The Debut

Hello, hello & welcome to the official debut of Moved By Faith! 

There have been many prayers poured out over this release. On this first episode you'll officially meet our host, Lindsay Phillips, as she begins to share her heart and cast vision for this new ministry. She'll offer a widened perspective on God's call to movement for all people, discuss the meaning of faith through scripture, and encourage us all to be vessels for the Holy Spirit. 

Lindsay looks forward to growing alongside you on this journey, thanks for tuning in!

Transcript

Lindsay Phillips 0:01

Okay, hello, hello, and welcome to the very first episode of the Moved By Faith podcast. This is so exciting to finally be able to sit here and say that out loud because a lot of prayer and a lot of thought has gone into the moments leading up to this very moment. And so with that being said, I'm so delighted to be here sharing this time with you. My name is Lindsay. I'm 24 years old. I'm from South Carolina, and that's exactly where I am today. Just to paint the picture for you all who are listening, I am in my own little home in my living room. I have a little setup here. Full disclaimer, this is my first time podcasting. I am not a professional by any means when it comes to production for visual and audio listening. I have been doing my research and that has been part of the preparation for all of this. And I do think we have a great starting setup. So we have our microphone, which is also hooked up to my computer, which is right here. And I do have my notes on the same computer that I'm currently recording to. So you will see me glancing down here a little bit to just follow the outline that I have set up for today. We have a camera set up so that whoever may be tuning in visually is able to see the conversation that is happening, Bible, which is super important, and water. So if I have to take some pauses to sip some of that so that hopefully the listening won't be discomforting, then please, by all means, just have patience with me there. But with all that being said, it's lovely to meet you. Maybe you know me. Perhaps you do not. This is new for me. Sitting and recording thoughts and talking to a camera is pushing me out of my comfort zone for sure. I do love meeting new people and I love talking and listening and communing with others. Fellowship is something that I value greatly. Communication is something I value greatly. But I've just never explored it in this realm. And so... We're giving this to God right off the bat. We're believing that He is going to take this and do whatever it is that He is wanting to do with this podcast because I truly believe and can sit here and say that this is an idea that has come from Him. I have felt more convicted lately about opening up about my faith and sharing it more boldly. And this is a realm that I believe He is inspiring me to explore. And so with that being said... For today's first episode, we're going to dive into a little bit of the reasoning for Moved by Faith, how it is it came to be. You're going to learn a little bit about me, but mostly we're going to talk about the purpose and the vision for this community that we're going to be building together, this ministry. I do not want to see this solely as just a platform. I don't even want to use that word. I want to see this as a ministry because we are dedicating this space and this time and these conversations to the Lord, and we're going to pray that the Holy Spirit will lead these moments and speak to us all, myself included. So I do have some notes here that I will be glancing at, if you don't mind. To get started, I already said it before, but I am from South Carolina. I grew up in a small town here. And I'm currently living like 45 minutes away from that small town closer to the coast. That was a recent move and a testament to the Lord's provision. Another provision here in my life that I can attest to and I'm sure I will dive into that, be able to dive into that deeper at one point in time. But as I sit here in my living room, this is just me. My authentic space. Nothing... fake or put on here. This is my couch. This is a piece of artwork hanging behind me with my life verse on it, Proverbs 3, 5-6, which also inspires parts of the meaning behind this podcast. And so, welcome to my home. I'm just very grateful to be able to sit here and begin to testify and share some of the things that I feel like the Lord is putting on my heart to share. And so with that being said, I mean, I will give a little bit of a brief overview of my faith journey because I do believe it is important as we begin to dive into the purpose and the meaning and vision for this podcast to cover that and let you in on a little bit of who I am. Thankfully, I can sit here and say that I grew up in a Christian household. I grew up attending church regularly and also watching my family regularly. serve in the church regularly and getting to serve alongside them. From a young age, little Lindsey, that's how I'm going to refer to myself, little Lindsey fell in love with the Lord at a young age and I'm so thankful for that, that she was receptive to all the exposure she was getting to church and faith and the teachings that were being poured into her at a young age. I'm so grateful that little Lindsey's heart was open to that because We received Jesus at a young age and from then on it has been a lifelong journey of pursuing faith, pursuing the Lord, seeing how He has pieced my life together, orchestrating the events and opportunities that have come my way. being with me through the really hard and low times. Thankfully, that is a firm foundation that I've been able to fall back on each and every time because the walk has not been easy, even though, and I'm sure that those of you who have grown up in the faith can relate, yeah, we may not have a wild testimony. And I don't even like using that word wild because, you know, I don't want to categorize and stigmatize testimonies. I don't want to sound that way either. But I may not have the testimony of coming into faith at an older age. Yes, I do recognize the blessing it is to have had it throughout my life, but that doesn't mean it's always been easy. And it doesn't mean that things have always gone perfectly. And it doesn't mean that I am perfect by any means. I am still learning. I am still young. And there is still so much more to learn. And I want to draw even closer to the Lord each and every day. And so I'm still seeking Him, still seeking His will for my life, and doing my best to just be a vessel for His glory and testify about what it is that he has done, what it is I have seen him do in my life thus far without losing hope for what it is that I know he's going to continue to do through ministries such as these. As well as finding faith and a passion for the Lord and a passion for ministry and being involved in the church because I was from a young age speaking, dancing, singing, whatever it was, acting in VBS skits. In addition to that passion, little Lindsey also found a passion for dance. Six years old is when I found my passion for dance and I began to really explore and tap into that as well. And so that has also been a huge part of my life, a huge part of my upbringing because I recognize that 13 years old, I danced from six to 13 recreationally, 13 is when I kind of began to realize, no, this is something that I actually want to do for time. And I want to get better at it. And I want to commit to improving technically in it and holding the craft more. And so that's when I embarked upon my pre-professional dance journey and began to take it even more seriously. And... From that, it required a lot of sacrifice. I had to sacrifice a lot of things at a young age for any athlete or any artist or anyone who commits to something at a young age. You know that you have to sacrifice things in order to begin those pursuits at a young age. And so I did that, but given my knowledge of the Lord, I'm able to look back and I was able to recognize it in the moments as well how dance quickly became an avenue a ministry and a vehicle for the Lord to move me into new spaces, new locations where I would meet new people beyond my small town. Because like I said, I am from a very rural small town here in South Carolina. Dance opportunities were very few and far between and I actually had to attend a studio about an hour and a half away from home and when I wanted to start refining my ballet technique a little bit more, which ended up in a move to another city four hours away from home in the upstate of South Carolina and then later on a move out of state. And I will dive into my testimony more soon. But all of this just goes to say that dance has become the vehicle for God to move me and grant me new opportunities and expose me to new life experiences that ultimately would deepen my faith. and strengthen my walk and relationship with Him and it has become a beautiful avenue for learning and growing in the Spirit. And so that is kind of also the inspiration of leading to the inspiration for this podcast because While I have spent a lot of time dancing and honing that craft, and I went through a professional education program to pursue dance professionally, my heart for ministry and heart for faith has always been greater. And so my dream, ultimately, has always been to see both worlds begin to blend together, to see God use dance for ministry and then use my ministry in dance. And I can see how more recently, where it is that I'm at in life, that's beginning to occur. I have spent some time working full-time in youth ministry over the past two years, which has been a great centering and rooting experience in what ministry looks like full-time. But also I am thankful for how God has kept dance alive through that, through the teaching of movement, through the teaching of dance, And that's what I'm currently doing. I'm currently teaching dance at a studio that beautifully embraces faith. And I'm very thankful for that. And I'm starting to see how those worlds are starting to collide. And so that leads me to this ministry, which I feel like is beginning to blossom from that heart to see these worlds blend. This is not a podcast and not just a space for dancers and artists. This is a space for all believers. because I'm starting to have more thoughts on how movement is so applicable to us all when we speak in a spiritual sense. Just to start with the name of the podcast, because that's always kind of fun to dive into. Moved by Faith definitely is a play on dance and movement and obviously faith. I feel like it just perfectly encompasses that whole blending that i'm talking about that is happening but it also has a very universal application to all people whether you call yourself a dancer or not i believe everyone every believer ultimately wants to be moved by faith in this life. And I am going to kind of like step off into a thought here because I do want to challenge your thinking. If you're one of those people who are like, I'm not a dancer because dance is a very exclusive term and people either categorize themselves very quickly on whether they can do it or whether they cannot. And then they just kind of exist in that area. They're like, oh, I'm not a dancer. I can't dance or I can do dance. I'm pretty good at it. I love it. And so I'm just going to break down the wall between that those two categories for a moment, if you will. And I want to challenge our realm of thought because this is something that I have been thinking about a little bit more so lately. So I have a coffee mug that I drink my morning coffee out of every day. And it's a stone mug and on it it says, heaven and nature sings. I have just found myself pondering that thought, okay God, if heaven and nature sings, What does that potentially mean for heaven and nature's relationship to dance? Dance, by definition, when you Google it, and I have it here, is moving rhythmically to music, typically following a sequence of steps, and we call that choreography. So, when God, at the very beginning of time, created the heavens and the earth, He was the one that set everything in motion and in a specific place. He designed it all. And he organized the universe and all of the inhabitants of the Earth, which would include us. And so I would argue and say that another word for all of that organization could be choreography. Because here you have the revolving of the Earth and the organization of the universe and the movement of the inhabitants on Earth all set in place, all organized by God. I believe he choreographed all of that. We can barely say that he choreographed all of that. And as we said before, if we believe and we say that heaven and nature sings, and I do believe that is true, I believe that creation is constantly singing around us, even in the singing a song that we may not even fully recognize at times between the birds chirping and the rustling and the breeze and the trees and All of the sounds of the universe are God honoring because it's His creation at work. It's His creation existing for His glory alone. And so if we believe that heaven and nature sings, and that is described in Scripture in one of the Psalms, Psalms 98, it talks about portions of the earth singing and rejoicing and praising the Lord. And then we're also told that the rocks will cry out, you know, if we don't, so... It's even scriptural that heaven and nature sing. So I'm not just pulling that off of my coffee mug. It's scriptural. So if we can fairly say that, and we can fairly say that God has choreographed the motion of the universe, including the motion of the inhabitants of humanity, then I believe we can fairly say that all humans are his dancers. So that's the thought that I'm trying to get to here. So whether you believe on the technical scale, because dance is... an art form, a prestigious art form that requires a lot of skill and a lot of practice. And yes, not everyone embarks upon that journey of being a dancer in that sense. But when you speak in a spiritual sense and you speak in a more applicable manner, I do believe it is fair to say that every human is a mover and a dancer in God's choreography. in his choreography for creation. So I hope that does open up your mind and widen your perspective to potentially realize that yes, you are a dancer. You are a mover. You are called to be a mover in the kingdom of God because movement is the call for all believers. We are not called to live a stagnant life. We are not called to have stagnant faith. But on the contrary, we are called to take steps that continue to move us forward by faith so that we can ultimately fulfill what it is that God is wanting to be fulfilled here on this earth. To be fulfilled in our own unique lives and then to be used as living vessels to see his kingdom come in the world around us. So we are called to be movers. We are all called to live in surrender and to trust the Lord with our steps, trusting that He will direct our path so long as we keep stepping and we keep moving forward. So that is definitely a huge part of the inspiration for this podcast title and what I believe God is calling this to exist for. This is the space to remind us and empower us to continue moving forward boldly in our faith. And I just love, I mean personally just love how it all does play and have an angle on dance and movement. And I believe that God will continue to use that and thread that through our conversations and our perspective on these spiritual thoughts and topics that we're going to cover. And so I really hope that as those thoughts land on your ears, that you already are sensing in your spirit how this is, the prayer is that this is a space where these words can uniquely speak to you wherever it is that you're at, and whatever season of life you may be in, whatever season of your faith you may be in, you may be at the beginning of your faith journey or a seasoned believer, that we're going to allow the spirit to use these words and these conversations to ignite specific bits of encouragement and empowerment that are going to specifically direct your own unique life and you and your own unique and individual wall. Because, like I said, you may not be an artist, you may not be a dancer, you may be a very, very hard worker who doesn't categorize themselves in any of those categories, but I hope that you just see that God does have a gifting for you. And God does have... He's planting dreams and desires on your heart to be used for His glory. And so we want to keep moving forward through those things for Him. Dedicating everything to Him. And there's actually a very beautiful chapter in Scripture in Hebrews 11 that speaks all over faith. It is... The whole theme of this chapter is faith. And I'm going to start by reading Hebrews 11, 1, which says, Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. So that is the definition of faith. And this is what the ancients were commended for. And it goes on to list by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Isaac, by faith Jacob, the people that we can recall, that we often recall as we read through and study the Old Testament and the New Testament. The people that we regard for their faith would not be regarded for their faith if they never moved forward, if they never took the steps that God was inspiring and asking them to take. And so it was by faith that those people were able to encounter the Lord at that time and experience His power and see it unveil in their lives when they moved. And like, for instance, Noah is the one that's sticking out to me right now. If he wouldn't have built the ark, if he would not have done the movement necessary to piece that ark together, he wouldn't have been able to ultimately see and experience the power of God in his life and the power of the faith that he had. Because it took faith to sit there and this storm and flood that God told him about was unseen off in the distance in the future, it took faith to build the ark anyway. It took faith to believe that, to trust God's promise of that, and to build the ark anyway, especially when the people around him started to question him. He resisted that, and he stayed persistent with his faith, and he ultimately was able to see God's plan. fulfilled because of that. And so I pray that we all can begin to be empowered with a similar Hebrews 11 faith, putting our faith into action, that's the title of this section, as we listen and speak through this podcast together. So that is a huge amount, I feel like I just thought a lot, of the heart of going into this ministry. And so, moving forward, I do hope that we can continue to cover different topics and themes that are relevant to that subject. I pray that we are also able to invite others in and begin to hear others' testimonies as well. like the testimonies in the Old Testament and the New, I pray that we are able to hear testimonies from people living in today's world that are also going to empower us and inspire us in our faith. And we're going to be able to see how it is that God is still moving and He is still active because faith is belief in the unseen. And if we break that down a little bit more, I have my notes here. Faith is a gift. Faith is a gift from God and it comes through belief in Jesus. Belief that Jesus came and he died and he rose again. When we believe in Jesus and when we believe that that actually happened, that is how we have faith. That is the seed for our faith in God. And faith being a belief in what is unseen We are, when we commit to faith, we're committing to believing in God who is unseen. But he is so amazing in the way that he crafted an ability even after Jesus came on this earth, died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven, who now Jesus is also unseen. He gifted us with the Holy Spirit, another unseen part of the Trinity. Yet, it's through the movement of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and in the lives of others that that intangible presence does become tangible. It becomes something that we can feel and it becomes something we can see because that Holy Spirit begins to move in the lives of others and He begins to stir and move individuals in a way that does reveal God and His power tangibly. Being moved by faith is a living and visual testimony of God's plan and what it is that he's orchestrating and choreographing from heaven, if you will. So being moved by our faith and putting our faith in action, I say all this to say, is crucial for all of us believers so that ultimately God's intangible presence becomes tangible and visible here on this earth. We are the vessels. Those are also thoughts that are just igniting the vision and direction for this podcast ministry. And so I hope this all is landing on your soul and planting seeds in your spirit, stirring curiosities and questions that you too can take to the Lord directly on your own time. I encourage you to do that because, I mean, I will sit here and say as we begin to wrap up that I am not going to claim to have all the answers here by any means. Like I said, I am still learning. I am still growing. And I just hope that we can do that together. And so, one, I thank you for listening and I thank you for giving this podcast... a chance today because you are part of the answered prayer here, the prayers that are being put into this podcast and the words that are going to be shared. You are being prayed over as a listener who will be receiving these words. I pray that you also receive the Holy Spirit and then you begin to be inspired to seek Him on your own time and that these words will maybe, something will linger in your heart and in your spirit to carry you forward and throughout your life, throughout the rest of your week until the next episode comes out so that you can continue being the person that God ultimately desires you to be. And so we have a lot of exciting things to look forward to together. I hope that we can begin to connect more also as you follow along with this podcast. There will definitely be more content and episodes released soon. There is going to be an Instagram page where I do hope to begin to connect with more of you and then also an email, a website, and hopefully in addition to the audio recordings that this visual recording is also going to work out and there will be a YouTube page for those to be found as well. So if you can begin to like and subscribe and show support to this podcast in those areas, I definitely believe it will help us grow and help us blossom and help this ministry be found by the ears that God is wanting to receive this. And the thing is, I also want to just openly admit, I do not have any expectations in that regard. I do not have any expectations for where this may go. I do believe that God can do wonderful things through this ministry. I'm not doubting that at all. But I believe it would be just as wonderful if this lands on the heart of one person who truly needed to hear this, rather than prioritizing quantity here. We want to give someone with true, genuine, spiritual quality. And so I pray that that's what happens. And I look forward to diving into more conversations with you all soon. In future episodes, you can look forward to, hopefully you're looking forward to it, more of my testimony as I begin to break down my own faith journey and dance journey more specifically. And then we'll dive into other topics and things from there. And so again, I thank you for taking the time to listen. I pray that wherever you are, that you go on blessed in the rest of your day. I do want to pray over us before we conclude officially. Yeah, so if you will, bow your heads and close your eyes if you can. If you're driving or somewhere where you can't close your eyes, don't do that. But let's just go to the Lord together. Dear God, we thank you so much for this time that we've been able to just sit in your presence. we've been able to hear from you and we've been able to circle through some thoughts that we believe god that you are planting on our hearts to be received and heard and i pray god that your words and your message will shine through this podcast and this ministry that you are creating god we surrender it to you we pray that you will move through this podcast that we do have the faith to continue moving forward in this ministry so that ultimately your work can be done and your kingdom can come here on this earth more and more until we one day get to rejoice and spend eternity with you in heaven I pray God that this will inspire us all to walk more boldly in our faith to move And take steps in trust and surrender of your plan and your will for our lives. I pray that we will be encouraged. I pray that we will feel your love. And we just thank you. We give you our gratitude. We give you our gratitude for what it is you have done and what it is we believe you are going to continue to do. And it's in your name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you again for listening, and I look forward to sharing more time with you here on the Moved by Faith podcast.