Made in God's Image? 3 Stories on Hearing God's Voice, Healing and Prayer Against Suicide

 Hi friend! 

Today we're talking about what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God, and how you've always had purpose. I also share true stories about hearing God's voice, a miraculous healing with a woman in intensive care and we also go deep about how suicide is a ripoff and based on lies about you and your future. You have an amazing purpose now and, in your future, and we pray together to stop the lies.

You have always mattered more than you know!

Special offer!

Prayer changes everything — especially when you’re seeking God for answers to anxiety, depression, relationships, finances, health, or life decisions. 100 Prayers Releasing 100 Cares shares real stories of answered prayer, biblical wisdom for hearing God’s voice, and practical faith tools rooted in Scripture to help you walk in freedom and bold trust in God. "100 Prayers Releasing 100 Cares" Click to order your copy today and begin praying with confidence!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Today we're talking about you are made in the image and likeness of God. And then we go deep about how suicide is a ripoff. It is a lie. And you have an amazing purpose in your future. So whether you or someone you know needs to listen, here we go. Do you love God but forget to pray? Or feel guilty instead of enjoying his presence? I understand. I know how unsatisfying time with God can feel if we believe he is distant and busy. I'm Lenora, mom, Jesus lover, and former international trainer. If you're ready to feel closer with God without fear or pressure, have greater ability to receive from him, and desire more confidence to make an impact with your life. Well, get some coffee and let's talk. Hey, if you're carrying stress and want support with prayer, I wrote a book to help you. It's called 100 Prayers, Releasing 100 Cares. It's full of real stories, scripture, and 100 prayers for about every part of life. A link for the book is in the show notes. I really think you'll love it. Some have said it is the best prayer book they've ever had. I remember driving to the hospital many years ago. I was an associate pastor and I was asked to visit someone in intensive care. I didn't know her. She had requested a visitation from a pastor at the church. And on my way, hearing that this woman was in ICU, I remember telling God, God, I don't know that I am confident I'll be able to walk in there, pray over her, and she'll immediately be healed. And he answered me back. He just said, What can you believe? And I thought of Proverbs 422, although I didn't actually have the address in my mind. I just knew the verse that said that God's words are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh. I believe that. And I said, God, I believe your word is really healthy to our bodies. And he was like, Well, then do that. So I get to the hospital, find the lady's room, and I walk in. She's connected to all kinds of tubes and wires. And I just asked her if I could read the Bible to her for a while. And she just basically nodded because she couldn't talk to me. So I just sat in a room, started from the book of John, chapter three, and I just read the book of John to her for about an hour about Jesus walking around and doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, all the stories. I just read to her. And then at the end, I said, Can I pray for you? And she nodded. And I prayed, and all kinds of verses from what I had just read just started pouring out of me. And I just prayed for her. And then I left. And I came back the second day. She was not in ICU. She was in a regular room. And I was surprised all the wires and everything were gone. And she was looking so different. I was shocked. And we had a conversation, a basic one, and she thanked me and I left. And I never saw her again. But I always remembered the conversation with God, saying, What do you believe? And he was with me as I took action on that. God is so personal and so real. And that's what this podcast is about getting personal with God, getting real with him. Wherever you're at, that's where he will meet you. That's where he wants to talk to you. Because he loves you. Do you know ultimately your and my purpose never has changed since the book of Genesis? Genesis 126. Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And verse 27, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created him, male and female, he created them. And I did a little Hebrew word study. Or actually, in this case, ChatGPT helped me. I have other big books, but I have to admit, it's even faster with some AI tools. So let's look at a couple words in those verses, like image, likeness. God made, created, and he gave us dominion. Image is like a statue, representation. Humans were made with a functional representation of God's authority. Likeness is to resemble, to pattern, to model. It describes a similarity, not an exact equality with God, but a pattern, a model. And to make is to fashion, to purpose. We were an intentional design. And create is to create uniquely. It shows divine initiative. And then dominion is to rule, to govern, to steward a royal priestly authority. So when it comes to getting personal with God, I think it's incredibly important to look back at how did we start? I mean, what was God's plan for this? If we were made by God, this a God that supposedly, and I'm convinced of, made the universe, and then he made us, what was the point? He made us like parents who have kids. You're made after that individual's likeness and image. We were made after God's likeness and image. And it was a purposeful design, intentional. And the parent is excited about what's possible with that child. Okay. So it's the same. God started this whole thing. He made you, he made me after his likeness and his image, gave us dominion, used his creativity to make an amazing being to reflect him. In fact, he gave us authority to take dominion on the earth. He gave us amazing ability to conquer, amazing ability to steward. Now he assumes, based on his character, that you're going to do it with respect, do it like him. But as we know, if you read Genesis, there was a fall of mankind where we decided we're going to decide all the things that are right and wrong. We will decide it for ourselves. And so now when it comes to the planet population, however many people you have on the earth, you have that variance of what you think reality is, what you think you're capable of. Did you know that pagan creation myths? In those myths, humans were made as slaves to the gods. In the biblical account, humans were created with honor, with purpose, and relational capacity back to the God who made them. Imagine that. You create a being and you actually want to talk to it. I'm always surprised when people think it's crazy or weird that God would talk to you. I think it's incredibly sad. Anyone would believe a God who made us wouldn't want a conversation with us, wouldn't want a relationship. That's like a parent who has a child but would never want to talk to it, would just go, Well, there you go. Hope you do good. And if you tick me off, I might just wipe you out. And yet we have all these dysfunctional views about God. God created you to have a relationship with you. God created you like himself. Yes, we have screwed it up by deciding we will play God, we'll do what we want to do, and and there we go from there. And we make all kinds of messes. And believe it or not, read your Bible, there is an enemy. There is a kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness. Uh, you're meant to be part of the kingdom of light, and there's power in that. And this podcast is to navigate through this in short pieces at a time. You were made to have a relationship with God just a couple years ago. I was in praise and worship. It was wonderful songs, praising God, praising who he is. It's not because he has an ego problem. It's because we can get so caught up in the things going on and struggles in this life that we forget about him. So it's to put your focus back on God. It should be a focus that is how good God is, how big God is, how how holy God is. And you know, the word holy is not a stiff word. It means he will never lie to you. Imagine that, a God who will never lie to you, he will never betray you, he will never pursue his uh well, 1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 8. Love is patient, love is kind, love is not self-seeking, love doesn't keep a record of wrongs, all those types of things. And you can get a picture of what God is actually like. We have turned him into all kinds of things, but not what his actual Bible says. You know, I've also talked to people that will tell me they're not sure they want to trust God at all. And and yet they'll also admit to me they don't read the Bible and they've never studied it. I don't know where you get opinions if you've never met someone. Actually, that's not true. It happens in the media all the time, it happens in our world all the time. You get a perspective on someone from someone else and you form an opinion of them before you've ever met them. You make judgments, whether it's political or whatever way, because you heard somebody else's version or a piece of what somebody said, not the whole conversation. We see that over and over and over, and we also do it to God. We've heard a piece of a verse or a piece of somebody else's experience, no study of our own, and yet we have strong opinions about God. And I'm telling you, you're ripping yourself off over and over and over. My goal is I want to know him personally myself. I want to know for myself who is this God? What is his purpose? The truth is, God wants to know us more than we want to know him. He's the one who made us in the first place. He's the one who said, Go and have dominion. We're created with a divine purpose. We have a value. Every person carries God's image. We were assigned to have dominion, stewardship of his creation. We were made male and female to reflect God's nature. And we have a destiny to be conformed to the image of Christ. Because we screwed it up at the start. He knew we were going to screw it up. He planned ahead of time that Christ would come and take our punishment for us, take our failures so that we could be restored in relationship and truly walk in the authority he intended for us. You're not ever meant to be alone or powerless. The Bible says, Where can I even go from your presence? There's nowhere you can go where he isn't. And if you call on him from anywhere, he will answer. If you learn one thing from this podcast, remember you can call on the name of Jesus. Please promise me you will remember, whether you want to know him right now or not, that when you are in crisis, call on him. People have been delivered from death experiences or they call near-death experiences because they came back by calling on the name of Jesus. Call on him. He wants to know you, but it's a whole lot better if you call on him now and get to know him and find the peace you've always been looking for. I was in church service where the music was just beautiful, powerful, just focusing on God, who he is, how good he is, so we can get our mind out of all the sometimes chaos in the world or distractions. And while a bunch of other people were just singing, I just felt like just sit down and be with God, just sit down and listen. And I let God use my imagination. You know, he gave us our imagination, and he can use it. In fact, you want to let God use your imagination and you use your own imagination for good, and don't let your imagination be used against you, because we can imagine a lot of scary negative things, and you need to stop that. And the Bible says, cast down the wicked imaginations, but put your imagination on God. Anyway, I had a subtle sense of me just hanging out with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yeah, that kind of stuff really really happens. Um I was letting the God be come close to me. And it was like a little girl playing with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but just kind of holding hands, being silly in a little circle. And out of my mouth came the words, I've never mattered this much. That Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all paying attention to me at the same time. And I heard my father, I knew it was the father to God saying, You've always mattered this much. And I just had tears running down my face. You've always mattered to God more than you can imagine. You can talk to him right now at any time and say, God, talk to me. I want to know you. Will you talk to me? Would you open my eyes to the knowledge of you? I want to know what's my hope. Do I have a reason to hope? Do I have a calling? And I can tell you you do, and he'll tell you you do. But one of the best ways you're gonna get to know that is open up your Bible. Read Genesis chapter one, read Ephesians in the New Testament. His whole plan was to make you and to make you his child, to know you, and beyond this life, have an eternal relationship with you that's gonna exceed any imagination anyone has ever had. You know, I don't know who listens to this podcast, um, but I can imagine occasionally at least some people that I used to know that knew me in the in the workforce capacity, um, but they didn't know me as a Christian. I mean, I was a Christian in my behavior, but we didn't talk about God. But these things I'm bringing up on the podcast are not brand new or somehow different from who they thought I was. I'm the same person in the sense of do work with integrity, do work with a good attitude, work hard to get objectives finalized. And I loved God. Not because I was virtuous, but because he loved me so much, I fell in love with him. And I'm not different than I was when I just was great at my job. So wherever you are, whoever you are, God wants to walk with you in your life, regardless of what your career is, regardless of what you've been through, he has a plan for you better than you could imagine. And he has the ability to heal any destructive thing that's happened in your life. And I've had some experience with that as well. Of course, my own struggles, but I've also prayed with people that have been through things I can't fathom. I can't imagine how they even made it through. I can't imagine the abuse they suffered. It hurts just to hear it, much less what it felt like them to go through it. But Jesus Christ is so passionate about them, and he wants you as his for all eternity. And what you have beyond this life is going to exceed anything you have suffered, and he can bring great healing in this life, and he wants to, and he's already provided for it. Call on the name of Jesus. I don't know how many times these episodes will be different than what I plan, but I just feel maybe in this relaunch, that I want you to know really clearly that Jesus Christ is real, and the purpose of everything that is in this Bible is to get you connected to the God who made you, who loves you beyond your wildest imagination. And he loves you right now, and he knows exactly what you've been through, he knows exactly the choices you have made. And he suffered and died to make sure they were paid for in full, punished as they should be, and he's made you free. But it's all about calling on him, it's all about relying on him. I do not rely on Lenora being virtuous. I hope I believe I have some virtue. I try to treat people with respect. I make honest decisions, but I am never going to rely on my goodness to be my eternal salvation. I will never say to God when I stand before him one day that anything that I have done is getting me into eternity with him. It's all about what Jesus Christ has done for me and who he is because my Father sent him to rescue me. And he sent him to rescue you. And then from there, it's an amazing relationship with him and I. But Christ is always my virtue. Christ is always my source, my strength. And yet the personal relationship is with me. The personal relationship is with you. I know God wants to know you. He wants to be personal with you. He wants you to tell him your thoughts. He wants you to talk to him. He wants you to ask him to show you his goodness, to show you that he's real, to show you that he has a purpose for you, a plan for you. And it's worth taking another step. It's worth, in fact, if you get to know him, you'll find great rest and great strength to do this life. But without him, oh my gosh. There was a season in my life where I didn't want to be on this planet. I really didn't want to be here. I struggled with wanting to commit suicide. And I remember telling God once, can I just come home? I'm not in a place where I was suicidal, but I was in a place where I was exhausted and I just didn't want to be here. And I told him, Can I just come home? And I had a very real sense of him saying, Okay. And I sensed the the kind of, I don't know how to explain it, other than it's like, wow, the spiritual realm is real. And this was this was a long time ago, thank God. And it as I was sensing that reality of, oh, you mean I really could just choose to exit and go on to eternity. I didn't have to do something violent to hurt myself or um take a drug or crash into a tree or something. Yeah, it was a dark time I walked through. When he said, Yeah. And then he said, But do you really want to be ripped off from your future? And I thought, ripped off. I had no thoughts of the future in that season of my life. And ripped off. If you're gonna be ripped off, that means there had to be something valuable to take. So I thought, you mean there's something really valuable for my future? And I'll get ripped off? Well, I don't want to get ripped off. So I said, No. And I decided to stay here on this planet. I was in my twenties when that happened. And then I got this picture of myself in a boxing ring, face down, knocked out on the floor. The 10 count was over, and I saw it like two little imps, like a little demonic, grotesque little things standing one on each side of me, shaking hands over me, excited they had accomplished their goal, and I was out for the count. I was gone. They had destroyed me, as was their job. And all of a sudden I just popped up, got out of the ring, and went on my merry little way. And they were like, What? It's not fair, it's not fair, and God laughed. And I found out during that time that spiritually in Christ Jesus, because I had accepted him as Lord and still was struggling so hard in my soul, my mind, my emotions, and what my choices were going to be. But my spirit, I realized it is indestructible. The enemy cannot destroy your spirit, but the Bible does say you can become weary and faint in your mind. And that's what had happened. I was so exhausted, I had been lied to so much that I was letting the enemy steal from me to the point where I didn't want to be on the earth. But God. But God helped me see, it was just the enemy trying to rip me off. I didn't want to be ripped off, so I chose to stay with him. Now I didn't immediately everything was great again, but I from there on it was a pathway upward. You just keep taking steps, get to know God better, uh, begin to think about a future and believe God has a great future for you. And it he did. He did. I have children, I have grandchildren, I have accomplished some things that I'm very proud of, and I will do more. And I I love life. So if you're in that spot, call on the name of Jesus, call on God, and you do have a future, and you don't want to be ripped off from it. Join me in future episodes. Each time will be a slightly different focus, whether it's about what God is like or who we are and what our futures can be. And I appreciate you taking time to be with me today. So here's a quick prayer. God, you know who's listening. You know who needed to hear this or who needs to call on you. Your thoughts of them are good to give them a hope and a future. You promised that in Jeremiah 29, verse 11. God, I ask you to strengthen them today. I use my authority that I have in the name of Jesus to say I bind the attack of the enemy that is trying to steal their life, that has been lying to them. I say, I bind that in the name of Jesus. And I declare, God, your future on them, your goodness that you intended for them, that it will come to pass. They will grab a hold of who you are, grab a hold of promises you have for them, and say, They are mine and I will have them. I pray, God, that we submit to God, we resist the enemy, and he flees as in terror, because you created us to be full of authority, full of your identity, full of your purpose and your power in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, my new friend. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds and share this with someone who needs to hear this or may want to join you on this journey? And please take 30 seconds and leave a quick review for the show on Apple Podcast and subscribe so you won't miss an episode. It makes me happy to know this podcast is helping you, so definitely let me know what you want to hear or what impacts you. And remember, a link to get the prayer book I mentioned earlier, 100 Prayers to release 100 cares, is in the show notes. Thank you for listening. I'll meet you back here on Monday for another episode. Until then, be kind to you.