Hi, and welcome back to faith field Woman.

This is your host, Kristen.

Today we're going to talk about, is there a call on our lives to stand up and speak right now?

There's so much going on in the world.

We're going to talk about that and we're going to talk about why it's so important for us to get other christians to vote in this election.

So that's what we're going to dig into.

Welcome to Faith Fueled Woman, a podcast designed for christian women eager to deepen their faith and shine God's light in every aspect of their lives.

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Hi, I'm your host, Kristen.

I'm an encourager, a faith led entrepreneur, a mom and a wife.

Let's be encouraged in our everyday lives as we let our faith guide us, fuel us, and fill us with God's incredible peace, wisdom and joy in our lives.

All right, here we go.

We're going to dig into two things today.

The first is we're going to talk about our women and all christians, but we're going to specifically talk about women today being called to stand up, to share our voices, to stand up for our christian values.

And we're going to talk also about why it's so important to vote and some data on christians voting in the last election.

So I'm currently reading the book.

It's called the Oster Mantle by Christy Johnson.

And I'm going to share just a couple things with you that she shares in her book.

But the book basically says an urgent call for women to stand and shape history.

And basically the whole, or I've only read part of the book, but part I've read so far is obviously sharing about the book of Esther, our, sorry, the story of Esther.

And it's basically showing how what Esther did right for the jewish people at the time, and had she not been willing to do what was asked of her in preparation and then waiting and then risking her life to talk to the king about what she thought needed to happen, and he could have said, you know, that's the end of her.

But he did not, luckily, as the story goes.

So here's the first thing that Christy Johnson says in her book that I wanted to share with you.

I'm sorry.

First, she shares scripture and she shares Esther 414, and it says, if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the jewish people from another place.

But you and your family's, I'm sorry, you and your father's family will be destroyed.

Who knows?

Perhaps you have come to the royal position for such a time as this, and most of us probably have heard that last line or the whole thing.

But anyway, she goes, upon reading this verse, you may be asking, keep silent from what, precisely?

And then she later goes on and talks about something.

And that's what I want to share with you.

All right, she says, so what is the warning to us specifically in Esther 414?

What is it we could be silent from in our day that threatens to engulf our lives and families if we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?

I believe it is our silence in opposing the spiritual war on our children in the coming generations.

The silence is speaking out about the evils of our day, silence from the spirit of Haman that has descended like a thick cloud upon our earth.

If we remain silent, there is no future for us or for our children.

And I think I'm hearing this from a lot of different sources, and you may be as well.

People are saying, listen, it is a major spiritual war right now.

Not that there isn't always one, but that it feels much bigger and heavier right now.

Right?

There's war going on.

The Middle east, you know, is fighting.

I think just today they've said it's an all out becoming an all out war.

We have Ukraine and Russia.

We have tension with China and Taiwan.

So there's a lot going on.

And then, of course, in the United States and Europe.

But for us, the United States, there's so many big issues at hand.

And this next presidential election is of super.

I mean, it's so important.

It's very pivotal.

And so, I mean, there's human trafficking.

There's sex trafficking.

There's so many illegal immigrants coming to the United States, especially ones that are criminals.

There are freedom, our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, medical freedoms.

So many things have been being challenged over the last couple of years.

So there's a lot here.

There's a lot going on.

There's the challenges of children and transgenderism and surgeries and so many other topics.

Right.

Okay, so that's the sort of thing she's talking about.

I also meant to bring up that, in case you didn't recall the name Haman, he is the.

He was basically in the king's court, in the book of Esther.

And he's the one that tried to put the decree out to basically wipe their whole town or country.

I forget how they reference it, of jewish people.

He hated the jewish people.

And so that is who Esther eventually goes to, her king, and is able to reverse his decree.

And so Haman is basically evil incarnate, if you will.

He's somebody who literally wanted to wipe out the jewish population.

And so we're talking about true evil, true darkness.

And so when she referenced Haman in her statement, it was just basically talking about evil.

Right.

The evil in our midst.

And then in part of the book I've read, she talks about Vashadi, and Vashadi was the wife, I'm sorry, she was the queen prior to Esther becoming the queen.

And so basically, the king gets rid of her because she basically embarrasses the king, and she doesn't come to, I think, one of the events and things like that.

But here's what I wanted to read you about that.

She says, the author says, vashadi's actions are a warning to us today.

God is calling forth his daughters in this hour to stand in places of prominence.

Is it possible we will find those places humiliating or uncomfortable?

Will we be ridiculed for our stand?

Will we be laughed at and rejected by the masses?

It's likely.

And then she says, a few pages later, she says this.

The question is, will you personally bow to the pressure or not?

Or will you stand alone?

This prevalent desire to not rock the boat, stay low, to not stand up, and to stay away from anything that feels uncomfortable has consumed our world.

Take note.

This was the very thing Vasadi did.

She refused to come before the king because of discomfort of his request.

I assume she did not want to be ridiculed or looked on undesirably in front of the court officials.

However, it was not this action alone that cost her the throne.

Rather, it was the threat that her actions could initiate, encouraging millions of women into rebellion.

And so I wanted to share those things with you to start with, because we are at a time where many christians, many women, I think, have felt like if you didn't agree with what culture was saying, if you didn't agree with what mainstream media or social media was sharing, if it wasn't the popular opinion, it felt easier to not see, say anything.

And maybe you're not in this position.

Maybe you're somebody that's always been speaking out for certain issues.

But to be honest with you, online, I, for many years, thought, oh, well, it's a faith thing or a political thing.

And so I didn't often get involved in very polarizing issues.

I didn't often speak out.

And what I've come to realize, especially since I started this christian podcast two and a half to three years ago, is we are being called to speak up, to stand up, and to fight the spiritual war.

And so that is going to require a lot of us, and it also requires us taking these conversations into all parts of our lives.

And so that also means possibly online, you know, in places that make us feel uncomfortable.

And I'm not, let me be clear.

I'm not advocating for us to be attacking anyone, especially people of differing viewpoints.

And I think all of us should show up in all forums, in all places with respect for each other, with respect for differing viewpoints, with respect to differing political, religious viewpoints.

So that's not the issue, but it is that we need to stand up and speak the truth.

And I think it's really easy to be silenced.

And I now is not the time to allow ourselves to be silenced any longer, because if it has not become completely obvious to everyone yet, there is a full out attack on families.

There's a full on attack on women and on womanhood.

There's attack on our children, both from a gender identity, you know, crisis, and also from a.

Our kids are struggling, so are adults, but our kids are struggling with depression, with anxiety, with suicidal thoughts.

There is this blanket of spiritual warfare that's come across everyone, and we have to stand up for how God designed us, and we also have to stand up for christian values.

And so what this means is trying to support and encourage the strengthening of families, the strengthening of, you know, that men or women are created differently.

And we both have such gifts to bring into our lives and into the world.

And let me be also clear.

I am not saying that what people do as an adult, right.

We're not addressing that.

We're just talking about the attacks that are happening on christian values and on the world right now.

And those are the things that we have to be willing to talk about, but talk about it from a place of grace and from a place of love.

Okay, so on this topic, if you're thinking, okay, that's great, you've brought these things up, but what do I do about it?

Like, how do I actually show up?

How do I stand up?

How do I speak out?

Because I don't know that on my own I can do this.

Well, the first thing I'd say is join together with organizations that are already supporting, know these causes, you know, Christian standing up for christian values and then also just follow people online if you are online or connect with your church or maybe bigger church organizations that are educating on these topics and also looking for support.

And I've shared this before, but I follow people like Sean Foyt.

He is a person.

Let me see if I can find it real quick.

He is one of the people running let us worship, which is a christian nonprofit thats doing a lot of good in the world.

Lisa Bivier is talking a lot about the fight for a woman and she just has a lot of great things to say.

Theres several other people that I think I will put in the show notes, but really its start getting around people that are having impact and, you know, it will give you more courage to do the same.

Also, I would recommend grabbing books like the Esther mantle or other ones like that that are a call to woman or women to show up.

Right.

Show up in this time.

So it's super important.

So now I want to switch over to voting.

Okay.

If you're in the US like I am, then we have some really big elections coming up.

Probably the biggest from the national level is the presidential election.

And the first thing that I want to point out is we have to get out and vote.

And sure, you probably hear that message, but I heard this data point recently that 30 to 40 million christians did not vote in the last election.

That is a huge number.

We cannot be apathetic and we can't think, well, my vote doesn't count, right, because of electoral college or because we just feel like it never seems to go our way.

So regardless of who you're voting for, we need to get out and let our voices be heard.

So make sure that you're voting, but also encourage your friends, encourage people at your church.

Make sure they get out and vote.

I have three young adults.

My youngest is going to be able to vote.

He turns 18 right before the election.

And so if I'm being honest, my kids are not super excited since they've all become 18, to get out and vote.

I think they feel a bit pathetic about it or that it doesn't matter, which is heartbreaking to me.

But the point is I do everything I can to encourage it.

So I've already told them, look, we're going as a family, we're going to vote and we will get Mexican afterwards.

Right?

Normally they can't turn that down.

So I'm doing what I can, but we've got to encourage each other to vote.

Now, I would never tell someone what they must do as far as who they should vote for.

I think that's each of our own choices and that's not something we have to share with each other.

And I can tell you, my entire life, I've never registered with a party, a political party, because I didn't want to be identified as a certain political party affiliate.

The funny thing is, my undergraduate was in political science and pre law, so I think I got enough taste of it then to say I'm not involved.

But I've now learned that we don't really have a choice, that we have to educate ourselves on the issues.

We cannot just listen to one or two news sources, especially if it's tv or the newspaper, and feel like we're actually getting the truth about topics, about how a candidate is going to, you know, what they're going to do.

So you've got to start finding new sources of information.

And then you really need to look at the issues.

You need to look at what they're saying they're going to do and which ones align with christian values.

So we have to stop looking so much at the candidate only and look at what are they going to stand up for.

For instance, we can all agree that most of the time the candidates are not someone that we think, wow, this is the person I want to represent my country as far as from a personal perspective, or maybe how they act or maybe they are not as articulate or charismatic, whatever the things might be.

But we've got to start getting down to which candidate.

And this goes for not just presidential, this goes for, you know, in the Senate or Congress.

And then this goes for our local elections as well.

We have to start not voting on party lines, but instead start voting based on who is going to do for our country what we need done.

So for me, I'm looking at who is making sure that we're going to have freedom of speech, that we're going to keep freedom of religion, that we're going to not have more censorship, and we're going to get rid of this whole miss and disinformation b's because that's what it is.

And I'm looking at people who is trying to protect the rights of, of human life.

And this is not a pro life or abortion topic, but it is that in all cases, I want to try to save lives.

So that might be having people be able to procreate.

So helping women or people that are unsure of who they want to be or how they want to identify it can be that there are now laws in countries like Canada.

I don't remember if it's been passed in the US, in other countries where now it is legal to euthanize people, both older people, but even young people, if they have autism or depression.

So what I'm saying is I'm looking for a candidate that values human life at any age or stage.

And once again, this is not about abortion.

Of course, I'm pro life as much as I can be, but that doesn't mean that most people don't think that there's exceptions to that.

The next thing is, who is going to make sure that the government cannot take our money or our land from us just because they decide we said something that they didn't like.

I care about those rights.

I also am concerned about what the UN and the World Health Organization is doing and trying to create this pact for the future.

And they're basically creating things where our constitution would not, I'm sorry, the new world order documents that they're trying to get, all the countries assigned us being one of them, would supersede the constitutional rights, meaning that they can come in if there's any sort of crisis, epidemic or pandemic, and they can basically, you know, order martial law, order us to get vaccines, tell us we can't leave our homes.

In other words, these are all issues that we have to be paying attention to if you're not already.

A lot of things are going behind the scenes and the mainstream media is not covering them.

So I try to follow people that are educated, investigative journalists or researchers, scientists, doctors.

Now, they're not mainstream of those, but they're people that were top of their fields, even if they're being attacked since COVID But we have to start being educated on these topics.

And I'm happy to send you some of the people that I follow.

And then I read the really great pieces that they put together.

But also people like Tucker Carlson.

I never used to watch him when he was on tv, actually, ever.

But now that he's independent and he's doing his own content, I've enjoyed his podcasts, right.

He's been going around the country the last month, talking to people, having guests on, and even he who says to you, until a couple of years ago, I would never have even thought about my faith much.

I would never have thought about using the word spiritual warfare every episode.

Now he's talking about spiritual warfare and that he's come to the conclusion that it can be nothing else.

So start listening to people that are speaking the truth because it matters.

And we need to get our heads out of the sand.

We need to be paying attention.

We need to be preparing.

And we need to get up and stand up and speak out for what we know God wants for us and what we want for our own country and what we want for our children and their children's generations.

I want freedom, and I want to be able to follow the path that God wants for us.

I don't want it to be that we're being controlled by our own government, by the medical establishment.

So if this is resonating with you, then we need to get involved.

We need to take action.

We need to listen to podcasts and read books and get into some grassroots efforts that are going to help do more of this in our country.

And let's be honest, the election's in 30, I think it's 36 days.

There's not a lot of time before the election.

And now, regardless of who wins this election, we have to keep fighting for christian values and keep fighting for our rights.

And by the way, when I say fight, I'm talking about stand up, speak out the advocates for it.

Hopefully, it doesn't ever come down to fighting, if you will.

But it's a spiritual war.

And in that case, yes, fighting, of course.

Prayer.

We need to pray more.

We need to pray for our presidential candidates, both of them.

We need to pray for our country.

We need to pray for everyone that will be coming into office after these elections.

We need to pray that all Christians and all other people of faith and just people that haven't come to that place yet are awake.

They're aware of what's really at stake and that they realize that some of these issues that we think we're talking about and which candidate's going to do what, that we really get serious about what's at stake and that it's not political.

This is about our country and trying to keep our country afloat without it absolutely falling to shambles.

Because as you can see, that's already started to happen.

There's so much division, there's so much angst.

One little thing goes wrong and it just becomes a bigger problem.

Right.

We have bigger issues.

And so now's the time.

We don't want to look back and say, what else could I have done?

We want to try to do everything.

And so I really just want to come on today and share with you one it's time to stand up and speak up.

And it's also time to make sure that we get out and vote, that we encourage our families to get out and vote, that we encourage the people around us to get out and vote, and that we do everything we can in our local communities and in our states to keep as many rights as we can.

Remember during COVID Walmart and Target and the ABC store stayed opened, but they closed down churches.

Okay, so if you're thinking, I don't even know what you're talking about, this is the kind of thing we're talking about.

They took a away our right for freedom of religious assembly, if you will.

And so, yes, that came back.

But the point was, is the data never proved that assembling was actually harming us.

And even if it did, that's up to us as individuals to choose what we're gonna do.

Remember, there was churches trying to assemble outside churches trying to assemble in cars, but they still wanted to be able to have people come together, right, as a church community.

And they told them no in many cases.

And so this is what we're talking about.

We don't want the government to dictate that we can't come together to worship.

And so we need to be very careful that we don't allow those things to happen again.

Okay, so what.

What do I want to wrap this up with?

I would just say to you a couple things to start out with or to check out.

One organization, I'm not super familiar with them, but they do appear to have some really good content, is called christiansengaged.org dot.

It's all about voting and from a biblical perspective, and another one is on Instagram.

It's million praying moms and it's daily devotionals and scripture inspired prayers for today's christian mom, if that interests you.

And then the other one I mentioned earlier, it's let us worship.

And they go around the country, really around the world, and do praise and worship in the each state's capital city.

And they just, they bring people to worship.

They show, you know, christians coming together.

They save tons of people every one of these events.

But it's just, let us worship is another one to follow.

And they also just do updates on what's going on sometimes with christian issues or with politics and things like that.

So that's somewhere to start, but reach out if you'd like more resources, more information about a certain topic.

I'd love to share those with you.

But until next time, let's just make sure that we're getting out there that from a respectful, loving standpoint, that we're participating in the conversations and that we're speaking out for just human life.

We're speaking out for our rights.

We're speaking out for the candidate that's going to align most with the values that are most important to most of us.

And look, there may be times where, as a Christian, you don't align with every other issue that other people align with.

What we need to look at the bigger picture, and we need to look at which candidates at every level are going to keep us most in line with what our values are, even if we have one that doesn't fit perfectly.

Because that's going to happen.

As humans, we people, we're all going to have different perspectives and bring different experiences to our viewpoints and to our perspective.

And so we have to just respect that.

It may not go, it may not match perfectly, but we want to do our best to decide on the candidate we're voting for from a holistic perspective, not on just one issue, at least in most cases.

All right, until next time, have a great week.

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