Latest / Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories / Living in Alignment With Who God Created You to Be | John "JR" Rennie Brushfires Ministry

Transcript

Living in Alignment With Who God Created You to Be | John "JR" Rennie Brushfires Ministry · Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories

0:00
Welcome to Witness the Wonder. I'm really excited to kick off
0:03
Season 2 and this new year with today's guest, Jr.
0:06
Rennie. He's the founder of Brush Fire
0:09
Ministries. Jr's work focuses on helping
0:12
people understand how God uniquely designed them, how he
0:16
wired them, and how walking in that alignment with that
0:20
decision brings clarity, peace, and purpose.
0:24
But before we talk about spiritual gifts, alignment, or
0:26
calling, I want to start where we always do with Witness the
0:30
wonder. We want to start with the God
0:32
story behind it all. Jr.
0:44
Welcome. Thank you for having me.
0:45
So often there's a powerful God story that unfolds long before
0:49
we step into the purpose and plan that God created us for.
0:52
Jr. I'd love for you to share the
0:55
God story behind what's been unfolding in your life and how
0:58
it's brought you to this season today.
1:00
Well, thank you for the opportunity to be able to talk
1:02
to you and your listeners. So in 1987, myself and a partner
1:06
started a software company that specialized in wholesale
1:10
distribution manufacturing software.
1:12
We actually wrote it. I wrote a huge portion of it.
1:16
My expectation was I was going to run that business until I
1:21
retired in my mid 60s and then slowly wind it down.
1:25
All that changed in 2015 when we, out of circumstances beyond
1:29
my control, experienced our greatest loss.
1:32
Now the problem was we had clients throughout North
1:34
America, so I couldn't simply just close up shop, else their
1:38
businesses would have really suffered.
1:40
Plus I had employees. So I started cutting expenses
1:43
and the only thing left for me to cut to actually make the
1:46
numbers work was my compensation.
1:49
So I did that, cut my salary to 0, and I went into 2016 going,
1:55
all right, God, what's going on here?
1:57
I tried to do consulting and open up some revenue in that
2:02
way, which should have worked because the experience that I
2:05
have is really sought after highly, but not available by
2:10
many people. And nothing happened.
2:13
May of 2016, very frustrated and wondering what God was doing
2:18
here. I said out loud, I know you're
2:21
behind this, what do you want? I didn't hear anything from God.
2:24
It wasn't as if, you know, I got this word from on high, but he
2:28
had me in a position of dependence and just wondering
2:32
what was going on. So our family wasn't, you know,
2:35
suffering in a sense that because we had a number of good
2:39
years with the software company. So I don't want to paint this
2:41
picture that we were impoverished, but negative cash
2:44
flow is not a good thing. So.
2:46
So after 9 to 10 months of that, a stranger came up and said,
2:49
hey, I teach people how to interpret psychometric
2:52
assessments. I think you'd be good at it.
2:54
And then he told me how much. I said no, because 10 months of
2:58
not having a paycheck, you don't simply just waste your money in
3:02
something that doesn't make any sense.
3:03
So I left that meeting, I went home, and all of a sudden the
3:06
Holy Spirit is going do it. And it's like, God, this makes
3:09
no sense, do it. So anyway, I called the guy back
3:12
up, renegotiated the price, I got my wife and I to do it, and
3:16
within a couple of short weeks I realized how accurate these
3:19
assessments were. I wound up doing the training
3:22
for nearly a year and in the winter of 2017, I got this
3:28
epiphany. I want this for the church.
3:30
See, this training was being taught in the in the environment
3:33
that it was being used in historically.
3:36
It was being taught as a corporate tool or even a
3:39
counseling tool, but not something for the church.
3:42
And when God gave me the epiphany, I want this for the
3:44
church. It was like, good God, you do
3:45
that. It sounds like a great idea.
3:47
May of 2017, he comes by and I'm looking at this.
3:50
I'm going, he wants me to do something with this.
3:53
And part of what we developed for people is a purpose
3:56
statement. Think of it as a your Ephesians
3:59
210 good works that God created you to do.
4:02
It's a compass to find that I purpose statement reads like
4:05
this. I must strategically lead a
4:08
gifted team to embrace the power of the God-given design for long
4:12
term positive results. So I'm contemplating that the
4:15
last section of that before long term positive results.
4:18
That's just good fruit. That's God accomplishing his
4:21
will through the medians of his children, but it was that middle
4:24
section. How do I get God's people to
4:27
embrace the power of their God-given design?
4:29
It was like, all right, I've never written curriculum.
4:32
I wasn't a published author at the time, but I came to the
4:35
conclusion that's what he wanted me to do.
4:37
As soon as I made the mental agreement to say, all right,
4:40
I'll do this, God, he gave me the ministry's name, Brushfire's
4:43
ministry. I know that it came in my head.
4:46
I know that I was the very first person to speak it out, but I
4:50
can't take credit for the name of the ministry because God
4:53
simply gave it to me. I wound up writing the workshop
4:58
materials, which ultimately became my first book, Divine
5:01
Design, and did the first workshop in February 2018.
5:07
And we've been on fire going, doing what is that God's asked
5:12
us to do ever since 2:00. I guess like 2016, our first
5:16
workshop was in 2018. Well, what really stands out
5:19
there is that God doesn't rush any processes, does he?
5:22
Two years. Still, it's still going on and
5:25
it's like a I'm still following in obedience into what he's
5:28
asking me to do next. Were there any moments during
5:31
that season just felt confusing or uncomfortable or because you
5:34
got a transition there? He was kind of stripping away
5:38
old, you know, when you look back, can you see that clearly
5:41
how his hand was moving and and working in your life at that
5:45
point, how he was preparing you for where you are today?
5:47
Absolutely. In fact, I just released my 6th
5:50
book called Sparks Turn into Brush Fires.
5:52
In that book I, I lay this out exactly what it is it was going
5:57
through and it sucked. I'll be real honest, it really
5:59
sucked because for guys, one of the very most important parts of
6:03
how we see ourselves is our identity, our job, what it is
6:07
that we do, that is how we associate with other men and and
6:11
so forth. Even though I still own the
6:13
company and the company's still going, after 10 years of trying
6:15
to wind it down, it is still going.
6:17
I'm still trying to wind it down and end it, but it's still
6:20
going. Even though I owned it and I was
6:22
still doing an occasional work for it, when I introduced myself
6:26
to people, I felt like I was lying when I said I own a
6:30
software company or that I'm a programmer or any of that,
6:34
because that's not what I was doing.
6:37
I wasn't doing that work at that time.
6:39
I owned the company, still owned the company, but I didn't see
6:43
myself from that perspective. So all that got stripped away in
6:46
nine to 10 months of not getting a paycheck.
6:48
Well, actually, at this point, nine years, all that, all that
6:52
is part of the process of what God needs to do.
6:55
The book I'm writing right now is why Discipleship Isn't
6:58
Working. And it's it's the core of what
7:00
our next workshop is going to be for discipleship.
7:03
And one of the things I just recently wrote was that humility
7:07
and submission are necessary as spiritual disciplines.
7:11
In other words, this is something that you got to allow
7:13
God to work in you to be able to do what it is that He's created
7:18
you to do. They are direct targets at our
7:20
heart. Our hearts is our soul for the
7:23
most part. When the Bible talks about the
7:25
heart, talking about the soul and a part of the spirit, but
7:27
mostly the soul, our souls made-up of our intellect, our
7:31
emotions, and our free will. Humility and submission is
7:35
basically targeting the emotional part of you and the
7:39
intellect part of you. Do you believe that God knows
7:44
best? I know that sounds silly to say,
7:46
but we don't live that way. Yeah, we'll say God knows best
7:49
and then we go and live our own way.
7:50
We we ignore his guidance. We ignore his promptings.
7:54
And so we really do live like we think we know better.
7:57
And when it comes down to what's best for us and our feelings and
8:01
so forth. At that point in October of
8:03
2016, I didn't feel like God was really caring for me or loving
8:07
me or providing for me. But what He was doing was you
8:11
saying, I know what's best, son, I've got something better for
8:14
you. It's here.
8:16
Bow your intellect, bow your emotions, submit, humble
8:21
yourself and allow me to lead you.
8:23
And that's what happens whenever you're walking out your purpose.
8:27
The last part of all that is obedience and that targets your
8:31
free will. Now that you have humbled
8:33
yourself and you submitted yourself to God or He has helped
8:37
you along that way and he's told you what he wants you to do.
8:40
Are you going to do it? It's, it's the sole aspect of
8:45
all of us that God's trying to get our attention and our
8:48
willingness, our free willingness to submit and humble
8:52
ourselves so that we can be obedient to his call and in what
8:56
it is that he wants to do in our lives.
8:58
And that was a big part of 2000 and 1670.
9:01
It's still a huge part of my life now because I still catch
9:04
myself running ahead of God going, oh, I know what you want.
9:07
I, you know, I got this figured out.
9:09
God, I'll go ahead and do it. And, you know, he's like sitting
9:12
there and going, yeah, that's not what I want you to do.
9:14
But you go ahead and do that until you figure out that I'm
9:17
not behind it. It's a constant process of
9:20
humility, submission, and then ultimately obedience.
9:23
Our stories are so similar, several years apart in the
9:27
making. The same thing happened to me.
9:29
And I had been a youth pastor for many years.
9:31
And he's like, you need to step, you know, set that down, resign.
9:35
Then I'd owned my own business for 18 1/2 years and he's like,
9:40
you need to close that when your office leases up.
9:42
And I'm like, OK, God, I don't understand what you're doing
9:45
here. But just like you, he was
9:47
stripping away all these things that I had tied to my identity.
9:52
And I was found in this place of, OK, what now?
9:57
God, it's very humbling. Like you said, when you get to
10:00
that place where you're like, OK, everything that I thought
10:04
defined who I am as a person. You've just taken it all or asks
10:09
me. Let me just say this back up.
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He didn't take anything. He gave me, like you said, free
10:14
will to give it back to him because all those things he had
10:19
given me has gifts to help equip me, to help strengthen me in
10:24
different areas, help provide financially for my family.
10:27
He's like, will you give them back to me?
10:29
Are they more important than me? And wow, how humbly is like you,
10:34
like you said, okay, God, you're asking for control back.
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And how humbling that is to say, OK, here it is, I'll give it to
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you. And like you, I'm not nine years
10:45
into no salary, I'm two years into no salary.
10:48
But he's still providing. And each step of obedience is
10:53
opening doors and opportunities that are mind blowing.
10:57
Slowly he's revealing in me and through like witness the wonder
11:03
and different other areas of my life that he's doing too.
11:06
And new things for 2026 that are going to be coming that those
11:10
early words that he gave me 18 at 25 of speaking to the nations
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of, you know, being an evangelist, things that I was
11:21
like would never say out loud, you know, back then because, you
11:25
know, I wasn't doing them. I totally relate to your story.
11:29
And I think there's going to be so many people listening out
11:32
there that are in that same spot that God saying, will you give
11:36
me that thing? And it's so hard to do.
11:39
Can what would you tell them how to do that?
11:42
Do it, do it. Just do it because all right, so
11:46
the six figure salary was nice. I'm not going to lie about that.
11:49
That was nice. But I was operating out of duty,
11:52
responsibility and obligation. I tithe, I read my Bible, I did
11:57
this, I did that. I was doing all these duties and
12:01
providing for my family and taking care of my
12:03
responsibilities at at work and it was sucking all the life and
12:07
joy out of me. Success was not a replacement.
12:10
Financial success was not a replacement for joy.
12:13
So from my perspective now, yeah, the six figure salary was
12:17
nice. Short of that, being able to get
12:20
excited about what I do to really push hard and
12:24
implementing and writing these books and doing the coding for
12:27
our ministry and all that stuff. I can do that.
12:30
I can be excited about that. I can be inspired about that
12:33
when I do a design discovery meeting.
12:35
See the neat thing about what I do is I get to help other people
12:39
discover for themselves what God wants them to do.
12:43
So what God led me through as far is figuring out what He
12:47
created me to do. I now have the privilege of
12:50
showing other believers what they were created to do.
12:54
Are you created as a counselor or teacher or an evangelist or
12:58
apostle or prophet? What is your calling?
13:01
Let's figure that out together and then let's get you to a
13:04
place where God can lead you. That humility and submission
13:07
part is part of it. This book I'm writing now, Why
13:11
Discipleship Isn't Working is basically laying out all the
13:15
necessary pieces and it's not a formula, it's not a program
13:19
because God's children are too unique for A1 size fits all
13:22
program. But these are milestones.
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OK, where are you in the humility and submission area?
13:28
OK, if you don't rank yourself really high in that area, guess
13:31
what? You got some work to do.
13:33
You got some he. Will give you opportunities to
13:36
do it, by the way. Yes, yes, whether you want to or
13:41
not. Sometimes, yeah, I did not.
13:44
I was not asking for this in 2016, but I'm glad that God knew
13:50
best and and did it. That's The thing is that you
13:53
want to do what God's created you to do because every aspect
13:58
of who you are is then being used in that ministry.
14:02
Now ministry is, is anything that God is involved in, Don't
14:06
pigeonhole it to be just what the people on stage are doing or
14:09
what that missionary is doing. That's unbelievably creative.
14:13
I mean, really, he's taking me, a programmer business owner to
14:19
use psychometric assessments. That was by the way, developed
14:23
by a born again believer found out years after and to bring his
14:28
people to an understanding of what it is that he wants to do
14:31
in their lives. And now to inspire and to create
14:35
a discipleship program where I train leaders how to walk other
14:40
people out. See the things that he's taught
14:42
me. I don't have a psychology degree
14:44
is this is not my background, but what I found is this
14:48
psychometric assessment. It was a lot like programming.
14:51
I could see the bits and pieces in human beings that make them
14:54
unique that God's placed in them.
14:57
It's like code to me. So when I look at somebody's
15:00
design, like in your case, your spiritual gifts were leadership
15:03
and exhortation. We're very high and mercy and
15:06
teaching. We're right below that.
15:07
So part of what God wants to do through that one small spiritual
15:12
gifts assessment is to lead people to the truths of His Word
15:16
and to encourage them in that process.
15:19
And why? Because you care about them.
15:22
That is what those four spiritual gifts say, and that's
15:25
a free assessment, but it's only one of the 11 that we use, and
15:29
it's not psychometric. It's a spiritual assessment.
15:32
So we can actually narrow that down into types of types of work
15:37
and people that you need to accomplish your goals.
15:41
We're designed to work as a body of Christ, which means my elbow
15:47
tendon on my right arm is useless unless there's cartilage
15:51
and muscle around it. Period.
15:54
It's that the tendon, pure tendon in this world, in God's
15:59
body of Christ, you better find that muscle and cartilage that
16:03
you're supposed to be attached to.
16:04
Those are different people with different giftings that can
16:08
allow you to fulfill the part of you that God's wants to do
16:12
through you. So just this process is
16:16
fascinating for me. I I want to share it with other
16:20
leaders and counselors and coaches, pastors to be able to
16:25
show them how to lead their people in the way that God's
16:28
created them. I want to take a moment to thank
16:31
one of our Season 2 partners. Today's episode partner is the
16:35
Birch Gold Group. Many people are asking how to
16:38
protect what they've worked so hard to build, especially in
16:42
seasons of economic uncertainty. Birch Gold helps individuals
16:45
diversify their savings with physical gold and silver.
16:49
If you'd like to learn more or get their free information kit,
16:52
you'll find the link at christinasmithofficial.com
16:55
That's Christina Smith, official.com.
16:57
I'm an idea person, right? I can come up with a million
17:00
ideas. I have like at least 10 business
17:03
ideas in my brain at any given time.
17:05
Did you discern that this was a God LED assignment versus just a
17:11
good idea or strictly just for you?
17:14
First of all, there is a objective analysis of the
17:18
giftings that you have. Mine came out as really being a
17:21
very high leader, which was proven by my years of life prior
17:26
to that. Business owner, soccer coach,
17:29
father, church leader, all those things were part of what it was
17:33
that God's in me. So that's that objective aspect
17:37
of seeing how you're gifted then makes sense.
17:39
The other one is to see if God is opening up the doors and
17:45
making it possible. So I, I share the story about
17:48
the inspiration to start the ministry.
17:51
What I didn't share with you is where the curriculum for the
17:55
ministry came from. So we've got these psychometric
17:58
assessments, but the actual curriculum that I teach in the
18:01
class is that's only about 15% of what I teach.
18:05
I'm making the case in the class that God has a plan for your
18:08
life and you need to trust Him and pursue it, and it's going to
18:11
be the best decision as a believer that you've made.
18:14
Well, I'm making that case. How do I make that case?
18:17
Well, after I got that name of the ministry, after saying yes
18:20
to God, that I'll write the curriculum, he prompted in my
18:23
head that I had a file folder of things that I had written,
18:27
articles, devotions that I read, messages that I gave at
18:31
churches, very poems and poetry and all kinds of things.
18:36
It says, you know, you've got a folder downstairs.
18:38
So I went down and found in my office, pulled up, came upstairs
18:41
and started pulling things out. That's chapter one.
18:44
That's chapter 2. That's chapter 3, that's chapter
18:47
4. God had been rewriting the
18:49
curriculum through my life for 20 years.
18:53
I can point to various chapters in that first book in the
18:57
workshop materials and I can tell you when that inspiration
19:01
came. I can point to the article that
19:03
I wrote in 2013 called What is Joy?
19:06
Or the message that I gave in 2004, 2005 called What is your
19:12
Purpose? I can point to all those
19:14
different things and say this is when that happened.
19:16
God had been doing this work through my life for 20 years and
19:20
I didn't even know it until I sat down to actually pulled
19:24
together into the workshop materials, which eventually
19:27
became the divine design book. That would be a big clue.
19:31
Then you start to look for encouragement.
19:33
So along the way, there are people that were in that first
19:36
class that were super encouraging that said, oh man,
19:39
you're on the right path. And then I got prophetic words.
19:41
My wife and I were picked out of a crowd of 2 to 500 people
19:46
consecutively for three years, and we were given words of
19:50
knowledge by prophets telling us about this ministry.
19:53
So you look for those sort of confirmations, but it doesn't
19:57
happen until you take those steps of faith.
20:00
It wasn't until I went downstairs and pulled out that
20:02
folder and go, well, I've already done a lot of this work.
20:06
I'm not starting from scratch. Let's get started then.
20:10
Look, people signed up for this workshop.
20:12
Cool. Oh, wow.
20:13
The second workshop, it's double the number of people that were
20:15
in the first workshop. That's cool.
20:17
You're looking for these areas of encouragement because the
20:19
enemy is going to discourage you at every step of the way.
20:24
There's a story that I tell in 2017.
20:26
Our youngest son has epilepsy and he suffered with seizures
20:30
for nearly 40 years now as I was in the midst of putting together
20:34
that curriculum. He had a terrible, terrible belt
20:39
and wound up going without meds for about 3 or 4 days.
20:42
We were camping and couldn't be contacted.
20:46
Found him comatose on the floor in his apartment and he probably
20:51
wouldn't have lasted another day.
20:54
Got him to the hospital and this is not the first time we've had
20:57
real serious, serious health scares with our son.
21:01
It happened in 2004, but my reaction in 2000 was anger at
21:05
the church for not being there to help us as we were walking
21:08
through that. My reaction 2017 was, who's your
21:12
design to get all the resources necessary to get your son there
21:17
safely and recognize what's behind this?
21:22
It's the enemy trying to once again attack you through your
21:26
child's health so that you don't do the work that God's called
21:29
you to do. So I was saying sometimes
21:32
opposition, unexpected demonic opposition, is a great
21:38
indication that you're doing what it is that God wants you to
21:41
do. I'm laughing.
21:42
Because there was so much opposition to us actually
21:46
recording today, they are lost electricity.
21:51
I have this horrible cold and I periodically put my mute on and
21:55
I'm coughing. This whole episode started about
21:58
two months ago before I ever met Jr.
22:01
One morning I was just praying. I was listening to worship and
22:05
and God just kind of arrested me and he just started speaking and
22:09
for 2 1/2 hours I was just right there in his presence.
22:13
And he said you need to get into alignment with who I created you
22:17
to be. You need to set down all the
22:20
things that you're doing that isn't in alignment with who I
22:24
created you to be. I was like, OK, immediately I
22:27
knew one of the things that he was talking about.
22:30
You mentioned that one of my spiritual gifts is teaching.
22:33
As a teacher, you can teach anything.
22:35
And I was teaching social media to a group of authors.
22:38
And as the year had progressed, I began to feel my body tension,
22:42
A nauseousness every time I would try to prepare for this
22:46
teaching. And it was like I knew in my
22:48
spirit he was saying, you need to lay that down.
22:51
And as soon as I did, he began to open up different
22:55
opportunities. Just things that I couldn't have
22:58
dreamed up myself or imagined, you know, as I started walking
23:01
down that path and then he, he connected you and I, as soon as
23:07
we started talking, I was like, my goodness, this is the episode
23:11
that God was speaking to me that he wants me to do an alignment
23:15
because that's what Jr. does. He helps people get into
23:19
alignment with who God created them to be.
23:22
And so I just love how God works things out.
23:26
But I want to ask you a question here, Jr., in regards that I
23:30
didn't go through that whole monologue just to share my test,
23:33
Simoni. But that's honestly the story
23:36
behind why I felt led to do this conversation.
23:40
What happens when we hold on to these things, even when they're
23:42
they look good, but they no longer align with who God
23:46
created us to be? When I took your assessment, it
23:49
kind of put language around all this stuff that I was feeling
23:53
about who God had created me to be.
23:55
Why do you think having that language around how God has
23:57
wired us is so important when it comes to alignment?
24:02
So The thing is. Is that language is is important
24:05
because it's how we understand it's how we communicate, it's
24:08
how we can express ourselves and so forth.
24:11
God doesn't need language so he he can just simply pop a thought
24:14
into your head and so forth. So God doesn't need language,
24:17
but he understands us. So he gives us languages.
24:20
Our assessments give language to your design human understandable
24:25
terms so that when I say that I'm 100% planner, you know
24:29
something about me. Soon as I was out of power this
24:32
morning, I shot you a a text and saying, hey, we just lost power
24:37
because of these terrible windstorms that we're having
24:39
here in northern Idaho. I don't know if I'm going to be
24:41
able to make this or not. So when I say planner, it kind
24:43
of makes sense based upon how I just reacted.
24:46
Not everybody's that way and that's OK.
24:49
There are no mistakes in God. He actually knows what he's
24:52
doing. If you're a 0% planner, that's
24:54
still perfect in God's economy as far as he wants you to do.
24:59
So what the assessments do is gives you an objective
25:03
perspective on who you are, an honest evaluation, the
25:07
subjective side, which is how we also evaluate information.
25:11
That subjective side is All right, take it to me.
25:15
Let's talk about this. I want you to I want you to to
25:20
experience what it feels like for you to be in alignment.
25:24
The article that I wrote What is joy in 2013 was really important
25:29
to me. I was in church contemplating
25:32
the life of Paul. I was not listening to the
25:34
sermon. I was just deep in my thoughts.
25:36
And this happens to me a lot. And I'm going, OK, Paul was
25:39
shipwrecked. He was stoned.
25:40
He he was beaten, he was whipped 39 times multiple times.
25:45
He was in chained in the prison while he was writing most of the
25:50
epistles. All that is true.
25:52
How can you consider it all joy? I couldn't figure that out.
25:56
I'm going this makes no sense. You're physically having this
26:00
absolute miserable experience and you're saying this is joyful
26:04
And as I'm struggling with that thought, God just pops into my
26:07
thinking. He goes because he was doing
26:10
what I created him to do. The joy was not in the external
26:15
circumstances. The joy was in the relationship
26:18
that his obedience to God's call in his life had firmly
26:22
established. So when you're looking at this
26:25
version of me, understand this is not what you would have met
26:29
10 years ago. That guy was frustrated and just
26:33
not happy. I get excited when I get to
26:35
introduce people to the possibility that God's plans for
26:39
their life are better than them. And then when they say, all
26:43
right, I'll give it a try, and then to watch it change your
26:45
lives. The enemy is into division and
26:47
disunity. God is into harmony and
26:51
multiplication. He wants us to harmonize with
26:53
His purposes for creating us and then he wants us to multiply
26:57
that impact in the lives of that.
27:00
Why is it important? Because there's no way that you
27:02
can experience these things. I don't care if you've got a 12
27:06
figure salary. You can't experience these
27:09
things unless you are in harmony and alignment with God's
27:13
purposes for your life. I love that you're.
27:14
Talking about joy, there is no greater joy than when you are in
27:19
alignment with who God's created you be.
27:20
You can be going through the worst season of your life and it
27:24
doesn't even feel like a trial. I know in the lowest season of
27:29
my life, God restored my joy. I began to understand what Paul
27:33
was talking about. Count it all joy when you go
27:35
through trials. I think I was about 40 when I
27:38
realized, you know what? Bring it on, Satan, because, you
27:42
know, because honestly, like I know that whatever he threw at
27:47
me was only going to make me stronger.
27:49
It was only building something in me for where God was taking
27:54
me to accomplish that thing that He created me for.
27:57
And so this excitement and this joy again, now I'm not perfect
28:02
in that, you know what I mean? None of us, really.
28:04
No. Through difficulties.
28:07
Seasons. That's what we need.
28:09
That's what we need people like you with exhortation to
28:11
encourage us when we are not living that joy filled life.
28:15
I mean that's that's why we need the body.
28:18
You know what's funny? Is my husband and I are kind of
28:21
opposites in that, which isn't unusual honestly, like God does
28:25
a lot of times put opposites together in that way.
28:28
But I'm always the glass is half full type person.
28:31
I'm always like, yes, this is going to work out for the best
28:34
every time. And he's like the realist.
28:36
It might not, Chris, just like reality here and I'm up here in
28:42
the clouds like, you know what this is doesn't look very good.
28:45
But I just know that God's got a plan that he's going to do
28:48
something, and that's just who I am, and I can't be anything
28:52
else. Beautiful kites that fly in the
28:55
air need to be tethered to the ground so they don't get
28:59
destroyed. So there is a balance.
29:01
You Can Dance and in the sky and and bring joy with the light and
29:06
beauty that of the kite that God's made you to be.
29:08
And your husband's going. All right.
29:10
I got you, Christina. I got you.
29:12
Oh, we're gonna. We need to get away from that
29:13
tree when you get away from that power line.
29:16
But I got you. Yeah.
29:17
That's. And that's the thing.
29:18
Is that the reason the enemy is allowed to have these negative
29:23
impacts on our life is a couple things for us to learn the
29:26
lesson to draw closer to God, to not get discouraged, to get
29:30
strengthened. Now every time something like
29:32
this happens, my response is not fear or frustration or
29:36
anxiousness is like, oh, you're going to pay for that.
29:39
You're going to pay for that. That person that you're hurt.
29:42
Well, Mary, the lady that I encourage to become a counselor
29:45
is not going to be able to help her.
29:46
You're going to pay for that that event that you wanted to
29:49
fail. Oh, my friend Tina is now want
29:51
to make sure that that event is absolutely off the charts.
29:54
I mean, these are these are now the way I respond when these
29:59
things happen. It's like, all right, it's going
30:01
to be better. And God's got a plan for this.
30:03
He has allowed these things to happen so that I will get
30:06
strengthened and grow in in my capacity to war against the
30:11
spiritual. And I trust my God, I'm going
30:14
to. I'm going.
30:15
To shift here as we are heading into this new year, like 2026 is
30:21
here, so many people focus on resolutions or fixing habits or
30:26
cutting things out, trying harder.
30:28
From your perspective, how is alignment with God's design
30:32
different from striving for change?
30:35
What are some signs that someone might be living out of alignment
30:39
with who God created them to be? I would say lack of.
30:42
The Fruit of the Spirit on Galatians 5/22/23 Lovejoy,
30:46
Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, senseness,
30:49
faithfulness, and self-control. If people do not describe you
30:55
with those terms, you're not. You're not experiencing the
30:59
fullness of what God has for you.
31:01
See one of the things that he's taught me, and it's in this
31:04
book, why discipleship isn't working.
31:06
Fruit of the spirit is not an accidental phrase, OK?
31:09
The fruit of the spirit is, is a nourishment.
31:12
It's not the nourishment for the body necessarily.
31:15
It's a nourishment for your soul.
31:17
Whose soul, your intellect, your emotions, your free will would
31:21
not benefit from more Lovejoy and peace.
31:24
How many of us need to be able to understand that the lessons
31:28
from patients, How many more of us could actually have a more
31:31
effect impact in this world if we were kind and gentle and
31:35
faithful and, and and we had self-control.
31:39
You see the nourishment that our souls need, our intellect, our
31:42
emotions and our free will is found in obedience to God's call
31:47
in your life. Every resolution that you have
31:49
had prior to 2026, it's quite likely been something that the
31:54
world has influenced you by. I'm going to lose weight, I'm
31:58
going to work harder, I'm going to start this business, I'm
32:01
going to do this, I'm going to do that.
32:03
How about for the first time in your life going God, what do you
32:07
want me to do? Show me what you created me to
32:09
do. I will gladly pick up that cross
32:13
and follow you. Something else that God showed
32:15
me Luke 14, I forget the exact verse talks about the Christ
32:19
goes. If you are not willing to pick
32:21
up your cross and follow told me, you're unworthy to be called
32:24
my disciple. Now, I don't see a lot of people
32:27
walking around with crosses, so obviously we're talking about a
32:30
metaphor here. But what was the cross as it
32:33
relates to Jesus as there was as it relates to Jesus, it was his
32:37
person. It was his purpose for coming to
32:40
earth. He knew God knew that the Jews
32:42
weren't going to turn around. They knew that there was no way
32:46
that man could ever earn his way back.
32:48
The Jews proved it by giving you 10 simple rules to be in a right
32:52
relationship with me, and they changed it to 660 rules that
32:56
nobody could ever follow. OK, so or even remember.
33:00
Right, so. Here's the thing.
33:02
What did God, what did Christ mean when he said pick up your
33:05
cross? Well, if the cross was Jesus
33:08
purpose for coming to earth, your cross is what did God
33:12
create you to do when He sent you here to earth?
33:17
Were you sent here to lead, to counsel, to teach, to build, to
33:21
give wisdom? There is a reason why you are
33:23
wired that way and it falls into alignment with your calling from
33:29
Ephesians 210 of what God created you to do.
33:32
So New Year's resolution is maybe for for the first time in
33:35
your life, it's like, God help me to figure out what my purpose
33:40
is and then give me the faith and the strength and the courage
33:44
to walk it out to learn more about today's.
33:47
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33:50
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