November 30, 2024 • 42 mins
How do you navigate life when everything seems to be changing at once? Join us as we explore the profound journey of life's adjustments through the lens of faith. With inspiration from the biblical journey of Abram, we unpack how personal, financial, social, and spiritual shifts can be seen as divine opportunities for growth. We'll talk about the courage needed to embrace these changes and how faith can be the compass guiding us through the stormy seas of uncertainty. Prepare to be inspired and equipped to face life's adjustments with a renewed sense of purpose and trust in God's overarching plan.
Standing firm in times of uncertainty isn't easy, but it's crucial. Together, we'll unpack how to maintain faith when life feels shaky, drawing wisdom from Proverbs and Ephesians. By leaning on divine guidance and the armor of God, we can navigate the internal battles of doubt and fear. We'll offer practical tips to help you return to spiritual basics—prayer, scripture, and fasting—as a way to ground yourself. Our conversation aims to reassure you of God's sovereignty, reminding you of His control and protection over every aspect of your life.
Our journey continues as we address the expectations we place on relationships, inspired by the story of Joseph. By letting go of unrealistic expectations, we explore how to prevent unnecessary pain and foster healthier connections. Through candid discussions and personal insights from our 34 years together, we highlight the importance of understanding strengths and weaknesses, freeing ourselves from traditional roles, and embracing a broader divine plan at work. Whether it's with your partner or your faith, managing expectations paves the way for growth and fulfillment, and we aim to equip you with the wisdom to navigate these dynamics with grace.
Please sponsor the Daily Bread Podcast through your giving support at https://www.covenantgracechurch.org. Any amount helps spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, greetings everybody and welcome once again
to the Daily Bread podcast.
We are your co-hosts, DrJarrell and Angela Stokely.
It is again a breath of freshair to be with you today to
share God's Word, to empower youand, prayerfully, this could be
Daily Bread for your life, butfor whatever situation that you
(00:23):
are facing or whatever growthprocess that you are in, I'm
excited to be here with mybeautiful wife, my partner of 34
years, my partner of 34 years.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Would you greet our audience?
Yes, absolutely.
Hey everybody, so glad you havetuned in.
I feel excited to be able tosit in the seat whereby we're
able to share a nugget of wisdom, a piece of insight or
something that just builds youup in some kind of way that you
(01:00):
can continue navigating thisthing we call life.
So we're glad you're here,thanks for tuning in and we look
forward to sharing.
All right.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Welcome once again to Daily Bread Podcast Listen.
Before we get started, we wantto take a moment to just give
God some praise, right there,where you are, if you're in your
car, if you're at home,whatever you are.
Just take a moment.
It doesn't have to be loud orit can be loud.
It doesn't have to beexpressive or it can be
expressive Just from thethanksgiving in your heart.
Just tell God I love you, tellGod thank you, tell God he's
(01:33):
worthy to be praised.
Just shout a hallelujah, athank you, jesus God.
I honor you.
Lord, in the name of Jesus God,I praise you.
You're my rock, you're myshield, you're my buckler,
you're my everything.
God, hallelujah, thank you forwisdom and guidance and
understanding.
We ought to have a thanksgivingon the inside that we can give
(01:54):
to God at any time for the goodand the grace that he's already
done and the righteousness ofJesus Christ that we already
have, for the miracles, for thepromises, for the breakthroughs,
for the increase, the abundance, for the fire-keeping God who
keeps us through the firehallelujah of life.
We ought to give him a praise.
We ought to give him a praise.
(02:15):
So, whatever you do, give God apraise.
As we get ready to get started,we have an exciting topic for
you, a relevant topic, a topicthat builds up, that anchors you
in the word of God and inthriving in our current state of
the culture and society today.
(02:36):
Today, we're continuing aseries titled Adjustments
Adjustments.
This is part two of Adjustments.
If you didn't hear part one, goback stop right now.
Please go back to part one ofadjustments.
If we you don't find part oneof adjustments, we want you to
reach out to us through ouremail, on our platforms, and say
(02:56):
hey, I did not see part one ofadjustments in there.
Can you upload it?
So it should.
It should be there by the timeyou get to this one.
All right, we're talking aboutadjustments, pastor A
Adjustments.
Oh my God, life is filled withadjustments.
As I said in part one, we areliving in critical mass.
(03:20):
We are at code blue in oursociety, in our politics, in our
global view of things, in theglobal existence of things.
I mean the cosmos, thehemisphere, the stratosphere,
the atmosphere.
All the fears have fear.
There is pressure, there's agrowing climate of intensity.
There is pressure, there's agrowing climate of intensity.
(03:45):
There is so much changehappening so fast around us that
some of us are reeling andspinning from what is going on,
not only in our personal lives,but in the lives of the people
we care about.
Yes, the people we're connectedto and the people we have to
come in contact with on a dailybasis.
And it is rocking and it'sreeling, but it's adjustments.
(04:07):
How do we strive in them?
How do we survive in them?
How do we make it do them?
Where is God in all of theseadjustments?
So let's talk about it.
So we gave a definition in partone.
I want to go over it in parttwo.
What is an adjustment?
Y'all want to hear what ChatGPThad to say.
What is an adjustment?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Y'all want to hear what ChatGPT has to say.
It was good.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Adjustments refer to changes.
How many of you are dealingwith changes, modifications made
to improve?
How many of you are goingthrough this great thing right
now where you're having toimprove?
And it's improving your life,it's improving your finances,
it's improving your business.
It's improving your marriage.
(04:59):
It's improving your finances,improving your business.
It's improving your.
Modifications made to improve,correct or adapt a situation,
process or system to achieve adesired outcome.
It can be applied to financialadjustments, personal
adjustments, technicaladjustments, social adjustments,
behavior adjustments,relationship adjustments, career
(05:22):
adjustments, geolocationadjustments.
When God changes or lifechanges your geography, you have
to uproot and change everything, like we learned about Abraham.
Yeah, so let me pass a.
Give us a review, if you will,just a snapshot of what we saw
(05:42):
in the adjustments that Abramhad to face in Genesis 12 and 1,
as we start out.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
You know, one of the highlights that you brought out
about Genesis 12 that sometimesI don't think a lot of people
know or hadn't studied and foundout, is that Abram and his
family, they were I want to callthem heathens that is not the
right word Heathenistic nation,according to the way the Bible
says they were a heathenisticnation and so that the emphasis
(06:15):
there, one of the things that Ithought was just so powerful to
bring out of that, is thereality that God will pull from
the unlikely, that God will pullfrom the unlikely.
He pulled Abram from amongst agroup of people that sometimes,
you know, when we see thathappening in these days and time
, we scratch our head Like howis that person able to do this?
(06:35):
Or why were they chosen forthat?
God's been doing that since thebeginning of time.
Right, god chooses whom hechooses, point blank and period.
Can I just say that you knowGod chooses whom he chooses,
point blank and period.
Can I just say that you knowGod chooses whom he chooses and
it's not necessarily based onwhat we think are good enough.
People, well, who we think meetthe bar is who God has
(06:56):
predestined and ordained to beit, regardless of where they
come from.
So I thought that was sopowerful because sometimes I
think that we think, because ofour background and because of
where we came from, because ofthe environment or our family
ties, that we are not worthy,that we will never be considered
by God, that we can't includeourselves in what the word of
(07:20):
God says about his people.
When we think about, sometimes,when we're in those, you know,
we have those those types ofbackgrounds.
When we hear the scripture thatsays we've been made the
righteous, we can't even fathomthat.
We can't fathom that becausenothing in our life has been
seen as righteous.
We ain't never seen a righteousperson, and so forth and so on.
But God is God.
(07:41):
You know what I'm saying.
And so in that we saw how Godpulled Abram out, called him
away from everything he knew hisfamily, his country, his
household, everything he knewand then told him to go to a
place that he would show him.
I will show you.
You have no idea.
I'm not going to tell you to goto Dallas, I'm not going to
(08:04):
tell you to go to Nashville.
I'm not going to tell you to go, just go.
All I need you to do is juststart going.
So some of us have foundourselves in that place of being
called out and we have no ideawhere we're going.
That, for me, was like sopowerful to share with our
(08:24):
listeners, because we've got toknow that even when we're
uncertain, well, I feel the HolyGhost, even when we can't put
into words in detail what God isdoing.
Just know God is doingsomething.
God is doing something,something God is doing something
(08:44):
.
Because one of the things Ifeel like is that we get
intimidated when we can't tellsomebody the deets about what
God is doing Right and we,because of that, we feel like
something's wrong with us.
Right, instead of being honestand saying I don't know, this is
what I do know.
He said go Well, where to?
I don't know yet.
(09:06):
I don't know what this is, whatI do know.
He said go.
Well, where to?
I don't know.
Yet you know what this is aboutExactly.
You know what I mean.
And sometimes that can be sointimidating and so overwhelming
, to the point where we eithergo back or we don't go at all.
Right, you know what I mean.
And so I thought that was sopowerful that we ended with
Abram in part one, and as youwere doing the introduction, the
(09:29):
word that kept kind of turningin my spirit was uncertainty.
You know, and when we are facedwith uncertainty which you know
, when you think aboutadjustments, it, you know, a lot
of times it, it takes you to aplace of uncertainty.
When God is saying, okay, I'mabout to adjust this one, when
(09:52):
things start happening in yourlife and you, you realize that
these changes have to happen,but you don't know what's on the
other side of the change.
You don't know what's on theother side of that circumstance
or that situation.
The uncertainty can sometimecreate so much anxiety.
Right, it can create so muchfear, so much disdain.
(10:15):
Oh my God, yes, but as, yeah,so as I was sitting here and you
know, that kind of came up, soI knew I was supposed to bring
it up.
What I was reminded of is romans8 and 28.
Yeah, that god works good inall in all things.
Shut the front door, but it'sfor a specific group of people,
(10:39):
those who love god that part Iwon't even get to and called
according to just who loved god.
My god, today.
You know what I'm saying and Ithink that if we just remember
that and we reflect on thatreality, that as we are
processing through theseadjustments with all of this
(11:00):
uncertainty, if I don't knownothing else, I gotta know god
gonna work this for my good.
Oh, my god, jesus, hallelujah,that's so good, you know.
Yeah, he's gone and so, and soI think it's so powerful.
First of all, I want to saydon't feel like being in a place
(11:21):
of uncertainty makes you theodd man out.
If I had to guess, I would saythat the majority are facing
uncertainties, absolutely.
But what the body of Christ hasto know, and for those who who
love God, we've got to know thatRomans 8 and 28 is our passage.
(11:44):
We've got to know that Romans 8and 28 is our passage.
It's our passage that he willmake this season of uncertainty
work for my good.
Good God, almighty Jesus.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
That is so good, so good, jesus.
Uncertainty is definitely goingto be the theme and the premise
of this teaching.
It's what I felt, that in theHoly Spirit when you said that.
It agrees with me and itundergirds the big words I'm
trying to hear, but itundergirds the construct.
(12:23):
The substratum of this, ofconstructing this teaching today
, is uncertainty, absolutely,because we all live with it
right now.
Everything is uncertain,everything is being shaken,
everything is being.
The roots of everything isbeing torn at yeah, and
sometimes the root of things arebeing ripped by God.
Yeah, and sometimes the rootbecause God wants that thing out
of our life and it's not goodfor us.
Sometimes the root of things isbeing that's an attempt to pull
(12:46):
it up by the enemy because hedon't want us to have something
God wants us to have, or hedon't want us to be who God
called us to be.
So there's always a pull on usand a press on our souls to deal
with some type of adjustment.
As you were talking, I thoughtabout there are three types of
adjustments self-initiatedadjustments, whereby I know,
(13:06):
through reasoning, knowledge,understanding, that I need to
make some changes, amodification.
Other initiated adjustments,outside of my control.
They change some things on thejob.
I got to deal with it.
It was a switch in leadership.
I got to deal with it.
Other initiated I was sideswiped by a car, other initiated
(13:28):
.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Can I even say my spouse filed for divorce Other I
don't know why that hit me,because that's other initiated.
You know, and some people maybe dealing with that.
Well, what do you do whenyou're believing you know for
(13:51):
this relationship to be mended,but the other person has gone
ahead and filed for divorce?
That's other initiated.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And you're facing a dark period of uncertainty.
Yeah, what are you doing that?
We're going to get to that.
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, we're going to get to that answer.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, I love that.
That was real good.
And finally you have the thirdGod initiated adjustments and in
part one you were talking aboutthe chiropractic alignment of
different parts of the body toget it back into alignment to
work well, and how all of thatis developmental.
And we looked at adjustmentsfrom two sides alignment and
development, alignment anddevelopment.
(14:27):
And anytime you're dealing withadjustments, you're dealing
with two things.
One of two things are both atthe same time alignment and
adjustment.
And for those of us who aredealing with both of them at the
same time, I pray for you.
Pray for me, because I've beenthrough this hard when you're
dealing with alignment in yourlife, because some things have
to change and you know.
(14:48):
You know you've got to comeinto alignment with these
processes or procedures, as thedefinition says.
It's another one.
At the same time, god is takingyou through something that he's
developing you, and that's whata lot of us is are in society
today.
There are external initiatedthings causing alignment in our
lives, you know, to theseprocesses and then God is trying
(15:11):
to get, develop us to handle it.
So it's a breaking.
That's a breaking happeningwith the changing.
Yeah, at the same time, at thesame time, and it can be
conflicting in your soul.
It is To where you ask thequestion.
God, where are you?
And all that?
I didn't ask for this.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You know, apostle, I was thinking about the scripture
we talked about in part one,which was Proverbs 3, 5 and 6.
Trust in the Lord with all yourheart.
Yeah, send the Lord with allyour heart and lean not to your
own understanding and and knowthat God will direct your way.
I think that's the end part,but I find it so interesting.
(15:49):
I find it so interesting.
I was sitting here thinkingabout this and I was as you were
talking, and I was thinkingabout uncertainty, and I was
thinking about when you'retrying to trust God, right, when
you're.
You're in uncertain times andyou're and you're trying to work
Proverbs three, five and sixand you're trying not to lean to
your own understanding, right,but everything is so uncertain,
(16:13):
everything is so uncertain,everything is so uncertain.
You like I?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
got to understand it for this, all right.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
And you try your absolute best, yeah, not to
initiate your own thing, becausein it you can't hear the voice.
Come on, you cannot, you know.
And so I just thought that theyjust hit me and maybe because
somebody is dealing with that,maybe somebody is listening and
they're saying I'm in uncertainterms and yeah, I hear y'all,
(16:40):
because I 100% believe inProverbs 3, 5, and 6.
And I'm trying not to lean onmy own understanding, but I
ain't hearing nothing from Godand I ain't got no clear
instructions and I don't reallyknow what to do, and I'm about
to start doing something myself.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Talk to him, apostle, I want to tell him Ephesians 6,
after you've done all to stand.
Stand, therefore, and put on,so you're not out there naked.
The whole, oh, my god, armor,armored up, the whole armor of
(17:22):
God, that you may be able tostand against the wiles, which
is the wickedness, the schemesand the deceptions of the devil.
Deceptions of the devil, my God, because that's exactly what he
works in adjustments, schemes,deceptions and plots to get at
(17:46):
your perspective.
Because if he can decomposeyour faith perspective, if he
can deconstruct your faithperspective, if he could
obliterate your faithperspective with lies and
(18:06):
deception about God's love andinnuendos about who you are not
in him and he's not the God ofthe righteous.
If he could fragment it, if hecould nuke it, he will to get
you so weak and back into yourflesh and now you're living as
you're living in your flesh, manmaking decisions that compile
the negative outcome, because hewas able to eat away at your
(18:30):
faith posture and your faiththoughts and your faithful
thoughts and his righteousnessin his word.
So you got to put on that wholearmor.
Go and read Ephesians 6 so youwould know the whole armor,
because I could take you throughit.
But that's not what thisteaching is about.
But you got to get your mindwrapped around your Savior, and
he loves you.
Which takes me to the point thatwe mentioned about Abram in
(18:52):
part one, which was thesovereignty of God.
The root word of sovereignty isreign, sovereignty.
God's sovereignty is God'sreign, the Bible tells me.
Here's where you can trust inGod's sovereignty.
The Bible tells me the earth isthe Lord's, the fullness
thereof, the world and they thatdwell therein.
(19:17):
God reigns over everything.
If it's happening you weren't ina room when the conversation
was happening like God did aboutand Satan did about Job.
But you best believe yourreigning father, your reigning
king, is setting parametersaround what the enemy can't do
and what life can't do to you,that he may get the glory out of
(19:38):
your life and you may finishyour purpose and destiny.
You can believe that.
Amen, amen, hallelujah, gloryto Jesus.
That's good.
So stand, my brother and mysister, you're being tested,
You're being tried.
Yeah, you got adjustments goingon in your life that you have
to make.
Remember that definition youhave to make.
Remember that definition.
Modifications, changes toprocesses, systems,
circumstances, it's all changes,all these adjustments and
(20:00):
alignments and developments.
But you stand and believe andtrust in God's sovereignty out
of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6,trusting the law lean, not to
your own understanding, see, butin all your ways acknowledge it
.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
You know one of the you know I'm going to say this
and then we're going to move theone of the practical.
I mean just looking at itpractically, practically,
because I feel like this isimportant, because it's almost
like I can send somebody askingthat question about the
practicality.
What does that look like?
And so what I sense that thespirit of the Lord is saying is
that sometimes the adjustmentshappen to help us to get back to
(20:44):
the basics While theuncertainty is going on.
Most times the angst andanxiety come because we're
wanting something to happen andwe're trying to progress and
we're trying to hurry up and getthere and we're just trying to
right.
We're trying to progress andwe're trying to hurry up and get
there and we're just trying toright, we're trying to, we're
trying to, we're doing thiswanting to move on really
quickly thing.
What I sense that the Lord issaying that sometimes you have
(21:05):
to take a step back becausemaybe we've gotten too far off
from the basics the prayer, thereading, the scripture, the
fasting, the basics, the basics.
And so when you don't know whatelse to do during those times,
I want to encourage you pop yourBible back out and really study
(21:26):
it like you used to Pray, likeyou used to Fast, like you used
to, because sometimes we have togo back to those things that
got us where we are now.
You know that got us to thatgrowth space.
Sometimes we have to go back tothose things that got us where
we are now you know that got usto that growth space, and we
have to go back and visit thosethings in a different manner.
Maybe we've kind of, you know,moved away from that a little
(21:48):
bit.
So I want to just encourage youto add that practicality back
in while you are navigating theuncertainty.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
That is so good.
Amen, that cannot be best said.
Amen, because I was always likewhat can I add to that?
Nothing that cannot be bestsaid.
You said that as best as itcould be said.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
So today, as we add into knowing that God is
sovereign and in control, wewant to add this practical point
.
Talk about practicality.
All right, you're dealing withthese adjustments.
Here's what you need to doEmbrace change as part of God's
plan.
Embrace change as part of God'splan, as somebody was saying,
(22:36):
but it's negative.
Wait a minute, let me show itto you.
In all things, God is workinggood.
So first, let's just deal withembracing it.
So life adjustments they oftentalking about this alignment
align us with God's purpose forgrowth, maturity or redirection,
(22:56):
and sometimes we miss thoseaspects and those inner workings
and transformations.
While we're going throughsomething that is painful or
challenging, we're missing thepart of growth, maturity and
redirection.
Recently I have been in a lot ofspiritual warfare and I found
(23:21):
myself in my flesh and I got toa place where I said, ok, you've
got to grow because this keepshappening.
Yeah, these things you'refacing keep happening and you've
got to grow.
Now, this is my you, this isyou know I'm a pastor, I'm a
church planter, you know I'm anapostle.
I've done all this stuff foralmost 30 years.
(23:42):
But I found myself in my fleshand I said okay, because of a
change and adjustment that washappening in my life, and here's
what I told myself.
I said okay, jarrell, stopexpecting good out of others and
expect good out of yourself.
Stop expecting what people aresupposed to do and do good, no
(24:07):
matter what they do.
Come on somebody.
So I had to get to that.
So that created growth in me,even in that moment of making
that declaration about what Itook ownership of everything
that comes into my life, good orbad.
So, if these things keephappening and I don't see people
doing what I know they shouldbe doing, it's only simple,
(24:27):
isn't it?
Don't focus on that.
Focus on you.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Because here's what I noticed Expectation in people
is the root of disappointment.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh my, gosh, yes, sir , absolutely.
Expectation in people is theroot of disappointment.
Oh my gosh yes, sir, absolutelyExpectation in people is the
root of disappointment.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
If you stop expecting this and that out of people, if
you stop expecting this andthat to happen, you won't get
disappointed when it doesn'thappen.
You focus on you being who Godcalled you to be, regardless of
what they do.
And I had to.
I had to experience once againin challenges that growth,
(25:05):
maturity and redirection.
God was waiting on me to grow.
That's why he kept allowing itto happen in his sovereignty.
He kept putting me through thesame test so that I can get sick
of myself being in the flesh Idon't mean to carry on here so
that I could change it's a realthing and grow some more.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It's a real thing.
It was hard, it was tough.
If the same test keeps showingup, it's because we didn't pass
it all the other time.
You know what I'm saying.
Even when you look at it in avery practical, in a practical
manner, it's in school.
If you don't pass the test thatyou need to pass, you're not
going to the next grade, You'regoing to be held.
You're going to be held righthere.
(25:43):
Retained Retention is going tohappen in your life.
You understand the retentionwill be there and so it is in
the spirit.
The same thing keeps coming upis because you didn't whoop that
one the last time.
I mean you didn't pass it thelast time.
You didn't pass it the lasttime, and that's always the
indicator.
So that's beautiful, you know,because that's definitely the
indicator.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
If the same ones keep showing up.
You didn't pass the test, soretention can be a form of
failure and immaturity.
It is why that just hit me.
You know, when you're trying toretain the same comfort level,
when you're retaining the samepatterns, you retain the same
mindset over and over, aboutsomething Rather than growing
you're failing, trying to holdon to the old, trying to hold on
(26:30):
to the past and trying to holdon to what is not creating
growth and development in yourlife, you're actually failing by
retention.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yes, and can we say this Cause this feels good to me
.
You're failing, but thathappens.
You're failing at life, becauseI can't help but think about
when Jesus said I came, that youmight have life and that you
might have it more abundantly.
So if we get stuck throughretention and trying to retain,
(27:02):
we're failing at the thing thathe came to give us.
We're failing at that abundantlife.
Yes, because you're not living,can't live, you're not growing,
you're not developing, you'renot doing any of those things.
You're failing.
You're failing at life.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
That says to me to succeed at life and to succeed
at growth and to have theabundant life you have to
understand that you have to letsome things die.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
OMG.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Absolutely.
We have to understand thebenefit and maturity in letting
some things die, because flowershave to die to grow again.
So things have seasons andcycles and timeframes in our
life.
People do too, but we practiceretention by trying to hold on
(27:53):
to something we should release,and the proof of that is in
Ecclesiastes 3 and 1, becausewe're talking about embracing
change as part of God's plan.
Listen to this.
It says there is a time that'sso critical Timing.
There's a time for everythingYep Right, yep Everything and a
(28:17):
season for every activity underthe heaven.
That tells us that change isinevitable, things only have a
sliver, a window in your life,people, situations, and that we
have to be willing to have thematurity to go through cycles
(28:40):
and we have to allow.
There's a season when thingshave to die in your life in
order for you to grow.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Absolutely, as I'm thinking about that, I know
we're, I mean, we can definitelylook at, you know, habits, ways
, behaviors, mentalities, youknow, and that.
That just made me think back towhat we talked about in episode
one about really being aware of, OK with our own limitations.
(29:15):
Right, you know what I'm saying, so you know I can.
I can just see how that canconnect.
We've got to be willing to sayyep, this is no longer.
This is no longer profitablefor me.
I got to let this go.
It could be a bad attitude, itcould be the wrong type of
thinking.
I've got to let this go Becauseif I don't let it go then I
(29:36):
won't grow.
You know, Absolutely right, IfI don't let this go, I cannot
grow.
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
You know, your revelation just took me to
harboring bitterness.
Yes, let it go.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Let it go just took me to harboring bitterness yes,
let it go.
Let it go.
Harboring resentment Yep, letit go.
Can you not take on vengeance?
It belongs to the Lord, that'swhat the word of God says.
It's not ours.
Yeah, harboring anger.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yes, let it go.
Let it go.
Nurturing trauma my God, wenurture our trauma.
Sometimes, my God, we sit backand we think of what this person
did to us and we go over and wemaul over it.
When we see them, we nurturethe trauma, we maul over it,
over and over it, all in ourthoughts, all in our breath, all
in our stomach and our soul.
(30:22):
We just, we just we're maulingover it.
It's getting into our nervesand you know what I'm talking
about, and we are relivingtraumatic experiences that we
need to let die Absolutely,because we're practicing
retention and we're failing andinstead of embracing those
things that God is obviouslytrying to get us to let go of
(30:45):
that we think are making usstrong, feeding our negative and
feeding our anger, our meanness, our rudeness, our lack of love
.
This is how I get them back.
I'm going to harbor what theydid to me.
Instead of doing that, we oughtto be doing what we say
embracing change as part ofGod's plan.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Because somebody hurting you oh, hear me, hear me
.
Somebody hurting you sometimesis God's way of breaking that
relationship.
Absolutely, somebody hurtingyou sometime, god allows it in
order to catapult you, that'strue, to the next phase of your
(31:25):
destiny.
Absolutely, because youwouldn't let them go until they
abuse you that one last time yousay you know what I'm done, and
once you get out of it yourealize what you were missing by
staying in it.
Let me prove it.
Because somebody's like oh no,don't you say that kind of stuff
.
Are you crazy?
Have you lost your mind?
God wouldn't do that at all.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,wait.
(31:46):
Let me take you to Genesis 50and 20.
Let me take you to the life ofJoseph.
Are you hearing me now?
Because you know about Joseph'slife.
And if you don't know aboutJoseph's life, go to Genesis.
It's about I don't know about20, some chapters, I think, of
his life, his whole story.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
It's at least nine chapters.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
His whole story is in Genesis.
But Joseph was sold intoslavery by his brothers Somebody
close to him, hurting him.
Mercy it was all destiny.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
You know, we should put a pin right there just
because of the reality thatsometimes it still shakes us, it
still throws us off, it's still, oh my God, us right when
people that we love, people thatwe trust, people that we, for
(32:40):
some of us, grew up with, orwhatever, we have these, you
know, these thoughts.
It shouldn't be like that, youknow, with this person.
It should not be like that, butthe reality is is that it is
like that.
It be like that.
You know with this person.
It should not be like that, butthe reality is is that it is
like that.
It is like that it is a realthing for people who love you To
hate you, to hate you, to hateyou in your family, to the point
(33:02):
that they are willing to causethis level of pain Continually
In your life.
I think at some point we got toget away from being shocked
about it.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
And we have to be willing to let some of those
personal familial relationshipsdie off.
If they're going to revive,God's going to revive it If
their relationship is going tobe resurrected.
It's going to be God.
Because I'm letting that go?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
And that goes back to Ecclesiastes 3.1.
Because, okay, for this time Igot to let you go.
I got to let you go, but itmight be another time when God
bring us back together, becausewe know Joseph's story.
You know what I'm saying theremay be a time when it is
necessary to say goodbye.
Yeah, I'm going to leave myheart in the right posture,
because there might be anothertime when God says now it's time
(33:52):
to reconcile.
You know what I mean?
Yes, and I think that's soimportant to know.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And we are talking about a young man, a teenager,
who had to make a majoradjustment.
His big brothers, who weresupposed to protect him, love
him, cover him, threw him in awell, in a hole and then sold
him.
They were going to kill him.
Think of his psychology, hispain, the drama and that
(34:22):
adjustment that he had to face.
And there are some of you whoare listening or may listen to
this.
You have childhood trauma.
Yeah, you have.
You've had to make adjustmentsin your life from the hurt that
came out of your previous life.
My God, what you need to knowis Genesis 50 and 20.
(34:46):
Like Joseph told his brothers,he said this you intended it to
harm me, but God intended it forgood.
Listen to me to accomplish stayright there what is now being
done the saving of many lives.
(35:08):
In other words, what is nowbeing done because of the
position Joseph ultimately endedup in, was saving many lives.
That means it was done that Godmay get the glory for 8 and 28
for his purposes and his plan.
All those things you wentthrough.
If you love God and calledaccording to his purpose, he's
(35:28):
working good out of it.
All those things you wentthrough if you love God and
called according to his purpose,they'll work he's working good
out of it.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Working good out of it.
And let's tap into what yousaid a little bit ago, which is
what I try to live by, and thatis removing the expectation.
Come on, we've got to removethe expectation even from the
people that we love.
Come on, I'm the youngest of mysiblings and I cannot expect
(36:00):
for them to treat me a certainway because they're the older.
Now society says right, it goesback to what we were just
talking about as the older,you're supposed to watch out for
me.
As the older, you know, Iexpect you to this Because I'm
the younger, so you, as theolder, I'm expecting.
No, sometimes you got to hurryup and remove the expectation to
(36:22):
create your.
I mean to avoid from creatingsuch a brokenness in you that
they didn't show up how youexpected them to show up.
But here's the reality, becausewe all have our own individual
issues.
We all have our own individualhurt.
(36:42):
Sometimes, people that we expectto be there, we might expect it
, but God never intended it.
Oh my God, I could have justran.
We might expect it, but wedidn't run that expectation by
God, because God may have neverintended for them to be in your
life like that, sometimes thevery people that were crying are
(37:04):
gone, or people that Godintended to be gone, because if
they would have stayed, theycould have tore your life apart.
Sometimes, oh, my God, removingthat expectation, we ought to
give God a praise, becausesometimes those people who left,
sometimes those people whowalked out, sometimes it is good
(37:27):
.
It is good that they left me,it's good that they weren't
there, it's good Because I goodthat they left me, it's good
that they weren't there, it'sgood because I could have turned
out worse if they would havestayed.
I'm just saying so, I'm justwrapping all that back in
together.
We got to remove theseexpectations because it keeps
creating that sadness, thatbrokenness.
(37:47):
Oh, I can't believe theyweren't there for me.
Maybe the answer is they wasn'tsupposed to be.
You created the expectation,god did not.
You did that and we've got tobe careful that we don't do that
, because all it does is createpain for us.
(38:09):
And we've got to manage thatthing because that can take us
out.
Get, because from that I'mdisappointed, but now I'm finna,
harbor something, because Ican't believe you.
Da, da, da, da, da.
And we harbor this anger and weharbor hurt.
I mean, I heard a hatred, and itgrows and grows and grows and
(38:29):
grows and grows, all because youmade a conscious decision to
put expectation on a person thatdidn't even have the ability to
do what you expected them to do.
You understand what I'm saying.
If somebody put an expectation,that's like in marriage, if you
put an expectation on me tocook every day, that would be a
(38:49):
problem.
That's not my nature.
You know what I'm saying.
It's like that ain't the season.
That season existed when thechildren were young, but if you
held on to that, you couldharbor resentment against me.
You understand what I'm saying.
So we have to be right againstme.
(39:11):
You understand what I'm saying?
So we have to be right.
And no matter subconscious,it's like I have all of the
heart and the love and theintention, but my reality don't
end up in the kitchen.
It just does not.
You know what I mean.
And so we have to be carefulnot to put expectations on
people that didn't agree withbeing who you expected them to
(39:31):
be.
A meeting did not take place,you did not say, as this person
in my life, this is what I'mexpecting, and they signed an
agreement with you or made averbal commitment and say yes,
that's what I'm going to do.
You understand what I'm saying.
And we have to be so careful ofthat because we end up getting
the short end of the stick.
And we have to be carefulCareful of that because we end
up getting the short end of thestick and we have to be careful.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
You have not stumbled upon.
You have constructed a teachingand an argument for the theory
of unrealistic expectations.
I love that.
Yeah, there's no way you and Iwould have made it 34 years if
we'd been together.
That's right.
When we first started out, wesaid we need to address
unrealistic expectations.
I don't know how.
(40:12):
Way back then, as young as wewere, the grace of God, I think
we had seen enough.
And the grace of God, the graceof God, way back then we said,
okay, let's talk.
We cannot have thesetraditional unrealistic
expectations on each otherbecause we're wired different.
And we started talking aboutwho we were and talking about
our strengths and our weaknessesso that the other person
(40:33):
wouldn't have unrealisticexpectations.
And that's how we have survived34 years being together, because
we removed all of that.
We took our list that we hadballed it up and said this is a
human being, I'm in arelationship with a human being
and I've got to love this humanbeing no matter what.
And I have to remove all thisunrealistic stuff that she got
(40:54):
to cook clean iron, do all thiskind of stuff.
He's got to make the most moneyin the house.
He's got to fix everythingthat's broken.
He's got to take the trash out.
All the time we threw away thatand we talked about what was
compatible between us and whatwas different about us.
But here's another thought wehave to take unrealistic
(41:14):
expectations off God.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
We do.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
One unrealistic expectation that we put on God
is that God's not going to letme suffer.
Oh my God, yep, god's not goingto.
God wouldn't take me throughsomething painful.
Exactly, yep.
But Joseph's experience waspainful for years and it shows
in Joseph's experience that Goduses painful adjustments for his
(41:43):
glory, to get us to our destinyand for his purposes.
Because can nobody tell me?
Being almost being killed byyour brother, it's not an
adjustment, that's an adjustment.
Being sold into slavery by yourfamily yeah, it's not an
adjustment.
Yeah.
Being being lied on and put inprison by the wife of the person
(42:03):
you serve with all your heartafter she tried to molest you,
that hurts, yeah, that's painful, it is.
And then being down in a prisonhelped a baby.
Well, greetings everybody and welcome once again
to the Daily Bread podcast.
We are your co-hosts, DrJarrell and Angela Stokely.
It is again a breath of freshair to be with you today to
share God's Word, to empower youand, prayerfully, this could be
Daily Bread for your life, butfor whatever situation that you
(00:23):
are facing or whatever growthprocess that you are in, I'm
excited to be here with mybeautiful wife, my partner of 34
years, my partner of 34 years.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Would you greet our audience?
Yes, absolutely.
Hey everybody, so glad you havetuned in.
I feel excited to be able tosit in the seat whereby we're
able to share a nugget of wisdom, a piece of insight or
something that just builds youup in some kind of way that you
(01:00):
can continue navigating thisthing we call life.
So we're glad you're here,thanks for tuning in and we look
forward to sharing.
All right.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Welcome once again to Daily Bread Podcast Listen.
Before we get started, we wantto take a moment to just give
God some praise, right there,where you are, if you're in your
car, if you're at home,whatever you are.
Just take a moment.
It doesn't have to be loud orit can be loud.
It doesn't have to beexpressive or it can be
expressive Just from thethanksgiving in your heart.
Just tell God I love you, tellGod thank you, tell God he's
(01:33):
worthy to be praised.
Just shout a hallelujah, athank you, jesus God.
I honor you.
Lord, in the name of Jesus God,I praise you.
You're my rock, you're myshield, you're my buckler,
you're my everything.
God, hallelujah, thank you forwisdom and guidance and
understanding.
We ought to have a thanksgivingon the inside that we can give
(01:54):
to God at any time for the goodand the grace that he's already
done and the righteousness ofJesus Christ that we already
have, for the miracles, for thepromises, for the breakthroughs,
for the increase, the abundance, for the fire-keeping God who
keeps us through the firehallelujah of life.
We ought to give him a praise.
We ought to give him a praise.
(02:15):
So, whatever you do, give God apraise.
As we get ready to get started,we have an exciting topic for
you, a relevant topic, a topicthat builds up, that anchors you
in the word of God and inthriving in our current state of
the culture and society today.
(02:36):
Today, we're continuing aseries titled Adjustments
Adjustments.
This is part two of Adjustments.
If you didn't hear part one, goback stop right now.
Please go back to part one ofadjustments.
If we you don't find part oneof adjustments, we want you to
reach out to us through ouremail, on our platforms, and say
(02:56):
hey, I did not see part one ofadjustments in there.
Can you upload it?
So it should.
It should be there by the timeyou get to this one.
All right, we're talking aboutadjustments, pastor A
Adjustments.
Oh my God, life is filled withadjustments.
As I said in part one, we areliving in critical mass.
(03:20):
We are at code blue in oursociety, in our politics, in our
global view of things, in theglobal existence of things.
I mean the cosmos, thehemisphere, the stratosphere,
the atmosphere.
All the fears have fear.
There is pressure, there's agrowing climate of intensity.
There is pressure, there's agrowing climate of intensity.
(03:45):
There is so much changehappening so fast around us that
some of us are reeling andspinning from what is going on,
not only in our personal lives,but in the lives of the people
we care about.
Yes, the people we're connectedto and the people we have to
come in contact with on a dailybasis.
And it is rocking and it'sreeling, but it's adjustments.
(04:07):
How do we strive in them?
How do we survive in them?
How do we make it do them?
Where is God in all of theseadjustments?
So let's talk about it.
So we gave a definition in partone.
I want to go over it in parttwo.
What is an adjustment?
Y'all want to hear what ChatGPThad to say.
What is an adjustment?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Y'all want to hear what ChatGPT has to say.
It was good.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Adjustments refer to changes.
How many of you are dealingwith changes, modifications made
to improve?
How many of you are goingthrough this great thing right
now where you're having toimprove?
And it's improving your life,it's improving your finances,
it's improving your business.
It's improving your marriage.
(04:59):
It's improving your finances,improving your business.
It's improving your.
Modifications made to improve,correct or adapt a situation,
process or system to achieve adesired outcome.
It can be applied to financialadjustments, personal
adjustments, technicaladjustments, social adjustments,
behavior adjustments,relationship adjustments, career
(05:22):
adjustments, geolocationadjustments.
When God changes or lifechanges your geography, you have
to uproot and change everything, like we learned about Abraham.
Yeah, so let me pass a.
Give us a review, if you will,just a snapshot of what we saw
(05:42):
in the adjustments that Abramhad to face in Genesis 12 and 1,
as we start out.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
You know, one of the highlights that you brought out
about Genesis 12 that sometimesI don't think a lot of people
know or hadn't studied and foundout, is that Abram and his
family, they were I want to callthem heathens that is not the
right word Heathenistic nation,according to the way the Bible
says they were a heathenisticnation and so that the emphasis
(06:15):
there, one of the things that Ithought was just so powerful to
bring out of that, is thereality that God will pull from
the unlikely, that God will pullfrom the unlikely.
He pulled Abram from amongst agroup of people that sometimes,
you know, when we see thathappening in these days and time
, we scratch our head Like howis that person able to do this?
(06:35):
Or why were they chosen forthat?
God's been doing that since thebeginning of time.
Right, god chooses whom hechooses, point blank and period.
Can I just say that you knowGod chooses whom he chooses,
point blank and period.
Can I just say that you knowGod chooses whom he chooses and
it's not necessarily based onwhat we think are good enough.
People, well, who we think meetthe bar is who God has
(06:56):
predestined and ordained to beit, regardless of where they
come from.
So I thought that was sopowerful because sometimes I
think that we think, because ofour background and because of
where we came from, because ofthe environment or our family
ties, that we are not worthy,that we will never be considered
by God, that we can't includeourselves in what the word of
(07:20):
God says about his people.
When we think about, sometimes,when we're in those, you know,
we have those those types ofbackgrounds.
When we hear the scripture thatsays we've been made the
righteous, we can't even fathomthat.
We can't fathom that becausenothing in our life has been
seen as righteous.
We ain't never seen a righteousperson, and so forth and so on.
But God is God.
(07:41):
You know what I'm saying.
And so in that we saw how Godpulled Abram out, called him
away from everything he knew hisfamily, his country, his
household, everything he knewand then told him to go to a
place that he would show him.
I will show you.
You have no idea.
I'm not going to tell you to goto Dallas, I'm not going to
(08:04):
tell you to go to Nashville.
I'm not going to tell you to go, just go.
All I need you to do is juststart going.
So some of us have foundourselves in that place of being
called out and we have no ideawhere we're going.
That, for me, was like sopowerful to share with our
(08:24):
listeners, because we've got toknow that even when we're
uncertain, well, I feel the HolyGhost, even when we can't put
into words in detail what God isdoing.
Just know God is doingsomething.
God is doing something,something God is doing something
(08:44):
.
Because one of the things Ifeel like is that we get
intimidated when we can't tellsomebody the deets about what
God is doing Right and we,because of that, we feel like
something's wrong with us.
Right, instead of being honestand saying I don't know, this is
what I do know.
He said go Well, where to?
I don't know yet.
(09:06):
I don't know what this is, whatI do know.
He said go.
Well, where to?
I don't know.
Yet you know what this is aboutExactly.
You know what I mean.
And sometimes that can be sointimidating and so overwhelming
, to the point where we eithergo back or we don't go at all.
Right, you know what I mean.
And so I thought that was sopowerful that we ended with
Abram in part one, and as youwere doing the introduction, the
(09:29):
word that kept kind of turningin my spirit was uncertainty.
You know, and when we are facedwith uncertainty which you know
, when you think aboutadjustments, it, you know, a lot
of times it, it takes you to aplace of uncertainty.
When God is saying, okay, I'mabout to adjust this one, when
(09:52):
things start happening in yourlife and you, you realize that
these changes have to happen,but you don't know what's on the
other side of the change.
You don't know what's on theother side of that circumstance
or that situation.
The uncertainty can sometimecreate so much anxiety.
Right, it can create so muchfear, so much disdain.
(10:15):
Oh my God, yes, but as, yeah,so as I was sitting here and you
know, that kind of came up, soI knew I was supposed to bring
it up.
What I was reminded of is romans8 and 28.
Yeah, that god works good inall in all things.
Shut the front door, but it'sfor a specific group of people,
(10:39):
those who love god that part Iwon't even get to and called
according to just who loved god.
My god, today.
You know what I'm saying and Ithink that if we just remember
that and we reflect on thatreality, that as we are
processing through theseadjustments with all of this
(11:00):
uncertainty, if I don't knownothing else, I gotta know god
gonna work this for my good.
Oh, my god, jesus, hallelujah,that's so good, you know.
Yeah, he's gone and so, and soI think it's so powerful.
First of all, I want to saydon't feel like being in a place
(11:21):
of uncertainty makes you theodd man out.
If I had to guess, I would saythat the majority are facing
uncertainties, absolutely.
But what the body of Christ hasto know, and for those who who
love God, we've got to know thatRomans 8 and 28 is our passage.
(11:44):
We've got to know that Romans 8and 28 is our passage.
It's our passage that he willmake this season of uncertainty
work for my good.
Good God, almighty Jesus.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
That is so good, so good, jesus.
Uncertainty is definitely goingto be the theme and the premise
of this teaching.
It's what I felt, that in theHoly Spirit when you said that.
It agrees with me and itundergirds the big words I'm
trying to hear, but itundergirds the construct.
(12:23):
The substratum of this, ofconstructing this teaching today
, is uncertainty, absolutely,because we all live with it
right now.
Everything is uncertain,everything is being shaken,
everything is being.
The roots of everything isbeing torn at yeah, and
sometimes the root of things arebeing ripped by God.
Yeah, and sometimes the rootbecause God wants that thing out
of our life and it's not goodfor us.
Sometimes the root of things isbeing that's an attempt to pull
(12:46):
it up by the enemy because hedon't want us to have something
God wants us to have, or hedon't want us to be who God
called us to be.
So there's always a pull on usand a press on our souls to deal
with some type of adjustment.
As you were talking, I thoughtabout there are three types of
adjustments self-initiatedadjustments, whereby I know,
(13:06):
through reasoning, knowledge,understanding, that I need to
make some changes, amodification.
Other initiated adjustments,outside of my control.
They change some things on thejob.
I got to deal with it.
It was a switch in leadership.
I got to deal with it.
Other initiated I was sideswiped by a car, other initiated
(13:28):
.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Can I even say my spouse filed for divorce Other I
don't know why that hit me,because that's other initiated.
You know, and some people maybe dealing with that.
Well, what do you do whenyou're believing you know for
(13:51):
this relationship to be mended,but the other person has gone
ahead and filed for divorce?
That's other initiated.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And you're facing a dark period of uncertainty.
Yeah, what are you doing that?
We're going to get to that.
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, we're going to get to that answer.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, I love that.
That was real good.
And finally you have the thirdGod initiated adjustments and in
part one you were talking aboutthe chiropractic alignment of
different parts of the body toget it back into alignment to
work well, and how all of thatis developmental.
And we looked at adjustmentsfrom two sides alignment and
development, alignment anddevelopment.
(14:27):
And anytime you're dealing withadjustments, you're dealing
with two things.
One of two things are both atthe same time alignment and
adjustment.
And for those of us who aredealing with both of them at the
same time, I pray for you.
Pray for me, because I've beenthrough this hard when you're
dealing with alignment in yourlife, because some things have
to change and you know.
(14:48):
You know you've got to comeinto alignment with these
processes or procedures, as thedefinition says.
It's another one.
At the same time, god is takingyou through something that he's
developing you, and that's whata lot of us is are in society
today.
There are external initiatedthings causing alignment in our
lives, you know, to theseprocesses and then God is trying
(15:11):
to get, develop us to handle it.
So it's a breaking.
That's a breaking happeningwith the changing.
Yeah, at the same time, at thesame time, and it can be
conflicting in your soul.
It is To where you ask thequestion.
God, where are you?
And all that?
I didn't ask for this.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You know, apostle, I was thinking about the scripture
we talked about in part one,which was Proverbs 3, 5 and 6.
Trust in the Lord with all yourheart.
Yeah, send the Lord with allyour heart and lean not to your
own understanding and and knowthat God will direct your way.
I think that's the end part,but I find it so interesting.
(15:49):
I find it so interesting.
I was sitting here thinkingabout this and I was as you were
talking, and I was thinkingabout uncertainty, and I was
thinking about when you'retrying to trust God, right, when
you're.
You're in uncertain times andyou're and you're trying to work
Proverbs three, five and sixand you're trying not to lean to
your own understanding, right,but everything is so uncertain,
(16:13):
everything is so uncertain,everything is so uncertain.
You like I?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
got to understand it for this, all right.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
And you try your absolute best, yeah, not to
initiate your own thing, becausein it you can't hear the voice.
Come on, you cannot, you know.
And so I just thought that theyjust hit me and maybe because
somebody is dealing with that,maybe somebody is listening and
they're saying I'm in uncertainterms and yeah, I hear y'all,
(16:40):
because I 100% believe inProverbs 3, 5, and 6.
And I'm trying not to lean onmy own understanding, but I
ain't hearing nothing from Godand I ain't got no clear
instructions and I don't reallyknow what to do, and I'm about
to start doing something myself.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Talk to him, apostle, I want to tell him Ephesians 6,
after you've done all to stand.
Stand, therefore, and put on,so you're not out there naked.
The whole, oh, my god, armor,armored up, the whole armor of
(17:22):
God, that you may be able tostand against the wiles, which
is the wickedness, the schemesand the deceptions of the devil.
Deceptions of the devil, my God, because that's exactly what he
works in adjustments, schemes,deceptions and plots to get at
(17:46):
your perspective.
Because if he can decomposeyour faith perspective, if he
can deconstruct your faithperspective, if he could
obliterate your faithperspective with lies and
(18:06):
deception about God's love andinnuendos about who you are not
in him and he's not the God ofthe righteous.
If he could fragment it, if hecould nuke it, he will to get
you so weak and back into yourflesh and now you're living as
you're living in your flesh, manmaking decisions that compile
the negative outcome, because hewas able to eat away at your
(18:30):
faith posture and your faiththoughts and your faithful
thoughts and his righteousnessin his word.
So you got to put on that wholearmor.
Go and read Ephesians 6 so youwould know the whole armor,
because I could take you throughit.
But that's not what thisteaching is about.
But you got to get your mindwrapped around your Savior, and
he loves you.
Which takes me to the point thatwe mentioned about Abram in
(18:52):
part one, which was thesovereignty of God.
The root word of sovereignty isreign, sovereignty.
God's sovereignty is God'sreign, the Bible tells me.
Here's where you can trust inGod's sovereignty.
The Bible tells me the earth isthe Lord's, the fullness
thereof, the world and they thatdwell therein.
(19:17):
God reigns over everything.
If it's happening you weren't ina room when the conversation
was happening like God did aboutand Satan did about Job.
But you best believe yourreigning father, your reigning
king, is setting parametersaround what the enemy can't do
and what life can't do to you,that he may get the glory out of
(19:38):
your life and you may finishyour purpose and destiny.
You can believe that.
Amen, amen, hallelujah, gloryto Jesus.
That's good.
So stand, my brother and mysister, you're being tested,
You're being tried.
Yeah, you got adjustments goingon in your life that you have
to make.
Remember that definition youhave to make.
Remember that definition.
Modifications, changes toprocesses, systems,
circumstances, it's all changes,all these adjustments and
(20:00):
alignments and developments.
But you stand and believe andtrust in God's sovereignty out
of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6,trusting the law lean, not to
your own understanding, see, butin all your ways acknowledge it
.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
You know one of the you know I'm going to say this
and then we're going to move theone of the practical.
I mean just looking at itpractically, practically,
because I feel like this isimportant, because it's almost
like I can send somebody askingthat question about the
practicality.
What does that look like?
And so what I sense that thespirit of the Lord is saying is
that sometimes the adjustmentshappen to help us to get back to
(20:44):
the basics While theuncertainty is going on.
Most times the angst andanxiety come because we're
wanting something to happen andwe're trying to progress and
we're trying to hurry up and getthere and we're just trying to
right.
We're trying to progress andwe're trying to hurry up and get
there and we're just trying toright, we're trying to, we're
trying to, we're doing thiswanting to move on really
quickly thing.
What I sense that the Lord issaying that sometimes you have
(21:05):
to take a step back becausemaybe we've gotten too far off
from the basics the prayer, thereading, the scripture, the
fasting, the basics, the basics.
And so when you don't know whatelse to do during those times,
I want to encourage you pop yourBible back out and really study
(21:26):
it like you used to Pray, likeyou used to Fast, like you used
to, because sometimes we have togo back to those things that
got us where we are now.
You know that got us to thatgrowth space.
Sometimes we have to go back tothose things that got us where
we are now you know that got usto that growth space, and we
have to go back and visit thosethings in a different manner.
Maybe we've kind of, you know,moved away from that a little
(21:48):
bit.
So I want to just encourage youto add that practicality back
in while you are navigating theuncertainty.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
That is so good.
Amen, that cannot be best said.
Amen, because I was always likewhat can I add to that?
Nothing that cannot be bestsaid.
You said that as best as itcould be said.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
So today, as we add into knowing that God is
sovereign and in control, wewant to add this practical point
.
Talk about practicality.
All right, you're dealing withthese adjustments.
Here's what you need to doEmbrace change as part of God's
plan.
Embrace change as part of God'splan, as somebody was saying,
(22:36):
but it's negative.
Wait a minute, let me show itto you.
In all things, God is workinggood.
So first, let's just deal withembracing it.
So life adjustments they oftentalking about this alignment
align us with God's purpose forgrowth, maturity or redirection,
(22:56):
and sometimes we miss thoseaspects and those inner workings
and transformations.
While we're going throughsomething that is painful or
challenging, we're missing thepart of growth, maturity and
redirection.
Recently I have been in a lot ofspiritual warfare and I found
(23:21):
myself in my flesh and I got toa place where I said, ok, you've
got to grow because this keepshappening.
Yeah, these things you'refacing keep happening and you've
got to grow.
Now, this is my you, this isyou know I'm a pastor, I'm a
church planter, you know I'm anapostle.
I've done all this stuff foralmost 30 years.
(23:42):
But I found myself in my fleshand I said okay, because of a
change and adjustment that washappening in my life, and here's
what I told myself.
I said okay, jarrell, stopexpecting good out of others and
expect good out of yourself.
Stop expecting what people aresupposed to do and do good, no
(24:07):
matter what they do.
Come on somebody.
So I had to get to that.
So that created growth in me,even in that moment of making
that declaration about what Itook ownership of everything
that comes into my life, good orbad.
So, if these things keephappening and I don't see people
doing what I know they shouldbe doing, it's only simple,
(24:27):
isn't it?
Don't focus on that.
Focus on you.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Because here's what I noticed Expectation in people
is the root of disappointment.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh my, gosh, yes, sir , absolutely.
Expectation in people is theroot of disappointment.
Oh my gosh yes, sir, absolutelyExpectation in people is the
root of disappointment.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
If you stop expecting this and that out of people, if
you stop expecting this andthat to happen, you won't get
disappointed when it doesn'thappen.
You focus on you being who Godcalled you to be, regardless of
what they do.
And I had to.
I had to experience once againin challenges that growth,
(25:05):
maturity and redirection.
God was waiting on me to grow.
That's why he kept allowing itto happen in his sovereignty.
He kept putting me through thesame test so that I can get sick
of myself being in the flesh Idon't mean to carry on here so
that I could change it's a realthing and grow some more.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It's a real thing.
It was hard, it was tough.
If the same test keeps showingup, it's because we didn't pass
it all the other time.
You know what I'm saying.
Even when you look at it in avery practical, in a practical
manner, it's in school.
If you don't pass the test thatyou need to pass, you're not
going to the next grade, You'regoing to be held.
You're going to be held righthere.
(25:43):
Retained Retention is going tohappen in your life.
You understand the retentionwill be there and so it is in
the spirit.
The same thing keeps coming upis because you didn't whoop that
one the last time.
I mean you didn't pass it thelast time.
You didn't pass it the lasttime, and that's always the
indicator.
So that's beautiful, you know,because that's definitely the
indicator.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
If the same ones keep showing up.
You didn't pass the test, soretention can be a form of
failure and immaturity.
It is why that just hit me.
You know, when you're trying toretain the same comfort level,
when you're retaining the samepatterns, you retain the same
mindset over and over, aboutsomething Rather than growing
you're failing, trying to holdon to the old, trying to hold on
(26:30):
to the past and trying to holdon to what is not creating
growth and development in yourlife, you're actually failing by
retention.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yes, and can we say this Cause this feels good to me
.
You're failing, but thathappens.
You're failing at life, becauseI can't help but think about
when Jesus said I came, that youmight have life and that you
might have it more abundantly.
So if we get stuck throughretention and trying to retain,
(27:02):
we're failing at the thing thathe came to give us.
We're failing at that abundantlife.
Yes, because you're not living,can't live, you're not growing,
you're not developing, you'renot doing any of those things.
You're failing.
You're failing at life.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
That says to me to succeed at life and to succeed
at growth and to have theabundant life you have to
understand that you have to letsome things die.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
OMG.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Absolutely.
We have to understand thebenefit and maturity in letting
some things die, because flowershave to die to grow again.
So things have seasons andcycles and timeframes in our
life.
People do too, but we practiceretention by trying to hold on
(27:53):
to something we should release,and the proof of that is in
Ecclesiastes 3 and 1, becausewe're talking about embracing
change as part of God's plan.
Listen to this.
It says there is a time that'sso critical Timing.
There's a time for everythingYep Right, yep Everything and a
(28:17):
season for every activity underthe heaven.
That tells us that change isinevitable, things only have a
sliver, a window in your life,people, situations, and that we
have to be willing to have thematurity to go through cycles
(28:40):
and we have to allow.
There's a season when thingshave to die in your life in
order for you to grow.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Absolutely, as I'm thinking about that, I know
we're, I mean, we can definitelylook at, you know, habits, ways
, behaviors, mentalities, youknow, and that.
That just made me think back towhat we talked about in episode
one about really being aware of, OK with our own limitations.
(29:15):
Right, you know what I'm saying, so you know I can.
I can just see how that canconnect.
We've got to be willing to sayyep, this is no longer.
This is no longer profitablefor me.
I got to let this go.
It could be a bad attitude, itcould be the wrong type of
thinking.
I've got to let this go Becauseif I don't let it go then I
(29:36):
won't grow.
You know, Absolutely right, IfI don't let this go, I cannot
grow.
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
You know, your revelation just took me to
harboring bitterness.
Yes, let it go.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Let it go just took me to harboring bitterness yes,
let it go.
Let it go.
Harboring resentment Yep, letit go.
Can you not take on vengeance?
It belongs to the Lord, that'swhat the word of God says.
It's not ours.
Yeah, harboring anger.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yes, let it go.
Let it go.
Nurturing trauma my God, wenurture our trauma.
Sometimes, my God, we sit backand we think of what this person
did to us and we go over and wemaul over it.
When we see them, we nurturethe trauma, we maul over it,
over and over it, all in ourthoughts, all in our breath, all
in our stomach and our soul.
(30:22):
We just, we just we're maulingover it.
It's getting into our nervesand you know what I'm talking
about, and we are relivingtraumatic experiences that we
need to let die Absolutely,because we're practicing
retention and we're failing andinstead of embracing those
things that God is obviouslytrying to get us to let go of
(30:45):
that we think are making usstrong, feeding our negative and
feeding our anger, our meanness, our rudeness, our lack of love
.
This is how I get them back.
I'm going to harbor what theydid to me.
Instead of doing that, we oughtto be doing what we say
embracing change as part ofGod's plan.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Because somebody hurting you oh, hear me, hear me
.
Somebody hurting you sometimesis God's way of breaking that
relationship.
Absolutely, somebody hurtingyou sometime, god allows it in
order to catapult you, that'strue, to the next phase of your
(31:25):
destiny.
Absolutely, because youwouldn't let them go until they
abuse you that one last time yousay you know what I'm done, and
once you get out of it yourealize what you were missing by
staying in it.
Let me prove it.
Because somebody's like oh no,don't you say that kind of stuff
.
Are you crazy?
Have you lost your mind?
God wouldn't do that at all.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,wait.
(31:46):
Let me take you to Genesis 50and 20.
Let me take you to the life ofJoseph.
Are you hearing me now?
Because you know about Joseph'slife.
And if you don't know aboutJoseph's life, go to Genesis.
It's about I don't know about20, some chapters, I think, of
his life, his whole story.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
It's at least nine chapters.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
His whole story is in Genesis.
But Joseph was sold intoslavery by his brothers Somebody
close to him, hurting him.
Mercy it was all destiny.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
You know, we should put a pin right there just
because of the reality thatsometimes it still shakes us, it
still throws us off, it's still, oh my God, us right when
people that we love, people thatwe trust, people that we, for
(32:40):
some of us, grew up with, orwhatever, we have these, you
know, these thoughts.
It shouldn't be like that, youknow, with this person.
It should not be like that, butthe reality is is that it is
like that.
It be like that.
You know with this person.
It should not be like that, butthe reality is is that it is
like that.
It is like that it is a realthing for people who love you To
hate you, to hate you, to hateyou in your family, to the point
(33:02):
that they are willing to causethis level of pain Continually
In your life.
I think at some point we got toget away from being shocked
about it.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
And we have to be willing to let some of those
personal familial relationshipsdie off.
If they're going to revive,God's going to revive it If
their relationship is going tobe resurrected.
It's going to be God.
Because I'm letting that go?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
And that goes back to Ecclesiastes 3.1.
Because, okay, for this time Igot to let you go.
I got to let you go, but itmight be another time when God
bring us back together, becausewe know Joseph's story.
You know what I'm saying theremay be a time when it is
necessary to say goodbye.
Yeah, I'm going to leave myheart in the right posture,
because there might be anothertime when God says now it's time
(33:52):
to reconcile.
You know what I mean?
Yes, and I think that's soimportant to know.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And we are talking about a young man, a teenager,
who had to make a majoradjustment.
His big brothers, who weresupposed to protect him, love
him, cover him, threw him in awell, in a hole and then sold
him.
They were going to kill him.
Think of his psychology, hispain, the drama and that
(34:22):
adjustment that he had to face.
And there are some of you whoare listening or may listen to
this.
You have childhood trauma.
Yeah, you have.
You've had to make adjustmentsin your life from the hurt that
came out of your previous life.
My God, what you need to knowis Genesis 50 and 20.
(34:46):
Like Joseph told his brothers,he said this you intended it to
harm me, but God intended it forgood.
Listen to me to accomplish stayright there what is now being
done the saving of many lives.
(35:08):
In other words, what is nowbeing done because of the
position Joseph ultimately endedup in, was saving many lives.
That means it was done that Godmay get the glory for 8 and 28
for his purposes and his plan.
All those things you wentthrough.
If you love God and calledaccording to his purpose, he's
(35:28):
working good out of it.
All those things you wentthrough if you love God and
called according to his purpose,they'll work he's working good
out of it.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Working good out of it.
And let's tap into what yousaid a little bit ago, which is
what I try to live by, and thatis removing the expectation.
Come on, we've got to removethe expectation even from the
people that we love.
Come on, I'm the youngest of mysiblings and I cannot expect
(36:00):
for them to treat me a certainway because they're the older.
Now society says right, it goesback to what we were just
talking about as the older,you're supposed to watch out for
me.
As the older, you know, Iexpect you to this Because I'm
the younger, so you, as theolder, I'm expecting.
No, sometimes you got to hurryup and remove the expectation to
(36:22):
create your.
I mean to avoid from creatingsuch a brokenness in you that
they didn't show up how youexpected them to show up.
But here's the reality, becausewe all have our own individual
issues.
We all have our own individualhurt.
(36:42):
Sometimes, people that we expectto be there, we might expect it
, but God never intended it.
Oh my God, I could have justran.
We might expect it, but wedidn't run that expectation by
God, because God may have neverintended for them to be in your
life like that, sometimes thevery people that were crying are
(37:04):
gone, or people that Godintended to be gone, because if
they would have stayed, theycould have tore your life apart.
Sometimes, oh, my God, removingthat expectation, we ought to
give God a praise, becausesometimes those people who left,
sometimes those people whowalked out, sometimes it is good
(37:27):
.
It is good that they left me,it's good that they weren't
there, it's good Because I goodthat they left me, it's good
that they weren't there, it'sgood because I could have turned
out worse if they would havestayed.
I'm just saying so, I'm justwrapping all that back in
together.
We got to remove theseexpectations because it keeps
creating that sadness, thatbrokenness.
(37:47):
Oh, I can't believe theyweren't there for me.
Maybe the answer is they wasn'tsupposed to be.
You created the expectation,god did not.
You did that and we've got tobe careful that we don't do that
, because all it does is createpain for us.
(38:09):
And we've got to manage thatthing because that can take us
out.
Get, because from that I'mdisappointed, but now I'm finna,
harbor something, because Ican't believe you.
Da, da, da, da, da.
And we harbor this anger and weharbor hurt.
I mean, I heard a hatred, and itgrows and grows and grows and
(38:29):
grows and grows, all because youmade a conscious decision to
put expectation on a person thatdidn't even have the ability to
do what you expected them to do.
You understand what I'm saying.
If somebody put an expectation,that's like in marriage, if you
put an expectation on me tocook every day, that would be a
(38:49):
problem.
That's not my nature.
You know what I'm saying.
It's like that ain't the season.
That season existed when thechildren were young, but if you
held on to that, you couldharbor resentment against me.
You understand what I'm saying.
So we have to be right againstme.
(39:11):
You understand what I'm saying?
So we have to be right.
And no matter subconscious,it's like I have all of the
heart and the love and theintention, but my reality don't
end up in the kitchen.
It just does not.
You know what I mean.
And so we have to be carefulnot to put expectations on
people that didn't agree withbeing who you expected them to
(39:31):
be.
A meeting did not take place,you did not say, as this person
in my life, this is what I'mexpecting, and they signed an
agreement with you or made averbal commitment and say yes,
that's what I'm going to do.
You understand what I'm saying.
And we have to be so careful ofthat because we end up getting
the short end of the stick.
And we have to be carefulCareful of that because we end
up getting the short end of thestick and we have to be careful.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
You have not stumbled upon.
You have constructed a teachingand an argument for the theory
of unrealistic expectations.
I love that.
Yeah, there's no way you and Iwould have made it 34 years if
we'd been together.
That's right.
When we first started out, wesaid we need to address
unrealistic expectations.
I don't know how.
(40:12):
Way back then, as young as wewere, the grace of God, I think
we had seen enough.
And the grace of God, the graceof God, way back then we said,
okay, let's talk.
We cannot have thesetraditional unrealistic
expectations on each otherbecause we're wired different.
And we started talking aboutwho we were and talking about
our strengths and our weaknessesso that the other person
(40:33):
wouldn't have unrealisticexpectations.
And that's how we have survived34 years being together, because
we removed all of that.
We took our list that we hadballed it up and said this is a
human being, I'm in arelationship with a human being
and I've got to love this humanbeing no matter what.
And I have to remove all thisunrealistic stuff that she got
(40:54):
to cook clean iron, do all thiskind of stuff.
He's got to make the most moneyin the house.
He's got to fix everythingthat's broken.
He's got to take the trash out.
All the time we threw away thatand we talked about what was
compatible between us and whatwas different about us.
But here's another thought wehave to take unrealistic
(41:14):
expectations off God.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
We do.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
One unrealistic expectation that we put on God
is that God's not going to letme suffer.
Oh my God, yep, god's not goingto.
God wouldn't take me throughsomething painful.
Exactly, yep.
But Joseph's experience waspainful for years and it shows
in Joseph's experience that Goduses painful adjustments for his
(41:43):
glory, to get us to our destinyand for his purposes.
Because can nobody tell me?
Being almost being killed byyour brother, it's not an
adjustment, that's an adjustment.
Being sold into slavery by yourfamily yeah, it's not an
adjustment.
Yeah.
Being being lied on and put inprison by the wife of the person
(42:03):
you serve with all your heartafter she tried to molest you,
that hurts, yeah, that's painful, it is.
And then being down in a prisonhelped a baby.
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