(bright upbeat music)
- Hey, it's Terri, your cheerleader of dreams.
Today, I wanna talk to you if you feel stuck in the past,
and what to do about it.
You know, whether it's shame, guilt,
regret over your past,
unforgiveness towards the people who've hurt you,
I only know how to speak from experience,
and I wanna share with you how God helped me to get unstuck.
I want you to know
that if your memories are bigger than your dreams,
you're not going anywhere.
Now, this channel is all about helping you live your dreams.
And one of the first steps I had to learn
was how to get free from my past.
So I wanna show you today.
And, hey, real quick, before I get into it, I wanted to ask,
have you subscribed to this channel yet?
If not, would you do that for me real quick?
I can't tell you how much I appreciate
all of our subscribers and what a blessing you are to us.
So thank you so much for doing that.
Okay, so back to our topic of what to do
to leave your past behind.
I was one of those kids who was known for smiling.
I wanted so badly to please my parents and be perfect.
I never wanted them to worry about me.
I was what you would call an overachiever.
I made good grades.
I was on the National Honor Society,
high school and college.
I was homecoming queen, cheerleader,
Miss Crowley High School.
I even dated the quarterback.
Now I appeared to have it all together,
which was far from the truth.
My senior year of college at Texas Tech University,
my last semester,
I was laying in my apartment face down in the floor
in Lubbock, Texas,
scribbling in my journal I want to die.
I had just found out that I was pregnant before marriage.
Now that was a defining moment in my life.
And it felt as if my parents would finally see
that the girl who appeared so good
turned out to be the biggest disgrace of our family.
And I truly wanted to die I hated myself.
And, yes, I smiled a lot,
but I had a lot of pain behind that smile.
I had been severely hurt by people many times,
manipulated, controlled, physically abused,
painfully rejected,
lost my virginity by a complete stranger,
felt basically insignificant in my own eyes,
but the most amazing part is not what I went through,
but that I managed to hide all of it behind a big old smile.
I was very good at hiding my pain,
and just keeping it all inside.
And maybe you are, too.
I want you to keep listening.
I was extremely insecure.
I held my head down.
I had no vision for my life anymore.
Three weeks after I found out I was pregnant
I walked down the aisle getting married
borrowing my sister's wedding dress,
and that paranoid feeling
that everybody was just staring at my stomach
to see proof that I was pregnant,
which you couldn't even tell yet,
but it was supposed to be a little girl's dream day.
And I literally hated every minute of it.
I felt like such a failure and humiliation
with my dad and Kenneth Copeland performing the wedding.
Three weeks after the wedding my baby died.
Four years later, fast forward,
I was at a Kenneth Copeland Believers' Convention
in Anaheim, California,
when all of a sudden Oral Roberts was escorted in.
He was seated right in front of me next to my parents,
and my dad leaned over, and he said,
"Do you remember my daughter Terri?"
Well, Oral Roberts turned around, he hugged me.
And then he looked at me and he said,
"There's something you're not letting go of."
And he said, "Lift your hands."
So I raised both hands,
and he began hitting the bottom of my elbows and shouting,
let go, let go, let go.
Here's the actual picture of that moment, this is it.
And I just stood there crying I was so embarrassed.
I knew people all around me could hear him
because it was Oral Roberts.
The TV cameras were pointed on us.
And because it was Oral Roberts
people wanted to know what did he say?
What was he saying?
Now keep in mind, I was already so full of shame.
Why couldn't I hear something like
God has a special plan for your life.
Well, the reason why is because God knew exactly
what I needed to hear,
and he also knows what you need to hear.
And maybe right now he had you
turn on this particular podcast
because he wants to get your attention the way he got mine.
Maybe there's something you're not letting go of.
And today is the day to let it go.
If I could hit your elbows, I would,
but I remember going back to my hotel room that night.
I locked the bathroom door.
I didn't want my husband to see me.
I just wanted to cry.
I wanted God to tell me what was Oral Roberts talking about?
I felt so embarrassed.
I thought my parents were secretly ashamed.
You know, that that happened that night.
I just felt like such a huge failure.
Well, I still didn't get my answer that night.
I was oblivious to what I could be holding onto.
Well, it wasn't until I flew back home to Texas,
and I was out walking one morning around this track.
I was crying out to God
to show me what I needed to let go of.
And inside, I clearly heard the Lord say,
"It's the shame of your past.
It's time to let it go, all of it."
I cried and I cried and I cried,
and I didn't realize I was still carrying all that around.
I was letting my past define me.
I was letting it reshape my character.
I was looking at myself as the girl who got pregnant,
or the girl who was raped,
or the girl who was rejected,
not the girl who was forgiven by God.
I was allowing it to change my personality.
I wasn't as funny as I used to be.
I was going back into this insecure introverted girl.
I mean, I'm telling you it affected every part of me.
Well, I heard Pastor Mac Hammond say that
shame and guilt will keep you from your calling.
Well, now it makes sense.
Satan does not want you doing
what you were put on this earth to do.
And if he can keep you stuck in your past,
whatever that means to you,
then you will never have the confidence
to do anything significant for God, why?
Because sin makes cowards of men.
See, if Satan could keep me so full of shame
he could keep me from God and from his plan for my life.
Satan will do anything he can
to stop the plan of God for your life.
If it's torment over the past, he'll use it.
If it's a past relationship
that you know God doesn't want you in,
Satan will try to drag you back into it.
Past temptations that God delivered you from
will continue to come back over and over into your life
trying to work their way back in.
Is it coincidental?
Not one bit.
It's part of the warfare we're in.
See, nothing about Satan's attack
on your life is accidental.
So what is it that you need to let go of?
What memories are still being replayed in your mind
over and over?
Which negative thoughts are you entertaining consistently?
God is saying, let go, let go, let go.
And I can't tell you to let go without giving you a strategy
to help you put an end to it once and for all.
I want you to have your own copy of this strategy
that God gave me to get totally free.
I call it a supernatural amnesia
where you stop reliving the past, rehearsing the past,
repeating the past, and even reminding God about your past.
It's gone, it's never to be brought up again.
So how does that sound?
I'm gonna give you a free chapter from my book,
"Make Your Dreams Bigger Than Your Memories"
to walk you through this process.
I really want you to read chapter three.
So just click the link in the description,
and you can get that chapter right now.
Now this is gonna help you so much.
No more wasting time reliving the past.
You can get free now.
So you will have in your hands the tools you need
to let go and then move on, you got it?
Okay, so you have to determine
you're not gonna waste another day of your life
where you live in the past.
You're gonna dream new dreams and live a life of purpose.
Is it easy?
No, I'll tell you right now that it is hard,
but you can do it with a plan.
So let me give you five steps really fast to apply right now
to get over your past.
Number one, schedule time to be alone with God.
And I mean it, think of it as seriously
as if you were scheduling time
to be with someone you greatly admire or respect.
You wouldn't cancel on them.
You wouldn't just not show up.
You wouldn't forget about it.
You wouldn't think of grocery shopping as more important.
You would be committed.
Remember, what gets scheduled gets done,
so schedule to be alone with God because it will infect,
it will affect, not infect your entire destiny.
Okay, number two, ask God to forgive you for everything.
He already knows everything anyway.
You just need to get it all out.
Ask him to cleanse you,
and give you that supernatural amnesia.
And let me tell you God forgives you the first time you ask,
the first time.
You don't have to keep asking.
Number three, stop talking about your past.
Don't bring it up again.
Every time you talk about it, you keep it alive.
You delay the healing process.
Let it go.
When you catch yourself starting to discuss it, stop.
Number four, start declaring God's word over yourself.
There is nothing more powerful than speaking God's word
out of your mouth.
For example, when I was tormented by my past,
I had a list of scriptures that I would read out loud.
And I did it over and over and over
until I memorized them like this.
I do not remember the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, God is doing a new thing in my life,
and now it shall spring forth.
See, every time memories surface in your mind, speak it out.
Oh, and by the way, I put my list of scriptures,
this personal list of scriptures
that I spoke out to get free from the past
in your free download, you're gonna love it.
And the fifth thing is start listing
some new things you wanna do,
some goals, some dreams, some aspirations.
See, a person with no vision
will always return to their past.
You've gotta get your mind on where you're headed.
Now it can be a vision to purge your closet,
and give away a bunch of clothes to get organized,
a vision to save $20 a week, that's $1,000 a year,
a vision to go on a trip,
to lose 10 pounds,
to visit 12 new restaurants this year, something.
See, it's time to make your dreams
bigger than your memories,
and I'm gonna help you every step of the way.
So be sure, get your free chapter from this book,
and use it to help you break free.
I love you sweet friends, and don't forget,
I am cheering you on to live your dreams.
Hey, YouTube, don't forget to subscribe to my channel,
and to get more inspirational content
click one of these videos right here.
And, remember, I'm cheering you on to live your dreams.