[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Set Apart Living Podcasts. I'm Diana. In each episode, we dive into your questions and challenges, offering encouragement and the guidance through the truth of God's Word. Let's explore how God wants us to live, set apart, and use the sword of His Word to cut through the darkness. Thanks for joining me. Let's get started. Dear Diana, please pray for me. My mental health is in trouble. I want to be like Jesus. I want to choose the Jesus way. I want to live, but there is too much. Multiple children and newborn trying to meet my needs, just like using the restroom or taking a shower. I feel desperate and like I'm drowning. These doom and end thoughts are tormenting me, and I desperately need freedom. I need help, but I don't have time for it, spending as much time as I can in the Word and presence. Okay, when I read this, my heart sank, because this submission, I have read these words more than you can imagine, and I know you're a female because I have your name, but this podcast response may be more for females but can apply to gentlemen as well. I have to say that I don't know what's going on, but I can tell you that the enemy has just cranked up the oven in regards to people's ability to just keep going, people's ability to just look forward to future. There is a heavy cloud, and this is definitely something I want to address, and I'm very thankful that you submitted this and you're gonna let me respond to it. When I read this, I know that we sit there and we look in the Bible and we almost everybody's perfect, but then there's the story of Elijah, and I love, so growing up, I always wondered why in the world did they not use this story? I mean, this story of Elijah is almost, almost, almost, as good as Daniel and the lion's den. It's the story where Elijah goes head to head with the prophets and priests of the false god Baal, and he mocks them and he tells them, "Come on, you can, you know, let's go ahead, "tell your god to send down fire from above." And I mean, for hours, he mocks them and nothing happens. And then he goes, "Now it's my turn." And I'm telling you, it's a showdown. There's hundreds of people. This is all happening on a mountain, in a mountain caramel, and everybody's watching because Elijah said, "Let's see whose god is real, Israel. "You've been worshiping the god of Baal "because Ahab and his wife Jezebel, "Jezebel has done an amazing job of moving everybody "to start worshiping the false god, "and everybody's been shifting to that." And so this is when Elijah comes in super strong, and this is an amazing man of God, and this goes to absolutely anybody. Strong Christians, neo-Christians. This story goes to everybody because you're gonna see where we go from, I mean, this man is at like a 10 when it comes to power and encouragement and tied with the Lord. So let's see where we're at. The man mocks the priest, nothing happens for them. Their God doesn't do anything. And then he says, "If I am a man of God, send forth fire." The Lord sends down fire from above, and it consumes the bull on the altar. I just have to tell you, he does this, and the Lord uses him so mightily that all the people are blown away and agree that the God of Israel is the God, and all the other prophets are false. So he tells them, Elijah tells them, kill them, and they go out and they kill hundreds of Jezebel's prophets. I'm not kidding you, hundreds. And then Jezebel hears about it, and she threatens him. And now Elijah flees from the queen because the queen said she's gonna kill him. And so Elijah flees, man, this is a man that just asked the Lord to send fire from heaven, and it came down in front of hundreds of people. He gets one threat, and he runs and hides in a cave. It says in first Kings 19 verses four, "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die. And he said, "It is enough now, O Lord, take my life for I am not better than my fathers. This man that was so strong was done, absolutely done. And the Lord tells him to rest and sends him angels to feed him, and he feeds him and says, "You're gonna need to eat because you've got a long journey." Now, the man that just asked the Lord to send down fire now asks the Lord to take his life. But God didn't take his life. If you actually look, it takes based on the dates and the study within the book eight to 10 years later after that request that Elijah's raptured. Remember, Elijah's number two in the Bible that's been raptured. First was Enoch and now Elijah. Why am I telling you this story? I want you to understand that everybody, everybody's overwhelmed. I'm gonna take the words right out of his mouth. It is enough. That sounds like your text or your submission. It's too much. As I read that, I remember there was a point in my life as well where my husband, I was playing single mom because he was out of state and I had a lot on my plate. And I said the exact same thing. My season sounds different than yours. Elijah's is different than yours. But what I can tell you is no matter the season, by the way, I have to add, your season is a rough one. You've got a newborn, multiple children. And I'm gonna speak this to all parents, especially women. We get excited. We look on TV. Everybody makes it look great. This whole, some people are falling in love. Everything life is peachy, hunky-dory, no problems, no depression, no postpartum. I mean, they zip back to size zero real fast. Let me tell you, everybody's season is different. Don't look at absolutely anybody. If you need to look like a truck hit you and you just get up each day and do what you need to, that's fine. This season you are in is rough. Just do the right next thing you need to do. Breathe in God's provision. Take it in knowing that he is your help. Lord is leading me to take you to Psalm 121. I'm gonna read the whole thing because this is the psalm that lifted me up when let me tell you I was broken. Take this psalm, learn it, paste it on the walls, put it on your mirrors. Let me read it to you. I will lift up my eyes to the mountains from where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you. Day nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. The season you are in is a season. It will get better. You will have to walk through this, but know that you have what you need to move forward. And when you don't cry out for help, I cannot tell you how many times I have sat on my knees and the only word that I could get out of my mouth to the Lord was help a whole lot of tears, but help. And I can tell you as I speak to you right now, you may think I have it all together. You may think that everything is good. Look at what I'm doing. Honey, I can tell you I have gone through fire, but God got me through it because I was never alone. Trust me how many times I thought I was alone. Trust me how many times I cried and I looked around and no, I couldn't even tell people my situation and it sucked, but I wasn't alone and I knew it. I can tell you this. You are in a season that is very difficult. Newborns, babies, yeah. I don't even know how people do it without the Lord and they're dealing with newborns, but if you are struggling and you're hearing voices of doom and things that are telling you that you can't go on, you've got arrows being shot at you. I'm gonna ask you something that's very important and I'm going to tell you that you need to do this like medicine, you need to start taking truth into your mouth and speaking over your family and your life with this truth. You need to understand that whenever doom comes, whenever you've got voices like that, saying that you can't go on anymore, you need to say that is right. I can't go on, but because I have the Lord, He is guiding my every single step and I will tell you right now, you need to say this out loud. You need to speak it. When you can't do it anymore, don't say I can't do it anymore because part of your mouth, there's so much power in your mouth that you have the power of life or death in that mouth. I'm telling you, I am pleading with you. Had I known this years ago, I would have done it sooner. When you say I can't do it anymore, you are coming into agreement with the darkness that wants to destroy you. You have to say, I have been struggling from, I don't know what date to today, but God is with me. I will make it, I don't know how, but God does. I'm gonna make it, I will make it, at least I'm gonna make it until tomorrow morning and then tomorrow is gonna pick me back up and we're gonna keep going. You need to speak against the darkness that is coming at you. You need to do your best, fill your time, listen to things while you're feeding your newborn. Whenever you have time, a lot of people get guilty and I saw that at the ending of your message, it says I'm spending as much time as I can in the word and presence, or I need help, but I don't have time for it. I'm telling you that your help is with you. Your help has not left you. You just need to turn it on. Yes, a lot of people turn on worship music, it is very good, but you might need to also start singing it. Sing it. The enemy wants to see you drown. If you sing to that worship music and you focus on the Lord, there is a power in worship music. When you sing worship to the Lord and specifically, find songs that are directed directly towards the Lord. There's so much worship music right now that talks about I went through this, I avoid that. Do your best to find music that goes straight to the Lord. Songs like our God is an awesome God. Songs that are like worthy as the Lamb. You're speaking about an amazing God. When you sing that, when you come into agreement with that darkness flees, if you can't remember the Bible verses turn on music that speaks truth. And when you do that, understand that you have a power, a garment of praise, that when you put that on, it's supposed to kill the darkness around you. Darkness cannot stay and start your best to speak life over you. Pray every day that the darkness that is around you, be completely bound. Pray for those hedges of protection. Remember when Job, during the story of Job, Satan said to the Lord, well, yeah, Lord, he's fine and he has a perfect life because you've created hedges around him. If you look into the book of Job, it says that Job interceded for him and his family daily and he prayed for them. So Job was praying for hedges of protection and God was honoring that request to the point where Satan came back and said, yeah, but you're putting hedges of protection and that's why I can't hurt him. So create those hedges, make a wall against you and darkness in Isaiah. It says that no weapon formed against you will prosper because this is the heritage of the saints. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and trust me, you may think that, yeah, I'm not a saint, God, I'm with you, neither am I, but because of the Lord and the sacrifice that was made on the cross, you are covered. You are a saint. You are covered by the blood of Jesus and anything that comes against you in condemnation, the continuation of that verses. Anything that comes against you in condemnation, you will condemn. Any voice of darkness that says, yeah, she ain't your saint, I have the right to hurt her. I have the right to hurt her family. You can say, Lord, your word says that I am covered by you and any word that comes against me in judgment, your blood washes me. It has no more standing in court. Darkness can't state that I am guilty. I'm washed by the blood of the Lamb. Forgive me and repent. Forgive me, Lord, wash me. Help me, lift me from the miry clay. Lift me up. These are the only things that I can say, and it truly is a constant feeding of truth, a constant feeding of life. Being in a status of understanding you are in a season, you will go through up and down, but you're gonna get through this. And if God left you in this season, the Bible says he will never start something that he won't finish. Stand on his promises. Get yourself books that have promises of the Lord, let's just write them out. Get a book that is just the promises of the Lord and try. Every time you're breastfeeding or every time you're sitting down to feed the baby, make that time or nap time. One verse, just write it down. When you write it, you're gonna read it. Now you're gonna write it. You're taking a step into building yourself up. You're gonna need to build those walls of protection also. You're gonna need to tear down strongholds, lies that were placed in your mind by the enemy that you can't go forward. And you do it one step at a time. You will not leap, you will have to walk. The Lord says that he's with you every step of the way. That doesn't mean every run, every step. It is one step at a time. That's all you gotta do. Take it one step at a time. Don't try to compete with anyone. Just do what God expects from you. Make him, he is the one you report to. He's the one that you're accountable to. Make him happy with your choices. Love your family. Love those babies. Love your husband. Focus, don't focus on being like anybody else, but a better version every day. And when you fall, it's okay. The Bible says the righteous man falls seven times, but he gets back up. If you fall 42 times, I'm pretty sure the Lord will intercede and give you that 42. It is okay. Just get up. Keep going. God has given you enough. And the Lord says, do not worry about tomorrow because today has enough problems. But he'll get you through it. Don't worry about how big the problem is. Just get through today. Just look at the blessings that you have. The Lord wants you to remember the blessings he gives you because when you think of the good things he's done, what he's gotten you through, you know he will carry you through the new season. I hope that this encouraged you. I know it was a law coming at you, but I pray that these words, these examples from the Bible show you that there is an end, but it's not today and it will not be doom. And those babies need you. And you need your Lord to get through every season, to get through every breath. And he is there for you. He's waiting for you. It says, cast your cares on me. That's why he said it. 'Cause he's waiting for you to give it to him. He will help you carry it. If not, he will carry it for you when you can't. And that's a promise of the Lord. God, I come to you in the name of Jesus asking you to bless this emitter. Bless this person that submitted this to the podcast, Lord. I ask that you bless those who are struggling with the exact same concerns, with the exact same struggles. God, I ask in the mighty name of Jesus that you pour out your peace, that you bless them, Lord, and that you fill them with an understanding that you have plans, that darkness does not want them to understand. You have plans for their life, that darkness wants them to end their life now, just not to reach that blessing that awaits. God, I ask in the mighty name of Jesus that whatever Satan has bound and stolen from your people, especially those who are struggling with suicide thoughts, with thoughts of doom, with thoughts of they can't go forward, they don't want to go forward. I ask in the mighty name of Jesus, and if there's anybody listening to my podcast and comes in agreement with me, please say amen. I come in the name of Jesus, pleading that your blood come for those people and bind the darkness, destroy the seeds that were planted in the minds of your people that come against them that want to sprout thorns and want to harm and want to suffocate. God, I ask that you destroy those seeds, destroy the strongholds that were planted in the minds of humanity that come against them, that steal your peace, that steal your joy. I come asking in the power of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, your son. I know that you love us. I know that you love people who come to you asking, God, you even said that you love those, you let the rain fall on the evil and the good. God, I ask for anybody struggling, that you have mercy, you are faithful, you are the one where our help comes from. I ask that you love, that you pour it out, that it overflow, send help, send people around those who are struggling to speak life and truth and to be a blessing to them, to be the ones that answer and confirm the request that are being made. God, I intercede on behalf just as Job did for his family. I intercede asking that you place a hedge of protection around this submitter, around her family, around her babies, around her mind. God, that no weapon formed against her prosper, no witchcraft, no schemes of the enemy. God, I ask that you confuse the enemy, that the arrows that come penetrating, that they be broken, that the enemy, when it comes to strike and bite, that they break their teeth on your people, that they do not make it anywhere further to harm, what you love, what you have died for. God, I glorify you because you never leave us, you never forsake us, you are always faithful. I pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen, amen, be blessed. If today's message has resonated with you, and you're facing your own challenges or struggles, I want to encourage you sincerely to reach out. Visit my website and submit your story or question, and I'll share biblical insight and encouragement in a future episode. Please remember, you are not alone in this journey, so many of us are struggling, so many of us need encouragement, and what you may need to hear somebody else might also need. So please visit my website, setapart2020.com/podcast, or click on the link below in the description, and submit your situation. Until then, remember, you always have God on your side. He is there, he will never leave you, and above all, he will never forsake you. Be blessed, until next time, take care. (gentle music) You [BLANK_AUDIO]
