Latest / iRefresh Podcast / God Has Divine Answers to our Problems | Carole Newell | EP 125

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God Has Divine Answers to our Problems | Carole Newell | EP 125 · iRefresh Podcast

• 0:10
  where we talk about the impact of prayer in God's Word. Welcome to another episode. I have my dear friend, Carol Newell. Welcome to our podcast. Thank you so much, Cheryl. It's a privilege to be here. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to share with you and your audience what the Lord's been doing here in my life with my business. So thank you.
• 0:32
  We've gone back to you doing one of your classes here for iRefresh years ago with Divine Defense. So this is an amazing ministry that really was impactful. I still talk to the ladies that got to go to that class, and we kind of chuckle because some of the things that you allowed us to do.
• 0:53
  But I'm grateful for those things because they build up a confidence and know that we have ways to protect ourselves. So I really just want to invite you, Carol, just to share your heart and what God calls you into with Divine Defense. Well, you know, when I had Divine Defense, it was a ministry set up in Oklahoma. Since I moved to North Carolina, I've...
• 1:17
  I had to shut the ministry down, but I opened the business Divine Defenses. And the beautiful thing in the Greek language is that the word that is translated defense is also translated answer.
• 1:30
  God has divine answers for every situation and problem that we find ourselves in. Doesn't matter what it is. He's got the divine answers. He's got the divine defenses. It's not just about being on the defense. It's about really being able to be on the offense with the right word at the right time. I spent 28 years on the Broken Arrow Police Department, and I worked a lot of sexual assault
• 2:00
  And during that season, one in particular, we had a serial rapist pretty much running amok in the Tulsa metro area. And I had several churches call me wanting to know what they could do to put on classes for women because they were very afraid and rightfully so. And so the Lord Holy Spirit helped me put together some scriptures that he'd actually given me.
• 2:27
  in preparation to be a law enforcement officer and expounded on them. And it is amazing what the word of God has to say about divine protection. I mean, the Greek word for salvation is literally sozo, right? And that word means to be rescued. A lot of people think it's just from sin and from hell and that we're going to heaven. But God, in my opinion, is a very holistic person.
• 2:57
  Father. He cares about his spirit, soul, and body. He says that all throughout the New Testament. And that word salvation, to be rescued, means even now when we're in danger,
• 3:11
  when we're facing situations that could put us at risk physically, the Lord, who was the very present help in times of trouble for David, is the God who is the very present help in times of trouble for me and you. And I'm surprised a lot of people don't know that. But part of my mission is to help people become aware of,
• 3:36
  That not only does he save us from eternal hell, but he saves us daily. And as we walk with the Holy Spirit and we, we let him lead us. He just keeps, he wants to keep us safe. He is a protector. I believe that Psalm 91 really speaks to that. And a lot of people are familiar with Psalm 91. And I've actually had some women tell me, yeah, but that's old Testament. And yet,
• 4:04
  We're told in the New Testament that we have a better covenant. And I believe what that means is that as we are told in second Corinthians, every promise ever made is yes in Christ Jesus. And so through him, the amen is spoken.
• 4:21
  And Psalm 91 pretty much encapsulates every promise, freedom from plagues coming near our tents, from arrows, bullets flying by day, from pestilence stalking into darkness. Speaks of his angels giving charge over us to guard us in all our ways. I mean...
• 4:41
  He promises to give us a long and satisfying life. And in these days, when there's so much tumult and so much danger and so much violence everywhere, we have to recognize that what Paul was telling Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, 1-7, about the terrible times in the last days, that we're in that time where men will be lovers of themselves, boastful, proud, arrogant, slanderous,
• 5:10
  haters of God, lovers of pleasure, violent, brutal, rash. I mean, these are those days. And rather than being fearful and shrinking back, I want to equip women and men to recognize that we are called to be the fearless ones, bringing the kingdom of light to penetrate that darkness and send the darkness fling instead of those of us of the light running in terror.
• 5:39
  No, that's really good, Carol. That's what I do. Yeah, Carol, I think when I talked to you a couple years ago, I had had my niece was going to college and just had heard how there had been an event on their campus. And it just, you know, the first, you know, reaction is, you know, fear. And then but then right after that, I thought, you know what? People need to know how to do.
• 6:03
  do the things that Carol has taught, you know, you, you helped, you know, in our community, dealing with a lot of domestic violence and abuse. And I know, remember too, you were part of being a speaker at the demand project that's makes a huge difference in sex trafficking. So you've seen a massive amount of, of really deep, dark things that
• 6:27
  And yet the one thing I hear you say too is, but what does the word have to say about what God intends for us to think and how he wants us to operate? Because he didn't cause this world to be in a place where we would.
• 6:44
  we would just hide and not to be able to live and move and have our being as the scripture says. So take us in a place where someone who is in that state right now, maybe you're really fearful. What do you talk to them and how do you help them to kind of regain an understanding of what God really intends for them to think and how to operate? Okay. Well, especially in the last few years, Cheryl, there's been just such a,
• 7:12
  a push from the enemy to incite fear into the hearts of everybody. It started before COVID, but it really became crystal clear during COVID that the enemy, to me anyway, was basically trying to create fear in the hearts of everyone, including believers. And unfortunately, that worked. A lot of them today are fearful because of the violence on the earth.
• 7:39
  said. They don't know, should I, I don't know when to go to the store. I don't know what to do. I'm afraid to go out of my home. And then you have people near the border and they're afraid to be in their homes. And so it's just a fear that the enemies put out. But, but first John chapter four tells us that God's perfect love is what casts out fear. And anytime we have fear and we're aware of it, it's not the Lord trying to shame us. He's trying to say, hernity,
• 8:07
  There's a place in you that my perfect love has not been made complete yet. And he wants that to happen. Here's what I know to be true. Proverbs 133 says it so well. It's wisdom talking. And this is what she says. Whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm. Follow that up.
• 8:33
  with Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, but I'll go straight to 6. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. It is the Lord's will for us to live as Jesus did. Multiple attempts were made against his life. We know that from Scripture. They tried to throw him off a cliff. He asked the Pharisees straight up, why are you trying to kill me? I mean, he knew what was going on, and yet it wasn't until...
• 9:02
  The Kairos moment when Jesus was ordained to lay down his life, that he actually submitted himself to death. And as he is, so are we in this world. So it's just been my privilege. And 28 years in law enforcement, I've actually lived it out where the Lord rescued me several times from what could have been catastrophic injury or death.
• 9:29
  because of the situations I found myself in. And so the first thing I would say is that we have to let the perfect love of God cast out fear. Fear is not a quality of the Holy Spirit, and it's actually faith in what the enemy is doing. And I mean fear in all of its forms. I know, for example, that anxiety is a big deal with people, especially the younger generation these days.
• 9:59
  And again, I feel like anxiety is just an infant child of fear. And it's the enemy's tactics and it's his ways of getting people to be worried and concerned and fearful instead of hopeful and joyful and full of faith and confidence in the Lord's ability to lead them and guide them and keep them safe. As Psalm 91 says, he will. Yeah.
• 10:28
  The key is found in Proverbs 3. In all your ways, acknowledge him, look to him, and let him lead your paths.
• 10:37
  In Galatians chapter 5, Paul wrote, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. God has created a means, and you know, he's not an evil taskmaster. I know of a testimony where a woman was told repeatedly by the Holy Spirit, don't go back there, don't go back there, don't go back there. And each time she ignored it and went and was indeed sexually assaulted.
• 11:07
  However, she remembered something else and was able to find her way out of that and live to tell. And so, you know, he's not going to say, well, you didn't listen to me. You're on your own now. Yeah.
• 11:21
  But we want to train ourselves to listen to the Holy Spirit because he knows what's around the corners. And we don't. He's not trying to just, he's not a control freak. He is a helper who loves helping us. And he wants all of the saints of God, the most loved children of God, to live out the full number of their days, running their races with joy.
• 11:45
  not driving over the finish line, but like Jesus for the joy set before us, seeing Jesus face to face, we will endure whatever, and we will go victoriously into our heavenly reward. That's, um, that's what I believe is the plan of God for every Christian life. So tell me for someone who's like, okay, how do I hear the Holy Spirit? Or I think like,
• 12:11
  If you can give examples of how there's like that prompting that would help people that maybe they're just not been as focused and attentive, like, okay, that's the Holy Spirit warning me. Can you give a couple examples to help people maybe like, oh, I need to pay attention to this? Sure. I'm happy to. And he talks to us differently. But what I find to be true is that in the same way, and any woman watching this is going to know what I'm talking about when I say that.
• 12:39
  Have you ever had the creeps? Have you ever had the hair on the back of your neck stick up? Have you ever felt that queasy unease in the pit of your stomach and just did not feel comfortable? All of a sudden, you're just uncomfortable. Every woman I know has had that feeling. And believe it or not, the Holy Spirit uses that to get our attention because he's trying to warn us of something.
• 13:05
  And he's doing that because, as I said, he's a very holistic God. Our fight or flight mechanism that every individual has, believer or not,
• 13:21
  has a fight or flight sense of, I've got to keep myself safe. I've got to survive. Everyone's got a survival instinct. And that is where the Holy Spirit will not just, sometimes it's just an idea in our head. Sometimes he'll just highlight briefly an individual or a group of individuals. And when we look at them, we'll get that sense of, ooh,
• 13:45
  Dread. Our heads can't comprehend it. They don't understand it. But that's because our subconscious works at a much quicker rate than our conscious state does. And so just listen to it. I mean, even the world says, listen to your gut. And that's basically what I'm saying. Listen to your gut, listen to your heart and see what it's saying. And if it's saying leave, leave.
• 14:13
  I don't need to know why. It's kind of like in our training and policing. If my partner said duck, I didn't turn and ask him why. I ducked because time was of the essence. Holy Spirit's my helper. He's my friend. He's my ever-present paraclete confidant. If he says run, I'm running, and I don't care what it looks like. So, yeah, he's going to speak to us, and I'll tell you, if you'll let me just for a second. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 14 says,
• 14:44
  Solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained their senses to discern good and evil. To discern good and evil. Okay. Having their senses trained. I will tell you, and he taught me before I became a police officer. He is a consummate trainer. The Holy Spirit will teach us how to discern good and evil.
• 15:08
  to allow him to train our senses, kinetic senses, our feeling, our sight, our ears, our sense of smell, our sense of taste. If we will partner with him, he will help us train them to discern both good and evil. And I feel like I need to say this for some people who are overly suspicious about,
• 15:33
  I'll tell you what the Holy Spirit told me. And that was one day when I was standing guard over my pastor, because I was the head of security.
• 15:42
  And I was looking to see if there were any bad guys or any threats or anything. And the Holy Spirit said so clearly, you can be suspicious or you can be discerning, but you can't be both. Not at the same time anyway. And discernment is a gift that comes with the Holy Spirit. And it's not just looking for the bad, but it's also going to enable you to know and understand, oh, that's good. It's not just about seeing a bad guy behind a bush. It's about this guy means me.
• 16:11
  No harm. And that's why it's so critical, because what we don't want is people cringing from everybody or running from everybody, but having the power to discern. And I am living proof that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to train our senses and awaken ourselves to him as long as we commit ourselves to dwell in the secret place.
• 16:33
  to follow him to the best of our knowledge. And sometimes he's just going to, we're going to feel led. We're going to feel like, oh, I need to go a different way home from work. And nothing happens. And I've had people say, well, nothing happened. And my answer is precisely nothing happened. That was the point. Because the Holy Spirit was leading me.
• 16:55
  To help you avoid. And I really believe that his highest and best is for us to avoid danger altogether. Right. And scripture is full of so much more than just Psalm 91 speaking to that very fact. That's the heart of God. As any parent for their children would do anything to keep them out of danger altogether.
• 17:19
  He is the father who started all of that. And he is excellent at everything he does. You know, when you're saying that too, I think we need to invite the Holy spirit. Like when we think, okay, we're going to go need to go somewhere or we ask the Holy spirit, is this a good time for me to go? And I've felt that way sometimes too, when I'm in a car, I'm,
• 17:44
  I may have a normal route that I'm going to go to a certain place, but there's sometimes I will veer to a different, different path to get to the same location. And in the back of my mind, I remember the things you said in class, but it's like, okay, I don't know what he avoided, but like you said, it's, but I'm good. You know, on the other side, I got there safely and no harm came to me.
• 18:07
  I think that that's a good thing as well as literally inviting the Holy Spirit and asking before we even act before those are especially or maybe not consciously thinking about those feelings that you may have those promptings that the Holy Spirit's guiding us with those of learning. I'm supposed to go somewhere. I'm not supposed to go. And how do you and how do you test that? How do you test that with the Holy Spirit? I tell you.
• 18:36
  And I think it's Proverbs chapter eight. And forgive me if I'm wrong about that, but it's wisdom talking again. And, you know, for the ladies out there, I think it's important to note that in the book of Proverbs, wisdom is depicted as a woman. Because we're supposed to be, you know, the ones that are intuitive, the ones that are really, you know, leaning towards sensitivity. And so the capacity to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit is inherent in every person. That's the only reason we get saved.
• 19:06
  Once we're born again, he's on the inside of us. That sensitivity has great potential to grow. But what I do, and I do it in my own life, for instance, planning vacations. What I have known a lot of believers to do is, you know, a spouse wants to go here and they're like, yeah, let's go. That sounds great. And they make all these plans and then they ask God to bless it.
• 19:32
  And they get there and things just start unraveling and falling apart. And they're a little lift to God because we prayed and asked you to bless it. But asking him to bless it is not what he said. It's not a suggestion in all your ways. Look to him and he will direct your steps. It's it's actually a commandment. And so when we invite him in, that is the first step to enabling ourselves to hear him. And I'll give you a recent testimony.
• 20:01
  Um, my spiritual mom, uh, I got word that she was failing and rather quickly. And I asked the Lord if I could go on the night that I last spoke with her by phone. And the Lord told me no. And, uh, I mean, that's just how I live my life. And I was a little upset because I said, Lord, I want to see her again. And he said, I'm not changing my mind. Leave tomorrow morning. And so I did because that's how committed I'm.
• 20:31
  I am to following the leading of the Holy Spirit. I have no idea why, why it went down that way, why he had me wait. But I did get to see her. I did get to visit with her before she went to heaven. And it was and it was beautiful. But what I do know is that listening to him and being in lockstep union with him is the most important thing in my life.
• 20:57
  Because I want to live out the full number of my days and I want to run my race and finish it. That's so powerful. So we don't, there's things that the Lord is trying to always guide us to keep us from any form of harm. Whether it's, it's where we, how we travel or something we're eating for our bodies or what have you. It is, it's inviting the Lord to be our protection and guide.
• 21:23
  But like you're telling us, we're so quick to blame God for anything that's not happening correctly. But I love that you highlight that. Well, but the way the command has it, you know, you're supposed to invite him into at the beginning and not at the end. And just, you know, whatever my will is, God, then you bless my will versus surrendering what my hopes and dreams are and taking that because we know whatever he desires for us, he says it's going to be for our good.
• 21:53
  Correct. I mean, he's either Lord of all, and I mean Lord, not just Savior. He's either Lord of all, or he's not Lord at all. If he doesn't have the ability to say, you can't go on that vacation. If he doesn't have the ability to say, you cannot go to that event, or I don't want you doing this, or I do want you doing this, and it's something you don't want to do.
• 22:19
  then we've basically taken back lordship from him. And we can't be playing that game where now it's yours. Now it's mine. Now it's yours. Now it's mine. He's Lord of all. And he loves us. Did I avoid a major accident? I don't know. I heard Gloria Copeland say this one time. She said, but ain't against the law. Ain't going to hurt nobody. And,
• 22:49
  God's leading me to do it. I'm going to do it. I mean, yes, I might have to delay going home to see, going to see my spiritual mom. I may have to miss something altogether. But I will tell you this. He is a good and perfect father and he knows what's best for us.
• 23:09
  And I trust him. And any, I mean, I've even heard a pastor saying multiple times, well, the Holy Spirit told me something and I didn't do it. And, you know, finally, when he kept on me, I finally did it. That is not the attitude to have.
• 23:26
  with Holy Spirit. He's not just some gift from Father God. He is God. And we don't miss the Holy Spirit. We diss the Holy Spirit. And learning and dismissing the Holy Spirit is the first step in hardening our heart against the Lord. And we don't want to do that. That's so good. How have you created a program to now use that for our protection? Just highlight to our audience of
• 23:56
  what do you do without giving it all away? Because I do want to really encourage people to reach out to you because you do provide these courses where you can come and teach a group of people the divine defense. Sure. So I put together a long time ago at the leading of the Holy spirit, what I will call spiritual self-defense classes. Now there are a lot of self-defense classes that,
• 24:24
  And especially when the serial rapist was running amok in Tulsa back in the day, a lot of guys were putting on classes and showing women how to fight and kick and punch and all that. And that's great. But we need a foundation as Christians. And even nonbelievers need to learn how to listen to their subconscious gut. But I put together a class based on scripture, how to listen to the Holy Spirit,
• 24:52
  learning to hear his voice in different ways. I show videos of actual kidnappings. I show videos of people being distracted by cell phones, because that's a big deal these days. Uh, and talk about some of the ways that the enemy uses certain ways that people function in life against them. And, and cell phones are one of them. Uh,
• 25:17
  And so I train on that. I teach on that. But I also provide some basic physical moves, punches, strategies, tactics to get away from someone in the event you find yourself being grabbed by an assailant. And I recently had a class. And this had nothing to do with a fight. But I recently had a class and a lady was there. And she took away two passages of scripture.
• 25:47
  And the first one was Psalm 63, verse 20. The one about God is a God of deliverances to the sovereign Lord, but long escapes from death. And the other one was Psalm 40. God is my refuge. God is my strength and very present help in trouble.
• 26:04
  And not three weeks after my class, she was awakened in the middle of the night. That's another way the Holy Spirit will speak. He will wake you out of a dead sleep. And so many people are like, oh, I don't know anything. I'm going to go back to bed. Stop and ask the Holy Spirit, did you just wake me up? What's up?
• 26:22
  And she recognized that it was him because she did that. And she let her senses alert her to the fact that she was smelling smoke, faintly smelling smoke. Come to find out her house was on fire. She woke up her husband. She called 911, and she went to go get her girls. And the beautiful thing about it, Cheryl, is that one of her girls had had a drink.
• 26:48
  that their house was on fire. Wow. And so she woke her little sister up, and my friend was able to get her children out. Her husband got out. Unfortunately, they lost everything, but from the sovereign Lord, they all four escaped from death. And what a testimony. And since that time, God has proven himself faithful. He has provided every need they have had. I mean, he's just supernaturally, abundantly faithful.
• 27:16
  provided every need that they've had. And I know that he's going to turn this around for their good. He's going to make the thief pay seven times and there's going to be great blessing for them. And so it's just learning and really learning to trust that the Holy Spirit is going to,
• 27:33
  to help us. He loves being a helper. It's a title he wears with great honor because he sees it as a privilege to live inside of us and help us walk in the same way that Jesus walked. And what a gift from Almighty God that is, that he would live inside of us. So, I mean, he'll train us, he'll help us, and he'll awaken our senses when we determine and look to him and say, Holy Spirit, teach me today.
• 28:03
  I want to learn. I want to learn how you are going to train my senses. So I'm available for training today. That's really encouraging because it gives you the hope of knowing God is faithfully doing the prompting and the protecting. And we can see that the Holy Spirit is there to direct us. Talk to our audience and just what is on your heart that you'd want to encourage those, that some that are still gripped,
• 28:31
  no matter what they think to do, they probably put too much media on that scares the life out of them. What would you want to say to people where they would love to have that sense of feeling secure in the Lord, secure and not walking in a place of constant fear and looking behind everything to shift their thought process in the way the Lord would have us?
• 28:54
  I would start with the same thing the Lord had me start with before I became a police officer. I mean, you may not be able to tell from looking, but I'm five foot one and I weigh 110 pounds and I haven't shrunk a foot since I was on the job. This is how I am. And so it was a bit of an issue to me. I mean, I always wanted to be a cop. But, you know, I mean, I looked at me and I was, you know, very aware that I came in a very tiny package. Yeah.
• 29:24
  So the Lord had me start with Psalm 91 and stay there and meditate and read it. Read it in the Amplified Version. Read it in the Passion if you have it now. Read it in every translation you can get. And don't just read it, but read it with questions. What do you mean by that? Ask the Holy Spirit, what do you mean by that? How do I dwell in your secret place?
• 29:50
  How do I live under your shelter? Because I want to do that. I want to be positioned there. And, you know, the New Testament helps because Ephesians already tells us that we've been seated with Christ in heavenly places. It also says our lives are now hidden with Christ in God. So we are positionally already there.
• 30:17
  But we're stationed here on earth. It's kind of a weird dichotomy. That's part of being in spirit. But I would study those. If you have a chain reference Bible that has other references to other scriptures, I would follow up on them. Psalm 91 is a culmination, but it says nothing that you can't find in multiple other places in the Bible. Psalm 27, there are so many different ones.
• 30:44
  And in fact, Jeremiah, when I talk about Proverbs chapter three and in all your ways acknowledge him, Jeremiah goes on to say that it's not in a man to know how to make his own way. So we're trying to make our way. And God says, in all your ways, acknowledge me and I'll direct you back.
• 31:10
  That's, I mean, because I know where the safe road is. Yeah, I know where the high road is. And so I just say, study that. Be willing to look at other scriptures that go along with it. And really just saturate yourself with Psalm 91. He had me memorize it. And I did it. And it helps because it covers everything. It covers terrors of night. So if you suffer from night terrors because of a past trauma,
• 31:39
  It covers that. It covers weapons flying by day. It talks about a thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at my right hand, but it will not come near me. And so we see how the Lord has laid out a blueprint. This is what I promised you. And we, like the Israelites, their promise was land.
• 32:05
  And they had to appropriate it. God didn't just run everybody off. They had to go get it. And we have to lay hold of these promises and say, Lord, I believe you. Help me where I'm struggling to believe it. And teach me your ways. Teach me how to lay hold of this. I'm going to confess it or decree it over myself. I pretty much decree to this day Psalm 91 every day because it's truth. Yeah.
• 32:35
  No, that's really good. It reminds me, I've got two different sets of scriptures, and we call them the love notes from God. And one of the things I like about this that my sister helped me to put this together is it's a series of scriptures for this particular set is for encouragement, and then it deals with all aspects, main categories where we have a scripture and on the back. For those who are not acquainted with learning how to pray,
• 33:03
  the word of God over our lives is just to begin to train ourselves to declare, like you were talking about declaring, decreeing, you know, it's like, what does that look like? If you're not familiar, it's not something, something taught. Well, we do that. Um, and I just came up with a set this last year and it's the whole packet is overcome fear.
• 33:22
  Um, because it's just really, it's acknowledging it's there. The world makes me even, and then that's where the enemy wants me to fix my eyes on fear. Where Laura says, fix your eyes on what? On him. And, um, there's our difference, right? So I'm like, okay, I'm going to fix my eyes. Okay. What does your word say?
• 33:43
  to my situation. I'm going to ask you, Holy Spirit, like you said, which is powerful, ask you, what is your plans for me? If you said your plans for me are for good and not to harm, then I believe that that's what you have for me. And if something has been stolen, taken, you know, or harm's come, it's like you said earlier, what's God going to do when something's been taken? Like that family's home. We're going to get back.
• 34:11
  You know, that's his promise to us. So I'm grateful for how God's word in you. I've been writing those down because there's so many great scriptures that we'll also have in the show notes just because I would highly suggest that those are the things like Carol's doing is meditate, contemplate. Like, what is that word saying to me today? Because sometimes you never know. You're like, well, I don't need it today. You'd never know.
• 34:38
  When you're going to need, you know, your weapons, right? It's like when you were in the police force, were you not going out there with your gun loaded? Always. So you were already prepared, right? So your weapon was ready for if it had to be used. And I'm like, the word of God is that weapon that we can use for any occasion when it is needed.
• 35:04
  Correct. Correct. And, and it's like going out without my vest. That never happened. I always wore my protective vest. Yeah. Because even if I was just going to a city council meeting in a little broken arrow and, uh, and you know, the thing of it is because I don't know, but he does, and it just became a habit.
• 35:23
  It's kind of like the armor of God. It just needs to become habit. And again, I'm not saying that you won't run into trouble and difficulty, even when you're being led by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul did. Jesus did. When it comes to being a minister of the gospel or doing the will of God, the enemy is going to try to come against you.
• 35:45
  But as scripture says, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all. There's that word delivers again. So just like Paul, I mean, he was on a mission to preach the gospel. And, you know, the only the only thing.
• 36:04
  thing that I can say about an untimely death would be in the situation of a martyr. If someone is killed for the sake of the gospel, that just is what it is. And we all signed up for that. But other than that...
• 36:21
  I don't want people being stuck in fear of being a victim or if they've been a victim. I don't want them stuck in that victimhood. You know, Cheryl, one of the really sad things I see is that that becomes almost the starting point for their life. And, and they go in and I, but thank God they survived. I love survivors. Thank God they survived. But in the kingdom of God,
• 36:49
  We go from survivor to overcomer. For that thing that happened, even if something terrible did, no longer has a voice in my decisions.
• 37:00
  and no longer has an influence in how I live my life or what my future holds for me. That's God's business. And so I really do love to minister to anyone who's had or been a victim. I've worked with so many hundreds of victims in my career, and I see the effects that these kinds of traumas, domestic violence, sexual assault, have. And God doesn't want to leave them in that state. There's a way to overcome. There's a place in the spirit where we are overcomers,
• 37:30
  And like Jesus said in, in John chapter 14, the enemy's coming, but he's got nothing in me. Amen. And, and, and that's what we want to, to, to learn how to navigate those difficult times and those seasons. Like I had trouble. I got hurt at work a couple of times. Um, it's just the nature of police work, but I wasn't seriously injured. I wasn't wounded for life. I,
• 37:55
  You know, I healed and the Lord rescued me from things that were much worse. And so I just say, following the Holy Spirit.
• 38:05
  Learning to walk in lockstep with him doesn't have to be complicated. It's yielding to the nudge. It's going along with what you feel he's saying. Because one thing I know, all her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace. If you start going down a path and going in a direction and you suddenly start feeling those things I talked about earlier, the...
• 38:26
  the unease, the queasiness, or something's not right, stop. That's probably not the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking about outward chaos. He has led me into some very chaotic situations.
• 38:40
  But inwardly, I knew it was the right way to go. The Holy Spirit was prodding me onward, not pulling me in and saying, not this way. So, you know, and he's a great trainer. Like I said, he's not going to disappoint us. He's going to teach us. And that girl, that lady had two scriptures from my class.
• 39:01
  And they both came to pass because when she woke up, she took the moment. She took the moment to check in and say what's up. That's good. That's powerful. How can the audience, if they would like to reach out to you, how could they best do that? We'll put that in the show notes and here.
• 39:20
  but how would they reach out to you to get some guidance from you? And maybe even have you set up to go to maybe even their churches to come, have you come to their church and do a class, some classes. Okay. They can best reach me at my email, which is divinedefensesatproton.me. Okay. Wonderful. Carol, it's been a pleasure to have you. And I'm looking forward to...
• 39:50
  more of what you have in the days ahead, because, you know, what you have, we all need it is moving from a place from fear to confident of knowing that the Holy Spirit and the Lord is there to guide us through it all. So thank you. Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing you again, too. Amen. Bless you.