to say that I got an email from a leader I follow, who she's a lovely Christian woman who teaches people how to create Christian planners. That's how I linked up with her, but she went on what she called a sacred pilgrimage to what is often referred to as a thin place in Scotland, and I had heard of this place before, so I read her blog post with great interest and you know what I realized after teaching our community and talking about it with our community is, I believe every place is a thin place.

Speaker 1: 3:39

A thin place is usually where you get this sense that heaven is touching earth. It's like there's a veil if there is, one is very thin. And so I feel like God really wants us to know, I really believe this that every moment, every place we stand is a thin place, a place where heaven can touch earth, right here, right now. So this moment matters.

Speaker 2: 4:06

Wow, I love that idea that every moment, no matter where we are, can be one of those places and that every moment is sacred. That is so beautiful and really when we look in scripture, I mean we can see this.

Speaker 2: 4:23

We can see how God moves in moments in sacred moments Like I'm thinking about the woman who touched Jesus's robe and was healed. That's one of my favorite stories. I love that story. I'm fascinated by that story because she had so much faith. She knew that if she just touched his robe, that would be it, she would be healed. And she was because, of course, jesus knew that she was right there and he's.

Speaker 1: 4:54

God, In one moment it happened. I just love that it was a flash.

Speaker 2: 4:59

Yeah, I mean life can change in one moment. That was a sacred moment. And then another one. The thief on the cross. In that moment, when the thief turned to the Lord, turned to Jesus, he was promised paradise. In one moment, his entire eternity changed. I mean talk about sacred moments, Wow. And then when Saul became Paul, I mean how amazing. His name changed, yes, but his whole life changed. That was just an amazing sacred moment when he was on the cross and everything changed for all of mankind, for all of us. I mean that was just a moment in time, but it was sacred. So we can call these Kairos moments divinely appointed, sacred interruptions, even where heaven touched earth.

Speaker 1: 6:04

Yeah, yeah, let's talk about that for just a minute, because in the Bible, there are two ways to talk about time. This is where Heidi Bilesma becomes Heidi Biblesma, and gives out a little bit.

Speaker 2: 6:17

My kids call Heidi, Heidi Bilesma.

Speaker 1: 6:20

I just love this. I love it, and so you know the Bible was written in other languages. Of course, in the New Testament we see Koine Greek. So when we say Kairos, k-a-i-r-o-s is the way that it's written in our English language, but it's a Greek word, a Koine Greek word. So the first way that time is spoken of in the New Testament is Kronos, c-h-r-o-n-o-s, and that's where we get words, of course, like chronological, and it's measurable time seconds, minutes, schedules, calendars. Hurry, it's running out. You know that sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 6:59

Yeah, yeah. So we know chronos time really really well, especially those of us who are busy and following schedules every day and writing in our calendars constantly. So you hear it in phrases like I'm running late, there's just four hours left. Add this to your calendar. We use chronos to structure our lives, but it's not the only kind of time that matters. Not at all.

Speaker 1: 7:26

Right, you know it's funny. Before we did our deep dive for our community. Once a week we get together with our people in our community specifically to do a Bible study in some way having to do with the theme. And before talking about Kairos and Kronos, I just looked in my email box to see if I could find proof that Kronos is something I'm very familiar with. Of course I knew I was, but wow, I saw all kinds of emails that I mean. One of them even said if you don't take advantage of this now, while the sale price is on, you're a fool. Oh, my goodness, it's like I think the whole Kronos time is why we as humans can get so stressed out. But I wonder what would happen if we recognized well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Speaker 1: 8:13

The second kind of time in the New Testament is Kairos time, and that's kind of God's time and you know really, it's about significance. It's not about sequence or how long a period of time it is, it's not measured in hours, it's marked by presence, and it's when you suddenly maybe become aware God is here. You sense that invitation to surrender, to listen, to stay yes, I love that to stay in that moment. It's true. Eternity brushes against your ordinary day. You can be at the grocery store, you can be taking a shower, you can be on the phone, whatever it is, and you can sense God is here and eternity is brushing this. This ordinariness I love that.

Speaker 2: 9:11

I love that too. That's beautiful. Okay, so now I want to bring in a picture that you know. It's helped us a lot in our community. I was a kindergarten teacher, a first grade teacher and really K through five, and this is kind of from that. Heidi was also a teacher, so imagine this the teacher has a marble jar. Every time the students make a good choice and I just mean a moment, I drop a marble in as the teacher clink, it's a celebration. You hear the marble in the jar and you know over time it fills up. But it's just moments that you're capturing. I love that and it's so much fun too.

Speaker 1: 9:55

So that sound check it out, here we go. I love that it represents a moment captured. It might be just a small act of cooperation or of trust or of obedience, but it's significant, it matters. Picture this God is the one with the jar, and every time you offer him a surrendered moment, a breath, prayer, a choice to rest instead of strive, this is the Lord putting your marbles in the jar.

Speaker 1: 10:32

I love it A moment where you return to him, in the middle of the mess he drops a marble in the jar. I love, love, love that and he will never take them out. He will never take them out.

Speaker 2: 10:47

Yeah, that's the thing. They don't come out again. They are worth something, they're valuable, they stay put and you know what the best part is? Your yes in the moment might seem small, because it's just a moment. It's just this itty bitty, teensy, wainsy yes, but it's not insignificant at all. It's a moment of eternity. It's a sacred yes, a Kairos moment, yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:16

I love that and this is the truth. We often minimize the good moments, the ones that you know are significant. I mean they're all significant, but we minimize them. I mean, think about the times when you've been really working on something and you're working on developing a new habit, or you're working on breaking a habit, whatever it might be, and you have a successful moment, you kind of play it down, but you magnify the ones that you mess up, so you don't practice the good habit or you practice the habit that you wish you wouldn't. We tend to make a big deal out of those and then we beat ourselves up for how big that moment was, that we messed up, and we forget that those good moments, those moments when we made the wise choice, are very significant. And he sees every moment. God sees every single moment that we give him one marble, then another and another. That's how a life of abiding is built. To be honest with you, I've always kind of struggled with what is abide.

Speaker 2: 12:26

What is it really?

Speaker 1: 12:28

I can look up the Greek definition of it in John, chapter 15. I can look at different cross-references but I didn't get it. But now it's beginning to kind of make sense to me. These are kairos moments and I stay in that place as much as I can, and that's abiding it's moment by moment. Lord, you are here.

Speaker 2: 13:53

Well, and that's so doable, I think, sometimes, if we even look at an hour, sometimes it's not doable, it's like.

Speaker 2: 14:01

I can't even do this hour, or even this 15 minutes, or even this day. This day is not doable, but a moment that's doable, that's absolutely doable. I can do a moment and then move on to the next moments. So that brings us to one of the words we've been sitting with this month in our community as well, and that is what you just mentioned, heidi abide. And it's one of Jesus's favorite words too. In John 15, he says abide in me and I in you. Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Speaker 1: 14:38

Does it really say you can do nothing, or does it say you can do just a little bit or you can do almost?

Speaker 2: 14:45

nothing. It definitely is clear. It says you can do nothing and I think to myself, not even breathe Without him. That's it, we're over, we're done. We don't even get started without him.

Speaker 1: 15:02

Yeah, the beating of our hearts. I mean, that's just fascinating to me. Well, this word abide comes from. Here we go again. The Greek geek returns. There's a Greek word called meno, and it or meno, yeah, it means to stay, to dwell, to remain, to make your home with. It's not a visit, it's not a drop in, no, a rooted life. God doesn't ask us to perform for him, he invites us to just stay.

Speaker 2: 15:40

Oh, I love that, heidi, just put up your feet, let your hair down and stay a while, just stay.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Oh, I love that, heidi, you too Just put up your feet, let your hair down and stay a while, Just stay.

Speaker 2: 15:47

That is such a beautiful message in a world that says the opposite Go get going, move on, let's go perform, do this, do that. You know, it just feels so good to hear those words. So in Psalm 91, it says whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. The Hebrew word there, yeshab, also means to sit, remain or inhabit. So from Old to New Testament, I mean, god's heart hasn't changed. He's not asking for performance, he's not. He's asking for presence for time with us to be with us.

Speaker 2: 16:33

He's looking for relationship.

Speaker 1: 16:36

You know, it's kind of cool that verse in Psalm 91, it kind of connects. What we were focused on last month was rest and this month we're looking at this moment matters and it kind of connects the two, which I love. They're not the same but there's a beautiful connection. I love that. So what does it look like practically speaking, to abide, to recognize the kairos moments of time? How do we say a sacred yes in real time, especially when life is so loud?

Speaker 2: 17:11

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1: 17:12

Oh, my goodness Boy, I've been hearing a lot from all kinds of directors lately. This this, this, do this, yes, yes. So here are three general practices that we're encouraging our community members with and we encourage you with those. The first one is practice a pause. Practice pause before reacting or rushing. Just stop a minute and ask this question what is my sacred yes in this moment? Because this moment matters.

Speaker 2: 17:47

Yeah, and that art of pausing, we have lost that. We don't know what that's like anymore, but it feels so good and it doesn't take more than a moment. Okay, the second one is a sacred space scan. So at the end of the day, ask where did I sense God's nudge today? Where did I say yes or miss it? You know, kind of going through in your mind the day, scanning it, scanning your sacred moments.

Speaker 1: 18:20

I love that. And then a third way practically to abide, to offer God a sacred yes, even at the end of the day or in the middle of the day, is a breath prayer. We can do this we inhale, jesus, I say yes, and we exhale to you. Now, let's practice that together, Okay. So what we're going to do is we're going to breathe slowly out and we're going to breathe slowly in.

Speaker 1: 18:50

I like to breathe out through my mouth and in through my nose when I'm doing a breath prayer, and the thing that I love about breath prayers is it involves my body and physiologically my body changes. The body chemistry changes, so that it does actually physiologically calm me. It does calm me and that's a beautiful way that God has made the human body. So my heart rate goes down, my blood pressure goes down, my ability to metabolize increases. It's like everything works better when I'm calmer, and I do that by using my breath. So we're going to start by exhaling out all the air in our lungs and then I'll lead you through this. We're going to do it three times. So let's exhale out all the air in our lungs and then, on the inhale through my nose, jesus, I say yes.

Speaker 1: 19:49

Jesus I say yes, Jesus, I say yes, exhale through my mouth to you now. To you now and through my nose, jesus, I say yes and exhale to you now. You now picture him right there with you today in my bible study time I was made aware that Bible study time. I was made aware that the way that Psalm 139 translates a certain word, it can mean he keeps track of you, and I love that. So, let's keep in mind that as we do this, let's do it two more times.

Speaker 2: 20:45

He's keeping track of you and he's putting marbles in his jar for you. Yes, Okay, so inhale Jesus. I say yes.

Speaker 1: 20:50

Jesus, I say yes and exhale to you now, to you now Jesus.

Speaker 2: 21:00

I say yes.

Speaker 1: 21:02

Jesus, I say yes, exhale to you now.

Speaker 2: 21:18

That was lovely, very lovely. So kind of just thinking about this a little bit. None of this is about perfection. It's about awareness, just being aware in the moment. God isn't waiting for us to get it all right. He's not. He's not waiting for that, he's already here. I love it.

Speaker 1: 21:39

If there's one thing we hope you hear today, it's this you are already standing in a sacred moment. You're already standing in a thin place. I mean, I think it's lovely that this lady went to Scotland and had this beautiful experience. But we have access to God constantly, to God constantly and in any moment we can recognize him. He's here and heaven touches earth. This very moment matters. God is inviting us to abide in him, hey, to make ourselves at home with him.

Speaker 2: 22:21

Right, right, not just to visit, but at home. So there's no pressure, you don't have to strive, perform or prove Hallelujah yes, you can simply say yes, lord, I am here. Psalm 118, 24. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And another one of my favorites Isaiah 30, 15. In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.

Speaker 1: 23:03

One yes moment one surrendered moment after another then another. That's how we can build a life that is freedom, peace and intimacy with God. I really love to think of it this way is each one of those marbles is another moment captured for Christ, and each moment is contributing to a life captured for Christ, and that is what we want. That is where peace is found, that is where satisfaction is found, that is where freedom is found. What a beautiful truth. It just starts with this moment.

Speaker 2: 23:43

And now this one. Yeah, and now this one. It's beautiful and we are so glad that you've been here with us today. And we really hope that you'll join us for our next episode of Revelation Within. Bye, bye.

Speaker 1: 24:06

Bye, see you next time. See you next time, bye-bye.