This Is Bigger Than Your Relationship | Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne

In this episode, Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne discuss the importance of unity in relationships, particularly in marriage and community. They emphasize the need for intentionality, communication, and emotional connection to overcome challenges such as miscommunication and stress. The conversation highlights the role of forgiveness, shared spiritual pursuits, and the power of speaking life into one another. The hosts encourage listeners to take actionable steps towards strengthening unity in their relationships, reminding them that they are better together with Christ at the center.

Unity is powerful and essential in relationships.

• Intentionality is key to maintaining unity.
• Miscommunication and stress can challenge unity.
• Emotions can reveal areas needing growth.
• Comparison can undermine unity in relationships.
• Failure is not the end; it's a learning opportunity.
• Silent struggles can lead to feelings of isolation.
• Community support is vital for unity.
• Prayer and communication strengthen relationships.
• Forgiveness is crucial for maintaining unity.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction: A Personal Touch

01:52 The Importance of Unity

04:18 Challenges to Unity

10:30 Navigating Miscommunication

12:48 The Role of Emotions in Relationships

20:08 Silent Struggles and Isolation

22:26 Spiritual Protection Through Unity

24:31 Building Community and Support

27:04 Intentional Connections in Faith

30:41 Speaking Life and Encouragement

37:06 The Power of Forgiveness

38:53 Shared Spiritual Pursuits

41:06 Action Steps for Unity

44:01 Conclusion: The Blessings of Unity

45:49 FAITHFULLY INVESTED OUTRO VIDEO.mp4

46:21 2026 SPONSOR VIDEO FAITHFULLY INVESTED.mp4

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Transcript

Allen Thorne (00:01.154)
Hey, happy today, friends. Glad that you joined us today. Today's episode feels personal in a way that's a little different than the rest of the season. Is that because we have a furry friend there with us? Our little Leia, she my super friend.

She's not usually in frame, but she was insisting today. She does insist. Sometimes. And out of frame over here is her baby sister, Lilo, and she might just... You never know. As the spirit moves, she just... And here she goes. There she is. Ladies and gentlemen, Lilo. And I'm a little bashful. But I know that's not what you're talking about. Right, yeah, but...

We love our Shih Tzus, but you know, the better news is that God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, loves us more than that. Yes, for sure.

But like I was saying, today's episode is gonna be personal in a way that's a little different than what we shared the rest of the season. We've talked about standing on our faith in storms, standing on our faith in blessing and in warfare and in weakness, but today we're gonna shift the lens a little toward about the people.

people who stand with us as we go through life together. My name is Allen and if there's one thing that I've learned through my walk with Jesus Christ, especially in marriage to this lovely lady right here, it's that our faith gets stronger when we decide to not walk alone in it. That's right. And I'm Stacy Jo

Allen Thorne (01:52.11)
And as he said, we're ending the season with something right at the heart of who we are. We're talking about unity and unity in marriage and families and church and community because standing and faith was never meant to be a solo assignment. God designed us to grow together, to pray together, to forgive together, and even to build environments where the presence of God, not

the presence of chaos or division or stress, but where the presence of God shapes the atmosphere of our homes. So if you're listening today and you're longing for a deeper unity in your marriage, in your home with your family, or even in your friendships or your church family, well, boy howdy. I knew you'd like that, Allen. Boy howdy. You're in the right place. Catch you now.

It's not. I'm just doing it to humor you. you said the presence of God shapes or shakes the foundation of the room. Shapes with a P. Shapes. S-H-A-P-E-S. Right. Okay. No. Fair enough. The presence of God never shakes. It's unshakable.

If you're not used to it, it'll shake you up a little bit. Well, it can't shake you up a little bit in the right way. Right? All right. Moving on. Moving on. Our challenge, but what we're addressing today, the challenge that we're addressing today is how do we stand on faith together when life, stress and miscommunication or spiritual pressure tries to divide us? Yeah. Wow.

division. Have you seen any of that lately? Yeah, so we're not talking about division today. We're talking about the antithesis.

Allen Thorne (03:52.674)
of division, that is unity. Unity is powerful. And you want to check out how powerful unity is, check out Acts 2. Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2, it shows us that when believers gather in unity, the Spirit flows freely. And that's capital S Spirit, as in the Holy Spirit flows freely. So we would encourage you, we're going to reference Acts 2 through this podcast.

through this episode, but we would encourage you to go and check out the entirety of Acts 2 and that'll show you what we're talking about as far as unity under and in Christ's authority as the Spirit moves freely.

Yeah, we figured we'd give you a little homework assignment on that one. Right. that's just speaking it all out for you. Right. Sometimes homework, depending on who you are, that bears a negative connotation. This is is scriptural truth. So there's no there's no negative connotation there. But anyway, unity, it doesn't always happen automatically.

It usually doesn't happen automatically. You mentioned previously that we got to be intentional. You are very intentional about saying that we have to be intentional and we got to be intentional on yielding to the Holy Spirit so that we can walk in unity with with him and with each other. But division is easy. Hate is easy. Look around. Misunderstanding is easy. Offended pride.

Easy. Yeah, a little too easy. But unity, authentic Holy Spirit led unity requires intention, humility, and first and foremost, it requires surrender to the one who brings the unity. Yes. You know, Colossians 3 tells us to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, which can be difficult sometimes but

Allen Thorne (05:54.136)
But that's not just a list of virtues. It's actually a blueprint for how to become and remain united. But unity requires deciding for the spirit over the flesh, especially in the moments when our emotions might want to do the opposite. I don't know. Have you ever been there? Have your emotions ever gotten the best of you, Allen? Because I know they have gotten the best of me. Today?

I don't mean, I'm not saying today, but whether it's in marriage and parenting, friendships or church relationships, unity is one of the enemy's greatest targets. Yeah, and we're not beating up on emotions. Emotions, they show us what's good about us, and in turn, emotions will, they can throw up a red flag on what we need to let God work on us with.

That can show us where we need work on. But we see our unity is going to be tested. And it gets tested with the ones that are closest to us, right? Based on my experience.

Unity gets tested by the ones that are closest to me and marriage it could be Small things will turn into big things right when we're not intentional when we when we let something come between us if we're not intentional about you know

connection and communication, you know, the enemy can slip in. So we gotta be intentional. I think we'll say that a few more times. It could be a misinterpreted tone. I recall hearing not just from my lovely wife, but from my dear mother, God rest her soul. Allen, it's not what you say, it's how you say it.

Allen Thorne (07:46.83)
It's not funny, you know, and they're both right. It's not what I say, but how I say it. So it could be a misinterpreted But it's not just you. I no, it's not just me. I recall just not too long ago, me saying something to you and it wasn't, I didn't mean it in a negative way, but your emotion at that time thought and heard

Because our emotions can make us hear things in a way that aren't intended. And my tone, triggered by my emotion at the time, I probably didn't say it in the best way possible. But the combination of the two just

imploded. I would say that was an explosion explosion. All right. Whatever. It's funny now. But it wasn't funny then. Right? So yeah, but the tone will change.

how we hear things. You know, and because, you know, that's it might not have been what you what you said, but it's how based on the tone is how I heard it. Yes. But also based on too. And based on emotion, can it can skew. It can skew everything when we let our emotions run roughshod over us. But it also also you like that word roughshod in that boy howdy. I do like roughshod.

But emotions, when they're flaring up, they'll let us know what we need to work on. For lack of a better term, it's a red flag on, Lord, can you help me here? places we need to surrender to move forward.

Allen Thorne (09:41.722)
Right. But you know, coming back to opportunities for division and marriage, it could be a busy schedule with with no margin for communication or connection. You know, we are currently we are progressively mending those fences. Yeah, you know, because we are we're pretty busy people. And sometimes I

You know, if the enemy can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. And he makes us pretty busy. we sometimes we do lose connection. And sometimes we do lose communication more than we would like. then that's when miscommunication can be misinterpreted. So or, know, another example would be financial disagreements. I'm happy to say we don't we don't experience that too often.

And that's, and that's a good thing. But financial disagreement can dump stress all over our conversations, or it can, or it can completely diminish our conversations and, and lead into, into that heinous silent treatment, which is a worst. Anyway, you know, you know, that we know that we love each other. You know that you love your spouse.

significantly, deeply, but the way to life can sometimes make you feel like you're out of sync. And that disconnection in these times, it hits harder than we'd like to admit. It hits us spiritually, emotionally, and physically. And it is so, you know what I'm talking about. It's so draining. Yes. Yeah. You know, it is so draining. And I can remember the last time, which was just

a few weeks ago that and I'm not rehashing but I'm just you know, we like to be real here. And we we went through a weekend that was difficult. Yeah, it was difficult. And it came down it came down to the communication and the being stretched too thin and the connection. But I it was so draining that I had I literally stayed in bed that

Allen Thorne (12:01.758)
Monday until 11 o'clock. Yeah, and I threw myself into work because I had to leave town for work for three days But we're gonna come back to that we're gonna do an episode on that because that was a a pivotal point In in our relationship and how we move forward together. So stay tuned we're going to We're gonna we're gonna come back to that in a later episode Yeah, but you know families can experience the same thing, you know, one person's overwhelmed another's discouraged

And I'll talk, you know, real quick about us living that out. You know, when Allen and I got married, he took on, well, you'll say three and a half teenagers, because one was an adult who had graduated, but the other three. And she stayed in Ohio when everyone else moved to Florida. Yeah. But the other three, you know, we moved to Florida and, you know, decided to make a go of it here. And

I he was overwhelmed. He was overwhelmed. Yeah, I was discouraged because I had expectations of what he was going to be as the father figure for the kids. And I'm happy to I'm happy to report that, you know, the kids we call them our kids because they do call him dad. do call me dad. Now there's a there's a lot of teachable moments in there for all of us.

Yes. Yes. But you know, the atmosphere in the home, it was heavy. And that can happen when there's overwhelm and discouragement. The atmosphere in the home can just get dark. And instead of speaking life over one another, and we didn't know about speaking life back then. We didn't know much back then. We didn't. But we were just trying to survive the day.

just trying to survive. And when that happens, the enemy will sneak in with that discouragement and that offense and the comparison. And, you know, I can remember going to going to one of our friends birthday parties, speaking of comparison. And I said, I can't wait until what or I said, I guess I said, Why can't our marriage be like theirs? You know, their marriage wasn't perfect either.

Allen Thorne (14:21.998)
But we didn't look at it from the outside from where we were sitting and look pretty. Yeah. Right. None of us have a perfect marriage. But but that was a lie. Yeah. Comparison comparison is the worst. And as as a man and I remember this and as a man, I was not only did I have no idea what I was doing.

having no kids of my own and taking on a couple a couple of pre teens and a teenager and and and and

a teenager in Ohio who eventually did come to live with us in Florida. I had no idea what to do. when that comment like that in in the moment when when I don't know what I'm doing, right. And I'm trying to look good on the outside. I'm just, ah, and hey, I wish we could be like these people that cut deep. And I'm pretty sure it it

got a little more heated. did that that knowing me that did not it didn't hit well. I know it cut deep and I can imagine that I did not handle that comment. If I recall, you know, we we we did okay, like putting on a front during the the birthday. That's the worst because I hate fake. Right. But then we left there and I don't think we spoke to each other the whole way home, you know, but

But the lie, mind you, this was 14 years ago. Yeah, it was a long time ago, but it was a lie because we felt like a fail. We both felt like a failure at that time. And that's a lie from the enemy. know, communities can experience that too. You know, people get hurt, misunderstandings can happen. And when expectations aren't met. Hmm. You know, I had an expectation.

Allen Thorne (16:15.412)
of what he was supposed to be as a father stepping in to a family where he had not had to be a father before. And briefly, right. And then loosely, you when that happens, suddenly unity feels fragile. And instead of building together, you know, we scatter and we could have scattered.

I mean, the enemy wanted nothing more than for us to go on our separate ways. I remember you keep mentioning expectations. And I remember sometime later as

I got into recovery, my own recovery. And one of the greatest early pieces of recovery knowledge I got from a brother, Steve, and he's like, expectations, bro, be careful with that. Be careful with expectations because your expectations of someone else is always going to let you down. Right. Of another human being. You know, the only one that's not going to let us down is

is God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit. But another person, you had expectations in me and I failed miserably, which brings me to, you mentioned failure. What I didn't know back then and what I wanna share with you now, faithful listener, is that...

as men and women created in the image of God and whether you choose to believe that or not, you are created, we are all created in the image of God and God don't make trash, God doesn't make failures. And just because we have dropped the ball, so to speak, more times than we care to count, that doesn't make us a failure. What those challenges spotlight is where we need to work on.

Allen Thorne (18:09.654)
Right. know, the failure is how he wants to make us better from there. What's the teachable moment in that challenge? That's one of the big questions that we include in Reviving Recovery Unbound is one, we're not failures. We are sons and daughters of the one true and living God.

We're not failures and we're not alone. So what's the teachable moment in this challenge that he wants us to learn that we need to release to him? What are you trying to teach me here, Lord? That's a great question to ask instead of succumbing to our feelings or to our emotions and then believing the lie because the enemy will feed you that lie as much as you want to choke it down.

is you're a failure, you're never gonna be any better than this. That is a lie from the pit of hell. That's not what we were created for. We are created for greatness. And I'm telling you, when we believe that, when we stand on our faith and believe that we are creations under the one true and living God, and that we are to move forward from this spot, even though this spot may seem dark.

and it may seem like we've failed and it may seem that it's not going to get any better. It gets better when we decide to surrender this moment and learn from this moment and move forward from this moment. And that's when we progress into forward facing freedom. One day at a time. But moving on from there.

we let's let's move on to the the silent struggles. You know, the ones that no one wants to talk about, right? That when we're when we're succumbing to the feeling you're feeling that you're the only one carrying the spiritual weight in the home you felt like that for a while I'm sure back back in those days.

Allen Thorne (20:19.116)
We won't go into anything, but I'm sure you felt like you were carrying the spiritual burden because I wasn't carrying much in those times. Maybe you're feeling that you're unappreciated. Maybe you're feeling that you're unheard. Maybe you're feeling that nobody sees or cares about what you're battling privately because nobody knows.

You're feeling that because you're battling this alone. You've made a decision or you've chosen to battle this alone. Any one of these will push us into isolation and that's a lousy place to be, friends. And as you're talking about this, I'm just thinking of all the situations where one or the other of us felt unappreciated, felt unheard, felt like...

We didn't care. The other one didn't care about us. Right. He used to switch moment to moment. It was. Yeah. And not that we're past that. I mean, again, we still we still we're past the worst of it. We're doing pretty good compared to that apartment. And anyway, moving on compared to that. Yes. Yes.

But you know, but we're learning. think your point is that we're still learning. We are still learning. Yeah, absolutely. And we're in will be learning. That's called sanctification. And it's a lifelong process. Yeah, you know, we whenever we stop learning, we stop growing and we we can never stop learning and growing. We want to model what we want to model what we're learning so we can teach others. Yeah.

So, but isolation, if we allow ourselves to be owned by our emotions, and I'm the only one going through this, if we decide to isolate, that's exactly where the enemy wants us. And that's a horrible place to be, as the enemy loves isolation, because he gets you isolated, he can discourage you, keep you in that discouragement, and he can take you out.

Allen Thorne (22:28.078)
And that's then he's done. That's it. He's taken you off mission. You're you're not. You're not effective for advancing the kingdom and his and his job's done. So but back to unity.

Allen Thorne (22:46.22)
That's where we're meant to be. And unity is not just a nice concept. It's spiritual protection. We're better together, literally better together. When we're united, we're fortified. When we're divided, we're more vulnerable for attack. That's why the enemy wants to divide us and isolate us. Get you by yourself. Yeah, I remember.

It comes to mind, Ecclesiastes 4:12, when the writer of Ecclesiastes, he says that, though one might be overpowered, two can defend themselves. And a cord of three strands is not easily broken. Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends, we gotta stick together and stand together on the firm foundation who is Jesus Christ. And we gotta build from that foundation.

in Christ so that we will overpower the principalities of this dark world. Question, who are you linking arms with? Is Jesus the center of all your relationships? Did you know that our triune Godhead, God the Father, Yahweh, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit, did you know that...

the collective, our triune Godhead, they are the third strand that the writer of Ecclesiastes speaks about. We are better together with them, but we're better together with each other, but we're unstoppable when we have God, the triune God at the center of our identity and all of our relationships.

I want to back up to being in community, you know, having having who are you linking arms with you asked and. Of course, we link arms with one another as husband and wife. Of course, we link arms with our children as family, but we also need to have. Community of believers around us as well, and I know you have a men's group.

Allen Thorne (25:05.506)
Yeah, I'm grateful for that. That men's group we we at a revived church here in Stuart, Florida, we get together the forest group. It's a workout group. But we also we we share spiritual stories. We share we're doing life together. And the more we do that together, the more we're doing that together. We're going to an example of this. These guys are becoming my three

am friends and I'm becoming their 3am friend. And you're like, what the heck's a 3am friend? That comes from Kyle Thompson's undaunted life a man's podcast, he calls a 3am friend. So when you can call at 3am to, you know, to help you when you when you really need something.

someone that'll help you bury your dog, Kyle says. Yeah, because that's that's tough stuff. So when someone that's there for anybody's there at 6pm. Anybody's there in the afternoon? Maybe maybe anybody? Well, more commonly. Yes. But who's there for you at 3am? Those you know,

Kyle says, you gotta have at least three or four of those people. But back to Forged, we get together and we're men, all ages, all shapes and sizes, doing hard things together and talking about Jesus and how he's transforming us from the inside out. And that's a great, and I am so grateful for that group. I actually just told him that this Saturday. I'm just so grateful for that group because we're advancing together spiritually.

mentally and physically. you aside from coming together in our marriage, you have that group. I have a couple of women's groups, but one is the Association of Christian Businesswomen and we come together, you know, on a monthly basis and then on a weekly basis for prayer, you know, and put God in the center of it all, because that's where he should be. Yeah. And everything in everything.

Allen Thorne (27:15.372)
But, you know, and we're linking arms and we're doing doing business together and doing life together. And I would say, you know, I have some women in that group who would be my three a.m. friends that that I could call. Right. But, you know, scripture is the solution to whatever ails us. So, for example, one of today's passages provides insight for intentional connection. And we referenced Acts two and.

you know, again, we would love for you to go read Acts 2 because it paints a picture of believers who are devoted to fellowship. And read, don't check a box there. Read it slowly. And read it more than once.

read it when you have time, read it in your quiet time and see how, and in that, what are you trying to show me here? Spirit, how does he speak to you through his word, his written word? Yeah, and I love the Bible app. I use the YouVersion Bible app. And I love hitting the play button so that it plays because sometimes I can absorb it more hearing it.

than I can seeing it, but doing both of those. But check out Acts 2 because it, again, it's a picture of believers who are devoted to fellowship, not just casual connection, but intentional connection. And you know, when I was talking about our women's group, we intentionally come together on Friday mornings at 8 a.m. for a prayer call every Friday.

And if that's something you're interested in, shoot me a message. I would love for you, if you're a woman who's in business or in ministry, or even if you're not sure where you're at in this season, we would still love for you to join us. it's unity grows when we choose to stay connected, even when life gets busy. And I think we could have not been on that prayer call this past Friday. It was the Friday after Christmas.

Allen Thorne (29:25.068)
it would have been much easier to be like, you know what, it's been such a busy week. We're just not gonna do it this week. And honestly. That's funny to me because that's not who these ladies are. Honestly, right. I cannot imagine not having that prayer call. Yeah. Because it is such a powerful time in the presence of God.

So how many ladies showed up this this Friday? Well, think I think that's for I mean, sometimes we have, you know, almost, we've had almost 50 yet, a few times. I think we have between 25 and 30. Right. They were intentional about showing they were intentional and those ladies.

Friday after Christmas, and Christmas was Thursday, Friday morning, eight o'clock, they pre-decided, they said, we're going to be on that prayer call on Friday after Christmas. Because our prayer life should never take a holiday. The enemy don't take a holiday. Don't leave that door open. And this guy's preaching to this guy and this pretty lady.

The enemy don't take a holiday. Our prayer life shouldn't take a holiday. And hats off to those 30 ladies who didn't let their prayer life take a holiday on the ACBW prayer call. Very nice. Again, if you want to jump in on that, we'd love to have you join us. But, you know, intentionality and in marriage, that looks like pausing to listen. You know, women, I, you know, we like to talk, but sometimes we need to. Yeah, you heard me. said we like to talk.

Most of the time, most women like to talk. I have met some men who could out-talk women. you know, regardless if you're a wife pausing for your husband or a husband pausing for your wife, it's important to be intentional listening, not just half listening while you're doing something else, but intentionally listening. It's praying together.

Allen Thorne (31:30.562)
daily. It's checking in emotionally and deciding for understanding over assumption. And you know, it's easy to assume sometimes in marriage that your spouse is feeling this way or that way. But you need to check in with them emotionally and see where are they?

You know, in families, means intentional communication. It means talking to your kids and again, listening for what they're going through, listening to what they have to say and encouraging them. You know, I spent years not really knowing how to encourage my kids. My our kids have come out to be amazing.

But it's all to the glory of God. there were times where I was not the best mother. I did the best I could, but there were times that I was discouraged and that rolled over onto them. It's been a beautiful transformation to witness from this perspective. And then in community, it can mean refusing to let offense or pride fracture

their relationships. Pride is evil.

Yeah, I just evil. Absolutely. We do a section on pride and reviving recovery unbound and for regardless of where you go in God's word, pride never bears a positive connotation. Now it's pride. Pride is what comes before the fall. Right. And so, yeah. But you mentioned you listening and I something that popped in my head is we want to listen.

Allen Thorne (33:20.02)
instead of and I heard this some time ago. Instead of we want to listen intentionally, which you covered really well, but we want to listen to what's being said, especially by, you know, like I want to let our husband and wife we I want to listen to what you're saying.

and hear what you're saying. I wanna listen and hear, I wanna hear your heart more than I wanna hear what's coming out of your mouth. I wanna listen instead of waiting for my turn to talk. So many of us do that. You know who you are. Are you listening or are you just waiting for your turn to talk? I've done that. Yeah.

guilty. but remember what we said, or I think it was this episode is that it's that's a that's a spotlight. If we're doing that, that's a spotlight on where we need where we can improve. Or can you help me with this? And that brings us to speak in life. Yes. And our next our next point would be speak in life. The most well known

Part of Colossians 3 tells us to let the message of Christ dwell in us richly, dwell among us richly. So what is the message of Christ? I think we could all agree that His message can be summed up with the great commandment. That is, in short, love God and love others, love each other. That means the atmosphere of our home should reflect the loving presence of Jesus.

Now if that sounds cliche, then the loving presence of your home should reflect the love of Jesus. It's not cliche, that's who we're called to be and where our homes are called to be as followers of Jesus Christ. But before we go on, I referenced, we referenced Colossians 3. I'd like to share the context of Colossians 3 :12-17

Allen Thorne (35:33.486)
And I'll read this so I don't mess it up.

Colossians 3:12-17 Paul writes, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against one another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must.

Forgive. Verse 14 goes on to say, and above all of these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.

singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Paul's talking about what we call speaking life.

Allen Thorne (37:07.854)
Power, the power of death and life are in the tongue. Solomon writes in the Proverbs, friends, our words have power. Words can build up or they can tear down. They can construct or they can destroy. Tone, and we talked about tone earlier, tone builds or destroys connection.

So when we speak a blessing, when we speak encouragement, truth and grace, we create an environment where unity thrives. Unity, it's not maintained by avoiding conflict. It's maintained unity, write this down, unless you're driving. Unity is maintained by courageously addressing conflict by the truth in a loving manner. The truth in love.

Yeah. Yes. And you you mentioned, you another part you mentioned in that scripture, but another part of the solution is forgiveness. You know, growing relationships require forgiveness, and we've had to do a lot of forgiving. I've had to, he's had to forgive me a lot. I've had to forgive him a lot. Right. And. It's required. Marriage, right, marriage especially requires forgiveness. Yeah.

But just the same, know, family and community also require forgiveness. And unforgiveness is one of the fastest ways unity breaks down. When there is unforgiveness, walls get built. And one unforgiveness leads to another unforgiveness, leads to another unforgiveness. And the next thing you know, you can't even see over that wall. And

just like Allen read, know, Colossians encourages us to forgive as the Lord forgave you. He gave forgiveness to us. That's not based on me deserving it. You know, he forgave me, the Lord forgave me not because I deserved it, but because he is a loving God. Just as we forgive someone else. It's not based on their deserving it. It's based on the grace that we have received as Allen says, grace.

Allen Thorne (39:32.718)
But forgiveness is life's blood for unity and without it, know, relationships will shrivel up and die or the wall will get built so high that you can't see over it. And until that wall gets broken down and you start forgiving, it's not until then that the relationship is going to come back into unity.

Well said, babe. Well said. And as we're winding down here, as we're fixing to wrap up, unity is strengthened through a shared spiritual pursuit. What are you pursuing? What are you chasing after? Are you praying together? It's a big deal. Are you reading the Word together? Are you worshiping together? Are you serving together?

When marriage seeks God together, the enemy isn't able to get a foothold. When a family prays together, the atmosphere shifts. When a community worships together, revival rises. Right, and we don't use the word revival flippantly, but when a community that worships together is welcoming revival.

And again, a perfect example of that is Acts, Acts 2:42-47. It shows that unity wasn't just emotional. was spirit. It was and is spiritual alignment. They were prayerfully, they prayerfully surrendered to His purpose and His generosity. Yeah. When we're open.

And to align with the Spirit are the dividends that come our way. He's a good God. Jobi says, he's a good dad who likes to give good things to his kids. But when we're prayerfully surrendered to his purpose, he's so generous. The point of prayerful surrender is

Allen Thorne (42:00.782)
That's where his power is, in joyful surrender, prayerful surrender. Embrace surrender and rise up in his purpose in your life. What is his purpose in your life? Because whatever God's purpose is that he knew before you were even born, before you were stitched in your mother's womb, he knew your purpose. And his purpose is always higher and greater than our own.

100%. And you know, so here's your invitation this week. Again, we always like to give you like an action item. So choose one area where unity needs strengthening. Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's your home with your children or your friendships, or maybe it's in your community. Maybe it's in your, church, wherever it is, and take one intentional step toward connection. Pray together, apologize where needed.

Speak life over someone who is discouraged. Speak life over your kids. Do you know how much your kids need that? In the world we live in, they need to be encouraged. So speak life over them. Check in on someone who's hurting. Unity grows wherever, wherever humility leads the way. So humble yourself.

and take that first step. And listen to the Word. Listen to the Lord's prompts today. I was driving out. I haven't even mentioned this to you yet. But sometimes the Lord just says, the Spirit just says, hey,

there say say this to him. And, and one of my favorite sayings is something I got something that we've seen come true to fruition, if you will, in our lives is is a line from our great friends, Dick and Brenda Smith, that is the best is yet to come.

Allen Thorne (44:08.878)
So I saw an acquaintance of mine, undoubtedly to be a buddy of mine, as time goes on, his name is Victor. And he's leaving church, I'm driving out of church and I rolled down my window and I said, Hey, Victor. And he comes over and shakes my hand. I say, bro, the best is yet to come. And he just went, Yeah. And he's like, who told you to say that? was like,

He was on his way to see a family member who's in the hospital had some had some health challenges with with addiction and

I was like, hey, all right, he knows that we're in, we head up, Reviving, Recovery, Unbound, we're like recovery people. And I was like, bro, give me a call if you need to, if you wanna talk and whatnot, or if your family member needs someone to talk to, you know. And he's like, he goes, you know, and this explained his expression when I said that, he goes,

My grandma, our grandmother, that was her favorite saying. The best is yet to come. I had no idea. had no idea. That's just something I say. And the Lord said, say that to him now. And he was able to go forward from there. And that told him, and I know this guy a little bit through Men with No Regrets, and that said, that was God saying to him that, I got you.

So, it was cool. So follow those prompts, man. And that's unity. from the top down so we can be better united horizontally with our brothers and sisters. unity doesn't just make life better. It builds an unshakable community around us.

Allen Thorne (46:12.64)
So we link arms so we can do life together. We can do life better together with Jesus at the center.

It's where there's unity. And this is, I've seen it, because I was isolated for many, many years. And what I've seen over the years is where there's unity, the Lord commands His blessing. When believers stand together, the enemy loses ground. And when families stand together, peace increases in the home. And when marriages stand together, purpose together strengthens.

Because it's his purpose, not ours. It's his purpose. When we faithfully stand together, united under and in the authority of Jesus Christ, we're unstoppable. When communities stand together, his kingdom advances. We are always better together.

I almost hate to end this episode, but it is that time. So as we end this episode today, we want to thank you for joining us for this is the final episode of season five. Right. And we pray that your home, your marriage, your friendships and your church relationships are filled with compassion, humility, forgiveness and the peace of Christ.

May your unity become a testimony of God's goodness. Yeah. Absolutely. So as you all are out there being so busy, being awesome in Christ, remember when you stay faithfully invested and all that you say and do, watch him bring the increase. Thank you for tuning in. Have a great day. God bless you and your families. God bless.