The Unforced Gifts

There Is More: The Activity Of God + Holy Hunger + An Inventory Of The Soul

• Tanya Godsey

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Signs and wonders. These are the operative words for 2025 and here at the year's final exhale Tanya takes a moment to draw us back to one simple invitation: There is more—but the "more" often flows to those willing to risk it all for obedience and loyalty to God...those willing to pursue the purity of God's Presence above all else.

This episode tells the story of this truth through a miraculous series of events that ushered Tanya and her family into the most supernaturally charged 9 months of their lives. If you’re weary of human strategy and starved for Presence, this conversation calls you into childlike faith, deeper surrender, and the courage to leave what no longer fits. She names the hard questions—what needs to be left behind in 2025? Who do you need to forgive and release?  What do you need to repent of and renounce? Tanya leads us in a year-end inventory of the soul to help us posture our hearts for radical loyalty to God and a willingness to be open to the possibility of being surprised by God in 2026.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hi friends, this is Tanya Godsi, and you're listening to the Unforced Gifts podcast. We meet again. Um, as the year comes to a close, I wanted to put a proper period at the end of all things 2025 and prayerfully give you some encouragement as we lean into the invitation of God in this new year. But first, let me fill in a blank that I'm sure most inquiring minds here are wondering where has Tanya been since mid-February of this year when she dropped the last episode. Well, while I do plan to release season three in the new year, I want to say that when my brand new book, Befriending God, first released on February 11th of this year, I truly had no idea of the magnitude of what would be required for the stewardship of the very important message of that book as a first-time author. So knowing God not as a concept but as a person is a weighty, life-altering, transformational invitation. And so I buried my life like a seed this year in all of the travel dates, the interviews, and the activity required to support that mission. But I can honestly say I truly had no idea what the demands of such a calling would involve. And in my ministry journey of 31 years, I have often been reminded of Jesus' words in Mark 5.30, which says, At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? Well, after a year of being set apart to consecrate my focus and time towards traveling to preach, teach, lead worship, and to also release new music on the side, while continuing in my spiritual direction work, I can honestly say I found myself pondering this scripture a time or two. Jesus was in a physical body. We are in a physical body, a body that is the temple of the Holy Spirit, a place for God Himself to indwell, a conduit through which the Holy Spirit can work to usher in God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And so when we pray, God, may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, we need to realize that that prayer is quite literally answered through the real-time activity of God, working through real hands and real hearts and real stories and real callings. And yet our physical body, our finite mind, our human heart does have limitations. We are mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally limited on this side of heaven here in this post-Eden world. We are limited creatures. So I love what author Pete Scasero says about this. He says, When people say to me, Pete, I know you're busy, but might you be willing to? I smile and slowly reply, Well, you see, I'm not busy. I'm just limited. I love that because I get it, especially after a year like this one. So much of my 2025 was learning to operate within the realm of holy limits. And I think this is an important conversation as we lean into the invitations of 2026. You know, God does place limits on our lives to keep first things first, to keep first love first. And so if we go back to the Garden of Eden, we'll see this with so much clarity. Um, consider that one of the very reasons Eve fell was because she did not honor her God-given limits. She had withdrawn her time and attention away from God when she ate from what? The forbidden tree. And in doing so, she became more susceptible to deceit, susceptible to lies from the enemy. We see this in Genesis 3. And if you've lived in this post-Eden world for any length of time, well, then you know something of what it means to have to call upon the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to help you choose your attachment to God, your radical loyalty to him above all other loyalties and attachments. And so these last 10 months have been exactly that for me: abiding in the secret place, pouring out into the real-time stewardship demands of the new book, embracing the reality of God-given limits, and praying for the day when I would be able to return to this space to once again scatter seeds of faith into your lives and to do it in health. And so, with all of that said, what an absolute honor to be in this space again with God and with his people. And thank you for being so patient. So, as I was considering this final episode of 2025, I was drawn back to the series we were in on the eight biblical ways to hear and know the voice of God. And when I was processing that, even that reality, I was overwhelmed by the sovereignty of God and where we left off in February and the timing of the miraculous only God story that I am going to retell in this episode. A story that needed the time and space during the pause to actually unfold between the months of May and November of this year. And so, with this miraculous only God story, we are going to cover the final two ways in which we experience the voice of God, and we're gonna do it in a supernaturally charged way because the story that I'm gonna tell you is a story that only God could write. What are the last two ways that we're covering that God speaks to his people? Well, they are God-ordained prophetic dreams and through the lives of his people. So before we go into this, I think it's important to begin by stating that the entire biblical narrative is the story of the activity of God working through the people of God and the presence of prophetic dreams and the plan of God. And that is found all throughout scripture in both the Old and the New Testament. And so whether we look to Joseph's prophetic dreams in Genesis 37, 5 through 10, or we look to the Magi's dream of warning in Matthew 2.12, we're going to see that our God never slumbers or sleeps, and he has been known to reveal his intentions even while we're asleep. So if you're wondering how the sovereignty of God intersects with the timing of what I'm about to share, let me just say that the story I'm about to share really did take place while I was absent here. Um, it needed, it was almost like an incubation period in which God was like, hey, there's going to be a gestational period here for this podcast, and I'm going to do some miraculous things. And so when you come back to it, those things will be born and they will cry out with new life and unfold miraculously. And so I'm excited, really excited, to tell you um what God has been doing and how this miraculously intersects with what He has been doing here and will do. So let me start by going all the way back to May of 2024. That month we had a gathering called the altar, a night centered around the purity of God's presence, okay, on earth as it is in heaven. And so the next day I had a very full heart and I felt the Spirit prompt me to go on a hike to a nearby waterfall. As I approached Rutledge Falls here in our area, I felt God ask me for 10 minutes of time and attention in front of that waterfall. And I just simply quieted my heart. I sat there in the silence and the solitude of the moment with him, and I heard these words over and over and over. Okay. I heard these words. There is more. There is more. I heard that phrase over and over and over throughout those 10 minutes. And I laid my eyes on the most abundant, overflowing, stunning cascade of rushing water while I heard those words. It was the height of spring, and it's almost as if the words that I was hearing from the Lord were being depicted before me in this gorgeous, overflowing waterfall. And so I took his words to heart. I tucked them into the inner sanctum of our friendship, and I waited for the more to be made manifest in a way that I knew would only happen as a result of his hand. I went on to live life fully present to all that was entrusted to me in real time. Minutes and hours and weeks and months would go by before I would understand the words given to me that afternoon. And as God would have it, one year later, almost to the day, I would find myself once again led by the Spirit to walk into a service one Sunday morning at a local church I had never been to here in Nashville. I walked in based on a word from the Lord that day, and I entered into that room with no expectations for what would transpire in those few hours. But towards the end of worship, one of the pastors of this church would come up on stage to speak a prophetic word over the congregation. All I can tell you is that it was a supernaturally charged experience to hear the words the Spirit would lead him to speak. Again, someone I did not know, someone I had never spoken to and never seen before in my life. He gets on stage and he says, When will you let go? When will you believe that the things that are to come are greater than the things that have been? And then he said these words. There are moments when you know that you know, that you know, that you have been led into the right place at the right time, in the center of God's will and in the very palm of his hand. And this was that kind of moment. And so fast forward to August of this year, and my brother, the youth pastor, came to visit from Texas, and as a shepherd's shepherd, I wanted nothing more for him than to experience a level of supernatural encounter with God that would send him back home with more oil than before to strengthen the fire of his burning heart for Jesus and for his calling. And so we prayed about it, and I made the decision to go back to this church together as a family, as an entire family that weekend. And I was not prepared in any way for the series of supernatural events or the calling that would surface from that second visit. And so the moment the first worship song began, I felt the power of the Holy Spirit in real time. And by the second song, as we sang, if the highest place I reach is at your feet, then I've done it all. If the best thing that I've seen is your glory, then I've seen it all. Your love has changed my life, forever satisfied. God, you are my everything. I looked over at my brother to see his hands raised high and his face totally. Totally drenched in tears. God was there in power, and we found ourselves in the midst of another ordained moment being filled full, and something was happening, something outside of my control. And I began to get the sense that God was making an invitation to us, and this invitation came to me the next morning personally at 4 a.m. in the morning. In that moment, God woke me up from a dead sleep to simply show me an aerial view in my spirit of the moment we worshiped together at that service the day before. And he said three words to me. He said, You'll be back. For someone who had no agenda and no line of sight for the future of our family in this place, I held it with an open hand. And the next morning I approached my husband about what I was discerning within the realm of the activity of God and what I was hearing from his voice, beginning with the waterfall words and that encounter in May of 2024, and linking and connecting to the prophetic words in May of this year as I walked into that building and extending into the divine interruption in the middle of the night, all of these moments felt like crumbs on the trail to the more God had promised. And so my husband agreed to pray about it, but we had no idea that God would answer so quickly and so miraculously. Because that very night, my left-brained, logical, hard-working, engineering-minded, intellectually driven husband who had never had a supernatural encounter of this kind, had his very first prophetic dream. This was a dream in which God revealed his very clear intention for us to be a part of this supernaturally charged community that had been the birthplace of the miraculous in our lives. And so he woke up the next morning and he said, I need to tell you something. We're supposed to make the transition to this community. And he began to share details about the dream that could have only been God-breathed. But God had overshadowed the natural with the supernatural in the same way that scripture illustrates. The plans and purposes of God were made extremely clear. And so the weeks and months to follow were ripe with supernatural fruit flowing from the tree of our obedience. But the story wasn't quite over yet. If it had ended there, it would have been amazing. But what I'm about to tell you is perhaps the single most supernaturally charged series of events I've ever experienced in my entire lifetime. And why do we share miracles? We share miracles. Because we need hope and we need faith to believe for the impossible. And that is my prayer in sharing this story with you. That you would put your hope and your father, that you would aim the arrow of your faith upward as you approach, as you approach the precipice of a brand new blank page, which is 2026. I pray that sharing this story encourages you to enter into 2026 with nothing less than 100% childlike faith beating out of your chest. There is more. Six months after the prophetic word was spoken, 500 miles from the church it happened at. It gets better. In my shock and awe, I told my friend, that's him. That's the pastor of the church who spoke the prophetic word over us that lined up with the word God gave me the year before. And then I realized something. I turned around, and as God would have it, his assigned seat was right across the row. Caddy corner to my right. In that moment, I had a decision to make. Was I gonna say something? Was I going to engage the activity of God in that moment? I looked at my friend and I got the impression that I had better not miss the opportunity to catch the wind of this divine moment. And so I turned to him and I said, Excuse me, are you a pastor of you know fill in the blank church? And he looked at me and smiled so big as if to acknowledge, wow, this is amazing. Only God could have orchestrated this development. And in that moment, God afforded me and him what statistically amounts to a 0.0001% chance. A one in a million development. God afforded me the opportunity to tell him of the wondrous works, the supernatural works of God that led us to his church, beginning with the prophetic word he spoke in May, continuing into the prophetic dream my husband had, and every God-ordained detail in between. I and my co-workers and he just sat there in the awe of God as we took in the implications of this preordained divine event before us. And as the plane prepared for takeoff, he said, Hey, let's take a selfie. I want to send this to the entire staff of the church. And so we posed for a photo together on a plane in a moment only God could have orchestrated as a tribute to the supernatural activity of God. Friends, there is a statement that I've been saying all year long, all year, everywhere that I go. And it is this the God of the Old and the New Testament still jumps off of the pages of Scripture and into our lives in real time. It is why I wrote my book, Befriending God. It is why I've spent this entire year on and off the road carrying the cross of stewardship for the more I know God wants his children to experience. I believe there's a generation hungry for a real-time expression of the presence of God and the activity of God. They are so tired of cerebral processing. They have grown weary of human strategy. They are no longer satisfied with all of the earthly knowledge this world has to offer and all of the intellectual understanding that can possibly be accumulated. They understand these things have no power to transform the human heart, no power to set us free on a soul level. I believe there is a remnant rising up who knows they need Jesus to show up in the room in real time to touch them through the power of the Holy Spirit. They need real answers to real problems. They need real healing from real wounds. They need real deliverance from real bondage. There's a generation that will no longer accept the status quo. They refuse to pass from this life without experiencing the fullness of all God has dreamt and designed for them to step into. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. Do you believe that? What you believe about this determines everything. How do you want to leave 2025 and how do you want to enter the gates of 2026? It's a question. It's important. It's between you and God. And this is a moment for you to take inventory of your soul as you enter into the new. Let me tell you something. There is no arrival without departure. My family and I, we had to leave some things behind to follow the supernaturally charged invitation of God on our lives this year. But if we had never done that, we would have never seen the seas miraculously parted in two in the ways that we have in our lives in the wake of our obedience and surrender. What do you need to leave behind in 2025? You know what it is. You can feel it in your spirit. Who do you need to forgive and release? What do you need to renounce so that you can live freely before God with integrity? There is more. And God wants you to enter into the fullness of everything He has for you in the coming year. But there is something that is required, and it is your obedience, and it is your surrender. And so as we stand on the precipice of 2026 together, I want to encourage you to carve out some time just between you and God. And I want you to ask yourself, what is it, God, that you want me to leave in 2025 so that I can live a life fully consecrated unto you? Who do I need to forgive? What do I need to renounce? What do I need to release? What do I need to repent from, God? Allow him to search your heart. I encourage you to enter into the posture of the psalmist who said, Examine my heart, oh God. Examine me, oh God. And I want to pray us out of 2025 and into 2026. And I'm going to make a few announcements as we end. Father God, you who know the end from the beginning, you are the God of the seen and the unseen. You have seen every heartache of this year. You have seen every celebration, every victory, and every moment in between. God, we thank you for sustaining us to this moment. As we stand on the precipice of a new year, Lord, we consecrate our hearts to you. Holy Spirit, come. Do what only you can do. As we stare at the blank page before us, we pray for words and moments and stories inspired by your thoughts and your ways and your truth. Jesus, there is no one like you. You are worthy. You are worthy of our time and our affection and our attention. Help us to walk in radical loyalty to your narrow way this year. Give us eyes to see the way that you see, ears to hear the way that you hear, and a heart that beats up to your heartbeat. We thank you, Lord. You're seated on the throne, interceding for us that we would be kept. Thank you for your faithfulness and for your mercy. And thank you that every single ending is truly a brand new beginning in you. We love you, Jesus. We love you, Father. We love you, Holy Spirit. And we thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, it was so good to be back today. And I look forward to what the Lord has in this space in the coming year. I truly do. I believe he's going to have some important things for this community in this space in 2026. Speaking of the new year, um, there have been some new developments as I shared today with you in our camp. But for those who do not follow me online, um, we have two sold-out Befriending God weekends coming in March and April. They are already full. But we have started a wait list for the summer and the fall weekends to steward the hunger. I originally only intended to do one of these. And when the first one sold out in less than 24 hours, and the second one sold out before we even had a chance to make it public. Um, the Lord really came to me and said, the sheep are hungry, and so we're gonna do more. And if you want to be a part of that more, I'm gonna put a link in the show notes for you to sign up for that email notification list, and we will let you know before it goes public how you can sign up for those weekends. There are some big things coming and things we are praying about and preparing for, but you can definitely expect to receive more from me in this space in the coming year, and so I look forward to walking with you. I look forward to everything the Holy Spirit has for you in the coming year through this conduit. And until then, I pray that you would go in peace, and I pray that you would have a heart that is able to risk your own childlike faith and do all of the more that God has for you in the coming year and beyond. Love you guys.

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Tanya Godsey

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