SPARK: Igniting Faith, Family, and Revival
Spark is a faith-filled podcast igniting revival in families, communities, and hearts around the world. Hosted by Maria Termotto-Horwitz, each episode blends powerful testimonies, prophetic teaching, biblical wisdom, and real-life stories of God’s transforming power.
From breaking generational curses to walking in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Maria equips you to live boldly for Christ, lead your family into deeper faith, and impact the world with the Gospel. You’ll hear inspiring personal stories, guest interviews, and prayers for healing, deliverance, and activation.
Whether you’re a new believer, a seasoned follower of Jesus, or somewhere in between, Spark will encourage you to live on fire for God — every day, in every area of life. Revival starts here.
SPARK: Igniting Faith, Family, and Revival
Faith, Fitness, and Finance: Aligning Your Life with Biblical Principles with Brandi
Every part of our lives—our faith, physical bodies, and finances—belongs to God, yet many Christians struggle to integrate these areas cohesively. Brandi Lovato, Certified Financial Planner and Certified Kingdom Advisor, joins us to share how her ministry Faith, Fitness, and Finance bridges these seemingly unrelated aspects of life into a powerful framework for holistic Christian living.
Brandi reveals her journey of answering God's call to create a ministry that unites business leaders in her community. "I'm not afraid to talk with anyone," she explains, whether they have "not a penny to their name" or "own multi billions of dollars." This spirit of inclusivity drives her mission to break down artificial compartments in Christian life, recognizing that we aren't meant to separate our spiritual lives from our physical health or financial decisions.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Brandi shares that the Bible contains over 2,300 verses about money—making it one of Scripture's most addressed subjects. She identifies three common financial pitfalls: operating from a scarcity mindset rather than trusting God's provision; failing to actively steward resources; and unknowingly investing in companies whose products contradict biblical values. Her expertise in faith-based investing helps clients align their portfolios with their beliefs without sacrificing returns.
Perhaps most exciting is the announcement of "F3 Moms"—a new initiative inspired by a mother who brings her daughter to workouts to show her "God isn't just in church, God is everywhere." This powerful insight sparked a vision to create spaces where mothers can exercise, connect spiritually, and model holistic faith for their children.
Ready to stop compartmentalizing your life and start living as the integrated, purpose-filled person God created you to be? Listen now and discover how connecting faith, fitness, and finance might be the missing key to your spiritual growth and community impact.
A special thank you to the Best Home Ever Team for sponsoring Spark, allowing us to keep supporting Amanda Termotto’s Right From The Heart Foundation — from caring for orphanages in Uganda and India to funding outreach here at home. Get connected through a Spark Palm City networking event, Blessed Life Ever home church, Mustard Seed Collective Bible study, Calvary Fitness workout, or Like Arrows homeschool co-op. To learn more or get involved, text or call Maria at (561) 779-9452.
Best Home Ever: Your Real Estate Team
Helping families buy, sell & invest with expert care and VIP golf cart tours.
This is SPARK—where faith meets action. Keep the fire burning, share this with someone who needs it, and remember: the time is now, and you are part of God’s Kingdom story.
Welcome to Spark. I'm your host, maria Tomato-Horwitz, and today I'm joined by Brandi Lovato. She is a certified financial planner and a certified kingdom advisor. She is also the founder of Faith, fitness and Finance. Brandi. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, maria, absolutely so. Today we're going to talk about the heart behind Faith, fitness and Finance. Brandi, how did you come up with this and where do you see it going?
Speaker 2:Well, so about five years ago the Lord put it on my heart to start a ministry and my three favorite passions are faith, fitness and finance. And really the finance aspect is meant to bring together business leaders in the community. So it's not specific to my industry, which is wealth management, but rather just to support and bring together business owners in the community. So it took me about two years to actually move on that weight that God put on my heart, but the first year that I had the conference, and ever since then he's just been leading me to continue to grow it and build it and just really like bring a revival in the community of our faith-based business owners.
Speaker 1:I love that, and it's been a few years since it's been going, so what changes have you seen year after year, and what do you expect for next year's?
Speaker 2:Well, we've grown every year. The Lord just keeps bringing people in, and a lot of people like you guys have been there since day one, so you've just seen it kind of transform. And every year when we have the conference, spending that whole weekend together, like rather than just one day, just really gives us the chance to build that extra fellowship together. And in the future, kayo and I just decided that we're going to start, instead of just doing monthly workouts in between the annual conference, we're going to start having fellowship nights, so getting people together, and I can share with you what that looks like too. If you guys have interest.
Speaker 1:Yes, and let's talk about fellowship, because you have such a heart. Ever since I met you seven years ago, you've had a heart of bringing people together for the kingdom of God, and I love how you incorporate all the different aspects of life into one, because that's truly how life works. We're not compartmentalized people. We are holistic human beings and by bringing together all the different aspects of life, you truly are treating the whole individual.
Speaker 2:Yes yes, well, fitness is kind of unrelated to faith or finance and they're kind of three unrelated topics. But you bring faith and everything that you do at least I do I know that that's like the foundation of everything that we do and just bringing together all aspects. Like our body is created and it hosts the Holy Spirit, so it's so important to take care of it. And then, when it comes to finance, we're in business, so every day we're connecting with others and fellowshipping.
Speaker 1:So it's just, even though they seem so unrelated, they fit so well together and it's so much fun to do life with all your friends 100%, and I know plenty of people and I know you do too that just treat faith as its own thing and fitness as its own thing, and finance as its own thing. And the fitness people don't really talk about business and the church people don't really talk about fitness. So how do you see that bringing all three things together has been a benefit to the people that you're bringing it to?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So all of the people who've been apart since day one, they just love the fellowship that like, the camaraderie when we come together and just spend time together during our workouts. We have prayer beforehand and we always have a devotional after and we share. You know how are weeks going and just things struggles that we're going through. It gives us a chance to really like bond with one another on a deeper level, and I last workout I had a mom come up to me and she was like you know why I bring my daughter to this workout? She's like because I want to show her that God isn't just in church, god is everywhere that you go. And she's like can you please start like a mom's group or something where we can all bring our kids and show them that God is everywhere, not just in church and Sunday. And so that's really what sparked our F3 moms group that I would love to share about as well, and that's a perfect segue to F3 moms.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. So this mom that inspired me. I already had it in my heart to expand faith, fitness and finance. I didn't know what that looked like, and then, once she said that I'm like that's perfect, I have a daughter. I always have trouble, you know, working out with her. On the weekends when dad's not there, I bring her with me, but I'm the only one, and so to know that other moms have that need and to bring God into it as well, it's just the perfect fit for everyone.
Speaker 1:I agree, I struggle going to workouts with my children. And that's a struggle. The gym I was going to I would be the only mom who would bring a child, or maybe one other mom might, but it wasn't. It wasn't the norm. It wasn't the norm, yeah, and I felt like I was disturbing the class, and so that is so wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. So we're going to have our first workout in a few weeks and if you're interested in joining us, please reach out. We would love to have you be a part of it with us.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's just a dream come true to bring the networking, the mom group, the fitness all together. Yes, the mom group, the fitness all together.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it's going to be a blessing. Yes, for sure. And just expanding that fellowship and community. We would love to have you be a part of it.
Speaker 1:Yes, and speaking of community no-transcript trick of the enemy and way that he isolates us, not to have fellowship with each other.
Speaker 2:You answered it already Isolation it's definitely like. I mean I, I, I totally agree with you. It's when, when he feels like he's like bringing us into the place, that we're on our own and we don't have that support system, that's the best way that I've ever felt, you know, felt that deep hole is just being by myself and not having friends around and not having that family or that support. And if you don't have a family, if you're by yourself or live by yourself, you need that support system. I mean that's critical and God created us in fellowship with one another. So that's what we're here for is to come together and have that community. Amen.
Speaker 1:And I've always admired that about you, how you have a gift and a calling and a magnetism about you that you bring people together, whether they're faith-based or not faith-based, everyone's magnetized to you and because they see that spark within you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just reading the other day in scripture, the Sermon on the Mount. It says they say love your friend and hate your enemy, but I say love your enemy as well. And so you know what Everybody's our friend. It doesn't matter what we've been through. It doesn't matter if we want to be next to them every day. We need to love them and we need to care for them and support them.
Speaker 1:I like to say that if we're going to spend eternity with each other in heaven, we might as well get to know each other on earth.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Forgiveness is real. How sad would that be if we show up to heaven and we don't know anybody there?
Speaker 2:Oh, that would be horrible. I mean, the whole purpose on earth is here to you know. Spread the word and build disciples and bring other people with us.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you do such a good job doing that. Oh, thank you. So do you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Where do you think that spark came from? Like, what's your story, what's your God story? I will say I do believe in nurture because we are, you know, a little bit of a representation of our parents. Sometimes we grow up and do exactly opposite because we weren't happy what our parents did when we were growing up. But my father he was like he was the most social butterfly I know. He would talk to a stranger on a bus or a plane or whatever it was and just spark a conversation and just be genuinely interested in the other person and what they have going on. And he was just a good question asker and just. He's always been that social person and he wasn't someone like me, like to where I would have people, gather people and host parties and stuff, but he just wasn't afraid to talk to a stranger.
Speaker 1:That's such a good quality to have, how have you seen that translate into your business of financial advisor coaching?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm not afraid to talk with anyone. It could be someone who has not a penny to their name. It could be someone who owns multi billions of dollars. I feel like God created us equal, and scripture also says show no partiality. So speak with everyone the same, speak with everyone with love, and if they accept you for who you are, that's great. If they don't kick the dust off your sandals and head to the next town, amen amen, and speaking of which financial kingdom advisor, tell us what that's about.
Speaker 2:So well. I've been an advisor for 12 years now and I knew nothing about connecting your faith with your finances because I thought there were two unrelated topics. But my firm is a Christian advisory firm and they focus on biblical principles of investing, and so when they showed me this course called the Certified Kingdom Advisor, I looked into it and I'm like this is so awesome. I had no idea that there's 2300 verses in the Bible that talk about finance and it's one of the most widely talked about subjects in the Bible, and not many people. I didn't follow many of the principles, not because I didn't want to, but I was unaware, uneducated of what they were and really like, studied and took the time to know how to implement them, and so being a steward of the resources that God gives you is very important to him. Amen, what?
Speaker 1:do you think are the three biggest pitfalls Christians fall into in regards to our finances?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll speak for myself. So I've always my father I just spoke of how amazing he was socially but he was just very closed handed with finances. Growing up, he always told us we don't have enough. He always told us we don't have money to get. He was always with that mentality of scarcity. And so having that mentality is like the exact opposite of trusting God. It means you don't have trust in him to provide for you and care for you, and so lack of trust in God is the biggest one that I see.
Speaker 2:Another one is stewarding the resources that he gives us. So like there's things we can do for positive change, we can go be actively involved in what we're doing with our money, so we don't have to just give, we can be actively involved in changing people. And then the third one is like where we're investing, like what are we investing in? This is one thing I didn't know of as an advisor. I didn't know that when you're investing your money in the market, you're investing in some great things, but you're also investing in some not so great things that you might not even be aware of, because you're in an index fund. So you're just invested in a basket of everything and what I didn't realize is there's companies that are involved in things that are exactly opposite of the Christian faith Things like pornography, things like gambling, things like abortion, things like alcohol and tobacco.
Speaker 2:Like all of these things you might not realize that they're bad up front, but if you look into the statistics like alcohol for example the top 10% of Americans drink 73 drinks a week. That's over 10 drinks a day, and that's the top 10%. So 10% of Americans are alcoholics and that's where the alcohol companies are profiting off of. So if we're investing and we're making money off of these people whose lives are being destroyed because of their addiction, I understand that there's free will and free choice, but addiction is addiction and if you're going to have a choice to invest in that versus not investing in that and you have that option and you're aware and educated of it James 2, verse 10 says he who obeys the law and fails at one part of it is guilty of it all. So why not align our finances fully with the faith so that we are not guilty of one part of it?
Speaker 1:Amen, yeah. So how do you help your clients align with the biblical mandates on how to manage our finances?
Speaker 2:It's a great question, so I have a presentation that I've created for education. I feel like the first point of faith-based investing is to know what you're doing and what the principles are, what the scripture says about how to invest your money, and then the second stage is helping them implement it into their plan. So asking them in-depth questions about their personal finances and understanding where they are and how we can move them along that needle to help them align their finances with their faith.
Speaker 1:I love that. What is your favorite success story from one of your clients?
Speaker 2:Well, I have a lot of them, and this is more recent because I've got my certified kingdom advisor certificate about a year ago now, but I've just been sharing it with all clients and I have multiple success stories, but this one really hits home with me. I had a client who was not a Christian and I took that step to ask to pray for him in the meeting. And he's like this is did you say pray? And I was like, yes, like how can I be praying for you? And then he was like okay, and then he told me how I could pray for him. And then I was like, let's do it right now. And so we stopped our conversation. He, like every other conversation prior to that was not, did not have faith in it.
Speaker 2:But what I learned in my course is, everywhere everybody is somewhere on a continuum, somewhere from like resistant to the faith to like about to be converted, to spiritually mature. And it doesn't matter where they're at on that continuum, as long as you're helping push them a little bit further and further. You're moving that needle on the dial, you're helping them out and you never know when a mustard seed is going to grow into a mustard tree. And so just taking that step and trusting that he's not going to, you know, fire me as his advisor for asking for prayer. It was a step forward in mine. A step forward in mine and also I have stories where I've helped clients understand their giving needs and what their desires are and just help them be good stewards of their finances. So that's very rewarding as well.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful, and what financial success have you seen your clients have after having everything properly set up?
Speaker 2:So that's a good question as well. So I believe that the scripture talks about true faith being somehow, by doing less and having faith you can achieve more, because God will provide that gap. And so faith-based investing has similar returns to the market, because all you're doing is investing in the market and taking out a little bit. But that little bit that comes out, if it shows up in this much of a lag in your portfolio, god's going to provide this much in other areas of your life. So I've seen that happen. I've had clients that have followed and been obedient and just had amazing things happen in their business had new clients, new contracts, things come their way that they weren't expecting, and so it's a blessing to just trust him and know he provides for us regardless. Yes, he does.
Speaker 1:Yes, he does. Yes, let's segue into fitness. How does fitness play a role in your finances?
Speaker 2:Well, I believe that our body is our temple and it hosts the Holy Spirit, which is the most beautiful thing that God's ever given to any of His creation, and so it's important that we take care of our body. It's important that we work out to discipline ourselves. Everything about the foundation of faith is discipline. In order for us to be truly free, we have to discipline ourselves, and so, if we're disciplining our body and keeping it healthy and hosting the Spirit in a healthy way, it relates to everything else in our life Our mental health, our success in our business, our success in our family. It directly correlates with everything else that we have.
Speaker 1:Yes, and speaking of the Holy Spirit, you and your husband are full of the Holy Spirit and you're on fire with the love of God. Yes, and speaking of the Holy Spirit, you and your husband are full of the Holy Spirit and you're on fire with the love of God. Yes, was it?
Speaker 2:always that way? Oh, that's a good question as well. So Kaio, my husband he was born and raised in an atheist family, so I was born and raised in a Christian family, but I wasn't always so close with the Lord either I always believed that with the Lord either. I always believed that Jesus was our Savior, but throughout my younger years, when I was involved in sports, I made that my priority, and so when I met Kaio 10 years ago, I had to be a role model for him. I had to show him that in order to live a life that's worth living, you have to give it to, you have to give yourself to God. And so, and being a role model for him, he helped me rekindle my faith, and COVID also helped as well. I mean, we spent hours a day and reading scripture and just finding ways to just build our faith and build up each other, and that fire became exponential in growth for him when we did that.
Speaker 1:I think heaven just smiles abundantly when a couple comes together in prayer and worship and reading the Word and is just hearts kindled with God. What place do you think reading the Bible has in a marriage?
Speaker 2:I think that it's crucial. It's a daily routine. You must read the Bible. I think that it's important that you read with your spouse. I think it's important that you read without your spouse. I think it's important that you memorize scripture. I didn't always think that was important, but as soon as I learned how crucial it was for my course when I was taking it, I realized how crucial it was to my life as well, and it's really changed the way that I think about things and the trust that I have in God, especially when things go as not like they were expected, like this podcast, when we were recording it and it wasn't even recording.
Speaker 1:It's hilarious how things work. We have 20 minutes of recorded content that was not recorded we were sitting here talking to ourselves yes, and it was great. It was fantastic and bonding all of that, and maybe we could have just threw in the towel. So it's fine, we got to get ready for your party tonight. Let's just put away the stuff. We'll'll do it another time. But no, you said let's keep going.
Speaker 2:Not today. Say it Not today, say it Not today.
Speaker 1:So I just love that about you, that you can just roll with the punches, you can just go with the flow.
Speaker 2:Maria, you're the same way. That's why you're my sister. I love you so much.
Speaker 1:Yes, like recognizes, like For sure, yes. So it's just a pleasure getting to do life with you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for having me on the show. I really enjoyed sharing my testimony and what's going on with our life and I really hope that you guys will join us and some things that we have going on, because our goal is to build that community and it's very important that we are all connected and supporting one another. Yes, and it's very important that we are all connected and supporting one another.
Speaker 1:Yes, so just to recap, brandy has Faith Fitness Finance monthly get togethers and she's also starting Fellowship Night Fellowship Nights.
Speaker 2:And we're starting F3 Moms, which is so exciting. Yes, I can't wait.
Speaker 1:So the workout, with the kids playing and being able to network and pray for each other what better can life get? I'm freaking out with excitement. Right now, brandy's going to be leading our first workout and it's going to be fantastic. If you want more information, just let us know. Yes, we look forward to seeing you there. Yes, well, brandy, we have a party to get ready for, because a very special birthday we're celebrating.
Speaker 2:It's all about Jesus. Don't ever give me any credit.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about that. Why do we like celebrating birthdays? Why do we like celebrating birthdays.
Speaker 2:It's just a way for me to get people together. Honestly, I don't ever want the spotlight to be on myself. I think that my favorite thing about a birthday is being able to bring people together and have people meet one another and have people build those relationships and therefore, you know, just making God happy when he says, when two or more of his fellow brothers or sisters come together, he is here with us, and I believe he's smiling down on us.
Speaker 1:Amen. Whenever people come in your presence, they are sparking conversations, they are sparking relationships, and that's how the little sparks coming together. That's how we start a fire in people's heart to win the world for Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Amen. That's how we win the battle.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Spark, faith, family and Revival. I'm your host, maria Tamato Horwitz, and my guest today was Brandi Labato, and it's such a joy to be here with you. Have a blessed day and remember to spark yourself.
Speaker 2:Yay, bye, yeah we're going to tagline.
Speaker 1:Spark it up.
