The Bite Size Podcast with Lorayne Michaels
A podcast for anyone wanting to become a better human! We'll discuss everything from faith, to life, to business, mental health and healing. Everyone has a story and a journey. I have created this space for you to come and learn. Hear from other amazing humans and how their mess became their message! We all go through trials and tests but only some surrender and let it be their TESTimony! Welcome to the BITE SIZE Podcast Friends!
The Bite Size Podcast with Lorayne Michaels
From Shyness to Spiritual Influence: Jennifer LaGuardia's Journey of Faith and Prayer
Ever wondered how a shy individual can become a beacon of hope and prayer on social media? Meet Jennifer LaGuardia, whose journey from reserved beginnings to a public prayer advocate will leave you inspired and uplifted. Listen as Jennifer recounts her early connection with Jesus and her natural inclination to pray for others, a path that led her to share powerful prayer videos on platforms like TikTok. Despite her initial shyness, Jennifer’s profound faith and compassion have made her a beloved figure in the online community, offering spiritual support and overcoming limiting beliefs.
Jennifer's story doesn’t stop there. She envisions expanding her outreach through a radio show, allowing people to call in for prayers and stay connected with God, especially during challenging times. Her heartfelt encouragement in this episode serves as a powerful reminder of the divine purpose within each individual. A must-listen for those seeking spiritual support or a message of hope, this conversation with Jennifer LaGuardia provides profound insights into the significance of prayer and the power of connection. Be sure to connect with Jennifer for prayer and share this uplifting message with others on social media.
You can find Jennifer on Instagram here
Where you can find me:
My website: https://theboldbeginnings.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LorayneMichaels22
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lorayne_michaels/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LorayneMichaels
Hey, it's Lorraine. As you know, it's my joy and passion to teach and encourage others through this podcast, but my heart is actually at live events. Currently, I'm available for booking, so if you're organizing a live event, I'd love to share my story. Your audience will walk away with tangible tools on how to overcome limiting beliefs, break down obstacles and discover their gifts, talents and abilities in order to live a life that God created them to live. It's not the size of the audience that's important. It's the connection and impact that I will bring. For more information, email me at lorraine at theboldbeginningscom, For you to meet my friend today.
Speaker 1:Today, I have an amazing, amazing human being. Her name is Jennifer LaGuardia and I met her I want to say it was a couple of years ago on social media. However, I got to meet her in person and get to know her more, most recently through a mastermind that we're in, Amberlee Lago's unstoppable mastermind, and this woman is I swear she's an angel on earth. If you don't already, you have to follow her on social media. She is a beacon of hope, a light always, and she will flood your feed with prayers prayers over you, over your family, If you reach out to her. I guarantee you, if you are a stranger and you reach out to her and you need encouragement, she will pray for you and she prays the most beautiful prayers and I am so happy to have her on the show today. Thank you, Jennifer, for being here.
Speaker 2:Welcome, oh my goodness, lorraine, thank you so much. I am so honored and I'm so touched by every beautiful word you just shared in that beautiful intro. Thank you so, so much. I am so honored, thank you.
Speaker 1:And I just love you. I love you too, friend. Thank you for being here. So I know everybody has a story. I want to know, I want you to share, what was the catalyst that got you into sharing and praying, because it is terrifying to get on social media and just speak for one thing, Like. It takes a lot of courage for people to just talk and to be vulnerable and authentic. But to pray like publicly pray for people that you don't even know, for people that you do know, that is a huge like. That speaks volumes about you and how selfless you are. What, what happened? How did you get to this place where you're like I'm okay with this, this is my calling. I need to be praying for people.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, lorraine, thank you for thank you for that. I really appreciate you so much and it's a beautiful question. So I my so my greatest passion. I love, love, love. Encouraging people. I've always been that way, even as a little kid, and praying specifically, for some reason, it's something that I just felt led to do even as a kid. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. Just to give you the quick background.
Speaker 2:I grew up Catholic but interestingly, the, the, the doctrine, never really resonated with me, but having a relationship with Jesus always did. I felt this loving presence as a child and I immediately connected that. I felt like I knew it was God. I made that connection at a very young age and I would spend like my most favorite time straight through, like my entire life, straight through. Till now as an adult.
Speaker 2:My favorite thing in the world is to go on prayer walks where I just, I just talk to God. Yeah, and for as long as I can remember, it's something that has always been on my heart. I loved it to take hold, so our friend's hand, and just talk to Jesus on their behalf. For some reason, I never felt shy about that. It's something that I just felt led to do and I felt like it was a way to really help that person connect with God. It just something is a kid, that person connect with God. It just something is a kid and interesting, I'm not. So. When I was younger, in my younger years, I was not that person that was especially vocal. You know, in school I wasn't, you know, I didn't do public speaking or anything like that. In fact, in ironically, even like in groups of friends, personal close friends, friends, I was not the first person to speak. I've always been great, just one-on-one yeah.
Speaker 2:I that slowly evolved over the years, being, you know, kind of getting out of that, you know feeling shy about that kind of thing, but but always, always, when it came to prayer, it's just this very, very special thing, is very special presence. It's this, the love of Jesus, which has come over me whenever I knew someone needed prayer and I just felt led and I could just, I could just like take that person's hand and pray over them, and then it, you know, in my young adult years, like a friend would call me up, I would pray over the phone with that person and and then that kind of evolved into leaving prayers on their voicemails and that eventually led, you know, bringing us into, like you know, social media. I'm dating myself now, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So as social media became a thing, you know, I would reach out to people on social media and leave prayers on their you know Facebook Messenger, instagram Messenger, voice texts Just if someone just was, if I knew a friend was going through something, and then fast forward how this, how I, how this evolved into prayer videos. There was a friend of mine. She had asked me to pray for her mom who had cancer.
Speaker 2:So on a weekly basis I was leaving prayers on her voice text for her mom and she was really into TikTok and this is before I even started doing prayer videos on TikTok. And she shared with me one day and it was ironic because this had actually been on my heart, but I will say I was a little bit nervous and I'll explain in a second why I was nervous about this but she said, jennifer, have you ever thought about doing videos on TikTok Instagram that are just like videos, like pre-recorded videos for people? And immediately it was like an orchestra in my heart. It resonated that deeply. I knew this was God speaking to my heart through her and the confirmation of that speaking to my heart through her and the confirmation of that I so my interaction on social media at this point. I loved sharing with people, encouraging messages based on different experiences that I went through that God helped me through. So, basically, almost like you know, when you're just you're, you're getting together with your best friend and you're sharing something you're going through and you're excited to share about how God got you through whatever difficulty that was. Media to talk to, that talk to the masses as if I'm talking to that one person, my best friend, about what I've been going through and how God is turning this situation around. So that that was my thing for years and I felt that God was wanting me to start well, continue with that, but also add into the mix prayers.
Speaker 2:But the reason I was, I felt a little bit inhibited by that I was concerned about. You know, I'm very, you know, passionate about my faith. Never, you know, that's never been an issue I always love to share about Jesus if that door is open. But I didn't want anyone to feel like I was like shoving a Bible down anyone's throat. I didn't want to come across intrusive, always want to be respectful of people.
Speaker 2:But then I thought you know what, maybe this is just another layer of encouraging someone's faith. And I just wanted to make sure, as long as my approach is very loving, which of course it always would be that people will feel that for me they're not going to feel like I'm trying to be intrusive or anything like that. So I'm just going to be authentic with this part of me, with this part of my faith and what I do, and I feel like if this could help someone, that is the greatest, my greatest joy, my highest honor to speak into someone's life and encourage them with everything that God's gotten me through. So if I could add that layer of prayer, if I might be praying over a specific issue that one or a million people are going through, that is like the biggest deal ever to me. So that's how all that evolved.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. What I love most, though, is your obedience, like some people. So it's the holy spirit, and some people will, um say I had a feeling, or my um it was just coincidence, or you know, there's there's different ways that the world classifies it, um, but the, the feel, the gut feeling and the coincidence, all those things are the Holy Spirit, or I mean, I keep hearing this God winks. I think there's a book.
Speaker 1:Actually, I was talking to Jeff Crilley yeah, and so the God winks. You were attuned to it. You knew unequivocally that that was God speaking to you through someone else and encouraging you to do the thing that he gifted you to do. And you're doing it and I absolutely love it because it takes so much courage to do the thing that God gifted you to do, because the enemy will 100% come in and drop doubt, try and fill love your obedience and your heart. And I also love the fact that and this, this just goes to show you how authentic you are and how genuine you are is when you said I don't want to shove it down people's throat, I want to make sure that it's well-received, and I want to. I don't want to be forceful about it, and that just goes to show you how genuine you are about it.
Speaker 1:And I I know I don't think I know that's why everyone is so attracted to that, because you're authentic and you really are coming from a place of love and concern and comfort, and I think that is so important right now, especially in today's world, you know, because it's filled with so much angst, anxiety, anger, hate, and you're just coming in. I absolutely love seeing you on my feed. I try not to be on social media just scrolling along, but I love, love, love seeing you because you light up my feed and you're so encouraging. Light up my feed and you're so encouraging and I might not even be going through whatever it is that you're praying about, but I just love it because it's so genuine and I know someone out there needs that. So if no one else is encouraging you, girl, I'm. I'm encouraging you to keep doing it.
Speaker 1:It is so needed and I just love it. I love, um, I love what you do. Have you ever been contacted by a stranger, someone that you didn't know, on social media? That came across a video or a prayer and was like, oh my gosh, Jennifer, I needed that so much.
Speaker 2:Yes, and Lorraine, to everything you just said. I thank you with all my heart. You're so welcome.
Speaker 2:It truly, truly means the world to me because this comes from the most raw, authentic place. Everything I put out there. I love people tremendously, so knowing that I can make that difference means the world. And yes, I get contacted every week, Sometimes, yeah, sometimes every day, sometimes several, you know, multiple times a week through the week, people, I don't know who they are, but they reach out to me and I am so grateful and so it blesses my heart, it's an honor to me. I get asked from people I don't know to pray for. You know loved ones, or pray for them. They'll let me know what it is specifically. So, right on, you know, directly on that message, I'll, I'll pray and then sometimes, you know, people will ask you know if you ever want to do a video about blah, blah, blah?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely I will. And then sometimes on TikTok, if somebody you know asks me if they make a prayer request, I'll respond right away on video. So awesome, yeah. But I always, even if it's not a specific request, I always have people reach out and it means the world to me because I, you know, I want to, I want to know that. You knew I needed that. God must have known and I'm like you know it really is. It is the Holy Spirit. I always pray before putting anything out there and especially before praying on video or praying for someone specifically. I always just ask that the Holy Spirit would, would just place it on my heart, whatever it is they're needing specifically, and I just try to be in tune and follow that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that is so awesome. I love that. Um, that was another thing you had just said that I think is super important, that, if you didn't catch those of you listening that, another another thing that just solidifies that it's truly authentic is that you pray before you pray. You know what I mean. You pray for God to speak to you, so that you know what to pray about. So, hello, folks like, so you know that she is not doing this from the flesh, like, she's not doing this to showboat or just to be like oh, I'm holier than thou.
Speaker 1:No, jennifer is super, duper, intentional. And this is what happens when you have a connection with the holy spirit. When you are in prayer daily, you're in the word. Daily you have a connection, you're able to connect with people, because that's what we're supposed to do. We were created for connection. We were, and I love that. I absolutely love that. I can't wait to see where this is going, where God is going to lead you, and the doors that are going to open because of your obedience. That's just, that's amazing, where I'm going to put you on the spot. I mean, do you want to be praying over the nation? Do you want to go to huge events and pray over events Like what would be like a knock your socks off, wow, god moment.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, Thank you for asking me this. So the vision God's put on my heart here again, it means more to me than anything else in the world to speak into someone's life and to help them make that connection with God and to see the Holy Spirit move on that person's behalf. To me, that is my greatest joy.
Speaker 2:I want so badly to reach as many people as I possibly can worldwide, to be that voice of hope to reach people in that place where they might feel like all hope is completely lost, Like when I mean that means more to me than anything else in this world. That is my highest intention. I just I want people to experience the love of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, in their heart and literally have that revival moment in their soul, that revolution in their heart. I want people to experience real life change and transformation in their heart. I want people to feel free inside and to have that hope, like hope that's real.
Speaker 2:So, having said that, and the reason why I started doing these, you know I want it like right now. I do these prayers on social media. I want to try to reach as many people as I possibly can in a small window of time and you can do that on social media. So the ultimate goal I would love to have a radio show where I get where people call in. They need prayer, yes, and I, anybody like I and I can pray over that person in any. You know all the people who might be listening. Maybe they're going through something similar, they know someone who's going through some something similar.
Speaker 2:So that's the long-term vision to reach people on a radio show. So a combination of the radio, a larger presence on social media, here again just for the sole purpose of reaching as many people as I possibly can. My podcast you're encouraging voice with Jennifer LaGuardia. That, and you mentioned praying over the nations. If there was ever anything special that God called me in terms of an in-person event, if he, if God, you know opened up that door and someone asked me to please pray over you know the people there or specific intention of whatever that event is, that would be my honor.
Speaker 2:I would love that yeah so I mean, I would absolutely, oh my goodness the nations would be.
Speaker 1:that would be a ginormous honor and, yeah, my joy, yeah, oh gosh, I'm speaking that into existence. Continue to do that, because I know, as time goes on and the closer we get you know I'm not trying to make be all doomsday, but we know Jesus is coming back. We know that and we know it's going to get harder. The labor pains are going to increase and it's going to get worse and it's going to get scary. The labor pains are going to increase and it's going to get worse and it's going to get scary. I just pray a special protection over you and your heart and your mind, because I know the attacks are going to come, the discouragement is going to come, but I just know that you are prayed up and prayed for and I just want to encourage you that the harder that it gets, the more divinely you are in alignment with what you're called and created to do.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, lorraine, thank you so much. You have no idea, first, how much that means, the magnitude of how much that means and how timely that is, because, yeah, it can be intense, my friend. So I sincerely, I appreciate your prayers with all my heart and you've got my back. And then some, your work is incredible. This podcast is a gift. I'm honored to get to do this with you, and you are a gift in this world, my friend. So just know my prayers are wrapped around you as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Anybody listening? I can't wait for y'all to hear this. All of Jennifer's contact information, all of her social handles, wherever you want to find her, communicate with her, show her some love, pray over her. I mean, we all need that right. And, of course, as always, if you are needing prayer, please, please, please, reach out to Jennifer. She would love to pray over you and encourage you.
Speaker 1:That is her gifting and she's very anointed in that. But, as always everybody, you were divinely created. Jennifer is a prime example of that. You were divinely created for a divine purpose and there was no mistake in you. If this episode has helped you in any way and if you know someone that would need it or love this encouragement, please pass it along and tag us. We want to connect with you. We love connecting with you guys on the socials. So, as always, we love you and you are prayed up. Thank you for listening.