The Hope Hotline - When Silence is More Spiritual

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

When Silence is More Spiritual

Hello, hello, hello, welcome to the whole potline. I have so much saliva in my mouth right now from a drink that I just drank. That I feel like that one. That I needed to spit. I mean, I needed to swallow my spit. Do you remember that movie Bruce Almighty? Yes. That's what it reminded me of.

I never saw that movie. Really? Nope. What? Never. All right. He's a news anchor. And he goes,

and he's a blud-d-l-l-l-l-d-l-d-d-l-d-l-da. Wasn't Jim Carrey the character? Yep. I don't want to be Jim Carrey. You are. Just for a moment. But no, Jim Carrey wasn't the one doing it. It was a newscaster.

It was the office guy. Oh, Steve Carrell. Yeah. And Jim Carrey was controlling him. Oh. Steve Carrel. That's good going. Okay.

Yeah. Although, isn't it true Jim Carrey got married? I mean, not married. Saved? Yeah, there's some conspiracies about him. I don't know, but yeah. He's got a lot of people upset right now over that, potentially. Potentially.

Potentially. Because he's not holding nothing back, potentially. Well, potentially he was seen, and it potentially wasn't him. No. But it wasn't. It wasn't it. There were some conspiracies. What?

That there was a guy that looked like Jim Carrey, but he did not look like Jim Carrey. But portraying himself as Jane. It was Jim Carrey. And then they said, said, oh, no, it was a person with a mask, like, impersonating him. And the person that impersonated him came out and said he was impersonating him. But then yesterday, Jim Carrey's whole team came out and said, no, no, that was Jim Carrey. And what was he doing?

Just talking. About Jesus? No, not about Jesus. No, not at all. Oh, so people are thinking there's. He just looked weird. And they were like, mm-mm. This is not him.

Maybe because he's getting older. His whole face structure was different. Well, maybe he got facial surgery. No. He's just getting older. But he has been saying some like, like, off the wall? Yeah, off the wall things.

And so there's, not about Jesus. Not about Jesus? That possibly he was taken out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, he's, my daughter's chirping in my ear. You can't hear it. Apparently he's in the know about some Epstein stuff is what.

So they're thinking he got taken out. Yeah. Well, a long time ago, he said, if I ever come back, it's not me. So. Yeah. That is word. It's 2026 isn't playing around. Nothing's playing around.

Not a thing. That's crazy crap right there. Uh-huh. And everyone's not falling for it. They're like, that's not Jim Carrey. I love your shoes, by the way. Thank you. You can't see them on Amazon.

Okay, so hold them up for people to see. Hold on. I saw them. You can't see them that good. Closer. Get a little closer. Don't be... Not you, towel.

The shoe. Close. Shut up. I'm just kidding. Super cute. There you. Shoes. I'll post the link.

Yes. Please. I'll do right now. I'll put it in the chat. Okay. It's in the chat. I'll find it. That's cute.

How much were they? Like 20 bucks. If that. See? See? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Love it.

Yes. Love it. I was telling Heather, I was like, Heather, like, your flip-flops. And she's like, oh, there's so my chicken. shoes. I'm like, well, that's not going to help me now. Forget it. Okay, let's do our thing really quick and then we're going to get into it because, listen, this is

going to be a painful, painful for me, maybe for you, podcast today. And when I say painful, I'm not joking. It's going to be so fun. So fun. All right, the shoes are posted. She's posted. Beauty, baby. All righty. Well, if you are watching on Rumble, you are on the right place.

Hello, I'm glad you're here. Anybody else that's watching, let us know. We see you hanging out. We can see the little eyeball of you hanging out, so let us know who you are. If you're on YouTube, you can say hello, and you can also head over to Rumble and have some fun in the live chat. And then, of course, Facebook as well. It's available live, and you will be able to watch the replay easily on all three of those channels. And, of course, we have the audio podcast that's available.

So come and listen later or now. or whenever, or send it audio or send it the link, whatever you want to do. Get it out there. Tell all your friends about this one. Natalie will be coming back again. I think it's going to be in April. So you might have to wait a little bit longer, which means it gives you more time to send in those questions.

We are on TikTok, of course. So if you're over there, follow all of our accounts. You can take a little screenshot and find all of them. Pastor Tom is on there as well. He's got his podcast and his preaching clips. And of course, we have our worship team too. We get some fun stuff coming up. So we have Chris Ann Hall with us, and she will be at Foundation Church for a live event on Friday, March 13th from 7 to 9.30 p.m.

And then Saturday morning, she will be back March 14th, 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. And it will be a really, really great time. She is a really great speaker. If you watched a few weeks ago, she was here live with us. And we're so excited to have her be able to have her be able to have. have a nice little chat with us. So please come bring some friends, bring your family, and there is child care available.

So this is definitely an opportunity to hear from her. She's great. And here's the thing. A lot of times people, they're afraid because they don't know. Education is huge. And so if, like, a lot of people wish they would have been able to stand or would have known their rights better. or just have a deeper understanding of the Constitution.

This isn't going to be boring, but the thing is, is you don't know what you don't know. And it's like the word, you don't know to stand on the promises because you don't know the promises are there. Okay, well, it's the same thing. If you don't know what you don't have to obey or what you don't have to listen to,

and when people command and demand of you, then guess what? You'll fall for things. When you're educated, knowledge is power. And if you want to become knowledgeable, then you'll want to be here for that day because knowledge is power. Yes. Amen. 100%. Because, yeah, a lot of people don't even know anything about the Constitution.

And so it's your rights. It's your rights as an American. And so if you don't know them, this will be a great opportunity to know them. And we never know what's coming up. So, you know, we can all speculate. But it's good to be prepared in season and out of season. is a Bible verse. So not just that in March. We also have Cray. So you'll definitely want to join us on that Saturday, March 28th at 7 p.m. We are going to be rocking out, and it is always so fun. Get to turn the lights down. Get to hang out, sing some songs, have a little word in there. So you will not want to miss that. And if you have a friend that, you know, it talks about coming to church, but, you know, Sunday always sneaks up. And they're like, oh, I can't know. I just didn't make it this Sunday.

Well, guess what? Saturday night is a great night to come. And then guess what happens after Saturday night? It's Sunday morning. And then you can be like, see how much fun that was? Come back tomorrow. And, yeah, so invite your friends. Make sure you come. Bring your family.

It always is great. It really is. It goes by way too fast. Yeah. So, yeah, bring your friends and your family. And another event coming right up right after that because everything is just kind of following each other. April 5th is going to be Easter. didn't know it's coming right around the corner so we will be having two services 9 a.m. and 1130 a.m.

And we would love for you to register just so we know what to expect. So you can just go to our website and click on events. You'll start seeing stuff all over social media. So there'll be like clickable links and stuff too to make it really easy for you. We're going to have a physical copy for you to be able to hand out and send invites out to everybody, people at the store, your neighbors. I mean, it's really great when you have like a relationship with somebody. like some level of influence, but you know what, right now, this time of the year, people are open. And so, you know, they might just come on this one Sunday. And it's the Holy Spirit's job to do what the Holy Spirit will do.

But we have to be available to hand these invites out and share and post on our stories and just the easy things that we can do now. You know, there's just so many ways. We're going to have emails that you can forward to friends. There's going to be so many opportunities for you to be able to share this. And why not, you know? Yep, why not. That's right, girl. That's it.

That's it. What a great way to end. All right. Announcing Resurrection Sunday. Amen. I'm super excited about that. Me too. So let's do our sponsors really quick, and then we're going to go into the first one, radiant aesthetics and permanent makeup, experience,

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Woohoo! Yep. She's joined us for four whole years. That's a beautiful thing. I know. You'll never go back. You'll never go to any other state. Well, smart people.

Stay. Yeah, don't be dumb. Unless you vote Democrat, then you can get the heck out of Dodge. That's true. But you were dumb anyway, so you can go. I'm okay with that. Bye.

Bye. As my son would say, bye. Bye. Okay. So today's topic. Mm-hmm. is titled,

When Silence is more spiritual. Let's start. Let's start the day. Oh. Is it this finger? It's his finger. Yeah. Okay, guys, I have a problem with silence.

I mean, I don't mind sitting in silence, but I don't like being silence when it comes to my opinion. So this is going to be a fun one for you. Yeah, I've gotten way, wait, wait, way, way better at giving my opinion on things. Like I was praying to the Lord, like, I've been praying, what am I supposed to talk about for the podcast this week? And yesterday, early yesterday, the Lord was, like,

I felt like the Lord said about keeping your mouth shut and not giving your opinion on things. And I was like, but I don't want to talk. because I like, I don't want to be a hypocrite. True. I've gotten way better. Yeah. But I have not mastered this by no means.

So I'm like, I'm not preaching to the choir. I am a part of the choir. When I speak about this, just so you know. Like I said, I've gotten way, way better. But when you were as extreme as I was on this topic, what is way, way better? It's all relative. True. You know, like, it's, the scriptures are so, which will hit them at the end, a lot of them at the end.

But the scriptures are, there are so many scriptures that talk about being quiet, keeping your mouth shut. A wise man is slow to speak. A fool uttereth all its thoughts is what it says in Proverbs. I was the second half of that. A lot. And so I just. I love giving my opinion because I think everybody needs it. But let me just say, that's not true.

They don't. And if you're in my shoes or if you're relatively close, like Vanessa is not going to be like this, right? Are you sure? Well, I think you're selective. Yes. I'm not selective. That's part of the extreme.

That's why I said it's all relative. Yeah, totally. Because for a person like myself, like I know no stranger and like I don't have a problem in talking to everybody. So, and I don't mind being, I mean, well, okay, there's true. I don't mind being confrontational. Do I like look for it? No, I don't look for it. I don't.

It's like like not my favorite thing to do. But I don't. You're not going to back down from one. I don't mind it. Right. Right. I don't look for it, but I don't mind it. Right.

So for me, like giving my opinion, you think everybody is like anxious for it. I'm being facetious, but you really don't ever think about, maybe this person doesn't want to hear this. I never dawns, I'm bleeding, never dawned on me, like, they don't care what you think. It never dawned on me. Like, of course, like, of course everybody wants to hear what you have to say. Not true. it's a shocker for me but no they don't

and you know what the thing is is the problem with this is that like you're selective Vanessa and even Tracy is selective and probably has pretty much probably all our life you're selective but I mean this can speak to everybody right? Oh for the most part

and tell you I do know Talia is selective although she's willing to give it and no I always excited about giving it but we'll absolutely do it a thing. You still have to give your opinion, but only when either the door opens or you're asked. And the door opening sometimes isn't because you're being asked. It's because God is ushering the door open and the person in that moment is vulnerable and left to hear what you have to say. And their heart is open to hear what you have to say because they might not even realize

they need to hear it. Timing people, that's what I'm trying to tell. tell you. It's all about timing. Everybody has an opinion. Social media is full of it. I mean, literally, social media is run by people's opinion. Go on TikTok. What are you hearing on social media? Opinions. One right after the other. And people sit and they listen to them. The thing is, is they're selective, though. They sit and they're selective on who they listen to. They get to do this if they don't like it. If I'm standing in front of them and I'm giving them my opinion, though, they can't do this to me. I mean, they could give me the finger, but it ain't going to be scrolling on.

You know what I'm saying? There is a difference. If you're in front, if you're sitting and you've decided to listen to people's opinion, it's way different than you force seeing someone to listen to your opinion. Families are divided because of people's opinions. Let's look at COVID. Prime example is to one of them. Church splits. I've seen literally families who go to churches together.

Because there's something that goes on in the church and people have differing opinions on that specific thing. They'll literally have family splits. It'll divide up a family because of an opinion. Right. That's not good, guys. Talking about churches. Churches literally won't do or say things.

COVID-in another. example, because of people's opinions. So they're restrained or constrained by others' opinions. That's, there's, there's good things and bad things about receiving or rejecting opinions. And how we do it matters. Because opinions can destroy if you'll let them. And also, maybe you just need to shut up. up and not give people your opinions because it goes both ways. True. Want to add anything, ladies? I'm going to let my words be feel.

Because you're now scared. I have a lot of opinions, but do you want to like get going? Like what do you want to do? Well, no, you can tell me what you were going to say. I mean, even if I have it already written in here, Okay. What were you going to say? Okay, Proverbs 9, 8.

So don't bother correcting mockers. They will only hate you, but correct the wise and they will love you. And then Proverbs 1728 says, even fools are thought wise when they keep silent and their mouth shut. They seem intelligent. So I said that wisdom includes knowing when to give advice and when to smile and go. Which I have that scripture later on. It is true. Yeah.

But you have to know, like you have to know when you're casting your purpose. Charles before swine. And you might not know going into a conversation, right? The conversation unfolds, but at some point, we're teaching apologetics to our seniors right now. And you don't know how the conversation is going to go. You don't really know why they're asking the question. They're asking until the conversation unfolds. But at some point, like, if you're talking and you hear them and they have lots of problems and you feel like, oh, but I have the answer, but are they dumping on you or are they, like, asking you questions? Like, there's a way to, like, kind of gauge. And my other thing is that I love to do.

is I always ask questions all the time, always have. And before, like, I would say, like, probably like 10 years ago, I would ask questions and kind of gauge where they're at. And it was probably because I didn't really want to tell them what to do. Like, I didn't really, I don't like confrontation, but as you grow, you have to deal with it. And so I don't welcome it, but I will deal with it. And so I've learned that if you ask questions,

it puts their guard down number one. and you ask not like in a way that's brady. You're asking like you truly want to know the answer to it because you're trying to figure something out. But also Jesus did it a lot. Yeah, he did. He did it. And he didn't ask because he didn't know the answer to it.

He asked because he wanted you to come up with a solution on your own, like have your own revelation. And when people come up with things on their own, their own ideas, they're like, oh, that was the best idea ever. And you just guided them to it. So usually they're more open to it. And I just felt like for me, I like to be efficient and like things that I do. And so if I can get people somewhere fast,

and I don't get any of the credit for it, I don't care. Right, because who cares about that? Who cares? Prideful people do that. I mean, most people do, though, yeah. Prideful people are always wanting to make sure that everybody knows who came up with the idea. Right. And everybody knows why it was so successful.

And that's like, there's something beautiful about when you can have something done in excellence and you can give somebody else the accolades for it. Yeah. There's something beautiful about that, but a lot of people don't get it. But that's, I think, one of the reasons why people are very opinionated. Just personally speaking,

one of the reasons why people are so opinionated and want to give their opinions is because they think they're so right. And a lot of that stems from pride. I agree. And you have to really, hone that in because the scriptures that pride comes before destruction that is a great scripture to keep you from falling and a lot of people forget that pride will destroy you

they think oh ha ha ha I'm prideful no no pride will literally destroy you and everything that's in your path. And you don't realize it into it's too late a lot of times. But for me, like in this, specific topic, it really shows spiritually speaking how you walk spiritually or what your spiritual walk looks like by the restraint in which you allow yourself to speak. How restrained are you in in communication with others and what you are communicating. Because there are doors at times that are only open for you to share your opinion, but most of the time, that's not for us to do. You are to hold people accountable, but being holding somebody accountable isn't your opinion.

It's biblical. You're going to use biblical, what am I? You're going to use like scripture and oral. order to do that. That's not your opinion. Yeah. That's foundational things, right? So the Bible warns us about talking too much. And let's talk about that. Proverbs 1019. It says when there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is wise. So even if you're giving your opinion, sometimes that opinion can lead to sinful things. And you need to, you need to to be really careful. A lot of times people

will think that talking too much would include gossip. That's not the case. Talking too much and giving your opinion, if it's not biblically sound opinion, can also lead to sin. Go ahead. One of the Bible verses that I wish wasn't in the Bible

for me is we will have to stand before the Lord and give account to every single idle word that we say. And so I learned that very early on in my walk with the Lord, and And that's why I have had the restraint that I have over the years. I wish I would have done that.

Because one day I will have to stand before the Lord and account for every single word that I say. And if my words, if I speak too much and my words causes someone to sin or like fall into sin, that is a heavy weight. Oh yeah. It's, well, in some cases, depending on the degree in which it is, it's like a mill it is a millstone and people like i don't know if you've ever didn't research on millstones but that is a heavy weight yeah and the thing is is for me were you going to say something Tracy no okay that is like that is something that i wish that that was very that was revelation that you had that i wish i would have had it was saved me a lot i that's such a great

wisdom, revelation knowledge and such great wisdom to instill that knowledge and apply it to your life. Because a lot of people have revelation, but they still never apply it. And that's a whole different thing too. But man, I wish I would have had such great restraint because I said a lot of idle words. Like it's feathers in the wind. You can't grab them back. Like good luck. It's not possible. And I just feel like a lot of times, like just from, when I hear people giving their opinions, which I do, I hear a lot of people give their opinions on a lot of things that they think they know about and they know nothing about. But while they're giving their opinion, there's so much assumption behind that opinion that it's dangerous because you're assuming, just personally

speaking from being a person on the other side of a lot of people's opinions as to the reasons why we do the things that we do, there's a lot of assumptions made on those decisions, and you don't know anything you're talking about. And I see a lot of people also say, they'll say, this person did this, and they'll never say that they assumed that they did it because of this. And later on, you find out when you're, I always like to get to the deeper things and the reasons why or understanding why this person is trying to tell me this or if I don't like what somebody's trying to tell me or what they are telling me and is this not sitting right with me or it causes me to have a character issue with somebody that they're talking about I dig until I find

out either what they're saying is based on a whole lot of assumption or I have a character problem with somebody nine times out of ten though and this is God's honest truth nine times out of 10 it was that person assuming something that they saw or they believed or whatever and it wasn't factual actual information about that person gossip yeah it's gossip you might not be thinking you're gossiping when you're giving you're telling something that you believe something that's going on but you are you are gossiping because you don't know it as fact and you could be like affecting somebody's like it could be as simple as why didn't somebody get something done and you assume they didn't get it done because of something else but in all actuality your assumption is

completely wrong that's what you believe but you you don't know that as fact so now do you understand what I'm saying opinions are not just your opinion and you're giving it to someone and you're you're trying to help them in their lifestyle no opinion. Opinions are when you visually see something and you're explaining it to somebody else. And that opinion is not correct. Yep. For sure. I mean, I don't know.

I'm just telling you from being on that side of things, it happens a lot. Yes. When you own businesses, people believe that the reason why you're running your business a certain way. Or you did something to somebody in your business. And then people have an opinion on that and they don't know the whole story. It's like, are you kidding me? Same thing with churches. Like you go into a, like you, I sit there and I go, you go into a house and you're about to do the restoration process because it had a leak.

You know the leak side to the restoration process. Somebody on the outside looks in and goes, I could have done that cheaper because this, this is, and they're stealing them blind. But you don't know the leak. You don't know the whole thing. So your opinion on things is now gossip. Right. Because that's what you think you see. You're not the business inside the whole entire thing.

Does that make sense? And that happens all the time with people. All the time. Right. All the time. Which can affect the character of that business. Absolutely. I saw that in 2023 with Hurricane Ian.

Where people were making very vague, I would say incorrect. And I want to say lie, but I don't have that in concrete evidence. But they were making very vague, very broad statements about different people, businesses and stuff like that and how. And whereas affecting businesses' character, when in all actuality, like, nobody was there to hear the beginning, to the end conversation between businesses and the customer. And so then there's this chirping on opinions of how somebody didn't do something right.

Do you know what I'm saying? It's like very dangerous. In 2023 was because people were so, they were in such a bad state in many ways because houses were destroyed. Companies were coming in and it looked in some ways. It looked like they were taking advantage of people. but in all actuality, not everybody was.

And people were taking advantage of people. Don't get me wrong. But there were a lot of good companies out there trying to do right by people. And sometimes you get into things and it doesn't look like what you originally started out with. So circumstances change. But the way people were acting, it was, do you know what I'm talking about, girls? I do. Very much.

That was a very, like, 2023 was a really, Because 2022, in September, that hurricane really destroyed and wrecked a lot of people's properties. And financially, it put them in really tough positions. And so it made people behave in manners in which I don't know if they necessarily would have. And they assumed the worst in a lot of things and a lot of people. And so people side. and when they side, they take opinions of other people. You have to be really careful about your opinion.

Yep. Yep. Now, I'm going to tell you some ways I was telling the girls, and they had some of their ways. And you can add, well, you know what? I'm going to wait. I'm going to let you guys, what are ways that we give our opinions to people in their day-to-day lives?

I can tell you how I did it and made a complete full out of myself. I have many. many many but what give me your ideas who wants to start i know and hope well we were talking about the ones like yeah go ahead you can name them tell you she's going to explain something because i think it's a really good point um i kind of forgot what i said but i kind of remember um i said like it would be like if i gave like marriage advice to like Vanessa and them when i've never been married I did that. Or I even gave the example of what was going on about the prophet that lied and gave that girl advice about who she should marry and then ended up turning into abusive relationship.

Okay, so go into more detail. If you don't know how to explain that, Telia or Vanessa will explain it because a lot of people don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah, the Bethel situation where they had invited in. Sean Bowles. Okay. And he, yes, thank you. Do you need that?

Heather. So they invited him in and he gave a spoken word to somebody in the audience. And he had done his research prior to coming to this meeting and found out some information so that the spoken word he gave was not a spoken word from the Holy Spirit. It was because he did his research. He went on Facebook, found out where she was working, said that they were supposed to get married. like he basically made his own assumptions based off of actual information he found on Facebook. And so everybody thought this was like this amazing thing and this word of knowledge, downloaded from the Holy Spirit and wasn't.

And so this woman was dating this guy. And when she heard that, she just trusted that God gave this man, Sean, Sean, the spoken word. And so she just went forward with it and married this man because of some prophet that gave her a word. So. Right. which was like, led into like, if I were to ever give advice, it would be I either had to have gone through it or the Lord was telling me like, this is a good time to plant the seed. But I would never force someone to ever listen to my advice.

Like I would always be like. Yeah, but that's kind of different because he was saying, prophetically speaking, the Lord was telling them. That wasn't his opinion. Yeah. Which is. But it was kind of unsolicited. Like it wasn't like.

Absolutely. But that's unsolicited. That's why I say to people, don't, I don't care who it is. Don't listen to anybody who has a prophecy for you that you don't know real well. And you haven't known them for a very long time. Listen, I will, like, I will not listen to anybody

speak into our lives. People send us stuff, and they, like, they'll send us stuff. Heather will give me stuff that people have, Some of it comes in the mail. Like, prophetically, the Lord's told me this. I don't even read it. I'm going to be flat out honest with you.

I don't even read the stuff. I don't know them. If I sensed in any way that the Holy Spirit told me you need to open it, even if you don't know them, still open, I would. But I have, maybe I have a one-off here and there. but almost every single time, I do not feel at all like I should open up anything or read anything.

I'm going to know somebody's track record and I'm going to know their fruit before I ever listen to them. And so for her, I know that they had this preacher come in or this evangelist or whatever you want to call it, this prophet come in and he's, but I wouldn't even do that.

I wouldn't even do that. and if somebody did come and prophesy over me, I would not do it until I felt a complete peace from the Lord that this was accurate. Right. And confirmation from the Lord because there ain't no way. Yeah, I think most of the time that somebody, nobody's really spoken things over me really. I don't know how I made it this long in a church. I grew up in assemblies of God and they just didn't do that. But when I've had people speak things over me, the only time that it's like made sense and sat right in my spirit when it confirmed what God already told me. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Like God already shared something with me and then they spoke it over me. And it might have been a little bit different or whatever. But that's usually when I got the most peace. When somebody kind of just throws something random at me, like, I might receive it if it doesn't, if I don't have like a yucky feeling about it. But you're supposed to go back and test the spirits. Like go take what was given to you.

You're like, Lord, what about this is true? And then that's and then you move forward from there. Like are we not, are we not going back to the Lord? Are we not using our discernment? I don't think people do because I think it's a, I honestly think it's like everything else in people's spiritual walks. Let me gain as much not. Let me read this book or listen to an audio version of what the Bible says instead of studying it out for myself. Let the man of God speak into my life versus having to sit and be still to know that He's God and pray and not.

and sit in my prayer closet and wait for the Lord to bring confirmation or to talk to me. Nobody wants to do that because it's boring. It's not boring. Are there moments that are boring? Sure. On the whole though, the closer you get to him, the more invigorating your walk with God is. The more that you can't, you do enjoy those times. And even if it's quiet, there's a peace.

that in that moment nothing else that you would be doing could give you at all. So that is a time of refreshing and that is a time of like because he's the only one that can give that to you but nobody has that because everybody is so used to being overstimulated

to literally be still and feel like absolute calm they can't stand it. Right. Everyone wants... It's foreign. Instant gratification. And, and, and to not have to do anything in order to get to the ends of the means of whatever they're wanting.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a microwave world. Sorry. Very much. That's not your spiritual walk. Very much. Spiritual walk will never be microwave.

Right. Right. It's going to take effort in time and diligence. And endurance. And that's another thing that people don't have. Nobody has any kind of endurance. Yeah. It's a negative word when in all actual,

it's not a negative word. It actually should be something that is a goal setting. Sorry. Heather saved me. She brought me. So I'm crunching up the day and day paper. So I can share an experience that I had recently just because of the season that I'm in. I'm raising teenagers.

And so for me, I have to really be mindful of the advice that I give. In the sense of like yesterday, I'll give you an example. I'm sitting outside and my son, Joseph, comes out and everything within me wanted just to sit, sit him down and just shake him. You know? Yeah. Been there. And the Holy Spirit went, no. Yeah.

You are going to ask him to sit down with you and you're just going to ask him questions. Just have a conversation with him. Get to know him on a deeper level. And I was just like, okay. But I want to. It's so much advice. I have so much advice. I have been a teenager before.

Right. Exactly. And so I did. And it was lovely. And we had a really good conversation so that the next time I go to have him sit down, he's not cringing. And just like, oh, gosh, what is she going to say? What is she want to say to me now? Which has been me.

Right. Because Tommy would be like every time we get into the car. And I don't want that. I don't want him to like associate every time I want. want to spend time with him, it's me having a lecture for him. Right. Well, it's true though. Yeah.

Just so you know, that's wisdom because that's not what I did. I would insert myself into places that I was not invited. Right. And you do not want to do that. And I found myself doing that. And it's not a good place to be. And yesterday, the Holy Spirit, I literally was like, no. And I was like, okay.

And we had a lovely conversation. Which is way more valuable later on when the necessary conversations have to occur. Right, exactly. Because there is a relationship versus a me versus you. Right. Which it was my, was my M.O. You know, I did have a really great relationship with my kids, but I did have that. I did have that, especially with Tommy, me versus you, because I felt like there was constantly like,

and he was a great kid but there were certain things that I was just like oh my gosh I'm flipping gonna kill you like you're driving me nuts but that's guy versus girl too like and him wanting to become a man

and come about and like me fighting all of there's just so many things but again that's where inserting your place that you're inserting yourself in places you're not invited shut up and God will open the door but that wasn't that's not how I live for a lot of my life and I am radically like literally I ask

not every day but I ask myself a lot of times are you better than you were yesterday right and that's all things yeah that's all things right so I can't say that I say yes every day because that would not be true but and I'm going to say this too it in regards to that conversation with your son. Like, you can't be his Holy Spirit either. And that's what a lot of people have a hard time dealing with. They want to be somebody else's Holy Spirit. Sorry, it's not your job.

But I want to. It's not our jobs. I know. And as soon as we take his place, that's when everything gets screwed up. I know. And it is tough. And if it was the best, like, if God was like, well, that's the best way is for mom to be the Holy Spirit, then he would tell us to be their Holy Spirit.

So obviously it's not the best. No. Right. And we just have to realize that. And he does far better and he says things and he pricks the heart. Because he knows. Yes. Everything. He knows how to get to them better than you do because he knows them way better than you know. Because they, the thing is is what we don't forget is a lot of times we may be really close to our husbands, our children, our friends. We may be really tight with them. And we know them inside and out. But there are still things that they withhold from every single. one of us and we do the same with others. Nobody really fully knows us. Nobody. I mean, you're lying if you say that your spouse does because there are things that even we hold back that we don't with the Holy Spirit because we can't because he knows all things down to the littlest nittyest, gritty. I mean, I would say Tom pretty much knows everything about me, but I know that there's, in my inner most, there is things that, I mean, he just, I just told him something like two weeks ago.

He's like, I didn't know that about you. I've been married to the guy over 30 years. Dated him for three of that. So 33 years. And he just literally found out something for the first time. Like, because we think we have, but we really haven't. But the Holy Spirit does. And it might not be on purpose. Some people, they withhold things on purpose, right? And you may be like, there's nothing that I wouldn't share. Okay, yeah, that's probably true because there's really nothing that I wouldn't share. But I know that there's things that I haven't fully shared.

Because how can you? It's like there's always going to be something that you've missed along the way or whatever. The finer things, yes. But even that thing that I shared with them actually made up part of the reasons why I am, like I am to a certain extent today. And he was like, I didn't know that. Well, and that crazy thing is I handle certain things because of that certain situation that I was in. And he had no idea.

So it's just, you know, people just, the Holy Spirit knows way better than we do. That's all I'm saying. Yes. 100%. I saw this and I was like, oh my gosh, I love this when I was looking up and wanted to do this topic. I found this, it's not a slogan, but it's basically a sentence. and it says, not every thought needs to become a sentence. Snap.

Yeah, Jer says not every thought needs to be thought. You don't have to, if that comes in, you don't have to think it. You can just pop it right back out. But that's more like holding thoughts captive. Yours is like the thought comes in and doesn't have to come out. You don't have to tell anybody anything. You don't have to. And when you're a talker, and here's the thing, too, I'm a talker, but I also want to help.

Yes, me too. Okay. But even that, Shuddyville. I know. Like, even with the best of intentions, because a lot of times people that are like me, they have the best of intentions behind what they're doing a lot of times, but it still, it doesn't need to be said. I know. And sometimes they're just not ready to hear it.

Like there's been times, I'm sure where all of us have been where, like, we just aren't ready to change. We aren't ready to hear a certain word or whatever it is. And maybe not now, but like in our earlier years. And so I would say even now though. Yeah. Because I'm going to be 59 this year. And there are some things that people will say to me, I'm not willing to receive them. They might be right. That's the God's honest truth. But it could be because of either there's a lack of trust on my part with them. Or I've guarded myself towards, because I do guard myself. But I should probably listen to what they have to say because they're a confidant of mine.

Do you know what I'm saying? So I don't even know, like, I think there's a lot of older people like myself. Probably, yeah. That still act like they did when they were spiritually, they haven't grown. Or there's things that they, like, I am very guarded only because. of ministry and because of things at different times, which isn't always right. True. That doesn't mean it's right.

It just means that that's the way it is. The way it is. Exactly. Yeah. But go ahead. What was I saying? You were saying how people won't receive it because potentially when they're younger, they're not ready.

Right, right, right. Exactly. Or yeah. And yeah, probably not younger maybe, but like you said, like people have gone through certain things. So there's guards that are put up. People are young in their walk and they don't even know how to trust God. So how the heck are they going to trust you and what you have to say?

But another thing that Talia said is like, but if I've been through like a divorce, for example, somebody might not ask me for advice, but I might feel like a prompting to tell them because I've been through it. And so it might be unsolicited. And sometimes I'll even say, I know this is unsolicited, but I've been through this. And so you don't have to walk through all the hardship that I had to walk through.

These are like warning, like pay attention to these things. And then, yeah, they might not receive it, but they might because I went through it. So there might be an appropriate time to say something if you actually have a testimony and you're on the other side of it too. But that's where it's spiritual though. Right, right, I know. That's where having an opinion has to be literally a spiritual thing.

Like when you walk and talk it out, spiritually speaking, you'll know whether the Holy Spirit is opening the door for you or... You're so maybe the person is asking for your opinion, right? That's another whole thing, which there are a lot of people who do. And listen, when they ask, tell them, don't be a chicken, which is a lot of people. They're like, I can't do it because it's confrontational. Get over yourself. Yeah, 100%.

Quit being weak. It actually says in Galatian 6.1, it says, if another believer is overcome by sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person. person back onto the right path. Yep. Key words, gentle, humbly, should. So that there's restoration. Yes, good.

Yep. It's very true. Not intrusive and not self-righteously. Yep. Yeah. Excellent. So. Yeah.

I think that's the difference with me and you hope. Like you're, like you want to give advice and I actually don't want to give advice. But I want to help people and I have lots of words. So that's where we're the same. But I just like, I like, I don't know. There's something inside of me that's like, they don't, don't even care. And you're like, but they have to care.

That's where the Lord literally has had to teach me. And I've said this a lot of times on this podcast, but the Lord had to tell me you care more than they do about them themselves. You can't care more about them than they care about themselves, which I was falling into that trap. I cared too much. I was like too worried about them. He's like, if I don't even do that, then you shouldn't be doing that.

And I'm like, gosh, that's so true. which freed me in many, many ways because I would literally be broken over people. A lot of the times I gave my opinions not from a bad place. I really didn't. It may not have sounded like it, but I did, you know, whether that's good or bad, I don't know. But a lot of times from the place that you give it, you're like really hoping to save somebody. But it's like what you said earlier, casting pearls to swine. Are they going to use it and then do something with it?

Or are you just talking and it's falling on deaf ears? You don't waste your time. It's just like you should try and hold people accountable so that you can save them from their sin. But that scripture also should be, if they're willing to receive what you have to say. Because if they aren't, then there's no point in talking to them. All you're doing is hardening their heart and making them more, you know,

there's just so many variables. It's another believer, so they're a believer. So I would hope that they would want to receive it. That's just an assumption. Maybe I shouldn't assume. Well, the thing was is for me, my girlfriend, when I walked away from God, I would be considered still a believer because I hadn't fully walked away from God until I told her,

I'm doing my own thing. She was still trying to do that with me, but she was casting her pearls to swine because I had made up my mind and I legitimately at that moment went from believer to unbeliever because I verbalized I'm going to go see what the world has.

She still tried to save me from myself but I was too far gone even though she didn't realize it. And that's why it's the God factor at that point is you have to have a level of discernment. Like you have to know God's voice like yesterday. I literally heard the Holy Spirit say no. Like you have to have to have to have that level because then if not you're you're literally going to cast your pearls onto swine because you don't have that guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Well, it's that communion, right? Yeah. When you're communing with the Holy Spirit, you know. Right. You know when to say things and when you know when not to say things. Are you going to get it wrong sometimes? Yeah, everybody does. But on the whole, if you're hitting the ball out of the park,

you're doing better than most. How often should you be in communion with the Lord hope? Well, it says in Ephesians that continuously. Right, every day, right? Well, yeah, at all times it says. At all times. Yeah. So people go, it's not possible.

Well, I would say to a certain extent, you are correct in that, like you can't be praying all the time. But I would also say that there are a lot of, of things that we allow our minds to drift off into that have nothing to do spiritually speaking that are good for us. And a lot of times people are contemplating things like at their job. They're contemplating and they're fearful of things that, oh, I got this wrong. So now this is probably going to happen. And oh my gosh, am I going to get fired because I didn't do that?

Or, oh, my gosh, they're going to yell at me when the word says to worry about nothing, right? So if you were actually, instead of thinking the worst, but thinking what the word says, that's communing. Somebody ticks you off. And instead of having a conversation about what you're so ticked off about in your head, but saying, you know what, God, I give that, I'm not even going to think on those things. Lord, you say that you'll work all things out for my good. So this, whatever this issue is with this person, what's going to happen is you're going to turn it around.

you'll bring them to me at the appropriate time. And we'll have a conversation and you will speak for me. Instead of me thinking of all the things I'm going to say, I'm going to wait on you for that conversation and you're going to speak on my behalf. And whatever you call to my memory is what I will say. Instead of you preparing for that conversation. Those, like, we think that's communion, guys.

But a lot of times we allow our minds, we listen to a lot of things. We do a lot of things throughout the day that have absolutely nothing to do with God and everything to do with the world. And we say it's not possible. It's not possible. Yeah, it is.

What are you taking in throughout the day? True. Absolutely is possible. So I disagree. Yeah. You'd be a way better person. Way better person. If you, like, instead of sitting at your desk,

you listen to country music. If you were sitting at your desk and you were listening to Foundation Worship, if you were sitting at your desk instead of listening to talk radio, you were sitting at your desk and you were listening to the Bible. There are options, guys. There's lots of them. Or you listen to, instead of a podcast about politics, you listen to a podcast about healing or like if you're having problems with finances,

something that tells you about how to change your finances around. All of it's communion. Yeah. It's all of what you're thinking on. And you'll be talking to the Lord about, okay, like, okay, Lord, I just received that. I just got that message through whatever that guy says. I'm going to start doing that right now, Lord.

Now bless the work of my hands because I'm going, you know, it's really all about perspective and all about how you follow through on things. A lot of people say you can't do it. I disagree because you can. You really can. It's whatever you're taking in. is either God or the world. And then you wonder why things don't work out for you.

Right. Or your walk is in disarray. There's reasons for it. We have three minutes left. Before I start another section of this, and we'll finish up on Friday. You guys want to add anything? What advice did you give when you weren't a parent yet to a parent?

Oh, my God. This is so embarrassing. I'm just curious. I think we need to finish that story before we move on. Guys, I'm such an idiot. Tell it. I mean, it's a very long time ago, so. Oh, my gosh.

Such an idiot. Like, oh, kids, people's kids would be, they still are terrible. But I just, I don't really say anything. I just let them have the kids be terrible. Isn't that interesting now you are a parent and you don't get advice but when you weren't a parent. Because nobody listens. I know, but it's just funny. Right? So you learn that nobody listens. The problem is, is when I was giving advice, I didn't know I was going to have a Tommy. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. If I would have had a Norma, I'd been like, but I had a Tommy.

And so I learned really fast that every piece of advice that I gave every mother friend of mine came back to bite me in the butt. But I had this one friend that their kids were, for the most part, they had several kids, but they just had this one child. And this one kid was just, they made Tommy look like angelic. And that kid was awful.

Just awful. So I'm not proud of this one. But literally, I think Tom and I both. which had no children. We pretty much this child was tearing everything up. Everything. And just disrupting the whole entire family dynamic, kids, the whole thing. And grew up to be an adult that is like a real prize.

Is that sarcasm? Yeah. 100% sarcastic. We told him we were like, you need to lock that kid in its bedroom with nothing in there and just lock it in there. Oh my God. Feed it. Feed it.

Let it go to the bathroom. Did you say it? Yeah. Feed it and let it go to the bathroom. But lock it in there. Feed it and let it go pee. And that's it. How old was this child?

Do you know? Do you remember? Eight or ten. Okay. They were awful. Okay. Awful. Okay.

Now, is that abusive? Probably. I don't know. Was this in the early? 90s. Probably, Tom was a cop at the time. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

But seriously, like, that kid was off the chain. Yeah. Off the chain bad. And, like, literally, like, well, I think if spankings would have been applied at a very young age, might have been a little different, but that's not really what happened. But I will say, but I will say, and that the parents' defense, they did start. spanking. But that kid, you could spank that kid until you were blue in the face. And that kid just didn't care. It pretty much thumb its nose at you and say, screw you. So that's why

it got to a place where there was absolutely no discipline from taking away everything to no TV, to, because there weren't phones back then, to everything. Like we were like, well, locking into room. See how that works for it for about a week. Pee, poo, and eat. That's all you get. Okay, it's time to redeem yourself. What advice would you give now? I wouldn't. I wouldn't say a thing. I would not say a thing. But if you were asked, if you were asked, what advice would you give? Well, here's the thing with that. I don't know if I would give advice now. Okay. And the reason I don't know if I would give advice. And the reason I don't know if I would give advice is because those people know that child, correct? And it's like I have had friends,

and I'm not saying one friend. I've had multiple friends, not two, three to four people that I know that have taken in foster children. Okay. And I, in all honesty, I don't know of anybody who has fostered children that it has been as true success with those children. And I'm just being flat out honest with you. Fostering, if you ever want to do it, think long and hard whether you should or not, because it will be very, very difficult. But, for example, I've literally had foster parents ask me, like, what would you do if this is your? And I've try to be, I've tried to answer those questions. But the thing is, is those kids and those situations are totally different. And nobody understands this. They think they're like their

kid. They're not like a kid that grew up in a two family member home without an addicted parent or an abusive parent or like you can't do what you think you can do with your child that they can do with that child. And in this case, with this family that had this wild child, now all their kids are not saved. These people were Christians. I don't know if any of their kids are saved. Well, the last time I checked, they weren't even saved.

Okay, so in this particular instance, I don't know what I would tell them, because I don't know what that child experienced to make that child be like that. and it's kind of like the foster system. Like if your child is going to lay down on the ground and throw a tantrum, I could easily say you're allowing sin to develop and root itself into your child because a tantrum is a fit of rage,

which it clearly says in Galatians that fits of rage, you'll not inherit the kingdom of heaven. So let's not let that develop itself, right? but on the whole with this child, it was far beyond all of that. Okay. So what I would deduce as far as what that child needs, I wouldn't even know. I wouldn't pretend to know. And I would be, my opinion, absolutely probably shouldn't and wouldn't matter.

Unless the Holy Spirit said, thus saith the Lord, it's not happening. but I will tell you this I know that there are people who honestly believe and I being one of them at one time thought I knew what was best for everybody when in all actuality it's not that I was being a turd

I actually thought I was giving good advice and my heart was in the right place when I was doing it but I was completely wrong and it was irrelevant what I was saying And thank God they didn't lock that child in the bedroom. It probably would have worked. It might have. I'm telling you.

It was not a good scene. It was a wild, wild scene. I believe it. I believe it. But I don't know. Do you know what I'm saying, though? A lot of people have a lot of opinions on a lot of people, a lot of things. But they don't know what makes that child tick only the parent does.

And if you're not disciplining, that's part of the problem. But if you are disciplining, then sometimes it's a process of elimination as to what works and what doesn't. Yeah, true. And, like, obviously, I have a blended family. And so if people tried to give us advice on what to do in certain situations, like you have to know the entire story if you're going to truly try to give advice. Because to say Jair should act like this when their dad's acting like this.

And then it's like, but then you have to like sit and explain it all. And most people at that point when they're already giving you advice, they don't want to hear, they think you're just making up excuses. But really you're trying to explain a situation. So yeah, I know kids are hard. Kids, it would have to be spirit led or you'd have to be willing to sit down and hear the whole story. Without thinking that it's like whenever we would explain stuff when we first started the church, people always thought you were defensive. And you were in the wrong, therefore that's right.

You were defensive. Right. Yep. So. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah. It was better for us to say nothing and let God work it out. And that's kind of this.

Yeah. Once you start over, like, communicating, they're like, you look, you sound guilty. Because you kind of feel guilty because you're like trying to explain your story. I know. And then you're like, there's no winning. There's no winning in that. I know there isn't. There's no winning.

What's going to have to happen is like, for example, excuse me, for example, with your girls. It looked a certain way. But you were speaking and believing another. And trying to hold them to an account. accountability to an extent that you could because there was another side that you had to deal with that was very permissive in so many things, so many ways. So it's a balancing act. But the truth of the matter is, is now you're on the other side of it and you're seeing the fruits of listening to the Holy Spirit and trying to be obedient to what the Holy Spirit told you do in those

situations. That's where the time will only tell whether or not you're actually successful in what God's telling you to do. Exactly. And everybody is different and everybody's got to do what they believe God's telling them to do. And if you're not disciplining your child, then you're automatically wrong. No if, if, sins, or buts about that, that's scriptural. If you're using biblical principles daily, your children will turn out okay. If there are caveats to that situation, then you're going to have to be spirit led. And then at the end of the day, if you're spirit led, you'll hopefully see the fruits of your labor or that child has a choice. And they will make that decision. So, and I'm more speaking to people who you didn't get to raise from

zero to three, but you take in. And even if you did get them zero, even if you got them sometime, I'm like at one or two, there are still things that you're going to have to literally uproot out of that child. And there's willful defiance even in that. So I know people won't, we'll argue with that. But like when there's chemical issues because a child has been his brain damaged from, it's just a whole mess, man. That's all I can say.

I've seen it. I don't like it. God in his healing power. But you have to also believe. and you have to have the faith for certain situations to be rectified in that child, and it's going to be healing. And sometimes it's miraculous. So your faith has to be there.

And you're going to have to fight the good fight of faith. And it's going to be a rough road. So that's why I say to people, before you foster, don't just look at the dollar signs that the government's going to give you for that baby. Well, here's the problem. A lot of people, not the ones that I'm referring to. No, no, you're right, though. I know. I've heard stories. Because these people ended up adopting these children. If you're in the foster system, you get money.

And I know that there are still money with the adoption system, too. But I'm just saying, fostering is way less committing than adopting. And fostering, it's very lucrative. And so a lot of those systems are not good. So if you're going to do it, understand what you're getting yourself into, and you better make for sure that God's told you to do it. Yeah. Because you're really, that's ministry. Yeah.

Big time. That's ministry. So, all right. That wasn't where I wanted to end, but that's okay. Come back on Friday. Wormhole. Or rabbit hole. No, yeah. Warmhole. That's a whole other thing. Is it a wormhole a different thing? Is it like a portal? Yeah, it feel like it. Yeah. Oh, it's a portal. Yeah. That is.

You did not go into a portal. We just went down there. Squirrel. Squirrel. Yeah, squirrel. Love you guys. See you on Friday. Thank you for joining us. Bye.