Finally. I have had these notes since August 6, 2024.

There have honestly been other things to do. As an independent author, I get to create an author business plan,

God's business plan 101

market, write, clean up my office, clean up my website, publish my books, republish them when Apple doesn’t like the fact that I had the word Amazon in the back on one version. You get the picture. Especially if you are an indie author, too!

Going back in my journals, my puke-it-out journal from 2024. Back to a day when I had a visit with a friend. She commented that their business is a ministry.

I love the Lord Jesus, His Word, everything that I know about Him. All of creation. The history. All of it. I love learning about it.

But as I glance around this room, my office, see my books and my mess of research and study, I realize that I haven’t made it all a ministry.

I write about Jesus. My characters find Jesus.

Is that enough to call it a ministry?

Crickets.

Sigh …

It has become a business.

Convicting. I repent, Lord. Above all else, I want my words, my books, to glorify You, to draw readers to You, Jesus. Above all.

My prayer in that journal entry on August 4, 2024 was, “Please teach me a new business plan—Your business plan, Jesus!”

So that’s Number 1.

And right on the heals of that prayer is Number 2. I opened an email from a Thrivers sister. It was a prayer for me sent that same day—August 4, 2024! I had shared with her that I felt I had hidden behind my books. The themes of my fiction are prisons, abuse, addictions, and abortion. And Jesus. I am not preachy in my writing, but I clearly take the characters through an arc from Worthless in the world’s eyes (and their own eyes) through Jesus Christ, to Priceless.

When groups were asking for people to take around clipboards to gain signatures for an initiative in Nebraska that was Pro-Life, I was a chicken. I hid behind my books. I was already doing something Pro-Life. I didn’t need to be so visible.

But a call came.

And I caved in.

Standing in front of businesses with my clipboard and pen, my phone in my back pocket playing worship (warfare) songs, was the most humbling thing that I’ve ever done.

Writing a book and releasing it to the world is scary. What will people think? And it might be a little humbling. But at a certain point, it can also be prideful.

So my Thrivers sister’s prayer: “that I be empowered by Holy Spirit, energized and equipped, that I experience the David versus Goliath energy and empowerment. (Back then, I wasn’t studying the giants and Nephilim, like I am now!) “That You Lord teach me to war well with my weapons, the armor of God. Each piece is vital to the tearing down of enemy structures. The blows we deliver, bit by bit, dismantle and destroy the structure the enemy has built to steal a life and a destiny from this earth realm.”

Wow.

Number 3. Pastor Jim Burgen of Flatirons Community Church in LaFayette, CO in his August 4^th, 2024 service said, “Is driving for success getting in the way of your relationships? Are you comparing yourself to the wrong things? What would your life look like if you gave it all to God? Do you ever feel like you were made for more than this?”

Heh. Nuff said.

And Number 4. Jesus. He has convicted me and convinced me. I need a new business plan. He used several people, through the Holy Spirit, to get my attention, to especially repent of idolatry—wanting to be successful in the worlds terms.

I just read this today, ““Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be, also.” Matthew 6: 19, 20, 21.

I’m still praying. Asking God to guide me and teach me. But, somehow, I have a new heart. There has been a shift, a change in me. I can’t explain it all yet, I just know that somehow, I am different.