SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION

Program Music / Theme Song - Opening and closing Raising Expectations theme music.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield - Host of Raising Expectations.

Speaker 2 - Melba Schofield - Co-host and wife of Pastor Joe Schofield.

Speaker 3 - Stefanie Thayer - Co-host / panelist.

Speaker 4 - Dr. Craig Thayer - Co-host / panelist, surgeon and author.

Speaker 5 - Dr. Paul Hall - Co-host / panelist, retired pastor, counselor, writer, and speaker.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman - Guest; minister, author, speaker, and daughter of Dr. Robert Schuller.

Speaker 7 - Ron Greer - Co-host / panelist noted during the introduction but not present for this episode.

Program Music / Theme Song:
Wake up the heart. Wake up the dream. There is more to the story than what we have seen. Faith in the fire. Hope in the fight. Families are rising, stepping into the light. Raising Expectations - lift your eyes, lift your voice. Raising Expectations - faith and freedom still have a choice. Here are Pastor Joe and Melba Schofield, filled with wisdom and carrying strong hope, with Stefanie Thayer and Dr. Craig Thayer helping move the hope along, Dr. Paul Hall and Ron Greer standing for truth and grace. This is your life in America today, with courage in this place. Raising Expectations - good to better, best together. Raising Expectations - faith that carries on forever.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this edition of Raising Expectations. It is hard to believe we are rolling through August. Summer is here, and when you step outside here, you realize we are in the triple digits. That has been kind of exciting if you are related to an Elon Musk monster, but anyway, it is pretty warm out there as we go through the day.

We are glad you are with us tonight. We pray you have had a great day, and later we are going to be praying that you have a great week the rest of the way. We are excited about our show tonight. Many of you have read the things that have gone out there, and I have received word back from you on those things. I am glad you are excited to be with us also.

I know you already know this, but I have received word that you love the new song we have been using. I want to thank BBS Radio and their incredible group for putting that song together for us from the words that we use. They took the words and turned them into music, and we are so grateful for that. It is a great song, and we listen to it sometimes just to get encouraged.

We are believers. We are blood-bought believers. We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and He died on the cross. That is why He came to this world: to pay the price for our sins, something we could never do, because you cannot stand before a holy God with sin in your life. He paid the price, and He has gone to heaven. The Bible story is clear about where He is, and He is coming again someday for each of us who belong to Him.

As we often say, we get the greatest of both worlds. We get to know He is working in our lives. The Bible says He has a plan for our lives. When we have a tough time getting going, He gets us going, to paraphrase another great word from Dr. Schuller, whose daughter is going to be with us in a few minutes. He picks us up and gets us rolling when we place our faith in Him.

We hope that you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, not just when there is a group of people all around looking at you, but all alone in the quietness of your heart. Call out to Him. He will be listening, and He will be ready to be there with you.

We look forward to being with you every Monday. You know our team. On the West Coast, we have Dr. Paul Hall. He is there on the California coast.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
Are you having a heat wave, Paul?

Speaker 5 - Dr. Paul Hall:
No, I do not think so. We are in our seventies, so it feels good.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
Last time you had a heat wave at sixty-eight degrees, so that is why I thought I would ask.

Speaker 5 - Dr. Paul Hall:
Yes, we all had them. That was a tough one.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
Paul is a retired pastor. He is a great guy. He has worked with people all over. He is a writer, counselor, and speaker, and he has done so many things. It is a great blessing to know him as a brother in Christ. He is here with us every week.

You can get to know the people on our website, as most of you already do. Go to BBSRadio.com/RaisingExpectations. You will be able to see last week's show there. You can scroll down and hear about the program, get to know a little bit of what we are doing, and read about the people on the team. There are programs from the past that we have done. You can click on any one of them and follow our programs either as a podcast, on your phone going down the road, on your radio, on your computer, or on YouTube.

Also, you will see the really great folks who are part of our team for Raising Expectations. Read about them. Pray for them. I know they are going to be praying for you. If you have a thought on your mind, give them a note. Let them know you are praying for them.

You will also find our books there. My book is Legitimate Faith That Produces Authentic Hope. What is authentic hope? You will have to read and find out. There are ten or twelve chapters that will take you into God's Word and also into my own life, what God did in taking me from one situation to a whole new call of God on my life.

Right next to mine is Saved, the story of Dr. Craig Thayer, about a surgeon who found God working in the ordinary things of life and what God did in blessing his life. He and his wife are two of the most wonderful people you will ever meet, and they are going to come to you in just a moment.

Now we are going to meet the Thayers. They are in Dalton, Georgia, and they come to us from a long way away. Stefanie is a great, godly woman. She is a mother, a health coach, and a counselor who helps women in special ways through God's Word.

Speaker 3 - Stefanie Thayer:
There are actually two USCs: the University of South Carolina and Southern California.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
Yes, South Carolina Gamecocks, right? We are USC - Southern California - but we can still go for those. Those are good guys.

Dr. Craig Thayer is a wonderful brother in Christ. He is a surgeon, a trauma surgeon, and he is a doctor in so many ways. He doctors not just from the mind that he has and the knowledge he has acquired, but from the heart God gave him. That heart always sees the need in people's lives, just like Stefanie does, and reaches out to those people.

They have done mission work together. They have been to Africa, the Caribbean, and other places helping people. It is always exciting to hear their stories and what God is doing in their lives.

Ron Greer will not be with us tonight, but he is there in McKinney, Texas. Hello, Ron. We will see you next time. You can catch him next week and read about what God is doing in Ron's life. He is another great brother in the Lord.

Now let me share the greatest gift God gave me on this panel right here: my wife, Melba. She is right here. I went to Texas and got her, as you all know.

Melba has done so many things. She got her degrees from Hardin-Simmons University and went to Southwestern Theological Seminary for her master's. She is a counselor for women and children. She has helped set up conferences and helped people in churches and in their lives as they seek God's guidance each day. You do great, baby.

Speaker 2 - Melba Schofield:
Thank you. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
It is always a thrill that she is with us. She also likes our guest. We have been talking about Sheila Schuller Coleman. She is such a blessing. Tell us a little about her.

Speaker 2 - Melba Schofield:
She has God's call in her heart and her life to share deep, thought-provoking truths from God's Word, just like her wonderful father, Dr. Robert Schuller, did each week from the pulpit at the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California. She worked closely with him and with those people as he always did. We are blessed by her heart, her thoughts, and her life-changing insights from God's Word.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
Sheila, it is so good to have you with us tonight. We are really glad. Her question, which we have been thinking about during the week and sent out to the team, is this: if little faith can move mountains, what can limitless faith do? That is a great thought. Sheila, it is great to have you with us again, and it is good to have you as part of the family.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
Thank you so very, very much. The teaser question we are talking about tonight goes right in line with your whole Raising Expectations theme. I love your theme song. It filled me with all kinds of joy. It raised me up.

We are living in days where we are seeing mountains all around us. We face mountains. We face so many different mountains. And yet we have a God for whom mountains are nothing.

Jesus said that if you have faith the size of a tiny mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move," and it will move from here to there. Then the Lord said to me, "Sheila, if little faith can move mountains, what can limitless faith do?" That question came from God to me, and I am still in awe of it.

Just asking myself that question forces me to push against the limits we tend to put on ourselves, on our problems, on our world, and on what is happening all around us. The more I look to God and not to my mountains, the more I see that there are no limits to God's power, no limits to God's deliverance, and no limits to God's healing.

The more I push myself, the more I begin to catch even a minute glimpse of His power. The more I see of it, the more faith I have. As you have in the title of your book, Pastor Joe, the more faith you have, the more hope is instilled within us. I think that is such a powerful title for the book. I believe what God is doing through this whole ministry is so needed.

I want to dovetail with the last time I was with you. I spoke on the power of a positive word: never doubt the power of a positive word. The Lord has had me training prayer teams to pray for their cities. We have been strategic about it. We have put together Holy Spirit-inspired strategic maps of our city, and teams are going around and praying over them.

We believe that as we do this, the Lord has said we are taking back territory for the King of Kings. A lot of it begins with repentance, from 2 Chronicles: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, and repent, I will heal their land." We begin our prayer walks with repentance.

I have been training teams in Orange County, California, specifically in the city of Orange where my church is located. We have done several of these prayer walks there. This goes right in line with never doubting the power of a positive word, because as we are praying, declaring, and decreeing God's deliverance over our cities, we saw recently that a huge hospital for children has said they are ceasing transgender medical services. Not only that, the Catholic hospital next door said they are no longer promoting or supporting abortions. I see that as a praise report, and it fuels our faith as we talk about mountains and limitless faith.

Speaker 3 - Stefanie Thayer:
That is such a praise. It is really good news. It is sad and horrifying how much momentum that movement has gained, especially around children. It is one thing if an adult wants to make a wild choice. It is another when sweet children are involved. I had no idea that had occurred, so I am glad you shared it.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
I have been sharing it with my friends and prayer partners around Orange County, and they have said, "This should be headline news." So I am going to put it out here on Raising Expectations. Look what God can do. It was through prayer.

Speaker 4 - Dr. Craig Thayer:
There is an interesting legal case that is going to be heard. I am not sure when, but the story is that a woman became pregnant, and the man involved allegedly did not want the baby. He gave her abortion pills without her knowledge, and she miscarried. Either she or the state is suing him for murder. The larger question becomes: when does life start? That may eventually be defined by the courts.

In trauma medicine, if someone shoots a pregnant woman and both the woman and baby die, it is treated as a double homicide. The law already recognizes that as a living human being.

Melba's analogy is the cake. You have the bowl. You have the ingredients. They get mixed. Then the cake goes into the pan, which is like the womb, and then into the oven. If you turn off the oven or pull the cake out before it is ready, you have killed the cake. It is a hard subject, because many women have made that decision and have regretted it. We are not here to judge.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
The Lord asked me to write the book The Heart of a Warrior: Delivering the Children of the World for Christ. When He told me to write it, I asked, "What is going on with the children of the world?" That was four years ago. Two of the first things He said to me were that the two places where vulnerable children should be safe and protected are schools and wombs, and now both have become places of destruction.

Since then, the Lord has divinely connected me with wonderful ministries that are answers to the prayers we have been praying for children. My little remnant church partners with ministries that call themselves missionaries to the unborn, and also missionaries to the moms. In The Heart of a Warrior, we provide a prayer guide with prayers for the unborn, prayers for mothers who have made mistakes and are regretting them, and prayers for women who desperately want to have a baby and cannot conceive.

That is part of our heart and ministry. This praise report is an example of what happens when faith is fueled and grows from limited to limitless. The Lord has been leading me today as I prayed about what to say. There is the verse where Jesus says that if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can speak to the mountain. But there is also another verse in Zechariah 4. It says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord. Then it talks about the mountain being leveled and becoming a plain, and the people shouting, "Grace, grace" to it.

I had forgotten that verse, though I was familiar with it, and the Lord brought it to mind today. I asked, "Lord, what do you mean by grace? How do you speak grace to a mountain?" He gave me this definition: grace is undeserved divine deliverance. Whatever mountain we are facing, God can level it, move it, remove it, or turn it into something beautiful.

My father had the Possibility Thinkers' Creed: "When faced with a mountain, I will not quit. I will keep on striving until I find a way through, tunnel underneath, climb over, or simply stay and turn it into a gold mine with God's help." He was known for mountain-moving faith.

When we have a mountain in our lives, we can speak grace to the mountain - God's undeserved divine deliverance. When you are faced with a mountain, you need limitless faith, because a mountain represents a challenge you cannot take on alone.

Speaker 3 - Stefanie Thayer:
That is the enemy's plan, right? He says, "Look at this mountain. You cannot get over it. You did this. You got yourself here. You are stuck." I have heard grace called unmerited favor, so it is similar to what you said: divine deliverance.

Using the abortion conversation as an example, I have had candid conversations with people. Often we hear the Christian community come out against abortion, and I am also against abortion, but a large piece that is often missed is what happens after. What about recovery? What about restoration? The same is true for the LGBTQ community. What happens after confusion or sin? Is that mountain still in front of you, or is there an opportunity with the Lord for freedom? The answer is always yes.

Even with what society might call a small sin - lying, gossiping, whatever it may be - the Lord still says He can take that mountain. You have to go down, trust Him, and heal from that thing. I do not know why we resist it so much. In our minds, we make it so much bigger. I think that is part of the enemy's trick.

The second you give voice to the thing - the lie, the sin, the wound - it does not have the same power. It is as if the mountain starts being topped off. That is why small groups, living-room church, or meeting at a coffee shop can be so important. We need people who will hold us accountable, love us, and return us to the Word. There is always a place for the larger church, but we also need smaller spaces where we can lay our burdens down and be reminded of truth, because the Lord does not want us stuck in our mistakes.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
I agree totally, Stefanie. What jumped out at me the first time I heard someone speak on this passage from Zechariah - speaking grace to the mountain - is that it is counterintuitive. I always want to take dynamite to the mountain and blow it to smithereens. But grace is different.

A lot of times, the mountains in our lives are self-induced as well as enemy-induced. He whispers. He lies. Then we buy into the lie, and it begins to grow in us until it gets bigger and bigger. That is why we not only need to speak grace to the mountain, but often we need to speak grace to ourselves.

The Bible talks about not judging. We have Christ's example with the woman caught in adultery. Who are we to judge God's beloved children? He alone judges. As a church and as fellow Christians, we can speak grace to people. We can say, "The Lord loves you. The Lord forgives you. The Lord has erased that with His grace and replaced it with mercy and grace."

Speaker 5 - Dr. Paul Hall:
I would like to speak to that point, and then Sheila, I have a question for you. I found a delightful guy named Roy Goble who has a website or podcast called Junkyard Wisdom. His dad operated a junkyard when he was growing up. He makes this statement, and I would like you to speak to it: "The world has a way of labeling us by our worst days - failure, divorce, addiction, prison, bankruptcy, regret - but God simply refuses to believe that brokenness gets the final word." Prompted by what Stefanie said about what happens after abortion, could you speak to that? How does your church address what happens after?

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
That is a new question for me, so I am going to process it as the Holy Spirit leads. I think it is an ongoing, everyday process. It is not one-and-done. There is not a single one of us, no matter who we are or how long we have known the Lord, who is not constantly in need of His mercy and grace.

I have known Him since I was four and have had an intimate relationship with Him since I was four, yet my daily walk with Him is, "Thank you, Lord, that your mercies are new every day. Forgive me." He reminds me of things I said that I should not have said. We are constantly in need of His mercy and grace.

The phrase He gave me today was that grace is undeserved divine deliverance. Deliverance is not only deliverance from something, but deliverance to something. You are delivered from guilt and shame, and you are delivered to His mercy, joy, and new life. He rejuvenates us every day, again and again.

People tend to think of deliverance only in terms of someone who is possessed, but you can be delivered from fear, anxiety, and shame. Everybody can relate to Amazon these days. You get a notification that something you ordered is going to be delivered. Delivery is exciting. Deliverance has that same kind of beauty to it. Grace is delivered whenever, wherever, however. It is a matter of saying, "Thank you, Lord, for loving me, being merciful, and delivering me again and again."

Speaker 5 - Dr. Paul Hall:
That brings me to the second point. I listen carefully to you, and I hear you say things like, "The Lord spoke to me," or "The Lord told me this." You said you developed an intimate relationship with the Lord from the age of four. For those listening who struggle with, "Is God speaking to me? How do I know God is speaking to me? Is this God telling me to do this?" what markers do you use to discern the Lord's will?

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
That is such a good question. It begins with knowing His voice. As you get to know Him through His Word, you begin to know His voice.

I have shared before that I was tasked with being my dad's ghostwriter. Publishers loved me because nobody could tell that it was me writing the books. They were his messages, not mine. What I could do was capture Dad's voice, and the only reason I could do that was because, as his daughter, I could hear his voice in my ear. I can still hear my dad's voice in my ear.

It is the same with our heavenly Father. Scripture says the sheep know the Shepherd's voice. I think that is the first beginning point. In my book Unearthing the Lost Treasure of Wisdom, which I wrote for unbelieving Gen Z and millennials, I talk about how to hear the voice of the Lord. You do not hear Him with your ears. You hear Him with your heart.

It is also important to make sure everything aligns with God's Word and God's nature. I also love confirmation from somebody else, and I frequently receive it. He does speak. We see that in Scripture all the time, with Samuel as a primary example. Dad used to say that people do believe, but they do not recognize that they have faith within them. I think God speaks a lot, but we often do not recognize that it is truly Him.

Speaker 5 - Dr. Paul Hall:
What are the things you personally do to build that intimate relationship with the Lord? I know the simple answer is that we pray, but what do you personally do to get your heart aligned with the Father? Do you take walks? What do you do?

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
I do a thirty- to forty-minute prayer walk four mornings a week. I go out and walk and pray. I listen to worship music, and I almost always begin my morning with worship music.

I have a journal, and I journal every morning and every night. Every night I take my journal with me and write to the Lord. I call Him Abba, because that is what Jesus did. I tell Him how I did that day, what I did, and how I felt I did. I ask Him questions. Sometimes I do not even ask questions. Someone once told me, "Put the pen back in the hand of the Lord and let Him write back to you. Do not self-edit. Just write whatever comes to mind."

I have done that for years. I have pages and pages, books and books of journals. It becomes second nature. Sometimes I will be drifting off to sleep, and I will wake up and write more. I may not remember what the Lord said the night before, and then I read it the next morning and say, "Wow."

Another classic that has helped me is Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. I read it when I was in my twenties, and those ideas became part of me. They are like breathing.

God is always with us. If we are Christians and have given our lives to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in us. He is with us every breath and every heartbeat. He never leaves us. The trick is to remember that. When we become conscious of Him and say, "Abba, Holy Spirit, I need help," immediately we find help and feel His presence.

The more you practice it, the more you recognize it. Even as I am speaking, I can feel Holy Spirit tingles and goosebumps. There can be physical manifestations. Sometimes tears come. I tell people that if you feel tears in your eyes when you are praying, that is a good thing. It means the Holy Spirit is touching your heart. Lean into Him and let Him hold you, heart to heart.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
You mentioned blowing up the mountain with dynamite. When I was a youth pastor years ago, I was with a church that had been downtown for years. They had to move because the old building was condemned. They found an old golf course that had gone under. It was beautiful, about 130 or 140 acres, and they believed God had called them there. The problem was that the land sat on a mountain. It was rounded at the top, and the only level spots were the greens, which is not enough for a church.

They began to pray. They got discouraged because they were being crunched on all sides. The devil's biggest tool when you are worried about a mountain is time. It comes at you and says, "Even God cannot do this."

Then, in the midst of all this, they got a call from Caterpillar. Caterpillar said, "We hear you may need help with a mountain. We have just developed the largest earth mover that has ever been created. We need a place to test it, and we will come and do the whole mountain for you free if you let us." They leveled and cleared off the top of that entire mountain. Out of nowhere, when the church had no idea how it could possibly happen, God provided. That story always comes to mind when someone talks about a mountain.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
I love that story, Joe. I am going to hold on to it for a while because we are believing for something too. That goes back to the verse that precedes speaking grace to the mountain: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord.

That is why limitless faith is so important. The enemy wants us to see ourselves as very limited. When we focus on ourselves, we are limited. But the Lord's power is limitless.

One night when I was writing my book, driving home on the Fourth of July with fireworks going off all around me, the Lord rocked my world with that question: "Sheila, if limited faith can move mountains, what can limitless faith do?" A little while later, He said, "I want you to pray and ask, 'Give me the same faith in You, Lord, that You have in Yourself.'"

Every time I pray that, I think about how much faith God has in Himself. It makes sense that He would want us to have the same faith in Him. The more I pray that, the more my faith is stretched.

Most mornings, I say, "Good morning, Abba. Show me what to pray. Show me what to say. Show me what You want me to do for You today." Then I say, "Holy Spirit, I ask You to purge all of Sheila out until there is nothing left but You." I also pray the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 91, Psalm 24, and the armor of God. I have memorized them, and that process has helped me hide God's Word in my heart.

Speaker 4 - Dr. Craig Thayer:
I think of the verse people often quote: "God will not give you more than you can handle." What is sometimes left off is "with God." When it is just yourself, you can become overwhelmed. When it is yourself with God, the equation is different.

There was also the time when the apostles tried to cast something out and could not. Then Jesus encountered the same individual and handled it effortlessly. When they asked why they could not do it, He said they did not have enough faith. Even the apostles had moments when they did not have limitless faith.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
Thank you, because I want to speak to that. My father was fearless. He always had fearless faith, and he never put limits on anything. The fact that he built the Crystal Cathedral out of glass in an earthquake zone and raised millions of dollars is just one example. You could go on and on about him. He was fearless.

I was not. I was always that scared little girl who wanted to hide behind her dad. But God has grown my faith. Many people feel like me, like the apostles, as if they do not have enough faith. What I have learned is that the Lord will dramatically increase your faith if you ask Him for it. Scripture says, "You have not because you ask not."

As I have prayed for the same faith in God that God has in Himself, I now have faith I never had before. For the first 71 years of my life, I did not feel that kind of faith. Over the last four years, I feel I am beginning to be my father's daughter in terms of faith.

I want to encourage people that the gift of faith is there for all who need it and want it. Some listening tonight may be saying, "I have this mountain in my life, and I have felt hopeless because it is there. I do not see any way to get over it, around it, or through it." God made mountains, so He can take care of your mountain. Ask Him to grow your faith so that you can have hope and see the mountain leveled.

Speaker 5 - Dr. Paul Hall:
Yesterday in our Bible study, I referenced two times in Scripture when Jesus was amazed. First, He was amazed at the faith of the centurion. Second, He was amazed at the unbelief of the people in Mark 6. Your statement, "Give me the same faith that You have in Yourself," is profound. It causes serious thought about faith and how it functions in our lives.

I think it was Chuck Swindoll who was asked if there was a verse he often thought about, and he said, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." That is profound too. I hope my heart never gets so cynical that I cannot be surprised by what God does.

There is a poster of a man walking on top of a railroad track rail with his hands out, and underneath it says, "He was thought to be quite crazy by those who could not hear the music." To hear the music, dance in our spirit, enjoy the presence of the Lord, and celebrate what He is doing - that is something we need to recapture.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
That is so good, Paul. If we are physically sick and it is really a problem, I might call Craig. He has a way of explaining it so that it makes sense, and all of a sudden you are not as worried.

The Christian life seems to have been made more difficult for many because, as Sheila and Paul are saying, people do not hear the music. We are trained to get answers, reason it out, learn it out, get education, and become someone who has all the answers. But you cannot get those answers if you are not listening. You find yourself under the bus instead of walking by it.

Then we realize that we can have absolute peace. It is not just a promise. It is a fact. We may not have the answers yet, but if we walk with God and say, "Abba Father, I am listening," and go about the day watching Him iron out the little things, then when the mountains come, we will often say, "Where did it go?" We do not need to waste so much of life. We can realize who He is, whose we are, and where we are going.

Speaker 2 - Melba Schofield:
I will share a little bit. In the last study I sat in before I came to California, we were talking about prayer and how God answers prayers. Something inside me thought, "Why do we doubt? Why do we doubt that God will answer our prayers?" Another part of that is that when He does answer, do we recognize it as the prayer we prayed being answered?

My daughter and her husband moved, and he was looking for a job. I prayed for him every day, asking God to provide something so they would be comfortable. One day she called me and said, "Mom, did you pray for Brandon this morning?" I said, "Every day, sweetheart. Why?" She said, "Brandon got his job."

I told her, "That is great. Now tonight, I want you and Brandon to pray and thank God for that job, because I did my part. Now you have to do your part and recognize that it was not luck and it was not the universe. It was God."

When I pray, I know God is going to answer. Maybe not today, maybe in two weeks, maybe in eight years, but He will answer. Things have happened in my life that showed me God is my rock and He is the one in control of our lives. He has a plan for everybody as long as we are obedient in the small steps.

Speaker 4 - Dr. Craig Thayer:
When we are so in the flesh and so in the moment of the world, we do not stop and take time to look. You have to look to see. You will not see Him if you are too busy. The same is true of listening. If I am too busy and do not start to listen, I will not hear.

Find a quiet time. First thing in the morning, do not go to your cell phone. Get underneath and pray. Listen and look, and over time signs begin to come from what is going on in the world around you.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
His presence is a treasure, and it is there all the time. The more you recognize it, the more you recognize it. I see Him everywhere. I see Him in the way the sun is setting in my backyard, in a bird that flits past me, in a butterfly, in a grandchild who runs up and gives me a hug.

I also see and hear Him in the grocery store. I will see people in front of me in line, and all of a sudden I hear myself talking to them, and the next thing I know I am sharing with them about the Lord. It is a constant sense of knowing He is there.

That was forged through trials, but it was also forged from the age of four. I remember walking to kindergarten without anyone holding my hand. I remember seeing an oil slick in the road and a rainbow in it, and I was four years old singing, "Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder..." I saw Him everywhere.

In my early twenties, I became intentional about practicing His presence. I wanted that. It has become as natural as my heart beating and my lungs breathing. He is there, and I sense Him. That does not mean I am always thinking about Him, but it does not take much for Him to get my attention.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
You can have limitless faith as long as you keep your eyes on our limitless God. That takes away worry and replaces it with assurance. That is why I love John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you." His peace passes understanding, so do not be afraid.

When I think about those things, I can walk away from a problem with no answer and still have absolute peace. That is practicing His presence. I know the answer is coming. When His doorbell rings, I hear it, and I say, "Let's see what He is saying."

Ladies and gentlemen, we are so glad you watched Raising Expectations. You mean the world to us. We may not be able to put a face and a name with you, but we feel that you love the Lord too. The comments you send and the things you share are very special. The thing that matters is sharing Jesus and what He means in the world. Every problem and every need is right there at the foot of the cross.

Stefanie, could you share how people can connect and help financially with some of the things we are trying to do?

Speaker 3 - Stefanie Thayer:
You were doing great, Pastor Joe. You can connect with us on social media, but the main place is BBSRadio.com/RaisingExpectations. When you get there, you will usually see the prior show highlighted. As you scroll down, there are ways to donate to us. We love snail mail, and we receive giving in all forms.

Remember, we are not here to make money. We are here to get the Word out. It takes money for production and to be on the air, so donations help. You can also hear prior shows, learn about each one of us, and find ways to connect individually. We love to hear from you. It is encouraging.

If you can donate, we appreciate that. If you cannot, please share the show. Sharing the show goes a long way. It is helpful to us and helpful to the Lord's Kingdom, which is why we are all here. Thank you for being good stewards with us.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
Thank you so much. Remember, great is His faithfulness to each one of us in everything we face in life. Sheila, you have been a blessing. You are an extension of the wonderful work your father did in blessing so many lives. We count you as part of our Raising Expectations family. Tell your husband thank you for us. It has been a pleasure to hear the Lord speak to all of us through you.

If you have one wrap-up thought, please share it. Then Paul, would you pray and close us out?

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
The words I am hearing are these: there is nothing impossible for the Lord. He can do anything and everything. It does not matter what you are facing. He can help you with it, and He will help you with it. He is just a heartbeat and a prayer away.

Speaker 5 - Dr. Paul Hall:
Father, You are so gracious, and we love You. It is a joy to love You. It is a joy to open our hearts and sense Your presence, to open our eyes to see Your presence, and to open our spirits to receive what You have in store for us.

Lord, as we read Your Word, we are reminded that we do believe, but we also say, "Help our unbelief." In the moments when we falter and seem to totter, Your Word keeps us on our feet, and I thank You for that.

I thank You for Sheila. Thank You for the way You have lived and moved in her, for what she continues to do, and for the lives she continues to touch. I pray, Father, that You continue to bless her efforts and those who hear her words and are involved in the ministries she is involved in.

Lord, everything is a matter of grace. It is all from You, and we acknowledge that. Thank You for letting us be part of that. Keep us mindful that we bear Your name, and may we do that with great joy. May we not forget how to dance in our faith. We thank You for that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Speaker 1 - Pastor Joe Schofield:
Amen. Thanks, ladies and gentlemen. Have a blessed week. Walk with God all day and wait until you see what He has in store. Love Him and trust Him. See you soon. Bye-bye. Thank you, Sheila.

Speaker 6 - Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman:
Thank you. Love you all.