"Don't Spill the Tea"-Marlena at Sacred Spaces Conference - Part 1

Pastor Marlena shares a powerful message from a Sacred Spaces event in her hometown, urging women to rise up and walk in their faith. Using the metaphor of a teabag steeping in hot water, she illustrates the importance of abiding in God to draw out the good He has placed within us. Explore how abiding can transform your spiritual journey and prepare you for what God has called you to do. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow, and don't forget to subscribe for more inspiring messages.

Transcript

Part 1 - Don't Spill the Tea with Pastor Marlena Hollis

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Marlena Teach Jesus Podcast. Today you're in for a treat as we introduce Marlena Hollis, a prophetic Christian ministry speaker, coach, and author who is dedicated to uplifting you in your faith journey. Marlena is here to inspire you, encourage your growth, and help you connect with a community of believers who share your heart for God. Get ready to explore meaningful insights and find your place to call home in this vibrant faith community. Let's jump in. 

Today, we're bringing you a powerful message from Pastor Marlena shared at a Sacred Spaces event held in her hometown. We're going to be sharing part one of this message today, and tomorrow, part two will come out as well. It's a heartfelt and inspiring word you won't want to miss. So make sure to subscribe and join us tomorrow for [00:01:00] part two of this incredible message. 

Marlena Hollis: What are you doing as a part of this? Do you feel like you're a part of that? Do you feel like God is calling you into, into that new flow where he's saying, woman of God, it's time to rise up.

See, there's an anointing that happens when you receive the Holy Spirit. Okay, and that anointing is present with you at all times. Do you believe that? It's the word, say yes. We're like this tea bag, you know, we're like this cup of tea. Holy Spirit and circumstances kind of combine their efforts towards us and we have this abiding place that we have to be in.

We have to just keep hanging out here just like this tea because this tea it takes a little time. It's not going to be ready as soon as I pour the water on it. [00:02:00] It's going to have to abide in the water. So I want to ask you as I'm just getting this out, this is some freebies. What's God asking you to do?

Hmm. What's the Lord been talking to you about that maybe you're like, Oh my gosh, I really don't want to do that. It's really super big. If it's not bigger than you, then you're playing safe. And if you're playing safe, you're not playing with faith. Hmm. Just a thought, just a thought. Thought I'd just throw that out there.

I'll try to be nicer.

But the things that God calls us to do is going to require lots of faith in this season. Do y'all believe that? We're in a not play it safe season. I really believe that we're in a [00:03:00] space in time, where we talk a lot about seasons, but we've entered in a season, I believe, that is actually jumped into another era.

It's a season within a new era. And I believe in that moment, that right now, he is asking women, specifically the women, to rise up. These people in Pakistan, you know why they're calling on me in this female packaging? Because the men that I've partnered with that are ministers, they want to see the women rise up.

Because they've seen them be pushed down and oppressed. And they're tired of it. They know what the potential is for a nation if you can get that population to rise up and walk in who God's called them to be. So that's what we get to minister to, is those women. And I get to do that here, but I also minister to men and women.

And I'm grateful for the [00:04:00] privilege of that. But what are you doing as a part of this? Do you feel like you're a part of that? Do you feel like God is calling you into that new flow? Where he's saying, "Woman of God, it's time to rise up. It's time. You've been playing small, I want you to go to the big leagues. I want you to get out of the minor leagues."

I'm a big baseball fan. You can hang out in the minor leagues and nurse your wounds and get better, but then it's time that you get called back into the major leagues. Some of you, it's time for you to get called up into the major leagues. It's your time. But it's up to you.

So, that's a freebie.

Okay, so, I've got a lot of notes here, I'm going to talk about, I'm going to teach you guys about tea. Does anybody drink hot tea? Yeah? Oh, I know Karen, she's a big tea drinker. Yeah? Charlene brought out the tea when I ministered this [00:05:00] before. She brought out like every kind of tea ever known to man, I was like, where did she get all that tea?

I mean, was it like a collection? I didn't think you were drinking it. I think you were just buying it. You know, you're like one of those people. Yes, I drink coffee. And you're like, they hold the coffee. Like the coffee massagers. Not even real coffee drinkers. Okay. So, we're going to talk about how to do some tea, so I'm going to ask for my beautiful mother to come up here and she is going to, bring me my teacup, because I'm going to do a little demonstration.

I'm going to have to get back off the carpet for my demonstration, though, I'm going to have to come upstairs. All right, thank you, ma'am, I appreciate the tea. Oh, she's even got me a teabag ready, oh, a napkin! This is so fancy! Thanks! Cheers! Oh my, and I got my water. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Awesome.

Yes. Yes. Thank [00:06:00] you. I love you. All right. I bet y'all would never know that was my mom. Who would have thought? Okay. Well, let's go ahead and I'm going to just go back into the flow of prayer and just invite the Holy Spirit to speak what he wants to into the room and through this vessel. 

So father, thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father, for just preparing our hearts. We prepare our hearts, God. Yes, Lord, we quiet our soul right now before you, God. We quiet our mind, our will, our emotions, God, in your presence. We thank you for speaking to us, God. Thank you for your word. It's so rich. It's so beautiful. And Father, thank you that it's so refreshing.

God, I thank you for every woman in this room. I thank you, God, that as they've moved into this space, God, that today is their [00:07:00] day. And I just pray a blessing over them as they receive the word from this vessel. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. 

All right. So let me see where I'm going to start here. I'm gonna talk to you about some tea.

So let's, let's do that. So, so here's a little bit of information about tea. To brew tea, you steep it in hot water, typically, right? Typically hot water. Who steeps it in cold water? Who, who does? Do you steep it in cold water? Yes, okay, we'll talk about that too in a little bit. But we, we usually, it's like hot water, right?

It says steeping is the process of extracting the flavor and health promoting compounds from the solids used to make tea. So, steeping is the process of extracting the solids that are even oftentimes medicinal [00:08:00] that's in the tea. This tea, I give each of you a tea bag when you come in because we're going to talk about this tea.

So, I've got my cute little cup and I've got my little tea bag in it. And I'm preparing, I'm going to prepare some tea. I'll just set that there. I'm going to move it a little closer so you guys all get to see my tea. Okay. I would have liked to have given you all a teacup and a teabag, but I gave you the teabag.

It really smells like an air freshener. I think your teabag did. I'm so sorry. They were super cute. That's why I bought them. But I highly suggest you probably just put them in your car as an air freshener. I really believe that that's all they're good for. I tried one of them. I was like, Oh my gosh, I felt like I was eating a flower, uh, drinking flower water.

Alright, so we know what then steeping is. Steeping is, we're going to put the teabag in, we're going to pour some hot water on. And I'm going to do that in just a little bit, but I want to talk to you a little [00:09:00] bit first and get into the word. So, let's go to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. And we're going to start with verse 20.

 "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things." Look how smart you are. "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth."

Let's skip down to verse 24, "Therefore, let that abide in you." Underline the word abide. Unless you don't want to write in your Bible just and look at it really hard. Let's do it. "Abide in you which you heard from the beginning. [00:10:00] If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.

And this is the promise that He has promised us eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you. And you do not need that anyone teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him."

Say out loud, abide. Say out loud, I am anointed. My friend Tammy made me a t shirt and I was going to wear it [00:11:00] tonight, but I actually just felt kind of fat, so I didn't wear it. Don't y'all love how plain I am? I'm just like, I felt fat so I didn't wear the t shirt, and I also thought y'all would be distracted by the words.

Because it says the Holy Spirit makes me smart. How many of you have heard me say the Holy Spirit makes me smart? Okay, Holy Spirit makes us smart. Not just me smart, but Holy Spirit makes you smart, right? The smart aleck part he didn't do. That's on my own. I didn't need any help. I was born in that way.

Um, but he says this, he says that, "Therefore, let that abide in you, which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will also abide in the Son and in the Father." So we're talking about this abiding. See, there's an anointing that happens when you receive the Holy [00:12:00] Spirit.

Okay? And that anointing is present with you at all times. Do you believe that? It's the word. Say yes. The abiding anointing is imparted deep inside of you. And it is not intended to leave. The abiding anointing abides in you and therefore when that anointing abides in you, you abide in the Father, the Father abides in you, the Son abides in you, you abide in the Son.

So then the, that abiding anointing of the Holy Spirit is also able to teach you, guide you, lead you into all truths and all things. Do you believe that is the word we just read? But here's the thing about abiding. We're not great at it. Let me tell you what abiding means. Abiding is to [00:13:00] inhabit. Set up home.

So the Holy Spirit wants to set up home, right? . And then the Hebrew is yashab. The Greek is meno. Which I think is interesting. Me. No. Me. No. Hmm. I don't wanna wait. No, not me. Me. No. That means I have to abide if I wait. And then it says to stay in. To stay in a given place. to stay in a given state, to stay in relation and expectancy.

So to abide in the Lord means you're staying in a place that is a specific state of mind and an expectancy. That's our part of the abide. See, it's, it's two part. [00:14:00] Just read the word. It's two part. He chose to abide here in us. But we have to choose to stay in it. To stay in place. To stay in relation. To remain.

And here's the other words. To continue. To dwell. To endure. Be present. Remain. To stand. To tarry. To wait for it. Are we doing those things? Are we? The question is, are we willing to stay in an abiding place? So I liken it to this tea bag, and let me tell you why I've got some tea here. Let me try not to make too big of a mess.

So we're kind of like this tea cup. We're like this tea bag, you know, [00:15:00] we're like this cup of tea. Holy Spirit and circumstances kind of combine their efforts towards us. And we have this abiding place that we have to be in. We have to just keep hanging out here, just like this tea. Because this tea, it takes a little time.

It's not going to be ready as soon as I pour the water on it. It's going to have to abide in the water. It's going to have to remain stable in a place in order that the good that's in it begins to get drawn out.

There's an abiding that has to take place in order for the good that God has deposited inside of you to get drawn out in its fullness and its [00:16:00] nutrients. But it's hard to do those things. It's hard to stay good all the time. My husband was born good. I just tell you, he was, he's just born nice.

He's just the nicest guy. I don't even know why he wanted to ever hang out with me, because I wasn't born nice. You know, some people just born nice. I was just born just mean and sassy. The Holy Spirit has done a really good work. And I'm grateful for my husband who chose to stick it out with me in his niceness because his tea seemed to steep a little bit better and faster than mine.

It's taken me a little bit. It's been taking a lot of hot water. I had a lot of hot water that's had to be poured on in order for the good to come out. Does anybody know about that? Anybody but me? Okay. So then, let's keep going about some tea. So not all tea is created the same. This is [00:17:00] what's interesting to me.

There's, steeping techniques are going to differ depending on the type of tea that you brew. I'm like, hmm. So I'm like, okay Lord, different types of tea. I get you, I get you. So here's the thing about what I have to, to realize. That my tea, what I've got going on, doesn't have to look like Miss Sarah's back here. Sarah's got some good tea. I see you.

It doesn't have to look like their tea. My process doesn't have to look like their process. And you know what happens when we get into comparing? We just prolong our process. We stay someplace too long. And oh my goodness, I hate for us to stay someplace too long. I hate for us to be where we're looking at somebody [00:18:00] else's tea too long that we forget about our tea.

And then here's something interesting about tea. When you pour that on there and you put the bag in it, This saucer, we think it's meant for it to hold the cup and look cute. Actually, when you put that teabag in the hot water, it's going to do its best work when it gets hidden. It's going to be so good because you put that on there and all that steam just settles on in.

It doesn't get cold. The temperature and the atmosphere just does its thing so good. And that tea just does its thing and, it gets to hang out there all by itself.

Interesting. Like, okay, Lord, I've been hanging out in these spots before. A little too long. I thought. So then I got fussy. Any of you ever got fussy? Y'all [00:19:00] know what fussy is? Yeah. Okay. So I'm hanging out and I'm, I'm fussy. I'm wanting the lid off. I'm ready. I'm ready. So now I've got everything coming in at me because now, I'm not covered because I've put myself in that place because I'm tired of waiting.

I'm going to sit here and, and unlike my Pakistan sisters who are going to wait and pray, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna say, "Oh, I'm waiting on the Lord", and the whole time I'm complaining on the Lord. Help me Lord. Because see, when we operate in complaining, we are grieving the Spirit of God. And that anointing that has been deposited on the inside of us.

You see, what happens is, we're taking too long to let it do it's perfect [00:20:00] work. And there's something that happens whenever this teabag settles in too long. The longer this little teabag goes past its timeline, you can sip it, mmm, it's bitter. It gets bitter.

We can get into a place. Or we move outside of his timeline for us. Things become prolonged because we've positioned ourselves wrong. We've not settled into abiding, but we've preferred pleasure over his presence. We've preferred a preference of how we wanted to look over his presence. And we prefer our time over abide.

I'm speaking only from an [00:21:00] experience, because we've all been there when waiting was just too hard. Just too hard. And you know what we begin to do? We begin to put our mouth on everything. We put our mouth on it, and we just are telling it all, right? So we take our tea, and we're going to tell everybody. So we're going to go over here to Sister Susie's house, and we're going to talk to her about our tea.

We're going to be like, you know what, I know God has called me for something, and I know I'm supposed to be doing this and this and this, and then we're telling all the secrets that the Lord's been teaching us, even in the secret place. He ain't said to tell it yet. It's not ripe, it's not ready, and it's not ready for you to share.

We can't keep a secret with the Holy Ghost. And then another thing is we think every time we get a revelation we got to tell it too. And so we're just [00:22:00] doing this with the tea bag. We just like this. I better put this down.

So I'm just going to talk real loud now, and I'm going to tell you all about this tea. So then what we do, is we just, dabbling in our tea, we're lifting it up and down, up and down. We're in and out, some of us, that's what we do, we're in and out. We're like, yeah, I'm good today, but I ain't tomorrow.

I'm good and I'm in, I'm all in right now. And we just making this mess. And we're just telling everybody about all of our dilemmas and all of our struggles and all of our stuff. And we just ain't abiding in the presence of the Lord at all. We're messy. We're messy. Here's what happens with messy. I got this mess and now I'm gonna say, "Shirlene, hey Shirlene, won't you come and hang out with me?"

And, "Shirlene, I think we need to go to lunch. Shirlene, let's talk and we're [00:23:00] gonna go have some tea." And then what happens? You know what she's left doing?

I've done made a mess that she's got to clean up. Because my spiritual friend knows that I need some help. So I've done made a mess that she has to contend with. So, let me tell you, let me tell on myself, because, you know, I just have to tell on myself. And I'm like, Lord, why did I tell that? So I was looking at my husband, um, this week and he had said something to me and it was like very discerning.

And I was like, looking at Him like, okay, like he's been on a kick. Like a good kick. I've been praying for that kick. So, I was just being so nice. I was getting ready for bed. My husband's over there laying in the bed, covered up to sleep. He's looking so precious. And I [00:24:00] was like, "Lord, thank you so much. For, it just seems like he's really had a spiritual awakening. He's really have, has some things to say." 

Oh my gosh. I hate telling this on myself. The Lord said, Amen. "He always had something to say. But you were too busy talking and he couldn't get a word in." Oh my gosh.

I cannot even. Listen, does he talk to anybody else like that but me? Thank you, Lou Mary. Oh my gosh. I was like, That's so true. Listen, I said that is so true. How many times we pray and we pray and we pray, but we can't shut up and quit saying, saying, saying something? How many times [00:25:00] that we know that we want to see God move in our family's lives?

We want to see people move into the presence of God. We want to see them doing, doing, doing. But all we can do is keep talking. See, what we're doing, we move from abiding to jumping out trying to fix it ourselves. And I'm going to tell you what, Holy Ghost doesn't need your help. He doesn't need me today to tell you this.

Because you know what? You'll get it some other way. He chose to have me speak a word, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. But he doesn't need all the help from you that you think he does. He doesn't need for you to always have a word. He don't need for you to always be teaching somebody something and telling them all that you know out of the word.

Sometimes you know what people need? For you to sit with [00:26:00] them. Look at them. Say, "Hey Barbara, how is your life going? What's going on with you Barbara?" And then be quiet. You don't even have to say something next. You don't even have to compare and, and one up them. You don't, but oftentimes we miss it.

The things that's causing us to lose out, to lose out on our victories. Let's go to, John chapter 15, verse seven. Is this too hard on the first night? Listen, I'm just trying to get everybody together if the Lord's gonna make me get it together. It's like, come on now. No, I'm grateful. I'm grateful. I want the Lord to help me out.

Don't leave me in a whole mess, looking a mess, [00:27:00] thinking I've got it together, deceived. No. No. Tell me, God. Search my heart. Know my ways. There be anything in me that is unclean. I ask for the Holy Ghost flashlight to shine in. Nothing hidden. Uncover it all, Lord. We ain't got that kind of time to make those kind of messes.

For people to have to work around us all the time making excuses for us because our behavior hadn't lined up to most your Christianity. That's good. Come on. It's time. I guarantee you there. If there's any baby Christians in this room, I highly doubt it. I think this is a mature group of women and as mature group of women, 

it's time for us to rise up and lead the next generation, and you're gonna lead them.

Oh yeah, you're [00:28:00] leading somebody. But how are you leading them? Because the thing about leading is this. You're leading someone, you just may be leading them poorly. But you're still leading them poorly. You're still leading them in a ditch. They're looking at you. Where are you showing them? Where are you taking them?

Father, help us to go higher. Help us to level up. Help us, God, expose me to me, expose me to me.

That's where we're going to leave off for today. Tomorrow, we're going to pick up with part two, where Pastor Marlena will continue her inspiring and challenging message on abiding and gracefully stewarding the word God has placed inside you. Please join us again for tomorrow as we continue this [00:29:00] message.

Thank you for listening to the Marlena, teach Jesus podcast. We hope you found today's episode uplifting and enriching. Please share this message with a friend so they can be encouraged by it too. If you're looking to deepen your faith and connect with a supportive community, be sure to follow Marlena Hollis on social media and visit Marlenahollisministries.com for the latest updates and events. Don't forget, you can also click the link in the notes to discover Marlena's book: "That's Mine! A 14 Day Journey of Declaring and Decreeing the Peace of God Over Your Life". Remember, you have a place to call home here. Until next time, keep growing and shining the light of Christ.