Has God ever called you to lay down something you love or do something that didn’t make any sense?
Kate Battistelli — mother of the renowned Christian singer and songwriter, Francesca Battistelli — has been there. As a highly esteemed actress on Broadway, her world was turned upside down when the Lord asked her to leave her career behind and walk with Him into the unknown.
Join us for a conversation about leaving behind worldly success, following God into the unknown, and trusting in His faithfulness.
Kate is an author, speaker, podcaster, and former actress in the Broadway theatre world. If you prefer listening, you can listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.
Can you tell us a little bit about laying down your career on Broadway and following God into unknown?
After getting saved, my husband I were still living in New York, still pursuing fame and fortune, still doing our thing. We had our daughter a year after that. And about a year later, we were just starting to get this sense that the Lord was saying, ‘You need to walk away from this. This is not the life that I've planned for you.’
I mean, my husband had a doctorate music. He was conducting on Broadway and Radio City. I was doing all kinds of off Broadway and concertizing, stuff like that. And God said, ‘Lay that down.’ And we did. I mean, it's crazy, but we just thought we have to do this. This is what the Lord's leading us to do.
So we walked away. We're both from New Jersey, so we moved back to New Jersey thinking, well, we're still 45 minutes from Broadway in case this doesn't work out. But we had a home business and then I started homeschooling in the eighties, way before it was cool, back when there were no computers, no social media, nothing. But we figured it out.
We raised our daughter, homeschooled her and that, I think, was able to give her a lot more freedom to walk into what God had called her to. But we laid it down. I felt like Abraham, when God says, ‘Abraham, leave everything you know, your family, your business, your land, and go to a land that I'll show you. I'm not going to tell you, you just obey.’ And Abraham does, and it changes the world.
So I think when we do lay down something, I think God will use it in a different way. He never wastes what we lay down. He's always going use it somehow and honor obedience.
Tell us a little bit about your book The God Dare: Will You Choose to Believe the Impossible?
After writing my first book, I thought, ‘God, you dared me to write that book. And I know you've dared other people. I'm not the only one.’ So I just started looking at scripture a little differently. All the Bible heroes, like Abraham and Esther and all these people that God asked them to do these crazy things, which they could have said no to. You have the choice. I like to say you have to choose to be chosen to change the world. And they all could have said no, you know?
And so I thought, okay, God, and I wrote this little blog post called “The God Dare.” That was kind of God's sneaky way to get me to start writing. And one of the gals from the publishing house called me and said, Kate, you need to turn that into a book. I thought, okay, here we go again.
But that book is a lot of my story, just because of the crazy things God has done with us, the way He’s dared us over the years. It’s really funny how God will work in our lives. We're going in one direction and He’ll literally say, ‘Turn left. You're going 90 degrees, you're going that way.’
And I never thought I'd be a writer. I tell women all the time, if you told me 15 years ago, ‘Kate, in 15 years, you'll have written three books, be part of a podcast, you'll be speaking around the country,’ I would have said, ‘You're crazy! That's not who I am.’ But God says, that is who you are.
But that’s what The God Dare was about. Because I was showing all these different Biblical heroes and how they did it and the courage that it took. It takes courage. Because like I said, you can say no to God.
I'll tell you a quick story. Reinhard Bonnke was a huge evangelist in Africa. Kind of like the Billy Graham of Africa. Millions came into the Kingdom through his ministry. But one day, at the height of his ministry, God said to him, ‘You were not my first choice. You were my third choice.’ Can you even imagine those two guys? All I can think of is those two guys, they get to heaven and God says, ‘Look what I had. You turned it down.’
And I'm like, Lord, I don't wanna miss a single thing, whether it's what I'm doing now or whether you have something totally another 90 degree turn, which you just never know. But I don't wanna miss out.
We have to understand how amazing it is to press in and get to know Jesus. You can know about Him, but until you know Him…and the only way you do that is by spending time in His presence. How do we get to know anyone? How do you get to a place of intimacy without spending time with somebody?
God has a calling for you from before the foundation of the world. You can walk into it or not, but if you don't, the people that need you and the impact you would have had, you won't have. Especially now, we need strong Christians who love the Lord more than their life.
Did you ever wrestle with fear?
So for me it was a question of, ‘Am I going to have the time? Is there something else I'm supposed to be doing?’ It was more that kind of thing. It was more fear that I didn't have what it takes. And I think that's true for all of us. But typically if you're afraid, it's probably God. Because it's probably not going to be comfortable.
So what is that dream God put in your heart? And if you don't have one, ask Him, ‘Why am I on this planet?’ Especially if we think about this time in history, what an honor to be born in the end times, which I do believe we're in the end and it's only going to get darker.
But what are we doing to build the kingdom? You can't sit and watch Netflix and eat Cheetos. You've got to get out there. It could be a big thing. Or it could be volunteering in the nursery or working with the Alzheimer's patient. It can be anything, but what is God telling you? Because it's about obedience. It's not about the size of anything. It's about will you obey? Will you walk into what I'm calling you to do? And the only way to find that out is prayer.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Just know that God is with you. He is for you. When I dealt with infertility, after we had our daughter, I had an ectopic pregnancy, a tubal pregnancy, and that shot everything. We tried to adopt four times. Nothing worked. I was mad at God. I was like, God, they say you're a good Father, but you're not being good to me.
And so I would just tell my younger myself, ‘Just chill. It's going to work out. Just be quiet, listen to the Lord, press in, get to know Him, and it's not all about you.’ And He really had to teach me that.
I was at a worship conference down in front, just really worshiping the Lord, and I heard Him speak in my spirit, and He said, ‘Am I enough?’ And God doesn't ask a question He can't answer. And He said, ‘I am.’ And I thought, Lord, I can't believe I've been so concerned with what I don't have, that I don't see all You’ve given me.
And I thought in that moment, if You don't give me one more thing, You are worth it. And for a lot of us, we're just dealing with stuff, thinking, God, you hate me, or you da-da-da. He's worth it no matter what you're going through. He is still worth it.
Is there anything else on your heart that you’d like to share?
Just don't be afraid. Know that God is with you no matter what it is. He's not going to leave you or forsake you. If God calls you to it, He'll equip you to do it. And I say in The God Dare that the impossible is God's comfort zone. So if it seems impossible to you, He's got that. He can do the impossible. He can turn you from whatever you are now into something else. Let Him do that for you. Trust Him. Trust that He will.
And if you're a Christian and you're pursuing Him, just expect that stuff's going to happen. And it either takes you deeper or it pushes you away. And if you let Him take you deeper, you can be grateful for that because it gives you a way to minister and to be there for other people who are going to need your story.
Listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.
Thank you for being here,
Katharine
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