0015 There Are No Clocks in Heaven

Have you ever prayed for something, waited… and waited… and wondered:

"God, where are You?"

Why does it feel like some prayers are answered immediately while others seem to sit in silence for months—or even years?

In this episode of the Biblical Passages Podcast, Brittany and Eric explore a powerful truth that changes the way we view God's timing:

God doesn't operate by clocks. He operates by conditions.

Through Scripture, personal stories, and practical application, they unpack the difference between Chronos time—the time measured by calendars, deadlines, and schedules—and Kairos time—those divine moments when heaven breaks into earth because the right spiritual conditions have come together.

Together, Brittany and Eric discuss:

• Why our desire for control often reveals a lack of faith
 • What Scripture means by "the process of time" and "the fullness of time"
 • Why Hannah had to wait for Samuel and why God's promises often unfold through a process
 • The difference between waiting on God's timing and preparing for God's timing
 • How faith creates the conditions for God to move
 • The woman with the issue of blood and what it means to "touch heaven" by faith
 • Why some seasons that feel like silence may actually be preparation
 • Abraham and Isaac's journey up the mountain—and the ram they couldn't yet see
 • How surrender and obedience position us for breakthrough
 • Why discernment matters more than urgency when seeking God's direction

This episode asks a difficult but necessary question:

What if the thing you're calling a delay… is actually God preparing something you cannot yet see?

Sometimes the answer isn't, "God, why haven't You moved?"

Sometimes the better question is:

"God, is there something You're developing in me while I wait?"

Because throughout Scripture, we see the same pattern:

Hannah waited.

Abraham trusted.

The woman with the issue of blood pressed through the crowd.

And in each story, heaven touched earth in a moment that couldn't be forced, rushed, or controlled.

If you've been frustrated by God's timing, wrestling with unanswered prayers, or wondering whether anything is happening at all, this conversation will encourage you to view your circumstances through a different lens.

Because what feels like silence…

may actually be preparation.

And what feels like delay…

may simply be God waiting for the fullness of time.

Join Brittany and Eric as they explore how faith, surrender, and spiritual discernment position us for the moments when heaven breaks through and changes everything. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Welcome back to Biblical Passages Podcast with your hosts, Britney and Eric. We're glad you're here. Wherever you're at, if you're driving, if you're getting ready, if you're sitting with coffee, if you are just tired and trying to find something to listen to, we invite you to take a second and sit with us. We don't take it lightly that you're choosing to spend, you know, some time here. We know you have a lot to do. So seriously, thank you for being a part of this. And if this is your first time, welcome. You picked, I'm just gonna say it right now, from all the episodes we have, like the best episode to jump into today. I am excited to talk about this episode. You know, over the last few weeks, Eric, I think, you know, we've talked about different ways that God speaks, but I kind of keep coming back to something. And I'm I was gonna say I really like this, but I'm going to take everybody down with me. So I'm going to say, it seems like the general population really likes control. Is that fair to say?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Well, we want to be in charge, and uh we and if our faith is limited, then who else is gonna be in charge of my life? You know, why would I follow a God that I don't have faith in? On the other hand, if I you know if I because without faith, it's impossible to please God. So faith without works is dead. So we we need to start with faith. Faith is the currency of heaven. And when we have faith, then we're we're in good shape. But if without it, it's a word you just used. I gotta be in control if I don't have faith.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Right. And so I first wanted to control, as we heard in previous episodes, like how God speaks, because I, you know, we kind of want to hear it our own way, and he should just show up and do things in my time and exactly when I need it. And thank you so much. I appreciate you for being the best God ever. And I will worship you and praise your name because you showed up. But you know, I never really realized until we started having these conversations that there are no clocks in heaven, that God doesn't run on this earthly time. And when my heart is breaking and I'm upset that he's not moved by how sad I am, because he's been lining things up for me that if I'm obedient and follow what he tells me to do, that heartbreak will seem like nothing compared to the joy that he will give me for being obedient and what he has planned.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yes, absolutely. And and there are things which you call heartbreak. Sometimes they are other aggravations. There's a lot of different types of them. Uh Paul uh suffered greatly in his life, and he he had actually asked the Lord three times to remove a thorn in the flesh. We still don't know exactly what that issue was, but the Lord said, no, it's a it's a Paul realized it was a messenger of Satan given to buffet him because he had such a depth of revelation, a spiritual revelation, that if he didn't have this thorn in the flesh, he might get prideful and arrogant uh in his walk as an apostle. So it's an interesting. If we want this ability to uh be expositors about God, um stuff comes along with that. Like sometimes you'll find the Lord is squeezing out of you certain uh old qualities that He doesn't that don't represent Him anymore. He's squeezing them out because He wants to make room for more of Him and less of you and your past.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Right. So God essentially said to him, Hey, you're really smart because I've given you this knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. I don't want you to get too far ahead of yourself. Let me give you this little aggravation so you don't forget where this came from.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

It's that would be hard to live with a spiritual or an actual fleshly, I apologize, a fleshly affliction on earth just because you have such a gift in some other area. I imagine that people could get consumed in our fleshly affliction, the pain that we have versus what great gifts that we actually hold, focusing on the wrong things. But you know, from my perspective, I'm just gonna be real, Eric. Sometimes life be life in and it comes in so quickly in a row. And I'm like, God, if you'll just fix this area, if you'll just come in here, if you'll, you know, and then the time frame passes where I need something to be fixed. And I'm like, where were you? You know, I've had so many times in my life like that, and it's not been until I've started grasping this concept of God's not going to worry about all these little things that if I just got to be obedient, I've got to be in the word. It is so important to be in the word, it's so important to be praying because those two things right there are like your lifeline. That is your daily bread. That's eating every day.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Well, and in keeping with today's theme, um, the Lord isn't moved by our clocks. He he breaks through from heaven and touches earth. Uh, and the expression in the Bible is in the fullness of time. So in the process of time. And we see that in the Old Testament, even back to Samuel's mother, Hannah. And she was in anguish because she couldn't have a baby. And she was uh she pleaded with God. Eventually the Lord um responded, and the Bible says, you know, in the process of time, uh she he responded. And I believe that um that in Galatians uh 4.4, there's another passage. Uh it's and it says, right, in the fullness of time had come. I believe you have go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

You have Yeah, well, I have both of them. So 1 Samuel 120, so it came to pass in the process of time that he had a conceived and bore a son and called his name Samuel. When I saw process of time, I'm like, that's interesting, but you think of kind of birth there, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Birth.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

Birth, like uh the entire birth process and the process of time, you know, birth happens in the process of time.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Right, right. Yes, I mean in nine months, so true. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

So then we move to Galatians 4, 4, where it kind of comes in and it says, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Right. And then go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

What had to be done during that time for it to be the fullness of time? What had to be done?

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Conditions. Well, conditions that please the Lord. You know, like in the Zech when the angel Gabriel came to speak to Zecharias, the mother of John the Baptist, father of John the Baptist, he um he he said um that um that the that he was he was coming in the fullness of time. And in and um Zecharias, you know, was was responded in to him in a in a way that was dis disputational and acted like, you know, how could this be? I'm an old man. Um but um but Gabriel says uh you won't be able to speak until the day these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time. Okay, so again, God doesn't operate by uh earthly planning cycles. He operates on his terms, and he's watching for conditions to line up.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

So what's interesting is that there in that verse, we see the conditions. We see you will not be able to speak until the day these things take place, and that's going to be the birth of the child. We see what God is doing there, but a lot of times in life, we have no idea what these conditions are.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

True. And that's where, once again, the sorry, but the word faith comes in. And that's where we say, Lord, that's what's that's what Jesus had to say. And one of my frankly, my favorite word in the Bible is nevertheless, because Jesus got to express his concerns. You know, Father, if it's in your will, take this cup from me, nevertheless. In other words, saying, I'm yielding, I nevertheless thy will be done. And so that that hinge word nevertheless says, I get to express my own concerns and my own disappointments and what I wish would happen, but nevertheless, I'm yielding my will to the will of the Father in heaven. And and so that's really what it calls for, because that's the kind of things that creates the conditions where the Lord will act and accomplish great things. It's not comfortable to go through a crucifixion, trust me. But uh but Jesus knew there was a higher purpose, and he was willing to undergo that on our behalf and to fulfill the will of his father.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

So you're saying essentially when you get to the point of feeling like everything in your life is coming to an end, that has definitely got to be the moment where you yield, and yielding looks like what? What's the active steps to yield?

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Well, faith without works is dead, so we can we can even come to the Mark V certain woman who had a flow of blood. You were mentioning this as it struck you earlier today. Twelve years, no solution, and all she had to do was touch his garment, Jesus' garment. And he felt the the uh the grace flow out of him. He knew power had gone out of him, even though it was a crowded place. You know, why is he talking about somebody touching him? But somebody touched him on purpose with faith. And so her faith created the conditions. So glory to God, here we are. Her faith created the conditions. It wasn't just people bumping into him in a crowd. Right. That's earthly. No, she bumped into him on purpose, with hope, with faith, with a need. And that's what drew the power out of him. Okay. And it's the same thing with the blind guy, with the lame people. Jesus said, What would you have me do? Lord, that I might receive my sight, Lord, that I might walk. So they they he made them name the thing. Part of the conditions for heaven to act is is the word the that faith has to be introduced, even as faith of a mustard seed, very small, but it that's the that's how heaven works. That we have to express faith. It can't be arrogance, it can't be pride, it can't be demanding, it's not a lack of humility, because if that's absent, then we've well, there's a problem. But but this is how heaven operates. And again, I don't make the rules as I like to say, but I'm I'm I'd like to discover those guidelines. And then I think it pleases God that we go searching out uh for what how he operates, and then we follow those those guidelines.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Yeah, this story absolutely struck me, and just like here and now, even goodness, even talking it through, I can I can literally have this visual in my head of this woman just being in so much pain and so much anguish, and just knowing that if I can just get there, if I if I can just get close enough, and when she touched him, she touched heaven, her 12 years of blood, those 12 years of suffering, those 12 years of nobody's able to do anything, this is never gonna go away. How is this gonna be resolved? Just just the constant torment in her life to be able to be stopped in an instant, to be able to touch heaven in in a different time. It's not even time, it's an instant. That is just such a beautiful picture, and so then you go into putting yourself in those situations and remembering back in life when you've had so many difficult times and God in an instant in an instant He touched and healed things that you've been trying to fix for years.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, so that's very good. I'm touched by your your sincerity. Notice in verse 26, she said it says, She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. So medical science of the day did their best, I'm sure. And she spent all of her living, all of her money, and she got no better. In fact, she got worse. So she tried the earthly approach.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

She hears about Jesus, she goes and finds him, and then he pro she presses through the crowd, and then look at verse 34. And he said to her, Jesus said to her, Daughter, your what? Your what?

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Faith. Your faith is meaningful.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Jesus said that. All we're doing is in this biblical passage is we're stopping and looking at the words. Because I'm just sold on the idea that these words have meaning. And we can, because you're often saying to me, Okay, Eric, how do we apply that today? How do we you you often press me like that? And my answer back is let's look at how the Bible says it worked. Okay. So she pressed through the crowd and told him the whole truth in verse 33 and 34. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. So this is what I'm talking about a kairos moment where heaven touches earth, twelve years, no success, no stopping of her phys physical problem. In an instant she's healed, and she gets a bonus. He gets he says to her, go in peace, not go in distress, not go in pain, but go in peace. Glory to God. Is this right? Is this true? This is can and I'm my question, can we live like this? And the answer is yes, because he said, Greater things than these you'll do in my name. We've got to take him at his word. Either he is who he says he is, or he's a fraud. Okay, what the when people declare, when someone declares things so assertively as he did, that he is he is the son of man, he is the son of God. When someone speaks like that, and then someone they report about him that that in the beginning was the word, and the word was made flesh. You know, when when these uh gospel writers talk about him, we we've got to sit up and take notice. We don't get to just equivocate. Okay. So this is the again, Kairos moments versus her Kronos approach, which was go to this doctor, go to that doctor. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

Yes. So we'll explain the Kairos and Kronos and what those two words mean in a minute, but just to touch, just back in on this moment where it said she came and fell down before him, told him her whole truth, and then he said, you know, daughter, your faith has made you well. That is that is going into your prayer closet, that's falling on your knees, that's reading his word, that's giving him everything and telling him you can't do it. That is all that is now a day. That is what that actively looks like in real life. So I just want to make sure that people know that even though Jesus isn't the physical person you can run to and grab and hold, that that's what it looks like now. And he's still alive now more than ever, it feels like. Um, so in New Testament, in Old Testament, you know, we see this processor time, fullness of time, but it's all talking about time. You just mentioned a moment ago, you know, Kairos and Kronos. Can you explain the difference of those two words and what they mean?

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Sure. They're both um Greek words. So Kairos implies that there are conditions that need to be met for so Kairos time is based upon conditions, and Kronos time is based upon the clock, the lunar month, the solar month, like June, July, August, uh, is our solar months back in in uh the days of Jesus, they operated on um lunar months, which is the moon. So there were 13 months. Uh then we moved to a solar calendar. We have 12. But that is um that's a a month and a day and a time of day. And you know, when you're doing uh satellite launches and shending people to the moon and eventually to Mars, uh, we're talking about a level of precision on Kronos time. And they've they they've got it down to a tenth of a second to get it right, and that's important. But when we're talking about dealing with heaven, God's not moved by our Kronos time. He's moved by when the conditions are right, okay, because he's a God of principles, he's a God of wisdom. And when we are willing to implement uh uh His pris his uh principles, um, you know, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, you know, he's got these conditions that we need to fulfill. It's not based upon, oh, if it's June 15th or if it's December 9th, uh and if it's uh if it's uh 11 a.m. in the morning, he doesn't talk like that. So it's conditions. My people have to humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. So there's like six conditions in that one passage from 2 Chronicles. Okay, and he's gonna do three things. So, but but he operates by covenant, not by clocks. He made a covenant with Adam, he made one with Noah about the rainbow, he made one with Abraham, followed by his son Isaac and Jacob. He made one with Moses, he introduced a new covenant through his son. It's just fascinating. You know, he he's he's a covenantal god, and even marriages we we enter into covenants. So um I'm impressed by how he operates, and it's it's based on Chrono's time.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

So I hear you, and I hear the explanation, and it helps. But I think where people struggle, people being possibly me and other people listening, maybe that it doesn't really feel like conditions. It feels like I'm waiting for the longest delay of my life, and that this is impossible sometimes, and that it's a complete uphill battle. And the more that I'm listening, the more that I'm understanding that it really is conditions kind of transfer over to a heart issue, is what it kind of sounds like. That the right conditions happen by having the right hearts moved.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yes. Nehemiah was in anguish over the city of Jerusalem when his uh when Hannah and I came to the other people to come tell him what was going on in Jerusalem. Uh, we mentioned Hannah earlier, the mother of Samuel. She was in anguish. Um again, this is these are tough conditions, I admit, but this was not just a gentle, oh Lord, now I lay me down to sleep. Sure, hope tomorrow's test goes well in the you know in in my geography class. That's that's not that's not an anguished prayer, okay? But there are prayers in the Bible where you'll see if we stop, pump the brakes, slow down, and see these people, Hannah, Nehemiah in particular, they were in anguish. And this perks up the Lord's ears. He says, Okay, uh you're humbling yourself, you're praying, you're seeking my face. You're you're uh you're truly broken over the Nehemiah's case, broken over the sin of his forefathers and how they refused to listen to God's admonitions, refuse to hear his prophets, they were warned over and over again. God was a patient God. So when you say I'm in a hurry to get this done and I don't like these conditions, if you're living in Jerusalem around 450 BC, you want God to fix something. Yeah, but are you willing to acknowledge what happened in the previous hundreds of years where they were putting up temples to idols, child sacrifice? They were they were ignoring God's um uh principles of worship and his devotion to him. He warned them and he warned them. Are we willing to acknowledge that? So we know we want to draw a curtain sometimes and and forget about the past. No, because even forgetting the past, I pressed toward the mark. With the high calling of Jesus. Well, sometimes we have to acknowledge the past. Okay. We have to admit uh and seek God's um forgiveness for how we've acted.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

Right. So I think that, you know, sometimes that's the part that messes with you. You know, maybe you're doing the right things and maybe you're praying, maybe you're being obedient, but you still don't see anything moving. Like, does that mean that nothing's happening? Does that mean that you've got to there's there's something wrong? I feel like I get to the point sometimes, and I've seen a lot of the women in my women's group, especially, get to the point sometimes of being like, okay, I've done all the things that God told me to do, and I feel like we're just sitting at the same space.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Okay, and that may be it may be true, it may be s uh correct. Uh, I look at uh Abraham uh and uh and Isaac. Abraham was told to take his son and go up that hill and to sacrifice him. What Abraham didn't know was that the Lord was sending a lamb up on the other side of the um of the hill, who's got his horns caught in the branches. So Abraham had to walk by faith. That was not a comfortable moment. But when he got up there and he was about to raise his knife over his son, the Lord said, Stop, I got you. I see that you're I see your faith. Now take this animal and sacrifice it instead. And and that that that level of capitulation to God's word, you know, are we ready to go that far? No. You say, Maybe I'm not at the Abraham level. Okay, well, maybe you're not gonna get the same rewards and influence that he had either, because he was the father of many nations, as we know. So you know, there is a there's a cost to getting this level of of um result. And again, it's it's a heart. You know, is is your heart ready to really say, Lord, I'm with you. I am amen. I trust you.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Isn't that a beautiful picture of I could just imagine him going up the side of this mountain in just complete anguish and like, God, like why do I have to do this? I could have, I could imagine the anxiety that I would feel as a parent, you know, taking my child to do something. But to know that at that very moment on the other side that the ram is coming up and that you just can't see it, and to keep going, to get to the point of complete, you know, we're supposed to sacrifice our bodies to the Lord, complete self-sacrifice of going, here, God, use me, and him moving in that moment because he will, he always does, he does what he says he will do. Oh, I just I love that that visual there. So, what you're saying is what feels like silence, what feels like almost abandonment sometimes could be preparation.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Well, it's a test of faith, and in my view. Okay. I I just I just can't get around it. And even if it's just a mustard seed of faith, Jesus said to the woman with the issue of blood, your faith has made you whole.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

He didn't say the fact that you took a trip here and showed up on the same day I was he didn't buy a ticket to the show. You know, your faith has made you whole. And she pressed through the crowd and and touched his garment.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

So that is incredible. But you know, we kind of have to be honest with ourselves that we think we know what's best, and that we have all these like self-indulgences essentially, and sometimes we try to fix all the situations around us without even looking to see praying, asking God anything to see what he could do in our situation, and I think that's where conditions and what we try to do are completely different. And I really love the way that you explain the fullness of time. I know I mentioned this earlier, but the way that you explain the fullness of time and conditions when we relate it to pregnancy. Could you explain how you relate that? Because I love it.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

I'm gonna be careful here because not being a woman, never had uh given birth. I want to be uh What's the science behind it?

SPEAKER_03 26:46

Don't worry.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

What's this? Oh gosh. Well not that kind.

SPEAKER_03 26:51

I said no, it's the science behind it.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Okay, okay. I'm sure you have something in mind. So just help a brother out. Give me a little bit of a break. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Crack it me up, I love it. Okay, so fullness of time. So when I was first explained the fullness of time, and when I looked into the Bible to try and see, like, what in the heck are you talking about? Um, it had to do with my birthday. So I kept seeing my birthday on the time. So I would look at the time two times a day. I'd look at the clock and I'd always see 1112. My birthday's November 12th. And I have prayed for years and years. God, why do I see this twice a day? This is really annoying at this point because this is years that I'm seeing this time. And I'm like, what does it mean? And so this year I started asking him, what does it mean? Can you tell me what that means? What that means. And finally, this year, he finally showed me, Brittany, I've been waiting to release you in the fullness of time. And it has to do with like my ministry. And so when I thought of the fullness of time and it's my birthday, he's like, I birthed you in the fullness of time. All of a sudden it started clicking in my head of, oh my goodness, Brittany, I was born at the exact right time, even though I was taken out of my mother's womb by an abortion doctor, and I have a scar on me from him cutting me when I was born. Even though these things happen, I was born in the fullness of God's time because his conditions were met. I may not have been ready to come out of the womb in Kronos in the worldly time, right? My body was not all the way developed. There was not these things met. However, the Lord sought for conditions to be met, and I was born at the exact right time because everything in my life is lined up to where I was where I was supposed to be.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

That's incredible. What a story. Were you um nine months, eight months? How long?

SPEAKER_03 28:52

I was uh they don't really know. I don't really I don't think they really know because this was the biggest abortion doctor in our town, so there was not the best care there. My mother went to him because he was also a regular doctor. Um, but he was known for that, and he was not a kind doctor during delivery.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

I say that because my younger son was born uh prematurely, six uh six weeks early, and he was in NICU and he was like very small. I don't want to misquote the uh the birth weight, but trust me, it was very low. And he was starts he started packing on weight after that. But uh every day we were at the NICU the I the ICU for for youngsters, and it was uh you know the anguish talk about the anguish of a of a parent or a or a mother uh over um over that child that's uh unspeakable. So but uh you wonder, okay, apparently, you know, who knows, came out at the pr at the at the proper time, I believe, because there was an anointing on his life. So yeah, so we can we can unpack these things, but I'm convinced that uh what when we can we can actually live supernaturally, we can we can have encourage and seek and not beg, but that's the wrong word, but in if we we position ourselves so that that heaven can touch earth right where we are, and we can say, Lord, these are the conditions here. Is there anything else that I need to do? Is there anything that you're seeking? Is there anything where I'm that I'm missing? I don't I don't do it ignorantly, I don't do it defiantly, I'm doing it um I'm doing it in a way because I I just don't know. So uh it's not a lack of humility, it's not pridefulness, but uh what tell tell me what else is necessary. You know, there's um I remember a time when a client called me and and said that you know, thanks for the memories, but we're all done now. And it really was broke it it broke me. It it was it was very difficult. I walked over into my conference room, was looking out the window, and I remember so clearly the Lord said to me, Don't worry about it, I'm your sole source of supply. And so I was thinking that this man and his his checks were a source of supply. But the Lord reminded me he's the source of supply. Why? Deuteronomy 818. Remember, it is the Lord that gives you the power to get wealth. Who? The Lord gives you the power to get wealth, not gives you wealth, but power to get wealth, that he can establish his covenant in the earth. Oh, covenant. So he this is uh this is uh Moses saying this in Deuteronomy, uh his closing address to the people of Israel. He's got a covenant, the Mosaic covenant. And uh and and so the the Lord will give these people of Israel the power to get wealth so that they can establish his covenant. If we get away from his covenant, don't expect him to pay the bills. Okay. So sorry, we're gonna struggle.

SPEAKER_03 32:10

You know, I love that you said that because it just seems like, no, it absolutely is like any woman that comes into our women's group. Now, mind you, the way that I've spoken here on this podcast, these are things that I have been able to at least come to a standing point with of like, okay, I got this. I'm working on this. This is actively working in my life. But we have every woman that comes in with a problem, with something that's deeply hurting, deeply personal, they automatically are just looking for like, tell God to heal it. Ask, can you just ask prayer for this that we can get this fixed, that we get this? And sometimes, especially if I'm hearing over and over again of how quickly they want things done, how they need this done by next Friday, they need this money by this, this, this, this, this, this. I am so quick to go, hey, let's ask for a miracle. Like, let's let's sit down, let's talk about this. Because sometimes God's not going to move in the ways that we think he's going to move. He may not make this go completely away. He may move in a different area to where you may not be in this house. You may not be able to keep everything that you're looking for right here. We may have to shift into a different environment. And that right there is sometimes where you lose people because we don't teach enough about suffering, and we don't teach enough of how we are called to suffer and we will suffer. And we think that at the first moment of suffering, at the first moment of a trial, we have to get out of it because it's uncomfortable. But being comfortable in the uncomfortable is all that Jesus did. He stood before the very people that are supposed to teach all of the concepts that he has and they hated him. Yet we somehow think that we're not supposed to suffer and that this is not normal to go through.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Well, but the suffering would be for a purpose. In other words, you know, as you're speaking, I would be thinking uh to the to the one of the ladies that you work with, is there anything that the Lord has told you to do that you can honestly say you have not gotten to yet? Oh well, I've been busy. Oh well, you know, the kids need to do clothes for school. Oh well, oh well, oh well. And I could hear an excuse coming where there was clarity, what you might call suffering, I would say it might have been maybe defiance or um they knew better. Uh and so say, well, there it is, sister, right there. You've uh you were told to do something, and instead you I mean, I remember with um Elijah coming to the the the woman the widow, the woman that had uh all she had was a little bit of oil. Okay, and uh and so it it ended up to short shorten the story, ended up multiplying. And so we've gotta be we've got to be careful that sometimes we have a resource that we need to give to God and then it'll multiply. But sometimes we just know better. And we know that we've got to protect that, we've got to protect that money, we've got to protect that car, we've got to do something on our terms and not listen to the Lord. And I would just suggest that uh that people reconsider that. So again, conditions. Um so when you talk about suffering, whatever, I I I'd say I don't know how that applies necessarily, but I would I would I would definitely want to talk about conditions that uh were necessary for uh uh for the Lord to move.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

So then if we don't control the timing and there is only conditions, how do we make sure that we're aligned with God into trying to get these conditions into place?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Well, the Bible is can be can be very clear, you know. Again, the Chronicles passage, if my people call by my name, um there's um we've gone over um Proverbs 1, you know, um Blessed is a man who blessed sounds like something I'd like. I'd like to be blessed. We look at the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Okay, what does mourn mean in this case? Mourn because someone died? No. Mourning over the over their over sin, mour mourning over disappointing the Lord. Blessed are the meek, okay, for they shall inherit the earth. Okay, am I meek or am I trying to be throw my elbows around and defiant and talk about who's in charge here?

unknown 36:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

So blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You want to see God move? Blessed are the pure in heart. That's not pure in behavior. Some people say, Oh, you're trying to make me behave so perfectly. It's not what it says. Pure in heart. Okay, in other words, my motives are such that I want to align with God. Okay, again, I'm I'm admitting that my behavior may not always be so perfect, but my motives are such that I want to align. So I would go to God in prayer and say, Lord, are there any motives of my heart that are disconcerting to you, that are missing the mark? Is there something hidden that I'm I'm not admitting or that I'm not realizing? He will illuminate it. So when you talk about suffering, I'm I'm just saying, is that really suffering? That's that's purifying. That's that's blessed are the pure in heart. Okay, so Jesus said uh to in the Sermon on the Mount also, he said, You've heard said by them of old time, meaning the Mosaic law, thou shalt not kill. Okay, but I say unto you, uh oh, here he comes, but I say unto you, whoever's angry with his brother, okay, that that in other words, that anger, he's he's performed murder in his heart already. Okay, right. He goes on and on with the various, but I say unto you, so sometimes we're not willing to go to the Jesus level, we're not really willing to go to the motive level. And these are the conditions you keep asking about these conditions. That's what motivates the Lord to operate, to break through from heaven to earth in a chronos, in a excuse me, in a kairos moment to accomplish the things that we need in our life.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

So for these kairos moments where you can literally reach out and touch heaven, where God moves, where conditions are met, and he goes, All right, miracle time. You know, I'm I'm just hearing over and over, essentially, this is not about urgency. This is not about listing off, God, I need you to do this in this amount of time. This is about discernment. This is about awareness. This is about, God, speak to me through your word. God, speak to me through your creation, speak to me through these 10 ways that we now know that He speaks to you from different podcasts. Go back and listen to that. But speak to you, speak to me through all these different ways and show me, give me the guidance. So, this is all about discernment. It's not about getting my needs met and moving when I need them to.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

And one of those 10 ways was other people. So when you talk about that ladies' group, I'm hearing maybe you're one of those other people that those women need to listen to. And so this is where you want to be on your game to be sure that you're saying to them, are you aware of the principles? And so when you know the principles in your mind, you have that sort of what I call an inventory. You've studied it, you're aware of it. And as you listen to the real world story that you're hearing from somebody, something about a kid, something about a boyfriend, something about a husband, something about a job, uh, finances, name it. Then you can pull out of inventory, out of your mind the verse, the the passage that applies to that situation. And and now it actually is redeeming. It's actually um r r relieves the pressure. It doesn't cause more suffering, it actually is a pathway to relieving it. And that's what again, the woman with the issue of blood, she found a way to relieve it. She went on faith to Jesus, touched his hem of his garment, and he said, Your faith has made you whole. Go in peace. Okay. So there was no extra suffering. She suffered enough. Okay. But she came in faith. And Hannah prayed in anguish. And then the the the angel came and said to her, Your prayer has been heard. Okay. And she dedicated her son Samuel to the temple, and he became a mighty prophet. Pretty I mean two books in the Bible written about him.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

But even talking this through, I remember reading these stories, and you know, it just feels like so many times I read every scripture and just kept going because I either didn't understand it or I didn't, I was like, oh, fullness of time. Okay. Like and not I I had so many missed opportunities. And I think we need, you know, I'm going through Proverbs right now, and it's just gripping my whole entire soul and ripping it to shreds because there's so many things that I think it is. There's so many things that I have read before, heard before, quoted to me before, seen before, memorized before, but I've never understood.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

And I think that's where we need to ask for this knowledge, wisdom, understanding, discernment, because that's the only way we're going to understand what conditions are needed and what obedience is needed for him to move for us to be able to touch heaven and grab those miracles live in action. Like that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

Okay. Well, if if if we'll lift those passages up to heaven, say, I've skipped over this from the past, but Lord, I'm putting this on the altar now. I'm putting this passage on the altar, even the 23rd Psalm, been through it a thousand times. I'm putting it on the altar, and I'm asking you, can you make this come alive in my life? Okay. Um, I I want to be able to to to uh activate these these verses in my own life. He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. That's in Psalm 1, and I whose leaf does not weather is fruit, you know. I I I want to be like that.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Okay, it's I love the passage. I I want to I want to feel contented like that. So I'm hoping that it doesn't rip your soul to shreds too much longer.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

That just means it convicts me.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

Okay, okay, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

I know. You're too smart for my simple analogy.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

No, no, no, it's okay. I just want to be, I feel compassion for you when I hear that. And I and for anybody else that might feel like, yeah, I feel no, you don't have to be a scholar, you don't have to be a seminarian at uh at a at a at a college, you don't have to be a pastor at a big church. You you get to be a a believer who can reach into scriptures and activate these things, and Lord, I want to apply this scripture to my situation now. And to what extent do I need to change and and alter and and admit that I've I've come up short, okay? I'm admitting I've not lived up to this principle, okay. I've you know, I think the Lord does that to me even these days, you know. I'll I'll be working and he'll he'll say, Oh, you got that. Oh you're you're in charge of that now.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Why has he got to say things like that?

SPEAKER_00 43:59

It's like a rhetorical question, and it's like it just freezes me. And it's like, no, I'm trying to be a good steward. I'm trying to oh, you're in control of that now. And I know and oh, that's a way to just pull me up short and say, put it on the altar, Eric. No, okay, give it to me. I got this. Okay. But he's gonna give me the right to pull something back and put it under my wing under my charge. Okay. And then again, I don't do it anywhere near as much as I used to, but but uh it was like trying to prove who's right and who's wrong in a situation. Oh, you got that. You're you're trying to creep back into the Garden of Eden under cover of darkness and hug that tree. Yeah, that's how you guys got kicked out. But you want to go back in, okay? Because you're trying to prove who's right and who's wrong. No, no, I didn't I didn't mean that. Keep that keep the fence closed. I didn't mean to go back in to the garden there. Uh so he he he just wants us to use our spirit to evaluate good and evil, but not use our soul to evaluate right and wrong. So that's a whole nother podcast right there.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

Yeah, you're right. Well, getting back to this then, when it feels like life is coming at you all the time and there are deadlines and things that don't seem like it's going to happen or could be met, go, you know, you said something, Eric, and I really like it. Go to the Bible, look for his promises, where he promises to give you peace, he promises to give you rest, speak those over your life, repent for whatever you could have done. If you know, repent for it. If you don't know what it is, repent. Whatever I've done to get out of the will of you to where I'm not receiving this peace and this rest, Lord, show me, open my eyes, tell me what I need to do next. Move mountains, open doors, get show me what I'm what I what's happening here and watch it move. Because if you will be obedient in that moment and give it up to him, that is all he's looking for. I think sometimes we think it's like this big magical thing, and we have to say these certain words, and it's just crying out to him, letting him know that we cannot do it on our own, that we give our will to him, that we're seeking him. Oh, I love this episode. This is great. Well, before we close, let's just sit for a second in this moment because I think it's really important. You know, what are you frustrated with with God's timing right now in your life? What is what has got you strung up? What is impacting you? And have you done what God's called you to do? Have you been able to? Have you thought about it? Being giving this up to him? Or have you said, you know what? I got this because I can fix this with this and this with this, and I can move this here. Make what have you done? Let him fix it, give it up to him today. Oh, thank you, Eric. This was a good one.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Amen. Love it. All right, all the best.