To All The Dreamers! How to Go After Your God-Given Calling

SPEAKER 03 : 0:05

Welcome to the Corner Cafe.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:09

About the things. And welcome to Corner Cafe. I am your host, Rachel Maines. And today I have with me my friend, Crisandra Brunson in the studio. Rachel, it’s so great to be with you in the studio. Great to have you in the KLTT studio, to be clear. Yes. So you were on our sister station, KLDC, for what? How many years was that? Correct. You know, two years. Two years. Yes. And now you’re back in the radio station and you are going to be on KLTT. And one of my favorite hours, too, at 2.30, right after the Angie Austin show, The Good News with Angie Austin. So that’s going to be a great hour, people.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:52

Yes.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:53

Tune into the 2 p.m. hour Monday through Friday to catch the good news with Angie Austin. And right after that, the calling. So what is your show going to be called? Chris Andres, you sticking with the same name?

SPEAKER 01 : 1:06

Yes. To all the dreamers. So we like to do the little hashtag season two. Nice. But, you know, just rallying together as many dreamers that God has put around the world and highlighting how they’re going after their God given calling and how they can, their listeners can go after theirs. Yes.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:27

And you do live the life of going after things, if you will. Um, exciting things, you know, kind of out of the box things. So I’ll name a few, but I want you to catch up the listeners of how you have pursued your God-given calling. And we’ll talk about that, you personally. But to name a few, like you’ve been a mermaid, you know, traveling. around the nation at aquariums, which is so fun. Also, you got your doctorate and you were in a beauty pageant as Miss Monaco. So kind of go into each of those things and more about what you’re doing and how you feel like that’s a God-given calling.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:07

Well, you know, Rachel, it’s so funny that, you know, just mentioning those things and saying, oh, someone did that. And then to say, oh, I did those things. A lot of those scenarios feel so out of out of box, you know. Just a movie that I might be watching, but to be able to live in those scenarios has been so fascinating. And this this glimpse of heaven that I am so grateful that the Lord has allowed me to encounter these different cultures because each one of them is so different. Just starting off the top, you mentioned mermaiding. A lot of people think of mermaids, the little mermaid, Disney’s. And, you know, how how is one even become a mermaid or is that really a thing? Quote, unquote. It is. It is, everyone. You can actually become a real life mermaid. And, you know, I think there’s a lot of different spectrums of this, but it’s such a… For me, what I have loved about it is that it’s a way to be able to see the world in a new way. You have to be scuba certified, open water scuba certified, and that let alone is… quite a feat and you have to do a 30 feet dive you have to do a 60 feet dive and rachel i’m excited for you to be on some of these future dives but it’s such as i’ve always wanted to get my diving yes scuba license i love the water yes yeah it’s on the bucket list for sure So we’re doing it together someday soon. But yes, we’re excited. But then you have to be stress and rescue certified. So it’s right below being a master diver. And 71% of the world is underwater. And you know what? This should be a certificate that is just right alongside a driver’s license for every human being, in my mind, that we are able to… Walk out and see the world for God’s perspective underneath. And, you know, it’s so beautiful. I’m so excited to see more. But I’ve been able to use these certificates to then become a real life mermaid with wands and wishes and have been so blessed just with this company that is actually the number one. Aquarium Mermaid Company in the world. And it’s truly you get to go in and you get to discover the marine life with sharks and turtles, sea turtles and all these fish and turtles. to be able to inspire people to dream bigger. And these kids and these families, they wait oftentimes two to three hours just to meet a mermaid and to hear what they have to say. And my impartation to a lot of those souls is to hear what their dream is and to say that they’re believed in and that they can go after it. And they just love it. So it goes alongside with the calling in my heart. I see it in alignment. But that’s been a really fun thing. And then getting my doctorate from Oral Roberts University has been so special. A doctorate of strategic leadership and a concentration in strategic foresight, a.k.a. a professional futurist. And helping create the future. And, you know, what a tool that can be utilized in this season and seeing that each one of us is meant to be God’s futurist, to be able to create the future for every minute, every hour, every day, and really utilizing our time well. So that’s been such a gift. I love the ORU community. Couldn’t say enough great things about the president and all the leadership and just the history of Oral Roberts himself of walking out in faith and having the kindred hearted best friends of Billy Graham and helping rededicate, you know, the Billy Graham dedicated the school for the opening, knowing that he wasn’t called to open up a university personally, but he wanted to help his best friend do that. what a great best friend, what a great example. And let’s see, the last thing that you said, Rachel. Miss Monaco. Miss Monaco, yes, yes. From that highlight recently, actually the last couple of years, the blessing of having a family lineage is, connected to Princess Grace Kelly on my mom’s side. And this opportunity to be asked to represent Monaco at an international pageant and to do that now for a couple of years has been so special. And you placed second in the last pageant. I did. Congratulations. That’s a huge feat. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was very special and wonderful. you know, just to exchange conversations and the humility of just hearing these remarkable women, but then also just partners of different businesses coming alongside to hear how they’re going after their calling in their country. So there was Haiti. I mean, almost every country was represented, but the souls of these nations of non-developed ones to Dubai and Egypt You know, India, hearing how everything’s going on over there. It’s just very humbling because we think our world, what we’re encountering personally is all that’s going on globally. And there’s so much more. And I think just having this heart and this thirst for learning and being able to do that. As we continue to age, as we continue to go from month to month, year to year, you guys are so much more. There’s like, I think we get stuck in these boxes, but.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:02

Yeah, I guess we could maybe say we can get stuck in maybe unbelief of I can be used. You know, I’m I’m this certain age. I can’t be used or I made this mistake. I can’t be used by God. Right. And we question what’s in our heart. in terms of dreams, if that’s from God or not. So I think people just kind of get lost in that and start making excuses too. Because the number one fear for many people is fear of failure. But with the platforms he’s given you, what we just talked about, The Mermaid, The Miss International, Miss Monaco, and then also getting your doctorate, In all of these spheres, you’ve encouraged people that they can dream again. And this is the point of your ministry, The Calling, for people to dream and to ask God about their dreams. My question is, how do you tell people, you know, hey, I have this dream. If they’re coming to you, Cassandra, I have this dream. I don’t know if it’s from God or not. Some dreams can, I guess, come from the enemy. But God gave us the ability to dream. So how do you decipher and mentor people on that?

SPEAKER 01 : 9:13

Such a great question. And Rachel, just you personally, I am so grateful for your heart to be able to see that. chrysandra and the calling and how it’s all connected to how we live out our dreams and calling a lot of people will say oh you’re out doing all these things and what the lord is doing is making this master network for people to live out their their god-given calling and knowing that it can be highlighted in all different spheres of influence and that looks so different for each person but not to be afraid to go after it and That whole question of like, is it a God dream or is it a flesh dream? And that is so important to pinpoint and to nail down because it’s not going to happen if it is a human dream. It’s a selfish dream. I mean, it might happen, but it is not going to have that eternal fruit. It’s not going to have that harvest that actually brings the joy and the peace and the love that we’re actually searching for in the aftermath of a dream fulfilled. And when a God dream is pinpointed, what we’ll see is that it’s to love God. So it’s to honor him. to make him known, to make his love known. And it’s birthed out of gentleness and kindness and love. And it’s to help other people. So it’s to help uplift others around us. And it’s to highlight maybe a gifting or a talent of them and to allow people to be part of it. And What people don’t realize is that this yes or no and that obedience to that God dream, it doesn’t just affect you, but it’s a responsibility to humanity. And God, he had that original dream and he entrusted you personally to live it out. So you might just think, oh, it’s just, you know, it’s just this random dream. Maybe it’s for interior design and painting and whatever. You know, this radio show, but you’re with Corner Cafe, Rachel, this beautiful dream. They just think that, oh, it might just hit this little spear for my heart. I’ll feel good doing it. But no, it’s supposed to ripple out.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:29

just people watching you live out your dream it highlights that eternal dream inside of them and it’s this ripple effect that is just limitless right yeah i love how you describe that because i like how you said the flesh versus god but then the fruit of it right so the fruit not only in your own heart is it a selfish dream or do you want to bless others and um you know share Jesus within the dream. Now, even people, believers, well, believers, of course, can ask the Lord for a dream, and He definitely gives us those. But for non-believers, too, I believe all of humanity can dream and exercise their free will to live out something that in their heart they dream for. Of course, unbelievers don’t have the Lord, and so much more can happen with the Lord and so much eternal impact, right? But I imagine that you’re around people who are unbelievers who hear about the message of the calling. And do you feel like that’s a seed planted? If you’re not giving salvation message right then and there, but a seed planted that there is a God and the God created you individually and he has dreams for you. So explain how that seed kind of gets planted, even though you’re not going through the message of salvation. Right.

SPEAKER 01 : 12:45

Right. Well, I love that you just highlighted, Rachel, the common denominator that we all have a dream. And whether someone knows Jesus or not, it is the bridge that can build that relationship for him, for people to get to know Jesus through your actions, through your love. And that is when you’re able to pay attention to what someone is actually dreaming about, sharing one of the most sacred parts of their heart, I would love. debate that that is the most beautiful thing you can hear from one soul of those details of a dream they are able to see God in a whole new way. And they’re able to know that that dream isn’t there just by accident. Someone put it there and that is your creator and your creator reconciled a relationship with himself through Jesus and that we get to have eternal life with him forever and ever. So it’s like a, it’s a perfect way of, of being able to build a relationship and ultimately share the gospel.

SPEAKER 02 : 13:50

Right. And he created each of us so individually. We all look so different. We all have our individual personalities. And he created even the human body and our looks and stuff and our gifts, whether we can sing or teach or whatever it may be. And within that whole package, then he inserted a dream in each person. Right. Of course, his ultimate dream is for each, each person on the planet to come to him. That’s his dream. His dream is he wants everybody to come to him, but he allowed free will and not everybody will, but still through his loving kindness, he still enables every person on this planet to dream. Exactly.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:33

And we’re able to see heaven on earth when we, People are living out their dreams. And I don’t think we we highlight that enough or stress that enough to each other, just as even as friends or as family or as coworkers. But it is so important that we are continuing to. dream and walk by faith because that it really does bring that expression of eternal joy like there’s this we do shine we shine so much brighter when we’re walking in the spirit and the spirit of purpose and we know that we’re where we’re supposed to be and just like you were saying we are each so individually made and not on just the outside but the inside in our life experiences God allows us to go through all these different experiences to build up our spirit, our personality and, and who were meant to be in the kingdom for such a time as this. So there’s no one, there’s no one that goes through all the things that we each go through. Right.

SPEAKER 02 : 15:39

So that’s a really good point. We’re so different in so many ways, but even our life itself and experience is so very different. Yeah. I’m glad you said that as well. Now, Partnering with the Lord, it is amazing how many people have done so many different things like opening up hospitals or opening up orphanages or nonprofits today that are helping people get out of sex trafficking. Those things, even a building that we’re sitting in right now, we’re on the 12th floor, right? Someone had to dream this up in their imagination and draw it and believe it could happen and have a team of people to help them build it for us to be sitting here. So it’s just, I think, in some ways, it’s so natural for us as humans to build buildings and create things and dream of a song. And we can maybe have that disconnect, too, that the Lord… wants to partner with us. He has major dreams of people creating businesses that can help others and people doing nonprofits and, like I mentioned, hospitals. So I just kind of wanted to highlight that, that when an individual can dream with the Lord and make… such things happen on this planet, and that is bringing heaven to earth to help orphans and to have hospitals and all that kind of stuff. But not to think that someone’s dream is better than another either, you know, because I feel like we’re so individualistic too. It would be like saying, well, that person’s better than me because of their looks or their personality. I think we can’t judge people by what God’s placed in their heart to dream. Right.

SPEAKER 01 : 17:19

Right. Yeah, I think that we all have different levels of dreams that come in our everyday details to a huge dream that might impact. You know, I think the small ones, they ultimately do impact the whole world. But it’s being obedient in the little and small, quote unquote, dreams. Right. Mm hmm.

SPEAKER 02 : 17:44

Now, so when we dream and we take action, I know because you’re my friend, hearing stories and stuff, there is opposition. So how have you handled that and pushed through?

SPEAKER 01 : 17:58

That’s such a great question. You know, in all of these dreams, I think… There’s so many giants that come up. And so we usually just hear, oh, yeah, I got my doctorate or I did become a mermaid or I, you know, let me just take you through a couple of those situations of overcoming the trials. So for the certification for becoming a mermaid, we had to get our open water dive done. certification you have to have two 30 feet dives and then um two 60 foot open water dives in the ocean and i had to do that in a week and i had just uh you know i had a very small time frame to be able to complete all of that i had like two days um And so I had to fly down to Mexico, figure out how to get a flight. It was standby, which most people wouldn’t have known. So there’s always like those different challenges. Are you going to get on the flight? Is it going to be the right timing? What time of day? How am I going to get there? I think I got there late at night in Mexico. Not the best case scenario. Didn’t know the driver. Yeah, I mean, family. I lived. I lived. If family’s listening, I know. Oh my gosh. And Rachel, so we completed. I was down there with another girl that was also wanting to be a professional mermaid. But for our 60-foot dive, so it was our second day, and we had just done our training in the morning. We get down there at 60 feet, and you don’t realize how deep 60 feet is. It is way down there. Well, you can’t talk underneath there, you know. the way that you, you learn certain sign language, but she had an asthma attack. And so we were all the way down there and we had to, um, we had to go up and we had to go, you can’t just, you know, burst up, go as fast as you can to the surface. Cause it will, um, Your lungs will burst. Your ears will burst. You know, all the things. So to handle that amount of stress underwater for my friend, that was a very, very challenging situation. Not only for her to get back up safely, but then in order for me to complete the course, I had to dive again after that scenario. And there was a lot of fear there. And just thought of how am I going to do this? Because there, you know, most of it is you really have to surrender to the to breathing in a way that you are not normally used to. And to just acclimate to the equipment and the buoyancy and breathing. And it ended up being one of the most beautiful dives, but it was a lot to overcome in the mind. And so I would say just over allowing the Lord to be able to be our peace in the midst of extremely high situations. And we have to get in that realignment and acclimate to what he’s trying to teach us without. Yeah. diving into fear, right? Because we have that option.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:12

Yeah, because you could have easily been in an anxiety attack yourself.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:15

Exactly, exactly. And I’m really humbled to say that I got that and I was able to go dive at Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey with 13 sharks that most of them were well over Eight feet, eight to 13 feet and diving five times a day at 23 feet. So it was a lot to go in for a week. You’re hoping that they really feed the sharks well prior. Like you fed them really well, right? It was a mistake to watch the feeding time in the morning. I was like… And literally, you would think the sharks would be a big obstacle. Honestly, just to be able to get down and to breathe is just making, because you have to take the rag out of your mouth. There are so many parallels to our everyday life with mermaiding. You wouldn’t believe it. It’s it’s so silly. But, you know, I think just all these scenarios, whether it was my doctorate and figuring out if I was going to pass, it was, you know, it’s like a Ph.D. It’s called a DSL. So it’s project based and your project is either passed or it’s kicked out and you don’t get your doctorate. And I had a delayed communication whether or not it was going if I had passed. So I was thinking I did it and I hadn’t heard from my dean. And I think in that waiting period is really just trusting Jesus to say. I have to like he’s testing my heart and am I going to be OK if I’m I didn’t pass and I gave it my all, but this, the ending isn’t going to turn up like I wanted. And I’m grateful to say that I did, but there’s been situations like we had a huge event at a world renowned amphitheater and had a, a felon that stole all of our money right after that huge success. And so there’s lots of scenarios that our mind is, and who we’re becoming in that moment is the most important thing. And that’s the way that we’re going to be able to overcome those giants of our testing and character and walking with Jesus rather than folding into fear and to what we think is the easy way out. So I would just challenge everyone with knowing that when you’re faced, when, not if, when you are faced with the trial and the giant, And the bigger the giant, the bigger the trial, the bigger the promise. You are meant to be able to be, you’re meant to make it through, but it’s, are you going to trust Jesus, praise him, adore him? And through that fire, you will make it and it will become the will of the father afterwards, whether it’s what you wanted or not, rather than folding into the easy way out. Right.

SPEAKER 02 : 24:13

I love that. And I like that you highlighted whether it was something you wanted or not. But he can change our hearts to something that we didn’t want. It does happen. He can heal us and he can just change our heart. So we could just trust him with our heart. And to a side note with dreams, you know, if there’s no red flags in terms of, you know, I’m, I’m being disobedient to the Lord with a dream and you’re like, well, I’m not sure. Well, why not just go try? Yeah. And what’s the harm in that, you know? And then I’ve heard that too. The Lord will, will, you know, be with you in that and can change or he can use anything. So if you’re kind of questioning, well, I don’t know. And it’s definitely something that’s not like in full disobedience to God. Yeah. Then I would just say try. Yeah. And if that doesn’t work, then dream another dream. And that’s the beauty of dreams is we can always dream another dream.

SPEAKER 01 : 25:06

Right. And what I don’t think people realize is that there’s layers to dreams, that there’s layers the scenic route. And I love, I say that quite often, but it’s so useful in our everyday mindset to know that Jesus is usually going to take me on the scenic route. It’s usually not a direct shot. It’s not going to Just go straight there. And once in a blue moon, it might work out that way. But most of the time we’re going the long way and we’re going to meet the people that were in to be able to experience all the tastes and the flavors and the scents and in the different environments along the way. And what I also have been learning, it’s it just allows us to be so much more prudent and wise and discerning for the future that he has promised for us. Because if we don’t have that discernment, we’re going to fall off the cliff. If we don’t have that patience or that, yeah, the prudence to know. Are we supposed to work with this person or not or with this kingdom or this country? I mean, talk about the prudence that our current president has to walk through. You really have to have that in your spirit, what’s right and what’s not. And usually God teaches that through prudence. these experiences and these people that we, we meet and there’s going to be felons and there’s going to be villains and there’s going to be these people that are meant to be distractions, but we’re in, we’re meant to encounter them and overcome them. Amen.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:44

Well, I can’t believe it, but we’re out of time. So, um, listeners tune in every Monday through Friday on KLTT to all the dreamers at two 30, right after the good news with Angie Austin. Thank you so much, Crisandra. Thank you so much, Rachel. And I want to remind you that if you have a dream to have your own unique radio program, just like Crisandra Brunson, I did a course on how to have your own unique radio program that will stand the test of time. To learn more about the course, just go to InfluencersTV.com forward slash radio. That’s InfluencersTV.com forward slash radio. And see you at the Corner Cafe next week.

SPEAKER 03 : 27:39

We’ll chase the day away