Causing Trouble, the UFO Files, and Being Watchful

In this episode, I talk about how, as Christians, we should be troublemakers to the enemy! We are called to be bold, courageous, and unafraid to speak the truth, but fear stops many of us from using our voices. I also talk about the recent release of the UFO files and my thoughts on what I observed while looking through them. And to wrap it up, the conversation opens into a warning and an encouragement to stay alert and watchful in the church. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Dissatisfied Podcast. I am Rochelle Smith. I appreciate you listening. So I started this podcast because I am someone who feels very passionate about the truth. And I'm very justice-minded, which when I look back at my life, I'm like, you know, I've always been that way, even as a kid. So as I've looked around at the state of the world, especially since 2020, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, I've looked at the state of our world, and I'm thinking, what is happening? How did all of this absolute insanity get ushered in so quickly? Well, it feels like it was quick, but I think it was a slow burn type of thing. But I've just had a lot stirring inside of me. And I have gone to the Lord, I have prayed, and I've asked him, what do you want me to do with this stuff? What do you want me to do with all that I'm feeling? And so I felt inspired to do this, to do a podcast. So I hope you feel inspired as well when you listen. I hope you feel encouraged. And you know what? Maybe you're going to learn something that you didn't know before. I know I'm learning as I go. Honestly, I don't even know what I'm doing half the time. But here I am doing this podcast. So I'm trusting God day by day. And I guess you can come along for the ride if you want, and we'll see where it goes. Okay, story time. So when I was in fifth and sixth grade, which would have made me 10 and 11 years old, I believe, I had a best friend, and her name was Catherine. And she had the curliest red hair, and she was the cutest thing. She looked like she could have been played the perfect Annie. You know the movie Annie? And you know what? Maybe she did at some point. She might have played Annie because she came from a family who did a lot of acting. They did a lot of the community theaters, and they all sang. So she was very talented. But I remember that our friendship was basically just being silly. And I know that that's what fifth and sixth graders do, but we laughed all the time. We would pretend we were solving crimes. I remember we would put on Saturday night live skits for each other and just crack up. One time when we were at my house, we got the phone book out and we just decided to go through and pick random phone numbers. And we were calling people, and if they answered, we asked if they wanted a singing gram. And there was one lady who said yes, that she would love a singing gram. So Catherine proceeded to sing a song in her little girl opera voice, and it was so good because she was actually a really good singer, even at that age. And this woman just loved it. She was so thankful for the singing gram. So anyway, we just had so much fun together, and I thought that Catherine was the funniest person on earth, and she probably still is, is my guess. So, Catherine, if you're listening, thank you for all the fun times. And one of the other things that we would do, as you know, 11-year-olds, is we would steal our mom's cigarettes. Yep, we'd steal their cigarettes at 11 years old. And, you know, you gotta remember this was the 80s, and literally almost everybody smoked. I look back at pictures from the 80s from our house, like family gatherings. My mom has, you know, all these photo albums. And I look at some of the pictures and I'm like, it's just like a blanket of smoke. You can barely make out who is in the room through the smoke. But anyway, so we would steal our mom cigarettes. And if we were at Catherine's house, we would take, you know, one or two of her mom's Salem Light 100s. I remember what cigarettes they were. Salem Light 100s. And if we were at my house, we were stuck with my mom's Marborels. I mean, come on, mom. So anyway, we were so young, I don't even think we knew how to inhale. So it's not like we were inhaling. But this is how developed our brains were at the time. So we would hide inside this giant evergreen tree that was just down the road from her house, literally on the on the road. It was right there by the sidewalk. So we would climb into this tree and we would sit among the dry pine needles and just light those sigs up. Or we would walk down to this park that wasn't too far away, and there was this giant green bush in this park, and it had the best opening, like this little clear area inside the bush where we could go and be comfortable and just smoke away. And I look back now and I think, I wonder if anybody ever saw smoke coming out of the tree or the bush and thought, huh, I wonder if it's on fire. But nobody ever said anything, so people probably didn't notice. I also remember there was this tiny little store not too far from her house, and it was this really tiny little convenience store, but it had like the cigarettes behind the counter, you know. And one day we came up with a grand plan to be able to buy a pack of cigarettes so we could have our own pack. And so we walk to this little store, and I mean, you know, like I said, this is just a tiny little place, but I go inside and Catherine stays outside down the sidewalk just a little bit. So I go and I get some candy or something, I don't remember what, but it was a soda or candy, and I go up to the counter and he punches it in, and before I pay, I say, Oh, wait a minute. And then I walk back to the door, which is, you know, two feet from the counter, and I open it halfway and I stick my head out, and I look down at Catherine and I yell, you know, so that the guy can hear me, and I say, Hey, what kind of cigarettes did your mom want? And so Catherine yells back, Salem Light 100s. And so I go back to the counter and I look at the guy and I say, Oh yeah, and we need a pack of Salem Light 100s for her mom. And this guy sold me at 11 years old a pack of SIGs. And so we had a successful mission that day. Oh, the 80s. Those were the good old days, honestly. But then seventh grade came and Catherine actually went to a different school, and I was so sad. I was sad for so many weeks, I remember, but I got over it. You know, change is part of life. And some friends are for a season, but I will never forget that season because it was so special. I have some really, really fun memories with Catherine. And you know what? Most of us probably have stories like that from our childhood and our teen years, stories of, you know, sneaky stuff you did or lies you told, maybe things you shouldn't have done, shenanigans that you got into. But I was thinking, why do we do stuff like that when we're young? And I guess some of us do that stuff when we're older too, as adults, but I think if you're doing that stuff when you're an adult, then you got some issues you need to work on. But I think the reason that we do that stuff or we're drawn to doing that stuff when we're young, especially, is because we are all wired by God for adventure, for excitement, to have thrilling experiences. You know, we're wired to take risks and be curious and explore things. And it's my opinion, but I think I could back this up with scripture, but it's my opinion that we are supposed to cause a little bit of trouble. I think we're supposed to be troublemakers for God's kingdom. And you know what? When you read the Bible, you see a lot of people, including Jesus, causing trouble, shaking up the system, disrupting the rules. And you read about people who did amazing, unbelievable, risky things over and over again. Those are our examples that we should be following. But what happens is when we don't have a framework for what kind of trouble we're supposed to make, we end up aiming for the wrong things. So we end up seeking, you know, the excitement and the thrills in the wrong places. So then that makes it easy for the enemy to dangle, you know, rotten fruit in front of us, and we end up taking the bait. But as Christians, I think we're supposed to cause trouble for the enemy, for the kingdom of darkness. For instance, Ephesians 5 11 says that we should expose the works of darkness. So what does that mean? It means we're supposed to bring light to it. Well, how do you bring light to it? You confront it, you talk about it, you come up against it. But the reality is Christians really aren't doing that. I I see more and more doing it right now, but all in all, over the years, Christians have really stayed silent on a lot of things we should have been the loudest on. And we've made it way too easy for the enemy to gain so much power and so much influence. And it's because we've been brainwashed. Fear has brainwashed us into staying silent, into staying hidden, into staying compliant. But here's what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. First of all, he said that we are the light of the world. He said, You are the light of the world. And then he said, You don't light a lamp and then put it under a bowl. Instead, you put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they might see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. So we are supposed to be light in the darkness. And I don't think any of us could argue the fact that we are surrounded by a whole lot of that right now. It feels very dark in the world. And, you know, some of that darkness right now is this whole alien thing. This whole alien thing that's ramping up, it feels so weird and it feels dark. And I know that there's people that are scared. I know there's some people that are confused. And I'm sure most of you heard this, but President Trump ordered the Department of War to release that first batch of the UFO file. So that came out, I don't know, a week ago, something like that. And I took a little bit of time to look at these files. There's a lot of them. There's a lot that are PDFs with several pages in these in each PDF. There's quite a few images, some videos, but the images are and the videos are kind of grainy, not real clear. To be honest, I was very underwhelmed when I was looking through these. And some of these files are actually from I mean, decades ago. So don't get me wrong, there's some very interesting and questionable things in these files, but to be honest, I want some more. I need something more. Like, do we have pictures of an alien body? Do we actually have some pictures of a of a craft that has been captured? Can we see pictures of these types of things? So maybe the next round of files will have some mind-blowing stuff. I don't know. But then at the same time, I don't really trust our government to tell us the truth. So are these files even real? I don't know. But like I said, so far, I'm not impressed. We'll see what happens in these next batches that come out. And as I've said before, even if something were to come out that was verifiable that there are aliens and that they're among us, we don't have to fear because we know what they actually are. They are demons. And, you know, I know there's lots of Christians who are who are open to the idea that God created other beings on other planets, you know, that they possibly could be beings from other planets, but I am not open to that. And could he have? Could God have done that? Absolutely, he is God, but I don't believe he did. And this is why. Because he's not a God of confusion, that's what the Bible says. He's a good father, that's also what the Bible says. And I don't think that that is a piece of information that God would have kept from us who he calls his sons and daughters. It would feel like betrayal, wouldn't it? It would feel like betrayal. It's like one day you find out that your dad has a whole other family that you didn't know about. So again, it's not that I believe God couldn't have done that. I just believe he didn't. I don't think that it lines up with who the Bible says he is. But nonetheless, there are a lot of government documented UFO sightings, lots of documented cases around the world, and even some cases of alien encounters. And I'm actually going to read you this one because it's so bizarre and crazy. So this one happened in Russia, and it was documented by their government through the KGB, which is like the CIA. And the CIA obtained this document in 1991. I couldn't find where it said what year this encounter happened, but the CIA got this document in 1991. I got this off of the government website for the CIA. So I'm just going to read this portion to you. Okay, let me find it. Okay. According to the KGB materials, a quite low flying spaceship in the shape of a saucer appeared above a military unit that was conducting routine training maneuvers. For unknown reasons, somebody unexpectedly launched a surface to air missile and hit the UFO. It fell to Earth not far away, and five short humanoids with large heads and large black eyes emerged from it. It is stated in the testimonies by the two soldiers who remained alive that after freeing themselves from the debris, the aliens came close together and then merged into a single object that acquired a spherical shape. That object began to buzz and hiss sharply and then became brilliant white. In a few seconds the sphere grew much bigger and exploded by flaring up with an extremely bright light. At that very instant, twenty three soldiers who had watched the phenomenon turned into stone poles. Only two soldiers who stood in the shade and were less exposed to the luminous explosion survived. The KGB report goes on to say that the remains of the UFO and the petrified soldiers were transferred to a secret scientific research institution near Moscow. Okay, so this goes on and on. There's more to that if you wanted to go on the CIA.gov and read it, you can. But how wild is that? That's absolutely crazy. And I guess, you know, there's some debates over the information in this report, you know, if it's legitimate or not, but it was credible enough to have in the CIA file, so there has to be some truth somewhere in it. But here's the thing. I'm not going to be losing any sleep over the UFO files. Yes, we need to be aware. Yes, we need to have conversations about it because we don't want to be caught off guard, but we don't need to be consumed by it. Because ultimately, it's really just a distraction, I believe. You know, it distracts us from what we really need to be focusing on, and that is seeking God's face, doing what God's calling us to do, opening our ears to hear his voice, being in his word, letting him guide us, letting him direct us, letting him show us what the truth is about all these things. So a lot of this is just a distraction, even if it's real. But it's unfortunate because some of the distractions come from Christians. Because there was a group of pastors who exaggerated some information about a meeting. And you might have heard about this because it was circulating pretty widely, even in the news, where this story was that the government had called a meeting with several pastors in America to brief them on the alien and UFO stuff so that they could prepare their congregations for what was coming. Well, the truth came out, and nobody in the in the government did that. So, yes, this meeting with these pastors happened, but the government did not organize it. It was organized by these pastors. So why were they trying to make it sound like they had some sort of inside information from the government? And in fact, one of these guys, one of these pastors, did a YouTube video, a short YouTube video, apologizing for some of the false information that he put out there. So why would they twist things? I I honestly don't know, but this is just more confirmation for me that we need to be on guard. We need to have our guards up and question everything, even things that Christian pastors do and say. Which brings me to this point. Stop trusting everything that you hear from the pulpit. Stop trusting everything you hear from pastors, from Bible teachers, from prophets. Listen, it's okay for you to question things that your your pastor is preaching. It's okay for you to question what a Bible teacher is teaching. And here's the thing: if you do question somebody that's in leadership, if you are condemned, if you are cast aside, if you are mocked, if you are made to feel bad for asking questions, then you should run from that place. Far, far away from that place, and you should run from those people. Because when people have a problem being asked questions, that means there's issues. There's issues with control, probably issues with manipulating information. And those are not the places you want to be in. So pay attention. Pay attention to what's being preached and taught. But here's an example. I want to give an example of something that was very subtle, but honestly very impactful. And I'll start by reading the scripture. So it's John 5, starting in verse 5. So this is the story of the pool at Bethesda where this lame man would always try to get in the pool, you know, where people if you were the first one in, you would get healed. So this is the story. Starting in verse five. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, Would you like to get well? I can't, sir, the sick man said, for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me. Jesus told him, Stand up, pick up your mat and walk. Instantly the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking. That's an amazing story. Well, at the church that we left, you know, the controlling spiritually abusive one, I've talked about that in past episodes. One of the leaders would often use this scripture in his sermons or just in conversation, but he would use it when people were going through difficult times. So he would use verse 11, pick up your mat and walk. And he would say this about pretty much anybody who struggled with anything. So, you know, you're having financial trouble, pick up your mat and walk. Going through a divorce, pick up your mat and walk. You've got anxiety, pick up your mat and walk. Did your dog die? Pick up your mat and walk. And, you know, the way I saw him using that verse was like he was condemning people who were struggling. So, you know, it must be up to us to be healed. It must be up to us to to do it all. And I guess the man by the pool in Bethesda, he must have just been lazy. He was just making excuses. But he wasn't lazy, and he wasn't making excuses. It was his reality. He was literally lame. The man couldn't walk. And when Jesus asked him, Would you like to get well? He said, I can't. And that wasn't an excuse. It was just his reality. He didn't have anybody to put him into the pool. And it says that he had been there for 38 years. So I bet over those years that he had asked people to help him get in the pool. But here's the thing: most people that were there were either there to be healed themselves or they were there to help someone that they loved get in the pool. So of course they're not going to help him when they want their own healing or, you know, someone else that they love to be healed. Also, this guy said that someone always made it in before him. So that tells me that he was at least trying to get into the pool. So I was thinking, I bet this guy tried to roll as fast as he could to get in there. But he just couldn't roll fast enough. But he was doing the best he could. And it says that he kept going back for 38 years. Why? Why did he keep going back? Well, it's because something in him had hope. And then hope himself showed up. And you know what? Jesus did not reprimand the man, he healed him. Jesus knew that man wanted to be healed. So this is not a story of a lazy, weak, undetermined, faithless man. This is a story of the hope and the goodness and the power of Christ. And how after 38 years of not giving up, this man got his miracle. So, you know, I look back and I I think, gosh, I actually spent years in that church environment with these types of things being taught and spoken on. And I would I would agree with it. I would sit there and think, yeah, well, yeah, I guess we gotta pick up our mat. Just pick up your mat, people. Rochelle, pick up your mat. I mean, I I literally would agree with it. But one day, not too long ago, honestly, just probably a year ago, maybe less, I was reading this passage at my kitchen table, and all of a sudden it was like boom, it just became clear. And I thought to myself, how does somebody take that story and turn it into a way to reprimand or condemn people? Honestly, I don't know. I really don't. But the reality is that kind of stuff happens all the time. And that's why we have to be alert, that's why we have to be watchful, and not just outside the church, but inside the church. So again, we need to cause some trouble. We need to cause some trouble for the enemy. Don't be afraid to shake things up by standing on the truth firmly in Christ, because the days we are living in are calling us to be bold and not just to be bold outwardly, but to be bold inwardly, right? In the way we pray, in the way we seek the Lord, in the way we confront evil inside the church, not just outside of it. But what I've witnessed is people are afraid to do that. We are afraid to question things inside of the church because we've seen what happens when you do. There's a lot of backlash that happens. And not just on you know, in these big type of Christian organizations, but on the smaller scale too. There's attacks that will come when you try to stand up for what's right, when you try to stand up for the truth. But there has to be those voices. There has to be voices of truth that are willing to take the punches. Because there is so much happening right now with Christian leaders in these high places and not so high places, but these things that are happening are awful, honestly. And there has been a culture of cover-up in many of these organizations. And, you know, it's not just a cover-up of you know, someone that has had an affair or, oh, this person got drunk. No, we're talking about cover-up of sexual abuse through spiritual intimidation and manipulation. These are the things we're talking about. Uh and also other types of abuse. But this has happened and is happening in these higher places. So, how are people going to be protected and made aware of these abusers, of these false teachers, of these honestly dangerous people, unless there are some voices willing to take a stand against it? And thankfully, there are a few that are starting to do that. And believe me, they get attacked. I've heard people call the ones that are exposing all this darkness and all of this um abuse. I've heard them being called the accuser of the brethren, which is that's what Satan is called in in Revelation. And I think, really? So people who are exposing abuse, witchcraft, manipulation, all those types of things, they're the ones that are the accusers of the brethren. That's pretty twisted. Sounds like a Leviathan spirit at work to me. So there's a few people that I listen to for, you know, some breakdowns on some of this exposure that's happening because I need to learn too. And you just have to find some voices that you trust. And I want to say this that sometimes it's not people that you're gonna line up completely with, you know, the way that they interpret certain parts of scripture. And a couple of these guys that I listen to, I don't line up on everything, but that's okay. I appreciate their investigations and the information that they're bringing to the public because it honestly has helped me weed out some voices that I should not have been listening to. Because I don't want to spend my time eating the fruit of teachers, preachers, prophets who are deceptive, abusive, or manipulative. Because here's the thing: we get fooled because sometimes the fruit looks shiny on the outside, but it's rotten on the inside. And that's one of the biggest problems that we have right now is so many people and places and voices look good, sound good, and it feels good to be in those places or around those people because you take it at face value, because you can't see what's underneath the surface. But if there's rot in the roots, it's gonna affect the fruit. And I don't want any part of that. So I think we are in a time where we need to be very intentional and careful of what voices we listen to, because there are so many voices with social media right now. And there are way too many wolves that have disguised themselves as sheep. So we need to have our guard up. And if you'd like to know who I listen to on some of those matters, you can text me if you have my number, or you can email me at dissatisfiedpodcast at gmail.com and I'll let you know who they are. Also, if you're not already listening to them, my friends Kelly and Andrew Whalen have a podcast, and it's called Vanquish Darkness, and it's on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, pretty much everywhere. They have some really great and important things that they share on, so you should check them out. You would learn a lot from them. But I want to end today by just encouraging you to be cautious of the voices you listen to. Don't just accept everything as the truth, even when it's spoken from the pulpit, even when it's spoken from people that you would consider trustworthy. Let yourself ask questions. And understand that the enemy operates just as much inside the church as outside. So we need to be on guard, we need to be watchful, and most importantly, we need to be in the Word of God. So thanks for listening, and I hope you join me next week.