Mark Twain once said the two most important days in your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why. In this episode, Kim and her dad John explore that “why” through God’s word.It’s not a career, a relationship, or a passion you stumble into. It’s discovering that you were created with a need for relationship with God, and that He has a specific purpose for you.
Kim and John get personal here, sharing their own testimonies of chasing dreams, achievements, and even self-sufficiency, only to come up empty every time. What it comes down to is this: we were made in the image of God, and our souls can’t be restored until our relationship with Him is repaired through salvation. That’s why no earthly pursuit, no matter how good, can ever fill the God-shaped hole in our soul. You were made on purpose, for a purpose, and it’s only when you give your life to God and pursue a relationship with Him that you’ll start to find real purpose and lasting fulfillment.
Key Takeaways:
Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mac. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.
Kimberly Faith: Well, dad, today’s podcast about the two most important days of your life
John McLarty: Well, that’s an interesting, you might say hook for the listeners.
Kimberly Faith: Well, actually, it was kind of inspired by something Mark Twain said. And he said that the two most important days in a person’s life are the day he is born and the day he finds out why.
John McLarty: Very interesting.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. It’s a great quote. And I mean, the first part is undeniably true. And the day that you entered this world was a significant day in your history.
John McLarty: Or else you wouldn’t be here.
Kimberly Faith: Right. It’s kind of a bit of a no brainer, but it’s worth stating, right? And it’s worth celebrating because, you know, there’s a lot of people who are never born, you know, and that’s so sad.
John McLarty: That is sad.
Kimberly Faith: But the second part is what he talked about discovering why you were born. What do you think about that?
John McLarty: Well, interestingly enough for us and for, you know, God’s plan is you find that out by being born again spiritually.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. And you know, we know that because anyone listening to this can vouch for this, that we spend our whole life searching for purpose and maybe we do that in our career, in relationships, in our achievements, in our children, in pleasure, in travel. I mean, the number of pursuits that we seek or follow in trying to find our purpose, are endless. But at the end of each one, there’s emptiness.
John McLarty: Yeah. And you really think what controls human behavior, it’s that finding out why. And even people that don’t, that’s not in the forefront of their mind. That’s what they’re doing.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: You know, they’re pursuing happiness or you know, people that go out in the desert or the high mountains to find themselves.
Kimberly Faith: Right, right.
John McLarty: And or, you know, they’re just searching for the fulfillment of their anxiety by a better job or a faster car or yeah. So it’s really
Kimberly Faith: Nicer house.
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: And here’s what we want.
John McLarty: So there’s an emptiness there
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: That’s seeking to be fulfilled.
Kimberly Faith: And that’s not a design flaw.
John McLarty: No.
Kimberly Faith: You know, it’s completely legitimate. This persistent restlessness
John McLarty: If we didn’t know we had a problem, we wouldn’t be seeking or appreciate the solution.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And you know, kind of appreciate you bringing that up because like just look at our five senses. When we know we sense we’re cold, if we don’t seek shelter or cover, then we’ll freeze to death.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: If we know that we’re, you know, getting blistered by the sun, if we don’t find shelter, we’ll burn up. If we’re thirsty, that sensation, if it isn’t satisfied, we’ll die of thirst. So it’s, the spiritual anxiety, which we’ve talked about in a prior podcast is a great way for us to know that we need something more.
John McLarty: It’s necessary.
Kimberly Faith: It’s necessary. And, I kind of want to start this podcast by quoting Augustine. He said, quote, our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee. And this is what we’re going to talk about today because Mark Twain wasn’t wrong, discovering why you were born.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: You know? But I think it’s deeper than some physical why. It’s a spiritual why.
John McLarty: Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: And so what we’re going to do today, just to map out this podcast a little bit, we’re first going to bring it back to God because
John McLarty: That’s a good place.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, because he is the foundation of everything and all the why. And kind of talk about something we really talked about in great detail in our recent podcast on the image of God. But we’re going to review that a little bit because it’s so critical to every bit of our anxiety, the reason that we have it goes back to we are created in the image of God and have the same desires that He has in His nature.
John McLarty: Yeah, it’s an imprint of who we are.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And then number two, we’re going to find out why no earthly pursuit, not one of them, can ever fully meet our longing. And we’re going to kind of review number three, what happens when we’re born again, because I think it’s important to understand what we have now and how that is the answer to our anxiety.
John McLarty: And that being born again is a transformation, not a reformation.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And you know, and our reason this is so important, because if you’re like me, if you’re listening to this podcast and you’re a born again believer and you’re like me, I had great, great gaps in my life or stretches in my life, however you’re going to put it, where I lived as an anxiety riddled Christian, you know, and I fundamentally knew intellectually my purpose, but I wasn’t living it, and there’s a reason for that. And then, the next thing we’re going to look at is what the Bible says about why we were specifically made. And then, you know,
John McLarty: We have a great purpose.
Kimberly Faith: We have a great purpose. That’s right. And God didn’t
John McLarty: And people are searching for a purpose.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And, you know, and then we’re going to kind of close out with just talking about making sure that everybody understands what the second most important or what the second important day of your life is and, make sure that we remind each other, you know, to be living that. So Mark Twain was closer to the truth than maybe he even knew, I don’t know, but we’re going to find out why. So first of all, let’s kind of start with, I mean, I think it’s good for us to talk personally about maybe the things that we pursued that didn’t satisfy us. And I know you’ve talked about your being 21 years old and having pursued, you were going to get some land with water on it.
John McLarty: Well, yes, I’ll just tell that story very briefly. But yeah, as a 19, 20 year old, you’re searching kind of for the meaning and purpose of life and how to be fulfilled. And I had come to the conclusion, this was the late sixties, early seventies, but it wasn’t to go party forever. It was myself, actually my family and my brothers, we camped out a lot and then my friends and I got into kind of organic food and healthy living. So I thought the solution was to go find 40 acres to buy someplace that had a spring and then just a very simple shelter, which ended up being a teepee. And that once I achieved that, my life would be fulfilled. And Kim, I remember this specific moment. I don’t know if I’ve ever ever shared this with you, but I was just living, you know, ended up just, my three friends had left. So I was in my teepee, it was a land in Washington County and I had spring water on the land, I had a lot of firewood and I had food all around me, like gallon jars of dried beans and rice. And so I had achieved everything. Like, I thought, I had this thought. I don’t really need to go to town. I have everything I need. I could just stay here for a month. And then this crashing thought came into my mind, and I thought, well, that sounds boring. Like, I’ve done all this work
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Had a teepee, food, water
Kimberly Faith: Bought the land.
John McLarty: You know, and it was, you know, Spring or, you know, the nice time of year. So I just thought, here I am, I’m set up. I’ve made it. And I thought, this is not fulfilling.
Kimberly Faith: You know, that’s a great, because you had figured that out at 21, that everything you thought was going to satisfy you didn’t.
John McLarty: Didn’t.
Kimberly Faith: And it took me longer.
John McLarty: And I pursued it quite diligently.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah, yeah. And you know, you shared that perspective from a person who’s not been born again, but it’s equally applicable to somebody who’s been born again. Because the fact is, I was born again in my early twenties and then didn’t develop my relationship with God and started going back into the pursuits of the flesh. You know, I’ve got to be somebody because I’d forgotten who I was in Christ and pursued the family, pursued the marriage, pursued the job, all those things that the world looks at and says, yeah, you’re successful, right?
Because ultimately, I didn’t know who I was in Christ because I’d never developed that, like a baby who didn’t grow. And I knew a lot of intellectually, I had a lot of knowledge, but I didn’t have a lot of relational knowledge. And so I remember coming to that point as a born again believer where I crashed and burned because I wasn’t living in the purpose that God made for me. And it was like, I think this is why I so much appreciate this first segment of this podcast. Because what I found was the more I knew God for who he says he is, the more I recognized who he made me and really liked who he made me and therefore began to live in the purpose that He made me. So going back to Mark Twain’s quote, you know, it’s finding out who you were, why you were, what your purpose is, right?
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: Let’s kind of segue using those examples segue into the first segment of this podcast, which is who God is and why that matters to our purpose.
John McLarty: Yeah. So interestingly enough for my experience, so as you mentioned, I was not saved. You had that experience pursuing, you know, as a Christian, fulfillment. So I came to that conclusion and had no idea, but it took the spirit of God to show me that the solution to my fulfillment was salvation through Christ Jesus. And I wasn’t even pursuing that. Like I didn’t decide to study all the religions of the world. I just had a family share the gospel with me. And I got saved. I knew nothing about what we’re about to talk about, the image of God and any of this stuff. But the solution was salvation. But then the Christian life
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Is what fulfills that whole.
Kimberly Faith: Well, it still goes back to the same thing whether you absolutely know what we’re about to talk about or not. You want, everybody wants purpose.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And divine purpose is there’s no substitute for it. And so let’s just go, I mean, again, if you really want to get into all the nitty gritty of this topic, we did a whole podcast on this. But it’s definitely, well, the reason I want to review it here is because it’s been so extraordinarily helpful for me in just daily choices. Okay? Understanding that in Genesis 1:27, the Bible says, God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he, him, male and female, he created them. So we talked about this last time that God’s a spirit. So we know it wasn’t a spirit, but it was spiritual characteristics.
John McLarty: Spiritual characteristics.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And God’s
John McLarty: Yeah. And that, you know, people talk about, I want to find out who we are. This is who we are. Think about, we’re created in his image. So we’re created with his characteristics and those need to be made alive, so to speak, because they’ve been covered up by sin. But made alive and then you might say nurtured. You know, like a little baby is born, but then needs to be nurtured and then has even more fulfillment as they grow.
Kimberly Faith: Well, and not only that, because most people when they’re born again, unless they have the extraordinary opportunity like my sister, Taunya did to go from being an innocent child to being born again, most people experience just such a wrong image of God. And when we talk about the nature of God, obviously we’re talking about His love, His justice, and His righteousness, and we carry the deep desires of that image within us. We long for love. And again, we talked about this and I don’t want to just reiterate the podcast that talked about this because it did go pretty deep, but we long to be part of love, meaning to receive it and to give it because that’s what love, real love is. And that’s who God is. The Bible says God is love.
John McLarty: Yeah. I don’t know if we’ve said this in this podcast already, but the image of God, God’s nature, who he is, his characteristics is love, but also righteousness and justice. And we did cover that thoroughly at another podcast. But yeah, I’m really glad you said that because Satan has distorted the image of God as this terrible taskmaster that wants to make our life miserable.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And but being made in the image of God for us to reflect that, what and who are we? Well, we’re a person that loves to love, loves justice, and loves righteousness, which is kind of purity and doing right.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And that’s who we are and that’s a good thing.
Kimberly Faith: It is good. Yeah.
John McLarty: And that’s a fulfilling thing. And that’s all of this, now I have to follow all these long lists of rules and regulations and my life’s going to be miserable. So I’m glad you said that. The people’s image of God, their thought of the image of God is so distorted.
Kimberly Faith: It is very distorted. I mean, we think in terms of love as being romantic love or like the apocalyptic romance, right? Which doesn’t exist. And really love that is just really kind of just boils down to lust, or it’s self serving, or it’s even familial love. You know, I love my children. I get a great, you know, feeling from the relationship I have with my children and with my parents. But God’s love is deeper than that because it’s not, the thing that God does, and this is what we are created to do as well, it’s we experience His love first and that frees us to love others without any mercenary motivation. We are free to experience because God won’t run out of love, right? We don’t have to worry about God running out, He doesn’t worry about running out of love because of who He is. But the design is that we experience what He pours into us and we cannot keep it to ourself. We cannot, if somebody says, I am experiencing the God of love, but they’re not serving anybody else, then they’re not. Because it’s necessarily something we have to give away. Does that make sense?
John McLarty: It does. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: And that’s different. Like you said, God has thwarted
John McLarty: Love has to be given away.
Kimberly Faith: God has, I’m sorry. The enemy has thwarted the image of God’s love. The enemy has thwarted God’s righteousness to make it some kind of unattainable rule. It’s not self righteousness. That’s the whole point. It’s Christ’s righteousness imputed to us.
John McLarty: Yeah. That’s really, yeah. When most people think of righteousness or a lot of people
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: They think of self righteousness. But God’s righteousness is simply doing right.
Kimberly Faith: Doing his set of, yeah.
John McLarty: So like if I found a $20 bill in a parking lot at a convenience store and instead of keeping it, I take it in and say somebody lost this. That’s righteousness. That’s not self righteousness. That’s just doing the right thing.
Kimberly Faith: It’s doing the right thing because you love God.
John McLarty: Because you love God. Because it’s the right thing.
Kimberly Faith: Because you experience his love. It’s, you know, Jesus said if you love me, you’ll obey me.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: Well, that’s one predicates the other. It’s not you do it because you’re afraid of Him, it’s because you love Him. Because the Bible says perfect love casts out fear, right? I don’t, you know, do things for my kids because I’m afraid they won’t love me. I do things for my children because I want to see them experience joy. And I think that difference is, again, when we start to know, see how the nature of God ties into our own nature, then like the fog lifts and we start seeing God for who He is and then we can see ourselves for who we were made to be.
John McLarty: It’s His nature is imprinted in us.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Of course the same is true
John McLarty: By the way, in the born again soul.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: The born again us.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. And we, again, I would just so encourage you to listen to our podcast on created in the image of God because it’s just so, it’s been life changing for me and it basically has changed the way I look at every aspect of my life and the people around me. Because when you start seeing that the people around you are also created in the image of God, even if they’re annoying people, it changes the way that you interact with them because you are then able to operate within the nature of God that has been given to you when you’re born again, instead of operating of the flesh.
John McLarty: To love them, to love unconditionally.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. So, and of course, we also explored, you know, how God’s justice is reflected in us in that podcast. And again, we’re not going to go into that today because it’s really not the main topic. But the main topic in this podcast is that in order to know the why, we have to know the who, and that is God. And we know from even last week’s podcast about salvation in the Old Testament, that we have to have the imputed righteousness of Christ in order to be connected to God. And so the problem, which is kind of the second part of this podcast, is that we have been designed for a relationship with God. And when we are not born again, then everything that we’re doing to obtain satisfaction is like our receiver is tuned to the wrong frequency, right? Or plugged into the wrong power source, which is true. I mean, we’ve talked about human design, body, soul, and spirit. When our soul and spirit are dead in Christ, then we are tuned into dead spirits, which is the God of this world.
John McLarty: Tuned into dead spirits and tuned into just our flesh.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.
John McLarty: Which is just selfish.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.
John McLarty: And that’s really interesting. The flesh wants to just fulfill itself. The image of God is imprinted in our soul.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And that’s been distorted. And then you might say hidden from us.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: There’s little remnants of it. We’ve talked about that. You know, there might some, you know, great athlete that’s fallen that you might see remnants of that greatness. But fallen man has those remnants of the image of God, but that connection’s gone.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s
John McLarty: That’s a good example. The frequency, somebody’s gone to come to the radio and switched it to a different frequency.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.
John McLarty: You’re just hearing static.
Kimberly Faith: You’re hearing static and confusion and chaos and despair. And, you know, Paul, you mentioned that, you know, we can’t understand things of God. Paul in First Corinthians 2:14 explains this. He says, the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. This, I don’t care how intelligent you are, you can be Einstein, but that doesn’t tune you into the frequency of God’s spirit. There’s only one thing that does that and that’s being born again.
John McLarty: Born again. And that frequency is just brought back to in tune with God.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And it’s just, it’s revelation.
Kimberly Faith: It is.
John McLarty: It’s not, you know, intellectually figuring it all out. It’s revelation from God
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: From his spirit, through our spirit, to a born again soul, and it’s just the light bulb goes off.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s so important to understand that it’s, you know, all these things that we pursue, even religion to find deep satisfaction, cannot change this. It cannot tune us in because, you know, we must be born again because Ephesians 2:1 says, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. We weren’t just sick. We were dead. A dead person doesn’t pick up any frequencies except for dead frequencies, right? I mean, if you just take it to its
John McLarty: Yes.
Kimberly Faith: I use this example when I’m talking to people about the new birth.
John McLarty: Dark static.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I always said, look, if I’m lying on the floor dead, if my body is dead, how much of a conversation are you and I going to have? And that’s none, right? The same thing applies when we are spiritually dead, you know, God is going to come in from the outside and bring us to life. And that’s when we hear the gospel and we receive the gift of faith and the gift of repentance. And then we’re saying, you know, yes, right? We can’t do anything because we’re dead.
John McLarty: You know, Kim, and I’ll say this, we talked about humans desire love. That’s one of our basics, love and acceptance. When I was born again, one of the things we experienced, one of our first revelations is that God loves us. And I remember that was like, this God who I’ve kind of ignored all my life, loves me despite myself. And that was, you know, the spirit of God, that’s one of the first things I say, the spirit of God, this new alive me that could now communicate with God. I think God’s first message to me was I love you.
Kimberly Faith: That’s interesting. That’s really interesting.
John McLarty: We can be, you’re accepted in the beloved.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: We’re reconciled now.
Kimberly Faith: I remember feeling very free, and relieved. And I, you know, again, I don’t know if anybody else can relate to this, but because I went so long, it’s almost like I was born again that I checked myself into an orphanage. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s like, yeah. I mean, I know I’m born again, but I really don’t want to live in God’s house for whatever stupid reason. But I was deceived. Here’s the problem. A lot of us have lived so much of our life with the wrong image of God, even before we’re saved, that we kind of go to the orphanage instead of staying in the house of God. And I feel like that’s, you know, that was, it was such, just a dumb decision, but I think it was mostly because of my ignorance because Satan had been very successful in selling me a false bill of goods about who God was. If I had, so Satan knows that if we really know God for who He says He is, we will find him irresistible. I mean, we’ll want him. Who doesn’t want love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, meekness, wisdom, strength, you know, all those things. But Satan just pulls the shutter down all those things.
John McLarty: That’s really interesting how different people have different experiences based on their background. You kind of had this false impression of who God was. So that kind of, once you were born again, that kind of played into your relationship with him.
Kimberly Faith: Exactly.
John McLarty: And I had intellectually come to the conclusion that I didn’t even think God existed. So I didn’t even have a thought of who he was, what his characteristics were. I just thought he didn’t exist. So this was this double revelation for me actually when I got saved was that, oh my goodness, if this was God speaking to me and wanting to reconcile with me, that means he exists. So I was just, you might say just wide eyed. Oh my goodness, God exists
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, that’s
John McLarty: And I have a relationship with him.
Kimberly Faith: Well, and the thing is, you know, everyone listening to this podcast has had a different experience. The common denominator is you have to be born again. And you know, it doesn’t matter how intelligent you are, how educated you are, how rich you are, how poor you are, how much family you have, what ethnicity or background or country you live in, the same words in John 3:3 apply that Jesus told Nicodemus, he said, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, you know? In other words, you can’t enter it, you can’t see it. I mean, the things of God are invisible to the spirit and soul who are not born again.
John McLarty: And think about this, Kim, because I think this really makes the rest of this podcast applicable and relatable as we say, everybody has to be born again to have this relationship restored.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And then, but they come in with baggage.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And it’s good to understand that.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: That you’ve come in with some baggage. But here’s kind of the goal. You were created in the image of God. So we want to, you might say, discover that.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And bring that out. And what is that image? What’s that supposed to look like? Well, it’s real clear.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: So here’s, you’re born again, but are you just the same person? No, you’ve changed.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And so what will you become? And part of that is understanding maybe what baggage you’ve brought into the relationship.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And I think that’s excellent, that’s an excellent way to understand it. I do want to backtrack just a minute because there may be people who are listening to this who are not born again. And just keep in mind that if you’re struggling to understand God’s word, the things of God are not, they cannot be understood by the soul and spirit who has not been born again. I mean, let’s just say it this way. The most brilliant philosopher without the spirit of God is like a master electrician working on a building with no power source. His knowledge is impressive, but the lights are never going to come on because there’s no power in the building. And this is the way, but then when we’re born again, then we tap into that.
John McLarty: Tap into his,yes.
Kimberly Faith: God’s thoughts. I love what Isaiah says.
John McLarty: The knowledge base of the creator of the universe.
Kimberly Faith: I know. It’s amazing. And, I love what Isaiah Chapter 55 says, this is the Lord speaking. He says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways.
As far as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. This is such a beautiful passage because before we’re born again, we know, I mean, it’s unattainable to know the thoughts of the Lord and this gap isn’t, we cannot close this gap on the human side. And that’s not an insult to intelligent people. That’s just because that’s the way it is because of who God is. And when we’re born again, the beautiful thing is we get to tap into some of those thoughts and those ways because they’re written in God’s word.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: You know?
John McLarty: We’re connected to that knowledge base through His word and through His spirit.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. But the new birth is the only bridge across that gap. And so, you know, this is, I mean, this is so incredible. Such an incredible gift. And, so, you know, we’ve been kind of really segueing into the third segment in this podcast about being born again, right? But let’s just talk about some of those benefits. I mean, so our soul and spirit, as the Bible says we’re dead in trespasses and sins, is being made, has been made alive in Christ, and we have an open line of communication to God.
John McLarty: It can now, yeah, it can now hear his voice, but it’s almost like a telephone line was cut and now it’s reconnected.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. That’s a really good way to put it. Because we talked about, you know, how when we’re born as children, before we actually make a decision to commit, morally commit sin, that we have this relationship with God. We know that from the life of Paul and just who God is, right? But when that line is hooked back up, it’s remarkable how we see the world completely differently. We can.
John McLarty: Absolutely. And it’s, you know, just one example, and I think it’s in Hebrews that says, know, that through his spirit, by faith, which is a real thing, we know that the worlds were created by God. We know that. Once we’ve been born again, we don’t have to study a two year creation versus evolution science class to understand it. We know it immediately. Now it’s good to have it affirmed and be able to explain it scientifically, but we know it immediately.
Kimberly Faith: Well, Paul talks about in First Corinthians 2;11, he says, for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him, even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Well, when we’re born again, the Holy Spirit is now our advocate, He’s our intercessor, He transforms us and gives us the ability to, like you said, look at a sunrise and appreciate it so much more because our soul is alive and we’re actually able to perceive and understand and appreciate that from a spiritual sense.
John McLarty: Almost like it’s just revealed.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: Like you have, you know, say you have a play behind a curtain.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And it’s just revealed. It’s not like you have to like study just, you know, little holes in the curtain like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s just God’s revelations is revealed to us.
Kimberly Faith: Well, I use that word revealed in the verse before the one I just read says, but God has revealed to them to us through his spirit for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. Deep means profound, hidden, inexhaustible, the kind of depth that no human intelligence, however gifted, could ever discover on his own. This is the exclusive territory of the spirit of God, but he shares it with every born again believer.
John McLarty: What a gift that God will offer that to us.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And, you know, Jesus actually promises right before he went to the cross.
John McLarty: Like, you want all the answers? Here. I’ll just reveal them to you.
Kimberly Faith: I’ll just pull back the curtain.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: You know? And, I think it’s, the Bible is just such a brilliant book. You know, Jesus promised his disciples this before he went to the cross. Do you want to read John 16:13?
John McLarty: Sure. Love this verse. However, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come.
Kimberly Faith: That’s just so true.
John McLarty: So the spirit of truth is going to reveal more truth to us.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s, you know, I think when we did the podcast on come meet the Holy Spirit and then the second one on the intimacy, what we could do to basically cause the Holy Spirit to stand down. You know, the Holy Spirit is a person. We have to remember that this is the person of the Godhead. And, you know, when we really explore the Trinity, which we’re going to do in a future podcast, I know the Lord’s going to make that happen because I think it’s just so important. But if you look at the Bible, there are so many verses that reveal the personhood of God. And for example, why don’t you read Romans 8:15-16?
John McLarty: Well, and that kind of ties into my experience of when I met God, when I was born again, I have this sense that he loved me.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: So Romans 8:15-16, for you do not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Kimberly Faith: So good.
John McLarty: But if I was a crying person, I’d just sit, you know, choked up a little
Kimberly Faith: If mom were in here, she’d be crying.
John McLarty: Mom would be crying. But God, I had that experience. I had this, you know, I would say warm fuzzy, but it was like just this reconciliation that through Christ, I was being made a child of God and he loved me. He was accepting me, I was accepting him. But it says the spirit himself, I’ll read it again, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. It didn’t take me years of Bible study after being saved to figure that out.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: It was an immediate revelation.
Kimberly Faith: You know, you bring up a really good point because I do, in my law practice, I do a lot of adoptions. And I’ll tell you, there are, I’ve seen all kinds of kids come through the system and there are some children that get adopted and they’re just all in. They’re just, I mean, they’re all, they’re like, everybody’s my family, you know, at home, they’re just embracing the whole thing, right? There are other kids who are adopted who are very standoffish. There’s a lot of baggage, a lot of damage. And you know, what we’ve kind of described, your testimony and my testimony has been kind of the difference in those two. And you know, what Romans says, the Bible uses the word Abba, which is Aramaic for daddy. In other words, this is the cry of a child who’s safe. And so it’s important to understand that God doesn’t just give us access to the truth, but He gives us access to Himself.
John McLarty: His loving kindness.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Like if you had been the kind of dad that never said, I’m proud of you, or I love you, giving me a hug or, you know, all those things that love does.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: But just said, Kim, here are the things you need to do.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And to have a good life, you need to, you know, do a, b, c, d, go to college, you know, get a job.
John McLarty: And send me a report card.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And we don’t, God is not the report card.
John McLarty: Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: You know, he’s there like, man, I got so much good planned for you.
John McLarty: Give you a hug, say I’m proud of you.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, I really have to train myself to understand Abba, you know, some people don’t. And if you’re listening to this, look, this is a process. Many of us have so much baggage and damage in our own life that we have to retrain ourselves to receive God for who he says he is, not who we say he is, certainly not who the enemy says he is. We can’t let the enemy of our soul define the greatest relationship of our lifetime.
John McLarty: Perfect. So true.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So let’s kind of, and just so just to make this clear, you can’t intellectualize this, okay? Reading God’s word is a big part of discovering who God is, but keep in mind, reading God’s Word in a pragmatic way instead of a personal way, personal like this is written to me
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: It’s like reading somebody else’s love letter and wishing it was written to you. So, let’s kind of bring this home a little bit because I think it’s important to understand just how personal the Godhead is in defining our purpose. I like to think about this. We were made on purpose for a purpose. And I think that Ephesians 2:10 kind of nails that.
John McLarty: Yeah. We were, yeah, that’s a great phrase. We were made on purpose by God for a purpose. Ephesians 2:10 says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Kimberly Faith: God prepared beforehand.
John McLarty: Now we don’t get that relationship by good works. We get that by being saved, by being born again, by grace through faith, but we’re his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good work.
Kimberly Faith: Well, that created in Christ Jesus is pivotal. That’s not
John McLarty: It precedes the good works.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yes. It precedes the good works. And, you know, this work, workmanship is a Greek word and it’s poiema, which is where the word we get poem. That’s beautiful.
John McLarty: That is beautiful.
Kimberly Faith: We are God’s poetry and not an accident. A poem is something you sit down and you think about.
John McLarty: Think of the verse, just to paraphrase it, we were fearfully and wonderfully made.
Kimberly Faith: Right knows my soul.
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah, right out of the Psalms. And I think if you’ve I mean, I have a hard time imagining God the Father creating my life with intention, with, you know, really thinking about all the purpose that He designed in there, you know, everything that He has for me, I have a hard time with that. I don’t have a hard time understanding that when I put together a letter in my law office, creating that with intention and purpose, but the comparison is not even fair. I mean, you know what I’m saying? That’s like, would I not give credit for creating something as complex and wonderful as a human, right? And when I spend a lot of brain energy and effort to get the best letter out from my client, there’s not even a comparison. Why have that big gap?
John McLarty: Yeah, and we think about the creative and wonderful mind of God and the purpose we have fulfills his purposes.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And when you look at just his creation, like don’t want to get too deep into this, but I’ve just started being a beekeeper. And just to study a bee, just to study, you know, how that life cycle works. God’s created this amazing creation and we’re a part of that.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: So of course he’s created us for this wonderful, fantastic, meaningful, deep, expansive purpose. It’s fulfilling to us. You know, we talked about earlier, people are searching for where do I fit in? How can I be a part of something greater than I?
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Well, the answer’s pretty simple. Plug into God.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Get that relationship with him, but then don’t stop there. What’s his purpose for your life?
Kimberly Faith: I think you brought up Psalms 139, and I just wanted to look it up and read it because I think this is very germane to this discussion. And Psalms 139, starts in verse 13. For you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book, they were all written. The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. That is just amazing. We’re not an accident.
John McLarty: We’re not an accident. I think some phrase is in my mind.
Kimberly Faith: And you know what I think about when I think about this, fearfully and wonderfully made? I think in your book, they were all written the days fashioned for me. I think about DNA. I think this DNA chain that we’ve all been given, there’s only one for each person over the billions of people that have lived.
John McLarty: Yeah. I’m glad you brought that up, Kim, because we’re made in the image of God. So there’s this imprint of his righteousness, his love, and his justice. But we’re all, God is this creative, you know, no two snowflakes are the same.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.
John McLary: So he’s got this creative genius and all humans even on the soul level, we’re not the same.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: We’re all created in his image, but wonderfully different. And that’s something really for people to explore is who am I in God? What’s the nature of, or what’s the expression of my God given soul
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: In my unique way.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: That is so fascinating.
Kimberly Faith: It is.
John McLarty: It’s kind of a life pursuit.
Kimberly Faith: It’s a
John McLarty: Who am I in God?
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And it is a life pursuit because it affects every area of our life. So instead of being a poor imitation of somebody else, we could discover the amazing original that He made us. And it’s like, I think about, you know, I mean, this bleeds into every aspect of our life. If you’re a mother or a father, then how did God wonderfully and purposely make you to uniquely serve the wonderfully and purposely made children that He’s given you to bring out all the unique gifts and characteristics that He’s given those children.
John McLarty: So I’m going to give an example here, Kim. This is off the top of my head, I think people, Christians, can pursue maybe somebody else’s image of God. Maybe even that they think they need to be like somebody else. So my example is I do not have a singing voice. And people can probably tell from just my voice, you know.
Kimberly Faith: You have a lovely speaking voice dad.
John McLarty: I don’t have this, no, this like operatic or even a you know, the country or any form of music, I don’t have that voice. I can kind of sing along.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: But I wouldn’t have a voice that people would just like, oh my goodness.
Kimberly Faith: But you’re very musically gifted.
John McLarty: And that’s kind of where I’m going with this.
Kimberly Faith: Okay.
John McLarty: But I have a talent for playing guitar.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And I don’t read music, but I just play by ear. And I love music. So I play guitar and I help, I encourage others to sing.
Kimberly Faith: Right, like Hannah.
John McLarty: Yeah. Like in our church and in our family, I’ll play guitar so Hannah can sing.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And she doesn’t, she’s tried to play guitar a little bit and it just doesn’t come, you know, it’s not just something like her talent.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But she has a perfect pitch perfect voice.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: That not only is pitch perfect, it’s very pleasant to listen to.
Kimberly Faith: Beautiful. Yes.
John McLarty: So I’m just saying my talent is to play the guitar and to compliment somebody else’s talent, whether it’s Hannah or, you know, in our church.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: We have two, we have a Hannah in our church also. Then that’s just an example. Well, what if I just tried to beat myself up for the last twenty years and go to voice lessons and do whatever people might do to their vocal cords and become this beautiful, I’m waiting for heaven to be able to sing beautiful harmonies. I want to sing harmony.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But, you know,
Kimberly Faith: It’s so freeing.
John McLarty: It’s finding the talent that God has uniquely made you.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And it’s still going to express his love and righteousness and justice.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But it’s going to be uniquely you. And that’s an exciting thing for people to get a hold of.
Kimberly Faith: It’s so exciting because when we’re doing exactly what God purposed for us, we find not only do we just start discovering who He made us and really like that person, but we don’t want to be anybody else, you know? That’s
John McLarty: Yeah. We don’t need to be somebody else.
Kimberly Faith: We don’t because I don’t need to be, you know, some supermodel or, you know, I don’t need to be Aretha Franklin. I love Aretha. You know? That’s not who I am. And, you know, when God started shifting me into, he showed me who he was so I could better know who I was, man, I love my life. I had no idea that I would be doing a podcast. What a fun thing.
John McLarty: Yeah, just think about what we’re doing right now.
Kimberly Faith: Right, the gift of Gab, that’s like me and you.
John McLarty: Couldn’t have predicted that fifteen years ago, but here we are.
Kimberly Faith: You know, and, think about, you know, we talked about when we lived in the teepee, how I would freestyle music and plays and stuff just because that was my gift, right? And like you, I don’t read music, but man, when Jesus, when God puts a soul in my, I mean, a song in my soul, it’s gotta come out and it’s messy and it’s real and it’s, you know, and it touches people’s hearts, but really it’s just an expression of the purpose that God put in me. And it’s like, but I don’t have, you know, there’s a lot of things, I can’t swim like some people can swim. I would love to be one of these people who just does this beautiful breaststroke, you know? No, I sink like a rock, you know? And I would love to be a distance runner. No, I only run if I’m being chased, you know, and it’s like all these things that we think we need to be are just like trying to shove the square peg in the round hole. It’s a
John McLarty: Right, and we don’t have to, yeah.
Kimberly Faith: We don’t have to do that.
John McLarty: It’s freeing to not think I have to do that.
Kimberly Faith: Yes, yes. And when we, like when I’m discipling people and they’ll say, well, you know, you have this ability to talk to people about the Lord. I said, well, look, that is something everybody has. But the thing that builds that is the experience. The experience of studying God’s word, teaching people what you know on the level you know it, and having that passion to expand what you know so that it becomes second nature to you. You know, you naturally talk about God just like you’d naturally talk about your child or your grandchild because it’s the best thing in your life and it flows out of us. So that is a universal gift.
John McLarty: Yeah. We kind of talk about what we’re into.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: So that’s really encouraging that you talk about getting into the word of God and then the spirit speaks to us and then that becomes the most exciting thing in our life.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But what do we talk to other people about? What we’re excited about?
Kimberly Faith: Yes, Yes. And so when we discover, you know, this important purpose, like to me, the most important day of my life, it was when I was born, the second most you know, the second day, the most important day was when I was born again. But I hate to use the word self discovery because it’s very much predicated on discovering God, but that discovery of God, which revealed the person He made me
John McLarty: Right. You are uniquely you, but in him.
Kimberly Faith: In him. Right.
John McLarty: Reflecting his image
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Within our unique way. That’s exciting.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s what gives me so much joy to get out of bed in the morning. It’s to know that life is unpredictable, but that doesn’t matter to God. That’s actually part of the adventure. I may get up, you know, like this morning, I was like getting up and thinking, oh, we’re going to do a podcast today. And, but it’s like, if that didn’t happen because God sent something else for us to do, that’d be okay. Because it must mean he’s got a different plan to get this podcast done. But that’s just being able to like, you’re like, if like, we’ll use the example of Michael Phelps, because I think Michael Phelps was an amazing, he’s an amazing athlete. But if he had decided to not use his gift, his natural ability in the water, and instead decided he wanted to be a football player, you know? I mean, that would have been like you used the example of singing. It would have been a frustrating experience for him.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And that’s not to say that we can’t grow, you know, that we shouldn’t try to grow. I mean, this podcast is an example. When our producer Jacob, you know, wanted me to up the game on this and learn how to use Ableton Live and be the engineer, I was not in it. I was like, oh, that’s like so not me, right? But then God said, you know, well, what do you think I am? Chopped liver? I can show you how to do this. I already know how to run this. And so he made me step outside my comfort zone and do this. I’m still not comfortable with it.
John McLarty: Yeah. And that’s interesting. You’ve pushed the limits, but God probably is not leading you to be a studio engineer.
Kimberly Faith: No. I can tell you that and a CPA never, ask anybody in my office, the numbers game is not my thing. But it’s not, there’s a line between being who God made you but never becoming stagnant. Because the outer limits, I want to know the outer limits of who God made me because that’s such a great revelation and it’s such a great life. You know, I don’t want to stay where I am. I want to push. I want to run that race, we talk about the negative split, right? Running the last part of your life for Christ better than you ran the first part.
John McLarty: Yeah. And sometimes, just life circumstances causes us to just step up and fill the gap.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.
John McLarty: So, yeah, you push the envelope, but still God has this, he’s like has this, he actually has a story for us.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And we’re finding that story and it’s part of who we are and what we’re supposed to be doing.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Reflecting his image, but in what way? Who are we supposed to reach? Where are we supposed to go? What a fascinating journey
Kimberly Faith: It is.
John McLarty: God leads us on.
Kimberly Faith: And you brought up the point that, you know, you play guitar and that gift, rather than exploring your longing to sing, which isn’t your gift. I mean, I think you sing fine, but I’m just saying you said it wasn’t your gift. But you bring other people’s gifts into your gift. And I think that’s such a great and valuable lesson for all of us as born again believers. You know, I tend to micromanage in such a way that I don’t let people explore their gifts. And I’ll give you an example that when I was real sick for several weeks where I couldn’t really go to the office, I had clients that needed to be seen and, the Lord, this was totally God. It was like, well, you know what? Heather knows how to do an adoption. She’s been, she’s my paralegal, she’s been doing this for a while now. Why can’t she see the clients and get most of the information that you’re, because I couldn’t talk, my voice was gone. And then that just leaves you with a little bit of talking to do, and Heather does most of the information gathering. Well, what that did, me letting go and releasing that, it allowed Heather to expand her capabilities and recognize, oh, I can actually do this. And that’s just a really small example.
John McLarty: Yeah, but that’s, God engineered that.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Because she has talent.
John McLarty: Because she has the talent.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: She needed to push the envelope a little bit.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And so it’s just so amazing to
John McLarty: And that’ll probably change things, how things work in the future.
Kimberly Faith: It actually already has.
John McLarty: You’re going like, oh, my my word.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And we can do it this way.
Kimberly Faith: Like Tracy, who is our creative director for Go Faith Strong, you know, I used to kind of have a, you know, micromanage her. And then I didn’t have time to micromanage her because God had me busy doing other stuff and she’s doing better than I could have done if I’d been micromanaging her. So it’s just, those are really silly examples, I know, but they’re real examples. But the bottom line is, look, God has stamped His image on all of us.
John McLarty: Amen.
Kimberly Faith: And we, you know, we have the, when we’re born again, we have the opportunity to be so encouraged and so alive in Christ. Instead of living like we’re, you know, in a slimy pond with stagnated water, and boring and it just seems like, you know, we’re always saying, you know, come Lord Jesus, you know, come quickly. You know, we can be living like, no, wait, I’m not quite done yet. I want to make sure this person knows you and full of passion.
John McLarty: Yeah. We’re part of God’s divine purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: What a privilege.
Kimberly Faith: I love Philippians 1:6. It says, and I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. You know, this is God beginning a good work in us when we are born again.
John McLarty: Amen.
Kimberly Faith: And if we let him and we, the more we get to know him for who he says he is, understand his nature being love, justice, and righteousness, and understand that’s actually who we are, the more that we open ourselves up to all the possibilities and we are not an accident.
John McLarty: And it kind of goes back to, you know, the day we were born and then discovering our purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: And our purpose is God’s purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Exactly. It’s a divine purpose.
John McLarty: Directed by his image that he imprinted in us.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And so Mark Twain was onto something.
John McLarty: Yep.
Kimberly Faith: You know, there are two extraordinarily important days in a person’s lives, but the second one is not the day that you stumble on a passion or land on a career or find your family or whatever, it’s the day you’re born again because that’s the day your spirit and soul come alive and the lines of communication with God open up and the Holy Spirit inhabits our life and allows us to have meaning, direction, eternal purpose into every corner of our existence.
John McLarty: It unlocks your divine purpose, which is your true purpose.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.
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