This episode flows from something we recently walked through inside the Teaching With Jesus Community — a 3-day experience called A Sacred Pause.

Over those three days, we focused on:

1. Releasing what’s heavy
2. Slowing down enough to listen
3. Walking forward in obedience

But here’s what I’ve been realizing personally…

1. We can’t sustain obedience from burnout.
2. We can’t respond well from emptiness.
3. We can’t pour into our students from a place where we feel dry.
4. We can’t give what we haven’t first received.

And that’s where this next season is leading — learning how to receive the Father’s love before trying to give it away.

💛 Stay Connected

If this resonated with you, the full 3-day Sacred Pause is available inside the FREE Teaching With Jesus Community. You can walk through it at your own pace — the reflections are there, the voice notes are there, and I’ll be there walking with you.

✨ Join the FREE Teaching With Jesus Community: Click Here To Join!

Hello and welcome back to the Transformational Teacher Podcast.

I'm your host, Detoya, and thank you so much for being here.

I hope all is well.

I wanted to share some of what we've been talking about inside of the teaching with Jesus community.

Over the past few days, I've been walking teachers through something called a sacred pause.

This has been a blessing.

This was three days to release what's heavy, listen for God's direction, and move forward in obedience.

And what I've realized is this.

Sometimes what's heavy is happening inside the classroom.

But here's the thing.

Sometimes it can be something outside the classroom that spills into it.

But here's the thing, whatever it is, we have to surrender.

We have to surrender to God.

We have to seek him for his help, and we have to allow him, even people that he places around us, to support us through it all.

Because here's the thing, and I am learning this, we can't control the students we were given.

We can't sometimes control the circumstances that we walk through, but we can control how we respond.

There was a season where there was some things happening outside the classroom that I took into the classroom.

And I didn't realize it until after the fact because it was about finances and.

And it was like very heavy on me.

And I carried it inside with me.

So that meant I took anxiety in the classroom with me and it affected how I carried myself that day.

It came into my responses, I could tell things were a little different.

But again, I realized it was the finances because I didn't release it.

I didn't see God help on it.

Releasing isn't about ignoring what's happening.

It's is about trusting God to carry what we were never meant to carry alone and allowing him to show us how to navigate through it.

One of the key things to learning how to navigate through it is allowing God to guide us.

Because here is the beautiful thing.

The thing is God, he most definitely wants to guide us.

He wants to guide us daily.

But we, we have to learn to listen to Him.

We seek him and we listen.

Sometimes I believe we don't want to hear what he has to say because it's not what we expected.

Sometimes it feels too small, sometimes it seems uncommon, and we're like, is that really going to help?

But here's the thing.

If God is the one speaking, or if he sent someone to confirm something to you, we need to follow through and watch him work.

Listening requires slowing down, trusting God to speak, receiving what he has to say, and then walking in obedience and doing it.

Obedience is where faith becomes action.

This is where we take it step by step and do what he instructs us to do.

We have to move when he speaks and he tells us to do something.

And if he's saying to go do it now, let's do it.

For me, obedience recently looked like finally taking a step that I had delayed for years.

I had been saying, oh, I'm gonna do it.

And I kept feeling that nudge, but I kept putting it off.

But that's the thing that during this time, I said, okay, it's time to walk in this obedience.

God, I repent for not doing it when I was supposed to do it.

And after I started doing it, I felt so much better.

It was like a release awake when was lifted off of me.

He's already given us what we need, but we have to seek him to see what that is.

And again, sometimes obedience, it can look very practical.

It could be sending an email, applying for the opportunity, setting a boundary, starting the thing, finishing the thing.

You don't need the whole blueprint.

You need courage for the next step.

Over these past few days, inside a sacred pause, we've talked about releasing what's heavy, slowing down enough to listen.

Silence all the lies of the enemy.

Silence those lies that you're telling yourself, that's not prospering.

You silence those things and listen for his voice and walk forward in obedience.

But here's something I've been realizing personally.

We can't sustain obedience from burnout.

We can't respond from being empty.

And we definitely can't pour into our students from a place where we feel dry.

We can't give what we haven't first received.

And that's where God has been stretching me.

Yes, we have to release.

Yes, we need to listen.

Yes, we most definitely need to move and walk in obedience.

But we also need to receive his love.

His love can take us so far.

His love is so vital that we embrace the Father's love and that we pour that love out to our students.

Students pour that love to whomever we come into contact with.

Because when we're rooted in the Father's love, obedience doesn't feel forced.

It flows because we are obeying such a loving Father.

And when we fill in ourselves with His Word, his word is going to pour out of us.

And that's something we're going to continue leaning into this upcoming month.

And if your heart needs a reset, the full three day sacred pause is.

It is available inside of the free teaching with Jesus Community, you can move through it at your own pace.

The reflections are there, the voice notes are there for you and I'll be walking with you through the journey.

So again, thank you all so much for listening to this episode and I'm looking forward to connecting with you all inside of the teaching with Jesus community.

Let's pray.

Well, Heavenly Father, we thank you right now.

We thank you Lord, just for who you are.

We thank you for being such a loving father to us.

We thank you Father for walking with us.

We thank you Father for never leaving our side.

And we thank you God for instructing us and teaching us the way that we should go.

We are open and willing to do your will.

We're open and willing to do whatever it is that you instruct us to do.

We will trust you.

We will lay it all at your feet.

Every care, every worry.

We surrender it to you Father, and we ask that you help us.

We ask that you guide us.

And I thank you Father that we are doers of the word of God.

We thank you Lord God, for your word.

We will meditate on your word day and night.

We will follow the commands that you give unto us.

And we thank you Lord God for making us successful and prosperous, Lord God, for we will do your will, Father.

Thank you Lord God for the students that you blessed us with, Father.

Show us, oh God, how to love them, how to teach them, how to build relationships with them and how to make this year the year that you called for, for it to be a year of impact.

So we thank you Father and we will not grow weary and well doing.

And we thank you Father for continue health, healing and wholeness.

For each teacher, for each child, Lord, have your way in our lives.

We fully surrender to you.

We give you glory.

We give you honor.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.