Confess The Mess with Johnny and Jess
An authentic and humorous take on Faith, Family, and life.
Confess The Mess with Johnny and Jess
🎙️ Battling the Unseen: Embracing Spiritual Warfare in Daily Life
Curious about the real nature of spiritual warfare? Forget those cherubic angels; we're unpacking biblical descriptions that might surprise you. We delve into practical ways to arm yourself spiritually—think knowing scripture, maintaining a strong prayer life, and surrounding yourself with faith-boosting companions. Jess and Johnny discuss the importance of a genuine relationship with Jesus to stay spiritually prepared, sharing actionable advice to help you recognize and respond to spiritual opposition.
Ever wondered if your passion could be your spiritual shield? Meet Mike Servine, whose journey from gang member to Christian dancer showcases resilience and divine purpose. We explore how major undertakings, like planning a church, can often attract spiritual attacks—and why that's a sign you're on the right path. Our heartfelt prayer for listeners and an invitation to share your spiritual battles make this episode not just a discussion, but a community effort. Join us as we navigate the intersection of everyday life and spiritual insights, fostering a deeper connection with faith.
Welcome back friends to Confess the Mess.
Speaker 2:Hey, what's up, guys? Good to talk to you again.
Speaker 1:With Johnny and Jess With us On one microphone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so doing things a little different. I no longer have a MacBook that's what we normally had operated off of with two mics, but now we are on an iPad with one mic. So Jess and I are real close together. Picture us with our heads together, breathing.
Speaker 1:We go together like wah-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Speaker 2:Always with the songs. Hey, before we get rolling into tonight's topic, I have a bone to pick.
Speaker 1:Ooh yeah, okay, I have a bone to pick.
Speaker 2:So, growing up as a child and all the way through adulthood, one of my favorite things on earth and I look forward to it every time it came around was the Olympics. Every two years, or every four years for summer, every four years for winter, and this year it is tainted.
Speaker 1:Yes, it has been tainted quite a few different times.
Speaker 2:And listen, I'm not going to go too deep into all the things. There's a lot of controversy surrounding the olympics, but man, it's just like one thing after another, from opening ceremony to the whole gender stuff, with the boxers who, by the way, one already won a gold medal and the other one's on their way to winning gold medal. So read into that however you want. The track star Noah Lyles is like the most unlikable person on earth. He's just a really difficult person to cheer for. Even our little precious Simone Biles what? Even our precious Simone Biles has a beef with a gymnast from last Olympics. They've been going at it.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I didn't know that, like all the things surrounding the Olympics, it's not fun anymore. It's not fun anymore.
Speaker 1:Can we address?
Speaker 2:your? Am I talking too loud?
Speaker 1:No, I think you're very insecure about your distance from the microphone. The people- aren't going to hear your voice. Look at how far away J-Mom is. We are a solid 13 inches away. You're good, hey.
Speaker 2:Joe Rogan's right up on his mic. Everybody pray for.
Speaker 1:Johnny's insecurity of his distance from his mouth to the microphone.
Speaker 2:Lord, please help me and forgive me, help him with his insecurities If I was being too loud, just back away from your iPhone or computer.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that about Simone Biles. That's news to me. It's a whole thing. And you don't even get on social media. How'd you know?
Speaker 2:I read the news. That's why I don't read the news.
Speaker 1:I'm well-informed, okay. Anyway, what are we talking about? Well, I think it's a really important topic that a lot of people are honestly and I don't mean this in the wrong way oblivious to, especially followers of Jesus. Yes, and we're going to talk about spiritual warfare. Yes, and we're going to talk about spiritual warfare, spiritual warfare, spiritual warfare.
Speaker 2:Now I believe that spiritual warfare is being waged around us all the time, all around us. Now, one mistake that we make actually it's two mistakes One is we mistakenly attribute something that goes wrong in our life, a sin, a mishap, to spiritual warfare, so we give it too much attention, and then, on the flip side of that, we are oblivious to it and we don't credit spiritual warfare to anything happening in our lives. So I think it's dangerous to live on both sides of that fence. I think you have to live somewhere in the middle, because we live in a fallen world, we live in a broken world, so sometimes crap just happens to us.
Speaker 1:Well, I think a way to decipher if you're actually having spiritual warfare is number one are you even following Jesus? Are you actually having like a relationship with him? Because if you're just like never, like you say you're Christian but you're like never going to church, you're never having an actual relationship with a father and things are happening, it's like that's where you know this is spiritual warfare. But if you're living in the sin right, like we're, we're like we're okay. What I'm trying to say is, if you, if you're living in active sin, satan isn't going to bother you. He's going to. Just let you keep on doing your thing. Girl going to bother you.
Speaker 2:He's going to just let you keep on doing your thing, girl. Satan don't mind one bit if you're living in sin.
Speaker 1:So if you're living in the will of God and you're being obedient in whatever he is asking of you and things are happening in response to that, that, my friend, is spiritual warfare.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I try my best to try to figure out what's what. Like this morning I felt like today for me, me was spiritual warfare 100. I woke up with the intention of doing yard work, right, all this rain we were having out here in north carolina like thing, by the way things grow, like for every one inch of rain your grass grows about 46 inches.
Speaker 1:So for whatever and bushes, it's out of control so, being from arizona, we're not used to real grass like at all. Really.
Speaker 2:No, it's fake, but anyways so I wake up, I gear up, get my shoes on, I get ready to roll and head outside to do yard work. The front yard needs attention, the backyard needs attention, you know, and it's a weekly thing. So I'm ready to go. I go out there and plug in my 150 foot extension cord because I currently don't have a gas mower. I have an electric mower, so I have to use a electric mower everywhere plus plug in. So I go to plug this in and none of my outlets work.
Speaker 2:Nothing is working anywhere in the garage or outside. I'm like what is going on and I noticed that the head on my extension cord is looking a little darker than usual and normally it lights up if it's working. So I finally get this thing working and I'm about five minutes into the mow and it starts smoking. So now my cord is like about to catch fire, pull the head off and it's like torched, and then I couldn't get the lawnmower to work again, so I had to put it. I have a tiny little one and a small little extension cord that I was able to plug in and get some of that stuff done. But half my outlets don't work outside right now and they were working fine.
Speaker 1:But you also miss an incomplete part of your story. Which part that? When you're using the small lawnmower. It was actually sparking at you, oh yeah, when you were using it after. So this is the second try with the second lawnmower. That literally looks like something that your son would get for Christmas from Fisher Price.
Speaker 2:It looks like it should have bubbles popping out of it honestly, but no, yeah, it was like sparking. I'm like what is happening Like this? This is fine a couple of days ago and now it's not, and I was like man, satan is trying.
Speaker 1:So here I am on the treadmill Cause your girl, your girl, be working out every day. No, seriously, I'm so proud of myself. I've been on the treadmill and I've lost eight pounds, so let's go. Anyways, I was on the treadmill and here comes Elijah, you know the eight-year-old, and he's like dad is not happy right now. And I'm like what's going on? He says the cord's not working and the lawnmower is starting a fire. And I'm like what? And I'm like what is it? It's what? And he's like well, it's not on fire, it's like smoking, but it's not working. And I said go down there and ask your dad to ask a neighbor. So Elijah goes downstairs and he comes back up and says dad doesn't want to ask a neighbor. I said, of course he doesn't. Dad does not. And that is pride, son. That is what pride looks like son Guilty as charged.
Speaker 2:I did not want to go door to door. Can I borrow a very long Mind you?
Speaker 1:my car battery is dead in our newer car that we were gifted and it was because I literally must have hit the light and we don't have any jumper cables. So it's still dead because somebody doesn't want to ask the neighbor for jumper cables Somebody?
Speaker 2:doesn't.
Speaker 1:Somebody doesn't.
Speaker 2:So, and for me it was like, you know, if one thing happens, that's life, but when it starts to pile, up over and over and, over and over again in succession. Then I'm like what is going on here? And that's when you start to kind of have to listen to your spirit and like what is really happening. I stopped and prayed and got some things going, cleared my mind. But for a while there man, satan, was getting at me.
Speaker 1:And you know, like you guys know, we told you last episode that we're church planning. We have already had our final day at our last church, so we are now officially launching our own church out of our house here in North Carolina and we answered that call and that's kind of like what we're talking about, like spiritual warfare coming in times when you're answering something that God is asking you to do or stepping into your faith or stepping up in your faith, and that's what we're doing. I mean, you're looking at or you're listening to Mooresville's newest pest control guy.
Speaker 2:That's right, baby, that's right.
Speaker 1:Almost a decade in ministry, and when your father asks you to do something, you just do it and you do it. However, you need to, and real quick. I was thinking because so many people are like, oh my gosh, you're going to be a pest control guy. And it's like, yeah, and it's going to pay the bills.
Speaker 2:Slay bugs for the Lord.
Speaker 1:But it's also like let's remember Jesus. Did he come, and was he wearing fine linen clothing? Was he born in this palace? Anybody that knows the nativity scene and the story of Jesus's birth, you know that that's not what happened. So it shouldn't be surprising that we would be willing to take on any sort of work, so that we would be willing to take on any sort of work so that we can make this church plant come to fruition.
Speaker 2:No, and for me the job does not define who I am. It doesn't define me as a man. It doesn't change anything. It's a means to an end. It pays the bills. God has called me to plant a church For me. That's the mission, the other thing I'm doing.
Speaker 1:I don't care about the title, as long as it takes care of my family, it's okay, and how cool is this Cause, when Johnny was interviewing with this company, the guy that was on the interview via video chat was like listen, pastors and priests is what he said have come into this position and done so good, because you're used to talking to people. And how cool is it that he gets to talk to people every day and be able to witness to people and love people like Christ would love people. God's going to use that.
Speaker 2:I'm pumped, I'm pumped for it, I'm pumped for the plant and all of it. It's going to be a wild ride, but we're excited and all of it. It's going to be a wild ride, but we're excited. But I will say, over the last, I'd say, two weeks, I mean, our family has just been hit hard, and sometimes it's just so obvious that the enemy is trying to steal our joy, trying to kill and destroy the things that we love, and so we have to be attuned to that, we have to know how to combat that, we have to know how to slow ourselves down, whether it's circumstances, whether it's people just throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us over the last couple of weeks and it's been really interesting to watch it all go- down.
Speaker 1:Well, being in ministry for as long as we've been in ministry and you being a pastor as long as we've been in ministry, and you being a pastor, as long as you've been a pastor, and just kind of stepping out in faith multiple times over the years, with moving to other states while I'm pregnant and just everything coming out to North Carolina in complete faith without even having a job, I would say by far this is the most spiritual warfare I can remember us ever having.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would agree with that. It feels very just compounded right now and I don't know. I think that we just pray our way through it. I think I had a really good conversation with a buddy this morning talking about some issues and man, that's what we decided, that's what we landed on, like man, we're just going to pray about it. I don't know what else to do with it. You go pray, I'm going to pray, we'll pray together, whatever. But I think when you're faced with this stuff like man, we have to give it to God. I don't know where else to go with it. I can't solve it. Yeah, spiritual warfare. It's funny when I first came into the faith and I thought about spiritual warfare, like my image.
Speaker 1:It's like some Constantine.
Speaker 2:It was like like, like, if I, if I was able to peek behind the veil and see what was actually going on, it would be like these angels, and like armor and swords and like Spartan kicking demons Gladiator music going, which you know what it actually. It actually is that essentially except for the, the angels all look like the ezekiel prophecy. You know when he's describing the angels if you haven't looked up with the eyes like.
Speaker 1:If you've not looked up what an angel actually looks like or what they talk about in scripture, go into the book of ezekiel and it'll explain to you what an angel truly looks like. It's not a cherub. It's not a cute little naked, chubby baby with butt cheeks all like that. One movie. What's that movie? Boss Baby, boss Baby, bum bum, bum, bum bum man, anyways.
Speaker 2:Sorry, the idea, like it's no wonder, after Ezekiel's description of of an angel that he's witnessing, that they're like when they show up on the scene, like don't be afraid, like how could I not be?
Speaker 1:yeah, exactly what's the first thing you hear in all scripture every time there's an angel up in the up in the room is like don't be afraid, bro, don't be afraid, but I you know. So how would you, how would you tell somebody to handle spiritual warfare? Or how, how would you tell somebody how to acknowledge it and how to respond to?
Speaker 2:it. So it's a mindset knowing. First of all, be aware. Be aware that you have a very real enemy who wants to take you out every hour of every day. He wants to put you away, he wants to make your life miserable.
Speaker 1:He wants to use people to do that. And can we talk about the fact that so many times in churches we'll talk about Jesus and heaven and all the things, but they won't talk about the enemy Satan?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And hell, you know I'm right, we don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 2:It's the modern, the modern Christianity, where everything's fluffy and great and good and like oh you know, it's all everything's love.
Speaker 1:Plant a church and we'll see how fluffy, great and good you know the, the, the attacks are.
Speaker 2:No fluff over here, it's just. I think we start with the mindset and saying, hey, I'm acknowledging that right now there is an enemy who wants to take me down.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I start with that Okay, well, what do I do with that Right? Do we read our Bible? Does knowledge of scripture help?
Speaker 1:Does prayer help? I think also, like, what am I doing right now that is advancing the kingdom. So ask yourself that question If you feel like you're having spiritual warfare, like what are you actively doing? Because sometimes we don't even realize, maybe you just said yes to serving in kids ministry at your local church, or maybe you finally made it the commitment to tithe your 10% and like those are steps forward in your faith and that is a means for a spiritual warfare attack on you. So, number one, be aware of what you're doing. How are you like serving in the kingdom? Like, how are you saying yes to Jesus and then realize that? Because if you are doing that, then there's most likely going to be spiritual warfare that is occurring in response to that.
Speaker 2:So I like this verse from 2 Corinthians 10, this three through five, and it kind of gives us a little insight. And there's lots of different scriptures that speak on this, but I really like this one. This is from NIV. It says For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. So, first of all, the weapons that the world fights with are not the weapons that we fight with right. We're not going to take out Satan and his legion with a sword and a crossbow and a nine millimeter. That's not going to get you anywhere, right. So for us it's, it's the divine power of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Christ, a scripture too.
Speaker 2:Know your scripture right. Have it embedded in your heart, know God's truth, know whose you are, not just who you are, but whose you are, and I love that. That taking every thought captive right Because we have outside external circumstances that can happen to us, but also our sin, gets us in trouble and gets us in the way, and you're always tempted to sin. You're always tempted, it's always there. And when we take or make our thoughts obedient to Christ, when we do that now, jesus is in control.
Speaker 1:Well, and we can't do that, friends, if we're not being in relationship with Jesus. Yeah, sunday service is not going to cut the mustard against a real enemy that is coming to take your joy, and if you've not yet said yes to Jesus and accepted in your heart, he wants to take your soul to hell with him. So we have to be guarded in prayer. We have to be reading our Bible. We have to. It is the most important thing you'll ever do in life. And if you have kids, teach them to read the Bible, give them any scripture to memorize something. But we have to like, we have to be on guard.
Speaker 2:We have to yeah, you do have to, and that's with the people in your life too. Like you have to look at your relationships, the people you're closest with. They're either leading you closer to Jesus or they're leading you to hell.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's also spiritual warfare too. Like you know, like he's going to place pardon me, he, as in the enemy, is going to place people in your past to trip you up. Like he's going to use people to say negative things to you. He's going to use people to get your eyes off of the mission, which is Jesus and people, because people are the point. That's what it's all about. Love your neighbor as yourself and love the Lord, your, your God with all your heart and all your soul. Those were the two greatest commandments that Jesus said before he went to be with his Father in heaven. But we have to be alert and be aware of what is going on around us so that we can take up our double-edged sword, aka the Bible and scripture, to to knock them out. Man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause it's coming and and, and God uses people. God's used people for us for the last couple of weeks. So it's, it's, that's but but man.
Speaker 1:God uses people, or the enemy, or or, I'm sorry, the enemy Cause.
Speaker 1:God has used people for us in the last like couple of months. This year has been insane with how great God is and how he uses the body of Christ to glorify himself. But also the enemy does use people to trip you up because he just wants to get you off mission. That's his goal, because with Jesus is peace and joy and with the enemy it is not as turmoil, it's anxiety, it's fear, it's stress, it's none of the fruit of the spirits and I've been feeling that like the other day, uh, when Johnny was at work. It was last week and I don't even remember now. There's been so many things.
Speaker 1:I should have written this. I should have written all this down because I can't even remember now with all the things that have happened in our house the last week. But I was on the treadmill and there was so much going on around me that I like, literally, was like preaching, like the armor of God, like the belt of truth, and I was like you are not. You know, like McKenna wakes up, my oldest and she looks like what are you doing, mom? I'm like I am blessing this space because the enemy is present. I got all kinds of churchy up in this one and I didn't even lose my speed.
Speaker 1:Hey, that a girl hey, let's go Solid 3.5. It ain't no big deal. I try to jog at five and then I want to die, but anyways, man spiritual warfare is coming for you and I you know.
Speaker 2:Listen. I think the biggest takeaway honestly was awareness for me when I first came to Jesus.
Speaker 1:It was a hard thing for you to be aware of it, was it was, but see, that's just giftings, that God gives us different giftings. I'm a skeptic.
Speaker 2:That's why it took me a long time to warm up to this idea and it took you a long time to warm up to Jesus. It did, it did, it really did. And because I'm a science person, show me the science, show it to me, show me the facts Very logical in that way. But, man, once you realize what's happening and you can identify it and feel it and see it, you can change it. Because now we're giving it to Jesus, because now we say the name of Jesus and demons got to flee.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now we're going to give it to Jesus, we're going to hand it off Like all right, I recognize what's happening here. Jesus, you take the wheel.
Speaker 1:You get your legion brother.
Speaker 2:You got this.
Speaker 1:But also, I just lost my train of thought ADD, oh, no, oh let's sit in awkward silence.
Speaker 2:I hate when that happens.
Speaker 1:It doesn't happen often, man it was good too.
Speaker 2:I bet it was I thought it was good. I don't know if anybody else would have. I bet it was going to be great.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought I had it, don't? Son of a gun? Oh I forgot. Keep talking, maybe it'll come back.
Speaker 2:All right so.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know what it is, nevermind You're on it, I know what it is. Also, if you're doing something big, like right now we're planning a church, that's huge Right, and like things are happening, like, instead of like being mad or frustrated about the spiritual warfare and all the attacks, be, I'm going to, I'm going to choose to start being like all right, let's go, like, cause he's obviously scared. You know what I'm saying. So we're stepping in the right, like when those attacks happen. Remember that that means you're stepping in the will of God, cause, remember, satan is not going to bother the people that are that are just living in this beautiful act of sin and they're just not having a relationship with Jesus and they're just doing their thing. He's like you keep doing, you girl, you keep being happy baby, like, so if he's messing with me, then you know he's scared. Let's go, let's go.
Speaker 2:You got to be like 24-7, like the dude that does the break dancing. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:The Jesus Christ, jesus Christ. Okay, google on YouTube. This guy came to Christ, like later in life. Are you going to put on the music for him? No, okay, and he does. He raps and dances about the armor of God. Yeah, and he puts on the belt of truth. You have to YouTube it and if you do, please message me, because it's awesome and it's also super hilarious, like I can laugh. Are you looking it up? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, did you find it or not? It's easy enough, yeah, so what did you?
Speaker 1:what did you Google?
Speaker 2:I just I guy who dances uh, for or for armor of God or whatever. Okay, I'm going to shout him out because I think it's really awesome. His name is Mike Servine. He's a former gang member and he's known for pop lock and scripture. So what he does is he does like pop lock and drop it type dancing if you don't know what that is you're older than me, but if you but it's really cool and he's like man. He is like so passionate. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, Built of truth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so cool, and then he dances while he's doing it and it's like just really cool. Like I love prison ministry. Can we just talk about that? Like God Behind Bars is an Instagram page that I love to follow, and the beautiful thing that God is doing in and through prisoners, oh my gosh, it's just so amazing. Like there's just not a single one of us that Jesus doesn't love less or more. We are all equally loved by Him and he wants us to be in relationship with Him. So, ultimately, whether there is spiritual warfare or there is not, like we have to keep pressing on and having that committed relationship with the Lord because it's good.
Speaker 2:Man. The armor of God is, legit though it is. You practice that, I mean, and again with the mindset man, like recognizing it as half the battle and being able to give it away. That's the other half Because you can't fight it, you're not. You give it to Jesus.
Speaker 1:That's your, that is your offense is handing it over Well and that, but that takes a lot of time, though that takes a lot of spiritual maturity, which I think maybe we'll talk about spiritual maturity next week. What do you think Does that sound like a good one to do? Sure, okay. But what do you think Does that sound like a good one to do? Sure, okay. But I think that handing it over to God, it requires you to be humble, right, say, you're on a sports team and you're the man. You're the man, you can make this shot. I got this.
Speaker 1:I can do this, Been there done that that there is another player on the team that can handle this shot or this play way better than you. So you have to humble yourself, take away that pride and know that you can't do this life alone, and I don't mean just with other people, but I mean with Jesus. He has to be the leader of your life or you're going to get it wrong a lot. You're going to get it wrong all the time anyways, but it's a lot easier to get it wrong when he's leading your steps. But you're right, it's not easy to hand it over. No, it takes me a little bit longer to come off the spiritual warfare attacks. I get your girl is caliente. She gets a little spicy. I do, baby, I am you spicy girl. Yo say what I want, what I really a little spice girl.
Speaker 2:I didn't say you were a spice girl. I said you're a spicy girl. Okay, that's your fifth song.
Speaker 1:How are you counting? And I want you to know, you've said two different things and I wanted to start blasting out a worship song, because it was another-.
Speaker 1:Man I was like you, you know, okay, anyway, but I think that pretty much just sums it up. Like with spiritual warfare, be aware of it, know what is occurring in your life. Is it spiritual warfare? Is it an active sin, you know, that's causing these things? That isn't really like spiritual warfare, it's just like you know, because we serve a God that's a God of justice, like he. He's a parent dude, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:like and it's funny, you know, because and this is gonna this will sound redundant, and if you go to church, this is obviously redundant, but like the way to combat this, the way to live better, the way to have a better marriage, the way to have better friendships, the way to live better, the way to have a better marriage, the way to have better friendships, the way to be better with your finances, the way to just be kinder to people, the way to be more spiritual. Like it's two things it's prayer and read your Bible. Yeah, like like over and over again, pray and read your Bible. Pray, and like those are the things like, hey, what can we do to fix this or what can I do to be better about this? Read your Bible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's our how-to guide and how to live.
Speaker 2:And then people are like you know what? I don't, I'm really busy, I'm so I don't have time, I don't have an extra 10 minutes. You know, I've got a job, I got. I work eight hours a day. I don't have 10 minutes extra in my day. Well, yeah, you do.
Speaker 1:Well, just remember that. Yeah, you do, bro. Remember that, though if that is somebody that's on here listening right now because one day we're all going to die and we've talked about this in the podcast in the past and when you die, you're going to go one of two places. You're going to be an eternal being, either in heaven or hell, and one day we're going to have to stand before the father, and I never want to hear him say you know? You say Lord, lord, with your mouth, but I don't even know who you are. Get away from me, like I don't want to be that you know. I want to hear well done, good and faithful servant, like let's go.
Speaker 2:And you could have that here on earth.
Speaker 1:You could have the life, and I think that's a confusion.
Speaker 2:You could have that life that you wanted right here and now. Stop making excuses. Pick up your Bible. Do what scripture tells you. Pray to God. Have that communication, because that's how we communicate with the Father. See what your life does. I mean honestly. You're in a place that you don't want to be. You're stuck in a job that you hate. You're around people you don't want to be around. You can fix that. Nothing's permanent. You don't have to be stuck in it. God probably has something bigger, a bigger adventure for you. If you would just step out in faith and do it, and I think that—.
Speaker 1:I would say real quick, I would say that there is sacrifice in serving and following the Lord. You're not going to the life you think you have to have. Most likely isn't the life that God would give you. Right, because following Jesus is sacrifice, sacrifice from worldly things. But we live in the world but we are not supposed to be of the world. So it's confusing to the person that doesn't know Jesus and the Spirit of God, because you don't understand how somebody like Johnny could be in pest control. Do you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:I've never one time felt led by the Spirit to do something, led by God to do something, went and did it and then turned around and be like man. I wish I wouldn't have done that. Yeah, I didn't feel it. That didn't work out for me. It's never like that. Sure, I've sacrificed our family, sacrificed to follow what Jesus' plan is for us. We follow those things and it's hard and there's sacrifice. I don't regret a second of it. I look back and, like man, where would my life be without following Jesus' footsteps?
Speaker 1:Well, and remember everything that you do when you're following the Lord and His call on your life. It sharpens you, it gives you wisdom. Every time we've been a part of a church, we've come away with so much from that, so much spiritual growth, from humbling ourselves and not being prideful, not letting our flesh react, which is not an easy thing to do on your own. With man it's impossible. With God, all things are possible and it can be for you too. You just have to be ready for it.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm ready for.
Speaker 1:Ready, ready, ready, ready run.
Speaker 2:You're killing me, girl, killing me. I'm ready to find out what the AI says for our blurb after this episode, because we've been all over the place.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Crazy ADD Jessica.
Speaker 2:Show. I think it's more entertaining that way it is.
Speaker 1:But anyway, it is, it is All right. So I think that about sums it up.
Speaker 2:That's going to sum us up right now. That's a wrap. That's it. That's a wrap. Scene Scene. Hopefully it sounds okay.
Speaker 1:Like I said, we're trying some new equipment, so let me and it's unfortunately you know we don't really receive a lot of response from any of you guys. You know we average about 30 to 40 people listening to our podcast and we don't get to intermingle with you, which totally makes me sad because I'd love to know who's listening and how we can bless you in prayer or encouragement or whatever. But I am going to ask for prayer from you. Our vision night for our new church plant is on Wednesday, the 21st of August, and we would just really love if you could pray over that for us and be praying over our family and praying over Johnny and I's marriage and just our house and our vehicles and all the things that we have, that God would protect it and that he would equip us to be able to do the hard things that our flesh sometimes can't do on its own. So just be praying over that for us and I would greatly appreciate that, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:We could definitely use the prayers. We'll be continuing to pray over anybody listening. Man, we love you guys, we love this platform and just so grateful for those of you that do listen, but we sure would like to be able to interact with you. So if you are feeling froggy, jump it's me Jessica.
Speaker 1:All right, let's go ahead and pray it out. Baby. All right, you got us honey, let's do it, all right. Bow your heads and say, hey God, no, just kidding. Sorry, we did that at Wind Shaped Camps at our church. Okay, I'm sorry, I'll be quiet, go ahead honey, kill me.
Speaker 2:Smalls. Father, god, we're just so grateful, as we always are, for this platform and the ability to have conversation, and we thank you for all those that are listening. Father, we just pray over any spiritual attacks that they are facing today. They're the ones that they're noticing, the ones that are in their face the sin temptation, the things not going their way over and over and over again, father, the things dragging them down, the relationships that are holding them back. Father, we just pray over all these things.
Speaker 2:We don't know anybody's situation. We don't know any specifics, father, but you do. You're there, you're way ahead of any problem that's going on. So, father, we lift that up to you today. We ask for. You're way ahead of any problem that's going on. So, father, we lift that up to you. Today we ask for blessings for all ears that are listening today, father, that they can combat the enemy with your word, in communication with you, father, to hand off to you all their issues, surrender their lives to you. Father. We lift up that request. Father, we pray a blessing over anybody listening. Jesus, we love you. It's in your holy and precious name that we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen. All right, friends, all right and, as always, if you need prayer, just click the email below and we would love to pray over you. And give us a rating, give us a like, give us a share and give us a rating. Give us a like, give us a share. We've been sitting at 4.5 stars rating and 17 ratings for a long time.
Speaker 2:I know and listen. Lovely listener. I know we're asking you to take about 11 seconds out of your day.
Speaker 1:That's all 11 seconds. Let's go, but then we'll know we can do anonymous. I think you can do anonymous, so even if it's a one star, do it with honor.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. We would be honored to receive your one star review For real. That means there's interaction it's fine.
Speaker 1:Are we talking to you? Is that you, casper? Hello, can I keep you All right, we?