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This is Faith to Witness 99, to motivate you to hear God and share the Shepherd.
Episode 110. Season 2 The Beat.
Quick Take
Hey human, in this episode we define “faith to witness”, what it is not, and the significance of the 99. We ask you to think about the spiritual link to this podcast in your life, aka God’s timing. I share mine. And we reveal a life-changing question that serves as the premise for this podcast. You will gain a decent sense of our vibe and if you want to “follow” (love) or listen to another episode, and/or if you know someone to share Faith to Witness 99 with… that’s important too. Thanks for listening.
Follow His Voice. Go Find the One.
Are you here, human? Spiritually present?
I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.
Before I even get started, what did Jesus say about the 99?
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Luke 15:4-7
This is the “all” of what Faith to Witness 99 is about. Pardon me for how I will fall short of this Truth.
Sticky Notes. Three Words, My Mantra.
I have a few mental sticky notes to share-in-brief before we go on:
My mantra in this season is justly represented in three words, at least at this point. We will return to them often.
Pistis – the Greek word for faith – God’s divine persuasion of the heart for believers.
Witness – the Greek word for martyr
Coram deo – the Latin word for “in God’s presence” or “in the face of God” – how Christians should live theirlives in the presence of God, under God’s authority, and to God’s honor and glory.
Just make note, because they provide a dominant rhythm in this season.
I want these words to be my life, and I want that for our Faith listeners.
And for those who are living without God.
And this verse:
Romans 11:36
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
New Podcast Name. Faith to Witness 99.
Two years ago, I launched a Christian podcast called BUOY. It was mywitness99journey. 99 episodes. A weekly solocast anchored by the words of our Shepherd.
I needed something that God would hold me to, something intimate, that was between me and God. I soon fell into a spiritual cadence that God has blessed in His abundance. I’m crazy hooked on this cadence of witnessing about my life through knowing God more deeply.
Now we are launching Season 2 with a full-on pursuit of His nature, His holiness, a life lived coram deo in response to God’s divine persuasion.
God’s faithfulness is that powerful.
We have a new, permanent podcast name: Faith to Witness 99.
It is focused on the power of faith to produce a strong witness.
Faith to Witness 99 is about the power of getting to know God more deeply and how He persuades us to share His presence with others.
Faith to Witness 99 is about pursing God’s nature, embracing His presence in your life, and sharing what that is with someone.
Faith to Witness 99 is about following His voice.
To go find the one who is lost.
The one who is spiritually stranded or who has bookmarked God.
The one who is too ashamed to touch the robe of Jesus.
The one who is too full of pride to need a sovereign God.
The one who does not know Jesus, who has not claimed our Creator.
The one who cannot rest in His redemption.
The one who cannot draw from His comfort, from His courage, His humility, His suffering.
The one who does not believe in the One.
As unpopular as being a Christian is today, I love following Jesus. I had opportunity. I had all the earthly things. But with Jesus I am found. He brings me to the throne of the Father. Knowing God deeply is precious to me.
Leaving the 99 comes from the faith God gives us and prompts us to leave the comforts of the mainstream, the people we love who love Jesus. Sharing our witness of how God is moving in our lives, what He enables us to do, how He loves us, how He holds us, encourages us, and persuades us into action throughout this earthly life, is the highest purpose for our lives. To show the love of His Son to others so they might be found.
Faith to Witness 99 is not a pep talk for sharing your story. We will talk about the questions to ask yourself to come to a focused perspective. And we should be rehearsed on how to do this authentically and efficiently by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
But everyday life with humans doesn’t usually roll that way. We get a whole lot of impromptu moments to show His glory. We do this through God’s character. We act on His Will to connect with someone on the ledge they call safe. This podcast focuses on how we represent God’s presence in those moments.
A Life-Changing Question.
It is driven by this question: Whose life will change from your pursuit of holiness?
Isn’t this a beautiful way to approach sharing our witness? That we do so out of a divine response to God’s presence in our lives? Out of a divine response to God’s faithfulness in our lives.
The beauty of your witness is that God has created a one-of-a-kind life that only you are living. The whole of it. Each moment of it. Evangelism is a familiar word in our culture. It is super scary to most people. It found it’s way into a broad spectrum of denominations over the past several decades. Street teams who engaged people on the street to talk about God in their not-God world. It ias powerful, but for most of us, a hard place to start.
Faith to Witness 99 starts with getting to know God better. Getting to know God’s story more deeply. Then witnessing how He shows up for you.
With that we are launching Season 2 of the Faith to Witness 99 podcast.
From BUOY to what?
Well, again God has landed me on something I am passionate about. Rhythm. I fell in love with dance in my childhood and took that passion with me through my 30s. I can’t not move when I hear a song. I can think of no happier physical place than a studio. Yet those days are long since turned into other passions, rhythm is part of my Psalm 139-DNA. How God made me.
When I hear how people are stuck, stagnant, stale in their spiritual lives I think of rhythm first. How does one lengthen their spiritual stride without a rhythm to match it to?
I always here a beat.
In conversations, my pace through the kitchen, into a store, on a nature walk. When I read scripture. Pray. Sing (but that’s obvious). When I am writing. Recording. Baking. Pretty much all the time.
Shepherd David, Warrior David, King David, knew all about this. His life, his laments inspired 150 psalms, 150 songs to the Rhythm Master. God Almighty.
Psalms 27:8
My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek.
Rhythm is one of the ways God draws me close. And while this is a personal passion it represents how God draws us close to Him. It represents how He fills our lives with His presence in deeply personal ways that we individually claim one by one.
He gets personal. Psalm 139.
How does God draw you close?
Season 2. Can You Hear It?
It is so easy for me to make the leap, the leap from BUOY to…
The Beat | your life, God’s rhythm
One spiritual truth I learned over the past two years of mywitness99 journey is that I need to be relentless about pursuing God. So I have to ask you…
Are you bookmarking God? Have you walked so far away you can’t hear Him?
Do you need someone to bring scripture to your ears?
Have you split your stride from His?
Can you remember the last time you shared His presence with the lost one?
Season 2 is my spiritual studio. I am inviting you to dance with me. If you are checkin’ this podcast out because your life needs a stronger God rhythm, there is only one source for that.
The Shepherd.
I’ll be bringing His beat to your ears.
Because I know that your faith will grow when you hear His Word and respond to His persuasion.
Romans 10:17
17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Because I know that when you hear His Word, it gets personal. In a divinely transformative kind of way.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Can you tell, I’m feeling spiritually feisty in this season.
Let’s crank up the volume. Hearing God’s rhythm is about knowing more about His nature and His presence in your life. When we hear Him, we do what Jesus asks us to do.
Follow his voice. And like He left the 99 to find the one, we fall into the Savior’s rhythm of finding the one.
John 10:27
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
And when we do that every day—seek His presence through His Word, through prayer—we begin to confirm, share, praise His Name to the next person on our path.
When we hear His nature, when we embrace His presence He persuades and inspires us to MOVE.
He inspires us to live a gracious, generous, earthly witness in His divine rhythm.
He inspires us to find the lost one.
A Timeless God. With Impeccable Timing.
How is the Holy Spirit connecting you to your next step toward coram deo?
I am completing a local Women’s Bible Study this week. It is as if it was custom made for my faith walk, like God was laying down spiritual cobblestones to get me to right now. The sister connections, the messages, the scriptures, all of it, so how this study comes to completion I am sharing with you. It serves as a spiritual bridge to this podcast, to Season 2.
Praise to a timeless God for His timing.
Luke 24:44-48
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
48 You are witnesses of these things.
So this took place when Jesus came back to his disciples for 40 days after His resurrection but before the ascension to the right hand of the Father.
He said, “I’m going to send you what my father has promised but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Well, there is the definition of the Holy Spirit: “until you have been clothed with power from on high.
Jesus’s words define what an eyewitness is and what happened to the disciples in watching his journey on earth, his three years of ministry, all of the things that he did. What they saw with their eyes would now be theirs to do. To witness His presence in their lives.
Jesus came to earth and witnessed the character of his Heavenly Father. This is the divine model by which we live our lives: that the more deeply we are in relationship with God the more we recognize and are able to articulate His presence in our lives; and through the Holy Spirit are able to share that with others.
It sounds so beautifully simple, but we cannot do it alone. Only by the power from on high.
We change lives by seeking God’s presence. I believe this is the only way to embrace an earthly life that pulls loose from the shackles of human nature.
Whew. I’ll leave us with the premise for this podcast: Whose life will change from your pursuit of holiness? I hope you join us for episode 110 of Faith to Witness 99.
God’s faith to Your Witness. “You are witnesses of these things.”
Go find the one.