S3 EP 29: Unlocking the Secrets of Inner Joy: An Authentic Dialogue with Yvette Walker

Hello, hello. Welcome back to God's Diamonds in the Ruff. We are so glad to be with you one more time. I am one of your hosts. Well, we are one of us. I'm Catherine.

And I'm Michael.

And we have our guest today, yvette Walker. We're so excited to have her here. You want to say hello to everybody. Hello, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here. Yes, ma'am, we are as well, amen. So, before we go into this, we're going to have prayer, okay.

Let us pray.

Absolutely.

Dear Heavenly Father, our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ, we just come to you right now and say thank you, Thank you for just being who you are in our lives. We pray in the name of Jesus as we get into God's Diamonds in the Ruff podcast that you will just have your way. We counsel any assignment of the enemy that will be sent back into the picture where it came from, for it has no power, no authority over us. We pray in the name of Jesus, hoping and praying that your listeners will get the concept of what they need to know that they are a diamond in the rough. We pray in the name of Jesus for the ones who have no desire to know who you are, that your touch would just be enough to change and transform their mindset. We pray in the name of Jesus for just being who you are and knowing who we are in you. We pray in the name of Jesus and thank you and we say amen, amen and amen.

Amen, amen, amen, amen. To God be the glory. So we're talking about joy today. Talking about this is absolutely one of the fruits of the spirit. Absolutely as diamonds in the sight of God, we ought to be shining in. One of the ways we shine is with the joy that we express inwardly and outwardly Amen. So Miss Walker has a podcast. She's a podcast. She's also an author. She got a lot going on in her life. So you want to add to that and just tell us why joy seems to be really your gift I mean expressed to us a little further.

Yes, absolutely Well, before God made this submission for me, people always told me just, I mean, from college, from you know, as a young woman to now, that I never seem to get rattled or upset, that I seem to quote, unquote have it together, which, trust me, I don't believe that's true. That's what people said. But in 2019, it occurred to me Now I've got a career as a communicator. I've been working in the field for a long time and occurred to me you know, years later, that I had never used my communication skills. In his honor, in his glory, right. So I said why have I not been doing that? I need to do that. So I began to. He began to inspire me and I began to to write, and I have a newsletter and all those things. But in 2020, of course, you know, as the pandemic came, I was sitting at my dining room table and I said, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to do a podcast. I've been wanting to do a podcast and I want to do a podcast on hair and beauty. That was what I was going to do and Laura stopped me in my tracks and said you're going to start a podcast, but it will be on joy, and I'm obedient. So I said, okay, lord, but what does that mean? And I really did not know Exactly what he wanted me to say. But he's revealed to me since then that he and a good thing is is I'm not the only one talking about joy. I really believe that he has put a mission on people's hearts, not just me. I'm seeing more and more people talk about joy. What I try to focus on is what real joy is, what true joy is. Right, we're getting twisted. They get it confused and they think that being joyful is being happy all the time, having all these you know, wonderful things, everything going well, right. I do think that God does want good things for us, but he didn't promise that everything was always going to be okay. That was not his promise. He'd be faithful to us, and so I have been, since that time, focusing on that. Focusing on, even if you are going through some mess, the God is in the middle of that mess, with you and you can.

That's right, absolutely yeah. So, honey, you got any questions before I start asking questions?

You know, I was just looking at your website and one of the statements that you got at the top of your website it really stood out to me about joy isn't a feeling, it's a fate. You know, and that is so true because, you know, we think that it's something that we have to go through, but it's not. It's based on our faith that we're going to make it, and I like that concept.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So also, you said that you was in an unhappy marriage and not walking that out with the Lord. And so what? Can you go just a step further with that? I mean just with that thought of you know, yeah, of just not being happy, because I think that people don't they don't really know what happiness is. You know what I mean. We have this idea, but what does that really look like and how is it attached to joy?

For me, absolutely For me, when I was going through this unhappy marriage that failed. By the way, it was a failed marriage and I blamed myself for that. I blamed it, even though there were lots of circumstances. You know, my husband at that time was bipolar. I didn't know that going into marriage. I'm not sure he knew that and it's a very difficult disorder. I'm not blaming him, but it's a very difficult order to handle and you really do have to have talk, therapy and medication and exercise and eat right. I mean, it's almost a holistic thing, but if you're not doing that it can be very difficult to manage and for the marriage failed and I was having a real problem with that. What I learned during that time, it wasn't the fact that I was unhappy, but it was the fact that I wasn't walking that out with God. I was not leaning on him. You know, proverbs 3-5 says trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. I was not leaning on him, I was leaning on my own understanding. I didn't know why things were going on and even if, whether or not I had stated the marriage or not, I think that if I had understood more what I know now that, as you said, joy is not a feeling, it is faith. I would deal with that because I have been. I've been a Christian. I was raised Catholic, I went to Catholic Elementary School, baptized as a baby, the whole deal. I've been going to church forever, but there was a time, at least during that time, especially when I I like to say I was numb in my faith. I had faith, definitely a believer, but I wasn't a seeker and I like to characterize this as a seeker. I just don't believe, but I want to know more. I want to develop a close relationship. I think that's really important for us to do. You can go to church every Sunday. It was almost like I was sleepwalking through my faith. I had a very numb feeling and that all came out after.

You know, after that crisis and as I said, the crisis definitely familiar, a familiar feeling, because I can say that I really went through the same thing, the same type of thing. I didn't really realize until after the marriage had failed, the first marriage and I think that, oh, I know that God uses the worst times in our life to bring us completely to Him and we it's almost. For me, I feel like it's a transition. We go from religion just doing all of the right things and going all of the right places, you know, in a timely matter and whatnot, and then we switch over to this religion, I mean, excuse me, relationship. It's like it becomes intimate. It's like now I want to know. It's like now I can. It's like God saying to us now I can show you what you really need to see. You know what I mean. I just I've put you in position, I've got you in a place where you can now hear me. You're not distracted, you're not compromising, you're not doing any of that, because right now it's like it's like it's like being in surgery and your heart is wide open. He's able to deposit what it is that he wants you to have, not what the world says, but what he wants you to have.

You know, get that yet, oh, I like that, I do, and I do get that. And you know what, when you're in that position, I mean you doubt everything. You doubt everything, realize what you've been going through, what you thought previously. But if you just completely open your mind and let that doubt go and take in everything that he's giving you, now I don't want to say it's not hard, because it certainly can be hard, but there's not a whole lot of steps and scripture that I like to use for, especially for the podcast. It's in John 15 and it's under the vine and the branches. One Sometimes you got to read a little. You can't just read those one things, you got to keep going. That's right Is. This tells us exactly what to do. We are supposed to abide in his love and do the fathers. Then we feel completely with joy. I believe that people are searching for joy in lots of different ways and they may find fleeting happiness, but it's not going to be this joy that I'm talking about. People are chasing joy in other people. They're chasing it in substances, alcohol, addictions. They're chasing it just in trying to climb up the corporate ladder. They're chasing it lots of different ways. You can't be a professional or you can't. You know. I mean, I was kind of person, I really enjoyed being married and I am remarried. God sent me a wonderful, but we are not. We know that we are not chasing each other. We're facing one person and it's not even person. We're chasing God. That is the fine, that's reported Amen, amen.

You haven't thought something.

Yeah, I was going to say, you know I can totally agree with what you're saying about the failed marriage, because this is my second marriage as well. But one thing I realize now is that, you know, sometimes we have to go through those bad spots in life to get where God really attended on us being, because you know, if it wasn't the fact that the bad marriages happened, we would take everything that happened for granted. That's right, yes, but at the same token, you know we and I made the statement yesterday that you know you can't be so serious that you don't allow the laughter to hit, because sometimes we can be stuck in that mode of this is how it's got to be, this got to be this way, it's got to be at this certain time, it's got to be done at this certain time. But at the same time, when we get in that mindset of it's got to happen this way and no other way, you do not have the chance to allow God to move.

No, I agree. And sometimes, sometimes, he reveals to you in the middle of it. You don't know. Maybe you don't know exactly what's happening, but you know that things are happening for a reason. So one time in the middle of this, my ex-husband my husband at that time, who has since passed on, by the way asked me if I had made a mistake in marrying him, and I told him I don't believe in mistakes. I believe that this was what was supposed to happen.

I don't know what I meant by that at the time, but I remember saying yeah, I mean we definitely and you know I say this to the diamonds we definitely got a look. We got a look for God, we got a look for what he's saying to us. You know we don't want to just exist in this world. You know our purpose is bigger than existing. You know we're supposed to. We should be leaving an imprint Michael has said that many times leaving an imprint into this world. We really need to leave our mark. You know, leave it. Don't just be here to be here, be here and do something and as. I mean that's not talking about you know, being works based type of thing. It's talking about you know, making a real impact if it's not just for the one making an impact using your life as like you're using your life, all of the tests, and turning it into a testimony. Because, you know, I believe that a lot of people's joy is stolen through being ashamed of the things that they've been through. I believe, that I truly believe that.

And it's good thing that you just said that, because I was just saying thinking just now. You know, sometimes we have to look beneath the flaws, Because if we just scratch the surface and see the flaws that we have in our lives, we cannot really comprehend the beauty behind the flaws.

I so agree. I so agree, yeah, I mean it's I talk about both in the book and on the podcast that we should be careful not to let the enemy rob us of our joy. You know, things can sometimes not go the way we want to, or you know, we're seeing a situation we're in and we're only scratching the surface, as you said, not icing what is there for us. You know that he's, that he's put in our path. I mean, a lot of times we, you know, will come to an area in our path and it's not what we expected. I'm calling myself Paul, but look what happened to Saul, that his past, and that happened. Right, he did not happen. That was very difficult for him, I'm sure. I mean difficult, I mean he was persecuted, he went to jail but, as we know through his writings, that did not stop him and he found a different kind of joy.

That's right, that's right. So, on your podcast, what is your message? What is your message? What is your message.

So my message to the world and it's just what we've been talking about is that joy is not a feeling, that it is faith, that we can only find the true joy of the Lord in abiding, living, dwelling in his love and doing the will of the father, which means we have to delve into the Bible. That's another big but, as I said, I've been Christian for a long time, raised Christian, but in the church I went to, we went to church, we read scripture, but I wasn't really encouraged to read the Bible at home. Again, no blame is the truth. And after that time, that kind of revelation when I just wanted to know more, right back in 2019, bible war. The funny thing about reading the Bible is I only got into it because I heard of something called Bible journaling. Now, I like and I'm like what is Bible journaling? And it's an exercise where people are reading the Bible and they are creating artwork and they are, in a sense, catbooking to the Bible verses. And that's what got me back into the Bible. I started reading the Bible in a way I had never done before. So, again, I never know how he's going to bring you in and I'm certainly not a Bible scholar, but I have read more in the last you know, let's say, five years, than I have the entirety of my life, and I can't do his will without knowing what his will is, and it's in my right here. So we need to jump in his word, we need to stay in his word and it's an interview show, my podcast and everyone I talk to and it's you know, they have an interesting experience that they want to share, but they are in the word. They have learned from the word that affects or relates to whatever their, their situation is, and so that is a big piece of it. So those two things to abide, dwell, live in his love and to do his will.

Absolutely. And what's in it Can you share with everybody that's listening to your podcast and how they can just listen to you further? And you know your social media handles all of that good old stuff.

Absolutely. It's called the positively joy podcast and you can find it at positivelyjoycom or on Apple Spotify. Wherever you go for podcasts, find me on social media as possibly joy podcast. But let me just tell you really quickly, just real quick, about and this is another example of trust and being obedient. Now, my, my words per se is not obedience, but I think obedience has a lot to do with us finding joy in our lives and situations. So I said I was sitting at that dining room table and I was going to do this podcast on hair and beauty, and he said, nope, it's going to be on joy. So in the very beginning I said, okay, I'm going to call it the finding joy podcast. Well, I hadn't done any research, I didn't realize that there were a million finding joy podcasts out there. But I kind of came back to the Lord and we got to pick a name Lord, what's this going to be? And and I clearly heard him say positively joy. And the reason why I know it was him is because I'm I'm a journalist, I'm a bit of a word nerd and the name positively joy is not grammatically correct. And I told him I'm like Lord, that can't be right. If that's not grammatically correct. It should be joyful or joyous. And he was like what I say, right, right.

Come on, he'll do it every time, exactly.

Okay, and, and I named it that and it's, he told me before. Oh, it's catchy, I like it, or whatever, but being obedient as well, and so that is how the name came to be.

That's right, amen, amen. That's people say that about our, everybody, who. Because Power Match is such a great tool, platform that we can use to really, you know, reach people that we never knew. Podcast you know what I?

mean.

And offers and all of that. And now everybody that reaches out to me or reaches out, I just love that name, I just love that name. Do you know? We battle with that name. I mean, we changed the name three times, three or four times, trying to get the right one, and just finally, god just said catch me to it, god's, because the first it was diamonds in the rough. Several other podcasts the same name and then, but none said God's, diamonds in the rough, amen. And then we had one person say, oh, you need, you spelled rough wrong. And Michael said nope, that's the way it's supposed to be. You know what I mean? She's supposed should be our OUGH. Nope, that's the uniqueness Cause it does rough. That rough get will bark on it. That bark, yeah, that rough will bark. So you know, and definitely we all belong to God. We are surely sure enough a part of him. He meant as much as people like to deny, they want to deny. Oh, I, you know, I don't have no part. He, when he blew breath into dirt, he didn't excuse people. He, all his people, was made out of dirt. We go back to it when we leave this earth. A man and I'm just, I'm just so, so excited about what God is doing in this season through people who really have a heart for him, a man that really have a heart for him. And you know you speak the same language. We speak Everything that you say, we say, we said it, so you know. This is why that if we are reading this this is my whole thing If we're all reading the Bible, we all ought to be saying the same thing, absolutely. Different ways different, you know different translations yeah, yeah. It all sounds the same, though you know we ought to be saying the same thing. I think that you know the worst thing we can do is come up with our own gospel. You know what I?

mean Right.

With our own gospel. So we want to let you have your final words and we want to let Michael have final words, and I just share my phone, all right.

Well, again, I just I just want to thank you so much for allowing me to come on the show and I just want to encourage people to get back into their Bible and these things that we produce, these podcasts, the books that we write. So my book is Whispering in His Ear. It's an emotional study guide that goes with it. It's on Amazon, you'll see that, and it's just an opportunity to communicate what he has been given to me to communicate you know, I am an average person. A lot of times I say I suffer from imposter syndrome because I don't have some big life story. I mean, I've been divorced. That's the story that we all can not all listen, let's do it. But there's not a so-called miracle. But I would argue that miracles happen. Small miracles happen every day, and so I think it says these opportunities, the writing, books and the podcasts to get in a way that can get people to their on their level. But it doesn't. This is important, doesn't reflect back into the word. That's right.

That's right, absolutely Get into the word. If you abide in him, he will abide in you. Hallelujah, you got to make the first step. Come on, honey, you got a word.

Yeah, I do, and this word goes for you. You've had with your podcast name and who you are in Jesus, and as well as God's diamond and rough podcast and as well as the diamonds Listen, you know. God tells us, you know To be authentic, don't duplicate. And that's a powerful word because you know we, we sit there and we go day to day trying to look like somebody else. God does not want that. He wants to original you. When you try to be a carbon copy, it has no value. You have to be, you have to be real with who you are, no matter what you've been through, what you're going through, what might come up, because those things that we go through in life, it works for a reason. If we, if we try to put blame and put claim to something that you know, things we go through in life and say is ours, it's not, it's just a tool used to get with you where God wants you.

Amen, amen, amen. Oh well, that was a word, hallelujah, um, so y'all know what time it is. Diamonds, I miss that. We certainly do appreciate you. I just want to say that we appreciate you being here, we appreciate you sounding like us, we appreciate you for real having the same language that we got, because it's so hard for people, it seems so hard for people to come together to do the same thing because one wants to be bigger than the other, one wants to shine brighter than the other. When the reality is is that when we come together, we shine brighter together. Amen, hallelujah. And especially when you put diamonds together, they all sparkling in their own unique way. Come on somebody.

Yes.

Hallelujah. So, honey, go ahead oh my time now. Yeah right.

Diamonds, remember until the next time. You are a diamond in the rough.

Amen. We will see y'all on next week. Have a blessed one, amen, amen.