#80 S3 EP 42: Embracing The Journey: The Beauty That Comes With Revival

Hello, hello. Welcome back to God's Diamonds in the Rough Amen. We are so glad to be with you one more time. You don't know who I am? Obviously I'm Catherine.

And obviously I'm Michael hey, come on in.

Amen, hallelujah. So we are here today and you know, excited about what God is going to do here with us to this night. Yeah, when you're listening to this, it'll be tonight. Amen, how are you doing, honey?

I'm doing a lot better than I was Fighting a sinus infection, but hey, I'm almost completely healed. You know, yeah, you know that. But you know, if you receive that, don't understand what God can do. They say, oh you still sick? But you see, you get that thing, you got to walk in your healing. You can't let your healing I mean you're feeling the dictate your healing, yeah.

I want you feeling dictate your healing. Yeah, Come on somebody, we can put that on the shirt.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a shirt. That's a shirt. Don't let your feeling dictate your healing. Your healing. I like it, I love it.

Yeah, yeah, because you know you think about the concept of that is it's almost like If you walk to feed it in. Whatever thing you're going through, whether it be your healing or your strength or your wisdom, you wind up setting yourself up. Put a damn fall, you know. That's why it's got to be. You know, don't let your feeling dictate your healing. Yeah, but before we do that, y'all know we got to pray for it, so let's pray the Heavenly Father, our Lord and our Savior, jesus Christ, we just come to you saying thank you. Thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for your love and kindness and tend to mercies. We thank you for just keeping us protected from all things. That's not like you. We thank you for waking us up. Thank you for putting our feet on solid ground. We thank you for the even the breath that you put in our bodies from day one. Thank you right now, just to get into your word once again to discuss your diamonds, your people, our friends, our brothers and our sisters in Christ, of who they are in you. So many times we go through things, life and people will dictate of who we are Trying to discourage us, but we buke those things and anything or the assignment or the enemy that will be sent back into the picture here where it came from. We pray in the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit will just have its way. We pray in the name of Jesus for the ones that said pray for me. We pray in the name of Jesus for the ones that has no desires to know who you are. We pray in the name of Jesus for the ones that wants to know who you are but don't know how we actually touch them off in the crown of their heads to the soul of the feet, so that you have your way in their lives, just have your way In Jesus Christ, holy, righteous, divine name. We say thank you. We say amen, amen.

Amen. So the topic today? Oh yeah, y'all notice something. Oh, yeah Am a diamond. It ain't crafted by God. You see, yes, this is our brand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To just really decree a, declare a thing as the Bible tells us to you know, walk in it. I am a diamond. Amen, and not be afraid of it. Shine to the world. Get this on our website. Which is you remember, on it?

Yes, I do.

All right, share it to them wwwgodsdiamondnet. God's diamond. Yes, you can absolutely get this. These two things and much more merch. Oh yeah, y'all know I say that all the time. Yeah, can I explain it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Yeah, so the cup is saved by grace.

Let me get a drink of coffee.

Yeah, saved by grace. Washington Ciao says come on somebody. Yeah, yeah, and the idea behind that is we all saved by grace and so, therefore, come on y'all. Hey, man, it's an opportunity for us to share the gospel. Amen, make us make everyone understand how it is that we are saved by grace and, excuse me, I'm fiddling around with the buttons trying to get us some background. Yeah, but it's about being saved by grace. This is what a diamond is being is about as well.

You know us being saved by grace, because that's what we are Saved by grace, and I like that I like the concept, because I got to say this, because I got, I just got to add to what you just said, you know, because you know, if we're saved by grace and we don't testify to somebody else, how can they realize that they're saved? And that's when we got to talk about it, right? So if we, if we keep those things to ourselves, are we benefiting the kingdom? Right? Are we just being saved and not help, not sharing the good news with somebody else? Yeah, yeah, so that's what we got to talk about.

Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, Evidently, you know the Lord will have us to really promote our merchandise for this episode and really dig into the why. What we're going to do is we're going to really talk about what we do in. You know, this is whole concept of I am a diamond, because truly you are a diamond. Amen. We have been handcrafted by Jesus alone. Amen. But look, look, look. Here's the reality. We, we have nothing to do with what we came, what we became when we came out of mama's womb, amen. We have nothing to do with his purpose and his plan for our life. He already decided that. So that's why we're handcrafted by Jesus and crafted you talk about handcrafted. It means that he's took his hands and he's taking his times, and taking his time like the great potter, the clay. We are. The clay is the potter shaping us, forming us to the men and women of God he desires us to be. We can kick against it, we can go and work with him. Amen. Come on one somebody. Hallelujah, do you want yours to be all lopsided? And? But you see some beautiful art that's all lopsided and twisted up, jeremy Got a thought yeah, I do.

You know it's funny that you mentioned that. You know he had. He had to dig it all together and put it all together. You think, just for a second. Person makes bread and I was going to put the flour in there and put all the ingredients in there In the bowl and then just pour it on the pan and throw it in the oven. You have to. You have to get in there and mix it and knead it and get all the ingredients in there For the bread to come out right and see. That's what Jesus has to do. He has to. He has to get down in there and mix some things together and see those things can even be your flaws, your bad mistakes, your good things you do, your love, your compassion. He has to mix those things in there. So when you go through things in life, don't think it's a mistake. You have to go through those things in life because he wants you to endure the thing. So when the great things come, when the enemy comes at you, you know how to defeat it Because he don't give you those those moments of doubt or shame. When the enemy comes and say and make you feel you are ashamed of what you're doing, you'll stay there. But see, when you already been through those things, lovingly by the Lord, he let you know that. Hey look, anything the enemy puts that you already defeated it. So you can go about your way and do what you got to do. That's right.

That's right, absolutely love it. So our topic of conversation is, or today is really living free man, living free. This is what we are supposed to be doing. Living really, amen, amen, and, for whatever reason, a whole lot of folk they are. Amen. That's not the way he desires it to be. Amen, he desires for us to live, oh, and unapologetically, whole unapologetically. Oh, excuse me, I could have hit that. It's okay, it's okay, it's all right, but, yeah, unapologetically. And so, honey, when you think about this topic of living free, what do you think?

When I hear the word living free. You know, sometimes when we hear that that living free, it's almost like we can go and do what we want to do and think we don't have consequences behind it. But we got to realize, look, when we go through things in life, good or bad, there's something that's going to have to. We want how to be, we want how to be held to accountability, because the word of God says look, everything that we do here on earth when we make it to glory, we want how to be held accountable for the things we know. And if you're in the word, you know, so the things that you do, that's wrong, that goes against God. We got to realize that we want how to be held accountable, so that living free it should be. You know, and the way I see it is, you know we're free to do what we want to do because he gives us choice. But the same token, we got to realize that he gives us free choice, but the things that you know that you now should be doing, you go how to be held accountable for.

But this is true, because that's the idea of being free. He got nothing attached to it.

Yeah.

Yeah, because if you know, if you are, you're professing to be free and you really aren't those things are going to keep on chasing behind you. You know it really becomes when we when Jesus is talking about freedom he's talking about I use this illustration often it's just the same as being in a vehicle. You sit in the passenger seat, the driver seat has complete control. In the driver seat, you got complete control as to where you are going. Whether you're driving forward, whether you're backing up, you are in control. And when we surrender, we relinquish that control. We get out of the driver seat and we get into the passenger seat, whether it's in the right, beside the driver, or in the backseat. Either way, we aren't in control. We aren't in control. And when we are in control, when, when Jesus is in control, he can take us where he wants to take us. We are free. We're not attached to. We are not attached to, no longer attached to the control. That's what makes us free. We're just, we're alone for the ride. Where is Jesus taking me? Wherever Jesus takes me, I've consented, even before he begins to drive, that I am going and there comes the freedom because no longer is the attack. The responsibility of where you're going is attached to you. You don't got to wear yourself out trying to get where you think you're supposed to go. He's going to take you where you're supposed to go and he's going to. He's going to and to. If he's going to take you there, then he's already prepared you for the journey that he's taking you on, much like when you go on vacation. What do you do? You get prepared. You put everything in your bag that you're going to need you think you're going to need at least and you take that bag with you. And in the idea, and you know just for a moment, you know if all he requires because the scripture tells us, he told the disciples when they went out to go and minister to the people. He said don't worry about what you're going to take, don't worry about script, don't worry about knowing this, knowing this and having this and having that. He says all you need is me. And that scripture went on to say look, if they don't receive you, then they haven't received me. So you don't have to worry about, worry about being good enough for the opportunity, because God has already prepared you for where he is taking you. He's going to tell you what to take. He's going to tell you what not to take. At the end of the day, you are trusting in the Lord with all of your heart and leaning not on to your own understanding.

And I got it. I got to say this because the spirit jobs in my spirit just now, well before you even said that and you know. But see, this is a thing. This is, this is my suggestion when you surrender, don't bypass getting in the passenger seat. Get it all the way in the back seat, because that surrender, that means you got to have trust. If you don't have trust, the first thing you're going to do is, when he's behind the wheel and you're sitting in the passenger seat, is you going to try to reach over and grab the steering wheel? No, when you first surrender, get in the back seat, because when you're in the back seat of the vehicle, yeah, you can reach the, you can grab the wheel, but it'll take more effort for you to grab the wheel. You have to reach over the front seat all the way to the front compartment of the vehicle, but it's more harder to grab it if you're sitting in the back. If you're sitting in the left in the passenger seat, all you got to do is reach over and grab it. That's all you got to do. So my suggestion is, when you surrender, don't try to sit beside the driver. Sit all the way in the back, even if you, in a 13 passing, the van sit all the way in the back.

Michael was crazy.

You know, I got to be me, I got to, I got to have my moment, but it's real. I mean, you got to realize that when you surrender it's got to be revolved around trust.

Absolutely. This is how you live free.

Yeah.

I mean we want to help everybody. You know as we are. You know most likely this will air during our season of people in order to live free, got to, you have got to and, a matter of fact, it's most like it will come in around the last, the last, the last episode before the season is gone. We want to just encourage you, encourage you today. Do not quit, because there is a such stands. Living for it Does not mean that you don't have problems, doesn't mean that you don't make mistakes. It doesn't mean that people aren't going to walk in and out of your life. Doesn't mean that because we understand about Ecclesiastes, three versus one through 10. Life is life, yeah, amen. But Jesus desires to awaken, awaken and restore and revive some things that have died, dying or haven't even come to life yet. He desires to bring you that freedom, amen. And freedom does not look like the what the world defines as freedom. Freedom in the sight of God is an. Excuse me, I don't want to offend anybody, but right now we are taking the whole Bible and bringing it into just a casual conversation. So ask me to quote a scripture. I won't because this is the whole word. He brings us a piece of mind which settles? us in him and when we are settled in him, we are rooted and grounded in him. We are unmovable and unshakable, does not matter what comes at us, we are not moved. You tell me that's not freedom. You tell me that's not freedom. That's the best way you can describe freedom, because if you think about it, when life hits, you suppose there's something in your health. You'll have every reason to quit and give up, especially if it's something they say is terminal. Folks will just give up. But when we realize, look, he said to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord, he says look, when we know that we have a place of peace that is eternal. Eternal when we do leave this world, because we know we're all going to leave this world we're going to be in a place of peace. It doesn't matter what the diagnosis says, it doesn't matter what the doctor says Amen, we have hope for a place of peace. At the end of the day, this is because you are rooted, grounded and settled in him. Tell me why that's not living in freedom.

And see I want somebody. I got to say this. Are we saying that once you come into Jesus, a relationship with Jesus, everything is going to get better? No, because the closer that you get with Jesus and with God, the enemy is going to attack you that much more. But this is the thing, though. That's Christian. You just say it.

Be absent From the body From the body is to be present with the Lord.

That does not necessarily mean the physical death. That means spiritual death because we got to realize that everything has to die off Our old way of thinking, our thinking, to our new way of thinking that's dying off. So that can be simply declared, as you know, absent from the body to be present with the Lord, because you're not thinking the same way you used to think. There's not always a physical Dying to be absent from the body.

Hey man, absolutely so. You said it won't get better, it will get better, it'll get better. It'll get better, but not in the sense, not as easy. Yeah, not in the sense that says that nothing else happened.

Yeah.

You know what I mean, and not in the sense that says I'll never have any problems, I will. You know things. You know I'll never have this happening to me again. That won't happen. That's what he means when he said, if any day it's worse.

Yeah.

The enemy doesn't want you to serve God on purpose, doesn't? You don't care if you go to church. You're a man. He doesn't care if you go to church. He doesn't care if you sing on the choir. He doesn't care if you go out there and evangelize. He doesn't care if you're shouting and all in the screaming, speaking in tongues. He don't care, none about that. You can do all of that and not have a relationship with Jesus. He doesn't want you to have a relationship with Jesus. He wants you to go out there and pretend like you got it all together. Come on somebody. He doesn't want you to know why you do it. He doesn't want you to celebrate and worship him with your heart. These are the things he doesn't want you to do, and this is why he hits us in the weakest points, in the weakest areas of our lives, because he wants us to doubt the goodness of God.

Jesus, come on somebody, and that's why I think that description is so powerful when he says that they confess me with their lips, but the heart is far from me. See, like you said, as long as you can go out there, you can sing on the choir, you can stand behind the pulpit and preach the word. If you don't have that relationship and not a religion with Christ, they don't care.

Yeah.

The enemy does not care that you go out there preaching or teaching or singing or dancing or shouting or running around us. Run a church, he don't care. All he cares about is making sure you don't have a relationship with him.

That's really what he wants you to do. He wants you to doubt the goodness of God. He wants you to doubt his power. He wants you to distrust him. This is how Adam and Eve fail because they doubted the goodness of God. The enemy made them question if what he said was really true. And this is what he wants you to do. He wants you to question if what Jesus said is really true. He doesn't want you to fully trust him, wholeheartedly. And when you surrender, this is what you do, and he's gonna do everything he can to keep you out of church, especially somebody that's on the brink of opening that door to surrender. He is gonna do everything to keep you out of church. He is gonna do everything to attack your body. He's gonna do everything to attack the people around you. He's gonna do everything to attack your money. He's gonna do everything to attack how you see yourself, so that you don't trust God, so that you don't go to church, so you don't get around people that will make you stronger and push you toward him. He's gonna do everything he can to keep you away. This is what this revival has been about. This revival has been about some things being awakened in you that you didn't even realize was asleep, some things being restored inside of you that you didn't even know, that was dying or dead. This is what this has been about, whether it's your manhood, your womanhood, your marriage, your children, your identity, the accountability. This is what it's been about. Amen, hallelujah, we want you to see yourself the same way we see ourselves inside of God. What do you say?

I am a diamond.

And I'm what.

And crafted by Jesus, Excuse me and crafted.

And hallelujah, amen, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. You get it. Amen, hallelujah. So it was the plan of God that this young lady did not come on with us today. That's why? That's because this was the last episode for this particular season. We're gonna be back March of 2024. So we're taking a couple of weeks off and when we come back this next season, we're gonna walk right into impacting the world. Amen, as we are now revived and we understand who we are and we're seeing ourselves the way that the Lord sees us. Amen, we now we can impact the world. Amen, and however the Lord leads us in that, that's the next step. Impact the world, make a difference where you are. Amen, hallelujah. And don't forget about the website. Please go there. Amen, I'm gonna put that up on the screen. You wanna share anything else, honey? Oh no, oh honey. I thought you was giving her to say something I did. I thought you was giving her to say something Okay oh. I'm sorry for all the noise. Y'all you ready to put it up here? Y'all put the website up. I will check out the website. This is where you can get all of our merchandise. This is where the diamond dot net. All right For our store. I cast and more. Okay, Throw that as well. Oh no, I'm gonna do this one, Okay. So, um, y'all, uh, what was I getting ready to say? Uh, I can't think. Honey, help me.

You can't. Oh my God, let me touch that.

Man. Um, I was gonna say y'all make sure you check out the website, um, and so we want to ask you to sew into this ministry, amen. I do this full time. My husband still works. Eventually we're working toward him getting out and us able to be able to do full time ministry together. Um, we have other things that we do as well. We got learning and living through, which we do on Facebook live. Uh, and this is where we're going, book by book and verse by verse, digging into the scriptures. Um, I don't ever claim to be a theologian, but I'm just I'm. I have a heart for Jesus, amen. I want to help as many people as I can get where I am, amen, and us to grow together, hallelujah, grow together, amen. And I think we should always be ever learning about who Jesus is always learning, and so you know I don't, like I said, I don't feel like when we talk about Jesus, I don't know nothing. You're, I'm learning, just like everybody else, and you know I can declare. I can declare that, amen, hallelujah. It's about spiritual maturation and we can do that together. Um, we do have learning to live in truth. That's going to be a podcast very soon, coming out next year around about April, may and where in that vicinity. So learning to live in truth podcast coming soon, um, and I can't think of anything else right now to share. But also we thank you so much for the season, thank you so much for the year that you have placed here. I'm glad that you have blessed their hearts, god, they might see themselves as a diamonds you have. Amen. I pray that we can all be in a carishment the one another. Amen. I pray, god, that you would put this podcast on the hearts of your. Share it and it will just go around the world. God, just grow in. I pray that you will just bless everyone. Bless everyone to see again what you see All the way. Thank you so much. Right this prayer, I mean name of Jesus.

Amen Amen.

Amen and Hallelujah. So, honey, what's the word?

Oh, come here, Come a little closer. Come a little closer to the camera If you watch it. Come a little closer to the speaker If you're listening. Remember until next time. You are a diamond in the rough. Amen you are.

Alleluia.