Iyanla Vanzant Opens Up About Losing Her Daughter & Finding God Again | Super Soul Sparks

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1:07Wayfair verified products are hand-vetted by product specialists using a 10-point quality inspection. More than 20 million verified five-star reviews help shoppers buy with confidence. Plus, Wayfair rewards members 5 % back on every purchase. Transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5 % back on every purchase. Head to Wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Iyama Van Zandt was born in Brooklyn in 1953. Actually, she was born with the name Rhonda Harris. More on that a little later.

1:51Not only was I born in a taxi cab, I was born under an elevated train. Things have always moved very rapidly in my life. Very rarely has my life been still or quiet. And it took many years before she found inner peace. Her mother, an alcoholic, died when she was two, and she was sent to live with her grandmother. I call this the House of Horrors. It's where I lived with my grandmother from birth until about age five, when my father and my stepmother came and took me out of this place because my grandmother beat me with an ironing cord until all the skin came off my back. Iyanla says her childhood was filled with fear.

2:30She was raped at age 9. She gave birth at age 14 and was a mother of 3 by the time she was 21. But after she saw an ad for a local college while riding a bus, she enrolled and later ended up going to law school. But after three years as a public defender in Philadelphia, Iyanla felt a higher calling. She became an ordained minister and published her first book, starting a new career as an author, a relationship expert, and spiritual teacher. Iyanla's daughter, Jamia, passed away on Christmas Day, 2003. She'd always kept a journal, and a few months after Jamia died, Iyanla gathered the courage to read through each one.

3:1410 years worth of journaling. Tell us about the letter you received in her journal. You saw a journal. You ran across her journal. I read her journal. Once she got ill, she always kept journals. I taught her. She always had a journal. But once she got ill, she started really keeping a journal every single day. And after she passed, I went through, I got in the bed, and I read her journals. and maybe three or four months after she had passed, I saw this and it helped me, it saved my life because I was really ready to leave out of here. I have had so much pain in my life. I didn't think I could sustain another hour of it.

4:01Yeah. She wrote,

4:07Father,

4:11I know that you have great things ordained for me. She was an ordained minister. She went to... How old was she when she died? 18 years old when she went into the ministry, 30 years old when she died. Okay. I know you have ordained me to do great things. I even know that some of the things you have planned for me, I will not be able to do in this body. This body is just physical. The greatness you have for me is of a spiritual nature, a nature I may never find in this body. She wrote that in October and she died in December. And that said to me, she really understood this. She really did. and as her mom, I don't have the right not to understand.

5:07I need to get some understanding. Because, yeah, when I read that too, I thought she knew. She knew, she knew, she knew. And I even know that some of the things you have planned for me, I will not be able to do in this body. the greatness you have for me is of the spiritual nature, a nature I may never find in this body. So she's here with us now. She's all up in this. She was an exquisite, exquisite soul, an exquisite spirit, my greatest teacher. Do you believe that every person who comes, comes into being existence for a reason? Absolutely. That nobody is here? accidentally, even though you got pregnant in the bush in the back of the car.

5:58Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. Everybody, everything God does is purposeful. And since God is in each of us, each of us has a purpose. Now, you have this purpose to build on, to do television. I have my purpose. But Miss Franklin in the projects has a purpose. Everybody has a purpose because everything God does is purposeful purposeful and God is in everybody. Everybody and everything. And when we start paying attention, those purposes will all come together. And it'll blossom into something phenomenal for the planet. And it's happening. It really is happening. Hi, it's Ashley from OWN. So we have been renovating our garage, and it has been such an exciting project.

6:49We took the garage door down and installed large, beautiful sliding glass doors. We quickly realized we needed curtains for privacy and I found the perfect ones on Wayfair. Shipping was incredibly fast and customer service was helpful with getting us a replacement as I initially ordered the wrong length. It has completely elevated the space and is becoming our favorite place to unwind. Wayfair helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand vetted by product specialists using a 10-point quality inspection.

7:22More than 20 million verified five-star reviews help shoppers buy with confidence. Plus, Wayfair Rewards members 5 % back on every purchase. Transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5 % back on every purchase. Head to Wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. www.wayfair .com Here's what I like about it. All your calls, texts, and voicemails live in one place, so anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history, and respond fast. No more, wait, who talked to this customer last? And if you're worried about after-hours leads slipping through, Quo's optional built-in AI agent can answer questions and even book appointments while your team's offline.

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9:02do you feel that we're getting better or worse? yeah yeah 60 % of the human family is awake 60 % but here it is it's awake? it's awake yeah yeah yeah but what the news reports are the sleeping lunatics. Okay? So you see this? See this? This thing right here is about 40 years old. I had a thing. I don't know what you call it. Let's call it something. Let's call it a growth. And so when they took it out, they had to cut it. Yeah. And it bled. Then they took the thing out and they stitched it up. Mm-hmm. And when I looked at it, it was horrible. The stitches, it was oozing. It was very painful. Now look at it.

9:46The scar is there, but I don't remember the pain. What we're looking at in the world now is the cut thing with the stitches. Because we know that what we've been doing it the way we're doing it isn't working. So we're looking at the poison that's coming out. And that's hurtful. It's painful. It's ugly as the day is long. But 20 years, 30 years from now, all we'll see is the scar. The pain will be gone. It'll be all cleaned up. That's where we are. We're looking at the oozy nastiness. It's okay. In the world. In the world. In the world. In the family, in the relationships. And the fact that we can sit here on a Sunday morning and people watch us on Facebook and watch us on the web over.com and watch us on the own channel and all over the world means that there is a gathering of like-minded people.

10:39You know, if we believe that the darkness, the evil, the ego, the devil, whatever you want to call it, is going to win, then we cannot believe in God. We can't believe in God and think that the darkness is going to win. Then we just all just need to lay out naked right now. Take me now, Lord. Take me now. You know, how can we really believe that? I cannot, I will not believe that the darkness is going to win. I will not believe it. I believe that the only thing that's going to dispel the darkness, boop, is for the light to come on. Yeah. And the lights are coming on. Boop, boop, boop. Here, there.

11:17People eating more vegetables, living green, taking in, saving animals. All of that is the light coming on. Yes. Yes. And so is this show. Yes. What is the soul? What is the soul? The soul, I believe, is the fingerprint of God that becomes a physical body. Ooh. That is good. I believe that. It's the fingerprint, you know, like if you put it on a piece of paper, and it's unique to everybody. Oh, my goodness. Does that not touch me in a powerful way? Did you just have that answer waiting? Yeah. It's the fingerprint of God that becomes the physical body. Unique in its own development and expression, but filled with the divinity that is the essence of all that is.

12:20Okay. All right. What is your definition of God? All that is. Everything. Everything. everything breath life everything i i can't even just get webster's dictionary throw it on the floor it's everything everything and god is in everything god is everything not only in is everything everything is god a manifestation of the presence of god a manifestation of the nature of god a manifestation of the need for god everything god is okay because i was going to ask you, when you're looking at darkness, at evil, at things that are undesirable, how is that God? And you're saying it's the manifestation of the need for God.

13:13Yeah. When you're looking at darkness, you know, I tell you about that, that first lesson I read in A Course in Miracles, I am among the ministers of God. So when I'm looking at darkness, I can't run screaming from the room. I have to know I am among the ministers of God. And what would a minister of God do in the presence of darkness but bring in the light? And aren't we all among the ministers? Absolutely. That's the point. But we forget. We keep looking for a minister and not realizing you it, boo. It's you. Have you always considered yourself a spiritual person or was there an aha moment when you recognize your connection to something bigger than yourself?

13:54I didn't know what you called it. I'm telling you, I saw the feminine face of God in the mirror. I saw the feminine face of God as I felt the life slipping out of my body. I didn't know what you called it. And coming from a conservative... You felt the life slipping out of your body when you committed suicide. When I was trying to commit suicide. And I didn't know what you call it until one day when I heard it. And I said, well, this must be God. And if it ain't, that's what I'm calling it. And so, you know, you become what you believe. So I believe God speaks to me. And when it speaks, I understand.

14:28And I said, okay. Because the sheep know the voice of the shepherd. Yeah. So I didn't need anybody to tell me what kind of sheep I was or what I needed to do. You know, people can talk you in and out of philosophy and theory, but they can't talk you out of your experience. Yeah, yeah. And I experienced God's voice in my soul, which was the fingerprint. And the fingerprint came alive. And I said, well, I don't know what this is, but I'm calling it good and I'm calling it God. God is love. I believe in love. God is truth. I believe in truth. God is wisdom. I believe in wisdom. God is peace. I believe in peace.

15:04Pick one and stick with it. Stick with it. That's right.

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