The Practice that will Change Your Relationship with Christ

Are you feeling successful on the outside but spiritually exhausted on the inside? It is time to stop trying to add God on top of your life and start walking with him as your true source of identity and peace.

In this episode of the Walking with the Savior podcast, host John Merrill Kirkman sits down with leadership coach Jill Cirillo to discuss how to integrate faith into your daily work and life. Jill shares her vulnerable story of moving from corporate momentum to spiritual disconnection and the radical shift that happened when she invited God to lead her career. Together, they explore the 4 Cs of a Christ centered life: Communion, Character, Calling, and Community.

You will discover practical ways to hear the Holy Spirit, the power of speaking life into others, and why journaling can become a love letter to the Savior. Jill even shares a powerful excerpt from her private journal to demonstrate what it looks like when God speaks to his children. Whether you are a business leader, a parent, or simply someone seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus, this conversation offers a clear blueprint for living with impact for the Kingdom.

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Or visit her website:
https://faithmeetsleadership.com/about

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Chapters
0:00 Intro and the Power of Journaling
3:12 Meeting Jill Cirillo and Her Story
7:45 Success vs Spiritual Emptiness
12:05 The Turning Point and Losing a Job
15:50 Refining Character Through Seasons of Pain
20:15 The 4 Cs of Walking with God
25:10 High Fives and Positive Vibe Leadership
29:40 The Science of Words and the Golden Rule
34:15 The Meaning of the Blue Tassels
38:20 The 3 Ps: Pause, Pray, and Pave the Way
43:05 How to Hear Gods Voice in Stillness
48:45 Writing Love Letters to Jesus
53:30 Jill Reads Her Personal Journal
57:55 Final Testimony and Closing Thoughts

If this message touched your heart, please subscribe to the channel and share this video with someone who needs a spiritual boost today. Be sure to check out our daily episodes for a quick boost of momentum for your walk with Christ.

#faith #leadership #christianity #walkingwithjesus #spiritualgrowth

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I wonder what it would be like to do that with Jesus. What if I wrote my this is my love letters, right?

SPEAKER_04 0:13

This is exactly what this is. And that's the thing, is because people I always said, like, I'm not a journal journaler, you know, like I don't want to journal, but like these letters are too like dear God. Like, dear God.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

There you go. And what if we wrote a love letter to Jesus? Praise, heart, soul. Like some people say they have a hard time praying because their mind wanders. Our ADD minds are programmed for ADD because of our cell phones, right? What if we wrote a letter to him?

SPEAKER_03 0:49

You're not gonna lazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Welcome everybody to this week's episode of Walking with the Savior Podcast. I'm your host, John Merrill Kirkman. And hey, I think it's been a week. I want to tell you first and foremost, you my friends, are awesome. The Lord loves you. And I got my CTR hat on today, which stands for Choose the Redeemer. And today you've chosen to be with us and listening to this podcast where we're gonna talk about Jesus Christ and the powerful influence that He can have on our lives. I feel so blessed to be here with my new friend Jill Cerillo. Did I say it right, Jill? Jill Cerillo, you said it right. Yes. And Jill messaged me a very powerful statement. I'm gonna read just a couple of her statements today, and we're gonna break them down because I felt the spirit so strong as I got this message. I was like, I of course I have to have Jill on my podcast. So it starts out by let's see. Uh here's what Jill wrote for a long time my life looked successful on the outside, good results, growing leadership, career momentum. But inside I was anxious, exhausted, spiritually disconnected. I believed in Jesus, but I wasn't really walking with him in how I led my or made decisions. Work had become my source of identity and security. I was relying on performance, not faith, trying to add God on top of life. He wasn't actually leading. The turning point wasn't failure, it was emptiness. I realized I was leading as if everything depended on me instead of trusting God as my true source. That realization changed everything. I stopped asking how it fit faith, how to fit faith into my leadership and started asking what leadership looks like when I walk with Jesus first. Out of that shift, faith meets leadership was born a business that brings faith, leadership, and business together into a clear blueprint for building a relationship with God and leaving it out in daily work for real impact for his kingdom. Wow, that was fantastic, Jill. I was on fire reading this. So let's just go back to some of the beginning here, where you said your life looks successful and you're got the career momentum cooking, uh, but inside you felt anxious, exhausted, and spiritually disconnected. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

Yeah, John. So I if you are a leader, I just want you to lean in because I think many of us, and where I was, is there's so much weight in the business world and in daily life by you're trying to, you know, raise a family, you're trying to pay the bills, you're trying to be the best leader that you can be. And I set out with a passion to do well and to be an excellent leader, climb the corporate ladder. And I let that I let that become me. And I had a I had a real foundation and belief and love for God. And I always felt that I lived that out. And slowly I just felt as that weight continued to get really heavy, I realized I didn't. And there's a profound question that actually got asked because I was there's a point where I was like, wow, this is so heavy. I'd have the Sunday night blues, or I'd be like that pit in my stomach, the weird work week's coming up. This doesn't feel good at all. And I remember talking to my uh sister-in-law, and I told her, I'm like, no, if I didn't have God, I don't know how I'd be doing this right now. And she said, Well, how do you have a relationship with God? And I looked at her and I thought, gosh, this should be a really easy question. And all of a sudden, as I tried to answer it, I realized I didn't have a relationship with God at all. And that was that was the the foundation of learning that I was just doing life without him.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

And you go on to say that you believed Jesus, um, but you weren't really walking with him. What did what did you mean by that? What were your what were your yeah?

SPEAKER_04 5:31

So I did the things. I went to church on Sunday, I prayed before I went to bed. I tried to spend more time with him in the morning, but most likely and most often failed. I didn't really give him much thought throughout the day. And then I would get to the end of my day and go back to the prayer and be like, oh, this is so heavy, God. Like it was such a, you know, help me, help me to find, you know, my calling, help me to to you know find this peace and joy that I know you bring. But I wasn't that was that was what I was doing. I was just going about the daily things, and I truly believe, and this is just so because there's so many of us are we're busy and we're burdened, and we're not we're not um spending that time with God to get out of that.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Interesting how you said so many are busy and they're burdened, but I feel like there needs to be another one that uh uh for redemption, you know, that we're busy, we're burdened, and we're not redeemed or something, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

We get too much into the stuff and the minutiae of the world, and we miss out on the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. So what changed for you wasn't um what did you say? It wasn't failure, it was emptiness. How did how did that really come about and spur your change?

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Yeah, so to be honest with you, if I were to show you my journals and go back and give you a little certs up in my journal, like and and where it was then and where it is now, you'd be like, holy cow, this is this is an example of the shift and the change. I mean, I would write the weight is heavy, God help me, like it was just constant. And I was like, help me to figure out how to do things right, help me to figure out my calling. And yeah, they've probably just been laughing at me, like, well, if you just spend time with me, you would know what it is. Uh but there was a question actually in my search, because I did, I did seek like how do I turn things around? And one of the quotes that I came across, which I think is just it just hit me. It was, if you don't sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes a sacrifice. And it was right, and it was like this point of yeah, so I want to have a relationship with God. I want to follow Him and His calling for my life, I want that to be first in my family. But instead, I wasn't taking action to do that. I was putting my achievements first. I was letting letting the the world leaders, you know, give me this sense of identity of who I was, how I performed, and I let all those things really like eat me up rather than um being round rooted and and you know have this foundation of in God first.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Yeah, that is so real though. It's so real and so easy for the especially achievements or accomplishments, and and if you're you know making more money, is it's so easy for those things to become uh part of our definition or you know, our status. But um it reminds me of this great quote, you know, that our identity is I am a child of God, and if any other identity replaces that, it will eventually fail. It will fail us and lead us to um you know, maybe just uh emptiness, as you said, emptiness. What was your emptiness like for you? Even though you've you've got the success cooking, but you got this emptiness thing going on that maybe people don't see on the outside. What is what was it like?

SPEAKER_04 9:16

Yeah, that so that's that's so real too, because if you were to look at me uh from the outside, I mean, I was known as like the go-to, we have a problem, let's put Jill on it, we'll move her over here, she can fix it, right? And and I, you know, I and I I got oftentimes kudos, like, I don't know how you do it, you have kids, you have this, and I was like, Yeah, pat myself on the back. And I'm like, I just had been like, no, I gave you that uh uh ability, and you can do all things through me who strengthens you, so but you're not starting with me, and that's why you're not strengthened on the inside. And so what that looked like was one, I I would stay up late because I was working and trying to again show up for the world. I was um absent-minded in the times where my kids were there. I was constantly like rationalizing and focusing on the problems and the issues and and everything that I needed to do to like show up well at work. And my kids would ask me something, and I'd be like, What? You know, like and and oftentimes I would be late for their things, and I just was an in inside I even my relationship with my husband, I think, was impacted because of the fact that I was so focused on work and I didn't make the focus on God, and so that just weighed on me, ate it up and ate me up every day.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Wow, that's so real. Uh, how did you what make some changes? Where did it start?

SPEAKER_04 10:46

Yeah, so to be honest, I'm just gonna be transparent for a second. I did seek God and I wrote, you know, in my journal, like, God help me, God show me. And it was like continuous, right? One day I got bold because I would never have quit my job on my own. And I said, God, if it is your will and this is the way that I need to seek you and follow you, take my job away. And it it was probably not more than three or four months after that that uh they reordered, and everybody was like, Jill, it makes no sense. Like, what you you like? You're the one that helped start this, you know, small startup company, you know the the ends and ins and out. And I was like, I know this makes sense to me. It was so hard. Uh, but that's when I made a shift, and that's when I made a change, and um with that, one of the the Bible verses that um God showed me was in Romans 12, 2 do not be conformed to this world, but be constantly progressively renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit in your mind. And that was the the turning point when I realized that uh so you know this, but I want to share this with everyone that we're made up right of a body, a mind, and a spirit. And our mind is our soul, and our spill spirit is what feeds, right? That's where our identity lives, it's in Christ. And if we are filling it with the world, where our identity then feeds our mind and our soul as that as being our identity, and that's what I was doing is I was being conformed to the world, and that was what was filling my my soul, my mind, which is why it was so heavy. And when I started to fill it with God, my mind and my soul got filled with his identity and his will and his power and his love and light.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Yeah, it reminds me of, and I'm I'm slaughtering this quote, but it's it's kind of like this idea. It's like it's no great accomplishment to be comport conformed to a sickly world.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

Like it's so true. Like I it's just when you step back and actually look at it, you're like, wow, like what was I what was I thinking? But it but it's so real. All of us, all of us are dealing with this challenge of the world because we're in it, but we're not of it.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

So uh what were some of the adjustments now? That was a big blow. Was that a big blow to your ego when you got let go?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

So that was, yeah, that's so so that's real. That's part of where you know, one of the things I learned is that that spending time with God, he also there is a Bible verse, and I can't remember what it is now, but it's but from glory to glory, he's he he helped my character. Like I suddenly, suddenly he showed me and unfolded day by day all of the things. Like I didn't realize all the things that I had going on, but I I had my identity was in the world, and so that was one of them. My pride. Um, he showed me that I was um, you know, my character was way off. I had like jealousy, I was comparing myself to others, like there were just so many things that he uncovered for me, and I'm like, wow, like I had nor realized that I had all these things of fear that I had, that I wasn't placing trust in him. Like, there's just so many things. I'm like, these are all the things that were making me so like you know, wound so tight. Well, that must have been painful.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

It was a season of pain, and it is hard, like but the out because I love you, but then you're like, Oh, let's peel this back and peel that back, and you're like, ah, that hurts.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

Yes, and that's the thing, and people need to realize it it's amazing when you decide to really follow God, but it is it is gonna be, he's gonna show you the way because he loves you. It's kind of like your kids, you know. You you give them the tough love because you know the outcome is better, and that's that's that's what he wants, and that's where why he shows you these painful things.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

So you started to see all these little cracks in the you know, the the uh beautiful image that you had created and yourself for to portray to the world, but then you started to examine and see some of these cracks with the help of God. Why do why do you think that was an important step uh for you in your journey? Because it it seems kind of mean, right? Like nobody likes going to you know uh some kind of coach and they're like you think you're doing great, and they're like, Well, let me tell you all the things you're doing wrong. That that kind of hurts.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

It does kind of hurt, and actually, one of the things I've developed as a part of this, and we talk about um how do you have a relationship with Jesus or relationship with God, is it's four things, and one of them is this communion part that we're talking about, just spending time with him, right? In scripture and in the word and prayer and all those things, and then the next one is character, where and this is a constant thing, but there's usually a you know starting point where I went through if you're really starting to deeply commune with him, you're where he's gonna uncover all these main things, and why those main things are so important is because it it blocks you from who God created you to be. You are the righteousness of God in Christ, and if you're you know um really living of the flesh, the flesh and and God are are in conflict with each other, and so that's what was happening inside of me. So that's why he removes them. It's it's huge and impactful to get to the next point, which is your calling and what he's got planned for you. Like we're all predestined, I you know, predestined in a plan that he has for our lives, and that yeah, it's it's it's got to be rooted in him.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

So you got what was the first C uh it was communion. I love that. It's more than attendance, it's more than checking a box. Communion to me is like a deep presence with the savior, sitting with the savior, yes, talking with the savior, talking with the savior, something I've been experimenting communication, two-way, seeking that two-way. Uh, something I've been experimenting with is walking talks with the savior, you know, to imagine him walking next to me as I'm taking that walk in the morning. So cool, so cool. It is so powerful.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

That imagining of Jesus being with you. I found is like the like that communion part with Jesus. Well, we'll get to another point, but keep going.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Communion character, is that what you said? And then character, and then the third one was what? Well, calling, calling. I love that idea that God has a calling for you. He said to Jeremiah, before I formed you in the bear belly, I knew you and called you. And I think it's essential for each of us to have and live from a place of calling and to realize we do have a calling, we have a purpose. Like, I feel like teenagers kind of struggle that way because they don't have a calling, a lot of them. You know, they don't they're they're still trying to find that, and adults too, too, right? So I don't want to, but they're they're so young and they're like, Oh, uh what am I gonna do with my life? And that to find that calling. But once you catch a calling, it lights a fire. So I'm curious before we go much farther, don't don't hold off any longer. I'm anxious. What's the fourth C? Oh, the fourth C is community.

SPEAKER_04 18:38

Community, you need to walk alongside others, you need to be in unity with other Christians who can build you up, show you the way, guide you, help. You know, you're in two-way with them, helping to have a relationship with God.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

So I love that. And you know, I work with youth, I teach youth classes, and this these four things is something I try to emphasize. I don't even know these four things, but man, I love your fantasy. I I'm gonna steal it.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Yes, and together they make the keystone have it. That's the most important thing for life because here's the other thing. Oh, tell me, is it Christ? Yeah, well, I call it I call it uh relationship with God, but it should be Christ.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Yeah, you gotta have the fifth sea, Jill.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

I love it, I love it. I'm gonna use it.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Okay, now I just want to tell you something I do with the youth that at first they're like, man, this guy's weird, but they do it and it has a powerful effect. I don't know if you do this with youth, I don't know if you work with youth, but I think it would work in the workplace too, as your coaching leaders, and that is telling people, giving uh this is what I do. I pair up my students, they're sitting together with a partner every class, and then multiple times through the class, I will say, hi five your partner, and then I will tell them what to tell them. I say, hi five your partner, tell them you're awesome, hi five your partner, tell them you're amazing, high five your partner, tell them you look good today, and give a compliment or a positive vibe, and then I switch them up uh multiple times most classes, and so they're getting a new partner, and then so throughout the class, they've got like five to ten high fives and positive messages like you're awesome, you're gold, you're fantastic, and the kids just eat it up. And I I think in a work place, you're going into companies training them how to do Christ-like leadership. Let's be positive, you know, let's let's radiate and up the positive vibe, and the work will the workplace will elevate and uh and just shine. Because in my mind, Jesus radiates kindness and positivity and hope. And if we instill that, we don't even have to say his name, but we are instilling Jesus into the environment with that goodness and kindness. So that was just my little uh thought about that, Jill. I I mean uh because I love what you're doing, I love the five C's, and I'm writing those down and I'm gonna be teaching those to my friends now that I that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 21:29

That's amazing, and I love what you're saying because it's so true. So, the other thing that uh I teach in the in the leadership piece, just as you're you're saying, so once you do the keystone habit, right? The one thing, the keystone holds everything up. And if you don't, if you do that every day, by the way, just to look another add on to this is you know, everybody's like, Oh, I want to lose weight, and I we look at the wheel of life, we want to lose weight, we want to do fix our finances, we want to have relationships with our people, you know, our family, make that all the better. And um, and they've got all these. Goals and I'm like, throw that away. And you start with this keystone, and God will do the rest. Like it, we we make it so hard. If you just you can do it when you do it in union with him, he gives you the strength. So that's that's the number one on the keystone. But the other thing you said is this point I teach on is this energy, is there there is there is uh power in the word, right? And there's power in what we say, just as you're saying, there's actually a study that was done that they had two plants, and one plant, uh yeah, you've probably maybe you teach this. So they have one plant, both of them got the same thing, same sunlight, same water, all the things. The only difference was one got filled with positive words and words of Jesus, the other one got filled with negative words and and not so great things. There's stupid plants. One thrives, the other dies. So yeah, it it's truly, I agree with your high fives and energy and words of power.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

So so here's what I've noticed though, Jill. I grew up in an environment that was filled with negativity and hate. I grew up in Southern California, just south of Compton. Gangs are gangs, drugs, and violence, gangs, drugs, and violence. And people would say the meanest things every day, and uh you know, and so what did I grow up with saying mean things to people? And I'm sad to say that, but you know, uh there were times I said some really rude, mean, awful things, and you know what it did, it made me feel terrible inside. The plant inside of me was withering and rotting, as my soul would rot from saying mean things. Now, what was really what I wanted was people to say nice things to me, right? That's what we want. We want people to like us and say nice things to us. Here's the magic, though. The more I say nice things to other people, the more they say it to me. Like I tell 10 people they're awesome in a day, which is my goal, that's my daily goal. Tell 10 people today they're awesome. Love that goal. I'm gonna make that goal, and and it could be any kind of awesome, it could be you're amazing, you're gold, you're incredible, or something like Jill. You're just an amazing person, right? And but here's the thing the more I say those positives, the more they say them to me. Like, lo and behold, the magic formula. As a kid, if I'd have been taught you want people to say nice things to you, you say nice things to them first. Yeah, wow, I ain't alone. In other words, here's the thing though, Jill. We're living the golden rule that Jesus taught.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

Yeah, well, that's just that he put it all in the book for us.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

What I just needed to live the golden rule, but more importantly, I probably needed somebody to show me how to live that golden rule. Yeah, yeah, agree. All right, Jill. I I just tell tell us what else you gotta share.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

So I so I know I don't know how much time we have, but I wanted to share one thing that just because I thought it was so important as it relates to the title of this podcast, it's walking with Jesus. And in in the walk with Jesus, one of the other things he showed me was so I'll quickly could tell a little bit of a quick story because this I think is really cool. I was so focused as I was like, okay, I'm gonna commune with the Holy Spirit, and I'm so focused on the Holy Spirit lives inside of me and I can access him and I can hear from him. I was so focused on that and just loving on like that um you know relationship with God. And I uh I was going to meet somebody that day for lunch and I did my Bible study. Um, and it was kind of like it's kind of like felt like, okay, we'll come back to this when you get back. I'm like, okay. So I I went off to lunch and um at at lunch uh he was telling me that he has um you know the story where we talk about the blue ta blue tassels in the Bible of on Jesus' garment where he has the blue tassels on the bottom of his garment. Yeah, like and he was the woman touching his robe type thing, yes, where she's healed because she touches the blue tassels, yes, correct. And he was telling me that uh he had some ties that he was at you know put embedding into his business because of that. And and I was like, oh, you know, the blue tassels. I'm like, that's interesting, like it just kind of like stuck in my head. And so then I came home and I went to read my Bible study, and I do I kind of do different parts in the Bible because I like to read the Old Testament and the New Testament at the same time. Like it's just hard to do one versus the other. Like to, I love the New Testament so much, and so uh I read my part in the Old Testament, and I read in the new old testament, and it was in numbers, right? And I opened up right to the spot where I supposed to be, and this is what it says says, you will have you will have these tassels to look at, and so you will remember all of the commandments of the Lord and be holy to your God. And I was like, Oh, whoa, tassels, like holy cow! Like this, I just went to lunch, and I'm like, okay, well, like what is what does this mean? So I'm like, all right, well, made kind of a note of that, and then I'm like, well, let me go to my next spot. And this next spot, I can't remember if it's in Matthew, but it was a story that we just talked about. It was the tassel story of the woman who touched the tassels, and I was like, oh my gosh, two different spots, say like three times in one day, right? Walking with Jesus, he's like showing me, blowing me up, and I'm like, what does this mean? And as I spent more time with him, this is what I uncovered is that he was like, You've been spending so much time with the Holy Spirit, and that's amazing. But the foundation and the keystone and the cornerstone of it all is Jesus Christ, and Jesus is the one who made it possible, right, for us to have the power of the Holy Spirit. He's the one that gave us the grace, like he is the source. And so um, as I got deeper into this, this tassel thing, and this is now what I teach in the leadership. So take this is this is fun stuff. Uh, at its core, the tassel, the blue tassels, uh, I can't say this word, but there's like tis and there's a there's a word for it. But the point of them was not necessarily about the fashion, it was the the intention of it was to really highlight three things is who is our source, reminder of who our source is, right? Jesus Christ, what shapes our decisions, and ultimately who are you accountable to? And so it's like this, it's like this uh pause, pray, and pave with God's authority, like on a daily basis. Like if you're going into like for the leaders, if you're going into a meeting, don't forget God, right? Like you, you, you're answering to him. He's the he's the source, he's the one that's shaping the decision. And by the way, he's sovereign and can do all things. So said a lot there, but hold the mind bone, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Like okay, we got the three P's now. Pause, pray, pave the way. So explain to me, Pave the Way. How are you seeing it? I want to hear you.

SPEAKER_04 29:49

Yeah, the pave the way is really about living out and modeling Jesus. And so the pause is like like I say, pray the way through the day. So it's about pausing and taking time and praying and and and asking for God to give you guidance and direction and all that. The um the pause is reflecting on knowing who he is and how he is sovereign, and he has authority about like we often forget that he is sovereign, he connects all things, like we are one body, and so he has authority, and so that's where your trust can come in because he truly nothing happens on this world without him, and this paved the way is I'm gonna do 10 amazing uh words of power to people. I'm going to um love on others in this deeper way, I'm going to, you know, just all the things that Jesus taught us, I'm going to serve others rather than tell, you know, bang on them and tell them what to do. And so it's really about living out um what's with the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you uh in the way of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

Yeah. This is God telling me this. This is all from him.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

And I love it. I love it. So, Jill, what did this do as you started to turn things more over to him and focus and walk with him? Well, maybe we need to stop. I was gonna go, you know, like what were the results, but what did you learn about walking with him? Teach me a little bit about that, because that is my gym.

SPEAKER_04 31:30

Yeah, well, it's amazing to me. Sometimes you're like, again, I think oftentimes we we know we we're told, okay, yes, you have the power of the Holy Spirit in you. And we're like, Yeah, okay, but I don't really feel him. I don't, I don't, God doesn't work in my life. Like, you there's so many people that I talk to that just feel that, and I and I felt that. Like I I loved him and I believed in him, and I knew that he was sovereign and all these things, but but like until you're really in communion with him, that that the fruits of the spirit really are not fully evident and really living out, and so there's just such a difference that where I and you have to break some of these strongholds that you like. I used to immediately be the one of fear where I would jump to the worst case scenario, and I still have these things, right? They're they're constant, you're dealing with, but they're different, it's different, and I take a moment back and go, okay, wait, nope, God is working, and also the the prayer piece of it. I'm just finding more and more as I'm deeper in that prayer, like God works. Like it's it's once you're in communion with him and you're praying and you're spending time, like he shows you the things that's so obvious, he things orchestrate, and he's like, Yep, I helped you there because you prayed about like it's it's just like you can't even explain it until you're living it out because God is just so all-powerful, and we just need to lean into him and he'll show us the way his people know him.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

Okay, you keep using this word communion, which I love, okay, but I don't know if we're um, you know what I mean. I don't know if we meaning me, my listeners, my friends, like yeah, what does that word mean to you? Because I love it, and I want to, I want to, I want to chew on that word. You talk about communion with him. Tell me what what that reference means to you.

SPEAKER_04 33:20

Yeah, that reference means to me is you're spending focused time with God. Like he meets us in the stillness. So it's spending like and I and I believe also that there's times of the day where you can you can have deeper communion with him because there's different um watches of the day, which I won't get into, but there's more, it's kind of why like at night and early morning, you know, if you wake up in the middle of the night and you have like fear or dreams, or it's because your brain is in a different state and it's got more susceptible to the spiritual. Um so like morning is a great time to spend time with God because He can reach you more deeply. And so, so there's lots of elements to this, but one of them is just prayer, you know, pray. Um, there is the the starting with uh when I start prayer, I start with praise and fear of God, knowing that God is all powerful and sovereign, and really not just having a love for him, but but that fear and that awe of how amazing he is. And that that's like people miss that sometimes because it actually there's I don't have the Bible verse right in front of me, but there's a Bible verse on that uh where that's where it all starts, and the wisdom of God starts there. And so having that praise and that fear is a starting point, doing your prayer. I I like to allow for two-way communication time where I sit with God, I pray, and then I actually say, silence the silence the enemy, silence my flesh, silence the world, bind my mind and my subconscious mind and the mind of Christ, and really allow to hear. And I journal and write down things and and don't even think about, don't don't know if it's you or him, but but just write it, write it all, and don't think about it. And then later you can come back. And and a lot of times I'll be like, I don't even know what that word means, you know, like it has to be here from him. And so he speaks through those times and those quiet times. And then the last piece that's super important is really mirroring it with the scripture and time in the word, and that's where the Holy Spirit is like your teacher, sits alongside you and highlights like these are the things that I was teaching you, like the tassels, and like it, and that's where it all starts to come together. And we think that it's like I have one right here, but I keep touching it right here. But you think that it's just a book that you read and it's you know about history, but it's it's also living and breathing, and there's power in it today.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Okay, so I gotta I gotta get into some more nitty-gritty. That was awesome, by the way. Uh I just I'm I'm I'm eating this up because you you started talking about journaling in the so what does this look like for you? Are you are you sitting at a table with prayer and a journal and some scriptures, and you kind of got this process you go through? And forgive me for being nitty-gritty like that. But but I love talking about what it looks like, right? Because we just say things like, oh, go to church and just pray, you know, pray. Like, and and everybody's different though. So uh, and and yeah, I think we need to figure out our way to communicate with God and our way to hear how we can be led by him, and seeing somebody successful at it, I love to get their ideas. So give me some more grit uh nitty-gritty about what this might look like for you. Are you sitting at a table? You got a journal of scriptures, or I obviously there's prayer everywhere, you know, and we can walk our day with the savior. But can you help me?

SPEAKER_04 37:04

Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you're asking these questions because I think it's so real that people are like, okay, but I don't understand the Bible, and I try, but it's like really hard. And I try to pray, but like, you know, like all of a sudden my mind's somewhere else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's so real. And I will say that I am not immune to it, like I don't claim to be like, you know, but I this is what I will tell you is that in the beginning, it was really hard, and and it was harder than I think because I was again, you're you're this is a real struggle. Like your your spirit and your flesh are in constant conflict because again, your flesh is not of God, and so you're you're constantly having that battle. So like your mind is like, oh, I gotta do this. And so I recommend like one, like taking this phone and getting rid of that, taking your watch, getting rid of that, absolutely no distractions, like remove all of the tendencies. Uh, and I say, and I'd say computer too, but I will say that I actually do I prefer to type uh lots of times rather than journal. I do both, but I like to type because I can close my eyes and really focus. Because part of what I think is important in this, and actually, this was um I went through some uh ministry training, and one of the things that I learned is, and actually, these these elements that I'm teaching you are scriptural, um, is is journaling and and um you know the the whole point of Jesus. And so that's one of the teach you is like to imagine yourself. That's why I love when you said walking with Jesus. It says to imagine yourself sitting next to Jesus and just looking at him, sitting with him, looking at him, and just you know, just sit in that presence of him, and then you're uh getting rid of all of the rest of the things, and that's when I feel like the most um happens because you're just focused on him, and then all the other distractions go away, and that's when he can fill you up, is when you're when you're really getting rid of these other things that are there.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Yeah, that's beautiful, and so yeah, and I usually sit here by the way, you ask that too. So you're sitting at a desk, you got your computer journaling, and then you're you're kind of pondering and uh uh communing and uh praising, which I love. I love the idea of praising. Um okay, here's here's an activity I just came up with this week, and I experimented with my students. Okay, so I just watched this video this week of this couple that had been married, they're 92, I think it was. Okay. They've been married about 70 years. But 50 years ago, so they were married about 20 years at the time, they were in a rough spot.

unknown 40:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

And they had several kids, and things were just not going great. He was working way too much, uh, according to the wife. And you know, he was clueless as to what was going on, and she's like, I was about to leave, and and he probably would have had no idea. And they ended up going to this marriage retreat, and and and the husband's like, We were arguing the whole way to the marriage retreat. And uh one of the activities at the marriage retreat was to write each other a love letter. And they uh you know went in a different room and they wrote each other a love letter, and then they had to come back to each other and read it to each other or read each other's love letter. And they said that that that changed them and they have kept that practice up for 50 years. Amazing. Yeah, and they have spiral, they all did spiral notebooks, all in spiral notebooks, and they have like six boxes full of these spiral notebooks where they wrote love letters to each other for 50. Oh that's so precious, that's awesome. Okay, so now here's the here's the application, all right? Because I was like, I wonder what it would be like to do that with Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

What if I wrote my this is my love letters, right?

SPEAKER_04 41:48

This is exactly what this is, and that's the thing is because people I always said, like, I'm not a journal journaler, you know, like I don't want to journal, but like these letters are too like dear God, like dear God.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

There you go. And what if we wrote a love letter to Jesus, praise, heart, soul? Like some people say they have a hard time praying because their mind wanders, our ad minds are programmed for ADD because of our cell phones, right? What if we wrote a letter to him and just and I don't know if it needs to be every day, but I just feel like it's a choice to love God. And you think about it, the command love God and love your neighbor. Those what he's basically saying is you have a choice and you can choose to love me. Instead of sometimes we're you'll talk to people who are like, Oh, I uh I I hate God because blah blah blah, right? They're choosing to hate God, but he's saying you can also choose to love me. And love is kind of like an action, like if I choose love, if I choose kindness, and I've heard this in like marriage stuff too. Like I could choose how I respond to my wife, and I can choose to show love. And the more I choose to show love, instead of waiting for the feeling of love, if we wait for the feeling, we'll probably never choose love. If I wait for the feeling to love my neighbor, he's over there, he gets in his car, he leaves. You know, and I don't feel anything towards my neighbor. But if I go over and take him some cookies or some bread, then all of a sudden I've chosen to love. And then the and then the feeling comes. Now I have a friend. And so in this action of, okay, I'm gonna write a letter to the savior every day, in your case, journal, a prayer, whatever that looks like, I just think we wouldn't we we couldn't help ourselves. We would so fall in love with Jesus. Yeah. Uh because we're choosing. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_04 44:04

Oh, I I absolutely love that. I think it's fantastic. And not only are you um, you know, writing this love letter to God, but it's it's also this like points I was making around like the fear of God, the awe of God, the the love of God. And and it's also a time, like I use it to to share my love for him, but I also use it to say, like, let me be real, God. This is what's this is what's on my heart today. And I need your help, and I can't do this on my own, and I need you to just you know build me up and solve this and help me here. And so it's a it's a point of of real that's kind of you know, he says, give the your yoke to him, and so that's what I do in that time too, is I just give it to him and and uh yeah, it's really good, it's good. Love your idea.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

Thank you for sharing that. Your your your example of being real with us. Okay, this might be a little TMI. Okay, but we're on would you be willing to share a page? Would I be willing to share a page? Sure. Oh wow, what is it? So bold. Well, I mean, I'm on okay. I'm I'm just in the idea stage of this love letter to Jesus. I did have my students write a love letter to Jesus in class, and I uh I've done it a few days this week. So I'm I'm new on the journey, okay? Oh my gosh. You've got books there, so I'm preaching.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

You know what's so funny? So I will read this. It's a funny two, because uh actually I write in here, uh, I usually start with dear God, and then I come back with a okay, now what do you want to tell me? And then I have the here's what God says to me.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

Okay, I just have to pause for a moment. People, we are reading Jill's journal. Can you believe this?

SPEAKER_04 46:02

Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're convincing me to do this. Okay, all right, here we go. This is from um March. This is from March. It says, Dear God, I pray you are with me, guiding me on your path, your will, your divine ways. Lead me to a level and upright path of righteousness. Bring me to the place where you want me to be. Grow me, nurture me, develop me in your will and your ways of the Lord. Nurture me, nourish my soul, fill it with your love, your spirit, your will, your grace, your strength. Unite in us in a spirit. Help me to hear from you deeply and clearly.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Uh I just keep going.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

I just felt that. I felt that. Oh can you read some more? That's pretty much yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:58

I'll keep going.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Renewing me an affectionate and loving spirit. Start over with what you were reading. I think we were talking on top of each other, so go ahead and start.

SPEAKER_04 47:07

Renew in me an affectionate and loving spirit. Bring me to the place where you want me to be. Help me to shed uh uh the pull of this flesh and of this world. Give me what I need to do your will and take care of my family. Remove from them the strategies and the plans of the devil. So there's a little prayer in there, too. Uh, and then this next part is from is from God. And let's go see this thing. Sometimes that just goes, and you just keep going because you keep hearing and you just keep writing.

SPEAKER_02 47:40

Keep going, or is it too much? Sure, sure. Okay, all right. Wait, I just gotta say something, man. I we are like living a psalm of David right here, people blown away. This is like the psalms of the Bible. This is just but we've got a real person right here, Jill Sorrillo. Did I say it right? Cerrillo.

unknown 48:10

It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

We've got Jill Cerillo with the the Psalms of Jill live. I can't believe this.

SPEAKER_04 48:17

This is a funny because I was just reading the Psalm of David, too, that you said that. Okay. Um, all right. So here's this is what I said from God. Uh, I want you to know how much I love you. I am proud of you, and I will show you great and mighty things, illuminate the world to you. I will take care of this opportunity. You will just take the next step, focus on filling yourself with me. Uh, unite with me, go deeper with me in love and unity. We are connected, we are one. I will be with you wherever you go. I will this is what the spirit does to you. Uh I I will I can't read this because I wrote, um, I want you to stop feeling like you are mistaking me and not hearing me out. I am here, you are listening. Like we often think that, like, I see I've been dealing with like sometimes, like, is that you? It's like, no, I'm here. I'm guiding, growing, and nurturing. Uh, you are a child of God. You are my bride, right, bride? Because we are his bride. Are we united?

SPEAKER_02 49:26

That this morning.

SPEAKER_04 49:28

Yeah, we are. That's when he comes, he's coming to see his bride.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

And and I was thinking, I I'll tell you after what I was thinking about that. But like you were thinking about David a couple days ago in the Psalms, and then boom, you were talking about the bride.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

Those two God is like, this is he's he's orchestrating this right here. Uh we are united in reaching spiritual maturity, maturity to hear me and do life together. You will feel what I feel, hear what I hear, and know what I know. You won't always know how, but it's because of me. You are chosen for a special call. I know the plans I have for for you, plans of righteousness and impact, and uh, and and I can't read this. Uh uh, oh, and yeah, in interconnections and connecting dots, connecting people, um helping people through the rescuing of their hearts um and their minds. I have placed um I can't read my writing. This is where I just like because it's coming. Um I have placed you for knowing and growing, you will thrive and you will soar on eagle's wings. Go teach, go teach, be a leader of leaders. You are my daughter, united in Christ by the power and blood of Jesus Christ. Good and faithful daughter, you are in the place of my will. You will you will go where many have not gone before. You are rising up, be still and know that I am God. I can make all things happen in accordance with my will. My will be done.

SPEAKER_00 51:12

Woo!

SPEAKER_04 51:15

Yeah. Holy cow, that's God right there.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

That was so beautiful, Jill.

SPEAKER_04 51:24

Oh my goodness, Jill. I didn't even like cherry pick. I just pulled out of uh now, Jill.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

Yes. Where do we go for the this is the thought I had when you were sharing that? This is what God offers us. This is what Jesus offers us when we commune with him. Like, I can't imagine how that must feel inside your soul. Well, I can imagine because I can feel it right now. It feels pretty dang good. That letter, I believe 100% that letter was from God to you. Yeah, and yeah, I wouldn't write that myself. He spoke of your divin divinity, he stoke, he spoke of your purpose, he spoke of your value, your worth, your true worth to your soul, right? And you read that, you were able to open this up and receive the Psalm of Jill to your heart and soul. And sometimes I think like we fail to communicate what is being offered here when we say, Hey, we want you to commune with God, we want you to read scriptures, and we want you to pray, and we just sell it like that. But man, you just sold my heart on this project, Jill. Yeah, that's good. What is being offered there from the grand king of the universe is a buffet of goodness, and sometimes we get stuck snacking on a pile of Doritos in a lonely corner when he's just saying, Come to the buffet that I'm offering. Now, yeah, I want to share the last thing with you that relates to we're the bride. Okay, because man, you've been filling me up, Jill. I'm so on fire right now. Last week, about a week ago, I went to a wedding reception that was above me. Okay, socially, I was down here. Now, I'm not I don't know if you've had experiences with these types of weddings. I'm sure you have. I'm just a teacher, you know. My um, but anyway, this wedding was full like that. You're an amazing teacher, and you're awesome. And this this place was filled with people you just go, oh my gosh, oh, oh, that's oh that oh, you know, well known um and recognizable people, and you know, there was this energy in the room, I think, because there was you know, sometimes I go to a wedding reception, it's like I know the bride and nobody else except for my guest, my wife, or something. And so you kind of just sit there and like, yeah, I don't know, anybody here, but there was this electric energy that kept everybody on the edge of their seats to see who was gonna come through the door next and looking around to see who else was here they created this energy, but then I had this thought what if Jesus walked in that room? Jesus is the groom and I'm his bride. That's right, and he wants to see me now every one of us, every one of us. Now, the point of this is not that I'm special, but I like to think I'm Jesus' favorite.

SPEAKER_04 55:03

Okay, Jill, I'm sorry, but it's kind of like your kids, you're every one of us is his favorite.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

But but anyway, I was thinking, I'm his bride, and Jill, you're his bride, and you know this, but there was people in the line in the in this wedding reception, you know, their area where there were lines of people, so to speak, waiting to talk to this person, right? And you know, I'm not one of those people people are lined up to talk to me. I'm sure nobody went home and said, I met John Kirkman tonight at the wedding reception, you know, and I that's not the point of this. But Jesus is lining up to meet me. Jesus is coming in that wedding reception at the second coming, he's like, Oh, where's that John Kirkman? He's my man, I want to meet him, I want to see him. Not like he needs to meet me, but like he's uh targeting me. And that's I think the message he's trying to convey when he's saying, I'm the the bride, I'm the groom, and you're the bride. It's like I am hunting you down and I'm lining up to talk with and connect with you.

SPEAKER_04 56:19

Yeah, that's right. So good, John. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 56:25

I gotta read your last testimony, okay, Jill?

SPEAKER_04 56:29

All right.

SPEAKER_02 56:30

We've already uncovered it all, so yeah. This is what Jill wrote me when it was like, okay, some of your thoughts about the savior. She said, When we place our trust in him, not partially but fully, we discover stability that nothing else can provide. He is present with us every moment of every day. When we ask him, invite him, and surrender to him, he is near. He does not leave us to figure life out on our own. Developing an intimate relationship with God is truly game-changing. It changes how we think, how we decide, how we lead, and how we live. That intimacy reshapes everything. And it's something I feel called to share with the world. This is why God is the foundation of my model, not as an add-on, not as a secondary influence, but as the starting point. Because everything, our purpose, our leadership, our work, and our impact begins with him. What a testimony to be anything you want to add to that last minute.

SPEAKER_04 57:39

I just want to say, um I just want to say that I just pray, my prayer is for everyone to have this deep relationship with God. And if you are in this state of busyness and burden, uh come as you are and just ask God to show you the way, because it is a definite game changer. If I were to read a page out of my old journal from where I was before, it was not that that that healthy. It was it was uh God, I'm I'm dying here. I I need your help. And so that's my prayer for everyone today.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

Oh, thank you everybody for joining us on this week's episode of Walking with the Savior. I hope you're on fire inside your soul because I'm feeling it right now, people. I love you and enjoy your walk with the savior this week, and we'll see you next week. So long, everybody. Oh, and before I go, be looking for my daily episodes where I give you a two to three minute spiritual boost to give you some momentum for your day. Check those out Monday through Friday, and these interviews drop on Sunday. Thank you, everybody. You're awesome.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

Your future is bright when you walk with Christ.