March 8, 2024 • 43 mins
Welcome to a heartwarming episode of 'Mercy on Display' where hosts Mark and Cindy guide you through the beautiful yet challenging journey of living in God's will. This candid discussion, inspired by their personal experiences, sheds light on living a fruitful life of spiritual wisdom and increasing knowledge of God, as prescribed in Colossians 1:9-12.
Through open dialogue about their personal struggles — from money issues to controlling pride — Mark and Cindy introduce relevant real-world examples that will help you navigate your lives from a less stable to a rock-solid faith foundation. This discussion extends beyond just couplehood, also covering the blessings of singleness as illustrated in the Bible.
Dive deep into explorations on faith as they discuss personal trials with depression, and major life decisions, and remind listeners that God is a reliable guide through life's complexities. The hosts highlight crucial scriptural wisdom from 1 John 2:15-17, emphasizing the need to reassess worldly desires and prideful pursuits in favor of spiritual growth.
Discover the challenges and rewards of aligning God's will with personal dreams and desires. The hosts encourage listeners to trust unreservedly in God's multiplication process and align their daily living with HIS divine will. This journey involves self-reflection, repentance, prayer, and reliance on the merciful God.
The discussion concludes with the scriptural path to live a life of sacrifice as described in Romans 12:1-2, with examples of choosing kindness over earthly reactions. Embrace the transformation of mind and life that comes with fully surrendering to God's will amidst worldly temptations. Get ready for an inspiring journey towards righteousness, peace, and divine satisfaction.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Hello i'm mark and i'm cindy and
we're the hosts of mercy on display a storytelling podcast about god's mercy
in people's lives from dating to marriage parenting to careers and everything
in between we hope you'll be inspired encouraged and grounded in god's purpose.
Music.
For your own life we're glad you're here thanks for joining us.
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Hello everyone welcome back to the show good evening it's pretty late for us
but we're here and we made it.
We have had some things come up, but we know that enemy likes to push back when
good things are flourishing and the Lord is bringing them into fruition.
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And so we are praising God for us being here today.
So today's topic is living in God's will as a couple.
How do do you actually live in His will?
But also, I think this could go towards those who are so single,
because singleness in the Bible is beautiful, as much as it is to be married.
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So I think this could be for those who are single, who are dating or are married,
or wondering what does that even mean to live in God's will,
or you're trying to figure out what is God's will in your life.
So to start off, we would like to read from Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 12.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you.
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Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual
wisdom and understanding,
so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him,
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might,
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for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has
qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
So from this very beginning of the passage, I see that we have to figure out,
right, where does this knowledge come from? How can we live in God's will?
We understand that beginning of all wisdom is from the Lord.
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Yes. Beginning from all wisdom is fear of the Lord, that you fear God.
Like Solomon asked for that. That was the first thing he asked,
right? So with the beginning, what the encouragement is, so start in the word.
Start reading the word, seeking him out in prayer. prayer.
I also like that it says, so walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
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Living God's will is not about exactly, I think, about what you do for work, where you exactly live,
what school your children go to, how do you actually specifically teach your
children, is it homeschool, is it, whatever that might be, it's actually living
in the way that you're pleasing the Lord.
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So the Holy Spirit is already in us as Christians. The Holy Spirit is working within us.
And so all those negative vices that we might have in our flesh will start to
fade as we continue to read the word, as we continue to pray,
and as we continue to change.
Change as a couple I think is
having to come in accordance with each other of what is
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it that the Lord is wanting us to be holding each other accountable and reading
the word together and being in that word together because it also says bearing
fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God so I think as
we walk with the Lord that's when that comes.
And just to give you guys an example, for me, it was definitely my old, former way of thinking.
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And a very good example is Mark behind the wheel on the road.
So this is going to be a little bit of just bringing things into light.
It's one of those moments we have to talk about these things.
I used to have a lot of road rage. By now, I would like to say that the Lord
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has been merciful and good and patient, and so has been my wife as well,
of coming to God about these things.
And I'm Christian, but that is something that I struggled with.
Old, former way of thinking, I had to give up.
I had to surrender, but first had to acknowledge and honestly repent of that
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before God to say, like, Lord, I know this is wrong.
Me getting upset at people thinking they are impatient or
you know fill in the blanks so my old former
way of thinking that was a problem it did
take my wife to bring that up to me because it was not nourishing actually for
our relationship as a husband and wife it was quite on the contrary it was actually
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displeasing it was driving us apart because my wife in the passenger seat seat,
sat as somebody like in a tank, a little fish in a tank.
It was just uncomfortable and the way Mark is acting.
So I had to understand that, first of all, I accepted graciously from my wife
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that she means me well and that she would like for me to bring these things to the Lord.
She even gave me examples and said, hey, you got to count to 10. It's okay.
We will get to to our destination. Just breathe.
So it's one of those moments that I had to let go more of. I think little by little, honestly.
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And I prayed for you as well, because not only did I pray while I was holding
on to my handle and my seatbelt, but I actually was praying for you.
I think it takes two, right?
So if there's an example between you and
your husband or you and your wife there's something
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that is triggering and makes you really upset or angry but you know that that's
not how as a christian as a follower of jesus we should act as something that
we can bring up and obviously mark and i are far from perfect so far from perfect but i i do.
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Know that we wanted to seek out the Lord from the very beginning.
And so that was some of the examples of this is how we started.
Another example could be my pride.
So I, for example, was incredibly into my head about this is what I've done. This is what I reached.
This is these degrees, these awards, like this is me. That is my identity.
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And that wasn't really walking in the the Lord's will. Why?
Because every single thing I did to get to those things, I never ever asked
God if that was okay with him.
Instead, looking back, all I did was like, this is the next thing.
This is what society thinks. This is what the world thinks.
I'm going to go and get my degrees and I'm going to be an independent woman.
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There's nothing wrong with being a woman that is educated, but there is a really
big issue when instead of seeking out the Lord to, Lord, is this in your will?
Would you like me to attend law school?
How can I use this for your goodness, for your kingdom?
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I never once asked those questions at all.
And looking back now as a more mature Christian, I'm definitely still not,
I'm definitely not a baby Christian, but I'm definitely, you know,
have a long way to go have an eternity to go but i
definitely did not put my identity in
christ nor did i want to have god's will in
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my life because i wanted my own will so these are just some ways as as a married
couple that you look at each other and mark you were so gentle with me i mean
you i cannot believe you never pointed out my pride oh i think it was until
after year three three of marriage that I acknowledged it.
And by then I think, was it?
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I think those conversations actually began very slowly in a sense.
And here's what I mean that.
When the Lord started stripping away, taking away, breaking down to what we
thought, here is our house that we built, metaphorically speaking,
was it on sand or was it on the rock?
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Definitely was on sand for the both of us. And when those conversations came
up, and as far as character and pride, and I didn't necessarily know how to
navigate those waters to tell you.
But it did start off very slowly and
saying hey yeah yeah these
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things are an issue or they could be
as far as you know what what is an idol i think yeah you started off with not
pointing fingers at me because it is how do you like tell someone you're prideful
and you never did that with me but you did point out like hey honey like this
is this is not healthy or this is not okay with with this,
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you know, this idol that you're building in your life.
And how about we pray about this together? Do you, and then you talk to me about,
you know, are we in God's will?
And I wanted to know what that meant. And I actually thought it was about seeking
out the will, not instead of asking submission to the Lord. So that's a little
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bit of a difference there, right?
And when you're seeking out God's will, you're basically asking for discernment, for wisdom.
That means like, what should I do in this situation?
But instead of being in his will, living in it, it means like you're asking
yourself, will it bring glory to him?
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Is this a decision Jesus would make?
Would I be proud of this decision when I stand before God one day?
And I was definitely not walking in that way. I was definitely not thinking that way yet.
In those seasons when god was taking things away from us in order for us to.
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Understand that it will never be the amount of money in the bank to for us it
was truthfully scarce yeah and it never amount of money in the bank it would
never be about what accolades we we accomplished.
It will never be about what have we done for ourselves with our own strength,
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understanding, and knowledge, but more when God took everything away and it really.
It really shifted us and forced us to, in a sense, look up.
To know that, okay, He is our provider. Because we've shared this with family and friends,
to where when we were paycheck to paycheck per se, even though we were not earning a paycheck,
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and that was very difficult, but it was a season to where we had to surrender
ourselves into the Lord, and God had to start from a very clean slate.
And what we're referring to, for everyone who doesn't know, is there was a season
that where we both, I mean, I had just quit my job. Mark had just been in a work injury.
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We both were not making any money, and we were having to figure things out,
and the Lord was the one that was providing for us.
It was a season that we had actually prayed to God to take everything that was
not like him, and he definitely did.
And it is a dangerous prayer, but I don't regret it. I have a lot of joy in
the fact that we are walking closer to Jesus now than we were four years ago.
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And then there's another passage that we wanted to share with you is,
If I ascend to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead
me and your right hand shall hold me. me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night.
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Even the darkness is not dark for you. The night is bright as a day for darkness is a light with you.
I love that verse, and that's Psalm 139, verses 8 through 13.
When we were in a place that we had three months of savings,
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and it was enough either to stay for three months in our current state and wait
it out to see if we would find jobs, or it was enough for us to go back to our
original home state with my family.
And leave within that month, we didn't know what to do.
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And we love where we live. We also love our family there.
But we were not really big fans of the climate in the other state.
So we wanted to stay where we are. And we prayed a lot.
We fasted. We asked for discernment. We asked for wisdom.
We talked to friends. We actually had jobs lined up in the other state.
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And one day I am driving, I don't even remember, probably to get furniture paint
because we were furniture flipping at that time. Exactly.
And I remember the Lord saying to me, Cindy, you can go as high as you can to
the tallest mountain or to the lowest of the lowest seas.
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You can go to the driest desert or to the coldest place on earth.
But I will always be there with you.
And I did not know it was Psalm 139 at that time.
It actually took several months until I found Psalms 139.
And I knew that was a confirmation from the Lord.
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I just knew that I had to trust Him wherever that goes. Now,
like I said, we talked about.
The sermon of what is God's will in your life versus are you walking with the Lord?
And with that message to us, it meant that no matter where we go, he will always be there.
That doesn't mean that he's not going to send you somewhere else because anytime
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he could say like, Cindy Mark, you're moving to Asia.
I don't know where he could send us somewhere. Right.
But at the same time, when we're in a position that we are not sure what to do,
we can come to him in prayer and know that
he's always with you i mean you can even be in the darkest place
of depression and i've been there for a
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season of my life and the lord was always there
with me and i just didn't see him because i was so
consumed in the darkness but his light shone through and he came through in
his spirit it released every darkness from that was holding And something that
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we need to understand is that He knows you more than you know yourself.
The question is, can you trust Him with the future?
When it comes to trusting the Lord with the little things and big things in
your life, it comes down to the question, are you being obedient to His Word?
Are you being obedient to the Holy Spirit as it guides you, as the Lord prompts you?
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Maybe it's a big question about moving, that this question is before you,
to move somewhere. Or taking that job.
Or taking that job. And understand that the Lord is for you and the Holy Spirit is there to guide you.
So know that you can bring every question and every thought to the Lord,
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and you can be assured and rely on when you seek His face, when you seek His
will, that God will answer.
He will give you that answer, whether that might be counsel from a Christian individual,
might be a friend, might be a pastor, might be a family member,
a parent, that the Lord uses others around us as well in order to speak into our lives.
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So the next Bible verse that we would like to share with you comes from 1 John
2, verses 15 through 17. Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the
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eyes and pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever.
I mean, I love that verse as much as it also has to make you think about every
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single thing about your life.
I know for a fact that I have some things that the Lord has pointed out recently
in me. I think he always will.
You have to go through the purification process.
But I mean, the question for me is, how do you live your life right now?
That was a question that I had to ask myself.
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So I definitely was in the world. I was definitely seeking out the right connections,
you know, in my career, where do I work? What do I drive?
Where do I live? You know, those things were so important.
How do people perceive me? Right. Those fleshy desires too.
I think a lot of people do too. Like is a wealth money relationships are unhealthy,
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you know, and it takes, it takes time, but in effort to have to crucify that.
So once you become a Christian, you crucify the flesh.
And so then the question has to be then, is it a reflection of the world,
whatever it is that you're crucifying?
So are you actually taking up his will into your life?
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Are you actually going to submit to him?
Are you actually going to allow him to work within your spirit,
within your soul, to purify those things away from you and make you into a new
creation as he's working in you.
Again, going back to the pride, for me, that's an example.
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I put my career over a lot of things in a lot of ways.
And looking back, back i didn't want
to submit any of that to the lord for sure it
took years before i even got there so
in the best prayer i think i could give to anyone
who would be wondering how is it then do they figure out what is something that
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is worldly is ask the lord lord what is something that's worldly can you point
those things out to point anything in me in my heart that needs to be I think
if we are honest with ourselves,
that is probably a prayer we do not want to pray.
If we're honest, because that was me.
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Because I have to reflect back and try to think for myself, to try to reflect and think.
When was I comfortable with that prayer? I probably could say directly, maybe almost never.
But you might, I hope the Holy Spirit would lead you to crossroads to where
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you have to decide for yourself.
This may be faith that you grew up in, whether it's a church around parents,
you saw faith from your grandparents.
Or maybe you're newly new to the faith. Or maybe you're not questioning,
you're listening to this and you're thinking, what is this little thing that
these guys are talking about?
It's the world, what the world offers, honestly, is just temporary.
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A flashy car, a house that is X amount of square footage, something that I've
heard within these last couple of days.
When you thought today the
house that you think oh that is an extravagant that
is an extravagant house by the time you will get in in that next extravagant
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house and square footage your eyes will shift and you will see a different house
and you will say oh that house right there that That is an extravagant house.
And it's funny because nothing in the world will ever satisfy your worldly desires.
It can't. Nothing. That's why there's so much greed in the world and so much corruption.
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People are going after these things all the time, and yet they're crumpling inside.
Either relationships in their families are broken or they're hurting others.
And this is not to dismiss that does the Lord not bless, especially His church, His children?
Of course He does. Definitely. And a lot of times in abundance because the Lord is for you.
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So when your family is growing, it would just simply, you need a brand new vehicle
or even a brand new house, like a bigger house.
That would be a blessing of God.
That would be a blessing from the Lord. For sure. And for me,
I'm still learning about money.
Praise God, I always had all my needs met, but there was never a time where
I felt I could just buy whatever I wanted just for fun.
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So with that being said, we're not here to give you money advice,
but with living in the Lord's will is seeking that out first,
because the rest will come afterwards.
I'm telling you, we cannot love the world and be in the will of God at the same time.
We have to surrender our own dreams and align ourselves with the Lord first.
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And then those other dreams, because he does put dreams in our hearts that are
meant to be flourishing afterwards.
I mean, one of my biggest dreams is to have a lot of land.
A lot of land where we could build our homes for our parents and have them retire.
And, you know, they have all their grandchildren nearby. That is one of my biggest dreams.
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And I still have that. Even after aligning myself with the Lord, I still have that.
And I've seen things, you know, shifting here and there. And I have hope that
one day that will happen. I pray about this land.
I asked the Lord for this land, but I am not sure.
In like any prayer, we're not sure how that's going to play out.
But the Lord is able and willing.
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We have a God of multiplication and we've seen that happen even with our own journey.
Mark and I don't have children and we are currently in the adoption process.
And with all that being said, we have seen him providing in ways we didn't expect.
We've also seen money get lost within the adoption world before because things
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didn't work out. And that's okay because we trust in the Lord.
We trust that he will help us out through every single thing we go through.
So we have to surrender that. We have to surrender every single thing about
ourselves and then watch God multiply things because he is pleased with the fact that we trust him.
The more you seek out God's will in your own life as a couple,
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the more it becomes a part of your daily living.
Literally every single day. It comes down to, is he your Lord?
Are you making him Lord of over your entire life?
This means your health
if you're married the health of your spouse if
you have children the health of your children your entire finances you might
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be a wife who doesn't work but your husband is the provider and or however that
it might be your entire income and just your living your your desires and your
dreams, just like Cindy pointed out,
that is God the Lord over your life?
Because when we read these verses, because if he's not, then question is, what am I idolizing?
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What desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride of life?
Because I have to be very honest with myself, is that I did grow up in a Christian household.
Yet I did grow up around a setting or upbringing to where as young guys,
you kind of chased for to make sure you have the latest car or a newer car, financial status.
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So it was very material driven and seasons of my life to where I did try to
seek out the Lord and go to the Lord. But it's that tug and pull.
It is a decision that you have to make. Even if it's in the season to where
if you're single or you're married, but you have to come to God and ask the
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Lord to pray this prayer.
Lord, Lord, Lord, search my heart.
Bring to the surface of anything that is unpleasing to you.
Bring that to the surface and you repent of that. You come to the Lord and you
truly repent because the Holy Spirit will lead you to repentance that God is
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just and he is sovereign.
He is a righteous judge and he
is loving and kind as well to where his desire is to see you in his will.
So the last verse we'll leave you with is this.
Romans chapter 12 verses 1 through 2. I appeal to you, therefore,
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brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
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So I guess this verse all comes down Round two, you're gonna go through tests
and little by little with the
Holy Spirit in you, you're going to figure out what is the Lord's will.
Honestly, that was it for us, right? Exactly.
So when we ask God to renew our minds according to the values of the Bible,
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then only then can we walk in the will of God.
Are you actually seeking that righteousness? I mean, we are already righteous by Christ.
Because we did not earn righteousness. We earned it through salvation,
through Christ. Because He's the way, the truth, the life.
Have the Holy Spirit in us means,
are you going to be walking through in the way that He wants you to?
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And we've gone through this now for the fourth verse. But what I'm trying to say is this.
If Becky said this the other day at work, are you going to act in a sassy way and snap back at her?
Or are you going to choose to look at Jesus and look
at Becky and treat her with the love and kindness
that jesus would even though your desires of
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your flesh do not want to what the world says
is no you should be petty like you should definitely like go ahead and not back
at this person because the way they treated you you are valuable everything's
about you you you you you and the thing is that's a lie from the enemy because
he's trying he's He's twisting a truth.
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And the truth is the world is not about you.
It is actually about how we live with the Lord, who is our father.
And instead he's twisting and saying the world, the things around you are all about you.
That everything around you needs to be manifested by you and your words.
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You have to create yourself who you have to be.
You have to look at your body in this way
that is twisted and corrupted and
you have to look at others and treat them in this certain
way of either disrespecting someone
or telling them that they're okay with
the sinfulness of their life but truthfully the only way that we can live and
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be in the will of God is by receiving the Holy Spirit and allow it to work with
us and in us and if we're not allowing the holy spirit to grow because our desires
on the end by not being crucified by us we will never grow.
We will never get anywhere if we did that. Yes, the Holy Spirit does a great
work in us, but he's very calm and gentle.
The plan of the enemy is to corrupt you and to just mess up your life,
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your way of thinking and understanding,
to blur the lines as much as possible to what is the Lord's truth and what the world has to offer.
That, especially if you are a believer, that you just don't see which way to go.
If we're truthful with ourselves, we come into repentance to God of either an
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old way of thinking, living, what we have been striving for,
things we have been idolizing.
I know that the Lord is able to change our lives around.
The enemy could tell you how your character must be, what material things you
should be striving for, how you're to treat your neighbor, how you're to view
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yourself, view your spouse, your circle.
But know this, that you have to choose to turn away from sin and choose a life of righteousness.
We see letters, letters, books
written in the New Testament of churches addressed, telling them to step.
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Away, to take off the old ways of living, but live a life that is worthy, that is righteous.
Being a Christian, being a believer does not mean you don't have a backbone.
Christ spoke about character, seeking the kingdom of God,
and treating your neighbor kindly being a reflection of Christ's character,
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for Christ to be in you, for you on a daily basis to be turned into your Lord.
This does not mean you don't have a backbone.
This means that you choose peace. This means you choose righteousness.
Righteousness, God's will over what the world has to offer, things that are going to fade away.
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That you ask the Holy Spirit to change your life, to change your outlook,
and to strip away of what is not of the Lord, and to have your eyes turned on
Jesus and say, Lord, here is my life.
I want to be in your will if you're
married for me and my spouse and my
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entire family to be aligned with your will
lead the way i also think is very hard i mean we're talking about this and please
know that we don't think it's easy to do this uh no no it's not it's been really
hard for us as a couple but we have come through with it because god has helped
us and we've placed them in the middle of of this marriage.
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If your spouse is not on the same page, if you see that they are willful,
that they want to do their own will, that they want to act in their own accordance
and perhaps not wanting to change certain things that are hurtful to you or
to those around them or even to themselves,
the best thing that we can say is pray for them and pray that the Lord will
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help Help them acknowledge that they have to be in obedience,
even if it's suffering, even if it hurts to have to do something you so badly want.
It is actually having to surrender that to the Lord and say, Lord, I need your help.
Because the suffering is going to create a way, and it's worth it,
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a way towards the Lord, a way away from sin and a way towards the Lord. That's what it creates.
And that's the best place to be as a fellow believer.
And you can't really get to that mindset sometimes unless you come to the Lord and asking for help.
And He's so willing. He's a wonderful Father who does that.
I know that I struggle with that a lot. And I have to come to Mark.
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Sometimes I have been in the place of, I don't really want to read my Bible
right now. I'd rather go and do this or that.
And I'd rather do something fun. But I recently learned that even David,
he committed his heart so fully to the Lord.
Not because he always wanted to, but because he would convince his soul, I will bless the Lord.
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And i have to repeat that to myself often because
that's the way that we're able to you know
our flesh wants to walk away from the
lord wants to push back but when we
have the holy spirit and we have consciously know what
is right and we know what's right and we think about those things it's hard
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but we have to be able to come to the lord now i read the words word in the
the morning and I've been smiling because he knows exactly what he needs to
say to me for my morning to just start off with him that morning.
You know, there was a day that I was struggling encouragement and he told me
like, go and read this Psalm in the morning.
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I can't remember the verse. I want to say is 138, but I remember that he told
me to go read that. And it talks about encouragement.
And I used to get to spend time to just like thanking him, Lord,
like last night, not you're encouraging me in this morning. I'm reading this verse.
I praise you, God, because I got to be with you. So my soul will bless you.
Not to tell that to my soul in the morning.
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And it is difficult, guys. We're not going to lie to you. It has been very hard for us to do that.
And no question, when I say I'm not going to lie to you, I just mean we're telling
you our honest truth and experience.
It's a daily surrender. It is a daily surrender. Because I think a lot of people out there will say,
say this is what a good girl question our good boy
(35:02):
christian boy does and this if you're not
living this way then well then
you're are you really christian and don't let the enemy use those type of reels
that i see on social media lie to you because it is a really a difficult life
already and being a christian can get a little bit harder when the enemy works
(35:24):
against us because because we're near the Lord, but it's worth it.
And there comes this joy and peace that you will find in the Lord when you seek him out.
I also would like to share that if you're a mom and you have kiddos.
Don't compare yourself to the next mom. If you're a husband,
don't compare yourself to the next family over.
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Not materialistic things about a car, size of a house, size of the bank account, or even holiness.
Don't compare. It's not about how far from holiness you are.
It's about being committed and growing and becoming more like Him, Jesus.
It is a daily journey a process even
(36:08):
when it feels like it's suffering know that
it's worth it i think another thing to
remember this is what we went through
actually in our own church a sermon is that don't give god the scraps and so
if you're going to be asking him lord i want to walk in your will what is your
will don't give him the scraps like you have to give him the very best of your your time,
(36:34):
the very best of your talents, the daily best of your efforts,
the very first fruit of your tithing.
All of that is biblical and the Lord is wanting to have the relationship.
He wants to be the center of your life. He wants a relationship with you.
And I also recently was listening to a
study on the armor of God and it talks about righteousness and
(36:58):
the breastplate of righteousness again it
comes back to are you walking
in the righteous living are you willing to do
that because if we're not we don't have that
breastplate that will defend us against the fiery
arrows of the enemy you have to in the morning get
up and commit yourself today i choose the lord today i choose to live in righteousness
(37:21):
today i choose to live in his will and do things things that will be pleasing
because in the morning if you get up and you're just gonna keep going you're
just gonna do a quick little prayer and not really commit yourself to that,
it might be a good day it might be a bad day but are you really committing yourself
to living in his will that's the truth and that is a fact and it's taking me a long time to learn it.
(37:47):
Back in the season two where we were really struggling
financially and it really took
the lord to show us that we cannot be
our own providers in a sense of to look to ourselves our
own strength our own experience but we needed to look to god and as it was a
big wake-up call and i'm so gracious for the lord for being kind and merciful
(38:11):
and patient with us as his children
that he was teaching us that we had to look to him as our provider.
All I would say that was modeled to me and I thought that was the right thing
to do and the right way to live,
is to be a provider, to be a husband in the family.
(38:32):
That means to get up and you figure that out of how to provide with my hands,
with my mind, with my body, whatever that might be.
Cindy and I, we got into refinishing furniture in that season.
We didn't have jobs, did odd jobs from Uber Eats, DoorDash, and things like that.
(38:53):
And it was such a hard and difficult season. in, the Lord was teaching something to the both of us.
Something that I was learning in that season is that I honestly viewed myself
as I am the provider in a sense of that the amount of energy I had that day
that I can go out and provide.
(39:16):
And I would like to share with you guys that I I failed miserably,
miserably to where going out and doing Uber work or so some nights,
and I just made some scraps.
It was very little or some nights, absolutely nothing.
(39:36):
And the furniture that we put up for sale online, Facebook Marketplace.
And to where for weeks it was just not selling.
But at the end of the month, whether it was a week away, days away,
all of a sudden, out of nowhere, God just sent the right people,
(39:59):
and we had rent and a little bit of some on top.
And it was happening month after month, month after month, to where finally
the Lord helped to open up my eyes to stop and look and reflect.
Wow, the Lord has never dropped us. He didn't forget us.
(40:23):
Somehow these needs are being met to where we're not homeless.
Our rent is being provided for. and the Lord was really trying to get our attention.
But we had to surrender. We had to surrender. I had to surrender.
It was a season for me that I had to surrender.
Okay, I can no longer rely on my strength, on my mind, on myself,
(40:50):
but truly God, who you are knocking on the door of my heart and trying to speak
to me through the Holy Spirit, that, look, I am your provider,
that all your blessings come from me.
And he really wanted our attention.
What the last thing we would like to say, because we actually want to leave
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off this podcast with a prayer for you, is this.
Seek out the Lord first, above all else. And as you look through his word,
he will start unfolding the ways that he will want you to live.
We could talk about this even more. I'm sure there's a lot of theology out there about it.
(41:36):
A lot of people who are discussing it, pastors who have way more understanding than we could ever have.
But this is just the ways and the stories that we have learned to do this.
And I hope they'll be helpful to you. and as a closing we
would like to give some prayer to you heavenly father
we just want to pray for our listeners tonight lord i
thank you so much that we were able to
(41:58):
record this today you are protecting us as we record and that we have clear
skies lord where we have a chance to share this with the world the world needs
to hear these words lord we know that our listeners are going through through
a time where they're wondering what is your will,
or how can I live closer to your will, Lord?
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We know that with your spirit, Lord, you can disclose this information to them.
Give them the wisdom, Lord, discernment.
Give them the discipline, Lord, to put themselves down.
And instead, pick up your yoke, which is easy to carry, Lord.
And I just ask that you will give Give them wisdom as they interact with those
(42:44):
around them, that you give them discernment as they make decisions or consideration
of what your thoughts are, Lord, and what you will like in their lives.
And I just ask, Lord, by the mighty power of your hand, Lord,
that you will open up the hearts of those who are struggling,
perhaps as their spouse or their significant other, if they're still dating, Lord, or engaged,
(43:07):
Lord, or perhaps it is just those that are around them, Lord,
that they too will be able to walk alongside you, Lord.
I ask that you bless every single person that they can go into the world and
share more about you and be empowered, Lord, to live more in your will.
And I just thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to have our listeners listening
(43:28):
to us today. In Jesus' name, amen.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a review so we can continue to reach more people.
Also, make sure to follow us.
Music.
Hello i'm mark and i'm cindy and
we're the hosts of mercy on display a storytelling podcast about god's mercy
in people's lives from dating to marriage parenting to careers and everything
in between we hope you'll be inspired encouraged and grounded in god's purpose.
Music.
For your own life we're glad you're here thanks for joining us.
(00:44):
Hello everyone welcome back to the show good evening it's pretty late for us
but we're here and we made it.
We have had some things come up, but we know that enemy likes to push back when
good things are flourishing and the Lord is bringing them into fruition.
(01:04):
And so we are praising God for us being here today.
So today's topic is living in God's will as a couple.
How do do you actually live in His will?
But also, I think this could go towards those who are so single,
because singleness in the Bible is beautiful, as much as it is to be married.
(01:28):
So I think this could be for those who are single, who are dating or are married,
or wondering what does that even mean to live in God's will,
or you're trying to figure out what is God's will in your life.
So to start off, we would like to read from Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 12.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you.
(01:54):
Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual
wisdom and understanding,
so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him,
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might,
(02:18):
for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has
qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
So from this very beginning of the passage, I see that we have to figure out,
right, where does this knowledge come from? How can we live in God's will?
We understand that beginning of all wisdom is from the Lord.
(02:41):
Yes. Beginning from all wisdom is fear of the Lord, that you fear God.
Like Solomon asked for that. That was the first thing he asked,
right? So with the beginning, what the encouragement is, so start in the word.
Start reading the word, seeking him out in prayer. prayer.
I also like that it says, so walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
(03:02):
Living God's will is not about exactly, I think, about what you do for work, where you exactly live,
what school your children go to, how do you actually specifically teach your
children, is it homeschool, is it, whatever that might be, it's actually living
in the way that you're pleasing the Lord.
(03:25):
So the Holy Spirit is already in us as Christians. The Holy Spirit is working within us.
And so all those negative vices that we might have in our flesh will start to
fade as we continue to read the word, as we continue to pray,
and as we continue to change.
Change as a couple I think is
having to come in accordance with each other of what is
(03:48):
it that the Lord is wanting us to be holding each other accountable and reading
the word together and being in that word together because it also says bearing
fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God so I think as
we walk with the Lord that's when that comes.
And just to give you guys an example, for me, it was definitely my old, former way of thinking.
(04:13):
And a very good example is Mark behind the wheel on the road.
So this is going to be a little bit of just bringing things into light.
It's one of those moments we have to talk about these things.
I used to have a lot of road rage. By now, I would like to say that the Lord
(04:34):
has been merciful and good and patient, and so has been my wife as well,
of coming to God about these things.
And I'm Christian, but that is something that I struggled with.
Old, former way of thinking, I had to give up.
I had to surrender, but first had to acknowledge and honestly repent of that
(04:56):
before God to say, like, Lord, I know this is wrong.
Me getting upset at people thinking they are impatient or
you know fill in the blanks so my old former
way of thinking that was a problem it did
take my wife to bring that up to me because it was not nourishing actually for
our relationship as a husband and wife it was quite on the contrary it was actually
(05:22):
displeasing it was driving us apart because my wife in the passenger seat seat,
sat as somebody like in a tank, a little fish in a tank.
It was just uncomfortable and the way Mark is acting.
So I had to understand that, first of all, I accepted graciously from my wife
(05:42):
that she means me well and that she would like for me to bring these things to the Lord.
She even gave me examples and said, hey, you got to count to 10. It's okay.
We will get to to our destination. Just breathe.
So it's one of those moments that I had to let go more of. I think little by little, honestly.
(06:02):
And I prayed for you as well, because not only did I pray while I was holding
on to my handle and my seatbelt, but I actually was praying for you.
I think it takes two, right?
So if there's an example between you and
your husband or you and your wife there's something
(06:23):
that is triggering and makes you really upset or angry but you know that that's
not how as a christian as a follower of jesus we should act as something that
we can bring up and obviously mark and i are far from perfect so far from perfect but i i do.
(06:44):
Know that we wanted to seek out the Lord from the very beginning.
And so that was some of the examples of this is how we started.
Another example could be my pride.
So I, for example, was incredibly into my head about this is what I've done. This is what I reached.
This is these degrees, these awards, like this is me. That is my identity.
(07:06):
And that wasn't really walking in the the Lord's will. Why?
Because every single thing I did to get to those things, I never ever asked
God if that was okay with him.
Instead, looking back, all I did was like, this is the next thing.
This is what society thinks. This is what the world thinks.
I'm going to go and get my degrees and I'm going to be an independent woman.
(07:30):
There's nothing wrong with being a woman that is educated, but there is a really
big issue when instead of seeking out the Lord to, Lord, is this in your will?
Would you like me to attend law school?
How can I use this for your goodness, for your kingdom?
(07:50):
I never once asked those questions at all.
And looking back now as a more mature Christian, I'm definitely still not,
I'm definitely not a baby Christian, but I'm definitely, you know,
have a long way to go have an eternity to go but i
definitely did not put my identity in
christ nor did i want to have god's will in
(08:10):
my life because i wanted my own will so these are just some ways as as a married
couple that you look at each other and mark you were so gentle with me i mean
you i cannot believe you never pointed out my pride oh i think it was until
after year three three of marriage that I acknowledged it.
And by then I think, was it?
(08:33):
I think those conversations actually began very slowly in a sense.
And here's what I mean that.
When the Lord started stripping away, taking away, breaking down to what we
thought, here is our house that we built, metaphorically speaking,
was it on sand or was it on the rock?
(08:53):
Definitely was on sand for the both of us. And when those conversations came
up, and as far as character and pride, and I didn't necessarily know how to
navigate those waters to tell you.
But it did start off very slowly and
saying hey yeah yeah these
(09:14):
things are an issue or they could be
as far as you know what what is an idol i think yeah you started off with not
pointing fingers at me because it is how do you like tell someone you're prideful
and you never did that with me but you did point out like hey honey like this
is this is not healthy or this is not okay with with this,
(09:36):
you know, this idol that you're building in your life.
And how about we pray about this together? Do you, and then you talk to me about,
you know, are we in God's will?
And I wanted to know what that meant. And I actually thought it was about seeking
out the will, not instead of asking submission to the Lord. So that's a little
(09:59):
bit of a difference there, right?
And when you're seeking out God's will, you're basically asking for discernment, for wisdom.
That means like, what should I do in this situation?
But instead of being in his will, living in it, it means like you're asking
yourself, will it bring glory to him?
(10:19):
Is this a decision Jesus would make?
Would I be proud of this decision when I stand before God one day?
And I was definitely not walking in that way. I was definitely not thinking that way yet.
In those seasons when god was taking things away from us in order for us to.
(10:40):
Understand that it will never be the amount of money in the bank to for us it
was truthfully scarce yeah and it never amount of money in the bank it would
never be about what accolades we we accomplished.
It will never be about what have we done for ourselves with our own strength,
(11:01):
understanding, and knowledge, but more when God took everything away and it really.
It really shifted us and forced us to, in a sense, look up.
To know that, okay, He is our provider. Because we've shared this with family and friends,
to where when we were paycheck to paycheck per se, even though we were not earning a paycheck,
(11:24):
and that was very difficult, but it was a season to where we had to surrender
ourselves into the Lord, and God had to start from a very clean slate.
And what we're referring to, for everyone who doesn't know, is there was a season
that where we both, I mean, I had just quit my job. Mark had just been in a work injury.
(11:46):
We both were not making any money, and we were having to figure things out,
and the Lord was the one that was providing for us.
It was a season that we had actually prayed to God to take everything that was
not like him, and he definitely did.
And it is a dangerous prayer, but I don't regret it. I have a lot of joy in
the fact that we are walking closer to Jesus now than we were four years ago.
(12:15):
And then there's another passage that we wanted to share with you is,
If I ascend to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead
me and your right hand shall hold me. me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night.
(12:38):
Even the darkness is not dark for you. The night is bright as a day for darkness is a light with you.
I love that verse, and that's Psalm 139, verses 8 through 13.
When we were in a place that we had three months of savings,
(12:59):
and it was enough either to stay for three months in our current state and wait
it out to see if we would find jobs, or it was enough for us to go back to our
original home state with my family.
And leave within that month, we didn't know what to do.
(13:20):
And we love where we live. We also love our family there.
But we were not really big fans of the climate in the other state.
So we wanted to stay where we are. And we prayed a lot.
We fasted. We asked for discernment. We asked for wisdom.
We talked to friends. We actually had jobs lined up in the other state.
(13:43):
And one day I am driving, I don't even remember, probably to get furniture paint
because we were furniture flipping at that time. Exactly.
And I remember the Lord saying to me, Cindy, you can go as high as you can to
the tallest mountain or to the lowest of the lowest seas.
(14:04):
You can go to the driest desert or to the coldest place on earth.
But I will always be there with you.
And I did not know it was Psalm 139 at that time.
It actually took several months until I found Psalms 139.
And I knew that was a confirmation from the Lord.
(14:24):
I just knew that I had to trust Him wherever that goes. Now,
like I said, we talked about.
The sermon of what is God's will in your life versus are you walking with the Lord?
And with that message to us, it meant that no matter where we go, he will always be there.
That doesn't mean that he's not going to send you somewhere else because anytime
(14:46):
he could say like, Cindy Mark, you're moving to Asia.
I don't know where he could send us somewhere. Right.
But at the same time, when we're in a position that we are not sure what to do,
we can come to him in prayer and know that
he's always with you i mean you can even be in the darkest place
of depression and i've been there for a
(15:08):
season of my life and the lord was always there
with me and i just didn't see him because i was so
consumed in the darkness but his light shone through and he came through in
his spirit it released every darkness from that was holding And something that
(15:29):
we need to understand is that He knows you more than you know yourself.
The question is, can you trust Him with the future?
When it comes to trusting the Lord with the little things and big things in
your life, it comes down to the question, are you being obedient to His Word?
Are you being obedient to the Holy Spirit as it guides you, as the Lord prompts you?
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Maybe it's a big question about moving, that this question is before you,
to move somewhere. Or taking that job.
Or taking that job. And understand that the Lord is for you and the Holy Spirit is there to guide you.
So know that you can bring every question and every thought to the Lord,
(16:20):
and you can be assured and rely on when you seek His face, when you seek His
will, that God will answer.
He will give you that answer, whether that might be counsel from a Christian individual,
might be a friend, might be a pastor, might be a family member,
a parent, that the Lord uses others around us as well in order to speak into our lives.
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So the next Bible verse that we would like to share with you comes from 1 John
2, verses 15 through 17. Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the
(17:07):
eyes and pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever.
I mean, I love that verse as much as it also has to make you think about every
(17:29):
single thing about your life.
I know for a fact that I have some things that the Lord has pointed out recently
in me. I think he always will.
You have to go through the purification process.
But I mean, the question for me is, how do you live your life right now?
That was a question that I had to ask myself.
(17:50):
So I definitely was in the world. I was definitely seeking out the right connections,
you know, in my career, where do I work? What do I drive?
Where do I live? You know, those things were so important.
How do people perceive me? Right. Those fleshy desires too.
I think a lot of people do too. Like is a wealth money relationships are unhealthy,
(18:14):
you know, and it takes, it takes time, but in effort to have to crucify that.
So once you become a Christian, you crucify the flesh.
And so then the question has to be then, is it a reflection of the world,
whatever it is that you're crucifying?
So are you actually taking up his will into your life?
(18:40):
Are you actually going to submit to him?
Are you actually going to allow him to work within your spirit,
within your soul, to purify those things away from you and make you into a new
creation as he's working in you.
Again, going back to the pride, for me, that's an example.
(19:03):
I put my career over a lot of things in a lot of ways.
And looking back, back i didn't want
to submit any of that to the lord for sure it
took years before i even got there so
in the best prayer i think i could give to anyone
who would be wondering how is it then do they figure out what is something that
(19:24):
is worldly is ask the lord lord what is something that's worldly can you point
those things out to point anything in me in my heart that needs to be I think
if we are honest with ourselves,
that is probably a prayer we do not want to pray.
If we're honest, because that was me.
(19:46):
Because I have to reflect back and try to think for myself, to try to reflect and think.
When was I comfortable with that prayer? I probably could say directly, maybe almost never.
But you might, I hope the Holy Spirit would lead you to crossroads to where
(20:08):
you have to decide for yourself.
This may be faith that you grew up in, whether it's a church around parents,
you saw faith from your grandparents.
Or maybe you're newly new to the faith. Or maybe you're not questioning,
you're listening to this and you're thinking, what is this little thing that
these guys are talking about?
It's the world, what the world offers, honestly, is just temporary.
(20:33):
A flashy car, a house that is X amount of square footage, something that I've
heard within these last couple of days.
When you thought today the
house that you think oh that is an extravagant that
is an extravagant house by the time you will get in in that next extravagant
(20:56):
house and square footage your eyes will shift and you will see a different house
and you will say oh that house right there that That is an extravagant house.
And it's funny because nothing in the world will ever satisfy your worldly desires.
It can't. Nothing. That's why there's so much greed in the world and so much corruption.
(21:19):
People are going after these things all the time, and yet they're crumpling inside.
Either relationships in their families are broken or they're hurting others.
And this is not to dismiss that does the Lord not bless, especially His church, His children?
Of course He does. Definitely. And a lot of times in abundance because the Lord is for you.
(21:43):
So when your family is growing, it would just simply, you need a brand new vehicle
or even a brand new house, like a bigger house.
That would be a blessing of God.
That would be a blessing from the Lord. For sure. And for me,
I'm still learning about money.
Praise God, I always had all my needs met, but there was never a time where
I felt I could just buy whatever I wanted just for fun.
(22:07):
So with that being said, we're not here to give you money advice,
but with living in the Lord's will is seeking that out first,
because the rest will come afterwards.
I'm telling you, we cannot love the world and be in the will of God at the same time.
We have to surrender our own dreams and align ourselves with the Lord first.
(22:28):
And then those other dreams, because he does put dreams in our hearts that are
meant to be flourishing afterwards.
I mean, one of my biggest dreams is to have a lot of land.
A lot of land where we could build our homes for our parents and have them retire.
And, you know, they have all their grandchildren nearby. That is one of my biggest dreams.
(22:49):
And I still have that. Even after aligning myself with the Lord, I still have that.
And I've seen things, you know, shifting here and there. And I have hope that
one day that will happen. I pray about this land.
I asked the Lord for this land, but I am not sure.
In like any prayer, we're not sure how that's going to play out.
But the Lord is able and willing.
(23:10):
We have a God of multiplication and we've seen that happen even with our own journey.
Mark and I don't have children and we are currently in the adoption process.
And with all that being said, we have seen him providing in ways we didn't expect.
We've also seen money get lost within the adoption world before because things
(23:31):
didn't work out. And that's okay because we trust in the Lord.
We trust that he will help us out through every single thing we go through.
So we have to surrender that. We have to surrender every single thing about
ourselves and then watch God multiply things because he is pleased with the fact that we trust him.
The more you seek out God's will in your own life as a couple,
(23:52):
the more it becomes a part of your daily living.
Literally every single day. It comes down to, is he your Lord?
Are you making him Lord of over your entire life?
This means your health
if you're married the health of your spouse if
you have children the health of your children your entire finances you might
(24:17):
be a wife who doesn't work but your husband is the provider and or however that
it might be your entire income and just your living your your desires and your
dreams, just like Cindy pointed out,
that is God the Lord over your life?
Because when we read these verses, because if he's not, then question is, what am I idolizing?
(24:45):
What desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride of life?
Because I have to be very honest with myself, is that I did grow up in a Christian household.
Yet I did grow up around a setting or upbringing to where as young guys,
you kind of chased for to make sure you have the latest car or a newer car, financial status.
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So it was very material driven and seasons of my life to where I did try to
seek out the Lord and go to the Lord. But it's that tug and pull.
It is a decision that you have to make. Even if it's in the season to where
if you're single or you're married, but you have to come to God and ask the
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Lord to pray this prayer.
Lord, Lord, Lord, search my heart.
Bring to the surface of anything that is unpleasing to you.
Bring that to the surface and you repent of that. You come to the Lord and you
truly repent because the Holy Spirit will lead you to repentance that God is
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just and he is sovereign.
He is a righteous judge and he
is loving and kind as well to where his desire is to see you in his will.
So the last verse we'll leave you with is this.
Romans chapter 12 verses 1 through 2. I appeal to you, therefore,
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brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
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So I guess this verse all comes down Round two, you're gonna go through tests
and little by little with the
Holy Spirit in you, you're going to figure out what is the Lord's will.
Honestly, that was it for us, right? Exactly.
So when we ask God to renew our minds according to the values of the Bible,
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then only then can we walk in the will of God.
Are you actually seeking that righteousness? I mean, we are already righteous by Christ.
Because we did not earn righteousness. We earned it through salvation,
through Christ. Because He's the way, the truth, the life.
Have the Holy Spirit in us means,
are you going to be walking through in the way that He wants you to?
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And we've gone through this now for the fourth verse. But what I'm trying to say is this.
If Becky said this the other day at work, are you going to act in a sassy way and snap back at her?
Or are you going to choose to look at Jesus and look
at Becky and treat her with the love and kindness
that jesus would even though your desires of
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your flesh do not want to what the world says
is no you should be petty like you should definitely like go ahead and not back
at this person because the way they treated you you are valuable everything's
about you you you you you and the thing is that's a lie from the enemy because
he's trying he's He's twisting a truth.
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And the truth is the world is not about you.
It is actually about how we live with the Lord, who is our father.
And instead he's twisting and saying the world, the things around you are all about you.
That everything around you needs to be manifested by you and your words.
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You have to create yourself who you have to be.
You have to look at your body in this way
that is twisted and corrupted and
you have to look at others and treat them in this certain
way of either disrespecting someone
or telling them that they're okay with
the sinfulness of their life but truthfully the only way that we can live and
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be in the will of God is by receiving the Holy Spirit and allow it to work with
us and in us and if we're not allowing the holy spirit to grow because our desires
on the end by not being crucified by us we will never grow.
We will never get anywhere if we did that. Yes, the Holy Spirit does a great
work in us, but he's very calm and gentle.
The plan of the enemy is to corrupt you and to just mess up your life,
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your way of thinking and understanding,
to blur the lines as much as possible to what is the Lord's truth and what the world has to offer.
That, especially if you are a believer, that you just don't see which way to go.
If we're truthful with ourselves, we come into repentance to God of either an
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old way of thinking, living, what we have been striving for,
things we have been idolizing.
I know that the Lord is able to change our lives around.
The enemy could tell you how your character must be, what material things you
should be striving for, how you're to treat your neighbor, how you're to view
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yourself, view your spouse, your circle.
But know this, that you have to choose to turn away from sin and choose a life of righteousness.
We see letters, letters, books
written in the New Testament of churches addressed, telling them to step.
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Away, to take off the old ways of living, but live a life that is worthy, that is righteous.
Being a Christian, being a believer does not mean you don't have a backbone.
Christ spoke about character, seeking the kingdom of God,
and treating your neighbor kindly being a reflection of Christ's character,
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for Christ to be in you, for you on a daily basis to be turned into your Lord.
This does not mean you don't have a backbone.
This means that you choose peace. This means you choose righteousness.
Righteousness, God's will over what the world has to offer, things that are going to fade away.
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That you ask the Holy Spirit to change your life, to change your outlook,
and to strip away of what is not of the Lord, and to have your eyes turned on
Jesus and say, Lord, here is my life.
I want to be in your will if you're
married for me and my spouse and my
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entire family to be aligned with your will
lead the way i also think is very hard i mean we're talking about this and please
know that we don't think it's easy to do this uh no no it's not it's been really
hard for us as a couple but we have come through with it because god has helped
us and we've placed them in the middle of of this marriage.
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If your spouse is not on the same page, if you see that they are willful,
that they want to do their own will, that they want to act in their own accordance
and perhaps not wanting to change certain things that are hurtful to you or
to those around them or even to themselves,
the best thing that we can say is pray for them and pray that the Lord will
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help Help them acknowledge that they have to be in obedience,
even if it's suffering, even if it hurts to have to do something you so badly want.
It is actually having to surrender that to the Lord and say, Lord, I need your help.
Because the suffering is going to create a way, and it's worth it,
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a way towards the Lord, a way away from sin and a way towards the Lord. That's what it creates.
And that's the best place to be as a fellow believer.
And you can't really get to that mindset sometimes unless you come to the Lord and asking for help.
And He's so willing. He's a wonderful Father who does that.
I know that I struggle with that a lot. And I have to come to Mark.
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Sometimes I have been in the place of, I don't really want to read my Bible
right now. I'd rather go and do this or that.
And I'd rather do something fun. But I recently learned that even David,
he committed his heart so fully to the Lord.
Not because he always wanted to, but because he would convince his soul, I will bless the Lord.
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And i have to repeat that to myself often because
that's the way that we're able to you know
our flesh wants to walk away from the
lord wants to push back but when we
have the holy spirit and we have consciously know what
is right and we know what's right and we think about those things it's hard
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but we have to be able to come to the lord now i read the words word in the
the morning and I've been smiling because he knows exactly what he needs to
say to me for my morning to just start off with him that morning.
You know, there was a day that I was struggling encouragement and he told me
like, go and read this Psalm in the morning.
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I can't remember the verse. I want to say is 138, but I remember that he told
me to go read that. And it talks about encouragement.
And I used to get to spend time to just like thanking him, Lord,
like last night, not you're encouraging me in this morning. I'm reading this verse.
I praise you, God, because I got to be with you. So my soul will bless you.
Not to tell that to my soul in the morning.
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And it is difficult, guys. We're not going to lie to you. It has been very hard for us to do that.
And no question, when I say I'm not going to lie to you, I just mean we're telling
you our honest truth and experience.
It's a daily surrender. It is a daily surrender. Because I think a lot of people out there will say,
say this is what a good girl question our good boy
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christian boy does and this if you're not
living this way then well then
you're are you really christian and don't let the enemy use those type of reels
that i see on social media lie to you because it is a really a difficult life
already and being a christian can get a little bit harder when the enemy works
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against us because because we're near the Lord, but it's worth it.
And there comes this joy and peace that you will find in the Lord when you seek him out.
I also would like to share that if you're a mom and you have kiddos.
Don't compare yourself to the next mom. If you're a husband,
don't compare yourself to the next family over.
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Not materialistic things about a car, size of a house, size of the bank account, or even holiness.
Don't compare. It's not about how far from holiness you are.
It's about being committed and growing and becoming more like Him, Jesus.
It is a daily journey a process even
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when it feels like it's suffering know that
it's worth it i think another thing to
remember this is what we went through
actually in our own church a sermon is that don't give god the scraps and so
if you're going to be asking him lord i want to walk in your will what is your
will don't give him the scraps like you have to give him the very best of your your time,
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the very best of your talents, the daily best of your efforts,
the very first fruit of your tithing.
All of that is biblical and the Lord is wanting to have the relationship.
He wants to be the center of your life. He wants a relationship with you.
And I also recently was listening to a
study on the armor of God and it talks about righteousness and
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the breastplate of righteousness again it
comes back to are you walking
in the righteous living are you willing to do
that because if we're not we don't have that
breastplate that will defend us against the fiery
arrows of the enemy you have to in the morning get
up and commit yourself today i choose the lord today i choose to live in righteousness
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today i choose to live in his will and do things things that will be pleasing
because in the morning if you get up and you're just gonna keep going you're
just gonna do a quick little prayer and not really commit yourself to that,
it might be a good day it might be a bad day but are you really committing yourself
to living in his will that's the truth and that is a fact and it's taking me a long time to learn it.
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Back in the season two where we were really struggling
financially and it really took
the lord to show us that we cannot be
our own providers in a sense of to look to ourselves our
own strength our own experience but we needed to look to god and as it was a
big wake-up call and i'm so gracious for the lord for being kind and merciful
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and patient with us as his children
that he was teaching us that we had to look to him as our provider.
All I would say that was modeled to me and I thought that was the right thing
to do and the right way to live,
is to be a provider, to be a husband in the family.
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That means to get up and you figure that out of how to provide with my hands,
with my mind, with my body, whatever that might be.
Cindy and I, we got into refinishing furniture in that season.
We didn't have jobs, did odd jobs from Uber Eats, DoorDash, and things like that.
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And it was such a hard and difficult season. in, the Lord was teaching something to the both of us.
Something that I was learning in that season is that I honestly viewed myself
as I am the provider in a sense of that the amount of energy I had that day
that I can go out and provide.
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And I would like to share with you guys that I I failed miserably,
miserably to where going out and doing Uber work or so some nights,
and I just made some scraps.
It was very little or some nights, absolutely nothing.
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And the furniture that we put up for sale online, Facebook Marketplace.
And to where for weeks it was just not selling.
But at the end of the month, whether it was a week away, days away,
all of a sudden, out of nowhere, God just sent the right people,
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and we had rent and a little bit of some on top.
And it was happening month after month, month after month, to where finally
the Lord helped to open up my eyes to stop and look and reflect.
Wow, the Lord has never dropped us. He didn't forget us.
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Somehow these needs are being met to where we're not homeless.
Our rent is being provided for. and the Lord was really trying to get our attention.
But we had to surrender. We had to surrender. I had to surrender.
It was a season for me that I had to surrender.
Okay, I can no longer rely on my strength, on my mind, on myself,
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but truly God, who you are knocking on the door of my heart and trying to speak
to me through the Holy Spirit, that, look, I am your provider,
that all your blessings come from me.
And he really wanted our attention.
What the last thing we would like to say, because we actually want to leave
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off this podcast with a prayer for you, is this.
Seek out the Lord first, above all else. And as you look through his word,
he will start unfolding the ways that he will want you to live.
We could talk about this even more. I'm sure there's a lot of theology out there about it.
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A lot of people who are discussing it, pastors who have way more understanding than we could ever have.
But this is just the ways and the stories that we have learned to do this.
And I hope they'll be helpful to you. and as a closing we
would like to give some prayer to you heavenly father
we just want to pray for our listeners tonight lord i
thank you so much that we were able to
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record this today you are protecting us as we record and that we have clear
skies lord where we have a chance to share this with the world the world needs
to hear these words lord we know that our listeners are going through through
a time where they're wondering what is your will,
or how can I live closer to your will, Lord?
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We know that with your spirit, Lord, you can disclose this information to them.
Give them the wisdom, Lord, discernment.
Give them the discipline, Lord, to put themselves down.
And instead, pick up your yoke, which is easy to carry, Lord.
And I just ask that you will give Give them wisdom as they interact with those
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around them, that you give them discernment as they make decisions or consideration
of what your thoughts are, Lord, and what you will like in their lives.
And I just ask, Lord, by the mighty power of your hand, Lord,
that you will open up the hearts of those who are struggling,
perhaps as their spouse or their significant other, if they're still dating, Lord, or engaged,
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Lord, or perhaps it is just those that are around them, Lord,
that they too will be able to walk alongside you, Lord.
I ask that you bless every single person that they can go into the world and
share more about you and be empowered, Lord, to live more in your will.
And I just thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to have our listeners listening
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to us today. In Jesus' name, amen.
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