July 9, 2025 • 39 mins
What blocks us from hearing God clearly? We examine how our thought life becomes the primary battlefield where the enemy plants "poison pills" of deception wrapped in partial truths. The distinction becomes crystal clear: when God speaks, peace follows—even in urgency—while the enemy's voice brings anxiety and apprehension.
Many believers struggle with divine communication because they've created a buffet-style approach to Scripture, embracing comfortable passages while disregarding challenging ones. This selective obedience severely limits spiritual hearing and stunts growth. Through powerful testimonies and biblical examples, we demonstrate how God speaks most clearly to those with humble, teachable hearts.
The episode offers practical guidance for developing spiritual discernment, highlighting the crucial role of spiritual mentors and community. Like Samuel who needed Eli's guidance to recognize God's voice, we often require mature believers to help navigate our spiritual journey. This requires humility—something our individualistic culture often discourages.
Perhaps most importantly, we reveal the circular relationship between hearing and obeying: God speaks to those willing to act on what they hear, creating a positive cycle that increases spiritual sensitivity over time. God is more interested in developing your character than changing your circumstances, speaking into today's challenges to prepare you for tomorrow's calling.
"Message Our Father's Heart a Question or Response"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (00:03):
The vision received was that of blood cells
traveling throughout the body,supplying the much needed oxygen
and other nutrients to thediffering members of the body to
fulfill their purpose.
Once the blood cells are spent,they must return back to the
heart to be refilled beforebeing sent out again and fulfill
their purpose and fulfill theirpurpose.
(00:27):
I asked my wife this is not heridea, this is mine.
I asked my wife if she wouldshare anything after my message
on her heart, because she hadgot it.
The reason this message cameabout is because my wife asked
me do you have a teaching onhearing God?
I'm like no, I didn't thinkanything of it.
Then I found out, like lastTuesday, I'm going to be
(00:47):
teaching.
And then I sought the Lord andsaid what do you want me to
share this week?
What is it that you want toshare?
And her question came to mymind and it wouldn't leave me.
I was like, okay, I don't havea teaching, let's do it.
So I sat in my car duringplanning time and just listen,
listen, write down, listen,write down.
And I was having an exchangewith God and she didn't know
(01:07):
this.
But I got home one day and shewas like, oh, I've got to share
with you something.
I found this blah blah blah.
I was like everything that shewas telling me I had just
studied in the car with the LordI mean just scriptures,
different things citedconclusions.
I was like I need you to makewhat I'm about to share personal
(01:27):
and practical.
So that's what I asked her todo, and then Bishop is gonna
also take the floor and we'regonna hopefully have some sort
of exchange.
Do you have anything you wannashare?
Patricia Ruiz (01:52):
I just wanted to expound on some of the things
that Jay shared and I have totell you all I was very nervous
because I've been praying andasking God to show me what to
share out of a complete bookthat I just read, and what I can
tell you is through the bookGod has been reminding me of
what he showed me when he firstcalled me that he wants to talk
(02:13):
to us all the time.
He's concerned about everysmall detail of our life and if
we will set our mind to seek himin all the small matters and
not take things for granted, hewill speak to you specific
things and sometimes you're notgoing to know why you're doing
things, why you're making phonecalls.
God is just moving your heartand He will, for me this week,
(02:35):
confirm His word over and overagain.
And what I wanted to expound onthat Jay shared is that in the
dialogue with the Lord, you haveyour dialogue with the Lord and
he requires a response and themore you respond and the quicker
you are to respond.
It's obedience the more youwill hear.
(02:59):
But there are some traps thatcome into play.
It's our flesh we come into.
You know we all come in fromdifferent backgrounds.
We have different experiencesthat we've gone through, and our
bishop has referred to it asthe subconscious, the deep well
inside of us, and sometimes tomake sense of information we
draw into the deep well.
(03:20):
I come from a family that'sextremely analytical and that's
a very common thing in my family.
We judge by what we see andwhat we know from our own
experience, and many times wemess up because the well has
some corrupt things in it,things that have not been
renewed by the Lord.
So another reference that Bishopmade earlier is our thoughts.
(03:44):
We are told in the scripturesto take every thought captive to
the obedience of Christ.
He said that to us for a reasonthe enemy comes in through our
thought life.
He speaks to us throughthoughts and sometimes he sounds
really good because he gives usa lot of truth with a little
(04:06):
poison pill, just a little one.
And so, in this week, oneexample for me somebody had said
something to me that was truth.
The words that that personspoke to me were true, but the
enemy was going to town with meon those words and God broke
through the thought and told meto call and clarify, and I did,
(04:27):
and that ended the battle rightaway.
Many times we sit there and wehave battles in our mind
unnecessarily.
If we would just go to the word, go to the Lord or go to the
source that the Lord calls us togo to, we can take our thoughts
captive.
The other traps that come in ismany of us are compromising in
different ways in our lives.
Everybody knows what theirs is.
(04:49):
I'm not here to name any, butGod says to be like the Psalm 1
man that we do walk not in thecounsel of the ungodly, nor sit
in the seat of the sinners.
We are to meditate on his wordday and night.
My husband made emphasis onmeditation.
Meditation is thinking aboutHis Word day and night, chewing
(05:12):
on His Word day and night, andas we do that, He will continue
to give us His thoughts.
He says my thoughts are notyour thoughts and my ways are
not your ways.
Yet we are His child and Hisheart's desire is that we
fellowship with him.
He wants us to know Histhoughts and He wants us to know
(05:33):
His ways, but we cannot knowthose things if we're stuck in
our own way.
So those are the things that Ifeel I could add emphasis to and
highlight.
I can mention a few of thesubstitutes that we use Good
books, counselors, religiousservices, information.
(05:55):
We're bombarded withinformation, guys.
The information age from emailand we have to guard our hearts.
We have to guard our heartsbecause we need to spend more
time in what He says.
Yes, we need to be alert, but,as my husband said, He will tell
you what to do If you hear Hisvoice, if you cultivate your ear
to hear Him, He will tell youwhat to do.
(06:18):
For me and for some others here,emotions sometimes block our
hearing.
We get emotional in a matter.
We cannot discern the voice ofGod in it.
That is a time that we need toseek counsel.
We need to seek prayer withothers that are not emotionally
entangled, and His voice willprevail and He will either
(06:39):
confirm or set us free from thethought pattern that' s you know
causing the distress, but hereshould not be distress with God.
God does not come in that way.
He comes in, he woos and hecalls.
The enemy, gives us an urgency.
You need to do this now.
You feel this apprehension.
(06:59):
The Lord is not that way.
There have been times when Ihave felt an urgency, but it
hasn't hit me the way it doeswhen the enemy's attacking.
There's peace If God is speaking.
There is peace Because he knowsevery situation from beginning
to end.
And that's the thing.
(07:21):
If you think about it, if youwant to know what to do, He
knows.
He knows the beginning from theend.
He's got the big picture and soyou know.
It would be like going to anall-seeing, all-knowing person.
I'd rather do that than sitthere and try to figure it out
for myself.
So for the youth, for the youngones, there has to be an
(07:41):
interest in God.
You have to cultivate that.
It's not going to come realeasy.
You're in a world that'scalling your attention to a lot
of things and you've got todecide the song that we sing.
One thing I've asked one thing,I seek one thing.
And if you talk to him andyou're honest and you tell him I
(08:04):
don't understand this, I don'tknow how to do this, he will
meet you where you are, amen.
Clarence B. Harris (08:18):
In Romans, chapter 10, verse 10.
It says it's with the heart manbelieved unto righteousness,
and with the mouth, confessionis made known unto salvation.
The heart.
(08:39):
You see, the reason why youneed to hear is so you can do.
And then a lot of people don'twant to hear because of their
heart.
It's like the atheist saying Idon't want to hear nothing about
God because then I must realizethat someone's greater than I
and I'm going to change myparadigm, I'm going to change my
world, I'm comfortable with myworld.
(08:59):
I had a brother tell me notlong ago he's not an atheist,
he's a believer.
And he said I want you to seeif you can see any fallacy with
this line of reasoning.
I need to separate myself fromthe body in order to hear God.
Is there any logic in that?
(09:21):
Is there any logic in a lamb,or even a full-grown adult,
we'll say elephant, or afull-grown adult lion, or maybe
a full-grown adult zebra,separating themselves from the
pack or from the herd, justwandering, meandering about the
(09:44):
jungle or the savannah?
What do you think will happento that one person?
All by themselves, be devoured,because the saint he walks
about as a roaring lion seekingwhom he may devour.
And bear that in mind, if youcan be separated from your
source of energy, from yoursource of protection and the
(10:06):
oversight thereof, then you putyourself in a very vulnerable
position.
You see, you hear God to obey.
That's what the hearing is allabout.
But we've seen that from.
If you don't want to obey, whywould you want to hear and why
would God speak to you?
If God or your parents speak toyou and you say, like this here
(10:33):
, whatever, you've alreadyclosed your heart and your mind
and you have fixed yourself tolisten to the lies of the devil
by default, if you're an adultmale and you want to lead your
family, but you don't want tosubject yourself to any other
males, then you're one of thefools too.
Why should God speak to you Ifyou don't want to be held
accountable?
Why should he talk to you?
(10:54):
You're not in His fold, you'renot in His flock, you're not in
His body.
You separate yourself out ofdisobedience, and only by
obedience can you begin to letthe oil flow again.
That's how God works.
A prophet, apostle, a pastor,teacher no one is exempt and no
(11:16):
one person is the body withinthemselves.
So we look at this here.
Why is it so many Christiansstumble about hearing God?
Well, number one they don'tknow the Word of God.
Number two it's a hard one toallow them to receive all the
things of God that pertain totheir situation.
(11:37):
Notice I said their situation.
Notice I said their situation.
In other words, it's like aperson believing the Bible, or
all the sections they want tobelieve, but systematically
disregard the sections that theydo not want to believe.
In the same manner, do peoplecall themselves Christians to
obey that which they prefer, butrather not voyage into the
(12:01):
areas that which they themselvesmay not be in agreement with.
There's a sister that called methis past week, a long time
friend, over 20 something years.
We were supposed to have met ayear ago to discuss the idea.
She said well, Bishop Harris?
I don't know what every otherpastor that I come in contact
with.
They are anointed and preachersand Holy Ghost filled.
(12:24):
And you're the only one andyou're the only one, you're the
only one telling me that womenshould not be pastors.
She said I don't know aboutthat.
I don't know about that.
And so she called me again thispast week.
It's been a year ago since Ispoke to you about getting
together with her, so it won'tappear as though I'm the only
(12:45):
one that females believe thisalso.
You see, whatever it is was yourproblem when you were youth,
whatever defect you had in yourfamily, whatever defect you had
among your dad or your mother orwhatever.
Or you think your parents areall that, when they're not and
they're currently on their wayto hell, or you refer to their
(13:05):
wisdom rather than the wisdom ofGod, or you lean upon your own
understanding but not the wordof God.
When you do those things, youmake yourself very vulnerable.
Crying out right now is theword wisdom.
The Lord always tells us whatis the wise thing to do.
Here's a case in point.
Under normal circumstances,you're putting the predicament
(13:30):
where you're in a financial bind.
What type of decision shouldyou make when you're in a
financial bind?
Probably some whereby we shouldcut back on some things?
Probably maybe.
So let some things go.
For example, if you have, youknow what can be some things in
the house that you can cut backupon but not encroach upon your
(13:50):
living expenses.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (13:52):
Cable.
Clarence B. Harris (13:54):
Well, we don't have cable right now.
Exactly right.
You know what Wisdom crieth outthe necessities.
All right, you may let wisdombe the principal thing.
What is wisdom?
Wisdom is the fullness ofhearing God take His Word and
apply it in the right situation.
Why is that?
Because God don't tell youeverything.
(14:14):
He does not tell you everything.
He expects you to take all thathe taught you before and apply
it to your current situation.
That will also not onlydetermine your ability to hear
God, it also determines yourability to apply the Word of God
in everyday situations, whichis wisdom, and it measures your
(14:36):
maturity.
So now we go from hearing Godto your maturation process.
From hearing God, they say howold are you spiritually?
There's a natural age.
There are some people who havea natural age of 40, but they
function at the age of 14, 15.
Very narcissistic,pleasure-seeking, irresponsible,
(14:59):
wants to take care of them.
There are others who may be 17,18, who have maybe in the age
they carry and conductthemselves with more wisdom and
gravity than theircontemporaries and they conduct
themselves maybe like they're 25or 30.
We had a very interestingconversation with my daughter,
Jasmine, this past week.
She said she doesn't know whathappened to her generation of
(15:21):
peers at school.
She says common sense is notcommon anymore, it's gone.
It's just amazing.
She's the youngest person,sometimes in the class that
she's taking, because some ofthe students are taking the same
class two and three times andshe says she don't know.
We asked her yesterday at thetable what is it?
(15:46):
What is the problem with theyouth today?
What is it?
And she said no, it's not justthe youth, it's the adults too.
She said adults are coming tome, a college student, and I'm
saying flip it out, you don'thave to come to me.
And I said Jazz, what is itthat they're lacking?
She said number one it's aspiritual problem.
She said number two they werenever parented.
(16:09):
They did not get wisdom fromtheir parents.
If they did, they don't applyit, or they just never had
parents, fathers and mothers toparent them and instruct them
and discipline them.
They're not disciplined andthey're not knowing.
And then she came out withseveral other reasons as well,
but those are the primary two,and that is well.
(16:29):
Those are the primary two thatshe dealt with.
There's about five that shegave.
So, hearing God, how do you know?
When you hear God, do you knowHis Word.
Have you brought every thoughtand every imagination to the
obedience of Christ, to His Word?
Do you know what the Word saysabout it?
Recently it came to myattention that some do not know
(16:54):
that you can actually findanswers in the Word of God to
everyday circumstances andsituations.
The answers are in the book.
Do you know how to find them?
Do you know how to use the Wordof God?
Well, maybe on a Tuesday night.
We haven't did this in severalyears, but maybe we might want
to look at how to study theBible, how to use the Bible and
(17:17):
study aids, how to use the Bibleand study aids.
How to find answers toquestions.
So you don't have to lean uponwhat your own understanding.
So when you do hear something,you can determine whether or not
it is of God or not.
Because I declare, I'm hearing alot of people today who are
hearing God, but based on myknowledge and my experience, I
(17:39):
can tell them God didn't tellyou that.
Then they will say, well, well,well, well, I don't agree with
you.
That's fine, I'm not going toargue with you.
You all know me.
I will instruct, I will giveyou, you know, admonition and
then I will allow you to dowhatever you want to do, to your
(18:00):
own detriment and your owndestruction of your own family.
I do not pry and get inpeople's lines, I don't go
around asking everything aboutyou, etc.
I just let you go.
Because unless you want to hearGod and do His will, then why
should I waste my time tellingyou?
If you're a rebel, a rebel atheart, if you don't believe
(18:24):
there is a God, then that's achoice.
The Bible says about that personas well, who said that in his
heart the fool.
You cannot look at the thingsin the world today and say that
it came here haphazardly andjust came out of nowhere.
That cannot be so.
Why isn't your feet stickingout of your jaw when you walk
(18:47):
sideways?
It was just randomly puttogether.
Things are not random.
Everything God has ordered,including His Word.
Order my steps in your Word, oGod.
So at this point, does anyonehave any questions you want to
give to Elder Jay?
Any questions in clarity?
(19:09):
Any understanding?
Any questions?
If you don't, then I have somefor you.
Okay, anyone have any questions?
Yes, ma'am.
Katy Leyva (19:26):
You emphasized that you need a man of God in order
to develop your hearing of theLord, that it's good to go to
the man of God to become moresensitive to or exercise hearing
the Lord.
What would be a practical thingthat?
I mean, I operate in my lifeand certainly I seek counsel,
(19:47):
but I operate in my life and Idon't know that I see that door.
When do you need to?
I heard the example that youshared of the practical farming.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (20:03):
Well, when I was in my youth and I was with a
particular, youth was like 20,between 20 and 23.
Had a pastor in my life.
You're an old youth now.
Yeah.
You guys know that I was dealingwith a lot of issues.
I lost my mom, I had a fullmortgage, I was going to school
(20:24):
full time and there were a lotof things in my life that I
needed to make decisions on.
Didn't realize I needed to makedecisions on them until the
Lord started speaking with meand you know, you've heard about
the comics, you've heard aboutdifferent spiritual decisions.
(20:46):
I was in a relationship at thetime with another girl and a lot
of times you get so involvedand caught up in the flesh that
you don't think clearly, you'renot thinking spiritually.
And I was able to go to him andhe was able to speak into my
life Things that needed todirect me in the right direction
(21:06):
.
And when you have decisions thatyou're not sure of sometimes
they're just open decisions likeshould I buy this house or not?
Should I buy, you know, majordecisions, should I buy this car
or not I think it's always goodfor you to humble yourself and
(21:28):
to ask people that you know arein the know, that have
experience in those matters.
That's a part of you sayingteach me, I need help.
I don't think that I was thetype of person that was ever
afraid to.
If I had a scripture that cameup, I wasn't sure what it meant
(21:48):
or what it was talking about goand ask him.
I wouldn't just sit there andbe like.
You know, there are times wheresometimes the Lord is taking
you through the scriptures andhe doesn't highlight a certain
verse, yet that's the verse thatyou had a question on.
You just skip it, you go on,you keep going on with the Lord
and you just receive whateverhe's teaching you at the moment,
(22:10):
because a lot of times later on, I'll be like oh, okay, I get
that verse that I had a questionon, but he was taking you
through other things.
So you know, like I tell my kids, I don't have to teach you the
understanding right now.
I need you to teach you thesteps.
If you go through the stepsLater on, you'll get the
understanding, sometimes I needto teach you some other things
first before I get to thatharder, more complex question.
(22:32):
So I think the idea you have tohave is that I'm going to
humble myself, I'm going to askquestions, I'm going to ask the
man of God, I'm going to go askthe elder and just see if I'm on
the right track.
And sometimes you may hear theLord and you're like gosh, I'm
not sure if that was him becauseof what was asked of you, and
maybe your flesh goes like, oh,I ain't doing that, and you
(22:53):
start making you question thatthat was actually God.
Those are the moments you needto go and say listen, bishop
Elder, I think I heard him saythis what do you think?
And I think that's what it,that's, that's all it is,
because that's all Samuel did.
Samuel did not know that he washearing the Lord and he went to
Eli and then Eli perceived andsaid okay, go back and do this.
(23:15):
So there's the commands,there's the instruction being
given, and I'm sure that there'smany more examples.
I couldn't obviously fit themall in, but I think I fit enough
in to highlight for you thatthe Old Testament are
testimonies, they're not juststories.
Testimonies are things that youtestify in open court, and God's
word is a testimony of Himself.
(23:38):
This is how I deal with mychildren.
This is how I love them.
This is how I protect them.
This is how I discipline them.
This is how I correct them.
This is how I am.
And if you take those and applythem and realize this is how
God is, then you start makingbetter decisions.
You know, Jesus said I loveGod's law.
(23:58):
I meditate on it.
Blessed is the man thatmeditates on his law.
And if you start thinking on itmore and more often, more and
more often, he's going to speakto you through the meditations
that you have of Him.
Does that answer your question?
Yes, go ahead, bishop.
Clarence B. Harris (24:16):
In Hebrews, chapter 5
For everyone that uses milkthat's unskilled for the word of
God, the word of righteousnessfor he has made but strong meat
belongs to them that are full ofit, full age, even to those who
, by reason of use, have intheir senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.
(24:36):
That's kind of piggybacking onthe question but, how would you
take that verse and respond uponit further?
if I was in hearing and applying.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (24:43):
Paul said I forgot who it was to, but he
said to the people of God I wishI could teach you more, but
you're still floundering in themilk.
I can't teach you physics ifyou can't do add, subtract, if
you can't do multiply, divide.
It's a waste of time.
I need to get you to get out ofthis milk arena that you find
(25:10):
yourself in.
And, like I said, it all goesback to the individual.
You have to have a proper ideaof what state you're in, because
young people usually in thenatural, have an overflated idea
of their capabilities and theirstrengths and they think that
they can take on the world andain't nothing going to happen to
(25:30):
them.
We do that spiritually.
We come into the kingdom, weget a knowledge of truth.
It's like a golden nugget, it'slike finding a pearl in the
midst of a field and we getsuper excited about it, super
zealous, and we go off and runand, like we've heard before in
the things, we go off and runand we haven't been sent, we
haven't been trained, we haven'tbeen equipped.
(25:50):
And that goes back to the heartof that man.
The heart of that man has to behumble, has to understand gosh,
we go through it in our life.
Our children have to understandthere was a stage where I had
to be taught.
I didn't just grow up to be awise adult, there was this whole
(26:10):
training period in ourspiritual lives.
We have to come to the to to tothe, to accept the fact that if
I'm going to grow in the Lord Ihave to have a training period.
I can't just be sent, no matterwhat I think I may have been
like that.
I don't think I was, but I mayhave been like that because I
went to Christian schools all mylife.
I knew the word.
I heard it.
I mean I could quote scriptures.
(26:31):
They made us memorize and whenI actually came into covenant I
could have had that idea.
But now I'm thinking about it.
No, I didn't have that idea.
I wanted to get into the wordagain.
I wanted to go after it again,again and get more deep into the
more deeply into the Word, sothat I have greater
understanding than just thesurface level that I knew.
(26:53):
But that was my heart at thetime.
It wasn't the heart that said,oh God, I know everything.
Now let me go.
I was still very hesitant.
I had to have a friend whowasn't in the covenant sort of
push me along to minister tothis person the covenant and get
with them.
So it's a matter of heart, ofhumility, Althea.
Althea Harris (27:11):
I was going to say.
Is it safe to say, to qualifywhat you just said, that going
to the man of God, he also hasto be skillful in the word,
because there are people whoministers that are just feeding
people with milk because that'sall they have.
They're not solid in the wordthemselves and very spiritually
(27:36):
minded Some congregations wherethe person may not even be in
tune with things of the spirit.
So you have to qualify the manof God that you are going to to
seek that help.
Man of God that you are goingto seek that help, because, even
though me and I are not perfect, sometimes people are led
astray, following a ministerthat they think is hearing God,
(27:57):
but he's not even skillful indoing it.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (27:59):
If you're a youth like you're describing and
you're aware that you cannottrust the man of God, you've
already got a lot of spiritualawareness.
Usually babies don't have thatawareness and so they're going
to go to the only man of Godthat they know.
They don't have anyone else togo to.
They don't even know that theyshould actually be somewhere
else at the time.
What I'm saying is that thescriptures, I think, show us
(28:22):
that if you're in that position,there doesn't seem to be
another man of God that youcould go to.
If you had the awareness andlet's say you didn't have the
awareness God, because of yourheart and seeking after him in
spite of those circumstances,can reach you, can teach you
directly and through the man ofGod that isn't right in his own
place.
Now, if you're spirituallyaware enough and mature enough
(28:45):
to know that that man of God isprobably off in a lot of areas,
then you probably need to moveand go somewhere else, because
you can't be fed under someonethat you know is corrupt.
But if you're a babe and youdon't know any better, I believe
God can override that and stillreach you and still bring you
to the place.
My example was perfect.
I had a minister.
That was good in some areas andfoul in some other areas.
(29:08):
I got a lot of good things fromhim.
I got a lot of bad things fromhim, but in spite of all, that
got me out of that and I'mstanding here today in a whole,
much better place spiritually,physically and in all respects,
because my God is an in spite ofkind of God.
I didn't know any better.
At the time.
I thought this was like whew,I'd never seen anything like
this and I was completelyimpressed and I was awed at what
(29:31):
God was doing.
But there were other thingsthat I didn't have the maturity
to stand against and to come outof until I actually came out of
it.
So that's what I'm saying.
I mean spiritually aware.
At that age, you're probablynot going to know that you need
to go elsewhere.
Bishop, do you want to answeror do you want to let Ms.
Marta?
Ms.
Marta, go ahead.
Marta Leyva (29:50):
I can give testimony to that, because I was
in Fort Worth in a fellowshipthat was very strong on outreach
and John, because of myexistence, had found the same
fellowship in Columbia, where hewas, and he was a part of that
(30:13):
fellowship and I had the feeling, I believed, that God was going
to get through to the preacherof this fellowship to bring
through him truth, bring him totruth and that thus truth
(30:36):
through him.
And the Lord picked John up inan elaborate scheme.
He took him in a horrible busto a tiny little clubhouse at
night which you don't do to alittle church, and got him in
(31:00):
the church and called him out infront of everybody and sent him
back up here, which wentagainst all quote quote common
sense to everybody.
Everybody was like that'sfoolish.
You have this, you're going tobe a doctor in Canada and how
(31:22):
can you give up this and thatand the other met the other one.
But John obeyed the voice of theLord and he came to Fort Worth
and we had less than a penny wedidn't even have a half a penny
and I went with him.
The two of us walked togetherinto TCU and John wound up
(31:48):
graduating from TCU by the graceof God, and in the meantime he
pulled us out of that churchthat we were in and headed
towards the only church that wecould find that preached Jesus'
name.
And there we began to growuntil the standards issue got to
(32:17):
be too much.
And then we struggled, but westayed in the Word.
We stayed.
We even had a beautiful pastor,who has since recently passed.
We all want to be with Floyd,who came to our home and
preached to whomever would comein our neighborhood.
Clarence B. Harris (32:39):
So, Marta, with the sequence of John coming
from school there andtransitioning to Fort Worth,
what was the center?
What was the gist of themessage?
Marta Leyva (32:51):
I had wanted to get back here the whole time, but I
felt like God wasn't going toever bring me back here as a
furniture to me.
Back where?
To my name?
With his fellowship, oh, withhis fellowship.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (33:08):
So you're describing your situation as
that.
He's in spite of God.
Marta Leyva (33:12):
In spite of everything, god picked us up and
turned our life around andbrought us back here.
And then he brought kids.
I was 15 years of Egypt,completely changed, completely
caved, completely turned around.
(33:32):
He never looked back, not onetime.
And I have to sit here and tellyou, God means business.
He knows what He's doing.
(33:55):
f I could just add that andcome to a close later I would
say this Marta in the midst ofeverything else.
You all, when you left Miami,you were very interested in
state of affairs, somewhat inthe state of rebellion Somewhat,
and then moving on, moving onto looking at other, somewhat in
a state of rebellion YourselfSomewhat.
Well, I'm trying to be mild andthen moving on, moving on to
looking at other people andtheir situations.
(34:16):
The Lord had it all worked outthat you know, similar to Glenys
.
There have been years that havepassed by and you had access
that I had busy y'all in Texas.
I had been to other ministriesthere.
You all came down to Houstonwhen I came and spoke, etc.
And there was a time that youall wanted to get out of your
situation.
You wanted to move to Georgiaand pray.
(34:37):
I'm going to confess to you Iwas not praying for the Lord to
bring you to Georgia, and alsoGlenys, I was not praying for
the Lord to bring you to Georgiaeither.
Yeah, I forgot that message.
The only thing I was praying isthat, where you all were, in,
the state that you were in andthis is where you got yourselves
in the Lord did not bring youanywhere until He dealt with you
(34:59):
all.
So when you come here, you beteachable and ready to learn.
And it's what?
Three, four, five, six, seven,eight years, whatever it went by
, if not more, Are three, four,five, six seven, eight years.
Whatever it went by , if not more, Are you in Texas
in 15 years.
Clarence B. Harris (35:12):
I've been moving to Toronto since 2003.
Yeah, man, yes, ma'am, so inthe same way with Glenys.
I have all your emails on file.
I have all your letters sentfrom Australia.
I kept them on file.
They came in handy, by the way,the situation that came up.
But with that there, I wanted tosay that because of your
situation, you put yourself inthat situation for the most part
, and I'm not one to jump in andsmash people out of the fire.
(35:35):
I'm not a bleeding female thatif I see my child busting their
face I'm going to run down thereand put it to hurt themselves.
No, after you hurt yourself,when you come to your right
sense and right mind and youwant help, we'll be on the to do
what's necessary to help youout.
But you have to come with theright mind and you must come
when God says so and you'rewilling to come with God,
(35:57):
because I'm going a certain path, a certain direction and I'm
not going to carry people thatI've got to fight.
It's people on the way.
You can fight where you camefrom and stay there.
I hate to be cruel about that,but I'm just quite candid.
But I'm so glad I workedeverything out and brought all
of you here in this time.
(36:17):
I know, even with Jay andPatricia, this is not your first
choice, this is your secondchoice, but Lord worked it out.
He said well, Lord, let it be,let it be.
It would have been nice.
Anybody can help with musicbetter than me, it would be nice
.
But then I could look at othersin the same situation.
You know you have to have amind to serve God.
(36:37):
I'm not one to say come, I'mnot asking for your money.
I'm there, actually, with thetime that we're living in, Lord,
who are we supposed to be with?
Because I don't want peoplethat are not about you hanging
around me when I need to go anddo your business.
Good.
Patricia Ruiz (36:56):
I just wanted to address Katy's situation, in
that God calls us to walk in, webecome mature, so that then we
can disciple others.
So it's not just the man of Godbut the elders in the church
that are to be ministering, mento men, women to women for the
most part.
And then the other thing Iwanted to say um, I'm losing my
(37:19):
thought.
Um, when you, when we prayabout situations, God is more
concerned with our character.
It goes with with what you said.
It went on my notes and Iforgot to say this He's more
concerned with your character.
So he's not going to take youout of the situation all the
time or change the who or thewhat.
He's going to change you first.
He's going to work in yourheart and then you will be, as
(37:43):
he said, teachable and he willbe able to guide you and lead
you where you need to go.
Many times we go to the Lordwith a oh, if you would only do
this and you would only do thatand you would change my
circumstances.
And one of the illustrationsthat I ran across which I
thought was a little bit funnyis if Paul had said you know,
while I'm in prison I can't doanything.
(38:03):
But if you would get me out ofthis prison, I could build the
kingdom of God.
But what did he do?
He wrote letters, and that iswhat is the New Testament.
Today, you need to bloom whereyou're planted.
You need to know that he is atoday God.
He may talk to you about thefuture, give you a goal, but he
is a today God.
So let him do whatever he needswith you today so that he can
(38:27):
then use you in the future.
Amen, amen, amen, amen.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (38:34):
If you were blessed and appreciate listening
to this podcast and you wouldlike to support us in our
efforts, consider lifting us upin prayer first.
Then remember these four socialmedia buzzwords share, like,
subscribe or follow.
Thank you description.
(39:10):
Follow us on all our socialmedia platforms.
May God bless you and make youprosperous in Him as you listen
and obey His voice.
The vision received was that of blood cells
traveling throughout the body,supplying the much needed oxygen
and other nutrients to thediffering members of the body to
fulfill their purpose.
Once the blood cells are spent,they must return back to the
heart to be refilled beforebeing sent out again and fulfill
their purpose and fulfill theirpurpose.
(00:27):
I asked my wife this is not heridea, this is mine.
I asked my wife if she wouldshare anything after my message
on her heart, because she hadgot it.
The reason this message cameabout is because my wife asked
me do you have a teaching onhearing God?
I'm like no, I didn't thinkanything of it.
Then I found out, like lastTuesday, I'm going to be
(00:47):
teaching.
And then I sought the Lord andsaid what do you want me to
share this week?
What is it that you want toshare?
And her question came to mymind and it wouldn't leave me.
I was like, okay, I don't havea teaching, let's do it.
So I sat in my car duringplanning time and just listen,
listen, write down, listen,write down.
And I was having an exchangewith God and she didn't know
(01:07):
this.
But I got home one day and shewas like, oh, I've got to share
with you something.
I found this blah blah blah.
I was like everything that shewas telling me I had just
studied in the car with the LordI mean just scriptures,
different things citedconclusions.
I was like I need you to makewhat I'm about to share personal
(01:27):
and practical.
So that's what I asked her todo, and then Bishop is gonna
also take the floor and we'regonna hopefully have some sort
of exchange.
Do you have anything you wannashare?
Patricia Ruiz (01:52):
I just wanted to expound on some of the things
that Jay shared and I have totell you all I was very nervous
because I've been praying andasking God to show me what to
share out of a complete bookthat I just read, and what I can
tell you is through the bookGod has been reminding me of
what he showed me when he firstcalled me that he wants to talk
(02:13):
to us all the time.
He's concerned about everysmall detail of our life and if
we will set our mind to seek himin all the small matters and
not take things for granted, hewill speak to you specific
things and sometimes you're notgoing to know why you're doing
things, why you're making phonecalls.
God is just moving your heartand He will, for me this week,
(02:35):
confirm His word over and overagain.
And what I wanted to expound onthat Jay shared is that in the
dialogue with the Lord, you haveyour dialogue with the Lord and
he requires a response and themore you respond and the quicker
you are to respond.
It's obedience the more youwill hear.
(02:59):
But there are some traps thatcome into play.
It's our flesh we come into.
You know we all come in fromdifferent backgrounds.
We have different experiencesthat we've gone through, and our
bishop has referred to it asthe subconscious, the deep well
inside of us, and sometimes tomake sense of information we
draw into the deep well.
(03:20):
I come from a family that'sextremely analytical and that's
a very common thing in my family.
We judge by what we see andwhat we know from our own
experience, and many times wemess up because the well has
some corrupt things in it,things that have not been
renewed by the Lord.
So another reference that Bishopmade earlier is our thoughts.
(03:44):
We are told in the scripturesto take every thought captive to
the obedience of Christ.
He said that to us for a reasonthe enemy comes in through our
thought life.
He speaks to us throughthoughts and sometimes he sounds
really good because he gives usa lot of truth with a little
(04:06):
poison pill, just a little one.
And so, in this week, oneexample for me somebody had said
something to me that was truth.
The words that that personspoke to me were true, but the
enemy was going to town with meon those words and God broke
through the thought and told meto call and clarify, and I did,
(04:27):
and that ended the battle rightaway.
Many times we sit there and wehave battles in our mind
unnecessarily.
If we would just go to the word, go to the Lord or go to the
source that the Lord calls us togo to, we can take our thoughts
captive.
The other traps that come in ismany of us are compromising in
different ways in our lives.
Everybody knows what theirs is.
(04:49):
I'm not here to name any, butGod says to be like the Psalm 1
man that we do walk not in thecounsel of the ungodly, nor sit
in the seat of the sinners.
We are to meditate on his wordday and night.
My husband made emphasis onmeditation.
Meditation is thinking aboutHis Word day and night, chewing
(05:12):
on His Word day and night, andas we do that, He will continue
to give us His thoughts.
He says my thoughts are notyour thoughts and my ways are
not your ways.
Yet we are His child and Hisheart's desire is that we
fellowship with him.
He wants us to know Histhoughts and He wants us to know
(05:33):
His ways, but we cannot knowthose things if we're stuck in
our own way.
So those are the things that Ifeel I could add emphasis to and
highlight.
I can mention a few of thesubstitutes that we use Good
books, counselors, religiousservices, information.
(05:55):
We're bombarded withinformation, guys.
The information age from emailand we have to guard our hearts.
We have to guard our heartsbecause we need to spend more
time in what He says.
Yes, we need to be alert, but,as my husband said, He will tell
you what to do If you hear Hisvoice, if you cultivate your ear
to hear Him, He will tell youwhat to do.
(06:18):
For me and for some others here,emotions sometimes block our
hearing.
We get emotional in a matter.
We cannot discern the voice ofGod in it.
That is a time that we need toseek counsel.
We need to seek prayer withothers that are not emotionally
entangled, and His voice willprevail and He will either
(06:39):
confirm or set us free from thethought pattern that' s you know
causing the distress, but hereshould not be distress with God.
God does not come in that way.
He comes in, he woos and hecalls.
The enemy, gives us an urgency.
You need to do this now.
You feel this apprehension.
(06:59):
The Lord is not that way.
There have been times when Ihave felt an urgency, but it
hasn't hit me the way it doeswhen the enemy's attacking.
There's peace If God is speaking.
There is peace Because he knowsevery situation from beginning
to end.
And that's the thing.
(07:21):
If you think about it, if youwant to know what to do, He
knows.
He knows the beginning from theend.
He's got the big picture and soyou know.
It would be like going to anall-seeing, all-knowing person.
I'd rather do that than sitthere and try to figure it out
for myself.
So for the youth, for the youngones, there has to be an
(07:41):
interest in God.
You have to cultivate that.
It's not going to come realeasy.
You're in a world that'scalling your attention to a lot
of things and you've got todecide the song that we sing.
One thing I've asked one thing,I seek one thing.
And if you talk to him andyou're honest and you tell him I
(08:04):
don't understand this, I don'tknow how to do this, he will
meet you where you are, amen.
Clarence B. Harris (08:18):
In Romans, chapter 10, verse 10.
It says it's with the heart manbelieved unto righteousness,
and with the mouth, confessionis made known unto salvation.
The heart.
(08:39):
You see, the reason why youneed to hear is so you can do.
And then a lot of people don'twant to hear because of their
heart.
It's like the atheist saying Idon't want to hear nothing about
God because then I must realizethat someone's greater than I
and I'm going to change myparadigm, I'm going to change my
world, I'm comfortable with myworld.
(08:59):
I had a brother tell me notlong ago he's not an atheist,
he's a believer.
And he said I want you to seeif you can see any fallacy with
this line of reasoning.
I need to separate myself fromthe body in order to hear God.
Is there any logic in that?
(09:21):
Is there any logic in a lamb,or even a full-grown adult,
we'll say elephant, or afull-grown adult lion, or maybe
a full-grown adult zebra,separating themselves from the
pack or from the herd, justwandering, meandering about the
(09:44):
jungle or the savannah?
What do you think will happento that one person?
All by themselves, be devoured,because the saint he walks
about as a roaring lion seekingwhom he may devour.
And bear that in mind, if youcan be separated from your
source of energy, from yoursource of protection and the
(10:06):
oversight thereof, then you putyourself in a very vulnerable
position.
You see, you hear God to obey.
That's what the hearing is allabout.
But we've seen that from.
If you don't want to obey, whywould you want to hear and why
would God speak to you?
If God or your parents speak toyou and you say, like this here
(10:33):
, whatever, you've alreadyclosed your heart and your mind
and you have fixed yourself tolisten to the lies of the devil
by default, if you're an adultmale and you want to lead your
family, but you don't want tosubject yourself to any other
males, then you're one of thefools too.
Why should God speak to you Ifyou don't want to be held
accountable?
Why should he talk to you?
(10:54):
You're not in His fold, you'renot in His flock, you're not in
His body.
You separate yourself out ofdisobedience, and only by
obedience can you begin to letthe oil flow again.
That's how God works.
A prophet, apostle, a pastor,teacher no one is exempt and no
(11:16):
one person is the body withinthemselves.
So we look at this here.
Why is it so many Christiansstumble about hearing God?
Well, number one they don'tknow the Word of God.
Number two it's a hard one toallow them to receive all the
things of God that pertain totheir situation.
(11:37):
Notice I said their situation.
Notice I said their situation.
In other words, it's like aperson believing the Bible, or
all the sections they want tobelieve, but systematically
disregard the sections that theydo not want to believe.
In the same manner, do peoplecall themselves Christians to
obey that which they prefer, butrather not voyage into the
(12:01):
areas that which they themselvesmay not be in agreement with.
There's a sister that called methis past week, a long time
friend, over 20 something years.
We were supposed to have met ayear ago to discuss the idea.
She said well, Bishop Harris?
I don't know what every otherpastor that I come in contact
with.
They are anointed and preachersand Holy Ghost filled.
(12:24):
And you're the only one andyou're the only one, you're the
only one telling me that womenshould not be pastors.
She said I don't know aboutthat.
I don't know about that.
And so she called me again thispast week.
It's been a year ago since Ispoke to you about getting
together with her, so it won'tappear as though I'm the only
(12:45):
one that females believe thisalso.
You see, whatever it is was yourproblem when you were youth,
whatever defect you had in yourfamily, whatever defect you had
among your dad or your mother orwhatever.
Or you think your parents areall that, when they're not and
they're currently on their wayto hell, or you refer to their
(13:05):
wisdom rather than the wisdom ofGod, or you lean upon your own
understanding but not the wordof God.
When you do those things, youmake yourself very vulnerable.
Crying out right now is theword wisdom.
The Lord always tells us whatis the wise thing to do.
Here's a case in point.
Under normal circumstances,you're putting the predicament
(13:30):
where you're in a financial bind.
What type of decision shouldyou make when you're in a
financial bind?
Probably some whereby we shouldcut back on some things?
Probably maybe.
So let some things go.
For example, if you have, youknow what can be some things in
the house that you can cut backupon but not encroach upon your
(13:50):
living expenses.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (13:52):
Cable.
Clarence B. Harris (13:54):
Well, we don't have cable right now.
Exactly right.
You know what Wisdom crieth outthe necessities.
All right, you may let wisdombe the principal thing.
What is wisdom?
Wisdom is the fullness ofhearing God take His Word and
apply it in the right situation.
Why is that?
Because God don't tell youeverything.
(14:14):
He does not tell you everything.
He expects you to take all thathe taught you before and apply
it to your current situation.
That will also not onlydetermine your ability to hear
God, it also determines yourability to apply the Word of God
in everyday situations, whichis wisdom, and it measures your
(14:36):
maturity.
So now we go from hearing Godto your maturation process.
From hearing God, they say howold are you spiritually?
There's a natural age.
There are some people who havea natural age of 40, but they
function at the age of 14, 15.
Very narcissistic,pleasure-seeking, irresponsible,
(14:59):
wants to take care of them.
There are others who may be 17,18, who have maybe in the age
they carry and conductthemselves with more wisdom and
gravity than theircontemporaries and they conduct
themselves maybe like they're 25or 30.
We had a very interestingconversation with my daughter,
Jasmine, this past week.
She said she doesn't know whathappened to her generation of
(15:21):
peers at school.
She says common sense is notcommon anymore, it's gone.
It's just amazing.
She's the youngest person,sometimes in the class that
she's taking, because some ofthe students are taking the same
class two and three times andshe says she don't know.
We asked her yesterday at thetable what is it?
(15:46):
What is the problem with theyouth today?
What is it?
And she said no, it's not justthe youth, it's the adults too.
She said adults are coming tome, a college student, and I'm
saying flip it out, you don'thave to come to me.
And I said Jazz, what is itthat they're lacking?
She said number one it's aspiritual problem.
She said number two they werenever parented.
(16:09):
They did not get wisdom fromtheir parents.
If they did, they don't applyit, or they just never had
parents, fathers and mothers toparent them and instruct them
and discipline them.
They're not disciplined andthey're not knowing.
And then she came out withseveral other reasons as well,
but those are the primary two,and that is well.
(16:29):
Those are the primary two thatshe dealt with.
There's about five that shegave.
So, hearing God, how do you know?
When you hear God, do you knowHis Word.
Have you brought every thoughtand every imagination to the
obedience of Christ, to His Word?
Do you know what the Word saysabout it?
Recently it came to myattention that some do not know
(16:54):
that you can actually findanswers in the Word of God to
everyday circumstances andsituations.
The answers are in the book.
Do you know how to find them?
Do you know how to use the Wordof God?
Well, maybe on a Tuesday night.
We haven't did this in severalyears, but maybe we might want
to look at how to study theBible, how to use the Bible and
(17:17):
study aids, how to use the Bibleand study aids.
How to find answers toquestions.
So you don't have to lean uponwhat your own understanding.
So when you do hear something,you can determine whether or not
it is of God or not.
Because I declare, I'm hearing alot of people today who are
hearing God, but based on myknowledge and my experience, I
(17:39):
can tell them God didn't tellyou that.
Then they will say, well, well,well, well, I don't agree with
you.
That's fine, I'm not going toargue with you.
You all know me.
I will instruct, I will giveyou, you know, admonition and
then I will allow you to dowhatever you want to do, to your
(18:00):
own detriment and your owndestruction of your own family.
I do not pry and get inpeople's lines, I don't go
around asking everything aboutyou, etc.
I just let you go.
Because unless you want to hearGod and do His will, then why
should I waste my time tellingyou?
If you're a rebel, a rebel atheart, if you don't believe
(18:24):
there is a God, then that's achoice.
The Bible says about that personas well, who said that in his
heart the fool.
You cannot look at the thingsin the world today and say that
it came here haphazardly andjust came out of nowhere.
That cannot be so.
Why isn't your feet stickingout of your jaw when you walk
(18:47):
sideways?
It was just randomly puttogether.
Things are not random.
Everything God has ordered,including His Word.
Order my steps in your Word, oGod.
So at this point, does anyonehave any questions you want to
give to Elder Jay?
Any questions in clarity?
(19:09):
Any understanding?
Any questions?
If you don't, then I have somefor you.
Okay, anyone have any questions?
Yes, ma'am.
Katy Leyva (19:26):
You emphasized that you need a man of God in order
to develop your hearing of theLord, that it's good to go to
the man of God to become moresensitive to or exercise hearing
the Lord.
What would be a practical thingthat?
I mean, I operate in my lifeand certainly I seek counsel,
(19:47):
but I operate in my life and Idon't know that I see that door.
When do you need to?
I heard the example that youshared of the practical farming.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (20:03):
Well, when I was in my youth and I was with a
particular, youth was like 20,between 20 and 23.
Had a pastor in my life.
You're an old youth now.
Yeah.
You guys know that I was dealingwith a lot of issues.
I lost my mom, I had a fullmortgage, I was going to school
(20:24):
full time and there were a lotof things in my life that I
needed to make decisions on.
Didn't realize I needed to makedecisions on them until the
Lord started speaking with meand you know, you've heard about
the comics, you've heard aboutdifferent spiritual decisions.
(20:46):
I was in a relationship at thetime with another girl and a lot
of times you get so involvedand caught up in the flesh that
you don't think clearly, you'renot thinking spiritually.
And I was able to go to him andhe was able to speak into my
life Things that needed todirect me in the right direction
(21:06):
.
And when you have decisions thatyou're not sure of sometimes
they're just open decisions likeshould I buy this house or not?
Should I buy, you know, majordecisions, should I buy this car
or not I think it's always goodfor you to humble yourself and
(21:28):
to ask people that you know arein the know, that have
experience in those matters.
That's a part of you sayingteach me, I need help.
I don't think that I was thetype of person that was ever
afraid to.
If I had a scripture that cameup, I wasn't sure what it meant
(21:48):
or what it was talking about goand ask him.
I wouldn't just sit there andbe like.
You know, there are times wheresometimes the Lord is taking
you through the scriptures andhe doesn't highlight a certain
verse, yet that's the verse thatyou had a question on.
You just skip it, you go on,you keep going on with the Lord
and you just receive whateverhe's teaching you at the moment,
(22:10):
because a lot of times later on, I'll be like oh, okay, I get
that verse that I had a questionon, but he was taking you
through other things.
So you know, like I tell my kids, I don't have to teach you the
understanding right now.
I need you to teach you thesteps.
If you go through the stepsLater on, you'll get the
understanding, sometimes I needto teach you some other things
first before I get to thatharder, more complex question.
(22:32):
So I think the idea you have tohave is that I'm going to
humble myself, I'm going to askquestions, I'm going to ask the
man of God, I'm going to go askthe elder and just see if I'm on
the right track.
And sometimes you may hear theLord and you're like gosh, I'm
not sure if that was him becauseof what was asked of you, and
maybe your flesh goes like, oh,I ain't doing that, and you
(22:53):
start making you question thatthat was actually God.
Those are the moments you needto go and say listen, bishop
Elder, I think I heard him saythis what do you think?
And I think that's what it,that's, that's all it is,
because that's all Samuel did.
Samuel did not know that he washearing the Lord and he went to
Eli and then Eli perceived andsaid okay, go back and do this.
(23:15):
So there's the commands,there's the instruction being
given, and I'm sure that there'smany more examples.
I couldn't obviously fit themall in, but I think I fit enough
in to highlight for you thatthe Old Testament are
testimonies, they're not juststories.
Testimonies are things that youtestify in open court, and God's
word is a testimony of Himself.
(23:38):
This is how I deal with mychildren.
This is how I love them.
This is how I protect them.
This is how I discipline them.
This is how I correct them.
This is how I am.
And if you take those and applythem and realize this is how
God is, then you start makingbetter decisions.
You know, Jesus said I loveGod's law.
(23:58):
I meditate on it.
Blessed is the man thatmeditates on his law.
And if you start thinking on itmore and more often, more and
more often, he's going to speakto you through the meditations
that you have of Him.
Does that answer your question?
Yes, go ahead, bishop.
Clarence B. Harris (24:16):
In Hebrews, chapter 5
For everyone that uses milkthat's unskilled for the word of
God, the word of righteousnessfor he has made but strong meat
belongs to them that are full ofit, full age, even to those who
, by reason of use, have intheir senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.
(24:36):
That's kind of piggybacking onthe question but, how would you
take that verse and respond uponit further?
if I was in hearing and applying.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (24:43):
Paul said I forgot who it was to, but he
said to the people of God I wishI could teach you more, but
you're still floundering in themilk.
I can't teach you physics ifyou can't do add, subtract, if
you can't do multiply, divide.
It's a waste of time.
I need to get you to get out ofthis milk arena that you find
(25:10):
yourself in.
And, like I said, it all goesback to the individual.
You have to have a proper ideaof what state you're in, because
young people usually in thenatural, have an overflated idea
of their capabilities and theirstrengths and they think that
they can take on the world andain't nothing going to happen to
(25:30):
them.
We do that spiritually.
We come into the kingdom, weget a knowledge of truth.
It's like a golden nugget, it'slike finding a pearl in the
midst of a field and we getsuper excited about it, super
zealous, and we go off and runand, like we've heard before in
the things, we go off and runand we haven't been sent, we
haven't been trained, we haven'tbeen equipped.
(25:50):
And that goes back to the heartof that man.
The heart of that man has to behumble, has to understand gosh,
we go through it in our life.
Our children have to understandthere was a stage where I had
to be taught.
I didn't just grow up to be awise adult, there was this whole
(26:10):
training period in ourspiritual lives.
We have to come to the to to tothe, to accept the fact that if
I'm going to grow in the Lord Ihave to have a training period.
I can't just be sent, no matterwhat I think I may have been
like that.
I don't think I was, but I mayhave been like that because I
went to Christian schools all mylife.
I knew the word.
I heard it.
I mean I could quote scriptures.
(26:31):
They made us memorize and whenI actually came into covenant I
could have had that idea.
But now I'm thinking about it.
No, I didn't have that idea.
I wanted to get into the wordagain.
I wanted to go after it again,again and get more deep into the
more deeply into the Word, sothat I have greater
understanding than just thesurface level that I knew.
(26:53):
But that was my heart at thetime.
It wasn't the heart that said,oh God, I know everything.
Now let me go.
I was still very hesitant.
I had to have a friend whowasn't in the covenant sort of
push me along to minister tothis person the covenant and get
with them.
So it's a matter of heart, ofhumility, Althea.
Althea Harris (27:11):
I was going to say.
Is it safe to say, to qualifywhat you just said, that going
to the man of God, he also hasto be skillful in the word,
because there are people whoministers that are just feeding
people with milk because that'sall they have.
They're not solid in the wordthemselves and very spiritually
(27:36):
minded Some congregations wherethe person may not even be in
tune with things of the spirit.
So you have to qualify the manof God that you are going to to
seek that help.
Man of God that you are goingto seek that help, because, even
though me and I are not perfect, sometimes people are led
astray, following a ministerthat they think is hearing God,
(27:57):
but he's not even skillful indoing it.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (27:59):
If you're a youth like you're describing and
you're aware that you cannottrust the man of God, you've
already got a lot of spiritualawareness.
Usually babies don't have thatawareness and so they're going
to go to the only man of Godthat they know.
They don't have anyone else togo to.
They don't even know that theyshould actually be somewhere
else at the time.
What I'm saying is that thescriptures, I think, show us
(28:22):
that if you're in that position,there doesn't seem to be
another man of God that youcould go to.
If you had the awareness andlet's say you didn't have the
awareness God, because of yourheart and seeking after him in
spite of those circumstances,can reach you, can teach you
directly and through the man ofGod that isn't right in his own
place.
Now, if you're spirituallyaware enough and mature enough
(28:45):
to know that that man of God isprobably off in a lot of areas,
then you probably need to moveand go somewhere else, because
you can't be fed under someonethat you know is corrupt.
But if you're a babe and youdon't know any better, I believe
God can override that and stillreach you and still bring you
to the place.
My example was perfect.
I had a minister.
That was good in some areas andfoul in some other areas.
(29:08):
I got a lot of good things fromhim.
I got a lot of bad things fromhim, but in spite of all, that
got me out of that and I'mstanding here today in a whole,
much better place spiritually,physically and in all respects,
because my God is an in spite ofkind of God.
I didn't know any better.
At the time.
I thought this was like whew,I'd never seen anything like
this and I was completelyimpressed and I was awed at what
(29:31):
God was doing.
But there were other thingsthat I didn't have the maturity
to stand against and to come outof until I actually came out of
it.
So that's what I'm saying.
I mean spiritually aware.
At that age, you're probablynot going to know that you need
to go elsewhere.
Bishop, do you want to answeror do you want to let Ms.
Marta?
Ms.
Marta, go ahead.
Marta Leyva (29:50):
I can give testimony to that, because I was
in Fort Worth in a fellowshipthat was very strong on outreach
and John, because of myexistence, had found the same
fellowship in Columbia, where hewas, and he was a part of that
(30:13):
fellowship and I had the feeling, I believed, that God was going
to get through to the preacherof this fellowship to bring
through him truth, bring him totruth and that thus truth
(30:36):
through him.
And the Lord picked John up inan elaborate scheme.
He took him in a horrible busto a tiny little clubhouse at
night which you don't do to alittle church, and got him in
(31:00):
the church and called him out infront of everybody and sent him
back up here, which wentagainst all quote quote common
sense to everybody.
Everybody was like that'sfoolish.
You have this, you're going tobe a doctor in Canada and how
(31:22):
can you give up this and thatand the other met the other one.
But John obeyed the voice of theLord and he came to Fort Worth
and we had less than a penny wedidn't even have a half a penny
and I went with him.
The two of us walked togetherinto TCU and John wound up
(31:48):
graduating from TCU by the graceof God, and in the meantime he
pulled us out of that churchthat we were in and headed
towards the only church that wecould find that preached Jesus'
name.
And there we began to growuntil the standards issue got to
(32:17):
be too much.
And then we struggled, but westayed in the Word.
We stayed.
We even had a beautiful pastor,who has since recently passed.
We all want to be with Floyd,who came to our home and
preached to whomever would comein our neighborhood.
Clarence B. Harris (32:39):
So, Marta, with the sequence of John coming
from school there andtransitioning to Fort Worth,
what was the center?
What was the gist of themessage?
Marta Leyva (32:51):
I had wanted to get back here the whole time, but I
felt like God wasn't going toever bring me back here as a
furniture to me.
Back where?
To my name?
With his fellowship, oh, withhis fellowship.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (33:08):
So you're describing your situation as
that.
He's in spite of God.
Marta Leyva (33:12):
In spite of everything, god picked us up and
turned our life around andbrought us back here.
And then he brought kids.
I was 15 years of Egypt,completely changed, completely
caved, completely turned around.
(33:32):
He never looked back, not onetime.
And I have to sit here and tellyou, God means business.
He knows what He's doing.
(33:55):
f I could just add that andcome to a close later I would
say this Marta in the midst ofeverything else.
You all, when you left Miami,you were very interested in
state of affairs, somewhat inthe state of rebellion Somewhat,
and then moving on, moving onto looking at other, somewhat in
a state of rebellion YourselfSomewhat.
Well, I'm trying to be mild andthen moving on, moving on to
looking at other people andtheir situations.
(34:16):
The Lord had it all worked outthat you know, similar to Glenys
.
There have been years that havepassed by and you had access
that I had busy y'all in Texas.
I had been to other ministriesthere.
You all came down to Houstonwhen I came and spoke, etc.
And there was a time that youall wanted to get out of your
situation.
You wanted to move to Georgiaand pray.
(34:37):
I'm going to confess to you Iwas not praying for the Lord to
bring you to Georgia, and alsoGlenys, I was not praying for
the Lord to bring you to Georgiaeither.
Yeah, I forgot that message.
The only thing I was praying isthat, where you all were, in,
the state that you were in andthis is where you got yourselves
in the Lord did not bring youanywhere until He dealt with you
(34:59):
all.
So when you come here, you beteachable and ready to learn.
And it's what?
Three, four, five, six, seven,eight years, whatever it went by
, if not more, Are three, four,five, six seven, eight years.
Whatever it went by , if not more, Are you in Texas
in 15 years.
Clarence B. Harris (35:12):
I've been moving to Toronto since 2003.
Yeah, man, yes, ma'am, so inthe same way with Glenys.
I have all your emails on file.
I have all your letters sentfrom Australia.
I kept them on file.
They came in handy, by the way,the situation that came up.
But with that there, I wanted tosay that because of your
situation, you put yourself inthat situation for the most part
, and I'm not one to jump in andsmash people out of the fire.
(35:35):
I'm not a bleeding female thatif I see my child busting their
face I'm going to run down thereand put it to hurt themselves.
No, after you hurt yourself,when you come to your right
sense and right mind and youwant help, we'll be on the to do
what's necessary to help youout.
But you have to come with theright mind and you must come
when God says so and you'rewilling to come with God,
(35:57):
because I'm going a certain path, a certain direction and I'm
not going to carry people thatI've got to fight.
It's people on the way.
You can fight where you camefrom and stay there.
I hate to be cruel about that,but I'm just quite candid.
But I'm so glad I workedeverything out and brought all
of you here in this time.
(36:17):
I know, even with Jay andPatricia, this is not your first
choice, this is your secondchoice, but Lord worked it out.
He said well, Lord, let it be,let it be.
It would have been nice.
Anybody can help with musicbetter than me, it would be nice
.
But then I could look at othersin the same situation.
You know you have to have amind to serve God.
(36:37):
I'm not one to say come, I'mnot asking for your money.
I'm there, actually, with thetime that we're living in, Lord,
who are we supposed to be with?
Because I don't want peoplethat are not about you hanging
around me when I need to go anddo your business.
Good.
Patricia Ruiz (36:56):
I just wanted to address Katy's situation, in
that God calls us to walk in, webecome mature, so that then we
can disciple others.
So it's not just the man of Godbut the elders in the church
that are to be ministering, mento men, women to women for the
most part.
And then the other thing Iwanted to say um, I'm losing my
(37:19):
thought.
Um, when you, when we prayabout situations, God is more
concerned with our character.
It goes with with what you said.
It went on my notes and Iforgot to say this He's more
concerned with your character.
So he's not going to take youout of the situation all the
time or change the who or thewhat.
He's going to change you first.
He's going to work in yourheart and then you will be, as
(37:43):
he said, teachable and he willbe able to guide you and lead
you where you need to go.
Many times we go to the Lordwith a oh, if you would only do
this and you would only do thatand you would change my
circumstances.
And one of the illustrationsthat I ran across which I
thought was a little bit funnyis if Paul had said you know,
while I'm in prison I can't doanything.
(38:03):
But if you would get me out ofthis prison, I could build the
kingdom of God.
But what did he do?
He wrote letters, and that iswhat is the New Testament.
Today, you need to bloom whereyou're planted.
You need to know that he is atoday God.
He may talk to you about thefuture, give you a goal, but he
is a today God.
So let him do whatever he needswith you today so that he can
(38:27):
then use you in the future.
Amen, amen, amen, amen.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (38:34):
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