Hello and welcome to another episode of Upfront and Undivided with Luke and Dean'na.
Hi.
Hi baby.
How's it going?
It's good.
How are you?
It's going pretty well.
We do this every time.
Yeah we do.
I like it.
It's fun.
You always go, how are you?
I'm good baby.
How are you?
I'm good.
It's fine.
If people are here for flavor and spice and variety when it comes to the way we speak
to each other like this, I don't think they're going to get it.
I mean that's kind of spicy.
I mean it is spicy, but you know what I mean.
It's the spice of life.
Spice.
I'm just saying.
It's like we are creatures of habit in the best of ways I think.
I'm looking over your shoulder thinking you did not turn that light on.
No I didn't.
And it's throwing me.
It is.
Could you turn that light on please?
I will turn the light on.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Okay.
So what are we talking about today?
But I thought you were going to say what we were going to talk.
Okay.
Well see I was going to have you talk a little bit while I reached over and stepped away
from the mic.
Oh I was just going to make the awkward silence there and let you literally just go.
No.
See why not?
So okay so while I turn on the light.
Yes.
I'm going to drop the title for this week, Consequences of Our Actions.
I like that.
And this came about because we talked about some of the natural consequences that come
with just life.
Yes.
And we've talked about like natural consequences even in the kingdom of God.
Yeah.
Especially in the kingdom of God because again we are constantly trying to do our best to
match everything up to what we believe the word of God is trying to teach us and tell
us and just the natural consequences that go with living in His kingdom and sometimes
trying to live one foot out, one foot in or just completely walking away from them altogether.
Yeah.
And I know two weeks ago our episode was talking about speaking and sowing.
Yeah.
And how we kind of went at that more of a what you speak is like a manifestation.
Right.
You know like what you speak over your spouse, what you speak over your kids, what you speak
over your job.
Yeah.
And so this week, this episode we're more talking about actions.
Okay.
You know actual actions in the world.
Yeah.
Again, if you do this, this is going to be an action.
Right.
This is going to be a consequence of your action.
Right.
Whether it be good or bad.
Right.
You know I mean in simplest terms you know God pretty much laid it out.
You do what I say, you get blessed.
Right.
You don't do what I say, you get cursed.
Right.
Bottom line.
It's like wow it's really that simple.
Yes, it really is that simple.
So why aren't people doing it?
Because we get it in our own ways.
Right.
And I know that you said that you wanted to move towards, I'm trying to find it as I'm
talking, Deuteronomy 28 talking about the blessings and cursings.
And basically people if you speed there's a very good chance you're going to get a ticket.
If you're driving drunk there's a very good chance that you're going to cause a serious
wreck, injury or death.
Literally takes me to my health class with my kids because we talked about some of the
natural consequences.
We're doing a project right now at school and it's called Meet Melissa.
And Melissa is a high school athlete and she ends up acquiring mono and ends up not being
able to play in the championship soccer game because she ended up getting sick.
Blah blah blah.
There's not a backstory as far as how she got mono because everybody's like, oh mono
is a kissing disease.
Blah blah blah.
That's not necessarily it.
People listen.
You can get it from drinking out of the same water fountain from somebody if they stuck
their whole mouth on it.
And I have watched it happen and it's gross.
Or kissing somebody with cooties.
Or kissing somebody with cooties or sharing toothbrushes, which why?
But I mean, I don't know if I almost did it for our son on our vacation because we ran
off without a toothbrush.
He thought it was disgusting.
And I'm like, you are my cootie.
So, but there's those things where if you speak death, if you don't acknowledge God,
if you take him out of the equation and then wonder why on earth you're not walking in
the favor and the blessings potentially that or even the protection that others might be
around you.
But then we also talk about that there's that enemy.
There's an enemy and we have an enemy that's gunning for us that's doing everything he
can.
We have friends that have lost loved ones, that have lost people, that have lost children.
And it was not any consequence of their actions.
It was an enemy that literally still killed and destroyed.
So I always want to be very, very careful on this subject, but it's more so we want
to talk more about what are you doing intentionally?
What are the intentions of are you acknowledging God?
Are you bringing him into the equation?
You know, God, why does my marriage seem to be falling apart right now?
Everything seems to be going right.
Have you acknowledged him?
Have you sought first the kingdom of God, his righteousness and know that everything
is going to be added to you as according to his kingdom, according to his way?
I also want to kind of speak to that thing that says, oh, well, when you're in the kingdom
of God, then everything becomes easy, right?
Or oh, oh, I just have to follow God and then the blessings will flow.
To a degree, yes.
To a small degree, yes.
We live in a fallen world where the enemy is the principality and the power of the air.
And we have the authority.
We have the authority to overcome.
We have the authority to pull down those strongholds, to speak into the airwaves and say that you
will not.
You cannot.
And we have those abilities, like you said, to speak those blessings.
And then there's a point where you eventually, and I think this is what we want to talk about
today, there's a point where you go from the talking to the walking.
You go from having, you know, oh, God, bless me, and I'm going to speak all of these things
and I'm going to do my positive re, my affirmations and my 10 Hail Marys, and we're going to just
know that you're going to take care of the day.
And then the whole time he's like, but I want to walk with you.
I want you to walk in my stature.
I want you to walk in who I am and I want you to walk in my obedience.
And when you walk in what I've created you to be and that within the pretenses of these
amazing boundaries, because that's what we call them, they call them the expectations
and the boundaries.
That's what we say in our house.
They're not rules.
They're not regulations.
It's these are the expectations.
This is what you get to be.
This is who you get to be.
And when you decide you're going to try to do something out on your own, in your own
flesh, then you become kind of pretty much, it's not even kind of, you become fair game
to the enemy.
Yeah.
And it's also, you're talking about walking with what God says and all that, but it's
also walking with the Holy Spirit because two of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, wisdom
and discernment.
Yes.
Again, if you're going to walk around and act foolishly, you're going to be able to
kind of break something.
Right.
You know?
And like one of the, I think one of the kind of personal examples from my life early on,
you know, like I had a while, I used to own a motorcycle, you know this?
Yeah.
And for a while I was riding around on a bald tire.
Oh no.
But I didn't have the money to do anything about it.
I couldn't fix it.
Yeah.
And so it was one of those things that I would always pray that, you know, God just please
cover me until I can fix this.
And so it's one of those things that it's like, again, I know there's an enemy out there
and all that, but it's like, I'm trying to be faithful and I'm trying to do the right
thing, but it's one of those things that it's like in the physical realm, I can't take care
of this.
Yeah.
God, please cover me until I can.
Yeah.
And I have no doubt that God kept me safe during those moments.
But again, when I had my wreck, I was trying to be wise.
I was trying to, you know, not as wise as I probably should have been.
Yeah.
But again, I found the one hole on the side of the road and that's what knocked me off.
So again, it's one of those things that we do have that wisdom, we do have that discernment
and that's what we get to walk in, you know, because again, you know, we'll talk to our
kids, we'll talk to each other.
And it's like, okay, this happened.
Did you hear that still small voice saying you probably shouldn't have?
Yeah, I did.
Okay.
So you didn't listen.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
It's like, you know, how many people hear that voice?
How many people get that notification and get that, you know, that nudging?
Yeah.
You know, maybe, maybe, you know, check inside your tummy.
Right.
You know, roughly around in that area.
You know, I mean, I'm sure if, you know, the Holy Spirit notifications came through our
smartphones, we'd a lot more people would probably pay attention more.
Father, could we make that happen?
That would be epic.
That would be, that would be epic.
You know, but again, you know, because I've heard that sometimes, you know, it's, there's
so much noise going on in people's lives that they don't hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
You know, they can't, you know, so much is going on.
They can't hear what's going on from God.
Okay.
So I smile because all I heard in my head, and I think there's those moments where, you
know, you go, God, did you just make a funny?
And I literally have my phone out.
The word of God is on it.
I have it open to my, my Bible app.
I can confirm.
And he's like, but I do have notifications on your phone.
Are you reading them though?
Yeah, that's true.
Are you reading them?
Yeah.
You know, a lot of times people say, man, if, if, if marriage just came with a handbook,
if kids just came with a handbook, right.
But, but we do.
Yeah.
We do.
We have, we have the word of God.
We have, there's, there's genuine black and white things in the book that he says specifically,
this is what you do.
If you want to be prosperous, if you want to live a life, a long, happy life, right.
I'm going to fulfill you with long life.
If you obey your parents, I'm going to fulfill you with a good, solid, long life.
Blah, blah, blah.
You know what I mean?
It's like, if you do this, I will do this.
He's a covenant God.
Yeah.
If, if, but if you don't do this, then this is the repercussions of what you got.
Oh God.
Well, see, really, but does the word of God say that?
No, actually it does.
It does.
It literally says, um, you shouldn't murder, right?
You shouldn't covet something that your neighbor has.
You shouldn't be lying or stealing.
You commit adultery fornication.
These are things that he says specifically in his word.
There's the 10 commandments.
They're literally were on stone.
I mean, there's what 600 and some odd something of the Jewish whatever.
And God was so gracious to literally whittle it down to 10.
No, it was the other way around.
Oh, is that wrong?
Yeah.
No, I mean, the way I heard it was yes, there were the 10 commandments, but then it was
later on that they came up with like the 600 and some odd laws as like, okay, well, we
don't want to break the 10 commandments.
So let's make this set of laws to make sure we don't break those.
And then, okay, we need other, a new set of laws to make sure we don't break the first
set of laws to make sure that we don't break the covenant, you know, the commandments.
And it was like, they kept building these like rings of laws to make sure we don't break
the inner laws, to break the inner laws.
And that's yeah, and that's that the way I heard it, the way I heard it.
That's what yeah, that's why they have so many laws.
And that's why there were it got to be so legalistic and humanistic of just, you know,
it's almost to a point where it's like, how do you how do you follow this?
Yeah.
God gave me 10 rules.
Yeah, literally, literally.
Yeah.
See, I mean, like, again, these are times when we need video, because I'm staring at
you like, what?
Because all I could think in my brain is, why do you have to have another law that says,
I will not have any other God before me?
Yeah.
God, you're it.
Yeah.
Well, there's nothing else that you need to say.
God, I don't need to have anybody else in front of me.
Well, I mean, not not to get not to get too political.
Yeah.
You know, even here in America, you know, oh, come on, with the gun debate.
Come on.
You know, everybody talks about the gun debate, the gun debate.
It's like there's it's it's already illegal to kill people.
Right.
How many how many more laws do you need to say don't kill somebody?
Don't kill somebody.
Yeah.
It's like it's like I know there was some big politician one time was talking about
how you can hunt ducks, but you can't have more than three rounds in your shotgun to
go hunting ducks.
And this politician was like, how come how come there's a three round limit for hunting
ducks, but there's no round limit for hunting children?
It's like, why are you hunting children?
Because hunting children is illegal.
Killing ducks is not.
You know, and that is your punch.
It is.
That's it.
I left it upstairs.
I recently got a punching bag for fun.
It's a desktop one.
But still.
But yeah.
And that's but it's it's kind of like that.
It's OK.
Well, we know we know it's it's bad to kill somebody.
Yeah.
So to make sure we don't kill somebody, we get a we got to make sure we don't do this.
Right.
You know, within the walls of the city, you're not allowed to carry a sword.
Right.
OK.
But to make sure you don't do that, you know, it has to be locked away in your house.
Well, OK.
Just just don't do it.
Just don't do it.
Make sure you don't eat bacon.
We're going to outlaw pigs.
Just just don't do it.
Yeah.
Just don't do it.
It's just that simple.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
It's that simple.
And it's like so I was talking to one of my my other teachers today.
Right.
And one of this goes with that as far as just one of the laws, one of the one of the things
you love, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
Yeah.
And love your neighbor as yourself.
Yes.
OK.
And he's like and you know, we're already in this space.
He's like, OK, but I've encountered people in the church or I've just encountered people
that say they're Christian, but they they say they love God.
But then they can't like they have an issue with me because of based off the color of
my skin.
And I'm like, then the love of God is not in them.
Right.
It's that simple.
Right.
It's that simple.
Yeah.
It's the it's the fruit.
I'm now seeing the fruit of your tree and your fruit.
The fruit of your tree is is it's it's rotten.
Yeah.
So if you say you love God, but you hate your brother that you can see, but you say you
love God who you can't see, you're a hypocrite.
Yeah.
That love of God is not inside of you.
See again, these are simple, simple things in the word of God that say do this.
Don't do that.
Be this.
Don't be that.
And I was going to say to one of your earlier points about, you know, there is not a manual
for marriage and such like that.
I could make the argument to a small degree that there is.
No, I did say that the word of God is outside outside of the word of God.
I know you said the word of God.
I say wait, wait a minute.
I'm saying outside of the word of God.
Yeah.
And that's something that I know you and I are real big advocates of of talking of clear
communication of.
Yeah.
You know, yes, when when our kids were babies and could not communicate, we can't sit there
and say, you know, have a reasonable conversation with them or a conversation with them.
Why are you crying?
But why are you crying?
You know, whereas you and I, you know, yes, emotions can flare, but we can sit there and
say, OK, what's going on?
You know, if you know, one of my big things that I always talk about, you know, as far
as from a guy's point of view.
And I love to share this with, you know, young married men or young married couples or couples
that are thinking about getting married of, you know, men are really that simple and we
can't read minds.
And if you say this is what I want or this is what would make me happy, guys will gladly
do it to make their spouses happy.
And it's, you know, as long as we remember that we can have, you know, it's basically
every couple could make their own manual.
I love that.
You know, because it is it's as long as we have that open, upfront, clear communication
of we're not trying to play games, we're remembering that we're on the same team, you know, that
we want to solve this together.
We want to be successful in this together.
You know, it's like as long as there's that communication, it's like that that is the
manual.
Yeah.
You know, outside of the word of God.
Right.
You know, because that is it's it is it's it so much of it all just comes down to communication.
You know, whether whether you're speaking with your spouse, listening to your spouse,
listening to the Holy Spirit, talking to God, you know, it so much of it comes down to communication.
And as long as we've got that communication, communication clear, these these consequences
of our actions are going to be they're going to be more on the positive consequences versus
the negative.
Yes, we there is an enemy, you know, always recognize that there there's a dude out there
trying to smack us down.
Yep.
But why wouldn't we do everything that we can?
Yeah.
In our small, fragile human bodies?
Yes.
Why wouldn't we want to do everything that we can to try to make every outcome more in
our favor?
Yes.
Especially when if we say if we say that we are Christians, if we say that we are followers
of Christ, that we are children of the Most High God, that we are filled with the Holy
Spirit, that we believe that there is a one true living God and that what his word says,
the Bible is true.
When we say, Yes, Father, I believe everything that your word says.
And then we ignore it.
It's like it's like if we were to go to Sebastian or Gabriel and say, here is all the instructions
that I've given you for the rest of your life to walk this out successfully.
And all they hear is, want, want, want, want, want, want, want, want, want.
Or like we've said before, how our children will say, ah, see, I knew you were going to
say that.
I knew exactly what you're going to say.
Okay, cool.
Okay, God, I knew exactly what you were going to say.
Yeah.
And, and just like us to our children, him to us saying, then why didn't you do it?
Right.
And you say that you say that you listen.
No, I did listen, God.
I knew exactly like I could, I could spout out to you just like I did.
Like I have been.
I could tell you some of the scriptures.
I can tell you a good portion of what he says.
Yeah.
But if I don't live it, if I don't, you know, if I don't walk it out, do I truly believe
who he is?
Do I truly believe my father?
Because if you tell me, babe, that stove is hot, I'm not touching it.
Right.
If you tell our children who are still learning, learning to trust, learning to grow, learning
that they have nothing but a good father, you know, there's the more time goes by, I'm
not saying that we get this perfect.
There's days where I'm like, God, I trust you, but I don't know.
Was that you?
Yeah.
That's the time that I think that sometimes we get a little tripped up.
Father, was that you?
I don't know.
And then I want to say, if we have that conversation and if we are in that space of, I don't know,
God, then that's when we should be going to his word.
Yeah.
Okay, father, I'm not completely sure if that was you.
I'm going to go to your word.
I'm going to ask you to start talking to me.
Yeah.
Show me if this is the right thing to do.
Allow your Holy Spirit to come and check me.
Yeah.
Show me that, hey, you need to go this way.
You need to do this.
And trust me in the process.
Trust me that I will not leave you or forsake you.
Trust me that I am in the midst of the details.
I'm in the midst of the journey, not just the destination.
That I'm right here with you, wanting to go on this adventure with you, but you need to
trust me.
Yeah.
I heard once that God, ourselves, and the enemy all have the same voice inside of our
heads.
Ooh.
Hmm.
Because it all sounds like our voice.
I mean, you're right.
Yeah.
You're right.
And again, it's one of those things.
I'm glad you said the whole walking it out because again, even with us, what if I always
told you that I loved you but I never showed you any affection?
That's it.
Yeah.
What if I never wanted to hold your hand?
You know?
You already know that.
You already know the answer.
I do.
Yeah.
So, but it is.
It's, you know, and I don't, you know, it's like, I feel like we don't just keep going
back to it, but it is.
If we know how to walk, if we know what we're supposed to do, and we're not doing it, we
cannot be upset or surprised at any kind of negative consequences.
You know?
Yeah.
If you go to school and you never study, you can't be surprised that you failed the test.
You're right.
You know?
Yeah.
If you are always, you know, disobeying the driving laws, you should not be surprised
if one day you get into an accident.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
If you're a skateboard and you don't wear protective gear, you should not be surprised
if you get scraped and broken.
You know?
Yeah.
And it's, that is, that's how it is on the very basic things in life.
That's how it is with the very complicated things in life.
Yeah.
You know?
If you don't work on your marriage, if you don't focus and put effort into your marriage,
you can't be surprised when you turn around one day and be like, what happened on my marriage?
Right.
Because again, it's not something that's like a light switch on off.
Right.
You know?
But again, if you don't pay attention to it, you know, if we brought all sorts of plants
into our house and never did anything with them, but just left them on the countertop.
Right.
Oh my gosh, what happened?
Why are they brown?
Right.
Because you didn't water them.
Right.
You didn't give them fertilizer.
Right.
You know?
Right.
And that's how it is.
So, if you want to be a Christian and you want to do something for the kingdom, but
you never touch your Bible, you never think to talk to God or look to God, you can't be
surprised when all of a sudden it's like, man, I don't feel anything when I go to church.
Man, I never get asked to do anything.
You know?
Yeah.
Because it is.
It's just, it's that natural consequence.
If you don't take the effort to, if you don't put in the time to put effort into something,
you can't be surprised when that thing doesn't happen.
Right.
You know?
And it is.
It's every aspect of life.
It's every aspect of the kingdom.
Yeah.
Because I think too many times what I see, and this is what kept playing in my head while
you were saying it, was if we don't take the time to even acknowledge God, we have absolutely
no right to be somebody that can even try to remotely blame God.
Yeah.
You're blaming God because your life isn't going the way that you want it to, but yet
you haven't even taken two minutes to acknowledge Him.
Yeah.
You have said, oh, the universe or oh, you know, karma.
Oh, this is, you know, it is what it is.
This is just how it goes.
Or your favorite, I'm sending white light to you.
So you don't do that.
Yeah.
It's, you are not taking the time.
No.
Literally the creator of the universe.
The creator of the universe, the one that put the laws of consequence and blessing into
motion.
You are not taking the time to acknowledge Him and saying, father, what do you want to
do today?
Yeah.
How would you like to do this day?
Yeah.
I give you honor in the midst of this day.
I give you honor even whenever the car breaks down or there may not be enough food in the
house or, you know, fill in the blank.
My child is sick and dying.
Father, I give you honor.
I give you honor.
You know, taking the time to remind the principalities and the powers of the air who your God is.
Yeah.
If you haven't taken the time to do that, shut up.
Yeah.
Shut up.
Am I allowed to say that?
Yes.
Yeah.
Shut up.
You know what I mean?
Genuinely.
Take the time.
If you say that you're, if you say that you're a child of God, man, live like it, talk like
it, walk like it.
No matter what, allow, walk in the blessings of who he is.
And even when life gets hard, know that God has not left you.
Know that none of this is too big for our God.
Walk in the blessings.
Read your Bible.
You want to know how to fix your marriage?
Just Corinthians 13, start there.
You want to know why maybe some things are happening in your life?
Deuteronomy 28, figure that out.
Blessings and cursings.
God, what is it?
Put a magnifying glass to my life.
Even if you feel like you're doing everything right, father, what seems to be going on?
Something isn't quite shaking.
Maybe he's got you in a different season.
Talk to him.
Ask him.
Have real conversations with your spouse.
Have real conversations with God, with your spouse, with your children, with your friends,
with your family.
Be somebody genuine.
Be somebody that is unapologetic about their God.
And love them hard.
Be God with unconditional skin.
It's that love that goes beyond our understanding and our comprehension.
That's who we get to be.
Yeah.
I like it.
Shoot.
That's good.
Shoot.
Choose blessings.
This word says, I set before you blessings and curses.
Choose life.
Amen.
Have the best week, guys.
Enjoy the journey.