We are living in one of the most distracted generations in history, and distraction is not harmless.

In the Season One finale, Heather shares a prophetic picture God gave her during a three-day prayer retreat in Mendocino: wells being clogged with dirt and debris, cutting people off from the water they need to live.

What if distraction is doing something similar to our spiritual lives?

Through the imagery of clogged wells, a dying fire, and Jesus’ words in John 15 to “remain in Me,” Heather explores how noise, busyness, worry, social media, constant information, and overfilled schedules can weaken intimacy with Jesus.

This episode is both a wake-up call and an invitation to return.

You’ll hear about:

How distraction can slowly create spiritual dryness

Why what we give our attention to shapes our appetite

How fasting, prayer, Scripture, silence, worship, and rest become “rhythms of revival”

Why intimacy with God doesn’t always feel emotionally intense

What it means to tend the fire when all you have left are embers

How stillness exposes striving, worry, and our need for control

Why abiding in Jesus is the source of real transformation

At the heart of it all is a simple truth:

Jesus is the reward.

If you’ve felt spiritually dry, distracted, distant from God, or simply hungry for more of Him, this episode is an invitation to dig out the wells, tend the fire, and return to intimacy with Jesus.

Show Notes

Dig Out the Wells

In this Season One finale, Heather returns to the foundation underneath everything discussed this season: intimacy with Jesus.

During a three-day prayer and fasting retreat in Mendocino, God gave Heather two powerful pictures.

The first came from Genesis 26, where the Philistines stopped up the wells Abraham had dug. In an agricultural culture, water meant life. Without it, people, crops, and livestock weakened.

Heather sensed the Lord showing her that distraction is doing something similar in our generation.

The Source has not moved. Jesus is still living water.

But our lives can become so filled with noise, information, entertainment, worry, comparison, busyness, and constant stimulation that our ability to hear, receive, and simply be with Him becomes clogged.

The second picture came the next morning while Heather was building a fire.

She noticed that when the kindling was packed too tightly, the fire couldn’t breathe. It needed space and oxygen.

That simple moment became another spiritual picture:

Our lives need room for the breath of God.

Prayer, Scripture, worship, fasting, silence, solitude, and rest are more than religious duties. Heather describes them as rhythms of revival—practices that create space for our hearts to become attentive and alive to God again.

The episode then turns to John 15 and Jesus’ invitation to abide.

Fruit does not come from striving.

It comes from connection.

And even when intimacy with God doesn’t feel like a roaring flame, embers are still alive. The fire can be tended. The well can be cleared. We can return.

Heather also shares personal journal entries from the retreat, including an encounter with God as the Ancient of Days and the realization that stillness helps expose the places where worry and control have replaced trust.

Scriptures Mentioned

Genesis 26:15–18

John 15:4–5

Psalm 46:10

Key Lines From the Episode

“Distracted by hunger, but eating the wrong things.”

“What I look at fuels my hunger. It either stirs my appetite or suppresses it.”

“Attention shapes appetite.”

“Rot takes time to take its toll.”

“Intimacy requires attention.”

“The fruit comes from the connection.”

“Jesus, You are my reward.”

“Dig out the well. Tend the fire. And abide.”

Season Two of Rise and Rejoice begins in October. Until then, keep pressing into Jesus.

www.riseandrejoiceministries.com

We call Jesus King. We sing about His Kingdom. We pray, “Your Kingdom come.” But what does it actually mean to live as though Jesus really is King?

In this episode, Heather explores the Kingdom of God as His rule and reign, and what that means for Christian discipleship, surrender, trust, fear, power, loving our enemies, and the way we represent Jesus in the world.

From Buckingham Palace to the Sermon on the Mount, from wounds that can distort our view of God to Corrie ten Boom’s extraordinary story of forgiveness, this episode asks a deeply personal question:

What does my life tell people about my King?

Show Notes

In this episode, Heather explores:

• What Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God
• The “already and not yet” reality of the Kingdom
• Self-rule, surrender, and whether we truly trust the King
• How pain and past wounds can shape the way we see God
• The Sermon on the Mount as a picture of Kingdom culture
• Loving our enemies when love is costly
• Corrie ten Boom’s encounter with a former Ravensbrück guard
• What it means to be an ambassador of Christ
• Why fear, domination, and winning at any cost cannot define Christian witness

Key Question

If someone formed part of their understanding of Jesus by watching my life, what would they think my King is like?

Scriptures Referenced

Matthew 5:3–10, 44
Matthew 6:10, 33
John 17:14–18
John 20:24–29
Philippians 3:20
Colossians 1:13
2 Corinthians 5:17–20
Hebrews 12:26–29

Connect with Heather

Instagram: @heather.murdock

Facebook: Heather Murdock

TikTok: @heathermurdock1

www.riseandrejoiceministries.com

What happens when Christians begin to approach faith like consumers?

In this episode, Heather examines the difference between being a consumer of Christianity and becoming a disciple of Jesus. We can attend church, listen to sermons, know Scripture, use our gifts, and still avoid the deeper work of transformation.

This episode explores how our habits, attention, expectations, and definitions of success shape who we are becoming, and why Jesus cares about more than what we know or how involved we appear to be. He is after lives that increasingly bear His fruit.

This is not a message of condemnation. It’s an invitation to honestly ask:

What is the Christianity we are practicing actually producing in us?

Show Notes

In this episode, Heather explores:

• The difference between consumers and disciples
• Why church attendance and and biblical knowledge are not the same as discipleship
• How our habits and repeated rhythms shape our hearts
• Why the battle for our attention matters spiritually
• Why suffering often reveals the depth of what has actually taken root in us
• How Jesus continues to lovingly transform His Church
• What it means for our lives to increasingly reflect the character of Christ

Key Takeaways

Every repeated rhythm shapes us.

What repeatedly receives our attention will eventually shape our affection.

Gifting is not character. Visibility is not maturity. Attendance is not discipleship.

Information is not transformation.

Consumerism asks, “What am I getting?” Discipleship asks, “Who am I becoming?”

Reflection Question

What is being formed in me, and does my life increasingly bear the fruit of having been with Jesus?

Scriptures Referenced

1 Corinthians 5:12–13

Matthew 7:16–20

Mark 4:1–20

Connect with Heather

Instagram: @heather.murdock

Facebook: Heather Murdock

TikTok: @heathermurdock1

www.riseandrejoiceministries.com