Hi! I’m Ashley James, host of the Learn True Self Podcast, wife to a wonderful husband, homeschooling mom to a beautiful son, and holistic health nut. Professionally, I’m an author, 10+ year podcaster, Integrative Health Coach, Anxiety Cessation Expert, and Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Time Line Therapy. Personally, I love Jesus, cats, coffee, and living in the Pacific Northwest.
Yes, it does rain here often! But the weather is always changing, and rain is quickly replaced by sun and stunning sunsets. The rain makes everything green year-round and keeps the air clean and fresh. I love it. It’s absolute paradise. I get to look west out over the Sound (a big body of water) and see the Olympic Mountain range, then turn east and see the Cascade Mountains. No words can describe the beauty surrounding me. I get to see God’s glory all around me, every day.
I grew up in Toronto, Canada, in an Anglican family. I spent my weekends and summer exploring the wilderness two hours north of Toronto in a majestic place called Muskoka, where we had a family cottage on the lake.
As a child, I had undiagnosed ADHD, dysgraphia, and extreme anxiety. I was curious and loved to learn. I was both extroverted and very sensitive to rejection. As an only child, I often was lonely and yearned for friendship. When I was alone, I would talk to God. Now, looking back, I realized I prayed a lot as a child. God was the friend I turned to when I was scared, sad, anxious, lonely, or lost.
We only went to church a few times a year, so I had to piece together what it was like to have a relationship with Him between my scattered Sunday school experiences and the questions I asked my parents.
Then came a moment when God saved my life. It was a cold, snowy, overcast winter Saturday in the late 1980s. I was hiking through the woods with a neighbor kid at the cottage in northern Ontario, Canada, near the lake when I lost my footing and slid quickly down an icy, steep hill, falling off the ledge down towards jagged rocks and half-frozen water. I yelled out, “Oh my God!” I was about 7 years old.
Years later, at a Christian camp as a teenager, I unlearned the habit of saying “OMG” or “Oh my God” as a slang one says when they are surprised. Some say it’s taking the Lord’s name in vain, while others would say you are invoking God with secular intent. Either way, when I was 7, it was in my unconscious to yell “Oh my God!” when something shocking and scary happened.
And so I did, totally unconsciously, yell out “OH MY GOD!” right as I realized I was falling to my death, and at the exact moment after I called out God’s name, He caught me. My body froze in time, hanging off this cliff face over the western part of Butler’s Bay in Lake Muskoka. The snow was swirling in the wind around me, and I remained safely suspended in what looked like mid-air.
Dazed and slightly relieved, I realized a tiny branch, a small tree that had taken root in the side of the cliff, had caught me. It was so small, and I had been traveling so fast, I knew it could have only been God, answering my prayer that the unconscious slang was taken as an authentic cry for God’s help.
After that, my relationship with Him became bigger. Far less transactional and more loving. He showed me He wanted me around, and I felt that!
A few years later, I experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit the moment I was born again. I was an emotionally vulnerable teenager and attended a youth group at an evangelical church my friend had told me about. That evening I accepted Christ and began to shake, fell to my knees, and could not stand or control my body. I was ugly crying, sobbing, shaking, and was filled with the most intense love, but also I was really confused as to what was happening! I kept looking up at all the other teens as they circled around me, praising God, laying their hands on me, raising their hands, jumping, worshiping. They were so excited and understood exactly what was happening. It wasn’t until later that I understood what I had experienced.
Like many people, we meet God, accept Jesus into our hearts, then get consumed back into the world and let our flesh, our body, and feelings dictate our direction. The Bible teaches that Satan is the ruler of this physical earthly plane. In my opinion, God has already defeated Satan and cannot be overcome by anyone, but God gave Satan the physical world to rule over so we have a choice. Because when we choose Him, He wants it to be our free will that chooses Him.
If I were the only single woman on a deserted island and was the only woman to choose from, whatever man fell in love with me, I would wonder if they really loved me or if it was just because I was the only choice. I want to be clear that this is my opinion, and please do your own research, read the Bible, and speak with your church leaders, elders, and those you trust to help you understand God’s word and world.
Learn True Self is not about one way of thinking about the teachings of the Bible or about God; this podcast invites all voices, all denominations who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I want to share stories of where God has worked miracles in our lives so we can all be transformed by them.
I believe that Satan has divided the children of God by sowing seeds of conflict between denominations and that for centuries we have bought into his lies. Instead of us celebrating our similarities, we have let our differences in how we interpret the Bible divide us. This podcast is about what is most important, and that will unify us: the Body of Christ under one banner: ‘That Come To Jesus Moment’. Everything else we can work out if we all focus on what really matters. God’s love and our salvation in Christ Jesus.
