July 6, 2024 • 20 mins
Grace and peace, everybody. Welcome back to Soteriah Prophetic Ministries. Today, we explore the profound lesson of pausing to process, as demonstrated by Jesus. In moments of conflict, Jesus often took a moment to reflect before responding, showcasing emotional intelligence and spiritual maturity.
Drawing from the story of the woman caught in adultery, we see how Jesus' deliberate pause allowed Him to provide a wise and compassionate response. This episode delves into the importance of taking time to think, pray, and seek clarity before making decisions or offering counsel.
We also discuss the value of critical thinking and the necessity of stepping back to avoid hasty reactions that can lead to regret. By looking at biblical examples like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, we learn the significance of evaluating situations thoroughly before responding.
Join us as we uncover the wisdom in pausing to process and how it can lead to more thoughtful, impactful decisions in our daily lives and leadership roles. And consider becoming a partner by contributing to the ministry.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Grace and peace, everybody. Welcome back to Soteriah Prophetic Ministries.
I will just give you a heads up that I am recording sitting on my front porch,
and apparently some of my neighbors have some leftover fireworks from the Fourth
of July, so I just wanted to set a trigger alert.
I am not in a combat zone, but if you happen to hear some unusual sounds in
(00:24):
the background, that's what it is.
And of course, I live near the airport, so So there's that, right?
Anyway, let's go ahead and get started. I want to talk to you about the importance
of pausing to process, pausing to process.
I'm mindful of a scripture I was studying just today.
It was about Jesus. When he, this woman, he was confronted with a situation
(00:47):
where this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
Now, the way my mind works, I'm wondering where was the gentleman that she was
involved with, but I guess that's a different topic.
And at any rate, she was caught in the act and she was brought by the religious rulers of their day.
She was brought to Jesus. Now, Jesus was in the middle of teaching or engaging an audience.
(01:09):
And all of a sudden, he looks up and he sees this woman, apparently humiliated,
dragged into the front of a crowd to be accused.
Now, Jesus did something that I believe is a strong teachable moment and a lesson
in emotional learning that instead of reacting,
(01:31):
he paused to process. says.
So if you know the story, if you don't, I'll add that in the comments.
But the Bible said, Jesus said, he heard, he was engaged in the conversation.
He heard what the gentleman said.
He obviously acknowledged this woman and the condition that she was in.
He's aware of the crowd, but he did not respond right away.
As a matter of fact, you'll find several examples in scripture in the New Testament,
(01:55):
in the four gospels, where Jesus did not respond right away.
And so I think that's a strong takeaway for us that when we are faced with conflict,
it's okay to tell that person, hey, let me get back to you or let me pray about
it or let me think about it or give me time to reflect.
(02:15):
I think that speaks to, again, that emotional intelligence, emotional learning,
but it also lends to being mature in the fruits of the Spirit,
long-suffering and temperance, right?
Kindness and meekness. In other words, we don't have to respond until we have
(02:36):
developed a healthy response.
And what I mean by Jesus could have said a lot of things.
He could have condemned the woman. He could have condemned the guys for bringing
her and wondering where the men, like he could have totally reacted differently
than what the Bible records.
(02:57):
And so Jesus being a leader, being the pattern of a leader, right?
He showed us how to respond.
And I think that there's so much meat and there's so much wisdom in knowing
how to pause, knowing how to take time to get clarity.
I'm reminded of the scripture where the Lord took Ezekiel to the Valley of the Dry Bones.
(03:18):
And the Lord asked Ezekiel, you know, Ezekiel, a son of man, can these bones live?
And you know what Ezekiel said? Lord, I don't know. You know.
In other words, Ezekiel was well aware that he didn't know.
And it's okay to not have an answer at the moment.
I know many of us, especially if you're a parent or you are in some type of
(03:42):
leadership, serve in some type of leadership capacity, people look to you for
answers. They look to you for solutions.
And there will be times, my friends, that that answer or that solution will
not come to you right away.
And so instead of conjuring up an answer to validate who you are as a leader.
It's okay to say, hey, you know what?
(04:03):
Let me think about that or let me get back to you on that or let me pray about
it. and give yourself a space to pause to process because actions can't be undone.
Words cannot be taken back.
You can say, I'm sorry what I meant to say or what I, you know,
what had happened was like, there are certain moments where you can't afford
(04:25):
to make those types of mistakes.
So you've got to be mature enough and, and also be in touch with how,
you know, of where your egos are.
Like there are some folks that they just have to have the answer.
Oh, I know because this is what you do. And this is what that's,
you're not going to always have that.
(04:46):
You're not going to always have an immediate answer to a conflict.
That's just the way life is because life is just so, life is complicated.
People are complicated.
Relationships are complicated. Challenges are complicated.
And so instead of adding to the conflict with just speaking out of turn or speaking
what's on the top of your mind...
(05:08):
Take the time to assess. So as I get back to what I was mentioning about Ezekiel
and the Lord, so the Lord asked Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live?
Lord, I don't know, you know.
Then further on in scripture, the Lord told Ezekiel to speak.
Before Ezekiel spoke, I want you to pay attention to something.
The Bible says Ezekiel surveyed or he walked around. ground.
(05:32):
In other words, he drew close to the heap of fallen soldiers or the fallen to
ascertain or to evaluate or to process.
In other words, now here's the prophet standing in the presence of God,
and he didn't just start speaking, right?
He didn't just start responding. He drew himself close to evaluate.
(05:54):
The same thing I noticed happening with Jeremiah, I believe it's in the book of Lamentations.
And there were, there was a time in Lamentations where Jeremiah just sat quiet
and folks were wondering, why is he not speaking?
What is wrong with him? He was weeping. Of course, that's what Lamentations mean to lament.
He was weeping, but Jeremiah understood that even in my weeping, I need time to process.
(06:18):
I'm not going to go before the Lord in my emotions and in my feelings.
I'm going to take time to process. process, and you know what he did?
He took time, and he processed, and he thought about all of the sins of his
forefathers, and so when he drew near to the Lord to pray, he,
(06:38):
oh my God, the prayer was so powerful. It's so powerful.
He began to name the sins of his ancestors or his forefathers,
and he said, Lord, he said, I stand in the gap.
In other words, he was able to take the time to to process why Israel was in
the state that they were in.
He didn't just respond, well, Lord, why is this happening to me? Why us, Lord? Why me?
(06:59):
No, he sat and he took the time to evaluate everything that was happening in
Israel at that time, and he connected it to the sins of the fathers,
the sins of the forefathers.
And when he went to God, he prayed that effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man.
And he said to the Lord, he said, we have sinned.
(07:20):
And now this was years before Jeremiah was even on the scene,
but because he took that time to process, he paused the process.
He took the time to evaluate. He took the time to assess.
He was able to pray and.
Effective, intellectual, righteous man's prayer.
So it's okay in the heat of a moment, because Jesus was in the heat of a moment.
(07:45):
Can you imagine what the tensions look like, y'all?
Jesus is being Jesus, right? The crowds are thronging to him,
some for good reason, some for not so much.
But he knew that. He knew who was with him, and he knew who wasn't,
right? You got to know there was labor among you. I told you that.
But he also realized that, you know what, the enemy can trip me up and trap
(08:05):
me if I say the wrong thing in the front of all of these people.
And that's what you have to be so mindful of.
You have to be mindful of your own stuff and make sure that they don't show
up in your conversations or
when you're trying to make decisions or when you're seeking for clarity.
And be okay, be mature, be grown enough, be strong in the Lord enough to say,
(08:29):
I don't have an answer right now. Can you give me a few moments?
Let me take a few days or hey, you know what? Let's table that and let's come
back to it It doesn't make you less of a parent or a leader or a spouse or a
friend or a supervisor But it lets it even if the person can't appreciate it
at the moment because I know sometimes, you know, there's a commercial,
J was a jw wentworth, you know, I need my money and I want my money now.
(08:53):
There's some people they want to answer right now rather, you know,
it's a sustainable answer or not.
They just want something, but you got to be in control. Temperance is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
You have to exercise self-control and you can't give into that pressure of someone
wanting an answer because you don't want to speak something,
especially if you service in a realm of authority.
(09:14):
And it's the wrong word of wisdom.
It's the wrong counsel. It is the wrong response. And you can't undo that.
You can't undo that. You can't fix it. You have to sit with it.
There's going to be consequences and the whole nine yards.
So be okay with saying, hey, I don't, let me, let me, you know what?
Let me pray about that. I understand that this is a pressing matter for you right now.
(09:34):
I can sense that you're really looking for some solutions.
And I feel you, you know, I've been in situations like that before, but you know what?
I value our relationship and I also honor the work of God or I honor,
you know, your your endeavors, too much to just give you an answer to satisfy
this emergency or this urgent need.
(09:55):
So, you know, can you trust me enough to know I'm going to be diligently seeking
the right answer for you?
And then, you know, we can move forward. We'll look toward the next steps.
And people will, again, they may not appreciate it at the time, but they eventually,
right, when you come back with the right answer, those fitly spoken words,
(10:16):
when you come back with the right answer, you would have established yourself
as a wise voice of counsel.
Because I know people and you know people that every time you call them with
a problem, they have an answer.
And when they give you the wrong answer, guess who has to deal with the consequences? You do.
Oh, well, you know, what I meant was, oh, you should have prayed.
(10:38):
No, no, no, no, no. I came to you.
I trusted your counsel and you told me what you felt I should do or what you
thought God was saying and that wasn't it and I applied it to my life and things got worse.
So honor the destiny in a person's life to not manipulate it and play with it.
If you know that that answer is not coming clear to you, if you don't have clarity,
(11:02):
then you should not, I'm not going to tell you what to do, but you should not
release an answer until you have clarity.
The other thing you don't want to do is have regret. Again, you can't take back what you said.
Words have power, especially if you are a trusted voice. Jesus was and still
is a trusted voice. And so whatever he said, his word was bond.
(11:23):
So if he said, woman, go to prison or take her to the cross or whatever the
punishment was, stone her, you know, in that day, what have you.
Then Jesus' reputation as Savior, Redeemer, Healer, Resurrector,
you know what I'm saying?
It would have been tarnished. And how do you come back from that?
(11:44):
When you've moved in the realm of making a decision and you've done so without
considering the ramifications and the consequences and the outcomes,
who pays for it? How do you go back and fix regret? regret.
So again, be okay. Even if the person you're talking to is not okay,
eventually they will be all right.
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Especially when you come back and say, okay, here is what we need to do,
or this is what I'm thinking, or, you know, here's what I'm picking up in the
realm of the spirit or what have you.
They can appreciate the fact that, you know what, I now can have confidence,
in you because I know you won't just tell me something to get me off the phone
or to, to, to get an offering or to appease me, but you want to make sure that
(12:27):
you give me wise counsel.
And so that speaks to being a spiritually mature believer,
because you're not bending to the vices and the wills of others,
but you're waiting and you're trusting God for the right time.
So as I get ready to close, and I just want to kind of follow up with Jesus
(12:51):
and the woman, caught in the act of adultery.
And so Jesus finally, and it's in John chapter 8 verses 1 through 11.
And so the Bible says Jesus knelt down on the ground and began writing.
Now, some commentators have said he wrote or drew a picture of a bird and a
bird formed life and flew away.
(13:13):
Now, you know, I'm not saying he can't do it. He can.
He is a creator, but we just don't know, right?
And I mean, it's really irrelevant whether he formed the bird or not.
That's not the point of the story. Sometimes we worried about the wrong thing.
The fact of the matter is he took time to pause.
And so when I look at him writing on the ground, I'm looking at he's journaling.
(13:36):
And we know that the Lord is a journalist. He loves to write, right?
He's writing things on stones. He's writing things on our hearts.
Like God is a ready writer. You hear me?
And so, but Jesus kneels down and he starts writing. He journals.
So I think we're safe to say that when we're caught in the middle of a challenging
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situation where someone is leaning on us or placing a demand for some counsel or some wisdom,
what have you, it's okay to take a moment. it to pull away and do some reflection.
And you know what I'm saying? And look at the pros and cons.
I taught my daughter, my baby daughter, that years ago, we went to New York
a couple years ago, and she was facing a dilemma.
And I said, hey, take out a notebook and let's look at the pros and cons.
(14:22):
And by doing that, she was able to do a brain dump. She was able to clarify
her thoughts and come up with a solid decision. So I taught her critical thinking.
We also have to become critical thinkers. Let this mind be in you.
That was also Christ Jesus.
You don't have to respond just because someone rings your phone or sends you
a text message. You belong to the Lord first.
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You are subscribed to what he has to say.
Don't let people back you into a corner to where now you said something because
you felt obligated. Well, you know, they keep texting me, they keep calling me.
Then let them call Jesus. He always answers, right?
Remove yourself from the burden of that. And listen, I can tell you that because
(15:04):
I learned that the hard way. When I was starting out, I think maybe in my,
I was maybe 10 years into pastoral leadership ministry.
And I just felt like my job was to save everybody. You know,
I felt like I was supposed to save everybody.
Everybody and their cousin had my number, which hasn't changed, praise God.
But everybody had their number and, you know, oh, call me if you need something.
(15:25):
Call me, call me, call me.
And that's exactly what they did all day, half the night.
I'm on the phone, counsel, counsel, counsel, talking, talking,
talking, up and down, up and down with people who refuse to go to God first.
And yeah, God definitely used me in the spirit of counsel and I bless God for that.
(15:45):
But there are also times when I spoke because I feel obligated to speak because
a person called crying or something happening at home. And I felt like,
I'm not saying don't pray.
I'm talking about releasing counsel. There's always time to pray.
But I learned the hard way and the Lord, I went to a vision and the Lord came
before me in the appearance of a lion.
And he came so close to my face. And then I could feel his breath was so hot,
(16:09):
like the lion's mouth was open. And he said, get out of the way.
I will never forget that. And when I came out of the vision, I broke out into a sweat.
And from that point on, I think that was maybe 2011, 2010 or 11, 2011.
From that point to right now.
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I'm the kind of person, I only need to taste it one time.
That's it. I'm not hardheaded. I'm not stubborn. Well, sometimes.
But I'm not that person that God has to keep telling me the same thing.
I don't need two and three and five, 12,000 confirmations. I believe God first time.
And so when he approached me in the form of a vision as a lion,
(16:54):
and he said, get out of the way, honey.
I said, oh, we good. You don't have to worry. And so folks, and you know what?
People of God. Folks left my church.
Oh, I called you. You didn't call me back. I needed you.
And the spirit of offense set in and they didn't understand that I had to obey God.
But then the other thing too, outside of that, it wasn't that I was withdrawing
(17:17):
from them. God wanted him to draw closer to him.
And so you got to be mindful of that too, not stepping in God's place,
always running behind people with trying to help.
You will cripple your people, whoever they are, church, employees,
family, what have you, business partner, you will cripple them and you will
hinder their growth if you're always there, if you're enabling them.
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Y'all know the terminology.
You got to let some folks stand on their own and say, hey, did you pray?
Before you called me, you need to go to God first because I don't need those problems.
Well, apostles, did you pray about it? Well, no, let's talk later.
So I want to leave you with that. Jesus, he knelt down, he journaled.
And then when he got up, he said, let any, he said, he that has no sin cast the first stone.
(18:05):
You see how clear, how clarifying his response, how much wisdom was in his response.
He didn't say, now, why are you bringing this woman down here?
Woman, what in the world? Whose husband are you messing? He didn't do that.
He said, let him, you know, if any man, I've read so many different translations,
but anyway, way, you know, whoever is without sin cast the first stone.
So some may say he went to her defense, maybe, maybe not, depending on how you
(18:28):
look at it, but he addressed their motives.
But if you respond quick, so quick, you don't even have the time to discern
the motives of the person coming to you for help.
That's another conversation. So one by one, those accusers dropped their stones
because they were ready to kill her.
They dropped their stones and walked away. And he said to the woman,
(18:52):
listen, he didn't even say anything to her. Again, it's okay to pause.
It's okay to get clarity before you respond. There's too much going on.
So he's dealing with them first because y'all the one interrupted the church
meeting, you know what I'm saying, the revival.
So I'm going to deal with you first. If you without sin cast the first stone,
could nobody do it because everybody sinned, right?
And so then he said, they all dropped their stones one by one and left.
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Then he said, woman, where are your accusers? She said, I have, they gone or whatever.
And he said, And he said, and neither will I accuse you. Go and sin no more.
And that was very wise answer, clarifying. I'm sure it was traumatizing for her.
I guarantee you that girl didn't touch nobody else's husband from that point
on. She had learned her lesson.
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But Jesus did not stone her. He did not ridicule her. He did not harass her
because he took the time to pause and process.
Well, I pray this message has been a blessing to you. I do encourage you to
partner with the Love Church Charlotte, even though this is Soteria Prophetic
Ministries, it is also a branch of the Love Church, a teaching ministry of the Love Church Charlotte.
(19:57):
So we are always looking for partners to partner with us to help us continue
to reach the nations for Christ.
We look forward to coming back to you at the appointed time. God bless you.
Grace and peace, everybody. Welcome back to Soteriah Prophetic Ministries.
I will just give you a heads up that I am recording sitting on my front porch,
and apparently some of my neighbors have some leftover fireworks from the Fourth
of July, so I just wanted to set a trigger alert.
I am not in a combat zone, but if you happen to hear some unusual sounds in
(00:24):
the background, that's what it is.
And of course, I live near the airport, so So there's that, right?
Anyway, let's go ahead and get started. I want to talk to you about the importance
of pausing to process, pausing to process.
I'm mindful of a scripture I was studying just today.
It was about Jesus. When he, this woman, he was confronted with a situation
(00:47):
where this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
Now, the way my mind works, I'm wondering where was the gentleman that she was
involved with, but I guess that's a different topic.
And at any rate, she was caught in the act and she was brought by the religious rulers of their day.
She was brought to Jesus. Now, Jesus was in the middle of teaching or engaging an audience.
(01:09):
And all of a sudden, he looks up and he sees this woman, apparently humiliated,
dragged into the front of a crowd to be accused.
Now, Jesus did something that I believe is a strong teachable moment and a lesson
in emotional learning that instead of reacting,
(01:31):
he paused to process. says.
So if you know the story, if you don't, I'll add that in the comments.
But the Bible said, Jesus said, he heard, he was engaged in the conversation.
He heard what the gentleman said.
He obviously acknowledged this woman and the condition that she was in.
He's aware of the crowd, but he did not respond right away.
As a matter of fact, you'll find several examples in scripture in the New Testament,
(01:55):
in the four gospels, where Jesus did not respond right away.
And so I think that's a strong takeaway for us that when we are faced with conflict,
it's okay to tell that person, hey, let me get back to you or let me pray about
it or let me think about it or give me time to reflect.
(02:15):
I think that speaks to, again, that emotional intelligence, emotional learning,
but it also lends to being mature in the fruits of the Spirit,
long-suffering and temperance, right?
Kindness and meekness. In other words, we don't have to respond until we have
(02:36):
developed a healthy response.
And what I mean by Jesus could have said a lot of things.
He could have condemned the woman. He could have condemned the guys for bringing
her and wondering where the men, like he could have totally reacted differently
than what the Bible records.
(02:57):
And so Jesus being a leader, being the pattern of a leader, right?
He showed us how to respond.
And I think that there's so much meat and there's so much wisdom in knowing
how to pause, knowing how to take time to get clarity.
I'm reminded of the scripture where the Lord took Ezekiel to the Valley of the Dry Bones.
(03:18):
And the Lord asked Ezekiel, you know, Ezekiel, a son of man, can these bones live?
And you know what Ezekiel said? Lord, I don't know. You know.
In other words, Ezekiel was well aware that he didn't know.
And it's okay to not have an answer at the moment.
I know many of us, especially if you're a parent or you are in some type of
(03:42):
leadership, serve in some type of leadership capacity, people look to you for
answers. They look to you for solutions.
And there will be times, my friends, that that answer or that solution will
not come to you right away.
And so instead of conjuring up an answer to validate who you are as a leader.
It's okay to say, hey, you know what?
(04:03):
Let me think about that or let me get back to you on that or let me pray about
it. and give yourself a space to pause to process because actions can't be undone.
Words cannot be taken back.
You can say, I'm sorry what I meant to say or what I, you know,
what had happened was like, there are certain moments where you can't afford
(04:25):
to make those types of mistakes.
So you've got to be mature enough and, and also be in touch with how,
you know, of where your egos are.
Like there are some folks that they just have to have the answer.
Oh, I know because this is what you do. And this is what that's,
you're not going to always have that.
(04:46):
You're not going to always have an immediate answer to a conflict.
That's just the way life is because life is just so, life is complicated.
People are complicated.
Relationships are complicated. Challenges are complicated.
And so instead of adding to the conflict with just speaking out of turn or speaking
what's on the top of your mind...
(05:08):
Take the time to assess. So as I get back to what I was mentioning about Ezekiel
and the Lord, so the Lord asked Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live?
Lord, I don't know, you know.
Then further on in scripture, the Lord told Ezekiel to speak.
Before Ezekiel spoke, I want you to pay attention to something.
The Bible says Ezekiel surveyed or he walked around. ground.
(05:32):
In other words, he drew close to the heap of fallen soldiers or the fallen to
ascertain or to evaluate or to process.
In other words, now here's the prophet standing in the presence of God,
and he didn't just start speaking, right?
He didn't just start responding. He drew himself close to evaluate.
(05:54):
The same thing I noticed happening with Jeremiah, I believe it's in the book of Lamentations.
And there were, there was a time in Lamentations where Jeremiah just sat quiet
and folks were wondering, why is he not speaking?
What is wrong with him? He was weeping. Of course, that's what Lamentations mean to lament.
He was weeping, but Jeremiah understood that even in my weeping, I need time to process.
(06:18):
I'm not going to go before the Lord in my emotions and in my feelings.
I'm going to take time to process. process, and you know what he did?
He took time, and he processed, and he thought about all of the sins of his
forefathers, and so when he drew near to the Lord to pray, he,
(06:38):
oh my God, the prayer was so powerful. It's so powerful.
He began to name the sins of his ancestors or his forefathers,
and he said, Lord, he said, I stand in the gap.
In other words, he was able to take the time to to process why Israel was in
the state that they were in.
He didn't just respond, well, Lord, why is this happening to me? Why us, Lord? Why me?
(06:59):
No, he sat and he took the time to evaluate everything that was happening in
Israel at that time, and he connected it to the sins of the fathers,
the sins of the forefathers.
And when he went to God, he prayed that effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man.
And he said to the Lord, he said, we have sinned.
(07:20):
And now this was years before Jeremiah was even on the scene,
but because he took that time to process, he paused the process.
He took the time to evaluate. He took the time to assess.
He was able to pray and.
Effective, intellectual, righteous man's prayer.
So it's okay in the heat of a moment, because Jesus was in the heat of a moment.
(07:45):
Can you imagine what the tensions look like, y'all?
Jesus is being Jesus, right? The crowds are thronging to him,
some for good reason, some for not so much.
But he knew that. He knew who was with him, and he knew who wasn't,
right? You got to know there was labor among you. I told you that.
But he also realized that, you know what, the enemy can trip me up and trap
(08:05):
me if I say the wrong thing in the front of all of these people.
And that's what you have to be so mindful of.
You have to be mindful of your own stuff and make sure that they don't show
up in your conversations or
when you're trying to make decisions or when you're seeking for clarity.
And be okay, be mature, be grown enough, be strong in the Lord enough to say,
(08:29):
I don't have an answer right now. Can you give me a few moments?
Let me take a few days or hey, you know what? Let's table that and let's come
back to it It doesn't make you less of a parent or a leader or a spouse or a
friend or a supervisor But it lets it even if the person can't appreciate it
at the moment because I know sometimes, you know, there's a commercial,
J was a jw wentworth, you know, I need my money and I want my money now.
(08:53):
There's some people they want to answer right now rather, you know,
it's a sustainable answer or not.
They just want something, but you got to be in control. Temperance is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
You have to exercise self-control and you can't give into that pressure of someone
wanting an answer because you don't want to speak something,
especially if you service in a realm of authority.
(09:14):
And it's the wrong word of wisdom.
It's the wrong counsel. It is the wrong response. And you can't undo that.
You can't undo that. You can't fix it. You have to sit with it.
There's going to be consequences and the whole nine yards.
So be okay with saying, hey, I don't, let me, let me, you know what?
Let me pray about that. I understand that this is a pressing matter for you right now.
(09:34):
I can sense that you're really looking for some solutions.
And I feel you, you know, I've been in situations like that before, but you know what?
I value our relationship and I also honor the work of God or I honor,
you know, your your endeavors, too much to just give you an answer to satisfy
this emergency or this urgent need.
(09:55):
So, you know, can you trust me enough to know I'm going to be diligently seeking
the right answer for you?
And then, you know, we can move forward. We'll look toward the next steps.
And people will, again, they may not appreciate it at the time, but they eventually,
right, when you come back with the right answer, those fitly spoken words,
(10:16):
when you come back with the right answer, you would have established yourself
as a wise voice of counsel.
Because I know people and you know people that every time you call them with
a problem, they have an answer.
And when they give you the wrong answer, guess who has to deal with the consequences? You do.
Oh, well, you know, what I meant was, oh, you should have prayed.
(10:38):
No, no, no, no, no. I came to you.
I trusted your counsel and you told me what you felt I should do or what you
thought God was saying and that wasn't it and I applied it to my life and things got worse.
So honor the destiny in a person's life to not manipulate it and play with it.
If you know that that answer is not coming clear to you, if you don't have clarity,
(11:02):
then you should not, I'm not going to tell you what to do, but you should not
release an answer until you have clarity.
The other thing you don't want to do is have regret. Again, you can't take back what you said.
Words have power, especially if you are a trusted voice. Jesus was and still
is a trusted voice. And so whatever he said, his word was bond.
(11:23):
So if he said, woman, go to prison or take her to the cross or whatever the
punishment was, stone her, you know, in that day, what have you.
Then Jesus' reputation as Savior, Redeemer, Healer, Resurrector,
you know what I'm saying?
It would have been tarnished. And how do you come back from that?
(11:44):
When you've moved in the realm of making a decision and you've done so without
considering the ramifications and the consequences and the outcomes,
who pays for it? How do you go back and fix regret? regret.
So again, be okay. Even if the person you're talking to is not okay,
eventually they will be all right.
(12:04):
Especially when you come back and say, okay, here is what we need to do,
or this is what I'm thinking, or, you know, here's what I'm picking up in the
realm of the spirit or what have you.
They can appreciate the fact that, you know what, I now can have confidence,
in you because I know you won't just tell me something to get me off the phone
or to, to, to get an offering or to appease me, but you want to make sure that
(12:27):
you give me wise counsel.
And so that speaks to being a spiritually mature believer,
because you're not bending to the vices and the wills of others,
but you're waiting and you're trusting God for the right time.
So as I get ready to close, and I just want to kind of follow up with Jesus
(12:51):
and the woman, caught in the act of adultery.
And so Jesus finally, and it's in John chapter 8 verses 1 through 11.
And so the Bible says Jesus knelt down on the ground and began writing.
Now, some commentators have said he wrote or drew a picture of a bird and a
bird formed life and flew away.
(13:13):
Now, you know, I'm not saying he can't do it. He can.
He is a creator, but we just don't know, right?
And I mean, it's really irrelevant whether he formed the bird or not.
That's not the point of the story. Sometimes we worried about the wrong thing.
The fact of the matter is he took time to pause.
And so when I look at him writing on the ground, I'm looking at he's journaling.
(13:36):
And we know that the Lord is a journalist. He loves to write, right?
He's writing things on stones. He's writing things on our hearts.
Like God is a ready writer. You hear me?
And so, but Jesus kneels down and he starts writing. He journals.
So I think we're safe to say that when we're caught in the middle of a challenging
(13:59):
situation where someone is leaning on us or placing a demand for some counsel or some wisdom,
what have you, it's okay to take a moment. it to pull away and do some reflection.
And you know what I'm saying? And look at the pros and cons.
I taught my daughter, my baby daughter, that years ago, we went to New York
a couple years ago, and she was facing a dilemma.
And I said, hey, take out a notebook and let's look at the pros and cons.
(14:22):
And by doing that, she was able to do a brain dump. She was able to clarify
her thoughts and come up with a solid decision. So I taught her critical thinking.
We also have to become critical thinkers. Let this mind be in you.
That was also Christ Jesus.
You don't have to respond just because someone rings your phone or sends you
a text message. You belong to the Lord first.
(14:43):
You are subscribed to what he has to say.
Don't let people back you into a corner to where now you said something because
you felt obligated. Well, you know, they keep texting me, they keep calling me.
Then let them call Jesus. He always answers, right?
Remove yourself from the burden of that. And listen, I can tell you that because
(15:04):
I learned that the hard way. When I was starting out, I think maybe in my,
I was maybe 10 years into pastoral leadership ministry.
And I just felt like my job was to save everybody. You know,
I felt like I was supposed to save everybody.
Everybody and their cousin had my number, which hasn't changed, praise God.
But everybody had their number and, you know, oh, call me if you need something.
(15:25):
Call me, call me, call me.
And that's exactly what they did all day, half the night.
I'm on the phone, counsel, counsel, counsel, talking, talking,
talking, up and down, up and down with people who refuse to go to God first.
And yeah, God definitely used me in the spirit of counsel and I bless God for that.
(15:45):
But there are also times when I spoke because I feel obligated to speak because
a person called crying or something happening at home. And I felt like,
I'm not saying don't pray.
I'm talking about releasing counsel. There's always time to pray.
But I learned the hard way and the Lord, I went to a vision and the Lord came
before me in the appearance of a lion.
And he came so close to my face. And then I could feel his breath was so hot,
(16:09):
like the lion's mouth was open. And he said, get out of the way.
I will never forget that. And when I came out of the vision, I broke out into a sweat.
And from that point on, I think that was maybe 2011, 2010 or 11, 2011.
From that point to right now.
(16:32):
I'm the kind of person, I only need to taste it one time.
That's it. I'm not hardheaded. I'm not stubborn. Well, sometimes.
But I'm not that person that God has to keep telling me the same thing.
I don't need two and three and five, 12,000 confirmations. I believe God first time.
And so when he approached me in the form of a vision as a lion,
(16:54):
and he said, get out of the way, honey.
I said, oh, we good. You don't have to worry. And so folks, and you know what?
People of God. Folks left my church.
Oh, I called you. You didn't call me back. I needed you.
And the spirit of offense set in and they didn't understand that I had to obey God.
But then the other thing too, outside of that, it wasn't that I was withdrawing
(17:17):
from them. God wanted him to draw closer to him.
And so you got to be mindful of that too, not stepping in God's place,
always running behind people with trying to help.
You will cripple your people, whoever they are, church, employees,
family, what have you, business partner, you will cripple them and you will
hinder their growth if you're always there, if you're enabling them.
(17:40):
Y'all know the terminology.
You got to let some folks stand on their own and say, hey, did you pray?
Before you called me, you need to go to God first because I don't need those problems.
Well, apostles, did you pray about it? Well, no, let's talk later.
So I want to leave you with that. Jesus, he knelt down, he journaled.
And then when he got up, he said, let any, he said, he that has no sin cast the first stone.
(18:05):
You see how clear, how clarifying his response, how much wisdom was in his response.
He didn't say, now, why are you bringing this woman down here?
Woman, what in the world? Whose husband are you messing? He didn't do that.
He said, let him, you know, if any man, I've read so many different translations,
but anyway, way, you know, whoever is without sin cast the first stone.
So some may say he went to her defense, maybe, maybe not, depending on how you
(18:28):
look at it, but he addressed their motives.
But if you respond quick, so quick, you don't even have the time to discern
the motives of the person coming to you for help.
That's another conversation. So one by one, those accusers dropped their stones
because they were ready to kill her.
They dropped their stones and walked away. And he said to the woman,
(18:52):
listen, he didn't even say anything to her. Again, it's okay to pause.
It's okay to get clarity before you respond. There's too much going on.
So he's dealing with them first because y'all the one interrupted the church
meeting, you know what I'm saying, the revival.
So I'm going to deal with you first. If you without sin cast the first stone,
could nobody do it because everybody sinned, right?
And so then he said, they all dropped their stones one by one and left.
(19:14):
Then he said, woman, where are your accusers? She said, I have, they gone or whatever.
And he said, And he said, and neither will I accuse you. Go and sin no more.
And that was very wise answer, clarifying. I'm sure it was traumatizing for her.
I guarantee you that girl didn't touch nobody else's husband from that point
on. She had learned her lesson.
(19:35):
But Jesus did not stone her. He did not ridicule her. He did not harass her
because he took the time to pause and process.
Well, I pray this message has been a blessing to you. I do encourage you to
partner with the Love Church Charlotte, even though this is Soteria Prophetic
Ministries, it is also a branch of the Love Church, a teaching ministry of the Love Church Charlotte.
(19:57):
So we are always looking for partners to partner with us to help us continue
to reach the nations for Christ.
We look forward to coming back to you at the appointed time. God bless you.
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