The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
C-DUB'S Cheat Sheet for Growing Your Faith: 5 Key Insights
We discuss the importance of nurturing your faith beyond initial enthusiasm and practical steps to ready your heart for God's promises. iscover how to cultivate depth in your spiritual life with insights from the parable of the sower.
• Strategies for deepening your spiritual journey
• Importance of keeping a record of spiritual insights
• Questions to evaluate your spiritual maturity
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Everybody. This is C-Dub with another Wofo, yo Short Bones, and I recently talked about are you stony? And we talked about how Jesus gave the parable about the sower. So is the word. And if you were stony ground, then stony ground was that kind of ground where the believer receives the word but you don't have enough depth for it to fully develop. It sprouts up and you go oh yeah, yeah, this is great. But when things get hard, it with fully develop. It sprouts up and you go oh yeah, yeah, this is great. But when things get hard, it withers away. So people don't have depth in themselves. So to help you get a little bit of depth in yourself, I wanted to call this C-dubs cheat sheet, c-dubs checklist, and just give you some pointers on what to do when you believe.
Speaker 1:You've heard from the Lord. Now, this might be as you're reading the Bible. This might be somebody telling you something in church. This might be something you hear in prayer, and one of the things the Lord told me was to always keep a notebook or a way of recording it nearby. Now, obviously, keep a notebook or a way of recording it nearby. Now, obviously, if I'm driving down the road in my truck and the Lord has given me some things. I will find a safe space to pull over, pull over, start the voice recorder on my phone and do it that way. But if you're in prayer, if you're reading the Bible, have a notebook near so you can write down what you think the Lord is speaking, and this is also a way to test the Spirit. By the spirits, you can see what kind of fruit these things bear, especially if you're just starting out. It never hurts to have that pen and pad handy, and there are also a lot of people that if they're giving some kind of word that they believe is from the Lord, that is for you, they'll openly encourage you to. You know, break out your phone, break out the voice recorder, go over it. I would still transcribe it down, because it's just another way of getting that inside of you, not only to internalize it, but, more importantly, to break it down to where you can see what it says, and if it's a legitimate word from the Lord, then you're able to see it, to read it. You remember what it sounds like to hear it, and there's just different ways. Here's my first thing.
Speaker 1:I would ask, though, especially if somebody else is speaking Do you have a check in your spirit. Not something that tickles your emotions, not something that you go oh yes, this is always what I wanted. This is like my greatest desire is being spoken to me. This is how you discern whether somebody's trying to do fortune telling or whatever. But you don't have to necessarily understand it. But there should be something in your inner man, in your spirit man, where the Holy Spirit is witnessing to you that this is legitimate. And if you don't have that, I would definitely take it with a grain of salt. You might want to write it down and record it, but I wouldn't put a lot of faith in it until I've prayed about it. If that's the case Now, let's say you have that. You have a check. You know this thing is something from the Lord. Here are some questions to ask, and here's the you have that. You have a check. You know this thing is something from the Lord. Here are some questions to ask, and here's the real cheat sheet.
Speaker 1:Number one I would have still said is there a witness in my spirit? Number two I would ask is there a win on this? Not W-I-N, but a W-H-E-N. Was there a time frame on this? And a lot of times not. So. The thing is, if there's not a time frame I wouldn't try and superimpose a time frame, because that has been one of my greatest failures or shortcomings is that I've had to learn that I don't always discern the timing of one of God's promises right, and so it happens, but just not always when I think so. Question number one when Might not know it. Number two am I ready for that right now? Okay, if I'm not ready for that right now, if I'm not ready for the fulfillment of this promise, then where would I need to be in order to be in a position to receive that promise? You can just write this down when do I need to be? But where do I need to be to be in a position where, when this promise comes to pass, it doesn't ruin me and it's actually a blessing to me and others? Because receiving something before you're ready to receive it, before you're ready for its fulfillment, can actually be a judgment instead of a blessing. It really depends on how ready you are to act upon it.
Speaker 1:Look at people that win the lottery. If they're not ready for it, they don't know what to do. A lot of them end up bankrupt. They don't know what to do with money. So they squander the money. A lot of times it's on foolish things and isn't too long. There isn't any left.
Speaker 1:So am I ready?
Speaker 1:Where would I need to be? What would need to happen? Again, sometimes some of this requires some work on your part. I know it's grace, but Jesus said they have no depth in and of themselves. And that whole series on are you stony? We ask questions about how do you not be stony? How do you be fertile soil so that the word can develop and bear the fruit that God intended? So what would I need to do to be in the position to where God's word could grow and reap the most fruit? What would need to happen for me experiencing God's word revealed to me to be optimized? I know that's not a word we really use in church, but to optimize that experience and to make sure that it's not squandered, what would I need to do to get ready and then pray about these things? Also, are there character flaws that are preventing me from being in this position to be a blessing? I would ask that Bottom line is if you see that there's an area you're going to grow, if you don't know how, okay. Next question is how would I get there? If there's something that's hindering me, how do I get to where it's not hindering me? Is it a bad habit? Am I in bondage to something? Is it something I need to be delivered from, or is it a bad habit that I've established and therefore I have to establish a different habit to counteract that? Do I need to learn something new?
Speaker 1:One of the things we talk about in my job, especially whenever I'm training people, is a lot of people want the promotion. Promotion usually means greater responsibility, sometimes less physical work, but more responsibility on your part to make sure that you're not going to get anybody hemmed up and that you're not going to reflect badly on who employs you, as well as those that you supervise. You're keeping them out of trouble and want to optimize their experience while working with you, and so I've told a lot of these people. You know people want the promotion. People want the extra money that comes with the promotion. You know, because, hey, you'd be able to do some stuff better for you or your family or whatever. Some people like the prestige for you or your family or whatever. Some people like the prestige.
Speaker 1:But to me, what I tell them is ask how you can improve and diversify your skill set. How can you make yourself useful? What new skills can I learn? And, in the case of hearing from God and making sure that this word bears optimal fruit in you, if you know you're not where you need to be, for this word not to ruin you when it comes to pass, what skill set would benefit to where I'm better able to handle God's promises once they manifest, once they come to pass, and then I would start to take action. And the other thing I would say really quick, is learn how to prioritize, learn what's most important and then learn what needs to be done.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're on a schedule and then that way you knock out the important things and maybe you have to work up to it, but you have to learn to balance the most important thing as well as the most urgent thing, because some things are more urgent but they're not necessarily as important, but nevertheless they need to get done before you can go on to the next big thing, or sometimes they can wait while you focus on the more important things. So these are some questions to ask yourself. I don't have the answers for you, but I guarantee you that if you will ask these questions, write them down. You might not have the answer right away. Ask these questions, write them down.
Speaker 1:You might not have the answer right away, but pray, ask the Holy Spirit to show you the answers and what you need to do, and just be ready for a response, because it might come immediately. You might have to wait, you might have to wait a year, or it might just come, oftentimes, as it does with me, when you're in the middle of doing something. So you got to write it down as soon as you can and be willing to take those steps and, by all means, if you're wanting to answer, check it with the word and get in the word for yourself. Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you to grow in your individual and corporate walk with the Lord. You can always check us out at woefoyoorg and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, spotify or Audible For Bones and myself. This is Cedar reminding you if you're going to grow, you've got to woefoyo. Get in the Word for yourself.