The Voice of One.....

Four hundred voices can’t make something true. We start with 1 Kings 22, where Ahab lines up an entire crowd of prophets to bless his plan, and Jehoshaphat interrupts with a question that still cuts today: have we actually inquired of the Lord? From Micaiah’s blunt honesty to Ahab’s hunger for validation, we talk about spiritual discernment, leadership blind spots, and why “encouragement” is sometimes just pressure to comply.

Then we jump to Matthew 3 and John the Baptist, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Repentance is more than feeling bad; it’s metanoia, a real change of mind and direction. We unpack why being the lone voice doesn’t automatically mean being negative, and why the Holy Spirit’s conviction can sound harsh to a culture trained to reward yes men. The question isn’t “good word or bad word” but “is it what God is saying?”

We also get practical about modern church life and COVID. When routines broke, a lot of people had to stop living on secondhand faith and start reading Scripture, praying, and listening for themselves. Using examples from military and medical training, we talk about staying current, avoiding the trap of overanalysis, and keeping real contact with what’s happening on the ground.

If you’re tired of noise, hype, and borrowed certainty, this one is a reset. 

https://wofoyo.org/             #wofoyo

Transcript

Micaiah Versus 400 Prophets

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the WoeFo Yo podcast with C Dub and Bones. We're going to get in the word for ourselves. This is going to be a lot of getting in the word for ourselves in this episode. Let's go do a little story here, a little uh historical account. First Kings chapter 22. We're going to start at the beginning. But three years passed without war between Syria and Israel. Then it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went down to visit the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that Ramoth and Gilead is ours? But we hesitate to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria. So he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to fight at Ramoth Gilead? Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. Also Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Please inquire for the word of the Lord today. This kind of sounds like current events. Sorry, where I was going with that, but I'm like, Hey, you want to go take on this country? Yeah, sure. Shouldn't we inquire of the Lord first? Hmm. Might help make things run smoother. Verse 6. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together about 400 men and said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to fight, or shall I refrain? So they said, Go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king. What's inferred here is that 400 people automatically said, I'm inferring the word automatic. It doesn't say they went away with the time, but it seems that like this answer is kind of, oh, sure, yes. Amen. Yes. Verse 7, and Jehoshaphat knows what's up. Jehoshaphat said, Is there still not a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him? So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man, Micaiah son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say such things. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, Bring Micaiah son of Imlah quickly. Verse 10. The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, having put on their robes, set each on his throne at a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied before them. Now Zedekiah, Zedekiah is never a good name. Zedekiah is also the last king of Judah. So now Zedekiah the son of Chenah had made horns of iron for himself, and he said, Thus says the Lord, with these you shall gourd the Syrians until they are destroyed. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the king's hand. Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encouraged the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them. Speak encouragement. And Micaiah said, As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that will I speak. Then he came to the king, and the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall we refrain? And he answered him, Go and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king. You can tell he's being a smart aleck here, because just listen to the next verse. So the king said to him, How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord? So just a little textual contextual reference here. Say whatever they want, but it's kind of like when Jesus is put under the oath by the high priest, I jure you by the living God, you know, I jure you by the Most High. Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Living God? I am. He wasn't answering nothing until he was put under oath. So that's a serious thing. So the king said, How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord? Verse 17. Then he said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master, let each return to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil? Then Micaiah said, Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by, on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who will persuade Ahab to go up that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead? So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said to him, In what way? So he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, You shall persuade him and also prevail. Go out and do so. Therefore, look, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you. Now Zedekiah son of Chennai went near and struck Mekiah on the cheek and said, In which way did the spirit from the Lord go from me to speak to you? And Mekiah said, Indeed, you shall see it on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide. So the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son, and say, Thus says the king, put this fellow in prison, and feed him with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction until I come in peace. But Micaiah said, If you ever return in peace, the Lord is not spoken by me. And he said, Take heed, all ye people.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

So here's what happens.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

In order to subvert the word of the Lord, Ahab and Jehoshaphat agree to pull a switcheroo, and Jehoshaphat puts on Ahab's armor, and the Syrian army takes off after Jehoshaphat. And when he cries out, they go, wait a minute, that's not Ahab. Ahab is struck dead, the battle increases, and he's just struck by a random arrow because they don't know they're shooting at Ahab because Jehoshaphat is disguised as Ahab. And the the commands of the king of Syria was pursue the king of Israel, who was Ahab. But like I said, they're pursuing the wrong guy. So it's just some random arrow hits Ahab, and they stand him up and prop him up in the chariot, and he dies in the evening. Blood ran out from the wound onto the floor of the chariot. Then the sun was going down, the shout went throughout the army, saying, Every man to his city, every man to his own country. So here's the sheep scattered without a shepherd. And so the king died and was bought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. Then someone washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood while the harlots bathed according to the word of the Lord which he had spoken. That's through Elijah. Right. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, the ivory house which he built, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the king of kings of Israel? So Ahab rested with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place. He lasted two years.

John The Baptist Calls Repentance

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Matthew chapter three. And this also is echoed in Mark chapter one.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah. This is over in Isaiah forty, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food it was locust and wild honey, then the then Jerusalem, all Judea, and the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. Verse 7. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourself, We have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees, therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out the threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Here's the deal. Or over in Matthew chapter 3, verse 3, this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah. The voice of one, I just want to emphasize the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord and make his path straight. When

The Lonely Place Of Truth

SPEAKER_03 10:18

we read this story about Micaiah, it's the voice of one against the many. You know, Jesus said concerning John, what what'd you go out to see? A man in comfortable clothing, you know. All the official prophets there in king's houses. Yeah, Jesus said, Well, you go out and see a prophet. Oh, he's a prophet. He's more than the prophet. So he's saying, Man, he's coming in the same spirit as Elijah. And one of the things that we've experienced, again, um, one of the things that I'm seeing, one of the things that I find interesting, it's an interesting place to be where you know you've heard from the Lord, and everybody else is saying different.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Everybody else to go with the flow is saying, Oh, amen.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

Yes, brother, yes, brother, yes, brother. Oh, this is so great. And you go, it ain't that great. When the Lord shows you what's going on, or as you like to say, who's who in the zoo, right? Right. And you're the one, it can be a very, very lonely place. The the same guy that said, Hey, those of you who want the baptism of the Holy Spirit, just pray for it. Let's pray for it now. And that guy had a saying, said you want to said, You want to be successful, observe the masses and do the opposite.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

A lot of truth to that.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Now is this yeah, is it is this 100%? No. No. Uh it's not 100%, but it's a sound principle. Uh, when when everybody is saying go, go, go, go, and everything's fine, everything's hunky-dory, never hurts to pray. Never hurts to ask the Lord. Um, never hurts to sit back, detach, take the tactical pause, and maybe have to get alone to do it, but it never hurts to say, Lord, what's really going on?

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Yeah, it can be very, very easy, very tempting to look around at what all's going on and want to be a part of something. Especially if that something looks like it's gonna be something big. Um, and you know, so it can be very easy to to to fall into that kind of groove and just want to be a part of that.

When Pride Pushes A Fight

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Um what I found interesting here in verse 22, 1 Kings, was that uh the very first few verses, I think it was verse 3, the king of Israel had said to his officials, Don't you know that Ramath Gilead belongs to us, and yet we're doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aaron? So this place belonged to them already. It was theirs. Um, it sounds like they simply weren't possessing it. Okay. Yeah. So my question here is now, of course, this is hindsight, and hindsight's always 2020. Um, but my point here is if you've already got something and it's already yours, there's not always a need to go fight for it. Um and I I kind of see that here. There's really no need to go out and pick a fight here. Um they already had this place. This place was already theirs, it was it was theirs. Um we we find out the timing was all off. Um dude. Yeah. Ill-conceived. Ill-conceived. God wasn't in it. Um, had they listened to the to the one man of God who did have God's ear, um, they would have found out that God wasn't in it and everything else. So it can be very easy, though, to want to be a part of something big and and and and all those things. But you got to be careful because that's pride. Uh and that's ego, and that can set you up for failure, for sure. Um, so it's not a bad thing to take a step back and go, man, let me let me inquire the Lord and see if this is if this is what we really need to do.

Ahab, Jezebel, And Yes Men

SPEAKER_03 15:00

One of the things I think that really distinguishes King Ahab, there there's two prominent ones. One is that Ahab, Ahab is a mighty military leader. If you if you go in the book of Chronicles, yeah, if you go in that portion of it, it talks about all his great military deeds. Uh, for all his flaws, Ahab was not a bad tactician. Right. But there's there's two things that really define Ahab personally. Ahab in a lot of ways reminds me of King Herod, not Herod the Great, but Herod that had John the Baptist um beheaded. Is that Herod the Tetrarch or something like that? Herod the Tetrarch. Yeah. Ahab has Jezebel, Jezebel's running the show. Herod the Tetrarch, who is descended from Herod the Great, who was a say what you will, he was ruthless, a little bit crazy there at the end. Herod was a Herod the Great was a brilliant strategist. Right, right. Herod the Great kicked the kicked the snot out of some people. You know, as far as that. But you have his son, Herod the Tetrarch, he's married to Herodias, and who makes the call to give John the Baptist head on a platter? Right. It's her it's Herod's call, but Herodias is behind it. Uh the the other thing that you really so you see, this Ahab is not really, he might be king of he might be king of Samaria, he might be king of Israel. He's not the king of his house. Right.

unknown 16:48

Right.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

So there's that. The other thing is envy. The thing that really gets the sentence uh that when it says that the you know the dogs will lick up the blood of Ahab, uh also says that about Jezebel, eat the bones of Jezebel. However, it says I I'd have to go back and quote it. Right. But when he says that, uh it's Elijah, and he pronounces this on Ahab because he had just had an incident with Elijah, and he's kind of depressed. And he said his countenance is cast down. And then he goes and looks and he heads back home, and Jezebel goes, Well, why's your countenance cast down? And he goes, Ah, I really like that vineyard over there that Naboth has. She said, You're the king. He said, Ah. So she brings up some trumped-up charges against Naboth, has him killed. Now Ahab has the vineyard. Just one of the defining factors, uh, the defining characteristic of Ahab is he's he's envious.

unknown 18:03

Right.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

You know, he he's envious, he's envious of Ramoth Gilead.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

Hey, that's ours. Why are they there? That's ours. So you're seeing that's that's driving them. But but we've seen people. We we've been in the body, uh, we we've seen it in government, uh, we've seen it at work, uh when we were working together, uh, and we've seen it in the military. Where somebody comes up with some cockamame idea. Ill-conceived would be a more uh be a more professional way, uh tactful way of saying it. Somebody comes up with an ill-conceived idea, and if they're in a position of leadership, the easiest thing for them to find is some yes men, some yes women. And that that's what's happened here with with Ahab. They weren't hearing from the Lord, but they knew as long as long as they're prophesying good things, guess what? There's gonna be food on their table. As long as they're going with the flow, there's a little bit of titles, there's a little bit of life is good. There's a little bit of honor, a little bit of a little bit of swagger you can have out there when you're praying around in your robes as one of the king's official prophets.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

You get uh the nicer uh assignments, you know, nice uh nicer assignment postings at work. You get the the better uh the better jobs, yeah, you know, cronyism kicks in, stuff like that. Um what I find as he was talking about all that, there's always somebody that's willing to be the guy to poke and prod, to kind of poke the bear a little bit. Uh there's always the guy that's willing to be that one that says, watch me get this guy going. Because I seen that in this. There, there's there's that guy here in the scripture here. I I kind of seen that. It looked like there's there's the one that says, let me, you know, let me see if I can't stir the chili just a little bit. Uh because it in truth, you know, we've been that we've been that person before. Uh if if I have to be honest.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

Uh but well, but when me and one of my buddies, me, me and one of my buddies uh might have been around uh this might have been when you were over in Cutter. But when we had the shift commander call us in and go, look, you jerks, this needs to stop because I just got questioned by internal fares over some. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

But there's a reason why that there's always somebody willing to poke the bear a little bit, and that's because the bear gets easily riled. Yeah. Sometimes the bear needs to be poked. Sometimes he needs to, but most of the time it's because he's easily riled and he's fun to watch. Um so there's that. But anyway, um there's this kind of power behind the throne here with Ahab. Uh he's he's he's a brilliant guy. He's very smart, he's intelligent. You know, we can tell by his conquest and his his deeds that he he's not stupid. Um, but he's got his he's got some serious flaws, and that the biggest flaw is that um he allows someone else to be the power behind the throne that I don't think he even really knows it. Uh he's he's so naive in that regard that he thinks he is the power on the throne.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

Yeah. If history repeats itself and you you compare uh Herod the Tetrarch to Ahab and you compare Herodias to Jezebel because we've made that comparison many times. Right. Really? Herod the Tetrarch loved to hear John the Baptist preach. Yeah. Yeah. There was something in him that oh yeah. He recognized it. Yeah, but he's so morally compromised. And with Herod is a lust problem. Yeah. And you know, probably the same thing with Ahab because it says Jezebel was a looker for all her for all her uh other qualities and stuff, you know. Even in her older age, what does she do when when Jehu's coming? She dresses up, yeah, get gets all dolled up.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

They knew it was going to be very hard for them to get their freak on uh while they were listening uh to the word of the Lord. Uh because the word of the Lord's going to convict you.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Whether it's the prophet here in Kings and Chronicles or John the Baptist there uh in the Gospels, uh the word of God's going to bring that conviction. And the truth is, um we as humans are not stupid. We do come to a point where we know at some point in time we're gonna have to make a decision. And I think that Ahab and um Herod the Tetrarch were both at that point at some time.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

You know, I'm uh I'm looking at it. One of the things is you look at the audience here, and Jehoshaphat, uh king of Judah, is a righteous king. Jehoshaphat don't put up with none of the mess that they were doing over in Israel, even though he has an alliance. He doesn't put up with that mess that they're doing in Israel over in Judah. At the end of the chapter, it talks about all the stuff that Jehoshaphat did in kicking out the male cult prostitutes, a lot of your idolatry, all this stuff that was still going on. Uh his father Aza had made some reforms, but but Jehoshaphat, he furthered reforms to get things back in line biblically. So you you see the audience here. Who's John the Baptist audience? It's the multitudes. Right. Uh who's who's these 400 prophets? It's the king. It's the person in authority. And then Jehoshaphat's got enough gumption based, he said that ain't the Lord. You got just some yes men. Is anybody hearing from the Lord? That they might be prophesying in the name of a Lord, but they're not prophesying because Baal or Baal was a generic name for a deity. Right. It means the same thing as the Lord, it means master. It means the same thing, but it is not Yahweh. Correct. And so when he's saying, is there still not a prophet of Yahweh? That we may inquire of him. So he brings them up, and and you can tell the tone is sarcastic just by you know the officers in his ear, hey bud, did it ah, sure. Devony doesn't even bother to pray, just yeah, sure. Go ahead, man. Do what you got to do. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you want to hear? Yeah, yeah. Everybody's prophesying. Do you want to? Oh, what's the Lord say? You don't care what the Lord says, sure, whatever, dude.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

He knew he wanted to listen to him in the first place.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Yeah. And then he puts them under the oath. And oh, you want to know what the Lord's really saying?

unknown 25:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

Here's what Yahweh's really saying here. Okay. And he and he he lays it down. The same thing when John the Baptist is out there in the wilderness. It's the multitudes. What does it say about Jesus when he's preaching at the end of the Sermon on the Mount? And the common people heard him gladly. There's this something about the further you go, I'll say this. I don't like it. And there's another reason I don't promote it my job intentionally, is because with every promotion, with every level of leadership that you kind of climb that ladder, there has to be an element of separation that in order to do the job effectively. Not everybody has access to the king. Right. Is the way it is. Because the other thing that'll lead to if you do that, then you become a micromanager, and that will kill your organization and kill you. Because it'll drive you nuts, and then they never learn. So there's this element of detachment. And if you're the king, there's so many levels between you and the common man, uh, you and your citizens, that uh I give you a real good scenario. They had this program, don't know if it's still around, uh, CBS, I believe, uh, had a program called Undercover Boss. Okay. Hey, I'm running the company. Oh, you're going to go work for your own company as an employee, see what's really going on. Now, that that level of detachment can be a detriment, but sometimes uh there also has to be that level of attack detachment where you're delegating things in order to make it work. So it's a it's a double-edged sword. But but what you can see is Jehosaphat has not lost that that common touch. He he's he's in touch with what the Lord's saying. Whereas whereas Ahab, he's totally isolated. He's totally surrounded by yes men. And there's this one guy, they don't even call him because they know what he's gonna say. You know, I I think there's a guilty conscience there, too, to a degree. He's not gonna prophesy anything good concerning me. It's the same thing with John the Baptist, though. When the leadership comes to him, what'd he say? Who warned you? Right.

COVID Shakes Church Comfort

SPEAKER_03 28:30

It reminds me of COVID. Lord's doing something. Who's the leader of the great COVID revival? There ain't one. It's the Holy Ghost. There ain't one person that's standing out and being, I'm the leader of this great awakening that's happening that started with COVID. There ain't. When the strip joints are essential, when the dispensaries are essential, but when the local congregation ain't essential, yeah, that's messed up. On the other hand, let me just say it was a good thing. Because people had to start hearing from the Lord for themselves.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

That's kind of what I was gonna say, and and I'll I'll I'll uh I'll go ahead and kick that dog. Um that was part of the problem in that the church wasn't on mission in the first place. Thank you. So you know, they were being they were being deemed non-essential. Well, because they were ineffective, they were not effective. Um so that's just it. And there's a and I know a lot of church folk probably gonna get a little angry at that, at that statement, but look at the fruit, look at what was happening, look at what was going on um in churches before COVID. It was business as usual. Uh, you know, two sermon Sunday, Bible study on Wednesday, you know, wash, wrench, repeat. Yeah, that's what it was. Um, collection for for uh for missions, do this, do that. It was wash, wrench, repeat. Um people not opening their Bibles, people not reading their their Bibles, uh they were regurgitating their pastors' words all throughout the week, but they couldn't tell you exactly what the Lord told them. Um so COVID did have um a positive effect on the kingdom because it made people, it got people to a place where they had to um they had to talk to God. It poked the bear. It poked the bear, exactly. And what I think what you saw as well is you saw some of those people who had been, well, according to church leaders, had been complaining about things. It got some of the they it identified those complainers that had been saying, This is going on, this is bad, and it shouldn't be like this way. Those people actually stood up and led these folks and showed them how to read how to read God's word, how to listen to the Lord, how to do those things. They were doing all these things that the ministry leaders who were in place were not doing uh for whatever reason. They can you come up with every whatever reason you want to. The ministry was too big to outgrew them, whatever the case may be. Um, but the simple truth was church had got so far off mission that they were just kind of ineffective and they weren't doing anything.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

I have a friend of mine won't say his name because he won't like it. Good idea. Dude's highly trained. Don't get me wrong, he's my friend. I love him. Want nothing but the best for him.

SPEAKER_03 32:07

Dude's highly trained, uh, has been involved in some high-level things. However, you know, I used to be in the training department, going through my annual cycle training this week at my job, and it reminds me that you know uh there's some dangers in that because you learn, then you get really proficient, and then there's another level where you learn to teach, and you begin to break down all the minutiae, and you learn to spot when when there's special like um shooting was my is still my favorite. You learn to spot what's causing certain shooting errors. But if you're not careful, been there, done that. If you're not careful, you get so overly analytical that you fail to function.

unknown 33:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

And so I had a buddy of mine, he's highly trained, good guy, uh, and got, you know, got a promotion, got put in charge of something, and all of a sudden the theories ain't working. You've been training too long. Yep. With without doing it. So the way you thought it worked, it's not that you're a bad tactician, but but you're missing that element of contact and you're not listening to your people. And so that that's kind of what happened there. It's that's what was happening a lot of times with these, you know, what you're talking about, the these ministers in there and assistant pastors, uh, teachers, Bible study leaders, all these stuff that people that all these positions people had in the organized congregations, especially if they're bigger congregations. Well, you had a bunch of people, you had a remnant that were pointing stuff out, and you're you're just causing problems, and you know, you're causing disunity in the body of Christ, and you're doing we're, you know, we're getting, we're we're we're catching our flak. You know, Holy Ghost protected us.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

We're catching our flak. Here's the issue.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

When when COVID hit, like you said, the ones, the ones that were trying to call attention to what we should be doing as a body of believers, all of a sudden church wasn't around uh to fight us. Right. Just went out and did it. It ain't no coincidence that this podcast started when it started. Right. That the book came out when it came out.

unknown 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:51

Um that is that is what it is. I mean, were we seeing that at the time? No, we were just trying to be obedient. But looking back on it, that's exactly what was happening. And and for every one of us, there's thousands of us. Sure. Sure. You know, uh so but but the other people were so highly trained that if they weren't in the if they weren't in the confines of the church and in that structure, man, they didn't know how to function. Well, I guess what what do we do until we wait until the thing? Oh, we we well, maybe we can have a Zoom meeting. Uh maybe we

Staying Current Outside The Bubble

SPEAKER_03 35:25

can have something in the house, but we better mask up because we got to be compliant. Man, get your sissy ass out of here. You know, there's there's there was so much.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Yeah, there was so much. Um, so I like about the military. The military, active duty military, anyways. Uh National Guard's a little bit different. I mean, active duty military, you didn't stay in a schoolhouse for very long. No, you got to rotate had to rotate out. You rotated out. You didn't stay a drill sergeant for very long. Um, you rotated out within a few years. Um, National Guard, you can stay in a schoolhouse for as long as they'll keep you. I knew guys who've been in a schoolhouse for you know years and years, decades. Um they got in there and they were good at what they were doing. Um, but uh a lot of your theories, uh a lot of the things that you're teaching in the beginning, after a few years, uh, they need to be readdressed because the battlefield changes, technology changes, all these things. Uh it can be very easy to be an old dog in a new world still teach, still teaching old tricks. And that just don't get folks very far. Um, so that's what I like about active duty. You didn't stay in a schoolhouse very long, you didn't stay as an instructor uh in anything for very long because you needed to get back out uh into the field.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

There there was a little communication error uh at my job. Uh and one of the things that happened is rather than staying current, won't get all into rather rather than staying current because there was some miscommunication, my CPR instructor uh certification it expired. And so basically I had to go through the whole class again rather than just the refresher course.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

So three days, and I go through it, and it is amazing. You you're talking about technology and things.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Um I had taken it, I think it's every two years you get reserved uh through the American Heart Association. So you're talking about I've I've been a CPR instructor, let's see, this is year eight. Okay. Uh had had a about a six-month expiration time. But when I went back a couple months ago to get reserved, one of the things just blew my mind is some of the technology that's out there now that we weren't getting taught about. And so the lady, the lady that teaches it, she's from up around Fairview Heights area, and she, oh yeah, uh this has been implemented. If you're an EMT, if you're so I asked my boy, he's getting into that field. Hey, did they use that when you were doing your clinicals and all that? Oh, yeah, we did this and it's giving us, and there was so it's like a little box they put on the chest while they're doing CPR, and it gives readouts and stuff, and you're doing this thing and it's assisting. I'd never seen that before. I'd I'd seen the automatic compressors that they can put on the chest and stuff like that. But but there was about two or three pieces of equipment, that one's standing out the most, that that was included. Guess what? If I had never let it expire and stepped back and just taking the refresher course, my my probability of seeing that and being awakened to, hey, here's some new things that they're doing, is you know, that that wouldn't have happened. So sometimes you need to get pulled out. Sometimes you need to go through that wilderness experience, just so when you get called back in, now you you're you're still in tune. Yeah. And not only are you in tune with the Holy Spirit, but you also know how to function in the real world.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

Exactly. You you're still you're still connected to to the real world out there. I remember when when uh when I learned how to do um intraosseous um therapy. That's how to it's it's one thing to uh give an IV into someone's vein, you know, IV therapy. But when you can do that into someone's bone, um I remember when I learned that, I mean, it wasn't new when I learned it, it had been around for years, but it was new to me. And I remember thinking, oh man, this is this is awesome. In about 30 seconds, I can establish uh a line a whole lot faster, quicker, and more stable than I can anything through the through the vein. Uh what a wonderful teaching tool, what a wonderful tool to have. Um but you don't know that stuff unless you're being taught the latest and greatest, unless you're being brought up to speed. And that's what um as we stay current, that's what these things are supposed to do for us, is they're supposed to help us stay current and and up to speed on new things.

Repentance, Discernment, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 40:30

And and we could apply that to the Bible and say, well, you know, there's nothing new under the sun. The Bible's been around, we, you know, it's really not anything new. Well, yeah, there is because I learned something new almost every time I read it. Um, something that's going to apply to me personally. Um and then there's every now and then I'll find a point of doctrine that'll get reversed for me because I realized I listened to someone else, someone else's teaching, and didn't didn't realize that I wasn't listening to the Holy Ghost teaching. Um so there's always a reason to get into the into the word for yourself. There's always a reason to listen to the word of the Lord for yourself. All the teaching in Sunday school, all the listening to the preacher, the pastor, all those things are good, but it should always be backed up with uh with what the Holy Spirit is telling you in your spirit as well. So don't be afraid to go back and get that on the Holy Ghost.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Well, one other thing I like to point out real quick. Uh, I want to make this distinction. Uh John has this message, you know, uh the actions laid to the root. Who's warned you of the wrath to come? And Jesus comes along preaching love, man.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

So here's the deal. Is that was Jesus not the fulfillment of everything that John was was preaching? Well, he is.

unknown 41:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:59

But even John, it it shook John that John says, Hey, uh, or did I get it right? Are you he who was to come or uh uh should we be looking for another? Jesus, you got it right, you know, performing miracles. But but here's the thing. Um Repentance is repentance. Repentance isn't always sackcloth and ashes, although quite often it is. Um, but repentance is a total change of your mind frame. Repentance is a is to turn around, to do do a U-turn, uh uh metanoia. Here, here's the deal about being the lone voice in the wilderness, being the one guy who's contrary, being being the one guy who's hearing from the Lord when everybody else is saying different, that doesn't necessarily mean negative. Right. What it does mean is that you're saying what the Lord is saying. And you can have a whole bunch of people going, everything's great, everything's gonna be great, everything's super. Yeah, go ahead, get them. Yeah, everything, I mean, mean you king, you can do no wrong, the country can do no wrong, everything's great, everybody's okay. And and the Lord tells you, here's what's gonna happen, here's the true state of affairs of what's going on. Right. And that can sound very negative. However, I would say just as often, you can have the profits of doom and gloom and getting paid to undermine uh the morale of the people because foreign for foreign actors will do that. Antifa, BLM. Uh you you look at a lot of these other organizations that are out there, follow the money. It ain't American money, it's foreign money, and it and it's there to Bring down morale. You see this in the book of Nehemiah. You see this in the gospel, where so with Nehemiah, they said, hey, don't go in here. Man, man, they're out to kill you, Nehemiah. He's like, I knew the Lord didn't send them. Same thing with Jesus. Don't you know Herod's got people here to kill you? He said, You tell that fox, Herod, you know, I work miracles today and do healings tomorrow, and the third day I'll rise again. You know, Jesus don't, you know, Jesus is like a honey badger. He don't care.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

Well, when you're when you're talking about the kingdom, when you're talking about a kingdom in which the Lord God Almighty is the king, good and bad is a matter of point of view in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_03 44:49

Yeah. It's really about what God's accomplishing.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Right. So when God says, hey, this is what's going on, where do you think it's good or bad? I guess that's really up to you. But really, a lot of times what's what's happening is God's simply stating. That's all. Yeah, for the believer, it should be as simple as that. It just is what it is.

SPEAKER_03 45:09

I just go back to Caleb and Joshua. 12 spies sent out, everybody saw the same thing. It's your outlook, it's your attitude. But the the thing is, if you are, if everybody's saying everything's hunky-dory and God gives you the word that it ain't, they'll come after you. Yeah. If everybody's saying that it's doom and gloom and there's no way we can do it, and God gives you the word that yes, we can, they're still going to want to stone you. Yeah. Yeah, you know, so I just wanted to make that distinction, you know, as we're closing out. It's not about whether it's a good word or bad word. It is simply what the Lord is saying when you know everybody else is just uh towing the company line.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

We look back at John the Baptist, and we can see that what John was doing was nothing new. Baptism was not new. He was not the first one to baptize. Um there was baptism in Judaism, um, the ceremonial washing in the mikveh. So what he was doing wasn't new. However, what he was saying and who he was listening to and who was speaking, that was different. Um, so it's okay if we're looking, if you look around you, and you may not recognize things as being new, but sure enough, recognize that that God is speaking. That's what's most important is that uh you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and when whatever's going on, whether whether you perceive the actions as new or or you don't, make sure that you recognize God's voice in it. Because then you're listening to the uh the the the king of the kingdom, and then your idea of of good and and evil, good and bad, stuff like that really shouldn't matter near as much because it simply is what it is when God speaks. If if it's uh if you're on God's side, how can something be bad for you? Amen. It just is what it is. Wofoyo.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at wofoyo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. Remember, folks, if you're gonna grow, you got a woefo yo. Get in the word for yourself.