394. Empowering Lives with Purpose, Interview with Tina Wanamaker

Devotion is so important in our lives, and who or what we are devoted to is equally important.    Today's guest, Tina Wanamaker, is a speaker, teacher, and ministry leader. She shares her story of how God changed EVERYTHING in her life in one moment that occurred on the side of the road. This incident led her to a life devoted to God.    ****   Kimberly Hobbs   Welcome to Empowering Lives with Purpose. And I'm your host, Kimberly Hobbs and the founder of Women World Leaders. And today ladies, we're going to be talking about devotion. And we are so glad that you joined us today. I'd love to welcome our guest today, Tina Wanamaker. Welcome, Tina.  Tina Wanamaker   Thank you, Kimberly.  Kimberly Hobbs   So glad to have you. She's coming to us from the state of Washington. So we are at opposite ends of the United States, she's up in one corner, we're down in another. So ladies, it's our desire to encourage you and empower you to walk closer with our Lord. And He is everything to us. I hope that he is in your life too. And we're going to talk about devotion. Today. As I was sharing with you earlier, God's Word says, come and listen to my counsel, I'll share my heart with you and make you wise that's proverbs 123. God wants to share his counsel with us. We need to find that in the Word of God, how important is that for our lives, and also through sharing stories and different things that our guests have been through and how they have found Jesus and have a closer walk with Him now because of finding him is very important and valuable. And I just pray that through listening to this podcast interview that you will be inspired and empowered to have that closer relationship to him. I want to share a little bit about Tina before we get started. Tina has been married for 22 years. She has four children and a home as I said in sila Washington, where they raised their children and chickens on a five acre farm that they call their hobby farm. Tina has authored three books, which show her passion for the practical application of God's word to hearts and lives. She homeschools her children, she speaks at women's events and ministers at a jail as part. She does this part time as a chaplain. She's an international women's leader, she teaches Bible studies online and on local television. And together with her husband, oh, and they manage that I may know him ministries, where they share the gospel and equip believers to walk out their faith. So in titling today's interview devoted that is something that Tina chose. And we believe there comes a point in each of our lives, where change is deemed necessary. Where do we show our devotion? Have you thought about that? Have you ever thought what am I devoted to? We can all be devoted to many, many things. But God is devoted to us. And he tells us, he's devoted to us. Oh, Lord, you have examined my heart. And you know everything about me, you know, when I sit down or stand up, you know, my thoughts, even when I'm far away. You see me when I travel and I when I rest at home, you know everything I do? You know what I'm going to say even before I say it, Lord, you go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head that Psalm 139, one to five. And I thought that was such a beautiful picture of God's devotion to us. He's so devoted to us. So Tina, can you share a little bit about how you came to know Jesus, how he changed everything in your life? Tina Wanamaker   Oh, golly, well, that was 20 years ago now. I when I was 25, I came into relationship with Christ. Prior to that, I had been walking in darkness, but not really understanding that I was walking in darkness. I don't think it's until we come into the fullness of relationship with Christ and our walking in the light that we begin to fully understand what it was that we were involved in before. And so growing up, I had grown up involved in going to church, but not having an understanding of a personal relationship, but seemed very distant like he was way over there somewhere, you know, but I did believe in God, that he did exist. And so early on, that's how that's how it all came about. And as I, as a child, there were some things that had happened that were painful. And, and moving on from there going into high school years, you know, those are really, they can be very uncomfortable for, for people. And in my case, they were, you know, trying to find your identity, I think is how we would term it now is, you know, where do I fit? How do I fit in here, and so you try this, and you try that and, and it just nothing would fit for me. And so I ended up beginning to do some partying with some friends. The year before I was beginning my senior year, and I had up to that point had been a, you know, a 4.0 student, very studious, very much. And so the summer before, when I began to drink so heavily, I, the next year, I almost didn't graduate high school, my mom had to go in and, you know, plead with the teacher, you know, hey, with you, because of my mind choices, the choices that I had made, had put me into some positions, where I was unable to do what I had been doing in the past. And so there was, once I started down this routes and, and looking back on it, I can see what I was trying to do, I was trying to find identity, but I was also writing, because there are some areas of pain that we can have that we don't know what to do with. And we can't really explain it in that time period, either. I don't think that we can, until we come into relationship with Christ, really, we and I see this a lot in the jail is that there's a lot of girls that don't know what to do with their pain. And so they will use drugs, or they'll try to cover with relationships. And so I did that through the drinking and dabbling in some drugs and relationships. And so that lasted that time period lasted about eight years, I just kind of moving through these things. And it was it was messy, and it was yucky, and it was dark. And in the middle of that, towards the end of it. My husband, Ellen and I got married. And so once we got married, I was thinking in my mind, oh, well, we're gonna get married and things are gonna be better, you know, because that's what marriage does, right? Makes things better. But actually, it made it worse, they compound the problems that were already there. And so we ended up in a very dark place together. And I recall having a conversation, you know, hey, we knew that there was a problem or destroying ourselves physically, spiritually, emotionally. But we didn't know what to do. Like, what do you do? Do we go see a counselor? Do we? I mean, what do we do? Do we read some self help books? You know, like, we just didn't know, we didn't have an answer at all. And so a friend of ours that actually had done a lot of partying with us said, Well, I go to church, why don't you come to church with me? And we're saying, When do you go to church, you know, you're always with us, you know. And so we ended up going with her to church. And at the end of that service, there is a group of us, and we're all you know, just being honest, we're all hungover and just showed up there. And they gave the gospel message at the end of the service. And my husband responded to that gospel message, but I didn't, I was under the impression that I needed to earn salvation, that I had to do good works in order to obtain salvation. And as I said, before, God was very distant from me. And so I continued in doing what I was doing for a number of months after that, finally culminating in getting pulled over for DUI, and I had just gotten accepted into a radiology program at the local college and if you've gotten to any trouble you are out of that program. And at that moment there when I was I got pulled over, and I'm on this side of the road with these police officers and I broke there is this It was messy, it was ugly. They didn't know what to do with me. And I it was like, this moment of just utter brokenness, just trying to all those years of trying to cover the pain and all the years of trying to find my identity and, and it was just, it just came to this culminating point. And, and in a sense, I feel like I came to myself in that, you know, the the story of the prodigal son, where he goes out, and he's out doing all the things, but there comes this moment where he comes to himself, and he has this realization of what it is that he's doing. And he's like, wait a minute, this isn't okay. You know, and I feel like that moment came when I was on the side of the road. And they had to call my husband to come get me they did not give me a ticket for that. No, but my husband had to come get me and they told my husband, you need to get her help. She needs some help. There's something way, you know, off with her, right? And, and, and I did get help. Right? So immediately after that is when I realized, wait a minutes, I am not saved by good works. I'm not going to heaven, because I've done enough good things in my life. I need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ had this realization that it's not a works, but to get God, and I receive that gift. And then Jesus began to process the healing process that took while it's still happening, right. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen. Tina, amen. And a lot of us can relate having that define of definitive moment in our life where Jesus gets our attention, right? We're going down the wrong path, but we are his he's devoted to us. So somehow, some way he's going to show up strongly. And that's how he showed up to you was on the side of the road, thank God, He gave you grace, you didn't get a ticket, if that could have really marked you for a long time. So there was Grace there. So Tina, as we got to talk, off of this interview, you shared a lot with me. But as you came to know, Jesus, and you started developing that relationship with Him, He brought you freedom, God brought you freedom. And through that freedom, you learned how to be a wife, a mom, you became devoted to be able to speak in that way. And a testing of faith came after you began having children. So can you talk a little bit about that? And you had a question that you asked yourself that I recall, which was, Do I really believe what I say I believe, can you talk about where that came from?  Tina Wanamaker   Sure. We had been walking with the Lord Jesus about two years, and we found out we were expecting our first child, and which he's 18 now. And so after we had Levi our oldest, then I became, we were expecting another little one after about another year and a half. So probably about the four year mark into our walk with Christ. And we were at the three month point in the in the pregnancy, which is the safe zone, they say, right? But I ended up miscarrying that baby. And not only miss carrying the baby, but ended up having some severe hemorrhaging, and emergency surgery and two months recovery, it was a mess. In that time period, I couldn't take care of my little guy for a season and, and so out of that, once I recovered physically from that, then I had, I've always had a lot of questions. And so, in that place, I began to I had a lot of questions or why, why did this happen? You know, we wanted this child we prayed for this baby, we, right. So why did this happen? And, and other questions as well. And so I would put Levi down for his nap. And I would go into the bathroom and close the door and just cry out the Lord. And so what this ended up being for me, was a testing of my faith. And, you know, Scripture tells us that God tests our hearts. And it's like, who knows the hardest man but God, and He tests our hearts and our minds. And so he's the one that does that and he wants to refine our faith. And he really I feel, wants us to ask those questions of, Do I really believe what I say I believe, right? Am I going to really step out and face and the metal of something that's so hard? And the hard can look different for each of us? So in my case, I was asking the questions, but ultimately, the Lord showed me I was asking the wrong questions. So because when I was asking the wise, will job ask God, the wise, and he didn't get any response, the response he got was, I'm God, and you're not. And so, when I was asking the wise, I wasn't getting any response from the Lord. He was comforting me, but I wasn't getting. I wasn't receiving any answers. And so I realized I had to change my question. So I submitted myself under the authority of Christ. And I, I asked, what question should I ask? And so then I began to ask, Okay, Lord, what can I learn from that? What do you have in the midst of this that I can learn about? Or what do you want to teach me? Or how do you want to speak to me? And one of the scriptures that the Lord gave me was Romans 828? Are all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose? I asked him, Lord, would you allow me and your kindness Would you allow me to see some good on a practical level from this, and he brought it, there was another lady that we knew that had miscarried for the second time. And I was able to reach out to her, and to have a heart level of compassion for her that I never had in the past. And so the Lord used that to teach me it wasn't his well for that baby to die. But he used it, nonetheless, to test my faith, to bring it forth this gold, to have me ask those questions. Do I really believe these things? And my all in and ultimately to increase my level of devotion to Me, I love that. I love that Tina, I love that God was growing your faith through all of these trials. And that's what he does, ladies, we go through things that like you questioned, you know, what, why is this happening? Why do we go through them. And I think that's a normal response of some of the things that we all go through. Because they're tragic. There are hard they're hard to deal with. So I love that you were learning that your faith was growing through this tea not and I wanted to share a scripture, Scripture says, I am certain that God who began a good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ returns Philippians one, six, so God is working. He's working. He's working all the way through these adversities that we face, these trials, these hard things in life, he's working, he doesn't stop working. And God taught you how to be devoted to him through these hard, difficult times. And one thing that you had shared with me was you because of the baby, and you had a fear of death, and it became intense. And as you started to study the word Tina, and live it out daily, through it, God provided you opportunity to begin teaching. So can you tell us how you started to focus on utilizing God's word despite the fears that you were feeling? Mm, one of the things so early on, when I came to Christ, the first couple of years, I actually struggled with forgiveness, receiving the fullness of forgiveness. And, and after about two years, the Lord helped me to see that by standing on Scripture. So this is where that begins to come in. He helped me to see that everything was covered by the blood, not just the things that were small, but the big things too. And early on, when I first came into relationship with Christ, I, he taught me to sit with him, and to study the Word and to really ingest the Word of God, not just to read it, to have knowledge, but I wanted more than that. I wanted to read it, to ingest it, to digest it, if you will, and then to have it come forth again and help to those around me. And so, in that place, the Lord really trained me to sit with him and to begin to study his word, and to allow it to change me, one of the things that I often tell people is there's no point in reading the word if it's not going to change us. I mean, why we could read something else, that we, if we're going to read it, we want it to impact. We really want to have a practical application of that, as in the fear that you mentioned that fear of death. I had had that since I was a child. And then coming into relationship with Christ, I thought it was gone. Well, you know, it's gone. I'm sure. You know, I'm, I know where I'm going. I know my destination now. So when it came back up, it surprised me, honestly. And so but again, we deal with those things. On the level of the Word of God, we stand on his promises. Yes, that's where we find the victory.  Kimberly Hobbs   Amen. Amen. Good word. Good word. And I know that there's ladies out there listening right now where, you know, fear is a mobilizing you ladies. And it's difficult. Through those times, I would say to think about devotion and everything, because right, then you're focused on those fears, and you're worried about what's happening and what's going to happen. And here you may not be thinking about I'm devoted to God, nothing's going to happen to me because you're in the situation. But that's where the word of God becomes so important ladies, to know that word to hide it in your heart, to know that you can go to it for that comfort, and God's word says in Psalms, you know, the 23rd Psalms are such a great comforting scripture. But even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid for you are close to me, beside me, your rod and staff protect and comfort me on Psalm 23. Four. So, yes, go to the scriptures, like Tina was just sharing how important it is. And Tina, you talked about a word study that you did on fear, which really helped you to become devoted to God and devotion brings us inner peace, ladies. So remember, when you're looking for that peace, it's not going to come on your own accord, that peace comes from God. And you need to be devoted to the one who loves you most just like the Scripture, we started off with, you know, God's devoted to you. You need to be devoted to him. So tell us, Tina, about that word study that you did that truly helped you.  Kimberly Hobbs   Yes. The word study that I ended up doing when that again, when that fear of death rose up, which surprised me, as I mentioned, I felt I knew that something needed to be done. No, I asked the Lord, what a way to, you know, learn why do I do I don't know what to do. You know, it's all new, you know. And so I felt that the Lord was leading for me to go through the Word, and to write down every scripture I could find on fear. So I ended up with some pages, I would always journal and keep a notebook. And I still do that today. So I ended up with these pages filled. And then I said, Lord, now what, what should I do with the scriptures. And I felt that the Lord was leading me to look through them, and look for the ones that seem to highlighted or to stand out to me, and to write those on note cards. And so I did that. And I ended up with probably, I think, five scriptures. And I made two copies. And so at night, when I was getting up with the baby was when the sphere would returned. And so I put one sets of those note cards in my robe that I would put on what I would give to the baby, and then one next to where I would sit in the rocking chair with the baby. So I I set them in the right places, you know, and then I got up with baby that nights. And again, I sit down and that overwhelming fear came over me, you know, and I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but it just felt like an elephant sitting on my chest. This just wait, you know. And so as soon as that came up, I knew in that moment why the Lord had me make those cards and do that study because I was going to battle. I was going to learn to battle. And so I picked up those cards and I began to go through them one at a time, and I read them aloud. I feel like our like declarations. ...