Season One – 136 episodes from a standing start – some lessons I have learned along the way. I’m taking an active sabbatical to move house among other things, and will be back with season 2 in September.

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Well, praise the Lord Jesus Christ for his amazing goodness, all I can say is Jesus first. Everything else follows all the way 100 percent of the time, 365 days a year, 366 on a leap year. Jesus is the king. And here I am on my one hundred and thirty six podcast. And I’m just coming in here to say that this podcast will wrap up season one of my podcasting, my stellar podcasting career so far. I just I’m going to wrap things up for season one with this episode.

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My Family, A Moving House, my two older children are moving into new accommodations for their university drama. My sons are in drama school. My daughter starts a new job with the Royal Ballet in August. So we’ve got a lot of things happening in our home right now. And I know that I just need to focus on helping my children. We got one of our younger ones is also moving on up to a new school, so to his secondary school.

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So I just really want to be present here as a father and as a husband and also just to you know, sometimes punctuating this is I believe why is certainly one of the reasons why God instituted the concept and the principle of Sabbath. So we punctuate our lives with seasons where we are not just putting out, but we’re allowing him to speak into us. You know, it’s no good if we’re just breathing out all the time. You would soon turn blue and keel over on the floor.

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Sometimes we have to just breathe in and that should be something that we do every day in prayer and in our fellowship with the Lord. But I also believe that there are kind of times where we more intentionally punctuate. Yeah. And give ourselves some space to not feel so pressured to give ourselves space so we can think and breathe and hear more clearly. Sometimes in a lot of activity, we can kind of stir the waters so much with all of our business that they become cloudy.

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Yeah, sometimes we have to just allow a few days or even a few weeks for let the dust settle and let the waters become clearer again so we can see more clearly the way forward and the next steps at the Holy Ghost would have us take. And so that’s what we’re going to be doing. It’s going to be quite an active sabbatical, if you like, as I say, are moving two of my older kids into new homes. I’m moving to a new house.

00:03:15.430]
So there’s a lot happening. And I guess that that’s one of the reasons and also because I want to focus on kind of the next stage of my creative journey. We’re working with the Christian Creative Academy to develop something called the Creator’s Highway, which is a year long program to help people discover their awesome, discover their worth, and then help them and show them ways in which they can then share that with the world. So it’s. Yeah, and just really to discover themselves and then discover ways in which they can put themselves out there to bring value to other people.

00:03:56.950]
So I’m I’ll be continuing to create content for that in preparation for opening the doors wide in September. But we just want to I just really want to say how much I appreciate anyone who is being listening. Anyone who’s interacted engaged with got in contact with me over this season. And season one will be rapping today. And I feel confident that I have delivered value. I feel confident that I’ve shared my heart in a in an honest and an open way.

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And I hope it’s been helpful to you. Certainly, there are a couple of things before I wrap up that I’d love to share, just things that I’ve discovered in the making of this podcast and some of the other things that I’ve been doing over these past months. And I think that they’ll be relevant and helpful to you, number one. Yeah, it’s very easy to get caught in the thought and the idea that you have. To do a lot of complicated things before you begin and despite being like a prolific creative, despite putting myself out there again and again and again and jumping into the ring, even though I’ve been knocked over a few times, you know, you could get the impression that, you know, I am like this kind of bravado to just start moving.

00:05:26.440]
I’ll be honest with you. There are certain things and this is as true for anyone when we start something new, there’s a level of kind of anxiety that sometimes comes with that. Now, podcasting was one of those things for me. And I was thinking, you know, I’ve got to have all of the little jingle at the beginning and the jingle at the end. And I’ve got to have all sorts of kind of some kind of very special structure for the show, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

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And, you know, and then I’ve got to know how to sign up to Apple podcasts and this podcast and this platform and that platform, etc., etc., etc.. Now, I’ve got to have this mike and de de de de de de da da da da da. On and on it goes. And we pile up the reasons why we can’t get started and say, in the end, I just chose a kind of funky little bit of music for the beginning.

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And at the end, just like some kind of like just another piece of music, like copyright free music and just said, hey, jump over to my website at Davidleemartin.com. Now, I’m sure I could utilise that more powerfully and probably will in time to come, but the problem was that I probably will in time to come. Was the thing that was stopping me getting started. You are much better off steering a moving vehicle than waiting until you feel as though everything is in place and everything is stacked up perfectly before you do that, because the problem is most of the time you won’t even begin once you begin.

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And this is the second point I want to make. So the first point is, hey, just do it. Just do it, however imperfectly it may be because once you begin doing it, you’ll then know the real questions to ask and you’ll understand that the changes that are necessary for you to make while we allow things to just remain in the realm of ideas and imagination, you know, we really don’t know until we’re actually on the ground and in the trenches what is what really matters in any creative project.

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So just get started. Secondly, what I found is you and I say you, because I’m just speaking of my own experience here. But I know that most of us are like the rest of us. You have a much greater capacity than you believe you have. You have a much greater capacity that will be drawn upon when you step out. And it’s almost like you’ve got to step out before you see the miracle take place. And it’s not going to happen as some times were like sat there waiting and thinking, well, when God does this, then I will.

00:08:21.780]
Or when this happens, then I can. But really, sometimes it’s like you got to turn that the other way round and make the move. And I know certainly in the scriptures it says seek first the kingdom. Yeah, seek God, draw near to God. And he and he will then draw near to you. There’s a there’s a there’s a place where when we begin to move, it activates things and gives permission, if you like, for something to take place.

00:08:55.650]
When we move, he moves. And so and I found that in doing so you’ll be amazed at your capacity. As I say, since beginning this season, I’ve done a hundred and thirty six episodes, daily episodes, five days a week without fail. And that to me just seemed so incredibly impossible previously. Not only that, each episode has been based on a piece of writing that I either had in my hand already that I’d already written. But most of them have actually also sprung from daily blogs and daily writing that I’ve done, daily thoughts that I’ve had and recorded and shared with the world.

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And so I was writing every day, producing a podcast every day, and at the same time doing all of the other elements of my publishing business, developing the Christian Creative Academy, building out that content, writing books I’ve published. And now. Number of books during the in this season as well. So I just want to say to you, you know, you will not know your capacity until you give it the opportunity to be tested and to be called upon.

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And you will be surprised when you do that, just how capable you are and just how resourceful you can be to make it happen. So I encourage you to get started. Don’t underestimate your ability. Don’t underestimate what you can do if you’ll only give yourself the opportunity to be stretched and to grow and to affect change out there in the world. And so with that, I’m going to wrap up season one. I’m going to be returning into the podcasting cockpit in September.

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And I just want to just pray for you as as I kind of close here, Father, I just want to thank you for your incredible goodness towards us. I want to thank you for the creative coalition and anointing on the people listening to my voice. I just declare God that those creative gift things that you have planted will be unlocked within them and that we will see incredible fruit, lord four for every seed that they sew, for every step that they take.

00:11:26.890]
I pray, God, that your favour and your blessing would be upon it and it would open doors and unlock potential. Father, we just declare and thank you for all of the possibilities that you have placed in our hand for the opportunities that you’ve given each one of us. I pray, Father, for the stirring of the waters, the stirring of the Lord, that people would be provoked and propelled to begin making things and putting their value out into the world.

00:11:58.000]
Lord, I just declare, Lord, that according to your word, just as you say in your word, we are made in your image, made to be makers. I thank you, God, that your creative anointing rests upon each person and that God you’re going to use them to extend your kingdom and bless and benefit many, many people. I look forward to seeing you in September. God bless you. And thanks again for listening. Well, thanks for listening.

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Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.