TEMPTATION

[Music] Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barber 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. Oh, I'm so glad you joined us today and I do say us because Kimberly is actually in the studio with me today. It's so good to be here. You know we do pretty well when I'm in Oklahoma and we're just talking over my device but it's much better to be able to see each other and kind of take some cues with our eyes. Yes, that's right. And see somebody across the table. Yes, I want you to know today as you're listening that love is a choice. We have so many choices in life and we're going to talk about that too again today. And it's a choice. Love is a commitment. Love is an action and love is a gift from God. May the Spirit of God give you wisdom to follow your heart in the way of love today. Find nothing that you are going to be judging today except accepting them. Wow, that is so difficult, Kimberly. It really is. We grow up with criticisms and judgments. We look at a person, "Oh, that dress is too short." Or you know, talk about what they're wearing or their makeup or what, something. We're always kind of looking up and down people to see what they're like. If they're like us and then we accept them. If not, we throw them in the gutter. Well, not anymore. Not anymore. But in the world, you see that a lot. In the world, there's a lot of comparison. Yes, for sure. And it's easy to take that on as Christians to have that in our church and even wonder. Is our church healthy? Do we have the same kind of numbers as the church down the street or the church in the next state? You know, in its comparison, a lot of comparisons. Catching those little foxes and bringing them to the Lord is learning how to love. Yes, it sure is. Before we get into it, oh, we were talking all morning long and wondering what we were going to talk about. I have no notes at all. Kimberly has no notes. We just have our Bibles in front of us. I'd like to remind you the meeting is this Saturday, August the 10th. And we're going to have music and Bible study at 10 o'clock. And if you would like to come, you can call me at 1-877-917-7256. We always seem to have room for more. So I'm just inviting you. We're going to have a great time. Lensch on the patio. If you would like to help with the entree, which we have no idea we're going to have yet, you can bring a side dish of a cool summer salad or a wonderful dessert would be great. We'll share with you as you share with us. It's always a fun time sharing. So again, call me at 1-877-917-7256. God bless you and hope to see you there. Oh, it's going to be good. I love that fellowship. And you know this morning as we were fellowshiping and talking, it's so encouraging to be around people, others who really love God and want to hear His Word and know more about Him. So yes, come gather, gather with us on Saturday so we can enjoy one another in that. Today we were reading in Hebrews, we were reading in Psalm. I think as we were talking, I mentioned to you that back October 7th, my heart just broke to hear the news of what was happening to Israel. So sad, so hard to hear what was happening. And there are many Psalms and major prophets, the minor prophets and the Old Testament that talk about this day of gloom and doom this day. And often it's referred to as the day of the Lord. And as the day of the Lord comes, there's darkness, there's destruction, there's a twisting, it's hard to read these chapters. What I have found, I've kind of been on a search, it's been a treasure hunt for me, that every single one of them have some kind of little interruption in all of the dark gloom and doom words, the dark news. And in that news, there's people, the godly people, the people of God, His holy ones, they're rising up, they celebrate, they celebrate and they're trusting God, they're trusting that He will replace that evil with good. They're singing about His ability to do that. And I've found that as I continue to find these little gems in myself, I'm realizing those little thoughts that come up about other people that you're talking about or comparisons, or just waking up in a panic, waking up stressed out because you didn't get something done the day before. And it's the first thing on your mind. And when that happens, those are little foxes that are robbing us of being the true people, God created us to be. So look for these in the Psalms when you're reading through Psalms, when you're reading through the minor prophets, the major prophets, and you're reading these chapters, we did this with Isaiah 24, a number of weeks back, we were reading through all of the reports of the destruction that's happening. And then there's these people that rise up and they're singing songs to God, songs of victory, songs of triumph. He is the triumphant one. He knows what he's doing. It's getting our minds off of our human tendencies and onto the one that we want to choose in the spirit realm. What makes it hard for us is as humans, we want to be able to see it. We want it to make sense. And our senses are five senses. It's seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. If we can't do that, then we don't believe it. We put more belief in our senses than we do in our spirit that knows there's something better. That's right. Something better than our senses. Amen. It's always, especially with David, when he wrote in the Psalms. And I think it's Psalm 40 here that says, "Why are you cast down, oh my soul, put your hope in God." And when you wake up in the morning and you say, "This is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it." That sets the stage for your day. And when you get up and you, "Oh, another day, what do I have to do today? What's going to keep me from really being happy today?" Only you can make that choice. You really can. You can make a choice to make it a good day or a bad day. It was years ago, many, many years ago, when I was still really in the thick of homeschooling and my kids weren't very independent yet. And so it was just a lot, a lot on my plate every day. And I remember not just homeschooling my four children, but also others that would come. We kind of co-opped in my home with others. It felt very overwhelming. I just remember thinking to myself, "If I start out every day feeling stressed and anxious, that's not going to help." And I want to change that. I want to change what's happening when I wake up. So I started just saying, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, that you work everything for good. Thank you that you will take care of all things that come before me. You took care of all things that were happening yesterday. Yes. And I just say, "Thank you." And I did it so often that now my automatic... I'm sharing a miracle right now. I'm not sharing what I did to make something happen. The Lord blessed it. Yes. And now... And you're thankfulness. He moved mountains. Yes, he did. He moved the mountain. Yes. And now, miraculously, I wake up and the first thing that happens is my mouth forms the words "Thank you" before I'm even cognitive. And then I just start giggling because I realized I just said "Thank you." And I wasn't even fully awake. Yes. Once we make that choice and that decision, Holy Spirit helps us in so many ways. Today, you were talking about this little lady that just really got on your nerves. I mean, she was cantankerous. In fact, she hit Matthew with her cane. And Matthew is a person you love. Yes. And you were saying, "Lord, somehow get rid of her or help her to..." I was just triggered. And in the position that I was in... She was in choir. Yes. Well, okay. So she's been... She has a minister's license. She's been through ministry school many decades ago. And she's older than you to put this in context. Okay. So she's had a lot of experience and she talks about how she travels. She ministers to others. She prays all the time, sometimes all night long. And so when you put all of that together, when I put all that together in my mind, then I am presumptuous. I will presume that this person knows better. She knows better. Her actions are going to... Her actions toward me and my husband and the way that she felt like she was goading us to do what she wanted done. And sometimes that was playing a certain song, leading us... leading us differently. The position that I was in, I was not the leader of choir, but the leader was out. And so I was holding his position for him. And he's so kind and full of mercy that I refused to give in to my impatience, to my tendency to even be snarky. And say something, just spit it right back out. I refused to do it. But even though I was being kind in front of her and in front of the choir and at church, at home I would get home. And I would feel so triggered. And I would cry out to the Lord and say, "What? Am I going to do?" And I would go through all these gymnastics in my mind of what I need to say. What I need to say to her. What I need to say to other leadership around her. But we all do it. You can have these gymnastics happening over your financial situation, over other relationships, over your physical health. What should I be doing? Should I be eating differently? Should I be exercising more? Why do we have to say things in reply to someone's actions that we don't agree with? It's a human behavior, though. Everybody needs to snap back or say something to regulatory. So the miracle that happened was me going to my face over and over and over again. Just going to the Lord and saying, "All right, bless her and change me. I want to be changed." Didn't it come to a point where it was, "Okay, God, it's between you and me. No other person is involved here any longer." Yeah, no other person. Because the more I prayed, the more I realized this isn't, I'm praying an impossible prayer. I'm praying for you to change the way I think. And it happens all the time. It happens all the time. It's automatic thoughts, automatic responses. And I'm asking you to change that. See, and so many people, Kimberly, they say, "Change that person or change this person." Or, "You can't get along with them." So, Father, God, you change them. And we're headed in the wrong direction, Kimberly. What you were asking God to do was change you. From all the negative, as you were saying, triggers that brought you to a point that you were thinking negatively towards this person, a child of God. Well, it's very human. It's very human to think those thoughts. And I was asking him to, I have a t-shirt. It says, "I no longer live." I don't want to live in my humanity anymore. But Christ lived in me. And less of me and more of him. And that was my prayer, less of me, less of me, and more of you, more of you. And as I was, you all know if you've been listening to me, I like to talk to people in traffic. And when I'm talking to them, I bless them with the fruit of the Spirit. And I bless them with generosity and patience and making room for others. We're all just trying to help each other get where we need to go. It didn't start like that, though, Kimberly. This is a process. This is a lifelong training of Holy Spirit in our lives. And it comes down to him not changing the people around me, but him changing me. Right. Cooperate with all these people that I'm going to be involved. So years ago, it was me being frustrated with all these people around me. And, "Oh, you don't know how to drive." "Oh, where did you learn how to drive?" You have a blinker. Yes. It's on the left of your steering wheel. Yes. You all can relate. I'm going to see this lady every week in choir. What am I going to do about this? Yeah. And I'm going to drive with these people every day in rush hour traffic. You know, so what am I going to do about this? And so that is what we get to decide. See, it's a choice. Like you were saying, we choose. Love is a choice. We choose that. We either choose to hang on to the humanistic part of us. Or to let that go and become. Become who we were intended to be. And that takes faith. Yes, I do. We have to believe that we were made for more than our irritation and frustration. We were made for more than our worry and anxiety. We were made for more than our own plans and our own goals and dreams. There's another dream that's much higher than our dreams. Someone with thoughts that are higher than our thoughts. And we're made to be his perfect partner. His best friend. Yeah, it's easy to love people who love us. That's pretty easy to love people. But people who don't love us. Can we extend to them that same wonderful loving kindness that we give to the ones that we do love? That's where we need the miracle. That's right. That's right. Kimberly, that's right. And so it is a miracle that I wake up and say thank you. It is a miracle that I don't get triggered in traffic anymore. That I just say, oh, I have room for you. I can make room for you. And even if you're cutting me off, I can say, that's fine. There's plenty of room right there for you. It's a great example of it. It was last night in the Olympics. I was watching a little bit, the 1500. And no American had even meddled in it for 100 years. I mean, this was not a sport that Americans win in. That's right. They're all European or African that can run that far. And I saw these two. One's name was Kerr and the other was a Norwegian. And I'm not going to even try to pronounce his name. They have been fighting and feuding for years. One was a gold medal and then the next Olympic, the other one was a gold medal. So just going off on each other all the time. And even right before the contest last night, well, it happened that this wonderful American, only 23 years old, Cole Hawker, he was just kind of lopping along, you know, for the 1500. And all of a sudden, at the end, he said, I wanted to find a little channel because these two were dominating the front. And I wanted to get a just a little channel, even if it was just a little bit on the rail, that I could just squeeze in there. He said, yeah, and it happened right near the end. And it happened and I spread it toward the end. He got the gold. While these two were feuding, going back and forth, fighting each other, he found a way. And so many times we're fighting. We're fighting when Kimberly, we should be thanking God and love the other way. There's another way. There's another way. There's another way. Yes, there is another way. And that is to put our focus on our Lord, on who we were actually made for. And become. I was just saying that becoming, we used to use as English people and human beings, there used to be a phrase, well, that's not very becoming on you. Or that is so becoming on you. We used to hear that becoming as a compliment and adjective. And we don't hear that very much anymore. And I was thinking in traffic, someone, there were two people that were racing each other and cutting others off. And that was just, you know, yesterday. Thank you for praying, for traveling. Mercy's over me yesterday. And you go the two lane road through the panhandle of Oklahoma to Raton pass and then up north. Well, and there's no traffic on the two lane. That's why I like to take it. It's completely, it's completely isolated. Oh, there's these guys were racing. They were on 25. Yes. And that's what caused me to say, oh, that's not very becoming. And it was so funny to me that it came out of my mouth that way, because I don't talk like that. Oh, no, you don't. But it came out of my mouth and I realized, oh, that must be from a Holy Spirit. Oh, that is from the Holy Spirit. Because as I started thinking about it, he was asking me to pray over them that they would become more like him. Become who they were meant to be. So then I'm talking and praying and confessing these things over them. But I can only do that because I've spent the time doing it for myself. Yes. Putting myself down on the floor and submitting and surrendering over and over whether it's with this personality and choir that was so hard for me or through the renovation that we've just been through with all the contractors and all the things that were seemingly going wrong, did I want to make the thing the focus or did I want to make the person the focus? And time and time again, I kept building bridges with these people and making peace and knowing that I've got a relationship with them now. Even though there were lots of mistakes, there were things that happened that were really difficult, really hard, but it wasn't about having a perfect kitchen. It was about the people I met. And whether or not they felt loved, whether or not they felt accepted. And I very much let them feel accepted. And I would tip them and write encouraging notes to them and leave them texts of gratitude and that I knew was building bridges, but it came with me seeing something that went wrong, seeing something that was installed improperly and going to my face and saying, "Well, Lord, what do you want to do about this?" And thinking over and over, "Oh, I should have communicated better. Oh, I should have..." See, you get on that hamster wheel. Oh, yeah, you do. And you think, "Oh, I could have done that differently. Next time I see them, maybe I should ask this, or maybe I should say that." And when you get into that, that's the humanity in you wanting to take over and fix it and control it. Now, you were saying that afternoon or that day they came and worked on this project without you being there. You were trusting them. You had a lot of piano lessons that day. And when you got back, then you saw the end product, which was... Oh, it happened on four different occasions. One was a wall that got built to the wrong place. Oh, yes. And then one was cabinets that were put in the wrong place, and so they had to be torn back out. And then one, or they were panels that had to be taken back out. And then one was our countertops, and they put a seam in just a very ugly place, an ugly seam in an ugly place. It happened over and over and over, where it got installed. I came back and I looked at it, and then you start thinking, "Well, maybe I should never leave." I felt like a prisoner to my home. You know, maybe I should never leave, keep checking on them, keep checking. Well, who wants to live like that? That feels like a prisoner. That's bondage, and wanting to control everything. No, and that's exhausting. That is so exhausting. That's not the point of our life. That's right. We're not supposed to be in control. The Lord is in control, and He has wonderful things in store for us. Yes, He does. So continuing to submit myself and surrender myself, my humanity, to the things of the Spirit, and realize, "Okay, that's not very becoming. I need it this way." Well, why do I need it that way? Why do I need it? Yes. It's like the Scripture that I was giving to you today, Kimberly, that God has given me for this year, and it's Psalm 62 verse 1. So I trust in you and wait on you as long as it takes. This is from the Passion translation. As long as it takes for you to deliver me. As long as it takes. And sometimes, Kimberly, well, I know it's a lifelong. It's a lifelong living for Him and being and adjusting to His ways. He is at work in us both to will and work for His good pleasure, not for ours. For His knowing that the end result is going to be better than I ever dreamed. Yes. Sometimes we don't want to go that direction because our dream or our idea of what life should look like. Or what we have wanted it to look like is so precious to us that to let go of it causes great grief. And for some people, being stuck in grief is something they can't handle. That's right. And when we realize that grief is an emotion that our Lord deals with on a daily basis. He promised that he would be with every one of us. Each and every one. That is currently 8 billion creatures on this planet. 8 billion. When he said that he would promise, he promised to be with us, he doesn't break his promises. So he is with each one now. Are each one of them living a life that is holy and beautiful and a really great time for the Lord to spend with them? No, how many are in dark, dark places? You know, when you think of the abuses and the addictions and the human trafficking and the things that go on in this world, it is so heartbreaking and the Lord Himself has yielded Himself and surrendered Himself to be with everyone. There is not a place that is so dark that He has not gone to. That's right. For God so loved, each individual in this world, you know, we say the whole world and we think of a globe or something. No, God so loved each individual. Yes. Can you imagine the grief for someone who is love, God is love, and God is light for Him to be surrendered and yielding to these horrible dark things. It has to be the most grief anyone could ever imagine. So is it really so hard to let go of a dream and to yield ourselves to Him when He has got a really fantastic plan? Now a dream, we were talking a little bit about familiar spirits today too. Well, we got into a lot of subjects and we don't have very much longer. I hope you're coming back with me tomorrow. If you let me. And that dream can get so disjointed that it can be a familiar spirit that goes with us. That is not God's plan for us at all. And we go for it and we go for it and we hit our little like there and used to say our go card against the wall over and over and over again. I've got to have it. I've got to have it. I've got to have it. Do you really? Are you yielding yourself really? Yeah, and that's what that felt like, you know, five years ago I think I started letting the listeners know that there had been something that happened in my family. And my family shattered. You know, my husband moved out and my older ones were just moving all different directions. And it was really hard because the familiar to me was having a family that was together. So letting go of that dream and surrendering to what God wanted was the answer. And he did a miracle. And I want to talk about that more tomorrow. Oh, that sounds great. Well, thank you for being with me in the studio. That is so cool. And I hope that you have listening, have enjoyed our conversation here. We're going to have more to talk to you about, oh, God's love for you. He loves you so much. And he wants his wonderful will to be yours. And God bless you. And the last thing we want to say here today is take joy. Take joy. [Music] 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 partner 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 prize by mailing them to Call to Freedom. Box 370-367. Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at Barbara Carmack at FreedomStreet.org. Until next time, remember Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy. [Music]