Rooted Courage: From Identity to Obedience (Part 1)

What would change in your life if you truly believed God was with you?

In this powerful episode of Lioness Women: Rooted in Christ, Jen Porter continues the Identity in Christ series by exploring courage—not as bravado or personality, but as quiet, faithful obedience rooted in trust. Building on the truth that we are loved, blessed, and chosen, this episode reveals that we are chosen for a purpose: to bear fruit that brings goodness, nourishment, and healing to the world. 

Through Scripture, story, and a vivid tree metaphor, Jen invites listeners to see courage as a spiritual posture—one that flows from deep roots in Christ, strengthens our obedience, and produces lasting fruit for others. This episode is an invitation to trust God’s presence, step beyond comfort, and courageously say yes to what He is asking of you right now.

Connect here: https://www.jenportercoach.com/

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Creators and Guests

Host

Jen Porter

Jen Porter is a faith-centered coach and podcast host who empowers women to live boldly from their identity in Christ, rooted in truth, courage, and holy confidence.

What is Lioness Women: Rooted in Christ?

Welcome to Lioness Women, a space for faith-fueled women to connect with their purpose and amplify their voices. These Lioness Conversations highlight purpose-driven women who share how their faith in Christ shapes their leadership, courage, and calling. 🦁

Hosted by Jen Porter, leadership and empowerment coach, this podcast shines a light on women who are leading with wisdom, strength, and grace — in boardrooms, businesses, ministries, and movements around the world.

Through raw, inspiring conversations, we explore how women of faith are building legacies, overcoming fear, and transforming their industries with bold vision and unshakable belief. If you’re ready to rise higher, lead with purpose, and stay rooted in Christ — this is your community.

Faith-Based Leadership | Christian Women | Women of Faith | Christian Podcast for Women | Kingdom Leadership | Spiritual Growth | Eternal Impact

Jen Porter (00:00)
Hey, Lioness, welcome back to an episode of Lioness Women Rooted in Christ. I'm your host, Jen Porter, leadership and empowerment coach for ambitious and heart-centered women who want to put God at the center of everything that we do. Welcome back. I have a question for you. What would you do differently this week if you truly believed God was with you? I'm so curious, what would you do differently this week?

It's a question that I ask myself, ask myself every day because I am in a place where God is asking me to be more courageous. You're right in the middle of a series called Identity in Christ. And if you've caught the previous episodes, you know right where we are. We're moving into week four. And if you haven't caught the episodes, and this is your first one, I really encourage you to go back.

and listen to them. We started with a foundation of love. We are beloved, we are God's beloved, and that is truly the foundation of everything in our identity. Then we moved to being blessed. We are blessed because we are God's people. And last week we focused on chosen.

John 15, 16 does say, you did not choose me, this is God speaking, you did not choose me, but I chose you. And then the second part of that I really didn't develop last week and I wanted to develop it more.

It finishes by saying, appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And what I realized in reflecting on that passage is that we're chosen not just for our own pleasure or for our own self-esteem, to realize how special we are in God, or it's not even just about.

understanding that we are chosen and therefore worshiping this God who chose us out of his generosity and his grace and his love. It actually is more than that. It's more than our own understanding of who we are. It's more than just about worshiping God. It's actually doing good work in this world. God called us for very specific purposes to extend goodness into this world, to extend his kingdom.

into this world. Our life is not our own. You know, we are made for a purpose, but we can't fulfill that purpose until we understand who we are and whose we are. So that's why I'm doing this series because it is essential that we understand our identity. So this week we're going to focus on courage and you're in for a real treat. The next

episode is going to be with my dear friend Karen Laos I cannot wait for you to meet her and hear from her. She is living a life of courage and she is building her life based on Joshua 1, 9, be strong and courageous in the Lord. And we'll spend some time reflecting on that passage because it's huge. ⁓ It's a simple passage and yet it is a profound one that we can carry with us. I know I carry it with me.

God has drawn my attention to Joshua 1-9 over the years when he has called me to be strong and courageous and is something that I can stand on and you can stand on it too. So what does it mean to be courageous? Being courageous in Christ is not always loud. Sometimes it's this quiet obedience rooted in trust.

Trust in God. When I've asked people about the lioness concept, know, the lioness is about being brave, strong, courageous. It's about protection. It's about ⁓ operating in the community of other lionesses. You know, the metaphor is just a beautiful one. If you look at the animal kingdom and look at how lionesses operate in their pride and with the baby lions.

and with and with the lion. when I've asked women, what does it mean to be a lioness? Almost everyone that I have asked that question to have talked about the fact that it's a quiet obedience. It's a quiet strength. It's not loud and boastful. It's not this audacious, you know, attention seeking.

It is a quiet strength that is within that will emerge when it's needed. And so from a spiritual perspective, courage in Christ is not loud. And Jesus did not call us to yell and scream and cause a scene. He actually called us to an obedience that is rooted in a deep trust in who He is.

So our courage doesn't come from bravado or puffing up our chest, trying to show up powerfully. It actually comes from something that is deep within us, which is the Holy Spirit. And it is the strength that comes from not trusting ourselves and not trying to be strong enough in our own power, but leaning on God himself and what he has put in us.

in order to move forward and to be obedient. So courage is not loud. It is a quiet strength. Why is courage, why does it matter? Why do we need it? mean, in everyday life, we have to be courageous. Think about all the places in your life that you have to be courageous. I mean, my goodness, let's just start with the moms.

Being courageous to care for your little ones, to shield them from danger, to protect them from what may cause harm, to stand up to people that don't have your children's best interests in mind. I think about what's happening in our schools and how much courage it takes for parents to stand up for the

in the curriculum that they would want or not want influencing their children. It is a massive amount of bravery that is required to be a parent and to protect your precious, precious children. Courage and conversations. There are times where we are called to say things that are not going to be popular.

that are going to potentially be divisive, that are not going to certainly please other people. And yet, how important it is to be courageous and to speak truth in conversations. You know, sometimes courage looks like being silent in the face of adversity or in conflict. Sometimes it's not always using our voice, but sometimes we're called to

be silent, to hold silence. For example, if we're being attacked, everything in us wants to react back, but sometimes courage is in the silence.

Gosh, I work with women all the time and certainly have worked on this in my life and continue to work on it. But I think I'm thinking about boundaries, the boundaries in our lives. What will we put up with and what will we not put up with? Where do we hold firm to what is good for us and not fall prey to what someone else wants us to do that may even be in conflict with our values?

How do we hold boundaries in relationships? How do we hold boundaries in what we're being asked to do in our work? What if we're being asked to do something unethical? Are we gonna go along? Or are we gonna take a stand? All of that takes an immense amount of courage. just imagine for a second, if you're in these situations, or imagine a person who is in these situations and they don't understand who they are.

how easy it is to fall into the trap of whatever is being laid for us versus someone who is clear in their convictions. They know what they stand for. They know what their life is about and they know what they will and will not do. I think about children, you know, those that are more vulnerable that haven't formed who they are. It's not been solidified. It's in the making. ⁓

how important it must be as a parent to equip those children to be able to use their voice to stand up for what is true and right and of course stand up for them when they're not able to stand for themselves or they're not ready to do that with their peers, with their teachers, with people in authority. How much courage we need every single day. We need courage to take risks in our life.

You know, to get outside of our little comfort zones and our bubble of familiarity. God is always speaking. He's always drawing us deeper into himself if we allow that. He is always bringing us into something that he has for us and

often, often it takes courage to do whatever he's asking us to do because it is something that is beyond our number one, you know, seemingly our capacity, our skill set.

certainly our comfort and yet there's something on the other side of obedience that God has for us that he is inviting us into and there's purpose in it. We can trust that whatever God is asking of us is meaningful and purposeful and we don't have to understand it in order to obey.

You know, I think about Abraham and he was credited for his faith. He was asked to step out of his homeland, you his family, everything that he knew to follow God. God did not tell him where he was going. He didn't tell him the full path to get there. But Abraham was faithful. And look what came from Abraham's obedience. My goodness. You know, the nations came.

from Abraham's obedience. ⁓ So there's so many reasons why it's important for us to build those muscles of courage in order to fulfill our purpose in this world because the world needs us. The world needs us to be courageous. And courage is not a personality trait. You know I have often looked at people over

my lifetime and I thought wow they're so brave they have so much courage look at her or him use their voices so passionately and strongly I could never do that they are just born with something different than what I have and that's actually not true they have probably been nurtured into that courage and being able to use the voices in that way but courage is not a personality trait it's a spiritual posture

And the reason it's a spiritual posture is because we are standing firm on God's presence with us when we are being courageous. In Joshua 1,9, and actually in the passage, if you look at Joshua 1,6 through 9, God speaks to be strong and courageous to Joshua three times in those few verses.

And he at the end he says, be strong and courageous. Why? Because I am with you. God says, I will be with you. ⁓

God is asking him to do something extremely bold, very scary. And the reason why God says be strong and courageous is not because he knows Joshua is so capable, it's because God knows he's gonna be with him. And so he reminds Joshua, I will be with you, you do not need to be afraid. This is the time, Joshua, you need to be strong and courageous because this is important work that I need you to do and don't worry.

I'll be with you. So I'm going to go back to my question that I started with. What would you do differently this week if you truly knew that God was with you? Take a moment and think about that. What is God calling you to be courageous about right now?

Our identity in Christ actually fuels our obedience. The deeper our understanding is of who we are, how loved we are, how blessed we are, that we are chosen by the God of the universe, the more that that fuels our obedience. And what happens is the obedience to God

is what produces fruit for the world. So I'm gonna go back to the tree metaphor that I've used before in this series. If we think of ourselves as a tree, need to have our roots really deep. Deep roots are what causes the tree to be able to withstand the storms, the weather, everything that comes in the world.

And so we have to grow those, allow those roots to grow really deep. And when I think of myself as a tree, I think of the roots as more of the introverted side of me. It's the places where I am in scripture, it's the places of prayer, it's the places of listening to God instead of being active and speaking and doing things in the world. It's those places where I am more quiet and I'm allowed.

to go deep, deep in the eternal truths of who God is, what he says in his Word, and who I am because of that. Also listening for what is he asking of me today?

then our trunk grows strong over the years and it becomes sturdy and it becomes the foundation that then our branches can move from out from and those branches need to be strong they need to be healthy they need to have that whole root system so that they can get the nourishment and

the fortification to be able to spread wide. I've got my arms spread wide now like the tree branches. And then what comes from those branches is fruit. And the tree doesn't decide what kind of fruit it's going to bear.

God created each tree to bear a certain kind of fruit. And like each of us, we are designed to bear a specific kind of fruit. And why is that? It's because there are needs in the world that God wants to meet through us. Think about, you know, the tree. You think about an apple tree or an orange tree or a lemon tree or a nut tree.

And how delicious those things are when we get to partake of them. Imagine, you know, walking through a plane and you you haven't eaten or you don't have water with you, you don't have supplies with you, and you come upon a tree. You're thirsty, you're tired, you are hungry. And you find this tree that God has put on the earth to be able to nourish us.

And you grab that piece of fruit off the tree and you eat it. And the juice from that fruit and the flesh from that fruit that's so satisfying. Maybe you actually sit underneath that tree and the branches that are creating some shade for you from the intense heat of the day. The sun that's bearing down.

So just like trees, we are designed to be able to offer things to the world because it is a world full of hurt and suffering and pain, uncertainty, agony, and we are called to be fruit and only God can produce that in us. So if we look at what happens, you know, let's back this up. We start with identity. We understand who we are.

We abide in God and get this education of who we are. That's all building our identity so that our foundation is super strong, our roots go deep. Then...

We are obedient to what God calls us to do. And that takes courage every time to be obedient. But that increases the strength and size of the trunk of our tree. And then the branches form, the fruit comes, and we are able to offer something good and wonderful to the world. So identity in Christ fuels our obedience and our obedience produces fruit.

for the world. And just like Abraham, we don't need certainty to be courageous. We only need faith. You know, God doesn't require these un...

insurmountable things from us. He literally just asks us to have faith in him because he is doing all the work. He is the author of our life. He is the architect of this world. He knows exactly what he's doing and he's invited us in his gracious nature to be a part of what he is doing because I promise you it is good. It doesn't always look good. We don't always understand it.

But that's where faith comes in because we can trust in the one who holds everything in the palm of his hands and he has already overcome the world. He's already overcome darkness and evil and sickness and disease. All he asks is that we have faith in him.

I look forward to sharing more about this concept of courage with you. I want to give you a quick application for this and just think about it in your mind if you're driving or write it down on a piece of paper or on your phone in your notes, wherever you keep notes. What is God calling you to be courageous about right now?

What is God calling you to be courageous about right now? We don't need to be certain in order to be courageous. We only have to trust in God. May you trust that the fruit God is growing through you will arrive in the right season. And I'm going to ask you to who is coming to mind? I bet you know someone

who needs to be reminded of this truth that she is courageous, that she is loved, that she is the beloved of God. Maybe you've talked with someone recently who's really struggling. She is doubting herself. You know that she has important work to do in this world, in her family, in her community, and she's struggling. I encourage you to share this with one woman you know.

who needs to be reminded that what is inside of her is stronger than what she's facing today. Join me in the next episode and you're going to get to meet my dear friend Karen Laos. I look forward to seeing you then.