Trust Broken, Faith Restored Through The Holy Spirit

Join Sis. Diahanna and Sis. Audia as they discuss some church news that really hurts the body as a whole.

Some wounds cut deeper when they come from the people we trust to guard our souls. We open up about church hurt, high-profile failures, and the quiet cover-ups that leave congregations confused, angry, and exhausted—and we focus on the one safeguard we can all build today: spiritual discernment led by the Holy Spirit.

Together we unpack what discernment really is—an understanding heart that can separate truth from error and good from evil—and how Scripture shapes that skill. We talk through real-life moments of hearing “not today” from God, why timing matters when sharing heavy words, and how to love people who are still on milk without shaming them. We also draw a firm line between charisma and character, exploring why hidden sin plus a microphone harms entire communities, and what genuine repentance and restoration should look like before anyone returns to a platform.

This conversation is practical and hopeful. We share simple rhythms that strengthen your inner life: daily Bible intake to renew the mind, honest prayer that invites correction, quick repentance that keeps the heart soft, and community that values truth over image. We also address how to test the spirits, what fruit to look for, and how to guard your heart without growing cynical. If you’ve been wounded by leaders or disillusioned by institutions, take a breath with us, turn toward Jesus, and rebuild trust where it truly belongs.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review to help more people find it. Your voice helps others recover theirs.

Ways to Give at www.m3mi.org...Thank you for your seed!  :)

Transcript

Welcome And Setting The Scene

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hi y'all, welcome to Simple Assembly Ship Unfiltered. I'm your host, Sister Diana. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey today. Can we be real? Being patient is not always easy, but you are not alone. So grab me a drink, grab me a snack. Let's open the word and see what Jesus has to say today. Hey, welcome to Simple Discipleship Unfiltered. I'm your host, Sister Diana. I pray you all are doing good today. And I'm joined around the table with just Sister Audia Davis today. How are you? I'm well. Good, good. We're surviving the ice magetting of 2026. And yeah, and of course, you know, we're in the same house. And so I'm burning up and she's freezing to death. So it, you know, so it's it's just that. But it but it's been really, really cold here, and we did get a lot of ice. And kids are out of school and uh people are still kind of shut in. I think tomorrow we're gonna warm up enough to get out and after lunchtime. So what is that they call it? Cabin fever. I think Sister called it. She says, I did a checkup earlier and said, How's everybody doing? And she said, I got cabin fever, it's a real thing. I said, I get it, I get it. So anyway, so we if you're listening for the first time, we are in January, what's it, 26? Yes, 2026. So just some things have been happening in the church world, again, regarding the leadership that have that has fallen and in the church. And I think that it just it it's so sad because one, understand, I would never throw a stone because I lived that, you know, I had a time in my life where I was traveling doing ministry, God used us in great miraculous ways, and it was just amazing. But when I went through my divorce, I found myself on the dark side. I mean, that's what I call it. And and even though I had had this truly intimate relationship with Jesus, I just realized I didn't know who I was in anymore. And I didn't rely on the Lord, I went completely opposite uh for several years. And and so today we're not here to cast judgment, right? Absolutely, we're here to say we know that everybody sins and falls short of the glory of God. The Bible says that we all do, we all are trying to walk by faith and not by sight, and we're all trying to hear the voice of the Lord. So that takes us to what we're gonna talk about today is spiritual discernment. Because I think above all of the things that we we can do in our life, I think that we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit, and I and I think that where we get a little extra upset about is because we didn't see it, we didn't discern it when you talk about the things with Hillsong and Bethel and all the other ministries that things are going on with, you know, with Gateway, with with uh Robert Morris, and you know, we were all big fans of his and went to his conferences for you know pastors' conferences and stuff, and and and so you begin to check and examine your own spiritual discernment when these people who you hold in high regard fall, you know. What's your thought on that?

SPEAKER_02 4:02

I think it's really hard to sometimes when you're in a church and you see things happening, yeah, and I know people in the church sometimes, I mean I can remember, well, I'll just take for instance my sister. She her husband had an affair, it was a huge she lives in a very small town, and the affair was with her best friend. And they took off together. And my sister was heartbroken, she never saw it coming. And when she went back to church, she was like, Well, one of the women in the church said to her, What did you do to make him do that?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

And that was the attitude of her church about her.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah.

Hidden Sin And Platform Culture

SPEAKER_01 5:02

And so it and so that's that's just one of the things about we did a whole series on church hurt because we went through that. And and and I've been through it my lifetime several times in the church. And and that's where I think we're now with my relationship with the Lord, is I get more upset at people who do get fall into that, right? I have compassion, but I also I I get more upset, not that people fall, but I get upset with the church and how they handle it and they hide it. And that's where I think the deception comes in. And that's where I feel the most hurt in it. It's like, you know, the the church knew that Robert Morris had done that to that young lady for years.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

For years, years, years. Yet he still was given the platform and he was still, you know, writing books and and we were spending money on it. If we had known that, we wouldn't have given our money to that. We would have said, no, we're not, you know, and so you feel deceived in the fact that they knew, but they didn't think to tell you.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Right? But the lady had the girl had to live with it her whole life.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yeah. And it was affecting her to the point that she couldn't, she couldn't function.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, that's why she finally came out about it. And and but my point is, is and the same thing with this thing with Bethel and with and Hillsong and all of this is because they knew about it. It wasn't that it just popped up all of a sudden, oh, we got to do something about it. No, they knew and they hid it, and they still gave him a platform. And I just want to tell you that in a spiritual sense, what a person carries, they carry over to your congregation on a microphone. Yes, and I understand why people don't understand that in a spiritual sense. What that person carries, when you give them a mic, they they throw that up on everybody that hears it. You know, I think that it's important that we check ourselves. I I was just watching something with John Bevere and his son Arden, and I listened to several of them. I was doing a project, and so I was just kind of had it in the background. But one of the things that he had said was is when we have spiritual discernment, we think that we're going to be able to pick up on everything that's wrong everywhere. And and the fact is we should, but how how close are we to the Holy Spirit that we're listening that close?

Hearing The Holy Spirit In Practice

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Well, and I think sometimes the Holy Spirit, just like, all right, well, take for instance this particular podcast I was listening to, and I had been all set up to go listen to this someone I listened to almost daily. And God said, Not today. And I was like, but I set aside this time, and it was like to go, you know, do something else. And then when I did he said, Okay, you can listen to it, it was the next day, it nearly knocked me to my knees. And I don't know, I I just I I think sometimes the Holy Spirit tries to prepare you, but there's things even He can't give you knowing your emotions and things there's some things that you're not prepared to hear.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Well, I just think that sometimes you're not gonna always be prepared, but I think yeah, I I think think so too that and and let's just kind of preface it with what you do, because you operate as a watchman, yeah, and so as a watchman, you are you're much more into listening to prophetic words and things like that daily, daily, all the time, yeah, all the time, you know, yeah, and it can become overwhelming, yeah. And so so I think sometimes you do need to turn it off and say, I can't handle anything else right now, and God would understand that. And I did, I turned it off and that's my days, and so and and so I think that that's just his way of protecting us. But yeah, this specific word that you had gotten was, you know, a big word if you weren't prepared for it. And and then tell us what happened after that.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Well, the thing is, before that word was given, when sh this person said they were gonna give this word, he immediately told me what it was gonna be. And I just kept saying, please God, please, God, please God, don't let this be what I'm thinking I'm fixing to hear. But it was. And it was, well, you know, I came out and I was like, I I don't know what to do with this. Well, I have a very dear friend. I'm trying to, I've been trying to kind of mentor her into listening and not just go by sight, to go by faith, to not go by sight. And that's a hard thing to do. It's it's hard, especially in everything that's going on in this world right now. And so I told her, don't go by sight, listen to this, and then call me and let's talk about it. Well, she flipped out, of course.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

And so why did she flip out?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Because this is someone she uh holds in high esteem, and she called someone else. Not she didn't call me first, she called someone else, and this person said, Well, maybe she's a false prophet. And she said, Is is she so she did call me then and she said, Is she like a Jean Dixon?

Milk Versus Meat And Readiness

SPEAKER_01 11:29

And I went, no, she's yeah, and for people that don't know it's Jean Dixon, she she was a lady, older lady back in the day, and and back in the 60s, yeah. Yeah, and she was a psychic, and so people would call her to get psychic advice, and which we don't attune to at all, you know, prophecy and and psychic things are two different things, but I think that uh being a psychic is misdirected uh prophecy, prophetic utterance, and so I think that you know the enemy uses everything, you know, and turns it around. So so she accused her of that. And but what was the underlying reason? You and I had this conversation last night.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

That she just wasn't ready, she's not in a place where she listens to the Holy Spirit, God, right, and that that's the key.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah, and the thing is is that we have to understand, you know, brother Ernie was doing the lesson on the book of John, and he's been doing the book of Acts, and and so we've had a lot of Bible study going on, and we and he and I got into the conversation about whether a person uh should be on milk or whether they should be on meat. And so if we have a person that's on milk, and she's on milk, yeah, we don't ever want to give them like this hard, you know, very deep word uh from someone because they're not gonna be able to chew it, you know. That's the that really goes back to that that she would she's not able to see it because she doesn't have the eyes to see it.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah, it's like my kids. I when I'm with them and I'll go and I'll look at the sky and I'll went, oh my gosh, look at how many angels are up there. And they're like, What are you looking at?

What Discernment Is: Scripture Lens

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Right. Yeah. To them, they see the clouds. Yeah, well, they don't have eyes to see, you know, and then to a lot of people listening, they're going, y'all are crazy. But no, just just when we talk about discernment, I think that we as ministers have to say, let me just hold the word until I hear Holy Spirit say to release the word. Yeah, right? I mean, that comes in our own learning that we're doing ourselves because we don't want to ever be the reason that somebody gets deterred from listening to anything at all, you know. And so a lot of people understand this though. A lot of people do not understand prophetic words, they don't understand that a lot of people even believe that prophetic words ended at the end of Malachi, that in those 400 years and afterwards, even it although John the Baptist came and he prophesied of who was coming, after that they say that there's not any more prophetic words. Even though, if you get on down, Paul says, I wish that you all prophesy. And I think that prophecy isn't just prophetic words that come spontaneous to people about what's going on and events and all that stuff, though. I think that that's all fine and good. But I think that each one of us prophesy every time we open our mouth because each one of us carry life and death in the power of the tongue. Yeah, we've talked about that, how it's important what we say and what we speak out over ourselves, over our families, over our situations. And so I think that one of the things that when we talk about discernment, let's just kind of say what discernment is, it it the definition is, okay? Because if we're saying discernment says it's the ability to judge rightly, distinguishing the truth from error and good from evil. And scripture consistently associates this skill with wisdom, prudence, and understanding. And so it's one of the things that that King Solomon prayed for was for wisdom. So if you look at you got your Bible right there. Yeah, look over at 1 Kings 3 and 9.

unknown 15:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

And we'll just look at some scriptures that kind of talk about discernment so we can kind of understand it. Because let me tell you, I'm my life, I I had discernment, I have really, really good discernment for everybody else. But in my personal life, I would hear what the Lord was saying, yet I still acted on my own impulse. And that led down some very unnecessary roads because first Kings what? 1 Kings 3 and 9. So I think it's funny that I can help a lot of people and discern you shouldn't do this or you shouldn't. I feel like you shouldn't, you know, through prayer. But then with myself, I had a hard time, you know, saying, you know, don't do this. When I felt like the Lord was saying, don't do it. I've told I've shared the story of, you know, when I got married, of hearing the voice of the Lord, you know, don't do that. This isn't the right thing for you. I was like, oh crap. So go ahead. First Kings 3:9.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Therefore, give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Right. So King Solomon is praying for wisdom. So when we pray, we pray for wisdom and understanding in all things. We always pray, God, give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and a heart to understand. We want that wisdom because we need to be able to teach it. We need to be able to teach the word, we need to be able to teach just everything that God is showing us. And so we have to have the discernment of the Holy Spirit to be able to do that. So I think that in this, I think we need to understand that that one, this is a learning curve, right? Oh, it was a learning curve. And so, you know, because I I I uh I was on the other end of the table, so I heard the conversation, so I was like, oh, and and so you know, there's just gonna be people that don't understand what God is showing you, and there's gonna be a lot of times where you don't get to share what God has showed you.

Renewing The Mind To Test God’s Will

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Well, and and and you know, and I want to say in my defense, but I'll say in my thinking. In your thinking, yeah. I was there's some things, obviously, that I've heard that we've discussed that I have been shown, and I'm I was worried for her if she didn't have some insight when some of these things start happening.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, yeah, and I and you can see that, but that'd be like me. I know Tracy's probably gonna hear this. For me to go and tell Tracy a bunch of prophetic words as a Church of Christ girl, yeah, she's gonna look at me and go, You you are just, you know, you're cocoa cuckoo for cocoa pus or whatever. She wouldn't understand that, you know. So I had to discern that there's some things I can tell her and some things I can't, but then I have to trust Holy Spirit has prepared the heart of the person that I'm talking to. So so it all works together on understanding and listening to the voice of God. Let's look at a couple more scriptures because I just want to really dig this in. Okay. At Psalm one nineteen and sixty-six. One nineteen and sixty-six one. So in it is that David wrote that psalm. And so David is pursuing God and saying, please give me discernment so that I can pursue the truth of what you have for me. And so it's so it's important. So look at Romans 12 and 2. Let's look at this. That's why the ladies at the Jesus House, we've been doing Bible drills. Uh, I challenge you at home when you're doing your Bible study, if you don't know your books of the Bible, to close your Bible and just call out a chapter and a verse, a book, a chapter and a verse, and practice learning your books of the Bible because it's important. Go ahead. Romans 12 and 2.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

For do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Don’t Lose Jesus Over Church Failings

SPEAKER_01 20:58

So you can discern what it is that God's trying to tell you. So you study the word of God, you get the word of God inside of you, so that when you need it, you can discern what the perfect will of God is for your life. I wish I had known that when I was younger, right? Yeah. All right, one more Philippians 1, 9 and 10.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Right.

unknown 21:51

Okay.

Accountability, Repentance, And Restoration

SPEAKER_01 21:52

So that that's the prayer Paul's praying over the Philippians. I want you to discern what is going on so that you can hear God's voice so that you're clearly acting upon what he is saying. I know I said this the last one, but go to this 1 Corinthians 2 and 14. This goes right along with what we're talking about. And I think that here is my heart, though. My heart is I don't want people to fall away from the faith. Because the Bible says in the end times that people will fall away. You know, we pray for an end time revival, but scripture says that there's going to be a great falling away. Well, why? Because they get to a point where they don't know who to trust anymore. Yeah. When these things begin to happen inside the church, it takes away your trust factor of the church. And and and sadly, we link the church to Jesus. Well, because we don't have a personal relationship with him. When we don't have that personal intimate relationship with him, then whatever happens in the church, we tie to that relationship with Jesus. And we separate ourselves from him instead of just separating from the church. That happens a lot. Yeah. People leave because they get offended, or people leave because this one said this one, or whatever happens, and then they leave, but they don't just leave the church, they leave the faith, they leave their their pursuit of who Jesus is because they see Jesus in what happened in the church. And that's where the responsibility as a leader is extra. Because you can cause somebody to stumble by what you do inside the church that you represent. We've seen that. I've had it happen in my own life. That's the point. And so here's what's sad about it is that we put all these ministries on a high pedestal, these pastors, preachers, and teachers, and musicians and singers, and all of this. And they're able to lead us into this tremendous praise and worship, or lead us into, you know, scripture, or lead us into whatever it is. And yet when they fall, we take it personally that it represents Jesus. When it's that person falling, not your faith in that person. See, it's not we don't have our faith in the right channel.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

I think having been someone who left a church because I felt judged. I felt like I wasn't, well, I wasn't getting fed, I'll put it that way. I was getting talked to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

And I think that now that I can look at people that have said, well, I used to go to church or I used to be a Christian or anything. And I can have empathy for what the heart that they're feeling.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

But I think we but have a better but as leaders, we we should we're responsible for that.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Because we're not responsible for the choices they make. But one, we're responsible for what we taught them. And two, we're responsible for our actions at a higher level. Yeah. Because when I returned back to the Lord, when he saved me from that place I was in, he didn't say go right back up there and get on the stage and start teaching. No.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

No, me either.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

It was not like that. I didn't get no ring in a robe. You know, I they didn't kill no fatty calf or nothing like that. I, you know, go sit down. Go through the healing of what you went through. Go through the repentance of what you went through. Go through the deliverance of what you went through. And now let me retrain you. And there were stages to that. And I think that it's important that everybody that goes that sins go through those steps because the people that you hurt and that you affected by what you did, they need to go through a time of healing as well. And I think not only do people need to talk about the discretion that happened, but they also need to be led through deliverance and and and understanding what happened and that they didn't have anything to do with that, you know. And that, you know, repentance does come from the leadership down. And I think that it's important that we see that. Look at this scripture that I just gave to you. Go ahead and read it.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

Read, tell me what it was again.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

1 Corinthians 2 and 14.

Test The Spirits And Look For Fruit

SPEAKER_02 26:44

14, okay. But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

That's perfect verse.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Read it again, read it one more time. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

But the natural man cannot does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

For they are foolishness to him.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. They're spiritually discerned.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

So they can't. That's why I tell you. When when you're when you're talking about something, anything, well, let's just say not doesn't have to be prophetic. Just anything that God is laying upon your heart because as you're going, you're growing, you're going from glory to glory to glory. But the other person that you're trying to talk to might not be there yet. Prime example is you and uh Sister Ann now go and teach the devotion at the nursing home.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

And so I told you, I said, you can prepare all you want to. God will give you something laid upon your heart. But when you step in front of those people, he will tell you nine times out of ten, okay, I want you to talk about this, not what you studied for for the whole week, right? And that happened, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Okay, so and so my point is it happens nine times out of ten. But then, two, when you're standing there, the Holy Spirit knows the heart of the people that you're speaking to. Yeah, and so he is trying to teach you discernment to say, now, based on who is in this room, this is what I want you to say. Yeah, why? Because then he has prepared the hearts because spiritually discerned things can't be received by a person that doesn't doesn't have discernment. Yeah, right. Let's look at another one here. John 16 and 8. We need the Holy Spirit, we need Holy Spirit to to teach us because he's the one that leads and guides us into all truth. This 2026, we have been talking about intentionally pursuing Holy Spirit in a closer walk with him. And so we see it in scripture here. Go ahead and read that.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Okay, and when he has come, he will convict the world of sin.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Okay, stop right there. When he who comes, Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, yep, he'll convict this the people. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Yep, yep. All right, flip over to John 4, 1. This is so important. This is so important.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples. Excuse me, let me start over. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Are you in 4 1?

End Times Urgency And False Voices

SPEAKER_02 30:18

John 4 1. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The Samaritan woman meets her Messiah. That's where that's John 4.1.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Um, let me see what this pops up here. If it'll give me something.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

And it said, though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples. Let me pull it up.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Because I have my Bible on my phone. Okay. You know, I love I love my regular word. I like to just have the word open, but I like turning the pages and marking my book and all that. But all right, let's see if I if it says something different. I think they've got a long them thing I've got the wrong one because that was what mine says, too. Let's see. It says the divine guidance equips believers to distinguish spiritual deception from truth. Oh, they did they put first John four and one.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

But they didn't put it in blue, so I didn't see it. First, they spelled it out. That's just weird. Okay. First John 4 and 1. Yeah, let's go there. This is important. This is what what we're keying in on today.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

1 John.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Okay. So test the spirits if they are of God. How do you do that?

SPEAKER_02 32:07

If their prophecies come to pass.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

No, just about spirits.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Oh, I just pray that God shows me discernment and that He shows me if I'm to believe this or not.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Yeah, a lot of times we go to we do, we used to do a lot of conferences. We haven't done a lot lately, but and mainly because we we like to get out of town and do stuff. But we've been so busy, you know, with the ministry now that we don't have that much time to travel. But when we do and we're in the presence of someone, and I'll take, for example, Julie Green when we went there. A lot of people just think she's just a big old cuckoo. But when she began to pray and lay hands on people, it wasn't just people falling out and all that, though they did, it was true transformation taking place in people's lives.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Yes.

Plant The Seed, Then Release Control

SPEAKER_01 33:05

We saw people that were sitting right by us be healed throughout, you know, we're there several days. And so to see a person come in in a wheelchair and not be able to even hold a spoon or feed themselves or go to the bathroom to then the next day after they've been prayed for, they're getting up and walking and eating popcorn and do, you know, talking, turning around and talking. It was like, what? You know, you see that. And so you so that's what we're trying to say is it's important. It's gonna be even more so important as we're going into these last days. And I and I do say we're we're we're not just in the end times. I believe we're in the last days, the last moments for the bride to be here because just all of the signs that are happening based on scripture, period. Okay, and in that we need the discernment because the Bible says in the in the last days, in the end times, there will be a lot of false prophets, and so you have to depend upon Holy Spirit to give you the discernment to say this isn't something that you need to listen to, or this is not someone that you should listen to, or I don't want you to go there, or I don't want you to say that. You know, we need to be so in tune with Holy Spirit that we hear his voice, that we listen to his voice, because the enemy is on the the run. I mean, he is he is full force, everybody is at everybody, and everything is going on, right? I mean, the world is crazy, and and but the bride of Christ should be so in tune and so focused on our relationship with Jesus, which you can't have a relationship with Jesus and not have communion with the Holy Spirit. Yeah, it's the same. That's how he's communicating with us right now is through the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

Something he said to me was sometimes you can you can give them the word, but if they don't receive it, don't sit there and beat yourself up trying to knock it into them. You can't, you can't, and that's that's hard for me because sometimes these are my family.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

I know, but but you plant the seed and you move on.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

That's what I'm learning.

Daily Pursuit, Bible Study, Next Steps

Closing Blessing And Ways To Support

SPEAKER_01 35:45

That's what you have to do. I mean, yeah, but understand you're not the only one. We all have family that we want them to be as close to the Lord as we feel like, you know, that we want them to be that we are, that we're you know, because we spend this is our life, yeah. We don't do we don't do much of anything else anymore. We do this is our life. We per we're pursuit of Jesus and and and we're all out sewed in for him, and so everybody doesn't understand that. I know of most people that we know, most family that we know, they know Jesus, quote unquote. Yes, and that's what they'll tell you. I know Jesus, and and I'm like, yeah, I and I know Nike, and I know, you know, whatever, but I want you to, I want people to feel what I feel, but I can't make that happen. That's not our job. Our job is to just go be Jesus, yeah, and to teach people about Jesus, and that in turn those seeds will be planted and they'll want to serve Jesus like we do. And and and it's just I think it, I think it's hard for us, and as we see these things happening in other churches and ministries throughout the world, my heart hurts. I'm not angry, I'm not angry at nothing. I'm I'm hurt and I'm and my concern is for the sheep of those people, yeah, for those who were just completely blindsided, and for those who feel like they've been wronged. And and the thing is, is because when you know that there is sin in the camp, confront the sin. Don't brush it under rug. I know that there's many times when I went to leadership and said, I really think that you need to check into this. I've just got a bad feeling about it, and I think that maybe and just to be brushed off and not listened to is one of the things that hurts people. And then when when it does eventually years later, come to the surface, and you're saying, but I said that five or six years ago, and I got brushed away. Well, think of all the people that were hurt in those five and six years ago that you could have stopped. And that's where people are today. They're like, if you knew this was going on in 2018 and 2019, that's five, six years later. Why don't you do something then? Because you don't want you're so worried about your reputation, and you're so worried about you know, attendance, and you're so worried about ties, can we be honest, that you don't that you don't use the right discernment to handle it to protect those sheep? And that and there I get angry, yeah, because that's the responsibility. Because God's gonna hold leadership to higher standard, and I'll tell you, you know, since you know, this is I've been back with the Lord now going on since 2017, so nine years, and and I I'm not going backwards.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

That's what I said. I'm not I'm not turning back.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

There's just no way I'm not turning back, regardless. And so I am in pursuit of protecting people, protecting the sheep, protecting you know, people in ministry, but also protect people that were that listen to this podcast. I don't live a double life, and let me just tell you this when I went away from the Lord, I went all the way from the Lord. I didn't try to ride the fence, I didn't try to oh, go to church on Sunday and then sin, you know, during the week. I went completely out. I wasn't no lukewarm Christian, I was just cold Christian. I was like, I'm I'm over here doing my thing. I didn't even try to interject the Lord and none of it. And I think that that's what hurts the church the most. It's because we try to do a lukewarm. thing when he keeps telling us he's not going to receive that. And and to say that this person's done this and then you just kind of brush it off, that's being lukewarm. That's not protecting the people that that they're surrounded by. It's not protecting the people that's already been hurt. You've opened the door now for other people to be hurt. And that's going to be on them. But we should care about what are we doing in our personal life that's not pleasing to God. If there's things in our personal life that we're still doing that we know God's convicting us of He's going to hold us accountable for that. Now I can honestly tell you I don't do nothing. You know you're around me you know I don't do nothing. I ain't trying to do nothing I ain't going nothing because ain't nothing worth losing my relationship with the Lord that I have right now.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

And that's why when people say I liked you better before I'm saying I like me better now.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

And there is nothing that's going to take me back there.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Yeah. Yeah. And that's I like you better when you're drinking and you're funny and exactly yeah and you're crazy. You know yeah no that's not me. That's not who I want to be and I and I I'm not going backwards. And so you know I just want to I want to say this you know if you feel like you've been hurt by people in the church we all have been hurt by people in the church. And we have a couple of podcasts go back and listen to them about church hurt. What I want to teach you today is to have discernment. Discernment comes from spending time with the Holy Spirit and allowing him to speak to you and you learn his voice because it says my sheep know my voice and another they will not follow yes and so that's the key that's where you're going into get closer to the Lord glean into the Holy Spirit and allow him to to just speak to you learn learn what he's trying to tell you and be obedient to what he says because sometimes it's going to not make sense but it's going to make sense on down the road you're going to say I'm glad I didn't do that. You know because where we're at and with the persecution that's going to come upon the church now more than ever is going to be important that you hear the voice of the Lord that you discern what he's saying and act on it and not act on things. So I'm just going to say go into your prayer closet spend time intimate time with the Lord being in his word you know we've been doing the Bible recap a lot more than about just daily we've been we've been we made the goal we're going to read the Bible through in six months and not just so we can say that we read the Bible all the way through but we really are learning a lot that I can say I've never learned before. Yes. And just you know it's just been really good study study time. But I want to hear God's voice. I want him to speak to me and I want us to have this this intimate relationship just closer and closer every day because he is your groom. We're the bride of Christ and and we're going to talk about when we do our next podcast about what does it mean to say the bride should be without spot or blemish. Because I think that a lot of times we think God's going to take us just any other way. And I think that if we dig into scripture we're going to see something that might say something a little different.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Right?

SPEAKER_02 43:44

Well I think you can't be without spot or blemish unless you've been repentant.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Right. But that's a daily thing.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

Yeah I mean on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Yeah and I I think that sometimes we just get that first I'm saved and go on about it, you know, but I think that there's more to it than that. I know we talk about you know salvation as a process so but we're not going to get into it right now. But we're thankful that you joined us today on this and I just pray that you just spend that time with the Lord develop that personal relationship that intimate relationship with him talk to him throughout the day he wants to hear from you and and I just you know if you've been hurt don't blame it on him just go to a different church find you somewhere let him show you where to go where you'll fit in where he can put you to work and you know and do what he's called you to do. So we're going to leave you today and we're going to say to go show some love show some compassion give mercy and go be Jesus today. Hey SDU family if you have enjoyed this podcast today would you please like follow and share our podcast link and we would love to hear your feedback and your podcast topic suggestions. To do that simply go to our website at www.m3mi.org scroll to the more tab and select contact us also if STU has been a blessing to you you can also go to our website and select sow a seed. There are several ways that you can give whether it's Zell, Venmo, Cash App, or if there's an address to send a check or money order. All your gifts are tax deductible and we thank you so much for sowing your seed with us. I want you to remember this a wise person once said that a person has given you their time they've given you their most precious gift because they can never ever get it back. Thank you for sharing this day with me. We love you we'll see you soon