[Music] Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbar Carmac. 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. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. I love Psalm 121. If you’re feeling afraid or maybe uncovered, you know, want to go hide. Go pull the quilt over your head in bed. That kind of thing. You’re feeling desperate because not only are we looking toward the holidays, but then we’re looking to the IRS for the days that we’re going to have to submit some papers to our CPA or the bookkeeper. And so we’re looking at days ahead that can be kind of frustrating and make you anxious. But don’t be anxious because God says, I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. God is right there. As Psalm 121.3 says, he will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. I want you to be content and assured that God is with you, even though it seems sometimes really precarious. Like we’re on a cliff and we’re going to fall if something doesn’t happen. God’s going to have you, all of you if you trust him. That’s the word friend, it’s trust. You are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. And I know that he’s taken care of me all these years right before the program, Kimberly and I were talking. And I said, I wonder how many times I’ve put these headphones on. So I average 20 days a month that I’m in the studio. And then I multiplied that times 29 years and I got 6,910 times I’ve put these headphones on. And their good headphones praise the Lord. Well, I’m through with that Kimberly now you can segue. You can stop me now. How do we segue from that to the script or for the day? I know. But it’s so fun. It’s just really fun to laugh and I find I’m looking forward to you being here. I find it’s just so fun to be able to be free and comfortable with a person and you can laugh with them. Even about silly things like putting on headphones. Yes, well we can talk about the faithfulness of God yesterday. We were laying groundwork for becoming that peaceful place for God, for him to dwell in us. Because he calls us a sanctuary for himself. And wow, is he faithful? You know, we don’t know how to make that peaceful place. We don’t know how to be a sanctuary and over 6,000 times of putting headphones on our ears. We get into these routines. And then we don’t even know, am I the sanctuary that you wanted me to be? Or am I just running? And I’m in my stuck in a routine. Oh yeah. And so we were talking about that yesterday and I’m wanting to focus individually for wanting to encourage people to just look in your own life and find do you have the peace that you need, the grace that you need for today for every day of living. Yes. Because trying to make someone else a peaceful place, that doesn’t work. Trying to create a beautiful peaceful dwelling in a community of many people like it work or even your church. There’s so many people, there’s so many different opinions. There’s so many other ideas. And it becomes an impossible task to create a peaceful dwelling place without God being involved. And God can do the impossible things. Yes, you can. Just like the week that you were telling us about changing from the key of E because one of your singers wanted it transposed. And so wow, that moment of real, I’m probably almost fear, but anger also that can come upon us so quickly, Kimberly, when you’ve only got 10 or 15 minutes before the service. And then what do I do, Lord? What do I do? No, we’ve got to do it. Yeah, do you ever remind me of that? Wow. Kimberly, that was such a transformation in just a short amount of time. Well, my, the struggle there was that I was looking at the other person thinking, you need you. Uh-huh. Yeah, right. That’s the point. It doesn’t even matter how I finish that sentence. You know, it’s me looking at them thinking, you. That’s it. Well, what about me? Am I now a peaceful place, a peaceful dwelling place? Am I a sanctuary for the Lord right now? Now in my emotions and in my frustration and in my fear, it really all came down to fear because I don’t like the key of ease, so I don’t practice in the key of ease, so I would not know how to even transpose to that key. And God made it happen. And my hands and made it the impossible happen. I remember when we were, this is way back there, Kimberly, when we were moving you and Christy into your little apartment and you were supposed to sing for a wedding. And I remember your dad and me moving all the stuff into the place. And you said, oh, I just can’t do it. I just can’t do it. And your father stepped up and says, oh, I can go, give me the directions and I’ll go sing. Well, and play, it was, he, that was to play also and to play and to sing. And what are the song? Just tell me what songs? Yeah, what songs? Your father was just, you know, that’s the kind of trust believing that God will equip you. He didn’t trust in himself. We both know that. That’s true. He was a man who trusted that God would show up if he was the willing vessel to be there for him. And I’ve, it took me a long time to learn that lesson. He was younger. And I am older. And I’m so thankful that I’m finally getting to that place where I can trust that God will do the impossible things when I take them to him. That’s right. And I say, okay, the idea of being the team player that will change a key for everyone, the whole choir, the whole band, you know, everyone’s going to a new key now, just because one person actually felt like she needed. She had maybe more fear than I did. Yes, she was probably anxious over being, being so low that she couldn’t reach that note. Even though you said she sounded good, but are our, it’s, but it’s okay because we’re team players. And, and that’s who God is. He’s a team player. And I was reading Second Corinthians 9.8 today. It says, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace so that you will have more than enough, not more than enough grace, more than enough of everything. That’s right. Every moment. And in every way, he will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do. That’s so good, Kimberly. It’s like your, your scripture you gave us yesterday in James 4.5. He, yours for us. He, he, he hungers his intense desire is longing is for relationship with us. Yes. It starts with that yearning. It does. And so wanting to become that peaceful sanctuary for God himself to dwell in us. It’s, it’s just having the desire. Now, we can’t actually make that desire come true. God can’t. When we have the desire and keep getting frustrated with ourselves because we’re not working it out, well, it’s because we’re trying in our own efforts and we’re trying to do an impossible task. But only God can do the impossible. That’s right. It does start with that longing though, that yearning and that desire. And once we realize, you know what? Everything else I’m trying to do in this life is not what I really want. What do I really want? Yeah. You know, I go back to that memory again and how I think of the relationship between you and your dad. And I think of what he saw about everything’s upside down and you’re just moving in and so much on your mind. And that’s a loving father when they see the circumstances of his daughter. And see God sees the circumstances were in Kimberly. He sees his sons and his daughters going through impossible things and he says, I’m here. I can do it. Yeah. I heard it take this load off of you. Yes. And it’s that love, not just a tolerant being tolerant of a person. And for instance, the singer that wanted to change the key, maybe you were tolerant at the moment. Right. God had to do a work. Yes. And then came that love. Okay. Yes. I can do this. Yes. Yes. Oh. With God’s help, I can do this. Yes. Oh. Yesterday we talked a little of Psalm 8 also from the mouth of infants and nursing babies. You have established strength, Lord, because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. The enemy in us, the thoughts, the negative thoughts and the tendency to blame, to point and to blame. And to be in competition and to try to have your opinion heard so that you can win someone over to your opinion. So that you can control what? Well, there’s so many of us. There’s too many of us for us all to be heard. Right. And how does that create a peaceful dwelling place for God? So looking at the scripture about the mouth of infants and nursing babies, God has established strength from the mouth of infants and nursing babies. So a human beings are made in the image of God and they start out as infants and nursing babies. God loves the little children. He says, let the little children come to me. If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, you must come to Him as a little child. This is what the Word of God tells us. And He establishes His strength from the mouth of infants and nursing babies. Well, infants and nursing babies are constantly crying out for help. They are. They are. They’re all the same. And that’s the point. Yeah. From the mouth of infants. See, we become so smart as we grow. We are educated and we learn things and we become smart and we form opinions and we become independent in our life. When will we figure out that we need to choose total dependence once again? When do we finally figure out that, oh, I’m not made to be independent. I’m not supposed to do this on my own. I need you, God. I need my creator, my Heavenly Father. I need the lover of my soul and He needs me. And He desires. He longs. He earnestly desires. That relationship with us and the Spirit within us. He’s jealous, long, you pour it. I’m ready to be just focused on that and jealous, long for Him. Yes. For Him to have His desire and His dream come true. So the answer is to become dependent. The answer is to become dependent, to come to Him as little children. And this time by choice, you know, we’ve learned enough, we’ve experienced enough. We’ve tried it all on our own. We’ve got so many opinions and being able to lay those down and say, you know what? I just want you to have your way. Yes. What a wonderful way to… It’s an amazing plan. What a wonderful way to just kind of blow our minds. You can try all of this. Go ahead. Have at it. Here’s your world. Here’s this realm that I’ve made for you. Try it all. And He knows we’re going to come back to Him. Yes. I have assurance that His people are coming back to Him. Kimberly, yes. Yes. Yes. So we also looked at Zefania yesterday because in the first chapter of Zefania in those first verses, there’s a prophecy that says that God will completely remove all from the face of the earth. And in chapter three, it says, all the earth will be devoured by the fire of my zeal. And then I will give to the people’s purified lips. And you have to kind of, I tilt my head at that weight. Everything was just destroyed, but now you’re giving people’s… Where did these people come from? See, God can do impossible things. And when we trust Him to do those impossible things, we can think outside of the box. We don’t have to think of Him as this angry God that’s just wiping everything out and anger. That’s human. That’s a human thing to do. That’s not a God thing to do. I think so kind and so patient. Yes. I think there’s a twofold meaning here. Not only a metaphor for our hearts, because in the Lord’s Prayer, it says, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth. And some have translated in earth in me and me as it is in heaven. So when He says, all the earth will be devoured. And I think that’s the earthiness of each and every one of us, the selfishness. I like that. Yeah. That’s good. Earthiness. Yeah, the earth. You know, the flesh. And you know that’s where I’m headed, but yeah, I like your word, earthiness. Yes. Going to be devoured. Yes. And I want that, Kimberly. I want the fire of Holy Spirit to devour and clean out everything that has been carnal in me. Yes. Yes. Right. It’s a beautiful plan. And He can do this devouring by fire. He can do this wiping out and cleansing beautifully because He’s beautiful. He can do it in a kind way because He is kind. He can do it in a good way because He is good. And we can trust Him to be gentle in the process even. We can trust that because He has said in His Word that it is His gentleness that makes us great. And it is His kindness that leads us to repentance. That’s right. Oh. And this is the plan to make us like Him, to be like Him. So I really am determined to keep encouraging people to learn to think outside of the box and to truly listen to ways that defy our natural tendency to compete, our natural tendency to push an opinion on others that anger or rage or pride that comes up and wants to have our way. Our God overrides and supersedes all of this. Yes. We are able to think outside of that box and then even outside of science and logic and philosophy and the laws that we have observed in this natural world, God is higher than all of those ways. His ways are higher. His thoughts are higher as Isaiah 55 tells us. And it’s just being willing. So I’ve come down to this word “willing” this. You know, willing to think differently. And what is it that causes us not to be willing? Willing to listen and to see the heart of a person behind their opinion. You know, sometimes we’ll hear an opinion and we just automatically go, “Oh no, no, that’s not right.” Yes. But that’s the opinion that triggered it. What about the heart of the person that’s talking? You know, what about what their true motive might be? We don’t know. That’s too hard to dig after and really get into in just a few seconds of passing and hearing an opinion. So it takes some time. And you know, this is the season for political debates. I just didn’t want to talk about politics today. So I was choosing something else like evolution versus creationism. Or what I did is I watched a debate between some very highly educated scientists who believe that our earth is a globe. And that’s what we’ve been taught. It’s a globe. And then they were debating with some people who believe that we actually have a flat earth. And this is a concept that has become a hot topic lately. And I didn’t tap into this debate wanting to decide for myself which opinion that I want to hang on to. Just like when I watch political debates or I watch creationism versus evolution, I watch the debates because I want to know what is in the heart of the person that’s holding on so tightly to this idea. And they really don’t want to change their mind about it. Yeah, we were talking the other day and it was like I was finally getting the idea that if somebody was talking to me about the earth is flat, that as a believer that the earth is a globe, I would not just, no, no, I can’t believe that at all. How ridiculous that is. And then is the defense that comes up. Why don’t we just step back and say, well, that’s an interesting concept. What got you into that? And ask them the questions like Jesus asked a lot of questions, Kimberly. Yes. And he was very willing to listen. Yes. Listen to the answer. That’s right. That’s right. So being that peaceful place, that dwelling place where people feel safe, where you have the sense of safety to allow others to hear what you’ve been thinking about and what you’re considering and why? Why are you considering that? And that feels safe. That feels peaceful to me to have people who won’t just shut me down, who will ask more questions. And I thought it was interesting that the, in this debate, I was watching between the scientists who really wanted to give scientific evidence and consensus that the earth is a globe. That they were a little more condescending to the people who were debating about the flat earth. And the ones, the thing about it is the ones who believe that the earth is flat, they came from the idea that it was a globe. Because that’s what they were taught in school. Yeah. Yeah, like you were. Yes. You had different. Yeah. And they had come up with a completely different idea. They, they had a lot of gymnastics to do in their brain. You know, their brain had to go through quite a bit to come to a place where they would actually change their mind about this. Uh-huh. And have their own scientific evidence. Have their own evidences? Um, that, that just made me really curious because the personalities that were interacting with each other, you could see the one side that was so stiff and saying, “I will absolutely not change my mind.” But the other side was saying, you know, yeah, I would be willing to change back and believe that it’s a globe again. If, if you could, and you know, then you fill in the blank. But I was actually just really, really impressed with the people who were saying, you know, I’m willing, I’m open. Well, wow, what happens in a heart that makes you willing to listen? Yeah. It’s when you don’t get the wall of defensive argument against you. And, yeah, yeah, just people who are concerned and loving in their approach. Yeah, Kimberly, we, as believers, as Christians, who know the way the truth in the life is in Jesus Christ, sometimes we cross paths with people that don’t believe Jesus is the only way. And so instead of just putting up this wall, “Oh, how can you, how can you think that way?” It’s in the Word of God. Don’t you read your Bible? And, well, yes, I do, but I believe there are, and they come into a new theory. Well, why not sit down with it? Well, let me hear your theory. And then follow with more scriptures. What I love is the idea that we’re not even supposed to land on one. I don’t think that’s what God made us for. He’s not sitting there waiting for us to all be in agreement and have the same opinion. Because I don’t think that’s supposed to work. I think Hitler tried that, and it didn’t work. You know? Yes, there was only one race. Yes. So I don’t think it’s supposed to work that way. That’s not how that wasn’t God’s initial dream. We’re made in His image, and He is so full of variety. The differentiation between every being is so beautiful and so amazing. Learning to appreciate that. Learning to be a willing person that will listen to others, listen to other perspectives, and see the beauty in the different perspectives. Yes. So I think the human… I don’t want to call it a problem, but our conflict that we have is… It’s like a cookie cutter thing. We see one thing and we think, “Oh, that’s great. Let’s all do this now.” We hear one thing and we all… Okay, let’s all get on the same boat and we’re all going to believe this now. I really believe that the goal is learning to be amazed and wowed by the differences, by all the variances. The varieties. Yes, the varieties. And to be in awe of God. It’s like doing a recipe. It’s like doing a recipe. I made chili just a certain way all these years because my mom made the chili that way. You come in with a chicken chili that, “Oh, I don’t know if I like that.” Kimberly, I am just absolutely a fan and we can have those different varieties in our life and enjoy people where they are instead of putting these walls up. I agree with you. I really do. We’re reconciling with each other and with God is the big dream. The God dream. The God dream. And the angels were not created to do that. We are. And so by being able to listen to one another and coming shoulder to shoulder with each other for the sake of the dream, God’s dream to come true, he needs you to be a willing listener today. So I pray that over you that your heart would be willing to hear other people and to give all these opinions and all these ideas to the Lord who can work impossible things. That’s right. He makes all things possible. That’s making us like him. Praise the Lord. Thank you so much for this teaching, Kimberly. Widen’s our perspective of acceptance of people. And I appreciate that so much. God bless you and God bless all of you listening today and take joy. Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom. Box 370-367 Denver, Colorado 80237. Or you may leave your message at 1-877-917-7256. 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 phrase reports in heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom. Box 370-367 Denver, Colorado 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmac@freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy. 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