The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
Born out of Due Time 2:Spiritual ADHD and Finding Your True Calling
We explore the concept of "Spiritual ADHD" and how discerning God's true purpose for our lives requires focus, patience, and spiritual maturity.
• Identifying people's true capabilities versus forcing them into roles they're not gifted for
• The wilderness experience as God's refining process to expose pride and self-righteousness
• How the enemy's attacks often target areas connected to your divine purpose and calling
• Understanding that temptation itself isn't sin—it may indicate you're effective in Kingdom work
• The importance of keeping spiritual gifts accessible even during wilderness seasons
• Maintaining "spiritual everyday carry" so you're always mission-ready when God calls
• Learning from Christ's temptations that reveal connections between trials and purpose
• Recognizing that suffering is often proportional to the greatness of your calling
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Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of the WoeFoYo podcast with C Dubb and Bones. In our last episode, we covered some Old Testament examples. In Numbers 9 as well as Numbers 11, as well as 1 Corinthians, paul was talking about one being born out of due time, and the common thread in these scripture passages we had whether it was talking about Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians or whether it was talking about the story in Numbers 9 and Numbers 11, is that God has enough grace that, even if you feel like you've missed it, he's going to get you where you need to go, as long as you're willing. And then we got to talking about some leadership issues that can come up, and, as we were ending the last episode, we were talking about how sometimes the enemy can lay landmines in front of you and that when you're mentoring and stepping into leadership, it helps to know and discern what people are capable of and what they are called to do, rather than just beating your head against the wall trying to get them to be something that the Lord never called them to be. So that's where we are going to pick up this conversation.
Speaker 1:Wofo Yo. We mentioned before in one of the more recent episodes that when you pray for people, when you have a heart for people, that the Lord will show you what they're capable of, what they're capable of. It is really important that you are letting the Lord show you what they are capable of, that you're not letting the doctrine and the protocols and all this other stuff dictate. Well, they could be this and they could be that and they could be this Probably not.
Speaker 1:You know there are certain things and while we're talking about it, there are certain things C-Dub would not be good at. There are certain things that C-Dub thought he would be good at 22, 23 years ago. And the Lord showed me where he's called me to be and what he's called me to do is not there. It's in a totally different setting. It's in a more hostile setting and I'm able to be more effective than a lot of people are in this setting. But I wouldn't be in church in the organized Sunday service. I would not be, because some of the things that he shows me makes it hard for me to hold my tongue and the way I say it offends a lot of the Sunday service goers, whereas in my environment, if you're just blunt and say it, let's say here's the way it is that's actually respected Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if I showed up to church and somebody said well, the Lord showed me that you're going to be our next nursery worker. No, no, that wasn't the Lord that showed you that. Um, cause, cause. Bones don't do well in the nursery. Um, I love kids, but bones don't have the patience for that many kids. You don't, um, they just don't you. You will see my anxiety come out real quick and you'll see my frustrations come out real quick. Um, that's what. That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:A landmine, somebody just gave you a landmine right there. So you got to know what you're dealing with. You got to know what your capabilities are, what the capabilities of those around you are, if you're going to be in leadership and whatnot, because not everybody who steps up to you and says, hey, I want to do this or I think I can do that. Not everybody has steps up to you and says, hey, I want to do this or I think I can do that. Not everybody has that capacity to do it. You have to rely on the Lord to show you and and and work through that, not some psychology test or or some crap like that Personality test.
Speaker 1:Yeah, At a mentor of mine. And again, personality test, yeah, at a mentor of mine. And again, knowing when people are ready is that that's a heavy part of it, man, you know just like l dad and me dad they were ready that maybe they didn't think they were ready right you know, maybe that's why they stayed in the camp yeah, we're not worthy of that.
Speaker 1:But the lord says says, yeah, you're called. I had a guy. He was a mentor of mine, friend of my dad's, friend of mine had a lot of formative experiences while he was mentoring me on some things. Name was Robert, he called him Bobby. Name was Robert, he called him Bobby. And hey, can I get a minute of your time? He said I got a question for you, are you serious? And then he would ask a couple more questions. He said look, keep doing what you're doing, but you need to come and talk to me when you're serious. He was very nice about it. He didn't beat around the bush and he could see the potential, but he also knew when that potential wasn't, basically when I was being distracted, when I was thinking I was doing something but wasn't. When you're mentoring people, you've got to be honest about that. I want to do this and I want to do this and I want to do that. I want to do this. When you're serious, talk to me, I'll be there.
Speaker 1:He always made sure, and when I started rising to the occasion, guess who had all the time in the world? My dad's friend, bobby, learned some things that way, and it wasn't much about what he taught me, but how he taught me. If you're one of those that are called, you're still called doesn't always mean you're ready.
Speaker 2:You can get some spiritual ADHD if you're not careful. And what I mean by that is you get saved, lit on fire and whatnot, and you feel the Lord calling you to do something, but you're really not sure what it is yet. Then you start seeing people around you do stuff and you like what they're doing, you like how people respond and you just like it. Oh yeah, well, maybe I want to do that. And you see somebody else do something. I want to do that, I want to do this, I want to do that. And it's all born out of a sincere heart, sincere spirit. It's born out of a spirit of servitude, which is awesome. But the reason why you don't know really what you want to do yet is because the Lord hadn't told you yet. Reason why you don't know really what you want to do yet is because the Lord hadn't told you yet.
Speaker 2:And that's what it means in the Bible when the Lord tells his disciples to tarry, tarry. Ye here, wait here for a little bit, get focused. Get focused because I'm going to go, prepare the way for you. I'm going to make sure everything is good for you for when I let you go, when I take the chain off. Then the way for you. I'm gonna make sure everything is good for you for when I let you go, uh, when I take the uh, when I take the chain off, then, uh, you can go do what you got to do, uh. So it can be very easy to get that spiritual adhd to want to run out there and go do stuff.
Speaker 1:But, like it's a lot of it just comes from a lack of lack of maturity, that's all it lets you know that they did get focused in there because it said they were praying of one mind and one accord. Yep, you don't do that without getting focused, right, right, right, you were mentioning the ADHD. I'm saying this with all respect, with all respect. My buddy Mike that passed away Big reason that this podcast is here, that our book was there he was a guy that the Lord used to, let me know, pulling me back up, get ready, and nine months later, here we go, love that guy went on to be with the Lord, but he had a flaw he grew faster than both of us. Wow, spiritually, the only trouble is maintaining focus. He said man, it's like ADHD. I understand that, but without betraying any confidence.
Speaker 1:Me and him had a few discussions of hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about this, what do you think about it? I think you need to stop getting your shit off. Tiktok, mike, you know, sometimes we can see that the hour is late. I'm talking about human history, if you can discern what time we're at, if the hour is urgent, kind of like what you're talking about in the Lord of the Rings thing. Man, that hour was dire. You don't have time to be distracted by everything else. You need to learn what the Lord wants you to do and do it. And I know that because I've learned that lesson the hard, hard way, right and I'm like look for you, bud.
Speaker 1:It's going to be even more drastic because the time is shorter, which I still believe. So having that spiritual ADHD can shipwreck you to a degree, but it doesn't mean that you're going to outrun God's grace, but also, like the Apostle Paul when he saw the Tarsus, don't be surprised if the means used to bring you back in alignment with what God is doing are drastic.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what I was just sitting here thinking. A lot of times, god will jerk your chain really hard and a lot of times that is commensurate to your calling, it's commensurate to your calling. It's commensurate to your calling. It's commensurate to your calling, it's commensurate to your circumstance, but it's not necessarily, or may not necessarily be, commensurate to your character. You know, maybe it is, maybe it ain't, but yeah, a lot of times, if there's greatness in the calling, then there's going to be. There's going to be greatness in the suffering. Be ready for it.
Speaker 2:That's something that I'm struggling with. I'm struggling with big time. One of the things that I struggle with that me and God go back and forth with is if you're an omnipotent God, if you're omnipotent, you're omniscient. Those are big words. If you're those things, why do I got to keep asking for the things that you already know I need? Why do I have to keep asking for the things that you already know is going to happen? Because it seems a whole lot more efficient if you just don't go ahead and make these things available when I need them, where I need them, so we can just go ahead and move on. Now that's just our personal dialogue, because that's my frustration that comes out. He don't answer me a whole lot on those questions, other than just suck it up. You know, suck it up and drive, suck it up buttercup. Sometimes it does feel like that.
Speaker 2:The Bible tells us a lot about suffering, a lot about suffering. I don't want to say persecution, I don't feel like I've been persecuted at all but suffering and going through the pain and stuff like that. You have to go through these things. You have to go through them in the wilderness, you have to go through them within the congregation, within the church. You will not be without pain and suffering. There's nothing in the New Testament that calls us to a life of ease, to a life of glory before you die. But there's plenty of ministry out there that tells you that you can have that and you can't. You can't believe that we, as as, as believers and especially as servants and ministers, we are destined for pain and suffering, whether it's physical, mental, behavioral, emotional, spiritual. We're destined for that. So you've got to find your joy, your happiness, all that has to be found in Jesus.
Speaker 1:There is no victory without a trial at all without a trial at all, one of the things you mentioned.
Speaker 1:Though, if I could offer just a slight bit of input as one who has had those discussions and it's not been directly said, but it's been directly demonstrated Lord, you know I need these things. What happens is just speaking for me. Sometimes there's a disconnect with what the Lord knows that I need and what I need to be doing, and what I think I need and need to be doing, and so I ask why do you get frustrated? Why do you get frustrated? And sometimes in that dialogue, what gets worked out is huh guess, what I thought I needed isn't really what I needed. What I thought was the issue wasn't the issue. So now, lord, you're showing me that I wasn't around when you made the whirlwind. I wasn't around when you laid the stars out. Well, crap, okay, what do I need to be doing? That's the way it usually works out with me, but we have this idea, we think we know, we think we know ourselves, he knows us better than we do, but it's just like oh, I'll tell you what's funny.
Speaker 2:It's funny, but it's not. I could have an argument. My wife and I can get into an argument, we can have our spats and whatnot, and it don't take but just a few seconds for me to work through it and realize that probably the majority at least half I already know at least half of it, but probably the majority of that argument was my fault, because we're in a relationship, because we're in a relationship that I can always, in our arguments and our disagreements I can always trace something back to okay, you could have done this different. You should have done this different. So part of that was your fault. And I get aggravated with myself because I should be doing that. Why can't I do that with God? With God, it's always His fault. So that's one of my flaws. I said God never answered me. On some of those I was mistaken. He did answer me.
Speaker 2:I remember being in San Antonio, texas, fort Sam Houston. I was there for a combat medic training. At the time I was reclassifying. I was an MP military police who had reclassed from the infantry. So anyway, here we are. I had one or two other guys in my class that were prior infantry or prior combat arms, moss.
Speaker 2:And it's August in San Antonio, it is hot and everybody's wanting to take their ACU tops off in class. We're in an air conditioning classroom, oh, it's hot, can we take our tops off? Me and a couple of other guys kind of looked at each other like what, because if one person takes their top off, everybody's got to take their top off. Everybody's got to be uniform in the room. So there was just a lot of whining and complaining about silly shit like that. It's hot in the classroom, it's hot outside. Do we have to have our body armor on when we're outside? Do we have to do this? Do we really have to do that? And uh, so anyway, we got in the van, this 15 passenger van one, one day to go out to the training site. And we're in the van, all of us, and we're complaining about how hot it is and how this sucks and can't wait till this crap is over and everything. And now you've got to understand where we're at.
Speaker 2:At Fort Sam Houston is located BAMC, brook Army Medical Center. Brook Army Medical Center is the Army's premier hospital, premier burn center. If you're blown up in Iraq or Afghanistan, you'll wake up at BAMC. They don't even work on you in country. They don't even work on you in country, they don't even take you to Germany, they flight you right back straight to BAMC. It's a big deal. So anyway, we're in the van complaining about how hot it is and how this training sucks, and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:And here comes one of our wounded warriors, double amputee from just above the knee down or from the knees down, double amputee in PT gear, running on the sidewalk. And the van just got quiet. All of us knew right then. Right there we were complaining about how hot it was and how our training sucks and all these things. And here comes this soldier who had lost both his legs from the knees down, and he's out running man. To him, I'm sure things could have been a whole lot better, but he's probably just thankful to the fact that he could be running again. Man, you talk about humbling. So I know God brings that to my remembrance every now and then. It says you know, if you just shut up and look around, you'd realize you ain't got it so bad after all.
Speaker 1:Thought you were talking about the time. You were talking about some relationship like Lord, what's our problem?
Speaker 2:I've done that too. I've done that too. That's a good story too. My second wife and I are going through our problems, and I've had a knock-down drag out with the Lord. Finally, this is probably the first time I'd really shook my fist at him and said you know what? You know, I was so mad and so angry. I remember just pounding my fist on my bed and saying damn it, lord, what is wrong? What is wrong with her? What's wrong with you? What the hell is wrong? Don't you even know what you're doing up there? Because I don't think you do what's wrong with her? And just as plain as you and I are talking, I could hear in my ear you, that was it. I was done. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I was done.
Speaker 2:God, let me know real quick that number one we're not going to have that. We're not going to do that. But it's okay, because you had to get that out of your system. But now we can talk. Yeah, and now we can talk. And we did. We had a very nice, we had a nice chit chat after that. But he let me know that, well, the problem was you, it was her too, but mainly you. And once you get that worked out, then you'll be all right. And he was right, yeah, so there.
Speaker 1:There were some things I was going through right around that time. I remember we were talking and I just remember having some issues and I go, but I'm going to be a preacher how would that look? If I'm about about the time that thought made its way out of my brain before it exited my mouth. I go well, hello, pride. So you've been hiding, because sometimes that pride can hide a zeal for the lord, oh yeah, and give you an excuse to treat other people like crap because of your pride and you want to say you're being holy and and you know I'm big on this.
Speaker 1:That doesn't mean you negate standards, however. It does affect how you address people. It does affect how you address people and it does affect how you view people and how you interact. Are you looking down upon them? Are you so high and mighty that you have to condescend to them to be on their level? Because guess what If that's the case? You know, because, guess what If that's the case? You're not so high and mighty as you think. You're often low and debased and not realizing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I found out that narcissism has its own way of hiding, has its own way of hiding and I had a little narcissism line back there that God had to bring out and show me that hey, you're calling it righteousness or you're calling it holiness, but it's actually narcissism. I think what we normally call it in church circles is self-righteous actually, but in clinical circles they call it narcissism. But those things have a really good way of kind of lying dormant for a while and we can kind of cover those things up. But that's what the wilderness does. It gets us out there in a place where it's just us and the Lord, and that's where the refinement process occurs, brings all that slag and draws up to the top so that you can see it and it's ugly. It really is.
Speaker 2:The problem is you're not the only one that gets to seize it. You can see it. Your spouse is going to see it, your children are going to see it, the ones who are closest to you are going to see it. Your spouse is going to see it, your children are going to see it. The ones who are closest to you are going to see it. But you're going to be better for it in the end. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You got to let that slag come to the top so you can get rid of it. Yeah, and then there's that cool down period, because you ain't touching it while everything's still molten. And then there's that cool-down period because you ain't touching it while everything's still molten, but after it cools down, then you can get up and get that stuff off there, get it polished up a little bit of stuff like that. You sent me something. I thought it was interesting, just didn't have a chance to respond to you yesterday. I thought it was really—do you mind talking about that?
Speaker 2:Something that I hadn't really considered a whole lot, but I get the guy's premise I was talking about. If you're having, if the enemy's attacking you in certain areas, it may have something to do with what God's purpose might be for you or something like that, and I thought it was very interesting. I don't want to make doctrine out of it or anything like that, but one of the examples was if you're struggling with the temptation of smoking maybe you've been a smoker and you're trying to quit smoking and you're struggling with that temptation to go back to smoking and smoking is connected to lung damage, things like that God has got something greater for you along the lines of I think you said communication or speaking. Along the lines of I think you said Communication or speaking yeah, communications or speaking. And as I was listening to this person speak, I was like, okay, that's something I can understand. So really, what we're talking about is sometimes the enemy will attack your body Right, because the body represents something in the spirit, in the spiritual realm. So if you're struggling in an area, if you have constant temptation in a particular area, and it may have something to do with what God has planned for you in the future, and I do want to do some more digging on this and more praying on it to see to get a little more on it. But the initial example was just, you know, smoking and stuff like that can affect the throat and the lungs and it says maybe God's purpose for you is speaking, maybe God's purpose for you is speaking.
Speaker 2:I know another example that I came across was for individuals who are having a problem with self-esteem and stuff like that, having issues with self-esteem, self-confidence and stuff like that. The enemy is attacking you in those areas because God knows that you have great ability for leadership. And I said, okay, yeah, I see this. Now I see this.
Speaker 2:So if we can understand the enemy's attacks and where he's attacking us at, then maybe we can better understand why he's attacking us. If we can understand why he's attacking us, then that can help us understand what our purpose is here on this earth, because I believe that a lot of this spiritual ADHD comes from the fact that we don't know what our purpose is yet. Oh amen, it's this constant channel changing in our mind of what we think God wants us to do, yada, yada, yada. But we really haven't got it figured out. But I know that if we can assess our enemy's tactics and figure out why he's attacking us and what he's attacking us with and what he's doing, that gives a pretty good indication of what God is trying to do in our life.
Speaker 1:You cannot, charlie, mike, or continue mission if you don't know what the mission is. Amen. We go basically surfing the spiritual Internet for our calling Over here, over here, over here, rather than getting alone with God, letting him establish that you were talking about the temptations and and my, my mind went back to the temptation in the wilderness, every one of those things there there was an ego thing Command these stones to be made bread when you're already the bread of life. And not only that, but Jesus was, since he passes that test, is able to multiply loaves and fishes, says in scripture. Takes to the pinnacle of the temple, throw yourself down. He will give his angels charge over you to keep you in a not doing that. Number one, I am the temple. And number two, since he passes that test, he said you shouldn't tempt the Lord, your God, with evil.
Speaker 1:When everybody's wanting to throw him off cliffs in towns, when he gets to preaching it right in the synagogue, he walks right through their midst. The only time anybody lays a finger on Jesus is when he offers himself up to be sacrificed. Never until then, even if he's just hidden, I mustn't. But he doesn't need to succumb to throw himself down from the temple, because he is the pinnacle of the temple, he's the temple itself and we're we're living stones of that temple. Show, show you all the nations of the world in a minute. All the kingdoms. These are mine. They've been given to me. You know, adam forfeited that over. I can give them to whoever I want. If you just bow down and worship me, I'll give them to you and get thee behind me, Satan. It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord God. Him only shall you serve.
Speaker 2:I'm king of kings. How are you going to give me other?
Speaker 1:kingdoms. So now he has the kingdom. So every one of those temptations is a direct reflection of what he's called to be and who he is. Same thing with Peter. I'll never deny you. Yeah, you will. But once you've been converted, strengthen your brethren, Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, tend my flock. These passages highly encouraged me because I saw in it. I saw you don't have to be doing it like everybody else, but you do have to be called and you do have to be called.
Speaker 2:And you do have to be willing to step up when the Lord tells you to step up and keep in mind temptation is not a sin. No, to be tempted is not a sin. It's easy, and this is a tactic of the enemy too. It can be very easy to be tempted, to endure temptation and then start telling yourself, oh my God, I'm a horrible person, I shouldn't be having these thoughts, I shouldn't be being tempted this way.
Speaker 2:No, you being tempted is a pretty good indication that you're doing something in the kingdom, because the enemy's not going to come after you if you're not doing anything. The enemy's not going to come after a dormant warrior. So if you're being tempted and you're having temptations, yeah, you're effective, you're an effective warrior and he's trying to stop that. Now it's what you do with those temptations. That can be different, but no, being tempted alone is not, is not a sin. Just because you have some thoughts about this or that, those are temptations. That's not. That's not a sin. It's what you do with that stuff. Because, lord knows, if that's all it took goodness, like we'd never, we wouldn't make it out of bed in the morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Jesus was tempted and we know that he was without sin. So, you know, I think it's interesting too that the enemy was offering to Jesus all the things that he already had. So maybe we need to start understanding and realizing that there's nothing that the enemy can tempt us with that we don't already have in Jesus.
Speaker 1:There was a period of time. When I say there was a period of time, I'm talking about 18 months, that you know. Lord's calling me back up Now I'm going to use you, all right, but, lord, I want it to be like this, what it was back in the day, lord, I want to be able to see in the spirit, hear in the spirit, praying for these things, and there's times I do. But the Lord started showing me through various ways. It was like some matrix stuff, but there were things I would thought that I had lost. I thought I'd misplaced them, only to find out they were exactly where I'd left them for about 18 months.
Speaker 1:Lord, help me find it. You still have it, you just don't remember where you put it. And he started talking to me about spiritual gifting and different things like that, things that I was praying for. He said if it's this way, with your natural stuff, with your material items that you're seeking, with this piece of paper that you think you've lost, it's not lost. You just don't know where to look for it, because, but it's not lost, you have it. Maybe if your house was cleaner you would be able to find it quicker. Maybe if you were a little bit more organized and had a little bit less clutter, it wouldn't be so hard to notice.
Speaker 2:Hello, that's what I'm talking about. When I said a while ago, when my wife and I have arguments and stuff like that, I can usually trace it back to something that's my fault and that's what the Lord's doing. There is showing the hey. Well, if you'd have done this, if you'd have done that, maybe we could have avoided this right here.
Speaker 1:Well, I was so far gone in the wilderness having fun. The wilderness was fun and I still enjoy it, and that's part of the struggle for me, being honest is coming out of the wilderness. Well, I know what to do in the wilderness, been here long enough, but I didn't take care of them and keep them nearby because I didn't think I was going to use them.
Speaker 2:You didn't think you needed them.
Speaker 1:Didn't think I needed them anymore. Let's put this back over there, the area that I don't ever touch. This is very personal for me. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. While he's got you out there doing the wilderness thing, you might not want to get your life so cluttered that you misplace those gifts and callings. Because they're still yours, oh yeah, but you don't want to end up having to look for them harder than you should. You shouldn't have to look for them at all. You should know that they're yours, no matter if you're in the wilderness or called back up or whatever he has you doing.
Speaker 2:They're still yours, especially in the wilderness. Everything should be within arm's reach. When you're in the wilderness, you should never be so fully unpacked that when God says, hey, let's go, like he told Abram, pick up your family. You know when he moved them from Haram and called them out of Haram. When he told his family, hey, let's go, was that Haram? Was that Haram? Yeah, haram, yeah yeah. You're better with the history than I am. When he told Abram, hey, let's go. You should never be so fully unpacked that you have to tell God hold on, wait just a second, let me get this, let me get that. No, everything should be within arm's reach. This should be. Maybe we should talk about EDC. Maybe we should talk about some spiritual, everyday carry. Yeah, that's kind of big. Maybe we'll do something like that. Yeah, that's kind of big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe we'll do something like that. Do some of that next week have that ready.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what we're talking about here. Don't get so fully unpacked in the wilderness that you get caught. You just get caught unawares and next thing you know you're telling God, hold on a second, Let me grab everything else. And then you're just kind of left standing there because you don't know where your shit's at.
Speaker 1:Remember Lot's wife.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:She was not mission ready.
Speaker 2:She was not mission ready. No, she was not. No, she was not.
Speaker 1:She's still salty over there. Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at Wofoyoorg or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, spotify or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. Remember, folks, if you're going to grow, you've got to Wofoyo. Get in the word for yourself.