Are you driven, responsible, high-achieving… and secretly exhausted?

This episode exposes the performance trap — the lie that your worth comes from what you produce. I share my own life crash, the hidden heart wounds behind overworking, and how even our faith can turn into striving instead of resting in God’s love.

If you feel like you’re always doing but never enough, this conversation will help you break free from burnout, release the pressure to prove yourself, and step into the rest Jesus already paid for.

You are not a machine. You are already loved. And you don’t have to perform for it.

You were called to share God’s grace with the world, not to be buried under frustrating admin or confusing tech problems.

That’s why we created The Gospel Collective. The Gospel Collective provides expert creative, operational, and digital support — allowing you to stay focused on your mission, not maintenance.

Our digital missionaries bring professional strategy, systems, and execution without the overhead of hiring a full internal team.

Every project directly funds global digital evangelism and discipleship efforts working to reach every nation with the gospel by 2030.

Multiply your impact. Visit getthegospel.org today!

Mentioned in this episode:

The Gospel Collective

You were called to share God’s grace with the world, not to be buried under frustrating admin or confusing tech problems. That’s why we created The Gospel Collective. The Gospel Collective provides expert creative, operational, and digital support — allowing you to stay focused on your mission, not maintenance. Our digital missionaries bring professional strategy, systems, and execution without the overhead of hiring a full internal team. Every project directly funds global digital evangelism and discipleship efforts working to reach every nation with the gospel by 2030. Multiply your impact. Visit getthegospel.org today for a free consultation!

TGC

In this powerful and deeply personal episode of Abide, host Penny Joy explores one of the most sought-after spiritual longings of this season: breakthrough.

After months of conversations with friends, leaders, and listeners who all sense something “off” in the atmosphere, Penny brings a timely word about the spiritual shift that is taking place—and what often stands between us and the breakthrough we’re praying for.

Drawing from her own stories of illness, obedience, pride, healing, relationship restoration, and seasons of waiting, Penny unpacks the hidden work God does beneath the surface. She reminds us that breakthrough is rarely instant. It is a journey—one shaped by alignment, surrender, courage, and trust.

If you’ve felt stuck, delayed, exhausted, or on the edge of giving up, this episode will feel like a breath of prophetic clarity.

1. Breakthrough Often Waits on Alignment

Sometimes the barrier isn’t external at all—it’s being out of step with what God has been asking you to do. Penny shares her own season of chronic illness and how healing came quickly after she finally obeyed God’s instruction to leave a draining job.

Obedience sets the stage for breakthrough.

2. “The Way To Your Breakthrough Is To Go Through”

Just like a seed hidden in the soil, much of God’s work happens in the unseen places. Delays are not denials. God uses discomfort, waiting, and pressure to prepare you for what’s ahead.

Formation precedes elevation.

3. Sometimes God Says “Not Yet”

Your breakthrough may involve someone else’s readiness, healing, or transformation. God may be aligning people and circumstances that you cannot yet see.

4. Waiting on God… While God Is Waiting on You

Some breakthroughs require movement—updating the résumé, sending the text, taking the course, or stepping out in courage.

Faith without action often prolongs the stagnation.

5. Let God Break Through Your Expectations

We often expect God to move in a specific way and overlook the new thing He is actually doing. Penny encourages listeners to stay sensitive to God’s voice instead of clinging to familiar patterns.

6. Seek the Giver, Not Just the Gift

Fixation on the outcome can eclipse intimacy with God. When we “seek first the Kingdom,” breakthrough becomes the overflow—not the idol.

7. Pride, Control, and Self-Sufficiency Can Block Breakthrough

Sometimes God must break us open before He breaks the situation open. Internal breakthrough precedes external breakthrough.

8. The Three Stages of Breakthrough

Penny outlines a biblical, repeatable pattern:

1. Wilderness — pruning, pressure, testing, stripping away what cannot go with us
2. Pause — the Red Sea moment, where God says “stand still” even when nothing seems to be happening
3. Promise — the quiet crossing-over into what God has prepared

9. Your Breakthrough Is Never Just for You

Every breakthrough is seed God intends to multiply. Your testimony, encouragement, and obedience can become the breakthrough someone else is praying for.

Scriptures Mentioned

• Isaiah 43:19 – “Behold, I am doing a new thing…”
• Isaiah 55:8 – “My thoughts are not your thoughts…”
• Matthew 6:33 – “Seek first the Kingdom…”
• Exodus 14:14 – “The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.”
• 2 Chronicles 20:17 – “Position yourselves, stand...

After a long pause due to illness and spiritual resistance, Penny Joy returns with a life-changing message about the unseen yet undeniable force of words. This episode isn’t just about vocabulary—it’s about how the words we speak shape our biology, our relationships, our faith, and our future. Drawing from Scripture, science, and her own raw life experience, Penny reveals how our words carry the power to build or destroy, to wound or to heal—and how we can reclaim them for good.

Episode Highlights:

• 03:15 The core theme: The purpose, pain, and power of words
• 04:00 Fun (and sobering) stats about how many words we speak daily
• 05:00 Personal confessions about the damage of careless speech
• 06:30 Words from childhood: Why they stick and how they shape identity
• 09:00 The Genesis origin of words: God spoke the world into being
• 10:15 Scientific insights on how sound = energy and how words affect our bodies
• 13:30 How affirmations and prayers influence gene expression and brain chemistry
• 18:00 Words as creative or destructive spiritual forces
• 21:00 Our salvation begins with a profession of faith—spoken words
• 26:15 When emotions take over: the risk of words in heated moments
• 30:00 The silent treatment: why withheld words can hurt just as much
• 37:00 Personal story of reconciliation that never happened—and its cost
• 40:30 Penny’s 12 transformative principles about the power of speech

Conclusion:

Your voice is not just a sound—it's a tool for creation, healing, and legacy. Whether you're navigating the aftermath of hurtful words or longing to speak life more freely, this episode invites you to become intentional with your speech. As Penny reminds us, God's word is still creating, and so are yours.

Resources Mentioned:

Proverbs 18:21

Luke 6:45

Hebrews 11:3

Matthew 12:36–37

2 Corinthians 4:13

Ephesians 4:29

Proverbs 15:1

Isaiah 50:4

John 15:7

Psalm 19:14

Call to Action:

Listen to Penny's meaningful thoughts on faith, spirituality, oneness in Christ, and much more at https://abideforlife.com.