From Kolob to Calvary's podcast

Have you ever obeyed God, done what you believed was right, and then wondered why things turned out so badly? We sometimes assume that if we're faithful to God, He'll reward our obedience with favorable circumstances. But what happens when the outcome is disappointment, suffering, or an unanswered prayer? In Part 8 of The Surrendered Life, Tracy Tennant explores one of the most challenging aspects of Christian discipleship: surrendering our expectations about what God should do after we've obeyed Him. Through Joseph's imprisonment, Habakkuk's declaration of faith in the face of devastation, Paul's unanswered prayer concerning his thorn in the flesh, and Jesus' surrender in Gethsemane, we discover that trusting God doesn't mean we're guaranteed the outcome we desire. Does surrender mean we should stop praying for healing, restoration, or provision? How do we reconcile God's goodness with circumstances that seem anything but good? And can we continue trusting Him when the answer to our prayers is different from what we hoped? Surrender isn't giving up hope. It's placing our hope in God rather than in a particular outcome. Join us as we explore what it means to trust the Father's character even when we cannot understand His ways. Want to grow stronger in your faith? Join my email list and receive a free Steadfast 7-Day Devotional to help you deepen your walk with the Lord. _____ 🌊 Want to grow stronger in your faith? Download my FREE Steadfast Starter Kit: 7 Days to a Faith That Stands Firm. This 7-day devotional offers biblical encouragement and practical steps to help you stand firm in Christ, whatever storms may come. You'll also join my email community, where I'll share occasional teachings, podcast updates, and ministry news. Get your free devotional here: FREE 7-Day Steadfast Devotional _____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.

The Surrendered Life, Part 7: When Submission Has Limits Does biblical submission mean Christians must obey every authority, no matter what? What happens when a government, employer, pastor, or other leader demands something that conflicts with God's Word? In Part 7 of The Surrendered Life, Tracy Tennant explores an essential distinction: God calls us to respect human authority, but our highest allegiance always belongs to Him. Through the courageous examples of the Hebrew midwives, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, and the apostles, we discover that faithful submission sometimes requires us to say no. But how do we recognize when that line has been crossed? And how can we stand firm without becoming harsh, rebellious, or self-righteous? This teaching examines Romans 13, Acts 5:29, and other key passages to help believers distinguish between personal preferences, legitimate authority, and genuine conflicts with God's commands. True surrender isn't blind obedience to people. It's wholehearted obedience to God. Our yes and our no both belong to Jesus. _____ 🌊 Want to grow stronger in your faith? Download my FREE Steadfast Starter Kit: 7 Days to a Faith That Stands Firm. This 7-day devotional offers biblical encouragement and practical steps to help you stand firm in Christ, whatever storms may come. You'll also join my email community, where I'll share occasional teachings, podcast updates, and ministry news. Get your free devotional here: FREE 7-Day Steadfast Devotional _____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.

In Part Six of The Surrendered Life, Tracy explores submission in our relationships with God, one another, our spouses, and spiritual leaders. Biblical submission does not mean becoming passive, voiceless, or easy for other people to control. It begins with a much more fundamental allegiance: Jesus gets the final word. From Ephesians 5 and mutual submission within marriage to Hebrews 13 and spiritual leadership, this episode examines how authority is meant to function under the lordship of Christ. Jesus modeled authority through humility, service, and sacrificial love—not domination. Tracy also addresses the often-misused phrase "Touch not the Lord's anointed," the difference between honoring spiritual leaders and surrendering discernment, and why Scripture both protects leaders from reckless accusations and holds them accountable for serious sin. But surrender isn't limited to the big questions. It also appears in ordinary moments: receiving correction without defensiveness, apologizing first, listening instead of preparing a rebuttal, serving when no one notices, yielding a preference, and occasionally surrendering our apparent spiritual gift of needing to have the last word. The question isn't simply, "Who am I supposed to submit to?" The better question is: "Jesus, what does faithfulness to You look like here?" Surrendered to God. Humble toward people. Governed by truth. _____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.

Surrender doesn't always look the same. Sometimes it sounds like Isaiah saying, "Here am I. Send me." Sometimes it sounds like Mary saying, "May it be done to me according to your word." And sometimes it sounds like David simply admitting, "I have sinned against the LORD." In Part Five of The Surrendered Life, Tracy explores three very different biblical pictures of surrender. Isaiah surrendered his availability before he even knew what God was asking him to do—and then had to surrender the outcome when his ministry did not promise visible success. Mary surrendered the future she expected when God's plan radically disrupted her own. David shows us another kind of surrender: the humility to stop defending ourselves when God confronts our sin, repent, and allow Him to change us. These stories remind us that surrender isn't primarily about dramatic acts or heroic assignments. It's about who ultimately has the final word in our lives. Sometimes surrender means, "Here I am." Sometimes it means, "Let it be according to Your word." Sometimes it means, "I was wrong." And sometimes it simply means, "Father, I don't understand, but I trust You." So what does your yes need to sound like today? ____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.

What does surrender look like when God asks us to move forward without giving us the entire map—or when we feel completely inadequate for what He's asking us to do? In Part Four of The Surrendered Life, Tracy turns to Abraham and Moses, two men who received a call from God to "go," but responded very differently. Abraham left his homeland without knowing where God was taking him. His story reveals that surrender and trust are developed over a lifetime. The man who initially struggled to trust God with his safety and timing eventually reached the place where he could entrust even Isaac—the son of promise—into God's hands. Moses had a different problem. He knew where God wanted him to go; he just didn't think he was the man for the job. At the burning bush, Moses questioned, objected, and finally asked God to send someone else. Yet God's answer to Moses' inadequacy was not greater self-confidence, but His presence: "I will assuredly be with you." Together, Abraham and Moses remind us that surrender does not require seeing the entire road or feeling completely qualified. Sometimes God gives us enough light for only one step. The question is: Will we trust Him enough to take it? _____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.

How do we actually become surrendered people? Is sanctification entirely the work of the Holy Spirit, or does becoming more like Jesus require effort on our part? In Part Three of this series on living surrendered to God, Tracy explores the biblical relationship between grace, effort, obedience, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot make ourselves like Jesus through willpower or religious performance—but neither does Scripture describe the Christian life as passive. Philippians 2:12–13 gives us the beautiful tension: we work because God is already at work within us. The Holy Spirit convicts, teaches, empowers, renews, and produces His fruit in us. Our part is to respond—to repent, obey, renew our minds, put off the old, put on the new, resist temptation, and practice saying yes to God. And that "yes" is part of spiritual warfare. Not every battle is loud or dramatic. Sometimes spiritual warfare is simply choosing forgiveness when the flesh wants resentment, humility when pride wants the last word, or trust when fear demands control. Using the biblical picture of a horse becoming increasingly responsive to its handler, Tracy asks a simple but challenging question: Are we becoming easier for God to lead? Sanctification isn't perfection overnight. It is the Holy Spirit forming Christ in us as we learn, one surrendered decision at a time, to recognize the Shepherd's voice and respond: "Yes, Lord." _____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.

What does a surrendered life actually look like? We don't have to guess—we can look at Jesus. In Part Two of this series on living surrendered to God, Tracy explores how Jesus modeled surrender throughout His entire earthly life. Gethsemane was not the beginning of His surrender; it was the culmination of a life already yielded to the Father. From the incarnation and His years of obscurity in Nazareth to His dependence upon the Father, His willingness to wait for God's timing, and finally His prayer, "Not My will, but Yours be done," Jesus shows us what trust-filled obedience looks like. But surrender doesn't mean that obedience is always easy or that we never wrestle with fear, grief, or difficult emotions. Jesus Himself experienced anguish in Gethsemane. The difference between wrestling and rebellion is what we ultimately do with our will. This episode also explores surrender as spiritual warfare, the relationship between trust and obedience, and why the cross—seemingly a moment of defeat—became the greatest victory over the powers of darkness. Surrender isn't weakness. It is what love looks like when it fully trusts the Father. ____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.

What does it really mean to live a life surrendered to God? In this episode, Tracy begins a new teaching series on surrender, submission, trust, obedience, and spiritual formation. Surrender is not weakness, passivity, or religious control. It is part of spiritual warfare because every time we yield our will to the Father, we are refusing the enemy's invitation to self-rule and coming under the reign of Christ. But surrender can feel frightening, especially when our ability to trust has been shaped by betrayal, disappointment, or past wounds. How do we become willing to be clay in the Potter's hand when we cannot physically see the Father's arms waiting to catch us? This teaching explores the difference between conviction and condemnation, the trustworthiness of God's character, the example of Jesus in Gethsemane, and the role of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. True surrender begins not with trying harder, but with learning to trust the heart of the Father. ____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.  

What does freedom actually look like after God begins exposing the lies we've believed? Sometimes we expect freedom to arrive in a dramatic moment. We pray, forgive, receive ministry, or recognize a stronghold—and expect to immediately feel different. But the Holy Spirit often works more quietly than that. Sometimes we don't recognize how much we've changed until one day we realize we're responding differently than we used to. In Part 3 of The Battle for Your Identity, Tracy Tennant explores what it means to walk in freedom by learning to agree with God more than we agree with our past, our fears, our emotions, or the accusations of the enemy. Tracy shares a personal story from her own experience with inner healing and deliverance—one that taught her the difference between trusting God for salvation and truly trusting His heart. She also discusses forgiveness and healing, why forgiveness does not automatically restore trust, how old patterns of thinking are replaced through the renewing of the mind, and why an unwanted thought does not have to become an agreement. Freedom isn't pretending the wound never happened. It isn't denying our emotions or becoming obsessed with identifying every possible demonic influence. It's learning to recognize the Shepherd's voice and allowing God's truth to become more familiar than the lies we've carried. And ultimately, healing isn't the destination. God restores His people so they can move forward into purpose—as watchmen, warriors, and witnesses who know whose they are and trust the One who called them. The question is no longer simply, "Who am I?" It's also: "Who am I becoming?" _____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Visit my video channel here: YouTube Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.

How does a lie become a stronghold? A painful event may happen once, but the lie attached to it can be replayed for decades. Rejection becomes, "I'm unlovable." Failure becomes, "I'll never be good enough." Betrayal becomes, "I can't trust anyone." Eventually, a lie repeated often enough can become so familiar that we no longer recognize it as a lie—we simply assume that's who we are. In Part 2 of The Battle for Your Identity, Tracy Tennant explores how wounds can become opportunities for deception and how believers may unknowingly come into agreement with conclusions God never spoke over them. Drawing from Scripture and years of experience with inner healing and deliverance ministry, Tracy looks at the relationship between our thoughts, the enemy's accusations, spiritual strongholds, and the renewing of the mind. But freedom doesn't come from becoming obsessed with demons or analyzing every thought that enters our heads. Scripture calls us to take our thoughts captive, test them against God's truth, and become increasingly familiar with the voice of our Shepherd. What have you come to believe about yourself that God never said? And when an old accusation surfaces again, perhaps it's time to ask a very simple question: "Who told me that?" _____ This podcast is listener-supported. If these teachings have encouraged or equipped you, and you'd like to help make them available to others, you can support the ministry here: 👉 Support Tracy Tennant Ministries To learn more about my books, podcast, and speaking ministry, visit TracyTennant.com. If you're looking for resources specifically related to Mormonism and reaching Latter-day Saints with the biblical gospel, visit TheMormonMatrix.com. Your support helps offset podcast hosting, website maintenance, and the development of free biblical resources so these materials can remain available to those seeking truth and encouragement. If this episode was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from it.