Trust God and Be Real with Jera Lincoln

Pain is not your enemy. Pain is the alarm system telling you your enemy exists. We've been taught to treat pain like something to medicate, mute, manage, or run from. But pain is the divine signal that something somewhere is out of agreement with what God ordered. If you spend all your energy trying to silence the alarm, you'll never go looking for the fire. In this episode, Jera unpacks the diffe...

You can attend every service. Tithe faithfully. Serve on every committee. Know every pastor by name. And still not know Him. This episode is the full Trusting the Map, Not the Maker teaching, a 7-day series delivered in one sit-down. It started on a Sunday drive with my husband Jimmy when we passed a beautiful, traditional church and something rose up in me. I was pleased, and in the same moment,...

What if the very first lie ever told was a trick to get Adam and Eve to reach for something they already had? They were already made in God's image. Already like Him. And the serpent convinced them they had to grab for what was already in their hands. That's the oldest trick in the book, and it's still the trick being played on the church today. Salvation has been reduced to a ticket:...

"Stand up straight, Jera" — she heard it her whole life. But today it's not about physical posture. It's about the posture of our perspective. When Jera saw a news story about a church being burned in America, her husband said, "They're trying to divide us." But here's what God laid on her heart: Why hasn't He stopped these people? Because of His mercy, grac...

In the Old Testament, life got better when God's people drew closer to Him. But in the New Testament? The closer the disciples walked with Jesus, the more trouble they found — prison, persecution, even death. So what does that mean for us today? Jera digs into a question worth pondering: Are we just following the rituals of Christianity, or are we actually following Christ? Because if the devi...

When the Holy Spirit fell in the upper room and the 120 began speaking in tongues, the crowd couldn't explain it — so they made something up. "They're drunk." But Peter stood up and defended what God was doing. Jera shares how small town gossip doesn't just happen in your hometown — it happens in the church too. When God moves in unexpected ways, people will try to explain it...

Everyone says "tune in" — tune in to this podcast, this pastor, this influencer. But here's the real question: whose voice are you actually tuned into? Jera shares a powerful moment when God reminded her that His sheep hear HIS voice — and another's they will not follow. If people are following things they shouldn't, what does that tell us? It's time to get alone with God...

Were you the favorite child? The favorite employee? In the world, being the "favorite" might mean getting away with things others can't. But in the Kingdom of God, there are no favorites — only favor. And favor comes with a requirement: submission. Jera walks through Jeremiah 18, where God tells Israel He'll remold them like a potter with clay — IF they submit. But they refused....

When Jera was the drum majorette in her high school marching band, everyone thought SHE was calling the shots. But the truth? She was always looking to the band director for the signal. In life, it can look like we're making decisions on our own — but if we're following the Lord, He's the one directing our steps. From marching in place to turning corners, Jera shares how God orders our...

In the mid-90s, Jera's family hosted a foreign exchange student whose parents had lived under communist control for over 40 years. They called themselves atheists. When they visited America, the student insisted on taking them to church — where the pastor preached on freedom in Christ. But what happened next was unexplainable: a woman spoke a message in tongues, and the father understood every...

Ever feel like you're not qualified? Not good enough to step into what God has for you? Like that kid on the bench saying, "I don't want to play — I'm not as good as the others." But here's the truth: God has plays designed specifically for YOU. Things only you can do for the Kingdom. And get this — even atheists are starting to say Christianity may be the only thing that...

You know that saying — "No good deed goes unpunished"? Jera has a different take. Right before the COVID shutdown, she met a stranger named Angel in the grocery store — a woman living alone, paycheck to paycheck, scared about what was coming. Jera wanted to buy her rice and beans, but the Holy Spirit said no. Turns out, Angel didn't have a pan to cook them in. What happened next — fr...

You've seen it everywhere: "I don't own the rights to this music." But here's a deeper truth — as Christians, we don't own the rights to our past OR our future. Your past? Covered by the blood of Jesus. Your future? In God's hands. If you knew 10 years ago what you'd have to walk through, you might have said, "I can't make it." But you did. Jera remi...

There's a difference between being nosy and being inquisitive. Nosy people take what you share and spread it around. But being over-informed? That's wisdom. Jera challenges us: You check the weather every morning before deciding what to wear — but are you checking the Word to see what season we're walking in? We're living in unprecedented times. Prophecies are being fulfilled like...

Jera has zero sense of direction — can't read a map, gets lost in airports, the whole deal. But she's discovered the beauty of GPS: push a button, get directions, arrive at your destination. Here's the thing — we have an internal GPS that's even better: the Holy Spirit. He's not just with us, He's IN us. We don't have to do tricks or get into a certain position to hear...

When Jera's grandchildren play hide and seek, one of them is really good at hiding. But Grandma always finds him. How? "God tells me where you are — because God knows where you are." It got her thinking: Can we play hide and seek with God? We can't hide FROM Him — but we do hide things. Things we've buried so deep we don't even know they're there. David prayed, "...

Jera keeps hearing people in her store saying, "This isn't even the law — why are we doing this?" And they're right — man's laws get twisted, abused, and changed. But there's one law that never changes: the law of God. The scripture kept coming to her: "Great peace have they who love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them." So before you take what that talk show...

Do you have dreams that feel different — like there's a message in them you can't quite understand? Jera has been journaling her dreams for over 10 years, and what she's discovered is powerful. When she went back and read dreams from two years earlier, suddenly she could see how they had come to pass. Here's the pattern she noticed in Scripture: Abraham received dreams, Isaac recei...

Jera was putting together a toy for her grandkid and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't click together. Turns out — it was upside down and backwards. Once she looked at the directions, click, done. Here's the thing: backwards won't work in life either. When worry is rising, anxiety is rising, stress is rising — something might be backwards. We tell ourselves, "When I get this...

You can go to church, hear great sermons, worship with everything in you — but when you get in the car, there it is. That private war that won't stop. The one so personal you can't even put it into words. The enemy whispers, "This is never going to end. You won't defeat this." But that's a lie. God's Word says He causes wars to cease. Jera shares the tools she uses wh...

Jera woke up singing an old Andre Crouch song — "Through It All." And it got her thinking about everything she's been through. The trials, the valleys, the storms. Here's the truth: you can study faith all day long, but until you've walked through something and seen God show up, you don't really KNOW what faith in God will do. The words of that song say it all: "If I...

Jera heard something that fired her up: girls raised in church were thinking about calling a psychic. Why? Because they're searching for something — and the enemy knows it. He's more than happy to show supernatural power to those who are seeking. But here's the problem: our kids haven't been taught how to hear GOD's voice. A third of the time in the Bible, God spoke through dre...

Jera loves a rainy day. While most people complain, she thinks about the flood — how it cleansed everything. Rain brings growth, life, everything turning green and beautiful. And every time it rains, she starts singing an old song: "It's beginning to rain, hear the voice of the Father saying whosoever will, come drink of the water. I'll pour my spirit out on my sons and my daughters....

Nobody likes to overpay. We're always checking the cost, negotiating the price. But Jera isn't talking about money today — she's talking about the cost of compromise. Why do we compromise? We say, "I don't want to offend anyone." But the real root is fear. We don't want to pay the price of persecution. Because when you're uncompromising, persecution comes. Think a...

"God, why aren't you saying anything? Why can't I hear from you?" Jera's been there — asking for direction and hearing nothing. But here's what she's learned: when God is silent, it's usually not that He hasn't spoken. It's that He's already spoken — and we didn't obey. Think about it like parenting: when your kids are little, you make them listen....