You’ve heard of the 12TH man, but have you heard of the 4th man? There’s a story in the Bible about 3 faithful men, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, who were thrown into a fire for refusing to worship a golden statue. Witnesses were shocked to see all 3 men walking in the fire unharmed … with a 4th Man. It was Jesus. And He is walking with you in the fires of life today too.
My amazing friend Tisha Lehfeldt is experiencing this miracle in her life right now. You’ll hear her mention the story from Daniel chapter three at the beginning of our chat. Tisha’s made it to the top of physical mountains for years and still does, although she needs to take breaks for now. Here at the end of 2023, she is also bravely climbing a spiritual mountain with Jesus by her side. Her faith will breathe life into your own. I can promise you that after you spend a little time with Tisha the Brave, you’ll feel more courageous about the spiritual mountain in front of you. And, OH, you’re gonna wanna hang out with Jesus more! Join Tisha and I for a heaven-invading conversation that will fill you to overflow with hope in the Lord.
You are Loved,
Erica
Catch hope & encouragement with Erica on weekday mornings from 5:00 AM – 10:00 AM, and Sundays from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Erica:
Spirit 105.3. This is Erica.
Tisha:
Hey, Erica. It’s Tisha from Hawaii.
Erica:
It’s such a delight to meet you on the phone. How are you feeling, Tisha?
Tisha:
Oh my goodness. I’m feeling amazing. God is faithful in every way. I’ve been getting so many people saying it’s the Shadrach, Meshach, the Abednigo moment where you’re thrown into the fire and the fourth man shows up. ,
Erica:
Yes. And you’re trusting him so beautifully. I mean, I have always loved being your friend on Facebook because the love of Jesus shines out of your face and through your life. And you’re a mountain climber, I loved your pictures, but recently you’ve had to climb a different kind of mountain. What has been going on, my friend?
Tisha:
Yeah. I’m a mountain climber. I love Hawaii because they have beautiful mountains, but I had no idea it would go from a physical, to a spiritual mountain. July 16th, I had some symptoms and I’m not an ER person. I don’t go to the doctor. But I had my family and friends were saying, you’ve got to go to er. I went there and I left five hours later diagnosed with lung cancer, or cancer in my lungs. And a couple of weeks later, after a lot of tests and meeting with lots of doctors, finally walked into the oncologist and they said, I had uterine cancer that spread to the lungs. It’s aggressive, rare, and it’s spreading. And my earth shattered. It was earth shattering in every way because I had intentions to live to 95 plus, and I was trying everything to get there. God, I am going to make you famous on this land that you put my feet on. And now I’m looking at death and the moments of my life, not making it to 95 years old. But I got to tell you, Erica, as much of it was earth shattering in the very moment that that happened, it was heaven invading. It was like a thousand percent earth shattering, a thousand percent heaven invading. It was this thousand percent pain, a thousand percent joy in one space. And I got to tell you, I’m 56 years old and I have never experienced that in the degree. It’s either a joy, joy, joy or it’s pain, pain, pain. Having the two collide and why I say heaven invading because God just came in and began to ambush me with the people around me. He began to love me through them, provide through them. The conviction of love just went through the roof and the power of community that I’ve always been faithful to invest in the people around me. And then all of a sudden it was like, be faithful, faithful, faithful, faithful, faithful. One day you wake up and it’s fruitful.
Erica:
Wow. Oh, I have the good chills. Okay. I want to ask you, because we are promised by the Lord that he will give us peace, his peace. So, what does that feel like to you? Obviously he has met you in these terrifying moments where your world is turned upside down. What did it feel like?
Tisha:
What’s interesting, it’s as if you don’t know the peace until you’re in the pain, and you’re in the problem, you’re in the perplexity. You really don’t know the spiritual peace that will meet you in that time. You can in your head know there’s peace. But once I entered into that moment of perplexity and fear, there was this spiritual peace that came and then I love there in Philippians and it says there that he’ll give us this peace that surpasses all understanding.
And so you don’t really know that peace until you’re in that place of pain. So it’s crazy. It’s just, I remember back in the day, I would tell my mom, what am I going to do when Jesus wants you full time? How am I going to do this? And she said to me, Tisha, when that happens, you will get the grace to carry you. That’s the only way I can say that’s same way when this happened. There was this degree of peace that I didn’t have prior, that I just knew he was my author and I knew that He brought me in October 3rd, 1967, and he knew when he was going to take me out. Jesus lived to 33. His friends and even himself wanted to live longer on this planet. And I’m sitting here going, oh my gosh, God, you have given me these days and I will live them out as far as you want me, and I’m going to plead for more time on this planet, yet you are my Lord. You are my Lord. You are the author and I’m submitted to you. I got to be honest, I mean, it was almost everything that I’ve meditated on in the past came to surpass. I’m like, oh, do you really trust him as Lord? Do you really trust him as your author? So, you only know that peace. I think when you get into that place, or at least for me, that peace came and kissed me in a way I had never really been kissed before.
Erica:
Oh, that’s so beautiful. Tisha. How are you living differently in this season, not knowing what’s going to happen ahead?
Tisha:
One of my good friends, she has, I love dogs. Do you love dogs? Tell me you do.
Erica:
Yes, I do. Oh, honey, yes.
Tisha:
So, her dog, her dog was supposed to pass away and it ended up living one extra year. So, that whole year, 365 days, she told her dog and the dog’s name was Oney, she told Oney… She goes, Oney every single day. She goes, you got another day. You got another day. Yeah. She sent me a video and she goes, Tisha, you’ve got another day. You’ve got another day. And all I’m doing, Erica, I mean we all know it. Carpe diem lived the life to the fullest. This may be your last day. We know it in our head. But now that I have this aggressive, rare spreading cancer, I literally am saying out loud, Tisha, you’ve got another day. And it’s just regarding and honoring the life, the gift being a good steward of my seconds, my minutes, my hours, being thankful. It’s just a supersized, I guess it supersized my gratefulness and my awe of life. And I’m always like that. I’m always like that full time, but it just went up a little extra degree. I got to tell you.
Erica:
I’m so inspired by you. After you were diagnosed, they were removing this stuff from your lungs and you were still climbing physical mountains. Why did you decide to live like that?
Tisha:
And I still am. I have a thousand milliliters every three days that needs to be drained from my lung, my left lung, because of the cancer. It’s crazy how God has made our bodies. I never knew prior to that that the lung has a lining that can get filled with this fluid. But once I drain it, I can breathe normal. And I’m very visual and I love to challenge my body, but in a good way. Some people are like, you better just walk flat on a flat land. I’m like, I can’t walk on a flat line. And I guess it’s just what I can experience because I got another day to go out and just do it, and take my time. There was one time, Erica, that I was walking up, it was a high mountain in Hawaii called Naches, and I had shortness of breath, which I always do, but it was just a little bit longer and I just started crying because my body was in a different place than I used to. And I just realized, oh my gosh, my body really is being challenged, and it just was in this place where I want to honor and regard the moment that I have, but yet, take the breaks that I need and breathe. And a year ago I went on a sugar fast. There’s a 40 day sugar fast by Wendy speak, and I did three of them back to back. I’m not saying that because I’m so cool. It’s just because I wanted other people to experience it. So, I went and did a social media one, and then I did when with Wendy Speaks. But when I got done, I just said, you know what? I think I’m at the stronghold of sugar is not on m like it had been. I ended up losing 22 pounds and then at the end of 22, so the beginning of 23, fast forward about five months, that’s when I was diagnosed with cancer. And I really feel like God put me on a God, almost a God therapy got me off sugar. I lost that 22 pounds and I was in a place… because sugar feeds cancer, and then my body being in a place where it can fight in the way it needs to fight. In this time in this season, I am calling in my healing adventure.
Erica:
Yes, I love that so much. I think that’s beautiful and I feel like you’re in this space that we all are in Tisha. We’re all in that space between earth and heaven. This is not our home. And looking at the world as broken as it is right now, especially, I’m really glad it’s not our home, but when you think about heaven and when you think about what’s ahead, what comes to your mind and heart?
Tisha:
Oh my gosh. Every single day I get up in the morning, I used to call it my devotion time. I have my devotions. And it just felt, I mean, excuse me, if everybody else says that, I apologize, but I just wanted it to be more personable and I wanted it to be more relationships. I started calling my hang time with Jesus. And it’s Enoch walking with God. And it’s Adam and Eve walking the garden with God. And it’s this place where even in the Old Testament where God came because he wanted to dwell with us, he wanted to hang with us. It’s about relationship. So I feel like heaven, full time access, relationship, walking, running, playing, wrestling with the Father who created us for his pleasure and for his purpose. And his purpose is for us to be sons and daughters. His purpose is do life with him. Out of that, our calling is created. So often we’re chasing after our calling and God’s going, Hey, your calling is to be mine. Out of that though, I will bring the fruit that needs to be fruit in the land where I’ve called you to exist. Whatever state or internationally you are, God comes in and goes, I want to introduce myself to the people around you. So there you have it. It’s my hang time. Full time Heaven hang time with Jesus full time.
Erica:
It is so evident that you hang out with the Lord. Tisha, I want to ask you before I let you go, I so appreciate your time today, about your family and your friends. Is their faith increasing as they watch you go through this, knowing you are so not alone. As you referenced Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo at the beginning of our conversation, like Jesus is walking through this fire with you. Are they seeing that?
Tisha:
Oh yeah, girlfriend. Oh my goodness. I get DM’s on my Instagram and Facebook all the time saying, oh my gosh, I’m talking more to Jesus because of you. I’m thanking Jesus. I’m praising Jesus more because of you. And I’m like, I feel stunned and I feel humbled that I get to partner with him. And I got to tell you, Erica, one of my favorite verses, it’s kind of a life. There’s 66 books in the Bible, thousands of verses, and we can plant our lives on so many. But this one I was planted years ago, Philippians 1:26, and it says, so that through my being with you again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow and account of me.
And that is my, it’s like as I hang out with you, Erica, my goal and my desire, my passion is that your love and your joy with Jesus will overflow. You’ll just like, I want to go hang out with Jesus. And then I’m seeing this happen as I’m face to face with the fact that there’s a lot of people who live with cancer and they are in remission, or they have the story testimony, and there’s a lot of people, girlfriends that go and meet Jesus in their healings on the other side of eternity. I don’t know. All I know is I have an author that brought me in and he knows I trust him. I know he knows it’s time for me to go full-time with him. So, it’s just in that place right there. It’s just like I have these people, my friends and my family, that for some reason they’re being challenged and I guess to hang out with Jesus more. And they’re thanking me for that.
Erica:
Wow. I call you Tisha, The Brave, whenever I see your picture, and I have you in my Google calendar today as Tisha, The Brave. You are so wonderful. May I say a little prayer over you before we hang up because goal met. I want to hang out with Jesus more now.
Tisha:
Oh my gosh, Erica, I love thee. I love you so much. I appreciate your passion, and thank you for your words.
Erica:
Oh, I love you too. Let me say a quick prayer here.
Father, we just come to you, my dear sister in Christ right now, in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus. And Lord, we know there is a balm in Gilead. And Lord, I pray for your healing balm to just soothe and comfort and heal my precious sister in Christ. Lord, we ask for healing. We ask for long days upon this earth for sweet, Tisha the Brave. And Lord, I also pray right now that you would fill her to overflowing with your Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, you shine through her on the daily. I can’t even imagine. I see it on social media, what she is like in person. So Lord, keep meeting her, keep meeting her needs and keep spilling your joy out of her and onto everybody around her. Keep that peace and joy flowing in Jesus’ name, amen.
Tisha:
Woo-hoo. Amen.
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