Ginger sits down with Priscilla to get to know her better.
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Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives.
With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way.
well we get the opportunity right now to
sit down and get to know one of our
special guests at this year’s Women’s
Conference priscilla shires with us
priscilla it’s so great to have you so
glad to be here we’re so excited about
the upcoming conference and many people
have been sitting under your teaching
and hearing God’s Word and just
appreciating what you shared for a long
time and there are probably some others
who are interesting in maybe knowing a
little bit more or becoming familiar
with you so the way I see it now this
this is my perception here you were
raised in the ministry you come from a
ministry family you have this wonderful
god-given gift to to teach with power
and grace and it’s just it’s energetic
and so I think in the morning you know
angels just kind of float down to your
bed and give you your assignment for the
day and your beautiful children trot up
and give mommy a hug and it’s all just
perfect you think but you know I think
that’s the way many people think about
people who are in the spotlight people
who are in ministry that it all just
comes very easy very simply and it’s not
always true is it I’ll tell you this
ministry isn’t even what I planned to do
wasn’t even what I started out wanting
to do I love ministry I love the house
of God love building the church but
because I grew up as a pastor’s kid I
was trying to do my best to kind of go
in another direction so I was often yes
and not because I had a distaste for it
at all I had wonderful people around me
who were people of integrity and
character and I’m so glad that I had
that sort of legacy in my life so I had
no distaste in my mouth for ministry I
just had other plans for my life you
know but then there was this steady call
of God and these clear footprints that
he continued to put in front of me even
when I was trying to walk in the
opposite direction
he continued to direct my path down a
path again that wasn’t necessarily the
easiest path or the path that I had
charted out for myself but it became
very clear that it was the path that he
had for me and so I had to make a
decision was I gonna go his way or was I
gonna go in the direction
he called me two and all along the way
there was a little bit of hurt and a
little bit of heartache and a little bit
of struggle even now I still struggle to
do ministry um you know in a way that is
excellent in a way that would be
honoring God well that is it come easy
to me sometimes it means lots of late
night studying
hours and I don’t consider myself to be
a writer but writing has come with with
the ministry God has given us and so now
I’m plowing and to figure out how to be
the best writer that I can be so it’s
not that I’m just it just comes easily
or that you know so deliver it every
morning no it’s kind of like you know
what I have to be disciplined and press
in and do what it is that God has called
me to do in a way that will honor and
please him you know that’s true in all
of our lives I think we have plans for
ourselves yep God has plans for us and
sometimes they merge in different places
and sometimes they diverge yeah do you
ever look back and say you know I I
really wish it would have gone that
other way when you do walk with God it
ends up to be exactly where it was
supposed to be yeah I would agree with
that I don’t look at any of the plans
that I had for my life and not only in
ministry in the direction of ministry
but even in my personal life you know
there was a relationship that I had
before I even met and married my husband
that honestly I was praying and asking
God for that relationship to work out
and and now I one of the things I’m most
grateful for is for unanswered prayers
yeah because if God gives us half the
stuff we beg him for then we’ll actually
be shortening and lessening the beauty
of the miracle God wants to do in our
life and we don’t realize it at the time
and so in in so many ways yes I’ve taken
a diversion off of the the chart though
the path that I had charted out for
myself but I I don’t look at any of
those things and wish that I had them or
longed for them because the life God has
given the journey he has for us doesn’t
mean that it’s without challenge it just
means that his favor and His grace is
upon our life through the challenges so
that he is strengthening us to handle
whatever comes along and that’s what’s
beautiful about being right smack dab in
God’s will for your life is that his
favor is with you His grace is upon you
Mercy’s following you every step of the
way you probably need a little bit of
that grace and mercy literary boys
mystery and a husband
things to juggle I’ve got four wild men
in my life I only signed up for one of
them when I walked down the aisle about
14 years ago and then I got three more
and so we’ve got this wonderful house
full of boys and you know I really
consider being a wife and being a mother
to these boys my primary responsibility
and privilege and it’s my joy to serve
them and then on the side get to be able
to serve the Lord in ministry as well
yeah what we’re talking about at the
conference this year is that
understanding of who we are in Christ
really believing that we are valued and
that we are his masterpiece is that
something that you’ve ever struggled
with in your life I have struggled with
it for so many years and continue I
think on some level to struggle with a
sense of insecurity or intimidation that
what God has called me to I’m not
equipped to handle don’t you think most
of us feel I think we do and I think
even the person who has come to some
sense of equilibrium or balance in that
area of their life they’re still gonna
be I think until the day that we see him
face to face because our sanctification
is progressive which means we’re never
perfect in any one area so it’s gonna be
a constant truck struggle because the
enemy knows that once you’ve placed
faith in Jesus Christ he can no longer
destroy you but he’s gonna do everything
he can to distract you and one of the
major ways he does that with the women
of God is by causing us to be distracted
away from what our identity really is
and what the pages of Scripture declare
that we are who we are because we’ve
been adopted into the family of God if
he can keep us from knowing that the
power of God lives in US and strengthens
us and that God’s favor is upon us and
that we’re a royal priesthood in the
chosen nation and if people called a
God’s possession that we’ve been
transferred out of the kingdom of
darkness that we are now surrounded by
the light of God on every side and if he
can keep us from recognizing that then
he knows we will never live in
fulfillment of the destiny that God has
called us to so he can’t destroy you
know but he’s gonna try to distract you
and I think for God’s women that’s
exactly how he does it it is and we
sometimes make it easy for him to do
that because you know we compare
ourselves to one another or we choose to
look in the mirror and see something
very different than what God sees when
he looks at us so what do you want to
encourage women with as they come to
this calm
prince how can they turn that around
well I think the main way is to
literally keep your nose in the Bible as
your main means of discovering who you
really are I mean when you think about
it I mean it kind of sounds cliche but
really that is where we find our that is
where we find our worth because when you
think about it we have our nose in every
other book and then we’ve got magazines
spread out on our kitchen tables and
we’ve got it in our lap and we’ve got
these novels and these books we have all
of these different scenarios television
shows everything telling us who we are
and who we’re supposed to become but
just as strategic sometimes as we are
about all these other influences coming
into our lives
that’s how deliberate and strategic we
have to be about making sure our nose is
in the book that has the resume of our
lives already written down for us so
we’ve got to make sure that our mind is
really being renewed by the the washing
of the water of the word on our lives
and we can’t do it if we don’t know the
Bible if we’re not so trending time with
God in prayer and in the Word of God and
that man that’s the primary way that I’d
say someone including a woman like me
can reshape their mind I’ve seen it
happen where I have made myself a
student of God’s Word maybe just even
one verse that you concentrate on for a
full month I mean you just memorized
that thing you pour over it you ask the
Lord to use it to speak into your life
and after a month you just see how your
mindset isn’t beginning to change and be
renewed simply because you concentrated
on God’s Word and let it do its job so
we have to go a little further than just
reading it surface wise because I think
we can read it and we can believe it for
someone else but we can’t always let it
sink into our own lie down our own
spirit that’s true and let me tell you I
that that would be my testimony because
I did grow up in church wonderful at the
time I thought it was a small Church it
was kind of you know it started when I
was one so I have this history of being
in a church that kept growing with me so
to me it was you know always big you
know but 50 people to a three-year-old
is a huge you know congregation but I
remember our churches got thousands of
members now but I remember when it was
you know 300 of us that we’d have
testimony service and a woman would come
up probably with a hat on you know that
with a feather that stuck up like this
and she would stand up and have a
demony about what God had done in her
life and how maybe she’d heard the voice
of God and she’d followed him in
obedience and the response of God to her
obedience and we’d all celebrate and
clapping I remember sitting there
clapping and celebrating what God had
done in somebody else’s life at the same
time I felt that there was a disconnect
between what God had done for her and
what he could ever do for a little girl
like me mm-hm
and that disconnect has followed me most
of my Christian life till my early 20s
when I woke up to the reality that the
same God who works in the other people’s
lives who I admire is the exact same God
who I have trusted as my own Savior and
he doesn’t want my testimony to be that
I’ve ridden on the coattails of
everybody else’s testimony he wants me
to have my own and so there’s this
awakening that all of us have to come to
sometimes especially the church girls
have to come to that he’s not everybody
else’s God he is our God and it’s when
we find ourselves in those positions in
life where things are not adding up
they’re not working out this is not what
I planned
it’s then in those places that he is
strategically placed as in a prime
position to experience God for ourselves
and that’s where the testimony comes
from that’s when you start to have your
own story with God we know that when
we’re talking about this Women’s
Conference for a woman to give up a
weekend and to go to a conference like
this is it’s not always easy it’s a
challenge Oh so why is it important to
give ourselves that time – like you said
really really plug in to what God wants
for us well I was thinking about that as
I was looking at Luke chapter 5 recently
you know that’s where Simon fishes is
out fishing all night long and he
catches no fish and then he’s out of the
boat and he’s tending his net washing
his net and that’s where Jesus spots and
once he’s gotten out of this boat and
he’s frustrated and irritated he’s
washing the net with his with other
fishermen is what it says well washing
nets in in ancient days wasn’t a
one-person job you would never find a
Fisher man by himself it’s always Fisher
men because these nets were huge they
required a lot of work for maintenance
to prepare them for the next fishing
expedition and so you’d always find a
group of people around the Nets watching
washing them together one person wasn’t
supposed to do it alone it was too big
of a job this is exactly why women need
to make time to come to the conference
because we’re all
a little isolated world’s sometimes
trying to attend and wash our own Nets
of our marriage and our mothering in our
ministry in our career we’re trying to
do it all alone and that’s why you find
women frazzled and out of sorts and
stressed out because we’re trying to
wash nets that were never intended for
just one fisher woman refresher man they
were intended for group of sisters to
gather around together on bended knee
needle in hand to tend that net wash
clods in hands to help each other to be
encouraged not to escape our reality we
don’t come to the conference to escape
it we come to the reality so we can help
each other wash our nets so that we’ll
have what we need to get back into our
reality when the conference is over and
be what God has called us to be when we
were born into the family of God each
and every one of us we were not only
kids you know you’re not an only child
you’re born into a family you have
siblings who were supposed to do life
with you and one of the ways that
happens one of the special ways that
that happens is when God’s women from
every denomination from every race from
every geographical corner of the globe
yeah gather together and say you know
what we may live in different places and
in different ways but we serve the same
God let me help you I’ll let you help me
and together we’re gonna worship our
Lord and see what changes in
transformations he’s gonna make in our
life yeah that’s that’s great and that’s
one of my favorite things actually about
the conference’s if there’s always that
moment in worship where you hear all
these different voices you know some
older some younger different accents
like you said different denominations
coming together yeah but they’re all
worshiping that same spirit is there and
it’s just a beautiful moment it’s
something that we all need it it feeds
us does it rejuvenates us as we go back
home we take that to our families
absolutely and you know even during
those times of worship I even loved it
sometimes when the music stops for a bar
or two a chorus or two and you just hear
the voices of those women all over that
arena ringing out and praise to God
there is something like you said that is
so refreshing about that
and it reminds you that at your core
this is what you were made to do