our identity in Christ

when we give our lives to Christ we have died to our old selves and we have a new identity Jesus Christ

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

All right. Welcome back. Before we like dive into things, do you want to start us off in prayer?

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Yeah, absolutely. Father in heaven, I just thank you so much for just a beautiful, wonderful day to serve you, get to know you, spend time with you. Thank you so much for this opportunity to spend time with my brother here in Christ to talk about your glory, God, and just spread your word and your truth and your life to all who are listening. And I just pray that all who are listening, all who are going through maybe struggles or hard times, that their season of transition is coming to an end here, and they're about to transition into the next step and opportunity in faith with you, Lord. Uh, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

So we've kind of been talking a lot about you know, following in your path with Jesus, having the relationship. It's a two-way thing. We gave a little bit of our testimony and more of like an earthly understanding of how we got here, but like what's the divine part? What makes this different? And we I kind of want to share a little bit of a background on my like first encounter, first couple encounters with Jesus Christ. Nothing too heavy to start, and then I kind of want you to go over what we we were just talking about before we hit record here. The inner part of the kingdom, you know. So to get started, it was really weird because we were talking about you know, getting into the Bible. Me and you started at the same time. We've went over that a couple times now. But like my first encounter was before I even read. And I just had this dream where I'm like heading towards the earth on a horse, and there's nothing but darkness like underneath me. And like I I could feel the the anxiety, I could feel the fear, I could feel like all the the evil, all those horrible feelings that you feel when you're about to encounter danger. It's kind of like a fight or flight feeling almost in the dream. And like something made me look to my left, and I look to my left, and I just see this like bright, like aura. It's it's like brighter than the sun. I can't even make through it, but I could see like the outline of a body on a white horse. And like I could feel love through this brightness, and like I could see this man on this horse like smiling at me, and for some reason I was like, Oh, that's Jesus Christ. And I looked back towards the world, towards the darkness, and I knew whatever we were headed for, like it would be okay. Like, you know, I'm I'm with God. And it was weird because I told you that, I told a bunch of people in our family that story, and we end up going to Mass. I brought my brother for the first time, I think, since we got back into this. And it was during Christmas Mass, and they talk about Revelation for some reason, Christmas Mass, and it was that story. And I never, at least I don't remember, maybe it was subconscious, whatever you want to call it, but I never remember reading that. And that was like one of the few dreams that I had starting off. I mean, you could call that a coincidence or whatever you want to call it, but that was my first like dream where I knew like there's something about this. And going a little like a couple months later, we started learning about the secret place, the thing that David talks about in the Bible. And what's that where's that place that they go to? And it's basically the best way I could explain is like trying to meditate almost, but just concentrating on the Lord and like seeking him, you know, clearing your mind and trying to really concentrate on hearing his voice. And whether you know it or not, you always hear God, you just have to filter out all the other voices, and you have to concentrate. But he talks to everybody. But anyway, so I remember it was like one of the first times I secret placed, and we just learned about it, and I'm just trying to concentrate. I'm reading the Bible, I'm writing stuff down, and I just was it was almost like an out-of-body experience, and I would saw from behind me, but I felt the Lord put his hand on my shoulder, and I actually like physically felt his hand, and he leans over, and then I'm back in my body, and he whispers something in my ear. I couldn't count or make out what it was, but I just started getting like a million messages at once, and I just started writing it down. I'm like, oh, this is crazy. I kind of put it on the you know, back burner. I'm like, there's no way this happened, whatever. I'm overthinking it. There's no way this could happen. Like after the first couple times, whatever. But yeah, I remember I was at work the next day, I believe, and I had left my version of the Bible behind. And I looked up ESV on my phone. I was just reading that while I was working at the hospital, and I'm looking through all the prophets. I'm like, there's no way. Because in my version, it said every time the prophets got a message, and the Lord gave me a message, but in the ESV version, it was the Lord's hand was upon me. I'm like, that's maybe again another coincidence, but the whole night just started one thing after another. Like patients just started, I started praying with patients, I started talking about Jesus Christ, like everybody. But yeah, I mean that was kind of like the start of everything for me. So do you want to give a background on like your first time, or do you want to just dive into well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Peggy backing off of what you were kind of saying there, which fantastic stuff. And I do recall a lot of those uh moments. Wow, that seemed to be like what three years ago at this point. I know time just seems to fly. But that the secret place, right? The secret place we've been talking about, kind of diving a little bit deeper into it today, maybe, is uh Matthew 6, verse 6. And actually, the verse right before that 6.5, where it literally talks about where Jesus is saying in a sermon, where it's like, do not be like the unbelievers who throw up repetitive phrases to like their gods they worship for all they are doing is just being loud and noisy. Like what he wants us to do is go in secret, go into your room, close the door, and in secret, seek the father, and he will find you. Like he will he will be there with you, he will hear you, he will answer you, you will feel him, you'll see him, you'll I mean, you'll receive revelation, but you have to seek him in private. And that's what is commonly referenced as the secret place, as per scripture we we kind of see in there in Matthew 6 6, as well as brother here was talking about David, does actually talk about this where he literally feels the presence of God outside like the tabernacle. He talks about it many of his Psalms. But yeah, I mean, a big moment that I was kind of going through that uh brother here was kind of explaining his his point of view and stuff like that, was really, as we talked about earlier in my testimony, where I really just had that revelation that I needed to right after I gave up my idols that I was serving, because I was serving two masters, I kind of was like, okay, what else am I doing wrong? Like, I thought I was so right in that. What else am I doing wrong? And I was starting to ask about everything. And one of the main things was do I even work here? I mean, I loved my job. Again, look back on my testimony, it was like, I think episode one, uh, we got this in. I might go a little bit more detail of it, but it made no sense for me to quit my job, and I quit my job and got led to a framing company, like a framing job. And I thought that was uh really interesting transition because I'm by no means a construction worker, but through the good grace and mercy of the Lord, uh he saw me through it. It's been a year now, so praise the Lord there. Many interesting moments of stories, and uh very grateful for everything I've learned there and the people I've met. But another thing that, like, in this kind of topic here, we're kind of talking about, which is really kind of emulating like what's your purpose? Like, what's the meaning of life? What's your purpose? What's your identity? Right? One of the big things that I really went through is about two months in to like really getting into the walk, like really getting serious about carrying the cross, really getting serious about like pulling away from the world and like dying to the flesh, was when I did like turn away from a lot of the things like I was idolizing. Again, I'll just touch on it real quick. The air soft, the tabletop gaming. I was really big into tabletop gaming. I'll even say video games, I was pretty bad with for a good while, honestly. And I I just I gave it all up. I sold them for cheap, or just gave it away for free. Like I wanted nothing to do with it. Not saying those in itself are sins, I just let them have me. And like the first couple weeks was fine, was great. I didn't think about them, I didn't nothing like that. But then about two months in, I started getting attacked really heavy with like temptations of like, oh, the memories, the good times, oh, you can just do it one more time, it won't be that bad. Like, just don't idolize it again. Like, all these temptations running through my head. Yeah, I mean that's Satan's play cards, yeah. And it's it's very normal to have that. It's very, very, very it's actually weird if you don't have it, if I'm honest with you.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Yeah, then Satan doesn't see you as a threat.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, like that's then it's a little weird. It's like, but but I was like going really, really hard at it, and I was like, it's got it's a point where it's like really bugging me. And I was of course like rebuking it in Jesus' name, like you know, speaking scripture over like those thoughts and everything, as we should, or like the truth, speaking the truth over the thoughts too. But it got to a point, I was like two months in, I got to the point where I got on my knees and I prayed to the Lord. I said, Lord, I've given you my idols and you have taken them from me, but I do not want this mindset. I knew the mindset that I had was like I was a very I was really like into strategy, like really like I love strategy. I love trying to outthink opponents, enemies, always finding the best tactics and certain scenarios. Like, I just I just I craved it, and I knew I knew that's why my mind kept thinking back to those hobbies because it needed that like strategy itch. And I was got on my knees and I prayed the Lord and said, Lord, I want to serve you and not go back to my old ways. I said, Lord, take this strategic mindset from me. I do not want it. If it is separating me from you, I do not want it. Take it from me. It has caused me to sin, and I do not want that. And I got a really interesting response that that same night I got a response of like it God was literally saying, No, I will not take it from you. And I was first, I was like kind of taking it back. I was a little shook. I'm like, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Like that's yeah, you just want me to suffer.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

It feels like a crutch right now. Like, what's what's going on? And then the next response I got was like redirect it, and I had no idea what that meant. All I knew is God didn't want to take it from me, seemed to have made me that way for a certain reason, and I had to redirect it. And over the course, I'd say the next two months, I kind of started to figure out how to do that in a in a sense, and it's it's more along the lines of like anticipating how the enemy is gonna try to attack me. Yeah, you know, and since I kind of like, okay, well, he attacked me here, then he might attack me like here, here, and here, and like trying to get ahead of the game and like just start praying about those scenarios or situations like before they happen. And then that kind of started to scratch the ditch and and kind of developed from there. But one of the one of the big points I also want to make talking about this this section is a lot of like new believers or like maybe people who are unbelievers right now listening that aren't really sure like what their meaning of life is, like what the purpose is, or like anything like that, oftentimes you either get attacked or distracted in your true calling with Christ. I'll give you some just some very very broad quick examples here. Like, for example, if you fall victim to like smoking, right? Or like, let's say vaping or or anything like that, it's attacking your lungs. The enemy is afraid of your voice, and usually for like worship and like prayer. So he attacks your lungs, and he does that by getting you addicted to like a substance that will damage them. Nothing you can't get delivered from and saved from from the Lord, but that's like an enemy's way of kind of like attacking what your purpose is. Another one is like if you feel a lot of like anxiety or anything like that, it's it's usually like you're you're really good at trusting the Lord, right? But he attacks your anxiety by you feeling like you need to be in control of the world, but in all reality, trusting the Lord having faith is by giving him control, so he will attack the exact opposite, yeah, right, and make you feel like you need to be in control of everything instead of just giving it to the Lord. So I mean it's it's a direct flip-flop opposite attack.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

I mean, yeah, and I kind of want to add on to that real quick. Um, and when that happens, whether you feel it or not, try to take that captive and say, okay, what's going on around me? Because one that's gonna lead to doubt either in yourself or in him, saying, Oh, he's not gonna help me with this, whatever. And it's just important to be repetitive on those things, you know, continue to run back to him because your faith has to build, you know. But yeah, that's all I had for that. If you want to continue.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, I mean, another one that kind of comes to mind, like, and this one seems to be like a really common one in today's day and age with unfortunately a lot of broken homes and everything. But like, if the enemy attacks you with abandonment, it's usually because you're really good at being there for someone. So get in your head thinking, oh, like, why would you do that for someone? You know, they're not, they don't really care about you that way anyway, like, or they'll just leave you or whatever, but in all reality, he knows you're really good at being there for someone. Like it's it's a completely like flip-flopped attack strategy. And it's it's it's one of those things that's not talked about enough in the modern church, like finding out who you are in Christ and how the enemy will then try to attack it. And it's usually the exact opposite of what you would be in Christ is how he would attack you and get your mindset to be. And and yeah, there's just a few off the top of my head that uh come to mind. Yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

So yeah, and like when did this start? This start after Christ, like this was before Christ gave his life for us. We had a chance to do this, and another point I kind of want to like put out there, I'm sure we've gone over this a hundred times, but I I got those things when I was living in my sin. You know, I was I righteous, no and yes, technically. I wasn't righteous in what I was doing, but I was righteous through him. And even though I was doing all those bad things, Jesus' love for me was no greater or less than it ever will be for me at that time. And I think that's something important. If you are falling into these habits, just going to him on those things is just bettering yourself. It does not change the way he feels for us. And that's important, I think, to understand because we just feel like he's judging us constantly on those things, and that's not the point. The point is he wants what's best for us because he cares about us like a father and a child. And I really like this analogy you said a while back, but you know, to me when you start getting rid of these things, you start realizing that there's more to life than these addictions, these feelings, these emotions, whatever it is, and knowing that, oh, you know, I I'm a nobody, you're a nobody, we're all nobodies. But we made God a nobody to us. But when we turned back to him, me and you, and everybody else that we've seen, we were now labeled God somebody because we were somebody to him. But we've always been somebody to him.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

And yeah, man, I appreciate you giving me a shout-out for that analogy, but I'm I'm pretty kind of like. Not that part. Okay, that's what's the next part. You're the one that said that, but I'll no I can't really take that from you.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

But um, but that was from the Lord. Copyright. Yeah, yeah. I remember you telling me that. Now I'm like, I don't know if I said that. But uh I I like your analogy is in regards to, you know, because he loves me like a father, and I look up to sorry, yeah, he has love for me is like a father's. Anyway, I look up to him as a father, and I want to mimic him, you know, like like my son, for example, or or your kids to to if you anybody out there has a kid, or obviously you've all been kids yourself at some point. Like you look up to your parents, you you you start to mimic them, you start to to get the same mannerisms they do, you start to walk like them, you start to act out everything they do, and that's what we want to do as believers is start to act like our father and mimic who Jesus Christ was in the gospels.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah, and going off that exact point you just made, yes, I do remember I do remember mentioning that, and it was based off of this story, actually. So it's this past fall, I was out raking leaves and had my son out there with me, and he has like a little rake, kid sized, right? He's a little toddler, and I brought out all of his other toys he could play with too. And I'm raking leaves for 45 minutes, and this whole time, with all these toys in front of him, he could have done anything else. All he wanted to do was rake leaves because he thought that was so fun, because he saw me raking leaves. Like that's all I wanted to do, opposed to all the toys he had too. He's like, This must be what we gotta do, and I I don't want to do anything else. And I kind of had like that, like it hit me where it was like, oh my gosh, when we change our like when we renew our minds to detach from the world and the fleshy ways we thought we truly desired, which all it really did was leave us empty, and we start to like really form ourselves in the way Christ made us to be, all of a sudden, all we really start to desire is the Father's will. Like it just starts naturally shifting and forming and shaping over time to be like, I truly don't want anything outside God's will. And that's almost like I got a visual like representation of like all he wanted to do is rake leaves because he saw me do it for 45 minutes, all he wanted to do the whole time. All the toys he had right in front of him, didn't care about him. I thought that was really interesting and uh kind of eye-opener for me there.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Yeah, I mean, definitely. And you know, we used to criticize or judge people when they started like preaching out in the opens. Like, who would do that? You know, like we had this one guy at our gym, the place that my brother Jesse was managing at, and people were just lifting this dude's like standing up, preaching the gospel in front of everybody, like dang near spotting you, like like you couldn't get away from it. And we were like, this guy's weird, but he's planting seeds, and I think I don't know if we went over that, but it it be it becomes that addiction. Like I'll be honest, and back to your thing with like Satan tries to trip you up with the gifts that God has given you and using them for his benefit or using them to delay your path with him, like addiction. If you're addicted to something, he's probably afraid that once you realize who God is, you're gonna be addicted to him and you're going to be a force to be reckoned with. Um, I guarantee it. But I mean, you I mean, you could look up endless testimonies on on that aspect in itself. So I kind of want to go in.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

I the first story that kind of comes to mind is so I'm like I'm Again I'm new to construction I'm new to the crew I'm like I'm super green in framing it's it's I mean the environment I'm kind of thrown into and this is intentional I mean it's a blue-collar job site small business no HR I mean it to kind of paint you the picture like it can get pretty can get pretty wild pretty fast no one's fault per se but that's just the reality of the the environment the situation and I was like I this is like a test for me in my walk in my faith am I gonna stay rooted in the word or am I gonna fall back and slip back to my way because I used to I used to be really bad with sarcasm and I used to be super witty with sarcasm with some vulgar language in there and this was like I felt like this was a test for me to be like I cannot do this because I will slip down a slippery slope fast so like a it was a lot of prayer time before the next day of work to like surrender that to the Lord because it was it was it was such a part of who I was for so long and another aspect that a brother was kind of talking about here is like my the third job excuse me the third job set I was on there was this person who's a a new hire that used to work with the crew a little bit ago and just had it out for me like just just condescending cutting me down talking bad about me never knew the guy except for the two days I just met him and I'm like wow this is this is pretty wild then he starts trying to denounce my faith and like almost like mocking it I was like this is wild like interesting and I was I was just very quiet wasn't saying much and it was kind of like out of nowhere right pretty much out of nowhere I mean he saw I mean I wear Jesus apparel so like I I'm pretty like I don't I'm not shying away from from what I believe and everything and he was sort of making comments on that I'm not gonna go too much in the detail of the conversations but it was basically like it led to he wanted to have a talk the next day to try to get me to understand the real truth which there is no truth outside of Jesus Christ. And I'm like okay yeah we can talk during the two breaks we have so I went home that night talked to my wife and I said all right we got a game plan what am I dealing with how's the Lord want me to handle it what do I need to say you know like all like we're just running through it's probably like an hour long of like just trying to prepare for the next day like really not even focused on framing at this point. Like that that'll figure itself out like but like I was very hyper focused on like I wanted to make sure that I do everything according to the Lord's plan and I didn't want to slip up because a lot of the conversations was he was trying to catch me in like a corner of like a catch 22 moment and a lot of it honestly if I had to really break down the whole experience like a three-day experience I pretty much broke it down to most times I'd say 60% of the times he'd have a comment he'd say to me I would not respond at all like any he he would just like have like in a catch 22 trying to get me instigated trying to get me to say the wrong thing like by a statement or whatever and like like double down on it or piggyback off it I would just honestly I would just turn the cheek almost like borderline ignore him and like just not even say a thing. And it was not what I expected on how to combat that but it just brought me back to a lot of when Jesus was like like charged and and like persecuted and like the trials right before he got crucified he'd be questioned a lot mocked a lot spat in the face tore up silent and I'm like I'm kind of I mean this is nowhere near I'm not going anywhere near anything like that but I kind of put in perspective where it's like you know what I just gotta eat it. I just gotta eat it because he's trying to get me to bite and if I bite him back to the corner I'm gonna catch 22. And ultimately what led to the cultivating moment was we we we did finally talk in our breaks and I laid out my testimony very very similarly to what I did for you guys earlier on in these podcasts I just laid out my testimony told him the truth there's no other way like I've experienced I told him I experienced too much with Jesus Christ to ever go back. There's no other way that he can deliver anyone from all sins and it pretty much came down to the guy was like well I don't have any sin you know I believe we have all free will and whether we whether we want to do an act of good or bad is it's completely on my repercautions. I don't believe in any of that I don't need like a savor anything like that. I'm like okay that's fine you have the choice to choose that and he goes well the only thing I really feel like I do bad is kind of like smoking as he's smoking a cigarette and I said the Lord can deliver you from that he can save you from that addiction he can take that from your heart's desires and you can be delivered from that he looked at a cigarette he spent 72 hours trying to get me to catch 22 and he walked himself right into one and it it was a lot of patience it was a lot of just surrendering to the Lord it was a lot of I probably prayed the armor of God over me multiple times a day um which is Ephesians uh 611 if anyone's wondering for armor of God and all came down to one sentence it was just patiently waiting three days 72 hours taking a verbal beatings just for one sentence to establish who Jesus Christ really is and three hours later he walked off the job never came back and I I couldn't imagine that going anywhere any differently I I know if my old self came up it now would not have ended good as much as I wanted to hit sarcasm and witty remarks and and I I I know a couple good ones popped in my head but I was just biting my tongue I'm like I can't say it I can't say it that's what he wants you know it's what the it's what the enemy wants and yeah I I I I don't know if that's one of the stories you're kind of looking for but yeah that's good because that was earlier on and then it was quite earlier on yeah yeah like what I love about this walk like when I think about it I think about obedience obviously I mean you're quitting the thing you went to school for you and everything for Christ and also it's like you're all in like that's somebody I needed to do this walk with you know what I'm saying and we all need we all need people like that you know it's it's and it's there it's there like when you seek the Lord he will provide he will provide fellow people around you yeah that will that will do this with you.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

And when you you keep having these encounters over time and you still walk every day even though it's beating you down you walk with courage and eventually like there's hope and then you're changing lives and I kind of want to get into that arm story where it started off as a conflict the Tib Fib story okay yeah the wrist story you're talking about right more recent yeah I actually have an update on that too actually awesome awesome yeah so this is a recent story and this is actually of like two and a half months ago now is it right before Christmas yeah two and a half months ago per time of recording and there was there was just I'm trying I'm trying to place how this started off again here to me and another person on the job set we're talking about God giving God the glory talking about some good stories you know just amplifying that like any way we try to do it outside of God's will just won't work we can try we have the free will sometimes might feel a little bit of satisfaction but it will fade it will fade and we're talking about that and then all of a sudden there was a co-worker I have not really talked to much in depth besides surface level conversation it's like the third time I met him and I mean at this point in the in the day we are I mean we're we're two hours in and we are getting definitely beyond surface level of gospel talk.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

So and I've there's four of us and the two guys I was talking to mainly where we're getting like beyond surface level like I've had many conversations with but the other guy I had not have not I really know where he was at but I was saying what needed to be said anyway at this point and all of a sudden we get paired up to like move floor trusses because you need like two people to do that. And I got to the point where I was like hey man so like where are you at with with God like do you believe do you not believe you know I'm just I'm just like curious like what kind of where you're at because obviously we've had some conversations earlier with other guys just wasn't sure you know where you're at and everything. And he goes oh yeah no no no I I I was actually just thinking about kind of getting back into religion and everything like that and and I mean I I believe in everything and I'm like oh that's interesting. I I said well I'm not religious I just want you to know like it's I think it's relationship it's like faith with the father and relationship that he prefers and just you getting to know him and everything and actually I told him I actually came from religion I got saved from religion and that's where it really kind of sparked an interesting conversation from there you know sparing some details leading up to that but then I was asking him I'm like like hey man you I if you don't mind me asking like what kind of what kind of sparked your interest in getting back into like you mentioned like religion before has anything been kind of happening and like what's been going on he goes oh yeah well broke my wrist kind of going through some stuff not I'm gonna spare in a lot of details here but he's the the main story of it was like he broke his wrist and it's like this is five weeks roughly post a wrist break clearly is favoring his his left wrist I mean it's it's not healed at this point you know and he's like trying to push through it because he does need to go to work and everything again for I'm not gonna say all the details and everything but that that was the main story and I'm like wow really interesting you know and I just kind of mentioned like yeah well I really just encourage you like the the first step I would take is if you do have that like pull in your heart is just get a Bible and just start reading it man like it'll open your eyes like open read it with like an open heart open eyes like the father's trying to tell you something like read it like the father's trying to tell you something and start starting the gospels of course and he goes dude it's crazy you're telling me that because like I got a Bible from like one of his relatives and it's been on the the headstand of my bed and I've been looking at it intentively the past three days and like dude it's a sign there's no coincidence I'm talking to you about this right now like the Lord's definitely trying to get your attention to see what happens why not like why not like what what it's not gonna get worse like why not you know why not just give it a shot you know like instead of scrolling on your phone for 30 minutes to an hour tonight crack it open for 10 minutes. I mean I'm guilty of it myself 100% and later like so that we had that conversation and all of a sudden 30 minutes pass by and I'm like that was really interesting you know everything all of a sudden I was kind of getting alert from the Lord like pray for him pray for him and I'm like I don't know what to pray about. It's like just pray for him like okay and like an hour later I get another opportunity where we're working together like we're looking at the plan. Like we're literally looking at the house plan. It's like the middle of the day which is like so rare we're looking at the house plan. It's usually like a begin beginning of the day thing and like the other like other people are like occupied with something else that they're not even like paying attention to for like the next 10 minutes which again was crazy and I was like hey man how's your wrist doing even though I already kind of knew I just started with like the question right how's your wrist doing he goes ah dude it's like throbbing right now like it hurts you know like I can't really pick something up right now and we're mind you we're literally carrying floor joices like the whole day like those are heavy things and he's had to favor his other hand for the whole day like I knew his wrist was hurting and I was like okay we know we kind of talked a little bit about you know Jesus early and everything like that I said do you believe Jesus could hit your wrist right now and he goes I mean I guess I'm like well let's think about this let's think about this like you obviously know some of the stories of Jesus like everywhere Jesus went everything he did all of his ministries he literally was healing people like constantly like that's all that seemed to be coming out of like him as a vessel like he was like really literally fully human fully God like do you believe he can heal your wrist he goes yeah yeah I I do and I'm like well do you want to do a prayer he goes yeah yeah so he put his hands together put his head head down everything like that and I was like I just grabbed his wrist I just grabbed his wrist put my hands on his wrist and I started just praying and I usually to kind of get in in the spirit of prayer I like to just kind of give gratitude give thanks and kind of just gets in like a flow for me like it it could be different for everyone sometimes people like need the silence and hear what the Lord needs to tell them and everything I just usually like start that way and just praying over his wrist praying for healing in Jesus' name and after the 20 second prayer and next thing you know like I I was like alright man how does it feel and he's he's like looking at it he goes dude it's not throbbing anymore that's crazy dude it's not throbbing anymore and I'm like well dude Jesus loves you man he wants to know that he cares for you and he's trying to get your attention to to get to know him and then you put a little pressure on it and he goes well it still hurts when I put pressure on it and I'm like well I bet you I bet you that thing will be way better than you expect soon if it's already done throbbing. Now that was the last time I saw that guy for a month and a half okay I didn't know that yeah I I expected to be working with him more yeah yeah last time I saw him for the month and a half I recently reconnected with him on a trust day where two crews mesh into one and I was asking him how he was doing he's doing great things are going great in his in his life you know things are kind of turning around looking up and I was like how's your wrist doing man and he goes oh my gosh dude I forgot about it I'm like dude it feels great like I've been pushing it hard this past month I didn't even remember that wow and I'm like God is good man praise the Lord God is good he goes yeah dude like that's great like dude I was pushing it hard I totally forgot like wow yeah dude it's like it's dude it's pretty much good to go and I'm like I'm telling you man Jesus is real and he loves you you know and I kind of like left it at that I I could I felt like I could have talked more but I'm like nah you know what I'm gonna just leave it at that yeah give him something to think about something chill on and yeah I mean really really good experience really good encounter and to kind of I guess tie it into the whole identity of Christ thing is like just kind of a lot of a lot of identity of Christ is like and and we might dive into this a little bit more but like yeah really looking inside out first instead of trying to change who you are outside to before you go to God like what of your personality and character does not line up with who Christ is surrender that to him and then you can be so much more susceptible to be used as a vessel to meet people where they're at and that ultimately is what it kind of came down to is like I just let the Lord allow me to meet people where they're at like I can't do the flesh. Like there's no way I would have been able to have that conversation or even would come up with things to say in those moments if I would not let myself be led by the Lord. Yeah is I guess a good a good way to kind of put it and and yeah I mean that's that's kind of what I got from that story there.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

Yeah I mean great stuff all right we are at 40 minutes what are you thinking? Let's talk about the kingdom okay you know yeah yeah yeah so back on that kingdom part you know this was something that they all had the ability to do before Jesus enters the stage and in in flesh he's always been there but you know the Pharisees are are calling him out and then Jesus says like you keep it from the people and for the kingdom of God is within you and you don't even access it.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

So I mean that kind of blows you back when you when you when I first read it at least I'm like wait what yeah a hundred percent I mean this is a reference in Luke 1721 where scriptures I mean you brought this up too actually a couple weeks ago where there's a lot of Old Testament scriptures where it lit prophesies Jesus coming in the flesh and also Jesus coming on like that judgment day and a lot of like sometimes Pharisees and religious leaders would mix the two so the Pharisees are like calling on Jesus like okay when's your kingdom coming so you say you're here when's your kingdom coming and Jesus literally Luke 1721 exactly what my brother here is talking about Jesus saying the kingdom will not be oh look here or look there for it is already within you you it's something you cannot tangibly see but you will know. Yeah and because the kingdom of heaven again is in you and as he was calling the Pharisees on you don't enter the kingdom yourself you make up all these man-made rules to follow in your religious like sectors and everything which are not even what the Lord wants us to follow and hold such a bind to yet you don't even have other people enter the kingdom of heaven you don't enter it and other people don't enter it. And when I and what my brother's referring to here and I definitely went through the same thing is like wait a second he's telling people who are alive at the time they don't enter the kingdom of heaven so are you telling me which exactly what scripture is saying you can enter the kingdom before we die yes yes and that really changed our perspective on how I read the word after that and how I kind of analyzed my life and how I'm like okay if this is a reality which I truly believe this is in scripture and this is real then what am I doing wrong as well to then not enter it myself and and just completely restructuring the way I thought and the way I spent more time with the father and just just dove inwardly like what do I need to change reading the word what do I need to change that I'm doing wrong because God you're perfect I'm not and if I'm made in your image what am I doing that's not making me live out your image in me and and yeah that that's ultimately the meaning of life and like you'll find your purpose like the meaning of life is to getting to know the Father and being more Christli and we've had topics like this leading up to this episode and you will find your purpose when you align yourself more with the ways of Jesus Christ you will naturally find exactly what you were made here to do on this earth and bring heaven down to earth in the Lord's will yeah yeah and I can't find it right now dang it but I'll have to add it on next time but it it says like don't do you not know like you're we are now citizens of the kingdom of God well what does that mean?

SPEAKER_02 42:37

It doesn't to me sound and I'll bring up these verses or I'll add them on later but if you're a citizen of a country that means you could access it right it doesn't mean oh you gotta wait for everything to go about like no you are a citizen of the kingdom of God now. So why does why does everybody especially nowadays or majority of people think oh we have to wait till the end to figure that out and you don't have to like God wants the relationship now he doesn't want us to guess in this life he wants to do this life with us now 100% and I mean the only way is if you seek him it doesn't say seek and you will find later you know not ask and you shall receive and fortify business days. You know it says you shall receive when you seek you shall find and when you knock the door will be open to you. Absolutely and that is what he's talking about and I mean like from my perspective too like I was like oh God would never do that with me. God blah blah blah blah blah. And when you believe that lie well that's going to be your reality but when you realize who God Is again like God says, if you parents who are evil do good, give your children good gifts, then what will your father who is in heaven do for you? I mean, to say he'll do anything less is saying he's less than good.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

Yeah, and to tie those scriptures exactly in place with what this topic is about, if you right now are listening who are struggling with what the meaning of life might be and what's struggling with what your purpose on this earth might be, I just want to say you definitely do matter on this earth. You're here for a reason. And honestly, based off those scriptures, tonight, spend time, get in that secret place, wring your heart out, ask the Lord why you're here. Ask the Lord what your purpose is, ask the Lord who you are in Christ. Surrender your to him. He'll show up, he'll tell you, you knock, the door will be opened. He's been waiting for this moment. I'm telling you, he's been waiting for this moment with you. Preach. And it will change your life.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

It will change your life, and you'll never want to go back.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

Yeah. I mean, the only way you won't know is if you never attempt. Exactly. And why waste such a beautiful opportunity, an opportunity that would change your life? And I mean, what did we do to obtain all these things? We just accepted the gift that was given to us for free.

SPEAKER_01 45:21

And just surrender. And surrender. You have to surrender. Yeah. You can't do it your way, you can't be in control. You can't think you know better. Yep. It comes with humility and surrender.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

And it takes a lot, like it takes a lot of prayer to get there.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

A lot of prayer time, a lot of secret place, a lot of digging deep in into again, exactly what brother here's saying, like just the reality of the new inheritance, the new heritage, the new like creation you are. Yeah. You know, you're you're a new creation in Christ. Yeah. It's time to get to know what that is.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

Amen. Well, I think that's a good place to end it for now. I think we'll dive deeper into the identity next time. But yeah, take care and uh God bless.