Have You Heard The Good News‪?‬ Cindy Spencer

In this episode, I read 70 scriptures on our identity in Christ with piano music in the background.  So relax and reflect on your true identity in Christ.  I also share a few minutes first before I start speaking the scriptures so I if you would like to start with the scripture reading with piano music go to the 6-minute mark and about 45 seconds in.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's episode about our identity in Christ. Today, most of the scriptures I will be reading are in the New American Standard Bible. Some are King James Bible, some are New Living Translation, but there are about 70 verses that I'm going to read.
And for me in my life, I read these every day, twice a day. And there was a season about a year ago that I was going through kind of a valley experience. And I was reading all 70 of these three times a day. And what's amazing is they're not even scriptures on healing, per se. They're more on who we are in Christ and our identity in Christ and what's amazing is they brought me out of that valley along with people and prayer and teaming up with people who prayed for me. But, you know, every day, I had to keep feeding myself the scriptures the word, and it was powerful. And you know, even Jesus focused on his identity. In Luke three, it tells us when John baptized Jesus, and then in verse 22, it says, the Holy Spirit descended upon him, in bodily form, like a dove and a voice came out of heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased." 
Then in Luke 4 Jesus for 40 days, being tempted by the enemy, and he ate nothing during those days. And when they had ended, he became hungry. The enemy said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.
And two things I want to point out that the very first temptation that the enemy gave Jesus was questioning if he was the Son of God, if he knew his identity, and I think if some of you think about it, that you've had that same temptation, wondering, are you really a daughter or a son of God? And the interesting thing is, that the enemy didn't say, Are you the beloved Son of God, which is what God told him before he went into the desert. He just said, Are you the Son of God? And then what did Jesus do? And all three temptations in Luke four that the enemy came at him with, He returned all three with scripture. And so I am such a word girl. I love the word of God. It's powerful.
I've been healed by the word of God just reading the Word of God. It's, just alive and it's active. And God always knows what we need it when we need it. And so today I'm going to share these scriptures with you. And like I said, there are 70 verses, but again, I'm not going to read them, the addresses, you know the location of each verse, what I'm going to do is put those in the show notes and you can get a copy of that at my website gotbbb. And that's gotbbb.org. And you'll see all my podcast episodes. And then you'll be able to read the show notes right below the podcast episode. And so I'm going to just go ahead and start and bear with me if you hear some paper rustling because obviously there's a lot of verses and I had to print them out so it'd be easy to read to you.
But just sit back and just relax. And just listen to these verses of who you are in Christ because of what Jesus did on the cross. And how God sees us and who we are to God and our relationship to God all because of what Jesus did for us. And because we're in him, and they're in us, all these things are true. And some of these verses I will be saying are just like, really amazing. And almost like, really like, Wow. I mean, like, you could study one verse for a whole week to get the understanding and the full meaning of it. But for right now, I just want to share these scriptures with you because they've been so powerful in my own life. And I know that they can bless you.
So we're going to start with Romans three, verse 24. But that'll be the last time I give you the verse therein, from now

Episode 9 is a short "paraphrased" story of Gideon out of the Book of Judges. Does God see Gideon as an overcomer? Do you see yourself as an overcomer?  Listen to find out... or read these show notes.
How many of us go through our day feeling like overcomers? Today, I'm going to share a short story of Gideon who definitely, in the beginning, did not feel like an overcomer. But I wanted you to hear the story that I paraphrase out of the book of Judges, so you can see that you are an overcomer too. I want to share a story with you about Gideon, and many of you know about Gideon, he's in the Old Testament.
And Gideon was young and very afraid and had no confidence in anything that he could do. He was the youngest in his family. And when God came to talk to him, he was actually hiding in a barn, because there was a battle going on. And God came to him and said, "Gideon, my mighty man of valor, I need you to go do blah, blah, blah." And Gideon looked at him and said, "I can't go do that. I'm the youngest in my family. I'm just, I'm just a boy. I can't do that." And what did God say? Now Gideon, get up out of there and stop acting like a fool. And you know, stop being stupid and just get out there and do what I told you to do. Did God say that? No! God came to Gideon again and said, "Gideon, my mighty man of valor." That is how God saw Gideon.
Even though in the natural Gideon is hiding and he's feeling little and very little and very small and very afraid. God didn't even acknowledge his fear. He didn't even acknowledge any of the complaints he had about doing whatever God asked him to do. He just reminded him, Gideon, you are my mighty man of valor. That means brave and hero and strength. And God had full confidence that Gideon was going to be able to do what he was asking him to do. But Gideon didn't have that confidence. So that is who our God is. God sees each one of us through His Son Jesus, through the payment that Jesus paid with his body and his blood on the cross, so that we can have full access, intimacy with the Lord, again, everything restored. And he sees us as His sons and daughters. And you see that all through the New Testament. And it says that we are already overcomers, and overcomer means victorious.
Many of us, and I did this for years is I prayed from a non-over comer position. I prayed from trying to get to be an overcomer, trying to really exercise my faith muscles, and really trying to do it in my own strength. And now, I pray from knowing who I am in Christ, and all that Jesus did for me. So I just want to encourage you to really spend some time seeking God and renewing your mind to what the Word of God says about you.
And I just want to pray right now. Lord, I thank you, I thank you for everyone listening to this video right now. I thank you for touching them in their heart, in their minds, all the love that you have for them, and that they are victorious, amazing women and men of God. They are your sons and daughters. And I thank you, Papa, for touching each one of them with a peace that you love them, that you are love, you are all love.
And they can rest in that and pray from that mindset that they are loved. And I thank you, Papa, for just touching each one of them with the desires of their heart. give them direction, wisdom, freedom from any guilt or shame. Give them courage. Let them see that you've already made them courageous. They just need to see it. I thank you that they are so courageous, and so brave, and know that they have that safety net in Jesus. And as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus, you will keep us in the right place in strength and overcoming and victorious and safe. And I thank you, Papa, for your love. And I thank you for touching each one of them. In Jesus name, amen.
Well, I hope you're blessed. And thank you again for stopping by and have a great day.
 

Listen to hear how Jesus helps us be courageous.
Here are the show notes:
Hi, this is CindySpencer. And today we're going to talk about learning how to be courageous from a big chicken. And who's the big chicken? Me. Most of my life, I've been on the big chicken side versus the courageous side.
Now, I have learned a lot about being courageous. And it's completely different than I ever thought it was. And I just want to share how being courageous is not what we think it is. It is possible. I'd like to share a story that I heard another person share that happened in history in the United States down in San Diego, no, San Francisco, they were building during the Depression, during the 30s, they were building that big, huge Golden Gate Bridge that's there by San Francisco.
The sad thing was they were losing a lot of men, a lot of men were dying, because as they're building this big bridge, if they fell, they would drown in the ocean. And you know, they were way high up. And that's a big fall. So one of the men came up with a plan to devise this big, huge net. And I'm not sure exactly, but it sounds like it went the full length as a bridge wherever the men were working. And it cost a lot of money, which you know, during the Depression-era they didn't have, but it cost a lot of money for them to build this net. But it was so worth it because it saved so many lives. Men were able to work go to work on the bridge, and they didn't have that fear of am I going to fall today? And how many of us know that when you have something like that it affects your work, or whatever you're doing that you need to be brave for.
And so these men were so thankful and so many lives were saved after they put this big netting in. And not only that, they discovered that the work got done in record time. And I don't remember all the details of how fast but it was in record time. And they figured out it was because the men were able to go up with confidence. And know that when they went up to work, they can work and be safe. And how many of us know that part of being courageous is knowing that if we are being courageous, we will be safe.
That's a huge factor in every single one of us, through all of mankind. You know, the other day, I looked up the word courage. And do you know, the very first definition of courage was the heart. And then it went on to talking about brave and fearless and going out, even into the face of danger. But it starts with the heart and in the Bible when it mentions the heart, it's actually tying into your whole soul, which is your mind will and emotions. And that's where all this courage takes place because thinking about it, for the dictionary to say that a person going out bravely and fearless, they have to know in their heart, in their mind will and emotions who they are. There are many people out there that don't have a relationship with God or Jesus. And they're very brave. But they're doing it out of their own strength. Somewhere in their life, they built up the confidence that gave them that bravery. In my world that didn't happen. And I was not brave I was a big chicken my whole life. Because I never developed that confidence to be fearless or any of that. None of that happened for me until I found Jesus and realized that he was my net. And I didn't have to look at myself anymore. Even though I found Jesus over 35 years ago, I still was looking at myself and leaning on myself to do everything, which did not help at all in the courageous area. A couple of years ago, when I got totally set free from condemnation, I knew my right standing, I knew that I was righteous and that God saw me as his daughter, and loved and so free from all that nonsense, and all the lies of condemnation and what comes with it, that it was all gone. Then I was able to be more courageous, and go out and do some things that I wouldn't normally be brave enough to do. When I did have moments of weakness. And when I had those moments where I got in

Cindy Spencer 0:07
Hi, my name is Pastor Cindy, welcome to The Good News podcast. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have all the benefits that Jesus purchased for you on the cross? Guess what you already do? I spent most of my life looking at my performance both good and bad. Instead of looking at what Jesus had done for me, my relationship took a radical turn when my focus went off of me and I put it back on Jesus. My heart's desire is to stir up your faith and passion for Jesus and bring you into new levels of friendship with him. Ready to hear the good news? Let's hop on over to today's episode.
Whoo. Hey, everyone. Before we start this episode, today, I just wanted to give a big shout out to my sister Kathy, who 37 years ago on July 17, brought me to the Lord and got me started on my walk with Jesus. Thank you so much, Kathy. I love you lots. Hey, welcome, everyone. This is Pastor Cindy. And today for this episode, I've invited two of my friends. And I have Jeremy Horton and his beautiful wife, Carolina Horton. And they're here today to talk about salvation. On today, July 17, 2019, it is my 37th birthday, as being a Christian. And I decided to share about salvation today and different perspectives, and how Jesus has touched my life in such a different way, compared to how he's touched Jeremy, and how he's touched, Carolina. And so we're going to share our different stories, and encourage you guys that no matter what your path has been like with Jesus, that it's beautiful. And it's so personal. It's so God treats us all with our personalities, and our individual likes and dislikes and who we are and how we learn. So I'm going to go ahead and start with Jeremy, thank you so much for coming today.
Jeremy Horton 2:24
Thank you, Cindy, for having us. We really appreciate your presence and God's presence in this room right now.
Cindy Spencer 2:30
Thank you. Yeah. And this is Carolina.
Carolina Horton 2:34
Yes. Thank you for having us, Cindy, really, such a pleasure to be able to share the love of God and the miracles he's done for us when they can
Cindy Spencer 2:42
encourage someone else. Exactly. And I just I have to tell you guys that are listening. You know, I've known Jeremy and Carolina for about a year now. And they just glow. The love of God has touched their heart in such a way that they just glow and they love to help people and they love to serve in the church. And it's just changed their whole family, their three girls. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that. And some of the differences that I experienced in my walk over the 37 years. So why don't we go ahead? And do you want to start Carolina and kind of just share how you found Jesus and what it was like growing up? Yeah.
Carolina Horton 3:30
So I was born and raised in Chile, I was part of a very strict religious Catholic school. My whole upbringing, there was no encouragement to really have a relationship with Jesus, where to find it for myself, it was very much rules-based and just staying within those rules. Okay. So when my husband, after being married for 10 years, decided to go on this walk. I was against him. It's something that I did not receive. I didn't think I needed in my life. So when he found Jesus, it was really different for you. It was night and day because I saw such a transformation in him. Wow, that it made me want it. I really Jesus. I saw Jesus in him. When I was being a pest, he would just love me. When I would try to fight with him, he wouldn't respond. He was fathering our children in a very different way. So I reached the point where I said, What's different? What is it? And he said, Is Jesus? I said, Well, no, I've read the Bible. I know, I know. He said You don't? You may have read. But you don't know Jesus.
Cindy Spencer 4:53
Wow. How did you feel?
Carolina Horton 4:57
I mean, it humbled me in really in a soft end of my heart, and it made me realize that there is something that I don't

Learn three different ways to look at your relationship with Jesus that I experienced and discover some new truths to building a better walk with Jesus.
Hey, everyone, this is Pastor Cindy saying thank you for coming to today's podcast, where we'll be talking about building a better relationship with the Jesus, we are continuously growing and learning more about our friends and family and getting closer and building a deeper relationship. So it only makes sense that we would do that with God too, and, and getting to know them better and continue building that relationship and learning more about him, knowing who we are to him, and who he is to us. And I've also discovered over the years that salvation is truly the greatest miracle. So it only makes sense that we would want to know more and grow in our relationship with Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior. One of the reasons I decided to do a series of episodes about salvation, is because, on July 17, 2019, I'm celebrating my 37th year of walking with Jesus. And I did some reflection and realized I could pretty much bring it into three different phases of my walk, and I want to share them with you. So I'm hoping as I share these three areas that some of them will be relatable to you, and maybe bring some understanding to your walk with God in three areas that I realized two of them, I did not have my understanding and perspective on who Jesus was and what he had done
for me correctly. And then the last one is when I got my understanding correct about Jesus, and what he had done for me, and how everything changed after that. The first one that I want to talk about is the timeframe that I dealt with, probably 20 years, or more, which I'll call law. And I don't mean like the law of the United States are breaking the law here in the States, I'm talking biblical law. And in the Old Testament, it talks about there were 613 laws and the 10 commandments. But what happens is, when you are under that mindset of operating in the law, one way you can know, if you're dealing with that is if you always have this thought of doing good, get good, do bad, get bad from God. I don't know how many times I felt like if I let God down or did something wrong, he was going to strike lightning at me. And now it's just like, you know, I know how loving he is. And I knew he was loving back then. But I could even love him with all my heart. And I loved having a relationship with him. But it was just a struggle in how close I felt to him because I felt very distant from him. And that I found out was not on his end, that was all on my end because I had a misunderstanding. And that that was where the whole problem was, is I just had a misunderstanding of who God is. And didn't know how much he loved me. And it took me 19 years of my 37-year walk to really, really believe that he truly loved me just the way I was in all my mess. And once that happened, things started to change. But then I entered a new phase. The next phase is what I call the religious mindset. And in that one, it's you have to have this, do this, do this to become this, or do this and then do this again. But don't do this. To become this didn't keep me from loving God. I just thought this is the way it was.
And I thought everybody did this. And now I'm happy to say that I entered the righteousness phase. I cried and cried. And yes, it was a happy cry, not a sad cry. I was so happy that I finally got it I finally understood righteousness. Yes, that one word made a big difference. In everything that how, I saw how I saw God, how I saw Jesus, how I saw myself and how he I kind of started seeing how he saw me. And it was so much better. So because it's so much better, I'd like to reiterate the differences between the three, law does good, get good, or do bad, get bad from God. religion says you need to achieve this, you need to do this, you need to do more. You need to do this again. But don't do this, to become this. And then God will bless

Episode 5 is an interview with Nancy Ann Johnson about her brand new book called Ask For Your Miracle.  Meet the author in a heart to heart talk as she shares the testimony of how Jesus healed her. Let this comeback story restore your hope in the promises of a miraculous God. You can find more from her at engagingjesus.com
Cindy Spencer 00:00
Welcome to Episode Five. Ask for your miracle. This is Pastor Cindy Spencer, here to talk about good news. Just like the title says, In a world that likes to talk about negative news, I want to shout from the rooftops good news. I will be sharing a variety of topics in this podcast. But as the song says, Remember the best news, it's all about Jesus.
Welcome to today's episode, we are going to interview Nancy and Johnson. She wrote a book called Ask For Your Miracle. I've known Nancy for eight years now. And I've actually basically been here alongside while she's been going through this journey that she wrote about in her book. And so today, we get to hear about different facets of her book and different things that we think that would just totally bless your day today.
So welcome, Nancy.
Nancy Johnson 01:05
Hi, Cindy. And so glad to be here. And I'm just so thankful to have you for a friend and just to be alive. So I'm, I'm so glad I met Jesus, and he's lined all this up for us.
Cindy Spencer 01:16
Yes, literally, she's thankful to be alive, it's you should get her book. I mean, it's amazing her story. So we're here today to hear some little juicy bits about your book. And you're going to share some of the things that you wrote about. And one of the things I'd love for you to share is explaining the title that says, Ask For Your Miracle. And why you decided to write this book.
Nancy Johnson 01:42
Yeah, um, I'm just so excited to share my testimony with people, you know, I've, I almost died and was in a position of a lot of weakness. And God was able to bring me out of that and restore me completely, not just me, but my marriage and our finances. So I want to share that with people. Because it's good to know that Jesus is doing miracles today. And that there are steps that you can take to get to that kind of victory. And so I kind of laid out the steps and it's healing spirit, soul and body, learning to pray with faith, you know, learning that we can actually believe God for a miracle, and they actually has promises that we can step into. And so knowing him is, is an amazing thing, and nothing is impossible for him. And so my main point is to ask, you know, seek knock and never give up like I had to just hang on and never give up. I wanted that promise of healing at one my miracle. And I wanted you people also to know that you can do it. I just want to encourage you to fight for your miracle and fight for your healing. And I'm using the pain in the situation that I was in, to be my life purpose now and to help others, to help others and to give hope to others, to encourage, and encourage others that they can do it. And so there are lots of neat things in this book about those keys. I talked about having an extraordinary marriage, I talked about the Holy Spirit, I talked about resting in the love of the Father, and just different things on faith and prayer. So I just wanted everybody just to dive into those things, because God's amazing, and he's the best friend that you'll ever have.
Cindy Spencer 03:19
Amen! I agree with all that. That's amazing. And I know that at the back of the book, I was really excited because you, you added some scriptures that are for people that maybe don't know where to start. Can you share a little bit about that?
Nancy Johnson 03:37
Yes. So the Word of God is really important. And when you're contending for one of those promises that God has given you, you literally need to go through the Bible and find the promises that you need. So what I did, since I needed healing, I went through and studied the healing scriptures. And I put some of those