Life In The Wild with Michael Bethany
Inspiring exceptional people to live exceptional lifestyles.
Life In The Wild with Michael Bethany
Ep205 | Expectations For Living In The Wild
Prepare to embark on a transformative journey with Episode 205 of 'Life in the Wild.' Delve into the depths of purpose-driven living as we draw inspiration from the life of John the Baptist. Explore the trials and triumphs of aligning daily life with a higher calling, navigating the wilderness periods where isolation and introspection pave the path to profound growth and understanding.
Join us as we sit down with some amazing friends from Amarillo, Texas, enriching our exploration with their unique perspectives and experiences.
Discover how habits, tastes, and lifestyles evolve when one is fully immersed in their purpose, and learn invaluable strategies for balancing earthly desires with spiritual aspirations. Uncover the power of embracing discomfort as a catalyst for personal and marital development, mirroring John the Baptist's separation from the ordinary to fulfill his extraordinary destiny.
As we close this episode, we confront the tougher aspects of life's journey, discussing betrayal, discipline, and maintaining integrity amidst adversity. Gain wisdom on cultivating intimacy with God and the transformative impact of transparency and accountability.
Join us for an authentic and inspiring conversation that promises to embolden your spiritual journey. Episode 205 invites you to reflect on the unwavering pursuit of your calling with fervor and authenticity. Tune in and let's journey together!
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You cannot visit your purpose, can't visit your calling. This is how you know you're visiting your calling. You didn't curate all your entertainment. You just watched whatever you felt like watching, don't we? And now you're supposed to be anointed. Now you are anointed but you're not ready. Anointing is God's call on your life that releases a grace in your life, but without your participation you can't release it. And there's nothing more frustrated than knowing you got something and can't get it out. I know I'm called man, but I just can't get it. You're stuck, you're stuck, and God ain't doing that to you, you're doing that to yourself. Yeah, life in the Wild is a word that the Lord gave me and it's really based on the life of John the Baptist.
Speaker 1:There's a story in the book of Luke, first chapter, that unfolds how John became John the Baptist, and so he's. You know, his father's a priest, zachariah is a priest and he goes into do. He was lighting the incense in the morning. He was chosen to do that. Actually, they were like kind of they wrote dice, kind of like cast lots of see who will go do it. It was his turn. Coincidentally, his number came up and he had to go in there. And when he goes in there. He got a word from the angel of a Lord that came to him and spoke to him and said you're going to have a son. You know he's going to be John. He's going to be like Elijah, he's going to come. He's a voice and a willingness saying prepare the way of the Lord. He's going to be the presenter of Jesus. He's very special. He's going to have what will be known as like a Nazarite vow, where he can't drink and there's more things about that. You can read in the old testimony what that means. But he's a very special guy and he's going to have to have a very special lifestyle. He can't live like anybody else, and the idea of it this kind of gets me to something else.
Speaker 1:Like I think it's number six that talks about the Nazarite vial, and this vial is actually supposed to be temporary, right? So whenever you take this vial, there are three things you can do. You can't eat or drink anything from a vial, which means you can't have anything that's alcoholic and not vernacular but it's, and you can have wine. You can have anything and you can't cut your hair and you can't touch anything that's dead and carcass. You can't touch anything. But there are a few people that have a vial similar to this. That's not temporary, it was given to them before they were born. John's one of those guys, so he can't.
Speaker 1:It's like from day one, your life is different. You gotta be different. Now I don't. This doesn't mean that there are other people who aren't called by God, whose lives aren't special, but there are some people.
Speaker 1:Pasadena Manny, I was close, so this should Pasadena Manny, pasadena Manny, there are certain people like your pastor. Just you know, they just stick out, they just come out and it's like you just can't, you have to. This is your life. Other folks just get to go to work and have a family, go to college, just do their own thing. And then you got these guys that like no, y'all have to do this, and some of y'all like that in this room tonight. So this whole thing about John is like so when he's born, there hasn't been like a prophet. For over 400 years they haven't heard anybody represent God. And now they get this God that's gonna represent God, and so much so that eventually people begin to think that is this the Messiah, like his life was so different and so special.
Speaker 1:But in Luke one verse 80 makes a statement that he lived in the wilderness until his ministry started, and that caught my attention because it was a decision that he made that the angel did not say to his parents. The angel told his parents everything else. He got to do this, that and the third there's no record about the angel talking. And the angel speaks a couple of times like speaks, and of course his father didn't prophesize when he finally can speak again. Nothing about the wilderness. And here's what the Holy Spirit began to show me that that wilderness decision was not up to his parents, that was up to him. He had to make a decision to meet God where God was calling him.
Speaker 1:And here's what we fall short, especially as creatives, is that we tend to lean on our abilities as opposed to stepping into a wilderness development space. So you want to be amazing without going to the place that processes amazing things the wilderness. So the wilderness is a framework throughout all of scripture that you've ever heard people talk. You know I'm going through a wilderness season. You know, the more you mature in the faith, that starts to sound a little weird. Like what do you mean by? Because the more I read the word, all the good stuff happens in the wilderness. That's good. Like you don't know God. If you haven't been in the wilderness Number one you don't know how to worship him. Unless you've been there, you don't get Leviticus. Now, some folks like Leviticus is boring. It's just all these sacrifices and stuff.
Speaker 1:Leviticus is probably one of the most special books in the entire Bible because it's the one book that, from verse one through the last final chapter, it is just God talking. Where is he talking? In the wilderness, and what is he doing? He's introducing them to a life of intimacy to know how to interact with him. He's showing them here's how you deal with your sins. Here's how you deal with your friends that run. That was the here's how you deal with me. Right in the middle you have the day of atonement. Here's how you get your life right. Like everything in the book.
Speaker 1:It's the one book of God saying let me tell you how. About myself? I'm gonna tell you what I require. Let me tell you how to walk with me, cause y'all messed up. If you remember, I was gonna kill y'all. Remember that I almost wiped everybody out, but you know Moses stood up for y'all and I didn't. So since we're here, let me show y'all some stuff as a matter of fact, before Moses went to Pharaoh, the word that God gave him to tell Pharaoh is that we gotta go into wilderness to do what? To worship. It's the time after time, you see, the wilderness becomes a catalyst to intimacy and purpose Amen.
Speaker 1:So when I saw that decision that he made, then you see the lifestyle, chapter three, of how he lived, how he ate, how he dressed, just the whole thing. And he's a man whose father is a pastor, and I'm in that time, as far as we can start, as far as a priest. So I mean, he's actually next up, he's in the lineage. You would think. First of all, they went out of order. They named him John when he should have been named Zachariah because he should have been a junior.
Speaker 1:You'd wait all this time, all this long infertility, not to name this guy after you. We don't even do that. So that's number one and number two. You would think, well then he's gonna be a priest one day. Obviously, that word over his life, man. You see what his dad did. You wait to see what he gonna do. Nope, it's all these jewels. You see that God just always breaks the mold of what we think is gonna happen. But this all collides in this place called the wilderness, and so life, and so the word wilderness, root word wild, which simply just means organic. It's a place where everything grows without human assistance.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, that's so good.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. It's the place where everything that maturates doesn't need your help and anyone else's. So here's the thing when John is in the wilderness and he's alone, is he alone? No, he's in the wilderness and he is forced to learn how to talk in here with God is saying to him he's in the wilderness, he's in the wilderness. So all of his growth he preached and he came against you know. I mean, he came up against the power structure. He came up against Herod antipas, like he was killed because of it. Like he was not just preaching cute messages, he was the real deal. I mean, if you've been in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey and yeah, you pretty, you, you, you, you about that, you about that life and so, but he, he learned those things in a place.
Speaker 1:And here's I want to say this to us, because sometimes we there is great benefit in a room like this. You know you got, you got past the AD. Over here they call it past AD. I don't want to give you a nickname, no, no, you don't. I know. Yeah, I don't know you got, you got people like this. You know, shana, shana, you know you got people like that and so many other people in the room, right.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing. There is a point in your life that your parents, though they are priests, they cannot give you a nickname. They cannot give you a nickname. They're priests. They cannot give you what God's trying to give you. And so some of you might be in Luke 180, where God is telling you to do something, to take the next step of what was prophesied to you. And the next step ain't gonna come from prophecy, it'll come between you and God. You got a step out here, and here's the thing you have to match an exceptional calling with an exceptional response. Oh man. So here's what.
Speaker 1:Here is why Jesus eventually brags on John is, and he says this he's making a point about the new covenant and Jesus says, up to this point, the dopest cat like this ever done ministry is John, and the least of you in the kingdom is greater than that. So Jesus is preaching about the kingdom because he introducing a new covenant, john, you know Paul picks this up in 2 Corinthians 3. He talks about how what we have is better than what the old covenant was, because when Moses would see God, his face would be shining when he comes out of the tent, but it was a fading glory and what we have is different because we are transformed from glory to glory. Right, so it's different. But don't miss the point. He named drop John and if you're gonna brag on me compared to the new kingdom, I want that statement to be made about me.
Speaker 1:The, up to this point, everybody you ever know knew heard of you talking about Moses, elijah, your name nobody like this one. Why, everybody got a word For one. Maybe it's a given. This guy has to present Jesus. That's super special. But what I think we can learn, because we're not John the Baptist, but in a way we do get to present Jesus to people. We do get to do that. But there's something else you gotta think about.
Speaker 1:Maybe Jesus is also referring to the radical nature that he committed his life to the calling. So here's the point God calls you to something and you know what's disappointing when God gives you such an amazing calling and he speaks to you and your response is lackluster, like your response to God is like, oh, cool, oh, it's exciting, and it doesn't look like that In church. It looks like this Ooh, thank you Jesus. So, pastor, prophets, I know me, the first lady, bob the evangelist, came to town, spoke a word of me to the prophet. Something said this, and I feel so validated. He's the one who actually spoke to me in church and called my name. If it's so good, but Monday there's no decision. I mean, listen, I I'm not trying to Prophecies cool, it's amazing, but it's like the word of God, not mixed with faith, actually creates judgment.
Speaker 1:This is what Hebrews 3 and 4 is talking about. There's a rest that the children of Israel couldn't enter into because they wouldn't believe. And how do we know they didn't believe? Because the decisions that they refused to make. So you got an exceptional calling. You need an exceptional lifestyle to match it. John is the quintessential example of how you do this. How do we make this practical For one? You must realize, brittany, that what God has called you to is going to naturally separate you from other people's lifestyles. So here's what you can't do. Yes, you can't straddle the fence. You have to see the. The wilderness is full immersion. That means I'm out here. So why is he eating Locus a while, honey? Because that's what's out here. He's not taking trips. He's not taking trips back wherever to get tacos. There's no tacos out here. I Missed them, tacos. Get on these locusts. See what I'm saying here. Here's the thing you can Manning. I'm about to say Shannon, see how flip About. Said you cannot visit your purpose.
Speaker 3:You cannot visit.
Speaker 1:Aaron, you can't visit your calling. You know what visiting your call looks like. Visiting your call looks like Sunday's coming and you, you on a team. So somewhere around Friday to Saturday you start thinking about ministry. I mean I'm not talking about if you're on the praise team. You start just listening to the music y'all have rehearsed. So maybe you got your music, but your mindset it's not really tuned into spiritual things. This is how you know you visiting your car. You didn't curate all your entertainment, you just watch whatever you felt like watching all week. And now you supposed to be anointed. Now you are anointed but you're not ready.
Speaker 1:Anointed is God's call on your life that releases a grace in your life, but without your participation, oh, you can't release it. And there's nothing more frustrated than knowing you got something and can't get it out. I know I'm called man, but I just can't get it Stuck. You stuck, and God ain't doing that to you, you're doing that to yourself. And because you visited you, your choice is so important. You, your choices, sometimes your choices. If this is the line, and here's you flesh, carnality, sin, degradation, all this, you know it's a, it's a, it's, there's a like, a whole spectrum over here. Okay, all right, and over here are all the golly. Over here is locust Honey, right, wilderness jungle. You over here. This, this is, this, is the wilderness. So what do you, what do your decisions most reflect? On Tuesday?
Speaker 1:The only way the John can prepare for the most important sermon of his life is to stay in the place that is Chosen by God to prepare him, so he doesn't have to pray for a miracle to hear God. And so let me get this even more practical for you. You cannot afford to think that ministry is at power, the mantle on you. You can't put that on and take it off. You need that mantle mostly at the crib. That's when you need the mantle, because that's, john, when you're gonna get the word. I Didn't get this word preparing for tonight. Whatever you gonna preach, you preach it tomorrow. Whatever you gonna preach. He may have wrote the notes this week, but he didn't get that word, just getting ready to preach. It's wilderness, living Life in the organic place where God is always speaking. Well, he's always preparing you.
Speaker 1:Here's something else happens in the wilderness. You always have to confront the thing that's in your way, because in the wilderness you cannot easily fulfill the appetites the way you would if you were back at the house with mom and dad, because now you're out here and now you have to live a certain lifestyle. So when those cravings come if you're living in this space, you know you got to deal with that when you're dealing with your flesh, john because John is not, he's not an Elohim, he's not a spiritual being, he's just a guy which lets you know that this is not an exceptional thing like that's John. I mean, he's different for it. No, you're the same, you are the same, you got the same opportunity, and the question is how you gonna live it. Are you, do you want to be about that life? I'm gonna deal with one more thing and I'm gonna pitch this to y'all.
Speaker 1:This is one last things I'm gonna talk about cravings, because this is something and I'm writing a book on this. I just waiting on the at the first, at the combat edit to come back in. One of the chapters is about overcoming cravings. So this is one of the things when you embrace a lifestyle that my life is gonna be like this every day, right, my community, my environment, whatever I'm curating for my life, it's gonna be wilderness, it's gonna be low cuz. I'm not about that.
Speaker 1:You got to deal with Things you that you are, you have an appetite for. So let me break it down like this it's just kind of how I talk about in the book is that your body. There's a difference between your appetite and your hunger. Tall, so your body biologically has things it needs and it doesn't have titles that are cool like Chick-fil-A or Wendy's Chipotle, cute, cute he. Your body, your body wants things like glucose, protein, age two, oh, you're like if I opened up a restaurant I was like come to my protein spot, come get you some glucose. No, you don't want glucose, which you? You want like a shake. So here's his take, is it? Y'all got steak and shake here.
Speaker 1:Y'all got Freddy's. Okay, yeah, it's close, close. So here's what happens. Your body has never asked for hungry for high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup, because nothing in your makeup that requires it. As far as your body's concerned, that is poison. I'm just saying it's a real deal. It's illegally other countries, whereas we we struggling with high fructose corn syrup spirit. It is a spirit, it's a, it's a battle. Well, here's what happens, cause I want to get an insulin resistance and all this stuff that comes up with it. But here's the thing. So are you hungry for high fructose corn syrup? No, your appetite. The appetite has been curated.
Speaker 1:You taste something at some point and now you have an appetite that doesn't match your spiritual hunger. I can prove it. This is the reason why you can drink that syrupy drink and still be thirsty, cause your body never asked for that. It tastes good, but every now and again you get a stomach ache behind it, your head hurts behind it, certain things, symptoms start to happen. You start to grow. You start no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, let me get another. You start to increase, the territory starts to be enlarged, things start to happen, cause your body's saying we don't know what to do with this. But if you gave your body water, the only problem you have is your appetite is arguing with what you're hungry for. So it's important to learn and master that thing so you can live by what God is really placed in you and what you really understood.
Speaker 1:And here's what I so here's the practicality of that. You think you need that show. That's not hunger, that's appetite. Why? Because you've been watching shows like that for a long time. Why Cause your mama and them watched them shows Because they used to watch Grave's Anatomy. Now you watch whatever it is that y'all be watching, or or it's certain friends like, well, this is normal, everyone does this. It's not no, no, no, it might be common but it ain't normal. Everybody might be living this way, but your normal is kingdom.
Speaker 1:That's why you feel weird when you do things and you feel like, well, everybody else ain't tripping. Why do I feel so awkward? First of all, you don't know how they feel. You know how they front. You don't know how they feel. The Holy Ghost convicts you. So you feel that and you think it just just me knowing it, just ain't you. They just better at faking it, like you know, but then you. That's why, because there's and then check this out Can I get even more?
Speaker 1:This is why when you do things on a spectrum, say spectrum, sometimes it's, sometimes it's immoral, it's sexual immorality and sometimes it's just singing immorality. But to a person who's called to the world of immorality, you know you're not going to be able to do anything, you're not going to be able to do anything. But to a person who's called to the wilderness, they both make you sick. This is why you can't say well, at least I'm not doing this because it don't matter, it's not about the at least, because what the enemy is doing. The enemy is not giving you an end product, he's giving you a seed product. He's like if I just feed you breadcrumbs, I can get you here, I can get you where I need you. I just need you to be asleep at the wheel and just eat these breadcrumbs. And the more you eat them, the closer you're getting to a part of the spectrum of immorality that you never imagined you would be. Now I want you all to do this tonight, the same for everybody. But how many of y'all would just raise a hand if you've ever asked yourself a question how in the world did I get here? I never thought I would do anything like this. This, this is not me, okay. Next, how many of you guys have ever got to a point where you were like I don't know how to get out of this? I'm like I don't know.
Speaker 1:My daddy was a pastor. What am I doing? I mean, I know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. I've been speaking in tongues, fasted, prayed. What in the world am I doing? It's the breadcrumbs. Can I give it to you straight?
Speaker 1:Some of us call to the wilderness are frustrated because the calling is irrevocable. So here's what the calling does. The calling just gets on your nerves. You know you call to preach. I'm trying to get my swerve on. You know you call to missions. You know I put a book in you. I called you to evangelism. I called you to be radical in your school. You know I called you. I called you to be a leader. You're following and the calling won't leave you alone. This is why it's easier.
Speaker 1:The Bible says that the way of a transgressor pastor is hard. It's easier to live holy. It's easier to live holy. It's easier to live holy. It's easier to live holy. It's easier to live holy and pure than it is to live in sin, because when you live pure and holy, when that's your goal, unless your target and that's your lifestyle, you don't have to deal with the struggles that sin presents.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I believe Ephesians 2, I think 2 and 2 says is that Satan, who's the captain of all the evil spirits and demonic forces, takes advantage of people who live in sin. So one of the problems with sin is one of the problems with sin is not your salvation, it's all the spiritual warfare that you've opened yourself up with. And because the calling is irrevocable, you're just in torture and your appetite is saying that this is better, but your lived experience says this sucks. This is awful Over here. It doesn't mean you don't get tempted, but you don't live in perpetual regret and you're in agreement and alignment with what God is saying. And not only is the anointing and the calling irrevocable, but now it's operable.
Speaker 1:Oh, now, now I may have frustration about things. I'm waiting for my husband, waiting for my wife, and my flesh is talking. I'm in the wilderness and I'm hungry for the tacos, but I'm eating this locus. But I got a grace on my life and now the grace gives me a rhythm and there will be this point where you're going in the direction of God's will for your life, where your appetite starts to line up with your hunger and then you start to feel like when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you think about is I gotta talk to God Because my appetite's changing. Here's the thing about an appetite. An appetite can change. Your hunger never changes. Your hunger is in your DNA. You will always need H2O period. You can change your appetite. You may have gotten accustomed to the food in Jerusalem, but you can change that.
Speaker 1:I remember I had my weight journey and I was 280, and I was trying to lose weight. I have a really bad family history health-wise my father he passed away in his mid-40s and I start to realize if I'm blessed, I'm going to have to deal with that. So I went through this journey and so I had to make these radical decisions. I decided, okay, I gotta get away from Stake and Shake. My wife would tell you, stake and Shake had a stronghold on my mind, had me bound. I forgot your name, rachel. You have a beautiful wife, man, beautiful spirit, rachel. Stake and Shake has such a stronghold in my life. You know you got a stronghold when you would get up and go there in the middle of the night. When you wake up, I'm hungry and you know it's 24 hours. Any restaurant that's open 24 hours should be banned and I would go get the triple steak. The fries Crispy fresh. Yes, I did Sprite my hot fruit toast. I need that.
Speaker 3:It's more healthy.
Speaker 1:It's more healthy. It's clear the sprite looked like water Blends with the ice, but we're going to get this shake. We're getting this strawberry cookies and cream. So check this out. I'm sorry, I'm not backsliding, I'm just telling my testimony. I'm still on locusts, okay.
Speaker 1:So here's what happened. Appetites can be changed. Hunger never does. I got rid of beef and pork, fried foods and anything with sugar in it. That's a drink, and the reason I did that is because I was trying to stay away from every place that would lead me into that lifestyle. So if I get rid of beef, yes, there's healthy beef, but my problem is not healthy beef. If I was eating healthy beef, I wouldn't be so beefy. The problem was not. There was not my problem. My problem was the beef and the condiments and the sides and the shakes had to get away from the whole environment. Something radical happened to me. I started to experiment with things I never had before. I hated avocado. No, no, I'm sorry, I know where I'm at. I love it now. At the time You're thinking about this, back in the 80s, you never had no avocado. Now, where does avocado come from? Anyway, the 90s in avocado, just avocado came out in 2012. Just came out.
Speaker 3:It did. Who was born in 2012?
Speaker 1:Anybody in 2012? Anybody around that time, 2010? Yeah, that's avocado, Straight as out. I started liking avocado. I started getting these little round bread things where it's like almost like the calories of one piece of bread is in the middle of the world. One piece of bread is in two of these little round things whole grain, whole wheat things and I started making my own dressing. I was squeezing lemons and stuff Do all kinds of things. I started finding out I liked this stuff. I started trying out things that were Mediterranean. What's that all about? I liked this. I started learning. I like broccoli. I didn't know, I liked it. I could just put a little water in a bowl, put it in a microwave and zap it. It's still nice and green. It's not wilted with cheese on it. I can spring a little salt on there. I actually like that.
Speaker 1:Now what happened? My appetite changed Because of the level of commitment I made. My appetite changed. When my appetite changed, all the benefits started to change. The journey was about getting control of my appetite and returning to the hunger. What God is placing in your DNA is a healthy desire. It's been perverted by unhealthy appetite. That is something that is so important and that's a part of this whole conversation. I said that was all I was going to say, but that is what life in the wild is about. I just explained one of the whole chapters. Right now, when this book comes out, I believe it's going to be a blessing to so many people. It's a helpful framework to think about your calling and the commitment that matches it. The space between the two is where your frustration is.
Speaker 1:In between that space you got to close that gap you know what I heard when he was talking about it yeah, welcome to the jungle, welcome.
Speaker 3:We got fun and games.
Speaker 1:What are you?
Speaker 3:talking about? Yeah, I know, I just think that you hit all the head of this thing Because we felt like that to cravings right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, we started talking about some of the cravings that. Yeah, I go to all the cravings every day, the cravings that my eyes were wandering to and I didn't know. I craved some of the things that I saw. A lot of times it was success. I craved success and productivity, and when I lacked that in my everyday life, I was frustrated, yeah, and I was silent about it because I thought, man, I'm the only one who can attain this, I'm the only one who could be Producted. Yeah, I was hooked on, hooked on to the point where I can't hang out with people who aren't productive. I can't hang out with me talking about success and I heard this a lot Success, you'll know who you're six, you'll know how successful you are because you'll be around people who are and I've had a perversion version. Look at that, when I try to attain the success, or Trying to be Productive, it was it started to be toxic to my body and I ran to shoot. I have been in Jerry's, jerry's Garcia, talk, talk.
Speaker 1:Listen.
Speaker 3:Terry's Garcia is gonna be in heaven. And I think that you and I, and I think that a lot of us, have found ourselves maybe in this kind of Jungle, in this wild and this wilderness experience, and we get frustrated because people they can't enter the wilderness with us and we go by ourselves. When I move. We moved to this city, I called it man, we going straight to the desert. I told you the first game, like brother, why are you coming to the desert? Like? When I told my brother we're coming, my brother said man, people don't come to the Amarillo, they come here to die. And the first words out of my mouth, word, then that's where I.
Speaker 3:Because I had already experienced the toxicity of Trying to attain success and productivity, which led to a perversion, and I saw it how I treated my money, how I saw, I saw how I treated my food and I saw how I treated my relationship, and that same energy with all those three is the same Appletite brother, it's the same Habit, and I learned that too, man.
Speaker 3:It's not. It's not my Hunger that is in pain, it's my habit that's in pain and that habit. You maybe want to pick up stuff and look at it crazy and look at myself in the mirror and have this kind of weird View of who I am and I'm supposed to be this person when I turn 40 and I'm supposed to be this person whenever I've been married this long. We're supposed to have this kind of marriage all this. Yeah, success when really guys say, hey, I'm gonna take you in my head.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm gonna take you out of your familiarity that you've been at 20 plus years in terms of ministry and experience. Yeah, and we're gonna take you and your family God gonna put. God put us in his hand, because I'm gonna take you in my hand and I'm gonna find where you were born and I'm gonna get my head and I'm gonna get my family. I'm gonna put a hole in the earth Deep.
Speaker 3:So no one can hear you scream and I'm gonna crush you and I'm gonna put you in that hole and I'm gonna pack the earth all around you real nice and tight. No, let it cook, we're gonna let it cook over. And there's something that I'm gonna die and.
Speaker 1:So what you just described was God planting you what, and that sometimes feels like death, and in one sense, it is. In order to give birth to new life, something has to die, and the and the form of how you are now as a seed has to be broken Before something new is released and sprouts out of the ground. And so there's, there's, there's so much in what you're saying. I think that is Incredibly important. I think I Want to say this don't despise the tension. One of the best things you can experience as a believer is frustration, because if you ever stop getting frustrated, something's wrong. I Can we talk marriage. If you ever stop getting frustrated in marriage, you're no longer growing. Hold on, let me tell you why. Listen, let me say first of all, let's not get brand new here. Don't act like you. Your marriage is supposed to be something that in your singleness, you don't have, as if you're always happy with you. That's weird, like no, no, no, I'm not talking. It's not about marriage or singleness. It's about humanity and growth. So, whether you're single or married, if you get comfortable and you get relaxed and there's no frustration, there will be no growth if you are planted in the ground. Oh, that is as frustration. It's a lot of tension in there and that tension is actually what's causing you to find a new way to move. If you are, if you are a Chicken, you're trying to hatch at some point. This was cool for a while, and frustration starts to happen when you get too big for the shell. And then you it's like I was cool, just going in, I serve and everything like this. But now I've been, I've been a power for three years, I'm gonna come. I'm just like this is gotta do something, something's gotta happen. I, I'm getting too big for this space. You too, and let me say like this you're too big to be acting like that, cramping your own space with some of this stuff and so. But that tension is what's gonna cause you to break out of a shell. And when you break out, the tension is actually was giving you strength to do what you call to do. So.
Speaker 1:In a marriage is like, once you have that tension, my wife, we have tension, something that's bugging us. We just can't figure it out. So now, what do you do with all the tension? You have to become intentional about your tension. So how to get intentional? I gotta stop saying incense it to things and sit down and Intentionally listen to my wife's tension.
Speaker 1:And here's where counselor comes in, because there's so much tension. I'm having a hard time being intentional about this because you mess with my tension, so sometimes I need a third party to help break the tension. I'm it's a lot of word play going on here, but sometimes I need someone to come and assist me to break it. So what's the when that thing starts to break and flow? And what you used to be frustrated about, you celebrate now because, like I got it, we got now. It opens up an opportunity for you to enjoy something new. When a woman's pregnant with a baby is tension, but when it's released and the baby is here, the tension releases and something has been birthed. You never regret the nine months you Don't know, you never regret it.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no. My wife's first, the first baby we had was like one, though One of the worst times in our lives. Actually, I it was my wife, what was it called? You had a high blood. Say again, we clamps, is she had this. Thank you Rest in the hospital and we go from a doctor's visit to the to the ER, to the Delivery room and it's like Pandemonium and it just ruined my wife. He heard a suburb. So our life's in danger, babies in danger, and the recovery after this is awful, and my wife never complains about it Because, no matter how crazy the season of frustration and tension is, what's been birthed is.
Speaker 1:It's so much it's worth everything you got to go through. I Cannot tell you how excited I am to sit here tonight with you guys, but I've been through so much stuff. My wife is sitting here just smiling. I Love just look when I'm talking and I'll just look at. My wife was like you know I'm talking about you. You're the only one in here. No, you know, through the wringer, when you see somebody flowing and operating, it's because they've learned to master these things.
Speaker 1:And and don't be, don't be, don't be fooled. It is as those slogans said don't let the food this move tastes for you. Y'all don't even know about that. That's for the old people in the room. I Looks it may look easy, but that's because I'm more submitted now than I've ever been in my life. I'm not fighting, I Feel it Fighting. That's why I could access the grace easy. There's no resistance. I Can sit down, you know, walk through the night, not feeling good. My science is messing with me, something about there. I don't know if it's a cow's on, but when you've been living in that wilderness and you've embraced it with all your heart and you all about that life and you growing up and you're maturing in the faith, you, you can have a bad day and have an amazing day at the same time. Oh, conflict.
Speaker 3:You all are sitting in a room. Come on this room in the last this room.
Speaker 1:No Can y'all, can y'all read? Can you reenact the argument? You going upstairs?
Speaker 3:I'm serious man this room that we're sitting right now. This is a transparent moment. Mm-hmm transparent moment. This almost ended many times in this room Conflict, knowing that we would have people come in here. Yeah people we ain't never even met and Talk about. Let your hands go about, praise God. Yeah and then you talk about Tuesday morning. You want to talk about last to me.
Speaker 1:I Somebody gonna get in trouble. This boy said he had a nerd.
Speaker 3:With a straight face. He was being stupid, yeah yeah and it gets away. And in this room I'm talking about. Look at these walls. If these walls could talk for real, yeah, tell you the old truth and nothing but the truth, you would be shocked. Yeah, because of the conflict that we, that we, that I live in for sure, knowing that there is something greater. Yeah, but because of my mentality on a lot of things. Still, I'm still living in conflict. Talking about marriage for, for example, that don't come with a Instruction book and up but I watched closely marriages.
Speaker 3:I've seen marriages who have suffered, who have failed. I've had, I've had models that I've seen them suffer and fail and restored. So it's not the lack of exposure, it's the lack of self Imposed or inflicting. Disabled, yes, accepting.
Speaker 1:I'm still in a wilderness experience, even after all these years of being but but it doesn't end, and this is one of the things that's so important that, like I said to you earlier, that what you're learning in this season will help you in the next. Because as you move into different phases of your life, you never met the 30 year old you Right, some, for some, for the few of us in here over 40, you never met the 40 plus you and you never felt what the 40 plus you feels. So you so then you can say, man, it would. I would have never tripped off of this, you know, ten years ago. But as you get older, you become. It's your experience. You're like a whole new experience, and so it does.
Speaker 1:You were changing, but the principles are not changing. And what the secret is? There's a surrender that happens in your new birth. That has to happen when your spiritual mature. The only difference is the more mature you get, you should be able to do that process a little bit faster, because, if you okay, my wife go here. She got a word.
Speaker 2:But Earlier. But there's something that you said earlier, and we were talking about the process of the wilderness and the Digging the Holy Spirit showing you that there's a hole that's been dug and you're putting inside. The word picture that came to my mind was compost. Okay, because when, when you compost, you have dead matter and you have green matter that you layer on top of each other and it needs darkness and agitation In order to break down.
Speaker 2:And so what you guys are going through right now is a season of composting and the agitation that you're feeling is the agitation that you're feeling is what's breaking down the wonderful things you've done in the past, that you have. You had to let they go, you had to kill that to now walk into the new season that you're in now. But then there's also fresh vision and their fresh ideas and they're all mixed up together and in another sense, you you feel obscure, like you're hidden, and it's all orchestrated, it's all on purpose, and what Mike just said about surrender, that's another thing. And I said to myself God, what they don't see is it's not about fighting the process, it's not about resisting the process, it's about surrendering to it every Point of tension in this space, every prayer in this space, because there's tension and there's been prayer.
Speaker 2:There's tension and there's anointing, there's disappointment and there's hope right here in the same, in a compost.
Speaker 2:It'll take time. And the thing about compost is compost is Right, it doesn't smell good, but all the nutrients that the plant needs, it needs that compost to grow. What's what's bringing up from the compost in the whole district is usually guys to to break down and to build. It's the next move for power church. It's the next move for this generation. You guys have people waiting on you, there's a ministry waiting on you and the help of that ministry, the health of the next thing, depends on you guys to bring into this.
Speaker 1:With that being said, the humanity of this moment is important. Thank you for for vulnerability. My wife and I Any person here back and speak for us we were still growing. I'm gonna start wrapping up, but I'm gonna just kind of dive into one more thought, and I think this is important. I hope you take this away with you tonight.
Speaker 1:If you're not, if you don't feel any Compost effect in your life, you need to start asking questions. Something's wrong If you, if there's nothing agitating you, then that's a problem, because that agitation says there's something coming. It's a blessing to be able to hear God say it's not here yet because there's something coming, there's something to look forward to. With every frustrated conversation, you're about to give birth to something new. With every groan of labor pain, does it release coming. If you don't get weary in doing well, if you commit, I'm not gonna faint, I'm not gonna let go. I'm gonna hold on to what's holding on to me. I'm apprehended what is already apprehended me and that's all walking this together.
Speaker 1:There are so many stories in this room and the enemy Battles you with shame, fight you with it, one of the things I don't want to be. I don't want to be a minister who only has 10 plus year old testimonies to share. You know, you. I think. If Moses is leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, the things they're complaining about he's aware of them too. It's not like he's going up on a mountain each day. They want some other variety in the meal plan and he's been eating the same.
Speaker 1:Anna, your leaders know what you're feeling. If Jesus knows the infirmity of your weakness, what God is doing with you, even in ways you're going through things, is he's allowing you to experience what's what's necessary for your story. The only thing you have to be is humble enough and faithful enough to share it, because every story of victory God gives you is the only thing you have to be is humble enough and faithful enough to share it, because every story of victory God gives you is a key of freedom for somebody else. So when you hear someone say something, you don't. You don't hide your victories, you reveal them. See, when Jesus showed, showed the disciples his, his scars. Those were not injuries, those were wounds from the past which had to collide with victory. And when your past wounds meet your victory, you still have scars to show. But the scars you're now showing Is hope for somebody else, it's. I got a key for you, brother. Let's show you how to get through that.
Speaker 1:And sometimes you don't need advice, you just need somebody to be with you to say I feel you, you ain't crazy, bro, it's all good, keep on doing what you're doing. I know it seemed like you don't feel like it's to go this way, but it's fine. This is actually exactly the way you should feel. You've been married three, four years. You hit you with that seven year by the top of this seven years. Hey, listen, that's real. It's not about what the world says, it just. Over time your marriage has to shift and every seven to ten years we all go through a major shift. Look at your life, just look at it. Your marriage goes through it, you go through it, your body goes through it. So it's okay.
Speaker 1:I want to pray over you guys and we're at a good, maybe a good stopping point. And I want to pray over you guys Because you guys are. My wife just stepped in first of all, gave y'all two words For free. The kingdom is here. Thank you for having me in your home. Thank y'all for turning this into young adult night.
Speaker 1:I'm glad it was a successful night, because Y'all, like we, could have been back at the church okay, but this mediocre service we have it down here Because we show didn't know what we were doing tonight, but God had a divine appointment for you. Holy Spirit, I thank you For every word you have spoken tonight, in the music, in the worship, prophetically You've spoken to, though in those quiet moments during the night we stopped singing and just listened, and Then there were some things spoken over the last hour of conversation Are we embraced the new thing that you're doing? And we thank you for the word over power, church, that the kingdom is here. I Thank you for the compost that's happening all through the room when you've got some dead things and new things both in the same space, but something fresh is being buried, something new is maturing beneath the surface. So I pray God for that faith To endure that season. Then all of us, god, we will be encouraged by the time we got to spend here tonight, hang out, hear from you and prepare for what's next by living and walking with you right now. Jesus name, I Want to do something here before we, before we end, I Want to take ten minutes.
Speaker 1:Can we do this? Y'all ready to go? We do got to get out here. Y'all got to go to bed. You got to get ready for church. We want to make sure it passed. Y'all got pizza up there. I Got it. I got to go to bed too because I got to get up early and sing and lead the lead the people. But are there any questions? The anybody like hey, before you go, man, I got to just ask this and I'll say any questions, especially from the under 25 folks. I just like y'all just wait on my soul tonight and no pressure if you don't have one. But I just I didn't want to end without Giving you the opportunity.
Speaker 3:How do you know what the kiss of?
Speaker 1:Betrayal. Well, here's how you deal with Judas Judas gonna do what you dispose of. Do. As a matter of fact, in the context of scripture, judas did what was always going to be done Prophetically, your enemies have a role in your destiny and all Judas did was set the stage for the cross to do what it was supposed to do. Something had to get Jesus on that cross. So sometimes you're like I got bad news. Sometimes the bad news is the catalyst for the good news, which is the gospel. So I know that you're not going to be able to do that. Well, I mean, so I think you understand that the word that God has over your life Cannot be thwarted, cannot be to overtaken by Judas. It's only going to be more confirmed.
Speaker 1:It's important to see how Jesus handles Judas. He says go ahead and do what you got to do. Jesus didn't fight Judas. He didn't say somebody talk to Judas because, yeah, get this guy back. Wow, he didn't do anything. Right. When someone has made up their mind to be that person If it's indeed true, because sometimes I think someone's a Judas and they just confused they may not be really trying to do nothing. Sometimes what's happening feels that way. Betrayal is a matter of perception, sometimes as well. But if indeed you have someone who is knowingly doing this, be like Jesus and say do what you got to do. You can't change what the fathers already put motion. If I stop pursuing what the father already put in me to fight Judas, that's a different Bible, it's not the scriptures we got and it's a waste of time. Amen.
Speaker 1:I really you say it wrong than I say it at all. I really, you say it wrong than I say it at all. So go ahead, yeah, yeah. So how do you know? You just see, I set this up in the very beginning. You were listening. So I am traveling a lot of, doing a lot of different things, and sometimes it's other cities, sometimes it's other countries.
Speaker 1:So here's what's so important. I've learned this. I've learned how to walk with God, and there are different layers that I've learned to embrace in my life to keep discipline engaged. So the the more God requires of you to hire, your disciplines have to raise. So I've got this, this thing I teach the cause of it's a five levels of discipline and you have to have discipline that meets certain things. So one of the areas you have to have discipline to meet, you have to have discipline that meets your influence. So when your influence changes, your discipline has to change.
Speaker 1:If you're living in tomorrow's influence with yesterday's discipline, you're gonna embarrass yourself for God, somebody else, because you have more at stake. You have to you have. Your discipline has to match your greatest temptation and and one season of your life my greatest temptation was taking shake. That's not the greatest temptation and if I'm still dancing off a steak and shake victory. But I got a whole nother animal in front of me after I have to live at the level of this demand. So then you got to get that into the practical. Then what does it look like? Who's around you? Who's engaged? For me personally, you got to think technology first. So I got my wife, because she's got every password is nothing I can look at that. She can't see not one thing. That's that's. That's not amazing, that's the basic. That's like if you want to do something, you want to have this much freedom, you have to give up freedom to get it. So my wife can track everywhere I go. I don't need anonymity. I Don't need it because the more of that that I have, the more space and gap I have between Discipline and not having it, because that space is anonymity. Nobody's gonna know, not just my wife. I've got people around me.
Speaker 1:In certain seasons it was more intense counselors, my spiritual father, mentors, people in my life that had to be straight up with, like honestly, and if you don't want to grow you gotta say nothing, you can be quiet, but if you really want to do this, you have to lean into the wilderness, and the wilderness for you might look different than it is for me, but in my wilderness, the way it's set up, there are things that really prevent me from making mistakes or when I do, the accounts are so quick I can correct Before there's any devastation. So I got spirit, I got a spiritual father that's always with me, connected with me when I'm traveling. I try personally not to travel too long without my wife or my kids, so I I was in total this week and she met me here and then really yet today she's gonna be with me. Tomorrow I'm not going to where. Next week I'll be in Dallas, next weekend on the church and when I take off again I may take some trips alone, but we, my wife, we talk about everything and if you're interested in that, but everything, and if you're not married, you got to find someone. You have to be Transparent and you cannot live in this bubble of your own mind and it's easier when you're single to do that, cuz you know, nobody ain't your business, I do. I'm going to my house to do me.
Speaker 1:If you want to be free, invite people into the spaces that really matter, and the more accountability you have, the more discipline you embrace, the more you immerse yourself into the reality of the lifestyle, not just the carling itself, the further you can go. So there are. There are extended periods of time that I have to be away from my family. I try to keep those far and few between, and Then, when that happens, there's something else I gotta give you guys. This is so important because people like sometimes people pass over Intimacy with God as if I know you got to pray, but what other things you're doing, like what are you talking about? Moses is on a mountain for 40 days with God. If your intimacy is real it is what it is and God is speaking.
Speaker 1:It makes it difficult for you to have that level of intimacy and dysfunction, because the intimacy you have with a lack thereof is an indication to how helpful you are. And For me it's like man, if, if, if I'm not connected every day in a real way with God, I'm gonna quit this Because I ain't gonna have nothing to say. You know I'm saying like everything that is revelation comes from intimacy. Frustration comes in some ways when you try to do ministry. Some of this stuff happens when you don't have any. It's the oil and the flow. So for me it is all those things, but the core and foundation of it is real, intentional time with God, and I'm not from okay, I get more practical. It's not like a 57 minute devotional, it's like no, wake up early enough to spend plenty of time with me.
Speaker 1:You won't run your mouth on podcasts and preach and write songs. Why are you trying to give me a drive-through Prayer like you? Not even give me enough time to give you content. You want content. You know who has the best content. You'll be a content creator, creative, going to that secret place. Don't let nobody tell you on you. And ain't that deep? I Mean prayer, cool, but what has anybody on earth ever gotten worth anything? They didn't come through prayer. And what has anybody sustained over time Without prayer? Nothing. So that's huge.