SPEAKER_00 0:06

Well, hello, and welcome back to the Speak Life Podcast, episode 492. We're in that time now between Christmas and New Year, where the days seem to blur. Nate uh who works at pointed out to me that the Germans have a phrase for this Zwischen den Yaren between the years. And it's a wonderful phrase. Speaking of Nate and Zwischen den Jaren, we actually have on our Reformed Mythologist channel coming out over this period some C.S. Lewis Christmas videos. So uh Nate reading some extracts from the Narnia books with some nice gentle Christmas music in the background and just kind of reflecting on the great work, the great creative work that C.S. Lewis did, and how it helps us to think about Christmas. So you can find that on the Reformed Mythologist channel, youtube.com forward slash at ReformedMythologist. Do go and check those out. And in this episode, we have a conversation that Glenn had with Aditi Northcott. So this was recorded at Lansdowne Church in Bournemouth. And Glenn spoke to Aditi about her involvement in witchcraft. That was her former life and how her life was thoroughly transformed when she met Jesus. So it's a very uh it's an amazing testimony. So you'll hear their conversation and then you will hear a sermon that Glenn gave. So enjoy this episode and enjoy this time between Christmas and New Year, this Asvishen den Yaren.

SPEAKER_06 1:54

Thank you very much. I just checked the scores. 3-0 Bournemouth to Man United? Amazing, yes. Sending down the Red Devils. So we we might think a little bit more about that uh with a DT as I speak to her in a minute. So I am Glenn. I am married to Emma. We've got two children, Ruby and JJ. As I start to speak, you might still grasp a little bit of an accent. If you do, um I I don't have the accent. You've got the accent. I speak perfectly normally. I grew up in Australia, which is why I kind of I kind of sound like a convict to all the English, and I sound like a pom to all the Australians. It's the worst of every world. But uh I live uh on the South Coast, I live in Eastbourne, uh, which is not just the other side of Westbourne, just so you know. I discovered that as I drove for three hours to get here. But uh I work for Speak Life, which is a charity that frees me up to go around and shoot my mouth off about Jesus. And I'm really pleased to be here this weekend and uh help out with some events here at Lansdowne. But uh, we are here really to hear a story of hope from somebody uh who has seen ups and downs in life and has met Jesus in a life-transforming way. And uh you're gonna love hearing her story. Some of you know some of her story, some of you know more than uh what we're about to share tonight, and some of you have encountered this story for the first time. But uh, I think it's uh it's wonderful to see how Jesus can transform lives and reach into dark places and bring out light. And I think that will be what we uh understand from tonight. So without further ado, shall we uh welcome to the stage, Aditi Northgott. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Good evening.

SPEAKER_06 3:41

Good evening. Nice to have you.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_06 3:44

Ah so Aditi, I never asked you.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 3:48

Um we so we we have sort of spoken before tonight, but um in talking about tonight, I never asked you your name, Aditi. What does it mean?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Ah, well, it's from India. I was born in India. Yes. And it's an Indian name, which I was considering changing when I got born again.

unknown 4:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

So Aditi means mother of God in Hindu.

SPEAKER_06 4:10

Okay. Yeah. So South Speaker. So like Mary in the Christmas story. Yeah. So it's interesting. So tomorrow I'm I'm preaching here, uh 10:30, if you want to come along. And there is a bit where um Mary's cousin Elizabeth um says to Mary, You are the mother of my Lord, right? Because the Lord Jesus is in her. And so, yeah, Mary, mother of God, Aditi, mother of God, that's interesting. So you were born in France, in in India to French parents.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

So I was born in India from French hippies.

SPEAKER_06 4:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Who uh moved to uh Madras, uh so opposite Sri Lanka, and they lived there for about five years. Okay. And so they run they were just literally running away from French society. And uh so they just thought that India would be where they would settle and where they would find something spiritual. Uh so I was born on Hindu ground uh within a community that was actually uh syncretist, meaning that they believed in oneness. So you could be all religion living together on a Hindu ground.

SPEAKER_06 5:27

Okay. And they they moved to the south of India um and you were not born yet. So did you have siblings?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Uh uh yeah, uh no, not yet.

SPEAKER_06 5:39

Yes, yeah, yeah. Difficult question because uh life was not straightforward for you growing up, was it? Tell me about mum and dad.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

So, mum and dad, as I said, they were hippies, uh, so uh they they were really all over the place. And now, in hindsight, I can really see how they were lost um and borderline filled with demons because they were always opening doors to them uh with drugs, uh, you know, like LSD and all this. And then my dad was smoking weed pretty much every day. And I found it quite interesting now and ironic that he would be in India shouting, I'm a free man, and burning his passport because now he's stuck in India and he can travel anywhere. And he was just that type of man who was like playing flute all day and people were calling him Krishna.

SPEAKER_05 6:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Yeah. So he had Ganesh and he had all sorts of Hindu tattoos, and so he was just dancing and playing flute and smoking weed all day.

SPEAKER_06 6:42

What are some of your earliest memories as you as you look back?

SPEAKER_01 6:45

To India. Uh so my earliest memory was uh I was about two, two years old when I was by the beach and I could stare at that woman who was literally uh doing some sweet corn, like some corn. Um, and I was just sucking on a piece of tuna.

SPEAKER_04 7:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yeah, like moogly. So my husband calls me moogly.

SPEAKER_06 7:09

Um yeah, so your mother.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

So mum was also all over the place. Uh she was only 24 at the time when she had me. And um so I was born in a hut made of bamboos and banana leaves that my dad built.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Um, and so she gave birth in that hut, and so the chief of the village helped my dad, but he did my belly button and everything. So like I wasn't born in a hospital.

SPEAKER_05 7:39

Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Um, and so after that, my mum, well, she had like most women, postnatal depression, and on the top of that, my dad was always stoned. So he was not really helping. So uh she was considering killing herself uh when I was a young baby. And so uh and due to the lack of support from my dad, um we went into extreme poverty. So by the age of two and a half, we flew back to France where the rest of the family was.

SPEAKER_06 8:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Uh, because of extreme poverty, they couldn't feed me or anything.

SPEAKER_06 8:19

So okay, and so at that point it was grandparents that sort of took took over.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah, so then then we flew back to France, and a few months later the uh my grandma found me in a cot, uh broken windows, really dusty on my own, in the dark, crying, very scared. And my parents were the upstairs or downstairs, I can't remember, partying basically. And when when they were not partying, they were physical like violence. They were just hitting on it, like hitting each other all the time. Uh so there was lots of violence. And uh so my grandma decided to uh take me on when I was three.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:58

And your parents were sort of happy with that, were they?

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Uh more than happy.

SPEAKER_06 9:02

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

That was a burden.

SPEAKER_06 9:05

Yeah. Is this your mum's mum, your dad's mum?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

So my mum's my mum's mum, yeah. It's it's it's quite interesting, really, because my dad's mum is a very famous French actress in France.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

And my mum's mum was going to be Miss France, and my mum's dad sort of created tango music in a way, because he was like cre he just created that music, he was really famous around. So we have all these artists, and suddenly it just crashed on uh during that generation.

SPEAKER_06 9:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:38

Because that would have been what end of the 70s that they they decided to go to. Exactly. Right, yeah, to the south of India.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Where all the students were like burning all the books in universities in Paris, and there was a massive yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:51

Counterculture. So then yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Exactly, and like they would go back in and out of the country, go back to India, and then when they will come back eventually on a Christmas dinner, um, they will be so ingrained into their Hinduism that they refuse to sit at the table, they would be on the floor, um, you know, and those so they picked up on all that. But it was never consistent like their belief. It's like it was just never consistent with either what scriptures say, like ancient scriptures, like the Vedas, or it was just like all over the place, really.

SPEAKER_06 10:25

Yeah, so yeah. Pick and mix, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Pick and mix, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:28

Exactly. So, what did you learn about life as you're you're eight years old in France? Let's let's let's picture picture yourself.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

You picked an age there.

SPEAKER_06 10:38

Did I? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

You did. So um from three years old, um living with my grandparents and my great-grandpa, and uh I had the best time for five the first five years, so until eight. Uh, you know, I had great um I had great Christmases, I had wonderful birthdays, I had a grandma who loved me so much, and you know, so we were all fine. And when I was eight, uh my grandpa died. Okay, and that was absolutely devastating for uh my grandma, and then her dad dies. So we used to be like a quite a big family, and suddenly everybody dies.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Two years later, my dad dies when I was ten. So just like the whole thing just crashed again. Uh, and so because she couldn't cope with the grieving, her doctor told her to not go to say goodbye to her husband during the funeral. So she didn't go to the funeral, she didn't sort of seal that.

SPEAKER_05 11:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Uh so my auntie found her with um my grandpa's gun in her mouth while I was next door.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Yeah. So yeah, so she just couldn't cope. So because of this, uh then I was put into my auntie's house for an uh uh one year, one or two years I can't remember, but I was eight years old when I was put into my auntie's house, and nobody explained me uh explained why. Like I had no idea what's going on here. Where's grandpa? Like, where's my dad? No one told me anything.

SPEAKER_06 12:09

Yeah. So were you going to school at this time?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Yes, I was going in a in a in a public school, yeah. Also, like a you know, a primary school.

SPEAKER_06 12:17

Okay. Yeah. And if if people had encountered you in that setting, what would they have concluded about Aditi?

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Oh, that she's quite bubbly actually. You know, I had that uh sort of bubbly sli bubbly slide, so everything that was happening, I could st still smile.

SPEAKER_06 12:34

Right. Was that a coping mechanism? I think so.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

It could be like a coping mechanism, and it could be half and half because that's what my nature anyway, but yes, it it can definitely I can use that as a as a mask as well.

SPEAKER_06 12:46

Yeah, yeah. So a lot of psychologists talk about sort of attachment theory as you're as you're growing up within a family, you need a secure attachment. You need that sense of mum and dad or whoever is looking after you, yeah, have their arms underneath. You cannot fall far because you can only ever fall into your parents' embrace. Exactly that, yeah. That was not true for you. Not only mum was not there, dad's not there, and then grandparents, and it all falls apart. Yeah. So it's like psychologically, what was what what was life like for you, sort of 10, 11, and growing up into your teenagers?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

I just learned how to cope with my myself. You know, I was just uh I don't know why, but I was blessed with empathy. So for from very young age, um, I was again about eight or nine, and there was his homeless and he hurt his nose and uh in the street, and straight straight away I knocked on somebody's door. And do you have a plaster? Do you have something? Yeah. So they opened the door and they they helped. So I just had that sympathy, and I guess that was like a need to look after others because nobody has never really looked after me, so it was a type of like love, I guess, that I was looking for, not looking for because it's natural, but you see what I mean? Like it's yeah, it's definitely something.

SPEAKER_06 14:05

There's been that theme of care for the homeless that's sort of woven throughout your whole life. Yeah. Um why?

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Since I was born, I saw extreme poverty, to be honest. Like when we go when you go to India, it's a different level of what we see here. It's really truly horrendous. I would I would borderline say satanic and demonic, to be honest. This is we we're talking about like babies dying in the side of the street, and families using their own children, starving them to get the money from the tourists and stuff like that. So what I've seen from very very young age is sort of like yeah, I've always felt for people really. I just feel the pain there.

SPEAKER_06 14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

So some people get given empathy.

SPEAKER_06 14:52

So and you've got it in spades, and yeah, out it comes from you. So was there ever much of a future for you in France? No, why not?

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Um because it went from bad to worse, literally. Uh so I don't know when we you want to move, I think. From my mum decided to go and live in a cave. So my mum decided to still be a hippie in a way, away from society and everything. So my dad and mum separated, and so uh what what we call the cave is like a ruined castle.

SPEAKER_06 15:35

Um a road cut.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

A ruined one, you know, it's like uh you imagine a massive castle, yeah, and then with years uh and centuries really, it just got completely ruined, but you've got trees uh you know like growing within it and stuff like that. So she found a couple of rooms, and so it's just literally uh humid, it's very damp, there's no electricity, no water, uh, and there's no doors. And it's absolutely freezing in winter.

SPEAKER_06 16:07

And she found this, or there was a community that was trying to use this?

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Actually, her boyfriend lived there already, so she met that man and he lived in a cave, and then she moved in with him.

SPEAKER_04 16:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

And so all the furniture was from the tip. Um, so and then I start I started going to the cave for every of every school holidays. So uh yeah, so I would go uh July, August into the cave, living poor. You would live in the same place to the tip, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Absolutely. And then I would come back for September to my grandma, who's Catholic, and so then I will go into public school and go to Catholic church every Sunday morning, and then when my dad was alive, he will take me to hippie communities and he would live in his van, take me to Hindu temples.

SPEAKER_06 16:58

This is quite an eclectic mix. It really is. So pub public school in France, I mean Les Cite, that kind of secularism is very very strong, you know, like it's it is not a religious space at all. No. And then you've got the Catholicism of grandma, and you've got Hinduism and all sorts. Imagine imagine that I came into your life and you're age sixteen, and I asked, Who is Jesus? What would you have said? Buff. Yeah, who knows?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

I don't know because we don't even talk about it in Catholic in Catholicism, do we?

SPEAKER_06 17:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Like I we always like my grandma was always talking about the Virgin Mary. And I had no idea. And to be honest with you, when I was going to church, I was just completely daydreaming. I was completely gone, if you will. Like I was in my own world. I've learned how to switch off and keep to myself in my bubble. So like my grandma's like, Yeah, you come to church. I was like, whatever, like I'm I'm just gonna show up.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

But yeah, so then 16, what was I doing at 16? All sorts of things. I started uh drinking alcohol, I started uh trying drugs, I started stealing.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Um I let's move back to when I was 13, because when I was 13, I had great freedom within the cave. So with my mum, she would be like, Yeah, whatever, you come back at four in the morning, and you know, where with my grandma is like, absolutely not, you would not do that. So with my mum, uh one morning I came back at four in the morning, and uh I came back to her being completely drunk. And the scene I've seen is was very bloody, let's say. So, and this was one of the many traumas that I went through, is my mum was extremely violent when she had a drink, and uh I jumped to 14, and when I was 14 years old, I had to run from for my life. I hitchhiked hundred kilometers to get back to my grandma.

SPEAKER_06 19:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

So this is how scary she could be sometimes.

SPEAKER_06 19:19

So alcohol, drugs, stealing, is that was that I guess there's a bit of a thrill. That's risky behavior. Is that is that part of the addiction?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

The adrenaline is always like there because some people will find um you know, jumping out of airplane. But I was going out with a Spanish guy who taught me how to do it, and from that I discovered my gift.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

So I discovered that actually I wasn't too bad at that, and therefore I uh used this gift to start stealing food for the homeless.

SPEAKER_06 20:00

Okay. I'm in two minds about whether to ask her what the gift is, because how do you go about it? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

So when I say gift, obviously, it's between brackets. Yeah. So um it's just but then that's it, you know, like from 16 to 19, I carried on doing it, and then I was drinking more, and then it it just it just went pair shape. I was finding love in the wrong places, I became promiscuous. Um just everything was so bad. And so at the age of 19, I was like, I've got to literally get out of here, or I'm going to end up dead or in prison.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

And then again, I'm thinking, shall I go up north? Because I we are right from the south of France. I thought, shall I go up north? And then I was like, I've got to really literally change the country.

SPEAKER_06 20:53

Okay. And you chose England.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Well, I was not very in like knowledgeable at the time. Uh huh. Uh I was busy being so naughty. And so um I didn't know where to go. But my English teacher said to me, Aditi, you've got such a great English. You should go to England.

unknown 21:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

And then you come back six months later and get into tourism in France. You'll do well. I'm like, that's a brilliant idea. So I told my grandma, I said, Yeah, it is yada yada, six months, uh, you know, tourism. But I knew deep down my heart I would absolutely never come back to France.

SPEAKER_06 21:32

Okay. So you come over to England for the weather, obviously, or the or the food. Whatever it was, from the south of France to England. Um but the risky behaviour and the promiscu promiscuity and the drugs and the drink.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

I brought this with me, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

I brought this with me, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:51

Yeah. And that became a problem, didn't it?

SPEAKER_01 21:53

It did, absolutely. Yeah, so you know, when you are so good at something, sometimes you start becoming Complacent because you think you'll you'll always get away with it. And so the first year I've arrived in England in 1999. I didn't speak English, um, I had nothing, and I became an opair for a very short while. And so, yes, I did bring with me uh the shoplifting addiction, and so I would be going, you know, in London and to a John Lewis, a giant one, and I would just fill my bag.

SPEAKER_06 22:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

And I would come out with a code.

SPEAKER_06 22:31

Okay. And that worked how uh how often?

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Uh probably oh that's a good question. Maybe once, I don't know really. Uh once a month.

SPEAKER_05 22:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

I don't know really, because I would be doing it for other people. So every time somebody would need something, basically.

SPEAKER_05 22:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

So like uh like my favorite hobby at the time, sorry Lord. My favorite hobby at the time would be to go to London and uh find homeless and say, like, what would you like to eat today? Is your dog does your dog want some food? Why? And so this would be my just my hobby, really. And then I have friends who had no money at Christmas time, so I would be doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_06 23:09

Robin Hood. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Yeah. That's so interesting. It's just really like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_06 23:16

But it's so interesting that that you you turned even that kind of addiction and the risk-taking behavior like for a compassionate end. Like, I've always taken that empathy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

I've always had that.

SPEAKER_06 23:30

You've always had that big heart.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

I don't know why. I really don't know. I don't know if it's due to the past I to the thing I went through, or I just don't know what it is, but it is what it is.

SPEAKER_06 23:40

It is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:41

Let's fast forward to 2013.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Okay. So 2013, uh, so I was with my now husband. Uh, we've been together for 11 years, and in tw in 2013 he decided to take me to back to India for holiday, but this time to Goa. So Goa is like nice and comfortable and touristic, you know, like to me. I was like, that's not India, dude. But you know, okay, let's enjoy the holiday. But he knew uh my husband is a very skeptical uh man, and uh uh the spirituality was starting to sort of like uh rub on him, and he knew a guru there, so he introduced me to that guru, and this guru was like a Reiki master, and he was doing like all sorts of therapies and healing, and uh I had so much zeal for that at the time. I was like, wow, what do you do? Why do you do that? What you know, what is that? What and he looked at me and was like, Do you want to become a Reiki master? I think you would be really good at that. And I'm like, Yes, you know, I never I hardly say no, actually.

SPEAKER_06 24:53

So And what was attracting you to that?

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Because I've always thought there is more, there must be more in life than this what am I doing here? Like, I'm just like you know, I eat food, I just do my boring thing, and then I go back to bed, and I'm like, there's more than that. So that was already attracting me, and and having been born in India, I was already so surrounded by spirituality in a way. So this came back to me.

SPEAKER_06 25:23

Yes. Um you have the right name and it's kind of a deity, mother of God.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah. So he explained everything to me and he said, Okay, no problem. So can you just come back another time and then we will book you in? And my husband, who's usually very skeptical, was like, Well, what about me?

unknown 25:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

And the guru is like, Well, you never showed interest in started being like, Well, why are not me? So we actually did it together.

SPEAKER_05 25:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Uh so we got qualified and we became Reiki masters. Okay. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:56

I have no idea what Reiki is.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Energy healing, uh yeah, just usually using your energy. I'm not I'm not gonna teach you anyway.

unknown 26:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 26:05

Okay. Now now to begin with, this this is something that's like very mind-expanding and eye-opening and showing you a dimension to life that's a new dimension. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yeah, new dimension. It's like, okay, we're getting somewhere now.

SPEAKER_05 26:20

Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Um, and so when you start something, I didn't even know I was in new age. Like this term new age. New ages, they don't understand this, they don't know they're in it, if you will. So when I started my Reiki uh mastery, uh, you know, I started to be like, wow, and once you start these practices, it's inevitable that you you will find other things. Like, oh, crystals, incense, meditation, oh, tarot cards. And suddenly you find yourself with all these practices that at the time I wasn't aware were going to open further darkness to where I was already.

SPEAKER_06 27:05

But that's not how you were experiencing it at the time. At the time. At the time, you're not thinking I'm opening doors too. Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

I've only realized this about 21 uh 21 months ago.

SPEAKER_06 27:16

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 27:18

Yeah. So at the at the time it's it's exciting, it's a new dimension to life. And and I guess you're good at it as well.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Absolutely. So so I started uh getting new gifts. I like putting these, what do you call them in English? Quotation marks. Quotation, yeah. So I always put quotation when I use gift because this is all counterfeit. Uh and so I started being really good at it. So good that people were coming to me for information because I was getting I was um I was getting given the secret information about their life. So they would be like, Well, how do you know that? So then they would be like, Wow, she's amazing. And suddenly people started to be like, Wow, she's so gifted. And as humans, you know, if people start glorifying you, they start stroking your ego, and suddenly you're like, Wow, I am amazing. And you find yourself in that again, you know, this self-discovery, self-healing, self-love, self-work, selfie, selfish, selfishness. And suddenly you become a narcissist and you don't really understand how you got there.

SPEAKER_06 28:38

Huh. But perhaps what why you were good at that is the empathy, actually. Why why you were good at connecting with other people and kind of as well figuring out who they are.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Yes, it was pretty easy for me to read people anyway.

SPEAKER_06 28:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

And whether it was face-to-face or online for sure.

SPEAKER_05 28:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Yeah, so that has helped a lot.

SPEAKER_05 29:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Um, I would say that uh there are various intelligences. Some are more, you know, stronger in some intelligences than others, and I did and I do have a strong emotional intelligence.

SPEAKER_06 29:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

For sure.

SPEAKER_06 29:14

Yeah, definitely. You said about online. Tell me about online because you started to grow a social media influence at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

I started growing on social media, uh, and so uh I've I've decided suddenly to post a daily card of the, you know, a card of the day, and it's all very positive, and it's all it's teaching people how to um just block anything negative, create your own truth, um, everything positive. And so people really were hung hung on, they were hanging on to that every day.

SPEAKER_05 29:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

So if I wasn't doing it, I will I would get messages, I would get in boxes like, where is your card?

SPEAKER_04 29:54

Right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

And I was doing it for free, you know, it was like it was giving and and yeah, and then suddenly I realized people truly count on my card of the day to make decisions for their own life.

SPEAKER_04 30:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

And suddenly, I mean, now I can see how I I was literally taking people astray, or leading people astray rather, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 30:16

Yeah. And was it in 2021 that you wanted to sort of take things further and do a course in this?

SPEAKER_01 30:22

I went further and further, and I just want to quickly list is that okay? Uh my practices, just in case somebody's practicing something here. Uh so I was practicing astral projection, healing frequencies and vibrations. I was channeling entities, so channeling means being in contact with what I thought were angel, archangels, extraterrestrial, spirit guides. I was exploring twin flames, I was practicing tantra, kundalini activation, tarot, oracle and angel cards, crystal crystal healing, psychic readings, Reiki mastery, past life regression, energy manipulation, esoteric knowledge, divine feminine, astrology, star seed, ascension, chakra work, yoga, and passive meditation.

SPEAKER_05 31:14

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

That's that's a snippet. So yeah, and this is all counterfeit to the holy spirit spirituality that I've realized it was 21 months ago. So I was already doing that for the past 10 years, like slowly but surely. We started with Reiki, and then as I said, everything was adding up.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

I found myself going darker and darker because within the spiritual realm there are various realms as well. And I thought I was a white witch practicing white magic, uh Aka serving God. And then we have black magic, Aka serving Satan. This is how we think, and um it really went darker and darker. I got drawn more into the the black magic because at the end of the day it's all Satan white, green, black, it's all Satan. And so again, it became really dark for me at some stage where I was ready to offer myself as a living sacrifice for the devil. Wow. So yeah. I don't know. I'm I I'm not gonna go into this, but it is extremely dark and scary, and that this could lead to death, clearly. Death hit in this life and death after life.

SPEAKER_06 32:29

Yeah, yeah. How did you ever get out of this?

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Ding dong. Uh so I th I guess like the Lord has, you know, he has given us a conscience and intuition. And I'm very grateful for this because again, in hindsight, I really truly believe that he was always there, like protecting me. And it's like feeling like some somebody's like pulling me this way. It's like, nope. Nope. So so my I had already that intuitive. I was like, this there's something not right there. It's like there's a disrespect anyway, there is a lack of love, there is like something.

SPEAKER_05 33:08

Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

You know, they they draw you into becoming a living sacrifice by manipulating you with charms and charisma, with it which which is what the serpent does, and then they make you believe that what you're doing is for the for God and it's for the good.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Hi folks, it's Thomas Thoroughgood here, media producer at Speak Life. You might recognise my voice as the guy who does the filler bits on the podcast. It's part of my job to think of how we can include you more in the work of Speak Life and bring you behind the scenes, if you will. And so we have a very exciting thing called the Speak Life Discord server. It's an online platform where you can interact with other Speak Life supporters and the Speak Life team. We have bonus content, creative theological discussion, and lots of fun along the way. So if you want to join that, you can just go to speaklife.org.uk forward slash give. Okay, back to the podcast.

SPEAKER_06 34:13

Now, was it on a Facebook page that you first got to know a Christian who's shared something of Jesus with you? Tell me that story.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

So it really started more or less with her, really, because uh we were 5,000 members in that group, and we were talking about all sorts of things, right? Uh conspiracy facts and conspiracy theories, basically. And so that woman uh she posted a very long post, and she was talking like Jesus is coming back soon, and you better to repent. And she was talking like I've never really read that sort of jargon before. And um she said you you need to come to Jesus. Uh it is a matter of life or death, and it is now. And you know, and she got slandered. She got slandered. This and I thought this woman was really brave. Um, she got slandered by most most members.

unknown 35:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

And I was basically the only one out of 5,000 to inbox her and say, What do you mean? Uh huh. And I went, shoop, answered that call. And uh she she she then explained furthermore about Jesus and what he did on the cross for us and how important it is to repent of our sins. At the very same time, I had other signs like Jesus was coming more into my feed, and I had other New Age talking about the false Jesus, but still Jesus, and suddenly I've got all these Jesuses.

SPEAKER_06 35:46

Christ consciousness and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Christ consciousness, right, Sophia. Okay, Sophia is a female wisdom, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Um and and so suddenly, like, my my atten uh my attention is is now on.

SPEAKER_04 36:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

And like after a few days, I inboxed her again and I said, I don't know which Bible to get. Like, what do I what do I do? And she really kindly posted a Bible.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Because that's what she does. She goes to charity shops, she buys all the Bibles, and then she sends them to anyone, anyone. And this is where I felt like, wow, you know, I've been fished, man.

SPEAKER_06 36:29

Because she was offering that free. Like it wasn't like, you know, pay 25 pounds for a prayer.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

It was Yeah, exactly. And that that also really is something I was used to in New Age. Uh, we were sort of being programmed to charge for our time. Our time was precious, and we couldn't give anything for free because that's how it goes. It's an exchange, and suddenly you get programmed into that.

SPEAKER_04 36:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

And at first it's like, at first, it's uh I'm sure most new ages are like, well, that's wrong. Why is it not free if we if we if we are healers? But eventually you just get programmed to believe that.

SPEAKER_06 37:07

Yeah. But this woman sent you the Bible for free.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:11

Shows up in the post, you open it up, you start from page one, Genesis, go.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

Basically, and also uh I was uh following uh so I had cards, oracle and angel cards. Okay, and uh I've discovered that the creator of those cards became a born-again Christian.

SPEAKER_04 37:29

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

And that she hate she's pleading the whole crowd, even now as we speak, to burn all her cards. She is literally ringing the alarm and saying, I am so sorry, I've led millions astray. You need to burn my cards.

SPEAKER_06 37:45

Gosh, I'd like to hear her story.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:48

And so and so you got to know about that woman who had converted and I got the Bible. And so was she saying read the Bible as well? Oh, absolutely. Oh gosh, yeah. Definitely. And so what were you encountering? So so you're opening up Genesis in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And how are you reacting?

SPEAKER_01 38:06

So I was reading that, but also I was um being led by these, she's called Doreen Virtue, and she created my cards. And so on her website, she said, look at these passages because we wanted to go uh straight to the point. The Bible talks to everyone, and so whatever is relevant to you in your life, it's there. So for me, yes, so things like Deuteronomy 1810, there shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer. Well, apart from burning my child my own children, I was doing everything else.

SPEAKER_06 38:52

Right, right. And having read something like that.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Yeah, and more. There's more obviously throughout the Bible.

SPEAKER_06 39:00

Did you did you feel like personally addressed by that? Were you like, okay, there's like a finger pointing here? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Absolutely. I was like mortified. And that's because, again, I we we showed I showed you this is an eye, but Hebrew 4 12, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, and joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And quite frankly, this has truly, truly pierced my heart.

SPEAKER_04 39:33

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

And I was like, and it made sense because all these practices are actually spiritual narcotics, you will not get out of that. This is like getting on a hamster wheel. You will feel anxious every day, you will feel depressed, you will have suicidals or thoughts, but that's okay, we're all healers.

SPEAKER_06 40:00

What was different? What was different about the word of God then? What was different about the Bible?

SPEAKER_01 40:04

There was no confusion. It's it's very like the our Lord is a God of love, of unconditional love. Once we experience that love, we know that we have been deceived before by fake love. And so uh the Lord is is not a god of confusion.

SPEAKER_05 40:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Once we start understanding the Bible, which to be fair, I'm still a toddler, okay? So I'm still learning, but as far as I've learned from it, there is just no confusion. Yeah. And I love that. I'm like, wow, you make so much sense.

SPEAKER_06 40:41

So you you date things back to 21 months ago. Tell me what what happened 21 months ago?

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Well, Aditi decided to go even further in a hole because that was not good enough for the past 10 years. So I um I've applied for a course uh that cost $10,000, and it was a 12-month healing course, and this will take me further into healing, crystal, witchery, sorcery, and all these things. And so I was supposed to start in January 2022.

SPEAKER_04 41:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

But I had a pre-course in October in 2021, and during that is is just a time to get to know people uh within the course and to just like you know have extra courses basically before we start the the official course. We were 500 in this 500 witches. And so yeah, it was just, I don't know, it just didn't it just didn't feel right. It started feeling really not right. Yeah, like there was a lot of sexual immorality. Uh we were going to meet all of us, um, even if those who couldn't make it, I would probably say about 200 witches in Costa Rica in July 2022. And we were going to do loads of rituals to for for manifesting stuff that we want, and you know, it was all about us again. Um but it's just started to not feel right, and and I I had all this Jesus coming, and and I was writing songs, I'm a songwriter, and I started writing songs, and the father started to come down, and I was like, Father, okay, I'm writing father and then the heavens, and I'm like, okay, heavens, why? So I started writing lyrics with the father and the heavens, I'm like, Yeah, but why? You know the the the the um interesting thing is that I have been running away from the Bible, Jesus and churches for 30 years. I didn't want to hear about it.

SPEAKER_04 42:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Due to the lack of connection with God in in the in the Catholic Church where I was in France, and obviously anything else. I I just wanted to do my own thing.

SPEAKER_06 43:00

Yes. So you had the pre-course thing in twenty end of twenty twenty one.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 43:07

And you were about to do the course in twenty twenty two, but you never ended up going on it.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

Yeah, I did. I started the course on uh the second of January.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

Did you?

SPEAKER_01 43:18

That's when I had my bubble. That's when I started opening the Bible. Right. So I started opening the Bible in January 22, and I started my course in January 22, and at that time I was serving two masters.

SPEAKER_05 43:31

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

And I was like, wow. So I'm reading the Bible about sexual immorality, divination, sorcery. Uh and so I'm reading the Bible here, and then I close the Bible and I go and practice those things. So I found myself in a crossroad, literally by the end of January.

SPEAKER_05 43:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

I was like, I need to make a choice. Yeah, it's Jesus or it's Satan.

SPEAKER_06 44:00

And somebody invited you along here, is that right? Yeah. Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 44:04

That's right, yeah. Somebody invited me along here.

SPEAKER_06 44:07

And you came in fairly.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Reluctantly, yes.

SPEAKER_06 44:10

Okay. Where did you sit?

SPEAKER_01 44:12

Where did I sit?

SPEAKER_06 44:12

Yeah, where did you sit?

unknown 44:14

There.

SPEAKER_06 44:14

Yeah, yeah, that's a good place. First time. Far away from here.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

He can hide away up there. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:21

Yeah. And Peter Baker is preaching.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Peter Baker is here.

SPEAKER_06 44:25

Here.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:26

And he's opening up the Bible and preaching. Do you remember what he was preaching about?

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Yeah, well, yes, he was preaching about Isaiah, but um I didn't know who Isaiah was at the time.

SPEAKER_06 44:37

Old Testament prophet, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Yeah, at the time I just didn't know, and but it was the the it was how profoundly it spoke to me. And then obviously the the good thing with the sermons here, they always come back to Jesus. And so again, Jesus is like now calling me. It's like D, I'm calling you now. Stop like stop dancing around like you know, I don't exist. And and so this sermon was extremely powerful because Peter was explaining about why Jesus was on the cross. And for the very first time I understood.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

Amazing. Yeah. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

And during that time, um because he spoke to me so profoundly, uh I couldn't get enough and I never not went back.

SPEAKER_06 45:27

Yes. Would you date your conversion to that day?

SPEAKER_01 45:32

Uh 27th of February, 2022.

SPEAKER_06 45:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

That was, I would say, my I was born again that day. That's amazing. Because I was starting to be convicted of my sins beforehand. But then I felt that, you know, when you look for spirituality everywhere, and suddenly you find it.

SPEAKER_06 45:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

And you're like, okay.

SPEAKER_06 45:52

Right. You'd have the counterfeits all through your life. Yes. Here's the real thing.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

Yes, and I and I guess this is in a way, I would say, an advantage. That's why I'm quite grateful actually for my path, because now I can truly smell from afar what's not right. Right. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 46:11

Yeah, yeah. And time has absolutely flown, but tell tell us about the last 21 months. How would you how would you characterize the last 21 months? Because some people would kind of say, oh well, Aditi, you've tried lots of things in life.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 46:29

And Jesus is just one more thing you've tried. But in 2024, it might be something else.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 46:35

Like what what would you say? Well, why would you say that with Jesus you've kind of come home to something permanent?

SPEAKER_01 46:41

Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And what I love is how consistent he is with the whole Bible. Um, and it is is is not a God of confusion, as I said. So, you know, and we need to look at what Jesus does in our own life. For example, when I when I was born again uh 27th of February, I started again reading the Bible and starting being really hungry for it. And then I'm reading, so my by then my husband is like is still doing Reiki and he's doing his own thing in our home. And then I'm reading, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness, to Corinthians 6.14. So I'm like, wow, what am I going to do? Like I cannot be yoked with with Trevor. We were not married at the time. And um, I'm reading further: if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. Okay, Lord. So you're telling me I cannot be with somebody, you know, who doesn't believe in what I believe, but then you're telling me to not divorce him. So what do I do? Get on your knees and pray for him. Okay, we're gonna do this then. And I started praying for my husband since from April until July, every day on my knees. Okay. And then he came to my baptism on 31st of July 2020.

SPEAKER_06 48:20

Where's the baptistry here?

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Here.

SPEAKER_06 48:23

Just there. Amazing. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

And so he came.

SPEAKER_06 48:27

Where did he sit? There, okay. To the right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

And he read for me on my baptism. Uh-huh. And a month later he was born again in our kitchen.

SPEAKER_04 48:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

He gave himself to Jesus with Mike.

SPEAKER_05 48:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

And that's why I think this God is real. Right. Okay, because now, this is to answer your question, is this is one of the many small or big miracles that he does in your life.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

And so while Satan was serving me, that is not comparable what God does.

SPEAKER_06 49:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 49:06

It's just not comparable.

SPEAKER_06 49:07

Right. Nope. And you flew back to France.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

Yeah, so so I'm going to call 2022 a catapult year. Okay. Because January 2022, I was in witchcraft. February 2222, I'm now a born-again Christian. July 2022, I'm getting baptized. August 22, 2022, my partner is now born again. December 22, 2022, he gets baptized. And a week later, we get married for the Lord. Not for us because we've been together for 11 years. It's for the Lord. So 2022 when poo.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

Yeah. And so last year my mum was taken to hospital for a stroke. And this truly, I prayed, I was praying a lot for her, and I was prompted to fly to France, spread the gospel, and baptize her. And I'm like, really? Do I have to do that? So I'm being a Jonah by now.

SPEAKER_06 50:14

Sure. Jonah goes in the opposite direction. When God says go to Nineveh, he goes in exactly the opposite direction. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

So so uh and because I I used to be in contact with so many entities, I really truly wanted to know if it was from the Lord or if it was another uh another one of the minions of Satan. And so I kept praying, kept praying, and it was just really crystal clear. Didi, take the plane, go to see your mom, spread the gospel, baptize her. I was like, okay, I'm just gonna do it. And uh so I flew to France and she's in a care home. And thankfully, I was with my beautiful team, the local mission prayer, and we pray every Monday morning, and uh they were there with me on Zoom, and I stayed four days. Two days before my flight, I call her and I'm like, Mom, I'm gonna tell you a story when I come. Because I didn't know how to approach it. She's like, she's still Hindu. Yeah, you know, she's still like into Hinduism and all this. And then one day before I fly, I say to my mom again, Mom, I told you I was telling you a story yesterday, but actually I'm gonna read your true story. Okay, baby steps. I'm flying to France the next day, and that's it. I'm meeting her. I've got the small book of John with me in French, and so um I started reading to her. And so every like all the the local mission prayed for me, and you know, uh, and they were thinking about me that day. It's like, come on, let's do this. And I sat next to her and I started reading the gospel, and all I could feel is that really intense stare at me. And I didn't know at the time if she was gonna punch me or if she was listening intently to the word of God. And so I'm here reading. I'm like, okay, we stop. I come back tomorrow. She's like, yes. Next day I go, third day I go, I keep reading, I keep reading. On the fourth day, it's Monday morning, it's my time to go back to the UK. I'm having a prayer meeting with my team on a Monday morning before I go and see my mom. And we are like, right, this is the last finishing line, guys. We need to pray for this. And so I went uh and see my so my mom. I finished the book of John, and she was just sitting there and I said, Do you believe Jesus is God? And she's like, Yeah. Do you want to celebrate in water? Yeah. So we went into her bathroom, and I went to translate the three questions that they do here on baptism in French, and I asked the three questions in French, and I baptized her with uh the water from her sink onto her forehead, and I give her a big hug.

SPEAKER_03 53:15

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

And she was just born again that day.

SPEAKER_03 53:17

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

I looked at my watch and I was like, okay, gotta go. Gotta go back. I've got the plane.

SPEAKER_06 53:24

You did what you came to do.

SPEAKER_01 53:25

And yeah, so she's she's so now I'm I'm reading the Bible to my mum three times a week.

SPEAKER_04 53:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

And she just can cope with small talk. She's like Aditi, don't tell, don't just read the Bible. And she just she just can't get enough of me reading the Bible to her.

SPEAKER_06 53:38

That's amazing. Aditi, people will have all sorts of questions for you. Will you will you be around after?

SPEAKER_01 53:44

I will be around for anybody who wants to talk, yes.

SPEAKER_06 53:46

Anyone who wants to talk, because there's so much more to the story and so much more wisdom from Aditi. But just I've just got one more question for you.

SPEAKER_04 53:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 53:54

I asked you who you would have said Jesus was as a teenager in France all those years ago. But now in December 2023, who is Jesus to you?

SPEAKER_01 54:04

Ah, he's uh he's God, he's he's he's our Lord, he's everything, he's our creator, he's our savior. Without him, we're nothing. We are completely dead. And uh I just want to finish by for anybody who has logic in their mind, try and debunk the resurrection for a start. Try it. If you have a logical mind, you know, like just very analytical, that's the word I was looking for, analytical mind. And you want evidence, there is an overwhelming number of evidence that you can find online. And also what's really important to note is that every single religion in this world point to Jesus, whether as a prophet, a being of light, um, a teacher, an ascend ascended master, right? Every single religion will talk about Jesus. And who does Jesus talk about? Himself. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me. So don't go in the wrong direction.

SPEAKER_06 55:13

Beautiful word to finish on. Ladies and gentlemen, Aditi.

SPEAKER_01 55:17

Thank you. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_06 55:19

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 55:20

I'm going to take this.

SPEAKER_06 55:25

Um can I just take a couple of minutes uh to just point to the same Jesus that Aditi uh is pointing us towards from the Gospel of John? I think that's pretty appropriate. Uh as I was hearing her story earlier this week, um, I got to thinking which part of John's Gospel should I reach for? And I decided we should have a look a little bit at the Samaritan Woman, which is a great story from John's Gospel. You might know John is the fourth biography of Jesus in the Bible. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And John was one of Jesus' best friends, and he trod those dusty roads with Jesus for three years and got to know him as more than just a teacher, more than just a guru, more than just a great man, but as God himself, the one through whom the heavens and the earth were created. And John's Gospel is great. We've got copies of John's Gospel for you, and uh, we'd love you to take one as a gift. And you can read about what happened when God showed up on planet Earth. Isn't that a great story? God shows up on planet earth, and what does he do? Well, according to John, he comes and stoops and serves and suffers and bleeds and dies for you, and rises again to offer you eternal life and the love of a father, the filling of a spirit, to offer you himself for free and forever. That's a good story, isn't it? It's the best story, okay? And Christians believe it's 100% true. In John chapter 4, Jesus meets a woman who's been looking for love in all the wrong places. And that's partly why I've chosen this story for tonight. Because here's this woman who meets with Jesus at a well. Let's have a look. The verses will be up on the screen, but I'll just read from this little John's gospel. And we might go from verse 4 if that's alright. Now he had to go through Samaria, talking about Jesus. Samaria was to the north of Israel, another nation, another religion. They were the enemy. The Samaritans and the Jews did not get on, to put it lightly. But Jesus decides he has to go through this area in Samaria in order to get where he's going. And the deepest answers to the question, why do you have to go through Samaria is he has to meet this woman. He has to have a one-to-one with her. He has to satisfy her deepest thirst. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sycar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. Wells in the Bible are a sign of two things. First, they're a symbol of thirst and the slaking of thirst. The deeper meaning is that we're all thirsty for something. We all have that spiritual thirst, and we look for it in any number of different places. An Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, reports the words of God in Jeremiah chapter 2, where the Lord looks at his people and he says, My people have committed two sins. They've forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken wells that can hold no water. And it's a beautiful picture of what you and I are like. It's very striking as a picture. That we're in a desert place and we go past the fountain of living waters. A God who is there to slake your thirst, a God full of life. And instead of receiving life from this sort of Niagara falls of blessing, we continue on in our trek and we take a shovel to dry ground and we try to dig little wells. Broken wells that hold a little bit of water, but it's just mud in the end. And this is what we're like. We look for love in all the wrong places. We look for life and satisfaction, and we end up with a mouthful of mud. That's you and me. I don't know what your broken well might be. Maybe it is all sorts of new age practices, or promiscuity, or drugs, or alcohol, or shoplifting, or any of the number of things that Aditi was looking for in order to slake that spiritual thirst. I don't know what it is for you. What do you think is life for you? I remember age 21, my mother bought me a t-shirt, and it just said, cricket is life. The rest is mere detail. It's kind of a tragic t-shirt to have, isn't it? But I was a cricket tragic, okay? I would spend six days a week running after a little red ball on a green field. I thought it was life, right? And of course, that's that's a very narrow life. That's a very limited life, isn't it? And of course, when I did well at cricket, I thought I was doing well at life. I might not have been. When I did badly at cricket, I thought I was losing at life. And the problem with all these different miniature wells, these artificial gods, these idols, the Bible would call them, these substitute gods, they never forgive you when you fail them. And they never satisfy you when you get them. That's the problem. And for me, age 21, it was cricket. For Adity, you could point to any number of different things. And I don't know what it is for you. What's on your t-shirt? What is life? And the rest is near detail. Think to yourself, how would you complete this sentence? If I just got X, life would be worth living. What is X for you? Or flip it on its head. If I lost that thing, life would not be worth living. What is that thing? Well, I guess that's your life. That's your well. That's your broken well. And when you get that thing, it will not satisfy you, not on the deepest level. And if you fail that thing, it will not forgive you. It will be ultimately merciless. That's the trouble with all these substitute gods. They're not really up to the job. So wells are a picture of looking for love in all the wrong places. Wells are also a picture in the Bible of meeting the love of your life. In the Old Testament, famous couples met at a well. So Isaac met Rebekah, and Jacob met Rachel, and Moses met Zipparah at a well. This is a place where you meet the love of your life. And that's interesting background as we see what happens at this well. Verse 7. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy some food. Don't you love Jesus? He's just crashing through all these ancient barriers. She's, according to all his disciples, she's the wrong religion, the wrong nationality, the wrong gender, according to his disciples, and the wrong lifestyle as well. We'll see that this woman has been looking for love in all the wrong places. She's been married five times. The man that she's now with is not actually her husband. She's been looking for love in all the wrong places. What is her broken well? And yet Jesus comes. He is the fountain of living waters. And he comes to reach across all those barriers and boundaries to offer her true life. Verse 9. The Samaritan woman said to him, You're a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. You know what he's saying? He's saying, I am the God of Jeremiah chapter two. I am the fountain of living waters. I am the source of life. I am the one who can slake that ultimate thirst. And all you've got to do is a you've just got to ask. You've been seeking for life there and there and there and there and there, and it hasn't worked. And you've got a mouthful of mud and you're parched. Just ask. Isn't that beautiful? The living God comes down into a desert place and says to people like us, who have looked for life in all the wrong places, who've turned our backs on God and tried to make life work out of our own resources, and how does the living God come to us? He says, just ask. Well, verse 11, the woman doesn't quite get it. He says, Living waters, she thinks he means running water. Sir, the woman said, You've nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock? She's not really getting it. So Jesus just offers life again. Verse 13, Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. Who does Jesus think he is? You can drink a glass of water. You'll need another drink drink of water within hours. You drink from me, you never go thirsty again. Who says that? Who is able to say that? To a world that's parched and thirsty for life. You know, Lord Byron, the poet, he was rich, he was famous, he was artistically fulfilled, he had women on call, and he recognized that he was still thirsty. He wrote this poem back in 1820. He said, Drank every cup of joy, drank early, deeply drank, drank draughts which common millions would have drunk, then died of thirst, for there was nothing more to drink. That's the human condition, isn't it? Trying to make life worse. out of our own resources, and then we die of thirst because there's nothing more to drink. And the God who is a fountain of living waters says, just ask. Won't you just ask? I am that fountain. And he says to this woman who is not really getting it. So he just offers and he offers and he offers again. Verse 15, is the woman starting to twig? I don't know. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. Does she get it? I'm not sure she does. He told her, Go, call your husband and come back. Ah. This is how he's going to put his finger on her, well, Christians would say, sin, right? On her wrongdoing. On the ways that she is trying to make life work without God. She's been married five times, as we'll see, she's now with a guy who won't marry her. She has been looking for love in many wrong places. And she's not really getting it the whole Jesus thing. And so he puts his finger on her sin. He puts his finger on her broken well. And that's what Jesus will do for you too. And it's a loving thing for him to do. Because we need to face the mouthful of mud. We need to face how broken our wells are if we're actually going to turn and receive that life. And so he will put his finger on whatever broken well you have and he'll say whatever it is. Maybe it's not go call your husband he might say go show me your internet history. Go open your life to me in the way that's so uncomfortable. Show me your worst thing will you trust Jesus with your worst thing? And you think I I could never do that. But maybe there's some part of you that thinks can Jesus handle my worst thing? And if he can, wouldn't that be life transforming? Wouldn't it be transforming if the God of the universe could see you all the way to the bottom and love you all the way to the stars. Wouldn't that be transforming? I've got a psychologist friend. He said the one thing I've seen that's actually changed people in my 30 years of practice is when people look bad in the presence of love. That's what changes people. It's the opposite of the way that you and I normally live normally you and I try and look good in the presence of judgment. Okay? We mentioned social media. What's social media? We're trying to look good in the presence of judgment. Saying please don't cancel me please don't cancel me look I'll put all the filters on. Here's a nice selfie of me I've taken it 17 times and here's the best shot. We try to look good in the presence of judgment. We do it online we do it offline it's the natural human condition. But you know how people truly change you look bad in the presence of love. You drop the act and whatever it is Jesus says to her bring your husband get real with me about that area of life. It'll be something different for you probably what's your worst thing can you trust Jesus with it? He is the God who can be trusted. He is the God who can descend down into that basement and still shine his light. Wouldn't that be amazing? If you could open up to him if he could see you at your worst and still love you? He told her go call your husband and come back. I have no husband she replied yes finally honesty finally reality she's been missing Jesus the whole time he's been offering her himself the whole time and she's been missing him and so he puts his finger on the broken well and she names the broken well and it's like yes there's some reality I have no husband she replied Jesus said you're right when you say you have no husband the fact is you've had five husbands and the man you're now with is not your husband. What you've said is just quite true. Sir, the woman said I can see that you're a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. She's trying to slip off the hook a little bit there. Let's let's talk religion for a bit can we Jesus? It was a little bit hot talking about my personal life. Can we get on to the the religious question of the day? People always do that with me. I talk to them about spiritual reality and they they always want to talk about religion and religious questions and you know is it a sin to smoke and things like that. This is not the issue. Which mountain you worship on is not the issue. Woman Jesus replied believe me a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Jesus is the King of the Jews. He's come through that line of David to be the Savior of the world. Yet a time is coming and is now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth that they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth. The woman said I know that Messiah called Christ is coming. When he comes he'll explain everything to us then Jesus declared I, the one speaking to you, I am he Aditi said when she found Jesus she found clarity and she found love right in a life of searching there was so much confusion so much opinion so much that was just ephemeral. She found Jesus and she found clarity love this about Jesus I am the Messiah I am the Christ you can cling to me I am something solid that you can base your life upon there's clarity here and there's love here. Let me finish with this Jesus is thirsty in John chapter 4. The only other time we read that he's thirsty in John's gospel is in chapter 19, right at the end. Spoiler alert although it's been 2000 years you should know this by now Jesus ends up dying at the end of John's Gospel it's not the last thing that happens in John's gospel. There is that resurrection that Aditi wants us to press into and discover more about chapter 19 one of the seven sentences that Christ says from the cross is I'm thirsty and what's he saying there is this just a description of facts well yes he was flogged to within an inch of his life he'd lost so much blood in World War I soldiers crying out in no man's land were crying out for water water water when you lose so much blood you're intolerably thirsty. So from one point of view when Jesus is on that cross he is physically thirsty but from another point of view don't you see the spiritual significance? Here is the fountain of living waters going thirsty isn't that odd he is the source of life he is the Niagara falls of blessing. He is the one who pours out his Holy Spirit and he goes thirsty what's going on well don't you see he's swapping places with you and me because that's what love does. You know what love does when love sees the beloved in trouble love says your trouble will be my trouble have you fallen into a pit your pit will become my pit. Are you in debt your debts will become my debts are you thirsty? Your thirst will become my thirst are you in trouble? Your trouble will become my trouble Do you sin? Well Jesus says your sin will become my sin and on that cross Jesus takes it all the drink and the drugs and the promiscuity and the shoplifting and all the dark arts all those new age practices and the internet history and the tax returns and whatever it is for you Jesus takes that sin on himself because that's what love does love says your debts will be my debts your pain will be my pain your thirst will be my thirst your hell will be my hell your sin will be my sin and he pays for it all on that cross. And then Jesus says it is finished. That's the final of the seven sentences Jesus says on the cross it is finished. And when the soldiers come to figure out whether he's dead or not he's already died. So the centurion shoves a spear up into his side and out comes a flow of blood and water you think what's going on well a cardiologist will tell you if you've had a heart attack there's a buildup of fluid around the heart and that was being released with the spear sure okay but there's a deeper significance too here is the fountain of living waters who has gone thirsty for you so that you might drink and how much does he want your satisfaction how much does he want the fullness of life for you? How much does he want that? He's willing to pay with his own blood how much does he want you he wants you with all his life are his arms open to you they were nailed open for you that's the love that's the clarity of Jesus do you want that for yourself you won't find anything like Jesus you simply will not find anyone like Jesus will you can dig broken well after broken well after broken well. None of them will satisfy you when you get them and none of them will forgive you when you fail them but Jesus when you fail him he forgives again and again and again and when you get him he really does satisfy he gives you that clarity he gives you that love he is the reality everything else is the counterfeit do you believe that if you do believe that or you're finding yourself starting to believe that can I just offer a few words that you might want to say to Jesus? I'm going to pray them in a second and you might want to echo them in your heart. Ways of saying to Jesus Jesus I'm sorry for looking for love in all the wrong places I'm asking you now. I'm coming to you. I'm turning my back on that stuff and I'm saying Jesus will you give me the living waters of your spirits I'm going to pray a prayer like that and if that's something that you want to echo in your heart you can do it quietly now. Why don't we just bow our heads and let me just lead in a few words the words are not magic but they might be one way of you responding to Jesus Lord Jesus I see that you are Lord and I am not I see that you are love and you are life I'm sorry for all the ways of trying to make life work without you please forgive me help me to be honest to you and to others please love me at my worst thank you for your cross for you paid for my sin thank you for your resurrection that gives me new life please fill me with your Holy Spirit and lead me through every desert place and into your eternal home