WEBVTT 00:00.031 --> 00:04.900 [SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to Blessed and Boston, presented by Anchor DeMedia. 00:05.521 --> 00:11.552 [SPEAKER_00]: In entrepreneurship podcasts for Christians, all about how to make God the CEO of your business. 00:12.173 --> 00:19.626 [SPEAKER_00]: Get ready to be inspired, challenged, but well equipped to live and build your destiny, his way. 00:26.660 --> 00:36.099 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Blessed Embossed podcast, the last episode we were supposed to be wrapping up Charles Stanley's book, The Spirit Field Life. 00:37.020 --> 00:41.850 [SPEAKER_00]: If you listen all the way through to you, heard on the end how I finished the whole episode. 00:42.995 --> 00:46.881 [SPEAKER_00]: the episode was like 57 minutes we were close to an hour. 00:46.901 --> 00:48.142 [SPEAKER_00]: It was good. 00:48.162 --> 00:57.275 [SPEAKER_00]: I woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning to record that podcast before I had to start my day and just like the enemy, there was issues. 00:57.956 --> 01:11.536 [SPEAKER_00]: So I went to export it the last 17 minutes didn't say, but I was grateful that I had the first 40 minutes and so I went ahead and put that out and I promised you guys that I will come back and finish off strong versus just trying to end it right there. 01:11.596 --> 01:12.597 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't 01:12.577 --> 01:31.227 [SPEAKER_00]: So I am going to go ahead and finish this book prayerfully for real this time and This also gives you more time to get our next book club pick it's called the ruthless elimination of hurry I'll put the link in the show notes for all of my busy baddies folks whether you're busy externally or internally 01:31.207 --> 01:38.256 [SPEAKER_00]: You got a lot on your plate as far as your schedule, or you got a lot on your mind, and you're mentally hurrying all the time. 01:38.496 --> 01:43.983 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a book that we all need to either read for the first time or revisit like me. 01:44.524 --> 01:46.366 [SPEAKER_00]: I love this book when I first read it. 01:46.646 --> 01:50.151 [SPEAKER_00]: I spent about four years now, so I'm looking forward to opening it back up. 01:50.591 --> 01:55.037 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll put the link in the show notes for you to go ahead and grab that. 01:55.017 --> 01:56.059 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll start it. 01:56.139 --> 01:57.741 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say in about two weeks. 01:58.182 --> 02:06.094 [SPEAKER_00]: I have midterms next week and the week after and then I'll be able to read and be able to get those episodes recorded. 02:06.134 --> 02:11.882 [SPEAKER_00]: So make sure you go ahead and grab the book now and start reading and then we will start that one next. 02:12.984 --> 02:15.768 [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, so on the last episode, I finished off. 02:15.888 --> 02:18.392 [SPEAKER_00]: We are in Marker 3. 02:18.811 --> 02:28.245 [SPEAKER_00]: The word of God and these are the spiritual markers that Charles Stanley wants us to walk away with to know that we are living the spirit field life. 02:28.706 --> 02:36.397 [SPEAKER_00]: And so after going through the importance of the word of God, we ended last episode talking about reading tips. 02:36.577 --> 02:38.440 [SPEAKER_00]: So he gave some tips. 02:38.420 --> 02:46.451 [SPEAKER_00]: On how we can study the Word of God so that we know where we understand it and it really can be a marker for us living a spirit feel life. 02:46.992 --> 02:50.697 [SPEAKER_00]: The first tip that we were in over is to look for principles. 02:51.278 --> 02:56.045 [SPEAKER_00]: He said that we will all do well to become more principled centered in our Bible reading. 02:56.465 --> 02:58.508 [SPEAKER_00]: Most of us are promise centered. 02:58.869 --> 03:02.874 [SPEAKER_00]: That is, we are always on the lookout for something else that God wants for us. 03:03.255 --> 03:08.342 [SPEAKER_00]: When it comes to decision-making, 03:08.322 --> 03:14.196 [SPEAKER_00]: My experience has been that the Holy Spirit brings principles to my mind far more often than promises. 03:14.697 --> 03:16.321 [SPEAKER_00]: A principle is like an equation. 03:16.762 --> 03:19.307 [SPEAKER_00]: If you do A, then you can expect B to happen. 03:19.528 --> 03:26.905 [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't do A, you can be confident of C. And then he gave a list of scriptures that we went over last episode. 03:27.897 --> 03:33.304 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, on many occasions, people have come to me for counseling with what they considered unsolvable problems. 03:33.804 --> 03:38.310 [SPEAKER_00]: As they related their situations, principal after principal flooded my mind. 03:38.791 --> 03:43.637 [SPEAKER_00]: When they finally finished speaking, I applied the principles of scripture to the problem. 03:44.258 --> 03:46.581 [SPEAKER_00]: Generally, they walk away thinking I was brilliant. 03:47.061 --> 03:55.332 [SPEAKER_00]: I say generally because there are some who, after hearing my answers, shook their head and said, I should have known that is right there in the Bible, and they were right. 03:55.572 --> 03:57.094 [SPEAKER_00]: They should have known. 03:57.243 --> 03:58.265 [SPEAKER_00]: God has spoken. 03:58.305 --> 04:02.171 [SPEAKER_00]: He has anticipated our questions as well as our frustrations. 04:02.672 --> 04:05.737 [SPEAKER_00]: He knew the decisions we will be faced with before we did. 04:05.757 --> 04:11.586 [SPEAKER_00]: To help us navigate the never-ending series of crossroads, he provided us with principles. 04:12.267 --> 04:16.615 [SPEAKER_00]: The problem is not that God won't give us answers to our questions. 04:16.635 --> 04:19.299 [SPEAKER_00]: The problem is that we haven't taken its time to look them up. 04:19.920 --> 04:21.242 [SPEAKER_00]: We haven't done our homework. 04:21.723 --> 04:23.706 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, God has spoken. 04:23.686 --> 04:28.333 [SPEAKER_00]: nowhere is this truth made more clear than imposed letters to the Romans. 04:28.934 --> 04:40.933 [SPEAKER_00]: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. 04:41.634 --> 04:52.090 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, notice the relationship between renewing the mind and proving what the will of God is. 04:52.070 --> 05:00.984 [SPEAKER_00]: The idea is that many women in the process of renewing their minds will be extra sensitive to what is of God and what is not. 05:01.004 --> 05:04.810 [SPEAKER_00]: They will be able to distinguish the will of God from their own desires. 05:05.612 --> 05:12.222 [SPEAKER_00]: The reward for staying involved in this process is greater sensitivity to God's will. 05:12.202 --> 05:22.053 [SPEAKER_00]: Something I always emphasize, especially when it comes to Christian entrepreneurship, is you have to be able to make decisions for your business in real time. 05:22.734 --> 05:33.687 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, as Christian entrepreneurs, our decisions need to not just be good decisions, they don't need to just make sense and be logical, they also have to be in alignment with God's will. 05:33.667 --> 05:47.823 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes we don't have the time to be able to go in fast for 40 days and 40 nights or to be able to pause and take a bunch of time to make sure that we're making the right decision. 05:47.863 --> 05:53.750 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have time to go back and forth in our mind and have this decision, paralysis, and put things all. 05:54.330 --> 06:00.417 [SPEAKER_00]: We need to be able to make a decision and move forward in a way in which you are able 06:01.156 --> 06:11.921 [SPEAKER_00]: decrease your processing speed while maintaining accuracy to you moving in accordance with the Lord is by you being consistently in his word. 06:12.382 --> 06:17.815 [SPEAKER_00]: Because when you read and you study the word, you then begin to get used to 06:17.795 --> 06:19.217 [SPEAKER_00]: how God operates. 06:19.237 --> 06:24.746 [SPEAKER_00]: You'll start to pay attention and learn his character, his patterns, how he does things. 06:25.988 --> 06:33.441 [SPEAKER_00]: These principles won't be things that you have to go search for in reference, they'll be ingrained in you because you've been studying it. 06:34.022 --> 06:34.943 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's in you. 06:35.264 --> 06:40.292 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's easy to act on something in real time when it's already in you. 06:40.272 --> 06:51.801 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I add money shoe as entrepreneurs to make sure you're in this work because you need to be able to move and make decisions without the expensive accuracy. 06:53.063 --> 06:57.168 [SPEAKER_00]: His second reading tip is to read with the context in mind. 06:57.969 --> 07:04.596 [SPEAKER_00]: He says the best way to guard against the trap of reading into Scripture what you want to see is to read with the context in mind. 07:05.237 --> 07:07.980 [SPEAKER_00]: Read the Bible as you would any other piece of literature. 07:08.621 --> 07:11.924 [SPEAKER_00]: But wait, you say, I thought the Bible was a special book. 07:11.944 --> 07:19.493 [SPEAKER_00]: It is, but remember, God views human language as an adequate medium through which he communicates spiritual truth. 07:19.473 --> 07:26.450 [SPEAKER_00]: That means that the normal rules of sentence structure, subjects, verbs, and so on apply to the Bible. 07:27.172 --> 07:29.819 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to read into the text more than is there. 07:29.839 --> 07:32.646 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't look for hidden or deeper meaning. 07:32.967 --> 07:34.731 [SPEAKER_00]: Take it for face value. 07:34.711 --> 07:40.078 [SPEAKER_00]: Many people miss the obvious and their attempt to discover the quote unquote real meaning. 07:40.798 --> 07:44.002 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't read with the goal of finding something too specific. 07:44.283 --> 07:44.563 [SPEAKER_00]: Why? 07:44.583 --> 07:46.065 [SPEAKER_00]: Because you always will. 07:46.826 --> 07:50.590 [SPEAKER_00]: If you read with an agenda, your findings will always be suspect. 07:51.111 --> 08:02.625 [SPEAKER_00]: You won't know of what you find is a product of the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit or your predisposition towards a 08:03.196 --> 08:18.218 [SPEAKER_00]: emphasis on the remain as neutral as possible, because that is particularly difficult in today's age where we have these algorithms online that are simply feeding us what we want at all times. 08:18.198 --> 08:28.032 [SPEAKER_00]: And our digital footprint is of such to where I could be looking at a dress on my laptop and then I pull up my phone and go to a different website. 08:28.052 --> 08:30.996 [SPEAKER_00]: And now I'm getting retargeted ads for that saying dress. 08:31.337 --> 08:34.381 [SPEAKER_00]: And then I cut on some streaming service that I had. 08:34.842 --> 08:40.470 [SPEAKER_00]: And now on Hulu on my commercials is now advertising for the same dress. 08:41.071 --> 08:42.833 [SPEAKER_00]: And then I go do something else. 08:43.053 --> 08:46.298 [SPEAKER_00]: And here this dress is again haunting me. 08:46.278 --> 08:50.871 [SPEAKER_00]: but it's these platforms just being online generally. 08:52.488 --> 08:59.819 [SPEAKER_00]: is collecting information on us so that it can continue to feed us more of what we're actively looking for. 09:00.380 --> 09:22.292 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's harmful when it comes to being neutral when it comes to reading the word in context because you may be looking up a scripture on Google and then let's say you look it up in the Bible app and then you watch a sermon on it and then you're searching for something else that may be correlated to the core problem that you're looking in the word for. 09:22.272 --> 09:29.119 [SPEAKER_00]: And now you are on YouTube, looking at videos about it, that you hop on TikTok to see if anybody else is dealing with the thing. 09:29.459 --> 09:44.254 [SPEAKER_00]: So now, from all of this data and information that your behavior has given, now there's more being put back on you or pushed for you to see and consume, that's based on whatever your particular need is. 09:45.095 --> 09:51.942 [SPEAKER_00]: And over time, you get less and less neutral. 09:52.630 --> 09:56.174 [SPEAKER_00]: algorithms with the Holy Spirit and confirmation. 09:56.595 --> 10:01.001 [SPEAKER_00]: You're like, oh man, I was just talking to somebody about that, and now I see it on my timeline. 10:01.021 --> 10:02.282 [SPEAKER_00]: This must be confirmation. 10:02.462 --> 10:11.994 [SPEAKER_00]: No, it's digital marketing, or I was just looking for this online, and now XYZ, no, it's digital marketing. 10:12.796 --> 10:15.639 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not confirmation, it's not the Holy Spirit. 10:15.839 --> 10:20.325 [SPEAKER_00]: It is marketing, but when you are neutral, 10:21.284 --> 10:33.623 [SPEAKER_00]: you're able to consume the word in its context and in a truth of what it just is, and then you can be a lot more precise with what you're designing. 10:34.750 --> 10:42.279 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I celebrated a birthday yesterday, I turned 34 and every year, I'm always very reflective on my birthday. 10:42.600 --> 10:43.181 [SPEAKER_00]: I repent. 10:44.042 --> 10:44.722 [SPEAKER_00]: I worship. 10:45.043 --> 10:46.445 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank God for another year. 10:46.465 --> 10:49.689 [SPEAKER_00]: I pray for the upcoming year. 10:49.709 --> 10:53.534 [SPEAKER_00]: I ask God what he has for me for the upcoming year. 10:53.574 --> 11:00.302 [SPEAKER_00]: But as I've gotten older, I've requested a lot less. 11:01.177 --> 11:06.102 [SPEAKER_00]: and have been more focused on maintaining my neutrality. 11:06.142 --> 11:19.916 [SPEAKER_00]: And I talk about this even from the business context, how I shifted at a certain point as I grew spiritually from setting my goals for the year to just sit in with the Lord with a blank slate and ask him, what does he have for me? 11:21.057 --> 11:26.442 [SPEAKER_00]: And so similarly, as I was praying on my birthday, I was like, God, 11:28.058 --> 11:31.102 [SPEAKER_00]: help me to serve you better this year. 11:31.142 --> 11:40.633 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to just please you and not feed my own goals or ambition. 11:41.053 --> 11:42.154 [SPEAKER_00]: They're always going to be there. 11:42.175 --> 11:43.376 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm always going to be ambitious. 11:43.416 --> 11:44.637 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm always going to be driven. 11:44.657 --> 11:49.383 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm always going to go after the things that I want and build and grow. 11:49.403 --> 11:50.644 [SPEAKER_00]: That's a part of who I am. 11:50.845 --> 11:52.046 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to get rid of her. 11:52.086 --> 11:55.450 [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think she needs to go anywhere. 11:55.919 --> 12:10.338 [SPEAKER_00]: What's most important is my life being pleasing in the Lord's sight and not just what I can do, but in me just being an existing, I want my existence to just please the Father. 12:10.378 --> 12:20.391 [SPEAKER_00]: And my prayer for this new year of life, I was just like, God, I just wanna be close to you just to be closer to you, period. 12:21.856 --> 12:28.463 [SPEAKER_00]: I just want to sit with your word for what it is as my daily bread, that's it. 12:28.483 --> 12:34.890 [SPEAKER_00]: I just want to sit in your presence to be close to you and near and that's it. 12:34.910 --> 12:39.135 [SPEAKER_00]: There is peace and contentment in being neutral. 12:40.035 --> 12:46.142 [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of times we hide, we are led by our pride in our ambition and because 12:47.658 --> 12:49.742 [SPEAKER_00]: It's leading us somewhere like the Bible. 12:49.802 --> 12:56.495 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't see it as problematic, but if we're opening the word just for what we want to get out of it, that's still an issue. 12:58.599 --> 13:03.528 [SPEAKER_00]: Because it's not how do I read this so that I can be better for him. 13:03.548 --> 13:06.734 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, how do I read this, so I can get him to work for me. 13:07.035 --> 13:08.738 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's not how this works. 13:09.173 --> 13:25.612 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I don't want to gloss over the importance of reading your word from a neutral standpoint, because that is going to be the thing that gets you the healing, that gets you the breakthrough, and that gets you insert whatever it is that you're believing in God for here. 13:26.853 --> 13:36.244 [SPEAKER_00]: When you are truly and purely committed to the neutral, your life will change our promise 13:37.405 --> 13:39.347 [SPEAKER_00]: My husband and I were talking earlier today. 13:39.367 --> 13:44.894 [SPEAKER_00]: And now I think this is actually yesterday where he was like man, I haven't eaten in 24 hours. 13:45.474 --> 13:51.582 [SPEAKER_00]: He was studying in the world just for reading sake and he was saying that I forgot where he was at. 13:52.683 --> 13:55.086 [SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember, he was somewhere in an old testament though. 13:56.107 --> 14:03.075 [SPEAKER_00]: And he was saying that he was just so full on the word that he wasn't even hungry. 14:03.055 --> 14:06.799 [SPEAKER_00]: And he just didn't want to, like he didn't want to focus on eating food. 14:06.819 --> 14:12.545 [SPEAKER_00]: So he wasn't officially fasting, but he just wanted to experience manna. 14:12.925 --> 14:20.853 [SPEAKER_00]: He just wanted to experience the word being his sustenance versus anything he would consume. 14:21.754 --> 14:25.498 [SPEAKER_00]: And so that lasted for about like 24 hours, at least. 14:26.178 --> 14:28.561 [SPEAKER_00]: And he was like man, I haven't had anything to eat. 14:28.961 --> 14:30.683 [SPEAKER_00]: And he was saying like, 14:30.916 --> 14:32.498 [SPEAKER_00]: He was tempted once. 14:33.279 --> 14:40.428 [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's whole time that he wasn't eating, he was just, he was just reading his word, he was praying, like working, regular stuff. 14:41.149 --> 14:49.659 [SPEAKER_00]: And he said the one time that he was tempted to eat was when our son did something, one of our sons did something and he irritated him. 14:50.100 --> 14:53.084 [SPEAKER_00]: And he was like the second he got frustrated is when he got hungry. 14:53.524 --> 14:55.827 [SPEAKER_00]: Because he was looking to, 14:55.807 --> 15:08.489 [SPEAKER_00]: Feel that frustration or feel better with food and he was like He noticed that and that made him instead of go try to eat something or try to lean it to it It'd be like well it has been 24 hours. 15:08.810 --> 15:12.075 [SPEAKER_00]: I ain't even faster for a lion ain't nothing Let me go get a sandwich. 15:12.095 --> 15:13.157 [SPEAKER_00]: He was like no 15:14.082 --> 15:15.844 [SPEAKER_00]: my flesh is angered. 15:15.864 --> 15:25.015 [SPEAKER_00]: I have this emotion and I want to go and meet this physiological need, but instead of doing that, let me just pray. 15:25.075 --> 15:28.520 [SPEAKER_00]: And he said that he prayed and the hunger totally went away. 15:28.580 --> 15:32.705 [SPEAKER_00]: And he continued on this impromptu fast. 15:32.805 --> 15:34.107 [SPEAKER_00]: I guess we could draw fast. 15:34.147 --> 15:35.348 [SPEAKER_00]: I guess we could call it. 15:36.222 --> 15:48.015 [SPEAKER_00]: But in just him reading the word from a neutral standpoint, that just led to a little spiritual exercise that has sustained him since then. 15:48.035 --> 15:52.160 [SPEAKER_00]: So where now he's like, I feel this, so let me go pray. 15:52.240 --> 15:59.108 [SPEAKER_00]: He caught himself, we were talking, and we both are into AI, and so we use AI for a bunch of different things. 15:59.088 --> 16:03.115 [SPEAKER_00]: And he was saying how he was getting ready to look up the answer to something. 16:03.756 --> 16:06.340 [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I think it was something I had to do with like a kid. 16:06.380 --> 16:09.926 [SPEAKER_00]: It's always a kid because we got a lot of them. 16:09.946 --> 16:13.192 [SPEAKER_00]: So it was always a kid that is teaching a lesson a row here. 16:13.232 --> 16:22.648 [SPEAKER_00]: So he was like, he was about to look something up and that lesson from his impromptu fast. 16:23.152 --> 16:30.583 [SPEAKER_00]: He was like, hold on, and instead of me just going here to find my answer real quick, let me go to the word. 16:31.444 --> 16:33.547 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me pray about this for a second. 16:34.228 --> 16:42.240 [SPEAKER_00]: And so again, just what started as reading the word from a neutral standpoint, not looking for anything in particular. 16:42.946 --> 16:47.771 [SPEAKER_00]: led to this experience of the work really being his daily bread. 16:48.612 --> 17:00.664 [SPEAKER_00]: And what that looks like and how that changes behavior, behaviors and coping mechanisms and processes, how you might want to Google something, but it's that reminder of let me actually pray about it first. 17:00.885 --> 17:08.893 [SPEAKER_00]: Or you feel it hungry, you realize that again, I'm physically hungry, but I'm also looking for food to solve this emotional need because I'm frustrated. 17:09.153 --> 17:11.856 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me rework this and take it to the Lord. 17:12.882 --> 17:26.790 [SPEAKER_00]: So, again, when you commit to studying is where neutrally I promise you what you will get out of it will be way more powerful than if you are looking for something specific. 17:28.019 --> 17:32.324 [SPEAKER_00]: His third reading tip is look for general promises. 17:33.245 --> 17:36.469 [SPEAKER_00]: He says there are promises given to all believers for all time. 17:36.729 --> 17:41.115 [SPEAKER_00]: They are the foundation for the personal promises, the Holy Spirit may choose to reveal. 17:42.156 --> 17:49.144 [SPEAKER_00]: An example of a general promise would be Jesus' promise, not to leave us as orphans, that's in John 1418. 17:50.446 --> 17:57.975 [SPEAKER_00]: Another would be the promise of grace and mercy whenever we approach God, 17:57.955 --> 18:05.400 [SPEAKER_00]: And one of my favorites is Isaiah 40 and 31 where God promised his strength for those who are weary. 18:06.477 --> 18:12.643 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, as I mentioned earlier, there's a debate amongst Christian leaders about whether or not God still speaks today. 18:13.244 --> 18:14.145 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe he does. 18:14.606 --> 18:18.189 [SPEAKER_00]: However, I don't believe he speaks as much as people claims he does. 18:18.790 --> 18:20.251 [SPEAKER_00]: He says so much already. 18:20.512 --> 18:23.215 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't need a great deal more of revelation. 18:23.795 --> 18:32.244 [SPEAKER_00]: There are times, however, when the Holy Spirit will take a passage and lift it out of its original context and apply it to our specific situation. 18:32.945 --> 18:36.028 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the exception, not the rule. 18:36.008 --> 18:41.377 [SPEAKER_00]: I've met too many Christians who approach Scripture exclusively from a mystical standpoint. 18:41.858 --> 18:48.749 [SPEAKER_00]: They never consider the context, the original audience, the speaker, or even which testament they are reading. 18:49.129 --> 18:55.720 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't necessarily have a hidden agenda, but they focus exclusively on finding God's personal message to them. 18:55.760 --> 18:58.224 [SPEAKER_00]: This approach is dangerous. 18:59.306 --> 19:01.830 [SPEAKER_00]: We see this play out so much today. 19:02.924 --> 19:27.126 [SPEAKER_00]: where people, especially where you see like these profits online and these folks sharing with the Lord, share with them, it frustrates me because I feel personally that whenever a prophetic word is giving, it should always be filtered through or excuse me, held accountable to what the scripture says. 19:28.422 --> 19:46.245 [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of prophetic people in my opinion do not go the extra mile to make sure that what the Lord has revealed is consistent with the principles, promises and context of what is in the scripture. 19:47.221 --> 19:58.815 [SPEAKER_00]: A friend of mine, Dr. Charlotte, we did a live, I want to say last year or so, where we talked about this and in real time, I was like, I want to share something that the Lord is sharing with me. 19:59.156 --> 20:01.138 [SPEAKER_00]: I am somebody who has a gift of prophecy. 20:01.198 --> 20:10.289 [SPEAKER_00]: I have dreams, visions, God shows me things, I have a high level of discernment from the Lord as a spiritual gift. 20:11.130 --> 20:14.815 [SPEAKER_00]: And she is, she has a gift of teaching. 20:14.795 --> 20:21.622 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, home girl, you could say, hello, and she gonna have a whole breakdown on hello and a Bible in all the things. 20:21.642 --> 20:21.863 [SPEAKER_00]: I hate it. 20:21.883 --> 20:26.548 [SPEAKER_00]: It all matter what it is, she gonna find it and find it in 0.2 seconds. 20:26.628 --> 20:29.451 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, I ain't got nothing on her. 20:30.312 --> 20:35.317 [SPEAKER_00]: So, we did this live and I shared something that the Lord was showing me. 20:35.417 --> 20:41.123 [SPEAKER_00]: And then she went straight to the scripture to evaluate what I was saying. 20:41.305 --> 20:43.468 [SPEAKER_00]: And that is necessary. 20:43.488 --> 20:48.974 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we have different spiritual gifts and a body for a reason, we're supposed to all work together. 20:49.014 --> 21:10.941 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it is important to not approach your reading of the word strictly from the mysterious because it robbed you of the accountability that the word is going to provide what you're saying or what you're sensing. 21:11.731 --> 21:17.641 [SPEAKER_00]: emotional intelligence with in how that relates to spiritual discipline. 21:17.981 --> 21:37.192 [SPEAKER_00]: Because I think a root cause of some of the stuff of reading the Bible subjectively making it to mysterious to where you're missing out with the text is actually saying, all of these dangerous traps that keep us from really understanding the fullness of his word. 21:37.753 --> 21:37.873 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm 21:37.853 --> 21:45.381 [SPEAKER_00]: Think a lot of it is rooted, not just in spiritual immaturity, but in immaturity in general. 21:46.522 --> 21:52.768 [SPEAKER_00]: Wisdom and maturity understand and exercise restraint. 21:54.010 --> 22:05.802 [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of these tribes that he is warning us not to fall into, in my opinion, if you understand and exercise restraint, if you have wisdom, you won't fall into these tribes. 22:06.338 --> 22:20.032 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're emotionally intelligent, you won't fall into these tribes, because you'll be able to understand that, hey, I am excited about this, but this excitement has to be restrained so that I can stay sober, mind it on what God is saying. 22:21.233 --> 22:32.785 [SPEAKER_00]: But when you're emotionally immature, that excitement going drive you and then you going end up all up in the world, finding whatever it is fits you and then running with it and saying it's the Lord and being wrong. 22:33.946 --> 22:39.436 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm definitely going to episode and I gotta do my research, but I'm definitely going to episode on that. 22:39.858 --> 22:40.783 [SPEAKER_00]: But back to the book. 22:43.008 --> 22:49.156 [SPEAKER_00]: He says there's no way to overemphasize the importance of the Bible when it comes to living a spirit-filled life. 22:49.737 --> 22:58.269 [SPEAKER_00]: If you are not in the habit of reading your Bible daily, start now, put this book down, cut this podcast off, and pick up your Bible. 22:58.950 --> 23:12.508 [SPEAKER_00]: By a translation that you understand, there is no reason to fear the modern translations, just make sure the one you choose was translated faithfully from the original Greek and Hebrew, 23:12.488 --> 23:16.975 [SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of the translation you prefer, make sure you read a little every day. 23:17.556 --> 23:19.458 [SPEAKER_00]: I do so out of the living Bible. 23:20.180 --> 23:26.349 [SPEAKER_00]: Through daily Bible reading, you provide the Holy Spirit with unlimited access to your mind and heart. 23:27.090 --> 23:32.438 [SPEAKER_00]: The access necessary for you to experience a spirit-filled life. 23:32.418 --> 23:35.161 [SPEAKER_00]: He then goes on to give some other book recommendations. 23:35.421 --> 23:39.867 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if these books, I do, I do not endorse these books because I don't know them. 23:40.447 --> 23:45.954 [SPEAKER_00]: However, I'm just going to tell you with that disclaimer that these are the books that he recommends. 23:46.454 --> 23:50.118 [SPEAKER_00]: He says many books have been written to help Christians understand their Bibles. 23:50.198 --> 23:54.223 [SPEAKER_00]: Here are several that I found to be particularly helpful. 23:54.203 --> 24:03.601 [SPEAKER_00]: 30 days to understanding the Bible by Max Anders, how to read the Bible for all its worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stewart. 24:04.503 --> 24:06.707 [SPEAKER_00]: How to study the Bible by James Braga? 24:07.369 --> 24:10.134 [SPEAKER_00]: How to understand your Bible by T. Norton Stairett? 24:11.276 --> 24:15.705 [SPEAKER_00]: Talk through the Bible by Bruce Wilkinson and Kenneth Boa. 24:16.141 --> 24:23.154 [SPEAKER_00]: living by the book, the art and science of reading the Bible by Howard Hendrix and William Hendrix. 24:23.174 --> 24:27.783 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll put the link or just the list of those books in the show notes. 24:29.065 --> 24:36.158 [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, we are on chapter 18, the final marker, the last chapter in this book, wisdom. 24:36.931 --> 24:41.296 [SPEAKER_00]: He says a fourth marker that indicates the leading of the Holy Spirit is wisdom. 24:42.057 --> 24:46.101 [SPEAKER_00]: No other question reveals our hidden motives more readily than this one. 24:46.842 --> 24:48.584 [SPEAKER_00]: What is the wise thing for me to do? 24:48.624 --> 24:56.192 [SPEAKER_00]: And financial matters, it reveals our greed and relational issues, it reveals our selfishness. 24:56.993 --> 25:00.357 [SPEAKER_00]: In social interactions, it reveals our lust. 25:00.337 --> 25:01.479 [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing escapes. 25:02.140 --> 25:04.946 [SPEAKER_00]: Wisdom shines like a spotlight on a soul. 25:04.986 --> 25:09.795 [SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit leads and directs according to what is wise and unwise. 25:10.676 --> 25:16.928 [SPEAKER_00]: It is following a discussion on wisdom that we find Paul's command to be filled with the Spirit. 25:16.908 --> 25:29.030 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's an Ephesians 5, 15 through 18 which says, therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise making the most of your time because the days are evil. 25:29.570 --> 25:40.570 [SPEAKER_00]: So then do not be foolish but understand that what the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation but be filled with the Holy Spirit. 25:41.410 --> 25:46.881 [SPEAKER_00]: There is no break in the discussion between the comments on wisdom and the command to be filled with the spirit. 25:47.563 --> 25:49.266 [SPEAKER_00]: Paul is not changing the subject. 25:49.707 --> 25:54.998 [SPEAKER_00]: There is a vital and often overlooked relationship between wisdom and the Holy Spirit. 25:55.940 --> 26:05.215 [SPEAKER_00]: namely the Holy Spirit guides the believer in the way of wisdom to refuse to live wisely is to ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit. 26:05.896 --> 26:11.625 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, over here, older people say wisdom is chasing you down, but you've run it faster. 26:11.645 --> 26:14.590 [SPEAKER_00]: And when you do something silly, 26:14.570 --> 26:17.253 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's what about favorite little shady quotes. 26:17.413 --> 26:18.535 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, back to the book. 26:19.055 --> 26:25.743 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, many issues we are forced to deal with on a daily basis are not mentioned specifically in scripture. 26:26.544 --> 26:31.690 [SPEAKER_00]: Complicated situations arise and there seems to be no biblical parallel to use as a guide. 26:32.231 --> 26:37.036 [SPEAKER_00]: And these instances, God expects us to ask, what does the wise thing for me to do? 26:37.797 --> 26:42.923 [SPEAKER_00]: Wisdom fills the gaps between principles, promises, and commands of God. 26:42.903 --> 26:48.880 [SPEAKER_00]: Wisdom always takes all three into account and then asks what is the wise thing for me to do. 26:49.906 --> 26:55.153 [SPEAKER_00]: The other unique quality about wisdom is that it operates beyond the realm of meal right and wrong. 26:55.674 --> 27:03.665 [SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere along the way, many of us have mistakenly come to believe that if the Bible does not specifically say something is wrong, it must be okay. 27:04.266 --> 27:05.127 [SPEAKER_00]: That is not so. 27:05.708 --> 27:13.298 [SPEAKER_00]: Many things that the Bible does not specifically cite as wrong are detrimental to our spiritual as well as physical health. 27:13.278 --> 27:18.426 [SPEAKER_00]: Wisdom is often in the tool that the Holy Spirit uses to personalize God's will for our life. 27:18.947 --> 27:22.613 [SPEAKER_00]: What is wise for me may not be wise for you, in vice versa. 27:23.614 --> 27:28.222 [SPEAKER_00]: I know a young man who has recently got it out of involvement with the occult. 27:28.242 --> 27:33.510 [SPEAKER_00]: To speed his recovery, he has put himself on an intense, mild renewal program. 27:34.271 --> 27:39.960 [SPEAKER_00]: He has memorized and scripture about the chapter, he has in church every time the doors are open, 27:39.940 --> 27:43.288 [SPEAKER_00]: And he listens to every Christian tape he can get his hands on. 27:44.050 --> 27:46.656 [SPEAKER_00]: In addition, there are some things he is not doing. 27:46.996 --> 27:48.801 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't listen to secular music. 27:49.161 --> 27:54.273 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't go to certain parts of the city, and he doesn't return the phone calls of his old friends. 27:54.875 --> 27:55.135 [SPEAKER_00]: Why? 27:55.155 --> 27:57.240 [SPEAKER_00]: Here's what he told me. 27:57.220 --> 27:59.865 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just not wise for me to do those things right now. 28:00.366 --> 28:05.856 [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, I hope to go back and tell my friends about what God has done in my life, but I'm not strong enough yet. 28:06.578 --> 28:13.491 [SPEAKER_00]: On a couple of occasions, I've been tempted to pick up the phone and call them, but something inside me said, wait. 28:13.471 --> 28:14.293 [SPEAKER_00]: so I'm waiting. 28:15.015 --> 28:18.244 [SPEAKER_00]: As far as the music goes, I don't have anything against secular music. 28:18.666 --> 28:22.316 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just that I've got so much junk still floating around my head. 28:22.336 --> 28:24.602 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to risk putting more up there. 28:25.264 --> 28:28.493 [SPEAKER_00]: Besides, Christian music helps keep me focused. 28:28.473 --> 28:31.497 [SPEAKER_00]: Here's a young man who understands the importance of wisdom. 28:31.998 --> 28:33.720 [SPEAKER_00]: For him, it's a matter of survival. 28:34.401 --> 28:38.487 [SPEAKER_00]: He has also discovered the relationship between wisdom and the Holy Spirit. 28:39.027 --> 28:43.313 [SPEAKER_00]: The something that told him not to call his old friends was the Holy Spirit. 28:43.874 --> 28:48.460 [SPEAKER_00]: God has not called us to merely stay on the right side of the line, dividing right and wrong. 28:48.881 --> 28:50.623 [SPEAKER_00]: He has called us to walk wisely. 28:51.104 --> 28:53.367 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes that means staying away. 28:53.347 --> 28:54.849 [SPEAKER_00]: way back from the line. 28:55.390 --> 28:59.377 [SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit uses wisdom to keep us back from the brink of disaster. 29:00.098 --> 29:04.825 [SPEAKER_00]: Most of us want to learn how far we can go towards sin without actually sinning. 29:05.727 --> 29:12.718 [SPEAKER_00]: Once we find out, or we think we found out, we move right on to the edge, and stay there until we go over. 29:13.319 --> 29:17.245 [SPEAKER_00]: Consequently, there are habits we cannot walk away from. 29:17.613 --> 29:28.889 [SPEAKER_00]: There are areas of weakness in our lives that never improve, and because we ignore the Holy Spirit's promptings to walk wisely, the writer of Proverbs summed it up beautifully. 29:30.050 --> 29:35.077 [SPEAKER_00]: He who trust in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered. 29:35.978 --> 29:45.932 [SPEAKER_00]: I love how he emphasizes here that wisdom isn't just about right and wrong, and that the Holy Spirit wants us to stay far away from 29:46.553 --> 29:51.320 [SPEAKER_00]: Because the closer we get to that line, temptation just gets stronger and stronger. 29:51.360 --> 29:56.487 [SPEAKER_00]: For those of you, let's say you are trying to refrain from having sex until you're married. 29:57.469 --> 30:00.693 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a sin for you and that person to kiss. 30:01.434 --> 30:05.660 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a sin for you and that person to snuggle up on a couch and watch a movie. 30:06.562 --> 30:07.583 [SPEAKER_00]: Is it wise? 30:08.035 --> 30:08.475 [SPEAKER_00]: No. 30:10.277 --> 30:11.378 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a good idea. 30:11.398 --> 30:15.563 [SPEAKER_00]: It is very easy for one thing to lead to the other. 30:15.903 --> 30:19.847 [SPEAKER_00]: So when the Holy Spirit says, Hey, you shouldn't go over there. 30:19.867 --> 30:25.272 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, let's y'all shouldn't be laid up by ourselves watching a movie. 30:26.213 --> 30:28.576 [SPEAKER_00]: You should listen because that's wisdom. 30:29.517 --> 30:32.760 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're somebody that's struggling with controlling your mouth. 30:33.297 --> 30:42.497 [SPEAKER_00]: And somebody says something that triggers you or that pisses you off and you want to just clap that and you just fill yourself by in a hole in the year time. 30:43.473 --> 30:53.184 [SPEAKER_00]: You responding, even if you're not like custom or going off, but you responding to somebody who's trying to agitate you, is not a sin. 30:53.244 --> 30:55.006 [SPEAKER_00]: Is it wise? 30:55.587 --> 31:10.003 [SPEAKER_00]: No, because if you are somebody who struggles with anger and somebody else is trying to bait you into a situation that's gonna make you angry, disengaging is wise. 31:10.760 --> 31:16.315 [SPEAKER_00]: but you have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that you can respond to that wisdom in real time. 31:17.206 --> 31:39.079 [SPEAKER_00]: Recently, I went to brunch with some of my classmates from school, and we were celebrating the end of our fall semester, and we went to the spot in DC, very popular brunch spot, and it's like brunch, but then DC, and I think Atlanta is the next comparable city, have very specific brunch cultures for those of you who don't know. 31:39.780 --> 31:46.150 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to just talk about DC because that's where I'm from. 31:46.754 --> 31:51.123 [SPEAKER_00]: It is vibes, you get dressed. 31:51.264 --> 31:53.669 [SPEAKER_00]: You're not wearing your nice little sweater and some boots. 31:53.769 --> 31:55.332 [SPEAKER_00]: No, no, you're getting dressed. 31:56.054 --> 31:58.399 [SPEAKER_00]: Like you're going somewhere important, okay? 31:58.920 --> 32:00.443 [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to brunch. 32:00.777 --> 32:09.428 [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have lamb chops, chicken, waffles, grits, fish and grits, shrimp and grits, all the things, all the typical brunch things. 32:09.748 --> 32:11.570 [SPEAKER_00]: But the music's going to be loud. 32:12.131 --> 32:14.934 [SPEAKER_00]: They're going to be bottomless memoses everywhere. 32:15.135 --> 32:18.539 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's pretty much the club during the day. 32:18.599 --> 32:26.228 [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of brunch spots, at least when I was outside before I gave my life to the Lord. 32:27.457 --> 32:29.740 [SPEAKER_00]: Branch would be like a all day. 32:29.921 --> 32:31.002 [SPEAKER_00]: It would be a situation. 32:31.042 --> 32:34.267 [SPEAKER_00]: You will go to Branch and have a good time. 32:34.347 --> 32:47.287 [SPEAKER_00]: Branch will turn into a day party day party turn into get a dinner dinner turn into the evening party then you that turn into the after I was bought you could easily be out for a solid 12 hour stretch minimum. 32:48.289 --> 32:51.053 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the the culture of Branch. 32:52.214 --> 32:54.578 [SPEAKER_00]: Branch is not a sin. 32:54.760 --> 32:58.745 [SPEAKER_00]: remember this culture though, is it wise to fully engage in all love it? 32:58.825 --> 33:06.656 [SPEAKER_00]: No, but this particular night or afternoon, we went to brunch to celebrate the end of our semester. 33:07.497 --> 33:12.984 [SPEAKER_00]: And I went, I was excited to hang out with everybody, you know, we had a great time. 33:13.024 --> 33:18.571 [SPEAKER_00]: And as brunch was ending, it was one of the guys in my classes birthday. 33:18.611 --> 33:22.877 [SPEAKER_00]: And 33:22.857 --> 33:25.483 [SPEAKER_00]: do whatever to celebrate this person's birthday. 33:26.004 --> 33:27.066 [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, yeah, I'm good. 33:28.309 --> 33:30.955 [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, no, don't pour me a shot of anything. 33:30.995 --> 33:32.338 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm okay. 33:32.358 --> 33:36.527 [SPEAKER_00]: I had my one little glass of champagne and that's it. 33:37.349 --> 33:41.237 [SPEAKER_00]: So after they order all the shots, 33:41.892 --> 34:02.668 [SPEAKER_00]: They come out, they're meeting the people who work at the restaurant, come out with a little sparkillers, you know, the little signs people have in the club, y'all don't know, y'all say, when you see on social media, other people at the club, and they bring out the signs with the little sparkillers and the bottles and all that, it was one of those situations. 34:02.648 --> 34:07.675 [SPEAKER_00]: And it was so funny because I took a picture and I posted it on my Instagram close stories. 34:07.795 --> 34:11.520 [SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, at this moment, Auntie knew she was out. 34:11.760 --> 34:15.806 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, it ain't nothing else for me here. 34:15.826 --> 34:17.388 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't had my shrimping grits. 34:17.689 --> 34:18.289 [SPEAKER_00]: I am out of here. 34:19.251 --> 34:23.897 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, but they weren't going to make him plans to go to the next spot. 34:24.438 --> 34:28.183 [SPEAKER_00]: And wisdom for me was I'm going home. 34:28.602 --> 34:33.914 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I would have sent, had I chosen to still go to the next spot with them. 34:34.455 --> 34:40.288 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not necessarily tempted into turning up and being out, I've been there done that. 34:40.388 --> 34:40.769 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm 34. 34:41.811 --> 34:48.366 [SPEAKER_00]: When I was in my early 20s before I gave my light to the Lord, I went to a HPCU, y'all, so for undergrad. 34:51.029 --> 34:56.836 [SPEAKER_00]: I am not sure on crazy experiences in my younger days. 34:57.597 --> 34:58.638 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't miss none of it. 34:58.858 --> 34:59.379 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm good. 34:59.419 --> 35:02.763 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not even tempted to be outside like that. 35:03.524 --> 35:11.273 [SPEAKER_00]: Nevertheless, even though it isn't necessarily a temptation for me, wisdom still says, go home. 35:11.714 --> 35:12.895 [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what I did. 35:12.915 --> 35:13.616 [SPEAKER_00]: I went home. 35:14.918 --> 35:19.483 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I say all that to say, 35:21.185 --> 35:24.009 [SPEAKER_00]: the Holy Spirit just pulling us out of sin. 35:24.710 --> 35:28.035 [SPEAKER_00]: He also wants to prevent us from even getting to that point. 35:28.396 --> 35:31.941 [SPEAKER_00]: He wants to prevent us from even getting to the point of being tempted. 35:32.522 --> 35:37.850 [SPEAKER_00]: Getting to the point of being in a situation that we're going to have to fight a little bit to get out of. 35:38.231 --> 35:41.496 [SPEAKER_00]: When's the misjust listen into what he says the first time? 35:41.536 --> 35:43.699 [SPEAKER_00]: And knowing 35:44.000 --> 35:52.889 [SPEAKER_00]: that wisdom is best and that his wisdom is better than any type of intelligence that we think we have. 35:54.150 --> 35:58.975 [SPEAKER_00]: Charleston only says that that when thinking of wisdom, it's a three-part question. 35:59.535 --> 36:05.040 [SPEAKER_00]: He says for maximizing impact, this penetrating question should be asked in three dimensions. 36:05.961 --> 36:11.847 [SPEAKER_00]: One, what is the wise thing to do in light of my past experience? 36:11.827 --> 36:15.792 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, Phil works for a large firm out of St. Peter's Barrett's Lorder. 36:16.173 --> 36:19.957 [SPEAKER_00]: His work requires him to be away from home two or three nights a week. 36:19.977 --> 36:22.741 [SPEAKER_00]: When he came to see me, he was practically in tears. 36:23.342 --> 36:25.645 [SPEAKER_00]: I have really gotten myself into a mess he said. 36:26.105 --> 36:34.476 [SPEAKER_00]: I love my wife, we have a new baby, I'm a leader in my church, and at home everything is fine, but on the road things are different. 36:34.456 --> 36:37.281 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, there are three or four of us from work who travel together. 36:37.541 --> 36:38.964 [SPEAKER_00]: The other guys aren't Christians. 36:39.344 --> 36:41.268 [SPEAKER_00]: They can't wait to get away from their wives. 36:41.869 --> 36:43.211 [SPEAKER_00]: Every week is the same thing. 36:43.611 --> 36:45.895 [SPEAKER_00]: They are like the high school kids on spring break. 36:45.915 --> 36:46.897 [SPEAKER_00]: They just go wild. 36:47.538 --> 36:50.303 [SPEAKER_00]: Every Monday, I promise God, I'm not going to participate. 36:51.124 --> 36:54.310 [SPEAKER_00]: And every Monday night, there I am right in the middle of them. 36:54.670 --> 36:55.772 [SPEAKER_00]: It's killing me. 36:55.752 --> 36:57.954 [SPEAKER_00]: is hard to face my wife when I come home. 36:58.495 --> 37:03.579 [SPEAKER_00]: She knows something is wrong, but I don't see any point in telling her what am I supposed to do. 37:03.619 --> 37:04.981 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got to work. 37:05.381 --> 37:07.143 [SPEAKER_00]: And if I worked, I've got to travel. 37:07.203 --> 37:09.124 [SPEAKER_00]: He was really shaking up. 37:09.645 --> 37:12.628 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked Phil, tell me about those trips. 37:12.648 --> 37:13.408 [SPEAKER_00]: Where do you stay? 37:13.468 --> 37:15.250 [SPEAKER_00]: Who do you stay with? 37:15.350 --> 37:17.712 [SPEAKER_00]: What are the circumstances around in the situation? 37:17.732 --> 37:22.637 [SPEAKER_00]: It's always the same, work alone, 37:22.617 --> 37:26.122 [SPEAKER_00]: then we meet back at the hotel and go somewhere to eat together. 37:26.162 --> 37:28.465 [SPEAKER_00]: After dinner is downhill from there. 37:29.006 --> 37:37.578 [SPEAKER_00]: When we first began working together, I was asked and had dropped me off at the hotel, but they would kid me and eventually wear me down to the point that I would go along. 37:38.179 --> 37:39.340 [SPEAKER_00]: Now I don't even ask. 37:39.501 --> 37:43.326 [SPEAKER_00]: I know I should be stronger, but the fact is, I'm not. 37:43.306 --> 37:52.256 [SPEAKER_00]: I explain to Phil that God has called him to walk wisely, sometimes that meant taking several steps away from the line, dividing right from wrong. 37:53.417 --> 37:59.064 [SPEAKER_00]: Phil apparently you have a difficult time overcoming the temptation to go with your buddies when you're in a car with them. 37:59.664 --> 38:03.789 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the wise decision to make on your next trip is to eat dinner alone. 38:04.450 --> 38:07.373 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't even meet them again until the next day. 38:07.353 --> 38:09.276 [SPEAKER_00]: Is there something wrong with eating with them? 38:09.336 --> 38:12.320 [SPEAKER_00]: He asked, no, I replied, but that's not the point. 38:13.061 --> 38:16.867 [SPEAKER_00]: What is the wise thing to do for you in light of your past experience? 38:17.467 --> 38:21.774 [SPEAKER_00]: It could be that the wise thing for you to do is to stay completely in a different hotel. 38:22.374 --> 38:31.167 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, not because there's something wrong with staying in the same hotel as your buddies, but because your truck record with them, it may not be the wise thing to do. 38:31.147 --> 38:32.549 [SPEAKER_00]: he sat back in his chair. 38:32.589 --> 38:34.150 [SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty extreme. 38:34.811 --> 38:41.239 [SPEAKER_00]: You're right, I said, but then you are in an extreme situation, and sometimes that calls for extreme measures. 38:42.100 --> 38:45.163 [SPEAKER_00]: I know you're right, he said, and that's exactly what I'll do. 38:45.183 --> 38:54.454 [SPEAKER_00]: I knew that the Holy Spirit was tugging at his heart, urging him to set a new standard, but I could not get him to make a commitment to follow through. 38:54.434 --> 39:01.028 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think about it, he said, that was the last time I saw Phil, but I kept up with him through a mutual friend. 39:01.649 --> 39:05.357 [SPEAKER_00]: Phil ignored my vice in a few months later, he left his wife. 39:06.058 --> 39:09.726 [SPEAKER_00]: Our mutual friend told me that Phil had been over to see him. 39:10.499 --> 39:12.503 [SPEAKER_00]: several times and cry like a baby. 39:13.145 --> 39:17.875 [SPEAKER_00]: He wishes that he could go back and do it all over, but sometimes you can't go back. 39:18.657 --> 39:24.128 [SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit always takes our past experience into account when giving us direction for our lives. 39:24.630 --> 39:28.558 [SPEAKER_00]: He knows when we are setting ourselves up for moral disaster. 39:28.538 --> 39:35.708 [SPEAKER_00]: Unlike Phil, we would do well to listen to the still small voice that quietly whispers, remember the last time. 39:36.589 --> 39:37.971 [SPEAKER_00]: Remember the last time you went. 39:38.832 --> 39:40.515 [SPEAKER_00]: Remember the last time you stayed. 39:41.096 --> 39:43.219 [SPEAKER_00]: Remember the last time you agreed to do that. 39:43.859 --> 39:45.522 [SPEAKER_00]: Remember the last time that happened. 39:46.143 --> 39:48.266 [SPEAKER_00]: Remember the last time someone told you that. 39:50.649 --> 39:55.035 [SPEAKER_00]: This is interesting in the story about this guy, Phil, and I think that it highlights 39:56.534 --> 39:59.342 [SPEAKER_00]: our role when it comes to wisdom. 39:59.382 --> 40:11.877 [SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit will always prompt us and show us the errors of our ways, but we have to respond to that wisdom and put controls in place to protect 40:12.650 --> 40:14.353 [SPEAKER_00]: what the Holy Spirit is showing us. 40:14.373 --> 40:19.982 [SPEAKER_00]: So in his instance, the guy had no self control when it came going out with his work friends. 40:20.002 --> 40:22.486 [SPEAKER_00]: They just obviously kept getting him in trouble. 40:23.047 --> 40:27.254 [SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit told him that he needed to do something different and he didn't. 40:27.614 --> 40:30.920 [SPEAKER_00]: He responded enough to go and talk to his pastor about it. 40:31.300 --> 40:39.113 [SPEAKER_00]: But he did not respond enough by putting, making the decisions, the wise decisions, to put the controls in place. 40:39.093 --> 40:43.420 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I don't want us to be foolish people making these same mistakes. 40:43.780 --> 40:50.170 [SPEAKER_00]: If the Holy Spirit is urging you to stock something, to start something, to protect something. 40:50.230 --> 40:58.603 [SPEAKER_00]: If he's urging you and pointing you in a particular direction, based upon your own pattern of behavior, take that into account and respond to it. 40:59.798 --> 41:04.005 [SPEAKER_00]: because he's trying to protect you from the consequences of your own actions. 41:04.906 --> 41:13.861 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes because of the present state of your marriage, health, finances, or the economy, situations that ordinarily would be okay are off limits. 41:14.502 --> 41:15.624 [SPEAKER_00]: This can be hard to take. 41:16.144 --> 41:19.630 [SPEAKER_00]: After all, it was okay last time, but why not this time? 41:19.610 --> 41:25.622 [SPEAKER_00]: I know a man who gave up traveling for a little bit more than a year because of a situation at home with his teenage daughter. 41:26.183 --> 41:29.330 [SPEAKER_00]: He took a big cut and pay and lost some of his seniority. 41:29.811 --> 41:34.901 [SPEAKER_00]: When asked why he answered, well, it's not what I had anything against traveling. 41:35.062 --> 41:40.673 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just not wise for me to be gone overnight and light of what my daughter is going through right now. 41:40.653 --> 41:44.410 [SPEAKER_00]: He understood that the issue was not one of Wright versus Rome. 41:44.771 --> 41:45.936 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a wisdom issue. 41:45.997 --> 41:50.376 [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually the situation at home cleared up and he was able to travel again. 41:51.402 --> 41:56.149 [SPEAKER_00]: Life changes quickly, what's good today, may be detrimental tomorrow. 41:56.630 --> 41:59.153 [SPEAKER_00]: And then it may be okay again the day after tomorrow. 41:59.714 --> 42:01.236 [SPEAKER_00]: Very little was set in stone. 42:01.737 --> 42:06.064 [SPEAKER_00]: God loves us and directs our lives according to what is happening around us. 42:06.564 --> 42:12.533 [SPEAKER_00]: That's why it is so important for us to be sensitive to the initial promptings of the Holy Spirit. 42:14.099 --> 42:21.466 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the last question he says to ask is, what is the wise thing to do in light of my future plans and dreams? 42:22.727 --> 42:25.270 [SPEAKER_00]: We have a large number of single adults in our church. 42:25.710 --> 42:30.294 [SPEAKER_00]: A recurring question that surfaces in my discussions with them concerns dating non-Christians. 42:30.995 --> 42:32.296 [SPEAKER_00]: Usually it's asked in this way. 42:32.797 --> 42:34.899 [SPEAKER_00]: What does the Bible say about dating non-Christians? 42:35.399 --> 42:37.001 [SPEAKER_00]: That's easy, I say, nothing. 42:37.361 --> 42:41.625 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it doesn't say anything about dating at all, so maybe you shouldn't. 42:41.825 --> 42:44.711 [SPEAKER_00]: After a brief look of panic, they realize I'm kidding. 42:45.272 --> 42:47.957 [SPEAKER_00]: I answer this question by asking a series of questions. 42:48.458 --> 42:52.206 [SPEAKER_00]: First, do you think that you will ever marry someone that you fall in love with? 42:52.727 --> 42:55.072 [SPEAKER_00]: Of course they say, I continue. 42:55.433 --> 42:59.000 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think you will fall in love with someone that you date for a length of time? 42:59.661 --> 43:00.643 [SPEAKER_00]: Probably. 43:01.028 --> 43:02.349 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to marry a Christian? 43:02.389 --> 43:03.630 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 43:04.131 --> 43:12.719 [SPEAKER_00]: But if you're going to marry someone you fall in love with, and if you think that it's likely that you will fall in love with someone, you are going to date over a period of time. 43:13.280 --> 43:18.945 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're committed to marrying only a Christian, is it really wise to date a non-Christian? 43:19.926 --> 43:21.307 [SPEAKER_00]: Reactions are usually mixed. 43:21.568 --> 43:30.276 [SPEAKER_00]: Some will always refer to the original question, but where does it say that in the Bible? 43:30.560 --> 43:35.045 [SPEAKER_00]: In that context, the Bible does have something to say about dating non-Christians. 43:35.565 --> 43:36.366 [SPEAKER_00]: It's unwise. 43:38.989 --> 43:40.531 [SPEAKER_00]: I think this is a good place to end. 43:42.133 --> 43:44.595 [SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you all have enjoyed this book. 43:45.436 --> 43:49.421 [SPEAKER_00]: If you are tuning in for the first time, you should not figure out what in the world are we talking about. 43:50.161 --> 43:54.306 [SPEAKER_00]: Click the link in the show notes to grab your copy of the Spirit Field Life. 43:54.623 --> 43:55.846 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a great read. 43:55.927 --> 43:58.414 [SPEAKER_00]: I've enjoyed going back and reading this with you guys. 43:58.474 --> 43:59.477 [SPEAKER_00]: And I look forward to it. 43:59.497 --> 44:01.262 [SPEAKER_00]: It's reading my next book, Love Pick. 44:01.763 --> 44:03.568 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to end the episode here. 44:03.668 --> 44:07.700 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening to another episode of The Blessed Embossed of Podcast. 44:08.101 --> 44:09.966 [SPEAKER_00]: I love you guys, and I'll see you in the next one.