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Jordon Good (00:00) Well, you and I as an example for that because they could see you're a power lifter. You have a lot more muscle than I do. You can definitely, if I yoked up with you, I'm going where you're leading me. Exactly. But what Jesus is saying is he's not telling you to shed your yoke. Right. He's telling you to yoke yourself to Jesus. Right. And that's why like you were just talking about there, like I'm a prisoner to Jesus now. Paul talks about it too. Like I am his slave. I'm doing what he wants because he's in charge. He has full control. And he's the God. So there's a misunderstanding, I think, of us understanding who God really is and what he wants for our life. It's God wants all of you. And the one, Robbie Galli talks about it sometimes where he says, if God's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. And it's like, that's convicting. It's like, what part of my innermost being right now am I not giving God control over? Here we go. We're good. We're here. We're here. We're live. Welcome everybody. Welcome back to Beyond the Outpost. We're excited for you to be listening in and thank you for tuning in. We're getting some feedback that people are listening. Yeah. That's step one. Yeah. People are actually listening. Praise the Lord. Questions are being asked. Questions are being asked. And, um, yeah. So welcome to our topic today, which is the power of the testimony. And I do want to correct one thing. Actually, I was listening again to our podcast that we just dropped last week, shaking ground. Um, that was a good one. I really enjoyed that. And, uh, it's tough listening to your own stuff. It's. I mean, you do it, you'll be doing it this afternoon, but it's tough. And you hear everything that you say, and then you're like, that wasn't my heart. How did it come out that way? So I want to correct one thing that I heard last week that I missed in editing was when we were talking about man seeking validation, the question of his heart. And I had said that you're seeking validation from your wife. That is not what you want to do. You do not want to do that. That is a trap of the enemy. You want to hear God validate you. But the soul desires the answer to that question. Am I good enough as a man? And when we turn to a woman for that, thus a life of sexual sin can take over. You're not getting the proper answer. That space for God in your heart is not answered. So if you did listen to that, I am correcting that right now. And then last night, I'm like, oh man, there's some things I want to say tomorrow, but I can't say it. And then I'm like, I can say whatever I want. This is our podcast. And the spirit of religion just starts snapping when you start doing those things. And today, we are going to attack the devil head on with testimony. We're going to attack the spirit of religion head on as we talk about testimony. And you're going to find freedom in your soul and in your heart as you start moving forward in the things that we're going to lay out here. We're going to try and give some examples of how to give a testimony. Um, so we're just going to get into all of it and let's go, baby. We're going to probably break this up in three parts. Oh boy. Okay. Maybe two, maybe three, but if I'm gauging the conversation, well, this is going to take a little while just to talk about what a testimony is. And then we're going to share my testimony, your testimony. It might be able to do two. It might be three. Okay. So. Let's do it, baby. You're going to have a cliffhanger at the end. To be continued. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a touchy topic because it's a scary topic. Who wants to share the stuff they're going through? The mess. The mess. And nobody. I don't mind doing it now, but I didn't always want to be that way because the spirit of religion says, well, you're a pastor. or you're leading the Bible study, you must have it all together with the Lord. And the truth is, no. We just understand that you turn to the Lord in everything and He leads you through it and you're building a testimony and the test is designed to have a testimony. So if you share more of your testimony, which is the victory that you have in Jesus in your stories versus the problem that you're in right now, I find that I find more strength and encouragement in the Lord and just those memorials. We're already there. Um, that we had talked about this week. So why don't you, uh, man, just wherever your heart's going, you just take off with it. Yeah. I mean, testimonies are a gift from God, right? Testimonies is this gift that we are given, especially through the process. And when you look back, you can go, wow. That's where God was. That's how God moved. That's where God is in this situation. And your testimony is the opportunity for you to go, this is where I was. Then God showed up, pulled me out, and then here I am today. And it's not just one particular point in your life. I think I had a misconception for the longest time that my testimony was just the day I believed. Made my proclamation of faith. Really, my testimony is, every single time God has acted in a cool, crazy way. It's sometimes in a way that I probably didn't like. It's how has God moved in my life today? That'll preach right there, buddy. Right. So there's so many different things that your testimony can be a part of, but they all point to God. Amen. That's what a testimony is. And through that, you can relate to people. You can talk to people in different ways because you go, Hey, what you're dealing with right now, I dealt with two years ago. Yeah. 10 years ago. I've been pulled out of that. Amen. And there's life on the other side. So that's sort of where we're going to get at in this testimony idea. And how many people, as I started, when I started preaching, I remember Revelation 12 10, which we'll read, which is a good scripture for this. And there's a lot of scripture around this, but I just remember that feeling of like, this is a small town. I've never left here. And There's some people here that know parts of my story that I don't want. Number one, two things. Number one, I don't want the enemy, whether it be the Satan or people that are against what we're doing for the kingdom to weaponize that. And two, I don't want to stand in front of people preaching a message in my heart, knowing like, I'm actually not free from that right now. Like that's a very scary place to be as someone who's being used by the Lord. It's not just for the preachers, that's for the moms, the dads, like we're the body of Christ. We're all preachers. Your pastor is to equip you to go out and be the pastor. No offense, but we're all in ministry, guys. We're all in ministry. Get used to it. And I remember one sermon, I just got up there and it was just on my heart and I just let it all out there. the areas that I have been set free in and the areas where God was working, and that's where I get my authenticity from now. That turns some people off, to be honest, and that's okay. It's my story, it's my journey, and I don't want to be held in bondage to the things that the enemy's trying to get me not to get out there. Because once you start putting stuff out there, here's exactly what happens. As long as you're moving toward a solution of Jesus Christ healing that area or fixing Or setting you free from bondage or the yoke of that area once you start confessing and professing Jesus in the testimony You start seeing other people being like oh, I never knew that about you I never would have guessed that about you and they start having hope in their story because most people are closet I don't know what word did even use there. They just kind of like The devil wants you to take your story and just hold it close and just be like, this is your thing and nobody else is going through this and the shame and the the bondage and the oppression comes in. And when you start talking about your testimony, you realize like the only one that deals with this, there's only like three or four categories that the enemy uses against people. And we all experience the same categories. Why do I think that when I was in an addiction to pornography? that every guy goes through. We talked about this last week and we all hide behind it. But once you get free from it, now you're like, Oh, bro, you're like, I am about to punch the devil in the face in my life, in your life and other people's lives. And then men start opening up. They're like, yeah, it takes a while. I mean, you know, like three, four weeks later, they, they drop a little hint. And it's like, dude, it's okay, bro. Like, believe me. I know. I watch your eyes when women walk by. I see where your eyes go. We know. And immediately when you're open about it, that person doesn't feel so much guilt and condemnation about their sin. And they're like, well, you're so free to talk about it. Maybe I should start talking about these things that I've been carrying. And man, you want to talk about strengthening the body of Christ, strengthening your marriage, strengthening brotherhood. So one of the points you may do is like you're the people that you said grew up around, right? Like these are people that you've been through. You've probably done things with who can so like, they'll be able to say like, wait, you're teaching this now, but I remember this. Oh yeah. Do you think that has something to say with what Jesus was saying in the New Testament when he says a prophet's rejected in the hometown? Oh, a hundred percent. You need to have something to do with that. Heck yeah. I mean, I've walked that road for the last three years and you're not a prophet in your own town. and a truer statement has never been spoken. It's another truth of the Bible. How much does it have to do with forgiveness? There's a lot in that. Being these people, like your childhood friends or people you grew up with, knows your past, the things you've done, probably did things with you, and they're not willing to let go of it when you say, like, I'm doing this now, or I'm teaching this now. How much of that is just them being unable to forgive? I don't know if it's so much... Unable to forgive because that's its own journey for people. I think it's more unable to extend the grace and mercy that's extended to us from Jesus because If you and I had met in a different season you might not have liked me as much But that the transition from season to season like that's why you can run into somebody and you're like man Three months ago. They weren't talking like that That's different. Like people can change really rapidly, but we hold on to the offense. I think it's more offense that was taken and lack of understanding than unforgiveness in some cases. And even as far as things you're going through in this season of life with people, we're in a people world. You're gonna go through stuff with people. It's part of the deal of ministry. Handling the current situations. That's the battle And when you're in your own town like people talk You know, I'd rather take some criticism from some dude in Switzerland about this podcast and my neighbor You know But the reality of it is I'm doing life with the people in this community And those are the people that I'm actually interacting with those are the ones that you want I desire the healthiest relationships with the problem is I Um, we live in an area of stubborn offense. It's just this area. It's that religious spirit, that plague central Pennsylvania. I'll call it flat out what it is. I don't know if it's just central Pennsylvania. I'll call it. I'll call it out everywhere. It's an everywhere, man. I just read an interesting book about that because I always wondered like, why are there, you could go to Maryland and it's a different experience in the church. Sure. Go down south and go to New York. You can go to different areas of the world, but especially even in the state. And I'm like, What is that? So a friend of mine was like, you gotta go read, it's the Salem Witch Trials by Bill O 'Reilly. And it's about, what I pulled from the book, one area was when the Pilgrims came to America, they were never hitting the point, they just hit America. They were shooting for Jamestown, but they ended up in South Carolina or Maine. They just hit land. And... based off where these immigrants immigrants came from, they brought their religion with them. So you had the Puritans, you have the Catholics, you have, um, but the Quakers and you have all these pockets and it's like, they got spread out and I'm like, holy cow, that's still the same today. Started it. Yep. Those areas for sure. Yep. And then you had people that fought for religious freedom, um, which we still have that today. You still have these politicians and you have people that are out there on the front lines. Like no, We need to fight for Jesus and you start hearing Jesus's name more. I've heard it more in politics in the last probably six months than I have, I think in many years. Like you heard people talk about God. Well, I mean, that's so vague and such a cop out of who you really believe in. It's such a wimpy way to represent Jesus. Well, believe in whoever in your, in your God, whatever your God believes. No, if you don't believe in Jesus, and only Jesus, I'm setting you up for failure by not in love saying, hold on a second. Who is your God? Well, you know, my God is Valhalla. You see the Valhalla stuff. Cool man. I love the show Vikings, but most, nobody talked about that until a show came out and then they're like, Hey, I'll believe in that. And I'll run with that. Cause it's manly. Like pretty sure the Vikings were one of the biggest transitions into Christianity too. After they went into England. Oh really? The huge conversion that took place from. The Vikings was massive. That's wild, dude. Do you want to do a pagan practice convert to Christianity? I love it. Um, but with what you're saying, I think it's a good transition to understanding like who's your God. Who is your God? Oh yeah. Right. And that's what we sort of talking about in Exodus. We actually went into a men's group last night. It was ironic that all this stuff was happening in the same week, but Exodus 13, one through 10 talks about the people coming out of Egypt. and God's telling them to consecrate your firstborn and remember this day. Right. And we can pull it up. So Exodus 13, 1 -10 says, the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me every firstborn male, the first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal. And this is the NIV. Then Moses said to the people, commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing ye's, today in the month of Aviv you are leaving. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Ivites, and Jebusites. the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey. So he's gonna do what he had promised. For seven days he bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. Eat unleavened bread during those seven days, nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. On that day, tell your son, I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead. that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand." I love that. I love how that ends with his mighty hands. I'll take a little dose of that mighty hand. So who's your God? Yeah. Well, the starter is my God is the God who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and out of oppression. Can I ask one question before we do that part? Go ahead. Before you can end that, because who's my God? Have you ever heard anybody give a testimony about their God other than somebody that had Jesus? Dude. I've never thought of that. We just talked about this the other day with my wife. Okay, sorry, I took you kind of off for you, but I've just never thought of that question. I've never heard somebody like my Buddhist God delivered me from pornography. Right. So go on YouTube. Everybody do this. Go to YouTube and go Buddhist testimony, Muslim testimony, Islam testimony. I'm doing it right now. And you know, everything that's going to come up is says, Buddhism, Buddhism, Buddhist converts to Christianity. Muslim converts to Christianity. Every single. video. Bro, first thing that pops up, Buddhist hears from Jesus, the unseen story. I sorry, I just have never thought of that until you were just talking there. Who's your God? Who's your daddy? So, but that's, I wanted to say that because we always get in the mindset of like, all right, testimony is Jesus a hundred percent. Our testimony though is about God and what he has done, what he is doing, the fact that we were sinners and he is still coming to bring us out of that. And you get that first image all the way back in Exodus, you know, the second book of the Bible. early on. And there's plenty of other stories in the Old Testament that talk about like commemorating days and festivals and things for God because of what he did. It's testimony. Yeah. So I'd like to, I mean, we're going to, we're going to share, but I'd like to like, kind of like an outline, like how do we equip people to, like, you got to be quick draw with your testimony. In Colossians 2 I was reading I was reading through Colossians It's a quick read but it's one of those books where it feels like it's longer than Psalms because once you get in there you're like, oh man so much here these sentences like you just they hit you in your in your soul and Can you read Revelation 12 10 because I found this other scripture this morning at the prayer room and I just want to kind of see where the where this goes as we unpack this part Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah for the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice you heavens and you will dwell in them. But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short. When the dragon saw that he has been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. So I've always leaned on this one for the power of the testimony for sure. And we talked about it this week. Well, Marco for a couple of minutes and I just was like, okay, Lord, like unpack this scripture more for me. Um, so I've always read the part where it's, um, we overcome the accuser of our, our brothers, our brethren. That's the devil, the accuser, the liar. Yep. He's accusing you of things. So we'll use maybe it's a, maybe as a man, like you blow up on your wife. Maybe blow up's a little bit strong. Maybe you just said something that was unkind to your wife out of your own frustration or whatever. And immediately in your heart you're like. I did it this week and I'm like, oh man, she's just trying to help me trust her, trust her discernment. She's we're on the same team. We're on the same team. That's the Holy spirit being like, hold on. But the devil's right there. Like see Jordan, this is who you are. You piece of crap. Once again, you walked away and mumbled something under your breath about your wife, told you about your kid, about yourself. See, that's exactly who you are. Freaking enemy. Yeah. I came in here and I guess I'll start with like this has been a week and you know some of the stuff from this week There's a lot of warfare that goes into this thing. So that message you sent me was spot -on It's no different than preaching from a pulpit. You're up the night before all week You're just like battling through and paying attention and praying and reading and just you're in the zone of like Holy Spirit I need you this week. Like you got nothing and this week has been one of those weeks where it's just like God is answering my prayers. He's just answering them in the best way that he knows how, which is putting you in the situation where he can grow you in the thing that he wants you to grow you in. You ask for patience. Guess what? You're going to be in some difficult situations where you got to be patient. And this week has just been a week of, um, heart work. I call it a heart check day. I used to do a heart check day every once in a while when I noticed things are flaring up and I had a heart check week and so many good things are coming out of it, that doesn't mean I like it. That doesn't mean my wife or my kids like it. But last night I was laying in bed and I'm like, my biggest encouragers in my life for the last year and a half, two years, have been my kids. Hands down. Yesterday was... I was just keeping quiet because I'm like, I'm going through it. My kids recognized it and they were just encouraging me. Like I'm like, they're my biggest encouragers. Why? Because my wife is their biggest encourager and they learned it from her because she's an encourager for me too. But it's, you kind of expect that from your spouse. Like Lindsey and I, like we expect to encourage each other. But your kids like, they're your kids. I just grew up where in an age where people didn't talk about their stuff. The parents were just quiet. They didn't talk about it. Your kids are literally superpowers in the kingdom and you're gonna, you're not there yet cause your kids are little. But I was just last night, I was just thinking like, what's step one in your ministry? Your family, your family, that is your ministry. That's your ministry. And if you don't have that solidified and unified in Christ. Like, he isn't giving you a Bible study to run. You may force your way into doing it, but that is not God. It's not gonna end well. It's not gonna end well. And what's a good litmus test of? Is your home in order? Do you talk about Jesus as a family? Do your kids open their Bible? This is not a condemning message. This is a, it woke me up. I'm speaking about my story. I'm not trying to condemn any of our listeners. I'm saying, things that just grabbed my attention one day was we don't even pray as a family. We don't even go to church. Like that was like, we didn't even go to church as a family. And I'm pretending my home is in order. Your home's only in order when Christ is at the center of it. Dude, you're quoting straight out of Timothy. Cool. Hey, I knew it was in there, buddy. You know, none of them a supernatural spiritual guy, you know, of course it's scripture. Like, I hope you can tell I'm joking when I say that. When you walk with the Holy Spirit, he has a funny way of pulling scripture out of you when you yield. But last night I was just like, thank God that my wife is that for my kids. And it just comes back and we encourage each other. And Lindsay said it yesterday, we say it quite often, if one of us is down, if Lindsay's having a really bad day, I have to fight so much harder for the peace in our home. If I'm having a rough day, like she has to be walking in hope and faith and pointing it to Christ. If we're both having a bad day, they don't happen often where we're both like negative Nancy kind of in the trenches, just bah humbug together. If we are, that's when bad stuff starts happening. Cause you're going to be repenting together for a lot. And we've had those days, but since we've spent time with our kids, sharing our testimony. Our kids know our story. We don't hide it from them. I don't know adult stories in my life growing up. I don't know any testimonies that they've had. We just didn't talk about it. When Lindsay and I are both having a bad day, they're very rare, but it happens in ministry where husband and wife are both just, you're getting wore out. Our kids, dude, they'll go read their Bible and pray and just send us these wild scriptures and it's like, Oh my gosh, our kids. That's awesome. This is a family thing. That's awesome. And I will do anything to protect that. And. Yeah, that's cool. I just that whole thing I just unpacked last night and I was thinking of you. I'm like, man, I watched you guys with your little girls and like. You're you're raising kids, so you hear it from people like you wait till they get older. Oh, you wait till they're teenagers and you see when alcohol comes in yet. No, not going to be a problem in my family. Like because I'm handling it now. Yeah. And if it is a problem, don't think for one second that I'm naive enough to think that my kids will not face some type of a challenge in their life. Our goal, Lindsey and I, our 100 % goal is to get our children to understand. Our two oldest are on this journey. Our next two are at the beginning of it. You need to learn to turn to Jesus in your stuff. Yeah. And if we can get you to do that, when you leave our, um, our, uh, authority, You know, when we release them to the world, I just want to have be blameless before the Lord that I did everything I could to point them to Jesus. And he'll take over from there. And the areas that we screwed up in as husband and wife or as parents or as our home, what the areas that we screwed up in, God's going to correct that. I hope that made sense. I don't know. I kind of run on a rant there, but I just, I've been so encouraged by my kids right now and I just wasn't expecting it. So that's awesome. Cause I think about like Rachel. She's typically every morning she's out on the couch after she wakes up and she's just reading and praying. And I've got, for those that don't know, I've got three young daughters. They're gorgeous men. Five, four and two. They're young. But my two year old, she's turning three soon. There's quite a few times where I'll get a picture from the wife and there she is, the two year old with the Bible on the couch just being like, I'm feeling like mommy where I'm reading my Bible. And you're just like, we're doing it. Let's go. But I can't wait. I can't wait for the time where I'm able to have like good conversation over scripture. Like we read it every day. We read it every night. We talk to each other about it and getting those glimpse of things. And Adeline, who's my oldest, she is, she's starting to grasp onto those things. She's starting to really take hold of it all. And there's going to come a time here soon where we're going to have some fun talks about scripture. It gets so much better when you have conversations with your children. So like for Elodie and Charlotte, they're a little bit older. They're a little bit more mature than some adults in their walk with the Lord. And there's no pride attached to that. It's just they've walked through some valleys, each of them individually, which they faced and they found Jesus in it. It takes the pressure off of being a parent because now it's like, oh my gosh, I actually trust you, God, with your kid. Oh, it's not my daughter. It's your daughter. And you've got her because we pointed her to you. And we're just here to encourage them, have fun with them. And the conversations that you have when your kid comes downstairs after reading their Bible for an hour and journaling, it's like, oh my gosh, let me tell you what I just picked out of this passage. And you're like, I literally sit with grown adults and they would be what? When they're little, if you teach them that they just got so much faith and they don't have the junk of the world yet messing with them. Well, I don't know if that was for me. Yeah. Well, you know, I don't know if that that's just that might have been they don't they just take it to the Lord and they just understand his voice. And I mean, like you said earlier, like this isn't to be said to condemn anybody. No, right. This is to be said to go like, there's still plenty of time for you to do these things as well. And especially like getting into talking about scripture to getting in and talk about your prayer life, your prayer time with God and stuff. And a lot of people I know when it comes to scripture. They don't know where to begin. Like where do I even start? Where do you point them to? Go ahead. Well, we'll get there. But I usually get somewhere simple. But like the idea of like, where do I start? What am I reading? And like, what's the point? What am I trying to get out of this? And why am I not understanding is usually another question I get. Why do I not understand this? Or I don't see what's the point of all this is. And it's just, it's hard sometimes to hear that because you're like, OK. We've all been there. It's like, yeah, we've been here. Let's go. One of the books I sort of typically point somebody to is the Book of Philemon. It's one chapter. Philemon. Philemon. But I love you. I've never heard it pronounced Philemon ever in my life. Really? I call it Philemon. Philemon? I've got to go. I'm googling it as soon as this is over. I've heard it said Philemonion. In terms of the Book of Philemonion, people are like, what kind of church is this? What is this? But it's a why that book it's one chapter. It is quick. It's quick. There's a beautiful picture of what's being told in that one chapter. If you have a study Bible, the study Bible will sort of give you background of what's going on and you can sort of begin getting an idea of how you can approach other books. Yeah. Where you go, all right, what's the background of the story? Who's writing it? Who's it being written to? And why is it being written? And then you can plant yourself in that timeframe of going. Yeah. What's the point of this book? So you set them up for context in their journey of story. Like let's understand you have to take it. Don't take it out of context. No, I context to me is very important. That's interesting. I, uh, I don't do it that way, but I definitely can see where that is important and I need to make some adjustments. I always point people to John. It's a good John. It's a real good book. Just because my hope is. And I know your hope is the same. I like the way that you package it for them. Like you gotta get, put yourself there. These aren't just words. Like put yourself, you're in the story too. Put yourself there. Jesus is on the ground. I always point to John, cause I'm like, one, John's just a freaking wild animal and everybody's wild, man. Like if you're looking for Jesus, you got a little wild streak in you. You're like, I think Jesus will be the answer now because everything else didn't work. Everything failed. Yeah. And because I just know they're going to hear about who Jesus is and for me like, oh man, this came up last night. Let me read this. I was just kind of tinkering last night with scripture and back and forth and then I just kind of laid there. This is super late. It was like midnight and this kind of came up. So I'm still unpacking this, but I did write it down here quick. Did I delete it? Okay. About the heart. If I can get somebody to know the heart of Jesus, Jesus and experience the heart of Jesus. Game over. That dude has changed. That woman has changed for life. No matter what path they take from there, they're on the right path and God will direct them to get them narrower and narrower and narrower. That's my goal. And last night I'm like, What is my supernatural gift God? I'm like God what's my what makes me Superman in the kingdom and it came down to you can look death in the face and find me in it and I'm like Okay, so I just started going through like like my first experience with death was young with a close aunt she was actually my age when she died of cancer and just I remember that whole season of life and it was just I just believe she was in heaven. Like I had this weird piece about it. I was 16, I didn't really understand it. And then right after that, I went into the fire department here in Anbel for seven years and you see death, people in car crashes, fires, suicides, like you just see it. And I've always had this piece of being around it. And then my dad gets cancer. And I've just always been around death, but I've always been like, God, there's a reason for this. And most recently was... this funeral I did for a young girl who died of cancer, like even in her death, as tragic as that was, and that's not of God, God didn't bring that. The people that she led to Christ, I can see him moving in it. So I'm like, okay, I agree with you, God. I can find you in death, which means I can pretty much find you in anything. I have this ability to see God in things. And then I started, I'm like, why? Well then, it's because I've changed my perspective on the Bible after 20 some years to like, God, what's your heart? What's your heart in this situation? This podcast, what's your heart for this, God? So the testimonies that we're hearing, I want people to know it really helps for us to hear that it's making an impact in your life. So thank you all for the encouragement. I am completely blown away by the amount of downloads that we've gotten in the first three weeks, the amount of feedback that we've gotten. I'm excited to see where it goes from there. I had no expectation. I just spend a lot of time in data and I know what the world data analytics are for stuff like this. And I'm like, eh, we'll see. And it's better. I'm like, okay, Lord, but what's your heart for the podcast? When you start finding God's heart, I wrote this down. You don't know your heart if you don't know His. So people are trying to find the answer just reading scripture, but they're not seeking the Lord's heart. Well, it's Christ in me, which means it's Him in my heart. So that means my heart is full of Christ, so I should be experiencing His heart for my children, His heart for ministry, His heart for a brotherhood, a friendship. What's His heart? And we try and fix our heart with anything under the sun. And the quickest way to heal your heart is to start finding God's heart in the situations that you're in. And now you start knowing His ways. So I just kind of went through that. If you don't know your heart, it's because you don't know His heart. Ephesians 3 .17, Galatians 2 .20, it's Christ in me. And that's why it's attacked so easily. That's the number one attack in your life is your heart. Proverbs 4 .23, for above all else, guard your heart. Once you know the Father's heart for you as a son and a daughter, spiritual warfare, this is going to transition nicely here now. If I'm good, if you can cut me off as something. Go. Once you know the Father's heart for you, spiritual warfare is easy to handle because you don't have to focus on it so much because you already know His heart. My heart isn't for you to be in depression. You said you wanted me to develop in you the character to handle the anointing. What did you think I was going to do? Put you in situations that require you to grow in character. And the devil's right there bringing depression to take you off track. No, I'm teaching you. I'm teaching you. I'm right here with you. Don't give the enemy so much power. So we come to Revelation 12, the accuser of the Brethren. And then you read about how he accuses you day and night before God. He accuses you before God day and night and has been hurled down. Now, today, I'm like, all right, Lord, he's the accuser of the Brethren, which means we can give him a lot of power. Hold on, let this iPad dude dial up. So I'm reading Colossians this morning. And I'm just like sitting here for, we went down for about two hours. So I just kind of was sitting in it. It's a good book. And it talks about, I was laying here on the couch the other day and I, I actually came in here and punched the couch. I threw my hands in the air, was yelling and ranting and raving a little bit. Like, just like I was pretty, I needed to just get it out. So I just came in here and had a little blast and I'm like, Satan, you are done. Right now I turned on worship music and I laid on that couch and I just started praying with zero yelling zero fire I burn and rebuke. I was just like, you know what satan? You're freaking done because jesus said on the cross that it is finished. Yeah, and what was finished on the cross a lot but When jesus gave up his spirit in john 19 if you go over to colossians 2 It said, then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual power and authority to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner anymore. They were his. And I'm like, The enemy cannot accuse you before God anymore, which we know that by reading Revelation 12. Why do we give him the power to accuse us then? Because a lot of people don't talk about it. The lack of communication, the lack of us talking about spiritual warfare, the lack of us saying that, hey, by the way, the enemy is still moving and prowling around like a roaring lion, ready to devour. Like he's on the hunt to pull you away from God. But I think it's a lack of understanding of who God is. And like what Paul writes in the New Testament, he says, for the sake of freedom, Christ has set us free. But that freedom is not the freedom we think. Right? First mind of freedom is like the American freedom. I can go do whatever I want. As I'm in America. Don't tread on me. Don't tread on me. It's like, no, it's not quite that. When you look at what Jesus talks about in the sermon on the Mount, when he talks about my yoke is easy, my burden is light, he tells us to... yoke ourselves to Jesus. And if you know what a yoke is, you know, you put it on the cattle, it binds you to another cow, right? So wherever that cow goes, the other cow follows. Well, do you and I as an example for that, because they could see you're a power lifter. You have a lot more muscle than I do. You can definitely, if I yoked up with you, I'm going where you're leading me. Exactly. But what Jesus is saying is he's not telling you to shed your yoke. Right. He's telling you to yoke yourself to Jesus. Right. And that's why like you were just talking about there, like I'm a prisoner to Jesus. Paul talks about it too, like I am his slave. I'm doing what he wants because he's in charge. He has full control and he's the God. So there's a misunderstanding I think of us understanding who God really is and what he wants for our life. It's God wants all of you. And the one Robbie Galli talks about it sometimes where he says, if God's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. And it's like, that's convicting. It's like what part of my innermost being right now am I not giving God control? What part of my life right now am I not yielding to him and giving him to be Lord of all? Oh man. I just got convicted, bro. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to have to, uh, the beauty of the sanctification process. Isn't it a beautiful thing? Do you ever arrive until glorified glorification, right? It's not something that happens overnight. Now there's aspects that'll happen overnight, but that whole process. is ongoing from the point you're saved to the point you die. And God is molding you into the person he wants you to be. Bro, you're literally giving me, I wrote down about nine questions this morning in the prayer room. Kind of lamenting, and that's okay. It's okay to lament. Sure. We're supposed to. You're going to have those seasons. And I was lamenting. Go read Lamentations. Go read Lamentations. Go read Psalms. And it's that battle of you're yoked with Jesus. So now I'm yoked to the right person. And he's leading me like calmly, like slowly. He's not worried about the next step. He just knows which way to go. And I, in my flesh, I'm like, well, no, this is the way that I've seen it work. This is the way and God and Jesus is like, Well, this will benefit you and what you've been praying and asking me to teach you. So we'll go that way for a little bit, but I'm not going to let you get too far out of this field because the soil is good here and it's easy to cultivate. You go over there. We're plowing rocky soil, buddy. And you're going to be doing a lot of the pulling cause I'm Jesus and I don't plow rocky soil like that. I know how to do it the right way. It's funny. Uh, I don't know if that's, is it good? I don't know. I've never really thought of that before until just now. I'm just, I've been trying to plow the wrong field maybe and God's, Jesus is like, cool, let's get back. There's an aspect of where Jesus is going to let us go where we. or we're gonna feel enough polling going like this doesn't feel right. I think you're what you talked about last week the fingerprint of God on the situation. Yeah, I think the more you walk I think I agree with you on that 100 % but the more that you learn the heart of the Father the more Christ in you the renewal of your mind your heart like he'll let you go you're correct it's your choice but man he just If you just turn, He will pull you back. Like, if you just turn to Him and just ask, this is a lot harder than I think that it should be. Yes or no, Jesus, and just let Him answer. Yes, you're correct. You're making this a lot harder than it should be. I'm fully convinced right now in this season of my life that if you are stressed out, if you're constantly fighting spiritual warfare, if you're constantly Feeling like you need to go spend all your time in the presence of the Lord to live a life for him You've completely missed the heart of the father for how we're supposed to live life here on earth We should be enjoying building the kingdom The joy of the Lord is our strength. Yeah, if you can't find joy in the situation You're in right now. You're not gonna find strength in the situation. You're in right now You got to figure that one out. I could literally list 10 things right now, but I'm not going to do it because the Holy Spirit has to take you on that journey. I am so over this lie of religion that is like, but the Bible says you need to go boom. And this is the formula to get in the presence of the Lord. Bro, I get in the presence of the Lord driving my truck down the road. I get in the presence of the Lord in the shower talking on this podcast. Would you agree with me that literally probably, for me 10 seconds before leading up to us starting this podcast today, I'm like, nothing. I got nothing. I got nothing. Definitely a hundred percent. Okay. We didn't talk about it, but as you were praying, as we were praying here, I'm sitting there. I'm like, Lord, Matthew 10 20, like your time has come. You must speak. Cause I got no drive to even do this today. And you could sense, I could tell you sensitive when you walked in. Um, but darn it, I'm excited to do it, because I know you're gonna show up. And the minute that we do that clap, we're live, baby. It's like, let's go. Let's do it. And there's a beauty in that, in the sense of like, when we finally get out of the way of what God wants to do sometimes, when we remove what we're trying to input, what we want people to hear, and just be like, God, do you take full control now? You never know what's gonna come out. A testimony. Go ahead. Back into the testimony idea. for those who need a picture in scripture of what a testimony looks like. And a good example would be in Acts 20. Let me make sure I'm quoting that right. Got it in my notes here. Acts 22 is Paul. It's Paul's testimony, who he was before Christ, Christ encountering Paul, and then Paul after. It's the whole chapter. It'll show you a picture of what a testimony looks like. And in the center of it all is Jesus and what he did. So read Acts 22. get an idea of what that looks like. We're gonna give examples in the next podcast of our testimony. But one last aspect of testimonies that I'd like to touch on too is God's view of testimonies. It's 1 John 5, 1 through 12. And it says, whosoever... I'm actually reading the King James version because I really love the way it says it, but you can read it any which way you want. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And every one that loveth Him, that begat loveth Him, also that is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water. and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth witness because the spirit is truth. Amen. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the father, the word, and the Holy ghost. And these three are one, right? Trinitarian talk. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, The witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God which hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. And because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son, and this is the record, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son has life, and he that hath not the Son, God hath not life. The testimony. Sorry, bro. The King James version makes my mind just spin. I like it in some cases. The biggest thing I love if we talk like that today, I'm going to the Costco with to get some steak for dinner. If lady. It's funny. And you can have that discussion later about the King James version, but nobody ever talked like that. No, it's the way they wrote it is what they say is like supernatural about the King James version. I'm not full of grievance of it all. They never talked like this. I would hope not. Never did. But I wasn't around. They wrote that way. I was trying to listen to you and read it in my Bible. I'm like, this is good. This is good. This is different. But I love the way it talks about the Trinity there. The three bear witness in heaven is the father, the word, you know, Jesus and the Holy Ghost. So that's awesome. But the big point is at the end there when God says he that has the son has life, says the testimony that I'm giving in heaven is that Jesus is the one that's giving you life. So. How does, so the Holy Spirit knows the testimony of Jesus. The Holy Spirit knows what your testimony is. Your testimony is Jesus. When you're giving your testimony, if it doesn't point to Jesus, you've completely missed the mark on why you shared your testimony. The whole point of your testimony is for the person that you're sharing it to or persons is for them to hear the hope and the restoration that comes because Jesus moved in your life. That's the only way they get hope. If you don't mention Jesus, you've missed the mark. And there's no condemnation that I've done that and I still can do that. So don't share your testimony about your struggle with, um, uh, hating your wife and talk about all the bad things with your wife for the last decade for 20 minutes, ramble on about how horrible it was and all this, and then spend the last minute talking about, and then Jesus came. You should spend 19 minutes. You spend one minute talking about the pain and the ugliness that you were in and 20 minutes talking about. And then Jesus came. And let me tell you what happened. We started having sex again. Oh my gosh. We started actually being a couple in front of our children that our children wanted to be honoring to us. We gave them permission to honor us because we were being of one flesh, a good couple. The testimony now becomes, and Jesus touched my children and now they know how to honor their parents properly. And you just spend more time talking about Jesus came in, rescued me, snatched me from the clutches of Satan, from the clutches of hell, and here's what my marriage has been like ever since. But what do we do as Christians? Well, let me sit here and tell me about that time when your husband yelled at you, oh my God, it was the most brutal thing, and I'm not making fun of counsel and mentorship, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, if you're mentoring people, If they don't understand that Jesus is in their story right now and they walk away, you're not a mentor or a coach. You're a therapist that wants a paycheck. But for real though, to your point, it's gold because I mean, not to hate on therapists, not to hate on that. Like there's a place and there's a time and that's useful. It can be. The problem I see with therapy and like my wife and I went through marriage counseling for a time was they give you coping mechanisms. Oh boy, this is going to preach. This is going to preach. We're planning on this today. Let it cook baby. Go. But like my wife will talk about it too as well. Um, and like, so therapy gives coping mechanisms. It gives you tools, perfectly good tools. Sometimes it's taking your tool belt to deal with situations when you're just overwhelmed. Very true. Never once did I come out of therapy session seeking. I see the light. I see healing. I see restoration coming. I see a difference coming in my marriage. there's a time here in the next couple of weeks, we're gonna be changed. We're gonna be different. It's gonna be better. We're gonna love one another again. We're gonna be intimate again. Never once did I walk out of those dozen therapy sessions going, we're getting through this. If people knew what could happen to their soul and their family and their marriage if they just took a season of life and totally went all in on Jesus. Churches, there wouldn't be division in the churches anymore. We would overwhelm the religious spirit in this area because people would be set free and active. They'd be like, Whoa, bro, I don't know what you're preaching, but I experienced real healing and I didn't get it that way. Like people would be busting down the doors. It is literally free therapy that will lead you to full restoration. But why don't we do it? Because the counselors and the therapists and the school counselors, again, respect them. They are making a huge difference. It is a rough world we're living in. And those people take on a lot of stuff. I don't envy them. I respect them. But some of them are leading people astray because they get a quick hit. All right, I feel good. I got enough to get me through the next session versus I'm gonna go to church and I'm gonna sit down in a Bible study with a guy. Maybe it's your Bible study. You get nothing out of that financially. You get nothing out of that, but quite frankly, sleepless nights, warfare, and a lot of time in the Lord's presence, and a lot of heart work. Why don't people want the therapy that Jesus offers? Because it requires you to sit with him, and he's gonna work on the actual root problem. He's not gonna work on the fruit hanging. Oh, you don't have any kindness in your heart? Well, let me teach you how to be kind. What you need to do is you need to wake up in the morning and just spend a little time with yourself. and then you should do something outside that feels really good. No, the reason you're not kind is because in your heart, there's a root problem. And we're gonna get after that and you're gonna start seeing all kinds of things change. We might as well just keep going, because this is awesome. Because that was my journey with it. All right, God, I'm ready to do some root work. Let's grind this bad, let's grind it out. There's two things that go together in this. Well, one, like this restoration, this point of going, you know, I'm not going to be able to go to therapy anymore and just talk about what I don't like about the other person. Love it. Because just like when you sitting there talking with God, what it does is make you reflect on yourself. A hundred percent. It's the same thing with prayer. Why don't men and other people get into prayer as deeply as they should or could it's because when you're talking to God, you can't lie. Bro. Go let it rip baby. It's the idea. Like if I'm sitting here talking to you, I can bull crap my way out of any conversation. I can tell you anything you want to hear. I can tell anybody whatever they want to hear and get me out and keep me moving. Blame it at the other people, lie about a situation, do what I need to. But when I sit down and know that God's listening to me and know that He wants what's best for me and I got to sit there and pray and lay out my heart, can't lie to the guy. The moment I lie, it's just, well, you know. Okay. So let's talk about it this way then. How is that sharing your current testimony with God? Let's forget about sharing our testimonies with people. I've never thought of this, dude. I don't know, I'm just unpacking this, I don't either. I've never thought about sharing your testimony with God. So I share my testimony with people at certain points. If somebody's talking about they're struggling with their wife, and they're not having intimacy, I know immediately we're gonna go hit on porn. That's a good starting point. I'm gonna... We're gonna get into this a little bit. If somebody's talking about anger and frustration, like you can kind of pinpoint what part of your story to share. But current things you're going through. And this is kind of a current testimony being built. I can't wait to share with you the glory on the other side. But I'm sharing that with God. God, I just did it yesterday. I'm boom, boom, I'm like listing them off. Like I'm literally like, you gotta move here or don't move here. Either do it or don't do it and kind of like. Little frustrated, but God can handle that. And I think people like, well, don't, don't, you can't talk to God that way. What do you mean? You literally told God you must do something. Well, the Bible says he knows my heart. He loves me. He's not going to smite me because I had a moment of frustration and heaviness in the storm. And I'm just lamenting. He actually is pleased and so happy that I turned to him. instead of anybody else on this freaking planet. And we'll go to our wife, go. I was just saying, well, we'll balance it out with is that idea of like, thank you buddy. It's not the test God, right? Correct. Not, but when I look at scripture and I say, don't test God, it's for those who ask for something, they're given it. And then they say, that's not enough. Do it again. Yeah. Do it again. This isn't like, and I think I forget the guy's name in scripture where it's like talking about the rain, the dew on the grass and all that. And it wasn't enough. Was that Gideon? I think it was Gideon and he had to request again and request again. And it's like, now you're testing God, even though he's given you everything you needed. That's good. It's not. Cause I actually asked that question. Am I testing God right now? I did it this week. I was kind of just lamenting and I'm like, am I testing? It's a good thing to have on your mind when you're going through a situation like I'm not trying to test you God, but I'm frustrated right now. I don't want you to know, like, I just got to get it out. I don't want to hold it in anymore. I talked about this the other night. God's a big boy. He's a big guy. He can handle your problems. It's so true. I mean just... And why do we think we can't confront Him? Our counselor, the Holy Spirit. There's a scripture that says that, our counselor. So did you... I've done this in my life. where I will take something to somebody before I take it to the Lord. And in this past season, the Lord just like, hey, just started working on me gently, like, whoa, whoa, pump the brakes. Seek me first. Seek me first. I'll confirm it through other people. And that message that I sent you this week about the fruits and just kind of like, this week was a heart check week for me. I realized that we're doing things, for the kingdom and I want to make sure my heart's in the right place and I need to have the right overseers and the right people speaking into me. And bro, the way you answered that just was so filled with grace and love. Like I received every word of it. Like you have such a gift in actually representing Jesus and speaking to them in a way where. It was a rebuke, but it was a rebuke in love and I've I'm growing in that area So thank you I appreciate you for being honest with me number one. Most people don't even know how to do that Yeah, if I come to you and ask you a question, I want to have some honesty We have plenty of time to talk about that back to testimony but sharing your testimony with God and oh man like I'm kind of just unpacking this testimony with God thing. I've never thought of that before my life until just today, but just kind of right now where I'm kind of at with it is past testimonies where I know he's moved already, going back through those and just thanking him for rescuing you in the financial situation, which we talked about with Exodus. Those memorials that you've set up in your life. Like, go back to those if you're having a heavy day. Go ahead, talk about it. You just went through this for a week. Well, yeah, but my wife. what she did when we, and we'll hear about it when I share testimony later, but we got a decoration in our house. That's just a big bowl full of rocks. And every time something happens, we write the date and something on that rock and put it in there and just to see it like begin to grow over time and just have that little memory. Like here's what happened then. And that's so cool to be able to bring your kids into that. It's straight out of the Bible, dude. Bro. I like that. We ought to add one in now for, uh, My daughter Adeline, who made her proclamation of faith saying she believes in Jesus. Our family, Lindsay's creating one right now. She's just got a gift with words and she's so gifted, is a family journal. And they're out there, but we're going to create one that kind of, how did our family get so unified in Christ? A lot of journaling, dude. We've got stacks of them, individuals together. So we're gonna do ours is like family journal where you know what, maybe you're in the middle of it and you're 12 and you don't know how to really talk to mom and dad yet, but you can write it in this journal and then anybody in our family can grab that and they can go and pray. And we're not the best at it, so don't think that we're just do this all the time. It's something that we're growing in and we're trying to get better in family Bible study. Like, Just this was the other night, the kids were encouraging me. They were sensing something was up and they were just encouraging me. And through that encouragement, we just kind of narrowed it down to like, in my heart, I'm like, we need to start a family Bible study now. Because if I wanted to have it when they're 30 and I'm a grandpa, when I'm 70, when they do it with their kids, I need to do it now. Because they're so in tune with God. and give my kids a place to start preaching what's on their heart. Cause when they get out in the world, I want my kids going out at 18 on fire. Like, no, I know who the Lord is and I'm ready to go on mission. I don't want them waiting till they're 37 like I did to really get it. I'm glad you say that. Cause like that's something I'm looking forward to. It was like, as I get, my mom tried to do that with this with us. I was homeschooled. My mom tried to have these Bible, these quiet times. I was in a place where I just like did not care what my mom said. We've all been there. My kids will be there at some point. I actually don't agree with that. Yeah, no, they're not going to be there. No. But I'm thinking about it now of like, well, my mom was trying to do what's amazing. Yeah. And she tried to lead the best she knew how. The best she could. And there was times where I just trampled on it. I was like, screw this. I'm done. I don't care. Looking back, I regret it. But knowing like, all right, my daughters, man, they can be a split image of me. Yeah. Sometimes it's like, this is something I'm praying into now. It's like, God, we're not at the place yet where my kids are fully able to understand scripture in that sense, but I'm reading stuff to them. I mean, I've told you, like I read every night to them and I'm praying into now of God, like prepare them, make a way for them, guide them in so that as they get to this point, when we start having family discussions, family Bible, I can't wait for, we can dig in. And that's what I'm encouraging you guys, like if this is something you want to start, begin praying for it. But beyond that, Another thing that you touched on there is journaling. One of the challenges we left off last time was journal. Yeah. And that's something that really... It was one of my questions to start with, but I didn't have my iPad. How did that go for you? What did we say? Five minutes? Yeah, we started just five minutes. Find your secret place. Five minutes, write down some questions in a journal. If any of you have actually done that this week, contact at beyondtheoutpost .com or you have our numbers, some of you. text us a little testimony, we'd love to share it, but how did that go for you this week? I missed one day so far. Sinner. You're going to hell. Well, all right. But that's what people think, like I missed a day, so now I messed it up, I can't do it anymore. No, just start now. And I do have to repent because my wife called me out on it, she tried to gently be like, did you get your time in today? And she was being gentle about it, but immediately because I was guilty in my head of like, I didn't do it, I got angry. Yeah. And I had to like, just be quiet for a minute because I was angry. Yeah. So Rachel, if you're listening, I'm sorry. Yeah. No, but we had one day, actually the day you messaged me on Marco or the day after you messaged me on Marco and I responded before that. I was having a quiet time just walking in a parking lot. I literally walked a mile and a half going back and forth down this 400 foot lane, just back and forth thinking and praying. And one of the things I struggle with is being open in the form of spirituality. What do you mean? Like, just prayer time, listening for God, nudging, those kind of things. Like that's something I struggle with. I'm way more comfortable going, what does scripture say? Like that's where I'm at. Oh man, he's teaching you how to hear his voice in the moment. Oh yeah, for sure. So that's a cool spot to be in. Keep going. It is. And there's cool times that happen even just, you tested me this week when you sent me that Marco asking like, pray about this and let me know what you think. Yeah. It was the same day I was going through. Asking God like why am I so closed off to this? Isn't it crazy how God brings people together and uses things when you put yourself out there and he's like this person because I could have sent that to anybody but I prayed I'm like Lord who do I send this to and three people came to mine and you were one of them and Because God knew what your heart needed to and he's like, okay your heart needs something his heart needs something You're both seeking me right cool. Let's use them make them work make them build Thank you for sharing that iron sharpens iron, right, bro? It's like God's like, Hey, I'm going to do exactly what I said I was going to do here. No, but there's a, there's a beauty to scripture and I love it. I love digging in, seeing where things go and stuff and I'm comfortable there, but there's a truth to the sense of if you have a gift in something that's not necessarily the place where you should stay a hundred percent because you have a gift in it. Yeah. If I'm working out and my strength is upper body bench and my weak spot is deadlift, I should be deadlifting two or three times as much as I do upper body bench. Yeah. So if I'm weak in the spiritual, of listening and talking to God in that sense, I should be doing that more than what I'm doing currently. So that's why he channels me on this week. I was trying to figure out like, why am I this way? Why am I struggling with that? Why am I closed off? I'm just asking those questions and I'm still, I don't have fully answers yet. I just started really digging in this week. But you've already started the journey and you're like, cool. I've seen things spur out of that and things go okay. We're headed in the right direction. That's awesome, dude. I spent a lot of time this week. Battling actually getting into the secret place and I forget what day it was but I'm just I went into the prayer room and I'm like let's go I we actually went to a prayer room today Lindsey and I and It's a beautiful place. Oh my gosh, like the dream would love to have that here on our farm for the community someday But we're in there in about ten minutes in I'm like This place isn't sanctified. Hmm the way that I'm used to in When you get in a consecrated place to pray, oh man, some of you are going to know what I'm talking about. Some of you are going to run wild with this. So let the Holy Spirit lead you if you have anything to say against it. You know when you're in a place that's consecrated and has been protected properly in the authority of Jesus and blood of Jesus is covered in that place. You know when you're in those spaces, you'll get to a place. This place immediately, 10 minutes in, I'm like, there's something here that is just not of God. It is not a clean feeling here. And we stayed for two hours and the Lord still moved. It wasn't like I was sitting there like, there's devils in here. I'm not going to hear the Lord. It's like something here. So pray into it a little bit and, um, get the car on the way home about halfway home. Lindsay's like, there is definitely a, uh, something there. I'm like, what were you sensing? And she said the same thing. I'm like, okay. Yeah. I need that consecrated secret place right now. For when we're in deep, deep warfare, deep, deep season of growing, deep heart work, when God's doing root work in my heart, He's doing root work right now, that hurts. Root work sucks. But it's so worth it. And I need to be in a safe, consecrated, secret place so I can really just be in His presence and just soak in His presence. And man, is that when he starts really for me, speaking to me. The Holy Spirit is right there. He's right, like he's in you. It's like you accept Jesus, he puts his spirit in you. And it's a person. So the be like same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Let's give people a couple of things. Call to action. Oh, we were talking about the journaling. So call to action for this week. Maybe. Next week, we're going to share testimonies. We're going to talk about, we're going to give actual here's how you share them, but to prepare people for that this week, definitely I'm going to have my eyes open for my opportunities to actually share testimonies. I'm going to be more aware of that this week because I know they're there. If you just tell the Lord I'm available, he's like, okay, I'm going to bring the people for you to share. So I'm going to be heads up on that and I'm going to really spend this week in those opportunities. pausing and asking the Holy Spirit, what part of my testimony should I share right now? He knows their heart. I only know what they're saying and I can discern their heart to a certain degree. He knows what their heart needs. So for this week, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to follow you in that. I'm going to encourage them though, part of their journal time, if you guys are journaling, spend some time this week and write out bullet points of significant points in your life where God made you. your testimony, start laying out where things happened, get an idea of your testimony. So then when we're telling ours next week, you can start preparing going like, this is my testimony. We're going to get set free next week and some stuff, man. So because of what you just teed that up perfectly, like, what are you struggling in right now? Where do you want to see God move? Where in your story did you see him there, but you might not feel like you're totally free from it yet. where are you closet free? Meaning like I tell people I'm free, but I'm really not. I shared that story with you with someone this week. I'm not gonna share it here on the air. But people that talk about how they're free and something and you're like, no you're not. You're on the journey, but you're not quite there. But they stay in there and then you hear when they actually get freedom. So write those out. We're just gonna. Rocket fire next week share some cool. Holy spirit stories. I know I've got a gazillion of them I know you've got a gazillion of them and they'll bring hope. Yeah for now I plan on I'll be sharing my testimony Okay, with you guys on the next one cool so to be continued Yeah, and then if you guys could do us a favor if you could go on to the platform that you're on and give a five -star review We would appreciate it if you could also Like and share this around. Subscribe. If you have questions, feel free to reach out. We're up, we're moving on the website. We're getting some updates there. We're going to do some community events here and we'll unveil all of that later on. And last night, I'm not going to say who it is, but I actually didn't talk to you about it yet. We had talked about it before, but we haven't talked about it since. Our first guest. So I just had this just piece about when we hit a certain number of listeners is when we'll have our first guest on. And the topic for that first guest is going to be restoration in their testimony. And this person's testimony is wild, and they fully understand walking with the Lord hand in hand, the love of Christ. And this person is also... The Holy Spirit's gonna move in that interview. So I'll tell you what the number is off air. So for all of our listeners, the quicker that you share this around, the quicker we get to that. This person's credentials are a mile long. And last night I'm like, yes, Lord. And I know they'll do it too, because they're just that person. So everybody have a good week. If during the week you're struggling with something, you're being tested, it's okay to... process with brothers and sisters in Christ Feel free to reach out to us feel free to reach out to your local pastor find a church if you don't go to church regularly if you've been Something there with the church I'd encourage you to find a local church this weekend and just walk in Yeah, and just see how the body of Christ and that church receives you Just see how the Holy Spirit leads you and just get back in the game. So this week Let's lean in and not turn and whatever that looks like for you. I know you already know what it is. I know what it is for me. There are a few areas of my life where I need to lean in a little bit harder. I'm leaning in, but you said it earlier. Like you're the Lord of this area of my life. I yield. I yield. Uncle, uncle, uncle. You can have all of God you want. You can have all of God you want. Yeah. So cool. We're out of here, everybody. Have a good week and we will chat with you all next week.