Podcasts about okay lord

Tests Prove Who is the Bride (10) (Audio) David Eells - 10/30/22 Stay Vigilant to Recognize the Fight Ben Slojewski - 10/5/22 (David's notes in red)   I dreamed I was in an old temple ruin. (The old temple ruin represents our temple of flesh.) I needed to get to the center so I could get the shining treasure. (The center where the treasure is located is our holy of holies where the Christ dwells with our renewed spirit man.) There was a voice of a child in my head telling me that in the next room there will be a fight that I have been preparing for and that I should be careful of. (The voice of the Holy Spirit who speaks through our spirit man to guide us and warn us. This spirit man is coming into the image of the Man-child, Jesus. As we will see, his fight is against the spirit of antichrist that tries to keep us separated and distracted from God.) A huge stone door opened and I was prepared to see some sort of great, big beast or dragon in the middle, but instead I saw one of my ex girlfriends. (The antichrist Beast often comes to us in a deceptive and seductive form.) I was surprised and worried because I knew that she shouldn't be there. (Our beastly nature needs to die. Once we are born again it no longer has any place in our temple.) She turned to face me and said. "Why are you here?". I replied "I am supposed to fight you but I don't want to fight you”. (We are often times tempted to be lazy about defeating our old seductive nature and letting it live.) She led me to a television (or tell-lie-vision) and told me we could watch a movie. (The antichrist flesh nature wants us to listen to its lies and be distracted.) I sat down cautiously and told her, "I don't want to watch it because the movie had Hitler committing fornication on it. So she turned off the T.V and said, “Then there's nothing else we can do.” (Eph. 5:8-12 For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord; 11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; 12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of. ) Then she and I got into an argument about something. I can't remember what it was, but I do remember her being very distraught and aggressive by the end of it. Then I woke up. (2Co. 6:14-15 ... what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?) (... I can't help but wonder why I didn't recognize this antichrist spirit and want to fight it. I know there will be battles for me ahead. I hope I recognize it when it comes and that I don't get distracted.)(The way to recognize it is that it will be contrary to your spirit, which is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God.)     The Bride Must Fight to Keep Her Position Marie Kelton - 10/5/22 (David's notes in red) In this dream I was in a classroom and David was there. (This represents partaking of the unleavened teaching of the Word of God.) I had a sliver ring with a blue stone in it, on my left ring finger, which fit perfectly. (The silver represents 60 fold fruit which is synonymous with “moon glory” which the Bride achieves by reflecting the light of the Son/sun. The blue gem stone represents our treasures stored up in heaven. This ring on the wedding finger represents being married to the Son of David, Jesus, our heavenly husband, through the Word which brings us into unity with Him in one Spirit.) A factious man was there and he was saying that the ring was his and I told him that it wasn't his, but mine. (Factious spirits that are angry and critical will try to steal us away from our Husband Jesus by striping away our wedding ring which represents our commitment to Him. They want to cause you to disobey the Word so their demons have power over you.) Then, I heard a voice say, “Give him the ring." so I did, but I was angry that I had to give it to him. (This is a lying spirit that tries to tempt us to give up our marital commitment to the Lord and talk us out of our promises.) I had a silver thumb ring on my left thumb that was kind of big. I thought in the dream, “The thumb ring would have fit him better.” (The thumb is an opposing digit. The thumb ring represents being committed to an antichrist spirit that is opposed in all things to God. 2Th 2:3-4 ...let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, 4 he  that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. The temple here speaks of us, rather than a building made with men's hands.) The factious man put the silver ring I gave him on his pointer finger and it didn't fit because it was too little. The ring was stuck on his pointer finger. (The pointer finger represents one of the main ways that the enemy talks people out of their salvation and their promises, by accusations and condemnation. Rev 12:10 Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night.) I was angry that he had it and that he said it was his. Toward the end of dream I got my ring back from the factious man, even though I don't remember how. (The enemy loves to steal the Word out of our hearts to try to annul our marriage to Jesus. We will forget how to take our dominion back from the devil if we don't keep renewing our minds with the Word of God and submitting to it. Tit 3:10-11 A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse; 11 knowing that such a one is perverted, and sinneth, being self-condemned.) Then I woke up.     Letting the Old Man Die Marie Kelton - 10/24/22 (David's notes in red) The Lord gave me an open vision of a sidewalk and lawn in a neighborhood. My old man was driving a black car in the street really fast and recklessly and it flipped onto the grass upside down. My old man was screaming out of anger, not fear. (The anger of the old nature causes us to be reckless with our lives represented by the black car which travels in darkness. Ecc. 7:9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry; for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.) I then saw a white car pull up behind it. (The white car represents our renewed spirit man who has been washed white as snow by the blood of the Lamb.) And my spirit man came out of the car and ran up a little ways to look, in shock, at the black car that was upside down. After a little while I heard the Lord tell me “Let her die." After I said, “Okay Lord, I'll let her die”, the black car burst into flames. (We can not keep coming to the rescue of our old man whom the Lord has commanded us to resist and crucify. Mat. 16:25 For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.)     The Marriage Rehearsal for the Man-child and Bride Tiannah Fire - November 2021 (David's notes in red) I dreamed that my husband, Samuel and I were going to a wedding rehearsal for our second wedding. (The first wedding is physical and makes the couple one in flesh. The second wedding is spiritual and takes more time to become one in spirit.) We got into this nice white car with other people all dressed up. (The white car represents being lead by the Holy Spirit - God's chosen are ready and dressed with the righteous acts of the saints which are their wedding garments.) This wedding rehearsal felt like it wasn't in this world. (It's a spiritual wedding between the Man-child and Bride.) (I had a dream where I saw the Man-child and Bride being married by Jesus in Heaven. It reminds me of the old saying, “A marriage made in Heaven".) The car was driving really slowly on a winding road with tough corners. Then we arrived at this really beautiful building. (This winding road represents going through the trials and tribulation, represented by the tough corners, to the place He has prepared for us.) Samuel went in pushing this walker. (This represents not relying on your own strength, but relying on the strength of the Lord that makes us stand - Jesus is the way) There were all these people in the building that had passed away. (They were not on earth anymore like dead family members.) Also there were brothers and sisters in Christ that are in the world but not of it. (This represents the Bride of Christ who are a body of believers that have died to self.). Samuel's late Grandma (representing the mature, original church) was there and she suggested that everyone there face each other. (Just as we behold Jesus in the mirror like in 2Co 3:18.) (We are commanded to see Christ in our brethren as well; seeing the end from the beginning for each other by faith. ). David Eells was there acting as a pastor and he said, in a pleasant tone, “That sounds delightful!" (Of course David would say, “It's delightful!" It's his favorite verse!! The Man-child loves seeing others turn to and be transformed to Christ's image) (This is how we rehearse for our marriage feast to the Lord.)     Bride is Seated in Heavenly Places Through Trial and Cleansing Claire Pienaar - 9/15/22 (David's notes in red) (Claire represents the corporate Bride Body because her name means brilliant, as described in Rev 19:7-8, Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.) I dreamed my children were being led down a tunnel by my dad. (My dad represents the old man who tries to lead our fruit down tunnels of darkness or death.) I followed them in, but then I was in the lead, and I stopped them from going further. (Our spirit man must take the lead and conquer our old man so that our fruit of "Christ in us" will be protected and not destroyed.)   In an instant we were at a public pool, and I was watching my children play and swim. I noticed they were involved in a group training event, but one by one the other kids were tiring. The water's temperature was being turned up with every lap. (Riaan: The pool being heated up represents trials and tribulations increasing in intensity making it harder to overcome without true faith John 16:33 These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.) Some of the older boys were passing out from exhaustion. I offered to pray for these boys but their mothers were unbelievers so I could not help. (Our faith and authority in Christ will help our fruit of "Christ in us" mature and survive in the hot trials that are ordained to make us ready). Then, I decided to have a shower. (Representing the sanctification process of washing the dirt of sin from our lives.) I walked into a bathroom stall that was round and had a shower and a spa bath altogether in one. (Riaan: For resting and cleaning. A spa bath blows air into the water representing being born of water and spirit. John 3: 4-6: Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.) . I used these for what seemed like a very long time. (Salvation is both instant and progressive and it takes time for the Lord to clean us up in many cases.) One by one, I saw all these female teachers from my high school come in and freshen up at the basins where the mirrors were. ...These teachers seemed to be in a hurry to get back to their classes. At one point, they told me to come look in the mirror for a splinter in my eye. So I went up to the mirror to see if there was anything in my eye but there was not. (So this was a misjudgment on the part of teachers, reminding us of the hypocritical Pharisees of our day.) (Mat 7:1-5: Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.) I went back to my little spa-pod. I was in total relax mode, really enjoying the cleaning and time to sing quietly to the Lord. Then I saw that I had a maroon shirt on, and blue jeans and Riaan (Representing the Man-child since his name means “little king”) Riann appeared and said, “Time to go”. (Riaan: The washing of the Word clothes us with the blood of Christ and produces a heavenly walk.) (We are doing this in preparation for the Man-child's appearing. The Man-child will choose the Bride according to sanctification.).   ... We were now waiting to board a plane. (Riaan: Sanctification comes before blessing) . We were sitting on seats in an airport and we had nothing with us…(This represents being seated with Christ in heavenly places. We can't take any fleshly baggage with us.)  Then I woke up.   I then opened up my Bible, by faith at random, on Pro 31:11-12: The heart of her husband trusteth in her, And he shall have no lack of gain. 12 She doeth him good and not evil All the days of her life.     Overcoming Through Death to Self Claire Pienaar - 10/6/22 (David's notes in red) I dreamed Riaan and I were sitting on a couch in Anna Stewart's living room…(Sitting on the couch represents being in the continual Sabbath rest through faith in the promises, commanded for believers in the New Testament. Anna means grace and Stewart means steward. By grace we become good stewards of the life Christ has given us. Through His death on the cross we are enabled to carry our own cross and die to our self life.) David Eells was on the opposite end of this small gathering and was teaching people about death to self. (Riaan: John 9:4 We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. Death to self comes from doing the works of Christ by obeying the Word.). We walked out of the house after the meeting was done and ...I saw that we were in a small, little town that had dusty roads. As I walked there was a shop to my right. This little town looked so old, like a  town in the old “Wild West". (Riaan: Representing our personal wildernesses). (The “Wild West was known for lawlessness and rebellious outlaws and represents the world and it's curses that crucify the flesh.) I walked in to the shop and realized it was a sweatshop located in the hull of an old sloop ship. Everyone looked so unhappy. And the people there were in chains. They wanted to put me in chains too. Every day the women would get beaten and flogged and raped by the sailors or pirates on the ship. (The pirates represent the demons that people give themselves over to through sin. They sow their own seed in the “women” who represent the sects of Christianity.) The men were frightfully thin and unhappy with long beards and dirty skin. (They are thin and unhappy because they are malnourished from lack of the Word.) These people were really old and they were so excited that I was something “fresh”. I remember fearing a little for my life but also just going through the motions, not flinching. (Riaan: Seems like there has been a lot of death to self in this sweatshop, but it was through works, forced labor and many curses. There is no joy in this kind of works.) (It is a crucifixion.) First, a woman with curly hair tried to befriend me and she was intent on telling me only the bad report. (This is a good way to stay in the sweatshop.) (Riaan: They have not learned to tame the tongue in order to conquer the curse. That's why they are still in bondage.) Then two older women came and told me how I could not last here because the beatings are too severe. (Riaan: Representing unbelief [and speaking the bad report.]). I watched how they took people off into a separate area and I could hear the screams of torture. I never thought I couldn't handle it, I just thought, “I don't really want this but I'm here now. God will get me through it”. (Riaan: The “perfect works” are patience and joy in trials: Jas 1:2-8 Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience. And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.) I saw the big man in charge. (Representing satan) He was massive and wore a leather apron and worked with wooden crates, and flesh. Behind the "big man",  I saw big pieces of meat hanging on hooks to dry. (Riaan: Meat hanging out to dry represents crucifixion of the flesh. Picking up your cross and following Christ is what we are called to do... The Bride understands this.). He was surprisingly kind to me, almost gentle. He said, “I can't touch you”. (Riaan: He has no authority over us other than what has been given to him, mostly through our own sins). He said, “Put your mask on because you don't want to breathe in the filth”. I realized I had a blue cloth face mask on my neck and lifted it up. (Breath and spirit is the same word and here we see it being filtered by blue cloth, representing the heavenly Word. 2Co 10:5 casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.) I said to him, “Will you prepare me for what's to come?”. And he said, “It seems like you are already prepared. There's no need for you to be here”. (We will constantly be tested and tempted and tried but if you resist the enemy, he must flee. Thank you Lord for victory over every trial for our testimonies, so that we are counted as overcomers!) (Riaan: Satan is used as a vessel of dishonor to bring us to maturity by testing us with fleshly enticements as we overcome in the trials. The Bride has already been through her tribulation.)   So, the Big Man bid me farewell. I walked out of the shop. Riaan joined me. I pointed out the shop front where I just came from. It was all boarded up, like it didn't exist. Next to the sweatshop, was a butcher's shop with the same meat in it, hanging on the same hooks to dry. I pointed it out to Riaan and said, “You see, it's really here”. (We can see the fruit of our lives improve when the meat is hung out to dry!). Then the scene changed and we were in a large room, that looked like a church building. There were not pews, but chairs. The chairs were purple. (Representing royalty.) I saw David standing behind a small pulpit and thought, “There must be more people now” and I saw many UBM faces. I saw Anna and Eve specifically that I can remember. (Riaan: After the crucifixion of the flesh and enduring in many trials, the Man-child will teach the chosen ones as they enter the wilderness.) … Then I woke up. I flipped my Bible open where the word “Hosea” was at the top of the page. Hosea means “salvation”. I asked the Lord for a Word by faith at random and received Isaiah 45:13, I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward, saith Jehovah of hosts.     Fight Against Factious Thoughts and Accusations! David Eells - 10/16/22 Some receive thoughts, dreams, revelations that are critical of others.  It is an obvious organized attempt by faction spirits. Witches are working with the DS and religious factions against Christians  It is being sent to God's people inside US and out of the country. The cure: Receive not an accusation against anyone without 2 or three witnesses as the Word says. Instead, do warfare against demons of criticism, slander, faction, lies, witchcraft, unforgiveness, anger, hatred, etc. Bind the demons off your electronics, mechanical things, house and property. As per our instructions from the Lord, send the angels to lock the dogs up until their lethal injection, i.e. bind their demons.  One dream showed the angels throwing their own curses back on them. We dont need to do this for we "bless and curse not" but we know this is being done by God. In fact I received this about this evil recently. I asked who is doing this and got by faith at random - Psa 109:17-21 Yea, he loved cursing, and it came unto him; And he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him. 18 He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, And it came into his inward parts like water, And like oil into his bones. 19 Let it be unto him as the raiment wherewith he covereth himself, And for the girdle wherewith he is girded continually. 20 This is the reward of mine adversaries from Jehovah, And of them that speak evil against my soul. 21 But deal thou with me, O Jehovah the Lord, for thy name's sake: Because thy lovingkindness is good, deliver thou me; I said the angels said if we would give praise to God, as He asks, they would be bound, so I asked for a word by faith at random and got - Psa 47:6-7 Sing praises to God, sing praises: Sing praises unto our King, sing praises. 7 For God is the King of all the earth: Sing ye praises with understanding. Pray for the elect among the factions to get their eyes opened and return to the Lord.     Focus on My Goodness Eve Brast - 10/14/22 (David's notes in red) David asked me to get a word from the Lord concerning the recent events that have been befalling certain brethren and the concern that the faction is sending witchcraft our way and this is what He told me: “If you go looking for trouble you will find it. If you seek out the evil I will bring it. If you get your eyes off of My goodness and promises and onto the evil and the problems, then it becomes your problem. If you remember My goodness and sovereignty and thank and praise Me for all things, you will have peace in mind and heart, that I work all things for your good and the good of My elect. Do not give your attention to the evil. Do not waste energy seeking to understand the evil. This detracts from My glory that dwells within you and darkens your mind and your spirit man. You only need to believe that I AM for you. You only need to have faith in My power. The only power the enemy has is granted by Me, because My people have opened the doors of access in their personal lives. Each individual, because of excuses, secret sins, rebellion, spiritual slothfulness and idolatry, is held individually accountable. This is not a reflection upon the body as a whole. Each must seek Me concerning any trial or judgment that has befallen them. If they seek Me in all self-honesty (honesty with yourself) and truth I will reveal the reason's why to them. I will protect My body from any that stubbornly harden their hearts to My Words and corrections and refuse further refining. There is no excuse for withholding praise and worship to Me DAILY, in all circumstances and to have a cheerful heart, because I AM your loving Father, no matter the situation and My goodness doesn't waiver or change. You must keep your eyes trained on Me. Don't give the enemy a moment of your time or attention. Praise and worship Me at all times and in every circumstance, for this is how the hedge is built. If you give your mental and emotional energy to the darkness and the evil; this is how the hedge is torn down. Witchcraft has no power except for what you give it and what you attribute to it. I have already conquered it all, if you believe My Word. What you have faith for is what will rule in your lives. Every trial comes as a test to see if you will persevere in your faith. Will you have faith in Me and My Word or will you have faith in the works of the devil? If you focus on the works of the devil, you give him your power and he will continue to feed on the negativity and you are cast down and defeated in the trial and thrown into confusion; losing your steadfastness and peace to doubt and double-mindedness. Have faith in Me, believe in Me and set your heart at liberty. Do not let the works of the devil move you away from your confidence in Me and your faith that I have already won the battles for you.” The Lord brought this text to mind, Isa. 8:12-13, Say ye not, A conspiracy, concerning all whereof this people shall say, A conspiracy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be in dread thereof. 13 Jehovah of hosts, him shall ye sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. David: Amen, put your eyes on the promise and bind the witchcraft in Jesus Name. Fear not them because You have the "authority over all the power of the enemy"; so use it. Jehoshaphat's army went out praising the Lord and the enemies smote each other. The Man-child prophesied destruction to Abimelek and the men of Shechem and they did the same.     The Bride is Chosen for Her Inner Beauty Tiannah Fire - February 2022 (David's notes in red) I was invited to this Christian event at a rich man's mansion in the wooded mountains. (The rich man represents Jesus and the wooded mountains represent the different kingdoms or sects of Christianity. We are all going through our trials in our own personal wilderness tribulations.) The property was located on a massive acreage and it had a waterfall and river and lots of trees, it was very beautiful. (The waterfall and river represent the living water and the rivers of life that flow from the kingdom of God and His throne. John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. Son 4:15  Thou art a fountain of gardens, A well of living waters, And flowing streams from Lebanon. Eze 47:1 And he brought me back unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; (for the forefront of the house was toward the east); and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar...5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. ...9 And it shall come to pass, that every living creature which swarmeth, in every place whither the rivers come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters are come thither, and the waters of the sea shall be healed, and everything shall live whithersoever the river cometh. …11 But the miry places thereof, and the marshes thereof, shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt. 12 And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not wither, neither shall the fruit thereof fail: it shall bring forth new fruit every month, because the waters thereof issue out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf thereof for healing. When I got there, I realized that there were many other Christians, both men and women, that the Host, (Jesus) who owed the land and house, had invited. (Mat. 22:14 For many are called (The Greek word called is Kaleo and means, invited.), but few chosen. Jesus said in, John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him. He was wanting to choose a wife out of all the women there. (As in the book of Esther when the “King of kings” Ahasuarus wanted to choose another queen to replace the rebellious Vashti, who was full of Jezebel, and he chose Esther out of all the other women because she pleased the king. Est.1:11-20) The Host and his male friends all went into the woods and all the women stayed at the house. All the women there were much prettier than I was. I, had an imperfect body and skin and no make-up. (What the world considers beautiful is not beautiful to God. 1Pe 3:3-4 Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; 4 but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.) I was the least attractive, whereas all the other women were (outwardly) thin and pretty. All the Christian women were fellowshipping in the house, they all got along except that they didn't like me. I wasn't sure why, but they just didn't like my personality for whatever reason. I felt completely left out and rejected by them. (Luke 6:22-23 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the same manner did their fathers unto the prophets.) Later all the women got called to where the men were out in the woods. (No, don't go out there!) As we were walking there, I said to all of the women with all my heart, "God loves you and I strongly desire you all to be in God's Kingdom and in His Spirit & Truth for all eternity." I meant that and felt much love for them even though they disliked me. (Mat. 5:44 but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you.) As we were walking, someone handed me a romantic love letter dedicated to me and I read it, but I didn't believe it, because I was the least physically attractive one out of all the women, so I ignored it and didn't think any more of it. (We must overcome spirits of rejection that will keep us separated from God and others. The love letter represents the Word of God and all His pronouncements of His love towards us and His promises to us, but we have to believe His Word in order to receive all that He has for us.) When I and all the other woman got to where all the men were, we were told that we had to do sprint races. All the woman lined up for the race and we ran and I thought in my mind that I can do this because when I was younger, I did much athletics and usually always won. (1Co 9:24  Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? (This “One" is Christ in us.) Even so run; that ye may attain.) When running one of the other women tripped me on purpose so that I wouldn't come first. (Many so called “Christians” like to trip others up out of a spirit of competition to try and make themselves look better than others in the eyes of men. This is not love. 2Co 6:3 giving no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our ministration be not blamed;) After the race all the women were gathered together as the Host (Jesus) was going to announce who he had chosen to be his wife. He announced that he had chosen me to be his wife. (I call myself “me” so there is hope for me.) I was shocked and couldn't understand why, because I was the least attractive of all the women and I didn't come first in the race. (We don't win the race by our own strength and ability. Christ's power in us wins the race. He always chooses Himself.  John 3:13 And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven. Jesus is the only one going to heaven!)   I asked if he had made a mistake in saying my name because I had a young son and he assured me that he had chosen me. (This young son represents our spiritual fruit of Christ in us.)     Chosen from the Foundation of the World Tiannah Fire - November 2021 (David's notes in red) I had a vision that I was standing on an escalator in the sky that was constantly moving upwards towards a big bright light. (This escalator in the sky represents ascending into heavenly places to be seated with Christ. Eph 2:4-10 but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), 6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: 7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: 8 for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not of works, that no man should glory. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them. An escalator moves you without any effort of your own. 2 Co 12:9 And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in (our) weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.) The blue sky and clouds were all around me and I was up so high that all I could see below was darkness. (The darkness is beneath on the earth where the earthly people dwell. Rev 3:10  Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 1Co 15:45-49  So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.) The escalator couldn't be stopped and was constantly moving upwards and constantly getting closer to the bright light. I felt like there was nothing I could do, I couldn't turn around, I couldn't stop and I wasn't going to jump off the sides of the escalator to fall down into darkness. (We are commanded not to look back. Jesus said in, Luke 9:62 ... No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.) (This dream reminded me of how God has already prepared the way and everything is already set in motion and there is nothing our carnal man can do. I felt it was meaning that God won't let us go but will draw us closer and closer to Himself. Every moment we are getting closer to Him and He won't let us go. Since God showed me hell and a glimpse of eternity in God's wrath, I have struggled with the fear of God rejecting me and not letting me be with Him. I believe this vision is like the path for all of God's elect, that He is drawing us closer each moment and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop us getting closer to Him. He has already prepared the way.) (John 10:27-30  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.)      Man-child and Bride Wed Claire Pienaar - 10/8/22 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was at a big daytime event where 7 sisters were getting married. (Riaan: Representing the 7 churches.) (The Philadelphia church is one of the seven sisters, which is the Bride. Moses, as the Man-child, married one of seven sisters.)  I was not a guest or a servant at any of these weddings but I was there, with Riaan, watching it all. These weddings were very well attended and very opulent. This group of 7 sisters had gotten married in quick succession. (Claire represents the corporate Bride Body because her name means brilliant, as described in Rev 19:7-8, Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Riaan represents the Man-child in this dream because his name means, “little king.") These sisters stuck so closely to each other, even after being married, that it was difficult to see them as being “married” at all. (It didn't take long after the first century church was established for sects and divisions begin forming because destructive heresies crept in and separated them from Jesus, their Heavenly husband.) These sisters were so preoccupied with photos and videos and food, that it was hard to tell if these were real weddings or movies about weddings. (Riaan: The different denominations think they are different but they are closely related to each other because all are in apostasy.) One of the younger sisters was drunk, and it caused great shame for the older ones. (Mat. 24:48-51 But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord tarrieth; 49 and shall begin to beat his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken; 50 the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, 51 and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.)     A thought came to me in the dream that they need the power of the Holy Spirit to deliver them ...  I spoke to them for the first time then and said, “I know what that's like. The only way to get rid of it is through deliverance.” I was not even heard by them. (Many of the denominations refuse the Holy Spirit infilling. They believe that you get the Holy Spirit when you are initially saved.) (Riaan: The denominations are void of the power of the Holy Spirit and are thus deaf to deliverance). (Acts 1:8  But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.) I noticed then that Bobby was there. (A nickname for Robert meaning, “Bright fame.” And representing the Man-child, Jesus,) (Bobby was the man from a previous dream that I had, titled, “Only the Bride is Left Standing (3 out of 4 Will Fall Away)” In this dream, Bobby was the one they all thought they were married to, but he was not married to them. Only one of the sisters really looked like she cared for him, but she seemed very Laissez-faire in her interactions with all other people, and this put me and Bobby off. (Laissez faire means, “leave it alone” and refers to the practice of allowing people or institutions to act or behave however they want, with little or no interference. This is the belief and practice of Anarchists. Many of the mega churches have this opinion and they allow any and all lifestyles and sins in their congregations to bring in a larger group of tithers.) Bobby was much taller than I remembered him to be in the previous dream. (This represents that the Man-child reformer body has grown in size and maturity. Eph. 4:13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.) At this point in the dream, Riaan and Bobby merged into one person. He took my hand as I sat watching all these festivities and said, “Oh how I love you”.  ...(The Man-child, Jesus, loves the Bride because she has sanctified herself from the world and the worldly churches and has sacrificed her life in obedience to His Word and way. Song 4:9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride; Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, With one chain of thy neck. The Bride has an eye that is single and a chain of authority around her neck that was given to her by faith in Jesus. The gold chain around the neck is a symbol of royalty and authority. Dan 5:29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.) We had a quick proposal and wedding in the middle of all the other festivities, but it was just to put a ring on my finger. (Riaan: The true marriage feast in the midst of false marriage feasts of those proclaiming to be the Bride.) There was no pomp and ceremony. (The Bride is a small and humble group of people that goes unnoticed by the majority of “Christianity.”) Also, he kept me hidden from the seven sisters' mother and their very large family the whole time. (Esther, who was a type of the Bride of Christ means, “Hidden”. Col. 3:3 For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When the Bride is revealed all the sisters will want to see her and understand what the Lord considers beautiful. Song 6:13  Return, return, O Shulammite; Return, return, that we may look upon thee. Why will ye look upon the Shulammite, As upon the dance of Mahanaim? The mother represents the Mother Harlot of all the daughters who are in the process of coming out from among them. Rev. 17:4-6 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean things of her fornication, 5 and upon her forehead a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. ... Vs. 15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. Rev 18:4-5 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: 5 for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. He covered me with his body so the mother would not see me at all. (Riaan: The truth of Christ, [which is His body; the bread of the Word] will keep us from the mother of the harlots.) Only a handful of non-family members saw our mini-wedding after attending all these other weddings.   I had the plainest ring, the plainest dress, and I was wearing a bright red cloak-like garment over this white dress. (1 Peter 3:3-4: Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel... And 1Ti 2: 9  In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel… And 1 Peter 1:18-19: 18 knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.)   Riaan/Bobby held my hand the whole time. I wanted to kiss him but was so afraid to because I wasn't sure if that was allowed. But then he kissed my cheek and said, “I love you”. Then we sat down and waited for everyone to leave, and he put his head near mine so I could rest on his shoulder. (Christ gives us His mind so that we can rest in Him. Isa. 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.)   I realised then that all the celebrations were over for the other weddings. People were filing out of this huge place faster than I could count them. There were thousands leaving. (They discovered that their theology was wrong and that they weren't the Bride.)  Riaan/Bobby and I started clearing and cleaning up their empty plates and seating places. Just then, two little girls came and told me they lost their clothing and needed help finding them. (Representing the immature flower girls in the wedding party who have not yet put on Christ. The Man-child and Bride will help to clothe the elect in the righteous acts of the saints as in Rev. 19.) Riaan/Bobby had a bright light he shone into corners and under tables, and then I went to find the very small items... All these clothing items were in pretty pink colors and brand new. (Those who come to the Man-child and Bride will learn to clothe themselves with “Brotherly Love”, represented by the color pink, like the Bride of the Philadelphia Church.) Then the best-man came and said, “It's time to go”. (The best man represents the John the Baptist ministry of repentance. John the Baptist said this of Jesus and His disciples in, John 3:29  He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is made full.) It was completely dark outside now. (Representing the beginning of the Tribulation when gross darkness covers the peoples. Isa 60:2  For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.) Bobby/Riaan then said, “Come on, we're leaving”. I said, “Where to?” And he said, “To the airport for the honeymoon. I have planned it all”. I noticed he had a little carry bag with him, but it was all for me. He had picked out everything I would need to take with me. I was very excited! ... (They are going to the wedding feast of seven days which is the seven year tribulation.)     Man-child and Bride Revealed With Prophetic Power Anretta Wachira - 4/10/22 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was with a small group of people in a cave. It was quiet and I was among the people standing facing the wall [of sanctification] watching and waiting. We were all wearing hooded robes. (The Man-child and Bride are a small body of believers who are hidden in Christ, represented by the hooded robes. The cave represents death to self or buried with Christ.)   There was a group in the middle of the cave, crouched down, working on something. One of the men stood up and walked towards the exit of the cave. (Exiting the cave represents resurrection life. As we will see, this Man is representative of Jesus, the Man-child who is working with His corporate body of Man-child reformers to bring the Good News of the Gospel back to the elect of God who will come out of apostate religion.) I heard a voice clearly say, in my head, “You shall accompany Him”. (Anretta represents the Bride who will accompany the Man-child in ministry to God's elect in these last days.) I turned completely to face Him and he stopped, turned, and looked at me as if He had heard the voice at exactly the same time. It seemed as though everyone could hear the voice. He waited for me as I walked up to him. (Jesus said in, John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.) He was an elder; not just mature in age, but also seemed to have a quiet authority about him. He had what they had been working on at the center of the cave. I asked if I could touch what he was holding and He stopped putting it away and allowed me to touch it. It looked like something that should have been a scroll but was folded in fours. (In the Bible, number 4 means creation. This number directly relates to the creative ability of God. The Word of God is what creates the Man-child. They are the Word made flesh as was Jesus.) It was attached to a leather binder and was made of a clear and transparent material but as I touched it, the encrypted code on it started to glow in a light blue, silver light. He quickly folded it and put it in a leather pouch that was under his robe. (The Man-child reformers have been working on putting the Word of God down into their souls, represented by the leather pouch. It is transparent because it is the pure truth of God's Word. It is encrypted because you must have the wisdom of God's Holy Spirit to interpret and understand it.) We walked out of the [portion of the cave that we had been in] a short distance and He was listening intently and looking around. There were people all around us [in the larger section of this cave] but they looked like dark shadows walking along the walls. (The larger section of the cave represents the world and the peoples of the world who have more freedom because they are not restricted to obeying the Word which commands death to self.) We were still underground and I understood that the robes weren't there just to keep us warm but to camouflage us as well. (The Man-child and Bride are hidden by the Lord until they are revealed in God's timing. Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God.) He stopped and said, “I've seen him, he's on this side.” He motioned to his right deeper in the cave. I knew he meant our enemy. (Satan fashions himself as an angel of light and tries to convince us that his ways are right.) I looked past his shoulder and saw a deep darkness behind him. I asked him what we should do. He smiled and said, “We go the opposite way and act natural.” (Col. 3:5-10  Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; 6 for which things sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience: 7 wherein ye also once walked, when ye lived in these things; 8 but now do ye also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth: 9 lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, 10 and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him.) He offered me his elbow and I put my hand through it. We kept walking through the caves till we walked out of the cave onto a very high place; a highland of some sort. I stopped to look at the panoramic view. (As we die to self by carrying our cross we climb Mt. Zion which is the New Jerusalem, the Bride. Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.) Then I heard a voice declare, “And all across the land, was heard the voice of the prophets!” It wasn't announced out loud but I knew many had heard it. (The Man-child and Bride will be the “voice of the prophets" in these last days. Rom 8:18-23  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.) Then I woke up.   Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Assamese Aymara Azerbaijani Bambara Basque Belarusian Bengali Bhojpuri Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Cebuano Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Corsican Croatian Czech Danish Dhivehi Dogri Dutch Esperanto Estonian Ewe Filipino Finnish French Frisian Galician Georgian German Greek Guarani Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Ilocano Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Kinyarwanda Konkani Korean Krio Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kurdish (Sorani) Kyrgyz Lao Latin Latvian Lingala Lithuanian Luganda Luxembourgish Macedonian Maithili Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Maori Marathi Meiteilon (Manipuri) Mizo Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Norwegian Odia (Oriya) Oromo Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Quechua Romanian Russian Samoan Sanskrit Scots Gaelic Sepedi Serbian Sesotho Shona Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Tigrinya Tsonga Turkish Turkmen Twi Ukrainian Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zulu Powered by Translate Printer-friendly version

Summary:What is and how do we speak God's word?How do we read the bible? Is it just a story book?We need an experiential relationship with the Father, and it is the jobof the Holy Spirit to reveal what we are to speak.Show Notes:• With the heart a person believes• Only when God reveals His word can we speak it with authority• It cannot be just words we read on a page, it must be real andalive.References:Matthew 6:10 KJVThy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.1 Kings 17 and 18The story of Elijah and no rain for 3-1/2 years.Romans 10:6-10Who will go up?John 5:19 BSBSo Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothingby Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever theFather does, the Son also does.Luke 12:12 NLTfor the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to besaid.”Ephesians 6:14 NASB 1977Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITHTRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OFRIGHTEOUSNESS,1 Peter 4:11 NKJVIf anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyoneministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, thatin all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whombelong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.John 1:1, 14 NIV1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,and the Word was God.14. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Wehave seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who camefrom the Father, full of grace and truth.Mark 12:30, 31 CSB30. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,with all your mind, and with all your strength.31. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is noother command greater than these.”Luke 24:13-35The two on the road to EmmausRomans 10:14 NLTBut how can they call on him to save them unless they believe inhim? And how can they believe in him if they have never heardabout him? And how can they hear about him unless someonetells them?Quotes:• I didn't meet the Lord as in pie in the sky, I met the Lord throughothers• Christ was and became the word of God.• Okay Lord, show me yourselfTake Away:It is the Holy Spirit that reveals to us what is in the Word or Scripturesand He will let us know when to speak what the Father is speaking toHis people.

Return of the Elect Apostates (Audio) David Eells - 5/1/22    The Blood of the Children Avenged Transcription of Youtube Video from Outpouring Gates  posted April 23, 2022   Because you're adopted into the family of Christ Jesus, that has no corruption, there's a guarantee in this verse in (Deu 32:43 Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto this land, and to his people.) You may be tempted to think, “Oh no, my adversary is coming against me.” But that means that in the court of Heaven, you're already being avenged.” God has already signed off in His blood. He says, “Vengeance is mine.” already. It's not like I have to ask, “Oh Lord, are you going to defend me?” No, it's, “Okay Lord, how is it going to happen?” Understand what the blood of Jesus is to you. Salvation is salvation. Deliverance is deliverance in totality. Yes, at a point, for a moment, you're going to be used as a measure. You may have to deal with some affliction. But guaranteed, there is vengeance coming. That's what God was revealing to me and that's what God has been saying to me and many of you out there.    So Rejoice and celebrate because I saw this vision:   ... There was a puddle of blood in a fair amount on this clay ground. It was so clear... It looked fresh. It was not old or dried up. It was fully preserved blood. I then could tell in the vision... that this blood that was spilled on this hardened earth was crying out to God for what had happened. I don't know how to describe it. The blood of this person that was spilled didn't have a mouth, but it was crying out. I understood that...the blood was speaking straight to the Lord. It was like the voice of the blood was going straight up into the sky... And I understood that the blood was crying out to God and what happened to cause the spilling….    The crazy thing is, as I was watching this vision, the blood never stopped crying out. It continued and continued and continued. I was sitting here watching this vision and it literally amazed me how the blood was on a repeat and it never stopped crying out, it never took a break and it never seemed to cry out and then stop and then cry…it kept on going like a broken record. The blood never dried up, it did nothing but continue to cry out, “Look what has happened to me, look what has happened to me, look what has happened to me.” And it just kept saying that over and over and over.    What I feel from the Lord right now is, “This is the justice I will serve because it is forefront in My face.” ... I see a vision right now, where I see Jesus. He's on His throne right now. And before His face is the crying out of the blood. It's not something that enters into His ears, it's in His face... And what is happening is that the Lord Himself is conducting justice based on that crying-out of blood.    I see the word, “children”. God is speaking to me, saying, “Children are going to be recompensed for the blood that has cried out.” For all the bloodshed that has taken place, God is saying, “I'm ruling that in court.” I see Jesus slam down the gavel. Wow. He's going to rule justice from that, because He poured life into you. Your own blood is not your own. You didn't say, “I need about four quarts of blood for my body to exist.” Jesus thought about that. Because thou hast spilled out, and it wasn't His decision for it to spill out, He's about to spill out His vengeance.  I see a roaring fire coming out of Jesus' mouth. I see Jesus' mouth opened and it's just shouting, He's shouting judgments out of His mouth from His court. And they're coming to the earth and shifts are happening on the planet. I'm looking at it right now. It's like from heaven on earth. The word… it's so amazing. The word completes itself. I see the word being sent out and it's conducting completely what God has said.    I see the word, “children” again. God is going to avenge the children. (We have seen this parallel between the children that the DS faction has slaughtered and the children of God that the church faction has slaughtered. Our dreams have shown them dismembering the children  from the Body.) The enemy will not last for what they have done. Thank You, Lord. God is going to speak to His children. He's going to let them know that there is a Father Who loves them. He's going to approach the children very strongly. They're going to know. I hear it. I just heard the children say, “Abba, Father.” They're going to know Abba, Father. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Wow. Thank You, Jesus.    So this is what God's will is. It's all being set up. I see politicians going away from the public eye and they're going into places. I'm not sure where they're going. But I'm seeing politicians right now. I only see the back of them, I can't see their face. (Declass and justice is chasing them.)    I see Joe Biden and he's turning his body... He can't show his face, and he's going into somewhere else, but his head is down. It's like, he walked from this stage and his body was turned. And his head is down. He's making sure he doesn't make himself public anymore. But this is symbolizing many politicians. (A common word that we have received about the church faction is shame. Many verses that we've received for them include the word shame because the Lord has said that all of their evil sins will be known.)    Many of them are going to do an about-face. About-face means to do a 180. It's not like they're covering their face, they're face is down, they can't look at the public anymore. And they're moving into darkness. They're moving away from the stage; the world stage... the public eye. They won't be considered anymore. That's what the Holy Spirit just said to me: "They won't be considered anymore." Wow. Thank You Lord...    So, this is the crying-out of the blood. Understand that all this bloodshed is before Jesus' face... He's going to take care of what He has to take care of. He's going to fulfill His justice and His judgment. The Lord just said to me, "Many will leave the public eye." Thank You, Lord. "It will be vacant", the Lord said. Empty spaces. I'm seeing empty stages; empty platforms where they have those public news meetings, where politicians give their speeches on CNN or NBC or CBS. I'm seeing them vacant…like there's nobody there anymore. God is going to make these things vacant by His hands.    I do see Trump again. I see him again. God is going to do something with him, he's not finished yet, he's not. But put your faith all in Christ, not in one man...   Rachel's Children Are Beloved of the Lord   Vanessa Weeks - 3/29/22 (David's notes in red)   I dreamed that I (Representing a type of Rachel whose children return from the land of the enemy.) (Rachel is resting in promises given here:)  I was sitting on my bed and speaking these scriptures. Col. 2:15 ...having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (And so He will to both factions.) And Gal. 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. (The factions have crucified many and the shame that they will incur will crucify an elect people coming out from among them.)   The anointing of the Spirit was very powerful in this dream, especially as I spoke the words Christ liveth in me and faith, which I felt was growing in me. (The crucifixion will work this in many people.)   Then I was kneeling on the floor by the bed interceding to the Lord for my spiritual and physical fruit; my children. I looked to the right at an open window. (There is no window there in real life, so I believe this is seeing spiritually the way the Lord sees). I saw our youngest son Jed coming. Jed means "Beloved of the Lord.” (In the natural, Jed is not walking with the Lord now and says he is an Atheist.) (Well, in effect, these children who have fallen away are Atheist because they do not regard God.)   In this dream Jed was two and a half years old, and was excited to see me as he came through the window and crawled on to the bed. (The children of the Bride will come out of captivity and into their continual Sabbath rest.)    Rachel lost her children born to God's people through Herod's slaughter, but, as we will see, the elect among them will return.   The wise men said in Mat. 2:2-7 Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we saw his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 3  And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. (Herod who was an Edomite, who represents the factious leadership over the factious people under him in apostate Jerusalem. He and those under him factioned against his elect brothers, representing the contemporaries of the Man-child, which he killed. He also is a member of the dragon political system in Rev 12 who tried to devour the Man-child but failed and then went after the woman Church. In his office he represented the religious and political faction who seek to kill the Man-child.)    4 And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ should be born. 5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written through the prophet, 6 And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, art in no wise least among the princes of Judah: For out of thee shall come forth a governor (The Man-child, Jesus.), Who shall be shepherd of my people Israel.    7 Then Herod privily called the Wise-men, and learned of them exactly what time the star appeared… (And then the wise men found the Man-child as they always do.) 12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. 13 Now when they were departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I tell thee: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 And he arose and took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt; 15 and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt did I call my son. (The Herods, Judas' and the DS elite are ordained to die for their crimes against the children.)   16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise-men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had exactly learned of the Wise-men. 17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 18 A voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; And she would not be comforted, because they are not. 19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, 20 Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead that sought the young child's life. 21 And he arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.   Back to Vanessa's revelation: (The idea of my son Jed, the "beloved of the Lord," together with the fact that our son was coming back, made me think of Jer. 31:15-17 Thus saith Jehovah: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they are not. 16  Thus saith Jehovah: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith Jehovah; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. 17  And there is hope for thy latter end, saith Jehovah; and thy children shall come again to their own border.) (Notice, when the children are in the factious camp they are considered “dead” by God. Only when they return to Him are they reborn like the Father said of His Prodigal son in, Luk 15:24  for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.)   At this point I saw that I was not wearing a shirt, so I put a blue towel over my chest. (The Lord showed me this is me exchanging my own righteousness and works for His heavenly righteousness and works).    Jed crawled into my lap and I was thinking, "He is 2 1/2 and has been weaned for a while, but some women still nurse their children at this age and then I woke up.  Psa 131:2-3  A Song of Ascents; of David... 2  Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child with his mother, Like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, hope in Jehovah From this time forth and for evermore.    As I was praying about this dream, the Lord showed me that Jed also represents my spiritual fruit of Christ living in me as in Gal 2:20, that I was confessing in the dream.   I thought of the weaned child and Heb 5:13-14 For every one that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a babe. 14  But solid food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.   Also, I looked up "weaned", and found these verses. Isa 28:9-10  Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand the message? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? 10  For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little.   And Isa. 11:8-9 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 9  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.   And I did a search on "weaned" on the UBM site and saw this from the book What has Been Shall be - in the chapter #4, pages 90-103 titled, The Man-child returns. (As a confirmation for this revelation, in the next morning meeting after finding this book on the site, we received Ecc. 1:9  That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.    The Remnant of Israel Returns   Jeremiah 31 also tells us this story of Ephraim who would come out of bondage and we saw that was because God raised up the Man-child to lead them out of bondage. We see here the same sequence of events. The prince will be raised up from the midst of the people. (Jer.31:1) At that time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel… “All Israel,” as we know from Romans 11, includes everybody who is abiding in the olive tree. Natural Israel, who rejected Jesus, was broken off of the olive tree and the Church was grafted into the olive tree through faith in Jesus Christ. Those true disciples who followed Jesus in the Gospels, who were natural Jews which came into the Kingdom, remained in their olive tree. But it says, “all the families of Israel,” referring to all Jews, Gentiles and all those who through faith in Jesus Christ are members of the olive tree, which in Romans 11:26 is called “all Israel.”    (Jer.31:1) At that time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. This includes the remnant of natural Jews that is to come back in, which I am calling “Benjamin,” who was the last fruit of Rachel. (Jer.31:2) Thus saith the Lord, The people that were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness … (The people who will be left of the sword are the traitorous faction who will repent. Also,) there was a sword that came upon Egypt,  representing the world, to motivate God's people to be willing to leave the fleshpots of Egypt, to come out from among them and be separate and to worship God in the wilderness. Egypt had to suffer the plagues, while God's people in Goshen were separated from Egypt and delivered from those judgments. Then He moved them out of Egypt and into the wilderness, where God could once again deal with them and teach them faith. (Jer.31:2) Thus saith the Lord, The people that were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. (We are so glad for our brethren who were deceived by the faction who will repent and return to God and us.)   God's plan was to bring Israel into His rest. (Jer.31:3) The Lord appeared of old unto me, [saying,] Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (4) Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel … (Those who are left of the sword will return and be loved of the Lord and He will build them up again.) (Jer.31:4) Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: again shalt thou be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.    When God's people are led out of bondage, it's going to be a time of rejoicing. (Jer.31:5) Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [the fruit thereof]. There is going to be freedom for people who have escaped the bondage of the Beast in the days to come. That's what Moses came to do, that's what Jesus came to do and that's what the Man-child is coming to do: escape the bondage of the Beast and help the Church do the same. Not everyone is going to escape that bondage. (Luk.21:36) But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the son of man. (6) For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. In other words, the second son is coming out of bondage. (Luk.21:7) For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.    I would say that's a good thing to cry today because here we are again. The Beast is about to bring God's people into bondage and the overwhelming majority of God's people have been in bondage all along. The bondage that we're talking about is more severe persecution, death and destruction. (Luk.21:8) Behold, I will bring them from the north country … The “north country” is the place of bondage. That's where Babylon brought them into captivity, that's where Assyria brought them into captivity and that's where the Medes and the Persians ruled over them. It represents the Beast in the North. (Luk.21:8) Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth …    This is because now God's people are in bondage to the Beast all over the world. Now we are not talking about only little Israel, who is God's people, but worldwide spiritual Israel, who is circumcised in heart and not just in flesh. They're in bondage to the nations in which they live and God is calling them out of those nations to be a part of “all Israel,” one holy nation. (Luk.21:8) Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame (Yes, God's people who are in bondage are quite often blind and lame, and God is calling them to be able to see and to be able to walk straight before the Lord.), the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together (In other words, those who have already borne fruit and those who will bear the fruit of Christ.): a great company shall they return hither. They're going to come back to their “borders,” inside the borders of their Promised Land. The borders could represent the outline of the way you live and, obviously, you want to stay within the boundaries of God's Word, so to speak.   (Luk.21:9) They shall come with weeping; and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters … Amen! Rivers of living water, which Jesus spoke about. (Joh.7:38) He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. (39) But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive … Out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Jesus Himself brought to His people rivers of living water. That's where their life came from – the Word that came out of His mouth. (Joh.6:63) It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.    (Jer.31:9) They shall come with weeping; and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. (10) Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off … (We are one of those “isles afar off” here in America.); and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd doth his flock. In other words, the Lord, Who sent His people into bondage in Egypt or in bondage to the nations (and the faction), is going to draw them out now. This is a time of rejoicing. People are so fearful of the Tribulation, but they don't understand that the Tribulation is the judgment that's coming upon Egypt so that God's Israelites can come out and go into the wilderness to serve God. This is a good time.   My Servants Shall Eat Vanessa Weeks - 4/15/22 (David's notes in red)   The Lord has been speaking to us about the food supply and that we are not to worry. Mat. 6:25-34 Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? 26  Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? 27  And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? 28  And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29  yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.    30  But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31  Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32  For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33  But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34  Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.    On 4/3/22 I was reading in Isa. 55:1-2  Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2  Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. (While I was reading this my husband Barry came home with a loaf of bread.)    The same morning we received Isa. 51:14 The captive exile shall speedily be loosed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail...    On Nov. 4, 2020, when it appeared Trump had lost the election, I was asking the Lord, "Why did he lose when we fasted 40 days? We were hungry and I was praying for success in the election". The Lord said, "You will not be hungry."    This reminds me of Isa. 65:12-13  I will destine you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but ye did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not. 13  Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be put to shame;    Back to our revelation about Rachel's children from the book: (Jer.31:11) For the Lord hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Which is which? It's the Beast entity “that was stronger than he.” We are not talking about a man when we say “the Beast.” We're referring to the whole body of the Beast. You're either a part of the Body of Christ or you're a part of the body of anti-Christ. The anti-Christ is the Beast kingdom. (Jer.31:12) And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion … God is drawing His people to come into His very Presence on His holy hill. God told Moses, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be the token unto thee, that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain (Exo.3:12).    (Jer.31:12) And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow unto the goodness of the Lord, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden (Praise the Lord! This is talking about the Tribulation and God is going to raise up His people to bear fruit and they're going to be blessed.); and they shall not sorrow any more at all. (Jer.31:13) Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. (14) And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.   Then it goes into the text that we studied earlier, where Rachel was weeping for her children and God was comforting her by telling her not to worry, as they would return to their borders. They are coming back. Yes, they have been taken into bondage and are serving the flesh and are dead to the spiritual world, dead to the Kingdom of God, but He's going to change all of that. That's what God is saying.   (Jer.31:21) Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the highway, (This refers to the highway of holiness that Isaiah 35:8 said leads to Zion.), even the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. 22 How long wilt thou go hither and thither, O thou backsliding daughter? (In other words, while they're out there wandering around in the world, this is where they are supposed to dwell. These promises are the ones they are supposed to live upon.) for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth: A woman shall encompass a man. God is bringing the virgin into the wilderness to be led by the Davidic Man-child.   The woman encompassing a man is the Bride encompassing the Man-child. Zion was the Bride, according to Revelation. God told John, "Come hither, I will show thee the bride." (Rev.21:9). And He showed him the New Jerusalem coming down, being born from above (Revelation 21:10). The Man-child David ruled in the midst of Zion, but he also ruled in the midst of the rest of the Church outside of Zion. So there is the larger Church, then there is the Bride and there is the Man-child. Zion is the first to be restored and then the apostates will begin to be restored under her.  This is the new thing that God is going to do: “A woman shall encompass a man.” It's not a new thing as far as History is concerned; it's a new thing as far as we are concerned, in our lifetime, because this is an end-time prophecy.    (Jer.31:23) Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity … It's an old English way to say it because it sounds like just the opposite in our modern ears. If you would translate that today, you would say, “I will bring them again from the land of their captivity.” It's a good thing to come out of captivity and into the Kingdom of God. There are only two places you can dwell in this world: you are either in Babylon or you are in Zion. We are coming out of a spiritual Babylon, which is this world. All of the nations of the world were at Babel.   They all came from Babel and they're all part of a spiritual Babylon, but Zion is separate. Zion is that holy place that we're all going to. God enjoins them to find this highway to Zion. (Jer.31:23) Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring (them) again (from) their captivity: The Lord bless thee, O habitation of righteousness, O mountain of holiness. Zion represents the place of holiness, the place of separation from the world. That's what “holiness” or “sanctification” means. It's the same word and it means giving up your sins in obedience to following the Lord. If you're obeying the Lord, you're walking in servitude to the Lord and you have matured in that obedience to the Lord. That is what regenerate Zion is. And the apostate church will then begin to be restored around her.   (Jer.31:24) And Judah and all the cities thereof shall dwell therein together, the husbandmen, and they that go about with flocks. (25) For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished. (26) Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me. (27) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. (28) And it shall come to pass that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, saith the Lord. While in Babylon, they were living under the curse. Zion is where the curse is done away.    So, spiritually speaking, you cannot physically go to Zion because obviously there is no physical Zion. We are not physical Israelites; we are spiritual Israelites and we can spiritually go to Zion. It is the place of holiness, the place of God's presence and the place of His temple. When we come into the presence of God, that is that place of holiness. Those who were slain by the Beast, by Herod, by Pharaoh, by Nebuchadnezzar, by whatever Beast conquered them, the elect are going to return to their Promised Land. And living in the Promised Land represents resurrection life, the resurrection of God and living on the promises.   Led By a Child   This same story is found in Isaiah. (Isa.11:1) And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit. This is the Branch that in Jeremiah chapters 23 and 33 speak of an end-time David Man-child ministry that God is going to raise up. This Branch represents the Man-child ministry in the end time, the one in whom Jesus lives, because Christ in you is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). I know a brother who had a dream years ago and he called me about it. His name was Tubby and he said, “David, I had this dream where I was talking to you, and I said, ‘David, you remind me of someone I read about in the Bible.' You said, ‘Yeah, I know that person' and quoted those verses from Isaiah 11:1-5.”  What he was saying is that these are going to be an end-time Man-child body of people who are going to come into Jesus' image and walk in the Spirit of God. who are called the Branch.    (Isa.11:2) And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. (3) And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears (In other words, this is a body of people who are walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh, nor ruled by their fleshly senses. They have their senses exercised to discern good from evil, as in Hebrews 5:14.);    (4) but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. (Yes, God will use them to judge the wicked) (5) And righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. (6) And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. A little child, the Man-child reformers, is going to lead these beastly people to the peace of God.   Why these beasts? Well, if you remember Noah's Ark and the people who were saved in the Ark, the beasts were also saved in the Ark and they represented the Gentiles. When Peter saw the sheet come down out of Heaven with all the unclean beasts on it, God told him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." (Act.11:7). And Peter said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath ever entered into my mouth (8). But the Lord answered, What God hath cleansed, make not thou common (9).    This was when Cornelius had sent his servants to Peter to get him to come and preach to them the Gospel (Acts 10:1-8) and Peter got the revelation of, “Oh, God has cleansed the Gentiles (Acts 10:46,47),” as members of the Church. These were people who were members of the body of the Beast – different beasts around the world, as a matter of fact. They had come out of this beast and out of that beast. They were members of those bodies, but now they had come into the Kingdom and they were at peace with one another.    There is nothing that can bring the world together in peace except God's Kingdom. So here you see that God is going to raise up the Man-child. He's going to draw His people out of all nations, out of all beast kingdoms. By the way, they were all called beast kingdoms by Daniel, just as they are in Revelation 7. God is going to draw His people out of bondage to all these beast kingdoms to come and dwell in their land, which He called the land of rest, the land of milk and honey, the land of blessings, provision and everything. So a little child is going to lead all these people out of their beastly natures to be at peace and go to their Promised Land.   (Isa.11:7) And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. In the end of 2007, I saw a vision of this happening. In the vision, the Lord was giving me a piece of property and there were all these beasts that were fleeing onto this property from the judgments that were happening outside the boundaries of this property. I saw it. They were all in total peace with one another, all these creatures that normally bite and devour one another, like the nations do. They were at peace and God's Kingdom was there; His peace was there. The Lord was giving me a house and giving me money to prepare and provide for these beasts that were giving up their beastly fallen nature and coming to this refuge.    (Isa.11:8) And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. In complete safety! (9) They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain… So where are these beasts? They are seen here at God's holy mountain and a little child, the Man-child, shall lead them. When all the beastly people of the world get saved, when they come out from under the bondage of the Beast and come into God's holy mountain, then what it refers to will be fulfilled. Some of these are Rachel's children about whom she did not have to worry anymore. They are going to be restored.    (Isa.11:9) They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (10) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples, unto him shall the nations seek (Of course, this is the Lord.); and his resting-place shall be glorious. Amen! That's where they're going – to this holy mountain, His resting place. (11) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people (Praise the Lord!), that shall remain, from Assyria …    Assyria was the “beast” that conquered God's people and brought them into bondage but failed to conquer Zion, the Bride. God is saying, “Come back out of bondage! Come back out of the north! Come back to your Promised Land!” God is telling us to come and dwell in Zion or around Zion in the Presence of God on His holy mountain. You cannot dwell on His holy mountain without being holy because the highway that goes there is also called the “Highway of Holiness.”    (Isa.11:11) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam (These were all the nations that were round about Israel.), and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. (12) And he will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.    The Lord will gather them out of all the beast kingdoms to come back and dwell in their Promised Land. God is going to do this in the Spirit in the days to come. There is going to be a people who will dwell in safety and be blessed of the Lord. All their provision is going to be sure because they are a holy people. They are not under the curse. Those who walk in rebellion to God are under the curse because the curse was pronounced on the people who walked in their stubborn ways.   (Isa.11:13) The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and they that vex Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. (14) And they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines on the west; together shall they despoil the children of the east: they shall put forth their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. (The factious who escape the sword will obey them.)   Judgments are going to fall all over this earth where God's people are being persecuted. When they were in bondage in Egypt, the judgments that we see in the Book of Revelation fell upon Egypt, in order to deliver God's people out of Egypt and into their Promised Land. (15) And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will smite it into seven streams, and cause men to march over dryshod. (16) And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria; like as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. (A remnant will escape the Beasts to submit to Zion.)  Praise God!   Lion of Judah Sets the Captives Free Eve Brast 9/9/20 (David's notes in red)   I had this dream on my Grandmother's birthday. Her name was Sally. (Sally means ‘princess' and is a nickname for Sarah) (Grandmother represents the ancient true Church.  Sarah was the mother of the seed of Abraham who we are by faith. But the modern Church must be delivered to come in to this.)  1 Pe. 3:3-6, 3 Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; 4 but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 5 For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose children ye now are, if ye do well, and are not put in fear by any terror.   I dreamed that I was standing off on the right side in the sanctuary of an old Catholic church cathedral like the historic ones that you see over in Europe. (Catholicism is A "mother of harlots” meaning many apostate churches came out of her. All of them are included as members of this mothers body.) Catholic means, "Universal” representing the world wide, apostate, babylonish church system.)     I was nearer to the back of the church where the front doors were located. The doors were double doors made of polished wood with ornate carvings in them and I could see that all the pews were also very ornate and made of the same polished wood.  The cushions on the pews were a faded evergreen color and there were many colorful statues all around inside the sanctuary. (The faded evergreen cushions represent the fading or loss of the true gospel that brings eternal life to those that hear. The apostate church is full of leaven and idolatry.)   I was observing the many people who crowded this church. They were all sitting quietly and they seemed to be waiting for something. (Maybe for a priest or preacher to teach them.) They seemed to have been there for a long time waiting but no one showed up. (Representing those who have been in captivity to the apostate religious system for many years.)    Suddenly, a very large male lion (Representing Jesus, the Lion of Judah, the Man-child.) came through the front doors of the cathedral and leaped up onto the top of the pews right in front of me. His front paws on the back of one pew and his back paws on the back of the other pew. In the dream I knew that this lion was ready for mating. (The Lion of Judah wants only His seed, which brings forth His life in the people.  The apostates are full of the seed of man and not God.)   I watched as the lion lifted his head and let out a fierce and angry roar of jealousy like he was staking a claim and dominion over all the people in this church. (This roar represents the threat of the Lord's judgment against the apostate Church which we have been warning of. The DS leftists will loose their anarchist troops against her in burnings and killings and destruction.).    Amos 1:2, And he said, Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither. Verses 9-12, 9 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Tyre, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole people to Edom (Those who hated and persecuted their chosen brother Israel, a type of the Church.), and remembered not the brotherly covenant:    10 but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre (DS Babylonish US), and it shall devour the palaces thereof. 11 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Edom, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever: 12 but I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the palaces of Bozrah (Meaning Edom's sheepfold).   The morning before I began to put notes in this dream we received by faith at random these confirmations of the Lions Roar of threatened judgment. Joel 3:16-18  And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but Jehovah will be a refuge unto his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel (as a type of the Church, many of whom will turn from idolatry with the apostates and run to the shelter of abiding in Jesus, the Word).     17  So shall ye know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: (The revelation that the people in apostasy got when the Lion roared below.) then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. (Then the fruit of Jesus will be borne in His people) 18  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim.   And Sue Gilbert got: Jer 25:27-31  And thou shalt say unto them (Babylon DS), Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.  28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ye shall surely drink.  29  For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith Jehovah of hosts.     30  Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, Jehovah will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he will mightily roar against his fold (of apostates); he will give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.  31  A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations; he will enter into judgment with all flesh: as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword, saith Jehovah..   It seemed like I was the only one who witnessed any of this and heard his roar. But as soon as the roar went out over the congregation, they all suddenly sat up straight and got a revelation. They all quietly arose from their pews and began filing out of the sanctuary. (The revelation is, This apostasy is not truth, They feel a need to shelter from this storm in God.  They will seek knowledge of the Lord instead of depending on religious leaders who have no answers or salvation.)    They began to go into the back part of the church where all the Sunday school rooms were and the large cafeteria where the food was to be served. (We see below that the church changed hands to a new Pastor at this time.)  Hos. 11:8-12, 8  How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how'shall I cast thee off, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how'shall I set thee as Zeboiim? my heart is turned within me, my compassions are kindled together. 9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee (The New Pastor); and I will not come in wrath.    10 They shall walk after Jehovah, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children shall come trembling from the west. 11 They shall come trembling as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria (The beast) ; and I will make them to dwell in their houses, saith Jehovah. 12 Ephraim compasseth me about with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the Holy One. (The New Bride leadership)   Isa. 42:13-17, 13 Jehovah will go forth as a mighty man; he will stir up his zeal like a man of war: he will cry, yea, he will shout aloud; he will do mightily against his enemies. 14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. 16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; in paths that they know not will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight.    These things will I do, and I will not forsake them. 17 They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, that trust in graven images, that say unto molten images, Ye are our gods. (When the apostate people knew they needed salvation and answers, because of judgment, the Man-child shows up.  Hos 5:14-15  For I will be unto Ephraim (Called litterally the “fullness of nations” in Gen, 48:19. Like its New Testament equivalent, the Universal Church, both fell into apostasy.) as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.     15  I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly. 6:1  Come, and let us return unto Jehovah; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.  2  After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him.  3  And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth. (Jesus in the Man-child body of reformers comes in the anointing of the Latter Rain.)     Then the scene changed and I found myself in the Sunday school nursery. I had an infant boy, 3 weeks old, that looked like he was of middle eastern decent laying on a changing table in front of me. (Representing the birth of the Man-child ministry) (3 weeks is 21 days or 3x7. In the Bible the number 21 is a symbol of perfection and maturity. It symbolizes the divine wisdom: “mirror of eternal light, which pierces and penetrates all grace in its purity” There are 21 chapters in the Gospel of John and 21 attributes of Wisdom.)    I was putting a yellow diaper on him. (He was clothed with the sun/Son)  I realized that I was his mother and that he belonged to me. But I wasn't familiar with the Father and wondered at the fact that he was so genetically different from me. I thought in the dream, "How can this be that I gave birth to this baby when I didn't know his Father?” (This is similar to the story of Jesus' birth. I believe this baby represents the manifestation of the Man-child out of the Bride body in the midst of the Church body.) (Also this is a virgin birth of the Man-child as the son of David. The seed of men cannot bring forth the Man-child sons of God. It was the "seed of the woman" that bruised the serpents head. The Son of David came through Mary, who didn't know the Father. Mary too was later born of the words of Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit.  The Son of God came in the Son of Man. The Spirit man came in the flesh of man. Rom 1:3-4  concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,  4  who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord.)   Many of my friends and family were coming to see the baby (Representing the promise of household salvation) along with many of the people from the Catholic Church. (Many apostates will turn to the Lord. Many revelations of great evil in their churches will become known now that will open their eyes.). It was very crowded and people were lined up outside of the room waiting until some left in order that they could come in and see the baby. (Many people will come from all over to see and hear the Man-child.)   My best friend from high school, Renee' (meaning rebirth), managed to bypass all the people (representing those born out of the apostasy) and she came up to me and looked at the baby and smiled at me and was telling me how special and important this baby was. She said, “Look at all these people who have come to see him!” (Renee' reminds me, in this dream, of the prophetess Anna who prophesied over Jesus when His parents took Him to the Temple for circumcision.    Luke 2:36-38, 36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, 37 and she had been a widow even unto fourscore and four years), who departed not from the temple, worshipping with fastings and supplications night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks unto God, and spake of him to all them that were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.)   After this, I left the Sunday school area with many other sisters and we went to cafeteria that was connected to the Sunday school classrooms and we stood in line to get our food. (The Sunday school represents the humble beginnings of the Gospel, the Word which we heard in the beginning. We must become like little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus said.) We got up to where the cafeteria workers were handing us the plates of food. (The food is spiritual food, the manna from heaven, the word of God that gives life, protection, deliverance, healing, etc.)     They told us that all the food was free from now on, per the orders of the new Pastor (Shepherd) of the church. (The apostate pastors have plundered the people.  The new pastor, Jesus, commanded “freely you have received, freely give” and “get you no gold or silver in your purses”.). This morning in our morning meeting I received, by faith at random, Isa. 55:2 (in context 1-11), 1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. 3 Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. 4 Behold, I have given him (Jesus in the Man-child body) for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.    5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not; and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of Jehovah thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. 6 Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near: 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, and giveth seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11 so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.)   We were so happy that we didn't have to worry about having money to eat anymore. Pro. 23:23, Buy the truth (By giving your old life for the new one), and sell it not; Yea , wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.  (God is calling for a Jubilee for His people. (We are free in Christ, no longer in bondage to men or religion. The Man-child body will declare this Jubilee/Liberty as the Man-child Jesus did: Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;   Judy received in our morning meeting, Jer. 34:13-17, 13 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, 14 At the end of seven years (After entering the sabbath of ceasing from our own works and religion) ye shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, that hath been sold unto thee, and hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. 15 And ye were now turned, and had done that which is right in mine eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:    16 but ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and ye brought them into subjection (After the freedom Jesus brought us into, men fell into factious religious bondage of denominationalism and sectarianism), to be unto you for servants and for handmaids. 17 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: ye have not hearkened unto me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim unto you a liberty, saith Jehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth.) (Isnt it amazing that at this time almost all countries have agreed to a Jubilee in which debt is being dissolved between nations and peoples. This will also set them free from the elites economic system of debt which has plundered the world for them. In like manor God will scatter those who hold God's people in bondage bring about His promise to make one flock with one shepherd.)   I went over to a table and set my plate down and decided to go and invite others to the cafeteria to eat with us. So me and another sister from UBM went out into the streets around the church to find others and bring them in to eat. We saw a brother standing near a stone wall with his arms crossed and looking around like he was waiting for something or someone. (That someone is the Lion of Judah who will set the captives free. The Messiah/Man-child has come to feed His people but many like the Jews don't recognize this yet.)   We went up to him and told him to come with us into the cafeteria to eat with us. But he refused to leave that spot. I was really worried because he wouldn't come with us and I was expressing my concern about him to the sister that was with me all the way back to the cafeteria. I was so concerned that I couldn't eat until I found a way to bring him in. He was our brother and I was grieved because he was unbelieving about our invitation. He insisted on waiting for something that he thought was still coming but it had already come.  Then I woke up.  (The gospel is that salvation, spirit, soul, body and circumstances has already come by way of the sacrifice of Jesus. Many are waiting when all they have to do is believe and confess the Word.)   I asked Father for a word by faith at random for the brother that wouldn't come with us and my finger was on ‘hunted sheep' in Jer. 50:17, Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. (The beast has driven them away from the revelation of the gospel.)   I asked Father for a word by faith at random for this dream and my finger was on, 'take away the wicked from before the king' in Pro. 25:5, (in context 4-5), 4 Take away the dross from the silver, And there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner: 5 Take away the wicked from before the king, And his throne shall be established in righteousness. 

Talking about how God has got you and it is evident even in the Lord's prayer. Love you all mucho GBY!!!

CTCC Tuesday Service - Okay Lord, I'm Ready - 1/4/22

Guarding the House From Our Enemies (Audio) David Eells - 9/1/21 The Faction are Losing Their Touch  Melissa Pollock - 8/29/21 (David's notes in red) I dreamed that I opened an email on my phone. (The faction have been stalking our women electronically by hacking into phones and e-mails.  Also they have been attempting to spread their slanderous lies and separate people from this Body of believers. Also, the DS through Apple and Google have been hacking into our computers and e-mails trying to keep the truth from being shared about their true Beast agendas.)  It was a picture of a piece of paper; a copy of a portion from a Bible study that David had done. In between the text were hand written words that I knew were speaking against what David had shared. (The factions in the DS and the Church are losing their technical capabilities of keeping the truth of their criminal activities hidden.)  The only thing I remember seeing was a B with numbers behind it and I knew it was referring to a variant of C/19. In the dream I thought that this email was from the factious leader. (Representing the factions in the DS and Church [sending C/19]) (At least two new C/19 variants have hit the United States and they could be worse than the Delta variant in their infectiousness and ability to stand up to vac/cin/es, according to a top medical authority. The lambda variant, along with another one so new it doesn't even have a Greek letter name yet, are the causes of concern, according to Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Vac/cine Research Group at the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. So far, the new variant has been called B.1.621. Spiritually speaking the faction spreads their infection through many different ‘variants' to try to infect the Body of Christ in every way possible. If one variation doesn't work they will try another method to separate people.) I really didn't try to read it because I saw enough to know that it was factious and knew I shouldn't read it. (Eph 5:8-18 For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord; 11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; 12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of. 13 But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light. 14 Wherefore he'saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee. 15 Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;) All of the sudden my head started hurting on the left side and then it went to the back of my head. In my dream I thought, "This is witchcraft." (In the natural I was battling a headache that was on the right side of my head that was almost completely gone.) But then in the dream, it hit the left side of my head. Then I woke up and the left side of my head was hurting in real life. (We must cast down all witchcraft symptoms of C/19 sent by the factious leader and thoughts that the enemy tries to put into our minds and pray against the witchcraft that is coming from the factions in the Government and the apostates in the church. Don't accept them, cast them down. Remember our dream about the warrior angels stopping the bombs of the factious camp and returning them to sender.) The verses I received by faith at random for this dream: 2 Ch. 28:9-11.  9  But a prophet of Jehovah was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the host that came to Samaria, (The apostate faction against Judah who worshipped the golden calf and made religious leaders of those who were not ordained.) and said unto them, Behold, because Jehovah, the God of your fathers, was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage which hath reached up to heaven.  10  And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not even with you trespasses of your own against Jehovah your God? 11  Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives, that ye have taken captive of your brethren; for the fierce wrath of Jehovah is upon you. 12  Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, … 13 said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for ye purpose that which will bring upon us a trespass against Jehovah, to add unto our sins and to our trespass; for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.  2 Sa 5:8, (In context 6-10)  6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither; thinking, David cannot come in hither. 7  Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.  8  And David said on that day, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites, let him get up to the watercourse, and smite the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul. Wherefore they say, There are the blind and the lame; he cannot come into the house. 9  And David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. 10  And David waxed greater and greater; for Jehovah, the God of hosts, was with him. (The apostate leadership were conquered by David to build the Bride, said by the angel in Revelation to be Jerusalem.)   Security Breach in the House   Graham Gelinas - 8/26/21 (David's notes in red) Our youngest son Graham, who is 7, woke up around 1am from a warning dream the Lord had given him. He was shaking head to toe, and his teeth were chattering for a while as I sat and prayed with him. He recounted it all to me later that day.  Graham said, “I dreamed that one of us accidentally ripped a section of wallpaper off of our living room wall. (The 'Wall Paper' represents the Word of God that builds a protective wall around us and our lives to shelter us from the enemy. If we ‘rip' out certain sections of the Word and pick and chose verses, then we leave ourselves vulnerable to attack by the wicked.)  This revealed a black anti-theft security device strapped with thin black cords to the wall. It beeped for a few seconds after it was uncovered. The device was just like the ones that Walmart puts on their more valuable items to prevent them being stolen. (The Holy Spirit is faithful when we read His Word to help us guard our consciences. He will alert us to our vulnerabilities so that we can be on our guard.)  The alarm was then tripped by a burglar, and the police quickly came and arrested him. Then the security device just fell right off of the wall on its own. We looked, but no one was there. Then Evelyn, my five year old sister, said “Look behind you!” Then I saw Satan walking around inside the house. (We must be careful not to leave any open doors that permit satan to invade our house and steal from us. The devil loves to try to strip us of our defenses by stealing the Word that is sown in our hearts. Distractions and busyness that keep us from meditating on the Word are one of the main ways he does this.  Mat 13:18-22 Hear then ye the parable of the sower. 19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one , and snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart. This is he that was sown by the way side. 20 And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it; 21 yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth. 22 And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.  Mat 12:43-45  But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation.)  At first, he looked like a snake, then he looked like a horned devil, finally he looked like an angel, but not a real one. (We see here, again, that the enemy has many different variants or methods with which to try to deceive and destroy us.) He had five blackish-gray feathered wings on both sides. And he carried a short gray sword. (The devil would love for us to believe that he carries a BIG sword, but it is really a small weapon against the sword of the Spirit and the power and authority that Christ gave us. 2 Co 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light. 15 It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.) When this happened, Daddy ran everyone into the bathroom, which was like an elevator tube that took us outside and right into our white Chevy Venture van. (The bathroom represents repentance. It is where we get cleaned up from our sins so that we can escape the curse of our enemies and the punishment they try to inflict upon us. 1 Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.) After we got out, Satan broke open the bathroom door, but it just looked like a normal bathroom. (When we abide under the shadow of the Almighty, we have Psalm 91 protection and we are hidden from the schemes and plans of the enemy to destroy us. Psa. 27:5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion: In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me; He will lift me up upon a rock.) I don't know why, but we had a self destruct button for the house in the van. We pushed it, and the house exploded into a huge fireball behind us. (We must put to death the old nature. It must be burned up upon the altar of daily sacrifice. This is how we defeat satan in our lives. Col 3:5-10 Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; 6 for which things's sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience: 7 wherein ye also once walked, when ye lived in these things; 8 but now do ye also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth: 9 lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, 10 and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him.) It was like an action movie. Satan went flying up and away with his six uppermost wings charred and smoking as he flew into a blackish-gray portal. So Satan lost big time.” Then I woke up. (Luke 10:17-20 And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name. 18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you. 20 Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.) Andrew said, "Three days after this dream, our entire life savings in Wells Fargo was stolen from our accounts by a Wells Fargo representative. Wells Fargo is in the process of returning it all back to us. (Representing victory over Satan's attempts to plunder us.) Andrew said, Yesterday as I was in prayer about this attack, The Lord told me to turn on the TV. I've never felt him tell me to do this before. A woman was singing a song with the chorus lyrics “When you play with fire, you get burned alive” I only heard one chorus because I had tuned in at the end. I started changing the channel, then stopped when I felt the Lord prompt me. This showed another pop star, in big flashy sunglasses, bragging about herself to news cameras on a CSI-type cop drama. Then she appeared on stage and was singing for maybe thirty seconds or so, when I started to think “Okay Lord, where is this going?” When all of a sudden the fictional pop star called “Phoenix” spontaneously burst into flames on stage right in front of a large audience and ironically, was “burned alive”. I knew this was to show the fate of those (human or spirit) who attack us for performing the Lord's work. I know this attack was in retaliation for doing the cover art for the latest UBM book The Truth About Born Again. We rest in the knowledge that God has already won the victory for us, and vengeance is His!"  I looked up “consuming fire” in my Bible.  Deu 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.  Deu 9:3 Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you. (I thought of Heb 12:25-29  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warneth from heaven: 26 whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. 27 And this word , Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: 29 for our God is a consuming fire.)   Strange House-Mates  Andrew Gelinas- 7/28/21 (David's notes in red) I dreamed my wife, Morgan, and I were living in a large, single level house that we shared with several other people that we rarely ever crossed paths with; sort of like a time-share. I noticed a few individuals showing up a few times throughout the dream. (The floor level of a house represents our earthly soulish life. As we will see, our spirit man shares this space with the old man and his relatives; our old, flesh nature that our spirit man is in constant competition with for control of our house or tabernacle.) There was an old man, and two old women that came and went every now and then. One of the old women had reddish light brown shoulder length hair and the other slightly more elderly woman had a white curly perm. (As we shall see, this old man represents the flesh nature and the 2 old women represent Christians who are submitted to him in sin and confusion of apostate doctrines that allow the old man to live. They don't believe in living the crucified life.)  They were going around the house doing various chores while they were there. They were very personable and friendly with us, but there was an eeriness in their presence. And I had the feeling they had ulterior motives. (Religious people who are under the law in submission to man and religion, believe in salvation by their own works. They are friendly up to a point until you cross their doctrines. All the religious sects have an ulterior motive to convert you to their way of thinking and their religion.) There was also a young woman with long, black hair who seemed to be in her mid-twenties. This girl was also friendly, but to the point of being annoying, as she was beginning to interfere with our daily routine. I'd go to enter a room with my wife, but the black haired girl was trying to be a gal-pal with her. I could tell my wife was getting annoyed with this as well. But we both just kept trying to do whatever it was we needed to get done that day. (This woman represents those who are submitted to darkness; a Jezebel spirit of rebellion. They are always trying to distract us or seduce us away from the Highway of Holiness.) I remember she kept trying to get my attention by acting flirtatious towards me but I just kept my eyes down and ignored her as I kept folding my clean laundry. (We must resist the temptations of rebellion to the Word in order to hang on to our clean garments of righteousness.) There were other individuals I encountered in the house at various other times who did not exude any strangeness. As I sat on a couch in the living room, a tall young man with short, clean cut, blonde hair was gathering up a bundle of clean laundry in his arms. I noticed that my gray tablecloth was in the bundle. I said “I'm sorry, but I think my tablecloth got mixed in with your laundry.” He looked down at it, and said with a smile “I think you and I must have the same tablecloth.” Then I agreed when I took a closer look, and realized it had a checkered pattern, while mine is striped. I then jokingly said “I bet you've also got the same decor and color scheme in your house as I do.” Then he assured me that he actually did. We got pretty excited when we realized just how kindred in spirit we both were. (This represents Christ in you the hope of glory. He bore the stripes of our punishment unto death so that we could be counted as His brethren. Heb 2:9-13  But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man. 10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, In the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise. 13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me.) Later, Morgan and I went into the garage to get into our car and run some important errands. (Representing the works that God has given us to do.) Our car, in the dream, was an old, very tiny, and dorky looking, silver hatchback. We didn't care what it looked like because it was able to drive us wherever we needed to go. (Physical things are only a means to an end, serving the Kingdom. The things that the world considers valuable aren't what God considers valuable to the kingdom.)  But right when I was about to enter the car on the passenger side, I noticed the front right tire had been intentionally deflated. Then I looked and saw that all four tires had been emptied in this same way. The thought entered my mind that one of the older woman in the house had done this. (Our flesh nature and the enemy, using vessels of dishonor, always tries to hinder us and sabotage the kingdom work that Father has ordained for us to do. It is part of our testing to weed out the lukewarm.) Then Morgan tried to start the engine, but all I could hear was the sound of running liquid coming from under the car. I got down on the floor and looked, but couldn't see any leaking fuel. (Because this is a spiritual draining of our ‘fuel' of the Word of God that the enemy drains out of us when we aren't vigilant to guard our spiritual man and his food, the Word.) So then I just stood back up, and said in a calm voice “Be repaired in the Name of Jesus.” And just like that, the tires pumped themselves up full, and the engine started right up. (We will learn to do things by God's power rather than the natural ways. We are overcomers by faith and resting in the promises that are given to us in the Word of God. Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.) Now, as we began to back out of the driveway, we passed by the strange trio from earlier; consisting of the old man and the 2 older ladies. They were getting out of their large, gold, super-duty pickup truck. (Representing the excess that the flesh and the world value. Also, the prosperity doctrines of the apostate Church.) The old man made a strange comment to us as they were getting out of their truck. He said, while grinning, “I'm loving the free access to the hundreds of shows!” Then he winked as we continued past him. I felt, in the dream, that he was referring to using or hacking my wife's phone, and using her personal television subscription she has on there. (When we have open doors in our lives through fellowship with worldly things and indulging the flesh man, it allows the enemy to ‘hack' into our lives and breach our security. We then are in danger of falling under curses.) Just after he winked, the break peddle gave out and we began rapidly rolling toward the street behind us. (Representing the flesh nature running away with our lives due to feeding the flesh man and starving the spiritual man. Eph 4:25-32 Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 neither give place to the devil. 28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need. 29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear. 30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.) As we were crossing over the street, I looked to the right to see if we were in danger of being hit by traffic. The only thing I saw coming at us was a bus sized, giant, tangled snake on wheels. (The curse will hit us like a Mack truck when we get out from under the blood of Christ.) (Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment...) We just continued to let the car roll until we were safely clear on the other side of the street in the short grass. (The mown short grass here represents cutting off the flesh so that our spirit man is back in control of our lives. 1 Pe 1:24 For, All flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth.)  After the snake thing passed, we drove back up the driveway and went back inside the house. (We have a passover from the enemy when we abide in Christ. He helps us overcome and climb up the hill to Mount Zion to reclaim our house; our promised land.)  When I got back inside, I was standing near a couch where the old man and his wife were exchanging a kiss. Then the older woman with short white permed hair snuggled up to his right side and gave the man an intimate kiss. When they noticed me frowning at them, they broke it up. (When we get on God's side against our old man and all his lovers, then we can scatter all our enemies because we are agreeing with His Word.) Then I woke up.   Select LanguageAfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDutchEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrisianGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKinyarwandaKoreanKurdish (Kurmanji)KyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianLuxembourgishMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianOdia (Oriya)PashtoPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSamoanScots GaelicSerbianSesothoShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTatarTeluguThaiTurkishTurkmenUkrainianUrduUyghurUzbekVietnameseWelshXhosaYiddishYorubaZulu Powered by Translate Printer-friendly version

This is a cool topic that actually came from some wives in the MAG community online who asked us to specifically talk about this. It is so encouraging to know that there are wives out there who are actively trying to understand how to help their husbands lead their home.What we believe about spiritual leadership is found in scripture.Ephesians 5:23-25 “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”1 Corinthians 11:3 “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” PrayerDear Lord,Thank You for the gift of marriage. Thank you for the opportunity to consider these things and how we can mature as a couple. We pray we would walk in righteousness, gentleness and self-control. We pray we would be people who see others through the lens of compassion. Help us to be thoughtful in our responses to each other. Help us to be respectful in our conduct. We pray our interactions as a married couple would be a testimony of your power and authority in our lives. May your light shine brightly in us as we direct each other back toward you.In Jesus’ name, amen!Read The Transcript- Hey, we're Aaron and Jennifer Smith with Marriage After God. - Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage. - And today we're gonna share how a wife can encourage her husband to lead spiritually. Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast where we believe that marriage was meant for more than just happily ever after. - I'm Jennifer, also known as Unveiled Wife. - And I'm Aaron, also known as Husband Revolution. - We have been married for over a decade. - And so far, we have four young children. - We have been doing marriage ministry online for over seven years through blogging and social media. - With the desire to inspire couples to keep God at the center of their marriage. Encouraging them to walk in faith every day. - We believe that Christian marriage should be an extraordinary one. Full of life. - Love. - And power. - That can only be found by chasing after God. - Together. - Thank you for joining us on this journey as we chase boldly after God's will for our life together. - This is Marriage After God. - Hey guys, thanks for joining us on a new episode of the Marriage After God podcast. We're in season three and - It's so exciting. - I know. And I hope you've been enjoying this new season. We've been doing some fun posts. We've been doing some devotional style marriage encouragements and just, we're trying to make it a little bit more dynamic. - Dynamic, ah that's what I was gonna say. - A little bit more mixed content. I hope you're enjoying it. If you are, let us know on Instagram. Send us a message. Let us know what you think of the show. Also, we always want to encourage you, if you love an episode, if this is a particular episode that has blessed you, would you just take a screen shot of wherever you're listening to it at and post it in Instagram and tag, "Marriage After God." We love seeing those. We love sharing those on our own pages and it gets the word out. Let's other people know about it. - Okay, so I have to share with them. Knowing that we were going to be recording podcasts, I stopped by the local coffee shop. Shout out to Dutch Brothers. - Yeah. - They're really good. They're just one of those drive through coffee shops, but sometimes the people come outside to take your order and you know, I'm like, well into my third trimester. Very noticeably pregnant and I rolled my window down and he goes, "so what are we having?" And I said, "A girl!" He was-- - When you told me this, I thought you were kidding. - No. - I was like, oh, you got him good. - He was so embarrassed and he was like, "even if I ever assumed I would never say anything." And I go, "oh no, it's not your fault. "I just, I just gotten done on an appointment "and it's on my mind all the time "and people are always asking me "if we know what we're having." And we were just laughing about it. - That's really funny. And what's funny is you weren't kidding with him. You thought he asked you. - I thought it was a legitimate question, but he was wondering what kind of coffee we would take today. So that's funny. But I did wanna just give a little update on the pregnancy. You know where I'm at, it's been really good and hard at the same time. - It's been really hard. - Well, no complications. - This has been hard when-- - We shared about this already. No complications, but just, you know when you're chasing around four other little kids and your body is physically limited, it gets hard and uncomfortable at times. And so I've been feeling just a lack of energy lately. - Mmh hmm. - I've been feeling slower and being confronted with my, just physical limitations and that's hard for my mind to wrestle with 'cause my mind wants to go, go, go and do more and I can't. - A tip for husbands out there. If your wife is pregnant in her third trimester, just massage her feet and legs every night. - Yeah. - That helps a lot. - It's wonderful. - It's kind been where we've been at. - But all is good and I'm really exciting for the nesting phase to hit because I know that that's kind of like an extra burst of God's grace for soon to be moms. It just, it comes on. - A burst of endorphins. - Yup and you just go and you clean the things that you never even look at and it feels so great. And so, I'm kind of looking around my house going, nope, that's gonna wait for-- - The question will be is how long will it stay that way with our four other kids. - I know. Like the cleanliness, yeah. - Okay, we just wanna encourage you guys, everyone that's listening, we have some free downloads. - Mmh hmm. - We have two specifically, there's actually a bunch more, but the two I wanna talk about today is, "The Marriage Prayer Challenge." It's a 31 day prayer challenge where you sign up. It's completely free and we'll email you a marriage prompt, a prayer prompt and a reminder to pray every day for 31 days for your spouse. And you can go to MarriagePrayerChallenge.com and sign up for that for free and then our other free download, it's a new one. It's our "52 Date Night Ideas" ebook. We have, we came up with 52 unique date night ideas and so if you're looking to have a whole year of date ideas, just go to DateNightIdeas.com and sign up and download it for free. And those two free, well, those things, we created for you guys just to encourage you, to inspire you. So yeah, MarriagePrayerChallenge.com and DateNightIdea.com. - Cool, okay so, the topic for today is how can a wife encourage her husband to lead spiritually and when, how Aaron and I kind of set up and prepare for these podcasts episodes is we have a document that we both share and we kind of just, once we have the topic down, we'll go in every so often and add notes and look over it and share our thoughts about it. And I remember when I first went into this document, it just said the words, "honorably and gently." - I put all the notes I could come up with in there. - It was really sweet, but I just had to get that out of the gate because it was really cool to see your perspective of how, like what it takes for a wife to encourage her husband and those are two powerful words. - Yeah, to my defense, I actually did put more in there later. - I know. - I wrote down, and we'll get to some of those, but I wrote down a lot of the ways that you have encouraged me. - Yeah - Whether we've talked about it or not. - This was just the first note that I saw and I just wanted to add that because it was really cool. But this is actually a topic that came from the wives in our Marriage After God community and it was a question that kind of kept coming up in different ways and so we thought it would be fun to talk about it, discuss it. - Mmh hmm. - And encourage you listening. Both husbands and wives because marriage takes two. - Yeah and for the husbands and wives that are listening, husbands take note of the things that we talk about because even if your wife isn't encouraging you to be a spiritual leader, even if she doesn't know how to or hasn't started yet, it's important that we as men start stepping up in that role. Trusting the Lord. Chasing after Him and guiding our family closer to Him, to the word of God. - Yup. - And we do that by example. - Mmh hmm. - We do that by being faithful, trustworthy. - Yeah. - And so I just want to encourage the husbands. - I think that's really good and I think that as the husbands are listening, of course not using everything that we share as ammunition to go, "see, you should be doing this," - Oh absolutely. - but rather, use what we share today as an encouragement to you in how you should be leading. - Yeah. - And hopefully, it inspires you both today. - Yeah and just, I always bring this up. Our pastor, Matt, our old pastor would always say, "read your own mail." So, in those scriptures when it's talking to the wife on how she should be, we don't read that and say, "see, this is how you should be." - Because you've got the whole section yourself to be reading. - Yeah, I have my own mail I need to be opening up and reading and to honest, there's enough there for each of us to be doing our thing to not have to worry about how our spouse walking those things. - Mmh hmm. - That doesn't mean we can't encourage our spouse to be like, hey, I just want to encourage you, the way you were being, that was a little disrespectful. Or, like, we can always encourage each other. We're allowed to do that. Again, honorably and gently. - Yeah. - But there's so much in our own, in the scriptures that talk directly to us, that we should be just walking in. - Yeah. - In the spirit. And you know what, when we do that, our spouse, it's so hard for our spouse to not. - Mmh hmm. - Like when we're walking the way the Bible calls us to, it's gonna be really hard for our spouse, our wife, or your husband to not desire to walk in that way as well. - Okay so, first Aaron, before we get into the encouraging aspect of encouraging our husbands to lead, there's something else that you wanted to talk about. - Well, I think it's a good point that we should bring up of just where this idea of spiritual headship, spiritual leadership comes from, 'cause there's a lot of people who will be like, no, that's not right. it should be, this way or that way, but-- - It's not for Aaron and Jen. - It's not my idea. It's not like I came up with like, hey, the men should be in charge and the men should be leading. It's a biblical concept. It's the way, it's an order that God put in place and for His purpose, not for ours. - Right, so what we believe and how we operate in our family comes straight from scripture. - Right. - And that's what kind of where we wanted to start off on the foundational aspect of this. - Yeah and I want to encourage everyone that's listening that your desire should not be to live Aaron and Jennifer's way. - Mmh mmh. - Your desire should be to live the Bible's way. So you getting into the word and saying, wow, it says this. How does that play out in our marriage? - We're just big neon arrows pointing to the word of God. - Let's hope. - That's what we're here for you. - So Ephesians five, 23 through 25, the famous marriage scriptures. It says this. It says, "For the husband is the head of the wife, "even as Christ is the head of the church, "his body and himself at savior." So just real quick, it's not saying that the husband is the savior. It's saying that Christ is the savior of the church. But it's saying in that same manner, in the same manner that Christ is the head of His church, His bride, the husband is the head of the wife. And we talk about his in the Marriage After God book, that the picture of husband and wife, the symbol of marriage is to represent the gospel of Christ the Savior and His church, the bride. And so, that order of headship is specifically to highlight that, that point. So if I'm trying as the husband, if I'm trying to lead in a way that diminishes the gospel, I'm not leading well and I'm not walking in the spiritual leadership that God's called me to. So, if I'm being abusive, if I'm being vulgar, if I'm using my power that God's given me in abusive ways to manipulate, to control, that's not how Christ came. That's not how Christ loved His church. He came humbly. - Humbly, yeah. - And He came putting it, laying Himself down. That's exactly what the scripture's talking about. Giving himself up for her. And so, we don't just get to say, oh, see the Bible says I'm in charge, so now this is how I'm gonna do it. No, the Bible says I'm in charge, so I must do it His way. - His way, yeah. - The Bible's way. So, I just wanted to point out. - No, that's good. - But that's one of the first spots that we would run to in showing this headship, is the husband represents Christ. Your bride represents the church and that relationship represents how the gospel works. The redeeming nature, the love, the unity, the oneness of us being joined to Christ through His death and resurrection and so, headship comes straight from here and it also says, and when I read first Corinthians 11:3, - It says this, "But I want you to understand "that the head of every man is Christ. "The head of a wife is her husband "and the head of Christ is God." - What I love about this is it's showing this order again and saying the head of every man is Christ. It starts that way. It doesn't say that the head of every woman is man. It's not written that way. It says, "the head of every man is Christ," and what that means is my authority does not come from me being a man. It comes from Christ and Him saying this is the order I want. That, so we have to first realize that we are responsible to our own head, Christ. That the way I love and lead and disciple and walk, I'm directly accountable to Christ and He's gonna look at me and say, how did you walk in this authority I've given you? That's this is idea of derived authority. It trickles down. It's not just inside me because I'm a man. - Right. So, the second part of that is, "the head of thy wife is her husband," and this is very specific 'cause it's not that the head of every woman is a man-- - Yeah, which some people believe. - Well, can you clarify that? - Yeah, it's, this is specifically talking about the relationship again between a husband and a wife that me as a man in the church, I don't get to have every woman be in submission to me, - Right. - as Ephesians five, 23 would call a wife to be in submission to her husband. Women do not need to submit to me. My wife should, but that's it. I don't get to have any sort of extra authority in any other woman's life other than my own wife. So, we don't get to use this scripture as an excuse of women are in this position and men are in this position in the church and that's not what we do. - I think this order, God showing us this order is really important because when you're bringing two people into a single unity so that they're one, which you know, the scripture tells us, there's gotta be-- - Order. - There's gotta be order because otherwise you'll have two people trying to lead and what happens when that's going on? - Chaos. - Chaos because they're fighting for their own ways. They're doing their own thing and they expect the other person to follow and so this provides the outline. - Right, well and what's even more amazing is it ends with, "the head of Christ is God." There's a scripture that says, "Christ learned obedience "through the things that He suffered." Which is amazing because you're like wait, what? Not that He wasn't obedient. It's this idea of full obedience meaning even unto death, Christ was obedient to God. Christ, there's another scripture where Christ says, "I only came "to do what my Father has called me to do. "To go where my Father has called me to go "and to say that which my Father wants me to say." There's this perfect picture of Him being completely and perfectly in unity with God in His obedience to God and His will. - Which, I love this because it just further solidifies that Christ is our example. - Yup. - Right, Christ, it could have just been that Christ is God and that's the authority and that's it, but no, He says that, "the head of Christ is God." That means that Christ is in subjection to God's authority and if Christ is our example, then we need to follow. - Right and this is a big concept 'cause Jesus is God. - Yeah. - And God is God. And the Holy Spirit is God because we have this triune nature of God. Three individual persons, but one God head, right. But there's an order to it. - Yeah. - They've been in perfect unity since before the foundations of the world. So for all eternity, God, Christ and the Spirit have been in perfect harmony-- - They get it. - and unity, but it's in order. - Yeah. - God the Father. God the Son, God the Spirit. There's this order and it's showing us right here. It's saying, in the same way that Christ, God, has a head, God, God, right, It's kind weird. The husband is the head of the wife and Christ is the head of the church, and the head of man. So all this is showing is a derived authority trickled down. Christ got His authority from God. I get my authority from Christ. My wife gets her authority from me. This trickle down of roles and positions and we shouldn't go beyond that. We shouldn't try and extrapolate that and say, see, men need to have authority over every woman in the church. No, there's not a single woman in the church that needs to be submissive to me the way my wife should be submissive to me. She's the only one. Now, if we go back early on in Ephesians, right before this it says, it says, "Be in submission to one another "out of reverence for Christ." - For Christ. - Which is a command to the church as a whole, - Right. - Which means-- - Be unified. - Be unified. That each one of us in the body are not trying to be above another. We're trying to raise the other ones up, but that's not to be mistaken with people, 'cause people do this. They mistake that, saying, see, husbands should submit to their wives also. That's actually not what that's saying. That's a command to the church as a whole generally. People in the church should be in submission to one another out of reverence for Christ, okay. And then it goes on, it says, "wives submit "to your own husbands." It says, "your own husbands." Not to other men. It doesn't mean my wife needs to submit to any other men but me. And other women don't need to submit to me the same way my wife does. But generally, in the church we should be in a mutual submission to each other in the body, not in marriage necessarily. - Right, so this idea of leadership and headship, it's not something that you just get because you're a man. - Right. - Or men get because they're men and it's also not something that men are naturally good at just because they're men. It's something that they look to Christ and say, you're my example. You're my head. The authority comes from You and from God and I'm gonna walk in Your ways. - Right and then that leadership plays out when I'm doing it God's way. Now, if I'm not doing it God's way, does that mean I don't, that the wife doesn't have a responsibility? Again, going back to the reading your own mail. Whether or not the husband is walking in this way, which is why this episode's here, is the wife has a calling and an opportunity to walk in her own obedience to Christ. - Right. - And to walk a certain way that will bless her husband. - Yeah. - Bless her marriage and potentially change his heart and raise him up to be the leader that he's been called to be. So, I just wanna reiterate that men, we're accountable to someone. Wives, you're accountable to someone and it's Christ. And we each have an accountability and we need to make sure that we recognize that so that when we're leading our families, husbands, we recognize that we don't just get to lead it however we want. We lead it the way Christ wants. - Okay so, that was kind of laying the foundation down. I know people like to hear from us, so let's share a little bit about just our personal testimony of how we've been walking in this. You reading your mail about headship and leadership and me reading mine about submission. - Why don't we start with yours? - Okay, so, so I admit that I had this understanding that a wife was to submit to her husband, but of course, learning something requires the experience of walking through it and learning from mistakes. - Doing it. - And growing and allowing the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts when we're wrong and to submit to Him and be transformed by it. I would say that actually, the opportunity of marriage has helped me understand what submission is and what it looks like and I've gotten better at it over the years, but I wouldn't say I'm perfect. - Right. - But I, I know that it, in the beginning, it was easier for me to submit physically and what I meant by that is, I had this idea that wherever Aaron, wherever you would go, I would follow you. Whatever you chose to do, that would be an easy thing for me. I'm just gonna follow you. I'm gonna do it and I saw it as submission. But then there was all these other little areas that I didn't realize I wasn't submitting to you in. - Like me having a choice in something. Or desiring to go somewhere or something. - Yeah or trying to make a decision for our family that would change the way we functioned as a family or even, this was before kids and so, just between you and I, whether it was about health decisions or-- - Getting out of debt. - Getting out of debt. That was a really hard one for me. - Yeah. - And if people read the Unveiled Wife, they know about this. I think I might have shared it in Marriage After God, too. - You were not interested. - Well, I struggled because I saw it as your debt and I was very young and immature in my thinking and I didn't see us as unified in that and so submitting to your request of, hey, let's put this thousand dollars we just got, that we just earned from hard work and put it towards my school loan debt. I was like, uh uh. But what I found through the experience of walking through that with you is that when I did submit my heart and I said, "Okay, Lord, whatever you ask." I'm gonna do this and this was just one area but, being able to submit to you in that decision that you made for our family, it actually blessed me and it benefited me and I saw-- - Still does. - Yeah. Yeah, look at our, the years that have passed and becoming debt free, that's just one area that I feel like has really changed my heart in this area of submission to you and it does happen in all the little choices. I remember, just recently something happened where you, I wanted to go out to lunch 'cause I had a desire for a certain thing. I think it was a certain sandwich shop down the street and you said, "well, let's just eat at home," and I responded with the worst attitude and I said something like, "that's not what I wanted." And I did it in front of the kids. - At least you're honest. - Well, I'm really embarrassed but I was, I ended up leaving. I think I took Elliot with me and we were gonna run some errands and I was gonna go get my sandwich and the whole way there I just felt the Lord saying, "You need to call your husband. "You need to tell him you're sorry right now." Like, this is bad. And I remember telling you I was, "I'm really sorry "for the way that I responded to you in that moment," because I wasn't in submission to your decision to eat at home. I wanted what I wanted and I threw manipulation out. I threw my emotions out to try and get what I wanted and it wasn't right of me and so learning, even in the smallest of things, how to submit to you in my heart, in my actions, in my attitude, all of it. I don't know. I'm still learning this, but it really does benefit and bless our family when we walk in the order that God has provided for us. Told us how to do it. - Right and not just in the practical things, because to be honest, you've been blessed by submitting to me even in bad things that, like choices I've made, and submitting to me in things that you disagreed with. And the blessing isn't in that my bad choice turned out good or that my decision wasn't a poor decision, 'cause those things happen. I don't lead well all the time. The blessing in the encouragement and the power comes from your obedience to Christ. Your closeness to God. - Yeah. - Your, when it says that, "Christ learned obedience "through the things that he suffered," - Yeah. - sometimes that's the joy and that's the blessing, is like, regardless of your husband ever does the thing that you want him to or ever leads the way you want him to, the true power in blessing is in your obedience to God. - And I would say this to add to that, you're absolutely right. It's also, it builds trust. I'm trusting God because if I can see something, like you said, a bad decision or something like that that you're gonna make and I still submit to you, basically I'm saying I don't understand why you're choosing that but I'm gonna trust God with you and with what's going on. - And with my life and the situation. - And that has blessed us. Some of the opportunities with that that have come out has been a learning opportunity for you or a growth opportunity for me and it-- - Yeah, so when I think about this, I think of that first Romans eight, 28. It says, "and we know that for those who love God, "all things work together for good "for those who are called according to His purpose." So, Christian, raise your hand. Are you called according to His purpose? - Yup. - Yeah. Do you love God? - Yup. - Yup. So, even when you're husband's not leading well, does God, can God work that out for your good? 'Cause He promises to. And we may not know what that good looks like right now and it may not feel good and we talked about this feelings thing a couple episodes ago, but He's gonna work it out. - Yeah. - I like what you said. Trusting God. - Yeah, I didn't know you were gonna bring this verse up but as you were reading it and you were getting to the end of it, it says, "those who are called according to His purpose," and when I just think about marriage in and of itself, it's for His purpose. It's not for our purpose, although there's benefits to us. Because earlier you'd talked about what it represents and so when we submit to His order and we say, okay Lord, we're gonna walk this out. I'm gonna encourage my husband to lead. I'm gonna let him lead. He's gonna lead me, and the husband's over there saying, Okay Christ, I'm following You. I'm walking Your way, it's for His purposes. - Yeah, so I think that's a good, for the wife listening, heart posture is saying, Okay Lord. My life and my marriage is Yours and I want to practice trusting You. I want to practice loving You. I want to practice knowing You, and so this is one of the ways I'm gonna do that is walking in submission to my husband. - Yeah. - Even when I'm afraid of how he's making, the decision he's making. If I think he's wrong. - Yeah, well-- - It doesn't mean you can't encourage him, right? - Well, here's the truth. We cannot encourage our husbands to lead and feel confident in leading if we challenge every time they try. - You're right. Think about our kids. We have to give them opportunities to make choices, make decisions, do things on their own and if we never do that, they're never gonna get good at the things they wanna get good at, right. - Yeah. - So, even with your husband, just like anything, the moment they, and this has happened to us, I try and make a decision and there's an immediate fight, argument. - Confrontation. - Yeah, confrontational, or opposition. - Conflict, disagreement. - Like, no, I think that's a bad choice, rather than letting me figure it out. - And then going to the prayer closet with it. - I have enough room for it. And we've seen this time and time again in our own marriage. We've seen it in other marriages. This is the things is, we'll get messages from people saying, "how do I get my husband to lead, "'cause every time he tries, "I don't like the decisions he makes." And I'm just thinking he's never gonna figure out how to make better decisions if you're not gonna encourage him and say, okay, let's try that. I might not see how that's gonna work out, but I'm gonna follow you and let's see how that plays out. - If we do submit, if we do act out in submission towards our husband, then it's gonna require us to pray more for them - Oh yeah. - and the choices that they're making. I think all the wives need to hear that right now because how often are we praying for our husband's leadership? How often are we praying for the choices that they're making and how they're leading our family? That we want it to improve or that we want it to go a certain direction and that we're submitting those desires and things to the Lord. - And I would say, 'cause I'm just thinking about marriages where you have a super immature husband. Someone who just, the decisions they make are totally selfish decisions and those, that happens. You know, their hobbies or how they wanna spend the money. Where they wanna go or they just wanna leave and they just wanna, that's a hard place for a wife to be. I just wanna say my heart is broken for where you're at in your marriage, but for you, your prayer closet, getting on your knees before God and knowing that God loves you and your husband. - And that He has a purpose for it. - He has a purpose for what's going on. Just start praying that God captures that man's heart. - Yeah. - And pray fervently without ceasing. Pray daily, hourly, minute by minute for them and watch God move. And then also pray for opportunities. - Yeah. - Like very calm, gentle honoring opportunities to be like, hey, that's great if you wanna do that. I just wanna give you an encouragement. Would you consider how this is gonna bless us when you make this decision? - Yeah, respectfully communicate. - And how ever they answer, be like, okay, I just wanna encourage you to consider that. - That's great. - Love you. - 'Cause we have huge influence in our husband's lives in the way that they do make decisions. So, even if we don't feel like that's true, they're thinking about the things that we say and how we're saying them. - Yeah. - Right. - And I would also give an encouragement to wives to not be manipulative in the way they encourage their husbands to lead because I think sometimes there could be, oh yeah, I want him to lead as long as he leads my way. And so, doing, just using your emotional, emotions and the way you word things to get them to feel like their decision's bad and they should go with yours anyway, or, that's not how, no one responds well to those things. So just being careful how you're using your words and being prayerful in this journey of encouraging your husband. Again, prayer and running to the Father 'cause God's the only one who can change hearts. And that's what needs to happen in a lot of these men's lives. Husbands, if you're listening. If you're having a hard time leading, it's a heart problem in you that you need to go to the Father and say, change this in me. Why am I so afraid, or why is this so hard, or why am I feeling like I can't. Because even if your wife's not letting you, you should still be leading. - Yeah. - Because you can be an example in your home. - Okay, so real quick. For the relationship that the husband hasn't been spiritually leading and maybe the wife has, there could become a root of bitterness in her heart towards him and so when he does step up to try and lead, it can feel almost frustrating in the sense that he's doing it wrong or he's not doing it how she thinks he should. I know you mentioned all of that. - Well, she's been doing it for so long and now she has to like, wait, you're just gonna come in-- - How do you transition. How do you transition and sometimes that root of bitterness can get in the way and so I just wanted to call that out because you had touched on it briefly and I just, do you have any thoughts about that or an encouragement to a wife who may, there may be a situation that happens in the midst of them working together in the kitchen, how does she respond in that moment? - Yeah, well, it's even before that. If there is a root of bitterness like this, I've been leading and I've been doing this and my husband hasn't stepped up and there's this irked feeling. - Now all the sudden he's going to try. - Now you're gonna try or if you're gonna do it and you're not gonna do it my way. All those kinds of things. - How do they respond? - The first humbleness and repentance. - Yeah. - Within their heart. Saying, okay Lord. This is gonna be difficult, but I have been angry and bitter. And I just wanna repent that because I do want my husband to rise up. I do, I don't, say like, we need to tell the Lord, I don't want to get in the way of what You're doing in my husband's life. I actually wanna be a catalyst for what You're doing. I wanna be a part of it. - That's good. - So, I would just say start with humbleness and repentance. - Okay, so we're gonna move on and share just what are some ways that I have encouraged you to lead our family that's impacted you, 'cause I think hearing personal stories like this helps get the idea across. - So, I just have a list here. This is one of the things that I just wrote down notes of. Things that I've experienced that you've done for me that I felt encouraged me in my leadership. - Which, by the way, I had mentioned how we kind of prep our episodes. I didn't know you were gonna do this and so when I went in there to look over the episode. I saw this and I was so touched by it because I thought, oh, I didn't even know I was doing these things that have impacted you. So, I was really excited to hear this. - Well, thank you. So, the first one is you often ask me questions about the Bible. So, this does a bunch of things and we talked about this before. Scripture talks about this. It calls wives to go to their husbands and ask them questions. - Yeah. - And I know many wives would be like, well, I know more about the Bible than he does. Exactly. - Or I know where to go that would give me the right answer. - Exactly, like I have, oh, I have so and so or I have this Pastor or I have this podcast. Those things aren't bad. - Or whoever, yeah. - But just, ladies, listen. Listen to the power that this has in a husband's life. If every question you had about the Bible, even if you knew he didn't have the answer, if every question you had about the Bible, like you're reading scripture and you're like, this is weird or that's interesting or I wonder what he meant by that, and you went to your husband. You're husband's at home, he's watching TV or he's doing whatever, right, and you're like, hey, Hon, I was just reading in first John and it says, this, what do you think about that? And not in a facetious way. Not in way that sounds antagonistic, but genuinely wanna know what he thinks. - Yeah. - I would imagine in the beginning you'll have, what, what are you talking about? I don't know. Just go ask your pastor. I don't know. - Who knows. - Who knows how he's gonna respond, right. But imagine the 50th time. What do you think that husband's thinking to himself? He's thinking, she must think I have answers. She must think I know something, right? - I better know something. - She must believe or must be interested in my way of thinking about this. So, over and over and over again, running to your husband and saying, hey, what do you think about this? Hey, I read this. Have you ever read this before? What do you think it means? How do I know how to and over and over and over again you go to your husband and you ask these questions, eventually he's gonna start going to look for the answers. - Yeah, I would say space the questions out just so that he doesn't feel berated. Right, give him some breathing room because it could be, for some husbands, new. - Right, this is tactical. This is tactical. - No, it's not. It's a beautiful way that a marriage gets to look at the word of God together and so, my first thing is just give some space in between each question and then if you have a husband that's having a hard time answering those questions or maybe he forgets or maybe there's a lot of time that goes by and he never gets to that question, gets to answer that question, pray for him. Don't let that become bitterness in your heart that he's not answering your questions. - Yeah. - Let it become an opportunity for you to pray for him. - See it as a tool. Well first of all, the Bible tells wives to go ask their husbands questions. Second of all, over time that's gonna build up so much respect in him. When someone asks you questions, ladies, just think about this. If someone comes to you and says, hey I have this question. I wanna know your opinion, thought, idea, doesn't that make you feel so respected and honored? - Totally and I either wanna share right there what I think or I wanna go figure it out and then come back. - Yeah, 'cause that person really wants to know from you. Cool, so lets, I'm gonna run through a bunch of these and then we'll go a little deeper-- - Sometimes Aaron gets really excited, - I do. - and he starts teaching on a topic, but we're gonna share a little bit more about how you can encourage your husband specifically in just a little bit. But first, let's get through this list of what you came up with. - So again, these are things that I've seen you do for me. - Something I was gonna share real quick on this is one of the opportunities I always take is after a Sunday church service, if something stood out to me that I didn't understand, I'll come to you and say, "hey, what did "the pastor mean by this?" Or, "I'm kinda confused," or whatever the question is. - Right. - And so that's one opportunity and then, one of the things that we like to ask each other is, "what has God been teaching us lately?" So, I like that. - Yeah. So, the next one is, you encourage me in the things I'm already leading in. So, it's like this affirmation. You see me doing finances and you encourage me in that. Hey, thank you so much for doing, taking care of our family so well in that area. If you see me with my, doing something leadership wise with my kids, like discipling them, talking to them about something spiritual. Teaching them something, anything. - Positive reinforcement with words. - Oh yeah, so what you're doing is you're, and it, you're going out of your way to recognize leadership things in me and affirm those things. - Yeah. - You work hard to implement things that I have put in place. Which again, - I have a good example of it. - That's a submission thing and a leadership thing. - So, I had a good friend, Angie Tolpin from Courageous Mom, encourage me in home schooling to say, go to the husband, 'cause I'm there all day with the kids, but to go to your husband and say, what's your vision for home school? What do you want me to be teaching them? And then to take that vision and implement it and let your husband see the fruitfulness that comes from it. - Which gave me an opportunity to lead because I'm like, whoa, I didn't even think about that. - Now you gotta look into home school. - It took me some time to think about things that I cared about. - Yeah. - You did all the detailed stuff, all the standard things. - But you got to cast the vision and lead our family in that way. So, that's just one example, one area of what that looked like. - Which I kind of already mentioned this, but you reinforce my leadership with the children. So when you see me doing, leading my kids. Teaching them things. Encouraging them, you affirm me in that. - We also have to be unified in that. - I notice you were working on submitting to my leadership and yielding to my way of leading by laying down your plan-- - Can you see it in my eyes when I'm not? - Yeah, or inviting me to make the plan. These things encourage me and show me like, oh, she wants me to lead. - I used to come to Aaron at the beginning of, not every day, but important days and I'd say, okay, here's kind of like my expectations and what I want today to be like. - You could tell me yours afterwards, but this is what I want. - I've gotten into it but I still do that at times, but I do, I've gotten into a better habit of going to him on those days and going, hey, what were you thinking about today? Let's talk about this. I'm trying. - Well, you have gotten better and I've also raised up in that area. - Yeah. - So. - Being thoughtful. - Yeah, so we sit down and we'll discuss the plans for the week. It doesn't mean that you don't have a voice in it. - Right. - You're expecting me to lead in that. You've reminded me of what the Bible calls me to do in a loving way. So, there's been times that you said, "hey, I just want "to remind you that this week's coming up. "There's gonna be these things. "I'd love for you to put your heart on "and your mind of what you see for us. "How do you want this to play out? "Remember, that's your role. "I'm looking for you to do this in my life." And so you just in loving, gentle ways, saying "hey, God's called you to this. "I'm looking forward to it. "I'm excited for it and I'm reminding you to do it." - Yeah, no, that's really good. And I think there's been other times where just the way that I hear you talking with the kids, if it's a little harsh, I'll say, I'll remind you, gentleness. Sometimes it's just a one word phrase and other times it's just, there's actual scripture that comes to my mind that I feel like I need to share with you. - Yeah, there's been times in my life when I'm in sin, - Yeah. - And we're talked about this in our pornography episode - Oh yeah. - Awhile ago where you came to me and you actually spoke truth to me. - Jesus' words about adultery. - Instead of giving me your heart in your words, which you definitely had those, - Yeah. - you give me the word. - His words, yeah. - You showed me what you're doing is adultery. What you're doing, you're going to end up teaching our children. You need to walk in the freedom you have. You spoke all these truths to me in a very powerful way, but you reminded me what the Bible says. - Yeah, I want to admit to one more, but this is more like a failure slash warning for wives not to use scripture to get your own way and there's one scripture in particular that always comes to my mind when I'm frustrated at you or what you're doing and it's the one about, "husbands walk "with your wives in an understanding way." - You're not understanding me. - No, it's such a beautiful verse and I love it and I really do believe that you should be walking with me in an understanding way. - Yeah, of course. - But I shouldn't use, there's been a couple times where I've brought it up and I know I'm frustrated because I want you to understand me, but really, I just want you to yield to me. So, don't do that. - Right. - Don't do that. - You've gotten better on that. - Yeah. - These last two are really powerful ones. Ladies, wives, speak well of your husband in public to others. This is the most dismantling, one of the most dismantling, destructive things you can do is speaking down of your spouse in public. - Yeah. - You should never do that. That doesn't mean, like you're not, you're going to a confidential, a confident, a brother or sister in Christ to get advice and you're sharing situations. But that's not what this is and everyone knows when you're talking down about their spouse. - Here's the deal. If you're walking with the Lord, the Holy Spirit will convict you on those times that you're not walking faithfully and you are talking about your husband. - Okay, I get so frustrated about this and actually, if any of you that are listening have done this, I pray that you would think through it. Repent of it and change. I've seen people, public comments about their spouse. Oh, husbands and wives. Oh, my wife would never do this because of this, this and this, and I'm like, well, why are you telling everyone? Go talk to your wife about that. Or, I wish my husband would read this because he's this, this and this, and I'm like, whoa. - When you say public comments, are you talking about comments on social media? - Social media. - Okay. - And this is just, that's just one forum. - Yeah. - It's super public. Everyone sees it and I would just imagine, if I was that husband, I would be destroyed. And I think that's the point that they're doing it is that they feel destroyed so they're retaliating. - Yeah. - And so, I just want to encourage that we don't speak down about our spouses in public. My wife, Jennifer, you do this. Not speak down about me. You speak well of me. - Yeah. - Which makes me desire to live up to the words you speak about me because I hear it and I'm like, whoa, that's what she thinks of me. I didn't feel like that today. I didn't feel like I was being that way. So, speaking well of me in public is something that's been done that's been hugely impactful in my life. - I will say this just to encourage the wives who maybe have done this or it happens occasionally is in order to change, you have to repent and I remember years ago, it must have been within the third or fourth year of marriage, I went out to lunch with a friend and the conversation turned into this kind of complaining about you. - Complaining about me. - And I was on, I remember still where I was on the freeway feeling conviction from the Lord on how I spoke about you and I called that friend up and I was like, I have to apologize. What I said, what I did, it wasn't a good example. It wasn't what I should have done and I told you about it and I had to confess it. Otherwise I could have easily just stepped right back into it another time. And when we're confronted with our sin like that and we deal with it and we repent, it changes us. God changes us. And so I just want to encourage you, if you find yourself in the midst of doing something like that and the Lord convicts you, repent. - Yeah and again, I wanna separate this idea of sitting with a close girlfriend who's going to draw you back to the word of God, - Right. - and encourage you in saying, here's some things I'm dealing with. - I think we all know the difference. - Everyone knows the difference. - Versus I'm gonna tell you how much I'm bothered by my husband. - It's a heart posture. - It's totally a heart posture, So, speak well of people and of your spouse in public and then the last one is, Baby, you do this. You look to me for guidance pretty much for everything. It doesn't mean I have the answers all the time. I rarely have the perfect answer, but you come to me and say there's this, what about this. Hey, this things going in my, hey, I have this relationship thing, what do you think. So, that's become a pattern in our life. Coming to me for advise. - As it happens, I trust you more. I wanna hear from you more. I wanna get your perspective more and so, it's a building block, so like in marriage, you may not be at a point in your marriage right now where you feel that way. Where you desire your husband's perspective on something, but as you guys work through that and as you grow and you give him more opportunities for giving you advise on things or help walk you through certain things, you'll learn to trust him more. - So, that was really good. Let's talk about some of the benefits of walking in submission to his leadership. So, why don't you share some of the benefits you've seen from learning to walk in submission to and allow me to lead. - Okay, well, feeling loved and looked after. I feel like you truly are concerned with my welfare, our family's welfare and just when you make decisions or how you lead our family, it shows. There's evidence of that. - Just real quick. Husbands that are listening. Listen to these benefits because when you walk in leadership and walk in spiritual leadership, your wife's gonna experience the same benefits. - Yeah, totally. I feel like God's honored and glorified because we're working out that order that you mentioned earlier. - Yup. - And it's a stark contrast to the way that the world operates. It just looks different. So, they see that picture of marriage. I feel like there's less worry in my own heart because the burden is shared. So, if we are walking through something hard, I know, especially over time of submitting to your leadership, that I can trust you. I can trust God with you. What else? Our communication is better. I feel like we communicate more respectfully towards each other. Intentional discipleship of our children. - That's been a huge-- - Them seeing a good example of what it looks like for a daddy to lead and mommy to submit has been really cool and they get it, even at a young age. - It's amazing what they get. - Yeah. I feel like it provides an open and safe place for us to talk about things, especially biblical things. And if there is ever disagreement or misunderstanding on certain things, decisions that we have to make or concepts that are even in the Bible that we get to talk those things out and wrestle with them together. - Those are good benefits. - Yeah. - And it just, it's, yeah, it's obedience to God's order and it's a blessing. - Yeah. - When husband and wife are walking that way it's good. - It's awesome. - It's awesome. - Marriage is awesome. - Now, it doesn't mean you can't walk that way without your spouse walking their way. We're still called to read our own mail and walk in obedience to Christ. - Yeah. - But man, when you're both doing it, the ministry that you can do, the example you are to the world of the gospel is so beautiful. - Yeah, I will say this is another benefit, too, is that when we understand His purpose for marriage and His order and we're trying as hard as we can to walk, maybe it's not perfect, but we're walking in those roles and in those ways, we're motivated by an internal, eternal perspective that far outweighs any current circumstances that we face. So Aaron, wouldn't you agree that over time, the things that we face, the things that we have to walk through together are now, like after 13 years of marriage, they're much smaller to us in comparison to our view of what's motivating us, which is God, which is His-- - Well because we repent way quicker. - Eternity with Him. - We humble ourselves way quicker. We realize like, man the thing that we're really fighting about now, - Yeah. - is not worthy of this much attention. So, we back off quicker. We come to each other and say we feel dis-unified. - Right. - Let's work on that. Let's fix it. Our kids, we also recognize it in our children. When we have disunity, when we're not walking well with each other, - Yeah. - our kids experience that and respond to that. So, we wanna give some scripture. We're coming to the end. But here's just in the Bible. So, wives listening, if you have a husband that's not walking obedient, in obedience to the word, listen to what the Bible says. This is some of the most powerful scriptures, I think, to a wife on the power that she has in her husband's life. First Peter, chapter three says this. "Likewise, wives be subject to your own husbands." Remember, that submission reference to your husband. "So that even if some do not obey the word--" - Now this could be a non-Christian or it could be someone who claims to be a Christian but is not obeying the word. He's not walking the way God wants. - Right, that's what I love about this is it doesn't distinguish. It's saying someone who does not obey the word. - Yeah. - It could be both. It says this, "they may be one without a word "by the conduct of their wives. "When they see your respectful and pure conduct. "Do not let you adorning be external. "The braiding of hair, the putting on "of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear. "Let your adorning be the hidden person "of the heart with an imperishable beauty "of a gentle and quiet spirit which in God's sight "is very precious." And so, the point of this is, it's saying, in stark contrast to letting your outside appearance be the thing that is attracting and is getting the attention, it's not saying don't wear these things. It's saying don't let that be what you're using as your adorning. The thing that you're putting on to show who you are. Who you are should be that respectful and pure conduct from within and what it says right here, it says, "they may be one without a word." So, you want to win your husbands' hearts, not just for you but for them to be a leader. For them to raise up and sort of obeying the word of God. It's your conduct. Your gentle and quiet spirit, which is amazing. What that means is, wives, you can actually walk in such a way before your husband in your home that could transform them by the way they walk. Like, why are you so respectful? I'm this way and you just keep serving and you keep loving and you keep forgiving and you keep showing me by example what it looks like. That's powerful. - Yeah. - And so I just want to encourage with that scripture is like, the Bible says it, so you can trust God that it's saying wives, if you walk in this way, this is power in your husband's life. - I love how specific it is that it says, "without a word," because I think that often times we get creative with our words. Women, we know how to talk and we talk a lot sometimes. And sometimes we think that our words are gonna change our husbands. We think that if we say something enough. - I just need to get him to... - Right and so I love that there's a distinguishing note there, that, "without a word." And that shows the power of, like you said, our conduct and our behavior and the things that we choose to do. I think if we slow down and really meditated on this verse and understood what God was trying to teach us through it and walk it out, man, your husbands will be influenced by this. - Let's take it a step further. So, the wife represents the church. The symbol of the church, right. And what power does the church have in this world? Our conduct. - Mmh hmm. - It says that, "the world may know that you "are my disciples by the love you have "for one another." In other places it says, "that the world may know "that God sent Me by the love you have for each other." - Yeah. - So, wife, your conduct is that symbol and representation to your husband. - Yeah. - And church, our conduct is a body of Christ, is that symbol and light to the world. That's what that's representing. - In Proverbs 3, 5-6, it says, "Trust in the Lord "with all your heart and do not lean "on your own understanding. "In all your ways acknowledge Him "and He will make straight your path." And what I love about this in support of the verse we just read is coming back to our words. Sometimes we think our way is the right way and we're just gonna speak those words and we're gonna say that thing over and over and over again, but here God's saying trust me, lead on my understanding and I'm saying don't use your words, use your conduct. And so we need to pay attention. We need to acknowledge Him. We need to acknowledge His word and what He's sharing with us. - Amen. So, let's just end on five simple ways that they can start encouraging their husbands. Of course, we talked about all the ways I've seen you do it. - Yeah. - But there's just five ways. I'll do one, you do one. So, number one. Pray for him that he embraces his role as a future leader. - Number two, ask him to wash you in the water by the word at night or in the morning and if you don't know what I mean by that, Ephesians 5 25 says this. "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church "and gave Himself up for her "that He might sanctify her, "having cleansed her by the washing of water "with the word so that He might present the church "to Himself in splendor without spot "or wrinkle or any such thing, "that she might be holy and without blemish." And so, getting in the word together. Talking about it. Making those safe places for you guys to ask questions, for you to ask him questions and get answers and learn together. - And don't become bitter if it takes time. - Yeah. - Just keep asking. Say, hey, when you're ready, I'd love for you to read to me. I'd love for you to talk to me about the Bible. - Yeah. - Which leads to number three. Ask him spiritual questions and questions about the word of God before searching it out on your own, which is super respectful and powerful. Just going to him and say, hey, I'd love to know your opinion on this. I'd love to know what you think about this. And just do that. Make that your pattern of, go to him first. - Yeah. - Don't go to your, you know, whoever you listen to on your podcast or who, blogs you follow or your pastor. Go to him first and then go to those places. And that let's him know that you totally respect him. First Corinthians, 14:35 says that is there's anything that they desire to learn, talking about wives, "let them ask their husbands at home." - And I will say this. I think you'll be really surprised by your husband's answers when he does share them with you. I've had girlfriends in the past tell me, you know, I'm not good at asking my husband questions, but I asked him recently, duh duh duh tah duh, and this is what he came back with, and she shared his response and it was incredible and then she got to affirm him in that and it built his confidence. - Yeah, which is number four. - You guys are so cool. Number four is affirm him with kind words. Let him know that you believe he can do this. - Yeah. Number five is be supportive in action. Meaning in front of the kids, being on the same page. If he has a decision, be like, let's do this. We're gonna do this as a family. Dad has made a decision. This is what Dad's decided. Showing him that you're rooting for his leadership. - And that means that things don't change when Dad steps outside of the home to go to work or Dad goes to run an errand. - You instill things that he's desired. - You are the, the mediator between you and your kids and you're going to be an advocate for his vision, for his decisions, for his leadership for them. - Yeah and just as encouragement, this, sometimes this takes times. This always takes time. But Jennifer and I, we're still learning how to do this. I've failed often. Jennifer fails often. This is something that we have to constantly be like, hey. We gotta get realigned. I know I have to remember my role. You have to remember yours. Let's do this. So we just want to encourage you to take those steps in prayer. To desire what God desires. To be in the word of God and yeah, just follow. His ways are good and we just need to chase after those. So as usual, we end in prayer. We pray that this episode encouraged you and so, let me pray. Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of marriage. Thank you for the opportunity to consider these things and how we can mature as a couple. We pray we would walk in righteousness, gentleness and self control. We pray we would be people who see others through the lens of compassion. Help us to be thoughtful in our response to each other. Help us to be respectful in our conduct. We pray our interactions as a married couple would be a testimony of Your power and authority in our lives. May Your light shine brightly in us as we direct each other back to You. In Jesus' name, amen. We love you guys. I hope this blessed you and encouraged you. Just get into those scriptures yourself. And we just want to remind you, if you have been following us for awhile and haven't left a review yet, would you please do that today? Just scroll to the bottom on your app, hit the star rating and if you write out a review also, we love reading those. Again, thank you for joining us and we look forward to having you next week. Did you enjoy today's show? If you did, it would mean the world to us if you could leave us a review on iTunes. Also, if you're interested, you can find many more encouraging stories and resources at MarriageAfterGod.com and let us help you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.

“You need to share your story.” God was speaking to McKenzie. She felt the Lord leading to share her story, but she had no idea what that would look like. No idea what He wanted. But she still said yes. “Okay Lord, I’ll do it.” That week, she started sharing on social media… She started writing a book… Unsure of where it would lead, but know that she needed to obey the Lord. A week later, she got a random message from a stranger… “Would you be interested in sharing your story for an online conference I’m hosting?” She said “yes” again. And she was the first interview I did for the Created For Strength Conference. Confirmation to her that she was moving forward in obedience to the Lord. And confirmation to me that the Lord was the one in charge of who I should interview. We scheduled the interview, and had a great hour-long conversation… But it was full of issues… Bad connections… Bad audio… Constant tech issues… The interview couldn’t be used… But that didn’t keep McKenzie from obeying. She kept sharing her story. Kept moving forward. Kept walking in obedience. Since my baby ended up being late, we were able to reschedule. And I was blown away with the second interview. Because of her continued obedience, she had WEEKS of practice sharing her story before our second interview. And it was powerful. A wonderful testimony not only of the Lord’s faithfulness in her life… But of growth. When the Lord calls you to something, You STILL need to grow into what He calls you to. There will still be a journey… A process… Of BECOMING the person who can do the thing that God calls you to. And I have loved being small part of McKenzie’s journey. As she continues to walk by faith… Taking steps of action when the Lord calls… Even when the destination is unknown. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/createdforstrength/support

Seventeen years ago, Greg Buzek was working as a Product Development Manager making anti-theft devices. They were the type of devices designed to deactivate if merchandise left a store without being purchased. Greg made a very good living at this, but found himself completely unfulfilled inside. Something wasn't quite right in his life. It was at a casual lunch one day with the Pastor from his church, when the first seeds would be planted. Pastor Kelly Lyons worked with small groups and missions at the church, and he needed help. He asked Greg to work in missions, and although Greg was engaged in the talk, internally, he was full of fear: "I’m a business guy, I have nothing to offer." Before he got back to his desk that afternoon, he was fired from his job! "Okay Lord, you have my attention." But now what? It kept coming back to helping the people of Liberia. Yet, Greg knew nothing about Liberia. So Greg prayed about this big decision in his life, "Lord, All I know about Liberia is that Chet’s over there, and he’s had malaria three times, been shot at, had an AK47 pointed at his chest from an 8-year-old - If I need to go to Liberia, you’ll need to make it real clear to me". As Greg was driving home, he sees a man pushing his car up the road. Something tells him to stop and help the guy out. When Greg gets out of the car, he notices a bumper sticker that might as well have been a red-neon lit sign that said: “I Support Liberia” What are the chances? This man was from Liberia. As the two men were talking, the stranger explains to Greg that Liberia is in real bad shape and going into a Civil War. Greg explains that he has had it on his heart to go to Liberia, the stranger tells Greg he is nuts! Greg Buzek was still not excited about this crazy idea of going to Liberia, but the evidence was starting to stack up against him. Chuck Smith, the Senior Pastor, explained to Greg "Beware of signs and wonders. Make sure you have scriptures backing up whatever you believe God is calling you to do". Just days later, in his studies, the first scripture presented was Genesis: 12:1; Get thee out of thy country. The next five scriptures all has a similar message. Greg Buzek's life was about to change and would never be the same again... The story continues on the Brink of Greatness Podcast… The Next Leap Forward Broken families, illness, poverty; there are over 143 million orphans around the globe. A few startling facts from UNICEF tell a story...  A Child dies every 5.2 seconds, that is over 16,000 children every single day. In the New York Foster care system, 60% of the children who age out end up in a homeless situation. More children age out of care systems in one week than are adopted in an entire year. The stats could go on forever, but they all end in one conclusion: Far too many children are suffering unnecessarily; disease, famine, lack of resources, crime, trafficking. If we are to put a dent in this worldwide problem, it will take an army of many, but it starts with one! Greg Buzek recognized this need and through his faith and trust, he took the leap forward to make that difference. Retail Orphan Initiative was born to raise awareness and provide real-life solutions by combining the resources of many with the art of streamlining to that critical moment of need. They not only do this in over 24 countries, but they also focus efforts in the United States.  Retail Orphan Initiative has interacted in over 188 Projects, raising millions of dollars, rescued 1,200 girls, helped support 1,412 Adoptions, built 19 schools, worked on brining clean water to communities. It's an impressive list of accomplishments that change on a daily basis depending on the need. The Brink of Greatness salutes our Brink Thinker Greg Buzek and the incredible team that is working for the good of humanity! For Further Insight: Website: https://www.retailroi.org/ DONATE: https://www.retailroi.org/donate/

Join us as we discuss how God has been showing us His desire for us to grow in our spiritual stamina in our prayer life. Prayer should be a normal occurrence in the believer's life and it has been a foundational element of our marriage over the years but lately, we have been feeling that God is desiring us to pray more. In order to grow our stamina, which is the ability to handle more, in our spiritual life is by doing it more. -- Take our 31-day marriage prayer challenge today and join the 1000's of couples who have done it. https://shop.marriageaftergod.com/products/thirty-one-prayers-bundle -- FOR MORE MARRIAGE ENCOURAGEMENT https://marriageaftergod.com https://instagram.com/marriageaftergod SHOP MARRIAGE RESOURCES https://shop.marriageaftergod.com FOR WIVES https://unveiledwife.com https://facebook.com/unveiledwife FOR HUSBANDS https://husbandrevolution.com https://facebook.com/HusbandRevolution READ [Aaron] Hey, we're Aaron and Jennifer Smith with Marriage after God. [Jennifer] Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage. [Aaron] And today we're gonna talk about Spiritual Stamina and Prayer. Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast, where we believe that marriage was meant for more than just happily ever after. [Jennifer] I'm Jennifer, also known as Unveiled Wife. [Aaron] And I'm Aaron, also known as Husband Revolution. [Jennifer] We have been married for over a decade. [Aaron] And so far, we have four young children. [Jennifer] We have been doing marriage ministry online for over seven years through blogging and social media. [Aaron] With the desire to inspire couples to keep God at the center of their marriage, encouraging them to walk in faith every day. [Jennifer] We believe the Christian marriage should be an extraordinary one, full of life, Love, [Jennifer] And power. [Aaron] That can only be found by chasing after God. [Jennifer] Together. [Aaron] Thank you for joining us in this journey as we chase boldly after God's will for our life together. [Jennifer] This is Marriage After God. [Aaron] Okay, before we get started on this week's episode, I just wanna invite any of you that have been subscribed to our channel and enjoying this content, if you would just take a moment and leave us a star rating and a review. If you don't have time for a text review, you can just leave a star rating also, but when those reviews get left, they actually help our podcast get seen by a lot more people so we'd really appreciate it, if you have a moment to leave a review, that would be awesome. [Jennifer] Also, Aaron and I would like to invite you to support this podcast by shopping through our store. So if you go to marriageaftergod.com/challenge, you can check out our resources on prayer and take the 31 day challenge, pray with your spouse through those resources and that, shopping through our store helps support this podcast. [Aaron] So let's just get into the content now. You know, we're gonna be talking about spiritual stamina, which is a term that I brought up this last Sunday and we'll talk about where it came from but I believe it's something that God's walking us through right now. There's several things that we're gonna talk about today that were brought up recently, over the last few days, and we're just thinking, "Man, we should talk about this." [Jennifer] Yeah. [Aaron] For this week's podcast. [Jennifer] Yeah, I feel like it's a necessary message, not just for our hearts and the things that we're walking through but hopefully it'll inspire everyone listening. [Aaron] Yeah, and then our heart for this podcast is always to inspire and encourage marriages out there who love God and who wanna know His will for their life and marriage to move forward and that's what He's doing with us, it's our journey, it's their journey, but this word 'stamina', it's something that I think about often when it comes to my workout in the mornings at the gym, which this morning's was super hard and I had almost no stamina. I could not keep going, I almost quit halfway through the workout. [Jennifer] I've been there before, pretty much any workout I've ever done. [Aaron] And the idea is that we, as we work out, or as we exercise or we build muscle, our muscle in our body and our system gets better at doing that and it means we can handle more. And this week, on Sunday at church actually, I was thinking about it. Actually church service was awesome, I walked away feeling so blessed and that just, the Lord was speaking to our hearts, but a thought I had was, "Man, I wonder if we could handle more as a church body?" [Jennifer] Like go longer? [Aaron] Yeah, go longer. Like, it was actually a really good service and several people spoke and talked and we sang a lot of awesome worship songs and just, it was a really good morning. There was tons of prayer, but then I just had this thought of I wonder if we could handle more. Could we go longer, or is it, we just cap it a certain amount or time and this was, I don't believe anyone was, I actually didn't tell anyone this, there was no problem, it was just, I was just thinking, like, I wonder what it would take if we could do more, if God wanted us to go further, if we could, would we be okay with that. Have you ever thought about that before, Babe? [Jennifer] When I think of stamina, I think of my time spent with the kids and kind of just doing our daily routine and the kind of stamina that a parent needs, to be able to do that, to last the whole day. That's a good illustration. Fulfilling their needs and being their encouragement and their comfort and just be that person in their life to guide them and it requires a lot, and so when I think of the word 'stamina', that's what I think of. [Aaron] Well, that's a good illustration, actually. So your stamina from one child to your stamina to two children-- [Jennifer] It grows exponentially. I feel like each time, every time we have another child, I do feel like, kind of like you were talking about, growing and as you exercise and building that muscle, I feel like I'm building that muscle as a parent. [Aaron] Right, in every aspect, not just playing with our kids but in discipline-- [Jennifer] And teaching. [Aaron] In teaching, discipleship, all these areas. So another area that stamina came up was in prayer, recently, and we're gonna talk about that and actually at the end of this episode, are we gonna pray for the marriages that listen? [Jennifer] Yeah, when we were talking about what we would share today, I've actually been asking you for a couple weeks now, hey, we need to an episode just on praying and pray for the couples who are listening because we know how powerful prayer is and our heart is to pray for you guys, and so we thought we could just enter into a time of praying and I'm really excited to do that today. [Aaron] Yeah, and we'll do that towards the end so stay tuned. I did a live video today on Instagram and got people's prayer requests so we're gonna go through some of those, Babe. Oh awesome. [Aaron] But we're just gonna pray generally for marriages who listen to this, marriages and the church and so that's gonna be awesome, but prayer was a part of the spiritual stamina we were talking about. Jennifer and I have made prayer a main theme in our marriage since the beginning. It's been a main theme in our ministry online, it's been probably the most popular books that we've had, is our prayer books. [Jennifer] And I would say that it's not because we're good at it, it's because God's constantly calling us to do it and I feel like that's been an area of our life that we constantly come back to and need to be reminded of and so I think that's why it's such a big part of our ministry online, is because we know that if it's hard for us, it's probably hard for other people. So, just wanted to-- And I feel like recently-- Share that. [Aaron] We've talked about this a bit, Babe, is that God's actually asking us for more. It feels like He's saying, "Hey, I want you to pray more." That there's more to be prayed about, that I want more energy put into prayer and so that goes back to the stamina of well, what can we handle? And you actually, you just asked God recently, you said, "Okay Lord, what's next?" And I feel like what's next in our life is more prayer, more of the word of God, more spiritual growth, more fellowship, all of these things that God, that we experience God in and how we know Him and I think that's what He's calling us to. [Jennifer] So, real quick, you had mentioned that on Sunday specifically, you were kind of wrestling with the question, can we handle more, and I know that the night before, you had started a new book and so do you wanna share a little bit from that? [Aaron] Yeah, so not only was this idea on Sunday of like, can we handle more? Can we pray more? Can we read more? What could our church handle? Could our spiritual stamina be built and grow as a church as a whole but also as individuals in our marriage and then the conversation continued and then that night, I read this book at night. It's by Francis Chan, it's called Letters to the Church, I just got it and he talks about prayer in it and it was pretty powerful, I just wanna read a little bit of what he said. This is on page 67 and he's talking about prayer and the church and he says, "Years ago, my friend from India "drove me to a speaking engagement in Dallas. "When he heard the music and saw the lights, "he said, 'You Americans are funny. "'You won't show up unless "'there's a good speaker or a band. "'In India, people get excited just to pray.' "He proceeded to tell how "believers back home loved communion, "and how they flocked to simple prayer gatherings." First of all, this story itself shocked me and I was like, oh! Like, I've never thought of that and do we do that? Would we flock to a prayer meeting? Do we crave prayer? The Bible is just so adamant about prayer, God's so adamant about our prayer life. Jesus dying on the cross tore the veil from top to bottom so that we can actually have direct line of contact with the Father Himself. That we no longer need an earthly priest, we have a high priest, Jesus Himself, who intercedes for us and gives us direct access. [Jennifer] Which is incredible, do we take advantage of that? Yeah. We should be. [Aaron] And I think this started a really long conversation, actually, right before bed, but later on in the chapter he says, "It is His desire for all His children "to experience the fullness of Him through the church "and has given us His word to show us how. "Let's dream of trembling believers on their knees, "speechless because they grabbed the weight "of speaking to Yahweh. "Let's picture small groups and large crowds "coming with eager expectation just to pray. "This is possible." And so, this book, I'm really liking the book. There's a few things that I've wrestled with but this prayer stuff, we talked for probably an hour, just about our spiritual stamina, our prayer. Like, are we even giving prayer the time of day that it deserves in our life? So, Babe, when I read that, because I read it out loud to us in bed, and just how he was dreaming of believers on their knees praying and speechless and eager expectation just to pray. How does that make you feel? [Jennifer] I think it draws out of my heart just this eagerness to do it more. Sometimes we have these emotions and feelings in our hearts and we can't even put words to them until you read someone else's writing and then it's like, "Oh, that's what it is." And I've been feeling this way for a while and I feel like that was, his words, like, just hearing you read them out loud, was like, "Yes, that's it." Like, we need more of that and earlier you had mentioned that we had been praying for what's next and that specifically came from when I had gotten away for a couple days for a women's retreat and there was 15 of us and we each took turns sitting in what we called the hot seat and it was just a chair in the middle of the room but each one of the women there basically just shared a prayer request and then we all prayed specifically for that woman-- One by one. One by one. Every single woman. It took us, like, three hours or so to get through and when it was my turn, I remember just thinking like, I feel ready for what God has for, for whatever's next for me and for us and so that's kind of where that came from and I'll tell you what, the experience of that prayer time was so powerful, not just in my life, but in all the women's lives there and it made me, when I got home, it made me think of how when you're gone at a retreat or you're gone at a conference, there's this spiritual high. That you walk away feeling like you're just so close to God and you really experienced something truly miraculous and what I felt like God was sharing with me about that specifically is that it was because we devoted time to Him. We sat for three and a half hours and prayed over each individual person, in prayer talking to God, like, petitioning for these prayer requests and then we expect in our daily life to just go through whatever we have, whatever requirements that we have on our day to day agendas and we think that we're gonna experience God the same way without going to our prayer closet, without being on our knees, without lifting up those requests to Him, without being thankful for things and just talking to Him and sharing our heart with Him, we expect the same spiritual high. [Aaron] Yeah, and God doesn't want us to have spiritual highs and lows, He wants us to be consistent with Him. What's funny is you said, so you planned that whole retreat and all the women just raved about it and you were telling me, though, you were like, "I planned all these great things "and they were all fun, like these games "and these conversations and they were great, "but the most powerful thing we did was the prayer." [Jennifer] Yeah. [Aaron] And it was that you said, "It felt miraculous, "it felt like we were in the presence of God "as women coming together for the purpose "of praying for each other," and as we talk about this, I feel like the thing we've been feeling is that we're missing something. Like you said, we expect to experience God in the same way in those dedicated, devoted times as we do in our every day life when we don't dedicate or devote time. And so, the stamina side of that is we need to devote time to practicing and walking in those things. You know, at bedtime. One thing that we've realized is we could be spending more time in prayer. Are we cultivating an environment where we get to bed early enough and even if not, early enough, and prayer is a priority at bedtime, together? [Jennifer] Yeah. [Aaron] Praying for our kids, praying for our family members, praying for our church, and I feel like that's where the stamina comes from, is the devotion and the time that we set aside for it. [Jennifer] And I feel like, as we practice it and we stretch that spiritual muscle, we'll get even better at it. [Aaron] And that's the goal, right? That we get better which means we're closer to God, we're closer to Jesus, we become more like Him, more transformed into His image and so that's what we're talking about today and what's funny is, it's not like we have done this yet, right? Our heart is that we're gonna start walking in this ourselves and start examining areas of our life where we need more spiritual stamina. [Jennifer] Yeah. [Aaron] You actually challenged us this morning-- [Jennifer] Well, because this has been a conversation with us. You do Bible time every morning with the kids, which I absolutely love. I love seeing you lead in that way and you read through a chapter and you put it away and we went to go pray and I'm like actually, I think we can handle more. And you said-- [Aaron] Yeah, going back to our Sunday conversation. [Jennifer] Yeah, and so you said, "You're right," and so you pulled it back out and you just told the kids, "Hey, we're gonna read a little bit more today," and you read a-whole-nother chapter. [Aaron] Yeah, and I will say it was in Luke chapter 21, was the first chapter we read and then chapter 22 was significantly longer, but we did it and the kids totally handled it. Yeah, they got a little squirmy and even in my own flesh, I could feel myself feeling like, okay, this is just going long, but that's the only way we're gonna do it. Didn't we, when I started doing Bible time, wasn't it just a verse? [Jennifer] It was a couple verses, it was so brief, yeah. I feel like it was five minutes, max. Maybe if that. [Aaron] Probably a couple minutes and now we're at a full chapter, so just for those that are listening or wondering about family Bible time, start small and build up the stamina. Build up your ability and your kids' ability to listen and hear more and handle more time in the word of God. [Jennifer] And I just wanna add something specifically for kids, because when we build our spiritual stamina, they're seeing our example and the way that we lead in that way. Oh, that's good. And that's gonna help them as adults and so I just wanna encourage those listening with kids that it's our job, it's our privilege, it's our obligation as Christians to lead our children in this way and I'll be honest, sometimes I lean heavily on my husband to lead in this way and it's like I think, we already did Bible time and so therefore when I'm doing school with them and Aaron's off to work that I don't need to pray with them, or at least I think like, check off the box, that's already been done, but if I wanna build their spiritual stamina, I'm going to go into prayer or read the Word or teach whatever I need to teach of God's ways at any time throughout the day and that's kind of been the blessing of being at home to homeschool them but today, specifically, as this theme has been playing out in our lives and we've been thinking about spiritual stamina, I, during school, stopped and made the kids sit on the floor and we all held hands and I said, "We're gonna pray. "We're gonna pray specifically for some friends "that are going through a hard time right now," and each one of the kids prayed and it was really incredible. [Aaron] And that's good and that's building our stamina and how could we ever expect our children to fall in love with the word of God, grow spiritually, love God if they don't see us walking in those ways? We can't expect something different from them that we wouldn't expect of ourselves. And so the desire that we have to grow spiritually, to get better at being in the word of God and to get better at prayer. Not that these things commend us to God but they make us more like Him and because our heart is like, "Man, Lord, we wanna be like You, we wanna walk with You, we wanna know You," that's where this desire is coming from. This craving of getting stronger and more fit in the word of God, activating the things that we're learning, walking in the ways that we're reading in the word of God. [Jennifer] So we were dong family Bible time this morning and you wanna share about what we read? [Aaron] Yeah, 'cause again, there's this theme. There was Sunday morning, there was Sunday night in the book I was reading and then this morning, Monday morning, we're reading in Luke and it's Luke chapter 22 and it's just, this is about Jesus praying. He's about to go to the cross and I just wanna read the scripture verbatim and then we'll talk about it. It's in Luke chapter 22, verse 39, "And He came out and went, as was His custom, "to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed Him. "And when He came to the place, He said to them, "'Pray that you may not enter into temptation.'" I just wanna stop right there for a second because you actually pointed this out this morning, you're like, "He asked them to pray "not to enter into temptation?" Jesus loved his disciples and He asked them, He said, "Guys, pray that you don't enter into temptation." Especially knowing that Peter was about to be tempted to deny Him. He knew he was gonna deny Him, three times, and Jesus was like, "Hey guys, "pray so that you won't enter into temptation." He's like, it's not just a warning, it's like a hey, this is what you can do, this is what you should do so that you won't do the other thing. [Jennifer] And this is the same, this is true for us. Yeah. Right? [Aaron] And then he says in verse 41, "And He withdrew from them, about a stone's throw "and knelt down and prayed, saying, "'Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. "'Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done.' "And there appeared to Him "an angel from Heaven, strengthening Him, "and being in agony, He prayed more earnestly "and His sweat became like great drops of blood "falling down to the ground. "And when He rose from prayer, "He came to the disciples "and found them sleeping for sorrow. "And He said to them, 'Why are you sleeping? "'Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.'" [Jennifer] Okay, so hold on. So, Jesus was in agony and He kept praying. [Aaron] He prayed more. [Jennifer] He prayed more, more earnestly. So, that shows some stamina and I think that this moves my heart so much because I think of everybody going through hard times, everybody goes through, in their own way, they have to face circumstances, conflict, whatever it is. How can we have the stamina to face those things earnestly through prayer, if we're not doing it when times are easy? [Aaron] Yeah, and it would be easy to say, "Well, like, he's Jesus," but the Bible tells us that Jesus was like us. He was tempted in the same way, He had physical limitations and weaknesses in the flesh but without sin and so it says that he was in agony, sweating as it were drops of blood, that's how much agony He was in, knowing what He was about to face on the cross. But yet, He prayed and said, "Not My will be done but Yours." And so the template we get here is that we pray God's will for our life, that we do it even when we're in agony and more earnestly and I just like He says, He says, "Why are you sleeping?" And I feel like us, it's almost as if we've been sleeping and God's looking at us saying, "Wake up. "Wake up, the time is drawing near, "get on your face and pray." do you feel like that, Babe? Yeah. Do you feel like He's telling us to wake up? [Jennifer] Yeah, I do. I mean, I feel like in a lot of ways, we do fulfill these scriptures and we do try and walk in righteousness and walk in the ways that He's called every Christian to, through His word but yet so often, we neglect it or we forget or we think we're doing fine until we read things like this and it hits us head-on that Jesus Himself was in agony and He continues to pray earnestly, and that's our example. And are we doing that? [Aaron] Yeah, and I think about, He says, "Rise up and pray that you may not enter into temptation." I think of the normal temptations to sin, but how often are we tempted to just not pray? To not be in the word of God? [Jennifer] To do something else, to go on social media? [Aaron] Gosh, that's like, my story. It's everyone's story. I go to bed and I'm like, "Oh, I'm gonna read the Bible," and then, boom, I'm on my phone. [Jennifer] It's everyone's story right now. [Aaron] Yeah, so let's wake up, Christians. We're gonna do this with you. Let's wake up from our spiritual slumber and our lack of fervor for spiritual things. The Bible tells us to desire that which is from above, Heavenly things, and I want that. I wanna pray more. I wanna be in the word of God more. I wanna be in close unity and fellowship with other believers more. If in prayer, and in the word of God, I'm thinking about this Sunday in teaching on this idea and practicing it and just reading through several chapters in the word of God, just to get our stamina for the word of God. [Jennifer] I think it's important, I think we need it. [Aaron] Yeah, and so we should try that. Remind me to do that this weekend, I'll prepare something. So that was the scriptures that we read this morning to our kids, again about prayer and just seeing Jesus's example in that. And then I just wanna, really quick, this is to emphasize that I believe God's just hammering home in our marriage currently, this idea that God wants us praying. So last night, I could not sleep. I don't know if you know this or not but I literally was dreaming all night and when I dream, I don't feel like I've slept at all. I remember waking up at 12:00 and then 1:30 and then 3:30 and then at 4:30, finally, I woke up, and I started praying for the person I was dreaming about. I was like, "Okay Lord, I had this dream "about a friend of mine and I had the dream all night "and it was really distressing to me," and I finally just woke up and I just prayed for him. I don't think the dream is true but I believe that he needed prayer, and so I just started praying for him. And then I had another person, another friend of mine that moved away, and I haven't thought about him in a little while, and so this morning, after I got back from the gym, I just started praying for him. And what's awesome is, he sends me a message, or he actually posted about me today, just saying he wanted to like go do a run with me, or something like that, and I went and I just messaged him and I said, "Hey, how are you doing? I'm praying for you." And he lets me know that stuff's going on in his life, that I didn't know about and I was like, "Man! Well, I'm praying for you, "I'm here for you, let me know what's going on." And I was like, "Okay, Lord." [Jennifer] That's really cool. [Aaron] Like, you want me to pray? Like, I'm gonna pray. And it's not for my sake, it's for others' sake and it's also for just hearing God's voice, which I think is awesome. [Jennifer] Yeah, well I think that when our hearts are yielded in that way and submissive to God in that way, we hear Him and He can speak to us and He can lead us and He can show us things or present opportunities like, with your friend, texting back and forth, would you have even had that opportunity if your heart wasn't tender enough to be praying for him? [Aaron] Probably not. I wouldn't have been thinking about him, I wouldn't have been ready. I might have, like, if I talked to him later, said, "Oh, I'll pray for you," but it encouraged me to know that God had already had me working in the spirit on his behalf. Which I think is a really awesome thing. And think about the body, the entire body of Christ, the church, what it would look like if we were praying like this for each other? Just always in prayer for each other. It'd be powerful. [Aaron] Now, what would it look like in our marriages? What would it look like if I was praying for you every morning? Which I do, I pray for you, but I don't pray for you the way I could be. Do you feel like you feel pray for me like that, and if you don't, what would you think would happen if you were praying for me, just fervently and daily and hourly, sometimes? [Jennifer] Well, there has been seasons of our marriage where I know for a fact that you're wrestling with something or you need help with something or you're down and like, I can sense that, or we've talked about something specific and those are the times that I feel like I really go to God in prayer for you, on your behalf, and then there's other times where I feel like we're good and I'm not in that same heart of prayer. [Aaron] Right, we're good, we don't need it. [Jennifer] Not that we don't need it, but like, I know if someone says, "Prayer is amazing, "you need to be praying," I'm like, "I know." But am I walking in that faithfully, with fervor, with my knees on the ground for you? I don't fight for you like that, like I should be, every single day. [Aaron] Right, and we get reminded in the word of God that the battles that we face are not battles against flesh and blood, but they're spiritual battles, against the powers in the air and the spiritual forces and we get to battle, as our Pastor Matt always says, he says that prayer isn't the preparation for the battle, prayer is the battle. We could be battling for each other. I could be battling for you that God's walking with you and helping you and encouraging you in your faith, in your abilities as a mother, in your strength as a wife and you could be praying for me for being protected from temptation and walking in leadership and getting wiser and all these things that we could be praying for on a constant basis. [Jennifer] What I found to be so impactful about marriage is that when we are yielded in this way, to be praying, especially for our spouse, when I'm praying for you, my heart's not focused on myself, it's not about me, it's about you and if my heart's in that position, then what's gonna happen in my actions as we interact with each other throughout the rest of the day? I'm gonna be mindful of you, I'm gonna be thoughtful of you, I'm gonna be thinking about your needs and thinking about how I can serve you, love you, help you versus the other way around which is me, me, me. [Aaron] Right, and that goes to that scripture, I believe it's First Thessalonians that says, "Pray without ceasing." It's not that we are literally on our knees praying 24/7, it's that we are in constant communion with the Father, who, when we do that, changes us, speaks to us, walks with us, guides us, puts our eyes on the things that He wants our eyes on, puts words in our mouths that He wants us to speak, has us hear things He wants us to hear, and so prayer does that. It turns our hearts to God, which then turns our hearts to what He wants. So I love this. I think that as marriages, we should just pray and we're gonna be doing this, pray that God would give us a heart for prayer. That he would grow our spiritual stamina for the word of God, for prayer and that we would see fruit from it, good fruit. And so I think we should go into a time of prayer. What do you think about that, Babe? [Jennifer] I feel good. I feel like it's necessary and needed and I think that we need to be praying specifically for the body of Christ even more. I feel like we're entering into a season where the body needs it more than ever. [Aaron] Right, so we're gonna go into a time of prayer and I'm gonna pray for some of the things that the community, you guys, gave me to pray for and we'll pray for some other things and then we'll close it out. [Jennifer] We wanna invite you guys to pray along with us and if anything comes up in your heart that you need prayer for or that your spouse needs prayer for, just take a minute and just pray for them. [Aaron] Father God, I just wanna come before You and I wanna lift up marriages all over the world, marriages who love You, marriages who desire to see Your will done in their life. Father, I pray that You would reveal Yourself to them, that You would draw them so close to You, God, that they would know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they're Yours and that You desire to use them in mighty ways. Father, I specifically wanna pray for those marriages who are struggling with illness. I know many marriages have real illnesses, real bad things that they're dealing with, hard things, things that they've been dealing with for years, even. I pray, Father, for complete healing. I pray that even if they aren't healed, Father God, that their hearts would be yielded to You, that they would trust You and know that You are doing good things in their life. I pray, Father, that they would lean on You in their weakness because, Father, You tell us in Your word that in our weakness, Your strength is made perfect, and so I pray that in their lives, Your strength would be made perfect and they would know it. I pray that they would rejoice in their afflictions, in their sickness, that people that are watching them and that are wanting to them to be better, Father God, would see their joy, would see their resolve and would know, God, that they are walking with You and that they would be a testimony to people that are watching them. I also wanna pray for marriages that are dealing with infidelity, Father God, and unfaithfulness. I pray Lord that you would convict the hearts of those who are not walking in faithfulness with their spouse; that Lord, You would change them and transform them and rebuke them, if necessary, and that You would bring other Christians alongside them to rebuke them as well; and that they would turn their hearts to You, that they would repent and that they would change their ways and that You would redeem those marriages, Father God. We just, we pray in Your mighty name, in the name that is above all names, Jesus Christ, and we ask, Lord, that you would change those marriages and that they would be a testimony for you; that anyone who would see and hear their story would know that there is a God in Heaven; that they would know that You are the one true God, because they see that Your hand was in their marriage and that You redeem them and save them. [Jennifer] God, I just thank You so much for these marriages, I thank You for these husbands and wives and the purposes that You have for each one of us and I just pray, Lord, that as we draw closer to You, that Your holy Spirit would just continue to guide us and continue to lead us, continue to give us stamina, Lord, for Your word, give us stamina for our prayer life and for talking to You and just coming before You with our requests and our thankfulness and everything that's going on in our lives, Lord, and I just pray that we would have stamina in our family lives, that we would be present. I pray, Lord, that each one of us would know the roles that we have with our children and other people's children, that you would just reveal to us, just how influential each one of us are in their lives and I pray, Lord, that we would have stamina with them, that we would be patient and kind and compassionate and caring as we disciple them and draw them closer to you. God, I thank You so much that these marriages desire to draw closer to You and I just pray that we would all experience more intimacy with You. I pray that we would experience more intimacy in our marriages. God, I pray that every marriage after God would build their foundation and establish it according to Your word, that we wouldn't let a day go by without reading your word. God, please remind us every day that we are lights of Your testimony, especially for this world, this dark world, Lord. I just pray that we would know what purposes we have to fulfill in this life and I pray that we would walk in the ways that You've already established for us to walk. God, I pray against the enemy. I pray against his flaming arrows and the ways that he tries to attack us and I pray that he would not get in the way of what You're trying to do on our lives. I also pray against our flesh and the temptations that come to draw us away from You and I just pray, Lord, that we would be stronger than that, that we would be able to walk righteously and pure and God, I just pray that Your Holy Spirit would help us in this way. God, I specifically wanna lift up some requests that came from the community and that was around job and work and I just pray, Lord, that as people transition in and out of jobs, with changes, I pray that for those who don't have a job right now, I just pray for all of it, Lord. That You would just continue to guide each one of us as we pursue the work that You have for us, and regardless of the circumstances, whether we're in work, in job changes or out of work, that we would continue to be a light for Your namesake, that we would be a testimony to those around us, of faithfulness and perseverance and hope. I pray, Lord, that whatever work that we do, that we would do it unto You. I also wanna lift up finances too, Lord, and I just pray that each one of us would steward well all that You have given to us. If there are couples in debt, Lord, I just pray that You would inspire them to change their ways, that they would do everything that they can to get out of that debt and that they would lead their families well in the area of finances. I pray that we would be a generous people, people who don't cling to what they have but that they're holding it open handed so that You can guide and direct wherever You need those resources to go. God, I pray that You would be able to trust every marriage with the finances that You have placed in their lives and that we would just steward them well, Lord. God, I just thank You so much for our marriages and I just continually ask that Your Holy Spirit would lead us and guide us and draw us closer to You each and every day. [Aaron] Father, we love You and we thank You for the things You give us in our life. The blessings, the hard things even, we thank You for all of it, Lord. You love us, You desire for us to mature and to grow and to become the men and women You've called us to be. You desire that our marriages would be used to grow Your kingdom, to spread Your gospel and Father, we just wanna give You all the glory and all the honor, You deserve it all. You are so good to us, Father, and we thank You for it all and we just pray these things in Your Holy Son's name, Amen. So we thank you for joining us today, I know this was a little bit of a unique episode and we just pray that all of us, that me and my wife, that you and your spouse would begin to grow in our spiritual stamina, that we would fall in love with prayer, fall in love with the word of God and that we would crave more and more of it every day so that God would use it to change us, to transform us, to make us more like his Son, Jesus. And the reason for it all is that He would use us, that we'd be used to point people to Him. We thank you for joining us and we look forward to having you next week. Did you enjoy today's show? Find many more encouraging stories and resources at marriageaftergod.com and let us help you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.

Pastor Jerry Dean: August 28, 2011 Weeding Your Spiritual Garden, Part IV, “Dealing with Dandelions and Crabgrass.” Thank you for letting me in the door with a warm welcome-especially with a Bears jersey on. While I'm talking, why don't we go ahead and take the offering. I think about the Bears jersey; I'm talking about anger today, so there's a reason I wore this. Remember all the way through the message as you look at me and think, “I don't like that Bear jersey,” this is only a test. I actually thought about wearing my old college football jersey, but it had 47,000 tears in it. It had blood all over it, and it was ripped to shreds. It looked like something the cat dragged in. After I was looking at it, I thought that if I put it on, I might catch a disease or something, so I chose not to wear that. I guess you'll have to put up with the Bears jersey. It is really good to have you here. About a month ago in a staff meeting, Pastor Jeff asked me if I'd preach this weekend; and I said sure. Then he said, “So we're talking about Weeding Your Spiritual Garden. What's the title of your message [going to be]?” I'm like, “Now?” He's like, “Yes, now. We need it in the bulletin by tomorrow.” So I said, “Okay. Dandelions and Crabgrass.” It was a lot of fun finding something that actually fit into that. No, I'm only kidding. We think about Weeding Your Spiritual Garden and about the word crabgrass, the root word of which is-not grass-but crab, and we talk about anger and the issues that we have; sometimes in Christian circles, we deal with some of the big issues from immorality to murder. You know, nobody probably robbed a bank over the weekend, right? Anybody rob a bank? Raise your hand? No? Okay. The cops are looking for you outside. Anger doesn't get talked about quite as often, and it's really sad. Are you somebody that has supposedly been a Christian for 30 or 40 years; and rather than getting weaned on the milk of the Word or the meat of the Word, you look like you've been weaned on pickles and lemon juice? This morning, we want to talk about the issues of anger. We're going to go through [this topic] because we want to let you out of here a little early so you can go tailgate with everybody. I can see that I'm already talking really, really fast, so we'll just kind of race through some of these PowerPoints; and if I have a little bit of time, I'll come back and elaborate on some a little bit more. The question today is this: do you have a spiritual crabgrass and dandelion problem? By crabgrass I'm referring to anger, and by dandelions I'm referring to your pride. We think about those issues and about anger, and some of you might ask what anger is and what the difference is. I'm reminded of a story I was reading not too long ago about a young girl who came home from school and said, “Daddy, can you help me? I have a homework assignment. I have to write a paper on the difference between being irritated, being angry and being exasperated.” The dad thought for a minute. He said okay and put his phone on speaker phone. He said, “Now you listen in and I'll show you the difference between those three things.” He randomly dialed a number, knowing it was going to be a wrong number. The person on the other line picked up the phone and the dad said, “Hello, is Melvin there?” The guy said, “No, you must have the wrong number,” and he put the phone down. The dad said to his daughter, “Okay, now watch this,” and he called the same number back. The guy picked up the phone and the dad said, “Hello is Melvin there?” The guy said, “No, you idiot! Melvin's not here. I just told you that! Why don't you check your number before you call,” and he slammed the phone down. The father turned to his daughter and said, “Now that's being irritated.” He waited a few seconds and dialed the same number back. The guy picked up the phone, and he said, “Hello is Melvin there?” This time the guy said, “You moron! Why do you keep calling me? Stop calling me!” He slammed the phone down. The father turned to his daughter and said, “Now that's anger! Now, watch this.” He called the same number back for the fourth time. The guy picked up the phone and said, “Hello?” And the dad said, “Hi, this is Melvin; do you have any messages for me?” That's exasperation. Well, we want to talk about anger today. It's interesting to think about that and about our spiritual gardens. There was someone who was the poster child for this issue in his life, and he is not someone many of you would normally think of. This guy was a real man of God; he was a real leader; and he did amazing things for God, but his anger kept him from the one thing he desired most in life. That man is Moses. We won't turn to the Passage to begin with, but if you look at Moses, it's interesting that way back in his youth as Moses saw what the Egyptians were doing to his own people, even though he grew up in the palace, he was irritated. Irritation led to anger. At one point, Moses saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave; Moses' anger kicked in and he [became] enraged. He looked one way, he looked the other way, and he didn't see anybody; so he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. That rage would follow Moses his whole life. He spent 40 years out in the desert as a result of that. He came back to lead God's people out of Egypt. In the middle of the wilderness 40 years later as God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and saw that in the 40 days he'd been up there, the people had made themselves a golden calf. They were worshiping the calf, they were dancing around naked, and Moses was ticked. Now he should have been angry in some ways, but if you understand what was going on in Moses' life and the struggles he was going through, you'd realize Moses reacted in an incredible way. He threw down the Ten Commandments and smashed them to pieces. He took the golden calf, melted it down, ground it into powder and threw it into the water. He then forced the people to drink it. You think he had some issues? Later on when God showed Moses His glory, one of the first things God said to Moses was, “The Lord is gracious and slow to anger.” Yes, God judges; He is the rightful Judge of the universe. Yet, God doesn't judge capriciously. God's whole nature is slow to anger and [quick to be] gracious. That led to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness in which Moses led the children of Israel. They refused to go into the land; and at one point during that journey, the children of Israel were thirsty and needed water. God told Moses to take the rod that was in his hand and walk out and smack the rock. When Moses did that, water came out of the rock. It was a picture of what Christ would do for us. He was struck for us. The blessings of salvation flowed out of Jesus, the living rock. Paul made that clear in the New Testament with that story and that picture being an illustration of what Christ would do for us. Sometime later, the children of Israel were again thirsty. God told Moses, “Go out to the rock with the Rod of God in your hand, and this time, don't hit the rock.” Why? Because Jesus didn't have to die for our sins multiple times. He died how many times? Once. The rest of the blessings that we get from Christ are the result of prayer. You've heard of talk to the hand? Well, God said to Moses, “Speak to the rock. You'll go out with the rod, but don't hit the rock, just talk to the rock. Speak to the rock. When you do that, water will flow out,” but Moses was ticked. He's had a belly full of these people griping, complaining, and whining, the whole time. He walked out to the rock and rather than listen to God and just talk to the rock, Moses lost it. He said, “You bunch of stinking rebels! Do we have to get water out of this rock for you?” He takes the rod of God and smacks the rock again, and God is incredibly gracious. Water flowed out of the rock to give the people a drink, but God said to Moses because of that , “Because you failed to honor Me, because you lost your cool and you failed to honor Me and failed to listen to My commands as I told you to, guess what you lose? You lose the garden, the paradise; you lose the land flowing with milk and honey, that weed of your anger. That crabgrass that grew that you never weeded out-that is going to keep you out of the land that I promised everybody else; so you can walk up to the top of Mt. Nebo, and you can look across the Jordan River and see it, but you don't get to go there.” That's pretty sad. Few people have ever done as many amazing things for God as Moses did, but his temper kept him out of the Promiseland. We're going to look at a few ideas in Proverbs. You know most of this Book was compiled by Solomon, the wisest man other than Christ who ever lived. [Let's look at] what he has to say about anger. He says to begin with “The quick temper is the mark of a fool and of a weakling.” We don't usually think about that, but repeatedly through the Book of Proverbs, Solomon says that having a quick temper is the mark of a fool. God is pretty blunt and pretty straight forward. One of the things I can't figure out: did you ever notice that unfortunately, people who lose their temper quite often seem to find it again? I've always been confused at how they lost their temper, and I'm really saddened that it never stays lost. Apparently, they keep going back to dig it up. God says, “Look, a fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” A fool. In psychology today in a lot of different avenues, you can hear people say, “Well there's a time when you just have to vent.” How many of you have ever heard somebody say that? “Oh, I just have to vent.” Well, excuse me. Do you know what the Biblical admonition is or what God has to say about venting? I was going to say it is black and white, but [it's more like] blue and white. “A fool gives full vent to his anger. A wise man keeps himself under control.” Venting is the mark of a fool. Venting destroys relationships. It destroys people. Solomon and Ecclesiastes say, “Control your temper for anger labels you a fool.” We chuckle sometimes about people that have the “loser” label on their forehead. If you want to have fool tattooed or stamped on your forehead, [you'll have to get] yourself a reputation of somebody who loses their cool regularly. Then you can walk around with everyone knowing you're a fool. God loves you and God cares; God is incredibly honest, and He calls a spade a spade. Solomon says, “A person without self control is like a city with broken down walls.” There's no protection. You're liable to any type of attack. On the other hand, self control is the mark of power. Self control [can be defined as] the ability to control your temper, and that is the mark of power. Listen to what Solomon says: “Better a patient man than a warrior; [better] a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.” The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is self control. “Greater is the One who is in you than the one who is in the world.” God put His Spirit in you. You have that power. You have that ability to control your temper and your anger, which leads to the next slide and the next thought: Let's get to the root of the whole problem. The root of the problem is that we believe lies. We believe Satan's lies too often and fall prey to temptation. You see, friends, I'm here to tell you this: there are two things and only two things that will determine everything you do. You and I can open up the Word of God and show you from Genesis to Revelation that these two things are true. How you act and how you behave is based entirely on two things: what you believe about God and what you believe about yourself; and if you get those things wrong, your behavior will be incredibly messed up. I'm going to start with the first one. Do you believe the lies about God, who He is, and what He's doing in your life, which often lead to anger? You see, we face difficulties, we face trials, or we face hardships; we face pain and suffering in our lives, and what do we tend to believe? “Why did this happen?” Or if we do think about God, too often we're tempted to think, “Man, where is God? Why did He allow this to happen? God really messed up. He blew it with this one. This is too painful. He doesn't know what He's doing in my life.” Well, Paul assures us in Romans 8:28 (page 1119 of pew Bibles). He says, “We know that all things work together for good to those that love God.” How many things? Not just a few things, not some things, but all things. Why don't you just turn to a neighbor and say, “All things?” There you go. Those kinds of things help you remember Scripture better. Somebody told me that once. All things work together for good. Not just a few, not just some, but all things. The next Verse goes on to tell us that God is allowing those things in our lives to make us more like His Son, Jesus Christ. Look at Joseph. His brothers wanted to kill him and then sell him into slavery and bondage in Egypt. He's falsely accused of rape and he gets thrown into prison, all unjustly. He comes back 13 years later, and the brothers who put him there are bowing down before him. Joseph could have taken their heads off if he wanted to, but he forgave them and embraced them. Why? Because he said, “You meant it for evil.” He's not ashamed to call a spade a spade. They did mean it for evil, but he said, “The God of the universe meant it for good.” And friends, that realization that God means-that pain, that heartache, and that adversity in your life-for good to make you more like Christ is the very thing that allows you to rise above that. Sitting here in [this] football jersey [makes me realize] one of the most difficult things that I ever went through in my life was playing college football. My junior high football coach was a 6'4” ex-marine drill sergeant. He was nasty. One time he gave me a spanking before a game even though I didn't do anything. I played quarterback and middle linebacker. I threw three touchdown passes and intercepted two. After the game he walked up to me, and I thought maybe he was going to say, “Nice job.” Well, he did. He said, “Nice game, Dean. I ought to give ya a lickn' before every game.” That was his attitude! My freshman football coach in high school was a Colonel in the Army Reserves. My college coach was worse than all of them. The pros complain about two practices a day; we had six a day. Four of them were full contact. It was the closest thing to hell on earth I've ever been through, and I grew up on a farm working hard. What he did was horrible! When the season was finally over after four years-my senior year-I was respectful, but I said, “You claim to be a Christian. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You treat people like garbage, and your players lose respect for you. And you trash people -- rip people, destroy people. You don't care about what you do to people, and you ruin their lives!” His response was, “Well, Jerry, what are you going to do with your life?” I said, “I'm going to be a pastor.” He said, “Well, someday you're going to get out in a church and you're going to have people mistreat you; and because you learned how to take it from me, you'll be able to take it from them.” Now that's wonderful logic and reasoning, isn't it? But you know what? He was right. He is going to stand before God, and he's going to have to give an account of how he behaved and how he treated people; and for that, he will be judged. On the other hand, did God mean that for good in my life? The answer is absolutely. I would not be who I am today if it were not for that man, so I thank God [for that]. Here's a guy who treated me worse than any human being ever has; and at the same time, I can look back and say, “God used that man to probably teach me more in my life than almost anyone else.” Friends, faith and dealing with your anger become the realization that there is a God who is in control of your footsteps and my footsteps. What others may mean for evil or wrong, God uses to make you the person you've always dreamed about becoming; and that's what allows you to deal with those situations and overcome them without giving into anger. The second thing I would have you notice is that Satan attacks you and tempts you in the area of your identity and who you really are. In fact, you can look at Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. This is the crux. You identify that Satan actually attacks your beliefs more often than he does your view and your vision of God. You know why? Because if Satan came to you- and you know God's Word pretty well-and said, “God's not eternal,” you'd go, “Wait a second. Yes He is.” Or if he whispered in your ear or put the thought in your mind, “God's not very good,” you'd go, “Wait a second. It's all over God's Word. He died to pay for my sins. Of course, He's good and I have his blessings every day! He might say, “God's not honest; He's not truthful.” You'd be like, “Wait a second. I know of God's promises from Genesis to Revelation.” See, those are easier to deal with, but if he comes and lies his head off to you about who you are and who your real identity is, you're not so sure about that. It's much more likely that we buy into those things. It's how he even attacked Jesus in the wilderness. Before every single one of the temptations, he said, “So if you're the Son of God, do this. If you're the Son of God, do that.” Or, “Since you're the son of God, do this.” Every one of those temptations was an attack on His identity in some way, shape, or form. Friends, I have seen this area of temper for years, upon years, upon years. One of my favorite lies that I hear all the time is blaming our anger and temper problems on our nationality. “Oh, I'm Norwegian, so I have a bad temper.” Or, “I'm German, so I'm kind of stubborn.” “I'm Italian or I'm Irish.” You name it, fill in the country. What is it? It's a lie out of the pit of hell. Embrace it for what it is. The God of the universe says when you trust Jesus Christ, guess what? You became a citizen of a different country with a different nationality. Amen? God says in CSI lingo, according to II Peter 1 (page 1200 of pew Bibles), “He made you a partaker of the Divine Nature” or in CSI lingo, he put inside you the very DNA of God. He has given you everything. Like the old Prego spaghetti sauce ad [said], everything necessary for a life of Godliness, “It's in there.” This lie that you can't control it or I just have to give in to it is balderdash-that wonderful English word. It's a lie. It's a lie out of the pit of hell. Admit it for what it is and embrace the truth of the Word of God. If you have the mind of Christ, which He says you do; if you have the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit who is given to you, which you do; if you are king and a priest and more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ, then guess what? You don't have to give into the temper. You can control it. I see that in very practical ways in people's lives all the time. You see people fighting-maybe with a spouse, maybe with a family member, maybe somebody at work-and they're really going at it. They're like Muttley in the old cartoons. They're just foaming and fulminating and they're just all wired. They tell themselves, “I can't control my temper,” but right in the middle of that, all of a sudden the phone rings and then it's, “Hello” [in a delightful voice]. Yeah, but you can't control it [Pastor Jerry speaking sarcastically]. You can control it very well. God says, “Look, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.” That's a real you if you're a child of God. God said, “He put in you the Spirit of Christ,” that Spirit that says, “I like being gentle. I like being gracious with people. I like being slow to anger.” That's the real you, so don't buy the lie. Too often, we listen to those lies. I had a woman that doesn't go to our church call me about a month and a half or two ago. She was dealing with some really serious family issues. I said, “So have you confronted your family members and talked to them about that?” And she said, “Oh, no. I hate confrontation.” I said, “So you're a Christian, right?” “Oh, yeah, I'm a Christian-been a Christian for a long time.” And you know me; I have to make people say that like five or six times so they get the point. So I said, “So you're a believer, right?” “Yeah, I trusted Christ.” “So you know the Lord, right?” “Yeah, I know the Lord.” “And so let's see, you're a Christian, right?” “Yeah, I'm a Christian.” I said, “Hmm. And how many times have you said to yourself, ‘I hate confrontation'?” And she said, and I quote, “Oh millions.” Now let me ask you a question. If you've bought the lie that you hate confrontation and you've told yourself that millions of times, what are the odds that you act like that? I tell people all the time that there's a war in Christianity, but it's not always where we think it is. So often we think it's a struggle of the will. You can grit your teeth and make yourself act a certain way for a while, but if you don't change what you believe in your mind, you know what's going to happen? In a very short time, you're going to be right back doing the same things. Jesus said that it's what you believe that determines how you act as a man. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Faith produces works. Change what you believe and you'll change your actions. God calls you to combat those lies with His truth. To say, “Wait a second. I'm a child of God,” means God put in me the heart of a peacemaker-a desire to be a mediator, to stand in the middle of warring factions like Jesus Christ did, and reconcile and unite people. In fact, He says I'm an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Sometimes ambassadors have to go into war zones to bring peace, right? But instead of embracing that Truth, we listen to the lies too often. “Oh, I hate confrontation.” I was just reading Leviticus this week. Paul talks about speaking the Truth and love. Paul in this area of love says [such as in Leviticus 19:17, page 116], “‘“Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.”‘“ That doesn't sound like great Sunday morning preaching, does it? Do you know what the very next verse says, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We don't equate those too often in church, do we? “Let's see. If I really love my neighbor, I'll rebuke him when he does wrong,” but that is love. I'll say, “Look, you shouldn't have acted that way. You shouldn't mistreat people that way.” You and I know that what tends to happen if we fail to confront people. If we fail to deal with people when they do what's wrong, what tends to happen inside of us? We get madder and madder and madder and madder, and we let it go. We let it go and let it go and let it go because we think that we don't have the courage to deal with it. We've told ourselves, “I'm kind of afraid or I don't like confrontation.” Finally, after it happens to us the fiftieth time, we blow a gasket instead of dealing with it and addressing it the first time. I encourage you this morning: don't buy the lies. The Spirit of God lives in you. His love has been shed abroad in your hearts. You can do anything through Christ who strengthens you. He's given you the heart of a peacemaker, the mind of Christ, the Spirit-not of fear-but of power, of love and of a sound mind. Let's look at the second weed in the garden that we need to pull out: dandelions, which are embolic or symbolic of pride. When I was six years old and we lived on two and a half acres, my dad came up with a brilliant idea that we should dig up all the dandelions in the place, so I have a very up close and personal relationship with dandelions. I remember the first day my two brothers and I dug them. We stopped counting somewhere around 27,000, and I remember at six years old I still had to make it fun. I would be out there with my dandelion digger going, “Sir Dandelion, I slay thee,” so I have a lot of experience with dandelions; but in the same way, dandelions or pride can ruin our spiritual life. They can ruin our walk with God, and they have horrible consequences sometimes. They can destroy you. We'll look at Nebuchadnezzar in a second, but pride reminds me of one of my absolute favorite stories about the lion who was the king of the beasts in the jungle. This male lion woke up next to a watering hole one day and he was gazing at his reflection in his watering hole. He looked at himself and thought, kind of like Billy Crystal's ode, “I looked in the water and I looked marvelous.” He thought, “I look really good,” and he was full of himself. He hopped up and started treading through the jungle and came upon a zebra. He looked at the zebra, walked up to him, and said, “Zebra, who's the king of the beasts?” The zebra looked at him and said, “Oh, you are, mighty lion,” and the lion swelled up with pride. His chest swelled out and his mane stood on end. He lifted his head up and spoke with a little deeper voice. He went on a bit further, and he saw a giraffe lounging under a eucalyptus tree. He said to the giraffe, “Giraffe, who's the king of the beasts?” The giraffe looked down at him and said, “Oh, you are, mighty lion,” and the lion was full of even more pride. His chest inflated even a little bit more. His head swelled magnificently, and his mane was glowing in the early morning sun. He continued to tread through the jungle, and he came to a clearing where a bunch of elephants were lounging. He walked up to the lead elephant in the heard; he stood in front of the elephant and said, “Elephant, who's the king of the jungle?” The elephant looked down at him, turned his head quickly, snapped his trunk back, and whacked the lion up side of the head. The lion went rocketing across the clearing, rolled about a dozen times, and smacked into a palm tree. He woke up shaking his head. When the fog and cobwebs finally cleared, he looked across the clearing at the elephant and said, “Just cuz you didn't know the answer doesn't mean you gotta get upset.” So, you know, pride can lead not only to losing your mind, but devastating consequences as well. The classic example in the word of God is Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar built the greatest kingdom the world had seen up to that point. In his vision in Daniel, [his kingdom] is the head of gold; it's the noblest of kingdoms that was to follow. The structures of battalion were magnificent, and Nebuchadnezzar was absolutely full of himself. He had a dream that God gives to him graciously, and that shows his fall; but he doesn't realize that's what it is. He calls for all of his magicians and finally Daniel came in and said, “I can't figure out what this dream means.” Daniel heard the dream and he said, “The dream's about you, and God's trying to warn you that if you don't give up your pride, you don't humble yourself before Him, and stop treating people with cruelty, you're going to lose your kingdom.” Of course, Nebuchadnezzar took that to heart and immediately quit and changed his ways. No, that's not what happened. It didn't faze him a bit, and he continued on in his path. It's interesting that archeologists tell us that on every single brick in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had stamped, “I Nebuchadnezzar the Great” etcetera, etcetera, “proclaiming all his amazing”- every single brick; that's some pride. Nebuchadnezzar walked out on his porch one day, over-looking the magnificent city of Babylon, and he said “Is not this the great Babylon that I have built as the royal palace by my mighty power and by the glory of my majesty?” No more were the words out of his mouth when God looked down from Heaven and said, “That's it!” and Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind. God took his sanity from him. His nobles, leaders, and lords drove him out of the palace. He spent some time eating grass like an ox; his fingernails grew as long as claws; his hair grew long; his toenails grew long; and he lay down in the grass, ate, drank and slept out in the pasture like the cattle till God humbled him and he realized who the real King of the universe was. God then gave him his sanity back. His nobles came back to him, they brought him back to power, and his kingdom was restored. At the end of Verse 37, Nebuchadnezzar said [in Daniel 4:37, page 879], “Now I praise and exalt the God of Heaven. Those who walk in pride, He is able to abase.” Nebuchadnezzar's pride literally made him lose his mind. The Bible has a lot to say about that. We'll look at some Verses very quickly. Solomon in Proverbs says [in 11:2, page 634], “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” [Proverbs 16:18, page 641], “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” That ought to end all trash talking in sports arenas, right? [Proverbs 29:23, page 655], “Pride brings a person low, but a lowly spirit brings honor.” [Proverbs 15:25, page 640], “The Lord will destroy the house of the proud.” On the other hand, it's very interesting that humility leads to exaltation. Look what Jesus said in Matthew 23 [in Verse 12, page 981], “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” I want to give you a little bit different definition of humility this morning. Sometimes even in Christian circles, we think humility is a low opinion of yourself. That's not necessarily what God has in mind. Let me challenge you and encourage you this morning [to believe] that humility is a burning, unquenchable passion and thirst to exalt the God of the universe and to honor other people. Remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar? You know what happens at the end of Daniel 4:37? Nebuchadnezzar said [page 879], “Those who walk in pride, God is able to abase.” But the phase right before that. What does that mean? What was the upshot; what was the culmination? Nebuchadnezzar said, “Now I praise and exalt the God of Heaven.” That's humility. You wake up every single morning and realize there's somebody bigger, somebody grander, somebody mightier, somebody way more powerful, and someone way more incredible than you; and you give Him the honor and the glory and the praise that He deserves. You walk out the doors and you see His magnificence everywhere. I've been waiting about seven years to buy cannas for my wife, and I love landscaping and gardening. I've always wanted cannas, but I always thought they were too expensive. Well, it was the end of the season a week or so ago, and Menards had them on sale for five bucks; so we bought a few of them. I thought they were all dried up and done for the year, and when we walked out yesterday, there was this beautiful red bloom on one of the cannas. My wife and I walked by early in the morning at the exact same time, and I just starred at it thinking, “Wow, that's cool. Didn't God make some awesome things?” And while we were standing there looking at that beautiful flower, guess what showed up? The coolest bird we ever had. A little bitty hummingbird came up to the cannas, sat there sipping nectar out and we were just like, “Awesome. Isn't this cool? Didn't God make some amazing things?” You see, God's children see His magnificence everywhere. It's stamped on every flower and every tree. It's why every single one of you is unbelievably valuable in the eyes of God. You're all made in His image. You're all unique, you're all special, and you're all treasures. The God of the universe looks out on you every morning and goes, “Those are my kids,” and when you treat other -when you exalt God and you treat and honor other people like you would Jesus Christ-that's humility. The Psalmist says these words [Psalm 99:5], “Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool.” When you come to the footstool at the throne room of God, do you come to the footstool at the throne room of God to grovel? Now, I'm not saying there's not a time when you fall on your face before God. What I am saying is if you're at the footstool of God and you're sitting there thinking about, “Well I'm unworthy, I'm so low, and I'm a worm,” you're there for all the wrong reasons, aren't you? If I'm at the footstool of God's thrown and you're at the footstool of God's thrown, what should be capturing your imagination? The unbelievable magnificence of God. We shouldn't be thinking about ourselves, right? We're overwhelmed, consumed with Him, all His Glory, all His beauty, and all of His incredible magnificence- splendor like you've never seen, and you can't stop thinking about Him. You can't get Him out of your head. You see His majesty everywhere you turn. That's humility. Then you walk out the door of your house, out of your prayer closet, and you can't wait to touch people's lives or bless and encourage people. Why? Because they're made in the same image of that incredible God. You walk into a room and you're thinking, “Hey you're looking good,” and “that's a great shirt you have on,” and “I like your Packer jersey even if I'm a Bear fan.” I was blessed today. Somebody who is an ardent Packer fan shook hands with me and said, “How you doing?” and never said anything bad about my Bears jersey. That's humility. I'm not saying you can't have some fun, but the point is that humility takes other people's feelings into account. It cares about them, cares about their reaction. It leaves you wondering how you can build them up. How you can honor them, right? That's humility. As we think about this, it's interesting what Paul said in Philippians [2:3], “Esteem others above yourselves.” We hear a lot about having good self-esteem, almost to the point that I'm about to choke on it. Now I know what they mean, and the issue of our identities in knowing who we are is absolutely crucial, but I've about had a belly full of hearing that we all need high self-esteem. There are a lot of studies that say some of the people that have the highest self-esteem in the world are convicts in federal penitentiaries. They have incredibly high self-esteem that borders on narcissism. They think they deserve everything. Amazingly, people with low self-esteem tend to work very hard and tend to be pretty driven because they want to make something of themselves, but we don't tend to hear that. About 25 years ago, we heard that giving everybody wonderfully high self-esteem would solve all our problems. Interestingly, among 25 industrialized nations, the United States has the lowest test scores in math and science, yet we rank number one in one category: we have the highest self-esteem. Those studies by secular psychologists tell us that self-esteem doesn't have a thing in the world to do with whether you act good or bad. Friends, our problem is not low self-esteem. Our problem is LGE and LOE: low God esteem and low other's esteem. That's really the core of the problem. Do you know what God says over and over from Genesis to Revelation [regarding self-esteem]? You reap what you sow. If you spend your life exalting God and living to honor others, guess what you get in return? If you can't wait to exalt, bless, honor and encourage others, what happens? What do you get back? Exaltation, honor, blessing and encouragement, right? Let's get to the root of the problem as we talk about that. Friends, pride comes from a failure to build your identification on anything other than what God says about who you really are. Arrogant and insecure people are focused on themselves. If an arrogant and proud person walks into a room, what-or who-does everybody know they are thinking about? Him or herself. A shy person walks into the room-and I can say this because I was one-and who are they thinking about? Him or herself. They walk into the room wondering if all the eyes in the room are on them. I wonder, and I'm so glad I don't have to worry about this problem anymore (Pastor is whispering), how's my hair? Does my hair look good? Are my clothes messed up? Do I have broccoli between my teeth. The focus is all on me. But the wonderful and amazing thing is that knowing and finding out who the God of the universe says you are solves both problems. There's one of those guys in the Bible. The Apostle Paul excelled in the Jewish religion above everybody else his age and his equal. It's interesting that God gave him a brand new identity. He took away the name Saul, named after the tallest king that Israel ever had, and gave him the new name Paul, which means little. If you're here today and your name's Paul, I'm sorry, but that's what it means. He was given a lifelong reminder that he wasn't such a big shot in God's eyes. And Paul's favorite name for himself that he begins every single one of his letters with, Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, some of you that aren't quite so self-confident or quite so secure that you're that person who walks into the room and you're wondering if every eye is on you-guess what? The God of the universe looks at you, and He says, “Guess what, you're My kid. You're a child of the living God. You're My jewel. You're My star. You're living rocks. You are kings and priests.” Ladies you are His princesses. [It takes] one look at you from the God of the universe who wants to marry you, and you forever make His heart go pitter-patter. I love the line from the old movie, “Conspiracy Theory,” where Mel Gibson is talking about Julia Roberts in the movie. Somebody asks him about her, and Mel Gibson says, “Oh, she wrecks me.” And ladies, when the God of the universe who wants to marry you forever looks at you, that's exactly what Psalm 45 says that He says, “She wrecks me.” The God of the universe says you're beautiful, and you're His star. You're His princess. He says to guys, “You're a warrior; you're a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” You're literally super Nike, super winners. You can do everything though Christ who asks you. He hasn't given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. That's who you are. And if we're honest, we need that balance in our lives at various times, don't we? Sometimes when we're feeling full of ourselves, maybe we've accomplished some really cool things, we need to remember, “Okay Lord, that's really cool. Thanks for allowing that to happen, but I'm just a bond slave of Jesus Christ.” Then there are other days when we've been trampled over and run over by the Mack trucks of circumstances that we need to hear, “You're My kid. You're a living rock. You're a winner in My book. You're a star and I'll never leave you or forsake you.” That deals with the root of pride. It allows us to walk out of these doors into a world and touch people's lives. We have that confidence and security because we can forget about ourselves, because we know who we are in connection with Him. We're confident but humble people. As we put those things into practice, remember who we are. Remember what God's done for us that allows us to yank those weeds out of our gardens, and I know that God wants all of you to become beautiful gardens for Him. Father, I thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You for Your example. I pray that You would help us to walk in Your ways. I thank You that You are the great gardener, and You are working in each one of our lives to make us beautiful gardens and bear fruit for You. Thank You that we can pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.