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677 | Serving Christ in the Ordinary · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well.
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  Ministries podcast with Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man,
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  woman, boy, and girl must come to Jesus, just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  are on our website at watwm.org.
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  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk.
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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erica Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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  In today's conversation, we're chatting about what life looks like when we learn
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  to submit our lives to Christ so He can use us to do His will.
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  Well, hello all, and thank you so much for joining us for today's conversation podcast.
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  My name is Erica Close, and I am here with Kim Miller.
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  Hello, and thank you for spending this time with us. We're excited that you are here with us today to
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  just have a conversation with us where we spend a little bit of time seeking
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  to apply the lessons that we learned in our last podcast to our lives.
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  So if you're a regular listener, you likely listened to Monday's podcast,
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  which was episode 676, At Thy Word, launching out into the deep.
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  And today we're going to talk a little bit more about what it looks like when
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  God uses us and we allow him to use us so that we can serve him in the ordinary aspects of our day.
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  So if you listened to Monday's podcast, in Monday's podcast, Kim, you talked about.
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  Luke chapter 5, verses 1 through 11.
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  And that's the account of Jesus essentially calling Peter and James and John.
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  Right? James and John? Yep. The sons of Zebedee. James and John.
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  And in that account, when that happens, they've gone fishing.
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  They haven't caught a thing. And they've come back in. They're out of their
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  boats cleaning their nets.
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  And Jesus just goes and walks into one of the boats, which was Simon's boat, Simon Peter's boat,
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  and asks him to just take it out a little bit so he could teach from the boat,
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  which that in and of itself, right, is amazing because Jesus used his boat,
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  his ordinary boat, to teach the people.
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  There's something about that that I don't think I said in that that always intrigues
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  me because, you know, Jesus spoke through a donkey.
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  And it really goes to show whatever you give him, he will use. Amen.
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  Amen. So after Jesus is done speaking, he says to Simon, launch out into the
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  deep and let down your nets for a drought.
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  And Simon basically says, Lord, we've toiled all night and haven't caught any
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  fish. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net.
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  So he follows jesus's command even though he's been doing it right all day and
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  hasn't caught a fish and in doing so they take in such a multitude of fish that
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  their nets start to break,
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  and so peter had to call for help.
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  And what peter caught filled up multiple ships and,
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  And in that miracle, that miracle catch of fish, I think Peter really recognizes who Jesus is.
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  He absolutely does, because he recognizes who he is in the light of Jesus.
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  Because he says, depart from me, I'm a sinful man.
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  But Jesus says to him, fear not.
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  And when they all got back to land, they brought their ships to land,
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  they left it all, and they followed him.
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  It's such an amazing account. So I would invite you all, if you haven't yet
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  listened to Monday's podcast, episode 676, we invite you to do that.
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  In Monday's podcast, Kim, you made a number of points that I wanted to just
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  come back to and talk about a little bit more.
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  And I think that they're all truths that if we really kind of caught a hold
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  of them, I think it would transform how we live,
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  and how we yield our lives to Christ,
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  which is a big thing.
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  So the first one that I think I want us to just chat about was that you made
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  a statement about how we demonstrate our love for Christ,
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  and that we demonstrate our love through Christ through obedience.
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  And in that point of the podcast early on, you basically said, here am I.
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  Now there's that, here am I, send me.
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  When we yield our lives to Christ, that's how we show our love to Him.
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  When we obey, it's how we show our love.
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  And I think that's sometimes hard for many people to understand.
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  You think? Yes, I do think.
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  I think that's the million-dollar question.
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  Is, am I willing to humble myself under the mighty hand of God and do what he
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  says without resistance?
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  Peter did what he told him to do without resistance. He spoke.
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  And that's what I think is so incredible is God does not give him any chastisement
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  because he isn't questioning God's word.
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  He's explaining this doesn't make sense.
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  But he never once says you're wrong. I just did this.
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  He also shows you how to express an opposing opinion without eliciting a fight.
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  He says to him, I just did this all night long, and I'm a fisherman.
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  Nevertheless, at your word, I'm going to do what you say.
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  Because he tells him how this makes no sense, but because of who you are and
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  I know who you are and I believe in who you are I'm gonna do it,
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  and he had to have been exhausted that's another thing he had to have been absolutely
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  exhausted not only had he fished all night,
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  he had already cleaned these nets are not like teeny nets right they're big
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  I mean it's like wrestling with a whale probably and,
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  he had to have been exhausted so he couldn't have been at his best,
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  but yet he knew who to listen to and he understood it wasn't him self-awareness was on full display,
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  And I think he was self-aware to know, oh, it's time for me to listen.
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  I don't think he ever thought about not listening. Nevertheless.
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  So true. So true. All right. Well, you made another point in Monday's podcast,
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  that really struck a chord with me.
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  And I'll be really curious to see if it struck a chord with a lot of our listeners, too.
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  But you talked about how we're created by God for a purpose,
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  and it is our job to fulfill that purpose.
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  And you made the statement that if we don't fulfill our purpose,
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  we're essentially stealing from God because we're using what He made us to be for our own purposes.
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  I had never thought about it like that before, but I think it is an incredible truth.
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  Well, it must have come from God because I've never thought of that before.
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  You look a little startled now as I'm saying it.
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  I know she said it, but maybe she... Toe stomper. It is a toe stomper.
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  Because if the Lord created me and gifted me to do X, Y, and Z,
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  and I'm not using X, Y, and Z for Him,
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  and I'm using it for my own purposes.
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  I'm essentially stealing from Him.
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  Yeah, it's like the pins that the office bought for you to use at work,
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  and you take them home. Not you, but I mean people. People take them home.
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  Not right purpose. It's a...
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  The pens are kind of a less scary example, but I think that that's something
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  that we need to think about.
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  Because if we are gifted with something and we neglect to use it,
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  and if we're gifted with something and we neglect to use it for God's purposes,
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  but we use it for another purpose,
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  we're essentially stealing from him.
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  I don't want to ever have him say, I created you to do this,
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  and instead you did this with it.
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  I've had this reoccurring thought over different times in my lifetime where
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  I get to heaven and Jesus talks about my works and what I've done.
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  And then he opens up a door that is filled with blessings.
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  And he says to me, these are the blessings I really had for you,
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  but I couldn't get you to do the right thing or obey.
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  And this account in Luke chapter 5 has really brought my mind to that.
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  If you're not in obedience, then you're disobedient.
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  So if you're not doing what he says, you can't be just a little bit disobedient.
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  You're either obedient or you're not.
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  That's a little bit of an ouchie. I don't feel like either of us is going to
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  get out of this podcast without Letty toes. We end our toes sometimes.
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  You know, obedience is such a, it is the theme of this passage in Luke.
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  And, you know, we've already talked about how the fact that we demonstrate our
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  love for Christ by obeying Him,
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  and that He has a call for each of us to obey Him in what we do with what He has created us to be.
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  And you made another statement on Monday where you said that obedience begins,
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  when Christ's word matters more than our doubts.
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  That was a really, that was a toast on for two.
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  Can you read that again? Obedience begins when Christ's word matters more than our doubts.
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  Which I guess is the same as fears. yeah and he talked to in this passage there's so much of that,
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  such a through line through there too of fear not right I think,
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  I mean don't you think that a lot of times people are disobedient because they
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  fear they haven't got it right what they thought he said yes,
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  why don't you talk about that a minute.
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  Well, I think that it's very, you know, we talk a lot about hearing what God,
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  wants us to do, and we could talk for hours and hours and hours about the multitude
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  of ways that God speaks to us.
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  But I think that if we really sit and think about it,
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  you know, there's probably a lot of people who believe that the Lord speaks
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  to them in different ways, But I would believe that most Christian people are
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  going to agree on the fact that God speaks to us through his word.
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  And God gives us information that we apply to our lives through his word.
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  And if we are obedient it's when we get to this point where what we have heard
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  from God through his word matters more to us than our wants,
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  than our comforts.
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  And then the things you know that we're afraid of and you know God speaks to
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  us in a lot of different ways Yes.
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  And don't you think it's interesting how the devil will use our fear of getting
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  it wrong against us to make us disobedient as well?
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  I think he does that all the time because, you know.
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  If the word of God aligns with what your heart is thinking that God has said.
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  And you pray about it and God gives you peace, then you have to know that that's what God is saying.
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  And that sounds so simple. And yet we know that that is often so hard.
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  But I think that's the greatest tool of the devil is to take what you know you've
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  heard from God and show you all the ways that it must be wrong.
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  And then there's the distractions of things that are equally as good.
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  It's just not what he asked you to do.
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  But maybe something in your heart wants to do those other things.
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  And then you get yourself in a real jam.
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  Because we are called and designed for a purpose, right? And when the Lord gives
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  us our purpose and tells us that it's really, really easy...
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  For the devil to often come in and just say, you heard wrong.
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  That's not what he meant by your purpose. No, you need to go do this thing.
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  And then there's all these people who are always trying to tell you what God wants you to do.
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  Well, because there is so much to do for the Lord in this world,
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  right? And there are so many things that we can be doing for the Lord that are really good things.
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  And we could stay incredibly busy working for the Lord, but yet still not be
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  doing the exact thing he's called us.
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  I believe that one of the greatest tools the devil uses is busyness.
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  And I don't just mean taking your kids here and there and cleaning your house
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  and working in hobbies and trying to stay fit.
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  I'm talking about, you know, teaching this class and going to visit that person
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  and making this food, all of which are blessings for you.
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  People and all the work of the lord they may just not be,
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  your right it's kind of like i think sometimes because we can do all of those things,
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  we do them and we forget that we're all the body of christ and the ear does not do what the foot does,
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  even though and it can't do what it does but it still would be part of functioning
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  in the body and and we need to get that right and i i have I'll be the first to tell you,
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  I'll run myself ragged and that's when I know okay well somehow you've got this
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  wrong because God gives you the strength to do what you're supposed to do and
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  you can do all things through his strength and all things are possible with
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  him so if I am if I am dragging.
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  I've done it on my schedule in my strength and not his amen amen,
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  Jeremiah 29, 11 is one that most people know, but I think it's super duper important,
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  that we're reminded of it right now. And it's the one that everybody talks about,
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  you know, I know the plans that I have for you.
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  And he says in Jeremiah 29, 11, I know the thoughts that I think toward you,
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  saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
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  He has a plan, and He has a purpose.
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  And He doesn't want to hide it from us. In Jeremiah 3, 3, 3,
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  He says, Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty
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  things which thou knowest not.
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  He wants you to know. And He says, Little children, these things I have written
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  that ye may know and believe.
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  There's just something wrong sometimes with the way I think we approach our
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  prayers. I think we approach our prayers giving Him a laundry list.
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  I think sometimes we approach our prayers telling Him what we want,
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  telling Him how to answer our prayers.
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  And we've totally, for most of us, left out Psalm 4610 that says,
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  Be still and know that I am God.
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  And it is a conversation, and He changes things in your heart,
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  and He moves you to Scripture.
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  And that dedicated prayer time is crucial to staying in the center of His will and on purpose.
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  Yes. That last statement that we talked about said, obedience begins when Christ's
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  word matters more than our doubts or our fears.
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  I think it's so important that in our prayer time, right, in our study time,
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  that we are in Christ's word.
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  Oh, we can't be obedient to his word if we don't know his word.
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  And I'm going to go out on a limb here. It's not really that far out on a limb,
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  but I'm going to say you can't get.
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  The amount of God's word that you need on a Sunday morning or on a Wednesday.
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  You eat more than once a week. Exactly.
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  And this is our daily bread, right? And it's our daily bread.
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  Daily bread. Daily bread. There's a reason why he called it daily bread.
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  All right. So I want to kind of close out today's podcast with something that
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  you actually said early on in Monday's podcast.
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  And you basically said that we are ordinary people that are anointed and equipped
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  to do extraordinary things when we yield to Jesus.
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  The whole theme of Monday's podcast and today's podcast is obedience,
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  understanding our purpose, being obedient, and yielding.
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  Yielding and being obedient are,
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  very much the same thing which results in showers of blessings yes and so,
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  we're ordinary people anointed and equipped to do extraordinary things when
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  we yield to jesus we're like peter's boat,
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  peter's boat was just a boat and then the son of god stepped into it and peter's
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  boat held christ himself as he taught,
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  to the people that were on jesus came to peter he came.
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  Specifically to Peter, God in Peter's boat.
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  And that was such an ordinary thing. And I think that's something that has just
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  really struck me about Monday's podcast is how God uses our ordinary to get his work done.
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  I had a conversation with someone. I was at a big meeting today,
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  and I met someone for the first time. And we were kind of in a conversation
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  with two people and somebody made the statement that.
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  About themselves saying, well, you know, I'm a Christian. And then they looked
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  at me and they said, well, she's a Christian too. And I had just met the third
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  person. So we stopped and chatted for a moment about a work thing.
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  But then she asked me a question and it was kind of about my own life.
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  And so I could not answer, couldn't answer that question without talking about
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  how, what God had done in a number of areas of my life.
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  And it just turned into this whole spiritual conversation, you know,
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  right there in the middle of a conference.
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  And what was amazing was that she told me that she had prayed because she just
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  needed to hear from someone who had experienced what she was currently experiencing.
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  And I was that person. And this was very much my ordinary.
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  Like this day, I was doing something at work that I do all the time.
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  But I had prayed specifically this morning that the Lord would allow me to,
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  you know, be used of him in that.
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  And it wasn't in my work, but it was in an ordinary, simple conversation that Jesus walked into.
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  And it made me so excited because I knew.
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  How he uses our ordinary and allows us to do extraordinary things that change
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  the lives of the people that we're around. Amen.
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  And that's how Luke 5.11 ends, right?
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  When they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.
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  We're called to follow. We're called to yield.
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  We're called to recognize the purpose for which He has created us.
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  We're just called to obey.
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  There are so many lessons in Luke 5, 1 through 11.
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  Again, I invite you to listen to Monday's podcast, episode 676.
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  And we just thank you so much for spending this time with us today.
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  Friends, remember you are loved. Jesus. loves you.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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  references from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing. If it has, please consider leaving
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  a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
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  and on Facebook and Instagram.
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  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
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  Monday through Friday by text message and the Bible Bit podcast.
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  Thank you for your prayers and support.