August 8, 2024 • 47 mins
Hey friends! So glad you could join us tonight. Our sister Cheryl is on the road today, heading home after losing a family member. Let's keep her in our prayers for safe travels and comfort for her family during this tough time.
We also want to extend a warm welcome to our international viewers. Whether you're in India, Nigeria, or anywhere else, thank you for tuning in. It's amazing to know we're connected across the globe.
Tonight, Dorothy kicked things off with a heartfelt prayer, reminding us of the power of gratitude and the importance of leaning on God, especially in times of temptation. We're wrapping up our "Overcoming Temptation" series, and it's been an enlightening journey. God has truly equipped us with the wisdom to face any challenge.
For those who might be new, my hubby and I host a virtual Bible study called New Beginning every Thursday night at 7 PM. We're diving into the book of Genesis with teachings from the late Les Feldick. If you're interested, visit charlottechristianfellowship.org for more info.
As we conclude our series, we reflect on recognizing the source of temptation and arming ourselves with the Word of God. Remember, God is faithful and always provides a way out. Let's stay vigilant and support each other in this journey.
If you have any thoughts, questions, or topics you'd like us to cover, please email us at lifesuncertainjourney@gmail.com. We love hearing from you and are here to support you.
Thank you for being part of this community. Let's continue to walk in faith, share our testimonies, and be a light to others. God bless you all!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome. So glad you all could join us tonight. Our sister Cheryl is on travel today.
She has lost a family member, so she is on her way to her home going,
and we want to remember her in our prayers,
and that she'll have traveling mercies and get back here, that her family will
(00:23):
be covered and comforted.
During their time of loss, I also wanted to welcome those who may be watching from afar.
I also discovered that we've had people joining us from other countries.
We can't see them, but they're watching.
(00:45):
And I don't know if you're watching, Patricia, in India, and those of you that
are in Nigeria, welcome.
And thanks for joining us tonight.
I'm going to ask, did I see Dorothy, you here?
I'm here. Yes, I am running late, but I'm here.
(01:06):
That's all right, darling. Better late than never. Could you pray over our podcast
tonight? And I'll be more than glad to.
Heavenly Father, we come to the throne of grace. We come thanking you for this day.
Lord, we cannot thank you enough for bringing us to all this week and bringing
us to this appointed time that we get back together again, all us ladies.
Oh, thank you. We can't thank you enough for bringing our brother John and sister Nadine back safely.
(01:29):
Lord, we ask you to be with our sister Cheryl as she's on travel for the home-going
service of her family. Be with her and comfort her family.
And not only that, Father God, we ask you to cover these airways,
wherever anybody is listening from tonight.
Give them ears to hear and a heart to receive what we've said.
And Lord, not only this be a receiver and a hearer of the word,
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but let's be a doer of the word. Let us be willing to share this word with others
and tell others more about our Savior, Jesus Christ, and what makes us who we
are. Just give them our testimony.
Nothing else. We don't have to sugarcoat it. Just give them our testimony.
That would be more than enough to tell them Jesus is real.
Jesus is who he says he is and that he would do what he says he would do.
(02:09):
We would just trust him and lean on him and let him guide and direct it and
ask him to help us to look more like him and less like this world.
Heavenly Father, thank you for everything you do for us. Thank you for keeping
us and bringing us to this appointed time. We get to hear a word from God.
Lord, thank you for the lady that will be bringing the message tonight or whoever bring the message.
Lord, be with them and guide them and give us ears to hear it.
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In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Amen, sister. Thank you so very much. I really do appreciate that.
Thanking God that he has made prayer available to us so we can have access to heaven when we need it.
Lord knows we need it. We definitely need it.
Alrighty. Okay. So the Lord has given us over the last eight sessions,
(02:57):
God has really given us great revelation and information to equip us and enable
us to overcome whatever temptations that may be coming down the pipe.
So we're going to end overcoming temptation series tonight, but But before we do,
(03:17):
I want to inform those that may be listening for the first time that I let you
know that my hubby and I host a Bible study called New Beginning.
It's virtual every Thursday night. And we always like inviting people,
letting them know that they're more than welcome to join us if they desire.
(03:38):
We are meeting every Thursday at 7 o'clock p.m.
And we're right now in the book of Genesis. and we are being taught by the late
Les Feldick, wonderful man of God.
So very grateful that we have all of his lessons, all of his wisdom and the
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revelations that God gave him available to us through YouTube.
And so that's what we're studying right now. If anyone's interested in joining
us, All you need to do is visit our website, charlottechristianfellowship.org.
And there was a link on our main page there that will bring you into the Bible
(04:23):
studies should you want to join us.
So we always like to put that out there. And I also wanted to let you all know
that our ministry, The Women Who Overcome, we will be hosting,
Lord Willett, an outreach.
It's entitled Daughters of Destiny.
We'll have actress and movie producer Karen Abercrombie joining us at the UNCC
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campus on October the 26th.
And so we're looking to do an outreach there to the young women.
The Lord had given us a mandate in 2023 to warn his daughters.
That we need to turn our hearts toward God.
We need to yield to him because as it's written in scripture in the last days,
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many women are going to be led astray.
And it didn't say might be, they're going to be.
And so we want to put the warning out there and encourage them to seek the Lord while he may be found.
And then join in with a disciple discipleship study so that they can get their
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feet wet and be able to make this journey of faith and their relationship with God.
And so please be praying for us. Hopefully we'll have registration up and running
soon, but right now we're in a slight holding pattern waiting for UNCC to finalize some things.
And so that's what's happening.
(05:57):
Okay as i said on we
are on the final episode of our
series on overcoming temptation the battle within i forgot to introduce myself
to those who may be new i'm nadine davis and i'm hosting tonight but i'm not
alone i have our luj lives on certain journey podcast team here with us to
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bless us and to share their input, their wisdom, and their revelation.
Time and time again, I thank God that he gave us his venue where we can have
an interactive podcast, where those who are here in our Zoom studio with us
can actually share their thoughts and ask questions and interact.
And those of you that are watching us either on Facebook or on our YouTube channel,
(06:51):
If you would submit your comments, we'll be able to respond to them.
I can't respond to them tonight.
Cheryl is usually on the scene handling that, but she's not here tonight.
But I will be more than willing to get back with you with responses to any questions
or comments that you may have.
The topic that we've been covering has been a powerful one, and we've learned quite a bit.
(07:17):
It's been an incredible journey exploring this crucial topic because all of us,
not some of us, every single one of us are going to have a time with temptation.
Okay and so if you'll
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turn to first corinthians 10 13 it'll tell you that there is no temptation that
has overtaken any of us except what is common to all of us okay and god wants us to know
that even in our times of temptation.
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He is the faithful one.
Oh God, I just thank you that you make yourself available to us because he knows
these are things that we're going to have to deal with in our faith world.
You know, we intend to, we want to please God.
We want to do what's right. But this thing right here called the flesh,
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it is deceitfully wicked.
And without God's help, we're not going to serve him, please him,
or even look toward him for nothing.
We'll be like the rest of the world, just wandering around in the dark.
But for those of us that God has revealed himself to, he wants us to know that
he is there available with us and in us.
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And if we would pay attention, attention stay alert
be vigilant we will
have everything that we need so that
we do not have to succumb to temptation it is not necessary that we do didn't
say there wouldn't be any temptation however but God wants us to walk away with
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from all that we've learned.
Is that we can overcome temptation. And so I thank him for all that we've heard,
all that we've shared up until this point.
But always be mindful of the fact that before the night's over, who knows,
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you know, the enemy may show up with something that he can draw you away from
the truth with or try to entice you away from the truth.
That's what his whole plot is.
But always remember, God says, I will always make a way of escape for you.
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You see that? It's 1 Corinthians 10, 13.
But when you are tempted, he said, I will provide a way out so that you can endure it.
That means, like I just said, we do not have to yield to temptation.
The enemy is going to offer, but we don't have to take him up on his offer. We don't have to yield.
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As he presents them, because we know the source of the temptation and this passage of truth.
Oh, yeah. We don't have to succumb to temptation. We can overcome it.
So I pray that we remember this. However, many more days that are ahead of us,
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Lord willing, we will be prepared.
Amen. We will be prepared and know that we can overcome temptations, trials.
We can do it. So what I wanted to do in this final episode is focus on just
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a couple of principles that I want us to remember as we move forward in our spiritual journey.
And one of those principles is this. We must recognize and remember who is the source of temptation.
OK, we don't want to have anything to do with him.
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Nothing. James 1 13 through 15 says, when tempted, no one should say that God
has tempted me for God cannot be tempted.
By anyone, nor does he tempt anyone. However, he wants us to understand this,
that every time we're tempted and dragged away from the truth,
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it's because of something brewing in our hearts.
See, it's in there already. There's a desire for something that God usually,
individually it's for something god does not want for us but we want it and we want it bad.
And so the enemy who knows
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us will set us up entice
us and draw us and i tell you he don't play fair not only
does he tip you to sin but after you sin
he pounces on you with all kind of accusation you
call yourself a christian see that i thought you was you love
god and all these other other kind of things we know how it goes that's how
(12:36):
he does you see but God
has provided us with
enough information in his word to
help us if we would only apply it in our day-to-day living like I said God will
not tempt us but we're tempted and dragged away by our own evil desires And
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then James goes on to say that after the desire has conceived,
in other words, we have taken Satan up on his offer, it then gives birth to sin.
And sin, when it's full grown, gives birth to death.
And you see, that's not what God has in store for us.
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He doesn't have death on our agenda because we've been given life through Jesus
Christ. Life that is abundant now and this time and eternal forevermore.
So you see, God has already provided what we need. Whatever Satan is offering us is not for us.
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And so we have to be on our P's and Q's and make certain that when it starts
up here as a thought, that we immediately take that thought captive.
And what do we do with that thought?
Y'all open your mics. When that thought shows up in here, that little desire
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that tells us that we should do this or we should try that or whatever, what do we do?
To make it obedient to Christ.
There you go. We can do that. God is not just saying that because it's a nice
thing to do. He's saying it because you can do it.
Take the thought captive and make it obey Christ.
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You see, so we have that option to do it and we won't do it well every time.
But I promise you, When you get in the habit of doing it, it'll become like,
you know, nothing to you.
It'll be your automatic response to it, to temptation.
While it's up here is to take it captive. Oh, no.
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Remember, now that we know that the source of temptation is not God,
then we know there's only one other person that's doing it.
Satan. Okay. He is the one. Remember
Jesus told his disciples Satan is coming but he don't have
nothing in me There was nothing in Christ that
the devil could tempt You see But Jesus knows Because he was tempted in all
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areas like we were And then he showed us That we can overcome it He overcame it And he gave us.
The process by which we too can overcome it, you see.
But we don't want to allow Satan that kind of access to our hearts and to our
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minds, because that is when he starts to draw us away.
And before you know it, we will be trivializing things that are very important
for us to follow in God's word.
We'll start, you know, watering it down like, oh, it's not that much.
It's not going to, you know, impact me that much or whatever it is like that.
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No, we don't want to think that way.
We want everything that God has and has made available to us, plain and simple.
And it's made available to us through the Holy Spirit.
But I promise you, the Bible says, if I regard sin in my heart,
God's not going to even hear from me. My prayers are going to be messed up.
You know, you don't want to go through that.
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And it's not necessary sir to go through that and the
beauty of the love of god is this
that if we do sin
guess what he we have an advocate who's on our side jesus he advocates for us
for the father he intercedes for us every single hour of every single day we
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got clouds of witnesses that are cheering us on on.
You see, so we may not be able to eyeball it. We don't see it,
but you have to assess it in your spirit that God is, God is not going to just
turn you over to Satan, you know, so that he can have his way with you.
He puts some fight in us, but we've got to exercise, you know,
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our own initiative to receive and accept what God has provided.
Because if we don't, we will go down.
The Lord The Lord says that when you confess to him, he will not only forgive
you, but that he will clean you up.
And restore you. You see, and y'all heard me say this time and time again,
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God is not thinking up our lives as we go along.
He doesn't have to fix this and
fix that because that happened and this happened. No, he knows the end.
He knows your whole lifespan, what you're going to do, what you're going to
say, when you're going to say it, all of that, he knows already.
That's why Jesus only had to die once he will
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not get up on the cross every time we sin but he
took care of sin once and for all and
now if we receive that as truth then we know that should there be a slip up
we have an advocate and the father said if you confess your sins to me i will
forgive you your transgressions and clean you up but look that's not even the
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only resource we have we have each other,
If we could just stop trying to be so secret, you know, what causes people to
keep things secret is shame, guilt.
Those are resources of the enemy that keeps you from reaching out.
James 5.16 says, we should, let me read it.
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We should be we are available to
one another and we should allow our
relationship this relationship that God has given us with one another with brothers
and sisters in Christ that we should be able to come to one another and you
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know confess our faults to one another because there is fruit that comes out of it.
James 5, 16 says, therefore, confess your sins to one another.
Your false steps, I'm reading in Amplified, your false steps,
your offenses, and pray for one another so that you may be healed and restored.
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And God says that the heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man or
woman is able to accomplish much.
And so we don't utilize that scripture very much because we're too busy trying
to cover ourselves, protect ourselves, protect our reputation or whatever.
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And we sidestep the healing process. healing process.
But one day, as we continue to grow and mature, you won't be so set aside because of your failings.
You'll realize that because we're still in this flesh, we're going to mess up.
But God has provided us a way, a way of return so that we can get back to him,
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so that we can be strengthened, so that we can be encouraged and we can be restored.
Restored the bible even says that you who
are mature restore those who have who
have fallen by the wayside you should be
active in helping people to restore them not point
fingers at them not condemn them that's not
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what we do it's just like a wounded soldier that's
what it is it's a soldier that's been wounded by the enemy
the enemy has taken advantage of them
and now they're wounded and a lot of them go
into these guilt trips and all these other kind of things help
him out let him know honey you
get back up god has forgiven you blood of jesus took
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care of that all we have to do now is confess
it to our father and let him give you give you the strength that
you need to be restored and built back up you see
but we don't want to give say to any place in us that's what he's looking for
he's looking for place in us he couldn't find no place in christ let us grow
and mature so he won't be able to find any place in us either you remember Remember in Psalm 1,
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you want to read that one.
When we were talking about, we're talking about some of the principles and things
that we want to remember going forward, that's going to help us to not succumb to temptation. Okay.
Isabel, did you have something, honey? No, ma'am. Okay.
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Thanks that your hand was up. Sorry.
I don't know what those things mean.
Okay. But the Amplified says in Psalm 1, Blessed, fortunate,
prosperous, and favored by God is the man or the woman who does not walk in
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the counsel of the wicked,
following their advice and their example.
Nor do they stand in the pathway of sinners.
Nor do they sit down to rest in the seat of the scoffers and the ridiculers
but their delight is in the law of the lord and on his law his precepts and
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teachings he habitually meditates day and night,
and he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth fruit
in its season this This is what God has designed for us saints.
He hasn't desired decay and demise for us. He wants us to be fruitful.
And he has provided the help for us so that we can be fruitful.
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But we've got to get on his plan. We cannot do this trying to think that we're
going to use our reasoning and come up with the plan. It's not going to work.
It's not going to work. And it only winds up putting us back.
You see, we want to be continually moving forward. The forward movement is where
it's going to take us to the next level of glory.
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There are levels of glory that God wants to reveal to us.
Remember, he told us, Jesus told his disciples the things I want to share with
you, but I can't give it to you now because you're not ready for it.
But see, we don't want that to be our case.
We want all that God has for us.
The revelations, the deep understanding, the mysteries opening to us and things like that.
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See, you read the Bible and it doesn't, you know, there are some deeper things
that, you know, say deep calls to deep.
There are deeper things that God wants to reveal to our hearts and minds.
Okay divine things heavenly things
but we can't stand it because we're still so carnal but if we will allow the
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holy spirit to do in us what he's in us to do and obey his instructions do what
the scripture says for us to do we will find ourselves in in this in the kind of place
where God is showering you with multiple revelations.
I mean, things come alive out of the word of God to you.
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Things that you have no business knowing, he reveals to you.
So those are the kinds of things we want to pursue, especially now in this time, because you know what?
Look, there's a whole bunch of things going on in this world and we need answers.
We need to hear from heaven. And God is willing to share things with us if we
make ourselves available.
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But anyway, here in Psalms 1, I'm recalling the truth that we talked about,
not allowing ourselves to be in the places where we know we don't need to be.
Hobnobbing with people that don't love our God, don't love him,
don't acknowledge him or anything.
No, we're not supposed to be in those places where the sinners hang out.
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Why are we there? It's different if we're there on assignment because he will
send us out on assignment to do what?
To proclaim the gospel and make disciples. peoples if
he puts you in a company of of of
sinners he puts you
there for a reason but if you're out there
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and you know doing what they do living like
they live then you kind of lost your your way we don't we're not we're not a
part of the world anymore we're not a part of its systems or its practices or
its ideologies its lifestyles all that kind of a thing no we we we're different
We're the peculiar ones.
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And most of the time, the world don't want you around them no way.
If they know that you're a Christian, they don't want you around.
You see some of these people out here that are sent out on the front lines to preach?
They're throwing bottles and stuff at them, punching them and knocking them
down and all that kind of stuff.
That is what you can expect because Jesus said that's what we expect.
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We expect that people are not going to embrace us with open arms. They're not.
Because we give off a scent to them that they don't like.
But one of the best ways that we can avoid putting ourselves in danger of temptation
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is staying out of the sinner's pathway.
We don't walk in their ways. We don't do what they do.
And so that's what God gave us in the book of Psalms to help encourage us.
And the other thing is that we need
to arm ourselves with the sword of the spirit. which is the word of God.
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I think Jan told us before last, you're not going to do this off of your inner
strength because really you don't have any.
All the strength we got is what God gives.
No. And you can think on your wisest day that you can outsmart the devil.
You cannot. You're no match for him.
But it is the word of God, the sword of the spirit that we must use against our enemy.
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Okay. And like Psalm 1 says, meditate on it day and night.
Joshua 1, 8 says the same thing. This book of the Lord should not depart out
of your mouth, but you should meditate on it day and night and do all that it
says to do. That's what's going to make your way prosperous.
You see, these are things that we don't employ. We go to all these conferences
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and things to find out how to get rich and how to start this business and that business.
You know what I'm saying? But that's not our pursuit.
That's not the kind of prosperity God is talking about. He's talking about divine
prosperity, not worldly prosperity.
Prosperity that comes from the divine is totally different from toiling.
I remember when I was in...
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Used to be a representative for Tahitian Noni Jews.
And they would always say, you know, you got to get out there and,
you know, you got to work hard so that you can play on the back end or whatever
it is they used to tell us, you know, that we had to, you know,
hustle and all these other kinds of things in order to get,
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you know, to get to a level in the company that hardly, if you look,
the people that was at that level, they were so few until it was ridiculous.
So everybody wasn't going to get there but the
point that i'm making is this is that when we're pursuing the things that god
has asked us to pursue he'll see to it that we get what we're supposed to be
we don't have to pursue the world world's way of prosperity god has a different
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level of divine prosperity that that that he wants to give to us remember he said he want,
to run run us down and take us over with blessings you see because we're doing
it his way not our way. And so that's what needs to happen.
But anyway, the sword is a fighting weapon.
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Okay. So the word of God is able to cut right at, cut Satan down.
I mean, he'll back him off. off the sword is the is is of the spirit is a two-edged
sword okay it's like it cuts coming and.
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It can cut to kill or it can cut to heal.
You know, just like you got a knife. If you stab somebody most of the time,
if you, you know, stab them hard enough, you might kill somebody.
But then you go into the doctor's, into the surgeon's room. He got a knife and
he going to cut it on you, but it's going to heal you. It's for your good.
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You see? so we have the word
of God available to us through the the the uh
web and weapons of our warfare that
are unotherworldly you know they're
not like the weapons of this world and most of the time you don't have to lift
your hand to use them you see but God wants us to learn how to use the sword
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of the spirit in a manner that is going to be effective in our day-to-day walk.
And how you do that, you take the word and you hide it in your heart.
Remember the scripture said when Jesus comes, he said he's going to destroy
with the word of his mouth.
I mean, we don't understand those kinds of things or how all that can work,
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but if he says he can do that, he can do that.
That is how powerful the word of God can
be and we use and use in our
mouth and by faith it can has the
same have the same impact so being
in us having a steady diet of God's word
he says meditate on it day and night he told Israel teach it to your children
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while y'all walking along the road while y'all sitting down in the house I mean
these are this is what God God intended us to do with his word,
that it became something of great value to us.
And so we would deposit that word in our heart so that, number one,
we wouldn't sin against God. And number two, we could use it to fight the enemy.
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And the other principle that I wanted us to walk away with is learning to trust
and rely on God's provision, his love and his provision.
We don't have what it takes. Like I said, we are no match for Satan or demons.
We're no match for them. We simply have to trust and rely on God.
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God, he is the source of our strength and he promised to fight the battles for us.
He's our strong tower. We run into him and we're safe and protected.
He's our battle axe. He'll cut the enemy down. That's not our job.
But the Bible says the only way we can do things is through Christ who gives us strength.
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We don't produce it on our own. the source of that strength is Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And we can rely on him and the presence of his Holy Spirit working in us to
have the strength to fight the temptation, to overcome Satan on every hand.
And as I said, as we grow and mature and continue to get in the habit of living
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that kind of a lifestyle, it will become normal for us.
That we will not continue to yield to the devil, you know, every time he take
junk, we say how high. No, it won't be that kind of a story.
We'll be able to understand what Jesus meant when he says, look,
I give you authority over Satan.
You see, the Holy Spirit represents the power of God.
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The exusia power you know
that i mean not exusia the the the
the dynamo power that
they use that use that same word for dynamite okay the dynamo power of god is
that strength power like the how this holy spirit was able to bring jesus from
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the dead well that takes power okay but what was What's been given to us is the exousia power,
where we have the authority that's been given to us by Jesus Christ who defeated Satan.
See, he's got authority over Satan. And then he extends us the right,
the authority over all of Satan's power.
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He's given it, made it available to us. Okay.
And as we grow and mature, we're going to learn how to use it.
I think I was sharing before how the exusia workers, like the police,
the police aren't the ones in charge, but they've been given authority by the
governing bodies to deal with rebels and those who try to harm other people.
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You know, they can lock them up. In some cases, they can shoot them.
And rightfully so, because they've been given the authority to do that.
And see, Jesus has given us the authority over all the power, all of Satan's power.
And as we grow and mature, we're going to learn how to use it.
We're going to learn how to say, no, you don't mess with my job.
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You back off. He's a child of God.
She's a daughter of God. No, you're not going to take my finances.
They don't belong to you. They're mine. God gave them to me, you see.
And from where God is desiring us to understand is that he is strengthening
us through our struggles and through our trials.
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They're not designed to bring us down.
They're not designed to destroy us.
And we've got to have that settled in our mind when the struggle comes,
that don't get all bent out of shape and and
all that kind of stuff and scared and you
know the doctor gives you a report doctor gave me
a report last week you know all this
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stuff you know i had to read you know
look i don't have to worry about that my father is my healer and he indwells
me he lives in me the same holy spirit that gained life to a to our savior's
dead body is in me so no whatever Whatever needs to be fixed or adjusted or,
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you know, whatever it is, I'm dependent on God for that.
I'm dependent on God for that. You know, so once we get acclimated to our new
heritage in Jesus Christ, understand that we've been called and set apart by God for himself.
That we are not like the world. We're not of the world. We're not a part of the world systems.
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And so we need to be focusing in on where we live, move, and have our being. And that's it. God.
Okay. I'm going to shut my mouth and I'm going to ask of you ladies that feel
inclined to share what you have heard, what you have learned,
any revelations or encouragements that you might want to give to our listeners.
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Okay, well, I'm going to continue and I want to just do some,
want to do some reflections.
About what you may be struggling with, what temptation you may be struggling with right now.
My prayer is that you have heard from heaven.
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You've heard enough information to equip you to overcome whatever that temptation is.
God knows what we stand in the need of. The things that we forget is that we are not our own.
We can't call our own shots.
God has a purpose and a plan for our lives that he put us here to accomplish.
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And we need to be in a hurry finding that and pursuing it.
Not our own desires.
That's the thing in us that Satan's always able to manipulate and play around with. You see.
And draw us away from our purpose and our calling. Don't let him do that to you.
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When the temptation comes up in your head, pick up the phone and call your sister
and say, look, I'm struggling with this thing in my head. I mean,
Lord knows I need prayer.
And just pray this thing, you know, prayer changes things. We all know this.
This is not something that's strange to us.
But he said in Ecclesiastes, two are better than one because you get a better
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exchange for your labor. and when it's time to fight, you got somebody at your back.
That's not written in the scripture because it sounds nice.
It's written in there because that's the way we're supposed to do it.
We're not supposed to try to struggle these, go through this life struggling on our own.
None of us can condemn nobody. If the covers came off of some of our lives,
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you know, it would shut us down forever.
But we've been forgiven. And since we've been forgiven, And now we can help
others experience the kind of freedom that we have.
Because we can share our testimony of how God brought us out. Amen.
We need to study. Scripture says, I think it's 2 Timothy 2.15.
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Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that don't need to be ashamed by nothing and nobody.
Because you will learn how to rightly divide the word of truth.
God wants you to go to that level. That you're studying his word.
Not just reading it, but studying it.
Learning the different principles. you know and
character of our God our identity all the
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things that are necessary to be able to
be a good steward of your time
here on this planet you see and
so we need to make a commitment to take the necessary steps today to ensure
that we are going to be able to overcome temptation because it's coming just
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because we're here talking about it the enemy gonna send it I'm going to tell
you right up front, he's going to send it.
But just strive to remember all that God has given us because he's given us a way out.
He says, I'll always make a way out for you. Amen.
Alrighty. Well, I hope that you all have been blessed by what the Lord has been
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revealing to us through this particular study.
I'd like to request from those of you that are listening tonight,
whether you are here in the studio or on Facebook or YouTube,
email us at lifesuncertainjourney at gmail.com.
We'd like to hear from you. We'd like to know if there are any topics,
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scriptures, or things that you would like for us to talk about on our podcast.
Now that we're done with this temptation i don't know the lord may lay something
on our hearts but we want to just seek god's face for the kinds of information that's going to,
prepare us and equip us for sojourn until jesus comes to get us because we still
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have work to do and he says we need to work while this day because night is
coming amen anyone Anyone?
Yeah, God was just putting on my heart as you was talking, and I encourage people
to just go back and just read over Ephesians 3 at some point,
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because when it's all said and done,
the ability to fight temptation,
we can't do it on our own. We've been talking about that for weeks.
But if you don't know nothing else, but if you just can't get into your noggin, how much God loves us.
Just he even tells us that you can't even grasp how much it is but you gotta at least start there,
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because when you have that in your noggin my God is for me my God is for me
he loves me I don't know why all this stuff is happening I don't know how come
it ain't being removed or rerouted or rewired I don't know none of that but
I know that I know that I know how much he loves me,
and if you can just start from there because that's
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my faith i know then you'll just be able to take one step at a time and move
out a little bit further each day a little bit further and he'll just that rhythm
it says in a fee i just say it just says in ephesians 3 just so y'all know there's
just some different parts of it but he just says that even just being able to understand.
The totality of him you can't until he gives more of himself in you so just
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recognize even Even when you go through the scriptures, it's like a meal. We're not all chefs.
I can't decipher those ingredients broken down in a great meal. I just know it's good.
Amen. And so he will, women in particular, we thirst.
That's what got Eve in trouble, by the way. We thirst for knowledge.
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We thirst for wanting to fix it, figure it.
That's a part of our DNA. And it ain't bad. That's how God created us.
But how he wants us to use that knowledge, how he wants us to use this quest,
we release to let him carve that out, move us here, give us a little bit at a time.
And so y'all just start with, again, how much he loves us. And just when you
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park yourself on a scripture, I'm going to just encourage you. It's a fine meal.
It's not a drive through. You can't consume and spend hours,
although you could. And your lifestyle, I love pouring into God's word,
but there is this thing called life and there's work and there's other things
that he has us on this planet to do in his representation and as his pastors.
But if you would just take a morsel and say, I just want to rest in this verse,
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the verse before, the verse after, that will enrich you mightily.
And that's enough. That's enough. Don't let nobody beat you up saying if you
don't have 10 hours to pray, if you don't have two hours to pray,
if you don't have five hours to devote to a Bible study.
No, he is in the multiplication business.
Five minutes in your car before you go into your job, before you drop off your
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children. He will multiply that five minutes of an authentic heart.
That's all I got, y'all. And that's enough?
Yes, indeed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?
Hi, good evening. Hey, darling. Hi.
I wanted to say thank you so much for bringing that out. Miss St.
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Dean, that when the people need to hear from us, just to minister to them and
let them know that God forgave them for whatever they did. So that's what someone
like a human has to tell them. Hey, oh, I did X.
Hey, didn't you understand that God forgave that?
And it would like save them from years of agony and crying.
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And I just think that's so special and true. So thank you.
Yes, indeed. You are so welcome. That's true. That's what our testimonies are for.
It can be very powerful in helping people come to faith.
All right. Well, if all hearts and minds are clear, may I thank you all for joining us tonight.
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I hope that you walk away with enough information to one day be able to share
it with someone else, because I promise you, God doesn't waste anything in his economy.
He wants us to be fruitful and to learn how to share his word of truth,
you know, with others and to provide.
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Oftentimes a safe place for people to be able to express themselves.
That's one thing that is missing today for so many reasons where people just
don't, they don't feel comfortable.
They don't feel that engaged or that people would accept or receive them because
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of their missteps and their mishaps in their lives.
But I pray that that changes and that God changes us to the degree that we become
more entreating in our nature,
by making ourselves vulnerable, like Isabel said, to tell people,
oh girl, you don't, you know,
you think you had it bad. You don't, you didn't hear my story.
(46:00):
But all right, any special prayer requests?
All right. Well, let's just close out with prayer.
Father God, we thank you for all that you've taught us tonight,
all that you revealed to our hearts.
I pray in Jesus name that we not be forgetful hearers.
Father God, your word declares that we're not to be just hearers of your word, but doers also. soul.
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We've got to do what we learn. And so Father, I pray that you empower your daughters
and those that are listening tonight with your Holy Spirit on high.
Lord God, that you would deposit it afresh in us.
That Lord, we will continue to realize that you're in us to help us.
You said, I'm the one that causes you to desire to want to please me and to
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give you the ability to do so.
It's coming from you. And for every one of us that want and desire to please
you, you're going to see to it that we do.
So we thank you. We praise you. We ask you a blessing over this podcast,
over these airways. Lord God, be with Cheryl tonight.
Lord God, and all those that couldn't be with us tonight. And we ask that,
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Father God, you will continue to allow us to represent you and represent you
well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. man. Great saints. Thank you all so very much.
We're so glad that you all could join us. Thank you, Jan, for your input. Thank you.
God bless you. Bye, darling. Good night, Jonas. Hey, Shereen. God bless you, darling.
(47:35):
Glad you could join us. Thank you. Y'all have a good night.
Okay, darling. Love you. Love you. Love you too, Denise. God bless you all.
God bless you too. Okay.
Welcome. So glad you all could join us tonight. Our sister Cheryl is on travel today.
She has lost a family member, so she is on her way to her home going,
and we want to remember her in our prayers,
and that she'll have traveling mercies and get back here, that her family will
(00:23):
be covered and comforted.
During their time of loss, I also wanted to welcome those who may be watching from afar.
I also discovered that we've had people joining us from other countries.
We can't see them, but they're watching.
(00:45):
And I don't know if you're watching, Patricia, in India, and those of you that
are in Nigeria, welcome.
And thanks for joining us tonight.
I'm going to ask, did I see Dorothy, you here?
I'm here. Yes, I am running late, but I'm here.
(01:06):
That's all right, darling. Better late than never. Could you pray over our podcast
tonight? And I'll be more than glad to.
Heavenly Father, we come to the throne of grace. We come thanking you for this day.
Lord, we cannot thank you enough for bringing us to all this week and bringing
us to this appointed time that we get back together again, all us ladies.
Oh, thank you. We can't thank you enough for bringing our brother John and sister Nadine back safely.
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Lord, we ask you to be with our sister Cheryl as she's on travel for the home-going
service of her family. Be with her and comfort her family.
And not only that, Father God, we ask you to cover these airways,
wherever anybody is listening from tonight.
Give them ears to hear and a heart to receive what we've said.
And Lord, not only this be a receiver and a hearer of the word,
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but let's be a doer of the word. Let us be willing to share this word with others
and tell others more about our Savior, Jesus Christ, and what makes us who we
are. Just give them our testimony.
Nothing else. We don't have to sugarcoat it. Just give them our testimony.
That would be more than enough to tell them Jesus is real.
Jesus is who he says he is and that he would do what he says he would do.
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We would just trust him and lean on him and let him guide and direct it and
ask him to help us to look more like him and less like this world.
Heavenly Father, thank you for everything you do for us. Thank you for keeping
us and bringing us to this appointed time. We get to hear a word from God.
Lord, thank you for the lady that will be bringing the message tonight or whoever bring the message.
Lord, be with them and guide them and give us ears to hear it.
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In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Amen, sister. Thank you so very much. I really do appreciate that.
Thanking God that he has made prayer available to us so we can have access to heaven when we need it.
Lord knows we need it. We definitely need it.
Alrighty. Okay. So the Lord has given us over the last eight sessions,
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God has really given us great revelation and information to equip us and enable
us to overcome whatever temptations that may be coming down the pipe.
So we're going to end overcoming temptation series tonight, but But before we do,
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I want to inform those that may be listening for the first time that I let you
know that my hubby and I host a Bible study called New Beginning.
It's virtual every Thursday night. And we always like inviting people,
letting them know that they're more than welcome to join us if they desire.
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We are meeting every Thursday at 7 o'clock p.m.
And we're right now in the book of Genesis. and we are being taught by the late
Les Feldick, wonderful man of God.
So very grateful that we have all of his lessons, all of his wisdom and the
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revelations that God gave him available to us through YouTube.
And so that's what we're studying right now. If anyone's interested in joining
us, All you need to do is visit our website, charlottechristianfellowship.org.
And there was a link on our main page there that will bring you into the Bible
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studies should you want to join us.
So we always like to put that out there. And I also wanted to let you all know
that our ministry, The Women Who Overcome, we will be hosting,
Lord Willett, an outreach.
It's entitled Daughters of Destiny.
We'll have actress and movie producer Karen Abercrombie joining us at the UNCC
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campus on October the 26th.
And so we're looking to do an outreach there to the young women.
The Lord had given us a mandate in 2023 to warn his daughters.
That we need to turn our hearts toward God.
We need to yield to him because as it's written in scripture in the last days,
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many women are going to be led astray.
And it didn't say might be, they're going to be.
And so we want to put the warning out there and encourage them to seek the Lord while he may be found.
And then join in with a disciple discipleship study so that they can get their
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feet wet and be able to make this journey of faith and their relationship with God.
And so please be praying for us. Hopefully we'll have registration up and running
soon, but right now we're in a slight holding pattern waiting for UNCC to finalize some things.
And so that's what's happening.
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Okay as i said on we
are on the final episode of our
series on overcoming temptation the battle within i forgot to introduce myself
to those who may be new i'm nadine davis and i'm hosting tonight but i'm not
alone i have our luj lives on certain journey podcast team here with us to
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bless us and to share their input, their wisdom, and their revelation.
Time and time again, I thank God that he gave us his venue where we can have
an interactive podcast, where those who are here in our Zoom studio with us
can actually share their thoughts and ask questions and interact.
And those of you that are watching us either on Facebook or on our YouTube channel,
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If you would submit your comments, we'll be able to respond to them.
I can't respond to them tonight.
Cheryl is usually on the scene handling that, but she's not here tonight.
But I will be more than willing to get back with you with responses to any questions
or comments that you may have.
The topic that we've been covering has been a powerful one, and we've learned quite a bit.
(07:17):
It's been an incredible journey exploring this crucial topic because all of us,
not some of us, every single one of us are going to have a time with temptation.
Okay and so if you'll
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turn to first corinthians 10 13 it'll tell you that there is no temptation that
has overtaken any of us except what is common to all of us okay and god wants us to know
that even in our times of temptation.
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He is the faithful one.
Oh God, I just thank you that you make yourself available to us because he knows
these are things that we're going to have to deal with in our faith world.
You know, we intend to, we want to please God.
We want to do what's right. But this thing right here called the flesh,
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it is deceitfully wicked.
And without God's help, we're not going to serve him, please him,
or even look toward him for nothing.
We'll be like the rest of the world, just wandering around in the dark.
But for those of us that God has revealed himself to, he wants us to know that
he is there available with us and in us.
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And if we would pay attention, attention stay alert
be vigilant we will
have everything that we need so that
we do not have to succumb to temptation it is not necessary that we do didn't
say there wouldn't be any temptation however but God wants us to walk away with
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from all that we've learned.
Is that we can overcome temptation. And so I thank him for all that we've heard,
all that we've shared up until this point.
But always be mindful of the fact that before the night's over, who knows,
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you know, the enemy may show up with something that he can draw you away from
the truth with or try to entice you away from the truth.
That's what his whole plot is.
But always remember, God says, I will always make a way of escape for you.
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You see that? It's 1 Corinthians 10, 13.
But when you are tempted, he said, I will provide a way out so that you can endure it.
That means, like I just said, we do not have to yield to temptation.
The enemy is going to offer, but we don't have to take him up on his offer. We don't have to yield.
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As he presents them, because we know the source of the temptation and this passage of truth.
Oh, yeah. We don't have to succumb to temptation. We can overcome it.
So I pray that we remember this. However, many more days that are ahead of us,
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Lord willing, we will be prepared.
Amen. We will be prepared and know that we can overcome temptations, trials.
We can do it. So what I wanted to do in this final episode is focus on just
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a couple of principles that I want us to remember as we move forward in our spiritual journey.
And one of those principles is this. We must recognize and remember who is the source of temptation.
OK, we don't want to have anything to do with him.
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Nothing. James 1 13 through 15 says, when tempted, no one should say that God
has tempted me for God cannot be tempted.
By anyone, nor does he tempt anyone. However, he wants us to understand this,
that every time we're tempted and dragged away from the truth,
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it's because of something brewing in our hearts.
See, it's in there already. There's a desire for something that God usually,
individually it's for something god does not want for us but we want it and we want it bad.
And so the enemy who knows
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us will set us up entice
us and draw us and i tell you he don't play fair not only
does he tip you to sin but after you sin
he pounces on you with all kind of accusation you
call yourself a christian see that i thought you was you love
god and all these other other kind of things we know how it goes that's how
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he does you see but God
has provided us with
enough information in his word to
help us if we would only apply it in our day-to-day living like I said God will
not tempt us but we're tempted and dragged away by our own evil desires And
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then James goes on to say that after the desire has conceived,
in other words, we have taken Satan up on his offer, it then gives birth to sin.
And sin, when it's full grown, gives birth to death.
And you see, that's not what God has in store for us.
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He doesn't have death on our agenda because we've been given life through Jesus
Christ. Life that is abundant now and this time and eternal forevermore.
So you see, God has already provided what we need. Whatever Satan is offering us is not for us.
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And so we have to be on our P's and Q's and make certain that when it starts
up here as a thought, that we immediately take that thought captive.
And what do we do with that thought?
Y'all open your mics. When that thought shows up in here, that little desire
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that tells us that we should do this or we should try that or whatever, what do we do?
To make it obedient to Christ.
There you go. We can do that. God is not just saying that because it's a nice
thing to do. He's saying it because you can do it.
Take the thought captive and make it obey Christ.
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You see, so we have that option to do it and we won't do it well every time.
But I promise you, When you get in the habit of doing it, it'll become like,
you know, nothing to you.
It'll be your automatic response to it, to temptation.
While it's up here is to take it captive. Oh, no.
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Remember, now that we know that the source of temptation is not God,
then we know there's only one other person that's doing it.
Satan. Okay. He is the one. Remember
Jesus told his disciples Satan is coming but he don't have
nothing in me There was nothing in Christ that
the devil could tempt You see But Jesus knows Because he was tempted in all
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areas like we were And then he showed us That we can overcome it He overcame it And he gave us.
The process by which we too can overcome it, you see.
But we don't want to allow Satan that kind of access to our hearts and to our
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minds, because that is when he starts to draw us away.
And before you know it, we will be trivializing things that are very important
for us to follow in God's word.
We'll start, you know, watering it down like, oh, it's not that much.
It's not going to, you know, impact me that much or whatever it is like that.
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No, we don't want to think that way.
We want everything that God has and has made available to us, plain and simple.
And it's made available to us through the Holy Spirit.
But I promise you, the Bible says, if I regard sin in my heart,
God's not going to even hear from me. My prayers are going to be messed up.
You know, you don't want to go through that.
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And it's not necessary sir to go through that and the
beauty of the love of god is this
that if we do sin
guess what he we have an advocate who's on our side jesus he advocates for us
for the father he intercedes for us every single hour of every single day we
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got clouds of witnesses that are cheering us on on.
You see, so we may not be able to eyeball it. We don't see it,
but you have to assess it in your spirit that God is, God is not going to just
turn you over to Satan, you know, so that he can have his way with you.
He puts some fight in us, but we've got to exercise, you know,
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our own initiative to receive and accept what God has provided.
Because if we don't, we will go down.
The Lord The Lord says that when you confess to him, he will not only forgive
you, but that he will clean you up.
And restore you. You see, and y'all heard me say this time and time again,
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God is not thinking up our lives as we go along.
He doesn't have to fix this and
fix that because that happened and this happened. No, he knows the end.
He knows your whole lifespan, what you're going to do, what you're going to
say, when you're going to say it, all of that, he knows already.
That's why Jesus only had to die once he will
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not get up on the cross every time we sin but he
took care of sin once and for all and
now if we receive that as truth then we know that should there be a slip up
we have an advocate and the father said if you confess your sins to me i will
forgive you your transgressions and clean you up but look that's not even the
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only resource we have we have each other,
If we could just stop trying to be so secret, you know, what causes people to
keep things secret is shame, guilt.
Those are resources of the enemy that keeps you from reaching out.
James 5.16 says, we should, let me read it.
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We should be we are available to
one another and we should allow our
relationship this relationship that God has given us with one another with brothers
and sisters in Christ that we should be able to come to one another and you
(19:05):
know confess our faults to one another because there is fruit that comes out of it.
James 5, 16 says, therefore, confess your sins to one another.
Your false steps, I'm reading in Amplified, your false steps,
your offenses, and pray for one another so that you may be healed and restored.
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And God says that the heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man or
woman is able to accomplish much.
And so we don't utilize that scripture very much because we're too busy trying
to cover ourselves, protect ourselves, protect our reputation or whatever.
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And we sidestep the healing process. healing process.
But one day, as we continue to grow and mature, you won't be so set aside because of your failings.
You'll realize that because we're still in this flesh, we're going to mess up.
But God has provided us a way, a way of return so that we can get back to him,
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so that we can be strengthened, so that we can be encouraged and we can be restored.
Restored the bible even says that you who
are mature restore those who have who
have fallen by the wayside you should be
active in helping people to restore them not point
fingers at them not condemn them that's not
(20:38):
what we do it's just like a wounded soldier that's
what it is it's a soldier that's been wounded by the enemy
the enemy has taken advantage of them
and now they're wounded and a lot of them go
into these guilt trips and all these other kind of things help
him out let him know honey you
get back up god has forgiven you blood of jesus took
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care of that all we have to do now is confess
it to our father and let him give you give you the strength that
you need to be restored and built back up you see
but we don't want to give say to any place in us that's what he's looking for
he's looking for place in us he couldn't find no place in christ let us grow
and mature so he won't be able to find any place in us either you remember Remember in Psalm 1,
(21:24):
you want to read that one.
When we were talking about, we're talking about some of the principles and things
that we want to remember going forward, that's going to help us to not succumb to temptation. Okay.
Isabel, did you have something, honey? No, ma'am. Okay.
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Thanks that your hand was up. Sorry.
I don't know what those things mean.
Okay. But the Amplified says in Psalm 1, Blessed, fortunate,
prosperous, and favored by God is the man or the woman who does not walk in
(22:09):
the counsel of the wicked,
following their advice and their example.
Nor do they stand in the pathway of sinners.
Nor do they sit down to rest in the seat of the scoffers and the ridiculers
but their delight is in the law of the lord and on his law his precepts and
(22:34):
teachings he habitually meditates day and night,
and he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth fruit
in its season this This is what God has designed for us saints.
He hasn't desired decay and demise for us. He wants us to be fruitful.
And he has provided the help for us so that we can be fruitful.
(22:59):
But we've got to get on his plan. We cannot do this trying to think that we're
going to use our reasoning and come up with the plan. It's not going to work.
It's not going to work. And it only winds up putting us back.
You see, we want to be continually moving forward. The forward movement is where
it's going to take us to the next level of glory.
(23:20):
There are levels of glory that God wants to reveal to us.
Remember, he told us, Jesus told his disciples the things I want to share with
you, but I can't give it to you now because you're not ready for it.
But see, we don't want that to be our case.
We want all that God has for us.
The revelations, the deep understanding, the mysteries opening to us and things like that.
(23:41):
See, you read the Bible and it doesn't, you know, there are some deeper things
that, you know, say deep calls to deep.
There are deeper things that God wants to reveal to our hearts and minds.
Okay divine things heavenly things
but we can't stand it because we're still so carnal but if we will allow the
(24:03):
holy spirit to do in us what he's in us to do and obey his instructions do what
the scripture says for us to do we will find ourselves in in this in the kind of place
where God is showering you with multiple revelations.
I mean, things come alive out of the word of God to you.
(24:25):
Things that you have no business knowing, he reveals to you.
So those are the kinds of things we want to pursue, especially now in this time, because you know what?
Look, there's a whole bunch of things going on in this world and we need answers.
We need to hear from heaven. And God is willing to share things with us if we
make ourselves available.
(24:45):
But anyway, here in Psalms 1, I'm recalling the truth that we talked about,
not allowing ourselves to be in the places where we know we don't need to be.
Hobnobbing with people that don't love our God, don't love him,
don't acknowledge him or anything.
No, we're not supposed to be in those places where the sinners hang out.
(25:12):
Why are we there? It's different if we're there on assignment because he will
send us out on assignment to do what?
To proclaim the gospel and make disciples. peoples if
he puts you in a company of of of
sinners he puts you
there for a reason but if you're out there
(25:32):
and you know doing what they do living like
they live then you kind of lost your your way we don't we're not we're not a
part of the world anymore we're not a part of its systems or its practices or
its ideologies its lifestyles all that kind of a thing no we we we're different
We're the peculiar ones.
(25:53):
And most of the time, the world don't want you around them no way.
If they know that you're a Christian, they don't want you around.
You see some of these people out here that are sent out on the front lines to preach?
They're throwing bottles and stuff at them, punching them and knocking them
down and all that kind of stuff.
That is what you can expect because Jesus said that's what we expect.
(26:15):
We expect that people are not going to embrace us with open arms. They're not.
Because we give off a scent to them that they don't like.
But one of the best ways that we can avoid putting ourselves in danger of temptation
(26:37):
is staying out of the sinner's pathway.
We don't walk in their ways. We don't do what they do.
And so that's what God gave us in the book of Psalms to help encourage us.
And the other thing is that we need
to arm ourselves with the sword of the spirit. which is the word of God.
(26:59):
I think Jan told us before last, you're not going to do this off of your inner
strength because really you don't have any.
All the strength we got is what God gives.
No. And you can think on your wisest day that you can outsmart the devil.
You cannot. You're no match for him.
But it is the word of God, the sword of the spirit that we must use against our enemy.
(27:28):
Okay. And like Psalm 1 says, meditate on it day and night.
Joshua 1, 8 says the same thing. This book of the Lord should not depart out
of your mouth, but you should meditate on it day and night and do all that it
says to do. That's what's going to make your way prosperous.
You see, these are things that we don't employ. We go to all these conferences
(27:49):
and things to find out how to get rich and how to start this business and that business.
You know what I'm saying? But that's not our pursuit.
That's not the kind of prosperity God is talking about. He's talking about divine
prosperity, not worldly prosperity.
Prosperity that comes from the divine is totally different from toiling.
I remember when I was in...
(28:11):
Used to be a representative for Tahitian Noni Jews.
And they would always say, you know, you got to get out there and,
you know, you got to work hard so that you can play on the back end or whatever
it is they used to tell us, you know, that we had to, you know,
hustle and all these other kinds of things in order to get,
(28:32):
you know, to get to a level in the company that hardly, if you look,
the people that was at that level, they were so few until it was ridiculous.
So everybody wasn't going to get there but the
point that i'm making is this is that when we're pursuing the things that god
has asked us to pursue he'll see to it that we get what we're supposed to be
we don't have to pursue the world world's way of prosperity god has a different
(28:56):
level of divine prosperity that that that he wants to give to us remember he said he want,
to run run us down and take us over with blessings you see because we're doing
it his way not our way. And so that's what needs to happen.
But anyway, the sword is a fighting weapon.
(29:18):
Okay. So the word of God is able to cut right at, cut Satan down.
I mean, he'll back him off. off the sword is the is is of the spirit is a two-edged
sword okay it's like it cuts coming and.
(29:41):
It can cut to kill or it can cut to heal.
You know, just like you got a knife. If you stab somebody most of the time,
if you, you know, stab them hard enough, you might kill somebody.
But then you go into the doctor's, into the surgeon's room. He got a knife and
he going to cut it on you, but it's going to heal you. It's for your good.
(30:01):
You see? so we have the word
of God available to us through the the the uh
web and weapons of our warfare that
are unotherworldly you know they're
not like the weapons of this world and most of the time you don't have to lift
your hand to use them you see but God wants us to learn how to use the sword
(30:25):
of the spirit in a manner that is going to be effective in our day-to-day walk.
And how you do that, you take the word and you hide it in your heart.
Remember the scripture said when Jesus comes, he said he's going to destroy
with the word of his mouth.
I mean, we don't understand those kinds of things or how all that can work,
(30:47):
but if he says he can do that, he can do that.
That is how powerful the word of God can
be and we use and use in our
mouth and by faith it can has the
same have the same impact so being
in us having a steady diet of God's word
he says meditate on it day and night he told Israel teach it to your children
(31:13):
while y'all walking along the road while y'all sitting down in the house I mean
these are this is what God God intended us to do with his word,
that it became something of great value to us.
And so we would deposit that word in our heart so that, number one,
we wouldn't sin against God. And number two, we could use it to fight the enemy.
(31:37):
And the other principle that I wanted us to walk away with is learning to trust
and rely on God's provision, his love and his provision.
We don't have what it takes. Like I said, we are no match for Satan or demons.
We're no match for them. We simply have to trust and rely on God.
(32:02):
God, he is the source of our strength and he promised to fight the battles for us.
He's our strong tower. We run into him and we're safe and protected.
He's our battle axe. He'll cut the enemy down. That's not our job.
But the Bible says the only way we can do things is through Christ who gives us strength.
(32:28):
We don't produce it on our own. the source of that strength is Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And we can rely on him and the presence of his Holy Spirit working in us to
have the strength to fight the temptation, to overcome Satan on every hand.
And as I said, as we grow and mature and continue to get in the habit of living
(32:51):
that kind of a lifestyle, it will become normal for us.
That we will not continue to yield to the devil, you know, every time he take
junk, we say how high. No, it won't be that kind of a story.
We'll be able to understand what Jesus meant when he says, look,
I give you authority over Satan.
You see, the Holy Spirit represents the power of God.
(33:15):
The exusia power you know
that i mean not exusia the the the
the dynamo power that
they use that use that same word for dynamite okay the dynamo power of god is
that strength power like the how this holy spirit was able to bring jesus from
(33:37):
the dead well that takes power okay but what was What's been given to us is the exousia power,
where we have the authority that's been given to us by Jesus Christ who defeated Satan.
See, he's got authority over Satan. And then he extends us the right,
the authority over all of Satan's power.
(34:00):
He's given it, made it available to us. Okay.
And as we grow and mature, we're going to learn how to use it.
I think I was sharing before how the exusia workers, like the police,
the police aren't the ones in charge, but they've been given authority by the
governing bodies to deal with rebels and those who try to harm other people.
(34:23):
You know, they can lock them up. In some cases, they can shoot them.
And rightfully so, because they've been given the authority to do that.
And see, Jesus has given us the authority over all the power, all of Satan's power.
And as we grow and mature, we're going to learn how to use it.
We're going to learn how to say, no, you don't mess with my job.
(34:45):
You back off. He's a child of God.
She's a daughter of God. No, you're not going to take my finances.
They don't belong to you. They're mine. God gave them to me, you see.
And from where God is desiring us to understand is that he is strengthening
us through our struggles and through our trials.
(35:07):
They're not designed to bring us down.
They're not designed to destroy us.
And we've got to have that settled in our mind when the struggle comes,
that don't get all bent out of shape and and
all that kind of stuff and scared and you
know the doctor gives you a report doctor gave me
a report last week you know all this
(35:29):
stuff you know i had to read you know
look i don't have to worry about that my father is my healer and he indwells
me he lives in me the same holy spirit that gained life to a to our savior's
dead body is in me so no whatever Whatever needs to be fixed or adjusted or,
(35:51):
you know, whatever it is, I'm dependent on God for that.
I'm dependent on God for that. You know, so once we get acclimated to our new
heritage in Jesus Christ, understand that we've been called and set apart by God for himself.
That we are not like the world. We're not of the world. We're not a part of the world systems.
(36:13):
And so we need to be focusing in on where we live, move, and have our being. And that's it. God.
Okay. I'm going to shut my mouth and I'm going to ask of you ladies that feel
inclined to share what you have heard, what you have learned,
any revelations or encouragements that you might want to give to our listeners.
(36:38):
Okay, well, I'm going to continue and I want to just do some,
want to do some reflections.
About what you may be struggling with, what temptation you may be struggling with right now.
My prayer is that you have heard from heaven.
(37:00):
You've heard enough information to equip you to overcome whatever that temptation is.
God knows what we stand in the need of. The things that we forget is that we are not our own.
We can't call our own shots.
God has a purpose and a plan for our lives that he put us here to accomplish.
(37:22):
And we need to be in a hurry finding that and pursuing it.
Not our own desires.
That's the thing in us that Satan's always able to manipulate and play around with. You see.
And draw us away from our purpose and our calling. Don't let him do that to you.
(37:44):
When the temptation comes up in your head, pick up the phone and call your sister
and say, look, I'm struggling with this thing in my head. I mean,
Lord knows I need prayer.
And just pray this thing, you know, prayer changes things. We all know this.
This is not something that's strange to us.
But he said in Ecclesiastes, two are better than one because you get a better
(38:06):
exchange for your labor. and when it's time to fight, you got somebody at your back.
That's not written in the scripture because it sounds nice.
It's written in there because that's the way we're supposed to do it.
We're not supposed to try to struggle these, go through this life struggling on our own.
None of us can condemn nobody. If the covers came off of some of our lives,
(38:28):
you know, it would shut us down forever.
But we've been forgiven. And since we've been forgiven, And now we can help
others experience the kind of freedom that we have.
Because we can share our testimony of how God brought us out. Amen.
We need to study. Scripture says, I think it's 2 Timothy 2.15.
(38:50):
Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that don't need to be ashamed by nothing and nobody.
Because you will learn how to rightly divide the word of truth.
God wants you to go to that level. That you're studying his word.
Not just reading it, but studying it.
Learning the different principles. you know and
character of our God our identity all the
(39:12):
things that are necessary to be able to
be a good steward of your time
here on this planet you see and
so we need to make a commitment to take the necessary steps today to ensure
that we are going to be able to overcome temptation because it's coming just
(39:33):
because we're here talking about it the enemy gonna send it I'm going to tell
you right up front, he's going to send it.
But just strive to remember all that God has given us because he's given us a way out.
He says, I'll always make a way out for you. Amen.
Alrighty. Well, I hope that you all have been blessed by what the Lord has been
(40:00):
revealing to us through this particular study.
I'd like to request from those of you that are listening tonight,
whether you are here in the studio or on Facebook or YouTube,
email us at lifesuncertainjourney at gmail.com.
We'd like to hear from you. We'd like to know if there are any topics,
(40:20):
scriptures, or things that you would like for us to talk about on our podcast.
Now that we're done with this temptation i don't know the lord may lay something
on our hearts but we want to just seek god's face for the kinds of information that's going to,
prepare us and equip us for sojourn until jesus comes to get us because we still
(40:46):
have work to do and he says we need to work while this day because night is
coming amen anyone Anyone?
Yeah, God was just putting on my heart as you was talking, and I encourage people
to just go back and just read over Ephesians 3 at some point,
(41:08):
because when it's all said and done,
the ability to fight temptation,
we can't do it on our own. We've been talking about that for weeks.
But if you don't know nothing else, but if you just can't get into your noggin, how much God loves us.
Just he even tells us that you can't even grasp how much it is but you gotta at least start there,
(41:30):
because when you have that in your noggin my God is for me my God is for me
he loves me I don't know why all this stuff is happening I don't know how come
it ain't being removed or rerouted or rewired I don't know none of that but
I know that I know that I know how much he loves me,
and if you can just start from there because that's
(41:51):
my faith i know then you'll just be able to take one step at a time and move
out a little bit further each day a little bit further and he'll just that rhythm
it says in a fee i just say it just says in ephesians 3 just so y'all know there's
just some different parts of it but he just says that even just being able to understand.
The totality of him you can't until he gives more of himself in you so just
(42:14):
recognize even Even when you go through the scriptures, it's like a meal. We're not all chefs.
I can't decipher those ingredients broken down in a great meal. I just know it's good.
Amen. And so he will, women in particular, we thirst.
That's what got Eve in trouble, by the way. We thirst for knowledge.
(42:36):
We thirst for wanting to fix it, figure it.
That's a part of our DNA. And it ain't bad. That's how God created us.
But how he wants us to use that knowledge, how he wants us to use this quest,
we release to let him carve that out, move us here, give us a little bit at a time.
And so y'all just start with, again, how much he loves us. And just when you
(43:00):
park yourself on a scripture, I'm going to just encourage you. It's a fine meal.
It's not a drive through. You can't consume and spend hours,
although you could. And your lifestyle, I love pouring into God's word,
but there is this thing called life and there's work and there's other things
that he has us on this planet to do in his representation and as his pastors.
But if you would just take a morsel and say, I just want to rest in this verse,
(43:26):
the verse before, the verse after, that will enrich you mightily.
And that's enough. That's enough. Don't let nobody beat you up saying if you
don't have 10 hours to pray, if you don't have two hours to pray,
if you don't have five hours to devote to a Bible study.
No, he is in the multiplication business.
Five minutes in your car before you go into your job, before you drop off your
(43:47):
children. He will multiply that five minutes of an authentic heart.
That's all I got, y'all. And that's enough?
Yes, indeed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?
Hi, good evening. Hey, darling. Hi.
I wanted to say thank you so much for bringing that out. Miss St.
(44:09):
Dean, that when the people need to hear from us, just to minister to them and
let them know that God forgave them for whatever they did. So that's what someone
like a human has to tell them. Hey, oh, I did X.
Hey, didn't you understand that God forgave that?
And it would like save them from years of agony and crying.
(44:31):
And I just think that's so special and true. So thank you.
Yes, indeed. You are so welcome. That's true. That's what our testimonies are for.
It can be very powerful in helping people come to faith.
All right. Well, if all hearts and minds are clear, may I thank you all for joining us tonight.
(44:53):
I hope that you walk away with enough information to one day be able to share
it with someone else, because I promise you, God doesn't waste anything in his economy.
He wants us to be fruitful and to learn how to share his word of truth,
you know, with others and to provide.
(45:16):
Oftentimes a safe place for people to be able to express themselves.
That's one thing that is missing today for so many reasons where people just
don't, they don't feel comfortable.
They don't feel that engaged or that people would accept or receive them because
(45:36):
of their missteps and their mishaps in their lives.
But I pray that that changes and that God changes us to the degree that we become
more entreating in our nature,
by making ourselves vulnerable, like Isabel said, to tell people,
oh girl, you don't, you know,
you think you had it bad. You don't, you didn't hear my story.
(46:00):
But all right, any special prayer requests?
All right. Well, let's just close out with prayer.
Father God, we thank you for all that you've taught us tonight,
all that you revealed to our hearts.
I pray in Jesus name that we not be forgetful hearers.
Father God, your word declares that we're not to be just hearers of your word, but doers also. soul.
(46:25):
We've got to do what we learn. And so Father, I pray that you empower your daughters
and those that are listening tonight with your Holy Spirit on high.
Lord God, that you would deposit it afresh in us.
That Lord, we will continue to realize that you're in us to help us.
You said, I'm the one that causes you to desire to want to please me and to
(46:48):
give you the ability to do so.
It's coming from you. And for every one of us that want and desire to please
you, you're going to see to it that we do.
So we thank you. We praise you. We ask you a blessing over this podcast,
over these airways. Lord God, be with Cheryl tonight.
Lord God, and all those that couldn't be with us tonight. And we ask that,
(47:09):
Father God, you will continue to allow us to represent you and represent you
well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. man. Great saints. Thank you all so very much.
We're so glad that you all could join us. Thank you, Jan, for your input. Thank you.
God bless you. Bye, darling. Good night, Jonas. Hey, Shereen. God bless you, darling.
(47:35):
Glad you could join us. Thank you. Y'all have a good night.
Okay, darling. Love you. Love you. Love you too, Denise. God bless you all.
God bless you too. Okay.
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