Shining Luminously: The Power of The Holy Spirit Within Us

Debbie McGoldrick, our incredible guest, takes us on a journey of luminosity and faith in this inspiring episode. From the moment she opened her bedroom window, at age 9,  to invite her neighbors to hear stories about Jesus, to now serving full-time with Cru City and founding NBS2GO, her dedication to shining the light of Christ is truly remarkable.

We explore the concept of luminosity as not just a measure of energy radiated by a star, but as a metaphor for how we can impact the lives of those around us. Debbie reminds us that we don't have to be perfect or put on a show, but instead, allow God's spirit to flow through us as God leads. Join us as we delve into the importance of staying dependent on God, the power of mentoring and connecting with others, and how we can better engage with our neighbors.

Get ready to be inspired and empowered to shine brightly in your own path.

Try Debbie's gluten-free  Monster Cookies:

Monster Cookies (not scary but BIG SIZE)
350° 7-8 minutes (time depends on size of cookies)
Mix together:
½ cup better
1 cup sugar
1 cup & 2 T. brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups peanut butter (I use chunky)
¼ t. vanilla
¾ t. light corn syrup
4 ½ cups reg. oats
2 t. baking soda
¼ t. salt
1 cup M & M’s (holiday themed)
1 cup Choc. Chips

Cream butter, gradually add sugars
Add eggs, PB, vanilla & corn syrup
Now, enjoy sharing your treats!

SOCIAL MEDIA: @called_toshine Instagram.
Follow us on Instagram and enjoy the community as we spur each other on through inspiration, encouragement, and equipping.

And always you can find resources to help you connect to the people around you at NBS2GO! (nbs2go.com)

— A ministry of NBS2GO: Neighbor Bible Studies to Go and Cru

Transcript

Pam McCune : 0:01

Hey, Jesslyn here and Pam, welcome to the community where we explore how Jesus is our light.

Jesslyn Adams: 0:08

And we're here to spur each other on to love God and others. Right where we live, we are called to shine. Living in the hill country, I can see many stars on a clear night. Just last week, in fact, I noticed the little dipper, the big dipper, and then my eyes were struck by one star in particular that just stood out. It was brighter and even bigger than the others, and I was drawn to it. This is luminosity. Stars shine brightest for different reasons. Today we are talking about stars shine brightest that are most luminous, the ones with the most power.

Pam McCune : 0:42

Just as light bulbs have different wattage and give us dim light or medium light or bright lights, think of stars as having different wattage and the highest wattage shines the brightest. Lighty is a measure of the total amount of energy radiated by a star per second and in layman's terms, it gives it the most power. Today we're going to explore how we can shine luminously to the people in our path. This is where we don't mean being shiny so people will notice us, where we try to look like we have it all together and we only put our successes on social media. What it does mean is having the most power inside of us, through God's spirit, to shine out luminously to the people around us.

Jesslyn Adams: 1:28

When we think of someone we know who is loving others out of an overflow from her love for God and his love for her. We think of our friend, the founder of NBS2go Neighbor Bible Studies 2go a Cru ministry, Debbie McGoldrick. Debbie resides in the Atlanta area and serves full time with Cru. She is married to a proud Georgia Bulldog, Mark, and they have two wonderful children and four grandchildren. Welcome to Call to

Debbie McGoldrick : 1:51

Hey, thank you. I am so glad to be with y'all. This is so much fun.

Pam McCune : 1:58

Thanks for joining us and you know it's just fitting to have you on the podcast for this specific episode. As we talk about luminosity and letting God's spirit and his power shine out of us, I'm curious when did spiritual things become important to you?

Debbie McGoldrick : 2:15

Well, interestingly enough, when I was nine years old, I invited Jesus Christ to come into my life, and it was days after that. I asked my dad to take the screens off my bedroom window and I pulled up picnic benches and invited the children in our neighborhood to hear stories about Jesus. They were children that would never come to our church with us, and I felt like, from that moment, god put a heart to reach the people around me, within me. But it wasn't until I was really a teenager that I understood the ministry, the Holy Spirit, and what a difference it makes to not just invite Christ to come into your life but to allow him to live his amazing life in and through us.

Jesslyn Adams: 3:00

Wow, Debbie, I love that picture of you as a child and just opening your window, I'm thinking, oh my goodness, I probably wasn't thinking about everybody needing Jesus right then, but God was opening your heart to share the gospel with others.

Debbie McGoldrick : 3:13

You know, that's exactly right. It was the spirit of God within me. I didn't understand that as a nine-year-old, but when I look back I know that it was him nudging and prompting me, as a child with childlike faith, to think oh, I could do this. And it was amazing. The children that would come, my friends, my peers that would hear stories about Jesus and respond to him.

Pam McCune : 3:39

I liked the picture, what he had already taught you and what he had put in your heart. You were just opening the window to give it out to others.

Jesslyn Adams: 3:47

Debbie, you mentioned it was the power of God's spirit working in you. When did you really discern and go okay, I need the power of God's spirit, I can't do this on my own. When did you first learn that and understand that?

Debbie McGoldrick : 4:00

Really, I think it was those early teen years when you begin in middle school and high school and it's like the rubber meets the road. I grew up in a solid Christian home, but I was thrust into an environment where my friends didn't love Jesus. They didn't go to church. So how was I going to let the love of Christ uniquely shine through me? And I remembered praying Holy Spirit, god, would you be light in me? To others I didn't try to do it, I just said God, you're gonna have to just use me how you've made me. You're creative enough to do that, to make me your light and your salt. Among my fellow friends.

Debbie McGoldrick : 4:42

I began to see him do that. He gave me a heart as I learned how to share my faith. I saw friends come to Christ and I'd like, oh, what am I gonna do with these kids that have come to Christ? There was no Bible studies written for high school students or at that time, and I began to just have these new friends that came to Christ over for slumber parties and in the morning I would teach them how to have a quiet time.

Debbie McGoldrick : 5:05

The Holy Spirit gave me that idea because I was asking how do I help them get to know you and it was like this is how I get to know him, so why not open up my house Again a creative way to reach out to those who are curious and hungry about knowing God more. It became such a way of life to me. I found myself talking to the Spirit of God that lives within me For guidance, for direction, for counsel, for courage and strength to stand up for my faith. When some of my friends would go by my locker and call me God girl, they'd kind of make fun of me and that was hard, but it was a privilege to be called out for Jesus. I didn't do it perfectly, but I allowed him to flow through me.

Jesslyn Adams: 5:52

I was just thinking. Debbie. Part of me wants to back up and think okay, when I was in my teenage years, when I thought of the Holy Spirit, I honestly I'm thinking Casper, the friendly ghost. I'm not tapping into what you're tapping into and who the Spirit is. You were talking about how God's Holy Spirit guides you and leads you, but could you explain a little bit more of the role of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life?

Debbie McGoldrick : 6:17

Well, I know. When Jesus left this earth he said it's to your advantage, he's telling his best friends that I go. And they're like what are you talking about? He said because if I go, then the Holy Spirit will come. You see, when Jesus was with his disciples, he was physically with them, but when he left, after he died and rose again, he said I am sending the Spirit so that he can be with you 24 seven. He not only can walk with you, but he can talk through you, he can live through you, he is on call at all times. And that power within.

Debbie McGoldrick : 6:51

If you do a study on the Gospels versus the Book of Acts, you can tell the difference of being with God. It's almost like renting your faith. They owned it when the Holy Spirit came and took residence in their life. And what a difference it made when they owned their faith and the Spirit lived his life through them. Just like renting a house or renting an apartment, you don't really care, but when you own it, it's important to you to take care of it. You are proud and want people to come over and experience that.

Pam McCune : 7:30

Here's my question for you. I can't help but think, as you're talking to these high school girls about how they can love God and what that looks like. I go back to Jesus calling us to love God and love people. You were loving people by telling them to love God and showing them how. It seems important that when Jesus brought it up at the two most important commands that there was an order, I picture the flight attendant saying put on your own oxygen mask first before you help those around you, because you've got to be able to breathe. So what does loving God look like for you, so that you can love others out of that overflow?

Debbie McGoldrick : 8:10

It's my favorite thing is loving God, it's spending time with him, it's being with him, being in his presence. And I have learned, the older I get, that it's less about me talking and it's more about listening. God, what do you have to say to me as I read scripture? That's his word to us. The Holy Spirit's the teacher and he speaks to us. But as I pause and listen, I see through Genesis to Revelation. Jesus is speaking, god is speaking all the time. It's incredible and I see the theme of listen intently and follow intentionally, without delay, discussion or doubt. It's like all through scripture If people delayed their obedience or discussed it with themselves or with others, or doubted oh, that couldn't be God, they missed out on the blessing.

Debbie McGoldrick : 9:10

Several years ago I was just sitting in that posture of having read the scripture, listening to him, and I was looking outside and I noticed my husband's beautiful hydrangeas. He's the gardener in our house. I felt the Holy Spirit say go pick those for your neighbor, now y'all. It was 7.15 in the morning and it was kind of like now and I sensed the nudge. So I got up, I picked hydrangeas. All I had was an old ball jar. I just filled it with water, put the hydrangeas in. And I said now, and he said yes, so I'm walking a couple doors down, it's just getting light. And I thought again it's this constant dialogue. I heard you say this. But now do I ring the doorbell, do I set it down and leave? And I sensed him saying just knock.

Debbie McGoldrick : 10:01

And my neighbor opened the door and she almost fell into my arm. She had been weeping all night. Something had happened in her family that no one else knew about. I didn't even know about. But I told her God nudged me. I said that's just like God. And she just kind of draped around me and I was able to pray for her. She was getting ready for work. I turned around, it was a two minute conversation. I almost flew back home because I thought, god, I don't want to miss being in that posture of loving you and responding to your nudges. And I could write a book of all those nudges. And I could also write a book of nudges. I didn't take. I wonder why I didn't. It's because I delayed, I doubted, or I had a discussion with myself that that didn't fit my schedule. It didn't make sense to me. Or I'll do it later.

Pam McCune : 10:56

So it sounds like God nudged your heart and you showed up on her doorstep at just the right time. She needed a human to be God's loving arms and to listen and to love. And it sounds like it didn't take that long for you to even be that support for her, because, having the capacity and stepping out and doing it, it was taking what you had, that Mark had grown the flowers and going to the neighbor beside you.

Jesslyn Adams: 11:20

Wow, yes, that's right, debbie, I asked this because I'm going okay. You have lived through different seasons of life and I love hearing you share examples. You are deeply connected to God and spend time with Him. When you think about different stages that we are in life whether it be right out of college or in college new job, single, married, young kids what does it look like to love God and just the craziness of life and the demands of the culture out there?

Debbie McGoldrick : 11:51

For me personally, it was really guarding that time alone with the Lord, whether it's five minutes, and I just meditate on one verse. I put it on a little card and carried it around with me asking the Holy Spirit, in this season of my life I want to love you with all my heart. It says you ask and you'll receive. You seek and you'll find. You'll knock and it will be open. If we ask, there's not a cookie cutter answer. God has made you in your season exactly. He knows where you are, so just ask him. I want to love you more and then seek him. It says when you seek him, you will find him. He's just saying when you look towards me, I'm going to look towards you.

Debbie McGoldrick : 12:37

I have learned more about God since I've become a grandparent. When I see my grandchild looking to me or calling out my name, I drop everything and I want to be in their presence. In the same way, I believe God, no matter how much time, what capacity we have, when we turn towards him and want to love him and just say I love you. What if you just throughout the day said I love you, God, I love you, and be pausing and say can I hear you say that to me and I bet you'll hear it, because he loves you more than you love him.

Pam McCune : 13:15

What a beautiful picture. I really do picture dependence. I like that. You said you don't do it all perfectly, but even in the imperfection you are dependent on the Lord and that's what I appreciate watching you hear from God because you've stopped and listened and you're in his word. You're absorbing it, you're marinating on it and then you're acting when he shows you. I think of dependence that it doesn't mean us getting more of the Holy Spirit at any time. At the moment of believing, we're told in Ephesians that we're marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. So we actually get the Holy Spirit at the moment of belief that we receive that gift of the Spirit. I think dependence doesn't mean us getting more of him, but of actually him getting more of us. How have you stayed dependent on God? Feel like you're going to say, you run to the Word and you make sure that you're in it. Is that the first step that you would say?

Debbie McGoldrick : 14:13

Absolutely. I think the only way you can hear God's voice is if you know what it sounds like, if you know what the heart of the Father is, and by being in the Word. I've been doing something the last two months that has been incredible. I've been listening to John 14 through 17, probably a hundred times. I have it on my phone when I walk, when I'm in the car, when I'm doing the dishes. It's like in the olden days, we'd be singing a song on the radio and the radio would cut out, but we kept singing that song, not because I sat down to memorize it, but I just kept singing it over and over again. And so as we let God's Word fill our hearts and minds whether we read it, whether we listen to it, we recognize God's voice we will be filled up. It's like you become aware. It's like an engine. Light comes on when you're not walking with God, when you're dependent on yourself or when you're all wound up in your own to-do list. That just happened to me yesterday.

Debbie McGoldrick : 15:14

I was on a meeting. I had a number of things going on. I felt the tension rising inside me, and it wasn't until this morning that I realized that I was allowing my to-do list, all the things coming up, all the decisions I had to make, all my emails waiting for me. I'd felt that tension. You know what it reminded me of Again, my husband the gardener. He was gone on a trip and he assigned me to water all his plants on the deck. I go to water the first one and I turn the hose on and no water comes out. I go back, the things turned on and I realized it was kinked around a chair and that water could not flow because of that kink. And this morning I realized that I was letting the things on my to-do list, the decisions I had to make, had kinked. The joy, the power, the rest of the Holy Spirit. And I simply said oh, my goodness, that red light. I have been so uptight about these things. I'd give it to you First.

Debbie McGoldrick : 16:20

Peter 5, 7 says casting all your cares upon me because I care for you. That word in the Greek is give a gift, cast give a gift. He wants it. As I gave it to him, I began to sing. I had old hymns that came back to my mind and I began to worship him. That kink was gone and the flow of his spirit was back and I was lifted. I feel like it's a moment by moment Walk with the Holy Spirit. When he alerts us, all we have to do is say I can't do this, you do this.

Jesslyn Adams: 16:56

Man. Debbie, I can relate to the to-do list when I think about maybe some hindrances of why I don't wake up going. How can I love others? It's because, as I'm spending time loving God in the morning and spending time with him, there are times where I'm literally having a note next to me with my to-do list running along parallel with my Bible. It's tricky on how to navigate that and, like you said, I have to pray and ask God, but sometimes my natural instinct isn't how can I serve others today? It's just not the first thing on my mind and God has to put it on my heart. But one other thing I'm realizing with these to-do list and maybe all of us in different stages, whether we have kids under us or not. We have a busy job, we have someone we're helping take care of. It's easy to get depleted. Have you ever felt depleted in loving others and what did you do about that?

Debbie McGoldrick : 17:47

For me, this is my engine light. When I hear myself say I ought and I should and I follow those, that's when I get under the pile. That's when I become depleted because it's no longer following the promptings and the teleprompter of the Holy Spirit. But I'm following my desires and the shoulds, the expectations maybe I think others have on me and I have high expectations for myself. And sometimes we think once we do something for somebody, we need to do it for everybody. But God may be just saying I want you to do this for one person. Or we don't do something that we are prompted because we think of all the follow-up things we're going to have to do. For me. The depletion comes when I realize that the shoulds and the oughts are running and ruling and controlling my life. There's a prayer I've been praying lately. It says God, I pray that I will not be distracted by my own desires or sidetracked by my own expectations or others, and I don't want to try to accomplish my agenda. It's all about you, lord, and I surrender to you Beautiful.

Pam McCune : 19:00

Can you share with us some of the stories where God was shining through you, from inside you to others, and you actually got to see the result of how he drew people to himself?

Debbie McGoldrick : 19:13

Wow, pam, I walk my neighborhood almost every day and I pray three things. I pray that God will keep out all evil and when I see it for sale sign, I say don't let any evil move in here. In fact, would you move somebody in who knows Christ and can be salt and light in this neck of the neighborhood? Or would you move somebody in who has a hunger and thirst for God? And I have seen that over and over again. When a new neighbor moves in I always have my little monster cookies in the freezer ready to go and I'll walk up to their house. This sweet Indian couple had moved in, young couple, and I brought them my cookies and we had a conversation and they've been in our neighborhood for eight years and God has just developed an unbelievable relationship.

Debbie McGoldrick : 20:03

Early on I found out that this precious gal had lost her mother at age 13. She was in an arranged marriage, had moved here like months before I met her. We have begun an incredible relationship where I was even at the birth of their child. The Lord said to go and I went and there was an ice storm and I couldn't leave. I was right there, almost like a mother to her, but I know they're not followers of Jesus.

Debbie McGoldrick : 20:31

And it's been nine years, but I continue to love, I continue to pray, I continue to look for opportunities to just love them and their nine year old, precious, autistic daughter, who calls me Didi, and that has just been precious to me. I may never see the fruit in my desire, but I have told her. I said Kelp, and I can't imagine being in heaven without you. So I think it's relational, just being loving, asking questions, being curious as I pray and as I see houses for sale. It's an easy opportunity. You see the movie band come in and go. Ok, I'm going to give them a week or so and then I'm going to show up on their doorstep as we take little steps of faith. He honors that.

Pam McCune : 21:18

What would you like to share with us about the Holy Spirit, about your relationship with God and loving him and having such a heritage of walking with him over the years?

Debbie McGoldrick : 21:27

Hmm, pam, wow. The Holy Spirit is my best friend. He's with me all the time I get to partner with the God of this universe, I get to love him and love the people around me uniquely how God has made me. I like to bake, but you may like to garden, or you may like to go to the grocery store and pick up some flowers. It doesn't matter. God can use you and who you are and how he's wired you to express his love and the ministry of the Holy Spirit through you.

Pam McCune : 22:03

Debbie beautifully said in a perfect ending. I get so excited celebrating how the nine year old girl that knew God and that felt the nudging to tell others about the wonderful relationship she had with God and to spread that light to others God took you one faith step at a time, to start neighbor Bible studies, to go, to open up resources and opportunities, to help people take the next right step that God's calling them to. God uses who we are, our season of life and our giftings to walk through and our calling. If you're in relationship with God through Christ, you have the Holy Spirit in you to nudge you and to guide you where to step out. He's never calls you and doesn't equip you. So if he does the calling, he will do the equipping. Debbie, thank you for taking the time to not only mentor Jesslyn and I, but to come on and mentor our audience as well.

Debbie McGoldrick : 23:03

Absolutely, thank you. I've loved it, loved it.

Jesslyn Adams: 23:08

I love that anybody is willing to take a step of faith God can use in whatever capacity. We have so much more to explore together. So be sure to subscribe to our podcast and if today is inspired or encouraged you, you can help others find us by taking a moment to give us a review on your favorite podcast streaming site or YouTube.

Pam McCune : 23:28

And, as our thanks for joining us here, we invite you to follow us on Instagram at called to shine and find out how to enter to win a pair of Apple AirPods. And, as part of our called to shine Instagram community, you will get encouragement and ideas to help you connect to the people around you.

Jesslyn Adams: 23:47

And, as always, you can find resources to help you shine the light of Jesus at nbs2gocom. In our next episode, stars shine brightest that are the closest where we explore the calling of proximity.

Pam McCune : 23:59

Thanks for joining us. We are called to shine.