All right, welcome to Supernatural Saturday.
Today is going to be a very unpredictable
Supernatural Saturday,
because I have twin 18-month-old grandchildren at my house,
and their mom and dad stayed at a hotel last night
in downtown Austin because they had a wedding,
which is why they're in town,
and Nona and Papa were on sleep duty,
and of course, the babies didn't sleep.
They didn't sleep.
They were pretty much up and down all night,
and so now they're pretty cranky,
and Papa is out there blowing bubbles,
trying to keep them entertained, so we'll see.
We'll see what happens this morning,
but it's a perfect segue to today's topic.
So if you're new to Supernatural Saturday,
if you're brand new to last year's single program, welcome.
This is the day where we lean into
what is heaven saying to us?
What does God want us to know?
What are the current prophetic realities
of the unseen realm?
Now, there's stuff all around us that we can all see.
We all know our own circumstances.
We know the facts of our life, right?
What's going on in our life that is fact,
but this is the day that we lean into truth, God's truth.
God's truth always trumps our fact,
and there's always something more happening
than what we can see.
One of my favorite things to say
that Holy Spirit told me a long time ago
is what you see is not what you get.
That's a famous saying, right?
What you see is what you get,
but one day, Holy Spirit came alongside and said,
what you see is not what you get.
What you say is what you get.
And so it's about what you're coming into agreement with.
What is the higher agreement that you can come into
in your life today?
And that is what Supernatural Saturday is all about.
So the grandbabies being here
and everything kind of being chaotic
is a perfect introduction to today's topic,
what God has been putting on my heart,
and that is counting the cost.
The book of Luke talks about Jesus
telling a parable about counting the cost.
And it's not just about a building project,
although that is the analogy that he is using.
Who would start to build something
unless they knew they could finish it, right?
That is really the gist of the story.
And so this is what we do here in last year's single program.
We want to help you to be able to sustain
what it is that you are desiring to build in your life.
Okay, whether that is friendships or community,
obviously marriage is the reason why all of you are here.
And so can you sustain it?
Have you counted the cost?
Do you have what it takes to not just, you know,
get to a certain place of finish, completeness
with the building project, with the relationship,
with the meet cute, you met him and you met her,
and now you're in a relationship,
but do you have what it takes
to not just go all the way to the altar?
A lot of people can get to the altar, right?
A lot of people ignore a lot of things
that they shouldn't ignore to get to the altar,
let's just be honest.
And then they get to the altar,
but after all of that's kind of worn off,
all the excitement and the fun of that has worn off,
then we have a situation where can you sustain
this relationship for a lifetime?
Because that is what that relationship is for,
is for a lifetime.
And yes, that relationship is supposed to grow you,
it's supposed to mature you, it's supposed to change you,
it's supposed to stretch you, it's not supposed to be easy.
A lot of people end up breaking up relationship
in their lives because they're under this weird idea
that if this person was the one, then it would be easy.
Now, I'm not advocating for abuse.
Obviously, if it's not easy because it's abusive,
then that's a whole different story,
but it's not supposed to be easy.
We have a couple in our community right now
that are going through an immigration process.
He's Canadian, she's American.
They met through me and they met in this community.
So they met through this community and through me.
There were a lot of different touch points
in this relationship where other people like myself
had to get involved to help them stay together,
help encourage them that yes, this is a great relationship,
it's not going to be easy, it's just going to be worth it.
Even yesterday, I messaged the man,
they're engaged now, they're getting married,
and said, I know that this has been a really rocky road.
Why has it been rocky?
Because they met right during the same time
as a lot of restrictions for COVID
were still on the countries and on the borders
and they got to know each other virtually for a long time,
wondering if they were ever going to get to meet in real life.
And there were a lot of things
that stood in their way of that.
And then finally, when they were able to meet,
what happened?
what I knew was going to happen in my heart happened.
And that was they realized that everything that they had felt for each other
virtually was transferring over to in-person, but it still wasn't easy.
We're talking about a lot of investment, a lot of time investment,
a lot of money investment, a lot of travel investment, right?
Now they have to have lawyers. It's not a normal, Hey, I like you,
you like me let's date. Okay.
And now let's go down to the chapel and get married. No,
their love story has a lot of stuff in it that other people's doesn't,
but they're continuing to press forward.
And I believe they're going to have a beautifully blessed marriage because right
now what's happening is their resolve is being
strengthened. They're in it to win it.
And it's being strengthened over and over and over again. You know,
their desire to be with each other is being questioned against
comfort. Do I really want this? Or do I just want something easy?
Do I really want this? Or do I just want this to be comfortable?
This is really uncomfortable.
There's long stretches of time where we don't get to see each other because it's
just so expensive to travel and, you know,
and there's all kinds of different rules that we have to follow because of the
governments and the immigration. And, you know, is it,
is it going to be worth it?
Or would it be just better just to find someone local,
someone easier? And for some people, the question that the answer to that question
is yes, because I'm not trying to be offensive. I love y'all. You know, I do,
but you don't got what it takes.
You don't. Could you get what it takes? Yeah.
But right now you don't got it right now. You don't got what it takes.
And I want to go ahead and expand on that because I really feel like this is a,
this conversation that Holy Spirit wants us to get real with.
You guys want to have some real conversation.
Even if you met someone, even if it was easy, even if they were local,
you don't have what it takes to sustain relationship.
You got what I call cut and run itis.
At the first sign of trouble, you're going to be gone.
You are.
And the reason why is because you have created for yourself,
even though you're like, I want to be married.
It's the most important thing in my life. It isn't. It's not.
You've created a life for yourself. That's very comfortable for you.
There are things of course, that you want, that you don't have,
but you're not willing to stretch and get uncomfortable in order to get those
things. And those things could be anything.
Those things could be your health back.
Y'all, when we get to a certain age, our health is a slippery slope.
It really is. And not that younger people can't get, you know,
sickness and dis-ease and disease in their body. Of course they can.
But it happens usually after long periods of neglect.
Sickness and disease doesn't usually happen out of nowhere.
It happens after long periods of neglect where there were lots and lots and lots
of signs that things were going the wrong direction.
Now the good news is that I believe that there's grace and I believe that of
course there's healing, but beyond healing,
there has to be a want and a commitment to do the work to get back to where you
need to be. And when I said a slippery slope,
what I mean is that when you get to a certain place,
it's not easy to get back to where you need to be, is it?
It's not easy to get back. You know, your joints hurt.
You got, you get, it's not easy to get up.
It's easy to get down and sit down,
but it's not easy to stand up and get up and do the things.
And it's not going to be easy as you go forward. It's not going to be easy.
You're just going to have to continue to choose it and want it because here's
the thing that's important for you to understand. It doesn't get any better.
It doesn't get any better.
It's not going to be easier next week or next month or next year. In fact,
I propose to all of you that because this message is being released,
I propose to all of you that because this message is being released and I
believe from heaven and you know,
sometimes there are corrective things that come.
So please don't hear this through the, through the filter of religion.
God's not punishing you. No one's getting spanked today.
God's correction comes because he wants to help us.
He doesn't want us to be in pain. There's a scripture that says,
take my feet off this path of pain, this path of pain that I chose.
I chose this path of pain, but take my feet off.
Get off of this path of pain and what?
Lead me back to you.
But we have to say yes.
We have to want it.
Do I believe that there's a fresh wind from heaven
that comes and helps us and pushes us forward?
Yeah, but a lot of times you don't feel it right away.
Is God with us?
Is his strength made perfect in weakness?
Yeah, it is.
But sometimes you don't feel it right away.
Sometimes you just have to want it.
Sometimes you just have to push through,
get up every day, do the thing,
and then it'll start getting more intuitive.
I don't even want to use the word easier
because it may not ever feel easier as far as in your body
because we're talking about physical fitness right now,
but in your mind it will get easier.
The results will be so beneficial
that it'll be something that before you couldn't do
and you didn't want to do,
and then it becomes something
that you can't live without doing, right?
And that's called a habit.
That's about creating habits.
And that's about creating momentum.
We have to do that.
So where is this conversation coming out of?
It's coming out of that we have a lot,
a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of wishbone,
but we do not have any, you know, backbone,
any work ethic in those areas
that we want and want and want and want.
Right?
And it's time for that to shift.
God doesn't want you to live like that.
He doesn't.
And so whatever area of your life
that Holy Spirit's gonna highlight to you,
that's an area where you're going to have to start
to understand that you have to do the harder work, okay?
You're going to have to do the harder work.
So the Golden Bachelor,
a lot of you probably didn't watch that show,
but there's been a show on television
for over 20 years called The Bachelor.
And I hate the show.
I personally think that it's everything
that's wrong with television.
It's like sports for women in a way
that all of these girls,
you're like betting on your girl to win,
like a horse race or something.
Like, oh, Christy over here, I'm betting on her to win.
Yeah, I want her to win.
But you know, the whole show is about
what woman can make an emotional and physical
and sexual connection with this man
to the point where he chooses her by the end of the show
to quote unquote get engaged to.
Very, very, very, very, very few people
have ever gotten actually married on The Bachelor.
There's just been a handful of marriages
and most of them happen on The Bachelorette show,
not The Bachelor.
With The Bachelorette, same thing.
She picks from 20 or so guys.
A lot of times The Bachelorette
actually does marry the choice that she picks.
But The Bachelor, not so much.
They usually break up after a few months
and they want to get their prize money.
So they stay together long enough to get that prize money
and then they break up, right?
So here's the thing.
They did it for older people.
That show is usually of millennial age people.
I'd say anywhere from 25 to 40-ish.
And so they decided what it would look like
if we had an older Bachelor.
They called him the Golden Bachelor.
72 years old, I believe is how old he was.
Of course, he was well-preserved.
Let's just say that way.
And all the women that were fighting for his affection,
they were all well-preserved as well.
But he picked one of them and he married her.
That was three months ago.
They're now getting divorced.
Why am I telling you this?
Because older people, for the most part,
are very set in their ways.
And a lot of you are old enough to know better.
Now this doesn't leave all of you that are under 50 out.
It doesn't leave you out.
Because certain personalities can be like this as well.
And you definitely need to make sure
that if the shoe fits, you put it on,
you tie it up and wear it.
Now if I'm a little distracted today
it's because I hear my husband out there
trying to entertain the troops.
And I hear them screaming and, you know,
my grandson pinched my granddaughter
and all the things are happening, right?
Right without, right on the outside of your ear shot,
I can hear that.
And it sounds like a three ring circus out there
and David is doing his best.
He's doing his best.
Go Papa, go, go Papa, go.
All right.
So I really felt like the Lord wanted us to have this conversation because you know that
we've had lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of engagements and marriages in this
community, but we've also had a few divorces.
This community has only been around for four years y'all and we've already had a few divorces.
In every single instance of divorce, the reason for the divorce was selfishness.
Was I am set in my way.
This is the way that I do things.
This is the way that I want things done.
This is my schedule.
This is my life.
Now you fit in it.
Come and fit in it.
Every single one of them y'all and they all were with people that were late forties and
up.
This is a life that I've built for myself.
You weren't around.
I built this life for myself.
These are my friends.
This is my community.
This is the church that I go to.
These are the clothes that I wear and these are the hobbies that I do.
This is my house.
See how it's set up.
This is how I want it set up.
See this furniture?
This is my furniture.
See this cat?
This is my cat.
I don't care if you don't like my cat.
My cat's here to stay.
Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord splits you.
If you don't like my cat, y'all, we have someone getting divorced right now over a cat.
I'm not freaking kidding.
All right.
I want my life the way I want it and then I want you to come and just be part of it
the way that I already have it.
I don't want to relocate for you.
Yeah, I know that I said I would and I know that when we were all lovey-dovey and rose-colored
glasses on, it sounded like a good thing, but now that we're married, I changed my mind.
You guys, I'm not joking around.
I know I'm being funny because I really don't know how else to be.
That's just who I am.
All right.
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
Remember Mary Poppins?
But I'm just going to tell you right now that this is truth.
I'm not making up these scenarios.
These are real things that are happening.
Oh, I know I married you and I know that now it's time for you to move into my house because
that's what we decided on, but you can't bring any of your furniture with you because I decided
that I don't like your furniture.
I decided that I don't have room for your furniture.
I like my house the way that it is.
You can't bring your stuff.
In fact, I'm not sure if you're even allowed to move in.
You guys, these are real things.
These are real things.
And so the question that God has for all of us this morning is, have you counted the cost?
Because this is going to hurt, y'all.
Now is it going to be equal, equally great and wonderful?
Yes.
But it's going to be pain associated with your love story.
You are going to be stretched.
You are going to be challenged.
Your life cannot and will not remain the same.
Even some good stuff about it.
I know a lot of people are like, oh, you know, I just, I just have everything.
I just love my life.
And all that it's missing is just a man or a woman.
Well, you guys, that's actually the wrong mindset.
Because when you find that man or woman, the life that you love so much, you're going to
have to give it up in some aspects.
And if you're so happy and you love it so much, then you might not want to rock the
boat.
I know this is deep, y'all, and it's probably not what you were thinking about.
Now it's different when we're kids, right?
And we meet in high school and then you get married and you don't got a pot to pee in.
There's nothing going on in your life.
In fact, you probably have the same friends and everything because that's the age that
you have that friend group and all that stuff going on.
Not that young marriages work out.
and not that they're not stretched.
They, their, their challenge is to grow together
and not grow apart as they're maturing
and getting older, right?
Because you change a lot from 20 years old
to 40 years old, don't you?
And so it's about growing together and not growing apart.
But when you get married, when you're older,
you're old enough to know better,
whether that's at any age where you've established a life.
You know, I'm kind of focusing on all you folks
that are 45 and up, but even you people
that are younger than that, if you have children,
you have shared parenting agreements,
you have support systems.
I've seen so many couples almost get to engagement
and then break up because they don't want
to leave the support system that they've created
for themselves as a single,
as a single parent or just as a single.
I don't want to leave my church community.
It's taken me a long time to find this church community
and I've been in this church community for 10, 15 years.
The whole time I've been a single adult
and I don't want to leave it.
You guys, I need to tell you something really important.
If you're leaving a kingdom life,
not a church life, you can go live a church life
if you want to, and it can be us four and no more.
You can stay at the same church that you were saved at
till you die, go for it.
But if you want to live a kingdom life,
change is going to be part of your life.
Change is going to be part of your life.
If you're living a kingdom life,
you're going to show up a year from now
and we'll have a conversation and you're not going to believe
the same things that you believe right now, a year from now.
Why? Because you should be evolving.
Now, we don't go throwing out the baby with the bath water,
but I can tell you that when I stepped out of the church age
and into the kingdom age in 2009,
God opened up a whole realm of possibilities
for me to use my ministry gifts
outside of traditional church settings in the marketplace
and I shifted.
The things that I believed in 2009,
the things that I believe in 2024 are vastly different.
I've continued to grow and evolve.
Even to the place where a lot of church people
that knew me back when I first got saved,
wonder if I'm saved.
I don't know if she's still saved.
She was doing church ministry,
she was speaking on the platform,
she was a preacher and now she owns a business.
I think that she sold out back in 2009.
She owns a business.
I think that she sold out and backslid.
What? Get out of here.
This is the most spiritually alive thing
that I've ever done in my life.
I mean, this is a ministry, obviously.
It's a business tree is what I call it, a business ministry.
We're not all called to be on platforms
and buildings we call churches.
And the reason why I say that we call churches
is because in the Bible, that's not what the church was.
The church was a group of people, it wasn't a place.
You are the church, you are the ecclesia.
All of us together are the ecclesia,
regardless of whether we have a building or not.
This is completely off topic,
but I know a lot of people that wanna plant churches
and the first thing that they focus on is a building.
Don't focus on a building, focus on people.
Can meet in the basement of your house,
you can meet in your living room.
You can meet at a local coffee shop.
There's a lot of people around
that probably need to hear the kind of stuff
y'all are talking about.
Why do we hide away in church buildings?
We keep adding more and more and more stuff
in the buildings so that nobody ever has to leave.
Oh, you need coffee, we got you.
Mm-hmm, you need a bookstore, we got you.
We're ready.
We got everything you need here.
You need childcare, you need daycare.
Oh, you need a school, yep, we got you.
We got everything and anything
that you could possibly ever need,
we got it all in this building.
Right?
And then depending on what the name is over the door,
it's gonna keep out everybody else.
You guys ever notice how churches have some weird names?
This is the World of Pentecost Apostolic Church of Christ
of the Redeemed Savior.
What in the world just happened?
Guys, we are called to be kingdom people.
And if you wanna be a kingdom person,
then you are going to have to be open to change.
If you want to have a kingdom marriage, then you are going to have to be willing to be
stretched and be open to change.
A lot of you have given up on really good potential partners because you didn't want
to stretch.
And you're hoping to find someone who fits into your puzzle.
You're hoping to find someone who fits into your puzzle and I hope you don't because if
you do that, that means that you're going to stay stagnant and you might not feel like
you're stagnant yet, but I promise you five years from now, you're going to feel like
you're stagnant because that's the nature of this thing.
You don't, you don't immediately know that you didn't opt in to the upgrade.
It isn't until everyone around you has all kinds of emojis that you don't have and their
phones can do all kinds of things that yours can't.
Your signal is dropping, your wifi stinks that you realize, Oh, two and a half years
ago there was a new operating system and I didn't download it.
Everybody else, even the people that have the year and a half old operating system are
ahead of me here, right?
It's not always apparent and a lot of people are just happy that they let go of that opportunity
because they didn't want to be stretched in that moment.
And it feels good to say, Oh, you can go back to normal now.
Yeah, I know.
I thought I loved that person, but yeah, they were really stretching me and there were all
kinds of things that were scary and I didn't want to do them yet and now they're gone and
now I can relax.
Go back to my same old, same old.
Here's the problem though.
Your same old, same old is going to start getting massively stale.
What you didn't want to change and you didn't want to stretch for, you're going to start
to not like anymore.
You want to know why?
Because that person that came, God sent them, God sent them and you want to know why he
sent them?
Because you've been praying for them.
You've been praying for the opportunity to have more, to do more, to be more, and oftentimes
shows up in packages that are uncomfortable.
I've had so many people say to me, man, why couldn't God just give me a local love story?
Why do I got this long distance love story?
What's going on here?
You know, well, you're the one that prayed to be changed and transformed.
You're the one who, you don't remember it, but in a fit of passion during a personal
encounter with the Lord, you said, anything you want, God, anything you want, here I am,
send me, but you didn't mean it.
You meant it in the moment, but then when the here I am, send me shows up, you're like,
Oh, Oh, Oh, this is not what I had in mind.
Guys, I've all been there.
I've been there.
I'm laughing at myself.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
All you ladies.
I just want my Boaz.
Where's my Boaz?
Boaz shows up.
He's 10 years older than you expected him to be.
You know, he's got a little bit of a limp.
Look, he's not a peg-legged pirate, y'all.
He's got some random ear hair and you're like, Oh no, no, anyone but that one, Lord, you
didn't even give him a chance.
He's super funny and, and intelligent and has all this stuff together.
I mean, you guys, everyone is going to have a yellow flag or two.
Everyone's going to have one.
Women are the worst at saying, just send him, just, Oh, I need him, I want him, I want him.
And then five guys ask her out.
She's like, Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
All right.
You guys, we have to get serious here.
We've got to get serious here.
If you really do want whatever upgrade it is that you want,
you're going to have to be willing to be stretched,
and you got to count the cost.
You got to go ahead and count the cost.
Because the worst thing to do,
as happened to so many of you now,
is you get halfway through the building process of a relationship,
and then you opt out because you realize that
you don't have what it takes to finish the job.
That breaks hearts.
Now, can God use it all to our good?
Yeah. But I don't know about you,
but can we just skip to the good part
instead of always having a Romans 8.28 everything in our lives?
I mean, does everything have to have a Romans 8.28,
God will work it out to the good?
Why can't it just start good?
Anybody else? I know
we all are like, well,
I'm sure this is a blessing in disguise.
Well, excuse me if I want some blessings that are not wearing disguises.
I want some of my blessings to not be wearing disguises,
where I have to sit and pray and try to find the silver lining.
I don't want that. I don't want it.
Love has no guarantees, you guys.
L-O-V-E is spelled R-I-S-K.
You're not going to keep clean hands.
Love is a messy business, especially in the year 2024.
You're going to have to be willing to get your hands dirty.
You're going to have to be willing to go through some healing with people eventually.
It may not come out right in the courtship,
but it's going to come out.
And if it does come out in the courtship,
because you've been in a long courtship, great.
But that is not an excuse to cut and run.
You're not getting a perfect person.
You're not supposed to be getting a perfect person.
Are they teachable?
Not by you, but are they teachable to the Lord?
Do they want to listen to him?
Do they hear from him?
You guys, I'm telling you, this is gold.
You find a person like this, you do not let them go.
Someone who's following Christ, someone who learns from their mistakes,
someone who wants to, you know, communicate with you and grow with you
and change and evolve with you as you both follow Christ,
that's the Holy Grail, y'all.
It is.
Someone who apologizes and then begins to change their behavior based on that apology,
these are big things.
Someone who wants to talk things out when there's a disagreement,
and not just so that you can hear their side,
but because they really do value connection.
They value connection with you.
If you find someone like that, you better move heaven and earth for them.
Seriously.
If it takes moving and you can,
because you don't have a shared parenting agreement, do it.
Do it.
Let's just pause and pray right now.
I just really feel a lot of weightiness on this call.
I don't know if you feel it, but I do.
I do.
I'm just going to unmute my phone here,
and I want y'all to just take a few minutes to really just begin to seek the Lord
on this, what's happening right now for your own heart.
Lay your heart open to Him.
Allow Him to show you some of these points of disconnection,
some of these future stumbling blocks.
Some of you are not in a relationship yet,
but these are going to be things that trip you up for sure.
Let Him begin to show you what's going on,
and it might not even be a relationship that He shows you.
It might be other areas where you have not counted the cost,
and you will not be able to go all the way.
So let's go ahead and pray for a few minutes.
Dear God, we just come to you.
Not out loud.
We're just going to pray to ourselves.
Thank you, Mickey.
But hold that, because as soon as we're done being introspective,
then you can come back and do that.
you
all right let's take a couple people to pray over the group here Mickey you can
go first
dear God I just pray that we get serious and that we do count the cost and that
we are serious about what we're wanting and for us to really know that God is
with us in Jesus name
men couple more yeah Holy Spirit I just asked that you'd help us to focus and to
regularly just notice the distractions and put them aside I pray that you just help us
to like do to identify them I think there's so many distractions and we just need your
help we need help we need wisdom to know what to focus on with so many dreams bubbling up
I pray you give us focus and wisdom in Jesus name Jesus I just pray you give courage courage
to press into the one that doesn't seem like it's they're not the polished road but just
just that we would walk with you and lockstep and when you call us to do something even
when it's hard we'd have the courage to push through and to be obedient and everything
and Lord I just pray that everybody here like hope deferred we just break that off in Jesus
name and that you will see it is on and be obedient and abide and everything will become
we'll come to you in Jesus name amen amen Lord I thank you that you just showed me that
sorry go ahead I've been praying that my mate would like all the same things I like and
you just showed me that was that's the wrong prayer and I thank you for that and now I
pray that she would help me to be vulnerable and allow stretching and getting out of my
comfort zone yes amen such a good prayer you guys you don't have to have all the things
in common you don't have to like all the same things you know there's already one of you
you don't need two of you I'm gonna tell you being married to someone who's exactly like
you would not be a fun marriage I know that it sounds easy the reason why you want it
because it's easy you don't need to change right you don't need to get new hobbies or
you know do something that you might not like to do because your partner likes to do it
and you do it for them I don't really like to golf but I'll drive a little cart around
so David can hit some golf balls right I'll find something fun to do because your marriage
is about lineage and legacy you're gonna be on this earth for such a brief amount of time
even if you live to be as old as old can be that's still in the light of eternity very
very short amount of time right very short amount of time you're gonna be on this earth
and should Jesus tarry and not set up his kingdom on earth you know in the next few
generations we're talking about a generations and generations of your lineage and legacy
and maybe God wants to change up what it looks like hey Jack no some of you all some of you
all have lineages and legacies that God wants to change up what they look like maybe you're
the kind of person who's like you know there's never been anyone in our family who's married
outside of the race of whatever it is that you are right and so anytime anyone says anything
about interracial marriage you just kind of like look to the person next you like oh that
must be for you that's not for me because my family doesn't do that they never have
done it. Well, maybe God wants your family to do it. Maybe that is a word for you. Maybe what
runs in your family is not, you know, same-race marriage. Maybe it's prejudice, and maybe you're
the turning point for it. Maybe you're the turning point for that in your lineage and legacy.
Maybe God's using that person that, you know, has fallen in love with you,
that doesn't live where you live, to get you out of your geographic area to a different one.
I've seen this happen over and over and over and over again, where God has used a relationship and,
you know, a love-interest relationship to get someone to move from where they are to where
the other person is, because God had a plan for them in that other area, and this was just part
of the plan. I've seen God use jobs to do that. I've seen him use potential love stories to do
that and actual love stories to do it. You're like, what's a potential love story? Well,
you really start liking someone and you move to where they live because you guys have to,
you know, do life together to see what works out, and then it doesn't work out with that person,
but that area works out for you. It becomes the best thing that ever happened to you, right?
And so...
This is Carla. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to say something about what you were saying,
if that's okay.
Yeah, can you just wait till I'm done?
Sure.
That'd be great. Thanks. And yeah, we do want to hear from you, Carla, because I know
you've had a lot of stretching lately. So these are things that I really want you to ponder and
consider. I don't want this to be a supernatural Saturday that goes in one ear and out the other.
I really want you to think, how does what's being said this morning apply to me? Not to my neighbor,
not to my friend, not to someone that I was talking to the other day about this very subject.
Maybe you were talking to them about this very subject because God is trying to confirm it to you,
not them. All right, go ahead, Carla. I'll let you share.
Thank you. And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I literally, as you guys
maybe know, I had this life-threatening brain tumor and this miraculous surgery of the best
doctors in the world. And the whole story is amazing. But when I came home, not a single
human was paying any attention to me because my family was so broken and traumatized and all having
other medical emergencies. And it was Easter weekend and it was spring break. So I literally
almost died in the four days when I got home. And I faced death directly. And first of all,
I learned that it was a beautiful thing because I've been walking so closely with Jesus and I was
sitting in my dad's chair who died and I was so at peace and it felt amazing. And also because my
brain deteriorated so much, it actually kind of exploded out into this way that I can actually see
all the connections of my life. And I know for a fact that, well, for the fact of what I believe,
is that we are all here to heal our own hearts. Because the life that you've had, every moment in
your life is ordained, every moment of the good and the bad. And when you heal yourself, just like
Jackie is teaching us, and I've looked at healing all across the land, all across the world. And
Jackie, yours is the gentlest, best way because it's with Jesus. And that's what Jesus is telling
us. Do everything you're doing, be who you are, heal your hurts, heal your traumas because you
were meant to heal it. And everything you were saying about just because your family didn't do
it, it doesn't matter. You heal your heart, you heal it for your family and you heal it for the
world. And when you heal yourself, then you're coming from a complete place of unconditional
love and forgiveness, which is exactly where I am. And even when no human was paying attention
to me, I had to forgive and love people through that too. And I am living this magical life. I
am going to Stanford. Everything is happening magically, perfectly in amazing ways. It's an
incredible story. I'm getting ready to write my story. The last person I met in Stanford as a
ghostwriter, like every single thing has been supernatural since I started walking with Jesus
in May. And this is the only thing anybody has to do. You do what you do of who you are and your
gifts and your strengths and your experiences and you heal your heart. And when you get to a point
where you do truly feel unconditional love and forgiveness,
then that it's when everybody does that, that will heal the world. And I do not know if it's true,
but I know a lot of prophets and a lot of people who are watching religion, who are saying
that he is here. And even that my surgery is hard for me to believe, but all right.
Okay. Well, thank you for sharing. Carla is a new, a new believer. And so you see the zeal of a new
believer. And while some of you are like, wow, you know, you know, she's, she's talkative and
she's, you know, excited. Well, you know, maybe y'all have known Jesus a little too long.
And now you need to get some excitement out of that.
Well, that's also apparently part of my feeling of my tumor that it's not too much.
I'm going to mute myself.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
But I'm saying that when people meet Jesus in their early relationship with Jesus,
she just said that she became a believer in May, okay?
That means not even a year ago.
People are usually very zealous.
And so, friends, when we're zealous, and, you know, I remember when I met Jesus 28 years ago,
I was, I'm still pretty zealous, actually.
But it was like, whatever you want, Lord.
Whatever you want.
I'm here, whatever you want.
So Carla still has that going for her, and I hope she never loses it.
Whatever you want.
You want me to move to Stanford?
I'll move to Stanford.
Whatever you want.
And that is how I felt when I first met Jesus.
Now, there's been times during the last 28 years where I definitely wasn't asking God
what he wanted.
I was just kind of doing my own thing and building my own life and really not checking
in with him to see if, you know, if it was something that, you know, he was calling me
to do.
I will tell y'all that there's a lot of things that I have done that I didn't even pray about
first.
Now, thank goodness they weren't disastrous things, and they weren't humongous big things.
I'm not saying you have to pray and ask God about every tiny little thing you do.
I believe that you come to a place of relationship where he is guiding you with his eye.
I do believe that.
As you mature in Christ, that starts to happen where his desires and your desires are the
same.
But friends, we have so much of what we want going on in our lives, and we have, we've
taken back the pen.
We've taken back the pen.
We're not zealous about the works of the kingdom.
Your marriage, your future marriage is the work of the kingdom.
It's for a purpose.
If you are here to have a kingdom marriage, you want to just have an ordinary marriage,
then, you know, that can be a whatever you want it to be.
You can choose whoever you want.
You can choose your carbon copy if that's what you want.
And y'all can go live, you know, in a van down by the river, whatever it is you want
to do.
But if you want a kingdom marriage, you also might live.
You also might live in a van by the river.
But if you want a kingdom marriage, then, you know, that's going to be allowing God
to play matchmaker, right?
And that's going to be you understanding the cost.
When all of us decide to follow Jesus, we're told to count the cost of that.
Because what does the Bible tell us?
That whoever puts their hand to the plow and then turns back is not fit for the kingdom
of God.
What does that mean?
That can sound really condemning.
Oh, you know what?
You're not good enough.
You're not fit for the kingdom of God.
No, what it's saying is it's saying that you don't have a kingdom mindset.
If you put your hand to the plow and then you turn back, you have not had a kingdom
conversion.
You don't have a kingdom mindset.
You have a fair weather mindset.
I'll do it as long as it's convenient.
I'll do it as long as it feels good.
I'll do it as long as it benefits me.
Guys, we're living in a day and age where people come to Christ and as soon as Christ
doesn't become their slave and do what they want him to do and bless them the way they
want to be blessed, they're gone.
We're living in a time when people's heart soil is so full of rocks and thorns and thistles
and all the things that you guys read about when you did your heart work and all you newbies,
you'll be doing that very soon.
It chokes out the words of Jesus, the kingdom words of Jesus.
It chokes out the good, good life.
The good, good life, John 10, 10 does not come without pain.
It does not come without stretching.
It does not come without obstacles and challenges.
It does not come without adversity.
Y'all, we can do this.
Holy Spirit will enable us and empower us, but we have to continue to choose yes.
We have to continue to choose yes.
And just because Holy Spirit is empowering us, that is not the staples easy button.
I think a lot of people are going to say, well, I don't want to do that.
Staples easy button.
I think a lot of people really do believe that like, oh, well, if Holy Spirit's in it,
then it's going to be easy.
Who, what, how, where does it say that?
No, it's just going to be possible.
Come on, write that down.
Holy Spirit doesn't make it easy.
He makes it possible.
Because without him it's impossible, you can't do it at all.
Can't do it at all.
When's the last time you were so full of excitement about your life, gushing like Carla?
When's the last time?
Carla just had a freaking brain tumor removed from her brain.
She just went through dark night of the soul.
She just went through fire with gasoline underwear on.
And she's super excited about it, and what it's leading to, and what's opening the doors
now and this move.
I remember I was reading through the posts and I saw the post where Carla was at the
hospital and then I saw the post where she said what they found, she had a headache,
she went.
They weren't even going to give her an MRI.
She said, no, you need to.
Like Holy Spirit was leading her.
And they did it.
They gave her favor, they did.
They gave her an MRI.
She's bossing them around now and they gave it to her and then they found what they found.
And then the next thing you know, she's getting operated on.
And literally when they found what they found, instead of showing up and posting and being
like, oh, woe is me and I can't believe this happened to me, which guys, people would pretty
much have a right to do, right?
That's scary and shocking news to just get out of the blue, out of nowhere.
And no harm and no foul to anyone who needs to have a moment to process that.
But she jumps right into this better not mess up my move to Sanford.
I was like, come on, woman, that's awesome.
And right then, I mean, we did pray, obviously all of you guys on the healing call for her
and I do believe that God moved, but she already knew he was going to.
And so, you know, getting that serious about your future and about what you want and what
you believe in alignment with what God wants for you and having zeal and excitement about
this one and only life that God has given you and how you can live it supernaturally.
Right, you guys, it's not going to be easy.
It isn't.
And I do not want to count you among the people that came and tried to take the easy road,
picked someone, did this, did that, and then got halfway through the relationship and then
had to go because you just weren't willing to be stretched any further than that.
I don't want that for any of you.
And so I really want you to make this a matter of prayer.
We'll activate this on tomorrow night's activate, okay, activate some of this and give you guys
a chance to kind of talk and pray and and get it out there.
Okay, and some of you, you've already done this.
You've already cut and run from relationship that, you know, was definitely of God.
And you you talked yourself out of it.
You told yourself that there's probably something better and something easier.
You know, it's possible that those relationships could still come full circle.
I do believe that there's a few of you that could actually, you know, go back and try
again with that person.
And so if that's you, pray into that as well.
All right.
So Father God, I thank you for your sons and daughters.
I thank you for this time together.
God, I receive this as well for every area of our lives, Lord, where we are just not
being willing to be stretched to a place where we can have the good good that you have for
us.
You have all these amazing things for us, and there's a little bit out of reach because
we have to stretch for them.
We have to be stretched for them.
And so, Lord, I'm asking God that you would make us willing to be made willing in the
day of your power.
And I believe that we are in the day of your power.
And now it's time.
It's time for the children of the true and living God to stand up and to volunteer to
go first.
We just declare and release First Peter 417 over this community, that we have to come
first to the judgment that the things in our lives and in our hearts and in our actions
and our behaviors and our patterns that are not kingdom.
Those things must be judged.
They must be revealed.
They must be healed so that everyone else who's watching, they see us go first and there's
hope for them.
Because if we don't go first as your family, there's no hope for anyone else.
That's what your scripture says.
So we ask God that we have a First Peter 417 moment.
in this community, in our own lives, in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, so I know it's, I'm not sorry
that it's a little heavy and serious,
but it's important, you guys, really important.
Also, this is the weekend to go see someone like you.
You guys, let's rock out the theaters
for Christian Love Stories.
You guys, it's so moving.
I cried three times during that movie.
It was phenomenal, one of the best love stories
I've ever seen, got some sad parts,
got some really redeeming parts,
but we want to show the movie theaters
and we wanna show the production studios
that this is what we wanna see.
We wanna see more of this, great acting, not cheesy.
This is the kind of stuff, you guys,
if we wanna get this kind of stuff funded
and more made of it, then we have to show up
in the theaters and actually buy the tickets, all right?
So please go do it.
If you did see it already, post on your social media,
post links to tickets, have people go get them, all right?
Don't just be like, oh, I saw it and it was great
and it was wonderful, no, be an influencer, all right?
Love y'all, see you soon, bye-bye.