Imagine Yourself Podcast

God, Please Speak To Me (w/ Kelli Shelton of Seek Well Ministries)

June 11, 2022 Imagine Yourself Podcast Season 4 Episode 7
Imagine Yourself Podcast
God, Please Speak To Me (w/ Kelli Shelton of Seek Well Ministries)
Show Notes Transcript

When you pray, you open the door to communicating with God. Whether out loud or silently, with others or by yourself; you can let Him know what’s on your mind and in your heart. But do you listen for Him to speak back to you? Is it even possible, and if so, how does that happen?  We invited a wonderful guest, Kelli Shelton from “Seek Well” Ministries to share her knowledge about how we can experience God’s divine guidance in our lives. 

Kelli and her husband Tim co-founded “Seek Well”  which she calls “a movement to teach people to slow down the pace of life so we can hear from God and refresh our hearts.” Their book, blogs, podcasts and immersive experiences have helped to transform many lives.  In our last episode How Slowing Down Speeds Up Success (and Happiness!), we discovered that being intentional about getting rest and down time had many benefits, including being better able to receive divine direction. In this episode, we take it a step further to really dig into that possibility. 

FIND KELLI SHELTON AND SEEK WELL MINISTRIES:

WEBSITE 

INSTAGRAM 

YOU TUBE 


For more info on IMAGINE YOURSELF and Lanee and Sandy visit imagineyourselfpodcast.com
Join the conversation  on our  FACEBOOK, TWITTER or INSTAGRAM pages

For more info on IMAGINE YOURSELF with Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach or to contact us, visit imagineyourselfpodcast.com

Join the conversation on our FACEBOOK, TWITTER or INSTAGRAM pages. Email at imagineyourselfpodcast@gmail.com

Thanks for being part of the Imagine Yourself Family! Follow or subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:04]:

Welcome to Imagine Yourself podcast where we help you imagine your next chapter of life with grace, gratitude, courage, and faith.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:12]:

What are you searching for? What are you deeply needing as you go forward in this life of yours? Peace, clarity, love, true help or just feel cared about or understood? I'm Lanee here with Sandy and today on Imagine Yourself, we're going to dig in and search for ways to get those needs filled. And there's really only one way our beautiful guest Kelli Shelton is going to help us slow down just enough to that one way. Kelli loves people new adventures and laughter. So, you know, this is going to be a lovely episode. She's the mother of two wildly creative girls and has been married to her husband Tim for 19 years. Kelli and Tim are the founders of Seek Well, which is a movement that invites us to slow down in order to hear from God and refresh our hearts. Kelli, we want to welcome you to Imagine Yourself and help us to slow down and refresh our hearts, my dear.

Kelli Shelton [00:01:20]:

Oh, thank you. I'm so glad to be here with the both of you.

Sandy Kovach  [00:01:24]:

So I think one of the things that caught my eye on your website and I think it might have been the book trailer because we're going to get into some of the things you have, which is a podcast and a book and you can sign up for not escapes. I guess they could be escapes, getaways daily affirmations, things like there's daily scriptures. So anyway, I'm looking at the book trailer and it's promising me that I can have a life change if I begin this process. And that's a pretty bold statement.

Kelli Shelton [00:01:51]:

Absolutely. Yeah. That feels like a scary guarantee to throw out to people. Thank goodness that doesn't rest on our shoulders. We're leaving that up to God. And so I think what we believe is that if you get away and disrupt the patterns and busyness of your life, if you're able to create space to be quiet or be still and kind of drown out all of the noise, then you're able to engage with Jesus in a different way and actually will be in a place where you allow him to speak. I think I can share even from my personal experience in my life when I have heard him speak, it has been transformational.

Lanée Blaise [00:02:41]:

Wow. That's where that life change comes, I'm sure, because we can go and be busy and going down rabbit holes and trails and everything and miss some of the best mystery, some of the best wisdom, some of the best plans that God has for our life if we're just too busy to listen to Him and do it the easy way.

Kelli Shelton [00:03:04]:

And I don't know if you've ever been in seasons where you're just going so fast and going through the motions that you kind of lose any contemplative time or really lose like why am I doing this? Or what direction am I going? Or how is this going? Or this isn't going well. And it takes time to pause, to engage with Jesus and listen and allow Him to speak. You can hear. I'm really good at talking. I have a lot of words. I'm great at going to Jesus and talking. But we're encouraging people to stop, go ahead and talk. And now let's listen and allow God to respond to some of the things we're saying.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:48]:

That is beautiful. I know that there are a lot of listeners thinking when they first clicked on this episode, how do I hear from God? And I know that a very elementary answer would be by stopping to listen to God, but it's easier said than done, because, like you said, people tend to want to push out their thoughts as opposed to sitting still and quiet and listening.

Kelli Shelton [00:04:19]:

And there's something that has happened along the way, I think, in a lot of our faith journeys where we are learning information about God or about Jesus. And so we know a lot about Him, but we don't know Him. We don't know Him in an intimate way, and that's why he created us. That's his desire for us. And I think deep down, it's our desire. We want to be known intimately, and we want to know Him. But if we never connect that piece of listening and allowing Him to speak, we're going to always lack in that relationship. I think it sounds like a very mystical thing, and if it's something that people aren't familiar with, they're like, whoa, that's weird. But truly, if I were to phrase it as Sandy, if one of your family members or closest friends calls you and you pick up the phone, you don't have to go, oh, who's calling? You know their voice. You recognize their voice. It's just know. So often God is speaking to us. Just don't recognize his voice. We just haven't learned his voice yet. And once you do, one of the girls that was at our experiences, she had said, I realize God loves to talk to me while I'm doing the dishes. And she said, I'm just standing over my sins, looking out the window, and I recognize his voice. Now, even then, not only when I have my Bible open and I'm sitting in my quiet time, it's all throughout the day.

Sandy Kovach  [00:05:58]:

So when you say recognize his voice, to be clear, many times we're not really hearing, like, an audible, booming voice of Morgan Freeman saying things that would be really cool, but that's not usually how it happens, right?

Kelli Shelton [00:06:12]:

I love that you asked it in that way, because I always feel like I need to clarify. It's usually not audible, and I don't think if someone was sitting next to me, they would hear what God's saying to me. It usually sounds like a whisper in my mind, almost in my own voice. So almost what a thought of mine would sound like. But how I clarify, like, is that God speaking? It always speaks to me in the most loving way. And I think for a lot of us, my self talk is not nice. And the soundtracks I have going through my mind and the way I think or talk, it isn't loving. And so when I hear from God, it's something that I would never say to myself. It's higher than my thinking. It's something I wouldn't normally have in my thought life. And it always lines up with scripture. It's not going to be anything outside of that. And so I was listening one day with my daughter. She's just turned 14, and man, middle school is tough, right? And her and I, in our listening time, she was just dealing with some insecurity. And one of the things she said she heard was that God told me I'm worthy. And I'm like, that's not in our language. My twelve year old at that time, she was like, what is worthy? It doesn't even know what that means.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:39]:

Wow.

Kelli Shelton [00:07:39]:

And so it's being communicated to in the most loving way.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:46]:

I want to share something as well along those lines. Back a few Easters ago, I was having a situation where my husband and I just kept having little arguments, nitpicking at little tiny things, just frustrating, and then shutting down and then going off to our corners and things like that. And I was sitting in church and I heard God say, and even by this wording, it's something I'll never forget, and it's not the way that I talk. And God said, in regards to your husband, stop finding fault with him, and he will stop finding fault with you. And I knew Linnae does not talk like that. And it was at a moment, of all things, I was at church looking over to see if he was paying attention properly to what the pastor was saying. And when that word dropped down upon me, it helped. It blessed me. I was able to obey it. I was able to recognize it. And like you said, it's because of the relationship with God. It's because of, over time, beginning to hear. I've definitely gone through seasons where I've heard some terrible things. And first I thought, like, gosh, maybe it's God saying, that's not God talking to me. He's not saying these terrible, mean things to me. That's, again, that negative self talk. But the beautiful, uplifting, comforting, strengthening things that come from God in almost language that you don't even use is very beautiful and very comforting and very helpful to those who are trying to search for their own ways of hearing from God.

Kelli Shelton [00:09:24]:

I love that. And I love that you knew it was God, because I feel like in those moments, we can't jump the tracks. We're just headed in this direction. It's like we can't get over there. And so for him, to say, hey, I'm going to jump in here and help.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:41]:

I'm going to help Lanee and her husband. She's at church messing up over there, looking to see what he's doing instead of stop finding fault.

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:51]:

He dropped it right at the right time.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:53]:

Absolutely.

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:54]:

So is that how that works? I mean, obviously we are studying scripture. We can hear God's voice through His word. But what you guys are talking about and I am not sure that this has happened to me. I'm fascinated by this that just getting words dropped in. So Kelli with Seek Well and just faith, studying God's Word and listening in general, this is how we prepare for those moments to happen, by slowing down. Are you saying that if we're not really looking for it or praying about it, it's just not going to happen?

Kelli Shelton [00:10:29]:

God can speak to us anytime? I think where we get it wrong is when we don't allow space, especially in the beginning. If that is something that you are hoping for or longing for, creating the space is a huge part of that and practicing that and practicing having that space. A great example. I got my girls off to school one morning, and it happened to be sunny and it happened to be warm. And I thought, I'm just going to grab my dog and get out for a quick walk because my day is going to get away from me before I get to work. And so put the leafs on. My dog headed out, and I was like, oh, I have a friend that sent me this great podcast. And so I'm going to pop that in. And I feel like God was like, hey, don't multitask. Just walk and be present while you're walking, but also be with me. And I feel like as I continue my walk, I got to see this neighbor and have a quick little sweet conversation with her. My air pods weren't in, so I was present with her. And then I turned the corner and I noticed there were a couple of buds on the tree. And I'm like, oh, look, spring is coming. And then I turned the other corner and I could see the sky and what the sun looked like that morning. And it's like I experienced all these beautiful moments when normally I'm like, oh, let me just get some steps in real quick and crank out this podcast and then get on with my day. So I do that sometimes I get in the car and then I turn on this. And then I get home and I'm like, well, I got to cook. And now I'm going to turn this podcast on. I'm going to turn this music on. And it's like, I don't have a quiet moment in my day. And so if we're used to having all that white noise, then we're drowning out we're drowning out God. We're drowning out maybe some emotions that are rising to the surface. We're drowning out some of the feelings that we have and maybe some of the things we need to think on or process through.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:23]:

You have me thinking of something else that has become very popular in both the secular world, the religious world, is mindfulness, when people decide to really sit and savor and enjoy what's coming through their senses, of what they smell, what they see, what they're feeling. And I feel like if we want to expand upon it in a Christian way, we can use some of those same principles of being still and being mindful, but being quiet in a new way. This is another one I want to share. When I was a little girl, I really wanted God to talk to me. I mean, I was little, I was seven years old, and I was so determined, and because I was a little girl, I didn't have any cynicism attached to it. I just thought that it could happen. And we had a Sunday school teacher that I'd never met before and I never saw again. I don't know where she came from, where she went, but she told us that God could talk to us and that we really needed to take time in a quiet place for about ten or more minutes every day and wait to hear from God. It's not like she was trying to put together a formula, because I know lots of people try to do a formula, but it was something where, like you're saying, Kelly, she wanted us to carve out that time with no distractions. And remember, we're little kids, so she's not necessarily talking about meditating. She's not necessarily talking about mindfulness. Plus, it was back in the 70s, but basically she told us to focus on the scripture in Revelation 3:20. Behold or here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. And she said to focus on that scripture and to really see it happening, see your heart opening up, see Jesus standing at the door of your heart and your soul and let him in. And I did this as a little girl for like, two weeks straight, about ten minutes each day in a broom closet, because that was the quietest place. I have lots of siblings, and it did begin that journey of being able to hear God's voice. And then, like I said, too, I eventually had to learn also that when these negative, nasty, condescending, condemning remarks came through, my mother told me, those are not God. That's not God. That's not Jesus. That's not the Holy Spirit. That's either you or I don't know. But ignore those and gently get yourself back to listening for God. So it's just, again, not a formula, but it is so possible, and I just think it's so important for women and men to talk about their pathways there to give encouragement to those who are still seeking.

Kelli Shelton [00:15:19]:

What's beautiful about what you shared is you were open minded about hearing from God. And you think about the heart of a child, that they are very open and they're quick to believe and they see authenticity, right? All of those things.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:36]:

I thought I could be Wonder Woman, I thought I could be a mom with twelve kids. I thought I could do anything. I thought anything was possible. And I don't want to be a mother of twelve kids or Wonder Woman. But the God part is great.

Kelli Shelton [00:15:49]:

And as we get older, we become more close minded. And so even Sandy to hear you say like, yeah, I would be open to that. I think what happens is when we are close minded or we think that isn't something for me, then we will put up a wall, like for self preservation and go, I'm not going to go there. When truly one of the men that came through one of our experiences was like, I just don't hear from God. I don't hear from God. And he kind of walked through one of our entire weekends and was like, I just don't think but then when we lay it out differently and say, well, how does God speak to us? Yes, he speaks to us through his word. Yes, he speaks to us through wise people. Yes, he speaks to us through creation. Yes, he speaks to us in our mind, audibly to us right in our thoughts or something impresses on our spirit. There are all these different ways. And for some people who come to our experiences, we'll say, now we're going to be still for our listening session. And for some people, they panic because they're like, I can't sit still. But one of my best friends, she hears when she's moving and when she's walking. And my husband, when he is out in the woods, everyone has their own. Someone might need to be in a cozy couch with a warm blanket. Someone wants to be sitting by the fire. It's beautiful to see the people at our experiences disperse. And you go, engage with Jesus the way you're wired and the way you're created. And so the man who was leaving the retreat, that was like, I just didn't hear when it was painted in that way. He goes, oh, I mean, God's been speaking me the whole time then. And sometimes we're waiting for that one moment or that one word where it's like, oh my gosh, and what you said that spoke so deeply to my heart, he's speaking that to me.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:53]:

Sometimes.

Kelli Shelton [00:17:54]:

Yeah, absolutely.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:56]:

If I don't really get words dropped on me, but I guess definitely through hearing a message or something that Lanee says or you say or a friend says can be something. And maybe it is because of the mind blocks and maybe I can't get 80s lyrics out of my head when I'm sitting there and thinking about weird songs from back in the day. I'm one of those people that I just can't quiet myself, so I may need to try different practices. One thing that I loved when you came and shared with women's bible study at Northridge was at the Lectio Divina, where you and this does involve scripture. It's probably too long for us to go through actually, here on the podcast, but could you tell us what that is? That did kind of work for me.

Kelli Shelton [00:18:44]:

Absolutely. I don't know if any of you have ever read something, closed the book, walked away and been like, I have no idea what I just read. I read the chapter I was supposed to, but I have no idea. I am notorious for that. And what Lectio Divina is, is it allows us to read scripture and not skip over one word. It's taking a very small it could be two verses, it could be one verse, but it's reading it not even for understanding, but to read it in, hearing each and every word. And then oftentimes we read it slowly, intentionally, and we read through it three times and there's always a word that kind of rises up to the surface. And it could be the word with in a verse, or it could be the word rescue, but there is always a word that's just going to stick out to you, and that's a really great launching place in settling and just hearing God's word and letting it wash over you and then maybe taking that as. What do you want to say to me about that word with? Why is that word on my heart? And kind of diving into that a little more. A really great example, actually. When God was talking to me years ago, years before Sequoia even existed, that was something he said to me when I was driving and my girls were really little and I remember just being so excited to be alone and the radio was off, like, I just wanted to be alone and quiet. And he said, Seek well. And I was kind of like me. What does that mean? Do you want me to seek well? What is seeking well? Tell me everything. And that's all he said. And I just kept thinking on it. And when I would sit down, I would doodle it and I was like, I wonder what the Bible says about seek well or what it says about seek. And I just began this deep dive into every verse like, what are all the verses that talk about seeking? Seeking, and you will find me just over and over again in the Bible. And I was like, Well, I'm just going to study these and just see what he reveals to me next. And so when we're able to take that one word and journal that has been transformative in my life, because I'll think things and they'll come and go and I'm so forgetful. But if I write that down, then I can go back to that and see, oh God, you were talking to me about this. Okay, where are we going next? What do you want to tell me about this?

Lanée Blaise [00:21:31]:

And it turned out to be a full movement that you and your husband built a whole ministry upon those two words seek. Well, absolutely.

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:40]:

Can you tell us a little bit more since we're saying seek? Well, if we want to seek, Seek Well and all of your resources, how do we get in touch, how do we get your book, etcetera?

Kelli Shelton [00:21:52]:

Absolutely. If you go to Seekwell.org, that's the hub where you can find all of the things that's where you can get involved with the daily rhythm. That's where you can get connected up. We have a podcast, it's called Free and Light and we share stories of what God has done in our lives that are transformational, what he's doing in the community of people that we get to do life with. And we just get to hear stories of encouragement while also looking at just spiritual practices of prayer and reading scripture and journaling and listening, all of these different things that we're kind of zeroed in on. There's also our experiences that we offer. We offer one day retreats, one weekend retreats which are called Getaways and we offer one year retreats for both men and women. And the women that side of the retreat is called Encourage and they come through 48 hours experiences in a year. And men is called Refresh and they come through 48 hours experiences in a year. And we have a blog where we're also sharing stories. And you're going to get to see a couple of videos of people's stories that have not been transformed by sequel, but they have been transformed by God. And so we just want to be a place to maybe share from one step ahead where we're like, hey, this has worked in our lives and so we want to invite you to meet with Jesus. So the pressure is not on us. We just get to set the table for people to rest and be encouraged.

Sandy Kovach  [00:23:34]:

That's awesome. And what about the book?

Kelli Shelton [00:23:36]:

The book title is Listen and that's exactly what it's about. We take the first little piece section of the book and explain what listening is and how to do it and some steps that you can take, some ways that you can settle so you can be present and able to hear from God. And then we walk you through different facets of we call them the five F's. Your family, your faith, your finances, your fullness so, your mental and physical wellness and fun, something we oftentimes forget. And we invite Jesus into kind of that grid to speak to us in those places. So if you wanted to grab your small group, if you wanted to grab a girlfriend, if you wanted to do it with your husband or your family, then you are able to walk through. It's a seven week experience that you can do on your own. And it's a guide, a field guide or handbook that's going to lead you through it, that's going to offer those verses and those questions on listening.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:49]:

Wow, that's beautiful. That is what a lot of people need. And I love the different areas, especially fun, but I love the different areas that you're able to divide your life into and focus on with God because.

Sandy Kovach  [00:25:03]:

It's all part of Him. It's not all just sitting in church or doing a Bible study, which is all great, but those areas, and you brought it up in the podcast to the areas of life and occasions in life when God can speak to you. It's all part of what he gives us.

Kelli Shelton [00:25:18]:

Absolutely. And those things need to be in the proper order and we need to manage them as he would call us to manage them. Right. How are we engaging with our families? It's important. God, what do you want me to know about our family? How do we dream for our family? We want to invite Him into those conversations as we're shaping them.

Sandy Kovach  [00:25:40]:

That is great stuff. And so we'll put a link to where to get the book and all these other resources at Imagine Yourselfpodcast.com and in the show notes.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:50]:

Yeah. I really believe that the purpose of us coming together today is to really encourage people to make sure that they are slowing down the way that they need to. And like you said, staying open minded to the possibilities of God's ways of communicating with them. And sometimes I think when we say, hear or talk, we are thinking of it that way versus some people, like you said, as far as their unique way, some people are very visual people. They may be able to see something that God is showing them in a visual way or like mentioned to in a musical way. Even Jesus had to go off, away from everybody when it was still not even sunlight yet in the mornings and be with God as a human in order to get that reflection, get that wisdom in. And I just think a lot of times people maybe don't realize that because God's ways are so much higher than our ways, things may not look and sound the way they expect because I know that that's another element. Too many times God will say something to us that is not really what we asked. It's not really the answer or the foretelling of am I going to end up getting to move out of this house and get the house of my dreams? And then God says something like, seek well and you're like, Wait, what? And it could be confusing or maybe even if we're honest, it could be frustrating because you want a direct answer from now that you have this ability to listen to God, you want a direct answer. And many times God is giving you what's for your best, even if it's not the most convenient, efficient, straightforward answer to your problems.

Kelli Shelton [00:27:38]:

That's my experience so many times I have even to our experiences with an agenda, and it's like, do you want me to take that job, God? I just want to come here and I want you to tell me the answer to this big question. And I'll sit down and he'll go, I want to talk to you about how short you are with your kids today. What's going on? And I'm like, I don't want to talk about that. I feel awful. And it's kind of like taking that rabbit trail of why was I so short with them today? What do you want me to know right now? Oh, I'm short with them because I jam packed my schedule and we're all running at breakneck speed. So you're absolutely right. I want to hear what I want to hear, and sometimes in the most gentle and loving ways, he'll say, why are you not spending time with me? But you're okay with scrolling Instagram and starting your day that way? And he'll say it in a loving and gentle way. But it's that redirection where he's like, yeah, I want to talk to you about those things, but I also need to talk to you about this over here, because I love you, and I can see how destructive that could be in your life if you're not walking closely with me.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:51]:

That's right.

Sandy Kovach  [00:28:52]:

So we've got rest, slowing down listening. We've got being open, open minded, realizing that people hear from God in different ways. I think my problem with this has always been I hear stories about people hearing from God and I'm thinking that it's going to happen in a certain way, and it hasn't. It's happened in different ways. And if I look back and reflect that, I can put my finger on it. So maybe that's what people need to do who are like me, who are blocking maybe because they think, well, this is something weird that your neighbor does, and you're not really sure if it actually happened. And you do hear good stories about it and you believe it, but yet it's not really happened for you. So then you're feeling like, is there something wrong with me? Or is it all just?

Kelli Shelton [00:29:41]:

And that forms a narrative of maybe what we're believing about God. That's not true, because I think that there are people who have not heard from God that are really hurt or they feel uninvited into that space or excluded. And I look at a lot of people and think, of course pastors would hear from God. That's what they do for a living. Right?

Sandy Kovach  [00:30:08]:

Right.

Kelli Shelton [00:30:09]:

It's for them. But I'm a teacher, so it's not for me. There's all. Of these things, maybe that get knit together that are not true. And when we are in agreement with that, we actually dive into that in some of our sessions that we do when we're believing something like that, that's not true, then we've agreed to that almost with the enemy, then we're not allowing God to work in that space. If I've made that agreement and said, god will never speak to me or God doesn't love me because he doesn't want to speak to me, then we're allowing that narrative to shape us, inform us, and we're like in a handshake with the enemy saying, Deal. Okay. And God's like, well, if you're in agreement with the enemy, then I can't work in that place. So I'm not free to come into that until you've broken that and reopen that for me to come and work in that place. Those moments happen when we are stressed or overwhelmed, completely unregulated. Those things come in and we might say that. We might speak that over our marriage. I'll never have a happy marriage. Agree. Right? We're making that agreement and not allowing God I'll never have a good relationship with my kids. Our words, then they have power and that can be in agreement. And again, it's keeping God from that space and not allowing him to freely work in that.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:41]:

I never thought of it that way. That is very powerful.

Kelli Shelton [00:31:45]:

The enemy, he's a deceiver, he's an accuser. He would love to shape our narrative in that way. And it does the things that we believe shape us. So the things that we think those shape us because we're trying to understand it, therefore telling ourselves a story so we can understand it. And it's oftentimes not true.

Sandy Kovach  [00:32:09]:

So that negative self talk like what Lanee was speaking about earlier, that whether it comes from the enemy, whether it comes from us, but as long as we're agreeing with it and forming our own narrative, we're putting up roadblocks is what you're saying.

Kelli Shelton [00:32:23]:

Absolutely. Think I can't work in that just as much as unforgiveness. If he forgave us and he's calling us to follow Him and forgive and live like him, if we're harboring unforgiveness, that's a roadblock, just like you said, Sandy, that puts something there. There's something between us and him, and we're limiting what he can do. It's free will. He's a gentleman. He's not going to force himself into that. Obviously he wants us to forgive, but if we're unwilling, that's keeping him from that space, and I want him to be in all of it. And I'm like, how is unforgiveness working out for you, Kelli? Not great. Right? It's actually turned to bitterness. And now I'm bitter and now I'm withholding who I am from this person who hurt me, who I'd love to be in relationship with and so on and so on, where it's like, no, we need to let him into all of those places so we can fully live life in what he created us for.

Lanée Blaise [00:33:24]:

Because you mentioned some people are out there feeling that they have been uninvited to this great way of life. But maybe those are the people who haven't invited fully, like wholeheartedly invited God into their life and minds and into that talking and listening relationship. Because it's just like let's say you have a cousin that you haven't really been in touch with and will you send that person an invitation to your wedding or your retirement party, whatever they may or may not show up, but give a wholehearted invitation and believe that it is possible that they'll show up? And I bet it opens it up because again, that just brings that verse again with here I stand at the door and knock. And if you open the door, so you go with the intention of opening the door and you'll just have to get what you get and see what happens. But a wholehearted invitation to God into your life and almost that part like a child with a childlike anticipation, which is difficult because we're not kids anymore, we got bills. But a wholehearted invitation to hear from God with just a new I never thought of it with that handshake aspect that you are by saying it, you're kind of making it a deal. So to be conscious of that and to flip it is just very hopeful.

Sandy Kovach  [00:34:56]:

I love this. This has been a big learning session and I hope that and actually, I don't even just hope, I'm confident that it's blessing a lot of people that are listening to this. So Lanee, do you think it's time for takeaway time?

Lanée Blaise [00:35:12]:

Yeah. So, anyone listening? And Kelli, yourself, at the end of every episode, we like to ask our guests, what is it? If there's just one thing that someone takes away from this entire episode, what is it that you want them to take away? Hold in their heart, live in their lives, change their lives from what's being said today, what do you have to drop on us?

Kelli Shelton [00:35:37]:

Oh, fantastic question. I think it is that the God of the universe wants to speak to you. And what he has to say to you is going to be your heart's deepest longing and it will change your life. However, you have to make time and space to listen and then allow him to speak. Don't come with your agenda and don't come with all of the hurts or maybe things that you're believing that are not true, but come like a child. I love that we got to that place, that analogy, but come and listen and let him speak to you.

Lanée Blaise [00:36:27]:

We can now officially drop the mic because that is exactly what I think we all need to hear and remember and replay in our minds everything that you just said. That is a beautiful takeaway. So we know how to find you@seekwell.org. Anyone can, of course, go on Imagine Yourselfpodcast.com to find out more information about you to read the blog that we will have written up about this episode. Sandy and I and Kelli, we just pray that anyone listening will truly, truly be transformed, will truly have hope, will truly have belief, will have that confidence like Sandy said, that God is for you. God is waiting for you. God is waiting for you to open the door. Imagine Yourself opening the door to all of the love and wisdom that God has for you. Thank you so much for being our guest, Kelli.

Kelli Shelton [00:37:24]:

Thank you so much for having me.

Sandy Kovach  [00:37:26]:

Thanks for listening. Make sure you connect with us at Imagineyourselfpodcast.com or on our social media links are in the show notes. We'll also have info on getting in touch with Kelli and Seek Well as well. We appreciate your feedback and your follows and being a part of the Imagine Yourself podcast family. Until next time when we have something new to imagine. Here's to you. Seeking well.