Episode Transcript
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Catch us. The little foxes.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: They're feasting on our own.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: They're cruel.
All right. And here we are.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Here we are. We are back for episode number.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: I think this will be. I'm not sure if this is going to be three or four. Three or four.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: It's been one of those.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: It's either three or four.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Hey.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Hey. How you doing way over there?
I'm doing good. I been a rough week.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: A lot of spiritual attacks, lot of negative thoughts and, you know, stuff happening.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been rough.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: I've lived in my flesh a little bit for the past week and a half, but, you know, those things happen.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Yes. And I think I ate two boxes of candy yesterday, some popcorn, a pretzel, all just trying to deal with.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Guys. You should have seen that pretzel. It was he.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: I ate all of it.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: And she wouldn't share it with me either. She told me when we got to. When we went and saw the new Jurassic Park, I'm gonna say it was good.
It wasn't as good as the last one.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Right. Oh, we don't want to be a spoiler. It was.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: We're not. Spoiler. But it was good.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: It was clean. Other than people getting ripped in half.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Right. Clean up. Besides getting eaten by dinosaurs and stuff, it was. There wasn't any language in it. Maybe one or two curse words.
It was good. That's our plug for movies for the day.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: But we did that because date night. Well, yeah, but I think it was like we have to get our mind off of, like, the crap hole situation we felt like we were in.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Well, we've fallen into.
I know.
You have to edit that out. Well, we fall into a rut that a lot of married couples do where we can get consumed by the things that we have to do. And we push what we need to do as a couple aside, you know, we get consumed. And I think this is part of Satan's plan, to be honest with you, is you gotta work, work, work, work, work, pay bills, bills, bills, bills, bills.
But then your marriage gets put on hold just so you can work and pay the bills. And then when money is tight, what's the first thing that goes? You. Time alone together.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think even the whole American way of life is just flat out sinful.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Not because of, like. I'm not saying, like, because people are doing awful things, terrible things that we are. You know, like, they're just going out and partying and whatever you want.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Burning cities down.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. But I Mean more, more of the fact that we don't. We prioritize the need for money and material things working all the time.
We put that ahead of our relationship with God and our relationship with our spouses.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Well, and we're hit by advertising, constantly hit by advertising. You know, you know, these subscription based things we watch on these shows we watch and these streaming platforms, even you have to watch, you have to watch commercials on those. Now you're paying $22 a month for one stream platform and every 10 minutes there's a commercial.
And I think that we're just hit with these things like, oh, you need this now. This, this will help your life. And we're like, oh, I want it. You know, after a while you get beat down. That's where you're going to go. And you're going to buy what they've been telling you to buy the whole time. So I think, I think it's called consumerism has really taken over the family unit. It really has.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: And we're losing. You know what really makes a family a family.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: It's not money, it's not things, it's. It's the relationship and the love for each other.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Right. And I think that we've been doing that since we got married.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: You know, we got married and we went to work three days later.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that's what led to partially the complete breakdown that you had because we had so put so much focus on trying to provide for ourselves, trying to be our own God. Almost like we didn't trust God enough to lead and direct us and all. Whatever. So then we. Oh my gosh. Well, we have to do it.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Absolutely.
I think that when we got married, I was so determined to prove to everyone that I could be a good provider, that that's all I cared about being.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: You know, that's all I wanted to do was just be a provider and it, it didn't matter.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Maybe even proven it to yourself.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: You know, like, hey, I feel so bad about myself. So I have to, I have to be like the best, most amazing. I have to make $400,000 a year.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Right. I mean, $100,000, you don't really matter if all you're doing is working and not using any of it.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: And it leads you into affairs or addictions or whatever because you can't deal with all those pressure and the stress.
I'm a fan of simplifying and decluttering your life, you know, because of that.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: So going into that, I think today's topic is going to be spiritual warfare. Yeah.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: We may not call it like, yeah, spiritual warfare, but I think that. I don't know what we'll title this, but I think that that is part of the craftiness that Satan uses.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: To trick us.
And that's one of the ways he gets in is because we don't trust God and we think that we have to do everything.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: And that was what happened to us.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: And I think that's what happened to us, you know, because like I said, we, you know, we got married on a Saturday.
Friday.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: I think we got married on a Saturday.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: Saturday. We got married on a Saturday. Sunday. We went to a really nice winery here in East Texas.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Yeah. We had brunch. Grunch. We had brunch.
And then I came back home and we spent two days together, I guess.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: I know. Like, so that was Sunday. And then we went to work on Monday. Both of us.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess I left town.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: It was so not romantic.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: It was just like. Okay, thanks. Hi. Bye. See you later.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: And I was out of town for a while. I think that was when I was. I wasn't going to Oklahoma yet. No, I was driving back and forth.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: I feel like you were kind of going to Dallas.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I was driving Dallas back and forth every night. So even when I was home, I wasn't home because I'd get home at 10 o'. Clock.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: I hated that.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Go to bed, wake up at 3 or 2 or 3 in the morning and go to work.
So yeah, it was, it was hard.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: And I didn't. I don't. I don't think we realized then what we were doing. Like we didn't know that we were allowing that this was something that Satan was devising this scheme which we're going to talk about like Ephesians 6 a little bit and what that looked like. Because he absolutely knows what will work on you.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: And for us, we were so desperate to get on our feet financially and start over. And I mean, it was hard. Everybody was beat up from 2020.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
Covid hurt a lot of people. I think I was more determined to prove to your family because there were some people in the families who had a hard time understanding why we were getting married so, so quickly. And they've Understandable. Which is understandable. I look back on now and I'm like, wow.
You know, I try to be a very.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: We just weren't. We weren't thinking straight. We were just like, just, you know.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: It is a river.
But I think that that's one way that, that Satan can come into it is, is through. And that's. I think that's where spiritual warfare comes along. Because during that time we were not going to church. I wasn't.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Well, I was in a weird place. So.
And I'm still.
Yeah, gosh. So.
Well, you know, I was coming out of. I was kind of seeing things in the corporate church. I hate to call it the corporate, but like that's what it feels like sometimes. The corporate church where I was feeling kind of sickened by how it had been taken over by kind of the superstar Christianity thing where, you know, every. The pastor's flashy and the worship team is trendy and, and the smoke machine is going all the time and, and it just, and it felt so scripted like the three songs. And then we do this, and then we do this. And I just, I'm not that kind of Christian now.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Me neither.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: And it's not, I'm not saying it's bad or wrong, but I'm just saying for me, I like a more.
I don't want to say authentic, but a more spirit led experience.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Well, it's not religious.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: You know, God preached about, or Jesus preached about religion often in the New Testament.
And what have we done? We have pushed our church leaders over, our church leaders at the Pharisees and Sadducees and we see them as the absolute ruler of anything. And instead of saying that, you know what, that guy's working for us, he's preaching to us, the pastor, basically. In a lot of churches these days, if anybody who watches the news knows this, knows this to be true, you've got churches out there. We talked about this yesterday on a trip to watch the movie is that you've got these churches that have gotten so big that people can't get individual help anymore. And I know there was a church in Tyler that I went to at one time that said. Well, the pastor said during one of his sermons, if you're a new member here and you're here to get individual teaching, then that's not going to work, he said, because we're groups and churches inside of churches.
He said, so it's up to you to find the type of group that you want to be involved in.
And I'm like, well, you know, that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: Well, that kind of sounds like throwing somebody into the ocean and being like, hey, go find that.
There's two ships out there, go find them. Well, could somebody help me, please?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Throw me the lion's dance. Okay. That tiger over there or that lion over there, he ate last week.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: So I don't even understand that. Like, I feel like I was kind of disillusioned by some of the stuff I had been through with. With some church hurt.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: And I'm not using that as an excuse to. Because I don't believe in forsaking the assembling of the brethren. I know that that's very real. And we need to be in community. We're made to be in community. But I was struggling, and so I had kind of was only attending like a prayer and intercession worship thing that my friends and I had started. So I was doing that. And when you came along, you were kind of anti.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: I was agnostic, basically.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: You had come back to God slowly, but you still were reserved. You still, like. I don't know.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: I didn't care if I ever went to church again.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: You were done with it because you had been so hurt there, too.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Well, and I had. I was. I was way ahead of you as far as getting burnout on the commercialism of church. You know, I was. I think that I was probably a long way ahead of you when it came to realizing that religion was evil, you know, and once we got together, then it started. I guess right before we got together. It started hitting you.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: It did. It hit me before. It was a couple of years even before you and I had been just kind of drifting around. Not from church, from a couple different churches. Not just never feeling like I would fit in. And that's. That's an ongoing issue for us.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: It's an ongoing issue. And I think the older we get, the worse that's going to be because the church we go to now, there's a lot of young people.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And we always feel weird because we're.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Older and we're always.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Okay. So let's get back to our story. So we were kind of weird about that. And I think, I do believe part of that was God bringing it out of commercialism, because I do believe he's doing something in his body. And you can see that with.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: You can.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: You can see because you've seen these.
These celebrity pastors. God has been exposing sin. He's been doing it across the board for everybody.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Some of them. I was shocked him every week.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: But I think it's. It's for their good and it's for the church's good. Because God, I believe that he's done with this flashy superstar Christianity thing.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: You know, he says he will not be mocked. I think commercialism does mock.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: I think it does too. And it's not. It's not authentic. It's not real. It's not what he died for.
And so we were in that weird place where I was struggling. You were like, I don't even care. Church gets on my nerves.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: You still left God, but you were like, I just, I don't care. And so that became a situation. I think that maybe kind of played some part in what we went through. Yeah, I think it did because we did start going. I mean, we did find a church.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: That went through right by the house too. I thought that was just divine thing. And I think I fell in love like I always did with the music and the pastor, you know, because I can kind of relate to the pastor. He dressed the way that I do. He didn't dress in these $2,000 suits. He wore jeans and shoes and all that. But then, you know, after we left that church, we moved where we're at now.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: We're like, where do we go?
[00:13:11] Speaker B: I'm like, where do we go? You know, we can't. It's too far to go there. So now we drive the same distance to the church we're going to now.
Okay, so let's get back to spiritual warfare and how that, how that opens up the door to it.
I think that, I think that when you're not grounded and you become so consumed with commercialism and being a provider and you're like, okay, I'll sacrifice church this weekend because I can make $55 an hour on a shift and I can get 12 hours in that shift. I was a nurse at one time, so I mean, if you can make $55 an hour on a 12 hour shift, I'm going to take it.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: It's like a no brainer.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: It's a no brainer because, you know, we're just, we're nearly with. We need the money.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: Because you were like, you know, I remember you saying things like, well, I can get what I need from God at home.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: I can. That's what I said. God understands me and I have my own personal relationship with the Lord. But I think that the assembly of people with like minds is important. And we've got a couple of things that we can do to get that with our friends for that little ultra thing we do every once in a while.
And through church.
I don't get disillusioned with the friends very often because we're all pretty much on the same page. But I do get disillusioned with the church every once in a while.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: You mean in general?
[00:14:26] Speaker B: In general. In general. Because it's just the same thing over and over again. You know, it's cookie cutter.
But I think that when we start letting thoughts like that get into our heads and we start becoming disillusioned. So, you know what? I can just get this from home. That's when it opens the door. And I think that Satan's like, oh, really?
Okay, well, hold this water while I go over and check it out. I can't say the other one, you know, but everybody out there who knows, like, hold my. While I go mess with this guy over here.
And. And that's where this door to spiritual warfare can actually start. It's just. You think that you can do it on your own.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Just being kind of lazy and being almost judgmental, though, towards the church and being like, I don't really need that.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't need that. You know, I mean, I can get what I got to get. I. I remember I used to tell you I got my own personal relationship with the Lord. I don't need nobody to tell me how to love God. I love God. God knows I love him. I'm going to heaven because I'm saved.
And true, I was going to heaven because I had been saved, but I had no testimony and I had no personal relationship with the Lord like I did.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: That's a good point. You were saved, but you had no testimony. And that's so many people.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Well, it's a lot of people in this world that think that just being a Christian is enough.
You know, I was reading a book. I was reading something the other day on a.
On the Internet, or actually, maybe it's on TikTok, and it said that. That being a Christian isn't enough. Because, yes, being a Christian will get you into heaven, but your testimony is defined by who makes you who you are.
And it made me kind of stop and take pause. Because I'll be honest with you, there are times when I don't want to go to church.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: And I'm not saying you're doing wrong. If you're sick or if you wake up and you're like, man, I just can't do it today. I can't. People today.
Then God understands that.
But there's also a consequence that comes with that. Whenever you have to understand that that opens a door for disillusionment, I think it opens.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Or. Yeah. To deception.
And I think, you know, scripture talks about in the last days, there would be so much deception, and people would fall away and people would faint. People be lovers of money. And a lot of it, when you look at the root of it, is deception. And I think that he starts there with just the thought, like, oh, my gosh, you're fine. You don't need to go. You know, like. And then it becomes like, oh, the next week, well, I'm not feeling good. And then the next week, it's like, you know what? I'm actually okay. I think I'm just gonna hang out here at the house. Let's just watch it online. Which I'm not saying it's always wrong to do that. It's always wrong.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: If you don't want to go, you don't want to go.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: But here's what happened. I think that we opened a door when we did that.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: And I should have known better because I've been raised differently, but I was disillusioned. I would have been hurt.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: We had both come out of really.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Bad relationships, and he took advantage of that pain to deceive us. And we were looking@ephesians6aminute ago, because I think we were Talking about Ephesians 6 a little bit before we hit record.
And I love what it says. Do you have it pulled up on your phone, like, just.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: I did, but then I went to how to program a ceiling fan.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got it. So let's look at Christian warfare. So this is 6:10.
Finally be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength, but on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heaven. For this reason, take up the full armor of God. And he keeps going on about it and talking about how to stand and keep standing and resisting and things like that. But what stuck out to me today was when I was looking at this word, schemes put on the full armor so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: We were talking about what that means, because it's not like this accidental thing that he does.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: Yeah. That was really interesting when you showed me or you told me what scheme actually means in the Bible or what the interpretation they say. Yeah.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: The Greek word is method.
Hang on. Methodiah.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: We are not Greek.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Methodiah. There it is. I had to look at the phonetic. Yeah, spelling. Okay. Methodiah. And it means trickery.
To lie in wait, to deceive someone.
A predictable method Used in organized evil doing. It almost sounds like, like a crime ring or you know, like a mob, mobster, gangster thing, you know, like they have, they have it all so organized and how they're going to take somebody down. Yeah, it's a way of searching after something, an inquiry, craftiness.
There was something I saw that was really cool though, because I think I read it to you.
Okay, here it is. So this is from the topical lexicon. It says it centers on the deliberate systematic strategies by which Satan and his agents attempt to deceive, mislead and ultimately ruin souls.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: This term describes not a random temptation, but a calculated plan designed to neutralize faith, distort doctrine and undermine.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: That is such a bigger, broader definition of scheme than what most people think.
This is so calculated. And he does it, I think for every person. But when we're talking about in the context of marriage, he has a scheme thought up and has probably already tried to use it against you and your spouse.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, and like I said before we started recording, Satan has had tens of thousands and thousands and thousands of years to hone his skills to make you fall, to make you slip. He's had so long do that. And for anybody out there who says, you know what, the devil can't make me do anything I don't want to do, that's true. He can't make you do anything. But he can put it in your way so many times that eventually you're going to fall if you don't have that full armor of God and if you don't have that assembly of people of like mind around you that can, you know, even the angels had to come and minister to Jesus whenever he was done being tempted.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: So we need, we need our fellow man to come and minister us when we have been through a lot. Like you've got like, you know, I keep talking about your friends, they are amazing. You know, men don't have that really. We don't have that perfect group like y' all do. But you've got to have a group of like minded people that you can talk to and say, man, I am struggling and this is what Satan has put in my way today.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Because the isolation tactic he uses is, let me get you off to the side, beat you down with these thoughts and you just keep those thoughts in your head. This is why I think counseling and therapy is so useful because you actually can be in a room with a human being and you can say, this is what I'm thinking. They can go oh, my God, no.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: Yeah, but they do it with love, right?
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Like, that is such a lie. The thing that you're believing is a lie. And if you don't have someone in your life that can do that and you just, you're just off in some.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Other delusional world and you have Satan's whim, you know, if you're out there in your delusional area, then that gives Satan an entire world in your head to manipulate you and to get you other things that you need. You need.
You need to be loved and you need to be nourished and you need to be on the right group of people. And if you haven't found that church yet, keep going. You know, I think that we're still in transition of looking for somewhere to go, but the church we're at now, I love the pastor when he speaks.
I like the things he says. Last weekend was a wonderful sermon that really hit the heart.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: Let me ask you about this is if you could go back and you look over how Satan strategized and he had a scheme that he played out in your life, what would you say was the beginning of that scheme?
[00:22:41] Speaker B: 13 years old.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Okay, that. But I'm talking about. Let me see if I can stare a little bit better.
I'm like, with us. Okay.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Oh, it was through. It was through my post traumatic stresses where that was untreated.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: True.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: That's where he hit. That's where he hit.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: I guess what I'm trying to get at is do you think isolation played a big part?
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Because even if. Even if you're working around large groups of people like I was, you're still.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Isolated, which is crazy because you were.
Here's what's weird. You were talking to a couple of other women in a way you shouldn't have been, but you were still isolated. And you were talking to me and you were still isolated because you weren't letting. No one was really in your head.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: No one was in my head because I didn't even know who I was.
I mean, every morning was a draw of what it was going to be like when I woke up. There were some days when I was suicidal the whole day. And then there were some days where I was okay, you know, but like I said previously, I didn't have that strong foundation of Jesus in my life. You know, I kept saying, I'm fine, you know, I don't need to go to church all the time.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: You're such a good actor that I couldn't even, like, if you Were having a suicidal day. I didn't know.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: Well, who wants their family, who wants. Any person out there who has committed suicide before they commit suicide usually are in a great mood. They start giving away everything they have because the relief of knowing that their time is almost up, you know. And I think one thing that surprised you about everything they have on my suicide account is that I had already saved up, what, $800 in my savings account. So I saw it coming. I knew this was going.
And. And I told you that this morning sitting in the. In the den is like, even if all of this had not happened, I was still going to try to kill myself.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I was trying to let go. Okay, is there something I could have done better? Like, was I not there for you in a way that you needed?
And you're like, no, it was going to. It was, it was going to happen no matter what.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: I think that when you have that level of depression and you suffer a mental breakdown like that, there is nothing that no one can do except get you to an isolated rubber room.
But the scheme of the devil is.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: It had played out. You were at the end of it.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: God, I was hallucinating, you know, I was seeing little black things running around the yard and I was hearing voices in my head that were telling me, go ahead and do it. They don't think you will.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Do you think that was, like, demonic?
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely, I think it was demonic.
I was saying things that were just completely off the wall from what the police officer told me and what you told me.
But I think that when a person thinks that they can do it by themselves, I think that's where Satan comes in and starts distorting the facts. And that's where the spiritual warfare happens. And that's how Satan wins a lot of times is that we don't turn to God whenever things happen. And we just say, man, I am having such a bad day. I hope I go to bed and I hope tomorrow is better.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: Or, I'm having such a bad day, let me go eat a tub of ice cream.
Having such a bad day for some. Some people. Let me go look at pornography. I'm having such a bad day, Let me go text someone inappropriately.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: You do things, whatever.
You do things that give you a rush and that makes you feel less stress, but it's not an escape. It's actually putting you more and more in chains.
But the devil keeps telling you. Now, see, doesn't this make you feel better? Don't you feel better? Now you feel better, right? Why do you want to go back that other way? God is square. God doesn't want to do anything. You want to do anything fun and without. Ephesians 6, was it Ephesians 6, 10, 18.
That's a really steady verse that everybody needs to memorize, is to put on the full armor of God.
Because as long as you got that armor on. I looked up that verse, I looked at that verse while you were reading it, and it's really interesting about how they describe the full armor.
It includes a belt of truth, a breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, a shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and a sword of the spirit. Well, when Jesus Christ comes back on that white horse with the armies of heaven coming with him, he destroys the enemy just speaking the word. The word is the truth. The word is the sword.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Because Satan cannot refute.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Right. Satan cannot refute the Bible.
He can try to tell you that it's not true, but he can't tell you is a lie.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Well, and if you keep going with that, I mean, it says for this reason, take up the full armor so that you may be able to resist in the evil day. And having prepared everything so you have your armor, take your stand, then you stand, and you therefore, with your truth like a belt around your waist, and he goes through all of them, but he keeps saying, stand, stand, resist. And then he talks about praying at all times in the spirit, with every prayer and request and staying alert. So it's very. I'm sure that makes more sense to you because you were a soldier.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, if you're laying down, you're at your weakest.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: You can't see what's going behind you. If you're laying down, you can't really judge your surroundings, but you're standing up. And if you're in a stance of defense, the devil can't. He can hit you all he wants.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: I think that's it. I think we need to be expecting things. Instead of just like being shocked that you got attacked by Satan, be like, no, this is his job.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah. That's what he's here for.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: That's what he does. He's the adversary.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: Satan is the anti God. He comes down and he wants to take as many people to hell with him as he can.
And not saying that a saved person can go to hell, they can't. But I think one thing he really wants to do is destroy your testimony.
He wants to destroy you.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Make the gospel ineffective.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Right. You know, I come from the firm belief that God has a Plan for each and every person on this planet.
And you know, I've always seen us as these little chess pieces that God. Okay, I'm gonna put Michael over here, put Shannon over here to where they have to meet.
And when they meet something, it's an explosion.
But something happens there that God wanted to happen, you know, and then once that part of the task is done, then God moves you to the next task.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: And I want to say, like, since the moment we met, it has been all out spiritual warfare.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: It has been all out spiritual warfare.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: We get attacked non stop.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: This past week and a half has been just relentless.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: And if it's not. And I gotta say though, some of it, some of it was you opening a door.
Some of it was like, okay, some of it, yeah, you opened the door, so it's consequences. But some of it was, it's just flat out him trying to kill us. Yeah, we both were sick to the point that we were like, I think I had strep like three times in a row. And then I had flu and then I had Covid. I mean, all this crap back to back. And you did too.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Well, after September of last year, my dad died in October. A month later I had the flu and I had a really bad case, the flu in November. And then December was depressing because I wasn't working.
And then January came around and I, you know, everything kind of started picking up slowly after that. But we've had some ups and downs since then. We've been hit.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: I think most of ours has been through finances. I really believe that the enemy targets whatever area of your life seems to be that the most effective.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: And for me, because I am in mortgage lending and I have, it's so weird, I have like this anointing for finance, but here I am being attacked. You and I being constantly attacked financially. Which tells you that that is obviously where God wants me.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: Right. You know, that's one of the ways that the enemy has hit me too, is through my ability to be a provider. Because I've got a great business. I've got a great business idea.
I build beautiful furniture.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Yes, he does. You guys need to, to look us up. Vine. Vine Branch, apothecary.com.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: Yeah, on the woodworking side of Vine Branch.
Apothec.
Yeah, but there's a plug there. Business permit. But also train thought. But, but you know, I, I, my business has not taken off the way that I thought that it would. I thought that people would see my work. Oh my God, I've got to have that's worth $5,000, right? You know, and I'm like, shoot me. I sell five of those a month. We're living good, living large, baby Mercedes and all this other stuff. But. But I think that God is using that business to teach me a lesson and servitude, you know, And. But then when the business isn't taking off, you get depressed, you get frustrated and you wonder, why am I doing this? Because all I'm doing is spending money on wood and nails and screws and tools. I've got a saw out there for everything and nothing is working. And that's where Satan hits you.
And it's just a subtle thing at first. He says, you know what?
You really need to go back to nursing. You really need to go back into that because you're not being a good provider right now. You're not doing your, you're not doing your job as a husband.
And at first you resist it, but it just wears on you that you know what? Satan's right, I'm not. And then once you admit that Satan's.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: Right, he's got you, it's on.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: It is on because you open that door, you let it in, and it is non stop.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: So how do you prevent that?
I have my own thought about how to do it. But what do you think?
[00:32:41] Speaker B: Well, first of all, you gotta know what's happening.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: And then, and then once you realize what's going on, you get out of your pity party, you hit your knees and you pray to God. God, I'm having a hard time here. I need you, Dad. I can't do this without you. I am being hit. I know I'm in a task. Well, you want to make sure that you're doing the things that God wants you to do. And I've got plenty of confirmation that this is what God wants from us, both of our careers.
And you get on your knees, you ask God to help you through this time. You rebuke it in the name of God. You rebuke it in the name of Jesus Christ. You say, get out of me. This is not who I am. And I am not a quitter.
And once you lean on the Lord, once you surrender to God, God's timing is weird because God's timing is not my time. I want it to happen now.
[00:33:33] Speaker A: Seems like it takes forever.
[00:33:34] Speaker B: It does take forever. Because, you know, I'm hoping that whole day is a thousand years thing doesn't apply to my business.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Right?
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Because if it does, a thousand years later, that's a hard winter's coming up, girl, let's start burning furniture.
But I think that God's timing is perfect and God's going to bring something along, but we have to keep the faith.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Well, you did say the same thing that Paul said. Pray at all times.
And I think that's important. And I also think, though, at some point you have to involve another human being.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah. You have to have a strong foundation. Part of your strong foundation is hopefully.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: It'S your spouse, you know?
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Yeah. If it's not your spouse, it's someone who you know is deadpass.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: I think you need to be able to say, listen, friend, spouse, whatever, I'm getting beat up by the devil. Can you pray with me? Can you listen to what. The thoughts I'm hearing, what I'm struggling with and help me?
[00:34:29] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Because it gets to where, you know, it's like. It reminds me of that scene in. And then. I can't believe I'm saying this, but there's an X Men movie. It's the. I think it's like the. I know, right? I know you'd like that. I can't remember which one it is, but in that. It's the one where that piece like this. I don't know. I can't remember.
Anyways.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: You'Ll tell me what he does.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Professor Xavier's younger. Okay. So it's one of the. One of the ones where it goes back and he's younger and they're like in the Egyptian stuff, they're. It kind of goes back to like the Egypt, Egyptian God stuff, which I hate.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Oh, you're talking about Apocalypse.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Yes, I think it is apocalypse. Right.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: I'm a geek, man. I love Destroyed.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: That took me five minutes. But anyways, so. And he starts playing mind games with the professor. He takes him into this world and he starts playing these mind games with him. And I feel like that's what we do with the devil. We try to go there with him and think we're going to be some kind of, like.
I don't know, like we're going to be some kind of match to him. And we're not.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Right?
[00:35:35] Speaker A: We're not. I think we need to know that and to be humble enough to say, okay, I can't do this, but I know that Christ can do any. I can do anything with Christ. But I have to know that the only reason that is, is because I'm going to use the word of God. Because the word of God never. Rich boy is more powerful. Like said, when Jesus comes back, he just speaks and it's the sword. It's the word.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: He is the word.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: So that's what defeats the enemy. And it's not even that you defeat him once and for all. It's that in that moment, he gets put in his place.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: He does. You know, his place is below our.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Place because he knows he can't take authority over us when we have sort of spirit.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: And we have to be able to do that. But sometimes you get so.
Man, you're just caught up in the illusion. Like, you know, like I was talking about in the movie. Like, you think you're in another world, and like, he's. He's just painted this picture for you that's so. Such a lie.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: Right. Well, you know, and we were talking about the other day about how people live for the Lord, and then they realize that it gets too hard.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:36] Speaker B: And then all of a sudden, they're. They're rich. They get. They have money. They get cars.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah. They turn their back on them.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: Houses.
That. And that happens once they turn away from God. And I asked you because it kind of confused me. I'm still a baby Christian, guys, I've only been doing this for a few months now, but I asked you, why is that? You're like, well, because that's the best way to keep you away from God, is if you get everything you want.
Because if you already have what you want, then why do you gotta go to God and ask him for it?
[00:37:05] Speaker A: It's sad that he has to do it that way. But isn't that true? Like, when you're on the mountain and you have everything you need, do you pray as much?
[00:37:12] Speaker B: No, not at all.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: You don't even think about it, Hartley.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: Don't even think about it.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: Oh, crap. I haven't prayed in four or five days.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: We haven't had our family altar in weeks. What are we doing? Well, you know what? Because God's blessed us. He gives us what we want, we.
[00:37:22] Speaker A: Don'T know how to live in the blessing, you know, and it's sad because I really believe God wants to move people beyond that place of survival. And, like, living in Egypt, you know, or living in the wilderness. Like, he wants to take you to your promised land, but he can't because you aren't ready.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: Right. You're not ready, and you're not surrendered, and Satan has a very strong hold on you.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: Yeah. You wouldn't know how to live in the blessed.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: Right. And, you know, and coming from a place where I was that for years, it's fun.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: What Living in sin.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: Living in sin is fun. You know me. I'm not. I'm not. I hope y' all don't take that the wrong way.
No, no, but. But you. You get. You get to drink, you get to party, you get to be popular. You get all the fun things at first. Right? That's what I meant is. But. And then Satan makes it to where being a Christian is square, you know, and he. And I think he goes out of his way to make sure that you see all of the bad.
You know, like all this stuff that if you're a baby Christian and you notice that all these big pastors are coming from these big churches and falling, then you can be like, yeah, see, it's like, see, you don't want to be a part of that. You don't want that.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: It's like the news media, all they do is cover the bad crap. And you never know if there's anything good going on.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: Right. You've got to have a very personal relationship with God. You've got to pray. And you don't even have to be good at praying. I mean, there's no such thing as the perfect prayer.
Sometimes my prayers are, lord, I need you.
That's it. I can't do this without you. Lord, have Jesus. Don't let me strangle that driver in front of him. You know, there's things that you say, but it's a prayer, and God hears it. And I think that God answers it.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: I think it's the heart posture.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: It's the heart posture, absolutely.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: But I think that, you know, he's a. He's a master manipulator.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Like, he's had thousands of years to do it.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: And I think that's one of the ways that he gets into a marriage, is he gets into one person's head or both.
But like you said, like, sin, it starts fun. Like. Yeah. I mean, this feels.
[00:39:27] Speaker B: And that's what I meant. I didn't mean to say it's fun, you know.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Well, what it is, though, I think is. And a lot of people who've been in addiction would probably agree with, yeah, it looks really fun. And it's. It's like a snare. It's a trap. So you.
You could fall for the trap, but then you get locked into a prison and you can't get out.
[00:39:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: And that's what he wants. He wants to keep you in the prison and destroy absolutely all of every part of your life.
Your mind, your emotions, your marriage, your children, whatever he can get A hold of.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: Yeah, the one way that he hits the master is work. And if he can get a man laid off, get a man fired or, you know, demoted or something like that, that pride goeth before the fall. And I think that a lot of men out there are very prideful. And I think that that's one way that Satan controls it.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: It's a hard topic. It's a hard thing that. Because I think God made men in such a way that it's innate in them to be providers, to be protectors, to be strong.
[00:40:27] Speaker B: Well, any decent.
I'm just going to say this. Any decent man would want to be a good man, father, and a good husband.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: He wants to, but what happens is it becomes like detached from God. He didn't mean for you to do a detachment.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: You know, I think that God. And this goes back all the way to the garden. I think that God wanted communion with us on a daily basis. I think he wanted to talk to us on a daily basis because he would show. He would come down from heaven and walk in the garden with Adam and Eve.
You know, he gave Adam the right to name all of the, all of the tree, all of the animals of the garden.
So I mean, God wanted that strong relationship with us. And I think that he still does.
And I think that it's important that we also have to remember that God's not going to force his way into our life. If you want to give in to the negative, if you want to get into the spiritual warfare and say, I'm just too tired to fight it, God's not going to stop you. He's gonna let you go.
But I think that he's going to.
Just because you get, well, free will.
We all have free will, unfortunately. And I think that, I think that what God's going to do is God's just gonna sit back until you get to a point where you're getting completely out of control. And then God's going to expose things and then God's going to say, it's time to come back home.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: I think he knows every person and he knows what take for them.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Some people learn real fast, some people don't.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: I did not learn real fast.
Years.
Yeah. It took me a long time to realize that, realize that I was a screwed up mess.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Do you think it was pride or do you think it was actually like insecurity underneath it all?
[00:42:09] Speaker B: It was all both.
So like after, during my younger, you're my younger big buff days where I was, I called myself sexy. It was pride.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: What were you telling me the other day? Oh my God. About wearing a shirt when it was raining or something.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Okay. So long story short, I used to be a big runner when I was in the military.
Yeah, we were walking the rain yesterday. So I was a big runner when I was younger. And I was, I had abs.
I have one AB right now. But back then I had a, you know, a six pack and it started raining and I'll get rained on on purpose just so I could show off my stuff.
And that's pride.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: And now you're like trying to hide.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: And now like, I'm not getting that pool unless I have three shirts on.
But, but yeah, I think that, I think that our pride gets in the way. But I also think that. What was the other thing?
[00:43:03] Speaker A: Insecurity.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: And insecurity.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: But I think, I think it's insecurity masking as pride. Does that make sense? Like you're actually insecure, but you're, you're acting prideful.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: Well, we were very. When we were younger, we had a great body. We had, you know, we were always happy, always, always fit. And now it's gone from pride to insecurity because now I am not fit. I am. I'm getting there. We both are. But now he's hitting us with insecurity, saying that we're not enough.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: And look at you in the mirror. You're ugly. I mean, how dare you think that you're.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: And I struggle with that, you know, because I'll go, okay, Is that why you were talking to other women? I gained weight and I'm fat and I'm ugly.
Those are the games that Satan plays with me. So I think for women it comes from a different place.
Pride. It comes from insecurity of the relationship. Like, does he really love me? Am I ugly now? I've gained so much weight, you know, I mean, like, it's coming from this real insecure place of not feeling maybe loved or seen or whatever.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: Right?
Well, and that's where, that's where it comes down to. You have to get on your knees and you have to ask God to intervene because Satan will make you look at your body. And you know, it's hit me real hard because it's kind of hard from going to get the fight to fit 40 inch weights, you know, and I, you know, and, and that's, that's one of the, that's one of the weaknesses that we have is our body.
And what do we do when we get a bad body image? What do we do during spiritual warfare.
[00:44:42] Speaker A: We eat, eat, drink, whatever, you know.
[00:44:46] Speaker B: I mean, there were days when I used to drink alcohol, like, God, I cannot wait to get off to drink an entire box of wine. I was a hobo. I was a hobo drinker. I drank out of the boxes, guys.
But I think that that was what I looked forward to. And Satan's like, I got you.
That's the one thing that you look forward to. And that's the one thing I can use against you and anyone who has known anyone who has ever had a drinking problem. I was well on my way to be an alcoholic, but I think that anyone who's known anyone, it will destroy a family just through alcoholism.
And one thing that Satan really hates and he attacks harder than anything else in this world is the family unit.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. I totally agree.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And if you got a man and a woman. And I'm not saying that we never have been strong in the faith, but we didn't do the things that we're doing now.
And I think that if we had been doing this stuff all along, not the podcast, the podcast, just something that overflow. Overflow. But I think if we'd been having a prayer altar in the mornings and reading the Word together and we had been plugged into a church and we had talked about it, I think that a lot of this would have never happened. It was never about my discontent. It was never about me being unhappy with you.
I want to stress that it wasn't about. I was unhappy with you. I wasn't happy with myself.
And. And I was doing it to get a fix. I was, you know, so you gotta. You gotta have a strong foundation, the faith. You gotta have a strong foundational marriage. You gotta have a strong relationship with your children, if you can.
And that's where Satan has a hard time getting in.
[00:46:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I think regular communication with your spouse is so vital to keep the enemy out. Because he wants to figure he's already got a way figure it out. Because he's already strategized it. He's got a scheme and he wants to create division.
So it might be that he uses.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: Alcohol, like you said, alcohol or drugs.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: I mean, and you're not thinking when you're the one that's going to be drinking or doing the drugs, whatever, looking at pornography. You're not thinking about your spouse being punished for what you're doing.
[00:47:07] Speaker B: You're not thinking about your spouse at all.
[00:47:09] Speaker A: And you're not thinking about your spouse at all.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: You're thinking about your own self. Gratification.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: Yeah, you just need this moment. But you're not realizing the consequences of that are far reaching, way beyond.
[00:47:17] Speaker B: It reverberates through generations.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: It really does. Now, my grandfather was an alcoholic. And I told you some of the stuff that happened with my mom's family and even my dad's family, and it was all attributed to alcoholism.
And that generation curse was with my brother Carl before he passed away.
And it would have been me also, had I not woke up one day.
I remember the last time I drank any alcohol. I was sitting in the den. You had gone to bed, and I had so much wine that night, I.
[00:47:50] Speaker A: Had no idea either I had drank.
[00:47:52] Speaker B: And drank and drank, and I had to crawl to the bed.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: We had wine.
[00:47:55] Speaker B: Yeah, we had wine.
[00:47:55] Speaker A: I thought it was like tequila or something. You drank.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: I drank that too. But no, the wine was under the sink in that cabinet there where all your soap stuff is.
[00:48:04] Speaker A: You crawled into the bed.
[00:48:05] Speaker B: I almost had to crawl into the bed.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: I don't even know how.
[00:48:08] Speaker B: I didn't know you were asleep. You were down.
[00:48:10] Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean, the next morning, did you work? Did you have to go to work?
[00:48:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: How did I not figure out I.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: Was hurting that day? It's all an act. And you have to act a certain way, you know? And I said, it's all spiritual.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: But you said, that's it, I'm not doing it.
[00:48:26] Speaker B: And I said, that's it. I'm not doing this anymore. And I was just able to put it down. Now, I did slip one time.
I told you about that about two months after it happened.
And. And I did drink a little bit of alcohol, but I didn't.
It didn't give me that same feeling that it did because I know that's not me anymore, you know, so anybody can tell you they can't drink alcohol. That's not. They can't stop drinking alcohol. That's not true. You can.
It's like what he said.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: The devil convinces that the devil.
[00:48:55] Speaker B: Spiritual warfare. The devil tells you, man, you need this to get through if your wife is in a bad mood, drink alcohol. If you need it, dude, it's right there in front of you. Just take it. It will help you put up.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: And that goes with any addiction.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: Yeah, any.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: It's just, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it. And you know, that's. Sometimes that's the scheme is he'll use an addiction to get into marriage. But sometimes it's not so obvious. Sometimes it's just the way you think about Each other. Like, I could be thinking in my head, and I do this, and you're like, okay, what's going on in your head? Because you're acting weird. Like the devil.
Like, he'll tell me one stupid lie. Like.
Like I might be struggling, thinking that maybe somehow you're talking to another woman through Texas.
And then I will start playing detective. I mean, this could go on for days where I will be not. I won't be able to sleep. I'll be thinking all night long. And then I'll go watch a bunch of date lines or 48 hours.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: I think you're getting notes.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: I think you're taking notes about men who killed their wives and they were having an affair, and then it got out of control and somebody killed somebody. And then before you know it, I'm like, oh, my God, that's what it was. That's what's happening. You know, I mean, like this whole ridiculous thing in my mind that the enemy planted one tiny seed.
[00:50:17] Speaker B: Right. Well, you know, 1st Peter 5, 8, 9 says, Be alert of a sober mind.
[00:50:22] Speaker A: Sober mind.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: And, you know, and it says, that's the way you resist the devil. Standing firm in the faith.
So now the interpretation I get from 1st Peter 5 is that if you're not sober, what's the one thing happens when you drink much alcohol? You just stumble.
Well, you stumble. You can't walk straight.
But if you're interesting, if you're locked in to the righteousness of God and you go to him for your problem instead of going to a liquid that's going to inhibit your decisions, and you walk that fine line to the Lord, you can stand firm. You're not. You're not. You're not unsteady on your feet.
[00:51:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think also a good. I think that's amazing, by the way. I love that. But I think that also when you do that stuff, you're just numbing yourself. You're not dealing with the problem.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: Well, I use it to keep the flashback. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:51:17] Speaker A: And that makes sense for someone. Ptsd. Yeah.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: And then the. And then the.
The bad feelings.
[00:51:23] Speaker A: But then again, all you're doing is suppressing and stuffing down the emotion. And then 10 years later, your body's right because you didn't deal with it. And now you have to go to counseling, therapy, and get all this health care that you need for your messed up body.
[00:51:36] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: So I think if you can. If you can understand, okay, I'm. I'm using this addiction to numb something. I need to deal with the Thing that's underneath it. And that may take, like, counseling. That may take just you talking to your spouse or whatever. I don't know. Everybody's different. It's a prayer. Let God. Let the Holy Spirit reveal that to you. But I know that's what we're doing right now is we're like, okay, why did I do this stupid thing?
[00:52:00] Speaker B: Right?
[00:52:01] Speaker A: Why do I keep eating too much?
Why do I. Why do I want this stupid donut all the time? You know?
[00:52:06] Speaker B: Well, I went to Denny's.
[00:52:07] Speaker A: Dopamine.
[00:52:08] Speaker B: Yeah, we went to Denny's this morning. And Shabby had had a rough start to the morning.
[00:52:12] Speaker A: They probably don't know. My name is. My grandma name is Shabby.
[00:52:14] Speaker B: My grandma name is shabby. We have three grandkids. Yes. We're young grandparents. I'm 53. She's 47. 48.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: I'm 47.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: Are you sure? I think you're 48. Just hiding it.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: 47.
[00:52:28] Speaker B: But anyway, just something that happened this morning, it really hurt her heart. And we were supposed to go to the gym when I got back home, and, well, we didn't make it to the gym.
[00:52:37] Speaker A: The devil won. We went to Denny's.
[00:52:39] Speaker B: All right. Yeah, I was lifting that fork. Pancake.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: I had four pancakes.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: I had four pancakes.
Yeah, I did. I did. It was good, and I don't regret it now, but.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: But anyway, that was the wrong thing. It really was.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: Yeah. But if you're having a hard time in any aspect of your life, just know that if you're having negative feelings or having negative thoughts, then just know that it's spiritual warfare that's going on. And the best thing that you can do, really, the only thing that you should do is just go to God's word. And there are so many verses now. I'm looking at them right now. This is what I like about not being on video.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: Like, yeah, I know. I love not having videos.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: And you can look up different verses now, like Second Corinthians, 10, 3, 5, Matthew 16, 18, Psalm 91. The source of comfort and protection in time of spiritual attack. And it emphasizes God's refuge and security for those who trust in him.
And I think that's really huge and important, is that people need to realize that God's not just up there judging. He's not a. He does judge. And that is part of being a Christian, is he will hold you accountable for some things. But at the same time, God just wants to comfort you.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: But there's no. He's not going to require you to Pay back for that sin. Jesus did that. But there are, unfortunately, consequences sometimes.
[00:53:54] Speaker B: Yeah, he's not going to make you give yourself 50 lashes with a will.
He's not going to make you beat your chest. I saw a video about that the other day.
Luckily, Jesus took all that for, you know. But there are definitely consequences to your mistakes. And I still deal with that. I still deal with the consequences of what I've done.
But throughout it all, my faith has gotten stronger. I think that my faith has turned around to where I want to be a true man of God. And then I want to be a person who people look to and say, he loves the Lord.
[00:54:29] Speaker A: Well, you know, here's the thing. I mean, as you're saying that, I was thinking, like, how much more does God want to do with your life? With my life, with other people's life. But if all you ever do is stay in this funk place where the devil is deceiving you and you're in some kind of addiction, or you're just living in this crap place with him where he's playing all these games with you and you're never affected, you have so much more to offer.
And what God wants to do with your life and for you to just roll around in pigs forever, I think so.
[00:55:02] Speaker B: He doesn't want you to smell like pigs. He wants you to smell like incense.
[00:55:05] Speaker A: He wants you to use the weapons he's given you and defeat this. And so he can use your life as testimony for who he is.
[00:55:13] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think that that's. I think that's a great way of putting it. You know, resisting the snares of the devil and a firm relationship with your spouse and with God.
[00:55:24] Speaker A: What did that say? You said, it said, be of sober mind. The devil always roams around as a roaring lion.
[00:55:32] Speaker B: The devil roams the planet as a roaring lion, looking for whom he can devour.
[00:55:36] Speaker A: It's interesting because you think he would say he roams around like a fox, but it actually says a roaring lion.
[00:55:42] Speaker B: A roaring lion.
[00:55:43] Speaker A: So I think there's an element to that.
I think we can recognize it, but we don't choose to. We just go with it. We're like, yeah, that sounds. Let's just believe that lie. Or let's just. Because the only weapon he really has against us, because he can't really touch us without filter. Yeah. Without permission, is the lie. He has to be able to get into your mind, and he can't control you unless he can make you believe something.
[00:56:07] Speaker B: Right. And even in Revelation, where Jesus says, and they believed the lie. They believed Satan instead of believing in me.
So this is a battle that's been going on for a millennium.
[00:56:21] Speaker A: And speaking of revelation, you see the churches and how deceived they are.
[00:56:26] Speaker B: Absolutely. We're seeing that in the full mount.
[00:56:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's terrifying when you think about. And I don't think God wants us to be scared, but he wants us to be sober and alert. He wants us to be, like, paying attention. Okay? Be smart. Don't be stupid.
[00:56:38] Speaker B: Right. And I'm not saying that alcohol is a bad thing. I choose not to drink because I like clear mind.
And I'm still not sometimes. But I think that the way that I was drinking and the way that other people, especially vets, the way that we drink, I think it really opens the door for really, really bad decisions.
And I think one of the best things that I ever did as a man was putting down the alcohol.
Sure, there are times. Like the other day I was working outside in the shop and it was like a thousand degrees out there. We're in Texas, and I wanted a beer so bad. I wanted that nice cold pop of that beer. And I'm like, man, that sounds so good.
But at the same time, God told.
[00:57:19] Speaker A: Me, so you settle for a Coke Zero?
[00:57:21] Speaker B: I settled for a Coke. It was a redneck cold Coke Zero too, guys. I got it out of my truck.
It was sitting there in the drawer, and I touched it and I kind of flipped it a little bit like, oh, yeah, it's redneck cold.
[00:57:31] Speaker A: That'll work.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So.
But I think that. I think that firm foundation with the Lord, like I said, you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be this guy or this woman that everybody looks to as a pillar of the community.
Everybody struggles. The pillars even struggle at times.
And I think that you just have to have a personal relationship with God. And I think God appreciates the effort.
I think he appreciates that you come to him and as ridiculous as you think he might sound, praying it's not ridiculous to God. He loves that.
He loves it when you expose yourself to him. He loves it when you come to him naked and saying, lord, I'm a kid and I can't jump over this stream without you because it's too deep and I'll get my feet wet.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: And I think that we think, oh, he's probably like, could you just leave me alone? But he's not. He's actually like, I'm so glad you asked me.
[00:58:33] Speaker B: If he doesn't do it. He's going to send one of his angels to do it.
He lives.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: He lives to. Just to be with us.
[00:58:39] Speaker B: Right?
[00:58:39] Speaker A: That's his whole heart.
[00:58:40] Speaker B: That's what he created us for, was. For a relationship, you know? And I think that somewhere along the line, Satan has allowed us, has convinced us that that's not what it's about.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it's about rules and you can't do that.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: Yeah, about rules and things that we do.
And the perfect looking couple in church, they drive me absolutely nuts. I want to go up there and just.
[00:59:04] Speaker A: Because, you know, they're not.
[00:59:04] Speaker B: They're not perfect. Nobody's perfect.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: And to even act like you are. I mean, that's why I love that we're so real when we talk about this. Because we're like, yeah, we had wine in the house. Or I'm like, it's a crap hole, jerk. You know, I mean, just like we're not trying to be like, perfect. We're just being real with people. Like, this is how it really feels to be in a position like this where, you know, we've gone through all this trauma, but yet at the same time, God's taught us things and we just want to be able to share those with other people.
[00:59:33] Speaker B: I think that we communicate a lot better.
I know that you're more keyed in on my mental state now and you can tell when I'm starting to kind of get agitated and stuff. You force me to talk to you. It works on me. It doesn't work on you.
I try to get you to talk, like, leave me alone, whatever, you know, But.
But we're getting there, you know, we're getting to where we're. I don't know if you're just not comfortable talking about your situations or if you want to work it out in your head first before you say it. I don't know.
[01:00:11] Speaker A: That's usually what's going on. I really want to work it out in my head because I want to make sure it's not something that I'm just being immature about.
[01:00:20] Speaker B: Well, doesn't that open a door though?
[01:00:22] Speaker A: Maybe so. I mean, it might be spiritual pride, and I don't realize it, but. But I'm thinking, okay, this is really like. Because sometimes I get really immature and I get really.
What's the word I'm looking for?
[01:00:35] Speaker B: Overwhelmed?
[01:00:36] Speaker A: No, I just. I can get like my feelings hurt about something that's so stupid and childish. But I'm embarrassed that I don't want to tell you. Like, you hurt my feelings. That you just like. It's just like, I don't know, like, not even a big deal, but for some reason it hits me like, and.
[01:00:52] Speaker B: Man, you're gonna do that a lot. You're gonna do that a lot and you don't even know what's happening.
[01:00:56] Speaker A: And then I feel dumb. I don't want to tell you because I'm like, He's gonna be like, you got your feelings hurt because I went to the store?
[01:01:03] Speaker B: Yes. You didn't ask me if I wanted to go. You hate Walmart. I could spend hours in Walmart, guys, I'm telling you right now, I don't mind going to Walmart. I can spend hours there just looking around at things. I know I'm not gonna need that. And Lowe's is my two favorite places in their world.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: Well, I think that it's just, I don't know, you know, I know I need to work on it and get better at it and not hold it in well.
[01:01:25] Speaker B: And, you know, and there are things that I can do better also. But I think that we identify the things that we do.
If we were a couple who said, and I'm good, I don't need any help with anything, that's a problem.
[01:01:36] Speaker A: Everybody has.
[01:01:37] Speaker B: Everybody has something they need to work on. Every. No one is perfect except for one man that wants to face this planet. It's perfect.
We all have to rely on a big, beautiful God that we cannot see.
And that requires faith.
And once you just establish that faith, then your relationship with the Lord will take off and he will bless you in the ways that he wants to bless you.
It just requires a lot of prayer.
[01:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think we can kind of, I guess, wrap up and I just wanted. We just want to talk about spiritual warfare and, and how real it is and maybe how to deal with it.
[01:02:17] Speaker B: And I think that's important for people to realize that even great couples go through spiritual warfare every week.
[01:02:23] Speaker A: And it's always for us. Since we started the podcast.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: Yeah, we put this off. And I know why Shanna put it off for a while. Starting the podcast because I wanted to do it immediately. But luckily Shannon talked me into waiting for a while before we started it.
And it has been non stop ever since.
The mind games, the insecurity, the anger, the anxiety, the lack of sleep. Okay, I can do without anything, but sleep is something I don't like doing without. And we don't sleep well anymore. You know, you wake up negative thoughts in your head and then I wake up even a spaceships and Demons coming at me through a brick wall. So just realize that it's spiritual warfare.
[01:03:09] Speaker A: That'S happening and the devil has a scheme planned and don't be surprised when you get hit with it.
[01:03:15] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:03:16] Speaker A: It's going to be part of your life forever until you leave this planet.
[01:03:19] Speaker B: It is. I think that that's all we got.
[01:03:22] Speaker A: I think so.
I prayed last time, if you want to pray.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you today, dear Lord, and we're just so thankful for the wonderful blessings that you have given us.
We thank you for the fellowship that we're allowed to have in you. We thank you for your love and your kindness and your mercy. And we thank you that you sent your son, Jesus Christ to this blue ball earth that we have managed to destroy so that we have redemption and a way to get deep.
I pray that this reaches the couples that need to hear it.
Pray that you'll bless them as well.
Just let people realize that as long as they have you on them, Satan cannot do.
And, Lord, I'll close with that. And I love you so much.
Amen.
[01:04:13] Speaker A: Amen. So we will see you guys next time.
[01:04:16] Speaker B: All right, Have a great week, everybody.
[01:04:20] Speaker A: So bind up the heart that's broken.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: And speak the words that he will you break my chains and surround my wing oh, my love don't let it grow cold.
