Rooted & Rising: Growth from the Greenhouse

About Princess Parking and IRS Miracles

• E's Greenhouse • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Have you ever stared at impossible financial numbers, wondering how you'll ever overcome the mountain of debt or save enough for that home? When Jessalyn Adams found herself buried under $43,000 of student loans and car payments on a modest ministry salary, the math simply didn't work. Yet within eight months, every penny was miraculously paid in full.

During this heartfelt conversation between friends who bonded during a life-changing mission trip to Mexico, Jessalyn vulnerably shares her journey from financial anxiety to supernatural provision. Like many young adults, she sought security through credit cards and loans, only to discover that chasing money led to more worry, not less. The breakthrough came through a Crown Financial Bible study that revealed a startling truth: she had surrendered many areas to God but firmly kept her finances under her own control.

What follows is nothing short of miraculous – unexpected inheritance gifts, surprise checks, and divine timing that defies logical explanation. "We can chase money or we can chase God," Jessalyn explains, reflecting on how her perspective transformed when she finally handed her financial worries to her heavenly Father. This isn't prosperity gospel – it's the testimony of a woman who discovered that Jehovah Jireh (God our Provider) takes our impossible situations and creates pathways we could never engineer ourselves.

Beyond the financial testimony, this episode delves into the critical importance of faith-filled community. Both women emphasize how isolation feeds anxiety, while surrounding yourself with friends who speak God's promises brings perspective and peace. The conversation concludes with a powerful reminder about fixing our minds on things above rather than cultural distractions that steal our focus from God's faithfulness.

Whether you're facing financial struggles, waiting for God to open doors for a home purchase, or simply needing reassurance that He still performs miracles today, this conversation will renew your expectation of God's goodness. Listen now and discover how to experience the abundant life Jesus promised – not just someday in heaven, but right here in your daily challenges.

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Denise Jackson:

Good morning. I'm so glad you're joining us today. I have a very special friend here today that went with me on an adventure to Mexico oh yeah, jessalyn Adams. And we're going to talk today about just another time when God was mighty in the life of another woman and because I know that he's not a respecter of persons, I hope you hear, I hope it gives you ears to hear that he loves you as much as he loves me, as much as he loves Jesslyn, he loves his daughter so much and he will meet every need, no matter what it is in your life, and I hope that is just joy for you this morning as you listen to us have this conversation. Thanks for joining us. Okay, jessalyn, I'm so happy you're here.

Jesslyn Adams:

I'm excited to be with you. It feels like I know you from another lifetime because we went to Mexico together, but it was one week that was very Life changing.

Denise Jackson:

Yeah, it was very life changing. Yes, I will never, ever, ever forget the time I spent with Benji and Maddie and all the other boys building a wall in the river. Oh, my goodness.

Jesslyn Adams:

See, my favorite memory of you is whenever there was a vacation Bible school and they were doing it all in Spanish and they wanted our boys to memorize it in Spanish.

Denise Jackson:

Yes, a verse yes.

Jesslyn Adams:

And little Benji just being so frustrated which even I was struggling to memorize it in Spanish.

Jesslyn Adams:

And you were like I'm not giving up on them, we're going to keep working through it. And so that was important to me because, as a mom, I'm thinking I'm not giving up on them, we're going to keep working through it. And so that was important to me because, as a mom, I'm thinking I'm just tired and you entered in and cared for them, and it was after a few days of us already working, when we had that cushion Bible school too.

Denise Jackson:

So no wonder you were tired and we cleaned, we cleaned. We did a lot of hard physical work. That I was not. My kids are grown and life is not that hard for me. But it was hard but it was such a blessing.

Jesslyn Adams:

It was a blessing and I'm really grateful. God said pack a lot of Advil.

Denise Jackson:

Yes, yeah, yeah, we went through like we had some sicknesses, we had some places. We had to just walk through faith.

Denise Jackson:

But our kids are still asking about it, asking when we're going to go back, and I don't think I'll ever fully grasp what he did during that week you know, and I met you, really met you and got to know you when I was walking one morning and you were sitting praying, because that's when I started finding out more about who you are and your ministry, that you and Matt work with, matthew work with and have for your whole lives pretty much now, and just your faith, your huge faith, which I love because you know, iron sharpens iron, he tells us. The Lord tells us iron sharpens iron, he tells us. The Lord tells us iron sharpens iron. And it's not just with men.

Denise Jackson:

When women who have strong faith get together and the word is coming out of our mouths, it's mighty, it pulls down strongholds. It was a blessing, it was such a blessing for me to be with you, jessalyn. It's such a blessing for me to be with you, jessalyn. So today we just are going to talk a little bit about your faith journey and where God's been mighty on your behalf. And we kind of said, because you have so many stories so you're going to definitely have to come back, there you go.

Denise Jackson:

But today we're going to kind of talk about finances, because it's such a big deal, so you and I both grew up with a little bit of financial insecurity. Is there anything you'd like to talk to women about that you've learned through that process and just dealing with that as an adult.

Jesslyn Adams:

For sure, you know, I was very blessed to grow up in a home where I was not lacking. Things were always provided for, I would say, though. There were times of prosperity in our family, and then there were times of desolation, college, just longing to be secure, to be safe, to to feel like there's always a bunch of money in my savings account, even though there wasn't. I remember I would. I started signing up for credit cards because I just didn't want to be without and I wanted things just in case, and um, yeah, I probably didn't make the wisest decisions, but yet, god in his grace, um, I remember I took student loans out, and every time I got a grant check, which you would get two things you would get a grant check that you don't have to pay back, and then you would get a loan yeah which I will eventually have to pay back with interest.

Jesslyn Adams:

And I remember something would happen to my car and like all that grant money would have to go to that. And I thought to myself are you serious?

Denise Jackson:

I can't go shopping with that, I'm so mad.

Jesslyn Adams:

But God was like no, I know you need this. And so he took care of those car payments that I needed to make. And then, even after college, like you said, my husband and I work for a ministry and we raise all of our financial support. Really, god does it, but we get to invite people to join with us, and so I can't believe that we've chosen this path. But I've seen God. I've been serving now for over 20 years and he has always provided for us.

Jesslyn Adams:

And I remember, as a single working with the ministry, living in Houston I'm not going to lie one of those designer pair jeans, you know I'd work hard for it but just this greater awareness of oh goodness, I still have student loan debt. This is kind of hindering me in being able to do some things with my finances that I think God would desire. And so what would it look like to fully depend on him and to trust him, to kind of go after some of this debt? And I'll be honest, denise, when I saw my student loan debt, my car loan debt, and I saw my current salary in the ministry, I thought only God, only God.

Denise Jackson:

And it was true, only God, because he did it in our lives too. When we finally had that realization, it was like this will take us 10 years to pay off and we won't be doing anything else, and in 18 months, just dedicating it to him, it was gone.

Jesslyn Adams:

Yeah, I mean I decided to do this. Uh, I just knew that I did not manage money, well, well, I did not really like to look at my account. I like to deny it. Yeah, and I did a Crown Financial Bible Study ministry with my church and God just shook me and said you've given me so many things in your life, but you have not given me your finances.

Denise Jackson:

Praise God.

Jesslyn Adams:

And so I said, Lord, here it is. Every tax refund I get every extra. This I'm going to go towards debt. I'm going to go towards debt. And you know, I was looking at, I think at that point, college loan debts were $28,000 at the time and my car note was about $1,000. 15 grand. And I thought, okay, this might take until I'm like 50, but here we go, and I am not kidding Denise, within eight months, eight months, and it was impossible oh yeah, like you're looking at your money and you're looking at your debt and you're saying this is impossible.

Denise Jackson:

So something impossible happened.

Jesslyn Adams:

Yeah, I mean it had to be and I was. And I'll admit, as I'm trying to be a good steward and pay off the debt and not spend money on things that the world tells me I need, I was very frustrated. I was doubting God, and then God used a family member who decided that they said hey, I know you and your brother have some student loan debt and I would rather see my inheritance be blessing you now, while I'm alive, than when I'm dead. And so tell me what you owe on your student loans.

Denise Jackson:

No, it's just out of the blue.

Jesslyn Adams:

Out of the blue and she didn't want to support my ministry, but she did.

Denise Jackson:

Yeah. So God says that when we have favor with him, we have favor with men, and those men can even be enemies, they will still be peaceful with us and they will have favor towards us. So, like we don't know, One of the ways our debt got paid off was randomly from the IRS, which I've told you I had an irrational fear of Randomly. We get this check from the IRS and I mean I can't. You know, I'm reading that paperwork which you never can understand what the heck that paperwork means, and so I wouldn't even cash it for a while. And then finally, we just said, well, I guess it's ours, because they haven't come back to get it.

Denise Jackson:

I kept watching my bank account thinking they're just going to take everything. I didn't want to use it in case they came back and required it back. And then what was I going to do? And that was one of the big chunks to pay it off. Well, we had no idea that was coming in. No idea, god just does stuff, he provides when we trust him, and I just think that's a lesson I want us to know and share today is that we can chase money or we can chase God, and a lot of times the world wants us to chase money for security, even just for security, not even for all the things that we think we want with our eyes. You know that we desire.

Jesslyn Adams:

You know I think when we put our eyes on money it will lead to anxiety. And you know and I've seen God do this all throughout my life I mean, there's been other expenses. I mean you know that same family member two months later paid off our car note, oh wow. And then I saw myself go oh mercy, okay, I'm dating somebody, I want to save up for the wedding. Lord, uh, can I go live rent-free somewhere so I could save up some more money for the wedding? He opened that door, oh wow. The girl that opened the house to me ended up being my sister-in-law introduced her to my brother.

Jesslyn Adams:

uh, and then Matthew and I got married and I remember he had some student loan debt from his masters and I said, hey, let's pay it off with the savings that I've been able to accrue.

Denise Jackson:

Because so I'll pay off my debt. He's like, oh, you want to do this.

Jesslyn Adams:

And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, god's doing stuff like this. And God, continually. Even when we had kids and we had trouble having kids and we had to seek out help and we thought where is this money going to come from, he continually provided for us to have two precious boys and even oh my gosh Denise, even in light of the pandemic. I mean, we saw everybody you know struggle financially and with inflation. You know I hear him again going, again going. Well, there's some big costs coming up. How's this going to happen?

Denise Jackson:

and you are depending on support from people yes because you're both in ministry yes, and it is tempting.

Jesslyn Adams:

I want to get back in the driver's seat. I want to see a padded savings account. I don't want to say no to my kids when they ask for things, and I tend to not trust God, and he has repeatedly and told me I'm Jehovah, jireh, I will provide. I don't withhold one good thing from those whose walk is blameless, and he has continually provided me, and it's it's something I still wrestle with, but he is good. He always takes care of my needs, um, in my kids needs, because I think what's unique is, once you start having kids, you worry about their future needs, uh, and God cares for them even more than I do.

Denise Jackson:

That's exactly right. And he's made promises to you about your children too, and so you can rest. We have to remind ourselves of it pretty regularly. I think we have to speak it to one another.

Jesslyn Adams:

I'm talking like multiple times a day, yeah.

Denise Jackson:

We have to say it to each other. And so, like we have a group of friends that we, which really are family from the Mexico trip, a group of girls that I mean it's so funny because one week together and we're like sisters and I love them so much. But they are, they do that, they have faith coming out of their mouth, they're part of her, they're the same group that she goes to community group from our church, and so they encourage one another.

Denise Jackson:

They build each other up. She was saying one of them was over watching the game the other day at football game. It's just nice that we have these women in our lives, and so you know, part of this whole effort of ours to record this is to tell you your friends who love the Lord are important for you, and so go find them, go seek them out, be a friend to somebody who needs a friend. Get in a church, go to a community group, be involved, because in those places you're going to get so blessed, because you're going to be hearing the word, and that word is going to strengthen you.

Jesslyn Adams:

it's also just the same place, because I think reality is. Scripture tells us all the time do not worry, do not worry. I think god knew that we were going to worry about yes yes, and I think the power or everything well, and I think that's the power of being in community with one another is the safe place to go. This is where I'm struggling. Can y'all pray and bringing that out?

Denise Jackson:

into the light frees you up.

Jesslyn Adams:

It's almost like giving that burden back to god and your friends, and so they all can pray for that and I think there's power community, because when we live in isolation and I just worry about money, it takes me into a negative nelly spiral and at the same time I think we talked about this earlier I'm a cranky person. I'm impatient.

Denise Jackson:

I've never seen you cranky or impatient, oh I appreciate that. I have never seen that, so it doesn't matter, though. You could be cranky and impatient with me, and I would god still, god still loves me, but I think he does love you. He loves exactly who he made you to be he is generous I'd love to remind you and all the girls that he called us before we were born.

Denise Jackson:

He knew our name and he called us and he put us in our mother's womb and he knit us together for a purpose and he sent us and he knew what our mind, will and emotions were going to do, but he also knew that his spirit was breathed into us and his spirit is mighty, that his spirit was breathed into us and his spirit is mighty, and when we choose his spirit over what we want he's, he just does some incredible things. I can honestly say, like I can look back, and there is not one thing that I ever wanted that I didn't get, and every need was fully met in my life and I'm 66, so I'm just giving that to you as you're walking.

Jesslyn Adams:

You got a few more years I need to hear that and even you sharing your story of how god provided a house, yeah, already speaks to us, because we're in a season of going lord. If it is your will to purchase a house, would you make it clear, um and I'll admit the way how the housing costs and interest rates? I'm like I don't know how.

Denise Jackson:

But God. And even back then it wasn't. You know, every season it seems like it's more impossible.

Denise Jackson:

Back then it seemed impossible that every house was so expensive, but then we offered what we had and and we had the house, and I think that was always God. So God can do that in this season too. So he's going to open up a door to what you've got, what you're able to do, and it'll just happen. Or it might be a gift. I mean, god pours gifts out on us, he pours them out on us, and so I think we have to be more expectant that our father just loves. I expect parking places all the time, princess parking, I do. I always do. My mom like put that in me, because she'd always say I wonder if there's princess parking. And I'll always say where's the princess parking, father? And you know almost always it's just right there, but sometimes it's far away because he wants me to walk and get exercise. So it's all for my good. But he's got princess parking because we're his precious daughters and he loves us and he wants good for us, right? I?

Jesslyn Adams:

mean he really does. And even if you know purchasing a home is not God's will for us, he's there with us, he knows exactly what we need and I've got to continually put that trust back in him. But if, like you said, if I fix my eyes on him and delight in him, I do believe he'll give me the desires of my heart as.

Jesslyn Adams:

I honor and reflect him, but he is good and he is generous and I am still learning that, I'm still in process of that. But I was just marinating on that today as he answered some prayers this morning All right.

Denise Jackson:

Praise God All right, he did, and so he's good, he's good and you work in ministry crew which works with college students, right?

Jesslyn Adams:

It started with the college students and so it has grown. It's been around since 1951. And the main focus of the ministry is we want to help people follow Jesus, know him, love him and share him with others, and so that is manifested out in a lot of different ages that we reach out to and demographics and locations. And so my husband actually works with faculty at Texas State University, helping encourage professors there how to be a light to their students and other faculty, and I actually branched even beyond college students and I want to help people get in God's word. What does this look like? To look at God's word? Like you were saying, let's remember what God has said. This is the book of wisdom, of hope, of promise.

Denise Jackson:

And a living word.

Jesslyn Adams:

A living word, it is alive and active.

Denise Jackson:

It's a two-edged sword when it comes out of our mouths and it cuts asunder the work of the enemy that we don't see, so we kind of don't even pay attention to but we don't see, so we kind of don't even pay attention to. But, guys, satan and all his little demons that got cast down are real and they're here and trying to destroy us. But we, so they have power, they have some power, lord of Lords, we've got power and authority, in the name of Jesus, to address these enemies that come against us. We do it with the word of God coming out of our mouth. So there, I'm so glad you brought up that living and active word that we need.

Denise Jackson:

I mean it's a great ministry.

Jesslyn Adams:

Without God's word, oh my gosh, I'd be a struggling bus and so, but we need A struggling bus, yeah.

Denise Jackson:

None of the wheels on the bus go round. Yeah, these wheels are just flat. You know I love that.

Jesslyn Adams:

But God has really shown me a lot in his word lately and has been a place of hope, because if we can't offer people the hope and the light of the world in Jesus, they're going to be looking to things of this world like we were talking about using finances to bring security, joy and hope, and we know that the next thing is not going to satisfy no, and it could be gone tomorrow you can get so much away and it could be gone tomorrow, but our faith in jesus and our faith in our father is not going anywhere.

Denise Jackson:

He's eternal and because of that we are, and so I hope we all keep that in mind today as we walk, uh, and we encourage one another to be the light. So, um, I do have something today because, really seriously, we're having more conversations. This is really good. But do you have something today you'd just like to leave our listeners with? That will encourage them.

Jesslyn Adams:

You know, I think lately God has been showing me what I fix my mind on is really what's gonna really come up to the surface and so I I'll admit, lately I've been just focusing on things of the culture.

Jesslyn Adams:

I love to binge watch on Netflix you know all these different things, but just what I fix my mind on is what I'm gonna dwell on and what's gonna overflow, and so you know, I have a tendency to think okay, life in heaven is is where it's going to be abundant. But john 10 says I came to have life and that they would know me abundantly now like we can do it here and pray that heaven would be in earth.

Denise Jackson:

Our father, yeah exactly so yeah, he wants us to have heaven in earth.

Jesslyn Adams:

And I'm thinking I don't want that abundant life, but that comes through the father to being in his word, and so I'm just lying down, laying down, yes, all my worries, my fears, my desires, and asking him to make them his um, and so that's, that's so good.

Denise Jackson:

That's when I fix my mind on so he says um, one of the verses is, uh, in the word, is that the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart would please God, and I just believe that's. You know I personalize the word in my life. I know you do too, because it's living, it's for me. So I pray that the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, would please you, o Lord. I pray that Lee's words and med heart would please you, o Lord. I pray that Lee's words and meditations would please you, o Lord. I pray that Jessalyn and Matthew's words would please you, o Lord, and their meditations would please you. And meditations are important, what you're fixing your mind on, because it goes into your heart and then it comes out of your mouth. And my kids gave me such a hard time because they wanted to listen to all the current music.

Denise Jackson:

And they did yes yes, and one time, and I was telling them you should not be listening to this music. It will stay in your head Because I knew that, because the Beatles were still in my head and Jeremiah was a bullfrog.

Denise Jackson:

Those stay in your head from your use and they come out of your mouth, you know. And so I was telling them that. But then I'd let them you know, I'd say okay, whatever. And they'd be listening. And they were listening to friends in low places and one day I was singing along with them and they started laughing. But I said, look, this is what happens. You hear it and then it gets in your heart and it comes out of your mouth. So I feel like that's such great advice. Today. What we fix our minds on is really important. Let's fix our minds on things above. Let's fix our mind on the things that god has taught us in his word, and so, for today, I just wish that you would have joy in the knowledge that he is your lord and

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