Purpose Beyond Motherhood - Finding Your God-Given Purpose Beyond Infertility And Motherhood

Walking With Christ with Carla Pratico

July 09, 2020 Nicole Clark Episode 17
Purpose Beyond Motherhood - Finding Your God-Given Purpose Beyond Infertility And Motherhood
Walking With Christ with Carla Pratico
Show Notes Transcript

Carla Pratico is the owner of the New York City based branding & marketing firm that serves a variety of industries and businesses internationally.

Over the last two years, she has led a women's movement, She Roars, which supports contagiously fearless women in building their business and life with God. She has trained over 500 Christian women in starting and growing their businesses through her She Roars programs and conferences.

She also serves the body of Christ as a New York City Chaplain, a conference speaker, minister to the homeless of NYC, & by providing Freedom Counseling to help others find healing & their identity in Christ. Carla is blissfully married to Kalel Pratico and lives in Manhattan with her French Bulldogs, Ella & Charlotte.


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Connect with Carla

website: SheRoarsBusiness.com 
Facebook: Carla Pratico 
Instagram: @carlapratico

Discover Hope at Refined: An Evening in His Presence | April 26th, 2024

Refined is more than just an event; it's an encounter of hope. Whether you're facing infertility, pregnancy loss, or simply seeking to hear from the Lord, Refined offers a safe space to find support, understanding, and empowerment. 

Nicole Clark :

Hey, what's up everyone? Welcome to shining light with Nicole, where we are keeping your 24 Golden. I'm Nicole, and on today's episode I have a special treat for you. Our guest today is Carla Pratico. And she is amazing. This episode is a little longer than usual, but I truly believe you will be blessed. So here is my conversation with Carla Pratico Hey, Carla, welcome to the podcast.

Carla Pratico :

Hey, Nicole, thanks for having me.

Nicole Clark :

Of course, this is just so great. Just to have you as a guest on the show. I just have mad respect for you and just what you do and how you help others. I just think it's so awesome.

Carla Pratico :

Thank you. Thank you. It is it is an honor and a privilege to get to serve the body of Christ. So I definitely am more blessed than I think people Realize even and getting to serve. So

Nicole Clark :

that's beautiful. And I have to just tell everyone, and you might not remember this. But you know, we had a call, almost like two years ago, Trisha, she connected us and you helped me and kind of coached me along, just regarding a conference. And it hasn't happened yet. But I often look back at, at my notes from our call, you know, from time to time, and I just was really just blessed by our conversation. And just know like, when that time happens, like I will be so ready, just from the words of wisdom and knowledge that you shared with me. And so I'm just I'm so grateful for you just for joining us today. You know, because we are just going to talk about just walking with Christ and just having a relationship with him.

Carla Pratico :

Yeah, that is that's everything that is

Nicole Clark :

everything. And so I just have a couple of Bible verses that I'd love to read and then we'll just jump right in.

Carla Pratico :

Awesome.

Nicole Clark :

So the first one is Micah 6:8, and it says mankind, he has told each of you what is good, and what is the Lord and what the Lord requires of you to act justly, to love, faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. And then John 15:5, I am the vine, you are the branches, the one who remains in me and I and him produces much fruit, because he can do nothing without me. And then Psalms 37:5, commit your way to the Lord trust in Him and He will act. So Carla, why don't you start by just telling everyone a little bit about you and what you do?

Carla Pratico :

Yeah, so I Gosh, what do I do so many things? Too many things. Maybe sometimes no? Well, at the moment, sort of my main priority from the Lord is Running and leading a women's movement called she bores and it is definitely not something I imagined for my life. I spent most of my life kind of being afraid of having relationships with women. And so the irony of really getting well I didn't get pushed into it, I definitely love it, enjoy it and delight in it, but it it definitely took some inner healing and some revelation from the Lord to really fully step into, into leading this thing. And so she was is all about equipping contagiously fearless women into building their business and life with God, you know, not just for him or, you know, hoping that we were doing the right thing but actually doing it with him and hearing his voice and getting to know him intimately and, and so it is absolutely my own journey has been building with God and getting to know him in building my own business. You know, I own At branding and marketing firm in Manhattan called Polish digital, and we serve clients all over the world. And yes, so getting to build that with him over the last. Gosh, I guess it's been nine years now has been such a joy and a pleasure. And I really am. Man, I've had some bumps in the road. I was nearly homeless. And in that journey of I actually was addicted to Adderall for many years and got supernaturally delivered. So I'm getting into the whole story. You're getting the whole book right now. But yeah, so I'm mostly focused on keywords and my digital marketing firm, but I also am a chaplain in New York City. I served as a pastor for a couple years. And then yeah, so I just really love the body of Christ. And I really love serving people. And you know, it's like my favorite thing. So

Nicole Clark :

I think that is just so inspiring and so amazing. Because I guess you have to I would love to start from the beginning. So how did you come to know the Lord?

Carla Pratico :

Well, how much time do we have? No. I so actually got saved in a bar on my 23rd birthday. And I yeah, so I was really out with just one sort of friend. I was very much into the nightclub scene, and I was getting a bit tired of it. So I decided to do my birthday at a bar and my nighttime friends. Were not super interested in joining me at set bar. So I only had one person sadly show up for my birthday party. And she went home kind of early. So let's just start there with like, full on depression, you know, just Yes, as sad as a birthday can get in New York City nonetheless. And so I'm in the state Far and I'm talking to this guy who I'm probably hoping will take me home. And in the middle of talking to him, I hear this voice and it says, This is not your life. And as soon as I heard that sentence, I instantly noticed true, it was like I could see my life and see like, what am I doing in this bar? What am I doing spending my life going out and getting, you know, blackout drunk and finding somebody to go home with right like, What? What, this is not my life, you know? And so, I instantly put my vodka soda down on the bar walked straight. I don't even think I said bye to the guy I was talking to. I walked straight out the door, and I hopped in a cab, and turns out this cab had a man and a woman in the front seat, and that's super weird. If you've ever been in a cab in Manhattan, it's super weird to have to be in the front. And so the weird thing is they were looking at me like I was crazy. I'm looking at them like, what's going on y'all crazy? Like you got two people up there. What is this? You know, is this a Is this a party in this taxi right now? So So it turns out that it was a husband who was driving and he was off duty. And off duty just means he just finished his shift and he was basically heading home and they typically don't take riders when they're off duty but turns out he was picking up his wife from work and I drunkenly stumbled into their car and so that's why they were looking at me like I was crazy because I just invited myself into their car ride. And so they somehow I still have my questions about this interaction, but they happen to live in my neighborhood which I find suspect based on Just sort of like knowing most taxi drivers don't live in Manhattan. And anyway, just the price of that and the the income of a taxi driver just seems very suspect. So all that to say I The reason I have some suspicions is is because of this. So they, before we even pulled away, I heard the woman say something to her husband about doesn't God know it or something like some phrase that I caught just a snippet of but I heard the word God. And I instantly and it was like fireworks exploded because I realized that that voice I had heard in the car, I mean, in the bar was God. I actually didn't know that was God's voice until she said that name. And it was like those things collided, you know? And it was like, Oh my gosh, I just I heard from God. And so I stuck my head to the little taxi window. And I said, Do you believe God, and so they start sharing the gospel with me. You know, I had grown up in church and I had sort of heard about this Jesus guy and I'd actually had some encounters as a kid, which I didn't remember until after I got saved. But you know, I, I, they start sharing the gospel with me and I instantly start weeping and repenting. I mean, they didn't have to tell me to start repenting. It just started coming out of me, I'm just unloading on these poor people, about all the stuff I've been doing and the stuff that's like eating my soul alive and you know, just the sin stuff that I'm you know, participating in that I know is not good for me and, and so I'm just repenting. I'm weeping. I have this amazing revelation of God's vision and heart for marriage and even his desire to be married with us. I mean, I'm having these like, in like crazy encounters in the back of this cab, and I've been Basically don't know anything about scripture or the Bible, or you know, it's like, so I'm just having this radical encounter with the Lord and they're ministering to me, you know, I've got mascara running down my face, and they spent 45 minutes in that car with me, and they wouldn't let me pay for the cab ride. They took me home and just sat with me on you know, in the cab outside my apartment until I was ready to go inside and felt, you know, felt, you know, right with the Lord. And yeah, so I got saved, you know, in a bar and sort of really saved in a cab and, and so, you know, he encountered me in that that place of just total darkness really. I was really good at living in the world, like really good. So to have that type of conviction from the Lord and that's one of the things even about scripture. You know, it says he convicts the world. Sin, you know, he actually doesn't convict the body of Christ of sin. Isn't that amazing? Like we actually think he does, but he actually convicts the body of Christ of their righteousness. He convicts the world of sin to bring them to repentance. But then once you're in the kingdom, you actually convict you of your right standing with him. He convicts you have this is who you really are. Isn't that beautiful? That our father just sees us how he sees Christ and says, Come up here. You belong up here. I invite you way up here with me. This is where this is the place you were made for. seated at my right hand in the place of authority and, and delight, right, so it's amazing. Anyway, the gospel wrecks me every time I think about it. So

Nicole Clark :

right I know. I'm just like, that was an incredible story. Incredible. So I mean, then what does what does relationship with Christ mean to you?

Carla Pratico :

Yeah, well I mean, it is the primary reason and purpose for every single one of our existence. Right? It's like, you know, sometimes I talk about the difference between purpose calling and assignment because I think that describes relationship with God in a really clear way. So I'll give you a quick rundown. But, you know, it's, it's my understanding that from and not just understanding, it's my experience with God himself that, you know, he he didn't create me to be a Dewar. Right. He didn't. He didn't create me to be something that he can tell what to do. And I just, I just go do it because I, I do it right, because I'm obedient. He actually created me because he wanted something to love. He wanted something to be the object of his affection. Right? And so, in that, you know, if we can look at it, look at the gospel from that scenario of life. Okay, my, my original design was always because the father desire to be himself to someone, right? And if he's being himself to something, it means he's being love. Right? And so he makes he wanted a place to pour out His love, right? Have you ever been just head over heels in love with somebody? I'm sure you have, right? And so when you're head over heels in love with somebody, you're not busy thinking about what they can do for you, right? Or what they you know, how they can serve you or what they can make happen for you. Right? You're you're thinking about, oh my gosh, I want to die for this person. Oh my gosh, I want to give them everything that they want and desire. I want to, I want to just be with them be near them, right. This is what love is like, this is what our father is like. And so, relationship for me is really rooted in knowing my purpose which is before I before I woke up and got out of bed today. I was perfectly lavished with love by the father. I was he was waiting for me to wake up actually he didn't even wait for me to wake up right he encountered me and dreams because that's how much he desires to be with us. So relationship with God for me is man I know my purpose is the firm foundation that I do anything with God from right i don't i don't you know, so I'll just break break down the rest of the the calling and assignment you know, calling is simply all the things that kind of the Christian things that Jesus calls us to do. He says, you know, heal the sick raise the dead cast out demons disciple nations, you know, love your neighbor, right? All those sort of Christian things that were compelled to do because we're in union with him, right. That's what the cross paid for the cross paid for God to be in union with us because he wanted like that's the that's the extreme of the God that Serve that there's no other God on the planet that says, I, I so deeply am jealous for you that I want to actually live inside you. Like I want there to be no separation between us and scripture. You know the word union in Scripture is absolutely one of the I think it's the most powerful word in Scripture. Because it is the fullness of what Jesus paid for he Jesus didn't just pay for us to get a ticket to heaven, right? He actually paid for all of heaven to come and live inside of us. And so and so with our calling, you know, we operate in our calling because we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We're filled with power to actually accomplish these things. But the your calling is compelled by your purpose, right? It's compelled by the fact that you are loved radically by God. Right? I don't do anything. I don't walk in my calling to get God to love me, right? I don't want Walk in signs and wonders to try and prove anything to anybody. I walk in signs and wonders and miracles because that's who I am as a doctor, right? I'm Beloved, right? I this is the greatest joy of my life to get to be Jesus with skin onto people because I'm so clear and and have experienced the radical love of God in my in my life right in my heart and so and then assignment is sort of that's the question most people ask it when they when I work with them because I do coach people of you know, as as part of my calling and an assignment from the Lord but also just the joy of my heart. But assignment is really the sort of the place where your skills and your and the favor on your life and the desires of your heart and where you're located and the time you're living and where all that stuff sort of collides to create the expression of how you know you will love the world. Right? So that's usually someone's career or someone's ministry or someone's, you know, the work that they're doing to build the kingdom. So that's what I call assignment is the place where all that stuff that you got from your purpose and your calling really collide with who you uniquely are as a person. So having those things under you know, understanding those things is really how you will express your relationship with God. Right? I mean, relationship with God for me is, man, I have an ongoing conversation with him every moment of my life. I mean, I can actually feel my thoughts as an invitation to him to speak every moment of every day. It's like that scripture that says Pray without ceasing. That's, I feel that I know that I live that because I experienced this ongoing open access, awareness of his presence in my life, where he's always invited and and my thoughts are always almost questions. To him, like, what do you think about this right or, or, you know, so it's it's this. It's this concept of union, it always comes back to that. And Romans six talks about our union Galatians. And Ephesians. talks about this concept of union with God. And it's incredibly important as Christians that we really stepped into his lavish love and realize, like, No, I was made to walk in the Spirit and union with him. Right. So that's a that's the the way that relationship sort of manifests in my life. So

Nicole Clark :

that's so good and just how you broke down, just purpose calling and assignment. That's, that's cool. I'm like you're

Carla Pratico :

super helpful

Nicole Clark :

right now.

Carla Pratico :

It's helpful because I know people get really caught up on first of all trying to earn God's love, which is impossible. And they also get caught up in, you know, burnout and trying to do things on their own. On strength, when really, if you were so clear on your purpose and so clear on communing with the Lord, man, you wouldn't try to do an assignment that was ill fitting for you, you wouldn't try to step into something that he's not called you to do because you're, you're undone by purpose. You're undone by his love for you. And so, man, I've seen so many people set free from keeping those those three things in order in Divine Order. Right. Your your purpose is has to be first you can't pursue your assignment without knowing your purpose first. So, yeah,

Nicole Clark :

yeah, like, okay, we're going to talk offline. So

Carla Pratico :

absolutely,

Nicole Clark :

coaching.

Carla Pratico :

Yeah, amen. Come on.

Nicole Clark :

Okay. And so I know, I mean, I think here being in the US like we are just free to to worship and it's okay. But But I think sometimes people can be fearful of their walk. walk with the Lord, you know, so have you ever received any negative feedback about your faith? You know, and how did you handle it?

Carla Pratico :

Right? You know, um, I'll be honest, I, I've had a couple of moments where so I do a lot of street ministry, I used to do a lot more than I do now. But when I first got saved, I was so like, crazy zealous for the Lord. And by that I mean, you know, within a couple of months of getting saved, you know, I was reading the scriptures and, and hearing testimonies of God's power and ability to heal people and, you know, minister to people, and so, you know, I saw Jesus say, like, go heal the sick. So I sort of took him seriously. And I started praying for people on the streets. I mean, I would pray for 1015 people a day at least. And I would see maybe half of those actually get miracles or, you know, respond in a way that it was like, wow, or Actually, somebody was like, are you a magician? No, I'm not. But that's funny. I actually like that helpful, then I'll take it right. You know, they just didn't have words for like, what did you just do to me? Like how did you just do that? Right? It's like this Ah, of what is this? So that's, that's the beautiful open door of the gospel, right? And that's actually how Jesus led people to himself was by signs and wonders, so actually take that, that calling to heal the sick very, very seriously, because it is the way it is the inroad to seeing the last come to him, because they see that he's good, and they see that he cares. And so we were always designed to operate in signs and wonders and miracles and because it's what Jesus did, so how are we going to be like Jesus if we don't actually walk in the same power that he had, right? So, um, yeah, so I I've had a couple of instances where, you know, I had one guy who was like, he got totally demoniac and raged with me and like, threatened to spit on me and then I walked away and he ended up beating up some guy walking behind it was it was kind of bad you know but couldn't touch me obviously because I was uncovered and protected under the you know it by the Lord you know but it it it definitely it's interesting I've learned a lot about the spirit realm simply from engaging with these situations with demons it's really a strange thing. And and this is New York City like that I'm doing this so this is a prime location for that sort of stuff. But so I have certainly had a little bit of pushback. But you know, scripture is super clear that we're going to get rejected for knowing him and they're not rejecting us. I think that's the issue is if you're if you're worried about being rejected, well, you actually haven't died yet. Scripture super clear I mean, even even the even the Scriptures say that in Rome And six, we were co crucified with Christ, we were co buried with Christ and we were co resurrected with him. So every single Christian should have walked through this experience of being on the cross with Christ actually seeing themselves up there in union with him with holes through their hand where there are holes through his right, co crucified with Christ, okay? Co buried with Christ, which means our old man, our old life, every our sin, nature, all of that stuff was buried with him in the grave. And then when we were resurrected, we were resurrected a new creation, right? We have a new spirit that is sinless stainless we are called saints, from this moment on, no matter what our choices, our behaviors are, you know, that is the identity that we have in God. And so if if someone is dealing with this fear of rejection, well, who said it's about you, first of all, and actually It's it's scripture. I wish I could think of the Scripture right now but it can I look it up really quick. I really like to find this because I know I know this is I know I can find it really fast.

Nicole Clark :

good stuff though. Especially just. I know.

Carla Pratico :

Okay, are you ready? This is from Luke six. It says how favored you become when you are hated, excommunicated or slandered. Or when your name is spoken of as evil because of your love for me, the Son of Man, I promise you that as you experience these things, you will celebrate and dance with overflowing joy. And the heavenly reward of your faith will be abundant because you're being treated the same way as your forefathers the prophets. So if you're not actually experiencing the response of joy when you're rejected, which is quite ironic, right? Then you've probably not sorted out your heart with the Lord. It would be my suggestion because, you know, if we're treated as he is treated, and the response is, I think this is why it says that you would respond to enjoy because the because it would be somebody sees Christ in you. And that is something to be very joyful about.

Nicole Clark :

Yes.

Carla Pratico :

Even if they reject it, and oh, here I am crying, but it's true, because that's what we're called. That's what we're invited into is being is being Jesus with skin on.

Nicole Clark :

Yes.

Carla Pratico :

And you know, that is that's the joy is somebody saw Christ and yeah, they didn't like it. And that's unfortunate, but the fact is they they couldn't tell the difference between you and Christ. And that is what we get to walk in. And so that's the joy of being rejected the way he is rejected because you demonstrated him, right, somebody you know, and even just let's say they're rejecting you as a person to like, you're already accepted and approved by all of heaven. Heaven is cheering you on, what more do you need than that? Right? So, yeah, so that's what I would say if someone's dealing with fear. I mean, the other side of it is, you know, I do I do some work in Israel and with Christians in Israel, and they are, they are the actual persecuted church. I mean, they're some of the cities that I go to Nazareth, for example. That is a that's the Muslim capital of Israel. And it's about 80% Muslim 20% Christian and the Christian church there is dying by the day, not physically but they are leaving They are discouraged, they are getting converted. And so you know, having spent some time in those places, oh, I can look at our Western church and say, you know, you're you're not going to make it just the way that Israel is dying if we don't if we don't really get the power of God in real real time, like this is, I think this season that we're even in right now is really revealing. Are we equipped for war? Are we equipped for real persecution? Are we equipped for real you know, and when I say the word suffering, I don't use that word lightly, because that is a biblical word that is referencing persecution from those who hate Christ. And and so that word is really a biblical specific word that we should reserve for actual suffering. I mean, we have we have Christians who talk about having a hard time at their job and they call it suffering and and I think that is a bit of a it's a bit of a slap in the face to the persecuted church who literally died so that we would know Christ who literally demonstrated what faithfulness to him looks like by giving their life and so you know for me, I we have it so easy that if fear is winning even a little bit, man we we have we have made something else our God frankly because this is not a this is not a this shouldn't be a hard response where you know if you love something like think about if you think about if you really love like some nail polish like I can't think of anything else right like if you really love this brand of nail polish or you really love this one nail salon you go to right the price is awesome. The service is excellent like they bring you a bottle of water you know like the whole deal right? How many of your friends Do you invite to come with you to this nail salon? All of them? Right? All of them. And there's zero hesitation to talk about how awesome this thing is, right? And so a lot of times I think if people are dealing with fear, I don't think they're convinced of what they're selling. Right? I don't think they're convinced of how awesome this thing is. And if Jesus isn't the most awesome thing you've experienced, and I would suggest that maybe you haven't seen all of him very clearly. And because he's the greatest thing, the greatest gift the world could ever have. And communion in union with him is like, you know, there's a biblical word, the word bliss, okay? And it actually means the ecstasy of your salvation. What would happen if every Christian had a revelation of the ecstasy of their salvation? What would the church look like? Right? We'd be on fire the whole world would get saved, right? And so that's that's the thing for me is like, okay, fear, just Doesn't get to win fear is evidence of you not being made perfect in love. And if if fear is winning, it means you really just need to ask God for an encounter to heal this thing that's causing the fear. Right. So

Nicole Clark :

I'm like, I have no words because my heart totally just got convicted during that.

Carla Pratico :

Great convicted right into righteousness right pulled you right up there.

Nicole Clark :

Yes.

Carla Pratico :

Good.

Nicole Clark :

Okay. Tell us really quick, what are some practical steps, you know that we can just begin to just start our relationship with the Lord today?

Carla Pratico :

Yes, I love this question. I'm going to start with some scripture for you. How about that? Yes, here is one of my favorite favorite scriptures. And oh, let me get in the translation that I want. I love all different translations. You know why? Because they all It's like different cuts of a diamond. You know, you get to see different views of, of meaning and context. And, you know, understanding context of Scripture is so, so important. All right, let me pull this up. If I had my printed Bible, I could find it so fast. I'm so slow at my phone because I know where things are like physically in my Bible, but I always forget burst numbers. And just just this weird annoying thing about me that I just am not good at.

Nicole Clark :

Carla, did you go to seminary?

Carla Pratico :

No, I did not. I taught myself on the floor of my New York City apartment for you years. I So interestingly enough, when I started my business That was part of my business model God, you know, I actually asked God if I could go to Bible school. And he said, you can but I'm going to teach you on the streets of New York and equip you for when we bring us when I bring a school to New York City. And that, to me was such a strange response. It was like, but how would I Oh, he said, I'm going to equip you to be a leader at a school that I bring to New York City. And I thought, That's such a strange concept, because how will I be a leader of something if I haven't, like done it myself? Like, what? But I'll tell you what, the next four or five years I got a PhD in the ministry on the streets of New York City, in helping pastor church and but my business model when I first started my business was from nine to noon, I was spending time in the word in worship, in prayer. And I did that every day for many, many years. And so I mean, my whole life revolved around seeking the Lord and wanting to know this man who loved me so much. It was like, what this is, this is the thing my heart's been searching for my whole life. And now I found it, you know, like, I was relentless about wanting to know Him more so. Okay, here it is. You're ready. It's from Ephesians three. And it's verse 16. And it says, I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His Divine mite and explosive power. Then by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. Then you'll be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences sidebar, every believer is considered a holy one. So here we go. Every holy one gets to experience this, the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. how deeply intimate and far reaching is his love, how enduring and inclusive it is endless love. And I'm crying again. Endless Love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding. This extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God. He actually says it will fill you to overflowing with himself and it's a extravagant. And it's intimate and it's far reaching, and it's endless and it's enduring and inclusive. And that becomes the root and source of our life. What room does fear have? If that's overflowing, right? And so, another translation says, it says, I pray that you would know how high and deep and wide and long the love of Christ is. And that, to me is the greatest. One of the things that I always recommend to people is if you ever see in scripture where it says the words I pray, were one of the apostles has, as literally said, I pray and then they're praying something for you. Those are the greatest prayers you can pray because you're actually partnering with the exact words that have been reverberating on this earth for centuries. And you're you're agreeing with the person Perfect truth, you're actually praying a perfect prayer, it's impossible to mess that up. And so you're actually praying the exact will of God into your life. So those are the places in Scripture that I sort of hover over is like, what are the prayers that generations have been praying over the body of Christ over? You know, they come straight from the Holy Spirit, you know. And so praying, you know, that's something that I do often, almost every morning is, you know, open my eyes and my first thought is, Jesus, show me how wide and deep and high and long Your love is for me. And the amazing thing about him, saying those words about it being high and long and deep. Well, we know that God's love has no boundaries. And yet he says, there's a length and width and depth right. That's a strange way to describe something that doesn't have length and width and depth. Why does he say that? Because he's trying to invite are sort of three dimensional human selves into an experience. He's trying to say, you should experience my love the same way you would experience stepping into a room. It's that real and tangible that it has. It has a it has a consistency to it, it has a it has a encounter attached to it. It's not just a head knowledge, right? That's what the scripture actually says that it this would go past your understanding. Right? And so in the other translation I mentioned, it says, uh, you know, goes beyond our minds and straight into our hearts into our souls into every cell of our being just comes alive to the knowledge of the love of God. Right. Paul says, I among you, I I know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. What does that mean? Obviously he knows other things, right? He knows how to build a tent like he knows stuff. Why does he say that because he wants to demonstrate it. I want you to see the love of Christ is all that matters. I want you to see that God experiencing His love is all that you'll see from me, you'll see me make a 10. But what I'm actually doing is manifesting the love of Christ. When I make content. You'll see me preaching up here, you'll see me, you know, walking on the road, but all I'm actually doing is walking being an in walking encounter with Christ and Him crucified. And so that's the invitation to knowing him is, man you become like the one you spend the most time with. And so man spend some time with him. It's not just about reading the Word actually, the scriptures never say just to read the word they actually say, to study it and to consume it. Well, how do we consume the word it becomes us, right? We actually, we actually experience the word in such a way that we find ourselves in it, that we become a living epistle because we're just walking in union with God. So,

Nicole Clark :

yep. This was like you're reading all my mail today.

Carla Pratico :

Yay,

Nicole Clark :

this Yeah. This was for me. Okay, Lord, I'm

Carla Pratico :

awesome. I love that

Nicole Clark :

listening to you.

Carla Pratico :

Wonderful.

Nicole Clark :

Carla, can you can you please just talked to that person who just is searching? Yeah, you know, but they just don't know where to start. You know, they are just searching for something they know their heart is heavy. You know, what would you just say to encourage them or just guide them?

Carla Pratico :

Yeah. Well, I think you know, obviously start with that prayer. God, show me how high and deep and wide Your love is just for me to today. And he may show you a picture. He may speak something, you may feel something in your body, you may feel something in your soul. You know, another thing that's really important is is even asking God, you know, God will show me what's going in, going on in my own heart. You know, I don't know what going on in my heart. And sometimes it's also asking this is a great question to ask God it's Is there any lie that I'm believing about myself or God? Is there any lie that I'm believing about you? Is there? Is there a reason that I'm not seeing you the way that you really are? Right? Because sometimes our experiences can teach us things about God that are just simply not true about him. And so he's totally in the business of tearing down walls and tearing down strongholds. And so it's really as simple as inviting him I actually think it is, I think, I think this walk with God is actually that simple. That we were just created. We were created for a relationship with him and so a relationship with Him means conversation, it means you know, spending time in his presence, it means letting him come in and heal your heart if something is hurting and and letting him show you stuff and and, and, and also, just Doing what he's asking of you. Because the good thing about our father is, man, he only asked us to do stuff that's really good for us. Like it's actually the best thing for us. And it's easy to be obedient to someone that you're in love with. It's easy to follow somebody that you trust and no has what's best for you at heart. And I find that a lot of times even when obedience feels like a challenge, it's because God is breaking down strongholds and he's breaking down lies that have held us captive. It's not because we're rebellious or whatever. I mean, I think that can be the case and sometimes but I think a lot of times it's that we don't know better and and but we can know better. And that's the beautiful thing is he gives us access to knowing him. And and it gets it the more we trust Him, the easier it is to walk with Him and do life with him and invite him into those places where we do feel heavy, like you weren't actually designed to feel heavy. You were designed to walk with a with a light yoke, right? His his yoke is his presence. You weren't designed to walk with worry or fear any of this stuff. Like you actually I actually do believe it's one of my core values that you know, a Christian should be contagiously fearless because we have the only source of perfect love casts out fear. And so anything that is, you know, producing fear or causing fear, really probably just needs to be put under the love of God and really just needs to submit to His love. And so if if they are searching and heavy or looking for answers, man, your father is one question mark away. He really is. He is that close. He loves to speak to us. And if somebody is struggling with hearing from him, I usually say well he's probably already spoken. To you and you didn't, you know you didn't steward it or respond to it or obey it or follow it because maybe you didn't trust him. So then you have to take one step back and say, God, show me why I don't trust you. I want to trust you help me trust you, you know, prove, I don't mind saying to the Lord, like, show show who you are to me. Right? He loves to reveal himself to his kids, because he knows he's the answer to all their problems. So I think that the Father is so gentle and kind and he's not angry, and he doesn't communicate with fear or anger or any of that stuff. So he's just the best place to put your whole life in his hands and because he actually knows exactly what the best version of your life will look like, and it is truly following him and doing it with him. So

Nicole Clark :

Carla, thank you so much.

Carla Pratico :

You are so very welcome.

Nicole Clark :

It's so great today. Can you can you tell everybody where they can find you online or your social And everything.

Carla Pratico :

Yeah, absolutely. So I am on Instagram Carla producto also you can search me on facebook I'm pretty easy to find there as well. There's not too many Carla protocols on the earth. And then you can also if you are a woman who is a builder or somebody who you know wants to become that contagiously fearless, you know, Kingdom builder with God and to get to know God deeply as you build a business or ministry or nonprofit. I do have a training program that I love supporting women as they build with God and it's called shivers business.com. So you can have it head over there to check out any info about that. I would love to have you as part of my warrior girl gang. That's what we call ourselves warriors. And I also have a website Karla practicode, calm which is just some of my blogs and some teachings and some other ways that you can work with me and get to know me and so Yep, those are most of my most of my online spots that I hang. So,

Nicole Clark :

awesome. Great. I will definitely include all of those in the show notes for sure. But really, I just have our final two, which is because this podcast is all about Matthew 516, just shining bright for Christ. Yeah. And you know, I believe that God uses our story just to change the world. And so so how did your puzzle pieces just lead you to exactly just where you are today?

Carla Pratico :

Yeah, I think man, it was all about love. It was all about seeing, seeing how trustworthy the father was, and just being willing to go wherever he's going. I think, early on in my journey with him, he redefined success for me, because I was before I was saved, I was I won lots of awards. I was Virginia Tech woman of the year when I graduated from college, you know, I had scholarships and I got the job of my dreams out of college. So I was really good. At the ambition thing, and so for me, God, God, deconstructed success for me and it was, success is defined as are you doing life with God? Are you walking with Him and so for me, all the puzzle pieces have sort of just been man following his voice and and most importantly, I would say, it would be not despising the days of small beginnings, like I know that God He loves small beginnings, like he is in those small beginnings in such radical ways, and they seem so unimportant. That's the fun part about small beginnings. They the little things that he asks you to do, or that he invites you to do seems so unimportant, and they seem so small and so insignificant. And yet some of the greatest encounters that I've had some of the greatest stories that I will tell the rest of my life about people I've met or, you know, God's ministered to on the street or or in my office. or whatever, they've always been on the other side of this really small little thing that I said yes to or, you know, some one time it was even just He told me to cross to the other side of the street. Like that's, that's a small beginning, like just stewarding those little small moments of hearing his voice and then on the other side, you have this crazy thing that God shows up and does something incredible and changes your own heart and life forever. And so for me, the puzzle pieces have really been man I was so lost and trying to get people to love me by achieving and you know, doing all the all the right things, even though I was definitely walking in tons of sin, to Gosh, just following one little breadcrumb from him at a time and then the bread crumbs became slices of bread, and then they became full loaves of bread, right. And so yeah, just just staying hungry before him and you No, just following what he's doing. I mean, that's how the puzzle pieces fit together. For me. It's like, I have a beautiful marriage. I really truly wake up loving my life every day. And I think that's that's the glory of the Lord, right? We actually get to go glory to glory. And so that's his promise that we would delight in our life with him even in hard circumstances even and when hard stuff comes. I mean, I've had hard stuff happened to me, but I'll tell you what, it doesn't steal from me. doesn't steal from the bliss of my relationship with him. So yeah, that's how the puzzle pieces seem to fit together is is out of just following him.

Nicole Clark :

That's beautiful.

Carla Pratico :

Yeah.

Nicole Clark :

So beautiful. Well, you do such an amazing job of just shining bright and not hiding your light for the kingdom. Have you always been that way? And what can you share with us, you know, just encourage and help us shine bright?

Carla Pratico :

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, it's that's sort of a loaded question because I obviously have my life before. Christ. And I'm trying to think I probably did shine for the enemy pretty well. I mean, you know, I even when I look back on all the awards and stuff that I won, they really are golden calves to me. I mean, I look back at them and such. You know, I'm grateful for them they definitely you know, it all fit together to get me to New York and get me to certain places in my life but they were all worshipped to the wrong god 100% you know, they were all glorifying the wrong God and so for me on this side of the cross, I think I think it's just been a simple man. I think you just look like the one you love. And I do think I've probably had a measure of shining since I've known him because he sent me on fire, you know, and I wanted to be set on fire is like I had, I had had a revelation that I didn't want my old life I wanted all of his and so I think that when you when you know him you can't help but be on fire because you know his fire right it's like that's what's in you that's what's that's what's glowing. And so I'm not afraid to to also acknowledge this is something I think is a bit of a sidebar but I think it's something that Christians also need to hear is, you know, we don't have to respond with this sort of cliche thing of like, Oh, it's all God, you know, it's all God, right? Just none of me all of him. Right? Well, I think that's you're doing a bit of a disservice to God when you say that because he actually created you and he actually loves your unique expression. And so there is a measure of denying yourself right because that's what happens when we're when we get saved we get buried or old man or old life, you know, dies and we are resurrected in Christ, but I still do Got to be fully me, like the me that I am, is an expression of the glory of God. Like he likes my personality. He likes how I do things. He likes doing it with me. And so I'm not going to deny him the pleasure of my unique expression. And yet, I know that my entire life demonstrates the glory of God. It's like it like I know that people don't look at me and think, well, Carlos, amazing. It's like, I know there is a it's Christ in me that is displayed loud and clear of why my life is the way that it is and why I do the things that I do. It's like they are experiencing Jesus and I know it. And so I think we actually get to partner with him in it right? If Scripture says, We're co laborers with Christ doesn't say, you know, you don't exist anymore, right? It's like, No, actually, if it was all God, it probably would be way better. Like let's just start there. Right? And so, you know, for me, it's like, yeah, shining. I feel simple because all I'm doing is just doing what Jesus is doing and Jesus's you know, he's glowing already. So I'm just joining him in his glow. Right. So,

Nicole Clark :

Carla, thank you love your heart. For the Lord, I appreciate you so much.

Carla Pratico :

Yes, thank you. Thank you. This was so nice.

Nicole Clark :

Thanks for tuning in. To learn more about shining light with Nicole or to get involved with Twelve 12 Ministries, visit twelve12ministries.org. Now go out and let your light shine for the kingdom. And remember, you shine so that others can see you being you and they can beat them. Keep your 24 golden and I'll see you next week.