ONE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS - S:01 E:19

RECORDED IN THE STRONGHOLD STUDIO IN PALM BAY, FLORIDA

THEME SONG "STAY IN MY LANE" - WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY BURKS

AUDIO EDITED BY U-DIRECT VIDEO WORKS IN AUBREY, TEXAS

PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JAMES EDWARD BURKS FOR ONE VOICE MINISTRIES

 © 2026 James Edward Burks. All rights reserved.

https://www.onevoiceministriesinc.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Think about this for a second. Gentleness, goodness, meekness. Those words are similar, and sometimes scriptures even use them interchangeably, but they do have a distinct difference as part of the fruit of the spirit. So we're going to tie out those three and look at those differences today on one voice in the wilderness. Hi, friends, James Burks from One Voice Ministries. Welcome to One Voice in the Wilderness, our podcast outreach, where we are just simply wanting to share God's word with you to encourage you. For those of you that are believers and followers of Christ, we hope the words that we share refresh you and encourage you and even challenge you. And those of you that have not made that decision to have a life that's connected to Christ, I pray that the words we share with you will encourage you, will point you in the direction of the cross, will let you know God's love for you and what he did through his son Jesus so that you could be redeemed, that you could be saved, so that you could be forgiven of your sins. And so that's why we gather each week. So we're glad to have you back with us. Any new uh listeners, welcome. Glad to have you as well. You're behind a few episodes. If you're just getting to our podcast now, we're about uh 17, 18, almost 19 episodes in. So go to our website, uh onevoiceministriesinc.org, and uh you'll see a link for all of the previous podcasts. And so we'd love you to just go back and take a look at those and enjoy those as well. Um, as always, we're grateful to our son uh and his uh video production business, you direct video works. Uh they do the editing and all the you know bells and whistles of putting together uh our podcast, and so we appreciate him so much and are so grateful to him. Uh also, as always, I love to give a shout out to my other son, Caleb. Uh, he goes by the music name Burks, and his music is the theme song uh to stay in our lane, to to walk out on that path that God has designated for you uh to be able to do. And you don't have to be like anyone else, you don't have to compare yourself to anyone else, you just have to be true to the spirit and true to walking with God. And so we love that song. Love having him. Actually, if you go back, um, the last two episodes prior to this one uh were an interview with Caleb, and it was a wonderful time together, and uh he just shared some really things that I some things that I think are really encouraging uh for our young people as well. And so uh go back and watch those and then share those as well with someone. So, again, welcome, glad to have you here. We have been on a journey walking through the fruit of the spirit, and every now and then it gets a pause or an interruption, but we try to get back to it. We want to make our way through this, and so today we want to take on the challenge of what does what fruit is being conveyed, or what does it look like to have the fruit of gentleness, goodness, and meekness. Okay, those are three separate things listed in the fruit of the spirit, but I'm gonna share them uh today together because there's an interesting connectedness to them, there's a a similarity to them, um they're they're similar but uniquely different in their own way. And uh as I was thinking about that, and I was thinking, well, what would be a good illustration of that? Um I I thought, well, being from Michigan, that's my that's where I originated from. I hail from Lansing, Michigan. So shout out to all my Lansing, Michigan uh people that are out there. Um, but I thought about uh in the fall of the year, uh apples come into season, and we used to take our kids to the orchard and get cider and apple and donuts. That's a wonderful Michigan thing to do. And so I was thinking about it, and I thought, you know, here's a good illustration, or the best one I could come up with to kind of explain the connection of these three things. Okay, so let me let me open in prayer first. I'm ready to launch in. I'm so excited about it. So let me open in prayer, take you to our primary scripture, and then I'm gonna come back to that thought, all right? So, Lord, we love you and we thank you, and uh thank you for your patience with us. We are just so excited and uh hungering and thirsting for your word, and and so, Lord, we just want you to lead and guide us in all things. That you would speak to us and through us, that you would uh direct our path, and that you would direct the the steps of anyone that's out there. If there's a lost sheep that's listening, Father, use this time today to execute their rescue, to to draw them as only you can, and I pray that their hearts would surrender to the love and the grace that you poured out on the cross through your son Jesus. And so just be with us in this time. Again, we're just so excited. Uh, we love this piece of our ministry, and we want it to make a difference and have an impact in the lives of others. So we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's quickly look at Galatians um chapter 5, and we're reading from the King James. I bounce back and forth between a couple of texts, um, uh primarily for the wording, as long as the meaning is true to Scripture. Uh so Galatians 5, beginning at verse 22, it says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, that's patience, um, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. All right. Um, it goes on later in that passage in verse 25 to say, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. I wanted to add that in because all of the things we're talking about, this fruit is birthed in us out of the spirit. It's something that we're not doing apart from the spirit. It's not something that we can even do without the spirit. For it to be genuine and true and of God, the spirit has to be the one orchestrating that in us. And then as that fruit begins to mature in us, then we get to take that and have an impact on the world around us. Okay? I've said in some of the earlier ones that trees don't eat their own fruit. Okay? And so, and I was about to use the illustration of the apple, apple trees don't eat their own fruit. That fruit is for the animals, for people, it's for others outside of them. So I really believe that God gives us that fruit of the Spirit as an opportunity for us to share Him with others, a way that we can testify of His goodness, a way that we can live our life to glorify Him and be a blessing to those around us. Okay? And so let's get back to the apples real quick. So I was thinking of this picture, this illustration. Okay? A red delicious, a gala, and a Macintosh. Okay? Those are three different names of the same fruit, an apple. Alright? Those are three different kinds of apples. So they're similar and they're connected by the fact that they're apples, but each has its own distinct quality to it. Red delicious apples, um, they tend to be kind of mildly sweet. Um, uh, they're they're crisp and the skin is kind of thick. They're not the best ones for baking, though. Okay. Um, they kind of have a heart shape to them. They tend to be a little bit larger type apple. Where the gala is a little more aromatic and it it's uh it's highly sweet. It too is crisp, but it's a smaller uh medium-sized uh apple, good in salads, and you can cook with that one as well. Um, you with where the red delicious you wouldn't necessarily bake with that one, but with the gala, you can bake with that one. And then a Macintosh, that one tends to be a little more tart, okay? It tends to be juicy, it's a little softer. Um, that one works good for pies because it breaks down well when you're baking it and stuff like that. So there are three, those three different apples, okay, red delicious, gala, macintosh. They're all apples, but all of them have their distinction about them. And so that's how these parts of the fruit of the spirit intertwine. When I'm talking about uh gentleness, goodness, meekness, they're connected because they're part of the fruit of the spirit. Notice it's not notice it's not fruits with an S, it's fruit because it's all maturing in us as the Spirit indwells us, okay? But each of them has their own uniqueness to them, and so we're gonna talk about that, okay? Alright, so when we think about those three components that are part of the fruit of the spirit, again, something that is manifested in us by the presence of the spirit, let's look at the distinction between those three things, okay? So when we talk about gentleness, goodness, and meekness, all of them are virtues of our inner character and our outward actions. Okay? It's a work that the spirit is doing in us so that it can flow out of us, okay? And so all of these are virtues, and because it's the fruit of the Spirit, it's part of God's character as well. When we look at that list of fruit of the Spirit, that love and joy and peace and self-control, those are the characters of God as well. And those are the characters of God that He's deposited in us as a result of the Holy Spirit. Okay? So gentleness. Gentleness is that um it's a soft, tender manifestation. It it's a it's an outward approach that um in and of itself, it's how we treat other people. It is the the um respect and the calm demeanor that we display when it comes to how we handle our relationships and our conversations and our connection to other people. Okay? We we are gentle. There's a when you think of something being gentle, we think of it being um very careful and very caring. Okay? I'll give you a great illustration of that one as well. Okay, my uh youngest grandchild, um uh she's two years old and uh very energetic. She's a blast, she's amazing. And uh whenever she sees Nana, okay, that's what she calls my wife, whenever she sees Nana and she notices Nana's earrings, okay, oh, they just they're like a magnet. And some of you, you know, uh moms that have had little ones, you've had to take your earrings off at certain seasons of their life because they just grab a hold of them and stuff like that. Well, she started noticing Nana's earrings, and so she'll run over to Nana and she'll start to reach for the earrings. Well, her parents taught her, and it's something that we um also remind her of, is that when she reaches for Nana's earrings, we'll say, gentle, gentle, and it's amazing. She has learned this, and so she will very carefully look at Nana's earrings, and she'll just barely touch them and just gently kind of play with them. She doesn't grab them, she doesn't yank them, she doesn't pull them off. She has a very tender touch, okay? And then she gets distracted and goes after somebody, something else, and things like that. Okay, but that's an awesome picture to me of what it means to have that spirit of gentleness in terms of how we connect and relate when it comes to other people. Okay, having that very soft, tender approach to them. All right, now, goodness is an active expression of kindness, it's an active expression of our integrity. Okay, goodness leans more towards our moral compass, if you will, how it's being expressed outwardly towards other people when it comes to kindness and being virtuous and having a righteous character and things like that. Goodness is a moral excellence that we display, uh, and we it's us doing the right thing. Uh, even when we're facing evil and challenges, um, goodness is again, think of good and bad. Okay, goodness is doing that right, proper thing that honors God, doing that thing towards other people that shows a high standard in our lives of moral excellence. Okay? So gentleness is that inward um, or excuse me, gentleness is that outward um soft, tender manifestation and approach to people. Alright. Goodness is that action, that expression of kindness and integrity when it comes to others and stuff like that. Okay, another outward thing. Meekness, on the other hand, is more of an inward quality. It is it's it's been described as strength under control or strength restrained. Okay, uh, meekness is not weakness. Sometimes when people hear the word uh meekness, they think that means that that someone is weak in some way. It's not at all. It is a, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is a it's a restraint on what we do when it comes to our emotions, our feelings, our actions towards others. It's a way that we can still display goodness and gentleness from a place of control, under the control of the Holy Spirit. Okay? That's what that meekness is. Actually, if you look at um uh uh Matthew chapter five, okay, and I'm gonna switch over to my ESV for this one. Matthew chapter five, as we're reading through uh the words of the Sermon on the Mount, okay, and we're going through that passage we call the Beatitudes, verse 5 says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. These were words of encouragement Jesus was preaching. And he said, if you have that meekness, if you have that restraint, you don't have to go and demand and take things. Um God will bless you with the things that God wants you to have. You don't have to lose control and try to take over in a given situation. You can walk in a humbleness, you can walk in a patience, you can walk in a love and an expression towards people that is under control, that is restrained. Okay. Um I'll give you another example of that. Turn over, since we're in Matthew and I'll stay in the ESV here, turn over to Matthew chapter 26 and look at verse 53 with me, okay? Because this is a great example of uh meekness. Okay, well, actually, before you jump there, okay, and I know my video person is all over this, all right, I don't want to skip. Let's go to Matthew chapter 11 first, verses 28 through 30. Matthew 11, 28 through 30. Listen what it says. It says, Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take your take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest to your soul. My yoke for my yoke is easy, and my burdens are light. Okay. Let me read that in the King James Version of that, and you'll see that interchanging of words, that overlapping, how those words are sometimes used synonymously to kind of express this attitude of the heart, this inward uh piece of us. Okay. Matthew 11, and read the same passage, 28 through 30 in the King James. It says, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest unto your soul, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is like lowly in heart, I'm humble, and I'm meek, I am restrained when it comes to the strength that is in me. Alright. So look at this. Now let's go to Matthew 26. Okay, I want to show you. Jesus, he describes himself in Matthew 11 as being meek. Alright. So let me show you him putting that on display. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and uh uh the soldiers have arrived to get him, and out of a reaction, one of Jesus' disciples cuts off the ear of one of the servants, and Jesus is like, Alright, chill out, calm down. I know that you guys are trying to uh protect me uh with the sword, but if you you you live by that sword, if you take up the sword, you you will also perish by the sword. And in verse 53, okay, and I'm back in the King James, he says this Thinketh thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall send, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels. But how then shall the scripture be fulfilled that thus it must be? Did you hear that? Jesus, this is this is the ultimate demonstration of the restraint of power. Okay, Jesus took on the form of man and came, Emmanuel, God with us. He came to dwell with us in human form, was born of a virgin, lived his life, grew up as a child, was teaching in the temple as a child, grew up and then uh lived out his earthly ministry, died on the cross, and by the power of God rose again on the third day. Alright? And so he was the God-man, but he was also the man God at the same time. Okay? He was the Son of Man and the Son of God simultaneously. He didn't stop being God when he became man, but what he did is he restrained that. Okay? He restrained it through his meekness so that he could be the example and the demonstration that we needed to see for how we are to live and walk out our life as believers and followers of Christ Jesus. Jesus is that ultimate picture of strength restrained. Okay? Again, he could have called a lead twelve legions of angels to protect him if he felt he needed to be protected, but he was willingly going to the cross. Let me add to that restraint that he used if you turn to John chapter 10, verse 18. He was letting them know that like the good shepherd, he is willing to protect and lay down his life for his sheep. And he says in verse 18 of John chapter 10, again from the King James, no man taketh it from me, talking about his life. Let me go back to 17. Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father. Okay, Jesus had the power to take up his life again. He he was willingly laying it down, and actually it's kind of interesting because when he goes to Gethsemane and he's crying out to the Father, he's saying, if there's a way that this cup can pass, then then let's do that, but otherwise your will be done. Jesus came in full submission to the Father. And even though he had the power and the authority to lay down his life and pick it back up again, that is meekness. That is meekness on display. Okay? So again, to wrap it up, folks, to as we look at the overlap of those things, um, depending on what translation you're reading, sometimes the word kindness gets interjected. And it's really strange because depending on what you're reading, kindness in some books will replace gentleness, and in other books it'll replace goodness, and sometimes gentleness will replace meekness, and you know, and it just shows again there's such a connectedness of those aspects of the fruit of the spirit that they get used like that in translation, and they get used like that even within the book itself, whichever text you're looking at, and stuff like that. All of your fruit fruit operates under the control and the direction of the Holy Spirit, okay? So then something you devise or something you manufacture on your own, this is about trusting God. Okay, meekness is about putting your trust in God. Um a person can have a meekness of spirit, and in having that, they act in a gentleness in their behavior and they Practice goodness in their actions. Okay. All of that is the work of the transformation that comes when our mind is renewed in Christ Jesus. Okay. All of that is the result of what God is doing in us and through us once we have repented, believed, and surrendered, and His Spirit comes to live in us. Okay? And so as you think again, that picture I like to use is a fruit salad, has all those different parts in there and stuff like that, all those different grapes and apples and pieces of things. And when you eat it, you scoop it up and you take a bite to blend those flavors together. And that's how I picture the fruit of the spirit. Okay. I want to scoop that in and take a bite, or I want to scoop that in and serve that to other people and let them experience my gentleness, goodness, and meekness simultaneously. Okay? I don't want to be one of those people that struggles to restrain my anger. I don't want to be one of those people that flies off the handle. I don't want to be one of those people that's driven and controlled by my emotions. I want to walk in a humility that honors God. I want to be humble in everything that I do. I want to operate in the wisdom of God. Think about this. James chapter 3. And I'll look at this one in the ESV as well. James chapter 3, verses 17 and 18 say this. But the wisdom which is from above is first pure. Okay. If you remember earlier, he said, if anyone lacks wisdom, they can ask for it. Okay? He said, but it's he says here, but that wisdom from above is first pure, then it's peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Okay? So the wisdom that comes from God comes with that element of gentleness to it. Okay? Let's turn really quickly. We're coming to a close here. Let's turn to Colossians real quick. And let's look at chapter 3, verse 12. Okay. Colossians chapter 3, verse 12. I'm in the King James again as I'm reading this. And this is what it says in verse 12. It says, put on therefore, put on therefore. Okay, whoa. That means God's given me something that I have to be accountable for using and utilizing and putting on. Kind of like when he says to put on the whole armor, okay, I get to make the choice to do that. If I don't do that and I'm thus not operating in those things, that's not on him. It's not that he didn't provide it, it's that I'm not trusting him to walk in it. Okay? Look at what it says. It says, put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, that's that patience, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, I'm going all the way down to verse 14. Put on charity or love, which is the bond of perfectness. Oh man, this passage is so good. Let me keep going. Verse 15. And let the peace of God rule in your heart, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the words of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, and this is where we get to demonstrate that fruit, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Okay, I read all the way down to verse 17 there. Alright, so uh 12 through 17 of James, or Colossian, excuse me, chapter 3. Wow. Did you hear that? That's powerful. To know that we can put that on and we can walk in that and we can live that for the glory of God. We can walk in that moral excellence, we can walk in that uh virtuous action, we can walk in gentleness, goodness, and meekness, and give God the glory. Amen. God bless you, folks. All right, let's have a Malawi moment, all right. All right, as we wrap up this episode, we want to have a Malawi moment. Our Malawi moment is just giving you an opportunity to hear about the amazing things God is doing in Malawi Africa, uh, where we work in cooperation with a couple of other ministers, uh, our sons in the in the gospel, Gladstone and Moses, and uh we support and encourage and direct some of the work that they're doing. It's all directed by the Holy Spirit, but uh we get a chance to work with them to have an impact with the gospel in Malawi Africa. And we love it. We love sharing these testimonies with you so you get to hear what God is doing. You can know how to be praying for us, and if you choose to, um we're gonna put the QR code on the screen here. If you choose to donate to us, these Malawi moments are showing you what we are utilizing your gifts for and how that's being stewarded uh in the work in Malawi Africa. So we are always excited about our families there, our kids there, um, the ones that we minister to, uh their orphans and widows that we bless uh monthly with food and support. Uh again, we we take Bibles to Malawi, uh, all those types of things. Uh well, recently, and this is a great celebration, we added a member to the family. Um, and uh his name is uh uh Ronald Foster, he's nine years old. Um this young man is a part of Moses' uh uh congregation, and uh Ronald has uh epilepsy. Uh he lives with his grandmother in part because his mother is struggling uh to help raise him and his siblings. And what we ask God for when he points us in the direction, because there's a lot of need in Africa, be mindful, Jesus even said, the poor you will have with you always. There's going to be so many opportunities to to um minister and bless people like that. But we ask the Lord, show us the greatest need that we can minister to. Um, and so we get into those situations that are quite desperate, uh, where people might not survive if they don't get some support and intervention and things like that. Because we're trying to uh strengthen people and help lift them up and get them moving in the same direction. We're not trying to have them develop independency on us, but we're coming to help them walk independently with Christ. So it's not just the food, but we're introducing the word of God to them as well. And so uh Ronald and his family have now been added to our uh families that we support. Um Pastor Moses was saying about Ronald that he is just such a joy, uh, he loves being in church, his joy is inspiring, and uh in Malawi, Africa, uh, if you ever get a chance to go, their church celebrations are wonderfully lively with them dancing and giving praise to God in that way. He says Ronald loves to dance. And anytime Moses is is uh uh leading worship and he's dancing, then Ronald comes and finds him and gets next to him, and he wants to dance with uh Pastor Moses and stuff like that. And so, again, just a blessing for us to be able to reach out and touch those lives, and what you do helps us to be able to do that, and so it's truly a blessing, and we thank you for that. We don't take that for granted, uh, we steward it well, we don't misuse it. Uh, I don't take anything from that ministry, all of that money goes into um being able to support the work that we're doing here uh in the U.S. when there's ministry opportunities for us to do that here, this podcast being one of those, as well as ministering to those families over in Africa. All right, so um, so again, just a blessing. So uh, Ronald, welcome to the One Voice Family. Uh we love you, and uh we are looking forward to see what God does in your life as you're growing uh in that word of God, okay? And so be praying for him, um, be praying for his family, be praying for our ministers in Malawi and all the people there as well. Um, and let me close by saying just I thank you for your prayer. Some of you were aware that I just recently had uh uh surgery uh on my shoulder, and so I'm still in that healing stage, but I know many of you have been praying, and I'm so grateful for those prayers. Uh, it's getting better. I'm still very limited and restricted in what I can do, but I can do this, and so I'm excited that I'm able to do this. Okay. Uh last thing I wanted to share with you. Um, I've told you before that oftentimes my art is on display in the background here, and then I wear a lot of shirts that have uh Christian messages. I have a lot of lions because of I love uh the idea of being able to the righteous being bold as lions, and of course, the the lion of the tribe of Judah, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. And uh uh well this one I have on today, and hopefully my um videography can zoom in a little bit. It just looks like a bunch of garbled letters, and I saw one of these online, and I thought, oh, I want to make one of those for myself, and it's one of those conversation shirts. I I want to wear this shirt and have someone see all these mixed-up letters and go, what is that? What is your shirt saying? Okay, and then in doing that, it gives me the opportunity to say, I'll tell you what it means. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. All right. So, anyway, we can share the message of the gospel of God's love, uh, what his son Jesus did on the cross for us, uh, that he got up out of that tomb with all power in his hands, and he's calling and drawing us into relationship with him. Um, I want to spread that message any way I can. I want to do it by staying in my lane, doing what I'm called to do. Um, we are his workmanship, created to do good works uh for the kingdom. Um, and so I'm trying to do mine. I'm trying to walk in mine. As always, I encourage you to walk in yours. All right? God bless you, and uh, we'll see you next time.