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“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
John 10:10 (ESV)
Often we follow God in the areas of our lives where we want to follow God in and hold back other areas. And then sometimes God works out for us a way to come into agreement with him in all areas.
Today, I have a conversation with Kami Schaal and how she came to come into agreement with God through a difficult time.
Here are some of my takeaways from the conversation:
- The imagery of our lives being like a tapestry having to be turned over blew my mind.
- We start to reach our goals when we stop looking so much at the goals. Instead we reach goals when we are in service to our family, customers, builders, and community.
- We can’t sit in our house and pray for God to save us. We need to move into action.
You can watch the entire interview through the video below, or you can listen to the podcast of the conversation.
Here are some of my takeaways from the conversation
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Kami: Most of us can identify with the “life in abundance” part of that verse, but struggle with the first part of the verse, the thief part.
The thief came in the form of someone offering to help us with our teenage son, who has special needs. He used the fears surrounding the long term care of our son and the financial burden that goes along with that to manipulate and steal from us.
It was the most devastating experience of our lives. Fortunately, it has a happy ending that does include some undercover FBI work from my husband. However, we had put our trust in him, and it was hard for me to put my ego aside and admit that I put my trust in him.
But God led me through, not just in terms of protection (Psalms 91 was huge for me during that time and was all I could depend on during that time), but God showed me that I had not come to agreement with Him for all the things in my life. Our son has been sick for most of his life, and I handed my son over to God – full trust – but, you know what I kept back? I kept back my finances. I would cast my cares to God, but I would pull them back wanting to control them.
God really showed me that I needed to stop trusting myself and trying to control the outcomes for my son. He wanted me to come into agreement with Him about our finances, and He literally said, “You need to do this business.”
I still said to God, “WHAT?!? You’re crazy! I’m not a business person; I’m a nurse; I’m not an entrepreneur; I don’t know anything about this.” He just said, “You need to do this. You need to get into action and make a change. Kami, no one is going to come and save you.”
And I think what He meant by “nobody” was a person.
Tasha: Oh…wow.
Kami: I was looking for a miracle from the sky, that person to land in my lap and make everything better. He was telling me to save myself, BUT not about me. It was about me getting in agreement with Him so that His miracles could unfold, because nothing is possible without Him. And I needed to trust that, so we started our business.
It has been incredible to see. There have been highs and lows, for sure, over the past three years, but He continues to show me if I step out and trust and do what He is purposing me to do in that day, in the moment, that that is where He is going to shine and all the glory will be given to Him. It was obvious it was Him and not me.
T: I took so many notes….what really stood out to me of what you said is “Nobody is going to come and save you.” I think that’s so interesting.
One of my favorite authors is Mark Batterson, and he talks about praying like it depends on God, and working like it depends on you. And what I hear is like, “Hey, girl, let’s go.”
K: I feel like God saying, “Look you can’t just sit in your house and think, ‘Ok God, where are you? I prayed. I read my Bible verses for the day.’” Those are all good things, but then you actually have to step into whatever that God has for you.
My sister reminds me of something she experienced with God. She originally felt that God gives you a path, and He’ll make your path straight. But she found, and I find it true in my life as well, that it is more like stepping stones. He gives you a stone, and you have to take a leap of faith and step. But then He’s not going to give you another stepping stone until it’s time.
T: Come on, God! Just lay out all the stones like in Lego: Flash where they laid out the whole path.
K: It’s so true, and I do remind myself in times of difficulty, “This is the stepping stone that I am on. There are lessons to learn here. God is not ready to lay that out for me yet, because, either, to believe it, or to get in agreement with Him.” And you can look at that in terms of rank, or anything else, but it means I am meant to be here right now.
It doesn’t mean I am not doing the things, but I am learning the lessons in the process and He is refining me so that I am ready to step on that next stepping stone.
Thank you for reading this highlight of the my interview with Kami. You can watch the entire interview below.
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