What's going on?

Everybody?

Hey, everybody.

How's it going today?

Yeah, so we're on a new topic.

New topic.

Yeah, we did a whole series, but we did.

We got.

It was a big series.

It was.

Now.

It's over.

It's now over.

It's over now.

So that's a thing.

Right?

Okay.

So, yeah.

So now that we're disconnected from the series.

Yeah.

That's what we're going to talk about.

We're going to talk about being disconnected or what it is to feel disconnected from God.

Yeah, Yeah.

I mean, I feel like that's something everybody else can relate to.

Right.

We talked about spiritual warfare for a while, and that's something that we all.

Well, we can relate to because we're all going through it, but this is something we can definitely dig into.

I've had a lot of people talk about this over the recent history.

Yeah.

Past.

Yeah.

Recent past.

Can't do recent future.

No, not recent future.

That would be amazing.

It'd be kind of scary.

But I've had people talk to me in the recent future.

Yeah, I hope so.

Get disconnected.

And I'm not talking about, like, you know, you feel like you're on the phone with God and the call goes out.

I mean, like, you can't even make the call.

Kind of disconnected.

Yeah.

So there's a lot to talk about.

I don't even know there's a lot on the paper, but there's also just a lot going through my brain, too, so.

Oh, man.

It's gonna be.

Get ready for the fire hose.

Yeah.

And, you know, who knows?

There may be some, like, differences of opinions and things.

I'm sure you'll be happy about that.

I will.

And some of them will, too, because some of them like it when we.

Have differences of opinions.

Yes.

Some people like the conflict.

I.

Okay.

I think it's good, too.

I mean, sometimes.

Well, yeah.

But getting into it with somebody you know is gonna be like your brother afterwards anyways.

It's good.

Yeah.

At least I think so.

As long as it doesn't make you feel disconnected.

Wow.

I'm pulling the plug.

Yeah.

All right.

Welcome to the Truth Response.

All right, Matt, you want to pray for us today?

I'm gonna go ahead and pray for us today.

Father, thank you for just everything that you do.

Thank you for space to come together and continue to talk about things regarding you and your kingdom and your name.

Please guide our conversation today.

Perhaps help us speak to those who are currently feeling disconnected from you or help those who have felt it in the past realized some new truths about that.

Maybe even just possibly help people go further in their faith and bring more glory to your name and your kingdom.

And it's in Jesus name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so.

So should I wait a little while before I kick into the.

Kick into the controversial stuff?

Controversial stuff?

Yeah.

I have a statement that is going to be controversial, but I just don't know where it's going to fit in.

You might as well just jump out and say it.

Okay.

I think the reason people are disconnected is because they're being self centered.

Interesting.

If you look at even the scriptures.

Some of the scriptures, and I know we haven't gotten into it yet, guys, but even some of the scriptures you put in here was like, yep, self centered.

And the reason I wouldn't have said this last week even, but we've been doing this experiencing God book at church.

Right.

And I know you've been doing the teen version with the teens.

You haven't been doing the adult version though, right?

I mean, I don't know.

Have you got into a little.

Yeah, yeah.

So this week is week two and it's talking about God centered versus self centered.

Yeah.

And it has like really changed my view on some of that.

Like, it has deepened what I understand as self centered versus God centered.

So I think sometimes, I mean, you could be correct in a lot of places, but maybe not always.

I think sometimes a disconnect is not necessarily self centered.

I mean, look at Job.

Job felt disconnected.

And you know, and his counselors, his buddies, his neighbors, his.

The people who were trying to give him insight were like, oh, it has to be something about you.

And it was nothing about him.

In a negative sense.

God was doing something that Job had no idea what he was doing.

And, and sometimes when God's doing stuff, you know, we just don't know that he's doing something.

It just feels disconnected to us.

Job felt disconnected, but it wasn't necessarily anything that he did wrong anyway.

Well, the things that were happening to him weren't because he did anything wrong, but his disconnection wasn't.

Because I think the feeling of disconnected is a self centered thought process.

I think God sometimes is just quiet.

Yeah, maybe I don't think he's quiet in a disconnected way because God never wants to be disconnected from us.

As far as his silence goes, it's not going to be a silence that is withdrawn from you.

Okay.

Yeah.

But no, there's times where he's there.

He's just not necessarily Speaking directly to us or whether we're able to hear it or not.

I think sometimes he's just.

He's given us the information we need and now he's waiting to see what we do.

You know, I mean, I don't disagree with that.

Well, let's talk about, you know, some of the reasons some people feel disconnected.

And some of them, if you want to call them, self centered, but like.

Okay, so I don't mean that.

I don't mean that in a way that like, I'm not trying to trigger anybody or nothing.

Well, it's not about triggering.

I just want to talk.

So I mean, like you have spiritual burnout.

Spiritual burnout can make you feel disconnected because, man, sometimes you just pour it all out and you really haven't had time to get poured back into.

And that can feel like a disconnect there.

God's not answering the prayers that you're asking.

He's not talking to you through that.

And that can feel like a disconnect.

Whether it's the.

That he's not giving you what you want or what you asked for, or that he just doesn't seem to be replying.

Life transitions and trauma, those are times where people can feel disconnected.

Because sometimes as we're going through stuff, we want God to be in the midst of it, and he is, but we want him to be speaking and guiding in ways that are more obvious.

We like our handheld sometimes.

And then also things that can help us feel disconnected are sin, shame, and guilt, where we kind of disconnect ourselves.

I don't know if you'd want to call that self centeredness, but we kind of unplug ourselves because of the things that we allow to get in the way.

Well, and I would say that.

I would say that we can point out obviousness of self centeredness in three of those four categories.

Right.

Spiritual burnout, it's usually because we're trying to do too much on our own strength.

That's usually it.

Right.

Like we are thinking God is wanting us to do this, so we do it.

And usually the burnout comes from not just doing what God wants us to do, where he's at, and us trying to push a lot of that even though we don't think through it that way a lot of times.

So I would say that 99 times out of 100, spiritual burnout is because we are trying to do things for God.

Okay.

Versus, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Well, but the better thing is doing what God is doing.

Yeah.

So I would say that that 99 times out of 100 is the spiritual burnout is because it's what we think God wants us to do instead of what God actually is having for, for us to do.

Now, I'm not saying that it can't be exhausting, right?

Oh yeah.

But spiritual burnout, I would say is that a lot of times unanswered prayers, you and I both know, and we've talked about on this podcast before, that an unanswered prayer is an answer, right?

Oh yeah, it's that.

Wait, it's that not yet.

Maybe it's a no.

Maybe.

Well, a no is an answer usually.

Sometimes you don't, you don't hear the no, but you know, yes.

But an unanswered prayer is usually an answered prayer with either something we don't.

Like or requiring us to slow down.

Slow down or, and that's usually if that is causing us to feel disconnected, that's because we are thinking about it in a selfish manner.

Right.

If we were thinking about it with okay, God is going to, and this was in our study, my study today.

If God is telling me to wait, he's giving me a clear assignment, but he's telling me to wait.

Right.

Like it's, it's not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet.

It's because I've got to go through some stuff to be the person that he can trust to do the thing, you know, and so he's got it, he's got to build me into the person then.

So if we were thinking about it from a God centered perspective, I don't think that we would, we would have that.

Well, I mean, sometimes even when God's telling you to wait, you don't feel disconnected.

Sometimes the frustration is that you feel connected.

You feel like God is doing the waiting.

You can hear from him, but you're just getting kind of anxious of it.

Sure.

I'm talking about like that is right.

That is more of the God centered.

And even if you're getting frustrated sometimes that can be just like, okay, I'm ready.

But still that falls into the self.

If an unanswered prayer makes you feel disconnected, that's because of a self centered type of thought process.

I think intentional or not.

I'm not saying you're intentionally being selfish.

I'm not saying that it may not.

Be selfish coming you think about it.

I mean there's a lot of people that when they start, you know, they're trying to do all the right things when it comes to their relationship.

With God.

And so they're trying to speak to God and they're waiting for God to answer.

And so they, they're trying to be patient, they're trying to do everything that they think and they go and they even get counselors and such.

And yet God seems to still sometimes.

Just not answer the problem there was.

They are trying.

Well, yes, but even those who are willing to put that down and try to just be still.

Right?

And sometimes God still does not answer.

And so that can feel disconnected.

But once again, God always answers, right?

But not everybody is able to attune themselves to that silence.

Not everyone has gotten to a point where they've gotten rid of selfishness either.

Like self centeredness.

Okay, but I'm just saying like not everybody has gotten to that point.

I mean the closer you get to thinking about things, the longer you do it, the more your mind is transformed, right?

Or renewed, the closer you get to being able to think about things in a God centered way fashion.

Some people are quick at it, but others I think are not.

And so I would say that like a new Christian, if we're talking about new Christians, right, Feeling the disconnect because of an unanswered prayer, I would say, well it's because they are thinking of things self centeredly.

They just don't know how to.

Not yet.

They haven't experienced that.

They haven't grown in that yet.

Right?

And I'm not saying it to put people down either.

Like, I'm not saying like oh, you're self centered.

I'm not saying that.

I'm saying we have to look at it from, you only have two ways to look at things.

You have the self way of looking at things and the God centered way of looking at things.

That's your only two options.

If it's any less than that deep rooted relationship connection with God, then it's self centered connection.

And that's not saying that we're to a point where we're able to do that yet.

When you first meet somebody, you're not at a deep level where you're just, you feel connected all the time.

Now some people you meet, you feel a connection right off the bat, right?

But you're still not to that deep rooted connection yet.

So the more time you spend with them, the more things that you pour into each other, the deeper that connection is and the less you feel disconnected.

And when you feel disconnected, you know there's, there's a reason for that disconnect.

Right?

Okay, so it's easy enough then to Say, you know, it could be a self problem.

Right?

Sure.

Okay.

It's easy enough to say that, but that's just labeling it.

That's not helpful.

That's not helpful.

It's the first step.

It's gotta be at least the first step.

In some cases, actually it'll just make people feel more guilty and more disconnected.

So how can we help them then?

Because it's easy enough to go, well, really the problem's us.

Okay, great, but.

But that's not helpful.

I think that it is helpful to.

Some, but without giving them tools, which we're trying to do, we're not giving them ways.

I'm not saying we don't give them tools.

Right.

We need to.

Let's break down what it is.

In what ways do we feel that way?

Whether the root cause is us or not, what ways do we feel that way and what ways can we.

Well, we at least need to be very clear that the root cause is never God.

The disconnect is never coming from God.

God is not going to disconnect from us.

That's not how it works.

Yeah.

One of the things I had written down was that disconnection never equals abandonment.

God never abandons us.

He never steps away from us, turns his face from us kind of thing.

If we are in a relationship with God, he's not going to then go, okay, I'm just going to leave you now.

And it's evident because he never left creation.

He never left.

Like he wasn't the kind of God that put creation into existence and then said, alright, I'm gonna step away and then I'll come check in on it.

No, he's been constantly active in history.

In fact, like we've said, I think we've brought this up before.

You can look at history and just break it into two words.

His story.

He's been active in his story.

Right.

And so with that in mind, he like, no matter what we're going through, whether we feel like we can hear him, can't hear him, disconnected, he's always there, he's always present with us.

And so disconnection doesn't mean abandonment.

Disconnection doesn't mean.

I'm still gonna say that he is not the one that's disconnecting though.

Okay.

Yeah, but that just agrees with what I said.

I do agree with what you said.

I just wanted to be clear, like, he's not gonna be the one disconnecting from you.

Yeah, I mean like at any point in time, the feeling is on us.

Yeah.

And we had like, the two I had down here were just examples of.

We have biblical examples of what it is to feel disconnected.

Even David, you know, Psalm 13, David's lament of, you know, how long, Lord?

Here, I'll read it.

Yeah, go ahead and read it.

Yeah, Psalm 13.

It's not a long one.

So how long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, Lord, my God, that's kind of bold.

Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death and my enemy will say, I have overcome him.

And my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love.

My heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the Lord's praise for he has been good to me.

Yeah, yeah.

You know what's interesting in that is that, yeah, he's lamenting.

He feels disconnected.

But you know what's funny is that he's still worshiping in his lament, and that's important.

He might feel disconnected, but that doesn't stop his worship.

He's feeling disconnected, but he doesn't stop, stop the relationship for him.

He's not going, well, God's not in it.

I'm not in it anymore.

You know what I mean?

He doesn't pull back because even that moment, he doesn't feel that connection he's looking for.

He's not pulling back.

And, yeah, there was a bold statement in there, but it almost reminded me of Job.

But you see it how long.

There's a desperation there where we start to feel like, well, God, I need you right now.

We get a little scared, we get a little nervous.

Something's not right.

Which kind of is.

Like, even when you're talking about that life transitions or trauma, stuff, like, when stuff's going on, a lot of stuff's changing.

Sometimes we still want our Father in heaven to be there and going, all right, all right, it's going to be okay.

You're going to get through this.

His Word tells us that, but we still would love to hear it.

I think sometimes feeling disconnected in those moments isn't necessarily an unhealthy thing.

It's the fact that of anyone that you're going to look to in those moments, it's God.

And that can be a healthy thing to do.

Doesn't mean he's going to go and hold your hand in it and go, it's going to be fine.

He's obviously set something in motion.

And sometimes we have to learn to be patient and ride that out and get to the other side.

Then sometimes it's in that when we get to the other side of it is when we can look in the rear view mirror and go, oh, God, you were actually there the whole time.

I just wasn't recognizing that you were because I didn't know that you were gonna set up this to this, to this, to this, to this.

You know what I mean?

Yep.

And so, yeah, it's difficult.

Sometimes we're just looking for him in the moment.

Sure.

You know, especially when things are getting real crazy.

Well, I think a lot of it is like, we have an expectation of God maybe.

Yeah.

Everybody's got their own expectation of God.

Right.

Whether it's healthy or not.

Right.

Everybody's got their own expectation of what they expect God to do in certain situations.

Even if it's a.

Well, I have no idea what God's gonna do.

Like, that's still an expectation of God.

Right.

Like, it could be anything from anything, you know, God could do anything to God is going to, like, speak to me in the midst of this.

Like, those are expectations.

Right.

And so, yeah, I think that, that, that plays into a lot of those.

Those times where it's like, I'm going through something.

So, like, I expect God to show up in the midst of this somewhere in this way.

You know, a lot of times it's.

It's very.

It's actually more specific than we give credit to.

A lot of times.

I think a great biblical example of this would be Mary and Martha when Lazarus was sick and then when Lazarus died, you know, because they sent message to him that Lazarus was sick and going to be dying.

Like this was a sickness that was going to kill him.

They sent word to him and Jesus heard the message and didn't go, which to them.

They had an expectation, as you said, that he did.

He loved them.

He loved Lazarus.

But God had something greater in mind for this.

God had a bigger overall plan.

And so sometimes it's those difficult situations within that plan that we find ourselves like, but you're going to show up now, right?

And he's like, not yet.

No, there's something.

It doesn't necessarily mean that something's going to lead to death and then a major miracle, but sometimes it's not yet.

You're going to need to get through this.

And so even when he returned and Lazarus had died and Mary, Martha kind of confronted him, if you had been here as if to say, why didn't you come?

We asked for you to come.

Why didn't you come?

And we often ask God that thing.

It's like, hey, this happened.

And you.

And why did you let this happen?

Why am I in this place?

I was trying to follow you.

We're in a relationship.

I'm reading my Bible, I'm doing prayer.

All this.

Why is this happening?

Sometimes the answer is like, well, this needs to happen.

In time you'll see why what God was doing next was going to be far greater than all of that.

Sure.

And it's hard for us sometimes.

You know, that season of what we'll call spiritual dryness, when things aren't happening the way that we hope or the way that we expect, or even just there seems to be like no answer as to the reason for the season.

Sometimes that's part of helping us grow as well.

Like, there's been times where I heard a story.

I don't know if I've brought this up on the podcast before, but I had it in my notes to bring it up today.

It's the story of the lobster.

You ever heard the lobster story?

I don't think so.

Alright, so I heard it from this video of a rabbi and I thought it was brilliant.

He said, basically it goes like this.

A lobster, right?

He grows a shell.

And when he grows a shell, he's got space in the shell to grow.

And then he outgrows his shell.

And he knows it's time to grow a new shell when he runs out of space.

When he runs out of space, he gets really uncomfortable, things get hard, and then he knows to go retreat, get into a safe space, shed that old shell, grow a new shell which has much room.

And for a while, after he grows that new shell, everything kind of goes for a while.

And he doesn't think about growing a new shell again.

He doesn't think about growing again until he runs out of room, until things get uncomfortable.

So sometimes God uses those uncomfortable moments to get us, our attention, that this is the time to grow.

This is the time to do something new, take the next step, whatever it is.

Put more trust in me, learn to be more patient, whatever it is.

He's going to help us learn something from this.

He doesn't waste his time with us and his relationship with us.

But sometimes that's not the unnerving thing for some people.

Sometimes it's when the shell's big enough and we have space, God puts us in an area and you've Been in different ministries before where you suddenly enter into it and then there's not really conversation about what's next.

You just have to be in that moment.

You have to be in that position for a period of time before God goes.

And then suddenly, you know, just when you get a little used to it, then suddenly God goes, alright, it's time to grow again.

Things get a little uncomfortable, things have to change.

But there's almost a bit of lostness when you're like, okay, everything was heading this direction and now there's nothing.

And now I'm just here doing this thing.

I felt the same thing when I got to seminary.

There was a lot of attention from different avenues, different people on the fact that God was calling me into ministry and I was taking all these steps and leading these different ministries and doing all this stuff.

And then I entered into seminary and at first everything was like, all right, and everybody was excited and there was a lot of support.

And then I got into it and it felt like a lot of that went away in a weird way.

And then the question that people would ask me from outside sources in a weird job, like, thing is, okay, well, what's next?

I don't know.

I don't know what's next.

This is what I was told to do.

This is where I'm at.

Okay, yeah.

But then after that, I don't know.

And it kept coming again and again.

I ended up hating that question.

I did not want to be asked that question.

Don't ask me what's next.

I don't know.

I'll tell you if I know.

But, like, you start to get into that wilderness, as we've talked about in a different podcast of like, I don't know, I'm just in this right now.

This is where I was told to go.

This is just where I'm existing.

And for some, including me to a degree in that period of my life, it's a little maddening.

Okay, so God, what do you want here?

Now?

In one aspect of my life, it was crazy because God was speaking into.

He was guiding my school, he was helping me in my school.

But when it comes to the other aspects, it's nothing.

Radio silence.

So it's like, you're helping me in one area.

Why aren't you helping me over here?

And that can be maddening in itself.

Okay, but what about this?

And he just.

Don't worry about that.

Just keep doing this.

Maybe we've got.

Maybe we've received those instructions.

Okay, this is what you're doing right now go.

And when I think you need to know something else, I'll let you know.

And maybe the faithfulness in those moments is getting comfortable with what we've been given to do.

I would say that just as advice for anybody who's in that situation is double down.

Like if you're, if you're in a situation where God has, has placed you somewhere and you have that growth room or whatever like that, that's him seeing if you're going to do anything with, with what he's giving, giving you.

I mean, look at the story of the talents, right?

Sure.

100% applies to this.

Like it's one of those things that, alright, I've given you this, go double it.

Let's see what you do with it.

Go on with it.

And so I would say that the encouragement would be to double down on whatever he's called you to be doing.

Like if it's just religious studies, like in your situation right now.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

You're feeling like God is pouring into you in your studies, but not in these other areas.

Double down and focus on your studies.

Oh, I did.

That's what I'm saying.

But as encouragement, that is an example.

That's what I would.

That's the advice that I would give to anybody who's in this situation, any situation.

Sometimes the instructions are plain and to see.

For me, when I was in seminary, I just kept focusing on doing the best I could do.

I figured God's equipped me for something, I don't know what it is, so I'm just gonna keep getting equipped and then he'll use me.

And he has so wonderful.

But sometimes the instructions are simple and they're out there and perhaps it is our problem where we just need to pay attention to them.

For instance, you know, some people are waiting for God to go, okay, now you got to make a big left turn or right turn.

Maybe he wants you where you're at, but he wants you to now implement the things he's told you into that lifestyle.

So sometimes you're at work, you're like, man, I don't.

I've been at this job.

Maybe God wants me to get a new job.

Maybe he's like, no, maybe I want you at that job.

But I want you to start acting like you follow me at that job.

Yeah, I want you to start talking to people about me at that job.

If you can.

When you can look at Abram, right?

God told Abram, who became Abraham, go, go that way.

I mean, essentially that's what he Told him, right?

And he gave him this promise, right?

And then between the time he gave him the promise and Isaac being born was 25 years.

It's a long time.

And so in that time, he needed Abraham to become a father, a man worthy of fathering this nation that he's been promised.

Right?

This promise, fathering that promise.

And so in that 25 years, it wasn't.

Wait, right?

It was, all right, this is what I've called you to.

Yeah, I love that.

And then you had a great example when we were doing a spiritual warfare series of the.

Oh, my gosh, my mind's trying to move on to the next thing I want to talk about of Joseph.

Oh, yeah.

You know, Joseph got the vision at the beginning, and it didn't come to fruition until much later in his life.

You know, but another one that's really interesting.

And I think people.

I love this story.

I want to bring up the prodigal son.

I preached on this weeks, weeks back now.

But like, on one hand, you have someone who by his own doing, disconnects himself from the father, right?

You have the younger son disconnects himself from the father, realizes his life is disconnected, is terrible, goes back to the father, is embraced for it.

You have another one who thinks he is connected to the father, right?

Until he sees the father working.

And then you realize, no, he's not.

The older brother thinks he's connected because he's doing all the things.

And sometimes this is, as you said, in both these scenarios, yes, there's self in them, so I'm not arguing that at all.

But he thinks he's with God.

And then God goes, yeah, you're doing all these things, but your heart's not with mine because you saw me do something and you're against that thing.

You weren't with me.

And so the story flips on itself again.

It's an amazing.

We can see ourselves in different aspects of that.

Sometimes we kind of reject God and realize, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Something's wrong here.

I need to go back over there.

I need to go back home.

And I love it when people answer that call from any place of their lives.

That is the most amazing thing.

I think that's one of the things I love about the prodigal son.

But there are some who have been in the game for so long that they've kind of complacent.

They're doing things that they've agreed are good things to do, but then they don't realize that at some point they did Disconnect themselves.

They think they're connected, but they're not.

And sometimes God needs to let them do that so that he can point out, yeah, you're not where you need to be.

And then it's up to that person to make a serious call and that is to reconnect himself for real.

Yeah, yeah.

Two more examples biblically of a promise or a direction given, whatever.

And it taking time is David.

Right.

David was anointed to be king.

But that took 10 to 12 years.

Right.

For that to actually come to fruition.

Paul, which I didn't know this until recently.

The time that Paul was called to the time that he started his first missionary journey was 10 or 11 years.

Like sometimes, I know this may be a crazy thought for some people, but sometimes we're not equipped when God calls us, right?

Yeah.

Like sometimes we're not, we're not equipped.

And so he's gonna take us on a journey.

Oh, he's gonna equip us because he, he wants us to do this thing.

Yeah.

And he, he's calling you and you're not ready yet, but he's letting you in on what he's doing.

Oh yeah.

And so like he's going to take you on this journey.

So don't get disconnected.

Absolutely.

Don't turn, turn your eyes from being God centered.

This is what I clearly.

Because somebody who's called right to something, any, anything that God has called them to, they when they first get called are very, very much God centered in it.

They, they see it like oh God is calling me to this thing and they get excited like when they're really called, called by God to do something.

But on the path it's real easy to turn to.

Oh man, this is taking forever.

Yeah.

You know like I thought God, you were calling me to this thing like God I thought, you know, I thought we were going to do these great things and you're just kind of leaving me over here.

You know that's the self talking, right.

Like the self gets in our way so often and trips us up.

The thing that's going to get in our way more than anything is ourselves.

I agree to that 100%.

I get it my own way all the time.

I think that as we ask those questions we have to ask are the questions we are asking are they selfish?

Right.

Like are they self centered questions or are they God centered questions like God where are you?

That not necessarily a selfish question.

Right.

I think that's a legitimate question because as long as you're expecting him to say, I'm here.

Yeah.

Wherever that is, whether it's right here still or I'm over here.

You need to readjust like as long as you're open to that.

I think that's a, that's a God centered question.

It goes back to that, you know, where are you thing.

And you know, just because we're not feeling him somewhere, we're not perceiving him, doesn't mean he's withdrawn.

Absolutely.

He's not withdrawn.

Sometimes though, something that is hard.

It was when I was first introduced to the idea of spiritual formation through silence.

I thought it was a crazy idea.

I was like, what?

How does that work?

But I think that is how God works a lot.

Like I said, sometimes he's given us the instructions and now it's time for us to operate.

I love.

Sometimes the teacher is silent during the test, like, okay, you got it, let's see how you do.

You know, sometimes it's about taking all the things you've learned, all the things you can read, all the things that you now can understand, and start to implement them in your life and trying them on for real.

And God's going to wait while you try that out and then we'll see how you do.

Some of the best mentors will see first you need to see where they're competency is so that you know what areas to work on or where the best, the most important area is to work on.

Yeah, where to start.

Yeah.

So if God's like, all right, you're doing really good, let's see, I mean, obviously he knows all, but maybe sometimes it's to help us see too, you know, let's see where you're at.

And when he says, let's see, let's show you where you're at.

Well, you're here and this is a big problem.

So this is why we're going to work on that now.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of times when we get in our own self centered mindset, like when God says you need to go back to the basics, you've forgotten the foundation of this thing.

Right.

And I think this is the spiritual burnout that you're talking about.

Like you've forgotten the basics of this, you've forgotten your first love, you've forgotten why you're doing this.

Let's go back here.

And I think a lot of times that can, that's a big ego blow.

For sure.

It is.

And you know what, that's actually great because I was just thinking about, so this past week I was in Bible study, and I was doing.

I'm in Isaiah, and I've been working through it.

And Isaiah 6, I love that chapter.

I mean, everybody knows I'm a Bible nerd.

And I say I love every part of the Bible, but.

And I do.

I love Isaiah 6 so much.

And what's fascinating to me about that, as I was going through it this week, is so Isaiah gets this vision of he's standing in front of God on his throne.

He can't even necessarily see God.

He sees the trail of his garment, that the tip of it fills the temple, and he sees this majesty, and he sees these angels.

And what's interesting about that is that in that moment, right in all of the majesty and the highness of God, and it really humbles him to his exact place in the universe.

And then there's just a moment of pure transparency.

He says, I am ruined.

I have an unclean mouth.

I come from people of unclean mouths.

And he is just.

Everything is open.

And what it is.

It's one of the most honest kind of quick prayer.

It is a prayer.

He's speaking to God, but he's just so open.

There's nothing to hide.

You can't.

You're standing before God Almighty.

There is no hiding.

There is no lying.

There is just open.

This is what it is.

And in that realization of his place and who he is in front of God Almighty, he just.

I am.

And it reminds me of Peter.

When Peter stands before Jesus the first time after the miraculous catch of fish, and jumps down, he goes, I am.

Get away from me.

I am a sinful man.

And he realizes a little bit of his place.

Isaiah is just.

It's so.

So transparent.

And in that moment, though, you know, he just.

And then God, of course, sends an angel to clean him.

Yeah, I was gonna say that's one of my favorite parts of that.

Oh, yeah.

Takes a coal from the altar, right?

Puts it to his lips.

And that very thing is like, I have unclean lips.

God goes, I can fix that.

Redeems him.

And the thing is, he repents.

Completely transparent.

And God redeems him in that moment, which leads me to.

Hang on, hang on.

Before you move on to the.

What it leads you to, Right, Yes.

I want to read that, like, just for a moment, right?

So.

So, like.

So he says all that.

And then one of the creatures flew down.

This is verse 6, chapter 6, verse 6 of Isaiah.

Then one of the creatures flew down to me carrying a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with A pair of tongs.

So the angel not touching it.

Right.

Or this.

The creature, not necessarily an angel, the creature not touching it.

Creatures got tongs, right?

So important.

And he touched my lips with the burning coal and said, this.

This has touched your lips, and now your guilt is gone and your sins are forgiven.

Like, whoa, right?

And then I heard the Lord say, whom shall I send?

Who will be our messengers?

And I answered, I will go.

Send me.

So sometimes that's what leads me to where I was saying, sometimes what we need to do.

If we're starting to feel disconnected now, God's not disconnected from us, but sometimes we feel from him.

Maybe it is our sin, maybe it's our shame, maybe it's our guilt.

Maybe it's our.

We let ourselves into a spiritual burnout.

We've got expectations.

Sometimes what we need to do is we need to go to God with just the most honest prayer.

Even if it's frustrated, angry, just pour yourself out in front of the Lord.

There's no hiding from him.

There's no lying to him.

It's just going, this is it.

This is it.

This is what I'm thinking.

Allow him to start to speak to you in that.

Allow him to kind of speak into your heart of, okay, but what about this?

Bring it all to the table and then start to examine, even as you're saying it, look at what you're saying.

Yeah.

At some point in that prayer, you need to say, God, sit back down on the throne of my heart.

Get me off of it, and sit back down on the throne of my heart.

Let you be the center of my life again.

Right.

Because that's what I find, especially for myself, is that I get going and my frustrations and my emotions overtake whatever the thing is that's going on.

And then when I open my eyes, I realize, oh, yeah, I'm not doing this for me.

Right.

Like, I need to let my emotions go with all of this.

Right?

Emotions can come.

That's fine.

I mean, but honestly, emotions flow from the heart most of the time, and the heart's deceitfully wicked.

Right.

And so I would say.

And I'm not saying don't.

Don't have emotion.

Right.

I'm not saying don't have empathy.

I'm not saying don't have sympathy.

I'm not saying those things.

But I'm saying sometimes we have to go, okay, emotions, set those aside, Lord, remind me that you're in the center of this.

Right?

This is all for your glory.

It's not for me.

It's not.

It's not for Jimbo.

It's not for.

It's.

All of this is for you.

Right.

So maybe that's before you then vent all of that stuff.

Sure.

Maybe that's after you vent all of that stuff.

Sure.

But I think in the midst of that, declare that Jesus is going to be on the throne of your heart and remind yourself that he's supposed to be.

Right.

Like, I think that is a vital thing in the midst of that.

And I agree, dude.

I have had some, like, some screaming time at God.

I've done it.

I have yelled at God as well.

I've been frustrated.

And I know my wife has said on here before, even she's told her testimony of when God called her into ministry.

She was not happy about it.

She yelled at God for that.

For hours.

I argued.

So it's one of those things that, like.

And see, I didn't argue.

But I'm also not doing youth ministry like I thought he called me to.

Right.

So it's kind of one of those weird things that I did my kicking and screaming after.

Yeah, he said a direction.

But it's one of those things that, like, I've had my yelling matches at God.

Yeah.

And it's him going, all right, I'll wait when you're done.

Yeah, when you're done, you know, I'm gonna give you peace.

That's an interesting point.

Is that sometimes that's a mark thing, by the way, for those of you who've been listening since the Mark days.

Like, Mark's.

Mark's one of those.

It's okay, I'll wait.

Yeah, Sometimes, actually, we need to think about this, and not every time, but there are times if you feel like God's being silent, maybe we need to take his example.

Sometimes going into silence in ourselves is key.

Maybe he's feeling like you need to calm down.

Right.

You need to listen, not go searching.

You need to wait for me, and then I will lead you further.

That can be an interesting.

Sometimes going into silence and prayer and just being open, it's not necessarily silent.

Prayer is.

If you've never done it, it can be challenging.

But it's not about speaking to God with your mouth closed.

It's not an internal thing.

It is quite literally, you go, all right, God, what do you have for me?

And then you just sit silently and wait.

And maybe he'll speak into that moment, maybe he won't.

But sometimes we need to slow ourselves down and remember it's not about ourselves.

In that moment that Sets your heart in a place where you're ready to hear after that even, you know, like, that's great.

I remember I was in college, we.

One of our classes was spirituality class and it was Christian spirituality.

All of my classes were Christian classes, but it was spirituality and basically it was different things.

Memorization.

We practiced that on a grand scale and we practiced all kinds of stuff.

We went on this retreat to a monastery and we didn't go hang out with the monks, but we were at this monastery.

And for the first time, I want to say it was the first 24 hours we were there.

We weren't to say anything.

Silence, no phones, no nothing.

Right.

We had to do all the things, like we had to eat, we had to interact with each other, but just silence.

Right.

And when we came back together, the first thing that we did was sang worship.

And it was incredible because our hearts had gotten to a point where we were ready to hear whatever God was gonna, was gonna say to us.

And I think that some, I think you're.

That's a great point is sometimes we need to.

Need to be silent too.

Yeah.

But also remember, like you put in here, disconnection doesn't equal abandonment.

Yes.

But I also want to say, like silence doesn't equal disconnection.

Oh yeah.

And so we need to remember that like sometimes God's being silent because he is waiting for you to respond or he's waiting for the right time.

Right.

And those things are both things that is outside of us.

Right.

His time is not our time and our ways are not his ways.

You know?

And so we have to remember that just because we feel like he's being silent, it doesn't mean he's not moving.

Right.

Like sometimes you walk in silence.

Right.

And so like it doesn't mean you're not doing something.

So we got to look for that.

And sometimes maybe you need to keep returning to silence.

You know, this is a real thing that my wife and I have had happen.

And actually lately it's been happening to her a lot.

And she's starting to.

I feel like she's tuning in better and better and better as she goes.

But sometimes I think God starts to talk to you and then we get excited and we cut him off.

Sure.

He's like, alright, so there's this great.

And then you run with it.

You're like, he wasn't done.

So he'll just wait.

And then when it doesn't work out, whatever you thought it was, he'll go, okay, you done?

Cool.

Now this.

And Then we do the same thing.

It's like, okay, you're not learning the lesson.

I need you to wait and let me get through it all.

I need you to see where I'm going, see what I'm putting in place before you keep running off to do these things.

Yeah, I know you get excited about these ideas and I know you get excited about some of the things I'm doing, but I'm doing something here and if you could just keep looking to me before you keep running off.

And so like there was a period of time where like I was doing this in my life where I'd be like, okay, cool, do this.

Okay.

And it's not that that wasn't blessed or fruitful to some degree.

But he's like, okay, but I wasn't done.

And so I come back, he's like, alright, now, now this too.

Oh, okay.

And then Sadie lately has been where God has just given her these bits and it's been like, at first it was like this and this and it was like, okay, cool, so you want me go this direction, that direction.

Great.

And then he's like, no, no, no, get back over.

And then it's been funneling and lately the stuff he's saying to her is just so more direct and it feels like we're getting to the point and that's going to be awesome.

But sometimes you have to.

Okay, I know you got excited.

Maybe you want to check before you start running off and doing things.

Maybe throw out a fleece, you know, maybe a Gideon thing.

But yeah.

So you haven't heard God speak to you lately?

What is a way that you can do it?

I'm not talking about force God to speak to you, but how is something that God can help guide you through something that you already have?

Number one, your Bible.

That's the number one way he speaks to us.

Read your Bible.

If you're looking for how to speak, have spiritual formation and life guidance.

Read the Gospels is one of the best places to start.

If you're feeling a lot of emotions, things are going crazy, good or bad.

The psalms, some of the best places you can go, see what people went through, see how God responded, didn't respond, see the things they're saying, get into scripture.

It's the number one way God speaks to you.

And if you're like, no, but I want to hear them out loud, then read the Bible out loud.

It's that simple, you know, Read the Bible.

It is important.

Be with your community, your believing community.

Don't pull yourself Away from them.

You know, in some places, you need to confess where you're at with some of these people so that maybe they have an insight, maybe they have some guidance.

Maybe they'll be willing to come alongside you in this and help support you and maybe even help you discern some of the things that God is doing.

That's an important part of that step, too.

We're made for relationship with Him.

We're made for relationship with each other, so that's important.

We already talked about silence.

We talked about journaling during the Spiritual Warfare series.

That can be useful here, too.

Write down things, what you're going through, how you're feeling.

That's how the psalms came to be.

You can write your own psalms, so to speak.

You can write these emotions down, see how God talks to you in it, how he's responded to it.

That can be wonderful through that.

And then, of course, like I said earlier, even if you're going through a season of lament, if you're going through a season where things aren't going well and you're looking for God in it, don't pull away from him any further.

Worship him in that.

Remember your relationship with him and that he is not abandoned you.

Even if he's silent, you still have cause to worship him and know that he is God.

And then sometimes we need to think about this season.

It's not necessarily.

Sometimes it's not punishment.

We look at Job, it's not punishment.

But sometimes there's something else that God's going on.

And sometimes it's an invitation.

And that invitation could be to wait and see what I'm doing before we go any further.

I think that's some really important stuff there.

I think those are very good spiritual disciplines as you have outlined.

The Experiencing God book that we're studying through says that God speaks by the Holy Spirit through four main channels.

Right.

Or four through three main channels.

And he.

They do leave it open to.

And other ways.

Right.

But the, the, the main ways that the Holy Spirit talks to us or God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit is Bible prayer and circumstances.

Right?

Yeah.

And the church.

So it's four.

Yeah.

So that's how he speaks to us.

That's how he reveals himself.

That's how he reveals his purpose, his ways.

All of it is through the Bible prayer, circumstances in the church.

And so we have to remember that, like, so, okay, we are to do whatever the Holy Spirit calls us to do, because the Holy Spirit is getting his instructions as well.

Right?

Right.

So.

And that's been something that's been hard for me, Hard for me to reconcile with.

Well, you know, we're told the Holy Spirit knows not just us, but to our soul level, but knows God's soul level, Right?

Sure.

But the Holy Spirit doesn't do anything that he didn't see Jesus do.

Jesus doesn't do anything that God didn't tell him to.

But my point being is that I'm just backing you up.

This Holy Spirit is our connection to God's.

Everything that God is and what he wants and what he's got going on.

There's no other thing outside of God that's going to help us to understand God.

That Holy Spirit is going to bring it.

That's how we're going to, you know, is to stay connected that way.

Yeah.

So be listening for the Holy Spirit and that still small voice at times.

Sometimes it's a loud kick in the butt.

I've gotten a brick a time or.

Two, but I've gotten some curveballs thrown at me.

You know my favorite.

Well, I've had lots.

But, you know, when the day that God flat out told me that my wife and I were going to have a baby and it was a girl and her name is Faith all in one shot, I was like, what?

No.

And he was, yes.

Right.

Like, that was one of the wildest things that's ever happened to me, where it's like.

And it was during worship time.

Everybody's worshiping, and then he and I got in a conversation.

That was one of the wildest things ever.

Like, you're expecting.

Maybe some other time.

No, this is what I'm telling you.

This is wild.

And.

Yeah.

So.

But we got to be ready.

We got to be in a place where we can hear these things, where we're willing to accept these things.

And sometimes even as we hear them and accept that this is what we're hearing, we're not necessarily accepting what we're hearing.

In that case, I was like, I don't know if I like that.

But it was.

It was.

It was gonna be what it was gonna be.

And what a powerful story that has become for me.

Yeah.

So do you feel disconnected?

Do you feel disconnected?

Yes.

Well, if you do.

If you do, here's some encouraging verses.

Oh, I love encouraging verses.

Romans 8, 38, 39.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor any else, anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love that God has for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Boom.

That's.

There's a song called Strong Love that is like embodies this passage.

Solid song, fun song.

Check it out.

It's called Strong Love.

No idea who it's by, so don't ask that.

But.

And then Isaiah 41:10 it says, do not fear, for I am with you.

Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

And we know that, that God doesn't change.

He is for his people.

And as long as his people are going to listen and trust in Him.

And so man, if you're feeling disconnected, reconnect.

I really, I know it sounds harsh, right?

I get that.

But we, we do have to have a reality check sometimes that like it's probably self induced.

The.

Even if it's just the mentality, right?

Even if it's just I feel disconnected.

Well, okay, yeah.

I mean so have you, do you have a story where or can you recall sometime where you felt disconnected from God for maybe a period of time but.

But what it was like or how you got reconnected?

Well, yeah, definitely from pretty much 2016 to 2019, I was way more disconnected from God than any other time in my life.

And that was because he called us down here, right?

He called me and my wife to move down here with a child on the way.

Me not having a job, us not having anywhere to live.

I basically was like, alright, God, we're gonna go.

And I expect you to show up big, right?

Which he does always.

Even if it's a small thing, it's always he shows up big.

And so I, we came down here and just before we came down here, my in laws, we were going to be staying at their house, like living at their house.

They were going to refinance and we were going to pay their mortgage because they were moving to California.

And that was the plan, right?

To come down there, live in that house so we could save a little money so we could buy our own, right?

And when they came to pick Lizzie up, I had not a job yet, right?

Lizzie's job down here was gonna be part time.

And so when they came to pick her up and take her down a month early, her parents told her, told us, right, that well, we were gonna have to find ourselves somewhere to live in six months because they had to sell the house in order to afford to move out there.

Now any sane person outside of the situation would hear that and go, okay, that kind of Makes sense.

Like, it's expensive.

He's got responsibilities with his parents.

Da, da, da.

I doubled down on the.

Well, that's a douche move.

You know, Really, I did.

And so not only did I go, it was, like, the very first thing, right?

Like, I immediately did the opposite of what I should have done.

Yeah.

Like, I said, okay, and then immediately decided to ignore anything that God could do.

I said, okay, you better show up big.

And then whenever he said, you know, essentially, God was saying, all right, I'm gonna show up big, but that requires you to trust me in what I'm gonna do, I immediately said no.

And that was the beginning of a very long disconnect because I unplugged myself.

Like, I say that I was working in the church.

I even worked at the church for a portion of that time, right.

I could not have been further disconnected than what I was during that time.

I burned bridges.

I hurt people.

Yeah.

And I was lost the whole time.

God even was through the midst of it all, he kept providing somewhere for us to be, and I couldn't say a positive thing about it.

Right.

And he even allowed me to work in youth ministry as, like, a job, which is what I had, like, planned my whole life to be, and still, I just wasn't.

I wasn't happy with it.

I was so focused on me and myself and what had been done to me or whatever that I didn't decide to plug back in until pretty much 20.

19 was when I got let go.

And that's when he was like, okay, you ready to listen?

You ready?

Are you done?

Are you done playing the self game, like, or are you gonna decide to be all in?

Right?

And that.

That was because the situation came up, like, okay, I'm.

I lost my job on a Wednesday.

I had to decide that night whether or not I was gonna be at Praise Team practice the next day.

Right?

And so, like, I came home, there was some tears, but the ultimate question came up, like, all right, so is God calling us elsewhere or is he calling us to stay?

And Lizzy.

Lizzy was like, I really feel like God's calling us to stay.

And I felt it, too, but I was just like, okay, we're all in.

Nothing changes.

We ride this thing as though nothing changed, because we're doing this for the Lord.

And so, like, at that moment, it was really the start of the reconciliation for me.

It was really that repentance of, okay, I want to do things.

This is all me, you know, And I want it done this way.

And all that to, you know, this whole idea of like, okay, I get it, I get it, this is all, this is all for you anyways.

Why, why am I worried about, you know, you've provided for us through everything.

You know, when one situation got bad, you provided another.

Like, we haven't had a lot ever, but we've always had what we needed, always.

And so like, it was one of those, those moments where everything just kind of switched.

And so it was a long trek back up, right?

It was a long, long mountain back up to a respectable place.

Because like I said, I burnt bridges.

I burnt serious bridges.

Like I burnt some bridges that I thought would never be fixed with, I say, important people, but key people in our church, right?

People that were connected in a lot of the places.

And so like through God's grace, I was able to rebuild most of those bridges, at least put up happy signs that said, I'm sorry and you know, whatever.

But most of those bridges were repaired.

And so like, it just took me getting out of my, my way, right, and saying, okay, God, plug back in.

I'm ready.

Yeah, let's do this thing.

But God didn't go away in the midst of it, right?

Like, I felt disconnected, actually, I was disconnected and I don't know, didn't feel disconnected.

Does that make sense?

Like I was disconnected and yet I was putting on that.

I wasn't.

Yeah.

You know, for that time.

So I think that's the, that's the biggest one in my life is that whole like that change, that three or four year period, three year period where God called me to something.

I said, do it my way.

And God said, yeah, nope.

And I became an angry, bitter person until I saw, oh, God's still here.

And I've been trying to do this for me and I need to be doing it for him.

And so that's my disconnect story.

I've had a bunch of them.

I think my ultimate disconnect was out of fear.

Actually.

That was when I was in the.

Obviously I grew up in the church.

You and I both grew up in the church.

But when I was in my teens, I was reading my Bible and I scared myself.

It is weird because on one hand there was a part of me that knew God was calling me to do something.

But I was afraid because I read James and James three, not all of us should become teachers.

The NIV that I was reading at the time said, be judged more harshly.

And I was like, I can't do that.

I became very aware of the fact that I Didn't match up to the bar.

And I just got so afraid that I was going to be condemned somehow and thought to my young crazy mind, I need to skating under the radar.

I don't need any extra attention.

I started immediately pushing against anything that resembled.

Smelled like ministry.

I pushed against it and ended up.

The result of it is I ended up pushing a little against everything.

Well, not necessarily.

Not in an atheistic way.

More of a. I'm just going to focus on everything else.

Church became something.

I just went through the motions.

And the church I went through was a Methodist church back then that gave me a.

Basically a program.

It was a bulletin, but it was basically a program that told me what I had to get through so I could go home.

It made it really easy to just go through the motions and fake it and just get through it all.

I was going to church and falling away from God at the same time.

I was just living for myself.

I made a lot of dumb decisions.

I put myself in a lot of terrible situations.

It was a lot of stupidity, really.

And what's crazy is that when I look back, God was there trying to show me that I was the one that disconnected.

He never disconnected from me.

And, you know, he sent people to send messages to me and situations to let me know that he was there.

But it took actually quite a lot to really open me up to me.

And the final catalyst that made me just feel the lostness that I was feeling after a few years of this was my cousin died.

And we had this memorial service for her.

And they had a lot of things about her and her relationship with God there.

Her journal was there.

There was all this stuff about her and her relationship with God.

And it was alarming to me because in that moment, as I'm standing there looking through all this stuff and looking over all this stuff, I was.

I became aware that she was very.

She was so sure.

You know, she was so sure before she died.

And it was alarming because I wasn't.

You know, at one point I thought I knew these kinds of things.

I thought I knew a bunch of stuff.

I knew the stories and stuff like that, but I felt completely lost.

And it's.

It was one of the most uneasy feelings I've had in my life of just.

I don't know anymore.

And God let me sit with that for about a week.

And then a friend of mine invited me one night to join her at a.

She described it as.

I want you to come this thing to me tonight.

I said, okay, what is it?

She's like, well, it's kind of a church thing.

And I was.

Even then.

Even then I was like, I don't know.

And she's like, I mean, there's free food, like pizza and stuff.

And I was like, well, okay, I'm always good for some free pizza.

Yeah, I love to joke that I went for the pizza and I stayed for the Jesus.

But what happened there?

It was actually.

I've told the story to some people before, but it was actually a group of charismatic Catholics that wanted to help people, help introduce people to a relationship with God.

And it was kind of weird for me because I thought, in a way, I felt like I had to be reintroduced.

I went that first night, and it was like God just started turning on some of the light switches.

So I kept going after that first night.

I was going back the next week and I was going back.

Then I got involved and I was part of their worship ministry and I was part of all this stuff that was going on.

The more I went, God turned on all the switches and suddenly I remembered all the stuff from my youth and I remembered all the stories, and I remember the things I used to read in the Bible.

And I started picking up my Bible and reading it again, and I started to explore that relationship.

And I dove right in and I fully accepted Christ as my savior.

And I.

And all the things that happened back then, it was wild, you know, and it was actually then, right at that point where I still was a little resistant to some things because God tapped me even then, was like, you know, you gotta.

As if to point out, ministry.

And I was still resistant for years, still.

And then when I finally did start to accept it, I was still fighting him on it.

But, like, yeah, there was.

There was definitely a time where I just completely went.

Pulled the plug myself.

And then God's like, yeah, I need you to put that back in there.

And.

Yeah, but I tell you what, the biggest.

I mean, besides the fact that it was a.

It was scary to think about, and looking back on it now, I will say a couple things.

Number one, life with God is way better than life without God.

And number two is that I like myself with God way more than I liked myself without him.

Yeah, yeah.

It's just.

It's wild.

Absolutely wild.

Yeah.

I would say that, you know, if.

Be weary of ever saying, you know, God needs me to do said thing right, if anything, it's going to be God.

God would like me to do this right.

God doesn't need you at all.

He wants you.

Which Is more a.

More.

It's a deeper level.

Right.

Like, it's a deeper level thing because God's willing to do things without you, but that's not what he wants.

Right, sure.

One of these things I kick myself at is the fact that I got so scared back then.

Oh, man, who knows what would have happened?

I mean, God does, but I said no for a while.

For a long while.

Yeah.

So where are you guys at?

Are you feeling disconnected?

Have you been doing it lately?

Is any of this helpful?

Or do you have a story of when you felt far from God?

We'd love for you to share it with us.

We want to hear from you for sure.

Yeah, Yep.

Comment, comment, message, whatever it is, we want to hear from you.

Or email.

Yeah.

Or message on the socials.

The comments are great because then we can share.

It draws attention.

It draws attention to the channel and that's great.

Yeah.

We definitely want to spread it out to as many people as we can.

Your testimony can help another.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

And yeah, that's our request is if you got something, anything out of our talk today, leave us a comment.

Share with somebody, whoever God puts on your heart to share it with.

But definitely that helps us out.

Yeah.

And if this is your first time listening to us, go ahead, hit like subscribe and keep tuning in.

We just went through a spiritual warfare series.

It was 12 weeks of it.

So much cool stuff there.

Go ahead and jump back.

I mean, just because it's already over doesn't mean you can't go back through it as many times as you.

You want.

Of course.

We've got plenty of history.

Hope you enjoy.

Let us know what you think about it all and keep tuning in.

Yep.

We only have I think 30 episodes left.

Until 2:50.

Until 2:50.

It's coming up quick.

It's coming up real quick, so.

Well, thanks, guys.

We appreciate you hanging in with us and God bless.

Hey, thanks for joining us.

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About the truth here.

Thanks for joining us this week and God bless.

Bless.