Latest / Arise Women of God / How Can I Speak Up and Testify like Elizabeth and Zacharias?

Transcript

How Can I Speak Up and Testify like Elizabeth and Zacharias? · Arise Women of God

• 0:00
  Have you ever looked for an example in the scriptures of somebody stepping up and speaking out, maybe even a woman?
• 0:09
  We're going to cover that today.
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  And also when this woman's husband had a chance to step up and speak out after probably about a year of not speaking.
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  So it's important to let your voice be heard and we'll see what we can draw from these lessons of Elizabeth and Zacharias today.
• 0:27
  Stay tuned.
• 0:30
  Welcome to Bible Women in Bathrobes, the podcast where faith meets comfort.
• 0:36
  Join us Tuesday morning as the gals from Women warriors of Flight and their guests don bathrobes and dive into the inspiring stories of women in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
• 0:49
  From Esther's bravery to the Sermon on the Mount, we explore it all with warmth, laughter, sisterhood, and maybe even a few sleepy eyed moments.
• 0:59
  Tune in live or at your leisure as we learn lessons from scripture which empower women today.
• 1:12
  Hello and welcome to another episode of Bible Women in Bathrobes.
• 1:16
  I'm your host, Tamara K.
• 1:17
  Anderson.
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  And joining me today are two amazing members of our advisory board for Women warriors of Light.
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  Welcome back.
• 1:25
  Lemira Wheelwright.
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  Hey, happy to be here.
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  And also we have Amy Johnson.
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  Thanks for being here today.
• 1:35
  Thank you.
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  My favorite time of the day.
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  Yay.
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  Mine too.
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  This is, it's always amazing to be with you guys and to study the Word of God together because I find so many insights when I study it with other people, things that I didn't notice the first time through
• 1:52
  or the 10th time through or whatever that somebody else will bring out.
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  And I'm like, ooh, that's really good.
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  And I needed to hear that.
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  So today, guys, we're continuing this whole series that we're doing on the Nativity and the people surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ.
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  We've talked about Elizabeth and Zacharias a little bit.
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  We've talked about Mary and Mary visiting Elizabeth.
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  And today we're to the point where Elizabeth is finally going to give birth.
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  And we see this amazing scene unfold of Elizabeth having an opportunity to speak up and speak out, which wasn't very common in those days.
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  And we also have Zacharias finally having his tongue loosed.
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  As you remember several episodes ago, we talked about his tongue being his mouth being shut because he didn't believe the angel when he said, you're going to have a son, he's like, we're a little old for that, you
• 2:49
  know.
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  Yeah.
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  The human side of Zacharias had, even though they had prayed for it for so many years, didn't believe that it could even be possible.
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  So we're going to pick this up if you want to follow along.
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  We are in Luke chapter one, and we're going to start off in verse 57 and go through till 80.
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  So we're covering a lot of verses, but there's some amazing stuff in here.
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  It says now Elizabeth's full time came, that she should be delivered.
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  And she brought forth forth a son.
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  And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her and they rejoiced with her.
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  And it.
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  I'm just going to pause right there just really quick.
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  I love that Mary is one of her cousins, and I almost wonder if she was there, because I don't know how else we would even have this account.
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  Probably not, because in verse 56 it says she had returned home.
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  Yeah, I wonder.
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  But I know I.
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  I wonder how else we could have gotten it, though.
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  But I know that Luke was very good about doing his research and interviewing people.
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  So there you go.
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  Yeah, so, so good.
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  All right.
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  And now we come to the event.
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  It says, and it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child.
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  And they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
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  And this is where Elizabeth could have kept her mouth shut and just let them call him Zacharias.
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  But she knew, probably because Zacharias had communicated to her, even though he couldn't communicate verbally.
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  His name is.
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  Needs to be John.
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  That is what God the angel told me.
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  And his.
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  It says.
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  And his mother answered and said, not so, but he shall be called John.
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  You imagine that moment of, I need to speak up, I need to speak out.
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  And that wasn't done for women in general in that society.
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  But she had to be brave enough to speak up and speak out and say, no, that's not his name.
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  And.
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  And they're like, but in verse 61, there's none of thy kindred that is called by this name.
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  Why do you want to call him John?
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  And they made signs to his father how he would have him called.
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  So that is means to me that he couldn't hear either.
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  So she had to speak out for both of them, right?
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  And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote saying, his name is John.
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  And they marveled all.
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  And then it says, his mouth was open and his tongue was loosed.
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  And we'll get to that part.
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  But I just thought, I pause right here in their story and just ask for thoughts and comments and ideas of women speaking out, especially In a time like this, or if you've had any other thoughts that have come
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  to you as you read that.
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  Lemira, let's start with you.
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  Yeah, I.
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  I love that Elizabeth, you know, she's the one who's been carrying this chosen vessel.
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  And she knew she had that time, right, with Mary when her.
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  Her son, her baby leaps for joy when Mary came.
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  And so she had that testimony.
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  And we all know when a woman is carrying a child, how close they are to God because they are in creation with him and bringing this child.
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  And.
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  And this mom has so many thoughts, so many emotions, so many hormones going on at the time.
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  And.
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  And she had to have a lot of faith because being in her age and being pregnant takes a lot out of you.
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  He had to sustain.
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  And so I could see where she was close to the Lord.
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  And she was anyway, right?
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  She was anyway, that she was a devout disciple.
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  And so I love that she spoke up and she's like, but she had to.
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  I feel like in the time that Zacharias, like, was silent, that the Lord silenced him.
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  How else would they have been able to run their family, run their home, their household without her being the mouthpiece?
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  And so in this moment, even in this little way, maybe that's how the Lord prepared her to be able to speak up and say, no, this is his name.
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  This is who he is.
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  And then I.
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  And I love that then her husband is able to back her up and support her and say, yeah, no, my wife is right, you know, so that they're united in this.
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  But she had that courage and that experience to be like, nope, this is what we're doing.
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  And in this day and age where we are women warriors in this, these last days, we have to have that courage that when tradition and culture say, this is what we're doing, but we know the answers that the
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  Lord has given us for our family, for our purpose.
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  And we're like, nope, this is.
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  I know this to be true.
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  I know this and it.
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  And the angel, you know, the Heavenly Father has given us this revelation.
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  I know this to be true.
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  And that that can take a lot of guts and courage, especially when.
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  When society and around you is like, are you sure?
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  Are you sure about that?
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  And you're like, yeah, I.
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  I am.
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  And she just said, nope, this is what we're doing.
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  So I love that example from Elizabeth.
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  Oh, so beautiful.
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  Thank you so much for sharing that, Amy.
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  I also love that.
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  I think I've had experiences where the words have just come to me to say And I don't know, for all we know, she was sitting there, they said Zacharias, and she just knew no.
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  And I think sometimes we discount our thoughts and our impressions and we don't realize they are from God.
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  But whatever way she found out, she knew this was what God wanted her to do and this is what was going to happen.
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  And she did speak up and did say, no, we're going to do this different because it was tradition to name them in the family names.
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  And that tradition still even carries on sometimes now.
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  But for her to say, no, no, this is going to be different than what you all think it should be, we're going to do this God's way.
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  I think that's what's really remarkable.
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  And that's kind of what I loved, what love Myra was talking about.
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  Because we do have that right to revelation for our families as a wife and a mother.
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  And we do have the privilege of saying we're not going to do it that way.
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  Even though the world thinks that's the way we should do it, we're going to do it God's way.
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  I love that.
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  I kind of been pondering about that as we have talked about Elizabeth's story.
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  You know, we know that she was well seasoned in years, she'd kind of gone through menopause already.
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  And part of me wonders if because she was older, she had that courage.
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  You know, I, I just noticed that the older I get, the more comfortable and confident I am in my own skin, you know, and I'm able to speak up and speak out more because I've had experiences that have
• 10:16
  helped me join with God in so many things that I know that he's not going to let me down versus I look back at like a 20 year old Tamra or a teenager Tamara, and I was so much
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  more insecure back then.
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  And so part of me, as I pondered her story, maybe there was a reason.
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  I mean, obviously there was a reason God waited until they were old.
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  And she was given this blessing of bearing a prophet, a precursor to Jesus Christ at this time.
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  But he had to be brave enough to speak up and speak out.
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  And we're going to see here in the, in these verses, he came by that very really because his mom spoke up and spoke out and his dad spoke up and spoke out.
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  Do you know what I mean?
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  And so he has this heritage of strong faith and doing what God wants you to do, no matter what everybody else is like, wait, what are you doing?
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  You know, and so you can see that he.
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  That John comes by this powerfully in a great examples in his parents.
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  And so that's, that's really cool.
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  And so I love that she is confident enough to speak up in a society where people didn't.
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  And maybe that is because she's had enough experiences with God where she's like, nope, here's, here's what we're doing.
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• 11:49
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• 11:56
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• 12:04
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• 12:27
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• 12:38
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• 12:49
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• 12:59
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• 13:08
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• 13:15
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• 13:28
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• 13:34
  So now let's get back to our podcast episode.
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  All right, well let's keep going with our amazing story and hear what Zacharias after being silent and maybe even not hearing it wasn't just that he couldn't speak, he couldn't hear them either that he, he had his tongue
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  loosed and it's interesting.
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  It says fear came on all that dwelt about and everybody talked about this.
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  So it became, it was that gossip thing that got passed and passed and passed and passed all throughout Judea, you know, and, and it says, and all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts saying, what
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  manner of child shall this be?
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  And the hand of the Lord was with them.
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  And his Father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying, and here we have, we talked last week about that praise of Mary, that psalm that she said her magnificent.
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  And now we're to Zacharias.
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  And I love this.
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  I love that we have his witness as well.
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  What has he been thinking for this whole time when he couldn't talk and communicate with others?
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  What impressions did he get from God?
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  And in this time, that as we were talking before this episode where he had to be still, what did God teach him in his stillness?
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  And I think we catch a glimpse of it as we read through this right here.
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  And I'll read a couple verses and we'll pause and talk.
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  And it says, before you do that, just in verse 64, I.
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  I'm really struck by this.
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  And maybe this is a really good lesson.
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  When we are trying to speak out and say what God would have us say is to recognize that in verse 64, it's God who gives him voice.
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  And I, I feel like that's something that we need to recognize that when we are having a hard time saying what needs to be said, we need to be reaching up and tethering to him and saying, okay, you're.
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  You want me to say this?
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  Help me say this.
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  Because, and I know I've talked about this before, I'm pretty sure anyway, where God, I realized God gave me, gives me breath every day.
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  And when you've struggled to breathe and you don't know what's wrong, you.
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  You realize that letting go and letting God breathe for you is the only way to make it happen.
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  And, and I've this to me where God gives him back his voice.
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  I think that's a lesson for all of us.
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  If you're having a hard time saying what needs to be said, reach, reach to God and he will give you your voice.
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  Can I add to that?
• 16:21
  I love that, Amy, because I was thinking about two years ago.
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  I was in a situation that I was struggling with knowing what to say, that I was in this situation where I felt like I needed to say something, but I didn't know what to say.
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  And I was working with A faith based life coach at the time, and she was helping me walk through some things.
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  And she goes, what do you feel like, you know, your, you know, God or heavenly Father is telling you?
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  And it was exactly what you said, Amy.
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  He.
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  I felt that feeling of you saying, use my words, use my words.
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  And, and I feel like we, we feel like so many times we have to figure out how to solve the problem.
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  And just as you were saying, Amy, we, we can work through those things if we tether to him and we let his words come through us.
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  And, and so I love that we say that, that we don't have to have all the words and the answers, but he's got them and so let him speak through us.
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  Oh, sorry.
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  I just felt like that couldn't.
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  We couldn't just go by that.
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  No.
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  I'm so glad you stopped me.
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  You spoke up and spoke out.
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  Good job, girl.
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  That's.
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  That's one of our takeaways for all right, where were we?
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  Oh, Zacharias.
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  Beginning of what he said, he said, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people.
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  He hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
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  And he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to
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  our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swear to our Father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in
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  holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
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  And I'm going to pause right there because then he begins to prophesy about John.
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  So here we have this beautiful section of Zacharias's testimony of Jesus Christ.
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  Right.
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  And I'm just going to open it up.
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  Amy, let's start with you on this.
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  Any thoughts on those verses right there?
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  I.
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  Anyone who has heard me talk knows I really like applying things to me.
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  And so, and we talked about this last week with Mary's little psalm too, that her manifa, that these.
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  I read these words and I see me like when he says, he hath visited and redeemed his people.
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  I can almost feel the day that I let God breathe for me.
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  And I can see Zacharias thinking I got my voice back like he.
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  He redeemed me.
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  I can, I can feel that feeling.
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  And I, I.
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  And he hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of David.
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  And then he talks about the holy prophets.
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  That is so important.
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  And prophets are not loved in their land, they are not loved in their time.
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  But those who seek to really, truly understand the words of prophets love the prophets and are grateful for the prophets.
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  And then, and then I love that he uses that connector word he spake by the mouth of prophets which have been from the since the world began.
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  That, that connector word that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us.
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  And for Israel, that was a huge story because they would go to battle and literally a physical salvation if they obeyed the prophet and battled the way the prophet told them to battle for us, especially in the US
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  where we don't live in a war torn country.
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  And we're not battling that physically.
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  Way for me, the holy prophets save me from the battles against the adversary.
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  And I love that.
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  And then obviously verse 72 is almost exactly what we talked about last week with Mary and how she loves that God helps her remember his mercy.
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  Yeah, so, so good.
• 21:09
  Thank you, Lamira.
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  The thing that stuck out to me is the very first words out of his mouth after having how long of silence where, you know, being the voice of the household, the head of the household, being a, you know,
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  a priest who would perform all these things and for a while he can't do anything.
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  The very first thing he does is he praises the name of God and he says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel.
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  And you know how many times when you finally are free, we're like, oh my gosh, that was rough.
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  Thanks a lot, you know, but he's truly blessed.
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  And I feel like during that time of silence, it was pretty much like the Lord's like, okay, I'm going to show you how I work.
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  And he was forced to have that time to be still and to be still a no God.
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  And who can you imagine watching your wife, your aged wife go through pregnancy and not being able to talk, not being able to say, I mean, she was probably grateful in some ways, but at the same time, at
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  the same time going, man, this has got to be hard, you know, and so what does he have to do other than reflect on what he preaches, what he, the ordinances that he performs in the temple, you know,
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  for the people and to reflect on all the prophecies and to realize that the Son that he and his wife are bringing into this world is the precursor to the Son of God and he is going to be
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  the prophet And I feel like that's what he's thinking.
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  God for saying, wow, we are helping bring this to pass.
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  We're just the vessels.
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  We're bringing him here.
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  And how grateful I am that he has provided a way for us to be saved.
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  And I love that that's the first thing that he does, is praise the Lord.
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  And then, as Amy said, he bears testimony of Jesus Christ and his role.
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  And that's the very first thing he does, is recognize God's hand in this moment.
• 23:30
  You do you love how she said how God works, which is exactly what we talked about last week.
• 23:35
  Yeah, that's what we talked about, is how God works in our lives, in his life, in how he works.
• 23:44
  Sweet.
• 23:45
  Yeah.
• 23:46
  I am just looking at several words that I highlighted in that section, and they all point to Jesus.
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  Just look at this.
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  Visited, redeemed, raised up, saved, mercy, delivered, holiness, and righteousness.
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  These.
• 24:07
  All these words that I've highlighted in that section that we've read so far all testify and point to Christ.
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  I just.
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  I love.
• 24:15
  I love, love, love that.
• 24:17
  And it's.
• 24:17
  It's amazing.
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  And I think.
• 24:20
  And I've talked about this before on other podcasts, but when we go through hard things, we have the option we can either tip towards Christ or away from him.
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  And we see that in his moment of difficulty, that Zacharias did tip towards God, and he used this time when he was.
• 24:38
  He had to be still, to ponder, to pray, to gain a stronger testimony that God can do impossible things.
• 24:47
  And who are we to deny him his miracles?
• 24:51
  Right?
• 24:52
  And so it's beautiful.
• 24:53
  All right, I know that this last part is one of Lemyra's favorites.
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  I'm going to let her read it.
• 24:58
  Why don't you read 76 through the end there, Lemira?
• 25:03
  And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins through
• 25:15
  the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
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  And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.
• 25:37
  Thank you.
• 25:38
  All right, Lemire, let's kick it off with you here.
• 25:41
  Why do you love this so much?
• 25:44
  I love that he's pronouncing a blessing upon his Son and he is giving him his purpose in life and what his purpose is to go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways.
• 26:02
  He is going to go before Jesus Christ and prepare the people for his ministry.
• 26:10
  And I love some of the words that stand out to me.
• 26:14
  I love whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us.
• 26:18
  And now I don't necessarily know what that means, but it's happy.
• 26:21
  It's a happy thing.
• 26:22
  And then I have 79 marked, which is.
• 26:26
  He's saying, hey, you're going to do this for Jesus Christ, who is going to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
• 26:35
  He's telling him, look, your job is to come and you're going to prepare the way for Jesus Christ so that they can find hope, so that when it's so hard that they know where to turn, that there's light
• 26:48
  and dark.
• 26:49
  And I feel like he's giving him, you know, what Zacharias felt, and it was dark.
• 26:55
  He can't hear, he can't speak.
• 26:57
  You know, it's a dark time.
• 26:59
  And he knows his son is going to do that and that his purpose is.
• 27:03
  And that's what John does, is that so that when people come to Jesus Christ, they recognize him because of John's work, you know, so I, I just love that it's just a tender moment where you realize that Zacharias
• 27:20
  knows who his son is going to be and what his purpose is and that he gives that beautiful blessing upon his son.
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  Oh, so, so good.
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  Amy, thoughts there.
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  I love that, too.
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  And I, I really love that he talks about the things John will do.
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  And in verse 77, he specifically talks about the benefits of baptism.
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  John is the baptizer, right, the Baptist.
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  And so I love that he and, and I love these connector words.
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  He says, you know, you'll go before the face of the Lord and why?
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  To give knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God, to give light to them, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
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  And that really was John's mission.
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  He, He.
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  His mission was to begin baptizing people because when we are baptized and given that remission of sin, light comes upon us.
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  And that was, that was his job.
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  It was to get people ready for the Savior.
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  And I believe that is our job now, to work to gather Israel, to prepare the world to usher in the second coming of the Savior.
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  And so I believe there's really awesome parallels and great lessons we can learn.
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  From John and his life.
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  I also love that last verse where he literally gave.
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  He walked away from the things of the world.
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  You talk about choosing God.
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  He walked away from the things of the world to be taught of the Spirit and not be distracted by all the things that the world had to offer in his time.
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  Oh, so, so good.
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  I feel like I hardly have to add anything at all.
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  You guys have covered it all.
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  Oh, my goodness.
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  I.
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  I love what we have covered today.
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  It has been so powerful, such great examples both of Elizabeth and John being able to speak up and speak out and fulfill their missions and being good examples to John so he could fulfill his mission.
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  But then that string, that we can pull it into our day and say, I need to be strong in.
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  The Lord talks about it here and speak up and speak out and.
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  And fulfill my mission, whatever that is.
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  If you don't know, ask God.
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  Right?
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  He can guide us to say the words that we need to say to help.
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  Like Amy said, usher in the second coming.
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  Prepare people for the return of our Savior.
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  So beautiful.
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  Okay, quick, final takeaways.
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  Let's start with Amy and then Lemon.
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  I think my takeaway from today starts in verse 71, where he talks about being saved.
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  And he says.
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  And then there's a connector word, and he says, the whole purpose we're saved is to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant that in verse 74, might serve him without fear.
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  Those are the things that are standing out to me.
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  Like, he saves me.
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  He redeems me so that I will perform the mercy promise.
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  I will remember him.
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  I will serve him without fear.
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  And then in 80, I will turn my back on all the things the world has to offer to grow strong in spirit.
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  That's my takeaway.
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  Thank you.
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  I love that, Lamira.
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  Yeah, I love all of that, Amy.
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  I feel like for me, as I'm listening, as I'm thinking of John, I'm thinking of Zacharias, and I thought, you know, when we think our purpose, it's.
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  And I think I said this in the last podcast episode I was on, but it's.
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  Are people seeing Jesus Christ through me?
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  You know, purpose?
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  Am I leading them to him so that they can see his light for him and his light for them so that they can walk through darkness, you know, that they can find their way out of those difficult things
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  and to guide our feet into the way of peace?
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  So that's my takeaway, is that we can find our purpose no matter what.
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  It's.
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  Am I trying to shine a light towards God.
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  Am I giving him credit for.
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  For all of.
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  All of it, you know, for the hard and yet for the good.
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  And so that's kind of my takeaway.
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  I love that.
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  Thank you so much.
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  And oh my friends, take these little nuggets and apply them in your life and lean on God and you can do all things.
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  Whatever he is inviting you to do, fear not and move onward and upward, speaking out and speaking up and testifying of Him.
• 33:02
  Thanks for tuning in to Bible Women and Bathrobes, hosted by Women warriors of Light.
• 33:08
  We've loved exploring the stories of remarkable women or the teachings of the Savior today with you.
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  If today's episode brought someone special to mind, be sure to spread the word and don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a moment of inspiration and sisterhood.
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  Just a friendly reminder.
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  All opinions we share are entirely personal as we are trying to decipher and apply Bible teachings just like you are.
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  Until next time, stay faithful and may your journey be blessed and illuminated by God's love.