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Crushing Strongholds # 2 - Surface to Purpose · One Voice Many Conversations

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, everyone.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Crushing Strongholds.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is our second episode.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Woohoo! I'm so excited to be here today.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is a podcast where we talk about pain and we convert it into power and we tackle our trauma and we turn it into triumphs.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we just want to focus in on being a better version of ourselves.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mickey and I am your host.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also a Christian life coach.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm delighted and happy to be here today, super excited to share what I have for you today.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that you will be able to gain some insight and hopefully also be able to get a little bit more depth as to kind of who I am and what I'm doing with this podcast and what I have for everyone.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I am also really excited that coming up real soon, I have interviews coming up with some great and wonderful people that are excited to be on this podcast that are going to be sharing some testimonies to you in regards to how they themselves have overcome some obstacles in their lives where they were able to turn their pain into power or their trauma into a triumph.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And how God pulled them through basically some of the thickest places of their life where they were just stuck and being held by strongholds that needed to be broken.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely um just love being here.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um I love the fact that I get to share the word of God with you and talk to you about who Jesus is and how the joy of the Lord is our strength.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um so let's dive in, okay?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just dive right in.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the first episode I want to recap a little bit.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: The first episode in this series was what is a stronghold?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, being that this podcast is called Crushing Strongholds, um, I kind of broke down what those look like.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the four strongholds that I went over with you, basically there was um a physical stronghold, a um psychological stronghold, a metaphorical stronghold, and then lastly, a spiritual stronghold.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kind of left everybody at the end of that episode with a cliffhanger, and I asked you guys a couple of questions to think about and um just kind of gather your thoughts around, okay.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I asked you um how we take our thoughts captive, how do we get free from those um thoughts that keep us in captivity, and how do we crush strongholds?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want to take you on a journey where freedom actually exists, okay.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the glitch.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us, most of us are barely scratching the surface.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and having that in mind, um I want to take you on this journey to where we go a little bit further than scratching the surface because we want to get to God's greater purpose for our life.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: So in this episode, we're going to be jumping into some deep waters.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to talk about taking our thoughts captive and seeing the purpose that God has for us.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going beyond the scratching of the surface.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about surface, shall we?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Scratching the surface basically is as vague as it sounds, like it's very vague.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you scratch the surface, um, there's not much depth to it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's not a lot of thoroughness in it.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's basically a um very superficial way of dealing with matters in your life.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, certain circumstances, situations, things that need to be overcome.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another thing with scratching the surface, basically, um, think of it like as an investigation.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you do an investigation, if you're just scratching the surface, you're basically gonna give the briefest example of what you've discovered.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for something that's concealed in an investigation, excuse me, and you're just scratching the surface, you're probably not gonna have much to share.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you get to the root of it if you're just scratching the surface with it?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, although scratching the surface is a metaphor, it still refers to something particular, okay?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if you think about it, scratching the surface is where we have to start.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I wanted to go from surface to purpose, because if we don't start scratching the surface, how are we going to figure out what God's purpose is for our life?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: If we don't start digging in, okay.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And um, even if we're just scratching at it bit by bit, piece by piece, okay.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And starting at the surface, that's hey, it's a okay.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: You have to start somewhere, right?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: When God gave me a nudge, I could have ignored it.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps even just scratch the surface of it and then dismiss the rest of it.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so in my own testimony with crushing strongholds, I decided that I wanted to find out what this nudge was.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to know what it was that God had for me and why.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: What was his purpose?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: What what is my purpose?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: What what are what are we doing here on this earth?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that what is it that I'm missing?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes if if we just stay superficial and we don't go to the depths of where we need to be in a situation or circumstance, we don't get anywhere.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: We we just basically kind of stay in that situation or we just basically stay idle.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um had I not scratched the surface, I think I would still be stuck in that prison cell.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be just barely getting by.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be miserable, um, not only with myself, but making other people miserable too.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I think when people are stuck in their own prison and they're they're struggling with some something, sometimes they often um drag other people down.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: When you're around negative people or you're being a negative yourself, it causes other people to be negative as well.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I really want to dive into that, what the surface looks like, and how we got to get past the surface and try to figure out what God's purpose is.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, if you're just scratching the surface, um, I feel like when we're stuck in that situation, that part of it is lacking faith.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know for me, I was lacking a lot of faith.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And because my faith was really weak at the time, the time that I was stuck in this really dark place in my life that brought me to this podcast and brought me to having to dissect myself and get to a place where I had to learn that there were some things that I really needed to work on and I needed to overcome and I needed to tackle and I needed to tear down.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I needed some strongholds really crushed in my life.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, lacking faith was actually one of them.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was lacking a lot of faith.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Faith in who God is, who he was, who he says I am.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it was really important for me to realize that I didn't want to just stay at the surface level.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when we think about it, and we're thinking about um in when we talked about in Corinthians, that um the warfare that we have going on within us is it's not on the surface.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's within us.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned in the in episode one, that I can look across the room at a person and not have any idea what they're going through just by looking at them.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you can see it by their behaviors, by their actions, what they're doing, if they're self-destructing, um, uh just their their attitude, their their demeanor, whatever it is that that's about them, you can kind of see that they're they're going through something.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what is that?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's their warfare.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: You don't always know what a person goes through.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I think it's great and it's important to um be mindful and being considerate of other people because we really don't know what people are going through.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know what it is.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy on the outside to look in and go, you know what, this is what I think it is, but is it really?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's really not our place to decipher what somebody else is struggling with.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: We need to work on ourselves, solely ourselves, in order to gain that freedom.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's how we get to we we focus in on the pain that we have, the trauma that we have, and we turn that pain into something mighty.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: We become powerful because once we start recognizing that this pain is causing us to be stuck, and it has a stronghold on us, and we need to start crushing it and tearing down tearing down that wall piece by piece, it takes us to a place where we need to um one, focus in on God, take it to God in prayer.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Be like, you know, God, please help me, show me, show me.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: One thing I I I will um emphasize in my podcast that I had to learn to do was literally asking God to show me, Lord, show me, show me where I'm weak, show me where I'm lacking faith, show me what what I'm hanging on to that I need to let go of.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Show me my pain.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, sometimes we hold on to pain so tightly that we don't even realize it it's hurting us, okay, in that kind of sense.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, so how do we go from the surface to purpose?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: How do we do that?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the first thing is we need to know that um the purpose that we need is God's purpose, not just our not purpose that we have for ourselves.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that God gave us purpose?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: We did not give ourselves purpose.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's called God-given purpose.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, um, it's a unique mission, it's a calling or um a reason for existence believed to be assigned to an individual.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, our purpose is an assignment, kind of like.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, and he gives it to us individually.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose that God has for my life is not the same purpose that he has for yours.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's completely different.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we may have similarities, we may have likes and dislikes, we may have similar situations, we may have some of the same struggles, we may have some of the same strongholds, which this in unity is where we can help each other break free, but we need to also really clearly, clearly understand that God's purpose for us is our own.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's nobody else's purpose.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's only one of you, there's only one of me.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm already taken, and you're already taken.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I can't be you, you can't be me.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's important that we know that we need to know um the purpose that God has for us.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So do you know?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you literally know God's given purpose for your life?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I used to think, well, well, I know what my purpose is, but do I, did I really know?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Have I known?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Have I even thought about it?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did I pay any attention?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's dive deep into this, okay?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our purpose can actually bring troubled waters.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by this um is sometimes things happen for a reason, but if it did happen, it did happen for a reason, okay?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna share a scripture with you that I hope kind of brings some clarity to this podcast because I don't want it to be confusing.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm hoping that I can um word it and describe it and discuss it with you in a way that is easy for you to understand.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into scripture.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: The scripture I want to share with you today is in Isaiah.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible or your laptop or your phone or whatever it is that you like to read the word of God with, um feel free to grab it and read along with me.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I always encourage people to put the word in your hand so that way it's not just me saying it, okay?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that I'm literally giving you God's word.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm giving you God's manna.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is what God has given to me in this episode, and what I feel like I want to share with you.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna go into Isaiah 43.2, and I again am reading from the King James Version.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can read whatever version you like.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have not done any comparisons with other Bibles to this scripture, only the scripture that I have in in front of me.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Isaiah 43.2 says, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I love this scripture because when we're going through something in our life, when we're going through it, and we're struggling, and we're in that dark place, and we're we feel stuck and we're oppressed, and we have all of these things piled on us, okay?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's great to know that God is right there with you.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: God is with you, He's always gonna be with you.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you take him with you or not, he's still gonna be with you.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's times that I've tried to deal with things in my own life all by myself.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I had it all figured out.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I talked about in episode one about the knowledge of God, there was times when I thought that um um for some reason, I thought, you know, I'm smart enough.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I can figure this out.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I I know how to handle myself.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've been through these situations before.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know what the solution is.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: I I've got it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need anything else.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need anyone else.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need God in it.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: That is definitely not the way to go about it when we are struggling to get past the surface.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely want to go to God first.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Go to God and ask him, Hey, show me, show me, and then also, Lord, help me through it, help me through it.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And God says in Isaiah 43, too, he will be with you, he's gonna be with you in the water.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And although that you're in the river or whatever you're in, whatever struggle you're in, he's not gonna let it overtake you, especially if you're leaning on him.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you're leaning on God, he's gonna show you.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the second part of that scripture says, When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scort you.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, see, God's got you, he's got you, he's hanging on to you.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: He he has a specific plan and purpose for your life.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so one thing I want to talk about when we talk about God's or fulfilling God's purpose is what needs to happen.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: What needs to happen with with our purpose.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes deliverance is needed to be freed from the captivity of our strongholds.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: When we denounce the enemy and the lies, in Jesus' name, deliverance actually begins in that moment.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we call out and we denounce the enemy, we say, no longer, no longer, no longer, no longer am I gonna deal with this, no longer am I gonna do with this, no longer am I gonna walk this path alone, and no longer am I just gonna sit here and scratch the surface and not not dive deep and figure out what is really the root problem of the situation, what is the thing that's holding me captive, what is the stronghold?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and there's there's ways to crush strongholds.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are there are ways specifically to crush strongholds.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: The first way I want to share with you about crushing a stronghold is you need recognition.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Recognition is vital, it's important, and some people are like, that's it.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is that simple.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's that simple, but you have to take the time to stop and do some self-evaluation.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: You have to start dissecting your own thought process, your own psychological strongholds, your physical strongholds.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you at right now in your life today?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: What holds you back from being the best version of yourself?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, God does not want you to be held back, He created you for a purpose.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I can guarantee that a lot of people are barely scratching the surface, right?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're barely scratching the surface to what God's purpose is for their lives.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't recognize what's holding you back, you're gonna stay stuck.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't, if you cannot, if you cannot figure out or come to a conclusion as to what it is that has you stuck, you'll stay stuck.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Lining up with the truth and the word of God.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's so important that you line up with God and his word.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's why I like Isaiah, because when you're lining up with Isaiah, you know you're not by yourself.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're you know that you could handle anything, you could take on anything, you're not gonna have to do it by yourself, you're not gonna be alone in it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: And as hard as it may seem, no matter how swift or how deep or how how powerful the water is, he's not gonna let it overtake you.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's right there with you, he's holding on to you.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about pulling down strongholds, remember what we talked about in the first episode, how Rome wasn't built in a day, and our strongholds weren't built in a day.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of my strongholds personally started when I was born.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like literally, my struggles began at birth.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: When I was when I was abandoned by my father, okay, and then I ended up being rejected by my mother.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I went through a lot of physical abuse, I went through a lot of mental abuse, I went through sexual abuse, I was abandoned and I was rejected.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of strongholds that kept me stuck because I didn't know how to process all of those strongholds.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know how to deal with them.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we think about um 2 Corinthians 10, 5, when we're talking about pulling down those strongholds, knowing that God is right there with you, He's going to help you pull them down piece by piece, every single bit.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then let's go back to where I left you on that little cliffhanger when we're taking our thoughts captive.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna dive into that a little bit today.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Taking those thoughts captive, all of those imaginative thoughts that we had over ourselves, those self-destructive thoughts, like I am not good enough, I am not worthy.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And because of where I came from at birth, my whole entire life, I literally felt like I was unlovable, that I was unlovable, that people actually would never ever, ever actually love me.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: They might say they love me, they might give me a hug or or pat me on the back or or smile and and and say something nice to me, or you look nice today, or oh, that was, you know, that was a great thing that you did, or whatever.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I never truly, for a the longest time, never really truly felt like I was lovable.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I couldn't reciprocate that love that was coming to me, which kept me stuck.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: It kept me literally in a prison cell of feeling unworthy and unwanted and and not needed, and and I had no value.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: There was no value to my life.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so pulling down strongholds helped me to see the opposite of that, what God really did have for me.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And those were the thoughts that I had to take captive.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: I had to grab those thoughts and I had to search out the word, and I had to start replacing those thoughts with the thoughts that God has for me.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And God has a lot, a lot of thoughts.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: He has a whole book of thoughts for you.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna look at another scripture, which is renewing the mind, which is Romans 12, 2.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's another scripture that we are gonna tear into pieces, if you will.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do that scripture in depth in another episode, but that is where the renewing and the transformation starts happening, okay?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because there was times in my life when I barely even recognized who I was.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: What what it what is my purpose?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Who who am I as a person?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: But what I needed to do first is I needed to understand what God's given purpose actually was.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Before I could start tackling strongholds, I needed to understand and learn and know what God's purpose was.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: God's given purpose, God gave us purpose, he gave it to us.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: He literally created us, formed us, and when we were being created and formed, He He was He was given us purpose all along.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: From the moment we were born, we had purpose.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now I wish in my lifetime, years ago, someone had told me this.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, God has given you so much purpose.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because then I might have had in the back of my mind, instead of I'm unlovable or I'm unwanted or I'm not needed or the rejection that I had in my life, I might have thought, you know, that's hogwash.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have a purpose.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: I need to start thinking about those things.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's look at a couple of things here.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the characteristics of God and God's given purpose.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So one of God's given characteristics of God's given purpose is being aligned in faith.
• 21:59
  unknown: Okay.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Reflects our values and principles rooted in faith.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's also rooted in our relationship with God.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of relationship do we have with God?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this kind of brings me to a short story that I want to share with you, and I'll try to be brief.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get too sidetracked here, but it is, it is pertaining to this exact thing where it talks about a relationship with God.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was saved at a very young age, at 10 years old, at a Billy Graham crusade, um, which is part of my testimony that'll be coming later, I was not discipled.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was not explained that once you go to the altar and you pray that prayer and you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and you repent of your sins, now you need to build a relationship with God.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: God wants to be in a relationship with you, He wants to be in one accord with you, He wants to spend, He He desires all of your time.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to be in every bit of your day, from the moment you wake up till you go to bed and even in your dreams.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to be with you fully, all of you.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's important that we get rooted in our faith and in our relationship with God.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we get rooted deeply in God and in our relationships, all of the other things that that took root in this, they they start to get replaced.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: They get pulled out.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that about God because you know, and I don't want I don't want you to think or look at it like, oh, God's a replacement.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that, it's not that at all.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: He is something that we have a relationship with, and we can talk to him at any time of day, night, in any circumstance, any situation, God already, God already has the knowledge and he already understands it.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's just be really clear on that when we're talking about God's given purpose.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another characteristic is the divine origin.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the purpose um is believed to come directly from God, not self-determined.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's a divine origin.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: So God's characteristic of God's given purpose is He designed, He designed His purpose for you specifically.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't do it for yourself.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get to go out and say, well, this is what I want my purpose to be.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: When I was born, I didn't come out of the womb going, oh, this is what I'm gonna, this is what I want my purpose to be.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: God gave us a purpose, he gave it to us.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's his divine origin.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of his characteristic.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what God does.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Also, another characteristic of God's given purpose is um he is unique to the individual.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Each person is thought to have a distinct purpose that aligns with their abilities, their experiences, and their spiritual gifts.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he designed us that way.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: He designed me into as an individual.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he did not make me uh to look like anyone else.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: He did not create me to act, speak, move, function, or anything like any other person on this entire earth.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: He literally made me an individual.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and it's distinctive.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: He has a distinctive purpose for me, only me.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And again, my purpose is is solely mine.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I get to claim that, I get to own it, and I get to, I think it's I it's so exciting to me when I think about it because I'm like, oh my gosh, God gave me a purpose.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I not trying to fulfill it?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: What am I doing?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I holding back?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I holding back?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I allowing the enemy to place strongholds on me to where I can't fulfill God's purpose for my life?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we want to definitely be focused in on how unique we are as individuals, because that is really important part of God's purpose for our life.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Another characteristic of God's given purpose is that He He designed us to be service-oriented.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: God, a God-given purpose basically involves helping others, okay, spreading love and um contributing to a greater good, basically.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't design us with a purpose just to be self-glorified.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we definitely want to make sure that when we understand, when we're talking about individuality and we're talking about our purpose, he didn't create it just for us to become selfish with it.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a selfish thing.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Being purposeful is not a selfish act, okay?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if that makes any sense to you, but he literally designed us to be service-oriented.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: My whole life I spent trying to not serve other people, but please other people, and there's a difference in that.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you're serving people and you're doing it ordained by God, it's going to be blessed.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you are pleasing people because you think that you have to do something for that person in order to be who God made you to be, then that's not the right purpose.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's an incorrect purpose.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that that really um emphasizes what I'm trying to say, because we are not to be pleasing people.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I spent most of my life trying so hard to please people because I just wanted to be loved.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to fit in.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to be the midfist or the outcast.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to be um the one that got left on the sidelines all the time.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was always the last one picked.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and or if I wasn't picked at all, you know.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: I remember one time in PE, true story.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I I'm trying to remember what school I was at.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I believe I was at Lowell Elementary and we were in PE, and you had to partner up with someone to do your physical, um, this physical test that you had to do.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you had to do push-ups.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So they would count how many push-ups you did, and you counted how many push-ups they did.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you were little, you had a little partnership going on.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: We got clear to the end of the line, and I had nobody.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: There was not, there was nobody left for me.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was by myself.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I was okay with that because I really didn't want to work out with anybody else because it was kind of embarrassing.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want anybody counting how many sit-ups and push-ups I really couldn't do.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I'm okay with it.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the teacher goes, No, I'm gonna be your partner.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: The teacher was my partner, which was so intimidating for me.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: It made it made me feel like I had to, I had to work harder actually in that physical test than had I, if I had a student there, I could have probably slapped a little bit.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: But being that the teacher was my partner, because nobody else wanted to partner with me, I felt like I had a I I really had to strive to be better.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of a good thing, but kind of a bad thing as far as for my mentality part, thinking that I just was neglected once again.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: So just kind of a quirky little story I wanted to share there with you on um not being picked.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I was never ever picked first, okay.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: But how how do we discover?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about how we discover God's given purpose for our lives.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: How how can we discover it?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for myself, when I got saved, I basically just scratched the surface.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I got saved.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I went and I prayed a prayer.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I repented of my sins.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was only 10.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: I thought my life was just gonna flip over and I was gonna have a completely different meaning to life, that my life was just gonna be great and and um, you know, sunshine and butterflies and you know, dandelions and all things great once I got saved.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that wasn't the case.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't the case.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't know God had a purpose for my life.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know He had a plan for me.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I definitely wasn't participating in any of that at all.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: I had I had no desire, I had no understanding, I had no discipleship.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing was taught to me on what to do.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was taught, you know, this is right, this is wrong, don't do this, do this, do this, do it, don't do this.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that was that brought a lot of confusion because I was raised in foster homes.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I was raised around a lot of different types of people, I was raised in lots of different types of churches.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I heard lots of different types of ways of doing things, which caused a lot of confusion for me because sometimes I would start doing things one way, thinking it was the right way, and someone would be like, Hey, what are you doing?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the right way.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'd go, okay, and I'd flip over to the other side and do it that way, and then somebody go, Oh, that's not the right way.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a really hard time just figuring out what was right and what was wrong in some certain um some circumstances of my life because it was so complicated.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, why didn't it have to be so complicated?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a Christian now.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Jesus saved me.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this complicated?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and it really seems difficult at times.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: But there were times in my life when God literally, literally showed up.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I know that there was no other way in that certain circumstance or situation that God could not have been there to save me.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've been in some situations that were were life-threatening, and God showed up and he saved me.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so but how do we get to discovering God's given purpose?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: How do we discover that?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: How do we dive in and look for that?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, prayer and meditation.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that if you get up and you and you spend some time in prayer and you sit and meditate on the word of God, God is going to reveal things to you through his word and through Holy Spirit.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to um, for one, he loves talking to you, he wants you to talk to him, but sometimes we also have to listen.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes that listening comes through his word, where he says, we have to do this.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: We have to trust him.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: We have to trust him that when we step out into deep waters, he's gonna be there with us.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's what his word says in Isaiah.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: We read that.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it's important that we're getting in the scripture and we're grabbing onto it.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: So when we go through our walk each day in life, that when we come up against an obstacle or a stronghold that's gonna push us back and set us back and take us to the dark place again, we go away.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to do that.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not by myself.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: God's right here with me.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: I can do this, I can get through this.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Another way um to discover God's given purpose is recognizing your gifts and passions, okay, and and identifying your talents and even your interests.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: That can be used to serve others, okay.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: When you identify what is your passion, so I helped um with a homeless ministry for almost two years, and I did it faithfully every single weekend, every single weekend.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: I showed up, I showed up, I showed up, I showed up, I showed up, I showed up.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, very rarely did I take the weekend off.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I would, a couple of times I did to go camping.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I, you know, that that was just how that panned out on the schedule.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I made sure that I had everything covered, I had all of my responsibilities were taken care of.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't leave anybody hanging.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that ministry was being fulfilled, okay, because that was the passion that I had.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: And apparently it was also a talent that I had because I was really good at it.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: I could show up, I could set up, I could get things done, and I knew how to prepare the food, I knew how to reach out to people and get food brought, and um it was for a great purpose, so it was successful, okay.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: God gave me that talent, okay.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not trying to say that to brag or boast.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: He literally put me in that position to be able to fulfill that ministry.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't a preacher, I wasn't a minister, I was just a servant.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: I like to like people to understand that I was just a servant.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, God was using me for his service.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another way of discovering God's given purpose for your life is studying scripture.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Study it.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever um went in and took a class?
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like when you go to Sunday school or you have a Bible study or you go to college, okay?
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not a theologian, I'm not a I'm not a scholar by any means when it comes to um the Bible.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: I went to get my ministry degree because I wanted to study the Word of God.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to learn and be inspired by it.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to know what my purpose was, and I wanted to know how to fulfill that purpose, the purpose that God had for me.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is actually um one of the things that God wanted me to do.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: He nudged me into this.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: It took me a long time to get the urge and the gumption, so to speak, to get on here and record this for you because I do not like to have my voice recorded.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like um, I don't like the camera, so to speak, but I'm here.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that um by being obedient and taking what God nudges me to do.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to, I literally took it to Jesus.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: I prayed about it.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, I want to do this, but I will do this.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: I will do this, I will be obedient to Lord, and I'm doing it.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm here today.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: So this is proof.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so um we'll see how good I am, but you know what?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Only, you know, we can only be as good as we are, but we have to have that confidence.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have confidence, I didn't have confidence for years in my life, okay.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: But studying the word of God started to build confidence in me because God was showing me who He made me to be from all of people in my entire life that ever put me down, and I took their opinion of me over God's opinion of me, really almost destroyed me.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: It literally could have destroyed me, but I didn't allow it.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: I had to overcome it.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: That was a really big stronghold in my life where I had to stop listening.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had to shut my ears off to even people that I love and care about, they would say stuff to me and it would just hurt me and hurt me and hurt me and damage me and and and and put me in this shell, in this little hiding place.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I just went and crawled in my hole because I was so scared.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: I it took away my confidence in who I was.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: But once I started studying the scripture and finding out what God's given purpose was for my life, things started changing for me like drastically.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: I started talking to my daughter.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: My daughter's looking at me like, Who is this?
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Where did my mother go?
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Where's my mom?
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Okay, okay, yeah, um, yeah, if that's what you want to do, mom.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, I and even even my daughter was like, I don't know if you should do that.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't like your voice, you don't like you know, pictures of yourself, and you don't like this and you don't like that, and and and but I didn't listen to her.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't listen to her because God had already spoken to me and God had already nudged me and told me this is what he wanted me to do, so that's why I'm here today.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: So also, also, excuse me, listening to inner conviction.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, when God is speaking to you, so to speak, through his word, which he does that, he does that.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: He'll give you a word and you're reading it, and conviction will come.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be like, oh man, I'm really bad at that.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't I didn't realize that, Lord.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I didn't, I didn't realize that, Lord.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Just like I didn't realize my purpose.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, I need to work on that.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: That that is that is a behavior I need to change, that is an attitude I need to correct.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: That is that is a sin that I need to start working on.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, God doesn't expect us to be perfect, but when He shows you something and you get convicted of it, He wants us to pay attention to it.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we start paying attention to it, it brings fulfillment and it starts to align with our faith.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we start having faith in God and we get convicted and we start changing.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: God blesses us, He blesses us, okay.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: And another way, another way to discover God's given is to seek counseling.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Go to your church, go to a pastor, um, get coaching.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a life coach.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out to me anytime you want, reach out to me.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, get some coaching.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a great thing to have.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with it.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with asking for help and in fulfilling your purpose.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you know that God's got a purpose for you and you're not sure exactly what to do, or you're stuck in a place where you have strongholds holding you back, and they're so strong, and you just can't get free from it.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you just need you just need a little bit of somebody from the outside going, hey, try this, do this, do that.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: So again, when we talk about it, when we speak about it, we talk about that deliverance.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we talked about deliverance?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, deliverance is needed to be freed.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, denouncing the enemy, going to Jesus, saying, In Jesus' name, I rebuke this, I rebuke this, I rebuke this, I rebuke this.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy does not have a hold on me anymore.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: He does not get to have a say or any control.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Get beneath me, Satan.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: We can say that.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: And what I love about that is in 2 Samuel 22, 2, literally says, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is who delivers you from your strongholds.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy isn't gonna deliver you, he's gonna keep you there, he's gonna hold on to you.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: So remember that scripture.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, forgot to have you look it up.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: I should have had to look it up before I went into it because I got so excited.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Samuel 22, 2.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: He is our safe place, he is gonna be what delivers you, he is gonna be your solid foundation.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: Above anything else.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Above anything else.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so having that in mind, I want to know um just where are we?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Are we still sitting on the surface?
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Are we still scratching the surface?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now that we have an inclination and we have some knowledge into what um God's given purpose is for our life, we can we're gonna recap that here in a minute.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: When we know what his purpose is, we know we're chosen specifically.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we have a divine appointment with the Lord and He is going to work in us.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have our we have gifts, we we we have an ability to serve.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we have a uniqueness, we have um basically a what am I trying to say here?
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm trying to think of the word.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: We have a spiritual gift.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a spiritual gift.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you may have a gift similar to my gift, okay.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean it's gonna operate the same.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, my spiritual gift is not the same as your spiritual gift.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be the same.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are not going to have the same thing.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now when we look at the church as a whole, or we look at Christianity as a whole, we see a lot of things that are very similar.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we have the minister, we have the pastor, we have the the um assistant pastor, we have the um kids pastor, we have the worship leader, we have the worship team, we have um uh I don't know, uh Bible studies, we have um church camp, we have all of these things that that that people are participating in and they're fulfilling in that gift.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: But when they're fulfilling that gift, it's definitely important that we understand that God's gift for each person is unique, it's very, very, very unique in nature, it's not the same as anyone else's at all.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely an individual uniqueness, okay, which makes it service-oriented.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when we're serving in an area, this is why, okay, I'm getting kind of twisted here.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we're talking about service-oriented purpose that God gives us, I had somebody tell me this one time, and I thought it was really interesting, and I'm gonna share this because I I want to make sure that um you understand um what I'm kind of getting at here.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we think what we want to do for service may not be what God wants us to do.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a perfect example of this.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I started going to a new church.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was very excited.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't know much about the church, but I wanted to learn, I wanted to grow.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the minute I get into a new church, um, I want to be part of a church family.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: So bad.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I always had the desire to be wanted and to be loved, um, to be accepted.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes I would put my best foot forward and be like, oh, I I remember going to this church, and within like a couple of months, I'm like, I want to be on the worship team.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be on the worship team.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be on the worship team.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: And a gal that was up on the worship team, she was also working in the morning before church, her and her husband as a couple.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were running the coffee, the coffee bar.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I went up to her one morning and I was like, Hey, um, I wanted to ask, how do I get up there to worship with you all?
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, um you have to serve somewhere else first.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Serve somewhere else first.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I had no idea where that other other place was.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Yeah, we don't just, you know, she said, It's it's a huge honor to be on the worship team.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's very important that you can show that you are willing to serve in other areas, not just in areas that you want to be in.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, hmm.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it was very humbling.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking about that for a couple of weeks.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, we had some new people come to our church and they helped start the homeless ministry.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I was asked, um, well, let me back up.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: I actually offered to um help with donations and stuff like that.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: And because I put my best foot forward, um, didn't realize I was offering services when I was offering um clothing for the homeless or food or um, you know, hygiene items or whatever it was that they were collecting for the homeless ministry.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was asked if I would partake in the homeless ministry, if I would help with the ministry.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, sure, um, what did you want me to do?
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever they asked me to do, I did it.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt like God said, whatever they ask, do it.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just do it.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just be service-oriented and go at it with a joyful heart.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, that was one of the greatest ministries I ever I ever was in because I literally didn't pick the ministry, I didn't go searching for a ministry that I wanted to be in.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was God pulling me into it.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it was amazing because I was in that ministry, like I said, for almost two years.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: And in that time, as much as I love worship and I love to sing and I enjoy all of that, praising God, the desire that I had, or the desire I thought I had to be up on stage wasn't as important as fulfilling the desire that God placed me in.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: So when we are service-oriented, we need to make sure that we are literally listening to the word of God and that we understand our calling on our life.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: We are called.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think that we're not equipped, but God will equip us.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: He will give us the needs that we need to fulfill the calling that he has on our life.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: So when we think about 2 Samuel 22, 2 again, look it up if you haven't.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: Write it down if you haven't.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: Look, get I want to read it again, though.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to be our solid foundation.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: He is going to be your fortress.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: When we're talking about physical strongholds, this is it.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is your fortress.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is your fortress, he is your physical stronghold.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he's also your deliverer.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to be the one that keeps you in the palace and he takes you from the prison cell.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really important that when you start scratching the surface to crushing strongholds, that you have an understanding as to what God's purpose is for you.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's really important that you know what the differences are and that you have a divine calling and that you're uniquely and individually made.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't emphasize that enough.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: I had to have that told to me hundreds of times before it registered.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Registered.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: You are special.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: You are created with, you know, um with such a purpose.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: God has so many great things for you.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody told me that once, and I kind of I literally laughed right at them.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: I laughed right at them, and I thought they were nuts.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was true, but the only reason I didn't know is because I was lacking faith and I wasn't in the Word of God like I should have been.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't in prayer, I wasn't meditating on God.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't allowing God to show me the things that I needed to conquer and the strongholds that I was hanging on to.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was hanging on to that past abandonment, that past rejection, that past pain.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: And as God started showing me the purpose he had for me, and how I was created with so much greatness.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that to be boastful.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: We are all created in greatness.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't make mistakes.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're masterpieces.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: When I do an art project or I teach an art class because I'm an artist, I've had painters come in and say, Oh man, my wife or my husband drugged me here, and I don't want to do this because I can't paint nothing.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not good at this at all.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have no artistic ability.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I literally tell them, give me one hour of your time.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: Give me one hour.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because the first hour that I have them, I'm teaching them how to paint.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second hour, they get to put their creativity into their own masterpiece.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I've not had not one student yet leave and say, I'm never doing this again.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: I told you I was a terrible painter.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the times they were like, wow, I created that.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: I made that.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I could do that.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I had the ability.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, same with scratching the surface and searching God's purpose for my life.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I had the ability, literally the ability, to be something more than stuck.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I had the ability to be somebody better than just abandoned and not wanted and not loved, someone that was just a misfit, or I was an outcast, or I wasn't going to be called on.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: God already called me.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: God already ordained me.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just like he ordained you, and just like he wants to fulfill you, that's what he did for me.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, I can't wait until we just literally keep diving deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, and you guys get to see radically how things can change.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: It'll change your life.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: It changed my life.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was literally in the darkest place, the darkest place.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know what that is, for me, it was suicide.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I actually was in a dark place where I felt so strongly, the devil literally had me so convinced that I was not needed, I was of no value, I have I was of no importance, I had zero purpose, I had no abilities.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, everything I ever gone through in my life was just a quinky dink.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, it was terrible.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was a terrible dark place to be in.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I really thought, if if I'm such a waste of space, why am I here?
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: What what if I don't have a purpose, why am I here?
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was really in a dark place where the three years that I was stuck in this prison cell, I literally had to battle thoughts of suicide often, more often than I would like to say.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I've talked to people and I have friends and um really close friends that have shared with me similar situations.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: And not that I'm glad that I wasn't alone in it, but I am so frustrated with how many people are in this dark place when there's so much freedom out there, and God wants us to have so much peace and joy in our life.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be delivered.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so I hope that as we went through this episode today, that it wasn't too much, that I didn't take it over the top.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I hope that I didn't um scramble too much.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I'm really new at the podcasting thing.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: I literally am just trying to fulfill God's purpose.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I am fulfilling God's purpose.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: God told me He wanted me to do this, and I'm doing it.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it out of obedience.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope as I go along with it that I get better and better and better.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you enjoy it.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I also hope that you you gain something from it and that you get to work on yourself.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I want you to do this week with me getting ready to end this episode is I want you to think about not only what I wanted you to think about last episode about taking those thoughts captive and how to get free and how to crush them, but what is God's purpose for you?
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe take some time out, sit with God and say, Hey, God, what hey, hey God, uh, what is it that you have for me?
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: What about what about me?
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not about like, oh, whoa, what about me?
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not the woe was me kind of what about me.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, the serious, like, Lord, what purpose do you have for my life?
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: Am I fulfilling it or is there more?
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I really believe, I believe really in my heart strongly, which is what brought me to do this podcast, is I really feel like people are not scratching, not even scratching the surface to their calling, to their purpose.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like we're missing the mark by so much.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um I literally, literally think that as we continue with these podcasts, we're gonna see people get freed.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't wait to bring in some of the some of the guests that I have to share with you.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited to have interviews and and you guys get to meet some fantastic people that have actually been able to crush some strongholds and came out on the other side, maybe went through suicide or um just some dark places in their life that they were able to overcome.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are all overcomers, all of us are.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: We we we are, and um, we don't get to put the final say as to when we're done.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: God does.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: God is the the um the finisher, he's the author of our our our life, and he's the finisher, he's the one who's gonna, he's gonna be the one at the very end to close the book, and I mean that literally.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: When we stand before a God on judgment day, and he's looking for your name in there, and and I pray that your name is in there, because one day that book is gonna shut, and that'll be the end of your story.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: But until then, he's the one who is the author of your life.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, so connect with him.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_00: Go sit at his feet, go meditate in his word, go pray, spend some time asking God, what is it that you want me to fulfill while I'm here?
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be in obedience to Christ, okay?
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's really super, super, super important.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: So think about that.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_00: Think about your God-given purpose, think about some of those thoughts that you need to take captive, those thoughts that somebody spoke over you, thoughts that you spoke over yourself.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_00: And take some time and just sit idle.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just sit idle for a minute.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: And start thinking about how you're gonna overcome it.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the next episode that we're gonna be talking about and diving into is um talk stuck, stay stuck.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's kind of like you I can figure out for yourself what that's gonna be about, and I'm not gonna tell you what it's gonna be about, so I'm gonna go through it with you when we get to the next episode.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: So um, as we still go through this series as what is a stronghold on this um podcast, I really want you to think about talking stuck and staying stuck, okay, and how to overcome that.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, my friends, I thank you so much for being here.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is Crushing Strongholds.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm your host, Mickey, and I want to let you know that um I'm it's an honor and a privilege to be here.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to let you know that if you need anything, if you need anything, prayer for anything, if you just have a question or um have um something that you need prayer for, you feel free to reach out to me anytime.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: I am always here and willing to pray for anyone.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I feel like it is very important for us to um pray for one another, okay?
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uplift each other in prayer and be mindful and um just keep crushing strongholds.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I thank you again for being here.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know why for me I have I have the hardest time saying goodbye, but I hope you all have a blessed day and let's talk soon.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.