Welcome to the Soul Work podcast, with myself Ify Alexis Lee. I’m so excited to share with you my thoughts as well as conversations with guests who I love and respect. Over here, we lean into what matters most, your soul’s wellbeing! Your inner-life! Lean in and enjoy ☀️
In this episode of the Soul Work Podcast, Ify reflects on her journey of podcasting and ministry over the past decade. They share how life events, such as getting married and becoming a parent, have shaped her perspective and deepened her walk with God. Ify also discusses her training as a psychotherapist and the enriching experience of serving others. They reminisce about her ministry called Love Limitless, which focused on encouraging young women in her faith and purity. Join them as they share her passion for ministry and the transformative power of God's love.
Transcript:
Ify: Is this thing on? Hey everyone, welcome to the soul work podcast. This is a podcast that had been on my mind for some time now, a bit on my heart, something that I wanted to bring to you guys. If you haven't known me over the past A decade plus of ministry, then you know that podcasting is something that I used to do, but I've taken a huge break and really life has been so different. I started podcasting, I think in 2015. So when things were quite fresh, you won't be able to find the majority of my stuff online at the moment, but I, life happened. Life has really happened. I got married in 2018 and I had my daughter in 2020 and then another daughter in 2022 and yeah it's been a journey of walking with God more deeply and more intimately. I have also in the past few years undergone studying, training to become a psychotherapist and that's something I've been working now in for coming up to four years. and it's been such an enriching time of serving people. I've been in ministry since the age of, I'm gonna say 1920, serving in that kind of way. Earlier than that, if you include some of the things that I was already doing at church, really, but I was leading a ministry called Love Limitless, and Love Limitless from 2012, I would say, was really the vessel that God used to shape and change me. We were holding conferences across the UK, encouraging young women in their walks with God in holiness and purity. Love Limitless, my absolute baby, my firstborn. We would have university tours across the UK. And that was probably my favorite thing about the ministry alongside our flagship conference, Brains and Beauty, that would happen in the fall or in September every year. And we did that for 10 years. Coming into the new year of 2022, I mean, God had already been speaking to me a lot about that season coming to an end, and it was something that I really struggled with the reality of, to be very frank with you. So much of who I felt like I was in my essence was linked to this ministry expression. And yeah, I just felt like the real tugging from the Holy Spirit to just say, hey, it's a time for dormancy. It's a time for this gift to come into dormancy. Like it's okay, like I'm still with you. I still desire to use you but just not in this way anymore and so yeah that was something quite rough and quite tough but ministry over the past over a decade has had its ups and downs and ministry for me right now really looks like the people that I currently serve and help who are my clients. It also looks like preaching and speaking because I still do itinerant speaking, I still show up online in various ways but ministry also looks like how I serve my home. My daughters at the moment are three and one, and it's really that age that has demanded so much of me emotionally, mentally, physically, just really making sure I'm pouring into them to the best of my ability, and my husband, nurturing him as well, and trying to be a good wife, essentially, which isn't always easy. I wanted to do this podcast around the soul work because over the past couple of years I feel as though that is the area that God has been pressing on me the most. It's one thing to have the accolades, it's one thing to have the gifts and the talents It's another thing to have the character that supplements it, that comes alongside of it. It's another thing to have the integrity, the authenticity, the obedience, right, to the call of God that comes alongside of it. And this isn't to pit charisma against character. I think it's great to have the gifts that God has called us to have. but it's really to highlight that actually the thing that comes first is really the internal character. When I read the book of Daniel for example and we see the three Hebrew boys refusing to bow, right, refusing to bow towards this statue of the king at the time, King Nebuchadnezzar, There was something about their internal disposition that meant when the time came to physically not bow, they were able to do it. And I think God is so concerned about our inward sanctification, our inward processing, our inward transformation. And I think in our culture and our society, we are really in that place. And it makes sense, right? Man sees the outward, but God looks at the heart. And I think in our quest to rise or to elevate. The soul work is often the most overlooked work, right? Because it's not what people see. It's not the ways in which you were already consecrating yourself and setting yourself apart before the opportunity came that people see. People didn't notice that the three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they didn't know their inward disposition until there came a chance for them to express it outwardly and not bowing down. And so sometimes the emphasis that we place, even in our growth, in our levelling up, in our elevation, whatever you want to call it, sometimes we place so much emphasis on getting the job, getting that speaking engagement, getting the cute family pictures, whatever it is externally, but that internal work of healing, grieving, feeling your emotions, processing it, that inner work of identifying your mother wounds or your father wounds, the inner work of trusting God through the various trials of life sometimes is really put on the back burner. And so this podcast for me is bringing together some of the things that I've learned from doing the soul work. bringing together people that I know are doing the soul work because it's a continuous work. Essentially soul work is the work of sanctification and sanctification is the process by which God makes us more and more like him and that includes healing, that includes wholeness, that includes alignment, refining and all of that good stuff. And so I want this to be a space where I'm bringing together people who image God, people who look like him, people who are endeavouring to look like him throughout their various spheres of life. So whether we're talking about walking with God through chronic illness or building ministry but without the burnout, whatever the case is, I want to pull together people that are willing to talk about the authentic process of God. So I'm super excited. I love this season of life that I'm in. I've had moments where I've questioned God in terms of what does ministry look like for me? I mentioned to you guys that with Love Limitless, coming to a stage where that was no more in that entity, I had to really figure out that, Ify, you are so much more than who is booking you. You are so much more than the speaking engagement or the event. I already like I declined like 90% of the events I can speak at because of how busy and how rich my life is at the moment with children. But it's easy sometimes to fall into the trap of this is who you are. And so through this, I want you to see that whether or not you are working, whether or not you are in some form of like public ministry, whether or not you have the things, you can still do the soul work. You can do the inner work that places you or prepares you to be placed in a position of influence and in a position of impact. And for those of us that are in those positions of influence and impact, which I kind of believe most of us are already in, the soul work is designed to help you stay there, to help your inner processing catch up to the external elevation that you're experiencing. And so I'm super excited. I wanted to do this as some sort of a get to know me. For those of you that are super new and you've never seen my face before, I'm Ify Alexis. I am a therapist, I am a mentor, I am a sister, I'm a wife, I'm a mummy to two precious daughters. I am a lover of Jesus at my core and the word that God is consistently pushing me towards is integrity, allowing my words to match my actions, to match my convictions, my beliefs. to match my thoughts. You know, integrity comes from the root word integer. In maths, we know that an integer is a whole number. So, integrity is really about wholeness. It's about our ability to allow for congruence in every aspect of our lives. And so, I'm excited. I feel as though this is just another avenue that God has given me to bless all of you guys so stay tuned okay this feels like starting over but it's it's never really starting afresh really it's starting from experience and i'm excited to bring to you all that which the lord has laid on my heart over these decade plus of walking with him and yeah welcome to the soul work welcome welcome to the soul work if you are watching on youtube because yes by god's grace there'll be a visual element Do subscribe to my channel, do give this video a like. If you are listening on various streaming platforms then go ahead, do me a favour, give us a rating, drop a comment, share it with a friend. Sending you so much love on your journey as we do the soul work together.