What if the breakthrough you keep praying for starts with one terrifying sentence: “I surrender”?
Sylvia Worsham sits down with Dr. Laurette Willis for a raw, faith-forward conversation about the real path from pain to purpose, and why God doesn’t waste a single part of your story. Laurette shares how childhood trauma, compulsive overeating, and years of New Age spirituality left her searching for peace in all the wrong places, until God interrupted her life with a question that changed everything: “What if everything you thought about God was completely wrong?”
From that turning point, we talk about what surrender actually looks like day to day, especially when you’re anxious, exhausted, or trying to control outcomes you cannot control. Dr. Willis breaks down trust in practical terms, including a powerful definition of trust as “leaning your full weight” on the Lord, and explains how renewing the mind is both a spiritual and deeply personal process. If you care about Christian healing, addiction recovery, and finding identity in Christ, this conversation stays grounded in Scripture while still being honest about the struggle.
You’ll also hear actionable tools you can try immediately: reading and speaking the Word of God aloud, meditating on Scripture in a Christ-centered way, and a guided “casting your cares” exercise inspired by 1 Peter 5 that helps you release the weight you’ve been carrying.
We also point you to resources connected to Laurette’s work, including Christian weight loss without willpower and Praise Moves, a Christian alternative to yoga. If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs peace, and leave a review so more people can find this message.
For the free gift Dr. Willis discussed on the show please visit: http://ChristianWeightLossKit.com or http://ChristianMeditationKit.com
If you wish to learn more about the ministry work Dr. Willis is doing please visit her website at: https://drlaurette.net/
To download a free chapter of host Sylvia Worsham’s bestselling book, In Faith, I Thrive: Finding Joy Through God’s Masterplan, purchase any of her products, or book a call with her, visit her website at www.sylviaworsham.com
Transcript:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt, or worry, and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, Sylvia Warsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, Sylvia Warsham.
Hey Lightbringers, it’s Sylvia Warsham. Welcome to Release Out Reveal Purpose. And today is Dr. Lorette Willis. She is a sister in Christ. She is someone who has had immense pain in her life, and the Lord has turned that pain into the mission she’s currently on. She had alcoholism, she had overeating, and now she devotes her life helping women from a spiritual perspective. I’m grateful that in this timing, she has um gladly appeared on this podcast to share her wisdom on her journey. Because as we all know, our journeys don’t start off perfectly, and then something pivotal happens and we start to shift in the way we view ourselves and the way we view our spirituality, our faith, our relationship with the Lord. And it has a profound impact on us. And then we feel compelled to share that with humanity because it’s not our gift to keep ourselves, it’s our gift to give away. So without further ado, I’m so honored and humbled to have you on the show, Dr. Lorette Willis. Thank you so much for joining us.
Well, Sylvia, thank you so much for having me with you today. I’m really looking forward to this.
I’m really curious to know more about that pain to purpose story that you’re here to share with us. Please, if you would humble us with your story of transformation.
Absolutely. Yes. You know, I I often say, Sylvia, that the only thing that qualifies me for all the marvelous things I get to do, which are totally beyond me. I’ve said to the Lord so many times, if you can use a donkey, you can use me to be that vessel of honor that he can flow through. He has taken all the negatives in my life and redeemed them and turned them into platforms of health, healing, and empowerment for others, primarily women, but men also. And I say the only thing that really qualifies me for all I’m blessed to do is everything I’ve done wrong. And so I want to encourage you today, who’s watching and listening, that if you have those thoughts of, well, the Lord could never really use me, or God doesn’t really have a purpose for me, or I thought he had a purpose for me, but I’ve blown it so much. I’ve made such a mess of things, I have so many regrets. I want you to know that when you cast things over onto the Lord, that he can redeem those things. What does redeem mean? Well, it means to buy back and to bring out of darkness and set on a high place. And that’s what he did for me. My first drug of choice was when I was six years old. Food. I was a compulsive overeater. My food addiction and using food to cope with some of the trauma that was going on in my life. The Lord’s been able to turn that into a ministry we call weight loss without willpower. And then for 22 years, I was heavily involved in new age spirituality. And that was because I thought that what you had as Christians, as believers, I thought that was religion. I was like, no, I don’t want religion. I don’t want anything to do with it. And so many times my husband and I have talked about this because he was, you know, brought out of new age. And so why didn’t anybody ever tell us this was about a relationship with Father God through Jesus? You could hear his voice, you could feel his presence, the Holy Spirit on the inside. It’s like, whoa, that’s what I’ve been looking for my whole life. And that’s actually what I had when I was a little child. But just to finish that thought, that those 22 years in new age, ages seven, until I was 29, when I came to the end of myself and had a profound awakening experience that was totally amazing and changed my life. Glory to God, for eternity, I must say. Those 22 years, it was through the door of yoga. My mother and I getting involved in it when I was just seven years old. And there’s a very serious spiritual element to yoga that a lot of people don’t realize. But as I said, I was heavily involved in it for 22 years. And it was a doorway. Many people call it the missionary arm of Hinduism and New Age. And I’m not the only one that calls it that. So Swami Siva Siva Palani did that in 1991 in Hinduism Today magazine. And here, like, what is that? Over 35 years ago, right? And he said, for the past 10 years, an army of yoga missionaries have descended upon the Western world. They wouldn’t necessarily call themselves missionaries, uh, beautifully trained in Hatha, Raja, uh, kundalini, different types of yoga. But Hindus know where yoga comes from and where it leads. Now, does everyone get involved in New Age who’s involved in yoga? Not necessarily. But once you find out what’s attached to it, like the poses in yoga are actually offerings to the 330 million Hindu gods. And so those who are familiar with scripture that says in Romans 12, 1, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. You see kind of a twisting of that. And on our website, praisemoves.com, you can learn more about that. We have a fitness ministry, the Christian alternative to yoga, praise moves, which is just amazing to me that the Lord would do that. Take something that was a negative in my life and turn it around. We have hundreds of fitness ministers, certified praise moves instructors, women and men, ages 18 to 80s, all over the world. Um, and as a result of that. And then the overeating, the Lord turned that into the W3 sisterhood, we call it. It stands for weight loss without willpower, because it’s not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, Zechariah 4.6. And women have dropped, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of pounds and kept it off for like over three years through this. So it’s removing the weight on the inside because that’s where my weight was. It’s the reason why we go to the comfort food instead of to the comforter. And once we find that out, once we get that weight off, it’s amazing how the excess weight comes off as well. Now, I know I’ve downloaded a whole lot of information there, but would you want me to keep talking about being close to the Lord when I was little and then how I had that transformation experience when I was 29?
Yes, because that was really going to be the question. What was that amazing pivotal moment? But if you do want to share with us what your relationship was prior to that pivotal moment and what it became afterwards, that would show a journey of transformation that only the Lord could have done.
Amen.
Amen. And that’s it. Only the Lord could do something like this. Well, when I was a little girl, everything looked wonderful on the outside. I grew up on Long Island in New York. Both my parents were attorneys. I was their only child. My father was also a judge. He had his own law practice. And uh, my mother was the first woman assistant district attorney on Long Island. She also taught at the local university. She was amazing. She was beautiful. She was just under five feet tall with crystal blue eyes, strawberry blonde hair, and a voice like warm velvet. She was amazing. And sadly, was also a high-functioning alcoholic. Diagnosed schizophrenic. I had three nervous breakdowns when I was growing up. My father was an emotional eater, and he would also fly into rages sometimes, was never physically abusive, but the yelling, you know, the emotional. And being a very sensitive child, I just pulled it all in. And at the age of six, I started numbing myself with food. And that’s when the wall came up, I called it. The wall came up. Because before then, Sylvie, I was so close to the Lord. I used to tell him jokes during the day because I thought, your job is so hard, you need a you need a good laugh. You know, and that’s how I used to talk. I should mention too, I was known as the woman of 101 voices. Uh I did the Betty Boop show off Broadway when I was in my twenties.
I was Betty Boop, I certainly was.
Boop boop bee-doop. And I would do all these different voices and did a lot of I did commercials, voiceovers, theater movies, had a couple of television shows, just, you know, doing a whole bunch of different things. And it was fun. Did a lot of improv comedy as well. But at the same time, laughing on the outside, but feeling empty on the inside, high-functioning alcoholic myself at the time. At the ages of three and a half to six, I had a very close relationship with the Lord. And when my little feelings would get hurt, like when Willie Wood picked me up in my little red bathing suit and threw me into the bramble bushes, and I cried, and oh, it hurt, and I was cut all over. I would run home, run into my bedroom, close the bedroom door, and flash on the back of the closet door, I would see this vision. And it was always the same vision. I would see myself as if looking through a portal of time, seeing myself in my 30s, 40s, 50s. I wasn’t sure, but I saw myself, the back of myself on stage, and then in front of what I believed was me on that stage, an outdoor audience that I called at that time a Billy Graham full audience. I must have seen Billy Graham on television somewhere because at the Episcopal Church, where my parents and I went, we didn’t see people with their hands raised up. And I know they weren’t saying, wow, Lorette, you’re really great. It had to do with God. I knew it. And I had a microphone in one hand and my hand, other hand raised up, and I knew I was praising the Lord. And I would look at that, and it looked like maybe it was Africa, it was outdoors. I wasn’t really sure. And then I would hear this magnificent voice over my right shoulder, audible. And I would hear what I believe was the Lord say, everything’s going to be all right. I’d say, Yes, everything’s going to be all right. And I’d dry my little tears, I’d come out of the closet. Well, that happened, Sylvia, from the ages of three and a half till six, two and a half years. But then at the age of six, that age of accountability for me, the wall came up and I felt a separation from the Lord. And I never knew I could have a relationship with him again. And at seven, that’s when we found yoga. You know, whenever there’s a spiritual vacuum, the enemy rushes in with a counterfeit. In fact, the word yoga means to yoke. And in Miriam Webster’s dictionary, it says it means to yoke, a Sanskrit word. And it says it’s uh yoga is a mystic and ascetic Hindu discipline for achieving union with the supreme spirit through prescribed postures, meditation, and breathing techniques. So it’s salvation by works. Yeah, we know that doesn’t work. And in fact, there is a lord of yoga. I don’t know if everyone realizes this, but there’s a lord of yoga, and he’s Shiva, the destroyer. And even though there are 330 million Hindu gods, and the poses, as I mentioned, are offerings to those 330 million Hindu gods, there’s a skewed trinity of sorts: Brahma, the so-called creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer. And you can learn more about that. And once people see what yoga really is, even if you’re a very strong believer, and I could never go that way, how many of us affect others who may be weak believers or unbelievers or just not understanding things like my mother and I were, and led away from Christ and into 22 years of deception, and sadly ended with my mother taking her own life. Well, I was then at the age of 13 bound to alcohol, and that’s when my parents were getting divorced. And I became a high-functioning alcoholic for
16 years. Still performed off Broadway, still did plays, did a lot of things, went to universities and uh overachieved, but felt empty on the inside. My mother took her own life, and then two years later, my father died of diabetes and heart disease, both in their 50s. You know, it’s and I thought, you know what? Let me get out of New York, let me take a geographical cure, let me go to all the sacred sites in Europe. So I backpacked around 20 countries in six and a half months, went to Machu Picchu in Peru, went to Asia, I mean, looking for God in all the wrong places, and moved out of New York City and moved to a New Age community on top of a mountain in northeastern Oklahoma, the Ozark foothills, you know, green country, just beautiful. But after a year there, Sylvia, I was still the same mess I was before, you know, because as they say with geographical cures, wherever you go, there you are. And I was still the same mess. I wasn’t looking for myself. I would, you know, say, oh, she goes off, she, you know, goes to find herself. No, I didn’t want to find myself. I didn’t like myself. I want to find the Lord. And I was lonely, Sylvia. I wanted someone to love me for myself. I was 29 years old. I’ve never been married. And I thought I’d been here for a year. And I was driving home. It was the day before April Fool’s Day. I was 29 years old. And I drove onto the dirt road that led up the mountain to the New Age community on top of the mountain where I bought a house. And as I pulled onto the road, I heard this amazing, magnificent voice that I’d heard before from the ages of three and a half to six. And he asked me a very compelling question that changed my life. He said, What if everything you thought about God was completely wrong? Would you be willing to give it up to know the truth? What if everything I thought about God was completely wrong? Would I be willing to give it up to know the truth? Yes. Yes, I would. And this was the audible voice of God. I mean, you almost wanted to turn around, but it was such a holy moment. I was, I was transfixed. And I said, Yes. Yes, I would, thinking maybe the truth was a new way of doing something, maybe another conference to go to, another technique, a philosophy, not realizing the truth is a person. Jesus Christ, He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And I said, Yes. And the next day, I was up in my house on top of that mountain, my little dog Tula, a border collie, watching me. I went around and around the island in my kitchen. I felt this battle going on on the inside. I felt the enemy pushing. That’s what the enemy does. He pushes. The Lord leads and guides. The enemy was pushing. Take out your pendulum, take out your tarot cards, open this book, uh, sign up for that conference, you know, just trying to distract me from what the Lord was calling me to do because I was coming to the end of myself. The Lord will use whatever it takes to bring you to the end of yourself. He may not necessarily cause those things, but he’ll use those things. And for me, it was loneliness. And so the enemy was pushing me to keep in the direction that I had been going for 22 years. But the Lord was gently leading and guiding. Come. Surrender. Come to me. You know, like he says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will bring you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest. You know, and I just came to the break. I just said, I surrender, I give up. You win. If you can do something with this life, you can have it. And then I fell onto my knees and I said, if you want me to be alone and give me peace. If you want me to be with someone, send him soon, because I can’t live like this anymore. And Sylvia, I fell on my face. I just fell forward on my face, and I felt a physical weight lift off me. It was like 30 pounds that I thought was just my body walking on the earth. Physically, 30 pounds of weight lifted off of me. Scripture says there’s a weight to sin. And as new agers, we said, Oh, sin, it’s just an acronym for self-inflicted nonsense. Well, then why did Jesus come? Oh, he was just a good teacher. That’s what we were taught. And peace descended upon me for the first time in my life. And from that center of peace came joy, that joy unspeakable and full of glory. And you know, it wasn’t until a year later that I realized the Lord at that moment completely delivered me from alcoholism. 16 years of it. I never had another drink. It was, it was totally wiped from my brain. I didn’t even think of it. It was gone. And four days later, I met my husband Paul, who had three years clean and sober. So alcohol drugs never came into our relationship. We were married three months later on 4th of July, which we call Interdependence Day, and we’ve been together ever since. So all I can say is the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. Only the Lord could have done us.
The one thing that keeps coming up is the Christian walk is about letting go and surrendering.
I’ve been in that surrender space like you because I kept trying to figure things out.
I think we fall trapped to that a lot, and the enemy will always use that to keep us ruminating on how we can get out of there when all it takes is surrendering. And it seems too simple because we are achievers and we come from that space. We feel we need to work towards that freedom that he offers. And I’ve seen it, the unworthiness is there and the need to prove. I can honestly say I fell trapped to that for many years. I started my walk with him after my Pivotal moment in 2012. Lord, I’m yours. If you will just give me a second chance. And I remember surrendering to the Lord as they were sharing the medical complication. Like everything else went blank, like nothing else mattered but surrendering to him. That was a moment between him and I and no one else, even though there was like 10 people in that hospital room.
And I know that’s the biggest struggle, Dr. Laurette. That struggle to just let go, I think is like one of the most, if not the hardest, step for all of us to take in our walk with him.
How do you think people in this world, based on everything you’ve seen and all the people you’ve worked with, what are some baby steps we can take to start opening up our hearts to let go and surrender to the Lord so that He can come in and do His transformative work in us?
That’s an excellent question. And I’ve never been asked that before. And the first thing that comes to me is when he is. And he is love. When I’m thinking of the the Gospel of John, if you will read the Gospel of John, you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then also 1 John 4, which is the uh the letters, you know, 1 John, 2nd John, 3rd John. But 1 John 4 talks about God is love, and when you realize that you can trust, I would say too, there’s not a part of your life that the Lord’s not interested in. And I say this to ladies I work with what part of your life does the Lord not want to be a part of? He wants to be a part of every part of your life. So a baby step I would say first is to know the love of God, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God, and that’s from Ephesians 3. To to realize that and to start saying it. One of the most powerful things you can do, in fact, is to take the word of God. It’s like, well, Lorette, I wish I had your faith, but I I don’t know. Well, if you if you got one of these, you got faith. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And you believe more what you say than what anyone else says. And so when you are speaking the word of God, this is what can absolutely change you. And these are not just uh platitudes, these are not just fun little words, or these are not like instructions, you know, on an instruction manual, like it’s just very dry. And no, this is a love letter from the Lord to you, and this is a living word. This is living word in uh John. John 1 1 says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Verse 14 says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We say, The word is a person, the word is Jesus. Revelation 19:13 says, When Jesus comes back, it says, His name is the word of God. This Bible, this is the author, the author and finisher of your faith. So, what can we do? A simple thing that we can do, I would say, is to start reading the word of God and more importantly, start speaking it as you’re reading it. There are scientific studies that have been done. When you read aloud, it has a profound effect on your brain. And this is just secular reading. But when you’re reading the word of God, it will change you. How do I know that? Romans 12 2, you know, I said Romans 12 1 before, which was presenting your body, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Verse 2 says, and do not be conformed to this world, like this water is conformed to the shape of this glass. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed. Your whole life can be transformed by the renewing of your mind on what? On the word of the living God, for what purpose? So that you can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So if I may give you a little simple step to start, I mentioned about reading the book of John. I would say also just kind of read it under your breath as you’re speaking, as well, you’re speaking and reading it together, and then also 1 John 4. Here’s a good one. Going to Ephesians 3, speak this aloud, 14 verses 14 through 21. And speaking this in the first person. Oh, is that okay? Isn’t that changing scripture? No, it’s personalizing it. This is his love letter to you. And so here you go. Ephesians 3, 14 through 21. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant me, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in my inner man, that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith, that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and that I know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I ask or think, according to the power that works in me, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, to him be glory in my life by Christ Jesus, to him be glory in my family’s life by Christ Jesus, unto all generations, forever and ever. Amen. And when you say those words out loud and you’re proclaiming them, declaring them, we doggies, as we say in Oklahoma and Texas, something big starts happening on the inside of you, and you’ll start finding, whoa, I’m bigger on the inside than I am on the outside. I can trust him because he lives in me.
There’s that word trust, and it’s a big word when we talk about God, because this is something that my husband and I have actively discussed for many years. I was getting downloads from the Lord, and one of the words, do you believe in Christ? Yes, I believe in him, but so do demons. They bow to his authority, right? It’s the only authority they understand is Christ. And but my husband’s like, that’s great that you believe in him. Do you trust him?
Yes.
The trusting peace is where surrender.
This is how I found it in my journey.
I came to a point where the experts of our world, the I do call it the fallen world, because we have fallen to a point where we believe New H more than we believe in a maker of the universe, even though there’s significant evidence to point to not just his life here on earth, but his authority.
And I remember just hearing trust is equivalent to surrender.
Surrender gives you the opportunity to see how you can actually trust the Lord. I believed in him wholeheartedly. I was up against this insurmountable situation, except to surrender to him and to let go of my semblance of control. Because as human beings, we want to control our circumstances. Well, we’re controlling our life. But the reality is we don’t have that control. And when COVID hit, we all kind of understood that’s just an illusion that the mind creates. And that piece, trusting, is a tricky one. How have you, in your experience, just when circumstances have gotten tougher, continue to trust in him, continue to surrender to him, because we know that surrender is a daily occurrence. It’s a daily repentance, surrender to the Lord, surrender to his authority, surrender to the identity that he created us in us, right? Where we’re saying, show me, Lord. I I one of my honest press to him every day is, Lord, give me the eyes to spiritually see what you need me to see about this circumstance, and and ears to hear and to understand what you want me to understand about this circumstance, and a heart to believe and who and what I am in you, Lord. Because I know the biggest roadblock for me, a struggle, even in my faith journey, has been to actually believe in who I am in him, which is what Ephesians 3 starts to build in you. This this is who I am in him. I am redeemed, I am forgiven, I am loved, I am free. Can you speak more into that trust aspect and that daily surrender for us?
Yes, absolutely. And I I think when we look at the word trust in Hebrew, it’s batach. And the word batach means to lean the whole of your weight upon. And we look at uh Psalm 37.3 Psalm 37.3 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. So lean on the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct, make smooth and straight your paths, he’ll guide and order your every step. And I think that if we if we take that word surrender, and instead of seeing it as giving up control, if we start with casting the whole of our cares on him, casting all of that weight on him because if trust is bath b-a-t-a-c-h, leaning the whole of your weight upon what
weights are there in my life? And I have uh this easy little exercise that we do, and we could do it right now if if you’d like, called the casting your cares exercise. And what I do as a uh cognitive behavioral therapist is I work with women especially, renewing the mind on the word of God and then retraining the brain using neuroscience principles and techniques based on scripture. If I don’t see a correlation in scripture for these neuroscience techniques, I don’t use them because I want to impress truth upon them. Jesus. I want to put Jesus in the situation because then I know they’re more likely to stick and stay. Makes a difference. Because there are so many believers out there, love the Lord, love the word of God, even, but they’re wondering why do I keep going around the same mountain again and again? What’s wrong with me? I keep making these same mistakes. And a lot of that, Sylvia, has to do with the renewing of the mind. But the good news is there’s such a thing as neuroplasticity, meaning the brain is moldable, changeable. We can form new neural pathways, we can get rid of the yucky stuff and put in the word of God. And in fact, that’s one of the first things the Lord had me do after I surrendered my life to him, because I had 22 years of garbage in my head, and I had to have a Holy Ghost brainwashing, you can say. And so he showed me how to do that. That’s another exercise that we do, casting down imaginations and putting in the word of God. But the this one in particular, uh, casting your cares on the Lord. This is based on 1 Peter 5, verses 5 through 8. And so I invite you who’s who’s watching and listening right now to do this exercise with us. However, if you are driving, please do not do this exercise yet, but come back to the podcast and then do it with us, all right? But you can listen. So I want you to, using your sanctified imagination, to think of the different cares in your life. Now, there’s a scripture that says, keep the word of God ever before your eyes. And as we said earlier, we see that Jesus is the word made flesh. And so keeping him before your eyes, just imagine the Lord standing before you with his arms out. And many times we’re like, oh Lord, just take this from me, take this, and he’s like, give it to me. You have to give it to me. And so could we see it as surrendering those cares? Yeah. Could we see it as casting those cares, casting them over that weight, whatever it is in your life? Absolutely. Now I want you to see a big basket in front of you, and you’re gonna put all your cares in it. So right now, just see yourself putting all these cares in that basket. Perhaps things about your family, your health, your ministry, your business, finances, your past, present, future, things about church, about the community, maybe politics, things that concern you. Just see them all in there. Maybe there’s something coming up, uh, an event, and you’re not sure what to do, or a particular relationship that’s confounding. I want you to just put it or something you’re confused about. You know, God’s not the author of confusion, but of peace. Put that in the basket as well. Everything I don’t know. And then lastly, you climb in that basket as well. I want you to see yourself in that basket. And now, using your arms actually physically with me, even though we’re lifting up an imaginary basket, whenever you do something physically that mirrors something that’s happening spiritually, emotionally, mentally, it has a profound effect on your brain that something real is happening. And it is happening in the spirit and will have a tremendous effect on you. You will feel different. So reach your arms down right now and lift up that basket. I invite you to lift it over your head right now. See the Lord before you. Take a gentle deep breath in. One, two, three, and throw that basket over onto the Lord. He catches it. Now take a big no-fishing sign and plant it in that basket right there. No fishing. Take a gentle deep breath in and exhale saying, Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Move your shoulders around. Glory to God. Oh, wow. How does that feel? Do you feel different, Sylvia? Wonderful. And this is taken from scripture literally. 1 Peter 5, verses 5 through 8 says, Humble yourself beneath the mighty hand of God. And oh, first, actually, verse 5 says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And we see, wait a second, if I’m holding on to my cares or say, no, Lord, don’t use me. You know, I can take care of this. No, I’ll take care of that. No, we’re being prideful. If we’re saying, No, I’m not good enough, that’s being prideful.
I can handle this. No, I don’t have to get God’s help, but that’s being prideful. Oh wow. God resists the proud, but he gives grace. I have a little song for that. Grace is God’s willingness to use his ability and power on our behalf, even though we don’t deserve it. That’s God’s grace. It’s his ability to use his willingness to use his ability and power on our behalf, even though we don’t deserve it. So God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. How do you humble yourself? Here’s how you just did it. Humble yourself, therefore, beneath the mighty hand of God. Is he a hand that’s pushing me down? No, he’s stroking your head. You are his favorite child, you’re his favorite daughter, his favorite son. He loves you more than anyone else. You’re not the only one, but he loves you most of all. But again, you’re not the only one. So humble yourself. Let him love you beneath the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you, which means lift you up to your proper place in due time. How do you do that? You just did it. Casting the whole of your care on him because he cares for you. It’s his job to care for you, not your job to care for yourself. You’re too little. I’m too little. We’re too little to care for ourselves. And why is that important? Because verse 8 says, Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he seeks to devour those who are under stress, under cares, under that weight. But when you cast it over on him, if the enemy comes near, say, uh-uh, no. What are we to do? Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee in turn. Tell him you go speak to Jesus about it. I don’t have those cares anymore. They’re in his hands. I surrender all my cares to him. I just thought of that song, I surrender all. But it’s that’s it. I’m surrendering my cares to him. That’s a good way to say it.
And you reminded me of something that I had done. Because you know how sometimes we we don’t remember the lessons that we learned during the wilderness stages, right? And when my father was dying, I had my war room and I would go in and just I actually had anticipatory grief. And I just started to cry out to the Lord and just surrender my grief to him daily. I said, I can’t carry this. I can’t do the mission that you’ve asked me to do, carrying this too heavy. And I want to give it to you. And I would just kind of instead of doing it above my head, I would just kind of put my head on the floor in total surrender, of like right at his feet. I’m giving this to you at your feet. This is yours. Please take it from me. Or there was another exercise that I remember he gave me the vision of standing in the middle of a tornado of all these horrible feelings that that were just ruminating in my heart. They were just pressing down on me. And I would see visually see the feelings being pulled out of me and funneled into the sky where he had his arms outstretched waiting for me to like to take it from me. And once he took it from me, I would feel lighter all of a sudden, right? So I didn’t realize that then I was doing exactly this exercise, but in my own way of seeing it. And I had forgotten, you know, until right now that you did this exercise. And a lot of what’s been weighing me down the last couple of weeks suddenly lifted from my spirit. And it was profound. And I think that the more I do it, maybe even daily, especially in times of distress, like when circumstances are very pronounced. That’s when we know the enemy is prowling, waiting. Guard your heart, guard your mind from those distractions because they’re everywhere. And so I want to thank you for your exercise. I hadn’t felt as alive until just moments ago. I always know he comes in perfectly in his timing for these podcast interviews. I always find them so interesting how he does that, how he uses his children to come through, to share the wisdom of his truth, of his word, make it come alive. Because sometimes when we read scripture, we don’t know what it means initially, right? Sometimes we can it our lens can misinterpret it if we’re looking at it without understanding the context and without understanding who it was written for in those years. I’ve heard my my 21-year-old say, I’ve misinterpreted this. He thought Paul meant one thing, and I had to come in and say, Well, did do you know when he wrote that and why he wrote that? This historical context can play a role in how you view these words. And then, of course, the Lord can help you spiritually see what you need to see through his word, which I think is also part of the equation here. But I have gained so much from just this simple exercise that you’ve done. Do you have these exercises in a book? Do you have courses on your on
your website? How can we access some of this wisdom for ourselves?
Oh, absolutely. Thank you. Uh, I’m working toward writing another book. I haven’t in a in a while. Um, but yeah, I’d like to include more of that. We do this in the coaching work that I do, also the group coaching that we have in weight loss without willpower. And I have a free gift uh for our listeners and viewers today. If you’re someone who says, Yeah, I’d like to lose some excess weight, and I like that weight loss without willpower. How in the world is that and our foundation scripture is 1 Corinthians 10 31 that says, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And then I also combine it with what I said earlier, Zechariah 4.6. It’s not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. And what happens is that your your want to starts to change on the inside. When you start doing these exercises, when you have the accountability, when you’re getting into the word, when you’re just trying some of these different things, it’s not being conformed to this world, like we said before. It’s not about a special diet, it’s the change that happens from the inside. Uh, Romans 8.11 says, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken or or give life to your mortal body. How? Through a special diet, a cream, an exercise, you know, a prescription. No. How does he change you? Through his spirit who lives in you. Your outsides can be changed through your insides. That’s how your want to change. But I have a free gift for you. It’s Christianweightlosskit.com. That’s Christianweightlosskit.com. And it’s the faith fueled weight loss blueprint, totally free. And then if your someone says, I’m not really into weight loss, I’m okay, I’m good, as they say. How do you meditate on the word of God? Is it like staring at your belly button? And focusing on nothing is like, no, we don’t do that. You’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and burned it. Let me just tell you. But what we do instead is meditating on the word of God. How do you do that? How does that work? Well, I have a free gift for you. It’s Christian Meditationkit.com. And I show you in three simple steps how you can meditate in a moment. And if you want to know more about Praise Moves Fitness Ministry, classes that are near you, we’ve got online classes and lots of videos you can watch also. Go to praisemoves.com. And as we love to say, remember praise moves God deeply. So keep praising the Lord. I love near branding, to be honest with you.
I think it’s really it sticks in the mind and it it means so much to those out there that are currently in a tough spot. And we know that our Lord was in a tough spot for 40 days, and at his most, at his weakest is when the enemy was trying to tempt him. And what brought him out was the word of God. I mean, he just kind of gave it right back to him and said, nope, I know what you’re doing. You’re not going to tempt me. I know I have authority because my father has given me that authority, and I you’ll need to flee from me now. You know, and we know that he ended up defeating the enemy. And that’s what the enemy doesn’t want you to discover, is when that’s why he wants us to be pulled away from the Lord. He doesn’t want us to have relationship with him because when we start having relationship with him, he has no power. You’re now off limits almost when you start stepping into the authority that as a child of God you can step into because he’s given it to you. It’s a gift he gave you. But until we get into the word of God, until we read it and really allow it to seep into our hearts, into our soul and spirit, and we see what he needs us to see because we’re surrendering our will to his. This is your will, that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is a daily surrender. It is a daily, Lord, show me, guide me for my father that is happening, is happening for me because you told me that in Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. And I gotta tell you, like a week ago, it was it was a tough situation I was in, and that verse just kept repeating in my head. It was so, it was so pronounced. And it was because I had paused for presence back in November. I had learned to stop achieving his love and actually started to get into the word and studying it and and learning it and just being a child of his and allowing him to guide me and teach me his ways. Paul has a lot to say about the renewal of the mind in Philippians, one of my favorite chapters, because it talks a lot about anxiety. It talks about prayer, petition, and thanksgiving. I’m very grateful for you and your ministry and the work you’re doing, not just with women, but with men alike, through the weight loss, through the meditation. Uh, thank you for your exercise. So very powerfully done on the podcast. Any last words of encouragement you want to leave us with before we sign off?
Well, one thing that that occurs to me is you asked about exercises. And in the Christianweightlosskit.com, I do have an exercise. It’s a bilateral brain stimulation technique that cuts cravings for food in 10 to 15 seconds. And it’s also coupled with the word of God, is it’s just super powerful. So if that’s someone you know, if that speaks to someone, uh, you’ll enjoy that. And the other thing I would say is Lord loves you so very, very much, and he wants to know you even better, wants to know you even deeper. There’s a song about uh letting uh the Lord into that secret place, and you know what that is. Everyone who’s listening or watching you, you know, you but right there, yes, you but there is that secret that we’ve maybe never told anyone, but and the Lord is saying, Let me into that secret place. Why is he saying that? Because he brings the light, he is the light of the world and you have his light inside of you. But if you’ve surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, which is so easy to do, by the way. Romans 10, 9, and 10 says, If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, right standing with God, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. I once asked the Lord, why did you make it so simple for people to be saved and filled with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit? Why did you make it so simple? And I believe He said in my heart, if it weren’t simple, then the simple could not be saved. And so if that’s you right now, you can just say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I want you to be the Lord of my life. Forgive me of my sins. You know what I’ve done wrong. I believe that God raised you from the dead.
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, be the Lord of my life. I am a Christian.
I am saved, I’m made whole. Your peace is inside my heart right now. I’ve been made brand new. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now, if you pray that for the first time or the first time in a long time, I want you to reach out to Sylvia and let her know. I believe she has some great resources for you to help you start that Christian walk and walk in victory. It’s super simple. And if you do know the Lord, let him into that secret place, let him clean that regret. Cast that over on him. Maybe you didn’t fulfill that whole exercise. It’s like, oh, but I didn’t take that piece. Give that to him, surrender that thing, because the enemy doesn’t want you to, he wants you to stay in darkness, he wants you to be ashamed. Oh, but I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of God under salvation and to change lives. That’s what you have. The Lord wants to use you as that vessel of honor that he can flow through. He is love. And when love is flowing through you, you can sense his love coming out of your eyes, out of your voice. You’ll see the light come on in people’s eyes, you’ll see them absorb because you are speaking encouragement, strength, love to them. I’ll tell you what, as I started the show by saying, if he can use a donkey, he can use me. Why don’t we be that donkey that Jesus rides in on into these situations in our lives? The Lord loves you, and so do we.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Dr. Lorette, for coming on the show, for being your vulnerable, beautiful light. And to the listeners of Release Out Reveal Purpose, remember Matthew 5.14 to be the light. Lord has given us a light within. He is our light, he is our guide, he is our father, and we are his children. We each have been gifted spiritually by him in very special ways through our own journeys. And only we can speak into others in our own special way. And that’s why he’s put us on mission. He’s put Dr. Lorette on mission. He’s put me on mission. And we have gone out to the world and shared our wisdom, the wisdom that was not ours, really, it was his, passed down through us and for us and to others. And we keep spreading that light and keep spreading the gospel and the news that he came, he died, he defeated evil, and he has made a space for us eternally to be with him. And that is the greatest expression of love. That is so unconditional love that our Heavenly Father has given us such a gift that we don’t have to earn our way into eternity. We it’s ours. We just have to believe and speak to the truth that Dr. Lorette just spoke on. And we’re there. We’re his uh eternally, and we will be in his glorious light forever. And that’s the way it was always meant to be. So I’m just grateful that I had the opportunity to have Dr. Lorette on the show and the opportunity to have all the wonderful listeners listening and hopefully feeling and allowing the Lord to transform you in the way you needed to be transformed today.
Have a wonderful and blessed rest of your week. Bye now.
So that’s it for today’s episode of Release Doubt Reveal Purpose. Head on over to iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on iTunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a twenty five thousand dollar private VIP day with Sylvia Worsham herself. Be sure to head on over to sylviaworsham.com and pick up a free copy of Sylvia’s gift and join us on the next episode.