Hope Mangiafico (00:31)
Hi, I'm Hope.
Nikki Humphrey (00:32)
Hi, I'm Nikki. Welcome to Equipped Fellowship, where friends become family through Christ. We're two Jesus Loving friends on mission to share personal stories, resources, and real talk about our triumphs, breakthroughs, struggles, and setbacks. Why? Because we believe you are called to live victoriously and we are here to equip you with Holy Spirit led tools,
Hope Mangiafico (00:42)
you
Nikki Humphrey (01:01)
and strategies to strengthen your faith, transform your mindset and walk boldly into God's promises. Because here's the truth, you have been
given great and precious promises by God. So grab your coffee and let's grow together. It's time to step boldly into everything God has planned for you.
Hope Mangiafico (01:25)
Ooh, so what are we talking about today?
Nikki Humphrey (01:27)
We're talking about hijacking God's plan.
I personally I have hijacked God's plan. Probably if I'm being radically honest, probably every single day since I've been born. There's been a piece of me that's been trying to intervene or stronghold or do something outside of God's will to...
Hope Mangiafico (01:47)
That's the truth. Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (02:00)
hijack.
Hope Mangiafico (02:02)
You know, and so often I feel like people would say, well, it's a control thing or it's this or that and another. And I guess I want to just even out of the gate say like there's a million reasons why we do it because I think, I don't know, again, I might be talking to myself, but like we want like the three reasons why we do it. And here's the solution. But to your point, since you were born, you've been doing it probably some days we do just want to be in control.
Some days it's fear that is never gonna happen. Some days we're just not patient enough, you know? Like, there's so many reasons why we do it.
Nikki Humphrey (02:34)
Yeah. I know I wrote out four things. What does hijacking God's plan look like in my life? Maybe it looks like this for you Hope, probably looks a little bit different. And for all of you listening or watching, things will probably spring up as I say these. ⁓ praying manipulative prayers like, Lord, make this person say yes to me or make this happen. You're trying to like manifest things for God to happen instead of
Hope Mangiafico (02:45)
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (03:02)
praying for God's will to be done. Or dispatching angels, telling the angels what to do as if we command heaven, like if we have authority in heaven, when the Bible says it's God who gives his angels charge over us in Psalm 91, 11.
Hope Mangiafico (03:18)
Hmm Hmm
Nikki Humphrey (03:22)
Or pursuing something out of envy, like chasing a job or opportunity or a relationship because we see someone else with it.
Not because God led us there. Yeah, that's, that's, ⁓ that hurts. That's I've been there. Or this one too. This one's a lot. What I do often pushing doors open, forcing timelines, conversations, or decisions before God says it's time.
Hope Mangiafico (03:35)
You
Forcing conversations. That might be one of my biggest ones. ⁓ And here's the thing. Here's the thing about all of that is we have to unlearn things we've been practicing for so long. And so if I'm speaking from my perspective,
All I ever knew was hard. All I ever knew was resistant. So why wouldn't I just keep pushing and chucking and forcing? Because isn't that, isn't that how it's supposed to be? Is that not just the enemy resisting me? That was my perversion of a perspective that I had in God convicting me this months ago of just like how much I really did allow the enemy to dictate my steps versus God.
Nikki Humphrey (04:23)
Mm-hmm.
That's right.
That's right. Yeah, same. And none of that, what I said is like praying prayers or dispatching angels or like trying to, you know, go after opportunities. None of that is inherently bad. You know, so I don't want to say if you're doing that, like that's, that's sin and that's bad, but there's a better way to do it when we surrender over to God.
Hope Mangiafico (05:01)
Correct.
Yeah, which kind of translates to not being inherently bad, but it's the how you do it. The how. The heart posture. At the end of the day, because you and I both learned about dispatching angels and it made a lot of sense when I first learned it. like, they're waiting for me to say, hey, go do this because they're there based off God saying, hey,
Nikki Humphrey (05:18)
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (05:37)
you're here for hope today, right? Or whatever it may be. I don't know how that conversation happens. ⁓ But I have to be in alignment with him for them to move. And so we learned that and it made a lot of sense, but then you can cross over into the wrong realm real fast of you being in control and you saying, hey, angels, go do this or go do that. Be my butler.
Nikki Humphrey (05:46)
Right.
Yeah, and instead
Dispatching like one-on-one like you do this you go I used to be like you so specific You'd be like my traffic angel and you'd be my my job opportunity Angel and you you all do this now. I just say God Thank you for dispatching my angels in accordance to your Will you know where exactly each and every one of my angels need to go today? You have you have them on the ready whatever you need to do today God
Thank you. I'm so grateful for what you did today with Dispatching My Angels.
Hope Mangiafico (06:34)
Praise and Thanksgiving opens the door
every time to exactly what needs to be done.
Nikki Humphrey (06:39)
Yeah, Hope and I were having a conversation after we recorded our last podcast and I was saying like, who better to dispatch my angels than God? Like, he created everything. He knows. He knows where they're supposed to go. I might, I was telling Hope, I might put my angels in the wrong place because if I dispatch them, they're going to go there. But are they in the wrong place? Did I block God's direction for where they were supposed to go for me that day?
Hope Mangiafico (07:10)
Because you do have, you have power in your words and that's where it's so important. I think we often emphasize how it's life and death, so speak good and all that, but it goes even further into what you're speaking of, of like it's not just what you speak comes to pass in regards to your body or your well-being or whatever. It's all of heaven, all the earth are attuned to you because God made it that way.
Nikki Humphrey (07:36)
Alright.
Hope Mangiafico (07:37)
And it's a beautiful thing when you're in that alignment and it's a terrible thing when you're not. And I mean, I'll be honest, like I battle all the time of like now, how do I say this? Now in the season of life that I'm in, I want to be in his will so badly that now I've stepped into fear of not being in his will. So now I've had, I'm now kind of afraid to move sometimes. And so I'm personally journeying that out right now and
Nikki Humphrey (08:02)
Mm-hmm.
Hope Mangiafico (08:06)
That's kind of what you and I were just talking about prior to recording of like the whole social media thing, right? It's like, God, you've, you have said these things about social media to me, and then I created this whole other world, if you will, about it, but now I don't want to move because of this that you said five years ago.
Nikki Humphrey (08:25)
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (08:27)
Yeah
Nikki Humphrey (08:29)
Exactly, and I think one of the ways we hijack God's plan is we become real Ritualistic in our thinking and we think we have to do xyz in order for God to show up or for God to move in our life And it's just like God doesn't want those ritualistic things or these steps You know three steps to have God show up in your life like he just wants that again I'm gonna say it probably a lot in this episode that full surrender that full
Hope Mangiafico (08:38)
Mmm.
Nikki Humphrey (09:00)
faith that full trust because I think for you and I hope we've learned to rely on ourselves a lot. had to learn to force our way into a to just to survive. That's what I'm hearing right now. We had to force our way. We had to rely only on ourselves. And if we didn't when we were little, we might not be here today. I don't know what might have happened, but
Hope Mangiafico (09:11)
That's it.
Nikki Humphrey (09:30)
We have to learn to trust God and we don't have to follow all these patterns or rituals or things to access Him. He's just there.
Hope Mangiafico (09:41)
No, that's exactly it and that's true probably for so many people
Okay, so this kind of happened a couple days ago. There's someone that I really appreciate that's kind of in the female warfare perspective of like healing. Really, it's like becoming full and whole, recovering from trauma. And I mean, she's talking about extreme that we can't even imagine, but we can't...
Nikki Humphrey (10:08)
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (10:09)
That's the other thing that's so important is not only not comparing and envying other people, but not comparing what you've been through to someone else and comparing traumas because that will keep you stuck. ⁓ I hate that so much because that's why so many of us don't heal. That's why so many of us don't become whole and be able to get fully in alignment is that comparison. But anyways, she works with all kinds of people and she recently posted this on her Instagram stories and I'm
Nikki Humphrey (10:18)
Yeah. ⁓
Hope Mangiafico (10:38)
I'm very careful of what I look at just because I know that I can quickly get into a spiral. But this was really good and I guess I feel led to share it because of what you just said, Nikki, about what we learned and how basically it's unlearning of things that were helpful at one time. And so you can't be upset with yourself because God's not upset with you.
Nikki Humphrey (10:43)
same.
Hope Mangiafico (11:01)
⁓ You can't even get upset when you keep hijacking the plan because at the end of the day if you keep getting upset with yourself for hijacking the plan, you're moving out of hate and dislike so you're not gonna move in the right direction. And I can raise my hand on that because I'm still learning that. It was so deeply rooted in thinking and believing that self-hate was gonna progress me forward. And culturally sometimes that was taught, you know, like if you're dissatisfied enough, change will happen.
Nikki Humphrey (11:16)
Yep.
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (11:30)
Well, what's the root of dissatisfaction?
Anyways, ⁓ apparently this was from a handle called War Paint Journal, so they get credit. I don't know.
People think healing is soft, but healing is violent because nothing is scarier than waking up... This is it. Than waking up one day and realizing your whole personality was a trauma response. That your calm was actually suppression. Your independence, this is what made me think about this, your independence was built on not being able to rely on anyone. Your perfectionism was just fear and disguise. Healing means grieving the version of you who did what she had to to feel safe.
and letting her go is the hardest part.
Nikki Humphrey (12:15)
Yes, it really is. It's so hard.
Hope Mangiafico (12:19)
And I want to emphasize that because Nikki and I come on here madly in love with our father, but it doesn't mean things aren't hard. And I feel that since my dad passed earlier this year, I have been in the middle of that statement I just made of grieving a version of me that I didn't even know I had left to grieve. And this has been one of, like, I've had a hard life.
Nikki Humphrey (12:29)
Mm-hmm.
Hope Mangiafico (12:49)
different ways. But this year has been a different kind of hard. And when I saw that, I was like, God, that's what it is. You're not mad at me for any of the things I've done. You're trying to help me overcome this rut, this stuckness, this personality that I formed for all of these years so that your plan can unfold. ⁓
And so I mutaneously threw that personality that I had in the past and all those things I formed, I was hijacking the plan, but he wasn't mad about it because he knew why it was happening. You know, he knew where that independence came from and that suppression. He knew it all.
Nikki Humphrey (13:34)
Mm-hmm.
He knew it all and he'll use it all for good.
Hope Mangiafico (13:40)
Exactly. And the reason we come on here now is saying, hey, to whoever's listening, you've been listening and walking with us now for a couple of months. You've seen our imperfections and we're coming here now to say, hey, let's be more mindful of hijacking God's plan. So we don't come here being upset about it when we've done it in the past, but to open our eyes to the fact that, Nikki's point she said in beginning, we've been doing this pretty much since the day we were born.
Nikki Humphrey (14:09)
you
Hope Mangiafico (14:10)
and
he knew we were going to. But here's an episode to talk about how to be more mindful of it and how to continue letting him in our hearts and in our lives so we can turn to him with that gratitude that Nikki does such a good job highlighting and be in that alignment. Every time we become healed and whole, we get more aligned with his plan and his will and we no longer so badly want.
Nikki Humphrey (14:36)
Thank you.
Hope Mangiafico (14:36)
to take
it out of envy or out of fear or whatever it may be because we're healing.
is violent though.
Nikki Humphrey (14:44)
It is violent and it takes some hard self-reflection.
Hope Mangiafico (14:51)
You
Nikki Humphrey (14:53)
which is uncomfortable and again violent and hard and it takes time and it takes grace and it takes patience and love for yourself and nurturing your way through it as you're falling on your face time and time again because you've been in this cycle for so long that it's hard to break out of it.
Hope Mangiafico (15:20)
It's so- it really
is so hard.
Nikki Humphrey (15:23)
It's so hard and it's, we've talked a lot about this before. It's watching the words that come out of your mouth and how you phrase things. Cause it's just the little bit difference in phrasing that makes all of the difference in hijacking or surrendering.
Hope Mangiafico (15:39)
And that's.
And that goes to something you were sharing on previous episodes a while ago about that 1%. Those little words are what move you by that 1 % improvement. It's really that small of a change that you make by watching your words that give you that massive breakthrough with time. And yeah, surrender versus hijacking. You're right. It all adds up to that. That's really good.
Nikki Humphrey (15:54)
Yes.
Yes.
And it's like getting out of, for me, it's like getting out of the rituals that I would do to, I don't know if other people have kids in sports, but my daughter is in sports a lot. And I was just like, I would pray these certain things and get out the anointing oil and anoint Josephine and do this and, you know, make sure I had my cross necklace on and all of these things to think like that was going to help. ⁓
Hope Mangiafico (16:15)
and
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (16:44)
Josephine out. And in reality, I just had to thank God. Like, God, thank you for this day. Thank you for this, her ability to participate in this event. You know the outcome. I know that you're going to be there with her every step of the way. I thank you for it. I know you are going to support her. I know that you are there.
I surrender her to you. And now when she's doing her sport or her event, I'm just like, thank you Jesus the whole time. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus.
Hope Mangiafico (17:14)
That's it.
And you know what you just said about ritualistic things and talking about the cross necklace and anointing oil. As humans, what we tend to do, if God used something one time in our life to encourage us even, we're like, ooh, it's in this, right? It's in this journal.
And we become attached to the tangible things versus the intangible God. That's what I think it is, is we saw that cross necklace show up one time when we were hurting, right? And we held it close and it brought comfort. So it's added to the tool belt for every time.
Nikki Humphrey (17:41)
Mm.
Yes.
you
Hope Mangiafico (17:56)
It's yeah, that's really good. And I mean, at the end of the day, almost all of our episodes conclude with the concept of like, it all goes back to him. And that's what you're saying at the end of the day, maybe is that is the takeaway and as simple as it is, and we always say it's not easy. It's not easy because we are humans that have lived life in perfect lights by choices and what we've been given as soon as we came here on earth at no
Nikki Humphrey (18:06)
Hmm?
you
Hope Mangiafico (18:26)
No poo-pooing on any person. ⁓ We're all human.
Nikki Humphrey (18:31)
That's right.
And I wrote down, hijacking often starts with a good desire, like we've been talking about, but becomes dangerous when we refuse to surrender to the outcome.
Hope Mangiafico (18:39)
Mm-mm.
Mmm.
Yeah.
Yeah. And it makes me think about, Nikki, what you've shared before too, about your love of a prophetic word. And like we get so married to what we hear. ⁓ Anything, whether it's a prophetic word from someone that is an encouragement from God or you hear it from a friend that they're trying this new thing. So you're like, I need to try this new thing. It's this, this gate right here is so valuable for both God to use and the enemy to use and
Nikki Humphrey (18:54)
Yes.
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (19:15)
to direct our paths. We don't walk on our ears, ⁓ but we sure do use them to let them do all kinds of stuff in our life.
Nikki Humphrey (19:26)
Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (19:28)
That's so true.
Nikki Humphrey (19:30)
And I put down Proverbs 19 21 says many are the plans in a person's heart But it's the Lord's purpose that prevails trying to force our plan only leads to frustrations and hoping I know that We try to force a lot of things
Hope Mangiafico (19:36)
Mm.
funny something I wrote. I don't think I'll bring it up just yet, but I mentioned frustrations ⁓ because it really is so frustrating. And that should be a red flag, but instead it makes us our heels in deeper a lot of the times. At least me.
Nikki Humphrey (20:04)
Mm-hmm.
Yes, me too.
Hope Mangiafico (20:10)
And you just quoted that scripture which made me think about another scripture I didn't write down but something that you hear out in the world, maybe even the body of Christ a lot is like the Lord gives you the desires of your heart and twisting that. And I want to just, I guess, speak against that because he gives you desires of your hearts when you're in alignment with him. So be careful when you read scriptures.
of perverting them. Like you have to go into your Bible knowing who God is, inviting the Holy Spirit and reading these things because when it says that He gives you the desires of your heart, it is not that new car you want or whatever it is. It's the original design that He made you in. He honors those things and His gifts are so good. ⁓ And so you would want to desire them.
Nikki Humphrey (20:49)
Hmm?
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (21:07)
You want that, I promise you, and you'll learn that the more you come to know him and fall in love with him. And I I feel like Nikki and I have been on this journey, a pretty deep journey with him, but we're still barely skimming the surface of understanding him.
Nikki Humphrey (21:20)
That's right.
We really are. We thought we were on the right path. We've said so many times, we thought we're on the right path so many times and then got caught up in our own will and like we're muscling it away. We got caught up in the curly cues and we were like, what happened? And God's like, what happened? You hijacked my plan. That's what happened ladies. That's what happened.
You did it again. Okay.
Hope Mangiafico (21:51)
⁓
And I'm gonna tell like a ⁓ I mean this is very fresh for a conversation you and I have but I feel like it's a good a good example Anyone on here you listen to the podcast you may have come across because you know us or because you're on YouTube or maybe I'll give her ⁓ Nikki more credit on like Instagram posting But we've talked a lot Nikki and I about my struggle with social media. Most people have a weird
relationship with social media. I have a really weird one and I have told Nikki a million times and when I talk to Nikki about this, like I'm just being fully honest, like I have a lot of shame around it and I don't know why there's shame but I think it's because if I'm honest, real-time conviction, ⁓ thank you Lord, I would be comparing how easy it is for Nikki.
to just get on and post and she's like, hey Hope, it's so easy, you just do it. She's like, I'm not attached to the outcome. I'm like, I don't think I'm attached to the outcome either, but there's just something stopping me and holding me back, but if I keep pressing into it, it feels even worse, so I don't feel like I'm supposed to. However, I see myself as this like puny little person, because I can't figure out why I can't get past it. So I've been talking to her about this.
And she's been honoring enough to be like, I know Hope, you don't like it, like I get it. You probably should just figure it out basically at the end of the day. Which is true, but it's been a very long journey. And I share that because as I'm speaking it now, it's like part of the reason I had such a hard time having a breakthrough and knowing what is it that God's trying to tell me to help propel his plan forward was I was still stuck in a comparison mode. Nikki's on the same team as me.
yet I'm still comparing what she's doing in regards to sharing with the world what I believe is this wonderful gift of this podcast. And so that keeps me stuck. It keeps me unable to fully hear what God is trying to tell me because I'm so deeply rooted in that comparison and getting mad at myself that I can't just do it. But at the end of the day, now that I kind of pulled back and I'm like, okay, God, I'm not moving. I'm not posting unless you put it my heart. Please reveal more to me.
He has, and it led to me sharing with her today what I believe is this beautiful solution of us coming together, being able to do it and get it out there in a way that does bring peace. And I still don't have an answer as to what my big hiccup is, but it still is safe. And it will allow us to move his plan forward ⁓ in a way that, yeah, just feels like it's an alignment with him for me. Nikki's already been moving and grooving, and we're a team.
and I could not move and groove with her. And so it's it's those little things though that can keep it from moving forward because of a small act of comparison, which means you need to repent. Everything that does not align with God, you have to repent for because it's something tainting your heart.
Nikki Humphrey (25:06)
It is, yep.
Hope Mangiafico (25:08)
And
I'm not comparing Nikki because she's my enemy. I'm comparing because we're a team and I'm like, why can't I do it? It's not like she's doing nothing wrong.
So it's me, but not in hateful way, like can't be upset about it.
Anyways, it's just it's a journey, but I was really excited when I felt like God highlighted this tool. I was like, that's it God I feel so like so much more relief and I feel like that's the next step for us in this plan And he's like ask Nikki. I'm like, yes, sir. I'm not moving on my own cuz I've done that as well without Nikki
Anyways, I just had to share that because it's a real time example of like, you've got people in your corner which is so important to have, we've talked about community, but if you have walls up, even the people in your corner, will keep out ⁓ or you'll keep out what God's just trying to do.
Nikki Humphrey (26:06)
It's when we were talking about social media hope and I was just like, you just got to do it. Don't be attached to the outcome. And Hope's like, no, I'm not. And I'm just like, what's confusing? And here's the whole.
confusing thing about social media in general. When Hope does social media, she does it so well. It's almost like, it just seems like she's so natural and so flawless and it just doesn't, you know, it just, I just see her love and in her content just flows out and it's really relatable and really awesome. And so like then when she says like, ⁓ I just saw this yuck and this thing's come up and I don't want to be on it and Instagram, no.
And it was just confusing. And I think that's what's hard about looking at social media and comparing yourself to others because we never know what's going on inside of that person. So you could have two different versions, three different versions of yourself going on social media and not even knowing.
Hope Mangiafico (26:54)
Yeah.
Move.
Nikki Humphrey (27:12)
that you're not being your true authentic self. And not that I'm saying that hope was that, but I'm just saying social media in general. We don't know the heart posture behind a lot of these people
that are causing us to hijack God's plan.
Hope Mangiafico (27:25)
Right,
and to your point of what you said, like, about the flow of when I post, when I post like every six months, but when I post, I know it's something he's telling me to post and it feels good, but when it's something I have to do, everything in me just like cringes.
And so I like, I love when I feel him flowing through it. And so that's kind of part of the thing him and I have been wrestling with is like, God, I want to move when you tell me to move, but it seems to be every, you know, five or six months because I've been doing so much house cleaning in my, in my soul. And so, yeah, and it's conflicting too, because to your point, you don't know what someone's going through. And we're so prone as humans to take what we've learned or what God's shown us and applying it to someone else.
I'm really bad at that. And God is really gracious in using everything you've gone through for good for others. But we can so easily do that and forget that they're their own person and that God has their hearts completely different, their stories completely different. So how he wants to help them is potentially completely different. we don't see all that. They don't even, the individual doesn't even know their own heart. And I'm really bad at that.
Nikki Humphrey (28:16)
Mm-hmm.
Hope Mangiafico (28:47)
I have a habit, I should say. Okay, this worked for me. It should work for you, right? Just overcome the fear. Just not be attached. Just like, no, it's probably more than that for that person. We don't know their whole thing, their whole journey.
Nikki Humphrey (29:04)
Yeah, and then we're hijacking God's plan on their behalf.
Hope Mangiafico (29:07)
Exactly. And all from a well-intentioned place, which you've talked about.
Nikki Humphrey (29:14)
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Hope Mangiafico (29:18)
and he'll redeem it. And that's like, I always want to emphasize that redemption, but it creates pain and frustration. Like you talked about Nikki on so many different levels. ⁓ Yeah, I don't know. He's so good. And I do want to definitely emphasize that. Like Nikki and I have said many times how many times we've hijacked the plan, but here we are today on Equipped Fellowship and
It does, it flows really well for us. And we're still learning what it looks like, what he wants to do on the next, you know, we have big ideas, big dreams we're excited about if they come to pass, but we can write them down and then set them aside and wait for him. If they were inspired by him, he'll bring it back up at the right time. And we don't need to fear that it doesn't come to pass. And if it doesn't,
Nikki Humphrey (29:58)
you
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Hope Mangiafico (30:15)
then it wasn't a desire we should have had anyways, because that means it wasn't the best of the best of the best.
Nikki Humphrey (30:21)
And just looking at there are biblical examples of hijacking and I love this I was looking it up in the Bible because I'm like I Know their stories and like like hope says like I don't know where everything is in scripture yet. I'm working on it But right in Genesis 16 Abraham and Sarah God promised a child But Abraham and Sarah hijacked the plan by having Abraham sleep with Hagar
Hope Mangiafico (30:26)
Hey.
Mmm.
Nikki Humphrey (30:47)
to help God. And the result was pain and conflict. You know, it's right there in Genesis, the first like right off the bat. then ⁓ Peter in the garden, John 18, 10 and 11. He tried to protect Jesus by cutting off the soldier's ear, but Jesus rebuked him and healed the man. Peter acted out of fear, not faith.
Hope Mangiafico (30:56)
Yeah.
Hmm
Nikki Humphrey (31:17)
And there's more examples
too, but it just, it's right there. Like nobody's perfect. Everybody's working on not hijacking God's plan. And it's usually, you learn not to hijack it by having a history of hijacking.
Hope Mangiafico (31:35)
Right, that's everything in life too, isn't it?
Nikki Humphrey (31:36)
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (31:38)
And at the end of the day, it's so simple because our greatest goal should just be Him. And if we're hijacking the plan, it's often because we're pursuing that word, the plan.
I just got that. We want the plan, the blueprint. And it's like, no, he is the plan. And we don't love that.
Nikki Humphrey (32:07)
because his timeline is so different than our timeline, a lot of it.
Hope Mangiafico (32:13)
significantly.
Nikki Humphrey (32:14)
Like you
get part of the plan, you implement the plan, but then you want the next step. And the next step might not be the next day. It might be weeks, days, months, years. But you have to be obedient and you have to be patient and you just have to learn, yes, yes, put the blinders on and be happy and content of where you're at.
Hope Mangiafico (32:43)
So when I taught when I you were speaking and I got the vision of like putting blinders on this is something I feel like the we should encourage listeners to do and maybe it's because it's something I recently journeyed I had a recent revelation
that there was something I kept pursuing that I realized wasn't important to me, but I didn't believe it wasn't important to me because it's important to everyone else and I hear it in their words. So I'm like, why is it not important to me? So I pursued it until it's like, okay, God, I'm realizing I'm stuck because I'm pursuing something that's not important to me, but why is it important to everyone else and not more to me? So it's been this journey. And I wanna encourage the listeners.
Set aside, like even set a timer for five minutes and write down what is important to you so you can have those blinders on because that will help you keep going back to the previous episode, the main thing, the main thing. ⁓ Because I have noticed, just like we talked about just a couple moments ago or minutes ago about comparing traumas, comparing this, comparing that, that means the blinders have fallen off. So you lose sight of where you're supposed to be going anyways.
Nikki Humphrey (33:41)
you
Hope Mangiafico (33:57)
So put the blinders on, set a five minute timer and write down what matters to you. Nothing you've been told that's supposed to matter, nothing you've read that's supposed to matter. What matters to you?
Nikki Humphrey (34:02)
Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (34:10)
because you will never be in alignment with the father if you're pursuing something that's not even who you are, even a piece of what he made you to be.
And that's been a big one for me. Literally this past week it was a massive light bulb.
Nikki Humphrey (34:27)
Because if we don't have those blinders up, we're not focused on keeping the main thing the main thing, we so easily hijack God's plan because even going back to other episodes, then we think like we missed out on something or.
Hope Mangiafico (34:37)
Mm hmm.
Nikki Humphrey (34:45)
God didn't make us full and complete and whole. God didn't make us to do X, Y, and Z. And you're looking at Betty Suzy Q on Instagram and you're just like, well, she just has it all. And she's like, I can't do that. I'm not her. I'm not
that. And God's like, you're focusing on her. You're comparing yourself to her when I just want you to focus on me.
Don't worry about what other people are doing. Mind your business, Nikki. Sit down, mind your business. Listen to what I have for you because it is good. It's a good plan I have for you. Don't get distracted. I used to be the queen of comparison. It ekes out every now and then. And I'm just like, ⁓ there she is again. She came out. She's working hard today to try to bring me down.
Hope Mangiafico (35:37)
Well,
and we're in the world. The world we're in now makes it so easy to do. I mean, all these social medias and like, I follow people that are encouraging.
But I noticed like from years past all the DIY accounts I was following, I'm like, they cause anxiety now. And I'm comparing why I'm not doing any more projects. Like I got out and follow, you know? Like you just really have to be on guard if you are gonna be in what I'm gonna call vulnerable situations. You gotta be mature enough for it. And I think that's another level of, again, going back to the whole social media thing on my end, like there was still something in me.
that wasn't ready, that wasn't mature enough. You know, again, I've said it a million times, I don't arrive per se, but there is a time where you've reached a certain level of maturation that God can take you to the next thing. And you should be grateful for that. I know I've learned to be grateful for that because gosh knows if he would have given me some of my things any sooner.
Nikki Humphrey (36:33)
Mm-hmm.
Hope Mangiafico (36:44)
they would have broke me and gosh knows a lot of people think I've already been broken a million times, but it would have been much worse.
Nikki Humphrey (36:50)
Yes, ditto. I wasn't prepared. I thought I was ready. Hoping I doing things before, websites, creating things, systems. We weren't ready. There's no way. We weren't healed enough to go where God was leading us.
Hope Mangiafico (36:50)
It's crazy.
No.
Right. Right.
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (37:15)
and I still get those Holy Spirit corrections every day. But I don't feel as much guilt and condemnation over them anymore like you were speaking about earlier. I'm just like, thank you. Thank you for pointing that out. You're right. I just did that. I just thought that. just x, y, zed that. You're right. I'm sorry.
Hope Mangiafico (37:18)
I do too.
Yeah.
Well, and like you said, I don't get the guilt and shame in a lot of areas, but there are still some areas that were so deep in me that the shame still tries to come up.
Nikki Humphrey (37:48)
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (37:49)
So it's just like a process and we just have to be okay with that with that process and knowing that he's turning us into something absolutely beautiful and amazing and ⁓ he really has the best for us, for every person listening. ⁓ He has the best.
Nikki Humphrey (38:06)
Yeah.
Absolutely, yes.
Hope Mangiafico (38:12)
So I was just journaling, I'm like, hey God today we're talking about hijacking your plan. What would you like me to share?
And he kind of wrote it as just like symptoms and cure. So like a common symptom is forcing things out of season, which equates to more pain and more difficulties. That's the symptoms you have, the pain and everything feels really difficult. And then I said, one type of pain is facing the past and healing hurt, which we kind of talked about already. That often will show up when you've reached the end of yourself.
But another type of pain or difficulty is you become so invested in the plan, which we kind of talked about, this is fun. I don't even remember what I typed. You become so invested in the plan that when it's not going your way, you get frazzled. Super guilty of that. So you're frazzled, you've got a lot of pain, lots of difficulties, and you're forced and forced and forced. The cure is not attaching ourselves to any of God's promises.
We must solely attach ourselves to him. The second part of the cure is repentance. Nikki had mentioned the word earlier, frustration. So we have to repent for anger and frustrations because they are often without us knowing they're towards.
and towards ourself which we have to repent for or towards others but a lot of times it actually is directed to our Father. So we repent for anger and frustrations for Him and He does want us to express ourselves to Him so when you are feeling angry or frustrated express that. But once you express it ask Him as Psalm 139, 23, 24 says, search my heart, oh God, and we'll see.
that we may have let the frustration influence our decisions and our actions. So we simply just must repent and we will feel that start falling off of us.
Nikki Humphrey (40:18)
Love that. ⁓
Hope Mangiafico (40:20)
Me too.
Nikki Humphrey (40:22)
That is the perfect summary for everything
that we talked about today.
Hope Mangiafico (40:26)
I know! I didn't
expect that. I just like did it real quick and you know I'm like I'll read it. I didn't even read it beforehand.
Nikki Humphrey (40:35)
It's perfect, perfection. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you.
Hope Mangiafico (40:36)
He's so good.
Nikki Humphrey (40:43)
Yeah, that'll do it. so thank you all for joining us today. If this episode challenged you, share it with somebody who needs encouragement to trust God's plan and subscribe so you don't miss future conversations of what God, Holy Spirit has in store for all of you. Remember, you are seen, you are loved, and you don't have to take control because the one who holds the universe.
Hope Mangiafico (40:45)
That'll do it.
Nikki Humphrey (41:12)
holds you to.
Hope Mangiafico (41:15)
Until next time.
