Welcome to Keep It 100 podcast with Sean and Christa Smith.
Join us in this space where we take on real issues with real insight and real inspiration.
This podcast is for those not looking for temporary relief to change circumstance but
revelation to forever change lives.
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Keep It 100 with Sean and Christa Smith.
It's your boy Sean.
My favorite.
Hey, we're so excited to be with you.
We have a unique episode before we dive into the topic and I'm going to break down kind
of what that looks like for today's episode.
But we have some really fun highlights that we just kind of want to share with you guys
of what we've been up to since we were together last.
Yes.
One of the things is that we went across the pond.
Everybody went to the UK, went to London.
We were able to do a conference over there for our great friend, Tomi Ariomi.
And we were with the Feather Stones, which are great pastors over there.
We're a phenomenal church.
Yeah, amazing people.
And the conference was so fun.
We saw God do some just some powerful things.
We got a chance to get over and take pictures in front of Big Ben, went down the Tams River.
That's how they would say it.
I would say it phonetically, Thames, but they don't pronounce their H's.
And it was so cool because up and down that little Tams River, it's kind of for us like
Pier 39 in San Francisco.
Yeah, it is.
And so we got some great food over there, hung out, saw some sites and it's just so cool
because although we speak the same language, we don't.
Yeah, it's a totally different world over there.
And you know, it's cool because I've been exposed to UK culture for years, ministered
in Ireland and different places around the UK, but never myself in London actually ministered.
So that was my first time.
And I just kind of prepared myself for a little bit more quiet congregation, not super interactive
or responsive.
And I found quite the opposite.
I was like shocked of how fiery this remnant group has really gathered in London and we
really are seeing it around the world.
And it's so exciting because I feel like people are going beyond cultural norms and they're
tapping into kingdom.
And there's this really beautiful hunger that is across the board that we're seeing no
matter where we go, no matter what country, no matter what congregation, people are not
staying in the boxes anymore.
I feel like people are shattering boxes.
Yeah, they were definitely not lethargic.
They were lit.
They were so fiery, packed out.
All the meetings were powerful, just the prophetic, just the healing.
It was so cool.
We got a chance to stay at a nice little inn that you got to just eat a good meal together
there.
It was fun.
Look out over kind of, I don't know, a pastor, a golf course or something out there was a
field.
So it was, it was, it was cool.
We got a chance to get some good food there.
And it was just a great time.
It was amazing.
It just felt like we did our assignment.
And then I came home right after that, jumped right into a Bethel women's conference called
wonder this year.
And Havala, who's just an amazing woman of God, I just so love what she carries.
She invited myself, Elisa Bavir, and then a ton of women that are on Bethel staff that
are just powerhouses in their own right.
I mean, they're, each of them could be like carrying a conference.
They're just incredible women of God.
And there was probably like 10 of us that were speaking that they had the day sessions
and I had a two of the night sessions and it was incredible.
I mean, I, I felt like we had a freedom in the room during my session that was just special.
It was so unique.
I feel like what God is doing with women is, it really is the word special.
It's just different and it feels like such an honor just to be able to witness God raising
up women in the sour.
And there was a roar and a sound and a release and a freedom that I have not seen hit a room
before.
That was just incredible.
I really feel marked and changed from that gathering at wonder.
And so I came home raving about it to Sean.
It was like, I always want him at everything with me.
Well, even before you did, I, we have so many great friends up in Bethel, Redding.
They were hitting me up.
I was in Huntsville, Texas, reaching out to university students.
And so they were hitting me up and just talking about how your session, God just came down,
blew it up.
If you guys want to go to Christa's Instagram account, Ms. Christa Smith, you're going to
see some clips if you go back and it was just amazing.
There was a point in time where the women just erupted and just went straight wild.
It was, it was, it was awesome.
It was awesome.
And then I loved as I was ministering in Bethel, you were down, like you said, in Huntsville,
Texas with all these college students.
And there was like, what, you guys stayed till midnight.
There was like Holy Ghost breakout.
There was legit deliverances.
Tons of students got saved.
I mean, you had radical services.
It was so powerful.
It was powerful.
And then there was Eli and Mary Gautreau down there and Colin, Jason, all those guys that
are doing a great job down there.
I think we had one night where 25, 30 kids got saved and we had a night where that many
or more were baptized in the Holy Ghost.
We see the heavenly language the first time.
So it was truly awesome.
You know, so be encouraged, you guys, as you're hearing these testimonies, this is, and I
was just sharing like, oh, this has just happened to happening.
This is like, this is what's available.
This is what God's doing all over.
So grab these testimonies because we always believe that the testimony of Jesus' spirit
of prophecy, meaning we're prophesying to you what's available right now.
There is just a Holy Ghost outpouring that's happening all over.
And so we want you guys to grab that for wherever you call home because we believe more is available.
Speaking of more.
Also, another great announcement, you guys.
We're going to have another momentum night.
We did one about a month ago.
It was amazing.
We had a capacity crowd.
400 people show up on two weeks.
I think we talked about two weeks notice, but we're doing another momentum night for
those of you that missed the last one.
It's going to be May 12th at 7pm.
It's going to be a Sequoia Community Church.
You can look up the address, but it's 4292 Keller Avenue in Oakland and we are super
excited.
And so we kind of are going to follow up that last night of fire and we're calling hungry
believers, revivalists, reformers.
We're calling the unsaved to come and join us for round two.
And we really believe that if we come together, that God is already at work in the Bay and
it's just us coming together, coming in agreement for a move of God because we all know we
just need a movement.
And so you can need to join us for this momentum night.
Again, it is going to be May 12th, Friday night at 7pm.
Come join us Bay area and NorCal.
And that's right.
And we always say to you guys, get in the room.
If you're able to get in the room, there's something about when you're in the room with
the Holy Ghost, it is just different.
It hits differently.
It transforms you differently.
So get in the room.
If you know anyone in the Bay area, if you live in the Bay area, show up.
It's free.
No registration.
Just come.
Bring your mom, bring your friends, bring your family, bring your neighbors, bring them
all because the Holy Ghost is about to break out.
And we're just continuing for a move of God and we're beginning to see it.
So join us May 12th.
Okay.
Are we ready?
Let's go.
Okay.
So this is kind of fun.
I propose this idea to Sean.
I just have been wanting to interview Sean for a while because he has one of the most powerful
stories.
And he's my husband, so I get a front row seat to do this man of God every day.
And he truly is one of the most Christ-like people I know.
He constantly challenges me with his walk with God.
He walks in such an integrity.
He walks in such a deep conviction for the things of God, but he also walks in a sincere
joy and a peace that is truly unrattled.
I have seen my husband face incredibly difficult situations and moments in life and he just
stays steadfast in things of God.
And I'm always asking him questions because I always want to be a student and I want to
learn from people that walk deeper in areas that I want to walk deeper in.
So I'm going to talk to my husband about places that are hard and places that have been difficult
and places that have been really painful.
I think in today's world, let me open it up with this baby.
I think in today's world, we have a world that really focuses on people's pain and people
are very quick to share and sometimes overshare their pain and their trauma and their hardship.
And I do appreciate vulnerability and I encourage vulnerability.
I want people to feel like they can be transparent and be totally open with their hardships.
But as a believer in Christ, I always have questions on how to walk through the hardships.
But before we get through the how to walk through, I know your life.
You don't know all the questions that I'm going to ask you today.
But I want to come to you and I want to start talking to you because I know firsthand, you've
walked through a lot of trauma.
You've walked through a lot of hardship.
Baby, what would you say is one of the most difficult things you've ever had to walk through?
That is actually a very great question.
I think in my life, I look back, I had people walk out of my life in significant relationship.
I experienced the death of close ones.
I've had to deal with diseases that have plagued people that I love.
I think that there's several things that were very, very challenging for me.
And I think the thing that I really would sum it all up in is those areas where you
really can't help yourself.
Like it's a decision made by someone else.
Yeah.
When I was old enough to recognize my dad initially, of course, this is not how it ended, but
my dad initially chose to walk out on me.
So I think that was probably the first time, obviously someone significant that he had
got my mother pregnant and didn't want to be a dad, didn't want to be a husband.
And so he walked out.
And so that when I was old enough to kind of discover that I realized in retrospect,
it hit and affected me in a deeper place than I could articulate.
Cause when you're young, you don't know, you don't have all the terminology.
So I think that happened.
I've had relationships where people have walked out.
You know, I've had people that were emotionally non present, although maybe physically they've
been there.
My precious mom, she had so much she had to fight through.
She's going to be with the Lord.
So there was a period in time where she probably was not emotionally as present.
Those of you that know my testimony, my grandmother was an alcoholic coming up.
So there was times during in which she was drunk and she was not emotionally available.
But when she was sober, she was very much available.
So it was kind of a, I describe it as kind of a Jekyll hide.
She was never abusive to me.
She was, she was an old school disciplinarian and she was very Southern black grandmother
ish in her upbringing, how she brought me up.
What I just think throughout my life rather was in high school with peer pressure, but
not really knowing who I am, my identity to, you know, just earlier relationships, failed
relationships, obviously before I met you.
And so I, when I put it together, it's those moments where either a disease or someone
making a decision where you don't have control.
I feel like I do better if I can have an element of control.
Now, obviously control is, it's a subjective word is very fluid.
Not ultimately is in control, we're not in control, but things that I can make a decision
and I can shift and change.
There are things in life and I'm sure there are people that are listening that regardless
of what decision you may or may not have made, there are certain things in life that will
hit you square between the eyes and you just have to, you have to roll, you have to shift,
you have to adapt.
So those are probably the toughest things that have happened in my life.
So I hear you talking about the alcoholism, losing your grandma, your dad being murdered
and your dad initially walking out and just the consistency of just that trauma after
trauma after trauma.
And there's other things that you didn't even state, you know, that I know you've walked
through or whatever.
And I guess the question I would have that I think a lot of people listening would have
is we serve a God who's really good and we know logically in our brains, God is good,
but then you're going through things that aren't good.
How do you reconcile in the midst of trauma and pain that God is still good in pain and
suffering?
How do you, how do you stay in a place of God being good when it's like so hard?
There are two thoughts that I have on that.
The first thought is issue.
You have to get job descriptions correct.
If the, if the devil, the Bible says comes to kill, still and destroy, Jesus came that
you may have life and life more abundantly.
We pray the prayer Jesus taught us in the Lord's prayer may as well be done on earth as it
is in heaven.
Sometimes people think that because it happens, God did it or God purposed it.
And although I don't think anything can happen to a believer without God being able to redeem
it and use it.
And I'll talk about that in a moment.
Not everything that happens to you is from the hand of God.
And I think until you understand that we've let people out of their pain rewrite our theology.
And we've let people who've had hurts and wounds and pains change God into kind of this
God that allows mean things to happen as if he would kind of torture his kids a little
bit to try to make them better followers.
That's not God at all.
And you have to understand there will be a time when God completely in terms of his
will being enforced over people.
And the Bible says that that time will be a new heaven and a new earth.
The Bible says there'll be no more wars, no more pain, no more killing, no more murder.
And we got to remember when Jesus, when God created the Garden of Eden, none of that was
there.
The serpent was there.
It was only when man partnered outside of the will of God with what the enemy wanted to
do that pain and suffering comes into the world.
And it's still the case today.
If we would come in agreement with God, there's so much that would be avoided.
And you have to understand we live in a fallen world.
We live in a senseic world where people make decisions that are not God.
If everyone lived the way Jesus lived, our world would be a completely different place.
All you got to do is read the Gospels and look at what Jesus did.
And if you find out Jesus was always destroying the works of the enemy and undoing what the
devil did, so if you see that, that is a clear theological depiction of who the father is.
So number one, this is so important and this always helps me is I got to stop and think,
God is good, but we live in a fallen world that displays what's bad.
But if we lean into God, there's always hope.
And that's the biggest thing.
So that leads me to the second thing that's huge.
And in fact, I even put this on social media and I say, you have, this is a lesson I've
learned gang.
You have to live your life as if what Jesus did for you is bigger than what they did to
you.
If you can live your life as if what Jesus did for you is bigger than what they did to
you, then the pain will never define you.
I'm not defined by pain.
I'm not defined by someone else's brokenness.
I've had betrayal.
You've had betrayal.
Everybody has had betrayal in their life.
I've had people say things about me that weren't true and some instances, some people, you
know, relatively close.
But in the midst of all of that, I say what Jesus did for me on the cross will never be
outdone by what they did to me.
So no matter how much, let's just say someone's throwing rocks at me, right?
I feel that rock hit my body.
I feel the pain of that.
I can see the bruise of that.
Maybe it's scarred me.
Maybe it's broken skin or whatever.
Maybe it's knocked me down like the rocket me, but none of that is greater than when
Jesus puts me on my feet.
So when Jesus set me upon the rock, he put me on my feet.
When Jesus sets you on the rock, the rocks, they throw it.
You can't take you off your feet unless you let them.
And I just refuse.
And I think that understanding of what Jesus did for me is greater than what they did to
me.
It takes me out of victims mentality.
It takes me out of a victim circumstance and put me in a victor circle.
You know, like when you win them horse races, like when they do the big triple crown, they
get in a winner circle.
Right.
And I'm not going to be in a victim mentality.
I'm going to be in a victor circle at the end of the day.
And then I also believe this, no matter how bad it gets, if Jesus is in the equation,
the upturn can begin the moment I acknowledge Jesus in my situation.
So things I think are really have been helpful.
His joy is greater than my pain.
And you have to focus on that.
Because what you focus on at the end of the day, you allow greater access, you give greater
mental space to.
And in fact, your feelings will follow your optics.
And so if my optics are on the pain and how bad it is, then my feelings follow that before
I know what I've come underneath that instead of being above that.
Oh my goodness.
That's, that's a book.
I mean, that's profound, baby.
I love this.
So you're talking about, I just want to take that what you focus on even a step further
if that's okay.
Cause I think that that's such a powerful thing.
Cause I've watched you receive bad news.
I've, I've watched you get the call that your mom is being rushed to the ER and she passed
away that night.
I was with you.
I was by your side in that moment.
I watched you worship, lean into God, pray.
What is the default setting within you that when you are literally slapped in the face
with the most unspeakable, unexpected blind siding pain, what's your default setting that
you just naturally tap into?
Cause I think what our default settings are is key.
It has to be like so practiced within us becomes instinct, right?
Cause you can't really think clearly and highly emotional places and spaces.
And so there's something in our instinctual place that had, had to have been developed
before we get to the crisis.
You're practiced in this, you're disciplined in this.
What is those disciplines that you literally activate when the pain comes knocking on your
door?
I think some people run to Jesus when crisis comes, but if you stay in Jesus, you don't
have to run to Jesus.
You know, some people have the false philosophy is stay petty.
So you don't have to get petty.
My thing is stay in Jesus.
So you don't have to go back and get in Jesus when crisis comes.
But here's, I think, another fallacy.
I think a lot of people think that peace is the absence of pain and unmet needs and wants.
They think peace.
And so I want to say this way, peace is not the absence of unmet needs, pains and hurts,
but it's ability to give them the proper status, whatever pain, whatever setback, whatever
thing, give it the proper status in a way that it never drowns out the value of what
you already possess.
You possess Jesus living inside of you, which is heaven.
I don't have to wait till I die to get to heaven, although I believe there's an eternal
resting place called heaven, but I believe that Jesus presence in my soul gives me heaven
in the midst of hell.
So even David, the Psalmist can say in the 23rd Psalm, even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, you are with me.
So what the David is Psalmist is saying, I'm in hell, but I got heaven in me.
So I never allow the pain I'm going through me to have an undue status report.
So the proper status is pain has a status, but it's not going to undo what I already
possess.
I possess Jesus.
And so I think you live in a place where you're constantly bringing your mind back to Jesus.
He's mind is stayed on the eskeptum perfect piece.
The prophet says it in the Old Testament.
So I keep my mind on Jesus.
And the other thing is that I think you have to stop.
I know different people look at this differently.
I would say this is that I know what it's like to not have Jesus in my life.
I know what it's like to be depressed out of your gourd to where you wanted to in your
life and then for Jesus to show up and supernaturally.
So I say this, I say my absolute worst day as a believer is infinitely greater than my
best life as an unbeliever.
And I feel like some people for themselves, the luxury that in the back of their head,
if it gets too bad, I could go back to what I was doomed to for Jesus.
I burn that plow.
So that option is not there.
So no matter how bad it gets, it's already fixed in my head.
I'm with Jesus.
I have no other option.
You know, when Jesus thinned the crowd out and said, unless you eat my flesh drink,
my blood can't follow me.
And the disciples were kind of going, looking at him like, Jesus, what you said is kind
of harsh.
And Jesus said, do you want to go to?
And Peter, I believe, was the one that responded, Jesus, where are we going to go?
We left all to follow you.
And so he had burned the plow or that one guy, I think the Spaniard conquistador, he
burned the ships so the guys couldn't turn around and go, Cortez, he couldn't, they couldn't,
they couldn't go in retreat.
And so that, those are some things that are very key for me and principles that I try
to abide and try to live by and principles that I've learned.
I love that.
And I, and I see you that I see you practice that.
I think this is why I wanted to interview you about this, because honestly, baby, I think
you're one of the most disciplined people in this area.
And I think you're probably one of the most consistent people I've ever seen that no matter
what you're walking through, literally your worship doesn't change your, your heart for
Jesus, your sweetness, your kindness, your joy, your peace.
It doesn't shift.
And times I marvel because I'm like, man, I want to be like you when I grow up, you're
like my hero.
I'm serious.
Like you're so, you're so steadfast.
I am more like, I have to like find my bearings more than you.
You're like just so consistent.
And I ask you these questions privately, but I wanted to make it a public conversation
because I know if I'm asking these questions and I have the privilege of having someone
to ask them to, but a lot of people don't have someone in their life that this is modeled
that it's actually possible to walk in a place that is, that is unrelenting in the peace
of God, that you just, there's a steadfastness that you walk in.
So I want to go back to being in the place of feeling out of control and feeling out
of control is when you don't have control, when bad things are happening and it's because
of let's just create a scenario that you and I have both walked in where it's other people's
decisions that affect our life and that causes pain or hurt or chaos.
How do you not get offended?
And I know we hit on it with the job description.
I understand that, but I just want to take it even deeper because I think this is where
I think we can all get hung up at times as even followers of Jesus that when something
happens that God could stop.
And I know that there's a difference of job description, so I'm not trying to repeat it,
but I just think how do you stay unafended at God in the midst of really painful circumstances?
I think some people, it's subtle.
There are a couple of different thoughts.
You have on one end of the spectrum, you have believers, I believe that there's a bit of
North American Christianity, there's a bit of an entitlement.
Like God, you owe me a good life.
You owe me a hashtag best life, loud.
I should prosper.
I should have this.
All you got to do is read Fox's book of martyrs.
All you got to do is see the persecuted underground church, a Corrie 10 boom, different people.
If you look at the disciples, I mean, we talk about how awesome it was in Wabji's.
Hey, all but John was martyred and that dude was thrown in a cauldron of oil and supernaturally
was preserved by God, but he died in exile on the island of Patmel's writing revelation.
So I think on one end of the spectrum is a bit of an entitlement.
The other thing that I think is significant for a lot of believers is to simply recognize
Jesus died.
He suffered bland on a cross, a cruel, dishonorable death.
Death by crucifixion by the Romans was very dishonorable.
I think we lose sight of the fact that the Bible says that we're supposed to enter into
the sufferings of Christ.
We just don't talk about that.
It's not preach.
So I think again, we think that a little bit of like God's a slot machine.
I'm going to put my prayer in, pull my hand down.
I'm going to get triple bars all across.
It's going to pay off all my prayers to be answered, everything I wish and want.
But here's the other thing that I think is equally as important is that as far as God's
concern, we have to recognize your development is more important than your immediate deliverance.
Now I don't mean deliverance from the demonic.
Right.
I don't mean deliverance from hell.
Those things are clear on the spot.
God's giving you that.
But I mean deliverance out of a problem, out of a sticky situation, out of a conundrum,
out of in a place of waiting, we think God owes us deliverance, but really God's more
concerned about your development than it is your deliverance.
And that's why Shai Ragnamishak and the Bendigo weren't pulled out of the fire.
They were given the grace to, to endure the fire.
They stayed there and they got a revelation of the fourth one in the fire.
They wouldn't have had that had all of a sudden God just like did this thing and angels came
down and will pull them out.
And we forget Joseph man.
I mean, yeah, he was the right hand do to Potiphar.
But the guy had what 13 years before that happened of just being lied upon, being misrepresented,
thrown in prison.
He's doing the right thing, but wrong things happened to him.
Somebody needs to pull right now out the book of Genesis and read a Joseph.
So I think the other thing and how, so how do we get through this?
You can live on one frequency of life that's feelings or you can live on another frequency
of life that's faith.
But so many people want to stay in their feelings.
And I think modern culture feeds feelings in your feelings and everything about feelings
and hip hop artists talk about your feelings and everything's feelings.
And so we want to share our feelings.
Well, I just feel, feel, feel, feel, feel, but the Bible says we walk by faith, not by
sight.
I don't think we should deny our feelings.
I just think that we should not give feelings, the airspace or the decision criteria or predominant
vote in where our mind and our lives go.
You got to walk by faith.
So somewhere along the line, you got to get in the scripture and declare what is the word
of God say?
What do I know this true about the character of God?
And even if in that point in time say, I don't have a specific scripture I could land on,
I don't have a prophetic word or God's not giving me anything.
I'm just going to believe his character, but I'm going to choose faith.
And if you, if you could get there by feelings, here's what I believe you to God there.
So if you can't get there by feelings, you know, it's, it's almost like we didn't get
to London by car because you can't, you get, we can get to the East coast by car because
we had to get to the East cause we had a direct flight all the way from San Francisco to Heathrow.
But you, you would need a boat to get across the water part or you need to go air.
So it's almost like you can go by feelings.
That's only going to get you so far.
But if you go by faith, then all of a sudden you're, you're moving from being in a motorized
vehicle on land to now you can go aerial.
And that's what God gives us faith.
So we're not limited to, to our feelings.
Oh my gosh, baby, you need to write a book on this.
I'm serious.
You really walk in a revelation the world needs, especially our world today.
You know, it's interesting you brought up suffering cause I think it is one of probably
one of the most underrated places of discipleship and we want to avoid suffering and difficulty
and pain at all costs.
But when I even reflect on my own life, it's actually the places of extended pain and suffering
that have created the deepest root system within me.
And I look at the places of breakthrough that have become sweeter because of the delayed
waiting.
And that's one of my life I've waited for promises.
This isn't true for everyone, but just speaking from my own story, my own experience, the
Lord has allowed me to have extended seasons of waiting for deep desires and promises in
my life.
And when that sweet, when that breakthrough happened, when that prayer got answered, i.e.
Mary knew I waited 20 years and it wasn't all suffering, but there was times of suffering.
There was times of pain in it.
So when you came into my life, when I didn't expect it cause it was so laid down, but that
laid down that like that depth, that root system that God had developed within me, it
was like how much sweeter was it because it was just so it was so given to God.
But I also look back of what he developed between him and me and my identity and God,
my trust, my surrender in him, all areas I can still continue to grow in, but I still
had significant growth during those times in those years of extended waiting.
So I just want to encourage the listener today that's going, my gosh, Christa, Sean, I'm
in such a hard season.
It's just been going on and on.
We want you to know we've been there and we understand and we want to encourage you that
God's actually going to use your pain in a place of discipleship and you're actually
going to grow and deepen it.
There's purpose in the pain.
I actually find that incredibly encouraging because I'd much rather have purpose than
I'm just going through it for no reason.
I feel like that promise that God uses everything for his glory, everything.
That means the good, the bad, the ugly.
He uses it all, uses it places of pain for his glory.
That means I'm going to see fruit in my life from it, whether it be breakthrough, whether
it just be a sweeter place of intimacy between Jesus and I, which that alone is enough.
But I just recognize, which I'm hearing you say, the deepest places of discipleship and
growth in who we are come in extended seasons of pain and suffering.
Yes.
The Bible is very clear about that, that we would know him who, and part of it, the part
we leave out is the fellowship of his suffering.
There's a place and you alluded to it of intimacy of knowing God by going through it.
Here's what I say.
Like don't waste your wildernesses.
Like let your wildernesses be something that at the end of the day propels you into your
promised lands because if you don't have wildernesses, you won't have promised lands.
God started us off with that typology right from the jump.
He pulled his people, the nation of Israel.
He pulled them out of bondage, but they had to go through the wilderness before they could
get into the promised land.
And the wilderness is your training place.
David, he's out the backside of a wilderness.
Moses backside of a wilderness.
Jesus backside of a wilderness.
It just goes on and on and on.
And the Bible is clear too.
The Bible says it and inheritance gain hurriedly in the beginning when I'll be blessed in the
end.
And this thing doesn't, doesn't happen just because you grind it.
You know, like we think, Hey, team grind.
I'll just work harder and man, I'll just grind it.
Man, I'll get my entrepreneurial idea up and going.
Man, I'm going to be super successful.
Man, I'll get my little music thing and I'm trying to produce or I'll get this other little,
you know, Instagram, you know, influencer deal going in the kingdom.
You don't want your stuff overnight because if you get it overnight, you can lose it overnight.
And that, that even when they look at people and they say, Oh man, that guy or that gal,
their ministry, they blew up overnight.
No, no, no.
I understand that overnight, what it looked to you was like 30 years for them, 25 years
for them, 20 years for them, 10 years, because the worst thing that could ever happen, right?
Is you get a platform, but you don't have the character.
And so somewhere along the line, you've got to form that character with dealing with the
contradictions, dealing with those times of waiting, dealing, uh, processing pain.
That's why the worst thing someone could do is let pain take them out when in fact God
allowed pain.
Yeah.
I'm not saying he sent it.
I'm not saying it to take you in, not take you out.
So if you really process it with the Lord, it can actually be your Uber car, Uber drive
into the promises that God has for you.
So it's just so important.
So many people that when there's no things you can't wrap your head around, you don't
understand, you don't know.
Trust me, every single person you respect, they've been through it.
And if they've not been through it, truth be told, they'll probably not be able to endure
the success or the pressure or everything else that comes.
You have to have character.
And then what we're seeing that, no matter what, we're seeing that.
No matter what venue today, whether it's professional athletes, whether it's in Hollywood, whether
it's in the music industry, whether it's in IT, whether it's in finance, you're seeing
people make horrible decisions and it's because some of them took shortcuts and you, you don't
want shortcuts.
And the thing is, is that when you don't have control, you have to learn how to trust the
one who is in control.
Trust is, is, is lesson number one in the kingdom.
Uh, in fact, one of the words for faith is actually the word trust.
And if you don't learn to trust Jesus, you'll never get past Christianity one on one.
Hey, you're, you're a baby and Paul says, Hey, uh, you, you guys, you've been here.
You need to have moved on from the milk.
You need to move on to the meat.
And so he's challenging them.
You've got to go deeper and going deeper is going in a walk of trust.
It's a, it's a, it isn't a blind faith, but at times it's, it's a walk where you won't
have sight in the natural.
Yeah.
You only have visibility.
Yeah.
You only have sight by faith and by knowing the one who's leading you.
That's true.
And that sight and faith and just the knowing came from the places of having to trust him
when you couldn't see, it didn't make sense.
And you didn't have the visibility.
You didn't have the strong encounter.
You didn't have the loud voice or wasn't not the prophetic word.
There wasn't the powerful encounter.
You're not getting people that people aren't praying for you.
It's in the really quiet, silent place in God's like, but who do you say I am?
Who do you say I am?
And you're able to say who he is that he's still healer, even with the diagnosis, you're
able to stay.
You're still good even in the midst of the contradiction, the pain and the suffering
and something I've learned in extended seasons of suffering and you brought this up in the
area of trust is, you know, really for me, surrender is so required in those places of
suffering in order to tap into the trust.
I can only tap into the deeper places of trusting God because the deeper I surrender, it means
the greater I trust.
I can't surrender where I don't trust.
And it really God is looking for full surrender.
I can only fully surrender where I fully trust him.
So when he's asking me like Sam Abraham, Isaac moment, he's saying, can you give me the
son?
Right.
And I'm like, okay, I can give you a leg.
I can give you an arm.
He's like, no, no, I want the whole child.
I'm like, I'm still holding on to one arm.
And I have, and I've had that process where God's like, can I have the whole child?
And I'm like, I'll give you three quarters.
And then I'm noticed I'm still holding on, which means I'm still striving.
I'm still trying to do it on my own.
And I don't find that place of rest, right, because I'm not surrendering.
And so for those of you that have struggled, maybe like myself, where you have just had
a lack of rest, there's even maybe been anxiety you've been dealing with.
It's because God's invited you in to a deeper place of surrender, which means a deeper place
of trust, deeper the trust, deeper the rest.
And so that's something I'm walking out.
That's something I'm still learning.
I feel like I'm just continuing that journey of always trying to go deeper and I walk with
Jesus.
But I feel like someone today needs to hear that.
I know that when you're in those places of just feeling the pain and the hardship and
you're going, why can I find this place of peace?
And God's just inviting you to go even deeper, like beyond capacity.
And what is he doing?
He's expanding your tent pegs.
He's taking you to a deeper place of trusting in him.
You know, right along those lines, I was thinking about when Jesus said to Peter, he says,
Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you as wheat.
And if I'm Peter, I'm thinking, and you're toe to no, right?
And of course, Jesus goes on and he says, I prayed for you so that after you have returned,
in other words, after you get back up on your feet, you will strengthen your brothers.
So what is the principle?
The takeaway principle from that is this.
What many of us call a faith crisis, heaven calls a faith catalyst.
Like that was a faith crisis.
His Satan demanded permission.
That was Peter denied Jesus three times when he was apprehended.
He didn't, he said, no, I don't know the man.
No, I don't know the man.
He called curses down on himself.
That was a crisis of faith.
You could look at him like he could have walked around, moped.
Total deconstruction, walked away from God, went out in the world, went back in a sense.
He went back to fishing.
But Jesus told him after you get back on your feet, strengthen your brothers, what do we
know about Peter?
Simon Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost, preaches the church's first sermon.
He is kind of the rock of the early church until we see Paul come on this scene.
Really he kind of takes more of a leadership role, probably about Acts 13.
So from Acts two to Acts 13, it's really about Peter.
But what we would call a crisis of faith.
Somebody right now is going through something, they go, oh man, I'm in a crisis of faith.
I challenge you to redefine and turn the narrative and recognize it's not a crisis of faith,
it's a catalyst of faith.
You're going to receive something that will bring strength to other people and will actually
be your superpower at the end of the day.
And so I, I, I'm like, I look at it like, okay, it feels like a crisis, but it will,
if I stay with Jesus, it will be a catalyst.
My goodness, baby, you're amazing.
I love your revelation.
You're sweet, Paul.
You're sweet.
It's just, it's just a nice conversation, you know, I just, I think I want someone to
walk away with a practical and I think that whenever you're going through a hard place,
a place of suffering, a place of pain, the enemy's always going after redefining who
God is.
You talked about it before you said it really well.
There's a war over job descriptions and we often get them confused.
You said this statement, I thought it was really powerful to keep our minds focused on Christ.
That to me, there's the war.
It's what do we, what do we keep our focus on?
Where do we set up?
How do we set our, what do we set our minds upon?
Maybe that's the best way to say it.
Just with kind of that takeaway concept that we have with the Keefer 100 tribe, how do
people do that practically?
What's that takeaway when someone is walking through something difficult?
How do they set their mind on Christ?
I think when you're feeling that pain, you're feeling that longing, you're feeling that
loss, let that, in the same way, when you feel hunger, hunger pains or pains, they call
it, it moves you towards food, right?
If you feel like, oh man, my stomach's growling, I better go eat.
Like what's going on?
I'm hungry.
You're feeling loss, you're feeling lonely, you're feeling pain, you're feeling demoralized.
Let that be, if you will, that inner prompting to go, I immediately need to press into Jesus.
I think that many times we take a step back when we allow the substitutes.
So I think one of the early things is that when you're feeling stuff going, trying to
go south, don't get in your head, get in your heart.
You're getting in your head, you're immediately trying to know how bad it is.
Oh, I can't believe why am I going through this?
Hey, I, I, I'm trying to figure out some solutions.
All that.
Instead, go to your heart and say, Lord, I need you.
What is it?
I'm feeling pain.
Just be honest with the Lord, talk to the Lord.
I think those are so key that you include Jesus in it.
Don't let your problems separate you from your Redeemer.
Allow it to draw you nearer to your Redeemer.
And so you think about it, all the words for God is he's Joe Verrafa, he's Joe Vanesys,
Genova, Sid Canoe, what are those?
If you go back and research all the origins of when God's name was revealed, it was because
his people had the absolute opposite of that.
So they discovered, you know, Hagar's in the middle of wilderness, there's no water, her
and her son's going to die.
Ah, he's Jehovah Rohe, a God who sees me when they're like discovering they're about to
die.
I don't know.
I think it was from snake bites.
They go, oh, it's, he's Jehovah Rafa.
So they get a deeper revelation of God meeting their need because in their pain, in their
lack, in their contradiction, they look to the Lord and he was able to come through for
them.
And that needs to be the cue that we follow as well.
That would be my takeaway.
Wow.
That is so good.
Keep on head of tribe.
I don't know about you, but I was incredibly blessed and ministered to by this episode,
just being around it.
I get to live with this man of God every day.
I wanted you guys to hear the wisdom that he walks in because he's been one that's really
impacted my life.
I ask him these kinds of questions all the time.
And I felt like this was an important conversation because I think so many people are going through
really hard things right now.
And I just felt this truth and revelation was so key to share it with all of you.
For any of you that are going through really difficult and hard times, I want you to be
encouraged today.
You're not forgotten.
You're not overlooked and you're not not seen.
You have a God who loves you, who pursues you, who sees you and he's with you.
And I just want you to know God's going to get you through it where your ad is not your
permanent location, but we have a God who does breakthrough.
He is the God of Baal, Parism, the Lord of the breakthrough.
And I just want to speak hope over you.
I want to speak blessing over you and I want you to know God has you and be encouraged
today.
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