The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
Simon The Sorcerer, Systems, And Spiritual Manipulation
Real joy breaks out in Samaria as Philip preaches Christ—demons flee, the lame walk, and a city wakes up. Then comes a jarring twist: Simon the sorcerer, a man who once held the spotlight, tries to buy the power to impart the Holy Spirit. We walk through Peter’s sharp rebuke and why it still lands today: when faith turns into a system and ministry becomes a marketable skill, the heart drifts from Jesus into manipulation.
We unpack the difference between relationship and technique, asking hard questions about modern church habits. Do we trust formulas, personality profiles, and stagecraft more than prayerful obedience? Are we doing “spiritual warfare by committee” instead of listening for what the Spirit actually reveals? Simon’s story exposes the pull toward control, the seduction of charisma, and the danger of using gifts to elevate ourselves. Power without a right heart isn’t just hollow—it’s harmful.
From there, we get personal about pride, wilderness seasons, and the slow formation that teaches us to serve people rather than impress them. We talk about protecting the flock by naming predatory behavior, practicing correction with love, and holding a steady course where discernment, humility, and repentance lead. If you’ve ever wondered how to spot spiritual manipulation, how to guard your heart in leadership, or how to keep the focus on Jesus instead of systems, this conversation aims straight at the core.
https://wofoyo.org/ #wofoyo
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the WoeFoYo podcast. And we were talking about a few things, our last full episode, Bones, and we're going to get right into that. We were talking about the episode where Philip is going down to Samaria and the interaction between Peter and John and Simon the sorcerer. So we're going to get in the word for ourselves. We will start at Acts 8, verse 4. Now those who were scattered about, means they're being persecuted, went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, and they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out with many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. So good things happening.
SPEAKER_00:And as we pointed out in the last episode, the Holy Spirit is really back in back in Philip here.
SPEAKER_01:Back in Philip here. Verse 9. But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was someone great. They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of God that is called great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had made amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip, as he preached good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, so that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Books that don't make it in, books that are not recognized, there is actually in Rome, this guy comes back around, and there was reputed to be a showdown. And it's more along the lines of what happened with Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Whether that actually happened or not, we don't know. But you know, you were talking. Um, we mentioned this last episode, and we kind of felt what like we could have probably uh covered some more into this subject and some motives and stuff. So, Bones, I'm gonna let you take off with it, man.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, let's see here. Um been kind of bugging me last week or two um that we left some things undone here with Simon a sorcerer. And there's a lot of lot of little nuggets in here uh that uh that can be glossed over real easily if you're not careful. Now we know that we have uh this guy Simon, uh a sorcerer, a magician of sort. But he's uh he's an influential guy. Um everybody seems to like him, so on and so forth. He he's got some influence. Uh, but uh he's he he's he's got this he has this this power that uh that he uh asserts and whatnot. It's not real power, it it's a false power. But um anyway, I think he really likes this um this power that he has. Really, the the power it is is manipulation more than anything. Um but anyway, he likes all of the attention that he gets um from from from all this. So we see here that Philip did come and and and preached, uh, and we see that Simon the Sorcerer says uh the word says that he was uh he believed and was baptized. Um now we can look at that and see that this is water baptism we're talking about here. Um this first water, this first baptism is a water baptism. Uh it's not the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Uh that will come later as we read through the scripture. Um not necessarily to Simon, maybe, but to the to the rest of the people. But anyway, um so we see Simon is now a believer and has been baptized, been water baptized. But yet he has this desire when he sees the baptism of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the apostles' hands, his immediate reaction is to offer money to purchase this gift so that he can do it. Um and now the reason he wants to do this is not so he can go be an apostle or a disciple or anything, it's for monetary gain. Um and we know this uh because he's told right there in verse 23, I see that you were full of bitterness and captive to sin. So we we see that nothing's he hasn't been delivered from anything, there's no conviction uh in him or anything. He still has he's still the same the same old Simon, the sorcerer.
SPEAKER_00:So that leads me to a belief.
SPEAKER_03:Uh was he actually saved when he was when he believed and was water baptized? You know, and I said uh say the other day on our podcast that you know it it's really hard to make that assumption to to make that call on somebody's salvation. However, um I would suggest that Simon Sorcerer, because he he likes the attention uh that people give him, he's an influential person, he probably went along with everyone who was getting who was believing and being baptized. He probably monkey see monkey dude this is what he did. Um if he didn't, if he really did believe and really was baptized uh to to follow Jesus in water baptism, then hey, that's great. But the uh the continuance in the sinful nature and the acts of sin uh kind of suggests otherwise. The the the the the nature of his heart kind of suggests otherwise. Now, is that to say that when you're saved and even water baptized, that you still don't you still don't commit acts of sin? No. Because we do. We we still have trouble with sin, the sin nature, and everything. Um but I think this story is in the scripture uh for for a specific purpose to show us that not everybody that that says a sinner's prayer uh and and gets dunked is who you think they are.
SPEAKER_01:Seen that. Yeah, that's got gotten trouble for calling that out in the past.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, it you know what it's very easy to get in trouble calling that out because um if you call somebody out on that, number one, be careful, not necessarily being be careful because you shouldn't do it, but be careful how you do it because we should do it in love. Um but when we do it, you're gonna make some people mad. You're gonna make some people upset. Most of the time, it's not even gonna be the person you're calling out. No, it's gonna be uh it's gonna be their family, or you know, it's gonna be somebody's aunt or grandma or or or someone close to them that uh you've just accused of of not being who they say they are, and and now you ruffled uh the family feathers. Um that can happen.
SPEAKER_01:Let me be plain about it. It's probably gonna be a woman in their forties to fifties that's gonna keep wanting to mother somebody, and maybe all the kids are gone, and maybe they didn't have kids, but when men confront in the church, there's this antagonistic relationship for women that that have good intentions, right, but are not hearing from the Holy Spirit, and these are the people, how dare you? And again, we talked about that in our book when we were talking about the you know, the Holy Spirit versus the June Cleaver spirit, we're just trying to make our home as nice and comfortable as possible. Why are you causing this trouble in our house? Yeah, by calling something out. Well, you got predators in there, oh yeah, and predatory behavior. And if it's not confronted, and for people that have ever had to deal with predatory people, the number one way you can cause a predator to back down is let them know that you know what they are. Exactly. They prey on the weak, they will prey on the any predatory animal is going to go after the weakest, most vulnerable prey that's out there.
SPEAKER_03:And that's exactly what Peter does here. Uh when when Peter uh steps up and and calls him out and tells him to repent of his wickedness, um, for I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. That's exactly what Peter's doing. Um he's he's letting him know that hey, you you're you're not what you say you are. And the danger in letting someone go on like that, they become a danger to themselves because well, they're probably not saved, and they think they are. And the one of the worst things that you can be is is a person that thinks they're saved when they're not. Yeah. Um that that you can get lulled into a false sense of uh peace uh and lo and behold, you're not saved. That's a horrible place to be. Another uh reason or another way that it's dangerous is that you're also fooling others. Uh yeah, causing others to place misguided trust in you. Um when you see this behavior, when when when the Lord, most importantly, when the Lord reveals it to you, because that's what happened with Peter, God revealed it to Peter. Yeah. Um when it's revealed to you, you know, it's okay to to point it out to to that individual and and let him know what you see. Doing it in love, of course. Uh that's uh the key thing. Um I think that for all his flaws here with Simon the Sorcerer, um all of his flaws, he may he or he may not have had evil intentions. Because he wasn't saved, he still had that he still had those old habits that hadn't been taken away from him. Um so and those things are still there. Um and we know that who who was it you you interviewed, I can't remember his name, I can see his face. Um, but he talked about being an alcoholic, and when he got saved, um God took the habit away from him, but he didn't take the taste away from him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, as uh Lawrence Nolan.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, Lawrence, as Lawrence Nolan, that was it. Uh I knew exactly what he was talking about, uh, the way he said that, the way he put that out there. And I kind of see that here. Uh in that there's sometimes God can take the the um the addiction or the the desire away, but you still have the taste, which is not not to say an addiction, but you still have you st you still know what it's like. And that can that can be a draw.
SPEAKER_01:I have a neighbor, sweet lady.
SPEAKER_03:And you still have a habit, that's what it is. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we we were talking about uh cigarettes. She got pregnant, she decided she wasn't gonna smoke, and she will tell you, just like she told me, she said, I still want a cigarette. She says, I dream about smoking cigarettes. Wow. There was there was a she said I could taste them in my dreams, so I love it. And we were talking about there was a singer-songwriter by the name of John Prine who wrote a song called When I Get to Heaven, a couple years before he died, and one of the things he shared on when he wrote it. So he had Operation Due to Thyroid camps to come out, and his voice got gravelly and he ended up sounding better, which is highly unusual, but it looks kind of strange, you know, because it makes your neck look real thin. And the course of his song about When I Get to Heaven, gonna have a cocktail, vodka, and ginger ale, I'm gonna smoke a cigarette that's nine miles long. Gonna kiss that pretty girl on the tilt of world because this old boy is going to town. Probably not what heaven is, but he he was relaying the exact same sentiment that you know he had to give up smoking. He said, But man, I still want that cigarette. You're touching on some things here that I was being a good boy and holding my tongue, but you you kind of brought back to some things that I was seeing. And so we're seeing couple different, we're seeing two sides of the same page here, uh, so to speak. Now he promoted himself, verse nine, saying that he himself was somebody great. So he's he's getting the attention, he's marketing it well. Right. This man's a great power of God, some versions say, or it's the power of God that's called great here in the ESV. They paid attention to him for a long time because he had amazed them with his magic. Well, I'm a little strange when you tell me not to read something, unless the Holy Spirit's telling me not to read it, I'm probably going to take that as a challenge and read it and see if you're full of crap. Right. Because I've seen too many things that we've been chasing boogeyman in the church rather than doing actual spiritual warfare. That is what it is.
SPEAKER_00:And when you're shotgunning rather than shooting a rifle, it's only effective at short range.
SPEAKER_01:You know, if people want to rebuke this and rebuke that, they have no idea. You know, they're rebuking a tide pods or some off-the-wall stuff. Oh, oh yes, sister so-and-so, we need to we need to rebuke that too and bind that spirit, and oh yes, and it's a laundry list of emotional gobbledygook that about 10% of the time is actually what's going on. And rather than pray and ask the Lord, what is the predominant spirit or spirits that we need to address in our area, in our situation, well what are the chief hindrances to your will being accomplished physically here on earth in our area, our area of responsibility, our realm of responsibility. And rather than rather than get that revelation from the Lord, we're now doing spiritual warfare by committee, which is a hot garbage mess. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Been there seen it, love the people to do it.
SPEAKER_01:But it's best if you're going to do spiritual warfare to get focused, know what you're taking on ahead of time. And hey, brother, say sister, I'm gonna do it. No. We'll talk about that after. Here's what we're praying about now. It's not a gossip shop. No. And it's not the latest thing that you saw on whatever. And when I'm saying this, it reminds me of stupid stuff that we got told growing up. You know, there was a kid whose either jaw blew off or belly exploded because he had pop rocks and a Coca-Cola. It's the kid that killed himself for playing DD. Right. It's these urban legends. It's something you saw on a on a gospel track that you didn't verify to confirm. And so you have these great preachers of the gospel. Will preach it right, but they'll get a little bug in their ear and get off on a tangent, and they're just full of crap in this one area. But it's a distraction to doing things right. I said all that because when people said, Oh, don't read this, that spirit would come up, oh, don't read this. Well, I read what some of the magic would be used, uh like a some summarization of not details of how to do the rituals and all this stuff. I wasn't interested in that, but I know I wanted to know what these people believed and what they were doing. Because here's the thing we can get all bent out of shape, and you want to go rebuke Harry Potter and all that. Well, that might be what the Lord calls you to do, and it might not. But here's the issue all too often, and what one of the things I'd like to touch on as we continue in this episode is what happens when you look at the same principles that were being enacted and they're happening in the church. Because I got two other examples pulled up right here where we would say amen in some circles, and it ain't nothing but the devil.
SPEAKER_03:You know, it happens all the time, but people rarely see it. Uh it's kind of kind of the way it is. Um gets talked about, it's always happening, it's everywhere you turn, but no one can point, no one can ever put their finger on it. Yeah, that that's that's that's what's so aggravating. And really with Simon the Sorcerer, it gets broken down to bitterness and captivity to sin. That's really what we're fighting. We're not fighting anything. All the everything else uh were were symptoms. What the but what the words call a magic here? I didn't look up that word magic there to to see exactly what it was referring to. But uh, but everything else, the the the the magic, the uh the influence, all that stuff was was born out of his own bitterness. And maybe that bitterness came from knowing now that he knows the good news, and he's now he knows it, and he knows he's gonna be held responsible for it. Well, I'm I I'm not so sure that's it.
SPEAKER_01:Uh I I'd like to I'd like to kind of point a couple things because I think he might have been the kid that got picked on.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe because let me tell you uh, because I went off on my rant about being shotgun in spiritual warfare. I did. But what I was going to mention is this. One of the things that is a com there's two things that are going to be common in any kind of magic that is done, no matter who classifies it. There's two common themes that I see when I read a summer, you know, summarization of what people were doing. One of them is a system. It always involves a system. It never involves a relationship with the Lord. It involves a system. The other thing it involves is manipulation. Now, ask yourself this. In the modern church, do we have manipulation and do we have things relegated to a system? When I look, by using a system, he's preaching the good news, or he's hearing Philip have the, you know, preach the good news, and he believes, he recognizes that there is a spiritual authority and a spiritual power here. Right. And and this this bitterness that's talking about, man, that who knows what it might be not getting the girl, it might be things aren't fair, it might be whatever it is. It might be, you know, he was the nerd growing up, or maybe mom and dad didn't have a lot of money, and therefore we're living poor, and I'm going to use this to you know get ahead. But somehow he's using a system and he's using it for manipulation, but he recognizes this spiritual power that's going on. He's recognizing that there is a power and authority in this gospel as well as in the name of Jesus. So he's continuing. He believes, he's baptized. And in our last episode, I mentioned that he is mentioned by some scholars not confirmed, not biblical scholars, extra-biblical scholars, as one of the heads of the Gnostic sect of Christianity. So he relegates this to some kind of spiritual science slash system. And if you know the system, then you can manipulate the system. But what's absent here, when Peter addresses him, he goes, hey, this is great. I recognize that you have a gift here. You're on this level, as we got into for a few minutes last episode. But I recognize that through you, this gift is by the laying on of hands, you're you're imparting this gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, what it doesn't say in here, and looking, and I don't want to be nitpicking too hard, it never says that Simon receives the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So before, rather than, hey, I believed, I've been baptized, I've been continuing with Philip, and I'm seeing all this stuff, and I'm amazed. I'm I mean, I'm loving what I'm seeing. But he's still thinking, he's not been renewed in his mind and in his heart because he's still thinking this is due to some system. All right, hey, hey, what's your secret? What's your trade secret? What what what what rites do you have to go through? What ceremonies do you have to go through to get this power? Because I know what I did in my past, and there was this rite of initiation, or this ceremony, or this spell, or charge, you know, how whatever system of magic he's using. But there's this thing that has to be done, or maybe I have to fast for this amount of days and have this encounter with you know, whatever spiritual entity. So he's still in this old train of thought. He's not, it's not about relationship, it is about a system that I see controlling him. And he's thinking, I can do this according to my old system. I'm just seeing it being done better. Give me this power also, so that anyone whom I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. And Peter said, No, your heart's not right. You need to pray for forgiveness because your heart's not right. And I see you're in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. He said, You're not free, man. You're you're bound by this. You that this system that has granted that you were able to use the iniquity and the bitterness, whatever caused this bitterness, you were able to use that system to get ahead. And now you have the accolades. And now you have all this respect, but you're still trying to use that system to work in love, and you can't use that system to work in love because love is a man named Jesus Christ, and you have to have this relationship. Pray that God forgives you because you're coming real close to blaspheming the very spirit that you're seeking to be able to impart because you're not discerning. That's kind of what I'm seeing here. But man, how many preachers are bound by their system? And so the relationship, you you go, man, this dude can preach a house of fire, this lady can preach a house of fire, they can do this, they can do that. But at the same time, they have more faith in the system than they do with the relationship. And sooner or later, it all devolves into a marketable skill. How can you manipulate people? How can you overcompensate for whatever you're not content in? Because that always shows up. And it and it's sad. That's the thing. Used to just piss me off really when I'd see it. But I've seen it enough to where now it's like, man, you're so in bondage to this stuff, it's just sad.
SPEAKER_03:Probably why, probably why the um psychology tests and stuff like that, the uh those psychology tests that we see in some of the bigger churches um don't work so well. Um they they work well to identify certain characteristics and traits in you, but I think they they fail mostly or a lot of times because that doesn't necessarily mean God's going to use those things that you excel in um as a minister. Matter of fact, and we've talked about this before on podcasts too. If you look at the scripture, if you look at scriptural examples, God uses the very opposite of your strengths, he uses your weaknesses to excel. So that and I think that's what you're saying here is that you can't you can't get saved and continue to rely on the very things that made you successful in the past if they were if they were sinful uh to make you successful in the future, uh, especially as a believer. Um you can't continue in sinful success.
SPEAKER_01:Go back to something you said, you know, lesser two of it lesser of two evils is still evil. It is. So what if the system was a good system, but maybe it got corrupted? If you don't think that happened, well, what's Jesus addressing? You know, th things are out of balance. Here I am, I'm the fullness of everything you've been expecting, and you don't recognize it because something's got corrupted. Now, that being said, we can have our system of theology started out well intended, but there oh Elon Musk, I saw him put a quote up, had some AI stuff, had some uh it was a self-driving car, it was a rocket, you know, that one of the reusable boosters, this landing and getting caught by the thing. And he wrote something that um what was magic uh a thousand years ago is science now. Yeah, yeah yesterday's magic was is today's science, but it's still systematic. So what do you do when you have a religious system? What's that called? Well, that's your theology, that's your doctrine. And it could start off well-intended in the heat of revival, but if you begin to trust in that and use that to manipulate, I don't care what denomination it's under, I don't care if it's non-denominational, I don't care what you call it, I don't care how many spiritual giftings show up, it's witchcraft and manipulation. And if you don't think that can happen in a church, and if you don't think that you can't get bent out of shape and start working in manipulation, if you don't keep your heart right with Jesus, you got another thing coming. One of the reasons that I know, Bones, I'm not saying this about you, I'm just saying this about me. One of the reasons that I had to go to the wilderness is because I thought I knew how it worked. And when certain things happened, my pride and my ego would have probably led me into doing that charismatic Christian witchcraft, or as I referred to it in our last episode, some Pentecostal voodoo, where you're using your spiritual authority to manipulate folks.
SPEAKER_03:We've said this before, and I was just thinking this before you even mentioned it. We've said this before, the anointing can be very sexy.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:So if Simon the Sorcerer was the kind of guy that used his looks and his charisma and those very things to forward his agenda, and and and it turned people on, it got them to to give and and things like that. Um then he turned around, and that's the way that he uses that's what that's how he does, and that's how he does ministry. That's the way he he furthers his ministry, the gospel and stuff like that. And let's be honest, we we see that. Uh we see some of that uh uh flirtatious preaching, if you would, um, in in uh pastor fancy pants and stuff like that. Um that can be a very dangerous place to be. Um, because you will get called out on it at some point in time. Yep. You'll get called out your prayer closet. You better hope that's the only place you get called out, is in your prayer closet. Um, but if you don't answer that call in your prayer closet, you'll get called out in public for it in a very embarrassing way. Um but I was very similar, very similar to you though.
SPEAKER_00:Um I thought I knew how it worked.
SPEAKER_03:Um I thought I knew how it needed to be fixed, and I thought I knew I could fix it. Um I also had a very big problem with with ego. Uh there was times I would man, I would sit in Sunday school, in a Sunday school class, and and and listen to people and I would say, Well, I I know I'm the smartest person in this room. I know more about this subject than anybody in this room. And and never even once think, boy, that's that's that's ego. Not a that would never even cross my mind. But but the fact that I knew that I knew more than anybody in that room at the time uh was uh was very dangerous. And it it took it took the wilderness, took getting out of that, getting into a place of solitude to to reveal that and and show the the the ignorance of it. Um because God can't use that. God can't use you when you're so full of yourself like that.
SPEAKER_01:I'll tell you one of the conversations I had. Um I I'm just admitting my pride.
SPEAKER_00:This is because I'd start to grow and I would I thought I thought I was outgrowing the pastor of the church and the leadership in the church. That's what I thought. And I used to have this train of thought that you know, I probably know more Bible than a lot of the preachers I've heard.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know, I uh I can say it with a different spirit now, that's still probably true. Doesn't make me right. Right. But I remember coming out of the wilderness, and it just caused me to go, oh, okay, this is what this experience was about. I remember talking to old Larry Potts, Rev Potts down in Carroll, and I remember just hearing some things, I remember getting bored because with him it was going to be three points in a sermon, and he was going to be the most polished preacher. He could just great at standard three points in an altar call.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Bring it on home.
SPEAKER_00:And one of the more eloquent men I've heard speak.
SPEAKER_01:And he's been faithful to that congregation for a long time. Well over 50 years now.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well over 50 years. But but I'm looking and I come back out of the wilderness and I just talk, talk with ref. And I go, this guy knows so much more than I thought he knew. Amen. The depth of his walk is so much greater than what I thought when I thought I was being so super spiritual and had this angst on me. Now, this might get taken the wrong way. I'm going to let the chips fall where they may. He was wise enough that he was preaching what that congregation could handle. Right.
SPEAKER_00:And if he starts preaching above their head, which he was upon talking to him, I go, oh, that was my pride and my ego when I was younger.
SPEAKER_01:And I said, love the guy. When I pray for those that every day, when I pray for those that really minister to me in the body of Christ, it's one of those names. Grew a lot. Had to unlearn some things. But I grew a lot. But it it caused me to recognize that you know that that pride and that ego really had to get in check because I thought I was something. I thought I was growing. And it caused me to realize that no matter how gifted you are, it's not for you. It's for those you got to minister to. Now, I I will say this there can be a fine line to where you preach to where people are comfortable, and then nobody ever grows. But in addition, there's also this thing that it you you can end up preaching above people's head. And basically you're just stroking your own ego.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. There was that that was revealed to me. I think my first trip in the wilderness, when I would sit there and think, you know, by how much I know. And and the reason I knew it is because you know, well 90 about 95% of my waking hours was spent in in the Bible or some kind of study relating to that. And then I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me one day and goes, Well, yeah, they were that way too. You know, God had a good way of letting me know that you've you've done nothing special. You've learned nothing special. Um there's there's nothing that you can really say or do that hasn't been said before or done before. Come on now.
SPEAKER_00:So you know, get over it, get over yourself. Um that was very humbling.
SPEAKER_03:Um and well, it it hurt too, I ain't gonna lie. It hurt. Oh yeah. Uh because there's a there's there's a part of you that that that well just it kind of it takes the air out of your sail in a way. Um but a big part of you also knows that it's necessary uh for that to happen. Because then then some real growth can begin. Yeah uh some spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You know, the the mind, will, and the emotion. And that's that's no good. Um can't really use that, it has no capacity for faith. Um, but when God can get you away from that area.
SPEAKER_01:area and and get you to understand that uh that everybody that you think you're smarter than is actually just as smart if not smarter than you are uh you're still a rookie you know then you know then hey now now we can now we can learn yeah hey everybody thanks for listening we hope this challenges you and causes you to grow and recognize things that are going on you can always check us out at wofoyo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcast Spotify or all but you can check us out on YouTube. Remember folks if you're going to grow you got a woefoo get in the word for yourself