Hey, it is going to happen. I'm going to share a beautiful story with you guys.
So kia ora, kia ora. Great to be in here in the embassy with beautiful, beautiful people
like you. And I'm going to share quite the entertaining story with you today.
Now this, this video, hey Cynthia, this video is the introduction to 7 Sacred Pathways to
Intimacy. Alicia, good to see you. And over the next wee while here in the embassy we
are going to be doing a series of live videos. We're going to be getting into this topic
on intimacy. So give me a thumbs up if you like the idea of investing into your romantic
relationships. Also let me know, are you married, engaged in a relationship or are you single?
Just type in the comments, what's your relationship status? Facebook's good like that, loves to
know people's relationship status. And we are going to be chatting about relationship
status and investing into our romantic relationships. Give me a thumbs up if you like the idea of
your romantic relationships going from glory to glory. I'm pretty sure that's something
we all like the sound of. Hi Virginia, good to see you. So this, this series is going
to be called, it's called 7 Sacred Pathways to Intimacy. Now if you're single, then if
you don't know how to steward these 7 Sacred Pathways to Intimacy, then you might, you
might end up staying single. But I tell you what, if you master the 7 Sacred Pathways
to Intimacy, it's going to be a great way to invest into launching your dream relationship.
And if you're already in a relationship, if you're married or you're engaged and you
don't understand, you don't master the 7 Sacred Pathways to Intimacy, then there's a good
chance that you might be growing, growing into disconnection by accident. Hey, very
cool, good to see some of you sharing where you're at in your relationships. That's great
whether you're live or delayed, let me know where you're at, what's your relationship
status. And I'm definitely not coming to you as the expert of all relationships, definitely
not, but more as someone who's loving my relationship, married 9 years, we've got 3 kids, Alana is
amazing and it's a real delight. Our marriage, hey Raewyn, and I'm really, really love this
whole dynamic of investing into relationships. So good to see you guys there, lots of love
to all of you and let me know, like I want to share with you a story, give me a thumbs
up if you like the idea of hearing my story. This is my intro story and I'm going to hold
you in a little bit of suspense in terms of what the 7 Sacred Pathways are, we're not
going to jump into all of that just yet, but if you know someone else who is either in
a relationship or they're wanting a dream relationship and they're wanting to invest
into romantic relationships, then add them into the Embassy, just give them an invite,
you can either give them the link, embassyfamily.org, or you can invite them at the top of the page,
but if you know anyone who wants to invest in their romantic relationships, then boom,
we'll be getting our vibe on investing into romantic relationships. So thumbs up if you're
all about having an amazing romantic relationship. And let me tell you this story, let me tell
you why I hated having a crush on Alana, who's my wife now, but why, I'm going to tell
you this story, why I hated having a crush on her and what I did when she completely
rejected me. So it actually started with my relationship before Alana, so before I got
a crush on Alana, Ness, good to see you there, but before I got a crush on Alana, I was in
a relationship with someone else and I was praying and fasting and doing everything that
I thought I knew to do to figure out from God if this girl was the one, right? So let
me know if you have a scanner, like I definitely...
the whole time I was a single guy I had the scanner. I think a lot of people had
the scanner and when I'd go to a conference you know or I walk into a
room where it looked like there's some potential ladies there, boom the scan
would go on you check out is there any potential in the room and if there was
it's like oh we're gonna investigate and if there wasn't any one that looked like
they might be potential wife then I'd be like oh well never mind put them in
another category but there was some people that needed a little bit of
investigating and so this one girl beautiful young lady I thought that she
was the one I thought that I was going to be marrying her so I did everything
that I I knew to do I did everything that I thought you were supposed to do
I was praying I was fasting I was asking God is this the one and I felt in my own heart
yes this is the girl I'm gonna marry so I was I was really totally convinced
that this is the girl that I was gonna marry and it did not work out at all and
it wasn't it wasn't bad she's a great great young lady but it just didn't work
out and I was like oh my gosh I suck at hearing from God now let me know if you
had one of those moments where you felt like oh I thought I heard from God and I
totally got it wrong so if you've been in one of those moments you're like yeah
I was a hundred percent certain I heard from God on this and I was a hundred
percent wrong like oh no so if you've ever had one of those total fail moments
when it comes to hearing from God let me know so that was me that was definitely
me I was like I stuffed it up completely I thought she was the one I prayed I
fasted I believed that this was and didn't work out so I was in the fail
zone and actually put me in a place where I actually questioned everything that I
thought I'd heard from God so actually through that lost trust in myself it
wasn't so much that I lost trust in God but I lost trust in myself and I thought
oh man like I suck at hearing from God I totally blew that and if I've blown that
then what else have I blown so I was thinking man I have um I have really
blown that on hearing from God so anyway I went on a journey with that that kind
of got restored I learned to trust myself again but when I got a crush on
Alana I was like no I don't want this crush because one conclusion I made
after that relationship is that I am not interested in a romantic relationship
unless it's completely mutual so let me know have you ever been in a romantic
relationship that was not mutual and how was it were you the person that was all
go or were you the person that was like no I don't think so I know a lot of our
young ladies especially when we go on mission trips people propose to them all
the time like I've had you know one of our young ladies on a mission trip got
offered 100 cows to be the wife of this old man anyway that was a total no sorry
Africa we denied that one but yeah have you ever been in a relationship where
the other person's like yes I'll give you a hundred cows if you'll just be my
wife right now and you're like no or have you been the other way have you
been like the guys like oh my gosh I'll give you a hundred cows if you'll be my
wife right now so I was in the state where I'm like no way is it going to be
going forward unless it's completely mutual and I've got it yeah I was just
there was a rejection wound in me and I was like I can't handle things like that
so unless it's totally mutual I'm not in and then I don't even know how this
happened obviously I thought my wife was pretty
awesome and this is saying she was the no I was I mean I obviously thought
Alana was awesome but I totally did not want to get a crush on her because I
knew she was not interested in me at all and in fact my wife was so not
interested in me that she specifically prayed before we got together just I
mean she was so not into me that this came up in her prayer time and she said
God please don't ever let me marry anyone like Benji okay so she was that
not interested in me so I'm like oh no like this and then the crush started
getting really bad you know like I was losing sleep over it like I can't even
sleep and so that was
It's frustrating because when you can't sleep your quality of life you're like
your functionality starts going whoo not only do you have the crazy dopamine
dynamics going on in your brain where it makes you basically stupid right so
having a crush and being in love so let's say love is blindness because
chemically the stuff going on in your brain makes you really dumb and so my
functionality was like ah I'm not doing so well right now and so I came to the
point where I was like okay I've just got to talk to her I just have to like
it just have to bring it up and then right because I knew she didn't like me
so I was like oh this is painful but at least if I bring it up she can shoot me
down and then I can lick my wounds and kind of get on with my life but it was a
little bit more awkward than most relationships like that because I was the
pastor and she was someone in the congregation so I was kind of like oh no
how do I what I'm like stalking the flock how does this work out?
Next I see you saying she wanted the original well at that time she was
definitely not even interested in the original so yeah I was like oh my gosh
this is awkward I'm the pastor stalking the flock how do I even do this there
wasn't a manual or a blueprint I don't even think they had a YouTube clip on
how to date the flock maybe there is maybe we'll have to do a YouTube clip on
how to date the flock so I felt kind of awkward but we were good friends we'd
known each other for a long time and we went we went out we did a little bit of
an adventure we were living in Fiordland and going for bushwalks and adventures
is kind of a thing and we enjoyed doing that stuff together anyway so we went
for an adventure and I brought it up this awkward conversation let me know
have you ever had an awkward conversation an awkward relationship
conversation a DTR a define the relationship conversation or a moment
where you've brought up the crush how I see next hashtagging flock stalker
that's funny that was me I was the flock stalker I was the wolf for sure but let
me know have you ever had one of those awkward define the relationship
conversations where you're bringing up a crush or you're like yeah trying to have
this first time conversation with someone so I do right I pluck up the
courage and it takes a lot of courage to kind of like oh bring it out there so I
eventually I he's kind of pretty close to the line I used I said hey Alana we
were you know we were hanging out and I was like there's a bunch I listed a
bunch of things about her that I thought were amazing I was like there's all
these things I think about you that are amazing and that I just think just
wonderful characteristics about you these are things I love about you I was
wondering how would you feel if I was to pursue you romantically and like
without even blinking right without even blinking she was like no no not
interested I don't know if she saw that coming but she was good to go she was
ready to deny me straightaway she didn't have she did not have to think about it
wasn't like hmm I wouldn't it was just a straight no not interested yeah it was
like anyway he she was just like straight up no it was like oh no and
that's exactly what I expected honestly that's exactly what I expected so my
shock factor right my shock factor was a zero I was a zero shock factor now you're
gonna tell me if you've had one of those rejection moments or have you been
someone that's given the flat no have you had that nah not at all not
interested moment where you just straight up like turn someone down or
you've been turned down let me know if you've been there where I was a very
experienced this total rejection it's not happening so it was a flat no from
her and I was like boom I was it was like a knockout punch I was down for the
count it was over that was gonna basically she was happy just for it to
stay dead right there and so metaphorically I was already retreating
I was like retreat like this is not going to go anywhere this is not
happening so I'm in full-scale retreat and then just the Holy like now here's
the Holy Spirit I don't know if you've had one of those moments where the Holy
Spirit says you need to take your umbrella today you look outside and it's
a sunny day and you're like I don't need to take my umbrella and you don't and
you just walk off and inevitably it rains and you're like I should have
listened to the Holy Spirit
So I was in full-scale retreat and just at that moment the Holy Spirit said
actually why don't you ask her why? So I thought well there I am down I'm down
now I've got absolutely nothing else I can lose maybe while you're down on the
ground maybe I'm like because I'm down on the ground my guts are spilt
everywhere maybe I should just take see if I can take something from this moment
and so I said to her okay that's right is is there any particular reason why
you wouldn't be interested in a relationship with me and so she that
particular question right that question that was the Holy Spirit just drop that
at me I wasn't planning on asking that question I was in full-scale retreat I
had been demolished and I was in retreat I was like oh no but then I asked that
question is there anything what would be the here's the question what would be
the main reasons why you wouldn't be interested in a relationship with me now
I wasn't trying to be a sales dude I was just like kind of desperate kind of
blown out thinking maybe I can take something of value maybe there's some
like stuff that's totally like I just need to stop doing some stuff that's
ruining my chances with girls here's a girl that I like she's saying absolutely
not maybe I can get some good feedback while I'm down and out and so she says
all right and so that okay now that was the moment right that moment yeah thanks
for your feedback guys I'm seeing
Sheree changed your mind three times Naomi from Indonesia says come back to
Indonesia again Marie Marion's are like a no in a relationship and yes miss that
was a hard question it was kind of like swallow your pride like ah like so it
wasn't like like my emotions were raging like ah it's kind of like a storm there
and the Holy Spirit dropped that question there I'm kind of the deal with all
that chaos on the inside and just try and ask like a rational functional
question to see if I can get some value to take away and and that leads to
about a three-hour conversation and at the end of that three-hour conversation
right at the end of that three-hour conversation we both knew 100% without a
shadow of a doubt that we were getting married it was in that moment there was
was probably one of the most amazing atmospheres of my life it literally was
like heaven kind of invaded the room now that might have just been the drugs
talking the chemicals talking because I would have been for sure having these
crazy dopamine surges as I emerged from like total defeat and the conversation
started changing and her heart started changing in the conversation and I went
from like zero to hero where it became absolutely completely apparent that
actually she like I was not expecting this at all but her heart completely
changed at the end of that conversation we were a hundred percent convinced that
we were getting married and the next day we had a wedding date and we got married
on that date and her parents had always said you have to have at least a year of
dating before you got married so we did a courtesy six months and then I think
we were and then we announced to them that we were getting married and I
organized a helicopter so when I proposed to her I organized a helicopter
we're out for a walk it was a beautiful day a helicopter landed picked us up it
already had the ring in there the ring was her dream ring so we had basically
no money at that stage but we managed to get her dream ring which was is still
a good like crazy ring it's an amazing ring and so she didn't know that I had
the ring at that stage helicopter picked us up dropped us on the top of a
mountain and I got out her dream ring got down on one knee and proposed and
that was you know that was months later but boom she said yes and we got married
and there's been a wild crazy journey since then as well which has been
beautiful and amazing and I'll be sharing out of that last nine years of
building intimacy with my wife as we jump into the into the series on seven
sacred pathways to intimacy so if you like that story give me a yes and I know
that this topic is so so important for so many people whether you're single or
whether you're in a relationship one of the core desires of humans is amazing
romantic relationships. So if you have friends that need some some really good
content along this topic of the seven sacred pathways to intimacy, invite them
into the Embassy so they can join us. So you can share with them the link
embassyfamily.org or you can go to the top of the page of the Embassy and
invite them. So I want to encourage you to do that and I want to share this
journey together and if you're not in a romantic relationship I want to pray for
you that you have the desire of your heart. If you're not interested that's
alright like don't let me pray any impartation on you but if you're
interested if you're single and you really want to invest in a romantic
relationship then get some of this content in you from the seven sacred
pathways to intimacy and if you're in a in a romantic relationship already if
you're married or if you're on the journey towards marriage then let's be
intentional about investing into your a romantic relationship and let's make
sure that our relationships our marriages are phenomenal and that our
hearts are on fire and that things are saucy and sweet and sexy and beautiful
and connected and deep and intimate and that our hearts are one we're burning
and dreaming together and that our families are infused with the atmosphere
of heaven. So let me pray a blessing on romantic relationships either if it's
your dream one or if it's your current one then let's let's just invite the
Trinity to come and blast blast our romantic relationships with a goodness.
So Trinity thank you for every single person that's hearing this. I thank
you for those that are single who have a dream for romantic relationships and I
thank you for those who are in relationships and we're just asking right
now Trinity that you would open up our eyes and our ears and our hearts and that
heaven would would pour out blessing and favor and revelation and wisdom on us
like never before that we would be able to invest into our romantic
relationships both those that are future and those that are current that there
would be enormous blessing on our relationships like never before that
that would be fruitful that there would be intimacy that this the desires of our
hearts for intimacy and to be known would be satisfied like never before
that the quality of our relationships would be exponential in their goodness
and their romance and their connection and their depth and their health and in
their strength and Papa I thank you for really leading us and guiding us on this
journey and I thank you for bringing those into this journey that really need
really need some great content on how to invest into making an amazing romantic
relationship I mean but I bless you guys if you've got any fun romance stories or
if you've got any fun stories about how you about how you found your husband or
wife or fiance a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever if you've got some of those
fun stories then share those and yet love hearing those stories they're pretty
amazing it's always amazing asking someone how they met their husband or
their wife so many cool stories on that but bless you guys we'll see you again
soon and may things be amazing for you and your romantic relationships and we'll
catch you soon stay on the lookout for the first official session as we get
into seven sacred pathways to intimacy bless you catch you soon