BRISBANE broadcaster and journalist Jo Hayes is brimming with excitement as she describes her new series on the global Catholic TV channel Shalom World.
It’s called “Overcomer” – 30 episodes in which the 36-year-old Catholic turns to her growing skills as an evangelist, preaching the Word of God and drawing on personal experience with the aim of helping each of us face the challenges of everyday life.
“You cannot live a day on planet Earth without facing some kind of challenge,” she said.
“In order to not only survive, but to thrive we need to utilise the weapons of warfare that God has given us – and those weapons largely are the Word of God, a practical go-to guidebook to live in victory.”
Ms Hayes has surprised even herself on her path to becoming a televangelist.
She recently returned from a trip to the United States promoting the new series and preaching and speaking at churches, universities, seminaries and ministries, “and so basically to be used by the Holy Spirit at the service of the Church”.
Overcomer took shape last July and August, when Jo Hayes temporarily put aside her other freelance journalistic pursuits, including her work as a reporter for Brisbane’s Channel 7 News.
Working with a small crew in a tiny studio in Brisbane’s Holland Park, she dived into production and, incredibly, shot 30 episodes in eight days.
“I’m telling you that it is all the Holy Spirit, because the messages just kept flowing out of me,” Ms Hayes said.
“It’s literally me preaching to the audience how to apply the Word of God to practical life situations and challenges to see them transformed into victory.
“There is no reason that any believer in Jesus Christ need live in defeat. Jesus Christ died on the cross so we could live in victory.”
Ms Hayes reinforces the point by quoting from Romans 8: “What shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulations, shall distress, shall any challenges? No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ. We are more than overcomers through Christ.”
“I was initially asked to do 12 episodes, which I was super excited about. And then the boss asked me if I could do 20,” she said. “And I said, ‘Oh, look, I’ve already got a fairly full plate’.
“And so we prayed about it. And because we recorded 12 (episodes) in three days, I was like, I have actually got heaps in me, I can keep preaching.
“We did a few more. And then a few more … I literally just kept going until I had said everything the Holy Spirit wanted to say out of the 30 episodes.”
Each episode of Overcomer deals with a real-life challenge.
Ms Hayes draws on her own experiences as well as the experiences of people she has met and talked to about physical illness, mental health, financial struggles, work problems and relationship struggles.
Even the video promo for Overcomer confirms the conviction and power in Ms Hayes’ message.
“I literally have a few dot points of the scriptures that the Lord wants me to use, and just dot points of my personal experiences or the experiences of other people who I’m using,” she said.
“And then I just let the Holy Spirit say whatever he wants to say through me.
“I love working with Shalom World because everything about it is led by the Holy Spirit … Even before we hit play we have group prayer, and there is a prayer chain literally all around the world for Shalom World, praying 24/7 for the production team, the presenting team so that this is all God – none of us, but all God’s glory.”
Ms Hayes describes her own, “radical conversion” – a new and deep spiritual direction that started about five years ago when she was introduced to Lectio Divina, the traditional monastic practice of Scripture reading, journalling, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God’s word.
“The first two-and-a-half, three years were an intense time of me soaking in the Word … studying, studying, studying it, studying it and drawing in Bible teachers as and when needed,” she said.
“So, for example, I would look up various interpretations of different scriptures and I would get clarification from various Scripture scholars as to what certain verses meant.”
Ms Hayes had already tested her preaching voice speaking as a Catholic at conferences and public events in Brisbane but, during the first years of practising Lectio Divina, she deliberately chose to limit the time she spent preaching, and instead concentrated on delving deeply into the scriptures.
“The Holy Spirit kept me on a tight leash,” she said.
“I’m glad I did (hold back from preaching) because it meant that I was so anchored and my desires and motives and motivations to preach were purified in that time.”
Gradually, she has spent more and more hours of the day dedicated to Lectio Divina and yet far from being a burden, Jo Hayes sees the discipline of scripture study as “like a thirsty runner out in the desert, drinking cool water”.
She even found that the power of the Word can be more than thirst-quenching – it can be the basis for physical healing.
Ms Hayes describes a 2019 car crash in which she suffered serious whiplash, yet despite the physical pain, she experienced what she describes as her own “miracle healing” hours after the accident.
“I got down on my knees in my room … and I said ‘God, I believe your Word, and your Word said lay hands on the sick and they will recover’,” she said.
“Your Word also says I can ask for anything in your name. Believe it and I will receive it.
“I was pointing up to heaven and I said aloud: ‘God you promised this and I am holding you to your word and I am not leaving this room until I am healed’.”
After a peaceful sleep, Ms Hayes woke the next morning “without a pain in my body”.
“I was completely healed,” she said.
Her return to good health was confirmed by a chiropractor who was aware of the injuries she had sustained.
Experiences like that, including witnessing literally hundreds of miracles, have sustained Jo Hayes’ passion to preach.
During 2020-21, encouraged by several spiritual mentors, including Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, she felt a growing dream to develop her preaching, internationally.
“I didn’t know what it would look like but I knew the Lord was calling me to be used by the Holy Spirit at the service of the Church,” she said.
She said her recent US trip, meeting with and “gleaning wisdom” from leading Catholic evangelists had helped her discern the path she should be taking.
She spent a “significant amount of time” with one of her scripture mentors, Dr Mary Healy, professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and an international speaker on topics related to Scripture, evangelisation, healing and spiritual life.
Dr Healy is also a member of the Pontifical Bible Commission, one of only a handful of women to be appointed to the role.
At a conference in Iowa, Jo Hayes met with like-minded Catholic women pursuing a passion for preaching.
“Most of these women were in their 50s or 60s. And they’ve been travelling the world – international evangelists, preachers and leading healing revivals all around the world in the Catholic Church,” Ms Hayes said.
“That event really encouraged me in my next steps in this very exciting call.”
Overcomer can be viewed on Shalom World TV at 9pm on Tuesdays ET/GMT/AEDT. Latest episodes are available here.
