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Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Barbara Carmack shares inspiration on staying focused on Christ and finishing strong in faith and love.
[Music] Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey and I'm delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at box 370-367 Denver, Colorado 802-37 or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a word-powered daily reading Bible guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll-free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let's join Barbara in the studio. Welcome to Call to Freedom. Wow, as I look at my calendar, I'm sure you do the same thing. Wow, it's just a little bit here and we're in Thanksgiving this last weekend. I know I started to put out Christmas things because by the time I get through traveling to Broken Arrow and then back, it's going to be December. And so much going on. Oh, God bless you as you prepare for the holidays as you prepare for the birth of our Lord Jesus. Oh, maybe a joyful time for you. That's what I wish for you. A joyful time, a joyful season for you because there are so many things that are happening just smile and let the sunshine in. This morning I was walking to the office. The office is connected to my home and the sun just shown, you know, the leaves are almost all gone. The sun just shown through the tree and, "Oh, I was singing, oh, let the sun shine in. Face it with a grin." And it's wonderful to know that when we smile, we face life with a grin, you know, those frowns. They don't do anything good for us. In fact, you know, the frowns on our face cause wrinkles. So make sure you smile and feel the love of God in your heart. Oh, it's just so wonderful to know Him, isn't it? Let's do the Monday Bible slogan. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I do what it tells me to do. This is my Bible. It has given me new life. It is the Word of God. Praise the Lord. It is the Word. The love letter of God to you. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. Answer everyone with a gracious answer. You are blessed to dispense for in Him you live and move and have your being. And I have, yeah, I've lowered the power packs to the original price. I know it costs money, but I'm just allowing my CPA Holy Spirit to get the, the, all the bottom line for this done. And we don't care about profit here. We just care about ministry. So the, the, the binder, the acrylic binder are $10. And the power pack and the cassette tape case is five. So you might be thinking of some Christmas things or even things to do around the table at Thanksgiving. They have some wonderful praise, affirmations and also verses of scripture at the back of the power pack to help you in your time with growing, growing with Him and maturing in Him. It's just a wonderful thing to have. My memory verse for this week, I picked it. It's an Ezekiel and you think, oh, how can anything good come out of the Ezekiel? I know there are a lot of chapters of God just going over the idolatry and over it again and again and again. And you're going, when is this going to come to an end? And it does, oh, it does because God is giving us a promise and Ezekiel 11. Ezekiel 11. I'm almost there. Ezekiel 11, 19 through 20. And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh. Those are those stubborn, obnoxious people that you don't think will ever know Jesus. Yep, he's wooing them. He's bringing them into the fold, give them a heart of flesh so that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them. Then you will be my people and I shall be your God. Mmmh, hallelujah. Oh, he is our God today. In the message translation, Ezekiel 11, 18 through 20 says, "You'll come back and clean house, throw out all the rotten images and obscene idols." Yep, some of us are cleaning house. I'll give you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit in you. I'll cut out your stone heart and replace it with a red-blooded firm-muscled heart. That's what I'm praying for you. Red-blooded firm-muscled heart. No cardiovascular problems here, friend. Then you'll obey my statutes and be careful to obey my commands. You'll be my people. I'll be your God. Oh, praise the Lord. In the last two weeks, I hadn't talked about the great work that Samaritans purses doing around the world. I really appreciate those of you who gave to call to freedom, to send on to Franklin Graham. Those of you who went directly to Samaritans purses to help them, thank you so much. It's just a wonderful organization. I got a report of their tremendous work, especially in Northwest North Carolina. They have enlisted National Guard Chinooks and Black Hawks and several private helicopters, which have made 358 flights into 17 mountainous counties in North Carolina and Tennessee, delivering tons of emergency supplies to people stranded by washed out roads. I mean, the roads weren't even passable, so they had to do by either horse or donkey or helicopters. This became the largest civilian airlift in U.S. history. Just imagine. I mean, we're almost 300 years old, but just think this is the largest civilian airlift in U.S. history. Over 30,000 orange-shirted volunteers came. 30,000. Some of these towns weren't more than maybe 5 or 10,000. And 30,000 people converged on those communities, all with orange shirts. The beautiful photos of them came to cut trees, shovel mounds of mud, tarp up roofs, and prey with survivors. Many have gone back to damaged but livable homes that have no heat or lights or running water. And that's why Samaritan Purse has already given out 3,800 generators, 5,700 heaters, and 13,000 blankets, thousands of warm coats because the snow has already fallen in these valleys. Among the 11 lost in Yancey County were four members of a family, four members who fled the Ukraine to seek a more peaceful and wonderful free country, and found a peaceful home site on the banks of the Toe River, which had 31 inches of rain in the hurricane aftermath. Anna Huibi watched helplessly as the river swallowed up a trailer housing her mother. Oh, I can't imagine. Her mother, her sister, her brother-in-law, and 13-year-old nephew. I just can't imagine watching your loved ones floating away and you can't do anything. Then the flood surged into her hillside home and forced her family to flee to higher ground. Chaplain's working alongside Samaritan Purse comforted Anna or could be Anna as a volunteer's cleaned out her house to get it ready for reconstruction. There are so many stories like Anna's who were helpless in rescuing their families. One father described how he and his sons watched from a vehicle as their home was swept away. In the midst of the danger he shared the gospel with his youngest son, oh, I'm sure he did, who prayed to receive Jesus as his savior. The storm took everything the father said, but my son found Jesus. Hallelujah. I want to thank those of you who sent in donations for this terrible calamity. God is doing so much for his people right now and we must not get complacent or apathetic about others in need. God bless you for your giving into the kingdom of God and even places locally like rescue mission. God bless you for your people and give into those places. If you've got food on the table every night, you can give. If you've got a warm home, you can give. If you've got gas in your vehicle and are able to pay your bills, you can give. I watched enough football yesterday. Yes, I did. Oh, my goodness. So much going on. To see that the majority of pro players are Trump supporters. Yes, it seems like everyone is hooked on the Trump dance. He has brought about a national phenomenon and it puts a smile on my face. It really does. In fact, I've practiced it in my own home. Trump dance. Oh, yesterday as I was watching David Jeremiah, I was reminded of this segment on Fox the other day. There was a segment on Fox and I believe it was on Hannity. I had just walked out of the TV room to get something and I heard David Jeremiah speaking about the coming golden age. I thought to myself, I have Fox on. How can David Jeremiah be speaking with the Fox Hannity on? And then it dawned on me that just a week before President Trump had mentioned the coming golden age, a phrase taken directly from David Jeremiah's sermon because he's got a new book on the coming golden age. God is orchestrating a miracle, miracle here, folks. Be encouraged at what is taking place on a global level and it's not climate change. It's God doing something in these last days or just, "Ah, it's just taking our breath away." That's why I want to speak to you about the opportunity we have in running the race with joy of the peace and the prize that is awaiting us who believe and trust in God's way of doing things. Because Jesus for the joy set before Him endured the cross. So why shouldn't we have joy in our hearts today? Oh, wow. I just really believe that we need to be the most happy and joyful people on this planet. And throughout the whole New Testament, the Christian life is compared to a race. With that in mind, we need to realize that it's not a short sprint, but a long distance run. Sometimes as we are participating in this race, we can grow discouraged by circumstances or by what others say to us. Or about us, about me, man, I did a stupid thing the other day. Well, we got a look up. We got a look up to what Jesus did. And He gave us a new life so that we wouldn't backtrack and go back to our problems, back to our failures, back to the things we did wrong, because we all did. And just as a successful runner must keep his eyes on the prize, we too must remember what this race is all about. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. Cory Tenboom, a Dutch Christian who survived the horrors of Hitler's concentration camps during World War II, often said, "Look within and be depressed. Look without and be distressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest. I'm going to say that again. Oh, God bless you, Cory Tenboom. Oh, she was a wonderful, wonderful woman. Look within and be depressed. Look without and be distressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest. God will see us through to the end. He has given us His Word. And I am certain that God who began a good work within you will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. And that's Philippians 1-6. I say that about so many of you who give your donations to call to freedom. Yes, I pray over your checks and your money orders and some of you who send cash. I am so grateful. The thief has not stolen in years and years and years in the post office. And I'm so grateful. God is keeping that post office box safe and protected in Jesus name. I was reading Psalm 21 the other day from the message. And it just so inspired me. I thought you might be interested in listening to what the message says of Psalm 91. You who sit down in God Almighty's presence. Spend the night in L. Shadyshe shadow. Say this. God, you're my refuge. I trust in you and I am safe. That's right. He rescue you. Zoo from hidden traps. Shields you from deadly hazards. His huge, outstretched arms protect you. Under them, you're perfectly safe. His arms fend off all harm. Fear nothing. That's right. Verse 5 says, "Fear nothing. Not wild wolves in the night. Not flying arrows in the day. Not disease that prowls through the darkness. Not disaster that erupts at high noon. Even though others succumb all around, drop like flies right and left. No harm will even graze you." Wow, that sounds like Luke 10, 19, doesn't it? Nothing shall harm you. Behold, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall harm you. That's Luke 10, 19. Psalm 91 goes on to say, "You'll stand untouched. Watch it from a distance. You'll stand untouched. Watch it from a distance. It reminds me of the article that I read from Samaritans purses about the families who just watched. Watch their houses going down the rivers. Totally destroyed. You'll stand untouched. Watch it from a distance. Watch the wicked turn into corpses." And this is verse 9 of Psalm 91. "Yes, because God's your refuge. Your very own home. Evil can't get close to you. Harm can't get through the door." And verse 11, "So many of you know, verse 11 of Psalm 91. He ordered his angels to guard over you wherever you go. If you stumble, they'll catch you. Their job is to keep you from falling. They're all ministering servants. Spirit, center ender, service to you." And that's Hebrews 1 verse 14, "You'll walk unharmed among lions and snakes and kick young lions and serpents from the path. God says, "If you'll hold on to me for dear life, I'll get you out of any trouble. I'll give you the best of care. If you'll only get to know and trust me. I'll give you the best of care. If you'll only get to know and trust me. Call me and I'll answer. I'll be at your side." In bad times, I'll rescue you, then throw you a party. Yes, yay. I'll give you a long life and give you a long drink of salvation. As long as some of you are on this earth, my friend, he will give you that long drink of salvation. He will be your protector and your guide through every phase of your life. One thing that God repeats over and over again is that he won't let the devil get near you to harm you in any way. As long as you put your trust in him, yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even when the way goes through the death valley. I haven't been through death valley, but some people have. They say, "Wow, it is really hot in the summer and hard to walk through." But some have walked through it. Even though the way goes through death valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure. You know that rod and my staff? Well, that's the shepherd's crook. Even when you're on the ledge, it just grabs you by the neck and pulls you back. He knows the devil is trying to get to you one way or another. But as long as you trust in God, he will never fail you in his love and faithfulness. No matter how long we live, this earthly life is still a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. As Moses looked back over his life on this earth, he may have had a secret sin that was on his mind, the sin of watching a fellow Hebrew being beaten and is committing murder to avenge the beating. Moses mentions God's wrath several times in Psalm 90. And in the Old Testament, punishment was what the perpetrator looked forward to. If you murdered, if you did things that were evil in the Old Testament, you were punished. Now look at David. He committed a sin and he committed murder. He committed adultery and murder. And yet God was so merciful toward him as he was toward Moses. So sometimes when we, not sometimes, I'm saying all the time when you trust in God, when you put your trust in him, he's going to keep you from harm, my friend. We all start out sinners. And when we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, he takes away the old sinful nature and gives us a new heart and a new identity. It just takes some of us longer to realize what Christ has done for us. Yes, it really does. It takes us a lot longer. And it's taken me a long time, friend, but I'm here. I'm here and I'm realizing what our Lord Jesus did for us. Second Corinthians 517 tells us if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. He has a new spirit. And that's what the scripture for this week is all about. He's giving you a new heart, a fresh heart, a fleshly heart. He's taken that old, stony heart out of your spirit. And that's Ezekiel 11 verse 19. Old things have passed away. That's the old Garden of Eden sin. That's gone. That old oppressive spirit has gone. And now you're a new creation. All things have become new. And as I said before, it takes some of us a long time to realize what Jesus did and is doing for us. But we're getting it. We're getting it. God gives us faith through Jesus. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life that I live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Oh, he is the one, friend. Oh, how we love him. He is the one. He took us from being broken, from being lost. And he showed us the way. Here's Keith Green. [Music] I love you. You are the one. You are the one. I love you. You are the one for me. I was so lost. But you showed the way. Because you are the way I was. So lost. But you showed the way to me. Oh, how I love you. You are the one. You are the one. I love you. You are the one for me. I was lied to. But you told the truth. Because you are the truth. I was lied to. But you showed the truth to me. Oh, how I love you. You are the one. You are the one. I love you. You are the one for me. I was lying. But you gave me life. Because you are the lie. But you showed the lie. But you showed the lie. And you gave me life for me. Oh, how I love you. You are the one. You are the one. I love you. You are the one. God's risen sun. You are the one for me. Oh, how I love you. You are the one. You are the one. I love you. You are the one for me. Oh, how I love you. You are the one. You are the one. I love you. You are the one for me. Oh, it's a beautiful song. Absolutely beautiful song. Love to sing it often. And here we can show our friends that Jesus is the way the truth and the life. That's what Keith Green built this song on. You are the one. You are the way. You are the truth and you are the life. John 336 tells us that he who believes in the sun has everlasting life. And he who does not believe the sun shall not see life. Oh, and we want life for our friends, don't we? As we prepare for the Christmas holiday and Thanksgiving, we want to show our friends mercy and grace. Oh, I know some of their snide remarks and some of the things that are going on. You just want to get back at them. But we need to just step aside, take a breath and say, Father God, thank you for grace. Thank you for mercy and help me to show grace and mercy to the ones I love. And what a blessed assurance to know that every mile of the way in this life, God is merciful. And he wants us to be merciful. His love reaches from age to age. Our faithful father graciously showers our days with mercy and love. Jeremiah wrote a beautiful verse and we it was our verse last week, Lamentations 322 and 23 through the Lord's mercies. We are not consumed because his compassion's fail not they are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. Great is your faithfulness. Oh, Lord, as I crawl out of bed every morning. I say, Oh, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it because your mercies are new every morning, Lord. I can look at a new blackboard. Remember, well, I used to do the blackboard clean off the blackboard. Yes, I was a special child in class. Okay, Barbara, today you clean off the blackboard. Oh, good, good. So I would clean off that blackboard until there was nothing left. But places where the teacher could give us new subtraction and addition problems and new sentence structure. Oh, through our God. Oh, we they his mercies and his compassion's they fail not. So although our mile markers are measured in years, we must live every day fully and completely and thralled with Jesus. We never finish learning more about God's love and mercy. Life is precious and each day is a valuable gift from God. Jonathan Edwards, the great 18th century theologian, desired to make the most of his time and ask God daily stamp eternity on my eyeballs. Okay, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. Yes, father, I want to be so close to you every minute of every day that you are all my eyeballs see as. Cory, 10 boom had said you know when we look outside, we don't see anything we get distressed. We got to look to Jesus and he will give us that rest. So between Jonathan Edwards and Cory, 10 boom, we're going to look with joy at our world and we're going to look at the Lord Jesus. Yes, father, I want to be so close to you every minute of every day that you are all my eyeballs see. Well, I've reached my three score and almost 10 and I'm looking for better days ahead. I'm not getting older. I'm getting better and life before 50 is only a warm up. We can take those negative thoughts and turn them around. We can cast down and throw away all that junk that comes flowing through our brains and say, no, I cast down every evil and vain imagination and every lofty thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And I take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Yes, that's what we can do. We can say, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live not I, but Christ lives in me and the life that I live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself for me. And it is such a wonderful thing to know that He so loved the world, including you and me that He gave His only begotten Son. The Lord Jesus who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. Can you imagine that? The joy set before Him. So we can go through these days joyful and happy and we can even do a trump dance. Yes, we can learn to do that trump dance. It was so wonderful. It was so fun to see the football players yesterday doing the trump dance after they made the touchdowns. It was just a joy. In fact, I think I laughed out loud at a couple of three of them trying to do that. God bless you and keep you. I'm looking forward to this week of being with you and take joy, my friend. Take joy. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
Join us for an inspiring episode of Call to Freedom where spiritual and emotional wellness is at the forefront. Hosts Barbara Carmack and Darren dive into understanding how depression stems from deeper spiritual issues and share letters from listeners who offer testimonies of faith and resilience. The program sheds light on combating depression's root causes with spiritual introspection, prayer, and an unyielding trust in God's blessings. The episode offers steps to untangle the burdens that keep individuals from reaching their full spiritual potential. Through heartfelt conversation and prayer, listeners are encouraged to practice forgiveness and seek God's wisdom in navigating life's struggles. This episode is a reminder that spiritual freedom is attainable, and God's love is the key to unlocking it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I'm delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let's join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 02 :
After thanking children who are sending in offerings to give to the orphans with Home of Refuge, I read a letter written by a wife who is concerned because her husband is depressed about his job. But Darren brings up the fact that depression is only a symptom of a deeper spiritual root. We bring up the areas of fear and pride and unforgiveness which may indicate depression. that maybe things aren't working out according to your plans, and you're allowing anger, fear, or unforgiveness to take over. As we discuss unforgiveness, Darren gives a solution to bring freedom into your heart and life. God's will is to bless you, but it's important that you get rid of the junk that's clogging up the communication lines between you and your Heavenly Father. Now let's join the program.
SPEAKER 04 :
You have a wonderful letter there in your hand, don't you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, and I forgot to bring the letters of the Yost family. The children all sent letters, and they sent their Christmas money that they'd gotten for Christmas for the home of refuge, for the orphanage, for the children, and I forgot that this morning.
SPEAKER 04 :
They're over in Nebraska, aren't they?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, and thank you so much. I remember three of the children's names, Caitlin, Logan, and Coda, but I don't remember the other little boys, and they're so precious. We'll call them number four. Forgive me. No, no, no, not number four. Okay. And so we have a letter here from Shelby, and it's, Dear Darren and Barbara, how are you? I am fine. I'm writing you to thank you for the VeggieTales. I really like it. Thanks for your newsletter. Tell Barbara hi. I enjoy your program very much. I'm sending you $5. And Shelby, we're going to apply this $5 with the other, I think we got $46 from the Yost children. God bless you. We're going to give it to the Home of Refuge, and it's going to bless them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Where's Shelby from?
SPEAKER 03 :
Lyman.
SPEAKER 04 :
Lyman, Colorado.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's a wonderful little letter. And we just appreciate the letters from the children. That's wonderful. Praise God.
SPEAKER 04 :
We have a letter here that's really, I'm going to say it's a treasured letter because this lady is so gifted in explaining what's going on. But she said, may I ask for prayer help? I've never asked this before. It's difficult and I'm not even sure why. Okay. Oh, I got a phone call coming in. So I'm going to hold this letter because I want to treat this right. It's a great letter and it will strike the chord with so many of you that are, you know, in an employment change transition. And, you know, you may be looking at the wrong thing or why you're having problems. I think we can help this lady. Well, let's talk to Sean. Hello, Sean.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hello, Darren, Barbara, this is Sean Anselmo. I don't know if you remember my father.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my goodness, yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Steve Anselmo.
SPEAKER 04 :
I was talking about your dad a couple of days ago. As a matter of fact, a lady came to our meeting, and she said she talked to somebody on the phone who received a marvelous healing, and I said to Barb, that person talked to Anselmo.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, to Steve. We were talking about your dad just the other day, and I remember having dinner with you, and you were really young. How old are you, Sean?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I'm 31 now. Oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 05 :
Tack that on.
SPEAKER 04 :
So how are you doing, Sean?
SPEAKER 05 :
I'm doing great. I just wanted to praise God for you. And welcome back to the airwaves. And it's great to hear your voice on the radio. It's only by chance that I even caught your program the other day. And I'm just praising God for your ministry. And I've entered the ministry myself.
SPEAKER 04 :
Praise God. Do you have a church?
SPEAKER 05 :
No, I just started a newsletter from our home, my family and I, and it's going to follow up with my dad's newsletter and his prison ministry.
SPEAKER 04 :
Good, good.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, we're looking forward to seeing what God's got in store for us.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I'll tell you, your dad helped me out in Tulsa, Oklahoma one time, and I won't go into the whole story, but I'll tell you, he was there for me. And then he worked with me in Fort Collins for quite a while, and there's a wonderful anointing on your father and mother's lives.
SPEAKER 05 :
That's right. Amen. Praise God. I just want to thank you guys and encourage you. You're doing a great job, and I appreciate the words of God that he gives to you guys.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you, sir. Thank you, Sean. I hope you'll take time to give our office a call and leave your address.
SPEAKER 05 :
I would certainly do that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, here's the number, Sean. Well, I guess if you can hang on, I'll just have our engineer take it. How would that be?
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sean, it's good to hear from you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good to hear from you.
SPEAKER 04 :
You're married? You're married now?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, married and three children.
SPEAKER 04 :
What's your little wife's name?
SPEAKER 05 :
Patricia and Elmo.
SPEAKER 04 :
Patricia. Wonderful. Well, we just bless you, Sean.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know there's a wonderful anointing being passed down from your father, and that's good. Next time you see your dad, have him give us a call.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Praise God.
SPEAKER 04 :
I will. God bless. God bless you. Okay. Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Calls from out of the past. Yes. Amen. That's just really.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I tell you, I watched Steve and he was a wonderful man for us on the prayer lines.
SPEAKER 03 :
He was a man of prayer. That's right. He was. He was a man of prayer.
SPEAKER 04 :
This letter goes on to say, I've never asked for prayer help before. I've never asked anyone. I don't know why. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's pride. And maybe we think it shows weakness, but we haven't asked before. It goes on to say, my husband had been trying to break into a certain business, and I won't name that business, for a whole year. He had to leave another type of business, which is much different by the letter here. but it was driving him to great depression. He loves doing what he's doing now, but it's 100% commission, and he just can't seem to make it work. We're almost out of money, and he's become so depressed and despondent, I'm fearful we're going to lose everything. Is that what's going to happen to us? Pray that we will find suitable work soon. My husband has even looked back to his past job, and we've fasted and we've prayed, and we'll continue. And I guess I struggle with knowing what the Lord's will is here. If Jesus prayed about his father's will being done, shouldn't we also pray that way? Could it be that his will that we go through losing all that we have? Now, I'm going to stop right there. I don't believe it's God's will that you lose all that you have. But I do believe this, that God is trying to get down to a root cause. And I don't believe the depression came on this husband just because of this new work or because of a lack of sales income, commission income. And I believe God allows us to go through these things for us to face ourselves and say, well... It wasn't the old job. It's not the new job. It must be something wrong inside of me. And I went through a period of time like that when I had to face myself. And I thought it was the circumstances around me, my family, my work, my profession, my whatever. And I made somewhat of a massive change. And that's when I hit the wall and it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I had to face some things down inside of Darren and cry out for help. And some people prayed for me. And because of their prayer, that's the basis of this ministry and that's setting people free.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Showing them how to get set free.
SPEAKER 03 :
Life is hard on us, and so we start building walls and we start putting layer upon layer. And I feel like this precious lady is just crying out, and I feel so much for her. We weren't given very many... details and I wish she would have written a little bit more about her family if her husband is born again if they go to a spiritual church if they have had counseling because I believe there's a curse going on in his husband's life I believe that there has been depression in his life before and I believe that if he is a melancholy at all that means if he has mood swings And I'm very aware of that and familiar with that because my life has been my previous life was made up of much mood swings. If something didn't work, I'd get very depressed. And if something did work, I'd be flying high as a kite.
SPEAKER 04 :
But let me tell you, that's not just for a melancholic personality.
SPEAKER 03 :
I understand.
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm a choleric personality. I've had that same thing. And mine came from fear and from anger. When I get frustrated. then what happens a lot of times is the chemical go goofy inside your body, and then the result of that many times is a chemically induced depression.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, but you're not prone to giving up. And there are some personalities that are absolutely prone to giving up. They hide in a corner, they sit in a corner, and they say, well, this is it, I'm just going to face the consequences. And you get up, when you get depressed, you get up and you go in another direction. I mean, you begin to do something to take care of that. Well, there are...
SPEAKER 04 :
Let me tell you why, though, Barbara. I absolutely hate to be depressed. I hate to be depressed and I hate to be sick. And I'll fight that with everything that's in me.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's because you're not a melancholy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Because I know that it pays no dividends. That's right. And you get in that spiral. And that spiral accelerates, and you go down, down, down, down, down. It gets worse, worse, worse, worse. It's like a person said to me, I think it was this, I don't know, last two or three days. He said, you know, even, well, I know who it was. Even if it didn't work, I'd still want to be a Christian. I mean, this is better than what the alternative is. And not exactly what they said, but... They said, no, I know what she said. She said, giving up is worse than hanging in there because the alternatives for what's going on. And she was saying, our lives are really tough right now. She's talking about she and her husband and their business. Things are really tough right now, but it's not as bad as giving up.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, if you give up, I mean, that's just a horrible way to go. That's an option that I personally will not take.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I would say this lady who wrote this letter, I don't have your phone number. If you would call our office number, we would really like to get a hold of you. And our office number is area code 303-689-0499. And again, our office number is area code 303-689-0499. We would really like to talk with you because this is a very serious situation. And I believe that God and us and you have the answer. I truly do. There's wisdom and counsel in numbers.
SPEAKER 04 :
When you think about losing everything, there's obviously fear. There's frustration. There's going to be some anger. Oh, it piles up. You have to fight those at the root level, the spirit level. You have to command that spirit of fear to get out of your life, out of your household. The fear of losing everything. The fear of failure. The husband here is obviously facing a fear of failure, a fear of rejection, a fear of being labeled a loser, and I don't think he's a loser.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, no, I do not.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, I don't think that.
SPEAKER 03 :
I do not feel like he has found his blueprint in life. That's right. I truly... And so we would really like to talk to you and... You know, so many people do not have the right identity. Like you have said so many times and taught so many times, Darren, they are carrying a false passport in their billfold, and they do not even realize.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, in the high seas, the ship registers in a certain country. So if it's registered U.S., it's going to fly a U.S. flag. If it's Panama, it's going to fly that and whatever. Well, in the high seas, many times, you know, one of the big crimes on the high sea is to fly the wrong type of flag. And that's been done for hundreds of years. I mean, they've been doing that. But, you know, people also, and I had some wonderful people about 20, a little over 20 years ago, say to me, you're carrying false paperwork. You believed a lie. You believed what the devil has said about yourself. No wonder you're depressed. No wonder you're confused. No wonder you're going in circles. And you know those loving people sat me down. They talked to me for about an hour. Then they lovingly laid hands on me and they cast out a spirit of fear, a spirit of anger and some other things. They just plain said it has to go in the name of Jesus. Well, we have that power as Christians.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And sometimes we are so balled up with our problems and we're so weighed down. It's almost like. You see a picture of a kitten playing with a ball of string. Pretty soon that string's around the leg and around their tail and around their body, around their head, around their paws, and they're just a mess. And if something doesn't come along there, they're going to get in a bigger mess. They're going to be all balled up, as we say. There are some people, Barbara, that are all balled up with all the things that are going on. And then the work doesn't go well, and then the bills start potting up, and this thing starts spiraling into a real mess.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. And this precious lady, I'd like to say that your prayer and fasting are effective, but your husband who is the covering, if he is not in agreement with you, it's going to just stretch out into a longer and a longer period. dilemma here and you need to talk with your husband get counseling be in a situation where you and your husband I have everything out on the table really truly get gut level honest and sometimes that hurts and but be in agreement and I want to say Jesus will for us Darren is perfect it really is not to take everything away that's right and in the Lord's Prayer I would encourage you to say the Lord's Prayer thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will for you and your family is perfect in heaven, and his will for you on earth is the very best. It's not God that's taken it away. It may be the enemy that you have opened a door to allow him to come in to take it away.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you talked about the Lord prayer in Matthew six and you ought to read Matthew six because it talks about food and arraignment and shelter and all those things and how the birds don't worry about those things. And yet God provides. But the key is in Matthew 633 to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, meaning right standing before him. And all of these things previously listed will be added unto you. Now, let me let me talk about depression for just a minute. In our country, I don't know what the number is, but I'll bet you it's up in the billions of dollars a year spent with people trying to get rid of depression. If you try to take depression and treat it, you're missing the point because depression is a symptom of something deeper.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
We talked about some of those root causes being anger and fear and frustration. And, you know, sometimes when you get you want to run, you know, you get depressed. Maybe too many bills and the job isn't going right. Your career has come to an end and you're trying to change careers and locations and all this kind of stuff and you're not getting it figured out. And the bills keep piling up and the money, if you had any to start with, is quickly going out the door. Well, I'm telling you folks, unless you address the root cause, in other words, what caused the depression? Depression is not a root cause. It's a symptom of something deeper.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. Anger, jealousy, the frustration that we have at the very beginning that something isn't working out according to how we want it to work out. Sometimes frustration sets in, then jealousy because everybody else around us is doing so well and we're struggling.
SPEAKER 04 :
Or we think they're doing well.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. And then anger sets in. And then on top of the anger is unforgiveness. Unforgiveness comes in, Darren, and we get hateful. And we are unforgiving towards ourselves because we have messed up our life and our family is suffering. We have unforgiveness towards that person or that company that we're working for. And we have unforgiveness towards God. And Darren, some people say, how can you have unforgiveness against God because he didn't do anything? That's absolutely true. But sometimes we we make God unforgivable.
SPEAKER 04 :
the scapegoat and we say god you can change this god why aren't you changing this and we get angry with god and unforgiving well and we charge him wrongly we say you're the heavyweight here you're the reason i'm having all these problems but he's not no it's it's the enemy the devil now let us give you this triangle of forgiveness again all right number one let's say in the case of this gentleman here that's talked about in this letter this husband here probably he needs to forgive the old company he worked for because he got to where he couldn't stand it. So there must be some people there, some circumstances there that he needs to forgive. Some of you today have been listening to a lot of television. You're listening to Y2K. You're listening to the Senate hearings. You're on and on. You're saying, man, this thing's out of control. Well, you might need to forgive the president. You might need to forgive, you know, the people that are quote, unquote, in charge of the economy, you might need to forgive the Russian government for screwing up their economy or the Brazilians, which was on the air yesterday, and that's affecting us Americans here. What I'm getting at is whoever you resent out there, you need to forgive, number one, and number two, you need to release them totally. And you do that by saying, it's an act of my will, and God will help you do this. As an act of my will, I choose to forgive and release the president, the Congress, the Pentagon, whoever you're unhappy with, with the forgiveness of Jesus. Let that forgiveness of Jesus flow through your heart and through your mouth by an act of your will. Then number two, as you talked about a while ago, some of you say, you know, I am an absolute failure here. I'm just not a good person. I'm just unworthy. I'm just always messing up. I just didn't work hard enough. I didn't prepare well enough. Because of my failures, my family's in a mess.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you need to forgive yourself as an act of your will. You can say it like this. As an act of my will, I choose to forgive and release myself. With the forgiveness and release of Jesus Christ, you need to judge yourself innocent and stop putting yourself down. Number three, then you need to forgive and release God by an act of your will with forgiveness of Jesus. And we tell you, you learn to do that. That's such a wonderful thing that was given to me by those people that prayed for me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER 04 :
Praise God for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
And when we first do that sometimes, Darren, we do need a counselor who is giving us this prayer. Just a little while ago, we prayed with a man and he willingly forgave everyone that had hurt him. And Darren, as he lifted all that up and forgave and released and forgave and released, the very next day, an absolutely tremendous breakthrough came to him because he gave it up. He gave up all of that offense. And I'll tell you, that really hurts us when we are offended and we keep it inside and it becomes broiling and it's like a pressure cooker. We cannot handle that. And so that's why I'm saying if you, the one that we're talking about, you know who you are, if you would like to have prayer and have Darren pray for you, it's our office number. Get in touch with us at the office number if you can't call us here. And it's 689-0499, area code 303-689-0499.
SPEAKER 04 :
And now let me talk about this matter of this forgiveness thing. A lot of us look for a feeling. Well, I don't feel like forgiving them or I don't feel like forgiving myself or I'm not in the mood. Let me tell you, if you will do what we just suggested, do it mechanically, the feelings will come. But you've got to take care of the legal issues first and the vital issues, these conditions of the heart. You need to forgive as an act of your will. Got that? As an act of your will. I give this illustration all the time. We have light on here in the studio because I reached over the wall and by an act of my will, I mechanically turned the switch on. I flipped the switch up. Well, the will works the same way. You need to mechanically set your will and you set it with your mouth. And you say, when you say as an act of my will, I choose to forgive. I choose to release as an act of my will. I'm making a decision here. I want to change. I'm tired of going around in this circle of depression.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you can, you are responsible for your feelings. You're responsible for your life.
SPEAKER 03 :
I talk about Cain and Abel in Genesis 4 and how Abel brought a gift of his favorite lamb for an offering and God absolutely was delighted with that offering. And after a while, Cain came and brought some of his harvest, some of the crops that he had raised. And God was not pleased with that because Cain had waited and Cain had not brought his first fruits. He had not brought his best to the Lord. He brought probably blemished things. God was not delighted with Cain's offering, and Cain became jealous of his brother, and he became very angry, and he became depressed. It says in the fifth verse of the fourth chapter of Genesis, And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why are you depressed? Or why has your countenance fallen? And if you do well, this is God's message to you today. If you do well, will not your depression be lifted? Will not your countenance be lifted up? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door and its desire is for you, but you can master it. The very next thing that Cain did, Darren, he went out to Abel. He didn't pray. He didn't seek God. God said, Cain, you can master this thing. You can handle it. You are in control and you can come and bring me a great offering and I will be pleased with you as I am with your brother Abel. What did Cain do? He did the very opposite. He went out to his brother Abel and he killed him. He murdered him. He didn't have that control of the spirit. And we're saying you can either go to God, run to God, who is the loving God, or you can run away from God. And I'll tell you, if you run away from God, only evil consequences are there to face you. I mean, there's nothing good that's going to happen to you if you run away from God. God is your source. God is your creator, and he's very loving.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, there's a scripture going along with that in Hebrews 12, 15. It says, See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. Sometimes we get resentful that we're in these situations. God, this is just too hard for me. Why are you letting this happen to me? Why are you dumping on me? Why are you shortchanging me? Why are you blessing everybody else? Look at that guy over there. He doesn't even go to church. It just seems like he's blessed. Sometimes it does. That's been a complaint of the righteous all through scripture. If you read the book of Job, you'll say, how come they're so blessed? And they don't even worship you, Father. Well, you have to make a decision that you're not going to get into a root of bitterness because of resentment.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you have to take that thing on and say, this monster is going to get me if I don't make a decision and take some action. That's why we put out the scripture cards called the Power Pack. If you don't have those, they're $5. They come out in a cassette case, and that'll tell you that it'll fit right in your pocket or in your purse or on the visor of your car. But you need to speak the word of God.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, we've gotten so many great letters, Darren, with people saying, hey, I carry my Power Pack with me, and it has changed my life in the last six months. Well... Praise the Lord. It's not the power pack. It's the word of God in that power pack. And it's you. It's you putting action to those words. You are part of that solution. That's what's so amazing. You read the word and your words become powerful in the midst of diversity, in the midst of adversity, in the midst of tribulation.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, this new Rotherham translation I was given for Christmas. Here's what it says. And I'll quote, first of all, the new American standard.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it's not new Rotherham. Well, it's an old Rotherham. It really is old.
SPEAKER 04 :
But it's so accurate. And here's what it says. Cast not away your freedom of speech for it has a great reward. Now, why is that so special? And we were talking about this earlier this morning at our house and we were saying, you know, one thing television has done to us is it keeps us from reacting. We sit there and watch and we're watchers and we're not participators.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
We're spectators. If you're going to get involved here with God's word, you have to become a speaker of the word. Cast not away your privilege of speech. You need to know that that's a privilege of speech. or the freedom of speech i should say cast out away your freedom of speech for it has great recompense or it has great reward you need to be speaking the word of god and let me tell you there's nobody in our listening audience barbara that would fail if they speak the word of the lord nobody and you need to start speaking the right things and stop stirring around see i know how it works with many people that are depressed you're either going in the circle in your mind in your heart running all the scenarios that's right all the regrets all the remorse all the flashbacks you're replaying all of the failures all of the missed opportunities let me tell you that is a dead issue you need to have a funeral for that thing now i used to take people and i'd say i want you to write this all down on piece paper maybe they write down all their sins all their failures all their worries and i say right now we're going to burn that thing And we'd put a match to it and we'd burn it up right there in front of us. Burn the whole piece of paper.
SPEAKER 03 :
And don't mention it again. Don't mention it.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is your burial ceremony. You're going to get rid of this thing. Whatever you have to do, but you need to do something. You've got to make a move in the right direction, in a positive direction. Or it may be that you want to tear it up and then flush it down the toilet. I've had people do that also. Bury that thing. But you have to make a decision to stop talking about it and stop doing the loop. Or it's going to get worse and worse and worse. You need to get over to the Word of God. In fact, I would recommend this. Take Psalm 91 and all through Psalm 91, revive me, O Lord, according to your Word. Read that out loud. Read it again. Read it a third time. You can't read scripture without that word of God becoming alive to you and changing your life and your circumstances, changing your attitude about life. And some of you just have a dirty windshield. Let me say that again. Some of you are just looking through a dirty windshield. You need to clean that up with the word of God so that you can see your life accurately and begin to hear the word of God and his counsel for you. He did not send Jesus Christ to die on the cross so you could fail.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
He wants you to win. Another scripture I'd advise you to get and memorize is Joshua 1.8. It says if you meditate the word, in other words, if you speak and mumble the word day and night, you will be prosperous and successful. And that solves those things.
SPEAKER 03 :
How can you do that, Darren? You can't speak the word day and night.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yes, you can.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, we have a spirit. And most of us, the spirit's the last one. We have the physical and the soul, and then the spirit comes in last, very last, third place in most of our lives. Well, the spirit should be in control. It should be number one. Our spirit should be fed all the time with the word of God and with good things and not evil and wicked things. We should have spirit, soul, and then body should be the third. But we got it all turned around. Well, in our spirit, we can meditate without even speaking. Darren, I know people at work that meditate during their work and they don't even talk, but they meditate continually in their spirit day and night.
SPEAKER 1 :
877-917-7256
SPEAKER 01 :
Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Power partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. you will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom's website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara's daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
In today's soul-enriching episode, Barbara and Kimberly offer profound insights on encountering and overcoming life's trials with unwavering faith. With heartwarming anecdotes and biblical teachings, they emphasize the necessity of scripture in forging a resilient relationship with God. Celebrate the joy of reconnecting with family, understanding divine purpose, and choosing praise amidst adversity. This episode is a beacon for anyone yearning to discover the sustenance that faith offers in times of uncertainty.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I'm delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let's join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Called Up Freedom. I'm so glad you joined me today. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of Holy Spirit. Oh, hope is such a marvelous thing to have. You're hoping for God's perfect will in your life. It's as the Lord's Prayer says, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You're praising God. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He wants you to enjoy that abundant life that Jesus promised to you. Oh, and may you be filled with all joy and peace so that you may overflow with hope by the power of Holy Spirit. See, God doesn't use wimps in his plan to conquer. No, he doesn't. And we're growing up. We're maturing. We're no longer on that baby bottle. And I want some of you who are still in that salvation mode. Come on. Come on with me. Read the word. Begin to get into the word and begin to be curious about the word. Examine the word and get knowledge in your heart and your soul from the word. That's the most important thing in the world for you is to learn the word of God so you can love him as Jesus loves him. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, you are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. And if you'd like to listen to previous programs, I was listening to the program for tomorrow with Darren and me, and we're celebrating his birthday. I don't know what year it is. I'll have to look that up. But it is so much fun to talk about the year that he was born and celebrating the birthday with him. And he got great calls. And I think you'll really know. I believe you'll really enjoy the show tomorrow. And you go to Freedom Street dot org. Click on radio shows and you can listen. Also, you can hit that donate button if you're enjoying the the excitement and the fervor we have for Jesus Christ and the scripture that we're giving you every day. I want you to realize, friend, that's what we live on. We don't live on just the food that we put into our physical bodies. Man shall not live by bread alone. but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And that's his word. That's his words, the word that many of you just put on a table for the week and then take it on Sunday to show yourself that you're holy. That's something we open every day of the week and read and underline and learn from. So I challenge you. I encourage you to get into the word of God today. If you need a Bible guide, you can call me after this program. at 1-877-917-7256 and ask for a Bible guide, and I will be happy to send you one to get into the Word of God for yourself. Praise the Lord. Well, Kimberly has chosen to join us again today, and I'm so glad because she had such a great teaching yesterday, and we're just going to continue that. And Kimberly, welcome. Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you. Wow, Mom, you just came out the gate shooting from the hip. Thank you. Just let's get in there and tell people what we're made for. Yes, we're made for the word of God. And we did. We looked at that yesterday, how Jesus told the enemy as he was being tempted that man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER 04 :
And who would... Now, what would the devil... tempt Jesus with and each one of us with, first of all, in those temptations found in Luke 4 and also in Matthew 4. Food. Yeah, food. Food.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, food. Yes, especially at the beginning of the year when you've made your New Year's resolutions. And then the temptations start coming, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, they do. Before we get into it, I would really like you to tell the audience about meeting some of your father's relatives and how it came about. Because I know that you have known Pam for a while now. No, I really haven't.
SPEAKER 05 :
I just met her about three weeks ago for the first time. We've texted with each other when she first moved here to Broken Arrow. It's already been two years ago. I just both of us just started doing life and and didn't remember to get back with each other but we met for the very first time just within this past month and it's it's amazing to me she's in her 70s and the other two her her sister and then her first cousin they all moved here from California And that's where dad's family is all from. They all settled out there. And daddy died 35 years ago. And we really have not stayed in touch with that side of the family at all. So 35 years of... And even before he passed away, We didn't have very much interaction with them. I don't ever remember meeting these people ever in my lifetime. But they knew that I was here.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, how did they know?
SPEAKER 05 :
How did Pam text you a year ago? One of Dad's sister's. So, one of dad's sisters, one of my aunts, let them know, oh, you're moving to Broken Arrow.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's where Kimberly lives. I don't know how they knew, but I'm glad that they have kept track of where you were living. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
So I got to actually meet up with them, let's see, two of them last week. And one of them just four months ago, she lost her eyesight completely. Oh. And it wasn't even something gradual at all. It was very sudden. And she's having a hard time adjusting. So she's in an assisted living place now. And that assisted living place has two pianos. And so I went and I played the piano and sang with them. And it was the most beautiful thing to have harmonies singing together. It was as if we had been singing together all our lives.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yes. It's really beautiful. Oh, that is wonderful. I am so happy. I know that the first few weeks when your dad and I were living in California before we flew and moved to Colorado, that I had probably met Pam because his whole family had gathered together for an afternoon of playing the organ and the piano and singing and having a great time. And I remember Darlene from a long time ago. But, yeah, that's been 50, 60 years. So, wow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. So the story that we're telling here really does apply to all of you listening because there are things that happen in life. For instance, Joseph. Joseph, he left his family. Well, he didn't leave Joseph. He was sold by his brothers into Egypt and he had to learn a whole new way of doing life. And that way might have been pretty challenging for someone, the way he was raised and his family and the promises of God that were given to his father, his grandfather, his great grandfather. And to know that you've got these promises from the Lord, and now you are in a completely different land. And this land does not acknowledge the same God.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 05 :
That would be really, very challenging, really tough. And we can all find ourselves in places in our life where it just feels very challenging, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and really tough. what we were talking about yesterday how our Egypt, it could be the old way we grew up with our family. I look at Egypt as the thing that was left behind. Joseph left a family behind that was, I know it was a blessed family and God started all 12 tribes out of this family. The 12 tribes of Israel came from this family, but they were messed up. Let me just say that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, they were.
SPEAKER 05 :
They did not know about harmony and unity. They did not get along very well. And to sell your brother out, to sell him into slavery, that's messed up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, there was favoritism from the father who favored Joseph, and he made him a coat of wonderful colors. He didn't do that for the rest of the brothers. He did that for Joseph.
SPEAKER 05 :
And even besides that, some of those brothers, like one of them slept with his dad's maid, and then another couple of them, they were so angry that they went and slaughtered a whole city. I mean, there were some problems. So Joseph was leaving those problems behind, but it was also his familiar family. And whatever we get familiar with in life, when we have to leave it behind, that can be really tough. And we start looking back when we've left something, left a job, left a family, left left an area where you've lived for a long time, whatever it is that you've left behind, it can be so uncomfortable that you start looking back and thinking, well, maybe I should go back. And we all have that tendency to do that. What we need to remember is that our journey in this wilderness that feels uncomfortable is such a blessed journey. And Jesus himself showed us how to do this journey. In Hebrews 5, 8, we're told that Jesus learned obedience through suffering. And I think of wilderness as being a place where we have some suffering. It's uncomfortable, and that can feel like you're suffering. And there can be other ways to suffer too. But Jesus was made perfect through the suffering, and he was giving us that example. He became the source of eternal salvation by walking through that wilderness, going through that wilderness, and at every turn, defeating all of the temptations of the flesh. And just like we were talking about, the first one was food. He was hungry. And that temptation toward the hunger, there it was right in front of him. And he defeated that temptation by saying, no, no, I don't just live on food. I'm not going to be scared. I'm not going to have fear enter in and tell me that I'm going to starve to death. Because I won't starve to death. If my father wants me here, I will remain right here, not living on bread alone, but by living on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the father.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Praise God. He showed us how not to be in fear of these things that are coming at us and that feel uncomfortable and feel like suffering. Walking through the wilderness is just never comfortable. And trying to leave our old lifestyles, our old family, our old career, our old life behind, it is hard to break away from what was normal routine. Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
At whatever normal is. That's right. If Joseph hadn't have been jerked out of that familiar thing, would he have ever left on his own? No, uh-uh. Probably not. He was jerked out of it. That's right. The Lord just jerked him out of it. And it seems really cruel what happened to him. But that was for God's ultimate good. God had this whole thing planned.
SPEAKER 05 :
That's right. So when we look at our situations and we don't know what lies ahead of us, that can be scary to us. And that's when we really need to know how good our Heavenly Father is. And we're going to find that out by being in His Word. Because our life and our joy and our true peace, it's not fragile joy. It's not fragile peace that can just break apart at one bit of news that comes your way. This is a really solid joy and a solid peace that's so much different than the world's happiness and the world's kind of peace and calm.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
This is different. It is so tangibly big, powerful in our lives. And we're not going to know it if we don't get into the word of God. Yesterday we were reading from Deuteronomy 8. And It's it's I love this whole passage here. It's talking about how the people of Israel were led out into the wilderness and the Lord humbled them and allowed them to hunger. And I like how in verse three, it says he fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. None of them recognized the way they were going to be sustained. I love that because they repeat it. Deuteronomy 8, if you go down to verse 15, they say it again. Moses says it again as he's writing, or whoever wrote this out. He says, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, but who brought you forth water out of the flinty rock. and who, here it is, fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know. And here's the point. We don't want to miss this point. Just because you don't know You don't know what it is or how it happens. Just because you can't see how your circumstances are good. Don't let that stop you from praising the one who does know. He has a plan for everything. And he proves himself time and time again, over and over, that he is Redeemer. And he is in the restoration business. And he is constantly at work for us.
SPEAKER 1 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
And we don't want to forget that, that he is constantly at work for good for us to restore what just broke and to redeem what was just lost. That is who he is. His love is so great. And in Deuteronomy 8, it goes on to say that he might humble you. Now, the humbling is to recognize that our plan is not the best one. His is. Yes. And even when our plans shatter and our circumstances look totally lost, He has a great plan. to fix it, to redeem it. And His way of fixing it is better than ours. So this is how we are humbled. And we humble ourselves and say, not my will, but Yours be done, O Lord. And that is hard. You know, yesterday you mentioned my friend who had to release her husband last week to heaven's great cloud of witnesses. And her anger, it was threatening to take over. When you have a friend whose emotions are getting the best of them, that's a sure sign that they are drowning. That's a sure sign that they have been bit by a fiery serpent in the wilderness and it is painful. It stings. And a good friend will throw out a lifesaver to that one who is suffering. And a good friend can be understanding of the anger. But I just simply planted a seed with her. I just told her, don't give in to the temptation to feed that anger and keep feeding it and keep feeding it. Don't give in to that. I understand where you are, but your faith needs food right now. And if you're listening and you're in a hard circumstance, know that your faith needs food. And the way that we build up faith is to praise God in all circumstances. We praise him when we're doubting. We praise him when we're sure. We praise him in the valleys and on the mountaintops. And there's this wonderful song by Elevation, and it's featuring Brandon Lake. It's called Praise. Let's just listen to that right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let's go. of how we And I'll praise when I don't. I'll praise cause I know you're still in control. Cause my praise is a weapon. It's worth the sound. Oh, my praise is the shout that brings Jericho down. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh, my soul. Praise God. Praise God. Come on, come on!
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, such a good song. I had to stand up. I was standing up just pumping my fist to the air, you know, and it's not because I have the best circumstances in life right now. There are some sad things going on around me and there's some really broken things in my life. but I know my Redeemer lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
I know my Redeemer lives.
SPEAKER 05 :
I know how good he is. And I just want to bring up Numbers 21. And I didn't talk with you about this, Mom, but in Numbers 21, the Israelites defeated the Canaanites. They're in the wilderness. They are not trained for war. And God blessed them to go to war with some Canaanites. and defeat them, they utterly destroyed the cities and they named the place Horma. And Horma means utter holy destruction. They recognized it was a miracle. It was a holy destruction. And then the Israelites set out to go around the land of Edom and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses. He said, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water. And we loathe this miserable food. Oh, that brings you can hear the emotion in my voice. It brings me to tears every time I read that we loathe this miserable food. Jesus is the bread of heaven. He is the bread that has come down from heaven. And to say, I loathe what you are providing for me, Jesus. Ouch. And I think it really brings tears to my eyes because I realized those times in my life, those seasons where I would rather have my own idea of food and provision for this life rather than what God has gifted me with and what he paid for with his very own life. I recognize that I'd rather have Egypt's food and provision than to be okay with the unknown. See, the manna is the unknown. And the complaining and the grumbling went against the blueprints of the lives of those people. We were made to praise at all times. Praise. We were made to worship. And we were made to see God's goodness and have gratitude for all the ways that he restores and redeems all the brokenness. Yet, when we complain... that's when things break down even more because now we're functioning outside of our parameters and there are natural consequences that cause more brokenness so in this case with these people complaining it opened the door and attracted fiery serpents and many people died from those snake bites but look at god's gracious and merciful response He guides Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. He was setting a standard. He was making a prophetic promise to send his only son and to lift him up on a cross that all who look to him would be saved. So complaining and grumbling, they go against our God-designed blueprints. But we know how to get back on track and be blessed. It's to look to Jesus, the one who gave his life for us to have salvation, to be healed, to live in joy, to live in peace. I don't know if I've even taken a breath today.
SPEAKER 02 :
But I'm pretty excited about that. So thank you for letting me share this excitement with you today.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's been wonderful. It's been wonderful. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord lifts up a standard against him. And that's Isaiah 59, 19. We've got to. You're absolutely right, Kimberly. Be praising God in all things for this is God's vision for us to praise him. And boy, when he lives in our praises, he can do anything through us. God bless you, Kimberly. Oh, God bless you. It's been wonderful. Remember, tomorrow we're going to celebrate Darren's birthday on the Friday show. God bless you and keep you and take joy.
SPEAKER 1 :
877-917-7256
SPEAKER 01 :
Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Power partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. You will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom's website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara's daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.
This enlightening episode of Call to Freedom takes listeners on a journey through the emotional struggles connected to depression from a spiritual perspective. Hosts Barbara Carmack and her guests delve into the letters from listeners, responding to their stories with empathy and wisdom rooted in spiritual teachings. The narrative intensifies with discussions about the emotional and spiritual turmoil that comes with life changes and job transitions. The conversation serves as a reminder of the power of forgiveness and how relinquishing past grievances can lead to spiritual freedom. Through personal anecdotes, the hosts demonstrate the power of community in overcoming personal battles. Listeners are invited to join the Call to Freedom community, where spiritual nourishment and guidance await. This compelling episode reminds all that through faith, prayer, and the spoken word, individual and collective healing is possible.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I'm delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let's join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 02 :
After thanking children who are sending in offerings to give to the orphans with Home of Refuge, I read a letter written by a wife who is concerned because her husband is depressed about his job. But Darren brings up the fact that depression is only a symptom of a deeper spiritual root. We bring up the areas of fear and pride and unforgiveness which may indicate depression. that maybe things aren't working out according to your plans, and you're allowing anger, fear, or unforgiveness to take over. As we discuss unforgiveness, Darren gives a solution to bring freedom into your heart and life. God's will is to bless you, but it's important that you get rid of the junk that's clogging up the communication lines between you and your Heavenly Father. Now let's join the program.
SPEAKER 04 :
You have a wonderful letter there in your hand, don't you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, and I forgot to bring the letters of the Yost family. The children all sent letters, and they sent their Christmas money that they'd gotten for Christmas for the home of refuge, for the orphanage, for the children, and I forgot that this morning.
SPEAKER 04 :
They're over in Nebraska, aren't they?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, and thank you so much. I remember three of the children's names, Caitlin, Logan, and Coda, but I don't remember the other little boys, and they're so precious. We'll call them number four. Forgive me. No, no, no, not number four. Okay. And so we have a letter here from Shelby, and it's, Dear Darren and Barbara, how are you? I am fine. I'm writing you to thank you for the VeggieTales. I really like it. Thanks for your newsletter. Tell Barbara hi. I enjoy your program very much. I'm sending you $5. And Shelby, we're going to apply this $5 with the other, I think we got $46 from the Yost children. God bless you. We're going to give it to the Home of Refuge, and it's going to bless them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Where's Shelby from?
SPEAKER 03 :
Lyman.
SPEAKER 04 :
Lyman, Colorado.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's a wonderful little letter. And we just appreciate the letters from the children. That's wonderful. Praise God.
SPEAKER 04 :
We have a letter here that's really, I'm going to say it's a treasured letter because this lady is so gifted in explaining what's going on. But she said, may I ask for prayer help? I've never asked this before. It's difficult and I'm not even sure why. Okay. Oh, I got a phone call coming in. So I'm going to hold this letter because I want to treat this right. It's a great letter and it will strike the chord with so many of you that are, you know, in an employment change transition. And, you know, you may be looking at the wrong thing or why you're having problems. I think we can help this lady. Well, let's talk to Sean. Hello, Sean.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hello, Darren, Barbara, this is Sean Anselmo. I don't know if you remember my father.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my goodness, yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Steve Anselmo.
SPEAKER 04 :
I was talking about your dad a couple of days ago. As a matter of fact, a lady came to our meeting, and she said she talked to somebody on the phone who received a marvelous healing, and I said to Barb, that person talked to Anselmo.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, to Steve. We were talking about your dad just the other day, and I remember having dinner with you, and you were really young. How old are you, Sean?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I'm 31 now. Oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 05 :
Tack that on.
SPEAKER 04 :
So how are you doing, Sean?
SPEAKER 05 :
I'm doing great. I just wanted to praise God for you. And welcome back to the airwaves. And it's great to hear your voice on the radio. It's only by chance that I even caught your program the other day. And I'm just praising God for your ministry. And I've entered the ministry myself.
SPEAKER 04 :
Praise God. Do you have a church?
SPEAKER 05 :
No, I just started a newsletter from our home, my family and I, and it's going to follow up with my dad's newsletter and his prison ministry.
SPEAKER 04 :
Good, good.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, we're looking forward to seeing what God's got in store for us.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I'll tell you, your dad helped me out in Tulsa, Oklahoma one time, and I won't go into the whole story, but I'll tell you, he was there for me. And then he worked with me in Fort Collins for quite a while, and there's a wonderful anointing on your father and mother's lives.
SPEAKER 05 :
That's right. Amen. Praise God. I just want to thank you guys and encourage you. You're doing a great job, and I appreciate the words of God that he gives to you guys.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you, sir. Thank you, Sean. I hope you'll take time to give our office a call and leave your address.
SPEAKER 05 :
I would certainly do that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, here's the number, Sean. Well, I guess if you can hang on, I'll just have our engineer take it. How would that be?
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sean, it's good to hear from you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good to hear from you.
SPEAKER 04 :
You're married? You're married now?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, married and three children.
SPEAKER 04 :
What's your little wife's name?
SPEAKER 05 :
Patricia and Elmo.
SPEAKER 04 :
Patricia. Wonderful. Well, we just bless you, Sean.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know there's a wonderful anointing being passed down from your father, and that's good. Next time you see your dad, have him give us a call.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Praise God.
SPEAKER 04 :
I will. God bless. God bless you. Okay. Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Calls from out of the past. Yes. Amen. That's just really.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I tell you, I watched Steve and he was a wonderful man for us on the prayer lines.
SPEAKER 03 :
He was a man of prayer. That's right. He was. He was a man of prayer.
SPEAKER 04 :
This letter goes on to say, I've never asked for prayer help before. I've never asked anyone. I don't know why. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's pride. And maybe we think it shows weakness, but we haven't asked before. It goes on to say, my husband had been trying to break into a certain business, and I won't name that business, for a whole year. He had to leave another type of business, which is much different by the letter here. but it was driving him to great depression. He loves doing what he's doing now, but it's 100% commission, and he just can't seem to make it work. We're almost out of money, and he's become so depressed and despondent, I'm fearful we're going to lose everything. Is that what's going to happen to us? Pray that we will find suitable work soon. My husband has even looked back to his past job, and we've fasted and we've prayed, and we'll continue. And I guess I struggle with knowing what the Lord's will is here. If Jesus prayed about his father's will being done, shouldn't we also pray that way? Could it be that his will that we go through losing all that we have? Now, I'm going to stop right there. I don't believe it's God's will that you lose all that you have. But I do believe this, that God is trying to get down to a root cause. And I don't believe the depression came on this husband just because of this new work or because of a lack of sales income, commission income. And I believe God allows us to go through these things for us to face ourselves and say, well... It wasn't the old job. It's not the new job. It must be something wrong inside of me. And I went through a period of time like that when I had to face myself. And I thought it was the circumstances around me, my family, my work, my profession, my whatever. And I made somewhat of a massive change. And that's when I hit the wall and it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I had to face some things down inside of Darren and cry out for help. And some people prayed for me. And because of their prayer, that's the basis of this ministry and that's setting people free.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Showing them how to get set free.
SPEAKER 03 :
Life is hard on us, and so we start building walls and we start putting layer upon layer. And I feel like this precious lady is just crying out, and I feel so much for her. We weren't given very many... details and I wish she would have written a little bit more about her family if her husband is born again if they go to a spiritual church if they have had counseling because I believe there's a curse going on in his husband's life I believe that there has been depression in his life before and I believe that if he is a melancholy at all that means if he has mood swings And I'm very aware of that and familiar with that because my life has been my previous life was made up of much mood swings. If something didn't work, I'd get very depressed. And if something did work, I'd be flying high as a kite.
SPEAKER 04 :
But let me tell you, that's not just for a melancholic personality.
SPEAKER 03 :
I understand.
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm a choleric personality. I've had that same thing. And mine came from fear and from anger. When I get frustrated. then what happens a lot of times is the chemical go goofy inside your body, and then the result of that many times is a chemically induced depression.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, but you're not prone to giving up. And there are some personalities that are absolutely prone to giving up. They hide in a corner, they sit in a corner, and they say, well, this is it, I'm just going to face the consequences. And you get up, when you get depressed, you get up and you go in another direction. I mean, you begin to do something to take care of that. Well, there are...
SPEAKER 04 :
Let me tell you why, though, Barbara. I absolutely hate to be depressed. I hate to be depressed and I hate to be sick. And I'll fight that with everything that's in me.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's because you're not a melancholy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Because I know that it pays no dividends. That's right. And you get in that spiral. And that spiral accelerates, and you go down, down, down, down, down. It gets worse, worse, worse, worse. It's like a person said to me, I think it was this, I don't know, last two or three days. He said, you know, even, well, I know who it was. Even if it didn't work, I'd still want to be a Christian. I mean, this is better than what the alternative is. And not exactly what they said, but... They said, no, I know what she said. She said, giving up is worse than hanging in there because the alternatives for what's going on. And she was saying, our lives are really tough right now. She's talking about she and her husband and their business. Things are really tough right now, but it's not as bad as giving up.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, if you give up, I mean, that's just a horrible way to go. That's an option that I personally will not take.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I would say this lady who wrote this letter, I don't have your phone number. If you would call our office number, we would really like to get a hold of you. And our office number is area code 303-689-0499. And again, our office number is area code 303-689-0499. We would really like to talk with you because this is a very serious situation. And I believe that God and us and you have the answer. I truly do. There's wisdom and counsel in numbers.
SPEAKER 04 :
When you think about losing everything, there's obviously fear. There's frustration. There's going to be some anger. Oh, it piles up. You have to fight those at the root level, the spirit level. You have to command that spirit of fear to get out of your life, out of your household. The fear of losing everything. The fear of failure. The husband here is obviously facing a fear of failure, a fear of rejection, a fear of being labeled a loser, and I don't think he's a loser.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, no, I do not.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, I don't think that.
SPEAKER 03 :
I do not feel like he has found his blueprint in life. That's right. I truly... And so we would really like to talk to you and... You know, so many people do not have the right identity. Like you have said so many times and taught so many times, Darren, they are carrying a false passport in their billfold, and they do not even realize.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, in the high seas, the ship registers in a certain country. So if it's registered U.S., it's going to fly a U.S. flag. If it's Panama, it's going to fly that and whatever. Well, in the high seas, many times, you know, one of the big crimes on the high sea is to fly the wrong type of flag. And that's been done for hundreds of years. I mean, they've been doing that. But, you know, people also, and I had some wonderful people about 20, a little over 20 years ago, say to me, you're carrying false paperwork. You believed a lie. You believed what the devil has said about yourself. No wonder you're depressed. No wonder you're confused. No wonder you're going in circles. And you know those loving people sat me down. They talked to me for about an hour. Then they lovingly laid hands on me and they cast out a spirit of fear, a spirit of anger and some other things. They just plain said it has to go in the name of Jesus. Well, we have that power as Christians.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And sometimes we are so balled up with our problems and we're so weighed down. It's almost like. You see a picture of a kitten playing with a ball of string. Pretty soon that string's around the leg and around their tail and around their body, around their head, around their paws, and they're just a mess. And if something doesn't come along there, they're going to get in a bigger mess. They're going to be all balled up, as we say. There are some people, Barbara, that are all balled up with all the things that are going on. And then the work doesn't go well, and then the bills start potting up, and this thing starts spiraling into a real mess.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. And this precious lady, I'd like to say that your prayer and fasting are effective, but your husband who is the covering, if he is not in agreement with you, it's going to just stretch out into a longer and a longer period. dilemma here and you need to talk with your husband get counseling be in a situation where you and your husband I have everything out on the table really truly get gut level honest and sometimes that hurts and but be in agreement and I want to say Jesus will for us Darren is perfect it really is not to take everything away that's right and in the Lord's Prayer I would encourage you to say the Lord's Prayer thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will for you and your family is perfect in heaven, and his will for you on earth is the very best. It's not God that's taken it away. It may be the enemy that you have opened a door to allow him to come in to take it away.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you talked about the Lord prayer in Matthew six and you ought to read Matthew six because it talks about food and arraignment and shelter and all those things and how the birds don't worry about those things. And yet God provides. But the key is in Matthew 633 to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, meaning right standing before him. And all of these things previously listed will be added unto you. Now, let me let me talk about depression for just a minute. In our country, I don't know what the number is, but I'll bet you it's up in the billions of dollars a year spent with people trying to get rid of depression. If you try to take depression and treat it, you're missing the point because depression is a symptom of something deeper.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
We talked about some of those root causes being anger and fear and frustration. And, you know, sometimes when you get you want to run, you know, you get depressed. Maybe too many bills and the job isn't going right. Your career has come to an end and you're trying to change careers and locations and all this kind of stuff and you're not getting it figured out. And the bills keep piling up and the money, if you had any to start with, is quickly going out the door. Well, I'm telling you folks, unless you address the root cause, in other words, what caused the depression? Depression is not a root cause. It's a symptom of something deeper.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. Anger, jealousy, the frustration that we have at the very beginning that something isn't working out according to how we want it to work out. Sometimes frustration sets in, then jealousy because everybody else around us is doing so well and we're struggling.
SPEAKER 04 :
Or we think they're doing well.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. And then anger sets in. And then on top of the anger is unforgiveness. Unforgiveness comes in, Darren, and we get hateful. And we are unforgiving towards ourselves because we have messed up our life and our family is suffering. We have unforgiveness towards that person or that company that we're working for. And we have unforgiveness towards God. And Darren, some people say, how can you have unforgiveness against God because he didn't do anything? That's absolutely true. But sometimes we we make God unforgivable.
SPEAKER 04 :
the scapegoat and we say god you can change this god why aren't you changing this and we get angry with god and unforgiving well and we charge him wrongly we say you're the heavyweight here you're the reason i'm having all these problems but he's not no it's it's the enemy the devil now let us give you this triangle of forgiveness again all right number one let's say in the case of this gentleman here that's talked about in this letter this husband here probably he needs to forgive the old company he worked for because he got to where he couldn't stand it. So there must be some people there, some circumstances there that he needs to forgive. Some of you today have been listening to a lot of television. You're listening to Y2K. You're listening to the Senate hearings. You're on and on. You're saying, man, this thing's out of control. Well, you might need to forgive the president. You might need to forgive, you know, the people that are quote, unquote, in charge of the economy, you might need to forgive the Russian government for screwing up their economy or the Brazilians, which was on the air yesterday, and that's affecting us Americans here. What I'm getting at is whoever you resent out there, you need to forgive, number one, and number two, you need to release them totally. And you do that by saying, it's an act of my will, and God will help you do this. As an act of my will, I choose to forgive and release the president, the Congress, the Pentagon, whoever you're unhappy with, with the forgiveness of Jesus. Let that forgiveness of Jesus flow through your heart and through your mouth by an act of your will. Then number two, as you talked about a while ago, some of you say, you know, I am an absolute failure here. I'm just not a good person. I'm just unworthy. I'm just always messing up. I just didn't work hard enough. I didn't prepare well enough. Because of my failures, my family's in a mess.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you need to forgive yourself as an act of your will. You can say it like this. As an act of my will, I choose to forgive and release myself. With the forgiveness and release of Jesus Christ, you need to judge yourself innocent and stop putting yourself down. Number three, then you need to forgive and release God by an act of your will with forgiveness of Jesus. And we tell you, you learn to do that. That's such a wonderful thing that was given to me by those people that prayed for me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER 04 :
Praise God for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
And when we first do that sometimes, Darren, we do need a counselor who is giving us this prayer. Just a little while ago, we prayed with a man and he willingly forgave everyone that had hurt him. And Darren, as he lifted all that up and forgave and released and forgave and released, the very next day, an absolutely tremendous breakthrough came to him because he gave it up. He gave up all of that offense. And I'll tell you, that really hurts us when we are offended and we keep it inside and it becomes broiling and it's like a pressure cooker. We cannot handle that. And so that's why I'm saying if you, the one that we're talking about, you know who you are, if you would like to have prayer and have Darren pray for you, it's our office number. Get in touch with us at the office number if you can't call us here. And it's 689-0499, area code 303-689-0499.
SPEAKER 04 :
And now let me talk about this matter of this forgiveness thing. A lot of us look for a feeling. Well, I don't feel like forgiving them or I don't feel like forgiving myself or I'm not in the mood. Let me tell you, if you will do what we just suggested, do it mechanically, the feelings will come. But you've got to take care of the legal issues first and the vital issues, these conditions of the heart. You need to forgive as an act of your will. Got that? As an act of your will. I give this illustration all the time. We have light on here in the studio because I reached over the wall and by an act of my will, I mechanically turned the switch on. I flipped the switch up. Well, the will works the same way. You need to mechanically set your will and you set it with your mouth. And you say, when you say as an act of my will, I choose to forgive. I choose to release as an act of my will. I'm making a decision here. I want to change. I'm tired of going around in this circle of depression.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you can, you are responsible for your feelings. You're responsible for your life.
SPEAKER 03 :
I talk about Cain and Abel in Genesis 4 and how Abel brought a gift of his favorite lamb for an offering and God absolutely was delighted with that offering. And after a while, Cain came and brought some of his harvest, some of the crops that he had raised. And God was not pleased with that because Cain had waited and Cain had not brought his first fruits. He had not brought his best to the Lord. He brought probably blemished things. God was not delighted with Cain's offering, and Cain became jealous of his brother, and he became very angry, and he became depressed. It says in the fifth verse of the fourth chapter of Genesis, And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why are you depressed? Or why has your countenance fallen? And if you do well, this is God's message to you today. If you do well, will not your depression be lifted? Will not your countenance be lifted up? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door and its desire is for you, but you can master it. The very next thing that Cain did, Darren, he went out to Abel. He didn't pray. He didn't seek God. God said, Cain, you can master this thing. You can handle it. You are in control and you can come and bring me a great offering and I will be pleased with you as I am with your brother Abel. What did Cain do? He did the very opposite. He went out to his brother Abel and he killed him. He murdered him. He didn't have that control of the spirit. And we're saying you can either go to God, run to God, who is the loving God, or you can run away from God. And I'll tell you, if you run away from God, only evil consequences are there to face you. I mean, there's nothing good that's going to happen to you if you run away from God. God is your source. God is your creator, and he's very loving.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, there's a scripture going along with that in Hebrews 12, 15. It says, See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. Sometimes we get resentful that we're in these situations. God, this is just too hard for me. Why are you letting this happen to me? Why are you dumping on me? Why are you shortchanging me? Why are you blessing everybody else? Look at that guy over there. He doesn't even go to church. It just seems like he's blessed. Sometimes it does. That's been a complaint of the righteous all through scripture. If you read the book of Job, you'll say, how come they're so blessed? And they don't even worship you, Father. Well, you have to make a decision that you're not going to get into a root of bitterness because of resentment.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you have to take that thing on and say, this monster is going to get me if I don't make a decision and take some action. That's why we put out the scripture cards called the Power Pack. If you don't have those, they're $5. They come out in a cassette case, and that'll tell you that it'll fit right in your pocket or in your purse or on the visor of your car. But you need to speak the word of God.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, we've gotten so many great letters, Darren, with people saying, hey, I carry my Power Pack with me, and it has changed my life in the last six months. Well... Praise the Lord. It's not the power pack. It's the word of God in that power pack. And it's you. It's you putting action to those words. You are part of that solution. That's what's so amazing. You read the word and your words become powerful in the midst of diversity, in the midst of adversity, in the midst of tribulation.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, this new Rotherham translation I was given for Christmas. Here's what it says. And I'll quote, first of all, the new American standard.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it's not new Rotherham. Well, it's an old Rotherham. It really is old.
SPEAKER 04 :
But it's so accurate. And here's what it says. Cast not away your freedom of speech for it has a great reward. Now, why is that so special? And we were talking about this earlier this morning at our house and we were saying, you know, one thing television has done to us is it keeps us from reacting. We sit there and watch and we're watchers and we're not participators.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
We're spectators. If you're going to get involved here with God's word, you have to become a speaker of the word. Cast not away your privilege of speech. You need to know that that's a privilege of speech. or the freedom of speech i should say cast out away your freedom of speech for it has great recompense or it has great reward you need to be speaking the word of god and let me tell you there's nobody in our listening audience barbara that would fail if they speak the word of the lord nobody and you need to start speaking the right things and stop stirring around see i know how it works with many people that are depressed you're either going in the circle in your mind in your heart running all the scenarios that's right all the regrets all the remorse all the flashbacks you're replaying all of the failures all of the missed opportunities let me tell you that is a dead issue you need to have a funeral for that thing now i used to take people and i'd say i want you to write this all down on piece paper maybe they write down all their sins all their failures all their worries and i say right now we're going to burn that thing And we'd put a match to it and we'd burn it up right there in front of us. Burn the whole piece of paper.
SPEAKER 03 :
And don't mention it again. Don't mention it.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is your burial ceremony. You're going to get rid of this thing. Whatever you have to do, but you need to do something. You've got to make a move in the right direction, in a positive direction. Or it may be that you want to tear it up and then flush it down the toilet. I've had people do that also. Bury that thing. But you have to make a decision to stop talking about it and stop doing the loop. Or it's going to get worse and worse and worse. You need to get over to the Word of God. In fact, I would recommend this. Take Psalm 91 and all through Psalm 91, revive me, O Lord, according to your Word. Read that out loud. Read it again. Read it a third time. You can't read scripture without that word of God becoming alive to you and changing your life and your circumstances, changing your attitude about life. And some of you just have a dirty windshield. Let me say that again. Some of you are just looking through a dirty windshield. You need to clean that up with the word of God so that you can see your life accurately and begin to hear the word of God and his counsel for you. He did not send Jesus Christ to die on the cross so you could fail.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
He wants you to win. Another scripture I'd advise you to get and memorize is Joshua 1.8. It says if you meditate the word, in other words, if you speak and mumble the word day and night, you will be prosperous and successful. And that solves those things.
SPEAKER 03 :
How can you do that, Darren? You can't speak the word day and night.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yes, you can.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, we have a spirit. And most of us, the spirit's the last one. We have the physical and the soul, and then the spirit comes in last, very last, third place in most of our lives. Well, the spirit should be in control. It should be number one. Our spirit should be fed all the time with the word of God and with good things and not evil and wicked things. We should have spirit, soul, and then body should be the third. But we got it all turned around. Well, in our spirit, we can meditate without even speaking. Darren, I know people at work that meditate during their work and they don't even talk, but they meditate continually in their spirit day and night.
SPEAKER 1 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Power partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. you will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom's website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara's daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
Join us as we unravel the profound yet often misunderstood concept of the 'old man' in Christian theology. By examining Paul’s teachings in Romans, we uncover the distinction between our natural humanity and the spiritual life offered through faith in Christ. This episode challenges common misconceptions and emphasizes the freedom and common sense that comes with understanding the sacrifice of Jesus as our divine representative.
SPEAKER 01 :
So here we are in Romans chapter 6, and we're at verse 6, where Paul says, Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Now, this is very interesting. It's strange as well. And, you know, I'm not sure how I can explain it to you, but I see the book of Romans in a very different way now from how I saw it when I first started teaching this book decades ago. I still saw the gospel in it decades ago, but I see it with a difference now. You see, I thought Paul was simply talking atomistically, shall I say, and that is his own personal experience. And he was simply talking about his having been, let's see, how does it say, that his old man had been crucified with Christ. What I didn't understand then, and I do now, I think, is that Paul is talking about the whole of humanity. Paul is talking about humanity in a personal way so that we get it personally, but it applies to all humanity. Well, let's go on, and then we'll perhaps see that more. Knowing this... What do we know? That's what you and I have to ask ourselves as Christians. Because, you see, we live in a fallen world, and we are part of that fallen world. We have a broken-down human nature, a sinful human nature. a nature that is corrupted. And so the inclination of our hearts and our minds is downward. It's towards sin. It's towards misery. It's towards evil, towards other people and to ourselves and before God, because we are in a state of suppression, as Paul says in chapter 1 of Romans verse 18. But now we've seen Jesus Christ. Christ has revealed himself to us. God sent his Son to reveal himself to the world and to reveal the Father to the world through his Son. And so something has happened to some of us, not all of us at this point. You see, Paul is talking with two voices. He is reminding us that as one man brought sin and death into the world, Adam, so one man brings righteousness and life to the world, Christ. As one man brings about death to everyone, so one man brings life to everyone. That's the good news that we're looking at here, you see. So, in general terms, he's talking about all the world, but then he gets specific about himself and about Christians who know something. What is it we know? That our old man was crucified with him. Now, what is this old man? Well, it's our human nature. It's the whole of us. It is this humanity that is all broken down, that goes in the wrong direction when we want it to go in another direction. This humanity... that would not naturally lift its heart up to God, but naturally go down into the ways of Satan, that humanity of ours, that's what we are, was crucified with him. Well, you say, that sounds weird, ridiculous. I wasn't there even. We're talking about 2,000 years ago at the cross. How could I be crucified with him? And this is where you have to understand the background that Paul is talking about Jesus as a representative for the whole of humanity. Now look, we have recently seen, or today, we have seen the inauguration of a new president. That president represents now the country. Whether we like him or not, that's not the issue. I'm not being political here. I'm simply saying that a person represents the whole. Many, many times we know this. You may have a favorite football team, and you say, we won. And you say, we? Well, we weren't on the football field, were we? But we won because our team represented us. This is what it means when we talk about Jesus as being the representative. What Jesus did for the world was to take the judgment of the world upon himself. And that means that you and I, by faith, are no longer under that judgment. It's as if our natural humanity had already been executed. You see, Jesus' death was not simply the death of a natural death. Obviously it wasn't. It was a crucifixion. But it was an execution. It was an execution for crime. We are the criminals. We are the ones who have suppressed the image of God in us, and we have gone our own way and followed idols, and ultimately that means the dehumanization of every human being. That's what our problem is, and that's what our old man is. That old man then is now counted as if it had been executed because Jesus, the representative of the human race, the sort of spiritual president of all humanity, was executed on our behalf. Now there are some people who turn this into insanity, because what they do is to say, oh well, there's an old man and there's a new man in me, and the old man now is crucified. Well, it's supposed to be anyway, they say, but I haven't succeeded in crucifying it yet, but if I keep working at it, I'll be able to finally kill it off. and they go into all kinds of spiritual insanity. This is what I call religious neurosis. And they try to kill off their old man. And they go on fasts, and they go into rituals, and they go into extensive meditation. And what they're trying to do is eliminate that old man that exists in them. You can see, can't you, how absolutely erroneous that is. Paul is not talking about an old man in us, like a part of us, while we have the new man also in us, that other part. He's not talking about a divided humanity. The old man is our human nature, our humanity. and it is crucified, but not in itself. It is crucified in Christ who represents us before the Father. So this, you see, is Paul identifying by faith with Jesus Christ. This is one of the most amazing and intimate verses you will find anywhere in the Bible. Because this is Paul feeling or knowing that he is so close to Jesus, rather more accurately, Jesus is so close to him that Jesus is identifying with Paul. Now look, you and I need to say, Jesus is identifying with me. I'm not simply identifying with Jesus, because that would be an eternity's work, and I may not be able to do it in this world totally, and I certainly will not be able to do it to identify totally with him. There are people who try to do this. There are crazy people in the Philippines, for instance, I mentioned this the other day, who actually get on a cross and nail themselves to it during the Easter season. It's insanity. It is utterly false religion. They try to identify with Jesus. The faith life is that Jesus identifies with me. You say, well, Colin, how could he identify with me? I'm a sinner. But that's precisely the point. That's why he died. He died a sinner. And this gives you and me the courage to go forward. We are faced every day with our utter corruption. Well, if you're in reality, you're faced with your corruption. If you're in delusion, you think you're an angel about to go to heaven if you don't overshoot. But the truth is, that Jesus has said, I know how messed up you are, Colin, and I am going to identify with you and take all the judgment that you deserve, and I'm going to take it upon myself. And that is how and why Jesus died on the cross. So you and I, on a daily basis, lift up our heart before God and we say, Jesus, thank you so much for identifying with me to the extent that you took my judgment. Thank you that I'm free from judgment, even though I'm a sinner still. You see then, that your old man that is crucified with him, that's not a psychological reality, because if you think it is that, then you're going to go into this religious neurosis where you're trying to spiritually kill yourself. and it is absolutely sick. Don't try it. But when you, by faith, lift up your heart, and you say, oh Jesus, thank you so much, that the burden of guilt, the sense of judgment that I feel I should take, is not upon me anymore. You took it. And as you speak this way to God, you begin to experience a freedom in your spirit that enables you to move forward with some common sense. You understand what I mean by common sense. Common sense only comes to people of faith because men and women without faith are ridden with guilt and shame. And if you're ridden with guilt and shame, you can never think in a common sense way. You're always evaluating the world and how you look before people and how other people look before you with loads of guilt and shame. You're thinking, how do I look? What do they think of me? Whatever will they think of me if they knew what I do? Or you are evaluating them. They're no good. They're stupid. They're useless. And you're contemptuous of other people because guilt and shame are floating around in your mind and heart, and you're evaluating yourself that way, and so you have no common sense at all. But when it comes to faith, we then can look at ourselves and say, I know I'm a sinner, but my Savior Jesus has taken my judgment. And so my old man, the natural humanity that I am in, is finished. It's condemned, and it has been executed. Now, you notice that Paul uses the word old man. Don't use the word old in the sense of time. Well, that was my old man a year ago when I was converted, but now I no longer have an old man because I'm converted. No, the old man is simply your natural humanity in one way of looking at it, in one sphere of existence. But you are now resurrected with Christ. And so you have a new humanity. And that humanity is the way you look at things through the eyes of Jesus Christ. So don't get bowled over by false teaching about, I was this years ago, but now I'm this now. Rather, I'm in myself, an old man, but that's not reckoned against me anymore because I'm crucified in him. And now I'm in Christ, and I have a new humanity. Thanks for listening today. Colin Cook here. You can hear this program on your smartphone any time of the day or night. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. Thanks so much for all your support and I'll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
