#NoFilter: Unmasking the Woman God Created You to Be

This is the Truth Network. Have fun today on Kingdom Pursuits. We're going to go all over the world, actually. First, we're going to go to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We're going to go to Guyana. And, oh, it's going to be fun. So, first off, as I said, we've got Jodie Hendricks.

And she is the author of an amazing new book called No Filter, Unmasking the Woman. God created you to be. Welcome to Kingdom Pursuits, Jodie.

Thank you so much for having me. And I'm personally, I mean, you may not know this, but I graduated from El Dorado High School out there off of... Really? That's actually where I graduated.

Did you really? That's where I graduated from. Yes, that's so crazy. Only difference is I graduated in 1973. Oh, okay.

Well, I'm a few years behind you. Yeah, yeah. And I love Albuquerque. I absolutely do. My father was the AMC Jeep dealer.

He used to be on Lomas Boulevard. Yes. Wow. That's great. We're in the middle of the balloon fiesta right now, so it's definitely a beautiful time seeing the sky filled with all the hot air balloons, minus the traffic, of course, because everybody comes here for the balloon fiesta, but it is gorgeous.

It is gorgeous, and the air is cool, and the balloons are flying up against the Sandia Mountains. It's something to see. Everybody should see it. Yes. Everybody should experience that. So Jodie, I can't tell you how excited I am about your topic, because, you know, so much of what I have learned in probably the last 25 years is the idea if we could just be real, and if we can't be real with other people, we can't get real with God.

And how can we get real with God if we can't be real with other people? It's all those kind of things, and you wrote a whole book on the subject. Yes.

Yes, I did. There's a lot there. And so how did that—where did that prompting come from? Did you just wake up one day, or you felt God pushing on your— you know, it's hard to take on such a project. It is, and it's funny because, you know, I say funny because, you know, how the Lord works is often just not what we expected at all. So the book is actually something that I began working on as I was working on preparing for a women's conference that I was going to be speaking at, and their concept, their theme for the year was 20-20 vision, and it was coming into 20-20. Right, I remember. I don't know what happened in 20-20, and the Lord is like, yeah, you guys who all have this idea of this 20-20 vision moving forward, right?

Yeah, well, we're going to change that. So unfortunately, the conference that year was canceled, but I had kind of found my way into this study that I was just loving, and I was really continuing to dig deeper in, and little did I know that as I was studying this concept of really having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, kind of going back to that idea of 20-20 vision, I was in Ephesians, and I was working through Paul's prayer for the Ephesians when he prayed that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened, and it just led on this path of study that the Lord used to really reveal to me these filters that I had had in place for so long, and that it was time to be able to drop those filters, those things, those masks that I had put on through years of experiences, whether they were heartache or hurt relationship, hurt or church hurt, just so many different things. The loss that my husband and I experienced with two miscarriages, I mean, so many different things that had really caused me to put on these filters, because I realized I was always that girl, that Christian girl that everybody expected to have it all together. Everybody looked at me and the church that I had grown up in or where I went to school, college. No matter what, I felt like people looked at me a certain way, and no matter what life threw at me, I had to continue to be that person, and instead of being honest with myself and realizing it's okay to not be okay, it's okay to not have it all together, instead I tried to put on the masks and the filters that made myself even believe that I was okay and that I had it all together and I had all the right answers, and unfortunately it really distorted who God had made me to be. And so through this study that began as just a preparation for a women's conference, the Lord really began to reveal to me, Jodie, you've got some things that you've got to be able to let go of and drop and be able to step into the freedom of just being who he created me to be rather than being who everyone else expected me to be.

Yeah, it's a beautiful thing that 2 Corinthians 1 says, right, he comforts us with the comfort that we might comfort others with the comfort we are comforted with, and so I'm guessing that your book is pretty much the journey that he gave you with that, but also today, I would be remiss if I didn't, and I know this is going to be a bit difficult because we have a man by the name of Rush the high priest, and he lives in Ghana, and he's an artist, an African hip-hop artist, amazing music. You're going to hear it in all the bumps today, but unfortunately because he's in Ghana and the wire connection ain't so great, we've got a lot of background noise, but we want to give it a minute and see what we can do. Rush, can you hear me? Rush, can you hear me? This is Robbie Dee.

You're on Kingdom Pursuits. How are you doing? He's trying to connect.

He's going to get it, so I'm going to put him back on hold, and you see if you can get him ready, Nick, and we'll... But anyway, it's really wonderful to see how God is, just like he put a message on Jody's heart for this season and this time. He certainly is, you know, a lot of folks aren't aware of Ghana, and I really wouldn't be as much except about maybe eight years ago. There are just like the, you know, here in America there's Apple iTunes and there's Spotify and things like that.

Well, there's podcast distribution places in Ghana along those same levels, and all of a sudden my podcast became phenomenally popular in Ghana. That's great. So I'm like, oh, look at that, and, you know, you just don't know what God has for a certain audience at a certain time, and I think when you hear Rush's music, and I'm definitely interested if we could get him on to be able to talk about... Rush, can you hear me now? I can hear you. I can hear you, Robbie.

So wonderful. I know my whole audience wants to know, why do you call yourself the high priest? So, quickly, when you go into the Bible somewhere in the Book of Hebrews, it mentions that Jesus Christ is the only high priest that ever existed. I mean, we are supposed to be created in his image, right?

That's right. But it's at the great kind of state that he's the only high priest. So I'm like, okay, if my name is Rush, right? I used to be called Young Rush, but if my name is Rush and I want to let people know about the God that I'm singing about or the God that I'm rapping about, how can I creatively put this together so that I can have, you know, people understanding the whole concept? Yeah, we are a kingdom of priests, and, you know, again, in his image, we're trying to live up to that. And I love that. So, you know, wonderful.

So God has given you the gift of music in Ge'ana, and tell us a little bit about, you know, how you feel God wants to take this out to new platforms in the United States, et cetera. Do I lose you, Rush? All right, he's gone again. We're going to put him back on hold, and hopefully he will come back.

It's one of those things. So again, getting back to what God did through Unmask, or your book, No Filter, Unmasking the Woman, God created you to be. And apparently you were doing women conferences, oh, well, we've got to go to a break now, which that's timely enough. When we come back, we are going to hear At the Bump, which has some of Rush's music, which is absolutely outstanding. You're going to get a chance to hear that. You get to hear more from Rush, more from Jody, but we have to play shenanigans.

We just have to, and we've got unfiltered shenanigans coming up when we come back, and so get ready. It's all happening here. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. It is good, I will give you my life, It is a beautiful day, I am a big, big fool, It is a beautiful day I am a big faith fool. It is a beautiful day I am a big faith fool. It is a beautiful day I am a big faith fool. The Lord am a great fool for all that things that you do. I'm a great fool, the Lord. I'm also awful grateful for you listening today and for the guests that God's lined up for us.

We have with us Rush the High Priest, who you just heard has gone in music, which is amazing, and I'm so excited to debut that somewhat here on The Kingdom Pursuits. And again, I posted it at Kingdom Pursuits along with Jody's book, Unfiltered, where you could go on his YouTube channel there and see some of his music and listen to that, as well as, of course, you can order the book, Unfiltered, right there at Kingdom Pursuits, or you can obviously go to Amazon. The book is no filter, Unmasking the Woman God Created You to Be. But I would also—I always say this because it's so important to new authors that, you know, if you buy it on Amazon, they got a chance to rate it on Amazon and, oh, that feedback is like manna from heaven to somebody who's written a book. Like if you would just take the time, a few minutes, to tell them what you liked about the book, even what you didn't like about the book.

You know, again, it's feedback, and all of us can get better as we hear from true friends, you know, we'll tell you what's right and what's wrong with a good spirit, because we know that they love us and they want us to advance, and so, you know, that's all part of what we do. So, with the idea of no filter, I know you're not shocked that I do Ready to Play Shenanigans, and speaking of filter— Now the fun begins, but now it's time to play shenanigans. Oh, yes, it's time to play shenanigans, and I'm so excited about this opportunity we have today as we get my joke music going so I can feel like I'm rolling.

So again, feel free to jump in here, Jody, or Rush, or, of course, Nick knows. So why did the barista at Starbucks wear a surgical mask when she had a cold? You got any ideas, Nick? Why did the barista at Starbucks—this idea being, speaking of filtered—why did the barista at Starbucks wear a surgical mask when she had a cold? It had sort of a Starbucks logo right across the front of it, you know, because it was a coffee mask. C-O-U-G, coffee, you know.

They should go, all right, I knew you, all right. So next up, my wife, she said she's leaving me because I keep making coffee without the filter. You know what the judge said? I don't know. That's not grounds for divorce.

Yeah, there you go. And my personal favorite of the list of lame jokes here is when is a good time of year, what time is a good time of year to give up cleaning the dryer filter? You know how they get clogged and they can cause fires, which, by the way, you need to clean your dryer filter quite often. But what time of year is a good time of year to not do that? What do you think? You got that one, Jody? You're a woman. You understand these things. I have no idea. Well, you give it up for lint. That's something you can do. I don't know if they have those in Guyana Rush, but if they do, I'm sure that giving it up for lint would work. So with all those shenanigans, you knew I actually would have a question that you could call in and win today.

And I'm excited to find out what we have that people can win, as I know that my trusty producer Nick will have the answer to that. So what was the first water, water, why did I say Walter? What was the first water filtering device in the Bible? What was the first water filtering device in the Bible?

It was actually sort of waterlogged. If you have the answer to that, you could call in at 866-348-7884. What was the first water filtering device in the Bible and not saying this is a hint, but it was sort of waterlogged idea, 866-348-7884. And if you can call in with that, Nick, tell them what they'll win.

Absolutely. Yes, you'll be winning a prize from our Kingdom Pursuits prize vault. If you know the answer to Robbie's riddle, give us a call at 866-348-7884. That's 866-34-TRUTH. And we would add that in the Kingdom Pursuits prize vault, we have all kinds of amazing books like No Filter Unmasking, The Woman God Created You To Be, and many other guests that we've had on Kingdom Pursuits recently. All there in the Kingdom Pursuits prize vault, all you gotta do is tell us what was the first water filtering device in the Bible.

Kind of a waterlogged idea, 866-348-7884. So it sounds like we got Rush. Rush, can you hear me? Rush, can you hear me?

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. So, how are you going about kind of releasing your music into America? So, by the grace of God, we have technology, we have the internet, so we have social media platforms that enables us to be able to connect with the other world. So I'm somebody that is not set up for less.

I don't look at my jurisdiction and say, oh, I want to concentrate on doing it. Because the Bible says, go you forth into the world and make disciples, right? So I will try to spread across my wings and let it, you know, get my music out there for everybody to listen to it here. Yeah, and wonderful. And that's all the more reason that, again, if you go to their YouTube channel, which again, you can get at KingdomPursuits.com, you can see that song we just played during the break.

And the name of that song was Rush. It's a brand new one. You've just been out for a few weeks. Do you know the name of it? Nick knows the name of it.

You can tell us, Nick. How Grateful? How Grateful I am. That seems perfectly appropriate. How Grateful. Yeah, there you go.

And you can listen to that, and again, just like with the authors, if you click on that and you like and you subscribe to their page, and of course comment about what you like and what you didn't like. And so, similar question for you, Rush. What was the inspiration behind being so grateful? So, you know, I was at a place in my life where, you know, I had to just sit back and stop complaining and realize all the things that God is doing about me. You know, the opportunity, you know, I had an opportunity to perform in the U.S.

I think I'm supposed to be in the U.S. in November, but you know how it goes, like trying to get your people done with their basic legs. But you know, I still thank God for the fact that someone like me, from where I'm from, I can have the opportunity to be able to come to the U.S. to perform a new audience, and you know, most of the things that God is providing for me, for my music, for my family, you know. I was so grateful, and I was like, you know what, let me just give thanks to God on this one. You know, let me just give thanks to God.

So it's like a praise, I said, yeah. That is so awesome. That is so awesome. And so getting back to you, Jody, for a second, and I just have to say that I don't know if you knew this, but when I started at El Dorado High School in 1971, it was an experimental campus. Really?

I did not know that. And it was an open campus, and the reason why I have all those separate buildings is it was supposed to be like college. So you might only have two classes a day, and you would sit in the library and do homework or whatever, but you could leave the campus. And so, you know, you might have a class twice a week. You might have this class once a week, very similar to the way that the college campuses were set up, and the idea was to get the students used to that kind of thing before they actually faced it. What they found out was high school kids are not ready for that. Yeah, I believe that.

Nobody came to class. So if you ever wondered why the humanities building was way over there and why the art building and the math building were in different places and whatever, that was because that was the original idea behind El Dorado High School. That is interesting.

I did not know that. By the time I went there, it was not an open campus. No. I'm coming and going as you please. But interestingly, you know, God gives us this open campus where we can, you know, come and go as we please to some extent. And in doing so, he really allows us to build those masks almost so that he can show us the beauty of tearing them down, right? Oh, yes. Yes. I think that he kind of gives us that freedom to kind of see, how am I going to deal with this, you know, this situation or this trial or even a mountaintop?

What am I going to do with it? And then usually when we've taken it on our own and tried to do something with it, we find that, you know, it probably wasn't the greatest way to do it. And the Lord in his grace and mercy kind of allows us that time to come back and realize there's a better way to do this. Yeah.

And I think I love what you said in the beginning. There's all kinds of masks we wear that we're probably pretty familiar with that. We're not telling the whole truth here.

We're not. But he snuck up on you. I have a feeling with one you didn't know you had. Oh, yes. Yes. Several. Several in fact.

Can you tell us about one of those and how he kind of allowed you to see that? Well, honestly, I never really realized that I was such a people pleaser. And I kind of began to discover that so many of the things that I was doing in life, the things that I was striving for, goals that I had made, was really just to get the approval of other people. And when I say it out loud, it's like, oh, that's sad, right? That sounds sad. But yet it's the truth for so many of us.

We become more concerned with what the people around us are thinking and how we can live up to the expectation of what they want us to be or what they expect us to be. And so we become— Jody, I hate it. We've got to go to a break. That music in the background means that it's about two seconds before we go. So stay tuned.

We've got a whole lot more on unmasking and at the same time being grateful. Stay tuned. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. That is Rush the high priest with his song, I'm Grateful, and I'm grateful for a chance to share that with you all. He is from Guyana and debuting in the United States, kind of a neat idea that we can be part of what God is doing and, again, encouraging those folks in that country, which I'm hoping we can get Rush back here in a minute and we can hear more about that country. But oh, well, Rush, there you are. So tell us, Rush, can you—tell us a little bit about Guyana. Okay.

So it's actually a dollar, a dollar, G-H-A-N-A. Okay, that's good. The first thing to know is I don't know how to pronounce it. Okay. Yeah, that's okay. That's okay.

That's okay. Yeah, so Guyana is in the West African part of Africa and it's a beautiful place, honestly. It's a place that is rich of culture, African Ghanaian culture, and I mean it's amazing how we have a lot of people coming like in December around this time, you know, flying all the way from America to Ghana, from the U.K., from Germany, you know, Ghana is like a place for rescue. Ghana is a place to explore rich culture. Ghana is a place to, you know, learn a lot about the black community, you know. So we love the diaspora. We love the people in the other countries, the U.S. and stuff.

So I mean, Ghana is an amazing place. Robbie, I think you should one day try and come and see for yourself. I would love to. I would absolutely love to. So it's there in West Africa and again, the culture looks very rich based on your videos and you know, I'm with you.

I would love to come there, absolutely. And so how could people pray for Rush, I'm curious. How people could pray for your ministry? So we are doing a great work down there. We are trying to empower people, especially, I mean, like I said, the Bible says, go into the world to make disciples. We are targeting a lot of youth, you know, a lot of youth, because I feel like we are the next generation.

We are about to take over, but how can we get a lot of them to, you know, focus on the gospel and how to preach it to their generation as well? So I mean, in any form of way, I mean, prayer is also a form of support, right? So people can pray for me that we can cut across nations and then, you know, spread the gospel as expected and even more because that's a higher mandate for Christians I believe.

And we have a very high, you know, demand upon us to be able to do this one. So I mean, I would use this opportunity that everybody should pray for us. Maybe on this, any cherished listener on this radio right now to pray for us, that we can be able to cut across and get a lot of work done. And also any other way you can also support, we'll be open for that too as well. And then we can hopefully, we can be live with Robbie.

Oh, well, it would be wonderful in the studio, right? Well, let's pray right now. Lord, thank you. Thank you so much for Rush, and I thank you so much for Jody. And we do pray that you would continue to feed their souls what they need in order to take them where you would have them go, that you would provide the platforms, that you would provide the funding, that you would provide as you always do for what you want to get out. And Lord, again, we thank you, but most of all, we pray that you would provide the relationship with both of them, that they would drink deeply of the water of your word, that they would drink deeply in your spirit, and that they would sense your presence in fresh new ways as they move into ministry, that they don't lose what's most important, and that's their first love.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. So when we left Jody, she was going from that point of discovering that she was a people pleaser, which, oh, I think to some extent, unfortunately, we all find ourselves there and, you know, some of the agreements that we make along those lines, I remember because I was such a people pleaser, especially for my father. And I always felt like I was a disappointment. And so I'd made an agreement, right, that I was a disappointment. And one time that was made aware to me that I had that same type of thing, man, and I had to break that agreement that, Lord, I'm not a disappointment, that you're not one bit disappointed with what you made here. And interestingly, you know, that opened up all sorts of opportunities, but, you know, you sure spoke to my heart. And so for you, did you find something inside that that helped you unlock it?

Yes. So, you know, in this kind of place of realizing I was a people pleaser, that's when I began to see so many of the other filters. You know, I put on the filter of being unworthy, and really trying to look worthy for whatever that looked like, whoever I was around, I had to pretend I was trying to be perfect, I was trying to be flawless, I was trying to have all the right answers. And that just put, you know, filter after filter in place to where it got to the point where I didn't know who I was, until I walked in a room to see who was there.

Then based on who was there, I would know who I was, I would know my place. And the Lord really began to show me, you know, that I am his creation, I am his masterpiece. And he doesn't want me to put all of these filters on.

And when I would put these filters on, it just distorted his original creation. And unfortunately, that harmed more relationships, and that was just devastating to see this person I thought I was supposed to be, just so that I could get that answer that you are enough, was really just driving me further and further and further from God's truth that just simply because he created me, I am enough. And he determined that I was enough when he sent his son to the cross for me. And coming into that realization, saying, you know what, I don't have to have all of these labels, all of these perfections, or things that I was trying to achieve, I don't have to have all of these filters in place, because all they are, are lies that would distort the original creation.

And being willing to come to a place and say, Lord, I want those filters gone. I want to be able to get rid of them all and come back to the truth of who you have created me to be, and what you have created me to do. And in that, there's this freedom that is just, it's like a breath of fresh air to be able to say, I don't want those lies anymore. I want to expose them to the truth of God's word. And the more we expose those lies to the light of God's word, the less effect they have, they begin to diminish, they begin to fall, and we begin to see that we can destroy them and truly walk freely in the manner worthy of the calling that he has placed on us.

And so for me, it was just this journey, which we walked through in the book of how to kind of embark on your own journey through scripture. The book is very much a Bible study, so that you can see, first of all, what are these filters? Where do they come from? What do they look like for me? And how do we begin to destroy them?

How do we begin to really walk away and say, I don't want those anymore. I want to be who God created me to be, imperfections and all, because it is in my imperfections, it is in my weakness that his strength is revealed. And that is something that is just a journey that each person has to take for themselves to be able to recognize who it is God has called them to be, and what it looks like for them to live that out. Oh, yeah, because, you know, it's our very recognition that we're living under lies, that in and of itself is a defect that when we explain that God allowed us to see it, and he came through and he shined, it makes him the hero of the story, right? Which he always is, and it's our testimony that people can relate, people can't relate to somebody that doesn't have any cracks.

I can assure you, it's a difficult thing. So we got a little more coming up with Jody and Rush, the high priest, so excited, so grateful that you all are joining with us today, and we'll be right back with a whole lot more. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom, and so blessed today to have with us Rush the high priest and Jody Hendricks. Rush is a Ghana music artist, and Africa pop and hip hop, amazing stuff.

We featured it there on most of the breaks today, and you can get it at kingdompersuits.com, and you can see a YouTube video's got him there, and by all means, you want to tune in to that. But Rush, we just have a few minutes left, and I want to make sure, was there something you wanted to get said today that you haven't had a chance to say? Well, I just want to say, first of all, thank you for this great opportunity, Rodney.

I find a lot of people that get connected from this end to all of us in the U.S., so I take it as an achievement. I'm going to add it to my CD. You know, it's a great opportunity, and I'm very much blessed by it, but also what I want to preach to this, because I know obviously this is a new audience that I'm talking to. I want to tell them that this is a new generation type of music, right? This is a new generation type of authentic, script-filled music that is created for the next generation to come.

So it would be very lovely for people, I mean, from where I come from, we call the elderly people the seniors, right? So like, for the seniors to be able to support us, you know, and help push this type of music, because over here, over here in Ghana, there's a survey that always says that in every year, at least five secular artists come and emerge and become men's teams, right? So it's like, we need to have a force, we need to have a support force that can be able to bring more music like this, and also connect with very local gospel music, and also create an army to be able to win the next generation to be able to be doing the work of God, because we find a lot of people going wayward, and that's not the way, and that's not how I was supposed to be. But I would still stand on the fact that I would love that kind of pursuit, and every listener on here will support us, so that we can get the music far, we can get the message across, because this is God's work, and we do not want to do it anyhow, you know?

We don't want to do it well. My heart is filled with gratitude. So yeah, that's so wonderful.

Thank you, Rush. And Jody, same question, you know, we just have a few minutes left. What did you want to make sure you got said today that you haven't said? You know, I think the hashtag No Filter journey that you'll walk through in the book really can come back to the idea of, you know, what we learned from Gideon. And I want to share that, just that idea of when Gideon first comes on the scene, he's, you know, hiding, he's fearful, he is oppressed, he is relying on his own strength, and filters have filtered who he is and who God had made him to be until God comes to him and says, you valiant warrior. And in the process between the Lord and Gideon, the Lord begins to reveal to Gideon that the Lord himself has a completely different vision of Gideon than Gideon has of himself. And that's really something that I want to encourage everyone with is to realize that these visions that we have of who we are, are often so skewed and distorted by an enemy that would see you sit on the sidelines. And the Lord himself is wanting to get a hold of you and say, oh, valiant warrior, I have something completely different in mind for you. I have a completely different vision of you and for you. And we need to be able to be willing to be vulnerable to step down that path to discover what it is he wants to show us of himself and of ourselves, so that we truly can be effective in the kingdom of God, so that we truly can be out there changing lives and drawing other people to him.

But it's got to start with us. We have to be willing to be vulnerable, to let go of the filters, and to really embrace who it is that God has created us to be. And so if you're listening today, I encourage you to really consider what filters you might have in place that are distorting God's original creation, and what is it that you need to do to be able to drop those. And if you need help walking through scripture to determine how to do that, then I really would encourage you to get the book, hashtag no filter, I'm asking the woman God created you to be. And I pray that it is an encouragement to you.

I pray that it is eye-opening and that it is challenging to draw you closer to the Lord. Even if you're a man, hashtag no filter. In fact, several of the endorsements and the reviews I have are from men. Sure, because Gideon was a man. I mean, it all works.

It's the same issue. It completely is. I love the story of Gideon. We do these John Eldridge boot camps, and we always make that same reference, even encouraging people to ask God, you know, what do you call me? And those kind of things. It's such a beautiful, beautiful illustration, as I see such a picture of that with both Rush and you, very, very unique individuals that God has given platforms to as they walk through, you know, their relationship, they get a chance to share, you know, what God comforted them with, and certainly in beautiful music from Ghana, and in amazing studies for women in hashtag no filter.

You can find all that at Kingdom Pursuits. Again, thank you, Jody. Thank you, Rush, so much for being on with me today. And thank you, listeners, like it's so awesome that you would join us. Now stay tuned. You've got so much truth coming on you, the Truth Network. You've got Encouraging Prayer, followed by The Man, excuse me, The Masculine Journey. It's here now at 12 o'clock in The Man Up Show at 1230. Thanks for listening to The Truth Network.