With Grit & Grace: Men of Courage, Women of Valor

S2E9 Tender Wisdom in Leadership: The Secret Strength & Spiritual Strategy of Softness

In a culture that confuses softness with weakness, Angela explores how tenderness can become a spiritual strategy — the strength that disarms pride and heals division. She shares how meekness multiplies authority, and why true leadership begins with a heart that stays gentle even when the world grows harsh.
 
Access the private podcast here.

S2E8 Becoming a Living Invitation in a Dark & Desperate World

In this series finale, Angela and Lisa sit down together to explore what it means to embody love as a lifestyle. Through laughter, reflection, and story, they revisit the journey from identity to intimacy, worth, healing, calling, and embodiment—culminating in the sacred posture of being Beloved. This is legacy, partnership, and presence in motion—a living picture of Kingdom collaboration over competition.
 
Access the private podcast here.
Access Journey Through Scripture, Story by Story here.

S2E7 Why We Push Away What We Pray For

In this episode, the discussion revolves around the concept of praying for blessings but struggling to receive them when they arrive. Termed 'resistance to blessing,' this phenomenon is explored through Biblical examples and personal anecdotes. Angela explains how unhealed memories and survival instincts create barriers to receiving good things, even those prayed for. By recognizing and rewriting relational scripts, practicing receiving in safe environments, and building supportive communities, you can learn to trust and receive God's blessings without fear. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their own resistance to blessings and join the private podcast series for deeper exploration.
 
00:00 Introduction: Wrestling with Prayer
00:49 Resistance to Blessing: A Spiritual Battle
01:36 Biblical Examples of Resistance
03:18 Understanding the Reflex of Resistance
03:55 Physiological Roots of Resistance
05:27 The Tension Between Spirit and Body
08:47 Personal Story: Learning to Receive Love
11:07 Steps to Practice Receiving
14:48 Building a Community of Healthy Receiving
17:06 Reflection and Invitation
18:19 Conclusion: Living a Beloved Life
 
 

S2E6 Living What You Say You Believe: When Faith Is Still Settling

What happens when the truths you agree with in your heart haven’t fully taken shape in the way you move through everyday life yet?
In this episode, Lisa explores the quiet tension many faithful women live with—the space between the truths we affirm and the rhythms we actually live from. It’s a tension that doesn’t mean something is wrong with your faith, but often signals that faith is still settling, deepening, and becoming embodied in real time.
Drawing from her own journey, Lisa reflects on how understanding of God matures over time—through Scripture, tradition, lived experience, and the ongoing guidance of Holy Spirit—and how growth often happens not by striving to live better, but by noticing where alignment has not yet fully taken root.
This conversation gently reframes the gap many women feel, not as failure or hypocrisy, but as the honest middle place where belief is still forming—where faith is moving from agreement into lived trust.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Why agreeing with truth doesn’t always mean it has fully settled into daily life yet
How faith matures as our whole being learns to trust what our spirit longs for
The difference between wanting to live from truth and having the capacity to do so
Why tension often points to growth rather than resistance
How everyday moments become the place where belief quietly takes shape
Gentle Invitation
This week, choose one ordinary moment—a walk, a pause, a quiet cup of coffee—and notice how you respond when you slow down. Not to correct yourself or try harder, but simply to observe where trust feels natural and where it still feels tender.
Often, belief takes root not through effort, but through awareness.
If you’re longing to walk this journey alongside others, our Kingdom Identity Network is a space for women who are learning how faith becomes lived over time, not performed. And for those sensing a desire for deeper support, our VIP Level offers more intimate space for prayerful conversation and guidance as these layers continue to unfold.
Looking Ahead
Next week, Angela takes us deeper into this conversation by exploring why we sometimes pull back from the very things we’ve prayed for, and how fear of disappointment can quietly shape our ability to receive what God brings near.

S2E5 When You Don't Feel Qualified (But God Calls You Anyway)

God doesn’t wait for perfection to call you—He perfects you through the calling.
Angela shares what it looked like to lead, mother, and build while still healing, teaching how God uses hidden seasons to refine identity, stretch faith, and train leaders to carry His heart.
 
Access the Private Podcast here. This is the only place you will find all the frameworks I teach, as well as access the upcoming books & resources. I'm gifting this to you for a very limited time. Get your access now. Unsubscribe anytime, no questions asked.

S2E4 When Growth No Longer Requires Effort

Host: Lisa Vanderveen
 
What if real healing doesn’t require striving?
In this episode, Lisa Vanderveen explores the difference between insight, breakthrough, and true healing — and why healing in body, soul, and spirit produces spontaneous growth, not effortful change.
Building on Angela Linville’s conversation about worth and stewardship, Lisa reframes healing as the quiet work God does beneath the surface, removing resistance and restoring capacity so alignment becomes natural rather than forced.
This conversation is for the woman who understands the truth, wants to live from it, and wonders why some areas of life still feel effortful. Lisa offers clarity, relief, and a deeply hopeful reframe: effort isn’t failure — it’s information.
 
🌿 What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Why insight and breakthrough are not the same as healing
How true healing removes resistance instead of requiring willpower
The difference between effort-driven change and spontaneous fruit
Why healing often unfolds through partnership with God
How to recognize when healing has truly taken root
What it means to live from capacity instead of pressure
Why effort is a signal, not a spiritual problem
🤍 Reflection Prompt
Take a quiet moment and ask yourself:
“Where does growth still feel effortful for me?”
There’s no judgment in this question.Effort is information — and often the invitation to healing.
🔁 Continue the Journey
If this episode resonated with you, you’re invited to continue reflecting through Scripture in a quieter, more personal way.
On Lisa’s YouTube channel, Kingdom Identity with Lisa Vanderveen, you’ll find Kingdom Identity Quiet Times — short Quiet Time Devotionals that share stories from Scripture alongside reflections written specifically for the Christian business woman who has tried all the strategies and still feels stuck in old patterns.
These devotionals create moments of insight, understanding, and breakthrough — gentle invitations to notice what the story stirs in you and where God may be speaking beneath the surface.
You’ll find the link in the show notes wherever you’re listening.
🔜 Coming Up Next
Next week, Angela Linville continues the series with a conversation about being chosen — not because of readiness or performance, but because God is relational, not transactional.
This next episode explores how healing prepares us to receive calling without pressure and belonging without fear.
🎧 About the Podcast
With Grit & Grace: Men of Courage, Women of Valor is a faith-based podcast exploring identity, intimacy, worth, healing, and calling through honest conversation and lived experience.
Each episode invites listeners to move beneath performance and into a deeper, embodied life with God.
 

S2E3 Finding Worth Beyond Success

What happens when the dream comes true but you still feel empty?
Angela shares her story of closing a thriving business in obedience, teaching that worth is not measured in output but in stewardship. This week, we’re redefining success...not by the size of what you build, but by the obedience it takes to let it go.
 
💬 Share in the Kingdom Rising community
🎙️ Go Deeper: Explore The Shulamite’s Diary: The Sound of Redeeming Love 
 
📖 **Next Week:** Lisa is taking us deeper into the kind of healing the Shulamite discovered - the daily embodiment of love after years of survival.
 
🎧 About the Podcast
With Grit & Grace: Men of Courage, Women of Valor is a faith-based podcast exploring identity, intimacy, worth, and healing through honest conversation and lived experience.
Each episode invites listeners to move out of performance and into a deeper way of living with God.

S2E2 The Lost Art of Being Known

What does it actually feel like to be known — and still loved?
 
In this episode, Lisa Vanderveen invites listeners into a tender conversation about intimacy as sacred safety. Not intimacy as vulnerability for its own sake, and not connection that requires fixing or performing — but intimacy that begins when we feel safe enough to be seen and to stay.
 
Lisa shares her personal journey from experiencing God’s presence in structured spiritual moments to living from a constant awareness of being with Him. Along the way, she gently reframes belief, explaining the difference between thoughts we agree with and beliefs that are fully embodied — formed when body, soul, and spirit come into agreement.
 
This episode is for the woman who loves God deeply, knows the truth intellectually, and yet senses that something more is possible — a quieter, steadier way of living from intimacy rather than reaching for it.
 
🌿 What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Why intimacy often feels risky, even for faithful women
The difference between anticipated encounter and abiding presence
Why belief is more than a thought — and how safety allows belief to become lived
How the nervous system impacts our ability to feel close to God and others
What sacred safety looks like: being held, not fixed
Why withholding honesty is often about protection, not disobedience
A gentle reflection question to help you notice where intimacy feels costly
 
🤍 Reflection Question
Take a moment to sit with this question: “Where do I withhold honesty because I fear rejection?”
There’s no need to explain or analyze your answer.
Simply noticing is often the first step toward healing.
 
📖 Continue the Journey
If this episode stirred something in you, Lisa invites you to continue the journey through Scripture in a quieter, more relational way.
On her YouTube channel, Kingdom Identity with Lisa Vanderveen, Lisa shares Journey Thru Scripture ~ Story by Story — Quiet Times designed to slow down, stay with the biblical story, and pay attention to what happens in your heart and body as Scripture is read.
These Quiet Times are created to help belief move from something you understand into something you live from — not by trying harder, but by creating space for safety and awareness of God’s nearness.
 
🔜 Coming Up Next
Next week, Angela continues the journey with a powerful conversation about worth:
 
When Success Isn’t Enough — a reflection on stewardship, obedience, and discovering dignity beyond productivity.
 
This season unfolds in order — and you’re invited to stay with the process.
 
🎧 About the Podcast
With Grit & Grace: Men of Courage, Women of Valor is a faith-based podcast exploring identity, intimacy, worth, and healing through honest conversation and lived experience.
Each episode invites listeners to move beneath performance and into a deeper way of living with God.
 
🔎 Keywords & Categories
Keywords:
Christian podcast, intimacy with God, emotional safety, belief and embodiment, healing journey, sacred safety, identity in Christ, nervous system healing, spiritual formation, women of faith
Categories:
Faith • Christian Living • Emotional Health • Intimacy • Personal Growth • Leadership

S2E1 When God Redefines Who You Are: Identity Beyond the Titles

When the roles fall away, who are you really? Angela Linville explores what happens when God asks you to lay down what once defined you, and how to rebuild from truth instead of performance.
 
Keywords: identity in Christ, purpose after success, Christian women, personal transformation, letting go of titles, faith journey, spiritual growth, belovedness, identity crisis, rebuilding identity
 
📝 Reflection Prompt: “Before the titles, I am…”  
 
💬 Share in the Kingdom Rising community
 
🎙️ Go Deeper: Explore The Shulamite’s Diary: The Sound of Redeeming Love 
 
📖 **Next Week:** Lisa explores sacred safety and emotional intimacy
 
🎧 About the Podcast
With Grit & Grace: Men of Courage, Women of Valor is a faith-based podcast exploring identity, intimacy, worth, and healing through honest conversation and lived experience.
Each episode invites listeners to move out of performance and into a deeper way of living with God.

A Year in the Rear View: Spiritual Reflection, Discipline as Devotion, and Faith-Driven Planning for 2026

What happens when you pause the noise of goal-setting and ask God what He wants to accomplish in the next five years? In this deeply personal year-end reflection, Angela shares her seven-year practice of spiritual planning and how every word written in surrender has come to pass...not always on her timeline, but always in divine precision.
This isn't your typical year-in-review episode. Instead of celebrating accomplishments or setting ambitious goals, Angela unpacks what it means to build differently...to steward a calling that doesn't fit conventional models while navigating cancer treatments, raising kids, working full-time, writing eleven book drafts, and launching a podcast and blog.
Discover why discipline isn't about control...it's devotion in action. Learn how to discern God's voice above the noise. And explore what it means to live "as if" the promise is already true, even before clarity arrives.
Key Topics Covered
Spiritual planning process: How to seek God's vision every five years and adjust annually
Discipline redefined: Moving from rigidity to devotion in action
Faith-based reflection: Reviewing 2025's spiritual assignments and breakthroughs
Building differently: Stewarding God-sized vision outside conventional frameworks
Discernment over answers: Strengthening your ability to hear God's voice
Living "as if": Aligning your posture with what God has already spoken
Looking ahead to 2026: Words of prophecy, preparation, and promise
Who This Episode Is For
This episode speaks to women who are:
Navigating multiple responsibilities while stewarding a calling
Feeling stuck between effort and visible progress
Questioning whether their pace is too slow or their vision too big
Learning to release control and trust divine timing
Seeking deeper discernment rather than easy answers
Building something that doesn't fit existing models
Whether you're an entrepreneur, corporate professional, ministry leader, educator, healthcare worker, or simply a woman trying to stay faithful to what God has entrusted to you...this conversation will meet you exactly where you are.
Reflection Questions
What are you looking forward to in 2026?
What might God be preparing you for - long before it becomes visible?
Where have you confused discipline with control?
What would change if you asked God what He wants to accomplish in the next five years (instead of planning what you think should happen)?
Connect & Continue the Conversation
If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear about it. Share your reflections, questions, or 2026 hopes. Your voice matters in this community of women learning to build differently.
Subscribe so you never miss an episode where we explore calling, identity, purpose, wholeness, and the courage to steward what God has entrusted to you.
Access the private podcast where we go deeper into the themes we're discussing in the public podcast.