September 19, 2023 • 40 mins
Ever wondered why Moses was so special to God? Was it just because he led the Israelites out of Egypt, or did it have more to do with his profound friendship and intimacy with YHWH?
Well, we're excited to bring to you an episode that explores this deep connection and how you too can cultivate deep intimacy with God.
We journey into the realm of the divine and human connection, shedding light on the powerful impact that friendship with God brings to your healing, deliverance and personal connection.
We delve into the power of seeing Jesus not just as our Savior but as our friend. This episode is packed with rich insights that will inspire you to heal your own wounds around friendship while deepening a beautiful intimacy with God.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, you got a friend in me.
I don't good, don't good, don't?
Yeah, got a friend in me.
Okay, don't come for me.
I do not own the rights to thismusic.
Is that what people post intheir Facebook like post?
I don't know why people do that, but anyways, I just felt like
singing.
Today we're talking aboutFriendship, but not just the
(00:20):
subject of friendship.
We're speaking specificallyabout friendship with God.
One of the core issues thatwomen seek my help with as a
therapist and mentor is aroundRelationships and feeling so
wounded, this inability toreally get past the stuckness in
that area.
And a lot of that stuckness hasto do with relationship to
(00:41):
friends, friendship.
Today we're gonna dig around inthat wound, all for a purpose.
We're gonna dig around in thereand get to the roots of this
thing.
In reality, your intimacy withGod is the most intimidating
thing about you in the realm ofthe spirit at least, to the
kingdom of darkness.
Right, we know that we're inthis war.
People talk all the time aboutgenerational curse breaking and
(01:04):
All these things that they wantto do.
You know gotta say this perfectspecial prayer, but the reality
is this your friendship withGod, your intimacy with him,
will solve so much of yourproblems, that sin, that you
can't break free from all ofthese things that you're
battling with all thegenerations.
Your friendship with God andknowing what it needs to be a
friend will break through thatstuff.
(01:25):
Let's dive right into it.
Hey friend, welcome to a newcreation podcast where we're
pointing women towards victoryin Christ, one Jesus story at a
time.
My name is Jimmy Sushel.
I'm a Christian traumatherapist and mentor for women.
(01:48):
I'm so excited that you're herewith me today.
Let's dive right into today'sepisode.
Well, hey guys, welcome back toanother episode.
If you're watching on YouTube,what's up I'm not on here very
much and if you are joining meon the podcast, on your favorite
podcast app, what's up?
Today we're talking aboutfriendship with God as a pathway
(02:12):
to presence.
Friendship with God.
Before we get into that, I wantto pray Most gracious and
heavenly father, oh Lord, how wejust give your name glory.
You are worthy to be praised.
We thank you, lord Jesus, wethank you, holy Spirit.
(02:34):
We thank you that you will pourout your spirit on all flesh
and I ask you, god, to Pour outyourself over the listener, even
this day.
Lord, meet them right wherethey're at and that place of
need.
Lord Jesus, I pray for a greatand mighty healing, deliverance.
But, jesus, whatever thatperson needs, whether it
pertains to this topic, whateverreason, and click yes on this
(02:58):
podcast.
Whatever they're trying to findas they seek you, as they hear
the word that you'll meet themthere, lord, but even those
unspoken things that they needhealing for deliverance, for
Lord Jesus, I just pray that youwill meet them there.
God, I bless you.
I ask you to open up their ears, that they will have a hearing
(03:19):
ear, that you will open up theireyes so they would have a
seeing eye, lord Jesus, to tosee you, lord God, to see you
and what you're doing and Toknow you.
Lord, god bless me to deliverthis message of hope To the
women that you have sent me to,to the people that you have sent
me to, in the name of Jesus, Ipray.
(03:41):
Yeah, so I want to talk aboutfriendship, and that's such a
sticky topic for so many peoplefor a lot of reasons.
Right, I Don't know what it waslike for you and your former
years.
What friendship looks like foryou now?
People say like it's harder tomake friends in your thirties,
it's harder to make friends inyour forties.
(04:02):
It's harder to make friends asa grown-up Compared to when you
were on like the playgroundright, and I have such a
beautiful story.
I'll never forget it.
I remember being in elementaryschool must have been like first
or second grade and playing bymyself, and this new girl came
out and Instantly we were like,hey, do you want to be friends?
(04:23):
And yeah, I want to be friends.
And we were friends for yearsand years.
We were friends for many yearsuntil you know high school, and
sometimes that thing happenswhere people are kind of
splitting up to as they'refinding themselves, whatever
that means, but we remainedfriendly.
And then, like now Facebook hasmade everything weird because
(04:43):
those friendships that you mightnot actually have ended or you
know, those connections thatwould have naturally ended in
life, well, people can send youa friend request and so now you
kind of know what someone whowas your elementary playmate is
doing in their life and it couldkind of give this false sense
(05:05):
of Relationships, or how do Iwant to say?
It gives us false sense of trueintimacy.
Being able to have thousandsand thousands and thousands of
people on your friends list, forexample, can sometimes create
this complex moving out into theworld where we want to take
(05:30):
that same mindset of.
Oh well, you know I got tons offriends on the social media,
but the reality is that manypeople do struggle with applying
what does friendship reallymean in real life?
You go out in the world and youmay find that it's not as Easy
(05:53):
to make friends.
You don't have somebody who cancall to Go out for lunch and
like.
It's kind of this weirdcognitive dissonance that
happens just because of thisdigital world that we're living
in.
Enters the word of God, becauseyou know I'm gonna always bring
it back to Jesus.
God has really just beenimpressing upon me Just the
(06:15):
intimacy of being a friend,friendship with God.
Can we talk about that?
We know God is holy, we knowGod is Love, but do we know that
God also wants to be a friend?
I'm gonna read out of ExodusExodus, chapter 33, starting at
(06:39):
verse seven, really Highlightingon verse 11.
So I'll paraphrase thebeginning part, starting at
verse seven, my Bible says Mosesmeets with the Lord.
That's what the heading saysMoses meets with the Lord.
Let me start at verse 933, 9.
And it came to pass when Mosesentered the temple, but the
(07:04):
pillar of cloud descended andstood at the door of the
tabernacle and the Lord talkedwith Moses and they stopped
there.
What's so beautiful is, in thistime, an Exodus.
What we're witnessing in thescriptures is Moses essentially
(07:25):
be becoming a mediator for thesepeople.
We can talk about the reasonswhy, but the people really
struggle to know God Intimately.
They were very familiar withhis hands and what he was doing.
They were very familiar withthe manna from heaven.
They were very familiar, butthat familiarity did not
(07:46):
translate into knowing him.
That familiarity did nottranslate into Truly loving him.
That familiarity justtranslated into Basic provision.
There's more I could say onthat, but I want to continue,
(08:11):
starting at verse 10,.
All the people saw the pillarof cloud standing at the
tabernacle door and all thepeople rose and worshiped each
man in his tent, door 11.
So the Lord spoke to Moses faceto face, as the man speaks to
his friend, and he would returnto the camp.
But his servant, joshua, theson of none, a young man, did
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not depart from the tabernacle.
These scriptures are sobeautiful because what they do
is they highlight the characterand the nature of God and they
highlight the difference betweenmerely knowing Him, knowing of
Him, knowing His hands, knowingHim to provide, knowing His
goodness and actually knowingHis heart.
(08:55):
Moses was a man who knew God'sheart.
What is so profound to me aboutthis is that Moses was someone
who had a very sorted history.
Ok, I think sometimes we fallfor this lie.
(09:16):
There can be this lie becausereally the enemy lying to you,
saying that you have to come toGod in perfection, that only the
pastor, a preacher, someone wholooks more Bible-y I made that
word up someone who talks moreBible-y, someone who is a better
(09:40):
Christian, whatever thatsupposed to mean, those are the
people who get to have thatrelationship with God and you
can, without even realizing it,sort of elevate other people in
such a way that got neverintended.
We are to humble ourselves, weare to think of others as more
important than ourselves.
That's absolutely biblical, butwe're not supposed to believe
(10:05):
it in our mind, that so on.
So can have a betterrelationship with God than I can
, because guess what?
The Lord is our God.
He does not just our God, he'sour King.
But he's not just our King, heis our lover, the lover of our
soul.
He is not just the lover of oursoul, but he desires to be a
(10:26):
friend.
When we have friendship with God, we have intimacy with him, and
when you cross the line betweenjust being familiar with the
things that he can give you,what I mean is you know how
you'll go to God in prayer, andimmediately it just becomes this
(10:46):
long, long list of all thethings that you need from him,
and it can be very well-meaningthings that you need.
You know what I'm saying?
I got a loved one in thehospital right now.
I have every right to comeboldly to my God and be like God
.
I need you to heal, I need youto heal her.
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I need you to do this, that andthe other.
I need money for this, thatthing.
We approach God this way and ourprayer time so often, and it's
not wrong to do that, because hedid tell us to cast our burdens
on him, literally imagining afishing line and throwing it
over to the Lord Jesus.
(11:27):
Right, we're supposed to dothat, but it's so much deeper,
it's so much more profound.
Don't just stop there, becausebefore we ever get to that point
, let us have it in our height.
But we're not just calling on aGod who's a far off somewhere.
(11:49):
We're calling on the Lord, godAlmighty who is a friend, and I
believe the reason so manypeople have trouble with
approaching God in this way isbecause there's wounding in your
own relationship, in your ownheart, around.
What does that word friend evenmean?
(12:09):
So I looked it up.
I love definitions.
I use a blue letter Bible tofind out what do the words mean
in the Hebrew and the Greek.
So friend means companion,fellow, intimate lover, neighbor
.
There's a form of intimacy thatwe have whenever we call
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someone a friend and the reasonwhy a lot of you listening today
have trouble knowing God as afriend and allowing that to feel
like a home to you is becauseyou yourself have been a
terrible friend.
I'm not sorry, I've been there.
(13:00):
The Lord has had to sanctify meand the area of friendships.
It isn't his sanctificationBeautiful.
It never comes withcondemnation.
It always comes with love.
Sometimes it looks likediscipline and it doesn't feel
pleasant, but we want God, whocreated us, who is the lover of
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our soul.
We want him to show us what'sinside of our heart.
We want to go low before himand humble ourselves so he can
show us what's really on theinside of us, because when we
are a bad friend, that's like adagger in the heart.
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A lot of women, especiallycoming to me for work in the
area of trauma therapy, may havehad an experience where, by all
every right, it makes sensethat they would be a little
guarded because of the heinousthing that somebody did to them,
the betrayal.
But the beautiful thing aboutbeing set apart in a holy Is
(14:14):
that the things that happen tous in the world but they don't
have to pollute us, they don'thave to corrupt us, they don't
have to change us, but rather,because we have the spirit of
God on the inside of us, we getto start changing the world.
We get to respond in adifferent way.
(14:35):
Someone called you out of yourname.
You get to confound the enemyby choosing to love them.
Anyway, father, I forgive them.
I forgive them.
Forgiveness isn't alwaysreconciliation, forgiveness is
just.
Lord Jesus, I trust you toavenge this situation, whatever
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that's supposed to look like andsometimes the thinking that
situation is going to lookcompletely different than you
would expect.
Sometimes it will look like Godpouring his spirit out at a
greater measure on them.
There's a beauty that is to behad by mastering this part of
our life and our relationshipsthe ability to be a friend.
We struggle sometimes withfriendship with God because we
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don't know even how to be afriend and the natural.
And if that's you, I really,really, really, really encourage
you to be honest about it.
Because if you want to gethealing from your trauma that
you've been through okay.
If you want to get healing fromthis experience that happened
(15:42):
to you, if you want to gethealing from whatever that that
sticky thing is that you justkeep like you're like I don't
want to deal with this anymore.
You want to get healed fromthat.
You got to be willing to getreal and we got to look at
ourselves and so often we wantto turn the mirror outward and
say, like you know, this persondid that and I'm like this
because that, that, that, that,that, that, that.
(16:03):
And of course, as a therapist,of course we're going to look at
your history.
You're going to see what arethe things and patterns that you
learned from your childhood.
What did your caretakers do ornot do that may have produced
like maladaptive behaviors orthat may have impacted you and
essentially, you and it'sabsolutely fine to right chest
(16:25):
Lee judge those circumstancesaccording to what they are, but
at the end of the day.
It's not those circumstances,it's not the other person, not
your mom and dad, that you'regoing to have to come before God
and glory at the end of yourlife and stand before him.
It's going to be just you.
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It's going to be you, yourheart, it's going to be.
How did you handle it?
God already knows what you'vebeen through, honey.
He already knows what you haveendured.
He already knows how thatperson betrayed you.
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There is a doctrine, there's alot of teaching that we've all
heard about just trying toproduce fear around the last
days, trying to produce feararound meeting Jesus face to
face when we pass from this lifeonto the next, before the
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believer.
His goal isn't to play back thetape to you of every little
meticulous thing that you'vedone wrong.
His desire is to say well done,my good and faithful servant.
You handled it well.
And our job is to live thislife between now and then as
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though that's true, as though wehave the Holy One on the inside
of us, as the believer helpingus, as though we have the Holy
Spirit on the inside of ushelping us, helping us in our
relationships.
Let us not get to the end ofour life and show up there in a
place of fear, as though wedon't know where we're going to
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go.
Some of us are in fear aboutthat.
Let's be real about it.
This is the stuff people don'ttalk about.
Come on now.
But if God makes you a newcreation and if he gave you
salvation, and if you're in theLord Jesus' hand, you're going
to be the Lord Jesus' hand.
And if you're in your father'shands, nothing can snatch you.
(18:38):
Nothing can snatch you fromyour father's hand, and that's
just the truth.
That's just the truth.
And if you're believing a liethat says otherwise, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry that you believe that, but let me tell you that
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that's not true.
God is your keeper.
It doesn't matter how manytimes you fall down, it doesn't
matter how many times you sin,it doesn't matter how many times
that you've been betrayed orthat you even betray someone.
If you are a believer, the bloodof Jesus does cover you and you
have the Holy Spirit on theinside of you, always convicting
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you, convicting you, convictingyou of righteousness.
I am the righteousness of Godin Christ.
Some of us will get free justby declaring that over and over
and over and over and over andover.
It's a very good reason why totake communion on a regular
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basis, to remind yourself, comeon, he said as often as you do
this, remember why.
Because all of thesecircumstances in life will
sometimes cry to you, drown outwhat we know.
We know that we're therighteousness of God in Christ.
We have to be reminded of that.
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Sometimes you know to be therighteousness of God, of God and
Christ.
There's just such an invitationthere.
You've already been made holy.
You've been made holy throughthe word and for many of us it's
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just as simple as this,choosing to believe that because
of all of this, because of whohe is, he's got a table spread
laid out for you.
He wants to come and dine withyou and the presence of your
(20:45):
enemies.
He wants to sit with you andhis friend.
I love the Gospels of John andjust hearing and reading about
John and that's the revelationthat John had of who Jesus is.
He speaks so deeply about thelove of God.
They call him the love disciple, the disciple who Jesus loved.
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Why?
Because once you identifyyourself as being loved by God,
as being a friend to God, that'sthe warfare right there.
Come on now, that's it.
You don't have to do this thing, or when you run out of things
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to pray, you just start like, ohGod, I repent, I repent, I
repent, I repent, I repent.
You start flogging yourself.
You start flogging yourself.
We don't have to do that tofeel as though we're worried
that it come into his presence,because, if you're being honest,
a lot of times when you do that, you're only doing that from a
place of striving, you're notdoing it from a place of
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surrender or from a place of hispresence.
Intimacy with God, friendshipwith God, invites the most
beautiful space for surrenderand the most beautiful space for
his presence.
What does it mean to be afriend?
I mean, come on, I want to hangout with my friend.
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I want to just go get I wasgoing to say coffee, but I don't
really drink coffee anymoreMaybe a tea.
Go get lunch with my friend, Ijust want to hang out.
A good, good friend is someonewho you can be with in the same
room and you don't evennecessarily have to be saying
anything.
You can just be together andit's not weird at all.
(22:39):
I would encourage you to beginstudying.
What does it mean to minister tothe Lord?
Some of the deepest ministrythat we can give him.
It is running into his presence, lifting him and recognizing
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him as a friend.
Scripture tells us that there'sa point when Jesus says I don't
longer call you servant, but Icall you friend, because a
servant doesn't know what themaster is doing.
Friendship with God Bringsrevelation.
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You know the heart of him, youhave, you have familiarity with
him, but not in the negativesense.
We can't get so familiar withGod that we just created him as
though he's common.
That's the reason why a lot ofwomen have maintained the status
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of just running from him,running from God to
relationships, to alcohol, tocrystals, to some of these
things.
Even believers there'sabsolutely believers even who
are running to things, objects,thinking about it's going to
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give them something that onlythe Lord, jesus Christ, can give
.
When you recognize yourself asa friend of God, you also see he
calls you his friend as well.
Exodus 3311 tells us the Lordspoke to Moses face to face, as
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a man speaks to his friend.
Don't you know that's whatworship is?
Worship is honoring the LordJesus, fixing your attention on
him, face to face.
He's not afar off somewhere.
(25:02):
He's right here in the room.
If you're a believer, he'sright here in your heart.
You have the Holy Spirit of Godon the inside of you, who is
your teacher, he leads you, hehelps you and he's your friend
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Some of the greatest healingthat you can possibly get.
You know, I come to women, cometo me for help around issues
related to trauma, issuesrelated to relationship discord,
relationship patterns that theywant to break.
But you ought to know that ifyou come to me, of course I'll
(25:51):
set with you, we'll unpack it aslong as it takes.
I love to do that with.
I love that work, I love it.
But you better know that whatI'm going to do is we're going
to sit with God.
We're going to point back tohim Because he wants to be the
one who heals you, because he isthe healer.
He's the healer, he's the healer, he's the crewiest friend you
(26:17):
can ever have.
He will never steer you wrong.
He will never betray you.
He will take those daggers outof your back that others have
placed there.
He'll begin to mend those andthen he'll clean you up.
He'll send you back out.
You'll run, you'll fly, you'llsoar and it will be as though
(26:42):
that those days never evenhappened, that trauma never even
happened.
Everything that we need isfound in him.
It's found in friendship withhim.
Come on, it's time for us tomove beyond Knowing him just as
savior, which is so beautiful,my God, it's beautiful.
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Thank you, jesus for beingsavior.
Oh Lord God.
Thank you, lord Jesus.
But come on, there's so muchmore depth to him.
Don't get stuck there.
There's an invitation to go somuch deeper.
He wants to know you personally.
You might say, well, he's God,he already knows everything.
(27:27):
But does he or do you keepsomething back?
Is there something in yourheart that you won't let him
have?
But he so.
He wants to heal it.
He's desperately wanting toheal that place inside of you,
because you don't need to carryit anymore.
But if you don't trust God tobe your savior, you don't trust
God to be your friend.
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If you would rather maintainand hold on to it, he is so holy
, he is such a lovely friend.
The many times you find he'snot going to force you, he's not
going to force you.
He's going to help you overtime To sanctify that out of you
(28:11):
.
He wants you to come to him andgive it to him.
I don't know who I'm speaking to, but I know I'm talking to
someone.
This is what I want you to do.
I want you to think about allthe times that friendship has a
failed deal.
What do I mean by that?
(28:32):
Think about the times whereYou've personally gotten it
wrong.
And friendship.
The times when you're not goingto be able to do it, the times
where others have harmed you orgotten it wrong, and friendship.
I literally want you to get outa piece of paper.
I make a list, write it down.
Write down the person's name inone column, and I want you to
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write down the offense.
What do I mean?
Write down what it is thathappened.
A funny example I have would be.
Some of you listening may knowthis story.
You knew me way back in the daywhen I had my little bobble
head, little braids in my hair,when I was just a little little
(29:16):
thing.
Probably I want to say I was athird grade in this girl, I have
this awesome sweater.
Oh, am I really going to tellthis story?
I had this awesome sweater in,like it was beautiful, okay, and
it was teal, because it was the90s and everybody like the teal
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thing was in jungle green, wasit?
And on one sleeve of thesweater it was like a horse.
So I had this big horse headcoming across my chest and then
the arm.
If I hold my arm out, it hadthese like tassels, which was
the main the horse is the mainand I was flapping my arm
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everywhere.
I just thought I was thebaddest in this sweater.
I love this sweater.
And I went to the waterfountain because we still drank
out of water fountain back then.
I guess it wasn't.
It was probably just as grossback then, but we didn't know it
because it was the 90s andmaybe we just didn't care, I
(30:23):
don't know.
I was at the water fountain andone of my friends like pulled
on my sweater and broke mysweater.
Girl, the fallout, okay, thetears, the drama, and that
actually didn't actually therelationship.
You know this is the exactreason why Jesus says for us not
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to get attached to ourpossessions.
You know these things areperishing.
We're to store our treasures inheaven, where the moths can't
get them, where they, thethieves, are.
The thief can't steal ourtreasures in heaven.
You know, I was really attachedto the sweater and this girl
broke my sweater accidentallyand there was a period of time
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when I was so mad and thefriendship I mean this was like
third grade.
You know silly stuff, but I wasso mad at her that I really
didn't want to be her friend andit took a little bit of time
but I realized, okay, like Ineed to forgive this chick, it
was an accident I did forgiveher.
You're out there shouting Iforgive you.
Yes, but that's the kind ofstuff I'm talking about.
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I want you to go that deep.
You may say is it really thatserious?
Yes, because what we need to doto cross the hurdle many times
is we got to deal with thatstuff on the inside of our own
heart.
But devil would love nothingmore than for you to carry for a
lifetime the weight of all ofthis baggage from the things
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that people have done againstyou and the things that you have
done against other people.
That now makes you feel likeyou've got to live in a prison.
Now you're calling yourself anintrovert, but really, deep down
it's because psychologically,you don't feel safe to be around
people, because you've gottenall insecure.
There's all kinds of anxiety,there's all kind of weird stuff
attached to it because of thethings that you've been through
(32:13):
in life.
You know that's anotherseparate for another day, but I
want you to literally write downthose types of things.
Ok, write down the person, writedown what happened, and once
you get that list complete, Iwant you to set with God and
really you ought to be sitting,I just assume.
(32:33):
But we need to back up and saythis Get with God first.
Anytime that you're journaling,sit with the Lord Jesus first,
invite him into it, invite theHoly Spirit into it to help
guide the process.
And once you get that list done, I want you to do this, I want
you to do it and mean it.
I want you to forgive each andevery one of those things, each
(32:57):
and every one of those offenses.
Say this prayer, something likethis Lord Father, I forgive so
and so I release them into thefreedom of my forgiveness.
Lord, lord Jesus, I ask you toclose any doors that were open
as related to my unforgiveness,because unforgiveness, y'all
(33:21):
unforgiveness will mess you upspiritually.
It will block so many blessings.
That's his on teaching foranother day.
But we don't want for any, anytiny little thing as it relates
to friendship, forgiveness.
We don't want any of that inour hearts and Jesus already
(33:43):
sees it.
He's just been waiting for usto get real with him.
You see that you know, as you,it'll be like taking out the
trash.
As you take this stuff out ofyour heart what's going to
happen.
It creates so much more space.
You feel your spirit get freeand light.
You know it's very beautifuland many times what you'll
(34:04):
notice is it changes the way.
But you're able to relate toGod.
When we struggle withfriendships in the natural, we,
being like human beings, cansometimes be really carnal and
it's not good, but it is what itis.
You know we can be so carnalsometimes that we'll apply what
(34:26):
we've experienced here in thenatural.
We've experienced backbiting,we've experienced hurt.
We've experienced pain.
It can harden us.
It can harden our heartsagainst receiving the Lord as
friend, but he says he wants tobe a friend to us.
We can go as deep in the LordJesus and our relationship with
him as we want to.
(34:47):
If you, if you want to stop Atknowing him as savior.
I never go any deeper.
Guess what?
You'll still get it.
You'll still make it to heaven.
But there's so much more thathe wants to reveal to you of
himself, of who he is.
When I first got it's funny, Idon't know how to really tell
(35:11):
people because I gave I gotbaptized as at 12 ish.
But it wasn't until I was wellinto my 30s that I I really came
to know him and I reallybelieve that that's when, the
Lord, I received that baptism ofthe Holy Spirit and that real
knowing him, like that personalrelationship.
Where was I going with this?
(35:34):
I forget where I was going withthat.
Maybe I wasn't supposed tofinish that story.
Oh OK, maybe I was OK.
I remember, thank you God, yeah, when that when I'm not first
happened, this would have beenaround twenty, twenty or so what
God did was I didn't even knowthis because I hadn't I hadn't
(35:58):
read the whole Bible, but hebegan to reveal himself to me by
his beautiful names.
So one of the first ways thathe began to reveal himself to me
was Jehovah Jireh, god, myprovider.
He began to reveal himself tome as Lord of the angel armies.
(36:18):
He began to reveal himself tome as Jehovah Nisi, my banner,
all of these beautiful things,who began to reveal himself as
my maker, my husband there's somany ways, there's so much depth
to him will soon the rest ofour life knowing him, being
(36:38):
intimate with him, and that'swhat keeps the relationship with
him so fruitful, so fun.
You'll never get bored, you'llnever get tired.
There's never a better friendwho there's no better friend
that you can have than him.
But yeah, if you're strugglingwith this, absolutely I would
(37:00):
recommend I tell people this allthe time.
It's kind of like a thing thatpeople know me for.
I'm probably going to say getthe audio but put the Bible in
your ear AirPods and listen toit.
This is what, as fast as youcan.
Some will argue and say, well,we need to study and stop and
savor and yes, you absolutely do.
(37:20):
But if you have never made itthrough your whole Bible,
there's just such a fruitfulnessthat you will gain and having
the whole word of God washthrough you it doesn't take near
as long as you think you'll be.
You'll be Extremely blessed bycommitting to doing that.
If that's something that you'reinterested in, I have a every
(37:41):
word in Bible, every word inBible, every word in 90 Bible
plan that I utilize.
I'm probably going to end updoing that once a year, but I'll
put the link in the show notesso you can hop into a cohort who
has already gone through.
But yeah, anyways, I'm going toshut up because I believe that
(38:01):
I have said what was needed tobe said.
Can we pray on our way out, onout of here?
I just want to.
I just want to bless you,father.
I just pray the name of Jesusthat you would bless the
listener.
I ask you, lord Jesus, to justcontinue to drop off little
(38:22):
nuggets, little jewels, to thelistener.
Help them to know you, lord God, in a deeper way.
Reveal to them the way in whichyou are showing yourself strong
in their life.
Reveal to them, lord Jesus, thebeautiful names in which we can
come to know you.
And I just ask you, god, thateveryone listening, everyone
(38:47):
under the sun and my voice,would come into greater intimacy
and knowledge of you.
God, give us greater fear ofthe Lord.
Teach us to be humble and, ohGod, teach us to be a friend.
Teach us to be a friend to you.
First, father, I pray thatanyone who does not know Jesus
(39:17):
as their personal Lord and theirsavior, lord God, that they can
pray this along with me, thatthey can confess right now in
the name of Jesus.
Lord, you are the Lord, father,I repent right now in the name
of Jesus For my sin.
I thank you, god, that you boreevery one of my sins on the
(39:40):
cross, I receive your salvation.
I receive my freedom in Christ.
I receive my victory in ChristJesus.
I will serve you as Lord, god.
Lord, god, teach me.
I praise you, god.
I thank you, lord Jesus, inyour mighty and wonderful name,
(40:01):
amen.
If you just said that prayerfor the very first time, welcome
to the family.
I want to invite you, if you'rea woman who's looking for a
faith community, to join me anddaughters of Abba.
It is a support community thatI am facilitating for free.
You can go to jameslashelcomforward slash community and grab
(40:22):
the link I'll also drop in theshow notes.
But we're just a group of womenwho are growing in grace, faith
and freedom after trauma,really walking in that identity
in Christ and just learning whatit means to be in fellowship
with them and each other.
Don't forget to come and followme on my Instagram.
Actually, we're building out abeautiful community there as
(40:45):
well.
Listen, I just want to hang outwith you guys.
I love you to life.
There's nothing you can doabout it.
I'll see you in the nextepisode.
Well, you got a friend in me.
I don't good, don't good, don't?
Yeah, got a friend in me.
Okay, don't come for me.
I do not own the rights to thismusic.
Is that what people post intheir Facebook like post?
I don't know why people do that, but anyways, I just felt like
singing.
Today we're talking aboutFriendship, but not just the
(00:20):
subject of friendship.
We're speaking specificallyabout friendship with God.
One of the core issues thatwomen seek my help with as a
therapist and mentor is aroundRelationships and feeling so
wounded, this inability toreally get past the stuckness in
that area.
And a lot of that stuckness hasto do with relationship to
(00:41):
friends, friendship.
Today we're gonna dig around inthat wound, all for a purpose.
We're gonna dig around in thereand get to the roots of this
thing.
In reality, your intimacy withGod is the most intimidating
thing about you in the realm ofthe spirit at least, to the
kingdom of darkness.
Right, we know that we're inthis war.
People talk all the time aboutgenerational curse breaking and
(01:04):
All these things that they wantto do.
You know gotta say this perfectspecial prayer, but the reality
is this your friendship withGod, your intimacy with him,
will solve so much of yourproblems, that sin, that you
can't break free from all ofthese things that you're
battling with all thegenerations.
Your friendship with God andknowing what it needs to be a
friend will break through thatstuff.
(01:25):
Let's dive right into it.
Hey friend, welcome to a newcreation podcast where we're
pointing women towards victoryin Christ, one Jesus story at a
time.
My name is Jimmy Sushel.
I'm a Christian traumatherapist and mentor for women.
(01:48):
I'm so excited that you're herewith me today.
Let's dive right into today'sepisode.
Well, hey guys, welcome back toanother episode.
If you're watching on YouTube,what's up I'm not on here very
much and if you are joining meon the podcast, on your favorite
podcast app, what's up?
Today we're talking aboutfriendship with God as a pathway
(02:12):
to presence.
Friendship with God.
Before we get into that, I wantto pray Most gracious and
heavenly father, oh Lord, how wejust give your name glory.
You are worthy to be praised.
We thank you, lord Jesus, wethank you, holy Spirit.
(02:34):
We thank you that you will pourout your spirit on all flesh
and I ask you, god, to Pour outyourself over the listener, even
this day.
Lord, meet them right wherethey're at and that place of
need.
Lord Jesus, I pray for a greatand mighty healing, deliverance.
But, jesus, whatever thatperson needs, whether it
pertains to this topic, whateverreason, and click yes on this
(02:58):
podcast.
Whatever they're trying to findas they seek you, as they hear
the word that you'll meet themthere, lord, but even those
unspoken things that they needhealing for deliverance, for
Lord Jesus, I just pray that youwill meet them there.
God, I bless you.
I ask you to open up their ears, that they will have a hearing
(03:19):
ear, that you will open up theireyes so they would have a
seeing eye, lord Jesus, to tosee you, lord God, to see you
and what you're doing and Toknow you.
Lord, god bless me to deliverthis message of hope To the
women that you have sent me to,to the people that you have sent
me to, in the name of Jesus, Ipray.
(03:41):
Yeah, so I want to talk aboutfriendship, and that's such a
sticky topic for so many peoplefor a lot of reasons.
Right, I Don't know what it waslike for you and your former
years.
What friendship looks like foryou now?
People say like it's harder tomake friends in your thirties,
it's harder to make friends inyour forties.
(04:02):
It's harder to make friends asa grown-up Compared to when you
were on like the playgroundright, and I have such a
beautiful story.
I'll never forget it.
I remember being in elementaryschool must have been like first
or second grade and playing bymyself, and this new girl came
out and Instantly we were like,hey, do you want to be friends?
(04:23):
And yeah, I want to be friends.
And we were friends for yearsand years.
We were friends for many yearsuntil you know high school, and
sometimes that thing happenswhere people are kind of
splitting up to as they'refinding themselves, whatever
that means, but we remainedfriendly.
And then, like now Facebook hasmade everything weird because
(04:43):
those friendships that you mightnot actually have ended or you
know, those connections thatwould have naturally ended in
life, well, people can send youa friend request and so now you
kind of know what someone whowas your elementary playmate is
doing in their life and it couldkind of give this false sense
(05:05):
of Relationships, or how do Iwant to say?
It gives us false sense of trueintimacy.
Being able to have thousandsand thousands and thousands of
people on your friends list, forexample, can sometimes create
this complex moving out into theworld where we want to take
(05:30):
that same mindset of.
Oh well, you know I got tons offriends on the social media,
but the reality is that manypeople do struggle with applying
what does friendship reallymean in real life?
You go out in the world and youmay find that it's not as Easy
(05:53):
to make friends.
You don't have somebody who cancall to Go out for lunch and
like.
It's kind of this weirdcognitive dissonance that
happens just because of thisdigital world that we're living
in.
Enters the word of God, becauseyou know I'm gonna always bring
it back to Jesus.
God has really just beenimpressing upon me Just the
(06:15):
intimacy of being a friend,friendship with God.
Can we talk about that?
We know God is holy, we knowGod is Love, but do we know that
God also wants to be a friend?
I'm gonna read out of ExodusExodus, chapter 33, starting at
(06:39):
verse seven, really Highlightingon verse 11.
So I'll paraphrase thebeginning part, starting at
verse seven, my Bible says Mosesmeets with the Lord.
That's what the heading saysMoses meets with the Lord.
Let me start at verse 933, 9.
And it came to pass when Mosesentered the temple, but the
(07:04):
pillar of cloud descended andstood at the door of the
tabernacle and the Lord talkedwith Moses and they stopped
there.
What's so beautiful is, in thistime, an Exodus.
What we're witnessing in thescriptures is Moses essentially
(07:25):
be becoming a mediator for thesepeople.
We can talk about the reasonswhy, but the people really
struggle to know God Intimately.
They were very familiar withhis hands and what he was doing.
They were very familiar withthe manna from heaven.
They were very familiar, butthat familiarity did not
(07:46):
translate into knowing him.
That familiarity did nottranslate into Truly loving him.
That familiarity justtranslated into Basic provision.
There's more I could say onthat, but I want to continue,
(08:11):
starting at verse 10,.
All the people saw the pillarof cloud standing at the
tabernacle door and all thepeople rose and worshiped each
man in his tent, door 11.
So the Lord spoke to Moses faceto face, as the man speaks to
his friend, and he would returnto the camp.
But his servant, joshua, theson of none, a young man, did
(08:33):
not depart from the tabernacle.
These scriptures are sobeautiful because what they do
is they highlight the characterand the nature of God and they
highlight the difference betweenmerely knowing Him, knowing of
Him, knowing His hands, knowingHim to provide, knowing His
goodness and actually knowingHis heart.
(08:55):
Moses was a man who knew God'sheart.
What is so profound to me aboutthis is that Moses was someone
who had a very sorted history.
Ok, I think sometimes we fallfor this lie.
(09:16):
There can be this lie becausereally the enemy lying to you,
saying that you have to come toGod in perfection, that only the
pastor, a preacher, someone wholooks more Bible-y I made that
word up someone who talks moreBible-y, someone who is a better
(09:40):
Christian, whatever thatsupposed to mean, those are the
people who get to have thatrelationship with God and you
can, without even realizing it,sort of elevate other people in
such a way that got neverintended.
We are to humble ourselves, weare to think of others as more
important than ourselves.
That's absolutely biblical, butwe're not supposed to believe
(10:05):
it in our mind, that so on.
So can have a betterrelationship with God than I can
, because guess what?
The Lord is our God.
He does not just our God, he'sour King.
But he's not just our King, heis our lover, the lover of our
soul.
He is not just the lover of oursoul, but he desires to be a
(10:26):
friend.
When we have friendship with God, we have intimacy with him, and
when you cross the line betweenjust being familiar with the
things that he can give you,what I mean is you know how
you'll go to God in prayer, andimmediately it just becomes this
(10:46):
long, long list of all thethings that you need from him,
and it can be very well-meaningthings that you need.
You know what I'm saying?
I got a loved one in thehospital right now.
I have every right to comeboldly to my God and be like God
.
I need you to heal, I need youto heal her.
(11:06):
I need you to do this, that andthe other.
I need money for this, thatthing.
We approach God this way and ourprayer time so often, and it's
not wrong to do that, because hedid tell us to cast our burdens
on him, literally imagining afishing line and throwing it
over to the Lord Jesus.
(11:27):
Right, we're supposed to dothat, but it's so much deeper,
it's so much more profound.
Don't just stop there, becausebefore we ever get to that point
, let us have it in our height.
But we're not just calling on aGod who's a far off somewhere.
(11:49):
We're calling on the Lord, godAlmighty who is a friend, and I
believe the reason so manypeople have trouble with
approaching God in this way isbecause there's wounding in your
own relationship, in your ownheart, around.
What does that word friend evenmean?
(12:09):
So I looked it up.
I love definitions.
I use a blue letter Bible tofind out what do the words mean
in the Hebrew and the Greek.
So friend means companion,fellow, intimate lover, neighbor
.
There's a form of intimacy thatwe have whenever we call
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someone a friend and the reasonwhy a lot of you listening today
have trouble knowing God as afriend and allowing that to feel
like a home to you is becauseyou yourself have been a
terrible friend.
I'm not sorry, I've been there.
(13:00):
The Lord has had to sanctify meand the area of friendships.
It isn't his sanctificationBeautiful.
It never comes withcondemnation.
It always comes with love.
Sometimes it looks likediscipline and it doesn't feel
pleasant, but we want God, whocreated us, who is the lover of
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our soul.
We want him to show us what'sinside of our heart.
We want to go low before himand humble ourselves so he can
show us what's really on theinside of us, because when we
are a bad friend, that's like adagger in the heart.
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A lot of women, especiallycoming to me for work in the
area of trauma therapy, may havehad an experience where, by all
every right, it makes sensethat they would be a little
guarded because of the heinousthing that somebody did to them,
the betrayal.
But the beautiful thing aboutbeing set apart in a holy Is
(14:14):
that the things that happen tous in the world but they don't
have to pollute us, they don'thave to corrupt us, they don't
have to change us, but rather,because we have the spirit of
God on the inside of us, we getto start changing the world.
We get to respond in adifferent way.
(14:35):
Someone called you out of yourname.
You get to confound the enemyby choosing to love them.
Anyway, father, I forgive them.
I forgive them.
Forgiveness isn't alwaysreconciliation, forgiveness is
just.
Lord Jesus, I trust you toavenge this situation, whatever
(14:57):
that's supposed to look like andsometimes the thinking that
situation is going to lookcompletely different than you
would expect.
Sometimes it will look like Godpouring his spirit out at a
greater measure on them.
There's a beauty that is to behad by mastering this part of
our life and our relationshipsthe ability to be a friend.
We struggle sometimes withfriendship with God because we
(15:22):
don't know even how to be afriend and the natural.
And if that's you, I really,really, really, really encourage
you to be honest about it.
Because if you want to gethealing from your trauma that
you've been through okay.
If you want to get healing fromthis experience that happened
(15:42):
to you, if you want to gethealing from whatever that that
sticky thing is that you justkeep like you're like I don't
want to deal with this anymore.
You want to get healed fromthat.
You got to be willing to getreal and we got to look at
ourselves and so often we wantto turn the mirror outward and
say, like you know, this persondid that and I'm like this
because that, that, that, that,that, that, that.
(16:03):
And of course, as a therapist,of course we're going to look at
your history.
You're going to see what arethe things and patterns that you
learned from your childhood.
What did your caretakers do ornot do that may have produced
like maladaptive behaviors orthat may have impacted you and
essentially, you and it'sabsolutely fine to right chest
(16:25):
Lee judge those circumstancesaccording to what they are, but
at the end of the day.
It's not those circumstances,it's not the other person, not
your mom and dad, that you'regoing to have to come before God
and glory at the end of yourlife and stand before him.
It's going to be just you.
(16:47):
It's going to be you, yourheart, it's going to be.
How did you handle it?
God already knows what you'vebeen through, honey.
He already knows what you haveendured.
He already knows how thatperson betrayed you.
(17:09):
There is a doctrine, there's alot of teaching that we've all
heard about just trying toproduce fear around the last
days, trying to produce feararound meeting Jesus face to
face when we pass from this lifeonto the next, before the
(17:30):
believer.
His goal isn't to play back thetape to you of every little
meticulous thing that you'vedone wrong.
His desire is to say well done,my good and faithful servant.
You handled it well.
And our job is to live thislife between now and then as
(17:54):
though that's true, as though wehave the Holy One on the inside
of us, as the believer helpingus, as though we have the Holy
Spirit on the inside of ushelping us, helping us in our
relationships.
Let us not get to the end ofour life and show up there in a
place of fear, as though wedon't know where we're going to
(18:15):
go.
Some of us are in fear aboutthat.
Let's be real about it.
This is the stuff people don'ttalk about.
Come on now.
But if God makes you a newcreation and if he gave you
salvation, and if you're in theLord Jesus' hand, you're going
to be the Lord Jesus' hand.
And if you're in your father'shands, nothing can snatch you.
(18:38):
Nothing can snatch you fromyour father's hand, and that's
just the truth.
That's just the truth.
And if you're believing a liethat says otherwise, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry that you believe that, but let me tell you that
(18:58):
that's not true.
God is your keeper.
It doesn't matter how manytimes you fall down, it doesn't
matter how many times you sin,it doesn't matter how many times
that you've been betrayed orthat you even betray someone.
If you are a believer, the bloodof Jesus does cover you and you
have the Holy Spirit on theinside of you, always convicting
(19:21):
you, convicting you, convictingyou of righteousness.
I am the righteousness of Godin Christ.
Some of us will get free justby declaring that over and over
and over and over and over andover.
It's a very good reason why totake communion on a regular
(19:41):
basis, to remind yourself, comeon, he said as often as you do
this, remember why.
Because all of thesecircumstances in life will
sometimes cry to you, drown outwhat we know.
We know that we're therighteousness of God in Christ.
We have to be reminded of that.
(20:02):
Sometimes you know to be therighteousness of God, of God and
Christ.
There's just such an invitationthere.
You've already been made holy.
You've been made holy throughthe word and for many of us it's
(20:25):
just as simple as this,choosing to believe that because
of all of this, because of whohe is, he's got a table spread
laid out for you.
He wants to come and dine withyou and the presence of your
(20:45):
enemies.
He wants to sit with you andhis friend.
I love the Gospels of John andjust hearing and reading about
John and that's the revelationthat John had of who Jesus is.
He speaks so deeply about thelove of God.
They call him the love disciple, the disciple who Jesus loved.
(21:11):
Why?
Because once you identifyyourself as being loved by God,
as being a friend to God, that'sthe warfare right there.
Come on now, that's it.
You don't have to do this thing, or when you run out of things
(21:33):
to pray, you just start like, ohGod, I repent, I repent, I
repent, I repent, I repent.
You start flogging yourself.
You start flogging yourself.
We don't have to do that tofeel as though we're worried
that it come into his presence,because, if you're being honest,
a lot of times when you do that, you're only doing that from a
place of striving, you're notdoing it from a place of
(21:56):
surrender or from a place of hispresence.
Intimacy with God, friendshipwith God, invites the most
beautiful space for surrenderand the most beautiful space for
his presence.
What does it mean to be afriend?
I mean, come on, I want to hangout with my friend.
(22:17):
I want to just go get I wasgoing to say coffee, but I don't
really drink coffee anymoreMaybe a tea.
Go get lunch with my friend, Ijust want to hang out.
A good, good friend is someonewho you can be with in the same
room and you don't evennecessarily have to be saying
anything.
You can just be together andit's not weird at all.
(22:39):
I would encourage you to beginstudying.
What does it mean to minister tothe Lord?
Some of the deepest ministrythat we can give him.
It is running into his presence, lifting him and recognizing
(23:03):
him as a friend.
Scripture tells us that there'sa point when Jesus says I don't
longer call you servant, but Icall you friend, because a
servant doesn't know what themaster is doing.
Friendship with God Bringsrevelation.
(23:25):
You know the heart of him, youhave, you have familiarity with
him, but not in the negativesense.
We can't get so familiar withGod that we just created him as
though he's common.
That's the reason why a lot ofwomen have maintained the status
(23:48):
of just running from him,running from God to
relationships, to alcohol, tocrystals, to some of these
things.
Even believers there'sabsolutely believers even who
are running to things, objects,thinking about it's going to
(24:10):
give them something that onlythe Lord, jesus Christ, can give
.
When you recognize yourself asa friend of God, you also see he
calls you his friend as well.
Exodus 3311 tells us the Lordspoke to Moses face to face, as
(24:40):
a man speaks to his friend.
Don't you know that's whatworship is?
Worship is honoring the LordJesus, fixing your attention on
him, face to face.
He's not afar off somewhere.
(25:02):
He's right here in the room.
If you're a believer, he'sright here in your heart.
You have the Holy Spirit of Godon the inside of you, who is
your teacher, he leads you, hehelps you and he's your friend
(25:27):
Some of the greatest healingthat you can possibly get.
You know, I come to women, cometo me for help around issues
related to trauma, issuesrelated to relationship discord,
relationship patterns that theywant to break.
But you ought to know that ifyou come to me, of course I'll
(25:51):
set with you, we'll unpack it aslong as it takes.
I love to do that with.
I love that work, I love it.
But you better know that whatI'm going to do is we're going
to sit with God.
We're going to point back tohim Because he wants to be the
one who heals you, because he isthe healer.
He's the healer, he's the healer, he's the crewiest friend you
(26:17):
can ever have.
He will never steer you wrong.
He will never betray you.
He will take those daggers outof your back that others have
placed there.
He'll begin to mend those andthen he'll clean you up.
He'll send you back out.
You'll run, you'll fly, you'llsoar and it will be as though
(26:42):
that those days never evenhappened, that trauma never even
happened.
Everything that we need isfound in him.
It's found in friendship withhim.
Come on, it's time for us tomove beyond Knowing him just as
savior, which is so beautiful,my God, it's beautiful.
(27:05):
Thank you, jesus for beingsavior.
Oh Lord God.
Thank you, lord Jesus.
But come on, there's so muchmore depth to him.
Don't get stuck there.
There's an invitation to go somuch deeper.
He wants to know you personally.
You might say, well, he's God,he already knows everything.
(27:27):
But does he or do you keepsomething back?
Is there something in yourheart that you won't let him
have?
But he so.
He wants to heal it.
He's desperately wanting toheal that place inside of you,
because you don't need to carryit anymore.
But if you don't trust God tobe your savior, you don't trust
God to be your friend.
(27:48):
If you would rather maintainand hold on to it, he is so holy
, he is such a lovely friend.
The many times you find he'snot going to force you, he's not
going to force you.
He's going to help you overtime To sanctify that out of you
(28:11):
.
He wants you to come to him andgive it to him.
I don't know who I'm speaking to, but I know I'm talking to
someone.
This is what I want you to do.
I want you to think about allthe times that friendship has a
failed deal.
What do I mean by that?
(28:32):
Think about the times whereYou've personally gotten it
wrong.
And friendship.
The times when you're not goingto be able to do it, the times
where others have harmed you orgotten it wrong, and friendship.
I literally want you to get outa piece of paper.
I make a list, write it down.
Write down the person's name inone column, and I want you to
(28:55):
write down the offense.
What do I mean?
Write down what it is thathappened.
A funny example I have would be.
Some of you listening may knowthis story.
You knew me way back in the daywhen I had my little bobble
head, little braids in my hair,when I was just a little little
(29:16):
thing.
Probably I want to say I was athird grade in this girl, I have
this awesome sweater.
Oh, am I really going to tellthis story?
I had this awesome sweater in,like it was beautiful, okay, and
it was teal, because it was the90s and everybody like the teal
(29:37):
thing was in jungle green, wasit?
And on one sleeve of thesweater it was like a horse.
So I had this big horse headcoming across my chest and then
the arm.
If I hold my arm out, it hadthese like tassels, which was
the main the horse is the mainand I was flapping my arm
(29:59):
everywhere.
I just thought I was thebaddest in this sweater.
I love this sweater.
And I went to the waterfountain because we still drank
out of water fountain back then.
I guess it wasn't.
It was probably just as grossback then, but we didn't know it
because it was the 90s andmaybe we just didn't care, I
(30:23):
don't know.
I was at the water fountain andone of my friends like pulled
on my sweater and broke mysweater.
Girl, the fallout, okay, thetears, the drama, and that
actually didn't actually therelationship.
You know this is the exactreason why Jesus says for us not
(30:47):
to get attached to ourpossessions.
You know these things areperishing.
We're to store our treasures inheaven, where the moths can't
get them, where they, thethieves, are.
The thief can't steal ourtreasures in heaven.
You know, I was really attachedto the sweater and this girl
broke my sweater accidentallyand there was a period of time
(31:08):
when I was so mad and thefriendship I mean this was like
third grade.
You know silly stuff, but I wasso mad at her that I really
didn't want to be her friend andit took a little bit of time
but I realized, okay, like Ineed to forgive this chick, it
was an accident I did forgiveher.
You're out there shouting Iforgive you.
Yes, but that's the kind ofstuff I'm talking about.
(31:31):
I want you to go that deep.
You may say is it really thatserious?
Yes, because what we need to doto cross the hurdle many times
is we got to deal with thatstuff on the inside of our own
heart.
But devil would love nothingmore than for you to carry for a
lifetime the weight of all ofthis baggage from the things
(31:51):
that people have done againstyou and the things that you have
done against other people.
That now makes you feel likeyou've got to live in a prison.
Now you're calling yourself anintrovert, but really, deep down
it's because psychologically,you don't feel safe to be around
people, because you've gottenall insecure.
There's all kinds of anxiety,there's all kind of weird stuff
attached to it because of thethings that you've been through
(32:13):
in life.
You know that's anotherseparate for another day, but I
want you to literally write downthose types of things.
Ok, write down the person, writedown what happened, and once
you get that list complete, Iwant you to set with God and
really you ought to be sitting,I just assume.
(32:33):
But we need to back up and saythis Get with God first.
Anytime that you're journaling,sit with the Lord Jesus first,
invite him into it, invite theHoly Spirit into it to help
guide the process.
And once you get that list done, I want you to do this, I want
you to do it and mean it.
I want you to forgive each andevery one of those things, each
(32:57):
and every one of those offenses.
Say this prayer, something likethis Lord Father, I forgive so
and so I release them into thefreedom of my forgiveness.
Lord, lord Jesus, I ask you toclose any doors that were open
as related to my unforgiveness,because unforgiveness, y'all
(33:21):
unforgiveness will mess you upspiritually.
It will block so many blessings.
That's his on teaching foranother day.
But we don't want for any, anytiny little thing as it relates
to friendship, forgiveness.
We don't want any of that inour hearts and Jesus already
(33:43):
sees it.
He's just been waiting for usto get real with him.
You see that you know, as you,it'll be like taking out the
trash.
As you take this stuff out ofyour heart what's going to
happen.
It creates so much more space.
You feel your spirit get freeand light.
You know it's very beautifuland many times what you'll
(34:04):
notice is it changes the way.
But you're able to relate toGod.
When we struggle withfriendships in the natural, we,
being like human beings, cansometimes be really carnal and
it's not good, but it is what itis.
You know we can be so carnalsometimes that we'll apply what
(34:26):
we've experienced here in thenatural.
We've experienced backbiting,we've experienced hurt.
We've experienced pain.
It can harden us.
It can harden our heartsagainst receiving the Lord as
friend, but he says he wants tobe a friend to us.
We can go as deep in the LordJesus and our relationship with
him as we want to.
(34:47):
If you, if you want to stop Atknowing him as savior.
I never go any deeper.
Guess what?
You'll still get it.
You'll still make it to heaven.
But there's so much more thathe wants to reveal to you of
himself, of who he is.
When I first got it's funny, Idon't know how to really tell
(35:11):
people because I gave I gotbaptized as at 12 ish.
But it wasn't until I was wellinto my 30s that I I really came
to know him and I reallybelieve that that's when, the
Lord, I received that baptism ofthe Holy Spirit and that real
knowing him, like that personalrelationship.
Where was I going with this?
(35:34):
I forget where I was going withthat.
Maybe I wasn't supposed tofinish that story.
Oh OK, maybe I was OK.
I remember, thank you God, yeah, when that when I'm not first
happened, this would have beenaround twenty, twenty or so what
God did was I didn't even knowthis because I hadn't I hadn't
(35:58):
read the whole Bible, but hebegan to reveal himself to me by
his beautiful names.
So one of the first ways thathe began to reveal himself to me
was Jehovah Jireh, god, myprovider.
He began to reveal himself tome as Lord of the angel armies.
(36:18):
He began to reveal himself tome as Jehovah Nisi, my banner,
all of these beautiful things,who began to reveal himself as
my maker, my husband there's somany ways, there's so much depth
to him will soon the rest ofour life knowing him, being
(36:38):
intimate with him, and that'swhat keeps the relationship with
him so fruitful, so fun.
You'll never get bored, you'llnever get tired.
There's never a better friendwho there's no better friend
that you can have than him.
But yeah, if you're strugglingwith this, absolutely I would
(37:00):
recommend I tell people this allthe time.
It's kind of like a thing thatpeople know me for.
I'm probably going to say getthe audio but put the Bible in
your ear AirPods and listen toit.
This is what, as fast as youcan.
Some will argue and say, well,we need to study and stop and
savor and yes, you absolutely do.
(37:20):
But if you have never made itthrough your whole Bible,
there's just such a fruitfulnessthat you will gain and having
the whole word of God washthrough you it doesn't take near
as long as you think you'll be.
You'll be Extremely blessed bycommitting to doing that.
If that's something that you'reinterested in, I have a every
(37:41):
word in Bible, every word inBible, every word in 90 Bible
plan that I utilize.
I'm probably going to end updoing that once a year, but I'll
put the link in the show notesso you can hop into a cohort who
has already gone through.
But yeah, anyways, I'm going toshut up because I believe that
(38:01):
I have said what was needed tobe said.
Can we pray on our way out, onout of here?
I just want to.
I just want to bless you,father.
I just pray the name of Jesusthat you would bless the
listener.
I ask you, lord Jesus, to justcontinue to drop off little
(38:22):
nuggets, little jewels, to thelistener.
Help them to know you, lord God, in a deeper way.
Reveal to them the way in whichyou are showing yourself strong
in their life.
Reveal to them, lord Jesus, thebeautiful names in which we can
come to know you.
And I just ask you, god, thateveryone listening, everyone
(38:47):
under the sun and my voice,would come into greater intimacy
and knowledge of you.
God, give us greater fear ofthe Lord.
Teach us to be humble and, ohGod, teach us to be a friend.
Teach us to be a friend to you.
First, father, I pray thatanyone who does not know Jesus
(39:17):
as their personal Lord and theirsavior, lord God, that they can
pray this along with me, thatthey can confess right now in
the name of Jesus.
Lord, you are the Lord, father,I repent right now in the name
of Jesus For my sin.
I thank you, god, that you boreevery one of my sins on the
(39:40):
cross, I receive your salvation.
I receive my freedom in Christ.
I receive my victory in ChristJesus.
I will serve you as Lord, god.
Lord, god, teach me.
I praise you, god.
I thank you, lord Jesus, inyour mighty and wonderful name,
(40:01):
amen.
If you just said that prayerfor the very first time, welcome
to the family.
I want to invite you, if you'rea woman who's looking for a
faith community, to join me anddaughters of Abba.
It is a support community thatI am facilitating for free.
You can go to jameslashelcomforward slash community and grab
(40:22):
the link I'll also drop in theshow notes.
But we're just a group of womenwho are growing in grace, faith
and freedom after trauma,really walking in that identity
in Christ and just learning whatit means to be in fellowship
with them and each other.
Don't forget to come and followme on my Instagram.
Actually, we're building out abeautiful community there as
(40:45):
well.
Listen, I just want to hang outwith you guys.
I love you to life.
There's nothing you can doabout it.
I'll see you in the nextepisode.
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