Woman Evolve with Sarah Jakes Roberts - Grounded to Go

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Bringing our devotional series to a close, SJR grounds us in what it really takes to go rogue in an unfree world. This episode challenges listeners to stop taking messages at face value and start interrogating them with the Truth. You'll be invited to ask better questions, spot when the truth is being distorted, and see why resistance is part of the process, sis. SJR also drops her go-to scriptures that keep her anchored, proving why presence with God and in your body matters. But chile, John 17 sent us! Got questions about the devotional? Slide them over to [e-mail] for next week's Q&A.

This is Sarah Jakes Roberts and you're listening to the Woman Evolve podcast. This is episode three of our three-part devotional about going rogue, what it means, why we're doing it, why it can be challenging, why it's a process, but why it must be done. I am closing out this devotional with something that I hope will be helpful for you as you walk this journey of going rogue out. All year long, you know how we do. We'll be talking about this theme. and next week if you have questions, you can drop me a line or send me a question to mind your business to let me mind your business, but actually let me mind your business as it relates to this devotional. Or you can send me an email podcast at womanevob.com and we can get into the

questions that may have come up. I am going to start this by helping you to understand that we are going to have to constantly allow ourselves permission to go rogue. A renewed mind in an unfree world can be problematic. A renewed mind in an unfree world. That's the reality that we're living in. We talked about, yet last week, about swimming against the current. And when we swim against the current, how there is resistance. And that resistance exists to build our muscles. A lot of what I have used to frame this concept of going rogue can be found in Romans, Romans 12 and 2. But I want to just reiterate it for the sake of our conversation. Do not be conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

I want you to understand that the world did not suddenly become safe just because you went rogue, that you are really qualifying and refining and getting deeper in your relationship with God. This doesn't mean that everything is going to be easy and that you aren't going to experience any struggles or any difficulty. But I want you to understand that you are in partnership. When you are in partnership with God, it means that you do not experience those struggles on your own. Even as I was preparing this podcast, my printer just fell apart. The camera just tipped over, all these different types of things that were happening. And I was getting frustrated.

I could feel myself getting frustrated. And I was like, holy spirit, give me patience, give me wisdom. give me peace, help me to settle into what this moment is, and so that I can enact the strategy that will allow me to survive this moment. And so I want to challenge you to be present. While I have laid out so many things for you to do in going rogue and hopefully unpack why you should go rogue, I want you to understand that you've got to be present in your body while you're doing it. So often we can become so consumed. with productivity that we miss out on the opportunity to experience presence. And by presence,

I mean for you to be fully present in your body, but also to experience the fullness of God's presence. When we experience the fullness of God's presence, there is safety that is available to us as we are going rogue in an unfree world, as we are doing something that has never been done before. And so a lot of times when I hear people talking about like, you know, trying to understand what it means to be in the presence of God. They're trying to figure out how to be in the presence of God, and they haven't even experienced being in the presence of their own body, in the presence of their own thoughts, their own emotions.

And so I want you to understand that presence is, it's a 360 job, right? Like, if you're in the presence of God, but you're not fully present in your body, you're not experiencing the fullness of what it means to be in the presence of God. And so sometimes I try to spiritual bypass what's happening in my world and my heart and in my mind,

and go straight for the presence of God, but I have found that my relationship with God is made much richer when I first take a moment and really bring myself fully into my body. In one of the podcasts last year, I talked about the 5,4, 3, 2,1 method, which helps me to become present in my body. I have to grab my phone in order to pull this up for you all

just as a refresher, but it helps me. I have a folder in my phone that has my feelings wheel and just things that help me. So the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 is taking a moment and looking at five things you can see. So maybe if you're like watching this video, look at five things that you can see right now. And I can point them out. I see my vital voice. It's messed up, but vital voices book.

I see praying hands. I see my tissue box. I see my stapler and I see my lamp. And then four is four things you can feel. I can feel my fingertips pressed against my other hand. I can feel my knee up against my desk. I can feel the warmth of my house shoes. And I can feel the cotton on my sweatshirt up against my collarbone.

Three things you can hear. I can hear the buzzing of someone's lawn mower. I can hear myself swallowing, and I can hear the beep of the dishwasher. Two things you can smell. I smell my plug-in that's fading, and the flowers that my husband got me that are on the desk. And one thing you can taste, and I taste nothing because I haven't eaten, and maybe that's why I'm having a day that's going perplunk. it's 238. But you'll probably notice even how my intensity began to change. Once I've done that,

I begin to ask myself like, what are you feeling? You know, where were you before you at this moment? I was feeling anxious. I was feeling nervous. I feel some pressure. I'm preaching this weekend. We have a volunteer banquet tonight. I need to pick my daughter from school. I'm not sure I'm not having enough time to make it to the school and back and get ready. We've got an outreach moment tomorrow. I really don't have a message. So I feel nervous. I feel anxiety. And then from that place, I go into the presence of God. Holy Spirit, I ask that you would meet me right now

and allow the weight of your presence to steal me. Allow the weight of your presence to anchor me. Lord, I'm coming unto you. I'm weary and I'm heavy laden. And my spirit is all over the place. Lord, please give it rest. Please give me peace, God. Help me to remember your faith.

your loyalty, your covenant, God. Allow me to experience gratitude in the doing and allow me to have peace in the midst of all of these trials and tests and storms. Allow me to experience rest that my trust may be in you. Just that practice alone in the middle of going rogue, right, can help you to remember that you're not on your own and that you are a person and you're going to feel nerves, you're going to feel worried, you're going to feel anxious, and that's okay. You are a person, not a machine. And there is an element, a real element of spiritual warfare that is connected to the work that we're doing. When we move from one kingdom, you're valuable to the kingdom of darkness. You are valuable because you can make it look good, you can make it sound good. If the kingdom of darkness,

get you, they can get other people like you. You can utilize your influence to draw other people into a world of darkness. And so you are a valuable asset to the kingdom of darkness, but you are also a valuable asset in the kingdom of heaven. And you have to know that the kingdom of darkness is not going to just let you go without a fight. And even if the kingdom of darkness lets you go without a fight. The kingdom of doctors like, yeah, but, you know, I put a little something inside of them. They'll be back. Or, you know, there's a, there's a missile, there's a bomb in there that'll get them rejected from the kingdom of heaven or that will make them feel unqualified. There's a mentality that I implanted in them that the kingdom of heaven won't be able to change. And so you can be a part of the

kingdom of heaven, but still have the mentality that was implanted by the prince of the power of the air that exists while you're navigating the kingdom of heaven. And the enemy may be betting that your mind will not be transformed, but the enemy will lose that bet. You've got to be present in your body. You've got to be able to ask yourself some questions. And that's kind of how I want to end our conversation is I want to encourage you to ask the right types of questions to help you understand. Where is this messaging coming from? Can I trust it? What is it leading me? to. And so I want you to know that a renewed mind does not avoid the world. A lot of times this is just like conversations we see about healing. It's like you say you're healed, but you've been in

isolation. The true test of healing is what happens when you step out of isolation and you allow this healed version of you to exist in the world around you. And so a renewed mind is not avoiding the world. You went rogue spiritually, but you still have to show up in the world around you. a renewed mind ask questions. A renewed mind evaluates what's taking place in the world. You can do this just for practice. Maybe it's not something that you're doing to personally assess and evaluate your world, but there's an opportunity for you to ask questions of music. These are the questions that I want you to begin to ask as you are considering the world around you and the messages that come in your direction. I want you to ask, what is shaping this message? Whether it's music, video, thoughts that

exist within your mind, communication that comes from other people, what is shaping this message? I will tell you, I can receive messages from people who are trying to help me, and I receive it as discouragement. But when I ask myself, what is shaping this message? I think about the person who the message came from. And I'm like, they love me, they care about me, they're trying to protect me, they want to see me succeed. And it changes the way that I receive the message because I realize that I have a default setting, a mentality that was implanted from another kingdom that tells me that people really don't believe in me, that people don't want to see me succeed, that people really question whether or not I have what it takes to overcome whatever challenges in front of me. And so I

receive messages through that filter. But when I ask myself to step away from that mentality that has shaped the way that I hear from other people and allow the message to stand on its own and allow the deliverer of that message to stand in the truth of that message, it has helped me to understand how that message is being shaped. The second question, I want you to ask yourself as you're going rogue and you're trying to navigate the world is what desire is being appealed to. I ask myself this question all of the time. especially, there are moments maybe when I have like, oh, this is a good, a good example. I preached a message called Get Out of Your Way. I really feel like the title was terrible and that

the title had nothing to do with the message. But picking the title is the worst part for me because I don't know what God's going to do in the message. And I'd just be out there saying what God's going to. And the message, like, it went kind of viral. I guess it helped a lot of people. And it was getting so many repost. I was getting so many DM. so many comments about it that I had to log off. I had to log off because when I asked myself what desire was appealing to, it was appealing to that desire that I had to be affirmed and validated by other people instead of allowing the affirmation that I get from God to be the thing that feels me. I don't mind being encouraged and I think God uses other people to encourage me,

but I could tell I was just like looking for the next good thing that someone said about And it wasn't like, oh, because God got the glory. I could tell that I was getting a little bit of the glory too. And so I logged off because I recognized that it was appealing to a certain desire. The same can be true sometimes, like even me. And this sugar habit that I have that I be trying to break. Sometimes if I have a minute and I'm present within myself, I'll ask myself before indulging. Like, what is it that you really want to feel?

Like, how are you going to feel after you eat that cookie? Is it that you're going to feel happy? You're going to feel relieved. and why do you need to feel that right now? My therapist dropped that bomb on me. I ain't talked to her since, but I am going to call her because I need to call the girl to call the lady. I need to call the lady.

But asking myself that question has helped me. And then this is the third question. What fear is being activated? What fear is being activated when I receive these messages, when I receive what's happening in the world. Sometimes I'm watching headlines. Maybe there's a rumor or something. And I'm like, what I can do.

feel it showing up in my body. I feel nerves in my heart. I feel anxiety in my tummy. And it's like what fear is being activated. Rejection, abandonment, terror, nightmares, like inadequacy. What fear is being activated? And then the next question I want to ask is what I want you to ask is what truth is being distorted? Oftentimes the truth that is being distorted for me is that I'm not protected, that God's not going to take care of me. I have tabs in my Bible that I tabbed when I was going through a challenging season and the tab exists with like different quotes in it that I kind of tab like for when I'm feeling rejected. So Matthew's five and we talked about Matthew five, the beatitudes, but I have that tabbed in my Bible because it's a, there's a message in here

and the tab says a heart for those who misunderstand me. And so when I read Matthew 5 and 44 and I say and Jesus says, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your father in heaven, for he makes his sunrise on the evil and on the goodness and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And so I read this when I realize I need a heart for those who are misunderstanding me because I start picking them apart

and trying to find things to judge about them and I realize that when I do that I'm trying to justify hating them, justify or bring them down as low as they have brought me and I realize that that's not of God and so Matthew 5 helps me with that in Hebech 3 and 17 through 19 there's a promise about difficult seasons that I often go to. And the reason why I'm using

this is going to when we talk about what truth is being distorted, a lot of times there's a truth that like I can bring myself down to their level or I want to make them like me. And that's not true. That's not the truth that I want to live by. I want to live by a truth that calls me higher. And so in Habakkuk, it says, though the fig tree may not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail and the fields yield no food, that means nothing is going the way that we anticipate it. The flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no hurt in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet and he will make me to walk on my high heels.

I love that the writer made this personal. These are my high. heels. These are the heels that God has caught me to walk upon. This may not be everyone else's heel, but this is the heel that is assigned to my life, assigned to my journey. And when it gets hard and when it gets difficult, I believe that the Lord God is going to give me strength in my feet to climb the heel that is ahead of me. And so I read that when I need a promise about difficult seasons, because when certain things happen, there's a truth that is distorted. And that is like, I don't have any strength in the Lord isn't with me. And I wasn't cut out for this.

I'm good for, I'm good for I wasn't cut out for this. I will tell somebody in a heartbeat, I am not the one or the two for this. God must have had me confused. But that's not true. I am cut out for this. I'm cut out for this. Not because I have what it takes, but because I don't have to do it on my own. And when you accept the fact that you have what it takes to do what God has called you to do

as long as you do it with God, there is no devil, no rumor, no insecurity. no insecurity, no fear, no pride, no ego that can stand in the way. God will coach you, teach you, guide you, allow his spirit to live within you, to lead you to perfect truth and perfect steps. I read in Psalm about the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Though he fails, he will not be utterly cast down. I want to get it right so y'all don't talk about me. Let me see.

I'm turning. I've got all of Psalm 18 highlighted. It's just basically the whole thing. But, okay, hold on, let me see. And then I'll close this out and get back to Psalm 37 and 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. That's beautiful. I love that so much.

But I've questioned whether or not I was a good person before because I made a lot of poor choices. And so I'm like, oh, good for the good man. And then it says, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. That's always resonated with me because I didn't real, this is going to sound, it sounds so dumb coming out of my mouth. And this is how you know it's something that the enemy, whenever you say something out loud that sounds so dumb, you just got to know that the enemy is trying to trick you. Because when I say, I said, because as the scripture continues and it says, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. I was getting ready to tell you, like, I didn't think good men could fall, that good people make mistakes. And I'm also was like, if the Lord is ordering your steps, how do you fall?

Because just because the Lord orders the steps, it's like a sergeant ordering soldiers to take a certain step. It doesn't mean that they're going to step perfectly. It doesn't mean that they'll fully understand the command each time, which means like the Lord had ordered me to do a lot of things in my life and continues to order me to do a lot of things in my life. And sometimes I have missteps. Sometimes I mess up. And yet in the process of doing that, though he fall, he won't be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with. his hand. For the sake of woman, Bob, I'm going to remix this for the ladies' right. Okay. The steps of a good woman are ordered by the Lord and he delights in her way. Though she fall, she shall not be utterly

cast down. For the Lord upholds her with her, with his hand. The Lord upholds her with his hand. I want you to personify it, make it personal when the Lord is speaking. to you because there's a truth that can be distorted in the process of going rogue. And even as we talk about this reality that, you know, there are going to be moments where you may fall, the Lord has ordered you to go rogue in a season where you would have maybe rather stayed comfortable. I think it's important that you realize that you're not going to be utterly cast down, that the Lord's going to make sure that you're taking care of. He's going to uphold you with his hand. Okay.

I need you to know, let me see how, oh, 20 minutes, okay, I need you understand that renewal means you no longer consume information passively. You interrogate it with truth. If we were just breathing in the air, breathing in whatever came our way, I need you to understand that as you step into renewal, that we begin to interrogate what we have received as truth. And I feel like this is so full circle. Thank you, Jesus, for just making this a line because that wasn't my plan. I mean, I planned it, but the full circle nature of some truths that I accepted that I opened up with in episode one is just resonating with me now. Begin to interrogate some of those truths. This is how you stay rogue. We're not just going rogue. We're staying rogue without becoming

reactionary or withdrawn. This is mental warfare. This is spiritual warfare. And I need you to begin to also just dwell on shapes that you want to become. because what you dwell on, it shapes you. So begin to dwell on what shape you want to take place. When I'm looking at Jesus in Scripture, I'm looking at him. Like, I have to take a minute sometimes and visualize the moment to embody that person who is receiving a word from him, to embody what it must have felt like, to have the Pharisees questioning you, and how he responded in those moments.

I dwell on that. And the more that you dwell on it, the more that you become it so that when you're in it, you have a response that looks like Jesus and not like you. And so dwell on the way that Jesus responded. Dwell on the way that Jesus led, the way that Jesus prayed. He shows us all the time how he would take time away from people to spend time in the presence of God to receive revelation and affirmation and communion with God. And how can we begin to dwell on a lifestyle that reflects what Jesus did in those moments? I want to turn to John 17. and this is going to be, I'm going to make this one less than 30 minutes. That is my goal.

I went over last time, the time before that, but if this is helpful for you and you're enjoying it, maybe we can do like a quarterly or, you know, mid-rog, a mid-rogue recalibration. I really would enjoy that actually because there are so many instances in scriptures since God has given me this revelation that I'm now seeing as a lens in which I've seen other people go rogue in order to say yes to God. And it would maybe be cool to do just like a deep dive on different people who had to go rogue in scripture. But I want to go to John 17 and I want you to look at a prayer that Jesus prays in John 17. He says, and it's interesting. He says, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world.

and this is God that Jesus is talking to God, the Father, but that you should keep them from the evil one. Oh, come on, Jesus. Let's just look at the heart of this moment right here. We want to be rescued. Take me out of it. Why do good things happen in bad people? All of these questions, like, why would you allow this to happen?

This is the reality that we live in. I'm not praying that you would extract them from that reality, but that you would keep them from the evil one. So what does it mean to be cut from the evil one? Jesus is always talking about your spirit, not always your experience. I need you to understand this because, oh, I'm thinking about when he's having the moment with Peter and he tells Peter that Satan has asked for you. He's asked to sift you as weed and I pray that when you come forth that your faith, no,

I pray that your faith would not fail you. I'm going to try and stay in John 17 and not pull up that exact text. Beautiful to me because Jesus said, I'm not going to pray that this doesn't. doesn't happen to you. I'm just going to pray that when it's all said and done, that one, your faith won't fail and that when you come back, that you will strengthen your brethren. And so Jesus is not necessarily saving us from an experience as much as he is equipping and giving us strength to survive those experiences and to keep our spirit intact in the process of surviving those experiences. It says, I do not pray, and that's John 17 and 15. Then it goes on to say, they are not of the

world just as I am not of the world. So I'm not asking you to remove them out of the world. Keep them in the world that they are not of, but sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. You are going rogue in a world that needs you to go rogue. You have been sent here. That's why we can't be conformed. That's why we can't take on the mentalities, the minds as in the spirit of this age and of this world. because we have been sent into this world. Jesus prayed that you would go from being in the world to being sent into the world. Hallelujah, I feel that for you. Even as you are navigating the stores, your workplace, your entrepreneurship, your business, academia, I need you to understand that Jesus is praying that you would go from going with the flow to being sent. When you do something with a sent mentality, you have a mission, you have a vision, you have a task to execute. So first sanctify them by your truth. Give them your truth. Give them your interpretation of who they are. Give them your interpretation of what's possible for them. And let it sanctify them. Let it set them apart. Let it purify them. Let it anoint them. Let it then, Lord, allow them to be sent. And it goes on to say, and for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those.

those who will believe in me through their word. Oof, you were all, you were in his mind. This was over 2,000 years ago. And he says, I'm not just praying for those who are around. Look at the compassion of Jesus. Look at the intentionality of Jesus. I'm not just praying for those who are around. I'm praying for those who will believe.

That they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. You got to read all of John 17. I believe it's going to bless you. I am going to pray with you before we close out. I pray that this series has been a blessing to you. It has been a blessing for me to be able to share with you what God has placed on my heart.

And there's so much more that we can unpack and we will unpack as we have interviews and conversations with people have gone rogue. And I love this because we're going to hear from people who have gone rogue in different ways. ways, different areas, and there are going to be people who God is continuing to do a work in and people who are still unpacking what faith looks like for them, even as they are going rogue. One of the things that I love about the Woman Evolved podcast is that it allows me an opportunity to hear from different people in different walks of life, different journeys. Some of them you may know and be familiar with some. I may have the privilege of introducing you too, but all will be strategically aligned to offer you with different perspective and perhaps

passion for people who may look or think or exist differently than you do. And what a blessing it is that we have access to those journeys. God, we thank you that you sent Jesus as an example for us. Thank you for sacrificing your son so that we could have a guiding light, a son, a North Star, to point our hearts, our lives, our words towards. God, I pray that you would continue to edit us that though this devotion is coming to an end that it would be a beginning in many ways that we would draw nearer and deeper and see you more clearly. I thank you God for every person listening. It is my prayer that you have highlighted areas in their lives where they have an opportunity to go rogue, to change, and to be transformed. Fill us with your spirit as only you can do

strengthen our steps. Order them. God will take them. We may not take them perfectly. We may stumble, we may fall, but Lord, we will get back up again because we believe that you have strengthened our feet to climb the heels that are assigned to our name. Thank you for the privilege of leading. These are great people. I'm not worthy. I don't have what it takes, but I have a heart to love them. Not like you love them because I know your love is so much deeper and greater than anything I can offer, but I thank you so much for giving me your heart that can in some way reflect the way that you feel about them. Thank you for the start of an incredible year, God,

a year where we will know you more deeply and shine more brightly as a result of it. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Evolve.