Episode 92: Come, Meet the Holy Spirit: Who He Is and What He Does

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: Dad, I’m really excited about this podcast. Come meet the Holy Spirit.

John McLarty: Well, I am too, Kim. This is really a little bit of a mysterious subject, but the Bible has a lot to say about it. But the Holy Spirit just, think of the Holy Spirit, it’s spiritual.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: It’s got this spiritual component to it. But yeah, the Holy Spirit interacts with us on a daily basis, minute by minute basis.

Kimberly Faith: He really does. And it’s kind of like, we’re going to talk about who he is and what he does.

John McLarty: Perfect.

Kimberly Faith: And just to be clear for everyone listening to this, the Holy Spirit is a vast subject. And what we’re focusing on in the next two podcasts is the individual work of the Holy Spirit in individual people, not the more global or community I don’t know how you’d say 

John McLarty:Institutional. 

Kimberly Faith: Institutional way that the Holy Spirit interacts with the church and with the house of witness. Israel is the house of witness.

John McLarty: Kings and prophets.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.

John McLarty: Even though there’s well, I think we’ll reference some of that, but the spirit has interacted with the general populations

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And then in these very specific unique positions and offices throughout the time of humans.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. 

John McLarty: Back to the very beginning.

Kimberly Faith: And I appreciate you bringing that up because, we’re going to kind of talk, we’re going to talk about, this particular podcast is going to be who he is, what he does. And this is, again, based on individual interactions with the Holy Spirit. And the next podcast is going to be focused on how you rebuff him, how you limit him, how a person and then we’re going to look at three particular scriptures about that. So I think the second podcast for me was very instructional, and very important for my daily life because it gave me a measuring stick to know whether I was actually engaging in the full benefit of the Holy Spirit in my daily life.

John McLarty: Yeah. And we think of the abundant life and the fruits of the spirit.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: That’s the key to, you might say, an effective Christian life

Kimberly Faith: Exactly.

John McLarty:  For us personally and for our ability to impact others.

Kimberly Faith: Well, that’s right. And it’s not only the ability to impact others, but like you said, the abundant life. It’s kind of like if you were fighting a forest fire, and instead of using the full force of the hose, you’re using a trickle out of a garden hose instead of a fireman’s hose.

John McLarty: Squirt gun.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s even a better example. You know, you would really be minimizing your chances of beating that fire. And so, I mean, just to use that example, I want to be fire hosing, you know, when it comes to fighting evil, having the abundant life, you know, I want to have it coming in and going out at full force. And so that’s what this podcast is about, and the next one as well.

John McLarty: You want to enter into the battle. You want to be fully equipped to win 

Kimberly Faith:  Exactly. 

John McLarty: A lot there. Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. So we’re going to start by, the first biblical mention of the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1:2, where you know, before a single word of creation was spoken or the light was created or anything, it says the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And I really love the meaning of the Hebrew word hovering, and it kind of gives us the image of a mother bird, attentive, watchful, full of care. And the reason I like that is because for us individually

John McLarty: Sounds nurturing.

Kimberly Faith: It sounds nurturing. Yeah. And the same spirit who moved over the chaos of a formless world, we’re going to see what the Bible says is inside every born again believer. 

John McLarty: Amen. 

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, if we’re missing that, we’re missing a big part of our life that you know, a lot of Christians talk about, well, I just can’t wait to get out of this world and get to heaven. The fact is the spirit, having the full force of the spirit in our life allows us to taste and see who God is now. And it’s really, really, I think it’s amazing. It’s been very, this isn’t just a study in theology, in other words. This is a study in what matters now, what we can experience now.

John McLarty: This is the life we live every day.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. So let’s kind of, segue into the Old Testament and because I want, you know, the individual interaction of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, appears to be much different from, based on what the scripture says, than it is after Jesus split the veil, so to speak. And, so let’s kind of talk about some of these, very specific examples for the Old Testament in the Old Testament of individuals. Again, just to be clear, we’re not talking about the spirit filling the temple, filling the tabernacle. We’re not talking about that subject, but we’re talking about the Holy Spirit given to specific people and examples that we have in the Old Testament.

John McLarty: Very specific, yeah, interactions, empowerments, even given the ability to 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Do certain things.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. Like, one of the first examples, we want to, and again, we’re going to kind of rip through these a little bit because we really want to, there’s a lot of different examples, but I think just for purposes of of demonstrating that the Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament

John McLarty: He was. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: You know, in individuals. Again, we can talk about Bezalel, which that name actually means in the shadow of God. And, this is from Exodus Chapter 31. It says, see, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, and have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. God cared so much about the beauty of his dwelling place that he supernaturally gifted an artisan to build it. That’s amazing.

John McLarty: Yeah. And, you know, again, it’s hard not to differentiate and not go into some of the institutional. But, yeah, he was given understanding in all manner of workmanship, so he was a craftsman. But it was related to the craftsmanship for the tabernacle, which was one of these houses of witness, these unique dwelling places of God. He was yeah, that’s an interesting empowerment to do craftsmanship.

Kimberly Faith: Right. He empowered Samson. Do you remember that?

John McLarty: Yes. Yeah. With physical power.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yeah. You want to read that

John McLarty: Yeah. That’s great out of  Judges 14:6. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. This is Samson. And he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: Just this surge of power. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And we see that in David, in First Samuel 16:13, when he was anointed by Samuel, it says Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: It’s just, you know, and then you see the life of David, especially, you know, writing the Psalms and many of the Psalms. And just when he went up and, you know, faced Goliath, he was like, it was a no brainer for him. Like, why is this dog, he called him a dog, I think, you know, threatening the tribe of Israel? You know? We are God’s people, you know?

He was kind of just, it was like a no brainer for him where they were all cowering in fear. And that  is obviously the spirit of the Lord. I remember the empowering of Joshua when Moses laid hands on him. Do you remember that?

John McLarty: Yeah. Now that Joshua, son of Nun this is Deuteronomy 34:9. Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. He was filled with the spirit of wisdom to lead Israel into the promised land. 

Kimberly Faith: So, you know, we see strength, physical strength, we see wisdom, we see, beauty. In Gideon, we see the spirit of the Lord in Judges 6:34 transforming a coward into a commander, you know? I don’t know if you want to read that. It’s Judges 6:34.

John McLarty: That’s a great one. Yeah. But the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, when this verse, you know

John McLarty: This is just a little footnote backing up what you said. He transformed a coward, the Spirit of the Lord transformed a coward into a commander.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, because when the 

John McLarty: The power of God.

Kimberly Faith: When the spirit came upon him, he was actually hiding in his winepress. You know? And that’s just so incredible, you know? We’re seeing in the Old Testament how the spirit, how people were able to tap into the spirit. And then we have Elijah, which is, I love this story where, you know, of course, I think it was Jezebel that kept trying to kill Elijah. And it says in First Kings 18:46, the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah. He girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. And you know, I mean, he outran a chariot on foot. It’s pretty remarkable. So, I mean, you know, I know we’re going to talk about in the next podcast, quenching the spirit, resisting the spirit, the three different passages that talk about how we can dim the spirit or dismiss the spirit. But I really, because we’re talking about the Old Testament, I really want to, you know, to bring up this verse from Psalms 51:1. And this was

John McLarty: Right. You have to bring up, yeah

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: King David.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Because David’s prayer of repentance after he had sinned with Bathsheba and killed Uriah, you know, he makes this prayer. Why don’t you read that prayer of David about the Holy Spirit specifically?

John McLarty: Yeah, it’s really interesting. So Psalm 51:11, and David has repented, and he’s realized his sin. And he says, Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

Kimberly Faith: That’s amazing. That’s an amazing prayer. And I’ll tell you, you know, because David had watched it happen to Saul. He had watched, in First Samuel 16:4, he had, it says, but the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him. You know, the interesting thing, and that’s a really great example of how the spirit gets offended, you know, can be quenched, can be, you know, and what does that mean? And again, we’re going to talk about that in next week’s podcast.

John McLarty: Kind of stop operations.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.

John McLarty: And, you know, remove that sense of his presence.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And of course, right now, these Old Testament examples we’ve been talking about are examples of the spiritual empowerment for believers, right? But it’s really interesting how in Genesis 6:5, and this is more couched towards unbelievers’ response to the spirit because we’re going to talk about both categories. I mean, there’s a different dynamic of what happens when we quench the spirit or resist the spirit as believers

John McLarty: As believers.

Kimberly Faith: Versus unbelievers.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And in Genesis 6:5, and, again, this is right before the flood, right before God said, I’m done. I’m destroying the world. It’s just you guys have just really gone south. And, why don’t you read Genesis 6:5? Oh, wait. I’ll read it.

John McLarty: Yeah. I don’t have that right here.

Kimberly Faith: You don’t have that one? 

John McLarty: I don’t have the Bible open to that.

Kimberly Faith: So it says, my spirit, God says, my spirit shall not strive with man forever. For indeed, he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall number a hundred and twenty years. The keyword here is the spirit striving

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Actively contending with, urging humanity towards himself. You know, the spirit, in other words, the context is the spirit from the beginning of time had been at work in human hearts. And the generation of Noah had been ignoring it, resisting it, living according to the flesh.

John McLarty: And, Kim, that’s really interesting because I’ll put it in today’s context. A lot of people, listeners, saved and not saved yet, have heard the term I’m under Holy Spirit conviction. The Holy Spirit’s convicting me. So you’re in church and you say you’re hearing a message and say you’re lost or even you’re saved. And you feel like this drawing to whatever gets something straightened out. So it’s not God the Father specifically. It’s not Jesus there in person or manifestation, but it’s that go between God and man is this work of the spirit. And we use that very commonly today, but that’s interesting that the  Spirit of God was playing that same role

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.

John McLarty: In the Old Testament. Clearly. And so in general, with, you know, drawing men, convicting men, but then also these specific interactions that we’ve just read.

Kimberly Faith: Well, I appreciate you bringing that up because that also reinforces what we talk about a lot in this podcast and that salvation in the Old Testament was the same as the New Testament. 

John McLarty: Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: And, you know-

John McLarty: So meaning that David wasn’t under threat of losing his salvation

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: He was under threat of losing that presence, that sense of the presence of the Spirit of God, that sweet, reassuring, that peace beyond understanding. So, you know, we can all relate to that today.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: You know, and we’ll get to the end of that in the next podcast, kind of teasing up to that, but this idea of grieving the spirit.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and until about ten years ago, in my own walk with God, I wouldn’t have really understood what David was talking about in that prayer until I had experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in a way that’s so tangible. It’s almost like the difference, and this is going to sound like a crazy example. It’s a difference between walking into a room that is perfect temperature, it smells good, you can maybe smell the fragrance of good food cooking, maybe there’s a lavender diffuser going. It’s just a place where you want to be. And then starving and dying of thirst in the desert. That’s a real stark contrast everybody can understand. And that is when you start, but if you had just lived your whole life starving in the desert and dying of thirst, you would have never known that a better life existed. And that’s true for born again believers even that never grow as a Christian, never understands what it feels like and what the experience of walking in the spirit is. And what’s interesting is that in the Old Testament, again, there’s not this one Bible verse that tells us, but what we see in the Old Testament is these specific gifts of the Holy Spirit given to specific individuals. And we kind of know that it wasn’t, it didn’t seem to be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on every individual believer because we have this very specific verse in Joel 2:28. And it was a prophecy of Joel basically saying when the old covenant, under the old covenant, this was limited. But under the new covenant, something incredible was going to happen. And do you want to read that, Joel 2:28?

John McLarty: Joel 2:28 says, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. He was talking about after, you know, it’s a messianic prophecy, right? And he says, I’m, you know, that God is going to pour out his spirit, not just on a king, not just on a shepherd, not just on a craftsman, not just on a mighty man, but on all,every born again believer. And that, you know, that began on the dark afternoon when Jesus died on the cross, and the holy of holies was split from top to bottom, you know? And evidencing, it’s interesting it was torn from top and that the scripture actually said it was torn from top to bottom, not bottom to top, which would have been

John McLarty: Interesting. 

Kimberly Faith: Something that, you know, human would have had to do. And I don’t know. How would you explain the holy of holies, dad?

John McLarty: Well, it was this specific place where the presence of God was. And only the priests could enter in, and it was this very, you know

Kimberly Faith: Only once a year.

John McLarty: Yeah. I mean, and people that entered into it wrongly or you could die.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. They tied up

John McLarty: I think the priest could, I think they would tie a rope to the priest if he did something wrong.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: So it’s this very unique entering into the presence of God.

Kimberly Faith: Yes, the holy of holies. And Jesus was the final high priest. He was the real, the high priest that entered into that and reconciled us. And I love what Hebrews 10:19-20 says, and this is the writer of Hebrews explaining what this whole transaction that happened means. It says, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh. The torn veil was this like announcement that now the full experience of the Holy Spirit is open to every born again believer. That’s what I take that to mean.

John McLarty: Something significant had happened, the torn veil.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Yeah, you know, the presence of God

Kimberly Faith: Right. And this is a little bit

John McLarty: That’s kind of interesting. I’ll tie this just a little bit into the church, because I’m jumping ahead a little bit but

Kimberly Faith: That’s good. 

John McLarty: This whole, the tabernacle and then the temple and the holy of holies had been very specific to this nation of Israel. And what we’re about to see is the church, which was not a nation like Israel.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But it was not only the Gentiles, but this manifestation that went to all of the world

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: Wasn’t limited to a nation 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: Wasn’t limited to a temple.

Kimberly Faith: Geographical nation.

John McLarty:  Yeah, geographical location, the holy of holies.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And we talked about that in an earlier podcast, the church is a nation.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And actually, although this podcast is more to do with the individual relationship of born again believers with the Holy Spirit, we kind of made that clear at the beginning. This isn’t really about the more global or institutional relationship with the Holy Spirit or empowerment of the Holy Spirit. But at Pentecost, you know, that’s, I mean, that could be very well called the birth of the church, right? In some

John McLarty: Definitely the empowerment of the church.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. The empowerment is probably a better word. And because you see ,and it’s just God is just so unbelievably he just the way he works things is just mind blowing. The way that all these Jewish pilgrims were in this one place. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome. I mean, all the, you know, the known civilized world really that we’ve historically been able to, they were talking about here anyway. And it says, you know, they were, the spirit came upon them, and these Galileans began to speak to the whole crowd the mighty works of God in their own native language.

John McLarty: And it’s so interesting because the commission to the church, the disciples as they represented the church, was to take the gospel into the whole world. And here, as that church is empowered, God kind of brought the world to them and then poured out this manifestation. And it’s so interesting that when they were speaking, it wasn’t a language that no one understood. The miracle was that all these people from other nations understood. But they talked about the wonderful works of God. That was the message, which was what’s the wonderful work of God? 

Kimberly Faith: Gospel.

John McLarty: The gospel. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Jesus Christ.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: For our sins on the cross.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s I love that you brought that up because it kind of takes us back to Jesus in the great commission,right? And he said, go ye therefore and make disciples, you know, and and preaching the gospel. And again, we’re,  this is more of a, this isn’t exactly the topic we’re talking about, but this is an example of how, you brought up how Israel was the house of witness, right? The anointed, empowered, holy spirit empowered. And here we see the church, becoming empowered. So let’s kind of reel back for a minute and talk about Jesus’ promise about the spirit. Because we’re going to, after we talk about Jesus’ promise to send us the spirit in this individual way, we’re going to then talk about at least three of the benefits that we can identify in the Bible that the holy spirit empowerment gives. You want to read that promise that he was going to send the spirit?

John McLarty: Is that out of John 14?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. John 14.

John McLarty: Perfect. Yeah. So these are the words of Jesus. And I will pray the father, and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Kimberly Faith: That’s amazing. You know, and I really, it’s so interesting that in the Greek, he uses the word is called paraklete or parakletos in Greek. And our English words to people all over the world listening to this, but no English word, no single English word can really hold what this actually means because it’s one called alongside. And so different translations call it helper, comforter, advocate, counselor, but all of them are right because the Holy Spirit is too big for one word, right?

John McLarty: True. I love that.

Kimberly Faith: And I love that he says he will abide with you forever. You know, for a born again believer, we have already tapped into we’ve already been hooked up to this resource. And it’s, I think that one of my biggest challenges as a born again believer has been, and I’ve mentioned, like, you know, the big revolution transformation that God made in my life for just over ten years ago now, is that we tend to take the version that the the world, our culture, the enemy’s version of God, and make that who God is to us instead of understanding that he wants to have a personal relationship with us. Personal means he’s up in your business every day, you know? But it’s not a bad thing. It’s a great thing.

John McLarty:  No, He lives within us.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Yeah, that’s very impacting. I think, you know, we interact with God not only when we open up the word and read it, or not only we go to church and we’re hearing a message, but the spirit of God strives with us, you might say. You know, I say strive and blesses us. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Sometimes it’s that peace beyond understanding.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: God is just saying through his spirit, you’re doing good, you know?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. No. And it’s to me, like, the reason one of the reasons these three things we’re going to talk about that the spirit does for us is so important. I’ll just give you a real practical example. You know, in my law practice, I mean, this is an adversarial system. It’s not like, you know, painting houses for a living that, you know, the problems are pretty predictable, right? And I’m not minimizing people that paint houses. I’m just saying it’s a different, this is actually an adversarial work. This is what I do. And a lot of times, I will be wrestling with a problem and recognize that I’ve not let God take the wheel. And I feel my anxiety rising, I feel, you know, like I’m not enjoying my day. There’s a difference between

John McLarty: We’re all with you, Kim.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: All the listeners, so we can relate to that.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. And so every person who, you know, is alive today can understand this, right? And the Lord has to retrain my brain to say, whose law practice is this? Is this a compartment in your life that you’re not allowing me to be in control? I’m your advocate. I’m your helper. I’m your, you know, I’m coming alongside, but are you going to leave me outside? I can’t do that. And I was actually talking to my son about this the other day because we were talking about it. He had come to me with an issue he was trying to figure out. And I was getting anxious trying to be helping him, right? Trying to be like helping him. Trying to help him. I can’t talk. Going back into my Arkansas language. And finally the Holy Spirit was like, really? You know? I could just feel him like, really? And so finally, I just said, you know, son, I said, if your life belongs to God, this section of it also belongs to him. Just give it to him, and he’ll show you what to do.

John McLarty: That’s interesting.

Kimberly Faith: And I could just hear the relief in my voice and in his. He’s like, you know, mom, you’re right. And, you know, why don’t we, you know, the more we develop that in our life 

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith:The more that we experience the peace that passes understanding.

John McLarty: You know, through his spirit, we have his spirit speaks to our spirit, and we have that moment by moment ability.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: That communication with God.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Well, even this podcast, you know, we

John McLarty: It’s so interesting, we don’t have to oh, I need to and again, I’m not minimizing reading the Bible, but if we have a dilemma, we’re someplace, we have the spirit of God that can lead us and guide us.

Kimberly Faith: Right, right.

John McLarty: I’ve got to go find kind of black and white print to get the answer. We can say, Lord, help me. Just Lord, help me.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. Yeah. No. It’s funny you say that because I’m glad you brought up God’s word because we’re going to start talking about that here in just a minute. But this morning, we were sitting on the front porch talking about this podcast, and you were bringing up some things that I hadn’t thought of and which I appreciate about you because I feel like that iron sharpens iron principle of the Bible really goes to work in these podcasts a lot. And I remember starting to feel anxious, and I thought, what? This is God’s work. This isn’t my work. I don’t have to make this happen.

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: You know? And then what did God direct us to do? Go to his word.

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: Oh, well, God’s word has the answer. And so here we are. And so that kind of brings us to the first of the three things the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit does for us individually.

John McLarty: I love that, Kim, because we can just ponder something, and we do have the spirit and he talks to us, but you need to as you get ideas and formulate ideas, then they do need to tie back into scriptures.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. Absolutely. 

John McLarty: Because in our own mind, just think of the influences on our mind. Just each other, the world, some radio program we listen to.

Kimberly Faith: The bad news that floats around every day, you know? Yeah. I mean, it’s

John McLarty: It’s Anxiety.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And the thing is, I also think that we think we have to have all the answers. But the fact is, we’re going to talk about three things the spirit does for us, but there’s probably a lot more. I mean, this is not a limited list. These are three things that the spirit obviously shows us and does for us. But if there’s a listener out there who has something else, I’d love to hear about it. And I think that, you know, it’s a discussion.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And we were not, we don’t worship a god that we can wrap our mind around and understand. Otherwise, he would not be worthy of our worship.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: So let’s talk about first the word of God being made alive to us. This is so practical. It is the difference between reading the Bible as an intellectual pursuit and reading the Bible as a personal application and an intellectual pursuit and a download of wisdom and an empowerment and a source of love,  love letter from God, it becomes multidimensional, and it’s amazing. And I really want to start by reading First Corinthians.

John McLarty: And, Kim, this is so exciting. So just for our listeners, Kim and I are following a, we have a little loose script here, which I did not look over thoroughly. I looked over the beginnings of it. But as we were just talking about the interaction of the spirit of God, I was thinking, I almost grabbed my Bible and I was thinking, oh, I’ve got to go to that place in First Corinthians where it’s talking about the spirit of God speaks to us. And was thinking, I don’t want to be rustling the pages of the Bible in the podcast. So as I flipped the page, here it is. Kim’s already got it written down and printed out. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, this is spirit led though.

John McLarty: This is classic. This is axiomatic. This is fundamental. But let’s read this because it’s so perfect. So First Corinthians 2:9-10 and 12-14 is talking about the interaction of the Spirit of God with our spirit, but it’s based on the word of God.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. 

John McLarty: It’s straight from God’s word. Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those that love him. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might know, emphasizing that word, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. But 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.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s so powerful. Before the new birth, before we’re born again, we can read the Bible as literature, poetry, history, moral philosophy. But after the new birth, the spirit it’s like we now have night vision goggles on. We can see the hidden things.

John McLarty: You kind of have a north star attuning for it. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty:  A frequency that’s

Kimberly Faith: A navigator.

John McLarty: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, there’s so many ways we could explain that, but the spirit gives us insight that goes beyond our physical perception or even emotional enjoyment. I mean, like, the Beatles wrote a song, you know, out of Ecclesiastes, right? Turn turn turn. Right? I mean and that’s

John McLarty: It was actually the Byrds.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, the Byrds. Sorry. Well, you know, dad.

John McLarty: I’m from the sixties. I know.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Thank you for correcting me. 

John McLarty: Turn turn turn. And I think one of the Byrds is,  just for our listeners b y r d s. I think one of them was a Christian.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, really?

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Well, there you go. And so I say that, and, of course, thanks for correcting me because I need lots of correction, especially on history, Music history.

John McLarty: If it’s trivia from the sixties. I’m your guy.

Kimberly Faith: We won’t talk about you playing my son in trivia crack with your whole what was it? Your ninth grade class?

John McLarty:  Ninth grade Geography class.

Kimberly Faith: That’s another story. But, yeah, he couldn’t figure out how his grandpa could beat him in trivia crack, but you had the whole ninth grade class 

John McLarty: My secret team. 

Kimberly Faith: We digress. But, you know, that actually is a kind of a good example. You had a whole team behind you.

John McLarty: Yeah. Right. 

Kimberly Faith: And Jonathan didn’t know. You know? And so we have this team, this secret hidden team

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: That is, you know, God, the holy spirit, who has and if you, we’ve  talked about, you know, who God is, cannot lie, omniscient, omnipotent, you know, omnipresent. And he is going,  and what’s so interesting about this scripture is he has prepared these things that the eyes can’t see, the ears can’t hear, have not even entered into the heart of mankind. He has prepared these things for those who love him. That’s operative. That’s important. Because when I say, you know, when we talk about this being born again gives us this connection, it’s like we are now plugged into the power source.  But we’ve gotta flip the switch. You know what I’m saying? We’re connected. Flipping the switch is loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, which means he’s the center. He’s the center of your job. He’s the center of your family. He’s the center of your relationships. He’s the center of your pocketbook. He’s the center of your time. He’s the center of your health. All those things. And when we let him be that center, then Jesus said he would guide us into all truth. And that is so remarkable. And here’s how it kind of works, at least this is my experience. Can you read Hebrews 4:12? Because I think this is going to be a good segue.

John McLarty: So, yeah, this is so, you know, so that guides us into all truth, that’s John 16:13. But Hebrews 4:12, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit.

Kimberly Faith: And the part that I didn’t include in there, which I should have, was and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And that’s actually the part that I was kind of rolling towards is that when Jesus says he’ll guide you in all truth, when we’re interacting with people or a situation and we have hidden God’s word in our heart you know, if you ever want to see all the benefits of God’s word, look in Psalms 119. Psalms 119 is the longest chapter in the bible and it’s interesting it’s the longest chapter of the Bible because it’s all about the benefits of God’s word. And what that does is, like, our soul becomes it’s it’s like we are able to see with the eyes of Christ. We are able to think with the mind of Christ. We’re able to love with the heart of Christ because and then when we have God’s word hidden in our heart, when we’re interacting with other people, God’s word comes alive in us, and we discern things that we could never discern because we know things that come straight from God about that person. Does that make sense?

John McLarty: It does. And what’s so interesting, tying this back to the spirit of God, that’s a function of the spirit of God revealing the truth to us. It says, for the spirit who is from God that we might, go back to First Corinthians, for the spirit searches all things, the deep things of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might know. So as we read the word of God, it’s just kind of interesting. Before we’re saved, the word of God just might be interesting. History, literature, I mean, people in college studied this poetry.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty:  But once we’re born again and have the spirit of God within us and we’re alive spiritually, the word of God is this living, powerful, sharper than any two edged sword. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLary: Piercing to the division of soul and spirit, revealing the thoughts and intents of, it’s alive.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I just thought about something when you were talking. It’s an example of this. Because you mentioned that you know, people can study it as poetry, and it’s beautiful poetry. But it’d be kind of like, let’s say that you heard a song in Spanish and you didn’t know how to speak the language, and it was a beautiful song.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: But you didn’t understand the message. That’s the same analogy. 

John McLarty: It is.

Kimberly Faith: It’s like, now we understand the message because we speak God’s language. And when I say speak God’s language, his word is his language. It’s not some mystery. His spirit enters into his word because they’re already part, the word is Jesus, right? We’ve talked about that a lot. But they come together in us because Jesus has made us alive. In other words, we had the receptors, we had the ability to hear, and the spirit’s now speaking through the word. Because we need to like you said earlier, the spirit’s like this amorphous thing, right? The words on a page that we can read. So very exciting benefit that the spirit gives us is to make the word alive to us.

John McLarty: Understandable.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: Isn’t it so interesting? How many times have you read the same verse? I think of some Psalms and Proverbs, or maybe I need an answer for something, and I read this verse in a different way or it speaks to me personally.

Kimberly Faith: Yes, yes. And in a different way than the first time you read this. 

John McLarty: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It’s crazy.

John McLarty: Like, I’ve had that happen so often. And it’s the spirit revealing something to me through his word, but in a real specific way, like wait on the Lord.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Just at a time in your life where, yeah, I can’t solve this right now, but God’s got it. I just need to rest in him. So many examples of that. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I just had an analogy popping in my brain, and, you know, before we started this podcast, we asked the Holy Spirit to enter in and really enlighten us. But here’s a good analogy to that. You know, the same light, use the same flashlight, let’s say. And let’s say you shine it into the grass outside in the dark. Well, what you see is grass. But you take that same flashlight and you put it on the driveway, you see a different landscape. Same light, right? But you got two different landscapes. And the light is revealing what’s in that landscape at that time.

John McLarty: What’s the truth?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So one verse may speak to one landscape differently. It’s the light.

John McLarty: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: And because Jesus says, I am the, he’s the light of the world,right? And he says, we are the light of the world. And so when the word shines into the circumstance, the spirit enables us to understand the landscape for that circumstance.

John McLarty: Think about this. You’ve got the word of God and the spirit of God. What a powerful combination

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: To guide us

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: Through life.

Kimberly Faith: And what’s crazy is our, you know, when we’re born again, we’re in Christ. So our soul and spirit are in Christ. We are him, and he abides in us. Well, if he is the word, then we have a special connection with God’s word that I don’t think we can really understand. I don’t really think that we can understand it. And I’ve told you this, I don’t know if I’ve said this on this podcast or not, but I’ll never forget waking up being aware in the middle of the night, one night, that I was aware. I’m not sure if I was awake or not, but that my soul was reciting chapters from the book of Isaiah just saying. And I don’t have a, my brain, my physical brain did not memorize those things.

John McLarty: Has not memorized them. Interesting.

Kimberly Faith: But it was like I don’t

John McLarty:  I remember you saying it, you’ve told us that. That’s amazing.

Kimberly Faith: It was so amazing. It’s happened to me twice.

John McLarty: But believable.

Kimberly Faith: It’s.Yeah. Well, of course, it’s believable because Jesus is the word. He lives inside of me. And my soul knows more than my physical brain. You know? Anyway, that’s a bit of a rabbit, but let’s move on. So we know

John McLarty: That this idea of Jesus we’ve and I think we did a podcast delving into that. Jesus 

Kimberly Faith: The word.

John McLarty: Is the word. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: He is the word. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: And then we have the word, the written word of God. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: And that mystic combination of that. And then when we read the word and have the spirit interpreting it for us, it’s so powerful.

Kimberly Faith: Super powerful. 

John McLarty: What a resource.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. What a resource.

John McLarty: I think that’s what we’re talking about. What a resource.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. And so let’s kind of segue now into the second way the spirit works in us and that is he intercedes in our prayers. And, you know, I’m sure everybody listening to this can relate to this, how you sometimes pray and it feels like it’s just hitting the ceiling, you know?

John McLarty: Alright.

Kimberly Faith: And so let’s read Romans, and I want to pick that thought up. That experience is not something to be ashamed of necessarily. It’s part of the human experience, but it can be fixed. We can fix that. And when we and it’s not us fixing it, it’s the spirit fixing it. And so let’s kind of, let’s start off by reading Romans instead of me just talking about it. Romans 8:26-27. And I’ll read that.

John McLarty:  Okay. 

Kimberly Faith: It says, likewise, the spirit also helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

John McLarty: That is amazing and comforting.

Kimberly Faith: It is. It is so comforting.

John McLarty: We can just cry out. We don’t even know what we’re, you know, we have no idea what the solution is. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. 

John McLarty: Or necessarily, you know, sometimes not even know what the real problem is.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Think about, you know, the intrigues of the human anxiety experience. 

Kimberly Faith:  Right. Well, that’s right.

John McLarty: So it says we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But the spirit himself, he, like, he knows.

Kimberly Faith:  Yes. Yes.

John McLarty: He knows what, you know, what’s the word, the root problem.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: Sometimes we don’t know the root problem.

Kimberly Faith: But that’s right.

John McLarty: The spirit of God does.

Kimberly Faith: And that’s why I love the way that Genesis opens up with introducing the spirit as hovering over the chaos, the darkness.

John McLarty: Yeah. Caring.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s very comforting because when we have the Holy Spirit in us, we have that resource. He is waiting. It’s like he’s waiting. Okay. Just ask. Just say help, and I got it. I already know what’s in your mind. I already know what your confusion is. But just surrender.

You know? Surrender to me, and I’m going to, and I have had this happen,I don’t know how many times where I’ve been praying and just say, Lord, I don’t even know how to pray for this person. Help me pray. Help me intercede in my words and my prayers. And he does. He does. Matter of fact, he’s done it when I didn’t even ask. I remember praying for somebody, a particular person that had a very awful situation, and I didn’t even know enough about it to pray about it. And I just was like, you know what? I’m just going to, I told them I’m going to pray for you right now. And I started praying, and I was praying with the person, didn’t know anything about them. And the spirit started guiding my prayers. I knew it wasn’t me, and they knew it wasn’t me too because they were like, how did you know that stuff? I said, I didn’t. You know? That is a remarkable experience. And I don’t pretend to know how prayer works, all the mechanics, why we have to do it. I think a lot of the reason we need to do it is because it puts us in a position of needing God, knowing we need God. We don’t always know we need God. You know what I’m saying? But it was like, that is such an incredible experience. And I think a lot of times we are praying and the spirit is interceding, and we don’t even realize it. That was just one of those remarkable experiences where I actually knew that was happening. I don’t know. Have you experienced that?

John McLarty: Yeah. I’m just thinking about actual you know, I just think of times in my life that I’ve just been, I call it gut punched. I’m going to give a funny example, Kim, but I had an old vehicle. Well, it was  kind of new to us, but it was actually an ’88 Ford Bronco. And it was getting a little old, so I’d taken the insurance off of it, the comprehensive and only had liability. And like five days later, I won’t say who, but a family member was involved in an accident and totaled that vehicle.

Kimberly Faith: Oh my goodness.

John McLarty: And not only the loss of the vehicle, you know, this person wasn’t hurt. And, of course, that’s the most important thing. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: But it was just like, how could, the whole idea that I’d taken off the comprehensive five days before. Now, you just feel stupid that I’d done that and then the timing and kind of like a little bit, God, how could this have happened?

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: How could you know, the accident happened, but why didn’t you warn me? Just the questioning, and I just had it was just, I was without words, and I just had to go to God. There was no solution really except just go to God and give it to him and find peace and move on. And I’ll say this, and not let it interfere with the ministry, to other people that we were having just in the church or teaching a bible study. It’s like, you know, I can’t just let this

Kimberly Faith: Derail you.

John McLarty: Derail me for weeks and months. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Just take the gut punch and say, Lord, what do you need to show me through this? 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: You know?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. For sure. Now that’s actually a really good

John McLarty: It’s a reality. I’m just trying to get real with people you know?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s a very real example.

John McLarty: All these, you know, mysterious issues and root problems, but this was just a financial blow.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. No. And I appreciate you sharing that because that’s where the holy spirit meets us, where the rubber meets the road. You know, the broken down vehicle, the crashed vehicle, the HVAC system that goes out when it’s 100 degrees outside. I mean, those are and again, it’s not that necessarily you’re going to get some physical solution. It’s that you’re going to get the peace  that passes understanding.

John McLarty: Right. Or somebody hurts your feelings, you know? Somebody, you know, forgets whatever. You know?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. No. And that kind of brings us to the third work of the Holy Spirit, and this is called this transformation. So we’ve talked about the word being made alive intercessory intercession in our prayers, and then he transforms us. And I think this is the most humbling, really, because it’s not you know, you’ve raised us and I’ve raised some kids and one of them is now raising a child. It’s like parenthood. It doesn’t seem to ever end, and it’s a journey.

John McLarty: True that.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: True that lovely daughter Kim.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, you know, and you know, but it’s a

John McLarty:  But parenthood has turned into a great blessing.

Kimberly Faith: It’s a glorious journey.

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: And here’s the thing. We’ve got to think about the Holy Spirit like that. that he doesn’t view us as tempestuous, horrible children when we’re trying to follow the Lord and we’re trying to glorify the father. He’s like, well, you know, okay, like, I think I told you earlier, yesterday, I think it was, I had to go back and apologize to my office team because I had said some things I shouldn’t have said. And they weren’t, you know, nothing horrible. It was just, I shouldn’t have said things I said that were negative about another person.

John McLarty: Gossipy.

Kimberly Faith: Gossipy. Yes. That’s a good way to put it. And the spirit, you know, and I think I described this, that the spirit , it was the end of the day, and I’d said some things I shouldn’t have said, and we all just left. And I don’t even think they even thought anything about it, really. But as I was leaving my office, I could feel the Holy Spirit was just not happy with me.

John McLarty: And just think about what you just said. You felt the Holy Spirit

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: Showing you, Kim, that you shouldn’t have

Kimberly Faith: You shouldn’t have done that. 

John McLarty: That was wrong. You shouldn’t have done that. So it was the work of the Holy Spirit.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Transforming me. 

John McLarty: Yes. 

Kimberly Faith: And what’s crazy is

John McLarty: And guiding you. You need to go make that right.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. And it was funny because this is actually a great example. Later that night, I was going to text the team and say, hey, I said these things, I shouldn’t have said them, the Spirit wouldn’t let me do that. Because there was actually something else that the Holy Spirit was going to do through that apology that would touch somebody else’s life.  So I had to wait until the next morning and then go in and make my apology. And I’ll just say this, that when we are allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us, we experience something so remarkable. And it’s something that every human wants. And it comes right out of Galatians Chapter Five. And we are familiar with this and call it the fruit of the spirit.

John McLarty: Yeah. Let me read that.

Kimberly Faith: Okay.

John McLarty: Love that. But the fruit of the spirit so as we let the spirit work in us in this transformation, it’s kind you know, also, the renewing of the mind. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Galatians 5:22 and 23.

Kimberly Faith: Who doesn’t want all those things?

John McLarty: Who doesn’t want all those things, and who doesn’t want to be around somebody that reflects all those things?

Kimberly Faith: And no amount of willpower or self discipline produces these things.

John McLarty: True.

Kimberly Faith: It is the fruit,  is surrendered to

John McLarty: Interesting. 

Kimberly Faith:  God, and it is the fruit of God’s spirit. And, you know, and what’s so interesting is that God wants us to produce this. You know, Philippians 2:13 says, it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, we talk about

John McLarty: That’s God’s work.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And, you know, in Second Corinthians, it talks about right now we have this veiled face beholding as a mirror the glory of the Lord, but are being transformed in the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord. This is a process. The spirit gives us the desire to be transformed because we are now in Christ, but we have to give our life to him. We have to surrender and allow him into every pocket of our life. If we want to have his transforming power, the word revealed to us, and him intercede in our prayers. And, you know, I know we’ve covered a lot of ground today, but I want to really bring this back to where we live. Number one, we’re not alone. If we’re born again, we are not navigating this life alone. We have the greatest helper, the greatest advocate, the greatest counselor, the greatest friend. But we have to be willing to give him free rein in our life. Does that make sense?

John McLarty: It does. Yeah. Let him lead and then follow.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: Think about it, you’d show up on a job and the first thing is just they put a mop in your hand and say go mop the floor and you don’t do it, you refuse to do it. Well, they’re not going to give you the second job.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: But if you follow that it’s kind of, you know, this building blocks of transforming our life.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: We have to be saying yes to God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Yes to the spirit.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, I like to use the example if you don’t finish basic and start applying the basic rules of basic that you learned in the army, basic training, you’re not going to go down the special operations mission. 

John McLarty:  Yeah. Down to AIT. 

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: That  individual training.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. And so if you are a born again believer and you’re listening to this and you’re not experiencing these three benefits we’ve talked about, the word of God being made alive to you and speaking directly to you. The intercession of the Holy Spirit in your prayers that make them,I hate to say make the magic, but I think everybody understands what I mean by that and that your life is being transformed. And even the smallest things like the office example I gave then don’t you want that? That’s what, I’m going to challenge. You know, this is why we’re going to do this second podcast next week. If not experiencing those, there’s a reason. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in next week’s podcast. And I just want to tell you that this isn’t something I’m saying you need to do, whoever’s listening to this, I’m saying this is something I need to do. Because the fact is that scripture in Corinthians, we’re being transformed from glory to glory. That is evidence that we’re always, we can stop growing. We can stop being transformed. We can stop having the intercessory. In other words, that light can be dimmed. 

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: We either are growing, going forward or going backwards. We’re not staying static.

John McLarty: And let me go back to that, Kim, for just a second because it’s this idea of being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. I’m about to do this study, present this study on the image of God. We were created in the image of God. Think of, you know, back Adam and Eve. We lost that. But once we’re saved, we have that born again nature. But then through the transformation we’re talking about, that image of God, which God’s spiritual, that fruit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, that begins to shine back out. It can be covered by the flesh.

Kimberly Faith: That’s good.

John McLarty: But this transformation. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: So if somebody is letting God transform, this should be shining forth from your life. If you’re letting the Spirit control you, your life should be characterized by love, joy, peace. And I don’t say that lightly because we get blindsided. This is the challenge. But it’s so interesting that as that happens, we begin to look more like him.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: What would Jesus do?

Kimberly Faith: Not just look like him, but experience the life he wants us to experience. 

John McLarty: Right

Kimberly Faith: You know, the sobering reality is that for many believers, including myself, that we’re living at a fraction of the spirit’s intended presence in our life, and we don’t even know if we’re doing it. We don’t even realize it. I will just kind of wrap up with this. And this goes back to, I think it was C. S. Lewis or one of the writers I like to read, said if a child who’s lived in the ghetto their whole life, who’s never been to the seashore, can really not understand the beauty of living on the beach or being on the beach. But once you’ve been there, you never want to go back to the ghetto.

John McLarty:  Right. 

Kimberly Faith: That’s the experience of the Holy Spirit.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: And if you want to go back to the ghetto after you’ve been on the beach, then you’ve really been deluded. And we don’t want anyone, including ourselves, to live the beautiful life that God has given us, being deluded by the sin, the evil, the enemy, all the forces of this world.

John McLarty: Sure. This is a challenge for us.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: It’s like, have I ever really been to the seashore? You know what I’m saying? 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John Mclarty: I know the closer I get to God, the more blessed I am, the more peace I have.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: But have I been to the seashore?

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Have I really been there? Or maybe I’ve just been, you know, to a river or something.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. You know, and I think that, so just to give everybody a heads up, next episode, episode 93, is I think one of the most important conversations we’ve had. And, you know, it’s how do you know if you’re living in the full power of the Holy Spirit or if you’ve quenched the spirit? There are going to be three verses that we look at, and they’re to, you know, they’re all going to handle this a little differently. But I think it’s such an important thing to know. Because when you have been in the presence of the Holy Spirit, there’s nothing else in this entire world that compares to it because, and it’s very relatable. Everybody knows what it feels like to live in love, in joy, in peace. Everybody knows what those three things that, what they’re like, right? You can recognize them.

John McLarty: And what a blessing that God has given us his spirit and wants these things for us.

Kimberly Faith: Amen. Amen, dad. So that’s a good way to end.

John McLarty: Great.

Kimberly Faith: Are you looking for a place to recharge your faith, refocus your mind, and reignite your passion for Christ? Head over to gofaithstrong.com, your one stop hub for powerful devotionals, life giving podcasts, uplifting worship music, and real stories from real people walking their faith out just like you. We know life gets busy, and it’s easy to feel spiritually drained. That’s why everything we create at Go Faith Strong is designed to be clear, Christ centered, and easy to plug into. Whether you’ve got just five minutes or you have a whole hour. From Bible based blog posts to worship music, it’s all there to help you stay connected to truth throughout your week.

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