Latest / The Father's Business Podcast / Free to Be You: Servant Gift

Transcript

Free to Be You: Servant Gift · The Father's Business Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: And I am Kimberly Roddy.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Father's Business podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We are so glad that you've joined us.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to this podcast.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Today we're focused on the servant gift, and we have two of my favorite people on the podcast with us today.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: We have Debbie.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Debbie worked for the father's business in our office for many, many years, so if you are a really old customer with the father's business, you may have had a chance to talk to Debbie on the phone or had met her at one of our conferences.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And we also have our beloved friend Anne, who has been a part of our leadership team for many, many years.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: They are two of the wisest women I know and I am so looking forward to you hearing from them what it really looks like to be a servant gift in its maturity.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: It's so great to have these ladies with us today as we talk about the servant gifts.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Remember two weeks ago we released.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Today, as we talk about the servant gifts, remember two weeks ago we released the podcast that explains more about the gifts.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: But just a quick recap for the servant gift.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: This gift enjoys being behind the scenes.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: They actually get life from being behind the scenes.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: They prefer to stay behind the scenes and yet they are excellent leaders in their own way.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: So don't assume that just because they're behind the scenes and yet they are excellent leaders in their own way.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: So don't assume that just because they're behind the scenes, they're not leaders.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: They like to be given a task to help a group project.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: They want that group project to succeed.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: They feel comfortable when they're helping and serving others.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: They are focused on meeting needs, the practical everyday needs that can be done for others.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: And one of the most beautiful things about the servant is they have authority.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: A lot of servants don't think they have an authority, but they have an authority to prepare a place and to create an atmosphere to help others feel welcome and comfortable, to cleanse an area in preparation for ministry.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Sometimes A lot of you may be thinking I don't know that I have authority.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not a servant because I don't feel that.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: But think again about that and listen to these two ladies today as we talk about this gift.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: And so the first question we would love for you to answer for us is what do you love about being a servant gift?
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: And y'all are going to sit here and play chicken with each other on every single question.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: So we're going to call on somebody, debbie.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: You know, you could probably ask me what I don't know, because I well, that's that.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: That question's coming, but first we're going to start on the positive side.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I love everything about my gift I love the fact that it it fits me if, if that makes any sense and I'm comfortable in it and I enjoy surprising people with it.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: If that makes any sense.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: How do you?
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: surprise people with your gift.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: When I share with people and it doesn't matter, it doesn't have to be at church, anywhere that we are when I share with them, I get this you're so easy to talk to and how do you know about these things?
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: And it's usually practical things.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: And I just said you know, that's how God designed me.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: I'm a servant at heart and a lot of them are surprised at heart and a lot of them are surprised Now, years ago they didn't used to be, because I was always meeting those practical gifts.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: That's not what I do anymore, so they're surprised.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And what do you love about the servant gift?
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: Everything, everything, what can I say?
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: But one of my favorite things about it is going to places.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: I get to go that I would have never gone before because I guess it's fairly easy to be with me and people ask me to go places, kind of as a watchman on the wall.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: People ask me to go places kind of as a watchman on the wall, as a friend.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: I'm not really going to do a lot of other things, administrative, whatever.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: They just want me there with them.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: I'm a good hand holder, I guess.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: So I have been lots of places I would have never expected to go because someone just said, hey, will you go with me?
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: So it's small jobs.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: But I tell everybody I love the small jobs.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: No job too small for any.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: So you both referenced that you love everything about your gift, but surely there's something about the gift that you struggle with.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: So what would you say are some of the things with being a servant that you struggle with?
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: or don't like necessarily, debbie.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: I think it's how people perceive a servant.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: They have absolutely no idea about the depth of a servant, but I think the fact that they see me only as somebody who can do things for them, when there's so much more to a servant than that, I think that's the thing I dislike the most.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: How about you, ann, similar say, being asked to be up front lots of times, people making assumptions about what I enjoy doing and then, when I have to convince them, no, I really like not being up front, not leading, not administrating, not ruling.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: It is an absolute joy in my heart to do what I have found is God's gifting in me for His purposes, but it's frustrating trying to convince people sometimes that I'm happy doing what I'm happy doing rather than doing what they might prefer I do.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to think of an example.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: I have a very dear friend who leads two or three Bible studies a week in another state and she called me one day and she said I get so frustrated.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: There's this certain lady and I keep giving her things to do.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to draw her out and have her do things and I said, well, like what?
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: And she said like to give the devotional.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: Or she mentioned two or three things and I said I don't think that's how she's wired.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: And so I said she may be servant gift and we talked about a totally different approach to letting her shine and it was a great help to the Bible study teacher.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: She just didn't realize she was trying to push somebody forward that didn't want to be pushed forward in the spotlight.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: I guess I even got tickled watching Chosen Dallas.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: His wife's name, amanda, was sitting right by him and she said she told me when all this started I don't get in front of the camera, I don't do any of that acting, and he said.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: But once live streaming started, he said here she is leading the show, so once you found her lane, full speed ahead, but don't try to push us into somebody else's design.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Here's a question for you, debbie.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Can you speak to what it's like to fit into that mode of not always wanting to be up front but then stepping into that portion a little bit?
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: It's been an uphill battle.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: I will say that because I denied it for so long.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Recently, I have been asked several times to teach a class, and normally, as a servant, that is not what I would do.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: But once God gave me the okay to do that and the assurance that I could do that as a servant, then I have found it's been rather exhilarating and a part of me has surfaced that I didn't even know was there.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: But then God gave me a correlation.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: Now one thing's for sure because I do step up into the front, they think I'm going to be the leader.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: No, they'll have to choose somebody else to do that.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Teach, sure, but it's no different than preparing for a meal for people to come, because I'm preparing a meal for this class and I am preparing the atmosphere for them to come to meet their Savior, and I'm preparing the atmosphere for their Savior to come to meet them.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: And I thought, well, that's no different than when I make a meal.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I clean my house, I get it ready, I get out all the pretty dishes.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: I want them to be comfortable.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: I want them to enjoy themselves Same the way when I get up to teach.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: I want them to be comfortable, I want them to enjoy themselves.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Same the way when I get up to teach.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: I want them to be comfortable.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: You will see me before anybody gets there, I'm rearranging furniture.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: This past Sunday they had me use a microphone, which I've never done before, but they can't hear me.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: The class has gotten so big they can't hear, but with the microphone I'm adjusting, I'm making sure that everybody can hear.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: That's the same thing I'm doing when I invite people to my home.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: The only difference is at home I'm the chef.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: When I teach, god's the chef.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: The Holy Spirit is the one that dictates where we're going to go, because he's telling us what we need to hear from the father.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: So when I got that picture, I thought I can do that.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: I can do this because I pray over the class anyway, whether I'm teaching or not, and so it just it made it once.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: I did it.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: I can't begin to explain to you how I felt it was.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, this is me.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Come and eat what the father has for you.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: For both you, debbie, and Ann Debbie more you because you worked at the father's business for many, many years and so we saw you up close and personal three days a week, but also with you, Ann.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I think part of the struggle that I have, and other people have, until you truly understand the gifts and where God has placed you in the body of Christ, is you two have such depth and wisdom, and the minute you're having a one-on-one conversation with either one of you and you hear that, your immediate first thought is she needs to be sharing this with a whole lot more people.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: And so I think there are ways that other gifts like myself being a prophet gift or any of the other gifts would hear the wisdom that you two have, because there is such a depth to the servant gift that I think some people just think a servant is what they do.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: But there is such a wisdom and authority and a depth to the servant gift that I think some people just think a servant is what they do.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: But there is such a wisdom and authority and a depth to the servant gift that we mistakenly go oh well, then you should be in the front instead of letting you use all that wisdom and authority where God is telling you to go, sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes up in front.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: But I think that sometimes we get a misguided enthusiasm to try to kick servant gifts out into more of a spotlight than they are supposed to be in at that moment.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Agreed as we think about the servant gift, you know God is all seven of the gifts and we see it reflected throughout Scripture.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Where do you see in the life of Jesus?
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Or in God, the Father and the Holy Spirit?
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Where do you see the servant gift reflected?
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: in the in the scriptures when it talks about God and you go first gosh.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: Um, I don't know where to start on this one.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: In the last five years there's a lady at the church who has a really prophet wiring and walking alongside her.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: We developed what was called inner healing and deliverance model and we took about 250 people through one-on-one an eight-week course for two hours every week, and so I got to sit in as a prayer minister in there.
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: We did two prayer ministers for each person and so by the end of eight weeks we were seeing people just radically changed and transformed.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: So how do I see the heart of the Father in that?
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: I felt like my servant.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: Giftings were really.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: Oh, it was wonderful to be able to do what I did with the joy that I did and I thought, father, you sent Jesus first to heal us and to turn us from our wicked ways, and that's what I'm getting to do.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: The way you sent Jesus to do that for us.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: We're able to draw these people into looking at their heart, hearing Holy Spirit and learning alignment.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: And I'm just right now I got goosebumps.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: I'm just so excited about it.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: It was a wonderful, wonderful five years just seeing the heart of the father, to move through servant, move through all the gifts.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: But that's what I see right now.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: That's what comes to my mind, debbie that's.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: That's awesome, Ann.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: That is.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: That is amazing.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: And it doesn't really matter if you're reading Old Testament or New Testament.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: From the very beginning, God purposed all of this and I think we have absolutely no idea.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: But if you look as he carried the Israelites, he took care of them, he served them even though they were supposed to be serving him, but he was patient with them and he was caring with them and he served them the same way Jesus did he served, he cared.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: His compassion was unbelievable.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: And to be able to identify with that and the authority when Jesus said I have been given all authority, then he gave us the authority.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: And to be able to partner with the Holy Spirit now in being a servant to God's people, I think that is truly Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: And we have the privilege and honor to humble ourselves like Jesus did and to serve.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: What both of you shared is just a powerful picture.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: But when you think about it.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: It's not God in your gift.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Jesus is all the gifts.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: Isn't that what you've taught us?
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Jesus is all the gifts.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: So we have the privilege of being part of the family of god and we are in jesus.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: So, therefore, when we learn our gifts, we partner with the Holy Spirit and continue the work that Jesus had when he was on earth, no matter what the gift is and for us it was servant, so it just.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: It makes a lot of sense to understand I am in Christ, in God, I am part of the body of Christ.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: I am part of the body of Christ, I am part of the family of God, and so, therefore, this is how he created me.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Why wouldn't I want to be all that?
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: He created me to be in Christ, and I think that's very key, right there.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: And that echoes what the story, anne, that you were sharing about what it looks like to be in the body together with others, the power that we have when we recognize our design and our gift and others recognize theirs and we just get in sync together and all the gifts together and the power, the kingdom power that that can have right.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly, it's pretty amazing and to get to be a part of that is such a privilege.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's pretty amazing, and to get to be a part of that is such a privilege.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: What do you, what do you two, wish that people understood about your gift or your design?
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: You feel like they miss sometimes.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Go, debbie.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: The depth that we are so much more than just what we do.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: There is a depth to all the gifts.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying they don't have depth either, but I don't think people view a servant as being deeply spiritual, to tell you the truth, because they only look at what we do.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: And I have shocked many when I've been asked to do and I'm going no, that's not what God has for me at this particular moment.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: But I will give suggestions and I've had people come back and say that was the right thing, because one of the things we don't want to do is step on somebody else's gifting.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: We only want to stay in our gifting as God created it, gifting as God created it and we have a depth to us that has the privilege of touching the heart of God, and Anne mentioned something about we have authority given to us by God and I think, as a servant, people don't see us as having authority, but we do have authority when we partner with the Holy Spirit.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: I really think that Jesus continues his ministry on earth when we're willing to walk in that authority and partner with the Holy Spirit, ms Ann.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: What I wish people would understand is for me personally.
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: I get really excited doing things that I know he has equipped me to do and I just feel like it releases something to others from my spirit to theirs.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: And when sometimes I'm even thinking of doing something that is maybe not more my design, I can just kind of feel the air sucked out.
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: It just it doesn't go anywhere and I just know immediately that's not for me.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: So I can pray and look for the person that the Lord might be moving that direction moving that direction.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: But I know quickly when it's where Holy Spirit's calling me because I just light up.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: It's so much fun doing what he's wired me to do Once I understood that I don't have a lesser gift.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: I have an amazing gift and it's me being a willing vessel for him to serve.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: As Debbie said, that everybody will say of course Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and we want to have that heart.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: But it really does flow like that out of us when people release us to move in it.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, I think that's an interesting point that you bring up there.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Like I'm curious, elizabeth, you may want to weigh in this as well as Debbie and Anne, but you just said, anne, sometimes you didn't say it this way, but there can be this attitude of the servant is a lesser gift, yes, and I'm just wondering why is that and how can we?
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: You were just encouraging people that knowing that design and stepping into that gift is a beautiful thing, but I want to push back against that mentality, right?
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, why is it that?
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: You think, elizabeth, do you have any words of wisdom on that too?
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that's just our contemporary church culture.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think there's a lot of layers to it.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: I think even the label of servant can somehow sound like you're inferior.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, compared to a ruler or a prophet or an exhorter, servant doesn't sound like as big of a word, and I think the desire and the power of the servant is so much working behind the scenes that a lot of people don't even know what all the servant's up to.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: And I think that's by design.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I think, anne, in the past you've talked about it feeling like a secret agent.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: You know you and God are on a mission and not everyone has to know what you're up to, and so it's not flashy, it's not showy, it's not out front leading, and so I guess in some ways people are like, oh well, you're just a servant, which is awful, and the absolute wrong thing to think.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Absolute wrong thing to think because I think, of all the gifts, the servant has the most ability to tap into God's authority and to do some things that other gifts can't do.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And I think it's because they're not seeking glory or recognition.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Or look at me, look at me, you know, aren't you so proud of me?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Like they'll just get the job done and they'll never say you know, do you see that?
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Do you see what I just did there?
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: And they're not looking for the praise of man, because they know they have the applause of heaven for following after God's heart.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: So I think some of that is just our mindset of looking at the outward actions of a servant that we do see and it looks like oh well, you take care of all the tasks that no one else wants to do.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: But that is by far, I would say, the lowest rung of what a servant does.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: And what I was about to ask you to is you two are very mature in your gift, have a deep understanding of that.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: So what does the servant gift look like?
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: In less maturity or understanding?
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Or I mean someone who's a servant gift but not surrendering that gift under God's control?
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: What does?
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Because some of these people listening to this podcast are like, well, I think I'm a servant, but I don't sound like that, like that's, that's not who I am.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: So think back in your own journeys or in the journeys of some other people that you know what.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: What is the lesser developed let's put it that way form of this gift?
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: What does that look like, debbie?
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: Because in the beginning, when God really revealed to me that I was a servant, I thought, well, okay, that's good, but I hid behind what I did.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: So, I wasn't exactly being all of who God created me to be, but I hid behind.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: And because of the way people view servant, I think servants are partly at fault because we have stepped back and hid to do things behind the scene.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: When we understand that authority that God has given us, it's still behind the scene but it's very powerful.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: So therefore, we have to step out of the things that we do to partner with the Holy Spirit to do the things that we were created to do.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: I remember when I God bless my husband, he said who do you serve those people or God?
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: And that was major for me, because all I did was prepare meals, go to the hospital, sit with people at home that had lost a loved one.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: I was constantly doing, and doing, and doing, until one day I heard this little voice.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: I think it sounded like Sylvia, but I'm not sure.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: But it said you don't have to meet every need.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: And I thought that's free.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: I used to think that because there was a need, I had to meet that need because I could see the practical aspect of it.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: I could see how to help on this side and I could see how to help on that side.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: And it was good, but it was not in partner with God.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: And I think that as I began to understand spirit, soul, body and who was supposed to take the lead, I lived from my soul, my flesh, wanting to do all those things.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: But when I pulled back just a little bit, enough to ask am I supposed to do that?
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: And it was no, that and it was no, and that's.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: I think that's.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: That's that's the only way I know to describe how I went from hiding behind what I did to now being able to step in front and prepare a meal for a class.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: Well, you guys know how much I love to keep it simple.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: I think originally, until I was aware of ofant and how God powerfully uses it, that I would say that I almost served out of default.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: This needs to be done, that needs to be done.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: Okay, I can do this, I can do that.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: But once I got the understanding it wasn't default, it design well, that's a whole new show.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: So that would be what I would say.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: Before that it that I almost did things out of a default button and for decades I operated that and it was okay because I love the people I'm with and things I'm doing.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: But it shifted completely upside down in my brain when I realized I was just designed this way and it wasn't just filling in the gaps for what needs to be done.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's good and, yeah, I, I think you know each gift kind of has a hard wiring or default, and I think the wrong question to ask you to, as a servant gift, is can you do blah, blah, blah, because the answer is always yes, I can.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: But the question is is should you?
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: And that those are two very different questions.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And I remember years ago we were at a rock conference and we had a bunch of servant gifts all sitting at the same table debbie, I think you were there for this one and one lady at the table needed the salt and it was on the other end of the table and all she got out was this can you Everybody lunged all of them at the same time without thinking about it to grab the salt shaker first, because it's like breathing for the servant gift.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I see a need, I meet a need.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I see a need, I meet a need.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: And so both of you have grown in your relationship with the Father, son and Holy Spirit to a point where you're like, just as you said, debbie, just because I see a need doesn't mean I have to meet that need, and I love that maturity in both of you.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: So I really would love to know your answer to this next question, because I don't know the answer to this one.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: That's why I'm asking it how can a servant gift hurt others, even if unintentionally?
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Because I see you so much.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: If there's a conflict, typically a servant gift is going to step back and not try to be the offensive one.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: But all gifts, when not under the control of the Holy Spirit, can hurt other gifts.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: So how have you seen a servant gift hurt others, even if it was unintentionally?
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Whoever has an intention to give?
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: first Go ahead.
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: You were nodding.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Debbie, like you've already been nodding, so it's almost like something's bubbling.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, something's bubbling.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: Not sure that it answers your question, but I think there's two sides to this coin.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: There's one side where we jump too soon and someone else is thinking about doing something, but we jump in there and then they they pull back.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: That's why it's so important for us to to wait and to make sure that we're to meet that need.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: The other thing is earlier, as a servant, I had a identity problem and I think others really, really really got frustrated with me.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Now, how does that hurt the other one?
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: That with me Now, how does that hurt the other one?
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Because when I'm not fully functioning in my God-given design, then they have to step up to where they don't want to.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: But something needs to happen and they have to step up.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: So I don't know if it's like fiery darts to a person, but it is unintentional.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know how to put it, Elizabeth, I really don't.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: I just know that.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like it somehow in some ways puts more of a burden on the other person, because you're part of the body of Christ is not doing what it's supposed to do, so the rest of the body is having to compensate in some way for that.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Is that what you're talking about?
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, and then if you get, if you get to the other side of that coin and all you can think of is I got to do this and like, oh, I know how to do that, and then we step in to somebody else's role and that hurts them also, and then they'll have a tendency to pull back.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: So I think it can be looked at both ways.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: I'm sure Ann probably has a totally different idea, but that was what bubbled.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: I feel like there was a very unhealthy understanding of even if I was thinking well, I do have a strong cervix gifting.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: It was an unhealthy, almost a fixer mentality rather than being authority mentality.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: And there's such a huge difference, there's an amazing difference.
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: So for me personally, starting in the journey was not seeing my value, my worth.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: I agree with Debbie, it was an identity issue and it was more what I do issue and it was more what I do.
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: And then, as we've continued to work through the fabulous materials you all have developed and given and released to us, it's just so big and huge and wonderful.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: When you sent the original questions, how do you see the Father working?
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: And I thought, man, that's what creation was.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: He was setting about a place, he was getting everything all pulled together, like Debbie said, when she's having a big party, and he's putting the trees and the flowers in the water and he wants these people to be comfortable and happy.
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: And I thought that was kind of a servant.
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: Gifting Now it's God Almighty creating.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: It's huge.
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: Butifting Now it's God Almighty creating.
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: You know, it's huge, but I feel like it's that huge in my heart it can do something above and beyond the elements that are present just by cooperating with the Father and how he wants things to be used and done.
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: So it's grown exponentially larger, bigger, more wonderful than I ever dreamed when I first thought oh, I have a servant gifting, or I am a servant redemptive gift.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Don't you feel that it's like all of a sudden, now that we're comfortable in our own skin sort of thing, now we can empower others?
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: To be all they were created to be, and it doesn't have to be empower servants, it's just empower others.
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: One hundred percent.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I'm.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: That's what I was thinking too.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, we're on the same page, ann.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: Isn't that wonderful, okay.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: We'll keep doing it, ann, I've heard you I've heard you say this before talk a little bit about being a servant gift and parenting, and you talked about on a video about how you used to enable your children rather than empowering them, and I think that would be a very helpful piece for some of our other servants listening to this podcast to understand the servant gift in parenting.
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: Okay, I have two very specific illustrations that come to mind and I have two daughters six years apart and probably when they were like I don't know 10 and 4,.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: I was talking with another friend and she said you know how, when your kids were little and they were just learning to walk, you'd throw pillows in front of them or you'd move a little table in front of them and kind of teach them how to problem solve and get through it.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: And I looked at her like what are you talking about?
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: And she said you know, when you were teaching them how to navigate all this?
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: And I said no, I was moving the pillows, I was moving the tables, I was making it as easy as I could for them and I never even thought that shortchanged their ability to begin to reason, obstacle, how to go around, how to go over, how to go around, how to go over, how to go under, because I was so quick to get in solving their problem that it completely sidelined what they needed to develop physically healthy was.
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: At our daughter's school for science fair projects.
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: Our daughter was doing a study on the different vessels that would keep drinks colder longer, and so what did I do?
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: I drive all around town and get styrofoam cups, and get little plastic cups, and get other kinds of drinking things for her to put together.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: I get the poster board.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: I gather everything for her.
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: So basically I said, okay, now this one lasts the longest.
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: You can keep ice cold for 20 minutes in here.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: I did the whole assignment and I thought I was helping but, alas, I was doing it all.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: Thought I was helping but, alas, I was doing it all.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: And that quenched her, I think so often, the story that Debbie tells about being in the car with the excuse me.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: Well, I got way too many times out of my lane and doing things for others that God wanted to teach or show them, so I got in the way.
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: If that's what you were wondering, yes, yes, that's what I was wondering.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: I think that speaks to the empowering too that you're both speaking of like.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: When we recognize our gifts, and for you, debbie and Anna's servants, when you recognize the power of the gift to be able to empower others all the gifts then you do begin to ask the question instead of what do I need to fix?
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Here it becomes how can I encourage others to fix what they need to fix?
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: How can I encourage others to step into the gifts they're stepping into?
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: How do I get to come alongside other people and help them with that and the like?
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: What's mine to do?
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: What should I be doing?
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: Not, what can I do.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: And I think that really helps.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: Those are some, I think, good questions or good ways to help the servant kind of finesse that piece a little bit and get that back into alignment of I don't.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: I can fix a lot of things, but I don't need to fix everything.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: I need to let my children find their way, or I need to let them find their voice, or I need to let my friends or my significant others, the people in my life, find the path.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: But being a servant is coming alongside them in that and being humble about that and walking with them through that.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: And that's where, again, we have that picture of Jesus all throughout the Gospels being that servant leader.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: And I think so often we elevate leadership to look like a certain thing and we miss that beautiful servant piece of where there is not enabling but empowering the body to be what the body was designed to be, absolutely so, in light of that, how do you see your gift impacting others?
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Do you have any stories of it impacting others?
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Do you see it just generically, see it impacting others?
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: How do you see that gift of servant impacting others, impacting the kingdom, impacting the church, impacting your family?
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: I have a quick thought, and I hate to always keep it in church and ministry.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: That's the only reason I'm hesitant to say anything.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: I'd like it to be a more broad answer, but in the prayer times that we do with people we call it soaking prayer One of the things an issue will come up and very often the person will say will you pray that all that negativity in my head will go away, or will you do such and so?
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: And one response that I have quite often now is no, you do it, I'm right here.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: You do it.
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: You tell those thoughts to go.
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: You tell me how you want to change this behavior that's bothering you.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: And you ask Holy Spirit what does he want to show you?
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: Because it's way more powerful when you get it from God than if I give it to you.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: One thing I love empowering them to walk in their authority, and then it just so much happens so much faster that way than if I'm trying to retrain their brains like I think that's good.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: I'm walking in a new time right now.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: I've got someone that I'm very close to, I love very much.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: I see the servant heart in him and it's a him.
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: And yet I can't.
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: I have to wait and then finally one day I gave him free to be you and I said just read over these and see which one speaks to you.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: He didn't get past servant.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: I knew it was servant, I just knew it.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: Now I'm asking God what can I do to encourage him to seek his role as servant?
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: And I think I don't know, because I don't know a male that's a servant, but for him it's always been well.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Just give it to him to do and let him do it, because he was willing to do it.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: And I want to guide him and encourage him to seek the Lord in his gift and let the Lord direct him on what he should and shouldn't be doing.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know if that's enough, because most of the time I'm praying and asking and I'm getting do not speak, Just keep praying, keep encouraging and wait for him to come to you and ask those questions.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: I saw a little bit of a victim mentality, so I brought that up and we talked about that and we've talked about how people have hurt him and what he can do in that respect and how he can handle that and, of course, everything.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: So far I've been encouraging him just to take it to the Lord and then I don't want that to be an overly religious answer, but I want him to learn, like you said, to seek God for the answers to his gift and to let God direct him on his next step.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: I don't know if that's the way to go, but that seems to be how God is leading me at the moment.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: So if you wise women have things to say, I would like to hear it, because you guys have come into contact with male servants.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: I've got to let him discover that on his own.
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: That I know.
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: But if you've got some wonderful ideas of what I can and can't do, just let me know, because I see such potential in this young man, I'm willing to hear it.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: I think you've already been doing it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: You have modeled in front of him what a servant is, a servant is, and whether you were teaching him or not, you were.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: His spirit was picking up on so much stuff that maybe even his mind and soul and body did not understand.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: But you have lived the life of a servant in front of him and now you're doing exactly what I would tell you to do, which is stick close to jesus and when he says, speak, say something, and when he doesn't zip the lips and just be present.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Because I was going to say, if I was answering your question of how do you two impact others the way you have impacted me and I know you have impacted other leaders as you, as servants.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Both of you have been very safe people for people that are in leadership and y'all have both of you.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: At different times in my life, with lots of different things going on ministry-related, personal life, whatever, you two were the ones that were there that I could call email, say hey, I'm not okay, and y'all were there for me and I was thinking about that as we were getting ready to record today, I was, like you know, looking back through some of the darkest times of my life.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: I immediately I'm not going to go into detail here on the podcast, but I can tell you right where you and I were, Debbie, and I can tell you right where you and I were, Ann, where we had some very honest conversations about some very hard things that I was having to fight through, and just your presence, your wisdom, that the tenderness of your gift is exactly what my heart needed at that time.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: And so I think, in so many ways, going back to you, Debbie, with the guy in your life, you have been there for him and he has received ministry from you, whether he knew he was receiving ministry or not ministry from you, whether he knew he was receiving ministry or not, and how fun to watch it blossom.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes, you know, but you definitely.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: The servant gift is a very safe place and I'm so grateful to have servants in my life because when you know, when you're weary from the battle and you just and I need to retreat, who I need to come into, almost like a mass unit, a medical unit to be bound back up again and get some healing, the one that I turn to is the servant gift.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: So I appreciate both of you so much for that and the many ways y'all have done that for me and my mom and many others that I know that y'all have ministered to through the years, and no one ever knows that you know and no one ever sees it.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: And if I wasn't even talking about this podcast, the only people in the world that would know those conversations even happen would be the two of us.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: And yet it was what was needed in the moment and is what held me together.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Sounds good, yeah, Good job.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: And y'all do that a hundred times over for lots and lots of different people.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Even, Debbie, I know you've talked to people at the supermarket and you know, and you don't know because you don't ever see that person again.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: You have no idea the trajectory of what that one conversation had with that person from that day.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: But God is using both of you and I love that.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Y'all are secret agents Me too, the undercover doing what God's called you to do and I have a gentleman that I work with and we talk about his personality and I look at his gift and I'm pretty sure he fits in that servant category, but I'm not positive.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: I can't say that for certain.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: But it's a similar thing of what we've been talking about and in the male world I think it's affirming that masculinity doesn't look the way that culture tells us it looks and we have to push back against that.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: There was a book by Carolyn Custis James called Maelstrom and she wrote a chapter in there on Matthew the tax collector and she talked about how he embodied.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: And she talked about how he embodied and I think, even again, if you've watched in the chosen episode, the way that they, the way they personify Matthew on that series is very different than a lot of the other characters.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: But there was something different and unique about Matthew that's just interesting in the way she approaches it.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: In that book is an interesting chapter and I'm thinking about like so many men don't want to be servant gifts, they don't want to be helpers in the traditional sense, because it goes against what you're supposed to be as a man, right, and yet Jesus embodied that, and so again, I think it's reminding the men in our life who are wired that way that it is a gift from the Lord and that Jesus embodied that.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: And it's not that it is.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: You know, it is not a feminine quality, it is a, it is.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have that feminine, masculine piece to it, like removing that and calling them into the gift of tenderness and the gift of wisdom and the gift of.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: Like you guys both speak calmness to me when I'm with you and fun too, like there's a liveliness about you bothness to me when I'm with you and fun too, like there's a liveliness about you both.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: But like when I'm with you both, I can just like breathe sometimes and that it's a.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know where that comes from, but I sense that even when I email you, I'm like, oh, I'm talking to.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: Ann I'm talking to Debbie and you're both like I may not have the answers, I'm like I don't care, you just bring peace to me.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: So I think there's a, there's just a presence as you step into your gift and you just live that, that is.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: That is a gift to be experienced.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: On the other side, you, you do impact others in some pretty powerful ways.
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: So thank you Very affirming Thank you, very encouraging, both of you.
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: Thank you, you're welcome.
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Podcast.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: To donate, go to wwwthefathersbusinesscom.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us at the Father's Biz on Instagram and Facebook.