SE2EP4 Power of Prayer

The podcast hosts, Elizabeth and Christopher, discuss the power of prayer and the importance of sincerity and focus in prayer. They share personal experiences and highlight the impact of prayer in difficult situations. They also discuss the significance of fasting as a form of prayer and sacrifice. The hosts emphasize the importance of not giving up and trusting that God will bring about change and miracles. They also encourage listeners to not give up on others and to continue praying for them. Hello everyone, welcome to Divine Appointment Podcast. I'm Elizabeth. I'm here with my handsome and awesomeness brother Christopher. Hey everybody. So glad to be here and we've got a few things that we're gonna talk about. But first Chris you want to open us up in prayer please? Absolutely. Lord God thank you so much for bringing us all together today. Lord God I ask that you lead us, guide us, direct us. Father help us acknowledge you in everything we do. Lord God we come to you with thanksgiving. We come to you with a grateful heart. Father I thank you so much for giving us the things that we don't deserve and holding back the things that we really do. Lord God I ask you to walk with us through each and every day and I ask you to be with us during this podcast. Help us speak everything that's pleasing to you. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So here we are we're on season 2 episode 4. We just wrapped up our series on their way to heaven. Oh it gives a chill every time I think about that. So good. Yes. God reveals so much. You know when we study and we come up with these things that God lays on our heart we learn a lot by these conversations ourselves. So we do hope that it's a blessing to you as well. I'm suffering with some bronchitis stuff so I'm gonna really try not to cough in the mic. So just forgive me for that and we'll go ahead and ask for that. She's got candy out on the table. Yeah. And we're making faces out of them as the other one's talking and she's just now seen my smiley face with one jelly bean on the eyeball and she just. It was unnerving me. Yeah she just took the jelly bean off that was one eye so it looked like it winked there for a second. All my OCD friends they get it. They get it. Yeah. So. The mouth is a tissue roll by the way. Okay go ahead. I'm gonna eat it in a minute. No you're not. Anyway so yeah so one thing that I have experienced this week that God showed me is the power of prayer. He has he has opened some things up that only he can orchestrate to reveal to me how much work I need to do in that area. Yeah. And as a ministry I feel like we need to do more outreach work in that area as well. So I'm going to tell you prayer is powerful. Yes it is. And prayer can also perform miracles. Amen. I'll never forget when I was in that car wreck. I think I mentioned this before but I remember sitting I was in a bad car wreck last year in May. It'll be one year May 16th and I remember a lady boldly praying out in the road when I was still in my car and you know that brought me so much peace laying there waiting for the ambulance to arrive and you never know that could have been God's way of healing me in areas that I don't even know about. Because I was going through a lot. There was a lot of injuries and things that they had assessed. They were going to airlift me at the time but they couldn't get clearance because of the weather. But there was a lot of concerns. I'm gonna tell you people's prayer. You can pray someone out of a bad situation. No doubt about it. The reason why some of us are saved today was because we had grandparents and family praying for us. Amen. We need to get back to that. Yeah. And you know laying your hands on someone is an action of prayer as well and we need that too. There's a time to enter your your war room and pray. Yeah. There's also a time to put your hands around somebody or hold somebody and pray with them too. Amen. Those occasions come as well and and that's an area that I have not done the best in and I'm going to do better. God showed me that. All of us do. And you know I was sitting there thinking when you said about laying on the hands as a form of prayer you know I was thinking about scripture and everything and you know there's so many different types of prayer. Yeah. And worship. Look I remember when the disciples that was trying to lay hands and heal this woman and cast this demon out and they couldn't do it and Jesus walked up and he said he just spoke the word and the demon fled and the disciples looked at him and they said Lord why couldn't we do that? We prayed. We tried to cast that demon out. Why couldn't we do that? He said because this right here this type of prayer right here or this this type of situation right here can only be done through prayer and fasting. So I think that we should do whatever it takes. Pay attention to what we feel like we need to pray about or who we need to pray for. Yeah. Don't just you know say okay God you know be with this person. I really think we need to put effort into being sincere with our prayers. Focus in our thoughts and our words directly up to God. Don't just say well we can hear it but focusing on God as we're talking as we're talking to them as we're saying this prayer. Because that's what we're talking to. Exactly. Instead of you know because I used to have a bad habit of when I would pray I would listen to myself and what I'm saying and try my best to make it sound better or to say certain things to make it sound more spiritual. Do you know what I mean? Oh yeah. Because a lot of people do that. I mean just not knowingly. I mean some of the best most godliest people there is. It's just really hard for them to to speak sincere prayers because it means we get caught up with how much the prayer means to us. Yeah and we lose sight who we're praying to and the purpose we're doing it. Exactly. So I think that sometimes we need to direct our prayers instead of just saying them. Be more mindful of who we're talking to and what we what we're saying to them. What the purpose is behind us praying to them and talking to them. Who we're praying for. That prayer that that situation with the disciples and when I was trying to cast out that demon. The disciples seen things that we can only dream of. Oh yeah. Their faith was more than just faith. To them it was more facts. Even though they hadn't seen the resurrection yet. But they've seen Jesus perform miracles with their own eyes. And they have cast out demons before this. The disciples have. And it was confusing to them on why it wasn't working this time. And it's because Christ told them you know things like this sometimes it just takes fasting. And I think fasting is a form of prayer and devotion and worship and sometimes obedience. Yes I can see that. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah and I think fasting looks different too for everyone. It does. Absolutely. That doesn't mean okay I'm gonna just not eat today. Yeah and it's not always food. It's not. This can be something totally different. It may be that hey you know what today I'm not gonna get on my phone. It's denying the flesh of anything that it wants. Yes. Yes exactly. And giving it to God. Yeah. Sacrifice. Sacrificing. That's what it is. And you know sometimes we go through a wilderness or we'll go through things and we have people to pray for us and then we're praying for people that that's going through certain things. And then we get caught up with you know what we're praying, who we're praying for and what we're trying to pray them out of. What is that? Tootsie Tarts. Tootsie Tarts? Oh that's not Sweet Tarts but Tootsie Rolls. I don't know. They're hard though. Sorry. Anyways. Squirrel. Yeah squirrel. I read this thing and I really want to tell y'all about it if you don't mind. It's it's called 41 is Coming. Yeah go ahead. And you don't need my permission. In the Bible it ran for 40 days and 40 nights. When day 41 came the rain stopped. I'm gonna keep going. Moses committed murder and hid in the desert for 40 years. Year 41 came and God called him to help Israel. Moses went up on the mountain for 40 days and on day 41 he received the Ten Commandments. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Year 41 they walked into the Promised Land. Is it sour? She's eating sour candy. It looked like she was winking at me. Goliath atonement Israel for 40 days. Hmm and on day 41 David killed him. Wow. Something with 41. Jonah preached a message of repentance to Nineveh for 40 days and on day 41 God stopped his plan to destroy them. Because you know he God had already told him that he was going to destroy them. Yeah. And that's what he told Jonah to go tell him. Yep. Which that's I'm not gonna get into that because it's part of my sermon I'm gonna be preaching. And they all got saved. They all got saved. Oh but what's bad is Jonah felt I guess you could say he felt disrespected and dishonored because God yeah and God told him that he was going to destroy them but didn't and it made Jonah mad. But anyways I'm not gonna get into that. That's getting into my sermon. Jesus fasted and was tempted for 40 days and on day 41 the devil ran away. Wow. After his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples for 40 days and on day 41 he ascended to heaven. All this to say don't quit the rain will stop the giant will fall and you will enter your promised land. Oh yeah. So don't give up Guess how old I am. 40. 41. What? Oh I knew that. I'm right over here I know how old I am. I'm good with it. You just told everybody your age. I'm good with that. I'm okay with it. Oh okay. Hey I embrace my 41 okay. Yeah there's nothing wrong. Especially now that you read all that. There's nothing wrong with you being my older sister. Uh no. I'm the younger one. Let's be honest here. That's good though. That's good stuff. You know and it reminds me of like going through trials and tribulations. To just hang on. Yeah. Don't give up. Yeah. Because it's coming. It is. Today's coming. Recovery's coming. Healing's coming. He's not going to leave you there in your mess. Just hang on. Just hang on. Don't stop before your miracle. Yeah that's good stuff. And the thing about it is don't give up on somebody before they change. Even if you don't even if you have to pray for them from a distance. Don't give up on them. Yeah I have um inquired this really awkward situation lately regarding someone from my past who has who is down on their luck. And God has showed me and told me I need to help this person. And so I have completely out of my comfort zone. Yeah. Reached out to this person several times to try to help them with some issues that they are facing. And God told me to pray with them. And you know I really didn't want to. I'm just gonna be honest. I was like oh I don't want to do that. Like it's kind of late. Yeah. I'm ornery. But you know what I did. I called him and I prayed with him. And I can't tell you the feeling of relief after afterwards. But then I have to admit that I felt a little bit guilty because I didn't do it to me right with a better attitude. Um things that God wants us to do in our lives don't always look easy. They're not going to be easy most of the time. Yeah. And he uses us most of the time when we're not in our comfort zone. Yeah. I've come to know that. But definitely you should never give up on anyone. I think we've all had that tendency where we know someone in our life and we've made a comment like oh well he ain't never gonna change. But then when change comes becomes on you then you realize I was that person too. Yeah. You know. Yeah. If I can change. If Saul can change. And God can forgive him. Anybody can change. We need to quit shorthanding people. Yeah. And you know I don't know if this is a song. I think it was a song that I heard one time. I don't think it was a movie. But I think it was a song. And it was what if you're number 15. Do you remember that? Do you remember hearing about it? It's what if it takes somebody in their lifetime to have 15 people to witness to him before they give their life to Christ. And what if you're supposed to be number 15? And what if they stop at 14 and you're 15? Yeah. What if you're number 15 and you never witness to that person? You know what if our disobedience causes somebody else's downfall or what if our what if our doubt gets in the way of somebody else's salvation? I mean and don't get me wrong. I know that God can reach anybody. Yeah. And he don't have to have us. But I'm talking about for the individual that's supposed to be doing the witnessing. But the blood's on our hands at that point. The blood is on our hands. And you know that's going to happen. You know we're going to be we're going to be looking at every account where we didn't witness that we're supposed to. Where God put us in situations to talk to people and we just walked away. And we just walked away. And we just talked to people and we just walked right on by. And that could totally be us sitting there. And you know it's definitely something to think about. We're here to help other people. To love God. To share our testimonies about how awesome God is. Yeah. And to get people to realize that they need Jesus. Amen. That's our goal. I mean that's what we should be doing. But oftentimes Christians can be so judgmental. Yeah. It's no wonder people feel the way they do about coming into the church. Yeah because the one. We don't make them feel better about themselves. No. And what's crazy is there's one word that that non-believers associate the church with and that's hypocritical. They be right on. A lot of most of the cases unfortunately. Yeah there would be. And me and somebody else was talking earlier today. And they were we was talking about how you know people have had have been given a bad taste for Christianity and for the church. And it's because of the way they they was made. It's according I mean it's it's got a lot to do with the way they were made to feel. There was experiences that they went through to make them feel that way. Yeah. I have that issue when I was oh gosh I was about 14 years old. I went to a heaven's gates and hell's flames. And you go through that and as a 14 year old you're thinking if I don't get saved I'm going to hell. I don't want to go to that place. Yeah. I want to go to heaven. So then they have you recite this ABC thing to admit. Admit, believe, confess and then you're saved. Let's let the Holy Spirit out of it now. Okay so that's how it was given us in a room after we went through heaven's gates and hell's flames. Well of course I recited the prayer. Raised my hand said that I did you know. And then from that point I started going to church with one of the ladies there. And this church this is a big church. Nothing against big churches. But she I didn't have dresses and stuff. So she had brought me some dresses which is awesome so sweet. But I remember wearing a dress to church and sitting there and listening to the preacher and one of my straps fell down my shoulder a little bit and she moved it back on my shoulder. And this may sound minute but to me I felt like she was trying to fix me. Yeah. And that stuck with me. I never went back to the church but it made me feel some type of way like okay I'm not good enough to be sitting here right now. You know she's gotta fix me. Yeah. You know I don't know at 14 years old you know I'm young anyway but yeah that always stuck out. Yeah. So everybody has different dealings like that. You know we have family members that have had bad experiences and it's caused them to put a bad taste in their mouth about church. And that's what I love about this church. I will have to say our church not yes I might be a little biased but even visitors that's come and visited have always talked about how loving our church is. We love on everybody. If you don't want to be hugged I'm sorry. Yeah. You don't get a hug. You don't get several hugs. But um our church is very very loving. Yeah speaking of um we need to sing in prayer. I just got a message of the little girl that fell off the porch. She fractured her skull. So uh all the prayer warriors that will be listening to this I want you to pray. God knows exactly who it is. She has ties in with the church. Her parents have ties in with the church. And uh I would like for everybody that's that's listening to this to say a word of prayer for her for that little girl and for the family. Go ahead and go ahead and pray for her now. Absolutely. Lord God will come to you right now with a heavy heart. First we'll come to you with thanksgiving. Thanking you for all that you've done. Lord God I pray and ask in the mighty name of Jesus that you be with this baby. Lord God I ask you touch her from the tops of her head to the soles of her feet. You are our Jehovah Rapha our father our healer. And Lord God I just ask that you heal her right now in the name of Jesus. As we speak I ask that you reach your healing hand down and let your power flow through her. Your love flow through her and your comfort flow through her family. We speak healing to her body right now in the name of Jesus. And father I ask you allow this to happen so you can get the glory and the honor as everybody can see how loving you are and how big you are and how powerful you are. Lord God I just ask you touch them in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. Oh my goodness. That's that's rough right there. So just keep her lifted up. Yeah. And we'll uh we'll continue to stay connected and updates on that. Yeah I just once again prayer is so vital. So vital. So we've got to stay in meditation with God seeking his healing power. Yeah and I know that that's that's sometimes we have to rely on the church family when we go through stuff like that to stay in prayer for things that we're going through while we're in the middle of it. That's what family is for man because I know that family is going through it right now. I know that family is looking up to God and saying father why I promise you I know that everybody that's listening listening to this if they've walked with God at any point in time they've had that with God at any point in time they've had that question why yes that helpless feeling why and even though it's understandable that sometimes you may ask God why but but that's okay it's okay not to be okay with something but what's not okay is when we don't tell God how we feel that's part of being in a relationship with him he gives us support through his spirit through his word through his presence and through a church through people that care and this little girl has ties in with his church and we're claiming healing in her body. Amen. And anything that's going on with her right now God's going to get the glory for every bit of it. I got a message and this will be the last update is that she's she's probably gonna have to have surgery so uh but that's going to give God run the work. That's right he's working he's always working the only thing he's not working when we're in a place where we're helpless and we don't know what's going on he knows. Amen. And it's hard to trust and to have faith and to get in that point where you got to be strong that's difficult um when we are at our weakest he is our strength. Amen. That's for sure. So yeah definitely we're gonna have to keep updating update on that. Yeah the as a matter of fact we will make a note. Yeah. And the next time that we go on air we will give y'all an update. Absolutely yeah. Because I love one thing more than prayer is results of it because that's showing that God listens. He speaks. He does. He speaks but he listens too. No we listen. It reminds me so look listening thank you God listening it comes in different forms too. Let me explain when we when we approach God the right way we touch him and if we look at the story of the uh the one with the issue of blood she had results from her faith in God and the trust that she was putting in God that she went through everything she broke so many Jewish laws trying to get to him because of the issue of blood and when she finally got to him she touched him of his garment he turned around he said who touched me now let me tell you something I don't think I have anything to do with her hand. Her faith. I think he's talking about what touched his heart because everybody was touching him because remember when he said that the disciples looked at him and said what do you mean who touched you everybody did you're going through a crowd so what do you mean he touched I don't believe he was talking about her hand touching his garment I believe that he was saying who touched me that's good do you see what I'm saying I do and I never thought about it that way I didn't either because I'm quick to say and that's one of my things like I just want to grab the hand of his garment and hang on that's like my life story and that's part of reaching out yeah but thinking about the the story when he when she when he said that I never really put it on she touched in that perspective she touched his heart wow because he said that he felt virtue come out of him right that virtue wasn't in the hem of his garment it was unseen because she touched him unseen she put faith in him oh and that's through that can be through prayer that can be through action that can be through us uh being obedient whatever the case might be we when we put forth effort to touch God in that sense when we put effort to touch him that's what he wants when you have that faith that you feel like you just need to touch him to touch his heart and you will be cured wow she hadn't had nothing to do with his garment she was reaching in her mind she felt like if I just could just touch something on him yeah that she would be healed that's how much faith she had in who he was and what his what he could do you know in my mind I'm beautiful I'm thinking if it was me I will be trying to do it to get his attention because I'm trying to get his attention I'm trying to he wasn't trying to do that no she just wanted to touch him without being seen and her touch didn't touch him her faith did that's so beautiful so let's let's try to be sincere let's be mindful of being sincere let's focus on okay focus on the words that's coming out of my mouth as well I tell myself sometimes let me be sincere with what I'm trying to tell God I need him I want to touch his heart and that can happen like I said through prayer through active obedience you know or just not giving up pushing to day 41 yeah not giving up putting others before yourself which goes to this story yeah that I've got about the Titanic have I read this on on in this episode I don't think so it's a real quick one if you don't mind you don't have to ask for permission from me well I didn't know if he was going to say something yeah uh this is a story about the Titanic and it says that when the Titanic sank it had this guy on there he was a millionaire his name was John Jacob well actually his full name was John Jacob Astor the fourth the money in his bank was enough though where he could have built 30 titanics if he wanted to yeah there's a lot of money and where the money in his bank was when he was faced with mortal danger and he was about to die you know from of course the Titanic sinking he chose to do what's morally right and gave up his spot in a lifeboat to save a bunch of to save a bunch of children for the children to get in the spot there was another millionaire his name was Isdor Strauss he's the co-owner of the largest American chain department stores and I think we know this company it's Macy's okay and he said I will never enter a lifeboat before another man wow before another man wow that's loving your brother right there right well the first guy I talked about the children the two little children that he gave up his spot for yeah that's how that story got out because when they come back they told the story about that guy the guy that owned the millionaire that owned Macy's the man that he gave his spot up for come back and told the story and this is the second half of that story that guy's wife Isdor Strauss also refused to board the lifeboat giving her spot to her newly appointed maid wow the maid's name was Ellen Bird the maid's name was Ellen Bird she decided to spend her last moments of life with her husband and how that story got out is her maid come back and told the story about what happened and in this article it says this and I'm going to read this to you it says these wealthy individuals preferred to part with their wealth and even their lives rather than compromise the moral principles their choice in favor of moral values highlighted the brilliance of human civilization and human nature wow you know that's that is what God created us to do is to feel that way is to put others before ourselves to love others as we do ourselves how are we doing in that department not very good hey don't you have a story about the van he was telling me today didn't I already say that you may have okay did you share that about you know you had to wait yeah I don't know I did on our video I don't think you shared that okay well on the way here no I don't think I did because I had my headphones on last time I did I have my headphones on now we're getting old yeah no you are well now you're older than me brother we're not talking about that well on the way here this is how we are what what you're about to say I can relate with this thinking about other people and putting them before ourselves and showing mercy and grace it's not we're not in a good place um I mean as far as how people are doing that we're not doing very good in that department okay that's what I'm trying to get out it's not going to come out right well on the way here I was driving of course okay and there was this white van that that was in front of me and they stopped stop doing that they told me okay look y'all I've been shared that I've had bronchitis and I'm trying to eat some candy keep them coughing in y'all's ears I can hear her chewing and he told me with his hand movements to stop so he could because he could hear me so I changed my method of chewing for him and he's laughing at me well you look like Sebastian Stallone and Rocky her mouth was going sideways okay proceed with your story so anywho what about like smacking and no you weren't smacking oh okay but it was that I could deal with that you can do something about it yeah anybody could do something about smacking you wasn't smacking I could hear you chewing no your mouth was closed I'm telling you I can hear it it might be your mouth that you heard look put another piece of candy in your mouth okay I was going to get you to chew next to the microphone no I don't like that I don't like that I don't either that's why I said something okay proceed okay so I wasn't gonna say nothing you brought it up but all right so I was on my way here and there was a white van that was in front of me and it stopped in the middle of the road with our blinker on and of course I stopped behind them and we sit there and we sit there with their blinker on I'm like dude turn what there's I didn't see I couldn't see all the way around him but I didn't see any cars passing by so they could have turned what he was turning left and I'm like you idiot turn turn and I felt my blood pressure getting up I got real rage yeah I think I have a small case of real brain yeah but and then all of a sudden I seen a car turn that was in front of them that I couldn't see and then the van that's directly in front of me cut their blinker off because they had it on letting me know that somebody in front of them was turning that you just disregarded yes because I didn't see the car in front of them and didn't even think about it didn't even think about it and they cut the blinker off and they continued on about their business and that's almost driving kind of silly yeah yeah or maybe even feeling a little bad do you want to finish it no I'm asking your question you're stealing my thunder I'm asking your question yeah I felt bad how you felt I felt bad because the spirit spoke to me and and you don't never know why somebody is stuck at a point in time in their life and not able to go anywhere and a lot of times it's because we don't know who or what's in front of them that's holding them back and I have to be more mindful of that from this point forward to be slow to speak quick to listen and slow to become angry because sometimes we can jump to conclusions because of what we see and forget that there's actually things that we can't that is so true I couldn't see that car in I couldn't see that car in front of that man and I can't see what's in somebody's life that's holding them back yeah but what I do know is that God sees in front of that man God sees the big picture he sees the things that we can't right so instead of me being quick to judge somebody or to jump to conclusions what I need to start doing is start being more mindful that I'm not the only person in this world with sense and that I've got to stop I always talk about people being judgmental people you know jumping to conclusions but I did that yeah that's exactly what I did and that might be small and minute you know in the contrast of things but that's a habit that's a bad habit to have and so I've got to start playing the tape all the way through in my mind and start realizing that there's more to it than what I see yeah and that's so true you don't know what people are going through you don't man you really really don't we really should be better at showing some grace and mercy because we walk by a million people a day or we engage with people daily but we don't know what their story is we don't know why they're crying or why they're upset or why they're acting this way why they're acting that way but it's not really for us to know we're supposed to love one another we're supposed to love like Jesus loves yeah and I don't know about you but I could be doing a lot better in my department yeah for sure and I think based on what you were just saying that you could too right yes I could and I think a lot of us can oh you know all of us all of us could do better in that department for sure I think anyways and you know a lot of times you know when we're going through things we we feel like we're judged um sometimes when we're not you know it's because of of being self-conscious about certain things in certain situations touchy about certain things in certain situations and and we're quick to judge and say the others are judging us when we're really judging ourself out in the open yeah in a sense yeah uh so it makes sense to me yeah well it's just I mean no I mean then you're right and sometimes we judge our our own self we're very harsh to ourselves sometimes we need to be giving ourself a little bit more grace than we're still and I don't mean that in a selfish manner but I think a lot of times we are very hard on ourself and God has forgiven us for sins that would continue to slap back in our face yes that keeps us from moving forward in the way that he would have us to also and you know and me you have talked about forgiveness a lot and it's no secret that the biggest issue I have with forgiveness is forgiving myself see that's me yeah because you know the thing is is we are the only ones that know exactly what we thought what we've done and what we haven't done besides God and it's easy for other people to forgive us of the things that we know that I mean that they know that we did but we know everything every thought that's come through our head every thought that we had that we didn't act on every action that we did that we'd never told anybody everything that we have ever done we know so that's when it becomes hard for us to forgive ourselves and sometimes that trickles over and it makes it harder for us to ask for forgiveness mm-hmm because if we ask God to forgive us we're asking him to forgive us for everything that we know that we did and we already feel like we shouldn't yeah be able to have forgiveness so forgiveness is yourself yeah and it's something hard to ask for as well as something being hard to give you know and harboring unforgiveness can create hostility and anger and when you're angry with yourself and you become hostile with yourself a lot of times you'll let guilt and shame eat you up and you'll throw your hands up and say you know what I deserve this because of what I've done and the things that I've done and things that I've said I deserve everything that I get now and that is so ungodly you are that is so far from the truth that is so true and you are really disabling yourself you are are you gonna move forward if you're constantly looking in the rearview mirror what that's why the front windshield is a lot bigger than your rearview amen but and God wants us God wants us to forget the things of the past like the apostle Paul said and press forward to the mark of the higher calling because he won't he don't want us to be defined by our mistakes our mistakes don't have to define us they they don't have to dictate the decisions that we're going to make in the future just because we made the same same decisions in our past we don't have to follow the same pattern no you know that's right and you know I think that being forgiven should be what defines us no doubt about it and I just thought about that I laid it on my heart um it's difficult it's very difficult to continue forward knowing the path that you have weighing on you but when you have that forgiveness you don't have to think about that anymore yeah it is at the bottom of the sea it is and you know the thing is is you know if our if our sins and our transgressions are cast to the bottom of the ocean then stop and think about what would happen if we tried to go down there and get them back and we did it would kill us yeah that is so true yeah it would kill us that was good and I just gave you that yeah I did wow and I think that that is kind of God letting us know that it's dangerous for us to go back and try to pick those up because we're drowned and we're not going any forward that's for sure I would never make it back it will never be the same once you're forgiven and you try to go back and live the life that you lived before you were forgiven it will never if you're truly saved and you backslide it will not feel the same as it did before no it did not I'm we was talking about that earlier just talking about that earlier yeah great conversation yeah and the people that struggle with like drug addiction or alcoholism or depression or anything when they find out the truth when we find out the truth when our eyes are opened when our eyes are opened and if we backslide God will ruin the high for addicts the drunkenness for alcoholics the depression for the depressed he will kill all of that because if you ever taste if you ever go through the taste test where you taste him and see that it's good then everything else is going to taste sour I like that everything else will taste sour it doesn't matter what it tasted like before once you taste how sweet God is everything else will taste sour and I think that God wants to get us to that point to where we're hungry and we get hungry and desperate enough to where we do taste him nothing never be the same again we will never look at things the same we will be forever chastised oh definitely full of guilt if we try to go the opposite way after knowing who he is and seeking him it's dangerous territory as well it is and I think that a lot of times if once we go through that and we deal with stuff like that and we backslide the guilt and the shame sometimes that gets in our way and causes us to see things differently because like I said a while ago if we deal with guilt and shame then we look at things through the lens of guilt and shame so if something bad happens to us if we're looking at it through the lens of guilt and shame we'll convince ourselves that we deserve it yeah well doesn't don't that go back to our class tonight we we started a step study and uh don't that kind of touch on turn it does turn your will and your cares over the I mean you're turning over your will and your lives wait a minute turn your will and you your life and your will over to the care of God yeah and is that what it's about yeah it's turning everything over to him and what's the cross stick for that the turn the trust trust understand uh repent revert yes revert repent repent anew yeah I did learn something there y'all yeah it's trust in God understand who he is repent and turn to him and new as in 2nd Corinthians 5 17 that's right and we studied that for a little while you know we need to really start bringing some of that curriculum to our podcast yeah I think it's good stuff yeah um like one of the questions that we had was give examples of how to give God control of everything which is a difficult task it is to give complete control over to God and step back and you know not have any more control that is one of my biggest struggles yeah for sure well I think that's I think that's something that we don't completely do until the day we're home is yeah because look like that but I feel like I do sometimes but then I pick that control back up or try to like really in the grand scheme of things we really do not have any control over anything no really either the enemy has control of us or the God does except for free will I mean it does give us a little bit of lead well yeah we use our free will to give one of the other our control yeah but I mean really he has ultimate control over every aspect of our life yeah um and you know God is a creator of all things and a mighty man of God told me this one time he said Chris is God the creator of all things I said yes he is he said he created everything everything that is he made it he is the creator of all that there is I said yes sir he is he said okay well then when you're going through something or when you're facing trials or tribulations always remember this and anybody that's listening to me right now I really want you to listen to what I'm what I'm about to say and remember it because this was told to me uh 23 years ago in 2001 a bit yeah but I'll never forget it he said if God is the creator of all things if he's all-knowing all-loving everywhere all the same night the same time omniscient omnipotent he is God of all he said if that's true then there's two facts that remain there's nothing that happens in your life that he don't either make happen or he allows it to happen hmm one of the two yeah he either allows it to happen or he makes it happen but either way it goes you're in God's hands as long as you give him control even if you don't give him control he's still got it right but what a relief it is when you do it what a burden that is bared upon his shoulders that he takes oh my goodness a weightless feeling because I've been there like I've gave him like when I was in the hardest spot of my life I knew I had no control I knew there was nothing I could do with the pain that I was going through that God was the only one and what and I felt that way I felt like he was and he was physically holding me yeah I had not to I hadn't you know like I couldn't feel anything that numbing yeah but it's a beautiful feeling but then you pick it back up that's what I do anyway so I'll find myself trying to act like I have control over some situation that I really don't you know but you know what's amazing is I'm a work in progress anyway if we go through stuff like what you're talking about would we have ever felt the arms of God if he didn't allow what we're going through to happen would we have ever relied on him more than when we had no choice but to rely on him when we did I think that's where God does his ultimate work in us is in those pits yes because he said to come to me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit that's what the word of God tells us close to the broken heart yes he is so when we are weak he is strong and man we we I feel like we're just now getting into it and we're gonna have to close out because we're running out of time oh wow I'll be rolling up man this is this is some great conversation and you know we do go from one subject to the other sometimes but we are we do have a spirit latest yeah and real quick uh it was there was a question that was asked to me and I want everybody to think about this question and contact me or my sister with any responses this question was uh was asked me they said um when God gives you a promise when God gives you a promise for a promised land or or promises you like he did joke that the second part of your life is going to be better than your first part and you may make a mistake or backslide do you ever feel like you have to live up to that promise that he made you before you backslid do you ever feel like that you have to make up for what you've done wrong since he made that promise like going back to square one exactly because you've got to prove that you're worthy for the promise that he gave you but let me tell you something God being all-knowing like was talking about a while ago when he made you that promise he knew what he was going to do before he gave it to you and he still gave you that promise when he promised the children of Israel that they would be in a promised land he knew that that was going to complain in the wilderness but then you ultimately that's going that's going to make it there so if he gives you a promise and if you backslide i don't care if it's you backslide with your doubt with your fear with your lack of devotion or with your worrying or with with drugs or with alcohol or with uh fornication adultery whatever it's all the same whatever you backslide in God knew that you was going to backslide God knew the thoughts that you was going to have prior to him making that promise but he still gave you that promise and he's not going to snatch it out from under you right because he sees the car that's in front of that van that's right he sees the big picture but i think that's the end of our episode good stuff how did y'all like it can i get an applause or something thank you thank you all right well listen thank y'all so much for tuning in to our divine appointment podcast podcast uh i want to pray it out right quick and and ask God to walk with each and every one of y'all throughout the week the Lord God we thank you again for being here with us tonight father i ask that you walk with the ones that's in the sound of our voice bless them abundantly for taking the time out of their schedule father i ask Lord God that you hear our prayers the ones that spoken and the ones that we don't even know we need to say God thank you for being everything that we need and thank you for being everything that we're not we love you Lord and we thank you we praise you thank you for your forgiveness thank you for your grace for your mercy thank you for your freedom and we love you and we love you and praise you in Jesus name amen amen thank y'all so much for joining us we love you and Jesus loves you and guess what there ain't nothing you can do about it love you guys