Actress Jen Lilley Reveals Powerful Insight on How to 'Wake Up Your Faith'

Jen Lilley. Photo image courtesy JenLilley.com
So many people go through life believing in God but not fully experiencing the completeness of His presence. Sadly, they feel stuck and spiritually stagnant, questioning if there is more to faith than attending church, being happy once in a while, or having their prayers go unanswered.

Author Jen Lilley believes that Christians can reignite a vibrant faith by simply having a more committed and intimate relationship with Jesus, one that is rooted in truth, obedience, and freedom.

In her latest book, Wake Up Your Faith: 365 Daily Encounters with Jesus, Lilley, who has also forged a successful career in television and film, reveals powerful insight into God’s healing power, faithfulness, and grace. With each daily reading, she guides her audience from a passive faith into a more spirit-filled life.

I recently sat down with Lilley to discuss why it is so important to encourage those who feel hesitant to boldly live out what they believe, the value of re-igniting your faith, and how to best experience the presence of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.

First off, if I didn’t know any better I would have to believe that you are truly the definition of a Renaissance woman. You have starred in more than 60 television and film projects, you host a podcast about the supernatural, you have released a Christmas album, you are a passionate advocate for foster care and adoption. And oh yeah, you have just published a book called Wake Up Your Faith. Simply put, what is the fuel that drives you?

Oh, my goodness. It really is the Holy Spirit. I mean, honestly, the word grace actually means God's empowerment. And I pray for that all the time. Because you can't do it without Him. You just can't. I don't know how people go so long before they find Jesus.

I want to dive into some of these pursuits in a bit but let's lead off with your new book that is called, Wake Up Your Faith. You can’t miss it with its hot pink cover. If you were trying to convince a friend to pick up a copy and give it a read, what would you say to encourage them?

It's not a sales pitch, but I really want people to feel seen, valued, loved, and known. I think that's what every single person wants. I know that's what I want. I think that's how God created us. So many people, first of all, don't understand that there is a God who sees them, knows them, values them, and loves them. And so the very first thing I want is for unbelievers, if they're seeking truth and asking the big questions, like why are we here? What's the purpose of life? To find that, find Jesus, find the way, the truth, the life. He is so good. He is so much better than people even realize. And then also for the believer, we do go through seasons where we feel spiritually dry. And I just feel like this book is that Ezekiel cry. Rise up dead bones. Let me put flesh back on your bones. Let me fill you with the Holy Spirit if you have never encountered the love of God.

So many people believe Jesus is Lord. They call him Lord. And I'm not saying that they're not believers. I fully acknowledge they have a relationship with the Lord. But if they feel a little dead inside, or they feel tired, or they've never personally encountered the love of God that leaves you undone, this book is for you. God wants to encounter you so much more than we want to encounter Him.

I have to believe writing this book was a labor of love for you, and a painstaking process at that. This isn’t one of those 30 to 40 day devotionals. This is 365 days worth of daily encounters with Jesus. Writing this book was quite a journey for you. How long did you work on this?

I worked on it for about a year. I did have a very hyper-focused concentrated series of the last two or three months before the deadline. It was really challenging to write because I only had 200 words per entry. And those 200 words include the title, the scripture, thoughts on the scripture, and the action item. It does not have prayers. It has action items at the end so that you can kind of practically walk out your faith as the book of James talks about. That was very challenging. I'm obviously a very long-winded person. I love giving information. I love giving deep thoughts. So to have to try to really pack in meat every day for people in 200 words, including the scripture, was incredibly challenging. When I was working with the editor after the fact, she would say things like, “This is too long. It has too much scripture.” And I was like, ‘Well, I don't have anything better to say than the Lord Himself.’ So it was tricky.

In your book, you write about how God often uses “wilderness seasons” to draw us closer to Him. Can you share about a time when you walked through such a season and how it changed your perspective?

The first thing I would say to people is you have to be very spiritually discerning because the Bible says all through Ephesians, but specifically in Ephesians 1 and 2, that we are seated in heavenly places with Jesus. We are actually united with Jesus. We died with Him. We will resurrect with Him. And so, we do have spiritual authority. If you're going through a wilderness period, the first thing that you need to ask yourself is, is this from the enemy? Is this something that I just need to rebuke and take authority over, or is this God pruning me? Hebrews 12 really talks about how God disciplines those He loves. I write about this in the very introduction of my devotional.

In Hebrews 12, crushing oil only comes out after the seed's been crushed. And I had this revelation that I'm still working through with the Holy Spirit. And I have been kind of chewing on this in the morning, that the parable of the five wise virgins who had the oil in their lamps, and there's 10 virgins. Five have oil when the bridegroom comes. Five don't, I really believe that the five who had oil is because they persevered through trial with righteousness and diligence. And they could not even give their oil. They couldn't give their oil away because there's some oil, wisdom, and understanding that comes from discipline, from trial, and from crushing.

So, I just came out of a two year wilderness season. And God, in His kindness, warned me in prayer. I was fasting three days a week for six months because I was like, ‘Lord, I don't know what you're doing.’ I'm just bawling my eyes out because I'm like, ‘Why do I feel like I'm walking through a minefield? I don't know how to navigate this. I don't know why people are turning on me. I don't know why these things are folding. I don't know why these things are being taken from me.’ And every time the Lord would bring up like one of those five words and He'd say, “Jen, it's me. You don't get to be bitter. This is me. I've got a perfect will for you. And right now you're in my permissive will and you've asked that you would be in my perfect will.”

I've told Him from the beginning of my career, you can take acting from me if you want. But He now has me in this real position of surrender posture, of surrender where I'm like, seriously, Lord, though I just want to be in Your perfect will. So, I would say to anybody that's in a wilderness period, first discern if this is a demonic attack or if this is the Lord because they're different. It says in Hebrews, that if you don't experience discipline in your life, you're not a legitimate child of God. He disciplines those He loves. So it might be painful in the season, but God loves cultivating fruit and He's so kind and He is so good and He is so present.

If we are to boil this book down to its truest essence, I think we could say it is designed to reignite your faith, to claim the promises of God, and experience the presence of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Do you believe any one of these three qualities is the most important?

I can't say encountering the Holy Spirit isn't the most important. But I would say the most important thing is actually reigniting your faith. Because faith is simply trust. And you can't go on with your feelings. So, if I were to say it would be encountering the Holy Spirit, some people interpret or experience the Holy Spirit with goosebumps. But we should never be led by feelings.

We should be led by faith. And God is so delighted in our faith. Hebrews 11 talks about that. I think all of the men in Hebrews 11 did not see the promises of God in their lifetime, but it was faith that was accompanied by action. James talks about Abraham, and his righteousness was credited to him as faith, because it was action when he obeyed the Lord. Hebrews and James both talk about this. Abraham obeyed the Lord and was going to sacrifice Isaac because he was convinced that if God really was who He says He is, that He could also resurrect the dead. He looked at his body and considered it not. He was so old, he should not have been fertile and he wasn't. The Lord made him fertile. God loves faith. He loves faith and is just trusting in something that you have no means. It's just trusting the Lord. So, I would say reigniting your faith, because when you can really activate that faith, it's pretty amazing what happens.

After people have had a chance to read “Wake Up Your Faith”, what would you like your readers to take away from that experience? What is your greatest hope for the book?

My greatest hope is that people would be as crazy as I am for Jesus. I hope they would actually go out and pray for people. For example, you see someone in Walgreens; go ask them about Jesus. Go be bold. It's not your reputation anyways. It's the Holy Spirit's reputation. It's God who has to do the work. I want people to have a fire lit inside them to know that we have to reach out to people with God’s love. The time is now. The harvest is ripe. Look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest. The laborers are few. Go out and go make disciples and then read it again. I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit wrote this. I read it and I weep. I don't feel like I wrote this. I mean I did, but the Holy Spirit really wrote it.

TO PURCHASE WAKE UP YOUR FAITH: 365 DAILY ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS:

Check out Jen’s podcast, Into the Supernatural, on the Edifi Podcast Network