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Have you been feeling like life and God has gone totally off script lately?

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All the plans that you made, the progress that you achieved has just gone up in smoke.

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I want to encourage you today that going off script is just what God does

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and you are right where you need to be.

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Hello, Fearless One.

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This is Nerissa Golden and I'm really glad you've joined me today for episode 19.

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Dropping this one a couple days late, but guess why?

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Because life has been literally off script over the past few days and so far removed

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from what I expected on my 2026 bingo card.

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But it prompted this week's episode and so I wanted to share that word with you.

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The first story that comes to mind is from 2 Kings chapter 5.

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Naaman is a commander in the Syrian army.

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But he was also a leper.

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A young Israeli girl had been captured and brought to his house to work

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with his wife and she tells the wife,

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I wish your husband were in Israel because then he could be healed.

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Naaman hears this and he gets the blessing of his king to travel to Israel

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to be cleansed of leprosy.

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He goes to the king of Israel with a letter from his king and says he's come to be healed.

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Of course, the king of Israel is distraught and wonders if the Syrian king is trying

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to start a war.

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But Elisha the prophet hears about what the king has done and says,

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send the man to me so he will know there is a God in Israel.

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No, Elisha doesn't even meet with him personally.

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He sends a messenger to tell Naaman to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times

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and your flesh will be restored.

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Naaman is upset because first off, Elisha doesn't come in person.

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He sends a messenger.

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Then he tells him to go and bathe in the dirty Jordan River.

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He said, Indeed I said to myself he will surely come out to me and stand and call

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on the name of Lord his God and wave His hand over the place and heal the leprosy.

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We do that don't We get a picture in our minds of how God is going to move

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in our lives.

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And so we are looking for that to happen and we get frustrated

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and we often lose faith because we expected this one outcome in a particular way.

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God has promised to heal us, but he doesn't promise that it will be like a magic wand waving.

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It may mean surgery or therapy or changing our diet.

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He often works in ways we do not see or don't want to see

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because sometimes it takes effort on our part to get and maintain the result.

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Naaman was eventually convinced by his servants to listen to the prophet

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and he washed in the dirty river and the Bible says his flesh became like

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that of a newborn baby.

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The goal is always obedience.

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We have to unlink the way we think God will do things from the fact

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that he will move and act in his way and in his time.

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Your God loves to go off script.

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It is also important that he does this because this is how you will see your own growth.

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If life happened the same way every time,

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then you wouldn't be able to judge your own development.

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You wouldn't see that once you were over there and now you are here.

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Moses missed his chance at entering the promised land because he forgot he was also

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on his own journey.

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He seemed to have forgotten where he'd started and that he used to have

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an anger problem which led to murder and that he hadn't yet arrived at the end

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of his growth.

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Let me remind you of his story.

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Moses was a Hebrew who grew up in the Egyptian palace.

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While his countrymen and women were enslaved, he was being raised as a prince.

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He kills an Egyptian who he saw abusing a slave and he runs away to hide.

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Forty years later, God calls him and says,

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I want you to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go.

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Now the Pharaoh was most likely the man who he would have known as his grandfather.

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And Moses was nervous about returning home.

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God gives him a rod, a wooden stick that he could use to perform magic tricks.

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The rod turned into a snake and ate up the other snakes.

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It was later used to part the Red Sea so the children of Israel could cross over on dry land.

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It was used to help them win wars as he held the rod high.

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That rod was also thrown into the waters at one point to turn the bitter water sweet

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so the children could have clean water to drink.

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The rod was a symbol of God's power in Moses' life.

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I can also imagine that as Moses was aging, he was also leaning on that rod.

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Do you have a rod in your life?

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Something that you've become so accustomed to that you can't see your life without it.

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It represents your achievements and maybe a reminder that God has done great things

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for you and with you.

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But there came a day shortly before the children of Israel were to enter

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the promised land that they needed water to drink.

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And God told Moses and his brother Aaron very clearly to speak to the rock.

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But I'm going to give Moses some credit in that he was probably frustrated

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with the children of Israel because here we are decades later

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and God's done all kinds of amazing things to provide and protect them.

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Yet they are still complaining that they've been brought into the wilderness to die.

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But because Moses got arrogant and he said to them,

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must we bring water for you out of this rock?

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His ego got in the way and it's as if he wants he and his brother,

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who had been his right-hand man and speaker,

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a share of the credit and he strikes the rock twice.

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Yes, water does gush out and they've got more than enough to drink,

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but it costs Moses his entry into the promised land.

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God may use a gift you have or an opportunity to bless you and help you achieve a goal.

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However, the gift must never be made greater than the giver.

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The opportunity, the job, the money,

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the person must never hold greater sway in your life than God

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and the word he Moses was used to having some physical action to perform

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with his rod to get a result,

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but God wanted him to see that now all that was needed was a word.

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But he could not see beyond the way God moved in the past.

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Although the people were acting in a familiar way,

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the way to bring resolution wouldn't require dramatic feats and actions,

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just a word spoken in obedience.

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The situation may look familiar,

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but I want you to know you are a different person than when the journey began.

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You have only to do what Jesus said.

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He told us that all we need is faith,

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The size of a mustard seed and we could speak to the mountain before us and tell it

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to go into the sea.

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We don't need to wave a wand over anything or even dip seven times.

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God is calling you to speak to the mountain in your life today.

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Now Jesus is one who was forever going off script.

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The Gospels are filled with stories of him doing miracles on days when little

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or no work was to be done.

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Healing people with mud, spit, you name it.

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He gets a message that his friend Lazarus is deathly ill and he should come and see him.

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But Jesus doesn't go.

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Jesus then tells his disciples that Lazarus is only sick so that God's glory can be revealed.

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And then later he admits that actually Lazarus is already dead, yet he still doesn't move.

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When Jesus does arrive to see Mary and Martha, Lazarus' sisters,

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Lazarus has been dead and buried for four days.

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The superstition was that a person's spirit would hover in the area for three days

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with a chance that they could be revived.

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But the fact that Jesus stayed away until day four meant that Lazarus was well

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and truly dead, even by local standards.

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He has a discussion with the sisters, Mary and Martha,

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and Jesus tells them that their brother will live again.

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They thought he was talking about in the great resurrection,

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but Jesus reminded them that he was the resurrection and the life.

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With only a few words, Lazarus, come forth.

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The brother is restored to his family and friends.

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Again, we see words used to bring about a miracle.

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Jesus didn't wave his hand here and shout and have a long prayer.

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He simply said, come out.

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It's good to make plans.

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The Bible encourages us to submit our plans to the Lord.

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Proverbs 6, 3 says, Commit to the Lord whatever you do and he will establish your plans.

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Give God the permission to change them.

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Be more in love with him than to the finer details of your agenda.

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This can be difficult for the planners among us to do.

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And even if you're a pantser, meaning you fly by the seat of your pants,

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nothing written down, and you go with the flow,

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you do expect for things to come together in the end.

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We have a perceived way of how we think God will move.

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We expect it to look similar to the last season we just came through.

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He is not under any obligation to give you a repeat performance of your life.

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Proverbs 3 verse 5 reminds us to trust in the Lord with all thine heart

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and lean not unto thine own understanding.

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In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

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If your life is moving a bit off script, then if I were you, I would get excited.

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God's glory is revealed in seasons of uncertainty.

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He knows that when your world is shaken,

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He can and will be a steady rock even when you're tired.

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If nothing looks as you expected,

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this is a time to lean hard on Jesus and trust him to carry you and direct you.

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Fearless One, you were made to thrive.

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You grow in seasons of pressure.

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You learn to trust in moments when you can't see the usual path to take.

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Your faith is strengthened when you persist in the face of adversity and trials.

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You are blessed.

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You are called to be fruitful even when life goes off tangent.

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You can multiply even in the middle of drought.

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You are called to dominate and stand firm in the knowledge of who you are and whose you are.

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Ask the Holy Spirit for direction.

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Lord, this isn't on the script.

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Teach me how to improvise.

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Teach me how to stand on your word, even as everything else shakes.

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Know that his love for you is perfect and eternal.

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Even in unfamiliar territory, you are guided.

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Even in situations where you believe you messed up, he is with you.

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He promises never to leave us nor forsake us.

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I want to close today by blessing you.

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Are blessed in the city and blessed in the field.

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You are blessed when you wake up and when you lie down to sleep you are blessed

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when you are at work or at play you are blessed

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whether young or old you are blessed

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whether employed or unemployed you are the head and not the tail you are

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above and not beneath you are his favorite.

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Live Fearless!Thank you for listening

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to Fearless One with Nerissa Golden.

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For more resources or to get in touch, head to NerissaGolden.com.