Sips from the Fountain
Learning to drink from Jesus, the Fountain of Living Water, isn’t as hard as I thought, especially when you just start with sips, and those will change everything.
Sips from the Fountain
A Road Map for Pain: Permission to Grieve and Courage to Heal
What does trust look like when the answer you begged for doesn’t come? We sit with Linda Blechinger as she walks us through the radiant, brief life of her son DJ, born with multiple heart defects, and the unflinching choices that shaped their family’s faith. From a quiet hospital room and a first reading of Psalm 91 to a living room filled with a holy hush, Linda shows how God’s presence can steady hands and soften fear, even when the path winds through surgery suites and sleepless nights.
We trace the story from early motherhood in a new town to a diagnosis that changed everything. Linda shares how she learned to pray without demanding a specific outcome, how Scripture became a lifeline, and why “Do you trust Me?” turned into a daily practice rather than a single moment. There’s a tender fight to bring DJ home, a forbidden sip of Sprite that becomes a picture of living water, and a startling roar that reframes the battle between a prowling imitator and the Lion of Judah. Along the way we challenge bad theology—blame, shame, and the idea that God authors tragedy—and point to a better story rooted in Genesis, the reality of a broken world, and the victory of Christ.
What follows is a map for real people in real pain: permission to grieve loudly, wisdom to study the Word for yourself, and courage to name God as good when life feels anything but. You’ll hear about funeral salvations, journaled prayers that came back as anchors, and the choice to see redemption where bitterness could have taken root. If you or someone you love is walking through loss, disappointment, or long uncertainty, this conversation offers language, comfort, and hope that holds.
If this moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review so more people can find these stories.
Do you ever feel like life can get too complicated and maybe even overwhelming? Yeah, me too. And it's okay. My name's Marta Ganou, and in this podcast, we're going to talk about life, love, faith, family, relationships, all kinds of things. And we're gonna drink from what someone wants to pour into when it's one small set at a time. Because when it's the fountain of living water, these months make all the difference. Sometimes it'll be just you and me. Sometimes we'll have a friend join us. If we could have lunch together today, this is what I'd want to move about. Well, hello everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited for you guys to join us today for episode number two with Linda Bleckinger. She has an incredible life story. She shared the first part of her story in our previous episode. So if you haven't listened to that, you're gonna want to catch it because she talks about how she came from a very unlikely background into a powerful encounter with Jesus that set her life on a completely different course. It's a testimony worth hearing. We joined Linda today, kind of in the middle of her life, where she actually, as a new believer, experienced some profound disappointment and loss with the life of her precious son, DJ, which lasted only four years. I think that as you hear how Linda processed this experience, it's gonna give you hope for the difficult things you've processed in life, as well as just a permission to be honest and confidence that the Lord can meet you in the deepest of pain. So we join Linda's story right as she's beginning to talk about becoming a mom for the first time. So let's jump right in there with Linda Bleckager in our second episode with her.
SPEAKER_00:So um, Derek, I was madly in love. I just, and let me just describe this for people because I was a self-sufficient person. I worked from the time I was 14 years old, and now I was 29. I was married and I had a baby, and Dan had moved us to Georgia, to Noonan. And it was when Noonan only had the piggly wiggly to go food shopping.
SPEAKER_02:Tell me you live in Georgia without saying it.
SPEAKER_00:There's a piggly wiggly in town. I'm telling you, and I was just like, oh my gosh, I can't believe we're doing this. But I was alone, had no friends, no family. Um, but yet I had this little baby that I fell incredibly in love with. And uh I was so joyful. It was very, I mean, Dan was proud, Dan was happy, everything was good. And then um, you know, because I was nursing Derek, I didn't think I could get pregnant.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And I did.
SPEAKER_02:So that was your education. That's right.
SPEAKER_00:And I got pregnant, and uh Derek and DJ were 13 months apart. Wow, yeah. So um, but uh unfortunately our little Deege was born with a heart defect and it was pretty major. Um, and uh it was devastating, you know, just um inconceivable. He looked perfect. Wow. Perfect. Um had the just he was perfect, he was beautiful, and uh found out within, I don't know, two hours of his birth, and uh Dan had come back to the hospital. We had to make decisions immediately. They told me he might not make it to the hospital, to Egliston.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And um for me to say goodbye to him. And, you know, here I am in the maternity ward with all these other mothers and babies, and um, and I was a brand new Christian. You know, don't forget, this was my third year of being a Christian, and um I didn't even know where to turn in scripture. So when they took Deege, um they took him in a you know, little incubator, portable incubator thing, and uh Angel One was the name of the team that took him. And I just pulled out the Bible that was in the little hospital drawer and um pulled it out to Psalm 91. And I read it and I cried and cried and cried, and just but it was of course I was crying because they took him, but I was more crying because I felt like God was promising me that he was covering DJ. Wow, and that I could trust him, I could trust him, and it was the first time in my walk with the Lord where he started asking me questions. Wow, and that was one of them. Okay, Linda, do you trust me? Do you trust me? And uh, you know, it's tough because the reality is when the Lord asks you a question like that, you have to think of every scenario. Right, it's not promising a certain outcome. That's right. Do I trust you if he makes it? Do I trust you if he doesn't? Is the was the reality of it. And um everything that everybody told me, he wasn't gonna make it. But I really felt like the Lord was telling me he's not going yet. So I was determined that the next morning I was going. Yeah, they wouldn't release me that day because I had had a tear and they had a I lost a lot of blood and blah, blah. So when the doctor came in the next morning, he well, we made a deal the night before. I said, Okay, if my blood work comes back fine in the morning, you'll release me and I'm going to Egliston. And he said, Okay, the deal is this. If your blood work comes back okay, and it probably is not, you've lost too much blood. If it does, yes, I will release you. I said, Okay, deal. So, of course, the next morning my blood work came back fine and I was gone. And uh there I went off to the hospital. He had already had uh a procedure done to his heart. Wow. And uh that's when we began to understand how bad it was. Uh it was very bad. It's seven defects. Wow. And um none of them were easy. And so the cardiologist and the heart surgeon told us, look, we can we can fix a few of these things. Um, we'll we'll do what's most important for him to live right now. But eventually he'll need a very big surgery called a fontan. And it it's not good outcomes. But if we don't do it, he for sure will pass away. So I said, okay, well, you know, you let me know when we get to that point. So he ended up having um in his first year three surgeries. Yeah. And then in the next year he had another two. Uh, and then he had one final one that was, you know, a really big one. But um in the interim, uh David was born. Good third. Gracious. Yes. Wow. And you know, we had we had all of our family and all of the doctors telling us do not have another baby. Wow. Number one is my body couldn't take it. That was number one. Number two was, and probably more importantly, the chance of your baby coming out with another heart defect goes up, not down. Wow. So uh we prayed, you know. Dan went home, he prayed. I stayed in the hospital with DJ, I prayed. And we said, okay, when we come together next weekend, we'll tell each other what the Lord said. And we came together and we both had written down our answer, and it was yes. Wow. And um, so there was our third little diamond came along. That's strange. Our little David, who wasn't so little. They would take him bets when he was born and how big he was. Oh my goodness. Um, but uh DJ lived to be almost five, four and a half years old.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And uh, and he was um, Dan always would say, DJ was special, not because he died, but because he lived. And um Wow, it's so true. He uh he had all kinds of things that the Lord used DJ to express to us and to live out in front of us and many other people. Uh DJ loved Jesus and he in his little way, whether it was in the hospital to the nurses or in a grocery store. Wow, I mean, it just didn't matter. He would just look at people and he would say, It's okay, don't you know that Jesus loves you?
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And he'd look them right in the eye, like this little tiny person, you know. And um, he had the best smile, and he's he had my brown eyes. Uh, and he was just adorable. But um, as it came close to time for DJ to go and be with the Lord, which he told us, he told us he was gonna have his big surgery in January, and before Christmas, he uh he and I were alone in the house and he was playing with some play-doh, and I was at the sink, and he had tears coming down his face. And I said, DJ, baby, what's the matter? And he said, Well, mommy, I I don't want to leave you and daddy yet. And I was like, What? I said, DJ, I'm right here. Daddy will be right back, he's at the store. And he said, No, mommy, Jesus told me I'm going home to live with him. Well, wow. I knew what was coming, this big surgery, and I lost it. Yeah, and I was usually pretty good about holding all that in. But I started crying, scooped him up. I was holding him, he was crying, I was crying. Dan and Derek come bounding into the house. And uh Dan just he was such a great dad, you know. He just said, What is going on here? And so I told him, and he just reaches over, grabs DJ, flies him up over his head, and says, Well, you're here now, buddy. And just is starts playing with him, you know. And DJ just started laughing, and you know, it was over. Um and, you know, Dan and I talked that night and for days afterwards, but and uh I said, you know, maybe he shouldn't have the surgery. Maybe, you know, it's not a good idea. And Dan said, you know, Linda, remember what the doctor said, with or without the surgery. And he said, uh, we have to know we did everything that we could do. Yeah, it was the hardest decision. It was that was a very difficult decision. And um, I knew that I knew DJ was gonna go home and be with the Lord. I knew that the Lord had DJ tell me that to prepare my heart. I knew it. And Dan was still optimistic. He was like, you know, he might make it, he might make it, you know, let's think about that. And I was like, okay, he might make it, true, you know. Yeah. And uh so he did go through the surgery in January, and uh, you know, by this time he was four and a half, and um his little heart had been through so much, and it was working so hard that it was enlarged. And uh your heart's a muscle, you know, and it just was it had worked so hard that it was just getting tired. Yeah. And so the surgery itself, in a way, you could say, was successful. It was transposition of the great arteries, so they were taking those arteries and putting them in the right places. Okay. Um, but his heart wasn't strong enough to withstand it, you know, yeah, and he couldn't get a transplant because he had had so many transfusions with adult blood. So he had too many antibodies. So um the doctor had promised me years before that if it came to the point that DJ was going to die, that uh he would let us take him home. I just didn't, I couldn't see him passing away at a hospital. And uh he loved his brothers and his house and his family so much, you know. So it was a big battle. We had to fight, we had to fight the hospital to release him. And uh thank goodness his doctors, uh, his cardiologist and his heart surgeon were on our side and really fought with us, and we got to bring him home. And he stayed home with us for 10 days, and those ten days were heaven on earth in the hardest time of my life. It was also the sweetest time of my life. Wow. To hold your son and have him look around the room and be like, just this look over his face, like in awe. And he would say, Mommy, look, aren't they so beautiful? And I'd be like, DJ, what do you say? And the angels, mommy, could you see them? And oh my goodness, I had so many encounters like that with him. Wow, it was just incredible. And um he wasn't scared, if anything, he would tell me. He would say, Um, mommy, don't cry. There's no missing in heaven. Goodness. There's no missing in heaven, you know. I mean, just incredible. And uh all of those things are in scripture, you know, like for years after DJ passed away, things that he'd told me and things that happened, I would look them up, and sure enough, there it was in scripture, you know. But um the one of the most miraculous things that happened was the actual day that he passed away.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And um, you know, I had called Dan. I knew that it was the day, I just knew it was, and uh I called Dan, told him to come home from work, and uh we were kind of in and out, and I called my sister-in-law, Kim, and she came over, everybody came to say goodbye to him that were, you know, lived in Georgia. And uh our pastor at the time came up from Noonan, and uh the house had a holy hush. It was just like you couldn't speak in your regular tone, it was just like a whisper, like everything was just at a different place. And uh excuse me, a friend of mine came over to pick up uh Derek and Dave after I had them say goodbye to him and uh explained that DJ was going to heaven, which was wow, yeah, incredible. Um but she told me afterwards that when she walked in, she said, Linda, I was so nervous about coming into the house. She said, But I walked in and she said, it felt like warm mist when I walked into the house. And she said, I just became so calm. Wow, everything was just so calm. The veil was thin, wasn't it? Oh, I'm telling you, Martha, it was so thin. And it was like even when you were breathing, it was like you're just breathing heavenly air. Wow, you know. Wow. And um, he was so peaceful. He was not struggling, he was not, I mean, they tried to prepare us for what the end was gonna look like. Nothing. No, it was nothing like that. So after everybody left, it was just Dan and I and um Pastor Green, and um we moved him. He wanted to come into our bed. And we put him on our bed and he said, Mommy, I'm so thirsty. And his favorite drink was Sprite. He said, Can I have a sprite, please? I was like, baby, you can have anything you want. Yep, yep. And I went and got him Sprite. And of course, hospice tells you they can't eat or drink anything because you know their body can't take it. And I was like, My baby wants Sprite, he's gonna have Sprite. So uh I got him Sprite and he took the biggest drink and just went ah, so satisfied. I mean, so satisfied. And it's like I can't ever get that image out of my mind of him because it was a satisfaction. You know, you say in your very first podcast, you said, um, talking about the cisterns of water and yeah, how the drink from the living water that there's nothing that compares to that. And that is what I saw in DJ. That's your picture.
SPEAKER_02:Living water is DJ drinking spray.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. Yeah. And that just wow, I mean, just so satisfied. So that was one. And then the next one was he lays down and like we're watching his chest. This is how close it is to the end. We're watching his chest, you know. And um, all of a sudden, he opens his eyes and he roars.
unknown:What?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, like a lion roars. I mean, Martha, we we were watching his breaths, we were watching his chest to see if he was taking another breath. And he lets out this huge roar, and Dan and I just looked at each other and I started laughing because I was like, it was just so bizarre, you know? And um, and then that was it. And then he patted on his right side and he patted on his left side, and he said, Daddy and mommy. And so Dan laid down beside him on one side, I laid down on the other side. And, you know, as parents, when your child has 103 fever, you're watching that child all night long, right? You're not sleeping, you're watching that child. Right. Well, here we know that our son's at the end of his life, and the three of us fall asleep. Oh my goodness. The only way I can describe it is that it felt like when we laid down together, it felt like the Lord took a blanket and just laid it over the three of us. And we both Dan and I both just kind of sunk into it, you know, and we fell asleep. And I started coming to, and I saw DJ in my mind's eye, I saw DJ rise up out of his body, then kind of like as if he was doing a flip, but looked down at me, put his hand down, and I said, No, baby, you go. And he turned around and looked up, and there was the hand of the Lord. DJ touched his hand, I mean, touched it, didn't grab it, touched it and it was gone. And I put my hand on his back and he was gone. He was really gone.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And it's it's as clear to me right now as though it just happened. I mean, it's that clear.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And I had to wake, I had to wake Dan up to tell him that DJ had gone to heaven. Um, so wow. I mean, then skipping ahead to the funeral, a lot of Dan's workmates came uh to the funeral, which a lot of doctors and nurses came, which was astounding because they they don't normally do that. Um and so many people got saved. Wow. So many people got saved. Wow. I mean, we had an altar call at the funeral. Yes, we did. DJ would have loved that. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Wow. So um, yeah, one of the worst possible things that could happen. And at the same time, because you know, somebody asked me once, how could you still trust the Lord when your son went through all that? And I said, Oh my gosh, I could have never survived it without the Lord. Wow. I where was I gonna run to? Who was gonna help me? Wow. Nobody. Nobody could.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:But the Lord could.
SPEAKER_02:What a different perspective.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And that perspective determined whether you are walking through life alone, refusing to receive the comfort of the Holy Spirit, or whether you answered that question that he asked you at the beginning. That's right. Do you trust me? And let him hold you through the pain of it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I mean that it's been my uh my life of walking with the Lord.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and I think that that question that that friend asked you, I think that is an echoing question that we all deal with when we experience pain and loss and disappointment. And um whether it's the enemy whispering it to us or other people asking it to us, I think it is common to us as humans to do it. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. The thing that I compare it to, though, is here I was ready to take my life over losing a job. Right. Right. Comparatively speaking, to losing my son.
SPEAKER_02:Pain with Jesus and pain without Jesus.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, you know, it just is um when you become born again, you have a choice. And your choice is you've already been saved, you're filled with the Holy Spirit, right? You're sealed until the day of redemption. But God is completely a gentleman and never will force himself on us, ever. But when we call out to him, he is right there. Wow. I mean, you know, there have been times, and we'll talk about it later, but that there have been times that you go through, and as Christians, I heard other people calling this like um desert times or dry periods or whatever. Um, but the truth is the Lord never leaves us or forsakes us. Right now, there may be a time that we have to deal with stuff. Yeah, we have to weigh out in our heart and in our mind and and make a choice. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Wow. I mean, and sometimes it takes us a while.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, sometimes it it has taken me nearly a year to fully work through some of the things that I've been through and then get to the other side of it and say, okay, Lord, I'm ready now.
SPEAKER_02:Right. And that's okay. Yes, the process is okay. Yes. I think that's so important because I think sometimes we misinterpret the fact that we struggle with something, that we have to process through it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:To mean that something's wrong with us. We don't believe, we're not gonna make it back into close relationship with the father and connection. No, that's a part of the journey too, right? Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I I going through grief uh with DJ, I really turned to King David's Psalms. And I love how King David was so raw with his emotion.
SPEAKER_02:He sure was.
SPEAKER_00:He was raw. And I remember about a week after DJ passed away. Now, don't forget, I still had Derek and David to take care of. So I wasn't just freely open to grieve whenever I wanted to, right? You know. Um, but the boys were down or gone, I don't remember. But um, I walked out on my back deck and it was just about at sunset. And I screamed as loud as I could for as long as I could.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And then just cried and cried and cried and cried. Yeah. And I, even though I really wasn't asking God the question, why did you take DJ? I was just why for my whole life. Why, why, why? And just crying, you know. Um, and when I let it all out, and I was exhausted, right? I then could hear the still small voice. And sometimes it would just be, I grieve with you. Wow. You know, I mean, that is one of the wonderful things that um I ended up doing through the whole term with DJ, was I journaled all the time. And I would write a question to the Lord and he would answer me with scripture. And I'd write a question to the Lord and he'd answer me with scripture. So I'd go and get my journals and just read through them, and it would just be reminders of, yeah, remember when I we were in that pit of despair, you know, and uh there were so many times through those surgeries where I was alone. Dan wasn't with me. Dan used to travel overseas, yeah. And um, in fact, that's why he stopped traveling. This one time it was an emergency surgery, and uh the doctor told me he might not come off the table. Wow, you just need to be prepared. And Dan was in Spain. Oh, bless him. Yeah, yeah. And I was sitting out in the garden of the hospital crying. Wow. And it was raining out, and I was just sitting there crying out in the garden. And uh the Lord asked me the question, Do you trust me? Wow.
SPEAKER_02:I so appreciate your transparency in this because it's so interesting. I was listening to another testimony earlier this week, and it was a couple speaking, and the woman said, Yes, that was three of the most difficult years. That was the three most difficult years of our lives. And then they went on with their testimony. And I feel like sometimes we have to pause and go, Wow, there's the that this is what difficulty looks like. Yeah. So when you talk about where you've processed through and the kind of human woman believer that you are who walks with the Lord the way that you do, being clear about the struggle is so powerful.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I've recognized even in my family, even with my kids, I think I have undershared, or maybe it's time as they're becoming adults that I share more deeply with some of the about some of the struggles I've had. So they know that they're that's a part of life. They're normal.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:You can be okay. This is not a sentence. That's right. You know, in one way or the other. This is actually what it looks like to walk with God, to wrestle with God, to process with the Lord, to have doubts for to have him meet you all through those dark places. Yeah. That's so important. That they are they do come, they are a part of life, and you are gonna you can make it through.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, um, what's so beautiful is uh at one point I was thinking thinking about my whole life, you know, thinking about uh when I was born 3360. Okay. Um my mother always told me, Oh, there was a terrible blizzard the day that you were born. So not that long ago, a year or so ago, I decided, let me look that up and see if that's true. You know, yeah. Sure enough, okay. All of New York City was shut down. That's gonna be a lot of snow to shut down New York City. Yes. So um, but the story went that I was breached birth. And because there was a blizzard, the specialist who was there during the day couldn't leave the hospital.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And I was born at night, and it was I almost my mother didn't almost make it, and I almost didn't make it. Wow. They called Dr. Patterson in, and he came in and he delivered me. And I felt like the Lord was showing me. I love Psalm 139. Love it, love it, love it. Yes, it's what the Lord used in my life very, very early on when I was first born again to say, no, your your purpose for being here is for me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_00:I designed you, I knit you together in your mother's womb. You were born the day I said you were gonna be born, you know. And um, and it all tied in together when I realized that I have a purpose. And look what God did in order for me to be here.
SPEAKER_02:He he covered New York City in a snowstorm.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I say this all the time to people. I'm so sorry that that I have caused you this distress, but God loves me. God loves me so much.
SPEAKER_02:Sorry. He designed that for me. That's right. Well, and the circumstances of your life, like Linda, and if if you ever have the opportunity to get to know Linda, you are a powerful woman. You've ministered to and blessed so many people, you've led so many people in so many incredible ways. But my goodness, the assault against your life. Yeah, but that the Lord showed you. No, yes, there have been assaults, and I'm right here to bring you back to heal those wounds, to refuse to let you sink into victimhood and bitterness and resentment, that you even would look at the situation with DJ the way you do. And I think that, you know, you guys that are listening, there are some questions to be asked. Like when you hit very difficult situations, are you gonna listen to the voice of the enemy that says, How dare God? Uh does he not care about you? Yeah. If he cared about you, he would stop this from happening. Um, you can't trust him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Instead of what what the messages are that you decided actually to believe God for who he says he is and not who the circumstances or the enemy would have said he is.
SPEAKER_00:Let me uh this is a good point for me to say this: that I really had to determine in my heart who I believed God was. Boom. Because if I believed that God brought this upon me, what kind of a loving father is that? Right. So I had to struggle through. I can sum this up in a couple of, you know, words or sentences, but it took a while for me to struggle through this.
SPEAKER_02:A while being probably years, I would assume.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I mean, um, even like my life, like once I became a Christian, then I thought, well, God, you could have protected me. I mean, I was I was raped when I was 13.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And I look back on that and I I I would think to myself, well, where were you that day?
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I mean, you could have stopped that from happening. And then, of course, with DJ. And then I think about my mom, and I'm like, well, why did she have to be mentally ill? I mean, you know, uh, so all of those questions were there. Even when I was first born again and first learning about who is God. Yes. I didn't have a father, so I couldn't call God father and feel some kind of love in my heart because I didn't know what that was. Wow. Um, so it was really truly like God directing me and showing revealing himself to me on a very real personal level. But this is what um, this is where studying the word comes in.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Let's hear about that a little. What do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_00:I decided that I needed to know for myself what the truth was about who God is and how he operates because it didn't make sense to me.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And I was tired of hearing, I had people telling me that Dan and I had sin in our lives. That's why DJ was born. Wow. Heart defect. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Speaking of, go ahead and write that down on things not to say to people.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, yes. Wow. Uh, very difficult, very hard things. And then, of course, when you know, we were praying for him to be healed and he wasn't healed, then it was, you know, well, we have some hidden sin in our lives, and so he's not being healed. And it's a broken world, folks.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, just a PSA public service announcement. That's right.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And that, in fact, is the point is that when God, you want to know how God would like the world to be, look at Genesis before sin entered in. Okay, it's a perfect place with an abundance of anything Adam and Eve could have wanted. Yeah, and they walked and talked with God.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, how beautiful was that. Anything they desired, yeah, they could have had.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:When sin entered in is when the world became cursed.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:When the world became cursed, you know, Satan being thrown down to earth and becoming the small g god of this world, meaning he's the ruler of this physical kingdom down here. Um the only way that we overcome that small g god Satan is by receiving the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who outrules him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, Jesus, when he died and he was raised again, gave us power. He raised us with him in newness of life. So we then are given power to overcome the evil one. Now, I know I've said a lot, that it means a lot. Yeah. Um, but read Colossians 1, read Ephesians. There you go. There you go. Yes. Um, and and it it took me years to go through and and really truly study this out. I mean in the Greek and the Hebrew, and I really went through wanting to know for sure that I was believing the right thing. Wow. And truth was so important to me because I was raised in a world where I couldn't tell the truth from a lie, you know, and so truth became very important. So you don't have to go to that extreme because the Holy Spirit will reveal truth to you. You open God's word, and God's word speaks to you. It's called the living word, yeah, because it lives, it's alive, it speaks to us right where we're at, right? You know, and you don't have to be a scholar to go through God's word. Um, the Holy Spirit is faithful to teach us. Uh, so you don't have to do that. But for me, I was in such, I was being pressed from all sides. Yeah. And so I needed to know that what I was standing on was truth, and I could explain to other people that no, no, no, your concept of God is incorrect. The reason I can run to him is because he is trustworthy, he's my creator, he saved me. He is working on my behalf all the time. He loves DJ. And you know, um, I told you that I went to Psalm 91 when DJ was born. And um after he passed away, I went back and I reread Psalm 91. And where it says that he will prepare a table for you in the presence of your enemy, it's a banquet table. While the enemy watches the table in front of your enemies. Well, we have to get out of our head that it's our physical enemies, it's our spiritual enemies. And, you know, when DJ let out that incredible roar.
SPEAKER_02:Goodness gracious.
SPEAKER_00:About two years after he passed away, I came across the scripture verse that said Satan roars like a lion. He roars like a lion. He is not the lion. Jesus is the lion from the tribe of Judah. And I think as DJ was getting ready to transition, that Satan came to try to scare him and was roaring at him in the supernatural realm. And DJ being filled with the Holy Ghost roared right back at him. But it was the lion of the tribe of Judah. Right. The victorious roar, you know. And I love that so much because DJ was only four and a half years old. He didn't know all the scripture verses, you know. Wow. But it goes to show you that the Holy Spirit, He works in us, in our lives. I think oftentimes, you know, God told me once, never discount what somebody tells you. Because if you see it in scripture, I've spoken to you through that person. Wow. They don't even have to be born again. It could be a donkey. That's right. It could be like Baylon's donkey. That's exactly right. You know, when Dan's mom was getting ready to pass away, she was had just accepted the Lord. Wow. Yeah. And um, all of a sudden, she starts saying, um, Betlahem, Betlahem, Betlahem. And you know, Kim's looking at me, I'm looking at her. And I went and I went, she's saying house of bread. She was seeing Jesus.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00:Jesus. Wow. The word who came down out of heaven. He's our manna, he's our bread, bread of life. And uh she didn't know that. There's no way she couldn't known that. Right.
SPEAKER_02:You know, she knew, she knew, she had much maybe less experience than DJ.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. And you know, I I think of my mom who, you know, I've explained her life, and there's way more. Um she in her, there was a lot of parts of her that were like a little girl. And she would say so many times, she would say, I just trust Jesus.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00:Jesus, you'll help me. Jesus, you'll help me.
SPEAKER_01:Goodness.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, like a little girl. She would say it like a little girl. And that was the part of her that I believe, you know, in her spirit that was crying out to Jesus, you know. Yeah, she accepted the Lord before she died. Wow. My father accepted the Lord before he died. Yeah. So that's why when when when we confess the word, me and my whole household will be saved. And Jesus. Wow. Yeah, it comes to pass.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Just an incredible perspective on difficult situations that Linda has. And I hope that as you guys have heard her story thus far, you can hear how she chooses what part of the story that she'll see, whether she'll see the brokenness in each story or whether she'll see the potential that there is for the father to redeem the brokenness in the story. So so glad that you guys joined us today for episode two. We have one more episode with Linda coming up next time. Can't wait to see you then. Hey you guys, thanks for hanging out with us today. I hope you've got some refreshment from the Sip from the Fountain. If you're curious to hear more, or if you like what you've heard, you can go ahead and subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to yours, or follow our Instagram account, Sips from the Fountain, or our Facebook page by the same name. Special thanks for covering our photography to the Sarah D. Harper. And I can't wait to hang out with you guys next time. Thanks so much. Love y'all.