Latest / DA CREW Podcast / SEASON 2 DA CREW PODCAST_EPISODE _63 _ HOST TRIVEDA HARRIS
Transcript
- 0:13Dallas Fort Worth a A L a C. The Chance of your Dream Book
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- 1:52sixty seconds. Take a mental health minute to learn about depression disorders. They
- 1:57cause symptoms that affect how you feel, how you think, and how you
- 2:02handle daily life. Depression should be treated by health professionals. Don't try to
- 2:09handle it alone or treat it with alcohol or illegal drugs. Treatments include psychotherapy
- 2:16or talk therapy, medication, and sometimes brain stimulation therapy. These treatments may
- 2:23also be used in combination with one another. If you think you might have
- 2:28depression, talk to a trusted friend, family member, or health care provider.
- 2:34The earlier treatment begins, the more effective it is. Learn more about
- 2:38depression through the NIMH website and take sixty seconds to share this mental health minute
- 2:43to help someone else. Ah where all the skys but boys, the bloats
- 3:05from the Lord and something sleep on pursing her sister, all things and what
- 3:15they used to be. No, I can't please cleet, sweet sweet sweet,
- 3:45you want sweet sweet Good evening and welcome to Believe in the Journey podcast
- 4:57where I'm your host, Trevida Harris. And to all of the mothers,
- 5:00I want to say Happy Mother's Day and thank you for taking the time to
- 5:04end to tonight's show before we do anything, you know, I always have
- 5:11to go to God in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing
- 5:14us together as you do each and every Sunday that we come together. Please
- 5:18let the words of my mouth be comforting to the ears that are listening tonight.
- 5:24Those who are celebrating Mother's Day, like myself, without their mother for
- 5:28the first time, Please give them the comfort that they need to get through
- 5:31this day. We know that you love us more than anything else, and
- 5:35you loved your children best, which is why you brought them home. And
- 5:40your precious and holy name Jesus, we pray Amen tonight. I have a
- 5:44husband and wife who are here with me, and they're gonna talk about how
- 5:48they fought their battles with Jesus. But I'm gonna give you a brief little
- 5:53introduction of mister and missus Mick and Timmy Tammy Simmons. They our husband and
- 6:01wife team from Eastern Kentucky and there the founders are free at Last Ministries.
- 6:06They committed their lives to Jesus Christ in the year two thousand and since then
- 6:11they have served in youth ministries and teaching the Word of God. They specialized
- 6:15specialized in spiritual warfare and the deliverance of ministry. Their hearts desire is to
- 6:20help people grow and be all that they can be in the Kingdom of God.
- 6:25So please welcome my guests, Mick and Tammy Simmons. Hello, Hello,
- 6:36listen. You know, as I told y'all before we even got started,
- 6:41that the technical difficulties are gonna happen, and that's what happened. So
- 6:47I'm using my phone again, like it was fine, just having a little
- 6:53conversation, and then all of a sudden, like I could not even type
- 6:57to respond to you guys, like it would not do anything, like it
- 7:02completely locked up. But that's Nonetheless, we're still gonna do what God has
- 7:08called us to do tonight, and we are going to share your journey and
- 7:13I almost share a little bit about mine, and also my asthma's trying to
- 7:15get involved too, so I've had to use my hailer while we were getting
- 7:19through this technical difficulties. But we will not be defeated because God has the
- 7:26final say. The devil has no place. So then all right, tell
- 7:30me a little bit about you guys. You know, I read your introduction,
- 7:33but I want you to introduce yourselves to the audience as well. Well.
- 7:38First of all, we want to thank you for this opportunity to be
- 7:41a part of your podcast. It's our very first one that we're actually we're
- 7:47on the other side of the interview. Yeah, well, thank you guys
- 7:55for accepting my invite to be on the show, and I'm honored to be
- 7:59your first host. I guess yeah, yeah. But going back the way
- 8:07that I was introduced to spiritual warfare as a child growing up in eastern Kentucky,
- 8:13I was a product of bullying and a small town. Back when I
- 8:18was a child, there wasn't very many things to entertain yourself, so being
- 8:26bullied in school during the weekends and things, we would always watch scary movies,
- 8:33and scary movies always have things to do with the occult and witchcraft and
- 8:37all that stuff. My parents never really did and go to church a lot.
- 8:45But one thing that I really want to encourage from grandmothers, and I
- 8:50can honestly say that I know I'm here today because of the prayers of my
- 8:54grandmothers. On one side, I had an old fa Baptist grandmother that I
- 9:01mean, she was hardcore. And on the other side, I had a
- 9:05firewalking Pennycostal. You know, so I had the best of both worlds forget
- 9:15and but going through all that at first, it's like always as a child,
- 9:22I always knew there was a God because, like you know, I
- 9:26was an only child. So when I would go outside to play by myself,
- 9:30it's like I would find myself a lot looking into the heavens talking to
- 9:33God. And I know it sounds crazy to the world, but sometimes I
- 9:37felt like He talked back to me, and he definitely answers you back,
- 9:43and that's when you know that you're talking to God. And but when I
- 9:48went through the bullying process, you know, I started to question everything,
- 9:54and you know, with the with the entertainment choices I had grown went up
- 10:00as a child, I actually turned to the other side. I got involved
- 10:05in playing with the Ouija boards, and I was because in my heart,
- 10:11I kind of felt like God wasn't He didn't wrap my back, and it's
- 10:16like kind of like the woe is me? Like where are you God,
- 10:18and like you're and all this. But yeah, so it's like, well,
- 10:22I thought, well, I know what I'll do, like any brad
- 10:24child will do, they start to reveal It's like well, I'll just go
- 10:28play a weija board and you know, you know, see what I can
- 10:31get dead on the other side. And and and the weird thing was,
- 10:37it's like, you know, the Bible says that there is pleasure in sin
- 10:41for a season, and in a period of time that I did that,
- 10:46it seemed like everything fell into place. And so, you know, as
- 10:54being young and naive, being young in naive, I thought, well,
- 10:58this stuff is really working. It's like I really thought I was something.
- 11:01But uh yeah, blessed people too, and people don't understand that that's right.
- 11:07But the thing I didn't realize is I opened a door that you know,
- 11:11it's fun for a while, but what you do is you open a
- 11:15door where entities can come in. And it's like all the bully and that
- 11:20I experienced at school, Like back then you could you could be bullied at
- 11:24school, but you could go home and you didn't have to deal with it
- 11:28anymore, not like today like we on social media and you still can't get
- 11:31away from it. But back then it's like when I went home, it's
- 11:35like there was a time I had to try to go to sleep at night
- 11:39and where I had opened that door to things that are not godly. I
- 11:46started to see stuff at the foot of my bed. And what ended up
- 11:50happening was I was seeing these things like were so horrific. I couldn't sleep
- 11:56at night. Of course, you know when I've go to school the next
- 12:00day, it's like, you know where I hadn't had any sleep. It's
- 12:03like I eventually got to where I started skipping school. And because where my
- 12:11mom and dad worked, it's like they would leave early in the morning,
- 12:13and you know, when I would catch the bus, it's like I would
- 12:18hear the bus go up the road, I'd be like, see you suckers.
- 12:20It's like I hate going. So so what ended up happening. I
- 12:26filled the eighth grade, and so that plan worked for a while, but
- 12:35like I was still struggling with you know, uh in that realm of battling
- 12:41with those demons and stuff. And during that time, my mom and dad
- 12:46got they separated, and so I just sank deeper and deeper into a depression
- 12:52and they had a halting. Yeah, And at that time, it's this
- 13:00was way before school shootings like happened like they like they did now. But
- 13:05going through that period of my parents separating, it's like I was kind of
- 13:13going back and forth for my cousin's house and one of the cousin's house I
- 13:20went to, they were gun fanatics. And you know, one of the
- 13:26things that I struggled with is like those those demons always tried to talk me
- 13:30into well just take a gun to school. It's like, you know,
- 13:33you'll show them. It's like you'll, you'll, you'll show them that you
- 13:37know they can't push you around. It's like, you know, finally let
- 13:39your voice be heard, because what would happen is and I want to say
- 13:43this too, especially for all the kids that have went through this, the
- 13:48hardest thing was not just the demonic side, but the hardest thing was going
- 13:54through that when you see that the teachers see what you're going through and they
- 13:58turn them lined eye. You know, I went through a period where I
- 14:03felt like my self worth was nothing. And so when when I went through
- 14:07that, it's like I just I just took on a code of hate.
- 14:11And it's like I got to the place where if I would have met you
- 14:16back then, I would have chose to hate you before you could ever you
- 14:18know, figured out it. Yeah, I put up that wall. So
- 14:24like daily when I would spend a lot of time with my cousins. It's
- 14:28like those demons would be like, yeah, I take the gun to school,
- 14:31you know, finally take your stand, show them. And and there
- 14:37was a couple of times that that, you know, it was but by
- 14:41the grace of God, you know. And another period after that, my
- 14:48mom and dad they would kind of reconcile for a little bit and then split
- 14:52up again before they finally did one of the one of the aspects that I
- 14:58went through too. One year, for Christmas, my dad had a shotgun
- 15:05purchase for him for for his for his works Christmas present. And so during
- 15:13that time too, it's like I struggled with suicide. And you know,
- 15:18I remember, you know, I remember a couple of times staring down the
- 15:22barrel of the shotgun and you know, trying to get you. Yeah.
- 15:31And because like the way my heart was back then, I had no idea
- 15:37what God had in store, even when I was so far away from him,
- 15:41I couldn't see because of the hatred in my heart. I couldn't see
- 15:46like what he would ever have for me. Because like when you when you're
- 15:50in that much hate, like there's an oppression of darkness that comes upon you,
- 15:56it's like you don't want to see the light, Like even though odd
- 16:00is trying to reach you, it's like, you know, I believe sometimes
- 16:03like he lets us fall on our back, so we have to see him
- 16:07looking up. And I agree with that. So I agree with that.
- 16:15So getting back to my grandmother's there, there was a couple of times back
- 16:19then we had shop class. And for those in this generation that might not
- 16:23know what that was, it's like it was like a class where they where
- 16:27they taught the boys how to build stuff, like in construction and stuff.
- 16:32Yeah, one of one of the things that I can say because I don't
- 16:37want to make it all about the enemy, but one of the times that
- 16:40I was being bullied, I was like in this back room where a bunch
- 16:45of lumber was stood up. And one of the times I was pushed in
- 16:48that back room and there's like a couple other guys like holding me down and
- 16:52another guy like hitting me in the back with a two by four and like,
- 16:57and I remember hearing the smacks of the two by four, but I
- 17:03didn't feel anything. Because one of the things that that got to my mind
- 17:07at that time, I would hear my grandmother's prayers in the back of my
- 17:14mind, and my Baptist grandmother, she would always like walk around her house
- 17:19singing hymns and stuff. And you know, that was one of the that
- 17:25was one of the nuggets that God left for me back then, that that
- 17:29kind of gave me a little bit of hope. But I wanted I just
- 17:34wanted to say that just to let people know that God is in your situation,
- 17:38whether you feel him or not. So fast forward a little bit.
- 17:47We I get through the eighth grade on the second year on my repeat at
- 17:53everything. Yeah, and the thing that God got through me too was I
- 18:02went to my other aunts and uncle's house and back where I lived back then,
- 18:07we didn't have cable, so we had like only three channels on TV,
- 18:11kind of like it's like if the President came on, you're not was
- 18:15shot because that's all you could watch. So so I went to my other
- 18:22aunt and uncle's house they had a cable, and I was staying up late
- 18:26at night and I saw this ministry. It was like a power team ministry
- 18:32where these big muscle guys was like breaking frying pans and doing all this wild
- 18:37stuff. But at the end of it, they had this invitation to come
- 18:41to know Jesus, and it was just me at the TV. And I
- 18:48remember praying that prayer and I didn't understand it, but I meant it with
- 18:52all my heart. And when I prayed that, it's just like I felt.
- 18:57The only way I can describe it is I felt something break on the
- 19:00inside of me and I gave my heart to the Lord. After that.
- 19:06Now, after I gave my heart to the Lord, it's like we're I
- 19:11didn't go to church or anything. I didn't have anybody to mentor me,
- 19:14so I didn't I didn't really know what to do with what I just received.
- 19:18So but you know, the interesting the interesting thing too, and you
- 19:23can look this up on the history, Like after I went past all that,
- 19:30the year after that, in Grayson, Kentucky, there was another student
- 19:36that was the same age I was, that was going through the same thing
- 19:40and he actually ended up taking the classroom hostage. And there's like news articles
- 19:47and media all about it. But I remember I remember the news report saying
- 19:53that when he took the classroom hostage, that he would he would yell out
- 19:59like like he would yell out to the class like how many of you all
- 20:03believe me now, and and I've talked about the media that I was always
- 20:08consuming back then, We'll come to find out he was a Stephen King fanatic.
- 20:14He was a highly intelligent student, but the only thing that he consumed
- 20:18was like the Stephen King novels. And so it's like when I saw that,
- 20:25it's like I knew that we both wrestled with the same demons, but
- 20:29like he had a different outcome, and so, you know, God helped
- 20:34me come through all that. And then fast forward a few years later,
- 20:41I meet this girl on the internet. Bless A guy has a design path
- 20:51for people to cross at the time that we need them, and if we
- 20:56allow them to come in, then he he gets to have his way with
- 21:03us in the way that we're supposed to be interacting with God. I don't
- 21:07believe that anything that God is designed for us is by coincidences, by design.
- 21:14Absolutely. I had during you know, our teenage years, I had
- 21:23been in a long term relationship with my hospital sweetheart and we had been together
- 21:29for nine years. And at this point I was twenty three, graduating college,
- 21:34and I knew that the life plan that God had for me was not
- 21:41with this current fellow. But it's like what Mickey and I had in common
- 21:49was we did not attend church as a child or a teenager. We knew
- 21:56who Jesus was, but we didn't know how to live the life of a
- 22:00Christian because we didn't have the influence around us. But I knew, I'm
- 22:06upon graduation, this was not what, you know, my life trajectory should
- 22:12be. I mean I had enough discernment, I guess at the on the
- 22:18inside, even though I wasn't following the Lord. And so enters Mickey into
- 22:26the world of dial up modem. You know, now the whole home computer
- 22:33is a new concept. You know, you had to dial up and you
- 22:38had to agree to meet a certain time in a chat room. And chat
- 22:44rooms are still you know a thing now that they are. But I do
- 22:48remember, and you know you couldn't nobody use the phone or anything if you
- 22:53were on the internet. Yeah, I don't, don't you know? Are
- 22:59you today are like dial up? What do you mean we just get on
- 23:03our tablets. I'm like, yeah, well, before you had there was
- 23:06a whole big process and so we hadn't met actually in a chat room,
- 23:14and you know, you do your normal you know, female twenty three looking
- 23:19for non smoker, non drinker, prefer church, you know, I mean
- 23:26going out. I figured once you put all that thing, you're narrowing your
- 23:32list down. You know. Yeah, to those younger that may be listening,
- 23:38It's like everybody's talking in this chat room, so you had to wait
- 23:42until who you know you might be talking with to come through the list.
- 23:48You know. It was like a continual conversation. So finally, you know,
- 23:52this guy pops in and you know, it was like we started chatting
- 23:59that way, and like the questions that we were asking each other, we
- 24:03had to wait on the scroll, you know, to find you know,
- 24:07slow typers. So I'm just like, you know, as a woman,
- 24:11I was like you hunting and pecking the letters, like, uh, we
- 24:21met, you know, for a couple of days. You know. When
- 24:25you say that, it's like a couple of days, you know, but
- 24:26it's like we found each other within you know, millions of people. So
- 24:33we knew that, you know, that was neat that that was definitely unusual.
- 24:38It was fun to talk with him, and he wanted my number forever,
- 24:42and I would not give it to him. You know, I was
- 24:45just like, no, we just were fine with chatting. She found out
- 24:51that off as numbers probably after a week or so because he was getting tired
- 24:59of up and like with one finger and can I just get on the phone
- 25:04with you because it's tap and I'm gonna be till next year trying to tell
- 25:08you one day really flexed my Our first night, I remembered we were talking
- 25:21up till like four in the morning, and I mean I could tell we
- 25:25were clicking. And so he's like, so would you want to meet?
- 25:30And I'm like, well, you know, I don't know. You know,
- 25:33and back then, you didn't have the opportunity like we do now to
- 25:37just send an instant picture. You had to scan the picture, saving older
- 25:42email it. Yeah, the whole Yeah. Yeah. I was able to
- 25:52send a picture of myself, but he was not able to send a picture
- 25:56of himself. So I'm like, okay, you know, because it's like
- 26:00this real she just being cheesy. You know. The thing was, when
- 26:07I saw her picture, I was like, Wow, I have no chance
- 26:10with this with this girl. So I felt like I was kind of being
- 26:15like blown off, or you know, I'm like, why won't you send
- 26:18me a picture? Come on? You know, like Rag didn't have the
- 26:22technic to do that, and so he said, so, you know,
- 26:30and all this time it's like, so, where are you from? And
- 26:33I'm like, well, I'm from a small town in eastern Kentucky. And
- 26:36he's like, well, I'm from a small town in eastern Kentucky. And
- 26:37I'm like, you know, what are the chances you know that we were
- 26:42close by? And so he was from one county over and he actually worked
- 26:49in the city that I was from. And I'm like, hey, this
- 26:52is getting a little weird at this point. It's getting a little you know,
- 26:56it's getting through that from the beginning, and he did. Because what
- 27:03I didn't know was Mickey had, you know, he was tired of being
- 27:07in a relationship after relationship and was praying to God that you know, he
- 27:12had not accepted yet into his heart. If you send someone, I will
- 27:18serve them with you. And that's what he spoke to the Lord. And
- 27:22here I pop up. You know, God, I answered that prayer immediately,
- 27:30and it just took time for you guys to actually come together. And
- 27:33that's one thing that I can say about God in prayer is that sometimes he
- 27:40answers our prayers instantly. But we have to follow the steps and follow the
- 27:44streets, and sometimes we get so far aheaded and stubborn that we want to
- 27:48still try to do it our way. And he's like, Okay, I'm
- 27:52gonna let you go ahead and do it your way and see how many times
- 27:55you fall down, and then you'll let me in and then it'll be an
- 27:59easy shot had you listened to me the first time. And I'm guilty of
- 28:04that completely, and so you know, as we he actually says I stalked
- 28:11him first, which I'm like, well, I didn't have a picture.
- 28:15I didn't know. In fairness, her mom said that I could have been
- 28:18an expert. Well, she's like, what are you doing in there,
- 28:21topping on that computer? You know, I'm just talking to a guy.
- 28:25We could be an ex murder. You don't know who he is. You
- 28:29know that that ball parents said then, because you didn't know when anybody could,
- 28:33and they still got to do this. They live at who they are,
- 28:37and then when you actually get in front of them, they're totally opposite
- 28:42of what they said, not even looking like what they look like. Because
- 28:45some people will still put up a picture that they took seventeen years ago and
- 28:51presented as today, and then you see him in person and you're like,
- 28:55Okay, is this really you? Because it looks nothing like you today,
- 29:00And so you know, get on the phone with him and say, hey,
- 29:03do I think I met your grandmother here? Yeah? Right? The
- 29:10word cat fishing wasn't even a terminology. I just went out on face at
- 29:15who I was meeting was I was so yeah, yeah, because that's really
- 29:18all all you had is blind fade and trusting the process. Ms. Patrice
- 29:25says that she remembers those days like down up was a whole. Like I
- 29:27was telling one of my younger coworkers at work. I was telling her that
- 29:33I don't know if anybody, well, somebody out here has to remember when
- 29:37you had to get the CD from the Walmart, the net zero Internet or
- 29:41the AOL Internet and you had to go through the whole process of downloading that
- 29:47onto the computer and then you had to wait and then you would hear this
- 29:52crazy little sound and if you try to use the phone, it will kick
- 29:55you off the internet. And she was so blown away, like what are
- 29:59you even talking about? And I was like, you can just pick up
- 30:03your phone and you're connected to the internet. That is not how it was,
- 30:07I said, we had sets of encyclopedias at home if we wanted to
- 30:11know information. I said, so, y'all have no idea of how easy
- 30:17you guys have it right now. You have everything in the palm of your
- 30:21hand, and some of you still walk around clueless. I don't understand how
- 30:25that works. But it's okay, Eventually you'll get there. But you know,
- 30:30back then, it was it was one of those things that you're like,
- 30:33Okay, eventually we're gonna get to where we are now. And technology
- 30:40has definitely come a long way. But God has been in you guys' story
- 30:45from day one, and he answered those prayers like nobody else could and nobody
- 30:52else would. But I'm also grateful that you guys were obedient to what He
- 30:56was telling you guys to do, because that played a major part in it
- 31:00as well. It's being obedient, and we had not had that background and
- 31:07of church or being a Christian or being around people believers. It's like we
- 31:14knew that we were destined to be together. We you know, we knew
- 31:18that by the circumstances that had stacked up, you know, to this point,
- 31:22we knew that we were supposed to be together. And so we would
- 31:26just you know, we would pray to God. We you know, we
- 31:30knew the Bible was an important part of life. And we started seeking together
- 31:36and we knew that we would be getting in and we knew that God had
- 31:41a purpose and a plan for us being married. And so it's kind of
- 31:48like the knife that we got saved. Well, going back a little bit
- 31:52a week before we had got saved, Mickey is a guitarist. So he
- 31:57was playing in a bar, and you know, on the weekends, that's
- 32:00easy money, and you know, as he's girlfriend, I was going and
- 32:06supporting that. And you know, I had grown up pretty sheltered what I
- 32:12call sheltered. I wasn't allowed to go out. I wasn't allowed to cruise
- 32:16around town. I wasn't allowed to have alcohol, and so I had.
- 32:22So we're talking twenty one years old and we're going to play at the bar
- 32:25and she's still like, well, I have to be home at nine o'clock.
- 32:32He's like, no time, you have to be home. I'm like
- 32:35nine. He's like, full, the show's not over till like eleven thirty.
- 32:37And I'm like, well, I'll work that out, you know.
- 32:40But it was like I was stilling a little bit of freedom that I had
- 32:45not had. And so you know, of course, being a woman in
- 32:51a bar and you're sitting by yourself, you're gonna have a lot of drink
- 32:54offers and a lot of hit ons and and so I never had to pay
- 32:59for in my drinks. And you know, there was one night that I
- 33:02was getting a little bit buzzed because I didn't know that you couldn't just drink
- 33:07one right after the other, you know. And so it was like,
- 33:14my testimony is that God spoke to me, like in my mind right there
- 33:20in the bar, and the best way that I can describe it is like
- 33:23it was God like brought me back, He zoomed me back and let me
- 33:28see the panoramic view of the room, and he said, don't belong in
- 33:32this place. I have a greater plan for you. Well, I just
- 33:36sat there and bawled like a baby, and right there in the middle of
- 33:39the bar. And so I'm like, well, I can't do this right
- 33:45here at the table. So I went to the bathroom and all these girls
- 33:49and women they're like, oh, honey, did he break up with you?
- 33:52Did he break up? It's like in my mind, reality was like,
- 34:01you know, it was like, don't tell them God to speaking to
- 34:05you, because like, you're right, that's my problem, you know.
- 34:10And I'll tell you that you really had to much to drink, because that's
- 34:14naughty. I'm like, you know, And I was just all tore up
- 34:20the rest of the night, you know. And so that following Sunday,
- 34:23we actually, you know, we had made our way to a church and
- 34:28so it was time for the altar call, and the way the seating was
- 34:34there were two aisles to the altar, and Mickey went one way and I
- 34:38went the other, and we didn't know each other went because you know,
- 34:42it's during that time of everybody closed your eyes, you know, or your
- 34:45hand or come forward. And he went one way together and we had given
- 34:51our lives to the Lord together but didn't know it, and so that was
- 34:55a really special moment. Oh yeah, well, listen, I am grateful
- 35:01that you guys have given the backstory because it definitely shows the battle that you
- 35:07went through to get through where you are because I can honestly say for me
- 35:13and where I'm at right now on my spiritual journey is that I used to
- 35:16be such a fan of like the scary movies and things of that nature.
- 35:22Because number one, my birthday is October the twenty ninth, so October is
- 35:27my favorite mom and Halloween. However, now that I've gotten older, I
- 35:32can't even find myself watching no scary movies anymore because I know what they entailed
- 35:39and what they had to go through to create those movies. So now even
- 35:45you know, I watch them all the time as a kid growing up,
- 35:50but within these last five years, I cannot find the space and where I
- 35:55would even sit down and watch one. Now you know, it doesn't it
- 36:00doesn't appeal to me in the same manner in which it did. And I'm
- 36:04grateful for the closeness now that I have with God in being able to decipher
- 36:10from that, you know, because I loved the scary movie, I loved
- 36:16Halloween. I loved all of those things. And you know, I still,
- 36:22you know, I still love the month of October because that's my that's
- 36:25my month. But I celebrate a little differently now, you know. But
- 36:32God has a way of putting you through certain things and allowing you to walk
- 36:39this earth in a way to where you get away from Him. But I
- 36:44think it's the moments where we are in silence where we actually can hear from
- 36:51him, and it's like he's always with us and he's walking with us.
- 36:55But when we choose to not hear him, that is where it feels like
- 37:00that distance has gotten really far and in between, when it's like, no,
- 37:06I never went anywhere. I've been here through everything, but you chose
- 37:10not to hear me when I was speaking clearly to you, And yeah,
- 37:15So I think that's one of the things that people are, Well, God
- 37:19don't hear me. No, God heard you. Are you listening for him?
- 37:23Is the question, and that's the question most of us don't ever want
- 37:28to answer, because it's like, no, I've been talking to God for
- 37:30years and he ain't heard nothing that I said because he let me go through
- 37:34all of this. But he had to go He had to let you go
- 37:37through those things. And I feel like if God showed us a preview of
- 37:40what we had to go through to get the prayers answered, we would quickly
- 37:45say, nah, I don't want none of that. I don't want to
- 37:46be a part of that. You know, like if I got to go
- 37:51through this, if I gotta fall down or break my arm and my leg,
- 37:53I don't want to have to do that, because that's pain that comes
- 37:57with that, and I don't want to have to endure the pain. But
- 38:00in order for you to endure the joy of what you go through, you
- 38:05have to endure the pain as well to come out on the other side.
- 38:08And we don't want to hurt for anything. But God is not in the
- 38:13business of hurting you to hurt you. He's in the business and helping to
- 38:17build you and to share his greatness with the world. And if you're allowing
- 38:23him to do so, nothing that you go through is ever in vain.
- 38:29It's always for a greater good. Yes, absolutely, Yeah, I totally
- 38:35agree. I believe all of us we're on that journey, but every one
- 38:40of us will have that experience like Jacob did. Because Jacob was a trickster.
- 38:45But eventually he had to wrestle with the Lord. Yeah, after he
- 38:51got done wrestling with the Lord, his walk was totally different. Yea.
- 38:54And everybody that met Jacob after that, after he wrestled with the Lord,
- 39:00they knew that he had been in the presence of the Lord. He didn't
- 39:05have to just talk about the Lord. They knew he was with the Lord
- 39:07because they saw the way he walked. Yep. But when God gets his
- 39:12hands on you, your walk is different. Your talk is different, your
- 39:15delivery, your presence, your aora, everything about you becomes different. And
- 39:21people who have been with you from childhood, they will quickly tell you,
- 39:24oh, well, you're acting different. You changed, you did you did
- 39:28that, And it's like, okay, And that's what I was supposed to
- 39:31do. I was supposed to change. I was supposed to grow. The
- 39:36way that I view the world now is not the same through the eyes of
- 39:38a little girl. And I can honestly say some of the things that I've
- 39:43been through in my life. My mom, she was addicted to drugs and
- 39:49alcohol, said some very hurtful things to me as a kid growing up.
- 39:53One of the most hurtful things was that she wished that I was dead.
- 39:57She told me that when I was twelve years old. Now, the thing
- 40:00about that is me being the kid that I was and the person that I
- 40:05am now. I still have a smart mouth, and so I made my
- 40:07mom. My mom was so mad with me because she didn't know how to
- 40:10respond. And so when she said to me that I wish you was dead,
- 40:14I said, Oh, my goodness, who made you mad today,
- 40:16I said, but I think it's kind of late for you to want to
- 40:21kill me, I said, cause that would be murder. And I don't
- 40:24think you want to do that. But you know, whatever you decide,
- 40:29it's your choice. But I don't think murder would look good on your record.
- 40:32And so my mom was like, just get away from me, and
- 40:37I was like, okay, fine, I didn't do anything to you.
- 40:39I just came to speak. But you're already mad, but okay. But
- 40:45you know, it was one of those hurtful things that you hear as a
- 40:46kid, and I saw a lot of domestic violence with my mom and her
- 40:52boyfriends and things of that nature, and people would always wonder, you know
- 40:59why I was never angry and bitter with my mom was because my mom had
- 41:02to fight her own battles. But it wasn't anything that I could do was
- 41:08only be supportive. But I also had to learn to set boundaries in how
- 41:15I dealt with my mom. And you know, I'm grateful because God allowed
- 41:19me the time and the space to be with her in her final months.
- 41:22And one of my biggest prayers was to never let my mom die alone.
- 41:30Don't let her be out in the streets and not be to where family is
- 41:34there. And it was a hard journey, but I was able to be
- 41:38with my mom when she took her final breath last year. But you know,
- 41:45all of the things that I've been through, the things that I've experienced,
- 41:47the pain, the betrayal of family and friends, things of that nature,
- 41:52I don't carry any hatred or bitterness towards anybody. And I owe that
- 41:59to God, because when I start to tell people the things that have been
- 42:02done to me, I should be angry. I should be bitter according to
- 42:07what people would say because of what they've done. But I have no desire
- 42:15to be hurtful, or to be vindictive or to receiek revenge. I had
- 42:22a cousin of mine that I considered really close, and it was a lie
- 42:29that she told on me, and all I could do was just laugh at
- 42:31it because it was a lie that was told to my niece about my ex
- 42:37mother in law and my daughter, and it was that she said that I
- 42:42had called them some names. And if you know me, if I said
- 42:46it once, I'll say it twice. I'm not gonna say anything about anybody
- 42:50behind their back that I can't repeat to their face. And so I had
- 42:54gotten a promotion and gotten a better job for the hospital. Well, my
- 42:59cousin and she had applied for a job for a hospital, but she ended
- 43:05up lying on her credentials, so she got fired from the hospital. Well
- 43:08shortly after that is where I started working for the hospital after I graduated from
- 43:13college. And it got back to me, and so my ex mother in
- 43:17law was asking everyone except for me, had I said something. And so
- 43:23when I finally went to confront my ex mother in law about it, I
- 43:28was like, you know you had this question, but instead of coming to
- 43:31me to find out the answer, I said, you've known me since I
- 43:35was fifteen years old. If I've ever said anything once, you know,
- 43:39I'll say it twice. I said, So why didn't you just come and
- 43:42ask me? And so she was like, well, I don't know.
- 43:45I said. You have my phone number, you have my address, you
- 43:47knew where I was. I said, but it took you for me to
- 43:52come to you to say anything about this, I said, And it just
- 43:57goes to show that you wanted to believe what was said about me because that's
- 44:00how you always felt about me, I said. And that's fine, You're
- 44:05entitled to feel that way, I said, but since you didn't come and
- 44:07ask me, let me go ahead and clarify some things for you. But
- 44:12the cousin that did that, I haven't spoken to her. She's avoided me
- 44:15at all costs. And it's like you avoided a situation that you caused.
- 44:21I'm not angry with you, and I'm not upset with you, but I
- 44:24was just I don't even really want to know why. But it goes to
- 44:28show that people that you have, that you feel are closest to you will
- 44:31betray you when they are upset about a decision that they made in their lives
- 44:37and it has thing to do with you. And so I'm just like you
- 44:42know, people are gonna be who they are. They're gonna tell you that
- 44:45you've changed when you start walking with God. Yes, your walk is different,
- 44:49the people that you entertain is different, the things that you go through
- 44:52in life is going to be different. But it's because you're walking with the
- 44:55purpose now and you're starting to understand what you're purpose this is and where you
- 45:00go. I used to run away from what we're doing right now. I
- 45:05will be honest with you, but I realized just the other day that what
- 45:10I do is what God has called me to do. I had a young
- 45:15lady come in the office. I work in an urgent care facility, and
- 45:19the young lady came in and she was explaining, you know, what she
- 45:23was going through and everything. And as she finally made it to the back,
- 45:28so I provided her as she got ready to leave. She came back
- 45:30and she was telling me about being able to see again. Now that's not
- 45:36the reason why she came into the office, it was for something else.
- 45:39But she came out and she was leaving, she was like, I just
- 45:42needed to come by and tell you, you know that, I'm just overly
- 45:46excited and grateful that because she hadn't been able to see her twin boys for
- 45:52months because she was starting to lose her sight, and so she had said
- 45:55that she had been praying and talking to God and everything. You know,
- 46:00she was just grateful for that moment. But she says she felt like she
- 46:02needed to tell me that because I would be one who would understand the blessing
- 46:07that she has and let me know that when strangers talk to me, I'm
- 46:15in the space in which God has called me to be, and I let
- 46:17people vent to me say whatever they need to say, because sometimes all they
- 46:22need is to listen and hear. And then you know, for her to
- 46:25say that about me, it was like, you know, God, I
- 46:29hear you. That was my confirmation for the day that she really needed somebody
- 46:35to understand that she received a blessing. And she was like, I don't
- 46:38know what it is, but I feel like you can understand how going from
- 46:43one situation when you're dealing with your health to another situation, you can understand
- 46:47when God is blessing you through that. And I didn't explain to her that
- 46:52I how I knew, but I said, yes, ma'am, you're exactly
- 46:59right that I do understand because of my own issues with my health and understood
- 47:04what she meant. So but you know, we got we will talk all
- 47:09night about the goodness of God. But I'm not going to keep you guys
- 47:13any longer because you know, God is just one of those things. And
- 47:16I know I talk to him all the time, and I know sometimes he
- 47:19puts me on whole because I'm constantly talking to him, asking him questions,
- 47:22and He's like, okay, look here, you don't ask me seventeen questions.
- 47:25Can you go to sleep. We'll talk again tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah.
- 47:30So you know, people always laugh at me when I say that,
- 47:35but I'm like, that's how much I talk to God. And he knows
- 47:37that, y'all. He created. I'm gonna be on the line, and
- 47:42so I'm like, Jesus, don't put me online on home right now.
- 47:45I got some questions, so come on and answer. I don't won't talk
- 47:50to Jacob, I all won't talk to Paul. I don't won't talk none
- 47:52of I won't talk to you. But you're gonna put me on hold,
- 47:54so I'll come back. I'll let you do what you need to do,
- 47:58but I'm gonna be back. I like that, But that gave me a
- 48:02good visual because you know, I know that sometimes the Lord, I know
- 48:07he never slumbers or sleeps, you know, but I think sometimes he's just
- 48:10he makes you sleepy. So the children, you see me down on the
- 48:20call id, I don't talk to her twelve times, talk about the month
- 48:24to her to go to sleep. Just God, you sleep right now,
- 48:28Just go to be. I'll talk to you tomorrow. But I really truly
- 48:32thank you guys for being here tonight, and we definitely will have to have
- 48:37a conversation again and how can people get in touch with you guys? Go
- 48:45ahead. We on Facebook. We are Free at Last Podcast and you can
- 48:52go on there, and we have a weekly live that we do and we
- 48:58talk about issues that the church necessarily won't discuss on a Sunday warning. So
- 49:04it's you know, we do topics that people have questions too, and you
- 49:08know it's we kind of hit some tough topics, you know. And uh
- 49:12so that's always been fun. But the Free at Last Podcast on Facebook,
- 49:17and we have a website, the Free at Last uh ministries dot org,
- 49:24and we're on Instagram and uh YouTube and we've finally in the last year brought
- 49:34all of our brandy together for the Free at Last Podcast. Pray for us,
- 49:39to pray for us to work smarter, not harder. Listen, it
- 49:45always starts when you start one of these things, when God gives you the
- 49:49direction of what to do, it seems very chaotic, and then once you
- 49:53get everything in working order, you can stream on it. But he gives
- 49:59you the vision and he gives you the provisions to make sure that it happened,
- 50:02and then he's able to let you streamline it. So everything is not
- 50:07so all over the place. I am one you believe that because I started
- 50:12a publishing business almost two years ago and now I'm slowly starting to streamline all
- 50:20of this. I've been doing the podcast now a little over a year,
- 50:22so everything is is in its own space, but then it's slowly starting to
- 50:29come together. So I definitely understand completely, and you guys will definitely be
- 50:32in my prayers. And one thing that I always say before I leave any
- 50:37show, and that is stay out of God's business. The only thing that
- 50:43God needs you to do is be obedient to what He's called you to do.
- 50:46So until next time, yes, ma'am. Until next time. I
- 50:51will see you guys on May twenty third, where my guests will be Miss
- 50:54LaToya Jackson, and you don't want to miss her because she is a student
- 50:58of God's work. All right, thank you, guys, Thank you,
- 51:02You're welcome. Y'all. Have a great night and happy mother person person.
- 51:10All things ain't what things too stupid? Where did all the blue sky